Golers, Drearius and Built To Decay Invade The Slice For An Afternoon Of Metal

I do my best to support my local metal scene. As such, many of the bands you’re going to read about here may never hit your radar unless I can really push this platform and help spread the word for them. Each of the bands I heard play at The Slice on Sunday afternoon, 1 June, deserves to be on a much larger stage in front of a much larger audience, but here they were, just happy to play to a small crowd and share the music they love.

Built To Decay Crushes It….Again

You can read more about these young up-and-comers in the two other posts I’ve written about them: Death And Decay Metal Fest: Part 1 and Salem Trials, Syphon, Penalty, Built To Decay.

Nothing Dreary Or Bland With Drearius

What in the holy saints of thrashdom did I just witness?! And from a local band, no less. I’m really struggling not to end this recap with simply “holy fucking shit, you just need to experience this band for yourself,” but I won’t do that to you. Seriously though, holy fucking shit, you just need to experience this band for yourself.

Old-school thrash shaped my early metal years. Bands like Exodus, Testament, and Anthrax, while more recently Kreator and Destruction have filled my playlists. Drearius are on the same level as those megagods of thrash, only they’re from Lethbridge, Alberta. If you’re into thrash, I’ve just found your new favourite band. For now, you’ll either have to play their only single on Bandcamp on repeat, embedded below, or catch them live.

While the band mostly held their ground on stage, the lead vocalist raged through the entire set. No complaints here; they were a tight unit with clean sound and solid live production. I’m pretty sure the drummer is some kind of Six Million Dollar Man (Gen Z, Google it), double bass for days .

Catch them live if you can, and hit that follow button on Bandcamp. They’ll be a thrash force to reckon with soon.

Fuck Retiring, I’m Starting A Band

The Golers just reaffirmed my belief that it’s not too late for me to start a death-metal band. They’re not death metal themselves; they’re a hard-driving, kick-ass, face-melting thrash/crossover outfit. Don’t let their age fool you (I couldn’t find any numbers, and I didn’t look that hard). I’m sure each of them could kick your ass off and on stage; they definitely did the latter to me today.

Loud. Fast. When I say fast, I mean fast like a jack rabbit on rocket fuel (if jack rabbits could grow beards, play instruments, and actually live on rocket fuel). Even their “love song” was fast; it might have been the quickest tempo of the whole set.

I walked into this gig clueless about the band’s legacy. Turns out they’ve been grinding since 1998. One minute they were bearded dudes chilling at a table, “old heads” as someone called me when I said I was fifty and bought my first Metallica album in ’87, then they got up after Drearius and started setting up. Stunned? You bet.

They delivered a rager. Even after Jonny Goler (aka Stuart Carruthers) celebrated his birthday the night before, the slightly hung-over quartet threw down one of the highest-energy sets I’ve seen in ages. Stage antics? Not their lane; that crown still sits with Fit For A King or Our Last Crusade. Raw musical stamina? The Golers shred.

I Guarantee You’re Missing Out…

If you’re not backing your local metal scene, you’re missing out. Over the last nine months I’ve been blown away by the raw talent coming from people you’d never expect or had never heard of who are shaping Lethbridge’s heavy community. I want to see them keep writing, keep playing, and eventually break out of our city. One day I hope to shoot a show in Calgary, Edmonton, or overseas and see one of these bands opening for twenty thousand people. Maybe even headlining Wacken or Hellfest.