CLE Mosh Fest, Headlined by Deadlands, Tears Up The Beachland for Fourth Year

CLE MOSH Fest returned to the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern on a very snowy Saturday, December 13, for its fourth year in a row. This year’s festival was headlined by Deadlands, with Face Yourself and Lie In Wait also high on the bill.

In total, there were 12 bands split between the larger Ballroom (Unhinged Stage) and the smaller Tavern (All Creatures Stage) as well as an after party presented by All Creatures Entertainment, with the total festival spanning nine hours.

Although doors were a bit late to open, the music kicked off right on time at 4 p.m. on the All Creatures Stage with These Plagues. These Plagues is a deathcore band from Wadsworth, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, consisting of vocalist Bryce Branton, guitarist Ethan Musser, and drummer Alex Stout.

Unfortunately, I was not able to catch their set as I was still setting up my camera gear, but from what I could hear through the wall, I was thoroughly impressed.

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To kick off the night on the main stage was yet another Cleveland band (heads up, most of the bands on the bill are from Cleveland/Ohio), Ghostwave. To say they started the night off strong would be an understatement. The progressive metalcore group immediately brought the energy to solidify how the rest of the night would go.

Ghostwave consists of singer Keegan “Kee” Charlton, guitarists Christian Murphy and Chris Trotta, bassist Reece Witherspoon (no, not that one) and drummer Zach Walton.

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Set times were staggered between the ballroom and tavern, so sets alternated between the two stages. Next up was Akira, another Cleveland metalcore band and my first shoot of the night in the tavern. Actually, this was my first time ever shooting on that side of the Beachland.

Even for being early in the night, this three piece really brought the energy to the tavern side, already getting multiple people moshing.

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Our first non-Ohio band, back on the Unhinged Stage we have Resistor. Coming out of Long Island, New York, they were on tour in support of Deadlands. The “Sewage Crew” as they call themselves is New York Nu-metal at it’s finest, putting explicit emphasis on their turntablist.

Having not one, not two, but three members named Anthony, I feel like they should have named the band something along those lines. Resistor consists of turntablist Anthony “aRCe” Arce, vocalist Anthony Grambo, guitarist Anthony Conti, bassist Ian Schneider and drummer Peter Smith. From what I have been told, the Anthonys refer to themselves by their last names for the most part.

Resistor will be going on tour with Yosemite in Black in February and March.

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Taking things a bit slower, we come to Avarice. Hailing from the county south in Akron, Avarice takes their music in a bit more of a melodic direction, similar to Ghostwave from earlier. Putting heavy emphasis on clean vocals, this four piece stood out even among the rest of the bands on the festival lineup.

For still being a relatively new and young band, their showmanship and musicality truly is impressive. This aspect also really allowed me to really utilize the fisheye lens I had rented for the fest, being able to get real up close and personal with them.

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Yes, their acronym is UWU. Yes they lean into it. Yes they even had a unicorn sign at their merch booth that said that. That would be Unhealthy While Unhinged. And unhinged they were. The best way to describe them is a more dubstep, heavier version of Hollywood Undead.

There were dancers on stage multiple times, anime graphics on the screen, and I once turned around to see multiple giant inflatable dildos floating throughout the crowd. I think they put it best on their Spotify description, “Unhealthy While Unhinged is a rollercoaster that only derails.”

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The only explicitly slam band on the festival lineup was Terra Vista, back on the tavern stage. While I am not that into slam, it would be hard for me to deny that these guys put on one hell of a show.

Terra Vista actually toured with Resistor back in October, making this festival even more full circle.

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For being on the main stage, Lonewolf was probably one of the toughest bands to photograph, as for most of the songs, they had no front lights and a bright projection on the screen behind them, creating a very interesting silhouette effect in many of my photos.

Pulling inspiration from Nu-metal bands like Linkin Park and Korn, Lonewolf blends heavy riffs with rapping and explicitly political lyrics and imagery. For most of their set, the screen behind them projected videos of the famine in Gaza, humanitarian crises, politicians and political figures.

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Emerging from the murky depths of the Cuyahoga River, we come to the swamp boys in Manfiish. And when I say they lean into the swamp theme, I mean it. Unlike most of the other sets in the tavern having solid red lights, Manfiish went with pure green lighting for their set.

Even labeling themselves as “Cleveland hardcore swamp death,” pinning these guys down to one genre or style is murky at best. All I know is they probably came from some bog in 2023 and put on a really solid show.

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While not officially a headliner, Face Yourself was high enough on the bill to be considered one. For having only released their first EP in early 2023, they feel like a band that has been around for much longer, based on their sheer musicality as well as the following they’ve been able to build up.

You would not think by taking a quick glance at vocalist Yasmine Liverneaux that she would have screaming skills on par with the Mount Rushmore of deathcore vocalists, but you’d be wrong. For their final show of the year, the band made sure to crank up the energy and cement themselves in the upper echelons of deathcore as well as in the minds of everyone at CLE MOSH.

During their song “Guillotine,” usually there would be a wall of death. However, since it is almost Christmas and Cleveland was getting pounded with snow, they decided instead to do a snowball fight in its place, letting hundreds of people battle it out with cotton snowballs.

Coming out of the East Coast and France, Face Yourself is made up of Liverneaux, drummer Eric DiCarlo, guitarists Thomas Cardone, Corey Doremus, and Dave Rico, and bassist Kyle Muenzer.

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Closing off the main festival on the tavern side was Cleveland’s own hardcore band Lie In Wait. Simply put, they are hardcore personified. In all honesty, I did not stay long for their set, as I both had to get back to the ballroom to set up for Deadlands but also because they started their set encouraging “punching, kicking, and violence.” While there was some crowd killing at the other tavern sets, Lie In Wait by far had the most.

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As we were waiting for Deadlands, a game of duck duck goose broke out that took up much of the ballroom. After the game, most of the players formed a cuddle puddle (see the photo below). I turned to Emily, our head editor here at Ultraviolet as well as Deadlands’ photographer and said “welcome to Cleveland. The snow makes us do some weird things.”

At 10:15, the main event of the night, Deadlands, hit the Unhinged Stage. This was their second show of a four show, five day tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania with Resistor. Another band from Long Island, Deadlands has made a name for themselves in recent years in the metalcore scene.

Banger of a song one after another, the crowd drew in toward the stage. They were the main draw of the night, and for good reason. Deadlands has built up a following in recent years for being one of the best rising bands in the metalcore scene, and this show proved that.

Deadlands is primarily made up of singer Kasey Karlsen and guitarist CJ Arey, with revolving touring members. For this tour, Anthony Conti from Resistor was on bass and Andrew Gaudio on drums. With this tour concluded, Deadlands will be heading on tour in April in support of Vana alongside Redhook and Cloudyfield.

Deadlands Setlist

Deadweight

Shallow Breath

Limbo

Villain

Die in Paradise

More!

Kundalini

Final Judgement

Crushed

Wither

Zak Fallen Dubstep Remix