Where Are The New Albums?

I've been telling you guys for a bit now that we have a ton of new local metal/hard rock albums coming out in the next while, and most of what we'd heard was pointing towards summer releases for most of them. Now we're into August, and none are out, so today's post is dedicated to one singular question: Where are the new albums? I'll try and answer this to the best of my ability using sources and known information that is online. We'll alphabetically go through each Sault Ontario metal/hard rock band that, to my knowledge, has at least began recording sessions for a new album that has been announced for a release.

Note that this doesn't include albums that are merely announced without recording started, or are just planned for down the road, like "Woods V", for example. And, information is as best as I can determine, but if something's wrong or lacking details, let me know! So let's begin this special post, and we'll find out where exactly these new albums are right now!
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Bring The Fallen's debut EP

Rumoured Songs: "Defiling Despondence", "Exposed Embankment", "Stand Before", "Night Riders"

Background: Possibly from the studio time earned at some of the battles of the bands they won, Bring The Fallen had announced plans for a debut EP last year. A picture of them in studio with producer Bradley Griffith is online, they posted unmastered mixes of three original songs onto their MySpace page, and had publicly announced that it would be out in "Winter 2010". However, since then, all traces of an imminent EP release have disappeared from their internet pages, and nothing has came of it in a few months.

Current Release Status: Seemingly unlikely any time soon, if ever, especially with the deletion of information concerning an album release. Who knows if anything will come of the recordings, but you can check out three of the unmastered studio recordings at this location! Very promising stuff, nice and brutal, though it does need to be refined.
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Frightlight's debut album

Rumoured Songs: "Fright Night", "Dead Town", "Scream", "C.H.U.D.", "They All Float"

Background: The local horror influenced punk/metal band featuring Fitswitch and Caveman Morrison alumni took a unique approach to the recording sessions of their first album, opting to record it LIVE at one of their concerts! This took place at their July 10th show at Coch's Corner, with local progressive rock musician Nick Jackson behind the controls for the recordings. We haven't heard much since, though frontman J.D. "Johnny Pints" Pearce told me that "Fright Night" would be the likely first single.

Current Release Status: Unknown, but I've heard nothing out of the ordinary concerning a possible complication. Besides, can you really see it coming out just four weeks after the recording sessions ended? My best guess is it might be out in the early fall, but a release near Halloween would be fitting, given the band's theme. Imagine a CD release show on Halloween, for example! In the meantime, live jam session audio recordings of some of Frightlight's original songs are featured on their Reverbnation page!
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Garden of Bedlam - "Everything Will Die"*

Rumoured Songs: "New Rain", "Against The Grain", "Everything Will Die", "Torment", "Your Disgrace", "Three Days", "Around The Bend"

Background: Sessions for Garden of Bedlam's debut full length album (TENTATIVELY titled "Everything Will Die") began in early June at Stereo Soul Studios with producer Miguel Gauthier, who has kept fans up to date on the recording sessions at his Facebook page. Only stepping out from the studio to headline The Second Stage at Rotaryfest, the whole CD (save for some vocal parts) is completely recorded. Though frontman Buzz has battled some throat illnesses in recent weeks, his work is almost done, and the album is almost ready to sent to press! Not much else is known publicly, though Miguel's page and Garden of Bedlam's Facebook group have done a good job of keeping fans posted.

Current Release Status: Likely fall release, especially given that recording isn't completely finished yet. Sending an album away for mastering and press isn't a quick process, so I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be in your hands this month. My guess? October, but I'm not really sure. In the meantime, search for Garden of Bedlam on YouTube to hear live versions of their newest originals, while we wait for the first sneak peeks at the finished studio material!
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Gates of Winter's second full length album

Rumoured Songs: "The Stars Call My True Name", "Edin Na Zu", "Dimensions", "From Nothingness" (leftover song from late 2008 sessions)

Background: Despite an almost two year long hiatus from live performances, Gates of Winter never broke up, and are slowly working on their follow-up to 2008's "Lux Aeterna". The first glimpse of the new album was unveiled in February, when frontman and producer Lee Maines uploaded a snippet of their new song "The Stars Call My True Name" onto his YouTube channel, and he followed that up with two more demo clips in June. Not much else has surfaced, but the band are definitely still plugging away with the recording for this album, which sure sounds like their heaviest and darkest yet, and should get any Gates of Winter fan excited!

