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Last Active 05-24-12 4:55 am Joined 09-30-10
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| Gilead Media Music Festival Recap
So I went to the Gilead Media Music Festival last weekend, but didn't get a chance to finish this up until now, because I had to move right after I got back on Monday night. Anyway, this was my first festival experience at a sold out show to 250 people plus musicians at the Electric Lounge (a three-story venue/bowling alley) in Oshkosh, WI on April 28-29, and easily one of my favorite music experiences so far. | 1 | Saturday - April 28 | 2 | Darger + Plague Mother
Both Ohio based noise projects, the former on the ambient/drone side of things and the latter on the harsher end, did a collaborative fifteen minute set to open the festival, which ended up being fairly even between their respective styles. Pretty good, and a relatively sedate way to kick off the festival. | 3 | Arms Aloft
Punk from Wisconsin, but I can't really recall too much about these guys, to be honest with all that came after them, and I believe I only stayed for half their set before wandering around the venue. Just some fun tunes in the vein of Descendents from what I remember. | 4 | Aseethe
Doom trio from Iowa that mixes it up with drone and sludge elements to make for a murky atmosphere comprising layers upon layers of guitar buzz and plodding riffs. I hadn't heard them before the festival but I thoroughly enjoyed their set. Also, free stickers! | 5 | Protestant
Great Milwaukee crust/hardcore with lots of energy and even more vitriol. Lots of raw power and grime with this band and it's a shame there wasn't a suitable pit for them - because their music was meant for raging and fist-pumping, if anything - but such is the case when there are merch tables loaded with precious vinyls lining the sides of the room. From an account of my boyfriend's friend from Milwaukee, their shows usually are crazy wall-to-wall affairs. | 6 | Get Rad
Skipped these guys to grab dinner before the four-band punch to the face after them. Sorry, dudes, but sacrifices must be made to fill my stomach with fast food, including consumption of said fast food so I have more money to pay for merch. | 7 | Hell
Probably my second favorite set of the festival, although my boyfriend and his two friends thought these guys were the best one. Absolutely scathing doom from Oregon and probably the youngest performer there coming in at 21. It's hard to believe he was only eighteen when he recorded his first release. The performance was immense with the frontman, Matt, shrieking as if possessed into the microphone - 'I fell from Heaven through the gates of Hell' - and gesticulating like a manic preacher (reminded me of when I saw The Haunting Presence, who had a similar style of performance, but better, in my opinion). Live line-up included Adam Torruella, the guy who runs Pesanta Urfolk and happens to look like a black metal cowboy (complete with holsters and ten gallon hat). I mean, really, look at them: http://i46.tinypic.com/v6recz.jpg | 8 | Fell Voices
My most anticipated act at the festival, and they certainly lived up to my expectations to also take my favorite set at the festival. Not sure these guys need much introduction on Sputnik, but black metal from Santa Cruz with their drummer now living in Brooklyn, so they can't perform as often anymore. It was pretty evident that the band, therefore, put all their hearts into this performance together with each other and all their friends at the festival to make for a truly special show. The drummer, Mike, is one of my favorite musicians to see live - I go to every Ruin Lust (of which he is also the drummer) show in Brooklyn, haha - and he surpassed every other instance I had seen him. They played with no microphones, so Joe and Mike just screamed over their instruments, which was a testament to just how intense their performance was. Their droning black metal was completely brought to life and I experienced a rare moment of almost transcendent ecstasy brought on by just how moving music can be. Really, I almost cried at the end of their song off the split with Ash Borer - it was that good. Just absolutely amazing and awesome in the truest sense of the word. | 9 | Ash Borer
I'm not as big on Ash Borer as I was last year (saw them twice in the summer!), but I still enjoy them immensely. Again, a Sputnik-famous band - actually heard about these guys through this site, so thanks to whoever hyped them up! - so, not much to say about this black metal outfit from Arcata, California that hasn't already been said on here. They put on a fantastic show and their atmosphere is supremely thrilling and expansive live, so it was great to see them again.
