HEAVY MTL 2011: DAY 2 PHOTOS & REVIEW
The second day of Heavy MTL was still hot and the sun was still shining! Having some interviews again during the day, the first band I got to see was Anthrax. I was really looking forward to see them live. Listening to them since I was 11 year old, I definitely grew up with them. I had the chance to get a little interview with them and I felt really lucky to be able to meet with this band among others of course. With all the interviews, I got to catch the last four bands of the evening.
Of course, 80′s trash metal Anthrax was one of the most expected bands of the weekend: they are celebrating their 30th year anniversary as a band! They’ll be releasing a new album in September, Worship Music, and it will be the first album featuring Joey Belladonna on vocal’s since 1990’s. They played Fight’ Em Til You Can’t from this new album which I think is really promising. They did a high-powered 50 minutes performance, playing hits from the last 30 years like Caught In The Mosh, Got The Time (cover of Joe Jackson), Antisocial (Trust cover) and Madhouse among others. Like the opening song, the crowd got caught in the mosh and that, until the end of their fierce set. I have to mention also that the band played the beginning of Chaos AD of Sepultura which was a nice way to say thank you to Andreas Kisser that replaces Scott for a little time because his wife just gave birth to their first child at the beginning of July. The band made the fans a great announcement when they told the crowd: “Montreal, we’ll see you in the fall!”
Opeth came on stage and seemed really impressed to see how many people were there to watch their show. They even took a picture and said “I got to show that to my kids!” Even though their progressive metal style was different than every band at Heavy MTL; they had thousands of fans to support them. Mikael, with his sarcastic sense of humor, made the crowd laugh several times. Since their songs are pretty long, they had played only 6 songs which were: The Grand Conjuration, Face of Melinda, The Lotus Eater, Master’s apprentices, The Drapery Falls and Hex Omega. These guys are absolutely great musicians; their songs are very complex and technical and I was curious to see how it would sound like live. They delivered a perfect performance, there is not much more I can say than that. Mikael Akerfeldt (lead singer) is a really good vocalist; he can pass from brutal deathgrunts to high pitched clear vocals. It was one of my best shows of the day!
Motörhead: The English band came on stage a couple of minute late saying: “We are Motörhead and we play rock and roll!” They played Iron Fist, Get Back In Line, Over The Top, One Night Stand, I Know How To Die, Ace of Spades and more! Motörhead delivered what people expected from them: a full hour of pure rock, getting some of us back in the days with many souvenirs. Motörhead doesn’t jump all over the stage, but for a band as prestigious as them, just the three band members is enough to possess a stage no matter how big it is. Some people were happy after the performance of Opeth that they could finally body surf again! A mention has to go to Mikkey Dee’s drum solo in the song In The Name of Tragedy: it was absolutely breathtaking!
I am not in the KISS generation but I really wanted to see their show. Even though I’m not into their music that much, visually speaking, I couldn’t wait to see what everyone was telling me about. As soon as Motörhead finished their set and the light went off, we could feel the anticipation of the crowd. The park was packed and there were a lot of parents that came with their child wearing make-up and KISS clothes, which was really cute. The diversity of the crowd couldn’t be much more than that. It was a mix of all ages and styles. Kiss came on stage at 9pm and the minute it started, I understood right there what it was all about! I never saw that much lighting in a show. Black and white makeup, 7 inches heels on, leather, spandex and studs came on stage and started the evening with Modern Day Delilah, a song from their latest album Sonic Boom, released in 2009. They pumped the crowd the whole time, wanted more hands in the air and wanted people to scream louder. During the evening, Paul Stanley started to play Stairway to Heaven and the crowd was actually happy, so he said: “You want me to play that?” And still people screamed again so he replied simply by saying “You are in a Kiss concert!” They played 15 songs total such as Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll Firehouse, Deuce, Do You Love Me, Calling Dr. Love, Black Diamond, Shout It Out Loud and ended with Rock and Roll All Nite and fireworks! It was a good experience: the crowds sang along most of the time and to make it different from the whole weekend, people were actually dancing! No mosh pit and no surfing! A lot of pyro detonated until the end of the show making fans pretty much satisfied. Some people said that they didn’t play their favorite songs but after 38 years as a band I can imagine how it must be difficult to satisfy everyone’s taste. Overall, I was really impressed and I was really happy to have seen Kiss at least 1 time in my life. I would recommend this experience to everyone!
Overall, the weekend was amazing: we had the perfect weather and a great lineup to see and discover. Only The Sword couldn’t make it and they were replace by Slaves on Dope. The Lineup was made for all kinds of taste and it actually brought another kind of crowd to the festival which was a good thing in my opinion. The coolest thing was that it permitted to bring two generations together. I even met a mother that came with her son because he was listening to KISS and Motörhead and she felt happy to be able to share the Heavy MTL experience with him. I think that everyone that has worked on Heavy MTL 2011 did a great job and I cannot wait to for Heavy MTL 2012.
Click on the links below to view all the photos Nour Haik brought back from this second day at Heavy MTL 2011:
Category: Photo Updates, Reviews
