As I shudder, it’s time to give metal a little bit of love. Metal is far from anything on my playlists. Indeed, metal may be the farthest from anything I listen to, but it is one of the few genres that seems to have a consistent stream within the Ottawa music scene.
Further, credit is due for local thrash outfit, Lycanthro. These guys are a hard working, productive group gaining momentum around the capital and elsewhere playing out of town gigs. It’s refreshing to talk to someone who genuinely cares about the music they make, and the music they love.
We caught up with lead vocalist and guitarist James Delbridge and once you read through this, you’ll understand how Lycanthro (despite a couple line-up changes) are becoming a well-known group.
How did you get together?
Well, it kind of came about when my old band broke up and I took the songs I wrote and found David on a kijiji ad, he had the same influences as me and I thought it was too good to be true. So, we met up and worked on a bunch of different songs that are now staples in our set and it all sort of went from there.
Why are you in a band?
Mainly because to play the music we love and to hopefully go somewhere with it. Also, to mainly keep the old-school metal genres alive since nowadays, there isn’t enough of it.
Do you have a band “agreement”?
In terms of roles outside of our instruments, we all take of different social media duties, like I do everything in terms of Facebook, David handles Twitter, Instagram and our official website and our bassist Carlo handles Snapchat. Also in terms of booking shows its usually either myself or David, and if we are doing an out of town show its usually David that handles the logistics and stuff like that, that’s why I jokingly call him the “dad of the band”
What are your musical backgrounds?
Personally, I have been playing guitar for 11 years almost 12 and I have been singing for 4 years and I got formal training in both. In terms of the guys, David has been playing guitar self-taught for 8 years and Carlo has been playing Bass for 10 years self-taught
It may be hard, but list the top 3 influences for your music.
Judas Priest- a lot of our style revolves around them and they’re the band that got
us into metal in the first place
Manowar- Again mainly because our style is very similar to them, and we like the whole idea of true metal, being true to yourself and your art and not being fake
Iron Maiden- Even though a lot of power metal bands are similar to this aspect, Maiden inspires us in terms of our song writing and trying to be as epic as possible, they are the originators of certain tropes that we use frequently in our songs such as soaring choruses and longer songs, many power metal bands have done this but Maiden was the first!
How do you define success?
Success is when you have a dedicated following (even if it is a small one), and being able to tour the world to play to all the amazing metal fans all across the world!
Where can people listen to your music? Any new stuff in the works?
We have our music on all the major streaming services such as ITunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play etc… as well as bandcamp and on our website. We did a new concept EP coming out sometime in early 2018 called “4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. It exactly what it sounds like, there 4 songs and each one represents each for the 4 horsemen. We also have a great guest vocalist doing dual vocals on the last track “Pale Rider” and its Jacques Belanger the ex-singer of Canadian metal legends Exciter!
Any shows coming up?
In March we are playing probably our biggest show yet, we are opening for the legendary Udo Dirkschneider of Accept fame at Mavericks with Elm Street (from Australia) and our good friends in Domination. Finally, we are playing at the Jon street Pub in Arnprior opening for US thrash legends Flotsam and Jetsam along with our good friends in Infrared, Mangler and Hellbound in May.
Website- http://www.lycanthro.ca/
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Lycanthrokills/
Bandcamp- https://lycanthro.bandcamp.com/releases
If you enjoyed this piece, don’t forget to revisit our profile interviews with Almost Kennedy & Lost Acres.