Live Report: Invicta and Raider Release Show with Rippr'd and Woofout

          A sold out show at the Boathouse on Saturday night, led by the release for the new Raider and Invicta albums. The night kicked off with the only out of town band, Woofout, this was my first interaction with the band, never heard them prior to this show. The played pretty solid Rock and Roll, much in the vein of Motorhead, and it seems like the crowd was into it. Woofout rocked a handful of songs, with some good crowd interaction, but pretty quickly the show was over and we were into the next band.

          Rippr'd kicked off the hometown metal vibe with their oldschool Thrash Metal vibes.

"Too Trashed To Thrash" is essentially the Metal anthem of Kitchener at this point. It seems like it's a must know song to be officially part of the scene, I'm saying this as someone who was an outsider only two years ago. Rippr'd rock that Thrash crossover sort of tone much along the lines of Municipal Waste or S.O.D. and they take full advantage of it, they're also very self aware as a band with songs like "Ripp", "We're Rippr'd" and "Tales from the Ripp'd" it wouldn't surprise me much if they ended up as well known for their catchphrases, as much as their music.

Rippr'd Setlist:

1. Too Trashed To Thrash

2. Banned For Life

3. Hot Sluts With Tits

4. Ripp

5. Tales From the Ripp'd

6. We're Rippr'd

         Raider followed up the hometown heroes, but considering it was their release show the crowd was beyond anxious for this to start. Even though the recently released "Urge to Kill" is only 3 songs, Raider managed to fill out a full 45 minute set playing the entire EP, including taking a fan from the crowd hostage during "Phlebotomized". If the crowd wasn't rowdy enough already, when the band broke into their cover of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile" the venue became, for lack of a better term, fucking hostile. With ~120 cap, the bar was packed so when the pit opened, everyone knew it. People were being carried around (since there wasn't much area to crowdsurf), the first front row was nothing but a flurry of hair and the back was people on their toes trying to see the mayhem. It's hard to think of something that could top this, but apparently covering the infamous Amon Amarth song "Twilight of the Thunder God" will do it. Although this was a release show for Raider, they showed off what the future held, filling out the rest of the setlist with a couple new songs "Sky Burial" and "Ravenous Hydra", but with the close of Raider's set, it was time for our second release set of the night.

Raider's Setlist:
1. Nebulous
2. Phlebotomized
3. Ravenous Hydra
4. Fucking Hostile (Pantera Cover)

5. Sky Burial

6. Twilight of the Thunder God (Amon Amarth Cover)

7. Urge to Kill

          Just like Raider before them, Invicta were playing a release show for their recently released EP "The Executioner". Also along the same lines, the album is 4 tracks (5 with the intro) and doesn't quite fill out a 45 minute setlist. Majority of the EP was pumped out right away and the best thing about Melodic Death Metal is the pits, the pits are always a good idea and everyone in the venue knew it. If Raider didn't cause enough damage, Invicta took it a set up by showing off their level of influence even causing a more intense wall of death in a ~120 capacity venue where its about 15 strides wall to wall than I've seen in 900-1000 cap venues like the Mod Club and Opera House in Toronto. Invicta broke into a cover of "Sixpounder" by Children of Bodom, a generally underappreciated, yet still well known song and that pretty much set everyone off, the hair was flying and no where was safe. Luckily this is Metal and we don't need a safe space. Invicta showed off what would be coming in the future with "Halls of Execution" and "Infinite Aggression" and much like Raider, I wouldn't be too surprised to see the next release relatively soon. With everyone tired out though, Invicta called it a night.

Invicta's Setlist:

1. Hamartia

2. Prehistoric Suffocation
3. Forbidden Scriptures

4. Promise Land

5. Sixpounder (Children of Bodom Cover)

6. Halls of Execution

7. The Executioner

8. Infinite Aggression

Invicta "The Executioner" Review

          Kitchener-Waterloo is rich with new Metal over the first few months here in 2018. On top of that, certain musicians in the scene seem to need to be a part of every new album coming out. Today, we check out "The Executioner", the debut release from Death-Thrashers Invicta. This band made a splash last year with their debut show opening for The White Swan and have since had a few lineup changes, now we are at the brink of the release, so without any furthur hesitation, let's hop on into it.

          The album kicks off with "Hamartia"m which is simply just a Thrash Metal intro that leads into our first proper track, "Prehistoric Suffocation". The opening tack should do nothing but spell out the madness thats to come for you, this is a track full of Thrash Metal chaos, Melodic Death Metal groove, harmonizing guitar parts and of course, brutal solos. "Prehistoric Suffocation" starts off the album on a high note, but thats only one track.

