NECKWRECKERS

Electro Quarterstaff – Neckwrecker
Electro Quarterstaff – Titanium Overlords
(from Gretzky)

When the average music fan thinks of heavy metal, in either its traditional Maiden/Priest theatricality or in one of its numerous violent subgenres, there is usually one constant in its approach: a sense of misplaced seriousness.  This is a practice as old as metal itself, as lines like Judas Priest’s “Grinder / Looking for meat / Grinder / Wants you to eat!” and Slayer’s classic “How long can you last in this frozen water burial?” were delivered without a hint of irony or self-referential humor.  Death metal has a similarly straight-faced delivery much of the time, even with the ridiculous B-movie horror themes or that old standby Satan as inspiration.  Modern instrumental metal bands are serious in a different way, creating heavy but somber music that sounds like the score to a very dramatic scene in a film in which a character contemplates suicide or cries about something.  I saw the band Pelican (the Explosions in the Sky of metal) live a while back, and not only did they stare at their instruments and not move the whole performance, but they specifically requested that only blue and red lighting be used to illuminate such a boring spectacle.

Canadian quartet Electro Quarterstaff creates exciting, vital instrumental metal without falling into the dreaded trap of seriousness.  They are certainly serious about writing riffs, but they refuse to forget that metal should be fun and slightly goofy.  “We act silly on stage,” guitarist Andrew Dickens wrote to me, “because we’re all silly in person.  We have a great time playing these songs and express that through a stage show filled with funny faces, hip-swinging and foot-stomping good times.  We aren’t going to put on a show acting like we hate the world.”  From their song titles (“Something’s Awry in the Hetfield of Dreams”) to the cover art to their debut album (a bizarre pastel-colored painting of a one-antlered creature in the ocean with a boat sailing through the hole in its torso), the band is winking at the metal establishment.  And unlike many other instrumental metal-ish bands, like Red Sparowes or the aforementioned Pelican, Electro Quarterstaff aren’t here to uplift your heart –they play fast and the riffs never stop.  Ever.  “The goal of this band has always been to embrace the power of the Riff, or in the case of our songs, many riffs working together to resolve themselves into some kind of cohesive musical speech that’s both sonically fulfilling and challenging to play,” says guitarist Drew Johnston.  “There’s such an abundance of boring, tepid, predictable catshit out there that passes for ‘music’ that we try to create something that can be heard as majestic sonic weaponry puncturing the shield of mediocrity! or at least making a dent.”

If you like riffs, then Electro Quarterstaff’s debut album Gretzky is for you.  It’s a buffet of tasty licks courtesy of the triple-axe assault of Dickens, Johnston, and Josh Bedry.  Dan Ryckman pounds the drums and somehow keeps up with the hyperactive harmonic shred squad without veering into the tasteless unrelenting blast territory of brutal death metal.  Three guitars and drums –no vocals, no bass.  “I don’t think of our unorthodox lineup as a defining characteristic of the band.  In fact, I hope riff lovers from around the world relate to our sound for the same reason we do, the ‘feels good sounds good’ approach.  I guess the whole triple guitar instrumental band thing might spark some interest for the uninformed, but to ride that as what defines Electro Quarterstaff would be selling us short in my opinion,” says Dickens.  Johnston adds, “I find that instrumental music is like reading a book. The listener is enabled to use their imagination to really focus and zero-in on the interplay between the instruments as opposed to having the pictures painted for them by a vocalist or singer yattering on and on, gurgling ad nauseum; which, in the case of extreme metal, can sometimes trivialize or belittle otherwise brilliant music…It’s literally impossible for us to get away with something that sounds half-hearted or half-baked as there are no vocals to ‘carry it’ or to ‘masquerade’ a presumably mediocre or temperate section.” 

Their music is rooted in metal traditions, but just because you think you don’t like metal doesn’t mean you can’t get down to this.  “We’ve never been too concerned about being considered a part of the metal world.  Our roots are clearly in metal and the high-gain riff-intensive songs are that of metal, but I would hate to limit ourselves solely to one genre!I think we have enough to offer to allow some interest from outside the genre, as well as to alienate some of the narrow-minded metalheads out there.”  The songs are meticulously-planned (Johnston compares the arranging process to “the molecular Tetris match from hell”) modern compositions that the composer decided to orchestrate within the sound of a specific genre.  There’s very little repetition in these songs, and considering only one of the eight songs on Gretzky is under five minutes long and one is nearly eleven, that’s a lot of riffs.  Johnston says, “The instrumental aspect of the band is liberating in that we’re totally unencumbered by conventional structure, so it’s been interesting for us to experiment with idiosyncratic accent placement, mutating syncopation, and mathematical patterns embedded between multiple, overlapping and intersecting riffs.”  Riffs are serious business, but that’s pretty much the band’s only statement.  “We don’t have any message or political ideal we’re trying to get across,” says Dickens.  “We’re just a few guys having a good time playing songs we love and that’s how we’ll always keep it.”

The band completed their first tour in the spring of 2006, which included a stop at the highly-regarded Maryland Deathfest.  “[The tour] was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” says Dickens.  “We had an awesome response, made lots of new friends, introduced Electro Quarterstaff to quite a few new faces, and even came home without having to get a second job to pay the bills.”  Gretzky was released on Willowtip Records last fall, and the band has been back in Winnipeg since the tour, going to school or working a job and playing the occasional show.   They hope to tour again soon, which would once again bring the riffs to the masses, as well as the most outrageous guitar faces you’ll ever see.  “I liken the faces and antics to a profoundly cherished David Lee Roth quote: ‘You gotta make it look like it sounds!’” says Johnston.  ”Since I sing with my guitar instead of my voice, it’s fun for me to kind of mime the riffs using my face and body. As soon as you climb onstage, you immediately become a performer or entertainer whether you want to admit it or not, so why not relish in that for a minute? I have a lot of fun playing this wild music and I think that unbridled enthusiasm comes across to people when we play live and is effective in establishing a rapport between us and the audience, regardless of how sophisticated their musical tastes may or may not be. At any rate, I certainly hope our band can at the very least be a catalyst or buffer in raising ‘riff awareness’ and turning people on to more progressive, challenging music they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to or interested in.”

-Posted by Andrew