- review by Roberto

FRIDAY August 10.

This was my first Metalfest. However, it was my second Jack Koshick Presents event experience, having attended the travesty that was the 2000 inaugural November to Dismember in San Bernadino, Cal. In order to reduce the painful memories to a minimum, I'll sum up by saying that the big problem with that one was how bleeding ridiculously overbooked that fest was with shitty bands. Each band fell a little behind schedule, so by the time the bands that everyone came to see hit the stage, they had to cut their set to 20 minutes in some cases, or in other cases, like Vader's, they couldn't play at all.

And so it seemed that Metalfest 2001 would be a repetition of the November to Dismember fiasco. One hundred and thirty four bands were booked on four stages over only two days. At least 90 of these bands I'd never even heard of, so the prospectus of having to sit through hours of shit that would frankly make me think hard whether I'd continue to like metal made me pessimistic about the fest. It was cool though: I'd get to see Maelstrom contributor Matt Smith, who I hadn't seen in nigh on three years, and there'd at least be some cool CDs and zines to be picked up.

As it turned out, we ended up having a pretty damned good time. Our strategy was simple: show up around 8 p.m. for each day. That way, we'd circumvent the majority of the atrocious bands. I think that in total I ended up seeing about 20 bands. This plan did backfire on a minor scale in that we did miss a few groups we kinda wanted to see, and of course we negated all chances of discovering any diamonds in the rough, but considering the alternative, I think we did the right thing. This logic was compounded by the bordering-on-fascist rules that the Milwaukee Auditorium had: No outside food or drink allowed. Not even water in plastic bottles; the same shit they sold in the auditorium. What was this, a goddamn movie theater? I think ins and outs were also not permitted.

The lineup was split between four stages, the best of which were the auditorium Digital Metal Stage and the second-floor Relapse stage. The other two stages (Snakepit and Nightfall) were both rather lacking in their verical dimensions, atmosphere, and acoustics.

We got to the Auditorium on Friday at the planned 8 p.m. arrival time. The first band whose set I made a point of seeing was Helstar. Helstar's album Nosferatu features some of the best music ever by a power metal band, but unfortunately features a singer who effectively ruins the whole thing. In case you don't know who the singer is, he's also the singer of Destiny's End. Helstar's brand of power metal is of the early 90s variety. This style is firmly rooted in thrash, and so sounds remarkably different from today's fast, happy Euro style or even the heavier, technical music that American bands like Jag Panzer play.

Despite my dislike for the singer, who actually sounded better live than I remember him on disc, Helstar played a wonderful set. The highlights were the solid rhythm section, which got the audience on the same energetic page as the band thrashed through song after song. The lead guitarist also put on quite a technical show with his soloing. It appears that Helstar are getting back together, which would be a really welcome thing, as long as they remember to make more albums like Nosferatu and resist the temptation to go down the road that bands like Nevermore have been taking.

Matt and I were keen on checking out Soilent Green's set. However, the band unfortunately had to cancel as the bass player got some evil viral infection, according to Soilent Green's vocalist, Ben (pictured at right with Roberto).

However, we did get to see Ben in action nonetheless when we went upstairs to the Relapse stage to see Isis perform. Isis' show of brutally heavy, screming psychadelic rock was both Matt's and my pick for band of the day. Isis' sound was so thick, it burrowed into your very core, enveloping you in a massive, hypnotic blanket. Isis' lineup consisted of a drummer, a keyboardist, two guitarists, and two bass players (one of which did vocals), to really make shit heavy. Things went fully nuts when Soilent Green's Ben came out in his Keroppi shirt and pummeled the willing audience with his balls-out screams. Whoa.

I spent a whole lot of time at the market area, which was behind a flimsy series of curtains in front of the Digital Metal Stage, the largest of the four in the Milwaukee Auditorium. As expected, the usual series of folding tables were set up, displaying t-shirts and albums on sale. The selection was pretty good, although I seemed to have out obscured everybody when I asked each vendor for Necrofrost and was met with a blank stare. Most of the major labels with offices in the US were there. Century Media continued to have the best overall price/selection. If you haven't checked out Century Media's website, please do so at www.centurymedia.com, as their mail order prices are outstanding. A close second as far as major labels went was Relapse, whose prices were also quite good (much lower than their normal mail order prices), and who featured a lot of the dirtier bands we love that they tend to specialize in.

