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Canadian melodic death metal band Blackguard are easily the most hard-working band you'll ever come across.
They are a heavily touring group that is willing to do whatever it takes to put their music out there and expose themselves to audiences across North America. They have done tours with Ensiferum, Epica, Hypocrisy, Nevermore, Deicide, Symphony X, Otep, Kamelot and Evergrey, all within an astonishingly time period of two years.
Musically, they were previously known as Profugus Mortis and were largely a folk metal outfit back then. But with the release of their latest album, Firefight, they have moved away from that folkish sound, and the music on this release can be broadly described as melodic death metal. Regardless of the style, it's a terrific release full of great high-energy music, and that energy translates very well when they play these songs live.
Toward the end of that very recent Kamelot tour, I caught up with frontman Paul "Ablaze" Zinay at the House of Blues in Hollywood to talk about the tour, the band being featured on the NHL 2012 game soundtrack, the old Profugus Mortis demos, the Heavy MTL experience and lots more.
Listen to the 12-minute conversation below, and check out the band's official Facebook page for more. They are also confirmed to take part in Kittie's North American tour in April 2012, so keep your eye out for Blackguard on that tour.
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Andrew Bansal is a Los Angeles-based writer who has been running his own website, Metal Assault, since early 2010, and has been prolific in covering the hard rock and heavy metal scene by posting interviews, reviews and pictures on his website -- with the help of a small group of people. Besides being hugely passionate about heavy metal, he is an avid follower of jazz music and recently started a blog called Jazz Explorer to pursue that interest.