Current Release Status: I have absolutely no idea. The band have openly admitted that the recording sessions for this album have been a slow and steady process due to their increased focus on education & finances (their GarageBand page stated this.) Plus, bassist Steve Furgiuele lives out of town now, and that can't help either. As best as I can tell, recording is still going on for this album, and who knows when the next statement about it's progress or release will come out. I'd say don't expect it to come out until early 2011, but that's a complete and utter guess. For now though, check out Gates of Winter's posted demos by clicking here!
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Lion Ride's first full length album

Rumoured Songs: "Stick It In", "Snail Trail"

Background: Lion Ride entered the studio for the first sessions of their upcoming full length CD in late April at Toronto's BWC Studios with producer Greg Dawson, same as when current and ex-members of the band recorded Detroit's newest album last year. The band recorded four songs at those sessions, including "Stick It In", which was uploaded onto their MySpace page in early May as a preview. They also played another new song, "Snail Trail", at their most recent local show on May 22nd. However, band activity has slowed since June, which guitarist/studio bassist Marky Lion confirmed was due to drummer Iron Mike Bison being on the road with Toronto pop rock band The Envy, who he's managing. The Envy are currently supporting Kiss on their current tour, and just as a side note, they won't be supporting Kiss in the Soo on August 10th. The above information comes from a posting on the band's MySpace blog.

Current Release Status: According to Marky in the above blog posting, they're saying it will be out in the fall, and new graphics on their MySpace page back this up. Don't expect a September release though, Mike will still be on tour with The Envy through September 24th. Plus, as best as I can tell, they still have songs left to record, so there's definitely nothing imminent. My educated guess is November, but we'll have to see. However, you can get a preview of the CD by checking out "Stick It In" at this location!
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No Arrow - "Souls For Sale"

Rumoured Songs: "Genocyde Revealing Pt. 1", "Sikkha", "Lighter", "Delayed Reaction", "Souls For Sale", "One On The Line", "Most Of All", "Substitute Victim", "The Pissing Song", "Genocyde Revealing Pt. 2", "Colderside Of The Sun", "Cuts"

Background: Self produced, recorded, and mixed at Organized Rhyme Records from 2007-2009 and mastered by Chris Daniels at Brighton Recording/Mastering House in the United Kingdom, "Souls For Sale" is completely finished with album artwork and liner notes. So why hasn't it been released? Well, from conversations I've had with frontman Dann Pichette, the gist of it is that he wants to wait to book a CD release show before sending it to press, but hasn't been able to wrangle together the members of the band to reunite yet. Dann has kept fans posted here and there with commercials for the album and some new jam videos on his YouTube channel, but nothing finite about a "Souls For Sale" CD release has came up at all, even though it's been THREE YEARS since recording began.

Current Release Status: I have no idea. We've heard rumours of it coming out soon for a few years now, and each time we got excited, nothing came of it. However, you CAN hear the entire album for free, all you have to do is ask the band to send you the mp3s and artwork by e-mailing their MySpace page! Also, I have uploaded (with Dann's blessing) the entire album onto the SMS YouTube channel, so check it out there too! The hopes of an official "Souls For Sale" release are NOT dead yet, so stay tuned in case something pops up!
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Sense of Truth's debut EP

Rumoured Songs: "Push & Pull", "Crawling", "Land of Greed", "Pieces of a Mirror"

Background: Sense of Truth began work on their debut EP in early February with Miguel Gauthier at Stereo Soul Studios, wrapping up the recording sessions in March. Again, Miguel kept fans up to date on the sessions at his Facebook page, with some updates on Sense of Truth's Facebook group as well. The songs were sent off to be mastered in late March, and it was announced that the EP would be sent off to print "very shortly" as of June 30th. The band originally hyped an "early summer 2010" release for the album, but we're obviously past that point. Songs from the EP are on rotation on Energy Rock Radio, and samples of three songs are posted on their MySpace page, but we haven't heard much from the band since their last concert on May 22nd, partly due to drummer Ryan Haryett's out of town work commitments.

Current Release Status: My best guess is late September or early October. Common sense says that because it's both shorter and recorded earlier than Garden of Bedlam's upcoming album, then it SHOULD be out first, but you never know sometimes. I'm thinking they could be waiting for Ryan to come back to town so they can officially launch the EP with a release show, but that's just personal speculation. No matter what, when it comes out, it will deliver lots of great hard rock! Remember to hear previews of three songs at their MySpace page, and listen to Energy Rock Radio for your first taste of full songs from the EP!
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Silver Dream's debut album

Rumoured Songs: "My Heart Stops", "Evangeline", "Sunshine", "Every Minute", "Baby I Love", "Talk To Me"

Background: Not a lot was known about the recording sessions and progress of Silver Dream's debut album, but what we did know was that they wanted to record the majority of their first album before playing live, instead of typically doing it the other way around. Former frontman Matthew Silver kept fans updated on his now-deactivated Facebook page through image files as to progress of recording. We did see one taste of their sessions, a YouTube upload of "My Heart Stops", in June. The quality of the recording wasn't bad either, so they knew what they were doing! However, since Matthew left the band last month to follow a religious path, most traces of Silver Dream vanished from the internet, and their debut show was cancelled, leaving their future in doubt.

