Swords of sincerity

>> 3 Inches of Blood demand to know
what could be more metal than a
severed head on a stick

FANTASY VIOLENT: 3 Inches of Blood

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Within the ever evolving world of heavy metal, subgenres seem to pop up faster than acne on a teenage Burger King cashier. Power metal, post-rock metal, goth metal, trance metal, grind metal, black metal, psychedelic metal—it’s enough to make any rivethead dizzy. Vancouver’s 3 Inches of Blood, however, have gone completely against the recent trend of pushing metal’s envelope. The quintet harkens back to simpler days, when metal was all about mullets, bullet belts, patch-adorned jean jackets and the obligatory white Reeboks.

Although admitted fans of underground and experimental metal, 3 Inches of Blood take their cues from the new wave of British metal—Iron Maiden, Judas Priest—and also the early-’80s thrash sound. With twin lead vocals that play operatic bombast off guttural howls, and a twin guitars attack to boot, this is indeed a heavy fucking metal band.

“We definitely seem to stick out on any bills we tend to get on,” says guitarist Shane Clark. “I guess we kind of play a pre-subgenre style of metal that not a lot of people are doing right now. We like all kinds of different metal, but I think where we really come together is on early Slayer, Exodus and stuff like that, and I guess that has given us a bit of extra attention.”

To be honest, given 3 Inches of Blood’s glorification of metal’s teething years, it almost seems they could be chortling up their frayed leather sleeves, but Smith insists that there is no knee-slapping in their headbanging. “I could see why some people would think that we’re some sort of parody band or something. But we really love what we do, and we do have a sense of humour, but not really when it comes to our music. A lot of people aren’t used to hearing falsetto vocals and fantasy-based lyrics, but we’re really into bands like Dio, and just find those kinds of lyrics a lot more interesting than hearing some guy moan about his day job. I mean, Cam [Pipes, singer] actually plays Dungeons & Dragons. Anybody who would accuse us of being a parody has obviously not taken the time out to see us live, or actually sit down and listen to our records.”

If these Vancouverites are metal to the core, they often pale in comparison to their rabid fans, who have been known to show up to shows with Viking helmets, swords (both plastic and real) and, strangely enough, fresh roadkill from budding young taxidermists.

“We’ve had people show up with pigs’ heads on sticks and stuff like that, but the weirdest thing that ever happened was when we played in Fargo, North Dakota. This guy kept telling us that he had a big surprise for us when we played, and we really didn’t think much of it. About halfway through the show, we see the crowd part and there is this guy holding a severed deer’s head over his head. I guess it was freshly killed because there was blood just gushing down on the guy and the tongue was hanging out. It was really gross, but at the same time we were thinking, ‘Fuck, you really can’t get any more metal than that!’”

With GWar at club soda on
Monday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m., $25, all ages