This band was pretty obscure under the radar of Canadian metalcore, although their name and members would make you think otherwise. Some of the members have been in quite important bands and I think this one is no different. Fawad Fudd Bokhari (who had sang in Dirge and Day of Mourning) started jamming with Bob Kareer on guitar for a new tough-guy hardcore band, or “moshcore” as the tough guys used to call it, named “A Taste for Blood”, in the early spring of 2003. Influenced by bands like 100 Demons, Stigmata, Merauder, Cold As Life, Irate and All Out War. Fudd was posting about the new project on the Toronto Hardcore Forum (TOHC) and got in touch with Yegor Zakharov, who was at the time still under 20 years old. Yegor joined as second guitarist and they started coming up with a few riffs. Early rehearsals were accompanied by different drummers, including Jay Tomlinson from Rise Over Run, but things didn’t stick.
Fudd quickly called up Billy Foss (also from Day of Mourning) to join the new band on bass and Billy suggested his brother Zeb Foss to play drums. By the summer of 2003, now with the Foss brothers in the band, the song writing really flourished and songs started taking shape. They played their first show on July 10th 2003 at Sonic Unyon’s venue, The Hall, with Comeback Kid, Figure Four, With Honor, Still Crossed and The Kill Decibel. This was followed by their first mini tour later that month, playing Windsor on July 25th, Quebec City on the 26th and Montreal at Foufounnes Electriques on the 27th. All three dates were played with Out to Win, on shows when Integrity couldn’t make it across the border. Other memorable shows were with E-Town Concrete at Club Rockit on October 9th 2003 and at the Gino A. Marcus Community Center in Windsor, on October 11th, 2003, with Bury Your Dead and Count Your Days.
A Taste for Blood, self-titled EP, November 2003.
The band had been together just over six months when they went to BWC Studios (Greg “Gerg” Dawson’s home studio) to record 6 songs from October 13th to the 19th of 2003. Some of the band members were already familiar with Greg, having recorded with him at Harlow Sound Studio, where he used to work, as far back as 1998 while in Day of Mourning. This first recording session was packaged as a self-titled EP with artwork by Brandon Cause at Endera Design. 1000 copies were pressed, paid for by the band. Right after the EP was put together, Bob Kareer left the band due to commitment issues.
A Taste for Blood spent a few months with only a single guitarist, playing shows as a 4 piece and writing more songs for a far-off album in the works. One of these shows was on November 29th at Midnight Music in Brampton, with The End and Mare. In early 2004, one of Zeb’s friend, Mike Dolan, came into the fold to fulfill second guitar position. This line up would tour Ontario and Quebec again, this time with Sworn Enemy. Roughly a month after Mike joined, both guitarists, Yegor and Mike, departed and Billy brought in Inbalm bassist Steve Camara to play guitar. Yegor went on to play in Throne Apart. Steve had originally been suggested when the band first got together but the guitar positions were already filled. Steve brought with him his 7-string guitar fame (as opposed to Bob and Yegor playing 6-string guitars in Drop B). Billy was able to retune his 6-string bass to straight B tuning and the song writing structure completely changed.
A Taste for Blood booked an entire British Columbia tour in February of 2004, but had to cancel/postpone it due to an unknown reason (Fudd told the promoters Zeb had broken his foot, however Zeb has never injured his foot). Only later did they tour one week through Quebec, playing again at Foufounes Electriques and then in June of 2004, a two weeks tour from Ontario to British Columbia and back. On this tour they played with War by Other Means, Self Inflicted, The Cloak, Break the Chain and Broken.
By then the 4 piece band had a full-length’s worth of material and spent from July 26th to the 29th of 2004 back at BWC Studios to demo 4 of them. Hoping to land a record deal and have financing to record the entire album, the 4 songs were packaged as a pre-production promo and sent out to record labels. Fudd took care of burning all the CDrs and printing the promo sheets. In August 2004, the band even launched a website to help promote the name and created a Myspace page to host the 2004 demo. But creative differences occurred between Fudd and the rest of the band. For one, Fudd really wanted to maintain the moshcore aspect while the rest of the band wanted to progress into more versatile and progressive grounds. Also, Fudd was responsible for all promo and booking for the band. Steve, Billy and Zeb wanted the band to be a full time job, touring as much as possible and getting the band’s name out there. They had the van ready and were practicing almost every day. But the 2004 promo demo wasn’t going out and shows weren’t booked often enough. The end result; everyone but Fudd quit the band in September 2004. Fudd would go on to join In This Defiance, a straight-edge moshcore band, in April 2005.
Download the complete recordings of A Taste for Blod
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