If you’ve got any headbanging travel aspirations, then you might want to start booking flights to Canada, with Montreal officially being named a heavy metal city.
For a long time, music-lovers have looked towards cities like Melbourne as the live music capital of the world, Detroit as the originator of the now-iconic ‘Motown Sound’, and New York City as the originator of hip-hop.
But what about metal music? Surely with the region’s long and storied relationship with the genre, somewhere like Scandinavia would have to be up there, right?
Well, thanks to one dedicated Canadian metalhead, the city of Montreal has now been officially named a heavy metal city.
As Global News reports, Montreal councillor Craig Sauvé first floated the idea of recognising the Ontario capital as a “city of excellence in metal music” last week.
In a note issued on Facebook, Suavé explained a number of qualities that Montreal brings to the table, including.
“The city of Montreal is a cultural metropolis and has a cultural policy to consolidate the cultural and economic leadership of the metropolis and to showcase Montréal’s cultural identity,” he wrote.
“The metal community is an essential part of the cultural ecosystem of Montreal and […] metal music is anchored in the heart of our city.”
After receiving support, the motion was officially passed on Monday, April 15th, with Craig Sauvé bringing some of his favourite metal albums to the city’s official declaration.
I caught up with @CraigSauve today. He's just got a formal declaration through city council to have Montreal officially declared a metal city. I asked him what his mother thought about all this… apparently, she's not a fan. @Global_Montreal pic.twitter.com/iOy6MJqz2Q
— Billy Shields (@billyshields) April 15, 2019
“It’s really just a recognition that we want to do, to celebrate the music scene locally,” Craig Sauvé explained to CBC Montreal’s Daybreak.
“There are tens of thousands of fans in the Montreal region who are devoted, who spend so much time, who practise, promote, who attend concerts.”
“The heavy metal music that we make is really well-regarded by many people all over the world because there’s a certain technical edge that we have here,” he added.
While groups like Voivod, Gorguts, and Martyr are well-known acts from the newly-dubbed metal city, Craig Sauvé has also noted some of his favourite acts to come from his hometown.
“In Montreal, we have Cryptopsy and Kataklysm and Despised Icon and all sorts of bands that have really shone internationally,” he explained.
While plenty of other metal bands from Montreal might not be too well-known on an international scale, prominent musical figures, such as The Metal Voice’s Jimmy Kay, hope this new status as a metal city will see plenty of local acts thrive thanks to this newfound attention.
Check out Voivod’s ‘Obsolete Beings’:
