Heavy Montreal – Day 2: GOJIRA Is A Monster!
August 1, 2018, 6 years ago
Wow, this is what a festival should be like. Dry, beautiful weather and a set of varied bands. The day began with Helix teaching the youngsters how to command a stage. Frontman Brain Vollmer even jumping in the photo pit. Kings of Quebec, aka Voivod delighted the faithful and probably won a few converts too. A fuzzy blast of Sleep, behind a literal wall of amps, stood in sharp contrast to the technical thrash of Havok. Then there was the cos-play intergalactic warriors Gloryhammer (the lone power metal inclusion of the weekend). Bits and pieces of their set overlapped with Trivium and Asking Alexandria.
Limp Biskit was an 11th hour replacement for Avenged Sevenfold (and technically the day's headliner) and while Wes Borland laid some Pantera riffs ("Walk") on the crowd, that Fred Durst dedicated to the departed Abbott brother (and their DJ briefly spun some A7), the REAL showstopper was Gojira. A multi-media performance (interactive video screen behind them), playing to a sea of French speakers emboldened frontman/guitarist Joe Duplantier with confidence heretofore unseen, during a frenetic, pyro accented 70 minutes. Here's some of what happened Sunday, July 29th. A full report on Heavy Montreal will be posted soon.