Woods Of Ypres/David Gold News, Including Their Last Concert & Much More!!

We haven't done one of these for a while, but with news piling up, now's as good a time as ever to devote a single post to defunct local blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres and their late frontman David Gold! In this post, we have some newly discovered reviews of their last album, updates on the upcoming Woods of Ypres tribute album & the songs to be included, a new interview with one of the band's last members, and leading things off, a very special audio upload from last summer, so here's what you need to know!

An audio recording of Woods of Ypres' last live concert has been posted online! A user on the website Reddit named Nikolai77 recorded the audio from their 45 minute set at Strange Matter in Richmond, Virginia on June 9th, 2011, and uploaded to MediaFire shortly afterwards with permission from David Gold, and with it making the rounds online, I thought it deserved a spotlight on the SMS! In their final concert, Woods of Ypres played (in order) "The Sea of Immeasurable Loss", "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part 1)", "Falling Apart", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", "Wet Leather", and "Awaiting The Inevitable", with "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" as an encore, making that the last song they ever played on stage. If you're curious, there's no foreshadowing to David Gold's death in the on-stage banter, and the "inevitable end" referred to before "Awaiting The Inevitable" was clearly relating to their tour & set that night, so don't read into everything for stuff that isn't there. The audio quality is pretty good, and Woods of Ypres sounded as brutal as they ever did in their doom era, though it'd have been cool to have heard at least one "Woods III" song or "A Meeting Place & Time" at this show.

This is a very important piece of media, especially knowing that this was the last time a live audience saw Woods of Ypres or David Gold live on stage, so I highly recommend downloading this file to check out Woods of Ypres' final concert, which you can do at this location! I hope video footage turns up of it if at all possible, but this will do for now. Extreme kudos to Nikolai77 for the upload!

Also in Woods of Ypres-related news, a new interview/article with final drummer Rae Amitay has been posted online to check out as well! Conducted by Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles journalist Carl Begai and posted on his website on Friday, the article features Rae talking about her brief tenure with Woods of Ypres (which ended before they could announce that she'd joined) and the aftermath and related events in 2012. Rae discussed how she got involved in performing at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario in April, how important it was for guitarist Joel Violette to be a part, thoughts on how that and the Toronto tribute show went, how she joined Woods of Ypres, the rough plans for 2012 had David lived into the new year, her musical past and influences, if she was intimidated playing in a band with another accomplished drummer, her favourite Woods material to play, the end of the band, and her current plans. In terms of new developments, the biggest thing revealed is that Rae has replaced David as the drummer in Joel Violette's black metal project Thrawsunblat, which I figured might happen, and she's a perfect choice to take over knowing how connected to Woods of Ypres she's become in such a short time!

This is another great Woods of Ypres article from Carl Begai, and it's nice to see how much Woods of Ypres can impact it's members, no matter how brief their tenure was! Though I'd love to hear Brendan Hayter's views on everything that's happened since November as well, Rae gave some great insights into the last while as a Woods of Ypres member and fan, and I bet she'd have been a quality addition had she been able to play with them this year! Head to this location for the full article!

Also today, here's more updates on "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres"! The planned David Gold/Woods of Ypres tribute album is still very much in progress with some of the covers finished and sent for inclusion, and a reportedly final track listing has been released to both the album's Facebook group and brand new Facebook page. 21 songs by 21 acts are now confirmed, making this a likely double album, and the confirmed bands include Novembers Doom, Empyrean Plague, Gypsy Chief Goliath, Eclipse Eternal, Pagan Ritual, Panzerfaust, and local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters covering the songs they played at the David Gold tribute concerts, along with Woods alums Joel Violette & Rae Amitay playing "Silver" from "Woods V" (they played that at the local tribute show too), along with numerous other talented bands from many different regions. Notably, Novembers Doom frontman Paul Kuhr will join up with Will Bozarth for a cover of "Finality" under the band name Kuhrzarth, which sounds intriguing! If you're wondering, the track listing is broken down very evenly across Woods of Ypres' discography, with 4 songs each coming from all of their main albums except "Woods IV" (which has 3 represented tracks), while both songs from their "Home" single are also being covered.

