Mike Haggith - "All The Best In All You Do: Rose Edition" Album Review!!

It's now time for our 174th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're finally taking a look at local/Barrie alternative hard rock musician Mike Haggith's 52nd canon solo album "All The Best In All You Do"! Released through his own MorningStar Records imprint on July 13th in conjunction with his dislocated knee-abbreviated set at Rotaryfest, this is Mike's first album released after moving from Thompson, Manitoba to Barrie in late 2022, though work on the album began beforehand. Like his last two albums since he resumed primary work as a solo artist, this is a concept album with Mike on all instruments except for a guest guitar solo on one track. You can stream "A.T.B.I.A.Y.D" on major streaming services like Spotify, while you can also buy it for $10 on Bandcamp, and physical copies are on sale for $10 on CD and $40 on vinyl at this link. Albums are also available when Mike plays concerts in town, though no word on if The Rad Zone or other retail stores carry copies.

Five bonus songs (four originals and a cover) are also included in the limited-run "Rose Edition" of this album, sold in a DVD case with a pressed rose inside each. If you were unable to buy one of those for $20, fans who buy "All The Best In All You Do" on Bandcamp will also get the bonus songs, but Mike does not plan on posting them for sale with the album on other platforms, so they are not freely streamable at press time. This review will look at the complete "Rose Edition", as bought on Bandcamp. With 15 songs running for 53 minutes (10 songs for 37 minutes if you just have the normal album), let's begin our last album review of 2023!

Conceptually, the 10 base songs of this album outline a personal story of Mike moving from a toxic relationship into happiness and fulfillment in his current one, and in that respect, it feels like a sequel to 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day" even moreso. Bookending the 10 songs are split title tracks in reverse, starting with "All You Do", which leads off the story by outlining relationship issues and trying to make sense of one's partner's increasingly hostile and unfriendly behaviour. A darker and ominous instrumental track here is contrasted with Mike singing in full voice, and he makes good use of duplicated vocal tracks to make it sound like four or five Mikes are singing at once! That said, I do think that the singing and instruments don't mesh terribly well, and I'd have either made this much heavier or had Mike sing in a more reserved tone. Not a bad song to start the story all the same!

"All You Do" directly leads into track #2, "Twist Of Fate", basically serving as its extended introduction. In this song, the tables have seemingly turned as the toxic partner going on the town and engaging in embarrasing behaviour, with the final straw seemingly nearing. This is among the heaviest songs that Mike has released since the end of The Din in 2017, with a steady driving rhythm and good melodic vocals that are on level with the opener but far more suited to this style of song. The symphonic bits at the end of choruses felt thrown in, and the percussion should have been let up a bit on the bridge, but this is a fun track that will definitely be to the liking of Din fans who missed his in-your-face power pop!

The continuing structure of the album maintains by leading directly into the next song, "Hot & Cold". The longest song on any version of this album, it is basically an extended breakup song where Mike explains why he is dumping the woman in question, and like "Twist Of Fate", it has gotten good mileage in concert this year. Very 1980s feel to the verses with the synth influence and programmed drums, and between that and the twinkling keys on the choruses, this song sounds very different to what you may have seen out of Mike & crew live. Structurally, this song is still a rock number, if not as heavy as "Twist of Fate", but it has a directness and edge to it that I think is somewhat lost with the synths and keys. What does help things are the guest guitar solos by Southern Ontario-based metal guitarist Hetriani, who adds a strong added feature here without feeling too far out of place with the song as is!

Ultimately, I think "Hot & Cold" works better live than it does in studio, as it seems a little overproduced in studio to make a grand epic, and to a point, I think Mike's local-era symphonic material balanced that line a little better. As a composition, its certainly well thought out though! Fourth is "If Only You Could Hear Me", one of Mike's older tracks to finally make a studio album appearance here. Lyrically a reflection about being alone and hoping that his now ex would return in spite of everything, this is basically an acoustic folk rock song, if a little optimistic and upbeat given the lyrics, and with some synth backing coming into focus late. The musical positivity and the prominent drum track present another contrast in styles that I wouldn't have made given the introspective lyrics, but Mike's clean singing gets a good showcase, and this song is easily stripped down to a one-man unplugged setting, as longtime fans know!

The first half (third if you have the Rose Edition) of the album ends with "Carousel", and if you subscribe to the five stages of grief, this would be "acceptance", with the carousel in the title being referenced as both getting off of it (the relationship) and being given the run-around in the first place. Of the opening five tracks, this feels the most like something that could have been on Mike's Thompson-era CDs, with his expressive yet deep vocals carrying the song overtop of soaring yet rock tinged music. While it'd be easily downscaled to acoustic, the music and lyrics click well to better match the storyline compared to some of the earlier cuts, so this is an early highlight for me! Song #6 is "I've Seen It Before", which basically flips things from where "If Only You Could Hear Me" was, now with Mike refusing to take his ex back, no matter what she says, as he has literally seen it all before and doesn't want to go through this again.

This album's second and final 5+ minute track, it again contrasts the lyrical message with the music, this time with another upbeat, optimsitic nature which sounds like a happy indie rock song without the edge of the lyrics. Mike gets good mileage out of the chorus vocal effect again on the choruses, and the symphonics are well layered with the music (if at the expense of the guitar), so it succeeds musically despite the lyrical dissonance! We start the turn towards the brighter, optimistic future next with "Love Will Light The Way", which is the shortest song on any version of this album. Lyrically about depression and sadness always having a light (and love) at the end of the tunnel, this 99 second track just features Mike at a piano with some backing vocals, and feels kinda churchy.

It's not a very substantial track on its own, though it is pretty enough for fans of Mike's more reserved side. Still, it serves a purpose to bridge the album from it's darker lyrical places to the brighter final three songs, which seem to very clearly reflect his relationship with his now-wife Tianna (whose hand is lighting the rose on fire on the album cover). Eighth on the album is "The Start Of Something Real", which seems to be about meeting her and realizing that this is truly the beginning of a positive relationship with long-term prospects. Another very 1980s-inspired song here, especially thanks to its drum intro and plonky keyboard backing that reminded me a bit of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" (I hope that's a fair comparison)! As such, this song is very laid back and relaxed, if oddly not as happy overall as some of the earlier songs came off (lyrics aside), but it works well enough for what it is!

The "whoas" in the choruses are overdone, but this song does feel sufficiently different from what came before, so keep that in mind! After all, this has a flute solo, how many local musicians can say that? Ninth is "To Be With You", which is an original song and not a Mr. Big cover! It's lyrically about appreciating his new love and their future, and wanting to be with her, and continuing the vibe of the album changing its themes as the lyrical mood changed, this has more of a electronic/synth rock vibe to it that calls to mind a band like Imagine Dragons or Awolnation, and honestly, that's not a good thing for me. However, the song doesn't vocally sound like those type of bands, and still feels very Mike Haggithy, with his direct and passionate clean singing still firmly in the foreground, so fans won't be too far removed from his old material! Still not a favourite track of mine, especially thanks to the repetitive chorus.

