R.I.P. Austin McCrea (1995-2025)

The Sault Metal Scene would also like to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of local metal musician and rapper Austin McCrea, who just passed away in the past week, as per a number of personal Facebook postings. He was just 30 years old. This didn't cross my radar at the time, but Austin (a.k.a. Jayrald Micky) had been in hospital since September due to pancreatitis, and endured a number of devastating medical setbacks in the ensuing months, which you can read more about via this GoFundMe campaign that was launched on his behalf by his sister two weeks ago. As a local musician, Austin is arguably best known as the frontman of the goregrind/death metal band Brutally Fatal (once intentionally spelled "Brutaly Fatal"), who had two different incarnations between 2012 and 2019, and had brief and more mainstream turns under the names Re-Born and The Revolution.

Austin was a co-founder of the local goregrind/death metal/rap label Blood Shed Productions alongside his late-era Brutally Fatal bandmate Tyler Gibson, and his bands turned up multiple times at Blood Shed-affiliated concerts in the 2010s, be they late-era Oddfellows Hall concerts or house parties, while they also performed at the 2014 & 2015 Swampstravaganzas. Austin also dabbled in hip hop in the early-mid 2010s, rapping under the handle Miracle Man. While Austin primarily provided vocals, guitar, and bass in his best known bands, his most recent public music work was as the original drummer for local hard rock band Far From Fine (née Ravencore), performing with them at the 2022 Toystock and helping on their original material for their unfinished album, but he left that band by June 2023. Austin was also tapped to drum with Frightlight at The Northern Vibe Festival in 2023, but the horror punk band dropped out of that event and fell inactive afterwards.

I didn't know Austin well, but he was a talented and improving multi-instrumentalist who played the music he wanted to play without apologies, even if the imagery & lyrics weren't always to a wide audience's taste. When we profiled Brutally Fatal on the SMS four years ago, I linked to much of their known public music, including their demo EPs, while you can hear the originals he was working on with Far From Fine (albeit after he left) via their Lopstock 2023 set linked here. Losing someone over the holidays, let alone after this prolonged fight, is something I can't even imagine, and our thoughts are with the McCrea and Nadon families at this time. When details on services go public, I will let you know. R.I.P. Austin!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Brutally Fatal

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, where we look at one or two randomly selected inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk bands, in order to spotlight their run and accomplishments for modern day readers! This month's choice is kinda sorta two bands, as they had a confusing split timeline and name changes to account for in 2014, but as both used the same name and shared a common frontman (and the original version's pages were closed), I'll address both here, hence why this profile is longer than normal. With that said, here's what you should know about this month's band(s)!

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Brutally Fatal (the original version of the band intentionally misspelled their name as Brutaly Fatal from 2012-2014; They were also known as Re-Born in early 2014 and as The Revolution from mid-2014 until their 2015 breakup)

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Death Metal/Alternative Rock (as Re-Born)/Doom Punk (as The Revolution)

Lineup: (Members who were in The Revolution and not Brutally Fatal are in italics)

Austin McCrae (Miracle Man), vocals/guitar/bass
Tyler Gibson (Crucify The Whore, Rotopsy), drums

Rainey Vincent, bass/guitar
Jordan Leach (Haggith, Pillory), bass
Bret Shuttleworth (Pillory, The Issues), drums
Tyler St. Amour (Them, Bring The Misery), drums
Brandan Glew (Re:Born, The Din), drums

Audio/Video: Brutaly Fatal's initial 2013 releases included a solo demo named "Acidic Sky's" and a split "Brutally Crucified" demo with labelmates Crucify The Whore, and songs from them are available to stream on Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel, as well as live concert and jam session videos of this period and during their change in sound. As The Revolution, a handful of live videos from Oddfellows Hall gigs can be seen via our Facebook page, but they only finished one studio track in 2015 for "Get High With Me" towards their unreleased EP "Roll Call". In their mid-late 2010s revival, they released one paid release "The D.P.E.P." on their Bandcamp page in 2015 alongside the free "Blood of the Devil" in 2017, alongside some assorted 2015 performance videos on the Blood Shed channel and from our Facebook page. Here's Brutaly Fatal playing "Stomp Your Feet" that year!

