Welcome to a new feature in THE METAL PIT.  We will feature a new unsigned METAL band each month to be our featured UNEARTHED BAND OF THE MONTH. 

                                            JULY 2009

TERRORHORSE               

        This month we feature the heavy as hell band TERRORHORSE coming from LONDON, ON, CANADA.  Definitely the Heaviest Band to ever come out of London, ON and the most potential of any METAL band to come from this part of Ontario, Canada. THE METAL PIT got the chance to talk to members Matt, Aaron and Darryl. 

THE METAL PIT:          Thanks for taking the time to do a interview with THE METAL PIT?

Aaron:            We're glad to do it, we love talking to the fans, or anyone who will listen.



THE METAL PIT:      If you were to tell someone that has never heard your band how would you describe the sound of Terrorhorse? 

Matt:             I hate describing our band to other people. I just tell them we play "heavy shit" and that they should check us out online.

Aaron:           Terrorhorse is a little bit death metal, a little bit hardcore, a little bit progressive, and hopefully a lot catchy and memorable. 

Darryl:                I would currently describe Terrorhorse as a blend of quick, technical riffs mixed with ultra, groovy hooks.     



THE METAL PIT:    Where did the name Terrorhorse come from?     

Darryl:      This name simply came out of thin air to be quite honest. It has been a name that Darryl (vocals) has been taking with him for a number of years now. No members of his previous bands ever liked the idea of Terrorhorse until now.

THE METAL PIT:       What are some of yours and the band influences?

Matt:               Right now I'm into Starring Janet Leigh, Beneath The Massacre, Animals as Leaders, Porcupine Tree, Sikth, Pig Destroyer, Cyclamen, and Psyopus

Aaron:        Personally, I was getting bored of a lot of metal bassists just following the riffs.  I'm influenced by a lot of different music, and inspired by the crazy riffs Richard and Matt write.  I always like to keep my basslines interesting, but keep some simpler groove parts that I can bang my head to and move around the stage.  Specific bassists that inspire me would be Roger Manganelli from Less Than Jake, Colin Edwin from Porcupine Tree, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Mic Todd from Coheed and Cambria, Justin Chancellor from Tool, to name a few.  And seeing Tim from Ninjaspy has inspired me to step up my game for sure.

Darryl:         Life, anything which is beyond the world's knowledge and comprehension. Musically I draw a lot from anything that I can really nod my head to.  

 


THE METAL PIT:      How did the band Terrorhorse come to form?

Matt:               I was the last member to join TERRORHORSE. The band was formed by Richard, Darryl and Cam in November 2007 Aaron joined shortly after and I joined in April 2008 after they recorded the gate...but before we recorded the other 4 songs on our E.P.  I was in a band with Richard and Cam`s older brother for 2-3 years before TERRORHORSE.....we had a nasty breakup and I didn'`t talk to Richard for four months. I heard the first recorded TERRORHORSE song ever (The Gate) and was blown away. I knew right away that I wanted to play guitar in this band and that is was exactly what I was looking for. I messaged Richard and apologized about all the bad blood between us and begged him to let me join the band. I was at the jamspace a few days later learning riffs!

Aaron:        I found the band through an ad on Kijiji.com that Darryl posted, looking for a professional bassist with professional gear looking to go somewhere beyond local success.  I came out to jam with him, Richard and Cam and I was sold as soon as I heard the first song. 

Darryl:         To make a long story short: In the fall of 2007 Darryl Bedard & Cameron Fleury came together and asked Richard LeBlanc to join the band. After a few bass players they found Aaron Vanduynhoven to complete the four peice team. After writing a few more tunes the band decided that it would be a great addition to add another guitarist to give the band the solid sound they were looking for. This is where Matt MacIntosh joined.

THE METAL PIT:      You just completed a tour of Western Canada. How did the whole tour go and and memorable moments that stand out?

Matt:               It felt so good to finally be doing something that I`ve wanted to do for so long....hitting the road and playing a new town everyday and not having to work a shitty job that I hate. I love touring and I cant wait to do it again. We had a blast in thunder bay partying with Facless Hulk and exploring where richard grew up. We went to the Ancient Forest outside of prince george and ran up a snow covered mountain and saw the biggest tree I have ever seen in my life....and we got completely soaked and frozen while doing it! I went to the Vancouver Aquarium alone and had a blast! I realized how lucky I am to live in a nice small town like Ingersoll when i saw the streets of Vancouver lined with homeless people and every door and window was cover with metal bars. It was a real eye opener to people of all ages living in what looked like hell of earth. It was sad. You dont see that shit around here.
         I had the time of my life. I was completely blown away when we went to British Columbia and drove through the mountains. We live in the most beautiful country on earth......after being stuck in Ingersoll for 23 years this was like going to another planet. I loved it.

Aaron:       The tour was incredible.  We met so many amazing people it's impossible to count.  Memorable moments are too many to count, thanks to the generous people in Of Oak and Iron, Sparky, Ninjaspy, and those at the Thunder Bay Embassy in Vancouver, and anyone else who put us up for a night or two and made life on the road entertaining and exciting.

Darryl:        We did just complete a full tour of Western Canada didn't we?! Wow! For a first tour ever I'd say it went awesome. There are so many memories which were made
on this tour. One of Darryl's favourite memories is sharing daily hugs with fellow tour mate Jimmy Laukka (Faceless Hulk). Again, there are way too many in my opinion to choose a favourite at this point.

THE METAL PIT:      What can a fan expect from seeing a Terrorhorse live show?

Matt:               Heavy shit! Heavy shit from Canada!

Aaron:             They can expect good times, riffs, headbanging, moshing, high energy, and a lot of hair.  And hopefully they'll hang out and we'll get to meet even more cool people.

