The Edmonton Muse August 2017 | Page 28

Unleash the Archers

Apex Album Release Party

Article by

Rebecca Rotten

Thank you to Concert Works for the opportunity to see and cover this show.

Since Armstrong Metal Festival in 2016 I have been hearing about "Unleash the Archers" non-stop from my husband. He is a huge fan of the band and we listen to their music often.

I got to see them live for the first time when I covered Shredmonton Music Festival a couple of months ago. There is a reason why they call her "Brittany Slayes"; she slays those riffs armed only with her voice!

The band alas is not local; they hail from my birth place, Vancouver. 2017 is their 10th year and what better way to celebrate it than to release a new album, "Apex", and invite a few hundred friends along to celebrate with you.

What do I love about UTA? Their epicness... The stories that make up the lyrics of the songs, the videos that tell those stories and the musicians that make it all come together. Vikings and fantasy and adventure! Brittany graces the stage in leather and chainmail and belts out songs with a voice that is much too large to fit her tiny frame.

Brittany is a mezo-soprano with a four octave range, that gave this writer a lady boner the first time I heard her voice. Operatic-metal at its finest.

I had to find out if she had any classical training and reading about her background was an eye-opener. She toured Europe with a choir group and even got to sing "Ave Maria" at mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. She has always had the passion for music in her blood and it certainly comes through on stage. Brittany actually has a degree from UVic in European Art History which you can see embodied in some of the lyrics of the UTA songs.

Although they have gone through other band members joining them, the sound has been able to stay uniquely theirs and grow into what UTA sounds like today.