Info/Analysis: Blood Shed Productions co-founder Austin McCrae launched Brutaly Fatal as a death metal solo project in 2012, and they were a launch act for the label. Blood Shed-affiliated house parties aside, Brutaly Fatal debuted at The Oddfellows Hall that October, and added Tyler on drums by year's end. In this duo form, Brutaly Fatal played another Oddfellows Hall set in January 2014, changed their name to Re-Born (no relation), and shifted to clean-sung alternative rock music, but updates ceased within a month. Austin relaunched Brutaly Fatal in March due to popular demand, but the new version would also drop death metal in favour of a doom metal/punk hybrid sound with a three-piece lineup. Austin, Rainey, and Brandan debuted at the Swampstravaganza in May 2014 and they soon renamed themselves as The Revolution, leaving Blood Shed for PaperClip Productions.

The Revolution were also seen opening for Anciients and Havok at The Oddfellows Hall that June, and began recording an unreleased debut EP "Roll Call" in July, but (confusingly) Brutally Fatal reunited separately in August 2014 to open for Archspire at The Oddfellows Hall, with the return of a death metal sound, Blood Shed affiliation, and Tyler on drums, as well as a new Facebook page, while finally spelling "Brutally" correctly. The Revolution were last seen opening for Endast that same month, and despite switching to Jordan Leach on bass, the group disbanded in February, days before a planned set at The VM Radio Battle of the Bands. The reunited Brutally Fatal were primarily seen live via house parties in 2015, though they did play at the final Swampstravaganza at The Canadian Nightclub that May, and were usually active via sporadic updates for their studio album recording plans.

After the "Blood of the Devil" release in February 2017, Austin & Tyler last surfaced with a new album teaser on Facebook in May 2019, and have not been heard from since. Regarding  Bruta(l)ly Fatal's Blood Shed output, it's an acquired taste as usual thanks to the minimalist instrumentation, provocative lyrics & album art, and short song lengths, if more accessible with less pig squeal grindcore vocals, but they did refine their sound and Austin's confidence as a live performer over time. The Revolution had promise despite a somewhat awkward blend of genres, and they seemed to have the right tools to make some local noise. Genre fans should give the band(s) a listen to see what they brought to the table!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we'll complete another 2-1-3-1-2-1 cycle between the Twin Saults with quite a notable band, as our next random selection will be late 2000s Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Nixxon Dixxon! Look for this on or around November 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone, and just in case, Happy Thanksgiving!

More Heart Concert Fallout, A Band Breakup, And Much More!!

Before we get too deep into this post, I'll send a special good luck to the guys in AlgomA, Bad Back, The Bear Hunters, Crucify The Whore, and Shit Liver as they all rock the Touch of Death Metal & Punk Festival in Cochrane this weekend! Knock it out of the park, and make the Soo proud! Today, we have new local ties from a recent local news article, a band breakup to note, and a new interview featuring a prolific local artist, but first, here's some more fallout from a major recent hard rock show!

We'll begin with some more fallout from last weekend's Heart/Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Center, including an interview with The Sault Star's Jeffery Ougler that was published on their website (and presumably in the newspaper proper) last Wednesday! Apologies for being so late with this, I only just found the article the other day. Entitled "Straight From The Heart", the interview is with Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, and while it's largely based around the contents of Nancy and sister/lead singer Ann Wilson's new autobiography "Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll", she does talk about the current tour and working with Jason Bonham too. Solid read, if not too focused on the local date, so read it at this link or in last week's paper (though note that you'll have to watch a 15 second advertisement for access to it online, which is new to me for Sault Star articles.) Lastly for the known Heart fallout are some new concert videos, so what should you know on them?

These are 9 new Heart videos from YouTube user hbogie123, who only had 4 up on their Youtube channel when our original post was written up (it was auto-posted during the Anciients show, and the last of these videos went up yesterday.) All incomplete, the new videos include Heart playing their originals "These Dreams", "Alone", "Magic Man" (in parts linked here & here), and "Crazy On You" (also in 2 parts, here & here), plus covers of Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore" & "Four Sticks", but embedded below is one of the longer videos, of Heart covering "No Quarter". Like before, these videos have a good quality and angle from close to the stage, so check out hbogie123's new videos above & below!



