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Concert Review – Archspire (The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON, 06/08/2024)

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A night of horror, brutality, circle pits, walls of death, fun games like Twister and the “shoey”, and a lot more in Toronto, courtesy of the fastest and most technical brigade in the history of Canada.

OPENING ACTS: Alluvial, Carcosa and Aborted

It was a beyond wild and fun night at The Phoenix Concert Theatre this Saturday when ALLUVIAL, CARCOSA, ABORTED and ARCHSPIRE took the city of Toronto by storm with their fulminating Everything’s F#*!@d Tour 2024, another extremely successful event brought to the city by the one and only Noel Peters of Inertia Entertainment, and I say wild and fun because that’s exactly what the four bands offered to us all, blasting our heads with their sick, infernal music, while at the same time demanding nonstop action inside the circle pit. Keith Ibbitson of Metal Paparazzi and I were patiently awaiting for this concert as we love the music of all four bands, and I must say I couldn’t be happier with everything we got during the event’s four hours of brutal, thrilling and captivating heavy music. Not even the (brutally) bad traffic to get to Toronto made me less excited about the show, and if you know how horrible traffic has been to get to and back from the city lately, especially when there’s rain involved, you know the show was fantastic to the point you don’t even remember the problems to get there, right?

The first band to hit the stage precisely at 7:30pm was Atlanta, Georgia’s Deathcore/Djent outfit ALLUVIAL, who have recently released a great new EP titled Death Is but a Door, the follow-up to their 2021 album Sarcoma. Let’s say their setlist was a mix of those two albums, and although I have no idea of the names of all songs I’m pretty sure they played Bog Dweller and Fogbelt, two songs perfect to ignite some intense mosh pits with whoever was already at the floor section (instead of stuck in a huge line at the way too hot merch area). Their frontman Kevin Muller was a beast during their whole set, and after that fans had a chance to meet him and the other guys at their merch table, which was a very nice touch by the band to create a stronger connection with their fanbase. If you want to know more about Alluvial, go check their BandCamp and Spotify for all of their music, and don’t miss the chance to see them live as they’re insane onstage.

Band members
Kevin Muller – vocals
Wes Hauch – guitars
Tim Walker – bass
Zach Dean – drums

As I wanted so bad an Archspire “Stay Tech” pin plus a patch, I was stupid enough to face the sauna-like merch line right after Alluvial and had to miss the beginning of the concert by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Deathcore/Djent act CARCOSA, but that was OK as I still had plenty to enjoy from their infernal setlist as all bands had a lot of playing time, including the openers. Still promoting their 2021 album Anthology, the band formed of Johnny Ciardullo, Andrew Baena, Cooper Lagace, Laptop and Travis Regnier crushed the souls of everyone at the already packed venue with their heavy-as-hell music and intense energy onstage, and you know how good a band is when a renowned musician like Aborted’s Sven De Caluwé sports a Carcosa shirt during their set. Hence, don’t forget to buy and stream Carcosa’s music on BandCamp and on Spotify, because those Canadian dudes are freakin’ awesome.

Band members
Johnny Ciardullo – vocals
Andrew Baena – guitar
Cooper Lagace – guitar
Laptop – bass
Travis Regnier – drums

After another short and sweet break, Belgium’s own Death Metal/Grindcore masters ABORTED opened up their Vault of Horrors and kicked off one of the most pulverizing, demented and frantic concerts of the past few years in Toronto. It was absolute chaos and madness thanks to guitarist Ian Jekelis, bassist Stefano Franceschini, drummer Ken Bedene, and of course, one of the most demented frontmen of all time, the unparalleled beast Sven De Caluwé. That man was on fire throughout their entire set, hitting his head with his hands, jumping up and down nonstop, making crazy faces, pretending to be firing a machine gun when Ken was blasting his drums manically, and so on, which translated into an overdose of violence, gore and mosh pits to the delight of all fans of the band in the city.