Also, Kyle, the frontman, cut his hair and now looks like an adorable lumberjack in an Acephalix shirt. Such a babyface, despite the facial hair, hah! | 10 | Loss
It seemed appropriate to end the first night with a big slab of funeral doom, courtesy of these Tennessee heavyweights (the frontman quite literally - huge man at a festival full of big men). I wish I had been less exhausted, because I probably would have been more engrossed in a funeral doom performance. As it was, I had gotten no sleep the night before, since I had to wake up at 3 AM anyway to get ready for a 7 AM flight, plus traveling, then the actual seven hours of festival time, so I was way too fucking tired to handle this depressed as fuck shit at the end of the night, to be honest. But, yes, the set was a good end to the night. | 11 | Sunday - April 29 | 12 | Mania
Easily the weirdest act of the festival, Mania is a one-man black metal project from Oregon (also the bassist of Leech and owner of the Eternal Warfare label). Still somewhat orthodox in that cold, ripping black metal way, but his live acts consists of him playing drums to guitar tracks and a small computer screen showing clips of subway trains and 90s metropolis scenes, for some reason. Regardless of his set-up, Mania was great to see. | 13 | Baby Boy
This Baton Rouge act announced themselves as the 'least metal' band playing, but with three of their four members coming from Thou, you could still spot some of Thou's sludgier sensibilities coming through their performance. I wouldn't really consider them metal, closer to something like post-punk tinged rock with crunchy guitars, which oddly ended up sounding almost like post-hardcore at times. | 14 | Sleepwalker
A rare performance of a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices - he had described it to me before as 'black metal Sonic Youth', and that's not too bad of a description, especially with the added noisiness of a live performance. Members of Ash Borer and Fell Voices rounded out the live line-up, and their performance was excellent, despite the fact that they could only practice for a short time in a van beforehand. If you couldn't tell from my Fell Voices overture, I have a huge musician crush on Mike, because he brings so much energy to his performances, whether it be in Fell Voices, Ruin Lust, or Sleepwalker, that he is always enjoyable to see, although this time in the capacity of lead guitarist! He's just as frenetic on guitar as he is on the drums. | 15 | A Scanner Darkly
I felt bad skipping these guys for lunch, since Adam, the guy who runs Gilead and put this whole festival together is in it (this was a reunion show), plus it's a grindcore band about fucking Philip K. Dick, but considering everything else going on (and that the people with the car wanted to go during this set), I didn't have much of a choice! | 16 | Northless
Crushing sludge/doom from Milwaukee reminiscent of Neurosis, but more bleak in feeling than imposingly majestic, as I tend to think of Neurosis's atmosphere. It's not exactly surprising that the vast wastelands of flyover farm country turns out all these cheerless bands, haha. The guitarist tossed his instrument in the crowd at the end of the show while the drummer knocked his kit over, which I think is a rather pointless thing to do, especially when the guitar hits me partially on the back when I duck to avoid it. If you're going to destroy your shit, destroy it - don't do these weak, half-assed knocking things over and throwing-but-not-really antics to avoid damage to your instruments. | 17 | Mutilation Rites
I've seen these guys plenty of times in Brooklyn, and I'm not as enamored of their music as a lot of other people at this festival seemed to be, but I think they're satisfying black metal with thrashy elements. Not at all pretentious, considering the other well-known black metal bands coming out of Brooklyn consist of Liturgy and Krallice, although rumor has it that George, the frontman, was a dirty hipster only a few years ago, hah. | 18 | The Body
These guys are always a fantastic experience live, with extra emphasis on 'experience'. Their two stacked amps make you feel like your internal organs are vibrating (I can actually feel the cartilage in my nose vibrating), especially if you?re in the first two rows, like I was. Pretty amazing to witness the wall of sound this duo makes along with Chip's piercingly high shriek, and my ears still hurt a bit even with earplugs in. Also, Chip pulled up his shirt to wipe his face so I finally got to see his legendary enormous gut in its full glory. | 19 | False
