Shredmonton Metal Festival and Conference is a production of Prairie Fire Events and is part of a series of Metal festivals that play across Western Canada. This was their second year in Edmonton. Keep an eye out for these festivals:
Metalocalypstic Metal Festival (BC)
Loud As Hell (AB)
Days of the Dead (AB)
Shredmonton (AB)
They started out with Farmageddon, which was an outdoor festival that encouraged camping out on the grounds. Shredmonton takes that same festival, scaled down and brings it inside.
Your $50 ticket for the weekend scores you 16 bands over 3 days. You really can't find a better deal anywhere to see so much live music.
The event took place in Edmonton's Mercury Room. It is a smaller venue located in Central Edmonton, so you will experience a very intimate setting with the bands. There was the main stage area and bar with a merch table set up just inside the entrance. There was also a "marketplace" area with vendors slangin' various wares that us metalheads would enjoy. Ragnar the Trader has always been a local favourite of mine; he makes some very awesome drinking horns.
Friday opened with symphonic metal with Calgary's Osyron.
Followed by Edmonton's Sleeping in Traffic. These guys were very entertaining with the front man, Cory Bosse alternately playing metal saxophone and keyboards.
Up next was the groove metal sounds of Red Deer's Leave the Living. These guys had the place rocking out.
Friday night finished up with Winnepeg's doom metal veterans Psychotic Gardening
All in all, Friday night was an awesome show. They had one band cancellation for "Days I Die", so we got to experience 4 really great, diverse metal acts. The night felt like it was over before it had barely begun. Time to go home and get some sleep for the next day.
Saturday started off with St. Albert's progressive death metal band, Valyria. I apologize for the crappy video quality, I wasn't able to get a table as close to the stage. I blame "Unleash the Archers" huge popularity.
Next up, we were treated to some thrash metal by Calgary's Burning Effigy.
More thrash metal with another Calgary band, WMD.
They really got the crowd energized.
Next was former Edmontonians, now hailing from Vancouver, Epic heavy metal's Gatekeeper.
Edmonton's own Eye of Horus played some death metal rips just before the last band of the night.
Article by Rebecca Rotten