If you’ve attended Wacken — and know that “Wacken” doesn’t require descriptive adjuncts like “world’s biggest heavy metal festival” — chances are you’ve heard or stumbled upon the Wacken Battle. Here, bands that were victorious in their respective countries’ battle of the bands “compete” against each other for a bevy of prizes most of them end up leaving behind because no one told them that they’d have to figure out how to ship a bunch of weighty and costly new gear home. Logistical shit show aside, there’s a certain amount of bragging action and prestige that goes into saying your band was elected to represent your motherland on the world’s biggest unsigned stage.
Hailing from Trois-Riviers, Quebec, Strigampire were this year’s Canadian Wacken Battle winners. So, belated congrats to them for that. The second feather in this year’s successful cap has been added with the forthcoming release of their latest and third full length, All to Dominate. Weaving in a variety of extreme styles under a banner of extensive melodic crafting and the sense that they are the life of any party they RSVP to, Strigampire (the name is a combination of the Italian word for “witch” and the English word for “vampire”) offers up a seat on a carousel powered by rapid fire compositions, shredding guitars and a vocalist who’d just as tickle your funny bone as bounce a hammer off it. Think Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth.
Below, you can check out their brand of noise for yourself via a stream of the album. Says the band about it:
“Get ready for an intense journey into the world of Strigampire! With devastating riffs, impactful melodies and raw energy, All to Dominate pushes the boundaries of extreme art! It’s our most powerful work to date, and we’re thrilled to share it with you exclusively at Decibel Magazine! Fasten your seatbelts, thrill-seekers: the Canadian extreme rockers are back in force!”
