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Hyperia (CD release party)

Osyron / Volition / Balrogath
Live at The Gateway, Saturday, April 9th, 2022.

Review by JP

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Note:  Photo credits.   Hyperion & Osyron.   Ara Shimoon is a local professional photographer and instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)  This is first gig for Metal-Rules.com.

Check out his other work.  Ara Shimoon.  www.glorified.ca/

Photo credit Balrogath: Super fans:  Prearna Mahtani , Steve LaJoie, Jody Zachoda

Photo credit Volition: Volition band archives

Thank you all! 

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The Gateway Pub is a venue in Calgary Alberta connected to the local technical college (SAIT).  It has hosted any number of Metal events over the years.  As part of their 20th anniversary they hosted a series of concerts .  Saturday, April 9th, 202 was Metal Night.    Syryn, a  popular local nautical-themed band was a last minute cancellation.  Either these pirates were three sheets to the wind or getting  keelhauled but word on the mean streets is that a member got the scurvy plague. They were missed, but the show must go on.

The venue itself was pretty modern, clean and nice, a big stage in the corner with very decent sound system and a few lights. There was lots of room, good merch set-up and the place was set for a great night of Metal. The Gateway did a great job hosting.

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Balrogath

Warchanter-Guitar, Vocals

Bladesinger-Vocals

Loremaster-Bass, Vocals

Rhythm Warden-Drums

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Balrogath launched the festivities right on time to a decent sized crowd of about 100 folks.  The extreme Metal quartet has been around few years and perform a solid mix of melodic Death Metal and Power metal.  Their set  by some short-lived technical difficulties but they were very professional and powered through.

Early on the band played a sneak preview of a song called ‘Arcane Sacrifice’ the title track of their forthcoming debut album.    They played a couple of tracks from their original, debut, independent EP NAMELESS TERROR  from early 2020 and the rest appeared to be newer tracks.

Arguably they might have been the ‘heaviest’ band on the bill and their well-composed tracks entertained the crowd.  They had a great stage look with the warpaint an imagery.

 They are a band to watch having performed well in the Regional Wacken Metal Battle from a few years back.  The night was off to a great start.

Arcane Sacrifice will be released on June 16th, this year.

 

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Set List
Dragonfall
Arcane Sacrifice
Fall To Me
Endless Lifetime of Hate
On Dragons We Ride
Land Under Sky

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Volition

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Up next was Volition.  These guys have been kicking around the local scene for many years, I recall seeing them back as far as  2016.    Defining ‘heavy’ is like describing shades of grey  but this band was also one of the heaviest of the night with a fine blend of Death, Thrash and Power.   They brought some good energy got the crowd more engaged with a slightly more modern sound.  They had a guest bassist for the gig, Kellen Wyslouzil of Flashback and few other acts.

Later in the gig Jeff Perry of Illyrian, (one of the more established thrash bands in town) joined the band on bass and some guest vocals for a bit.    Even though the band has been around for a while they don’t have a ton of material but they tend to write slightly longer songs, more interesting songs.  The energy was high and they finished with a decent version of Mastodon’s Blood & Thunder.   I’d like to see an EP or even album so I can evaluate these guys a little more. They did a great job.

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Set List 

Thunder Dragon
Glass City
The Reaper of Souls
Blood and Thunder (Mastodon cover)

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Osyron

Reed Alton-Vocals

Krzysztof Stalmach-Guitar

Bobby Harley-Guitar

Tyler Corbett-Bass

Cody Anstey-Drums

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Osyron are one of the more professional acts in Calgary.  They had big side-screens and a backdrop adding more visual appeal to the stage.   Osyron have been going on creeping towards 20 years now and have quite a bit of product in terms of albums, EP’s singles, videos and so forth.

 

Reed is a very charismatic front-man with a classic Power Metal voice, clear and high when it needs to be.   I have followed these guys for quite a while (please feel free to read my reviews of their albums here on this web-site) and they always bring it live.

The  twin-guitar attack, quintet played a couple of new tracks off the forthcoming , as of yet unnamed, album. It might have even been a World Premier, I’ll have to double-check!

The new tracks had a slightly more progressive sound, sound, tone and tempo.   The band finished on a higher note with a couple of fan favourites, re-injecting the speed element.

Osyron were polished, and masters of their respective instruments.  Their ambitious Prog-Power sound was well received by the growing crowd.

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Set List 

The Cross
Ignite
Dominion Day (new song)
Anunnaki (new song)
To War
Viper Queen

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Hyperia

(CD release party)

Vocals – Marlee Ryley

Lead Guitar – Colin Ryley

Rhythm Guitar – David Kupisz

Bass – Scott DeGruyter

Drums – Steven Maloney

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Hyperia used to be located in Calgary and took the brave move to Vancouver to further their career.

It was a bit of a homecoming for these local old-school, thrash heroes.   Preferring to remain independent the band just released their second full-length album SILHOUETTES OF HORROR on March 18th.

Of all the bands on the bill, Hyperia in fine thrash tradition had the fastest, shortest tunes.  The band was obviously very proud and confident of their new material as the played all of the 11 track album!

Only the song  ‘Contagion’ from their their full-length debut album ‘INSANITORIUM , from 2020 made the cut.  The band clearly had a lot of fun.  At one point they invited some fans on the stage.  I haven’t seen so many drunk girls on stage since the last time I saw Steel Panther at the casino!   They thrashed like never before and Marlee Ryley screamed her lungs out, her raw voice favourably reminding me a bit of Sabrina Classen of German thrash titians, Holy Moses.   Another highlight of the fun, energetic show was their cover of the Abba tune ‘Gimme, Gimme, Gimme’.

As a side note: The idea of Metal bands doing pop covers is not new.  Some purists might complain, but I like the fun. novelty covers.  Having said that  ‘G3’ has been covered, many, many times by Metal bands already.  I have about six different versions of this song by various Metal bands, in my collection.  My first thought was that they could have done a more original choice.  However after hearing it, their version is better than most of the other versions, and their shredding version was as good as Beseech’s slow, gothic version from 2002…. but not quite as good as Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s version from 2000.

The band took a traditional quick break and rejoined the stage for an encore starting with  ‘Fish Creek Frenzy’.  For those of you not from the local area, Fish Creek Park is a massive inner city park in Calgary. It is  a hot-spot for party shenanigans, as evidenced by the cover of the MCD of the same name, which I have included for your amusement.  The song got a bit of a pit going, the first one of the night.

The band laid waste to the crowd with the last song of the night,  a bit of a signature song for them, ‘Evil Insanity’ also from the debut EP.   After the long break in concerts due to the global pandemic, the excitement and energy was high for everyone as people were just glad to get back out, perform, see friends and see some of the best local Metal Calgary has to offer.  It was a great gig and complete success.

Please feel free to check out the links to all the bands below.  

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Set List

Hypnagogia
Intoxication Therapy
Contagion
Experiment 77
Severed
Prisoner Of The Mind
Gimme Gimme Gimme (ABBA cover)
Terror Serum
Whitecoat
Silhouettes Of Horror
Operation Midnight
Pleonexia

Encore:

Fish Creek Frenzy
Evil Insanity

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