In a cryptic message posted on the band’s Facebook Page, Canadian Occult black metal act Weapon suddenly announced the band was no more and that the members were parting ways without drama and moving onto other things: “The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end […]

Relapse Records has been in resurgent form over the last couple of years, revitalizing their roster and boosting their legendary track record and proven ability in providing exposure that some of the lesser known bands deserve.   Canada’s Weapon is another fine addition to the label’s large, esteemed staple.   Plucked from the grimy underground, Weapon applies […]

Aside from the bragging rights associated with attending a Swedish metal show, I was genuinely excited to see some “real” metal after spending the last two weeks lavishing in the cheap thrills of Turntable.fm’s Metalcore/Deathcore/Nintendocore room.

Even though it was on a Sunday night, and I was violently hung over and sleep deprived, I packed my camera gear, put on the tightest pair of black jeans I could find, and drove down to DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California, to see an awesome lineup of bands.

Here’s a release I saw on numerous ‘2010 year end’-lists, but I never got around to listen to it in a timely fashion myself and thus, I couldn’t determine if it should be a best of 2010 ‘best of’ contender. But with a 2011 US release date via The Anja Offensive, I can now use […]

Some of you may remember that one year ago my first interview with Vetis Monarch of Canada’s Weapon was published here. Following the release of Drakonian Paradigm (one of my favorite albums of 2009), it was intended to explore Monarch’s musical/lyrical world of the mystical, the occult, and the brilliantly black metal. Here we are again and Weapon has released another masterpiece in From the Devil’s Tomb, a longer, denser, and indisputably heavier affair that retains the exotic flourishes and black/thrash basis, whilst delivering the goods with an approach that bludgeons with death metal force. As such, a Weapon album will again be included in my year-end Top 10 list. Vetis Monarch offers an insider’s view of From the Devil’s Tomb.

Vetis Monarch – vocalist/guitarist/leader of Canada’s Weapon – is a thoughtful sort and one whose art cannot simply be explained by alter ego\ or the commonly accepted conventions of artistic expression. Weapon is his living, breathing personification. Taking a far deeper philosophical approach to concept/lyrical development, Monarch’s worldview is somewhat atypical for black metal in that it is based not on a Christian, and ultimately anti-Christian background, making the exploration of Satanic philosophies far more refreshing. But it is the music of Drakonian Paradigm that sucked me right in and kept me coming back for more, making the album an immediate 2009 Top 10 selection in the waning weeks of the year. Black metal at its core, yet not solely traditional in a tremolo-picked and blast-beaten sense, Drakonian Paradigm brilliantly mixes in elements of thrash, death, and even traditional metal, in the process creating memorable songs and varied arrangements all wrapped up in the kind of palpable genuineness and sinister atmosphere that is lacking on so many BM releases. And now to answer my feebly probing questions, I give you Vetis Monarch.

I’ve been eager to hear the debut full length from Canada’s Weapon since I read an article about them from the indomitable Nathan T Birk in Metal Maniacs Magazine (before its untimely demise). And while an excellent release, Draconian Paradigm is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I imagine that was the […]