History & Biography The Amos, Canada-based ‘where are you going’ was founded by guitarists and vocalists Bart Frydrychowicz and Arie Itman and drummer Yanic Bercieras playing thrash covers while in school in 1992 before turning death metal, moved its base of operations to Montreal and disbanded in 2013. The band was predominantly techno-death metal a la Death and Gorguts, but also had a penchant for the commercialism of keyboards and operatic vocals.
As was popular in French Canada back then Quo Vadis had an advance tape first before issuing a professional demo tape through its own VomiT Productions in 1995. There was an advance advance version of the advance tape the band circulated without bass as well. The band issued a demo CD called Forever... in 1996 that was reissued by someone called Earth AD Records. The band had changed a dozen bassists so far. The band went quiet until entering Studio Victor in Montreal to record and release Day Into Night through Canada’s Hypnotic Records. Pierre Rémillard of Obliveon produced it. This album was supposed to be released by Napalm Records America to whom the band had signed. Passage In Time was a sampler of the band’s music in 2001. Guitarist Bart Frydrychowicz relinquished the microphone in 2002. Skyscraper issued the band’s next record, which featured Steve DiGiorgio on bass. Live In Montreal was recorded in 2005. There was also a live DVD called Defiant Indoctrination. It featured several fellow Canadian musicians as guests. The group journeyed to Europe in early 2007. The Road To Devastation tour 2007 featured Kataklysm, Neaera and Fear My Thoughts. The band toured Canada in 2007, but the Toronto show was cancelled as the venue was shut down to a permit concern. Yanic Bercier left after fifteen years in the band in 2008. He had been operating out of the USA where he was working since 2002. Patrice Hamelin replaced him. Cryptopsy guitarist Alex Auburn was a guest for 2002 filling in with Arie's departure. Stephane Pare left in 2008 and focused on his Disconcert Music label. Bart performed a show physically supported by others and sitting down in 2008. This was exacerbated during the show leaving the man unable to continue standing up. Roxanne Constantin of Negativa was the bassist and piano player at the end. Matthew Sweeney was the singer for the final year. The group was heard of on the Trois-Rivières Metalfest X compilation and then was not heard of despite the promise of another album with the new line-up.
The band was named after the 19th century novel by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Reviews QUO VADIS - DEFIANT IMAGINATION
Quo Vadis hails from Montreal, has been doing the rounds for over ten years now and has released a couple of albums in the past. The band's latest is a high-budget independent CD featuring Sadus' Steve DiGiorgio on bass guitar and boasting a mix courtesy of Jim Morris at Morrisound Studio.
The band's revamped line-up offers a techno thrash/heavy metal sound reminiscent of late Death and Sadus. The presence of those bands' bassist also explains the prominent bass guitar sound. The rest of the band is comprised of adept musicians as well. The delivery and sound are unsurprisingly clinically clean and sterile, mostly fast and often precise. It is in the nature of the sub-genre that the music loses much of its emotional appeal as a consequence of the characteristics, although the sound could have been a little thicker regardless. Other noteworthy items are the perfected guitar solos on songs like Silence Calls The Storm and To The Bitter End, the hardcore instances on Tunnel Effect, the operatic and orchestral In Articulo Mortis and outro and the slower and almost oriental Dead Man's Diary. - Ali "The Metallian"
QUO VADIS - DEFIANT INDOCTRINATION (3 DVD) - SKYSCRAPER
Once upon time the promise of DVDs was the ability to have multiple angles and to provide other goodies for the viewers. Fast forward to Quo Vadis’ triple DVD and one finds a completely separate third DVD that contains the entire live set featured on the other double-sided DVD but with two cameras focused exclusively on Yanic Bercier, the drummer. Moving on to the music contained therein it is immediately clear that musically the band borrow a lot from the likes of Children Of Bodom, In Flames and are also inspired by Blind Guardian and Death’s latter days. The live set, recorded in Montreal on the occasion of the ”˜release party’, features body-painted semi-nude dancers, a choir, a violinist and a pigtailed keyboard player. There is quite a bit of energy and the DVD production is good but all the non-metal elements are almost at the point of taking away from the metal and making the performance too much of a show. Of note is the length of the DVDs, running at just under an hour and a half one wonders if a double DVD is indeed required... - Anna Tergel
Interviews
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