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GET WASTED
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Caught in a mosh. After much delay, Waster released Thunder Pit this past Tuesday. The Winnipeg meta...Caught in a mosh. After much delay, Waster released Thunder Pit this past Tuesday. The Winnipeg metal band — formerly named Fame — recorded its debut full-length album back in October of 2010.
"We’ve been sitting on it for so long, it feels so good to finally birth. It was like a full on pregnancy," says vocalist Nick Wiebe says.
The hard rock hold-up was because Waster was waiting for the right label to release the record. The band — which also includes bassist Tim Halbert, guitarists Michael Fardoe and Nic (Phil) Herzog and drummer Casey Fiorante — eventually found a suitable home at Vancouver punk rock imprint Gold Stock Records.
"We recorded the record with Stu McKillop at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver," says Herzog, 24. "He and Dan Sioui from Carpenter co-own Gold Stock and they just really saw some potential in us and saw that we were willing to work hard to get this out."
And play hard too. Like sonic contemporaries Pantera, Cancer Bats and Every Time I Die, Waster likes to have fun with its groovy, riff-driven sound, a fact reflected in such song titles as Slumberjack and Highabetic.
"Let’s just say we recorded it in B.C.," Wiebe says. "There was a candy machine in the studio that got refilled two or three times while we were there and Super Mario got beat like three times. B.C., candy machine, Highabetic."
Yes, Waster likes to party — just check out the video for lead single Rocket Rider. Directed by Randy Frykas (Call to Arms: The Story of the Royal Albert, White Noise), the context of the clip is a mock house party. Well, kind of.
"It started out as a fake party and then just turned into a real party," Wiebe says. "I remember having to wake up a certain guitar player (motioning towards Herzog) to finish the last couple scenes."
A passed-out Phil won’t slow Waster down. In May, the band toured Canada with 3 Inches of Blood and Cancer Bats and on Friday, Waster starts its own seven-city Western Canadian run. The band also has plans for a 7-inch release and full-length follow-up to Thunder Pit.
"I’d like to have another record out in a year, especially because we did this one a year ago," says Fiorante, 24. "We all still love the songs on Thunder Pit, but we’ve been writing for the last year while sitting on this record, so we’re excited to do new stuff."
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WASTER'S "THUNDER PIT": A SOUNDTRACK FOR BAD DECISIONS
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If listening to their new album Thunder Pit inspires you to seek and destroy, then local groove-meta...If listening to their new album Thunder Pit inspires you to seek and destroy, then local groove-metal meisters Waster have done their job.
“Put it on and break your parents’ furniture,” says guitarist Michael Fardoe. “Make bad decisions and break your parents’ shit. That’s what I want this record to do.”
Fardoe and his bandmates – vocalist Nick Wiebe, guitarist Nic Herzog, bassist Tim Halbert and drummer Casey Fiorante – will release the 10-song disc with a show at the Death Trap this Saturday, Oct. 8.
The band formerly known as Fame released an EP of Pantera-inspired metal in 2009 titled Can’t Get Right.
They say that with Thunder Pit, they wanted to lose the breakdowns and keep their punk, rock and blues-infused metal sounding dirty.
“Breakdowns are dead. Don’t need those,” Fardoe says. “We thought we should probably play faster all the time. Or way slower. And just make it crushing. Just really loud – like, way too loud. Obnoxiously loud.”
“Half the time when you play the album through a CD player, it sounds like your speakers are dying,” Herzog adds.
Waster tracked Thunder Pit last October at Rain City Recorders in Burnaby, B.C. with Stu McKillop (Living With Lions, A Textbook Tragedy). The disc was recorded, mixed and mastered in 12 days, during which the band slept in the studio.
“Me and Tim would sleep in the sound room on a futon, so we really didn’t leave the studio,” Wiebe says. “There’d be bands and producers coming in and we’d be there in our underwear, scratching our balls and playing Super Mario World.”
It’s taken a year to get the record out because the band wanted to find the right label to release it. They eventually settled on Vancouver-based Gold Stock Records, home to bands such as Carpenter and Lowtalker.
Wiebe says the group decided to change its name from Fame this past summer because the new record sounds different from Can’t Get Right and they feel like a brand new band.
