Imagine being at a music festival. As the acid hits your body, you find yourself wandering off alone into the fields of the night as the lights fade and all of the music from the stage begins to slowly morph together. The sounds begin to morph into one single demonic monster. That demonic monster has a name, and the name is Pillars Of A Twisted City.
Getting its name from a poem by HP Lovecraft, Pillars Of A Twisted City fuses together elements of black metal, gothic and thrash punk. The band is often hailed as the “Ween of Heavy Metal”. The very idea of a heavy metal Ween awards itself a double take. It might even be considered blasphemous to some, but that’s exactly what Pillars Of A Twisted City is about. The band harnesses an honest and raw approach to DIY metal with twists and turns at every corner. Inspired by a wide variety of musical influences like Entombed, Darkthrone, Thin Lizzy, The Who, Swervedriver, Gorgoroth, traditional Latin Flamenco music and The Damned, the band’s overall message is freedom. Not being chained to any one musical genre and not running the risk of homogenizing their sound.
Pillars of A Twisted City are set to drop their debut self titled record on August 21st via Debt Offensive Records. Pillars Of A Twisted City is described as being “brutal in the best way”, (Jamie Dagg – Filmmaker) and being, “crazy heavy but at the same time really quite accessible, very unique,” (Mike St. Jean, Devin Townsend Project). It’s first and foremost a black metal record. But for every brutal black metal song or thrash metal song, there’s a beautiful instrumental to accompany it. “It’s very dynamic from front to back. The heavy material is unrelenting and makes for a very powerful statement. Some of the other material it seemed like I was listening to Greg Dulli. Each song comes from a unique place. The LP plays like an old favorite you would never part with,” (Adrian Mottram, Sights & Sounds). The album’s track order and diverse set of musical styles lend to one another both lyrically and atmospherically.
Lyrically, the album deals with scientific, political and philosophical narratives. Themes include theories of quantum physics and alternate realities, the transcendence of time, corruption, being born dead in a lifeless world and demonic possession. The record offers, “such a great mix of elements. The more it’s listened to the more one can hear subtle things in the mix. The instrumentals add so much atmosphere and beauty to the album and makes it a perfect listen front to back,” (Jahmeel Russell, ACTORS) and its, “sparse melodies and cold atmosphere is haunting. The best part of 80’s guitar goth mixed with a desperate rasp. 80’s Killing Joke meets Joy Division meets Bauhaus, presented in the sonic equivalent to a boom box recording. Classic,” (James Farwell, Bison).
Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Pillars Of A Twisted City laid their framework in 2019. The band was formed by Johnny Stewart with the purpose of writing and recording gothic black metal. Their upcoming self-titled album was recorded over the course of two months at Desecration Studios (Stewart’s house on an 8-Track) in Vancouver. The full album was recorded, produced and mixed by Stewart himself and mastered by Grammy Nominated Gregg Mindroff (Native North America, Ice-T, D.O.A,Tom Green). During the recording of Pillars Of A Twisted City, Stewart took a few twists and turns into other directions but gothic black metal has always been the fundamental concept of the band. For Stewart being in a band is all about expression, creativity, challenging oneself and maintaining integrity by not falling victim to clichés.
Although Pillars Of A Twisted City serves as the band’s debut, Stewart is not new to being a musician. He has had many past successes since beginning to play in bands circa 1987. Stewart previously has been a member of bands such as Red Fisher, Projektor , Black Halos and Satan’s Cape. He has shared the stage with notable musicians like SNFU, D.O.A. Social Distortion, Obituary, Ramones, Propagandhi, Doughboys, The Helicopters and has toured across North America. He has also played massive festivals in Germany, Spain and France. Amongst his impressive touring history, Stewart has also received several awards form The Manitoba Music Federation for his songwriting and Calgary’s Best Band Award three years running.
