Quebec’s BACKSTABBER Shares New EP, Patterns of Domination
From the far reaches of Rouyn-Noranda in Northern Quebec, Canada, the brutal death metallers of Backstabber are set to dominate the metal scene with their latest EP, Patterns of Domination, which follows their 2019 debut album Conspiracy Theorist.
The EP is loosely based on James Redfield’s “The Celestine Prophecy”, and the theory of four patterns that serve as conduits for manipulating someone else’s attention and energy. The heavy topic is matched by vicious blast beats, gritty gutturals, and groovy solos.
The EP’s tracklist includes “Harvesting The Weak” (The Intimidator); “Langues Sales” (Poor Me); “Crawling Through Your Bones” (The Interrogator); and “Snitches Get Stitches” (The Aloof), the patterns that collectively form an endless cycle of consumption, shattering victims from the inside out.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
We are Backstabber, a Canadian death metal quartet from a small industrial town up north called Rouyn-Noranda. The project has been around since 2012, but it was not until 2016 that it really took off as a live band with the release of the Revenge demo. Although we definitely have solid roots in death metal, we have various influences that find their way into our music.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
We released a Video/Single of the song ‘’Harvesting the Weak’’ on February 8th which is from our EP Patterns of Domination. Loosely based on James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, Patterns of Domination explores what the author calls the control dramas which are, basically, ways to drain attention from people. It is a handy guide on how to be a narcissist and make it all about yourself! There are 4 different patterns, and so the EP had to reflect that in some way. Not only is each song about a different pattern, but we have also tried to explore different subgenres musically and incorporate that into the writing process to give each song a life of its own.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Due to the 800 km separating us from Toronto or Montreal, it has always been a pain in the ass for us to get booked on a regular basis like bands from the urban areas, but we think this EP will help us get our name out there and hopefully be able to get more shows in the coming year throughout Quebec and Ontario.
If given the chance, which Canadian artist would you love to work with in the future?
We always wanted to work with Chris Donaldson from Cryptopsy who is an amazing sound engineer. We are all fans of both Chris’ music and productions, and we were honored to have the opportunity to get a little bit of his magic on our EP! Chris has always been thorough and professional! Since we handled the recording part ourselves, what Chris has done tremendously raised the quality of our work. If we could tour with Cryptopsy it would be fuckin’ awesome!
What’s your goal for 2024?
Hopefully more shows and a lot of work on the next album! We’re having a blast doing this and we will continue as long as possible. Thanks for having us!