Tuesday, September 1, 2015

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Soo Zombie Walk) & Integrated System Of Machines Updates!!

A new month is upon us, and before we know it, a new season will be too, so let's kick off September 2015 in style with a new news post on this Tuesday morning devoted to two topics: A major recent concert set by a returning local band, and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

The band lineup has been announced for next month's seventh annual Soo Zombie Walk, so what should you know for this year? Returning to The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre for a third straight year on Saturday, October 24th, the musical entertainment will once again rock out there prior to the walk itself, but things are now both later and condensed, with pre-walk activities taking place from 4:00-6:00 PM rather than 2:00-5:00 PM. The lineup will be familiar from last year though, with listed performers including local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage headlining in their fifth straight Zombie Walk set, so look for more zombified originals from these crash favourites in their third show of the year! Sudbury unplugged hard rock band Aggressive Acoustic (fronted by ex-Sykotyk Rampage bassist Brian Cattapan) are listed as co-headlining, which is a bit of a surprise given that the band apparently parted ways in December, as per their Facebook page.

Have they reformed, will this be a solo performance by Brian, or is there an error? We'll let you know if we hear anything, but it'd be nice to see Brian back home again! Two local solo musicians will open things, including Northwest guitarist Greg Callaghan (in his third straight Zombie Walk set) and ex-Phlashback/Kick Start guitarist Terry Becker (brother of Sykotyk Rampage's Paul & Dirk Becker), which is awesome to see, especially given his recent health battles, so don't bypass his set! Other pre-walk activities will include zombie face painting, a photo booth, games & contests, local vendors and merchants, and more, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details on what to expect before the walk! Zombies will take to the streets for the walk at 6:00 PM, with prizes and the closing ceremony at 7:00 PM. Also, the 19+ afterparty will return to Coch's Corner after spending last year at Wacky Wings, but given the post-2012 shift of the main musical entertainment to the pre-show, don't expect much for live bands there beyond possible acoustic acts, though we did get a few there in 2013.

Admission is $3 + a canned food donation for attendees, while kids are FREE with a canned good, and check the above links for more details! It's great to see the Zombie Walk back, and at a slightly later time (and still on the week prior to Halloween) to boot, though local metal and punk fans may find themselves pulling double duty given that night's Ripcordz concert just down the road at The Algonquin Pub. Keep this fun annual family event in mind for your Halloween season plans, especially if you love Sykotyk Rampage and related bands, and stay tuned for updates!

We'll close today with some excellent new footage of the recently reunited Integrated System of Machines from their return show at July's P.O.D. concert at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! Filmed by Wayne Kozeyah at W.K. Media and uploaded to his YouTube channel on Thursday, this follows earlier rough cut samples from the show that he uploaded, but none were labelled as being of the local epic metal quintet, hence why we didn't know about them at the time. Apparently the first time that Wayne and/or W.K. Media have been on hand to film a full concert set like this, three camera angles captured the show, including a drum-cam (possibly a GoPro) on Bart Rennels, giving a unique first person view to much of it! In order, the performed songs include "Screams", "Patterns", "Stays The Same", "I.S.O.M.", "The Writer", "Last Time", "Prison Farm", and a short song whose title isn't given. Long time fans should know that "Patterns", "The Writer", "Prison Farm", and the closer were not on their prior CD "Apocalyptic Vision", so give those an extra look!

Now, you may notice that frontman Orb Hearthstone indicated during between-song banter that they had a CD (and t-shirts) on sale during this show, and the songs they played during their set were on the album in order, so it looks like the current lineup re-recorded four songs from "Apocalyptic Vision", but as you can tell from this video, there are two major differences. Obviously, there's no keyboardist anymore (Craig Harrison didn't return and wasn't replaced for the reunion), and Orb's growling is far less utilized than in their original incarnation, which fans will notice when comparing the old studio versions of these songs ("I.S.O.M." aside, which didn't have growling originally.) I have no idea yet whether this CD is a fully packaged and pressed release, or just a loose demo like Elipzis and Half a Man distributed at concerts, but I would be very curious to hear these songs in studio form!

In any event, copies would likely be available at future concerts when announced, though no word on if Grooves Music would have stock of it. Of course, if the band had new online pages to plug their shows and recordings, that'd be an obvious plus, but no word on if a new online presence is imminent. The video itself is excellent, albeit without as many camera angle switches as it could have used, and the new I.S.O.M. lineup sounds great! Solid work all around, so give WK Media's full I.S.O.M. concert video a look below, and stay tuned for more from the guys when announced!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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