Live Review: Unbowed, Decatur, Stolos and Cerbearus at The Boathouse

The Boathouse is nothing show of the Metal hub of Kitchener, Ontario. You would be hardpressed to find a weekend, especially during the winter, that long haired men and women converge on this location to catch some of the best local acts. February 8th was simply jsut another night of this, featuring some of the more frostbitten bands around the area and a couple new bands to the area.

Kicking off the night around 9:30pm, was the debut show from Cerbearus a brand new band who it's kind of hard to place a finger on genre wise. They took on an almost death-thrash style for a good part of the show, along with a more hardcore style. the hardcore side of them was much more prevelent in their original track "Fucked By A Bear", which impressivly got the entire crowd chanting along with the title of the song. Also, in the two covers that Cerbearus did, "Hail Destroyer" originally by Toronto hardcore legends, Cancer Bats and "As Diehard As They Come" by Hatebreed. The latter of which was preformed with "Little Dick" Mike from the local band ULT. The band finished with "Carnivora", featuring Brett MacIntosh of Aepoch doing guest vocals, this was where the band really hit their stride, unfortunately it was the end of the set that they really nailed it, but it definitely left people wanting more. All in all, This wasnt exactly what I expected from a show focused around black metal, but it was enjoyable nonetheless and these guys definitely have a place in the scene.

Next up, making a stop on their Decatour, is Decatur. Decatur brought an old school style of thrash to The Boathouse and showed Kitchener how to rock. Even though it was getting late, these guys would not let up. Playing essentially half of their album Badder Than Brooklyn, I think these guys made a splash. They were wild from beginning to end, especially their bassist. There was no holding them back and they toom full advantage of what little space they ahd on stage. "Internal War" was easily the most aggressive song they had in the set and really set the tone and reason as to why people should not take beer in the pit, because man did it soak the place. This may have been a new band to a lot of people, but the crowd seemed to really get into it from beginning to end, Decatur will definitely be asked to return after a show like this.

New black metaller's Stolos took the stage next. These guys are taking hints and theatrics from the likes of Mayhem and King Diamond and making it work on a small stage. Their stage show kicked off with the band walking out filly robed and laying a sacrifice down on a table, then stabbing her repeatedly. Once he band took their place on stage the show kicked off. Their frontman takes his place behind a podium brandished with the Stolos logo, with his goons all around him. These guys may be rather new to the scene, only having played a handful of shows, but they perform like professionals. Their set mostly consists of orignal tracks, taking their songwriting very seriously, Stolos take on the frostbitten tones of the early black metal bands, like Immortal and Darkthrone. Towards the end of their set, Stolos do a cover of "Deathcrush" from Mayhem, and do it very well. The instrumentals are spot on and luckily, you dont have to hear Maniac's ear piercing screaming vocals. Stolos take hold of the black metal roots and make it their own. Always an enjoyable show.

Last up was our headline band, Guelph's own Unbowed. It's no secret that I have been following these guys for years, considering their last EP Dogma was covered and highly praised when it came out (read that here). This is a band thats developed and chaged a lot over the years, changing gear from a black-death metal band and adding all sorts of influences from symphonic to hardcore. Unbowed focused mostly on their newer songs from their latest album Through Endless Tides, actually opting to not play anything from their first EP or album and only one track from Dogma. The songs on Through Endless Tides hold up well live though, showing the experience and the full scope of Unbowed's influences. Their set kicked off with a new song, a song we should see released on their new release which is most likely coming this year. The song itself was tame, it's a good way to start of their set showing the power this band has without over doing it. It may be breaking midnight, but there was no sign of slowing down. The enxt three songs were all off the latest album, but "Mountaincarver" stands out for it's harmonies and the major shifts in tone in the song. "Mountaincarver" changes from black metal to symphonic metal to so many other thigns, but it never loses its momentum in these shifts. The band showed off another new song, "Anthem Of I" before breaking into the only song of Dogma, "Besieged". "Besieged" is a song that should never leave Unbowed's live rotation, the song itself is everything the band embodies from beginning to end. Unbowed kill it once again and this time on their first show in Kitchener. This is a band that should not be missed live if you have the chance as their ever evolving sound will always keep fans old and new interested.



Crafteon "Cosmic Reawakening" Review

        When a band is advertised as sounding like Dissection and Watain, I become very skeptical, but that's exactly how H.P. Lovecraft inspired Black Metallers Crafteon were introduced to me. With “Cosmic Reawakening” all you have to do is look at the cover to see that the story is going to be focused on Cthulu, Lovecraft’s most beloved creation.

