As we continue to clear out some recent news and notes, here's a new news post featuring some assorted recent updates, new album reviews from metal websites, and the latest from a popular young metal duo, but first, here's some news from a rising local band's new website!
Did you know that local post-punk/garage rock quartet Gnaeus have an official website? Using the fittingly creative URL of http://www.gnae.us, the site has been active for at least a month, and it includes sporadic news updates, never before seen photos, a contact e-mail for bookings, a biography, and even a store to buy merchandise! In terms of new items, the biography details their formation and sound more than Facebook does, indicating that they formed last summer, they have lost some band members in their early run, and they call Gnaeus "an experiment" with a "home grown sound from the drudges of a Northern Ontario border town that refuses to be compared." The online store doesn't have anything in stock right now, but listed items (presumably for future sale) include t-shirts, posters, a lock of synth player Brad Irwin's hair (for $25!?) and... their debut EP?
Entitled "Loomings" with the cover art embedded above, the store lists it for $10 but only says that it's "coming soon". The band has referenced studio work in the past, and won studio time with Tidal Records at March's VM Radio Battle of the Bands, but is "Loomings" underway, or just the planned name and cover for when sessions fully begin? We'll let you know when/if more is announced, but check out their site above, it's well made so far!
Next up, here's the latest from local goregrind duo Rotopsy, so what's new from Tyler & Dylan's camp? Well, this is arguably old news now, but Rotopsy played a surpsise set at the Shit Liver-headlined house party concert on April 25th, which wasn't announced in advance but was likely well recieved by attendees and Blood Shed loyalists! As for when we can next see Rotopsy, they're actually planning their first ever full tour for the summer! Named partially after their new album, the tour lists three confirmed local dates, including June 25th's Menstrual Munchies show and dates with venues to be announced on July 1st & 4th, though the latter is separate from the AxMinister show at The Algonquin. A June 8th Sudbury date to be announced is also listed, as is Rotopsy's first ever appearance at the Touch of Death Metal & Punk Fest in Cochrane in June!
Along with the second straight appearance from Tyler Gibson's Crucify The Whore solo project and local rap/metal quartet The Apocalypse Afterparty the day before, Rotopsy will rock this year's T.O.D. Fest on Sunday, June 28th, continuing the recent run of local bands at the Corchrane festival (8 hours north of the Soo.) For reference, out of town bands from upcoming local shows like Horse Lung, AxMinister, Pantychrist, and Menstrual Munchies are also scheduled, with more to be announced. Rotopsy have a busy stretch ahead, so stay tuned as more rolls in!
Also, here's some long overdue new reviews of local doom metal trio AlgomA's debut CD "Reclaimed By The Forest"! On April 24th, Kunal Choksi of Doom-metal.com gave the album an 8.5/10, calling it "thunderous" and saying that it grows on you and is "solid as walls" caving on. Nice review with comparisons to other major doom bands, so give his review a look at this link! On April 15th, Eigen Beheer of the Dutch website Zware Metalen gave "Reclaimed By The Forest" a 70/100, and while you'll need a translator to read the review, Eigen seemed to say that this CD was "a lush sludge doom syrup" with a solid sound, though I believe he wished some songs were faster. Give this review a look at this link! Finally, Christian Denner of German website Metal1.info gave the album a 7.5/10, calling them "quite a surprising band" with skilled vocals, though you can tell the symbolism of the AlgomA name was lost in translation.
Give that review a look at this link! Both of the latter reviews require an online translator to read them unless you know the language(s), but all three are positive and show AlgomA's global exposure continuing to grow in the new year! Read each above, and buy AlgomA's CD at this link, The Rad Zone, or through band members!
Finally for today, here's three shorter updates from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
You may have seen this coming via recent postings relating to frontman J.D. Pearce's concert promotional work, but his local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades are officially now signed with Tidal Records, as per recent postings on their Facebook page, which include teases of "some wicked stuff coming up". Logical move for the guys, so stay tuned for more! Also, we've changed the name of J.D.'s promotional Facebook group from Johnny Pints Presents... to Tidal Records Presents... in our links to reflect it's name change and their new cooperation.
On April 19th, Haggith drummer Mike Haggith quietly released one more promotional digital EP named "Candy Is A Hooker's Name" onto his Bandcamp page featuring three songs (including the title track) from his upcoming full length solo album "The Warinside". Another nice bonus for fans in advance of the full CD's release, so buy it above for any price you want! And yes, we will review "The Warinside" when it's out.
On April 20th, Telephone & Address mainman Chris Shoust revealed on their Facebook page that the local lo-fi punk/grunge solo project's new album will be called "Monster", and it's done and recorded with a planned pressing to occur "by July" while he gets funding for this CD. No word on the track listing, musical themes, or Bandcamp release yet, but stay tuned in the coming months for more updates on this (and "The Early Tapes"?)
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews to come! Thanks everyone!
Before we tackle a busy weekend for hard rock concerts, here's one more news post for this Wednesday night, but be sure to check out this morning's Defunct Local Band Profile on Half Past below this post! Tonight, we have some more recent CD reviews, more videos from a recent benefit concert, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the end of the year, so here's what you need to know!
Local alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control and post punk/garage quartet Gnaeus will return to the stage for a end-of-year show at Cafe Natura on Tuesday, December 30th! Specifically taking place in the Elgin Street whole foods restaurant & venue's basement for unannounced reasons, this will be The Pixo Control's first Cafe Natura set in over 6 months, while it will be Gnaeus' first show anywhere since August's Emergency Festival. Look for both to have some exciting newer originals as they end 2014 with a bang! This show's advertised headline act is local folk musician Chris West's Great Chamberlain solo project, while local blues rock quartet The Frasiers will reunite over four months after their announced breakup on December 30th as well, so if you've missed them, you're in luck! Promoted by Frasiers bassist Brenden Fitzgerald, this show has NO COVER CHARGE, no announced age limit, and time slots to be announced. For more details, visit the Facebook event page!
This should be an entertaining concert, especially as all but The Pixo Control haven't played a publically announced show since the summer! Keep tabs on it over the holidays for a varied mix of sounds from Lopstock and Emergency Festival acts, and as they've now hosted two distinct shows with hard rock or punk acts, we're now listing Cafe Natura in our active Sault Ontario concert venue links!
Next up, here's some more videos from last month's third annual Toystock charity concert at The Canadian Nightclub! First, Bone Yard/That's Chester drummer Ric Datson uploaded this compilation of clips from the day's acts onto his YouTube channel last week, so what can you catch in the 9 minute+ video? In order, we have The Stumpy Coldwater Trio covering The Steeldrivers' "Guitars, Whiskey, Guns, and Knives" & a song that I can't place, followed by Robert "Killabeatz" Drolet beatboxing, the arrival of Santa & Mrs. Claus, Lorrie Lynn & The Sinners playing "Swear When I Pray", The Pixo Control playing "Land of the Moles" & clips of two later originals, Thin Ice covering Jason Aldean's "The Only Way I Know", Domina covering Pat Benatar's "All Fired Up" and clips of four later covers, Mourning Wood covering Bon Jovi's "It's My Life", Mannapool playing their song "Mayday", and closing with five assorted clips of Bone Yard playing various covers, so click each band's name to see them!
