My girlfriend likes metal as much as the next casual fan, depending on the subgenre. She’s tagged along with me to Decibel Metal and Beer Fest and also to see some names in metal: Carcass, Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death, Slayer, Opeth. Travelling to a long, several-day metal festival is another thing, though, but she did it. How did I get her to agree to blow one of our vacation opportunities on flying to Miami, getting on a cruise ship, and watching four days of 61 metal bands? I’ll tell you how: it was my advance birthday present. Now, my present wasn’t that she bought us tickets; my present was she agreed to go on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise.
We made the plunge and got tickets, flights to Miami, and a hotel. There were three days of pregaming at a different hotel in Miami Beach and on the beach itself. We went down to the beach on the last pregame day and saw a ton of people in black t-shirts on the sand and in bathing suits in the water. We had fun walking amongst the metalheads and felt good about making the 70K plunge.
The next day, the boat was departing from Port of Miami—January 30, 2025. We checked out of our hip hotel in the hip Wynwood neighborhood and ordered a Lyft. We got to Gate G at the port comfortably before the official boarding time and there was already a bunch of people out on the sidewalk beneath an underpass, milling about and getting their things together. Below is a view of the boat from the area.
The experience of going through security was airport-like and efficient. We got our picture taken as part of the procedure when we presented our passports.
There was a charge of excitement as we walked the gangway and set foot on the Independence of the Seas. Nobody’s room was ready to walk into while everyone gradually made their way onto the boat, so we walked around it for a few hours, moving in and out of the buffet-style dining hall (the Windjammer, pictured below) for some food and on and off of the outside decks. The Royal Promenade was where the shopping was, and, crucially, a café and a pizzeria, both open 24 hours (so were the bars, but we are dry). Throughout the trip we often strode through the promenade and went down a deck to move through the casino and see what was going on—a popular area because you’re allowed to smoke there.
When we eventually tried to get into our cabin, there was an envelope outside containing two personalized cabin key cards. Throughout the cruise, printouts of the day’s schedule would similarly appear outside the cabin door.
Much of the shopping was for what we guessed was standard cruise fare: fancy booze, jewelry, handbags, a painting gallery, and Royal Carribean merch. In one of these shops at one point during the cruise, we saw a staff meeting in progress through the glass walls. A few of the staff didn’t look happy. Was the manager laying into them for lackluster sales on this trip? These establishments must have noticed years ago that most metalheads aren’t going to spend a lot of money on that fancy stuff, at least not while on an expensive trip. If the metalheads brought any extra money, it’s probably for 1) beer, and 2) band merch.
We saw a well-dressed couple walking down the promenade, both wearing “just married” sashes. Pictured below is one end of the promenade.
Crews covered up a pool outside on the upper deck and were assembling the Pool Deck stage (see below), which was to be the largest venue, while people who were dressed for it hopped in a smaller pool and several hot tubs. Besides this stage, there were three stages in different rooms: the largest of these was the Royal Theater, perhaps designed to host plays; the Studio B – Ice Rink, converted to accommodate live music, with stadium-type seating around the center; and a smaller, one-floor space, Star Lounge, where tables and chairs were shoved to the side to allow for a pit. Plastic covered the cushions of the couches on the sides of the pit area.
Eventually the boat blew a deafening horn and started moving a few minutes afterward.
When we had finally decided to pull the trigger on 70K tickets, the inexpensive cabins were all sold out and we ended up springing for one with a balcony (see below). We saved some money by not springing for Wi-Fi and that was interesting: not checking our phones the whole time we were sailing was refreshing.
Day 1
Onslaught, at the Ice Rink, was one of the bands to play first; Beyond Creation played the Star Lounge at the same time. Some members of the U.K.’s Onslaught were younger and some older, giving the impression of a longstanding band such as them where the O.G.s bring in new guys to keep the band going. Day one was off and running.
Next, while Twilight Force played their Helloween-type metal, we chatted with a couple guys from a Swiss progressive metal band over pizza slices. They lamented the shortcomings of the Swiss underground scene in a similar way that Tom G. Warrior did in his memoirs. They agreed that it seems not much has changed there in the decades between.
In chit-chat with random passengers with whom we struck up conversation, we kept hearing over and over how many 70K veterans there were on this boat. People were returning for their fifth, sixth, seventh 70K cruise.
