We Miss Live Music So Much (Beastwars)

By Calen Henry. "Damn the Sky" was the first song where I got Beastwars. From that single track I was hooked and tore through their discography just in time, unfortunately, for them to go on hiatus then announce that singer Matt Hyde was (ultimately successfully) battling cancer.

By Calen Henry.


"Damn the Sky" was the first song where I got Beastwars. From that single track I was hooked and tore through their discography just in time, unfortunately, for them to go on hiatus then announce that singer Matt Hyde was (ultimately successfully) battling cancer.

After all that their announcement of a surprise comeback album, last year's IV, was the most exciting musical moment of 2019 for me. The anticipation was well founded; it ended up being my favourite album last year. It turns out that wasn't the only surprise the band had up their sleeve.

On May 1, Bandcamp's second "all proceeds to artist" day since global COVID-19 quarantine efforts began and bands faced a cascade of gig cancellations, the boys in Beastwars decided to drop a live album. Not just any set either, their entire comeback concert from July 2018 at Wellington NZ's San Fran. As a Canadian fan who is unlikely to be able to catch the band live, it's an incredible gift. Not just a comeback album, but their comeback show, professionally recorded and mixed. It's even got some nice dynamic headroom with a master clocking in at DR8.


Being a year before the release of IV the setlist is made up entirely of songs from their trilogy. They start the set with the Beastwars song "Damn the Sky". From there they rip through some of the best tracks from the three albums in largely chronological order though they save two tracks from the first album, the savage stomp of "Red God" and mantra-like "Daggers" as the one-two punch to end the set. "Daggers" is such a perfect note on which to end the set, with its repeated refrain

Play that song
Play that one we know
Play it loud
Play that one we love

They sound like a different band from the snapshot of despair, grief, and hope captured on IV. By time they got back to the stage Matt was back to full demon-bellowing capacity and the set is a band with fire in their bellies ripping through their back catalog for their hometown crowd. It's magical and kind of perfect for a band with so much mysticism in their lyrics to hear the moment they hit the stage after so much turmoil and a rebirth. To top it off the band have been kind enough to ask for absolutely nothing in return. It's Name Your Price on the band's Bandcamp page.

Beastwars - IV

By Calen Henry. Beastwars never promised a fourth album. After going on hiatus upon completing their apocalyptic trilogy, followed by singer Matt Hyde’s Non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, more from the trio seemed even less likely. Matt’s diagnosis, it turns out, catalyzed creativity.

By Calen Henry.

Artwork by Nick Keller.

Beastwars never promised a fourth album. After going on hiatus upon completing their apocalyptic trilogy, followed by singer Matt Hyde’s Non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, more from the trio seemed even less likely. Matt’s diagnosis, it turns out, catalyzed creativity. Booking studio time straight after Hyde’s chemo treatment ended, the band recorded IV; a harrowing journey inwards through guilt, fear, regret, and hope.

IV brings together the sound of each album in the trilogy; the straight up riff worship of Beastwars, the more angular riffing of Blood Becomes Fire, and the psychedelia tinged, slow burning riffs of The Death of All Things. The longer songs and component riffs on IV often bring all these parts together in a single track while solos twist and turn leading from heavy passages into ambient sometimes post-rock tinged sections. It feels more like a journey than before due in part to the frequent compound metering that drives songs forward, but it also sounds grungier, adding more guitar effects, and doubling down on the loud/quiet verse/chorus structure. The core approach of huge riffs supported by fuzzed out bass remains the same.

Matt’s vocals have changed, though. His quiet, seething vocals still drip with menace, but his huge rafter-rattling howl is thinner, more pained. It’s pleading, bleeding emotion. It could be confronting mortality, recording an album straight after chemo, the crushing weight of torment that pours forth, or it could be all of that. Matt’s performance is gripping. It’s his most nakedly emotional performance and this from the man who opens the band’s catalog with "Damn the Sky," a howling sermon to a dying world.

"Raise the Sword" opens the album on a note of hope and defiance. A short feedback build crashes into a trademark trudging guitar riff supported by fuzz bass with a howling verse before breaking into a quiet bass-led chorus. The verses focus on the toll of regret and guilt, while the chorus frames it with hope,

Breathe long
Breathe wise
Don't fall
Raise the Sword

The song’s bridge breaks into a sample from “The Quiet Earth”, about science in the wrong hands which, at first, seems incongruous with the themes of guilt and hope, but its inclusion becomes clear over the course of the album as Matt couples personal guilt with deep guilt and regret over the state of the earth.