Current Release Status: Personally, it doesn't look good. With Silver Dream's frontman, namesake, and driving force gone, I can't see the remaining members doing much with what was recorded. Matthew did announce that the band would still be active, with bassist Mike LaRue looking for a new singer, but what that means for the recordings is unknown at best. I'd like to see what was finished come out at some point, but if I were you, I wouldn't hold your breath for an official CD release, at least not in the form we heard earlier this summer.
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Sykotyk Rampage - "Bella Disgusta"

Rumoured Songs: "Girl Named Jen", "I Do", "Daddie's Little Girl", "She's Got It All", "Sacrifice Your Love", "Bag On Your Face", "Would You Do", "Remember My Girl", "You Babe", "Stinky Fingers", "Quiver And Quake

Background: Local blue Chinese metal crash punk band Sykotyk Rampage announced their 23rd album, "Bella Disgusta", in late May, complete with album cover, and eventually, the complete track listing. All of this was announced on their Facebook page, along with mentions that "Bella Disgusta" would be released in June. Two months later, nothing. As best as I can tell, the album is completely recorded, the band doing their sessions at River Front Recreation Studios once again, and as far as I can tell, mixing and mastering is at least started. Note that guitarist Dirk Becker, who does the majority of the band's production and internet updating, has been out of town for "a few weeks..and a few weeks more", according to his personal Facebook page, which could partly explain the delay.

Current Release Status: It sounds mostly done, but at the same time, I'm not sure when it will come out. Given the online-only nature of their albums and their unique and lower-key style of recording, "Bella Disgusta" could be posted online very quickly compared to a local band planning a CD release. Then again, "22" took a while from when recording ended last year, so who knows. I'll guess that it will come out in September once Dirk's back home, but for all we know, it could be later or earlier. Either way, it's bound to be one of the most unique local albums of 2010!
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There, hopefully this post answers some of your questions as to why X band's album isn't out yet! I was wondering a bit in some cases, and in others, I knew there wasn't anything coming really soon, but this way, you guys are in the loop a bit more! Hopefully I kept things accurate too, but if I made a mistake along the way, let me know! That's all for now, but I have much more news to come, including some new concerts, so stay tuned!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nixxon Dixxon & Turner Up), Plus More Assorted Updates!!

And now begins the catching up of news from my computer-less weekend! Some of these stories might already be known to you by now through other sources, or you may have heard about them through our Twitter page, but they all deserve proper SMS mention! So we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, the reason for Silver Dream's recent disappearance, and updates from Woods of Ypres, with much more to come in the next few days! Here's the start of what you need to know from this past weekend!

For the new concerts, we'll start with the first ones coming up, as local rock cover band Turner Up return to the stage THIS WEEKEND for two shows at The Rockstar Bar! Looks like just their shows at The Nicolet Tavern and The Vibe Lounge were announced a head of time, oddly. This weekend's concerts are 19+ at 10:30 PM both nights with no announced cover charge. These will be their first shows at The Rockstar Bar with new frontman Brent Royer, so if you missed seeing him with the band this past weekend, now's as good a time as any! Sorry for the short notice about these concerts, they were just announced on Sunday (I believe) and my computer issues held them off from a proper SMS mention beyond Twitter. Confirm your attendance at the Facebook event page! Should be two more fun concerts from the band, head on out for renditions of classic hard rock hits! I'll keep you posted with updates!

The other new shows are courtesy of Sault Michigan hard rockers Nixxon Dixxon, who have some newly confirmed dates of their own! Thanks to Ernest Beaumont for these updates, cause the band's MySpace page hasn't been updated to reflect these new dates. Firstly, they will be at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino on July 30th & 31st, or, next weekend! Their MySpace page incorrectly states that they will be in St. Ignace that weekend, which Ernest chalked up to a simple error. No biggie, the more local shows, the better! As is typical, the shows will be 9:00 PM affairs with no cover charge, and you must be 21. But you'll get your fill of Nixxon Dixxon even earlier when they rock the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Fesitval! They'll be there on Thursday at 5:45 PM on the main stage, but did you know they're playing at Saturday at 2:30 PM also at a second stage? Full details on extra stages and performers that came through on the weekend are coming later today in our extended preview of the Kewadin Festival!

And finally, though it's not a new concert in and of itself, Ernest confirmed with me that Nixxon Dixxon are among the performers scheduled for this year's Sugar Island Music Festival, and will also be performing on August 13th, the same day as Free Refill! No word on times, but there you go, they're back at the Sugar Island Festival! Great to see these dates pop up, I'll keep you posted as more come in!

