Canada could be considered the world capital of progressive rock and metal.Starting back in the '70s, Rush awed crowds with their technical wizardry and sheer loudness. In the 80s, Voivod took thrash to empyreal heights creating cerebral metal that was truly not of this world.  Then with the inception of death metal, Goreguts created a mystical metal experience with "Obscura", taking prog to a whole other level of extreme. After three and a half decades of music to draw inspiration from, Martyr has once again pushed the boundries of technical proficiency with their latest album "Feeding the Abscess". Dan Mongrain (guitars, vocals) and Francois Mongrain (bass, vocals) spoke with me on how the band constructed one of the best albums of the 2006.Read further to find out what they had to say.

Metal Mayhem: Relapse mail order catalogue described Martyr as "Cynic fans will shit their pants". Do you think this is an apt description?
Dan Mongrain: Well, we always relate to what we know. I think there is a similarity in the aesthetic of the music since both band write complex stuff but each band (Martyr and Cynic) got his own identity. I don't think we sound like Cynic at all but I think fans of Cynic, Atheist, Meshuggah, Death, Dillinger escape plan, Voivod, King Crimson, Capharnaum etc…may like Martyr, that's why Relapse wrote that. To have a reference so the metal fans can relate to something they know and have a hint about what we're doing.
Francois Mongrain: When I read this description, I could not stop laughing! I think the image says it all. As for the band comparisons, I think there can be bits of many influences but the important point is that we managed to find our own style through the years.

MM: How do you feel about your new album "Feeding the Abscess"? Did it come out the way you wanted? DM: Pretty much yeah! We wanted a crystal clear production to be able to hear every single note of every instrument. I think we've reached that. Pierre Remillard got an amazing hearing for that kind of stuff.

We wanted the vocals to be fully understandable, we wanted to have a good overall sound with power and guts without compromising the precision of the mix. Alan douches helped with that in the mastering process. We wrote most of the album in the past 2 years and all the ideas came out naturally. To put this one out is an accomplishment itself, we're really proud of it. It's been hard to go through those five years and to get it finally done. It feels just great to have put it out. It feels like we were pregnant for five years.

MM: How did you go about recording the album? How long did it take to record? What instrument did you start with first?
DM: We started with the drums in the Wild studio (Pierre Remillard) with the help of Yannick St-Amand (ex despised Icon). We recorded all the drum parts in December 2005. Then we started recording the guitars and in March 2006; I had to re-record the guitars 4 times because we had some technical problems, it was a nightmare. Then we went to record the vocals at Breen Leboeuf Studio (ex-Celine Dion bass player and solo artist). He (Breen) was an incredible help for the vocals since he is an amazing blues singer, and he helped us with the tonic accent of the language (English) which is not always natural for us French Canadians. Then we were ready to mix in July and August. We sent the tape to Alan Douches to Mastering and it was all done.

MM: Anyone who would argue that Martyr is not a technical band is obviously deaf. Due to how complex your music is, does it take a lot of band practice before you can enter the studio?
DM: It actually took a lot of work but since we all read music, we all write the ideas on a music sheet, so everyone can understand it right away. We don't have to show the riffs by ear and sing it to the other until everybody catches it. It takes less time that way for us. Once you understand a riff or an idea, you have 80% of the work done. Then you have to learn it on the instrument, but you know exactly what you're gonna play in advance. So once everybody in the band has done their homework, we put it all together and play. Then we try to find ideas from that point and we write them down or just play them. Once the song is done, we play it over and over until it sounds perfect, and then we're ready to go onstage and play it or record it. But due to the fact that we don't live all in the same area, we don't practice that much so we have to be ready individually before we get together and rehearse.

MM: How does this album compare to your earlier releases? DM: I think with the new album we have reached a point where we have our own identity. It sounds less influenced than the previous two. We also worked more as a team on this new album so everybody in the band got involved a lot more in the composition. It gives a richer sound overall. The production is better too, as is the mix

and the sound. I mean we've push this album as far as it could go musically and emotionally. We were all drained after it was done. We knew at that point that we had done everything we could and that we were happy with the result no matter what happens after it's out. The rest doesn't belong to us. We're also proud of the two first albums. I think we have a good evolution since the first one, when you listen to "Hopeless Hopes" then "Warp Zone" then "Feeding the Abscess" you can hear that we have kept our Identity and developed our own sound while we always push our limits further musically. I think the new album sounds more complex than the previous ones, but all the songs are much easier to play. The complexity is in the arrangements of the songs, of the parts which are all complementary to each other.

MM: "Feeding the Abscess" has a bizarre, futuristic vibe. Is that what you were going for when you set out creating the album?
DM: Well, I really don't know. It all took form in the process. I don't think we chose to go into a specific direction. We had lyrics, ideas, and musical ideas and it's like we just let it lead us where it would go. We didn't force anything, it came out naturally and it took form by itself. Then when most of the songs were done, we found that all the songs were pretty much in correlation and the album had a direction so we we're just at the service of the songs.

