One Eyed God Prophecy

I don’t know what took me so long to get this post started… One Eyed God Prophecy was one of the most influential screamo/grindcore/crusty emo bands from Canada, and are still one of the most respected. And they are definitely the ones that put Sherbrooke on the map.

This five-piece formed in 1995 and practiced in guitarist Ugo Desgreniers’ shed, where they would also play their first shows. Dom Poulin was on vocals, Seb Philbert on guitar, Alex Bibeau on bass and J-P Dionne rounded up the band. The idea of the band was very simple; to have fun as a band of friends and stay true to their emotions and feelings. The band felt most at home playing small club shows where they could feel part of the audience. Their influences would come from Rorshach, Econochrist, Born Again and of course Canadian mates Union of Uranus, Drift and Shotmaker.

During one of their early practices, their friend Yannick Lorraine came by and after hearing their only three written songs, asked them to put out an LP on his label, The Great American Steak Religion. No doubt due to his label this band has kept a cult status over the yeras. In early 1996, with their full catalog of songs, the LP was released. The original album art was red, black and white (and i’m not sure how many copies of those were made). Since then the album has been repressed in black and white only. To promote this release, Yan helped book an entire tour from coast to coast in Canada and the States. Most of the flyers mentioned they featured ex-members of Union of Uranus, which was only a publicity stint created by Yan to get more people at shows in the states where they were still unknown. The band embarked on tour with their 1976 orange hippie van for a six week summer tour. The tour was a huge success and would prove to be a major influence for bands such as Orchid, and countless late 90′s screamo acts.

After the tour the band got working on some new material, which would unfortunately never be finalized. OEGP broke up after an under two year run. They did everything they had dreamt of doing, and all in a speed up process; Got big too fast, ended too fast. In 2001 a friend of the band, under the one-time record label APC Records, made a home made discography on CD. The sole purpose was to have it for himself on CD, but the demand from his friends ended up being high enough for him to make close to 100 copies. The discography not only contained the seven songs from the LP but also two live sets. The first was taken from a sold out and full packed CFLX Studio show, and the second from Birdhouse. The demand for this discography is still in huge demand to this day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this album comes back in print someday soon.

One Eyed God Prophecy Discography

Karenza

Karenza was formed in late 1996 by Dave Buschmeyer on guitar and Trevor Dykstra on bass after leaving behind the broken up New Day Rising (they would reform). The initial line up also featured Dave Johnston on drums, and Stu Brown on vocals. In April ’97 Shawn Butchart replaced Dave on drums. They proceeded to record their first demo, which was eventually released as their self-titled ep on (Rosepetal of) Sun and Moon Records. Summer came and a whole US tour was planned, but an accident in upstate New York totalled the van and prevented them from playing even the first show of the tour. Sometime after that, Ben Pobjoy was added as a second vocalist. They were featured on “The 49th Parallel” compilation with two of the new songs, and a third would be used on the Witching Hour Records compilation “Better Luck Next Time” (which was delayed of release until 1998). By December 1997 the members had decided to stop using the moniker, but continue playing together. With a fresh start, a more metal influenced sound and a slight line-up change, Spread the Disease was born.

Karenza – Discography

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This is what i like! Something I just discovered, that I didn’t think existed in Canada. New Jersey type screamo, all the way out in Victoria, BC. This three piece was around from 1995 to 1998. At the time the band was formed, Paul was still doing Benchwarmer, but not for much longer.

Their first release was a self titled 7″ on Slow to Burn Records in 1995 (I think this may also have been their demo, but I’m not sure). Next year they put out a split with The Republic of Freedom Fighters on Buddy System Records. In 1997, came their big break for out of Canada fans. They recorded a 10 song demo tape, which some songs would end up being released on their second 7″ “The Relationship Between a 1/4 Note and a 1/8 Note” on The Mountain Cooperative. I think the other songs were used for their split with Miracle of 86 (but I’m not sure when that came out), on City Lights Records.
The whole works was compiled into a discography CD in 2007 in Clue #2 Records. This compilation is really amazing. Great digipak with stickers and booklets, etc. I really suggest buying it, even if I posted it here. Totally worth it.

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Render Useless Discography