YouTube Channel Profile Series: panzertera's Channel & Orb Hearthstone

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, where we again shine the spotlight on YouTube channels whose content is at least 50% devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts, all randomly selected as usual! This month's installment is of two channels, as the first only had three audio uploads, so a second channel that I could source two distinct videos from was added to fill things out. Here's what you should know in this all E.U.P. installment, of which the same musician coincidentally factors in both channels!

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panzertera's Channel (http://youtube.com/panzertera)

Owner: A member of defunct Sault Michigan metal band Great Bodily Harm (exact identity unclear)

Channel Timeline: Launched on October 15th, 2009; Videos uploaded in March & April 2011

Channel Summary: This is the de facto official YouTube channel for the short-lived Great Bodily Harm, who you may remember seeing at a couple of local gigs in early-mid 2011 (including that year's Lemmafest). Their only extant online footprint of note is panzertera's channel, which features audio demos of their songs "You Don't Even Know", "Cuntrol" (sic), and their most popular track, "Jaw Breaker". G.B.H. featured vocalist Kirk Labadie (ex-Hammerspace), guitarist Doug Reed (ex-Half A Man), and future Power Slug bandmates Chris Leask (ex-Highway 63) and Bob Helsten (ex-I.S.O.M.) on bass and drums respectively. It's a shame that extreme metal bands from Sault Michigan never have a long shelf life, as Great Bodily Harm's very Pro-Pain-esque take on groove metal was very much welcomed 12 years ago, and these songs are all entertainingly heavy with some hardcore touches, but follow members' other bands to see what else they've done in the E.U.P. before and since 2011!

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Orb Hearthstone (http://youtube.com/orb609)

Owner: Prolific local metal musician Bob Helsten, a.k.a. Orb Hearthstone, who you may recognize as a vocalist with bands like Integrated System of Machines, End of Existence, and Mugwort, and as a drummer in bands like Clownsack, Power Slug, and Great Bodily Harm, among others

Channel Timeline: Launched on November 25th, 2006; Videos uploaded from April 2012-December 2019

Channel Summary: A personal use channel, Bob has posted six videos here in the past eleven years, including a gag video of a horse-style laugh, while the other five has his own original solo metal music. In the four latter cases, he uses the songs to soundtrack video game footage that he captured, though not always naming the game (the newest one was Teiravon).

Why You Should Watch: While the channel has nothing from Bob's prior local band work, this will be worth checking out for fans of his metal vocals, as the solo material on offer is reminiscent of I.S.O.M. and End of Existence in style and approach! Odd that he would post most of his new original songs this way though, just as soundtrack fodder for gameplay footage, and not always titled with the song's name (let alone that "Dirty Dingos" was only posted as an excerpt), but gamers may feel differently!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Destination: Credited under his I.S.O.M. stage name, Bob's first upload and only song with no video game ties is "Destination", which reminds me of I.S.O.M.'s more melodic material with him not singing in a harsh/extreme style, but adding grit where needed. The song bounces along in a style not unlike something you'd hear out of Sweden, but the thin production is a drawback compared to his band work. Good stuff for fans of his vocals!

I'm not as Eco as I used to be: The most popular video here that isn't of horse laughing, this song is set to video footage from the PC MMORPG game Entropia Universe, and features guest bass from "Refuge MirrorBlack Denied" (no clue who that is). "I'm Not As Eco As I Used To Be" is more of a straight-forward metal song that has a good lively energy and less of the European influence heard elsewhere. Nice change of pace that shows that Bob (a.k.a. "Opeth of Blackwater") can just rock out without going extreme, and Entropia fans seem to like how he edited the gameplay footage too!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around July 27th for another two profile installment, as the first randomly selected channel only had two videos from two different events, so I added a single band channel to fill things out with. We're staying in Sault Michigan with YouTube user 2010abstract's channel (featuring two videos of the future Tantrym Tyme) before heading back to Ontario to look at ander101's channel (featuring three performance videos from ex-Bring The Fallen guitarist Andrew Chiarello). Look for those then, and for more news and notes on the site toon! Thanks everyone!

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 2)

As promised, here's the second half of our look at the Friday the 13th song uploads by Eckerman, Michigan label/studio Werehold Records from their roster of local bands and artists! As uploaded to their YouTube channel on Friday, we already mentioned the posted material from Life's Eclipse, East Branch, The 1,000,000,000s Who Died, and Palaver, but four more songs by four more local metal-relevant acts remain to share on here (and there's vocals to hear on most!) For the sake of fairness, we'll go in alphabetical order by band/artist name for the remaining videos. Read on below for all you need to know, and check out the first half of our look at the Friday the 13th uploads at this location, and check out the post below this one for the latest David Gold/Woods of Ypres stories!

