HAMMERFALL, EVERGREY, DON'T TELL SARAH In Ottawa, Canada

Monday, October 12, 2026 at 8:29 AM

By Andrew DePedro, Ottawa Correspondent

Scandinavia Mania (Almost) Knows No Borders! Swedish Metallers Pillage The Overflow Brewery On September 19, 2026

Vikings!
Templars!
Available job offers?

The Freedom World tour featuring two of Sweden’s most powerhouse-sounding of classic heavy metal bands had made a stop at the Overflow Brewery and made a significant impression upon many a local true metal and craft beer enthusiast on such a mild summer night – except that the touring bill was supposed to feature three of Sweden’s most powerhouse-sounding of classic heavy metal bands. Indeed, as prepared as the upcoming Viking invasion had been in conquering North American shores, few within its entourage had predicted such a strong repelling attack by an unknown adversary: The United States Department Of Homeland Security.

Amongst the last-minute sudden affected parties from this tour caught up in a process known as “additional screening” would be most of the bands’ touring entourage and even one of the touring bands themselves before their touring visas for North America could even be approved – an extended administrative process that could even take up to two months regardless of how long ago the tour was booked. In an ironic twist of fate, the tour’s US merchandising distributor was herself denied entry into Canada along with several containers of seemingly undeclared band merch, leaving the tour down to two bands, a lot of swag to sell and a crash course in learning how to run your own North American tour with only the bare essentials at their disposal.

Fortunately, in true Canadian fashion, many folks stepped up to help up with the Swedish Freedom World tour from becoming an abrupt *ahem* finish. A couple of those folks would be local, er, Cornwall hard rockers DON’T TELL SARAH, filling in for luckless pagan metallers ELVENKING who were originally billed on this tour before their visa issues forced them out. The plucky young local band have the sound and the attitude of the type of eastern Ontario band that would be gracing the cover of MEAT magazine back in 1992. They definitely have the look for such, particularly their frontman Alex Hunter, whose powerful vocals invoke comparisons to Sebastian Bach and Nick Walsh – and on occasion, a bit of George “Corpsegrinder” Fischer into the mix. The brief death metal growls don’t entirely fit when introduced in a song like “Party Animal” but otherwise on tracks like “Hypocrisy”, “Preach To Me” and “Black Sheep”, they embolden the tone of the music a lot more effectively almost as much as the clean vocals do. Rounding out the lineup would be the strong blues/rock-infused fretwork of guitarist Vincent Monpetit and the rambunctious rhythm section of Jacob Kilger (bass) and Nicholas Upper (drums), who all deliver a crucial element of power and volume to DTS’ unbridled energy. And luckily, all of that same unbridled energy translates just as fine in the studio in the form of their debut album Garagemahal as it did on the stage that night for a brief yet otherwise surprise last-minute fill-in from a band used to word-of-mouth exposure such as DON’T TELL SARAH.

Setlist:

“Never Return”
“Preach To Me”
“Black Sheep”
“Party Animal”
“Hypocrisy”
“Dopamine”
“Hindsight”

https://www.facebook.com/donttellsarah/
https://www.instagram.com/donttellsarah/
https://donttellsarah.bandcamp.com/

I’ve heard some unique employment proposals during my professional career outside of music reviews, but co-headliners EVERGREY are in a creative recruitment category of their own making. With most of their entourage and seemingly their current drummer and keyboardist unable to accompany them on this North American jaunt, the Gothenburg-based progressive metal quintet – slimmed down to a quartet – led by frontman/guitarist Tom S. Englund, made the most of an otherwise dark situation: By making light of how ridiculous the whole situation was despite their overall preparedness. Granted, the band have likely seen just about every halcyon moment in the music and touring industry throughout their 33-year career; this was easily one of the more complex North American tours that they’ve likely encountered in terms of visa and immigration issues, which Tom had noted while outlining that this had also been the first time in EVERGREY’s career in which all of the band members – bassist Johan Niemann and recently-acquired guitarist Stephen Platt (ex-DEVIN TOWNSEND) who appear to have been the only other members who were available for the tour – suddenly found themselves without a road crew and handling all of the other band duties by themselves, including setting/tearing down the stage and driving the tour bus. “Anybody looking for a job?” Tom had even joked at one point during the show, prompting speculation that the band likely won’t be working with their US merch distribution agent any time soon.

