Blood Shed Productions Updates, Assorted News, And The Return & Story Of Haggith?

It may be a slow concert weekend compared to recent weeks, but the news hasn't slowed, so what's on tap for this Saturday morning? Some assorted recent items (including concert cancellations and another venue closure), some news & notes from a local independent label, and first, some new activity from a band who broke up last year, so here's what you should know!

We'll start today with some new developments from the camp of defunct local grunge/alternative quartet Haggith, starting with news that the band will apparently be playing a reunion show next month! Coinciding with a lot of throwback photo postings & reminiscing, full details are not out yet, but a post on their label Paperclip Productions' Facebook page confirms that it will be at a 19+ venue. I will note that while first word of these plans came out on April Fools Day, Haggith members have not detracted from the original posts since, so it doesn't look like a prank. Is this just a one-off reunion a'la Late & Loud's gig in February, or the start of renewed activity just 4 months after their supposed "final show"? We'll keep you guys posted! Also of potential interest to Haggith fans is a photo album that was posted on their Facebook page on Thursday that details the story of Haggith, from their May 2012 inception through their December 2013 farewell gig, and it gets very candid about backstage goings on, their successes & disappointments, and even band tensions.

Written by drummer Mike Haggith, I won't detail the story too much (it's 27 photos worth), but there's some interesting tidbits to take note of, like how the band's name was a reference to how bands are never named after the drummer, the complete synopsis of their "Apocalypse" album, that guest backing vocalist Kristi-Lee Marshall was briefly an official band member, and the chain of events last fall that led to their breakup. It's an cool read according to this internet-based review medium, and I learned a lot, so check it out above, and stay tuned for more on Haggith's reported reunion concert!

Next up, here's the latest from some Blood Shed Productions metal acts, including goregrind duo Rotopsy, whose demo EP is now finished and will be released in just under two weeks on Friday, April 18th! Apparently self-titled, it will be on sale through personal contact and at their Dank Fest set at The Oddfellows Hall the next day for $3, and it features at least 3 songs ("Your Blood On My JR Shooz", and the new unveilings "Gore Splash" and "X-Hailed".) Note that while "Gore Splash" is a new upload to the Blood Shed YouTube channel as of Thursday, we'll only embed the audio here due to graphic cover artwork. The new song has a fuller sound that shows some progression from earlier recordings, but like before, Dylan Taylor's vocals are not well defined beyond scattered growls & grunts, and the song could stand to be longer and have some guitar input. Fans should be right at home though, so check it out below, and pick up their new demo in a few weeks!

Speaking of Blood Shed artists at Dank Fest, we have another possible band switch for the 13 band marathon coming up in two weeks at The Oddfellows Hall, as Rotopsy bassist Tyler Gibson's solo grind project Crucify The Whore are now listed in place of the returning Brutaly Fatal on the new event poster (as seen on your right, with C.T.W. credited as CxTxW), after previously dropping off the bill entirely prior to the last major lineup shifts. According to promoter Tyler St. Amour on the Facebook event page, Brutaly Fatal "may see some difficulties being prepared for this one", though I'll note that frontman Austin McCrea countered that by saying they can be ready, and the lineup on the event page is not updated yet to reflect this possible change or any timeslot adjustments that could follow. This will/was to be Brutaly Fatal's non-house party debut with new guitarist Rainey Vincent and drummer Bret Shuttleworth (they've also recently teased adding a fourth member), and hopefully things are all good in their camp if they do indeed get replaced! Stay tuned for updates on Dank Fest as they come in!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by series, artist, or venue name:

• Local concert promoter J.D. Pearce has cancelled the planned Tribune & Bumpin' Tacos concerts that were scheduled for April 17th & 24th, as per the deletion of their Facebook event pages earlier this week. Both were slated to be part of the former Heavy Thursday series at the recently-sold Roosevelt Hotel, which is the primary reason for their cancellation, but there was a slight chance that they could have moved to a new venue. Hopefully we see both bands back down the road!
• According to a post on a concert promoters' Facebook group on Thursday, local musician/artist Rihkee Strapp (Ye Olde Mold Pickers) is looking to help recently relocated local death metal trio Shit Liver get a Southern Ontario tour run booked for next month. Given that our focus is on the Soo area, this might not hit the right audience, but in case someone who can help reads this, message Rihkee or the band above and at this link to see if you can get them playing somewhere down south in May!
• Pim Street pub & concert venue Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill reportedly closed last week. Online pages haven't been updated to confirm the news, but scattered reports say that the property was bought by new developers who plan to demolish the bar & put up new office buildings. Smack Daddy's had last been a frequent venue for heavier shows in mid-2011 when it was known as Bossy's Pub N' Grub, so it won't be a huge loss in the new concert sense, but this is still disappointing for staff and regulars. Best of luck all around, and if it's any solace, The Canadian's only seconds away!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news through the coming week! Thanks everyone!

The Tym Morrison Concert Preview, Plus More Assorted News & Videos!!

After three days of just feature posts, we're finally back with a new news post at the SMS, and it's combined with weekend concert previews due to this being a very light weekend for metal and hard rock shows. Unless there's some concerts in twin Saults I haven't heard of or are getting a very late notice, there's only one show going down this weekend of a metal relevance, so we're previewing that first, but stay tuned after that for a local band's new singer, another's current status, and this week's classic video! Read on below, and also check out our Kiss Battle of the Bands Profile in the post below this one!

This weekend's concert preview is for Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's matinee show at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Saturday afternoon, in his 12th straight Saturday show at the Pim Street restaurant! One week out from Caveman Morrison's new lineup's debut, Tym will be sure to deliver an entertaining set of acoustic hard rock and metal covers to his fans at the former Smack Daddy's, so keep his return to Bossy's in mind on Saturday! Tym will be on at about 2:00 PM as usual, I doubt there's a cover charge, it should be all ages given the timing. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like a fun time this weekend, and hopefully some of you guys can make it out to rock out with Tym on Saturday during this light stretch of metal shows! For a preview, here's Tym's newest solo original song "The Afterlife", which was self-recorded and posted onto his YouTube channel earlier today! It's an interesting rock track with some good atmospheric vocals and nice lyrics, and though it's not a blistering metal number, it's well written and has a nice feel for it, so give it a listen below!



