Demon King/Celestial Scourge Concert Video Showcase!!

Today's post takes us to Christopher Paci's excellent YouTube channel for the first time since late last year for some new concert videos, and while I don't know where he has been since October, it's good to see him back with his camera rolling! His first concert videos of the year were actually at The Irish Rovers' concert on March 14th, but 10 days later, he was at Soo Blaster for that night's Demon King-headlined concert from Underground Events SSM, and he filmed all five bands there across seven videos! We'll hold the Pillory video for our next post of videos from Chris' channel to keep things at a consistent length, but let's start with the headlining Nashville death metal band, who got two videos here. Chris filmed Demon King playing their set-closer "Tyrannical Reign Of The Deciever", and as embedded below, their set-opener & new album's title track "Death Knell", so how do these videos turn out?

Effectively in the "second row" for the last two bands (with zoom deployed), Chris got some solid footage of Demon King that accentuates their brutally crunchy sound well, and the bass resonates nicely in particular, so give their Soo Blaster videos a watch above and below!

Next up, Chris also filmed two videos from co-headlining Norwegian tech death metal quartet Celestial Scourge on March 24th, including their set-closer "Ancient Forms" and, as embedded below, their first song "The Advent Of Deities". Definitely a more progressive and mathy sound, but with more guttural vocals than we saw with Demon King, so note your death metal preferences accordingly, but Celestial Scourge definitely melted faces at Soo Blaster, if these videos are anything to go by! Check them out as well!

For the opening three bands, Chris only uploaded one video apiece, and for the night's other touring band, he filmed London, Ontario death metal quartet Sentiment Dissolve playing their song "Omnipotent Panopticon". If you look them up and are curious, no, guitarist Nicholas Luck is not the same-named local musician who fronted Aldous in the early-mid 2010s. If you saw Sentiment Dissolve at Jay's last year, this won't be a surprise, but they are clearly having fun up there (look at their attire!), and they deliver an intense tech metal sound with enunciated growling vocals that will appeal to many metalheads, so don't bypass their video below either!

We'll close this post with the later-slotted local opener, namely progressive metalcore quartet Convergence in their first live concert set of 2026! I am not immediately certain of this song's name, as it doesn't match their two released studio singles since Stephen joined, but to be fair, I can't check if it's a song that was previously on "Dead And Dreaming" because they delisted that instrumental EP. Effectively complex and brutal sound here with very skilled guitar work and strong harsh and clean vocals, and it's good to see some all-too-rare live video of Convergence, so give this a look below!

That's all for now, but when we pick things back up from Chris' channel (ideally soon), we'll look at the Pillory video and what he shot at his most recent hard rock concerts, so stay tuned for all of that in the near future, plus more recent news and notes! Thanks everyone!

The Demon King/Sentiment Dissolve Concert Preview, Plus Convergence Updates!!

Today's post heavily circles around a big metal show tomorrow night that we're previewing to lead off with, and one of the opening bands has a lot going on to talk about afterwards. Here's what you should know!

We'll start with a special Tuesday night concert preview, as three touring death metal bands from three different countries will descend upon Soo Blaster TOMORROW NIGHT! The bands in question are Nashville-based death metal quartet Demon King (not Maynard Hayes frontman Damon King), London progressive death metal quartet Sentiment Dissolve (who headlined at Jay's Piston Broke Pub in May 2025), and Norwegian tech death metal quintet Celestial Scourge. Quite a feast of brutality is incoming for local metalheads tomorrow, so if you just miss original touring death metal, give all three bands a listen to see what you think, and hopefully you can swing coming out on a work/school night! Your local support bands tomorrow are death/thrash metal trio Pillory (who opened last year's Sentiment Dissolve show) and progressive metalcore quartet Convergence, both in their first concert of 2026.

Both should get faces melting early, and we'll have more from Convergence in a second! Promoted by Mikhal Muto's Underground Events SSM, tomorrow's show is an all ages affair at 7:00 PM, and tickets cost $15 in advance through the local openers, at Soo Blaster, or online at this link (the door charge jumps to $25). If you can make it for this one, you'll be in for a crushing night of metal, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Demon King live a few months back!

