Alright folks, let's talk shop about my (and likely your) lovely country of beavers, igloos, maple syrup and police who still ride horses Oh, and did I mention the fucking METAL?!

Alrighty, so, I'll first list off some popular / good / important metal bands by province. Note that this is simply intended on getting you thinking about your local scene, and that I intend on talking about the Manitoba scene further down the page. I also want YOU to talk about YOUR local scene, and the big / important / popular bands in it!

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AB: Becoming the Martyr, Divinity (Can), Operation Winter Mist

BC: 3 Inches of Blood, Blasphemy (Can), Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, The Devin Townsend Band, Thor (Can), Zimmer's Hole

MB: I will address this below.

SK: Into Eternity, Kick Axe, Nactterror

ON: Annihilator, Bloodshoteye, Deathmarch (Can), Exciter (Can), Fuck the Facts, Protest the Hero, Razor, Rush, Sacrifice (Can), SIG:AR:TYR, Thine Eyes Bleed, Threat Signal, Woods of Ypres, Wolven Ancestry

NS: Hellacaust

QC: Beneath the Massacre, Blackguard, Blinded by Faith, Cryptopsy, Despised Icon, Gorguts, Kataklysm, Martyr (Can), Neuraxis, Quo Vadis, Unexpect, Voivod

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So, I am from Manitoba, so I am going to give an overview of my knowledge of the local metal scene: we have a lot of thrash and death metal in this city!

Black: Hoarfrost, Of Human Bondage, Psychotic Gardening
DM: Afflicted Faith, Annex Theory, Children of Tragedy, Cunt Punisher, Damascus, Dissolution, Hoarfrost, Mephisto, Putrescence, Redemption, Sixteen Eyes, Tyrants Demise, Xplicit
Doom: Psychotic Gardening
Heavy Metal: Evil Survives, Grand Master,
Gothic: Nocturnal Divinity
Groove/Post-thrash: Still Village, Xplicit
Grindcore etc: Cunt Punisher, Putrescence and a few more that rarely play shows.
Folk: Northern Shadows
Metal/Death-core: Afflicted Faith, Annex Theory, Broken Army, Port Amoral, 2MSU, Tyrants Demise
Sludge: JAW, Sixteen Eyes
TM: Besieged, Electro Quarterstaff, Pornocracy, Redemption, Suiciety + a few crossover bands that generally only play to punk crowds.

Okay, I will talk about a few of my favourite bands from the area now

Besieged! What can I NOT say about these awesome thrashers! They mix in a dirty-as-fuck proto-death metal sound with a decidedly delectable riff-fest of thrash! Totally awesome, great in concert and just shitloads of fun! THIS is what thrash should be!

Cunt Punisher. A chaotic band that's more fun that strapping rockets to roller skates and going down a big hill! No albums are out yet, but it's the live show that is where it's at - the vocalist convulses on the floor while belching out frenzied shrikes and wails, with rants and rambles of a rather... pseudo-intellectual nature between songs. Oh, and did I mention the bass player / backing vocalist? He plays a phantom bass, or he "air bass guitars" in other words, all the while screaming ferociously into his mic. It's a delight to the senses, and a shitload of fun!

Dissolution. These boys don't play many shows anymore (a few members are busy in other bands as well) but they kick so much ass! Old school death metal straight from Scream Bloody Gore! And LOTS of songs about zombies! Solid riffs, wicked vocals and their fun, gimmicky theme means good listening!

Evil Survives. The fivesome who make up Evil Survives are on to something. Mixing in Priest and Maiden in all their glory, these boys are playing straight NWoBHM - and doing it well, too, if I may say so myself! Their music is cheesy, familiar and lighthearted, but if you want to see Iron Maiden for a fraction of the cost, well these guys fit the bill pretty damn well!

