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Concert Review – Heavy Montréal 2014 Day 1 (Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, QC, 08/09/2014)

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A Saturday full of sun, Thrash Metal and Punk Rock at the biggest heavy music festival in Canada.

INTRODUCTION: The Island of Heavy Metal

heavy montreal 2014Since its first edition in 2008, Heavy Montréal (formerly known as Heavy MTL), has become one of the largest heavy music festivals in the world, being compared to some huge traditional European summer festivals, with around 70,000 people attending every year. Not only that, after only two editions of Heavy T.O. in Toronto in 2011 and 2012, Heavy Montréal became the only mega Heavy Metal/Hard Rock festival in the entire country, elevating its importance even more for all Canadian headbangers.

In my opinion, one of the most outstanding characteristics of Heavy Montréal is the fact that the festival is held annually at the beautiful Parc Jean-Drapeau, which is located on Saint Helen’s Island in the middle of the romantic Saint Lawrence River in Montreal, Quebec. In other words, heavy music festivals happen all over the world in different sites, but only Heavy Montréal offers us the uniqueness of spending two days of our summer every year at a true “island of Heavy Metal”.

HEAVY MONTRÉAL: Where to Stay, How to Get There and Overall Organization

IMG_2899Booking a hotel in Montreal during the summer is not only painful, but also as pricey as hell: even the most disgusting pigsty downtown will cost you at least 100 Canadian dollars a night or more, if you’re lucky enough to find a room available. In case you’re not driving, there’s not much you can do but surrender to that “mafia”. However, if you go to Montreal by car there are many excellent hotels near the airport, which is just a 20-minute drive from the heart of the city. You can park your car at Complexe Desjardins for around 10 Canadian dollars a day, and then take the subway to Jean-Drapeau (yellow line) metro station starting either at Place-des-Arts (green line) or Place-d’Armes (orange line) metro stations, arriving at the festival main entrance in less than 15 minutes.

IMG_2891Another highlight of Heavy Montréal was its overall organization: the food trucks were amazing and the beer was ice cold (a bit costly, though), the Wi-Fi zone was relaxing and the internet service worked fine, the toilets were clean, there was plenty of water, good merchandise and some freebies, among many other cool stuff happening all over the island. Of course, the main “attractions” were the stages where lots of awesome heavy bands from different styles delivered unforgettable moments to their fans. We had Scène Heavy (Heavy Stage) and Scène Molson Canadian (Molson Canadian Stage) for the main bands, Scène De L’apocalypse (Apocalypse Stage) for midcarders, Scène De La Forêt (Forest Stage) for indie bands, and Scène Heavy Mania (Heavy Mania Stage) for some awesome wrestling action.

ANTHRAX

IMG_2827Unfortunately I had to miss some of the afternoon bands on Saturday such as Overkill, Apocalyptica and Babymetal as the drive from Toronto to Montreal is lengthy and boring, but I got there just in time for American Thrash Metal masters Anthrax. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say about Joey Belladonna, Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Frank Bello and Jonathan Donais: they kick fuckin’ ass no matter where they are and how much time they have to play. Their SETLIST was pretty much the same from the previous time I saw them, but you know what? It’s always a pleasure to listen to Thrash Metal classics like Madhouse and Antisocial mixed with some newer badass songs such as Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t. I just thought the crowd was not as excited as I was expecting, maybe because Saturday was a day for “softer” bands, but that didn’t stop Anthrax from delivering an awesome concert to everyone attending the festival that day. As Scott Ian said at the end of their performance, always remember to worship music!

