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the past few years. Primate are relative newcom
ers as a band, but feature two bona fide vets in
Mastodon's Bill Kelliher and Brutal Truth's Kevin
Sharp. Savannah's Black Tusk, on the other hand,
have been bringing their energetic, rugged sludge
to Athens for years; their dogged persistence in
staying on the road has earned them a record
contract with the venerable Relapse Records.
Saturday's headliner, Atlanta's Zoroaster, have
made their own name as a wall-of-amps force to
beheld, both stateside and abroad.
Smith seems confident and committed to
continuing to bear the responsibility of putting
on the festival. "It went very well," he says of
last year's festival. "Everybody had a good time;
the bands had a good time. It really wasn't too
stressful. If it ever pisses me off and becomes a
stress, I probably won't do it anymore. As long
as it's easy—well, nothing's easy—but as long
as it's not too difficult and goes smoothly, I will
continue to do it." With that, we can rest assured
that Athens' future will continue to get heavier.
Jeff Tobias
IVtLNECK METAL FEST SCHEDULE
CALEDONIA LOUNGE
Thursday, Oct. 20 • 8 p.m. $7 (21+), $9 (18+)
Hot Breath • Caltrop • Maximum Busy Muscle • Utah
• Grim Reefer
Friday, Oct. 21 • 8 p.m. $10 (21+), $12 (18+)
Black Tusk • Lazer/Wulf • Chrissakes • Death of Kings
• Nate Hall of U.S. Christmas
Saturday, Oct. 22 • 3 p.m. $13 (21+), $15 (18-20)
Zoroaster • Primate • Savagist • Demonaut •
Sons of Tonatiuh • Gripe • Omean * Shark Heart -
Scarab • in the Lurch
Advance tickets and $20 three-day passes available at
www.ticketalternative.com
"I definitely think Lazer/Wulf has a uniqueness to them,"
he says. "They're technical; they're melodic, but at the same
time, they have a really hard edge and are almost a little funky.
They're definitely one of those unique bands. Grim Reefer,
which is John McNeece, who just opened McNeece Music, he's
a one-piece band. He plays guitar and drums using a looper,
and he just relocated here from Tallahassee; I definitely think
he's gonna be a highlight of the festival. Gripe—Gripe is amaz
ing. They're just a heck of a band. There's always Athens staple
Chrissakes; they do what they do and they do it very well. And
I'm looking forward to In the Lurch because it has [former Col.
Knowledge & the Lickity-Splits organist] Andy Steck in it, and
Andy's been around playing guitar for a long time in a bunch
of bands, but I'm excited to see him in In the Lurch."
Thrash, post-hardcore and oddball solo projects are all under
the same heavy umbrella, but those eyeballing the line-up will
note that this year Smith took special care to make the festival
especially Athens-reliant, booking mostly from within the com
munity. The headlining acts of the 20-band-strong festival are
where the outsiders come in, but they'll be familiar to anyone
who has been paying attention to Southern heavy metal over
"There's that word again: 'heavy.' Why are
things so heavy in the future? Is there a prob
lem with the Earth's gravitational pull?"
—Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future
seems it was only two weeks ago
that Flagpole explored New Earth
Music Hall’s pursuit to bring
more of the loud stuff to our small city through
the Metal Earth series. It's true to the nature of
Athens that if you aren't seeing or hearing what
you want to see or hear, all you need is the gusto
and hustle to either do it yourself or create a
framework in which it can thrive. Beyond attract
ing heavy-hitters to town while they're on tour,
another option is evident in the Devilneck Metal
Fest. Founded by onetime Athenian/ex-Subrig
Destroyer bassist/current Demonaut bassist Joel
Martin in 2007, this celebration of all stripes of
volume-enhanced music is returning this week.
While their town may be more popularly known
for other genres, the many varied and eclectic «
heavy bands of Athens will unite for a sort of ^
three-day Southern metal Yalta Conference.
Last year, the running of the festival fell into i
the hands of Wil Smith, guitarist for doom-metal z
band Guzik, through circumstances somewhat
chaos-fraught but ultimately aided by happenstance. "I've
booked shows here and there for a few years," says Smith.
"When Kingpins, the bowling alley, was open, a friend of mine
was the manager there, and he said that they wanted to have
a festival there, and I said, 'OK, I'll come help book it.' Well, I
booked all these bands, and then they went out of business."
Enter Joel Martin, who had recently taken up residence in
Atlanta. "Joel said, 7ou should make it Devilneck Fest; it'll
help you get some other bands, and it's already established.
Maybe it'll make it easier for you.'" With that, Smith had inher
ited the mantle; this marks his first year knowingly booking
the Devilneck Metal Fest.
A notable facet of the Devilneck Metal Fest is its all-for-one
mentality in terms of bookings. Three days of Athens-based,
strictly purist heavy metal might be hard to put together;
Smith looked outside both our city limits and his genre's
restrictions to put together the festival's lineup. Distinction
from the crowd at large from band to band, he says, defines
the sound of Athens' heavy music. Asked to detail the innova
tive, genre-mutable nature of the bands selected to perform,
he waxes enthusiastic:
downtown miuiogevilles
2011 MUSIC LINEUP
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OCTOBER 19. 2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 17