You haven’t truly lived until you’ve moshed in a hot tub. Just sayin.’

70000 Tons of Metal is an adventure unlike anything else. With 60 bands on board and people from 70 countries, the party never stops. As thousands of black clad metal fans lined up to board Royal Caribbean’s massive ship, The Liberty of the Sea, the excitement was palpable.

Many changes were to occur on this, the 6th year of the cruise. For one, the ship is bigger and the cruise longer by two days. Because of this, they were able to cram in an extra 20 bands, and a larger amount of tickets were available on this sold out event.

The change of venue lended itself to a few massive problems. On the first night of the cruise, workers on the main pool deck struggled to build the worlds largest open air stage on the sea. Because of issues with the schematics, the stage needed to be reassembled after the initial setup. That issue, in addition to high winds making it dangerous to raise rigging for the lights, made it impossible to start the main stage shows until way into the second day at sea.

That didn’t stop the metal, however. With three other club sized venues in various places aboard The Liberty, there were plenty of shows and special events to keep passengers occupied while we waited. Including, but not limited to, various listening parties and music clinics, belly flop competition, and the nightly 70000 Tons of Karaoke, where musicians and passengers alike could take the stage.

On top of the non stop concerts, we were able to enjoy all the trappings of a traditional cruise, such as multiple swimming pools and hot tubs, Flow Rider stationary surfing, rock climbing wall, spa, and the shops of The Promenade.

Soulfly was the first band to finally get on the main open air stage, after a 10 hour delay on the stage assembly effort. They somehow were able to rework the schedule to fit in the 6 bands that were bumped, including Trollfest, COC, and Gravedigger. Because that portion of the ship was closed all day, it meant that the main pool deck was completely inaccessible to passengers, leaving a serious void where there should have been the gorgeous 70k Pool Girls.

The reward for this long wait was that the concerts virtually never stopped. While bopping back and forth between the many on board bars and venues, you stopped being surprised when you bumped into various musicians from the 60 bands in attendance. We rode the elevators with the guys from Korpiklaani and Municipal Waste, tanned next to the pool with the beautiful ladies of Therion, stood in the beer line with Ralf and Mat of Primal Fear, and head banged at the Sky Bar with Alestorm while watching Arch Enemy.

WORDS BY TAYLOR PHELPS

PHOTOS BY MASTERPHELPS PHOTOGRAPHY