We come full circle for the main album with song #10, "All The Best", which is basically about trust in this new relationship as they head into the future together while Mike gives his best and his all. Of the final four songs in this phase of the album, this feels the most traditional for Mike's post-2017 solo material, with a more subtle but still '80s-influenced synthy backing track, soaring vocal melodies (Mike's range is at its height here), and a tighter structure, if still with repetitive chorus vocals. Of the final four "current relationship" songs, this is the best and its a good way to end the album... unless you bought the Rose Edition! Just as a heads up, the four bonus originals don't have lyrics (at least not via Bandcamp), and curiously, their runtime steadily decreases as the track order progresses. First of the bonuses is "Unforgotten", which opens with plonky synths that remind me of Star Light Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 1!

More of a reserved ballad backed with the '80s sound of multiple tracks on offer, it's not a bad song and has a relatively tight dreamy essence to it without coming off as too repetitive, but if you like Mike's more rocking songs, this may leave you wanting a bit. Next is "Requiem", which is another softer track, reminiscent of "Love Will Light The Way" but longer and without percussion, though sound effects of water are added to bookend the song. I'd have dialed the singing back a bit to better match the mood, and I do prefer more rock-based songs, but Mike sings with passion regardless, and it has the maturity you expect out of his ballad-leaning material! Third of the bonus tracks is Mike's cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", which he has performed live and you can hear thusly at this link even without owning the Rose Edition proper. Shorter than the original, the song is about a couple moving to Atlantic City, albeit with the man joining the Mafia to repay his unspecified debts. 

I'm not a massive fan of Springsteen, but if you've been wanting something more rock-based out of the bonus tracks, this will fill the gap, and while Mike doesn't differ greatly from the original's structure (length aside), it is a good change to hear him sing in a relatively lower register for the bulk of it. Also, Mike didn't add in the synths and keyboard parts to this cover, which are a different kind of '80s than a Bruce Springsteen cover really needs! The penultimate song is "I'd Do It All For You", which immediately begins with Mike singing and has no lead-in. This song feels like it would work well as a campfire jam if stripped down, but it still has some atmospheric backing and a percussion track. Relatively light and sunny track with good melodic vocals, it works for what it is, but it ends way too soon and it fades out too abruptly. The Rose Edition ends with "Horizons", which is the album's only instrumental.

A soft folk/indie rock song with atmospheric elements, it's basically a coda to the preceding album that perhaps was intended as Mike's flight into the future, and given his day job, I can totally picture that being intentional music to fly to. Not much of a standalone track for rock fans, but it serves a clear purpose to cap off the complete album!

So, after 5½ months, what are my final thoughts on "All The Best In All You Do"? Overall, while it's not the heaviest album in Mike's back catalog, it continues his storytelling and personal slant very well, and it succeeds as an artistic statement with quality songs to match! As his last album "Bridges" was postponed to make way for the more recently recorded "If Ever Comes The Day", that album (largely about a failing relationship) definitely feels like the spiritual predecessor to "All The Best...", but with the key addition of the symphonic and keyboard backing that was heard on "Bridges" and his late-era local material in the mid-2010s. That gave much of the album a very 1980s feel, which was neat to hear at times! On the reverse, this won't be the cup of tea for fans who got into Mike based on his local band work, as aside from "Twist Of Fate" and "Hot & Cold", the songs on offer wouldn't overtly fit in Din setlists.

My big issue with this album is that, given the arc of the songs from a relationship at its end stages to a happier new one, the songs didn't really fit musically as much as they did lyrically. Many of the songs where Mike is outlining how bad things are are sung at a contrastingly happy and upbeat tone, and while the album does shift for the last few songs, it's mostly towards experimental styles. Some songs played live also get more of a synth/key backing than fans may be used to from Mike's local gigs last year, and given how I'm not a fan of Imagine Dragons-type bands, the backing on "To Be With You" wasn't my thing. Still, this album delivers for fans of Mike's wide ranging music abilities, with "Carousel", "Twist Of Fate", and "All You Do" being my favouites! The Rose Edition tracks are welcome inclusions, if not 100% essential for casual fans, with my favourite being the "Atlantic City" cover.

"All The Best In All You Do" is a strong album where Mike pours his heart out for good and for bad, but it ends on the right note to go along with his happy marriage, and fans of his should find multiple songs to like on this album! Be sure to give it a listen (or buy it on Bandcamp for all 15 tracks) at the above links, and I hope you guys liked our last CD review of the year! To start 2024, we'll continue our now 15 month string of new album reviews by looking at local rapper Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow's debut punk album "God Save Me", which was released back in August! Look for that next month, and for our 2023 year-in-review post next! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of The Last(?) Episode Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

Today on the SMS, let's finally cover the final(?) episode of the Metal Morpheus radio show on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may know, Metal Morpheus ran for an hour (give or take) on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM from July-December of last year, with host/local metal singer Josh Amendola typically featuring a genre or national scene each week, with at least one metal act with local membership per episode. However, following a heavily revised version of October's all-local episode on December 5th, the series fell into reruns for a month, and no new episodes have been posted on the station website since re-airing the power metal episode on January 9th. I don't know what happened to Metal Morpheus, especially given that Josh was very early into a planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the scenes in various countries, and he was improving as an on-air personality as time went on, so hopefully he isn't 100% done!

The possibility exists that Metal Morpheus is just on an indefinite hiatus, and hopefully we see Josh pick things back up for the series in some form when the time is right! If not, ending with the Soo Metal episode is a good way to go out, even if it was severely altered from what originally aired! I never recapped the October version on the site due to only catching up to it in the timeline after it was taken down. Alas, I do apologize for that, but how would I have known that it'd be deleted and overhauled? Just as a disclaimer, Josh does reference both the SMS and myself in this episode, and while he did ask me for suggestions of local bands to play on air last year and for input on how episodes turned out, I never knew he was going to make an all-local episode. I was as surprised as everyone else! As of this writing, I have never been on The Borderline in any on-air or behind-the-scenes capacity.