So, while the road experience in arriving to Ottawa was less than colorful for EVERGREY’s first-ever visit here, their performance made up for it hundredfold. Openers “Falling From The Sun” and “Where August Mourn” were pure dark bleak-sounding prog metal that sounded as if it were being played by twice as many members. And from this year’s latest release titled Architects Of The New Weave, EVERGREY sounded more rejuvenated sonically and spiritually, and it suddenly made sense that after Tom’s venting about their US visa debacle, they immediately delved into the song’s title track, and it was pretty much the more uplifting-sounding and hopeful tracks from their setlist that night, with the closing number “Oxygen!” also from the same album as a close second. Johan Niemann and Stephen Platt were versatile and focused throughout their performance while the stand-in drummer, whose name I may have caught as probably being David (possibly the drum tech), was a solid tub-thumper on the kit. All in all, a fine moment for EVERGREY’s Ottawa debut that saw a particularly obscure start suddenly blend into a colorful kaleidoscope of uplifting prog metal and jubilation – two words for which you rarely ever hear in the same sentence.

Setlist:

“Falling From The Sun”
“Where August Mourn”
“Heaven”
“Architects Of The New Weave”
“Eternal Nocturnal”
“Call Out The Dark”
“A Touch Of Blessing”
“King Of Errors”
“Leaving The Emptiness”
“Oxygen!”

https://evergrey.net/
https://www.facebook.com/Evergrey
https://www.instagram.com/evergreyofficial/

Chatting hockey with guitarist Oscar Dronjak, intensities in three cities, an album review somewhere amongst the collection of articles from the previous KNAC website and even a photo op with the band a few years ago at the local Koven restaurant (RIP) before their one-off Halloween headlining event that same night, it’s safe to say without much bragging that myself and HAMMERFALL have something of a history. Yet, with the turnover to the new KNAC site as of late, you’ll recall the Breaking Bad episode in which Gus Fring, in response to ASAC Hank Schrader’s assertion that his name has never been located in the Chilean census records from the country’s Allende era, says “I’m sure that if you look long enough, you’ll find me”. And as much of a metaphorical stretch as this may be in making such a connection, it still absolutely applies to my past history with Sweden’s most famous modern-day heavy metal tempting Templar traditionalists.

Nevertheless, any excuse is a good excuse to catch a HAMMERFALL show in one’s town regardless of the gap in between studio albums. Luckily, with their last studio album being 2024’s Avenge The Fallen, HAMMERFALL are still in mass demand in the touring circuit, and pretty sure that from my past interview with Oscar, we’d mostly been discussing some of the band’s past tours that were curtailed by the pandemic, and, being the professionally consummate band that they are, they’re likely making up for all of these same postponed shows as well. Luckily, the setlist has been amended a bit to be a bit more diverse and up to date that night as the band – including frontman Joacim Cans, bassist Fredrik Larsson, drummer David Wallin and second guitarist Pontus Norgren as well as Oscar – open with the title track of that aforementioned current studio album to much rapturous applause. Classic numbers such as “Heeding The Call” and the steadfast battle cry of “Any Means Necessary” follow suit as many a thrown goat punched the atmosphere in unison with the rhythm. Always adept at bringing the right tool for the job, Oscar brings out his trusted hammer axe during “Hammer Of Dawn”, “Hammer High” and “Let The Hammer Fall”, prompting many in the audience to ponder if there was some sort of specific theme that was somehow subliminally hitting us on the head – though Joacim was able to help us out when he encouraged the crowd to chant out part of the “hammer” chorus on at least two of the titled-themed songs. Unsurprisingly, by the time HAMMERFALL had reached the last three closing songs “(We Make) Sweden Rock” (the official anthem of the country’s national curling team), “Hail To The King” and the thunderous “Hearts On Fire”, the crowd were singing along to Joacim’s every word without any prompting. With my 5th time seeing them in concert, HAMMERFALL once more nail a stellar performance worth dashing to in my fair city.

Thanks again to CHORD Productions, the Overflow Brewery and the bands involved for making this show happen.

Setlist:

“Avenge The Fallen”
“Heeding The Call”
“Any Means Necessary”
“Hammer Of Dawn”
“Freedom”
“Renegade”
“Hammer High”
“Last Man Standing”
“Fury Of The Wild”
“Chapter V: The Medley”
“Let The Hammer Fall”
“The End Justifies”
“(We Make) Sweden Rock”
“Hail To The King”
“Hearts On Fire”

https://hammerfall.net/
https://www.facebook.com/hammerfall
https://www.instagram.com/hammerfall_official

DON'T TELL SARAH