New Wax and Toronto

Our new recs look really good. The Black Ships Low 7" sounds heavier than the CD (to me, cos' I'm a nerd), and the Sainte Catherines / Us Against the World 7" is just raging. Still not Getting any... Credibility from the Sainte Catherines stands has one of my fav songs from them, as they take another jab at Simple Plan.

My Ste-4 top 3.

1. The International Badminton Championship (1-2-3 go version, fhh split)
2. Still not Getting any... Credibility (from our 7 inch)
3. Track and Field Style (from Fat release)

Also I was in Toronto this week, I went to Rotate This for the first time since they moved, the new store is pretty cool, they took a bunch of our records. I really like Toronto. The last time I was there was for the Discord / Locust show on the exclaim tour, and it was ok, but this time around I wandered a bit more, and really enjoyed it. Cudos Toronto

CKUT TOP LOUD 2008

ckut top 20 LOUD 2008
don cabarello - punkgasm - relapse
menace ruine - cult of ruins - alien8 CC
grails - doomsdayer holiday - temporary residence
earth - the bee made honey in the lion’s skull - southern lord
the melvins - nude with boots - ipecac
om - pilgrimage - southern lord
lustmord - other - hydra head
thisquietarmy - blackhaunter - elevation CC
moha - one way ticket to candyland - rune grammofon
sunn - domkirke - southern lord
burning witch - crippled lucifer - southern lord
harvey milk - the best game in town - hydra head
wrath of the weak - alogon - profound lore
conifer/ocean - split lp - important
venomous concept - poisoned apple - century media
black ships - omens - new romance for kids CC
ascend - ample fire within - southern lord
5ive - hesperus - tortuga
discord of a forgotten sketch - improv session - new romance for kids CC
russian circles - station - suicide squeeze

Loud top 20 (canada 11/2008)

1 Amon Amarth Twilight Of The Thundergod Metal Blade
2 Misery Index Traitors Relapse
3 Bison BC * Quiet Earth Metal Blade
4 Fiftywatthead * Fogcutter igned By Force
5 Gojira The Way Of All Flesh Prosthetic
6 Burst Lazarus Bird Relapse
7 Fucked Up * The Chemistry Of Common Life Matador
8 All That Remains Overcome Razor & Tie
9 D.O.A. * Northern Avenger Sudden Death
10 Unearth The March Metal Blade
11 Metallica Death Magnetic Warner
12 Metal Church This Present Wasteland SPV
13 Enslaved Vertabrae Nuclear Blast
14 Into Eternity * The Incurable Tragedy Century Media
15 Iced Earth The Crucible Of Man: Something Wicked Part II SPV
16 Toxic Holocaust An Overdose Of Death Relapse
17 Black Ships * Omens New Romance For Kids
18 Cradle Of Filth Godspeed On The Devils Thunder Roadrunner
19 Psycroptic Ob(servant) Nuclear Blast
20 Meshuggah Contradictions Nuclear Blast

Black Ships // Ottawa Xpress - Mtl Hour

December 11th, 2008

Black Ships - Omens
(New Romance For Kids Records)

Dave Jaffer

Live and on recordings, Black Ships songs feel like prospective physical assaults in dark places, with buried vocals that play like words of foreboding and a layered guitar wall that's claustrophobia-inducing and doom-inspiring. However, despite appearances, there's a lot of creativity afoot here. Hard music rarely boasts capital-S style, but Omens is quite stylish. Tempo shifts, like the one transitioning No Eulogy into The Flaws in Self Help, jostle and resituate the listener. Other stylistic aspects of this debut LP set Black Ships apart, but I'll let you find 'em. For now, I'll salute "Montreal's loudest band" with a bra-fucking-vo.

