Demian Seale
Photos Courtesy of Unleash The Archers
Headbangers seem to pay little attention to aesthetics: tattered jeans, oversized shirt gored in ghastly images, raggedy hair – all a striking statement screaming “substance over style!” Indeed, often metalheads do purposefully slum it to advertise this irony: what you get is more than what you see.
But this belies a hypocrisy – ripened heshers can testify to a time when purchasers could only check cover art, and band logo, and…hope. Hence, there’s a visceral connection to metal imagery, evolved from an era without downloads; and, extreme metal was never heard on radio; magazines such as Metal Forces were difficult to find, and expensive. You went on gut instinct, and bands won or lost with fans as much on an aesthetic connection as musical.
Visually arresting, Behold the Devastation, Unleash the Archers’ debut arrests the eye: the cd looks incredible: Tolkienesque, epic, dark – a manichean portrait of good and evil. The Archers chose designer JP Fournier (Immortal, Gardenian, Edguy, among others), whose vision, as guitarist Mike Selman (ex-Meatlocker 7) explains, complements the band’s “epic theme: battlefields, and glory.” Brittney Hayes, vocalist, expands: “JP appealed to my imagination and love of fantasy and came up with something much better than a battlefield, he invented a creature that embodied devastation.”
The visual package is matched sonically: this is both the best looking and sounding metal album to come out of Victoria by an unsigned band. It’s on par with anything from Century Media, Metal Blade, or Nuclear Blast. Mike explains how they came to work with producer Jason Martin: “Sometime over the past few years I’d come across a few Vancouver bands on myspace that had this really tight, crisp production…That started off our quest to seek out Jason.”
Lyrically, apocalyptic themes are evoked which belie Britt’s overarching melodies. However, apocalyptic lyrical sources are not limited to traditional metal table-fare, the Bible, but is intertwined with myth and legend. At times, the band seems to touch on the political, to connect current internecine political strife with ancient literature of apocalypse. “I am very much intrigued by the Dark Ages, by the World Wars, by old religion and mythology; I enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy as well, and the breadth of imagination encouraged by new and old literature inspires me to write about things that stretch those boundaries. I do have a small obsession with the end of days,” Britt explains.
Obviously, the band’s primary distinction is Britt’s strong, clean, melodic vocals – something impossible to male singers who reach for the upper octaves only by falsetto. Enriching her vocal delivery is a compelling interplay with second vocalist (and guitarist) Brayden Dyczkowski’s scraping growl.
Most metal bands that possess such strong melodic vocal lines usually revert to power-metallish simple guitar rhythms; however, Unleash reach the heights of bands like Nevermore, While Heaven Wept, and Brainstorm, who overlay complex guitar riffs with separate, yet complementary vocal melodies. The overall effect, however, is not chaotic, but coherent.
Mike explains how the guitar parts are composed with Brittney’s melodic capacities in mind: “Brayden is the main riff composer. Usually one of us will bring a riff and as we work it out someone else will contribute. Some songs such as “The Destroyer” are co-written while others will be mainly one writer with small additions by the band. Brayden is great at writing harmonies so I might present him with a riff and have him compose the harmony. There is definite onus on having verse and chorus riffs that will flow well with Brittney’s vocal style.”
Britt reveals how she overlays her melodies on Mike and Brayden’s dense wall of riffage: “Sometimes Brayden will play us the first few riffs of a new song, and I’ll know right away what I’m going to sing, what works. Sometimes, I sit there for days completely perplexed. When that happens I focus on the way the song makes me feel, and I’ll write the lyrics first, then follow the riffs with the words until something works itself out.”
Although distinctive and compelling, it isn’t the presence of a female vocalist that places UTA at the vanguard of contemporary metal, but their complex compositional style which is more jazz or classical than metal: favouring flow over repetition. This makes UTA difficult to classify. Mike confesses, “We have had a hard time labelling ourselves. We don’t identify with any particular metal style. I think that diversity is an important part of our chemistry.”
Mike hinted that UTA’s next effort may be a concept album. Fortunately for locals, the band are committed to staying in Victoria: “the scene out here is turning out bands just as talented and progressive as the Ontario-Quebec scene, and I am staying true to my west coast roots,” concludes Britt emphatically.
Sound Pollution 2010