Next up, new local doom/stoner metal band Giwakwa have announced the addition of Jason Bourcier to their lineup as their new singer, officially making them a quartet. He was quietly added to their lineup on their Facebook page earlier this week, and he notably rejoins former Fitswitch bandmate Larry Mousseau in Giwakwa. Jason's well known locally for his bass work in bands like Fitswitch, SIGHdEFECT, and Murder Playground, but Giwakwa brings him back to singing, a role he's handled very well with bands like Time of Ruin, Operation: Killdozer, and (most recently) Faithless Sin. It'll be good to see Jason back fronting a local band again, as I haven't seen him on stage officially fronting a band since Operation: Killdozer's 2009 debut, and hopefully he fits in well with Giwakwa! No other real band news has came since beyond some photo postings, all of which appear to be before Jason joined, but it does give us a glimpse at Giwakwa together performing! As I hear more on them and their next updates, I'll definitely have them here, so stay tuned, and note that I've edited our YMCA Battle of the Bands Profile to note that Jason has joined Giwakwa when mentioning newer notable bands from that battle's competitors!

Also today, I wanted to address a local band's current status, or lack thereof. That band is local old school hardcore quintet Destroilet, who haven't been seen on stage since February 2011 when they opened for Maximum RNR at Foggy Notions, and they last posted on their online pages in April upon the release of their debut EP. With that said, it was announced a few days ago that the members of Destroilet (minus guitarist John Conway) have formed a new pop punk band named The Belmonts, with Redundant's Justin Langlois on the second guitar, reuniting him with former SIGHdEFECT bandmate Matt Waples. Videos are posted on the new band's Facebook page of Ramones & Riverdales covers, so give them a look for some solid punk rock jams! Now, what does the existence of The Belmonts mean for Destroilet's future? According to their Facebook page, The Belmonts are "somethin' to do for fun while Destroilet takes a break", which more or less affirms the recent inactivity from them. I assume this is due to John having external commitments, but I'm not positive. If they don't return to activity soon, I still won't consider Destroilet inactive until the fall, as I remember that they were tentatively lined up to open for The Dayglo Abortions had they came here again in October, so I'm counting a year's inactivity from then.

Still, fingers crossed that Destroilet come back at some point in the near future, as their old school hardcore fury was welcome at local concerts in recent years, and even a year late, a CD release show would be fun to finally have! Also, just as a humourous aside, wouldn't Destrundant be a fitting alternate name for The Belmonts given the band members' other projects?

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With a very light weekend on the local metal scene, I'm dipping into the general archives this week for one of two videos I recently rediscovered of a local metal band in action, that being defunct Sault Michigan quartet Nixxon Dixxon! Though disbanded since 2010 (and with 3/4ths of the band now in Trail's End), they still developed a good local following during their run, and when doing research towards another post, I found two videos of them from mid-2008 concerts at The Bird (a.k.a. Golanka's Bar) that I hadn't seen in a few years! Possibly the oldest publically viewable footage of Nixxon Dixxon live, the first video (of them covering Van Halen's "Ain't Talking About Love") is of noticeably worse quality, so we'll start with this June 2008 video of them covering Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me"! Brandon Carr's singing isn't as wide-ranging as it was at their 2010 peak, and the video's angle can be far from the stage and impaired by attendees' heads, but it's a solid performance of this Def Leppard classic, and it's good to see this video again! Note that I brightened the lighting in the video after uploading it to YouTube, as the original video was fairly dark.

Uploaded by attendee Lyzz Johnson onto her MySpace page on June 22nd, 2008, you can view the original video at http://myspace.com/video/vid/36775952. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!!! All credit for this video goes to Lyzz and Nixxon Dixxon, they did all the hard work, I'm just trying to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves! It's a solid early video of Nixxon Dixxon, so give it a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for hopefully more news and notes this weekend, along with our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Constructed Apocalypse on Monday and (yes) our "Woods V" review by the end of the month! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison) And Lots Of Assorted News!!

It's time for another news post, as we're clearing out a lot of back stories from our cache on this warmer-than-usual Tuesday afternoon! Today, we have news on an upcoming locally-relevant tribute album, the whereabouts of a local concert venue, Mike Cliffe's latest material, and how you can help Frightlight play a major concert, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will indeed be back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Pim Street this Saturday! This will be Tym's 12th straight Saturday set at the former Smack Daddy's, and his 11th during that span at an afternoon matinee timeslot, so if you're up for some acoustic hard rock covers in a more intimate setting during the day, you know where they'll be this weekend! Like his other Bossy's shows, he should be on at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon, there's no cover charge, and I assume it's all ages given the time and restaurant setting. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's nice to see Tym rocking Bossy's once again, and with this series going strong and Caveman Morrison's return imminent, things are only looking up for Tym musically this spring! Check the above links for more details, and become a fan of Bossy's Facebook page (that I only just discovered yesterday) at this location!

Next up, remember last month when we mentioned the planned David Gold tribute album featuring covers of Woods of Ypres songs by bands who David befriended and influenced? Well, the full track listing is now out for it, and barring band dropouts, it appears to be final, so what's in store? According to the Facebook group for the album (entitled "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres"), it will be a double disc release with 18 covers of Woods of Ypres songs from the band's 5 numbered albums & their "Home" single. 2 or 3 are taken from each, except for Woods of Ypres' debut "Against The Seasons", which will see 4 of it's 5 tracks covered. Among the confirmed bands are Novembers Doom, Empyrean Plague, Gypsy Chief Goliath, Panzerfaust, Pagan Ritual, and Eclipse Eternal, who will all be at one or both of next month's David Gold tribute shows here & in Toronto (note that the previously listed Kittie aren't on the current track listing.) Among other notable contributions: It looks like The Governor from the popular metal podcast The Governor's Ball and "friends" will do an intro (possibly "The Looming of Dust in the Dark"?), while members of Woods of Ypres (not sure which ones) will guest with Gypsy Chief Goliath for their cover of "Shards of Love", which should be really cool!

Check the above links for complete current details, and hopefully this album is a huge success, so stay tuned for more updates as they come in! Also check out the above links for details on how you can submit Woods of Ypres covers for online posting even if they can't make the CD, or to submit photos & remembrances that could make the tribute album!

Thirdly today, prolific local solo guitarist Mike Cliffe has posted a handful of new solo songs onto his online pages! Three new solo tracks were posted over the past month onto his Reverbnation page, those being a rough jam version of a solo jazzy/rock number named "Giblets", a template idea for a new hard rock song named "What Is This", and a rockabilly-style number named "Champagne", so check the above links to hear these new tracks! I like "What Is This" the most, but all show nice creativity and diversity, especially on "Champagne", even if they still need some extra fine tuning. Also new for Mike's solo material is a strange new original song named "Triangle Sun", which was posted onto his YouTube channel on Sunday, and though it's a rare Mike solo track featuring his vocals, that makes this song very odd. He spoke and sang random words that were filtered and processed into a low almost robotic tone, and he tried to guess what he sang for comedic effect in the video below, which is amusing overtop of some well written guitar work! Maybe you guys can decipher his singing better than he can? Check out "Triangle Sun" below, and much more from Mike at the above links!



