The Return Of Slaves On Dope

Tomorrow, Friday, February 5th, will mark the live return of 90s Montréal music darlings Slaves On Dope...

The band started in 1993 and quickly gathered a large following, won competitions (CHOM L'Esprit '94), lost founding members, changed its style (from grunge-inspired garage rock to nü metal) and moved to L.A. to ''make it''.

And ''make it'' they did. They were the first act signed to Ozzy Osbourne's personal label, Divine Recordings, went on numerous ''big'' tours including Ozzfest, and namely only once came ''back home'' to Montréal, to perform a Musique Plus-produced snowboading indoors rock-and-sports day in a football stadium in the late 90s. Nothing else. They then lost their deal with Divine (when the label itself lost its distribution deal through EMI Records) and released their 'Metafour' record with Bieler Bros Records.

Singer Jason Rockman was then said to have left the band - although the group claimed it was on hiatus - leaving guitarist Kevin Jardine as the lone original member to take on the name. Jardine moved back to Montréal to found a recording-studio-come-production-company-come-counseling-firm for acts ''striving to make it'' and looking for ''major label deals''. He also started another band, The Monarchy, which garnered Musique Plus support and toured a bit in dives all across the country.

And now, they're back. As Limp Bizkit announced they had reformed, so have Slaves On Dope, somehow expecting nü metal to make a huge comeback later this year, as both are expected not just to play live, but also release new songs. And they're doing it here, ''back home'', when they had all but forgotten us for the better part of a decade...

Still. They're local boys, and I wish them the best of luck. Below is a picture of them with me, back when there was a real kinship between the City and them - Jardine is on the left, Rockman is the crazy-smiling one on the right.

You can read about their comeback here and here, and there is a short clip of a recent rehearsal here, where you can also learn that the gig will be viewable online.