Our Team Went to Excision’s ‘Lost Lands’. This is What Happened.

After driving 8 hours (including stops) on Thursday the 29th we finally made it to Ohio on our trip from Chicago. As we rolled up to the venue the next day, we could see the sea of tents from people who had arrived via early arrival the day before.

Colorful Characters.

Our first day was a blast.. We checked in, got our media passes, and were greeted by some “cave people”, who looked to be performers, behind the prehistoric paradox stage. With my camera in hand, they were more than willing to strike a pose for us.

Memorable Acts by Day

Friday: When we first arrived that Friday after checking in, AFK was on boasting his signature heavy bass in his set. In the grand scheme of things, many people haven’t arrived yet, but the main stage was still filled with about 2000 people or so who were as eager as ever to party and headbang to the heavy bass. The PK sound system was thumping… What I noticed first was the sound quality.. Being pretty picky in this department, this is something that stood out to me. The sound quality was next to perfect. You could hear the same healthy mixture of bass and treble at the same level and quality pretty much throughout the entire main stage area.. Soon after AFK tore the decks up, Midnight T and Figure hopped on for an epic back-to-back set.

Herobust took the stage right after Figure, and was not one to disappoint. His melodic dubstep/trap style bass got the crowd moving.

Being one of the main acts of the night, the crowd seemed pretty enthusiastic for this set.. Mosh pits were forming throughout the crowd as can be seen in the video we captured above.

After catching Herobust, we moved on to catch Wooli and parts of Squnto at the Cave of souls stage. Once in the media pit for our first photo run at this stage, one security guards’ kind attitude stood out to me. He even offered us ear plugs for our time in the pits. I found out later in some of the “Lost Lands” Facebook groups that this guard became pretty infamous with the crowds who were riding the rail, garnering names like “The Bass Viking”, which was pretty fitting.

Up next was Ghastly! After 5 and a half hours of heavy dubstep and nonstop headbanging, his deep bass and electro/future house vibes were just what we needed to get our feet shuffling and our bodies dancing! Paired with some amazing visuals, this easily made for a memorable set worth noting.

After catching some images during his set I managed to run into Kill The Noise.

Right after Ghastly and Kill The Noise, Seven Lions took the stage, which was a welcoming presence after 6 hours of relentless bass music.

Arguably, the most anticipated set of the day came next.. Excision. This was a memorable one, not just because the fact that he, in conjunction with Steez Promo, brought this entire masterpiece-of-a-bass-festival to fruition, but because he really knows how to throw a party and get the crowd moving. It was not a set to disappoint.

Saturday: We arrived at the venue a little later than the day before, but we were able to catch a little bit of Spag Heddy before preparing to catch images of Funtcase.

Soon after, Cookie Monsta took over the decks. Being one of my favorites in bass music, I was pretty excited for this one.

Followed by Snails’ signature “vomit bass”.

We then made the arduous trek over to the ‘Cave of Souls stage’, where Black Tiger Sex Machine was taking the stage. Having not seen them before, this was probably one of the most anticipated sets of the evening for me. Having a darker undertone to their performance was interesting to say the least. They were not a group that disappointed.

We then made our way to Destroid’s reunion set back at the main stage. Their blend of live dubstep creation, mixed with samples was pretty awesome. They were just how I remembered them live back a couple years ago.

Other than the unfortunate “fire on the volcano” that disrupted the end of Destroid’s set, the venue organizers, over the mic, seemed to be in good spirits and the fire team sprung quickly into action. After sitting for about a half hour or so, the fire marshall of Thornville gave the go ahead and Zeds Dead followed shortly after.

Zeds Dead! I cannot stress enough how much I love seeing this duo play live.. And they really brought their A-game to Lost Lands. Playing classics like Eyes on Fire, there was no shortage of bass music nostalgia. Combined with impeccable stage production and new unreleased remixes to our favorite tracks, they really brought the heat for us. This was a welcome sight to see after almost thinking the stage would be shut down for the night after the ‘volcano fire’ incident. The show must go on!

Sunday: We arrived right as Excision was taking the stage for his 3rd set of the weekend, The Detox Set.

Jeff knows us too well, throwing down old Excision classics mixed with some “chiller” (sort of) vibes music, this was just what we needed after raging for last 2 days. It was surely welcomed.

Among other classics, I particularly liked the Monxx remix Excision dropped to Darude: Sanstorm, which the majority of the crowd was surely not expecting.

Next up for us was Space Jesus. And wow.. was this awesome.. His “Space Jam” edit is still ringing in my ears.

Space Jesus ended his set with an epic back-to-back with Liquid Stranger, who personally is one of my all time favorites since I got into bass music back in 2010. I have been watching his career blossom since and couldn’t be happier that he landed a time slot at the main stage.

Liquid Stranger’s set was beyond epic! Other than Zeds Dead, this was surely one of the sets that stood out most to me.

Soon after was Rezz, and this was a good one too. Having not seen this up-and-comer in the bass scene yet, she was absolutely unique in her style with more of a mechanical type feel to her music. She was dubbed the “bass queen” by some of the attendees, and for good reason. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

We then headed over to catch Barely Alive b2b Virtual Riot, followed by the ‘secret set’ of the weekend. All signs pointed to the bass duo Ganja White Night being on the ticket, and sure enough, there they were…

I felt like a kid in a candy store at this festival, with so many awesome acts to choose from I found it difficult to pick my absolute favorite, but the following might be the one..

We caught Excision B2B Datsik at the Prehistoric Paradox stage, which was also Excisions 4th set of the weekend, and the nostalgia was also VERY real during this set. The crowd was going absolutely bonkers for this one, as it was arguably the most anticipated set of the day.. As far as bass music goes, Datsik is a personal favorite of mine, so I was most excited for this set on Sunday.

Art Installations

Parts of this festival literally looked like a scene from Jurassic park.. With seemingly no expense spared, there was a 80 foot Brachiosaurus keeping a watchful eye over festival goers. I had heard through the grape vine that many of the art installations of the festival were custom made on site by people who were flown in from China (I could be wrong about this), but wow!! Is this impressive or what?!

Other images can be seen in our photo albums here, here, and here.

Thoughts

At a cool 70 degrees during the day, and a 45 degrees at night, this was the perfect weather for a fest in my eyes. Being overly sweaty, with the accompanying dehydration that goes with it is usually an issue at mid summer festivals. I’m a fall weather type guy, so bringing long sleeve shirts to wear at night was actually preferable to me. I hope they host the fest at the same time during the year in 2018.

I feel like this inaugural Lost Lands music festival experience was my favorite to date, not much negative can be said about the festival. Jeff Abel and Steez Promotions really went the distance in making this a memorable experience for everyone.. They assembled an all star staff, had impeccable sound and stage production, and every one of the staff members I met over the weekend I liked.

I’m gonna have to rate this festival at an A+. I personally recommend that if you’re thinking about traveling to Legend Valley, Ohio for Lost Lands next year, that you make the commitment and do it. You won’t be disappointed.

All images in this article were taken by myself and my team via The Mind Unleashed music wing, Mind Unleashed Music, which you can follow here. Be sure to check out our Lost Lands photo albums there and subscribe for more!