Note however that Ric did not film Mike Case's Junior All Stars or Lucky 13 (at least, not in clips included below) for unannounced reasons, though we'll have more from the former in an upcoming post. Solid footage overall at varied angles, despite Ric's lack of zoom on the clips, though the filmer for his band Bone Yard's footage did go closer to the stage. I wonder if the longer footage of The Pixo Control & Domina's sets is a sign of confidence for both bands' success and talent? Though most of the footage is from each band's first song (a'la Mike Caruso's videos), Ric did a solid job getting these clips, so see them below, and stay tuned for more!
Also from Toystock, here's the last of the aforementioned Mike Caruso's videos from the event! Uploaded to the Sault Online correspondent's own YouTube channel last week along with the videos we shared on Saturday, the last three videos that Mike shot are of prog-rockers Mannapool playing their first original song (credited on their setlist as "Chaos", but that's likely not it's full name), country headliners Bone Yard covering Brantley Gilbert's "Country Must Be Country Wide", and embedded below, classic/hard rock trio Mourning Wood covering Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way". Like with Mike's other videos, these have washed out colours due to the auto-brightening filter, and sometimes have quality jumps due to camera switches, but they're solid all around, and fans should enjoy these videos if you're a fan of the respective genres! Give Mourning Wood's video a look below, and see more via the above links!
Finally for today, here's some more reviews of local sludge/doom metal trio AlgomA's debut CD "Reclaimed By The Forest"! Last week, Marcos Garcia from the website Metal Temple reviewed the album, giving it an 8/10 rating ("Excellent" on their scale), calling it "a savage Sasquatch on a furious attack", even praising Mark Rand's mix of the tracks, and praised them as having "a very good future". Nice review, so give it a look at this link! The Tumblr page Doomed & Stoned also reviewed "Reclaimed By The Forest" yesterday, where they called it "well-crafted doom" and "a crushing listen" in a brief review, though they did tag it as one of their best metal albums of the year. Short but well stated, so give it a look at this location! Lastly for now, AlgomA made a cameo in MetalSucks' article on the best metal albums of the year (as chosen by various metal musicians), where Hooded Menace frontman Lasse Pyykko ranked AlgomA's CD as his 9th favourite album of 2014, joining such bands as Pallbearer and Godflesh, among others.
Solid all around, so see more of the rankings here, and stay tuned for more from AlgomA! That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!
Our steady news stream continues today with new videos from a local band, reviews of the new CD of another, and leading off, a new-ish band to add to our links on the site, so here's what you should know!
We have a new band to add to our Sault Michigan band links, and they are Highway 63! Essentially the successors to Jager/Monkey's Uncle, Sir Charge, and RamWagon, the band originally formed and made their live debut in March, but the wait to add them to our listings came because they originally identified as a country rock band, though they've since shifted their focus back to a Monkey's Uncle-esque set. Currently, their lineup features Henry Switzer on lead vocals and guitar, alongside his son/frequent bandmate Nathan on guitar, Power Slug's Chris Leask (the only non-Monkey's Uncle alum) on bass, and Ron Suchey on drums, while their original lineup featured Nathan on bass with his & Ron's RamWagon bandmate Ryan Kitzmiller on guitar. Named after the H-63 highway in the Easter Upper Peninsula, Highway 63 played some test sets at The Rapids Lounge in the spring before taking the summer off to round out a full cover set.
The band returned with shows at the Dondee Lanes in October, and have since played a Halloween show at The American Legion as well as new gigs at both the Soo and St. Ignace Kewadin Casino branches, most recently at The Rapids Lounge this past weekend, though upcoming gigs have yet to be announced. It should be noted though that Highway 63 are much more active on Facebook than Sir Charge ever were, so that's great news for fans! In terms of their sound, we do have samples of it via some Facebook video posts and shares, which include videos of them covering The Outfield's "Your Love" in St. Ignace, and from this past weekend, covers of Shinedown's "Save Me" and (as embedded below) Bad Company's "Rock 'N Roll Fantasy", while Black Sabbath and Foreigner covers have been teased in status updates. If you were a fan of Henry's past local cover bands, you should have a similar enjoyment for Highway 63, who at this point are showing a unique cover selection of their own!
The new band sounds good and tight so far, with the guys' old Monkey's Uncle-era chemistry carrying over to Highway 63, and Henry has highly praised the new band in recent days as well, so be sure to keep an eye out for them in the area! No word on what Chris' involvement means for Power Slug's status, as they haven't posted on their Facebook page in almost a month, and haven't played very much over the fall, but hopefully we hear more soon. Check out Highway 63 above, and here they are this past weekend in the Soo!
Next up, here's some more new videos from Sault Ontario grunge/alternative trio The Pixo Control! Courtesy of Gnaeus drummer Brendan Garlick's new YouTube channel, these come from their set at Lopstock at LopLops Lounge on June 28th, and feature The Pixo Control playing their songs "The Great Salute To Radio Edits", "Reasons", and as embedded below, "Sixty Extra Chances Called Minutes". All filmed by attendee Jason Lloyd (who also filmed this Gnaeus video at Lopstock), these are great quality live videos, and capture some songs that haven't gotten the same amount of filmed attention from their sets, so give them a look above and below for some nice and grungy original action from The Pixo Control!
Finally for today, here's some long overdue new reviews of local sludge/doom metal trio AlgomA's debut CD "Reclaimed By The Forest"! On November 5th, Chris Wheeler from the Quebec metal site Ondes Chocs reviewed the album, giving it a 7/10 while saying that the guys made "a noticeable impression" with unconventional riff ideas. Solid if brief review, so check it out here! Diego Benedetto from the Spanish metal blog Puro Roido ("Pure Noise") reviewed the CD on November 11th, and while you'll need Spanish knowledge or a translator to read it, Diego called the album a "pleasant surprise", and also praised their guitar riff variances. Hard to read through an auto-translator, but you can tackle it at this link! Lastly for now, the metal blog Wonderbox Metal checked out "Reclaimed By The Forest" on November 12th, where the reviewer called it "a smorgasbord of heaviness, crunchy guitars and bile", praising the album's sludge content and heaviness. Solid review also, so check it out here, and stay tuned for more!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!
In what will likely be our last non-poll/preview/review post for a few days (I'm clean out of back news stories right now), we have some assorted topics and randomness for you guys on this Wednesday morning, including more updates to our monthly CD reviews, some shorter news & notes, a new video from a local metal band, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for said band's next concert, so read on below for all that you need to know!
Local metal standouts Garden of Bedlam are returning to the stage near the end of the month! Three months since opening for Anvil, the guys will make their first Rockstar Bar appearance since May for a concert on Tuesday, October 30th, which will double as both a Halloween/Devil's Night concert and as an 18th birthday celebration for local music/skate shop The Rad Zone! Awesome to see them still thriving & rocking the Soo, and they're helping present this concert from their friends (and one employee) that should attract a sizeable crowd! Similarly to other Halloween-timeframe concerts in town, there will be a costume contest (and a door prize) with Rad Zone gift certificates at stake, so bring your best costume if you want in on some of the action! Like Garden of Bedlam's previous Rockstar Bar shows, there is no announced opening band, and there will be a 19+ age limit, a $5 cover charge, and a start time likely around 10:00 PM or later. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!
