Thursday, July 22, 2010

A New Local Band And More Assorted Updates!!

As promised, it's time for some more local metal news and updates that have came up during the weekend when I couldn't update the SMS, or have popped up since it's came back! I still have about one or two more posts left before that material is cleared out though, so let's not waste any time! Let's begin this news and updates post with a new local band! And yes, the new poll's up, VOTE TODAY! Full results from last month's poll and a rundown of the current poll are coming later today!

The new band is Riverin, a new local industrial hard rock project from local musicians Matt Clement and Matt Hicks, who you'll likely best recognize as half of the original Dirty Virgin lineup! You may also recognize both Matts as ex-Silver Dream members, and you might remember Matt Hicks from his work as the drummer in T.H.E.I.D and MY ID too! However, don't expect stuff similar to their past bodies of work with Riverin, this is actually really original compared to other local bands! While Matt and Matt pool their influences into their material, they're also incorporating a lot of other types of music into their songs, including piano tracks, a synthesizer, and even some orchestral pieces! The band have three songs posted on their MySpace page, with Matt Clement on guitars and Matt Hicks on vocals and drums, though they are looking to add members. Definitely original stuff compared to what we usually hear, the songs have sort of a Nine Inch Nails vibe, and they have some nice beats and melodies that have sort of a trance like effect moreso that still manages to be heavy! Vocals take a bit of time to get used to though, they don't immediately work with the tone of the songs. "A Calm Wind" is particularly notable for the effects used and glimpses into what original sounds we could be in for!

Though launched late last year, Riverin took a while to publicly announce anything band-related besides their name, but it's nice to see the Matts moving forward with this project to a point where we all can see & hear! They have promise, and are apparently working on an E.P. for an eventual local release, so that'll be worth checking out! See what you think, click here to visit their MySpace page, or check out their (under construction) Facebook group!

Next up, we have more Woods of Ypres updates! I told you I had more coming, and here they are! Firstly, the fourth installment of bassist Shane Madden's tour diary on Decibel Magazine's website was posted online on Monday, detailing the band's tour dates from Austin, Texas through New York City! Another good, well written read, detailing the shows they played as they entered the latter half of their American concert stretch! Read it to check out discussions of a guy reportedly "pissed" at the band in Austin, the Soviet Cold War-themed venue they played, why they couldn't get drunk in and around their Georgia concert, the positive vibes of their Philadelphia concert and the van break-in in New York, and much more! Another really good read, click here to check it out, and stay tuned for the final installment detailing their remaining Northeastern and Canadian shows! Also on the Woods of Ypres docket, Natalie Zed of Hellbound.ca posted a review of Woods of Ypres' Toronto concert at this location, and she gives a lot of deserved focus to the opening bands, where many reviews I've seen don't tend to. She almost spends as much time talking about past Woods of Ypres experiences and tour history as she does the actual show, but her review is well written and detailed in discussing how they performed, and they brought it by her account! Click here to read her review! Stay tuned for more Woods of Ypres updates as they come in!

And now, we come to some updates from local hard rockers Browbeat, who have a couple of new developments to share that came up over the weekend! For one, the band have announced the return of original bassist Tiffany Emmerson! Great to see her back, she was a good element to the band way back, though it doesn't look like a Chris Smith return is in the works, so it won't be a complete reunion, but a new drummer has apparently been chosen, but hasn't been announced yet. I'll keep you posted on that development! Also, the band have launched an official YouTube channel as well! Presumably the work of frontman Dutch Vanderploeg, it currently features two videos, one of which a slideshow video for their song "Narrow Mind" featuring the band's brief lineup that featured Rich Moreland and Sean See in the photos. Very good song, but the video I'm embedding here is a live performance clip from the band's last show, at their only show under the Social Play name in January, which is a cover of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction", as filmed by Shelly McKie! Shaky camera work, but good quality, and it's a great performance, though the vocals sound kinda off. Check it out below, and more from Browbeat at the above links!



Finally today, here's some overdue updates from Sault Ontario guitar standout Brendan Christie! Brendan's been busy in recent months working on songs for his upcoming debut solo album, and has been making some nice edits to his MySpace page recently as well! There haven't been any brand new songs posted there, but check out what he has on there, cause his guitar work is VERY impressive! His blog on MySpace has also been a good source of updates for his solo project, but according to his newest post on July 11th, he's finally getting a band going! It's called Herityk, and he said that their MySpace page will be up soon! Great to hear, I've always thought since I found him online that he'd be an excellent addition to a metal band, I'll keep you posted on any Herityk developments! And finally for updates on Brendan, he posted a new video onto his YouTube channel on July 6th! It's a live demo performance of the solo on his original song "Epitaph For A Dying World", and it sound great, he's shredding some awesome notes and melodies, even if we only get 36 seconds of video! I wonder how the full song will sound? Check out the video below, and more from Brendan at the above links!



That's all for now, but stay tuned later tonight where we FINALLY go over the results of last month's poll and discuss this month's poll! The poll is launched, so VOTE TODAY!!! Stay tuned for lots of poll-related goodness, and updates on that Subsistance show, later tonight!

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