LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dead And Divine), Some New Videos, And More!!

The posting marathon continues, but really, I have to so I can focus on major assignments and tests this week, as it's basically my last week of class for the semester. Today, we have newly discovered videos from Mike Cliffe and a major 2007 concert, and new songs from a local metal project, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!! (EDITED: 5:10 PM)

Burlington hardcore band Dead & Divine are coming back to Sault Ontario! The prominent extreme quartet will make their first local stop since (I think) 2008 when they headline an ALL AGES show at The Oddfellows Hall on April 29th! Sorta short notice given the headliner's prominence, but it will be a great show no matter what! Dead & Divine's profile has grown immensely in the past few years, and they should deliver their best local show ever on the 29th! Three opening bands are confirmed for this show, including local hardcore quintet As It Stands (who also opened for Dead & Divine in their 2007 & 2008 local shows), melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters, and fellow death metal rockers State of Misery, who should all fit in well at this concert! Tickets are $10 in advance of this show, and you an acquire them by contacting members of the local opening bands starting tomorrow. If you want to buy them at the door, the price jumps to $12. This is ALL AGES, it all starts at 7:00 PM, and Crank Sound Distribution will be on hand to ensure everything sounds great! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Sounds like a fun night of hardcore and metal, in what should surely have an old school feel in terms of all ages Oddfellows shows! For a bit of a preview of what to expect, check out former Paraside guitarist Greg Sacco's video of Dead & Divine playing "San Dimas" at their show here in 2007, and stay tuned for updates on this show as they come in!

Next up, Sault Michigan classical metal project Theatre of Night (featuring 3/4ths of End of Existence) have uploaded three new songs onto their pages! One, entitled "Ulfgar's Last Stand", is a keyboard driven classical tune that has a catchy dreamlike quality, but can get repetitive. It doesn't feature the Giles brothers on guitar or drums, but it's worth a listen! Another new song is entitled "Beautiful Vampyress", and it's a slower but darker sounding classical piece that suits it's title. Well performed, especially if you appreciate classical stuff! The other new track is "Ragnarok Rising", which has a "marching" quality and has the fullest sound of the three new songs, with some orchestral touches that again help the song suit the title! Solid stuff, Craig Harrison's a great classical songwriter, but if you're expecting songs closer in line with the Christmas songs, you may want to wait for the next new tracks, as these are just of Craig solo. Check out their Reverbnation page for most of their posted material, but be sure to head to their MySpace page to check out "Mary's Epic" as well, which is still only posted there! Also, for reference sake, I have officially purchased Theatre of Night's "Christmas Night" album, so barring a new album deluge at Christmas time, I think you can now assume what our December CD review will likely be. Stay tuned!

We'll close today with some new videos, and first, here's a surprising late find from a major 2007 concert! YouTube user ccs62111 (the uploader of three videos from Thursday's Cinderella concert) has two other SMS-relevant videos on their channel, both from Kiss' outdoor concert at Kewadin Casino on July 20th, 2007! I haven't tended to post a lot of videos and stuff from that show on the SMS blog/site because most videos and reports from that had long since been posted and uploaded before we launched this site, but these video were only just uploaded in April 2009, so we might as well mention them! One is actually a soundcheck from the concert, where Free's "All Right Now" is covered to test the sound at the outdoor stage, which is interesting in itself! The user didn't expect to share it and stressed that it was low quality, but give it a look at this location! The other video is embedded below, and it's from Kiss's set of the band playing "Calling Dr. Love"! The audio quality's fairly decent, but the video is choppy and doesn't move forward very smoothly. Good stuff though, Kiss do sound about as good as you'd expect, and it's nice to see footage from older shows making it to YouTube even years after! Check the above links for more, and here's Kiss from the 2007 Kewadin show!



And finally, here's local solo artist Mike Cliffe's latest song/video! Entitled "Goth-O-Funk", you can stream it on his Reverbnation page, but it's also on his YouTube channel with an accompanying video! The video footage is mostly video of the sights when driving, including clips of (I assume) Mike driving across the Mackinac Bridge and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, though one video segment is of an unidentified house. The song itself is a slow rocker that starts of in a darker deliberate tone before picking up with a bit faster and heavier groove. Not a bad little song, and it has some nice atmospheric touches, but if you crave ruthless aggression, look elsewhere. Check the above looks for more from Mike's solo priject, and here's "Goth-O-Funk"!



That's all for now, but I will try to get a Woods of Ypres centric post in later tonight! Thanks everyone!