Anonymus (band)

History

The five musicians who would become Anonymus, including Marco Calliari, grew up together in Montreal and started the band in high school. In 1992 they independently released the EP The Dream That Lies and the EP Anonymus. Their first album, Ni Vu, Ni Connu, came out independently in 1994. The band signed with the new Montreal label Disques MPV in 1995, which paired them with Overbass for the split Live Crash.

A re-release of Ni Vu, Ni Connu in 1996, sung entirely in French, received excellent reviews, and at the 1996 MIMI awards the band won Best Metal/Rock Group. The 1997 album Stress featured songs in English, Spanish, Italian and French. In 1998 Anonymus played Quebec's Festival Polliwog, and that November toured Mexico with Blind Guardian; they also played the Milwaukee Metalfest in 1998 and 1999 and toured France with Watcha. The 1999 album Instinct was noted as a more mainstream, English-oriented departure aimed at the American metal scene.

Daemonium, released in 2002 by Disques MPV's new division Kafka, received very good reviews but was the band's last release with the label, which went out of business soon after. In 2003 Anonymus collaborated with Quebec satirical singer Serge Robert, known as Mononc' Serge, on the independently released L'Académie du massacre; a second joint album, Musique Barbare, was released by Robert in 2008 and was nominated for Best Metal Album at the 2009 GAMIQ Awards.

The band's fifth studio album, Chapter Chaos Begins, was released by Galy Records in 2006 to mainly positive reviews. Anonymus was nominated for a Canadian Music Week Indie Award for Favorite Metal Artist/Group Or Duo of the Year in 2008. Without a label, the band formed Groupe Anonymus to release their own music, issuing the compilation XX Metal in 2009, followed by État Brute in 2011 and Envers et contre tous in 2015.