 Photo: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Next up were new competitors Burdizzo. This band features our friend Miko Zolefrapandis from Blackcloud Syndicate on vocals, and it's his grindcore band. They experienced a couple of sound issues before and during their set, especially with the bass, but it all got resolved. When I looked at their setlist and saw 14 songs written out, I thought for sure that they had to be really short songs because they only had 25 minutes, and they were. Some songs were as long as 20 seconds, no kidding. The longest song had to be about a minute and a half. I could be wrong, I'm just estimating. Their sound wasn't exactly the best, but the energy was undeniable. Photo: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Fourth up were 2016 competitors Centuries Of Decay. and who I felt were the tightest band of the night, with Teach Her Treason coming in second. After seeing them for the first time at the last battle, I felt that they should've advanced from the qualifying round they participated in. However, they managed to emerge victorious this time around. They were the only band of the night to have two guitars. All the other bands had one guitar. Their musicianship is what really stood out. Their last song was about 10 minutes long and contained odd time signatures, and the musician in me is always attracted to that. They impressed back in 2016, and they impressed again this time. The only issue was that it was hard to hear the vocals in certain sections of songs. I look forward to seeing them again! Photo: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com | Written & photographed by: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Guest judges: Salman Syed (Bangalore Open Air, Metal Battle India) Craig Rose (ROSE management) Dylan Gowan (Vesperia) And so it begins and it is back, folks! After taking 2017 off, Wacken Metal Battle Canada has returned! The rounds out in Calgary have already begun, but Toronto had its first round take place at the Bovine Sex Club on February 9th. Fans braved the cold and the snowy roads and sidewalks to see a great lineup of bands and to see who will be chosen as the first band to represent Toronto in the Ontario finals next month. Instead of getting 5 qualifying rounds like in the past, Toronto has only three rounds this time around as Ottawa and Hamilton are cities competing in this year's edition and they make up the last two rounds for the Ontario edition. This also happened to be my first show of 2018. This year's Ontario edition also sees both a bunch of returning competitors as well as new ones. Now, let's get down to the night's festivities. Having the difficult task of kicking off the night were returning competitors Vodnik, who I had the great opportunity of seeing at the 2016 battle. I remember them being really energetic back then and they didn't make it different this time. If I had to describe their sound, it would be groove metal with a tinge of hardcore. Frontman Reinier Viktor Vandenbosch stomped the stage with a lot of fury, it looked like he wanted to bust a hole through the stage. He did have a bit of a hard time getting some activity going in the crowd though, and he did seem a bit bothered by that, but he handled it well. Except for a few sparse headbangs, there wasn't any moshing. Photo: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Third up was Teach Her Treason. They were one of the better bands in terms of sound and performance. You could hear the Pantera influence in their sound and Mike Boudreau's vocals resembled Phil Anselmo's to an extent. Their music was full of groove and it got more than a few heads bobbing and feet tapping. Their sound was pretty well balanced, making it easy to hear each instrument clearly, as opposed to one or two other instruments' volumes dominating over the others. Great performance guys! Photo: Alex Stojanovic (C)2018 All Rights Reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Closing out the night were 2015 competitors Black Absinthe. The cool thing about these guys is that Jack Cerre had a little head microphone, making it easier for him to headbang and move around while singing. I found that Kyle Scarlett's bass was turned up a little too much, even though the volume balance was even. They were the only band of the night to have any type of moshing going on in the crowd. A small handful of the band's supporters showed their appreciation for them by playing air guitar during the solo sections, singing along, moshing and a couple of them even went as far as attempting to crowd surfing, but those attempts didn't last long, as they were stopped by security within seconds. |
| VODNIK Reinier Viktor Vandenbosch - Vocals Jeremy Jackson - Guitars Brandon Lucking - Bass Vince Anastasi - Drums Label: Unsigned Website: www.vodnik.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/VodnikMusic TEACH HER TREASON James Sessford - Guitars Mike Boudreau - Vocals Ben Blue - Drums Robb Marchildon - Bass Label: Unsigned Website: www.reverbnation.com/teachhertreason www.facebook.com/teachhertreason BLACK ABSINTHE Jack Cerre - Guitars & vocals Austin Henderson - Drums Kyle Scarlett - Bass Label: Unsigned Website: http://blackabsinthe.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/blackabsintheband | BURDIZZO Miko Zolefrapandis - Vocals Sophokles Theodoru - Guitars Dave Whelan - Bass Fareed Shah - Drums & vocals Label: Unsigned Website: www.facebook.com/BurdizzoGrind CENTURIES OF DECAY Devin Doucette - Lead vocals & guitars Rob McAllister - Guitars & vocals Derrick Doucette - Drums Matt Hems - Bass Label: Unsigned Website: www.centuriesofdecay.com www.facebook.com/CenturiesOfDecay
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