After a slight delay brought on by both personal commitments and the temporary release of an album below, heres is this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This monthly series looks at the current release whereabouts of announced albums from local metal, hard rock, and punk musicians who have publically confirmed that they have hit the studio to record a new album, CD, or EP. While this month's installment is down an entry due to the successful release of HeadFirst's debut EP "Head Trauma", two of the remaining six entries have updates, as noted with the title in italics. So, where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!
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Chase James Wigmore - The Chaotic Rite
Rumoured Songs: "A Song For The Apocalypse", "The Speciesist", "The Cities Alive & It's Angry", "From Beyond The Clouds"
Background: Ever
the prolific artist & songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal
musician Chase Wigmore has been working on an extensive rock opera for years (once claimed to be a 33 part work),
originally named
"A Story
About A Kid Named Todd". Worked on in between his other unrelated solo
albums, released for sale or otherwise, Chase posted a lengthy
elaboration of the rock opera in 2022, now titled "The Chaotic
Rite", outlining its concept, recording plans, and long-term release
timeline. Clips of songs have surfaced on his Facebook page,
as have full songs not explicitly tied to the album, as well as the final artwork. In his most recent promotion, Chase has
hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final
eponymous solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more
than his prolific rate of original material.
Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.
Current Release Status: Your guess is as good as mine for when this will finally come out, but remember that Chase is very prolific and varied in his musical interests, and not every album of his has seen a formal paid release, either by finishing it's lifespan as a demo, or by being released online for free. Regardless, he has been working on the rock opera for years to ensure a quality product, so stay tuned for updates from his camp!
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Convergence - Gemini
Background: Just over a month after releasing their sophomore EP "Dead And Dreaming",
local progressive metal band Convergence announced on
February 9th that EP #3 would be named "Gemini", despite the obvious
twin implications of that name. The cover artwork
for "Gemini" was released at the same time, with the band asking fans
if they should release singles in advance or put it all out at once.
While we have yet to hear full songs of any kind, teaser clips of the title track and "In Bloom" were posted as "Shorts" videos on their YouTube channel in
May, with "Breaking News" getting similarly teased last month. Guitarist Brendan Christie revealed the names of all five songs in
a recent Facebook conversation, one named after the band's prior name
Kraken Mara. New drummer David Peredun (who was confirmed to have joined
the band in late February) will presumably make his studio debut with
Convergence here.
Current Release Status: No clue, and given the complexity of their music yet their independent studio trappings so far, that could bode a quick or lengthy timeline for "Gemini" to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their modern studio cycle commenced last year, things have been relatively steady for Brendan and Jake as a recording act, and here's hoping that Convergence keep that up for their third offering!
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Fort Creek's debut EP
Rumoured Songs: "Hammer Down", "Battlefield"
Background: Background: Local
southern/hard rock band Fort Creek have sporadically teased plans to
record an EP since February 2020, but they wouldn't release any samples until almost two years later when they shared this snippet of their single "Hammer Down" on their Facebook page, later posting this 72 second clip. The guys debuted it at their headlining concert at Soo Blaster
in June 2022, and have played it live regularly since. The band has been
working in studio throughout 2023, revealing that "it's coming along" in a
Facebook post on March 22nd of last year, and teasing new recording sessions following earlier "learning experiences" there in
May. A new original named "Battlefield" was teased in this picture
from studio sessions in September, and they have still been recording as of April. The band parted
ways with bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer Anthony Fabiano last
fall, and it's not clear how involved they will be on it.
Current Release Status: Fort Creek revealed in a comment reply on their Facebook page on April 17th that their originals are "set to be released this fall", which follows their unrealized plans to release an EP in "late summer", then "late 2022", all obviously since passed. There are a lot of unknowns either way, especially given the 3+ years of production time and that this is a band primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit, let alone what their rhythm section leaving could mean. It will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned!