Also in today's news, local horror punk/metal quintet are giving the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands another shot in their quest to play the Vans Warped Tour! They've tried in the previous couple of years to qualify, and they're giving it another go this year, so here's what you should know! For each venue on this year's Warped Tour, the top 100 voted bands will be judged by industry professionals, with four bands selected to compete at the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands stage at their area's Warped Tour this summer, where winners could receive cash, prizes, concert appearances, and much more, so click here for full details. Frightlight are aiming to make it onto the Toronto stop on this year's Warped Tour, to be held at The Molson Ampitheatre on July 15th, and as of right now, they're in 36th place out of all bands trying out for the Toronto battle with 723 votes! That's a good sign, as they're in the range to be considered, but extra votes to propel their visibility and support their efforts are always welcome, so click here to vote for them! You'll need a free account to vote, but getting one is quick and painless. Let's help Frightlight go to Toronto in July, so vote A.S.A.P.!

And finally, I wanted to note something about the whereabouts of a local concert venue. You may have noticed that the SMS hasn't plugged anything in terms of new shows at Feedback (the former Foggy Notions) since December. I've been wanting to address it's whereabouts for a bit, but with it's Facebook page being taken down recently, I thought I might as well mention it now while I have it in mind. From what I understand, lease of the Foggy's location was transferred to new management in early January, and the new leaseholders are the guys from Coch's Corner, who are apparently doing more extensive renovations to the interior. I'm in no position to speculate on why this happened, but I don't believe it was due to any fault or error on the part of Feedback's management. It was surprising to see Feedback end so quickly after their October launch, as Rich had things in great working order last fall, but hopefully a new bar from the same management opens up down the road! As for what's going to happen to Foggy's, I don't know if Coch's Corner is fully moving there or if it's going to be a separate bar/concert venue, but I have seen external construction of some kind outside of the Coch's entrance at the Days Inn lately, for what that's worth. If I hear anything, I'll let you guys know for sure!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including this month's YouTube Channel Profile on Thursday and our Kiss Battle of the Bands Profile on Friday! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison) & New Sault Michigan-Related Videos!!

Well, I figured our next post on here would be our next Defunct Local Band Profile, but I had to rush a news post onto the site due to a short notice LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TODAY! That and a few more new concerts from the same act lie below, but also check out this post for some new videos from across the river in Sault Michigan, including a new concert video and the latest videos from two talented area guitarists, so here's what you need to know!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison has announced FOUR more acoustic solo concerts for this spring, including a return to Bossy's Pub N' Grub TODAY!! I apologize for the short notice, Tym only just announced these concerts (including today's) yesterday. Among the new shows he announced, Tym will be back at the Pim Street bar/restaurant today & next Saturday at 2:00 PM, pushing his Bossy's weekly concert arrangement to a 10th & 11th week, which is good to see! The other new shows include a return to The Zone Roadhouse in Goulais River for the first time in four months next Saturday, which will also serve as both his second show of the day and his St. Patrick's Day show! That should be fun, and I imagine green beer will be flowing readily! The final new show will be a Friday night return to The Service Grill on Korah Road on April 6th for the first time in almost two months, and it's good to see him back at one of his recent favourite concert spots! The non-Bossy's gigs should have 9:00 PM-ish start times and no cover charges, and though the Zone show is likely 19+, The Service Grill's show might not be due to the restaurant setting. Click the above links for each new show's respective Facebook event page!

It's cool to see Tym announce a bunch of shows at once, with advance time to spread the word for most of them, so hopefully some of you guys can plan your schedules to check Tym out this spring! First of all though, he'll be back at Bossy's THIS AFTERNOON, so if you want some acoustic hard rocking good times, you know where he'll be today! For a preview of today's show, check out this video of Tym covering Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" at Bossy's in January!



Next up, here's a brand new concert video from a recent major Kewadin Casino metal show! We've seen videos of hair metal legends Stryper & Slaughter from their show at The Dreammaker's Theater at Kewadin Casino from February 24th already via YouTube user soundsunlimiteddj's YouTube channel, but only last week did he post a video of opening band Lynch Mob to go along with his other concert clips! The video is of ex-Dokken guitarist George Lynch's band playing the title track of their 1990 debut album "Wicked Sensation", and like with soundsunlimiteddj's other videos from this show, the quality is awesome! Though heads can get in the way, the band sounds good with a solid groove, and maybe I'll have to give Lynch Mob more of a listen now after seeing this video! Check out the new Lynch Mob video from this concert below, and if any more Stryper, Slaughter, or Lynch Mob videos turn up online, I'll be sure to have them here!



Also in new videos, Trail's End guitarist Chris Hubbard has posted some new videos onto his YouTube channel, and though two of them are from Van Halen's recent concert in Detroit, the rest deal with Chris' own solo work and instruments! The three most recent, which were uploaded last week, are videos of some of Chris' custom Van Halen-styled instruments, including two EVH guitars and a work-in-progress Alex Van Halen drum kit replica, so click here to see his work if you're interested in seeing some well done guitar/drum customization! The other new videos are of Chris playing the guitar, one of which is Chris covering snippets various Van Halen songs for about 10 minutes, and all sound really good, but the view on the video is of his EVH guitar rig and occasionally his foot. That's the point of the video though, so I'm not too disappointed, and you hear some great guitar work regardless! The video we're embedding here though is of Chris covering the new Van Halen song "Blood & Fire" in full, and though the angle on Chris is further than on his other posted Van Halen covers, this is a solid version of this sort of-new Van Halen track! Check it out below, and watch more of Chris' solo videos at the above links!



And finally for now, Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie has posted a new solo performance video to his YouTube channel! Uploaded on Thursday and entitled "Building A Reflection", he says he wrote this using the loop function of one of his amp models, and it's a cool sounding piece that could start a quality progressive metal track if he built on it more! Definitely check it out below, and keep posted to the SMS for more from Scott and Swayze Train!



That's all for the moment, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Paraside later today! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison) And This Weekend's Concert Previews!!

Tomorrow's a big day for feature posts at the SMS, as we not only have this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post to upload, we're also kicking off our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series with a look back at the Skid Row Battle of the Bands from the spring of 2008, with six more profiles coming over the next six Fridays in the leadup to next month's Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands! That's all tomorrow, but first, we have weekend concert previews tonight for this weekend's metal & hard rock concerts in the twin Saults, including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for Saturday night, so here's what's on tap on the heavy side of things through Sunday!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison is back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub THIS SATURDAY for a ninth straight acoustic solo concert! After a one week move to a normal nighttime timeslot, Tym will be back on at 2:00 PM this Saturday as was usual for his currently weekly concert arrangement, though it's not publically known if last week's time adjustment was temporary or a dropped experiment in moving the shows to nighttime. So if you enjoy Tym's acoustic solo concerts at their afternoon timeslot, you should be happy to see them back there on Saturday night! Also, I apologize for being late to announce this concert (Tym posted the Facebook event page on Tuesday), we had a backlog of news while I was away that pushed this back. As mentioned above, Tym's back on at 2:00 PM on Saturday, I don't expect there to be a cover charge, and there's no cover charge, so check the above links for more details! It's good to see Tym back for another intimate acoustic concert, and he's sure to have some hard rocking material in store for fans on Saturday afternoon, so don't miss him if you can help it! For a preview, here's Tym and special guest Luke LeBlanc covering Extreme's "More Than Words" a few years back!



