Red Deer metal band Leave the Living are stopping by Lethbridge to play Inferno, July 22 in the midst of their first long tour, which takes them to Winnipeg and back.
“It’s kind of surreal. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that in three days time, I’ll be half way across the country,” enthused frontman Justin Shadows, preparing for the tour.
“ We’re really excited about Lethbrid
ge because several different tours are coming together there, so there will be a great cross-section of metal,” he enthused.
“And the funny thing is, we’re playing with Becomes Astral in Brandon too,” he said.
“ I’m really looking forward to playing Winnipeg, because that’s where I’m from originally and I want to see how much it has changed,” Shadows said, who moved away from Winnipeg in 1994 when he was 14.
Leave the Living, who have been together for five years, just released their first full length CD “ Pacifist.”
“ If you release an album, you’ve got to tour to support it, right,” he asked.
“ We’ve got the same line up, so we’re blessed we still get along, Shadows chuckled, adding their first tour will be a test for the band.
“ We’ve done a lot of weekend warrior stuff, playing on weekends and then coming back to work,” he said.
“ But this time we were lucky, we were all able to synch up our vacations, so we could go out for longer,” he continued.
“ We‘re definitely going to be bringing our A game, so were very excited,” Shadows said, who has played Inferno with Leave the Living once before.
“I remember there being a good crowd and the kids were really into it,” he said.
He is pleased with their full length debut, which he described as being a lot heavier than their first EP.
“ A lot of that is learning how to play better together and becoming better at our crafts,” he said, noting heavier is the natural direction for the band.
“ A lot of it is about politics,” he said, noting lyrics are a collaborative process.
The band recorded the new Cd over five or six months worth of weekends in between day jobs.
“We’re a groove death metal band, but we also like to include a lot of melody,” he described.
They also just completed a lyric video for their song“ Sink and Swim,” which features the lyrics over clips from an old movie called the brain that Wouldn't Die.”
“ I did that. We’ve done a lyric video before, but that was just us playing in front of a black backdrop. This is a public domain movie from the 1960s called the Brain That Wouldn’t Die. I love old horror movies. So I trimmed the movie down to five minutes of the best parts of it, he said,” noting the band is planning on making another video from the new CD.
“ ‘Poison Pen will be next. I haven’t had time to think too much about it though because I’m too bust preparing for the tour,” he said.
Leave the Living will be playing Inferno, July 22 with old friends Netherward, Fargo, North Dakota alternative, post hardcore band Tracings, Ontario progressive metal band Becomes Astral and Lethbridge death metal band the Avulsion. There is a $10 cover. The bands will begin at 8:30 p.m.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
