Black Kvlt Festival Promises Death and Destruction at Churchill's

UPDATE: Due to travel issues related to Hurricane Matthew. Black Kvlt Festival has been rescheduled. A statement on the Facebook event page reads: "Due to the impending weather conditions and flight cancel for Fin and Inquisition. I've decided to postponed the fest until further noticed, hoping maybe December or January. It will be the best option for me to do this and the presale ticket holders can hold on to their tickets. I'll keep you guys updated on the rescheduling date. Be Safe out there."


After the underwhelming collection of wind and rain South Florida was calling Hurricane Matthew, the city could use an adrenaline boost. Thankfully, the  fourth-annual Black Kvlt Festival is upon us.

"I'm not a Satan worshipper, but I like the dark, evil shit," Ira Ochacher says when asked why he organized the fourth-annual Black Kvlt Festival, coming to Churchill's tonight, Friday, October 7. The event will consist of ten bands with two stages profiling the best the country has to offer in black and doom metal.

For the metal novices out there, here's a quick explanation: Black metal is a fast tempo, theatrical brand of heavy metal where the musicians often paint their faces to look like corpses and sing of the devil and other supernatural beings. Doom metal, to contrast, has a slower tempo and focuses on lyrics of despair and dread. After reading these genre descriptions, one can't help but wonder where a nice guy like Ochacher — who spoke with New Times after catching a matinee screening of Deepwater Horizon — finds the motivation for such painful songs. "I just really like the atmosphere," he says. "The evil, the vocals, the songs, the meaning of it all..."
After visiting black metal festivals in Europe, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Ochacher stared thinking he could put together one in Miami. "There's a lot of Latino black metals that we've supported over the years," he says. Among the Latino black metal bands is this year's headliner, Inquisition, whose members hail from Colombia but currently reside in Seattle. Also on the bill are FIN, a two-piece black metal outfit from Chicago; South Florida black metal legends Kult of Azazel; and other Miami black metal dabblers like Reapermanser and Maedusa.

"There's going to be a lot of songs about blasphemy, hate, and depression," Ochacher says. Though that might sound like another edition of a presidential debate, Ochacher is expecting a friendlier crowd at Black Kvlt Festival. "It's going to be a bunch of metalheads who go to all our local shows. I've already heard of people traveling from Tampa and Georgia coming down to support this." The fest will have two stages, one inside called Black Cvlt and one outside called the Antichrist stage.

Ochacher is already crossing his fingers that he can put on Black Kvlt Festival 5 next year. "It depends on the turnout," he says. "We'll see about future shows. Right now, we have an awesome, well-known main band with underground bands not everyone has heard of that people can discover."

Black Kvlt Festival 4 with Inquisition, Kult of Azazel, Nocturnus A.D., and others. 7 p.m. Friday, October 7, at Churchill's, 5501 NE Second Ave., Miami; 305-757-1807; churchillspub.com. Presale tickets cost $15 via bigcartel.com or $20 at the door.