It's great to see Garden of Bedlam finally back on the local stage, and this adds really nicely to a busy stretch of Halloween shows in town, which (for one weekend at least) will help alleviate the slow stretch of heavier concerts in Sault Ontario! Though it's odd that this isn't on Halloween weekend itself, hopefully Devil's Night is a blast, and I definitely hope to be at The Rockstar Bar on the 30th! Possibly to promote the new show, Garden of Bedlam posted this new drum-cam video onto their current YouTube channel yesterday, and it's of drummer Derek Turner playing "Everything Will Die" during a recent band rehearsal! Great quality, and you get some closer glimpses of Derek drumming than we ever tend to see, but part of me would like to see the full band's angle as well. We'll get our chance on Devil's Night, but before then, check out their new "Everything Will Die" drum-cam video below!
Also, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band name:
I've moved Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie's black metal solo project Eden Plague to our inactive band links due to his deletion of their Facebook page (and impending year's inactivity next week.) Mitch worked on this project for about a year from 2010-2011, and he had some heavy material, but he's focused more on his bands lately, including the yet-revealed Sorrow Fields, another solo project. I like his Eden Plague work, and hopefully Mitch revisits this stuff down the road!
Eckerman, Michigan metal quartet Life's Eclipse posted another promising instrumental metal demo named "The Beaten, The Fallen, The Mercy" onto their mainman Jason Mills' SoundCloud page last week, so check it out at this location! Very heavy and technical, and it should add well to their newly planned "Dark Kingdom" album when finished, so give it a listen above!
If you were curious on who the new local band/Dearly Beloved openers The Northern Tragedy were, they're a punk trio featuring Changing Waves bassist Terrence Gomes on drums & vocals alongside guitarist Mike Ivany & bassist Corry Rideout, and they're somewhat similar to Terrence's old Good Morning Gorilla work. Not metal, but their first video has catchy parts, so click here to check it out! Thanks to Terrence for the info! (Note that I don't know if The Northern Tragedy's existence means anything negative for Changing Waves' status.)
And finally for today, here's some more updates to the information and pictures used in our monthly CD reviews! Note that almost all of these include restored or replaced photos to make up for MySpace/Facebook link changes or photo deletions. On our review of Stillbroke's only EP "Never Enough", I edited references to their now-inactive status, the EP being out of print, their later name change to Borderline Divine, and indicating that the only song to survive into the Borderline Divine era was "No Reason". In our reviews of Woods of Ypres' 1st, 2nd, and 4th albums, I've updated & detailed references to their then-lineups (including frontman David Gold's passing) along with the availability and release statuses of the albums, which are for the most part online-only at the moment. For our review of Detroit's "Brace For Impact" EP, I freshened up some references and reinforced their inactive status and this album's status as their last release, while on our review of Garden of Bedlam's first EP, I noted where you can hear it for free at present, as the band has posted it on some of their pages. Stay tuned for more updates to our monthly CD reviews at some point in the future!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for next month's new poll at the SMS and this month's poll results tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Wow, it's been a slow streak for news lately, hasn't it? That, and I got a cold that's sapped some of my energy, but there definitely hasn't been a lot of news this week so far, which explains the wait for this new post. We've got stuff today though, including your first glimpse of a new local band, a new video from a late 1990s metal band, some new "W5" reviews, updates to one of our monthly feature series, and a new video from a local guitarist, so read on below for what you need to know!
First up, here's our first video footage of new local hardcore band With Blood Builds Character! The new band formed by members of March Into Regression of course debuted at the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem in Laird on Saturday, and two videos of their set were shot by attendee Tiia Opala-Ollinaho and uploaded to Facebook over the last couple of days, so click here to check them both out! I normally wouldn't share new personal Facebook page-uploaded videos here, but when it's all you have, they're too notable to not share! One video features W.B.B.C.'s current lineup (plus guest drummer Travis St. Amour, who's not staying full time from what I have heard), and the other video features M.I.R. singer/Bear Hunters guitarist Josh Stephney filling in on vocals. Not sure on the exact identity of either song, but the latter sounds familiar. These videos are of solid quality (though the first one is flipped sideways for some reason), and Jeremy does add a unique spin compared to most recent hardcore singers locally, though I've noticed from available photos and videos that their set on Saturday may have taken a more jam session/informal feel like March Into Regression's shows did. Even former M.I.R. bassist Dan Souliere is seen filling in for Tyler St. Amour in some photos I've seen , so it's almost like it was the same band with a different name.
I hope there's more distinction between With Blood Builds Character and March Into Regression in the future (if they are indeed different bands as Travis had said), but either way, W.B.B.C. and M.I.R. both have promise, and hopefully we'll see and hear more from them to come, so stay tuned for updates!
Next up, here's a new video from defunct local hardcore punk trio BeeFMouTH! This is of Kevin Campbell & Boyd Rendell's old band playing their song "Tar" at a 1999 jam session, and it was uploaded to Boyd's YouTube channel on July 31st following some post-editing by Boyd's film company 62nd Chamber Productions (who are now in our "Other Local Metal Links" section.) Now, the video has a 62nd Chamber watermark, no letterboxes, a green hue and some more old fashioned effects, and a sound upgrade, and while I don't know if I'd have made it look older, it's a nice look back 13 years! The audio's decent, and though the members all face each other, the video quality isn't bad. "Tar" has that solid mix of high pitched vocals and heaviness again, though this is slower and doomier than some of BeeFMouTH's other available tracks. It's definitely worth checking out, and kudos to Boyd for posting this online for us to check out, so give BeeFMouTH's performance of "Tar" a look below!
Thirdly, here's yet more reviews of Woods of Ypres' powerful final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! In February, "Patrick" from the blog Beards etc. gave an A grade to "Woods V", calling it "a very emotional experience" and an early contender for album of the year (although he admitted being biased), even admitting that parts of the album brought him close to tears. It's great to know that David Gold's music can have that effect on some people, it's a testament to his songwriting skills and influence, and check out Patrick's review at this location! In April, Peter Clegg from the blog We Must Obey gave "W5" a positive review, calling it "phenomenal" and a "fitting epitaph", while emphasizing the finality and "death note" feeling that it gave. Solid review, and well written, so click here to read it! Finally, a writer at the doom metal website Doommantia gave "Woods V" a 7/10 rating in February, recommending the album on it's heavy & emotional lyrics, though docking points for what they saw as "minimalist" and "fairly simple" music. I appreciate the honesty in their comparisons to other doom metal bands and the musical quality, but I'd say David & Joel deserve more credit. Still, great points are raised, so click here for their review, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews as I find them!
