Blood Ceremony

About

The artist

Blood Ceremony is a Toronto band formed in 2006 around singer, flutist, and organist Alia O'Brien and guitarist Sean Kennedy. The group developed a distinctive meeting point between doom metal, psychedelic folk, progressive rock, and the textures of late-1960s and early-1970s recording. Its self-titled debut appeared in 2008, followed by Living with the Ancients in 2011 and The Eldritch Dark in 2013. O'Brien's flute and organ give the band's heavy guitar writing an unusual melodic centre, while its lyrics draw from folk horror, occult cinema, pagan history, and supernatural literature. Lord of Misrule arrived in 2016 and widened the palette with ornate pop and pastoral folk elements. After an extended recording interval, The Old Ways Remain returned in 2023 with the current lineup of O'Brien, Kennedy, bassist Lucas Gadke, and drummer Michael Carrillo. Rise Above Records and the band's official Bandcamp continue to identify Blood Ceremony with Toronto. A performance at Toronto's Prepare the Ground festival in May 2026 confirmed ongoing activity. Across six albums, Blood Ceremony has helped define modern occult rock while retaining the exploratory character of a group equally invested in heavy riffs, vintage keyboards, flute-led melody, and carefully researched mythic imagery.