Next up, Haggith drummer & local solo musician Mike Haggith received some cool promotion the other day as the featured artist on Betty on the Go, an online music webseries from XEAYZ.TV out of his Windsor hometown. As originally streamed on Thursday evening, it's now posted to watch on YouTube, so what should you know? After introductions, host Betty Gudel and Mike talk about numerous topics in this half hour video, including his recent work towards becoming a licensed pilot & what that could mean for his music career, his songwriting inspirations, his musical beginnings & preferences, his work with Paperclip Productions and the band Haggith, among other subjects. This runs for about 20 minutes before Betty does some local advertisements (with Mike providing some running thoughts), and after a brief clip of a local summer theater camp, Mike sings his original song "This Potato May Be Used As A Flotation Device" from his newest EP "A Place Of Our Own", which you can jump straight to at this link if you're interested.

There isn't a lot in terms of breaking news for future shows & such, but Mike did elaborate on the formats of his earliest out-of-print albums, and detailed the story of how he joined what became Haggith in the interview. While I'm a little surprised that Mike didn't go into details about his Windsor-era band work with bands like S.C.A.R., this was a solid interview, and way more extensive than I'd have guessed going in! The webstream video quality is what it is, but Mike sings well at the end, and it's nice to see him get this kind of a feature, so check out the full interview below!

Also, I have deleted local hard rock duo Re-Born (formerly the original Brutaly Fatal) from our band links due to the closure of their Facebook (and only online) page in recent weeks, which was likely related to the band's recent breakup. A reason for either has not been announced, but there was a falling out between members & Blood Shed Productions co-founders Tyler Gibson & Austin McCrea after Austin and the second version of Brutaly Fatal (now The Revolution) left the label last month. Out of respect to both parties, I won't go into further details on the split, but it didn't sound amicable. The original Brutaly Fatal (which was largely Austin's solo project) were one of the launch acts for Blood Shed Productions in late 2012, releasing a handful of demo CDs and playing a few live sets through last fall. In early 2014, Tyler joined on drums, and they changed their name to Re-Born, along with drifting to hard rock & punk covers, but their activity was limited to scattered video posts & some unannounced gigs, last making an online update in February.

While their original solo death metal style was an acquired taste (and I never understood the missing L from "brutally"), Austin always had bass talent and growling ability, and if he can shore up his stage presence, he should go far with The Revolution! Re-Born might always be one of those "what if?" projects due to the minimal online media and lack of announced shows, but hopefully things aren't as bad as they appeared late last month. Tyler's also got a good thing going with his current grind projects, so look for more from both this year, and best of luck all around!

Finally for today, remember how Toronto hard rock quartet Public Animal headlined at The Rockstar Bar yesterday? Well, there were more local ties beyond The Role Models' opening set and the C'Mon show two years ago, as Public Animal drummer Ryan Gassi is actually from Sault Ste. Marie! As outlined in a new SooToday article from Donna Hopper,  Ryan drummed for notable local bands like blues rockers The Rhythm Rats and punk notables The Kite-Eating Maples before moving to Toronto, where played in bands like The Lying Cheats & Memory Bank. In the article, Ryan discussed how he was almost going to quit drumming in bands before frontman Ian Blurton asked if he wanted to join his new band Public Animal, who are heavier than Ryan's past bands. I'm not sure how I didn't connect the dots before on Ryan's local past when researching Public Animal, but it's great to see him still playing and coming back home for a show! In fact, Public Animal will be the next band profiled in our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile Series next month, so look out for that, and hopefully Public Animal come back to the Soo down the road!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news soon, plus our review of Mike Haggith's new EP by Monday! Thanks everyone!

Jack Spades' EP Release, New Dank Fest Videos, And Much More!!

Before we double up with weekend concert previews and our newest Battle of the Bands profile on the site tomorrow, we have recent band clarifications, new videos from a recent all ages show, and first, big news concerning another new album release, so here;s what you need to know!

Be prepared to jack the planet, as local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades' debut EP saw it's digital release on Sunday! Entitled "The First", the EP is now on sale at the band's Bandcamp page for just $4, so if you want to buy it right now, feel free! In order, the EP's songs are "They Live", "Rise", "Breakneck Speed", their cover of The Ripcordz' "X", and "To The Left", so click each link to sample the songs as well. A physical release is not coming until mid-May, but early indications suggest that physical copies will be out on Friday, May 16th at the long-teased release party, which is tentatively scheduled for The Rockstar Bar pending venue confirmation. Early word suggests that it will feature sets from Jack Spades, the returning Destroilet, and Oshawa punk band the Black Cat Attack, but nothing is 100% official as of yet, so keep an eye out for updates! While this appears to be the album cover on your left, Jack Spades have indicated that local graphic designers will provide some elaborate artwork in the CD inserts.

