| Senate - Leaving A Lasting Impression by Sean Palmerston Unrestrained Magazine, Issue 34, 10th Anniversary Collector's Issue One of the latest bands in the Southern Ontario metal scene to start making waves is the progressive death metal quintet Senate. Together now just over three years, the band has just self-released their debut full-length album The Great Northern Scenekill and things are starting to come together for the outfit. With its members strewn across Southern Ontario and Quebec, the band was formed around the nucleus of vocalist Matt DiFranco and guitarists Jayson Hudson and Jay Siebert, with things quickly changing towards a more musically adventurous style of metal than what its members had done previously. "When I joined the band, Matt and Hudson were already jamming with a different bass player and drummer," explains guitarist Jay Siebert. "That was September 2004. Shortly after I joined the rhythm section left and we actually ended up playing shows as a three piece with a drum machine. We did that for a while because we couldn't find a drummer." "When we decided to go into the studio to do the first album, we were actually going to do it with programmed drums but then Matt came up with the idea of asking drummers. So we actually emailed all kinds of different drummers from Quebec-the drummers for Cryptopsy, Despised Icon, Kataklysm, etc-and the two guys that got back to us and were interested were Tom from Neuraxis and Patrice Hamelin of Martyr." "Originally we had agreed on Tom doing the record, but Tri-Lateral Progression came out and he was in Japan when we were supposed to go in the studio, so there was not enough time for him to learn the songs and go in to record. Patrice had been emailed us all along saying he really wanted to do the record and had the time to learn the songs. Tom finally emailed us back and said he wouldn't be able to record, so Patrice ended up recording with us and shortly afterwards he joined the band." With Hamelin in tow, they made camp in Julius Butty's Silo Studios just outside of Hamilton in the summer of 2006 to get to work on the record. Still without a bass player in the group, the band actually managed to get a good one through the studio itself when Butty's recording assistant Marco Bressette, currently one of the guitarists in the Nuclear Blast act Threat Signal, signed on to do the disc. "That happened shortly before we went into the studio," confirms Siebert. "We had a guy we thought was going to do the bass for us but he couldn't either, so we asked Marco at the last minute and he agreed to do it. Originally, he was only supposed to do a couple of tracks but he did the whole record. He was working in the studio editing drum tracks and doing his bass lines too." While Bressette might have been doing double time editing and learning and playing the bass lines, he and the rest of the band did a top notch job on the material, which was captured magnificently by Butty. While he has made a name for himself recording slightly less heavy acts such as Alexisonfire and (the amazing) Protest the Hero, Butty comes from a heavy background and has fronted a few metal bands in his time, including Michelin Slave and his current outfit, Hypodust. He did a great job on the record, as did Tue Madsen, who mastered it upon completion. Musically speaking, Senate sounds like a mixture of early Arch Enemy if a singer heavily influenced by both Carcass and a good smattering of raw black metal fronted them. When I mention this to Siebert, he laughs in agreement and knows where I am coming from. "Mike Amott is a huge influence on my guitar playing. I really like Arch Enemy and Carcass, obviously. Mike has always been one of my favourite guitar players. Even for Matt vocally, Carcass has been a big influence." "Matt and I are the ones that have the closest tastes, we pretty much like the same kind of music. We listen to a lot of black metal and a lot of thrash, but Matt also listens to a lot of stuff like Paradise Lost - a lot of doomy stuff. But we really wanted to write something that is aggressive, fast and raw." "[The album] is pretty much the record we always wanted to write. We're not young guys anymore but we persisted and did what we wanted to do. This is it." Since the record was finished, the bad has solidified their line-up and has started playing out as a quintet. Siebert found new bassist Colin Lernell on myspace when he was sent a video of him playing a Necrophagist song. He was impressed enough that he sent him an email to inquire if he was available and the band basically had their man within a week. Lernell had an almost trial-by-fire, as shortly after joining - and with only one or two full band practices (since Hamelin lives in Trois-Rivieres, PQ) - the band accompanied Martyr for a brief five-night Ontario tour earlier this year. Things went well however and the band soon afterwards were invited up to Trois-Rivieres to open a show in Hamelin's hometown that featured Belphegor and Krisiun. The Great Northern Scenekill is currently available from the band through their band website, located online at www.senatemetal.com. You can also order the disc through their myspace page, located at www.myspace.com/senatemetal or via CDN Records' mailorder. It's a decent debut definately worth checking out and it leaves an impression that this won't be the last things you ever hear from this band. |
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