Canada’s most innovative Power Metal institution returns with a bold and thrilling concept album, recounting the trials of AI gaining sentience on a dystopian, near-future planet earth.
Vancouver/Victoria, British Columbia, Canada-based Melodic Death/Power Metal powerhouse Unleash The Archers does not shirk from the tough stuff. Their unique blend of heavy music, pop, and prog comes together with brutal force on their brand new album, entitled Phantoma, the striking follow-up to their 2020 opus Abyss. Produced and recorded by Andrew Saunders and JJ Heath at Silverside Sound, mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios, and displaying a futuristic, dystopian artwork by Dusty Peterson, the new beast by vocalist Brittney Slayes, guitarists Grant Truesdell and Andrew Kingsley, bassist Nick Miller, and drummer Scott Buchanan concerns itself with the influx of AI and what the future looks like with it involved in our art and society. Led by the album’s protagonist Phantoma, a Phase 4 / Network Tier 0 unit – model A, the story recounts the trials of AI gaining sentience on a dystopian, near-future planet earth, while musically speaking the album represents a huge leap forward in the band’s towering trajectory.
Just hit play and sounds of nature will instantly blend with the guitars by Grant and Andrew in the opener Human Era, before Britney comes ripping with her deep, powerful vocals in a gentle but impactful Power Metal tune, flowing into the title-track Ph4/NT0mA, where the band puts the pedal to the metal and delivers sheer adrenaline led by the classic beats by Scott, resulting in an amazing song that will drive fans crazy whenever played live. Let’s keep galloping together with the band to the future in Buried in Code, another fast-paced composition where Britney’s striking vocals walk hand in hand with the riffage by the band’s guitar duo, supported by the rumbling bass by Nick, followed by The Collective, starting in an ethereal manner before exploding into more of their ass-kicking Melodic Power Metal, and it will surely inspire some mosh pits during their live performances. And we then face Green & Glass, with its darkly poetic lyrics declaimed by Britney (“All around me, I see / Formations of green and glass shining in the sun / Never before have I seen such a beautiful display of how it was once / Before the earth was changed, they ruined every / Mesmerized, in a dream / Roaming so aimlessly, blinded by it all / Wonders abound in a way reminiscent of a time they can no longer recall”) being boosted by a delicate yet piercing sonority.
Then investing in an 80’s Synth Pop-inspired sound, Unleash The Archers will penetrate deep inside your soul in Gods in Decay, with Nick’s bass sounding massive while the band’s guitar duo embellishes the airwaves with their trademark riffs and solos. After an overdose of lightning Power Metal, the band brings forward the power ballad Give It Up or Give It All, which sounds even more 80’s than the previous song, albeit a bit generic in the end. Ghosts in the Mist, the first single of the album, offers more of their stylish words (“From out of shadows, and without warning / They’ve come to join the war, who’re they fighting for / Like phantoms in the dark, they’re hunting / They silently command who is the unseen hand”) with the keyboards adding a futuristic vibe to the song’s very melodic rhythm; whereas Seeking Vengeance is one more lecture in pure Heavy Metal where the incendiary riffs by Grant and Andrew sound fantastic, not to mention the song’s atmosphere is also very pleasant, melodic and thrilling. Lastly, we’re treated to the epic, cinematic finale Blood Empress, a darker, more melodic tune by the band that concludes the Phantoma storyline on a vibrant note, with Scott kicking some as usual on drums.
Britney and the boys are waiting for you to join them in the dystopian future of Phantoma on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify, and you should definitely purchase a copy of the best Power Metal album of the year so far by clicking HERE or HERE, letting their music flow through your brain like perfect coding. The band is now embarking on a wild, thrilling tour to all four corners of the earth, and if I were you I wouldn’t miss the chance to see them kicking some ass live with their old classic and brand new tunes, as Unleash The Archers are definitely one of the driving forces of the current Canadian metal scene. They’re heading to the future singing about the future while remaining loyal to their roots, and that’s what makes Phantoma so compelling, a timeless album about the past, present and future of mankind that will certainly take the name of the band to even further lands.
Best moments of the album:Ph4/NT0mA, Buried in Code, Gods in Decay and Seeking Vengeance.
Worst moments of the album:Give It Up or Give It All.
Released in 2024 Napalm Records
Track listing 1. Human Era 5:40
2. Ph4/NT0mA 6:30
3. Buried in Code 3:39
4. The Collective 5:53
5. Green & Glass 5:30
6. Gods in Decay 5:02
7. Give It Up or Give It All 7:35
8. Ghosts in the Mist 5:46
9. Seeking Vengeance 5:22
10. Blood Empress 5:10
Band members Brittney Slayes – vocals
Grant Truesdell – guitars, additional vocals
Andrew Kingsley – guitars, harsh growls, additional vocals, synths
Nick Miller – bass
Scott Buchanan – drums
Do you want to know how to easily brave a cold and rainy Monday in Toronto? Striker and Unleash The Archers had the perfect recipe for that last night when they took our beloved city by storm.