As well, a Facebook contest is on where if you change your Facebook profile picture to the above image and tag frontman J.D. Pearce (a.k.a. Johnny Pints) in it, you'll be entered to win a free copy of "The First" and release party tickets, so keep it in mind if you want to win both! The songs sound great so far in terms of production, but when can you see our review of it? In order to time it with the physical CD release party, we'll give it a formal review next month, so look out for it then! As for April 2014, I'll confirm that we're reviewing Shit Liver's debut album (which also came out on Sunday) within the next week, so stay tuned for that as well! Pick up Jack Spades' album at this link, and Shit Liver's here!

Next up, we have some new public videos to share from Saturday night's 11 band Oddfellows Hall marathon known as Dank Fest 2014, starting with a new clip from local classic metal quintet Project 421's set! Similarly to some of their Medi-Fest footage, this was uploaded to attendee Joey Phuckel's personal Facebook page but publically shared by the band last night, and it's of their cover of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?", so how does it turn out? Pretty well, Joey had a nice close angle to the band, though the house lighting is inconsistent in the video, and Curtis McKenzie's vocals aren't as loud as they could be. Solid metal action though, so give Project 421's newest live video a look below!



Also from Dank Fest are two new videos of local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore's set, as per their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Monday! One of the videos has a song title we won't repeat here to avoid possibly offending some readers, but the other is embedded below, and it features fans moshing to one of C.T.W.'s (presumably untitled?) songs. The filmer captured the chaos well, but with the vertical cell phone camera angle, jittery camera motions, and dark lighting, the visuals on each aren't optimal. Fans of their grind attack should enjoy there songs, so give them a look above and below!



Finally, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while (ironically all concerning unanswered questions about local bands from our recent concert coverage, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Remember how we didn't know anything concerning Habitat Shuffle, who are debuting at June's Great Sabatini concert at The Moose Lodge? Apparently, they're a ska-punk/alternative band featuring ex-Free Beer guitarist Dustin Goodall & Dirty Few drummer Blair St. John, though we await official word and online information on them and their lineup. Thanks to promoter Jamie Vincent for the information!
• Local hard rock/punk duo Re-Born (a.k.a. the original Brutaly Fatal) are indeed still alive, but have reportedly switched focus to playing mostly unadvertised surprise gigs at events, so keep that in mind if you're at any Blood Shed Productions-affiliated house party events or Oddfellows shows. Thanks to drummer Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson for the clarification!
• To answer another lingering question from our coverage of last month's Commencing Human Desperation show at The Oddfellows Hall, the new local band known as Them that were once on the lineup are apparently a ska-punk duo featuring Pixo Control drummer Keeghan Rosso, though like Re-Born, they also mainly stick to quiet unannounced shows. Thanks again to Ringsnaps for the info!

That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for both the first of the weekend's metal & hard rock concert previews, and our newest Battle of the Bands Rewind profile on last year's Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands! Thanks everyone!

Skynet/Chronobot Concert Preview, Swampstravaganza Lineup Updates, And More!!

In quite possibly our last news post before TOMORROW'S Anvil concert at The Canadian, we have our last of the weekend's metal/hard rock concert previews (barring something on late notice), big lineup updates for an upcoming all ages show, and some new videos related to a (possibly still alive?) hard rock act, so here's what you need to know!

On Sunday night, an interesting lineup of metal and punk bands will hit 180 Projects for that Gore Street venue's first metal show of the new year, including the long awaited local debut of Hamilton progressive metal quartet Skynet as the headliners! Featuring alumni of Straight Reads The Line, you may remember Skynet from briefly being scheduled to headline at The Locals Attack in November 2012, but now they're finally going to devastate the local stage with their groove & djent influenced originals, so you won't wanna miss them! Joining them are Saskatchewan stoner/doom metal quartet Chronobot, who have a space-influenced vibe that will definitely help them stand out among the other bands tomorrow, and of course, doom metal fans should be right at home too! The local openers include local sludge/doom metal trio AlgomA in their first show of the new year, and while they haven't played live in 7 months, they've hardly been idle due to the recording of their "Reclaimed By The Forest" EP, so might we hear some new material from them on Sunday night?

