It’s a big ‘un. And if you’re like me, there are a couple names that stick out from the poster below, particularly Earthride and The Skull. Both are tribute sets, of course. The Skull frontman Eric Wagner passed away in 2021 after complications from a covid-19 infection and the loss of Earthride‘s Dave Sherman just a couple months ago continues to be keenly felt in and beyond the confines of the scene he called home. Karl Agell (ex-C.O.C.) will step in for The Skull, while Scott Angelacos of Hollow Leg is set to front a rotating cast of players for Earthride. You would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting occasion for honoring one’s own, except perhaps this gig in a couple weeks.

Plenty of familiar, returning acts as well as newcomers. Hippie Death Cult and will travel from the Pacific Northwest, Switchblade Jesus and Doomstress make an appearance (not the first for either) from Texas, and Red Mesa come straight out of the capital-‘desert’ Desert. Meanwhile, Faith in Jane, Black Lung, Bloodshot, Mangog, Mythosphere, Thonian Horde, Spiral Grave and plenty of others represent the Maryland home team, High Leaf and Thunderbird Divine trip down from Philly, Curse the Son (CT) and Guhts (NY) come from farther north, Hollow Leg make the trip out from Florida, and Lo-Pan, Doctor Smoke and Brimstone Coven head over from the Midwest. That’s just off the top of my head. I’m not sure there’s ever been a MDDF pulling so many bands from different parts of the country, though of course international bands have featured in the past as well.

There are always some shakeup between the first announcement and the final lineup, but so far so good here. Any way it works out, Maryland Doom Fest has nothing to prove at this point. Guaranteed banger.

Here’s the poster (oy) and the lineup, the latter in alphabetical order:

Maryland Doom Fest 2023

June 22-25 – Frederick, MD

We are proud to present to you The Maryland DooM Fest 2023 lineup roster and 2023 promotional art!!!!

We showcase over 50 kickass bands bringing you heavy riffs over these #4daysofdoom!!

The centerpiece art was created by Joshua Adam Hart (Earthride, Unorthodox, Revelation, Chowder, Stout, to name a few).

Josh is a career tattoo artist and is currently scheduling appointments at Triple Crown Towson Tattoo. Schedule to get ink from him at info@triplecrowntowson.com

The incredible flyer layout, coloring, and design is by our very talented Bill Kole (make sure to check out his band Ol’ Time Moonshine)!!

Above the Treachery, Akris, Black Lung, Bloodshot, Bonded by Darkness, Borracho, Brimstone Coven, Cobra Whip, Conclave, Crowhunter, Curse the Son, DeathCAVE, Doctor Smoke, Doomstress, Double Planet, Dust Prophet, Earthride, Faith in Jane, False Gods, Flummox, Fox 45, Future Projektor, Gallowglas, Grim Reefer, Guhts, Helgamite, High Leaf, Hippie Death Cult, Hog, Hollow Leg, Hot Ram, Las Cruces, Leather Lung, Lo-Pan, Mangog, Mythosphere, Orodruin, Red Mesa, Severed Satellites, Shadow Witch, Smoke the Light, Spiral Grave, Switchblade Jesus, The Skull, Thonian Horde, Thousand Vision Mist, Thunderbird Divine, Unity Reggae, VRSA, Weed Coughin, Wizzerd

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Lo-Pan, “Ascension Day” live at Maryland Doom Fest 2019

All kidding aside, if Maryland Doom Fest wanted to rebrand as Sherman Fest, I feel like event-organizer JB Matson (also of Bloodshot, War Injun, Outside Truth, etc.) would be well within rights. There is no overstating the impact Dave Sherman — generally “Sherm” if you were saying hey at a show — of Earthride, Spirit Caravan, Weed is Weed and so many others had on Maryland’s ever-vital doom underground, and the tributes continue to come through in the wake of his passing on Sept. 4.

