St. John’s hard rock band Chimp Apparatus have given us the first taste of their particular breed of hard rock in the form of their debut single. Entitled “AAAA (Quad A)”, the single was released through all major streaming services on September 15th, 2021.
You can listen to “AAAA (Quad A)” through our YouTube embed below!
~ Akhenaten
St. John’s jazz fusion / progressive rock outfit Big Space have announced their new album, entitled In Relation To. The new record is the band’s second entry into their discography, following their debut 2016 live album Live at The Levee, which is currently available on the group’s Bandcamp. The record will boast 9 tracks ranging in various styles and features album art (pictured above) done by Ritchie Perez and a layout done by Jud Haynes.
There has been no release date set yet for the upcoming record, but you can sate your appetite for heavy instrumental jams by checking out Live at the Levee through our Bandcamp embed below!
~ Akhenaten
Iceberg Alley Performance Tent, known for being one of the largest live music events and venues in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, incurred significant damage on the night of September 10th, 2021 due to the storms from Hurricane Larry. As a result, the venue’s planned performance of Alan Doyle, Matt Mays, and The Fine Lads was cancelled. Thankfully, nobody was injured on site during the storms.
As of yesterday, September 12th, all remaining performances from this year’s instalment of the festival have moved to the Mile One Stadium as crews assess the damage and begin to recover from the destruction.
~ Akhenaten
St. John’s grunge band Jaded Truth have released yet another music video for a song from their sophomore record Tsukimono. The video was created for the song “Untouchable” and was released through the band’s YouTube channel on September 6th, 2021.
You can check out the video for “Untouchable” through our YouTube embed below.
~ Akhenaten
St. John’s black metal outfit Nocturnal Prayer announced their third major release quite some time ago. Now, the new record, entitled Mutilation on the Bed of Winter, is nearing the point of release. In a post made on the band’s social media pages on September 2nd, Nocturnal Prayer revealed that their upcoming LP will be released in February and March of 2022 through Inferna Profundus Records, the same Lithuanian label that has released the group’s previous demos and splits.
The band’s full statement is as follows:
NOCTURNAL PRAYER “Mutilation on the Bed of Winter” LP to be released via INFERNA PROFUNDUS RECORDS!
A blasphemous display of Canadian Raw Black Metal will be unearthed by the ritualistic horde NOCTURNAL PRAYER
Emerging into the night once more, after ‘Intercontinental Death Conspiracy,’ split LP, NOCTURNAL PRAYER brings forth a repulsive gathering of seven tracks of black cancerous sounds. ‘Mutilation on the Bed of Winter’ is a total departure from any remnants of light and purity, and serves as a ritual of absolute death and human agony. The preparation to unleash nocuous songs of peril will be laid unto the world with this piece of otherworldly possession. A devastating forthcoming of requiems that fulfill those with the desires of consuming black metal filth that conveys the remnant souls of old school black metal. It is eternally devoted to punishment, genocide, and depravity to all who exist on the mortal plane. NOCTURNAL PRAYER remains true to the exaltation of true darkness and suffering.
NOCTURNAL PRAYER returns on LP format, with ‘Mutilation on the Bed of Winter’ unleashed by Inferna Profundus Records in 2022, February / March.
~ Akhenaten
St. John’s black metal duo Artach have released yet another lyric video for a song from their sophomore record Sworn to Avenge. The song in question is “Ice Throne”, the video for which was released throughout YouTube and Facebook on September 2nd, 2021. You can watch the video for “Ice Throne” through our YouTube embed below.
~ Akhenaten
August was yet another busy month for us here at Heavy NFLD as news has continued to arrive at a steady pace regarding new releases and the return of larger live events in Newfoundland and Labrador. While Midsummer Mayhem IV has already happened as of the writing of this article, we learned about the lineup announced for both that festival as well as the first incarnation of Brokest Fest. We also got new music from stoner metal outfit Slowpoke as well as the one man Labradorian crust punk outfit Havoc Protocol among others. Continue reading below for all the happenings in our local scene for August 2021!
