French Metal Takes On Toronto

French metal has taken the Western world by storm lately. On October 12th, the Marseille metalcore group known as Landmvrks concluded their North American headliner tour with a sold out show in Toronto, Canada at the infamous Opera House. Supporting them was the dreamy yet heavy Parisian band Novelists, the Atlanta nu-metal legends Silly Goose and the emotional Lyon metalcore band Resolve. 

Cheers filled the room as Resolve took to the stage. Bassist Robin Mariat posed dramatically as his siblings Aurélien (guitar) and Nathan (drums) started their first song, “Human”. Shortly after, vocalist Anthony Diliberto emerged and started the night off strong with a powerful and emotional performance.  Now, this show was filled with fun moments from all the bands, including Pierre from the band Novelists coming out to “help” Aurélien Mariat play a riff. At another point, Novelists frontwoman Camille Contreras, emerged from the shadows, stealing Nathan Mariat’s drumstick and throwing it into the crowd, and then enlisting help from her bandmates to slowly take Mariat’s drum kit apart as he played it. Smiles, laughs and riffs filled the room as Resolve bid their North American crowd goodbye. 

Next to the stage was the only American band on the bill, Silly Goose. If you’re at all interested in metalcore, you’ve definitely heard of Silly Goose, and it’s probably from a silly mishap at Lollapalooza 2025. Silly Goose brought explosive energy that infected the crowd. As soon as the band hit the stage, frontman Jackson Foster was calling for chaos. Crowdsurfers, mosh pits, walls of death, the works. 

If there was ever a time to let loose during the night, it was during Silly Goose’s set. From the beginning to the end of their set, Silly Goose shaped the atmosphere with their riffs, good vibes and calls for chaos. Midway through their set, the members of Novelists came out with a bag of chips, and started throwing them into the crowd and giving it to the members of the band. Just before Silly Goose finished their set, some members of Novelists came out and hijacked the show and convinced Foster to wear shorts overtop of his pants. Definitely an interesting fashion choice. The silliness came to an end shortly after, but rest assured, when Sillly Goose departed, they left the crowd with smiles on their faces.

After playing pranks all night, it was finally time for Novelists to take to the stage. They started off their set with “All For Nothing”, a song off their newest album “Coda”. Vocalist Camille Contreras eased the crowd in with beautiful and haunting vocals designed to enchant and calm the crowd before exploding into heavy riffs from guitarists Florestan Durand and Pierre Danel, groovy bass lines from bassist Nicolas Delestrade and blasting drum beats from Amael Durand. 

Contreras’s voice was powerful, to say the very least. Her cleans were crisp and soothing, and her growls were commanding. The unique sound of Novelists seemed to flow through her as she danced between lyrics. Contreras’s movement and fluidity still seeped out even when she picked up a guitar to play “Say My Name,” which she said was her favourite song. During “Heretic”, Novelists welcomed Florent Salfati of Landmvrks to sing along with them. Salfati’s screams meshed with Contreras’s clean vocals perfectly, creating a chaotic and energetic atmosphere. 

To conclude their set, Novelists performed an otherworldly edition of “Turn It Up (Keyboard Warriors Social Club)”. The groovy melody combined with the crash of the symbols made it feel like the soundtrack to a sci-fi film, and Novelists brought the excitement to go along with that energy. By the time they were finished on the stage, the crowd was buzzing with excitement for the headliners. 

Finally, it was time for the headliners, Landmvrks. At around 9:35, the lights went down, and a screen came to life, displaying the artwork of Landmvrks’ most recent album, “The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been”. A short interlude, “Spectre”, started to play, allowing lead guitarist Nicolas Exposito, bassist Rudy Purkart, rhythm guitarist Paul Cordebard, and drummer Kévin D'Agostino to enter the stage. Soon enough, the interlude faded into “Creature,” and vocalist Florent Salfati ran out on stage, corded microphone in hand. 

He performed a quick rap intro in French and then everyone knew what was coming. The crowd shouted in a collective voice, “I am the creature”. Following that was the most energy to ever grace the floors of the Opera House. Everyone in the audience was moving along to the music and didn’t stop until Landmvrks finished their set. Following the chaos that was “Creature” was the heavily hip-hop influenced “Death”, and then “Blistering”, where Salfati called for everyone to start crowdsurfing. 

After a particularly chaotic performance of “Blistering”, Landmvrks continued their set with “A Line In The Dust”, “Visage”, which had the crowd jumping even during the softer, electronic parts of the song, making it feel more like a club than a metal show. But that feeling didn’t last long, as Exposito and Coredebard made sure there were enough riffs to make up for the softer parts of “Visage”. 

Following Visage was one of the best songs performed that night, “Sulfur”. As soon as the signature riff filled the room, the crowd knew what to do. They split the room right down the middle, and waited in anticipation for D’Agostino’s drum fill and only closed the wall of death as Salfati screamed out the word “sulfur”. Then, a sold out room of metalheads ran full force at one another, creating the biggest mosh pit of the night. 

After “Sulfur”, the lights went dim, and everyone departed the stage. In the low light, a canvas was wheeled out onto the stage, and when the lights came back on, Salfati ran out with spray paint cans as “Sombre 16” played. Salfati, who is also a graffiti artist, spray painted a graffiti “V” on the canvas as the transition track of “The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been” played and the crowd stared in awe at how fast the artwork was completed. 

As their set continued, the energy didn’t come down from there. During “Scars”, some members of Novelists came out to dance around on stage while Danel “helped” Expositio play the complex riff. Even when the rest of Landmvrks departed the stage and left Salfati on his own with an electric guitar to perform an acoustic version of “Suffocate”, the crowd was still buzzing with electricity, itching to mosh again. When the rest of Landmvrks joined Salfati midway through “Suffocate”, the energy picked right back up, and Salfati said to the crowd that it was one of the best shows they had ever played in their lives. Their set ended on a fierce performance of “Lost In A Wave” and “Rainfall”. After that, Landmvrks stepped off the stage, but not for long, as the crowd was desperate for more. 

Then, Landmvrks returned with “Blood Red”, the final single released from their newest album. “Blood Red” allowed Salfati’s rapping ability to show, although it was a mellower performance than some of the other songs of the night. However, that was needed, as the next song was “Requiem”. “Requiem” featured the best vocals from Salfati of the entire night. The instrumentals were loud and sounded like being tossed around at sea, but during the bridge, they pulled back slightly to allow Salfati’s vocals to shine through. Salfati effortlessly switched between high brees and low false chord screams, then flipped back to rapping. No performance could top that one… right? Well, for their final song on the last date of their North American tour, Landmvrks brought out Anthony Diliberto of Resolve to sing “Self Made Back Hole”. The final stint of chaos ensued after Salfati and Diliberto screamed out, “check check, motherfucker”. People moshed and ran into each other, crowdsurfer after crowdsurfer came over the barricade, and everyone was screaming along the line “self made black hole” before running into one another in the final wall of death. To commemorate their final night, Landmvrks thanked their Canadian crowd, and finished the night off with Salfati jumping into the photo pit and speaking to and taking pictures with the fans on the barricade. The lights of the Opera House came back on, and every fan left the venue sweaty and filled with joy.

RESOLVE

SILLY GOOSE

NOVELISTS

LANDMVRKS