Now to the previously announced shows, starting with a brief stopover in Sault Michigan, as local hard rock quartet Powerslug are returning to the stage tomorrow & Saturday night! The band formerly known as River Witch will make their first concert appearances of 2012 (that I know of) at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino this weekend, and because the band no longer has an online page to my knowledge, my source for these shows is Kewadin Casino's entertainment page. From what I can gather, these shows will be 10:00 PM affairs (more or less) with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Check the above links for more details! I wish I knew or had more on Powerslug to go by in terms of their bio and covering their concerts, but with Scofflaw, Kilacel, and Blind Baby alumni among their ranks, the talent is absolutely there to go far locally, and hopefully this weekend's concerts are their biggest yet! Stay tuned for more on Powerslug if I hear it, and don't forget about their shows this weekend at Kewadin Casino!

We'll close this preview post with a series of concerts at The Canadian Nightclub this weekend, starting with another hard rock tribute band that The Canadian are bringing in, and this time, it's Toronto-based Guns N' Roses tribute band Dust N' Bones! Remember, they're no relation to the Sault Michigan-area band of the same name featuring members of End of Existence. I don't know a lot on this band specifically compared to other similarly named tributes (especially thanks to the lack of an online page that I know of), but I think they share at least one member with local tribute favourites Crued, and they're a relatively new act on the Southern Ontario scene. Even if you're a Gunz N' FN' Rosez loyalist, you should give Dust N' Bones a shot this weekend, as they have a solid sound that does pay tribute to GNR pretty well, though the vocals are a bit more varied in the videos I've seen. The show starts at 10:00 PM on Friday & Saturday night, you must be 19 to attend, and I'd expect a cover charge of around $5. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If you're in the mood for some Guns N' Roses classics, The Canadian Nightclub is the place to be this weekend, so keep these shows in mind, check out more from DNB at their official YouTube channel, and for a preview, here's their rendition of "My Michelle" from this past December!



And finally for this weekend, The Canadian will be rocking all night long for "Dead In The Van! The Locals Attack!", a special fundraiser concert where proceeds will go towards funding local horror punk quintet Frightlight's plans to get a tour van and "bring the fright" to other cities! As such, they'll be headlining this massive concert on Sunday night (in their first show in over 4 months with new drummer Chris FreaknStein), and 7 other local & Desbarats acts will join in to help support the cause and rock the house! The co-headlining band is local hardcore quintet As It Stands (making their first appearance at The Canadian to my knowledge since their 2010 reunion), and in descending order from there, the remaining acts include local punk trio Redundant (in their first show of 2012), local deathcore rockers The Valentine's Day Massacre (formerly View To A Kill), classic metal quartet Late & Loud, Desbarats metal bands For All That Is Lost (in their Canadian debut) and Inhuman Methods (making their first ever local concert appearance), and Business Suit Trappers guitarist "Evil" Greg Callaghan in a solo set to open up the festivities!

How's that for a stacked lineup? It could also be a preview of the Humane Society Battle of the Bands next month, seeing as only Redundant, Greg Callaghan, and Frightlight (minus T. Rex Manning's Johnny Pints) aren't competing at the battle, so keep that tidbit in mind! Above all else though, this concert is to help Frightlight's evolution and get them touring and spreading the dead, so definitely consider coming out to support the cause! Admission will be $10 (more than fair for the value of the bands performing), the show starts at 5:00 PM (so be there early), and this is an ALL AGES EVENT! Yes, you can go if you're under 19, and hopefully this helps bolster what should already be a well attended event! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This is shaping up to be a huge concert, and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be there on Sunday to rock out with you guys! Frightlight deserve the support, and look at the lineup, this is worth every penny for all ages! I'll hopefully see you guys there, and for a preview, here's Frightlight covering The Misfits' "Helena" at The Canadian in January!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post and the debut of our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & Dust N' Bones), Plus New Videos!!

After a post-free holiday, it's back to work on this Tuesday morning at the SMS, so here's what's in store! Today, we've got a new trailer video for an upcoming local release, a new video from a major 2011 hard rock concert, and leading things off, some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the next couple of weeks in the Sault Ontario area, so here's what you need to know!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison is returning to Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Saturday for an eighth straight week, but not for his usual 2:00 PM matinee show. Rather, Tym confirmed on this concert's Facebook event page that this weekend's Bossy's gig will be at the usual 10:00 PM start time for his other solo & Caveman concerts, so if you're more used to going out on Saturday nights than Saturday afternoons, this should work out better for you! I don't know whether this is the new time for his Bossy's arrangement or just a one week change, but I have heard about some low attendances from some recent Bossy's matinee shows that Tym played, so if this is permanent, it should be better on paper for attendance. As stated above, Tym will be on at 10:00 PM on Saturday, there shouldn't be a cover charge, and given the timeslot, I'd assume this is a 19+ event. For more details, check the above links! It'll definitely be more familiar to see Tym rocking the stage at night with his acoustic hard rock covers, and hopefully a good crowd turns out on Saturday to take in the music! Stay tuned later in the week for more on this concert!

Also in new concerts, The Canadian Nightclub are bringing another hard rock tribute band to Sault Ontario next month, and if you like Guns N' Roses, you should like this! Toronto-based GNR tribute band Dust N' Bones (no relation to the Sault Michigan band featuring End of Existence & NoXcape alumni) are scheduled to roll through The Canadian for a full weekend of classic Guns N' Roses hits on March 2nd & 3rd! I don't know much on this band specifically as I honestly can't find an online page beyond a YouTube channel for them (though there are many similarly named GNR tributes elsewhere.) They appear to be relatively new, but the videos I've seen are very promising with a good Guns N' Roses sound & look, and I believe they share a drummer with popular Motley Crue tribute band Crued, so I have faith they'll rock the house next weekend! Both the Friday & Saturday shows next weekend have 10:00 PM start times and 19+ age limits, and I'd expect a cover charge of around $5 both nights. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! From what I can detect, Dust N' Bones should satisfy local Guns N' Roses cravings next month, and even if you're a loyalist for Gunz N' FN' Rosez, I say give DNB a shot and check them out on YouTube in advance of what should be a solid weekend of music! Stay tuned for any possible updates if they come in!

