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

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)