MUSICAL SHIFT
The Northern moves toward metalcore after personnel changes
Adam Linka finds himself in uncharted territory on his current tour. The drummer/vocalist for Canadian metal outfit The Northern is hitting spots in the United States for the first time — which is a treat.
“It’s interesting,” he says of the tour, which recently took the band to Omaha, Neb. “We had never played Nebraska before, and some kids showed and made it all worth it. They bought some merch, too, which really helps us get to the next stop.”
Linka joined before the band
started working on the album “Solstice,” which was released in 2017.
The band was founded by Leo Valeri and Nick Papageorgiou, who were on the road with their former bands when they got to talking about their musical tastes and realized they were similar.
Although they lived in different countries, The Northern was first formed as a project for fun, and in the beginning was not intended to be a live band. After the band released the EP “Imperium” in 2013, the overwhelming response made it clear the band would have to be more than just a hobby.
Once the momentum began, Papageorgiou, Eric Leblanc and Jordan Gallant, Linka and Gordon Campbell were all on board.
“Solstice” was recorded, mixed and mastered by Doug Meadows at Allspark Studio and released on January 27, 2017.
Papageorgiou left the band in late 2017 due to creative differences, and Mike Cutway was added.
Linka says the band worked on the album for more than a year.
“It was a bit of a process, because when the band first started writing, I wasn’t even in the band,” he says. “There were a couple member changes that happened right before. It took us longer than most bands to put this album out. We used the time wisely and made it as solid as we could.”