As for the revised Soo Metal episode, it runs for just over an hour, and it starts with Josh playing defunct local alternative rock band (and Papa Fogals Chair predecessors) Sulfur's song "Our Glass Universe" (0:05) from their 1997 CD "How Empty I Am". Next, we get a song by old school local hardcore punk band The Big Kahunas with their original studio recording "The Fighting Princess Club" (3:55), before abruptly switching gears to inactive Vancouver grunge trio Denderah with their song "Sweetness" (5:50). I've never heard of Denderah, but their frontman Kwin Cymons is a Saultite, so his band's material clearly found its way to The Borderline's rotation before passing my radar! They're a solid group, give their album a listen at their Bandcamp page! A rare Sault Michigan act hits the episode next via inactive progressive metal project Life's Eclipse's song "Not Dead But Dreaming" (9:05).

Fondly remembered local hardcore punk band Fistmagnet's cover of "Live To Die" (17:15) is next, followed by local/London instrumental prog metal band Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe's song "All Roams Lead To Roads" (20:10) from their self-titled album. Prominent and dearly missed local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam follow with the title track from their full length album "Everything Will Die" (23:15), while the second half of the episode begins with death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' song "Transcend Judgement" (28:20) from 2020's "The Dead Testament", conveniently followed by ex-guitarist Josh Stephney's old hardcore band Bring The Fallen with the title track of their posthumous EP "Stand Before" (34:40). This episode's only live cut is next, courtesy of defunct local metal band Sativa Rose with their lengthy original song "Bellows of the Beast" (39:10).

Juno Award winning local/Toronto blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres come next with their dark ballad "Finality" (48:10) from their final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", before heading back to Sault Michigan for defunct local epic death metal band Integrated System of Machines' song "Road To Valhalla" (52:10) from their 2008 album "Apocalyptic Visions". The episode ends with one more song by Denderah, namely "Natal Lies" (57:35), and no, neither this episode nor the last 100% new one from the previous week left any hints that the series was ending or taking a break. While Josh did leave some gaps regarding band members' full names or back stories (especially with Life's Eclipse given how we've covered them and Werehold Records over the years), this was an entertaining episode and showed how Josh was trying to expand the range of local artists!

Definitely give this and other episodes of Metal Morpheus a listen at the above links, as it is (was?) a good series and helped fill the metal void on The Borderline's scheduled rotation, and if Josh doesn't return to record new episodes, hopefully we hear more from him in some form, let alone more metal, hard rock, or punk-centric programming on the station! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Another Episode Recap Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

As you may have gathered following the reversion to Stage 2 of re-opening in Ontario and the usual January hangover following the holidays for the local scene (even pre-pandemic), news has definitely slowed down to start 2022, so let's use today's post to further catch up on Metal Morpheus episodes on local internet radio station The Borderline! While there hasn't been a public statement that I've seen, it looks like host Josh Amendola has at least went on a holiday break from the show, as every episode since the heavily revised Soo Metal episode on December 5th has been a rerun. The fact that it's still airing Sunday nights at 9:00 PM is a good sign that it will return, perhaps as soon as this coming Sunday, but we'll let you know if anything is clarified about it's current/future status. Due to the December reruns, we're only behind on three new-to-us episodes of Metal Morpheus, so let's continue on by looking at the November 21st installment!

That episode was the third in Josh's planned series of spotlight features on the extreme metal scenes of various countries from around the world in alphabetical order, and for non-disputed regions, third up was indeed Algeria, a large country in northwestern Africa. Clearly, there wasn't a ton of metal bands from Algeria to source bands from, so this episode only addresses them for just over half of it, and the episode proper runs for just 57 minutes. Starting things off with some information about Algeria and its native music, the first band played on air is progressive metal quartet RiverGate's song "Tears of the Machine" (4:30), followed by black metal band Orcus' song "Death Is Everywhere" (11:15). Active Algerian death metal group Lelahell are up next with their 2018 track "Insiraf/Martyr" (16:10), followed by the more technical death metal band Devast with "Chaotic Proliferation" (22:10)

The fifth and final Algerian band played on November 21st was the black metal project Berzek with their very long original track "Mourning In Oblivion" (25:30). After wrapping up the trip to Algeria, Josh flies back home to look at songs from four inactive local metal bands, starting with classic hardcore punk band The Harsh Heads' song "You're Pawning Your Mind, Asshole" (37:00) from their kinda-unreleased album "First Hated Then Forgotten", followed by the more contemporary grindcore trio Shit Liver's song "Liverated" (42:55) from their 2017 album "Hitting The Fan". We next get a live cut from 2010-2011 local metal band Sativa Rose (who never released an album), specifically their original "Fall From Grace" (47:15), and the episode closes with early 1990s metal band Amethyst's song "You've Been Caught" (53:00), which opened their 1992 CD "Innocent As Hell".

This was another solid episode of Metal Morpheus, and those Algerian bands were definitely intense and brutal in both expected & unexpected ways! As was the case with the Albanian episode from earlier that month, Josh was clearly struggling to give information on these bands, but giving them some exposure like this can't hurt their cause, even if some are not active anymore. Nice to see lots of local acts getting the spotlight too, and I never expected Sativa Rose to turn up, though the audio quality from the source video was definitely rough by comparison. We now have just two episodes of Metal Morpheus from 2021 to recap on the SMS, namely the revised Soo Metal episode and the next country spotlight one, but Josh curiously skipped six countries in alphabetical order to instead look at Austria.

While some of the six in between would seem hard to get enough bands from (especially the tiny Andorra and Antigua & Barbuda), I would have thought Australia at least would have had ample bands to pull from, and Argentina, Armenia, and Angola are not lacking themselves. Josh did also tease at episode's end that he wants to do episodes themed around international metal subgenres (methinks Japan would lend itself well to that). Tune in to The Borderline this Sunday at 9:00 PM to see if Metal Morpheus is back from their winter break(?), and we'll have more episode recaps soon, I hope, plus more news and notes in general! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: MrJohnveale's channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly look at 1-3 YouTube channels featuring at least a 50% concentration of local metal/hard rock-relevant videos! After a packed look at David Gold's channel last month, we're keeping with another randomly selected channel with a good amount of videos this time, one that fans of classic metal and deathcore should appreciate if you regularly hit up local shows in 2010 & 2011. Read on below for videos, information, and recommendations from this month's profiled channel!

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MrJohnveale's channel (http://www.youtube.com/mrjohnveale)

Owner: John Veale, father of former Sativa Rose/Valentine's Day Massacre bassist Adam Veale

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 29th, 2010; Videos posted from then until March 2013

Channel Summary: John's channel largely focuses on videos that he shot of his son Adam's local music work in the early 2010s, including 14 live videos from Sativa Rose concerts in 2010 & 2011, two from a Valentine's Day Massacre show (when they were still known as View To A Kill) in December 2011, and two videos of Adam covering 1990s rock songs on vocals & acoustic guitar from the past year. The concert videos come from assorted local venues (including a Ratt cover at The Oddfellows Hall in January 2011), though 9 of the 16 came from shows at Foggy Notions/Feedback (now Coch's Corner.) Note that one of John's videos is of a February 2011 pre-game ceremony during a Brock University Badgers women's hockey game, and it has no direct musical connections.

