Lithium Magazine

Review and photos by Mike Bax

www.heavymtl.com

In what could end up being the single greatest two-day metal festival I have (or will) ever attend, Heavy MTL did nothing shy of blowing my mind along with my ears over this past weekend.

Megadeth and Slayer, Korn and Rob Zombie along with a literal who’s who of both modern and retro metal. turned up in full force to represent the genre at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montréal, Québec. Both Megadeth and Slayer committed to playing their seminal ‘Seasons In The Abyss’ and ‘Rust In Peace’ albums in their entirety on Saturday the 24th. Rob Zombie and Korn; both bands recently signed to Roadrunner Records, brought their A-game in a dual headlining evening on July 25th that was rife with pyro and magical lighting.

If you add in the phenomenal performances from Alice Cooper, Anvil, Lamb Of God, Rob Halford, Mastodon, Testament, Fear Factory, Airbourne and High On Fire, the weekend really shows off why Heavy MTL is THE North American metal festival any fan of the genre simply HAS to attend. Adding in Avenged Sevenfold, Alexisonfire, Five Finger Death Punch, Melissa Auf der Maur, Despised Icon, Hatebreed, 3 Inches of Blood, Winds of Plague, Chimaira, Kataklysm, Atreyu, In This Moment, Norma Jean, Shadows Fall, 36 Crazy Fists, Les Ékorchés, Baptized In Blood, Skeletonwitch, Deadly Apples, Hail The Villain and Beneath The Massacre… well, you have a jam packed two days of metal.

The grounds at Parc Jean-Drapeau open at noon each day, with music starting around 1:00pm. Once the first band fires up their musical set, your ears really don't get a chance to rest unil the last headlining band finishes off their performance, giving attendees over ten HOURS of non-stop metal to assault their ears on both days.

While there certainly will be bands that metal fans will not like as much as others, the overall atmosphere at Heavy MTL was one of community. It was pretty amazing to be a part of it. For a genre of music that takes it on the chin in multiple ways (metal doesn't typically appreciate as much press, airplay and recognition as most other genres of music) I found the atmosphere over both days was at once relaxed and friendly.  On both days of the festival, show-goers were served Budweiser beer or Jägermeister by roaming girls wearing branded outfits. Fans could meet some of the artists at the Jägermeister tent, or the Jam Van on both days, with musicians like Kerry King, Jonathan Davis and Rob Zombie venturing out to shake hands and sign albums and posters for fans.

On Saturday night, Megadeth performed a second set of music for free at the Metropolis at 1:30am. Heavy MTL ticket holders could walk in for a second hit of Megadeth, and donations were taken for War Child at the Metroplis show.

Music-wise, I’m simply not going to be able to capture it all. I was photographing both of these days, and didn’t see full performances from many of the acts, bouncing between the main stage and the Jägermeister stage (and the Silver Star Stage on Sunday) with all of my camera gear allowed me to see(at most) half of most performances. But what I saw, was pretty damn wild:

Saturday July 24th:
London Ontario’s Baptized In Blood took the Jägermeister stage early afternoon and levied an impressive set of heaviness on the earlybirds in the crowd. High On Fire played a deadly set of menacing southern rock on the main stage, to an appreciative crowd shortly after Baptized In Blood. Members of Mastodon were all watching the band from the side stage.

After some brief vocal issues, Melissa Auf der Maur showed a crowd of aggressive music fans that she can certainly play with the big boys delivering a tight set of her better material. Melissa was all over Heavy MTL, meeting with band members and filming material for her blog on both days (yes, she came back for day two as a fan!). Fear Factory was one of the bands I most wanted to see on Saturday. Getting to see Dino Cazares back in the band was pretty damn amazing, and Fear Factory’s relentless new material sounded just dynamite on stage. They were one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

I took great pleasure in seeing Anvil perform again. I can’t even remember when the last time I saw them was, but the renewed interest in them as a band, thinks in large part to the very honest ‘Story of Anvil’ documentary that was made on the band recently was so nice to see. Somehow this was my first time seeing Testament. They were phenomenal; so obviously a band that has been around for ages, playing music at the top of their game. Getting to see Rob Halford on stage (I would have loved for this show to have been a Judas Priest show) was still pretty damn awesome.

Mastodon, one of my favourite bands, pulled out all the stops for a 45 minute set of their signature southern tinged metal. Troy, Brann, Brent and Bill were in top form, playing the second last performance of the evening on the Jägermeister stage. Once Mastodon were done, Slayer took the main stage for a seventy minute set of relentless metal. Slayer easily had the fiercest mosh pit of the day – a pit so full of force that a portion of the front barricade collapsed as they started performing their first song ‘World Painted Blood’. As one of the half dozen people that were pinched in behind that collapsed barricade, I can honestly say I had a fear fraught moment of getting over-run by Slayer fans, but security managed to contain the collapsed area and cleared us all out the area safely.

