Not a local gig (well, not for me, anyway – it’s in Canada.. it’s a bit of a trek)… but this was too good not to post. Scythia – we salute you!
Canada’s masters and wizards of folk-progressive metal fusion, Scythia, have set aside their time hunting trolls and have come to the rescue of the Richmond Animal Protection Society for a benefit concert to help raise funds for the RAPS two animal shelters in dire need of supplies (you can view RAP’s wishlist here).
Scythia’s vocalist/ guitarist Dave Khan gave the following comment:
“Scythia is stoked to rock out for an honourable cause like animals. A huge inspiration for our breed of folk metal is having a symbiosis with animals and nature… Especially bears, but dogs and cats are awesome as well. We are also stoked about the killer line up, we have played with all of these bands before and believe that each and every band on this bill are top notch musicians capable of delivering incredible performances.”
With support from local Vancouver speed thrash metal titans Cradle To Grave, power metallers Aeterna and Nanaimo, BC’s Viking warriors Eye of Odin, Scythia along with event organizer and Oboe of death player Morgan Zentner of Aesir Promotions are conquering higher ground for this great cause to help our furry companions in their time of need.
Comment from Morgan Zentner, the event’s promoter:
“As the promoter and creator of this event, I am proud to say that Aesir Promotions will be putting on a show to help support such a worthy cause. As an animal owner and lover, I feel that abandoned pets are easily over looked and I was very happy to find the Richmond Animal Protection Society, which is a no kill shelter. We have support from bands all over BC and Alberta donating merch for raffle prizes and the support from the metal community in Vancouver has been fantastic. All of the performers for the show are of high caliber and we are all looking forward to helping out our furry friends.”
Also for your viewing pleasure! One of Vancouver’s best belly dancers, the radiant Mahafsoun will be joining Scythia on stage for a memorable performance.
Show Details
Date: Saturday, June 2, 2012
Venue: The Astoria, 769 East Hastings
Time: 8pm
Cost: $12 or $10 with donated item
Event Link: facebook.com/events/330164173709449
Bands: Scythia, Cradel To Grave, Aeterna, Eye of Odin
Scythia also have a couple of FREE DOWNLOADS available! Click here to grab “For the King” and click here for “Voice of the Sword”.
With 2011 already being a record year for Canadian Melodic Death Metal outfit HALLOWS DIE, which included a 30 date headlining tour of their home country of Canada, as well as performances with many international acts including KALMAH and ATHEIST, the band entered their home studio to finish up the recording of their sophomore album. However, as it happens, the road called and the quartet decided that there was too many opportunities for out-of town shows to be sitting in a recording studio. Returning to their ‘home away from home’, HALLOWS DIE will be playing a string of dates in Northern Ontario, Canada with UK death metal legends NAPALM DEATH. You can catch the pair along with local openers October 8th in Sudbury Ontario, as well as October 15th in Saulte Sainte Marie. Check facebook.com/hallowsdie for ticket prices and more info.
Not settling for just a couple shows in October, HALLOWS DIE plans on breaking their 8 month hiatus from shows in their hometown of Toronto Ontario, and thus are finally making their grand return to the place that gave them their start. Having previously played close to a 100 shows in Toronto, and sharing the stage with the likes of DARK TRANQUILLITY, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and many more on stages all across the city, INERTIA ENTERTAINMENT and HALLOWS DIE are thrilled to announce the return of HALLOWS DIE to Toronto soil, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18TH at The Annex Wreckroom. Not satisfied with just any regular homecoming show, headlining the night of progress metal mayhem will be THE END RECORDS’s Avante-garde/progressive metallers UNEXPECT. Hailing from Quebec Canada, UNEXPECT are touring in support of their latest 2011 release, ‘Fables of the Sleepless Empire.’ The combination of two of the most ground-breaking acts in Canadian metal today should draw metalheads from far and wide across Ontario to the Wreckroom in Toronto. Stay tuned to hallowsdie.com and inertia-entertainment.com in the upcoming days for full details.