Also of note: 9 of the 12 "Woods I-III" tracks being covered were included on the "Independent Nature" compilation album they put out in 2009, so I imagine David would likely approve of the final track listing. This sounds like a great compilation, and I hope this album is a huge hit when it comes out, which apparently may include a CD release party in Toronto, so stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and I've added the tribute album's Facebook page to our "Other Local Metal Links", as it's completely in honour of the music and compositions of a local metal great!

And finally, here's some more reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! On June 20th, DarkNoctus from the metal website Sputnik Music gave "W5" an average rating of 2.5/5, calling it "not bad, not good", though admitting it was much better than it's predecessors, which he didn't like (especially "Woods IV".) I appreciate his candor, but I disagree with his older album views, while liking his views on what improved and what could have lied ahead, so check out this review by clicking here! In a more positive review, "psorbh09" from the blog Ether Load Crunch gave "Woods V" 4 stars out of 5 on April 27th, calling it "an allegory of truths, questions, and living", while praising it's themes and messages, though the lack of criticisms doesn't gel with the rating. Nice review, so check it out at this location! Finally for today, Andy Turner from the metal website Bigger Than Satan gave the album a 4.5/5 rating in a review last month, calling "Woods V" a "fitting memorial to David Gold", while drawing attention to the upbeat yet dark nature of the album and a belief that the album is in tribute to David. Nice high praise (though he credited their last full lineup for this album when Brendan & Rae didn't perform on the CD), so click here to read this new review, and stay tuned for more at some point!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a full news post later tonight! Thanks everyone!

Battle Of The Bands Updates, Fifth Way News, And Much More!!

Our busy stretch of news at the SMS continues today with this stacked news post, so what's on tap? Today, we've got updates on the upcoming battle of the bands, another local band's recent out of town battle success (with a video to show for it), updates on a prominent band with a Saultite's next local gigs, the latest fallout from the David Gold tribute concerts, and leading things off, details on a missing guitar, so here's what you need to know!

This past weekend, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison was the victim of guitar theft during the band's weekend set at The Roosevelt Hotel. The stolen guitar is his Yamaha APX500 guitar that he primarily uses for his acoustic solo concerts, and it was taken from the Roosevelt Hotel's back parking lot over the weekend. A picture and information on this model of guitar can be seen at this location, and you're bound to remember Tym playing this black acoustic guitar at most (if not all) of his recent acoustic solo shows. If you happen to have any information as to its whereabouts, please contact Tym on Facebook at this location or the Roosevelt Hotel at the above link or by phone at (705) 253-1411. I hope that Tym can get his guitar back, as I know that guitars aren't cheap, and that guitar's important for his solo gigs. If you see a black acoustic Yamaha guitar anywhere, let Tym or The Rosie know A.S.A.P., and hopefully this story will have a happy ending!

Next up, here's the latest updates surrounding the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands THIS FRIDAY! Despite what I'd heard previously about replacement bands not being sought, a new band has been added to the battle lineup, bringing the list of bands back up to 10 competing acts. That band is local indie rock trio Cowboys & Indians, who feature notable musicians like The Crossed 's Jordan Flesher, ex-Soldiers of Misfortune bassist Alex White, and former Shore drummer Aaron Dunn in their lineup! Notably, both Jordan and Alex have won local battles with the bands mentioned above (including The Crossed's victory in the last Bon Soo battle in 2007), so do not sleep on them come Friday! They were quietly added to the Facebook event page for the battle recently, though note that new blues rock quartet The Moves are still listed for the battle despite bassist Nathan Bouliane confirming to me last week that they were dropping out. Also of note for this battle: tickets WILL be available at the door, so you can pay the $20 entrance fee at the door on Friday as well! Finally, I'll note that most of our battle of the bands profiles from our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series have been updated to reflect The Moves' withdrawl and Cowboys & Indians' addition (as members of both have been in numerous recent local battles), so check out each profile linked on your right for the updates! Stay tuned for a preview of this battle in the next few days!