Biggest Stories
– Artach Featured on Compilation Album
– Brokest Fest 2021 Announces Lineup
– Chris Carter Posts Bail
– Midsummer Mayhem IV Reveals Lineup
– Mistwalker, Ratpiss Show Shut Down by Police
– Pearl Recruit New Bassist David Ryan
– Slowpoke Featured in The Newfoundland Herald
New LPs
– First Frost – First Frost
– Slowpoke – Slowpoke
New EPs
– Havoc Protocol – Havoc Protocol
New Singles
– Slowpoke – “Windtalker”
– Pretty Little Flowers – “Wits End”
Album Announcements
– Category VI Offers Update on Upcoming Record
– Last Cigar Working on New EP
– Sludgefist Remixing Debut Record
– Sons of an Eastern Moon Working on New Album
– Vertebraeker are in the Studio
Interviews
– An Interview with Jessaca Maidment
– An Interview with Michael Small
Watch
– Artach Release Track-by-Track Breakdown of Sworn to Avenge
– Jaded Truth Release New Music Video for “Deep Dive (All it Takes)”
Merch
– Mistwalker Reveals New Stickers
– Viridian Records Reveals New Pins for Multiple Artists
– Wild Step Reveal New Merch Designs
We also released the 33rd episode of our official podcast in which we spoke to Andrew Mash of Winterhearth about how the band managed to remain show-ready throughout the pandemic, the nature of physical media versus digital media, and their performance at Midsummer Mayhem IV. You can check out the podcast and the interview through our Bandcamp embed below!
~ Akhenaten
Jaded Truth – Tsukimono
March 27th, 2021
Grunge
Independently Released
St John’s, Newfoundland
If you remember our ‘Best of 2020’ list from last year then you’ll remember that Jaded Truth’s debut record, Rx, landed quite high up on the totem pole. We enjoyed the record quite a bit for its interesting narrative of a main character on a downward spiral aided by depression, narcotics and prescription drugs, along with the musical side of things boasting wide reaching influences from all across the hard rock spectrum with a decent amount of variety throughout. Now Jaded Truth are back with their second full length record, entitled Tsukimono, and the band has continued their brand of 90’s revivalism with a few slight changes.
What becomes immediately apparent on this new album is that Jaded Truth have eschewed the loose narrative confines of their debut in favour of a more free form approach to the structure of the record. There seems to be no main character or plot threads connecting each song to the next. Gone are the short skits in which drummer Michael Small bemoans his character’s lot in life. Rather, every song on here is meant to be its own thing with its own meaning and its own purpose. In some ways this improves the record, as it feels more like you could put on any song from this album and it would be able to stand on its own (not that that wasn’t the case for the debut), but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t yearn for those skits to return a degree. I felt like they really added a level of uniqueness to Rx that isn’t really here on Tsukimono, and I do ultimately miss the overarching narrative.
But that’s not to say that this album suffers a great deal from this decision not to include a narrative. It’s more of a minor complaint because the music itself makes up for the loss. This record clocks in at just over an hour and it’s chockfull of great tracks that will no doubt become staples of Jaded Truth’s live set in the future. Tracks like “No Space Like Home” and “Boots on the Ground” really stand out to me as being ‘single worthy’ and deserving of music videos or even radio airplay.
Musically I feel like, even though this record mostly drops the pretense of the debut, it still follows in the same sonic footsteps. The album carries over much of Jaded Truth’s sound from the first album and still puts me in the same mindset. I get the same visuals in my mind when I’m listening to this album. The sludginess of Kyle Woodland’s guitar riffs, the thickness of Aaron Jones’ bass and the frenetic nature of Small’s drumming style all come together to formulate a sound that feels like its been dipped in stale beer, THC oil and cigarette ash, all filtered through a coffee maker that hasn’t been cleaned in a good few months. It’s disgusting, but it’s palatably disgusting. It’s the kind of gross that appeals to metalheads and punks but is still safe enough to be played on a rock radio station like Montreal’s CHOM 97.7, for example.
