Welcome
Welcome to the sixth issue of Destroyed, a weekly newsletter dedicated to local punk, metal, and experimental music in the Victoria area. Below is a list of this week’s shows (June 23 - 29), followed by an interview.
This week’s interview is with Efrayim Baker of Heliophage
If you’d like to be featured in Destroyed - whether you are a band, photographer, artist, or promoter - contact Destroyedvictoria@gmail.com.
Shows for the Week
Bee Bop, skiddily do da, it's Jazzfest!
The longest-running professional music festival on Vancouver Island returns. While I won't be covering Jazzfest, I encourage everyone to check it out. There are both free and ticketed events occurring across the city. Jazzfest covers a wide spectrum of jazz music, from traditional to experimental, acoustic to electronic, and legacy to up-and-coming artists. I had a blast attending last year, and I'm sure this year will be just as fantastic.
For those looking for a bit more aggression in their music, many great shows are lined up, including a donation drive for homeless outreach.
Sunday is the end of the Victoria Reggae and Ska Festival. Be sure to check out the free concert going down in the Inner Harbour.
On Tuesday, the Umbrellas return to Victoria on their Tour of the United States of America (and Canada) to play at Lucky Bar.
Friday Night, High Dive, Chilko in the Rosemary, and Dreamworld Panic come together to bring you a fantastic night at Little Fernwood.
Saturday is jam-packed with heavy hitter Chopping Block at Big Fernwood, Psychedelic-Stoner rockers Space Queen play Wheelies, and The High Voltage Variety Hour is hosting a Punk Rock Donation Drive featuring a plethora of local acts to help stock up on basic necessities for homeless outreach.
Sunday, June 23
Chris Murray & The New Victorians / Kyle Smith / Jory Kinjo & The Relays / Apollo Suns / Rebel Selector
Show 2:00 - 10:00 PM | Ship Point (Inner Harbour) | Free
Monday, June 24
N/A
Tuesday, June 25
The Umbrellas / Pooched / Teenage Art Scene
Show 8:00 PM | Lucky Bar | $16.53
Wednesday, June 26
N/A
Thursday, June 27
N/A
Friday, June 28
High Dive / Chilko in the Rosemary / Dreamworld Panic
Show 7:30 PM | Little Fernwood | $15 | All Ages
Saturday, June 29
Chopping Block / Androgyne / All That Decays / Coup D’etat
Show 7:00 PM | Big Fernwood | $15 (sliding scale available at the door) | All Ages
Show 7:00 PM | Wheelies | ADV: $14.11, Door: $15
Punk Rock Donation Drive: Roadkill / Dirty Power / Love Outlier / Creatures of Autumn
Show 4:00 PM | The Hallway | Door: $10 or Donation
Local Scene
If you've been to any local metal show recently, chances are that you have seen a young man head-banging harder than anyone else. His energy is hard to miss, and it turns out he's not just a dedicated fan - he's Efrayim Baker, the singer and guitarist of rising local band Heliophage. This dedication has not gone unnoticed, with local metal act Fuzzpeddler recently praising Heliophage as one of the best acts going. I had the chance to speak to Efrayim about Heliophage, his love of heavy metal, and what he wants to do next.
You can catch Heliophage on July 13 at Little Fernwood
Nick: The first thing I want to ask you is the difference between Heliophage and your previous project Sarcophaga, which is a Death Metal project. Can you talk a bit about the different approaches you take to these two projects?
Efrayim: I suppose the biggest difference between the two projects is that Heliophage is a three-man effort, whereas Sarcophaga is just myself. With Sarcophaga the only creative input was coming from one guy - me. So the creative vision is pretty laser-focused on what I want to accomplish, which has its merits but can ultimately end up sounding pretty samey. I was like 15 when I wrote the majority of the Sarcophaga stuff, and 15-year-olds have pretty bad tunnel vision when it comes to creative efforts. Heliophage is different, though, since it's the three of us in an equal collaborative effort. So sure, we pull from similar influences, but maybe one of us will throw in something inspired by a source none of the others would have thought of. The other big difference I can think of off the top of my head would be the lyrics I write. Both projects deal pretty heavily with death, sure, but Sarcophaga is much more into the visceral blood & guts side of things. My lyrics for Heliophage draw more on pestilence, pain, demonic sacrifice, the occult, and really bad low-budget horror films. Think Khorne vs. Nurgle or Tzeentch, or an 80's slasher film vs. a 60's exploitation B-horror movie.
Nick: Your social media page is covered in Heavy Metal, from Death Metal to Power Metal to the pioneers Celtic Frost. You clearly love the genre and all it offers. What I want to know is why Heliophage is focusing on Doom and Stoner instead of a different genre?