Band members
Joey Belladonna – lead vocals
Scott Ian – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Benante – drums, percussion
Frank Bello – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jonathan Donais – lead guitar

THE OFFSPRING

IMG_2837Right after Anthrax were done at the Molson Canadian Stage, it was time for American Punk Rock veterans The Offspring to hit the Heavy Stage at 7:15pm performing one of the most influential Punk Rock albums of all time in its entirety, the excellent Smash, plus some other classic songs to complete their SETLIST, to the delight of their old and new fans. They might not be a true metal band, but it’s impossible for any living person not to enjoy the hits Come Out and Play, What Happened to You?, Why Don’t You Get a Job? and The Kids Aren’t Alright. Moreover, the quality of their live performance is superb, just as if you were listening to the studio versions of all songs with an extra dose of energy added to them, especially in regards to frontman Dexter Holland, who doesn’t seem to get old with time. Quite the contrary, he seems to be in great shape and ready to rock for many years to come.

Band members
Dexter Holland – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Noodles – lead guitar, backing vocals
Greg K. – bass guitar, backing vocals
Pete Parada – drums, percussion 

METALLICA

IMG_2841It was 8:15pm when the lights went off at the Molson Canadian Stage and, after the intro The Ecstasy of Gold, the main attraction of the night, American Thrash Metal giants Metallica, delivered to their fans their “Metallica by Request” concert. Let me start by saying that I’m not the most recommended person to talk about Metallica. Although I like some of their old songs, I consider them an extremely overrated band, and pretty much 99.9% of everything they recorded in the past 20 years or so is pure garbage, especially the abominable album St. Anger. Well, as I was already there I decided to enjoy their performance as much as I could, which really happened with kick-ass songs such as Blackened, Battery and The Four Horsemen, by far the best moments of all, but besides those songs there was nothing else truly memorable from their SETLIST chosen by their “fans”. Not even Master of Puppets, One, Seek & Destroy or Fade to Black turned me on, mainly because their setlist is always that same old annoying “radio hit collection”.

They give the fans the unique chance to select some old school Thrash Metal anthems such as Whiplash, Metal Militia, Damage, Inc., Trapped Under Ice, Motorbreath, and many other songs they haven’t played in ages, and what do those so-called fans do? They vote for the repetitive sleep aids The Unforgiven, Sad But True, Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters (do they know anything besides the Black Album?), which sounded even worse when blended with their new dreadful song Lords of Summer, the unnecessary instrumental Orion (not a bad song, but an awful choice for live performances), and two absolutely disgusting guitar solos (if those “things” can be called solos) by Kirk Hammett. Even when people could choose The Four Horsemen, Fuel or Fight Fire with Fire for the “Vote of the Day” things went partially wrong, as we ended up without listening to the amazing Fight Fire with Fire.

I don’t know if the fans who voted actually attended the concert, because I saw lots of people yawning during the never-ending slow songs, especially during The Unforgiven, which was a true torture. You have to agree with me here: how can you consider a song boring if you voted for it to be part of the setlist, right? At least for me and for the real Metallica fans, this “Metallica by Request” thing was a huge failure, and that could be easily seen by the extremely low level of energy and excitement after the show was over, as people were just like “yep, let’s go home now”, no one was screaming the name of the band nor anything fun happened after that. Leastwise, let’s all remember some beautiful words from Monty Python and “always look on the bright side of life”: although some people mysteriously voted for some songs from St. Anger, none of that tuneless rubbish made it to the setlist. That made me really proud of living in Canada.

Band members
James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Kirk Hammett – lead guitar, backing vocals
Robert Trujillo – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lars Ulrich – drums

To be continued…

Album Review – Ann My Guard / Innocence Descent (2014)

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A very professional and vigorous album of alternative heavy music enhanced by an amazing feminine touch.

Rating4

AnnMyGuard_IDI’ll be honest with you and admit Alternative Metal has never been on my top picks whenever I want to listen to music. As I’ve said a couple of times here, I usually stick to the foundations of Heavy Metal. However, sometimes it’s interesting (and good for your brain) to listen to bands outside of this traditional world, especially when the band is as technical and pleasant as Hungarian “Doll Metal” band Ann My Guard, who have recently released their debut album, the energetic Innocence Descent.

