Canada band blends styles

Playing melodic music with screeching vocals was the initial goal for the guys in the Canadian-based Alexisonfire, according to lead screamer George Pettit.

"We have a lot of different musical tastes," Pettit said by phone from Philadelphia. "I was into a lot of hardcore. But when we decided to get something going we just wanted to bring all of our influences together."

The band — composed of Pettit, drummer Jordan "Ratbeard" Hastings, bassist Chris Steele and guitarists Wade MacNeil and Dallas Green — has been together for five years and has released three full-length albums. The latest is "Crisis," which was released domestically at the end of summer.

"Dallas and Wade started writing songs while we were on tour for the last album, 'Watch Out"' said Pettit. "They kept coming up with riffs and stuff. And once we wrapped up the tour and had some time off, we began writing other parts and filling out the songs.

"The thing we knew we wanted to do was to make an album better than the last one. I don't think there are any bands out there worth something who want to make the same album as before."

On top of recording the album, the band was getting used to its growing status. "I remember buying a van for our tour, and it was hard having that debt on our heads, as well as touring and making sure we were playing well. And once we hired a booking agent, it was hard for us not to get involved with the show-booking process. We were so used to doing things ourselves, and to have one of those music-industry types telling us what to do took some getting used to."

In addition to Alexisonfire, the various members are involved in side projects, said Pettit. "Dallas's City and Colour helped Alexisonfire quite a bit when we were having a long break. We didn't do very much for a few months, and he took his band out and kept Alexisonfire's name on the lips of the audiences."

MacNeil's The Black Lungs will have an album released shortly and Pettit is currently getting together another band as well. "The side projects are places where we can do things we wouldn't do in Alexisonfire. And at the same time, if they have songs that don't fit with them, the guys will bring those songs to Alexisonfire and we'll mess them up."

If you go

What: Alexisonfire

Where: Club Boom Va, 2701 Washington Blvd., Ogden

When: Sunday, 7 p.m.

How much: $12

Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499

Web: www.smithstix.com

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com