The name Teitan conjures all sorts of wonderfully dark imagery.

The ancient god Kronos of Greek mythology as he overthrows his father, only to be defeated by his own son, Zeus.

Through mystical numbering systems, the name adds up to 666.

A mythical two-headed beast from the sea whose visible head was Saturn, and whose invisible head was Teitan.

According to Homer, one of ancient Greece’s most famous yet ambiguously known authors, all the gods of hell were called Teitans, while the 8^th century Greek poet Hesiod excuses them as sons of heaven who just had a rough go of it.

Other scholars say that Teitan was in fact Satan himself, and the so-called Teitans were his angels.

“It’s a pretty arcane name,” agrees Bryce Cram. “It’s drawing on an ancient power that hasn’t been tapped for quite some time.”

But that power is now being tapped in Calgary, Alta. And not by Lucifer himself, but the five-piece metal act Teitan, an up-and-coming thrash metal group that just wanna make some music, have a good time doing it, and just hope to hell (no pun intended) that everyone that shows up for their shows has a good time of it too.

Cram has fronted Teitan since shortly after the band first formed in 2007.

“I answered an ad in Alberta Metal. I was jamming with a band called Reverend Kill and it was me and the singer they have now competing against each other. He, obviously, ended up winning that, and the next day I went and met drummer Chris Curtis and the rest of the band at the time [bassist Brett Whittingham and guitarist Devin Purdy] and went from there.”

After few gigs later, the band parted ways with original guitarist and primary songwriter Adam Hartley.

“We had some differences and he left, or we left him or something like that, and then the band broke up. Everyone was going to give up on it,” Cram recalls.

They decided too much work had gone into the name Teitan, especially in terms of promotion, and they didn’t want to lose the momentum. According to Cram, the final show with the original line-up helped bring 350 audience member’s to Vern’s Tavern, one of the largest crowds the venue has drawn.

So the remaining four members rejoined around February 2009, recruited guitarist Jeff Regan and began writing.

“We lucked out. We had a giant warehouse space to use, so we were jamming five or six days a week for six hours at a time. It took about three months, but that hiatus was long enough to write a completely new set,” Cram says enthusiastically.

And now the guys just want to get out and play it for whoever will listen.

Are you still going to be playing some of your older material?

No, because we don’t want to run into any problems. Adam wrote the majority of the material for the first Teitan, so we didn’t want to cause him any problems or us any problems, because he’s a phenomenal musician, we just didn’t see eye-to-eye.

How has the band’s songwriting process changed since the band’s first incarnation?

Since he left, it’s been – everyone writes songs; everyone’s a part of the writing process. Some of the songs are written by the bass player, some of the songs are written by the guitarists, sometimes Chris will come up with beats. And then everyone just adds their own ideas and we go from there. It’s very open now. It’s a completely harmonious union.

You’re finally ready to get back on stage and get this new set out. Where have you played so far?

We’ve only played two shows since we rejoined. We played a garage party for a university kegger, and that was completely insane. And then we played one show at Shuckalucks. We only had about 100 people, but it’s a hard pull because it’s a new venue.

What was Shuckalucks like?

Basically, there’s no stage, you’re on the floor. It has a bigger and higher ceiling than [when it was] Union Jacks. It has a very intimate atmosphere, which is very good. Jerod manages. He was the old manager at Union Jacks and he used to put on lots and lots of shows back in the day at Union Jacks with Caveat and all those bands.

Do you have a favourite venue?

I haven’t played in the new Distillery yet, but I hear it’s supposed to be the most bad ass venue in the city now. The Underground is bad ass too, but we haven’t played there yet. Vern’s was really good for set up.

What makes a good show for you – the crowd, the venue, how well you perform?

It has to do with a lot. The sound system and lights and any extras like fog really make a difference, and definitely the people that show up. We’ve got a fairly loyal crowd of fans that come out and they’re growing, slowly but surely. If those people weren’t there, we wouldn’t be the same band. They’re as much a part of the band as we are.

Speaking of fans, who’s this Pit Lord I hear about?

That’s John Goodacre, the Pit Lord. If there’s 2,000 people there, he’ll be the one nobody can take down to the ground. He’s the one that rules the pit wherever we go. He used to be a football player in college or something like that, and he decided to take those skills to the pit.

What’s weirdest pit you’ve ever encountered?

A lot of our pits will end up in a lot of blood because we usually play on floors, there’s no stage, so everyone’s breaking glasses and everyone’s bleeding everywhere and stuff, but that’s generally normal. The weirdest… it depends. It’s generally just really violent because we play on floors and they’re slippery. I’m lucky I’ve got good balance. I’m a roofer, otherwise I’d be getting fucked up too.

Out of the few shows you have played, which was the most memorable?

Vern’s with Verbal Deception, Illuminated Minerva and Order of Chaos. We had so many people in there it was retarded. It was a few months ago in May, and it was the second biggest show Clint’s had at Vern’s.

Do you have any shows booked in August?

I just got an email for a show between August 6 and 8, but it’s not for sure where it’s going to be yet. We have to do it for one of our friend’s birthday, and another friend is back who hasn’t been back for a year and a half. He went to doctor’s school or something.

So if anyone gets maimed in the pit…

Yeah, exactly.

What are the main two reasons people should keep an eye for you and get down to your next show?

One is to become a part of whatever is happening with us as we’re growing, and the second one would be to get drunk. Every one seems to get wasted at our shows. I don’t know how it happens, but everyone seems to go into a trance and get wasted. It’s good for the bar, and for us too, as long as we don’t get too wasted. We’re actually pretty good at playing wasted. We like to drink beer and we like to rock out.

Anything else we should know?

Just that we’re babies and we’re going to grow up one day. This is our city and we love it here and all the other bands in this city are wicked. Props to all the guys that have been here before and are here now doing what they’re doing. And you know, this whole scene is a baby scene, even though it’s been around forever. I came from Winnipeg where you go out and on any given night there’s three or four metal shows, whereas it’s just starting to get to that point now in this city. It’s all a growing thing and we’re just happy to be a part of what’s growing.

We’re just a few months old, too.

And we’ll all grow together; that’s the key.

Exactly, here’s hoping we can make something crazy happen.

Right on!