LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Hails), Crucifest's Cancellation, And New Videos!!

Happy Canada Day to all readers who celebrate, and I hope everyone enjoyed having an extra long weekend this year via it being on a Monday! In our first post of what is surely to be a busy July, we have a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, linked cancellation, and new concert videos from last month, so here's what you should know!

The planned Crucifest extreme metal concert at Robbie Adamson's old church in nearby Leeburn on Friday, July 26th has been cancelled. According to promoters Deciduous Events & Decor on their Facebook page yesterday,  "our main organizer has been dealing with ongoing health issues", which has forced her to give up promoting the festival. Definitely a shame, as I know how many metalheads and Robbie's church fans were looking forward to this, but hopefully D.E.A.D. can try promoting a similar event in the future when health allows! Tickets already purchased through Eventbrite will be refunded. However, not all is lost, as the show must go on, if in a reduced capacity! While the five touring Ontario metal bands (Beguiler, Salem Trials, Seagrave, Drugwolf, and Dead Roots) are no longer playing here this month, the four local bands have banded together to keep the July 26th booking, so fans can still prepare to bang their heads then!

This is considered to be a replacement concert with separate admission pricing, but camping that night is still encouraged. Punk/thrash trio (quartet?) Hails have seemingly taken on the promotional banner in their return to Leeburn following last month's It's The Pits Festival, and they will be joined by the reunited Pillory's first public concert in almost five years, rising young metal trio The BAG, and the debuting Sault Side Squad (featuring As It Stands, A Dire Setback, Jack Spades, The Haze, and Winkstinger alumni). It's not entirely clear who is headlining now, as the presented band order is not consistent in promotions. This new all-local metal concert has no stated age limit, a 7:00 PM start time, and a flat admission fee at the door of $20 (Crucifest was $25 for the Friday and $45 for the full weekend, including camping). We have seen local bands salvage cancelled bookings like this before, so kudos for doing so here!

I just hope it doesn't rain on the 26th like it did for It's The Pits, but if you're up for the hour's drive east to rock out (and/or camp out) at the church, visit the official Facebook event page for more details! While we're on the subject, the aforementioned Ha!ls were filmed at It's The Pits for a video publically posted to their Facebook page on Wednesday! Be advised that I have seen more videos than this from It's The Pits, but regrettably, as Facebook goes, they all were either on private accounts or were exclusively shared as "Stories", which means that they can only be seen once or twice before vanishing. A brief separate video of Hails was shared by P.I.T.S.' Instagram page in a batch post covering videos from the whole day, with bubbles a-flying, and it has a better angle than the Facebook video, if square by necessity given that it was uploaded to Instagram. Ha!ls are third in the rotation there, so don't bypass those clips!

As for the Facebook video, it features Hails playing their non-album original "Bipolaris" from a unique high camera angle, clearly from an open second floor locale. In this case, I'll forgive the vertical orientation given that it better accentuates everyone's placement on the stage! Note that guitarist Carmen Muto was present in both the Facebook and Instagram clips, but as he was in the promotional imagery for the festival, you can't be shocked (Ha!ls still haven't confirmed that he's joined the band on their own social media). A little cymbal heavy, but this 39 second clip thrashes along well, so give it a watch below, and see more from It's The Pits above!

Finally for today, here's a brand new video from local alternative/punk cover sextet BookcluB live at this year's Poutine Feast yesterday! The first video uploaded to their new (if almost two years-belated) Facebook page, it captures 41 seconds of their cover of Doug & The Slugs' "Making It Work". Filmed roughly side-stage, this (thankfully) horizontal video doesn't have the crispest clarity, but the guys sound good, and it does give us our first public visual look at an SMS-amenable band rocking the Village Media Stage at the Downtown Plaza. For what we see of this band-focused clip, things look professional and open for fans (some were dancing), but I'm curious to see how the video screen above the stage looks in conjunction with performers below it, and of course, this was a community festival moreso than a formal ticketed concert. Check out BookcluB yesterday below, and don't miss them at Rotaryfest Stage 1 on Saturday the 20th!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post and more soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Crucifest!!)

