Martyr are probably one of the most technical bands in existance in the Metal Realm. Never have I ever seen so many aspects of music theory incorporated into Metal let alone Death Metal.
Coming to the band, they've released two studio albums, Hopeless Hopes and Warp Zone and one live album, Extracting The Core. They are due to release an album this year, most probably in September called Havoc.
Dan Mongrain is the frontman of the band. Well if you are unfamiliar with who this genius of a man is, you should know that he also plays/played for Gorguts, Quo Vadis, Capharnaum, and Cryptopsy. And yes, Martyr hail from the tech. death capital, Canada.
Both of their albums are really well done. Hopeless Hopes was what you may call an ordinary tech. death album (if there is such a thing ); but in Warp Zone, they stepped the technicality up by several notches. (notice the underline ). For me, Warp Zone is a better album, but just barely. Both albums are really catchy in a good way, and are filled with amazing bouts of musicmanship. This is an essential band for any technical death fan(-atic) like me, or people who are generally interested in Music Theory. I suggest even Prog-sters to give a go at this band.

Why am I not surprised?

*surprises*
I solely overlooked Martyr by not seriously listening to their Warp Zone album. Which I will do today.

Edit : Oh I just remember that I ALREADY listened to Warp Zone, I jsut forgot how it was , and it's great !!

A high level of technicality indeed, and great rythm guitars.

Martyr is awesome for sure. All I have is Warp Zone and it's damn amazing, and I'm going to try to get my hands on Hopeless Hopes for my birthday (I've been looking for it for a long time and can't come across it :/) and maybe their live album as well, it's easier to find as far as I've seen. Anyway Warp Zone is plain awesome, I was hooked on it for quite some time and I still listen to it more than I listen to alot of other stuff actually. Warp Zone, Virtual Emotions, Retry..., and Realms Of Reverie are my favorite songs. Warp Zone has one hell of a riff. And I love in Realms Of Reverie how they put pieces from all the songs together awesome stuff. Hail Martyr!

Definitely one of my favorite Technical Death Metal bands. They remind me, and a lot of people, of later Death. However, I feel that later Death was a little stale but Martyr is great. From their technical riffing to Mongrain's sick vocals I really enjoy their music a lot. I like 'Hopeless Hopes' the most out of the two and have yet to hear their live album. I do hope they put together a new album sometime soon. A truly underrated band.

Written by Clintagräm on 20.05.2006 at 20:52

Definitely one of my favorite Technical Death Metal bands. They remind me, and a lot of people, of later Death. However, I feel that later Death was a little stale but Martyr is great. From their technical riffing to Mongrain's sick vocals I really enjoy their music a lot. I like 'Hopeless Hopes' the most out of the two and have yet to hear their live album. I do hope they put together a new album sometime soon. A truly underrated band.

The live album is really good. I was amazed listening to it. Other than Mongrain's voice which he has a tough time capturing his Hopeless Hopes' voice, the quality of technicality is top notch. By his voice, I mean to say that he hits the songs from Warp Zone on the dot, but the songs from Hopeless Hopes, erm... - just imagine the voice from Warp Zone on the Hopeless Hopes' songs. It is a good end result though.

sorry to reply here soo late man .. but watever ive got to say .. uve said it cryptic ... so i'd jus second ur opinion ... and in simple plain words

MARTRY RULESSSSS

Nobody else inerested here?
Maybe some samples ought to do it:

From Hopeless Hopes:
Hopeless Hopes
Prototype

From Warp Zone:
WArp Zone
Virtual Emotions

Yeah , one of my favorite tech death metal band ... All the martyr release is awesome , but Hopeless Hope is Brilliant Thanks for the info Kaustubh ... waiting for Martyr new album Havoc now

Cool links da .. support tech death metal

Yep, this is certainly good stuff. I have both studio albums and enjoy them a lot. Though on Warp Zone they sometimes screw up the chorus... Like in Virtual Emotions. The song starts really promisingly and the verse riff is good, but I just can't bring myself to like the chorus riff :/ Oh well, nothing's perfect.

