Concert Statuses, Frightlight News, And Another New Album Upload!!

Anyone in the mood for some more local metal news? I have it today, including some concert statuses, a bunch of Frightlight news, this week's classic video, and another classic album upload to share with you guys, so let's get cracking with the news!

Over the past week or so, you may have been aware of a potential return show in Sault Ontario for Victoria hardcore/punk legends The Dayglo Abortions, who memorably headlined a huge Thursday metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel in June. The possible return concert was to take place at an undetermined venue tomorrow night at 9:00 PM, and reportedly would have featured local old school hardcore quintet Destroilet as openers in their Dismembertainment debut. There were two reasons why I never plugged it on here: A venue wasn't confirmed, and there was a chance that the show might not take place, as The Dayglo Abortions may have had to fly home early. So is it happening? It doesn't look like it. Promoter Rich Moreland commented on this show's Facebook event page on Wednesday that he would say it's not happening. Shame to see the concert not go down, as you know how great The Dayglo Abortions were in June, but hopefully Dismembertainment brings them back down the road! After all, you saw the crowd thew last time, imagine how insane it would be for a second round?

Also in terms of concert news, I have heard that the Skid Row concert that Dismembertainment was trying to book for The Rosie in November is no longer happening either. I won't go into details, but the whole tour was called off, so nothing bad happened locally. That's super disappointing too, and I know fans have been looking forward to seeing them here since the Runway Park cancellation from 2008, but hopefully they'll play Sault Ontario themselves down the road as well!

Next up, here's some Frightlight news (good & bad.) First, it looks like the previously announced concert that Frightlight was to play at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on October 28th (as per this press release) is now cancelled. Guitarist Rick "Styles" White confirmed the news on his personal Facebook page last night. A reason for the cancellation was not announced, but no worries, you'll still get to see Frightlight's new lineup make their local debut the very next night at this year's Coch's Corner Halloween Party! Speaking of their new lineup, the band's Facebook & CBC Radio 3 pages have quietly been updated to reflect the addition of Half Past/ex-Fitswitch drummer Chris Thompson to the band, though why Jeff De Rose left is still unannounced. Nice to get more confirmation on the switch, and Chris should do great with Frightlight! The other new Frightlight item is that all members of Frightlight have tickets for sale for their gig opening for The Misfits in Toronto on October 26th! If you wanna see this horrorific pairing at The Phoenix Theater on the 26th, click here to contact band members to get hooked up (or go to The Rad Zone!) This will be a huge show for them, so hopefully a huge local contingent makes the road trip to Toronto for The Misfits and Frightlight on stage together!

Continuing with the Frightlight news, they're the subject of this week's classic video, as I'm tying it in with guitarist Rick White's show with Redundant last night! In July, you may remember when I uploaded a classic video of Frightlight covering a Headstones song at their debut concert in October 2009. Well, here's one more from that night, and it's of Frightlight playing their song "She Screams" from that same show! Again featuring the band's original quartet lineup (including ex-drummer Larry Mousseau), this comes from the Frightlight-headlined Coch's Corner Halloween Party on Halloween night in 2009, and it's similar to other early performances of this song by the more reserved chorus singing. Good performance all around though! Like the Headstones cover, this was filmed by a concert attendee and later uploaded to Facebook by Rick White the next day. The original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=192479931302 and NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to the original filmer and Frightlight, they put in the hard work, I'm just showing this off to a wider audience like it deserves! That all said, check out Frightlight playing "She Screams" at their debut concert below!



And finally, remember when I uploaded Detroit's first EP "Let The Hammers Fly" onto the SMS' YouTube channel on Tuesday? Well, there's more where that came from, as I also uploaded the inactive hardcore quartet's second and last EP "Brace For Impact" onto YouTube that same day! Released in December 2009 at the band's CD release show at Coch's Corner, "Brace For Impact" was recorded earlier that year at BWC Studios in Toronto with producer Greg Dawson (Lion Ride are working with Greg at BWC on their new album too.) The EP features 9 songs, mostly re-recordings of songs from "Let The Hammers Fly", though it includes four new tracks ("Fortress", "Darth Vader", "Pyre Driver", and "Bloodlet"), and despite less songs, it's actually a slightly longer disc due to the length of the newer songs. For audio quality, "Brace For Impact" is the superior Detroit CD, but both are well worth checking out for some old school hardcore/punk fury! This CD is also out of print, and with our Defunct Local Band Profile on Detroit coming up on Monday, it made perfect sense to upload "Brace For Impact" onto YouTube as well to ensure that their whole discography is available to check out!