Also, here's some assorted updates to our YouTube Channel Profile Series, just to make our entries in that monthly feature series more accurate & current. In our Garden of Bedlam YouTube channel profile, I edited the channel info to note that it's no longer their currently-used YouTube channel (that distinction belongs to the "Videos of Bedlam" channel), along with noting that the former Foggy Notions (a frequent early venue of theirs) is now the new Coch's Corner, and also a minor note on songs from their Rotaryfest 2010 set now being on their "Everything Will Die" CD. Similarly, I edited the profile on guitarist Josh Belleau's YouTube channel to note the abundance of official channels. On the joeybeairl channel profile, I renamed Unleashed drummer Jacob Hotland's current band from Tantrum to their new name Tantrym Tyme, and I also restored the video for Candle Hour's song "Overture" due to it's link changing for one reason or another on their channel's profile. Finally for this batch of updates, I noted that ex-Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie has posted a new video to his YouTube channel in our profile of his channel, and because we haven't featured it here before, let's talk about it right now to close this post!
Posted on July 3rd, this must have got lost in the shuffle of our 5th anniversary posts, but it's of Scott's solo cover of the Periphery song "New Groove" (or, about 90 seconds of it.) It's very well done, but I wish Scott had covered more of the original track, but it's a solid start, and he knows it really well! Very technical, but he can handle it for the most part, so check out Scott's newest video below, and stay tuned for more on both him and our next YouTube Channel Profile updates soon!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this weekend's concert previews either tomorrow or Friday morning! Thanks everyone!
We haven't done one of these for a while, but with news piling up, now's as good a time as ever to devote a single post to defunct local blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres and their late frontman David Gold! In this post, we have some newly discovered reviews of their last album, updates on the upcoming Woods of Ypres tribute album & the songs to be included, a new interview with one of the band's last members, and leading things off, a very special audio upload from last summer, so here's what you need to know!
An audio recording of Woods of Ypres' last live concert has been posted online! A user on the website Reddit named Nikolai77 recorded the audio from their 45 minute set at Strange Matter in Richmond, Virginia on June 9th, 2011, and uploaded to MediaFire shortly afterwards with permission from David Gold, and with it making the rounds online, I thought it deserved a spotlight on the SMS! In their final concert, Woods of Ypres played (in order) "The Sea of Immeasurable Loss", "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part 1)", "Falling Apart", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", "Wet Leather", and "Awaiting The Inevitable", with "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" as an encore, making that the last song they ever played on stage. If you're curious, there's no foreshadowing to David Gold's death in the on-stage banter, and the "inevitable end" referred to before "Awaiting The Inevitable" was clearly relating to their tour & set that night, so don't read into everything for stuff that isn't there. The audio quality is pretty good, and Woods of Ypres sounded as brutal as they ever did in their doom era, though it'd have been cool to have heard at least one "Woods III" song or "A Meeting Place & Time" at this show.
This is a very important piece of media, especially knowing that this was the last time a live audience saw Woods of Ypres or David Gold live on stage, so I highly recommend downloading this file to check out Woods of Ypres' final concert, which you can do at this location! I hope video footage turns up of it if at all possible, but this will do for now. Extreme kudos to Nikolai77 for the upload!
Also in Woods of Ypres-related news, a new interview/article with final drummer Rae Amitay has been posted online to check out as well! Conducted by Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles journalist Carl Begai and posted on his website on Friday, the article features Rae talking about her brief tenure with Woods of Ypres (which ended before they could announce that she'd joined) and the aftermath and related events in 2012. Rae discussed how she got involved in performing at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario in April, how important it was for guitarist Joel Violette to be a part, thoughts on how that and the Toronto tribute show went, how she joined Woods of Ypres, the rough plans for 2012 had David lived into the new year, her musical past and influences, if she was intimidated playing in a band with another accomplished drummer, her favourite Woods material to play, the end of the band, and her current plans. In terms of new developments, the biggest thing revealed is that Rae has replaced David as the drummer in Joel Violette's black metal project Thrawsunblat, which I figured might happen, and she's a perfect choice to take over knowing how connected to Woods of Ypres she's become in such a short time!
This is another great Woods of Ypres article from Carl Begai, and it's nice to see how much Woods of Ypres can impact it's members, no matter how brief their tenure was! Though I'd love to hear Brendan Hayter's views on everything that's happened since November as well, Rae gave some great insights into the last while as a Woods of Ypres member and fan, and I bet she'd have been a quality addition had she been able to play with them this year! Head to this location for the full article! Also today, here's more updates on "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres"! The planned David Gold/Woods of Ypres tribute album is still very much in progress with some of the covers finished and sent for inclusion, and a reportedly final track listing has been released to boththe album's Facebook group and brand new Facebook page. 21 songs by 21 acts are now confirmed, making this a likely double album, and the confirmed bands include Novembers Doom, Empyrean Plague, Gypsy Chief Goliath, Eclipse Eternal, Pagan Ritual, Panzerfaust, and local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters covering the songs they played at the David Gold tribute concerts, along with Woods alums Joel Violette & Rae Amitay playing "Silver" from "Woods V" (they played that at the local tribute show too), along with numerous other talented bands from many different regions. Notably, Novembers Doom frontman Paul Kuhr will join up with Will Bozarth for a cover of "Finality" under the band name Kuhrzarth, which sounds intriguing! If you're wondering, the track listing is broken down very evenly across Woods of Ypres' discography, with 4 songs each coming from all of their main albums except "Woods IV" (which has 3 represented tracks), while both songs from their "Home" single are also being covered.
Also of note: 9 of the 12 "Woods I-III" tracks being covered were included on the "Independent Nature" compilation album they put out in 2009, so I imagine David would likely approve of the final track listing. This sounds like a great compilation, and I hope this album is a huge hit when it comes out, which apparently may include a CD release party in Toronto, so stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and I've added the tribute album's Facebook page to our "Other Local Metal Links", as it's completely in honour of the music and compositions of a local metal great! And finally, here's some more reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! On June 20th, DarkNoctus from the metal website Sputnik Music gave "W5" an average rating of 2.5/5, calling it "not bad, not good", though admitting it was much better than it's predecessors, which he didn't like (especially "Woods IV".) I appreciate his candor, but I disagree with his older album views, while liking his views on what improved and what could have lied ahead, so check out this review by clicking here! In a more positive review, "psorbh09" from the blog Ether Load Crunch gave "Woods V" 4 stars out of 5 on April 27th, calling it "an allegory of truths, questions, and living", while praising it's themes and messages, though the lack of criticisms doesn't gel with the rating. Nice review, so check it out at this location! Finally for today, Andy Turner from the metal website Bigger Than Satan gave the album a 4.5/5 rating in a review last month, calling "Woods V" a "fitting memorial to David Gold", while drawing attention to the upbeat yet dark nature of the album and a belief that the album is in tribute to David. Nice high praise (though he credited their last full lineup for this album when Brendan & Rae didn't perform on the CD), so click here to read this new review, and stay tuned for more at some point!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for a full news post later tonight! Thanks everyone!