Local punk trio The Northern Tragedy will open this show in their second 180 Projects appearance, and while they're the only non-metal band on the bill, their entertaining originals should gain a solid audience all the same! Promoted by Jamie Vincent & Oh! Right Arm! Promotions in their first collective show of the year, Sunday night's ALL AGES show has a $5 cover charge, and a 7:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! I like the diverse lineup of bands, and there should be a lot of heavy action going down on Sunday, so don't miss out! I hope I can go, but we'll have to see how busy I am that night. For a preview, here's Skynet's music video for their song "Deception"!



Next up, three more acts have been announced for this year's fourth Sewer Swampstravaganza on May 3rd at The Oddfellows Hall, though considering the combined lineup of one, it's almost four! One is local funk/metal trio The Strange Coyotes, in what will be the second straight Swampstravaganza appearance for bassist James Watterworth, but it remains to be seen how their drummer situation will look by then. For reference sake, their Facebook page has not made any drummer announcements yet, but their predecessor band Project Legion operated solely with temporary fill-ins, and the surviving members play solo often without the need for a drummer. Speaking of which, their former drummer Mike Haggith is also slated to perform this year in what's currently being advertised as a solo set (perhaps his first of this kind since his Outback gigs early in his local residence.) Mike did say on the Facebook event page that it could be expanded to a set by his acid jam band Mike Haggith & The Din, but he did admit that he'd like to showcase his original material live, so we'll have to see what happens in his own second Swampstravaganza!

The other new band is actually credited as a joint set, as remember local/Grand Rapids folk/acoustic trio Ye Olde Mold Pickers from the second Swampstravaganza in 2012? Well, they're reuniting for at least one night on May 3rd in a combined set with their successors, Grand Rapids ragtime/blues trio The Filthy Cur, whose lineup is almost the same (just swap out Rihkee Strap for Mickey MacKenzie.) It remains to be seen if the two bands will merge for a full set, or if each individual band will play short mini-sets, but Ye Olde Mold Pickers had a unique sound that will be interesting to see back on the local stage, if only for a day! If they do play a combined full set, would Ye Olde Filthy Curs be a fitting name? Finally, the advertised solo set from promoter/RedD Monkey frontman Steve Mozarowski under the "faceityoureametalband" handle has been removed from the event page's lineup for unannounced reasons, though Steve did say that his performing involvement was not final.

Disappointing, but kudos to him for bringing the Swampstravaganza back this year! This year's Swampstravaganza lineup now has 7 confirmed acts, and I would assume at least 2 or 3 more are forthcoming, so stay tuned for updates at this link and here at the SMS!

Finally for today, here's some new videos from Brutaly Fatal frontman Austin McCrae! Uploaded to their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Wednesday, these join YouTube re-posts of two recent Facebook videos that Austin was featured in, and they're covers of Weezer's "Pork & Beans" and (as embedded below) Marcy Playground's "Sex & Candy"! Now, neither are metal songs, but I mention them here because they are both credited setlist songs of Austin and Tyler Gibson's punk/grunge band Re-Born, which morphed from the original Brutaly Fatal last month before they resurrected that band. I still don't know whether Re-Born are still operating independently or not, but either way, these are samples of what we can/could expect from that project. They do show Austin's development as a musician, and he can carry a tune, but the lack of a guitar here is noticeable, and will be more so live for this style. Check out his Marcy Playground cover below, and stay tuned in case we hear any updates on Re-Born's active status!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news soon, and I'll see you guys at The Canadian for Anvil! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Glitch), The Return Of Brutaly Fatal, And Much More!!

Keeping the news rolling on this Sunday morning, we have a lot of updates today, including some notifications of local band inactivity, major lineup adjustments for an upcoming all ages show, the return of a local death metal project, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Glitch will make a rare stop outside of The Rockstar Bar for a show on Friday, March 21st at The Harp Bar & Grill! Announced by guitarist Marco Pedalino on their Facebook group last week, this will be their first announced concert in over two months after taking February off, and just their second date at a location other than The Algonquin Hotel, but like their Toystock appearance in December, they're returning central for this show at the Food Basics plaza on Pine Street! I will note that this date conflicts with the usual Friday scheduling for fellow hard rock artist Tym Morrison's solo arrangement/hosted jam nights, but while possible March dates of his aren't out yet, he did bump two Harp dates last month to Saturdays, so the same could recur. Also, Glitch might be the first hard rock band to play at this venue in a non-unplugged setting since Garden of Bedlam headlined at the then-Madison's Pub in 2009, but if I hear differently, I'll let you guys know!