Next up, here's the latest from the aforementioned Convergence, who surprised fans by releasing the second advance single from their upcoming album on "all streaming platforms" this past Wednesday! Of course, "all" platforms is impossible to guarantee, but it's in the usual places and in a few you may not think of first, including Bandcamp. The song in question is "Gemini", which was once planned to be the title track for their third EP dating back to February 2024, but as you know, the band wiped most of their back catalog as an instrumental duo and have been reworking some of their older material for their next album. Of note, you can still hear their 2022 debut EP "One" on Bandcamp, albeit with new cover artwork, but there's no sign of their follow-up "Dead & Dreaming" there, implying that the songs from that EP will at least partially resurface with vocals ("The Ebb" already did, after all).

The Bandcamp postings for both "The Ebb" and "Gemini" glean some more info on both songs, including full lyrics, the inspiration behind both, and confirming that Swedish musician Adam Roxner is mastering the album. While I always found it odd that "Gemini" was going to be the name of their unfinished third EP, Convergence explained that the name was influenced by how it started production when they were still just a studio metal duo (and that "it also just sounds cool"). To promote the song's release, guitarist Brendan Christie was actually interviewed by 104.3 The Fox midday DJ Zenga McCurdy on Friday, and the band helpfully posted the interview to their YouTube channel over the weekend. Neat to see Zenga promoting and talking to an original local rock band! I don't recall Dan or Mitch doing something similar when they were on the former Q104. What all does Brendan talk about and reveal in this 6 minute interview?

Zenga asks about Convergence's sound and influences, what you can expect from tomorrow's Demon King concert, how to buy tickets, how Sault Ste. Marie locals have taken to Convergence since launching, the album plans, and what to expect from their stage show. Of note, Convergence plan to release two more advance singles "in the next couple of months" before the full album comes out, and he did confirm that the album will have more songs that predate Stephen & David's additions to their lineup. Good stuff that helps sell the band well to Fox listeners, and Zenga came off well when asking questions, so give the whole interview a listen above! A guitar playthrough video featuring 33 seconds of the song was also posted to the band's Facebook page, complete with tabs, but I'll embed the full song here via Convergence's official lyric video on YouTube, also featuring some space imagery behind the lyrics.

Pending our eventual review of the album, I'll hold comment on "Gemini" for now, but everything is very well produced and put together so far, so give the lyric video a watch below, and check out much more from Convergence at the above links (and don't miss their first show of the year tomorrow night!)

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes as this week rolls along! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Demon King, Project 906, And Generations), And More!!

Here's a packed news post for your Monday night reading, which mostly features LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the next three months on both sides of the border, plus an inactive band note, so let's get things rolling!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations have announced five upcoming concerts for the next month and a half, courtesy of their Facebook group yesterday, so where can you see them next? The band will return to The Kiln at Searchmont Resort for Saturday nighters on January 24th and February 21st, so clearly their debut there on January 3rd was a hit for them to get rebooked this fast! You can also see Valerie, Joe, Pierre, and Tony back at The Full Throttle Saloon for two more concerts on Saturday, February 14th & Friday, February 27th, with the former falling over the Family Day long weekend (and on Valentine's Day). Lastly, their busy February will also include a one-nighter at The Water Tower Pub on Friday, February 20th, and because that venue never books the same band on consecutive nights, and The Kiln only books bands on Saturdays, the two gigs pair well to keep them busy all weekend!

The Kiln and Water Tower Pub gigs are all at 8:00 PM, the Full Throttle Saloon shows are at 9:30 PM, all are 19+ events, and none have an announced cover charge. Fans of this veteran group will want to circle these winter dates on their calendar, so visit the above links for more details! 