The opener Retrogore was beyond pulverizing to say the least, followed by an avalanche of old school Aborted and new songs from their bestial 2024 album Vault of Horrors (available on BandCamp and on Spotify, by the way), including the fantastic Dreadbringer, Brotherhood of Sleep, and Death Cult. By the way, I told my friend who’s not very familiar with Aborted that someone was going to die during Death Cult so heavy and insane it is, and that almost happened as one guy stayed on the ground for a while to the point several fans inside the pit asked the band to stop playing to check if he was OK. The guy was apparently fine, but I have no idea if he had any sort of concussion that would manifest during the next few days. As I said, Death Cult almost resulted in a real death inside the pit. There was still time for more brutal action with the demolishing tunes Insect Politics, Threading on Vermillion Deception and The Saw and the Carnage Done, leaving everyone in awe and more than ready for more Aborted and their world renowned walls of death in Toronto in the near future.

Setlist
Retrogore
Bathos
Dreadbringer
Condemned to Rot
Brotherhood of Sleep
Death Cult
Insect Politics
Threading on Vermillion Deception
The Saw and the Carnage Done

Band members
Sven De Caluwé – vocals
Ian Jekelis – guitar
Stefano Franceschini – bass
Ken Bedene – drums

ARCHSPIRE

After seeing Vancouver, British Columbia’s own Extreme Technical Death Metal brigade ARCHSPIRE kicking some serious ass live in Sydney, Australia last year, I was beyond eager to witness what they could do in Toronto, and this Saturday night they proved why they’re one of the must-see names of the extreme music scene worldwide with their ruthless aggression, undisputed technique, and a really nice sense of humor. Just to give you an example of all that together, when a concert starts with a narration saying things like “after the invention of the horse” you know it’s going to be brutal and fun. Just the idea of someone “inventing” the horse is already a good joke to kick things off.

And as soon as the unstoppable Oliver Rae Aleron on vocals, Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli on the guitars, Jared Smith on bass and Spencer Prewett on drums began their beyond fast, pulverizing and insane concert, it was total madness inside the pit until the very last second. Their last record to date might still be the 2021 opus Bleed the Future, but honestly all songs from that album and from Relentless Mutation (which are the only two albums they currently play in their concerts, “ignoring” for some unknown reason the also great The Lucid Collective, from 2014, and All Shall Align, from 2011) sounded killer live, and you can enjoy both in full on BandCamp and on Spotify, by the way. They kicked off the show with the inhumane Bleed the Future to give all concert goers an idea of what their Extreme Technical Death Metal means, and continued their feast of technical insanity with already classic songs like Acrid Canon, Remote Tumour Seeker and Golden Mouth of Ruin, all played to perfection and at the speed of light (or maybe even faster than that).

An Archspire concert is not complete without some good jokes, and the band didn’t’ disappoint at all with a selection of nonsense that added a very nice touch to their already flawless concert. We got the Twister game inside the pit which ended with an infernal wall of death, a sweet tradition already in their concerts, and the also sick “shoey”, which is something Oliver said they learned in Australia. If you don’t know what that is, it’s simply drinking beer from your own shoe as fast as you can, with the winner getting a custom shirt made by the band. The Toronto one had something written about the Maple Leafs that I honestly didn’t get, but it was really cool and the guy who won it put it on right away, as he was really excited of being onstage with the band. And what to say about their introduction to all bands from this tour, saying Aborted only accepted their invitation to play with them (because they needed a big band to seel tickets, as they couldn’t do it by themselves) after they sucked their dicks? This one might sound childish for some people, but it was a good one as well.

Perhaps the most absurd and hilarious moment of the show was when Oliver explained why they had two Christmas trees onstage. Yes, that was their stage stuff, really weird, right? It all made sense when Oliver said that they got some “lab results” and their guitarist Tobi was “not gonna make it to next Christmas”, so they decided to celebrate Christmas with him during this tour. Yes, Christmas IN THE MIDDLE OF JUNE, and they even brough to stage what they called “Summer Santa” to throw picks to the crowd and give Tobi a dildo to complete his guitar, because according to Oliver that was the same guitar he got from his mom when he was a kid living with his poor Italian family, all in the same room. That was mental, but what was even more mental was the ending of the show with the infuriated, fast-as-a-shark song Involuntary Doppelgänger, and my favorite of all, Drone Corpse Aviator. I have no idea how Oliver can sing so fast like that, nor how Spencer can sound like a stone crusher without making too much effort behind his drums, nor how the other guys manage to play their guitars and bass at an insane speed without making any errors, but I know for sure that Archspire are by far one of the coolest bands of the entire Canadian scene, and I can’t wait to see them live again in the near future. And until then, we must all… STAY TECH!