We'll start with a new song from the Eckerman/Strongs metal quartet Moss, in what amounts to their first new song posting since the deletion of their old PureVolume page! The recently reactivated band featuring the Mills brothers of Life's Eclipse fame made this original song tentatively named "Call Me Nothing" for the Friday uploads, and though it's not complete (it's an instrumental demo), it has promise as a hard rock number! It's a bit slower paced and not as blistering as some of the new Werehold songs, but I like it's sound well enough, and hopefully a complete version makes it online at some point! Check out Moss' new song "Call Me Nothing" below, and the next three tracks have vocals, I promise!



Next up, one of the new songs on Friday came from veteran local musician Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten! The former I.S.O.M. singer and ex-Clownsack/Elipzis drummer has been quiet on the local scene since leaving End of Existence in February, and while his solo project's MySpace page hasn't seen a recent update, this song is credited to him alone, so it's good to see him still doing music, and allied with Werehold Records! That said, this song is actually a solo rendition of an earlier End of Existence song named "12.21.12" from their debut album that came out in February (yes, the review's coming soon), and with this being written by Orb, a solo cover does make sense! The backing music sounds very simplistic and artificial compared to the End of Existence version of this track, which alludes to the Mayan apocalypse theories on December 21st, but Orb's singing voice is on brutal form from what I'm used to, and hopefully we hear more from his solo work soon! Check out Orb's new solo version of "12.21.12" below!



Our second last song from the Werehold Records Friday the 13th spree is a short new song from Strongs metal trio Swampghas (featuring members of other Werehold bands), and it's a solid metal number named "Struggle"! Presumably to be on their debut album "The Raco Tower Incident" (whose pretty cool album cover was posted onto their Facebook page yesterday), this is a dirty and straight forward metal track with some nice aggressive singing, and it lives up to their earlier posted originals well! I'm curious to hear more from Swampghas, but if you're in for some quick and heavy aggression, give "Struggle" a listen below, and stay tuned for more from Swampghas as it comes in!



Finally, this is a song called "Minion" by a newer local metal act named Wearwithal. This band features the aforementioned Bob Helsten on vocals & drums, along with Swampghas/ex-Half A Man drummer Doug Reed (also of Drayton Fever) on guitar, but fans may recognize the two musicians as former bandmates in the short lived local metal band Great Bodily Harm! When shared on Werehold's Facebook page, Wearwithal were described as "the half of Great Bodily Harm that decided to continue on" (ex-GBH members Kirk Labadie & Chris Leask are not a part of Wearwithal), but it's good to see Bob & Doug still making music together! "Minion" keeps on the same groove metal path as Great Bodily Harm's originals did, though maybe with less of a hardcore influence, and the vocals flow really well with the very heavy riffing! Solid first track from Wearwithal, and hopefully we hear more from them soon, so check out their song "Minion" below!



I hope you guys enjoyed the songs and postings from Werehold Records' Friday the 13th blitz of new material! I needed two posts to do the wide array of bands' and songs justice, and hopefully these acts are gaining some more fans and attention as a result! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news, last month's poll results & this month's new poll, and much more shortly! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The DGB), A Concert Preview, The End Of Sense Of Truth, And More!!

Let's keep the news coming on this Monday morning, as I've got a lot of stuff to get to today! While there's some disappointing news involving a prominent local band's breakup, we also have some assorted news relating to band statuses, a preview for a show taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, and leading things off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this week, so here's what you need to know!

Here's a short notice announcement for a touring rock band's stop in Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday, as Toronto hard rock trio The DGB are stopping in town! Influenced by grunge & stoner hard rock bands, this will be a special acoustic concert at Feedback on Wednesday night, in what's a last minute stop on their return from a cross-Canada tour, so we're getting a unique look at this talented Southern Ontario outfit! If you like stoner rock or early 1990s alternative hard rock, The DGB will be right up your alley, and with it being an acoustic set, there's no chance that the police will be called on them, so that's a plus! No opening bands have been announced, and I'll of course let you guys know if any are named before Wednesday. There is no cover charge, you must be 19 to attend, and a 9:00 PM start time is listed. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an interesting concert, and hopefully a good crowd turns out despite the late notice & mid-week setting! The DGB are talented and have that grungy sound I like, so hopefully they have a great show on Wednesday night! For a preview, here's The DGB playing "Insert Your City" at a Halifax acoustic gig, but check the above links to hear more of their unplugged and electric material!



