SUPERCHUCKER Photo credit: Alex Stojanovic / (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com THE SLYDE Photo credit: Alex Stojanovic / (C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com The third and final competitors of the night were Mississauga traditional metal trio Hounskull. Many of their songs were long and mostly instrumental. There were vocals, but for the most part, they were instrumental. Their sound was a little similar to Superchucker's. The last song they played was roughly about 13 minutes long. I will say that even though the performance was exceptional, the repetition of certain parts in some of the songs made them a little tedious, but not entirely. If a couple of riffs or sections that were repeated were left out, it would've made the songs a lot more enjoyable. That's not a bash, because they played really well and the songs sounded great. It's just my honest opinion. Closing off the night were guest headliners Mokomokai, which feature Wacken Metal Battle Canada founder JJ Tartaglia on drums. The band's set lasted for nearly an hour, and consisted of roughly 13 songs. The band played really well and were well rehearsed. The only song in the set that I was familiar with was "Poison Whiptail". As they approached the end of their set, frontman John Ellis told a story of how it's difficult for him to find like-minded metalheads living in Peterborough, but during his first visit to Toronto, he walked into the Bovine one day and saw a whole bunch of metalheads, and it made him want to keep coming back. Following the story, they closed their set with a cover of Dio's "Holy Diver", bringing the night's performances to a close. It was a really close battle, but in the end, the winners of the night that would be moving on to the Southern Ontario finals at the Rivoli on March 2nd were The Slyde. Given their performance, they were a very very strong contender for advancing. Congratulations to them! | Written and photographed by Alex Stojanovic (C) 2019 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com @ Bovine Sex Club Toronto, ON, Canada January 18, 2019 COMPETING BANDS Superchucker The Slyde * Hounskull GUEST HEADLINER Mokomokai * winner GUEST JUDGES Ryan Hofing (Crimson Shadows) Dherryk Doucette (Centuries Of Decay) Ruslan Lypovsky (Profaner) 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 |