Not only last night in Toronto was cold and rainy, but it was also a Monday, the day of the week all of us usually feel like doing absolutely nothing. However, when that same Monday offers us a night of pure Canadian Metal with the amazing bands Lutharö, Striker and Unleash The Archers at the small and very cozy The Velvet Underground, why not facing that shitty weather (I know it could have been a lot worse like what they’re having in Calgary now, but it’s still shitty) to meet some friends, enjoy a few beers and bang our fuckin’ heads to the best metal music you’ll find in the entire country? That, my friends, is the recipe for a packed (and hot) concert on what was supposed to be another boring Monday night, as simple as that.
The first band of the night was Hamilton-based female-fronted squad LUTHARÖ, playing an extremely fun, crisp and pleasant fusion of 80’s Heavy Metal with modern-day Melodic Death Metal the likes of The Agonist and Arch Enemy. Spearheaded by the talented she-wolf Krista Shipperbottom, whose vocal style, hair and looks remind me of The Agonist’s stunning frontwoman Vicky Psarakis, the band delivered a solid performance for the fans at the venue who probably had zero knowledge of the band before the concert. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the names of all songs they played last night, but I do remember the names of my two favorite ones, I of the Axe and their newborn tune Unleash the Beast, and in both cases all band members kicked some serious ass. Having said that, don’t waste your time and go check their music out on YouTube and on BandCamp, and keep an eye on their Facebook page for news and tour dates, because you never know when Krista and her henchmen will mercilessly attack your hometown.
Band members
Krista Shipperbottom – lead vocals
Victor Bucur – lead guitars, backing vocals
John Raposo – guitar
Ruslan Lypovsky – bass
Cory Hofing – drums
After a short break, where fans either went to the washroom, got another beer or checked out the merch from the bands, it was time for my favorite Canadian band of the past decade to show everyone at the venue that Canada is indeed a land of first-class Heavy Metal. When award-winning Edmonto-based act STRIKER hit the stage, we all knew it was going to be a heavy, melodic and utterly entertaining performance, kicking things off with the opening track from their 2016 album Stand in the Fire, the electrifying Phoenix Lights, followed by two of my favorite tracks from their latest albums, Born to Lose, from their 2017 self-titled masterpiece Striker, and Heart of Lies, from their brand new opus Play To Win (to be officially released later this month). Needless to say, after such action-packed start, the game was already won by Striker.
And the quintet comprised of frontman Dan Cleary (what a voice, ladies and gentlemen!), guitarists Tim Brown and Chris Segger, bassist William Wallace and drummer Adam Brown kept blasting their fusion of old school Heavy Metal and Hard rock with contemporary Power Metal without giving a single second for us to breathe, impressing us all with their level of energy, professionalism and passion for what they do, with incendiary songs like Former Glory and Pass Me By (both from their 2017 self-titled album), and especially the high-octane Full Speed or No Speed (from their 2010 album Eyes in the Night) and the metal hymn Fight for Your Life (from their 2012 album Armed to the Teeth), representing to perfection what the music by Striker is all about. At a given moment of the show, when Dan was introducing us to the next song to be played (I don’t remember which one he was talking about, but it was of course amazing), he asked the crowd if there were any fans in the house of the music by metal giants like Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Anvil, complementing his joke by saying they were not going to play any of that, but “some old school Striker shit”. Well, who said we were expecting them to play any cover songs? When the band in question is a fantastic one like Striker, we want to listen to their own songs, and I can’t wait to do that again when they return to Toronto in a not-so-distant future.
Setlist Phoenix Lights
Born to Lose
Heart of Lies
Lethal Force
Crossroads
Former Glory
Too Late
Out for Blood
Pass Me By
Locked In
Full Speed or No Speed
The White Knight
Fight for Your Life
Band members Dan Cleary – lead vocals
Tim Brown – lead and rhythm guitar
Chris Segger – lead and rhythm guitar
William Wallace – bass
Adam Brown – drums
I was so entertained and electrified by the concert by Striker that I completely lost track of time, not knowing exactly what time their concert ended and what time the main attraction of the night, the unstoppable Vancouver-based metal warriors known as UNLEASH THE ARCHERS, hit the stage at The Velvet Underground. And keep in mind it was a Monday night, which means most people would be checking their watches all the time counting every minute to go home. Just like Striker delivered a flawless performance, the band led by the warrior princess Brittney Slayes was absolutely on fire on stage from start to finish, inspiring the fans to ignite some mosh pits (all pretty good except for a silly moron with a moustache that was either too drunk, too high or way too stupid to respect everyone else, to the point Brittney had to call his attention to stop acting like a jerk), to do some crowd surfing, to raise our fists in the air and to sing along every single song with them.