Click here and scroll below the first Detroit EP to give their last album a listen, or click here for the handy playlist I made for it! The first track, "Fortress" is embedded below, but give the whole album a listen at the above links, and stay tuned for our Defunct Profile on Detroit on Monday!



That's all for today, but there should be some more news over the weekend, and if not, our Defunct Local Band Profile on Detroit is on Monday, so keep an eye out! Thanks everyone!

Detroit - "Brace For Impact" Review!!!

It's CD review time! After a little over a month's wait, it's finally time to take a look at the second & final album from inactive Sault Ontario hardcore rockers Detroit! Entitled "Brace For Impact", it was officially released on December 29th, 2009 at their CD release party at the old Coch's Corner, and it features the band's classic lineup, including singer Brenton "Diamond Brent Panther" Ellis, guitarist Curtis Faux, bassist Mark Rand, and drummer Mikey Hawdon. The album was recorded at Toronto's BWC Studios in 2009, and was produced by Greg Dawson and Detroit. Now out of print, you can probably score copies of the album by contacting band members directly, but some songs are streamable at their MySpace page, and I have since uploaded the whole album to YouTube, so click the above links to stream this album! Despite featuring nine songs, only three are longer than 2 minutes, so this review might be over quicker than you'd expect! (Updated on September 28th, 2012)

Also, the album features just 4 brand new songs, with 5 re-recordings from the band's original release, "Let The Hammers Fly". For the sake of fairness, I won't compare the new versions of those 5 tracks to the originals, I'll let each version stand for themselves, and critique the originals on their own merits when I review "Let The Hammers Fly". With that said, let's begin the review with track one, "Fortress"!

"Fortress" kicks off with a 7 hit drum opener from Mikey Hawdon, which you'll be quite used to by the end of this album, as it opens 6 of the 9 songs! Nice bassline to start the song too, Mark Rand definitely has talent in this area! Brenton Ellis handles lead vocals with a huge intensity that you don't see often very much, he screams with a lot of conviction and passion, and it fits the music nicely! However, his clean vocals didn't grab me as much, he's not bad, but something about it is off. This album is at it's best with screaming! Nice guitar from Curtis Faux too! Overall, this is a solid hardcore opener, but with a run time of 94 seconds, you're left wanting more. Luckily, Detroit deliver on their next song, "Blue Collar" which is of equal length, but it's definitely a superior song! Then guitar riffing is heavy as hell, and you will no doubt be moshing to this song live! The hardcore intensity continues for about half the song, before a bassline interlude preceding some cool gang vocals! I can imagine many fans yelling "I'll sleep when I'm dead" with the band at concerts! The ending is very catchy, and there's a lot to like! Great ending to a great song, it's one of my favourites!

Third is "Spiritual Autopsy", adapted from a poem by Dr. K. Synide. Nice violent lyrics here, befitting of another solid hardcore song! Relentless hardcore assault here, the guitar really stands out too! The middle's a bit heavy on clean vocals, and the lyrics do get slightly repetitive as it goes on, but aside from lyric issues, I'm a huge fan of this song! Great music throughout, if I moshed regularly, I'd be in the pit for this one! Nice drumwork from Mikey on this one too! This is followed by "Darth Vader" which, at a whopping 58 seconds, is the album's shortest song! But they pack possibly their heaviest and fastest material in this minute of music. You won't wanna mess with Darth Vader when this is over, I'll tell you that much! The solo bassline parts near the end do seem a touch out of place, and I'd have loved to have seen this be longer, but other than that, excellent song!

