This grand event, put on at beautiful Parc Jean Drapeau was truly epic, with four massive stages and all the music you could rock to. Phenomenal weather with one refreshing downpour during Marilyn Manson’s set…that thankfully got him off there (more on that later), all the coldest refreshments you could handle, and of course, poutine. The gorgeous city of Montreal not only knows its metal but its creation of artery-clogging perfection. It was consumed every day, for four days: a simple recipe really, fresh cut fries, cheese curds, gravy, but not just anyone can MAKE it. Topped with Montreal’s famous smoked meat…better than ___________. Add your own word here.

A heartfelt and big thank you to Mitch Lafon, of Rock Talk and Westwood One, our greatest Canadian export, found everywhere at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Heavy Montreal for making me feel and be a winner of some of the best concert tickets ever!!!

The full line ups can be seen here although I will recount only what we could manage, running between stages and collapsing, moshing, eating, drinking, etc.. 3, 10 hour days isn’t bad, maybe some of you younger folks could have done better!

Thursday 26 July 2018:

Travel and anticipation day! Knew things would go well when the random hotel room booked had the same as the apartment number…with a similar broken door! We were booked across the street from the lottery office, so hoping for good luck, bought some tickets…. guess we keep the day jobs….

Friday 27 July 2018:

Another part of this metal deluge was 77+ Montreal which was not attended but an incredible lineup nonetheless.

Mitch LaFon also kindly, ramped us up with guest list status to Heavy En Ville an incredible night of these amazing bands! A great mix of prog, death and all around fabulous metal! Very cool venue at Les Foufouness Electriques!

Bands featured were: Miss May I, Archspire, First Fragment, The Kennedy Veil, and the very Yes inspired and excellent finger-picking of Sarah Longfeld.

While going in and out of the stages and venturing to the enormous lounge area, discovering my new favourite beverage ‘La Fin Du Monde’ (End of the World) generally speaking and from what I casually saw, these bands offered a great variety of metal, prog and excellent showmanship all around. Some of it was getting a little gravocally for me, but still impressive. The venue was packed and had a very active and appreciative audience. No slouches any of them!

Saturday 28 July 2018: 

Born of Osiris:

The first step into the metal planet found us instantly dragged into ScreamerTown. Hard hitting sound with a great light show, I was impressed having only been peripherally aware of them. Their set list:

1. Machine
2. Divergency
3. Bow Down
4. The Other Half of Me
5. Throw Me in the Jungle
6. Brace Legs
7. Empires Erased
8. Silence in the Echo

Lee Aaron 

Next up after a brief run to the other side of the park in time to get front row standing-seats for the still, forever, incredibly talented Lee Aaron. I had a nice banter with Sean Kelly as they were setting up, catching his attention while wearing, as far as I could see, the only Metal On Ice tee in the venue, maybe the province! Yes Sean, I was THAT guy that bought the book! Ha-ha!

Bonus: Also, there as the newest and finest professional photographer for Lee, with a keen eye, picking me out and immortalizing my haggard ass for all eternity. Deadly shot, sir! Big congrats on your new gig Rik! (Check Rik’s amazing photo array of Metal On Ice – he might have the OTHER book!).

Go see this link for incredible pics of Lee Aaron, Rik Emmett (of Triumph), Metal On Ice and more! A great fellow Twitterite and much appreciated for the ‘heavy metal’ love!

Launching into the thick, drenching summer air with Metal Queen got everyone in the mood. Lee was as sensuously talented as always with the same supremely talented band we saw at the Rose Theatre Brampton (live review). On and on the hits kept coming with Some Girls Do, Sex With Love, Diamond Baby, Fire and Gasoline, Hands On, American High, I’m a Woman and finally Whatcha Do To My Body. I think I burned it out this first set….

Sword:

Yet another run, arriving mid performance! Life is now complete having seen these long-standing members of the old school original thrash scene. A last-minute addition, possibly in the stead of RATT, I was completely blown away by this power crunching crescendo of the beautiful chordage. With a small set of the beautifully crafted longer songs of Outa Control, Back Off, The Trouble Is, I’m in Command and of course Stoned Again and FTW were met with resounding applause and respect.

