THE SOLDIERS
GORD
Bass and Vocals
Leading WarCall with his aggressive vocal and guitar-oriented bass style since 2007, Gord has been a metal musician most of his life. Starting at a young age fronting a Metallica tribute band, he has had many projects before meeting Mat in 2002 to start their first band Plan B, the genesis of WarCall. In the 90’s and early 2000’s, Gord played James Hetfield in Wicked Circus, a Metallica tribute band, where he learned his stage craft in the bar circuit of Montreal. He later joined Underdogs, a 90’s metal cover band and started Weed Eater, a folk style, party-themed solo band. From 2003 to 2007, he was the bass player of Plan B, that later became WarCall. He took on lead vocals on top of bass in 2008, right before the band started touring heavily in eastern Canada. On top of fronting WarCall, Gord also plays Crâne, the drummer of local black metal legends Les Damnés.
PHIL
Drums
Phil has always been a metal fan, from the time he discovered Metallica and Slipknot at the age of 11. Right away, he proceeded to register to music school, with drums as a specialization and perfected his craft throughout his high school years by casually jamming with friends. His first serious project was Morphast, a mix of original songs and covers that helped Phil develop his stage experience. It is after Morphast issued a EP that things unlocked and Phil joined numerous bands in the Montreal metal scene, mainly Under the Grave and Alcoholator with which he did a lot of shows across eastern Canada. It is when Gord was briefly in Alcoholator that he met Phil and Phil decided to join WarCall shortly after. Being a very active and in demand drummer, he was also in folk-rock bands Calvaire, Acouphène, Everen and La Tragédie. As a drum scholar, he also perfected his jazz chops with the quartet From Scratch and he is currently perfecting his craft in University.
MAT
Guitars and back Vocals
Mat was first exposed to heavy metal in 1984 with Twisted Sister’s We’re not gonna take it videoclip and there was no turning back. He learned to play guitar in the early 90’s with Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden classic albums. Early, he wanted to write his own music so he formed his first band, Vulture with his friend Mike, with whom he later started Plan B, the genesis of WarCall in the late 90’s. The band was short lived, but very formative in terms of music writing and recording, Later in the mid 90’s he learned to play drums and formed Killing Antchovies, a grind-crust-punk trio with who Mat got his first stage experiences. In the late 90’s he formed the first iteration of Plan B and he became the guitar player and signer of the band in the early 2000’s. But the early 2000’s were also years where Mat explored different styles of music. He joined the prog project Trio Valeur as the flutist and bass player and was a Didjeridu solo artist, performing in the Joshua Tree Festival in California and in different Montreal venues. His return to metal came in 2002 when he and other former Plan B members formed Invaders, an Iron Maiden tribute band. Gord was the promoter of their first and only show and it is there that Mat and Gord met and formed Plan B shortly after. With many shows under their belts and some members getting tired of the schedule, Plan B morphed into WarCall in September of 2007 with Mat on drums. After the recording of Blood, guts and dirt, injuries prevented Mat from playing the drums so he switched to guitars and back vocals. Along with WarCall, Mat also plays guitar for Les Fantômes, a post-rock underground trio and plays Tombeau, bass player of Les Damnés, local black metal legends.
J-C
Guitars
JC was a solitary kid. Growing up, he wanted to play drums, but the instrument was not available in his area. So, he ended up walking into the forest, guitar in hand, and spent a lot of time there teaching himself how to play. Guitar was pretty much all his life at this point. He then learned that studying music was a thing so he moved out of his region to enlist in music school. His first original band was a franco-prog-rock band called Algarad. With them, they recorded a demo and one album in the early 2000s. Lots of gigs and songs after, the band blew up and it is then that JC became available and joined WarCall for a first time for the Blood, Guts and Dirt album and tour. After the first Europe tour in 2014, JC decided to leave WarCall to pursue other musical interests and founded Everen, a folk-prog franco band that issued an album and did numerous concerts. Everen enlisted Mat as their drummer for the first leg of their album tour and it is there that Mat and JC reconnected. During that time, JC was also building his home studio to world class standard and Mat and JC made a deal: JC would record, mix and master WarCall’s next album Invaders and in exchange, he would join the band for their 3rd european tour in 2017. During that tour, JC’s interest in rejoining the band permanently was obvious and he basically never left since then, playing every gig and participating heavily in the writing and recording of Dead End, the band’s fifth album.