Loud As Hell, Broke As Fuck: A Weekend At Drumheller's Loud As Hell Festival

August 4-6^th, 2017

“Loud As Hell, Drunk As Fuck” seems to be the official moniker for this fantastic metal festival held just outside Drumheller, AB. Even the little kids in attendance were shouting this with fervor by the end of the weekend, probably much to the dismay of their teachers when asked what they did over the summer when it’s time to go back to school. Anyways, if you’re in Western Canada and looking for a festival to hit up, this is the one to check out. I’ve been to a few Western Canadian festivals (with plans to check out a few others in the future), and Loud As Hell is my favourite.

The venue is perfectly suited to this kind of event. With an indoor stage, it doesn’t matter if it’s pouring rain. Which, like all festivals, it’s almost guaranteed to do. The indoor venue also provides a welcome relief from the sun and actually remains a pretty reasonable temperature even when packed with sweaty moshers. There’s plenty of room for vendors to set up and the band merch table was well stocked and well-run by volunteers. A second small stage allowed for short clinics by some of the musicians and various talks from industry professionals such as promoters. The festival grounds provide plenty of space for tents and for those camping with motorhomes and trailers, as well as easy entry and exit if you choose to make the quick trip into Drumheller to grab something you forgot, to have a shower, or to check out all the neat stuff the town has to offer. Of course you can drink your own booze in the camping areas, but alcohol inside the venue was also reasonably priced with a decent selection if you didn’t want to miss out on any of the action.

Friday night saw a torrential rainstorm come through the area. Most people seemed prepared with raincoats and waterproof footwear, which is a must considering the ground around Drumheller doesn’t absorb water and quickly turns into a greasy mud pit. (Kudos to the festival staff who somehow managed to keep the floor inside the venue clean despite pounds of mud being tracked in). Edmonton thrashers Mortillery and death metallers Eye Of Horus were the highlights of the night for me, with Eye of Horus filling in last minute for a band that was unable to make it.

Saturday morning dawned spectacularly foggy for anyone who was up early enough to witness it. I never thought I’d be complaining about humidity in Drumheller, but Saturday proved to be sunny and humid, which didn’t stop the party from continuing. With plenty of great and varied bands on the bill, there was something for everyone. I tried to check out as many as I could, enjoying The Lucifer Project and Tyrant’s Demise in the early evening. Travelling from Winnipeg, it’s bands like Tyrant’s Demise (and the fans who also travel hours to festivals) that prove that the Western Canadian metal scene is alive and well. Taking the party into the later stages of the evening, The Order of Chaos and Planet Eater both played great sets. They were followed by a performance from Permafrost Suspensions, which if you like things to get a little strange (a relative term, I might add) and aren’t squeamish, was worth checking out. The headliner of the night, Vancouver’s mighty thrash veterans, Aggression, played a blistering set, leaving me half deaf for the rest of the weekend. A reasonable crowd stuck around until after three in the morning to enjoy an impressive range of eighties metal covers performed by Shocker. Seriously, any band that plays a WASP cover and nails it is good in my books.

Sunday saw more than a few hangovers, and plenty of people still ready to drink more booze and enjoy more great metal. Dead Asylum proved to be my favourite ‘undiscovered’ band of the weekend. Scythia played a set that was very different to any of the other sets I’ve witnessed them perform, bringing Brian Langley (better known as the vocalist of Aggression) on stage to play guitar for a few songs. I’d bet some of us didn’t previously know that he actually played in Scythia for a short time. To cap off the weekend, Battlecross finished the night to a packed house. Flying in to play, they managed to re-energize a crowd that had just spent the entire weekend drinking, partying and headbanging.

Overall, I can’t say enough about how well organized and smoothly run Loud As Hell was. The venue was fantastic, the volunteers did an amazing job and the bands played outstanding sets. Although I’m now completely broke (hence the title of this post), Loud As Hell was worth every nickel spent.

Twelve Thrash Albums That Have Stuck With Me

This list was spawned by a post circulating Facebook regarding the ten albums (of any genre) that have stuck with you, for whatever reason. A friend suggested creating one consisting of just thrash albums, and this is mine in no particular order:

1. Metallica - Kill 'Em All
2. Annihilator - Alice In Hell
3. Destruction - Day Of Reckoning
4. Kreator - Pleasure To Kill
5. Slayer - Reign In Blood
6. Sodom - M16
7. Tankard - A Girl Called Cerveza
8. Overkill - The Electric Age
9. Death Angel - The Dream Calls For Blood
10. Possessed - Seven Churches (more of a mix of death and thrash)
11. Aggression - The Full Treatment
12. Nervosa - Agony

