Featured Artist - Hedonist

Enter Hedonist

Like a sword forged in darkness, Hedonist rises from the depths, red-hot and yet, somehow… ice cold. Brandished and deadly, they flayed us alive in the recording studio, performing a live-tracking session ritual that left us speechless. There’s one word to describe this band: Brutal.

Straight-forward and grounded, yet mysterious, we were taken with the members of Hedonist – Athena, JP, Anatol, and Cody – who blew the roof off the place with their seamless and unique death metal that is touched with crust and lined with late 80’s grindcore. Chainsaw guitars, bellowing growls, and technical brilliance reveal their Swedish death metal roots, à la Grave and Dismember.

Their recent debut album, Scapulimancy, explodes with violent and abrasive buzzsaw guitar tone yet tight and controlled song structures and perfectly mixed, haunting vocals. Hedonist has been building on their songwriting and dialing in their sound since the release of their demo EP in 2021, making Scapulimancy a project that was well worth waiting for.

A testament to the influence and power Victoria bands like Hedonist have on the international music stage, the band received the attention of LA label Southern Lord Records — responsible for putting out albums from Eyehategod, Sleep, Electric Wizard, and countless more amazing bands, including fellow Victoria-born Iskra and Montreal’s Truck Violence. Southern Lord released Scapulimancy on August 1st, and it is available on Bandcamp, streaming services, and vinyl limited to 666 pressings.

In the following interview, vocalist and bassist Athena tells us about the origins of Hedonist, some of the process behind Scapulimancy, her thoughts on social media as a barrier to the live music experience, and more.

Origins

How did the members of Hedonist meet, and what’s the story of how the band formed?

Cody, Anatol, JP and I have all played in many punk and metal bands. I think the first time we all met would’ve been at a show in the basement of LBH in Kamloops sometime around 2011. JP and I started Hedonist in 2020. For both being into a niche subculture, JP and I have almost entirely opposing tastes in punk and metal. We wanted to start a death metal band together based on the one thing we both appreciated: Bolt Thrower. We took shared crust influences and elements of Swedish death metal and started Hedonist. Once establishing what the songs for the demo would sound like, we asked Cody to drum for us. After releasing it and deciding to play live we asked Anatol to play second guitar. All of us have recently completed our first full length record together.

What music, bands, and artists inspired you then, and what inspires you now?

We all listen to a wide range of music but as a band our loyalty is with the pioneers of death metal. We are inspired by Nihilist, Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Grave, Terrorizer, Carcass and our roots in crust punk.

Debut Album - Scapulimancy

How do you think you have sonically evolved with Scapulimancy?

Our songwriting has developed more since the demo. Though, I think a healthy evolution of a band has more to do with self-mastery rather than progress. You keep going back to that one thing, that first rough draft to try and get it right. I think generally we do have a better idea of what we are doing now and how to do it.

How did you first hear about and get into contact with the folks at Southern Lord Records?

Southern Lord has been around for a long time, they’ve put out tons of punk and metal. We were flattered that they reached out to us after seeing a live video of one of our shows. I believe it was a show we almost didn’t play because one of our members couldn’t make it. We ended up taking the time to teach one of our friends the set and thankfully he filled in for us.

What formats will you be releasing this album on?

So far it is just on vinyl, however, it will likely be out on CD and tape down the road as well.

What was the recording process like?

Admittedly, this album took around four years to complete. The writing process is usually an absolute warzone between JP and I, the songs that you hear have won grueling battles between very antagonistic ideas of how death metal should sound. We also do the recording and mixing ourselves with Cody so deadlines are for the most part arbitrary.

Musical Choices

In general, do you prefer recordings of your live shows, or the final, fully mixed and mastered production of the studio process? In other words, are you more inclined towards the precision and creativity of studio production or raw energy and unfiltered feel of live sound?

Though on paper I would like to say the “raw energy and unfiltered feel” of live sound, I don’t think that is something which can actually be recorded and captured. I think that raw energy is very much ephemeral and belongs to only those who were at the gig. This could very easily lend itself to a conversation about the problem with social media where people don’t even go out to shows anymore because instead they can see 8 second live clips on their phones while few bands uphold that live spirit of reckless abandon because they play as if they’re being recorded and whatever they do will be immortalized on the internet for eternity. I guess in a lot of ways I think modern recording has impeded on live shows rather than enhanced them. Most professional live recordings are taken directly from the sound board anyway and edited with the same production as a fully mixed and mastered album, so even if that live energy could be captured it would likely be cleaned up in the editing process. The Gig Pit live studio session is probably the best of both worlds, we appreciate that you guys just let us throw down a few room mics and fire away.

How do you approach the lyric writing process? What do you use lyrics for - are they narrative, rhythmic, more like poetry, or are they just an “aesthetic” sort of sonic accompaniment to the music?

I would say poetry and poetry is aesthetic. They tend to reflect whatever it is I’m into reading at the time.

What instrument or music related object will the coroner have to pry from your cold, dead hands? Each member can have their own answer for this one, if desired.

I think everyone is pretty much on the right instrument for this one, everyone will get to die with their boots on for the most part. I would most likely swap out my bass for a guitar though.

The Local Scene

What west coast band have you been wanting to play a show with, but haven’t gotten the chance to? Or if you prefer: What band would be your dream to play live with (local or global)?

There’s lots of cool west coast bands but two that immediately came to mind for all four of us were Autopsy and Mortiferum.

What do you think the Victoria music scene needs more of - and less of?

Same things every scene needs more of - venues, drummers and sound guys (more Cody’s). Overall the Victoria music scene is extremely supportive and enthusiastic about DIY punk and metal, anything is achievable here.