North America has always been notorious for keeping its black and death metal festivals more “under the wing” rather than heavily flyered around and via popular online news tabloids. And for a festival such as this one from this past March called Cathedral of the Black Goat Fest, it is done properly for a reason and certainly isn’t for everyone in the expanded metal community who would fully appreciate or soak in the bands as well as ideologies that are behind an event such as this one. Although my personal beliefs differ from those in the COTBG community, after having witnessing this festival put together by the founder and forefather, Myrmydon Pontifex Maximus, and the amount of time, money and dedication put together to make such an obscure event happen for a crowd of 200+ people gave me a lot of upmost respect for the devotion one has to hold and contribute as a promoter. With the assistance of comrades few and far between, this festival turned out to be a great success and although this may be an understatement, I am certainly glad that I went.
With bands such as Deiphago from the Phillipines, Nyagthaeblisz from Texas, Ritual Combat from California, Loss from Tennessee and Black Witchery from Florida amongst other acts from across the U.S., it was a night which fell no short of complete chaos and debauchery. Although the venue was quite small and nearly suffocating, the alcohol flowage had been kept strong by all that night and for some of us, everything aside from the bands were hardly noticeable as the night progressed on.
Although I won’t do a full review, I will do a plug-in for the first opening act which also happens to be Myrmydon’s own band, Black Devotion. With only previously hearing a couple tracks streaming online, I wasn’t sure what I was in store for with this band, but from what I could tell on stage they certainly illuminated a powerful presence as a fresh new black metal band. Although their demo was only limited to a very small number of copies, new material is bound to be released hopefully soon. Needless to say, all the bands who were a part of this fest delivered a great amount of energy and killer stage presence, as well as the dedicated members of the audience who did not miss a minute of any acts and came out to support, both locally as well as those such as myself who had traveled from afar. Although trying to withhold from adding an elite touch to saying this, it was definitely a night for and dedicated to die-hards both old and new.
With that said for Volume 1 of this festival, I was informed that this will now become a yearly event which I am looking forward to attending for the remainder of however long Myrmydon continues to keep this going. And although this is supposed to be “yearly”, Volume 2 is in fact right around the corner. Saturday, August 11th, 2012 is the set date for the next COTBG Festival which will be held at the same venue (Cafe Lura, Chicago, IL) and there is already a list of bands lined up on the roster such as Teratism (Minneapolis), Unhuman Disease (Oklahoma), Texas legions Obesiance, Satanik Goat Ritual and Hellvatron, as well as Void Meditation Cult and Prosanctis Inferi who both originate from Ohio. Although there has yet to be any international acts announced for this next round, the full line-up is still a work in progress and updates will be made continuously as the date draws closer on the official event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/208518505922541/.
Anticipation draws near once again for those of us who await our return back to Chicago.
Over and out,
Tracy / www.t-terrorphoto.com
New Comments