Eye Weekly Holiday Record Guide: Punk/Metal

Eye Weekly diss production butt dig the riffs

BLACK SHIPS ***
Omens / New Romance For Kids

On Omens, Montreal’s beastly and thunderous Black Ships perfectly balance melodic tendencies bastardized by detuned aggression. Uniting Cancer Bats’ modest metallic edge with Cursed’s death-metal-meets-hardcore guttural prowess as well as the apocalyptic slant of High On Fire, Omens is direct and hyperactive, packed with girth and rabid fury. But while their redlining distortion initially creates a strong, haunting atmosphere, by the halfway mark it becomes a tiresome jumble of static detracting from their obvious abilities. When Black Ships step up the production aspects of their hardcore dirge, they may acquire the underground scene’s throne that was abdicated by Cursed. For now, they still have some plotting to do. KC

Black Ships // issue oriented blog

Black Ships // Omens
New Romance For Kids



I really thought this was Union Of Uranus when I first heard it (which in case you didn’t know – that’s a very good thing). Omens is blast of bitterness from Montreal that is equal parts Entombed sludge and Black Flag’s fuck-off attitude. These eight tracks pack enough piss and vinegar into 25 minutes that you will be hitting repeat. This is one for the crust punks that tire from waiting for Tragedy to play again. Or the metal kids who are tired of hearing the same boring breakdowns.

Black Ships - Bang Bang

ALEXI CHARLEBOIS LAURIN - 11 novembre 2008

We are not a d-beat band:

BLACK SHIPS interview


So you’re now in the middle of a really long tour. When a band decides to go on tour for so long, is it just a question of «promoting» or «pushing» his new record or it’s also a lifestyle the band as chosen? A way to escape the 9 to 5 lifestyle?

We have always wanted to do a long tour. We were supposed to do one a couple of years ago but we blew up two vans before leaving. This time around, we got a good working van and decided that we were going to do all of North America. Obviously, it’s great to do a tour like this when you have a new record coming out, but we probably would have done something like this regardless. The 9 to 5 lifestyle is mundane, and touring offers a way of life devoid of having to follow any sort of set schedule every day.


What have been the coolest and most frightening states so far in the US? Can you feel the actual campaign being something very important for most of the people there?


Any city around the Great Lakes is definitely different than what we are used to in Montreal. The people from around that area refer to it as The Rust Belt. We went to Gary, Indiana and it is like hell on earth. Apparently they film post apocalyptic movie scenes there because there is so much decay. It was the only place in the very religious State of Indiana where they are letting the churches crumble. Florida was a pretty cool State as was Texas. Campaigning isn’t the same here. The american legislating system is different than in Canada so it is a lot different. There aren’t a million fucking campaign signs everywhere cluttering the skyline with smiling faces promising a better future for all of us. The politicians do a lot more live rallies and it seems like citizens do a lot of promotion for the political parties as well. You can definitely feel a difference here. People want change. Obviously, in the scene that we play in, people normally don’t even bother to vote because every option is the wrong one, but for this election, there is a lot more people getting involved and wanting to actually vote, which is something drastically different than in Canada.


What is a good day and what is a shitty day on tour? Best turnout so far?


Shitty days are when you find out that a show has been cancelled, or when you play a really shitty show and then you can’t find somewhere to sleep. Some of the best turnouts have been in all of the shows in Quebec and Ontario, Boston, Cleveland, Hammond Indiana, Brooklyn and Fort Worth, Texas.


You earned the reputation of being the loudest band in Montreal. Your music is heavy that’s for sure but do you make sure that things are really fucking loud at your show or it’s just something that happen?


It seems like these days, everybody that plays in a heavy band feels like they need to have the most amps they can fit into a van. We decided that instead of doing that, we might as well buy really good amps and get rid of the 4 other shitty ones. We are still a loud band, but it is a good sounding loud, not an abrasive «I want to stuff as many earplugs as I can into my ears» type of loud.


OMENS. What’s the meaning behind this title? What should we get from the artwork of your record? Is it your perception of where the world is going or a way to show how the human race is a destructive one?


We came up with the title because of all the bad luck we had been experiencing during past tours, etc. It just seemed like an omen that something would fuck up during or even before leaving for a tour. The artwork was done by Ryan Patterson, who fronts the band Coliseum from Louisville, Kentucky. It is more to show how something that was once beautiful can quickly turn into ruins. It just so happened that the imagery was that of a war torn city.


Do you feel this record is definitely a step forward compared to your Low EP?


Definitely! We took more time to record it and didn’t feel like we were racing against the clock to finish it. We recorded it with our good friend Julien Brousseau and he did a great job. He knew exactly what we were trying to do and really listened to what we had to say and added in little things here and there that we completely agreed on as well. Everything came together really nicely in the end. We also took a longer time writing the songs since last winter was so shitty in Montreal and we had nothing else to do.


