CAROLINA CHAINSAW MASSACRE ~ MAY 6, 2023 ~ GREENSBORO, NC

Carolina Chainsaw Massacre Festival had their 2nd annual festival on May 5 & 6, 2023 and we were absolutely stoked to get the chance to be a part of it again! This festival was created by Incantation’s John McEntee as well as his wife, Yoyo McEntee, and takes place in North Carolina. It focuses on all things horror and metal, which actually makes it a little unique and definitely the only one of it’s kind anywhere nearby. Not only are there celebrity horror guests invited each year to sign autographs and do meet & greets with fans, it then turns into a full metal show every night with an incredible line up.

Day 2 took place at Arizona Pete’s located in Greensboro, NC. Arizona Pete’s is usually known as a local country-western club, complete with a mechanical bull. But they also host live music and hosted the 2nd day of Carolina Chainsaw Massacre in 2022 as well. It’s a nice sized venue and they opened up at noon for the fest. The full floor was lined up with tables and fans were able to come in early to meet the celebrity guests and get all their merch signed.

Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, and Hal Delrich from “The Evil Dead” would show up again for day 2. They were joined by Lauren-Marie Taylor from “Friday the 13th: Part 2.” Most of the bands on the line up showed up early just to hang out and meet some fans, take pics, and sign tons of merch. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher could be found again hanging out and signing autographs. Before the music portion of the fest began, they had a panel with an audience q&a for all of the horror guests. So we kind of all nerded out a little asking some cool behind the scenes questions about “The Evil Dead” and “Friday the 13th.” It was really awesome, when do you get a chance like this??

As with the day before, Woods of Terror was back with tons of their own horror characters hanging out and giving the crowd a few scares through out the day. The Chainsaw Girls paraded in on day 2 in their nun costumes. We only thought they were ready to repent, but once the metal started pouring out, the 4 became the biggest hits in the mosh pit all night. There were tons of vendors selling incredible horror and metal merch, some handmade art, and since it’s a long day, some delicious food trucks to keep us all going. The party was inside and outside without a single moment to even get bored.

The first bands would be hitting the stage about 3pm. All tables from the meet & greets were cleared just outside the door so we could visit between sets and that made room for one hell of a mosh pit. Just one stage but with very small breaks between every band meant this party was almost non-stop. Just enough time to hydrate, grab a snack, and jump in for the next band. And you definitely didn’t want to miss a single one. The night wouldn’t end until around 1am and believe me, it never slowed down! Check out some highlights below of all the bands that played this year on Day 2 of Carolina Chainsaw Massacre Festival.

I’m Music Magazine Photographer Daphne McKinney

Angel Massacre is a black metal band out of Charlotte, NC. They were the first band to play for the night, and while the locals may be familiar with these guys already, they definitely gained fans from everyone new to their shows.

Haunted is also a black metal band, they’re out of Orlando, FL. They managed a pretty sweet stage set up with 6 members and loads of theatrics, and definitely fit the theme of this fest perfectly. The crowd loved it.

Demiser plays a mix of black metal and thrash metal. They’re located in South Carolina, so they do get the chance to play nearby often. You can check out their 2021 debut Through the Gate Eternal here.

CLOAK is a metal band out of Atlanta, GA. They’ll be releasing their 3rd album on May 26, 2023 via Season of Mist. You can pre-save or pre-order now at: https://orcd.co/cloakbfe

False Prophet is a death metal band from Greensboro, NC. The crowd went absolutely f’n crazy when the hometown band hit the stage here for a 2nd year in a row and the band definitely did not disappoint. They even surprised the audience by throwing a brand new song into the set., playing it for the first time live. Extra props to these guys too, as they were playing double duty this weekend. Not only did they play a kick ass show themselves, they could be seen helping out the festival and setting up every single band that played over the weekend.

Gruesome is lead by Exhumed’s Matt Harvey and as a tribute to old school death metal, they were definitely a perfect fit for this festival. The band doesn’t play a lot of shows live, and this one was their first of 2023. The crowd was pretty excited to catch their set!

Incantation headlined and played both days of the festival last year. This year they would only play one set on Saturday but they f’n crushed it!! I’m not sure how the crowd even recovered after this set honestly. This is definitely the exact moment an entire crowd went crazy.

Exciter is celebrating 40 years of their debut Heavy Metal Maniac. Definitely a band a lot of people in attendance thought they’d never get to see live, but then it happened and absolutely no one was disappointed. Absolutely killed it!!