Next up, Family Day weekend for Sault Ontario = Presidents' Day weekend for Sault Michigan, and hard rock fans in the E.U.P. won't be lacking either, as local blues/hard rock cover quintet Project 906 will return to Snow's Bar & Grill in nearby Cedarville for a Valentine's Day concert of their own on Saturday, February 14th! The band mentioned this show at the end of their Facebook post thanking everyone for coming to see them at The Merch on Saturday night, but didn't note that the show will coincide with the annual Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest, the annual winter festival held jointly in Cedarville and Hessel over the long weekend. Full event details are forthcoming (check back on the Facebook event page), but this will be the (at least) fifth straight year where either The Islander Bar or Snow's Bar included a regional hard rock band playing at Snowsfest that weekend, typically during the annual pub crawl. Project 906 previously did the honours in Cedarville in 2023. 

We'll let you know when more comes out regarding the exact itinerary for Snowsfest and how bands tie in, but it's good to see 906 making the hour's trek again for what should be a busy weekend! Expect a 9:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge on Valentine's Day. See above for more from updates from Project 906 and Snowsfest!

Also newly announced is a big Sault Ontario death metal concert for the spring, as Nashville-based death metal band Demon King will make their local concert debut on Tuesday, March 24th at Soo Blaster! Not to be confused with Maynard Hayes frontman Damon King (though imagine if they were added to the bill!), Demon King bring their own brand of technical blackened death metal to the forefront, and they have a ferocious and punishing sound that should start a good sized pit in two months' time! A multi-national touring roster will also include London progressive death metal quartet Sentiment Dissolve (who headlined at Jay's Piston Broke Pub this past May) and Norwegian death metal band Celestial Scourge. Both will deliver the brutality you expect, and how often do bands literally from Norway come here? Local openers will include death/thrash metal trio Pillory and progressive metal quartet Convergence.

Both local bands are making their first announced live concert appearances of 2026, and they are solid choices to set the tone! Promoted locally by Mikhal Muto via his newly created agency Underground Events SSM (more on them soon), this all ages concert has a 7:00 PM start time, and while tickets are not on sale yet, they will cost $15 in advance and $25 at the door, and will be available through the local bands, at The Rad Zone, and online. If yo u love death metal, especially of a technical and complex variety, you won't want to miss out on this concert, so visit the Facebook event page for more details!

Finally, I have moved local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters back to our inactive band links. This may not come as a surprise to many readers given their sporadic updates in the 2020s, but the band was last publically active on January 13th of last year, when they posted a belated music video for their song "Collapse The Sun" on YouTube, one of two new music videos spearheaded by guitarist Mitch Sirie that month. After previously being inactive from late 2021 onward, The Bear Hunters awoke from "hibernation" in July 2023 to play a private event that drummer Johnny Belanger put on at Robbie Adamson's church in Leeburn. Despite teasing that they'd be working on new music, no updates followed for almost a year, when Mitch said on their Facebook page that a final album and concert would be in the works, as connected to a contest relating to wearing band t-shirts.

Updates never came on the album or farewell gig, and while the two videos from last January (including a music video for their live favourite "Squirrel Buddy") were welcomed by long-time fans, the "Collapse The Sun" video was 100% archival content, and "Squirrel Buddy" was co-opted from Mitch's 2023 solo project Sir Hell, and only featured Johnny among other Bear Hunters members in audio or video. Mitch did say "slay tuned for more" at the time, and hopefully we do get more eventually, but their activity levels have been slow since the end of 2017, and members have talked about the eventual end multiple times in recent years. Hopefully we do hear from Nik, Mitch, Justin, and Johnny again, even if it's only once more, but stay tuned for more updates on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Big Wreck & Silent 9) And Tarnished Lineup Updates!!

Before we dive into a busy concert weekend, here's a new news post for your Wednesday evening, featuring surprising lineup depatures from a prominent local metal band, and leading off, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this fall. Here's what you should know!

