Wednesday, August 8, 2012

With Blood Builds Character & BeeFMouTH Videos, Woods V Reviews, And More!!

Wow, it's been a slow streak for news lately, hasn't it? That, and I got a cold that's sapped some of my energy, but there definitely hasn't been a lot of news this week so far, which explains the wait for this new post. We've got stuff today though, including your first glimpse of a new local band, a new video from a late 1990s metal band, some new "W5" reviews, updates to one of our monthly feature series, and a new video from a local guitarist, so read on below for what you need to know!

First up, here's our first video footage of new local hardcore band With Blood Builds Character! The new band formed by members of March Into Regression of course debuted at the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem in Laird on Saturday, and two videos of their set were shot by attendee Tiia Opala-Ollinaho and uploaded to Facebook over the last couple of days, so click here to check them both out! I normally wouldn't share new personal Facebook page-uploaded videos here, but when it's all you have, they're too notable to not share! One video features W.B.B.C.'s current lineup (plus guest drummer Travis St. Amour, who's not staying full time from what I have heard), and the other video features M.I.R. singer/Bear Hunters guitarist Josh Stephney filling in on vocals. Not sure on the exact identity of either song, but the latter sounds familiar. These videos are of solid quality (though the first one is flipped sideways for some reason), and Jeremy does add a unique spin compared to most recent hardcore singers locally, though I've noticed from available photos and videos that their set on Saturday may have taken a more jam session/informal feel like March Into Regression's shows did. Even former M.I.R. bassist Dan Souliere is seen filling in for Tyler St. Amour in some photos I've seen , so it's almost like it was the same band with a different name.

I hope there's more distinction between With Blood Builds Character and March Into Regression in the future (if they are indeed different bands as Travis had said), but either way, W.B.B.C. and M.I.R. both have promise, and hopefully we'll see and hear more from them to come, so stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's a new video from defunct local hardcore punk trio BeeFMouTH! This is of Kevin Campbell & Boyd Rendell's old band playing their song "Tar" at a 1999 jam session, and it was uploaded to Boyd's YouTube channel on July 31st following some post-editing by Boyd's film company 62nd Chamber Productions (who are now in our "Other Local Metal Links" section.) Now, the video has a 62nd Chamber watermark, no letterboxes, a green hue and some more old fashioned effects, and a sound upgrade, and while I don't know if I'd have made it look older, it's a nice look back 13 years! The audio's decent, and though the members all face each other, the video quality isn't bad. "Tar" has that solid mix of high pitched vocals and heaviness again, though this is slower and doomier than some of BeeFMouTH's other available tracks. It's definitely worth checking out, and kudos to Boyd for posting this online for us to check out, so give BeeFMouTH's performance of "Tar" a look below!



Thirdly, here's yet more reviews of Woods of Ypres' powerful final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! In February, "Patrick" from the blog Beards etc. gave an A grade to "Woods V", calling it "a very emotional experience" and an early contender for album of the year (although he admitted being biased), even admitting that parts of the album brought him close to tears. It's great to know that David Gold's music can have that effect on some people, it's a testament to his songwriting skills and influence, and check out Patrick's review at this location! In April, Peter Clegg from the blog We Must Obey gave "W5" a positive review, calling it "phenomenal" and a "fitting epitaph", while emphasizing the finality and "death note" feeling that it gave. Solid review, and well written, so click here to read it! Finally, a writer at the doom metal website Doommantia gave "Woods V" a 7/10 rating in February, recommending the album on it's heavy & emotional lyrics, though docking points for what they saw as "minimalist" and "fairly simple" music. I appreciate the honesty in their comparisons to other doom metal bands and the musical quality, but I'd say David & Joel deserve more credit. Still, great points are raised, so click here for their review, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews as I find them!

Also, here's some assorted updates to our YouTube Channel Profile Series, just to make our entries in that monthly feature series more accurate & current. In our Garden of Bedlam YouTube channel profile, I edited the channel info to note that it's no longer their currently-used YouTube channel (that distinction belongs to the "Videos of Bedlam" channel), along with noting that the former Foggy Notions (a frequent early venue of theirs) is now the new Coch's Corner, and also a minor note on songs from their Rotaryfest 2010 set now being on their "Everything Will Die" CD. Similarly, I edited the profile on guitarist Josh Belleau's YouTube channel to note the abundance of official channels. On the joeybeairl channel profile, I renamed Unleashed drummer Jacob Hotland's current band from Tantrum to their new name Tantrym Tyme, and I also restored the video for Candle Hour's song "Overture" due to it's link changing for one reason or another on their channel's profile. Finally for this batch of updates, I noted that ex-Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie has posted a new video to his YouTube channel in our profile of his channel, and because we haven't featured it here before, let's talk about it right now to close this post!

Posted on July 3rd, this must have got lost in the shuffle of our 5th anniversary posts, but it's of Scott's solo cover of the Periphery song "New Groove" (or, about 90 seconds of it.) It's very well done, but I wish Scott had covered more of the original track, but it's a solid start, and he knows it really well! Very technical, but he can handle it for the most part, so check out Scott's newest video below, and stay tuned for more on both him and our next YouTube Channel Profile updates soon!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this weekend's concert previews either tomorrow or Friday morning! Thanks everyone!

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