Cadaver Inc.'s album Discipline may have the fastest blast beat I've ever heard. So naturally I wasn't going to miss their set. I had to see if Carl-Michael, the drummer (also of Ved Buens Ende) could pull his stuff off live. He didn't disappoint.

The vocalist was impressive, looking a great deal like an adult version of Chucky, the evil doll from the Child's Play horror movie series, except this guy was metal. Even after the set was over, he walked by me with the same psychotic intent in his eyes that he had on stage, taking furious drags on a miserable cigarette between vocal atrocities. As cool as it was to see Cadaver Inc., my curiosity was satiated within three songs. It's true that there isn't a whole lot of variety in what this band plays, and that was compounded by the terrible sound in the room in which they played.

Even though I have my issue with their album World ov Worms, I had to see Zyklon, if only to be swept up by the hype. Z(S)amoth was definitely there, but the drummer didn't look like Trym. What was even more noteworthy was that the drums didn't sound triggered in that particular way as they have been on albums that feature Trym on drums for the past few years. The biggest eye-catcher was the vocalist, who was described by Mark of Chicago's Metal Haven as looking like "Sebastian Bach on steroids." However, the sound was pretty bad, and since Zyklon's songs aren't exactly catchy, nor do they stand out from each other very well even on the album, I moved on.

I have to say I foolishly wasn't watching the time and managed to miss all but 20 seconds of Steel Prophet's set. I really wanted to hear Mark Mythiasin's vocals, and if he could do the same stuff live as he does on CD. Damn.

I killed time until Anathema, whom I had to see. I've never had any interest in this band, that is, until I heard their latest album, Judgement. The four-piece band from England put on a great show. They were indeed the best possible way the organizers of metalfest could've ended the night, as Anathema are quite the opposite of the evil/testosterone driven bands that made up the majority of the festival's lineup. The singer, who looks a good deal like a younger Dave Mustaine, charmed the crowd from the get go with his story of how the band had gotten to Milwaukee. Anathema's energy was gripping despite its mellowness. Indeed there isn't a whole lot of what can really be called metal left in Anathema's sound, but they can unquestionably be categorized as a doom band. Even I was sometimes overcome by the real-life depressive vibe of their music, which dealt with topics such as alcoholism and the death of the guitarist/singer and bassist brother combination's mother. It was all very sad, but you could truly feel the joy that the audience shared with the performers in participating in the set. I don't know if I would be up to the kind of doom vibe on a daily basis that Anathema puts out, but the live show was something I wouldn't have missed. For a few moments I dashed over to see what was going on in Gorgoroth's room, but was appalled by the slop I heard and fled back to the warm melancholy of Anathema and the irresistible charm of their frontman.

Matt and I agreed that everything Gorgoroth was doing sounded exactly the same as what they had just done. I also thought it was very curious how the sound engineer was sliding one of the sound dials up and down frantically. It was entirely dubious, but fitting to the kind of performance Gorgoroth was putting on.

It was 2 a.m. By the time we got back to Matt's, somehow, at 4 a.m. we were wiped out. The sweet clutches of slumber awaited us…

SATURDAY, August 11th.

We mistimed our arrival and thus missed Phobia's set at 5:25, but we did get to see Pig Destroyer perform on the Relapse stage. Their sound was great and the playing was tight. I never thought a band consisting of one drummer, a guitarist and a vocalist could be this entertaining. It was fun grindcore.

Stupidly, I stayed put to see Mastodon. Not that Mastodon was bad. In fact, their music, which I would describe as some sort of screaming heavy music, was quite good. However, seeing Mastodon (good band name) meant that I was missing Jag Panzer's set on the Snakepit Stage. After I realized what was going on, I made it downstairs just in time to hear the end of a song and "thank you, see you again on tour!" Doh.

What to do… I tore myself away from a table that was selling four CDs for $20 (which I was deliberating over for WAY too long) to check out Einherjer (which I understand is pronounced "einyar"). I turned right back to the tables after seeing what this band had to offer for two minutes. It would be a compliment to Einherjer to say that they are the poor man's Enslaved. From what I could tell despite the atrocious sound was that they played some sort of Viking rock. Suffice to say nothing happened in their music, and there didn't seem to be much energy in the crowd. Case in point: I met this Russian guy at the CD table where I was who had an Einherjer shirt on. When I left the store area to go to the stage ten minutes into Einherjer's set, he was still there, chatting away in Russian with a vendor. (at right: Coach of Iowa hardcore band Armored Unit H7. Coach said with a snicker he's working on a new hardcore project that's all about Dungeons and Dragons. The band will be called Roll for Initiative and will feature such songs as "My +1 Battlestick." Can't wait to hear this one.)

Soilwork hit the Snakepit stage as I was browsing through the wares on the tables for the umpteenth time. As I heard later, Soilwork had some major problems with their sound initially; something like the main guitarist wasn't plugged in. Luckily, I joined the crowd a couple songs into the set, and thus was treated to a spirited show of melodic Swedish death. The frontman engaged the crowd well and encouraged the enthusiasm. The guitarists put on good shows with their soloing, and the drummer was super solid, not to mention having the nicest looking kit of the fest. The only guy I kinda felt bad for was the keyboard player, whose job was to pretty much sit there. It must be hard to get into it when you play keys. At one point the short haired guitarist tripped over the wire plugging the keyboard into the amp, yanking it out. It didn't make any difference sound-wise and the keyboardist played on as if he was actually making any music.

I needed to kill time, so I wandered in to see Deceased. I've never been a fan of this band. Sure, the music on albums like Supernatural Addiction is killer, but the raspy, out of key vocals just don't fit on top of the traditional heavy metal tunes. My bias aside, Deceased put on an excellent show. First off, I am totally impressed by anyone who can play drums and do vocals at the same time. Not only did King Fowley, Deceased's main man, play drums like a maniac, he also managed to do so while giving a passionate vocal performance, and I didn't mind his vocals in a live setting. Fowley and his band were exemplary: they projected true dedication and love for metal. Their passionate honesty really connected with the crowd, and I couldn't help but be swept up with it.

Now things were going to get really good, as three bands I was keen on seeing were going to play back-to-back-to-back. I'm talking about Krisiun/Dying Fetus/Kataklysm. Before Krisiun was Immolation. Their technique and performance was great, but unfortunately I've never been a big fan of their material.

Seeing all that I needed to, I couldn't resist the temptation to see Primal Fear, my favorite anti-band. I knew chances were really slim, but I was hoping they'd play their most hilariously shit metal song, "Formula 1," whose chorus is, I swear, "Formula 1, the class of kings on highest level, Formula 1, come and watch me win." Hahaha. I will never get enough enjoyment laughing at that song and this band. As fortune would have it, during my five or so minutes of hearing them, they didn't play my song, but I did get to meet one of my journalistic heroes, Marty Rytkonen, who puts out Wormgear, the finest underground music zine in North America (at least.) Cheers to him and his crew for being honest and calling a spade a spade, giving thoughtful reviews and stimulating interviews. Meanwhile, Primal Fear's singer Ralf Scheepers addressed the crowd. "You know, we usually have our eagle when we play," he said, pointeing to the back of the stage where their shitty metal bird poster should have been, "but we couldn't bring it over." (Like anyone fucking cares.) "But, this next song is about the eye of that eagle." (start generic song.) I have to at least give credit to Scheepers for singing well on the Primal Fear albums, but he was trying to beat the overpowering speaker system, and did more yelling than singing.

And then, Krisiun. I had been totally let down by listening to this band on CD. It was so constantly and uniformly fast, things got boring in a hurry. I had heard from both fans and not fans of this band alike that you had to see Krisiun to fully appreciate them. One person likened what the guitarist does to a feat of strength. If any of you who told me this is reading, I now understand what you were talking about. This set was so good, it bordered on a religious experience. As fitting to the best act of Metalfest 2001, the crowd was rabid, as every member of the audience made the sign of the horns in unison after every song and people dove off the stage in their joy. As advertised, the guitar solos were an exhilarating sight to behold as Moyses Kolesne's fingers moved more deftly than anyone's eyes could follow. After one such song, I turned to Matt, who looked at me with the same wide eyes I looked at him with. Matt was for the most part pretty placid during the shows, but even he couldn't resist the tide of energy that swept through the room.

