By Laura Wiebe; Live photo by Adam Wills

Remember the Power 30 – the 90s half hour metal show broadcast on Canada’s music television network MuchMusic? Many male metal fans of a certain vintage fondly recall the Power 30 for its attractive VJ, Teresa Roncon. I remember Roncon too – I wanted her job and she told me they’d have to carry her out in a pine box. But sometimes the show’s guest hosts made a more powerful impression (if you’ll pardon the pun). Sometime in the summer of 1993, I tuned into the Power 30 for what I imagined would be a regular weekday episode. Instead, I met Devin Townsend.

It was a TV world meeting in the virtual sense, of course. At that time, Townsend appeared in the rock/metal spotlight as a front man, and I’d already heard his voice on Steve Vai’s newly released Sex & Religion album. Townsend sounded like a maniacal musical force, in the best of ways – and looked it too (see the video for “Down Deep Into the Pain”.

As a guest host, that slightly crazy/brilliant vitality persisted, but the humour that inflects even his most serious performances got a chance to shine through as well. I think Vai was there co-hosting along with him, but I can’t say for sure. Townsend’s character made such an impression that his presence is all I can attest to for certain.

Fast forward through the rest of Devin Townsend’s decade and into the next. Even at high speed it’s hard to miss the range and depth of his inspiration and multi-faceted talent: guitar playing on Front Line Assembly’s Millennium; fronting the infamous Strapping Young Lad; driving solo(ish) efforts like Ocean Machine,the Physicist, Infinity and Terria records; concocting the Devin Townsend Band; diverting into oddities and experimentation like Punky Brüster, Synchestra, and Ziltoid the Omniscient…

… And now, over a two-year span, the musical madness has returned in full force. His latest recorded ventures – the four-album Devin Townsend Project “tetralogy” –mine the man’s creative past and step beyond it, ever reaching toward new ground. The latest of these records hit Canadian stores this past June. And the day after Deconstruction and Ghost were released, I had the chance to speak with Townsend himself.

The bulk of our conversation focused not so much on his latest records (though that inevitably came up) but instead on his studio work. As Hevy Devy fans know, Townsend’s “wall of sound” production is as distinctive as every other aspect of his performance.

The resulting Exclaim feature gave me the chance to highlight how Townsend views writing and recording music as interdependent steps in a single process. But our conversation lasted much longer than one article could capture. Thanks to Hellbound, here are some of the interview tidbits that the Music School piece couldn’t hold.

Talking to Townsend, I learned that recording technologies become part of his musical instrument pallet rather than representing a fully distinct pool of gear. “When you say ‘making music,’ I think that’s part of it,” he explains. “I can see how people who are just singer/songwriters or whatever don’t have that sort of connection to the recording end of it.”

When I suggested that perhaps Townsend experiences a different relationship with technology from what might be common in the singer/songwriter genre, he responded, “And maybe to music as well.”

“Technology has always been something that I’ve had an interest in but almost purely the interest was getting from Point A to Point B. As a result of that I’ve never been one for options in the studio. I find and have found things in the past over the years that work for me in order to actualize the ideas that come into my head.

“The things that I do now, I want them to be consistently really good, so for vocals I know I’ve got this one fancy unit that works really well for me. And when it comes time to sing, you plug that in and there’s your vocals. I’ve got two microphones that I know work for me, and a preamp that does consistently what I need it to do – and then I move on. I suppose in that way my connection to technology has been very much a beeline from the creative source to having other people hear it. Maybe that’s a difference between what I do and a casual singer/songwriter.”

Listening to Townsend’s music you might imagine that every note is meticulously preselected, each interconnection sketched out as part of some elaborate master plan. Surprisingly, it’s not that exact a science.

“I go into the studio with skeletons,” he explains. “Well, they’re actually pretty fleshed out, not just complete bones – but I find I’m leaving myself opportunities to improvise. And although a lot of my music doesn’t come across as improvisational at all (I don’t think), how it gets to that point has a lot of improvisation.

“For years I used to just write it all completely and do these elaborate demos and kind of work in my head a lot, and when I finally went to record it was more putting in the hours and getting it down, rather than enjoying the process, and letting it be what it wants to be. I think in a lot of cases it worked out fine and the songs from that era sound like they should, in the same way that songs from this era sound like they should.

“But I don’t drink or anything, so when I’m in the studio it’s nice for me to have moments of spontaneity that keep it interesting, and keep it so it’s not just like a ‘tag B into slot A’ kind of process.”

As Townsend draws us into his musical scientist’s lab and the strangely interesting things that go on there, I choose to let the remainder of the interview unfold on its own terms…

Do you still produce other people?

Not anymore. I spent two or three years doin’ it and it did my head in, to be honest.

I mean, I like the process. I like helping people get their ideas across. But I guess what didn’t realize when I first got into production was how much of it is the psychological aspect of the people you’re working with.

A lot of the bands that I started working with were younger dudes, very talented a lot of them – some of them weren’t but a lot of them really were – and what I found the majority of my job ended up being was micromanaging other people’s emotional connection to music and in a lot of cases their hang-ups about it.

And it works – I think the records that I did do with other people ended up being, in a certain sense, like a period piece of where the band was at the time, what they wanted to represent, and how their relationships, internally, led them to the conclusions, musically, that they chose to write. But after a while, I’m just like, I’m over this, man. I got a kid at home. Last thing I wanna do is try and convince the singer that he’s playing the drummer’s song, or whatever. It became a little taxing.

How much do you bring other people into your recording process?

Depends on the record. Some records none. Some records it’s based on that. Some records, the skeleton I spoke of earlier in the studio actually exists in the rehearsal period, and then it kind of fleshes itself out by the vibe and the intention of the group of people that are collected.

I think I’m a social person to a certain degree. When I’m not working I definitely couldn’t be bothered, but when I’m working I do like to share the experience with people. And in doing so there’s definitely some magic that can happen from the cooperation, and sometimes in some situations, the drama that exists between people too. So it all varies, right? Like every record that I’ve done. I’ve done 20, 25 records over my career, some of them very insular and some of them are very communal, and it all depends on what, I guess, that period of time wants to put across.

In metal, you’re especially known for having a “wall of sound” quality to your recordings because there’s so much going on. Is this a deliberate effect you’re trying to achieve? Part of the emotion – getting that across to people?

I think if I said that it would make me feel like I was doing it on purpose. To be honest, though, I’ve always heard things happening at the same time, musically, since the very beginning. To me… I’ll hear something and then there will be another melody, and then there will be a counter melody on top of that, and then some movement there, and blah-blah-blah. I think that comes from a real love of classical type of things.

In some senses it works really well, but in other senses it definitely confuses the listeners, especially if it’s all working from the same frequency range. But I think that in the future, specifically after having finished these four records, now it’s important for me to make a change in terms of that sort of wall of sound type of trip. But you know, best laid plans, right? We’ll see what happens.