Similar to Maryland Deathfest, where you might have luck running into members of one of your favorite bands, the star power among the crowd at 70K was astounding. There’s Ihsahn gathering his equipment outside of the port. And John from Incantation too. Wait a minute, there’s Andreas from Sepultura heading into the dining hall, and Terrance from Suffocation going to the outside deck for a smoke break. And on and on.
In another similarity to other metal festivals, some people dressed with a sense of humor: ridiculous headgear, sherbet-inspired colors, and/or beach attire—an example is below. There were a few kilts.
Krisiun from Brazil soundchecked with a couple of loose riffs from “Orion.” From our seat a giant digital clock was visible on the side of the stage, so large that it’d be hard for any band to miss how many minutes are counting down in their sets. Krisiun told the appreciative crowd that they wanted to bring the heaviness and brutality.
Sonata Arctica is the kind of Finnish melodic metal band that employs a keytar (that guy had double duty on a keyboard as well, so hats off to him). They’re also tasteful enough of a band to prepare two sets for the cruise, playing some new material on day one and explaining between songs that they’d play more new material in the other set.
Each band on the cruise played twice, and hopefully most of them wouldn’t be playing the same songs in the same order twice in a row.
During Decapitated‘s set in the Ice Rink, I concluded that if you were a photosensitive person and wanted to see brutal death metal on this boat, you were shit out of luck. Unrelated, Decapitated’s all-black attire and sick riffing brought the Polish death metal. “Are you guys having a good time?” the singer asked between songs. A roar from the crowd. “That’s what I fucking thought.”
Giant inflatable hammers came out in the crowd for Sweden’s HammerFall. The group had the old-school coordinated stage moves going. “Who needs Yngwie fucking Malmsteen?” the singer wondered aloud while introducing the members of the band.
We saw a few people with disabilities on the boat: a couple people were low vision or visually impaired, as they were walking with a cane, and a few people were moving around in wheelchairs. As with most metal events in the northern hemisphere, most of the attendees were white, but there were different languages spoken and overheard. Most official announcements were in English, Spanish, and German.
Several people were wearing HammerFall, Fleshgod Apocalypse (who didn’t play this year), Metality, and Delain shirts (besides what you’d expect, such as a lot of Maiden and Kreator tees) and there were some Wacken and Maryland Deathfest shirts. There was a small amount of Burzum shirts—maybe in international waters, Burzum wasn’t cancelled. I saw one Godflesh and one Front Line Assembly shirt. But none more than 70K shirts. Tons of people were wearing their prior years’ 70K longsleeves, shortsleeves, hoodies, and yoga pants, perhaps to show their veterans status. That’s one of the things you do at metal festivals.
There were people of all shapes, sizes, and ages on the cruise, from a few kids to more than a few old timers. The workers at the eateries had Royal Carribean nametags which also indicated what country they were from: Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and others. People were drinking a fair amount of Foster’s.
My girlfriend (or shipmate) threw in the towel for the night, so I got a pick-me-up latte and walked around, doing some more people-watching. About 15 minutes in advance, I went to the Royal Theater where Emperor from Norway was going to play and sat through soundcheck. The band’s backdrop was hoisted up behind the drums, mostly covering up the 70K backdrop behind it. As soundcheck dragged on (they all do that), more and more people showed up early. After the first song, vocalist Ihsahn explained on the mic that one of the guys, Samoth, didn’t get his visa (even though he applied for it eight months previously) and they were playing without him. Despite this, Ihsahn was almost cheery on the mic between songs. Maybe “cheery” isn’t the right word … cordial, perhaps? No, that’s not it either.
Emperor ended after 12:30 in the morning and I was next to throw in the towel, but I was amazed at how much activity there was on the boat as I made my way to our cabin at that infernal hour: people wide awake moving through the halls, stairs, and elevators; people hitting the eateries that were open. Each day, bands start playing around 10 a.m. and end around 6 a.m.—the advantage of not holding a festival in a city with a curfew.
We’d never been on a cruise before, never mind a music festival on a boat, but surprisingly quickly we got used to the floor moving underneath our feet. In our cabin, sort of midway on one side and on a middle deck, it was very quiet except for the closet hangars rattling as they swayed with the boat, the winds knocking into the barriers that were between each cabin balcony, and the distant churning of the engine.
