Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Kaepora Gaebora

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we again give a look at a local metal, hard rock, or punk band from the past, as randomly selected from our band links! This month's selection is a recent-ish extreme metal group featuring many familiar faces in their lineups that never got that far off the ground despite their promise on paper, so here's what you should know on them!

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Kaepora Gaebora (previously known as Debt To The Heirless and later renamed to Exploring Detritus)

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Death Metal

Lineup: (Members not in their last full lineup are in italics)

Dan Souliere (Bring The Fallen), vocals/guitar
Mitch Sirie (The Bear Hunters) vocals/guitar
Ryan St. Pierre, guitar
Justin Lam (The Bear Hunters, Jack Spades), bass
Anthony Boudreau (HeadFirst, Them), drums

Joey Graham (Ashoka At The Show, The Undead Warriors), vocals
Daeson Lesage (Bring The Misery), guitar
Jeph Brown, bass
Kevin Overton (Gates Of Winter, RedD Monkey), drums

Audio/Video: During their original run, Kaepora Gaebora wrote original songs with names like "Evolution By Force", "Misinterpreting The Deity", and "ABCDEFG", but I can only find two surviving videos from that era, including this 43 seconds-long jam session clip featuring their main 2016 lineup. For their 2022 relaunch, the since-renamed Exploring Detritus posted a bunch of jam session and rehearsal videos to their Facebook page, and even posted some (largely identical) content on TikTok and Instagram, but nothing advanced to a public reveal of a song name, let alone new concerts. Here's the then-Kaepora Gaebora playing their original "Death Spins" at The Oddfellows Hall in 2016!

Info/Analysis: Publically launching in the fall of 2015 as Debt To The Heirless, this new death metal band united veterans of the late 2000s and early 2010s local metal scene, taking their Kaepora Gaebora moniker in January from the wise owl in the Legend of Zelda video game series. Debuting at a house party in April 2016, the band's eventual permanent lineup (Joey, Dan, Daeson, Jeph, and Kevin) would play twice that spring at The Oddfellows Hall, opening for The Motherfuckers and at Bear Hunters drummer Johnny Belanger's birthday concert. Last seen opening for Foam at The New American Pub in June, the band went silent on social media until changing their name to Exploring Detritus that December, but updates slowed again and ceased in mid-2017. After some false starts, Dan Souliere relaunched Exploring Detritus in April 2022 with a brand new lineup.

Despite bringing back original drummer Anthony Boudreau and adding Bear Hunters alumni Justin Lam & (briefly) Mitch Sirie to their lineup, the revived Exploring Detritus only advanced as far as jam session videos, and last posted to Facebook that July. Regardless of name, Kaepora Gaebora were a promisingly heavy group that helped give a nostalgic comeback to some regulars in the scene, with a solidly heavy base and a welcomed focus on original material, and it's a shame that they didn't last longer either in the mid-2010s or in 2022. Follow the reunited Bear Hunters and HeadFirst to hear what most of their last lineup is up to nowadays, and hopefully Dan tries to launch another metal band in the future!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! This series will return on or around April 10th when we profile another randomly selected defunct local band, and this time, it will 2013-2015 all-female hard rock band The Danger Cats! Look for that profile then, and for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!