Now, while we're in the concert previewing mood, there's also a show with some metal representation taking place at The Roosevelt Hotel TOMORROW NIGHT, so here's what you need to know! It's primarily a punk concert, to be headlined by Toronto pop punk trio The Unbelievers, and they've got an entertaining & energetic style of female-charged punk rock, so they're definitely worth seeing! However, metalheads might also be interested to note that one of the opening bands is classic metal quintet Sativa Rose, who are finally returning to the stage after a four month hiatus tomorrow night! This will be their first concert since adding singer Marisa Valois to their lineup this summer, and how will she sound in her live debut? Well, there's only one way to find out, by going to The Rosie tomorrow! The other opening bands will include the debuting T. Rex Manning (the new band from Frightlight's J.D. Pearce & Skull Fist concert booker Tiffany Stocco) and frequently seen local punk trio Redundant, so there's a lot of metal potential on the undercard of this concert! Admission will be just $3 (which is more than worth it), it is a 19+ show, and doors open at 10:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Sounds like a stacked night of hard hitting music, so if you love punk (and metal), head to The Rosie tomorrow night if you can! How will Sativa Rose's new lineup sound? What do T. Rex Manning play exactly? All will be answered at what should be a great show tomorrow night, and kudos to J.D. for bringing The Unbelievers here after they shared the stage with Frightlight in Toronto last month! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Sativa Rose playing their original song "Fall From Grace" earlier this year!



Now, here's some disappointing news, as noted local hard rockers Sense of Truth have broken up. An official statement has not been made by the band, but band members confirmed on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group over the weekend that Sense of Truth split up a few months ago. A reason hasn't been announced for their breakup, but I'll note that they haven't played live since May of last year, and a proper update hasn't came onto their Facebook group in almost 8 months, so things haven't been looking up for a while. That said, members Cory Murchison & Ron Baxter are forming a new local hard rock band, and you can get more details on the Musicians Wanted group linked above if you're interested in joining on bass or drums. This surprising news comes after a successful 3+ year run for Sense of Truth, who memorably launched in April 2008 by winning the Skid Row Battle of the Bands, and later opened for notable groups like Econoline Crush, State of Shock, and Ultraviolence, made the finals of the Kiss Battle of the Bands in 2009, and headlined the re-opening of Foggy Notions that year. Though Sense of Truth recorded songs towards a self-titled EP in February of last year, a formal release for it never came, and it's looking unlikely now that we'll ever see it come out.

It's a real shame to know that Sense of Truth have ended, as they were one of the most prominent & fastest rising local hard rock bands of the late 2000s. I know that personal commitments and such slowed band activity a lot over the past year & a half, but I'm not alone in saying that I hoped things would clear up and Sense of Truth would return to the stage at some point. If I hear anything more on the next steps of the members or their breakup, I'll be sure to let you guys know, but best of luck to Cory, Steve, Ron, Curtis, and Ryan in their future musical endeavours, and if you're interested in trying out for Cory & Ron's new band, click here!

And finally for today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, all relating to band statuses, and as always, they're in alphabetical order by band or musician name:

• Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti is apparently looking to start a new melodic metal band influenced by everyone from All That Remains to Iron Maiden, and is looking for musicians for the project. No, I don't think he left Sativa Rose, this appears to be a separate band. If you're interested, click here and scroll to his post on November 23rd!
  
• Sault Michigan metal quartet Great Bodily Harm have also broken up. The reason is due to personal issues involving a band member, but without an official statement, I won't elaborate, and with no official band pages, public word might not come. Disappointing news, but I heard that most of the members are forming a similar new band, so keep an eye out for updates!
• Skull After Betrayl frontman Mike Vincent is also looking for musicians towards a local metal project, specifically a drummer who can double kick and a singer with screaming ability. Whether this is related to Skull After Betrayl or not, I don't know, but if you're interested in trying out for this band, click here and find Mike's post from November 21st!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our review of Theatre of Night's "Christmas Night" album on Wednesday, and more news over the coming week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Bear Hunters), Rotaryfest Fallout, And Our First Taste Of Great Bodily Harm!!

It's time to dive into the old news desk with a packed post today, including Rotaryfest fallout (particularly the metal & hard rock aspects), and our first glimpses at a new local metal band! However, we'll lead off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!