This 4-piece band from the stunning city of Budapest, Hungary, took around six long years to thoroughly write the whole album, a process that might look too exhausting at first but that was definitely worth every second and penny spent in the end. Produced by the most renowned producer in their native Hungary, Gábor Vári, the album couldn’t sound more professional and ready for the absurdly competitive and demanding music market than that: Innocence Descent is a great mix of Alternative Metal and Rock with a huge focus on melody and harmony (something commonly done by most European bands), which will please fans of Evanescence, Hole, Kittie, H.I.M. and all other bands that are part of that more “delicate” side of heavy music.

As soon as the interesting intro Enchant begins, you can already notice all the band’s aforementioned influences, which becomes even clearer in Grey Witch, with its Alternative Metal riffs and the smooth vocals by Eszter. Moreover, its high-end production and the excellent chorus make it an excellent option for becoming a radio hit. Another important detail in Innocence Descent are the lyric themes, with pretty much every song talking about women, witches, sex and all other taboos present in the feminine world.

Getting back to the music, it seems the band loves deep key notes such as the ones found in Dark Sea Blue, a song that flirts with Pop Rock without losing that heavier approach from Alternative Metal, and the melancholic Ivory Ballad. Then we have the strong bass lines and nice drumming from Crush Honey, which sounds like some old songs from Hole, and the awesome rhythm from the powerful Morgana’s Song, another excellent example of how Ann My Guard took care of all details in their musicality to sound as professional as possible. Once again, I should say this song could easily be played in any Rock N’ Roll radio around the world.

AnnMyGuardThe next part of the album slows things down a little in a very introspective way, starting with the short acoustic ballad Hollow Red (which focus 100% on Eszter’s voice to enhance its atmosphere), followed by another ballad, My Lullaby, with beautiful lyrics and lots of harmony, and Easy, a melancholic tune with highlights to the good work done by guitarists István Tagcherer and Krisztián Varga both in the slow and the fast parts of the song. But it’s when the band accelerates their music that they hit the bull’s-eye in my opinion: H.K.A. Bitch has lots Punk Rock elements blended with Nu Metal, which together with its heavy riffs and acid lyrics turn it into a perfect choice for entertaining a more energetic audience during their live performances; while the vigorous Fallen follows a similar pattern as the previous track, boosted by some rhythmic variations and a delicate but strong chorus.

And lastly, Ann My Guard offer us the semi-acoustic ballad Gone, with highlights to the good guitar solo at the end of the song, and Circles, a unique Pop Rock track that gets heavier halfway through the song before fading into a melancholic rhythm to close the album.

You can take a good listen at the entire album HERE, and also support Ann My Guard by purchasing their official merchandise, or a digital copy of the album on iTunes or Amazon. As I said before, if you’re a fan of alternative heavy music with a feminine touch, Innocence Descent is indubitably one of the best new options in the market. I’m pretty sure all members of the band are proud of their “baby”, and you won’t be disappointed at all with the professionalism and vitality of their music.

Best moments of the album: Morgana’s Song, H.K.A. Bitch and Fallen.

Worst moments of the album: Dark Sea Blue and Gone.

Released in 2014 Smash Fabric Records

Track listing
1. Enchant 1:23
2. Grey Witch 3:11
3. Dark Sea Blue 3:48
4. Ivory Ballad 4:01
5. Crush Honey 4:15
6. Morgana’s Song 3:19
7. Hollow Red 1:19
8. My Lullaby 3:59
9. Easy 2:57
10. H.K.A. Bitch 1:55
11. Fallen 3:42
12. Gone 3:35
13. Circles 7:44

Band members
Eszter Anna Baumann – vocals, bass, flute, keys
István Tagcherer – guitars
Krisztián Varga – guitars
Joci Vadász – drums

Metal Chick of the Month – Rachel Aspe

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rachel01

La femme Nikita? Non, la femme Rachel.