Grand Master - I just saw this band for the first time last Friday, but I REALLY enjoyed them! It's a mix of Rush, Helloween, Iron Maiden and the prog rock material Opeth has put out. It's very relaxing, chill music, and as a three piece they show some very impressive talent - their drummer is a very good technical player, the bassist/vocalist just flew over his 7 stringer while hitting some awesome falsettos and generally these guys are doing what every 20-year-old musician wishes they were doing.

Psychotic Gardening - the local masters of extreme doom metal, PG is an awesome band. They started out as a strange mix of doom, dark-sounding industrial and some other random experimental stuff, and then, after many years on hiatus, were reborn 4 or 5 years ago. Their style on Hurdur is a stellar mix of extreme doom metal, with plenty of black metal and death-doom influences, but the best part is that they kept that fucked-up electronic music part with a full-time keys player who does some simply awesome stuff to make PG's sound both dark and nihilistic.

Of Human Bondage - our only resident black metal band, OHB have been going since 94, and releasing material since 00 or so. They are primitive, raw black metal who utilize a keyboardist live to give them this HUGE low end fuzz which hits you like a tsunami wave. The two guitarists and bass player all do vocals, which is like a cherry on top

Redemption - I have only had the chance to see these guys once, but it was awesome - later era-Death mixed with some eclectic thrash, death, tech and prog influences, these guys were a tour-de-force! Oh, and did I mention INSTRUMENTAL?! They even played a 16 minute epic, to which I was completely blown away by. No music yet, and even the status of the band might be in question, but I hope to eventually get a hold of some demos!

Tyrants Demise - a "new school" band, TD mix in melodeath with deathcore and some axe-grinding influence from bands like Cannibal Corpse to make likely the tightest death metal band in the local scene. They are getting a lot of exposure right now, which is awesome for them since I am friends with the drummer. These guys are a blast and a half and I can't say enough good things about them!

So, there's a snapshot of Winnipeg for you! Please tell us about your local scene!

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Now playing: Dark Tranquillity - The New Build
via FoxyTunes

Well, as far as Québec goes (the province/nation as well as the city) the black metal scene is top notch and on par with the best the world has to offer. (By the way, don't mind my location being Romania since I was born there but I live in Qc now). Also, concerning the OP: isn't Kataklysm from Montréal, Québec and not from Ontario?

Anyway, on to Québec's BM scene:

Forteresse: A raw repetitive black metal band, drawing heavily from Québec's past and its French heritage, especially during the New France era. The music is utterly brilliant, it quite certainly has no equivalent in Norway. It's a relentless barrage of riffs and (drum machine) drumming which creates a killer atmosphere.

Monarque: A much more orthodox BM band, their album is what could be best described as "standard" black metal. They might be decried for being devoid of originality by some but I disagree, and the music's quality makes such concerns mostly irrelevant. I saw them live in December 2007 and will see them again next Saturday.

Gris: Depressive BM done more than right. I've only recently been introduced to this band, knowing only a few tracks, but from what I've heard I'm more than impressed. I'm probably going to get at least one, maybe both of their albums next Saturday.

Héritage Mystique: A more underground band who only released one demo, I first saw then at the same show as Monarque and they completely blew me away with their talent. One of the most interesting BM shows ever, which is all the more incredible considering the band's youth and lack of material (1 demo).

Hiverna: A black metal band mixing elements of folk, I saw this band live a couple of times and they put on an awesome show. Maybe not quite up to the level of Héritage Mystique but still great, and the Split album with Chasse-Galerie is pretty good too.

Csejthe: A one-man BM band, I'll see this band live Saturday (most of the band I've mentioned use session musicians for shows) and I plan on getting the Split album with Ziel Bevrijd (another good BM band, similar to Csejthe).

Yes, OP fails at geography. Martyr are also from Quebec, stop trying to make Ontario look better.

For a long time, the Quebec scene was mostly shitty death metal bands, but that's finally starting to change in recent years. One DM band that doesn't (well, didn't) suck however, is Quo Vadis. While I wasn't impressed by the new direction on their latest album (seems they ran out of good riffs when Arie left?), Day into Night remains an absolutely brilliant album - technical, melodic (but not in a Gothenburg way), occasionally thrashy and full of great riffs. The first album is well worth getting as well.