A benefit has been expected. This is what Maryland doom does. In the long tradition of the American working class looking out for its own because, well, it’s not like anyone else is stepping up to help, the underground based around Frederick — now with a home at Cafe 611 where the aforementioned Maryland Doom Fest is held; formerly centered at Krug’s Place down across the way from the 7-Eleven, where Stoner Hands of Doom resided for a few editions — a benefit festival for Sherman‘s family is well in character for that scene. They’ve done a ton of them over the years, from Evil Fanny to Rev. Jim Forrester to Adam Heinzmann of Foghound — who’ll play Sherman Fest — to any number of others. It’s part of the mourning process, and like the poster says in this case, part of celebrating the life and music of Dave Sherman.

And in the last week, having seen some of Sherm-stories these bands have told — Borracho, Thousand Vision Mist, even Place of Skulls — it’s clear this lineup is hand-picked for the purpose. I don’t know how you could play a benefit in this dude’s honor and not have the show of your life. Emotion and volume will flow in kind.

Poster and info follow. Doom bless Dave Sherman:

Sherman Fest – Live at Cafe 611

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022

611 N. Market St., Frederick, MD

This is a unique music scene and this get together is a tribute to Dave Sherman’s legacy.

All proceeds are in Dave’s name to support his mother through this tragedy.

Lineup:
Place of Skulls
Foghound
Mangog
Alex Wickham & Johnny Wretched
Bloodshot
Pimmit Hills
Bonded by Darkness
Borracho
Thousand Vision Mist
The Crows Eye
Faith in Jane
Born of Plagues

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1019802608697365

Poster by Bill Kole.

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
https://www.instagram.com/marylanddoomfest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Earthride, “Earthride” Live at Maryland Doom Fest 2017

No time like the present, one supposes, for Maryland Doom Fest to lay out its plans for 2022. The lineup for the festival proper — which was held this year over the course of Halloween weekend and, much to its credit, didn’t seem to be a super-spreader event — will be announced later today, as a kind of New Year’s piss-off-2021/celebrate-2022, hopeful-future-despite-so-much-dystopia riff-led daydream, or at very least a long list of bands and probably a poster. As preface for that, organizer JB Matson has put out word of a return of the all-dayer Doom Hawg Day for next month as well.

To be held Jan. 22, which is a Saturday, Doom Hawg Day 2022 boasts no fewer than nine bands in its lineup — and it starts at 5PM! — and recognizable headliners in Mangog and The Age of Truth, the former from Baltimore, the latter imports from Philadelphia but certainly well at home in Frederick, Maryland, too. Both are veterans of the Maryland Doom Fest, and along with a solo set from Dee Calhoun (Spiral Grave, etc.), Doom Hawg Day will welcome Future Projektor, Atomic Motel, Bloodshot, Gallowglas, High Noon Kahuna and 2 Screws Loose.

Groundhog Day itself, of course, is Feb. 2, and while I doubt Cafe 611 has any celebrations in the works for that particular asinine ritual, Doom Hawg Day has been going for a few years now. I wouldn’t be surprised to have some of these acts show up in the Maryland Doom Fest announcement either, which of course one is looking forward to, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that lineup reveal looked a lot like this one, only with a longer list of bands. Maryland Doom Fest has never been one to skirt around the point of the thing.

Unlike some of us, I guess.

The thing:

THE MARYLAND DOOM FEST presents: DOOM HAWG DAY 2022

January 22 at Cafe 611, Frederick Md!!!!

Mangog
The Age of Truth
Future Projektor
Atomic Motel
Bloodshot
Gallowglas
High Noon Kahuna
Screaming Mad Dee
2 Screws Loose

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Mangog, Economic Violence (2021)

Baltimore’s Mangog give a righteous showing in the first single from their upcoming second album, Economic Violence, with the hooky riff and push of “Suicide Donkey.” The full-length follow-up to early 2017’s Mangog Awakens (review here) will be the culmination of years of work — it was first announced in 2018 — and their first outing with Russell Hayward III on drums alongside the returning parties of vocalist Myke Wells, bassist Darby Cox and guitarist Bert Hall, Jr., formerly of Beelzefuzz as well as Revelation/Against Nature, etc. You might recall they had an EP out in 2019 as well called The Ghost in the Room (discussed here), and with the last year aside, they’ve been playing shows all the while in the Chesapeake region.

