FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
So, last weekend’s Sled Island festival was pretty solid. Sleep, The Sword, Dead Meadow, Bison B.C., Red Fang–I really can’t complain. Well, not about the lineup, anyways. But after defending Calgary as an affordable city to live in, I found out otherwise during my trip there last weekend…
Sled Island, a four-day, multi-venue fest, has been Calgary’s answer to NXNE since 2007. Seeing as the actual NXNE takes place the week beforehand, I’ve never had much interest in a lineup that often features many of the same bands as the Toronto event. But this year, while my initial impressions of the NXNE lineup are a little underwhelming, the Cowtown organizers have scored a major coup: they’re bringing Sleep to town for an exclusive Canadian performance, and just one of three gigs on the marijuananauts’ calendar this year.
Kvelertak hold nothing sacred, aren’t afraid to whip out their six schlongs to piss on the walls of convention and are getting the appropriate attention – both positive and negative – because of it, whether you like it or not. It all starts with their sound: a furious, kinetic and coruscating blend of 85 octane burnin’ garage rock, greasy punk, blues, hardcore, Motorhead, black and death metal. They manage to sound like all of the above without exactly sounding like any of ‘em,