Noctis Festival. For several years, those words have been synonymous with an underground metal festival surrounded by much hype and anticipation. With this year’s edition touted as the last Noctis, it felt like an obligation to go and check out what I’ve been missing for the last number of years. (The 2010 edition of Noctis is still something I feel as though should not have been passed up, due to Månegarm, Sodom and Metsatöll being in the line-up, but that is entirely personal preference.)
The event was hosted at the Ramada in downtown Calgary, which proved convenient in terms of the conferences and marketplace being in the same building in which many metal heads chose to reside for a few nights. The Ramada itself is not particularly impressive, being in need of a few updates and proving to be nothing special in terms of what you might expect from a hotel in a swanky downtown business district. Attempting to find any useful information about parking from hotel staff beforehand proved to be futile, making check-in and arrival more difficult than it needed to be. Thankfully I did not have my own vehicle, as I never would have fit into the hotel parkade. Another slight surprise came when we found out that parking was to be paid by night, which I have never encountered at any other hotel. The joke of the weekend truly became ‘riding the elevator’, as the hotel elevators seemed to have a mind of their own, frustrating many metal heads attempting to navigate between hotel rooms and the conferences. If you have never booked a room in this hotel, make sure you ask for a balcony, as we quickly discovered some rooms had them and some did not. Yet another bit of misinformation from the hotel staff. Enough about the hotel itself...
Unable to attend the first day of performances on Thursday night because of other obligations, I was somewhat excited to delve into the conferences on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately I missed Sam Dunn’s interview due to the hassle of finding parking, which was disappointing. Saturday’s conferences appeared engaging, but due to a visit to a shop in Calgary, I again missed both the ‘The Rise Of Women In Extreme Metal’ and the interview with Dan Swanö. Laina Dawes’ presentation, ‘A Black Woman’s Life And Liberation In Heavy Metal’ proved to be incredibly engaging, offering several interesting insights and candid thoughts. ‘The Many Faces Of Black Metal Fandom’, with Vivek Venkatesh, was another highlight of the conference component. Both Dawes and Venkatesh took an academic approach to their subject matter, crafted around personal experiences, and brought topics to the table that were thought provoking, had intensity and captivated their audiences. In all honesty, these topics could have been given more time, and the final topic of the day, ‘Are Women Running Metal?’ could have been shortened or eliminated altogether. My time would have been more enjoyably spent witnessing the legendary Gene Hoglan’s drum clinic, even though I lack any proficiency and knowledge based around drums. Somewhat harsh, but true.
The Metal Marketplace did not quite live up to my (high) expectations, but I was able to find a few small treasures. The gentlemen from Lock & Shock, far from their Californian home, were very helpful and brought some difficult to find merchandise. Kudos to them. Ragnar The Trader also had some unique, hand-crafted items. Vinyl collectors appeared to come away satisfied from the marketplace. Dan Seagrave, death metal artist extraordinaire, created a painting at his booth during the expo, making it interesting to pop in and out and witness the progress. The marketplace could have been made better with a few more vendors, but overall was alright.
The performances on Friday night were marred by attempting to grab something to eat, and a mix-up on the C-Train, causing the first two bands (and the only two of the night) that I was intent on seeing to be missed altogether. Not being familiar with several of the other bands, and not being a ‘trve’ black metal fan, I was content to spend most of the evening on the balcony of the Mac Hall Ballroom, heading back to the hotel early. The Mac Hall Ballroom itself proves to be an area of contention amongst show attendees, as several disparaging remarks about the venue were expressed. While the sound was much better both evenings than the previous time I had been there, no improvements to the beer gardens had been made and a few policies were in place that provided annoyance to numerous metal heads.
The bands on Saturday night were an entirely different experience with a line-up of heavy hitters and legends. Again, the choice had to be made between having dinner and missing the first few bands. With dinner winning out, and grabbing a beer at the venue, the night began with a one-song introduction to Sacrifice. Definitely not enough to form any kind of opinion other than noticing that the Mac Hall was packed in comparison to the previous evening.
Widely hailed as death metal innovators, Possessed took the stage next to a packed house. Active originally in the early to mid 1980’s, this American band brought a heaviness to extreme metal that could arguably only be seen in Slayer around the same time period. Highly influential to a number of other extreme bands with their album Seven Churches, Possessed played a blistering set with all the frantic drumming and guitar shredding that one could want, led by Jeff Becerra’s trademark guttural vocals. Some fans could be overheard saying that if Possessed had chosen to play the Seven Churches album in its brutal entirety, they would have been happy, but the band managed to mix in some new material with the old, sounding as purely death metal as one would expect. While it is unfortunate that this band took such a long hiatus until re-forming again, I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to have seen three of their sets in the last year. They were definitively the highlight of the entire Noctis festival for me.
Fitting in perfectly with some of the conference themes of the origins of heavy metal and women in heavy metal, British band Girlschool held the next performance slot. While several people seemed to take this as an opportunity to cram into the beer gardens, several others stayed to watch this NWOBHM band play. Active since 1978, they brought a more traditional feel to the evening, with some of their punk influence shining through on older songs. Hugely influential Swedish doom-metallers Candlemass were next. Personally not being a fan of doom metal, I was still quite impressed. Current vocalist, Mats Levén, changed my expectation for vocal style in a genre I’m largely unfamiliar with. The band played a well-orchestrated set to a packed house, moving the night forward with more excellence from legends. Coming off the very recent release of their newest album, Surgical Steel, British band Carcass were the headliners for the evening. Their discography encompasses bits and pieces from a number of metal sub-genres and this was evident in the songs chosen for the set. Again, not being terribly familiar with Carcass’s material but eager to see a legendary band, I found myself enjoying the musicianship on display. They proved to be a good choice of headliner for the last night of the Noctis festival.
Overall, Noctis was an interesting experience, although if it does (by some small chance) get carried into the future, I think I will still wait for line-ups I really ‘need’ to see, and perhaps attend only the concert portions to avoid blowing my weekend budget out of the water.
Check out the official Noctis site for more information about the event and various presenters at the conference:
