So that was fun. Festival organizers estimated that some 2,700 people attended this year's (incredibly well-run) Maryland Deathfest. I missed the first day, but will post more about Saturday and Sunday of MDF VII later. For now, here are a few photos and my thoughts in superlative form, after the jump.

• Favorite performances: Crowpath did not disappoint this fanboy. Kill the Client was ridiculously amazing. Singers that crowdsurf and mosh = big fun. In the more traditional death metal vein, Bolt Thrower's two sets (they headlined on Saturday and then played an impromptu 45 minutes on Sunday to fill in for Pestilence, who were no-shows for visa reasons) were both crushingly awesome.
• Worst performance: Despise You, whose music might have been ok were it not for the vocalists. Their female vocalist was shouting into the mic in a voice that sounded like your little sister whining at you at the top of her lungs, only amped to maximum volume by the sound system in a 1000-capacity rock club. No thanks.
• Biggest surprises: Weekend Nachos, holy shit. The singer had a completely crazed look on his face for the entire set, which was a 15-minute blowout of epic hardcore intensity. Destroyer 666, who effectively headlined Sunday – wasn't familiar with them beforehand but they put on a pretty amazing show.
• Biggest disappointment: I was really looking forward to Brutal Truth, not having heard much of their stuff but knowing they are classic grindcore right up my alley. But they just seemed a little off and the sound was really muddy. Too bad.
• Best theatrics: It's hard to top Mikannibal of Sigh breathing fire to close out the entire fest (that's the headline photo above). But Kill the Client's singer crowdsurfing constantly was up there, or General Surgery's bloody lab coats (with the fake blood reapplied twice during their set by women in bloody nurse costumes), or Birdflesh's absurd costumes... there's some competition here.
• Coolest experience: Getting to watch Napalm Death perform (and rant against torture, Dick Cheney, homophobia, fascism etc) outdoors at dusk, with the sky turning a deep blue. See photo below.
• Potentially great shows I was too fried to appreciate: Devourment, Wolves in the Throne Room, Antigama, Trap Them.
• Most popular T-shirt color: Black.

More to come!

Maryland Deathfest is about to kick off its first day in a couple hours, but better late than never, right? I'll be covering Saturday and Sunday, but for anyone still thinking about heading up to Baltimore (tickets are still available, but not many of them!), here is my absolutely non-comprehensive and subjective preview of select bands I want to see. Keep in mind that my knowledge of classic 90s death metal is limited, and I'm more into the modern grindcore and experimental stuff.

MDF takes place at Sonar, 407 East Saratoga St Baltimore, MD 21202, today through Sunday, on the main stage inside as well as an outdoor stage. Tickets will be available at the door for varying prices depending on the day.

FRIDAY (today!)

• Cattle Decapitation – outside – 6:35-7:10 – Pretty good modern grindcore. Their latest album throws some curveballs, including the inclusion of Jarboe and Grayceon cellist Jackie Perez-Gratz, but I still like their old stuff best (Karma Bloody Karma etc). Listen at Myspace.
• Mayhem – outside – 8:30-9:30 – Mayhem was at the center of the violent early-90s Norwegian black metal circus, with two original members murdered by other musicians in the scene. Somehow they're still going and still scary. Expect fake human heads impaled on stakes onstage. Listen at Myspace.
• Cephalic Carnage – inside – 12:40-end of night – My favorite song of theirs is indicative: "Black Metal Sabbath," a tongue-in-cheek spoof of black metal's tremolo riffing and screeching vocals that then transforms into an equally tongue-in-cheek but totally awesome Sabbathy sludge riff. Listen at Myspace.

Check out my Saturday and Sunday picks after the jump. Photo above of Bolt Thrower (playing Saturday) courtesy their Myspace page.

