Metal fans of all shapes and sizes corralled into House of TARG on Nov. 6 to strut their vocal stuff on-stage.
It was the first-ever karaoke night for the Metal Ravens, a Carleton club aiming to bring fans and musicians together for events, and networking in Ottawa’s metal scene.
They drew a crowd of more than 60 people and many took turns on the mic.
“We couldn’t really get any underground metal on the machine,” club president Luv Tomar, a.k.a. Shakes, said. “We just decided to plug in a phone and had people sing, scream, or growl along to whatever song they wanted.”
The Metal Ravens started when Tomar and some like-minded metalheads initially wanted to connect musicians at Carleton with each other, but they quickly became an official Carleton club based on a lack of places for metal fans to celebrate what they love.
“Before the Metal Ravens, there wasn’t a single group on campus that would ever try to organize any events for metal fans,” Tomar said. “We want to introduce people to the Ottawa metal scene, which is actually quite good.”
The club thought a metal karaoke night was a “neat” idea, and Tomar was sold on House of TARG as a venue within seconds.
“Holy shit, it blew my mind,” he said. “The first thing that really caught my attention was the arcade-plus-venue idea. Everyone was busy doing something, whether it’s eating perogies, playing arcade games, or just drinking and watching people do funny stuff onstage.”
Executive club member Hannah Stewart said the event is definitely something the Metal Ravens will organize again.
Most of all, Tomar said it was a night where the tightly-knit Carleton metal community and friends could come together, be themselves and have fun with the music they are so passionate about.
With most attendees dressed up in some way, even with just a band tee, Tomar said it’s a chance for them to wear and do things they might not do every day—unlike him. Tomar does not hide his affection for metal with long hair and a constant rotation of metal band attire.
“But I’m kind of crazy,” he said. “It’s just a thing they like to do every now and then. It feels good, it feels like you’re a part of something. You feel like you belong to something.”
