Made In Spain And Beyond: Thrash Metal's Men Of La Mancha Bring Their Brand Of No Bull Bangers Up North To The Dominion Pub

- advertisement -

All Photos By Andrew Depedro

METAL!
MAYHEM!
My God is the Dominion Pub a lot more smaller from the inside than I remember it.

Still, for the four scruffy-looking musicians visiting Ottawa from the Iberian peninsula looking their most thrashiest on the first night of the Canadian leg of their North American tour, the aforementioned venue, located in the heart of the ByWard Market, was the ideal location for them to bring the heavy. And for the two local bands also on the bill, this show was also ideal for them in garnering further exposure and breaking in more stage time now that live music is at a near-full resurgence again.

Such as was the case with openers INFRARED whose own soundcheck managed to rile up a moshpit before their actual show began, with someone even stagediving at one point. Granted, the stage itself was at literal floor level anyway so it wouldn't have taken much of a massive pivot to launch oneself off from it, but it still helped boost the momentum amongst the near sell-out crowd nonetheless. Commencing with the lengthy instrumental "Inframental", the quartet, comprised of frontman/guitarist Armin Kamal, guitarist Kirk Gidley, bassist Mike Forbes and drummer Alain Groulx effortlessly breeze their way through a 7-song set which featured material from both their studio albums - 2018's Saviours and 2021's From The Black Swamp-and generated a great reception from fans and their local musician community alike. Indeed, their most recent numbers such as "Lockdown", the anthemic "No Masters, No Gods" and "Thoughts Caught (In Between)" reflect well upon the band's growth, their 5-6 minute long thrash opuses showcasing their expanding lyrical depth. It's probably why whenever they save their closing number "All In Favor" to the end, they stretch the song out to at least a good 8-9 minutes - mostly in anticipation to see how many people actually respond with saying "I!" in accordance with the lyrics - and it always works. And now with two studio albums into their off-on career, INFRARED can hopefully make the switch into the illumination of modern thrash they've been destined to follow.

http://infraredmetal.ca/
https://twitter.com/infraredmetal
https://www.facebook.com/infraredmetal
https://www.instagram.com/theofficialinfrared/

With a sturdy bellow from the megaphone courtesy of frontman/guitarist Steve O Lyff officially putting them in the distinct category along with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and DEPECHE MODE for their use of the megaphone as an actual singing tool, ROCKIN' ENGINE step into the sideshow with their opening number "Carnival Of Evil". Joined by guitarist Ste VyLeff, drummer Joel Bilodeau and bassist JP "The Beast" Buzzard in one of their most recent high-profile supporting shows since their March set with YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, the local quartet have lately been fueled by creativity. Its inspiration? The eco-friendly riffs of GOJIRA and watching lots of 80's horror flicks including Nightmare On Elm Street, which have led to the band's upcoming EP release of Altered By Evil. And with the familiar dark-sounding heavy strains of "Psychopath" and "Monsters Under Your Bed" already given their well-deserved airtime off the EP (as well as a recently-filmed video for the latter), the band have created their own funfair of sorts in the pit. The momentum continued with some choice numbers mostly stemming from their previous EP Midnight Road Rage, including the infamous numbers "Hiding In Darkness" and the closing track "I Sold My Soul To The Devil" - the latter track influenced by a real-life interaction with members of a local religious organization. With both Steves' crunching riffs and both the bottom-sounding rhythm work of The Beast and Joel's backing section resounding through the catacombs of the Dom that night, ROCKIN' ENGINE delivered an impressionable high-speed performance which was enough to really tune up the headliners.

https://linktr.ee/rockinengine
https://www.facebook.com/rockinengineofficial/
https://twitter.com/Rockin_Engine
https://www.instagram.com/rockinengine/

Black T-shirts!
Converse footwear!
1987 dolphin shorts!

Proudly oblivious to the fact that they're not exactly bringing high-end fashion back to metal because they're more interested in simply bringing back the breakneck old school thrash fury through their own sound and vision while putting their hometown of Albacete on the map for the sake of heaviness since their inception some 23 years ago, Iberian headliners ANGELUS APARTIDA claim the stage for the night and unleash their opening number "Bleed The Crown" to the already beaten masses. Nobody in the crowd was expecting the Spanish Inquisition that night - even less so the band's frontman/guitarist Guillermo Izquierdo was expecting to almost receive a mouthful of mic midway during "One Of Us" thanks to an overexcited muscular-looking fan dominating the entire circle pit getting shoved forward. Yet undeterred by the incident, Guillermo "promotes" him to the role of bodyguard so as to prevent any future crowd mishaps. Despite the esteemed promotion, the rest of the crowd including myself ends up having to do Accidental Mic Stand Mosh Guy's work for him for the rest of the night, as if trying to position oneself so as to get the best camera footage of the band wasn't challenging enough already.

That aside, the anticipation for ANGELUS APARTIDA's first-ever visit to Ottawa and Canada overall during their first-ever headlining tour of North America is understandably high. They've amassed seven full-length studio albums throughout their 23-year long career, with their latest self-titled disc from two years earlier making them attractive to many high-profile tours throughout the Old Continent. And they certainly enjoy a lot of DEATH ANGEL if their early material is anything to go by in the form of such numbers as "Indoctrinate" and "Of Men And Tyrants" alone, attesting firmly to the halcyon days of the Bay Area scene with some modern-sounding thrash and death metal influences giving their sound even more raw grit. Interestingly, they'd initially formed as more of a power metal band in their earlier years but you wouldn't have recognized anything related to the genre especially at the night's show at the Dom other than Guillermo's clean-sounding vibrato in parts, and most of their songs contend with heavy chugging riffs and some distorted solos straight out of The Ultra-Violence or Morbid Visions. Still, Guillermo's bandmates, including David G. Alvarez (guitar - and a musician with an ear for talent if his customized Eddie Van Halen 5150 signature amp is something to go by), Victor Valera (drums) and Guillermo's probable sibling Jose (bass) bring some unseen and unsane talent to the table as shred-tastic bangers such as "Violent Dawn", "Give ‘Em War" and "Sharpen The Guillotine" shall attest and their connection with the crowd is impeccable. That, and Guillermo's dental work wasn't at any further risk with any unintentionally close microphone activity throughout the night.

With their brand of no-frills thrash long having made them a household name in the EU metal scene as well as being one of Century Media Records' hottest names on the label, ANGELUS APATRIDA have the fresh exuberance and the fire to conquer our shores - and the debt for Enrique Iglesias can be forgiven as well.

Thanks/gracias to the Dominion Tavern and to Christina and CHORD Productions for finding the room to make this show happen.

https://www.angelusapatrida.com/
https://www.facebook.com/angelusapatrida/
https://www.instagram.com/angelusapatrida/
https://twitter.com/angelusapatrida

Setlist:

• "Bleed The Crown"
• "Indoctrinate"
• "One Of Us"
• "Of Men And Tyrants"
• "Violent Dawn"
• "We Stand Alone"
• "Give 'Em War"
• "Sharpen The Guillotine"
• "You Are Next"