Listening Quo Vadis after such a long time ... the album Hopeless Hope is SO addictive .... Prototype and Hopeless Hope OWNED !!

Quoting Mvikred I'm addicted to Technical Death Metal ... Somebody save me

^^.. yeah man .. wat can i say ... i am a tech death addict ... and i dont wanna get it out of the system

the only band named Martyr I know of are (or were?) from the czech republic
and are not so technical at all.

Written by Guest on 05.06.2006 at 17:19

Yep, this is certainly good stuff. I have both studio albums and enjoy them a lot. Though on Warp Zone they sometimes screw up the chorus... Like in Virtual Emotions. The song starts really promisingly and the verse riff is good, but I just can't bring myself to like the chorus riff :/ Oh well, nothing's perfect.

Screw Up??
Isn't that a harsh word for tech. masters such as them?
Because the chorus is one of the most technical parts of that song, and one of my favourite parts. But anyhow, to each his own!

@Cryptic Myth, I didn't mean screw up in the sense of making mistakes or playing wrong, but screw up in the sense of losing a bit of the dynamics of the song. In some songs on Warp Zone the chorus is the weakest part of the song :/ Technical, yes, but I wouldn't sacrifice flow for technicality.

So, the abovementioned just ensures (to me), that Martyr is an excellent tech death band, but not quite on par with the likes of Atheist and Cynic (is anything?)

Yeah I kinda agree with you Ur-Nammu, especially on Virtual Emotions. The beginning is a sick intro and the song is great but the chorus is a bit weak, it goes for a few of the songs. I still love them all though, just not as much as the rest of the songs not all of them are like that though.

i somehow dont seem to find the chorus part weak... instead it totally fuks my head up cuz there is this part, where the drummer goes at a totally diff timing and the rest of the band is going at some other timing and in 4-5 bars, they both converge and the song goes on .... i mean , when listening to a song and suddenely insane things like that happen ... man, it jus blew me away. maybe i am a crazy fan of martyr that i cant see past the gret thigns that they do, or watever. but for me , martyr is flawless. to each his own ... as said by cryptic

@Ur-Nammu : dude, u shud listne to theory in practice ...... the most i'll say MOST technical Band every....the bands lead guitarist considers death and atheist to be pretty average wen it comes to technicality. their albums, third eye function and colonizing the sun are mind blowing

A new album has been set in motion for some time. Not sure if anyone knew. Check out their myspace for a new song. Pretty cool.

Martyr bored me shitless, I used to be a huge fan but damn they didn't improve with years. Now I'm into Man Must Die, a band from Canada I think. I think they can outdo what Martyr has done. IMO

Written by Guest on 07.07.2006 at 02:50

Martyr bored me shitless, I used to be a huge fan but damn they didn't improve with years. Now I'm into Man Must Die, a band from Canada I think. I think they can outdo what Martyr has done. IMO

I am pretty sure Man Must Die is from the United Kingdom. They do kick ass though. Anyway, I can understand what you mean about Martyr. I do however like them a lot. Though one reason why they remind me of Death a lot is sometimes they can come across stale, but I still enjoy them a lot.

Written by Clintagräm on 07.07.2006 at 03:11

Written by Guest on 07.07.2006 at 02:50

Martyr bored me shitless, I used to be a huge fan but damn they didn't improve with years. Now I'm into Man Must Die, a band from Canada I think. I think they can outdo what Martyr has done. IMO

I am pretty sure Man Must Die is from the United Kingdom. They do kick ass though. Anyway, I can understand what you mean about Martyr. I do however like them a lot. Though one reason why they remind me of Death a lot is sometimes they can come across stale, but I still enjoy them a lot.

Oh my god I was so gonna say Death as a similar band, but I did that in the old forum and people started bashing me and saying I was a noob by the way you are right, Man Must Die IS from the united kingdom.

I was thinking, maybe if Martyr releases a new album soon we might change our mind as I think the main factor of our boreness is that we've been listening to the same martyr songs since 2001, that's way too long. then Man must die comes in 2004 with similar yet fresher sound, the result is obvious for me.

