St. John’s blackened experimental hardcore outfit The Order of the Precious Blood are gearing up for the release of their next musical outing. We’ve already heard one single from this upcoming release, entitled “Cheaper But Will Do”. Following that first single the band has dropped a second, entitled “Black Hole”, which was released on April 22nd, 2024 along with a music video that premiered on Hardcore Worldwide.
You can listen to “Black Hole” and watch the music video for it through our YouTube embed below.
As usual life has gotten the best of me, and keeping up with these month in review segments has proven to be difficult. Yet, we maintain the structure. Here’s all the cool stuff that happened in September 2023. October and November review segments will follow suit throughout the week.
We also released the 58th episode of the Heavy NFLD Official Podcast in which we recapped all the bands that played at the very first installment of Heavy NFLD Fest. This episode was released on September 30th and features cover art created by Airline Bourbon. You can listen to this episode on Bandcamp and YouTube.
Albums Archived – Dirt Stache – Bitter IV: Smoke Break [Single / Post Hardcore] – Dirt Stache – Indecisive [Single / Post Hardcore] – Dirt Stache – Playing God [Single / Post Hardcore] – Dirt Stache – Salutations [Single / Post Hardcore] – Dirt Stache – Twelve Days of Xmas: As Told by Dirt Stache [Single / Post Hardcore]
St. John’s experimental / blackened hardcore outfit The Order of the Precious Blood have released a few lyric videos for their debut EP, I No Longer Wish for Salvation. These videos were released back in August but they somehow evaded our radar, so I’m posting about them now!
The video for “X You Out” (a personal favourite of mine from this EP), was released on August 8th, 2023 through the band’s YouTube channel.
You can watch the video for “X You Out” through our YouTube embed below.
“The angels they scream in cacophonous noise, bathed in the light of the fire in the endless void.”
The Order of the Precious Blood – I No Longer Wish for Salvation June 16th, 2023 Mathcore / Metalcore / Experimental Hardcore Independently Released St. John’s, Newfoundland
Do you like spastic metalcore like The Dillinger Escape Plan? Do you like the catchy, hooky riffs of the Cancer Bats? Well then chances are you’ve just stumbled across a band that melds both of those styles together in a way seamlessly. The Order of the Precious Blood have emerged from the heavy music underground of St. John’s with one of the most creative guerilla marketing campaigns I’ve seen from there in recent memory, as well as a kickass EP to boot.
Across its six tracks and average runtime of about 15 minutes, I No Longer Wish for Salvation punishes the listener with sick riff after sick riff, mind-melting complexity, and a vocal performance that oozes emotion. The songwriting on here, as mentioned before, combines the raucous and chaotic nature of mathcore with the catchiness of a group akin to Cancer Bats.
There’s a level of bluesiness and melancholy present here, especially on a track like “X You Out”, that is heavily reminiscent of that group, yet its combined with drumming and switches into guitar work that are much more chaotic than anything I’ve ever heard those Winnipegers do. When Precious Blood describes themselves as ‘experimental hardcore’ I totally get it. Less understood is the ‘blackened hardcore’ moniker, as I don’t really pick up any influences from black metal while listening to this.
This band is of course composed of some fine folks who have been around in the St. John’s metal and punk scene for a hot minute. From vocalist Paul Brake, of whom Precious Blood ultimately seems to be the spiritual successor to his ill fated metalcore project WasteCase which was unfortunately put to bed a few years back (though perhaps for the better), to Ben Chapman-Smith (bass) and Cameron Legge (guitar) of Slowpoke, to Barry O’Keefe (guitar) and Adam Hearn (drums) of long-standing metalcore outfit Release the Hounds. These are some heavy hitters here, and thus it’s not shocking that the ultimate result of this meeting of the minds has resulted in what is in this reviewers opinion the best EP to come out of St. John’s so far this year.
Aside from the strength and complexity of the songwriting here, the production is also incredible. Engineered by the increasingly prolific Krisjan Leslie at Lab of Chaos Studios, this thing sounds extremely professional. Precious Blood have come out of the gate swinging with a debut offering that sounds like something you’d hear by an already established group, not an artist that for all intents and purposes is still a local band. Leslie did an incredible job producing this thing, and the band did an excellent job nailing every single part on it.
I’m downright flabbergasted by the quality of this EP. I’ve come back to it time and time again. It’s got a distinct sound, it’s got variety, it’s got great songwriting, and top of the line production. If this is what The Order of the Precious Blood is starting out with then consider me a devout follower of the cult. I can’t wait to hear what these guys produce next. If you haven’t listened to this EP yet, do yourself a favour and get on that.
Final Verdict: 5/5 Flawless
Favourite Tracks: “Bastard! Rejoice!” “X You Out” “Divine Light”
For Fans Of: The Dillinger Escape Plan Cancer Bats
Paranoia are a brand new three-piece thrash metal band from Lark Harbour, Newfoundland, consisting of Adam Gallant, John Park, and Ryder Walters. The group has already played their first show and are playing another one this coming month on October 6th, 2023 at The Backlot in Corner Brook alongside Precious Blood, Dirt Stache, and Halifax’s Pale Ache.
The group released their first demo, self-titled as Paranoia, on September 2nd, 2023 exclusively through YouTube. The demo contains two tracks, “Cathedral of Pain” and “Dulce Et Decorum”.
You can listen to the demo through our YouTube embed below.
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.
Music NL has revealed the nominations for their Loud Artist of the Year Award for the 2023 installment of their annual awards show. Coming in this year is the legendary Newfoundland punk band Da Slyme who released a comprehensive compilation of their career-spanning material. Joining them is The Order of the Precious Blood, whose debut EP was one of the most hyped local releases this year.
Music Celebration Week will happen from this October 18th to 21st.
HeavyNFLD 