Farmageddon Open Air 2015 : My Thoughts

The following will be a summary of my thoughts regarding Farmageddon Open Air 2015. I felt as though I should leave the reviews up to the professionals this time. Honestly, I didn’t take in the festival to the extent I felt that I should have in order to write a ‘review’. The last month of my life has been hectic, resulting in a feeling of exhaustion before I even made it to Farmageddon. Certainly not the best precursor to a weekend of beer and metal. I’m still recovering from the cold I caught over the weekend. Discombobulated thoughts, and some misguided advice follow: 

Edmonton Kick-Off Show

• Körperlose Stimme played an excellent set. This was their first show I have been able to catch, but am definitely hoping to see them again. The kick-off was also the first time the band has played live since vocalist Verteidigung was pregnant. I was certainly impressed.
• Ironstorm, with Farmageddon founder Tyson Travnik on drums, also played a solid set. I believe the last time I saw this band, they had a different vocalist (although I could be wrong on this point).
• Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I thoroughly enjoy BLËED. Although the album release was pushed back to a later date, BLËED still delivered with all the ferocity one can expect from this band. After returning from the Wacken Metal Battle Final in Toronto, it was disappointing to see that barely anyone hung around to watch. 
• I enjoyed the wonderfully sticky, slightly off-color ‘murder babies’ and all of the jokes that came with them. I’m glad I was one of the few who stayed to watch.

Farmageddon

• The weather turned out to the be the sore point of the weekend. I was optimistic that a forecast of rain might materialize into rain showers, or very little rain, but that wasn’t the case. At least, not for Saturday and most of Sunday. 
• I wish I would have managed to get my gazebo tarped. At least it would have provided respite from the rain in between sets. Mesh isn’t the best water deterrent. 
• Mesh also does not stand up to grease fires on a camp stove. (Although I was not the one who created the grease fire...)
• Friday night, and the camp set-up quickly turned into an utterly hilarious beer fest. 
• The camping and stage areas were significantly different from 2014. This year, the camping area was clearly distinguishable from the stage area. While I preferred last year’s set up, I understand that it would not have been possible to have the same set-up again.
• AGLC rules making the stage area a no-smoking zone, free from outside alcohol, sucked. Again, from the perspective of the organizers, it was an understandable necessity. 
• Idolatry played a good set of pure black metal on Friday evening, bringing the darkness with them. 
• I once again managed to miss most of Villainizer between eating donairs and deciding I was drunk enough that I should probably find my tent before it disappeared into the vast sea of tents. Another lesson reinforced: a donair cannot be eaten while drunk without making a massive mess. Which you will not notice until the next morning.
• Apparently you cannot leave beer unguarded outside your tent, even if it clearly is inside your cooler, or inside your gazebo. The beer goblins will strike. 
• Unlike some others, I was lucky enough to stay warm and dry while inside my tent. That, combined with a bit of social anxiety and a general attitude of unfounded irritation probably explained why I spent most of Saturday evening hiding in my tent. 
• I did not end up watching a single full set on Saturday. Which was a disappointment, especially considering I didn’t even venture out to watch Incantation, whom I was really looking forward to. At least they sounded good from inside my tent. 
• The weather made me seriously consider buying some good hunting/outfitting rain gear. I have decided this will be my next major purchase in order to make a rainy festival experience more enjoyable. 
• I should have dug my camera out to capture some of the moments, but I didn’t. 
• The donair truck, while a bit overpriced, was awesome. The fish and chips truck was fantastic. I really enjoyed being able to get a fresh, warm meal that I didn’t have to cook, and that did not consist of burgers or hot dogs. 
• Seagulls, seagulls and more seagulls on Sunday morning. I woke up to the sound of bird shit bombarding my tent. Which is more funny than it should be, considering it always seems to be my vehicle or tent that gets shit on by birds. At least the seagulls didn’t get me. 
• Aggression was phenomenal, inciting enough headbanging to make my neck sore for the next several days. While I had heard of these Canadian thrash pioneers, I hadn’t given them much of a listen. They played one of the most energetic, enjoyable sets I’ve seen recently. 
• Grim Reaper closed the festival on Sunday evening, and what an amazing choice to close a festival. The Brits played to a crowd who enjoyed every moment, and they certainly seemed to feed off the energy themselves. Steve Grimmet cracked a few hilarious jokes throughout the night. The cover of Dio’s ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ might go down as one of the most heartfelt, almost-magical, tribute moments I’ve ever witnessed at any concert or festival. 
• The attendance seemed to be double, or more, of what it was last year. While the vast majority of people were incredibly well behaved, I hope continued growth doesn’t attract the kind of people that detract from the enjoyment of the festival for those of us who manage to have fun without being idiots. 

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who put in an unimaginable amount of hard work to make Farmageddon possible. It is much appreciated to have an event of this calibre so close to home.