Extreme metal fans will want to circle the last weekend of July on their calendars, as Crucifest comes to Robbie Adamson's old church in nearby Leeburn on Friday, July 26th! A spiritual successor to the late 2010s Oh!No festivals at the same locale (not to mention the technically private Bear Hunters reunion event there last July), Crucifest is brought to us by new local promoters Deciduous Events & Decor (a.k.a. D.E.A.D. and formerly Events By Vann), a decor company that launched in 2022 and has worked for clients from Southern Ontario to our neck of the woods. They have recently decided to branch out into promoting their own events, with Crucifest being their first proper concert that I'm aware of. It'll be interesting to see how well this does, and if it leads to more from Courtney & Jessica in a local concert environment! While more acts are allegedly to be announced, nine bands are already signed, including five touring acts!

Perhaps owing to the long pandemic-affected gap since we had a regular local extreme metal promoter here, all five touring bands will be making their local debuts at Crucifest. Given how local bands are mixed in, I'm unsure if the poster layout is indicative of the performance order, but the five out-of-town bands are Toronto deathcore quartet Beguiler, Ottawa death metal quintet Salem Trials, Peterborough "beatdown/core" quartet Seagrave, Sudbury hardcore band Drugwolf, and newer Kitchener metalcore band Dead Roots. There's a lot of ground to cover between these bands, but there's lots of talent and brutality within, so give all five a listen to prepare yourself for the metal attack in two months! Of the four local bands, two will be familiar to 2020s concert goers, including punk/thrash trio Hails (who played at The Bear Hunters' private event in Leeburn last year) and young metal trio The BAG in (I believe) their first show outside of city limits.

Also playing at Crucifest are local death/thrash metal band Pillory in their first announced public concert in almost five years! Fans/friends may recall seeing occasional social media teasers and false starts towards Pillory resuming as a live act (they were even briefly advertised for The Bear Hunters' private Leeburn event last year), but it looks like they are definitely back now! As you may recall, Pillory were originally active off & on from 2012-2019, and they still feature frontman Robert Sartini (recently of Pointless and All Over The Map) on vocals & guitar alongside ex-Lazer Queen/Issues drummer Bret Shuttleworth. No word on their current bassist, but Blair St. John filled in for their last few late 2010s sets. In the past year, Bret has posted dozens of solo drumming videos to his YouTube channel (look at his setup!), and a handful of videos were uploaded two months ago of him and Robert playing some metal covers.

These include bass-less renditions of Sepultura's "Territory",  Megadeth's "Youthanasia", and as embedded below, Pantera's "Use My Third Arm". Sounds good and faithful to me, but these are not technical death metal songs, as we were hearing from Pillory in the mid-late 2010s. Is this a sign of a shift to their earlier sound or just them jamming some covers? In any event, it's great to see Robert and Bret back at it, and don't bypass Bret's ample solo drumming videos too, as he's got serious chops (with that kit, he'd have to!). Pillory are back in our active band links, and check out theirs & Bret's new videos above and below!

The other band playing at Crucifest (so far) are a debuting local metal band named The Sault Side Squad, and while they currently lack social media pages or videos, their lineup is full of familiar faces! I can confirm that they feature ex-As It Stands singer Justin "Nadj" Pregent, A Dire Setback guitarist Chris Nielsen, former Jack Spades/Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti, Skinbox/Stoned To Deaf alum Jordan Wardlaw on bass, and Anthony's old Winkstinger bandmate Jonas Gasperas on drums. We await further specifics, but given Justin's past vocal style (his recent rap career aside), I'd expect The Sault Side Squad to have hardcore influences. Very impressive lineup, and it'll be interesting to hear how The S.S.S. do in July and beyond! The listed times for Crucifest on the Eventbrite ticket sale page are 8:00 PM-2:00 AM, but there are separate tickets for Saturday, July 27th on sale for the same price as Friday alone.

The listed times imply that bands will only be playing on the 26th, which is how we're currently treating it, but if D.E.A.D. confirm that the lineup is split up with bands on Saturday the 27th too, we will let you know (the Saturday pass may only be for campers' benefit). In any event, tickets cost $25 per day and $45 for both days plus, and there are no advertised cover charges, so click here to buy yours! In what's shaping up to be a big year for summer camping-encouraged concert festivals, Crucifest will deliver the goods for fans who've found extreme metal to be lacking in the Soo as of late, so definitely visit the above links for complete details on what's going on 53 minutes east of the Soo at 5756 Highway 638, and we'll have more on another Leeburn-bound concert festival tomorrow! Thanks everyone!