Thirdly today, remember how Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way are returning to Sault Michigan next Saturday to open for The Gin Blossoms at Kewadin Casino? Well, they have a lot more on their plate than just that gig, as revealed in an article in The Soo Evening News (Sault Michigan's newspaper) on Sunday! The article features brief quotes from former area resident & guitarist Zak Stelmaszek, and also details the band's sound and local ticket/album availability, along with plans to possibly make their Gin Blossoms set an acoustic gig, and some nicely written info on the band's military connections with their new song "Sacrifice" and new bassist Mike McMann, a corporal in the U.S. Army. However, the article also details some new performances before the big show at The Dreammaker's Theater, including a planned performance the day before on Rock 101 (presumably during "Scott & Brian In The Morning") and a private gig at Lake Superior State University (Zak's alma mater) next Thursday as part of the school's Engineering Alumni Bash. Sounds like they've got a lot of great stuff planned next weekend for their stay in the area, and hopefully everything goes extremely well for Fifth Way next weekend! If updates come in, I'll have them here for sure!

Also in the news, here's some more fallout from the recent David Gold memorial concerts! Final Woods of Ypres drummer Rae Amitay penned a very nice article for Metal Review entitled "Song of Redemption - A Celebration of David Gold" that was posted earlier today, where she outlined her experiences at the memorial concerts, including her set with Woods guitarists Joel Violette & Bryan Belleau at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ste. Marie. She came across as very grateful and moved to have been a part of the tribute weekend, and she gave some very nice press and props to her fellow musicians and the Gold family, so click here for her full article! Also, Gypsy Chief Goliath drummer Sean Hamilton posted two more videos of the Windsor stoner metal band from their set at the Toronto memorial show on April 5th onto his YouTube channel, including performances of their original "Black Samurai" and their Woods of Ypres cover "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)", so click the above links to see the new videos! Like the local videos from this camera, these are on a mounted camera, this time on the stage's right, but they sound fairly muffled. Good stuff though, so check out the new videos at the above links, and stay tuned for more David Gold & Woods of Ypres news shortly!

And finally, while local classic hard rockers Turner Up may no longer be in this weekend's Humane Society Battle of the Bands, most of the members recently had some battle success of their own! 4/5ths of Turner Up, as you may know, play more frequently locally in the local rock cover quintet Havadder, and this past weekend, they made the trip to Spanish, Ontario (almost 3 hours east of the Soo) to compete in a battle of the bands there for cash and opening slots at Spanish's Rock N' Roar Festival on August 18th, where winners would open for Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm, among other acts. I'm glad to say that Havadder were among the winners, and though they didn't take first place, they did place in the top five competing bands (they were the only local band that I know of), earning them $500 and an opening slot at the Rock N' Roar Festival's second night! Congratulations to the guys in Havadder for sure! Now, Havadder generally play a general rock style of music, and don't quite cross the hard rock/metal threshold like Turner Up do, but they do occasionally cover heavier bands, and proof of that is from this video from YouTube user nlabelle78 of their cover of Alice In Chains' "No Excuses"!

Filmed on Saturday at their set at the Four Seasons Waterfront Complex in Spanish, this is a solid cover with some nice vocal harmonies, though the lighting is very band-centric and dark otherwise, and the audio has some muffled patches. Sounds good though, and I'm glad to see Havadder get a huge opportunity like this! Check out their Alice In Chains cover in Spanish below, and keep an eye out for more metal & hard rock performances by bands of other genres as I find them!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results & this month's poll on your absolute favourite local metal concerts of 2011 tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

More New Videos & Fallout From The David Gold Memorial Concerts!!

As promised, we've got even more coverage and fallout from the David Gold memorial concerts this past weekend today, including new videos from both the Sault Ste. Marie and Torotno shows and a review from one of them, so read on below for all of the newest stuff from that very special weekend!