Why Should You Watch: Mainly, you should watch because this is the best source for live Sativa Rose concert videos, including some of their only public footage with guest singers (like Tym Morrison and Rich Moreland), and videos of some of their earlier solo dates! John's video quality was always really good, and the View To A Kill videos maintain that trend, so fans of Adam Veale & longtime bandmate Andrew Angelic's local music work will want to check out this channel! Note however that John didn't upload any videos of Sativa Rose or View To A Kill's original songs, and there hasn't been a concert video uploaded there since since December 2011, so no videos of the renamed Valentine's Day Massacre are featured.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Sativa Rose Live Talk Dirty To Me: With over 4,600 views, this live video of Sativa Rose covering Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" is easily the most viewed on John's channel! Filmed at their headlining concert at GLOW on Gore Street from September 18th, 2010 (notably the last metal show at this venue to date), it was uploaded along with clips of Sativa Rose covering Dokken's "Dream Warriors" and Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" at this show. Featuring their original lineup of guitarist Andrew Angelic, bassist Adam Veale, and drummer Alex Palmer on all three, the Poison & Pantera covers also feature ex-Havadder frontman Jason Roy on guest vocals, who is a noticeable improvement given how much Sativa Rose needed a permanent singer (a'la Late & Loud.) The lighting is inconsistent, but the videos are a nice glimpse into Sativa Rose's peak months, especially at a missed local venue!



Bark At The Moon by Sativa Rose: John's last Sativa Rose videos came from their last show at The Roosevelt Hotel on November 29th, 2011, when they were among the openers for Toronto punk trio The Unbelievers. Now featuring The Hydra's Teeth's Anthony Orazietti on second guitar, this show marked their only live appearance with singer Marisa Valois & guest drummer Steven Flint (now of The Suicide Kings) in lieu of Alex Palmer, who was out of town. John's videos featured Sativa Rose covering Iron Maiden's "Aces High", Van Halen's "Panama", and (as embedded below) Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark At The Moon", and while Marisa's vocals are also an improvement on Adam & Andrew's, she doesn't seem 100% comfortable on heavier material. I'd be curious to hear how they'd sound had she played with them longer, but this is the fullest Sativa Rose have ever sounded, so these videos are a good way to go out on!



View To A Kill covers Black Label: Prior to Sativa Rose's dissolution, Andrew Angelic & Adam Veale joined forces with State of Misery frontman Steve Rhodes and Andrew's ex-Chillum bandmate Kyle Umgeher in late 2011 as the new deathcore band View To A Kill, who John filmed at their headlining gig at Feedback (now the current Coch's Corner) on December 3rd, 2011. John's last concert videos to date, the clips are covers of Parkway Drive's "Carrion" and (as embedded below) Lamb of God's "Black Label", which are generally faithful to the originals, very brutal, and a nice precursor to their improved early-mid 2012 shows as The Valentine's Day Massacre, and Steve & Andrew's current work in the London death metal band D3athcharg3r!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Through completely random selection, we're sticking with a single Sault Ontario-area channel next month, as we're profiling former Durera guitarist A.J. Biron's YouTube channel next! This one's loaded with CASS Cafe hard rock performances and some solo performances, so look out for this profile on or around September 22nd, and for previews of this weekend's hard rock concerts later today! Thanks everyone!

Local Metal Video Showcase, Including Our First Christmas Surprises Of The Year!!

Continuing into our surprisingly slow pace for local metal news this December, we do have some news to get to this week, but because a lot of stuff I have this week is in media formats, I thought I'd start with a local metal video showcase! Most of it is actually new uploads from our YouTube channel, including this week's classic video and our first Christmas surprise song uploads, but first, here's a brand new album upload from a recently prolific local band!

On Saturday, local grunge quartet Haggith uploaded their first live album (and third release overall), entitled "Flight 75" to their YouTube channel! Though the album's formal paid release won't occur until next month, we can now hear all 11/12 tracks of "Flight 75" for free like with their earlier albums, so what should you know about it? The cover art's not bad (though the title seems tacked on), and the track listing is more or less the same as was in their live compilation video from their Bushplane Musical Madness set, albeit with some differences. "Public Enemy", "These Four Walls", and "No Cure For Insanity" are not present on the "Flight 75" track listing, with "Chaos In The Streets Of Aftermath" and "Rage Train" being added on, while the track order mostly flows with the live video (save for the song changes and "I Am" & "75" switching spots.) A new review of a Haggith album on the site won't come until the spring (to avoid any biases), but I'll say that the recording quality is pretty good given how it was captured, and at times, it's hard to tell it was from a live concert!

Until we get a chance to formally buy "Flight 75", check out Haggith's first live album below, and when the guys fully return from the holidays, we'll have even more news from them as it comes in!



Next up, here's this week's classic video! With their long awaited return from London coming up THIS FRIDAY, I figured it'd make sense to tie in this upload with local deathcore band The Valentine's Day Massacre! In particular, we're tying this in with frontman Steve Rhodes, who (as you may remember) fronted defunct local death metal band State of Misery off & on from 2010 through this summer. Most of State of Misery's videos have made it to YouTube already in one form or another, but there's at least one outlier from their early days, that being the last of their four December 2010 jam session videos! Featuring their original/final lineup, this was one of four videos from this same day that were posted onto the band's Facebook group at the time, including performances of their originals "Bleed" and "Don't Break The Silence", and their cover of Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell", but we are only now just putting the last of these four videos (mostly shot by Ashley Lacasse) onto YouTube. It's of an original song (name unclear), and like the other videos from this jam session, the audio is a bit scratchy, but State of Misery's early promise and brutality are clear!

This video was uploaded to the band's Facebook group on January 3rd of last year, and you can see the original file at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=116105025128457. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit goes to Ashley & State of Misery for this video, I'm just trying to share it with a deserving wider audience! State of Misery are missed, but the members are still active in exciting newer projects, so give the last of their early jam session videos a look below, and so see Steve with The V.D.M. on Friday at The Algonquin Hotel!



We'll close today's post with the return of something I gave you guys last December, that being Christmas surprise videos! For the holiday season, I thought it'd be a nice idea to upload some rare or previously unavailable audio tracks from local metal bands onto our YouTube channel once again, so like last year, I've picked 5 batches of songs from 5 different local bands to post as a present for you guys! The first couple went up on Monday, with three more just having been posted this morning, and the others will go up on Friday, Sunday, and finally, on Christmas Day. So, what surprise songs did we start with?

