Bright morning light makes for long shadows. Metal has a band enjoying their dawning days and they cast more than one.
The Vancouver act 2 Shadows is throwing the best kind of shade right now on a national level and they stop into Prince George on Saturday night.
It's the second visit to P.G. for the quartet of Tryst Germaine (guitar), James Holder (guitar), Sterling Paterson (drums), and Mike Horvath (vocals). They opened for Anarcheon last summer and decided to come back here now that it's their turn for a headlining tour.
"It was one of the better shows of the tour. There was a big crowd, had a lot of energy, so we wanted to come back," said Horvath.
The band is less than three full years old but has already played in more than 20 different cities. This tour is a full-scale junket taking them into Quebec on a month-long 22-date swing. They are promoting their new eight-song album Transference. The singles Ill Treatment and D.E.A.D. (Man With No Face) are both already stirring a fan base.
"We see a different metal scene everywhere," Horvath said, describing what the band has learned so far in their travels.
"The west coast and east coast have such a different flavour to it. In the east they like their modern sounding metal and the west coast is more focused on their thrash metal and death metal feel. It's different going from your hometown to someplace with a different taste in metal. Each city has brought something different and kind of surprised us a bit. It's been a pleasant surprise in each city."
Their sound and presentation style have been called goth-metal, neo-glam, etc. They have a screaming edge to their guitars, some thrumming speed to the rhythm, and Horvath can both scream from the gullet of his soul and sing like a glowering raptor. He and the band walk a bit of a borderline between modernist metal and that throwback traditionalist sound they are surrounded by in the Lower Mainland.
"I just call it rock 'n' roll. It's just metal, to me. I don't get involved in subgenres," Horvath said.
"Honestly it was just what we were inspired by. Obviously those older bands had some influence on us. We definitely listen to bands like Rammstein, Marilyn Manson and all that stuff, Rob Zombie as well, from back in those days, but to be successful in the modern age we've had to look at why bands are succeeding (now) and listen to their sound, how they produce, how they write, trying to find what makes them successful and fits with our influences and what we want to do."
He has gotten a lot of vocal aid from a couple of key metal mentors. He tried to develop his vocal style and blew his voice a few times along the way, in the trial and error of the demanding metal sound. He credits Andrew Hockley from God Said Kill and Sal Costa from My Darkest Days for holding his hand through technique development and giving him a better shot at a longer, healthier career.
The 2 Shadows career arch is being helped by another presentation element. In addition to honing the music and the song composition, they also put effort into a visual show for the fans. Lights, props, makeup, stage effects and other theatrical values play a role in who they are as a band.
"I wanted to have a little bit of a brain to it," Horvath said, adding that it was a group desire to stand out and offer more to the audience.
"One thing that we noticed, watching local bands, was these guys looked like they just got off work and kind of just showed up," Horvath said. "We put an effort into how we look. We want people to see that effort. We didn't talk about it, it just kind of naturally came about. Growing up listening to Alice Cooper and Motionless In Light and Rob Zombie, Motley Crue - bands that put themselves out there to get a good reaction from the crowd - that made me beef with bands that didn't put any effort into how they looked on stage, looked like they didn't care. When you put that little extra mile into it, it gives the audience something more to appreciate, and it makes you more of your own band. The more we refine our act and let all these weird influences into 2 Shadows, the more we don't have to worry about (comparisons to other acts)."
Joining their headline show on Saturday night are support bands Hellsmen, This Gun For Hire, and Kleaver.
The concert happens at The Legion starting with doors at 7 p.m. and first band at 8 o'clock. Tickets are $10 at the door.