Fifth is "Pyre Driver", the album's longest song at 3 minutes & 30 seconds! It's also the first without the typical drum intro, instead fading in and gradually building to the heaviness. Not as fast as the last couple songs, but not softer, which is good! Brenton uses lots of clean vocals here in the verses, though the choruses are more aggressive! This is one of the few times the band uses a normal "verse chorus verse" structure, though I'm sure that's mostly thanks to the song's length, and the instrumentation is solid too! Honestly, while I do like this song, I think the band benefits from the shorter songs. Most of their songs are like 90 second powder kegs, they explode for a minute, and you go nuts! Here, it plays more like a standard punk song, the uniqueness isn't there compared to songs like "Blue Collar". I like it, but not in the same ways. Luckily, the hardcore fury I like the most is back on "St. Christopher", though it starts differently also, with a different drum opening and a spoken word intro from Brenton. The lyrics here don't suit the song that much to me, taking an almost religious praising tone, but you wouldn't catch that if you didn't have lyrics. Soundwise, the song's heavy as hell though, and it's generally pretty fast too! Curtis is very impressive on guitar here, and the drum backing for the spoken word parts is nicely placed! Definite improvement on "Pyre Driver"!

Seventh is "Bloodlet", one of the few songs exceeding two minutes. It suffers in similar areas to "Pyre Driver", in that the added length made the song less heavy, though I do like it more! It still has some unique qualities, I like the lyrics, and for the toned down screaming, Brenton's singing is still visibly original here! Nothing's blindingly different instrumentally, but as I've said, I do prefer the shorter heavier songs. But I do like "Bloodlet" on it's own terms! Eighth is "On Madness Reared", and we're back to short powder-kegs of hardcore awesomeness here! Gang vocals are in full force late in the song, and Curtis Faux lays down some good guitar work, especially early on! Another mosh-worthy song that any hardcore fan will like, I can't complain about this one either, it stands up with all their other under 2 minute songs! Finally, we have "Foreword To Death", the last of the longer songs. It opens with Mark playing a cool bassline, but quickly morphs into a more punk-like clean singing section....at first. Luckily there's heavier hardcore-like sections dotted throughout the song, though they could stand to be heavier and longer. This definitely will appeal to punk fans moreso than metalheads, but I like it too! It has a nice groove at parts, and the end has a great crowd rallying quality, finishing with a fade-out, a nice cap to this album!

Overall, "Brace For Impact" is a very good hardcore album that should appeal to metal and punk lovers alike! Detroit are at their best, as I've said, on the short songs where they fully employ their heavy fast hardcore sound. However, that could just be the metalhead in me talking, as the three longer songs definitely will appeal more to the punk fans of the area. That's just my observation. Hardcore is a genre the Sault doesn't get as much of as we did in the past, so any release of this type from locals is welcome, and this fills the gap nicely! Some might feel the need to compare Detroit to other bands featuring their members, like Lion Ride and The Labour Of, but there's no need to when the three bands are so different. Look at Detroit on their own merits, and you'll appreciate them all the more! As hardcore musicians, the four members of Detroit handle their roles very well! Mikey Hawdon's a natural drummer, Mark Rand shows his multiple skills on bass, Curtis Faux is solid throughout the album on guitar, and Brenton Ellis has loads of talent as a hardcore singer. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen some guitar solos, but that's minor. For what this is, it's a great job, if short (the album's not even 18 minutes long), and any hardcore fan should pick up "Brace For Impact" whenever they get a chance! And, just as a personal note, thanks to the band for including song lyrics and liner notes, even if handwritten! It's better than having none!

So there's this month's review! What's on the horizon for the spring? Well, I've decided that the March review will finally be of the latest Sykotyk Rampage album, "22"! It was released in November, but other new releases and an American album inclusion have pushed it back far enough. We need blue Chinese metal crash punk, and we'll get it! Expect that review around March 1st. April's review will be of a Sault Michigan band again, I need to get caught up on CDs from bands over there, and I have a good one lined up for April! As for May, barring the release of a new local album by then, I will take a return look at Garden of Bedlam's debut EP! I'm not happy with my original review of it, it doesn't flow or resemble my normal reviews, so I'd like to revisit it, if that's OK with you guys! As for the summer, you'll just have to wait and see!