Around 9 a.m. on day two, we got some breakfast and walked around on the outer decks. Someone had set up and slept on a deck chair the night before: wrapped up in a blanket and pillow from their cabin, only their long hair sticking out. Did they want to sleep under the stars? Maybe, but it was overcast when I turned in the night before. Did they get in a fight with their cabin mate and get kicked out for the evening? Who knows.
Some serious winds were pushing us around, but that didn’t deter the crews that were still assembling the outside stage. Heading back inside, we got in line to pick up some 70K merch set up in the promenade. There was another merch station across from the guest services desk selling “vintage” (leftovers from past years) 70K gear at a discount.
The system for browsing and purchasing band merch seemed convoluted, so we didn’t try it out. Could you browse past merch tables, make your selections, and purchase them? No, it wasn’t that simple.
Day 2
The first band on day two, Trollfest, played a “party” set on the Pool Deck stage, and what a party it was. The Norwegians played their folk metal in front of a packed crowd, including metalheads in hot tubs. The set could’ve only been more over the top if the crowd was throwing glow sticks and blow-up toys at the band, like at Maryland Deathfest. The guys in the band had pink flamingo gear on and worked hard to keep the setting on “fun” with the knob broken off. The bass player led a conga line later in the set and the fans gladly followed the singer’s commands, like “this side sit down” and “that side jump up and down” and so on. Some folks in the audience ran around with beach inflatables: donuts with flamingo heads and a bunch of other stuff. It was colorful and wild. Special mention for the accordion player who doubled on keyboard.
In stark contrast to Trollfest’s gear, Canadians Ex Deo wore black Roman centurion gear for their Pool Deck set. They had lots of keyboards and sound effects that were on tape, so to speak. The singer’s line to engage with the crowd was, “Are you here?” During soundcheck before the band started, the drummer’s cymbals were flapping in the wind. Drummers must hate that shit. Bands can’t properly headbang with their long hair during high winds either, as was the case with Ex Deo and other bands on the boat.
Trouble had problems with the vocal level for the first couple songs, but it was sorted out during a cut from the band’s first album. The U.S. band Trouble was a palate cleanser from the growls and highly distorted guitars of some of the other bands.
With Majestica, it was the drummer’s job to come out on stage first and start the intro sample and then get the crowd pumped up. Then with a bang the Swedish band launched into the first song as the rest of the guys hustled on stage. The crowd was eating it up.
I’m not used to hearing so many power metal bands in one sitting or one festival. The metal bands I regularly listen to sing about “we’ll give you merciless death” and all that, which I’m guessing doesn’t pair well with keyboards and soaring vocals.
Next we tried our hand at a meet and greet. We headed up to one of the bars at the top of the boat and Stratovarius was there, taking pictures and signing things. We hung around for a while, waiting for the line for the Sepultura meet and greet to form. Eventually that one kicked off and we were the first in line. The guys were really cool and complimented us on our shirts (Killing Joke and Voivod) and my point-and-shoot film camera that I used to take the below pics. My shipmate told them we watched their YouTube series, SepulQuarta, during the lockdowns and they appreciated that.
The drummer for Norwegians The Kovenant had his kick drums angled up towards the crowd, which I had never seen before and is weird. During soundcheck and the set, the theater seemed to sway back and forth abruptly; the wind must have been blowing the boat around pretty good. The music had a vibe of the first The Gathering album and that’s welcome, but The Kovenant is one band that I don’t get: two members wore corpsepaint and four didn’t, and the singer (one of the two) was joking around on stage. I don’t see how you do that while wearing black metal gear, but I must’ve been missing something. A problem with the room (Royal Theater) was that the guitars and bass were way too low in the mix, in my opinion. (This would affect Swallow The Sun later that night also.) I felt like I could hear the drums from the stage, not from the P.A. If there’s one thing you need from metal, it’s loud guitars.
The Dirkschneider set was Accept songs almost completely from the golden era of Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall, and Metal Heart. Udo Dirkschneider knows which side his bread is buttered on, but then he’s been in the music business since the 1970s. And he sounded great. Was that ex-Accept O.G. Peter Baltes on bass?* It looked like one of the guitar players likes to play leads without using a pick a lot. As for the other guitarist (pictured below), there was a pause in the set where he invited a woman on stage and proposed to her. She gladly accepted and after she left the stage, the band launched into “Princess of the Dawn.” I don’t know if I’ve seen a band milk a song as much as these guys milked “Princess of the Dawn.” Maybe Iron Maiden stretches “Running Free” out further than what these guys were doing, but Dirkschneider milked this song dry. Regardless, my shipmate declared the Germans in Dirkschneider “the best so far.”