Let's get a new news post up on the site to cover some other recent news! I'm going out of town tomorrow afternoon, so updates may be slower over the coming week, but I fully intend to have weekend concert previews and more news on the site over the next little while, so don't miss a thing over the coming days! So for today, we have news on a local concert venue's reopening & new home, the ultimate fate of one of our former rock radio stations, some new "Woods V" reviews, and this week's classic video, so here's what you need to know!
The new Coch's Corner is officially open for business, as of yesterday! The local bar & concert spot is now operating at it's new home, at the former Foggy Notions location at 708 Queen Street East, two months after they left the old Days Inn location on Bay Street, as per a bunch of recent postings on Facebook (though note that Coch's Corner's Facebook group has yet to publically confirm the news.) From what I understand, the bar is fully operational except for the restaurant, which isn't running yet but will be implemented. I have yet to see the newly renovated location to figure out how different it looks, or if there will still be a stage for bands, but you guys know I'll have more on that as I hear of it! The re-opening ends an almost 6 month hiatus for public activity at 708 Queen, following the end of Foggy's brief successor Feedback in January and the lease transfer, and it's good to finally hear that Paul and the rest of the staff are back up & running! Coch's and Foggy's fans should definitely be amped for the re-opening, and even if it'll be different given the merger of sorts for the two bars, hopefully Coch's Corner can avoid the noise complaint concerns and other petty things that hung up the previous bars at that spot. Stay tuned for updates as I hear of them, and head to the newly open Coch's Corner's new home tonight if you can!
Next up, I wanted to fill you guys in on what happened to a local radio station that had a lot of metal and hard rock relevance during it's run. As you may remember, Classic Rock: The Bear (WIHC, 97.9 FM) served the Sault Ste. Marie/Newberry, Michigan radio market for 8 years from 2002-2010 before Northern Star Broadcasting left the Upper Peninsula and sold most of their U.P. stations to Sovereign Communications, who now own most of the non-religious stations in the area. WIHC was the only U.P. station left out of the sale to avoid going over FCC limits for regional station ownership, but Northern Star Broadcasting took 97.9 FM dark in February 2010, as the station wasn't financially viable and was operating at a loss (source here.) We got the station back (sort of) a few months later when WLJZ (94.5 FM) out of Mackinaw City switched from a country format to a Bear simulcast, returning heavier music to that frequency, which once hosted the modern rock station The Zone in the mid-2000s. Better radios here can pick up The Bear on 94.5 FM, so it's worth scoping out to see where and if you can hear it here! That said, what ever happened to WIHC out of Newberry?
Well, it's back on the air, but in a very different format than what we remember. In November, West Central Michigan Media Ministries bought WIHC from Northern Star for $150,000, and they brought it back in March as Strong Tower Radio, a religious talk station simulcasted from Cadillac, making it the fifth Christian-based FM station in the Twin Sault markets. Click here for more info. I hardly see the need for that many religious radio stations in such a small market area, but at least this one seems to be talk radio based, so it is some variance from the four Christian contemporary music stations here. I hope the new format is a success for the owners and for the more religious radio listeners around here, but it still would be nice to hear even one more rock-ish station locally. Check the above links for more on the saga of 97.9 FM over the past couple of years!
Now, here's some more reviews of Woods of Ypres' last recorded studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", which is still attracting lots of critical notices! In January, Tom Dare from the metal website Thrash Hits gave "Woods V" a score of 5 out of 6, calling the songs "bloody good", though emphasizing the difficulty it takes to listen to the material given what happened to David Gold and the lyrical content. Nice insightful review, though filled with quotes, so check it out at this location! The following month, Khalil Mikael from the blog Melodic Reviews gave "Woods V" a 98% rating, highly praising it for it's brilliant instrumentation, musical variance, and philosophical lyrics, though I don't know if I agree with the HIM comparison on "Death Is Not an Exit". Another solid review, so click here to give it a look! Finally for today, "Khelek" from the website Metal Reviews gave this album a surprisingly low rating of 30%, criticizing Woods of Ypres for playing it safe, dumbing down their existing sound (he gave "Woods IV" 60%) into what he thought was a bland & monotonous style, and only recommended "W5" to existing fans. I applaud his honesty, but I'd say that he didn't really get into the right mindset to appreciate the album's mood. Still, check out his review at this location, and if you can't see the text, press Ctrl & A on your keyboard! Stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews in the near future!
And finally, here's this week's classic video! With a light upcoming weekend for shows that I can project, we're dipping into the general archives once again for this latest video, which is of the former local metal quintet Lion Ride! The local/Toronto standouts brought their high impact blend of punk and metal to many concerts during their 5 year run, and this video comes from an earlier show of theirs on Boxing Day 2008 at the old Coch's Corner. One video from the same filmer is already on YouTube via frontman Mikey Lion's YouTube channel, of Lion Ride playing "Lock Me In" at this concert, but the other video is new to YouTube, and it's of Lion Ride playing their song "Slapdance"! Lion Ride's 2008-2009 lineup is represented here, including Mikey on vocals, guitarists Marky & Marco Lion, then-new bassist Diamond Brent Panther, and original drummer Marc "The Italian Stallion" Muto (in what may have been his last local show with Lion Ride.) The audio quality is this video's main downfall, as it's very distorted on the verses & choruses, which almost completely drowns out Mikey's singing. That said, the video quality isn't bad, and it's shot from a decent angle, with the guys making the most of the tables at the old Coch's!
This video was shot by a concert attendee and was uploaded to Facebook two days after the show at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=54331212992. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Lion Ride, I'm just trying to share it with a wider audience! Audio issues aside, their talents are visible and their energy is top notch, so give this new old Lion Ride video a look below!
That's probably all for today, but stay tuned for news and previews in the next little while! Thanks everyone!
The news keeps on coming, and we've got some big stuff to talk about today! In this post, we have assorted stories from some young local bands, some more "Woods V" reviews, how you can see a recent metal-relevant Shaw TV interview online, and your first glimpse at an upcoming local metal EP, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT that marks some familiar faces' return to the Soo!
Toronto old school hardcore punk quintet Maximum RNR are coming back to Sault Ontario at the end of this month for their third local appearance! The band fronted by former Saultite & ex-Lion Ride bassist Brenton "Diamond Brent Panther" Ellis will hit The Rockstar Bar on June 30th for their first local concert date since their February 2011 headlining gig at the future Coch's Corner, and you know this should shape up to be a huge concert! My source is their official website's concert listings, with this very nice poster for the event also posted on the band's Facebook page. Notably, this will be Maximum RNR's first Sault Ste. Marie stop since Brent's former Detroit & The Labour Of... bandmate (and fellow Saultite) Curtis Faux replaced Davey Dee as their bassist, so if you've missed Brent & Curtis on stage locally in their various projects, keep this June 30th gig in mind, especially as Maximum RNR's current sound will be very familiar to Detroit fans! The openers will be local country/punk favourites The Billy Bastards in their 2012 debut, which will return guitarist John Conway to an opening slot for Maximum RNR, having opened for them with Destroilet last February. It's about time that The Billys returned, as you know their unique and fan friendly sounds will attract lots of notice!
