Priestess Debut New, More Metal Sound

Foufounes Electriques

Montreal, QC

on Jul 29 2009

Erik Leijon (CHARTattack)

07/30/2009 3:50pm

A night later, my ears are still ringing from the relentless aural assault of Priestess' free show at one of Montreal's smallest of dank pits. On stage, the local metal quartet are loud and passionate, the former to deafening levels. They're sweaty and all sport long hair perfect for headbanging during their especially chaotic instrumental portions. No one would assume four of Montreal's most proudest sons would be at a philosophical crossroads when they're thrashing with reckless abandon, but as much as the guitar feedback and violent drumming is still being felt in my tenderised skull a day after the fact, it was frontman Mikey Heppner's words that truly resonated:

"We have a new album coming out this October, we hope you like the new songs we're playing tonight."

Pimping an upcoming album is nothing new, but given the band's recent history, the "hope" part felt rather ominous when coupled with the obvious new direction the band appear to be going in. Priestess' story is a textbook example of the perils of major label representation: the group were courted by many deep-pocketed suitors thanks to ultra-catchy sheen-o-metal singles "Lay Down" and "Talk To Her," but their aversion to treading down that poppy path again has kept them in sophomore record purgatory. Their new bosses were expecting more 3:30 minute power riffs perfect for next year's EA Sports video game soundtracks, and instead got what can best be described to these battered ears as pure Guitar Hero five-star ranking wankage. The label rejected the new material, and the release date for Priestess' anticipated sequel has been continuously pushed back. Never a good sign considering most up-and-coming bands need to strike while the iron is hot.

It's not my intention to be derisive of the longer, more ornate and transition-heavy compositions the group played to a surprisingly not-packed house (given the small room size and free pricetag), but the majority of the crowd moshing came during the performances of Hello Master's better cuts. In the metal music world, expanding one's sound typically means some Ronnie James Dio-esque lyrical mythology coupled with Yngwie Malmsteen technical wizardry, but most attempts at reaching metal Valhalla on a mighty steed tends to include all the cliches Spinal Tap alluded to two decades ago. Sure, we all have a chuckle and air guitar to Dragonforce, but Priestess are a great band and great songwriters, and deserve better than to be lumped in with tongue-in-cheek metal traditionalists. It's disturbing then, that Priestess' predilection is to turn it up to 11 and that the band played a new song entitled "Firebird."

Don't fear the writer, though — the working man's metal band haven't descended into guitar-tapping Protest The Hero levels of self-parody. Their more complex, dense arrangements might actually be really terrific, although Foufounes Electriques is one of the worst sounding venues in the city and the guitar interplay came across as a wash of white noise instead. My main worry concerning the new material is that the first time I saw Priestess a few years back, even without knowing any of their songs beforehand, the choruses and melodies were so rousing I found myself humming them on the way home afterwards. Despite trying really hard to come up with specific examples of how their new material could represent a sea change, all I remember of this latest show is a few bridges that sounded like Metallica's "One."

One of the things that made Priestess so appealing in the first place was their simple, effective and unpretentious approach. Hello Master didn't split up songs into movements or chronicled numerous beast slayings — its charms resided in four guys playing loud and fast, with earnest lyrics and a keen sense of melody. Last night's preview was by no means conclusive evidence of a drastic change in philosophy, but the songs were more technical, and there certainly wasn't an instantaneously catchy "Talk To Her" sequel in the bunch. If anything the performance gave just enough of a taste to further pique my interest in the group's upcoming release, because their quick transition from being talked about as the next Queens Of The Stone Age to feeling the wrath from a record label that fought tooth and nail to win them only a few years ago suggests this next album will be talked about for years to come.