Words by Melissa Andrews, Photos by Adam Wills

The Wreckroom is often home to early shows – particularly on Weekend evenings when they want to be able to still cater to their regular club crowd that come in after 11 PM. The advantage of early shows is people who fall asleep before midnight still get to see some live music. The bad thing about early shows is sometimes when it is pouring rain and people are running late they completely miss the opening act (which was Battlesoul) and only make it in time to see the last song for the second act (which was Will of the Ancients).

More clubs than usual were showcasing live talent this evening, as this was one of many shows to be included in the Canadian Music Week Festivities. Even with some live music competition, albeit not too much metal, a reasonable size of folk metal enthusiasts along with a few others filled up the small area between the stage and the bar that fills most of the center of the club.

After some technical difficulties Germany’s Suidakra kicked off minus their bagpipe samples. While some bands in this genre might sound sparse without the added traditional instrument accompaniments, Suidakra managed to sound as if nothing was missing. The audience picked up steam and a few picked up their heels to the heavily Celtic influenced “Dead Man’s Reel”.

After a short intermission Israel’s Orphaned Land presented to Toronto their version of Middle Eastern Heavy Metal. Foregoing the traditional metal uniform of all black, the band performed dressed in Arabic influenced white and accessories. At first the vocals seemed to overpower everything and almost drown out the guitars but eventually they were brought down to a more amiable level.

Lead singer Kobi Farhi looked very Jesus like as he preached to the crowd. He provided encouragement for the audience to participate by jumping and clapping. For some of the songs the audience was in need of a clapping tutorial, as they couldn’t quite get the slightly unfamiliar rhythms in sync but everyone appeared to be having fun on a rainy Saturday evening.