So, Woods of Ypres fans, just what have you missed in the last weekend? I'll fill you all in! We'll go in order for what has been announced and posted, and we'll start with Saturday's announcement of a newly published interview with Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold! It was conducted with Phillip A. Wickstrand, a freelance writer for the webzine Metal Psalter, and it's really well conducted with lots of good questions and detailed answers! Good discussions about the band's tour, the recording of "Woods IV", the band's future plans (no hints as to where David's moving though), his other projects, and more! Very detailed and well worded, and if you look past how he said things, you can see some allusions to his good opinions of Stereo Soul Studios and what happened in Steve Furgiuele's exit from the band! Check it out at this location! Later that day, David linked to another article about a contributor on the metal site Hook In Mouth's recent discovery and attraction to Woods of Ypres, check it out here!

Also, the band's North American tour has concluded, and David's back home in Sault Ste. Marie! A status update on the band's Facebook page from Monday has some, well, blunt comments about the Sault, but I have had hunches that he's never been really enamored with here anyway ("Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground", for example.). I admire his honesty though, and he's more than entitled to his opinion! But hey, some of you might agree, click here to check it out. I wonder if the inability to secure a local booking on the tour added to it? Note that I mean no harm or offense to David, he's always been more than nice with me and the SMS, and his opinions are clear and totally valid! Woods of Ypres have always been awesome and they delivered some of my favourite local concerts! Hopefully they'll play a concert here again, I can't be alone! And finally to note for Woods of Ypres updates today, David has uploaded two new concert videos onto his YouTube channel! One is another live performance clip of the band performing "The Shams of Optimism" & "Crossing The 45th Parallel", this time from their show in Worcester, Massachusetts! Great quality, click here to check it out!

I gotta say, these songs are definitely popular for new Woods uploads, and I love both tracks, but I don't want to seem repetitive either, so I'll embed the other video! This comes from their Ottawa concert, and it's a great quality clip of the band playing their song "Distractions of Living Alone"! Great performance with really nice audio and video, and the song holds up well! Check out this video below, and I'll keep you all posted with more updates, including their latest tour blog entry!



Finally today, were you guys wondering what happened to Silver Dream? Well, before I tell you, I want to come right out and say that I don't have a source for this... anymore. When I heard this story on Friday, it was courtesy of Matthew Silver's Facebook page, which was reactivated long enough for us to see one of his trademark news update image files with the scoop on what happened to the band. However, between then and now, Matthew closed his Facebook page again for unknown reasons, but I remember enough about the image file to give you details. You have my word that this was posted, and if you don't believe me, ask one of his old Facebook friends. I hate reporting unsourced information, but considering the topic, I have to say something. The image file more or less stated that Matthew left Silver Dream to pursue a more spiritual religious path in his life rather than continuing in music, and that bassist Mike LaRue would be keeping the band alive and searching for a new singer. This likely explains why the band's planned debut concert at Foggy Notions from a couple weeks ago was cancelled, though a reason for that wasn't implicitly stated.

Well, I have to admit that I'm disappointed to see Matthew leave, cause Silver Dream had a lot of promise, but if this truly is the right thing for him to do as a personal goal, then all power to him, and I wish him all the best! I wonder what form Silver Dream will take in the future? And again, THIS WAS POSTED ON FACEBOOK, and if Matthew revives his Facebook page again, I promise to give you guys sources!

That's all for now, but stay tuned later today for a weekend concert preview post featuring what you need to know about this weekend's Turner Up and Who Made Who concerts, and of course, the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, featuring all new information yet to be posted on the SMS itself! Stay tuned for all this later today! And I'm aiming for tomorrow to be another double post day, one for news, one for SMS polls, so be on the lookout!

Woods of Ypres & Browbeat Updates, Plus Bands Looking For Bassists!

First off, I have a minor correction/LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for you guys. Despite what the Facebook event page for it says, Turner Up are playing at The Nicolet Tavern TONIGHT as well as last night. Band members Len Ward and Scott McClurg have both confirmed this on their respective Facebook pages. Same details apply for tonight's concert, 10:30 PM start time, no announced cover, 19+. Hopefully some of you guys can make it out! Now, onto some new updates, including some new videos, songs, and two bands' bassist searches! Let's begin!