I Prevail:

This was my mantra when we were hurled into the rabid but friendly mosh pit. I haven’t thrown so many people happily around since working the bars, but this was truly fun. An intense group, and while not my style, an absolute pleasure live and the energy was inescapable. Neck snappers like Rise, Come and Get It, Already Dead and Scars kept the metalcore flowing! VERY cool stage setup lads!

Marilyn Manson:

Despite his varied hits and his longevity, The Dope Show (yea, that was a LOT of weed people… kaff kaff!), Say 10, a woeful rendition of The Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (are Made of This), Antichrist Superstar and Beautiful People, this, my first Marilyn Manson show, was not a mOBSCENE for me.

Drab, listless stuff and the cams were centered only on him not his band at any point I saw. I suppose this is his style, but the crowd loved him.  In all due hope, he was feeling better from cancelling the Toronto show due to illness. This might have been a mitigating factor in the lackluster performance.  I personally liked the Heavy Montreal-fall of rain that cut his show short and drenched out the smell of weed and cut the heat that had been adding to already scorching festival!

Rob Zombie:

Absolutely the most overwhelming kick ass, brain draining show I expected. Done under a full blood red moon appropriately enough, this giant tracklist and background show, would please any rocker, any generation any genre. Now one of my all-time fave live shows.

Meet the Creeper
Superbeast
Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O.
Living Dead Girl
In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High
Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown
More Human Than Human
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Scum of the Earth
House of 1000 Corpses
Guitar Solo
Thunder Kiss ’65
School’s Out (Alice Cooper cover)
God of Thunder (KISS cover) (tour debut)
Helter Skelter – Beatles cover with Marilyn Manson

Marilyn seemed to have a bit more energy here, but I think Rob threw him a bone having him come out for some notoriety.  Not a Beatles fan either but they drowned out the Sorrowful Sixties sound of it for a good rendition.

Encore: Dragula

The shows timelines were near exact and well respected by the bands as there was limited time to setup soundcheck (if even) and play. Zombie ended at about 10:45 pm and then it was the exhausting, crowd laden Metro’ ride back. The happy metal-head energy was palpable on the great streets of Montreal. Night Two coming up…

Sunday 29 July 2018:

Ok. I’m feeling the mosh pit now. Even our energy laden, high protein breakfast isn’t going to stave off the aches and pains of this one so easily. Better try La Fin Du Monde instead!

Helix:

Having seen, interviewed, rocked and partied with Helix several times (see our interview, live review and pre-release party review) they always satisfy and amaze with 30+ year boundless energy. No background Helix stage banner interestingly, but then, once you hear Rock You, who else could it be? All their hits in an unfortunately shorter set were included: Wild in the Streets, Feel the Fire, a cool bonus of Danger Zone, When the Hammer Falls, Heavy Metal Love, Deep Cuts the Knife, dedicated to the great Mitch Lafon, and finally of course, Rock You with Vollmer getting out to us as far as the mike cord would allow! The boys all performed with the large stage energy as they are fit to do.

Emmure:

A short jaunt past the stage but this was a decent sound. Very heavy with strong Limp Bizkit overtones, this isn’t my fave, but the team was up to the challenge. Ice Man Confessions was alright, but I doubt I could listen to an entire CD in a row!

Bad Omens:

Some good heavy stuff here and while we stayed for a brief time, what I heard was excellent. Superb energy and playing and there was a great following. The band is tight with great riffs excellent action on stage. The light show was awesome as well for one of the smaller stages. The Worst In Me and Reprise were excellent.

Voivod:

Just…wow. Life is now doubly complete having seen them. My roaring for Jack Luminous was deafening and constant but sadly not played with the limited timeframes. This was still a great set of tracks and for being around for 35 years, there isn’t an inch of live given to anyone in this band.

