A bit of a pilgrimage change this year. Instead of the usual eight-plus hour journey to Wacken, Germany (nearly 20 years straight!), the choice was made to trim it down to under an hour and touch down on the Heavy Montréal experience again (from August 7th through 9th). It’s been awhile pour moi … since Iron Maiden conquered Parc Jean-Drapeau in 2008. But I’ll tell ya, once you get that European festival flavour in your mouth, it’s hard to live up to those achievements such as the vast expanse of people, bands and stages, the food vendors, alcohol selection, Metal Market and swag, Tent City; just an overall and overwhelming sense of community! And truly travelling overseas is its own life-course and you earn a much different kind of educational credit!

But Montréal is probably the ONLY city in North America that has that true European flavour. And organizers (Evenko) continue to build on the overseas festival model, despite various Canadian laws/restrictions. So from the outset, it’s a mini-Wacken, with two headline stages side-by-side and two more within about ten-minute walking distance in light “traffic.” Eat, drink and be metal! But the food vendors were limited and the beer selection a bit of a corporate stranglehold (Coors Light … really?). Bring on the craft beer and you know I’m a bourbon fanatic which was sadly AWOL. C’mon, you need to quench that thirst with a favourite on that hot summer day as you soak in heavy metal!

Logistically, Heavy Montréal is pure genius. And as Toronto (my local example) completely fumbles the ball in terms of mass transit, Montréal actually solved the issue with a fine web of subways underneath the city. Parc Jean-Drapeau is comprised of two islands, Saint Helen's Island and the artificial island Notre Dame Island that was built (for the Expo 67 World's Fair) using the fill excavated during the construction of the Montréal Metro in the early 1960s. 28 million tons of fill were needed for the massive undertaking, according to Wikipedia. Truly an engineer’s monstrous test that is creating an economic boom for the city in the summer to this day. Most importantly, the Montréal Metro has a direct line to Parc Jean-Drapeau, so there is very little parking, no camping at all. And a return trip was six bucks from anywhere on the one! Everybody on, everybody off. Curfew pretty strict before 11PM, unlike many overseas fests that run into the wee hours of the morning!

Firstly, the bands; a much wider range of acts made up Heavy Montréal 2015, which meant if you were a diehard metal fan, it gave you a bit of breathing space. At Wacken sometimes you’d have two, even three choice acts performing at the same time! But organizers at Heavy Montréal feel the need to include numerous genres and not just the heavy/black/death/power communities. But North American audiences are a different beast than Europe. But we will stick with the highlights instead of the band low-lights which easily stuck out on the schedule.

Day one (Friday, August 7th) favourites included longtime local death metal heroes Gorguts, Meshuggah, Arch Enemy (Alissa’s homecoming and the brilliant twin-axe attack of Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis; watch for video interview soon!) and the grand finale of Korn performing their grandiose crossover debut in its entirety. Not my cup of tea, but seas of people thought otherwise and Day 1 kicked off in fine fashion! 

My personal highlight was Venom Inc., featuring two-thirds of the original Venom (Mantas and Abaddon) and Cronos’ replacement after 1987’s Calm Before The Storm, Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan (formerly of Atomkraft fame). The set rivalled that of Cronos on 70,000 Tons Of Metal, that was written about quite glowingly here! Give me “Welcome To Hell”, “Die Hard”, “In Nomine Satanas” and “Black Metal” anytime! Following the show, BraveWords caught up with the “devil’s triangle” to talk about the past, present and future. Quite the honour to be in the presence of such an influential band and a great bunch of lads! Watch for the video interview soon!

But what felt a bit bizarre was the inclusion of hair bands. You can feel the extreme metal, punk and metalcore get along, but with Extreme, Lita Ford, Dokken and Warrant on the bill, their slots were strange and ill-timed. Don’t get me wrong, each were on fire, or into the fire! But perhaps a better idea was to have them run all together on one stage in one day, so those particular fans weren’t forced to buy a three-day ticket. Three hours of hair metal in one afternoon would make more sense. So day one saw Extreme, who remain such a powerhouse live with Gary Cherone’s vocal dominance and of course Nuno Bettencourt’s legendary fingers guiding us through “Get The Funk Out” and “Kid Ego”. But as stated, “More Than Words” doesn’t fit this bill. 

