Heavy Montreal Day 2 recap (Body Count, Twisted Sister, Slayer and more)
Heavy Montreal
August 9-10
Parc Jean-Drapeau
Following up a blistering Metallica set before a massive crowd of 40,000 is no easy task, so day 2 of Heavy Montreal got off to a quiet start, with the likely hungover throngs slowly trekking back to the festival grounds throughout the day.
Body Count’s Ice-T @ Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
Body Count was easily the highlight of the afternoon, making a rare Montreal appearance. Fronted by legendary MC / Law & Order star Ice-T, the band ran through a tight-set of hip-hop inspired hardcore from their classic self-titled LP, through to this year’s surprisingly good Manslaughter. Ice-T and co. are playing things up for laughs at this point, with new tracks like “Bitch in the Pit” and “Talk Shit Get Hit,” and with Ice’s proclamation that Manslaugher is a concept album about the “pussification” of the modern man, but their set was still one of the hardest-hitting of the day. After imploring the crowd to “rise for the Canadian National Anthem,” the band launched into “Cop Killer,” closing out their short set with the infamous ’92 single. Check out a slideshow from the band’s set below.
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- Body Count live @ Heavy Montreal 2014.
Hatebreed are a metal festival fixture by this point, and the band delivered a pretty standard set of their metal-core self-help tracks. With Ice-T and his wife / reality-TV co-star Coco watching from the sidelines, frontman Jamey Jasta did his best to whip the crowd into a frenzy, resorting to tired Ozzy Osbourne banter pitting the left and right sides of the audience to jump around and stomp each other. That said, a line like “Anyone standing still is a Kanye West fan,” is a pretty sure-fire way to get a metal crowd moving.
Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
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- Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
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- Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
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- Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
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- Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
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- Twisted Sister at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
Fucked Up at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler.
Toronto’s Fucked Up drew a small but appreciative crowd to the “Apocalypse” side-stage, located in a secluded wooded area of the grounds. While the band is known to get pretty high-concept on record, live they might as well be back playing basements, with frontman Damian Abraham shirtless and running through the crowd, paying no heed to minor inconveniences like barricades and security.
Abraham’s wireless mic gave him the freedom to literally run through the woods while the rest of the band remained locked in-step onstage, providing the lighting guy a hell of a challenge as he snuck through the dark crowd. Abraham spent most of the set a good 30-feet from the stage, hugging fans, sneaking up and singing behind someone texting in the crowd, and even spinning one of the local masked wrestling guys over his shoulders. The band closed their set with with “Police,” still the best (and simplest) song they’ve ever written, after which a shirtless Abraham couldn’t seem to help but roll completely in the muddy grounds, proving that punk is still a dirty business.
Slayer’s Kerry King at Heavy Montreal 2014. Photo by Gabriel Sigler
Truthfully, Slayer have been a bit hit-or-miss in a live setting over the last decade, with much riding on the strength of frontman Tom Araya’s voice. Fortunately, he was in fine form this night, and the band ripped through an amazing set of mostly early material before a massive crowd. With Exodus guitarist Gary Holt filling in for the late Jeff Hanneman, the band essentially performed their classic 1992 Decade of Aggression live album, with a few minor substitutions. Flanked by four huge upside-down crosses, they tore through tracks like “War Ensemble,” and early 80’s thrash cuts like “Captor of Sin” with a level of intensity pretty remarkable for a band that’s been performing consistently for 30 years.
After landing two of the biggest metal bands in the world, it will be interesting to see where Heavy Montreal can go from here. The organizers took a number of chances this year, ditching the previous Heavy MTL designation, and with it the inherent understanding that this would be a strictly metal festival. With record attendance, and a more diverse line-up, those gambles obviously paid off in spades. Hopefully the festival continues to push the boundaries of just what constitutes “Heavy,” which would ensure at least a few more welcome curveballs in the future.
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