Still promoting their 2017 opus Apex, the quintet formed by the skillful, humble and sympathetic Brittney Slayes on vocals (sending hearts with her hands to the fans during the entire show), Grant Truesdell on the guitar, Andrew Kingsley on the guitar and harsh growls, newcomer Nick Miller on bass and Scott Buchanan on drums returned to the city after three long years, proving how hard it is to travel and tour inside Canada, but that excruciating wait was definitely worth it. Firing the most awesome songs from Apex such as Awakening, The Matriarchand Cleanse the Bloodlines, mixed with battle hymns from their previous albums like Time Stands Still, Tonight We Rideand my favorite of all, Test Your Metal, from their 2015 opus Time Stands Still, Unleash The Archers fully captivated our senses during their whole concert, also showing their awe for the amount of fans that gathered at the venue on a rainy Monday night (and yes, I have to repeat that again) to celebrate metal with them (and to sing A-Ha’s Take On Me which was coming out of the speakers after all was said and done).
Today is Tuesday, most of us might have been really tired the entire day and probably bored at work (as Brittney herself said, fuck work!), but happy to have witnessed a true feast of the best Heavy Metal made in Canada you can think of. As already mentioned, let’s hope none of the bands take too long to return to the city, and that they play at a bigger venue so that a lot more metal maniacs from Toronto and from other parts of the province are able to enjoy the lesson in heavy music given by such distinct bands, even if they play on a snowy Monday night in the middle of the winter, with chilling temperatures and bitterly cold winds. Do you think you have what it takes to ride with Striker and Unleash The Archers under such adverse conditions? If you love metal music as much as I do, I’m sure you’ll be there with us.
Setlist Intro
Awakening
The Matriarch
Cleanse the Bloodlines
Test Your Metal
Dreamcrusher
Time Stands Still
General of the Dark Army
Tonight We Ride
Encore: Apex
Band members Brittney Slayes – vocals
Grant Truesdell – guitar
Andrew Kingsley – guitar, harsh growls
Nick Miller – bass
Scott Buchanan – drums
In order to properly celebrate nothing more, nothing less than FIVE years of The Headbanging Moose, there’s nothing better than paying a humble tribute to a true Warrior of the North as our metal chick of this month of October, a woman that perfectly represents all the passion, strength and perseverance from the people that make our beloved Canada one of the best places to live in the world. Born in 1985 in Vancouver, one of the most beautiful cities not only in the province of British Columbia but in the entire country, here comes the dauntless vocalist Brittney Slayes, whose real name is Brittney Hayes, frontwoman and founding member of Canadian Heavy Metal band Unleash The Archers, always ready to show you what metal music from the Great White North is all about.
The talented Brittney, who discovered her voice when she was five years old and began singing in her local community choir at the age of eight, traveled with several choirs during her school years, taking part in many musical theater productions and working with some of the best vocal coaches in Western Canada. In university, she attended the UVic School Of Music, but choosing instead to attain her undergraduate degree in History. Furthermore, during her time at the University of Victoria, she traveled the world as a member of the Juno Award-winning ensemble the Uvic Chamber Singers. As a UVic alumna and the lead singer of Victoria-born Unleash the Archers, Brittney gave a keynote talk on July 10, 2018 for UVic’s upcoming conference Boundaries and Ties: The Place of Metal Music in Communities, with her talk, entitled “View from the ‘Apex’: A Metal Musician’s Views on Metal and Community”, drawing on her firsthand experience with local, national, and international metal communities. And do you want to know what our metal warrior thinks about us, metalheads? “People are so open-minded. They’re not going to cast judgement and never give you a chance. From what I’ve seen, metalheads are very kind and caring and open-hearted. I just think that the metal community is uplifting, really,” said our wise vocalist.
