Mares of Thrace

Mares Of Thrace formed in Calgary, Alberta, in 2009 around guitarist and vocalist Thérèse Lanz and drummer Stefani MacKichan. The two had played together previously and had talked for years about starting a slower, heavier project. The band effectively began during an informal rehearsal when Lanz asked MacKichan to play an “epic, crushing beat in a weird time signature.” Within minutes they had written ‘Venison’, one of the songs that would appear on their first album.

Working as a two-piece became part of the band's sound. Lanz used a baritone guitar and a carefully assembled combination of amplifiers and effects to cover frequencies that would normally have been occupied by a bassist or second guitarist, while MacKichan's dense, technically demanding drumming filled much of the remaining space. Lanz later described the limitations of the two-piece setup as a deliberate stylistic choice rather than something the band was trying to overcome. Their music drew on doom, sludge, hardcore, noise rock and more technically complex forms of heavy music.

Their debut album, The Moulting, was released by Arctodus Records in June 2010. Lanz described the title as a reference to shedding an old life, destructive habits and earlier versions of oneself, drawing on the literal moulting of insects and snakes. The lyrics grew out of what she called a turbulent first year for the band. Craig Boychuk engineered and mixed the album, which contained ten tracks including ‘Mandible’, ‘General Sherman’, ‘Venison’, ‘Calcium Channels’ and ‘The Arch’.

Mares Of Thrace spent much of the period following The Moulting on the road. A Canadian tour in the summer of 2010 took them from Calgary through the Prairies, Ontario and Quebec before ending with dates in British Columbia. In 2011 they undertook a longer North American tour with Milwaukee band Enabler, playing across Canada and the United States. Lanz also played bass with Winnipeg's KEN Mode for part of 2011.

In January 2012, Mares Of Thrace signed a multi-album agreement with Hamilton label Sonic Unyon Metal. Their second album, The Pilgrimage, had been recorded during October and November 2011 with Sanford Parker at Engine Studio in Chicago and was mastered by Collin Jordan. Released on April 24, 2012, the record was built as a three-act telling of the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba, with songs such as ‘Act I: David Glimpses Bathsheba’, ‘Act II: Bathsheba's Reply To David’ and ‘Act III: A Curse Falls On The House Of David’ framing the album. The band followed its release with another extensive Canadian and American tour.

The Pilgrimage brought Mares Of Thrace wider recognition when it was named to the 2012 Polaris Music Prize Long List, placing the Calgary duo among forty Canadian albums selected by the prize's jury that year.

The band's momentum changed soon afterward. MacKichan left the active lineup to pursue her education, with Rae Amitay playing drums on a 2012 summer tour. Lanz also returned to school, moving to Chicago to study game and interactive media. MacKichan rejoined Mares Of Thrace in late 2013, but the two musicians were by then living in different cities and working together at a distance. Three songs recorded during this period, ‘Dead French Mathematicians’, ‘The Null Hypothesis’ and ‘The Dismemberment Of St. Augustine’, were intended for a project called The Burden. ‘Dead French Mathematicians’ appeared publicly in 2014, but the planned release was never completed in that form.

Over the following years Lanz established a career as a video-game concept artist, and the demands of that work repeatedly took her to different cities. She began writing Mares Of Thrace material again in 2017 while living in Halifax. Lanz and MacKichan initially planned to record together, but the session was derailed and the long-distance arrangement became increasingly difficult.

Casey Rogers eventually became the second member of the band. He and Lanz already had a long musical history together, having played in the political grindcore band Exit Strategy, and Rogers had recorded early Mares Of Thrace demos before The Moulting. When it appeared that Lanz might abandon the newer material, Rogers offered to play drums and encouraged her to finish it. The two exchanged demos at a distance and later recorded the album during an intensive week in Calgary, with Rogers handling drums, bass, engineering and production.

The resulting album, The Exile, was released by Sonic Unyon on March 25, 2022, almost ten years after The Pilgrimage. Lanz played baritone guitar and sang, while Rogers played drums and bass guitar. Amanda Bourdon contributed additional vocals to ‘Offerings Of Hand And Tongue’. Lanz's lyrics centred on displacement and the experience of repeatedly leaving home, while the physical edition extended the idea through a graphic narrative illustrated by Lanz and written with Jana Sloan van Geest.

The Lanz and Rogers lineup returned Mares Of Thrace to regular live activity. In 2023 the band toured across Canada and the United States, beginning in Calgary and travelling through the Prairies, the American Midwest and East Coast, Quebec and Ontario. Further Canadian and American dates followed in 2024.

In April 2024, Mares Of Thrace released The Interim, a collection that connected the band's two lineups. Its first half featured Lanz and Rogers, including the new composition ‘Parable Of The Archer’, a version of Tarlung's ‘Widow's Bane’ and a heavy reinterpretation of Paula Abdul's ‘Straight Up’. The remaining tracks were the 2013 recordings made by Lanz and MacKichan: ‘Dead French Mathematicians’, ‘The Null Hypothesis’ and ‘The Dismemberment Of St. Augustine’. A limited cassette edition of fifty hand-numbered copies was issued by Coup Sur Coup Records.

Mares Of Thrace then signed with Toronto's Artoffact Records for The Loss, released May 16, 2025. It was the band's fourth full-length album and their first for Artoffact. Built around grief and the experience of losing a parent, its nine pieces move through ideas associated with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's stages of grief while also addressing anticipatory and complicated grief. Lanz dedicated the album to her father, Andrea Ernesto Lanz, and played his classical guitar, handmade by Winnipeg luthier Daryl Perry, on the closing instrumental ‘The Final Stage: Acceptance’.

The Loss continued the Lanz and Rogers lineup, with Lanz on guitar and vocals and Rogers on drums and bass. Matthew Barnhart mastered the album at Chicago Mastering Service. It appeared digitally and on CD and translucent red vinyl through Artoffact Records.

-Robert Williston

Members

Thérèse Lanz: guitar, baritone guitar, vocals, electronics
Stefani MacKichan: drums
Casey Rogers: drums, bass, guitar, vocals

Touring Member

Rae Amitay: drums