by Cosmo Lee

The words “Canada” and “bone-crunching” usually bring to mind ‘hockey’. But since hockey is taking a big long nap, metal has picked up the slack. Voivod, Despised Icon, Kataklysm and Strapping Young Lad are just a few of Canada’s fine metal exports. Recently, Thine Eyes Bleed joined the maple leaf metal elite with their debut album, “In the Wake of Separation”.

First, press hype out of the way: one member of the band used to play in Kittie, while one is the brother of Slayer’s Tom Araya. These facts may be bane or boon, but this band stands on its own. Thine Eyes Bleed combine Lamb of God-style new school thrash with death metal, black metal and even Dillinger Escape Plan-esque dissonance into one big ball of metallic fury.

While “In the Wake of Separation” goes down smoothly the first time, it really sinks in after repeated listens. This isn’t your average everyday metalcore. There aren’t any simplistic breakdowns or predictably melodic choruses. But there’s a whole lot of great guitar playing. Sure, there are thrashy riffs and the obligatory Swedish-inspired harmonies, but there are also biting solos, complex arrangements and unexpectedly catchy parts. After hearing the anthemic solos in “Innocent Mind”, just try to get them unstuck from your head.

Modern Fix caught up with vocalist Justin Wolfe to see how Canadians do it.

Why are so there so many more good metal bands per capita in Canada than in the US?
Really? You think so? Wow, your’re the first person to ever ask that question. Where we are from [London, Ontario], there are alot more punk/hardcore bands that are getting attention, although in the last few years, the music scene, much like the US, is becoming much more aggressive. It’s mainly because there are so many bands around here doing the same thing. It’s not a easy to tour here, so a lot of bands have the time to really work on thier music. You have to in order to stand out. Canada is really a hard country to break out of, especially for metal.

You guys have toured with a wide variety of bands such as Kittie, Superjoint Ritual and Candiria. Does this ever feel schizophrenic?
(Laughs) I guess in a weird way, yeah. We have done a variety of different shows from the very beggining. We never really went out with a plan or a label for what type shows or bands we would fit with. When it came down to it, we would take anything we could get, and fortunatly we landed some killer tours for a variety of different fan bases. This really helped us get off our feet and suprisingly enough we have went over quite well.

What was the wildest story from your tour with Steve-O (from MTV’s “Jackass”)?
We didn’t actually do a full tour with the Steve-O but we did indeed open up on a few occasions. The craziest night was the first show in our howntown London, Ontario, it was fucked. The crowd was definitly the rowdiest crowd we have ever played in front of. There was such a wierd mix of people. We had the jackass jocks dudes, punk rockers, metal heads, skids you name it. Some people loved us and some hated us. I can remember standing at the edge of the stage just watching five different circles clear with fights breaking out as a mini riot let loose. It was pretty wild to see kids go that nuts in such a small reserved city. Good for them. And then of course the after party, there was definitly a lot of drinking going on. Our sound guy (Morgan Russell) and I went out with the boys to a bar downtown afterwards and things got real messy. The last thing i remeber was kicking the side door of a cab in the middle of the road for it to stop, then the cabby taking us home begging us to just get out of the cab insisting no money. We must have been asses.

Your songs aren’t that simple, any insight into the writing process?
It’s definitly becoming a strong point for the band. We write our songs riff by riff with everyones input. We usually change the structure of our songs numerous times before we can settle as a unit and that is what seems to really work. We don’t set out to write the most complicated songs we can, we just take it peice by peice and put it together, but what feels natural.

Things in Canada seem so spread apart - does that make touring there difficult?
Very much so, it makes things more expensive, especially the way our van drinks gas. When touring Canada, there is a lot more driving involved. When we hit the US, we can play almost double the amount of shows in a month that we could here. Over time it really adds up.

Your bio says that each band member brings a “radically different perspective on music”. What are those perspectives?
The different perspectives come from the wide spread of age we have between members. We all come from a slightly different era of metal which brings a lot of different influences to the table. Everyone has thier own unique style that we feel helps to make our music stand out.

Your bio also calls the band “Canadian metal warriors”. Did you write your bio yourselves?
No. We did not write the bio ourselves. We came up with a lot of the ideas and it was put together for us. The ‘Canadian Metal Warriors’ thing, that comes from our sense of humor. We have a lot of fun with this band. I’m sure you can tell by the name, we dont care what other people think. We are Canadian, Metal and proud of it.

www.thineeyesbleed.com

2005 “In the Wake of Separation” (The End)