Being a touring Canadian metal band is probably not the best way to make a million dollars. Long drives, low turnouts and bloated labels have destroyed countless metal operations over the years. Buried Inside’s bassist Stephen Martin was recently in an Ottawa theatre watching the documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil about a Canadian metal band’s last-ditch quest to make it. He heard a man laugh at parts that shouldn’t have been funny.
"If you were in a band you wouldn’t be laughing at that," said 30-year-old Martin. "There were some grim parts."
Luckily for Martin and his Ottawa band, money has never been the purpose behind their 2005 Relapse Records debut "Chronoclast" or their long anticipated sophomore effort "Spoils of Failure" which was released this year.
"We like going on the road, we like hanging out with each other," said Martin. "Money has never been a driving force or else we wouldn’t have been around this long."
Even though the band may only draw small crowds sometimes, Martin said if there are only 30 people in a basement but they all want to be there that makes it worth it.
"In a way you get that extra boost (of energy) knowing there’s only a few people there…just to thank them for showing up," he said.
The band took a break from touring after 2006. When they played Thunder Bay last it was at the end of an extensive string of U.S. dates. Martin said the band was pretty drained by that point.
"I just remember it was the last show of eight weeks," he said. "We just played and packed up and were like ‘we have to go home’."
Since then, the band was busy writing and recording their new album which was produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou. The album took two years to make and was written by all of the band together.
"Generally it’s a constant process… not really a burst of music coming at once," said Martin. "That’s probably not the speediest way to do it."
The result is a slower more mature sound than their last album but still has the Buried Inside trademark sound of crushing crescendos, thrash riffs and doom intros.
"There isn’t too much premeditated…if we’re all into something it kind of just stuck." Martin said. "It just kind of ended up that way."
Buried Inside play’s Thunder Bay at Kilroy’s on July 2 with Fall City Fall and locals Twins of Leda, Generals Gathered and Noise Redemption. The show is all ages and costs $7.