Concert Review - Obituary, Strong Intention, Survive the Demise, Krass Judgment, March to Victory etc - 10/19/13 at Cafe 611, Frederick, MD

Finally getting around to posting this. Luckily I made notes the day after the show, but I have so much work now that I didn't get to type this up properly till now.

Not being otherwise occupied on a Saturday night, we decided to pop up to Frederick to see Obituary. We left rather late, after the kid's bedtime, so I didn't have much hope of catching any of the local bands opening for them. But as it turned out, we caught four of them...because there were no less than twelve bands performing. Yes, that's right, a solid 6+ hours of music before the headliner even came on. Needless to say, I didn't include everyone in the title, only the bands we actually saw, and I wasn't even able to tag everyone since blogger limits the tag field pretty severely >.<

I was glad we got there in time for Lancaster, PA death metal band March to Victory. We've seen them several times now and I enjoy their music. They sounded good - loud and groovy. They played the same songs as before, including the cover of Death's "Crystal Mountain." Having heard them play several times now, I was able to devote some attention to individual songs. I especially enjoyed "Funeral of Lizard Beast" (or is it "Funeral Blizzard Beast"? Not sure..) and "Consumption" for their groovy guitars. The vocals on "Consumption" were different from the others. On the other songs, Danielle, the vocalist, used a semi-intelligible growl, but for this song she alternated deeper guttural vocals and higher raspy vocals. "Soulless," meanwhile, was the song I enjoyed least; it was a bit slower and had some weird rhythms. I wonder if next time we'll get to hear some new material from these guys.

Based on the event's facebook page, we thought that Strong Intention would be on next, and then Obituary, but it turned out to be Krass Judgment who took the stage. They started out thrashy, then went into more of a rumbling death metal vibe with growled vocals. I thought they were pretty good - energetic and aggressive enough that I wondered no one started a pit - but S said they sounded better last time he saw them. I thought "Demon Bitch" was their best song. It had a frenetic hardcore pace, but with groove.

The next surprise was Survive the Demise from Western Maryland. I really enjoyed them. They seemed to play death metal with some clean vocals, and some melodic leads. There was one song I particularly liked, but totally can't remember the title, it was something Rotten, or something of that sort. After their set, I got really tired, which unfortunately wiped my memory of a lot of details about them.

Then finally Strong Intention came on. By then I was fed up with how the show kept going on and on, and also was totally not in the mood for hardcore. It was loud and fast and heavy, but didn't hold my interest at all. (I can see how people might mistake hardcore for metal now - they're both heavy and aggressive. But the guitars and vocals are so repetitive, I just can't get interested in the genre.) Strong Intention did have a few riffy, headbang-worthy moments, but mostly I zoned out, as much from tiredness and irritation as from not being to get into the music.

Obituary finally started sound checking a little before midnight (my phone had gone off, so I don't know the exact time). They were better than I expected. I had expected hardcore vocals with bland guitars (based on some album that S lent me a while ago..) but actually the vocals were more of a wet low growl. The guitars weren't amazing, but they changed pace frequently, from rumbling groove, to blast-beat-led frenzy, to oozing slow heaviness, so they held my interest pretty well. I was having a good time in spite of my tiredness, so we could have stayed later, but for the sake of making the next day's plans something like on time, we decided to leave around 12:40.

Despite the lateness and the mixed up line-up, I enjoyed most of the night. I got to hear March to Victory as well as some other local bands I hadn't heard before. Survive the Demise in particular I'll be following closely; hopefully they come back to play sometime soon. I'm really liking that Frederick is getting more strong shows like this, cause it means I can go out for a night of metal on the drop of a hat. In fact, my next show is also at Cafe 611: Arkona (Rus) there tomorrow! I can't wait to see Masha up close <3