Our Recap Of The Last(?) Episode Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

Today on the SMS, let's finally cover the final(?) episode of the Metal Morpheus radio show on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may know, Metal Morpheus ran for an hour (give or take) on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM from July-December of last year, with host/local metal singer Josh Amendola typically featuring a genre or national scene each week, with at least one metal act with local membership per episode. However, following a heavily revised version of October's all-local episode on December 5th, the series fell into reruns for a month, and no new episodes have been posted on the station website since re-airing the power metal episode on January 9th. I don't know what happened to Metal Morpheus, especially given that Josh was very early into a planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the scenes in various countries, and he was improving as an on-air personality as time went on, so hopefully he isn't 100% done!

The possibility exists that Metal Morpheus is just on an indefinite hiatus, and hopefully we see Josh pick things back up for the series in some form when the time is right! If not, ending with the Soo Metal episode is a good way to go out, even if it was severely altered from what originally aired! I never recapped the October version on the site due to only catching up to it in the timeline after it was taken down. Alas, I do apologize for that, but how would I have known that it'd be deleted and overhauled? Just as a disclaimer, Josh does reference both the SMS and myself in this episode, and while he did ask me for suggestions of local bands to play on air last year and for input on how episodes turned out, I never knew he was going to make an all-local episode. I was as surprised as everyone else! As of this writing, I have never been on The Borderline in any on-air or behind-the-scenes capacity.

As for the revised Soo Metal episode, it runs for just over an hour, and it starts with Josh playing defunct local alternative rock band (and Papa Fogals Chair predecessors) Sulfur's song "Our Glass Universe" (0:05) from their 1997 CD "How Empty I Am". Next, we get a song by old school local hardcore punk band The Big Kahunas with their original studio recording "The Fighting Princess Club" (3:55), before abruptly switching gears to inactive Vancouver grunge trio Denderah with their song "Sweetness" (5:50). I've never heard of Denderah, but their frontman Kwin Cymons is a Saultite, so his band's material clearly found its way to The Borderline's rotation before passing my radar! They're a solid group, give their album a listen at their Bandcamp page! A rare Sault Michigan act hits the episode next via inactive progressive metal project Life's Eclipse's song "Not Dead But Dreaming" (9:05).

Fondly remembered local hardcore punk band Fistmagnet's cover of "Live To Die" (17:15) is next, followed by local/London instrumental prog metal band Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe's song "All Roams Lead To Roads" (20:10) from their self-titled album. Prominent and dearly missed local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam follow with the title track from their full length album "Everything Will Die" (23:15), while the second half of the episode begins with death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' song "Transcend Judgement" (28:20) from 2020's "The Dead Testament", conveniently followed by ex-guitarist Josh Stephney's old hardcore band Bring The Fallen with the title track of their posthumous EP "Stand Before" (34:40). This episode's only live cut is next, courtesy of defunct local metal band Sativa Rose with their lengthy original song "Bellows of the Beast" (39:10).

Juno Award winning local/Toronto blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres come next with their dark ballad "Finality" (48:10) from their final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", before heading back to Sault Michigan for defunct local epic death metal band Integrated System of Machines' song "Road To Valhalla" (52:10) from their 2008 album "Apocalyptic Visions". The episode ends with one more song by Denderah, namely "Natal Lies" (57:35), and no, neither this episode nor the last 100% new one from the previous week left any hints that the series was ending or taking a break. While Josh did leave some gaps regarding band members' full names or back stories (especially with Life's Eclipse given how we've covered them and Werehold Records over the years), this was an entertaining episode and showed how Josh was trying to expand the range of local artists!

Definitely give this and other episodes of Metal Morpheus a listen at the above links, as it is (was?) a good series and helped fill the metal void on The Borderline's scheduled rotation, and if Josh doesn't return to record new episodes, hopefully we hear more from him in some form, let alone more metal, hard rock, or punk-centric programming on the station! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!