Metal fans unite

Andrea Roberts
Times Intern

 

Metal fans from across Canada will descend on Drumheller for the fifth annual Loud as Hell Metal Festival on July 29-Aug. 1.
Described as a pilgrimage for heavy metal fans, the three-day event has a line up of 30 Canadian bands from different genres in metal and is one of the biggest metal shows in Western Canada.
“Now this isn’t a huge, crazy outdoor festival,” said Ryan Semchuck, co-founder and co-organizer of the event. “It is more of a smaller festival and usually we have about 400-500 people out for the weekend, staying for the three days.”
There is on-site camping for metal fans and a number of other entertaining features, including food trucks, guitar and drums clinics for musicians wanting to improve their skills, a pancake breakfast for the campers; and what Semchuk refers to as a freak show – artists who allow people to staple items to their bodies.
There will also be a Calgary stunt group called Permafrost Suspension which specializes in human suspension demonstrations.
The music, however, is the reason the fans come out. This year’s event will have big names such as Unleash the Archers, Into Eternity and Striker.
Unleash the Archer is a female-led heavy metal band from Vancouver which is doing well on the world metal scene, according to Semchuk. For the Saskatchewan-based band Into Eternity, playing at this festival will mark their 20-year anniversary in the business.
The other band that Semchuk was excited to have back at the festival is Striker, the 80s-inspired band from Edmonton which has been doing particularly well in the European metal charts.
The bands will be entertaining their fans in the barns from noon to midnight every day.
Semchuk said about 80 per cent of the fans that make their way to Drumheller for the festival are non-locals coming from all across the country and many of them are returning customers.
“It is a great experience,” he said. “It becomes like a big heavy metal family reunion every year.”
This reunion is in part thanks to how the festival organizers have worked with other metal festival organizers from Western Canada such as Calgary Metal Fest, Shredmonton and the Armstrong Metal Fest to unite the metal community.
Tickets for the festival are still available and can be purchased online (loudashell.com). A weekend pass with tent camping costs $100. The festival will run from July 29 to Aug. 1 at the Dinosaur Downs Stampede Grounds in Drumheller.