This 19+ show has a 10:00 PM start time, and there are no announced cover charges. For more details, check the above links! This could be interesting for more than just Glitch's entertaining experienced covers, as if it's successful, maybe The Harp will begin hosting more non-acoustic performers in the coming months? It remains to be seen, but keep Glitch's Harp debut in mind for the 21st, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, local goregrind/death metal project Brutaly Fatal is back... wait a minute, didn't they become Re-Born to go along with their move to a grunge/punk sound? Yes, but due to popular demand, singer/bassist Austin McCrae has resurrected Brutaly Fatal less than a month after the original version became Re-Born! Though the Re-Born Facebook page remains online, it hasn't been updated since February 7th, so it remains to be seen whether the two bands will operate independently (a'la Full Circle and the second Turner Up) or if Re-Born were "re-re-born". Also unknown is whether drummer Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson is back in the new Brutaly Fatal (for what it's worth, he's not acknowledged on the new version's Facebook page yet.) If anything comes out to clarify the status of Re-Born, I'll let you guys know! Austin has been writing new material for the new/old band, and is planning to record and upload some in the near future, while Brutaly Fatal have replaced Re-Born on the upcoming Dank Fest all ages show next month.

That makes sense, as Brutaly Fatal are a better fit stylistically (their timeslot also changed, which we'll elaborate on next.) This is surprising news, but hopefully the fans were right to get Brutaly Fatal back, and I'm curious to hear what's next, so stay tuned for updates, and they're now back in our active band links! (Also, seeing as this is the second incarnation, why not finally add the second L in "Brutally" to mark that?)

Third today, the lineup for the 14-band Dank Fest 2014 concert at The Oddfellows Hall on April 19th has had a major overhaul as per promoter Tyler St. Amour on the Facebook event page on Wednesday, with only 1 of the 14 bands (Rotopsy at 2:30 PM) retaining their original slot! Reasons for the mass changes were not publically announced, but Tyler warned us they were coming, and scheduling conflicts had to play in somehow. In descending order, the show will now be closed by local thrashers Pillory at 1:00 AM, with classic metal quintet Project 421 preceding them at 12:15 AM, solo goregrind project Crucify The Whore at 11:30 PM, and hardcore duo Bad Back now at 10:45 PM, all of which were bumped up in the order (in Project 421's case, by 5 hours!) The out of town headliners (North Bay's Thekillingfield & Buried Out Back) are now earlier at 9:45 PM & 8:45 PM respectively, while sludge trio AlgomA's set is now later at 8:00 PM. The next 4 bands were all put earlier in the order, those being funk metallers The Strange Coyotes at 7:15 PM, Orillia metal trio Like Animals at 6:30 PM, new alt-punk trio The Pixo Control at 5:45 PM, and Stillbroke successors Viva Emptiness at 5:00 PM.

Hard rockers The Danger Cats have moved up a timeslot to 4:15 PM, with the aforementioned Brutaly Fatal replacing Re-Born in the earlier 3:30 PM slot, and Rotopsy are still opening at 2:30 PM. Sweeping changes for sure, but aside from the North Bay bands, Project 421, and AlgomA, no one moved more than 2 timeslots, so the general timeframe for most bands is still in effect. I assume the out of town bands are earlier due to having to get back on the road, but as you saw at last year's Biipiigwan show, the headlining bands aren't always the last ones. Check the above links for full current details on Dank Fest, as this should be an explosive marathon!

Finally for today, here's notes on three local hard rock bands that we've moved to our inactive band links due to either lengthy inactivity, page deletions, or members focusing on other projects. As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name, and if we misjudged on any of these bands, let me know!

