Keeping it Metal

I am not a metal head.

I keep telling myself that, yet every time I see my son Matt’s band Into Exile play, it gets harder and harder to convince myself of that.

It started out slowly, of course. All the great forbidden love stories do, don’t they? I would go see Matt play out of love and support, and I would concentrate on my son’s guitar skills (he’s bloody amazing) and try to tune out the screaming that is such an integral part of thrash metal’s soul.

Then I would go see the band again, and this time I would really listen to Bobby (No Fear) sing. That’s gotta hurt, I would think. Then I would listen some more. After a few gigs, I was hooked, but just Into Exile, you know?

Then it happened. I was at a show in Oshawa a month or so ago and I found myself having a great time listening to a trio of metal bands and Exile hadn’t even performed yet. This past weekend I saw Matt and the boys in Ajax at a Battle of the Bands competition and I had a blast again listening to screaming metal band after screaming metal band.

What the hell happened to me?

I am a rocker at heart, but I was more inclined to listen to progressive bands like Yes, Genesis and King Crimson in my high school days, and I would morph into a lover of punk and ska bands during my college years. My taste in hard rock usually went no further than Deep Purple and Nazareth and, eventually, AC/DC.

Metal? No way.

I should take some time and introduce the boys of Into Exile, a band that has its roots at Father Francis Mahoney, a little Catholic elementary school in Oshawa that is now the site of a Greek church. Matt, fellow axe man Tiy and drummer Josh were all classmates there and at Monsignor John Pereyma High School, hooking up later with Bob, the charismatic little powerhouse on vocals.

Josh, who shares the same birthday as me, has been a friend of the family since he moved here from Bristol, England when he was seven. He never did learn how to use the doorbell or knock at our house, and with a smile that never seemed to leave his face, we never minded. Tiy, the quiet one, was the original guitar player in the neighbourhood and if he wasn’t Matt’s inspiration to learn the instrument, he certainly was one of his motivations to excel at it. Bobby, who is a certified crazy motha and a born leader, is one of those guys who would give you the shirt off his back. Which is usually not a problem, as he rarely wears one. Do you even lift, bro?

Dylan, the third bass player in the band’s four year history, is a more recent addition. I don’t know him well enough to insult him. Yet.

The band has had its ups and downs since 2009, breaking up for a while last year before reforming with most of the original line-up. They won a huge band competition a couple of years ago and have established a large and energetic fan base – their mosh pits are legendary and great theatre (from a safe distance) – which follows the band from show to show.

They didn’t win Friday night at Sgt. Peppers, which surprised the hell out of me because they brought the energy, they brought the skill and they brought the moshers, but it does show that Durham Region has a thriving and highly competitive metal scene.

That’s something I can finally appreciate, but when I hear the screaming vocals I still want to ask: doesn’t that hurt?

Told ya I wasn’t a metal head.