On a cold and fresh weekend in the fresh New Year, Emergenza festival returned to the Kathedral in Toronto with more bands and more music than you could shake a snow shovel at. Three days of music included bands from Toronto and surrounding areas making for a diverse and exciting weekend. Thursday found the band ‘Insolitary’ playing Heavy growling metal. The band comes from the hills just outside Toronto. Made up of four guys that will not fail to be heard no matter what venue they play. ‘Exordium’ is a band that has tones of vocal tone and great musicianship and included a female contingent that brought the audience to its feet. ‘Stinkfinger’ played power punk pop and included a cover of Rage Against The Machines “killing in the name of” Ask these guys what the “shocker” is, two in the pink, one in the stink…’Luke Andrews’ and his band played acoustic rock with a patriotic edge and added flair with a flute and kept the set bright and cheery. ‘Borealis’ is a female fronted power metal band with strong aural vocals, three keyboards and quick melodic interludes. ‘Pure Blind’ is from Aurora Ontario with an animated front man and tight and groovy instrumentation, representing all that’s good and loud about Toronto’s outskirts. ’Fifth base’ brought two bass players to the stage, which gave them a funkier feel and brought the evening to a close. The second night of shows at the Kathedral started with a melodic acoustic rock band called ‘Daydream Theory’ quickly followed up by an Oshawa band called ‘Aidem’. ‘Aidem’ is a vocally strong band that played an aggressive set and kept the attention of the audience. ‘NFC’ was next to play a heavy rock set post-hardcore style. ‘Synthetic Ending’ kept it loud and filled the stage with six members. ‘Valley of the Lurgs’ plays fast and their singer keeps up with strong loud cutting vocals, he also looks a bit like Iggy Pop. ‘East Sleezy’ easily won the best hair award Friday night and played through their set with precision and a cover of a Velvet Revolver song. ‘D.U.I.’ played next and rocked the stage with its grungy metal style. Black metal enthusiasts would appreciate the set put on by ‘The Will of the Ancients’ they play loud and proud. ‘Tomorrows Excuse’ played into the morning with alt. rock sounds that kept the eyes of all in the venue on the stage. ‘Smirk’ is a straight up punk band that went on at 9 pm Saturday night and finished up at 9:23 having completed 13 songs. Thirteen songs in 23 minutes! How about that? ‘Pandaemonium’ took to the stage with crushing black metal. Keyboards and heavy bass and four musicians along the front of the stage in signature metal stance. ‘Four Two Nothing’ is a band that plays punk in the vein of no fx, quick fast and punchy. An alternative five piece from Barrie called ‘Who Needs Shoes’ went ballistic on stage, look for these guys in southern Ontario. ‘Frydaze’ are a rock band with striking vocals and a drummer with particular flair was popular with the audience. ‘Nickletree’ came to Toronto to play Emergenza Festival with their folk rock trio really warming things up. ‘Voodoo Vox’ took the stage with glistening alternative rock with hard rock edginess. The venue was full of progressive metal with ‘Event Horizon’. Their set included a Dreamtheatre cover and their bassist came in from Texas to make the show. The last set of the weekend was played by ‘Eradication’ they had 6 metal songs that kept everyones ears ringing all the way home.