Druides and occult riffs laced with death

 Fresh Wax, Dying Of Thirst, Death By Knife and Druidess all contributed in the madness that happened on June 21rst near Van Horne Skatepark. The whole thing was set up to support Druidess' release titled The Product Of My Love. An album I'll dig deeper into along the article! They played sets, each raising the bar for the next, picking at each other seeing if the next one in line could top the act. Yet it was no Hendrix setting guitars on fire at Monterey, no Who smashing guitars on stage blowing drum kits or any Slayer show with a fire burning in the middle of the crowd. But I must say, we got close to it, having a guy blowing heeps out of a I don't know what kind of looking bong. Look at the picture on the left and you'll understand. The show was a sight to see, Bourdain would call it kitchen fueling material if he'd been there.

I came to see Death By Knife and Druidess, and as I arrived, Death By Knife were starting to play. Now I must say, their songs were great, the band was enticing, the crowd seemed sleezy and most of all, the sound was not incredible. The band is constituted of drummer Tyler Smith, bassist Massimo a cocky motherfucker, with the James Dean type of ways with italian blood coursing through him, who also plays guitar in Druidess, guitarist Tianhe who's gone from playing guitar outside in the sun sporting white makeup to being a badass looking guy dripped with blood onstage and finally, Anthony the singer, the all American encompassing metal singer. They look good onstage but not only that they actually are good. They play with a sheer madness reminding me of times I'd see Slayer onstage for their final shows, they look mean and yet they support the local scenes rules and don't go trespassing the respect others have and the common practices one should have around teens sporting all kinds of stances, unlike Metallica back when grunge was going heavy and they would make fun of Kurt Cobain's death onstage. The crowd pummeled and fought each other's swirling bodies as sweat and fumes came close to storm the place, while the band kept slaying song after song keeping us all on the edge. For the sound, I have to say it was all a bit blur, but they played an open space which isn't the best, but I've seen em' play inside at Hemisphere Gauche and Traxide and I garantee on me parole that in a closed environment they deliver the goods way better with more brisk and bitter madness to it. But there's no reproach or much bitterness in the sound quality at the show since these bands are all simply trying to make it big and then again even when you're big and you can pay to have all your demands before and during shows filled, some shows just don't sound as good as others. And starting

band don't have much else to offer than play live shows as they begin so I totally understand the need to play a show especially being summer time, the high season where you can claw your way through the local scene. As for the crowd, it was great, faces I'd not always seen were appearing all along the sets, but somehow everyone seemed a tad tired, was it the weather or the planets alignment as would say the satire astro kid, who knows. So basically I do encourage you to go listen to their single Witch Hunt, go see them on their next unannounced yet show, and lastly, don't ever play piano while Tianhe's playing he'll fucking hate you.

Now on to Druidess, the siamese twin of Death by Knife, although they lean more into the 90's heavy rock almost grunge esthetic! They basically seem a tad bit nicer and more approachable, even Massimo who comes back on the bill as a guitarist this time. Tonight, they are playing us their new album titled The Product Of My Love, which looks great, sounds real cool and defintely shows off the bands creative colors and direction. It was recorded at Holy Mountain Sound and mixed and mastered by Julian from IceBox Studios, featuring a decent playing and great creativity and unity to keep us on the edge of our seat while turning up the volume at it's highest. Volume definitely has to be raised really high to appreciate the hard work and I have to say, it's a bit sad because the album is great but the lack of gain staging on the overall works cause the album to sound thin on a lower quality sound system's and in car you really have to raise the volume high to appreciate it's delicacy. Else than that, the album promises lots from this local Montreal band. The creativity and catchy line featured in songs as The Sniffing Accountant and Undine are what kept me scratching deeper along the record's material. Undine is really cool because it features an 80's piano synth melodic line that reminds me of The Police's piano work standing in the back of the song Every Little Thing is Magic if I'm not wrong but I'm still not sure where I've heard it yet it works because I constantly go back listening to the song just like The Sniffing Accountant which rails along Massimo's cool guitar lines supported by the drummers dynamic drumming. The singers voice layering along the songs bring different interesting moods along the fuzzy laced dreamy experience reminding me of times where cough syrup brought me out of life's misery along late night rides and simple reminisicing. Lavender is the peak of the dreamy almost floydish experience and Roll Back worked my ears back to a more heavy tempo grooving rock that energysed me up as thought i was about to pass out to the sweat reverbed dazing melodies contained at the begining of the album. The rest of the songs are pretty uptight and get a good take on making on simply rock head back and forth with a served constant intensity along the songs and once again great studio arrangements and created soundscapes that come off as being clever. Now for the show, they played through the first to last song on the album. The prestation was cool, from people's look when I was there, they seem to vibe, but on a scale of fidelity of the songs live, for example Zeppelin were cited as a band that could truly bring their material to a cosmic hecticness on stage just as Pink Floyd were great modelers on stage bringing every note and smell to the audience. Now I get it old band comparison isn't cool, but fucking deal with it because that's what it is and these bands left a trace for a reason. Second, an outside show, with only the gear that was from the bands themselves no high tech reverbs and compressors and delays and all onstage on a rack, so I truly understand that the material cannot be reproduced like in studio. Yet, I believe that what you play in studio has to be an image of what you can play live so to me it was a great performance, the songs were great altough not as elaborate as in my earphones, but the band were good at handling their material, they know how to shine on stage while at it and most of all, they dare, going onstage with what equipement they have and simply making sure people have a great time! I'd definitely want to see where this band could go with more financial, and ressources put in their music!

All this to say, make sure to listen to these bands, both at inside venues and on streaming platforms. Death By Knife have released a single Witch Hunt on platforms and it truly embodies the evilness they've got and the madness and greatness the band is capable of. More material will come from them soon, they are in the process of recording an album and I believe they're on the knacks of release a second single soon. As for Druidess, they've just released their album titled The Product of My Love, which is a great leap and standard established for any bands in the wake of releasing material. No new shows are announced to what I saw and so for the moment folks keep on listening to their album and follow both bands real close for their next shows and crazy music to come out. If you wish to see footage of the show to convince you of coming next time these band play, I believe respective bands are posting slowly but surely footage on their Youtube page filmed by Booster Fawn. All pictures are by Joshua