Efrayim: When I was first exploring metal as a young'un, after the period of time when I basically just listened to Iron Maiden and nothing else, I discovered Sleep and Electric Wizard. These guys were mind-blowing to me, and it was like a switch flipped in my brain where I was like "I want to listen to and play this for the rest of my life". A while after, me and Loukas became friends because I happened to walk into class on the first day of school wearing a Sleep patch on my jacket. He pointed it out and it turned out that we both had a significant overlap in our musical tastes, and we've been buddies ever since. Since we met we always had the idea floating around in the back of our minds of starting a doom metal band called Ram's Head, but I was pretty terrible at my instrument back then, and drummers willing to play metal are so hard to come by that by the time we actually got up and running someone else had started a band called Ram's Head! So we ended up changing the name to Heliophage, which I think sounds cooler anyway.
Nick: Which artists are you looking to for inspiration for the music Heliophage produces?
Efrayim: While I can't speak for the other guys in the band I do know that Loukas is pretty heavy into the psychedelic, stoner & sludge stuff, particularly Melvins and Weedeater. I know Walker's got somewhat of a jazz background, and not much for metal. He just plays whatever sounds good and it somehow works really well for our sound. The man's damn good at what he does. Wizardry? Perhaps. For my writing I'd say my biggest influences come from Beastmaker, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Pentagram, Mephistofeles, Conan, Dopelord, and of course, Electric Wizard.
Nick: Can you talk a bit about the gear you are using to produce Heliophage's sound?
Efrayim: I've got an Epiphone SG plugged in to an Electro-Harmonix East River Drive going into a Big Muff Ram's Head fuzz, connected straight into the 'power amp in' port of my amplifier. Somewhat bare-bones, but making some heavy noises with whatever you have is the essence of doom metal to me. A lot of doom metal fans are massive gearheads with 20 fuzz pedals that all sound roughly the same, obsessed with trying to nail down the exact guitar tone of a song from 1998 or whatever. Most of the classic stoner doom bands were made up of broke people in their 20's armed with whatever they had lying around, and so I like to maintain that rugged DIY edge.
Loukas' bass is an interesting beast. It's hobbled together from a body he found on the side of the road (not a human one), and a neck he bought (also not a human one). I know he uses flatwound strings, which always catches me off guard if I ever decide to pick up and play his instrument since I don't play with flatwounds. Along with that, he's got a Boss Blues Driver and a Donner Fuzz Seeker going into a Peavey Century head which sounds pretty killer.
Walker's drum kit is a drum kit.
Nick: You have a demo out, which was recorded and released back in October 2023. Is there anything upcoming we can expect from Heliophage?
Efrayim: Other than a couple shows we've got lined up for the summer, nothing concrete. I'd really like to make it into the studio to record sometime, since I think we've got about an album's worth of songs at this point.
Nick: Reading the liner notes on your Bandcamp page, it says your demo was recorded onto a four-track tape machine. How was it recording on tape compared to digital?
Efrayim: We're big fans of anything antiquated. Loukas has a little four-track tape recorder, so we liked the idea of recording with that. Recording on tape isn't as convenient as recording digitally, if you make a mistake it's not like you can just go back and dub over it, or at least not easily. Something I liked about recording on tape is that all of us were playing live at the same time. Every experience I've had recording stuff digitally has been recording each track separately, but recording all of us just felt a lot more "real", you know?
Nick: You recently got some praise from Fuzzpeddler as the best thing going in Victoria. How has the reception been to Heliophage within Victoria?
Efrayim: It's been really excellent seeing how many people enjoy what we're doing. We've only played one show so far, but at every gig I've gone to since then I've had at least one person ask me "Hey, when is Heliophage playing next?" so I'm glad we're doing something right. Every time I'm encouraged more and more to keep going and to get as far as I can with this band.
Nick: Final question: Which bands should people be checking out?
Efrayim: Goat Major from Wales just put out their debut full-length Ritual back in March. They're killer. From the moment I heard their Evil Eye EP I was like "Holy shit, this is the exact sound I've been trying to chase with Heliophage".
King in Yellow from Mexico is another band making some really sick stoner doom. Evil 'n' groovy.
Blue Daze from Mississippi sounds almost like a punk-ish Electric Wizard. I'm really looking forward to their future output.
Miasma from Indonesia plays some brutal, sickening doom metal. They're HEAVY, like if Sleep continued the anguished, sludgy style of Volume 1. Be sure to check out their EP A Glance of Miasma.
When it comes to local acts, there unfortunately aren't many bands carrying the metal banner, or at least not ones playing often. Fuzzpeddler and Moonbather were already mentioned previously, but I'd also like to give some attention to the one other band wearing the stoner/doom robes 'round these parts: Bong Witch. They've got this real nice psychedelic vibe about them, which I love. I'm hoping they'll release a demo or something soon! I'll be seeing them June 15 alongside Fuzzpeddler, Hoopsnake, and Tekarra. It's gonna rip.
Finally, if you're a WUSS who doesn't want to listen to metal, Sharon and Silvertone are two excellent acts. Silvertone plays grungy blues-rock, with some Zeppelin-inspired drumming. They're wicked. Sharon, I don't even know how to describe it. They're absurd. Maybe they're alternative rock? But that feels like selling them short because they're actually good. It's the type of band you really need to see live, since I don't think their album really does them justice.
You can catch Heliophage on July 13 at Little Fernwood
That’s it for this week, folks!
Cool, look forward to hearing more from Efrayim and Heliophage!