The Smokehouse shook all night long, Friday, Oct. 13 with the howls, growls and detuned menace of all manner of death metal, power metal and punk influenced metal bands playing Dethfest.
I only caught a couple of acts as I dodged a mosh pit happening in front of the stage during Calgary death metal band Stab.Twist.Pull’s ferocious set full of sludgy guitar, growling /howling vocals and the bassist doing some pretty cool fretboard tapping to begin their show while their frontman leaped, howling into the midst of the frothing crowd.
The band I really wanted to see was Calgary’s Citizen Rage who are a pretty wild contrast as they played really anger fuelled more hardcore punk than metal music while surprisingly positive frontman Mark Russell frequently exhorted the crowd to get along with each other and come together as a community.
They played a variety of snarling crowd favourites and songs from their new “Pink” Ep including “Not this Time” and the highlight “Breakdown.” As always, they played an intense sweaty, angry yet fun filled set.
