Progressive metal band Maitreya played a tenth anniversary show at the Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa on Saturday.
The band released its new single ‘Utopian Plague,’ supported by Vulpecula, Gravearth and Chasing Shadows, bands that brought progressive, alternative and modern metal performances to a high-energy crowd.
Maitreya was started in Whitby, but the band’s home ground is now Oshawa and Toronto, where they have carved out a presence and fan base for themselves in the progressive and experimental metal scene.
Their latest EP is Auxesis (2024), a record that provides a window into the experimental songwriting the band has continued in ‘Utopian Plague.’
The four bands on the bill complemented each other’s sound and presented a snapshot of the progressive scene. Vulpecula kicked it off with a post-hardcore, alternative metal set list.
Vulpecula played tracks off their album, This Is Not Smooth Jazz (2025) and a cover of ‘Change (In the House of Flies),’ a Deftones classic, giving a taste of their influences.
Vulpecula was followed by Gravearth, which performed a heavier set with groove, deathcore and melodic metal elements.
The band has released a four-track EP, Pulse: Soilsphere, in 2025 and a single, ‘Altered Reality,’ in 2026. Lyam Morrison, bassist for Maitreya, also holds down the low end for Gravearth.
With lots of breakdowns, bottom-heavy riffs and a solid rhythm section in both bands, the floor in the almost full house opened up for mosh pits quite a few times before Chasing Shadows took over to keep the momentum going.
“Our most ambitious song yet”
Maitreya’s guitarist and main songwriter Mark Wylie says their latest single ‘Utopian Plague’ grew out of the musical direction they took in Auxesis, calling it “our most ambitious song yet.”
‘Utopian Plague’ is a nine-minute ballad that unfolds in different sections. Influenced by everything from Avenged Sevenfold’s style blending songwriting and storytelling, baroque, folk, classical, electronic and 70s psychedelic elements, the song builds on what the band experimented with in ‘The Traveller’ on their last EP, says Wylie.
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“And that song in particular was really our first attempt at this sort of genre kind of mashup,” he says.
Wylie says Utopian Plague was a chance for them to continue having fun with their music while maintaining their grounding in heavy metal.
“I think the word that rings out for me [is] like, ‘permission,’” Wylie says. “We kind of gave ourselves permission to just like really embrace this sort of bold … just like something that doesn’t really fit in the box.”
Thematically, the song questions the role of technology in the modern world, exploring “how technology begins to integrate with our humanity in different ways.”
This interest goes back to the band’s debut album, Hyper Reels (2017), says Wylie.
“I just like that rub of being like, well, the song title has friction in it between these two [opposing] ideas,” he says.
Wylie says Saturday’s show, sponsored by the Canadian Live Music Association, was the first time they successfully obtained grant funding.
‘Utopian Plague’ is part of a new album in the making. The band played some of their unreleased material at the tenth anniversary show, offering a glimpse of their future direction.
Maitreya recorded two songs over the holiday season and expects to release them at staggered points this year, according to Wylie.