Quebec City is starting to get a pretty decent thrash scene, with bands like Abüsor, Riotor, and Skin Slicer. It's old-school thrash to the bones, so you won't find any new ideas there, but what they do have is face-melting riffage that will make your bang your head 'til your neck breaks (am I sounding like Boris?). What else does thrash need? Too bad Abüsor is splitting up though.

Another band that brings nothing new to the table but is thoroughly enjoyable is Metalian. Traditional metal in its purest form here: you take one part Stained Class, one part Killers, smash them together and you get Metalian. Somebody needs to keep the true metal flame alive and they're doing a fine job of it. Plus they have a song about Chinese food, how can you beat that?

Another local band I enjoy a lot is Talamyus. They play what I suppose could be described as viking thrash; viking-style metal but with few folk overtones, rather concentrating squarely on the riffs. Both albums are quite good. In my view, they are vastly superior to the rest of our nascent viking scene - representatives of which bored me immensely as openers on a show last Saturday.

Good catch on the Kataklysm bit - and Martyr! I'm slipping up!

Edit: Monarque sounds very interesting, MaDTransilvanian.

And likewise Talamyus sounds intriguing Hellblazer! I'm also sure you're well aware that Trevor Birnie from the Winnipeg band Damascus is doing vocals for Quo Vadis now. What do you think of that? Have you seen them in concert recently at all with Trevor on the mic?

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Now playing: Dark Tranquillity - The New Build

Hmm, might have to check out this Talamyus lot!

RAZOR dude, Fucking RAZOR, and EXCITER, and VOIVOD

No, I wasn't aware actually, and I haven't seen them live recently. As I said, the latest album has left me rather disappointed so I haven't really been following what they've been doing.

Also, I should have provided MySpaces:

Talamyus - Viking thrash
Abüsor - Old-school thrash - only one old song on their MySpace, not very representative of what they're capable of
Riotor Old-school thrash (with a bit of death metal thrown in)
Skin Slicer - Punky thrash
Metalian - Traditional metal
Quo Vadis - Technical death metal

Finally, I'm moving this thread to the metal forum. While it's kind of a recommendation thread, it's mostly discussion-oriented, which fits better over there.

Great thread, getting ready to check out a bunch of these bands.

It's good to see people supporting their local scenes. And by that I don't mean praising the fuck out of every local band good or bad, but giving support to the good bands from their local area.

Yes, I approve greatly of Besieged. In my top 10 retro-thrash list for sure. Raw, fast, uncompromising, and those riffs just rape everything in their path.

I saw Riotor and Skin Slicer once. Skin Slicer was old school as it can be with the great rumbling bass from the vocalist. Hell (no pun intended), if Metalucifer is about using the expression "Heavy Metal" as much as possible, here, it is hell. Thrash in Hell, hellrider, hellfire 666, born in hell etc. Riotor were good too and like Skin Slicer nothing really original, not the kind of music I'd listen to all day long. I was also pretty surprised the bassist was able to play the whole set considered he's always dead drunk - even when he's playing. There was that really funny scene with his girlfriend during the destruction show...

And Fuck the Facts (really good) seem to be from Gatineau which is in the province of Québec but right next to Ottawa as it is written to be their homebase in their latest album's booklet. Besides two out of three of them are clearly french canadians based on their names. Shame they didn't come to Québec city but to Montréal during the Malignancy tour. The reason why I didn't attend the show, hell Malignancy didn't even play.

I'm sorry for not being educated enough,but what those letters mean?

Abbreviations of territories/states/provinces/whatever they are called, in Canada.

Provinces. AB = Alberta. BC = British Columbia. MB = Manitoba. SK = Saskatchewan. ON = Ontario. NS = Nova Scotia. QC = Quebec.

Thanks

Probably gets my vote for best thing going in the domestic scene right now, along with Fuck The Facts.