An ambient interlude then brings back the main riff, underscoring another hopeful verse, before a chorus reprise into an unresolved chord while Matt howls “Raise the Sword” one last time. A perfect set-up for the album, hope and defiance in the lyrics, with the unresolved chord emphasizing the beginning of something, not the end.

"Wolves and Prey" opens with effect drenched drums, before the heaviness starts. Again centering on regret, it begins to introduce the colossal societal guilt hinted at in "Raise the Sword". Not only personal guilt, but guilt at the state of the earth and what it means for future generations,

Speak of old kings
Hands of your loss
Let everyone say
What have we done

The song’s bridge introduces a new permutation of the band’s sound; their characteristic extended, stomping bass-led sections underneath long, lyrical guitar leads lending the album an introspective and dream-like quality.

"Storms of Mars", with it’s wah drenched intro, hearkens back to The Death of All Things, before launching into the one of the fastest riffs on the album supporting dual guitar leads with lyrics adopting classical and sci-fi imagery to beg for more time,

Let me live
Give me ten more years
Let the child grow
Let me see new Rome

At the same time it warns not to repeat the mistakes of the past,

A refugee
A world as cruel as the last
Remember thee old Gods
Remember their rage

The song shifts into crunchy bass-led riffing, reminiscent of Blood Becomes Fire, and back before an ambient interlude, led by Matt’s bubbling mid-range rage builds to the song’s climax, over top of octave doubled tremolo riffing he begs to “let the child live, to build new Rome”.

"This Mortal Decay" opens with a classic mid-tempo riff, supported by faster than average drumming, and confronts death more directly, describing looking down from a mountain to see what humanity has wrought, and how despite it all, we can’t give up or give in, or escape our “mortal decay”. The vocals hit a sweet spot with the lurching guitar line; never quite out of control, but never settling down to the simmering rage of the more menacing passages on the album. The only exception is after a string swell to support the song’s bridge, an indictment of reckless technological advancement, where the vocal intensity perfectly matches the instruments

Oh God, oh God
Bring us your neon cross
Oh God, oh God
Drive your speed machine

"Omens", the album’s lead single, opens with a pseudo-gallop reminiscent of “Damn the Sky”, and is classic Beastwars through and through, but with flashes of the more psychedelic from the pre-chorus wah guitar to the almost post-rock outro. It was an extremely well chosen single to show fans the band’s triumphant return as well as their subtle sonic shift both instrumentally and lyrically with lyrics that are more esoteric and closer to the band’s older material than the rest of the album

After brief ambiance, "Sound of the Grave" is a torturous guilt-trip driven by rumbling, fuzzed out bass as the guitars build into the fury of the chorus underneath Matt’s seething sermon on forgiveness, death, and nothingness. The consistent rumbling riffs match the off-kilter tone of the lyrics, wondering what it’s worth in the end,

And I try for forgiveness
In the time of the damned
And nothing is better
Than being in the ground

"The Traveller" may be the album's most tortured vocal showcase. Matt wails over nothing but a solo guitar track until the laid back groove kicks before switching to a classic New Wave drum beat supporting a wicked lyrical twin guitar line through the chorus. It leads into a dissonant, chorus-drenched guitar solo ripped straight from the Nirvana playbook before (again, Nirvana-style) the song gets heavier and almost falls apart as Matt intones,

Blessed is the world
And we all must leave

"Like Dried Blood", in contrast to it’s morbid title, starts with clean vocals accompanied by piano and drums before the typical Beastwars (circa Death of All Things) sound bursts forth then parts and brings piano back to lead. Lyrically it bookends the album; ending the fight started with "Raise the Sword" but far more general with Matt saying his great war is over, but

Like all this blood
It will wash away

IV is a towering achievement. Beastwars have always been darker than average for stoner rock, dealing obliquely with environmental ruin and existential angst. IV turns the lens deeply inward and delivers their most emotionally raw and engrossing album yet. It’s as harrowing as it is addicting to listen to and it’s my favourite album of 2019.

The Beastwars Trilogy

By Calen Henry. None of the Beastwars albums are new, but in the fall the band made all their albums Pay What You Want on Bandcamp (until April 2018) to support singer Matt Hyde's cancer treatment so it seems like a good time for a retrospective on their trilogy of albums.

