Scotty Young was working away at his liquor store job when Justin “Juice” Williams, the manager at the Zoo at the time, showed up with two tickets to the Children of Bodom concert to give away.
As a huge fan of the esteemed Finnish melodic death metal band, Young was ecstatic, but wasn't sure who to invite to go with him.
“I checked Facebook and phoned everyone in my phone,” he said. “No one was answering or responded.”
As fate would have it Chris Tokaryk was online.
“Me and Chris didn't really know each other,” he said, but he figured he'd ask him anyways. “We went, and the next day we started jamming.”
The two started coming up with riffs and playing different songs for fun, Young on drums and Tokaryk on guitar. Once when Young went to put something they recorded on his iPod to listen to later, he tried to think of a fun name for the file so it would be easy to find later.
The name he came up with: Sledgehammer Deathface. The name stuck.
So began the saga of Innisfail's most prominent hard-rockers. The fledgling outfit quickly grew to a five-piece and moved beyond their practice space.
For their first show they opened for the AmberLynn Walker, Guinea Pig Ryan Stock and Calgary punk band Oh Shit, on Dec. 10, 2010 at the Zoo.
The band's groovy black metal sound has emerged from the intersection of styles that each band member brings to the table, Young said.
Rhythm guitarist Tokaryk is a fan of old-school death metal, lead guitarist Riley Gleiser listens to a lot of black metal like Dimmu Borgir, vocalist Luke Hoffart delves into avant-garde grindcore, bassist Jimmy Bryant indulges in thrash metal, while Young can't help but soak up groove metal of the likes of DevilDriver.
Sledgehammer Deathface's lyrical content and musical songwriting is reflective of a band that seeks creativity over stereotype.
“We try to keep swearing out of our music as much as we can,” Young says, adding Hoffart writes all his own lyrics. “What I like is he's quite a visual songwriter.”
There's even a song about the band ruling the world from a castle. Another song touches on losing someone you love, which allowed the band to draw on personal struggles they were going through at the time.
Local guitar shop owner Tom Lindl has known the band for awhile. While their brand of metal may not be everyone's cup of tea, he says you shouldn't let the name fool you.
“If you play in that genre of music you need a name that reflects that,” he said. “It's definitely not bluegrass.”
He describes the members as having the attitude of “the neighbour you like.”
“They're just really nice guys,” he said.
You can catch Sledgehammer Deathface Friday, Sept. 28 at the Zoo opening for Sister Sabbath, the world's only nun-fronted Black Sabbath/Ozzy tribute band. The show starts at 9 p.m.
