Halifax hardcore outfits Thousand Knives and Helsreach as well as Cape Breton powerviolence group Fear and Filth have announced an East Coast tour centered around the upcoming Heavy NFLD Fest 2024. The bands will be performing at a preliminary show in Halifax on July 17th before making their way to the island of Newfoundland for several shows between Corner Brook and St. John’s.
The dates are as follows:
Wednesday, July 17th, 2024 @ Stillwell Brewery – Halifax, Nova Scotia (Wet / Dry)
Friday, July 19th, 2024 @ Retro Arcade and Sports Bar – Corner Brook, Newfoundland (All Ages)
Friday, July 19th, 2024 @ Retro Arcade and Sports Bar – Corner Brook, Newfoundland (19+)
Saturday, July 20th, 2024 @ The Rockhouse – St. John’s, Newfoundland (19+)
Sunday, July 21st, 2024 @ Pavlov’s Electric Verandah – St. John’s, Newfoundland (All Ages)
St. John’s blackened / experimental hardcore outfit The Order of the Precious Blood has revealed the posters and full lineup announcements for the remaining three gigs of their upcoming Maritime tour at the end of April.
On April 26th the band will be in Miramichi, New Brunswick performing at The Shred Shed alongside Moncton death metal / grindcore outfit Ibex and Miramichi local hardcore punks Ten Dollar Meat Bags.
On April 27th the band will be in Moncton, New Brunswick at Xeroz Arcade Bar and will be joined once again by Ibex as well as stoner punks Yhorm from Sussex, New Brunswick.
On April 28th the band will be in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia at The Bitten Moon Pub alongside Breakneck, Great Value, and Nova Scotia powerviolence / hardcore outfit Fear and Filth.
Halifax metalcore / hardcore outfit Pale Ache are hitting the road this fall for several shows spanning the Maritimes between September and November. Among these dates are several shows in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Newfoundland dates are as follows:
Friday, October 6th in Corner Brook @ The Backlot (All Ages) w/ Dirt Stache, Paranoid
Friday, October 6th in Corner Brook @ Retro Arcade w/ Dirt Stache, October Wasp
Saturday, October 7th in St. John’s @ The Rockhouse w/ Smoke Signals, Knarl
Sunday, October 8th in St. John’s @ Erin’s Pub (All Ages) w/ Knarl, Chokeslam, Carnage
Joining the band for these Newfoundland dates is local metalcore stalwarts The Order of the Precious Blood, who just returned from their own Maritimes tour in August, during which they played multiple shows with Pale Ache.
St. John’s metalcore / hardcore group Precious Blood are hitting the road this August for several dates across the Maritimes in support of their recently released debut EP I No Longer Wish for Salvation. The band will be traveling across Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia for a series of shows, some of which will be with P.E.I. hardcore punk band Baited, and some of which will be with New Brunswick sludge / grind outfit Anthesis.
The dates are as follows:
August 13th – St. John’s, NL @ Gower Street United Church (All Ages)
August 18th – Charlottetown, PEI @ Stanley’s Pub w/ Baited
August 19th – Saint John, NB @ The Panic Room w/ Baited
August 20th – Bathurst, NB @ Southside Lounge
August 23rd – Fredericton, NB @ Monarch Drop-In w/ Anthesis (All Ages)
Nova Scotia metal fest Merciless Metal Festival will be taking place on August 25th and 26th, 2023 this year in the city of Stanley and some familiar faces from Newfoundland and Labrador will be hopping on the bill. Alongside Quebec grinders Exotoxic and Chicago black metallers Withering Soul, St. John’s experimental hardcore band Precious Blood and St. John’s blackened death violators Winterhearth will be taking the stage in the Maritimes.
Tickets for the event are available now at this link: here!
Deadgaard / Orchid’s Curse – Graveyard of the Gulf June 7th, 2018
Melodic Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal
Independently Released
St. John’s, Newfoundland / Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Throughout human history, we have existed and persisted through extraordinary strife
and conditions that should have been the end of our story, time and time again. We have continued on despite all of this, and the arts have survived along with us. COVID-19 is another chapter in this continuing story, keeping a lot of us metalheads from gathering, moshing, and enjoying a big part of what makes our community so tight knit. While being isolated at home is for the overall safety of everyone, a positive that can be taken away from it is that it allows us to have the time to catch up on and absorb the absurd amount of music at our disposal. Especially, from all of the local talent that Atlantic Canada has to offer your quarantined ear holes. Two melodic death metal masters, Deadgaard and Orchid’s Curse, released a split EP in 2018, which is what I will be pairing and reviewing in this… review. Sit back, and get your online liquor store shopping carts prepped for the beers that will go along with Graveyard of the Gulf.