On day two (Saturday, August 8th), the excitement intensified as Canuck wonder-hero Devin Townsend, French innovators Gojira, Testament’s thrash genius led the charge with classics “Over The Wall”, “Disciples Of The Watch.” But the crowd witnessed a very unique set from the band as their lineup featured Tilden Hudrap from Vicious Rumours on bass and Alex Bent from Battlecross on drums. Regular Testament bassist Steve Di Giorgio and drummer Gene Hoglan did not join vocalist Chuck Billy, and guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson on stage because they are both on tour in The UK and Europe with Death DTA. Check out our video chat with Chuck Billy in the coming days as he reveals more details on the follow-up to the glorious Dark Roots Of The Earth. 

The lovely and talented Lita Ford appeased with a flurry of her hits “Kiss Me Deadly”, “Hungry” and the Runaways staple, “Cherry Bomb”. And of course you can’t be a metalhead and not respect Iggy Pop as he strutted through “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, “Lust For Life” and my personal fave “The Passenger”. Faith No More’s closing set was a spectacle beyond belief with “From Out of Nowhere”, “Epic”, “Midlife Crisis”, “Digging the Grave” and the ballad that did work; their Commodores cover of “Easy”. Yes, Mike Patton hasn’t aged a moment!

But there was a bit of blackness that lit my devil spirit as Immortal legend Abbath made his debut appearance on these shores as a solo artist, punishing the crowd with selections from his ground-breaking past and his glorious I solo material. But it felt weird watching Abbath in mid-afternoon while memories flashed through my head of Immortal’s headlining appearance at Wacken in the dark in front of 100,000 people which is a tattoo on my mind. Nonetheless, it was a grand expose of “Warriors”, “One By One”, the brooding “Tyrants” and pounding “All Shall Fall.” Watch for our hilarious interview with Abbath in the coming days, but first check out an Iron Maiden crooning session with our lensman Darko that is a YouTube sensation here!

Day three (Sunday, August, 9th), saw the likes of Sanctuary (the vocal god Warrel Dane complete with BraveWords attire in the the afternoon … “Long Since Dark”!), Marky Ramone’s punk legacy, Ihsahn’s dominating solo presence and Nuclear Assault thrashed the crowds. Dokken (led by the Don’s fountain-of-youth vocals which shine on “Into The Fire” and “Tooth And Nail) and Warrant (Robert Mason fits this band like a glove especially on classics like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”!) rounded off matters quite sensibly for ‘80s metalheads!

But fans waited anxiously for the current kings of the moment. Lamb Of God just killed with their current bombastic opus VII: Sturm Und Drang and staples “Walk With Me In Hell”, “Laid To Rest” and “Redneck”. Slipknot continues to impress with the ultimate stage show as Corey Taylor had the crowd in the palm of his hand all night. And man, the crowd just exploded with their anthems “People = Shit”, “Psycosocial”, “Wait And Bleed” and “(sic)”! This ain’t no circus act. A band that will last the ages.

But I must mention a piece of the back stage area that most fans don’t see. The chef running the Artist Area catering is Chuck Hughes and his right hand man, Danny Smiles. And to quote Don Dokken: “the best concert food he’s EVER had.” Seriously, the layout was gorgeous and the variety a spice of life. And speaking of which, you gotta love a chef that has his herbs in soil right beside him! Classy! But the section of meats, seafood, local vegetables, pastas etc… were a highlight to most artists. Eat, drink and be METAL!

Overall, Heavy Montréal was a tremendous success despite the fact that organizers were expecting a bit more of a draw. And that was part of the debate. There wasn’t a “true” monster headliner this year and there is talk that the fest may be scaled back to two days, although the poster for the event says three. Nonetheless, both fans and organizers are hoping they can entice a heavyweight like Metallica or Iron Maiden and the latter makes sense as they will be on the road promoting The Book Of Souls.

For more photos visit this location.

For more details on Heavy Montréal 2016 visit Heavymontreal.com.

Photo credits: Paul Blonde, Mike Bax, Kim Baarda, Trevor Lamas, "Metal" Tim