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“We kind of thought about that: ‘Oh, what if there are (Premier Jason) Kenney supporters at the show?’ ” McIssac says with a laugh.

But it’s not really a concern. While the music and lyrics on Harvesting Our Decay may seem uncompromising, McIssac says he hopes they can also be a gateway to deeper conversations about divisive issues, particularly about the environment. Besides, even if a listener’s politics don’t completely align with the band’s, they can still stay for the thundering, symbiotic riffs produced by McIssac and fellow guitarist Jay Smith and fearfully fast rhythms courtesy of bassist Russ Gauthier and drummer Dustin Hahn.

“We are not preaching, but we’re using free speech to say what we think,” says McIssac. “If you agree, awesome. If you don’t, then maybe you’ll still like the music.”

It helps that all five members of Third Chamber are veteran performers. While Third Chamber formed less than two years ago, it has an impressive bloodline from Alberta’s metal scene.

Hawco still performs in Edmonton grindcore band Culled. Gauthier plays guitar in False Flag. Hahn plays in After Earth. McIssac and Smith most recently played in Calgary’s We Found the Body.

It all makes for a melting pot of sub-genres that nevertheless eventually came to resemble old-school death metal, harkening back to 1990s Swedish staples such as In Flame and At the Gates or Buffalo’s Cannibal Corpse.

But Third Chamber is not a one-off side project, McIssac says. The band has spent the last two years workshopping the songs on Harvest the Decay and have only played a handful of times. Now that the record is out, they are looking to take a more active role in Alberta’s healthy metal scene.

“We’ve already started writing for the next album,” he says. “We’ve got four songs ready for the next album. Hopefully we’ll do an eight-song full-length, an hour of music instead of 21 minutes.”

Third Chamber will hold a CD release party on Dec. 6 at Dickens.