Tomb of the Worm was an obscure doomy, grind-metalcore band from Burlington, Ontario. The story begins in January or February of 1999, after Kyle Bishop was unexpectedly expelled from The Swarm aka Knee Deep in the Dead, in December of 1998...
-Part 1: Incision (Late 1992 – October 1993) Incision was a band whose reputation surely has never faded. In a way, they were the precursor to Grade. But Incision’s ideals and influences were completely different and revolved...
-The original line-up (October 1997 – September 1998) This band has connections all over the Ontario hardcore tree. Before this band even got started a lot of the members had played together in other projects. Chris Colohan, Christian...
The Sneak Preview was a melodic punk rock band from Maple, Ontario. They formed in the summer of 2000, after Joel Bath (drums) and Mike Mucci (guitar) broke up their band “Then Who Is the Liar?”. The duo started writing new songs...
-Formation (June 1997 – October 1997) Dead Season was one of the many bands formed by ex members of Two Line Filler. Two Line Filler, under the line up of Matt White on vocals, Colin Clark and Al Biddle on guitars, Mike Calder on bass...
Louis Mistreated was an incredibly melodic emo band from Mississauga, Ontario that somehow escaped the radar of mainstream popularity. But I really feel like they belong up there with Christie Front Drive, Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas Is the...
The Separation Suicide formed in January of 2002 as a “best of” band from members of Avarice and Confine. Most members were living in the Hamilton/Oakville/Toronto area of Ontario and came together when Gordon Ball left The...
Before Kenobi started, Andrew Tweedy, Peter Read, Stephen Martin and Gunars Kazaks were in several teenager bands that made up the early years of the 90’s. Those included “Twerp”, “Mush” and “Joyjuice”...
Ellington was one of the most talked about band during the early 2000’s but also one of the most unfortunate and forgotten. Luckily, just enough material was recovered to be able to document this band properly. Ellington was formed in...
To the Lions was probably the epitome of Ontario’s 2000 chug-core revival. They were based in Burlington and featured some all-star cast. A while after Grade broke up, Matt Jones and Shawn Magill went to a Bane show on September 11, 2004...
Trevor Dykstra (bassist) and Lee Shepard (guitarist) went to high school together and were always close friends. They started out a band together in 1995, each playing their instrument and signing dual vocals. They went to a lot of shows and...
John Ouellette and Brendan Munn met in the summer of 1997 at an Ignorance Never Settles concert. After some talk, they decided to form a straight-edge band together and started jamming in the Munns’ basement in Hamilton, Ontario. They...
Funerary was a metalcore band from Hamilton, Ontario, active for a little under a year in 2000. In late 1999, Chris Logan quit SeventyEightDays. Prior to that, he had played in Chokehold, Burst of Silence, Prayer for a Fallen Angel, Crumble...
Blundermen was a punk band from the Toronto region active in the early 1990’s. I touched up on them briefly when I did the Ragamuffin Soldier Records and Fans of Bad Production Records interviews, but it was time that this band get some...
This compilation could have been a landmark for Canadian hardcore, emo and metalcore of the 1990’s. “Could have been” because it was never released. The fact is no one really knows how close it came to coming out. Usually...
The last line-up of Burst of Silence featured Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Chris Ansley on guitar, Jamie McGinnis on drums and Mike Presseiary on bass. That line-up changed name to Sinsick in late 1995. Jamie and Mike ended up leaving the...
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...
In This Defiance, from London, Ontario, formed in March 2005 with Ken Montville on guitar, Matt Bouchard on drums and Ben Kaye (from Clear a Path) on bass. Later that month they were joined by Steve Parkhill on second guitar, who was at the...
Jude the Obscure had a very comfortable place in the Ontario math-core/noisecore scene throughout its existence. I believe they were the first to be called “chaoticore”. Prior to the forming of this band, Grant Freifeld...
Acrid was a sludgy/doomy/grindy-metalcore band from Mississauga that was initiated by Neil Rodman on vocals, Jeff Almond on guitar and Dave Buschemeyer on drums. This was in November of 1995, right after Jeff Almond had quit Ignorance Never...
Unheard was a Canadian metalcore band from Mississauga, Ontario, founded by Mike Charette and his friend Dave Buschemeyer, after Dave was kicked out of Sun Still Burns in September 1993. The duo recruited Ian Pryde on vocals and went in to...
-The Formation Montgomery 21 was a Canadian brit-pop influenced emo band from Mississauga, Ontario, known for featuring (and mostly made up of) members of New Day Rising. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Gray formed the band in the fall of 1995...
-Face Down (Spring 1993 – September 1993) Face Down was a hardcore band from Oakville, Ontario. No doubt that you will recognize the names of many of these members, as they would go on to great fame with their later musical endeavors...
Gates of Dawn is one of the obscure bands from Ontario that just doesn’t seem to have reached anywhere to be remembered. I had to dig far to get info from this band out. This band was fronted by Nat Coté with Adam Bratt and Paul...
Jonathan Thomas is a bit of a forgotten gem in the history of Ontario emo hardcore. In late 1994 Kyle Bishop was singing in Grade but felt that it wasn’t enough, so he bought his first guitar and started writing a couple of songs. At the...
