February 24, 2010 marked the beginning of Shadows Fall’s first ever headlining tour in Canada, and The Republik in Calgary Alta. was packed most of the night for all four bands on the tour.

Baptized in Blood, of London Ont., started off the night and their metal-meets-punk sound was well received. These guys clearly have fun on stage, and with songs titles such as “Up Shirts and Down Skirts” you know you’re in for an entertaining show.

Blackened death metallers from New Orleans Goatwhore played second and were the band that got the crowd moving the most. The front line headbanged non-stop and the pit was going hard for the whole set, which featured quite a few songs off the new album Carving Out the Eyes of God [Metal Blade, 2009]. Ben Falgoust is a charismatic frontman, constantly interacting with the crowd and banging his head between the extreme vocal lines. Missing on this tour was bassist James Harvey who, according to Falgoust, had got into a little trouble back in the States and couldn’t come along on the tour. Although the band has been here a few times now this past year, fans are still pumped to see them play, and Shadows Fall commented to the crowd near the end of the night that this was one of the best shows they’ve seen Goatwhore play.

Bison B.C. from Vancouver slowed down the pace to start off their set grooving through the first couple tunes. But after a few songs, the energy was kicked back up. The western Canadians had the venue jumping to their set, dominated by a selection from Quiet Earth [Metal Blade, 2008].

Shadows Fall started off strong with “My Demise,” off their new album Retribution [Everblack Industries, 2009]. The band included a cover of Ozzy’s “Bark at the Moon,” recently featured on MTV2’s Headbangers Ball. Vocalist Brian Fair informed fans that he was sick and apologized to the first three rows of people in advance in case they caught his cold. Even though Fair may have been run down, he was still whipping those epic shin length dreads around and put on an intense show. Towards the end of the set Fair taught the crowd a chant, “Shadows Mother-F**king-God-Damn Fall” which had been started by the band’s Australian fans who had christened the band with the “middle-name.” After finishing off their set, it didn’t seem as though the band would do an encore, but the crowd was persistent in their chanting, aggressively and hypnotically using the aforementioned Aussie-inspired band moniker. Fair, who returned to the stage, beat-boxing to the crowd’s chant, then agreed the band could perform one more song as an encore.

Every single band put on a really good show. The lighting was great and the sound amazing. Even though the music styles varied, the bands had one thing in common: they are all extremely personable with their fans, even coming out to sell their own merch, sign autographs and talk with the fans after their sets.