Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: Alpha Trion

After a day's delay (my apologies), it's now time for this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! In our latest monthly look at a metal/hard rock band from out of town that has featured a Sault-area native in any of their past or present lineups, we're giving a long overdue look to a band featuring a very talented drummer that once called the Soo home, so read on below for this month's profile, and if anything's incorrect or missing, let me know! (Updated on November 27th)
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Alpha Trion (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED, ex-members in italics)

Curtis Wells (guitar)
Leo Pedersen (guitar)
Rae Aberdeen (bass)
Jon Morrison (drums)
Bryan Gobbi (guitar)

Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/a3band
Official MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/a3band
Official YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/alphatrionmusic

Local Info: A very prolific drummer in his current Vancouver homestead, Jon Morrison is originally from Sault Ste. Marie, began drumming professionally at age 10, and is an alum of Bawating Collegiate & Vocational School, but details on his local residence and band work then are scant online nowadays. A graduate of the famed Berklee College of Music in 2006 and a finalist in a 2008 Meshuggah drum contest. Jon's band work in the Vancouver area includes stints with noted metal bands like Avatara, Nylithia, and Parallel Truth, along with a brief stint as a session drummer for local metal standouts Gates of Winter in the early 2010s, so be sure to follow Jon's music for some proficient original metal! 

Band Bio: Launched in late 2008, Alpha Trion have been sporadically active since then, largely in studio settings to work on original material. Though they did search for a vocalist shortly after launch (source here), this band has largely been an instrumental project, with the same lineup since the fall of that year. Alpha Trion made their live debut (the first of just two shows to date) in January 2009, and began working on a debut album named "Survival Means Invention" that fall. The band documented it's early progress via video blogs on their YouTube channel, but it still hasn't visibly been completed, with updates slowing down by mid-2012, and nothing coming to their Facebook page since September 2013, aside from a solo video from Curt Wells in June. Hopefully Alpha Trion are still an active project, as their progressive/djent metal originals are very heavy and entertaining, and I can see why they still get solid online praise!

The five songs on their MySpace page (and surviving YouTube clips) point to a technical and proficient sound that fans of Meshuggah and similar bands will definitely take to! Curt Wells & Leo Pederson are excellent guitarists, Rae Aberdeen's chugging bass fits nicely, and Jon Morrison's skilled drumming is a great compliment! It'd be interesting to hear this material with vocals, but hopefully Alpha Trion are still alive and will complete their CD down the road! Check out their original material at the above links, and here's the guys playing their song "Fragmented" in 2009!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month in this series, we'll take a look at London hardcore/crust punk quintet Gatgas (featuring Sault Ontario natives Bob Bromley Jr. and Garry Ingram) in advance of their set at Hardcore Homecoming in September, so look out for that on or around June 26th, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!