Blood Ceremony is a Canadian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in 2006 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Blood Ceremony's style has been described as "flute-tinged witch rock" and their lyrics are filled with black magic imagery and references to classic horror films. Their music has been also characterized as

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music. Chara ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

, and

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

. The band is fronted by singer/flutist/organist Alia O'Brien, whose flute solos are reminiscent of Jethro Tull's

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...

. ''

Torontoist ''Daily Hive'', formerly known as ''Vancity Buzz'', is a Canadian online newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It began digital publishing in 2008 and became Western Canada's largest online-only publication by 2016. In September 2022 ...

'' has called Blood Ceremony "Toronto's most original band".

History

The band was created by O'Brien with guitarist Sean Kennedy, who is responsible for most of the songwriting. The band's self-titled debut studio album was released in 2008, followed by ''Living with the Ancients'' in 2011, both on

Rise Above Records Rise Above Records is a London-based independent record label owned by Lee Dorrian (of the band Cathedral and formerly of Napalm Death). Founding Lee Dorrian started Rise Above Records in 1988 without the intention of the label being an ongoi ...

. The albums were reissued on

Metal Blade Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distrib ...

. Blood Ceremony spent the latter part of 2009 touring throughout Europe with

Electric Wizard Electric Wizard are an English doom metal band from Dorset. The band formed in 1993 and have recorded nine studio albums, two of which have been considered genre landmarks: ''Come My Fanatics…'' (1997) and ''Dopethrone'' (2000). Electric Wiz ...

. During the latter part of 2011 and the early part of 2012, they supported

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

on their European and North American tours. They have since released two additional albums, ''The Eldritch Dark'' (2013, Metal Blade) and ''Lord of Misrule'' (2016, Rise Above). O'Brien received a

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

nomination for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

7th Canadian Screen Awards The 7th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 31, 2019, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2018.

for "Ghost of Love (Onakabazien Remix)", which she cowrote with

Sook-Yin Lee Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian broadcaster, musician, film director, and actress. She is a former MuchMusic VJ and a former radio host on CBC Radio. She has appeared in films, notably in the John Cameron Mitchell movie ''Shortbus''. Early and pers ...

and

Adam Litovitz Adam Litovitz (August 16, 1982 – June 16, 2019) was a Canadian musician and composer. He was most noted for his work on the films '' Year of the Carnivore'', for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 31st Gen ...

for Lee's film ''

Octavio Is Dead! ''Octavio Is Dead!'' is a Canadian supernatural drama film directed by Sook-Yin Lee, which premiered on June 2, 2018 at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival before going into theatrical release on June 22.Chandler Levack"Sook-Yin Lee and Canada� ...

''. She also performs as a member of

Badge Époque Ensemble Badge Époque Ensemble is a Canadian musical project led by Max Turnbull. They are most noted for their self-titled debut album, which was a longlisted nominee for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize. In addition to Turnbull, the band includes guitarist ...

. Blood Ceremony's 5th full length album, ''The Old Ways Remain'' is due for release in early 2023.

Style

Blood Ceremony's style has been described as

occult rock Occult rock (also known as doom rock or witch rock) is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the late 1960s to early 1970s, pioneered by bands such as Coven and Black Widow. The genre is influenced by hard rock, proto-metal, psychedelic ...

, and by their label as "flute-tinged witch rock". In a 2011 interview on Finland's ''NukeTV'', O'Brien called their style "heavy rock" and claimed that their distinct sound is the result of each band member having different musical influences. She cited late 1960s and early 1970s progressive rock as crucial to her inspiration, called Jethro Tull her "very first, favorite band", and also listed

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

, Uriah Heep,

Osanna Osanna are an Italian progressive rock band. Origin The group originated in the Vomero neighborhood of Naples with the union of Lino Vairetti (voice), Danilo Rustici (guitar), Massimo Guarino (drums), Lello Brandi (bass), from the first line- ...

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...

and

Pagan Altar Pagan Altar is an English doom metal band formed by Terry Jones and his son Alan in 1978 in the borough of Brockley in London. History Alongside Witchfinder General, they are one of the few new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) bands to ...

as having a major impact. Guitarist and songwriter Kennedy called Blood Ceremony a "folkier Sabbath", and cited "heavier Black Sabbath", 1980s doom metal and British folk artists such as Pentangle and

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

as influential.

Members

;Current * Alia O'Brien - lead vocals, flute, organ * Sean Kennedy - guitars * Lucas Gadke - bass, backing vocals * Michael Carrillo - drums ;Former * Chris Landon - bass * Jeremy Finkelstein - drums * Andrew Haust - drums

Discography

Studio albums

References

External links

Rise Above Records' Blood Ceremony PageMetal Blade Records' Blood Ceremony Page
{{Authority control Canadian doom metal musical groups Musical groups from Toronto Musical groups established in 2006 Metal Blade Records artists