DEATH DRIVE

Sigmund Freud once described the death drive as a motivation that pushes all of us toward death and self-destruction. Death Drive does not advocate self-destruction, but does believe in creating music that is in touch with our darker, more primal side -- at times unsettling, even dangerous.

Death Drive is a hard-rock trio from Montreal, Canada. Their influences mainly come from the 70s and stoner rock. The band formed relatively recently, in late 2016, and began playing regular gigs as soon as the calendar turned. From January to the end of May 2017, Death Drive has already played a number of local bars, out-of-town shows, and two festivals. In the summer of 2017 they will be going to the studio to begin recording their first album and are already seeking promotional opportunities for the fall/winter.

Death Drive has diverse core influences, ranging from the raw energy of The Stooges, to the heavy riffs of Black Sabbath, and the calm, psychedelia of Pink Floyd. The band's own diverse compositions serve as a testament to such influences, as they also frequently fall on different sides of the soft/heavy and slow/fast spectrum. Ultimately, the band offers an intense sonic experience: pummelling the audience with heavy, chugging riffs, and biting energy -- dispersing it all with doses of calm, swirly, soundscapes.

One of their most recent songs is titled "On Death Row, There Ain't No Rock n' Roll." Aside from the cheeky title, the song has serious goals. It serves as a metaphor for a life that has become stagnant - dead - where we must "pay respect, pay bills on time," but ultimately are treated as children, forced to "pay attention, be still." The song presents this metaphoric death as being in perfect compliance to a neo-liberal system where we "punch in, punch out, get by." Rock n' roll, therefore, is presented as a joyful, rebellious, antidote to this sad, compliant state of modern being.

Death Drive provides, in its own small way, a necessary antidote and therefore celebrates the anti-establishment tradition in rock n' roll.