I see you're focusing on the live scene, but this isn't the only black metal band going. Slepnir for one, I see their shirts from time to time. The band It just put an album out last year too. Of Human Bondage is great at any rate, as was their (sort of) previous incarnation as Malefaction. Malefaction was my favourite but OHB serves as a sort of continuation, as later Malefaction progresses towards the grindy black metal sound. Other great acts from here are aforementioned Electro Quarterstaff, Cunt Punisher and Putrescence... Northern Shadows have some nice riffs.

Also I'll throw in Red Blanket, KEN mode, Mung, Nailbrick, Velodrome and L'viv. The Winnipeg scene is pretty booming right now, especially in the area along the punk/metal border and the prog-shred kind of stuff. It's pretty easy to go to a show or two every week here, which is great. I've heard anecdotes from a few sources saying that Winnipeg has more per capita bands than anywhere else in the country. I heard an interview like a month ago where someone mentioned Winnipeg having more bands than Calgary and Edmonton combined. Sounds cool, not sure how true it is though.

We even have a local metal-centric TV show here in Signal To Noise.

Ah, well they just did a tour in Turkey, and Trevor has a Facebook wall full of messages from strangely-named folk who keep saying "you were amazing, come back to Turkeeeey!" :lol::lol: They haven't played a Winnipeg show yet, so I don't know how he stacks up, but he's going to be on their next album, which is in the works right now AFAIK.


I saw them play Saturday night in a little hole-in-the-wall bar that probably seat less than 50 people comfortably with 100 or 150 people stuffed into it. It was simply jaw dropping


I actually never had the chance to see Malefaction ( ) so I wasn't aware of their reputation.

I am aware of Slepnir, but I thought he was now-defunct; I bought the album Defiance hoping to get some black metal, but it was weird ambient shit album with no BM. I tried to even contact the guy behind it to update the MA page, but the email came back, so I dunno if he's dead, or disappeared, or what.

Northern Shadows is so much better since they got rid of Samael on vocals. That guy sucked. Bad.

I was at the Electro Quaterstaff/Evil Survives/L'viv show there a month or so back... totally blown away by L'viv.

Have you seen War Elephant? Sort of a similar sound, with less of that Pelican-inspired atmo-sludge, and more sludge/drone doom/doom metal influences. Also, they are a two piece - a drummer and a bassist/vocalist. VERY interesting bank!

And, I couldn't tell you aside from anecdotes, but I am firm in saying that Winnipeg has an AWESOME and HUGE metal scene, period. I couldn't say how it stacks up, but there are a lot of people active and a lot of interesting things happening in it all the time, between tours and local shows

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Now playing: Death - Mutilation

Definitely check out their last couple albums, quite similar riffing style to Of Human Bondage. Almost like the same band with a different vocalist. Into The Music always has copies.


Hmmm, I saw them with Finntroll, was that the new guy or old guy? I seem to remember he was having trouble remembering lyrics...


Yeah I've heard of them, don't think they've played too many shows yet. On my to do list. Velodrome interestingly is another bass/drum duo...


Yep, there's a huge amount of stuff already announced for this summer, along with the local stuff sure to come... have to get my band some bookings.

The lack of respect for OBLIVEON in this thread brings tears to my eyes.
From This Day Forward and Nemesis are landmarks of progressive thrash/death metal.

Hmm may check some of their stuff along other bands, I'm pretty ignorant of our scene except from the obvious bands.

Montreal metal bands are kickass, Quo Vadis are one of the few tech-death bands I enjoy, and I urge everybody to check out Augury if you like some opera and similar theatrics with your death metal.

I'm from Toronto and I believe modern metal here is sorely lacking.
Deathmarch is garbage, playing extremely flaccid black metal; you can also forget about Sylvus, as everyone who's seen a folk metal show in the last 2 years around here knows. Sylvus is really boring black metal with folk metal influences, whose riffs and melodies have been written by thousands of other black metal bands.
However the old-school Toronto bands are nothing to laugh at, as many of you already know.