We'll close this post with some new Sault Michigan-related videos, starting with a brand new video from Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' headlining concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at Kewadin Casino from last October! YouTube user Shannon Grehan uploaded this video onto her YouTube channel on Sunday, and though it's one of four Joan Jett videos on her channel, it's the only one from the local concert. It's of the then-brand new original song "T.M.I." (or "Too Much Info"), and though we've seen video of this exact performance already (and in full), it's nice to get another angle! Shannon was to Joan's right and fairly close to the stage, which helps the view, but the audio's fairly scratchy, and she didn't capture the full song. Still, this is a solid video, and kudos to Shannon for finally posting it online, so check out Joan Jett rocking her song "T.M.I." at Kewadin Casino last year below!



And finally for today, here's the third trailer/teaser video for Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids metal quintet End of Existence's planned debut album! Posted to the band's YouTube channel yesterday, it's the longest of the three trailers so far (extending past 2 minutes), but it's initially similar to the second video with it's effects-layered band member photo, only this time of singer Bob Helsten, followed by the band's globe logo with information scrolling across it. Nothing new is revealed here (like a track listing, specific release details, price, or so forth), but it gives some nice previews of two songs from the album, and definitely check it out in advance of the album's scheduled release next Wednesday below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news very soon, along with our Candle Hour YouTube Channel Profile TOMORROW and much more to come! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison) And This Weekend's Concert Previews!!

Another weekend is upon us, so it's time to preview this weekend's slate of local metal & hard rock concerts in the Twin Saults! I know of at least six heavier-leaning shows in the area between tonight & Saturday (let me know if you know of others), so let's begin with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this weekend!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison is returning to the stage THIS SATURDAY with his acoustic solo show, but at two different venues! His day begins (as expected) at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Pim Street for his seventh straight solo concert there in his current weekly arrangement, but after that wraps up, he'll return to The Service Grill on Korah Road for his first show there in over a month on Saturday evening! In other words, he'll be busy on Saturday, and you have double the chances to see him deliver his acoustic hard rock and metal covers live! Admission should be free for both shows, and I believe neither has an age limit, and as for times, Tym's set at Bossy's is at 2:00 PM as usual, while he'll be on at The Service Grill at 8:00 PM on Saturday. For more details, click here and here for each show's respective Facebook event page! It's great to see Tym staying active with his solo concerts, so while we wait for Caveman Morrison's return, definitely consider seeing Tym at either venue on Saturday! For a preview, here's Tym and former Half Past frontman Luke LeBlanc covering Extreme's "More Than Words" a few years ago!



Now to the previously announced concerts for this weekend, starting with the 42nd Roosevelt Hotel metal night taking place TONIGHT! After a four week break (are they now monthly?), bookers are bringing three talented Algoma District bands to the Rosie's stage to melt some faces, and headlining tonight are local extreme metal quintet Winkstinger! Almost 7 months after their last Thursday metal night appearance, this explosive local band will be sure to unleash the fury tonight in what should be their first concert since the departure of singer Alan Wells in December. Band pages haven't announced his replacement yet, so who'll be behind the mic? Tonight, we'll find out! Desbarats death metal quartet For All That Is Lost will become the fifth band to play a Rosie metal night 8 times when they hit the stage tonight for a brutal set of death metal originals, so be sure not to miss them tonight in their first local show of 2012 either! Opening tonight's festivities will be local deathcore quartet The Valentine's Day Massacre, who'll be playing their first show since changing their name from View To A Kill last month. They reportedly have new original songs to debut tonight, so be at The Roosevelt Hotel early to avoid missing any of the metal action!

Admission is free for tonight's concert, you must be 19 to attend, and The Valentine's Day Massacre will open the show at 10:30 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! The more sporadic scheduling of the current metal nights is a bit concerning, but it's still awesome to see a new one tonight, and I definitely plan on coming out to hear what's new with the bands performing! I hope to see you guys there, and for a preview, here's Winkstinger playing their song "Jimmy Got His New Legs (Derp)" at The Rosie last summer!



Now, a quick trip to Sault Michigan for our next previews, as local hard rock trio Trail's End are returning to the stage for their second concert weekend since their inception on Friday & Saturday night! Though their Facebook page has yet to acknowledge these dates, this new local band featuring Splitshot & Nixxon Dixxon alumni are listed as performing at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino for two concerts this weekend, and Kewadin's entertainment page has always proven to be a good source, so I imagine a formal band announcement is forthcoming soon. I've heard positive things from their live debut at The Rapids Lounge last month, so consider a trip to Kewadin for their return this weekend for some hard rocking good times! There is no announced cover charge, you must be 21 to attend, and a 10:00 PM start time is likely. Check the above links for more details! This should be a fun concert weekend from this talented young band, and hopefully good crowds turn out to see Trail's End all weekend long! Hopefully you guys can make it out, and for a preview, here's Trail's End's first original song "Run"!



And finally, Sault Ontario classic hard rock quintet Turner Up are back this Saturday for their first ever concert at The Sportscentre Bar & Grill! After four weeks off from "turning 'er up", this prolific cover outfit will be sure to deliver a solid night's worth of great classic hard rock songs for their fans, but how about this venue? It's in the West End at 624 Wellington Street West, near the Steelton area and a road over from Carmen's Way, and this is the first concert that I can ever remember reporting on there that's SMS-calibre. I'm sure it's a good venue though, as Turner Up (old or new) know good spots to play at! This one-night-only show on Saturday has a 19+ age limit and a 10:00 PM start time, and there's no announced cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Though the new Turner Up's live concerts have definitely been more sporadic, they always rock the house, and definitely consider checking them out on Saturday night if you're up for a trip to a different venue! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's the old Turner Up (featuring 3 identical members) covering Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone" last year!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for last month's poll results & this month's new poll on Saturday, plus more news and notes throughout! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Local Metal Album, And Lots More!!