Well, it does have the benefit of making the kind of record that offers more to people over time…

Yeah, and I appreciate that, but the flip side of that coin is it also has the benefit of ostracizing people from the very first note, right? But, I mean, in all honesty, the reason for doing what I do is the same now as it’s always been. God, I’d love to be able to figure out what the definition of that is, but whatever it is, it’s the same now as what it was, and the one the one thing I can say that I know it isn’t – it’s definitely not made with the intention of makin’ friends or trying to be a part of some sort of clique, right? Like, I do what I do because it seems appropriate, and if it doesn’t work out, well, then, at least it’s honest.

[Slight diversion while Townsend denies any conscious Phil Spector influence and we try, without getting very far, to communicate at the level of 1960s girl group knowledge…]

Are there significant differences for you in how you record something huge, like Deconstruction, versus a quieter record, like Ghost?

Well, I think the process is pretty much identical. It’s just, the thing is with the different records, each part has a different approach. There’s sometimes where what really needs to be focused on in order to make it make sense to me – I say that loosely, because although Deconstruction makes perfect sense to me I realize that it makes very little sense to a lot of people. In order for it to make sense to me, we’ll say…

I start with the kick drum and then move to the snare and then move to the toms and then move to the cymbals and really be conscious of how each element of it interacts. And then once I’ve made sure that works well frequency range wise, and it’s affecting my compressor correctly, and there’s no offensive frequencies, then I’ll move to the guitars.

And then, because I know there’s – say in this situation, there’s ten melodies, and a lot of the melodies are doubled by guitar. It’s important for me with the main guitars to scoop the frequencies so you can slot in all these other things. If you’ve got ten guitars that are all full frequency it just turns into mush, right? But you can kind of trick the ear by carving a bunch of the low mids out of the main guitar and putting a high-pass filter on it, so it gets rid of a lot of low end and that way the bass can fit in without fighting for space, and then you go to the bass and it’s the same thing, you know, make sure there’s a solid thing but keep it in a place so that it doesn’t interfere with the rest.

And then melody one, and then melody two, and then vocals, and then by the end of it, it sounds like a really, hopefully, really clear yet claustrophobic kind of piece but you can pick things out of it… Like you can hear that cymbal, you can hear the high hat, you can hear that second melody.

And a lot of that has to do with panning too. If you’ve got three vocal melodies, if you pan them all hard left and right up the middle with a shit load of echo on it, it’s gonna turn into mud. But if you EQ the high vocals so there’s more high end, and the mid vocals so there’s more mid, and low so there’s more low, and panned one of them hard right, and the other one at 11 o’clock and the other one at two o’clock and then you know the effect that you end up getting after a while is pretty much the same every time. But the most important thing is that you’re able to discern what’s going on and those tricks are what keep it clear.

And with a record like Ghost it’s the exact same process. It’s just not as dense per capita, right? Like a song on Ghost, “Heart Baby” – it sounds like there’s very little going on but there’s dozens of vocals, there’s dozens of tracks. And just because it’s quiet doesn’t mean I can relax, god knows, on the mix, because if I did it would just turn into this big blurry mellow thing. So the process is the same, but you have to keep in mind what it is that you’re trying to make people feel.

You recorded live orchestra and choir for Deconstruction…?

Yeah, I went to Prague in Czech Republic, and I hired the Philharmonic Orchestra, much to my family’s chagrin. And I went in there with an absolute ton of music and I didn’t have the money to do it really properly, but they did a real good job. And it was really gratifying to hear all these professional musicians play my stupid music.

After that we went to Den Bosch in the Netherlands, and then with the choir – a bunch of professional choral musicians who were far and away kind of confused by singing about cheeseburgers and flatulence and all that sort of thing. But at the same time, I thought, ‘you know what, I’m in no position that this is ever going to be more than an oddity, and so, who knows if I’ll get the chance to do this again.’ And it’s costing me, personally, the money – no label was paying for it. ‘I’m paying for it myself, so if I’m going to do this, dammit, let’s just do a cannon ball and let’s make it the most absurd thing possible.

Three of the sopranos, they’re probably 45 or 50 year old ladies – there’s this one part in one song where I’ve got this choral singing about you know, farting, and cheeseburgers, and masturbating, and all this sort of other stuff, and they were just like wide-eyed, and said, ‘why would you write this?’ I don’t know… it just seems to be, on some kind of Monty Python-esque sort of point in my head, I think, ‘how could this not be the most awesome thing ever to have tons of professional musicians put in the position to do this absurd music?’

I said to some one after, the other day, what will it say on my tomb stone? It will probably say, ‘well, I thought it was funny.’

With Deconstruction, you have a lot of people hear those elements of it and think, well, it’s like puerile, or have a juvenile connection to it, and yeah, for sure. But really, more than anything else it’s just about freedom for me at this point. I like taking the piss out of people who take things seriously. And it’s not because I don’t take what I do seriously, but a lot of times with heavy metal, it’s such a ludicrous type of music to begin with that it’s easy to lose sight of what it is you’re actually trying to put across, what it is that you’re trying to do.

And then when I started working with the orchestra and with the choir… I mean, I think I’m a pretty solid musician, and I understand melodically and harmonically exactly what I want – like there’s no questions, right? With these people I find there’s a lot of people that have a lot of themselves invested in what they’re doing, like, ‘well, I’m the classical guy, you can tell by my beret.’ Or, ‘I’m the person that understands the relationship between intervals and I don’t listen to anything that isn’t melodically aligned,’ or what have you.

So I think somewhere during the process I was just like, ‘this is stupid. C’mon, let’s just have some freedom.’ And part of that freedom was hopefully making a statement about how unimportant any of this really is in the long run.

Is there a visual element in your head to go along with the sounds that you’re creating?

I would say almost equal to musical side of it. The problem, of course, is I’m a terrible visual artist. If I’m working with a graphic artist, and they say, ‘so what do you want this record to look like?’ I’ll beak off a bunch of colours and vibes, and ‘it’s like a rainy day but sad and then there’s this element of melancholy and I see something to do with icebergs and you know, and then over there there’s a tree, and it’s a certain type of tree…’

And so I’ll throw all these kind of keys at people that I work with and inevitably what happens is people, graphic artists, are looking for a metaphor. I get the art back, and it’ll be something that maybe metaphorically or artistically is in line with what I’m doing but it doesn’t move me in a real definite way.

It’s the same reason I ended up mixing all my own music because after a while I’m just like, ‘no-no-no-no.’ I either have a real problem communicating here, which wouldn’t surprise me, or it’s just what I’m doing is so left of centre in a way that it’s difficult to find somebody that’s on the same page. So with mixing I’ve learned how to do it and I’ve found my way, but in terms of graphics there’s a part of me that thinks maybe I should learn how to do that. Because it’ll feel like -this- and then someone will show me a picture and I’m like, ‘nah, not at all.’

But I think that with these two recent records, Deconstruction and Ghost – specifically with Deconstruction in my head, I can probably write this sort of Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque sort of absurdity that, if I was in a genre which afforded me the opportunity to really go for it on the level that they’re able to do with The Lion King or The Phantom of the Opera, it would be, in my opinion, just this completely free piece of work that has no creative limits and no boundaries, and that includes everything from like the most vulgar to the most beautiful.

