Greg Below | |
---|---|
Origin | Canada |
Occupation(s) | Businessman, show promoter, music producer |
Labels | Distort Entertainment |
Greg Below is the president and founding partner of Distort Entertainment, Canadian show promoter and music producer. Greg is known for his height and enthusiastic love of music (especially metal). [1]
Greg and his partner, Mitch Joel decided to form Distort Entertainment after being introduced by a journalist friend of Mitch's. Below called Mitch shortly after meeting him with the proposal to start a record label. Later became Distort Inc.
Distort Inc. specializes in heavy music, hardcore, and post-hardcore. Located in Toronto Ontario, Distort Entertainment is well known for its influence in the underground music market. Some artists and groups currently or once represented by the label are: Alexisonfire, Cancer Bats, Comeback Kid, Johnny Truant, Architects, Step Kings, and The Bronx. Below has in recent years started a sister division, Distort Light, in order to include bands like Bend Sinister. [2]
"his enthusiasm was amazing. We’re probably a bit of an experiment of a band for him, because I know Greg and he just loves good music. He’s trying to branch out and have more bands from different genres, but his main love is metal" - Dan Moxon (Vocalist/Keyboard From Bend Sinister) Quote from Exclaim Magazine
Similarly named, Distort Productions also owned by Below, is a concert promotion company which is known for bringing acts like Slipknot and System Of A Down to Canada. Acourding to an interview with Mitch Joel, Distort Entertainment's name was derived from Distort Productions, which was already established prior to Joel and Below becoming partners.
"We like the name" - Mitch Joel (Greg's business partner) Quote from a Metal-Rules Interviews
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington D.C. and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics."
Bad Brains are an American rock band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1976. Originally a jazz fusion band under the name Mind Power, they are widely regarded as pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to the use of this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of other genres like funk, heavy metal, hip hop, and soul. Rolling Stone magazine called them "the mother of all black hard-rock bands", and they have been cited as a seminal influence to numerous subgenres of heavy metal, including thrash/speed metal, alternative metal, funk metal and rap/nu metal. Bad Brains are followers of the Rastafari movement.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre.
Voivod is a Canadian heavy metal band from Jonquière, Quebec. The original line-up consisted of Denis "Snake" Bélanger, Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, Michel "Away" Langevin and Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. The band's current line-up consists of Denis "Snake" Bélanger (vocals), Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (guitar), Dominic "Rocky" Laroche (bass) and Michel "Away" Langevin (drums). Their musical style has changed several times since the band's origin in the early 1980s. Starting out as a speed metal band, Voivod have added a mix of progressive metal and thrash metal to create their own unique metal style, and alongside Coroner and Watchtower, they have been credited for helping pioneer the subgenre of "technical thrash metal". Voivod is also credited as one of the "big four" Canadian thrash metal bands, along with Sacrifice, Razor, and Annihilator.
The Dillinger Escape Plan was an American metalcore band. The band was formed in 1997 in Morris Plains, New Jersey by guitarist Ben Weinman, bassist Adam Doll, vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, and drummer Chris Pennie. The band's use of odd time signatures, polyrhythms and unconventional drum patterns became a staple of their sound, although later albums incorporated more melody, and influences from a range of genres. The band's lineup shifted numerous times throughout its existence; by the time the group dissolved, Weinman was the only remaining founding member. The last surviving lineup also included longtime members Liam Wilson on bass, Greg Puciato as lead vocalist, and Billy Rymer on the drum kit, alongside then-newcomer Kevin Antreassian as rhythm guitarist.
Screamo is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics". San Diego-based bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow pioneered the genre in the early 1990s, and it was developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United States such as Orchid, Funeral Diner, Saetia, Pg. 99, and I Hate Myself. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punk and characterized by the use of screamed vocals. Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights. The term "screamo" has frequently been mistaken as referring to any music with screaming vocals.
Hüsker Dü was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist/vocalist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardcore punk band, and later crossed over into alternative rock. Mould and Hart were the band's principal songwriters, with Hart's higher-pitched vocals and Mould's baritone taking the lead in alternating songs.
Neurosis is an American avant-garde metal band from Oakland, California. It was formed in 1985 by guitarist Scott Kelly, bassist Dave Edwardson, and drummer Jason Roeder, initially as a hardcore punk band. Chad Salter joined as a second guitarist and appeared on the band's 1987 debut Pain of Mind before being replaced by Steve Von Till in 1989. The following year, the lineup further expanded to include a keyboardist and a visual artist. Beginning with their third album Souls at Zero (1992), Neurosis transformed their hardcore sound by incorporating diverse influences including doom metal and industrial music, becoming a major force in the emergence of the post-metal and sludge metal genres.