With their debut at the Cory Marks concert last month now in the books, new local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 have announced their first batch of solo headlining dates as they finally enter the weekend bar circuit! As partially announced via this picture on their Facebook page (and further via a series of Facebook event pages), the Obsession successors have dates lined up through May of next year, but it's still a little early yet to be covering 2024 concerts, so we'll pause on those for the time being. Obsession were ones to announce distant concert bookings like this too, for the record. Their next gig will actually be at Algoma Steel on Saturday, September 9th when they serve as musical entertainment for the steel plant's postponed annual Family Day. As that is geared towards Algoma Steel employees & their families, I won't treat it as a "public" concert, but keep it in mind if you're going!

Fans won't have to wait long to see Silent 9 in truly public confines, as they are playing that same night via their debut at The Water Tower Pub! They will also return there for a one-nighter (as is standard for the Great Northern Road nightclub's band rotation) on Friday, November 3rd, so if you like this central venue, then this is your next truly public chance to see Jess, Ryan, Paul, and Steve on stage! Their other September date will see Silent 9 debut at Shooters Downstairs Lounge on Friday, September 22nd with a return there booked on Friday, November 17th (I don't know why these are one-nighters). Shooters is not overly far from The Machine Shop, which hosted their debut gig, so it'll be good to see everyone rocking out downtown again! The other current 2023 dates will see them rock The Esquire Club for their first full weekend engagement, and they landed on Friday, October 27th & Saturday, October 28th.

As you may recall, Obsession landed the Halloween weekend at The Esquire Club last year, with a costume contest and all of the seasonal frills were absolutely on hand, so expect more of the same when Silent 9 head west in a couple of months! The currently announced 2024 dates are all also at The Esquire Club, but again, we'll wait until closer to to list those on the site. All of these new shows have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:00 PM-ish start times. Visit the above links for much more on Silent 9's upcoming concert schedule, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's the big one that was announced this week, as Juno Award winning Toronto hard rock quartet Big Wreck will return to The Machine Shop for a headlining concert on Tuesday, November 21st! Fans will likely recall seeing the Ian Thornley-led group at the same venue back in February 2018, and with songs from their new album "7" and existing hits like "The Oaf (My Luck Is Wasted)", "Albatross", and "That Song" in store, their hard rocking originals and strong talents will be more than welcomed back to town in three months! This will be their first local date with Chris Caddell & Sekou Lumumba on guitar and drums in place of the late Brian Doherty and the departed Chuck Keeping. Support on this tour will include London pop rock quartet Texas King, who you may recall from headlining dates at Odeno and LopLops in the mid-2010s, and their energetic original sound should be welcomed after six years away!

Guelph hard rock solo artist Vilivant will make her local debut as the first act on November 21st, and her dark & hard hitting brand of music should turn some heads at The Machine Shop! Tickets for this show will go on sale at 10:00 AM on Friday, so click here for the likely online purchase link when it goes live. For reference, Big Wreck's 2018 show here had $35 tickets, and also wasn't all ages. It'll be great to see Big Wreck in the Soo again, especially given how well things went the last time out, so be sure to visit the above links for more details on this huge show!

We'll close things by jumping to Sault Michigan for some very surprising news from local metal band Tarnished, as they have parted ways with both guitarist Nathan Webber and bassist Isaac "Iggy Storm" Royer, as per their Facebook page yesterday. A reason for their departure was not publically announced, but the band assured fans that they left amicably and they wished Nathan & Isaac the best in the future. Nathan had joined Tarnished in November 2019 as their first ever second guitarist for electric gigs, while Isaac replaced Donald Alexander as their bassist in August 2021. It seemed like Tarnished had finally found a strong & stable lineup in the last couple of years, which makes losing half of the band that much more surprising, especially having just played in Grand Marais this past Friday night, but hopefully we haven't heard the last of Nathan and Isaac in the local scene, as they definitely were assets to the band who would fit in elsewhere!

