Huge thanks to Remi for letting me use this report.
I raise my glass in your honour - cheers!
TEXT: Remi Cote
CORRECTIONS: Jacinte Pearsons
PHOTOS & VIDEOS: Jean-Philippe Beaulieu
BARGE TO HELL:
My name
is Remi and I am a 43 years old metal fan from QC, Canada. I have
been involved in the scene for close to 30 years, I did various
labels, I still run PRC MUSIC (www.prcmusic.com
– home of Negativa, Beyond Creation, Stalwart, Gorelust, amongst few
others) and I started a record store called PROFUSION in 2003 which I
sold in late 2011... I live for this music. It is in my veins. I will
try to give you an idea of the day to day life on the first BARGE TO
HELL as a metal fan, not a journalist, which I am not and have no
pretention to be. I actually have no idea how to really do this… I
sell music and distribute music, that is what I do best, so please
bear with me if my article is not up to par with anything you will
read in TERRORIZER or DECIBEL!
Can’t
actually say how and why but we finally managed to survive this trip
and made it back home safe… Why “Survive” you may ask? There
were no tsunamis or plane crashes or Titanic-like catastrophes… But
how can you think going to such an event with some of the best bands
on earth, surrounded by friends, bars and drunken metal heads, and
not get into the mood and shit faced?
This is actually the best fucking festival I had the chance to
experience, and for numerous reasons, and I am already getting
anxious for BARGE TO HELL 2… I will be there, and you should too.
Hell, we should go together.
We flew
(me and 6 of my buddies) from Montreal and we could tell it was going
to be a fun week because we were already (quietly) causing mayhem and
laughing our butts off at the airport while checking in… the party
was on, at 4:30 AM. After various body searches on myself and metal
bro Eric by the very cool and chatty guy at the boarders (let’s
call him Dick), we finally all boarded the plane… direction NY and
then Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We flew out on December 1st
in order to enjoy the sun, beaches and buckets of beers before the
cruise… mission accomplished. We all had our proud moments.
We were
all pretty anxious on D-DAY, December 3rd,
and woke up early for a quick continental breakfast (meaning muffins
and cereals) and shower to finally leave for the port of Miami…
We
arrived there with a private shuttle. We saw black shirts and tattoos
all over the place - Shane from NAPALM DEATH with his bass and
luggage, the dudes from KRISIUN getting in line, the guys from
ENSLAVED taking pictures with fans… we knew we were finally home…
Home sweet home.
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EXODUS - Bonded by blood
|
After
checking in and finding our rooms, it was time to run around the boat
and meet some cool people… EXODUS was scheduled to start the
hostilities at the Chorus Line Theater. This is a cool club, actually
my favourite place on the boat to watch a show, very comfy seats, the
sound was always great and you have a perfect view of the stage where
ever you may want to sit.
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| ENSLAVED - The Space Odyssey of the longships |
It was
unfortunately impossible to see every show, as some bands were
playing while others were already on stage but on the first day I saw
EXODUS (solid as usual), SOILWORK (Dirk is god and yeah, Speed was
impressive), a bit of HOLY MOSES, I literally was blown away into
very small pieces by ENSLAVED (incredible show!), SODOM killed
everything on the pool deck… but nothing could actually prepare us
for the unreal, incredible awesome first concert of the festival from
my favourite band from Poland BEHEMOTH! I saw them numerous times and
I swear on my wife’s head that I never saw them like that… evil
was fucking dripping from the walls around us… it was incredible,
magical. BEHEMOTH is way above everybody else as far as stage
presence and precision… this show actually killed me several times
in the process and since I slept a mere 5 hours in the 48 hours
before, I decided it was time to hit the bunk bed for the night. I
went to my room with a smile on my face.
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| BEHEMOTH - Here and beyond |
|
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Day 2
(December 4th)
started at 10 with ARTILLERY… which I missed as we were already in
line waiting for the merch store to open… yeah, I’m a 43 years
old kid and I need my goodies. Unfortunately for me, it was a hard
fucking task to find XXL size shirts… No BEHEMOTH dammit. No GRAVE.