That's all for now, be on the lookout for my next profiles of out of town bands with local members, a review of Wednesday's Battle of the Bands also featuring Sykotyk Rampage, and lots of news and updates as I hear them! Stay tuned!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Lion Ride), A New Local Band, Detroit News, And More!!!

Greetings everyone, it's time to hit you guys with a packed news post, with a new local band, some out of town shows from local bands, new stuff concerning Detroit's new album, some new local videos, an event page for an upcoming show, a new recording studio link, plus Kiss and Destroilet news! But first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! (Remember to read my review of Clownsack's debut CD immediately below this post!)

According to their MySpace page, Lion Ride will be coming back home a lot sooner than we'd figured! They will apparently be back at The Rockstar Bar on February 6th, only 6 weeks after they last played locally (which was also at The Rockstar Bar!) Their MySpace page says the show will start at 10:00 PM, though that could change. It also lists a $5 cover, so keep that in mind. Of course, more details are likely to come in in the coming weeks, so stay tuned as I hear more! Myself, I can't wait, I never would have guessed they'd be back so soon! Unless something unforseen comes up, I'll be there! Stay tuned to the SMS for updates! We'll get back to Lion Ride later in the post!

Next up, I have a new local band we can cover on the SMS! Remember that band Turner Up that I mentioned on New Years Day that Steve Brogno from Driving Dave Home is the drummer for? Well, they're more metal than he implied to me! Singer/guitarist Todd Killam confirmed to me on their Facebook group that they play everything from 54-40 (not metal) to White Zombie and The Stone Temple Pilots, who definitely count! Hell, I'm a huge White Zombie fan, it's great to hear that a local band covers them! So yeah, I missed the chance to cover their New Years show at Foggy Notions, and it looks like it would have been fun! No audio or video yet though, but they look extremely promising, and not just cause Todd Killam had a Zakk Wylde bullseye Les Paul guitar! Also, as a side note, I spotted ex-The Chosen frontwoman Taryn Bugyra from Foggy's guesting on vocals in one of the pics, like she did at the Caveman Morrison show! That'd have been cool also! So Turner Up are the newest band on our band listings on the left of the page! Can't wait to see them live, check out their official Facebook group for more info!

So I'm sure that some of you guys have picked up Detroit's new album "Brace For Impact" since it's release last week, but if not, the band are helping spread the word! If you want a preview of it, they've uploaded five of the songs from the album onto their MySpace page! Accordingly, they've also updated their MySpace page to match the new album, and it looks very nice! To get a copy of "Brace For Impact", they still haven't officially announced it's on sale at any stores or websites, so my best guess is that you should contact the band directly through MySpace if you'd like a copy! They were $5 at the CD release show, should be a similar price now too! I have my copy, and I will review it on February 1st! So check the songs out on MySpace if you're interested, and if you're not, here's one of the songs, "Darth Vader", which was uploaded to YouTube the other day by bassist Mark Rand!



While we're on the subject of bands featuring Mark Rand, both Detroit and Lion Ride have booked some new shows for out of town! Detroit will be back at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto on January 19th for a FREE show with extra bands to be announced! I'd love for them to play a free show here, maybe one day! Then, 10 days later, Lion Ride will hit Barrie for a show at The Foxx Lounge with Southern Ontario rockers White Cowbell Oklahoma! Great to see them back on the road, hopefully these shows go well!