Unfortunately, Krisiun had to wrap up and leave. The bright side was that Dying Fetus was next. If you saw my review of them in issue 3, you'll know that one of the greatest death metal shows I've been lucky to enjoy was when Dying Fetus played the Pound in San Francisco. Drummer Kevin Talley is one of my heroes, so the chance to see him again was one of the big reasons I came up to Milwaukee. Their latest album, Destroy the Opposition, is a death metal triumph. I had read about how Dying Fetus was having rifts between members. When I saw them is SF they had already lost their bass player who played on Destroy.... Now there was turmoil between bandleader John Gallagher (right) and Talley. I heard Dying Fetus had broken up because of it, but here they were. Except… Kevin Talley wasn't the drummer anymore. Apparently he was kicked out, along with the second guitarist, meaning that the only member left from the Destroy… lineup was Gallagher. Although Fetus played very well, I couldn't help but feel gipped. Nor could I help but feel resentful to Gallagher. The new drummer was fine, but had nowhere near the style or panache that Talley does. What a shame. Good luck, Kevin. Here's to hoping you resurface soon.

Before Cryptopsy made it big, there was Kataklysm. I appreciate the Kataklysm album Temple of Knowledge, it's a technical beast that really challenges your ear. The vocalist on the album may be terrible, but at least somehow artsy in how bad he is. Since that album, vocalist and driving force Sylvain Houde left the band and Kataklysm fell from grace, releasing an album that I've read is so awful I literally fear it. Apparently Kataklysm got a clue and they're back to playing what they did best, except my cursory listen to their latest, The Prophecy, seemed a far cry from what made The Temple… special. Seeing this band would at least provide me with an orgy of drum speed and technicality. Except not. It's not wrong to say Kataklysm had an abysmal set. To be fair, the main problem was that their drum triggers were dodgy. Where the drummers legs were pumping up and down rapidly only a sputtering was heard. Amazingly, it took three songs for the burly vocalist to ask the sound engineer to try to fix the triggers. They eventually turned them off, but that didn't help much at all, as the drummer seemed totally lost, the sound coming from his kit not seeming to correspond with what he was doing. The drums were crap, so to me anyway, so were Kataklysm.

There wasn't a whole lot left I wanted to see. Not unless you count Limbonic (f)Art. I didn't. Nor did the idea of sticking around to hear an act called Dick Delicious appeal to either of us. So to wrap it up, I met up with Matt to Amon Amarth (left). I'm not too impressed by their latest album, The Crusher, but I was very pleased to hear them play my favorite song of theirs, the second track (excuse me if I don't know what it's called) from their The Avenger album. Thus we hit the road back to Janesville, having had quite a positive Metalfest experience despite our expectations to the contrary.

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- review by Matt

The Milwaukee Metalfest is perhaps the most infamous metal show in all the world, and for good reason. In 15 years, they've booked all kinds of talent to play there, and have featured the best (and allowed some of the worst) underground bands. I enjoyed myself immensely, despite this year's festival only being two days instead of the usual three. There were quite a few bands whose sets I enjoyed, but here are a few I particularly liked:

Soilwork - They put on a really good show. The vocalist had great stage presence, and they had one solid song after another. Their image was polished, but their sound was raw (in a good way). They impressed me enough to buy Steelbath Suicide, which did not disappoint. They were better live, though.

Krisiun (right)- Oh, Jesus. I never knew three guys could sound like that. I don't know if I'd enjoy an album of theirs, but their live performance was the best I saw all weekend. They were technical, accurate, and bad-ass. The guitar solos and drumwork was some of the best I've seen.

Phobia - This was actually one of the few bands I saw at the Relapse stage. Most of the stuff I was interested in was at the Snakenet Radio stage in the main room. At any rate, I liked them quite a bit. They had a really rough-sounding set, but not as rough as...

Pig Destroyer - Grindcore at its harshest. Their vocalist rolled and jumped around while screaming into the mic, which he held, I think, in his mouth (at least part of the time).

Amon Amarth - These guys were the last to play at the Snakenet stage on Saturday night (or Sunday morning - whatever). I think I would have enjoyed them more had I not been so tired, but I liked them nonetheless. Their CD sounds better than Metalfest's sound system, but they put on a good show.

These were the highlights for me, and I'm probably leaving some important ones out. My only regret is not seeing Macabre, who I hadn't heard of before the festival. My friend Jim said that they were his favorite of the first day, and I really like Dahmer.

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