RSS Feed


UNLEASH THE ARCHERS Release Covers EP ‘Explorers’
October 11th, 2019

Vancouver, BC, Canada-based power / melodic death metal band Unleash The Archers issued covers EP Explorers on October 11th, 2019 through Napalm Records.

The EP features two songs – ‘Northwest Passage’ and ‘Heartless World’ – and was made available in the following formats: seven-inch black vinyl (limited to 300 copies), seven-inch silver vinyl (limited to 100 copies), seven-inch white vinyl (limited to 100 copies), and digitally.

‘Northwest Passage’ was originally written and performed by Stan Rogers, and was the title track of the late Canadian folk musician’s 1981 studio album. “This song means a lot to us as a band,” revealed Unleash The Archer singer Brittney Slayes. “We like to put it on during those long drives on tour and it always brings us right back home.

“We originally recorded it to be a bonus track for our last full-length album Apex, but we loved the track so much we knew it needed special treatment. We held on to it for a bit and eventually decided to release it as its own seven-inch vinyl EP with another Canadian cover song as the B-side.

“The song ‘Northwest Passage’ is all about touring through Canada, which Stan Rogers did a lot, and how it equates to being an explorer looking for the passage all those years ago. It really hits home with us, we’ve toured through Canada too many times to count, so we know just how Stan was feeling. That’s where the name of the EP came from too; every time we hit the road on tour it’s like we too become Explorers, with the great big unknown stretching out before us.”

The second track on Explorers, ‘Heartless World’, was originally written by Canadian hard rock group Teaze and was featured on their 1979 album One Night Stands. “The song ‘Heartless World’ has a really interesting arrangement and can’t seem to decide if it’s a ballad or a rock opera,” said the vocalist. “Unlike ‘Northwest Passage’, where we played around with it quite a bit, we left ‘Heartless World’ almost completely as is, and only changed a few small things like solos and vocal melodies. We thought it would be a great companion piece to ‘Northwest Passage’ and really round out the moody Explorers vibe.”

The cover artwork for Explorers was created by Dusty Peterson. “We feel it captures the essence of seeking the Northwest Passage perfectly,” stated Slayes. “If you have ever read ‘The Terror’ by Dan Simmons or watched the show you’ll know exactly what we were going for.

“This EP has darkness written all over it, but the songs themselves have a slightly uplifting undertone as well. One can only imagine how exciting it must have been to explore this unknown continent back in the day, but also, how terrifying.”

The track listing is as follows:

01. ‘Northwest Passage’ (Stan Rogers cover)
02. ‘Heartless World’ (Teaze cover)

Unleash The Archer’s line-up is as follows:

Brittney Slayes (clean vocals)
Grant Truesdell (guitar and unclean vocals)
Andrew Kingsley (guitar and unclean vocals)
Scott Buchanan (drums)

A music video was filmed for the track ‘Northwest Passage’, while an official lyric video was created for the song ‘Heartless World’. In addition, a nine-minute video trailer was released in which vocalist Brittney Slayes revealed the story behind the ‘Northwest Passage’ music video. All three clips can be viewed below.

Fourth full-length studio record Apex was released in June 2017.

Promotional photograph by Shimon Karmel.