Heavy T.O. 2012: Day 2

NOTE: This is a long ass post.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Yesterday was so friggin' awesome.

Sunday's show put Saturday's to shame. In fact, it even put last year's entire festival to shame. I got into the grounds at around noon, coming in at the end of Rose Funeral's set. I had never listened to Rose Funeral before, but everyone I know who has tells me they're god awful. After seeing them live, I can safely say, they are god awful. Breakdowns were the name of Rose Funeral's game, with breakdowns happening at least two or three times per song. Since most of the crowd were at the West stage watching Rose Funeral, I made my way up close to the East stage, eagerly awaiting Origin.

Origin are the kings of technical death metal. Like, holy fuck do these guys play fast. Their new(est) vocalist, whose name escapes me right now had incredible stage presence, despite looking and saying that he was hungover as shit. The only song I remember by name that they played was "The Wrath of Vishnu". They had to shorten their set to about 4 or 5 songs because Rose Funeral thought it would be cool of them to play past their set time by 20 minutes. Nobody thinks you're cool, Rose Funeral.

After Origin finished ripping us new assholes, Fleshgod Apocalypse was ready to go on the West stage. I wasn't in a terribly good position to see them, but it wasn't too bad. I've been in worse spots at concerts. They played a ton of songs from their newest album, Agony, opening with "Temptation", "The Hypocrisy" and "The Egoism". They brought us back to their Mafia EP with "Thru our Scars" before swinging things to Agony again with "The Violation".

After "The Violation", there was a bit of a mix up. Since that is one of their most famous songs, everybody thought it was their closing tune, so people started to move back to the other stage for Exhumed, myself included. And when everybody got the East stage, Exhumed started playing... while Fleshgod was playing their next song. At this point I checked my phone for the time, and it was technically Exhumed's scheduled time to play, but I think timing got fucked up because of Rose Funeral. Fucking Rose Funeral. I guess the sound guy for the East stage thought it was Exhumed's turn, so instead of telling the sound guy at the West stage to cut off Fleshgod, he just thought "fuck it" and cranked Exhumed up way past what most people would call deafening. Fleshgod was still playing, but this guy didn't care. It was a glorious half hour of the loudest fucking grindcore I have ever heard. It was awesome.

After Exhumed, I stuck around the East side because The Faceless was the next band to hit that stage. Periphery played the West stage in the meantime, but I didn't really pay attention. Periphery was never really my thing. When The Faceless got on stage, everyone went nuts. I was right up at the front, which was my first time every really being so close to a performing band. They had with them their new vocalist (who is on their new album, Autotheism), and he really shined live. He was jumping around and going crazy while busting out some brutal growls and screams. I have to say I was really impressed by him. They played two songs off of their new album, "Deconsecrate" and "The Eidolon Reality".

The Faceless ft. My Thumb.

This is where the day took a turn for the worse, but now that I look back on it, it doesn't really bother me. During The Faceless' set, some dude shoved his way right in front of me and decided to start moshing like a motherfucker. Me and this other guy standing next to me (the guys next to me was huge) tried to push this asshole back into the pit and in the process, the mosh-happy bastard kicked me in the face. Fuck if I know how it happened. My glasses flew off and I reeled back a bit, but I did manage to see the giant I was standing next to lift the guy in the air and literally throw him into the pit. This dude had air time. Luckily this was right as The Faceless finished their set, so once they were done, we went looking for my glasses. We found them under a dude's foot. I took a look at them and thought "fuck man, now I wont be able to see anything", but before I could do anything, my large friend tapped me on the shoulder and shouted "dude, you're fucking bleeding everywhere!". I didn't really feel any sort of cut (just shaken up by the blow), but when I put my hand to my face, all I felt was blood. I wiped off most of it with my shirt and held pressure against it, and ventured off to the first aid tent to get patched up.