Hey Woods of Ypres fans, here's some more videos you guys should enjoy! These are both from their current North American tour, and there's some good stuff here to be watched! Firstly, we have new live footage from their concert last Friday in Ramona, California! This comes from drummer Evan Madden's YouTube channel, and just like his other Woods of Ypres uploads, this is from the "drum cam" angle, so Evan is once again the video's focus! The video is of Woods playing the songs "Shams of Optimism" & "Crossing The 45th Parallel" from the concert, and they sound pretty good! Audio's clear, the songs were awesome already, and they have a nice live energy that you'd expect! Though the angle is mostly of Evan behind the drumkit (he's a great drummer), you can also see frontman David Gold in action at the right! Good stuff, check that out below, along with the other new video: The second entry in the Woods of Ypres tour vlog! David Gold uploaded this video to his YouTube channel, where you can see such mid-tour entertainment as: What car David wants to buy, their map of their tour routing, after-concert parties, the sights of the road, and many clips involving guns or alcohol! Oh, and there may just be a bunch of concert clips too! Good stuff, looks like the tour's going real well! Check both new Woods videos out below!





Next up, local hard rockers Browbeat have uploaded three new songs onto their Reverbnation page! Like with the rest of the songs, the singing and instrumentation is solely done by frontman Dutch Vanderploeg, with one exception. Actually, their page now notes that they're now solely a "one man studio band", insinuating the departure of Rich Moreland and Sean See from the band. That sucks, it looked like the new lineup was gonna work out! Well, in any event, there are three new songs posted, here's what you should know! One is called "Yesterday", a nice fast paced rocker with a nice beat and a good solo! Bass seems kinda low, and the song could use grittier vocals, but it's a good track! "Vampired" is another new song, and it honestly reminds me of early 90s Megadeth in structure and vocals! Nice song, I really like the guitar, and the vocals are used very effectively compared to some other Browbeat material! Definitely a highlight for me! It also features the drum work of former Browbeat drummer Chris Smith (of Wishbone fame), which is cool to see! The other new song, "A Thousand Words" feels like two different songs smushed together, particularly because of the slower vocals not meshing with the instruments. It's well played, but it didn't really click for me as much as the others. Still good though! Check out all of the new Browbeat songs, and more, by clicking here!

Closing today's post are a pair of local hard rock bands that are looking for bassists! Odd that both of their searches were made public yesterday, isn't it? This one really surprises me, as Stillbroke have parted ways with bassist Kyle McKey. Kyle played on the band's debut E.P. "Never Enough", and really added a nice flavour to the band that will be missed! This is the band's second lineup change in six months, following drummer Jenny Hooper's exit in February. No statement has been made from Stillbroke as to why Kyle's out, but frontman Jesse Frigault confirmed that the band was looking for a new bassist in a posting on his local bands support discussion group on Facebook. Jesse says that interested bassists should message him at his Facebook page or by phone at (705) 759-8696. He also added that the ability to provide harmony vocals would be a bonus. Hear that, bassists? Message Jesse A.S.A.P. if you wanna try out for Stillbroke! Kyle's leave might explain why we haven't seen a Stillbroke show since March, and I'd love to see them gigging again, so inquire soon! Sad to see Kyle go, he has a good track record of local bands, like Stillbroke, Sailor's Tongue, and Hat Trik, so hopefully he'll be back gigging at some point!

The other local hard rock band looking for a bassist is local cover band Sneaky Pete, as they have parted ways with bassist Dave Grimaldi. Again, no announced reason as to why, but the band confirmed this in a posting on their Facebook page. Sneaky Pete have yet to play a live concert, but if you wanna check out Dave's bass skills, the band do have audio samples posted on Facebook, so visit their page to hear what they have! Dave wasn't a bad player, I wonder what happened? Well, if you play bass and wanna audition for Sneaky Pete, here's what you should know! You must enjoy entertaining a crowd, and be up for playing classic and new rock. The band have a 40 song setlist and their own P.A. and lighting, and will be ready to play live when you are. You must be able to jam twice a week and play local gigs. If you're at all interested in playing bass for Sneaky Pete, message the band by clicking here! Hopefully they get a new bassist soon, I've been wanting to see Sneaky Pete live for months now! I'll keep you posted on both Stillbroke & Sneaky Pete's bassist searches as they happen!

Before we close, two quick notes: The planned Silver Dream concert tonight is 100% cancelled (Broken House's Franco DiBerardino confirmed that on his Facebook page), so something is definitely up with Silver Dream. If I hear more, I'll let you know! Also, if you've noticed a different layout to the SMS, that's cause I rearranged the link lists, widgets, and sections to better accentuate and promote certain sections! Nothing's missing that's locally relevant, just moved around. If you guys have any problems with a section, list, or widget's placement, e-mail me!

That's all for today, stay tuned for a new news post on Sunday, complete with a Frightlight concert review! I will see you at Coch's Corner TONIGHT, this'll be a good one! Remember, I'll be tweeting LIVE from Coch's Corner during the show, so if something cool or noteworthy comes up, I'll have it for you guys! So follow us on Twitter at this location, or check the Twitter feed widget on the SMS itself between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM for any tweets! Stay tuned!