Frontman Alex Traynor and drummer Josh Fair vow to continue performing as Tarnished, who are still scheduled for an outdoor gig at Huck's Pub & Grill in Rudyard on Saturday night (we'll let you know if plans change on that front). No word yet on replacement members, but remember that Tarnished started in 2019 as an acoustic duo with just Alex & Josh, so they could revert to that short-term if they wanted to keep gigging beforehand. Also, note that Alex (guitar and bass) and Josh (guitar and drums) have bounced between instrument roles as show and lineup needs dictated. Stay tuned for more on Tarnished's Huck's show in this weekend's concert previews starting tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Rock For Dimes Concert Preview, Inclufing The Battle Of The Bands' Cancellation!!

With a surprisingly busy weekend for concerts on the horizon (unusually so for November), we've broken this weekend's concert previews into three posts: One for Sault Ontario, one for Sault Michigan and potential late notice confirmations, and this first post all about a notable charity concert taking place at a somewhat unfamiliar venue tomorrow night! However, one of two planned shows for the same cause was cancelled yesterday, so read on below for that and all of the details regarding this show!

A special charity concert will take place TOMORROW as part of the second annual Rock For Dimes charity event in Sault Ste. Marie! Moving from The Grand Gardens in March of last year to The Delta Waterfront Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) at at 208 St Mary's River Drive, this is the local branch of the national Rock For Dimes concert events to raise money for the March of Dimes' charitable work in improving the health of (expecting) mothers and their children, which is a very worthwhile cause! Now, the event was supposed to feature two linked concerts tomorrow, including a headlining lineup of adult bands and a youth battle of the bands at 5:00 PM, but the battle was confirmed to be cancelled via promoter Dennis Ullman on the Facebook event page. The news follows scheduled performers The Pixo Control's exit due to frontman Michael Mikus having a health scare (source here) and a slow public search to find a full lineup of four competing youth bands, as there was only two ever confirmed publically.

This would have been the first local battle of the bands since last year's Viva La Battle, and likely the only Sault Ontario battle of 2014, but at least the later adult bands are still on! Michael will be just fine after what happened, so look for The Pixo Control at Sault Band-O-Rama next week! As a result, the only remaining youth band will open tomorrow's show, which now starts at 7:30 PM, while there will also be presentations, draws, and auctions bookending and in between the bands during both halves of the day. With the changes, there will be 7 bands (up from just two last year) lined up to play tomorrow night, with the existing non-battle acts including local punk trio Redundant (who played at last year's Rock For Dimes), returning local classic/hard rock cover quintet The Thrill Junkies (who last took the stage 10 months ago), newer alternative/jazz rock quartet Mannapool, local country/rock cover trio Mourning Wood, local grunge quartet Haggith, and local funk/alternative rock favourites The Elements, and that's a solid lineup on it's own, even if each band has only half hour long sets!

With the cancellation of the battle of the bands, the opening set at 7:30 PM (originally planned to be the first place encore set) goes to The Damon King Band, so I guess they're the de facto battle winners? I don't know a whole lot on them, but they're definitely a high school aged band, and they may be one and the same as the band Damon and Anthony Boudreau were looking for band members for on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group in September. We'll find out more tomorrow! Note that you could also see this as a preview of next Friday's Sault Band-O-Rama at The Primavera Hall, as all of these bands (save for Mannapool and The Damon King Band) are either playing or have members promoting that event, so keep that angle in mind! Public timeslots have mostly not been posted for the adult concert, but each band was slotted at having 25 minutes (thanks to Redundant drummer Rick White for the info), and a jam session is slated for 11:30 PM to close the show.

Admission tomorrow will be $15 for adults and $5 and a non-perishable food donation for "youth" attendees, while tickets bought for the cancelled battle of the bands will indeed be honoured at the door. If you don't want to buy at the door, you can order tickets online as well at this link, and this show is definitely ALL AGES. For more details, visit the above links and the Facebook event page! Though it is disappointing that we lost the battle of the bands, this is still an intriguing event, and greatly expanded from last year! It'll also be neat to have a concert with hard rock and punk bands at the former Holiday Inn again, which some of you may remember as the host of Bon Soo's old battles of the bands. I definitely plan to come out for Rock For Dimes, as it's got a lot of entertaining bands for a great cause, and for a preview, here's Redundant live at last year's Rock For Dimes!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more Sault Ontario weekend concert previews later today! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Valentine's Day Massacre), Bands Looking To Play Here, And New Videos!!

