Kamloops resident Shawn Knippelberg is pictured singing alongside guitarist Alan David at the Blue Grotto in Kamloops on Feb. 16.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Shawn Knippelberg

Five heavy metal bands from Kamloops and Kelowna were chosen by a national metal competition to battle for a chance to perform live at the world’s biggest metal festival in Germany this summer.

After receiving submissions from independent bands from across the county, Wacken Metal Band Canada 2025 recently announced this year’s chosen bands and battle rounds.

Representing the BC Interior are three bands from Kamloops and two from Kelowna who will duke it out for the chance to move onto the next level of the competition at a metal battle at Jackknife Brewing in Kelowna this Sunday, March 2.

“I don’t know if we’ll make the cut as we have a lot of clean singing and aren’t as heavy as most of the other bands Canada wide, but it’s awesome to go with our friends in other bands and push each other to another level,” said lead singer of Kamloops metal band Burn It All, Shawn Knippelberg.

“Whoever goes to the next round will have our support.”

Knippelberg's band is a groove metal band that has been playing together for five years in most pubs in Kamloops, and they also opened up day two at the Armstrong Metal Festival last year. He is the vocalist and helps write some of the music. 

"We have a lot of influences. Killswitch Engage, under the Howard Jones era, we do some Lamb Of God style stuff, and have some Gojira influences," he said. "We're more on the melodic, groove side with clean singing choruses and heavy screaming verses."

When asked why he likes the metal genre, Knippelberg said he loves the culture and the primal groove. 

"Metal is such a fantastic release, there's a brutal, honest nature to it and the people that come to listen are the people that love it and aren't there accidentally," he said.

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The other Kamloops bands competing in the BC Interior round are Dendros and Gregorious, and the Kelowna bands are Nomad and Storm The Empire.

The winner of this round will move on to compete at the BC Final at The Cobalt in Vancouver on May. 3, and the National Final at the Rickshaw in Vancouver on May. 31, according to the Wacken Metal Band Canada 2025 website.

The national champion will perform at Wacken Open Air metal festival in Wacken Germany at end of July. The festival is the world’s largest outdoor metal festival with more than 80,000 people attending for more than three decades. 

"The Armstrong festival was a surreal experience to be with heavy, well known metal bands and perform and chill with them," Knippelberg said. "It's so surreal, it's hard to even believe that happened. I can only imagine Germany being a million times that. The thought is energizing for all of us." 

Last year’s national final saw one BC band compete, Vancouver band Arrow In The Quiver. Toronto’s Beguiler won the battle and went on to perform as the only independent Canadian band at Wacken Open Air 2024. 

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Germany’s Wacken Open Air 2025 metal festival is already sold out with a line-up that includes Machine Head, Saltatio Mortis, Papa Roach, Gojira, Apocalyptica, Saxon, Within Temptation, Dimmu Borgir and Ministry.

The BC Interior heavy metal battle takes place at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 2 at Jackknife Brewing located at 727 Baillie Avenue in Kelowna. 

Go here for tickets and to learn more about the participating bands.

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