Well, I went all the way back to 2004 for our first Christmas uploads, as these are two early audio recordings from defunct classic hard rock quintet That's Chester! We covered these on the site last year, but as a refresher, guitarist Gabe Tessaro had posted two covers of theirs onto a personal page of his that was linked through the band's former website. These date back to That's Chester's original lineup, which featured Gabe and Eugene Orlando on guitar, Aubrey Falls on bass, and Ric Datson on drums, alongside original singer Richard Fullerton, who's now musically active in the Ottawa area. The songs, which I assume were recorded at a jam session, are covers of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down" and (as embedded below) Kiss' "Detroit Rock City", and even at this early stage of their 8 year run, they're rocking out well! Ritch arguably has a better range than his successors in That's Chester, and while there's the occasional misstep, this veteran local band has the chops to pull off these hard rock classics, and it's great to hear some rare older recordings of theirs! Check the above links to hear the Queen cover, and here's That's Chester losing their mind with "Detroit Rock City"!



And finally, our second Christmas surprise uploads for you guys are three original demos from inactive local metal band Sativa Rose! We also plugged these on the site last year, but as a reminder, drummer Alex Palmer uploaded three instrumental demos of the band's three original songs ("Fall From Grace", "Bellows of the Beast", and "Deliver Us") to the streaming music website Grooveshark circa July of last year, as part of a (now deleted) playlist of their setlist at the time. Sativa Rose's mid-2011 lineup is present here, with Alex joined by now-Valentine's Day Massacre bandmates Andrew Angelic on guitar & Adam Veale on bass, alongside current Winkstinger guitarist Anthony Orazietti. I assume that the demos were instrumental due to the band's search for a singer last summer, so they forgone having Andrew or Adam sing for these more formal non-live demos, but versions with new singer Marisa Valois never turned up before Sativa Rose went inactive earlier this year. The recording quality isn't bad, and the members show some blistering metal chops with great solos, but the vocals are missed, as they never played these songs live in an instrumental format.

Most of these songs can still be heard on Grooveshark at this location, but "Deliver Us" was quietly deleted at some point, and as I don't think any videos exist of it, I think our YouTube upload of it is the only publically viewable version of the song. These are solid quality demos from Sativa Rose's peak, so check out "Fall From Grace" below, and give the other Sativa Rose originals a listen above! Stay tuned on Friday for our next Christmas surprise uploads!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news hopefully tomorrow, weekend concert previews on Friday, our next Christmas surprises, this month's YouTube Channel profiles, and much more! Thanks everyone!

A Big New Outdoor Concert's Band Search, A Notable Band's Likely Status, And Much More!!

Here's some more news for this Sunday morning, and there's some notable stuff to address and cover! Today, we've got updates to one of our monthly feature series, a bunch of assorted news and notes, videos of a local metal guitarist, and the likely status of a local metal band, but first, here's some information on a planned major concert event that YOU can apply to play on!

Are you or your band interested in playing at a multi-band outdoor concert in the Sault Ontario area next summer? Applications are being taken right now for some sort of concert event to be held in June 2013, as per postings by organizer Rita Slater on our Facebook page, and a related "Sault Ste. Marie Outdoor Concert" Facebook page that she's launched. Rita is the general manager of Laird International Raceway and the organizer of the relaunched Hot Rides Cornfest that was held there this month & last August, and from what I can gather, this event (which may also be a festival) would likely take place in Laird as well, though it's not planned to be country music-centric like Cornfest is. Details are otherwise scant on this planned event, but headlining bands will apparently be announced later this year, and she's hoping to find 10-12 local acts to perform. If you or your band are interested in playing this outdoor concert event in Laird next June, e-mail Rita A.S.A.P. at theboomboomshow@hotmail.ca! I know the new Cornfest has been successful, but a new music festival in the area with rock integration (and hopefully some metal) would be neat, especially in June rather than later months where it'd have more competition. I'd say take Rita up on this offer to apply for this event, you never know how big it could be, so send your e-mails A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for updates on this event!

Next up, I wanted to note a band that we're regrettably moving to the inactive band links on the SMS, that being local classic metal quintet Sativa Rose. Though we're not at the one year-inactivity threshold for them (they were last visibly active in December via some concert video uploads), an immediate future for Sativa Rose is unlikely due to members Andrew Angelic & Adam Veale's planned move to London for college early next month. Nothing official has ever came out regarding Sativa Rose's status, but with Andrew & Adam focusing on the also-moving Valentine's Day Massacre, guitarist Anthony Orazietti now in Winkstinger, and drummer Alex Palmer living out of town himself right now (I think), the writing seems to be on the wall. It's disappointing to see Sativa Rose fall into inactivity, especially knowing their musical talent and the unrealized potential that their final lineup (including singer Marisa Valois) had following that lineup's first & last show in November. No matter what, they gave us a lot of great shows and originals from their summer 2010 debut through last fall, and classic metal fans had a lot to like and headbang with! Best of luck to Marisa, Andrew, Anthony, Adam, and Alex in the future, and maybe Sativa Rose will pop up again in some form down the road!

Thirdly today, remember how we shared videos from new Sault Ontario thrash metal band Pillory and their 2011 predecessors Roadkill on Thursday? Well, guitarist Robert Sartini has posted 10 solo thrash covers aside from his recent band work on his YouTube channel as well! With one exception, these were all filmed last year, and they include covers of Metallica's "Jump In The Fire" and the solo from "Disposable Heroes", and Viking's "Case of the Stubborns", but the rest are all Megadeth, including versions of "In My Darkest Hour", "Set The World Afire", "Victory", "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", and the solo from it in a separate video, so click each link to see Robert in action! He has skill at metal guitar work for sure, but his guitar is tuned a bit weirdly on some of the videos, and there are some rough patches. He does have talent though, and I'm curious to hear more from Robert in Pillory or solo uploads, so check out his cover of "Holy Wars" below, and see more at the above links!



Fourthly, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or musician name:

• Local classic metal quartet Late & Loud have quietly uploaded their entire upcoming debut EP to their Reverbnation page! It's good to hear all of these songs in full, but as always, I'll hold on full thoughts until it's hopeful release. Check all five tracks out at the above links, and stay tuned for their long awaited return at the end of the month when they open for Skull Fist!
  
• Former Bear Hunters/Skull After Betrayl guitarist Mike Vincent is looking for a hardcore/metalcore vocalist for his new project, which will apparently cover bands like August Burns Red and Whitechapel. This could be interesting if it gets to the level of Mike's older bands, but I don't know a whole lot on them yet. If you're interested, message Mike at this location or find his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from August 6th!
• Also new on the Musicians Wanted group, local hardcore band With Blood Builds Character are officially looking for a drummer (they had temporarily enlisted Travis St. Amour for their debut show.) Frontman Jeremy Hannah indicated in a post late last month on the group that they're hoping to tour in January, so make note of that. If you're a technical metal drummer and are interested in joining W.B.B.C., message Jeremy at this location or read more at the above links!
  

