With the red stains on the guardrails being the only memories of the GWAR show that happened on Saturday, the crowd that welcomed GloryHammer on a Monday night was as jubilant as any Montreal crowd can be.
The night started with the Montreal locals, Walk With Titans. They’re an outfit that fit the night very well, as they are another power metal band, but distinct in the night as their theme surrounds Ancient Greece and its mythologies. Walk With Titans was formed in 2019, and with the pandemic haven’t yet hit their stride when interacting with the crowd between sets. This was their first show in front of a big crowd with their current lineup, as Francis Gagné was a recent addition on bass. Their chemistry on stage was solid, but the lone vocalist of Jonathon Vezina missed the opportunity of bringing the hometown to his band’s side. Between songs, the main interaction between the band and the crowd was to introduce the next song in English. I believe that they could have won the crowd even more if they had addressed the crowd in the French that I know they’re capable of and got the excitement for the next bands building a little bit more. For an opening band, they had Théâtre Corona packed in pretty well, but I also believe that everyone wanted to arrive early for the next act too.
Hitting the road on their first full North American tour, Twilight Force was up after Walk With Titans. Unfortunately, their singer Allyon was unable to make the trip for the first few shows on the tour, so Kristin Starkey of Temperance stepped up to fill the role of lead singer versus her normal role of additional and choir vocals on their live performances. In my opinion, Kristin did very well filling in for Allyon, and if I didn’t know the band I find that I may not have known the difference. The stage was adorned with medieval-styled banners bearing the initials of the band, while the costumes bore the vibe of a Ren Faire on stage.
The speaker of the lore (Blackwald) was a surprise for me as I hadn’t watched any live performances online of this band, so I didn’t expect the epic voice that was on their recorded material to be one of the band. I didn’t research past listening to the band before, as I know for some bands, the voiceover is sometimes someone hired from outside to create the atmosphere. It added to the atmosphere of wonder and adventure being able to hear a narration tailored for the Montreal crowd. Overall, their set was very fun to witness.
Just before Twilight Force started their set, a couple of people unleashed a unicorn pool floatie into the crowd, but it was unfortunately popped and disappeared during the first few songs. I remember feeling like a ring toss target at one point during a song when the floatie landed over my head while I was taking pictures in the press pit. I met the girls responsible for the pool floatie just before GloryHammer started, and they were sad they weren’t able to crowd surf riding the floatie while wearing their unicorn onesies. I saw the corpse of the floatie reappear during GloryHammer’s set, limply riding the crowd during the song “Unicorn Invasion of Dundee”, which seemed as appropriate during the song.
With growing anticipation, and to many cheers, a tech walked out just before GloryHammer’s set to place a cut-out of Tom Jones on stage while the track played and the crowd sang along to Delilah. After the band’s individual arrival during the track “Incoming Transmission,” Angus McFife II (Sozos Michael) exploded on stage in a fury of fist-pumping energy to sing “Holy Flaming Hammer of Unholy Cosmic Frost.”. I think this was smart, as this was a newer singer since their last performance in Montreal in 2019, and showed the difference between singers immediately before going into the well-known “GloryHammer”. This song was fun, with the goblin arriving on stage and challenging the newest singer with the hammer before being struck down and shooed off stage before the chorus and McFife II wielding the mighty hammer in victory. A different goblin (positive it was Starkey) arrived on stage later during Fife Eternal to add more vocal harmonies. It was a very energetic and fun set in its entirety.
Review & photos – Ryan Rumpel
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