Ultimate Power With DAN CLEARY From STRIKER

Interview by Kris Peters
Canadian metal outfit Striker are a band not known for taking the
safe approach to music.
While old school fans bemoan the fact they refuse to continually
churn out albums of pure thrash metal, Striker understand the
importance of allowing their musical growth to be reflected with
each fresh body of work.
This is never more evident than their upcoming studio album
Ultrapower - out February 2 -, an assortment of influences and
genres ranging from speed metal to hardcore to hair metal to
deathcore to Steely Dan. It would have been understandable -
possibly even expected - that Striker would rehash the winning
formula that saw previous album Play To Win earn them a Juno Award,
but rather than stick to what they knew would work, the band
elected to instead allow the music to dictate its own course.
The result is an eclectic but still unashamedly metal album, being
touted in the press as "Striker's triumphant return to
reality".
HEAVY caught up with vocalist Dan Cleary earlier this week to find
out more.
"I'm super pumped," he enthused. "I'm really excited to get it out.
We recorded it… - I guess it was early last year, so February,
March -. You sit on the album for a long time, and it's always nice
to get it out and see how people are liking it. I still really like
it. There's been albums that we've recorded and by the time it
comes out you're sick of it, but I'm still digging this one. I
think there's a lot of different types of songs, so it's never too
boring."
Sitting on an album for 12 months waiting to release it is a long
time. Musical tastes and trends change significantly over the
course of one year, so we ask Cleary if there were ever any stages
where the band started to second guess the finished product or
think they should make changes certain bits of it.
"You kind of always do that stuff, but I feel like after doing it
seven times we know what to expect," he replied. "I think the first
couple we did, we looked back and thought 'oh God, we should have
gone and recorded in this studio' or 'we shouldn't have recorded
that song' or that kind of thing. Even on this album, there's still
grumbling from some people saying we should have put that more
brutal song on there and that kind of thing, but that's always
gonna happen."
In the full interview, Dan talks more about the musical side of
Ultrapower, anything they paid specific attention to on this album
cycle, following on from Play To Win and if the success of that
album caused extra pressure, the temptation to repeat the
successful formula for this album, the singles released and how
they represent Ultrapower, the different influences that went into
the songs, pleasing fans with new material, if the band ever
thought maybe they had too much variety on the album, future plans
and more.