The Return Of Pillory, Bear Hunters Album Updates, And Much More!!

Before we begin uploading photos and videos from last night's Fuck The Facts concert (it's been way too long since my last show), here's a new news post for your Monday morning, including long overdue updates to some of our past feature profiles, a new jam session video, album updates from another band, and first, a band reunion, so here's what you should know!

Local thrash/death metal band Pillory are back! After quietly breaking up last summer, frontman Robert Sartini and drummer Bret Shuttleworth have reunited the band and have begun work on new material, so what should you know? Lineup wise, guitarist Josh Amendola and bassist Devon Lucier are not back from their last full incarnation, with Pillory apparently enlisting former Haggith bassist Jordan Leach for the new lineup, as per recent updates to their Facebook page. Intriguing to say the least, I wonder how Jordan will do on material this heavy? No word as of yet though on a new second guitarist. As well, Bret shared a Facebook video of him and Robert jamming a new Pillory song named "Angst of Existence" on Tuesday, and while it's a little rough and still needs vocals & bass, it sounds promising and has a bit more of a death metal feel than their older originals had! Give it a look below, stay tuned for more, and they're back in our active band links!

Next up, here's the latest from local death metal veterans The Bear Hunters, who will open for Evilheart in tonight's Gonqshow finale at The Algonquin Pub! After prior teases on personal accounts, the band shared the complete tracklist for their upcoming second album "The Dead Testament" on their Facebook page on Friday, and though the exact order is to be determined, it will have 10 songs. We've heard most of them live, but I don't believe we've heard "For Glory" or the title track in concert as of this writing. Also, a 2015 re-recording of "Deception" and their black metal parody "The Forest of Forests" will be included as bonus tracks, but whether they'll be on all copies of the CD, select copies, or a digital exclusive is to be established. The band followed the post by saying that they'll soon be ready to record the album locally with Tidal Records (presumably at Mission Control Studios, though it's not clear if they're signing with the label itself or not yet.)

It sounds like things are in good hands, and hopefully "The Dead Testament" will have an even crisper and more professional sound than "Eternal Hibernation" had! Note however that earlier postings said that this album would have 11 songs, but the band may consider "The Forest of Forests" to be the eleventh. Stay tuned for updates on "The Dead Testament" as they come in, and for our review of last night's Fuck The Facts show featuring The Bear Hunters later today!

Also, here's a new-ish video shared by another band from last night's Fuck The Facts show, local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA! In reality, this video was posted on frontman Boyd Rendell's YouTube channel in May, but for one reason or another, it's unlisted there, only coming to our attention after the band shared it on their Facebook page yesterday. It's of AlgomA jamming their original "Fell Down A Well", and it's a solid version of one of their early songs with an excellent tight angle of the guys in action! The Facebook share of the video indicated that they'd likely kick off their set last night with this song, but as this was written before the show, did they stick to their word? Give the video a look below, and stay tuned for more from AlgomA (and Boyd's channel) soon!

Finally for today, here's some beyond overdue updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind profiles (We've slacked on updating any of our monthly feature profiles, so it's time to try and rectify that!) Starting with our profile of 2008's Skid Row Battle of the Bands, I've added a note about March's Speak Easy Battle of the Bands (the first battle to take place at the same venue since 2008), and regarding the section on performers' later bands, I added a band page link for Northwest, updated The Pesto Shirts' name to the current Wild Iris, and replaced Nikkfitt (who no longer feature Scary Uncles alum Andrew MacDonald on bass) with Id Iota, the current band from Free Beer's Christian Lemay and Dustin Goodall. And for our profile of 2008's Case's Music Battle of the Bands, I added updated references to the late Mike Case's hosting of the event, and added a note on Fountain of Betrayal frontman Tyler St. Amour once being listed for this year's VM Radio Battle with Them.

Lastly, I replaced The North Shore, Pillory, and Viva Emptiness in the section for members' later bands with London's The Glass Thieves and Five Oceans (both featuring Caddy Street Avenue alumni), and the aforementioned Them to freshen up the section on performers' later bands, especially as the prior 3 bands are either defunct or don't feature alumni of this battle anymore. I hope to update more posts in this series in the near future, so stay tuned, and look for our Fuck The Facts concert review next! Thanks everyone!