No ENSLAVED… Still got a kick ass POSSESSED shirt, a cool
MONSTROSITY shirt, the Barge To Hell shirt and baseball cap… life
goes on. Went back to the pool stage in time to catch MORGOTH and
they were fucking amazing… loved their set. Afterwards I got my
ass kicked by LOUDBLAST, a pleasant surprise as far as I’m
concerned as I didn’t hear anything new from the band since
forever. Then SACRED REICH killed everything. It was fun to actually
enjoy the band in the pool with the guys from MUNICIPAL WASTE… They
had as much fun as we did for sure, SACRED REICH killed it, it was
great seeing them live again after almost 20 years in my case! I went
to the Spectrum Lounge to see NECRONOMICON (the Canadian one!) which
I usually enjoy, I saw them live a lot and they deserve their new
success in my opinion… but playing on this stage didn’t give them
much of a chance. The sound was bad and we couldn’t see much of
them on stage because first, they had quite a lot of people showing
up which is cool, but there was also a barrier in front of the stage,
which made things a bit weird and difficult to fully enjoy the band’s
presence… please take that fence off next year, it’s annoying and
absolutely not necessary.
Next we
had the chance to see BRUJERIA in action, which didn’t do much for
me I’m afraid. The next gig was some sort of trip back to school
for me, seeing CORROSION OF CONFORMITY in full force with their
original line-up, like I did in the mid 80’s in a crappy bar in
Montreal, was pure bliss… they were amazing. Pure gold for an old
creep like me.
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| LOUDBLAST the Caribbean Sea! |
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| SACRED REICH...time to surf! |
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| La BRUJA |
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| COC - 'Why Are We Here?' |
Still on
the COC buzz, we ran to the Chorus Line to see NAPALM DEATH… I saw
them numerous times, again and again, I love them to death but this
concert was beyond fucking sick… I never saw Barney so fucking
intense before. The set list was amazing; they played material from
all their classics. Incredible gig! We skipped MAYHEM and went to
grab a bite, we came back just in time for SANCTUARY. They were
great, as if the band actually never stopped for 2 decades or so…
can’t wait for the new album. Next, AT THE GATES were playing the
pool deck. The set list was cool. MOONSPELL went on stage next at the
chorus line and did a killer set too… from what I heard, the singer
as a weird effect on the ladies… I took a peek at the MUNICIPAL
WASTE show at the Lounge; we could barely see the singer on stage as
they were too many people enjoying a solid fucking gig in front of
him. I can’t understand why this band was not playing the bigger
room… SEPULTURA was next on the pool deck. They played some
amazing songs but I don’t know… I am not a fan anymore. It was
like seeing a good cover band. Those who had the chance to see
SEPULTURA with the (almost) original line-up will understand what I
mean. POSSESSED were scheduled to destroy the chorus line and they
did… I saw them in the mid 80’s and they were good. Fast forward
20 something years later, they were amazing… Everything they played
on stage was obviously a classic. It is cool to see Jeff Bercera on
stage again. This was my last concert for day 2. I was barely
standing on my feet.
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| AT THE GATES of the loud memory |
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| MOONSPELL: Portugal ruling the seas once more |
Day 3
(December 5) was our day off within our vacation… we left the boat
for Nassau. Went to the closest Starbucks for WI-Fi and a
well-deserved coffee. We took a cab, died about 25 times on our way
to the beach… barely alive; we went and find ourselves a nice spot
to hang out. The weather was amazing, we had a blast. I am used to
travelling in the south, I go at least once or twice a year, and I
can’t say I would recommend Nassau… it is ridiculously expensive
and you get the same treatment as if you were to go to a Mexican
resort, weather and beach-like. And Mexico is much cheaper. Our taxi
driver told us Michael Jackson stayed on Paradise Island and paid
25.000$ a night to stay there… I told him Uncle Tom was staying on
our boat for free.
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| At first sight those looked like CORONER shorts to me... |
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Part 2 of Remi's metal adventure will be posted tomorrow, Dec 12th.
Meanwhile you can check out all photos and videos shot by Jean-Philipe on the following locations:
and