And finally for today, here's some updates to our YouTube Channel Profiles, to make that monthly feature series more accurate and current! On the profile of YouTube user AshTraynor's channel (which is centric towards Kinross hard rockers Banned), I updated references to their current lineup (namely the return of Alex Schrovenwever as their new second guitarist), and made lineup adjustments accordingly, along with some date fixing. On the StateOfMisery2011 channel profile, I updated it to reflect State of Misery's latest breakup from earlier this summer, and finally, I edited the GardenofBedlamBand channel profile to note the current amount and usage of newer band channels, as it's been replaced twice over in the last 3 years. That's all for that latest batch of updates, but as more updates come up relating to our monthly feature series, I'll let you guys know so you don't miss anything that's added, removed, or switched! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including our next YouTube Channel Profiles and our Dead & Divine concert preview in a few days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (View To A Kill), New Videos, And More!!

I wasn't preparing to have a new post today, but with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to share for TONIGHT, I had to get something up, so today, we also have new videos from a pair of notable local bands and some more assorted news updates, so here's all that you need to know! (EDITED: 9:26 PM)

Remember on Thursday when I alluded to a likely cancelled concert at Feedback for TONIGHT featuring Espanola metal band Fifth Column and locals View To A Kill? Well, the show's still on, and the reason the old event page was deleted is likely because Fifth Column couldn't make it tonight (not sure why), but View To A Kill are still on for tonight for a set of brutal deathcore in their Feedback debut! That said, they'll now be joined by local death metal trio Shit Liver, replacing Fifth Column's original replacements Winkstinger on the lineup, as they had something come up. A lot of shuffling, but Shit Liver are a quality replacement, and kudos to them for stepping in! Apologies for the short notice, the show was only officially confirmed by promoters last night. No matter which second band is announced, this should be a solid lineup of metal, I just hope that a good crowd shows up, as the Helix show might steal some fans. However, there is NO COVER tonight at Feedback, but you must be 19 to attend, and a 10:00 PM start time looks likely. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

This should be another great metal concert at Feedback, and hopefully Rich has some more great Dismembertainment shows in the works for the bar! Shit Liver and View To A Kill should have lots of great metal in store, so hopefully you guys can make it out! For a preview, here's View To A Kill covering Throwdown's "Venom & Tears" at The Roosevelt Hotel last month!



Now to some new videos, and first, wanna hear a sample of a new Gates of Winter song? Frontman Lee Maines posted a 52 second video of him playing the guitar riff of a new song tentatively named "Wormhole Mechanics" onto his YouTube channel on Thursday, and I tell you what, it sounds very cool! Progressive and very technical, it sounds like it will be a great piece to one of the songs on next year's "Perihelion" CD! Not a whole lot else to say yet, but give Lee's new sample video a look below!



Also for new videos, another video of the new look Sativa Rose's set at The Roosevelt Hotel on Tuesday is now online! Also filmed by bassist Adam Veale's dad John, he uploaded this to his YouTube channel yesterday, and it's of Sativa Rose covering Van Halen's "Panama"! As someone who prefers DLR to Sammy (I await your letters), I approve of the song choice, but how did they sound? Music's good, and Marisa's voice fits for intensity, but she doesn't hit the higher notes too much. Good stuff all around though, especially with Andrew Angelic's guitar work, and you know they'll only get better from here! Check out the full video of Sativa Rose covering "Panama" below, and I'll let you guys know if any more Sativa Rose videos from Tuesday show up online!



And finally for today, here's three shorter stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or venue name:

• Local hard rockers Borderline Divine (formerly Stillbroke) have added bassist Jake Hache to their lineup, replacing now-guitarist Mitch Sirie. Jake, who was quietly added to their Facebook page's lineup recently, is the band's fifth bassist (that I know of) since their launch in the spring of 2008. I'm not familiar with him musically, but the guys in Borderline Divine have a history of snagging talented musicians for their lineups, so hopefully he works out for the long term! Stay tuned for updates!
• Feedback (the former Foggy Notions) is now booking bands for January 2012, so click here or message Rich Moreland on Facebook for details! Jump on this if you're in a band, cause Feedback is definitely a bar that supports local music and talent of all walks, not just metal!
• On Thursday, Late & Loud guitarist Jonathan Tiberi posted on the SMS' Facebook page asking if any local bands were interested in playing a Christmas themed metal show in town, which would include playing Christmas songs (likely in a metal fashion.) Intriguing idea, but if you want it to go down, contact Jon at this location for details!
  

That's all for now, but in case I can't make it out tonight, best of luck to Helix, the bands at Feedback, Tym Morrison, and Powerslug for some great times and songs at their respective shows! I'll be back with more news over the next few days, so keep an eye out! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

It's time to preview this weekend's slate of local metal & hard rock concerts! Though thin in the amount of concerts, there's a pretty big show going down on Saturday night that we'll be getting to, but first, if you were listening to Rock 101 this morning, you may have heard me being interviewed by Scott Cook & Brian Davie on "Scott & Brian In The Morning"! Though I was late due to bridge traffic, I think the interview went over well, and we discussed the site, how it started, bands in the scene, juggling the SMS with school, and so forth. It was fun and unique, and Scott & Brian are just as personable and friendly off-air as they are on the air, and I wanna thank them for the opportunity to come on this morning! If they ever want me to come back to talk local music, I'll be sure to come by again! If anyone recorded the interview, send it my way! Now, let's get to the news, starting with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison is returning to The Service Grill for another solo acoustic concert TOMORROW NIGHT!! This will be the fourth straight week of unplugged hard rock and metal covers from Tym Morrison at this Korah Road restaurant, and it comes just a week before he brings Caveman Morrison back to the stage down the road at The Roosevelt Hotel, so go see him tomorrow night just in case his next solo show isn't for a while! Apologies for the short notice too, Tym only launched the Facebook event page for tomorrow's concert last night. As usual, Tym will be on at 8:00 PM tomorrow night, I don't think there's a cover to get into The Service Grill (it is a restaurant, after all), and there is no announced cover charge. For more details, check the above links! It's good to see Tym keeping busy in the buildup to Caveman Morrison's return, and if you wanna enjoy some great hard rock & metal covers, what better way then to head down to The Service Grill tomorrow night? Check the above links for more info, and for a preview, here's Tym & former Half Past singer Luke LeBlanc covering Extreme's "More Than Words"!