Setlist
Bleed the Future
Abandon the Linear
Reverie on the Onyx
Acrid Canon
Remote Tumour Seeker
Golden Mouth of Ruin
Drain of Incarnation
Involuntary Doppelgänger
Drone Corpse Aviator

Band members
Oliver Rae Aleron – vocals
Dean Lamb – guitars
Tobi Morelli – guitars
Jared Smith – bass
Spencer Prewett – drums

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Metal Chick of the Month – Bruna Wanderley

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Beauty in desolation, or else…

Born and raised in the city of Brasília, inaugurated as Brazil’s capital in 1960, but currently residing in the charming city of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, in Canada, our metal lady of the month of April is here on The Headbanging Moose to embellish the airwaves with her distinguished music, bringing us the joy of the spring that has just started while still sounding as metal as she can be. If you’re a fan of progressiveness, groove and experimentations in Rock N’ Roll and Heavy Metal, get ready to be stunned by the multi-talented Bruna Wanderley, a songwriter, vocalist and cellist who’s taking the world of heavy music by storm with her brand new project, entitled Kapitur. You’ll certainly fall in love for the thunderous sound of her cello, placing her among the most interesting new names of the independent scene in Canada. Having said that, are you ready to rock together with Bruna and her incendiary cello?

Drawing from a young life in Brazil, living in an environment of violence, fear and contrasting beauty, artist and multi-instrumentalist Bruna Wanderley grew up in a conservative Evangelical milieu, which has led her to tease her family’s most beloved boundaries and, since her solo arrival to infamously libertine Montreal in 2015, she has actively performed and recorded as a cellist in a wide array of contexts. For instance, until the beginning of 2019 she was part of an Art Punk Rock band from Montreal named Spectroom, before the band called it quits in February that year. Bruna played cello with Spectroom together with vocalist and bassist Angelo Carocci, guitarists Branco De Souza and Raya Traboulsi, and drummers Matisse Chan and Emixam Maxime Gaboriault, having recorded with them the 2018 five-song EP Kissing Garbage, available for a full listen on Spotify. Although not being metal at all, the music by Spectroom can indeed provide you with very nice and relaxing moments while listening to it, and of course you can enjoy each note played by Bruna on her stylish cello.

Apart from her time with Spectroom, Bruna can be seen playing live with Canadian Death Metal band Infección as their bassist (not cellist) together with vocalist and guitarist Diego, drummer Andrés, and also guest guitarist Jean Bélanger, since 2021. She might not have recorded anything yet with the band, but if you want to have a taste of their fury and aggressiveness you can enjoy their debut demo on their BandCamp page. Furthermore, Bruna was also a guest vocalist for Canadian Progressive Death Metal band Messora on their 2019 album The Door, recording additional vocals for the songs The Veil and The Tide. And if you want to see Bruna Wanderley “multiplied” by four, you can enjoy Bruna’s cover video of Making a Murderer’s full theme by composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who’s largely known for his original score for The Last of Us, with all effects on the electric cello achieved with Line 6’s Helix LT.

Before we talk about Bruna’s brand new endeavor Kapitur, it’s important to mention that, besides her career in the Arts and Culture industry working mainly as a cello instructor and performer in Montreal, where she currently resides as already mentioned, she also studied Sociology and Anthropology at UnB – Universidade de Brasília in Brazil from 2010 to 2015, Music at Escola de Música de Brasília from 2007 to 2013, and Music at Vanier College in Canada from 2016 to 2018, and has not only obtained several certifications in web programming and development such as Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3, Regex and jQuery, but she also has experience working to some companies in Montreal in that segment, as well as volunteering experience as a barista and also running art workshops for Coop Le Milieu, also in Montreal.