Apart from her time singing with different choirs, our Canadian warrior had never been involved in any other bands or music projects before founding Unleash The Archers back in 2007 with her boyfriend and drummer Scott Buchanan, and according to Brittney herself starting the band was the best thing she could have ever done (and we all agree with that, of course), allowing her to use her background in classical music and her four octave range to provide a more dynamic approach to the band’s incendiary fusion of traditional Heavy Metal with Power and Melodic Metal. In late 2008, the band recorded a self-titled four-song demo, which featured two songs (Black Goat of the Woods and Destroyer) they would end up re-recording for their first studio album. In one of her interviews, Brittney explained a little more about the origins of the band, saying it all began when Scott, former guitarist Brayden Dyczkowski (who left the band in 2014) and herself were in university, when Scott and Brayden were playing in a Death Metal band together, and as the drummer’s girlfriend Brittney simply loved to go to their shows and rock out. When the band broke up, she called Brayden and asked him if he wanted to start a band with herself as the vocalist and Scott on drums, and from that day on Unleash The Archers became a reality, leading the band to grow and become a reference in Canadian metal music, winning the Best Metal Band and Best Vocalist awards during the 2015 Vancouver Whammy Awards, as well as being voted number 6 in Exclaim Magazine’s Readers Choice Awards for Best Metal Albums of 2009.
Apart from the aforementioned self-titled debut demo, Unleash The Archers have already released four full-length albums and one EP, those being their 2009 debut album Behold the Devastation (when she was still known as as B. Hayes), the 2011 album Demons of the AstroWaste, the 2012 EP Defy the Skies, the 2015 album Time Stands Still, and last year’s highly acclaimed opus Apex. Currently comprised of our Canadian Valkyrie of metal Brittney on vocals, Grant Truesdell and Andrew Kingsley on the guitars and harsh growls, and Scott Buchanan on drums, as well as Nick Miller taking care of the bass duties during their live performances, Unleash The Archers have a great selection of official videos, lyric videos and unofficial live footage for us to enjoy for hours on YouTube. For instance, you can join Unleash The Archers in their quest for metal with the songs Tonight We Ride, Ten Thousand Against One, Apex, General Of The Dark Army, Time Stands Still, Cleanse The Bloodlines, Awakening, The Matriarch and Dawn Of Ages. And if live concerts and performances are your cup of tea, you can enjoy Brittney and the guys kicking ass with the songs Dreamcrusher and Time Stands Still live in Montreal in 2015; General Of The Dark Army live at the Pont Rouge in Monthey, Switzerland in 2016; an acoustic version of The Outlander recorded live at CHSR in New Brunswick with Matt Nightingale during the 2011 “Tour Through The AstroWaste”; and their full set during their 2015 appearance at ProgPower USA in 2015. When asked about her favorite Unleash The Archers songs, those she believes a newcomer to their metal world should definitely take a listen at, Brittney said she has always loved Battle In The Shadow (Of The Mountain), from their second album Demons of the AstroWaste, saying she has a strong emotional connection to that song, also including on the list Four In Hand, from their debut album Behold the Devastation, as it’s about sin becoming personified as a cloaked figure riding around in a chariot pulled by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Interesting, isn’t it?
Brittney has also been featured in several other bands and projects as a guest musician, each one of them being very peculiar and showcasing all the talent and range of our metal warrior. For instance, she provided additional vocals to the song Leather Lord, featured on the 2013 EP Live at Mushroom: Vol. I, by Canadian Power/Heavy Metal band 3 Inches of Blood; guest vocals on the song Queen of the Galaxy, from the 2014 EP Queen of the Galaxy (and also featured on the 2018 album The Extraterrestrial Compendium), by American Power/Thrash Metal band Dire Peril (and you can also check a cool live version of it in 2016 at the Blue Lamp HERE); vocals on the song Lunar Sunrise, from the 2014 album The Age of Ether, by American Power/Progressive Metal band Disforia; vocals for the full 2018 album Terror of the Cybernetic Space Monster, by American Power Metal band Helion Prime, like in the song Spectrum; vocals for the excellent song Burn It Down (With Fire), from the 2018 album Shadows from the Past, by American Heavy Metal band Lords of the Trident; and last but not least, she was also a guest on the song Siren’s Song, from the 2016 album Lawful Evil, by The Dread Crew of Oddwood (an acoustic pirate band from San Diego, California).
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Regarding her career and life on the road, Brittney said that living life through music is every musician’s dream, living and breathing music every second of every day while on tour, and she wants to keep playing with Unleash The Archers everywhere, every corner of the globe, every continent and every type of venue, from Japan to Scotland, from Brazil to Antarctica (if they can find metalheads there, of course). When asked about the main difference between festivals and regular shows, she said that in the end they’re not that different, only that there are a lot more bands hanging out backstage waiting for their turn and the atmosphere seems quite a bit more laid back. Having already played with Unleash The Archers all over the world, from North America to China and Japan, Brittney has been collecting a lot of good memories and moments from each and every concert, such as their performance at Hell & Heaven Fest in Mexico City in 2014, where they played a side stage but were able to see the concerts by some of their favorite bands like Angra and KISS. Furthermore, all that passion for heavy music and her family had a very positive impact on her performance on stage. For instance, her brother used to play in a punk band and her father worked as a musician for a long time in the 60’s and 70’s. She used to play with his music equipment when she was a little kid, and there are many pictures of Brittney rocking out with an old SM57 in her hand standing on a table or any other stage-like apparatus. Also, as aforementioned, she was always involved in musical theater, drama, choir or any other sort of performing art, making her feel very comfortable when facing the crowd, it doesn’t matter if at a small venue or at a big renowned festival.