All ages concerts have been popping up very rapidly in recent weeks, from July's metal-driven Titan's Eve and Sanktuary shows to next month's Alcoholic White Trash-headlined concert. Well, add another one to the schedule, as another all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall is now official for August 12th! One metal band is confirmed for the show so far, that being melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters, marking their third all ages show of the summer. Awesome to see them back at The Oddfellows Hall, they'll tear it up! The rest of the lineup so far is a mixed bag of styles, but there's a lot of great stuff to be had, including the reunion of Smeltzer as the headliners! Yes, the popular alt-punk trio last featuring RedD Monkey frontman Steve Mozarowski, bassist Paul Stanghetta (of The Fury), and former RedD Monkey/Gates of Winter drummer Kevin Overton will reunite for presumably one night only on August 12th, which should be awesome! No word if this exact lineup will be back, but fans should be excited for their return, as Smeltzer were a popular and loyally followed local band in their mid-2000s heyday! Conveniently, RedD Monkey will also play this concert as the co-headliners (no word on a possible Fury return yet, though it seems like an ideal time for one), and local indie rockers The Tenagens have also been confirmed as openers. More bands are to be announced, so I'll let you know when announcements are made!

This show will have a $5 cover charge, a 7:00 PM start time, and as said above, this is an ALL AGES event! For all current and future details, visit the official Facebook event page! I used to really enjoy Smeltzer back in the day, so their return alone is worth hitting, but with the potential for a huge amount of bands (including The Bear Hunters), this show will likely get even better over the next few weeks! As more updates come in, I'll have them here!

Next up, do you remember the Sault Michigan metal band Great Bodily Harm? They're the newer local supergroup featuring former Hammerspace singer Kirk Labadie, Swampghas drummer Doug Reed on guitar, River Witch bassist Chris Leask, and End of Existence frontman Bob Helsten on drums. You may remember them as the openers for a Half A Man concert in April, followed by a slot at LemmaFest last month, but without a visible internet page or media, we couldn't say too much about them. Well, now we can, as three original demos from Great Bodily Harm are now on YouTube, thanks to YouTube user panzertera (who is likely a band member, though I can't prove which one.) These songs were actually uploaded in March & April, but without a local credit to the videos, I wouldn't have found them, so thanks to Doug's Swampghas bandmate Jason Mills for verifying that with me! So the three posted Great Bodily Harm songs are called "You Don't Even Know", "Jaw Breaker", and the intentionally misspelled "Cuntrol", and their sound is quite promising! Think of it as a mix between 1990s groove metal and hardcore, similar sounding to bands like Pro-Pain. Kirk's singing is much heavier than his Hammerspace work, and Doug's riffs are crushing! I'm eager to hear more from Great Bodily Harm, hopefully they finally start an internet page of some kind!

I'll embed "Jaw Breaker" here, but all the songs are very heavy and worth checking out, so visit the above links for your first online tastes of Great Bodily Harm! As I hear more, I'll let you know, but here's one of their first original songs, "Jaw Breaker"!



Finally for today, here's some fallout from this year's Rotaryfest stages, seeing as our annual summer festival is now in the books for another year! Firstly, local news site Local2 was on hand to film The Stage at Clergue Park, where they got video footage of almost every band from all three nights of music! Only Fusion was left out, to my knowledge, I wonder why? Lots of solid (though unembeddable) video footage was taken by Local2's Mike Caruso, though his camera made many objects have squiggly lines in fast motion. Click here to see Thursday's "Blues In The Park" bands, but if you're looking for hard rock, the video from Friday will have you covered, as it has some footage of local classic hard rockers That's Chester covering Deep Purple's "Highway Star" from Friday's lineup! It's not full (cutting off before the 3 minute mark), but the quality's great and the band are in top form! Click here for to see most of Friday's bands, and That's Chester's segment starts at 6:22 into the video. As for last night's Rotaryfest main stage lineup, there's a video for that too, which you can view at this location, and it gives us our first video glimpse at local classic hard rockers Full Circle! Sadly, they only get barely a minute of screen time, but I can tell you a few things, including that the video is from their cover of the song "Alone" by Heart!

