LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Skeletonwitch), Woods of Ypres/Juno Awards Fallout, And Late & Loud's "New" EP!!

58 days into our posting streak, we have one more update before TONIGHT'S Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands Finals, so what's on tap? Along with news on a surprisingly sudden CD release and plenty of fallout from Woods of Ypres' Juno win this past weekend, we're leading off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for June that should be really exciting for many readers, so here's what you need to know!

Throw another major concert onto local promoter J.D. Pearce's summer concert schedule, but this one may be the most appealing to die-hard metalheads, as Ohio blackened thrash metal quintet Skeletonwitch will headline a huge concert at The Canadian Nightclub on Monday, June 3rd! This hard touring band (and Ozzfest veterans) are bound to be familiar to many fans of modern day thrash bands, and their Arch Enemy-esque sound should be a welcomed injection of brutality onto the summer concert schedule locally! Opening for them on their upcoming Canadian/Northern U.S. tour is Vancouver psychedelic metal quartet Ancients (not to be confused with the Nashville metal band of the same name), and their blend of detailed progressive instrumentation & thrashy mayhem (and even Mikael Akerfeldt-esque clean vocals) should find a solid audience in their local debut! The other out of town band is Toronto groove/thrash quartet Caym, who have a steady intensity and plenty of aggressive & fast songs in store, so don't miss them either come June 3rd! At least one local opening band remains to be announced, and we'll keep you guys posted when they are revealed!

This concert is ALL AGES, and will be held at The Canadian on June 3rd at 9:00 PM, with tickets costing $12 and door charges costing $15. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome night of metal, and if you've missed a full-on metal show with out of town bands like this, don't take it for granted, and go mosh with Skeletonwitch in just over a month! Stay tuned for ticket availability & local opening band details as they come in!

Next up, here's the latest fallout from Woods of Ypres' posthumous Juno Award win from this past weekend! On Sunday, an article entitled "Audience salutes Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold at Juno Awards" from The Sault Star's Michael Purvis was posted onto their website (and presumably featured in Monday's newspaper), and it outlines the defunct local doom metal band's win in the Best Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year category for "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" on Saturday evening. Featuring brief remarks from late frontman David Gold's mother Esther (in a phone interview from Regina) on her acceptance speech & it's reception from attendees, the article also features quotes from guitarist Joel Violette's on-stage remarks, information on the album and David's sudden passing in 2011, and an acknowledgement of fellow local musician Crystal Shawanda's Juno win this weekend as well. It's a nice & respectful article, so give it a look above & in Monday's paper! Now, the article quotes Joel & Esther's acceptance speeches, but the ceremony wasn't televised, so where can you see it?

An attendee of the Juno Awards filmed the speech and posted it onto Dropbox on Sunday, but it's since been deleted for unknown reasons... but not before I could see it and download a reference copy! In the speeches (which run over 2 minutes long), Joel thanked Earache Records & producer Siegfried Meier, and complimented this honour as a "fantastic note for Woods of Ypres to end on", while Esther Gold's remarks (some of which were transcribed in our post on Sunday) include invocations of lyrics from "Adora Vivos", her belief in orbs in photographs being David's energy, and her belief from teaching that if you say something three times, it is yours (which led to the devil horn-raised chant of David's name three times to close their speech.) As the original video's been deleted, I can't share it with you right now, but I may post the acceptance speech video online at some point in the future. I will say that the video is from a sharp angle near the front rows of tables, and it's hard to make Joel & the Gold family out during the speeches, but I imagine it'd be more powerful & emotional on a better angle.

Also, Woods of Ypres were referenced on air during Sunday's televised Juno Awards on CTV along with the other untelevised award winners, and they were actually the last of Saturday's winners acknowledged. Basically, the voice over announcer read the names of the award, album, and band, and the cover of "Woods V" was shown. It's not much, but it's a lot more than I think many people were expecting when it came out last spring! This is still an incredible honour, and it's quite the cap for Woods of Ypres' run in the Canadian music scene! If there's anything that could approach a Juno win, maybe David or Woods of Ypres will come up as a candidate for the Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame? You never know!

Finally for today, here's the latest news from Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands finalists Late & Loud, who are apparently very close to releasing a "new" EP! According to new postings on their Facebook page (including photos), a CD release named "Heavy Rockin' Hard Metal: Still Hard" is being pressed for a release TONIGHT at The Rockstar Bar during the finals, and it appears to at least be a partial re-recording/expansion of their original EP release from their November 2012 return gig, a'la Destroilet's newest disc. A likely track listing confirms 9 songs (including "Live For Excess" & "Trouble", which weren't on the November release), while a posting by singer/guitarist Jonathan Tiberi confirms that they're mastering 4 songs (which I assume include re-recordings of last year's bonus tracks "Love Letter Lockdown" & "Never Again".) This appears to be the album cover (as replicated from a Facebook photo of the hard copy), and while the picture of the liner notes is grainy, I believe it indicates that songs recorded at The Smoke & Oak Room last year with producer Dave Pihlaja will be included as is.

This reissued EP will be available for $5 TONIGHT during Late & Loud's finals appearance at The Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands, so keep that in mind if you're attending! This is somewhat surprising news given that Late & Loud have already indicated that Jon Tiberi is moving out of town after the battle, and who knows what that means for their status going forward (be it a hiatus, breakup, or member replacement), but if there is a level of finality to their set tonight, at least they're going out with a bang! I hope to buy the EP tomorrow and review it in early May on the site, but above all else, I'm judging them fairly and honestly on their battle set tomorrow, not the bonus of a CD release, so I won't comment on anything else related to the disc until after the battle. That said, will Late & Loud defend last year's Sault Humane Society Battle title TONIGHT, or will The Bear Hunters, Haggith, The Pesto Shirts, or The Suicide Kings claim the top prize instead? Come on down to The Rockstar Bar at 10:00 PM to find out! $10 admission, 19+, and I hope to see you guys there! Thanks everyone!