Crucialfest X Showcases Metal Diversity at Metro Music Hall

I remember someone once posting a question on Facebook…basically asking, “Where are all the women rockers?” If I could go back in time—knowing what I know now—I would have answered, “They’re all at Crucialfest X!”

Crucialfest X was a four-day metal extravaganza that hosted more than 30 bands across four nights at the end of last August. The number of female-fronted metal bands was impressive. But I was also surprised at the diversity in instruments and arrangements. More on that in a bit.

The number of female-fronted metal bands was impressive.

As I wrote in a recent post about the Utah Arts Festival: that last weekend in August was a busy time for me, and all Utah music lovers. I started by attending Crucialfest X Friday night, then spent the two long days at the Utah Arts Festival on Saturday and Sunday. But that wasn’t enough music. Nope. I ended up heading back to Metro Music Hall, Sunday night, for more headbanging.

Female-Fronted Metal

On Friday evening, I saw more female shredders than I could shake a stick at. There were female vocalists, bassists, guitarists and drummers. The diversity was astounding and refreshing at the same time. Diversity can also be exemplified by the employment of non-traditional metal instruments.

Take the Salt Lake City, Utah band Otolith, which included not one, but two gals shredding on electric violins. Watching these two head bang, and never miss a note, was impressive. This was the heavy experimental doom band’s first show, after reforming and changing their name from SubRosa to Otolith.

Next up was Utah’s Magda-Vega. This was the second time I’d seen the band, which includes two more amazing women. After their set, guitarist Bill Frost and lead vocalist Robin Brown were kind enough to do a brief interview outside on the patio.

Brown was a riot, and exemplified how this generation of women rockers can stand toe-to-toe with the craziest and most belligerent male personalities (I use the term as a compliment). While I was doing the interview, a fan shouted a question out to Robin…basically asking is she would sign his penis (I’m using a toned-downed version of the word, here, because somebody’s mother may be reading this article). Without skipping a beat, Brown replied that the guy would have to “get hard first.”

…this generation of women rockers can stand toe-to-toe with the craziest and most belligerent male personalities….

Denver, Colorado-based Dreadnought, bills themselves as a doom-prog band and is yet another band with two femshredders. I got to speak, briefly, with keyboardist Lauren Vieria, upstairs in the green room. When the band took the stage, I realized Vieria wasn’t the vulnerable beauty I initially thought. I mean…she is a beauty, but her sound was anything by vulnerable. The band played an amazing set.

Diversity can also be described as minimalist approach to a band’s arrangement. For example: who’d have ever thought a two-piece band consisting of one guitarist/vocalist and one drummer would close out Friday evening at a metal festival?

I really can’t even explain what I saw and heard when Salt Lake City’s Eagle Twin took the stage. They fucking rocked my world that night. How they were able to get so much sound out of two people escapes me. The band even has their own wikipedia page…impressive.

Other notable bands at Crucialfest included the 3-piece shoegaze doom band The Violet Temper, featuring my friend Lindsay Heath, along with Cache Tolman and Jared Russel.

The Venue

As we reported in a pre-event post, one of the biggest changes this year was the free admission and the way organizers put on the event at the Metro Music Hall.

“Free admission is a way to give back to those who have supported this event for 10 years,” says organizer Jarom Bishoff. “There are also a lot of curious first-timers, and I wanted to make it easy for them to come check it out.”

Free admission is a way to give back to those who have supported this event for 10 years…”

Moving Crucialfest X to the Metro was a brilliant move as well. For starters, the size and layout of the venue gave organizers plenty of space to bring in vendors. I counted about nine of them, and their offerings included artist merchandise, vintage vinyl, clothing, tobacco smoking paraphernalia, spiritual readings and more.

Each night of the four-night festival saw 7-9 bands for a total of more than 30 bands. I was worried I might not be able to hang for that much music, but organizers solved that by providing a food truck, extra outdoor seating and free canned sparkling and spring water from their sponsor Liquid Death Mountain Water. The sparkling water and food truck helped me keep my energy up for the seven hours I was there on Friday night.

I am not entrenched in the metal scene. I literally walked into Crucialfest X not knowing what to expect. The event really opened my eyes to a lot of things:especially that vast amount of local and regional metal bands, and the diversity that exists in this ever-changing genre.

The event really opened my eyes to a lot of things:especially that vast amount of local and regional metal bands, and the diversity that exists in this ever-changing genre.

If you are like me, and perhaps have a hard time envisioning yourself hanging out with a bunch of headbangers at a full-blown metal festival: get over it and plan on hitting Crucialfest 11 in 2022. It was an amazing experience, with a lit of amazing people, and I can’t wait for next year.

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