(by George Pacheco)
Havre, Montana, probably isn’t the first place one might think of when the term “heavy metal hotbed” is tossed around. It certainly doesn’t sound as impressive as, say, “The Bay Area,” or “Gothenburg.” Not that this matters much to blast-masters Martriden, however. Something tells me that the quintet would be ripping up their death/black/Viking metal hurricane regardless of zip code.
Bergen, Norway? Stockholm, Sweden? Eat your heart out; Martriden have all the ingredients they need for a potent steel stew…right here in America’s heartland.
“I’d say we’re trying to do something unique and find our own voice in the scene,” begins guitarist Will Thackeray, “which can be quite difficult, at times. We’re getting closer to how we want to sound, though. We still have a long way to go. We all listen to a lot of music and we try to put into our delicious stew parts of everything we enjoy or are influenced by.”
Indeed, the band’s debut full-length for Siege Of Amida/Candlelight Records, The Unsettling Dark, balances very well the technical and melodic sides of metal. “Listening to music was basically all we did when we were in high school,” Will admits. “We have all had a bit of classical training; a couple of us took piano lessons. Kyle played classical piano all through high school and Shane and I were in the same band class. We try to listen to every metal band out there, new or old, just to see what other people are doing. We like the progressive side of metal. We are always looking for bands that have a creative vision, that want to take genres past their limitations.”
Martriden themselves certainly buck the tech-obsessed, mosh-happy youth of today, preferring instead to filter their material through a hazy narrative of swirling melodies, complex percussion and epic structure. The end result weaves a web not unlike that of latter-day Emperor, an act whose last tour actually featured Martriden as exclusive “special guests.” “That was unbelievable,” enthuses Thackeray. “I’m still in shock that we got the opportunity to do that. Emperor is probably our favorite band collectively, and getting a chance like that was tremendous. Everybody in Emperor was very nice to us as well — I even got to trade guitars with Ihsahn backstage!”
It’s the chance of a lifetime and definitely not something that five average dudes just starting out from Montana might think would happen to them. “Yeah, [keyboardist/guitarist] Kyle [Howard], [guitarist] Shane [Howard] and I all grew up in a small town in north/central Montana, and, for some reason, met each other and were all into the same music,” comments Will on the band’s salad days. “We started out as a three-guitar band, just playing some music from old thrash and death metal bands. It was quite ‘interesting!’ I think we were all thinking it wasn’t going anywhere, so we just focused on writing music and getting it recorded, just to see what we were capable of. It turned out much better than any of us expected. Dave Otero, our producer, was a huge factor in getting our name out and giving us a great sounding recording. As far as our name goes, Kyle found it through a Norse myth about sleep asphyxiation.”
On the subject of hometown support, the guitarist continues, “we’ve had some support from local stores and newspapers, just telling people what the boys from Havre are up to. Not much is going on in the scene here in Montana at all; we just kind of found each other and played covers of our favorite songs. We used to play in Shane and Kyle’s garage, and you could hear us all over town, we played so loud! I don’t know if that was appreciated, but some people liked us. We actually haven’t had much experience onstage, which is something we’re going to work very hard at the rest of this year. We’re always trying to spread our music as far as possible, and Siege Of Amida/Candlelight have been really helpful in getting us shows, and trying to get us heard. We’re busy with college and such right now, but we hope in the next year or so we can tour a lot more, and get out there in the scene. I think we’ll become much better the more shows we play. I think the last show we played about a year before Emperor was a Montana Metalfest.”
So how does the band reign in all of those diverse influences into a songwriting process which accurately represents “the Martriden sound?” “We’ve had to be creative in how we write music,” replies Will. “Shane, Kyle, and I all live in different areas of the country during the year. We do a lot of writing on tab editors and recordings on basic recording equipment we have at home, and then send ideas to each other to see what the others think. We usually have all the songs done before we go into the studio, but since we haven’t seen each other or rehearsed, we’re pretty rusty when we finally get there. It’s kind of a bummer we have to do it that way, but it seems like the only way we can do it, for the time being.”
He continues, “we do add lots of melodies. We usually get a basic chord outline for songs and add melodies. The chords are usually anchored in by the keyboard and rhythm guitar, then we try to add something that goes overtop; a melody or some higher chord structure. The guitars are rarely ever playing the same part. The lyrics and vocals we use to enhance a mood or atmosphere we’re trying to create. We’re hoping that the listeners will be able to make their own interpretations and get something more personal for themselves out of [that atmosphere] and their listening experience.”