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? These initial French words have a good reason to be here: la belle femme Rachel Aspe, vocalist of the Heavy Metal/Hardcore band Eths from Marseille, France,  is our metal babe this month. This beautiful girl was born on June 24, 1988, in the city of Grasse, France, about 1,000km from Paris, but she conquered the world after singing Swiss Industrial/Groove Metal band Sybreed‘s Emma-0 on the French TV show “Incroyable Talent” in November 2012, when the video of her performance went viral.

This is the audio she sent to the TV show before being selected to sing it live on TV, and as you will be able to notice her performance was more than just awesome: her guttural vocals are as potent as the world-renowned frontwomen Angela Gossow (ex-Arch Enemy) and Alissa White-Gluz (ex-The Agonist, Arch Enemy), even never taking any lessons on how to do guttural singing. By the way, it always amazes me how ignorant and stupid those so-called “music experts” that judge the participants at any TV show like “American Idol” are: why do they make those faces of disbelief or looks of disapproval when they see a girl singing like Rachel Aspe? Honestly, I cannot believe that they don’t really know at least who Angela Gossow is, or that they don’t know how important, powerful and admired the female guttural in the world of heavy music is. That’s simply ridiculous.

Getting back to Rachel, she has mentioned in several interviews that it had always been her goal to be part of a band, and that this was one of the main reasons she went to that TV show. She had a job at a day nursery at that time and it was hard to find some proper time to work on her vocals, but she managed to do it really quickly in order to have the best possible performance on the show, which was broadcasted just a little time after Candice Clot left Eths. And guess what? Rachel was recruited by the other members of Eths to replace Candice, and then she could finally fulfill her dream. If this is not the perfect mix of hard work, some good luck and being embraced by the wings of destiny, I really don’t know what is.

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Rachel mentioned in one of her interviews that she discovered guttural vocals when she was a teenager, when she used to listen to punk rock and later to more brutal bands. She said that screaming was like a way to escape from her personal problems and it quickly became a “drug” for her. Regarding her music influences, the first singers she listened to were Max Cavalera (Soulfly, ex-Sepultura) and Corey Talor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), who helped her choose guttural as her type of singing, and although she’s a huge fan of Angela Gossow and loves her voice, she said the former frontwoman of Arch Enemy did not influence her way of singing.

As previously mentioned, she never took lessons and searched alone how to do guttural singing, but as with Eths she has to sing clean vocal parts too, she has been receiving lessons from professor Pierre Rodriguez. Another interesting fact about Rachel is the fact that she never thought about singing in French in a band (her vocal covers were almost always in English), but she really appreciates singing in her mother tongue with Eths now.

Rachel’s first studio work with Eths was the excellent EP Ex Umbra In Solem, launched in March this year. The EP contains a brand new song (the title-track Ex Umbra In Solem), three classic tracks of the band recorded live in October 2013 in Paris (Samantha, Bulimiarexia and Crucifère), and three songs from their album III re-recorded with Rachel on vocals (Voragine, Harmaguedon and Proserpina). Prior to joining Eths, Rachel was a member of French Melodic Death Metal band Dividead for a short period of time in 2012, and recorded the vocals for the song Fireblast by French Symphonic Power Metal band Kerion also in 2012.

With respect to her taste for music, mademoiselle Rachel proves us all she’s a true metalhead: her favorite artists include Heavy Metal icons such as Eths, Nightwish, Asking Alexandria and Deftones, and lesser-known but heavy as hell bands like Sybreed, Shai Hulud, Filter, Butterfly Explosion and Obscura. And last but not least, she also said she’s crazy about children and about her leopard geckos. Well, I would love to see her singing a “lullaby” to some kids, and I wasn’t expecting her to have any “cute” pets at all based on her singing style. Let those generic animals to the tedious participants from those annoying TV singing contests, while the wild Rachel and her fun lizards keep on rockin’ our world.

Rachel Aspe’s Official Facebook page
Rachel Aspe’s Official Twitter
Rachel Aspe’s Official YouTube channel

“I’m really proud to be a part of Eths. I’ve been a fan of the band for many years, and it’s a great honor for me to sing songs I have been listening to for such a long time.” – Rachel Aspe