Chronical Disturbance

Chronical Disturbance were a thrash metal band from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, active from 1988 to late 1991. During their short existence, the group recorded two demos and released Foggy Creek, an album that brought those recordings together and carried the band beyond Canada through the international metal underground.

The roots of Chronical Disturbance go back to Outrage, a Trois-Rivières speed metal band active during the mid-1980s. Two members of that group, guitarist Alain Deslauriers and guitarist-vocalist Alain Lefebvre, formed Chronical Disturbance in April 1988. They were joined by François Richard on drums and Pierre Delorme on bass, completing the lineup heard on the band’s recordings.

By the end of 1988, Chronical Disturbance had recorded their first demo, No Tomorrow. The tape contained four songs, ‘Open Season’, ‘No Tomorrow’, ‘Dr. Death’ and ‘Prejudice’, and began circulating through the underground in Canada and abroad. Fanzines, college radio and international tape trading were important avenues for independent metal bands at the time, and Chronical Disturbance quickly developed contacts outside Quebec.

The band followed with their second demo, The Clearing, recorded in 1989. Its six songs, ‘Foggy Creek’, ‘Crust and Crumbs’, ‘Chronic Confusion’, ‘Another Day in the Ratrace’, ‘Sordid End’ and ‘Starless’, showed the group developing longer and more varied arrangements. ‘Starless’ was structured as a multi-part composition, while the other recordings moved between thrash, melodic passages and atmospheric sections. By 1990, The Clearing was receiving attention outside Canada, including a review in Metal Hammer.

An important part of the band’s development was their connection with Alexandre Bucher and SA Bucher Records in France. Bucher became involved with Chronical Disturbance as their European manager, giving the group an overseas contact for promotion, mail order and distribution. Through SA Bucher, the band became part of a European underground network that also included other hard rock and metal acts represented by the French company.

That relationship led to the release of Foggy Creek on SA Bucher Records in 1990. Rather than being recorded as a separate album session, Foggy Creek brought together the band’s two existing demos. The six recordings from The Clearing were combined with the four songs from No Tomorrow, preserving the material that Chronical Disturbance had developed between 1988 and 1989.

The LP was manufactured in West Germany and distributed in France by New Rose and elsewhere in Europe by Semaphore. Copies were issued on black vinyl as well as clear blue vinyl, accompanied by a double-sided lyric and merchandise insert. A CD edition later followed through SA Bucher.

The recordings feature Alain Lefebvre on lead vocals, rhythm and acoustic guitar, Alain Deslauriers on lead, rhythm and classical guitar, François Richard on drums and percussion, and Pierre Delorme on bass, with all four members contributing backing vocals. Réjean Bouchard produced and engineered the recordings and played keyboards on ‘Foggy Creek’. Eric Galy contributed screams to ‘Ratrace’ and ‘Chronic Confusion’.

Chronical Disturbance remained active into 1991. One documented appearance places the band at Les Foufounes Électriques in Montreal on August 6, 1991, showing that they were still performing during the final months of their existence. The group disbanded later that year.

Their brief career coincided with an important period in the development of Quebec metal, as bands from Montreal, Trois-Rivières and other centres increasingly found audiences through independent recordings, fanzines, radio programs and international correspondence. Chronical Disturbance have subsequently appeared in studies and retrospectives documenting that early Quebec metal scene.

The band’s history also continued through the later work of several people involved with them. Drummer François Richard went on to play with Martyr, becoming part of another significant chapter in Quebec metal. Eric Galy, who had been involved with the scene during Chronical Disturbance’s original years, later named The Clearing among his favourite Quebec demos.

In 2013, Galy Records reissued Foggy Creek on CD, bringing the recordings back into circulation more than two decades after Chronical Disturbance had come to an end.

-Robert Williston