Decapitated with Theories, Mad Trapper and Sludgehammer at The Mod Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

                A night of Metal in Toronto is exactly what I needed and man tonight, February 1^st 2016, was it about to get gritty here at the Mod Club. Decapitated had finally made it here on their tour for “Blood Mantra” and although Black Breath weren’t able to make it, local support was added to make up for it.

                The night opened with Sludgehammer, a local band with some great art on their bass drum. When the lights went down and the crowd got ready out came the guys in this local band battering through each of their songs. Although being unfamiliar with these guys, I had to go home and find their music; Sludgehammer had the stage presence of a high end professional band. Battering away through everything they could, making jokes to the audience and having some showmanship is what we look for and although a lot of people like to skip the local bands at these shows, you would have regretted missing this band.

                As it turns out, they had to say goodnight, but they got me headbanging heavy and I thought I was more than ready for Mad Trapper, the second local band. There was something wrong when this band took the stage, the vocals were completely inaudible, the vocalist couldn’t even stand up straight and kept stumbling around the stage and into the other band members and while the instrumentals didn’t seem to miss a beat, the bassist of this band looked like he was ready to say fuck it and quit. Everything involving the vocalist seemed to be going wrong and if this is a common thing for this band, I couldn’t suggest going out of your way for them. After about 8 fairly quick songs and nearly being spat on by their vocalist more than once, the band left the stage without so much of a “we are Mad Trapper” or “this song is (insert song name here).” Backing vocals were audible and quite awesome to be honest, but as it stands, the vocalist sort of killed the momentum of the night thus far.

                Next up was the band touring with Decapitated, Theories. Having only one album and being a surprisingly new band it was a little surprising to me to see Theories playing main support for such an iconic Death Metal band, but after seeing them live I understand why they got the slot. Playing and writing grind means they can blast through songs quickly with the longest song on their album “Regression” being 4 minutes and every other songs being 1-2 minutes it’s easy to play your entire album and for all I knew, they would. I was unsure what to expect from this band, not knowing anything about them before the show, they definitely made me a fan. I’m not the biggest Grind fan and when their vocalist came out it looked like they were about to belt out something not so fast and brutal. The pits opened, hair was flying and they floored a lot of people who didn’t know them, myself included, the growls were low and brutal, the crushing screams were quick keeping up with their constantly blasting drummer and the solos are so short and quick no one knew when they were coming. The joke about missing 10 minutes of a concert and missing 4 Grind bands almost seemed true; if you blinked you’d miss a song. They played their bit, got an incredible reaction from the crowd and definitely made some friends at their merch table as I happened to see but they were soon about to be in the shadow of the all mighty Decapitated.

                So here’s my experience with Decapitated, I know “Nihility” as everyone who knows this band does and I know “Blood Mantra” which means there was bound to be a bunch of stuff I didn’t know about to be blasting through those speakers. The band took the stage, the lights came up and Decapitated started, as did the pits practically instantly. Playing all sorts of new songs from “Blood Mantra” like “Exiled in Flesh” “Veins” and the title track mixed with fan favourites like “Day 69” and “Post(?) Organic” the band threw their hair everywhere, played some outstanding solos, talked and joked with the crowd, but eventually they broke into the first song I was really hoping to see. “Nest” features one of my favourite instrumental sections with the iconic chugging of Decapitated playing under a tapping section that seemed impossible live for me to follow, somehow the band did it and absolutely nailed how it sounded on record. A couple more songs played out and a wall of death was opened (where yours truly, the top dumbass broke his thumb) but the main event happened, closing out the main set was “Spheres of Madness” and nowhere was safe, the pit grew to obscene sizes. “Spheres” played out and before you knew it the band left the stage, only to come back with another new song “Instinct” which was the last song I was looking forward to seeing tonight, after cranking through it they again, said their good nights and left the stage only to be chanted for by the entire crowd and what do you know, they came back for a second encore!! Unfortunately this was not a song I recognized; neither did any of the few people I asked on my way out so I guess that part of their set has to remain a surprise. Everyone was exhausted, this was what I needed, a good, heavy, Death Metal show and man did I get it, sore neck and all.

