Monday, August 5, 2024

Where Are The New Albums? (August 2024 Update)

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

Rumoured Songs: "Gemini", "In Bloom", "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon", "Kraken Mara"


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!

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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!

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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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