On April 3, 2010 I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual Metal feast hosted by D.C Music. For those unfamiliar with the venue, D.C Music is a rehearsal studio and concert theater, just steps away from Kipling station. They specialize in anything related to bands, from merchandising to concert promotion. That night, I caught the sets of four bands: Polarity, Assassinate the Following, CayM, and Quietus.
Hailing from Mississauga, Polarity is a quintet fronted by a female singer. Their sound varies from from heavy Tool-like riffs and rhythms to more Edge 102 friendly songs. Their singer has really good energy on stage. Her vocals could be described as a cross between Alanis Morissette and Maynard from Tool. To be fair, I only caught the latter part of their set so I wont say too much. I got the impression that they are a young band that is still trying to mold their sound. They show a lot of promise. If they stay true to them selves and stick with it, I'm sure they will be a force to be reckoned with.
Next, hailing from Windsor, was Assassinate the Following. The first thing that caught my attention was the bass player's sick bass that was in the shape of a sci-fi battle axe. Their set begun with a sample of carnival music before ripping into a fury of double kicks and sweeping arpeggios. Their sound has a little bit of everything. Each of their songs consist of multiple riffs ranging from old school trash riffs, groove oriented hooks, clean choruses, with the occasional blast beat. Each member is quite technicaly proficient at his instrument and the band was tight as a whole. The vocals (ranging from growls to clean) were really low for the first two songs, however, this was rectified by the end. If aggressive music with a progressive edge is your thing, then this band is definitely worth checking out.
Next was CayM, a quintet from Mississauga. These guys have really excellent energy on stage while not missing a beat musically. Their singer sometimes resembled a younger Phil Anselmo only with higher vocals, wearing a white wife beater and a red baseball cap. Their set started of with a sample of bluesy music, before ripping into a thrash riff with a wall of double kicks behind it. The drummer of this band really impressed me. What was more impressive is that later we found out that he just came back from having three hernia operations. Bravo! Their sound is a mixture of old school Testament riffs and new school grove-oriented hooks with really aggressive vocals. Once in a while the two lead guitarists (both playing Jacksons) would rip into a solo. Occasionally they would do some duel guitar action, witch (being the Maiden head that I am) I enjoyed very much. Like I said earlier, they had excellent energy which was contagious. At the end of their set, they left me wanting more.
The last band of the night was Quietus. This is a band with three lead guitarists and a keyboardist. They brought a change of atmosphere to the evening. Their songs are all epic, over 6 minutes long, and very rich harmonically. Their sound is a mixture of folky Opeth parts, Fusion breakdowns, jazzy interludes, Norwegian riffs, and guitar counterpoint. All the musicians knew their way around their instrument. The problem was that, with such a multi-layered sound, it took the sound man three songs to figure these guys out. The thing is that (with their songs being so long) their 30 minute set consisted of four songs. These guys need to make sure that they give who ever is working the sound board a "heads up" before they play. You could tell that the band was still getting use to each other, however, I'm sure this will change when they play more shows together and gain some confidence. It was also refreshing to see a female drummer know her way around a double kick. Overall, this is definitely a band that's worth checking out.
In the end, the evening was a success, ending at about 1am. I definitely got my money's worth ($10). I hope that this event will be held next year.