This Weekend's Local Concert Previews!!

Hello everyone! We have seven hard rock/metal concerts to my knowledge this weekend, so today's post is dedicated solely to them, so if you need help picking a concert to attend this weekend, I have you covered! So here's what you need to know for this weekend's concerts!

We'll quickly start in Sault Ontario tomorrow night, as Turner Up return to the live stage for the first time since Todd Killam's departure for a show at The Nicolet Tavern! This show was originally part of two scheduled for next weekend, but was pushed back and cut in half in favour of a singular show tomorrow night. Despite the recent confirmation of Brent Royer at their new frontman, Turner Up will play tomorrow's show as a four-piece while they "prepare" Brent. So for tomorrow, drummer Scott McClurg will handle lead vocals, which should be interesting! The show starts at 10:30 PM, there's no announced cover, and I imagine you myst be 19 to get in. If nothing else, you should go for the unique nature of this show, and for the classic hard rock covers they'll bring to the table! Check out more from Turner Up at their official Facebook page, confirm your attendance by clicking here, and for a preview, here's an old Todd Killam-era video of the band covering Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music"!



Now we'll head to Sault Michigan for the next four shows, before returning to Sault Ontario for the final two. We'll start just outside of town in Kinross, where locals Nixxon Dixxon take the stage for a unique show of their own! As part of the entertainment at a National Guard golf scramble event at The Oaks at Kincheloe Golf Course, Nixxon Dixxon will play a concert set at the course's on-site bar, The Bunker Bar & Grill! I never pictured Nixxon Dixxon and golf together at all, but hey, they're one of the area's best young bands, they'll do fine! They're just playing tomorrow at 9:00 PM, there's no listed cover charge (keep in mind that there may be members restrictions though, this is a golf course), and I believe there's a 21+ age limit. Great to see Nixxon Dixxon live, hopefully they knock it out of the park as they lead up to their Kewadin festival appearance! Get more info on this concert and the band at this location, and for a preview, here's the band covering Metallica's "Master of Puppets" from last December!



Meanwhile, back in Sault Michigan, an out-of-town band will make their long awaited return here tomorrow night! Cheboygan hard rockers The Darwin Project are making their way back to town for a concert tomorrow night at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill! There's no announced cover charge, and there's definitely a 21+ age limit. It's been a while since we last saw The Darwin Project live locally, but if you've followed the Sault Michigan scene for a while now, these guys should be quite familiar! They've played here numerous times, notably at the July 2008 "Rock Starz" show at The Soo Theater, and they should be set to deliver another fun night of radio-friendly hard rock to the partons at The Corner Pub! I like what I hear, heavy yet accessible! Click here for more from The Darwin Project, and for a preview, here's the band playing their song "Back To Dust" in Traverse City in January!



Finally for the Sault Michigan previews, local hard rock band Blind Baby will return to The Bird for a pair of shows this weekend! According to their Reverbnation page, the band will take the stage tomorrow night and Saturday night for two likely 21+ shows, with start times of around 10:00 PM. If you wanna hear some solid progressive hard rock this weekend, you've got a great example of it at The Bird! Melodic and well played hard rock with gritty vocals and a hard edge, it's good stuff! Check out more from Blind Baby at their official Reverbnation page! No videos are online of them yet, but rest assured, they'll put on good performances this weekend! There's more from Blind Baby coming soon!

Now we're back in Sault Ontario for the last two metal concerts of the weekend, but one I'm actually starting to second guess. It was confirmed last week that local hard rock quartet Silver Dream would be making their live concert debut on Saturday with local indie band Broken House at a concert at Foggy Notions. The event pages for it (frontman Matthew Silver's and Broken House's Jason McBride's) are still online, with listed start times of 10:00 PM, and the show would likely have a $3-$5 cover and a 19+ age limit. That we know or can guess. But I'm second-guessing this show because Matthew Silver, the founder and mainman of Silver Dream, has both shut down his Facebook account AND his YouTube channel. Those were the only internet pages that had anything to do with Silver Dream, who had no music page. So you can understand why I might have thoughts that this show was cancelled, or possibly worse. I hope nothing bad or drastic happened with Silver Dream, I know how much Matthew's been putting into this band and how much he wants to make it big! Good stuff that I heard too!

I'm just not comfortable calling this show right now, so I'm removing it from the concert listings, but if I hear different, I'll be sure to let you guys know! Last I heard, Broken House might still be playing, if that counts for anything, though I can't verify that. Fingers crossed that Silver Dream are still alive in some fashion! I'll keep you guys posted!

