Very few shows I’ve seen can support the “Montreal is a great metal music city” argument as successfully as Blind Guardian’s most recent concert at MTelus can. With some longer-than-usual lines at box office and coat check, the night began with Seven Kingdoms, the most European-sounding American metal band I’ve heard. They were such a lovely discovery. Soaring harmonized guitar leads, thundering double-kicks, and powerful lead vocals that could only have been further complimented by on-stage fans majestically blowing the band members’ hair back. The lack of a bassist was disappointing, but nothing a backing track can’t replace, I suppose. Frontwoman Sabrina Valentine belted her lyrics confidently and took some time to introduce the message of some of their songs, which brought a sense of sentimentality to their music. I thoroughly enjoyed their set. If you had asked me where I thought they were from, their home state of Florida would have been my absolute last guess.
After what couldn’t have been much longer than a 10-minute changeover, Ensiferum roared onto stage. I really dug these guys in college but haven’t caught up with them since an underwhelming Montebello Rockfest performance about eight years ago. Thankfully, they felt like an entirely new band that night, despite playing a similar, career-spanning setlist. I can’t quite place why, but the incredible energy in MTelus was certainly a factor. Seriously, the crowd was beaming with joy throughout Ensiferum’s entire set. They cheered and chanted along with such intensity that you’d think these were the night’s headliners. Occasional guest appearances from Blind Guardian frontman Hansi Kürsch got even more folks engaged, as he sported the band’s sniper crosshair facepaint and delivered some jaw-dropping high notes, which brought another dimension to Ensiferum’s punishing brand of folk metal. With both literal and figurative horns in the air, the Montreal crowd sang and moshed something fierce. The band was enjoying every moment and disappeared as quickly as they arrived after a unifying performance of “In My Sword I Trust.”
Then came Blind Guardian, a band whose history and style I was familiar enough with, but never properly exposed myself to when I was obsessively discovering power metal and folk metal in my late high school and college years. I was not prepared for how perfect an introduction the band and its fans would provide me. Soaring lead vocals that showed no signs of age, blistering double-kicks whose ever-so-slight imperfections made them refreshingly human, and a keyboardist’s contributions that were much appreciated, occasionally throwing in sounds of more traditional folk instruments into the mix. Yes, the music was all top notch, but everything that revolved around the music is what I would really like to highlight.
For a band that predates the fall of the Berlin Wall, Blind Guardian’s fanbase varied drastically in age. The cross-generational appeal was very apparent. Kürsch and his dry German sense of humour resonated incredibly well with the Quebecois crowd as well, as he occasionally levelled with us while taking us through a theatrical musical journey. Blind Guardian and the subgenres of metal that they’ve helped pioneer tend to be viewed in the scene as adored by introverts, gamers, basement dwellers, and the like. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. People came out in droves, and it was so refreshing to see one of Montreal’s most popular concert halls be as packed as it is for all the younger, up-and-coming performers it houses. The sold-out audience was loud, they were fiery, they were incredibly social, and reinforced that sense of community that metal music harbours. It felt like Quebec’s metal scene at its finest.
As a full album performance of their 1992 album Somewhere Far Beyond made up the middle of the setlist, the lights helped usher in a sense of immersion to all the world-building that exists within the band’s music. A few heavy-hitters wrapped things up and left everyone in the best of spirits. It was a perfect way to experience a band like Blind Guardian and their forty-year legacy.
I’ll be honest, as much as I love this city, I rolled my eyes when Kürsch called Montreal the heavy metal capital of the world. In North America, maybe. But over Gothenburg? Birmingham? No chance, I thought. Yet, as I navigated MTelus for the umpteenth time, and its seemingly ever-shifting bar, bathroom, and coat check locations, bleeding passion stretched to every corner of the room that night. From the pit, to the balcony seats, to the very back of the room, loud chant-alongs and fist pumping were ever-present and performed to a scale I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed in the hundreds of concerts I’ve seen.
Review – Mathieu Perrier
Photos – Ryan Rumpel