With Ghost it was very much – as I was writing, I spent a lot of time in nature. I love nature, right, so the ability to kind of represent it came down to between me and the artists, and me just saying, ‘look, it’s nature, so just get a bunch of pictures of nature and send it to me.’

But again, my musical world is – after twenty years, I’m still touring in a van, so it’s like all these kind of pie in the sky ideas, I guess. They’re definitely there, but whether or not they ever get actualized depends upon several things, not the least of which is the general public gettin’ past the absurdity of it, right?

There’s talk about next year in London being able to do it with acrobats and a symphony and all this (see November 17th announcement for “The Bizarre World of Devin Townsend presents: The Retinal Circus”).

Again, it’s like, what I do is kind of uncharted territory as far as I’m concerned. And whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing or necessarily an enjoyable thing, I think, is definitely up to other people. The problem with it is trying to convince people that it’s worth an investment, and it’s been very difficult.

You know, I pay my rent and everything but… For example, I’ve got this Ziltoid character – he’s this big puppet, and now we’re making the second version that’s this three-person puppet. And his humour’s all just like a cross between fart jokes and quantum physics. I think that if you have him interview people and have a serious budget, you could make something that would be so engaging for people.

Because if it could be so creatively free to the point where you could actualize everything, in my mind, I don’t see how it could not be interesting. Whether or not you like the music. Whether or not you think it’s truly funny. It’s interesting. And I think that music and art, for me, that’s how I kind of break it down into whether or not I appreciate it, at this point. ‘Well, does it engage me?’ Whether or not it’s something that I would ever use to describe my emotional state of mind – in all honesty, I’m so far past that point in my life.

Devin Townsend Project plays the following Canadian shows in December:
Dec 09 London, ON – London Music Hall
Dec 10 Toronto, ON – Opera House
Dec 11 St. Catharines, ON – L3 Nightclub
Dec 13 Kingston, ON – Mansion House
Dec 14 Montreal, QC – Foufounes Electriques
Dec 15 Ottawa, ON – Mavericks

Mind you, their Diamond: Side Stage Experience tickets for the Massey gig have already sold out.  The package, a $385 USD value (they couldn’t put the prices in Canadian dollars for this tour!?) includes a meet and greet with band members not named Ian Gillan, a seat on the side of the stage for Deep Purple’s performance, a merchandise package featuring such amazing items as a messenger bag, pin, travel mug and key chain, as well as a ticket in the first four rows to watch the opening band, itself a $98.75 value.  Wait, am I reading that right?

Sure enough, the Massey Hall website lists seating options ranging from 65 bucks for a rear/side gallery or post obstructed gallery seat to 95 bucks for a centre-floor ticket, with regular floors costing 85, roughly what I paid to see Judas Priest last month.  But wait–those prices don’t account for service fees, which brings the total price of a centre-floor seat to a whopping $107.50–almost 10 bucks more than the “face value” mentioned by the band.  Dude, that’s more in line with what I paid to see KISS or AC/DC, two of the greatest arena rock bands of all time, play at major sports stadiums.  Is seeing Deep Purple at a concert hall really worth a c-note!?

Well, let’s take a look at the lineup.  Although he won’t meet and greet you, Ian Gillan is back singing with the band, which is definitely a plus.  The Machine Head-era rhythm section of Roger Glover and Ian Paice is also fully intact.  But Richie Blackmore wouldn’t touch this reunion with a 10-foot pole, thus his spot has been filled by Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs since ’94.  And while keyboardist-to-the-stars Don Airey is a solid player in his own right, he’s still no Jon Lord.  That said, I’d take this half of Purple over the 50 per cent of Thin Lizzy that opened for Priest, but I’m not sure I’d pay 100 bucks for 50 per cent of anything–although I guess I did for KISS.  Point taken.  I can’t see Gillian riding a zip line out into the middle of the crowd or Roger Glover breathing fire from the rafters, though.  I’d probably pay to see that, haha.

Something tells me that I won’t be able to get a service-charge-free ticket for this gig at Rotate This (they charge 10 per cent anyways), and I don’t think that scalpers will be selling ‘em for less than face value.  Which begs the question: Just how obstructed is a 77-dollar, post-obstructed view, anyways?

Peace,

Greg

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By Craig Haze

Impiousness and mayhem reign supreme on Through the Cervix of Hawwah, the new album from Canada’s Antediluvian. The band’s first release for new label Profound Lore is an ordure-encrusted delight for anyone eagerly anticipating their final appointment with Minos and his serpentine coils. A bilious purge of abhorrent and malformed death metal flecked with abscessed blackened noise, Antediluvian produce exactly the kind of sacrilegious racket you’d expect from a band whose last release was titled Revelations in Excrement.

The band’s new album comes off the back of a series of demos, splits and EPs that were all stamped with the cloven-hoofed seal of underground approval. Occult-heavy, Antediluvian’s work marks them as fervent purveyors of extramundane narratives—but while those earlier releases were the seeds of an artistic process mining the inscrutable substrata of magick and the Left-Hand Path, Through the Cervix… is most definitely the root. An album that is still undeniably subterranean, but symbolizes the band’s desire to extend its reach.

Like fellow Profound Lore luminaries Mitochondrion, Portal, Impetuous Ritual and Vasaeleth—and you can throw Ritual Necromancy, Cruciamentum and Grave Miasma into that mix—Antediluvian take the retrogressive path, one littered with blasphemous and guttural influences. The corrosive hook of Incantation looms large—but then, who hasn’t copped a few cues from the primeval masters—especially in the band’s pursuit of nullifying, scoured atmospherics. However, Antediluvian aren’t simply trespassing on someone else’s well-tilled field. There’s a clear desire to evoke their own ceremonial rites and reveal their own suffocating agenda—one marked by an obsession with the heredity of esotericism.

Quagmire-thick songs on Through the Cervix… ooze a diabolical doctrine. The crustier, slow-baked elements on the album impart forms of expression beyond nihilistic pummeling. Why simply batter the listener when asphyxiating them has a far more intimate feel. It’s merciless and depraved, but Through the Cervix… is tempered by Antediluvian’s own acumen. Inverted hymnals are all well and good—who doesn’t love a band that seeks to tear down the walls? But Antediluvian takes it slow. Deconstructing the foundations, dismantling the ramparts, it’s clearly a ritualized process, one seeking to render the band’s creed eternal.

As much as Antediluvian smother everything in a suitably lo-fi production, there’s still enough clarity to highlight their skill at taking the most egregious elements of metal and bending them to their own idiosyncratic, darkly imaginative will. Sculpting a sound that combines ominous death metal with a thick aura of black metal’s most heretical aesthetics makes the band’s conduit into the perpetual darkness both orthodox and unpredictable.

