This year's Wacken Metal Battle Canada national final took place on June 6th in Toronto, ON at Opera House with special guest headliner Goat Horn. Toronto-based epic death metal band Vesperia claimed victory on the night.

The final represents Canada's top six metal talents out of 120 competing bands from ten participating cities across Canada. One winner from the final was crowned Canada's best metal band for the 2015 edition of Wacken Metal Battle Canada and now move on to perform at the 11th international Wacken Metal Battle at the world's largest metal festival Wacken Open Air in Wacken, Germany, which has attendance of over 80,000 people.

Featuring Goat Horn (special guest headliner), the final battle came down to Endless Chaos, Medevil, Midnight Malice, Bleed, Nordheim and Vesperia.

Guest Judges were:

Jeff Waters (Annihilator) 

Noel Peters (Inertia Entertainment) 

Lindsay Schoolcraft (Cradle Of Filth) 

Tim Henderson (BraveWords) 

Mike Harshaw (Annihilator)

Wacken Metal Battle Canada is part of an international competition where band's from across the country in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City battle each other for one to be selected and join over 30 other countries for an international battle of the bands at the world's largest outdoor metal festival Wacken Open Air, which has been taking place in Wacken , Germany for the last 25 years. Toronto's Crimson Shadows (2013 winners) and Montreal's Mutank (2014 winners) have had that honour playing in front of thousands. This year's festival will be taking place from July 30th to August 1st.

Vesperia recently put the finishing touches on their brand new music video for the as-of-yet unreleased song, “The Western Tempests”. The band recently emerged from the famous Camp 30 - which is a dilapidated and abandoned prisoner of war camp in Bowmanville, Ontario.

"The new music video for ‘The Western Tempests’ is dark. Very dark," comments band bassist and frontman, Morgan Rider. "We built the story of the video around the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Spending from sundown to sunup over two weekends to give the video its clutching darkness and disturbing atmosphere have definitely given us the result we were looking for."

Shots from video shoot:

Recently announcing dates for both Eastern and Western Canada this coming June and July with select dates supported by Winnipeg's melodic death metal band Laika, Vesperia has also announced a special self-hosted tour kickoff party that will take place prior to their West Coast leg of their tour. On Friday, July 10 their tour kick off show will take place at the newest live music venue in Oshawa, ON at The Moustache Club, located in the heart of downtown at 15 Simcoe St N on the second floor.

The show will include a well-rounded line up consisting of reputable death, black, gothic and doom metal bands from the greater Toronto area, including Blastomycosis, Conquer and more!

"We are really happy to be hosting another party in Oshawa, our old hometown that roots the band's early days. We have a really cool lineup of reputable bands coming from near and abroad that should make for a night no one will soon forget," comments band frontman and manager, Morgan Rider.

Vesperia's upcoming EP 'The Iron Tempests' (release date TBA) will span around 18-24 minutes long and will be co-produced with the effort of Ryan Bovaird, frontman of Canadian melodeath band Hallow's Die. The EP artwork was also created by none other than Vesperia's frontman Morgan Rider at his own White North Studios.

The Iron Tempests tracklisting:

“Iron Saga”
“The Western Tempests”
“In The Hall Of The Mountain King”

Vesperia’s summer tour schedule:

June

8 - Montreal, QC - Piranha Bar
9 - Charlottetown, PE - Hot Shot's
11 - Halifax, NS - Gus' Pub
12 - Moncton, NB - Esquire Tavern
13 - Fredericton, NB - Charlotte St. Arts Centre
16 - Belleville, ON - Belle Pub

July

10 - Oshawa, ON - The Moustache Club
11 - Sudbury, ON - venue TBA
12 - Winnipeg, MB - The Zoo (w/ Laika)
13 - Saskatoon, SK - Venue TBA (w/ Laika)
14 - Edmonton, AB - DV8 (w/ Laika)
16 - Calgary, AB - Distortion (w/ Laika)
18 - Armstrong, BC - Armstrong Metalfest
21 - Brandon, MB - North Hill Inn
23 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON - Algonquin Hotel
25 - TBA, ON - Venue TBA