• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Another six bands on this second night of Montreal Metalfest V. Already, the Medley is, in my opinion, a better venue than the Foufounes Électriques, so that's a good point :). The show started with Water Depth, a power metal act from Chicoutimi, Quebec. They seemed pretty good, but the sound was so bad that it was kind of hard to say, unfortunately. Montreal's Decayed Remains suffered with the same problem, the sound becoming somewhat good only during the last song of each set. Not exactly unexpected for the opening bands of such a big show, but a little irritating.

Deep followed with much better sound (still needing improvement though...) I thought they were very good, living up to my expectations as I had previously heard that they were a very good live act. CD's on order :).

Babylon Whores followed. Oh boy, did that suck or what. The vocalist's stage presence is irritating at best, with just his upper body moving as if he was a badly-designed robot. He even lighted a cigarette and started smoking while on stage. I don't know if that's supposed to be cool or something, but judging by the reaction of people around me, I wasn't the only one who thought he looked like a complete idiot. Oh well, maybe the guys were just having a bad night.

Shadows Fall was next. They seemed to be better known that the other bands and put on a very good live act. Musically, I still prefer Deep, but this was pretty good. One question to the vocalist though: What's with the hair?

Finally, headliner King Diamond was ready to enter the stage, to the great relief of a lot of people who, like me, think that there are too many bands at those metalfests (you have to be there to understand this...) As I had read in previous reviews, the King Diamond set was pretty theatrical, with a female dancer coming on stage during some songs and offering a very well-appreciated performance. Her dancing was very well adapted to the songs, I was actually surprised to see how much this added to a song, compared to a normal live interpretation. A good number of songs from House Of God were played, along with quite a few classics, the usual crowd pleasers! King Diamond and his musicians gave an excellent performance, making us forget that we had been there for hours, sometimes suffering through lousy sets, in an again-too-warm venue with fucking warm beer.