“Rephaim Sceptre…” and “…Through the Cervix of Hawwah” is where it all begins, and immediately it’s apparent there’s more than old-school kinetics occurring here. In the first five minutes alone you’re treated to the de rigueur blasting passages, but there’s also undercurrents of sludge, doom and a droning atonality. Add into that utterly grisly vocals and insanely metamorphosing solos, and there’s a surprising amount of nuance amongst all that mire.

Tracks like, “From Seraphic Embrace” and “Gomorrah Entity (Perversion Reborn)” have their conventional death metal elements destabilized by vestiges of warped black metal. And with percussion that mutates from downtempo crawls to rapid firing bursts—often running counter to the dirge-like riffing—it’s in those discordant passages that Antediluvian shines. Even the most uncomplicated track on the album, “Turquoise Infidel”, is tainted with a progressive spirit, and the final maelstrom of “Erect Reflection (Abyss of Organic Matter)” beautifully illustrates how the band allows its songs to disintegrate into vortexes of twisted noise, yet still remains firmly in control of the chaos.

There was a time when humans looked to primitive philosophies for answers, but then rationalism arrived, and we cast aside ideas of magick and forgot about celestial and elemental truths. Antediluvian haven’t. They’re here to take us back to source, to revisit the adversarial, and to remind us of that rudimentary fuck-or-fight spirit that religious dogma has always sought to tame. Crushingly heavy, riotously unconventional and passionately demoniacal, Through the Cervix of Hawwah is the sound of devolution.

(Profound Lore)

By Jason Wellwood

I’ve been aware of Redeemer for a few years now, having been sent a 3 song demo via the internet back in 2006. I missed the second demo release though apparently all the songs are included on this, the band’s debut full length, though I’m told the songs are much better produced here. It’s easy to believe that the production would be better on Global Exorcism as it was obviously done with an ear for exact sounds. It’s gritty sounding where it’s supposed to be and crisp where it needs to be. The drum sound is phenomenal, the bass drum pounds and the snare hits resonate instead of ‘thunking’ as so many other independently produced albums do. ‘Unhinged’ is a great example of what the band can do, with the vocals occasionally slipping from throat stripping growls into an impressively sung clean word or two, guitars chug and swirl then take you up to a point where you’d think they are going to shatter glass before slamming back down into a solid riff. This is followed up with the sludgey, doomy sounds of ‘Dark Passenger’ that will not only have you nodding along, but you may need to shower afterwards.

‘Slave Name’ is one hell of a catchy song, with a galloping crossover-thrash feel though Shane “Lord” Faulkner’s voice is definitely more on the hardcore side here (at least pacing wise) until he hits you with a cleanly sung “Freedom Now” chorus which is a very cool left turn. It’s obvious that Faulkner can do a clean, not so harsh vocal, but he’s still using it sparingly, and in just the right places. No fear of the band going metalcore here, that’s for sure! ‘Unquenchable’ is another favourite, lots of riffs, a Down/Pantera like growled passage with a melodic bridge…fantastic. It seems that Redeemer have found a solid line up and have put together some stunning, memorable songs. It may have been a long time coming but this is one hell of an impressive debut album.

(Death of the Earth)

The response was pretty much positive across the board as to participating in the poll. A few writers did politely back out from submitting, feeling they hadn’t heard enough Canadian albums released this year, fair enough, and some submitted only one album for their list. However, the final outcome of this list has not been tampered with, changed, fucked with, etc. etc. by anyone – the bands are listed in the order they were voted by our great contributors. So, without further adieu, here are the Top 10 Canadian Metal Albums of 2010, counted down from #10 to #1 with a brief write up on each. Please enjoy.

#10: RUSTED DAWN – The Black Tides Of War

(Diminished Fifth)

Cold, endless rain, stark, rocky terrain and more snow than the polar ice caps seem to have lately? Canada’s East Coast is the perfect breeding ground for berserk metal, a mission accomplished with New Brunswick beasts Rusted Dawn on this full-length debut. Blending thrash classics like Testament‘s The New Order and Nuclear Assault‘s Handle With Care makes for a vicious explosion amplified by the guttural drive of Motörhead and Discharge. Yet when they hone in on aspects of Mayhem and Obituary, The Black Tides Of War‘s ravenous bleakness, sinister chug riffs and overall rabidity makes even the friendliest of metallians feel like swallowing a fistful of razorblades, washing it down with a fifth of whiskey and getting into a fistfight.
Keith Carman

#9: STRIKER – Eyes In The Night

(Iron Kodex)

Striker are really leading the pack in Canada for traditional heavy metal. There have been a slew of bands coming out with a lot of love for NWOBHM but none of them impress as much as Striker’s Eyes In The Night. Like a slab from ’83 with modern production and catchy as hell song writing, this is a fist pumping, head banging classic. What you hear on this album, they can pull off live as well: vocalist Dan Cleary is an absolute monster and blew me away. Pick this album up and keep your eyes on this band!
Jason Wellwood

#8: DIVINITY – The Singularity

(Candlelight USA)

Released here in Canada by Candlelight Records late in the summer, Divinity‘s The Singularity layers just the right amount of progressive elements on top of a solid base of crunchy technical death metal. The food metaphor is apt; it’s an album that is heavier and more substantial than an initial taste might suggest. The Calgarians’ many tempo shifts, occasional more-or-less-clean-vocals, and ambient fills are anchored down by their heavy grooves. Any moment of quieter contemplation is soon squashed by the next wave of riffs, many of which invoke fellow Canadians Into Eternity on steroids. Proving once again that the best albums often demand to be savoured before their true flavours are revealed, The Singularity has moved from being just another summer offering to becoming one of this reviewer’s favourite Canadian albums of the year.
Jonathan Smith

#7: ANNIHILATOR – Annihilator

(Earache)

In a time when we’ve got new thrash wannabes popping up and getting famous every 20 minutes, Annihilator has created an album that can easily be set beside classics like Alice In Hell and Never Neverland. Annihilator highlights not only the underrated guitar playing of Jeff Waters but, his consistently catchy song writing as well. Dave Padden returns for album number four (a record for a vocalist in this band) fitting like a glove and bringing out all the authentic anger, frustration and rage that most of the new wave of thrash bands have to fake.
Jason Wellwood

#6: ION DISSONANCE – Cursed

(Century Media)

In all honesty, I lost most of any faith I had in these Montreal tech bruisers ‘n abusers about half-an-hour after the release of their second album, Solace. In fact, I was taken by surprise when news hit they were coming back after a self-imposed, 18-month hiatus; I didn’t even noticed they were gone. But shit, what a way to return! Cursed hearkens back to the late-90s when bands exploded with equal amounts of head-shaking complexity and violent fury. This album is irascible, sarcastic, bitter, utterly relentless and a great accompaniment to those nights spent holed up in a windowless room hating the fucking world.
Kevin Stewart-Panko

#5: BISON B.C. – Dark Ages

(Metal Blade)