Featuring the only woman performing at the festival, these Minneapolis black metallers put on a decent show, although I thought there were some dull stretches interspersed with the good parts, so I wasn't as into it as most of the crowd was. The frontwoman's blue flower-print jumper made me laugh a bit, but apart from her questionable sartorial choices, she puts out some nasty vocals. Her voice was well suited to the relentless violence of the instrumentals, although this was somewhat to their disadvantage, as I found myself getting bored at parts when they felt rather repetitive (especially the lack of variation in songwriting) in spite of their overall impressive performance. As an aside, I thought the bassist was somewhat distracting because he looked like a massive douche with his slicked back hair and trying to look cool by standing amidst the gaggle of female fans who had surged up to the front with one leg up on the stage for most of the show. Blech. | 20 | Barghest
I liked these guys' release last year, but wasn't terribly blown away by it. I'd say I felt similarly about their set, although special credit has to be given to the frontman, Dallas Smith, who wailed away maniacally with indefatigable energy in a voice that reminded me of wet concrete mixed with some glass. They also debuted 'Shifting Sands', a song from their upcoming split with False. | 21 | Thou
Performing their 2007 Tyrant in its entirety, these Baton Rouge doom-sludge metallers always put on a superb show. Although I was psyched about seeing Tyrant live, especially 'Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean', out of the now four times I've seen Thou, the show I saw last summer at ABC No Rio is still the best, probably in part due to the lack of a stage altogether, allowing for maximum crowd interaction - and also just the crowd in general. The stage banter was still as amusing as ever, especially when some guy in the crowd yelled out, 'Less glitter on the drums!' regarding Josh Nee's shimmery gold kit, to which he responded with 'Less jean jacket in the peanut gallery!' But I don't know, something just seemed off about the experience for me, even though the actual music and Thou's stage presence were stellar as usual and made more special by the rarity of hearing these tracks live. Still, I enjoyed myself fully, tore up my neck from headbanging, and was sad to see the end of this awesome weekend. | |
ThroneOfAgony
05.04.12 | Great list, sounds like it was fun. 2 sounds really interesting | Crysis
05.04.12 | "Also, Kyle, the frontman, cut his hair and now looks like an adorable lumberjack in an Acephalix shirt. "
Awww thanks!
Seriously though, sounds like this slayed. | Crysis
05.04.12 | have a feature btw | Vesper
05.04.12 | Also, seeing Autopsy/Funebrarum/Undergang/Unearthly Trance tonight, fuck yeaaaaaaaah! m////// | Vesper
05.04.12 | 'Awww thanks!'
Hahaha.
You're adorable too, Kyle. :3
And you can live vicariously through me, not Hyperion - I'm more fun. | Crysis
05.04.12 | You better post a setlist for the Autopsy/Funebrarum show.
7-10 on this list must have been the greatest thing ever all told. | Vesper
05.04.12 | I'm totally shit at remembering setlists unless I take notes, haha, but Hype and I can probably cobble together the setlist at the end of the night for you.
And, yeah, that was the best part of the whole festival for me, definitely, even if only for Hell and Fell Voices. Like I said, I was too fucking knackered to really enjoy Loss as much as I probably would have. They're playing here with Pallbearer on the 19th, but I think I might go see Ulcerate/Tombs that night instead, idk.
Oh, and cheers for the feature. :] | Crysis
05.04.12 | Yeah I think seeing Ulcerate would be better than Loss, but I can imagine them being pretty great live. It's just the combination of four amazing bands back to back to back to back omg | SadTissues
05.04.12 | Oshkosh?! That's like half an hour from my house! shiiiiiit | Vesper
05.04.12 | ^ You don't even listen to any of these bands, dude.
'Yeah I think seeing Ulcerate would be better than Loss, but I can imagine them being pretty great live. It's just the combination of four amazing bands back to back to back to back omg'
Well, at least I've already seen Loss - not sure when I'll get a chance to see Ulcerate again, so I should probably go for that, eh?
And, yeah, this whole festival was very consistent in quality, so kind of overwhelming to have so many good bands in one place, and almost makes up for my probably having to miss MDF... sigh.
