Featuring Metallica’s only North American performance of 2014 (along with Slayer and Anthrax!) and drawing 40,000 bodies through the door on Day 1 alone, Heavy Montreal shut down Parc Jean-Drapeau in Quebec this past weekend to create the ultimate metal destination for Canadians, adventurous Americans and even a few fanatical travelers from overseas. We had to hotfoot it back to NYC as Slayer took the stage, but even without witnessing the thrash masters terrorizing the land of poutine, Heavy Montreal 2014 was still easily the best metal festival we’ve been to in North America in a very long time. After nearly wearing out our boots running to catch as many bands as we could, we’ve picked out the five artists that we thought came out furthest ahead of the pack.

