WaRRmAuth is one of the most intriguing bands to be rising out of Whitehorse’s small but strong musical talent pool. At the forefront of the metal scene revival, these teenage stars rock harder than most with talent and ingenuity to back them up.

Given their captivating stage presence and extraordinary musical harmonies, it’s a shock when they take off their masks, revealing their young faces. Comprised of four local teens, this band will have you rethinking just what young people can do when they put their minds and talents to it.

The band first formed three years ago when bass player Ragn Royle brought together guitarist Manus Hopkins and drummer Brandon Butler with the dream of playing metal music. A year in, they felt the need to evolve their sound and brought in Milan Lapres.

“Nailz [lead guitarist Lapres] had just purchased his first electric guitar and was learning fast,” Royle says. “He joined after a few months of playing and the rest is brutal history.”

With two of the original members meeting for the first time at their new band’s practice, the group has come a long way. Now three years old, the band is going strong and has played at Epic Pizza, BYTE’s 2015 Battle of the Bands at the Future Routes Music Festival, and even Atlin Music Festival.

“We had a lot of people [at Atlin] and we’d been looking forward to playing at music festival like that for our whole lives,” Royle admits.

Drummer Butler cites the recent heavy metal night at the Jarvis Street Saloon as their favourite show to date. It offered the rockers a chance to play with others in the metal scene and to experience performing up-close and personal – even if they had to leave right after their early set in line with liquor corporation regulations. “It was a great experience because it was our first bar show and the liquor corporation let us perform. It was amazing to have a crowd so energetic.”

Finding places to perform hasn’t been easy. While relatively new to the scene, the band recognizes the need for strong independence within the metal community to make shows happen.

“There has never been a lot of support for metal bands in Whitehorse,” Hopkins says. “Venues and promoters here don’t want to book metal bands. The metal community has to be very independent. We have to do everything ourselves.”

Despite this, the band feels optimistic about the resurgence of the metal scene and what it means for the future of the community.

“It’s great to have more metal bands coming out and refusing to give up,” Hopkins says. “Soon, metal in Whitehorse will be a force that can’t be ignored.”

Looking toward the future, the band hopes to play a role in building that force, even if it takes them out of the territory.

“We want to have a full album out soon and keeping building the local metal scene, as well as moving on to bigger places,” says Royle. “We’ll always be ready to come back to Whitehorse though.”

“World domination would be fun,” says Hopkins.

On Friday, October 28, the band will play its second big heavy metal show at Heavy Metal Halloween. The event used to occur annually and is now coming back alongside the local metal scene’s comeback.

“It was actually the first metal concert I ever went to,” Hopkins admits, “so I’m beyond excited to be a part of its revival.”

The band is looking forward to playing with the other local metal bands again, and is hoping to enjoy the show this time since it won’t be at a bar.

“Also performing will be Chainsawdomy, The Vagitarians, Abscess Of The Dog, and a brand new band called Flora Colossus,” Manus says. “We’ve played with the first three bands before, but we’ve only ever actually gotten to watch The Vagitarians perform. They’re always awesome so that’ll be cool to play with them.”


Heavy Metal Halloween Details:

Friday October 28

Old Fire Hall

5-11pm

$20 at the door. Donate milk crates to help build stages for future Tundra Punks events and receive $1 off the ticket price for each milk crate up to $5.

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