That's when I realized, I have no god damn clue where the first aid tent is. I found a member of security and asked where the tent was and he pointed down to the Western side of the park and told me "right next to the washrooms". Alright, now we're in business! Or so I thought. I wandered around the Western half of the park, no first aid in sight, until I remembered that last year the first aid tent was near the entrance (which was on the East side of the park this year). So I made the long trek back to the Eastern side and found the first aid tent. By the time I reached there, I had held my shirt up against my wound long enough that the bleeding slowed down to a sort of oozing. This is also where I found out my cut wasn't a big cut, but a deep cut. I didn't know what kind of cut it was, just that it was bleeding. When I entered the first aid tent and asked them to look at my face, they told me "yeah, we'll get you a band-aid". I thought that was a joke and they'd do something more, but they literally handed me a band-aid and told me to scram. I managed to glance at myself in a mirror in the tent and I just saw a tiny little nick where I had been cut. They hadn't seen the bleeding, just the wound, so they thought it just needed a band-aid. Whatever. Fuck 'em. It mostly finished bleeding by then anyways. I put on the band-aid and went back out to enjoy the festival. (I managed to bend my glasses mostly back into shape. Nothing was actually broken, and the lenses weren't even scratched!)

Since I took so long to find the elusive first aid tent, I had already missed most of Goatwhore's set. Since the next two bands were Job for a Cowboy and Veil of Maya (VoM played this song as a closer), neither of which I'm a huge fan of, I decided to grab some lunch and check out some more merch tents. I picked up a wicked Cannibal Corpse shirt with the  design of their first album, Eaten Back to Life on it. Classic death metal.

I checked the schedule for when Corpse was playing, and it turned out there were still a couple bands to go before them. I went for the East stage where they were going to show up, and waited through sets by Between the Buried and Me and Kataklysm. I wanted to be closer to Kataklysm, but I really wanted to have a decent spot for Cannibal Corpse, so I opted to stick around their stage. When Cannibal Corpse played their first note, the entire festival lost it. They played two songs off of their newest album, Torture. They opened with "Demented Aggression" and "Scourge of Iron", which made a nice contrast between blistering speed and brutal, slow crunching. They also blasted through some classics like "Priests of Sodom", "Disfigured", "Meat Hook Sodomy" and the tastefully titled "I Cum Blood". Corpsegrinder introduced "I Cum Blood" the way he always does. He screams, "This song is about shooting blood. This song. Is about. Shooting blood. Out. Of. Your. COOOOOOOOOOCK.". Super classy. As per usual, Corpse finished off their set with their most famous song, "Hammer Smashed Face".

I said I wanted a decent spot. Not that I got one.

After Cannibal Corpse decimated Heavy T.O., I stuck around the East stage for the rest of the evening. The only band left on the bill that I wanted to see was System of a Down, and god damnit, I would not miss System of a Down for the world. Killswitch Engage was next on the West stage, followed by Deftones on the East. I  had never heard any of Deftones music before,and although I thought it was alright, I still enjoyed it because they really got into their performance and had amazing stage presence. After Deftones, Five Finger Death Punch took the West stage. I'm not a fan of Five Finger Death Punch, and apparently most of the crowd this year wasn't either. Everyone was waiting at the East stage for System, chanting "SYS-TEM! SYS-TEM! SYS-TEM!" pretty much through the entire second half of 5FDP's set.

Deftones, complete with DJ(?)

Then, the clock struck 9. It was time for System of a Down. I have to be brutally honest. I had no idea what would happen. I saw Slayer at last year's Heavy T.O. and as soon as they started, half the festival turned into a pit. System made the entire fucking festival mosh, jump, and dance. It was pandemonium. It was chaos. I'm pretty sure if this happened anywhere other than an isolated field on the outskirts of Toronto, it would be called a full scaled riot. Honestly, most of System's set was a blur of screaming my lungs out with my hands raised in the air. They opened with "Prison Song", followed by "Soldier Side" and "B.Y.O.B.". The rest of their set was all their most famous songs (ie: all of their songs), but I totally forget the order. Choice songs include: "Aerials", "Forest", "Toxicity", "Dreaming", "Hypnotize", "Holy Mountains", "Bounce", "Chop Suey", "Lonely Day", "Needles", "Lost in Hollywood", "Psycho", and "Cigaro". SOAD finished strong with none other than their classic tune, "Sugar". The entire set was just perfect. It was played perfectly, it was sequenced perfectly, it was just, UGH. Fucking perfect.

This is literally the only picture I could capture of System. As soon as that curtain dropped, all the tens of thousands of people there started flipping their shit for two hours straight, myself included.

So that's my story of Heavy T.O. 2012. It was mega rad, and I know I'm definitely going to go for a third time in a row next year.

That's all for now, folks! Blast off, it's party time! And where the fuck are you?!