I don't have a huge glimpse of Full Circle here to accurately compare them to the last Turner Up lineup I saw live (the Krista Marshall fronted lineup from earlier this year), but KT Antler has some real pipes on her, and Kyle McKey shows some good energy on guitar! Hopefully we get some longer video soon, but this is better than nothing! Check the above links to give the Saturday main stage lineup a look, and Full Circle's portion begins at around 13:20 of that video. Other local news sites didn't devote large coverage to the main stage, but the Tenaris Second Stage has lots of stuff to share! No metal bands played on the outdoor stage on Queen Street East this year, but SooToday's massive photo album and some more Local2 videos (viewable here) will give you some very nice glimpses into the Second Stage, where local metal alumni like Glen Thomas & Chris Smith (Wishbone), Joel Poluck (Mora Lee Sound), and Alex White (Cowboys & Indians) rocked out to a large audience! Also of note: Sativa Rose guitarist Andrew Angelic played with Cowboys & Indians on Friday as their temporary live guitarist, and you can see him in the photos and video footage as well! Looks like this year's Rotaryfest stages were big successes, so check out all of the above links for all the Rotaryfest musical fallout, and I'll have more if it emerges!

That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for the final results of last month's poll and the debut of our new poll, where you can pick your favourite concerts of the first half of 2011! Stay tuned, thanks everyone!

Concert Lineup Updates For The Next Two Weeks, Including Lemmafest!!

Hey guys, I'm back with some more local metal news, and the topic of today's post is concert lineups! We have new bands and lineup news for a bunch of upcoming concerts, so let's get straight to that, going in chronological order, starting with TOMORROW'S 21st Roosevelt Hotel metal night! The Bear Hunters are in fact playing tomorrow night in their record 10th appearance at a Thursday night Rosie metal show! Dismembertainment confirmed the addition on their Facebook page earlier today, in what is also just the second all-local Rosie metal night with 4 bands. This confirms The Bear Hunters' earlier Facebook postings that they'd be playing tomorrow, though they weren't initially confirmed for the show when announced. Sounds good to me, this show should be awesome! Check the above links for more details on this show (also featuring Shit Liver, Winkstinger, and Bring The Misery), and stay tuned tomorrow for our preview of this show!

Next, we transition to LemmaFest at Dondee Lanes on Saturday, which is the first annual music festival in honour of the late Michael Lemma. Firstly, to the band changes, as local metal band Hammerspace have apparently dropped out of their planned 3:00 PM set. I haven't heard why, but note that their Facebook page hasn't been updated in a month, and they were recently coming off of a short breakup when they were initially announced for LemmaFest. Hopefully they haven't re-broken up, they're too promising to go away! Replacing them at 3:00 is Minus Everyone, a Petoskey-based solo project from musician Kenneth Harris, who plays solid rock music on guitar and bass accompanied by backing tracks. It's better than it may sound, he has talent, and he should leave a good impression on Saturday afternoon! The rest of the changes are all to performance order, so here's what we know. Local acoustic duo Fallen Heroes were moved from 8:00 PM to 1:00 PM (a previously vacant slot), and as such, night-capping acoustic bands 2PumpChump & Electric Motor Fish were bumped back an hour to 8:00 & 9:00 PM respectively. However, a recent update on the LemmaFest page indicated that local metal supergroup Great Bodily Harm are now playing at 8:00 PM instead, though whether 2PumpChump will replace them at 2:00 PM isn't currently known.

The rest of the night's bands (The Hixx, River Witch, Scofflaw, Bucksaw, and Infathom) are still on for their original set times, so click here for all current lineup details! Other notes: Great Bodily Harm are gonna cover some Pro-Pain songs (that's awesome), folding chairs are recommended for attendees (it is outdoors), and it is an all ages event for sure as well! Also, make sure you're at the Dondee at noon sharp if you want official LemmaFest t-shirts! And apologies for missing this, but the organizer of LemmaFest was apparently interviewed on Rock 101 on Monday, I hope it went well! The more press, the better! Stay tuned for updates over the next few days!

Next up, here's some more details on a concert taking place THIS SATURDAY in Sault Ontario! As you may remember, Kitchener hard rockers The Saigon Hookers are coming back to The Rockstar Bar once again on Saturday night, and if you missed their last local show in March, then definitely come on out! Details appear to be mostly the same as the March show though, which is good news if you missed them then, and that even includes the openers, as local punk supergroup Brad Example & The Role Models will indeed be back supporting at this show! This band, led by Brad "Example" Lacell of Inner City Surfers & Room 206 fame, featured longtime bandmate Dave Bahun, Lion Ride's Marco Pedalino, and veteran local drummer Phil Greco in their lineup in March, but according to their new MySpace page, "the cast of characters is always changing". Will we see a different lineup on Saturday? Time will tell! I imagine this show will have a 19+ age limit, 10:00 PM start time, and $5 cover, similar to their last show, but some new Saigon Hookers songs and older classics may find their way into the setlist! I'll absolutely be there, and hopefully you guys will be there too! For more details, check the Facebook event page, and stay tuned for more in our concert preview post tomorrow!