Now to the other concerts of the weekend, and first, we'll hop to Sault Michigan, as local hard rock quartet Powerslug are returning to The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino! This will be their last concert weekend at Kewadin Casino's bar of 2011 and (from what I can tell) their first local shows since the day before Thanksgiving at The Bird. Now, as I've come to expect over the past year, Powerslug haven't updated band pages in any fashion since before their name change, so I don't have any official band confirmation for these shows TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT, but if Kewadin Casino's entertainment page confirms them, then they must have truth to them! As such, you can see the band featuring Scofflaw & Kilacel alumni tonight & tomorrow at around 10:00 PM both nights, there's no known cover charge, and you must be 21 to attend. Check the above links for more details! It's good to see Powerslug back on stage for concerts that I can cite, and hopefully we'll hear (and see) a lot more from them in 2012 (that includes videos, so I can't preview that area of theirs yet, but hopefully soon!) Check them out this weekend if you can!

And now, the main event of the metal concert weekend... gimme an R! (R!) O! (O!) C! (C!) K! (K!) Whatcha got? The return of Helix to Sault Ste. Marie, that's what! Over three years after last rocking the area, the Kitchener classic metal legends will return to town TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rockstar Bar to deliver a set full of their classic songs like "Wild In The Streets" & "Deep Goes The Knife", tracks from their latest album "Vagabond Bones", and of course, "Rock You"! No strangers to Sault Ste. Marie, you may remember last seeing them in July 2008 at The Canadian Nightclub in what was a great show, but older fans are bound to remember Helix's concerts here from their prime years, like their Sault Memorial Gardens headlining concert that took place exactly 24 years ago today on December 2nd, 1987! Even more coincidental, the surviving members of their classic 1980s lineup are back in Helix, so how's that for a flashback on Saturday night? The openers for this show are local dance rock quartet Boogie Fever, who may seem like an odd choice to open for Helix (a far cry genre-wise from Syre or Stillbroke), but they're a very talented band and they feature some local hard rock alums in their lineup, so their talent will speak for itself!

Admission is $10 in advance at either The Algonquin Hotel box office (downstairs from The Rockstar Bar) or The Rad Zone, or you can get them for $14 at the door. There will be a 9:00 PM start time and a 19+ age limit as well. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's great to see these Canadian metal legends back in town, and with most of their classic lineup in tow, you know they'll be ready to rock old fans and new fans alike! Check out the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Helix's music video for one of their newer singles, "Make 'Em Dance"!



With the known weekend concert previews out of the way, here's a bonus story, and it's the first videos of the new look Sativa Rose, who debuted at The Roosevelt Hotel on Tuesday night as openers for Toronto punk band The Unbelievers! As you may know, new singer Marisa Valois made her debut with Sativa Rose on Tuesday, where they also featured guest drummer Steven Flint in place of Alex Palmer, but how'd they sound after their over 4 month hiatus? We can now find out, as bassist Adam Veale's dad John has uploaded two videos from the show onto his YouTube channel! The videos feature Sativa Rose covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark At The Moon" and Iron Maiden's "Aces High", and I have to say, Marisa fits in well! She has a voice that meshes well with heavier songs, while being melodic at the same time, and a nice stage presence, though she doesn't hold her notes as well as I assumed on "Bark At The Moon". Steven's solid on drums too on short notice, I wonder if this will lead anywhere beyond this show for him and the band? Time will tell, but Sativa Rose's new formation sound very promising, so check out the new videos above, and here's their cover of "Aces High"!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news over the weekend! Thanks everyone!

Assorted News And Updates!!

Here's one more post for the opening day of December before we have two posts tomorrow (One being our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post, the other with weekend concert previews), but first, I want to note that if you saw an event page for a concert on Saturday night at Feedback featuring Espanola metal band Fifth Column and locals View To A Kill, don't get your hopes up. The event page for the show was deleted yesterday, so it appears to be off now, but if I hear anything to the contrary, I'll let you guys know! Now, to the news and assorted videos of the day, starting with some updates to a concert later this month!

There's been a few changes to the Green Christmas Bash at Feedback near the end of the month, as confirmed at this new Facebook event page (the old one was deleted), starting with a date change, as the show will now take place on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas itself. A reason for the date change was not announced, but December 24th does fall on a Saturday this year, so that could be related. That said, the lineup for the concert has been confirmed, though not without a band change, as local metal quintet Sativa Rose have dropped out of this show. According to promoters, they're off because frontwoman Marisa Valois will be out of town with family when this show takes place. Disappointing, but hey, family calls! Replacing them on the bill is a new folk/acoustic trio named Ye Olde Mold Pickers, who I believe share at least one member with the local band The Night Owl Meme Makers. They're actually the listed headliners for this concert, with local classical/punk trio RedD Monkey, local metal quartet View To A Kill (yes, they were Andrew Angelic's new band from the original event page), and "the original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage opening the festivities in that order. Admission remains $2, it's still 19+, and it all starts at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve. Check the above links for more details!

Sounds like an entertaining and diverse night of music, and hopefully the promoters will be sure to bring more Green Christmas shows to Feedback in future years! If you wanna enjoy some live music over Christmas weekend, this show could very well do the trick! Stay tuned for updates!

Next up, if you're still uncertain on whether to buy Theatre of Night's remastered "Christmas Night" album (that we just reviewed yesterday), then this could be some incentive, as the band has uploaded their version of the Christmas classic "Carol of the Bells" onto their new YouTube channel! They launched the channel on Tuesday, but this song was only just posted yesterday. The video features various shots of the album artwork, band members, and other monochromed Christmas-relevant photos, with only minimal colour use. Decent effects, and they fit with the mood of the song, so if you want to get into the Christmas spirit and preview the full "Christmas Night" album, check out Theatre of Night's rendition of "Carol of the Bells" below!



Now, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or artist name:

• Apparently, Wishbone bassist (and former Silver Dream drummer) Steven Flint filled in on drums for Sativa Rose at their concert on Tuesday when they opened for The Unbelievers, as Alex Palmer was absent. Hopefully things went well, Steven should have been a solid fill-in! If I hear anything new on Sativa Rose's new lineup, I'll have it here!
  