We'll start with new videos from the Ypres Metal Fest at The Canadian Nightclub from this past Saturday, starting with two from YouTube user LauraLeeLouise's channel! Laura was among the lucky few to attend both the local & Toronto tribute shows in Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold's memory, and of her five videos from the two concerts, a couple of them are from Saturday night in the Soo, starting with this one from Woods of Ypres' members Joel Violette & Rae Amitay's set! Though the video is incomplete, Laura shot the last song from the Woods' alumni's set that night, where Rae sung "A Meeting Place & Time" with Joel on the keyboard, and I'm extremely glad that someone filmed this song, even if only the first part! Rae completely surprised me this weekend with her singing ability, and she and Joel definitely turned this black metal epic into a touching ballad with success! Fitting how it ended their set locally too, seeing as it was the last song Woods of Ypres ever played at a local concert last March. I'm stil curious to hear the full performance again, but kudos to Laura for filming this, and check it out below!



The other video that Laura filmed at the Ypres Metal Fest on Saturday was from local metal standouts Garden of Bedlam's set, though not of their Woods of Ypres cover. Instead, she filmed a brief snippet of the end of their original song "Torment" from a side stage angle, and though the band are on form, Laura's camera handles heavier music worse than softer material, and it sounds very staticy. Good video quality though, so check out this new Garden of Bedlam video below, and stay tuned for more from her videos at the end of this post!



The rest of the new videos from the Ypres Metal Fest are from Gypsy Chief Goliath guitarist Sean Hamilton's YouTube channel, and he posted four videos from the Windsor stoner metal band's set this past Saturday! All are from a mounted camera behind the stage to the band's left, and only drummer Adam Saitti is well lit, but these are interesting videos from a unique angle! The videos are of Gypsy Chief Goliath's Woods of Ypres cover "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" and their original songs "Elephant" (preceded by their set opening jam), "The Return", and "St. Coven's Tavern", so click the above links to check them out! These sound good and show off their sludgy metal skills well, though the audio quality isn't perfect, and a tinny washed out sound is sometimes noticeable. Still, these are solid new videos, so check them out at the above links, and because of it's length, check out Gypsy Chief Goliath playing "Elephant" (and jamming prior to it) in the Sault below!



The rest of the news today comes from the David Gold memorial concert/"Woods V" CD release show in Toronto last week, which has seen a lot of videos and photos lately! Laura Wiebe from Exclaim.ca reviewed the Toronto event for an article on Monday which you can read at this location. Concise but well written, and it echoes many of David's own messages, so give it a look at the above links! As for new videos, one comes from the same channel that posted the Woods alumni's "Shards of Love" cover in the Soo yesterday, and it's of Gypsy Chief Goliath playing "Suicide Cargoload" in Toronto, so click here to check it out! Slight audio distortion, but the video quality's nice! Also, YouTube user ImpaledBman got 8 videos from the Toronto show, featuring most of the bands, though Gypsy Chief Goliath, Hallows Die, Empyrean Plague, Sixes & Sevens, and the Bolero members aren't featured. Decent video quality, though there is some blur and shakiness issues. Still, these are solid for extra Toronto videos, so click here to see them! The other new Toronto videos come from the aforementioned Laura Lee Louise's YouTube channel, and they include nice quality videos from Gypsy Chief Goliath & Musk Ox's sets, and also, video of a very special guest's speech that night!

Though video of this is already online via the 77 minute video of all of the Toronto Woods of Ypres covers, I wanted to give it special emphasis now that it's online by itself, as this is David Gold's mom Esther's speech to fans at the Toronto tribute show last week! She got lots of time to talk about her love for her children and how her family is adjusting without David, along with giving thanks to Woods of Ypres supporters & David's friends and the organizers & bands at the memorial concert. She also took time to emphasize that we should all find true love and someone to love, connecting David's beliefs to that sentiment, and you can tell how genuine it was in Esther's voice. She also added hopes to make the Toronto memorial show an annual event (possibly outdoors next year around David's birthday), and you guys should definitely check this video out below! From what I know, Esther's sounds like a great mother and ambassador for her son's music, and kudos to her for her eloquent speech and thoughts! Check out the video below, and much more from Toronto at the above links!



That's all for now, but stay tuned either tonight or early tomorrow for weekend concert previews! Thanks everyone!