HARDTIMES.CA

Montreal is an absolutely wonderful city we’re spoiled rotten year round with many wonderful concerts. Some nights we even have multiple choices! Like on Monday evening I had the choice of attending either the Justin Bieber suck-fest at the Bell Centre or Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb, Evile and Forbidden at Foufounes Electriques. I chose an evening of Thrash-Metal over the pre-teen shitfest polluting the Bell Centre, pop music is pure rubbish it drains my Heavy Metal soul! Hearing that garbage it feels like my inner demons are being exorcised I don’t like that because I’m rather fond of my inner demons. They fuel my creativity! Of course I made the right choice of show that evening, my night was filled with head-banging, loud guitars and sweaty mosh pits, praise thee all mighty Satan there wasn’t a single back-up dancer in sight! The evening began with the return of Bonded By Blood (they opened for Exodus in August) blasting out rapid fire Thrash-Metal songs to the enthusiastic crowd. Firing of such catchy tunes as Mind Pollution, Blood Spilled Offering, Immortal Life, Prototype: Death Machine and ending their set with Feed The Beast. Again much to my disappointment they didn’t play their cover of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song from their debut album, maybe next time. All the way from Ireland was Gama Bomb making their Canadian debut right here in Montreal! They were well received with “Gama Bomb” chants loudly echoing through Foufounes midway through their set. Gama Bomb frontman Philly Byrne took the stage sporting a vintage 80’s Washington Redskins jacket. The 1980’s, zombies, video games and vintage Thrash-Metal was the theme of the night. They dedicated the song Final Fight “to all the kids of the 80’s” a song based on the Final Fight arcade game, fucking classic! Other Thrash-tastic songs they performed were Last Ninjas Unite, Mummy Invasion and they ended their frantic set with Zombi Brew. Next up were English Thrash-Metalers Evile returning to entertain Montreal (they opened for Overkill in April) Evile kicked off their set with Infected Nation the title track of their second album. Evile frontman Matt Drake said they were given a longer set than usual for the Montreal show much appreciated by the rabid fans intendance. Since they had more time on stage they added Armored Assault a song which Drake said they hadn’t rehearsed but they still played it well. Other songs of note were We Who Are About to Die, Time No More, Thrasher and Enter the Grave. I love the song Thrasher and so does my six-year old niece. She head-bangs until she gets dizzy and falls onto the floor. Maybe in a few years I’ll bring her to see her first Evile show! The headliners were Thrash-Metal legends Forbidden on tour promoting their new album Omega Wave, their first album in 13 years! I’m going to plead total ignorance on Forbidden I never heard of this band until this show was announced. Luckily Forbidden’s set was a complete history lesson on the bands entire career. It was like witnessing a live version of VH1’s Behind the Music, Forbidden schooled me and I was an eager student I absorbed much knowledge. Forbidden stormed through songs both old and new, songs like Adapt or Die and Omega Wave from the new album and classics like R.I.P, Twisted Into Form, Forbidden Evil and March Into Fire. Foufounes was filled with a mix of young and old metal-heads on Monday evening! I talked to one dedicated metal-head who was at Forbidden’s very first Montreal show back in 1989 and he was back on Monday evening to witness Forbidden’s triumph return. We both felt ancient when my lovely companion Donna interjected that she was born in 1989. 21 years ago Forbidden debuted in Montreal and 21 years ago Donna debut in the world, ’89 was a good year! The last few songs they played were Raped, Through Eyes of Glass, Forsaken At The Gates, Infinite and they ended their show with Chalice of Blood. Anyways rock on mother-fuckers and I’ll see y’all at the next show!