• Local metal duo AlterWhite are apparently defunct, as per the deletion of their Facebook page at some point in recent months, and with no substantial remaining pages beyond their YouTube channel, I've regrettably deleted them from our band links. Active from 2011-2013, they showed some promise from their studio material, but frontman Mike Matthews had focused on solo work since late 2012. Best of luck to Mike & Kevin in the future!
• I've moved local/Peterborough hardcore punk project Kidshit to our inactive band links as well due to a year's inactivity, as I've heard no finite information on the band since last spring, and with members Mark Rand & Jamie Vincent focusing on bands like AlgomA and Cross Dog in recent months, they're at least not a primary focus at present. We'll hear a lot more from both this year, but check out their free demo at the above link, and hopefully we'll see them back at it down the road!
• I've also moved local hard rock quartet The Side FX to our inactive band links due to their prolonged inactivity since last August, along with 2/3rds of their last members focusing on other primary projects at present (Rob Speers with The Elements and Derek Turner with Garden of Bedlam.) Notably featuring 2 alums of Papa Fogals Chair, The Side FX played live just once last July before activity stalled, but hopefully the guys stay active musically, and best of luck to Rob, Alex, Mike, and Derek!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Late Shift), Blood Shed Productions Updates, And More!!

Keeping the news rolling on this Saturday night, we have a new cover video, a bunch of recent updates from a local metal label (including a video & band renaming), but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month (and check out our review of the first Heavy Thursday at The Rosie in the post below this one!)

Newer local alternative hard rock quartet Late Shift will play just their second live set on Friday, February 21st as the opening band at an intriguing punk concert at The Rockstar Bar! Presented by local independent label Tidal Records, the headlining band will be local power pop/punk quartet The Wing-Its, who feature the owners of Tidal Records, and among them, a number of local punk notables, so the talent's definitely there for them! As well, recent Viva La Battle runners-up Northwest (whose name is one word now) will also be playing, and their indie/punk sound has definitely found an audience since their debut last fall, so keep them in mind as well! It's nice to see Late Shift (featuring Scary Uncles, Bankshot, and Fingerbone alumni) back at it, and hopefully they rock The Rockstar Bar hard in their first show there on the 21st! Is it odd that none of the three bands have a known Facebook page yet? Admission is $5 for this 19+ show, and a 9:00 PM start time is advertised. Visit the Facebook event page for more details!

This should be an entertaining mostly-punk show in a couple of weeks, but are you wondering what happened to the Late & Loud reunion show that was scheduled for The Rockstar Bar that night? It's still going on, but it will now take place downstairs at The Algonquin Pub (presumably to accommodate the Tidal Records show), as per promoter J.D. Pearce on the Facebook event page on Thursday. As a result, this will mark Late & Loud's first (and only?) appearance downstairs, though the openers are no strangers there. There's punk & hard rock on both floors on the 21st, so don't miss it!

Next up, here's some of the latest from local independent grind/metal label Blood Shed Productions, including the continued evolution of one of their bands, as Brutaly Fatal have changed their name to Re-Born. In a post on their Facebook page yesterday, frontman Austin McCrae cited the band's change in music genre for their show last month & recent recordings as reasons for the new name, though he didn't close the door on playing death metal entirely. I half expected a name change, as Brutaly Fatal didn't fit a band who didn't play extreme metal (the missing L in "brutally" always stood out too), and hopefully this change is what's best for Austin & Tyler in this project going forward! To go along with the name change, Re-Born have revealed some new covers that they've learned in recent weeks, including covers of everyone from Papa Roach and Nirvana to Marcy Playground and Weezer, including two originals. A lot of 1990s alternative is in there, but there's still hard rock to go around, so stay tuned for more from Re-Born as it rolls in!

Moving to more familiar sounds from the Blood Shed roster, Re-Born drummer Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson's other two-man project Rotopsy are featured in the newest video on the label's YouTube channel! Uploaded yesterday, this song is named "T.F.T.", and it was filmed at a recent jam session (though on the vertical cell phone camera angle again.) Funky sort of bass riff, but it has promise, and while I'd still like to hear more than just scattered growls and grunts from Dylan Taylor, he is more diverse here than I have seen! Check out Rotopsy's new video below, and stay tuned for more from Blood Shed Productions!



Finally for today, Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy posted another solo cover video onto his YouTube channel yesterday, this time covering Three Doors Down's "It's Not My Time"! Featuring him on all instruments, this lives up to Alex's recent solo consistency, and this was a good choice for his vocal range, but fans of his heavier earlier work may not take to it the same. Talented stuff though, and well compiled, so check out Alex's new video below, and check out his new Facebook page for his covers at this link!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news in the next few days, along with this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles on Monday! Thanks everyone!