METALFEST

The Worcester Phoenix
April 12 - 18, 2001

[On The Rocks]

Hardcore Metalfest

58 of the world's loudest bands come to Worcester

by Phil MacNamara
The New England Hardcore and Metal Festival, now in its third monstrous year, is fast becoming one of the US metal underground's premier events, garnering industry buzz
equal to similar, more established events in Milwaukee and New Jersey. This Friday and Saturday, the 2001 edition of the festival features a startling 58 bands on the Palladium's two stages. Here's a look at the weekend's best bets.
Headlining Friday night are Florida death-metal vets Cannibal Corpse, who for more than a decade have dished up some of that noble genre's more pummeling riffs and, for sure, its most nauseating lyrics. In 1996, the group even received a well-publicized dis from ex-Senator/presidential candidate/curmudgeon Bob Dole. The Corpse's album Vile (Metal Blade) was the first death metal record to debut on Billboard's Top 200. Not too shabby, but let's face it: the possibility of Casey Kasem spinning, say, "Hacksaw Decapitation" from their latest album, 1999's Bloodthirst (Metal Blade) seems remote at best.
Saturday night's lineup has a European flavor, featuring bands like Finland's Amorphis, whose name means, "no determinate form or shape." Musically, they live up to that moniker. The band's debut, The Karalien Isthmus(Relapse) is filled with jagged, gloom-and-doom guitar riffs, woeful cries of misery, and ethereal synthesizers. It's left fans and critics alike stumped, including this one. To make things better (or worse) Amorphis augments this heady aural stew with lyrics based on Finnish folklore.
Veteran Swedish aggro-nuts Messuggah will check in, too. Expect their set to run the gamut from their mindless late-80s blast-beat-centric work to the spacey metal epics perfected on albums like 1998's Chaosphere(Nuclear Blast).
All weekend, the show will feature a host of lesser-known, but still fist-pump-worthy bands on the hall's second stage. Friday night, Killswitch Engage lays down their crushing but melodic brand of death metal. Other second-stage highlights on Friday include Albany-based hardcore warriors One King Down, and oldest-school Pennsylvanians Brother's Keeper.
Boston's spazz-core/noisecore/hardcore legends Converge have played Worcester often since forming in 1991, and are considered one of the most important hardcore bands in the country. The group are also one of the most prolific, having appeared on more than 20 albums, split 7-inches, and compilations. But it's their stunning Equal Vision Records releases , such as 1998's When Forever Comes Crashing Down , that have cemented Converge's reputation. Welcome them back to the Worm Saturday on the main stage.
Western Massachusetts' grindcore felons Shadows Fall check in Saturday as well. The group, which formed in 1996, is on a big-time roll. Since former Overcast howler Brian Fair joined the group in December 1998, the band's popularity has increased exponentially. Since April 2000, they've been on six national tours. The Metalfest is the last chance you'll catch the group for a while. After a short break, they're heading to Europe for a late-summer tour.
If the most spastic of hardcore is your thing, you need to check out Zao upstairs Saturday. But atheists and agnostics be warned: while lyrics on the group's early records come across as standard straight-edge, a la Earth Crisis, they're actually -- gasp -- Christians. Last year's Liberate Te ex Infers (Save Yourself from Hell) (Tooth and Nail) is perhaps a little less subtle. Whatever. Zao rocks.
Rounding out Friday night bill is are The Haunted, Lamb of God, Monstrosity, Catastrophic, Vital Remains, Pessimist, Dark Moon, Torn Assunder, and two local metal bands, Acephalus and Year of Our Lord. Also Friday, the second stage will feature 100 Demons, Blood has Been Shed, Walls of Jericho, Burnt by the Sun, Unearth, Ringworm, God Below, Eternal Suffering, Jerome's Dream, and Blistered Earth.
On Saturday, prepare for Dying Fetus, Exhumed, Gorguts, Skinless, Diecast, Novembers Doom, All that Remains, God Forbid, Burial, Rain Fell Within, The Bezerker, Mushmouth, Bezerker on the main stage. Upstairs Saturday night is headlined by New York's All Out War and includes Dissolve, locals Cannae, Haste, Living Sacrifice, Death Threat, Noctuary, Internal Bleeding, Enter Self, Stomping Ground, Averse, Sefira, Dying Breed, Santa Sangre, and Withered Earth.
Visit www.massconcerts.com for a complete list of band times. Visit CVS for aspirin and bandages. Visit a masseuse, and perhaps a doctor on Sunday. Enough advice: we'll see you at the Fest.

Phil McNamara can be reached at pmcnam777@earthlink.net.