I wanted to talk to the singer of Ex Deo, Maurizio Iacono, because he booked my old band at a death metal festival he threw in Montréal back in the ’90s and I hadn’t spoken to him since. My shipmate was amenable so we went down to the deck with the casino on it and got in line for their meet and greet.
Guitarist Jean-François Dagenais was punctual but we and those in line all waited for the rest of the band to show up. He chatted with all of us while he tried to get the band on the phone. Eventually his bandmates trickled in one at a time and things got underway. When it was our turn, I introduced myself to Maurizio and J-F; it was nice to reconnect.
In another example of bands hanging around on the boat, we saw Maurizio in the café when we were getting iced coffees. The meet and greet was cool, though, so it was cool that we went.
Stratovarius shredded their way through a set on the windy Pool Deck stage. There were bits where the guitarist and keyboardist traded-off lead work. The bass player went over to the keyboardist and played a few notes on the keys during one part of a song (see below). The crowd was having a great time and was happy to sing along to the big choruses in the Stratovarius songs. You have to be able to play tight and flashy and fast if you’re going to play in the Finnish band Stratovarius.
Swallow The Sun are Finnish but they performed with Ballet Finland for parts of both of their sets. We didn’t catch that part of the performance, but they had some Katatonia-style melancholy going on as well as some Cradle Of Filth-style samples. Odd choice for a cruise with such a partying, fun atmosphere, but there was a pretty good crowd for these guys in the Royal Theater nonetheless (pictured below).
Speaking of fun, Sepultura from Brazil had a positive attitude on stage. The set list was different than when we saw them in Baltimore in 2024, which was good. The fans were singing along to the hits like “Refuse/Resist” and “Inner Self” and there was some pit action: during the latter song, the singer ordered the crowd to open the pit up and they obeyed. Greyson Nekrutman kicked major ass on the drums and Derrick Green was jovial on the mic between songs.
Back in the cabin, I turned on one of the live feeds from one of the stages on the TV and tried to watch Suffocation from New York. Of course it wasn’t the same at all as seeing these guys shred in person. One of the singer’s go-to lines was “fuck yeah.”
On day three the boat pulled in to the tourist town, Ocho Rios, in Jamaica early in the morning. Some metalheads wasted no time going ashore, even though it was overcast and drizzling and humid. We stayed behind and walked around the ship and chilled out, waiting for the all-aboard later in the day and for the bands to start playing again. While we sat on deck chairs in a shaded part of the ship, a couple guys in Abysmal Dawn shirts happened by and, in course of conversation, suggested we sign up for setlist.fm so we could keep track of all the shows we’ve been to.
We noticed there were a few normal-looking people on the boat. All are welcome I’m sure, but these folks didn’t look like they were there for the music. Maybe they were relatives of metalheads and didn’t have much choice in the matter. Curious.
Day 3
Tankard kicked things off outside (while Reaping Asmodeia played the Ice Rink) and the boat headed out. Tankard is one of the Big Four of German thrash, so they’ve been around. The singer made a couple references to being old, but he looked, like, 20 years younger than the rest of the band. The crowd started a good-natured pit during “Alien,” the title track of one of the band’s EPs. At one point during a song, a cymbal stand tipped over in the wind and hit the drummer; he had to shove it away and had a hard time getting the stage guys’ attention while he played. They eventually saw it and righted things. Someone started throwing around a beach ball in the crowd and I saw a drunk guy trying and failing to unfurl a flag of Mexico in the pit. The singer mentioned on the mic that they only played one song that overlapped with their other set. Very good.
Unleash The Archers from Canada was another of the several power metal bands. They mixed things up a bit with the guitarists throwing in some guttural vocals. It was around the time of this set that the boat started swaying like a mofo again.
Over on the Star Lounge stage, Tenebrarum played a flavorful set featuring keyboard and violin playing. The Colombian band revealed that they were celebrating their 35th anniversary with this unusual set and the crowd applauded the milestone.