The two headliners of the evening were Alice Cooper and Megadeth. Both bands more than delivered. Cooper is just so damn good at what he does. Fourty years in, the man looks good and performs like the learned music veteran he is. Megadeth came on stage under a hail of lights and screams from the crowd, and delivered a tight and entertaining set to a screaming hoarde of metal fans. Mustaine (he actually smiled a few times) seemed genuinely happy to be in attendance, and played an extremely true to album rendition of Rust In Peace with his band-mates. Nobody went home feeling short changed.

Sunday July 25th:
Oshawa’s Hail The Villain took the main stage first early Sunday afternoon, and quickly showed everyone why they are attracting so much attention – they were amongst the most photogenic bands at Heavy MTL. HTV’s performance was tip-top, and set the bar high for the rest of the day.

Beneath The Massacre and Despised Icon played back to back sets of punishing metal  on the Jägermeister and main stages. Both bands incited early crowd surfing, and drew a heavy crowd of women at the front rail of both pits.

Shadows Fall took the Jägermeister stage at just before 3:00pm. It was awesome to see Brian Fair play a set under some lighting that allowed for photographs of his ankle-length dreadlocks. They played a short but sweet set of some of their better material – and included a cover version of Ozzy's 'Bark At The Moon' to the delight of the crowd – who crowd surfed in earnest as the sang played out under the mid afternoon sun.

Airbourne took the main stage at 3:15, and didn’t let a faulty microphone deter them from delivering one of the most talked about performances of the afternoon that culminated mid set with lead vocalist and guitarist Joel O'Keeffe climbing up the side of the stage and delivering a guitar solo from the top right corner of the Mayhem stage. While the AC/DC comparisons get bandies around like wildfire, there’s no denying Airbourne are one of the most entertaining live performers touring currently.

Some press responsibilities and a desire for some food took me out of action for a few live performances today – and I missed photographing a few bands I really wanted to see, including Five Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold, Chimaira, Winds of Plague and Hatebreed. I got to see some of their performances – and was entertained once again by 5FDP’s rabid fan base, and Avenged Sevenfold’s tight musical set. This was the first time I’d seen A7X since the passing of their original drummer, and it was good to see the band and material were still delivering their A-Game.

The only band I got to see on the Silver Star third stage was In This Moment. Touring to support their recently released album A Star-Crossed Wasteland, Maria Brink and company incited an impressive crowd of eager fans who crowd surfed over the rail at the Silver Star stage to slap hands with Brink as she sung.

In my opinion, the band that was going to have to ‘earn it’ this afternoon was Alexisonfire. While they play a heavy set of music, they were the most ‘un-metal’ band on the bill, and I was curious to see how the St Catharines boys were going to do sandwiched in between the likes of Lamb of God and Five Finger Death Punch. I was duly impressed as the band took the stage and kicked out one of the most energetic live performances I’ve seen from them to date.

Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe informed the crowd early into their performance that this was their only Canadian stop – and that it was appropriate that it was in Montreal – the city where Metal lives. The band played a tight 45 minute set of material that lifted heavily from their most recent album – Wraith. The crowd behind me as I photographed was an endless stream of flailing bodies, and both guys and gals surfed their way over the rail as LOG played their signature brand of heaviness at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

The final one-two punch of Rob Zombie and Korn was just amazing to watch unfold. While I enjoyed both Slayer and Megadeth immensely, I have to admit to being just a wee bit more excited about the Zombie / Korn experience. Zombie has been on a musical roll for the past few years, with a wonderful touring and recording band – and some quality new material under his belt. Korn have just released what the press is toting as a ‘return to form’ with a new album entitled Korn III. My expectations were high.

Zombie started things off with his trademark spooky stage adornments – popping out of a flaming robot with glowing purple eyes and flailing around a mechanical arm as the band played their first song under a hail of flashing lights and pyrotechnics. Song after song saw the band getting more and more riled up – flames were belted out higher and higher behind the band.; Guitars were smashed; Confetti was regurgitated upon the crowd and girls tops came off as 'Mars Needs Women' was performed. I’ve seen Rob Zombie numerous times, and I think this evening was amongst the best I’ve ever seen from him.

25 minutes after Zombie wrapped up his set Korn took the stage to the thundering guitar riff that leads into 'Right Now’ – under a similar hail of pyrotechnics, smoke and flash-lighting. I love Korn’s material, and they delivered a set of the good stuff this evening, interspersed with some new material that fit in rther nicely with their old favourites. Ray Luzier proved once again that he’s a drummer to be reckoned with as he pummeled out a wonderful set of the beats and snares that formulate the backbone of Korn’s material.

The Bottom line:
This was the best metal festival I have ever attended – possible the best festival I have ever attended. I’ve gone to many – and they usually are comprised of two of three bands I’m interested in seeing, and a lot of ‘filler’. Heavy MTL 2010 was front-loaded with quality musicians from the early-bird bands right through to the headliners. The promoters will have their work cut out for them trying to top this line-up in years to come.