Pile of heavy metal patches.
#NWTerrorFest2025
OK, that’s probably enough posting. 39 bands in three days, caught nearly every one!
I love this festival – 4th year in a row for me, and they never fail to deliver old favorites and new gems. There’s always a diversity of styles as well as people – and the vibes are immaculate.🖤
Two guitar players with long white hair bathed in purple and green light. Wizards!
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #9:
#BrainOil, Oakland: I’d never heard of these guys, but they looked like wizards and played crusty super heavy sludge – and were so happy to be here! 🖤
“Here’s one off our new album from nine years ago!”
#metalsky
brainoil.com/album/singul...
Guitarist and drummer on a small stage, guitarist wearing a yellow sleeveless anime shirt and a mock banzai headband.
Terrible photo of a large pillow flying through the pit
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #8:
#HoukagoGrindTime: somehow the silliest/hardest set of the festival: “NON STOP WEEB BLASTING”
(The 2nd photo is a body pillow of Andrew Lee. 😂 Click the link for clues that may leave you more confused)
#metalsky
houkagogrindtime2.bandcamp.com/album/koncer...
This might’ve been the darkest set – literally – of the festival. The band are black silhouettes against a deep purple background. A forest of hands making the “horns” sign in the foreground.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #7:
#WitchVomit needs no introduction in the Pacific Northwest. I hope you like death metal with your death metal! 🤘
#metalsky
listen.20buckspin.com/album/buried...
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #5:
#Witching – the first ever West Coast appearance from one of my favorites. Blackened doom from Philly. Bought a patch, met the singer. 🖤
#metalsky
witching.bandcamp.com/album/incend...
View from stage right, red lights, the band wearing shorts and playing headless guitars. Got some of the audience in the shot too, complete with raised fist!
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #4:
#RippedToShreds – Andrew Lee’s Chinese-history-themed death metal was on the small stage back in ‘22, leveled up to the big one this year with good reason! 🤘
(note: three headless guitars?!)
#metalsky
rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/sanshi
Blue lit stage, projected logo, five piece including keyboards headbanging like there’s no tomorrow. Maybe there isn’t.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Saturday band #1:
#FallsofRauros. Perfectly cromulent atmospheric black metal from Portland the Elder. Bonus points for playing so dark when there’s literally sunlight streaming in through an open doorway next to the stage. 🖤
#metalsky
fallsofrauros.bandcamp.com/album/key-to...
Purple and white light, white AGALLOCH logo in background, but what stands out is the gold-top Les Paul guitar…
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #13:
#Agalloch. “Got good news and bad news. Good: these assholes from Portland are in your town again. Bad: we’re playing your favorite song.”
Never thought I’d see these black metal legends in the flesh. EPIC.
#metalsky
agalloch.bandcamp.com/album/marrow...
Blue on blue stage shot, five long haired pagans holding a service.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #12:
#Panopticon, the epitome of US atmospheric black metal. Austin & Co never disappoint – after a heartfelt thanks to guests & organizers, you heard crowd chatter everywhere adding up to THAT WAS AWESOME. 🖤
#metalsky
thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/the-ri...
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #8:
How good are #SpectralWound.?! One of my most anticipated sets, and they delivered. Bonecrushingly icy black metal from Montreal that somehow goes down smooth. (Are we calling them black-and-roll now?)
#metalsky
spectralwound.bandcamp.com/album/songs-...
Old guys from LA rocking the big stage at Neumos, big ol’ TERRORIZER logo in the background.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #6:
#TerrorizerLA, old-timey LA grindcore. Terror Fest excels at getting bands you never thought would play again onto their stages, and it rules. Grey hair and bald spots, baby!
#metalsky
terrorizer-band.bandcamp.com/album/world-...
Red curtains, purple light, five piece band.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #5:
#Turian, Seattle metallic hardcore (with keyboards!), lyrics from a Native American perspective. They RIPPED.
#metalsky
turian.bandcamp.com/album/blood-...
Man in black, leather cowboy in shades, playing guitar and howling into the mic.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #3 (skipping a few):
#JohnHaughm of #Agalloch, in Fields of the Nephilim drag.
Post-metal guitar and noise electronics. Started with video/audio of an old western train to which he synced guitar loops, adding & evolving. Powerful!
#metalsky
haughm.bandcamp.com
Buncha dang Canadian longhairs rocking tf out! Dim green light, small stage.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Friday band #1:
#Torrefy, blackened thrash from Victoria BC.
/takes a knee/
“Let’s bring it down for a minute, I want to talk about something serious, something close to my heart…
Dungeons & Dragons!”
/crowd goes wild/
#metalsky
torrefy.bandcamp.com/album/necron...
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #9):
#Vorlust, “Oakland Beast Metal!”
Wild blackened death/thrash, another really fun set. None of the photos I took captured their awesome weird vibe, I’m sorry to say. Bought another patch!
#metalsky
vorlust.bandcamp.com/album/lick-t...
Three-piece heavy metal band on stage lit strongly green on the left, pink on the right, dramatic contrasts.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #8 (gonna skip a few):
The one and only #Sonja! Gothy trad metal from trans icon #MelissaMoore. Sounded so much better live than on record, really fun set. 🖤
sonjaband.bandcamp.com/album/loud-a...
#metalsky
Three of the five band members – it was tough to keep them all in frame!
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #6:
#ViciousBlade from Pittsburgh, first time out west! Loved this band, blackened thrash loaded with catchy riffs and charisma.
I tried to buy a patch but they were out – so they gave me a free sticker. :)
#metalsky
viciousblade.bandcamp.com/album/relent...
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #5:
#Noroth, PROPER death metal from Oakland. Among the things I like very much, this is definitely one. Bought a patch.
(Love how you see the next band peeking through the side door – happened almost every set! 🖤)
#metalsky
noroth.bandcamp.com/album/sacrif...
More dramatic metal posing, green spots, thrown back hair.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #4:
#Xoth from Seattle, I’d been looking forward to seeing their science fiction metal experience. Blackened death power metal?! Super fun.
#metalsky
Very large man poised dramatically over a deck of crazy electronic noise making gear. Uplit in red in a purple room.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #3:
#ManyBlessings, a noise project from Ethan of Primitive Man and Vermin Womb. The entire bar was rapt!
#metalsky
manyblessings.bandcamp.com/album/true-l...
Four piece band onstage under violet light. You can’t hear the synth harpsichord.
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #2:
#TheDevilsOfLoudun, also from Seattle. Melodic death metal, Children of Bodum-y? Not really for me. Which is fine!
#metalsky
thedevilsofloudun.bandcamp.com/album/escapi...
Axefear on stage, red and green spooky lighting, dramatic posing!
#NWTerrorFest2025
Thursday band #1:
#Axefear, crusty death from Seattle. Pretty great!
#metalsky
axefearcrust.bandcamp.com/album/prophe...
Finally finally FINALLY gonna get to see #Witching this weekend. 😍 Weird how many of my favorite bands are from Philly these days, but these guys are at the top.
Death/black/doom with SOUL. 🖤
#metalsky #nwterrorfest2025
witching.bandcamp.com/track/incend...
Poster for Northwest TerrorFest 2025, featuring a creature of the black Lagoon style fish woman coming out of a swamp!
Single-day tickets to the best extreme music festival in the PNW are available NOW.
(And just look at this lineup, are you kidding me?! 🖤)
#NWTerrorFest2025 #metalsky
www.axs.com/events/70429...