It's now time for our first proper news post of the month, and we have some big stories to touch on, so what do we have? This morning, we have a new video of a local band covering a Led Zeppelin classic, a few bands looking for a local concert, and a new cover that should please you Metalocalypse fans, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for an intriguing concert later this month that (if you believe ancient prophecies) could be the last local metal show ever, so here's what you need to know!

Worried that the world might end on December 21st? Whether the Mayans were "right" or wrong, there will be live music to be had at at The Algonquin Pub that night, with three bands scheduled, including the long awaited return of The Valentine's Day Massacre! Yes, the local deathcore quartet will make their Algonquin debut that night in their first concert since the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem in Laird 4 months ago, following their move to London for college in September, and it's great to see them coming back home! Their aggressive mix of death metal & hardcore has been missed over the slow fall season, so don't expect The V.D.M. to relent one bit on the 21st! Also joining them is new local rock cover quintet Lazer Queen (who just debuted at The Locals Attack last week), and their widely varied, female fronted classics should entertain in just their second show! They should really launch an internet page though, it'd help for exposure! A third band has yet to be confirmed for the lineup on this show, but just in case, let promoters know if you'd wanna fill that spot at this link!

This will be the second metal-integrated concert at The Algonquin Hotel's downstairs pub this year (both of which were promoted by J.D. Pearce), and it looks like indications of more concerts there are true, which is awesome! Admission for this concert will be $5, with a 19+ age limit and a 10:00 PM start time also in place. For more information, click here! This sounds like it will be a great show, and it should be a quality addition to the traditionally busier holiday season for concerts, so stay tuned for updates, and I've moved The Algonquin Pub back into our Sault Ontario concert venue listings on your left!

Next up, here's the newest video from Central Algoma death metal standouts For All That Is Lost! Uploaded to their YouTube channel on Thursday, this is of a surprise cover of Dethklok's "Murmaider" at their headlining slot at The Locals Attack last week, and it's pretty good overall! We could use more Dethklok covers locally, and this was a good heavy performance! I just wish the original filmer wasn't caught behind so many people, couldn't they have came closer? Check out F.A.T.I.L.'s latest video below!



Also today, here's another concert search for some touring metal bands! A few days ago, I received an e-mail from Piers Simpkin, who's helping route a Canadian tour for a trio of progressive hardcore/metal quintets, those being Montreal's Beheading of a King, Barrie's The Afterimage, and Vancouver's Take The Earth Beneath Us. Though he didn't give a timeframe for a potential Sault Ontario date, Piers told me that the bands are currently slated to drive through here, and would be interested in playing in town if there are interested bookers. I did send him some booker contacts, but just in case, I thought I'd spread the word on here for this potential show! All three of these bands have talent as technically sound hardcore bands, and Beheading of a King especially have been making big waves in recent months (they're even opening for Asking Alexandria in a few days), so I recommend checking out all three bands above, and if you like what you hear, message Piers at this location to help make a local tour date happen!

Finally for today, here's some notes concerning local cover rock band Obsession, who we talked about in our Toystock video showcase yesterday. Just to see if any other hard rock covers else of theirs were online, I searched around and found frontwoman Valerie Powley's YouTube channel, which does feature one more hard rock performance! While largely featuring solo performances & older bands of hers (along with two softer Obsession covers from Docks earlier this year), she did post this video from a B.Y.O.B. fundraiser at the local Soup Kitchen last month, where Obsession covered Led Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll"! This is an event Valerie's played at a lot (which is awesome), and they do another solid job with this cover, but the camera quality is weird, with a lot of fuzzy zooms. I still don't think Obsession's sets lean heavier, but she has a great voice to pull off this Led Zeppelin classic, and give this new video a look below!



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