        So how does this album work and how does it sound, well from the get go with “The Outsider” and “What the Moon Brings” you can hear the aforementioned influence, having a higher grade of quality than most lesser known Black Metal bands and choosing to focus on melody over explosive sound, the album kicks off on a great note. While “The Outsider” doesn't change much in terms of tone and riffs, the track is a highlight of the album for solely for its captivating melody. “What the Moon Brings” has a little more emphasis on how the instrumentals help to push the album along, while still keeping true to having the vocals and lyrics at the forefront of storytelling.

        A couple songs that show more of the bands personal style come more towards the end with “From Beyond” beginning as a much more subtle and peaceful song while remaining eerie with its description of Cthulu’s “Cosmic Reawakening” to strike fear into the hearts of the listener. When the song picks up and melds into “The Whispers in the Dark” it's still as Black Metal as the rest of the album, but from here Cthulu is the narrator, confirming your fears and entangling you in the darkness it is said to bring.

        All in all, this heavy and very dark album is a must for any fans of Black Metal and Lovecraftian stories. Crafteon wrote this album with the darkest of intents and nailed the mark, if you don't know the stories and why Cthulu is considered such a menacing horror, this album will spell it out nice and simply for you. Excellent album, Black Metal fans pick it up August 25th!

This Gun For Hire "Something A Little More Sinister" Review

      Sometimes you get a bit of a shock, a lot of bands these days aim to sound like the best in the business and without thinking about it, turn into a cookie cutter band. This Gun For Hire have recently released their new album “Something A Little More Sinister” which could easily make or break a band in this music scene, let’s take a look and see what the album has to offer!

This Gun For Hire has a way of blending a very Alexisonfire style of Hardcore with a more old-Bring Me the Horizon and Asking Alexandria style of Metalcore. The vocals span from clean singing, the aforementioned Hardcore style of harsh vocals that aren’t quite screams but also aren’t quite yelling and a much deeper style of growl that made parents hate when their kids listened to Asking Alexandria.

This style isn’t something I listen to often, mainly because it’s fairly generic. This Gun For Hire actually bridges the gap between the generic and new sounds. Songs like the title track, “Something a Little More Sinister,” and “Alligator Death Roll” are what I would class as generic. Predictable breakdowns, predictable vocal changes and fairly standard and consistent riffs. That being said there is one huge standout song, “Barn Burner,” which adds a bit more guitar work and all around musicianship to the mix. This song takes the sound that Bring Me the Horizon have made so popular and injected it with more hooks and more technicality than anything they actually released.

All in all, if you’re not a fan of the Hardcore/Metalcore sounds, this album isn’t gonna win you over. On the other hand, if you’re already a fan of the sounds you may have found your new front runner and with all the top bands of the genre moving away to different, more rock oriented sounds, This Gun For Hire and the new release “Something A Little More Sinister” will be a huge release in the Metalcore scene and deserves the attention of the most die hard of fans.

Click here to go to This Gun For Hire's Facebook page

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Interview with Lucas Di Mascio of Malacoda

Hey, how are you?

I’m doing great, thanks!

Some readers might not be familiar with Malacoda and you guys have a unique experience with your albums, maybe you can give them a bit of your backstory and catch them up a little bit with who you guys are!

Originally Malacoda was a solo project that I and a producer worked on. The first album was mostly played by me, we were more of a darker alt-metal band that was compared a lot to Tool. When I decided to give it a shot and make this thing into a band I reached out to some of musicians from some of my favourite bands and we eventually came out with our most recent release. We’ve gotten heavier than the first album and expanded into a sound that people are calling “horror metal” thanks to our “Penny Dreadful” music video.

You guys released “Ritualis Aeterna” not too long ago, how has the response been?

The response has been alright. People are either really loving it or are picking out a few things that I had mixed thoughts with during the production of the EP and giving it a bit harsher of a review. We were definitely experimenting with some things on this release that I hadn’t really worked much with in metal. With the amount of stuff that had happened during the production of this EP it’s a miracle it even came out to be honest. I think I jokingly told the keyboardist that we were the “bad luck band” after a particularly bad week.

You guys have a lot of different sounds blended into the album as well, it’s almost impossible to pick out all of your influences. Would you be able to name a few that are mixed into your songs?

