Harmful Effects is a band formed in Yorkton which has now taken the step to releasing their debut disk.
The origins of Harmful Effects date back to 2006 and 2007 when Madison Erhardt and Geoff Matisho played in a band called Black Monroe.
"Black Monroe had solid success in Yorkton, headlining Warehouse Mayhem I and 'The York Lake Show in 2007," said Matisho. "Each show gathered over 150 metal fans and friends, some of the biggest crowds for a metal show in recent Yorkton history."
However Black Monroe split in the summer of 2007, leaving the pair looking for options. Erhardt and Matisho began to jam with Adam Jones, a process where they were "slowly crafting what would soon be Harmful Effects' first original songs," said Matisho.
"After having numerous unsuccessful rhythm guitarist tryouts in early 2008, Chris (Kent-Rodgman) responded to an ad, and had instant chemistry with the rest of the band, joining Harmful Effects in the fall."
Harmful Effects played its first show ever, at Saskatoon's Roxy Band Warz in March of 2009, without a bass player.
"Following a second place finish at band warz, Harmful Effects finally welcomed long time friend, Jorden (Rubletz), on the bass," said Matisho.
The band will finally be playing its first ever hometown show at Warehouse Mayhem II on July 31st at the Agripavilion, with a number of bands who were in some way involved with WMI.
Harmful Effects is a metal band, and proud of it.
"Harmful Effects blends the modern metalcore sound, with thrash elements of old," said Matisho. "The metalcore sound has made its mark by combining heavy guitar-riff based verses and coarse scream vocals, with melodic, and radio friendly choruses."
In terms of influence the band points to many bands involved in the 'New Wave of American Heavy Metal' like Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God, Unearth and Trivium.
While only together a short time, Harmful Effects has scored some highlights.
"Getting second place at Roxy Band Warz was a huge confidence builder for the band, and a great achievement," said Matisho. "We had literally played three shows together when the final show was performed on May 6, 2009.
"This helped us build chemistry as a band, and fueled the need to get into the studio, and get our tracks recorded."
The debut disk actually took two years to come together.
"Writing started in September of 2007, and was completed in September of 2009," said Matisho. "The large gap in the start and finish date is due to the band trying to perfect each song as it was written, instead of writing multiple songs at once.
"We feel this allowed 'The Rising' to be a very diverse metal album, incorporating many styles of metal, and music for that matter."
When it came to writing, the band took a rather deliberate approach.
"The writing process was very much a step by step process," said Matisho who wrote the music for the entire album, with help from Erhardt on a select few songs.
For vocals, the roles were reversed. Erhardt wrote all the vocals, with Matisho contributing on the last song of the album.
The tandem seemed to have chemistry stretching back to their Black Munroe days.
"After Jones added drums to scratch recordings of the songs, the remaining members of the band would join to give input, and make changes and additions to the songs as necessary," said Matisho.
The Rising was recorded at Pulsworks Audio Arts in Saskatoon, a top notch facility with very knowledgeable staff, said Matisho.
"Dean Dynna was our producer and recording engineer, and was a great help in making the process as smooth as possible," he said.
"We performed pre-production for two months, attempting to ready ourselves for the start of recording, so the transition to the studio was quite smooth, aside from the first day jitters."The only difficult part of recording was trying to get the band together for long enough periods to record, as at the time we were based in three different cities."
The CD was recorded from September to December 2009, with editing completed from January to March 2010, and Mastering in April 2010.
"We had the best time of our lives recording in a professional studio, learned a lot about our music, and really came together as a band," said Matisho. "One thing that every member in Harmful Effects has is a drive and commitment to the band and the music, and this was certainly strengthened as we completed the recording process."
The disk is one the band is also very pleased with.
"Although the album took longer than we had hoped to release, we are extremely happy with the finished product, and still get goosebumps when listening to the songs," said Matisho. "To put your name on a finished album and release it to the public is such a rewarding experience, and we are as proud of the album as we are pumped to move forward, tour, make even better music in the future."
Harmful Effects is hoping the first radio release will find them new listeners.
"We chose the song 'Reborn' as our radio single," said Matisho. "It's got some super heavy riffs, a very melodic chorus, and a catchy harmonized guitar solo. "
Harmful Effects has played numerous shows in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and will be heading out on a number of mini-tours to support 'The Rising' this summer.
