Sentries: Multifaceted Noise Rock

As an umbrella term, “loud music” encompasses myriad meanings and genres, typically including several forms of rock, punk, metal, and industrial music and their respective subgenres. While crossover between styles is not uncommon, it is typical for most musicians to stick to a particular style or sound. However, within the more underground elements of loud music, there is a bend toward fusion and experimentation; a cavalier desire to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Very few bands exemplify this experimental mindset as much as Albertan noise rock band Sentries, whose sole member, 23-year-old Kim Elliot, has crafted some of the most sonically boundary pushing and genre agnostic “loud” music releases in recent years. Following in the tradition of Western Canada’s noise rock greats such as Nomeansno, the Lethbridge, Alberta-based one-man band has quickly garnered notoriety in the underground scene, coming off the release of his second album “Snow As a Metaphor for Death,” for his multifaceted approach to the loud music as a modus operandi. 

Each release is an exploration of a range of genres and styles that could best be described as sonic collage. Feedback and overdrive-laden guitars can contrast with blissful synths; vocals that range from crooning whispers and a talk-sung post-punk-esque baritone to frantic screams and bellowing howls shake the nerves. Carefully sculpted harmonies give way to atonal no-wave symphonies, and propulsive drums effortlessly ebb and flow between time signatures while glitchy electronic rhythms and textures form a metallic bedrock of otherworldly soundscapes. It is common for his songs to act as an auditory obsession for the listener, taking them to strange and exciting places. 

“I feel like my sound is just someone who doesn't know what their sound is,” Elliot says with a smile and a laugh, “but I'm told it works.” His instrumental palette serves as a backdrop to deeply poetic and often highly abstract lyrics revolving around themes that range from introspection to parody. 

“I guess starting off, I was just kind of writing down nonsense because really I'm a musical guy first,” Elliot explains about the development of his lyrical style. “Now that I'm on the other side of that as a musician, I'm like, ‘oh, this is pretty important actually.’” Elliot’s eclectic discography even contains a satire of the crypto currency subculture that was inspired by a run-in with a crypto bro. “I just couldn't take it seriously. It was just so funny to me,” laughs Elliot, “so I just started writing that song, sort of like a Viagra Boys pastiche or something.”

More than a year on from Sentries’ debut live performance at Sled Island, Elliot continues pushing sonic boundaries. His most recent album, Gem of the West, takes the band’s sound in a slightly more melodic direction with nods to ’90s indie rock, folk, post-rock, and lo-fi mixed in with his signature blend of aggressive music. This is best showcased on songs like, “I Saw Someone Die in Sudbury, ON,” which features a folk-style acoustic guitar part throughout. Loosely Influenced by Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, the album explores themes of emotional growth with an almost cinematic approach. 

“I sort of like my album sounding like a movie or feeling like a movie in a way,” Elliot says. “The first track’s kind of like an overture in. The second track is like a long credits track that, you know, sort of recaptures your attention if you had lost it at any point throughout the album.”