It's time for another news post at The Sault Metal Scene, but first, I wanted to note that if you were invited to a Frightlight-headlined fundraiser event at The Canadian Nightclub next month on Facebook, then don't expect it in this post. The Facebook event page for it was deleted yesterday afternoon for unknown reasons, but if this gets re-announced in some fashion, I'll plug it here for sure! However, we do have news on an upcoming album release, new Half A Man videos, and lots of updates from local bands on Soundclick, but first for today, here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! Tym Morrison's solo acoustic show is back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub THIS AFTERNOON! I apologize for the short notice, he only just announced this concert yesterday. This will be the Caveman Morrison frontman's sixth straight Saturday matinee concert at the Pim Street restaurant, and as always, he should have a solid afternoon's worth of metal and hard rock covers to go around for fans and regulars! Tym's hoping for a good turnout today to keep this latest weekly arrangement happening, so if you're up for some hard rocking and good tunes, a swing by Bossy's would likely be a good bet! Admission will be free, there's no age limit, and Tym will be on as usual at 2:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another solid solo concert from Tym, and hopefully some of you guys can make it out to see him rock Bossy's! For a preview, here's Tym covering Eric Clapton's "Tears From Heaven" at the former Foggy Notions in 2009! Next up, a new local metal album is apparently nearing release, and no, we're not talking about "Woods V" at the moment. That sees it's first official release next week, but right now, I mean End of Existence's debut album! Over a year after plans to release an EP named "Sun Is Gone" drifted into just some free song postings, the Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet are apparently planning to release a 13 song debut album on February 29th (two weeks from Wednesday), and it's definitely been well plugged on the band's Facebook page recently! A promo track of this likely self-titled CD can now be streamed at End of Existence's Reverbnation page, and it features 30-40 second clips of 8 tracks from the album, and after doing some quick math, I think there will be at least a few featured songs that we haven't heard before. Of course, recordings of original songs are no secret, as we've seen and heard new media from End of Existence a lot over the last year, but it's nice to see plans out there to formally compile these tracks on an album of some kind! If this happens according to plan, I think we're in for a very heavy treat at the end of the month, and you know I'll keep you guys posted as updates come in for it! That said, will it come out in time for it to be this month's CD review at The Sault Metal Scene? Probably not, and only because I'm at school all day on the 29th, so I probably can't make time to review it so soon. Honestly, with the late February release and "Woods V" tentatively reserved for March, we might not get to an End of Existence CD review until early April, but it'll be worth the wait if it comes to that! No matter what though, stay tuned for updates on this and other new CDs as the weeks roll along! Thirdly, here's some new videos from Brimley metal quartet Half A Man! Drummer Mikey Bishop uploaded four new jam videos onto his YouTube channel on Thursday, and though none have a real "title", they all show some promising jams towards what I assume are new original songs! The videos are all short (only one breaks 1:50 in length) and singer Dillion Semasky isn't featured, but these videos do show some solid metal instrumentals that I can't wait to see expanded on, so click the above link to see all four of the new videos, and here's the longest new video to check out here! Finally for today, here's some random shorter stories from the last little while, and conveniently, all relate to the popular music site Soundclick and local bands with pages on it. As usual, these stories are in alphabetical order by band name:

• If you've missed the sample of the Gates of Winter song "The Stars Call My True Name" since it's deletion from YouTube, then good news, as the band's Soundclick page (which is new to me) features a 2 minute clip of that song! Or, is it called "Dimensions"? Either way, it was posted there in September 2010, along with an album cover-ish image named "Veil of the Abyss". Stream this very heavy & very promising clip at the above links or at this location if you wanna!
• We haven't heard much from experimental hard rock trio SBD since they dropped out of the Sewer Swampstravaganja last spring, but they're still alive, as they posted a new original song onto their Soundclick page in December! Colourfly titled "Shut Up, You Stupid B****", it's an odd mix of energetic punk music with low melodic clean singing. It's not bad though, and it's catchy enough, so check it out above or by clicking here!

That's all for now, but we've got more news to come over the next few days, so keep an eye out for it! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Local Band, Concert Previews, And More!!

Let's keep this hot streak of posts and news at the SMS going tonight, so here's what's in store for this latest update! Today, we have news on an upcoming mini-series I'm planning to feature on the SMS, previews of this weekend's known metal and hard rock concerts (including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this weekend), a concert cancellation for this weekend, and leading things off, a new local metal band, so here's what you need to know! (And check out this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post below this one!)

A new Sault Ontario metal trio named Giwakwa has been launched, featuring some notable local faces in their lineup! Named after a legendary man-eating ice monster from native folklore, Giwakwa features guitarist Chris Page (who appears to have been in older local bands like Oblige & Mimik, among others), ex-Bring The Fallen bassist Nolan Rainville, and former Frightlight/Fitswitch drummer Larry Mousseau, though it's not known yet who's handling lead vocals. Apparently, they play stoner metal, which would definitely be interesting to hear more of in the area, but no media, photos, or possible concert dates have been revealed as of yet. Chris had inquired about possibly getting Giwakwa on the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands as a replacement act, but aside from that, I don't have too much else. The talent is there, and it's good to see these guys back with a new band locally, so hopefully we hear much more from Giwakwa as 2012 rolls along! Check them out and become a fan at their official Facebook & MySpace pages!

Now to this weekend's metal and hard rock concert previews (that I know of, fill me in if I'm missing any, especially concerning the I-500 Pub Crawl.) We're starting with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for Saturday afternoon, as Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will return to Bossy's Pub N' Grub for a fifth straight acoustic solo concert at the Pim Street restaurant! His latest weekly arrangement there appears to be going along nicely, and his wide array of solo unplugged covers will be sure to entertain as usual on Saturday! Admission, as always, is free (but buy something just in case), there is no age limit, and Tym will be on at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If you're in the market for some very entertaining hard rock music, and you're free on Saturday afternoon, then make sure you're at Bossy's for Tym Morrison's latest solo concert! Check the above links for more, and for a preview, here's Tym covering Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" at Bossy's last month!



The other major new concert this weekend on the heavier side of things is the return of Who Made Who to Sault Ontario! The prominent Ontario tribute to hard rock legends AC/DC will return to the area for the first time since Hempfest in August to deliver a night full of high voltage rock n' roll to fans at The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow night! Who Made Who are certainly no strangers to the Sault area, and if you've loved rocking out with them at their various other local stops, you should really enjoy their faithful rendition of AC/DC classics once again tomorrow night! Doors open at 10:00 PM for this show, you must be 19 to attend, and I'd expect a cover charge of around $5 to enter. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome night of AC/DC hits from one of the best tribute bands around, so don't miss them if you can help it tomorrow night! For a preview, here's Who Made Who playing "Whole Lotta Rosie" in Sudbury in 2010!



Now, I was also going to cover Marquette hard rock quartet Nudge's planned return to The Satisfied Frog in Sault Michigan this weekend, but not long after I heard about them, Nudge moved the planned dates to Wally's Bar in Gladstone, Michigan, which is three hours west of the Soo. A reason for the move wasn't publicized, but the dates have been edited on their Reverbnation page. Hopefully nothing bad happened locally, as Nudge are a very entertaining band! Note that this doesn't mean NoXcape's scheduled shows this weekend (that Nudge replaced) are back on, unless I hear otherwise. Stay tuned for updates on both bands as they come in!

