Just what IS death metal? It is heavy. It’s aggressive. It’s angry. And in this shooters opinion, it is awesome.

Nergal holds his guitar upward, letting it ring after playing a song ending chord

More after the break.


Recently, I had the chance to shoot a variety of metal bands who were playing at a local venue, The Crazy Donkey, which is located in Farmingdale, NY. As I’m sure some may ask, I was able to get the pass by contacting Roadrunner Publicity. The person who contacted me was extremely fast and nice, and I had zero problem bringing my equipment into the venue.

Frank Mullen of Suffocation screams like only he can.

Up first during the night was Thy Will Be Done, follwed by Goatwhore, Suffocation, DevilDriver and Behemoth. DevilDriver was the headliner, but due to the band needing to get to Canada for a show the next night, Behemoth offered to close the show. And close the show they did. All the bands were great, but as someone who doesn’t necessarily enjoy Behemoth’s music, I can easily say they put on a fantastic performance. Luckily enough, security was kind to me during Behemoth, allowing me to shoot in the photo pit during their ENTIRE set! I didn’t get the opportunity during the other bands, unable to get in there at all for Thy Will Be Done and Suffocation, and only for 4 songs for Goatwhore and Suffocation.

Jon Miller of DevilDriver, calm and steady.

Most of the shots were taken between ISO 1600 and 3200. As I was pretty restricted by my lenses, and it was pretty dark in there, I had to crank the ISO up while using my 18-105 lens and 70-300 lens, as the lowest aperture on those lenses is somewhat high. Go figure however, that some of my favorite shots are taken with the good old 50mm 1.8, usually at around ISO 1600, 1/125 sec shutter speed, and an aperture of 2.0. I never used flash, but I saw another photographer literally shoving his flash into the faces of the performers to get shots. While it was quite disgraceful, and I felt that security should of kicked him out for doing so, I managed to get a couple shots with his catchflash at times, which only made my shots better.

Sammy Duet of Goatwhore shreds it up.

I really had a blast shooting this, and look forward to shooting more concerts in the future. Certainly not as back breaking and exhausting as shooting an event, but I did feel like there was just as much luck involved with shooting as there was skill. And in reference to the post-production – I had almost NO idea how to edit some shots, because the options were almost ENDLESS. Some shots worked just as amazing in black and white and they did in full color, half color, 60% desaturated, anything really. Certainly a nice change I felt. A few more for you viewing pleasure.

Orion of Behemoth pounds away at his bass.

Jeff Kendrick of DevilDriver shreds it up.

Seth of Behemoth. Shredding like crazy.