From the heights of Canada comes a new force of blistering cold and northern darkness in the form of Montreal’s Fall of Stasis. The fall was formed in 2014 with intent of creating unidentifiable original music with an eclectic, progressive, symphonic punch to the ears.
Their demo came in 2017 with this year’s new full length The Chronophagist teetering with black metal influences and heavy prog. Jessica Dupré blasts speakers with screeching, growling lungs and demonic fury with Gabriel Bernier on lead guitar, backing growls and cleans. Tristan Bergeron-Boucher does the rhythmic twanger while Mathieu Groulx booms on the four-string. Sergei Lecours keeps the blasting pace on sticks with extra atmosphere and ambiance by Mélissa Bissonnette on keys.
Symphonic, brutal, unpredictable and loud they’ve made a melting pot of extremes only fitting for a Sith witch to stir creating bubbling brutality. So far they’ve played stages with The Agonist, Wolfheart and Beyond Creation among others.
The title track, “The Chronophagist” is part made up term, part phagist meaning eating and chrono meaning time, Time Eater. Boucher came up with the term, saying some mundane task was really chronophagic. It sounded cool so they built lyrics around it about a god-like being that eats time, a very metal idea.
The Chronophagist is displayed on the cover with a B&W illustration on the inside booklet done by the same artist responsible for Behemoth’s brutal illustrated darkness.
They bring a copious amount of diverse influences, “I’m more of a symphonic, folk guy, power metal as well. Anything that’s melodic,” Lecours says. He’s a fan of death metal and prog too. “We’re into all types of genres so we don’t really have to compromise when someone brings their influences to the mix.”
Bernier adds “Usually when someone, comes up with a song, it’s Tristan. Like a skeleton, a few ideas, we just build around that. We don’t say, that would be a good death metal part, it just works itself out coming naturally.” Groulx brings his own magic to the song, giving it, its musical spine so to speak. ”Our singer brings her own sound, maybe more black metal, Black Dahlia voice.” She brings a mix of metalcore, deathcore and pig squeals. The table’s reset for each song with different musical weaponry, whether it’s to build or slaughter.
Bernier’s responsible for many of the records deep cornered dark cellar growls, complimenting Dupré’s demonic growls and acidic screams nicely. Though they may be easy to confuse and separate on the brutality scale.
All members agree of her power behind the mic, “When we’re doing jam sessions, she’s louder than everything else,” Bernier acknowledges, and then some. At sound check she’s often made necks snap her way and eyes bulge when it’s her turn to test audio boundaries.“You can see everyone’s face change; she’s very, very loud. That’s the first thing we noticed when auditioning her.” During auditions other potentials needed the volume boosted. When she came, they had to yell at each other to turn it down.
She’s also badass enough to wear glasses on stage. “She didn’t wear glasses before. It’s whatever you want to do, you’re so good,” Lecours says. “And she likes to see so that’s goods,” Bernier adds.
Bernier also does the clean vocals on all tracks but the last which is obviously not him.
So far they have one EP and Chrono’s their first full length.
“Cult” is the first video and track chosen best representing the band’s sound and vision to the public, a good loud chaotic intro to the Stasis. “It’s short, catchy, fast and in your face. That’s why we choose that song,” Lecours says. “We’re gonna have another one, somewhere around six to eight weeks after the albums released.”
They say the song and video’s not based on any specific cult past or present. They say it’s a collective description, a vague impression of what a cult is and a mishmash of every known cult.
The instrumental opener “Wilted Forest” is an ominous dark creation between Boucher and Bissonnette with influence from Wintersun, Dimmu Borgir and Fleshgod Apocalypse. It’s meant for smooth transition once the last song ends it flows seamlessly back to the beginning.
They say, if you love the album, it’ll be an easy listen, but definitely NOT easy listening, “The end of “Chronophagist” fits very well with the beginning of “Wilted Forest.” Lecours says if you’re into it you won’t notice it starting over.” Among many influences including Pink Floyd, Mongolian throat singing is featured in the intro.
“Fall of Stasis” is partly about the Biblical Flood. “It was about having an apocalypse or something,” Bernier says. “Like a science fiction, time travel, dimensions colliding with each other. A big time apocalypse, I like the idea of a flood. Takes everything away and starts anew.”
Lecours adds, “It sets the tone for the album, very apocalyptic, very eclectic. That’s why we started up with that.”
“Drunken Howl” their pirate song is no, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of whatever, fun song. It started with a melody and inspiration to look up torture methods used by the swashbuckling sword-swingers. “We had this like pirate theme song listed,” Bernier explains. “We were writing, looking up what pirates did as torture. We looked up bowels nailed to the mast and made them turn around. We wanted to teach future generations about that. Nailed bowels to a mast and you just unraveled. We read about that, it’s pretty metal. We just fit it in the lyrics.” They’ve written the dark, rated R Pirates of the Caribbean.
They’re big Alestorm fans too finding inspirations in their music and style but making it their own story and thing.
“Baal Arise” is fast, blistering, loud and done. “That’s the point of the song,” Bernier says. “It was this short, fast paced song. We like it a lot. It’s different from the others. We thought it was a good idea to have a lyric video less than two minutes and in your face, it gets your attention.”
“Baron” is about the town drunk, unfortunately the town folk were not too kind to this local legend. Making him do demoralizing things to fuel his habit like decapitating a live lizard and eating cigarette butts, a sick source of entertainment.
Lecours learned of his passing when he was adding thank you notes to the records inside booklet. “He was smarter than people thought and I always liked him. Everybody liked him but some took advantage and that’s a shame.” They were happy to give him an odd lyrical tribute.
They say, there’s a huge metal scene in Quebec that people don’t realize. There are usually mosh pits as soon as they start playing. They’ve played for three years and want to tour, now that they have an official full length out. “We were supposed to tour across Canada,” Lecours recalls. “We had eight dates, going all the way to New Brunswick, Halifax. One week before the pandemic hit it was off.” The U.S. and Europe are definitely on their tour map. “If you’ll have us, we’ll be there.”
Their early days were quite humble, jamming in a cold garage occupied by loud chickens. They had to walk past them every rehearsal including people auditioning at the time. A stone stove had to be preheated 30 minutes prior in order to practice. There were no reports if loud metal helped or hindered the chick’s egg count.
For future consideration they’d love to tour with Quebec’s Beyond Creation and Gojira.
There’s another video in planning but not filmed yet. “We know where we’re going. It’s going to be the last track on the album,” Lecours says. “It’s our favorite.” After the pandemic, the guy who did their live footage is doing a multi-camera video clip.
Current heath restrictions make playing impossible in their area though venues should reopen mid-March. If true they’ll be playing as soon as doors open.
The Chronophagist is now available.