As I wrote in my postcard review of this album, what impressed me the most was the weight of it. Dark Ages handles suffocatingly heavy sections and eloquently nimble passages with equal panache. Bison BC are just as skilled at crushing their listeners, leaving them screaming “more weight!” like a victim of peine forte et dure, as they are pouring supple phrases of molten gold into our ears. There’s a great deal of menace to this album, a disquiet in the guitar work and an eerie quality to the brass section, but no matter how uncomfortable this album makes me I always deeply enjoy listening to it. Dark Ages is both deeply challenging and profoundly enjoyable, and that makes it extraordinary.
Natalie Zed

#4: WEAPON – From The Devil’s Tomb

(Ajna Offensive)

After impressing us last year with their debut full-length, Drakonian Paradigm, Edmonton black metal quartet Weapon returned this year with an even better sophomore album. Tighter playing and much better production propel this new album far beyond what they accomplished before. Weapon has progressed dramatically as a band. The four musicians play together in perfect sync. The songs on this album have hooks, nuances and tempo changes that require tight musicianship, which they have in abundance. The upgraded studio quality makes the band sound even more menacing, more threatening than on previous releases. The sonics are better, and this makes the songs that much heavier. Weapon also gets the award for the best song title by a Canadian band in 2010 for “Lefthandpathyoga.” Nicely done.
Sean Palmerston

#3: BLOOD REVOLT – Indoctrine

(Profound Lore)

Today, via Catherine Owen (possibly Canada’s most metal poet), I came across the quote “Poetry is the art that responds to the anxiety of living.” I think Blood Revolt does the same with Indoctrine. Their response to the anxiety of living is first to distill and magnify our most visceral fears, and then to tear straight into them for 42 nerve-rattling minutes. This Irish-Canadian collaboration is about pushing the limits, both musically, with C Ross and J Read’s chaotic onslaught, and thematically, via vocalist AA Nemtheanga’s chilling first-person portrayal of fanaticism and martyrdom. The trio’s fearlessness makes for one of the most extreme—and best—releases of the year.
Rob Hughes

#2: KATAKLYSM – Heaven’s Venom

(Nuclear Blast)

Every Kataklysm record is a battle cry that rolls with every punch. This year, Maurizio Iacono divided time between Ex Deo and his Montreal- based horde to create Heaven’s Venom – an album based on a struggle-to-gain concept with solid musicality and a signature hyperblast beat. The content on the record is theatrical at best, as the music depicts imagery of successful stage presence to scenes from historical epics, utilizing movie quotes effectively to nearly miss being called a cliché. To call Heaven’s Venom a fresh approach by Kataklysm would be false, but that’s what makes the album great, for the band proves that they don’t need to add obscure elements but rather stick to being themselves to capture the attention of a worldwide metal audience.
Ola Mazzuca

#1: MARES OF THRACE - The Moulting

(Arctodus)

All it took to inject some welcome new life into Canadian metal was a blast of brutality from a band comprised of two talented women from Calgary. Who knew? But we’re sure as hell glad that Mares of Thrace gave us The Moulting, an unrelenting noise/doom hybrid that turned out to be heavier than most male bands with twice as many members. Fitting neatly between the styles of Unsane and Neurosis, not only is this record a punishing one, with Thérèse Lanz‘s churning baritone guitar riffs punctuated byStefani MacKichan‘s massive, jazz-influenced drumming, but it’s plenty accessible, as well. The duo displays tremendous restraint at times, creating palpable tension, only to completely shatter it with cathartic payoffs, Lanz spewing her eloquent, darkly poetic lyrics. Factor in a formidable live presence that turns more heads with each performance and you’ve got one of the most promising Canadian metal bands to come around in a long time.
Adrien Begrand

Check back on Friday for the individual writers lists.

Review by Natalie Zed; Photos by Adam Wills

Anticipation is a tricky thing to balance. While it can be wondrous in its own right — the sweetness of yearning, waiting, counting down — it can also spoil experiences: things get built up too much in your mind, become impossibly perfect. Allowing yourself to anticipate too much, to daydream in too much detail, can lead to disappointment when the actual event doesn’t measure up. I was worried this might happen when the Devin Townsend Project’s headlining tour was announced earlier this year. The date was reserved in my calendar immediately; I coordinated the event with several metalhead friends. The day of the concert, I decided to wear my prettiest underwear; it felt like a special occasion. Through all of my gleeful dancing and endless replaying of Ziltoid the Omniscient and Ki, a constant hum of worry whirred in the back of my head. I was convinced that with so much anticipation, so much eagerness, I would somehow ruin the actual evening for myself.

I underestimated Devin Townsend, of course; I’d seen him briefly perform once before, with Cynic and Between the Buried and Me, right at the beginning of my journey into metalhead-dom. The set was excellent and Devin was incredibly gracious and charismatic. But even that delicious appetizer couldn’t prepare me for the kind of auditory and cathartic feast that was laid out at the Mod Club. With a full hour to perform, and Devin at the helm of a full-length headlining set, the Devin Townsend Project created something not just good, not just entertaining, but special. Dare I say, something a little bit magical?

Due to an uncharacteristically inflexible work schedule, I missed Manahan and arrived just at the beginning of TesseracT’s set. Hellbound overlord Sean Palmerston expressed his admiration for this UK-based band, and I was interested to see them live, if only to see what had so captured my mighty editor’s attention. It didn’t take long before I understood why Sean was so captivated and why they had been chosen to tour with the Devin Townsend Project. While certainly progressive in their aesthetic, with a groovy, experimental bent to their sound, none of those categorical descriptions accurately capture, or even hint at, how emotionally satisfying this band are to listen to. Their music is positively intimate. Songs like “Perfection” are filled with profound tenderness; it’s an audible ache that is positively extraordinary. Dan Tomkins’ voice conveys this quality perfectly, his clean vocals as devastating on the heartstrings as they are lovely to the ears. I was also incredibly impressed by drummer Jay Postones, who could play as devastating as a freight train or as urgent as a heartbeat, as required. After their lovely 45-minute set, I was entirely smitten; I can’t wait to hear more.

A curious thing happened during the break while TesseracT tore down and the Devin Townsend Project set up: rather than a standardized metal playlist set to random, we were treated to Ziltoid Radio, “playing music you hate!” Highlights included Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and “Barbie Girl” by Aqua. The room was a combination of utterly horrified and grimly gleeful patrons, alternating between sarcastic (secretly joyful?) sing-alongs and baleful glaring. Photographer Adam Wills summed it up best when he laughed and declared, “Devin, you’re a dick” the moment some abomination by Britney Spears began to play. It was slightly torturous, true, but also incredibly entertaining. It was a brilliant bit of pre-entertainment, getting everyone talking, moving and excited before the band started.