          "Forbidden Scriptures" follows, this track is probably the strongest one on the album. The verse and the bridging portions all follow a very Thrash filled sound, the riffs are fast and brutalizing, the drums are fiercy and the vocals are aggressive. The chorus on the other hand is a lot more Melodic taking more of a page from bands like Amon Amarth and Children of Bodom or even some earlier Sodom. The other big standout track on the album is the title track, "The Executioner", which is just pure Thrash Metal mayhem. Think "Something Wild" or "Hatebreeder" era Children of Bodom and in both instrumentals and vocals, frontman Kyle Edissi seems to take many pages from Alexi Laiho the vocal style in general, although Laiho does have a higher tone, is the first giveaway. The pure aggression as well Edissi gives up some annunciation in turn for a more savage sound.

          If you're a fan of old school Thrash Metal and Death Metal, "The Executioner" will be right up your alley, if you're not, I'm a little confused why you read this far. Invicta release "The Executioner" on March 23rd and will be playing their release show on March 30th at The Boathouse in Kitchener alongside Raider, who will be doing a release show as well for "Urge to Kill", as well as Rippr'd and Woofout.

Live Report: The White Swan, Invicta, Astral Witch and Howl Said the Wolves at Starlight!

                We went down to Waterloo to check out what was going on and man was it worth it. Starlight was banging like a mad house with the mix of Thrashy and Doomy from the bands playing tonight, Howl Said the Wolves kicked the night off, followed to a far more Electric Wizard or Sleep type experience with Astral Witch. Then came the clearly Children of Bodom influenced Invicta, which has Kyle Edissi and Greg Carvalho from Aepoch, and of course the headliner of the night The White Swan, a band made by Kittie drummer Mercedes Lander, who live fronts the bands as the guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist.

 

                Howl Said the Wolves kicked the night off with a nice change to their setup, the band played as normal, but there was a second set of drums present on stage for the vocalist to play during some parts, this gave the sounds much more of a punch and definitely pushed the sound of the band a long way. I’m not too familiar with the music of but they bring the hard and heavy spirit of Rock and Metal and kill it live. Anyone who has the chance to catch these guys live I highly suggest you do it, you won’t be disappointed!

                Next up was Astral Witch and man did they bring would the Doom of the KW area. Playing more of a mixture between Electric Wizard and Sleep, Astral Witch were full of long, drawn out, droning songs that all the proper Doom fans in the audience could get into, especially one fan who wore a Doom Denim sporting huge Sleep and Electric Wizard patches and a Bongzilla shirt. The songs were slow, the singing was almost haunting and as much as I hate to say it, I was bored out of my witts and that’s not a hit against Doom Metal or Astral Witch. Sometimes Doom Metal is great and I’ve caught my fair share of Doom Metal bands live and arguably Weedeater are the one that do it the way it should be done, studio their slow and heavy, live they kick it up to double speed and play almost old school Heavy Metal. Maybe it’ll ruin the atmosphere of Astral Witch, but it might also open you up to a whole new audience. For now, Doom fans rejoice, because Astral Witch are as Doomy as you’ll get here in town.

                Invicta were up next and stood out from the crowd, bringing a more Black Thrash sound much like early Children of Bodom to the table and frontman and lead guitarist Kyle Edissi definitely takes a page out of Alexi Laiho’s book with his style. This is both good and bad in a sense as he is full of showmanship, but completely shadows the rest of the band. You could see a little in the way they moved live they were trying to get a bit more of the spotlight. Regardless, the music killed, full of heavy riffs, shredding solos and some good portions that helped other members shine, Invicta are a band that will go far in the scene.

                The White Swan capped off the show with our second Doom Metal set of the night, but The White Swan are more Reverend Bizzare or Black Sabbath style Doom than they are the Sleep style. The band knew how to rock the stage and know how to make it their home. From beginning to end each member of the band managed to take centre stage at least a few times, but all eyes were on Kittie member Mercedes as she rocked out on guitar, sang her heart our and messed around with the keyboard for a few songs. The band had a decent pull tonight, as the crowd has filled in a little bit, this was a small venue but there were a fair few people in the audience showing their support. Outside of the crazy long instrumental intro that felt like it went on forever, I felt myself drawn into the music, and before we knew it, the night was over and it was time to head out. The White Swan finished off a great night of Metal and did it incredibly well, hopefully in the end, The White Swan end up with the recognition they deserve in the scene.