MARYLAND DEATH FEST MVP ANNOUNCED!!!

Congratulations to Isaac S., the winner of our MDF MVP contest! We had a bunch of great entries, but Isaac’s was chosen above all others by an illustrious panel of Maryland Death Fest veterans, including Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu). Isaac any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only). Not bad, eh, Isaac?

And don’t forget that Maryland Death Fest starts tonight, and rages all weekend! Four day passes are now sold out, but three passes and tickets to individual days are still available here. This year’s line-up is incredible, and includes Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, (the soon to be departed) Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity, Exhorder, Exhumed, Kylesa, Ghost, Skinless’ farewell gig, and tons more. If you have the chance to go and you don’t, you’re a damn fool.

And on that note, here’s Isaac’s contest-winning essay…

“In terms of concert-going, I have had the misfortune of living directly in between two somewhat far apart cities: Milwaukee and Chicago. As such, I seldom have the opportunity to go to a concert, since I generally need a full free day to compensate for travel time. The last one I went to was Motorhead, Clutch and Valient Thorr on February 19th. Before that, the last one I had gone to was the first run of the American Carnage tour in mid-August. I’m going to Rammstein on May 10th, and I’m (hopefully) going to see Devin Townsend and Children of Bodom on July 6th.

“As you can probably guess, I’ve never been to any version of Maryland Deathfest. For that matter, I’ve never even been to an extreme metal show. I’ve either had the ability to go but been held back due to an age restriction (which, interestingly enough, has happened with both Destroyer 666 and Nunslaughter) or simply not had the time or money. Going to this concert would afford me the invaluable experience of seeing all my favorite bands in concert. It would be a fucking gold mine. I mean, of course there’s the obvious ones that most anybody would love to see: the three headliners, COC, Cathedral, Ghost, Kylesa, et al., but there’s also the gems thrown in there. For example, the FANTASTIC early death/doom band Cianide, the former one-man beast that is Blood Freak, the blackened blackness of Impaled Nazarene (according to their website, they haven’t been to the US in 11 years), the vicious, relentless grind of Nails, Mammoth Grinder and Noisear (to say nothing of Exhumed and Cripple Bastards), the smoke-drenched riffs of Acid Witch and Orange Goblin and, of course, death metal coming from the likes of Death Breath, Repugnant, Dead Congregation, Hail of Bullets, and the almighty Nunslaughter. Hell, I’ll probably even enjoy the bands I haven’t heard of (Bad Acid Trip sounds intriguing…), both due to the music and the atmosphere.

“In short, I think I should be the MDF MVP not because I’ve been there year after year, because I can TOTALLY TELL YOU ABOUT THIS ONE TIME, BRO or because I’ve bought the most merch, but just because this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I love the music to death. No pun intended.”