Here's one more news post before TONIGHT'S 3 Inches of Blood show! So here, we have news on two new additions to our local band links, including a hard rock band we alluded to last week and an old school metal band from the late 1990s, plus updates on a locally relevant tribute album, updates to one of our feature series, and much more, so here's what you need to know!
Remember that 2008-2009
CASS Cafe band The Diego Experience that we mentioned in our first CASS Cafe metal video showcase? Well, they're still alive & active under a new name, and they have
a Facebook group to go along with it! Apparently, they changed their name to
Durera at some point between the fall of 2010 and last summer (unsure of an exact date), and though I don't know what prompted the name change, Durera does mean "shall last" in French, so that could be it's origin. Their lineup still includes the members from half of their YouTube videos (though with less visible instrument switching), including Mike "Diego" Brown & Keegan Gjos on vocals, A.J. Biron (Vendetta) & Brent Hurley on guitar, Column Ruins bassist Ben Eppert, and Brent's brother Ty on drums. They've lessened their ties to simply CASS Cafe events since 2010, and are apparently working on original material, but updates to their page are very scattered. With members divided between Sault Ontario, Echo Bay, and Desbarats for residence, they definitely fall within our coverage range, and luckily, they cover enough hard rock material to warrant SMS coverage based on their YouTube videos, so we've added them to our active band links!
The name change would explain why finding online pages for this band was so difficult, but thanks to A.J. for letting me know about them! Durera's old videos were a mixed bag for quality, but they could rock well when given the right cover, and on Def Leppard and Blue Oyster Cult material, there was definitely talent present that I hope carried over on a greater stage for any originals! Check out Durera at the above links!
Next up, here's our other new band addition, that being the defunct local "noise rock" trio
BeeFMouTH! We've previously had them in our band links in the past, but after ruling that
their YouTube channel didn't count as a band page, we hadn't featured them in recent months. That changes now though, as I just recently came across two posthumous band pages for them that were launched in December, including
a Facebook page and
a Tumblr page! The latter mostly links live concert videos from their 1997-2001 run, but there's some more interesting stuff on their Facebook page! It indicates that the members had the stage names "Bwaad", "MoDez", and "Neunen", but I'm unsure of their full identities (I believe 2 members were Kevin Campbell & Boyd Rendell though), and a bunch of photos give us some glimpses into their active local tenure, including stickers, the "BeeFMouTH head", and some cool retro concert posters, so
click here to see them all! Nice to see the posters especially, from shows at venues at Koolies N' Cues and the Club Princess, with old local punk bands like Downshift and Bankshot, and I'm very curious about the Thessalon hardcore band Foul Play that are on most of the posters. I wonder how they sounded?
It's nice to see another posthumous band page like this, and BeeFMouTh are definitely a good candidate for some looks back! Their material reminds me of a doomier Winkstinger in some respects, but their sound is hard to pin down. High pitched yelling vocals, hard and slow riffs, but with a punk attitude at the same time... you'll have to hear them, but they're definitely metal!
Click here and check the above links to give BeeFMoutH a listen or look, and they too are now in our Sault Ontario band links!
Also today, here's the latest news on the upcoming David Gold/
Woods of Ypres tribute album! Among the most recent updates on
"A Heart of Gold: A Tribute To Woods of Ypres" (whose recordings are still in progress) are another updated song listing for the album, which you can check out at
this link, though it's missing some later or space-constrained additions. So far, the album now includes 20 tracks, including eight of the bands from the David Gold memorial concerts from the spring, including local death metal quintet
The Bear Hunters for their cover of the second half of "Kiss My Ashes Goodbye", which is awesome to hear! I just hope they work on some improvements from their live version of it if this does make the final cut. I won't get to in depth yet about the track listing, as it's changed a lot since initial plans began, but one change I will note is that
Gypsy Chief Goliath are now doing "Suicide Cargoload" in place of Rob Cranny following his sudden passing earlier in the year. The album will also apparently feature paragraphs from the contributing bands with rememberances of David Gold and Woods of Ypres, and ideas for an album cover are being bandied about, with this one by British artist Steve Cowan getting a lot of positive responses, though a final choice hasn't been made yet.
