FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
With a Napalm Death concert happening nearby in Toronto on the same night, GTA concert goers were somewhat spoiled for choice on May 15th. Within that context, the crowd that came out to see Woods of Ypres’ debut Hamilton performance on May 15th was relatively small but dedicated to the Canadian group’s unique brand of black- and folk- inflicted metal.
It was already very cool to have one of the more interesting, eclectic metal tours of the summer run through my city, but to have the five-band Conquer & Curse Tour play a tiny place not much bigger than someone’s rumpus room made it all the more enjoyable.
With the passing of the once-great Milwaukee Metalfest, the Maryland Death Fest has become the premiere heavy metal festival in North America. Spanning 3 days, 2 stages and over 50 bands, there is no shortage of metal to more than fill the needs of any metal heads looking for a weekend of blast beats and head-banging.
No, this isn’t a review of the cool Eddie’s Archives that came out a few years ago, I was never lucky enough to be able to find one of those to buy for myself, instead this is a collection of stuff that I have written on Iron Maiden over the years for various publications…
Our fearless editor reminisces on last summer’s fantastic inaugural HEAVY MTL festival, which happened exactly one year ago from this weekend at Parc Jean Drapeau. Sean wrote reviews for two different publications, which have been collected here for your viewing pleasure.
Fans gathered en masse at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre looking for a bit of nostalgia. Some were there to relive Perry Farrell’s early 90’s Lollapalooza tour. Others who weren’t even born at the time were there to find out what they missed. There were definite highlights to this performance but this tour, as almost all other of the nostalgia tours didn’t quite live up to the days of old.
I can’t think of another band so long-running whose output has been so consistently excellent. This truth led to my sole disappointment when I heard that the classic late-80s Thundersteel lineup had reformed: it meant that they were likely to ignore the past 20 years as if they never happened. Normally when some old band pulls a stunt like this, you wish they would ignore their last five or six albums, but Riot didn’t put out a single bad album after they retired the speed metal and screams of the Thundersteel years.
With the early May sun setting behind the Toronto skyline, the Sound Academy was surrounded by an air of excitement on this Monday night as concert-goers traveled en masse to see Opeth and Enslaved.
The warmest weekend of 2009 so far may not have been an appropriate backdrop for an evening of Canadian black metal featuring Monarque and Csejthe at the Annex Wreck Room.
It was a night of firsts and lasts – the first Hamilton appearance of Ontario’s independent Woods of Ypres, and the last show for local legends Elevator 22.