You could be forgiven for thinking the title of Mares of Thrace's new album, The Exile (out March 25 via Sonic Unyon), was about the band itself.
It's been almost a decade since the doom metal duo put out an album. There have been hints of new material over the years: a lone demo, "Dead French Mathematicians" materialized in 2014, but that was the only song between 2012's The Pilgrimage — long-listed for that year's Polaris Music Prize — and now.
The gap started simply enough: vocalist-guitarist Thérèse Lanz and longtime drummer Stef MacKichan had to pay the bills.
"I think pretty much every musician, as they head towards their late 20s, encounters a point where they start thinking about maybe having a full-time job that makes money, rather than costing money," Lanz says.
They both went back to school: MacKichan is now a registered nurse, while Lanz is a concept artist for video games, having worked on titles like Mortal Kombat X and Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak.
"Anyone who's familiar with metal to any degree knows it's pretty nerdy," she says, of the parallels between her band and her day job. "There's a fair bit of natural overlap."
Working in the game industry had Lanz moving from city to city and keeping a demanding schedule. The band weren't finished, though the distance was proving a difficult way for the duo to make music.
"For both of us, a lot of the joy is just being loud in a room with your friends," Lanz says. "Trading .wav files across the internet just wasn't the same."
So Lanz and MacKichan planned to meet in the same city and record in 2017. As Lanz notes, "That was when I was just like, 'I have to make riffs or I'm going to explode.'" But the trip was derailed by a family medical emergency, and carving out time to record afterward seemed impossible.
Lanz was ready to give up when an old friend and former bandmate, Casey Rogers, said what she refers to as the magic words: "'I'll fill on drums if I have to, and you should still put it out because it would be a shame to waste good riffs.'
"It was just such a sweet thing to say," Lanz recalls. "That gave me the motivation to just push through."
So Mares of Thrace are finally back with The Exile, featuring Rogers on drums. No good riff is wasted here — guitars tear through the mix like valkyries in battle, bestriding Rogers's pummelling rhythms and Lanz's commanding growl. The album showcases an expanded range of sounds for the band: "Dark Harbours" lets a melodic soundscape slow-burn before erupting into guitars, while "Offerings of Hand and Tongue" finds Lanz (briefly) toning her death growl to a singing voice. Rogers produced and engineered the record: he'd recorded some previous Mares demos, and previously played with Lanz in a technical death-grind band called Exit Strategy.
"We go way back and he's really good at everything, so it was pretty painless," she says, noting MacKichan's support for the band pushing ahead as well.
Lyrically, The Exile explores the seemingly endless wander Lanz has found herself on over the past few years. "I'm somewhat leery of using lofty terms like concept album, but the album is about having to leave home and not ever being able to go back," she says. "That was weighing on my mind pretty heavily as I shamelessly moved from city to city."
And while Lanz's day job and music making don't always complement each other, The Exile also sees Lanz putting her visual art to use: physical releases of the album include a graphic novel drawn by Lanz and co-authored by video game writer Jana Sloan van Geest, echoing the album's themes.
"For the longest time I wanted to keep my musical stuff and my nerd stuff really far apart," she says. "But I could not keep them apart forever, and they have fully fused on this record."
The future of Mares isn't totally clear — Lanz is moving back to Calgary, and hopes to tour the album when COVID-19 seems less of a prevailing risk. Still, the positive response to a new Mares record has surprised Lanz.
"I'm fucked up by how excited everybody is," she admits. "I guess I thought people's memories were shorter than they proved to be. I'm still a little surprised people care this much."
For Lanz's part, the time between albums has only deepened her love of making metal.
"I was lucky enough to find a means of supporting myself doing something artistic," she says. "But there's always been a hole in my heart that can only be filled by riffs."
It's been almost a decade since the doom metal duo put out an album. There have been hints of new material over the years: a lone demo, "Dead French Mathematicians" materialized in 2014, but that was the only song between 2012's The Pilgrimage — long-listed for that year's Polaris Music Prize — and now.
The gap started simply enough: vocalist-guitarist Thérèse Lanz and longtime drummer Stef MacKichan had to pay the bills.
"I think pretty much every musician, as they head towards their late 20s, encounters a point where they start thinking about maybe having a full-time job that makes money, rather than costing money," Lanz says.
They both went back to school: MacKichan is now a registered nurse, while Lanz is a concept artist for video games, having worked on titles like Mortal Kombat X and Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak.
"Anyone who's familiar with metal to any degree knows it's pretty nerdy," she says, of the parallels between her band and her day job. "There's a fair bit of natural overlap."
Working in the game industry had Lanz moving from city to city and keeping a demanding schedule. The band weren't finished, though the distance was proving a difficult way for the duo to make music.
"For both of us, a lot of the joy is just being loud in a room with your friends," Lanz says. "Trading .wav files across the internet just wasn't the same."
So Lanz and MacKichan planned to meet in the same city and record in 2017. As Lanz notes, "That was when I was just like, 'I have to make riffs or I'm going to explode.'" But the trip was derailed by a family medical emergency, and carving out time to record afterward seemed impossible.
Lanz was ready to give up when an old friend and former bandmate, Casey Rogers, said what she refers to as the magic words: "'I'll fill on drums if I have to, and you should still put it out because it would be a shame to waste good riffs.'
"It was just such a sweet thing to say," Lanz recalls. "That gave me the motivation to just push through."
So Mares of Thrace are finally back with The Exile, featuring Rogers on drums. No good riff is wasted here — guitars tear through the mix like valkyries in battle, bestriding Rogers's pummelling rhythms and Lanz's commanding growl. The album showcases an expanded range of sounds for the band: "Dark Harbours" lets a melodic soundscape slow-burn before erupting into guitars, while "Offerings of Hand and Tongue" finds Lanz (briefly) toning her death growl to a singing voice. Rogers produced and engineered the record: he'd recorded some previous Mares demos, and previously played with Lanz in a technical death-grind band called Exit Strategy.
"We go way back and he's really good at everything, so it was pretty painless," she says, noting MacKichan's support for the band pushing ahead as well.
Lyrically, The Exile explores the seemingly endless wander Lanz has found herself on over the past few years. "I'm somewhat leery of using lofty terms like concept album, but the album is about having to leave home and not ever being able to go back," she says. "That was weighing on my mind pretty heavily as I shamelessly moved from city to city."
And while Lanz's day job and music making don't always complement each other, The Exile also sees Lanz putting her visual art to use: physical releases of the album include a graphic novel drawn by Lanz and co-authored by video game writer Jana Sloan van Geest, echoing the album's themes.
"For the longest time I wanted to keep my musical stuff and my nerd stuff really far apart," she says. "But I could not keep them apart forever, and they have fully fused on this record."
The future of Mares isn't totally clear — Lanz is moving back to Calgary, and hopes to tour the album when COVID-19 seems less of a prevailing risk. Still, the positive response to a new Mares record has surprised Lanz.
"I'm fucked up by how excited everybody is," she admits. "I guess I thought people's memories were shorter than they proved to be. I'm still a little surprised people care this much."
For Lanz's part, the time between albums has only deepened her love of making metal.
"I was lucky enough to find a means of supporting myself doing something artistic," she says. "But there's always been a hole in my heart that can only be filled by riffs."