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Handsome Sandwich's first EP
Rumoured Songs: "Without You", "Party Fuel", "Change A Bit", "No Idea", "All Done Now"
Background: Before even releasing
their full-length debut album "Deconstructed" in May 2023, local
alternative/hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich revealed that not all of
their existing originals would be on that album, with plans to instead
release them and some brand new songs on a forthcoming EP. On September
13th, they began recording this EP (which will reportedly have seven
songs) with producer Greig Nori at the Algoma Conservatory of Music,
with bass & drum tracks complete as of September 29th, and then-guitarist Mitch
Sirie was finishing his parts as of December 21st, with vocals still
to go. At least five of the seven songs have had their names revealed in
concert setlists. After only
contributing to the packaging on "Deconstructed", bassist Rafael Medina
will perform on this EP, and a "Reel" of him recording an unidentified song in studio was posted to the band's Facebook page. It's not clear if new guitarist Brandon Ruch will be involved on the EP in some fashion or not.
Current Release Status:
To be determined, and while they're not recording this EP at the same
place as "Deconstructed", note that the sessions for that album at
Unsalted Audio wrapped up four months before the album release. An article about the band from The Sault Star last month noted that the seven new songs "will likely be released as singles", but whether this points to a change of release plans or is just an acknowledgement that they have seven individual singles to put out, I don't know. It will be interesting to see how things progress
in the coming months!
Mike Haggith's "Face To Face" live album
Rumoured Songs:
"MorningStar", "The Best You Never Had", "Into The Setting Sun", "Come
On Home", "I've Seen It Before", "If Ever Comes The Day", "Suburban
Dream" (The Din cover), "Out Of My League" (The Din cover), "Potato
(Should've Known Better)"
Background: In the lead-up to the staging of his joint storytellers "Face To Face" concert with local folk/country musician Brian Tremblay at The Art Hub on Spring on May 26th, 2023, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith announced plans on his Facebook page to release a live album from this event through his indie label MorningStar Records,
including a vinyl pressing. If this comes to fruition, it's not clear
if Brian's half of the concert (he and Mike alternated songs), let alone
the stories, would be included on the final product, which would
necessitate a double album on vinyl. In any event, you can
watch the entire "Face To Face" live-stream at this link.
Current Release Status:
Little has came out about the "Face To Face" live album plans since
first announced, and while that show went off without a hitch for Mike
(unlike Rotaryfest 2023), it understandably wasn't his first musical
priority last summer, with his newest studio album "All The Best In All You Do" being released as planned last July. We'll let you know when/if more comes out on this live album in any form!
Sykotyk Rampage - "137 Page Comic - Read-Along Waerlogas Sagas 1: Konfysion Of Fyck"
Rumoured Songs: Unknown
Background: On May 15th, Bandcamp
followers of local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" veterans Sykotyk
Rampage were notified via e-mail that they released their 70th album on
the platform, then entitled "Waerlogas Sagas Konfysion Of Fyck". The album
artwork can be seen on the e-mail, featuring a minimalist black &
white design behind a man in what could be one of the band's
"environ-mental suits" from prior albums. However, the band quietly took "The
Waerlogas Sagas" down without an official explanation within the next two weeks. The album returned to the platform on August 1st with a lengthened title and tweaked cover artwork (including a red border), but it has since been taken down again, possibly signalling further edits to the included songs. Note that Sykotyk Rampage's
nine albums since 2017 haven't typically been promoted in
advance before being released.
Current Release Status: I previously noted that we don't even know if this album will get re-released, but it briefly was with at least minor edits, and the new title points to a possible concept album that may still be a work in progress depending on what the Beckers, Shane, and Tony have in mind for the absolute final product. Given how fast Sykotyk Rampage normally pump out their albums (improvised in The Cave before mixing at River Front Recreation Studio), we could see album #70 at any time, be it "The Waerlogas Sagas" or something else. Stay tuned for updates!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series will return on or around September 2nd, while this month's Defunct Local Band Profile will likely be next up for monthly feature posts, and it is pencilled in for Saturday. That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
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