I’m specifically interested to check out the lyrics to the record when the time comes, certainly those of “Suicide Donkey,” which you can stream below, speak to the sociopolitical take that’s reportedly present in the album as a whole. The title Economic Violence would seem to refer to systematic oppression — as with nearly everything in American history, it’s a story about white-on-Black racism — and with ‘Baltimore’ and ‘now’ as their settings, Mangog have plenty to explore. Looking forward to that, as well as the riffs.

The PR wire has details and the always-crucial preorder link:

Maryland Doom Metal Powerhouse MANGOG Unleashes Details & First Track From Upcoming Album

Baltimore, Maryland, doom metal act MANGOG has revealed the first details about their upcoming, sophomore album entitled Economic Violence, which is slated for a release on June 25, 2021 through Argonauta Records! Following on the critically acclaimed debut, Mangog Awakens, the four-piece continues to unleash their blend of classic doom metal while adding a speedier, metalizzed bridge to cross the grounds of an enjoyable hardrock sound, yet with some sensitive, important issues the record deals about. MANGOG have something to say, their new album is more pissed-off, more versatile, and more doom! Deep and passionate vocals, these pounding, big riffs and a fast- paced metal vibe give the band’s new album such a rich and commanding presence you can’t help but to immerge into the Economic Violence.

“Like Birmingham, England was to Black Sabbath all those years ago, Baltimore, Maryland served as the backdrop of MANGOG’s latest collection of songs.” Guitarist and vocalist Bert Hall comments. “This time out, we explored the themes of political manipulation, over aggressive police, systemic racism and life beyond inevitable death. We are surrounded by multiple choice fates of true economic violence. We decided to put those to music.”

MANGOG was formed by Bert Hall, Jr (Revelation/ Against Nature/ Righteous Bloom/Beelzefuzz), bassist Darby Cox and vocalist Myke Wells. The band debuted at the 2015 Maryland Doom Festival and spent the next months quickly gaining steam in the prestigious Maryland doom scene. In 2016, they joined the Argonauta Records roster and released their first album, Mangog Awakens, in early 2017. While playing shows and festivals in many states, the band prepared a follow up EP , The Ghost In The Room, which was released exclusively on Bandcamp. Ultimately joined by drummer Russell Hayward III, MANGOG stands ready to release its sophomore album, Economic Violence, as CD and Digital formats on June 25th.

The pre-sale has just started at THIS LOCATION: https://www.argonautarecords.com/shop/

Album Tracklist:
01. Of Infinity
02. Suicide Donkey
03. Shadow Pictures
04. Economic Violence
05. Propaganda
06. Adrift
07. As The Stars Fall
08. The Killing Fields
09. Secret War
10. Invisible Chains

www.facebook.com/MangogOfficial
www.instagram.com/mangog_official
www.mangog.bandcamp.com
www.mangog-usa.com
www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/argonautarecords

Mangog, “Suicide Donkey”

Maryland Doom Fest 2021 is set for Halloween Weekend, Oct. 28-31, in Frederick, Maryland. Some of the acts on the newly announced bill are carryovers from the first-delayed-then-canceled 2020 edition — among them Sasquatch, Worshipper, and so on — but it’s worth noting that among those and others, the likes of The Age of Truth will have a new record out by this Fall, and pre-pandemic, Boozewa didn’t even exist. So yes, things have changed.

For further proof of the festival’s stylistic branching out — and with this many bands, they’d just have have to — you’ll note the departure in the poster art from the fest-standard purple toward a greater range of color. The music they’re pushing is likewise broader in palette, and to think of seeing the likes of Howling Giant and Revvnant alongside Arduini/Balich, Omen Stones, and Place of Skulls is an encouraging thought indeed. This even was much-missed last year.

