TYRANTS READY FOR CHAOS
CITY BANDS AMONG 40 PLAYING MUSIC FESTIVAL
Ryan Dyck and his bandmates in Tyrants of Chaos are ready to get Loud As Hell. The local metal outfit will be among 40 bands making the earth shake at the Loud as Hell metal festival in Drumheller Aug. 4-6.
Also representing Lethbridge will be Caste of Shadows. Both bands play on the 6th with Caste of Shadows taking the stage at 10:30 a.m. while Dyck and company perform right in the middle of the afternoon heat at 3 p.m.
This is the sixth year for Loud As Hell. The headliner is Detroit’s Battlecross, with three Vancouver outfits also sharing top billing. They include Black Wizard, Bison and Aggression.
Weekend passes for the
festival at the Drumheller Stampede Grounds — which include tent camping — are $99. The event kicks off next Friday at 6 p.m. then runs all day on Saturday and Sunday starting at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are available at http://www.loudashell.com/tic
kets. The venue is located eight minutes from downtown Drumheller on Highway 9 beside the penitentiary.
Tyrants of Chaos, which focuses on traditional metal, was formed in 2014 by Paul Denton and Paul Vaselenak, who brought into the fold guitarist Sandy Lawson, drummer Dyck and frontman Phil Sirias.
Since forming, the band has shared the stage with outfits including Pop Evil, Finger Eleven, KISS, Rush and Burton Cummings.
They have a wide range of influences dating from the Seventies to the Nineties especially “old-school British heavy metal like Saxon and Thin Lizzy,” says Dyck.
Dyck has been hitting the skins since he was 12 and Tyrants of Chaos is the latest in a number of projects he has worked with over the years, including the popular Billy Vegas. His public performances date back to the 1980s when he fondly recalls, bands could get week-long gigs in the city.
“The five of us really fit good together. We’ve been around the block,” says Dyck, a research technician at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada by day, whose parents used to take the teenaged drummer to gigs in venues the under-aged musician wouldn’t otherwise have been allowed in.
Tyrants of Chaos, which played the 2016 Lethbridge Music Festival and opened for Monster Truck at Whoop-Up Days, does only originals. Their music and stage presence are both exceptionally polished with singer Sirias having a voice that can howl with the best of them.
While a metal drummer at heart, Dyck says he “likes to change it up a bit.” He regularly does drum tracks for various artists at Sheldon Arvay’s Hothouse Studios and teaches music but has scaled back on the number of students he works with. Between practices, recording and teaching, Dyck — who uses exclusively a Pearl Reference kit — goes through four to five sets of sticks a week.
In addition to performances, Loud as Hell will have various vendors, tattoo artists and clinics for guitar and drums.
It’s a showcase opportunity for bands which isn’t easy to get in the local music scene.
“You pretty much have to rent a hall and throw a party yourself,” Dyck says.
And those parties, such as metal meltdowns, have attracted hundreds of fans.
Following is the musical lineup for Loud As Hell:
Friday, Aug. 4
Cocaine Moustache (Vancouver) – 12:45 a.m. Bison (Vancouver) – 11:15 p.m. Exit Strategy (Calgary) – 10 p.m. Mortillery (Edmonton) – 9 p.m. Sentient (Calgary) – 8 p.m. W.M.D. (Calgary) – 7 p.m. Leave The Living (Red Deer) – 6 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 5
Shocker (Edmonton) – 12:45 a.m. Aggression (Vancouver) – 11:15 p.m. Planet Eater (Regina) – 10 p.m. All Else Fails (Edmonton) – 9 p.m. Tyrants Demise (Winnipeg) – 8 p.m. Expain (Vancouver) – 7 p.m. Neck of The Woods (Vancouver) – 6 p.m.
Shark Infested Daughters (Calgary) – 5:15 p.m.
God Said Kill (Port Coquitlam) – 4:30 p.m. Burning Effigy (Calgary) – 3:45 p.m. Social Arsonist (Chile/Vancouver)- 3 p.m. Hammerdrone (Calgary) – 2:15 p.m. Cell (Winipeg)- 1:30 p.m. Tides of Kharon (Edmonton) – 12:45 p.m.
The Cadavor Dog (High River) – 12 p.m.
Concrete Funeral (Calgary) – 11:15 a.m.
Nuclear Oath (Medicine Hat) – 10:30 a.m.
Sunday, Aug, 6
Battlecross (Detroit) – 11:15 p.m.
Black Wizard (Vancouver) – 10 p.m.
Galactic Pegasus (Vancouver) – 9 p.m. Scythia (Calgary) – 8 p.m. Nylithia (Vancouver) – 7 p.m. Dead Asylum (Vancouver) – 6 p.m.
Altars of Grief (Regina) – 5:15 p.m.
Skepsis (Edmonton) – 4:30 p.m.
Tales of The Tomb (Edmonton) – 3:45 p.m.
Tyrants of Chaos (Lethbridge) – 3 p.m.
Slaughterhauser (Mission City) – 2:15 p.m.
Sovereign Enemy (Winnipeg) – 1:30 p.m.
Statue of Demur (Calgary) – 12:45 p.m. Gales of Avalon (Calgary) – 12 p.m. Immunize (Edmonton) – 11:15 a.m. Caste of Shadows (Lethbridge) – 10:30 a.m.