Preview
THE LAST ACT
Thursday, November 18
Back Alley
Behold, I have seen the future of metal: its past.
Sure, there was a day when the post-thrash, post-grunge kachunka-chunk of nü metal, hairspray-free and boasting even more angst, was a welcome change. But it’s quickly grown tiresome, co-opted by mainstream radio, yielding too many heavy one minute, glossy the next pop bands ranging from Limp Bizkit to Staind. At a time when local bands like Dude Buggy and Broken Toyz capitalize on the public’s secret nostalgia for ’80s metal by simultaneously celebrating it and smothering it in irony, is there no one writing new material in this vein and delivering it straight up like they mean it?
Yes, there is. Enter The Last Act, a Calgary four-piece for whom the heyday of Iron Maiden never ended. "Two of us are in our late 20s, I’m in my 30s," says Colin Murphy, vocalist for The Last Act. "We grew up in the heart of metal, surrounded by it at a time when you were either metal or you were not."
Make no mistake, these guys are metal, all right. Their new release, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, is proof. Rife with epic numbers, it hearkens back to an era when over-the-top drama went hand in hand with melody and guitars ruled the day: dual harmony leads, flurries of two-fisted hammer-ons, the occasional whammy-bar dive and bass lines that warrant putting one foot up on the monitor – it’s all there.
Completing The Last Act’s sound are Murphy’s vocals, high-pitched and keening, but never shrill. And despite Murphy citing Ozzy and Robert Plant as his influences, with none of his bandmates mentioning Judas Priest as a fave, he nonetheless often recalls a Sad Wings of Destiny-era Rob Halford (that’s a good thing). For a relatively unknown band, it all combines in a way that guarantees they won’t emerge into an already-overcrowded genre.
Of course, there are other bands promoting a resurgence of this sound. Notably, Vancouver’s 3 Inches of Blood, who are actually experiencing a modicum of success. But when it came to lauding bands with substance, critics usually overlooked even the best metal bands of the ’80s. Although cheesy elements such as Spandex and eyeliner won’t be as prevalent this time around, it still might not get a much better reception.
Murphy doesn’t care. "We like this kind of music and that’s what we want to play," he says. "Metal has an aggression that stirs up emotions. Metal has heart." |
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