At the end of the day, Canada is one of my favourite countries when it comes to metal. Cheers to Montreal for always bringing something new to the table.

I agree that they're a great band. They are however not from Montreal but rather from Amos in Abitibi (way, way north-west of Montreal).

I'll second the OP's mentioning of Blinded by Faith. They're a very good melodic black metal band, although the first album is the sole moment of complete excellence. Both the debut EP and the second album are rather bland, the EP because it's a bad CoF ripoff and the second album because it sounds so much weaker than the first. There's no emotion left, it's just modern pseudo-melodic black metal. That said, Under an Occult Sun is a masterpiece of an album, capable of running with some of the best melodic BM out there.

I was just listening to Frozen Shadows today, so I'm compelled to mention them here. According to MA, they're from Montreal. Awesome, raging black metal somewhere between In the Nightside Eclipse-era Emperor and old Absu. Very harsh yet atmospheric.

How can no one mention Longing For Dawn from Montreal? Great funeral doom metal.

Blackguard are pretty terrible, their first album as Profugus Mortis was decent but their newer stuff is just terrible.

Gotherfall: Symphonic Black Metal that's pretty decent. I found the keys to be too overbearing personally.

Negativa: just check them out... insane

Tormentor Allegoria: pretty decent black metal

Btw, Martyr is from Montreal and Kataklysm is from Levis in the region of Quebec.

Annihilator is a fucking amazing canadian band. took me ages to get round to listening to them, but thrilled. exciter and razor are excellent, with exciter being perhaps one of the best speed metal bands to exist. come to think of it, canadians tend to do thrash metal pretty good in general, with there being several other legendary bands from the country. 3 inches of blood also shred.

Saw them live long before I started enjoying doom or funeral doom. My first experience in the field. No need to tell you how much tedious I thought it was, never gave it another listen though.



? No, surely not. We would have heard of that south shore pride thing otherwise.

Let's not forget Anvil and Slaughter.

ANVIL and SLAUGHTER indeed. on the more Hard Rock side: CONEY HATCH, HELIX and APRIL WINE. lol

ANVIL kicks ass. the album backwaxed is my favourite, being a bit heavier than their first two.

I will definitely be looking into that! Thank you for the tip


that was their new vocalist. He had been in the band at that point for less than two weeks, as NS kicked out Samael because he was so embarrassingly terrible live. The lyrical fuck-ups aside, he's far better than the fat french dude who writes terrible pseudo-poetry and wears corpse paint that totally rips off Abbath with a kilt on stage who was previously their vocalist.


We have TWO bass'n'drum bands in Winnipeg? Weird! But yah, they haven't been too active as far as I know, but certainly worth checking out if you like weird, doomy droning sludge metal.


There are TONS of local shows coming up, don't worry about that I just got into promotions and I have 2 out of town bands on tour that I and my partners are booking for a couple shows in July for one of the bands and the other one in August with plenty of top-notch local talent to support them, so we have plenty of good shows coming up We deal with metal bands, however, and your band sounds like it falls more on the punk side of things, otherwise I would love to book you guys at some point. Do you have more metal-influenced material that isn't on MySpace yet? Shoot me a PM if you want to.

I'm personally not a huge fan of the music, but I am friends with the drummer Jake Oddie of Bladelazer - it seems they snagged the main slot on the Canada Day show at the Forks, lucky bums that they are!

Agony [QC] deserves mention, too. One of the earlier really brutal DM bands. Apocalyptic Dawning is a fine record, if you can find it. I got my copy off ebay recently on the cheap.

Yeah I remember Stéphane Paré wanting to sell me a copy at the Dismember show (along qith Quo Vadis and Augury where he did some vocals and showed how he's the fastest windmiller). Listened to a couple of songs and it's rather good, gonna buy it sometime along a couple of other cds from his label, Disconcert Music. Speaking of Augury, no one mentioned them yet, amazing tech death, the vocalist/guitarist looks very nerdy (first thought he was the guy tuning his guitar) and very funny. They should be releasing some new album on Nuclear Blast sometime in a near future I think.