You free on June 30th, Kyle? You should try and come visit for Martyrdoom - also Death/Gorguts two nights before.
| Relinquished
05.04.12 | this sounds awesome vespy, but it's no Roadburn. now that was fucking fun, especially where I performed. | MO
05.04.12 | sounds badass | AngelofDeath
05.04.12 | Boss write-ups. Festival of the century, probs. | Vesper
05.04.12 | 'this sounds awesome vespy, but it's no Roadburn. now that was fucking fun, especially where I performed.'
yea well u go write up about how great that was wolfy and make us all jelly
But cheers, dudes. All the cool Sputmetalheads need to meet up at a festival some day. | BallsToTheWall
05.04.12 | Sorry, dudes, but sacrifices must be made to fill my stomach with fast food, including consumption of said fast food so I have more money to pay for merch.
This so much..I had to sacrifice Touche Amore for waffle house but oh was it worth it. | AngelofDeath
05.04.12 | Yeah, I kind of think I'd rather see Ulcerate, now. | BallsToTheWall
05.04.12 | Portal/Sunn 0)))/Cemetery/ Diamanda Galas/ Gnaw Their Tongues/Jarboe/Menace Ruine/Nadja/Neurosis/Godspeed You Black Emperor!/Black Math Horsemen/Incantation festival needs to fucking happen. | Vesper
05.04.12 | 'This so much..I had to sacrifice Touche Amore for waffle house but oh was it worth it.'
That's not the same thing at all, loool.
'Yeah, I kind of think I'd rather see Ulcerate, now.'
Are you going to be here that weekend? | BallsToTheWall
05.04.12 | Not the same thing? I had to eat...hadn't eaten anything in four hours, was about to fucking pass out.
including consumption of said fast food so I have more money to pay for merch.
This part I fail to understand however. | AngelofDeath
05.04.12 | Yes, ma'am. | Tyrael
05.04.12 | Fell Voices, Ash Borer and Loss on one day holy shit you're lucky | Vesper
05.04.12 | 'This part I fail to understand however.'
I meant that I did not want to eat fast food, but had to in order to save money to buy band merch, lol. Not quite the same motivation as you, haha.
Cool, Angel. Are we still hanging out when I'm down in Georgia next week?
Haha, yeah, Ty. Good luck that I managed to find a round-trip plane ticket for $120, otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford going to this. :P
| Relinquished
05.04.12 | "yea well u go write up about how great that was wolfy and make us all jelly"
well I would but that was like last month and my memory wasn't that good most of the time if you know what I mean | AngelofDeath
05.04.12 | No, I'm going to ignore you. | Crysis
05.04.12 | "You free on June 30th, Kyle? You should try and come visit for Martyrdoom - also Death/Gorguts two nights before."
Potentially. To be honest I have no idea how the search for jobs will turn out so I'll have to play it by ear. | aok
05.04.12 | oooo -- where'd you move to?? | aok
05.04.12 | / actually maybe don't post that on sputnik lol | Tyrael
05.04.12 | ^ good idea | Vesper
05.05.12 | 'No, I'm going to ignore you.'
:c
Actually, I can't even pretend to be sad right now because Autopsy and Funebrarum were amazing and I got to shake Daryl Kahan's and Eric Cutler's hands, haha.
Still going to do that birfday partay?
And, right, you're all grown up now, Kyle! Need to find a job, home, etc. Have fun with that, lol.