Admission will be $5 for this concert, it will be a 19+ event, and a 10:00 PM-ish start time is likely. For more details, visit the above links! It's great to see Maximum RNR schedule a return to the Soo this month, and hopefully I can make it for this Saturday night show! I missed their last show here due to a cold, but I don't intend on being absent this time around! The Rockstar Bar doesn't tend to have a lot of hardcore-leaning bands, but it's a very nice venue that's familiar to the performers, and hopefully this show is a huge hit! Stay tuned for updates on Maximum RNR's show at the end of the month as they roll in!
Next up, here's some more recent news from local classic metal quartet Late & Loud! In recent days, they've been making more out of their Reverbnation page than some other local bands do, including making some interesting blog posts and uploading some new samples from their upcoming debut demo/EP! This includes 36 second-long samples of 4 tracks and a full copy of their original "Whisper of the Damned", and while I won't give any detailed assessments yet (wait for the full review), the recording quality is better than I expected on first listen! Check the above links to hear the new audio clips (and full song), but when could we possibly see this EP? According to posts late last month on Late & Loud's Reverbnation blog, they're working on a release date for the EP and are looking into an iTunes release, while they're hoping to play a show at The Canadian Nightclub "mid-summer" with an opening band to be announced. If the album is out by then, the first 10 to be made public will be autographed by the band members. It looks like Late & Loud have a lot of stuff in the works for the summer once their little live break wraps up, and hopefully by next month, all of the excitement will be more public for us to take note of! Stay tuned for more Late & Loud news as it comes in, and check out the new audio clips!
Also today, remember last month when the Shaw TV interview piece with local metal standouts Garden of Bedlam ran on Channel 10 for local Shaw Cable customers? Well, it's televised run has ended, but never fear, as Shaw TV Sault Ste. Marie's YouTube channel now features an upload of the 5 minute feature, so you can now check it out at your leisure online! Of course, this was shot at and around their May 12th headlining gig at The Rockstar Bar, and features clips of Garden of Bedlam playing three songs interspersed with a wide range of interview footage addressing many topics relating to the band. The only real new item I have compared to when we originally covered this interview was that this was indeed produced by former local punk singer Christian Lemay, despite the lack of voiceover audio that we're used to from his last metal-relevant interviews for Shaw TV's local branch. I actually have some more local press-related videos to share from the May 12th Garden of Bedlam show to share on the site later in the week, but for now, give their Shaw TV interview a look below!
Fourthly, here's a few more reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! Well, the first one apparently is more of a "first impression" rather than a critical opinion, but Apoch from the website Apoch's Metal Reviews gave a mixed-positive assessment on first listen of "Woods V", and though he had many faults for the album's mood and similarities to some other artists, he liked the growth Woods of Ypres were showing on this album, and it's interesting to see a writeup on the album without referencing David Gold's passing. Click here to check it out! In February, "Chris" from the website Metal Psalter gave "W5" 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "the perfect goodbye to David Gold", and called each track "a little trek" to the soul, and despite the missing star, he was mostly very complimentary and diverse with his opinions. Nice review, so check it out at this location! Finally, Martjin Welzen from Mass Movement Magazine gave "Woods V" a positive, but brief review in February, calling it a "great" and "pure Woods of Ypres record", while also complimenting the more upbeat sounds and insightful lyrics compared to "Woods IV". Short, but worth checking out, so click here to do so, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews sooner or later!
And finally, here's a few assorted shorter stories from the last little while, all of which revolve around younger high school-age bands from the last year or so. As always, these are in alphabetical order by band or artist name:
Local musician Aaron Desmoulin is looking for high school-age musicians for a hard rock project he's starting up, possibly to write original songs. He can sing & play bass, he has a room set up to jam in, and he's interested in playing Guns N' Roses or Motley Crue-esque hard rock. If you're at all interested, contact Aaron A.S.A.P. at this location or via his post on Sunday at the Musicians Wanted Facebook group!
I'll likely be moving Pickford hard rock outfit Beyond The Surface to our inactive band links tomorrow due to a year's inactivity. The Sault Michigan-area band featuring Unleashed & Focus alumni haven't been visibly active since a year ago tomorrow, when they uploaded a new photo to their Facebook page. They had promise & some successes at area talent shows, so hopefully they (or their members) pop up again in the near future!
Apparently, local/North Shore metal quartet Crimson Crusade played a set of some type yesterday at the Ho Shin Sool Martial Arts Centre on Korah Road. Odd on the surface, but I assume one of the band members trains there. From what little I know, it wasn't a publically available "concert", so I didn't call it on here, but hopefully it went well, and check the above links for more on Crimson Crusade, including their current setlist!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews tonight or early tomorrow, along with this week's classic video and that second archive Woods of Ypres magazine interview! Thanks everyone!
In what will probably be our last news post of May 2012, we've stacked the deck with plenty of stories, including this week's classic video, plenty of Woods of Ypres news (including a new interview & some new CD reviews), and even more, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month, so here's what you need to know! (And make sure to check out our weekend concert preview post, featuring some recently announced dates, in the post below this one!)
Fresh off of the announcement of Caveman Morrison's late 2010 lineup's reunion this weekend at The Rosie, frontman Tym Morrison has also confirmed his next solo concert dates, which will come on June 15th & 16th at The Service Grill! These come four weeks after his solo acoustic set returned with his new guitar, and like his shows at the Korah Road restaurant last weekend, these will both include two sets of four hours in length on both the Friday & Saturday gigs, so there's plenty of time to catch Tym's entertaining metal & hard rock covers live in two weeks! Both of these shows will likely have no cover charge or age limit (knowing the restaurant setting), and the sets each night should begin at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM with a one hour break at around 7:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! These should make for a solid weekend of unplugged covers from Tym Morrison, so if you're up for lots of great music at one of his favourite venues, keep these shows in mind next month!
Next up, here's a brand new audio interview with Woods of Ypres' guitarist Joel Violette! Though it was posted on May 12th by interviewer Matt Longo on the website Mind Over Metal (who interviewed late frontman David Gold as well for that site last year), the interview actually took place before the David Gold tribute shows in April, and lasts a little over 40 minutes in length, as bookended by "Woods V" tracks. It's much longer than Matt's interview with David, and in it, he and Joel discuss "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", Joel & David's roles on the album, how Joel joined Woods of Ypres, his work in Thrawsunblat, David's changing looks & world views, the band's lyrics, the posthumous praise of "Woods V", the new album's sounds, the circumstances & rumours surrounding David Gold's death (including Joel's belief that the lyrics on some songs weren't foreshadowing suicide), why Earache Records released the free promo album in the way it did, the planned Woods of Ypres European tour this year & the then-upcoming tribute shows, and when exactly did "W5" come out, among other topics! In terms of new Woods of Ypres topics relating to their future, Joel confirmed that there would be no new material (though "Woods VI" would have been summer-themed), and he reiterated that the only possible posthumous release he can see would be a piano-based album of re-recorded material.
This is a great interview that touches on a lot of topic and subjects relating to recent Woods of Ypres history, though the audio quality early in the interview on Joel's end isn't great. I still believe that an album of demos, outtakes, and unreleased material (i.e. the full "Woods 4.5" material) would be great, but who knows what the future holds. Click here or check the above links to hear the full interview, which starts about 1:44 into the audio file, and hopefully we hear some more exciting news from the Woods of Ypres archives in the future!
