Written by Amina Abdelwahab
Photography by Robert Singh


(C) 2019 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com

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@ Coalition
January 25, 2019
Toronto, ON, Canada

COMPETING BANDS

Psychotic Pulse
Chainfall
Experiment Specimen

GUEST HEADLINER

Profaner

GUEST JUDGES

Craig Rose (ROSE Management)
Tal Vaisman (Producer, ex-Hammercult)
Aaron Price (Metal Injection, Five Magics Music)

​SUPERCHUCKER
Photo credit:  Alex Stojanovic    /    (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com

​THE SLYDE
Photo credit:  Alex Stojanovic    /    (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com

​And so it begins!  Wacken Metal Battle Canada is back for its sixth edition in 2019!  With each year, the competition continues to expand to other cities across the country, and this year, Kelowna and Halifax have been added to the list of competing cities.  The other big change with the 2019 battle is that the national final will be taking place in Calgary, which is only fair as Toronto has been the host of the national finals in each of the previous battles.  This year, Toronto had the pleasure of officially kicking off the festivities, with the first of only two preliminary rounds and the very first show of the 2019 edition taking place on a cold Friday night on January 18th at the Bovine Sex Club (my least favourite venue in all of Toronto, sorry!).  The amount of bands competing had also been scaled down once again from four to three.  There were four bands playing:  three competitors and a guest headliner.

Kicking off the night were Toronto hard rockers Superchucker.  Their sound was in the vein of classic hard rock and metal, and they started the party off with some cool mid-tempo rocking tunes.  Vocalist Dave Barrett's vocals resembled Ronnie James Dio's a little bit.  What also stood out about him was his appearance.  He had the biker look with the black t-shirt, leather pants, leather vest and goatee.  Musically, the band was really tight, and their sound of classic sounding metal really enticed the crowd and set the bar high for the night.  I look forward to seeing them again sometime.

Up next were Ottawa progressive outfit The Slyde, who are also previous competitors from the very first edition in 2013.  This is a band I've never seen live, but I know about them because my buddy Alberto Campuzano is in the band.  All the bands were incredibly tight, but The Slyde were the tightest of all the bands.  The interplay between the guitar and the keyboards made for some fantastic harmonies that were complex, yet catchy.  The vocal harmonies were equally as potent as the music.  Right from the first note, the entire audience was enticed and the band delivered a memorable and mesmerizing performance.

​HOUNSKULL
Photo credit:  Alex Stojanovic    /    (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com

​MOKOMOKAI
Photo credit:  Alex Stojanovic    /    (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com

​SUPERCHUCKER

Steve Macpherson - Bass & backing vocals
Dave Barrett - Vocals
Shawn Pegg - Guitars
Rob Hassey - Drums
Starvros Theodorakopoulos - Guitars

Label:  Unsigned
Website:  www.facebook.com/Superchucker

THE SLYDE

Nathan Da Silva - Vocals & guitars
Sarah Westbrook - Keyboards
Alberto Campuzano - Bass & vocals
Andrew Suarez - Drums & vocals (filling in for Brendan Soares)

Label:  Unsigned
Website:  www.theslyde.com
www.facebook.com/theslydecanada

​HOUNSKULL

Kyle White - Vocals & bass
Alex Tamo - Guitars
Nathan Fernandez - Drums

Label:  Unsigned
Website:  www.hounskull.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/Hounskull

MOKOMOKAI (GUEST HEADLINER)

John Ellis - Guitars & vocals
Jeremy Pastic - Bass
Bobby Deuce - Guitars
JJ Tartaglia - Drums

Label:  Unsigned
Website:  www.mokomokai.bandcamp.com