And finally, we come to lineup news for July 2nd's return of Lion Ride to Sault Ontario! Convenient, isn't it? Some more details have been released for this show, which is part of a short "Summer Kick-Off Tour" starting on June 30th in Peterborough and ending at The Rockstar Bar next Saturday for their first local show in almost three months! The band launched a general event page for the three shows at this location, featuring a short comical "interview" with frequently asked questions about the tour, band, and shows. Nice sense of humour! A second event page was launched by The Rockstar Bar's Hayley Warnock, which confirms a 10:30 PM start time and the second band on the bill, that being local folk/roots duo The Boot Hill Crooners, featuring the Jaaskelainen brothers (of Wild Turkeys fame.) Another interesting choice to open the show, but it's clear that with Lion Ride, they pick openers based on talent and friendship, not the best musical match, which is cool in itself! I should note that The Rockstar Bar's event page lists The Boot Hill Crooners first, not Lion Ride, but I can't see them being the headliners, given Lion Ride's prominence. Sounds like a great time, stay tuned for updates as they come in, and check the above links for more on this show!

That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for weekend concert previews, and we have more news to come from Rotaryfest, Half A Man, and more very soon, so stay tuned for all of that! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Lemmafest & The Darwin Project) And Much More!!

The news keeps coming today, and hopefully the rain's not getting you guys down at all! In this post, we have news on an upcoming concert, a new local band's lineup additions, some updates to one of our monthly series, and to start, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, including one rather SHORT NOTICE one! Also check our post below this one from this morning for FIVE new shows that should get your attention! Now, to this post, so here's what you need to know!

I REALLY apologize for having this concert so late, I only just heard about it within the hour. Cheboygan hard rockers The Darwin Project are playing a concert TONIGHT in Rudyard, which is just outside Sault Michigan! Unlike their usual shows there at Joe's Bar, this show will be at Dan's Place, another Rudyard bar which is 18794 South Tilson Road. You may recognize it as a frequent stop for defunct local hard rockers Absolute, if that's any help for a reference. This show was officially announced in a Facebook event page on May 4th, but it somehow slipped me by completely, and I'm only just mentioning it tonight. Again, I'm really sorry! So the show tonight will have The Darwin Project taking the stage at around 9:30 PM, there's no announced cover charge, and you must be 21 to attend. Check the above links for more details! This should be a fun concert, hopefully it goes over well! The Darwin Project have a lot of entertaining hard rock songs that appeal to a diverse crowd, and hopefully a good crowd turns out! For a video preview, here's The Darwin Project playing their song "Disco Rockstar" in Traverse City in January!



The other new concert today is now official as a "metal" show, and it's LemmaFest at Dondee Lanes on June 25th! In case you forgot, this is the first annual festival in honour of the late Michael Lemma, a well-liked Dondee employee who tragically passed away last July at the age of 38. There will be activities going on all day that you can get details on at this location. That said, a schedule has been released for the bands playing at LemmaFest next month, so here's who to look out for! At least 5 metal/hard rock bands are confirmed, starting with Great Bodily Harm at 2:00 PM! This is the local metal band featuring ex-members of I.S.O.M., Half A Man, Hammerspace, and Kilacel, and they have the talent to deliver a great set! If anyone has any band info, internet pages, or videos of them, please tell me, as I have very little on them! Speaking of Hammerspace, they've officially re-united and will be on at 3:00 PM themselves! It's true, they returned late last month, as cited here, and will be back to rock the Dondee at Lemmafest! At 4:00 PM, local hard rock quintet River Witch will take the stage to play some entertaining songs of their own! I wish I could tell you how they sounded, but I can say that guitarist Chris Leask will pull double duty as a member of both River Witch & Great Bodily Harm, which is cool in itself!