Next up, a pair of cool updates concerning two local bands that look to soon be hitting the studio: First, Sense of Truth have launched an event page for their concert on Tuesday with Ultraviolence at Coch's Corner (Poster to the left!) Through the page, I can confirm that sadly, Sense of Truth will be lacking guitarist Steve Myers for the show, as he's in Cuba. Whether frontman Cory Murchison will handle rhythm guitar again for the show or not remains to be seen. It's a 10:00 PM show with no cover charge, and Sense of Truth are hyping that this will be their last show before they hit the studio to record their first CD! They promise to unveil a new song that's faster, harder, and heavier, which should be awesome! I'll definitely be at this show, I've missed Sense of Truth too many times, and Ultraviolence are awesome too! Hope to see you guys there, confirm your attendance at this location! Meanwhile, local thrash/punk rockers Destroilet have announced via their also recently remodeled MySpace page that they will begin working on their first EP in the coming months, with a CD release show for the spring! Hopefully that goes as planned, I'd love to hear some studio quality originals from them! I'll keep you guys posted as I hear more on both bands!

Another new link to add to the SMS also today, and it comes courtesy of a Sault Michigan recording studio! It is Klusterfunk Studios, which is ran by local musicians Paul Stanaway and Josh Mayer! This counts as "metal" because this was the studio where Clownsack recorded their first album, "Rotten Candy" (Klusterfunk Studios' MySpace page even has "Saudi-A-Ripoff" on their music player!) No other metal bands are listed on their page that worked with them, though they've worked with notable local bands of other genres like Campfire 3.14, The Bourbons, and TT, among many others! Their MySpace hasn't been updated since May, but they seem like a very good studio, here's hoping they're still in the production game! So they're now in the Other Local Metal Links on the right of the page!

And finally for today, here's a question: What was the biggest news story of 2009? No, I'm not talking about the poll we're running on the SMS, I mean in general. SooToday's running a big poll where we can decide what the biggest news story of any type was in 2009, and as I expected, the whole Kiss saga is a choice! They grouped everything from the initial vote to Susan Myers to the eventual postponement into one choice, and it's one of 20 choices SooToday has on their poll! EDIT: As of 5:15 PM today, Kiss are currently third in the vote behind the local swine flu outbreak, and the death of three local soldiers in Afghanistan. Personally, I don't know if Kiss was the most "important" local story of 2009 in general, especially compared to the loss of some fellow Saultites overseas, but wouldn't it be cool to see Kiss ranked at least second? Vote today, let's get Kiss higher on their poll! And if you have voted, click here for the results to date!

(Oh yeah, VOTE IN OUR POLL ON THE SMS TOO! Fifteen choices for the biggest local metal story of 2009, four of which involve Kiss in some fashion! Let's see this top 50 votes again, I wanna know what you guys think!)

That's all for today, more news and updates are coming very soon, including some more concert videos and stuff like that! Also, if I don't get around to mentioning it beforehand, I highly recommend going to see Anvil! The Story of Anvil at The Grand Theater on Friday night! It looks like an awesome movie, and it's the most metal thing there since last spring, so why not make it out? Thanks everyone, more stuff to come!

Lion Ride Concert Review, Detroit Concert Preview, And Lots More!!

This really is a good time of the year, and not just cause of the holidays! Second metal concert in two days was last night, and there's two more coming this week! Metalheads rejoice! Well, as you may know, I was at last night's Lion Ride/Nebraska Arms show, so here's my review! Stay tuned afterwards for a preview of tomorrow's Detroit/Destroilet concert, plus assorted news on Woods of Ypres, "Castle Stories", Lion Ride again, and the SMS YouTube channel!

So last night, Lion Ride played their first ever concert at The Rockstar Bar, and it seemed like almost all of their fans followed, as this show was easily WAY more packed than the Caveman Morrison concert was! Nebraska Arms opened, and they were about the same as I remember from the last full show I saw of theirs (Coincidentally, they supported Lion Ride at that one too!) I admit that I don't listen to much stuff that fits in Nebraska Arms' genre, but I've always loved their on-stage presence and energy! They don't jump all over the place like monkeys on caffeine, but they play with loads of enthusiasm, and I welcome that! Just like in previous shows, frontman Guy Thiffault and bassist Wayne Watkins were cracking jokes, they were pretty funny (especially with the Steel Dragon reference!) For what their music is, they were good, and if you like high energy indie rock, you'll get exactly what you want out of Nebraska Arms! (Sorry for the lack of a band picture, my camera accidentally got wiped when I got shoved by accident)