Fabulae Dramatis from Belgium wasn’t the first band to use backing tracks on the boat, but in their case it was obvious that they had some melodic vocals on tape in places where, it seemed to me, they weren’t trying to make it obvious. This was a shame because the singer had a great Latin-tinged voice, and on a dime switched between clean and death metal vocals—a killer dynamic. It’s times like this where pre-taped singing takes away from an otherwise well-played, strong vocal performance. All that aside, one of Fabulae Dramatis’s songs featured a bass solo, and on another the singer pulled out a kind of shaker percussion instrument that fit well with what the band was doing.
The Mexican band Matalobos played in that Katatonia/Anathema/Paradise Lost area; gothic, melancholic metal. They switched between melodic and death metal vocals and their stage attire communicated that they were from Mexico. They somehow, at least to me, fit the cruise program a little more than, say, Swallow The Sun, but then I’m by no means a booking expert.
I caught a cold on the boat and laid out in the cabin while my girlfriend pumped me full of cold medicine. Through the open balcony door I could hear Ihsahn’s black metal screams from the Pool Deck stage.
Day 4
Flotsam And Jetsam kicked things off the next morning with the first set of the day, playing the Doomsday for the Deceiver album (on another day they played No Place for Disgrace, which would have been awesome to see). I don’t know how many O.G.s are still in Flots, but the distinctive vocals of Eric “A.K” Knutson are still well intact. My shipmate declared that the best bands we’ve seen so far are Dirkschneider, Sepultura, and Flotsam, from the U.S.
Several beach balls were flying while Septicflesh rocked outdoors. The singer was like the James Brown of death metal, the hardest-working frontperson I saw on the boat. He was more concerned with keeping the crowd pumped up than playing his bass. His oft-used phrase was “my friends,” as in, “Are you ready my friends!” Betwen each song he and the guitarists slipped behind a couple of stage banners, to do what I don’t know—towel off and hydrate, one would guess. The guitarist on stage right, pictured below, never broke character for one second as far as I could tell. His demeanor was, “Playing Septicflesh songs is serious business,” and that’s cool because the Greek band was crushing. The simple riffing played well with the drummer’s tight pedal work.
Thy Antichrist played the Ice Rink while the bellyflop contest raged outside. As we made our way to see the Columbian band, Kyle Thomas of Trouble was holding a vocal clinic at one of the bars. At one point Thy Antichrist’s singer was doing vocals while windmilling, which I don’t think I’ve seen before. This black metal band had all the gear and corpsepaint on, dressed like they live in a primitive village. I didn’t notice till the house lights came up at the end of the set that the singer’s chin was stained with blood. The funny thing was how easygoing the guitar player was when he spoke to the crowd a bit between songs.
I was struck with how many bands on this boat use backing tracks. Some of them are for intros, like with the tech-death band Abysmal Dawn, while Septicflesh had them all over the place. That’s cool and everything, but I guess I didn’t realize how much these tracks are used in metal, across subgenres. Abysmal Dawn was one of a couple bands that threw in bass drops. The U.S. band made me think of Misery Index a little bit.
Stormruler had several party people in the audience during their set: someone dressed as the Kool-Aid guy in the front row, another dressed as a poop emoji, another wore a cow Halloween costume and another was dressed like a squid. It being the last full day of the cruise, there were lots and lots of people dressed up in costumes of a million different types. It’s a cruise thing, apprently, at least this one. Anyway, the U.S. band played black metal without the corpsepaint and with the gauntlets and nails.
We got an earful of Suffocation at the Pool Deck after getting a bite. When I catch Suffocation live I like to watch the guitar players mostly, because their riffs are so nuts. They played a song from the new album; there’s a weird riff in it that’s hard to describe how they played it.
After treating ourselves to some soft-serve ice cream, we went back inside and saw the last few numbers from the All Star Jam in the Royal Theater: “Kick Start My Heart,” “Love Gun,” and “Wrathchild.” Each song was performed by a different lineup of folks from various bands playing on the boat.
Eric Morotti, Suffocation‘s drummer, held a drum clinic (pictured below) in one of the bar areas next to a set of stairs. He took questions from the crowd and demonstrated his technique on a stripped-down version of his drum set. A few takeaways:
He never triggers his snare live.
He learned foot work on Iron Cobra pedals and a single kick drum.
He got a Paiste cymbals endorsement by hassling them into it.
He doesn’t point the finger at other drummers about “cheating,” saying that if you play 180 shows a year, you need to do what’s comfortable.