Alexisonfire is a Canadian post-hardcore band formed in St. Catharines, Ontario in 2001. The band's members are George Pettit (vocals), Dallas Green, Wade MacNeil, Chris Steele (bass) and Jordan Hastings. The band has won numerous awards, and in Canada their albums have all been certified either gold or platinum.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black and Jawbox that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. In the early- and mid-2000s, post-hardcore achieved mainstream success with the popularity of bands like My Chemical Romance, Dance Gavin Dance, AFI, Underoath, Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, The Used, At the Drive-In, Saosin, Alexisonfire, and Senses Fail. In the 2010s, bands like Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil achieved mainstream success. Meanwhile, bands like Title Fight and La Dispute experienced underground popularity.
Steeler was an early 1980s American heavy metal band that featured Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen upon his arrival in the United States. The band was founded in 1981 in Nashville, Tennessee, by vocalist Ron Keel and released one album on Shrapnel Records in 1983 before morphing into Keel.
Distort Entertainment is a Canadian independent record label based in Toronto, Ontario. The label specializes in bands performing hardcore punk-derived music, including Alexisonfire, Cancer Bats and Johnny Truant, but its sister division Distort Light has also released less aggressive rock bands such as Bend Sinister.
Cancer Bats is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario. To date, they have released seven studio albums and six extended plays; with their most recent LP, Psychic Jailbreak, having been released on 15 April 2022. The band is currently composed of lead vocalist Liam Cormier, drummer Mike Peters and bassist/guitarist Jaye R. Schwarzer. The band are also currently joined by touring guitarists Stephen Harrison and Nick Sherman, following the departure of founding guitarist Scott Middleton in 2021. Cancer Bats take a wide variety of influences from heavy metal sub-genres and fuse them into hardcore and punk rock, and also include elements of Southern metal. Their sound has been likened to sludge metal, as well as to that of metalcore bands such as Converge and Hatebreed. The members of Cancer Bats have also toured and recorded as a Black Sabbath tribute band under the name Bat Sabbath.
The Gorgeous were a Canadian metalcore band formed in the summer of 2003 in Vancouver/Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The band formed with Dali Shaw on guitar, Julien Brousseau on bass and Miguel Shaw on drums. The three played a few shows without a vocalist and quickly recruited Jordan Daniel.
No Warning is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto.
Bend Sinister is a progressive-indie band formed in 2001 now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The band takes its name from a novel by Vladimir Nabokov.
Mitch Joel is an entrepreneur and writer. He was president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency that was purchased by WPP in 2014 and president and a founding partner of Distort Entertainment.
Little Girls is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2008 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band emerged from Toronto's post-punk scene as a solo recording project of multi-instrumentalist Josh McIntyre. With a focus on Minimalist Electronic, Little Girls released CULTS EP on Hand Drawn Dracula and are currently working on their second full-length record.
Anodyne was an American hardcore band active from 1997 to 2005. Their music was characterized by chaotic song structures coupled with layers of feedback and noise similar to bands like Kiss It Goodbye, Today is the Day and Black Flag. The lyrics were broodingly introspective and emotional. The band went through several lineup changes before arriving at the definitive line up of Mike Hill, Joshua Scott, and Joel Stallings. Drummer Joel Stallings is notable for introducing blast beats to the band’s sound, which were often employed later in the band's existence. Anodyne was affiliated with a number of independent record labels including Escape Artist, Level Plane, and Chainsaw Safety. They completed several US tours and one European Tour. Members went on to perform in Versoma, Tombs and Defeatist.
Beatdown hardcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk with prominent elements of heavy metal. Beatdown hardcore features aggressive vocals, down-tuned electric guitars, gang vocals, heavy guitar riffs, and heavy breakdowns. The genre emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s with bands such as Killing Time, Madball, and Sheer Terror. In the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s, many other beatdown bands emerged, such as Hatebreed, Bulldoze, Shai Hulud, and Strife. Bands such as Terror and Death Before Dishonor gained cult followings in the mid–late 2000s. New York hardcore bands such as Agnostic Front, Warzone, Sick of It All, and Cro-Mags and the thrash metal subgenre crossover thrash paved the way for beatdown.