Lion Ride were next, and let me just get this out of the way before I talk about their set. Thanks again for not taking a half hour long mid-set break! Those can seem like a forever long wait, especially when you're not drinking much! Now, on to the music, and the were awesome once again! They brought out all their fancy stage additions, like their backdrop and their smoke machine (which was bad for my camera, but still cool!) But even if they just played, they'd have done real well! They played a nice long set of songs from their EP, as well as a couple new originals which sounded real good! They even broke out some covers, including "Red Hot" by Motley Crue and...A KISS COVER! How about that? Speaking of Kiss, they referenced the Kiss Battle of the Bands numerous times during the set, but as Mikey Lion told us, they don't need The Essar Center, they have us! Besides, it's great seeing them play more than two songs in a night for a change!

Musically, they were extremely solid! Marc-O-Lion and Marky Lion were hitting some great solos, Marky also brought some good backup vocals too! He should use his screaming more often! Diamond Brent Panther was solid throughout on bass, and Iron Mike Bison did really good on drums as well! Mikey Lion was really good vocally, his voice did strain a bit at times, but not enough to notice, not with the fun the crowd was having! I've always thought that Lion Ride aren't a good mosh band, they don't get that audience, they're more of the "have a few drinks and party all night" band, and the crowd followed that! Hell, even Marky Lion's MOM did, she screamed "Lion Ride rules! FUCK YEAH!!!" on the microphone, which was awesome! It was a lively crowd that partied all night, my only problem was their hands got in the way of my camera!

All in all, another great concert from Lion Ride, hopefully it won't be four months until their next full show! If you wanna get down with some fun punk/metal and get sloshed, Lion Ride are a safe bet! I did take photos, as you can tell, check out 18 pics of Lion Ride by visiting our official Facebook page, or click here to head straight to the album! And just like at the Garden of Bedlam show, I got video! This time, it's of Lion Ride playing the song "Slapdance" (which is quickly growing into one of my favourite LR songs!) And it's the full song too! Check it out below!



So another great metal concert, the second of four in Sault Ontario in an eight day span! Your next local metal show is the very next one I'm previewing! And it comes courtesy of three members of Lion Ride, only in shuffled roles. Mikey Hawdon jumps behind the drumkit, Brenton Ellis replaces him on lead vocals, Mark Rand picks up a bass, and Brenton's The Labour Of bandmate Curtis Fox steps in on guitar, and there you have Detroit! Playing a punk/hardcore style that's just metal enough for SMS attention, Detroit will hit Coch's Corner TOMORROW NIGHT! This will be their first local concert since they opened for Bin Hawdon & The Taliband (also featuring Mikey Hawdon & Mark Rand) in December 2008 at The Oddfellows Hall! This will be my first time ever seeing Detroit live, and judging by what I've heard of them on MySpace, we should expect a night full of hardcore awesomeness! Moshpits might be possible, depending on the table setup at Coch's!

Joining them in support are local punk/metal rockers Destroilet, in their first ever live performance! The band features John Conway from The Billy Bastards and Matt Waples from SIGHdEFECT, among others, so the talent's there! I've heard some of their live jam clips on their Facebook group, and they have promise, we'll have to see how they make out tomorrow night! Check out some of their stuff at their official MySpace page! Rounding out the lineup are local punk band Talk Shit, who coincidentally, were also on the lineup of the Bin Hawdon show that Detroit played last year! I don't know much about Talk Shit, they have no pages, but I've heard some good things about them!

Coming back to Detroit, this show is not just any old concert, but it's a CD RELEASE SHOW! Their new CD, "Brace For Impact", will be on sale, along with more band merchandise! Their last EP "Let The Hammers Fly" never had a full CD release, but luckily, "Brace For Impact" features new versions of 5 songs from it, along with four brand new tracks! So all the more reason to go, and yes, I'll review the CD on FEBRUARY 1ST!!!! The concert will be at 10:00 PM tomorrow night, $5 cover, it's NOT all ages, Talk Shit kick things off! Confirm your attendance at the official Facebook event page! As for Detroit, check out some of their originals and more at their official MySpace page! For a preview, check out this live clip from a Toronto concert of Detroit playing one of the songs to be featured on "Brace For Impact", entitled "On Madness Reared"! Thanks to YouTube user dnahahaha for the upload!



