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So North America's biggest metal festival Heavy Montréal expanded to temporary (new?) environs, a massive four stage layout. While the long walks on paved surfaces might play havoc with the aging BraveWords team's knees and feet, the lack of grass (apart from artificial turf laid down in front of a few stages) was a godsend, once the inevitable festival rain fell. No mud, yeah! The day began with a double dose of Canadian metal royalty: Lee Aaron kicking the day off, launching right into her namesake "Metal Queen", the singer also on guitar, and Sword, the 80s Z-Rock staple, doled out faves from both Metalized and Sweet Dreams. As the day wore on, lots of requests for our attention, onstage and off (interviews, hobnobbing, etc). There was meltalcore, one rapper, Alestorm, a thunderstorm... Interesting to take in Marilyn Manson (not the usual stuff you'd see on the website), even if he afforded the photographers just one song to shoot. But the absolute highlight, for us, as well as many attendees (some making the journey from locations afar, like Chicago) was Emperor, first show in Montreal since '99. The aforementioned storm blew up just prior to the Norwegians taking the stage, soaking everything and everyone around, so when Ihsahn and Co. finally were able to perform, the frontman/guitarist called the natural disturbance, "Not a coincidence!" Enjoy these images from Day 1. A full recap of the Heavy Montreal weekend will appear online, soon.