Expect a time-table sooner than later, as organizer JB Matson doesn’t screw around when it comes to that kind of thing. The lineup announcement — short and sweet, as ever — is further proof of same.

I don’t know what the world’s gonna look like come Halloween, but I know damn well this is one reason I’m glad I got that vaccine.

[UPDATE 04/30: Black Road and Vessel of Light can’t make it. Lo-Pan and When the Deadbolt Breaks have been added. If there are any further changes, I’ll probably just make a new post.]

To wit:

Here is the Md Doom Fest 2021 roster folks!!!
Halloween weekend – Oct 28-31, 2021
WE CANNOT WAIT TO DOOM WITH YOU!!

Lineup:

Poobah, Sasquatch, Place of Skulls, Lo-Pan, Lost Breed, Cavern, Horseburner, Spiral Grave, The Age of Truth, Mangog, Wrath of Typhon, Helgamite, Almost Honest, Indus Valley Kings, VRSA, Monster God, Et Mors, Astral Void, Worshipper, Boozewa, Admiral Browning, Omen Stones, Formula 400, Molasses Barge, Arduini/Balich, Dirt Eater, Dyerwolf, Ol’ Time Moonshine, Shadow Witch, Revvnant, Bloodshot, Ritual Earth, Gardens of Nocturne, Conclave, Crow Hunter, Bailjack, Warmask, Akris, Alms, Thunderbird Divine, Strange Highways, Howling Giant, Yatra, Jaketehhawk, When the Deadbolt Breaks, Grave Huffer, Dust Prophet, Plague Wielder, Weed Coughin, Morganthus, Tines

www.marylanddoomfest.com
#4daysofdoom

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
https://www.instagram.com/marylanddoomfest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

With Maryland Doom Fest kicking off later this week, it is a fitting time to celebrate the region’s heavy output. Baltimorean four-piece Mangog won’t play in Frederick this year, but they’ve got a brand new two-songer called The Ghost in the Room out well in time for the occasion just the same. They would seem to have parted ways with masked drummer Dao Yu since the recording of the EP — we never did find out why he wore the mask, so let’s just assume it was because he was secretly WJZ Baltimore meteorologist Bob Turk in disguise and didn’t want anyone at CBS to know he’s super into heavy riffs. Fair. It would probably cost him his job.

The new guy is Russell Hayward III, and he’ll have to wait until the next outing to make his debut with the band, but I hear there’s a second album in the works. I wouldn’t be surprised if these tracks are on it in some form or other.

The PR wire has it like this:

Baltimore doom unit MANGOG releases brand new EP; Out now on Argonauta Records!

Doom metal heavyweights MANGOG have announced the surprising release of a brand new EP titled The Ghost in the Room, which is out now on Argonauta Records!

MANGOG is a doom metal band based out of Baltimore, Maryland, formed by bassist Bert Hall Jr. (Revelation, Against Nature, Beelzefuzz ), assuming guitar duties, drummer Stephen Branagan (Revelation, Against Nature, and Yet So Far), Major Company bassist Darby Cox, and Final Answer vocalist Myke Wells. In early 2015 the band released the Daydreams Within Nightmares EP during their debut performance at the Maryland Doomfest. One year later, MANGOG completed its first and critically acclaimed full length album, Mangog Awakens, released with Argonauta Records in 2017.

The Ghost in the Room continues the band’s work and sets high anticipation for their sophomore album, MANGOG are currently working on. Their brand new, 2-track EP is now available for streaming and download HERE!

“We are stoked to give everyone a taste of some of the music we’ve been working on through our partnership with Argonauta Records!” MANGOG comments. “The Ghost in the Room has been a staple of Mangog set lists since shortly after the release of the “Awakens” album, with the track “Hubris” being written much more recently.

The road to getting out new music has been an epic one, paved with hospitalizations, birth, death, setbacks, frustration and lineup changes. These recordings feature former member Dao Yu on drums, who worked with the band between September 2017 and October 2018.

