“A common misconception about metal music is that it all sounds the same, but ‘metal’ is a broad term that spans many types of music. This year’s Shell Fest covered a wide range of metal subgenres, including thrash, power, metalcore and melodic death metal.” —Jonathan Raeder

On Saturday night, a group of students and other metalheads from the area gathered in the Nyumburu Cultural Center to hear four metal bands — three local and one from North Carolina — play in the UMD Metal Club’s annual Shell Fest. Onstage, guitars blared, drums thundered, a vocalist sung or growled (depending on the band) and a whirling spiral of students moved at the front of the stage.

Moshing is the standard way to show appreciation of metal music, just like screaming relentlessly at a pop concert, swaying slightly at an indie show or spinning your arms incoherently at a punk performance. Even those who weren’t moshing were head-banging and displaying the genre’s treasured “devil horns.” The music was incredibly loud, but the various instruments were distinguishable most of the time. 

“I think that this was our best Shell Fest yet,” said Metal Club president Mary Beck a senior communication major. “We partnered with Atomic Music; they gave us some really great gear to use, the bands were amazing and everyone was having an awesome time.” 

A common misconception about metal music is that it all sounds the same, but “metal” is a broad term that spans many types of music. This year’s Shell Fest covered a wide range of metal subgenres, including thrash, power, metalcore and melodic death metal. At meetings and on its Facebook page, the UMD Metal Club tosses around suggestions for bands to play until it’s narrowed down. 

This year, the group booked its top four choices: Narrow Grave (think Slayer), Burning Shadows (fast riffs with operatic sung vocals), Hydra Kyll (punk-influenced metal) and Æther Realm (death metal growls, complicated riffs and prerecorded swelling violins). While the first three bands were local, North Carolina-based Æther Realm is the “biggest” band the UMD Metal Club has been able to bring to the show, according to Beck. The band’s set was complete with a fog machine and colored lights and proved to be the most spectacle-heavy show of the night.

Next year will bring a new incarnation of Shell Fest, one that hopefully will continue the show’s upward trend of bringing bigger and more renowned bands to an ever-growing audience. Beck discussed some ideas that didn’t pan out this year, such as making mix CDs of the bands’ music to distribute in the days before the show. Although she’s sad she won’t be here for next year’s Shell Fest, Beck is confident the event will keep improving. 

“I think we’re setting our bar higher every year — we want to get better bands every year,” she said.

She also promotes the UMD Metal Club’s ability to appeal to a group that isn’t highlighted frequently on this campus.

“We get together and talk about music and we go to shows together,” Beck said. “The University of Maryland is a big place, and this is one way to make it smaller and help people become a part of the UMD metal community.”