Featuring Towering Abomination. Frontal Assault. Glutton for Punishment. Maniacal Force. Die Hard Corps. VolsungaSaga. Begravement. Onlytime. The Enmity Offensive & Major Malfunction
The first of hopefully many big shows from the joined forces of Last City Promotions and Kellerman Presents was a show for the ages. Matt Parkins of Last City and Josh Kellerman pulled out all the stops (and likely dealt with 11ty million headaches behind the scenes) to put this massive show on at Eagles 34 in Minneapolis on Saturday night.
Taking advantage of a killer venue with 2 rooms, the bands alternated between the 2 stages. Doing it this way gave the audience an almost non-stop ride of killer metal. And, it gave the bands a little more time to set up.
Highlights
Playing their first gig, The Enmity Offensive came out of nowhere and kicked the crowd in the teeth with their brand of “strong style death metal”. This band is so “fresh out the box” they don’t have a demo, ep, lp or anything else out and this was their first gig. They did get a killer vid though (link below). But, it’s also an all-star band of sorts, featuring Jake Martin from Taking The Head of Goliath, Wes Mantooth from Krawg, Jake LeMay (Sikfuk), Nicholas Kulcyzycki (Teratism) and the mysterious riff-machine, Derf Plurtleson.
These guys hit the stage, hit the audience, hit the scene and blew it all up in a furious 25 minute set. Stay tuned for more, cause this band means business.
Die Hard Corps came out, kicked @$$ and took no prisoners – other than those the Scene Police arrested. A killer mixture of old school thrash, crossover and loads of stage presence made these guys a crowd pleaser. With Josh Kellerman on the mic and Rob Carlson on guitar, the “live local legend” box got ticked several times.
Right after DHC, VolsungaSaga, led by Matt Parkins, took the stage. They whipped the pit into shape immediately! Mixing their brand of Viking Metal with a few calls for more drinks and the whereabouts of Ezra Blumenfeld of Begravement during his favorite VolsungaSaga track.
Speaking of Begravement, they filled in on a moment’s notice for Defiled Sacrament. Chase of Defiled was busy with more important things, like bringing a new metal fan into the world (congrats to Chase and family on the new baby!) so Ezra, Matt and Grady stepped up. Taylor, their lead guitarist, is currently in Sweden learning the secrets of viking steel. This meant the other guys did an old school, 3-piece set with a few fan-favorites, old classics and a brand new track from their upcoming album.
Glutton For Punishment killed it too. Like you would expect anything less from Rob Carlson, Aaron (Inhuman Scourge) Whitesides and the rest. Don’t tell anyone, but Nate (Apothic) Pehler was playing bass (except for when Wes Mantooth got up for a quick blast) and his buddies didn’t let him forget it.
Onlytime, Major Malfunction, Maniacal Force, Frontal Assault and Towering Abomination all gave the crowd their money’s worth, too. All-in-all, it was a great show!
Shade
Unfortunately Æræder was out of town (in Sweden with Taylor? Maybe?). But to honor his absence, we gotta find some shade so people don’t think MNBleedsMetal is all about sunshine, cotton candy and puppy dogs.
The sound quality from room to room was noticeable. The larger of the two rooms had Greg running sound. For those who don’t know, Greg is the main production/sound man for Eagles34 and he’s a killer guy who has done a LOT for the local metal scene whenever we show up at Eagles. As part of his influence, he trains younger/less experienced sound engineers and sometimes that “less experienced” comes out. Not to say the sound was bad, just not as good. So, the bands who played in the larger room benefitted from the better sound system and better sound engineer.
The other slice of shade was the turnout. No idea what the final attendance was over the course of the night. If I had to guess, I’d say several hundred people. But for an area as populated as the Twin Cities, I was expecting at least twice as many people to show up. Especially with as many metalheads as there are. Yeah, summertime, vacations, cabins, Sweden-trips, blah, blah, blah, but this section is for complaining so that’s what I’m doing… ha!
On the flip side, the people that did show up were incredibly cool.And everyone seemed to all have a great time.
Wrap-up
Definitely a show for the ages! This gig won’t be forgotten by the fans, bands and everyone else in attendance anytime soon. If you missed it, search the socials and you’ll find a lot of vids, pix and posts.
Several times over the course of the night people were heard asking “when’s the next one?”
If that doesn’t say it all, nothing does.
The Enmity Offensive live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
Major Malfunction live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
Onlytime live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
VolsungaSaga live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
Glutton For Punishment live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
Begravement live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25
Maniacal Force live at Smorgasbord Festival 7/19/25