-Phase 1.1 (October 2006 – December 2006) Vision Lunar is an atmospheric, psychedelic/progressive black metal band founded by Alexandre Julien in the fall of 2006. The idea came to him on Friday October 6th of 2006 as he got off the bus...
Tomb of the Worm was an obscure doomy, grind-metalcore band from Burlington, Ontario. The story begins in January or February of 1999, after Kyle Bishop was unexpectedly expelled from The Swarm aka Knee Deep in the Dead, in December of 1998...
-Part 1: Incision (Late 1992 – October 1993) Incision was a band whose reputation surely has never faded. In a way, they were the precursor to Grade. But Incision’s ideals and influences were completely different and revolved...
Cascade is a record label formed and mostly operated by Nathan Lelandais-Miller, a musician from Michigan who has been in a number of historically important and influential bands. Over the years, the label has been active under various names;...
-The original line-up (October 1997 – September 1998) This band has connections all over the Ontario hardcore tree. Before this band even got started a lot of the members had played together in other projects. Chris Colohan, Christian...
The Sneak Preview was a melodic punk rock band from Maple, Ontario. They formed in the summer of 2000, after Joel Bath (drums) and Mike Mucci (guitar) broke up their band “Then Who Is the Liar?”. The duo started writing new songs...
-Formation (June 1997 – October 1997) Dead Season was one of the many bands formed by ex members of Two Line Filler. Two Line Filler, under the line up of Matt White on vocals, Colin Clark and Al Biddle on guitars, Mike Calder on bass...
Cedargate Records was an independent record label from Southern California active in the late 90’s and early 00’s. The label has notably worked with Eighteen Visions, Wrench and The Angel Element and was operated by Zachary...
I had the great pleasure to interview James Marks regarding the record label that he operated during the mid to late 90’s, Utilitarian Records. Throughout the labels’ time, he got to work with many Michigan bands, including Small...
Louis Mistreated was an incredibly melodic emo band from Mississauga, Ontario that somehow escaped the radar of mainstream popularity. But I really feel like they belong up there with Christie Front Drive, Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas Is the...
Intention Records was a really awesome independent record label from Florida that released some very well remembered records. Those bands include Morning Again, Culture, Reversal of Man, Holocron, Roosevelt and Afterall. The person to thank...
The Association of Welterweights Records was a short lived record label from Ojay, California that existed from 1998 to 2000. Throughout it’s existence it worked with A Sometimes Promise (members of Embassy, Ochre, Stratego, Manumission...
The Separation Suicide formed in January of 2002 as a “best of” band from members of Avarice and Confine. Most members were living in the Hamilton/Oakville/Toronto area of Ontario and came together when Gordon Ball left The...
To me, United Edge Records was one of the record labels that I could pickup anything from and know that it was going to be quality metalcore. Same thing for the post-hardcore fad during the mid-2000’s that was practically held up with...
Before Kenobi started, Andrew Tweedy, Peter Read, Stephen Martin and Gunars Kazaks were in several teenager bands that made up the early years of the 90’s. Those included “Twerp”, “Mush” and “Joyjuice”...
Ellington was one of the most talked about band during the early 2000’s but also one of the most unfortunate and forgotten. Luckily, just enough material was recovered to be able to document this band properly. Ellington was formed in...
Editor’s Note: This interview was submitted by long-time fan, supporter and friend, Joanna Marinova in 2013. The answers were completed in February 2014 and is now published on the Abridged Pause Blog. -Hello Alex! Let me introduce the...
To the Lions was probably the epitome of Ontario’s 2000 chug-core revival. They were based in Burlington and featured some all-star cast. A while after Grade broke up, Matt Jones and Shawn Magill went to a Bane show on September 11, 2004...
Trevor Dykstra (bassist) and Lee Shepard (guitarist) went to high school together and were always close friends. They started out a band together in 1995, each playing their instrument and signing dual vocals. They went to a lot of shows and...
John Ouellette and Brendan Munn met in the summer of 1997 at an Ignorance Never Settles concert. After some talk, they decided to form a straight-edge band together and started jamming in the Munns’ basement in Hamilton, Ontario. They...
Stephane Fania and Robert Kourie met each other in 1986 at CEGEP (College) St. Laurent in Montreal, Canada. Bob played guitar, Steph played keyboards. In the next year and a half they played in two bands together, one was a progressive metal...
Funerary was a metalcore band from Hamilton, Ontario, active for a little under a year in 2000. In late 1999, Chris Logan quit SeventyEightDays. Prior to that, he had played in Chokehold, Burst of Silence, Prayer for a Fallen Angel, Crumble...
Blundermen was a punk band from the Toronto region active in the early 1990’s. I touched up on them briefly when I did the Ragamuffin Soldier Records and Fans of Bad Production Records interviews, but it was time that this band get some...
This compilation could have been a landmark for Canadian hardcore, emo and metalcore of the 1990’s. “Could have been” because it was never released. The fact is no one really knows how close it came to coming out. Usually...
The last line-up of Burst of Silence featured Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Chris Ansley on guitar, Jamie McGinnis on drums and Mike Presseiary on bass. That line-up changed name to Sinsick in late 1995. Jamie and Mike ended up leaving the...
This band was pretty obscure under the radar of Canadian metalcore, although their name and members would make you think otherwise. Some of the members have been in quite important bands and I think this one is no different. Fawad Fudd Bokhari...
