Zimmers Hole among those preparing to shred at Armstrong Metal Festival

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armstrong metal festival

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When: July 15 and 16

Where: IPE Grounds and Hassen Arena, Armstrong

Tickets and information: armstrongmetalfest.ca

In total, almost 30 acts will shatter your eardrums at the 12th edition of the live extreme music festival. The lineup includes headliners Enterprise Earth, a deathcore band from Spokane, Washington, and various groups from Vancouver, including Neck of the Woods and, for the first time on AMF, Zimmers Hole. We spoke to Zimmers Hole’s Chris “The Heathen” Valagao about his band’s approach to metal, how he keeps his vocal chords flexible, and what people can expect at the festival.

Q: Can you lay out the philosophy behind Zimmers Hole?

A: Back when this band was formed, we listened to Frank Zappa a lot. It was something like, “How can we take a heavy metal approach to how Zappa put his music together?” The music is really crazy. And he always made jokes about the human condition along with some real social commentary. And that was the template that we adopted for this band at the beginning. I would say we are a black metal band with a sense of humor.

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Q: Zimmers Hole is named after a body part of your late friend Dean Zimmer. We hate to be the punctuation police, but shouldn’t there be an apostrophe?

A: No apostrophe. Just Zimmers Hole. Fuck the score.

Q: The band jumps from one genre to another, and your vocal style sometimes ranges from Cookie Monster growl to falsetto to a clean operatic voice, all in the same song. Is that hard on your vocal chords?

A: My mom was a concert pianist and she forced me to study piano. She used to say that when I was a baby I cried in key and tone. My first piano teacher made me sing all the scales while playing and that led me to discover my voice. I studied singing, I was passionate about it. I studied early opera texts, bel canto. Many traditional singing instructors would say that yelling or frying your vocal cords is bad for your voice, but I disagree. If you use the proper operatic technique, if you breathe correctly, you can go from Cookie Monster to Rob Halford in a heartbeat. It requires practice and dedication.

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Q: Zimmers Hole will be playing Armstrong Metal Fest for the first time, but you played there with your power metal project West of Hell. Can you describe the event in a few sentences?

A: It’s like a miniature version of some of the European metal festivals. It’s the closest thing we have in western Canada. It is the heavy metal community of Western Canada gathered in one place. You have some international acts. There is a huge campsite. It’s similar to the Merritt Music Festival except it’s heavy metal.

Q: How is the atmosphere?

A: It’s a giant heavy metal party, my friend. They have contests, wrestling. At one point they will, I think it’s called the thousand man shotgun where they all line up and poke a hole in the bottom of their beer and drink it all in one go.

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Q: What stands out as a memory?

A: One that stands out is drinking whiskey with the lead singer of Suffocation. That was before they played a headline set. I was shocked that the man could destroy his equipment at such a level of drunkenness. It was spectacular. Another memory was when West of Hell played and we had some pyrotechnicians blowing two holes in the roof insulation of the hockey arena. We were banned for a couple of years.

Q: Who do you hope to see this year?

A: I’ve heard a lot about a band called Carcosa de Victoria. And I have a lot of friends from different bands that come from Calgary. They are too many to mention. The lineup is incredible this year.