I’m a relative newcomer to the Ontario metal underground. I’ve been a fan of metal for closing on two decades, but not until World Eaters began playing live did I really start engaging with the scene around me. Musician faux-pas, I know. But beyond that, it was also fucking stupid of me, because Ontario has some absolutely killer bands dropping albums left and right.

Toronto’s Resthaven have released their second full length, Lunarwave in February of this year, following their 2023 self-titled debut.

Hissing guitar feedback gives way to gang vocals punctuating twin guitar leads stripped straight from any given blue-castle-on-the-cover black metal album from the mid 90s. The sword-swinging leads are contrasted by thrashing turnarounds and barking vocals, solidifying the swirling mix of influences that make up the foundation of Resthaven‘s newest effort.

But just marrying black metal and thrash isn’t particularly exciting by itself. This is where Resthaven‘s strength lies– in slowly letting Lunarwave open up as it goes on, inviting the listener to bask in the kaleidescopic array of other genres that float around that black/ thrash core.

There’s a playfulness in the songwriting on Lunarwave that is tough to explain. The album is heavy, definitely, and a serious offering– it isn’t doing a bit nor is it tongue in cheek in the way it shifts gears across it’s 33 minute run time. It is, however, undoubtable that the members of Resthaven are in fact, real ones and built their music (at least partially) out of love for their favourite artists and albums. The riffs on this album aren’t made by people who think At the Gates starts and ends at Slaughter of the Soul. When you ask a member of Resthaven for a Swedish death metal album recommendation, they pull Uncanny‘s Splenium for Nyktophobia off of the shelf. Resthaven are studied fans and are clearly stoked to be making music in the style(s) that they love.

The title track brings in some of Dan Swanö’s signature goth rock sensibility both in the melodramatic (complimentary) intro as well as during the bridge to build up to a phenomenal catharsis once the snaking chorus reprises. “Left in the Gutter” swings far into the post-hardcore leanings you’d find in countless anime openings, layering chanting over more vulnerable vocal wails and extended chords bouncing along with aplomb. It’s frankly a little jarring on first listen hearing this J-rock inspired tune after the previous song’s pummelling pace, but it pretty quickly clicks in place as both being cohesive with the underlying vibe of the album while also providing a much needed break from the HM-2 riffing, which only gets more claustrophobic and hardcore inspired as the record continues.

A band after my own heart, Resthaven features local musicians (and presumably their friends) on a couple tracks, with Blood Wraith dropping gut-rippling gutterals on “SUSOV” and Consuming Misery following suit on “Punished” as the song drops to an Asphyx-like crawl. Both features bring another dimension to Lunarwave‘s already multifaceted approach. We love homies helping homies.

My only gripe with Lunarwave would be the guitar production. It runs amok with wily HM-2 tones, and while the riffing channels Dismember, Crowbar, and Nails in equal measures (Nails especially on the spin-kick worthy outro of “Nibelheim”), it doesn’t seem to have the muscle behind the tone that I want to hear.

It isn’t anything that actually drags the album down, but a wistful “what if” that just drapes across my mind. As far as I can discern, the band mixed, and mastered Lunarwave entirely on their own and that in itself is a triumph. It’d also be remiss of me not to say as a fellow HM-2 owner that, yeah, dialing in a tone on that shitbox is hard as fuck. The amount of times I’ve clicked mine on mid-set thinking I was about to get gnarly just to have my guitar playing swallowed up by a wall of scooped, fizzy noise is more than I care to admit. Resthaven, thankfully avoids such an amateur move in their production. The choice to keep the bass rumbling along with a powerful, warm and clean tone keeps every instrument in their own lane and stops things from getting too messy.

Some folks wax about how easy musicians have it these days with home studios and the ability to record completely DIY, but let me tell you from first hand experience that doing it DIY is fucking hard and anything coming out sounding as good as this album sounds overall should be celebrated.

So, if I’m not gonna be a weenie about the production, where does that leave me on Lunarwave? It rocks. It gets a “hell yeah” from me. This is a blend of black metal, thrash, death metal, and hardcore that is so refreshing to hear. It deftly dodges the hardcore/ death metal trend that erupted from labels like the 2022 Maggot Stomp roster by just pulling from references a bit off the beaten path. Edge of Sanity rather than Suffocation. Black Breath rather than Terror. In doing so the band isn’t whipping up copy-cat riffs, but instead flexing their ability to dissect what makes those artists great and weave something unique and engaging out of those inspirations.

Which brings us to the only question that matters:

Is it sick?

Yes.

You can listen to Lunarwave on all major streaming platforms and on Resthaven‘s bandcamp.