That leads us to the last concert this weekend to preview, and this I can 100% verify is on! Local punk/metal quartet Frightlight will bring their horror-influenced concert set to Coch's Corner on Saturday night, in their first publicly advertised concert since Halloween 2009 (not counting the "secret show", of course!) Featuring Fitswitch mainstays J.D. Pearce & Rick White, bassist Mike Gingras, and Caveman Morrison drummer Jeff Richards, they'll bring their Misfits-influenced sound to Coch's on Saturday for a very unique concert! It's unique in that, they'll be recording their first album LIVE at the concert, to be produced and mixed by iT's Nick Jackson! Is that more incentive to go? Really, how often can you be present for a recording session, this'll be a special moment! Also to be featured is local rock trio Marshmellow Gun in their live debut! They have sort of a Tom Waits/punk style which is very unique locally, so don't expect the typical stuff with them! Click here and the above links to check out the bands! There's no cover charge, you must be 19, and the show starts at 10:00 PM! Get more information at the Facebook event page too!

I guarantee I'll be at Coch's Corner on Saturday for this, I can't pass up a show of this type, especially after missing Frightlight so much since their inception! I'll have a review, video, and photo album on Sunday, so stay tuned for that! I'll be tweeting live from Coch's too during the concert, so FOLLOW US ON TWITTER for live updates! For a video preview, here's a live video of Frightlight playing their song "Dead Town"!



So there are your concert previews for this weekend! It just gets bigger from here though, with two weekends of major music festivals on the horizon, starting with Rotaryfest next weekend! I'll be there for Garden of Bedlam, hopefully you guys are too! Stay tuned to The Sault Metal Scene around midnight for the fourth installment of our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, on local solo artist Mike Cliffe! Expect a new news post on Saturday, and my Frightlight review on Sunday! Lots of excitements here over the next few days, stay tuned for it all!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Silver Dream), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Happy Canada Day to all of the Canadian metalheads out there! The clearing out of news continues as we creep closer to our third anniversary (that's on SUNDAY), and today, we have a couple stories to get to along with your local concert previews for this weekend! But first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

You've waited patiently, and the time is near: Silver Dream are playing their first ever concert this month! Yes, the hard rock band featuring Matthew Silver, Mike LaRue, Chris Stainthorpe, and Steven Flint will finally hit the live stage on July 10th for a headlining show at Foggy Notions! Great to see the full band finally getting ready for a real full concert, I was wondering when they'd finally take that step! Joining them for this concert is local indie band Broken House, who aren't metal, but are quite talented! The show's at 10:00 PM that night, there is likely a cover charge of around $3, and there's an age limit of 19+. To confirm your attendance, click here for Matthew Silver's Facebook event page, or here for the one started by Broken House's Jason McBride! It'll be great to finally see Silver Dream live, rather than just members of them at a jam session or open mic night! I'll keep you all posted as I hear more on this show, and also, I'll show you guys this: A commercial for the show! Matthew made up this the other day and uploaded it to his YouTube channel, check it out below!



Now, to your local concert previews for this weekend, as three metal bands are playing weekend sets in the Sault area (to my knowledge.) Only one of them is in Sault Ontario, so let's start with that, and I'm sure some of you guys have been anticipating their return for a while now! St. Catharines metal band Phatstick will make their long awaited return to the local stage tomorrow night and Saturday night at Foggy Notions, the same venue as their cancelled show from May 28th! This time, we'll get two chances to see them, so I forgive the renovations for calling off the first show attempt! As you know, Phatstick feature three former members of the defunct Port Colborne metal band Human Disorder, among them, Saultites Jason Taillefer & Joe LaVergne! Doors open at 10:00 PM both nights, I'd expect a cover charge of around $3, and you definitely have to be 19 to get in. Confirm your attendance for each individual concert by clicking here for the event page for tomorrow's concert and here for Saturday's! After at least 2 years of anticipating their return here for a show, our time is here to see Phatstick locally again! This will be my first time ever seeing them live, being that I was too young when they last played here. I WILL be at Foggy's this weekend, not sure which day (probably tomorrow night), but I will have a review, photos, and video regardless, so stay tuned for that!

Check out more great hard rock from Phatstick at their official website, and for a preview, here's a video of Phatstick covering Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head" from a 2008 concert!



Now to Sault Michigan for the other known concerts this weekend, and first, we'll discuss local hard rockers Blind Baby, as they return to the stage tomorrow night and Saturday night for a pair of concerts at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino! Both shows will start at around 9:00 PM, there is NO cover charge, and you must be 21 to enter. I like what I've heard from Blind Baby so far, they should put in some good performances this weekend! When your band has members of Kilacel and Scofflaw, you must be doing something right! No videos of Blind Baby to speak of yet, but check out more from them at their official Reverbnation page, which has eight demos of some original progressive hard rock songs that show lots of promise! So if you're at the casino this weekend, you'll get some good music!