Sludgehammer Performance: 85/100

Mad Trapped performance: 12/100

Theories performance: 78/100

Decapitated performance: 95/100

Overall experience: 90/100

Interview with Canadian Thrashers Dark Messiah!

Again from the northern wasteland known as Canada, out of Winnipeg we meet Dark Messiah. These guys are up and coming thrashers who already have a lot of draw to their shows and down even have an official release yet! With an E.P. fundraiser (and the actual E.P.) coming, these guys of Dark Messiah took time from their busy schedule to talk to us and let us know about the music, the influences and the thoughts on MegaDave!

Hey, how are you guys doing today?

Great, thanks.

Tell us a bit about Dark Messiah and where you guys come from.

We are a local Winnipeg heavy metal band. We are trying to get back to the roots of metal but with a modern twist.

You guys play plenty of local shows and are building up to an E.P release fundraiser in February. What can fans expect at this show?

We are hosting this show to help us raise money to record and release our very first E.P. All of the money raised will go towards the studio costs of recording our songs. We'd like to say thank you to the other bands; Five Hundred Pound Furnace, White Trash Heavy Metal and Awaiting The Answer for playing for free and helping us along the way. Fans can expect a head banging party that will be a hell of a lot of fun.

For your fans too far away to come to the show will you have a way for them to support the release?

Fans will be able to access our music online. Copies of the E.P will also be available for purchase that can be mailed anywhere around the world. 

How many songs can we expect on this E.P? "Dark Messiah" which you've shown off live alright will make it on I assume?

We will have about 5 or 6 songs on the E.P, and yes "Dark Messiah" will make it on there.

What's the chance at your first release having "Dark Messiah" off of "Dark Messiah" by "Dark Messiah"?

We haven't discussed the title of the E.P yet. Only time will tell. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Live you also generally play Metallica covers. Will this continue after the release of the E.P and possibly become a live staple?

We will always honor metal that came before us in our live shows but covers will slowly be withdrawn from our set as we create more original music. For the time being I would say that "The Four Horsemen" is definitely a live staple.

What are you looking into for tours? Will you guys try to get out and around Canada soon or is it too early to tell?

After the E.P is released we are aiming for a tour of western Canada. An east coast tour will happen at some point after that we're just not sure when at the moment.

How many songs will be on the E.P? Will there be a studio version of a Metallica song on it?

We'll have about 5 or 6 songs. When it comes to recordings we are going to stick to original material.

So clearly you are on the side of Megadave in the Megadeth vs. Metallica debate right?

Let's just say that Dave didn't get kicked out of Metallica. Metallica got kicked out of Dave.

Tell us a bit about your inspirations. Metallica doesn't count anymore. Who inspires you as a musician and what bands inspire your sound?

Well our singer Steve gets lyrical inspiration from Corey Taylor and Dave Grohl to name a few. Our bassist Jared is influenced alot by Judas Priest and Zakk Wylde. I myself am a huge Pantera fan and Dimebag will always be someone I idolize. Our new guitarist Lawrence likes anything fast that feels like you're about to get kicked in the teeth. As a whole we don't try to really sound like anyone else. When we make songs we just collaborate with each other and see what happens.

Last but not least, where can fans keep up with you and find your music(as it's released)?

When our E.P is released we will have a website. In the meantime you can follow us at.....

www.facebook.com/DarkMessiahWpg

On twitter @DarkMessiah204 and, our Youtube channel

www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_7W0hSWjumImFiIhvcO8w?view_as=public

Thank you guys very much for your time, best of luck with your E.P. and everything to come.

Interview with Canadian Black Metal band ASTAROTH

After a brief hiatus we are back with our first interview of 2016 with none other than Toronto's own Astaroth. This is a band that had it's beginnings in 2015 and are already making a splash with their form of Black Metal, having shared the stage with big named bands already like Beyond Creation. Frontman, Astaroth, took time out of his day of being a Darth Maul/Spawn crossover to talk about the bands previously released EP, the time frame on their first album and what it's like writing an Astaroth song. Note, this interview was conducted at the end of 2015, so anything regarding "next year" is meaning 2016!

