Heavy MTL review: day 2

As I arrived on site ready for a second day at Heavy MTL, I was quite pleased to see the sun was out. The crowd never seems to really mind a little rain but still, in my mind, outdoor festivities require sunlight and hot weather. That aside, there were some changes on-site overnight, namely the switch of the two main stages. I’m guessing this was to allow people who had access to the reserved seating area to not be at the other end when the main band of the night played, which was the case on day 1.

Photo courtesy of www.heavymtl.com

The general feel of the festival was pretty much the same, though I think it was a little more crowded throughout the day. Once again, I kind of went back and forth between the main stages and had conflicting schedules when there were actually bands I knew playing on the smaller Apocalypse Stage.

I started off my day with Blind Witness, a metalcore band from Granby who played their last show yesterday and really gave it their all. Protest The Hero was a band I really enjoyed watching, they were one of the bands of the scene that I actually listen to and I found they had a great stage presence. Other memorable moments include Gojira frontman jumping down in front of the crowd to high-five front row fans. I was also pleasantly surprised by Trivium because I really appreciated the mix of clean vocals into their sound.

Dillinger Escape Plan was also very entertaining. The band was full of energy, especially their singer who jumped right into the photographer pit during their first song to later on start climbing on the stage structures. They were a last-minute addition the the lineup and I think it was a great choice; everyone was really into it. They finished their set with some guitar-smashing and more climbing from the frontman. Their guitarist also jumped down to crowd-surf for a while before joining in on the circle pit action.

Suicidal Tendencies had the crowd pumped up and towards the end, they had a bunch of fans dancing along onstage. In Flames, another last-minute replacement, were welcomed with a bit of sunny rain and a huge double rainbow. Quite a sight to see!

Photo courtesy of www.heavymtl.com

Then there were the two main acts of the day : Marilyn Manson and Slipknot. I honestly did not know what to expect but I was blown away by both of them. Manson gave a great show, musically and visually. He also interacted constantly with the crowd, though it was sometimes hard to decipher his mumbling. Towards the end of his set, I had gone to sit at the benches, which gave a different perspective of the crowd and wow. Seeing Thousands of people fist-pumping in sync was something. Everyone was really into it. It’s also crazy how in this day and age, there are so many people who are there with their phone or camera in the air. You could really see it from my seat, it was like lit-up pixels throughout the sea of people.

Slipknot was also crazy. These guys know how to put on a show. Their light show was rather simple but it fit perfectly with everything they did and they also had pyrotechnics. One thing that had me hypnotized was this spinning and lifting percussion stand that was constantly moving while one of the guys was drumming away. Also, I was impressed earlier by the synchronized fist-pumping for Marilyn Manson but that was only a little more than half of the crowd in front of his stage. For Slipknot, it was the whole crowd, from right in front to all the way up the hill and on the benches. It was quite a sight to see. I actually had goosebumps. Another element that really impressed me was their emphasis on percussion; I sometimes had the feeling I was listening to a drum line in the background.

All in all, I was really impressed this weekend by a lot of the bands that I never really gave a chance to before.