Victoria melodic death metal band Scimitar is set to release their second album Shadows of Man a day ahead of the 2019 Vancouver Island Metal Festival, where they will be performing. Drummer (and Camosun and Nexus alumnus) Clayton Basi, who graduated from the Applied Communication Program in 2011—calls the album a natural progression, one that was in the works for years before its release.
“A lot of the songs that are on the new album were actually written around the same time or even before [2010 debut] Black Waters came out,” says Basi. “It’s a natural musical progression just to make those old songs better. The songs were written a long time ago, but we’ve since changed them, amped them up, re-written them; just generally made constructive changes to them.”
This was Scimitar’s second time recording the album. The first attempt was in a basement studio; it wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t quite what the band had in mind, says Basi. So when an opportunity to record at Victoria’s Infinity Studios came up, the band couldn’t say no.
“It’s a lot different to go into a full studio, with a full board, and a designated sound room that’s designed to be recorded in,” says Basi. “That allowed us to be a little bit more creative in what we were doing with the mics and that kind of stuff.”
The thing Basi noticed most was the quality of the sound that the recordings at Infinity have.
“For me, it’s the drums. The drums sound way better,” he says. “It was a little bit more of a collaborative writing experience. [It] allows everyone to just focus and hone in on writing the best possible music.”
Basi says he loves how the drums dictate the pace of the songs, and he loves the control and release that comes with playing the instrument.
“It feels great. I’m a very active person—I like running around, I’m always tapping and having extra energy and stuff, so it’s a really good release for energy,” says Basi.
The band’s style—particularly on the new album—is focused heavily on rhythm and lyrics. And even though it’s death metal, it’s death metal with a heavy emphasis on melody.
“We write really heavy music, but it’s also very melodically driven,” says Basi. “We always seek to tell a story or create a feeling in our songs, and that is something that is difficult to do without melody.”
The band also puts a heavy focus on lyrics, which are written by vocalist/bassist Angus Lennox. Lennox was a political science and history major at UVic; Basi says that’s where a lot of Scimitar’s historical elements come from, particularly with the new album.
“You can still tell what he’s saying but you can’t follow along unless you have the lyrics,” says Basi, “so that’s one of the reasons we created a lyric video for the single ‘Knights Collapse.’”
The utility of human struggle, being able to see that there is a plight within that’s part of what makes people able to do great things, is part of the album’s message, says Basi, adding that there are some things that we all need to learn from.
“A lot of the songs are based on things that happened in the past,” he says, “and we feel that there are lessons to be learned for the future in past human action.”
Vancouver Island Metal Festival
Various times, Thursday, August 22 until Sunday, August 25
Free, Centennial Square and Logan’s Pub
vimetalfest.com