• I updated our GarageBand Profile of defunct local hard rock trio Sin Stereo to update the video references, specifically because the video of their successors Stiffler's Mom covering "Enjoy The Show" is now on YouTube. Not a huge change, but I thought I'd mention it!
• Russell Garwood of Zero Tolerance Magazine posted this Woods of Ypres article last month which features exclusive comments from frontman David Gold about the upcoming "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", including comments alluding to what this album would mean to the band's legacy if it ended up being their last album. I sure hope it's not, but it's an interesting read nonetheless, so click here to see what David has to say!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With a relatively thin weekend for metal concerts (despite the return of Helix), I won't tie in this week's video with a performing band, so we'll dip into the archives for this week, and I've chosen a video from the recently-inactive local grunge trio No Arrow! We haven't heard much from them since their one-off show at what is now Feedback in February, but there's plenty of old videos and music of theirs online, including this video of them playing their original song "Delayed Reaction" when they opened for Montreal punk legends The Ripcordz at The Speak Easy on August 5th, 2007! At this performance, frontman Dann Pichette and drummer Joe Falco were joined by guest bassist Dean Scheepmaker (now of the Manitoba band The Aral Sea), and they definitely rocked on one of their heaviest songs here, though the audio quality is kinda scratchy and the first minute of the song wasn't captured. Dann's got some great screaming here too, helps make me miss No Arrow all the more!

This video was uploaded onto Facebook by Dann a couple days after this concert, and you can view the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=4026989126. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to No Arrow, they did all the work here, I'm just sharing this video with a larger audience like it deserves! With that said, give No Arrow's 2007 performance of "Delayed Reaction" a look below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post at midnight sharp! And also, on a sort of personal note, tune into Rock 101 (at this location or at 101.3 FM in the Twin Saults area) tomorrow morning at 8:10 AM during "Scott & Brian In The Morning", as I'm gonna be interviewed on air about the SMS! I don't know how I'll do, but be kind if I slip up, as I've never been part of a live interview like this before. Check it out if you're up, and stay tuned for more news over the next while! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The DGB), A Concert Preview, The End Of Sense Of Truth, And More!!

Let's keep the news coming on this Monday morning, as I've got a lot of stuff to get to today! While there's some disappointing news involving a prominent local band's breakup, we also have some assorted news relating to band statuses, a preview for a show taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, and leading things off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this week, so here's what you need to know!

Here's a short notice announcement for a touring rock band's stop in Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday, as Toronto hard rock trio The DGB are stopping in town! Influenced by grunge & stoner hard rock bands, this will be a special acoustic concert at Feedback on Wednesday night, in what's a last minute stop on their return from a cross-Canada tour, so we're getting a unique look at this talented Southern Ontario outfit! If you like stoner rock or early 1990s alternative hard rock, The DGB will be right up your alley, and with it being an acoustic set, there's no chance that the police will be called on them, so that's a plus! No opening bands have been announced, and I'll of course let you guys know if any are named before Wednesday. There is no cover charge, you must be 19 to attend, and a 9:00 PM start time is listed. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an interesting concert, and hopefully a good crowd turns out despite the late notice & mid-week setting! The DGB are talented and have that grungy sound I like, so hopefully they have a great show on Wednesday night! For a preview, here's The DGB playing "Insert Your City" at a Halifax acoustic gig, but check the above links to hear more of their unplugged and electric material!



Now, while we're in the concert previewing mood, there's also a show with some metal representation taking place at The Roosevelt Hotel TOMORROW NIGHT, so here's what you need to know! It's primarily a punk concert, to be headlined by Toronto pop punk trio The Unbelievers, and they've got an entertaining & energetic style of female-charged punk rock, so they're definitely worth seeing! However, metalheads might also be interested to note that one of the opening bands is classic metal quintet Sativa Rose, who are finally returning to the stage after a four month hiatus tomorrow night! This will be their first concert since adding singer Marisa Valois to their lineup this summer, and how will she sound in her live debut? Well, there's only one way to find out, by going to The Rosie tomorrow! The other opening bands will include the debuting T. Rex Manning (the new band from Frightlight's J.D. Pearce & Skull Fist concert booker Tiffany Stocco) and frequently seen local punk trio Redundant, so there's a lot of metal potential on the undercard of this concert! Admission will be just $3 (which is more than worth it), it is a 19+ show, and doors open at 10:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Sounds like a stacked night of hard hitting music, so if you love punk (and metal), head to The Rosie tomorrow night if you can! How will Sativa Rose's new lineup sound? What do T. Rex Manning play exactly? All will be answered at what should be a great show tomorrow night, and kudos to J.D. for bringing The Unbelievers here after they shared the stage with Frightlight in Toronto last month! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Sativa Rose playing their original song "Fall From Grace" earlier this year!



Now, here's some disappointing news, as noted local hard rockers Sense of Truth have broken up. An official statement has not been made by the band, but band members confirmed on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group over the weekend that Sense of Truth split up a few months ago. A reason hasn't been announced for their breakup, but I'll note that they haven't played live since May of last year, and a proper update hasn't came onto their Facebook group in almost 8 months, so things haven't been looking up for a while. That said, members Cory Murchison & Ron Baxter are forming a new local hard rock band, and you can get more details on the Musicians Wanted group linked above if you're interested in joining on bass or drums. This surprising news comes after a successful 3+ year run for Sense of Truth, who memorably launched in April 2008 by winning the Skid Row Battle of the Bands, and later opened for notable groups like Econoline Crush, State of Shock, and Ultraviolence, made the finals of the Kiss Battle of the Bands in 2009, and headlined the re-opening of Foggy Notions that year. Though Sense of Truth recorded songs towards a self-titled EP in February of last year, a formal release for it never came, and it's looking unlikely now that we'll ever see it come out.

It's a real shame to know that Sense of Truth have ended, as they were one of the most prominent & fastest rising local hard rock bands of the late 2000s. I know that personal commitments and such slowed band activity a lot over the past year & a half, but I'm not alone in saying that I hoped things would clear up and Sense of Truth would return to the stage at some point. If I hear anything more on the next steps of the members or their breakup, I'll be sure to let you guys know, but best of luck to Cory, Steve, Ron, Curtis, and Ryan in their future musical endeavours, and if you're interested in trying out for Cory & Ron's new band, click here!

And finally for today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, all relating to band statuses, and as always, they're in alphabetical order by band or musician name:

• Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti is apparently looking to start a new melodic metal band influenced by everyone from All That Remains to Iron Maiden, and is looking for musicians for the project. No, I don't think he left Sativa Rose, this appears to be a separate band. If you're interested, click here and scroll to his post on November 23rd!
  
• Sault Michigan metal quartet Great Bodily Harm have also broken up. The reason is due to personal issues involving a band member, but without an official statement, I won't elaborate, and with no official band pages, public word might not come. Disappointing news, but I heard that most of the members are forming a similar new band, so keep an eye out for updates!
• Skull After Betrayl frontman Mike Vincent is also looking for musicians towards a local metal project, specifically a drummer who can double kick and a singer with screaming ability. Whether this is related to Skull After Betrayl or not, I don't know, but if you're interested in trying out for this band, click here and find Mike's post from November 21st!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our review of Theatre of Night's "Christmas Night" album on Wednesday, and more news over the coming week! Thanks everyone!