Since late 2006, Hallows Die has been forging a repertoire of songs, attempting to keep any one composition from sounding exactly like the next. The result: odd melodies intertwined with bizarre time changes, and unpredictable song structures. They strive to play strange and original material that continues to evolve, refusing to be classified under any one specific label. While their live appearances are increasing in frequency and scope, including two coast-to-coast tours of their home country of Canada, as well as supporting performances with the likes of DARK TRANQUILLITY, KALMAH, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER (and more) the band is continuing to write material exemplifying their belief that no label should be placed on personal expression. The bands sophomore album, MASKS, is currently in pre-production with a planned Early 2012 release date. Stay tuned to hallowsdie.com for updates.
hallowsdie.com
facebook.com/hallowsdie
twitter.com/hallowsdie
reverbnation.com/hallowsdie
myspace.com/hallowsdie
I originally found out about Massive Slavery through a forum called It’s All About Music (please feel free to check it out!) and I soon found myself listening to their album, “Global Enslavement”, over and over again. It seemed only right that I should catch up with the band’s frontman, Jon “The ProF” St-Pierre and get him to answer a few questions…
Lou: Please can you tell me who is in the band?
Jon: Jon “The ProF” St-Pierre – Vocals
Joel St-Amant – Guitars
Marc-André Barrette – Bass
Pierre-Alexandre Mercier – Drums
Lou: Have there been any line-up changes since you started?
Jon: No, we’re the original line up since the beginning of the band in the winter of 2009.
Lou: Were you in any other bands before Massive Slavery?
Jon: Joel was a member of melodic death metal band Descend Into Nothingness, Marc-André pass a couple of years with Montreal’s Paroxysm and Pierre-Alexandre also share the drum kit with fellow brutal death core band Decrepity.
As for myself, I spend a couple of year in some projects but nothing serious.
Lou: Which bands/musicians have influenced you?
Jon: The most interesting fact about Massive Slavery is that everyone in the band came with a very different background in influence and musical style. I think it helped the band to touch a lot of influences and create an album that can reach a very large range of fans.
For myself, I’m more into the modern Metalcore/Deathcore scene, and right now I’m really down with bands such as Despised Icon, Born Of Osiris, Beneath the Massacre and Parkway Drive.
Lou: How long have you each been playing your respective instruments (or singing)? How long do you practice each day?
Jon: I’ve sung in metal bands for about 6-7 years. The most of the time, I practice in my car when I go to work, it’s a good way to get pumped up!
Lou: Your album, “Global Enslavement”, is fantastic and has been available for people to buy for some time. I understand that the band only formed in the winter of 2009, it seems amazing that such a high quality album was written and recorded in such a short time. What made you want release a full-length album so quickly?
Jon: We were really pumped up when we have hit the studio. The last four months before have been very productive and we wanted to record the album quickly, because the momentum and the intensity was really high. Everyone in the band was ready to make a statement with the first album so the energy was in all the time. We have take a month to track the album with Yannick (January 2010) and 2 months later he was ready to be release. It went really fast!
Lou: What sort of feedback have you received about it so far?
Jon: The feedback has been generally awesome! We got some reviews from around the world in French, English, Spanish, German, Russian and more. I think our album has make a good wave into the metal world and we are very happy with the general comments about “Global Enslavement”.
Lou: Are you pleased with the album? Is there anything you would want to change about it?
Jon: We are very pleased with the final result of Global Enslavement, sure there’s some little details that can have been modified, but in general we think everything went like we wanted.
Lou: What is your favourite track from it and why?
Jon: It’s a tough choice, but my personal favorite track on the album is “Shade of Corruption”. I think this is the most intense and also the most aggressive song of the album. But songs like “Destroy, Rebuild, Repeat” and “Humanity’s Last Hope” came very close to the top song for me.
Lou: The album is a concept album of sorts – What made you want to write about the subjects featured in the album’s lyrics?
