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Quick notes on Sat. and Sun.:
Aside from arriving tired as shite and doing my best to get acclimated to the heat and humidity in Maryland, I settled in after a couple of Yuenglings (Damn, I wish we had this beer in the NM)- and first off felt so completely UNDERDRESSED! Haha. I neglected to wear black (tragic, I know) and lick on my fake tats and pierce my nose, chin, lip and eyebrows. I may as well have broke out my clipboard, put on my white gloves showing up looking like Inspector Fuckin' General. Anyhoo. Saturday was tough, essentially waiting for Voivod to play at some later hour. I think I saw a band from Saudi Arabia but cannot remember their name. Nothing that stood out I guess. I'll let someone else talk about the Sat. bands since I ended up leaving at one point to check into my hotel where I had my cuppa hot tea, laid down and basically didn't have any inspiration to get the fuck back up and out of my room.

Until close to Voivod time that is. Back at MDF where the place smells of urine, blackened/grilled meats, sweaty balls and wet leather where Hail of Bullets rocked one of the two outdoor stages. Funny, but all I remember of their set is Martin talking about getting drunk and getting laid, at which point I thought - Hell, that's not a bad idear and found my way over the outdoor beer servers. By the way, there were lots of tents dotted here and there with folks selling all sorts of merch though I really didn't take a look-see until Sunday.

VOIVOD PLAYS: Finally, after who knows how many beers and wishing I could just get some rest, consumer and I made our way over to the slight incline to the right of one of the outdoor stages where we were supposed to meet HV, Mr. HV, SpeedDemon though by then they were already parked near the front of the stage - The Warriors of Ice appeared and proceeded to kill it with pretty much the same set as has been posted here and there recently from their huge tour. These guys sound tight, the set moves at fuckin' break neck speed and I swear EVERY DAMN SONG just ruled. The new one goes through all sorts of alleyways and I hadn't given it enough listens beforehand, and it surprised me how well it fit in with their older stuffs. Obviously, Forlorn was a bonus and for some reason Tornado just blew my mind, probably just the beer kicking in. I don't know. Good times.

Anyhoo, some band called Coroner played on Sunday. Huge GRIN from me! ! ! Skinless played what was to be their last gig and were sick. Malignant Tumour were a great surprise kicker of a band I'd never heard of. Lots of beach balls, plastic blow up inter tubes and a giant blow up pink penis flying through the air while they jammed - I loved their set.

And then this other band called GHOST closed out MDF indoors where the place was chock full of sweaty bastards. Hot and smelly indeed! By then, you could hear and feel the air deflating from our collective bellies knowing the End Was Near. The anticipation from all the sweaty bastards for this band to hurry the fuck up with their makeup and stage get ups was palpable. I'd never heard GHOST until they played Sunday. All I'd heard that day was, "they're a total Mercyful Fate rip off, and they rule". I had no clue. Out popped the Papally-attired singer, and seriously, how does one describe this band? Now that I have the disc, I'm still having a hard time describing their sound. Just know that their live sound far outshines what you hear on the disc. You couldn't have a better band close a metalfest. I'm pysched I was there to experience Ghost. I was not, however, bowled over by having 3 hours of sleep and having to wake up too damn early to get to the airport Monday morning. UGH!

No pics from me though. I figured others could take care of that. Great, just fuckin' killer to meet you HV and SpeeDDemoN! Til next time....

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VOIVOD – Always deliver. Few come close to this greatness. All on VVF know this already of course. Crazy that this was already the sixth time had seen the Dan line-up in past two years and they just keep getting better. New song kills…. plus Forlorn. \m/.

HAIL OF BULLETS - van Drunen.. enough said. He’s becoming somewhat of a tradition at MDF playing the last several years with either HOB or Asphyx (or both). Both bands kill it... hell, bring them back every year and many would have no complaints. Met SpeeDDemoN after the set…super cool!

