Saturday, January 11, 2014

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Self Control & Mike Vincent

After a brief delay due to the recent news slowdown, it's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This monthly feature looks at one or two randomly selected local metal/hard rock bands from the Soo that, though defunct or inactive at present, deserves a look back for current readers and fans! For the fourth time in five months, we're looking at two bands due to the first selected band (from the Sault Michigan area) not having enough surviving information, so I've added a Sault Ontario act to fill things out. Read on below for this month's profiles!
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Self Control

Genre: Hard Rock

Hometown: Pickford, Michigan

Members: (This information is incomplete concerning some member's band roles and full names. If you can fill in any blanks, e-mail me at robertfigures@outlook.com!)

Donny Newell (Full Throttle, Absolute), vocals/guitar
James Kibble, vocals/guitar
Nate Reid, ?????
Jammie Brown, ?????
"Cletis", ?????

Info/Analysis: A short lived hard rock quintet that was active in the Eastern Upper Peninsula in 2010, Self Control launched publically that January. During their brief run, they played at least one live concert and wrote at least two original songs before taking a break partly due to frontman Donny Newell's military commitments. Self Control appeared to quietly dissolve by early the following year, with Donny joining bands like NoXcape and Monkey's Uncle afterwards. I don't know a lot about Self Control or most of their members other music work, but they had promise from their surviving original material, including a mellow & effective ballad named "Regret" and (as embedded below) a hard rocker named "Allowed To Hate". Though the recording quality is poor, the gritty vocals and solid drumming come through on each, and the guitar work is nice, so Self Control probably could have made more local waves had they lasted longer. Check out "Allowed To Hate" below, and hear more at the above links!


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Mike Vincent

Genre: Death/Thrash Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Performers:

Mike Vincent (Chronic Demonic, The Bear Hunters), all instruments

Info/Analysis: A common sight in recent metal bands in Sault Ontario, then-Skull After Betrayl frontman and Bear Hunters rhythm guitarist Mike Vincent launched a solo project in April 2011, through which he planned to record & release original instrumental material through. Curiously naming both of his songs ("Cheese" & "Peanut Butter & Jam Sandwich") after food, future material was planned to also feature unique song titles, but nothing public surfaced for Mike's solo project after that month, and it's presumed to have fell inactive by the end of 2011, though Mike re-emerged as Chronic Demonic's new drummer in 2013. Mike is a multi-talented musician, and it shows on his solo material, though both songs suffer from major repetition, and "Cheese" is especially monotonous in that regard concerning the drum tracks. His guitar work is really good though, and as some of his most recent original music, his songs are worth checking out, including "Peanut Butter & Jam Sandwich" below, but hear more above!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Next month in this series will begin another 1-1-1-1-1 cycle for bands from each of the Twin Saults, and while we'll start with another Sault Ontario act, I've added a Sault Michigan band to next month due to the first not having a lot of public info. With that said, the February 2014 installment will focus on defunct Sault Ontario goregrind trio Tomgrindy and another inactive band from Pickford, the short-lived 2011 hard rock band Beyond The Surface! Watch out for their profiles on or around February 10th, and stay tuned for more news soon! Thanks everyone!

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