Nathan Mahl are a Canadian progressive rock band with jazz fusion elements formed in Ottawa, Ontario.
The first version was formed when Guy LeBlanc, Donald Prince and Mark Spénard, who had played together in the band Delerium, recruited Dan Lacasse.
During that summer, they entered a band contest and performed in the finals of the Ottawa classic rock radio station Chez-106 (Sharechez '83), apparently blowing the roof off Barrymore's Music Hall.
The 90s began with a new rhythm section: Alain Paluck as drummer, Claude Prince on bass, joining LeBlanc and Boyd (the duelling keys).
This line-up recorded quite a bit of material, culminating in the disc Radio Rehab, which was not released because Guy was apparently not entirely pleased with the final product.
The original Parallel Eccentricities was released on cd in 1997 (and included a comprehensive interactive cdrom supplement) by Mahl Productions, a label founded by Guy and his wife Dawn Mitchell.
However, the strain of recording over eight months in a piecemeal fashion, and the necessity of Guy adding to the barter of session playing for the balance of the studio time, seems to have taken its toll on this line-up.
After a most interesting turn of events later in 1999 (including a solo disc for Guy and his joining Camel][13] in early 2000), the new Millennium saw the release of the band's next opus -Heretik: Volume I - Body of Accusations[14] with a seemingly heavier sound.
The band continued its re-evolution with Heretik: Volume III - the Sentence,[17] first by welcoming Guy "Geezer" Dagenais (whom Dan had met at a jam session) on bass.
Ranger is an old friend of Mahl, and had briefly joined the band in 1983, making it possible for them to tackle some of the juicier prog classic covers they did at the time.
In 2004 production seemed pretty much on schedule; however, Don Prince contacted LeBlanc and quit the band due to other musical commitments, and is replaced by Luc Poulin for about 2 days.
Since the original agreement for this project was that each band member create his own parts for the song (to be different this time), and that the deadline for submission to the label was getting very close, Guy LeBlanc borrowed a bass guitar, taught himself to play it, wrote the bass part and recorded it in 2 weeks time (thereby making the deadline).
In early 2007, with the prospect of playing the Montreal progressive rock festival FMPM,[21]) Guy LeBlanc contacted Alain Bergeron to return on Drums.
Guy Dagenais contacted Tristan Vaillancourt to join on guitar having see him play with his previous band, Widow's Walk.
This should prove to be an interesting choice as David is a seasoned Jazz guitarist, as well as the composer and leader in his own progressive rock band, The Rebel Wheel[27] with whom Alain Bergeron was at one time their drummer.
Also released in 2008 was Mahl’s contribution to the latest mega project by Colossus,[28] based on Dante’s Inferno, and brought to you once again by the Finnish Progressive Rock Society and Musea Records.
2009 saw the return of Nathan Mahl to Progtoberfest, which was held on October 24 at Carleton University and also included Orco Muto featuring Maurizio Guarini keyboardist of the legendary Goblin.
[29] In early 2010, the band line-up changed and production of Justify stalled for over a year as Guy LeBlanc moved from Ottawa to Kemptville.
Once established, he resumed work on Justify, contacting and recruiting Tristan Vaillancourt, David Campbell and original member Don Prince to play on it.
He even recruited drummer Aaron Clark, but due to scheduling and technical problems, wound up playing the drums on the album himself.
[30] After returning to Europe in late 2013 for a short reunion tour with Camel, LeBlanc wrapped up the mix of Justify and was fortunate to have Andy Latimer contribute a guitar solo to the last song on the disc.
The 1997 CD version of this disc was released with an interactive CD-ROM supplement history of Nathan Mahl and contains photos, audio and video archive footage from the original lineup.
In 1991, while no new Nathan Mahl discs were coming to fruition, Guy LeBlanc decided to record and release a series of improvisations performed by a duet of 2 drummers and himself.
Possibly, an overwhelming intrusion on the senses... Song: Nathan Mahl presents a set of compositions that continues their tradition of aggressive symphonic-rock music laced with complex jazz-rock stylings.
And for the first time since 1983, the original lineup of Guy LeBlanc, Mark Spénard, Dan Lacasse and Don Prince are joined by JP Ranger on Vocals.
Much more than a behind-the-scenes look at the making of one album, the book is more generally about creating and recording progressive rock in the present climate and the philosophies underlying the Heretik trilogy.