HENKA has revealed the details of her debut EP, and shared a new song that is set to appear on it. Spoiler: it’s a banger.
Titled ‘Hurricane’, it’s a song that utilises the elements of hurt and harmony that bolster her sound so beautifully. A bold and brash verse bleeds into a caramel smooth chorus, all wrapped up in an instrumental brimming with electronic intensity and hard rock battery.
It’s yet another statement of intent from an artist that continues to push and pull at what is expected of them, going above and beyond yet again.
HENKA had this to say about the track, stating, “This song lives in that space where love feels conditional and identity feels inherited. It’s about growing up under pressure to be perfect and trying to break cycles that were never yours to begin with. I was really inspired by the emotional intensity and raw textures of 90s artists like Nine Inch Nails and t.A.T.u., and wanted to channel that into something personal”
HENKA’s debut EP, ‘Catharsis’, is set to be released on June 05.
As well as ‘Hurricane’, it will also feature previous singles ‘All I Know’, and I’m A God’, as well as breakout track ‘I Wanna Destroy You’, which was considered to represent Portugal at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Pyramid Theorem guitarist Sam Ermellini is the kind of person who talks about music the way most people talk about their friends: with genuine enthusiasm and without too much ceremony. The Toronto-based prog-metal trio has been at it since 2007, when Ermellini and bandmate Christian were still in high school playing Rush covers and figuring things out. A few albums and nearly two decades later, they’re releasing a new single featuring one of prog rock’s most recognizable voices.
The band — Ermellini, Christian on bass, and drummer Vito — has three albums behind them: a self-titled debut, Element of Surprise, and Beyond the Exosphere. The new track, “Open Hearts,” features Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie, and the story of how that came together is about as Canadian as it gets.
Christian plays in another band called Falsett, which includes LaBrie‘s son Chance. That connection brought LaBrie out to watch Pyramid Theorem‘s Rush tribute project, Crush, perform one night — and he ended up in the crowd without much fanfare. “Next thing I know, I see James LaBrie in the crowd watching us play,” Ermellini recalls. “I’m like, oh crap. But yeah, we put out a feeler, see if he’d be interested in it. And he was down to help us. He really supports us. And we thank him just for even being on the track in general.”
The song itself was built with LaBrie‘s voice specifically in mind from early on. Christian had the bones of it, a chorus chord voicing that the band immediately latched onto, and the writing process moved from there with a clear target. “We asked ourselves: what would work well with his voice? And what do we want to hear him rip?” Ermellini says. “It worked out for us.”
What makes “Open Hearts” more than just a well-cast feature is the instrumental section sitting at its center. Ermellini is quick to credit the collective instincts that shaped it. “We were going for that Deep Purple kind of just slamming ’70s style,” he says. “We love all that Deep Purple, we love Zeppelin, all that Beatles stuff. So it was natural for us to write that kind of style for the solo section.”
The recording process was split across locations. The band tracked the song at Strata XR with engineer Darius Trepaniak, who gave Ermellini exactly the guitar tones he was after — EVH-style with a Marshall pushed hard. The pre-production was then sent to LaBrie, who recorded his vocals independently before the full band reconvened at Chance‘s place to lay down harmonies and backing vocals. Mixing and mastering were handled by Richard Cheeky, who also produced Beyond the Exosphere and is close enough to the band’s world that LaBrie‘s son was in the room for part of the process.
The Sound They’re Chasing
When asked to describe Pyramid Theorem‘s musical identity — particularly where the new album is heading — Ermellini doesn’t reach for anything complicated. “We’re leaning into that metal rock sound like we usually do, and there’s a lot of Rush juice in it,” he says. “I’d like to think we have a little bit of that old school sound in our stuff. It’s not as modern as the prog that’s out nowadays.”
His shorthand for the band’s DNA is direct: “If Rush, Ozzy Osbourne, and Pantera kind of had a baby, it would be Pyramid Theorem. That’s the sound we’re going for, at least.” Interviewer RodrigoAltaf floated the addition of Van Halen to that equation, and Ermellini didn’t argue. “I love Eddie. He’s my favorite player that’s ever played guitar.”
That list of influences runs deep. Ermellini‘s formative years on guitar were shaped by Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ritchie Blackmore, and Jimmy Page, the full spread of ’70s and ’80s guitar royalty that informed a generation of players who grew up wanting to make a lot of noise with a lot of feel.
The new album doesn’t have a title locked in yet; drummer Vito apparently keeps a black book of potential ideas, but Ermellini describes the material as having more room in it than previous records. “There’s a lot of air in this music. The song structures are a little bit deeper. I feel like it’s music where you’re looking forward to the next part.”
Photo by Dustin Rabin
Crush, And What’s Next
The Rush tribute project, Crush, has become something of a calling card for the band beyond its original December purpose. Past sets have included full run-throughs of Rush‘s 2112, A Farewell to Kings, and most recently Permanent Waves straight into Moving Pictures — a combination they called “Permanent Pictures.” Next up might be Signals, though nothing is confirmed yet.
For Ermellini, Crush serves a practical function beyond the joy of playing the material. “Half the time they’re like, ‘the Rush set was awesome,’ and then we’re like, ‘well, we got a band, right? Come check us out.’ And sure enough, the people do, and they support us. We’re so grateful for that.”
The band is set to open for Stick Men at the Garrison in Toronto on April 8, with the “Open Hearts” single dropping two days later on the 10th. A Canadian touring run is planned through late May and into June, with hopes of getting into the United States in the fall. Ermellini is pragmatic but optimistic about the longer road: “Every little bit helps, and all the support helps. We want to get on the road as much as possible.”
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