Doomed & Stoned — Alienatör Turns Loose Raging New Record ‘Regrets’

Alienatör Turns Loose Raging New Record ‘Regrets’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

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Given the extreme conditions of isolation, fear, government overreach, economic turmoil, and general pandemic pandemonium, it is not surprising to find more albums turning from sorrow and hurt to outrage and anger. ‘Regrets’(2022) is simply explosive.

Aggression is the name of the game in the latest offering from Thunder Bay, Ontario crew ALIENATÖR. Brad King (guitar, vox), Sean Skillen (bass, vox), and Simon Paquette (drums) pack a big wallop for a band of three. Their sound is a hash of sludge, hardcore, noise, and crust, with a message that’s urgent and dire.

In the mirror you see an awful lack
Cannot stand the face that’s staring back
Seething anger nowhere else to hide
Hatred fills the emptiness inside

Like their first album 'Pariahs’ (2019), Regrets is fast and aggressive. What makes this one different is how utterly bleak, raw, and abrasive it feels – a reflection, perhaps, of the slowly evolving chaos around us.

This Just In: Rabid bassist on the loose! “Revisionist History” comes at us like a rowboat caught in the maelstrom. Vocals are good 'n’ pissed, to the extreme of hoarseness. Elsewhere, singing is mean and raspy – as in “Blood Red Blood,” where the bass gets a chance to strut its stuff even more.

If you love a good riff, “Loss Leader” is your song. The guitar leads are mysterious, slow, and strong. Drums rally for the title track, which makes “Regrest” feel like a fun ride downhill.

In the music video for “Priest,” the band is playing in an abandoned office building with their backs turned to one another. I can’t help but draw a parallel to all the conversations going on in social media bubbles that have us caged in, alienated from one another. But the song is about something much heavier: the abuse of religious power.

Sometimes a man
Is not what he appears
Sometimes behind those kindly eyes is the
Sum of all our fears

Around the 3-minute mark, bass and guitar do battle epically. The tonal nuances brought out by this recording are remarkable.

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The B-side welcomes us to a furious slam dance in “The Less Dead,” followed by the dissonant headbanger “Flat Earth Society.” Things get funky for “Irreconcilable” with a beat I can really groove with. In contrast, “Your Funeral” is an agitated rattler that inches its way ever closer to the big bite.

The introduction to “Wounded Birds” vaguely reminds me of System of a Down’s “Aerials,” and it soon takes flight with all hands on deck. The vocals practically breath fire, so maybe this is one of Cersei’s dragons. “Dark Matter,” on the other hand, is a winter wind that calls upon the strength both singers amidst the blur of a veritable snowstorm.

Regrets plays out like a nervous breakdown, but a damned exhilarating one. Alienatör releases it this weekend on compact disc and digital formats (get it here).

This is the Doomed & Stoned world premiere.

Give ear…



Band Commentary, Track-by-Track



“Regrets is a grim postcard from the depths of the human psyche. Our darkest release yet, it is a reaction to years of deep political turmoil, the erosion of truth, as well as personal politics of grief, loss, and struggle. It’s an album that touches on personal and social themes. Flourishes of melody drenched in a caustic sludge, painted in shades of black. We still have some blistering fast punk-influenced tunes but we’re branching out and showing our songwriting depth.”

–Alienatör


I. Revisionist History

Right out of the gate we have the rhythm section carrying the song before a snakey guitar line weaves in over top. That’s something we weren’t able to do when we wrote the first album as a 2-piece. The odd-time signature gives it an off-kilter feel. The lyrics are about the erosion of truth in our public discourse and the dangerous narcissists who create their own reality and try to shove it down our throats.


II. Loss Leader

This song is about grief and loss, especially as a result of the opioid crisis. I’ve experienced a lot of deaths and tragedies personally and professionally and this song is about dealing with that. Musically, it’s got a proggier feel than anything we’ve done previously and a bit of a middle-eastern influence. It’s also the first song this line-up of the band wrote together.


III. Blood Red Blood

This opening riff is one I had kicking around for a while. We counted it as 9/8 or something wacky. Sean wrote the rest of the music around it. I like the breakdown in the middle a lot. The title was inspired by the Wilco song Sky Blue Sky, so there’s an influence you probably weren’t expecting. I wrote lyrics about the cycle of violence, toxic masculinity and how “hurt people hurt people.” Often, what we do to others gets paid back to us in the end; “blood in, blood out.”


IV. Regrets

One of the more heartfelt and emotional songs we’ve done, this one deals with personal struggles and the passage of time. I like the energy and a looser feel of it, musically. Sean’s really standing on his head with some of the bass fills on this one, especially in the middle section, but it’s all tasteful and fits perfectly, elevating the whole song. Simon finds interesting ways to fill the empty spaces on the drums. It gives a new dimension to our sound.


V. The Priest

The darkest song I’ve ever written. This is another one, where the rhythm section really drives the song and the guitar comes in, jagged and angular on top. Ralph Rowe was an Anglican Priest who molested countless kids from fly-in reserves in the 70s and 80s. He ruined so many lives and then plea-bargained for a prison sentence that was a slap on the wrist. There’s a documentary about him called “Survivor’s Rowe.” Here, he serves as an example of the type of abuse of power that we allow those who we place in positions of trust. We put a lot of work into the dynamics of this one. Lots of tension and release and then the calm atmospheric part toward the end, before we bring the hammer down again.



VI. The Less Dead

The “less dead,” is a term for marginalized members of society who are considered less of a priority for police investigations and are therefore are easy victims for predators. Sex workers, people of colour, people with addictions or mental health issues, members of the LGBTQ community, and the poor fit in this category. The closest to a straight-ahead punk song on the album but Simon’s crazy tom work in the bridge really elevates it. Very fun to play live.


VII. Flat Earth Society

Remember when we used to think that increased access to information would make humanity smarter? This song is a reaction to the age of misinformation we currently find ourselves in. COVID conspiracies, climate denialism, and the age of social media propaganda have altered our perception of reality and divided our society. This song is about the echo chambers we create for ourselves and how we are being manipulated by those in power. We opened for Soulfly before the pandemic and Sean said watching the people bounce up and down on the dance floor while they played contributed to the feel of the breakdown.


VIII. Irreconcilable

This one is about Canada’s history of genocide against Indigenous peoples, which was brought back to the forefront of public consciousness when hundreds of graves were found on the sites of former residential schools. This song is about the relationship of denial that white settlers have with colonialism, how we refuse to “reconcile,” what’s been done, and our role in it. Great dynamics in this one, as it ramps up from a slow simmer into a crushing chorus and back down again.


IX. Your Funeral

This one’s a bit different with the tension of the jerky snare-driven rhythm and then the straight-ahead release of the chorus. I find it interesting to juxtapose a kind of uplifting chord progression and driving beat with lyrics that are bleak and depressing. This one’s about being a wage slave, feeling like you’re a cog in the machine, wasting your life, and going through the motions.


X. Wounded Birds

This one is a kind of anthem for all the broken people, those who suffer from trauma, depression, substance issues and the like. I’ve had my own struggles so this one’s a bit cathartic, lyrically. Musically, it shows us branching out and experimenting more, adding a lot more depth.


XI. Dark Matters

A pretty unique tune in our catalogue. It’s about the things that keep you awake at night; lies you’ve told, people you’ve lied cheated, or stolen from. I imagine one of our favourite politicians feeling some of these things late at night if they have any conscience left. It’s fun for me to take on the role of the negative voices in someone’s head, as I do here. Musically, it’s swirling and chaotic with some flashes of light in the darkness and gloom. An unsettling way to fade the record into black.


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