The Spill is one of Peterborough’s finest venues for all-ages live music of any genre. Local and touring musicians take the small stage almost every night of the week.

Katie Green, an instructor of the punk music course in the English department and a doctoral candidate in Cultural Studies, observes that “The Spill a good spot for music” specifically because the “venue consistently strives to foster a strong sense of community support for local musicians and artists.”

She continues, “For anyone that has been inside, you can see the importance of local community on the very walls of The Spill itself, from work by Peterborough artists, to the community events board, to the High Tops neon sign that dominates the room.”

Green emphasizes the diversity of musical acts in this space and the range of events, from your afternoon coffee to a heavy metal show.

On Saturday, January 16, metal juggernauts Fuck the Facts (FTF) headlined a show at this community hub. Peterborough’s Knifehammer and Grotesque Organ Defilement (G.O.D.) were the openers.

Riley Hoffman, a local music promoter and guitarist/vocalist of G.O.D., says, “FTF gets better every time I see them. This was my third time booking them in Peterborough and the first at The Spill.

I was amazed at how well it worked in such a small space. Huge thanks to Jon Konecny who volunteered his services on sound, recording all the bands and making the The Spill’s staff more available for bar service and supervision.”

When I arrived at The Spill mid-way through Knifehammer’s set, the venue was already packed with people of all ages. Knifehammer played some rock songs and others bordering on thrash metal. They find their kin with groups such as Nashville Pussy, a band that played Peterborough some months back.

Knifehammer also donned fluorescent costumes and animal-printed underwear that could only be described as some kind of hybrid of ‘80s pop and punk aesthetics. The audience was full of cheers both during and after their songs.

G.O.D. then assaulted the audience with blast beats, blistering guitars, effects-laden vocals, and crushing bass lines. G.O.D. has been opening metal shows in Peterborough for a few years now. They have released records, cassettes, and CDs internationally, and their latest is a split cassette with Ottawa’s The Vanishing Act.

For those familiar with goregrind, an offshoot of grindcore, G.O.D. should not disappoint. They play fast – songs don’t often extend beyond the one-minute mark –, they play loud, and Hoffman’s gurgling vocals do justice to their namesake.

Gatineau’s FTF began as guitarist Topon Das’s solo project in 2000. He added vocalist Mel Monegon in the early 2000s and the two have been cranking out grindcore tunes ever since.

Similar to most metal bands’ M.O., Das and Monegon have gone through a rotating series of drummers, bassists, and sessional musicians, although Mathieu Vilandré has been on drums since about 2006.

They have a number of LPs, EPs, and splits for a host of labels, including the prominent metal label Relapse Records.

I’ve been listening to and watching FTF since 2004. Their performance at The Spill was just as remarkable as those in years past.

The new songs are strictly in the mode of grindcore. Their 2006 album for Relapse [Records] was a bit of a disappointment for me.

It resembled metalcore and tech metal acts of the time, such as Black Dahlia Murder and Through the Eyes of the Dead, or the hybrid death metal/metalcore band The Red Chord.

The Unnamed EP in 2011 was a sign of things to come. FTF is at their best when simply playing fast and noisy – and they did this exceptionally well at the show.

In an interview with Electric City Magazine (Jan. 7, 2016), Das told Gabe Pollock that FTF would be playing mostly new material for their Peterborough stop.

In 2015, the band released a new LP/CD/cassette/digital album entitled Desire Will Rot and a split 10”/CD/digital album with Quebec City’s Fistfuck.

The newer songs I heard at The Spill now split vocal duties between Monegon’s piercing wails and bassist Marc Bourgon’s guttural shouts, more typical of grindcore.

With Das’s riffs and Vilandré’s drumming, FTF continues to be one of Canada’s best metal bands.

Listen to Desire Will Rot at fuckthefacts.bandcamp.com. To read an interview with Das, visit electriccitymagazine.ca.