And now, some more assorted news! You remember when I mentioned how Wawa author Duane Roy was on Rock 101 talking about his book "Castle Farms: A Rock N' Roll Scrapbook"? Well, he's uploaded six more clips of the radio interviews onto his YouTube account! No video here, just audio recordings, but you can hear him talking with The Hair Scare's Scott Cook about stories involving AC/DC, Judas Priest, why Castle Farms in Charlevoix died, and more! Some are from the actual videos he's uploaded, some not, but all worth listening! Nice to see Rock 101 give Duane this interview and outlet to promote "Castle Stories"! Also, the book has been picking up steam on some notable internet news sites, including Blabbermouth and Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles! Nice to see it getting some exposure beyond Ontario, hopefully "Castle Stories" becomes a huge success! Can't wait to pick a copy up! I'll show you guys another clip of Duane's interview with Rock 101, so here's one of his story about meeting Ozzy Osbourne in Charlevoix!



SPEAKING OF Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, David Perri from BW&BK reviewed "Woods IV: The Green Album" recently, and gave the album an 8 out of 10! Not bad at all, Woods of Ypres did great on this release! My only gripe: The review is really short, not nearly as in-depth as it could be. Still great to see it getting press like this, check out the BW&BK review at this location! Also, I've found another review of "The Green Album" over at Difficult Music, check it out by clicking here! No score for it, but it's an overly positive critique, and more in-depth! I wanna see what Blabbermouth thinks of W4, hopefully someone there will review it one of these days!

And now, Lion Ride....again! You know how some gamers have been able to add custom tracks to older releases of Guitar Hero? Well, YouTube user mackmcd did just that with two Lion Ride tracks! He added "My Baby's Bad" and "Trust" into his copy of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and uploaded the results to YouTube! Click on each song name to check out the videos! He's a good GH player, and it really is cool to see a local band in a music game like this! I'd wanna see how Rock Band would work with a local band too! Click on the song names above to check out the results, I'll show you guys the clip of mackmcd playing "My Baby's Bad" right here!



And finally for tonight, just a quick update on our YouTube channel! You know that there's actually a limit of 650 videos that you can favourite on a YouTube account? Well, I hit that limit this morning! As a result, I've started a SECOND YouTube channel for the SMS, under the name "SaultMetalScene2", and I've started by favouriting my "Slapdance" video from last night, and 11 live Detroit clips I found a few hours ago! But for new videos and playlist updates, they will STILL BE ON OUR FIRST ACCOUNT! So click here for new videos and playlist updates, and here for new local videos that I've found and favourited! Add our second account too as a friend!

That's all for tonight, if there's no earth-shattering news tomorrow, your next update will be a review of the Detroit CD release show, with preview of the Sault Michigan metal shows on New Years Eve! Stay tuned!

Garden of Bedlam At Foggy Notions Review, And News On Detroit's New CD!

How's everyone doing on this fine Sunday afternoon? Two things to get to at the moment: I have another concert to review, and there's a pile of news on Detroit's new CD, so let's get right to it! Garden of Bedlam played at Foggy Notions last night, I was there, so here's my review!

First of all, Foggy Notions itself. A lot of interest has built in it since they've finally re-opened, and on first glance, it's deserved! Remember, I was two months too young to get in legally in their first incarnation, so I can't speak for comparing the Foggy's of 2009 to then. I'll give it this, it was super busy! Interesting setup too, you walk in to the bar area with pool tables and such, you have to basically walk midway through, take a right, and you're at the stage area! I love the stage setup, a brick wall backdrop and a woodgrain railing along the stage, which works nicely to rest your arms or your drink! The large windows out to Queen Street work well for atmosphere too, and are good advertising, like when Buzz wrote "Garden of Bedlam" on the window during their set! Overall, Foggy Notions isn't bad at all, though I'll need to get some second and third looks at it when it's not as busy!

