Montreal City Councilor Craig Sauvé is a big fan of metal and wanted the city to recognize its importance in the genre. Sauvé successfully pushed through a formal declaration to name Montreal a "heavy metal city," which Global News adds he got bipartisan support for. The declaration was made official on Monday, April 15.
"It’s really just a recognition that we want to do, to celebrate the music scene locally," Sauvé told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.
"There are tens of thousands of fans in the Montreal region who are devoted, who spend so much time, who practise, promote, who attend concerts," he explained. "The heavy metal music that we make is really well-regarded by many people all over the world because there’s a certain technical edge that we have here."
Among the materials Sauvé brought to the council were CDs from Cryptopsy, Necrotic Mutation and Despised Icon, though he also lists major names like Voivod and Kataklysm.
"The heavy metal that comes from Montreal is a more technical brand, a more complicated brand to play," he explained. "It’s not simply punky or straightforward. It’s a little more complex and thought-out and composed. I think that the academic approach that we have in Montreal — the CEGEPs, the universities that all have music programs, the jazz scene — contributes to the type of heavy metal that comes from Montreal.”
Read the full profile on Sauvé here via CBC Music.
I caught up with @CraigSauve today. He's just got a formal declaration through city council to have Montreal officially declared a metal city. I asked him what his mother thought about all this… apparently, she's not a fan. @Global_Montreal pic.twitter.com/iOy6MJqz2Q
— Billy Shields (@billyshields) April 15, 2019
I also spoke with Jimmy Kay, who runs The Metal Voice, a YouTube channel with a worldwide following. He makes the point that designations like these aren't necessarily symbolic, but can have a major promotional impact on a city like Montreal. @Global_Montreal pic.twitter.com/9QGbUeD0No
— Billy Shields (@billyshields) April 15, 2019
We spotlighted what an awesome city Montreal is in a recent edition of Destination Metal, with a spotlight on the annual Heavy Montreal festival.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46s11OnPqwk][/youtube]