Heavy T.O. 2012: Day 1

Oh man. Today ruled. Today was the day I was less excited about too. Tomorrow is going to fucking slay. I just know it.

I got into the festival around 12:30ish, just in time to catch Protest the Hero. I've never really been too much of a Protest fan, but they were so energetic live that I couldn't resist headbanging along to their tunes. They included in their set the one song of theirs that I like, "Bloodmeat". Considering how ridiculously technical their music is, they played it flawlessly. Good job, boys.

Up next was Cancer Bats whom I'm not really a fan of either. I stuck around for their opening song because they busted out a cover of the Beastie Boys' classic, "Sabotage". Once they moved to original material I went to peruse the merch booths for some wicked loot.

And wicked loot I did find. There were two main tents, one operated by Sunrise Records, which had a bunch of vinyl LPs, CDs, and live DVDs, and the other was just a tent to find all your band related clothing. None of Saturday's clothing merch was terribly alluring, but I did get my hands on some wicked sweet LPs. I picked up the classic thrashterpiece, Slayer's Show No Mercy, the cosmos spanning journey that is Mastodon's Crack the Skye (which also happens to be my favorite album, ever), and a beautiful special edition copy of Tool's magnum opus, Lateralus.

First up: Crack the Skye.

Then, Show No Mercy.

When I cracked this baby open, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise.

<3

It's a little tough to make out in the picture, but its a beautiful translucent marbled red vinyl. It's my first coloured record! Last, but not least is Lateralus:

Again, this picture sucks, but the rainbowy colours on the cover are because it's a holofoil design. There's something wicked about this pressing too. As soon as I saw the sticker on the plastic wrap, I just thought "holy fuck, I need this in my hands right now". What could be so awesome to warrant that thought?

Picturedisc. That's what.

Since Lateralus is a double LP (has sides A, B, C, and D), each side of the album has a different picture of the layered design. When I say layered, if you don't know what it is, it's tough to explain. On the CD copy, the booklet is made of clear plastic sheets, each with a design on it. when you close the booklet and look at all the superimposed designs, you get the picture that's shown above. It's pretty sweet. Unfortunately, typical to most picturediscs, it skips and crackles a bit, but honestly I picked it up more for it to be a collection piece than anything.

On to the show!

Once I picked up my music and Cancer Bats finished their set, it was time for old school thrashers Overkill to take the stage. Overkill probably stole the show out of all the bands I saw. The members are pushing 55 years old and they rock out on stage harder than bands half their age. Singer Bobby Blitz even challenged the audience, screaming "Who the fuck wants get their ass kicked by an old guy!". Overkill played a mix of their old and new material, busting out classics like "Rotten to the Core", "Elimination", and "Fuck You" as well as their newer tunes like "Ironbound", "Bring me the Night", and "Electric Rattlesnake". It was a wicked sweet set of nothing but full on thrash metal.

The last band I saw this day was Gojira, a progressive/ death metal band from France. Gojira are one of my favorite bands and their album From Mars to Sirius is one of my favorite albums. Their set comprised mostly of songs from that album, which was just a dream for me. They dropped tunes like "Ocean Planet", "Backbone", "Flying Whales", and "The Heaviest Matter of the Universe". They opened with their most famous song, "Oroborus", and played a couple songs off of their newest album to round off their set. One thing I was nervous about for seeing Gojira was how heavy they'd sound live. On their recordings, whether it's due to the guitar tone, or the production, or whatever, they sound absolutely massive. When I toss on one of their songs, each guitar chug is like a blow to the head. Seeing them live put their chugginess to a whole new level. Gojira's live guitar tone was so fucking good. It was like being blindsided by a semi truck every time they palm muted a power chord. For anyone unfamiliar with Gojira's music, it only comprises of palm muted power chords. The riffs they write are sometimes called "marching elephant riffs". Just let that sink in for a second.

Shitty camera phone for the win!

After Gojira, the next band I wanted to see was In Flames, but I decided to head out instead for two reasons. One was that there were a bunch of bands I really didn't care about playing for about 3 hours before In Flames hit the stage, and In Flames would most likely play songs off of their newest album, which in my opinion was probably one of the worst they've ever released. In Flames are a band that tours incessantly too, so it really won't be long until they come back to Toronto. With that in mind, I hopped on the bus back to the subway station and made my long trek home.

