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As I mentioned last week, I went up to Pittsburgh for a long weekend for this year’s Skull Fest. This year I rolled solo and got a small but nice place to stay with no roommates, which resulted in a very different experience than my previous Skull Fest, where not partying 24 hours per day felt like an uphill struggle. I took it very easy, going for long morning coffees where I sat and read outside for hours (the weather was amazing!), taking my sweet time getting to the gigs, and not putting pressure on myself to watch every band. I missed a lot of bands I would have liked to have seen, but even with my slower pace, the weekend was exhausting. I guess the solo drive, 8 hours each way, had something to do with that.
You may have heard the big story of the weekend: two members of Death Side were refused entry to the US. While it would have been totally understandable for them to cancel, they made things work by playing with one guitarist and enlisting Joe BB (from Fairytale, Salvaje Punk, No Fucker, and tons of other bands) on drums with something like two days notice. Everyone who was in the loop kept this very quiet… I had no idea about the situation until someone told me just before Death Side played. Despite the setbacks, I still thought Death Side was incredible. The lack of a second guitarist meant there was a hole in the sound (particularly on the leads, which Chelsea often harmonized on the recordings), but the band’s tightness, energy, and charisma, and the strength of the material (the set list was incredible, hitting most of their discography’s highlights) were so far beyond 99% of the bands I’ve ever seen that I was still blown away. As for the drums… wow. Death Side’s songs are burned into my brain and I’m sure I’d hear it immediately if anything was off, but Joe played everything note-perfect and with all the power and energy he brings to his own bands. Joe BB: undisputed hero of Skull Fest 16.
Death Side was the reason I went to Skull Fest this year and they delivered, but there were plenty of other highlights. I particularly enjoyed sets by Savage Pleasure, KOS, Lifeless Dark (it’s been too long since I’ve witnessed Ryan Abbott beat the hell out of a drum kit), the Hell, Alienator, the Nervous, and Consensus Madness. The older bands were pretty hit and miss. I love the State, but their young drummer didn’t seem like a good fit for the band. Mau Maus played a good set with a lot of energy, but the guitarist had this very processed, Fat Wreck-y guitar tone that kind of pulled me out of it. Final Conflict was alright, but they started their set sounding kind of sluggish, and I felt like they’d lost a step since I last saw them at the final Chaos in Tejas 13 years ago. I was, however, excited to buy a shirt with a full-color print of the Ashes to Ashes artwork at their merch table.
The other older band that played was UK crust legends Deviated Instinct. Ultimate Disaster had played with them on their UK tour a while back and they told me Deviated Instinct was good, but only had one original member and didn’t really play their old material (I did not fact check any of that, so don’t take it as gospel!). That’s fine by me, because I’m a Deviated Instinct n00b. I never owned any of their records until fairly recently, and when I’d checked out their early discography in the past, I never found my way in. Maybe that’s just because I was listening to low-quality YouTube rips. I often need the physical version to pull me into a band or a record, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when I finally got a piece of Deviated Instinct vinyl to call my own, I fell head over heels.
Deviated Instinct: Guttural Breath LP (Peaceville, 1990)
This copy of Guttural Breath came in with a collection a few months back. Like I said, I’d only checked out Deviated Instinct’s earlier material, so Guttural Breath’s full-color cover, which takes conventional crust imagery (skulls, Celtic knots, barbed wire) and makes something new and distinctive out of it, was intriguing. It’s the kind of record you look at and think, “what on earth does that sound like?” because it just doesn’t look like anything else. I remember I took home and put it on the turntable, and as I listened I kept turning up the volume higher and higher. My wife walked in the house at some point and found me sitting in front of the stereo blasting this straight into my face at show-level volume. It was just so heavy and powerful… I loved the sound of the record so much I just wanted to bathe in it. I love how heavy the tones are, but what really strikes me is the ensemble playing on Guttural Breath. Deviated Instinct has these unique churning rhythms and odd, Celtic Frost-like tempo changes, and they executed them in a way that feels natural and organic rather than mechanical. I always think of Animosity / Technocracy-era COC when I listen to Guttural Breath, and I think that’s the reason… it’s a great band playing with near-telepathic communication.
While I fell in love with Guttural Breath, it hasn’t been part of my life long enough to know it inside out, and I couldn’t even tell you whether or not Deviated Instinct played any songs from it this weekend. However, despite the lineup changes, they still had that heavy and grooving sound, and live they scratched the same itch that listening to Guttural Breath does. If you have the opportunity, they’re well worth seeing.
Thanks so much to all the organizers, workers, and other folks who make Skull Fest happen, as well as all the bands that played, the folks who attended, and everyone else who made it a great weekend. And thanks also to everyone who said hi… sorry if I was awkward or weird. I’m doing my best out there!