Favourite TRAGEDY song?


This is probably the oddest question we’ve ever been asked. I like all of them, but I like His Hero Is Gone more…


Does playing in a D-Beat punk/hardcore band necessarily equals being a negative person in life?


I’m glad you asked this question. I’ll answer it in tow parts. First, just to clarify things since we’ve been asked it a bunch of times; we are not a d-beat band. We don’t play one d-beat on any of our songs. D-beat is a certain type of drum pattern which you would find in any Tragedy song. I can see how people could make the mistake but I would like to think that we shouldn’t be classified as a d-beat band. Being in a band like this doesn’t necessarily equal being a negative person in life. The world is a fucked up place and pisses all of us off to a huge degree but what the fuck are we going to do about it? So instead of sitting at home and feeling sorry for ourselves we sit in a van for hours on end and let out all the negative energy we accumulate in a 25 minute set every night.

www.myspace.com/blackships

Black Ships enter (loud) top 10

Loud
For the Week Ending: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

TW LW Artist Title Label
1 3 Misery Index Traitors Relapse
2 1 Amon Amarth Twilight Of The Thundergod Metal Blade
3 6 Unearth The March Metal Blade
4 8 Gojira The Way Of All Flesh Prosthetic
5 -- Darkthrone Dark Thrones & Black Flags Peaceville
6 2 Bison BC Quiet Earth Metal Blade
7 -- Black Ships Omens New Romance For Kids
8 7 Enslaved Vertabrae Nuclear Blast
9 -- Metallica Death Magnetic Warner
10 -- Toxic Holocaust An Overdose Of Death Relapse

Black Ships // Montreal Mirror

Black Ships
Omens (New Romance For Kids/FAB)
After two all too brief EPs, these locals make good, with the brutal blast on this full-length being entirely worthwhile. Now that Cursed have given up the crown, Black Ships are only too eager to pick it up with a completely punishing blitzkrieg. Producer Julien Brousseau manages the impossible task of making everything louder than everything else, with needles firmly planted in the red and the band more focused and to the point than ever. As far as modern Canadian hardcore goes, it just doesn’t get any better than this. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “The End” (Johnson Cummins)

BLACK SHIPS / DECIBEL MAG

check out this glowing review of Black Ships' Low EP in decibel.

Black Ships

Low

New Romance For Kids

Come sail away

No one wants to reinvent the wheel and, really, why should they? Throw some killer rims on those things and watch the cavemen shit their saber-tooth drawers. And Low by Montréal’s Black Ships are 20-inchers with spinning pot leaves that shoot fire.

Working the same punk/rock/metal blitz of bands like Coliseum and Trap Them, this four-song EP does everything right by starting pissed and staying pissed, hurling riffs like bricks and cursing everything around them. It’s true that this could be said for a whole mess of bands right now—some D-beating, a few slabs of anthemic breakdowns, some thorny melodies and shredded vocals—but Black Ships raise the bar. The gnawed tongue aggression against the splintered and sorrowful hooks is like chewing on the best tasting tinfoil you’ve ever had.

I’ve admittedly been getting tired of the old-but-new-school metal/punk hybrids, and I think far too many bands are jumping on this particular wagon, but if Black Ships keep putting out records like Low, and other bands follow suit, I’ll happily keep listening. So yeah, go buy the record. And send us photos of your rims.

Black Ships - Exclaim

Black Ships - Omens
By Sam Sutherland

With Cursed gone (for now?) from our national hardcore scene, there’s a big, gaping hole where our love for crushingly heavy riffs and speedy breakdowns used to be. Black Ships, a group of dirty punks from Montreal, might be ready to fill that void, as Omens, their first full-length release, can attest to. Opening with “No Eulogy,” the band make good on the promise of an earlier CD-R release and their Low EP, blasting out a slow explosion of guitars that build over a tom-heavy drum beat. Vocals here are run through some very Colohan-esque distortion, and that’s not a bad thing — this shit sounds heavy as fuck. By the time “The Flaws in Self-Help” kicks in, a brutal speed-fest that recalls Coliseum’s Goddamage, Black Ships have already proven themselves adept at covering a wide array of dynamics and tempos, elevating Omens above second-rate Entombed clones. As well, there’s sonic space on this record that isn’t always filled by a wall of crashing noise. From the lone guitar break of “Liars are a Dying Breed” to the calculated sludge of “Pestilence,” Black Ships are powerful, loud and, most importantly, original.