We recently also begun to perform acoustic versions of some of our new and old songs, and will have a video for “Ghost in the Room” about to enter the post production, so better watch out for many more great news to come soon!”

Tracklisting:
1. The Ghost in the Room 06:53
2. Hubris 04:01

MANGOG is:
Myke Wells – Vocals
Bert Hall, Jr. – Guitars, vocals, devices
Darby Cox – Basses
Russell Hayward III – Drums

www.facebook.com/MangogDoom
https://twitter.com/mangogdoom
https://www.mangogdoom.com/
www.argonautarecords.com

Mangog, The Ghost in the Room EP (2019)

So, it would seem the masked dude in the Mangog photo you see here is their new drummer, Dao Yu. Why is he wearing a mask? I have no idea. None whatsoever. Unless Dao Yu isn’t his real name, it’s not like he’s keeping his identity a secret, and call me crazy, but I wouldn’t think as a drummer having your entire face covered by a mask makes your life any easier, so yeah, I’ve got nothing on this one. Guy’s just wearing a mask.

Whenever I run into something like that, I like to think it’s because the person involved actually has a really good job or something and doesn’t want his colleagues to know he’s in a rock band on the side. Like Dao Yu is actually the superintendent of schools for Baltimore County, or the top real estate agent in Frederick or whatever. He owns a chain of daycare centers. Something like that. Mind you I don’t know if any or all of that — if it’s all of it, he’d be awfully busy — is true in the slightest, but it’s fun to pretend.

The mystery will just have to remain for the time being, but the good news is that, with Yu in tow, Mangog have started prep work on their sophomore full-length, which will be the follow-up to last year’s Mangog Awakens (review here). Here’s the latest info:

MANGOG – working on the new album

After recently completing a run of gigs that included the band’s 50th overall lifetime show, MANGOG is currently hard at work at its rehearsal facility arranging, rehearsing and preparing to record a follow up to “Mangog Awakens” with the new lineup that debuted in September 2017. With close to an hour of new material, the band is preparing a monolithic slab of music that will make the debut cd sound like a warm up!

MANGOG also started working on a new video, the group assembled on the first of three sets for the performance section of the clip. Additional filming is expected over the next several weeks concurrent with rehearsal of nearly a dozen new songs to be recorded for a follow up to “Mangog Awakens.”

The band, including vocalist Myke Wells, guitarist/vocalist Bert Hall, Jr., bassist Darby Cox will resume recording the disc with the group’s newest member Dao Yu on drums during early 2018, to be released via ARGONAUTA Records.

MANGOG is:
Myke Wells – Vocals
Darby Cox – bass
Bert Hall – Guitar/Vocals
Dao Yu – Drums

www.facebook.com/MangogDoom
https://twitter.com/mangogdoom
https://www.mangogdoom.com/
www.argonautarecords.com

[Click play above to stream Mangog’s Mangog Awakens in full. Album is out Jan. 9 on Argonauta Records.]

For those off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, Maryland doom must seem like a curious animal. It’s angry, but restrained, sad, but grooved, melodic and still weighted down by a particular disaffection. Over the last three decades, it’s also become one of the longest-lasting and prolific regional sources for heavy output, and as Mangog‘s Argonauta Records debut album, Mangog Awakens, demonstrates, it remains a sound that is growing and shaping itself. As rigid as its tenets can sometimes seem in post-The Obsessed riffing and Sabbathian loyalism, there’s room in the Chesapeake State for a breadth of atmospheres, and Mangog take advantage of this while staying grounded in deeply human experiences of loss and betrayal on “Ab Intra” and “A Tongue Full of Lies,” and still having a bit of fun in a cut like “Meld,” which from its opening lines, “Your thoughts to my thoughts/My mind to your mind,” through the inclusion of “It is a good day to die” in the chorus was bound to win over my Star Trek-loving heart.

