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.

Raider "Urge to Kill" Review

          "Urge to Kill", the debut EP/Demo from KW Death Metal band Raider just dropped over this past weekend, this is a release we have been looking forward to so we had to dive right into it. The band is made up of a couple of relatively well known locals including Kyle Edissi (Aepoch, Invicta) and Brandon Sanders (The Wormwood Scrubs) as well as some new talent like vocalist Angelo Bonaccorso, so let's hop into it!

          "Urge to Kill" is a total of three tracks with what we will say is two separate "modes", the first of which is an oldschool style Melodic Death Metal and damn is it done well. "Phlebotomized" (the act of puncturing a vain, if anyone is curious) and the title track, "Urge to Kill" would both fall under this umbrella. While obviously the two songs are not exactly the same, "Phlebotomized" is a straight forward Melodic Death Metal song in the vein of Amon Amarth or Unleashed, while "Urge to Kill" takes on a bit more of a hectic approach, including straight speed in both the main instrumentals and solos much more like that of The Black Dahlia Murder or even a little more closely, Skeletonwitch.



          "Nebulous" is the only out of place track on this album. While the other two take on a much more Melodic Death Metal approach, this one seems to aim more for a Melodic Thrash style, which all in all isn't a bad thing. The song itself is good, although it seems to suffer from a bit of an identity crisis, trying to make the song too much like the other two while trying to take it in a different direction at the same time. The effect this has on the song is the fact that it does become a bit of a missmash which does hinder it a little bit and unfortunately made it a bit stale.

          All in all, "Urge to Kill" is a great first release from a band still trying to find their voice. Raider took chances with this release and honestly for the most part it paid off, my biggest suggestion to the guys in Raider would be lean more towards the Melodic Death Metal side as those tracks are killer pieces of music. Keep an eye out for these guys as if they find their stride, they'll be going far with their music!

          Raider will be playing their release show March 30th alongside Invicta, Rippr'd and Woofout at The Boathouse in Kitchener! also, CLICK HERE to be taken to the bands Bandcamp page and check out "Urge to Kill"