MDF XIX [Weekly Mixtape 124]

Vomitory • Forbidden • Bloodbath • Severe Torture
Immortal • Mayhem • Nixil • Agalloch
Soilent Green • Gorguts • Cryptopsy • Dismember

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Mixtape 83 - Sea of Bones

Here is the 83rd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Sea of Bones from 2015.

A (half) Month of Sundays

I booked my flight to NY for Friday the 13th. I tried not to let the date bother me, but the weeks leading up to the trip were plagued with bad luck - my bank account was put on hold, my iPod died, and my computer has been shutting down suddenly and without warning. So I was preparing for more of the same.

My flight arrived at Newark Int'l in the middle of a rain storm, and the overcast sky seemed like an ominous sign; but almost immediately after leaving Malaysia and setting foot on US soil, things took a turn for the better. Along with the usual stern demeanor and no-nonsense questions, the immigration officer wished me a happy birthday; and when I arrived in Queens, a huge rainbow stretched over the city. [Ronnie James Dio, patron saint of gypsy heshers, and friend to Wizards everywhere: I see you up there.]

Swans @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 05.19.2014

As is so often the case these days, bands I never thought I'd get a chance to see are experiencing a second career with new audiences. Swans are one such band, and since my trip to NY coincided with hometown shows in support of their new album To Be Kind, my presence was all but certain before I even set foot in the country.

I'd seen Swans once before when the band reunited for shows at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, an appropriate venue for a band that inspires such religious fervour. What was memorable about the experience was that the guitars were so loud that they made my skin vibrate as I stood at the front of the stage; and a woman yelling incoherently throughout the set proved that "drunken douchebag" need not be gender specific.

City of ghosts

Being back in NY has been a little strange this time around. On one hand, I don't feel the constant rage and alienation that I experience in KL. But there's also a sadness I never felt before as I walk down old streets that are rapidly changing and I sometimes can't recognize.

One of my close friends told me that seeing me back here is like seeing a ghost.

Mixtape: The bus back from MDF

MDF Mixtape by Dreams Of Consciousness on Mixcloud

On the bus ride back from Maryland Deathfest, the guy sitting next to me told me about the time he met Satan. I figured that was a good enough reason to interview him for a podcast.

Maryland Deathfest 2013, Sunday May 26

My last day at MDF. Getting out of bed and making my way to the Sonar at 1:00 pm would have been a great idea if everyone else hadn't had the exact same idea at the exact same time. By the time I reached the venue, the line had grown beyond belief, stretching across the parking lot and around the overpass. And it moved about as slowly as an Evoken song. To their credit, most in line showed amazing patience; even a statement issued through facebook that the line was flowing with no patdowns elicited more sarcasm than outright anger by people who could clearly see this was not the case (choice response: "As someone standing at the entrance, I call bullshit."). But as time began to drag through the first couple bands of the day, my irritation grew. What was the point of buying a three day pass if it meant being stuck in line for an hour? There had to have been a better way to handle re-entry for people who already had their wristbands than to force them to lineup all over again.

Maryland Deathfest 2013, Saturday May 25

Fighting a cold and a sore throat wasn't a great start to my second day of MDF. Between Baltimore being unusually chilly that weekend and my natural predilection to get sick at the worst possible time, I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed all day. But since I had missed half of the previous day's line-up, I had to make up for it; and while dragging my feet to the venue hoped coffee and orange juice would keep me upright throughout the day.

Maryland Deathfest 2013, Friday May 24

The last thing I wanted to be for my first day of MDF was late; but a gross miscalculation about the amount of traffic coming down from New York for Memorial Day weekend meant I was stuck in New Jersey for hours (tips for foreign visitors - whenever in doubt, blame Jersey). By the time I arrived in Baltimore, Benediction's set was long over. Somewhere, my vinyl copy of Subconscious Terror is judging me. I guess I can't get too bent out of shape for missing what I still think of as "Barney Greenway's old band," but I was still bummed, especially since I don't know if I'll ever get another chance to hear "The Grotesque" live.

Voyage of the Hooded Sapien

Playlist: Month of Sundays

My NY trip got off to an inauspicious start - I missed Krisiun the day I arrived and Jeff Hanneman died three days in. Plus, the Nails show sold out, which I'd been looking forward to for months. But the past 28 days were still more metal than your ma's kettle. Horns up, crosses down...

Rotten Sound @ the Acheron, 05.22.2013

I don't know if any city benefits more in the weeks before MDF than New York; European bands looking to get the most out of crossing the Atlantic will often do one-off dates there. A week prior to MDF 2011, I saw Miasmal play to a small crowd within the cozy confines of the Acheron, thereby freeing me from having to buy tickets for that year's Saturday line up (sorry, Voivod). This year, a number of the bands that played the sold out Baltimore Soundstage made appearances in NY, to the delight of people like me who weren't able to get tickets before that venue sold out. This show nearly slipped out from under me as well; I arrived at the Acheron to find it filled to capacity; including a surprising number of cute girls, and an unsurprising number of drunk assholes (those two things shouldn't be seen as unrelated, or even mutually exclusive).

Gorod @ Saint Vitus, 5.19.2013

If Chuck Schuldiner had survived, he would have turned 46 this May. As luck would have it, Gorod and a handful of other tech/death bands on the "Bloodletting North America Tour" played Saint Vitus the week of his birthday. Schuldiner was most responsible for taking death metal from its primitive origins and twisting it into its more progressive and technical forms; it would have been interesting to know his thoughts on the seemingly irreconcilable divide between the current old school revival and prog/tech death. Would "Evil Chuck" side with the kids slavishly devoted to the one-dimensional bludgeon of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy? Or would Schuldiner the fearless innovator find kinship with those that use his work from Human onwards as a jumping off point to push the style to dizzying new heights?

Vektor @ Blackthorn 51, 5.18.13

I hate "21 and over" shows. They were annoying when I was a minor, but as a hesher who's clearly marched past 30, it's aggravating to be asked for ID. Isn't my time ravaged face proof enough of my age? I have to be carded too?

So I was irritated that this show at Queens' new Blackthorn 51 club was advertised as strictly 21 and over; I was doubly irritated when I entered the club and discovered that most of the audience was clearly underage. Besides the tell-tale "x"s drawn on hands, I spotted a few moms waiting patiently for it all to be over. A tip for underage heshers: Going to a show with your mom is not metal (unless your mom is Doro Pesch). Tell her to pick you up when it's done, preferably at the end of the block. The kvlt black metal shirt you ordered on e-Bay has way more cred that way. [Though mom and I are probably in agreement that when the young heshers put their arms around each other for some synchronized headbanging, that shit is adorable].

Gwynbleidd @ Public Assembly 5.10.2013

Back in 2007 I saw Gwynbleidd for the first time, sharing a bill with a friend's band. With their mix of early Opeth and Katatonia, I was pretty much a fan instantly. I can remember a time when it seemed I was the only one at their shows who didn't speak Polish; by the time they opened for Entombed a few years later their rep in the local scene was growing, and I wasn't the only one headbanging at the front of the stage. The last time I saw them, before I left NY in 2011, turned out to be their last show before line-up troubles put them on an indefinite hiatus. By some weird fluke it turned out they were playing their first show with their new line-up the same time I was back in NY for a buddy's wedding; the timing was too good. No two ways about it, the Metal Gods planned for this to happen.