Did you have to approach Omens in a different way than you had tackled recording in the past, knowing you were making a full-length?
Drummer Taylor: With Omens, the recording process differed naturally due to the amount of care that we put into this album. First, we took our time choosing the right person to record this album. We also gave ourselves more time than we probably needed in the studio because we wanted to avoid the time constraints that existed in our past efforts. Finally, our good friend Julien Brousseau engineered the album and it was helpful to have an honest opinion from outside of the band in order for us to address all the subtle issues in the songs that we would have otherwise ignored.

It seems like more and more punk and hardcore bands are relying on MySpace to promote their music. You guys are currently touring like crazy. Is this a lost art?
Obviously it is easier for people to sit at home and run their bands from behind a computer but we would like to think that active bands still need to tour. We have always sold more of our music on tour than on some internet store. Also, heavy music always translates better live. We would much rather have tour dates under our belt than song plays on MySpace. (New Romance For Kids)

Much needed updates - not today

So we have decided not to release anything this summer, cos' releasing records in the summer has sucked in the past. We are ready to announce some Grandiose plans for fall, but not today! In the mean time check out a Black Ships studio update "OMEN"

Press (Black Ships) // Bang Bang / Montreal Mirror / Exclaim (UPDATED)

Black Ships (Updated * new)
Low
By Sam Sutherland

After a well-received CD-R release on Mon Oeil Records, Montreal’s Black Ships have unleashed a beast of an EP on the world with Low. With all the power of Tragedy’s first record or Coliseum’s Goddamage, these four songs meld brutally heavy d-beat with epically apocalyptic guitars, forging some powerfully melodic instrumental passages for vocalist Jamie Thomas to tear to shreds with his appropriately brutal screams. Finding some range in what can be a somewhat limited sonic scope, Black Ships move seamlessly from lightning-fast punk rock to sludgy metal in songs like “Lowest of the Low,” likely the strongest track here. Fans of Cursed or the aforementioned bands should flip for this. (New Romance For Kids)



Black Ships
LOW
MIRROR

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The last release from Montreal’s brutal blasters the Black Ships, in 2006, had me running around waking the neighbours and kissing babies, but with only six songs on the EP, I was hardly satiated. If you weren’t nimble enough to pick up this slab of heaviness at the time, don’t bother trying to find it now, it’s long out of print. This week, these crusty hardcore hellions release the follow-up Low in less limited quantities, but further the frustration with only four songs this time around. In this case, though, size doesn’t matter. They destroy on all glorious 16 minutes here. Lovingly put out by local label New Romance for Kids, the Black Ships’ Refused/Entombed onslaught is out for blood. If you dig brutal hardcore or metal that isn’t afraid to fire from the gut, this is essential listening. If you weren’t hip enough to catch their record release a couple of weeks back, keep your peepers here for their upcoming show at new hotspot Black Dot.


Bang Bang
11 avril 2008
Black Ships : Low
Alexis Charlebois-Laurin

New Romance For Kids

Ayant déjà la réputation d’être un des groupes les plus loud en show de toute la scène punk/hardcore de Montréal, le groupe nous envoie son premier EP «officiel» après un CD-R sur le label Mon Œil. Un EP qui va certainement entretenir la rumeur. Se situant dans la lignée de Tragedy, From Ashes Rise, Cobra Noir, The Black Hand, la formation nous sert un bon d-beat rock et bien sale avec une touche de mélodie bien placée. En seulement quatre chansons, le groupe réussit vraiment à nous prouver de quoi il est capable et on a hâte d’entendre la suite. J’espère qu’elle ne se fera pas trop attendre et qu’il va battre le fer pendant qu’il est chaud. Je suis pas trop certain mais j’ai comme une grosse impression que ce groupe est composé d’ex-plein d’affaires parce que dans le style, c’est vraiment très bon et bien exécuté. La voie caverneuse fitte à merveille, les guitares mélodiques, tout en étant sales et pesantes, ne pourrait mieux sonner et chaque coup de drum s’abat comme un coup de hache. «The lowest of the low, the cursed of the cursed, the darkest of the darkest night.» C’est-tu pas assez d-beat à votre goût comme paroles ça, mes amis? Moi j’ai adoré. (ACL)
www.myspace.com/blackships

Black Ships // Junnnk Thanks

by Matt Dixon, March '08

1. Please introduce the members of Black Ships and give a brief history of the band.
Adam plays bass, Marc and jamie play guitar, Jamie also does the vocals and Taylor plays drums. Adam, Jamie and Taylor started playing together four years ago. We played in various bands together. Black Ships used to be Jamie, Adam and Taylor but went on hiatus for a bit. When we re-formed about a year ago, we added Marc as a second guitarist.

