The Northern – Five Questions With

Jenna Melanson·September 29, 2023

The Northern Recently Unveiled Their Single, “Usurper”

Canadian metalcore outfit The Northern have recently released their devastatingly heavy new single “Usurper,” via Blood Blast Distribution.

“Usurper” is the direct follow-up to “Hourglass,” which was released earlier this year to extremely positive reviews. While the band delivered a delicate balance of melody and heavy on “Hourglass,” they have foregone the soaring chorus on “Usurper” to let the chuggy riffs and pummelling instrumentation reign supreme. Vocalist Mike Cutway delivers lines as “Choke on your last breath / The tragic tale of a dead hero” in a deep, cathartic growl, letting the pissed-off anthem speak for itself.

There’s a palpable aggression felt throughout the entirety of “Usurper,” and once you hear the meaning behind the track, it becomes clear as to why.

“Usurper’ is a love (hate) letter to the music industry and the ever-changing landscape musicians have to adapt to when dealing with record labels,” says drummer Adam Linka. “Specifically sparked by a former record label we had a bad experience with, the song serves as a reminder to artists in any genre to stay true to themselves and remember why they create music in the first place.”

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

We are The Northern, a melodic metalcore band from Toronto, Ontario.

Tell us a bit about your most recent release.

We just released “Usurper” which is a heavy, aggressive, and energetic song about maintaining our musical integrity in the music industry.

Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?

Life events any of us are personally going through usually inspire what we write about, whether it’s instrumentally or lyrically.

Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?

We have a Friday the 13^th show coming up in Guelph, Ontario we recently announced to celebrate our new music and our love for Halloween and horror movies. We’ve also got some shows coming up that we can’t announce yet, including a hometown Toronto show before the end of the year.