SATURDAY

• Crowpath – inside – 2:10-2:40 – probably my most anticipated band on the bill. Avant-garde death metal from Sweden and one of the more genuinely experimental bands in the extreme metal scene. Their latest, One With Filth, topped my best-of list from last year. Listen at Myspace.
• Misery Index – inside – 6:15-6:50 – Baltimore/DC grindcore; I hear they're Caps fans. Listen at Myspace.
• Pig Destroyer – inside – 8:10-8:40 – Unquestionably DC's most famous grindcore outfit, and for good reason. Live shows are a rarity for Scott Hull's flagship band, and not to be missed. Phantom Limb was at the top of many critics' best-of-2007 lists. Listen at Myspace.
• Napalm Death – outside – 8:40-9:25 – Arguably the father of the entire grindcore genre, the UK's politically outspoken greats are on a lengthy tour of the States, having played at Jaxx earlier this month. Amazing that a band this intense is still releasing music just as great as their classic-period stuff. Listen at Myspace.
• Bolt Thrower – outside – 9:40-11:00 – This is the main draw of the festival for many. Classic UK midtempo death metal with lyrics based on the Warhammer 40K universe. Nerdy enough for you? Listen at Myspace.
• Wolves in the Throne Room – inside – 12:40-end of night – Yes, hipster black metal exists, and none embody it better than Wolves in the Throne Room, with their creepy, soundscapey forest music. Don't tell them that, though. Listen at Myspace.

SUNDAY

• Kill the Client – inside – 2:55-3:25 – My bet is on this Texan grindcore band for the title of most violent, whiplash-inducing music at MDF. As you might expect, that's quite a distinction. Listen at Myspace.
• Yakuza – inside – 5:10-5:40 – This Chicago death metal group initially came to my attention because of their collaborations with avant-jazz saxphonist Ken Vandermark. Another of the more experimental groups on this bill, they haven't released much new music in the last couple years and it'll be interesting to see what they have up their sleeves. Listen at Myspace.
• Krallice – inside – 7:10-7:40 – Ridiculously proficient tech-death musicians play black metal, with dizzying, complex results. Don't miss. Listen at Myspace.
• Antigama – inside – 8:10-8:40 – Polish technical grind; one of those bands that drives purists crazy by drawing all kinds of weird influences into their music. Hell, they prominently feature a tribute to Goblin on their Myspace page. Listen at Myspace.
• Sigh – inside – 11:50-end of night – Classic Japanese black metal featuring a relatively new band member, "Dr. Mikannibal," who holds a Ph.D in physics, plays sax, screams, dresses provocatively, eats worms, drinks blood, and records in the nude. No surprise that she tends to hog all the headlines. Listen at Myspace.

Where 2007 was my love-affair year with free jazz, 2008 saw my affections turn to extreme metal in all its varied forms. The sad departure of Transparent Productions meant a dearth of interesting avant-garde jazz in the District, and I replaced concertgoing expeditions to Sangha (RIP) and Twins Jazz with rather different expeditions to places like Jaxx and various smaller venues booking the more underground kinds of metal. My passion for music tracks closely with what I'm seeing in the live setting, so it makes sense that my 2008 list is dominated by the heavy, evil stuff. (My friends—and especially housemates—didn't appreciate this so much.)

Be it metal, jazz, electronic music, free improvisation, or whatever, I've been convinced for a few years now that, industry woes aside, we're living in a renaissance period with fascinating new music being made at an unprecedented clip. Granted, I have absolutely no empirical basis for this claim, but I present the following 10 recordings as examples of the freshness of today's music-making scene...

1. One With Filth, Crowpath (Willowtip)
Pundits can quibble over whether or not “avant-garde metal” is really avant-garde in any meaningful sense, but the latest album from Swedish band Crowpath is an undeniably experimental and edgy slab of death metal. Compared to the band’s two earlier releases, it’s downright catchy and accessible, striking a perfect balance between challenging and immediately rewarding, but it’s still impossibly punishing. “Thinking man’s metal” is an overused phrase and too often refers to dry exercises in technicality, but it’s a perfect term for this recording.

Crowpath, "Cleansed In Chlorine":

2. Doombringer, Nasum (Relapse)
A more than welcome posthumous live release from these grindcore greats. Although Doombringer clocks in at a mere 23 minutes, the 16 tracks here are meatier than most albums twice the length or more. Brutal and unrelenting from start to finish, like getting punched in the face repeatedly, by a guy wearing spiked brass knuckles. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Nasum, "Inhale/Exhale":

3. (duck), Buffalo Collision (Screwgun)
A collaboration between two members of the Bad Plus (piano and drums) and older free-jazzers Tim Berne (sax) and Hank Roberts (cello), Buffalo Collision straddles the line between groovy jazz and boisterous free improv. Comprised of three long, almost incomprehensible twisting pieces, this project bears Berne’s distinctive stamp, but the Bad Plus members add a wonderfully melodic tilt to the proceedings.

