Nathan Mahl are a Québécois symphonic-rock band that released the 1983 album Parallel Eccentricities on Hit! Records. They returned in 1999 with The Clever Use of Shadows, followed by the three-volume Heretik series.
Members: Guy LeBlanc (keyboards, clavinet, organ, guitar, recorder, vocals), Mark Spenard (guitar, vocals, 1981-2006), Daniel Lacasse (drums, 1981-83, 1986-89, 2001-06), Donald Prince (bass, 1981-89, 1998-2004), Wayne Palmer (drums, 1983-84), Garth Boyd (keyboards, 1989), Alain Paluck (drums, 1990), Claude Prince (bass, 1990, 1998-2001), Luc Poulin (bass, 1994-96, 2004), Scott Daughtrey (guitars, 1994-96), Alain Bergeron (drums, percussion, 1994-2000, 2005-present), José Bergeron (guitar, 1998), Guy Dagenais (bass, vocals, 2002-present), Tristan Vaillancourt (guitar, 2007)
Background
Nathan Mahl formed in December 1981 in Ottawa, Ontario, when Delerium partners keyboardist Guy LeBlanc, bassist Donald Prince, and guitarist Mark Spénard recruited drummer Daniel Lacasse. The four musicians settled on Nathan Mahl as the permanent name on an early-1982 excursion through Gatineau National Park.
LeBlanc was born in 1960 in Moncton, New Brunswick, and began formal piano lessons at age four. He left classical piano study at eleven to concentrate on composition and electric instruments. LeBlanc took up drums at twelve and joined a rock band on electric piano and synthesizer at fifteen. An older brother sang lead and played rhythm guitar in the band.
LeBlanc and Prince rehearsed and taped original pieces with Marc Miron around 1978, including “Orgasmik Outburst Part 1” and the Prince composition “La Marche du Géant Vert.” They formed Delerium around the same period and brought Spénard into the lineup. LeBlanc applied the Nathan Mahl name to a studio demo of “Overloaded Overture” in 1981 and hand-delivered the tape to Arista Records in New York.
The quartet developed Nathan Mahl around originals, with LeBlanc as principal composer and additional material from Prince and Lacasse. By late 1982, the group carried nearly twenty pieces in repertoire and selected five for the first LP. Nathan Mahl entered the studio in December to record Parallel Eccentricities.
Discography:
- Parallel Eccentricities (1983)
- The Clever Use of Shadows (1999)
- Heretik Volume I – Body of Accusations (2000)
- Heretik Volume II – The Trial (2001)
- Heretik Volume III – The Sentence (2002)
- Shadows Unbound (2003)
- Exodus (2008)
- Justify (2014)
Artist/Album Pages:
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