Jon: “Global Enslavement” is a semi-concept album about the epic failure of modern society. The whole album can be described as a reflection about some of the worst part of our history, with theme like mass media disinformation, the enslavement created by the explosion of new technology and also the rise and fall of all kind of religion. Each song is a reflection or a social critic about some massive issues of modern civilization.
Lou: How did the deal with Maple Metal Records come about?
Jon: I think it was just a good timing between us and them. At the beginning, we wanted to stay independent and work out our own things. We made a lot of promotion online for our band and also for the independent release of the album with a couple of press kit and stuff like that. John Belrose (MMR’s owner) found our MySpace page one day and contacted us right away to work out a deal. We have agreed on something that is very good for both of us and that’s why we inked with MMR.
Lou: How did you get Yannick St-Amand onboard to produce the record?
Jon: Yannick was an easy choice because he already worked with some of the guys older projects like Descend Into Nothingness and Decrepity. He knows what kind of music we want to put on CD and we have a great relationship with him. Plus, he made an awesome job with bands like Despised Icon and Beneath the Massacre. And he’s an awesome producer so we were very lucky to have the chance to work with this guy.
Lou: Thanks to a number of sites on the Internet (including itsallaboutmusic.net) the band is starting to become known in a variety of countries. Do you have any plans to tour outside of Canada?
Jon: Not right now, we all have day jobs and family. At first, we make music to have fun. We are more focusing on the Canadian market first, for geographical reasons, but also because we won’t stay far away from home for a long time. But we don’t know what’s gonna happen next, we clearly want to tour outside of Canada one day, but right now it’s not one of our objectives.
Lou: Which bands would you like to go on tour with?
Jon: Personally, I’ll love to go on tour with bands like : Hatebreed, All That Remains, In Flames, Born Of Osiris, Trivium and many more!
Lou: What is the metal scene like in Canada? Can you recommend any bands for us to check out?
Jon: Canadian scene is doing great, especially in the province of Quebec, the French speaking province of Canada. The local scene here is very cool and there’s a great friendship between the bands. So we strongly recommend band like: Archons, Cryptik Howling, Decrepity, Abitabyss, Insurrection, Derelict Vortex and there’s so many more.
Lou: I mentioned the Internet very briefly in a previous question, but I’d like to go into a little more depth with it. Do you think that the positive aspects of the Internet (such as being able to get your music out to a larger number of people) outweigh the negative aspects (such as illegal downloading)?
Jon: Without internet, no one would have known about Massive Slavery. 90% of our fans have been reached by internet with stuff like MySpace, Facebook, presskit, online add and a lot more. We try to use internet as a positive method to get us known worldwide. Illegal downloading is a problem but at the same time, if we want to reach new fans, we need to past forward this. So yes the positive effects are way better than the negatives ones.
Lou: What will Massive Slavery be doing next? More writing/recording? Touring?
Jon: Right now we’re working on our first music video. The shooting is going to be made on October 23-24 with producer Chad Archibald from Black Fawn Films (Eyes set to Kill, Arise and Ruins, Farewell to Freeway) and we will release the video at the end of November. We’re also looking for some gigs in Canada to finish the year strong.
Lou: I’d like to thank you again for answering my questions. The final words in this interview are yours! Please feel free to take this opportunity to say anything you like to the readers of Loucifer Speaks – anything at all! Cheers!
Jon: We invite everyone who want more informations on Massive Slavery to visit our Myspace at : myspace.com/massiveslavery and to join our Facebook page at : http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/MassiveSlavery/205503389299
Also, be sure to check out for our first music video for “Humanity’s Last Hope” out in November. The same song will also be available on the Rock Band Network through Rock Gamer Studios by the same time!!
Thanks a lot for your support and interest toward Massive Slavery, we appreciate it a lot!
We raise our horns high to all your readers!!
myspace.com/massiveslavery
facebook.com/#!/pages/MassiveSlavery/205503389299
