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Mystic Festival Day Two Was All About Megadeth

The second day of Mystic Festival 2024 featured the festival’s main attraction band, Thrash Metal’s Big Four legends, Megadeth. There were already more people here than the previous two days and Megadeth wouldn’t take the stage for another eight hours. There was a slight chance for rain later on, but I would bet that even if the forecast called for torrential tsunami rain, that it wouldn’t deter any “Droogie” today.

Mystic Festival Cthulhu Skull

Lousiana’s sludge titans, Crowbar, was the first band on my list today. The sky was little dark when they took the stage but that only added some realistic atmosphere to their New Orleans laden vibe. This was their first show in Poland ever so the crowd was a little fervid to say the least. Kirk Windstein was his usual southern gentleman self, but I think his accent might have been a little too much for the Polish heavy crowd to understand at times. Either way, it was a great start to the day.

Kirk Windstein of Crowbar

The Shits were probably the only true punk band on the Mystic Festival billing. Their songs didn’t consist of your typical punk rock formula, they’re longer and slower, but the punk attitude is front and center. For example, vocalist Callum Howe stole at least two beers from the crowd and then spat those said beers onto them. At one point, he reached into his pants, appeared to pull some hair from a specific area of his groin and then put those hairs into his mouth. HE THEN SWALLOWED THEM. Ehhh…. I guess he wanted to make a statement that punk is more about attitude than song formula? I don’t get why you have to be disgusting to be punk.

The Shits

After The Shits, another British band (this one not so gross) took to the same DNA laden stage. Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs AKA Pigsx7. I saw them open up for the Melvins last summer and loved their show. I became an instant fan right away. Their set at this year’s Mystic Festival was absolute fire. Their energy level was through the roof and was reciprocated tenfold by the crowd throughout their 45-minute-long set. The barefooted Muay Thai gear sporting vocalist, Matthew Baty, is a fucking inferno onstage. In my opinion, his live show energy level is only second to Barney Greenway of Napalm Death.

Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs

At some point during their set, a pair of some very used looking tennis shoes ended up on stage. When the band attempted to return them to the now presumed barefooted owner, no one claimed them. Maybe it was a gesture of gratitude by the shoeless fan? Maybe they evaporated by spontaneous combustion? We’ll never know what actually happened. But one thing is for certain…when a band creates a fever pitch anything is possible and that’s exactly what Pigsx7 did that day.

German heavy metal legends Accept’s set started at sunset on the large outdoor Park Stage. I was a little surprised by this since I’ve seen Accept command much larger stages in the past. The crowd didn’t seem to notice the smaller stage at all with fan favorites such as “Restless and Wild,” “Fast as a Shark,” and “Balls to the Wall” being included in their setlist. Accept looked spry and genuinely happy to still be playing the summer metal festival circuit. I think in every photo that I took of lead guitarist Wolf Hoffmann; he’s grinning from ear to ear. I’m pretty sure the same look was planted on every face within the crowd behind me.

Mark Tornillo and Wolf Hoffmann of Accept

I had to make a difficult decision for my next band to see due to another schedule conflict. Do I see grind metal gods Terrorizer? Or, Swedish stoner rock legends, Graveyard? Ultimately, I picked Graveyard just because they don’t tour the United States often. Unfortunately, I ended up regretting that decision afterwards.

As I drew closer towards the smallish outdoor Desert Stage, I could see everyone waiting for Graveyard were squished together like sardines near the stage. I managed to worm my way through that mess to an already crowded photo pit. I’ve seen Graveyard before, but it’s been a while. I can honestly say I was a bit bored during the time I was there. Unless you’re a superfan and you love all their material, you might understand my critique. There wasn’t a whole lot happening on stage neither. I’ll just leave it at this. Graveyard are super talented and play well live but compared to the majority of the bands at the festival, their set was a snoozer for me.

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Seventeen More Bands Announced For Mystic Festival

Zeal & Ardor, Kadavar, Bewitched, Until I Wake, Mork, Bob Vylan, The Shits, Five The Hierophant, My Diligence, Wyatt E., Slope, The Broken Horizon, The Last Decade, Wij, Trepaneringsritualen, Misguided and Totenmesse fill in the blank spaces on the Mystic Festival 2024 poster.

It's going to be four very intense nights and days, full of daydreaming and worst nightmares. The soundtrack for this unforgettable adventure will be provided by fantastic artists from all over the world, representing all shades of musical darkness.

Zeal & Ardor need no introduction, as they are one of the most interesting phenomena to emerge on the scene in the second decade of the 21st century, fusing the ferocity of gospel and soul with soulless black metal. For those who prefer more traditional metal, the Swedes of Bewitched will play their fusion of infernal sounds with old-school speed and heavy metal. Norway's Mork and Poland's Totenmesse, on the other hand, are black metal without the add-ons, like night without stars and moon.

Berlin's Kadavar has a song about dancing with the dead, and their graveyard hard rock is perfect for this. They will be matched by the Warsaw trio Wij, whose "Przestwór" album is one of the most beautiful monuments erected in Poland to the holy Riff. Belgians of My Diligence pray in the same church, balancing between stoner and post-hardcore.

New sounds? You're welcome - fantastic choruses and metalcore punches will be offered by Until I Wake, a quintet from Buffalo, an explosive mix of grime and punk will blow you away, courtesy of the duo Bob Vylan, a sensation from London, and hardcore, metal and funk will be combined by Slope.

"You're A Mess" is the title of The Shits' excellent album, but you can also hear it about yourself if you dare to get a close look at what their psychedelic, detuned post-punk sounds like live. You will also be harmed by Trepaneringsritualen with their industrial rituals in praise of death.

Five The Hierophant can serve as guides on a journey into the unknown - their acid black/jazz, sometimes ambient/doom, guarantees a distant flight - as well as Wyatt E., with their psychedelic desert drone metal. As if that wasn't enough, it's at the Mystic Festival that The Last Decade, a band made up of musicians known for End Of Green, The Mission, Love Like Blood and Nosferatu, among others, will take the stage for the first time. The music? Yes, you guessed it right.

Also welcomed to the festival program are The Broken Horizon, playing metalcore of a wide spectrum, sometimes very brutal, then again progressive, and deathcore Misguided. More...

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