Heart of Winter is an underground (mostly) black metal festival in Richmond Virginia that’s been newly resurrected after 15 years. It was a big deal back in the day and from what I experienced it still is. I have been enamored with RVA since my discovery of Gwar and their lore back in 2012. Over the years it’s gotten worse, as I’ve noticed near every band that comes out of Richmond is very, very good. Awhile back I asked Erik from RVA band Thunderchief (great band, great dudes!!) what makes it such a magical place and he told me “everyone in Richmond is in a band but if you want people to give a shit you have to be good. “
Sounds about right to me!
Before the lineup was even fully announced I knew I needed to go, they had Mo’ynoq AND Krieg AND Suffering Hour plus a bunch of locals I already knew would be good. You can absolutely Trust Like That when it comes to dark and heavy bands out East to begin with. The later announcement of Inter Arma, Hulder and One of Nine was a huge shining cherry on top of an already decadent cake… of frostbitten darkness and riffs.
Day one was held in a 100 year old cavernous sub-level basement called Odins House of Sound. Finding the place was a bit difficult as what sat at the GPS coordinates just appeared to be a large construction zone where everywhere looked like somewhere I was not supposed to be. I parked and saw a metal head making their way down the street and decided to casually follow them since I had no idea what to do other than fret and watch my hair progressively get fuzzier. At the end of the totally not awkward walk was a group of decked out OÜGH dudes and the drummer for Inter Arma standing around a dumpster and nondescript metal door. I discovered I was the first non-band/staff member there and became mortally embarrassed. I decided to open the door to see what would happen.
Inside the door was a dirty stairwell with walls covered in decayed peeling paint. I walked down the steps and at the bottom was a concrete lobby with a table to check in at, free ear plugs, a broken metal detector and a barred doorway crawling with faceless baby dolls. I was in love already. Past the lobby was a bar area with a huge mural of Tank Girl. I was thrilled to see a Burial Beer sticker on a keg behind the bar. Burial from North Carolina is my favorite brewery, they have the best stouts of all time and their IPAs will eat your face off. Their bottles and cans are adorned with beautiful and sometimes horrifying illustrations by David Paul Seymour. They do not ship to Arkansas, so this was a very special treat for me.
The gal running the bar and check in area was cool as hell and also a fellow solo woman mega traveler. Everyone running the place was a delight. As I drank and talked with people I watched all manner of black clad well dressed heshers and goths jingle and clomp their way into a glowing and flickering room around the corner. The enormous glowing room was where the stage was, which was interspersed with pillars made to look like we were in a cave. Perfect atmosphere for what was to come.
The weekend of heavy/brutal/dismal tunes started off with sick sets from RVA locals Appalling, Ekktoplasm and Disrotter followed by the “Exsanguinating dungeon music” of Sepulchral Blood. Lichen was next and after their bleak array of fungal stone eating black metal I realized all the beer from earlier had worn off and I could feel every bit of my back and feet again and had to call it a night. I was told the Skullshitter set was legendary, I was bummed to miss it. Waking up at 3am for my flight that morning had thrust me into the wimp zone unfortunately.
Night two was held in the intimate and fully carpeted Canal Club with the world’s coolest door guy. Before getting in line for the sold out show I went across the street to Bottoms Up and had a slice of pizza so thick I had to use a knife and fork to eat it. It was delicious! Archaels blistering set was an excellent soundtrack as I gathered merch and marathoned $4 PBR. One thing I noticed pretty quickly due to the near constantly stuffed women’s room was that there were a ton of women in attendance. There was about just as many women as men at this sold out show. This made me sooo happy. Of the 24 bands playing Heart of Winter 5 bands had women in them. No one made it a selling point or made a big deal about it, it was just a natural thing. I thought that was the coolest shit.
As the stage was being taken apart and set back up again in preparation for Widowed Light I decided it was time to get up front and stay there awhile. Widowed Light was one of my favorite new discoveries from this fest. “Heavy and suffocating Appalachian anguish” with fantastic stage presence and sick merch too. After them was one of my favorite bands, Mo’ynoq from North Carolina. Their singer sounds like he’s halfway through turning into a werewolf which I think is awesome… one of the best atmospheric black metal bands around. The best of the best continued as USBM legend Krieg took the stage. Neil from Krieg is one of my favorite writers, and for a long time has been the source of my favorite year end album lists, dude knows his shit. I was very happy to finally see Krieg play. They sounded incredible.
Next Daeva was Daeva, which ruled. I did some filling and refilling of a PBR can in the bathroom sink for hangover prevention, apple eating and strategic pissing to their set of ripping black thrash. I’m going to try not to be biased when I talk about the next band since they’re my favorite band of all time and if I ever heard anything better it would kill me instantly. As Inter Arma, the best band in the world with the most talented musicians to ever exist set up, a new friend told me she really wished they would play Citadel because its her favorite song by them… and then they opened with Citadel! There was some squealing and jumping around but in a stoic and kvlt fashion. The 6.25 song set was New Heaven heavy with some oldies and Goldies thrown in. Mike’s vocals had a slight Artificial Brain tinge to them in spots which I thought was very cool. I cannot wait to hear the new Artificial Brain album with him on vocals, gawd thats gonna be so good. Saw Mike Derks from Gwar watching Inter Arma‘s set from the side stage too which was neat.
One of Nine were amazing, I knew they would be when I first read their interview in Decibel and the main guy was speaking like he was running a renaissance fair. They take the Tolkien influence very seriously and I love that. I feel like people don’t wear chainmail and bring swords onstage enough anymore. Their music is top-tier and their aesthetic is a work of art, all their merch is gorgeous too. After One of Nine I was so happy to finally see Hulder. Hulder and Krieg were huge highlights for me. I have seen well over 600 bands and I dont often get to see bands I haven’t seen before when it comes to bands I’ve been into a long time. Hulder‘s bassists hair slapped me in the face probably about 12 times during their set which I thought was funny but also impressive considering I had to have been at least 5 feet away.
Night 3 was back at Odins, OÜGHs abound every band was sick and TRVE. I spent the evening enjoying the house show vibes, talking to new and old friends, going up the stairs to see who was playing, chugging free water, going down the stairs to quest for beer, checking the merch area every 10 minutes for the Woe merch guy (I really wanted one of those /15 tapes! ), getting annoyed at whoever was burning sage, going out to my car to speed run a 6 hour old bowl of macaroni from Cobra Cabana with questionable chop sticks, etc. My favorite bands of the evening were the colossally intimidating Plaguefever, Cemetery Piss, Demiser, Woe and Suffering Hour. It had been a rainy day but the ceilings did not start to leak until Cemetery Piss played, that can’t have been a coincidence. A friend and I were tall and majestic has we stood on an elevated part of the wall to watch Demiser terrorize the crowd with their onslaught of blackened thrash. Suffering Hour fuckin’ RULED. They have such an interesting guitar tone and a lot of really cool riffs. Their song Strongholds of Awakening has one of my favorite riffs of all time and their new EP is incredible. Also, it had been a long time since I had gotten any big bruises at a show and during their set I got slammed into a speaker so hard I have a big tiger stripe across my thigh, so that was pretty satisfying.
I’ve seen and been to a lot of cool festivals and places. Odins House of Sound was probably my favorite venue I’ve ever been to, staff and attendees were all cool and fun to talk to plus there were so many people from bands I love just hanging around outside with everyone it felt like my own personal version of the Grammys, got some great brewery recommendations from Dave Witte! I’m convinced whoever curated the line up is a genius. Overall 10/10 experience. I am so glad I went and hope to go again.
MID SOUTH 