As it happens with any up-and-coming artist in metal music, Brittney has been asked several times through the years about who her biggest idols and influences are in music and in life in general, and her answers couldn’t be more classic, more inspiring and, of course, more metal. She said in one of her interviews that as a vocalist she has always been highly influenced by the one and only Bruce Dickinson, the metal god Rob Halford, Geoff Tate, Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray), Björn “Speed” Strid (Soilwork), Daniel Heiman (Lost Horizon), and Jonas Heidgert (Dragonland), among many others, with bands such as Iron Maiden, As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Helloween and Septicflesh playing an important role in the development of her taste for music and her singing style. Furthermore, Brittney mentioned that the unparalleled Countdown To Extinction, released by Megadeth in 1992, was the first metal record she’s ever heard in her life, and that was basically the moment that would define her musical preferences for the rest of her life, but she also complemented her thought by saying Best Of The Beast, Iron Maiden’s first “best of” album, released in 1996, was the album that inspired her to use her vocal talents as a singer in a metal band. In addition, when questioned which bands she would choose if she could create her own festival, Brittney simply listed Iron Maiden, Lost Horizon, Iced Earth, Sabaton and Dragonland, all beyond formidable acts, also saying that she would love to tour with Iced Earth, one of her favorite bands of all time, as their music speaks to her on a whole other level.
And last but not least, When Brittney was asked how it feels to be in a Power Metal band from a country like Canada where the Power Metal scene is not as developed as in other places like Scandinavia and Japan, she admitted it’s a bit tough for bands that play metal the likes of Unleash The Archers due to the music culture in Canada being a lot more inclined to Death Metal and other more extreme styles, with Canadian metalheads growing up with bands like Kataklysm and Voivod, even saying a Power Metal band can feel very “lonely” in the country. However, she also mentioned that even in that not-so-inspiring scenario there are still lots of traditional Power Metal acts all over the country, proving that as long as Power Metal bands keep playing music from their hearts and stay united and strong, the genre has all it takes to grow in popularity among Canadian fans. And there’s no one better than the warrior princess Brittney to lead that metal army and “unleash the archers” upon all of us.
“There’s always going to be those faces in the crowd that you have known since the beginning, and that you know will always be there for you; they were fans, and they’ve become friends. I think that there’s very much this foundation of fans that keep you standing. That will never change. The only thing that happens is that it just grows.” – Brittney Slayes
Vancouver/Victoria, British Columbia, Canada-based Melodic Death/Power Metal powerhouse Unleash The Archers does not shirk from the tough stuff. Their unique blend of heavy music, pop, and prog comes together with brutal force on their brand new album, entitled Phantoma, the striking follow-up to their 2020 opus Abyss. Produced and recorded by Andrew Saunders and JJ Heath at Silverside Sound, mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios, and displaying a futuristic, dystopian artwork by Dusty Peterson, the new beast by vocalist Brittney Slayes, guitarists Grant Truesdell and Andrew Kingsley, bassist Nick Miller, and drummer Scott Buchanan concerns itself with the influx of AI and what the future looks like with it involved in our art and society. Led by the album’s protagonist Phantoma, a Phase 4 / Network Tier 0 unit – model A, the story recounts the trials of AI gaining sentience on a dystopian, near-future planet earth, while musically speaking the album represents a huge leap forward in the band’s towering trajectory.
Britney and the boys are waiting for you to join them in the dystopian future of Phantoma on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify, and you should definitely purchase a copy of the best Power Metal album of the year so far by clicking HERE or HERE, letting their music flow through your brain like perfect coding. The band is now embarking on a wild, thrilling tour to all four corners of the earth, and if I were you I wouldn’t miss the chance to see them kicking some ass live with their old classic and brand new tunes, as Unleash The Archers are definitely one of the driving forces of the current Canadian metal scene. They’re heading to the future singing about the future while remaining loyal to their roots, and that’s what makes Phantoma so compelling, a timeless album about the past, present and future of mankind that will certainly take the name of the band to even further lands.
THE HEADBANGING MOOSE 