The group’s influences are still fairly obvious, as calling Jaded Truth a Nirvana-worship band wouldn’t exactly be a false statement. But that being said, while the band is obviously paying tribute to the grunge greats, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden being included, there’s other stuff going on here too. “No Space Like Home” sounds more like a sludge metal track closer to something that the Melvins or Eyehategod might have put out, vocal style notwithstanding. Meanwhile “Years in Front of You” is a straight up 90’s punk rock song that sounds like it was ripped right out of the NOFX playbook. Ultimately, while most of the songs on here fall into that territory of 90’s grunge revivalism with their slow, dragging tempos and their melancholic, angsty melodies, there are other things going on here that help spice things up a bit.
The thing that I would say bugs me most about this album is I feel like the songs just aren’t as memorable as the ones from Rx. I’m in no way saying that this is a bad album, and as I’ve listened to it more over the past few months I’ve come to really enjoy it a lot more as the songs have wormed their way into my brain. But when comparing Tsukimono to the debut the songs don’t immediately jump out to me like they did on the previous record. Towards the mid-section of the album I find that many of the songs have a samey vibe and I have often struggled to recall melodies from this album after listening to it. Ultimately I think the most charitable thing I could say about Tsukimono in comparison to Rx is that it’s more of a grower, whereas Rx was an immediate hook.
While it may be the case that Tsukimono didn’t wow me as much as the band’s debut, I still think Jaded Truth have put out a great record here. This is still something that is worth a listen, especially if you’re thirsty for a band whose entire modus operandi is reviving the sounds of 90’s alternative rock for a modern audience. The band has improved some things from their last release, like upping the production value for example. This record showcases some of Small’s best audio production work yet, and on top of that it was mastered by Jack Endino, famous for working with previously mentioned grunge giants Nirvana and Soundgarden, and that work by both Small and Endino comes across in the mix. There’s more depth and clarity here than there was before.
Ultimately I think this is a good album that still warrants attention and a good few listens. Some of the songs on here, such as the ones I will put in the ‘Favourite Tracks’ segment below, did stand out to me. So even though a chunk of this album doesn’t really vibe with me as much as Rx did, that doesn’t make Tsukimono bad. There will definitely be people who listen to this and consider it to be better than the debut, and there will be people for whom it will be more of a grower than it was for me.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Good
Favourite Tracks:
“Saturn’s Refrain”
“No Space Like Home”
“Boots on the Ground”
“Spirit”
~ Akhenaten
Mistwalker, Ratpiss, and Hakapik, three Montreal-based bands with ties to Newfoundland and Labrador or who feature musicians in their lineup that are from Newfoundland and Labrador, played their first show since the pandemic began on August 21st, 2021 at Fattal, a punk commune in Montreal known for hosting live music, until that show was shut down by the police.
The show began at around 6:30 with Ratpiss opening and Hakapik playing second. In the time during the switch-over from Hakapik to Mistwalker members of the SPVM, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal, arrived outside the commune. Mistwalker played about three songs of their set before officers from the SPVM shut down the show due to a noise complaint.
~ Akhenaten
Glovertown-based artist collective / digital record label Viridian Records has revealed that they have new pins for multiple artists on their roster. As pictured above, the new pins represent the DSBM duo Grimacing, Montreal-based crust outfit Ratpiss, Carbonear-based dark ambient project Nemophilist, Glovertown-based doom metal project Lucifairy, raw black metal duo Impaled Upon the Mountains and Carbonear-based atmospheric black metal project Acorn to Great Oak.
As of right now the pins are only available at Mistwalker live shows or when ordering Mistwalker merch online, though they will eventually come to the Viridian Records Bandcamp page.
~ Akhenaten
