Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: Bury Your Demons

Apologies for this being a touch late, but it's now time for our first Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile of 2013! Also, it's our first in this series since the fall to be focused on an American band with a former Sault Michigan resident, and this local talent is long overdue for a look in this series! As always, we're looking at said band's biography, media, and local connections today, with some analysis on their sound, so hopefully you guys like this month's profile, and check it out below! (Updated on November 27th, 2014)
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Bury Your Demons (Montgomery, Illinois) 

Lineup: (Saultites in RED; ex-members in italics)

Ryan Blanchard (vocals)
Glen Cooper (guitar)
John Phillip (guitar)
Scott Mills (bass)
Matt Bloomquist (drums)
Jimmy Shaddix (vocals)

Official MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/buryurdemons
Official Facebook page: http://facebook.com/pages/bury-your-demons/194406627279463

Local Info: Despite being based outside of Michigan, Bury Your Demons do feature one former Sault Michigan resident in their lineup, that being bassist Scott Mills! Though public information on his local music work isn't in high supply, he last lived in the area in the 1990s, has friends & family in the area still, and I believe he was in at least one local metal band at one. Now based out of Illinois, Scott has played in bands like Life In Shadow & SkankBlack on various instruments, along with leading the Chicago chapter of The NYDM International Coalition, to go along with his current time in Bury Your Demons!

Band Bio: Bury Your Demons (previously named Ward of the State) were formed in mid-2010 by Jimmy Shaddix & Glen Cooper, who slowly formed their sound and wrote original material through the next year while completing their lineup, finally adding Scott Mills on bass in early 2011. Since then, Bury Your Demons became a popular sight in the Northeastern Illinois metal scene with their death metal sound through early 2012, including a number of headlining and opening sets in the region, along with studio work towards demo CDs in the summer of 2011. After almost a year off, Bury Your Demons returned with a new quintet lineup in February 2013, but have offered no public updates since their most recent Chicago concert in April, and likely broke up that year. There isn't a lot of media of Bury Your Demons online to preview, but their 2011-era material and live videos have a promising death metal sound that I hope they don't stray too far from this year!

Jimmy Shaddix's death growls were clear enough to make out lyrics while still retaining a bruality, though I'd like to see more vocal diversity (maybe some yelling or clean singing?) The instrumentation is also solid, with Glen's riffs coming across heavily and Scott's bass work impressing as well! I also found that their live videos had more of an audible energy than their studio track did, for what that's worth. I'm not sure how different Bury Your Demons' last shows & songs were, but as long as they maintained a similar style and make it better and heavier, we would have been in good hands! Visit their MySpace & Facebook pages linked above for a studio demo & a short live video respectively, and here's Bury Your Demons playing their song "In The Midst Of The Flame" live in Mount Prospect, Illinois circa December 2011 (also check out them playing "Blood of the Testament" that night at this link!)


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next up in this series, we'll be taking a look at Windsor hardcore/punk quartet The Line Drawn, who are the newest band from prolific Sault Ontario native Ash Richtig! Watch out for that on or around February 26th, and stay tuned for more news hopefully tomorrow, including yes, our Destroilet CD review! Thanks everyone!