Festival Preview: Heavy Montreal Hosts Metallica, Slayer, and More This August

By: Curtis Sindrey (@SindreyCurtis) –

In early August, metal and hard rock fans will invade Parc Jean-Drapeau in downtown Montreal, the site of the Osheaga Festival, for the premier Canadian metal festival of 2014.

Featuring an eclectic line-up, including thrash-metal legends Metallica and Slayer, grove metal band Lamb of God, punk rockers  The Offspring, and breaking bands like Toronto’s Biblical, Heavy Montreal has outdone themselves following a banner line-up in 2013 that included Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold, and A Day To Remember.

This is also the first year that the festival has adopted digital bracelets  (radio-frequency identification technology, a.k.a. RFID) in order to prevent any potential fraud. The technology will surely enhance the festival experience, as fans will be able to share pictures via social media using their bracelet at interactive readers located throughout the festival grounds. Heavy Montreal 2014 will offer attendees a variety of delicious foods such as burgers, subs, sandwiches, pizza and more. With summer picking up, organizers encourage festivalgoers to bring their own water bottles that one can refill throughout the event at several water refill stations on festival grounds. For those of you coming from out-of-province, Quebec’s legal drinking age is 18, so party responsibly.

Must-see bands include Metallica, Slayer, Lamb of God, and The Offspring, but don’t forget some of the big talent in the developing bands on the bill: Toronto-based heavy metal band Biblical “magically reconcile Motorhead swagger with Bad Seeds dread”, on the heels of their debut LP, Monsoon Season; Montreal-based metal band Beheading of a King power on together despite the tragic death of their vocalist, Mathieu “Matt” Paquette in 2011; Toronto’s JUNO Award winning progressive metal band Protest The Hero released their fourth album, Volition, on October 29th, 2013 and will include the addition of Lamb of God’s Chris Adler on drums. The Whitby, ON group cram a menage of influences from punk to thrash onto their album through strong songwriting and polished melodies. Finally, members of Toronto-band Cancer Bats have developed their side project: Bat Sabbath, charged with the duties of enlivening the oeuvre of English heavy metal quartet Black Sabbath.

Get your tickets HERE.