While we're on the subject, here's even more recent reviews of Woods of Ypres' last recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! Last week, Brian Giffin from the metal webzine Loud gave"W5" a 98% rating, calling it "a stark, disturbing, beautiful album", and highly praising the lyrical content and it's philosophical nature, only criticizing "Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide)" as a weak point. Solid and well written review, so check it out at this location! In another recent review, Pete Woods from the Metal Team U.K. Metal 'Zine gave "Woods V" an positive assessment, and though he noted it's tough to review and you need to be in the right mood and without distraction to fully appreciate it, he called it a "very special album" and noted it's impact and beauty numerous times. Another very nice review with a lot of honesty as to it's feelings and themes, so click here to check it out! Finally, Ellis Woolley from the Danish website RockFreaks.net gave "Woods V" a 7.5/10 in a March review, and while he praised the album for it's unique sound and accessibility as a doom record, he docked points for the production, which he felt smoothed over rougher and heavier parts of the CD. I'll have to go back and hear it to see if he's right, but this is another good & honest review, so check it out at this link, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews next month!
Also, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or venue name:
If you're curious to see the demolition of local concert venue/Sault College campus bar The Outback, which took place over the past week, then check out this time lapse webcam video courtesy of local musician Mike Cliffe's YouTube channel! It's sad to see The Outback go, but hopefully the new health & wellness center that replaces it will be a success, and fingers crossed that the college hosts concerts somewhere on campus in the future!
I'm probably badly overdue to mention this on here, but I've replaced our link for The Roosevelt Hotel on the site, as it now links to their Facebook page rather than their older Reverbnation page. Small change, but I thought I'd make sure you guys knew about it!
Local death metal band Social Suicide (featuring Bring The Misery & Bear Hunters alumni) are reportedly planning to play a "small show" of some type next month, followed by plans to play outdoor gigs this summer (potentially including the Bellevue Park Bandshell.) It's been too long since they launched, and I'm very curious to hear them live, so hopefully this all pans out! My source is their Facebook page.
And finally, here's this week's classic video! With the Roosevelt Hotel metal nights returning after an over two month break tomorrow, it made sense to feature a video from both that series and performers at tomorrow's show, so I focused on Bear Hunters guitarist Josh Stephney, though you can only hear him in this video, oddly enough. As you may remember, he fronted another local death metal band, Bring The Fallen, from 2009-2011, and one of their last concert videos is only now on YouTube, though it's from an angle you don't see much of from local bands. This video is of Bring The Fallen playing their original song "Defiling Despondence" at what I think was the 4th Rosie metal night on January 6th, and it was filmed on what looks like an iPhone camera from below drummer Travis St. Amour's kit, so while you hear the full song, you only really see Travis' left leg, left arm, and some of the drums. I assume the video was originally filmed at this angle to focus on his drumming, but it should have been positioned somewhere else, as it's not placed somewhere with a good view or lighting (though I did brighten the quality after posting this video on YouTube.) Even still, it's a nice later glimpse at Bring The Fallen on stage for it's decent audio quality, from before breakup rumours dominated the spring 2011 news on them!
This video was originally posted onto Facebook by Travis on January 27th of last year, and you can watch the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=1686359892899. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit goes to the ex-members of Bring The Fallen for this video, I'm just trying to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves! Though the angle is odd, it's a solid performance from Bring The Fallen's later months, so check it out below, and go see Josh with his current band TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rosie!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our last post of the month (our review of the Insipid Brutality album) TOMORROW! It will be an auto-post due to some personal plans tomorrow, but keep an eye out for it tomorrow afternoon, and I'll see you guys at The Roosevelt Hotel tomorrow night as well for the latest Rosie metal night relaunch! Thanks everyone!
We're actually close to clearing out our recent news cache, so much so that I'm low on new stories to report in the coming week as of right now! Even still, there's stuff to talk about, including new "Woods V" reviews, a new video added to one of our monthly feature posts, and the latest from a newer local hard rock band, but first, here's info on the newest band on a major upcoming concert, and what heavier material they play!
A new band has been added to the lineup for the second Sewer Swampstravaganza concert at The Oddfellows Hall on July 13th, and they're a punk/rock quartet named Ashes To Dust! They were quietly added to the lineup in the last few days, making them the 9th band (and counting) for this huge all ages show. Never heard of them? That's alright, I hadn't either before today, but they're a young band comprised of Superior Heights students that formed in December, featuring Noah Morden on vocals, Alex Hemy on guitar, Kyle Breckenridge on bass, and David Peredun on drums, all of whom I haven't heard much on before musically. Now, Ashes To Dust admittedly aren't a full fledged metal or hard rock band judging by the covers posted on their YouTube channel, but they do have a couple heavier covers posted! These include live performances of Three Days Grace's "Break" and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" at Superior Heights gigs (the former's last verse is from a jam session) and a cover of Stone Sour's "Through Glass" (with multiple angles, nice touch!) by half of the band, so click each link to check them out! Other posted videos include covers from bands like Green Day, The Rolling Stones, The Foo Fighters, and My Chemical Romance, so visit the above links to check those (and more) out too.
While not a full-on hard rock band, Ashes To Dust aren't bad for their age, and they know their covers well enough that I've heard! Noah's singing voice is pretty good for clean singing & punk material, but his upper range needs more development (especially on the "Break" choruses), and he missed parts of the lyrics late on "Paranoid". I'm curious to hear how they sound live outside of the school, and hopefully no matter what they play, they'll make lots of new fans in July at The Oddfellows Hall! Check out their cover of Three Days Grace's "Break" below!
Next up, here's the latest updates from the new local hard rock band Acention! The deletion of their Facebook group did not mean anything negative for the band's status, as members have recently been updating their Facebook page with new information and photos. One piece of news is that Acention appear to have parted ways with singer Danielle Wierzbicki and drummer Johnny Amendola, likely around the time their Facebook group was deleted. A reason for their departure has not been announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened, and best of luck to Danielle & Johnny in their next musical steps! Since then, the three surviving Acention members have revised their page to feature some interesting new details about their sound, including a more grunge-heavy style influenced by everyone from Avenged Sevenfold & Papa Roach to Metallica & Nirvana. In some other recent posts, band members have indicated that they had a "rough start" but they are jamming and laying down some songs, and they're hoping to unveil some material and play shows soon. I'm interested to hear more from Acention, and I'm glad they're still alive, so keep posted on their next moves at the above links, and if you're interested in singing or drumming for them, it's worth a contact in case they're looking!
