Voivod guitarist Dan “Chewy” Mongrain contacted BraveWords to let us know that he and Pat Hamelin (Gorguts) are reuniting with their cult prog-death band, Martyr, to headline this year’s Trois-Rivières Metalfest. After a 10 years hiatus, Martyr accepted the invitation to play their Warp Zone album in its entirety and more, on November 10th 2023 at L’amphitheatre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

Tickets for the Trois-Rivières Metalfest are available here.

It all began in 1989 in Quebec, Canada, when brothers François and Dan Mongrain (15 and 13 years old at the time), got their first musical instruments. With friends from high-school, the band rehearsed daily for years, cutting their teeth with metal covers and dabbling in composition.

Martyr recorded in 1995 a well received 4-track demo entitled Ostrogoth, which would lead to the production of their first 9-track studio album in 1997, Hopeless Hopes. The concept of the album was to serve as a mirror of the human state of mind. Shortly after, drummer Patrice Hamelin joined the band.

Martyr promoted their first album with local tours and had the opportunity to play at the famous Milwaukee Metalfest XII in ‘98 alongwith Meshuggah, Death, Cryptopsy, Napalm Death, Despised Icon, and Mercyful Fate.

In 2000, after many shows in Canada creating a solid fanbase, the band released a second studio album entitled Warp Zone, which was a success in the underground scene, and to this day has a worldwide respect amongst aficionados of the genre. Warp Zone is an exploration within one's life evolution, transitions, self-questionings and reflections. Martyr would then self-promote their first Pan-Canadian tour and gathered more and more fans as an amazing performing band, a must see act playing very complex music with lots of energy and passion.

A live album (Extracting the Core, 2001) captured the essence of the performance of the band playing titles from their first 2 albums.
Following the live album, departure of Guitar player Pier-luc Lampron led the band to slow down and restructured with the upcoming of new axeman Martin Carbonneau and started to play shows again leading to writing new music once the band’s chemistry became solid.
In 2006, Martyr released a third studio album entitled “Feeding the Abscess”. Much work has been put into this album both on visual art and on words and music. Feeding the Abscess contains 13 intricate songs of pure aggressiveness and mind-boggling spiderwebbed labyrinths of organized soundwaves and rhythms.

The album was followed by the production of a live DVD in 2008: Havoc in Quebec City. This amazing DVD contained over 3 hours of highly personal footage that included the following: an extended headlining performance of fifteen songs, studio footage, 5 additional live songs, plus an hour-long documentary.

In 2012, dissensions led the band to be put on hold. During the hiatus, the musicians were to be involved in different music projects:

Dan Mongrain did extensive touring and recordings with Voivod, which he already joined in 2008. He is a 2-time Juno awards recipient as a member and composer of Voivod for the Album "The Wake" (2019) and The Album Synchro Anarchy (2022) for Best Metal/Hard Album of the Year (Canada). He also wrote and recorded an album with Gorguts (2000: From Wisdom to Hate) and toured with Cryptopsy as a hired gun in 2005. He played a musical (Dracula: Entre l’amour et la mort) and played in various projects in the pop scene in Montreal including live and TV Shows, as well as studio work. He also appears on various albums for guest solos spots from bands around the globe. 

Martin teaches guitar and plays regularly in various live music projects.

François distanced himself from music until 2022 when he joined the band Apocalyptic Fear, alongwith Patrice. He filled in for Kataklysm in a North-American tour (2008) and recorded bass on the Ex-Deo project Romulus (2009).

Patrice Hamelin has been involved touring and/or recordings with Quo Vadis (2008), Despised Icon (2008), Senate (2008), Gorguts (2014-), Cephalic Carnage (2011-), Beneath the Massacre (2012-) and Apocalyptic Fear (2022-).

In 2019, there were talks about a reunion project, just before the pandemic hit the world.

in 2023, after an offer by Trois-Rivieres Metal production to play the well known Trois-Rivieres MetalFest in their hometown, Martyr decided it was time to get together and reconnect with their fans, their roots and the excitement of playing this crazy music together as Martyr.

Photo by David Surovec