Summer Slaughter 2015

Summer festivals are like a sampler platter that you would get at a restaurant or a cocktail party - a little taste of something different but not enough to satisfy your craving for that particular appetizer. For the ninth Summer Slaughter tour, it was a mix of technical, brutal death metal, a smattering of deathcore topped off by melodic death metal sweetness. It’s been five long years since I last attended a Summer Slaughter and I was given the chance to go to this year’s show thanks to my significant other in the form of a birthday gift.

Happy Canada Metal Day 2015!

The first of July marks the day that Canada violently rose up against the tyranny of the British Empire and establish their freedom as a nation. What’s that? It’s just a few colonies uniting into a single country, effectively creating Canada within the British Empire of the time? Well so Canada made not have a bloody beginning as the United States had but Canada sure has some fantastic metal bands. When talking about metal and the countries that have them, Canada rarely shows up. You have the usual nations of Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States but United States’ hat is rarely acknowledged when it comes to prominent metal bands. And while our Northern Neighbors don’t have many innovators of metal they have a lot of bands that perfect the craft and push it forward. Probably another reason that Canada doesn’t get recognized is that there really aren’t any large bands outside of Rush and the technical death metal outfit, Nickelback. Here are some Canadian bands that I enjoy and push the envelope of metal.