Greetings, how are you this cold and dreadful day?

We are great actually…but to be honest, it isn’t cold enough. At least for us. Where is the grim and frost bitten Canadian winter?

Tell us a little about your self-titled EP release, what’s next and when can your fans expect more?

We released the EP on April 25^th, 2015 which was the same day when we played first live show. So it was quite an epic experience for us. We have since then played 9 shows in total where we mainly played our EP with the exception of one show where we covered two At The Gates classics. The next gig we play will be unveiling new material which will be on our upcoming first full length which we hope to complete and release sometime near the end of next year.

What is your writing process? I understand how hard starting and ending can be, how do you decide enough is enough?

We play in all our songs from the EP in drop D tuning. Mainly because of our influences and the variety of styles we try to incorporate into our writing. Drop D just worked better than any other tuning at the time. For our new songs, we will be possibly mixing different tunings for different songs. Generally we start with writing guitars and work till we get a solid structure. Structure is extremely important in our writing as it determines the mix of styles we are going for. We don’t have specific length in mind when we write. We just work with what we got and if it feels complete guitar wise then we move onto the drums, vocals and everything else.

What was the recording process like? Did everything handle smoothly?

We recorded the EP ourselves not really having any experience with recording previously. So it was a process of trial and error. A very live sounding EP if we say so for ourselves as we mainly tried to record the guitars and vocals in as little takes as possible. The drums are programmed cause we didn’t have a drummer at the time so we tried our best to learn how to program them and just had a DIY (do it yourself) attitude. We just did the best we possibly could. However, we have a full live band now and are in the process of writing new material which will surpass what we have already done in the EP.

Can you talk a bit about lyrical themes in this release?

The EP didn’t have any set themes so the lyrics were just written based on the feeling of each song. All the songs we write have metaphors built into them and have generally positive meanings despite being presented in a negative fashion. It creates curiosity in the reader so that hopefully they think of the lyrics in depth and create their own interpretation of the songs. For example, Sanctum of Torment is a song about the 5 stages of grief which starts and ends in death. It talks about a child who had everyone he knew taken away from him and grew up in utter misery. He loathes himself and everything around him. After facing grief for his whole life, he unleashes his inner demon and takes revenge on those who brought him so much pain. That is what the lyrics talk about but the underlying hidden meaning behind the song is actually being able to overcome depression. So this is how we try to write lyrics for the most part. We love to tell a story. It differs from song to song.

Where does your inspiration stem from?

All of us are influenced by quite a few different bands so our influences vary quite a bit. Despite our differences, we know what direction we want the band to go towards and we want to remain in the extreme metal genre and keep the essence of death metal and black metal alive through our music while we experiment with various other styles and elements.

Who are you most proud to have shared the stage with?

Beyond Creation!!! This was our last show of the year and we couldn’t be happier to have played an Intertia Entertainment show to finish off the year and being able to open for one of our favourite bands from Canada! We can’t wait to share the stage with many more amazing bands in the new year…this is just the beginning!

Will the songs on this EP be revamped for a full release or will it be solely new songs?

No. We are proud of what we accomplished with this EP. However, we have a full band now with new inspirations and feel that we have matured as song writers and have also learned to work with each other better. So the new album will be like a fresh new start for us.

What direction will your next batch of music take? Do you plan to go all out aggressive, atmospheric, what’s the plan?

Our first full length will be a concept album. Lyrically, it will be very immersive in the apocalyptic theme and will portray the essence of the character Astaroth. Musically, it will be quite diverse as everyone in the band will be contributing in the writing process. We will work our hardest to create an album which will hopefully represent us in the best way possible.

Last, but not least, is there anything you’d like to share with your fans, old and new, who are reading this?

Thanks for all the support we have received so far from all our family, friends, fans and promoters. We hope to bring you lots more in the new year. We had an amazing first year of playing shows and the reception we received was mind blowing. The new year will be a new beginning as we release new music and will possibly be playing shows all over Ontario and or even further!

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

Thank you for the interview.