dreadnaut

B
Dreadnaut
A New Design
(2005)

An aggressive metal act that puts porn stars on its posters, Dreadnaut is serving notice that it's serious with this debut full-length. A New Design is the follow-up to a self-titled EP released in August 2004, and one of the EP tracks is also on the new album. The old and new provide a nice contrast and clearly indicate which way this band should go. The key is singer Steven Crooks, and when Crooks is screaming, shit is rocking, When he serves up cleaner and more melodic vocals, the result loses a little steam. When you can wail like that, why hide it? Besides, the riffing is heavy enough to support an aggressive vocal assault. So let 'er rip, Dreadnaut as on Spine, and Silence, a pair of pummelling, lashing tracks, that scream "high-speed road trip." Dreadnaut still hasn't quite found its sound, but damn, these guys are close.
--Mike Warkentin
September 29, 2005 - Uptown Magazine

Dreadnaut self-titled EP #3 - Uptown Magazine

B
Dreadnaut
self-titled EP
(2004)

This aggressive Winnipeg five-piece is going to throw a compressed wall of guitars at you with every track on this six-song EP. Layered, thick and heavy, this is alternative metal that smells vaguely of sweaty all-ages shows and the Royal Albert.Singer Steven Crooks alternates between melodic bits and violent screams, and it's actually the latter style that serves this music best. Crooks' hoarse yells on the intro to Capone are a perfect fit with the writhing, almost-tuneless guitars that dominate the mix, and this quintet is in the pocket when he's screaming over gouging riffs from Robin Kimball and Anthony Bradbury.
--Mike Warkentin
September 30, 2004 - Uptown Magazine

Local metal outfit Dreadnaut looks to bounce back from a rough summer with its new record, A Taste of What's To Come
Jared Story

Better things to come
When the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought set sail in 1906, her all-big-gun arsenal and steam-turbine propulsion made her the fastest, most powerful warship to hit the high seas.

Dreadnaut is a similar dominant force. Since 2003, the band has proven to be one of the most potent metal acts to call the 'Peg home. But, unlike the big boat, you can't sink this battleship.

Dreadnaut, which is vocalist Steven Crooks, guitarist Robin Kimball, bassist Randy Goshey and drummer Chris Miller, will hold its A Taste of What's to Come CD release party at The Zoo this Saturday. The night will mark the end of what has been a crazy summer for the band - one full of ups and downs.

Let's start with the downs.

Dreadnaut had a full-scale Canada/America summer tour planned and ready to go. In fact, the band had already hit the road when it was suddenly forced to return to Winnipeg.

"We have this whole tour booked up and we don't get past fucking Sudbury," Crooks says. "Randy's mom went into a coma. He was crushed and devastated, so we rushed back home so he could be with his mom.

"She was out for a week and didn't have very good motor skills for about a month, so Randy has been taking care of her. Then right after all that happened, he got the bad news that he's got to go into surgery for a cancerous thyroid gland. Unbelievable."

With family and health matters taking priority, Dreadnaut has been forced to bide its time in Manitoba - but that doesn't mean all heavy metal operations have been suspended.

The group recently called upon original guitarist Anthony Bradbury to handle bass duties for a show in Thompson (Crooks, Kimball, Miller and Bradbury all hail from the northern Manitoba town), and will probably do the same at the CD release show. Barring any bizarre gardening accidents, things look like they're already on the up-and-up for Dreadnaut.

Speaking to the positive side of things, Dreadnaut recorded A Taste of What's to Come with Grammy-nominated local producer Brandon Friesen. Not only did Friesen help the boys create an ass-kicking, neck-snapper of a disc, he's been hooking the band up in other ways.

"We had Tom Baker master the album," Crooks says. "He's from L.A. He's mastered Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails. It was pretty cool and an honour to have him do it. We wouldn't have been able to get him if it wasn't for Brandon."

Friesen has also been instrumental in getting Dreadnaut Canada-wide distribution, and he's been able to garner the band a release in Australia. That's right, Dreadnaut will be distributed down under, all because of the band's decision to cover a Nine Inch Nails classic.

"Everything was done (on the album) except the vocals for Wish," Crooks says. "Brandon called and said 'Hey Steve, we're sending the album to Tom Baker in two days, why not get in here and finish the vocals so he can master Wish, too. We don't have to put it on the album, but at least you have it mastered by Tom Baker.'

"Fucking rights I will. So, I'm in the studio that night warming up, and all a sudden, Brandon comes over and says we're going to have a visitor or two for the evening. It was Stevie Salas, who was Mick Jagger's guitar player (and Rod Stewart's) and Mark from Sony Records in Australia, which is how we got distribution there.

"We had a few wobbly pops and they watched us record the song. I just whipped through it in three takes. We just nailed it."

Wish is one of two covers on A Taste of What's to Come, the other being a rendition of the Sepultura slayer Roots Bloody Roots.

"We've been playing those songs since we started playing music," Crooks says. "They definitely speak to where we're sitting with this album and our mindset, lyrically and the feel of the songs, and it's just a tribute to some of our favourite bands of all time."

You can definitely hear both bands' influences on Dreadnaut. An apt description, albeit simple, of the local head-bangers sound could be the chugga-chugga style riffery of Roots-era Sepultura combined with the metallic melody of NIN.

In other words, it's catchy, heavy metal/hard rock that anybody with an ear for the aggressive can get into - such as the people at Hollywood Music TV.

"Jordan Stothart, she came up from Hollywood Music TV to do a thing on the music scene here and she came across a Dreadnaut show at The Zoo one night and ended up interviewing us," Crooks says. "She sent all our stuff to Steve Bartolone (CEO/president of Hollywood Music Inc.), who actually contacted us the next today. He wanted a bunch of swag and he got us a couple shows at The Key Club and The Viper Room, so that's where we were supposed to go in July. We were ready to play the Hollywood Strip and then everything happened (Goshey's urgent family and health matters)."

That just goes to show - Uptown Magazine