Andy - I think I already told you where I moved (it's not too far from one of the apartments you were looking at). | AngelofDeath
05.05.12 | Yeah, probably going to do dinner with a bunch of my friends Friday night, so if your parents don't mind giving you up your first night back, you're welcome to come. | Vesper
05.05.12 | @Angel - I'm definitely having dinner with my family my first night back, so that's not gonna happen, but I can do Saturday before I head back up on Monday night (not much time back South, unfortunately). I'm sure Hype will want to hang out too. :] | AngelofDeath
05.05.12 | Gonna be at the Mastodon/Opeth show Saturday night, so maybe early afternoon. | Relinquished
05.05.12 | "full of shit again huh"
lol riff didn't go he's jealous | Vesper
05.05.12 | 'although i'm sure you wouldnt want me around cuz i might steal your girl vespo'
Lol, I'm not going to that. But, yeah, I obvs wouldn't want you cockblocking me, sonic. | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | Wolf come down on the 30th of May Volbeats coming..gonna fuck shit up. | Relinquished
05.05.12 | dude r u going to see Death on June 30th | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | Where? | Relinquished
05.05.12 | in orlando bro | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | Na..Saturdays are my most profitable nights unfortunately. Gotta make the bills dawg. | Relinquished
05.05.12 | yeah i getchu bro but
DEATH and ATHEIST. I'll be missing money for them too. | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | The bulk of my work/income comes on the weekends, whatever weekdays I work are random and inconsistent. | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | Also I just have to share that Austin Kincaid is my new favorite pornstar. | AngelofDeath
05.05.12 | Ah, don't worry, A. You can still be my wingman at the Rush show. | AngelofDeath
05.05.12 | Um, you guys are forgetting the important part of the Death tour: Gorguts. | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | Volbeat's gonna be a fucking killer mid paced rock show with riffs, swagger and booming choruses, come down for that, we'll hit up Lauddy, get some craft beers downtown, fight some pricks if it comes down to it or at least posture.. | Ire
05.05.12 | **** | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | We should all time travel back to 87 and watch Tankard and Sodom thrash in their prime. | Vesper
05.05.12 | 'i meant you would be zack's babe and he doesnt want me around to steal babes from his clutchez (or embarass him)'
i am a strong asian womyn and i need no man and i am no man's babe
'Um, you guys are forgetting the important part of the Death tour: Gorguts.'
I thought Atheist and Gorguts were splitting opening duties, so only Atheist is playing Atlanta?
| BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | i am a strong asian womyn and i need no man and i am no man's babe
She's right, and im not saying that just because she's related to Bruce Lee and Tony Leung. | Vesper
05.05.12 | Yeah, you're saying it because you're terrified of me, Wylie, lol. | BallsToTheWall
05.05.12 | I've seen Shogun Assassin..womenz can be ninjas. True story. Asians are also naturally flexible and excel at climbing tress/plyometrics and being tough to fight. Their finesse, speed and coordination is too much for my power and strength. etc. My pal Gumball climbs those trees like a spider monkey. Pretty sure he leapt to the next tree while I wasn't looking. | Skrapyard
05.05.12 | Anyone who has the chance to see Hell live should take it. Best performance I've ever seen. | Hikikomori
05.05.12 | fuck. such a sick festival. | Vesper
05.06.12 | ^ Wolfe doesn't want us to know what he looks like because he's built up a completely unattainable expectation of what he looks like, haha.
'Best performance I've ever seen.'
They were great, but, really?
You need to go to more shows with me. | Tyrael
05.06.12 | 'You need to go to more shows with me.'
can you clone yourself and send Vesper n. 2 to Europe so I can finally have a friend that's not afraid to go to metal shows please kthx | Vesper
05.06.12 | But all the good shows are here, Ty. So how about you come over here, huh?
What I want to have are metal roommates who don't care that I'm playing death metal at not-even-very-loud volumes. >:/ | Tyrael
05.06.12 | Do you guys need a lot of social workers? I have thought about moving to the USA more than once but I don't really see the point any more...
I wouldn't mind you playing DM but you'd probably mind my music a lot more haha | Vesper
05.06.12 | Competent ones, probably.
You probably wouldn't even be allowed into the country, though, you dirty commie, lol.
Eh, my best friend in college, who was a roommate for one year and suitemate for the last two years, had the self-described music taste of a flamboyantly gay man (Kylie Minogue, Madonna, etc.), and we got along fine. My tolerance for other music is much higher than that of others for mine, generally. :P
Just no Lights in any household of mine, haha. | Vesper
05.06.12 | Thanks, Captain! It's a bit on the tl;dr side, but whatever, haha. This festival deserved some kind of commemoration.
| coneren
05.06.12 | hey vesper sup how was autopsy matt hasnt said anything | Vesper
05.06.12 | It was fucking awesome, cone. Funebrarum was great too.
Hype is probably still trying to recover from it, ha.
Yeah, Captain, and, of course, he's sooooo much more intense when you see him in person. He plays with more power and energy than a lot of drummers I've seen who are twice his size too.
