YOB's Mike Scheidt from Eugene, Oregon: Maryland Deathfest Portrait

Maryland Deathfest Portrait, No. 9: Meet YOB’s Mike Scheidt from Portland, Oregon. The band’s thunderously meditative set at MDF was a personal highlight for me, inspiring ecstatic full-body motion something like a decibel baptism. For Mike, he doesn’t think YOB’s musically spiritual overtones are necessarily new, just more inclusive.

“The heart in [metal] is so sincere,” says Scheidt. “Nobody has any illusion of it being any better than this right now.”