Then at 5:00, Scofflaw (also featuring a River Witch member, drummer Ivan Schliska) will return for a set of their unique metal music! Nice to hear about one of their shows in advance for a change, they'll fit in well here! Finally for metal bands, Munising metal quartet Infathom (featuring Sault High graduate Dillion Semasky on vocals) will hit The Dondee at 7:00 PM, and if you wanna check out their promising brand of metal, click here! Hopefully they play here more often! As for the other bands scheduled for Lemmafest, the show will be opened at 12:00 PM by classic/Southern rockers The Hixx (featuring Grooves Music owner Gary Hatch). A local band named Bucksaw may be playing at 6:00 PM, although band member Jason VanLuven expressed uncertainty about their status due to some lineup concerns. I'm not familiar with them at all, so if you guys know of a page or videos or something, let me know! A pair of local acoustic duos are at 8:00 PM & 9:00 pm, including indie cover duo Fallen Heroes at 8:00 PM (they opened for Buckcherry in March) & the more "offbeat" 2PumpChump at 9:00 PM. The last advertised band is Electric Motor Fish at 10:00 PM (featuring Shift's Tony Rogers & Clownsack producer Fran Blackwood), though The Hixx are also advertised to perform inside in the evening, implying that the LemmaFest stage itself will be outdoors.

The lineup is subject to change (it's in fact already changed once), so stay tuned to all of the above links for details! Also, I should note that Half A Man are NOT playing, despite their own preliminary confirmation, as they're focusing on writing and working on new songs towards their album. This sounds like a great event, and who knows what will happen for this great cause? Stay tuned for LemmaFest updates as I hear them!

Next up, here's the latest updates from new Kincheloe metal band Chained Memories! First, they've announced the additions of guitarists Jacob Zeeryp & Ryan Nicklas to the band, replacing Brandon Mason & Isaac Suggitt. Jacob is best known as the singer & keyboard player in the inactive area Christian hard rock band Outshined, and it will be interesting to see how he does as a guitarist! He was a good singer in Outshined, maybe he'll sing a bit with the new band? As for Ryan Nicklas, I'm largely unfamiliar with his work, we'll have to see how he does! The band (including drummer Mike Rynberg) are still looking for a bassist and singer to complete their lineup, so head to their Facebook page for details on how you can try out! I'm interested to see how the band sounds, hopefully they succeed where Silent Despair failed! Check the above links for more, and as details come in, I'll have them for you guys!

Finally, I wanted to go over some edits I made to one of our monthly series for accuracy, that being our Defunct Local Band Profile Series! There's enough changes to warrant a block mention like this, so here's what you should know! The AtrophiA profile was edited to further downplay the Bring The Fallen references, given their breakup, and include a couple mentions for Bring The Blood, which is AtrophiA guitarist Dan Souliere's new band. Both the M7K & Death Rise profiles now reference the fact that Mike Vincent (from both bands) left The Bear Hunters. The Lower S.E.S. profile now links to my review of their EP at the end, and The White Knights profile has a minor edit related to Justin Langlois' work in Motion Carried, as I mentioned his work with multiple White Knights members in later bands. Finally, the Life's Eclipse profile now features a new embedded video (for their song "Out Of The Cold", as it has vocals), as well as minor updates on the reason for their original breakup, their current album statuses and info, some extra personal thoughts on the band, and a tiny reference to Jason Mills' work in Moss. Hopefully everything's up to date now, check the above links to see the newly updated profiles! Any profiles not mentioned above were still basically accurate.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes very soon, including more from Woods of Ypres! Thanks everyone!

News From Destroilet, Half A Man, Meatplow, And A New Festival!

Get ready, guys, for this is a triple post Saturday! We'll start today with a new news post featuring some new scattered updates. we'll have some more news and the latest March Mayhem updates this afternoon (YOU HAVE UNTIL 2:15 TO VOTE!!), and then tonight, our review of Woods of Ypres' debut EP "Against The Seasons: Cold Winter Songs From The Dead Summer Heat"! This is a big day, hope you guys come back frequently today! Now, to the news, as we have new pages, new songs, new concert details, new videos, and kicking things off, a new concert event! Here's what you need to know!

On June 25th, a special concert event will take place at Dondee Lanes in Sault Michigan named LemmaFest, and apologies to everyone if I'm missing or misstating anything here. The event is being held in memory of Michael Lemma, a Dondee employee who tragically passed away on July 2nd of last year at just 38 years of age. He was a funny, well liked, and respected guy that was frequently seen at area concerts, and his loss was definitely felt in the Sault Michigan area last summer. From this sprung the first annual LemmaFest, which will be held on June 25th at the Dondee, and it will be an all day concert, with bands playing from 12:00 PM to 2:00 AM! Other events like a 50/50 draw, prizes, special bowling deals, horseshoes, and beach volleyball are also planned. I'm not aware of an admission price yet, I'll keep you all posted on that. I never knew Mike, but from everything I've seen and heard, I can tell he deserves all the love and respect that people are giving him, and this is a great way to honour his memory one year later! As for bands, a full schedule and official announcements on most bands aren't out yet, but I have seen visible interest and preliminary confirmation from hard rock acts Half A Man, Scofflaw, and River Witch, along with other area bands The Hixx and Fallen Heroes, so make note of their likely involvement!

