Sunday, June 30, 2013

Two New Heavier Local Bands, Bring The Fallen Updates, And More!!

In what's probably our last post of the month, we're clearing out more recent backlogged stories, including a new solo performance video, and a posthumous page for one of the more successful death metal bands of recent years (three battle of the bands wins will do that), but first, here's two very different heavier local bands to add to our links (one brand new, and one verified to be heavier), so here's what you need to know!

We'll start with a new addition to our local band links that have been quite popular since their debut last fall, that being local hard rock cover quartet Griphook! Though we covered their debut at Toystock in November, we initially didn't list them on the site due to early indications of their sound being more varied and not hard rock centric, but their Facebook page now credits them as hard rock in full. Also, bassist Dan Beaupre (formerly of Hollow, 100 Gran, and numerous other bands) confirmed in recent Facebook conversations that their set leans heavier than it used to, with covers of everything from AC/DC and Deep Purple to The Stone Temple Pilots and Volbeat in their current live show, and that's a good sign! As you may remember, Griphook's lineup features Dan alongside singer/guitarist Jim O'Leary (formerly of Flat Stanley), ex-Bigsuit guitarist Brian Oja (himself a prolific metal band alum), and ex-Gsis Murphy/Fusion drummer Anthony Fabiano (Dan's former Southern Fried bandmate), and they've made a quick name for themselves locally in the past 6 months!

Playing about one or two concert weekends a month since February, they've played at numerous local venues (mostly at The Roosevelt Hotel from what I can tell), along with an appearance at the Rock N' Roar battle of the bands in Spanish this spring, with their next live date taking place on Saturday, July 20th as one of a select few newcomers to the Rotaryfest main stage at Clergue Park, and more dates are to be announced! This talented quartet have good chemistry and diversity, the chops for heavier songs, and in Brian's case, eerily good AC/DC vocals, so they're definitely welcome to our Sault Ontario band links!

The other new local act is Malignant Neoplasm, a new "cybergrind/gorenoise" project signed to local grind/horror rap label Blood Shed Productions! Little is known on them yet, other than that it's another project led or masterminded by label owner Ringsnaps Gibson (also of Crucify The Whore & Tomgrindy), and their songs are all named after medical conditions and procedures. including "Abdominal Opperations" and "Needle Aspiration Biopsy" (whose individual upload wasn't loading for me.) Also, a "full album" was also uploaded to the Blood Shed YouTube channel in recent days (though I haven't embedded it here due to the potentially disturbing cover, which features human organs.) Musically, this is more or less a techno-influenced and spacey variant of Ringsnaps' existing projects, but maybe with less of a reliance on pig squeal vocals, so if may have a bit of crossover appeal!

That said, Malignant Neoplasm still has a repetitive and minimalistic sound, and it's still somewhat of an acquired taste, but fans of Blood Shed Productions should be right at home! I still think the label's artists should form a full band rather than a pile of similar solo bands, so they can play live dates and sell their demos to a wider audience, but maybe there's a method to the madness. Check out Malignant Neoplasm's song "Abdominal Opperations" below!



Next up, a new posthumous Facebook page has surfaced for defunct local death metal band Bring The Fallen, and there's some new & clarified information there for fans of theirs! Created by singer Josh Stephney last fall, this page features a number of band photos and videos from shows in 2009 & 2010, and the biography information there is much longer than you'd expect, so what's there to note that we didn't know/couldn't source before? The page confirms that they launched as The Undead Warriors in September 2008 (6 months before their live debut), and their original lineup featured guitarist Aaron Gasparetto (who was replaced by Andrew Chiarello after a few weeks) and former Ashoka at the Show drummer Joey Graham (who was actually their drummer at the time of their March 2009 YMCA Battle win, but missed the event due to a sprained wrist.) Josh also credited a lack of funds for why their debut EP was never released, and also blamed their breakup on education & career conflicts. Oddly, there's no allusions to any band activity in late 2010 or 2011 aside from concert photos, making me wonder if they didn't like their last gigs?

With their original Facebook page deleted, and MySpace stripped of most info, this new page is an awesome find for fans of Bring The Fallen, as they achieved a lot and got very big during their run, helping kick off the current wave of local death metal bands! I guess it's safe to say that I've heard the occasional hope from ex-members that they'd play a reunion show at some point, and it'd be great to see B.T.F. back one more time before Josh moves out of town, but I admit that's probably wishful thinking. Become a fan of Bring The Fallen once again at the above links!

Finally for today, here's the newest solo performance video from former Sneaky Pete/Foothill Road guitarist Mario Carlucci! His first clip of him playing guitar since last year, this a cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" that he also sings on (complete with lyrics visible in frame), this was uploaded to his YouTube channel on Thursday. Though not a heavy song in itself, there's an honesty that comes through, and Mario's voice works in it's own way on this well done cover, though it'd be nice to see more of him in frame. Check out Mario's newest video below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes either tonight or tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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