Midnight has just passed, and Summer Slaughter will be arriving at a town near me in less than 18 hours. It's the third iteration of the annual festival, but the first chance I've gotten to go myself. My excitement is peaking, and... you know what, that sounded wrong. This is starting to sound like a fanfiction. Ok, so what makes Summer Slaughter so damn awesome?
If there's one thing I have to praise it for, it's that the lineup is no less fantastic each year. This time around, the headliners are Necrophagist, the German band who singlehandedly gave birth to the technical death metal subgenre as we know it today, and Suffocation, one of the oldest and most respected bands of the original American death metal movement. Without a doubt, Summer Slaughter should be at the top of the list for death metal fans this year. The rest of the bands are icing, but don't make the mistake of writing them all off, because there are some standouts that should give hard-hitting performances.
Support comes from Ensiferum, Finnish viking/folk metal masters; Darkest Hour, a long-running American melo-death act; Winds of Plague, a deathcore band with a female keyboardist; Dying Fetus, a death metal band unique for expressing a strong political agenda; Born of Osiris, a new band that blends tech-death and metalcore with beautiful atmosphere; Origin, a highly acclaimed tech-death band who have scored a breakout hit with their new album; After the Burial, a metalcore band with progressive elements; and Blackguard, a recently-signed pirate metal group who won their slot on this prestigious tour in a battle of the bands. Wow, this night's going to kill me, in the best way possible.
With a total of ten bands vying for my attention (HOLY SHIT), I'm a little worried whether spending a large number of hours in a cramped venue will make Summer Slaughter a detriment to the claustrophobic. It's an experience, though, one I'd like to see firsthand. The idea of holding an outdoor style festival in an indoor setting doesn't appeal to me, but awesome metal bands do, so nothing can hold back my ecstacy; seeing several of my favorite bands in one place is the kind of thing metalheads live for. How will it all turn out? We can only wait and see. Check back tomorrow, and I'll let you know if the Slaughter is as awesome as it seems, or an event too good to be true.
-PsychoticPulse
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