CIANIDE – Was already looking forward to seeing them but they were the surprise of the fest to me. Death metal meets Celtic Frost. Sick guitar tone… very Tom Warrior-ish. I dig them recorded but that tone doesn’t make it thru to the recordings for whatever reason. Whole performance by the band was very impressive. No frills just HEAVY.

IN SOLITUDE – Was really looking forward to these guys too and they didn’t disappoint. Bit of Mercyful Fate vibe with kinda NWOBHM styled vox. Great stuff.

NUNSLAUGHTER – Can’t say I’m the biggest NS fan musically.. not that I dislike it… but the inbetween song banter was fucking hilarious. Thumbs up.

-Only bands wanted to see on Sat that missed were DOOM (same set time as HOB) and INQUISITION (played last set of the night and was too wiped out after Voivod… beer count was getting high too haha).

On to Sunday… seemed like there were even more people around on Sunday… still brutally hot.. god damn the sun,,, bands watched..

CORONER – Played what felt like a long set for the fest which was fine by me! Covered a bit of everything. Was maybe expecting a bit more off early albums but love all the stuff. Where we were standing up on the hill the sound was insanely good and clear. The chops are still there and the songs are so great there’s just no way they couldn’t rule.

GHOST – Way into it. C’mon.. they have an evil pope for Satan’s sake!!!

SKINLESS – was actually planning to see Orange Goblin at same set time but Luna and I decided to see them instead. A band that had always seen name of and read about but was not too much familiar with the music. Last show ever for them apparently.. and they played like it. Ferocious. Really dug them!!

REPUGNANT – thumbs up.

MALIGNANT TUMOUR – knew nothing of these guys but totally cool and fun live set. Horns high to them!

Thank goddess your review was not in smell-o-vision!

You were wise to chill at the hotel instead of forcing yourself to suffer through festival mayhem waiting for Voivod if you weren't in mood.

I'm glad you got a great show to make up for the heat, humidity, pungent stenches and long trip.

It is one of the beautiful mysteries of live music when one specific song unexpectedly turns out to be the standout and just *make* the show, which in your case was 'Tornado'-- love it!

I missed Ghost at this year's Roadburn, but here is some vid footage that you might enjoy:
http://www.roadburn.com/2011/05/ghost-roadburn-2011-qualitly-fan-filmed-video-footage-on-line/

(and the 'qualitly' typo is not mine, dammit! still have to fix that...)

The venue is right underneath a freeway and next to a couple of streets so yeah, cars zooming by all the time. IF I ever go back to MDF, I will most def book a room at that Holiday Inn Express across the street. By the way the Inner Harbor there in Baltimore was pretty damn cool. Only a few blocks away from my hotel. There was a huge Lacrosse tournament going on there and a gamer's convention, so there were odd mixes of sweaty ball stenched metallers, young athletes and geeky gamers going in/out of elevators. Hilarious.

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All the best,
PAULIE

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if anyone finds more pix online they should post them here. i've been searching around for some and there havent been many so far. i noticed the lack of Away on returntothepit...sad.

Thanks, consumer! I found a gallery of albums documenting a slice of trainhopping crusty life, some of the photos are really beautiful: http://www.pbase.com/artandrevolution/ride_dirty_2004

The crusty part seems more or less the same all around the world, but the freight train angle is fascinating to me.

HV - sun & nachos: in short supply in London *lol*
Sounds like you rocked out & suitably terrorised people of many nationalities.
And now that old Vio-Lence song is stuck in my head...with a slight lyrical adaptation...

quote:

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Originally posted by 317537:

"Cornering the Coroner!"

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I quite liked that one too. By the way, Coroner were so badass. It was kinda surreal and it seemed the crowd were all in some sort of awe.

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another Voivod tat

Mr Villain menaces Away

Me getting menaced

More menacing going on

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Tim menaces

Me menacing Nick

Nick being menacing

Me getting menaced by Scott Carlson

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Van Drunen is a menace too.

Corpsegrinder is a bigger menace.

Me menacing Blasphemer.

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