THE WEIR

TUNE IT DOWN, TURN IT WAY, WAY UP

As per usual, the patio at the Ship and Anchor is full of patrons, boisterous laughs, beers and being circled by a drunken man who attempts to bamboozle us with card tricks. It is here that I meet the The Weir, the Calgary band that plays b[laow]ed. In English, this means slow, heavy, sludgy and howling.

“Jim and I have played in a bunch of bands before together, we have been pals for about five years now,” begins guitarist and vocalist Sergey Jmourovski (also of WAKE), referring to his guitar/vocal counterpart Jim Hudson (also of Breathe Knives). The duo formerly played in a short lived act called Baikal and then went on to form Snake Mountain, both of which clearly inform their current project. That project is The Weir – named after the former death trap on the Bow River – and is rounded out by bassist and vocalist Alex Kurth (also of La Luna) and drummer Mark Schmidt (also of Vancouver’s On Lock). Kurth’s previous project, Monkey, also bleeds heavily in.

“After WAKE’s Leeches record was done, I found myself with a lot of free time and I had a couple riffs kicking around from my old sludge days, because that’s what I used to play,” continues Jmourovski. His imprint, Hearing Aids Records, released the grind act’s debut full-length, along with albums by his other projects. All of them are available on Bandcamp.

“Jim and I have talked about putting together a little project before so we got together, jammed a bunch, and everything just clicked. Alex and I have also talked about putting a sludge band together, so we brought him over, everything got way more awesome after that and we got Mark down to the jam spot.”

The quartet has only been together for a little under two years, but their debut Yesterday’s Graves is an impressive slab indicative of its members’ collective musical history. Recorded in December 2012, it was mixed and mastered by Winnipeg’s Craig Boychuk at CB Audio. The finishing touch is artwork depicting the eye of the storm – or a pool of blood forming beneath ice – by American Heritage drummer Scott Shellhammer.

“I would say, for me, I’m trying to make slow, heavy jams. Sergey plays weird riffs,” says Hudson of the music contained within. He attempts to describe the bass with a series of sounds while the other members grin.

“I like to get a little bit groovy,” adds Schmidt. “Metal dudes who like hardcore playing sludge music,” counters Hudson.

“But a little more dynamic than sludge. We try to go down to a lower dynamic and have parts build more with a flow to it,” adds Schmidt.

Released on the group’s Bandcamp page on May 14, the record will be pressed to vinyl this summer by Kurth’s bandmates in La Luna, who run Calgary’s Pint Sized Records. The CD should be available by mid-June. It follows their three-track Everything Blaowder than Everything Else demo and is sure to devastate the eardrums of all.

See the Weir at Calgary Metalfest and Sled Island, or in Vancouver at Burger Fest in August. You can hear their debut album for free at theweir.bandcamp.com or listen below.

Story and photo by Sarah Kitteringham