On to Garden of Bedlam themselves, and they were just as awesome as ever! They played 15 songs, including all 4 songs on their EP, their new or yet unreleased originals "Torment", "Everything Will Die", "Against The Grain", and "New Rain", along with covers from bands like The Deftones, Tool, Helmet, System of a Down, and Pantera! Buzz was singing great once again, Josh Belleau was excellent on guitar, Evan Belleau held his own on bass, and Derek Turner was awesome throughout the night on drums! Also, I love his new custom Garden of Bedlam drumkit (and the band's new banner!) Tonight more than most other shows I've seen, I noticed a good deal of on-stage humour from Buzz, and I always welcome humour at a concert! The band really seemed to enjoy playing this show, being at Foggy Notions must have helped with that, cause I know how popular it was before it initially closed!

Remember how at the Madison's Pub show, Lion Ride guitarist Marco Pedalino joined Garden of Bedlam to cover "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden? Well, the same thing happened last night too, which is awesome! The crowd was pretty lively, although there wasn't much space for a moshpit, the fists and devil horns were easily spotted, and there was enough headbangers too! Also throughout the set, a cameraman trailed the stage to get some video footage of the band for upcoming projects. I wonder how they turned out? Well, you'll never guess who was filming, cause it was actually former Amethyst frontman Rick DellaVedova! Yes, the very same "Rick Widow" was filming, and me and him chatted for a bit at the concert, which was really cool!

Overall, another fun concert from Garden of Bedlam, and if it really is their last one before they hit the studio, then it was one hell of a way to go out! They'll be back though! Another great night of music, I wish I could have stayed til the very end though! As you may have heard, I did get a new camera for Christmas, and it works really well! I just need a bigger SD card to hold more pics. Check out 20 photos from the concert by clicking here or visiting our official Facebook page! But why'd I only take 20? So I'd have room for this: A VIDEO!!!! I can finally shoot videos effectively with the new camera, and though only 3:06 in length, the quality is excellent! Check out this clip I filmed of the band playing "Everything Will Die"!



Hope you guys like the video, I'll film one at tonight's Lion Ride concert (likely "Slapdance" if I can time it properly!) Remember, that is your next local concert, at The Rockstar Bar tonight with Nebraska Arms at around 11:00 PM! Barring family obligations, I plan on being there!

Speaking of Lion Ride, it's time to update you guys on the new album from Detroit, the hardcore band featuring 3/5ths of Lion Ride in shuffled roles! Detroit bassist Mark Rand posted a pile of details on their new CD on a topic on The705Scene forums! Entitled "Brace For Impact", it will officially be released TUESDAY at their CD release show at Coch's Corner! For one, the cover art has been unveiled, which you can check out to the left! Ron Wineck did the cover art, who also did the band's skull and hammers logo, according to drummer Mikey Hawdon last night at the Garden of Bedlam show! The track listing was also announced, and it will feature four brand new songs: "Fortress, "Darth Vader", "Pyre Driver", and "Bloodlet"! As well, "Brace For Impact" will feature five re-recordings from the band's intial "Let The Hammers Fly" release! Check out the full track listing at this location! A preview of the concert is coming tomorrow!

Remember, pick up your copy of the CD Tuesday at Coch's Corner, with extra release info hopefully to follow afterwards! $5 cover, Detroit will be joined by local punk/metal rockers Destroilet and fellow punk band Talk Shit! This will be Detroit's first local concert since December 2008 at The Oddfellows Hall! I'll be there, and I'll be sure to review "Brace For Impact" on the SMS on FEBRUARY 1ST! January's reserved for Clownsack's first CD, but Detroit have February 1st locked up, so mark your calendars! (And yes, for those of you following the CD schedule, "22" by Sykotyk Rampage WILL be reviewed in the spring!)

That's all for now, Lion Ride concert review and a preview of the Detroit show are all TOMORROW! Hope to see everyone at The Rockstar Bar tonight, I hope to be there! Have a good one, enjoy the holidays!