They went with “Waster” because it sounds gross.
“The definition of the word ‘waster’ is someone who does something that other, normal people would consider a waste of time,” Fardoe says. “Which is perfect, because we play in a metal band and I’m pretty sure everyone thinks it’s a waste of time.”
“And it probably is,” Wiebe adds with a laugh, “but we don’t know any better.”
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WASTER AT THE DEATH TRAP
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My hands were freezing by the time I finished my second king-can in the back alley beside Mondragon....My hands were freezing by the time I finished my second king-can in the back alley beside Mondragon. My friends were passing around a water bottle full of whiskey and coke. We were wearing our most appropriately “metal” outfits, as we waited for the headlining band, WASTER, to start.
Rocking combat boots, black nail polish and cut up t-shirts; we chugged the remainder of booze and entered the basement venue, “The Death Trap”, below the FYXX in the Exchange District.
The guys of WASTER were already set up, they checked the equipment one more time, and walked around the floor anxiously. They were ready to start.
We found a place on the right side of the stage. Only, The Death Trap doesn’t have a stage, only a rug on the floor and large stacked speakers separating the crowd from the band. The walls are concrete and are painted black with glow-in-the-dark spray paintings of cats and demon faces painted on them.
The anticipation in the room started to rise as the audience swarmed towards where the band was set up.
The lead singer, Nick Weibe, grabbed the Mic and stepped up onto the small platform. The platform only put him only a head taller than the rest of the crowd.
He screamed out the first couple lyrics to the song, as the rest of the band jumped full gear of the first song.
The crowd was already sweaty, they started to push and shove each other; the mosh pit commenced.
We were in The Thunder Pit.
WASTER, is a five-piece metal groove band from Winnipeg. They were recently signed to Gold Stock Records, and release their first 10 song-album “Thunder Pit.” This past week was the kick show for their 9 gig Western Canada tour.
Michael Fardoe and Nic Herzog’s quick riffs, Tim Halbert ripping bass, Casey Fiorante’s heavy drums, and Nick Wiebe’s tearing voice come together to make a full bad-ass sound.
If you get the chance to check these guys out, at The Death Trap or elsewhere, I strongly suggest going. Even if you aren’t the biggest metal fan, the energy this band gives off is worth checking out.
Their album is also available for download on iTunes.
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WASTER - THUNDER PIT 2011
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C’est nouveau, c’est canadien, c’est puissant, c’est crasseux, c’est punk metal et c’est hardcore. J...C’est nouveau, c’est canadien, c’est puissant, c’est crasseux, c’est punk metal et c’est hardcore. Je parle ici d’un nouveau band du Manitoba du nom de Waster. Après avoir vu le vidéoclip de la chanson Rocket Rider sur les ondes de Much Loud, j’ai tout de suite eu envie d’en savoir plus sur ce nouveau groupe qui, pour l’instant, semble pratiquement inconnu de tout le monde. J’espère bien que cette critique vous donnera le goût comme moi d’en savoir plus sur cette excellente formation canadienne.
Waster fait dans le rock n’ roll à saveur punk et hardcore avec une grosse touche de stoner qui peut nous rappeler par moment des groupes comme Pantera, Lamb Of God, Dance Laury Dance et Red Fang. C’est avec les guitares en avant-plan que le groupe nous défonce les oreilles avec sa musique plutôt entraînante et abrasive! La voix du chanteur Nick Wiebe décape tout sur son passage avec des screams vraiment intenses et puissants qui ne sont pas sans rappeler Randy Blythe ou même Phil Anselmo.
Les moments forts de l’album Thunder Pit sont sans contredit la chanson-titre, Rocket Rider, So Devil, Forty Creek et 40 Speed. Il y a aussi d’autres chansons plus lentes et plus lourdes qui donnent une belle balance à l’album. J’ai particulièrement apprécié Slumberjack et Tongue Cancer dans ce genre.
Waster est un groupe à découvrir et un trésor canadien bien caché pour le moment. Je vous invite donc à visiter ce lien pour écouter leur album : http://waster.bandcamp.com/album/thunder-pit
Allez aussi voir la vidéo plus bas! Si mon instinct ne me fait pas défaut, on devrait entendre parler de Waster en 2012.
supersonic