In This Defiance, from London, Ontario, formed in March 2005 with Ken Montville on guitar, Matt Bouchard on drums and Ben Kaye (from Clear a Path) on bass. Later that month they were joined by Steve Parkhill on second guitar, who was at the...
Jonah was one the cult hardcore bands from Quebec in the mid 90s. They certainly hold their place in the top most important Quebec bands and I’m happy to finally shed some light on this gem. Jonah was formed in autumn of 1995 with Simon...
Jude the Obscure had a very comfortable place in the Ontario math-core/noisecore scene throughout its existence. I believe they were the first to be called “chaoticore”. Prior to the forming of this band, Grant Freifeld...
Acrid was a sludgy/doomy/grindy-metalcore band from Mississauga that was initiated by Neil Rodman on vocals, Jeff Almond on guitar and Dave Buschemeyer on drums. This was in November of 1995, right after Jeff Almond had quit Ignorance Never...
Unheard was a Canadian metalcore band from Mississauga, Ontario, founded by Mike Charette and his friend Dave Buschemeyer, after Dave was kicked out of Sun Still Burns in September 1993. The duo recruited Ian Pryde on vocals and went in to...
-The Formation Montgomery 21 was a Canadian brit-pop influenced emo band from Mississauga, Ontario, known for featuring (and mostly made up of) members of New Day Rising. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Gray formed the band in the fall of 1995...
-Face Down (Spring 1993 – September 1993) Face Down was a hardcore band from Oakville, Ontario. No doubt that you will recognize the names of many of these members, as they would go on to great fame with their later musical endeavors...
Gates of Dawn is one of the obscure bands from Ontario that just doesn’t seem to have reached anywhere to be remembered. I had to dig far to get info from this band out. This band was fronted by Nat Coté with Adam Bratt and Paul...
-Chapter 1: From “Boize” to “Emissary” (May 1993 – July 1993) Emissary was a bluesy heavy metal band from Montreal, Canada. Founded in June of 1993, the band was a direct continuation of Boize, whose final line-up...
Jonathan Thomas is a bit of a forgotten gem in the history of Ontario emo hardcore. In late 1994 Kyle Bishop was singing in Grade but felt that it wasn’t enough, so he bought his first guitar and started writing a couple of songs. At the...
-The Foundation (May 1989 – December 1989) Boize (pronounced Boys) was a heavy metal band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, founded by guitarist Robert Kourie (aka Floyd Harem), and bass guitarist and keyboardist Stephane Fania (aka Zany Shultz)...
This interview was conducted with Alexandre Julien for the Abridged Pause Blog on August 30th of 2013. -Hello Alex. Thank you for taking the time to answer these few questions. First of all, what has been happening with Vision Éternel since...
Firestorm was one of the early “all-star bands” that formed in Southern Ontario. Matt White (from Two Line Filler) used to go down to Hamilton during his summer vacations. In late 1992, he hooked up with Ryan Hollingworth, Christian...
The origin of Raise Them and Eat Them, as an idea, could have begun as early as 2002 (as some sources claim). But the band didn’t actually come together until January of 2004. The initial line-up featured Ken Galbraith on bass and...
Slow Death were a punk/hardcore band from Summerside, Prince Edward Island circa 1984. Arguably, they were the first straight edge band in Canada and certainly the first punk or hardcore band from PEI. They released one demo tape in 1985 and...
Burst of Silence was formed in the later part of 1991 with Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Zak Husted on bass, Sam Mamone on drums and Christian McMaster on guitar. They formed from different circles around the city of Hamilton, but they all went...
System Overload were a hardcore/punk band from Halifax, NS during the mid to late 80’s. They were also the first punk band I ever saw live at a free outdoor show in downtown Halifax. As well, I got to see their last show in 1989. I...
Redstar Records was a record label operated by Brendan Munn and Paul G. from Hamilton, Ontario. Their best remembered release was the Confine/Avarice split CD, but everything they put out was amazing and did really well in hardcore (as you will...
Editor’s note: this interview was conducted on September 23rd of 2011 for the Abridged Pause Blog. Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterTumblrRedditPinterestPrintPocketLinkedInTelegramWhatsApp
Loveless .1. (pronounced “Loveless One”) was Chris Gray’s solo band’s name. It is perhaps one of his most obscure endeavors. The name was used briefly from 2001 to 2002, between periods when Chris Gray performed under...
Say No More was a band that anyone could have easily passed by. But I hope to change that. Louis-Pierre Parenteau and his brother Marc-Olivier formed the band in 2002 after the first Shark Attack 7″ came out, and they became influenced...
Structure Records was a short lived record label operated out of Hamilton, Ontario, by two notorious hardcore personalities; Jeff Beckman and Chris Logan, two members of Chokehold. They put out three releases and abruptly ended but those...
Neighbourhood Watch were from Fredericton, New Brunswick and existed between 1985 and 1988. They released a 7″ EP called Death At The Hands Of Time on Real World Records based in Durham, UK. There were a few other bands with the same...
The Chitz were a punk/hardcore band from Halifax, Nova Scotia and were around from 1994-1998. Drawing influence from a wide range of bands such as The Exploited, Agnostic Front and even Ramones-y pop punk, the band released an LP, split LP, 2...