The pale skin of tens of thousands of metalheads who are spread through the sprawling festival grounds of Parc Jean-Drapeau is bronzing in the August sun .
The black band t-shirts that are so standard among fans of heavy music offer little protection against UV rays , and if those assembled would prefer weather that matches the gloominess of the music on display at day one of the annual Heavy Montreal festival , they don ’ t let on . After all , sunny weather is drinking weather and , judging by the lines at the various beer tents , many thousands of litres of suds are being sacrificed to the sun gods .
Away from the hordes crowding around the main stage where Meshuggah ( a Swedish band with a Yiddish name . Metal can be bizarrely multicultural .) is growling their way through their set , the short hiatus of Moneen is ending .
“ We are not a heavy metal band !” singer Kenny Bridges is warning the crowd . “ You will not hear any heavy metal music from us !”
Indeed , the progressive-leaning emopunk of Moneen is not , in any way , heavy metal . Neither is the skate-punk of Strung Out . While Warrant and Dokken might technically be metal , they have almost nothing in common sonically with Venom Inc . or Gojira . The variety is part of the festival ’ s effort to rebrand itself as a big tent for all loud , guitar-driven music . ( It took me an embarassingly long time to figure out that the old name , Heavy MTL , was meant to reference both the city it took place in and the type of music on display .)
Before Moneen ’ s grand finale , Bridges takes a minute to acknowledge that their set , while exciting , is not the reunion that has been generating the most buzz . “ As soon as we ’ re done here , we ’ re gonna go check out Alexisonfire ,” he announces to wild cheering . With that , he and his bandmates tear into a rousing rendition of the closest thing the cult band has to a hit , “ The Passing of America .”
It ’ s a fitting song for the festival , given that other than some prominent spots for acts like Alexisonfire and Billy Talent , there is nothing particularly Canadian about it . Korn , Faith No More , and Slipknot , the headliners , are all American . Not that it ’ s a bad thing . Metal has always been about annihilating borders , be they musical or geographical . But the question lingers – how strong is the Canadian metal scene in 2015 ?
It all depends on who you ask ... and how you define metal .
“ I love it when it rains , man . Without the rain , I don ’ t write anything . This summer shit …”
Sitting at a picnic table in the backstage media tent at Heavy , Devin Townsend is not thrilled with the weather conditions . His bald head , glasses , hoodie , and shorts give him the appearance of a college professor on holiday at a summer camp for grownups . It ’ s hard to believe that just hours earlier , he ’ d been on one of Heavy ’ s side stages with his Devin Townsend Project .
It ’ s even harder to believe that this was his first ever appearance at the festival , which has been going on for eight years ( though there was no 2009 edition ). Despite fronting DTP and Strapping Young Lad , he ’ s simply never been asked to play here before .
He doesn ’ t seem surprised , though . Looking back at his career , which has featured unconventional turns such as puppet shows , he felt like he never fit into the whole metal scene .
“ Maybe there ’ s an elitism that comes with metal in some ways ,” he says . “ In my own small way I ’ ve encountered it where , even in the beginning , if I did something with Strapping that has some humour involved in it , or I do a new age-y record , or I do some puppet show bullshit , and I think there ’ s a real strict parameter that ’ s been subscribed to metal more than other genres .”
It ’ s not that Townsend has something against Canada ; he literally has the country ’ s name tattooed across his leg . And it ’ s not that he doesn ’ t believe there is a strong scene . It ’ s just that , despite being one of the most recognized metal guys to come out of Canada in the past few decades , he doesn ’ t automatically get a seat at the cool kids table .
“ The punk scene in Vancouver was great ,” says Townsend . “ Not that I do that , but that ’ s the scene my friends were in . I loved it . It was funny . It was so much more fun than the metal scene . Everyone was getting laid and no one had to play that well to play at a party .”
The punk / metal dichotomy that Townsend mentions is one of those great music cliches . You ’ re punk or you ’ re metal and nary the two shall meet ( unless you ’ re Motorhead ) despite sharing a fashion sense and music aesthetic that is pretty much indistinguishable to non-fans . ( Just ask my Dave Matthews-worshipping brother if he can tell the difference between Black Flag and Anthrax . He can ’ t . Trust me .)
But that ’ s old news . The same stage that Townsend played on at Heavy also featured Dead Tired , the new hardcore band fronted by George Pettit of Alexisonfire , as well as Montrealers Dig It Up , whose growled vocals could pass in a metal band but whose riffs are unmistakably punk rock and roll .
Their presence at Heavy is evidence that the scene is getting more inclusive . In the great documentary Metal : A Headbanger ’ s Journey , Canadian filmmaker Sam Dunn uses charts to illustrate the splintering of hard rock – metal , power metal , thrash , doom , black , etc . It ends up a gigantic mess of genres with only slight differences between one and the other . But now , even something as different as pure punk is getting brought into the fold . The days of a post-hardcore band looking down on a post-grindcore band are coming to an end .
“ Everybody ’ s sick of ‘ it ’ s rock music or it ’ s punk music ,’” says Dig It Up vocalist Mike Rokos . “ I personally prefer that . When I started out and even now , it was never , ‘ We ’ re gonna play with this band that sounds exactly like us .’ It ’ s great that we get to play with diverse bands .”
In a way , that inclusiveness makes for a better scene on the local level . Booking shows with friends who play something a bit different from you is more fun than having to seek out guys you don ’ t know who share a similar aesthetic . And it ’ s easier to go out to a show to support a friend ’ s band than a stranger with a similar record collection out of some form of metalhead solidarity .
The cross-pollination might be making metal more open to other genres , but the opposite is rarely true . Committed hard rockers are easy to spot and eager to stand by their roots . It can make it hard to fit into polite society . Jason Rockman is one of the exceptions . Rockman could not look more metal if he tried . With his sleeves of tattoos and bald head , he looks exactly how you ’ d picture the singer for a band called Slaves on Dope .
But Rockman has branched out in re cent years . He ’ s started a second career as a DJ for Montreal ’ s CHOM FM and CJAD AM and has even taken a dip into hosting TV shows .
That ’ s not to say he has given up on hard rock . As we spoke , finishing touches were being put on the newest SoD album . But he has slowed down on the touring in the past decade , something he attributes to the birth of his son .
“ It still is hard sometimes , some people still think of me as the metal guy or the hard rock guy , even at CHOM ,” he says . “ I think there ’ s a lot more to me than that .”
He ’ s definitely versatile . While CHOM is a rock station , I ’ ve witnessed Rockman interviewing people like Josh Groban with the same intensity he would dedicate to James Hetfield . But he still has a very special place in his heart for loud , aggressive rock and he tries to bring that to his audience .
“ If a song is good , we ’ ll get it on air . I got Mastodon on air ,” he said . “ If you write a good song , you can get played on radio .”
While that might be true , it seems that now , more than ever , metal is outside of mainstream tastes . Even in the ‘ 90s and early 2000s , most mainstream rock bands had a sound that was vaguely similar to their thrashier counterparts . Marshall stacks and Gibson Les Pauls were still standard issue . But now , a so-called rock band with a major hit is just as likely to have a mandolin instead .
CANADIAN MUSICIAN • [ 43 ]