However, as this is an underground metal webzine let’s focus on what really matters, and that’s the fusion of extreme music with the whimsical, thunderous sound of her cello in her new project, entitled Kapitur, formed in 2020. Under the up-and-coming Montreal, Canada-based Kapitur she composes, sings, performs guttural vocals and plays the cello, while Sam Neumann’s unyielding drumming presents a strong contrast with the her unbound vocal and cello lines, also supported by guitarist Zach Dean and bassist Bruno Coe. The music is filled with soundscapes and hammering repetitions with bleak cacophony followed by heavenly melodies, being therefore highly recommended for fans of the music by Opeth, modern Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Saltland, and Tina Guo, among others. Bruna and her Kapitur will release an EP of original songs in the upcoming months, and while we wait for such distinguished experiment let’s stay in touch with the band on Facebook, on Instagram, on BandCamp, and on Spotify, where by the way you can find her first-ever releases, those being the demo song Decay, and the cover version for Sepultura’s all-time classic Roots Bloody Roots (or click HERE for all locations where you can buy or stream the song).

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“Twenty-six years ago, Roots Bloody Roots pleaded for the preservation of Brazilian cultural diversity. Today, Kapitur’s distinctive revisit of the song revolves around the historical alienation of common people regarded as different, the Bloody Roots of us outsiders. It grips on the struggle of finding oneself estranged from one’s original and adoptive cultures, to the ongoing murder and colonization suffered by many people in a land that was theirs for centuries; from immigrant, racial, religious intolerance to the global, modern alien anxiety suffered by African descendants and their relationship to an inaccessible homeland. Roots Bloody Roots is about you, or someone you know and care for,” commented Bruna about her newborn beast. Recorded and mixed by Jonathan Lefrançois Leduc, Kapitur’s rendition for such undisputed metal classic will surely put a huge smile on the faces of Max and Igor Cavalera, Andreas Kisser and Paulo Jr., not just because of its rawness and aggressiveness, but also because Bruna is proudly carrying the flag of Brazilian metal to the four corners of the earth with her talent and hard work.

There are a few fun facts about Kapitur and the recording of Roots Bloody Roots that are definitely worth sharing with everyone reading this tribute to Bruna. First of all, when Kapitur’s music video for the song was still unpublished, someone Bruna knows sent a private link to it to Sepultura, and they loved it so much that Derrick Green himself contacted her to say it’s very creative, that it sounds incredible and that he looked forward to meeting her in person, which happened during their concert in Montreal on March 17 this year. In addition, Bruna mentioned that shooting the music video for the song was one of the most demanding and fun experiences the band has had so far. “It was a very cold Fall day, we set up a tent on the sandpits and unexpectedly spent 13 hours outdoors on the first day. As soon as we got there, one of the cars got stuck in the mud, and only after greatly shoving, did a guy on a tractor appear to tow the car in a few seconds. The photographer was buried naked in the sand at 5°C – he did say he liked it. For the entire time, I was cold from shooting in a thin dress and being barefoot on the sand. At night, we had to beware of the coyote sounds coming our way – it was so reassuring to have combustible material available, just in case. Finally, all the team left the site at 3 a.m., with our gear frosted by the dew and fake blood stains on our clothes and shoes. That whole night felt really special though. Will do it again next year, once we get rid of all the sand stuck in our stuff,” said our skillful cellist.

In summary, the multi-talented Bruna Wanderley can sing, play cello and bass, compose, write lyrics, act, and so on, which proves how focused and talented she is and, at the same time, showcases all her passion for music in general. I won’t be surprised if in a not-so-distant future we start seeing partnerships between Bruna and both underground and mainstream rock and metal bands, and I would love to see what she could do together with renowned bands the likes of Cradle of Filth, Triptykon and Tristania, adding her own touch of darkness, doom and heaviness to their already venomous music. Having said all that, let’s raise our horns to the “Cello Metal” blasted by Bruna Wanderley, resting assured she’ll always remain loyal to heavy music and to her roots, bloody roots.

Bruna Wanderley’s Official Facebook page
Kapitur’s Official Facebook page
Kapitur’s Official Instagram
Kapitur’s Official YouTube channel
Kapitur’s Official BandCamp page

“It’s uncommon to hear a classical instrument like the cello in heavy music that isn’t Melodic or Symphonic Metal. My intent is to explore creative ways of using my instrument in heavier contexts.” – Bruna Wanderley