Post Society
Ravenous Medicine
Psychic Vacuum
Obsolete Beings
The Prow
Order of the Blackguards
Unknown
Voivod

There you are; as many as we could comfortably do with the amount of travel and racing about. The selection is fabulous but there are so many choices and over lapping times, it’s hard to decide. Sometimes, you just gotta sleep!

Sorry to see you in the rear-view mirrors Montreal! Adieu!

An incredible show and experience, thanks once again Monsieur LaFon!

85/10

Photos made by Alessandro

Heavy Montreal Official Website
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Miss May I Official Website
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Archspire Facebook
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First Fragment Facebook
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The Kennedy Veil Facebook
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Sarah Longfield Facebook
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Born of Osiris Facebook
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Lee Aaron Official Website
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Sword Official Website
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I Prevail Official Website
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Marilyn Manson Official Website
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Rob Zombie Official Website
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Helix Official Website
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Emmure Official Website
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Bad Omens Official Website
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The post Live review: Heavy Montreal in Montreal, QC, Canada, July 27th-29th, 2018 appeared first on DutchMetalManiac.

The week was a blur, an amazing double bill at the Rose Brampton for Helix and Lee Aaron (our live review), more running around and prep work and then the ultimate 3 hour voyage to a nearby …Planet.

When we got there, the house, which has been featured on MTV Cribs, is outwardly garish, slick and very red. Simply beautiful. Darker as it got, we waited for a few minutes, soaking it all in, watching guests arrive and trying to stem the bit of nervous anticipation of going into one of your favourite rock stars’ house!

Squawking back the front iron gate, we’re hit with the Halloween-ness of the setup. The amazing food spread inside the living room, the smell of mouthwatering appetizers cooking, the scary noises and since The Devil Was Having a Party Tonight, (Helix’s latest single, on wickedly slick red vinyl) that’s who answered the door.

Introducing ourselves, a quick hello and a friendly don’t bother with your shoes, and some chit chat, Vollmer-Devil was off to mingle with an already packing up event. Rockers and friends mixing together, completely friendly and hyper-costumed, it was a good ol’ fashioned house party.

The sounds of Vollmer’s new solo release were playing, to rave applause and congratulations. Featuring Canadian icon Danko Jones on the title track and background vox of amazing Cheryl Lescom, the album is a fabulous release of 7 covers and 2 originals:

Buff’s Bar Blues (Alex Harvey)
Rock n Roll Outlaw (Rose Tattoo)
If You Need Me (Wilson Pickett)
When the Bitter’s Got the Better of You (original: Kelly/Vollmer)]
Rock n’ Roll /Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll (Velvet Underground/Long John Baldry)
Gudbye t’ Jane (Slade)
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac & Peter Greene)
Get Yer Hands Dirty (original: Brown/Kelly/Vollmer)

Indeed the guitar and writing of famed Sean Kelly is also underscored on the record (see Helix/Lee Aaron live review for more Sean)!

Perhaps not metal in the sense hardcore metallers are looking for, but check these songs; they have deep roots and personal connections to Vollmer and are a part of rock and metal history.

As over 100 people now poured into the narrow house and onto the outside deck, even amidst the oncoming stormy rains, I met many people in the rock industry; Doug Weir of Syre and now Damn Pigeon! I was floored. Such an awesome guy and hopefully (take heed, Tim!) a possible review of their new record!

Also, Jim McKormick CEO of Allstage, prime supporter of live music, they have an app at Google Play/App store!….Fritz and Kaleb, Helix drummer and guitarist…too many to count. Everyone with a kind word, everyone with a hug and a handshake; it was overwhelming.

Vollmer’s wife Lynda was the ultimate hostess and made sure everyone was not drinking and driving and were well fed, amidst ordering the Devil to mop up some spills, ha! The next album needs to be called “Domestic Metal”! You are the greatest!

The “Helix Bucks” as I call them were an awesome piece of swag, a fitting invite to the Devil’s Party! (Conceptualized by Don and Tracey – these are not for copying and posting without express permission).