We start out of the gate with “Endless Hate”, and we get smacked with triplet grooves and
melodic moves that you would expect from a band plucked right out of the heart of Swedish metal scene in the late 1990’s. The opener is progressive and has a definite flow, moving from hammering melodic passages to slow, heavy, chugging moments filled with stops. It reminds me of how Megadeth’s “Holy Wars” has an album’s worth of riffs in the one song. The combination of the massive vibrato of the whaling guitars along with the annunciation and grit of the growls, invoke thoughts of Dethklok’s (Brendon Small specifically) approach to song writing. As the EP progresses, there are also moments of 90’s In Flames in the song “Nightfall”. The latter half of that song in particular has a modern At the Gates feel. Again, the b’ys are wearing their influences on their sleeves (and we have the same sleeves). This is brought to life of the heels of the expert drumming. The use of flighting bass frills that poke through the mix at just
the right times also adds to their raw power. Deadgaard’s final track of the EP is “The Call”, which has the most bounce and groove of all the tracks so far. Poly-rhythms aligned with surgical precision, showing how tight this group truly is. “The Call” also again demonstrates the progressiveness of the band, moving flawlessly in and out of grooves, stops, and solos.
And then the Soilwork half of the… I mean, the Orchid’s Curse half of the EP begins.
While these b’ys are still within the melodic death metal tree, they are flexing different muscles than Newfoundland’s Deadgaard, but still deeply rooted in the Swedish branches of the sub-genre, while also merging a handful of others. Track six for example, “Thoughts & Prayers” manages to meld elements of hardcore punk, black metal, groove, and thrash. Extremely diverse for such a short banger of a tune. The Gojira-like belts in the songs chorus with tremolo picking and blast beats is a massive punch to the guts, without overstaying it’s welcome. Compared to the first half of the EP, Orchid’s Curse have a more rounded and tamed sound. Don’t get me wrong, it’s metal as fuck, but that raw factor isn’t there as much as it is from Deadgaard. The drums are snappier and brighter, the guitars are cleaner… actually everything on this half of the EP is brighter. Brightness suits the style though, where isn’t not as much about straight double kick, but about the dynamics of the progressive changes happening throughout. They flow, but the flow is faster and the mix facilitates that perfectly. For example; “Black Mirror” takes it’s pedal off the gas, and then finds another heavier pedal to slam down on. The use of the dynamics, stops, and melody interwoven again prove to me that Orchid’s Curse are deserving of being one of Canada’s elite metal bands this side of Quebec. The final track of Graveyard of the Gulf, brings everything to a close bringing back an In Flames “Pinball Map” groove that has a wicked and dissonant bridge near the end of the song that snarls my face up every time I hear it. Orchid’s Curse are Canada’s black metal / thrash Soilwork, and I’m very okay with that.
Swedish metal has been a major influence on a lot of bands over the years, and strands
of those melodic tendencies can be found in both of the epic bands on display here. There’s two bands with similar influences, but two sides of the same coin. You have your raw, unadulterated, HM-2 pedal on max powerhouse of Deadgaard combined with the polished, progressive, soil workers in Orchid’s Curse. Both bands flexing their love for the blue and gold, but with their own takes on the genre. Due to this, I do not believe a single beer can do. We have to represent the whole coin here, which is why the two beers I have paired for this EP are Erdinger’s Weissbier and Dunkel beers from Germany. Dunkel for Deadgaard, representing that raw melodic malty darkness that each song provides from them. Weissbier for Orchid’s Curse, the sweetness of the coriander showcasing smoothness and fullness/ brightness of the mix.
We know that both of these bands are deadly, and worth all the attention they can get.
Especially live. One of my dreams once all of this pandemic shit is done with, is that I get the opportunity to see both of these bands again (and with Erdinger beers ready to go). Graveyard of the Gulf is available for digital purchase on Bandcamp, and I encourage anyone who is a fan of any of the bands I’ve referenced in this review to go and buy it. It showcases two bands, filled to the gills with talent and a common love of all things thrashy and melodic.
HeavyNFLD 