Did you check their song I talked about on their myspace?

I've listened to Hopeless Hopes and enjoyed it a lot. Now I'm planning to purchase purchase this album to listen to it again, and also to find Warp Zone .
Anyway, they couldn't be bad with a label called "Sekhmet Records"

Written by Clintagräm on 07.07.2006 at 03:36

Did you check their song I talked about on their myspace?

Quite nice my friend! if they can create a whole album with fresh songs like that one I'll be totally pleased for sure and Man Must Die will be the second on my list now

I just hope they do it soon man, we've been waiting for 5 long years :/

Written by Guest on 07.07.2006 at 03:16

Written by Clintagräm on 07.07.2006 at 03:11

Written by Guest on 07.07.2006 at 02:50

Martyr bored me shitless, I used to be a huge fan but damn they didn't improve with years. Now I'm into Man Must Die, a band from Canada I think. I think they can outdo what Martyr has done. IMO

I am pretty sure Man Must Die is from the United Kingdom. They do kick ass though. Anyway, I can understand what you mean about Martyr. I do however like them a lot. Though one reason why they remind me of Death a lot is sometimes they can come across stale, but I still enjoy them a lot.

Oh my god I was so gonna say Death as a similar band, but I did that in the old forum and people started bashing me and saying I was a noob by the way you are right, Man Must Die IS from the united kingdom.

I was thinking, maybe if Martyr releases a new album soon we might change our mind as I think the main factor of our boreness is that we've been listening to the same martyr songs since 2001, that's way too long. then Man must die comes in 2004 with similar yet fresher sound, the result is obvious for me.

Martyr's new album , when

Written by mvikred on 07.06.2006 at 22:53

^^.. yeah man .. wat can i say ... i am a tech death addict ... and i dont wanna get it out of the system

I suggest you what , listen some Quo Vadis : Open ur eyes and break the cycle

I use to use this name for my band back 96'

I hated the fact thease guys used the name so I never listen to them

^^ dude, u r like crazy or wat ... for sake of a name, u r missing out one of the best death metal bands .

Written by mvikred on 09.07.2006 at 11:13

^^ dude, u r like crazy or wat ... for sake of a name, u r missing out one of the best death metal bands .

I did listen 2 a couple of songs wouldnt consider them one of the best... be careful with your words man ... give me a song that would make them one of the best... and I'll C

Written by Guest on 07.07.2006 at 02:50

Martyr bored me shitless, I used to be a huge fan but damn they didn't improve with years. Now I'm into Man Must Die, a band from Canada I think. I think they can outdo what Martyr has done. IMO

If they bore you then that is your opinion.
Two things now. How can they improve over the years when they haven't even released any album for you to judge them? Secondly, are you saying that Warp Zone was not an improvement when compared to Hopeless Hopes? Have you seen the song structures in Warp Zone? They have improved IMMENSSELY in terms of technicality, songwriting, individual instrument skills, production, etc. etc. What are you trying to say?

Man Must Die are a band from Scotland. And from the album they have released, ...Start Killing, how can you say that they can outdo whatever Martyr has done? There are hardly any time signature shifts in the album. Solos are hard to come by, and it would be an insult to compare the drumming on ...Start Killing to that of Martyr's Hopeless Hopes(let alone Warp Zone). There are no bass solos/interludes. Clean patches are nowhere in sight. Dan Mongrain for Martyr, has played for many technically-efficient bands let alone Martyr. He's been in the business for a long time. Man Must Die were formed only in 2002. Martyr already had 2 full-lenghts and a live album by 2001! I can go on and on like this. I'm really curious as to how you can say that they can outdo what Martyr have done.
Don't get me wrong now, I love Man Must Die (ask Mvikred), but to say they can outdo Martyr is absolute bullcrap.

Now, I understand that you may have gotten tired of Martyr, but please try to understand what I'm saying.

^^ true man ... man must die is awesome .. and i love them too .. but saying they are better than martyr is a very lame thing ... they are not even close to where martyr are at the moment.. not interms of popularity .. in terms of song writing skills and proficiency in the respective instruments.