The audience couldn’t wait for the main event to begin. Upon first glimpse of an actual band member — guitarist Dave Young, still sound checking — the crowd erupted. The moment the rest of the band strode onto the stage, grinning like they owned the joint, there wasn’t a single person in the Mod Club who wasn’t completely riveted. I could positively feel the adulation of the crowd coming off in waves, the immense force of the positive energy. And if ever a band deserved that kind of love, it’s the Devin Townsend Project. Everything about this show was carefully planned out, meticulously orchestrated. The sound was excellent and the lighting choices novel and interesting. Every aspect was carefully chosen to enhance the experience. Devin had a stark white light pointing upwards toward his face, catching every crease and shadow, emphasizing every ridiculous expression he contorted his unique features into. I’ve never before seen a man who could appear so scrumptiously handsome one moment then so cartoonishly grotesque the next. He’s also an incredibly charming frontman, posing for as many pictures as possible, endlessly interacting with the audience while praising his bandmates at every opportunity. His banter is also hysterically funny. At one point, he demanded everyone who had masturbated that day let out a cheer; later, he called for a scream from everyone who had ever been a dungeon master. He knows his audience intimately and so talking about his love of nerds and farts endeared him to the crowd even more.

Then there was the music. I have never before stood in a room packed to the brim with people, each one experiencing pure joy for the entire length of a band’s set. The experience was completely breathtaking. Everyone in the room knew every single word to every song that was played — and sang the entire time. The set list drew from across Townsend’s impressive career, most heavily from Ziltoid the Omniscient (to my delight) and Addicted. I was particularly impressed by the range in tone, how the band would whip the audience into a frenzy during “Truth,” create a warmly positive vibe for “Life” and then cocoon the audience in sound, creating something soft and transcendent with “Deep Peace.” The energy alternated between manic and meditative, feeling perfectly natural. It was a strange, varied journey that required the audience to run the gamut of emotions and responses, and everyone was there with the band every step of the way.

This concert was simply wonderful; I loved every single moment of it. I left feeling as though I had just been a part of something not only positive, entertaining and a hell of a lot of fun, but genuinely beautiful.

Throughout the set, every few moments, Devin Townsend would smile, very slightly, and mouth, “thank you” silently to the audience. Or perhaps not just to the audience — maybe they were for the universe at large. It impressed me deeply. It was also contagious, because ever since this show, I’ve felt a constant desire to thank everything around me, to give thanks to a universe that allows metal, positivity and shows like this to exist.

Also, check out our Devin Townsend Project photo gallery here!

Review by Natalize Zed; Photos by Albert Mansour

Some nights, getting utterly shitfaced is not only unavoidable, but a natural phenomenon, like the weather. This show was most definitely one of those times. I’m sure part of it was the slight nip in the air, and the fact that Thursday is the end of my workweek also contributed to the debauchery. But above all, I blame the bands. All three — Raven, Cauldron and Skullfist — are there to make sure the audience is having a fantastic time, destroying your liver in the process. There is something about traditional heavy metal that dovetails beautifully into overindulgence.

Skullfist started off the banquet with a bang and bite, offering the perfect appetizer platter of traditionally flavoured heavy metal. Their hair is spectacular! There are bleeding skeleton torsos on the mic stands! The singer is wearing the tightest of pants! Did I mention the hair? While all the band members are appropriately flashy, it was drummer Alison Thunderland who consistently drew my eye; she’s incredibly fierce behind the kit, exuding fiery energy. Their sound was just as satisfying as their look. Many bands define themselves by the cross-genre quality of their sound — the specific blend of sonic elements they’re going for — or claim to be inventing something new altogether, which is why amazing portmanteaus like “aquacrunk” exist. Skullfist aren’t trying to do any of this; they’re occupying a very established piece of metal territory, and doing so incredibly well. From the leather tights to the wailing high notes, they know just what they’re about. For instance, they performed an excellent cover of Angel Witch’s “Angel Witch,” which blended seamlessly into the rest of the set. It didn’t feel like they were performing a cover; the song fit in their set as a natural extension of their original music. That’s a sure sign they’re matching their influences extremely well.

Cauldron provided an incredibly complementary, just-different-enough flavour of metal for the second course of this smorgasbord. They’ve recently been intensely involved in the recording process, which is a very different mode than live performance. Watching them on stage, one got the impression they were blinking in the light, almost surprised to find themselves in front of an audience after spending so much time doing studio work. This show also served as a photo shoot for the aforementioned album’s artwork. There were flashes set up all over the stage and a designated photographer sharing stage space with the band. Despite these distractions, Cauldron put on a super-fun show. This band have an excellent sense of humour and are willing to do a lot to entertain their audience, including perching one guitarist upon another’s shoulders. They also made good use of their smoke machine and have a thing for dry ice. Smoke lingered throughout the venue (even pooling in the girl’s bathroom!) long after their set ended. It was hilarious and over-the-top, which suited them perfectly. Where many bands pay great homage to the classic heavy metal genre (Skullfist included), Cauldron are unique, in that they appear completely natural in that mode. When they perform, they’re not trying to honour or match the aesthetic so much as fully embody it. When they perform, their style is effortless.

Raven stormed the stage last, serving as both main course and dessert for this particular metal buffet. It was fascinating to watch this legendary NWOBHM band perform after Cauldron and Skullfist had already worked the audience over. The only word to appropriately describe the experience is “educational.” This is the aesthetic that the younger bands are going for; this is the original template they’re paying homage to. I was absolutely blown away by the amount of energy these gents still have. They refer to their style as “athletic metal,” and I can see why. At one point, John Gallagher mused, “maybe I shouldn’t bash my guitar into the ceiling so much, knocks it bloody out of tune.” Armed with a headset mic, and running around the stage, he was never out of breath or tired.

Their performance was not only extremely high energy, but exceedingly positive. Their primary goal was to incite the crowd to emit more positive energy — to yell louder, to sing along. I was also very impressed by their interest in creating a sense of camaraderie. They praised the other two bands for “getting it,” for doing something positive and understanding the aesthetic they’re operating in. They also built up a sense of belonging through their song choices, playing a set full of pieces like “All For One” and “Rock Until You Drop.” They left the audience recharged, worn out and feeling as though they were a crucial part of the performance.

By Jason Wellwood

Almost twenty years into their career as a band, Kataklysm has just released their tenth studio album Heaven’s Venom on Nuclear Blast records. Not ones to sit around and rest, the band has been touring non-stop all summer and look to continue to do so well in to the new year. I caught up with guitarist/producer Jean-Francois Dagenais just prior to a show at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. Here is what he had to say.

Hellbound: How is tour going so far?

JF Dagenais: It’s pretty incredible. Especially the Ozzfest part, that was pretty insane. It was like playing European festivals but here in America which is something we’ve never had a chance to do here. One day after another was just full of people and we had a good time with the other bands, sharing and stuff. It was pretty cool. Now we’re on the Devildriver leg of the tour, we’re doing 3 weeks with them until September 16th and the shows are doing well. Tonight we’re playing the Alrosa Villa, in Columbus Ohio, the club where Dimebag was shot. It’s pretty creepy playing here and makes you feel a little nostalgic.

I would imagine it’s a little creepy playing there, but I’m sure the crowd will be really receptive.

Yeah, we’re loading in the gear and thinking about it, it’s definitely a little bit creepy. With the show reaction, I have no doubt, it’s been great all across the board so far. We do well in this state, in Ohio, playing here and Cleveland is another big city for us. And I think the match up with us and Devildriver is really super good because their fans actually like our band and our fans like Devildriver.

