Priestess

Priestess formed in Montreal, Quebec, in 2002, when singer and guitarist Mikey Heppner set out to start a new project after his previous punk outfit, The Dropouts, dissolved as three of its members left to relocate to New York and form the Stills. Left on his own, Heppner formed a new band in the form of Priestess. He recruited guitarist and vocalist Dan Watchorn, bassist Mike Dyball, and drummer Vince Nudo to round out the lineup, and the four musicians shifted toward a heavier, riff-driven stoner rock sound that drew heavily on the swagger of vintage hard rock. Priestess were considered a key band in the early millennial retro rock movement, drawing frequent comparisons to classic rock idols such as Black Sabbath and AC/DC, along with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. The band's breakthrough arrived with its 2005 debut album, Hello Master, recorded with Gus van Go serving as producer and initially released on October 18, 2005, by Indica Records in Canada, with later releases in other regions. The record's reach expanded significantly after RCA Records picked it up, and a major-label recording contract with RCA followed in January 2006. Hello Master's biggest moment came through its standout single, as the album is best known for spawning the hit "Lay Down," which was included in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, elevating the band's profile drastically. That success led to touring opportunities on a much bigger stage, and in support of the album the group toured extensively in North America and Europe with many popular acts, including Megadeth, the Sword, and Black Label Society. The band's career arc took a turbulent turn with its follow-up. Priestess decamped to Los Angeles to record with producer David Schiffman, crafting an album that leaned into progressive rock influences applied to their songwriting, with a lyrical focus on themes considered more unusual for rock music, such as film and television characters. RCA balked at the results, and RCA disliked Prior to the Fire, fearing its progressive rock-influenced sound would not be marketable, and the band subsequently left the label, with the album's release delayed until 2009 in Canada on Indica, followed by an international 2010 release on independent label Tee Pee Records. The group continued writing and performing afterward, but by September 2012, Heppner explained via the band's Facebook page that the group lacked confidence in the material being recorded for a third album and elected to let things happen naturally, and from the fall of 2012 onward Priestess went on hiatus. Priestess has remained inactive as a recording and touring act since that hiatus began, with its members moving on to other creative pursuits, from film and television scoring to other musical projects, while the band's two studio albums have continued to find new listeners within the stoner and hard rock revival scenes it helped define. Even without new material, Priestess is still regarded as one of the sturdier names to emerge from Montreal's 2000s rock underground, remembered for fusing unabashed classic rock worship with its own melodic identity, and for a run of shows that carried the band from small Canadian clubs to international stages alongside some of hard rock's biggest names.

Priestess passed through the lens of this archive during that very era of momentum, when Wayne Dennon photographed the band live in concert in 2007, capturing them at the height of the Hello Master touring cycle. That single night behind the camera left the archive with 22 photographs of the band, images that visitors have returned to view 16,469 times since. As a small but well loved corner of Wayne's larger body of concert photography, these shots stand as a lasting document of a band that, for one era, brought Montreal's retro rock revival to stages far beyond its hometown.