On Sunday February 16 metal band Dendros celebrated a double album release at The Blue Grotto with their friends Gregorious, who just released a new album, too. Added to the bill was another local metal band Burn it All.

As it was the first metal show I have seen in years I planned on taking ear plugs. Of course I forgot them. While the bands were loud, the sound was not beyond reason. As I am no expert on this genre, I typed “sub genres of metal music” into Google. Fourteen items came up. Most made some sense. Luckily two of the three define their genre on their Facebook pages. Gregorious bills themselves as death metal and Dendros has a similar sound with elements of progressive rock thrown in. They are billed as a four piece progressive metal act with post hardcore influences. That was fine with me. I received play lists from each band to give you an idea what was played.

The opening act was Burn It All. They are a talented group of musicians that brought to mind good metal bands from the 70s and early 80s.

The band consisted of two guitarists, a bass player, drummer and a singer. Tunes played included “Born of Sorrow,” “Bloodbath?,” “Sleazy” and “Omerta.” The dance floor started to fill up as soon as they started. Burn It All received plenty of well earned applause.

Next up was the death metal outfit Gregorious. I think the sound went up a notch here and the audience got a little more intense.

Gregorious has a very colourful and charismatic singer, He opened the show in a Satanic mask with horns and later removed it. This quartet included a very good guitarist and drummer and a well-known member of the Blue Grotto family on bass. He played a few amazing solos. Gregorious, played some tunes from their new album and they were well received.

Favourites were “Alchemy,” “I Am Your God Now,” and “Stab and Twist.” The dance floor was really hopping now.

Finally it was time for the headliners, Dendros. They are a four piece progressive metal act with post hardcore influences. This very talented quartet gave the Grotto audience exactly what they wanted.

Moshing was now a little more in earnest but it was confined to the front of the stage. Every member of this group got to show off their talents, to the delight of the happy crowd. The drummer was one of the highlights of my night. Some guitar parts brought to mind progressive rock, played well, Both the bassist and the vocalist were top notch.

I’m assuming many of the songs played were off the new album. Some titles included “Johatsu,” “Divisions,” “Malakwa,” and “Hanging Coffins.”

It was a fun night at the Blue Grotto. With two new albums being featured, plenty of merch as available, This was a very well attended show on a Sunday night.

It is nice to see more genres of music being well represented by local bands at a well attended show.

There is a real comraderie in the metal community. After this went to press a spokesman for Burn It All told me, “Sadly, and awesomely, we three bands will be in Kelowna competing against each other, and 2 Kelowna area bands, in the Canadian Wacken Metal battle! That’s March 2! We are hoping any one of the Kamloops bands moves forward and be just as proud of our brothers that do, if we do not!” That is so cool to hear and I wish them all luck!