Tennessee Metal Devastation Fest Descends on Lexington, TN
Lexington, Tennessee is not unlike many small towns dotted across the southeastern United States. The people, by and large seem friendly, the town is quaint with not a whole lot appearing to be going on. Settled between Memphis and Nashville, the town found itself in the middle of some controversy recently as a brand new heavy metal music festival landed on the sleepy town as its location of choice to host their inaugural festival. So much attention, that it even garnered an article from the local news station which captured some of the hysteria from the very Christian community alleging that, among other things, the event would “open a portal to hell”. And of course, in typical metal fashion, the festival relished the concept.
Drama aside, the festival was a celebration of underground music. 13 bands from all over the United States made their way to Tennessee to play for a crowd of around 1,200 attendees, an impressive feat for a first year festival, especially one celebrating underground heavy metal. The 13 acts were, Casket Robbery, DeOcculted, Devil Be My Judge, Eyes of the Living, Forever Broken, Grave Next Door, Gravehuffer, Hierarchy, Sleuthfoot, Spillage, Summoner’s Circle, The Red Mountain and Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf.
The music wasn’t the only thing that set the festival apart. There were a number of awesome vendors selling everything from delicious barbecue, vegan baked goods, various taxidermy animals, and even a booth selling awesome battle jackets and patches. SmithOddities had the cool set up with all of the awesome animal bones and taxidermy while Amish Mike’s Deadly Threads were dolling out the bad ass battle jackets. Another bad ass note to the festival, there was no charge for vendors to set up and no cut of their merch sales taken, the same applied to the bands.
In spite of all of the lead up and fears from the locals, the festival went off quite successfully. Everyone at the festival was awesome. Zach Moonshine and Raven Moonla, who organized the event, spent the day at the festival tent. They wore so many hats from collecting toys for the children of veterans and even handing out the laminates for the day. All of this while also stopping for pictures and saying hello to the legions of fans who stopped by. The incredible vendors, the crew, and most especially the fans, everyone respected each other and had a great time. That’s the beautiful thing about metal, especially underground metal, while the outside world tries to tear it apart or drive wedges into it, metal has and looks to always be, a community of individuals who have often stood on the outside of society looking in. Not that any of us ever did so with envy, we’d much rather carve our own niche in the world and, while it might seem weird to those in “normal” society, we wouldn’t have it any other way. No word on whether or not the opening of the pit to hell was successful or not, we’ll all just have to make sure to attend the festival next year. Which Zach and Raven have already promised, to see if it has happened or not. Stay up to date with the festival and, when the time comes get tickets for next year at the festival’s Facebook and if metal is your thing, stop on by Metal Devastation Radio where they blast it around the clock.
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