A Bloodshed Nightmare conjures images of blood, guts and gore through their lyrics – and a bit of partying. And with Halloween coming, who doesn’t like celebrating the macabre by rocking out and partying in the most of gory of ways.

Hailing from Siksika Nation, just 30 minutes southeast of Strathmore, Alta., the quintet describes their sound as deathcore with a bit of metalcore and death metal thrown in for good measure as inspired, and counts The Black Dahlia Murder, Suicide Silence and Carnifex as their biggest influences.

A Bloodshed Nightmare are fairly new on the Alberta metal radar, having started as a cover band in the spring of 2008.

“From the beginning, we were called Drop Dead and played as a cover band featuring various artists. The name then changed to Where’s Waldo, just for laughs. Then one day we decided to think of a more serious name and came up with A Bloodshed Nightmare,” guitarist Brandyn Darko explains of the band’s name-game evolution.

By October 2008, the band was armed, not only with a new and headbang-inspiring name, but with an arsenal of original material that grew with every jam session. The change has allowed them to plunder metal shows at home, and across the province, including an opening slot for the goregrind act Cattle Decapitation from San Diego, Calif., who included a stop in Coaldale, Alta. on their tour itinerary last April.

Also helping the band get their name and music out their is the fact that vocalist and founding member Kyle Doore is one of the organizers of the annual Siksika Metal Fest, traditionally held at the Siksika Community Center.

The five piece is rounded out by guitarist Theo Melting Tallow, Kash Bearchief on drums, and David BullBear on bass, and they were recently featured as part of the “Rise of the Stars” music festival for the Siksika Nation Youth Awareness week, which also included Siksika metal acts Scalpel, No More Moments, and The Skins.

“To be honest, the show wasn’t all that great. The sound was terrible, the metal acts were treated poorly, our set was cut down and the power kept cutting out. Other than the free Siksika Nation Youth Awareness Week hoodies, I don’t believe the band got much out of the gig,” Doore admits. “But it’s kind of hard to promote your band in front of an older country music crowd, so I hope the next time we play Siksika we will get a much better response. We also want to move away from the reserve scene and play more city shows.”

Not too long ago, the group faced another hurdle: metal shows were banned from the local community centre, one of the only venues available in the area to have shows.

“Metal shows haven’t been completely banned from the Siksika Community Center,” clarifies Darko. “The ban is just for one of the main local metal promoters. I’m not naming any names, but the last couple of shows the promoter did left the venue with some damages, including vandalism. I guess we are glad that the ban was not imposed for all metal shows.”

Darko continues, “At first it was a disappointment, due to the fact that the frontman of our band puts on the yearly Siksika Metal Fest. But now that everything is worked out, I can see a lot more metal events happening in the near future at Siksika.”

With a place to play and more shows in Calgary and Edmonton in the planning stages, the band is also preparing to record their debut album.

“We are working on more material and hope to enter a studio in the winter,” Doore confirms. “You can expect all-out brutality, a lot of blast beats and breakdowns. We are currently looking for a studio to record.

But their immediate future includes a set at Noctis III Metal Fest, with fellow Alberta metallers Death Toll Rising, Sacred Ally, Akakor, HROM and Fornication.