IN CONVERSATION: BLOOD CEREMONY

Arguably Canada's most innovative Hard Rock/Heavy Metal export since Voivod, Toronto's Blood Ceremony have been conjuring up expectation-defying albums since 2008. For the uninitiated, imagine a female-fronted Black Sabbath with prominent Jethro Tull flute flourishes transplanted from 1970 into the present day and you'll have a pretty good idea what you're in for. While their first three albums were unabashedly heavy, their more recent output has leaned into an ever more Wiccan-folk musical territory, with acoustic guitars taking the place of the walls of electric distortion that characterized their early material.

While their most recent album, 2023's The Old Ways Remain, is now three years old, the band are still actively playing shows in support of the album. Case in point, tomorrow night they will perform an all-acoustic set at Lee's Palace as part of Prepare the Ground fest.

chorusVERSEchorus recently had the chance to catch up with guitarist/songwriter Sean Kennedy from the band to discuss The Old Ways Remain, Prepare the Ground fest, and what's next for the band.

CVC: Two years after the release of The Old Ways Remain, the critical response to the more acoustic-leaning material and 60's pop influences has seemingly been overwhelmingly favorable. Having had the opportunity to tour the material both in Europe and Canada, have you noticed any shift in your live audience and how receptive they are to the new material?


BC: Our live show tends to lean more toward our heavier material, so I haven’t really noticed any difference in audience reaction. Over the years, though, I’ve always been pleasantly surprised when spontaneous dancing breaks out in the crowd. It’s happened a few times — most recently at Massif Fest — and it was incredible.


CVC: The inclusion of Joseph Shabason on saxophone on "Eugenie" was a very pleasant instrumental surprise on the album. Was the song written with a saxophone passage in mind or did the opportunity to bring Shabason into the recording present itself after the song was written?

 
BC: We always intended to include a saxophone part in the song — the outro seemed to call for something a little unexpected. At first, I had hoped to play the part myself, but it quickly became clear I didn’t have the chops to do it justice. I’ve known Joseph for years, so we were thrilled when he agreed to contribute the sax arrangement. He and I recorded his parts at his private studio in Toronto.

The song leaves a lot of room to breathe, which gave us the opportunity to layer in additional percussion, including the congas Mike plays throughout. Our overall approach to “Eugenie” was to build a strong groove and gradually intensify the energy as the song progresses.


CVC: Blood Ceremony has been fortunate to record at some amazing studios over the years -- Electrical Audio, Toe Rag, and Pro Gold to name only a few. Which studio and recording experience was the best for the band, and which do you think best captured the essence of Blood Ceremony?

 
BC: Each recording has been a unique experience, but by the time we began working on The Old Ways Remain, we felt confident in the studio environment and had a much clearer sense of what we wanted to achieve sonically. Recording at Toe Rag Studios may still stand out as the most memorable experience simply because it’s such a special place and a recording time-capsule in many ways. Opportunities to record entirely analog are rare these days, especially using the incredible vintage equipment that Liam Watson has assembled there.

When we first met Liam to begin recording Lord of Misrule, we told him we wanted something that sounded like Black Sabbath meets Shocking Blue. He agreed with the direction, and we trusted his instincts completely. If we ever have another opportunity to record in London at Toe Rag, we wouldn’t hesitate to go back.

In contrast, The Old Ways Remain was self-produced alongside Paul Kehayas, so in many ways it feels like the most accurate reflection of where we are creatively.

 
CVC: You recently had the opportunity to partner with Amstedam Brewery to create a custom Blood Ceremony beer -- Lord Summerale. How did the opportunity come about, and would you be open to further beer collaborations in the spirit of the partnership between Rush and Henderson Brewing?

 
BC: The collaboration with Amsterdam came about through our friendship with Joyce Lau, who’s a Brewing Supervisor at Amsterdam. Joyce spear-headed the project and kept things moving along. Annick Giroux, who’s designed many of our album sleeves and a ton of our merch over the years did a great job designing the label. We held the launch party at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. It was fun to have a show that was a beer release, rather than an album release. It was a shame that it was only a limited, short-run release, because we received a lot of messages from fans who wanted to buy the beer in the US and Europe, but it was only available locally. We’d be open to more collaborations like that with companies whose values align with ours, as it’s good to spread the word about the band and help get our music out to new ears.


CVC: The pandemic forced a longer than usual delay between recording Lord of Misrule and the follow-up The Old Ways Remain. Has work begun on writing/recording the next album, or is the band focussed on other endeavors at the moment?

 
BC: I’ve never been someone who writes very quickly, but we’re taking things even slower than we used to. Ten years ago, we were touring and recording more frequently, and for longer periods. We always managed to put the work into Blood Ceremony in addition to having families and full-time jobs. But now we work when we’re inspired and when we can afford to. We’re not driven commercially to produce albums in a two-year cycle; we record when we feel we have something new to say.

 
CVC: The band performed at Massif Fest at the end of September and played Toronto back in June to launch the new beer. Is there any more touring planned between now and the end of the year?

 
BC: We’re playing a special acoustic set at Prepare the Ground festival in Toronto this week. Laura Bates, from Volur, is joining us on fiddle for the performance. We’ve never done this type of show before, which seems a bit strange to me now as it was obvious when we were putting a set list together that a lot of our old songs lend itself well to a folkier arrangement. A few years back there seemed to be a growing appreciation for folk horror, and I think we were tapping into that same cultural space from the outset of the band.

 
CVC: Is there anything else upcoming in the world of Blood Ceremony that fans can look forward to?

 
BC: If the set at Prepare the Ground goes well, we’re considering following up with similar shows, and potentially a live recording.