MM: Does the artwork tie into the album conceptually? Who is the artist and how did he create the art?
FM: The artist is Richard Marchand. I was looking for artwork that would stick with the project and found his website where an incredible gallery of image was displayed. I selected a few images that would have a Martyr-feel. We chose the images that gave us the best vibe. I'm glad because the front cover was my fave! We didn't think of a sci-fi concept per se, but I think it's not a bad thing. We wanted to show the different layers of society and the control over the masses: a shit load of useless information force-fed in the brain of a citizen, and the poor fellows at his feet begging for info. The one standing gets all he thinks he want, but is controlled by the system. And he won't share with anyone! The beggars are not aware of their luck to be free, thus wanting to be fed with crap too and loathing their condition. The one delivering info (back of CD) may be almighty, but he's nonetheless controlled by the system. So, the artwork was tweaked to take a red coloration, and we had photo shots to blend the band well with the artwork, with wires stretched all around us. That's an awesome layout.

MM: The mini violin solos are another aspect of the weird and bizarre on your album? Who came up with the idea of throwing a violin into the mix? How do you know the violinist, Antoine Bareil? Have you worked with him before?
DM: Antoine is a virtuoso, he plays all over the world in symphonic orchestra and he is also a long-time fan of Martyr. Some violin lines were written a long time ago, before we knew that guy and some parts were written after. Martin Carbonneau (guitar) knew Antoine since a long time and introduced him to us a few years ago. François had that violin line at the end of the song "Havoc" that we wanted him to play. Martin asked him if he would do it and he accepted. We gave him all the liberty of interpretation of the line and it came out like magic. We're very happy how it turned out. Then Patrice Hamelin (drums) had this idea to put a violin solo in the last part of "Dead Horizon". So Antoine Just improvised that frantic solo over a contemporary dissonant chord riff. We thought it was brilliant so we kept it! Antoine was also happy to play something else than Mozart at that time. He also plays in "Lost in Sanity" where he doubles some guitar and orchestra samples. He had a great time doing it and we were very impressed and happy of how it worked out.
FM: Seeing him play was incredible. He plays with such an ease and was able to understand the style of Martyr without effort. He did some great takes and frankly we had a hard time choosing the final ones!

MM: In addition to featuring guest violin solos, you list other guest musicians. Would you give our readers some details about these other musicians? DM: Pier-luc Lampron was the guitar player in Martyr on the first two albums and the live album. We invited him to play a solo on "Feast of Vermin". Breen Leboeuf is a solo artist who I play with. He is a great blues/pop singer and bass player. He helped us a lot with the vocals

which we recorded in his studio. He did those awesome narrations in "Felony" and the backward voices in brainscan.
Jean-Yves "Blacky" Theriault is the former Voivod bass player, I've known him since 2002, and asked him at that time if he would like to play bass on a Voivod cover song on our next record. Since Piggy passed away in 2005, there was no doubt we would do it. It is a tribute to Voivod and to Piggy who dedicated his life to music, what a genius!

MM: "Brain Scan" seems to be a tribute to Denis "Piggy" D'Amour.   Being a progressive metal band from Canada, how much of an influence did VOIVOD have on your career?
DM: Voivod is probably the biggest influence for me. This is a unique sounding band. Nobody sounds like Voivod. It was the first metal band I've seen live, and the first metal album that I bought. My favorite albums are "Killing Technology," "Dimension Hatross," "Nothingface," "Outer Limits" and "Phobos." I like bands which sound unique, original, bands which surprise me and destabilize me. Voivod did that to me.
FM: I discovered in Voivod a music that can go way out of the boundaries of metal in an unpredictable way, and that's what inspired me most. Blacky always fascinated me with his sick bass lines, always choosing the right notes to give a psycho feel in every song. Listening to Voivod makes images appear in your head, which you can easily take from the features of Away's wicked artwork.

MM: "Dead Horizon" is a four-part song. What is this song's story? Why did you decide to split the track into four parts?
FM: At the beginning, Martin began to write what would become the first part. It was his first writing effort for Martyr. Dan brought his help and wrote some additional riffs. Altogether, the band tried to find alternate versions of the original riffs, tried to modify the structure. A LOT of work has been done to make a whole song out of it, but it wasn't successful. We modified the intro a few times, ending with that bass and drum eerie intro. Patrice brought the frantic snare and guitar rhythmic punches at the end. I had two half-written songs that were in the waiting (Part II and III). Later, Dan had a couple riffs too and included them in the fourth part. Then he added the strange clean guitar part (part III).
Lyrics were all written by our long-time friend Philippe Papirakis who has a great passion in the English literature. The images are crude and very poetical at the time. He also did the logo concept for Martyr. The idea comes from images of all the process of a psychotic episode.

MM: Martyr is scheduled to play the Chicago Powerfest in April. How do you feel about playing this show? Is this your first time playing in the States?
DM: We played at the Milwaukee Metal Fest in 1998, at the New-Jersey Metal Fest in 2003. We can't wait to play in Chicago. I remember when I was touring with Gorguts in 2000 and with Cryptopsy in 2005; I'd met a bunch of Martyr fans out there. I was surprised that they even knew the band. We are all excited to go in Chicago and play our stuff.

MM: Do you have any touring plans for the U.S. (where I live) or the U.K. (Metal-Mayhem's home)?
DM: We're gonna do a Canada tour and then we'll go in the U. S., probably next fall. Nothing is planned yet for Europe.

MM: Is there a message you would like to relay to our readers? DM: When there's a show near you, go to see the band and buy a shirt or two, haha!! We have to keep the scene going. It's so hard to survive as a band, we need your help! We give it back on stage and on records!

Darren Cowan