70,000 Tons Of Metal 2024 (Day Three)

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70,000 Tons Of Metal 2024 (Day Three) – The Full Experience Of Metal At Sea

Day three is always the day when you arrive at your destination port during the 70,000 Tons Of Metal festival. Most survivors (the festival’s nomenclature for festival attendees) choose to debark the ship and enjoy the local beaches, shops, and restaurants. There are also excursions that you can sign up for beforehand that include members of the festival’s bands. These are at an additional cost and consist of activities such as ziplining, snorkeling, boat excursions and even playing with the local monkeys.

Puerto Plata

This year’s destination port city was Puerto Plata located in the northwestern coast of the Dominican Republic. This touristy cruise ship port (Taino Bay) was very modern and chock full of shops, bars, and eateries. Like most Caribbean cruise ship ports, I describe Taino Bay as a sprawling Margaritaville, at least a football field length long. My wife and I are more of the adventurous types so we made our way through the plethora of friendly yet persistent vendors and walked through traffic laden streets for about 5 minutes before arriving in the colonial and cultural heart of Puerto Plata.

Umbrella Street

As far as Caribbean port cities are concerned, I give it a 7 out of 10. There are a couple of photogenic areas like Umbrella Street, and the Pink Alley. If you’re a “grammer” type, these areas are your jam. There were plenty of cute shops and cheap cafes all over the area. However, we had to hunt down a restaurant that serves local Dominican fare. We ended up at a place called Kelvin y Patricia Bar Restaurant. It’s located at the entrance of Umbrella Street and Calle San Felipe. This place rocked. We noticed that the platters were large, so we ordered a couple of beers and a plate of chicharrones de cerdo with some mofongo and platanos on the side. Everything was incredibly delicious. I highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Puerto Plata.

Chicharrones and Mofungo

After lunch, we wanted to get a head start back to the ship to take advantage of some quiet time on the ship, i.e., jacuzzi/libations, before the masses of “survivors” returned. After a couple of hours unwinding, it was time to start getting ready for the third night of bands. It was a tricky schedule because we picked to see Warkings, Nanowar of Steel, Saor and Blind Guardian back-to-back at the front part of tonight’s line-up and then we planned to take a nap to catch Infected Rain and Crypta in the early morning hours of the next day.

Dominican Republic Flag

Warkings was a trip. There are four members of the band and each member wore a costume representing soldiers from different epochs in battlefield history. The drummer was a Spartan warrior, the guitarist a Crusader, the bassist a Nordic warrior and the vocalist, a Roman tribune. The band played straight-up power metal. Not my thing at all, but it works for the presentation and was a lot of fun to watch live.

Warkings
Next up was another gimmicky band, Nanowar of Steel. The gist of this band is if Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire had a baby together. They label themselves as a parody comedy band. They entered the venue that night wearing clothes that representing a Madonna video from the 80’s. In other words, lots of neon colors and fishnets. The crowd loved these guys. Their song parodies were clever and funny, this band could make a ton of cash in Las Vegas if only Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire were more well known.

Nanowar of Steel

Saor’s music is described as atmospheric and doomy among their fans and that was right on target. There are segments with violin and flute scattered among their songs. Saor was one of only a few “doomish” type bands during the festival and they were a welcomed change for sure. The second Blind Guardian set on the pool deck was even better than their first in the Royal Theater. Blind Guardian can command the large stages with ease. After their set, our biggest challenge awaited, to stay sober and stay awake.

Saor

Infected Rain’s set started at 4:30 in the morning and how we managed to make it still dumbfounds me. Nevertheless, we were there among the diehards. I’ve wanted to see what the hype was for this band since last summer after I heard how great they were at Brutal Assault. To be honest, I can see the appeal, but if you ask me, they’re a knockoff Jinger in design and sound. For you gatekeepers out there, feel free to trash my opinion.

Infected Rain

The final band of day three was the hottest death metal band in Brazil at the moment, Crypta. All day long and all night, the winds on the pool deck were crazy, and for Crypta’s set, they were hitting their apex. Their soundcheck was even challenging because of the ungodly wind howling. However, when Crypta began their set with “The Other Side of Anger,” those winds only added to the intensity of their set.

Crypta

Vocalist/bassist Fernanda Lira is fast becoming a force within the death metal genre, she’s obviously studied her predecessors well and has developed her own style of brutality since the band’s beginnings in 2019. Crypta ran back and forth through the gale force winds that were probably worse on stage with ease. What I love about this brutal death metal band is that they are genuinely smiling and having fun on stage, even at 5:30 in the morning! It was a perfect ending to a busy third day on 70,000 Tons Of Metal.

Metal isn’t just a type of music, it’s a lifestyle for Nikos Mixas. In addition to playing guitar for the Phoenix’s own Mosara, he’s a contributing writer for V13 and The Sludgelord. And when he’s taking a break from it all and on vacation, you can almost be certain he’s banging his head at a metal festival somewhere interesting.