And finally for today, I wanted to tell you guys about a mini-series I'm planning to launch on the SMS next month. With all the buzz surrounding the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands on April 20th, it got me thinking about earlier battles of the bands that have taken place in Sault Ontario, and many of the more recent ones have been very well documented by local news media and the SMS. I thought it'd be interesting to flash back to many of the recent battles of the bands in a Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series, and profile what happened at them, who played, what happened to the performers, and assorted other trivia and facts related to them. I'm planning to add one profile a week leading up to the Humane Society battle, and it will feature no less than 7 battle profiles (the Skid Row & Kiss battles, all 3 battles that Bring The Fallen won, the 2008 Case's Music battle, and the Scotties Tournament battle from 2010.) I'm aware this isn't comprehensive, so if you guys can help fill in any blanks related to absent battles (i.e. the old Bon Soo battles, the other Case's Music battles, among others), let me know! The problem with many of those is minimal information or coverage online for them, like complete performer lists, who placed where, and so forth. Also, many predated the SMS, so I couldn't have personally covered many of them, but if you can help at all to ensure we can include them, let me know!

Also, I'm probably not going to include Sault Michigan battles in this mini-series, simply because they're extremely hard for me to source and get details on, even newer ones. Still, feel free to send me details and information on some of them if you have anything, as I've heard of many across the river! Unless a new battle is added, this series will launch on March 2nd, with a new entry each week until April 13th. This series can continue to include older local battles when I source details on them (and this year's down the road too, of course), but the primary run would be this spring. Keep an eye out for this latest SMS mini-series next month, and help me add to the series if you can!

That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more news this weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Cavo), Tym Morrison Concert Preview, And Much More!!

Today's news post is full of news and notes from the last little whole, so here's what's on tap on this Friday evening! Below, we've got this week's classic video, the latest updates from Hammerspace, and a concert preview for this relatively quiet concert weekend, but leading things off today, here's a major LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this spring!

Allstar Promotions are back in the mix for major local concerts at Kewadin Casino, and they have a package of high profile rock acts coming to The Dreammaker's Theater on Friday, April 6th! Headlining this concert will be St. Louis hard rock quartet Cavo, who are best known for #1 mainstream rock single "Champagne", but they have lots of other newer songs to go around for fans from their forthcoming new album "Thick As Thieves"! I think "Champagne" is extremely overplayed, but Cavo's other songs are good and catchy for the most part, and they should pull in a solid crowd on April 6th! Joining them will be Norwood, Ontario post grunge rockers My Darkest Days, who were originally slated open for Buckcherry & Papa Roach at Kewadin last March before frontman Matt Walst fell ill. You're bound to remember My Darkest Days for recent hits like "Pornstar Dancing" and "Casual Sex", and it's nice to finally see them play locally after missing their last opportunity! I'm personally not a fan of theirs, but I know many of you enjoy their stuff, so hopefully they put on a good show! Opening this concert will be Vancouver hard rockers The Veer Union, who are slowly making waves in the North American rock scene with tracks like "Seasons", which made the top 10 of the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, so keep an eye on them at this concert!

This concert goes down on April 6th at 7:00 PM, it appears to be all ages, and tickets are NOW ON SALE for just $22.50, which is quite a bargain for this package of bands! You can buy tickets online at this location, in person at the Kewadin box office, or by calling 1-800-KEWADIN. As of right now, the first four rows are sold out, but plenty of tickets are still available, so get them A.S.AP.! It's nice to see some more big rock acts hitting the area, and it's also awesome to see Allstar Promotions bringing a big show back to Kewadin Casino after almost a year's absence, but hopefully the contract issues and whatever else are all worked out, so they can bring us more quality concerts! Stay tuned for updates on this show as they come in, and get your tickets A.S.A.P.!

Now to a weekend concert preview, and in an otherwise quiet weekend on the local metal scene, there is some hard rocking to be had, specifically on Saturday afternoon, as Tym Morrison returns to Bossy's Pub N' Grub! This will be the Caveman Morrison frontman's fourth straight Saturday matinee show at the Pim Street bar & restaurant, and you know he'll have a nice long set's worth of acoustic hard rock covers in store for attendees tomorrow afternoon! Besides, until Caveman Morrison's next show, this will fill the gap nicely! Admission is completely free (buy something just in case though), Tym will be on at 2:00 PM, and I believe this is all ages. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's good to see Tym's new weekly concert arrangement succeeding, and hopefully a good crowd turns up tomorrow to see his proficient and entertaining unplugged covers! For a preview, here's Tym covering Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" at Bossy's last weekend!



Third today, here's the latest from Sault Michigan metal band Hammerspace! Firstly, the band has re-added guitarist Denny Breslin to their lineup, making them a quintet once again, as confirmed on the band's Facebook page on Sunday. As a result, frontman John Bergeron will trade his guitar for a keyboard full time, while also remaining their lead singer. Denny was briefly a member of Hammerspace in their 2010 infancy, but you're more likely to remember him locally from his runs in Half A Man & Bent Rollercoaster. Its good to see him back in a local band, and hopefully his skills help Hammerspace as they continue their resurgence this year! The other band news mostly relates to their recent jamming in Rudyard, but nothing too prevalent about onstage return or anything similar has came in a while. Notably, there was brief fears about a breakup due to the fact that they removed their name from their Facebook page earlier this week, but the band confirmed that it was just to be mysterious, and their name & status are unchanged. Hopefully we hear much more from Hammerspace shortly, so check them out at the above links for all current updates!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With a largely quiet weekend for concerts, I thought I'd dip into the archives for a band to post a video from, and who better than Woods of Ypres? Despite the unfortunate passing of David Gold last month, there's still plenty of videos of Woods of Ypres from their heyday that deserve a wider audience, and none made more sense to start with than the music video for their 2007 song "The Northern Cold"! Released on April 1st of that year, it was filmed in a Northern Ontario forest that February, but it hasn't been seen on YouTube in a few years following David's deletion of it from his YouTube channel. I don't know whether it was due to his dissatisfaction with the video/song, to promote newer material, or something else, but it's a nice video that instantly evokes feelings of a cold northern winter, and "The Northern Cold" is a solid black metal song that should have been in their later setlists more often! This features the band's 2007 lineup, including David on vocals, guitar, and studio drums, Woods of Ypres' then-producer Dan Hulse on bass, and Jessica Rose on the keyboard, with live guitarist Shawn Stoneman and live drummer Chris Mezzabotta filling out their lineup for the video.

I ripped this video from http://rocktube.us/SYt1VWCj0Tx/WOODS_OF_YPRES__The_Northern_Cold.html where it was originally uploaded by RockTube user knjaz_abbadon on September 10th, 2008, though I cropped it to it's original HD dimensions & boosted the colour a bit after downloading it. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Woods of Ypres & knjaz_abbadon, I'm just trying to share this music video with a wider audience like it deserves! This is a nice video that should be seen, so give Woods of Ypres' video for "The Northern Cold" a look below, stay tuned for more from Woods of Ypres as it comes in, and R.I.P. David!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this weekend, as well as this month's CD review (likely of Foothill Road's second EP!) Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), New Videos, And More!!