Do you find that you get a better response in the States than you do when you play Canada?

I find it’s pretty much equal actually. I think Canada was much harder when we first started and I feel like now they’re getting more behind the band. For some reason, I feel like the Canadians are accepting us because we’re doing well overseas and we’re doing well in America now. So the Canadians are getting really proud of us being Canadian and doing well, and getting behind the band. I think Canada took a little longer for us to be well received than it did in the other countries. No we’re doing really well. We played Heavy MTL last year and have been selling out a lot of club shows within Canada. So we’re getting a good response now and the Canadian fans have been super great with Kataklysm. But I find it’s getting pretty even everywhere, we’re doing well in America, we’re doing well in Europe. It’s exciting!

Kataklysm has been around for almost twenty years now, do you ever look back and you’re shocked with where you are compared to where you were?

Oh yeah! When I think about us being four young guys who started a band in high school and now we’re sharing a stage with Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue, I think that’s pretty crazy! We look at each other and think, ‘man, that’s pretty awesome!’ compared to where we came from. Every year it seemed like it grew a little bigger and it took a little while for us to become serious about playing music. We started Kataklysm more as a hobby, we wanted just to have fun, hang out, to tour and see the world and party with a lot of people. After awhile you see that your career is doing better and you realize that ‘wow, this can be your daily job’ and that’s how it’s been for the last 8 years or so. We haven’t really needed to get regular 9-5 jobs and we’ve just been doing Kataklysm, just a little bit of other work on the side and it’s been good. That’s the crazy thing about it, you start up from nothing, not thinking about where it’s going to go and every year it’s a little bigger and we’re going places that we never thought we’d be able to achieve. Especially playing extreme music the way we do!

Where has been the craziest place you’ve played, the place you never thought you’d play?

When we went to Australia last year that was pretty crazy! I never thought we’d be playing Australia or playing Mexico. Or you’re playing Serbia or eastern European countries and you’re like ‘wow! We’re actually here playing a show and there’s a lot of people here that now our music!’. It’s insane! But to me, Australia was a good trip, to go all the way across the world from where we are in Montreal…it took 21 hours to get there. It’s crazy to see we have fans there and a lot of people came out to support us. We did a full tour over there, eight shows and pretty much filled up all the rooms. That’s exciting to see how far our music is reaching people.

With such a large back catalogue, is it hard to pick your set list?

Yeah, it’s actually really hard. Because we have a few songs on every record that everyone wants to hear and if we don’t we get slack for it. And there’s other songs that we want to play ourselves because we enjoy playing them more than others. So we try to compromise somewhere in between and come up with a setlist. It’s really hard, every tour we try to pick the best we can. And on a tour like this we only have half an hour to 45 minutes to play and we have 10 albums to cover. That’s becoming a problem after all these years! We still manage to do a decent setlist and we try to change them around between tours as well. We switch them around so that we can play everything that we enjoy playing.

With Heaven’s Venom being released are you focusing mostly on new material?

We’re doing about three songs from Heaven’s Venom out of a thirty to forty minute set and the rest we try to do kind of a best of everything else. We want to play more; we’re actually getting excited about doing headliner tours in Europe and one in America later next year to get to be able to play more of the new record. Those songs are so fresh and exciting to play now that we really want to do them almost more than the other ones. We’ve been playing the same songs over and over it’s refreshing to have new material to play, so we’re looking forward to that.

It must get to the point where you think ‘do I really have to play this song again?’

Yes, exactly! I can understand bands like Iron Maiden that have to play ‘Number of the Beast’ night after night for twenty years! I can relate to that! It would be nice to change the set list once in awhile! (laughs) But some of the fans that come, they don’t get to see you all the time and they want to hear certain songs. I understand that too, so we have to be nice to those people as well because they are the ones buying the tickets and the albums as well. So we try to compromise between what we want to play and what they want to hear.

And maybe a lot of fans don’t know that they want to hear something in particular live, but when they hear it, it becomes their new live favourite.

Yeah, sometimes it happens. We have some songs that we didn’t think would translate live but we tried them on some tours and they become live songs that we have to play because they work good. And it happens also that some other songs feel like they are not meant to be played live. Some of the songs from earlier records, we’d get demands for certain songs that you’d start playing live and realize they were better on CD than live. And Vice-Versa. There are songs that are better live than on CD. It all depends on the mood and vibe of the music.

Was there any song in particular that surprised you that translated live better than you thought it would?

We have a lot of songs from Shadows and Dust that we actually never played. To me, that’s one of my favourite records and once in awhile we’ll try one of the more obscure tracks that we never do. Last year we played ‘Centuries Beneath The Dark Waters’ which is one of the more obscure tracks from the album and it did so well live now we’re trying to get it in to the set more. We didn’t realize that we had that great live track because sometimes you have new records and you have new songs and you forget about the older ones.

Has writing for Kataklysm become harder over the years or has it become automatic for you now?

I think we’re pretty spontaneous about it. We try not to ask ourselves too many questions when we write. We just write and we know whenever we like something or we think something’s not quite right. I think with the years you get a little more picky about what you’re writing. We know what we like and what we don’t like so, a lot of stuff gets eliminated. It makes the writing process maybe a little longer but at the same time we’re sharp about what we like. So whenever we come up with an idea and everybody is into it, we look at each other and say ‘yeah this is awesome’ and we go forward with it. It’s pretty much a spontaneous process, but I think we gained a lot more experience with years of doing it and in that sense it makes it a lot easier.

Do you all write together or do you do it on your own and bring it in to each other?

We used to write more together but lately everybody is living in different areas so it’s harder to get together. I have a home studio and Stephane has a home studio so we write in our own environment and we trade a lot of stuff via internet and messenger. We send each other parts of music and try to build it together that way. When we’re close to finishing something, then we’ll get together and finish it. That’s how we’ve done things for the last couple of records and it’s worked really well.

The advantage of the technology is that you don’t have to live in the same city then.

Yeah, exactly, it makes everything so much easier. And you write something and you can record it right away so you don’t forget. That helps a lot too! We used to do that a lot in the past, me and Stefan would write songs and the next day you’d come to the practice spot, and you’d forget the riff and lose the idea. Now though, we record right away so nothing gets lost. And we’ve got a bank of riffs that we haven’t used yet on the computer that could be useful in the future. We use technology a lot, for sure.

When you write for Kataklysm do you usually end up with songs that don’t make the record?

Yeah, most of the time we usually have a couple or three tracks that don’t make the record and we’ll keep them to reissue as bonus material. Or sometimes we’ll keep them and when we write for a new record we’ll steal parts from them. It’s never a waste, but we want to make sure that the albums are good from A to Z and that there are no weaker parts on it. Whenever we feel that a song doesn’t have a place on the record, we’ll take it out and put something else in.

When you picked tracks for this record, was it a hard decision?