I can't speculate too much on other possible bands, but as word trickles in, I'll let you guys know! This sounds like a great event for a great purpose, and I will absolutely keep you guys posted as more official word comes in! For more details, visit the official Facebook page, event page, and fan page in Mike's memory!

Next up, are you guys craving a new local metal or hard rock album already? This isn't quite that, but it'll do until it comes out, as Destroilet have posted unmastered mixes of every song from their upcoming debut EP onto their MySpace page! Their originals "Hypocrite" and "My Life" along with their cover of The Billy Bastards' "Mile 58" are now available to stream on there along with the previously posted tracks, so now you can hear the whole EP before it's release! Of course, things won't be 100% the same though from the final copy, as these are unmastered mixes. That's why I'm not rushing to review it immediately, there are changes and improvements to come before the CD pressing begins, but Destroilet have moved at a rapid pace to get this material out there! The EP only clocks in at around 13 minutes long, which isn't as short on the whole as six Detroit songs, for example, but it will still will fly by, especially with only one song exceeding 3 minutes in length! What do I think of the new songs? Again, I'll hold complete thoughts until the EP actually comes out, but if you enjoyed the first three demos for the EP, your opinion will be the same on the latest three! Check the above links for more details, and remember to vote for them to make The Warped Tour's Montreal stop at this location!

Thirdly today, have you been wondering what's been up with the local metal band Meatplow? Honestly, so have I, especially given their long break from real band news. Guitarist Dennis Porter frequently posted links to the same videos I shown you early last year on his personal Facebook page, which sounded promising, but nothing new has popped up until this month! Five very short HD videos of recent jam sessions were uploaded by singer/drummer Phil Temporao (ex-Amethyst) onto his YouTube channel over the past week, and they do show and tell us some more! They tell us that they were recorded in what is now called GreenTown Digital Recordz, which appears to be Phil's name for their recording studio, but nothing implying the name Meatplow is thrown about in the videos. Same members though! The new videos are a heavy groove metal improv section, a clip of a cover of Alice In Chains' "Them Bones", a bass solo with drum accompaniment, a drum solo, and a short guitar riff, so click each link to check them out!

Again, guitarist Mike Thiffault (I think that's his last name) isn't in any of these videos, but they again show the unique promise that Meatplow had from last year! Phil's vocals are heavy and suit their original improv songs, the songs still retain a groove/industrial feel, and everything fits as well as I'd expect! I wonder what we'll hear next from Meatplow (if this is in fact still their name) and GreenTown Digital Recordz? Check the above links for more, and here's a clip of Phil and Dennis jamming out some improv groove metal!



Finally, here's some new Half A Man news! The Brimley hard rock quartet have been keeping busy recently with lots of scattered updates and developments, including a ton of new logo concepts (judge for yourself at their Facebook page), but there's some other interesting news to share! For one, the band was talking about doing some touring and possibly taking part in a self-organized local concert featuring them, Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way (featuring Saultite Zak Stelmaszek), and a major headlining band from their own contacts. They threw Skid Row out there as a possibility, but this is talk at the moment. It'd be cool if it happened though, so click the above links to join this conversation! As well, their April 16th headlining concert at The Merchant's Bar (poster on the left) has been bolstered with the addition of a new band making their live debut as openers! Originally hyped as a "secret" opening band, I can now confirm that they are called Great Bodily Harm! The band will feature former Hammerspace singer Kirk Labadie, former Half A Man drummer Doug Reed on guitar, River Witch guitarist Chris Leask on bass, and End of Existence frontman Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten on drums! How's that for a supergroup of sorts? No word on them beyond the members, but if I hear more, I'll let you know! Check out the above links for all of this Half A Man news, and more!

That's all for now, but stay tuned this afternoon for our second of three posts today, as we hopefully cover some more news, as well as unveil the results of the first four March Mayhem opening round matches, and start the voting for the next four! Remember, you have until 2:15 PM TODAY to vote, so if you want to help swing the results the other way, or secure victory for the current leaders, you still have time! VOTE TODAY, and I'll see you guys real soon!