Neisen’s Sports Bar & Grill in Savage was totally dominated by Heavy Metal on November 11 for Swordmetal Fest VI. Twenty bands filled the line up for this years event with music genres covering Heavy Metal to Black Metal. Though not all the bands were Minnesota-based, the selection of bands across the two stages more than provided solid choices. As I decided to cover some of the bands in the evening, I found that there was no shortage of energy with the crowd or the bands on stage. For an event that started at noon and a schedule that extended into the late evening, one would expect a tapering off period. It never happened. From the moment I walked in until I left, the stages continued to pump out the volume as the crowd migrated between the two stages. In addition to the music, band merchandise tables were everywhere, drink specials periodically hit the bars, there was a hotwing challenge, a beer drinking contest, and a Miss Metal Minnesota contest.
The full line-up of bands included (in no particular order):
CAGE
Malice
Störmbreaker
Eternal Voyager
Seventh Calling
Shokker
Sons of Vengeance
Piece Of Mind
Great Electric Quest
Zephaniah
Distal Descent
Beyond Forever BLS MN Chptr
Caster Volor
Fire
Defiled Christ
Agony Reigns
Luna Boreal
Unity
Out of the line-up, I was able to catch some bad-ass sets from Minnesota-based Malice, Eternal Voyager, and Fire, along with an incredible set from South Dakota-based Seventh Calling, and a set the hard-hitting California-based rockers Cage.
Wow, awesome pics of FIRE. Thanks so much!!!
Excellent. Great pics!
Yeah love the pics thanks for the write up as well. hope to see you at Swordmetal Fest 2018