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The Best Photos from Heavy Montréal

The praised heavy music festival returned for its seventh year.

North America’s premier heavy music festival, HEAVY MONTRÉAL, returned for its seventh year and pretty much left a crater where Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal used to be. While rival festivals such as Mayhem Fest in the USA are struggling mightily, HEAVY MONTRÉAL, which is embracing music diversity much like its open air brethren in Europe, continues to thrive.

An eclectic variety of bands drew a drunken, sweaty horde of all ages. Nu Metal bands like Alexisonfire, Motionless in White, Asking Alexandria, and Bullet for my Valentine pulled in a voracious younger crowd. Fans of all ages bobbed their heads to heavy 80s bands like Warrant, Extreme, Nuclear Assault, and Dokken. Punk fans arrived in droves for the likes of NOFX, Lagwagon, and Rocket from the Crypt.

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While the event has evolved from the more purely metal “HeavyMTL” of the past, at the very core of the weekend, wicked, pulsating, thrashing metal titans like Meshuggah, Arch Enemy, Testament, Gojira, Venom, Battlecross, Insomnium, Lamb of God, Sanctuary, and Revocation tore the crowd to shreds. While blast beats rang across the massive festival rounds, circle pits, crowd surfing, walls of death, and, yes, blood and medical stretchers were in abundance.

At the pinnacle of the festival, acts like Slipknot, Iggy Pop, Korn, and Faith No More closed out the three nights, sending the massive, dusty, drunk and exhausted fans staggering like zombie hordes toward the subway home. We chronicled the entire weekend through a camera lens. Crank your favorite heavy tunes, bang your head and enjoy our festival gallery below.

All photos courtesy of Chris Bubinas

European melodic death metal legends Arch Enemy tears up one of the main stages, led by new vocalist, Montreal born Alissa White-Gluz.

Detroit’s fastest growing export, thrash/death heavies Battlecross were like a mushroom cloud over the tranquil Forest Stage

That's the fucking devil dumbass. The dark lord himself presided over the festival