It usually isn’t. We all pretty much feel the same about which should make it or not. I feel it’s easier to see when they are all recorded and done. Then you can listen to them and get the full vibe of the song. I feel sometimes you’re excited about a song, actually playing it but then you listen to it back in the studio and you’re like ‘I don’t know if it’s as good as we thought it was’. Some others are surprises, but when you’ve actually got them recorded and you’re playing back the tracks you can tell pretty easily which ones are the good ones and which ones have to be dumped.

Thank you so much for speaking to me today JF, congratulations to you and the rest of the guys on a fantastic record with Heaven’s Venom. You’ve stepped out and experimented a little with this record but kept the same intensity we expect from Kataklysm.

Well thank you very much, it’s good to hear. We work hard every record we try to do our best and Heaven’s Venom seems to have struck a nerve so…hopefully things keep on going well!

Any idea if you’ll be doing a Canadian run anytime soon?

We want to do one. I know we have eight shows planned in December but it’ll be Quebec and Ontario. We want to come back in the new year, after we’re done in Europe, and do a tour coast to coast. We love to tour Canada, it’s our home country and we have fans, friends and family at every stop!

Heaven’s Venom is out now on Nuclear Blast.

By Jason Wellwood

Metalcore is a much maligned genre right now but it’s bands like Orchid’s Curse who are going to survive the ‘I’ve heard this before, booooring’ attitudes of today’s music consumer. Simply put, Voices: The Tales of Broken Men is a huge step forward and progression for the band. It’s obvious that the members of Orchid’s Curse spent time listening to prog-metal and prog-rock in between writing for their first album and this one. Not that they’ve eschewed all of their previous metallic ways, quite the contrary, they’ve embraced and built upon an already solid foundation. Josh Hogan has that ‘barbed-wire-in-the-throat’ roar that makes you wince because you can’t help but think it must hurt to sing like that. On this album that voice turns into a completely emotive instrument and, without becoming soft or quiet, Hogan manages to convey a pantheon of emotion and never lose the listener. Musically, the band has picked up an undeniable groove that will keep the ‘non-moshers’ happy as they’ll be able to nod and do the bent knee bob at the back of the room while the band plays.

Also of note, the band doesn’t play unnecessary parts. One of the obvious issues with adding ‘prog’ into your list of influences is that it seems to give band members free reign to wander aimlessly around inside the song, taking it places that it doesn’t need to go. The guitar work on Voices: The Tales of Broken Men is an obvious step up and beyond, but they know how to keep everything tight and not take it too far off of the main song. I also really like the drum sound on this record; it’s crisp and has a metallic tone to it which makes it sound live but not processed at all. That’s a huge change from other bands who may share rack space with Orchid’s Curse in the ‘Metalcore’ bin.

Orchid’s Curse have created a groovy, swinging album of metallic hardcore that you are going to want to sing and pump you fist along to. They might not be rewriting the book of metalcore but they are definitely setting themselves ahead of the pack.

(Diminished Fifth)

Rating: 8.5

Review by Natalie Zed; Concert photography by Adam Wills

The last weekend in August was absolutely bat-shit insane in the Zediverse. Not only did Fan Expo take place at the Toronto Convention Centre, for the nerdy among us (which, let’s not kid ourselves, is all of us here), but this was also the weekend of the Braveboard BBQ in High Park. Smack dab in the middle of all of this, the Coronary Evidence tour rolled into town, featuring Augury, Aborted and System Divide (supported by Horde of Worms). As badly as I wanted to stay cocooned on my couch, I pried by bloodshot eyes away from UFC 118 to go to this show. I have a great weakness for death and black metal; it’s a genre that manages to be unfailingly entertaining as hell live. Also, black and death metal frontmen provide the absolute best soundbites to text to Lily the Pirate.

I walked early into Horde of Worms’ set. Hailing from Islington, ON, they churn out a gritty death/black/grindcore concoction with some gore sprinkled on top. Alexander Erhardt is a fine frontman (providing “lead vokills”) and is well suited to their aesthetic: skinny, bald and wild-eyed, he projects an air craziness. It is, at times, difficult to tell whether he’s being tongue-in-cheek or dead serious with his banter — not that it matters, as it’s deadly entertaining either way. He never drops his harsh vocals, so all his conversation with the crowd sounds like he’s gargling thumbtacks, which always tickles me. I had a great time during their set. Their music isn’t brilliant, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and it’s hard not to laugh out loud at lines like: “This song is about a fucking sick magician. It is called ‘Abra Cadaver.’” I don’t want to be dismissive when I say this kind of music is funny as hell; I appreciate the aesthetic and genuinely dig the sound while also finding it profoundly amusing. I’m never going to win any tr00ness points for this, but I’ve always been better at sardonically chuckling than grimly scowling, and Horde of Worms make me smile.

The first touring band to take the stage were System Divide. Formed by couple Sven du Caluwé (Aborted) and Miri Milman (Distorted), this gothic metal entity have produced on EP (The Collapse) and have a full-length about to be released (The Conscious Sedation). I have to admit that they didn’t do it for me. Their sound is one-dimensional, and that one dimension isn’t my thing. They reminded me a great deal of a deathier Lacuna Coil, and not because they feature a male and female vocalist. There’s something about their gothic death metal aesthetic that strikes me as easy. On stage, their guitarists stand off to one side and mechanically head-bang from the waist, in sync, while the vocalists stride/bounce around the stage; he doing harsher vocals (no black, just some growls here and there), she singing high and clean. System Divide set up their pins and knock them down. There is nothing life-altering in their music, and this is part of a larger issue I have with a great deal of gothic metalcore; it meets my expectations perfectly, with no deviation or surprises. However, I enjoy being completely knocked on my ass by music and can’t help but be disappointed when I want a band, sound or genre to go for the throat, and I end up with a slap (or maybe a half-hearted slash?) on the wrist.

Augury played a long and intense third set, which I absolutely loved. I was excited to see them live, and in an intimate venue like Dee’s. I’ve played the hell out of both Concealed and Fragmentary Evidence, and was fascinated to see how they were going to perform such complex, layered work. The answer surprised and impressed me: they kept everything as complex as possible, showcasing the sheer musical talent and skill of each member. The resulting performance was still quite stripped down, compared to the recorded work. They did use a few recorded tracks as intro and outro pieces, but generally, what you heard was what was being played. It was completely fascinating to watch as well. This is an aspect that pleases about technical death metal: how mesmerizing it can be just to watch fingers on strings, unusual hand positions and the almost meditative expressions of concentration on the faces of the musicians. Augury also bring a great sense of humour to their performance, a willingness to play with the conventions of their genre, which added greatly to my affection for them. Only in death metal can you seriously announce that the next song is about the secret shadow-dwellers who live underground, have the room nod along seriously and then play a blisteringly brilliant song without a hint of irony. It’s damn fun to play mind-bogglingly intricate, complex music and still assert that the subject matter is inspired by psychic vampires. It is excellent, serious music delivered with charm, humour and monsters — there is nothing not to love.

I left before Aborted started; I know. After the rest of the weekend, brave and impetuous photographer Adam Wills and I both opted to throw in the towel. Sometimes, when a banquet is placed before you, as delicious as that final course might be, you have to wave away dessert.