Let's get to some more news as we hit the middle of the week! Today, we've got some new videos from some Sault Michigan area performers, a local hard rock album postponement, and the likely identity of this month's CD review on the SMS, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this weekend! Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's current weekly concert arrangement at Bossy's Pub N' Grub will continue on Saturday afternoon with another acoustic show! This will be Tym's fourth straight Saturday show at the former Smack Daddy's, and you know he'll have plenty of hard rocking unplugged covers in store for fans and Bossy's regulars this weekend! Admission should be free, this should be an all ages event, and Tym will be on from 2:00 PM to about 6:00 PM on Saturday. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! After finally getting to see Tym's solo show after two+ years, I can safely say that he'll impress with his wide mix of acoustic covers from metal to even country, so if you're free on Saturday afternoon, consider a trip down to Bossy's this weekend! Stay tuned for more Tym (and Caveman) Morrison updates as they come in! Next up, here's some updates on both our next CD review and an upcoming local metal album. You may remember that I tentatively slotted Sault Ontario solo artist Mike Haggith's new album "Neighbourhood Watch" for a review this month, seeing as it was slated to come out.... today. Well, the album has been postponed indefinitely, as revealed on a post on his Facebook page on Friday. The reason is due to illnesses that appear to have put a halt on the final recordings for the album, although Mike later confirmed that a new track named "Fading" will make the album as well upon it's release. As of right now, Mike says that "Neighbourhood Watch" will be completed "when it is", so there's no current timetable, and a release before the end of the month looks unlikely. This is disappointing, but hopefully Mike gets well soon so we can hear more new material, and click here for more on the album, including some preview demo tracks! That said, now that this album is on hold, what CD are we going to review this month? Barring a flash new release in the next week, we'll probably review defunct local hard rockers Foothill Road's second self-titled CD, as guitarist Mario Carlucci rocked the stage this month with Sneaky Pete, so that ties in well, so unless anything changes, look out for this month's CD review by Tuesday! Let's wrap up this post with some new videos, starting with another new video from Kinross hard rockers Banned! Once again from Ashley Traynor's YouTube channel, this is also from Banned's show at The Bird on Saturday night, and it's the first Banned video we've seen featuring new singer Mike Straw on actual lead vocals! It's of their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone", and how does Mike (and the band) do on it? Mike's stage presence is stiff, but he doesn't do a bad job singing this song, even if it's not that heavy, and hopefully we'll hear more lead vocal work from Mike in the future! Thanks again to Ashley for these nice quality Banned concert videos, and check out their rendition of "Tuesday's Gone" below! And finally, here's a short 30 second video from Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie! It's just of Scott practicing some arpeggios on his guitar, which sound nice, but I wish the video was longer. Not too much to say, but Scott's definitely a talented guitarist, so check out his new video from Monday below, and if you're in the St. Ignace area, go see Swayze Train there this weekend at their Kewadin Casino! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews over the next few days! Thanks everyone!

Tym Morrison & Sneaky Pete Concert Reviews!!

Well, it's time for two more concert reviews at The Sault Metal Scene, as I went to two different shows yesterday for the first time in some months! That's the entirety of this post, so read on below for my thoughts, but check out this month's YouTube Channel Profile on Borderline Divine (now Stillbroke's) old YouTube channel in the post below this one!

My day started oddly early for a 2:00 PM show at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Pim Street, as Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison stopped in there for his third show in his current weekly concert arrangement! Before that though, I wanna apologize for a missed date of his, as Tym apparently rocked The Service Grill on Korah Road on the evening of January 14th. My sincere apologies for missing it, I don't know how it slipped me by for promoting on here. Yesterday though, Tym delivered an entertaining afternoon of covers for fans and Bossy's regulars, and I'm glad to have finally got out to have seen his solo show for the first time since 2009! Though Tym had a late start due to some vehicle trouble, he unloaded a nicely varied setlist of all kinds of classic songs, ranging from heavier fare like Metallica, Blue Oyster Cult, and Night Ranger to Beatles, Eric Clapton, and Billy Joel tracks, and even some Garth Brooks! His solo stuff is similar to a Caveman Morrison set, if unplugged and more wider reaching, so fans of the band would have been at home here. Ironically, like the last time I saw Tym live, he was battling a cold, and when we chatted between sets, he was visibly dealing with it, but during the songs, it was honestly not a factor.

Tym's guitar playing was good, and his singing voice was strong, but the cold did prevent him from singing some higher-sung covers. I'd also like to see his stage setup a bit more central in Bossy's, like where the Hollow reunion was staged, but I can understand why pool tables are out in that area for patrons. Overall though, Tym's solo show was a fun afternoon of entertaining music, and if you're ever in the Cambrian Mall or Canadian Nightclub area on a Sunday afternoon, stop in for a few hours to enjoy some great covers! Check out my photos from Tym's show at this location or at our Facebook page, and yes, I did get a video, so here's Tym covering Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" yesterday afternoon!



Following that, I finally got a chance to see local hard rock quartet Sneaky Pete at The Rockstar Bar, many months after their debut last year! In terms of their live setup, they truly made the stage their own, filling it with lots of signature band items and numerous instruments, and their sound fit accordingly! Singer and drummer Mike Oakley can sure handle both roles well, and he rarely missed a beat throughout each set, and lead guitarist Mario Carlucci shone on his riffs and solos as well! Bill Brouillard's guitar work and backing vocals fit well also, and he had a very nice stage presence, while Sean Berlinguette handled the low end about as wella s I expected last night as well! Very talented guys overall, with few flubs or glaring errors for what they played. Their setlist covered all bases, ranging from Guns N' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and AC/DC songs to some surprising selections like The Neon Trees, Big & Rich, and Duran Duran, but it helped keep their setlits open and accessible to all audiences, and the people there were very receptive! I did notice that their first set was noticeably heavier than their following sets, which is sort of odd compared to what I'm used to, but it's all good!

I did find that maybe the bass could have boosted in the mix a bit, and Sneaky Pete's smoke machine didn't give my camera ideal shooting conditions (lots of bright grey photos), but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of their set! Sneaky Pete's hard rocking covers are definitely worth checking out, and hopefully I'll see them again on a local stage soon! Check out my photos from last night at this location, or visit the SMS on Facebook as linked above, and I again apologize for the quality. That said, I got a good quality video of their opening song last night, so here's their cover of Saliva's "Ladies & Gentlemen"!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this week, along with this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Age of Days on Thursday! Thanks everyone!