So this past weekend was the first Metal festival in
This was also the first time I crowd surfed, and I have to say, it’s quite an experience. I did get hurt during this, but it was fun nonetheless. I also moshed in a lot of pits. I was told that I looked like Tom Araya. I met new people. I ran away from the front for the first time in my life. I almost got into a fight. Now the weekend is over and I have pains all over my body.
I think this was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.
Day 1: Somewhere Back In Time
Bands playing:
- Unexpect
- Lauren Harris
- Overkill
- 3 Inches of Blood
- Symphony X
- Hatebreed
- Hammerfall
- Mastodon
- Type O Negative
- Dethlok
- Iron Maiden
For the first day, I got to the Parc Jean-Drapeau at around 10:30 because the show doors opened at 12:00. I went there alone, and while I was waiting in line some people started talking to me and told me to stick with them for the show, which I did, for most of it anyways.
After the doors opened, we went straight to the Black Stage, which was the one Iron Maiden was playing in. We secured our spots near the fence on the right side of the stage. I got a little hungry by this point and decided to buy some food. This however was a big mistake. The food and beverages are overpriced to no end at these events. I bought a “trio” for 10.25$ which had the following: a jumbo hot dog, a bottle of sprite, and a bag of chips. The bottle by itself was like 5$ and the hot dog 4.25$. With great pain in my wallet, I dished out the money to get me some grub. When I got back to the guys I was with, they had already made some new friends.
I started talking to the guys there, and it turns out that they were Mexicans, other Latinos that were at the metal festival. It was nice to know that I’m not the only Latino that loves Metal.
Shortly after this money raping event, the first band started playing: Unexpect. I didn’t want to go see them because I was afraid to lose my spot in the Black Stage, but in the end I went to the other stage, the Red Stage. I had never seen this band prior to attending Heavy MTL, so it was something new for me. Unexpect, is a band that was formed in
Unexpect was the only band for which I moved to the Red Stage for. The other bands I just listened to them without seeing them. This is explainable by one simple fact: I didn’t want to lose my spot where I would be able to see Iron Maiden up close.
And so the first act in the Black Stage started: Lauren Harris. She is Steve Harris’ daughter and she is very fine. Her style of music isn’t very Metal, but since she’s the daughter of Iron Maiden’s founder, she gets to play at these events. However, I wouldn’t say that her music is completely bad because that would make me a liar.
The one thing that I will remember from this act (not counting the fact that she is HOT!) is that Lauren’s microphone stopped working near the beginning of the show. The poor girl was singing, but no sound was coming from the speakers. So what did she do after she saw that the technicians weren’t doing anything about it? She took the mic that was on her guitarists’ side.
Overkill played next, but I didn’t see them, I listened to them from afar. And again, the technicians failed in this act as well. The show didn’t start until half an hour later. This made other bands start later than previously scheduled. As for the music, they were decent. They’re not my favourites, but they were ok. The one song I really enjoyed was their cover of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs.
While I was listening to Overkill, some guys came behind me to wait for 3 Inches of Blood to start. The only thing that I will remember from these guys is that they told me that I look like Tom Araya the singer/bassist from Slayer. This really made me happy because Slayer is one of my favourite bands and probably is my favourite band.
After the Red Stage finished its act, 3 Inches of Blood started playing on the Black Stage. This is another band I have a lot of respect for because they’re a Canadian band. Their style is very heavy and has a little power and metalcore in it, but it has more heavy than the last two. This was actually the third time I saw them live and I have to admit that every time I see this band, I get really into it.
Symphony X was up next on the other stage, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Hatebreed played after the Red Stage was done. This band, which I’ve seen twice, the first time when they came with System of a Down, was the first one that got the crowd really moving. Their heavy and fast guitar and drums mixed with the violent lyrics got the crown moshing and crowd surfing. And although some of my new friends didn’t like the band very much, I did and I liked the fact that they got the crowd to move like any metal band should be able to. And I won’t lie; I loved the fact that they played the intro to Slayer’s Raining Blood.
And again, I didn’t pay much attention to Hammerfall, because I didn’t want to move from my spot in the Black Stage, but from what I heard it was pretty good.
And who was up next on the Black Stage? Mastodon. This band… this band was putting most of the crowd in front of the stage to sleep. They were… not very good. Their guitar was ok, but the rest was nothing special.
Type O Negative wasn’t as good as people had told me. They were just ok.
Dethlok, this is another band I’ll remember. While I wasn’t able to see them, I was watching the big screen in the middle and they were playing the cartoon version of the band, although there was an actual band playing the music on stage.
Before I continue on to the next band, I have to say that by this time, I wished I didn’t have legs. My legs were killing me and I wanted to sit down somewhere. I almost decided to just go back and sit somewhere on the hill. Also, by this time, I had made some new friends. Some Quebecers from up north and some dudes that live near
And so, finally, the headliner of the day came on stage: Iron Maiden. Before the band went on stage, the crowd was already pushing and already I was fighting for my spot. After a few minutes of this, the band finally came on stage, and what an entrance that was. The set looked like the Powerslave one. It had the Egyptian feel to it. They started playing Aces High and this got the crowd crazy. By this time I was starting to have trouble breathing as I was being crushed between the guys on the fence pushing back and the guys behind me going forward. After the first song, I stayed for half of the second one and decided that I had to jump the fence to get some air. I was about to lose consciousness and I don’t think that anyone would have noticed as there wasn’t any space to actually fall to.
After I jumped the fence I felt a little confused and disoriented. I saw some other of my new friends near the exit in the front. They weren’t able to take the crowd either. I was also out of cash and I couldn’t buy food or water. I had to walk all the way to the entrance to get some cash from an ATM and then I bought a hot dog and a Sprite. That soft drink felt really good to drink. I tried to go back to watching the show, but I wasn’t able to right away. I decided to go sit down next to a fence and recover a little.
After half and hour of recovery, I felt a little normal and went back to enjoy the show. Good thing as well, had I not gone back I would have missed Bruce Dickinson climbing up the side of the stage.
The stage had a lot of pyrotechnical items and when they went off, there were fireballs in the back, fireworks in the front and at the top. The lights were amazing as well. They had at least five rows of lights and they all moved.
Eddy also came out when I went back to see the show. At first you saw the big mummy version of Eddy hanging at the back of the stage, but a little later, the Eddy form Somwhere in time came out, the one that looks like a cyborg. This Eddy was actually walking and was at least twelve feet tall. He had a laser gun that he was using to shoot the people in the crowd and he masturbated behind one of the guitarists (I was pretty far at this point, I didn’t recognize him).
When they finished their set, they played three more songs and they called it a night.
I then took the metro and decided to take a taxi home when I got to Angrignon because I was completely exhausted from the day.
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