The next performance we saw was the second set from Dirkschneider. This time, he played the entire Balls to the Wall album for its 40th anniversary (one wonders if Accept is doing the same thing). The band threw in “I’m a Rebel” followed by “Fast as a Shark” at the end of the set.
After dinner we watched Warfield. This German three-piece played in the retro thrash subgenre. They dressed and sounded like an old European thrash band (see below). The singer revealed on the mic that a week ago they didn’t know they were going to be playing 70K. The band had a casual, fun pit going, featuring someone ruling the pit in an axolotl costume. The band got the crowd to do a wall of death during the last song.
Back to the Star Lounge, Total Death from Ecuador played a set of melodic death metal, which wasn’t what I was expecting, given the band name. The guys had some bits that recall Tiamat and transitioned well from the clean-guitar parts to the heavy, distorted parts.
Before Total Death finished, we went back to the ice rink, where roadies were setting up for Samael. At least I thought it was Samael. The drum riser had keyboards and some drums and cymbals on it which were set up for percussion, not for a drummer to sit at. That kind of reminded me of Pitch Shifter. Were we in the right place? All I knew about Samael was that they were a long-standing Swiss black metal band.† It turned out that we were at the right performance: the band finished the first song and the singer explained that they were playing Samael’s Ceremony of Opposites album. The guy on the drum riser went back and forth between playing the keyboards and banging out percussion. I liked what the band was doing but wasn’t prepared for it. The freewheeling way the band was moving around on stage, the vibe, mixed with the industrial-ish drum machine beats, was a strange combination. There was a big turnout for Samael in this room, so what do I know. I’ll say that the show made me want to check this album out.
We cut out of the Samael set as they were preparing to play their last song so we could go outside and get in position for the second Sepultura set. The band was great again, playing a somewhat different set list from the other night. When Sepultura plays shows, guitarist Andreas Kisser regularly gets on the mic to thank the crowd and introduce a song. This time he introduced “Escape to the Void” from the Schizophrenia album. Before the band ripped into that thrash number, he noted that Schizophrenia was recorded in 1987, “not last year, goddamnit.” For those that don’t follow Sepultura closely, that comment would need to be unpacked. Later on, he thanked the fans for supporting the band through its 40th anniversary. Vocalist Derrick Green admitted that it was hard to keep a straight face on stage with all of the ridiculous outfits in the crowd.
After the set, the skipper came out on stage and said a few words, including the stat that 81 countries were represented by the passengers, and he announced the next cruise for 2026 that’ll sail to Haiti. (The destination surprised me: the day after the cruise, a story in UN News was titled “Human rights situation in Haiti remains ‘very alarming,’ UN report finds.”) Behind him, the screen that was displaying logos of the bands that played the Pool Deck throughout the cruise changed to a thank you note, pictured below.
Soon after, a crewmember started setting up karaoke not far from the outside stage. At this point it was about midnight and my shipmate threw in the towel again. I stuck around long enough to sign up for and sing a song, which was a lot of fun. The crowd was having a blast, especially when someone did “Chop Suey,” but there were several performers that were talented and hilarious at the same time. One guy did “Welcome Home” by King Diamond and really went for it. He fell off the stage and didn’t miss a note. Anyway, soon after my song, I too packed it in.
We got up early to a phone alarm and saw that the boat was pulled into Miami. Right at that moment, another cruise ship was pulling in parallel to Independence of the Seas. After getting cleaned up and having a quick breakfast, we walked through the promenade one last time. Down one deck from there, the casino was finally quiet. We grabbed our bags and followed the signs to exit the boat. Our cabin key cards were scanned at a checkpoint and our photos from when we boarded the ship appeared. We continued on to one of the gangways and that was it—we were off the boat. From there, customs was ridiculously uneventful: look in the camera for facial recognition.
So will we do it again? We don’t know; we do know that we don’t have interest in a cruise that doesn’t have a theme like this about it. Probably I’ll start working on talking my girlfriend into going to the Obscene Extreme Festival next; I’ve never gone. (“Maybe next year,” she says.) ■
*Yes it was.
†It turns out that I ran a review of the Passage album, which Samael played on day two, in my ‘zine back in the ’90s and didn’t recall that while watching the band. The keyboards and drum machine were referenced in the review.
Further viewing:
