We'll start with local solo artist Mike Haggith, who announced on his Facebook page on Thursday that he has postponed the release of his next album "Suspended Animation" due to the music lacking a certain "drive". He also announced that the album's track listing will be greatly altered to remove songs that aren't up to his standards, and to add new ones. What this will mean for some of the instrumental takes posted on his Reverbnation page isn't known yet, but stay tuned for updates on the new release info! With that said, Mike has uploaded three full songs from "Suspended Animation" with vocals onto Reverbnation, those being "Sun Perfume", "The Institution", and a new addition to the setlist, "Trinity". I won't go into heavy detail with my opinions on them, as I still hope to review this album down the road, but I will say that the vocals complete each track! Of course, there's a lot of Mike Haggith solo material that's came out recently too if you're getting anxious, and it's now supplanted by the addition of his "Live At The Outback" album onto his ReverbNation store!It features only three of the announced tracks, with "Tuning" unavailable. Odd, but really, would you count guitar tuning as a "song"? The three posted tracks from the album go for 99¢ each, or $3.25 as a whole, with ringtones going for $2.49. If you wanna buy Mike's first ever solo live album, click here! Video uploads of two of the live tracks can be checked out at this location as well! I'm still leaning towards a review of "Laps In A Lake Of Fire" over "Live At The Outback" if I do review a Mike Haggith album next month, unless the "Suspended Animation" delay isn't that long. Time will tell though, as there many announced local metal albums that we're waiting for, so I couldn't guess what we'll review next at all! Stay tuned though, and check out the above links for all of the newest Mike Haggith solo material, as there's a lot of songs worth your time!
Next up, here are the latest news items from Woods of Ypres, now back in action following frontman David Gold's return to Canada! On Thursday, he announced a rough timeline of upcoming band events on Woods of Ypres' Facebook page, starting with writing, rehearsals, and DVD editing in January and February! That's all good to hear, especially the unexpected news about a DVD! That'll be interesting, I wonder what we'll get in that? Then, it's mentioned that "Woods IV: The Green Album" will be reissued worldwide through their new label Earache Records, with a warm-up Canadian tour planned as well. David mentioned the Earache reissue news on his Governor's Ball interview, and it's nice to see the album get wider press! Looks like "Woods V" will be pushed back as a result, but it'll be worth it when it comes out! And as for the warm-up Canadian tour? Fingers crossed they play a show here! David also added that the band hope to write and rehearse more in April, followed by the beginning of full time touring "everywhere" in May. Awesome news, hopefully this plan sticks without delay! One more quick Woods of Ypres note: Their first merchandise item on Earache Records' store is now on sale! It's a $5 Woods of Ypres patch, pick it up today at this location! Stay tuned for more Woods of Ypres news as I hear it!
Thirdly today, here's the latest news from local hardcore quintet As It Stands! Firstly, if you've been wondering why we haven't heard anything lately concerning their show tomorrow at The Speak Easy, here's why. The band deleted the Facebook event page, alluding to a likely cancellation for the show. That's a shame, it'd have been fun! They have been keeping busy booking some Southern Ontario shows for next month though, including a new show in Ottawa on January 29th with hardcore band After the Vendetta, and more news on their January 28th concert in Windsor with The Voodoo Mafia. It's amazing how quickly they've been able to secure out of town shows after their return, that's a very good sign! They also announced that their original material (presumably their two newest originals) are now on rotation at Energy Rock Radio, which is awesome! It'd be nice to hear their original EP on there too (If you have a copy or the songs from it, let me know!) Get full details on the above stories at their official Facebook page! The future's looking very bright for As It Stands, I'll keep you posted with more news as I hear it! And of course, make sure to see them on Tuesday at the Soo Music Mash-Up show at The Oddfellows Hall!
Fourthly, three local metal bands have launched brand new Facebook pages! One is the new Facebook page for local hard rockers Stillbroke, which is (more or less) their first updated news or information on an official band page in quite a long time. The new page is pretty sparse at present, but it does confirm the band's current lineup (including new bassist Mitch Sirie), so it's worth becoming a fan of to stay in the loop! Speaking of bands featuring Mitch Sirie, his death metal band The Bear Hunters also have a new official Facebook page as well! It includes the band's lineup, a logo, and lots of amusing anti-bear statements! Good stuff so far, remember to check them out on New Years Eve, once I find out more info! And the final new Facebook page is courtesy of new local death metal quartet State of Misery! Nice to see a page from them that anyone can join and become a fan of! It confirms their lineup and also includes influences, an "odd" biography statement, and mentions that page updates and news are coming "soon". Good to hear! I'm a fan of all three pages, and if you guys want to keep updated, I'd say you all should too!
And finally, just some news on three link deletions from the SMS. I deleted two bands from our listings, those being defunct local solo project Recognition and Sin Stereo, who are now better known as Stiffler's Mom. I left them on the SMS following the shutdown of their only internet pages on GarageBand because it looked like they were on iLike with their songs posted there. On recent link checking, I found that their iLike "pages" were neither official nor featured any real audio or band material. It's nice to see iLike add them to their server, but they're certainly not real band pages, so I finally deleted them from our listings. I also edited both bands' entries in our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series (linked above) to reflect the reality of their internet page situation, with media links on both now taking you to my YouTube uploads of the songs on the SMS' YouTube channel. The other deletion was for the old website for Hempfest, which has long since changed owners and isn't directly run by people connected with Planetary Pride anymore, as the old site was hosted through there. So there's the deletions, in case you guys were wondering where certain links went!That's all for now, but stay tuned TONIGHT for my previews of concerts taking place through Wednesday, and just for reference sake, I plan to attend ALL FOUR shows that we're previewing tonight! Stay tuned!
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