Firestorm was one of the early “all-star bands” that formed in Southern Ontario. Matt White (from Two Line Filler) used to go down to Hamilton during his summer vacations. In late 1992, he hooked up with Ryan Hollingworth, Christian...
The origin of Raise Them and Eat Them, as an idea, could have begun as early as 2002 (as some sources claim). But the band didn’t actually come together until January of 2004. The initial line-up featured Ken Galbraith on bass and...
Burst of Silence was formed in the later part of 1991 with Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Zak Husted on bass, Sam Mamone on drums and Christian McMaster on guitar. They formed from different circles around the city of Hamilton, but they all went...
Redstar Records was a record label operated by Brendan Munn and Paul G. from Hamilton, Ontario. Their best remembered release was the Confine/Avarice split CD, but everything they put out was amazing and did really well in hardcore (as you will...
Loveless .1. (pronounced “Loveless One”) was Chris Gray’s solo band’s name. It is perhaps one of his most obscure endeavors. The name was used briefly from 2001 to 2002, between periods when Chris Gray performed under...
Structure Records was a short lived record label operated out of Hamilton, Ontario, by two notorious hardcore personalities; Jeff Beckman and Chris Logan, two members of Chokehold. They put out three releases and abruptly ended but those...
This was a great little record label based in Campbellville, Ontario in the mid 90’s to early 2000’s. They were known principally for giving Grade their debut release, as a split with Believe (later repressed as the split with...
This bio was sent to me exclusively for this blog by band founder Paul Schedlich. I doubt I could have written a better one on this fantastic midwest emo band from Pickering, Ontario. I don’t find many Canadian bands with this specific...
Guilt Parade were a punk hardcore band from Fredericton, New Brunswick from the mid 80’s. They self released 2 demo tapes and then moved to Toronto where they put out an LP on Fringe Records. An often overlooked band when it comes to...
Marc Stonestreet, Tyler Smith and Stephen McIntyre had all been friends since elementary school. In 1994 while they were in ninth grade, they got together with their first instruments and started learning how to play. Marc actually got...
Crisis of Faith was notorious for their short association with Chokehold, but they were really an entire band apart, with completely different beliefs. Guitarist Adam Payne and drummer Paul Abrash formed the band in early 1990 as a “side...
Formed in 1998 by Eric Neufeld, Engage started out as a 4 piece with Ben on vocals, Dave Pifco on guitar, Eric Gaudet on bass and Eric Neufeld on drums. The band played regularly with other local band Notoriety. After building a good following...
Dirge was an early to mid-90s metalcore band from Ontario, which eventually became Day of Mourning. At first they were almost what you now call nu-metal, though a lot heavier. But their later material became just like DOM. Dirge formed in 1994...
Two Line Filler (or 2 Line Filler) was one of the best appreciated and most successful emo bands to come out of Canada in the 90s. And everything they did was amazing! Every release was a masterpiece. I wouldn’t say this band...
These guys were amazing! I always found they were the equivalency to Morning Again in Canada. Unfortunately they were always evolving and changing members which were slowing them down and preventing them from getting as big as they should of...
Confine formed in early 1997 as one of southern Ontario’s (Oakville) most aggressive and chaotic hardcore (without being screamo). The original line up was Rob Blakely on vocals, Neil Hamilton and Gordie Ball on guitars, Mike Earp on bass...
After Chokehold had broken up, Chris Logan, Matt Beckman and Josh Fletcher continued to rehearse together. Influenced by such bands as Drive Like Jehu and Hoover, but in a more straight hardcore fashion. They named themselves SeventyEightDays...
Spread the Disease was an extremely black metal influenced metalcore band, a genre that later became known as noisecore. They were fierce and unholy without being corny like most black metal acts of the 90s. This band formed out of Karenza...
Karenza was formed in late 1996 by Dave Buschemeyer (Bushman) on guitar and Trevor Dykstra (T-Bone) on bass after leaving behind the broken up New Day Rising (they would reform). The initial line up also featured Dave Johnston on drums, and Stu...
New Day Rising was huge. And I think that there are still a bunch of people getting into them these days. Even if the band has been broken up for over a decade, a bunch of blogs still talk about them and Eulogy Recordings still manage to profit...
This label was very special, so I did a special type of interview. It was more in the sense of a conversation with Chris Iler. It was great to do and the guy is a dictionary of knowledge of the whole Canadian scene. This label really helped a...
Eliot Rosewater was a short lived band from Mississauga that was only around from December 1995 to October 1997, though they managed to record a great deal of material, and apparently had written over 50 songs. It featured Ian McPhedran on bass...
This was originally the very first post. It has since been edited, ameliorated and reposted, with much more material in the download link (thanks to Ryan Moon and Doug MacGregor for all the help). So I am proud to present one of my absolute...
Not many people may remember this label, but this about to change after you read this fantastic interview with Stephen Perry (who sang in One Blood and Countdown to Oblivion). He still has copies left of the Mexican Power Authority album...
Oakville had so many good bands, and The Fullblast is one of the few punk rock bands that I really like even if I’m not fan of the genre. Maybe it’s for the simple fact that Gordie Ball was in it. Their first release was the pretty...