Photos/Review: Milwaukee Metal Fest Day 2:

Day two of Milwaukee Metal Fest brought in some bigger crowds, likely a combination of the heavier lineup, which tends to draw more fans around Milwaukee, and the Saturday timing. Without a local act at the start of the schedule, people took their time filing in, which reduced the lines and crowds at the start of the afternoon.

With a day primarily comprised of death and thrash bands, it’s no surprise that the energy was also kicked up several notches. Even with the first band of the day, Morbikon, a small pit was starting up, and by a couple hours later, pits and crowd surfers were going wild at The Red Chord and Skinless.

In the middle of the day, the Century Media stage was starting to fill out to the point it was difficult to move as fans turned out for Soilent Green and Death to All. Keeping up the classic death metal, Possessed and Deicide also rocked the afternoon away, with fans chanting for Jeff Becerra as soon as he took the stage. Katatonia’s doom and prog sound felt like a pretty severe outlier on the Saturday bill, and they had the unfortunate luck to be playing against the headliner due to stage delays, leading to a relatively low turnout similar to that of the first couple bands of the day.

The MartyrStore bar stage was busy, with bands like Cloak and Hatriot keeping the crowds up and Ross the Boss completely packing out the bar. At the close of the night, Belushi Speed Ball instigated an all-out (NERF) war in the bar, with people throwing trash cans, toilet paper, and assorted other objects around in a moshpit that filled most of the space.

Upstairs Terrorizer unleashed an assault on the IndieMerchStore stage as an onslaught of crowdsurfers poured up to the front. Not to be outdone, Municipal Waste went all out, encouraging the audience to throw trash cans at the stage, crowdsurf, and generally get rowdy. At one point Tony Foresta commented that he thought security might get bored, but “instead they’re throwing trash cans back at YOU!” Hatebreed and Testament kept the energy upstairs building with massive turnouts and wild crowds in preparation for Mr. Bungle to close the night with some avant-garde weirdness.

Photo coverage was taken by Metal Insider’s Mar Morannon and special guest photographer Toast.