Haunt @ Piranha Bar
W/ Seven Sisters, Intranced, Mistwalker
September 10th, 2022
When I first started Mistwalker as a project all the way back in 2013 I never in a million years thought I’d one day be performing these stupid little songs on stage and opening for sick as fuck modern metal bands like Devil Master and Haunt, yet here we are. When I saw that the local act Tribal Bones had unfortunately dropped off the bill for this tour date on Haunt’s current tour, I hit up Nick Guerin at Dungeon Works Productions and a few days later found out we were indeed going to be on this bill.
I always try to be as honest about my own performances as possible and while I think this wasn’t exactly our best set of all time, it was also far from the worst. There were a few mistakes here and there. For example, during the song “Terra Nova” I sing the chorus cleanly. However, this song’s clean vocals go right to the end of my register, and despite how hard I pushed I couldn’t hit the right note, and botched it. It was embarrassing, but I made up for it by screaming the rest of the chorus when it reappeared in later songs. Besides that I think overall our performance was decent. It was actually a lot better than our performance at the Devil Master show at Bar Le Ritz PDB earlier this summer. It seemed like the other bands and the promoters both enjoyed our set, and so did the crowd. That’s about all I can ask from one of our shows as Mistwalker.
After us it was time for Intranced, a brand new classic heavy metal band formed by James Paul Luna, the former vocalist for White Wizzard. When I talked to the guys from the band I was surprised to find out that they were only a few months old. I could only find one track by them online so I wasn’t quite sure what they sounded like, but upon watching them perform I was pleased with what I saw. These guys sound very akin to traditional heavy metal or even proto-metal, bringing vibes of early Judas Priest, or even Alice Cooper to the stage. Luna himself was wearing dark corpse paint not unlike the god of 70’s and 80’s shock rock. Their set was filled with old school riffage that felt like a time capsule from another era, and they even tossed in a White Wizzard song for good measure. On top of that, they were really nice guys to talk to, and I enjoyed shooting the shit with them after all was said and done.
Following Intranced it was time for Haunt. Now, I know what you’re thinking. What happened to Seven Sisters? Wasn’t Haunt supposed to be the headliner? Well, yes, they were, but their drummer unfortunately got stopped at the US-Canada border. He wasn’t allowed to cross. So for a moment before the show there was a question of whether or not Haunt would even be playing their Canadian tour dates. Luckily for everyone involved, the absolute madman that is Ben Richardson, the drummer from Intranced, stepped up to the plate and filled in on the skins. Given that he only had about an hour or so to actually learn the material, Haunt’s set was dramatically shortened to only five or six tracks, but Richardson absolutely killed it. There were some issues with the synthesizers not working, but beyond that Haunt still managed to knock it out of the park. They played some of their most well known tracks, including “Burst Into Flame”, “Luminous Eyes” and “Mind Freeze”. I was hoping to hear “Mercenaries” off of their most recent record, but you can’t always get what you want, especially given the circumstances.
After Haunt it was time for Seven Sisters, who hadn’t been expecting to headline the night. Now before this show was announced I had never heard of these guys before. After we got added to the bill I decided to check them out and was floored by what I heard. While I’ve gushed endlessly about Unleash the Archers on this blog, particularly when it comes to power metal, Seven Sisters really give them a run for their money as my favourite modern power metal act. The instrumental capabilities of these guys is off the charts, and their vocal melodies are fantastic to boot. I got super into their most recent record, Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt. 1, a month or so before the show, and hearing them play all of my favourite tracks off of that record, from “Beyond the Black Stars” to “The Artifice” to “Horizon’s Eye” was an absolute treat. On top of that, they gave us a shout-out for being an anti-fascist metal band, given that we had introduced our track “Slaughtercaust” as a song about killing Nazis. That was a really nice touch.
This show was a highlight of the year for me. Not only was it a pleasure and an honor to open for Seven Sisters and Haunt, two of the sickest NWOTHM bands active today, but the guys who I talked to from all three bands were very polite and friendly to talk to. Even though many of them openly admitted to not really being into black metal or heavy metal with the kinds of vocals that I perform, they still enjoyed our set and said we did a good job regardless. To quote Seven Sisters’ guitarist Graeme Farmer, “It’s black metal, but with actual riffs”. This night was amazing, and I’ll remember it fondly for years to come. If you get a chance to see this tour before it ends on September 20th, go do it! You won’t be disappointed.
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 