Fell Voices was also the only band at the festival to ask photographers to back off so we fans could enjoy them without annoying photographers blocking our view, so it's nice to see a band that cares so much about having a genuine connection with their audience like that. Wish more bands would tell photographers to fuck off, actually, haha. Or, at least, stay out of the way. | Inveigh
05.06.12 | damn I would kill to go to an Ulcerate/Tombs show
sounds like this festival ruled, cool write-up | Vesper
05.06.12 | Or just pay $200 for a weekend trip to NYC that weekend - cheaper than murder. :]
Angel's also going to be in the city that weekend, so you could meet both of us, Inveigh! | Inveigh
05.06.12 | nah I prefer to keep it metal (i.e. murder). but in all seriousness that would be awesome, I've never been to NYC, but the whole wife+job thing makes time scarce. I do plan on going to see redsky's band here in Chicago in July. | DeafMetal
05.06.12 | late 2 to the party sup guys | Vesper
05.06.12 | Hey, just saying you could make it into a 24-hour trip if you wanted to and were willing to blow around $300, haha.
ohai derf | BallsToTheWall
05.06.12 | How can I learn how to save money? Is there any particular course I need to take because technically, I don't really have any restrictions from doing these kind of things. Single, 2 days of work a week, and boom thats it yet im not taking trains and seeing epic shows and shit. | Vesper
05.06.12 | Do you even have money to save if you only work two days a week?
I mean, unless you're like an ace male stripper or something.
Which I can totally see you doing. | Acanthus
05.06.12 | Looks like a fun time, I'm trying to take a break from electronic digs for awhile and get some new black metal (mostly atmospheric).
The new Wodensthrone is cool, and I've recently found these guys and they're shaping up to be quite fun as well if you're interested: http://thegreatoldones.bandcamp.com/ | Tyrael
05.06.12 | 'Competent ones, probably.
You probably wouldn't even be allowed into the country, though, you dirty commie, lol.'
Well I guess then that concludes my plans to move to the USA lol | Vesper
05.06.12 | You're always welcome back into the bm fold, Acanthus, haha. And cheers, I heard good things about the new Wodensthrone but haven't gotten around to hearing it.
Just make sure you move to where the cool people are, Ty (i.e. New York). :] | DeafMetal
05.06.12 | great write ups, sounds like great fest. can u believe i've missed the body the past three times they've been here? | coneren
05.06.12 | i dont believe that | Vesper
05.06.12 | i dont believe that [2]
must be intentional
And, yeah, Captain, if they're ever in your area, definitely try to see them. Completely worth it. | DeafMetal
05.06.12 | believe it | plyrbith
05.10.12 | your massive generalizations about false are offensive and downright embarrassing.
they're more repetitive than sleepwalker, fell voices, or ash borer? i mean i like those bands but they're extremely repetitive. you must have been too busy judging their fucking fashion rather than actually listening to the music.
the gaggle of female fans you mention are all friends of false, you dipshit. | AngelofDeath
05.11.12 | So I'm guessing you play bass for them? | AngelofDeath
05.11.12 | Also, Fell Voices and Ash Borer shit on most of these bands, so yeah. | rasputin
05.11.12 | cool list
would have been awesome to see Loss, Fell Vocies and Hell | rasputin
05.11.12 | 'your massive generalizations about false are offensive and downright embarrassing.
they're more repetitive than sleepwalker, fell voices, or ash borer? i mean i like those bands but they're extremely repetitive. you must have been too busy judging their fucking fashion rather than actually listening to the music.
the gaggle of female fans you mention are all friends of false, you dipshit.'
it seems you are mad
do you a) come back with some shitty retort that isn't funny
or
b) gtfo | TheSpirit
05.11.12 | I'll go with B Regis, final answer | sifFlammable
05.11.12 | wow that's an impressive setlist im jealous | sifFlammable
05.11.12 | im not trying to generalise here or anything, but after watching all the korean masses who follow kpop for quite a time, id seriously consider it a cathartic experience to see a korean girl almost break into tears after fell voices. much respect
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