Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society

One year to the day after we started this series, I have decided to post our first profile of this series for 2011 early to mark it's one year anniversary in a fitting fashion! As you know, I've covered an out of town band featuring this musician every three months or so over the past year, and this is his last out of town band that I know of that we have to cover here, unless a posthumous band page or a new project come to light. Today, we now come full circle a year after profiling his work in Will of the Ancients, so here is our first Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile of 2011! And as always, if you have corrections, edits, or additions to help make this as accurate as possible, please tell me! (UPDATED: November 26th, 2013)
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The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society (Cochenour, Ontario)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED; ex-members in italics)

David "Veillko" Gold (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums)
Aaron "Platinus" Palmer (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums)

Official CBC Music page: http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/The-Northern-Ontario-Black-Metal-Preservation-Society
Official Twitter page (Veillko): http://www.twitter.com/veillko
Official Twitter page (Platinus): http://www.twitter.com/platinus_nobmps

Local Info: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario native David Gold had a very prolific resume of bands from here and abroad before his sudden passing in December 2011, including Sault Ontario's Woods of Ypres, Gates of Winter, and Proposition 86, and for his drumming roles in out of town bands like Necramyth, Will of the Ancients, Thrawsunblat, Mister Bones, and L'anguisette! His talents and prolific band history attracted many fans and followers, and have helped lead to Woods of Ypres' signing with Earache Records in 2010! David is missed to this day, and hopefully his legacy and band work lives on!

Band Bio: The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society was a two man metal project formed by David Gold and his former Woods of Ypres bandmate Aaron Palmer, under their respective stage names "Veillko" (as David has used before) and "Platinus". David and Aaron were part of the original Woods of Ypres lineup from 2002, and recorded "Against The Seasons: Cold Winter Songs From The Dead Summer Heat" together before Aaron relocated to Thunder Bay in 2003. In October 2008, David and Aaron reconnected musically due to their relative close living conditions at the time (Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa), and set out to record black metal that captured the feelings & environments of Northern Ontario. The band didn't see much activity until the fall of 2010, when they released two original songs with the intent of releasing them on a vinyl single named "Future Northern Prosperity" in early 2011. In this project, both David and Aaron planned to record and write one original black metal song a year, with each musician drumming on the other's track, but this plan did not continue in 2011, and the project is presumed defunct following David's death later that year.

With only two songs to go on, I don't have a lot to draw on for my thoughts on the NOBMPS' sound, but I am impressed with what I've heard! Aaron's song "Rediscovering The Divine" reminds me of a shorter and better produced version of "Against The Season"-era Woods of Ypres, and he shows more than capable black metal singing to add to the clean singing we were already familiar with. It seems like it could be heavier and longer though, and a guitar solo would have been nice to add. The drumming's great as well, David shows it once again! David's song, "Northern October", has more of a "Woods III" style to it, and is my favourite of the two songs. David's black metal singing is harsher than Aaron's, and the song is more aggressive, longer, and a bit more melodic, though it has flaws too. I'd still love to see a guitar solo (though the lack of one reminds me of classic Woods), Aaron's drumming strikes me as more conservative (but still technically sound), and the song can get repetitive at parts. Both Aaron and David crafted some solid black metal here that harkens to their musical pasts while encapsulating the feelings of their surroundings, and it's too bad that the project didn't produce more during their run!

The "Future Northern Prosperity" single is available on iTunes for just $1.98, so support Northern Ontario black metal and pick it up there! A planned physical release (including vinyl pressings) never made it out that I can tell. Both songs are streaming at the above links too, but be supportive and pick it up officially! For a sample, here's David's song from the NOBMPS, "Northern October"!


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There we go, this series has begun in high fashion for 2011, and next month, we'll continue with another profile featuring a local musician that was featured in this series a year ago! In February 2010, we profiled The Sexual Vigilantes featuring Brenton Ellis, and next month, we'll profile his newest band, Maximum RNR! Watch out for this between February 13th and 19th, and stay tuned for more news, weekend concert previews, and our next Defunct Local Band Profile very soon! Thanks everyone!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Caveman Morrison) And More Assorted News!!

I'm back with some local metal news and notes today, so get yourselves ready! In today's post, we have new video footage of a local metal band, the latest updates from Garden of Bedlam, the newest side project from David Gold, and kicking things off, a VERY SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! Let's not waste any time, here's what you need to know!