2. What does Black Ships consider worth fighting for?
Theres no much to fight for. @e're all fucked.

3. What politics and/or ethics, if any, play a role in the band, the lyrics and the way the group goes about its business?
We all are strong believers in the DIY ethic. Being able to do something yourself and then have people like it is really rewarding. Our lyrics look at the world in a dark, pissed off kind of way. The world we live in is fucked.

4. Who would you consider your current contemporaries in hardcore?
I would say for us it would have to be Cursed, Tragedy, Disfear and a lot of the bands we listen to have already broken up.

5. You seem to have a knack for seeking out and working with small DIY labels (Mon Oeil, New Romance For Kids). Is this a conscious choice and does it reflect your commitment to the DIY community?
Actually, both those labels are friends of ours. Our release was the first for Mon Oeil and they did a great job. Jason from New Romance told us that if we ever wanted to put something out again that he would be more than happy to do it. So for our second release, we went with him. Going with DIY labels isn't exactly a conscious choice, its actually more of a natural one. I couldnt picture it any other way.

6.What is your current take on the Montreal hardcore scene?
It is actually getting really good. We have a solid venue called the Black Dot which is run by our friend Dan. People always come out, have a good time and support the local and out of town bands. There was a serious lack of decent, affordable venues here so now with the Black Dot, the scene is changing. More shows are happening, more people are getting involved and all in all its really encouraging. I've also started to noticed that younger kids are coming out to the shows now, which is really cool.

7. You have gained a reputation for being "the loudest band in Montreal", what is your reaction to this and what else do you think sets Black Ships apart from other band?
We actually used to be twice as loud. It got to be really ridiculous. We used to use a lot more gear that we do now but it would be safe to say we still play pretty loud. I would like to think that we draw influences from different places. We obviously have that Eastern Canada pissed off sound that a lot of bands from our area have but we also have some Scandinavian hardcore influences as well.

8. You're about to go on tour with Louisville Kentucky hardcore outfit Lords, how did this tour come about? What made you want to tour with Lords?
It just kind of popped up. Adam's other, now defunct, band, Cobra Noir, did some dates with them last year. One day I noticed that Lords were going to be coming up here, so I got on my horse and found out who was doing the tour and got in touch and the rest is history.

9. I noticed that for the upcoming tour you'll be playing a mix of house shows, clubs, and bars. What is your ideal show situation?
Obviously, house shows rule. They're always a party and you're often treated really well. That would be the ideal but we've had our fair share of house shows getting shut down by the cops, which totally blows every time it happens. It would be safe to say that the most ideal show would be at a rad, small DIY venue which had ample room to store gear, held about a 100 people and had 4 bands on the bill. Sometimes even 3 is just the right amount.

10. Any interesting road/tour stories?
Lots. We hit a bird in New York State while listening to "Freebird" on the radio, we played in a barn in Portland, Maine, we always look for roller coasters to ride and buffets to eat at. We've got a whole wack of other stories involving alcohol and other various substances that probably wouldnt be suitable for this kind of thing.

11. People seem to be unanimous in their calls for more Black Ships. Is there a full length record on the horizon? What's up next for the band?
We are currently in the process of writing songs in hopes of releasing a full length record at the end of the summer/fall. We then plan on touring a whole lot. We would ideally like to go to Europe and maybe stay there forever so Jamie can hang out with Skit System.

12. How can people contact you?
They can find us at myspace.com/blackships but our email is blackshipsarecoming@hotmail.com. My address is also 208 Frontenac, Pincourt, Quebec, J7V 3V2. Letters are always nice and I promise I'll write you back.

13. Final words?
Thanks a lot for asking us to do this and we'll see you at the show on the 25th, its going to rip. DIY or die. Thumbs up!