Maryland Deathfest 2026 - Day 4 (Saturday, 5/23)

All Videos Credited to Original Creators

Let's get this out of the way - Saturday sucked.

By far the rainiest day of a rainy weekend, the downpour was relentless. Ponchos at this point were useless, we needed lifeboats. Pig Destroyer and Macabre were waiting for me though, so soggy or not we were gonna hear some grindcore.

California thrashers Warbringer were the first band I caught on Saturday. I'm honestly kinda indifferent to the new wave of retro-thrash, playing their hearts out to a loose crowd of onlookers. I will say that they sound better live than on record, so there's that.

Grindcore miscreants Mellow Harsher were a welcomed relief to what was going to be a long sucky day. Blasting through a set of crust grind peppered with self-deprecating stage banter and openly caustic sonic bursts, it was refreshing to see a band at MDF not taking themselves so GD seriously. Check out their Bandcamp Bandcamp page, you can thank me later: https://mellow-harsher.bandcamp.com/.

I checked out some of Whiplash's set, but honestly it wasn't doing much for me. Old biker looking guy from the original lineup playing speed metal to a crowd that just wants to get drunk and mosh. I was admittedly pretty cranky at this point, so I may not have been as objective as I could've been.

Pig Destroyer were performing a special Prowler in the Yard album performance for the festival, and seeing them tear things up put a little wind back into my sails. Prowler is one of the best Grindcore records of last 25 years, and Pig Destroyer never disappoints. The rest of the crowd was apparently starting to feel just as punchy as I was, as evidenced by the inflatable raft that made its way across the audience over the 45 minutes of sonic chaos. Against a soundtrack of "Piss Angel", the lunatics were starting to take over the asylum.

Murder Metal titans Macabre were next up, and thankfully performed at the covered outdoor stage for a brief respite. I've seen Macabre several times over the years; never mind just how incredibly technically proficient they are as musicians, they're a lot of fun to watch. Singing the horrors of serial killers both famous and infamous, you never know when Richard Ramirez or the Zodiac Killer is going to make an appearance on stage.

After Macabre, I wandered the merch village for a while to kill some time until Mortician was up. It's nuts how many vendors from all over the world make this same pilgrimage to MDF to sell their wares to a thousands of metalheads ready to fork over their cash. Everything from handcrafted spiked leather wrist guards to bootleg t-shirts to endless stalls of underground vinyl from bands you'll never find anywhere else. It's really an amazing community.

Mortician is another guilty pleasure. Whereas Macabre waxes poetic about real life horrors, Mortician does the same for cult horror film. Known for Will Rahmer's ungodly guttural gurgles (and predilections for bad behavior) and lowest of the low tunings, Mortician is more of an experience than anything else. And if you've seen Mortician once, you've seen 'em a dozen times - what you see is what you get, and it's generally a good time. The band was in prime form, but Rahmer looked emaciated compared to when I'd seen him just a few years prior. I hope everything's okay and he's just getting older. As the rain had started to seep through some of the covered stage area, I tapped out halfway during the set, intent on finding dry clothes and a decent meal.

Tomorrow would be the 5th and final day of Maryland Deathfest. We're in the home stretch, we can do this.