I apologize for the short notice of this concert, it was only announced around 2 hours ago. Local metal cover trio Caveman Morrison will be playing at Foggy Notions TONIGHT for a set full of their renditions of metal classics! This appears to be an impromptu booking, but Caveman Morrison always deliver, so if you can make it out tonight, then head to Foggy's! Like is usual for their shows, they'll be on at 10:00 PM tonight, with no announced cover charge and a 19+ age limit. For more details, check out all of the above links and the official Facebook event page! This should deliver in great music, and hopefully a good crowd turns out despite the short notice! Considering that this is essentially a concert preview too, here's a video to get you guys hyped up, of Caveman Morrison covering Ozzy Osbourne's "I Don't Know" from a show at Foggy's last month!



Next up, here is the latest updates from Garden of Bedlam! Since they announced that recording sessions for their upcoming full length album "Everything Will Die" wrapped up, we've heard little from their camp. Well, frontman Buzz updated everyone on the band's official Facebook group as to what's been up, so here's the rundown! As of October 6th, the band were still working with producer Miguel Gauthier at Stereo Soul Studios on final tweaks and changes. Buzz also apologized for the delays on the album's release, but he said it's sounding "incredible" and they promise to deliver A.S.A.P.! Also, he announced that their first post-Kiss concert has been secured, and it will be a headlining show with covers and all of their originals scheduled for the setlist. There will be no additional bands on the bill, and it will be at a venue that Garden of Bedlam have NEVER played at before. I wonder where that could be? The Rockstar Bar and Coch's Corner were my first thoughts, but I could be wrong. Maybe The Royal Canadian Legion is a possibility, as they were to host an aborted Garden of Bedlam all ages show last year. Or maybe it will be somewhere completely different? Time will tell! Check all of the above links for the latest Garden of Bedlam news, and I'll have more as I hear it!

Thirdly today, it's the second video footage that we've seen online from new local death metal band The Bear Hunters! It's of their original song "Succumb To Eternity", and it appears to be from the same jam session that produed their first video, "Bloodthirst". Once again, this video features guitarists Mitch Sirie (Lorax) and Andres Duchesne, bassist Justin Lam (D.O.T.H.) and drummer Johnny Belanger (Caveman Morrison), as they jam out a pretty good death metal track, if a bit scratchy for audio quality. The riff is very cool, and Mitch's solos sound very nice, though as I said, you have to pick it out from kinda scratchy audio. I'd also love to hear them with singer Nik Deubel, who was absent for both of these videos. I wonder how he sounds? Good stuff, and hopefully we hear more from The Bear Hunters very soon! I've heard a couple things about their lack of activity, but I won't report them without a source. For now though, check out "Succumb To Eternity" immediately below, and thanks to Justin Lam for uploading this onto his YouTube channel!



And finally, while Woods of Ypres' frontman David Gold's working in Kuwait (until at least June of next year), he has some new music popping up online from yet another side project of his! I've minimally mentioned this band on the SMS in the past, but activity and material for them is finally growing across the internet, so now's a good time to tell you about them! They are The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society, a black metal project from David Gold and his former Woods of Ypres bandmate Aaron Palmer! You'll recognize Aaron as Woods of Ypres' original clean singer/bassist from their early days in Windsor, where he played on their 2003 EP "Against The Seasons". The project formed in 2008, and is based out of Cochenour, Ontario, a small community near Aaron's current home in Red River. In this project, David and Aaron each write and perform all instruments on their own song, save for drums, where they supply the drum tracks on the other's song. Keeping with the black metal theme, they are fully clad in black metal attire for promo photos, and are using black metal names: Aaron is "Platinus", and David is "Veillko", just like in Necramyth and Will Of The Ancients. David and Aaron plan to record two songs a year in this project, through Practical Art Records, and you can hear them at The NOBMPS' CBC Radio 3 page!

"Northern October" is David's song with Aaron drumming, and "Rediscovering The Divine" is Aaron's song with David drumming. Good stuff, reminds me of the "Woods I" and "Woods III" eras of the band respectively! There appears to be plans to release these songs in a demo named "Future Northern Prosperity", but we haven't heard too much about that specifically. Check it all out at the above links! I'll go into more detail about The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society in a future installment of our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile series, so stay tuned for that in the coming months!

That's all for now, but stay tuned by Monday for a new post with the results of our current poll, the launch of our new poll, and our preview of Tuesday's Sevendust concert! Also, stay tuned for news on Sneaky Pete, some new band pages, and more very soon! Thanks everyone!