Death metal fest alive, growing

The waitress glances at the lineup quizzically and seems puzzled, looking the way a cat might if you were trying to teach it algebra.

She's wondering why the long-haired fella and the dude with the neck tattoos are being interviewed on a recent Monday afternoon, and they explain that they're putting on a two-day metal fest, handing her a flier with all the bands listed.

But, this being a death metal festival -- the Las Vegas Deathfest to be exact -- she has a hard time deciphering the angular, hard-to-read band logos, which looked formed from shards of broken glass and may as well have been written in Sanskrit.

"You can read the band names on the back, so you can understand what they say," says Michael "Big Mike" Gordon, one of Deathfest's two founders.

"It's not like it makes it any less scary to actually read them," chuckles his partner, Christopher Lee O'Gane, head of Filthy Promotions. "That's a good thing."

The server still looks kind of confused, but while bands such as Malignancy, Cerebral Bore, To Violently Vomit and Putrid Pile may be unfamiliar to the staff at downtown pub Hennessey's Tavern, they signify a significant step forward for this promising festival, now in its third year, which takes place at the Cheyenne Saloon on Friday and Saturday.

Beginning at 1 p.m. each day, the fest will feature a dozen vendors and close to 40 bands, some specifically flown in for the event, coming from as far away as Scotland, Italy and Greece in some cases (see the full roster of acts at facebook.com/lasvegasdeathfest).

Drawing fans from as far away as Japan and Austria, the fest is a steadily rising attraction in the death metal underground and a labor of love for Gordon, who books the bands, and O'Gane, who handles marketing and promotion.

"I don't see us making a lot of money off of this with the type of music it is, but I want to build it into something," O'Gane says.

For Gordon, a silver-haired metal lifer who can be seen at just about every metal show in Vegas, usually in the pit throwing down with kids half his age, it's about strengthening the scene in his native city.

"The music's in my heart and soul," he says. "It's sort of a drug for me. It keeps me young and it's full of energy. It's just a lot of fun, man."

Gordon and O'Gane's efforts are paying off, if not financially, which isn't much of a priority anyway. Gordon says he has enough bands on the waiting list for future fests for years to come, and has already been in contact with some of the biggest names in the genre.

Despite its fatalistic handle, then, the Deathfest is bursting with life.

"From year one to now, it's been huge," O'Gane says of the festival growth. "I think this year is just going to melt everybody's face off."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.