The hall of the MTelus was sold out for a very special show awaited by many metalheads. The European metal superstars Powerwolf were in town for their very first Canadian performance. The german power metal band which was formed in 2003 were playing a handful of dates in North America and thanks to the Extensive Enterprise team for making sure Montreal was one of them.
The opening band was Seven Kingdoms from Florida. The crowd was amped up and ready to rock. As soon as they started playing, the crowd started headbanging and singing along. This was the first time I heard this American band and I enjoyed their energy and their traditional power metal sounds. The riffs were fast, the vocals were soaring, and their performance was full of energy. They fully embraced the cheesiness of power metal as the stage was adorned with plushies of fast food items and singer Sabrina was on stage with hamburger slippers. I particularly enjoyed their cover of the eighties classic Boys of Summer. A strong opening performance in front of an electric crowd and I am sure many people discovered a new band.
As soon as Seven Kingdoms stepped off the stage, the crowd started chanting for the headlining band. There was a bit of a long change up in between the two bands as the stage was being set for the majestic Powerwolf. The crowd was beyond amped up in the front rows of the MTelus. The crowd entertained themselves by singing songs, practicing their bow rowing skills and, most importantly, setting up the logistics to greet Powerwolf with a wall of death for the first song.
As the band stepped on stage, the crowd roared to life, greeting them with a massive cheer. Everyone was ready for the holy mass of heavy metal that was about to begin. The band uses Christian and Gothic imagery to sing us tales about crusaders and werewolves.
As was murmured in the crowd, once the band started playing their opening song Faster than the Flame from their 2021 album Call of the Wild, the crowd crashed together in a wall of death creating a fitting beginning to what would prove to be a wild performance.
The singer Attila was genuinely touched by the welcome the band received from their Montreal chants. He had to stop the content chants and screams to speak to the audience. He told the fans that he spoke a bit of French and proceeded to speak mostly French for the rest of the evening, which was greatly appreciated by the Montreal fans.
A priest walked on stage with an incense burner to bless us and the congregation of heavy metal fanatics who were gathered tonight to celebrate with Powerwolf. The band launched into a trio of some of my personal favourite songs “Incense & Iron,” “Army of the night,” and “Amen and attack.”
Powerwolf are natural entertainers on stage and one of the highlights for me was the comic relief provided by the keyboardist Falk. Every time he wasn’t playing, he would run down the stage and act as Attila’s hype man. As they were introducing the song “Dancing with the Dead,” he took to the stage to prance about. The crowd was enjoying every second of the show.
It was quite a surprise to me, but the band then performed a song entirely in French. We were gifted with the francophone version of the “Beast of Gévaudan.”
The show went on, and the fans and the band were singing together, filling the hall with sing-alongs and chants. We got to participate in the boating moshing pit during their performance “Sainted by the Storm,” and we got a few lewd jokes for the fan favourite “Resurrection by Erection.”
We were nearing the end of our evening of heavy metal with Powerwolf, and they ended with some of their most powerful and my personal favourite songs, “Sanctified With Dynamite,” “We Drink your Blood,” and “Werewolves of Armenia.”
Attila let everyone know that Powerwolf would be returning to North America. The Montreal metalheads gave them an evening to remember, and I am sure the band will treasure their first show in Canada.
Review – Jason Maher
Photos – Ryan Rumpel
