MAD WITH POWER 2024 - Day 1: Gamers, Grab Your Sword!
August 5, 2024, a month ago
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The 7th installment of the Madison, WI based festival saw six bands take the massive Sylvee stage, offering sounds across the metallic spectrum. Gaming culture is a major component of the weekend, with free-play arcade machines throughout the hall. Most of these bands write songs about, or play music from, video games.
Denver area Oak, Ash & Thorn were the heaviest of the day, right out of the gates, with progressive death akin to Gojira, albeit more atonal. Dialith, from Connecticut, had both guitar crunch and female vocals. Even though it was just their second live gig, many swear Owlbear were the band of the day. In terms of full scale production and coordinated visuals (tatters and some sort of corpsepaint), energetic and aggressive Starkill, with pink haired singer Sarah Lynn Collier were a fun experience.
Oceans Of Slumber offered a more laid back approach and the North American debut of UK power metallers Fellowship saw them showcase a trio of tunes from the forthcoming The Skies Above Eternity album, "Iron Eyes", "The Bitter Winds" and "Hold Up Your Hearts (Again)". A detailed run-down of the event will be posted later.
Until then, here's some images from Day 1.
