CANMORE – The decibels will be turned to 100 this Saturday (Nov. 12) in Canmore.
Twelve bands hit the stage at artsPlace for the returning Canmore Alternative Metal and Punk Festival II (AmpFest). Doors open at 2:30 p.m.
Set to play the festival are local acts Kasey Nolan, Bow Valley Bandits, Human Stain, Suspended Glaciers, DethGod, Regal Foul, Bawang!, and All The Time Everywhere.
Calgary bands include Kings Rot, and festival headliner Syryn, nominated for two 2022 YYC Music Awards. Siksika First Nation band No More Moments rounds out the bill.
“This year every band is very different in style,” said Kasey Suchowersky of Beauty In Chaos Productions (BIC), co-promoter along with Pitworthy Promotions.
“I don’t think we have any band on this bill that sounds like one of the other bands, lots of variety and diversity in the sounds.”
Stoked to perform is Sloan Voxx, Syryn’s lead powerhouse on vocals, who said the entertainment aspect is just as important as the music.
Syryn dropped its sophomore album Heads or Tails in August. Voxx said the power/thrash metal band tried to push the envelope on sound and pulled from individual inspirations when putting it together.
“We’re a very high-energy band and we’re very interactive with anyone who is there,” said Voxx. “Sometimes there’s a little bit of stage antics here and there, but we’re really there just to play our music and make sure everyone has a great time.”
The band will have a TV on stage with lyrics so people can sing-a-long.
Back in 2019, the promising inaugural AmpFest rocked the artsPlace stage. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the music fest took a three-year hiatus with one show in 2020 being postponed, then cancelled.
“We waited until the storm passed because everyone was so uncertain about what was going on at that time,” said Suchowersky.
One of the advantages of having some time to plan was reaching out to new acts and more variety of sound for the sophomore show.
“I’m glad to diversify a little bit more this year – we got more singing, we got some really heavy stuff and everything in between,” said Suchowersky. “Hopefully this festival can help to show people the diversity in the culture and the music itself.”
Tickets are $35 at the door, or at Banff shops Defending Awesome and Westrock. Tickets are also online at www.artsplacecanmore.com.
The festival’s tentative set times:
2:30 p.m.: Kasey Nolan (main lobby)
3 p.m.: Bow Valley Bandits
3:40 p.m.: Human Stain
4:30 p.m.: DethGod
5:20 p.m.: Suspended Glaciers
6:10 p.m.: Kings Rot
7 p.m.: Regal Foul
7:50 p.m.: Balrogath
8:40 p.m.: Bawang!
9:30 p.m.: No More Moments
10:20 p.m.: All the Time Everywhere
11:20 p.m.: Syryn
A full description of each band can be found here.