Darryl:         A fan can expect a lot of participation and a high-energy show. We love it when the audience gets active with our music. There has been a number of occassions where we have some of the audience doing jumping-jacks. Let it be known that Terrorhorse supports active lifestyles! Haha...

THE METAL PIT:       What are the plans for Terrorhorse for the rest of 2009?

Matt:               Right now we are spending as much time as possible working on our first full length. Our other guitarist Richard just ordered an 8 string guitar and I am going to follow suit and get on very soon. Im really excited about working on our new music`and I can`t wait to record again with Tom at Ice House Studios. We have a bunch of shows coming up as well....Toronto, Windsor, Niagra falls, Hamilton, St Thomas and more...
We would love to get out east as soon as possible. I can`t wait to play Ottawa and Montreal....the sooner the better! We are going to try to make it as far as the maritimes and back! I want to go on tour again so bad it hurts!

Aaron:        We'd love to get out east if at all possible, but mostly we want to step up our game, write the best songs we can, record a full-length, and get it out to anyone who will listen, and hopefully have some fun along the way.

Darryl:         For the remainder of 2009 Terrorhorse will be focusing on the completion of the debut full-length which will showcase all new songs. We have a weekend tour coming up in July with Bloodshoteye, Senate, Darkness Rites. On this tour we will be hitting
Windsor, Niagara Falls and Toronto. We are currently in the works of getting our website up and functioning, and designing new merchandise for the fans!

THE METAL PIT:     How important is it for a young band like yourselfs to tour and play live shows and get out there to get your name out there?

Matt:               I guess it depends on what goals you have and what you want to acomplish with your music. Nothing beats word of mouth advertising you and get alot of that when you hit the road for a month solid. Touring is for musicians that truly love and believe in the power and strength of their music. Touring is what separates half hearted pussies from real musicians that eat, sleep, breathe and bleed their passion for music.
 

Aaron:        It's definitely important to get out there and play shows.  There's a lot of bands that sound great on myspace that can't cut it live, thanks to studio magic and all the rest, so it pays to show that you can back up your recordings with a really solid, entertaining, and original live show.  We record a lot like we play live, so what you hear is what you get when you come out to a show.  

Darryl:           It is our initiative to get our name out there as much as possible. We run Terrorhorse like it is a business - but with the attitude that it is not a job for us, it's a love, a hobby, a need.




THE METAL PIT:      What is the song writing process with the band?


Matt:               Total combined effort. It always starts with a riff. Me or Richard start throwing stuff at Cam and after that we add in guitars and bass.....but there are a bazillion ways to get from point a to point b when writing music in this band. It makes things much more fun, exciting and challenging.

Aaron:        Usually a song starts with a riff or idea from one of us, and we all feed off of that, throwing in whatever we can come up with, and gradually hammer it into something solid until we're all happy, then Darryl gets the vocals done and we hammer it out some more until we're ready to play it live.

Darryl:        For the majority of the writing it is a total combined effort in the jam space. This way everyone can put in their own "two cents." Lyrically it would be tough to capture and summarize five people's thoughts, emotions, fears into each song and have it sounding focused at the same time. So lyrically it is Darryl who takes the finished song and writes to it.  



THE METAL PIT:   Are you the loudest band to ever come out of London, Ontario?

Matt:               London`s metal scene is doing better than ever. We have some serious heavy hitters coming out of this city and people are starting to recognize that.

Aaron:        We've had some comments about our volume level before, mostly we try to keep up with Cam's inhumanly massive sounding drums, and Richard's godly Marshall tone lol

Darryl:         I wouldn't say we're the loudest band to come out of London, Ontario! I was thinking more along the lines as the sexiest metalheads to come out of London!!!      

 

The Metal Pit:    What makes Terrorhorse unique?

Matt:            Our chops!

Aaron:        Our widely varied influences, our determination to do write music that we want to hear, and our solid but fun, high energy live show

Darryl:          I think that Terrorhorse bridges some of the gaps in modern day metal. For example, we will go from a tough-guy hardcore sounding hook straight into an obvious black-metal influences bridge.We don't want to be pinned as one genre inparticularily.



The Metal Pit:    With so much help from the internet with myspace, facebook and streeteams. Do you feel it doesn't really matter where your from or where the band in based out of?

Aaron:        Myspace, and the internet in general, has definitely made the world smaller and made it easier to get your name and your music out to everyone, but after touring out west, we definitely appreciate the relatively short drives in our area lol  We really are lucky to have so many great cities close by so we can play shows on a regular basis without over-saturating anywhere too much.

Darryl:       The internet is "the tool" in my opinion for bands to market themselves in a productive and efficient way. In my opinion, it shouldn't matter which city, country, or computer a band is from. It's more the know-how and utilizing any kind of marketing strategies/tools they can!        



The Metal Pit:    5 years from now where do you see Terrorhorse?

Matt:            Touring heavily and constantly evolving

Aaron:         Hopefully creating music that I can't even comprehend right now lol  That's my goal.

Darryl:           I personally see Terrorhorse fully functioning as a business. Using all of our strengths to push ourselves to the limits and achieve every single goal we set out for the band. 

 

The Metal Pit:   Final question....this is your chance to tell the world why they should check out your music and your live shows?     

Matt:               We live to play this music. Come see why.

Aaron:           Come check us out and you'll see what we hope is the perfect combination of technical shred, catchy hooks, heavy grooves, and high energy performance.

The Metal Pit:    Thanks to the guys of TERRORHORSE for doing this and I we at THE METAL PIT wish them much success. Check them out when they hit your town!!!!

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TERRORHORSE  Myspace    http://www.myspace.com/terrorhorse