Thirdly today, here's some more "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" reviews from the last little while! In January, Dave Steed from the pop culture website PopDose gave Woods of Ypres' last recorded album a favourable review, calling it "virtually perfect in every way" & "their crowning achievement", while also adding that it's one of the saddest records you'll ever hear, given it's release after & the connections to David Gold's passing. Nice review connecting to their past, with some well used lyric excerpts, so click here to check it out! Also, Jason Guest from the progressive rock site Sea of Tranquility gave "W5" 4½ stars out of 5 in a brief review from March, calling it "damn near as perfect as it gets", while stressing the weighted experience of it and how close and sad the lyrics are given real events. Nice review, if short, so give it a look at this location! Finally, "Cneaz" from the blog Metal Comment gave "Woods V" an 8.5/10 rating in February, and this is maybe due to the hit & miss Romanian translation, but he barely went into any detail on the album beyond David's death in summing up his score. Still, he called it a great album, though monotonous at times, and give his review a look at this link! Stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews in the future!
And finally, I wanted to alert you guys to a major update to one of our YouTube Channel Profiles. Before our next Banned-centric one goes up on Tuesday, I had to edit our YouTube Channel Profile on local electronic hard rock project Candle Hour, as for the first time, a video recommended by us on a profile in this series was deleted from YouTube. That was Candle Hour's music video for their song "March to the End", which was quietly pulled for unknown reasons this year, though it's still available on other websites. As a result, I replaced it with this 2010 video for their song "Overture", which is set to footage from the 1903 silent version of "Alice in Wonderland". Check out my thoughts on the video at this profile linked above, which was also updated to reflect their latest video postings from this spring, but for now, give "Overture" a look below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes, including a preview of Wednesday's Fuck The Facts show, in the next few days! Thanks everyone!
Before we get to the stuff in today's post, remember to vote in this month's polls on the left of the page! What distance from Sault Ste. Marie is "local" to you towards bands and concerts we cover, and what Michigan counties are close enough for you to consider them local? PLEASE vote in the polls A.S.A.P., your input could help decide if/how much we expand in the future! Now, in today's post, we have details on this month's CD review (and the former local band responsible for it), another defunct band's newly found material, and new "Woods V" reviews, but leading off is a new band of sorts, so here's what you need to know!
First today, here's a newly discovered local band to add to our listings, and they are a defunct Sault Michigan hard rock act named Twisted Manikin! I've been aware of them in recent years, but only now did I realize how heavy their available material was. Active only in 2008, their main lineup consisted of singer/bassist Samantha Raycroft, former Half Stupid drummer Jordan Gendreau on guitar, and Aaron Sheppard on drums, though they briefly enlisted a second guitarist named Matthew LaPointe early in their run. As best as I can tell, Twisted Manikin were active from February 2008 until that fall when Samantha moved out of town, and though I can't verify if Twisted Manikin every played a live concert, some members played together in at least one local battle of the bands the previous year. Describing themselves as sounding like "deliverance", videos of the band are available on a few different online pages, including both the band's and Samantha's MySpace pages, though neither of those have their full trio lineup. That said, Samantha did post one video of all 3 members together playing an original named "The City Is Burning" onto her YouTube channel in September 2008, and it doesn't sound too bad!
Their pages describe them as hardcore and punk, but this is more of a straightforward hard rock number with clean vocals, and though the audio quality is mixed, I really like Jordan's guitar work! Catchy riff and a decent solo, but Samantha's singing is almost inaudible, and it can get a bit repetitive despite it's length. There was promise with Twisted Manikin though, and it's a shame they didn't expand too far beyond what's available online, but check out "The City Is Burning" below, and Twisted Manikin are now in our inactive Sault Michigan band links!
Speaking of defunct Sault Michigan bands, does anyone out there remember the mid-2000s death metal quintet Insipid Brutality? No, they haven't reunited, but guitarist Tyler Dettloff (now frontman of the Marquette rock band Midnight Manual) resurrected the band in a way last month via new band pages on Facebook and Bandcamp! Beyond just being posthumous pages for Insipid Brutality, one very cool bonus is also being offered on the new pages: an album! Nine original songs (six newly available online) recorded in Kinross during Insipid Brutality's heyday have been posted for sale on their Bandcamp page linked above as a self-titled digital album, after restoration work by Kyle Van Howe, and you can buy it for any price you want! If you want it free, download it for free. If you wanna pay $10 (or less, or more), you can do that as well, which I recommend to support the band and the work they put in all those years ago! As some of you may remember, Insipid Brutality's lineup included Tyler on guitar, his old Condemned bandmate Teagan Sanders on vocals, former Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie, Louie Schmit on bass, and Matthew Georgevich on drums.
With only two band members living in the area now that I can tell, a full fledged reunion is unlikely, but death metal fans and old Insipid Brutality followers should definitely like the new pages and album! I have yet to fully listen to it, but I did pick it up yesterday, and because it's officially on sale and not strictly a free posting, I'd like to officially confirm that Insipid Brutality's self-titled album will be this month's CD review! Nothing else new seems to be coming out within the next two weeks that I've heard, so hopefully this review will be interesting and attract some more posthumous notice! Note as well that this will be the first time that we've reviewed two Sault Michigan albums in consecutive months, which is a good sign! Keep an eye out for this month's CD review by the end of the month, and pick up Insipid Brutality's album at the above links!
Also leading from newly discovered older recordings, remember when Sault Ontario hard rock cover quartet Sneaky Pete broke up in April and deleted their Facebook page? Well, if you missed the material posted there and a more substantial online presence, then you're in luck, as I only discovered their MySpace page yesterday! Compared to what else is left, this page is a lot more informative and detailed for Sneaky Pete's sound and makeup, and if you miss their live concerts, then you'll love the posted audio recordings! 12 covers recorded presumably at live jam sessions last year are available to stream, ranging from AC/DC, Alice In Chains, and Kiss tracks to Duran Duran, Three Doors Down, and ZZ Top classics, along with two Green Day songs (and more), so definitely check the above links to stream them! These all feature their classic lineup, and are a vast improvement on their 2010 demos with their original lineup, which had much worse recording quality from what I remember. I hope that their MySpace page remains online, as this material deserves an audience and it shows Sneaky Pete's talents well, so check out their material at the above links, and I've replaced Sneaky Pete's link in our band listings to reflect this find!
And finally, here's some more recent reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! Earlier this month, Jason Rankin from the University of Windsor newspaper The Lance gave "W5" a short and positive review, and though he oddly described two songs in-depth without mentioning any others, he called it an "enriching melodic musical experience" that shows all the good things that they had to offer. Alright review, click here to check it out! In a lengthy March review on Heavy Metal Now, writer "Brin" gave "Woods V" a 10.7/11 (love the Spinal Tap-esque scoring), calling it "a journey" and a "damn near masterpiece", barely saying a bad word about any of the included songs. Nice detailed review with insight on each track, so give it a look at this location! Finally for today, Marcel H. from the Dutch webzine Lords of Metal gave this album a more mixed score of 61/100, and though the translation is iffy, he is very honest with his feelings. He looked past David Gold's passing and saw the album as being too long and borrowing too heavily from Paradise Lost & Katatonia without vocal passion, even questioning why Earache signed them. I'm all for not overhyping "W5" posthumously, but even though I disagree with most of his views, I applaud his brutal honesty, so click here to see his review, and stay tuned for more critic's views of "Woods V"!
That's probably all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly! Thanks everyone!