As the rains wore on it was time to venture out after some heavy hearted goodbyes; an amazing groove at Planet Helix, and a successful launch for the new record, hopefully to be repeated!

10/10 – Record
15/10 – Hospitality and Welcome

Read the earlier interview DutchMetalManiac’s Alessandro did with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer here.

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The post Pre-release party review: Brian Vollmer at Planet Helix, London, ON, Canada, October 27th, 2017 appeared first on DutchMetalManiac.

Aptly named after doing over 300 shows a year for many years and recently coming off the 2017 Sweden Rock Fest, these lads delivered a high energy heavy metal cascade, and, playing all the hits I hoped for, live.

Lead vox Brian Vollmer howled out their best metal anthems like When The Hammer Falls and of course Rock You and Dirty Dog with true vocal precision, the voice not having changed in years, probably due to his professional ‘Bel Canto’ training and living a clean, not so rock n roll lifestyle these days..well maybe a little.

The guitarist duo of Kaleb Duck and Chris Julke hammered their axes with wild abandon, coming up close to the audience and driving their guitars forward at us, showing us that we all have only about 6 Strings, 9 Lives left, so we had best make use of them! Bassist Daryl Gray, sporting the infamous HELIX bass, and drummer Greg “Fritz” Hinz, the backbone of the animal, relentless and thundering with a welcome drum solo that sounding like machine gun fire.

The eventual slowdowns of Deep Cuts the Knife and Make Me Do (Anything You Want) gave them a bit of a respite while getting some avid fans up and moving (I know, NOT the fast tunes?!?) much to the chagrin of the venue’s ushers who were eventually lulled into letting some people rock out.

We were also treated to a rare, archived song Danger Zone, from the-oh so missed guitarist Paul Hackman, days. A sounding rocker and hoping to be on a B-side somewhere!

A host of other hits (in no particular order) The Kids Are All Shakin’, Even Jesus (Wasn’t Loved In His Hometown), No Rest for the Wicked, Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’ and probably their most popular and successful, Heavy Metal Love resounded with cheers and appreciative applause from us old rocks, er rockers.

Awesome metal show lads!

After a brief beertermission, Lee Aaron, The Metal Queen was amazing us with her near identical pitched vox and incredible onstage sensuality that hasn’t changed. She gives women’s empowerment a makeover every time she hits the stage and her songs and career are a testament to that.

While experimenting over the years with metal, blues/jazz and pop rock, she and her tight knit band, backboned by her drummer husband, claimed her roots here in Brampton, writing songs in her basement years ago, to the applause of proud Bramptonians.

Hits such as Tom Boy and Hands On may not be the shrieking metal indicative of our beloved blog but these metal roots are important. Her band was tight and expert and the hammering guitars of Sean Kelly (of Metal On Ice fame) made even pop songs like Whatcha Do To My Body sound metal.

There was a bonus for us that she played a track, unreleased from her new upcoming LP. (Not Fire and Gasoline). Diamond Baby, an amazing soulful rocker that shows her musical adaptability to almost any genre. Check the tracklist!

Lee is happy and extremely active onstage, talks with everyone and is always up for a laugh. She has been getting into music debuts as two male fans were treated to screaming (not badly either) Whatcha Do To My Body at stage left. (I made my debut thusly at Metal On Ice sound check. Story for another time). As well, a longtime female fan of about 30 years got to intro the song, and it was amped!

This was the first time ever seeing Metal Queen live and it was an excellent metal pounder that holds true in the metal world today. A powerful voice propelled it to the back of the theatre and we all sang along.

Lee Aaron has reinvented herself and her band and has exposed many generations to many genres; influencing many including the metal world, even while not intentionally attempting to be “metal”. This performance would do any metal scene justice and the intensity and power of the performance from the entire band was palpable; we all felt it.

Keep up the 10/10 performances, both of you!

Read the interview DutchMetalManiac’s Alessandro did with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer here.