By Calen Henry.

None of the Beastwars albums are new, but in the fall the band made all their albums Pay What You Want on Bandcamp (until April 2018) to support singer Matt Hyde's cancer treatment so it seems like a good time for a retrospective on their trilogy of albums.

Thus far the band has recorded a trilogy of albums focusing on a combination of apocalyptic description and introspection; either describing destruction or musing on coming to terms with the resulting death. The albums aren't exactly concept albums but along with the overarching concepts there are recurring images; birds, mountains, rivers, and magic that represent the struggles with life and death on which the band focus. The band's original goal was a trilogy so it remains to be seen if they keep going. Either way, they've recorded an exciting trilogy of albums like no other band, in a crowded and sometimes boring genre; stoner doom.

Artwork by Nick Keller.

Beastwars came to my attention in 2013 with Blood Becomes Fire but I didn't really get them until I went back to the self-titled, specifically the opening song "Damn the Sky".

It is as fine a manifesto as any band could have, summing up the band's unique take on stoner doom, with a layer of grunge, in one track. Anchored by a mid-tempo guitar pseudo-gallop and the band's characteristic crunchy bass, Matt Hyde's vocals shine. Like no other vocalist he careens between a gravelly smooth croon and a god bothering howl introducing tenets of the band's world:

Take me to the top of the hill
Where the birds refuse to fly
Raise your hands your hand to the damned sky
Watch those twin moons collide

Photos by Mark Derricutt / Chalice of Blood.

Artwork by Nick Keller.

Beastwars appears to be set in a time of magic and myth with references to ships as well as magic, while Blood Becomes Fire is set in the future and features the point of view of a time traveling astronaut. It also marks a musical shift for the band; both noisier and more melodic.

Where Beastwars takes the band's mantra, "Obey the Riff" pretty literally, Blood Becomes Fire anchors the huge guitar riffs with more angular bass (and sometimes guitar) riffs but introduces more melodic guitar leads. It takes the band's unique spin on stoner doom to a new level, really giving the band a sound like no one else. It also works with the lyrical shift, from impending doom to the aftermath of apocalypse.

Artwork by Nick Keller.

The final album in the trilogy, The Death of All Things, mellows out the band's overall sound but maintains a level of ferocity, especially in the vocals, that makes for a sound unmatched in modern metal.

Though the album features the band's lyrical touchstones like mountains, rivers and magic, the album is less concerned with description and more with thoughts on the death of all things. The lyrical shift, combined with the musical shift makes the album all the more successful. The more mellow, deliberate tracks are a master class in stoner doom composition. Most bands can only wish to write one track as good as "Witches', let alone a whole album.

I'd also be remiss to talk about Beastwars without mentioning Nick Keller's fantastic cover art for each album. His vivid paintings give the slight visual push that helps transport you to the worlds the band creates. I'm sure the LP sleeves are amazing.

The only blemish on the band's catalog is production. All three albums are mastered very loudly. It's only truly a detriment on the first record which has noticeable clipping, but it can make all three records, back to back, an exhausting listen. And, at 40 minutes apiece, the albums beg to be binged.

That aside, Beastwars are something special. They took a tired genre back to its roots and built a characteristic sound through three musically and lyrically cohesive albums, each having its own sonic identity. Anyone with even a passing interest owes it to themselves to check them out and let’s hope there's more to be heard from them.

Beastwars - Beastwars

Oil on canvas by Nick Keller.

Beastwars' self-titled debut album is back on Bandcamp. It had been taken off because of an impending vinyl release. Now the vinyl is out, and the Beastwars Bandcamp is again open for business. This is primal sludge, but not the heaviest you've ever heard, the riffs are more of the intricate kind. Memorable melodies, carried by a very deliberate stoner groove. Rock solid drumming and a seriously distorted bass. And a vocal that at times sounds almost as raw and distorted as that bass. Good stuff. Here is the review from The Obelisk that originally alerted me to the band.

Oil on canvas by Nick Keller.

Full Metal Attorney listed escapism in 7 Reasons I Listen to Metal. Well just check out that gorgeous and totally over the top Beastwars art by Nick Keller. It adorns the track When I'm King which is billed as "one of the first songs we ever wrote" and is available for free download here.