Granted that cut is a long way from “Walk in my shoes/Feel the abuse” and “Chase the dream then you die” from “Modern Day Concubine,” but it fits sound-wise with Mangog‘s straightforward, semi-metallized take, marked out by the rumbling basslines of Darby Cox (Major Company), the thickened riffing of Bert Hall, Jr. (also bass in Beelzefuzz, ex-Revelation, the snarl in the vocals of Myke Wells (ex-Final Answer) and the dead-ahead push drumming of Mike Rix (ex-Iron Man). In any case, a bit of thematic variety doesn’t hurt, especially when so much of Mangog Awakens basks in the emotionally grim.

Welcome to doom, chief. I’ve said many times over the years that repetition and that grueling feeling that sometimes emerges from bands in the style are key markers for doom, and Mangog do a fair bit to play into that, but from Mangog Awakens‘ opening salvo of “Time is a Prison,” the aforementioned “Meld” and “Ab Intra,” they seem intent likewise on finding a niche for themselves within the sphere’s overarching lack of pretense. “Meld” is shorter, but “Time is a Prison” hits seven minutes and “Ab Intra” tops eight, so there’s an apparent drive toward immersing the listener quickly in the album’s moody vibes, and if they haven’t already done it by then, the creeping start of “Ab Intra” assures the task is complete. Compare that to the ticking clock that begins the lumbering “Time is a Prison” and the sounding alarm at the end that still jars every time I hear it and Mangog are clearly pushing deeper as they go, but both “Time is a Prison” and “Ab Intra” rely on strong hooks to help get their point across, and that root of classic-style songcraft is important as the rest of the album continues to build fro this beginning.

“Ab Intra” is one of the three songs from Mangog‘s 2015 debut EP, Daydreams Within Nightmares, to be included on the full-length alongside “Of Your Deceit” immediately following and “Daydreams Within Nightmares,” placed here as the penultimate track before “Eyes Wide Shut” closes, but there’s no discernible interruption in flow between previously-released material, despite the band having worked with a slew of engineers — Jason Blevins and Mike Franklin, Mike Engel, and Drew Mazurek — on the recordings. The crawl-paced plod of “Of Your Deceit” might be preaching to the converted, but one wouldn’t accuse it at all of being incongruous in doing so. If nothing else, Mangog Awakens makes plain that the four-piece know the sound they’re shooting for.

Fine. The question then becomes whether they get there. From “Of Your Deceit” into the sub-three-minute tempo kick of “Into Infamy” and onward to the chug of “Modern Day Concubine,” the answer would seem to be yes. These are not rookie players, and while this is their first outing together in this incarnation, they sound comfortable in the mode of expression, going so far as to have Wells branch out a bit into a more rhythmic vocal patterning on “Modern Day Concubine” with just a hint of growl layered in. “A Tongue Full of Lies” offers more languid flow after that aggro moment, but has a build of its own that comes to a head in its second half, leading into the more upbeat shove of “Daydreams Within Nightmares,” the lyrics of which nod toward political turmoil — one might say “Into Infamy” did so earlier as well; both working in a general way relatively open to interpretation — as a choice riff churns around a hook that seems to reorient the listener moving into Mangog Awakens‘ final statement.

That comes with “Eyes Wide Shut,” which at 5:41 doesn’t touch “Time is a Prison” or “Ab Intra” in terms of runtime, but in its layered vocal harmonies — either Wells on his own or Wells with backing from Hall — and ultra-slow initial rollout punctuated by Rix‘s snare, it’s nodding enough to give the impression of being longer than it actually is and atmospheric after the fashion of classic Pentagram. Once again, Mangog bring their own stamp to the proceedings, adding a speedier, metallized bridge in the second half of the track before returning to the lumber to end out, not quite paying off the full record, but at very least assuring their audience there’s more to come. That may well be true, and at this point one might only speculate where Mangog might go after this “awakening.” What the band establishes, though, is the core of songwriting that will hopefully continue to be fleshed out from here and a strong awareness of where they’re coming from that will allow them to grow as they move forward.

Mangog on Thee Facebooks

Mangog on Twitter

Mangog website

Argonauta Records on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records webstore