Saturday, July 16, 2011

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Garden of Bedlam), Plus Lots Of Assorted News!!

The news keeps rolling in, but before I mention that, just a reminder that we will shut down our current poll on Monday and unveil our new monthly poll that same day. It's no secret what the topic will be, if you've followed us over the last couple years, as July is typically for the poll on best concert of the first half of the year, so get speculating! Now to the news, as we have a new song from a local solo artist, some new Woods of Ypres articles, a cool photo series from a local photographer, and lots more, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!

It's finally happening: Garden of Bedlam are playing a Roosevelt Hotel metal night! The high profile local metal quartet will make their first ever appearance at The Rosie on Thursday as the headliners for what should be an awesome night of metal! Believe it or not, this will be Garden of Bedlam's first local show at a venue outside of The Rockstar Bar since they opened for Kiss in August, but a change of scenery is never bad! The co-headliners were originally supposed to be Saskatoon hardcore quintet Harmful Effects, but they can no longer make this concert. I'll note that their MySpace page indicates they're playing a show in Toronto on Thursday, so that could be why. Still, they're a solid band, hopefully they come here in the future! In their place will be The Bear Hunters, once again returning to The Rosie to deliver a brutal set of melodic death metal! Opening will be Winkstinger, the extreme quintet who always deliver an intense and chaotic blast of metal whenever they take the stage, so they'll fit right in on Thursday! As is usual, there will be no cover charge, a 19+ age limit, and a 10:00 PM-ish start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This will be an awesome concert, and I will absolutely be there to rock out and have a great time! Stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's some long overdue Woods of Ypres-related articles I've been waiting to share with you guys! Firstly, an interesting interview with frontman David Gold was posted onto the blog Musical Immigrant on June 26th, where the blog's creator asks David a series of questions on his musical tastes, purchases, and influences! The interview, which is part of a series called "Press Play >", doesn't delve into too much Woods of Ypres discussion (save for his opinions on the band's albums for one question), but it's a cool look into David's diverse musical tastes, so check it out at the above links! The same man who interviewed David there also posted a short article on May 21st detailing his CBC work in Windsor, and how he was instrumental in Woods of Ypres' appearance in this 2003 CBC Television report! Very interesting, give that a look too at this location! Finally, correspondent Kirk Maltais of the Virginia-based Magazine 33 interviewed David via e-mail before their June 9th show in Richmond, Virgina, and you can check out the review at this location as well! Posted on July 1st, the interview features David talking about how the Pain & Piss tour was going, their Earache Records signing, the sounds of "Woods IV", what to expect with "Woods V", the meaning of their name, and much more! Another nice interview, well worded and thought out, definitely check it out (along with the rest) at the above links!

Thirdly today, here's a brand new original song from Sault Ontario solo artist Mike Cliffe! Entitled "Thaule Birth", it's an instrumental rock song that seems to mix a slower classic rock vibe with oriental synthesizer sounds, which is an odd combination, but well played! It gets repetitive after a while, but it's a nice soft number that shows Mike's diverse musical range, even if it's not heavy! If you want heavy, you'll get your fill at his Reverbnation page, where "Thuale Birth" is now featured (check the bottom of his total song list.) He also uploaded the song to his YouTube channel on Monday, accompanied by video footage of a bike ride he took down the local hub trail and some of the recent fireworks from the holiday weekend. Irrelevant, but relaxing, so check out Mike's newest song "Thuale Birth" below, and at the above links!



Fourthly, here's a cool note from a local photographer we haven't featured much on here. I'm talking about the talented Brian Tremblay, who's one of the best known photographers in Sault Ontario. Why mention him here though? Well, aside from some scattered band photography, including a nice shoot with Turner Up's Brent Royer-fronted lineup last year, he did a series called "So You Want To Be A Rock N' Roll Star" last summer, which featured solo photographs of various prominent local musicians! The photos are all in a stylized black & white colour scheme, featuring numerous musicians and band members by themselves with their instruments, and the shots are great! But are there hard rock musicians? Indeed there are! The two albums in the series include (among many others) Full Circle frontwoman KT Antler & drummer Scott McClurg, Late & Loud guitarist Brendan Christie, That's Chester drummer Ric Datson, and former Driver guitarist Joel Poluck (now of Mora Lee Sound), just to name a few. Outstanding work, they (and the rest of the talented artists shot) look great, and hopefully Brian does more work like this with other musicians! Check the above links for much more, including this link to see the photos on Facebook! And yes, Brian's now in our "Other Local Metal Links", he's long overdue!

And finally, here's some assorted shorter stories from the last little while, in alphabetical order by band or site name:
  • Local progressive rock quartet Machines Dream have been added to "The Sinister Stage" TONIGHT at Foggy Notions! They're actually replacing RedD Monkey on the lineup, who were briefly reported as being on the show last night before dropping out. The official poster has been updated to reflect the addition, so go see Frightlight, Greg Callaghan, and Machines Dream TONIGHT at Foggy's, which is just seconds from the Tenaris Second Stage!
  • If you didn't notice, we've resumed using custom banners on The Sault Metal Scene's main page itself! With more room to work with now, it made sense, so I started by adapting Gates of Winter's album "Lux Aeterna" to the banner, while incorporating our current logo in a blended sort of way. Hopefully it looks good! My plan is to update it weekly, so stay tuned, and give me feedback if you have any cool ideas!
  • Sault Michigan metal project Traces (fronted by Swayze Train drummer Tyler Tidwell) have a Facebook page too! It's barely updated, and hasn't been touched since September, but become a fan at this location, cause you never know when Traces could re-emerge!
That's all for today, but I have some big stuff on the horizon, including our "favourite shows of the first half of 2011" poll on Monday, the debut of our YouTube Channel Profile Series on Friday, two concert reviews next week, and the likely reveal of which CD we're reviewing this month, so stay tuned for all of that, plus news as it happens! Thanks everyone!

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