Late May, Memorial Day weekend — which means it was time once again for one of America’s finest and most eclectic metal festivals, the annual Maryland Deathfest. This is the kind of event people buy tickets for before a single band has even been announced. Because of the reputation. And because it’s always worth it. This was already our fourth MDF experience, so I won’t repeat too much of what has been said before: the action takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, with streets closed off in the very heart — and safest part — of the city. Even airport security was curiously eyeing the incoming crowd and asking: what kind of gathering is this, exactly?
For the first time in all our years attending the festival, the weather wasn’t on our side. After several days of brutal May heat, a cold front rolled across the East Coast. Some areas got storm-force winds, violent thunderstorms, and torrential rain; Baltimore got gray skies, steady drizzle, and a couple of chilly days (+12°C on Saturday, for example). As a result, there were far fewer colorful outfits than usual. Rain ponchos ruled the weekend.
One upside: only one of the festival’s main stages is completely uncovered (see the video below of people dancing in the rain during WHIPLASH). Besides, this is still a city festival — asphalt everywhere, no mud pits, no campgrounds. Bad weather is much easier to deal with under those circumstances.
The format remained unchanged from previous years: a club pre-party on Wednesday featuring NAPALM DEATH, PRIMITIVE MAN, REPULSION, ORGAN DEALER, with SINISTER originally scheduled as a special guest. Unfortunately, SINISTER and the United States have had a rough history. Over the past four years or so, the band has been announced for various tours and festivals, only for something to fall apart every single time. Twice — including, I believe, last year’s tour with VADER — visas were denied. MDF organizers pulled out all the stops this year. The band’s lineup had changed significantly, paperwork was approved, but shortly before departure it became known that Aad Kloosterwaard was battling a serious illness and was physically unable to travel. He recorded a video message — looking frighteningly thin and exhausted, struggling to speak — so yes, performing was clearly out of the question. As a result, MONSTROSITY were called in at the last minute for the pre-party, while SINISTER’s Saturday appearance was reduced to a half-hour tribute set performed by members of MALIGNANCY. I missed most of it (I was trying to get closer to the stage for 1914‘s club show), but here’s a short clip for those interested. Let’s hope Aad pulls through.
It wasn’t a lucky year for veteran British death metal act CANCER, either. The vocalist’s flight was canceled, forcing the band to find a replacement on short notice (making it something of a tribute performance as well, since original member John Walker couldn’t make it). Their instruments were damaged in transit, some luggage was lost, and to top it all off, their passports were stolen on the way home. Not exactly an ideal trip. The set still happened, though. Well… I don’t know. Old-school death-thrash, but nothing particularly remarkable.
The old-school department was represented much more impressively by GRAVE (they too had visa-related issues and didn’t arrive with a full lineup, but at least most of the band made it). Heavy grooves, crushing riffs, cavernous vocals — the Swedes delivered a special set focused on Into The Grave and You’ll Never See…, making for a truly legendary evening.
As is tradition at MDF, several bands performed special sets. Besides GRAVE revisiting their early classics, KREATOR focused on material from their first three albums. Personally, despite my love for the band and immense respect for the seemingly ageless Mille and Ventor, this felt more like a drawback than a bonus. KREATOR have always been special, but in my opinion their truly distinctive sound and identity emerged after the ’80s. Their retrospective sets that mix different eras tend to be more interesting. I’d actually love to hear an experimental KREATOR set centered on Renewal and Endorama — after all, we already know pretty well how Endless Pain has aged over four decades.
ROTTING CHRIST also focused on their first two albums, sounding exceptionally vicious, dense, and aggressive — and that worked brilliantly. Just a week earlier the band had toured alongside BEHEMOTH, DEICIDE, and IMMOLATION, performing mostly later material. Their Maryland set felt far more intense.
Another special set came courtesy of DYING FETUS, who focused on their first three albums. The crowd surged toward the stage with such force — creating such chaos, slamming, and general madness — that security had to start restricting access with barricades for the first time all weekend. By all accounts, it was absolute carnage. Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of the set from somewhere behind the barriers, because I had to choose between DYING FETUS, whom I see several times a year, and …AND OCEANS, whom I’d never seen before. The Finns won.
Speaking of the Finns, …AND OCEANS delivered one of the festival’s most impressive performances. Their multilayered, dynamic sound blends melodic Finnish black metal with sweeping symphonic textures and sparkling electronic-industrial elements. They look absolutely magnificent on stage. Outstanding stuff.
Continuing the Finnish theme, one of the most spectacular, mesmerizing, unforgettable moments of Maryland Deathfest 2026 for me was undoubtedly WOLFHEART. Tuomas Saukkonen is an extraordinary talent, and watching his multidimensional melodic worlds take shape live — growing muscular riff-driven veins, blossoming into intricate arrangements, pulling listeners into their own mythology — is a musical pleasure beyond description. The only thing that slightly spoiled the experience was knowing that WAYFARER were performing at the exact same time on another stage. Their album American Gothic has been on repeat for me for years. Still, hopefully I’ll catch them later this year at a festival in Montana.
Another unfortunate scheduling conflict forced me to choose CEPHALOTRIPSY over NOVEMBERS DOOM. The latter are excellent, no doubt about it, but they’d already played Maryland a couple of years ago, whereas seeing California slam-death maniacs led by the incomparable Angel Ochoa flatten a venue was too tempting to pass up.
I did at least manage to film a little bit of NOVEMBERS DOOM.
As expected, CEPHALOTRIPSY was pure hell.
Continuation here
