metal

When California based quintet came out with their first two albums, the 2012 self-titled debut “Sunflower Dead”, and the 2015 release “Time to Get Weird”, they established themselves as an up and coming heavy weight band. With their constant touring in support of those albums and their theatrical makeup and stage show they built up their fanbase. With some upheaval in the band, and a new record on the horizon, it was time for a new direction. They ditched their makeup and refocused their sound to match their new look.

Holter is the project that initially was known as “Dracula: Swing of Death” an album that saw a collaboration between a couple of ex-members of Norwegian glam merchants Wig Wam (whose bassist however has always also held membership in Artch – so they’re also versed in pure heavy metal as well) with the celebrated Jorn Lande.

Admittedly, my knowledge of Manitoban heavy rock/metal leaves much to be desired. Aside from spotting the odd Propagandhi T-shirt amongst a (wacky) crowd back in college or fawning over Evil Survives’ killer “Die like a Samurai”, I’ve yet to musically sink my cuspids (i.e. canines) into Canada’s Easternmost Prairie province.

Warkings are an international power metal band/project, made up of Viking on Bass (some Scandinavian guy?), Spartan on drums (maybe a Greek, as the band’s bandcamp lists Pieria in Northern Greece as their base of operations), Crusader on guitars (likely a Brit or Frenchman?) and Tribune on vocals, who’s been revealed to be Georg Neuhauser, the Austrian singer of bands like Serenity and another international project, by the name of Phantasma that if fate serves correctly we did review some time ago.