All in all, I have to say today was a great experience, although it didn't compare to last year's Saturday in the least. The one thing that kind of made everything less awesome was the weather. It was raining like crazy when I was on my way to the festival, and it slowed down to a drizzle during Protest the Hero and Cancer Bats. Because of all this rain, and because the festival takes place in large field:

Mud. Mud everywhere.

By the time I left the festival, everything up to my knees were coated in mud, and I hadn't even been in the pit! The sun did come out to rock with us during Overkill's set and the beginning of Gojira's, but then the most incredible thing happened. When Gojira played "Ocean Planet", it started raining. Not just raining. It was a torrential downpour. When the song finished, the rain stopped. Most people would chalk that up as a coincidence, but I'm convinced Gojira are just magical demigods who can command the elements. That's a much more reasonable assumption.

Holy balls, this post was long. More to come for tomorrow's metalgasmic day!

That's all for now, folks! Stay rotten to the core.

This Weekend: Heavy T.O. 2012!

One of my summer traditions (or at least what's going to become a summer tradition) is rocking out at Toronto's biggest metal festival, Heavy T.O. (HTO). HTO was spawned from the hugely successful Heavy MTL, over in poutineland across the Quebec border. Last year was HTO's first active year, and as soon as I found out it was happening, I got my tickets. Before then, I had never been to a music festival (I had been to many concerts, though) and it was everything I could have ever imagined and more.

Headliners last year included Slayer, Megadeth, Motorhead, and Rob Zombie, and the whole cast of supporting bands was ridiculously awesome, featuring a few of my favorite bands, Opeth, Testament, and Mastodon. All the bands played fantastically, I bought some sweet merch, and I even met one of my heavy metal heroes, David Gold, may he rest in peace.

I think I might've posted this picture a million times in this blog already.

Naturally after HTO 2011, I was counting down the days until the tickets for HTO 2012 went up for sale. I grabbed myself a weekend pass, and today I'll be squirming in my chair at work waiting for tomorrow to come faster. As excited as I am for the whole thing, I'm more pumped for Sunday than Saturday.

Out of all of Saturday's lineup, the bands I want to see are:

• Overkill
• Gojira
• In Flames

I know that's not a very long list, but when I got my tickets, the original lineup had Lamb of God instead of In Flames, as well as Dethklok (replaced by Dillinger Escape Plan). Lamb of God obviously couldn't make it because of Randy Blythe's arrest in the Czech Republic, but Dethklok didn't have a solid reason for cancelling. Dethklok and Lamb of God were supposed to hit up HTO as a part of their summer tour with Gojira, but when Lamb of God had their kerfuffle with the law and pulled out of the tour, Dethklok did too, even though Gojira stayed on board. It doesn't make sense to me, because Gojira are flying all the way in from France, while Dethklok just have to drive North for a couple hours to get here.

At least Lamb of God got replaced by a decent band, unlike Dethklok, unfortunately.

Headliners for Saturday are Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Looks like I'm ditching the festival early. I've got nothing against Manson, I'm just not a fan of his music, but Slipknot can go suck a bag of dicks.

But, never fear! For Sunday's lineup rocks so fucking hard that it could make up for even a Saturday of nothing but Slipknot playing One Direction songs. 

Sunday's fantasicawesomefabulous lineup has me pumped for:

• Origin
• Fleshgod Apocalypse
• Exhumed
• The Faceless
• Goatwhore
• Kataklysm
• Cannibal Corpse
• System of a Down

I found out that for System of a Down, I have to sit through Five Finger Death Punch and Deftones, but I don't care because it's motherfucking SOAD. I have to admit that SOAD don't really fit the bill genre wise, seeing as Sunday's lineup is all technical death metal, grindcore, and deathcore, but it totally doesn't matter because it's motherfucking SOAD. Did I tell you I'm excited for System of a Down?

I have to say I'm more excited for this year's full lineup than last year's, mainly because out of the entire current lineup, I have never seen any of these bands live before. When I attended HTO 2011, I had already seen Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament the previous summer, and I already had plans to see Opeth later in the year in Guelph.

So that's what I'm pumped for this weekend! Drinking really expensive, really shitty beer and rocking the fuck out to some wicked metal. Sounds like a plan to me.

That's all for now, folks! Keep it heavy.