Buffalo Collision, "2nd of 4":

4. The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, Earth (Southern Lord)
Classic drone metal band meets renowned jazz/Americana guitarist Bill Frisell… and the results are gorgeous. There’s little vestige of Earth’s doomy past to be found here; the new version of the band is obsessed with painting desolate pictures of rural America using extremely sparse, twangy, still heavy guitar notes. Frisell contributes a few lonely, windblown solos that take the album from good solidly into the realm of great.

Earth, "Engine of Ruin":

5. Salome, Salome (Vendetta)
The D.C. area’s best doom metal band, Salome is a simple guitar-drums-vocal band, but that lone guitarist sounds like three downtuned guitarists and a bassist all combined. The band has just about the biggest sound imaginable from a mere trio, and vocalist Kat’s memorable growls and shrieks just add to the stark, evil atmosphere.

Salome, "Black Tides":

6. Keio Line, Richard Pinhas and Merzbow (Cuneiform)
Ambient music at its best, Keio Line is a meeting of two very different but equally brilliant minds: a French guitarist and a legend of Japanese noise. The result is more than the sum of the parts, music that blends well into the background but still manages to reveal layer upon fascinating layer under a close listen.

Richard Pinhas & Merzbow, "Shibuya AKS":

7. Secular Works, Extra Life (Planaria)
What happens when you mash up rhythmically complex avant-rock with the stark, monochromatic vocal melodies of early Western music? Guitarist Charlie Looker, formerly of Zs, explores the possibilities with this new band. The album never quite lives up to the promise of its explosive opening track, but the sheer freshness of Looker’s ideas makes any of his work worth a close listen.

Extra Life, "Blackmail Blues":

8. Oneiromantical War, Wrnlrd (FSS)
Listening to this D.C.-area one-man atmospheric metal band’s latest album is akin to falling endlessly through a dark, damp abyss in slow motion. Oneiromantical War is as ugly and lo-fi as any early-’90s DIY Norwegian black metal record; “wall of sound” might be a good descriptor, but only if one imagines walls covered in sandpaper and sharp edges. Yet the overtly evil stuff is often hidden away in long, ambient drones, giving the album a nuance that the vast majority of metal recordings lack.

Wrnlrd, "War":

9. Belle Ville, Townhouse Orchestra (Clean Feed)
Second album by this all-star European quartet, led by Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and featuring legendary British saxophonist Evan Parker. Belle Ville consists of two 45-minute long collective improvisations. Listening to it is a bit like wandering through a corn maze: you’re never quite sure what comes next, you can’t quite remember all the twists and turns, and eventually you emerge out at the end, a bit unsure of what you just went through but feeling a certain sense of satisfaction nevertheless.

Townhouse Orchestra, "Belle Ville":

10. Pitom, Yoshie Fruchter (Tzadik)
I found much of this year’s output from John Zorn’s Tzadik label a bit disappointing, but Pitom was a pleasant surprise. Imagine the loping, heavy prog of 70s-era King Crimson meets Zorn’s free-jazz group Masada, with a dash of Sonic Youth for good measure. Melody, chaos, noise, whimsy, fun.

Yoshie Fruchter, "The Dregs":

11. Twenty honorable mentions:

Holon, Nik Bärtsch's Ronin (ECM)
Studio 1, Box (Rune Grammofon)
Carried to Dust, Calexico (Quarterstick)
Traced in Air, Cynic (Season of Mist)
Incendio, Los Dorados & Cuong Vu (Intolerancia)
Hello, Voyager, Evangelista (Constellation)
V1.1, Fessenden (Other Electricities)
To Sail, To Sail, Fred Frith (Tzadik)
Street Horrrsing, Fuck Buttons (ATP)
Disgorge Mexico, Fuck the Facts (Relapse)
The Way of All Flesh, Gojira (Prosthetic)
Stockholm & Göteborg, Henry Cow (ReR)
Krallice, Krallice (Profound Lore)
Teeth, Little Women (SocketsCDR)
ObZen, Meshuggah (Nuclear Blast)
River Mouth Echoes, Maja Ratkje (Tzadik)
This Is It..., Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars)
Now and Forever, The Thing (Smalltown Superjazzz)
Beat Reader, The Vandermark 5 (Atavistic)
Oud Bass Piano Trio, Yitzhak Yedid (Between the Lines)