By: Andrew Boyd

Newfoundland & Labrador Metal bands listen up! You have a chance to perform at the world’s largest metal festival: Wacken Open Air, which has been taking place in Wacken, Germany for the last 29 years. The 2019 lineup includes Sabaton, Parkway Drive, Demons & Wizards, Powerwolf, Airbourne, Rose Tattoo, Within Temptation, Meshuggah and many more.

Wacken Metal Battle Canada is a competition that sees bands from across the country battle each other for the chance of representing our country with a performance slot at Wacken Open Air August 1st – 3rd, 2019 in Wacken, Germany.

For the first time in the 6 years of the competition’s existence, Newfoundland & Labrador will now be included and St. John’s, NL will host a live show for the preliminary round of this competition.

Here is the NEED TO KNOW:

Deadline to apply is this Friday, December 21, 2018, there is no fee and you can apply at this link: http://www.metalbattle.ca/apply.html

There are 4 battle rounds before the Canadian champion is decided and awarded a performance slot at Wacken Open Air and $2,000 towards airfare to Germany.

Round 1 Preliminary: St. John’s, NL (Venue & Date - TBD)
Round 2 Regional Semi-Final:Halifax, NS or Toronto, ON (Venue & Date - TBD)
Round 3 Eastern Canada Final: Toronto, ON in late March (Venue & Date - TBD)
Round 4 National Final: Saturday, May 25, 2019, in Calgary, AB

Each band will get a 25 min set with PA, lighting, sound engineer provided. Winners each night will be decided via “Jury of respected music industry folk.”

You can find a full set of rules here: http://www.metalbattle.ca/rules.html.

When asked about financial support for the winning act, Wacken Metal Battle Canada media relations rep Jon Asher of Asher Media acknowledged “To be determined financial support from Music NL and from WMBC.”

Unlike the recent RAW event fiasco, this national battle of the bands does not have any requirement to sell tickets or an entry fee. Payment to bands for the BOTB performance received the same answer: “To be determined financial support from Music NL and from WMBC.”

MusicNL’s Marketing and Communications Director Rebekah Robbins explained that MusicNL members – members of 6 months – can apply for funding for travel for live performances under the Professional Development program.

"That program has extremely limited funds for the 2018-19 fiscal year,” Robbins noted. The MusicNL fiscal year resets in April, 2019.

The financial challenges of getting off the Rock are nothing new to the musicians of this province though, so if you can figure that part out, there is major opportunity on the line. The competition is free to apply, and this is a real chance to export some of the great heavy music being made here in NL!