Nobis to play Orono before national tour

After nearly five years together, the Bangor-based metal band Nobis was almost ready to call it quits last winter. Half a year had gone by and they hadn’t found a replacement for their drummer, who left over the summer. They hadn’t recorded anything since 2004’s “A Blurred Sense of the Divine,” and after being voted the Best Metal/Hardcore Act in the 2005 Portland Phoenix Best New Music Poll, the normally hardworking four-piece hadn’t played a show in months. The band formerly known as Melee was just about at the end of its rope.

“Last year was a bust,” admitted manager, promoter, booking agent, and unofficial fifth member Jason Cyr. “Things just weren’t working out.”

But then, as things tend to do, everything changed.

“I’d been a big fan of Nobis for a while, and I’d seen them live quite a bit,” said Matt Sommers, the drummer who eventually joined the band. “When I heard they still hadn’t found a drummer, I got in touch with them. We did five or six practices, and then they told me I got the job.”

Sommers played bass in Opium Poet, a late-’90s alternative band from the Bangor area, but since that band folded he hadn’t played with anyone.

“I love it so far,” said the 27-year-old Sommers. “It’s a second chance for me, because I played in bands from age 14 ’til I was 22, and then stopped. Now I’m doing it again, playing the style that I love to play.”

Then everything started to fall into place: Cyr’s label, Xact Records, inked a national distribution deal with California-based Corporate Punishment Records, putting its entire artist roster – including Nobis – into music stores across the country. “A Blurred Sense” was rereleased last April to strong showings on college radio Loud Rock charts.

And guitarist John McLaughlin, formerly of the now-defunct Bangor-based Donnybrook, joined the band shortly after Sommers did, adding another layer of intensity to an already heavy sound provided by guitarist Josh Torry, bassist Tom Small and vocalist Tim Sereyko.

Now, with the band’s first-ever national tour due to start in a few short weeks, and a one-off show lined up for tonight at Ushuaia in Orono, those days just eight months ago when things were looking mighty down must seem light-years away now.

“This year has been crazy,” said Cyr. “I’ve gotten more done in the past six months than I have in six years, when I started Xact. The further you get along, the more things fall into place. Once you start getting the elements together, everything seems easier to attain.”

For a heavy metal band that maintains a steady regimen of a minimum of four practices a week, refining the balance between pure aural assault and melodic elements is an almost daily process.

“We’re a brutally heavy band,” said Sommers. “But in metal nowadays you have to have some kind of melody. I think the real trick is being able to be extremely heavy, but still be more than just seeing who can scream the loudest. Our priority is still to have it be the heaviest we can make it, but it makes it more interesting if there’s more to it than just that.”

The band is known as a “musician’s” band – Cyr attributes their win in the Phoenix New Music Poll to the fact that other musicians respect them a great deal.

“Other musicians, not necessarily metal ones, know us as talented, dedicated musicians,” said Cyr. “It’s very complimentary. Through that kind of buzz you can build a lot of word of mouth, which is how we’ve been able to do what we do.”

Nobis will kick off its six-week tour on Sept. 8, with a show in Jacksonville, Fla. It’ll take them throughout the South, Midwest and Northeast, ending with a homecoming show on Oct. 21.

“This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done, personally,” said Sommers. “You never know how it’ll be ’til you get out on the road, but having this opportunity is a really big deal.”

Nobis will play tonight at Ushuaia in Orono, along with local acts Mower, Downsoul and Divine Ruin, and headliners Dog Fashion Disco. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at Bull Moose Music; doors open at 8 p.m. For information, visit www.myspace.com/nobis. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.