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The post Live review: Helix and Lee Aaron at Rose Theatre, Brampton, ON, Canada, October 26th, 2017 appeared first on DutchMetalManiac.

After seeing them many times, taking some personal pics and creating a Helix shrine of cool signed memorabilia and personalized, rare items, he got the chance to do a live phone interview with the leading man of Helix – Brian Vollmer himself! It wasn’t long but it was intense and a wealth of information for those starting a band and those who are veterans of the music wars!

Helix is still a metal force to be reckoned with; still performing live across Canada and overseas and with several of their newer releases. 2014’s fully new track listed Bastard of the Blues and 2016’s Rock It Science, a compilation of hits with one new song, (Gene Simmons Says) Rock Is Dead, it brings their total, including solo and compilation and live albums, to at least 25!

Read on! – There’s a surprise at the end!

Brian, I am so honoured to be invited to talk with you live at Planet Helix, your home. Thank you so much!

Hey, thank you for the interview, this is great!

Wow. Can’t believe I’m talking to the lead singer of the “Hardest Working Band in Canada” as is said in your book Gimme an R. You’re still working harder than ever; solo albums, a cool, festive green vinyl single, All I Want for Christmas (Is the Leafs to Win the Cup) (side note: good luck with that one, Brian…lol!) newest record Rock It Science… can you tell us of your upcoming tour?

Well, we have shows in St. John’s Newfoundland October 21st then in Brampton October 26th with Lee Aaron and then October 28th in Oshawa.

Lee Aaron The Metal Queen! No way! I saw and met you all at Metal On Ice, organized so well by Sean Kelly, of Nelly Furtado and Crash Kelly fame. It was amazing. Lee signed my shirt…with me in it, right on my chest!

(Vollmer laughs)

What’s your best, favorite heaviest, Helix album?

Well they all are, really. Albums are a labour of love, they’re like my children. You produce them and then you see them grow and then you have to let them go. But if I had to choose it would be No Rest For the Wicked (1983). The single Heavy Metal Love from that album did really well.

I’m lovin’ the new single and video (Gene Simmons says) Rock is Dead – hilarious! So IS rock dead? Has Gene contacted you about this?

(laughs) No, rock isn’t dead. Of course, that’s not what the song was about. As long as someone picks up a guitar, someone will play metal for a variety of reasons, not just money. And no, he hasn’t contacted me but… (slight pause).. he’s seen it, I’m sure he’s seen it (chuckles).

So, tell me of some of the metal influences you’ve had.

Pretty much what everyone was listening to at the time. Lemmy of Motorhead said you’re influenced by the first bands you listen to. He was also always a gentleman and did it purely for the love of the music. Also, Danko Jones for sure and Danko will be singing on my new solo album Get Yer Hands Dirty!

Whoa! A new album. What the… I have not heard of this!

Yea! My new solo project, Get Yer Hands Dirty, available by pre-sale. It’ll be on CD as well as vinyl.

THAT is so cool! Well I hope to see you with Lee Aaron on the 26th! I want to thank you so much for speaking with us and….

(SURPRISE HERE!)

Hey, .listen…(slight pause)…why don’t you come to the pre-release party here in London next week?

(stunned silence). Umm, you’re inviting me to Planet Helix?

(laughs) Yea, it’ll be a great time. Just email me and I’ll send details.

Oh, wow thank you so much, that’s an honour. Thanks so much for your precious creative time and we’ll see you at the show!

Thank you!

Is there anything else you’d like to say to our DutchMetalManiac readers?

Yea, Buy the records, keep buying the records and support your bands!

——————————————————————————————————————–

As of this writing, Alessandro has quit his job and will be going for a week of rock n roll mayhem. An exclusive invite for DutchMetalManiac to the home of the legendary Brian Vollmer, frontman of Helix! He will be reporting on this tour as it happens…stay tuned!

You need to grab once in a lifetime opportunities; there are other jobs!

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The post Interview: Helix appeared first on DutchMetalManiac.