Maryland's Deathfest is creating a sister (of mercy) fest in New York City. Here's the info:

The organizers of the annual Maryland Deathfest, which will take place from May 22nd to 24th at Sonar in Baltimore, MD, have announced that they’ll be having a second smaller festival, dubbed the Auditory Assault Festival, the weekend before (May 16th/17th) in New York City with some of the band’s playing MDF. Band and venue information is expected to be announced shortly, and you can stay up to date at the festival’s official MySpace page. The organizers also commented on the creation of the festival with the following:

“The first Auditory Assault took place at the end of 2006 in Baltimore, but since then we’ve decided to resurrect the name and have a 2 day event in New York City on the weekend before Maryland Deathfest. The primary focus of Auditory Assault is to provide numerous bands playing MDF a chance to play a kick ass event in New York City as well. We’re not attempting to put this on the same level as Maryland Deathfest and expect to confirm roughly 15-20 bands, half of which will likely be MDF bands looking for more shows.

Currently we aren’t accepting any booking inquiries. Roughly half of the bands we’re going to confirm are already confirmed. These bands will be announced in the next few days.”