As 2016's local festival season has come to a close, this past weekend held host to an epic milestone for the local metal community, not only in Calgary, Alberta, but for western Canadian music festivals in general. As Calgary Metalfest embarked on yeah number five of delivering an annual weekend that's jam packed with wicked bands of all kinds, spread out among multiple days and venues across the city of Calgary.
This years main draw brought a massive flock of Canadian metal fans to Calgary's Flames Central on Saturday September 17th, to bare witness to a historic night of Canadian metal, as some of our nations forefathers and heaviest hitters in thrash metal stormed the stage all in one night. With Ottawa's very own, Annihilator headlining Saturday night, amping up the crowd and leading the charge were Exciter, Sacrifice and Razor, each delivering nostalgic forms of thrash metal to the masses, all the while, breathing new life into their songs of old.
The room maintained a level of excitement beyond expectation, as a constant frenzy of headbanging hair and moshing would ensue for each performance. Beyond the usual metal-concert-behavior, the unity of western Canadian metal music fans was the most pleasant sight to see. These local festivals are really just one big, fun, family reunion for many people involved in the Canadian metal community, and these united times are what will always keep us together and going strong, and that, is something that I wouldn't trade the world for! Here's to another five glorious years, Calgary Metalfest!