Progress on this album is ongoing, and I hope it lives up to David's memory and music as well as his talent and legacy deserves! Stay tuned for much more on this album as it comes in, as well as a great find concerning their last show from June 2011, so keep an eye out!
Fourth today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or event name:
- Sault Michigan music/tribute festival LemmaFest got an online commercial of sorts from Blueberry Video last month, so click here to check it out! It just has descriptive info on the bands and general events, with drumming for backing music. Nothing over the top, but effective, and I'm sorry it's so late!
- According to a post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group earlier today by drummer Travis St. Amour, local hardcore/death metal band March Into Regression are apparently looking for a new singer & guitarist. If anyone left their latest lineup, I haven't heard about it, but this could just be for loose jamming and what have you. If you're interested, e-mail Travis A.S.A.P. at this location!
- On June 17th, Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie launched a new Facebook page for a progressive metal project named The Sorrow Fields, but few updates have came since. Whether this is a renaming of his April Eyes material or something new isn't known yet, but if this Facebook page gains any extra use and updates, I'll let you guys know!
And finally, here's two more updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series entries, but first, remember that both of these were in have already been updated to reflect Bring The Misery's renaming to March Into Regression and recent lineups in the section for current bands from battle alumni, as Bring The Fallen played at both. For
our YMCA Battle of the Bands profile, I've added references to 4th place band Operation: Killdozer's ties with their successors Winkstinger, including how Jesse & Jonas' current band saw later battle success at last month's Battle For The Blood, and how they reworked the Operation: Killdozer song "Pieces of You" into what's now "Where'd We Go Wrong". For
our Kiss Battle of the Bands Profile, I've replaced Trail's End, The Southern Fried Band, The Business Suit Trappers, Asylum Country, Havadder, and The Wild Turkeys with newer bands in the section for battle alumni's current projects, with their replacements being The London Gentlemen, Skeyes of Seven, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Sailor's Tongue, Barrie rock band Angels of Fire, and March Into Regression. I also briefly noted for the competitors' current statuses that winners Garden of Bedlam are playing at this year's Rotaryfest, and noted Sykotyk Rampage's updated album count and Huckster's likely inactivity. There's more updates to come, so keep an eye out!
That's all for tonight, but I'll see you guys at The Rosie very soon for 3 INCHES OF BLOOD! Thanks everyone!
Ben kept at it musically out west, where (as "Benny Blitz"), he joined Victoria glam metal band The Lust Boys in early 2010, though a planned homecoming gig with them in March 2012 at the former Canadian Nightclub did not take place due to their tour van breaking down 5 hours outside of town. The local openers, Late & Loud among them, played on though. Alas, Ben never got to bring any of his B.C. bands home for concerts, but he remained in The Lust Boys until they broke up in 2014, and he stayed musically active in the Vancouver area, where he and fellow Lust Boys alum Jayme Black formed the old school metal band Rebel Priest later that year. It's with Rebel Priest where Benny found the most success, releasing two studio albums and some other EPs and singles, and touring as far away as Japan on multiple occasions! Rebel Priest last played live at The Cobalt in Vancouver on November 21st. 
As "Benny Burn", he was also a guitarist in the Vancouver speed metal band Roadrash from 2017-2020, while Ben notably also worked as a bartender and live DJ. It was too easy to miss out on what Benny was up to in B.C. over the years, but he accomplished a lot as a musician there, and while our interactions were brief before he moved, he was always a good guy, and it's a shame to lose him so suddenly, especially just days after Christmas. If you haven't heard his three main bands since he moved, do check out The Lust Boys, Rebel Priest, and Roadrash, as there's some solid classic metal of varying flavours therein, and it'd be neat to see their original music get some well deserved Ontario and Michigan hits. I don't know if any services are planned yet in the Soo or Central Algoma, but we'll let you know when more comes out. Check on your friends, and please reach out if you're struggling. R.I.P. Benny!
