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.

Horror Review: Creature (2011)

Creature seems to have brought in numerous poor reviews, but I actually quite enjoyed the film. The storyline is alright, and the swampy setting of Louisiana is creepy enough in itself. There’s something about stereotypical backwoods folks and deep south swamps that make a good setting for all kinds of strange things to happen.

Like several entertaining horror movies, a group of friends finds themselves on a roadtrip, only to be enamored by a local legend of a creature named Lockjaw. Naturally, making a foray into the swamp to further investigate this creature, set up camp, drink booze, smoke weed and have sex seems like a good idea.  Again, pretty familiar themes in horror films, but this familiarity makes some films enjoyable (and others a little too cliché). Creature isn’t a difficult film to predict for the majority of the runtime. Lockjaw himself turns out to be a little cheesey looking, which I didn’t mind as it seemed like a bit of throwback to horror films of decades past. Although this was probably due to budget constrictions, it reminded me of a less well-done version of a creature such as Pumpkinhead.

While there a few places where the backstory and plot could use a little strengthening, Creature has a few unexpected twists for your typical monster horror film. Sid Haig makes an appearance in the film as one of the orchestrators of a plot to keep Lockjaw’s lineage going, and he plays the role well. One would probably expect no less as Haig always manages to play a good sociopathic creep. Many of the special effects in the film might be a little lame for audiences used to big budget, recent horror films but again, they reminded me of effects found in some of the eighties and early nineties classics. Creature’s ending even throws in a few twists that are atypical for a pretty predictable horror movie. While it certainly isn’t a brilliant film, I found Creature to be a very enjoyable flick to watch, full of creepy backstories, creepy characters, a creepy setting, a weird enough monster, and a nice amount of gore.

Worth Watching: Probably

Horror Review: Mark Of The Witch (2016)

Every once in a while, you find an ‘indie’ horror film that’s surprisingly good. This isn’t the case with Mark Of The Witch. Shot with ‘artsy’ camera angles and blurry effects, it made the film even more difficult to watch. There are so many black outs and random scene jumping that it feels like a bunch of barely-related clips thrown together in the hopes of making something brilliant. Apparently these are supposed to portray dream sequences, but the viewer is just left feeling perplexed. And not in a good way.

There’s very little to be found in the way of a plot. The protagonist is rather boring and the mysterious feeling that Mark Of The Witch is striving for is non-existent. Rather, it’s a confused jumble of poor writing and a totally underdeveloped plot. The main character, Jordyn, begins to feel as though she is two separate entities upon turning eighteen. There are only little hints in poorly written dialogue as to why this is occurring and what it has to do with witchcraft. It’s difficult to even discuss a plot when there isn’t one to discuss. Sometimes a compelling character can save even the worst horror film, but Mark Of The Witch falls short in this regard also. It’s incoherent, boring and dreadfully short of a masterpiece.

Worth Watching: Don’t Waste Your Time

Entrails Reveal New Album Details

Entrails is one of my favourite bands, so naturally I began to get excited a few months ago when it was first revealed that they'd be releasing their fifth album this year. Today the details for the new album have been revealed.

With a release date of June 16th, fans don't have to wait long to get their hands on more of bombastic, no compromises Swedish death metal that Entrails is known for. Titled 'World Inferno', it promises to be good.

The track listing will be as follows:

1. World Inferno
2. Condemned To The Grave
3. Serial Murder (Death Squad)
4. The Soul Collector
5. Dead And Buried
6. Insane Slaughter
7. Into Eternal Fire
8. Suffer
9. The Hour Of The Casket
10. The Blood Breed

The band has also released a single from 'World Inferno' titled "The Soul Collector":

For more info and pre-order options, check out Metal Blade's site:

http://www.metalblade.com/us/news/entrails-reveals-details-for-new-album-world-inferno/
http://www.metalblade.com/entrails/

Horror Review: The Lazarus Effect (2015)

This film plays on the anxieties created by pushing the bounds of medical technology. The first two-thirds of the movie are genuinely uncomfortable to watch, as a scenario plays out that is frighteningly real. Neuroscience, animal testing, halting bodily deterioration for the advancement of medicine… These are true to life concepts that are being played out in laboratory settings, sanctioned by society as necessary and even groundbreaking.

Throw in modern science and medical advances that were unthinkable almost two hundred years ago, and you have a modern take on Mary Shelley’s genre-spawning novel, ‘Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus’. The same fear still exists now, as evidenced by some elements of The Lazarus Effect. Humans still have an unstoppable curiousity about manipulating natural processes, which includes a fear of death and how to negate death. The Lazarus Effect spends the first part of the film examining just that, and raising questions such as the intermingling of science and religion, and the ethics of (in the film’s case) resurrecting an animal verses resurrecting a human. (Part of the discomfort experienced as the viewer came from this; why do we feel it’s acceptable to subject animals to experiments that we would not normally subject humans to)?

The last third of The Lazarus Effect is where the film loses out. It veers away from uncomfortable questions into a more purely horror viewpoint. And a more unrealistic series of events, although perhaps still probable. After all, neuroscience is still a long way from unraveling how the human brain functions. If the film would have stuck with this theme more completely until the end, it would have avoided falling into the genre-stereotype that it does. There’s a bit of a backstory thrown in that somewhat ties to the plot, but the breakdown of Zoe into a demonic being, and some poorly constructed CGI effects take away from the overall experience of the film.

Worth watching: Maybe

(Especially if you enjoy the idea of medicine and science being pushed to the limits and ultimately going wrong).

Wolfheart - Tyhjyys Review

 1. Shores of Lake Simpele

 2. Boneyard

 3. World On Fire

 4. The Flood

 5. The Rift

 6. Call Of The Winter

 7. Dead White

 8. Tyhjyys

Tyhjyys begins with the hauntingly beautiful track, ‘Shores Of Lake Simpele’. It’s a mellow instrumental but sets the atmosphere for the remainder of the album as many of the songs contain segments that verge on soothing, interspersed with segments containing a more traditional melo-death harshness. Long instrumental breaks are characteristic of Wolfheart but they are well-crafted and fit with the flow of the album. Wolfheart manages to capture the cold somberness often associated with Finnish melodic death metal; that feeling of melancholy and of desolation. Tuomas Saukkonen’s growling vocals serve to accentuate the angrier moments contained within the album.

‘The Rift’ presents some distinctly death metal elements, but still retains melody. This is true of the entire album, although the purest death elements are found within this track. Tyhjyys is expertly written with each segment flowing seamlessly into the next. It would be difficult to point out any obvious weaknesses in Wolfheart’s third full-length release.

Meaning ‘emptiness’ in the Finnish language, Tyhjyys captures the complexity of the word. Which may seem contradictory at first thought, but some listeners will understand perfectly. It stands out as a journey through the empty void that the prevailing theme of natures’ power is capable of evoking. Perhaps it’s reading too much into the album (and perhaps not) to say that it’s a powerful allegory in itself.

Tyhjyys isn’t an album that will turn a non-listener of the sub-genre into a fan of melo-death. It’s not an album that when given a superficial listen will warrant several replays. However, upon glimpsing beyond the surface, Tyhjyys is a bewitchingly somber, intricate, immersive album deserving of a thorough listen.

Best tracks: Shores Of Lake Simpele, Tyhjyys, Call Of The Winter