The inimitable “MVD” is probably one of the single greatest vocalists in death metal. This diabolical Dutchman scrawled his name into the pages of metal history while fronting the band Pestilence. Their 1989 album, Consuming Impulse, is considered a genre milestone and features Van Drunen's throat-wrecking hell-hound wail that set an untouchable standard in the space of 40 minutes. After acrimonious split with the band, Van Drunen joined forces with another established Dutch death metal outfit called Asphyx and released the much-loved albums The Rack and The Last One on Earth before effectively vanishing for the last half of the 90s. Almost a decade later, he has crawled out of the grave with the triumphant resurrection of Asphyx and a new project called Hail of Bullets. The Maryland Deathfest was the first and only site in America to ever host either band, and they were greeted with an outpouring of enthusiasm and affection from fans old and new.
Asphyx took the Friday night headlining slot on the outdoor stage, and the vocalist, along with cohorts Wannes Gubbles (bassist, and also of the superb band Pentacle), guitarist Paul Baayens, and founding drummer Bob Bagchus turned in a skull-crushing set from start to finish. The band stuck mainly to the first two releases and ground out the songs with wild head-banging and broad smiles that made the show as fun as it was intense. Asphyx's subject matter tends to focus on wars of bygone eras, so it was fitting that the capacity crowd leaned in with a slow, relentless crush into the front barricades. Between the hammering thunder of the band's brand of doom-laden death metal and the struggle of the security team to keep the barricades from collapsing, it felt like a scaled-down reenactment of the Battle of the Bulge. Martin Van Drunen's aforementioned screams were perfect and his striking height and crown of snowy hair invoked a terrifying collision of the legendary Wendigo and the Banshee in a single formidable presence.
Hail of Bullets was the first band on the outside stage on Saturday, and the crowd attended with pleasure. Van Drunen and company once again delivered above expectation with an equally monstrous performance comprised of songs from the band's recently released debut. The sound was once again locked in with chest-battering kick drums and bass registers that probably disrupted traffic on the highway overpass above. A particularly poignant moment was when the mainman stepped out onto the front monitors during the somber anthem of “Berlin”; he had nothing to sing over this passage, so instead he stood forth with arms raised and a triumphant grin. It was all him in that moment – so many fans had dreamt of seeing the man and his bands for nigh-on two decades, and finally here he was in the flesh. This is the kind of thing that makes people devoted to a band for life. Asphyx has a new album on the way, so it looks like they will have plenty of new success ahead.
View the entire top 10 best and worst things about Maryland Deathfest 2009 for more.
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