Augury is coma-inducing wankery. I hope I never have to stand through their opening acts ever again.

They opened for Dismember last November (tee hee it rhymes) here in the Peg and their bass player was terrible. I didn't know before that that fretless bass players had the right to not play along with the goddamn music. Blech.

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Now playing: :wumpscut: - Black Death [French Concept]

You're talking about Forest? He's like... really talented.

Haha wow, I would not have expected corpse paint from that band.

But yeah check your PMs in a bit...


The Forks??? Osborne street fest you mean maybe?

I guess I was wrong, I thought Axis of Advance was one of the better known metal bands in AB. but I just noticed that they even splited up. Were they really any popular?

Other Canadian bands that should be checked out include:
Wold - wierd, harsh black noise/metal
Arctic Circle - blackened thrash
Funeral Fog - black metal in the Norwegian vein, but still enjoyable
Pagan Hellfire - black metal that everyone should own

I'm from the Ottawa area and bands that should be checked from around here include:
Deamon - brutal death metal on CDN records, fantastic show, fantastic on CD if you are into brutal death
Bastardator - great thrash, again good live show and good on CD, also a great bunch of guys
Insurrection - death metal, the guys just released a new CD
Aggressor - thrash
Fuck the Facts - no need for an introduction
...I know that there are a number that I am forgetting at the moment

Hah, yeah, I personally thought the only vaguely interesting thing about Profugus Mortis was the violin, but now their violonist left to join excellent pure folk band Les Bâtards du Nord (wise decision) so I guess they're shit out of luck.

I guess pretty much everyone were just looking at the violonist during their whole sets. There's still their drummer...

Some Quebecois bands you guys are missing are After the Bombs and Inepsy! The former plays Metallic Crust Punk while the latter plays D-beat/speed metal. Both good bands that play older styles very well.

Toronto has Cauldron and Blood Ceremony.Cauldron plays a throwback style of heavy metal/speed metal with former members of Goat Horn. Blood Ceremony plays Sabbath worship with flutes and female vocals. There are obviously legendary bands that are now defunct but I'm pretty sure we're talking about the current scene. I'm sure theres a lot more bands but they probably haven't reached the popularity of these two bands unfortunately.

Iskra is a great band that plays a mix of thrash, crust, and black metal with some powerviolence maybe. I know most metalheads wont like this band because of it's music or lyrics but a great band for those who like this style.

Some other bands that I have not heard enough but have heard are Mass Grave and Existench who play metallic crustcore.

This is where I whore the scene in my area



Glad to see Hellacaust mentioned more than once in this thread. I went to the same high school as 2 members of this band, seen them live a million times and I could never get sick of them. All 3 full lengths are great, especially their debut, Dark Age Descending. Easily some of the best blackened thrash you'll ever hear. HELLACAUST

Also Terratomb have been around for about 10 years now. Graham (Crucifuck) of Hellacaust took over the drumming of Terratomb 3 or 4 years ago. Also one of my favorites. TERRATOMB

Black Moor have been around since 04 or 05 and have gained much respect within the scene and abroad. They're often compared to Megadeth and Iron Maiden, but their sound is very unique and their lead guitarist Nick Jones is absolutely phenomenal. BLACK MOOR

Terminator formed less than a year ago. They also have a lead guitarist you absolutely must see. At 17 years old, Greg Ryan is easily one of the most talented musicians I've ever heard. Check out these clips I filmed of them about a month ago CANADIATOR ADVOCATOR
Don't mind the lack of consistent mosh. All ages shows are getting a bad rep for kids just standing there bobbing their heads. It sucks.
TERMINATOR
The song Killraider features myself and Eric Hanlin of Black Moor on gang vocals.

Another band just out of high school in the scene, OBSYDIAN are one of my personal favorites. Their bassist's mother drove me to the hospital when I was about 7 years old after a playground accident left me spewing blood from my face. I had no idea it was him until about a month ago.