Yeah it’s a little over the map but it’s still somewhat focused. Organized chaos I guess. I’m a huge fan of goth rock and goth metal, bands like Fields of the Nephilim, Type O Negative, Katatonia, Paradise Lost are huge influences of mine but I’m also a super huge Iced Earth fan and love Megadeth- so I’m a thrash head too. I’m into Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Opeth, Skinny Puppy- lets not forget movie scores too. We get compared a lot to bands that most of us weren’t into enough to be considered influences- like King Diamond or Dimmu Borgir. I guess it was the over the top keyboards and super layered vocals that attributed to those comparisons.

Now I haven’t been able to follow the songs to the fullest extent yet, so I’m curious is this release a series of short stories or is it one large overlapping story/a concept album?

I’d probably say it’s more of a themed EP than a concept album. I’ve always wanted to do a concept album, but you can’t just crap one of those out and call it a day. I think even more planning needs to be done for one of those, you got to write music that really captures the emotions and mood in the story you are trying to tell- among other things. Rituals Aeterna mostly deals with exploring what horror is. Penny Dreadful is inspired by the since cancelled Showtime TV show of the same name and is about horror as entertainment, I Got A Letter was loosely inspired by the video game Silent Hill 2 and explores the emotions that permeate from horror- dread, sadness, guilt, fear. Linger Here is about being a psychologically abusive romantic relationship and the horrors that come with that. I think we’ve written one of the first Anti-Ballads with that one.

Recording can be one of the biggest issues in a recording cycle and with so many different parts to all of your songs there was so much for everyone to key in on, did you guys have any real problems when it came to recording?

It was a really interesting process this time around. I’ve been in and out of recording studios for a long time as a musician, engineer, assistant and producer. It’s fair to say I feel more at home behind a recording console than on a stage. The first album was done at the producer’s home studio, but this time around I decided to finally just build my own. Gutted half the basement, built a control room and then a live room, soundproofed it and called it Old Haunt. I had amassed quite a bit of equipment over the years so it was just putting it together in a way that made sense. I’m still tweaking some things here and there but that’s how it always is. The studio took a long time to build since I did it myself with a friend and some family members helping out. Old Haunt hadn’t had all the kinks worked out by the time we were ready to track and we had already put it off by so long so we recorded the drums at Jon Howard of Threat Signal’s home studio (Woodward Studio). Old Haunt was done a month later, I think I tracked the bass in a day, did the rhythm guitars over the course of a week or so and then Jonah did all his keyboards in a studio in the states. He sent the files over here, I got Brad to do his solos over a few weekends. Jon mixed it, wrestled with a mastering engineer for a few months and then got it mastered within a day by another dude. All the hang ups we had came from people outside of the band to be honest and had nothing to do with the recording. Now that we have Old Haunt up and running I don’t think we’ll ever need to worry about hangups here.

Obviously every band tries to better themselves with each release, although that might be giving some bands too much credit, how was recording this EP different from your debut? Was it easier or harder to finish?

I can’t really say either of them was easier or harder to finish. I mean, I engineered and produced most of this EP whereas on the first album I just wrote everything and performed most of it and left the engineering to the producer. I guess in that respect that was more work I had to do, but I honestly didn’t feel like it was harder. The difficulties came from outside forces. This EP cost less than the album thanks to having my own studio, but that doesn’t necessarily affect difficulty or quality of music these days.

Are you guys looking into setting up shows in and across Canada or even the US? Would be great to see you up in the KW area!

We’re actually thinking about hitting the studio and writing a full length. We’ve had some lineup changes and some of the new stuff I’ve come up with is super different than either release we’ve come out with so far, and some of the new guys we’ve got now have some sweet ideas. Chris, our old bassist, decided to rejoin when we got Cooper to go on guitar. We’ve got a second guitar player now opposed to just the one we had on Ritualis, so we’ll see how things go with him in the songwriting process. We’re just solidifying things with a drummer now actually. Canada will definitely be getting gigs, we’ve got some long term plans for those. I’d love to play the states- I love going to Florida, not just because it’s always hot but just the whole vibe of the place is cool and very different than Ontario. If someone can get us to Florida, then I probably wouldn’t hesitate much on that! My real interest for shows is in Europe however, but I really can’t say anything at this point on if we are going to get there anytime soon.

To close up, do you have any parting words for your fans old and new?

We’ve got some cool stuff in the pipeline, I think we’re working on quite possibly the best Malacoda release by far. We’re welcoming some old faces and ideas and blending it with a new outlook. We’ll see you soon!

Thank you very much for your time, I hope to see you on the stage sometime soon!

Thank you for the interview- we’ll see there!
- Lucas Di Mascio, Vocalist of Malacoda