Finally this weekend, rising local metal band Nixxon Dixxon return to The Bird for a weekend full of metal classics and originals! If you missed seeing them last weekend, now's as good a time as ever to see one of the best young bands in the area! Both concerts this weekend (tomorrow night and Saturday night) have an announced start time of 10:00 PM, there is no announced cover charge, and as The Bird is a bar, you must be 21. Great to see Nixxon Dixxon keeping busy on the live scene, they impress at every show, and this weekend should be no different! For more, visit their official MySpace page, which curiously no longer features their original song "High Life" in the music player. Where'd it go? Regardless, a couple of their old studio covers are back on the page to check out! For a video, here's a brand new acoustic performance clip of Nixxon Dixxon covering Shinedown's "The Crow & The Butterfly"! (Thanks to YouTube user rubbs001 for the upload!)



To close today's post, I made a pretty cool discovery that I don't think most of you guys know about. If you go to the official website of The Sault's Rock Station, Rock 101, and click on "Photo Archives" on the left hand side, you'll find some photo albums from some past concerts! A few are from some assorted non-concert events, like a four wheeler party and from a cruise that DJs Scott Cook and Brian Davie took to The Caribbean! But for us metalheads, there's some pictures up from a few extra concerts from the mid-2000s at Kewadin Casino! There's a tiny album from the 2006 Ratt/Skid Row concert featuring a photo of Scott Cook with Ratt's Jizzy Pearl, and most notably of all, a pretty big album from the 2004 Godsmack acoustic concert there! There's tons of concert photos, as well as pics with Rock 101 DJs and the band, and some shots of a free t-shirt giveaway! I wish I was there! Also, this page has photos of Rock 101's crew at Van Halen's party plane and shots from the ZZ Top/George Thorogood show in 2005! Lots of great photos here, click here to check them all out! Rock 101 should really update this section, it looks like it hasn't been touched in a few years, I imagine they must have some cool concert photos laying around from other shows!

That's all for now, but because I'm so backlogged with stories, I WILL have a post later tonight, probably around midnight. Just to make a point of the stories I promise to get to, here's the bands and establishments I plan to discuss while my pile of delayed news gets cleared out: Blind Baby, Fifth Way, Garden of Bedlam, Turner Up, Energy Rock Radio, Jason Mapes, The Sexual Vigilantes, Nixxon Dixxon, Rotaryfest, and a couple more I won't spoil. Look out for all these in the coming days!

New Updates From Three Local Bands & A Local Metal Bassist!!

Good afternoon, everyone! Hope the weekend's going well for you guys so far! Today is basically a catch-up day, to get some bigger stories off of my newsdesk and into your consciousness! I have Browbeat updates, a new Woods of Ypres video, and a local hard rock musician discovery, but first, here's more glimpses at a new local band!

Silver Dream frontman Matthew Silver has uploaded five new videos to his YouTube channel, all of which are solo acoustic performances of Silver Dream original songs! Nice to finally hear some more of their stuff, even if it's just solo at the moment. These may not sound all that heavy, but keep in mind that Matt likely altered the arrangements to fit better for a solo acoustic performance. If you've heard their first released studio song, "My Heart Stops", you'll get a taste of what the band will sound like compared to Matt alone. That being said, the new songs are all very well sung, played, and composed at this state! They all have a clear emotion and feeling to them, and Matthew's voice comes through nicely on each! The uploads are for the songs "Evangeline", "Sunshine", "Every Minute", "Baby I Love", and the one I'm embedding here, for the song "Talk To Me"! All have a similar sound given the nature of the performance clips, but "Talk To Me" is the longest, so it makes sense to show this one off! Check it out below, and if I hear more from Silver Dream, especially the full band, you'll hear it here!

(Also, in the absence of a band website, I've linked Matt's YouTube channel as the band's site on the SMS band links on your left until an actual page pops up. Check it out!)



Next up, a new video from Woods of Ypres' current North American tour has been posted online on frontman David Gold's YouTube channel! I word it like that because it's a 9:45 long tour vlog! It's an assemblage of various happenings over the past week on their tour, including the destroyed windshield mishap (and their protective mid-drive measures because of it), lots of concert clips from the shows they've played so far, and many other assorted clips from the tour! Among them: How they had supper in Winnipeg, encounters with a prairie dog and a snake, and much more footage from the sights and sounds of a Western Canada road trip, with lots of doom/black metal footage to go around! Hopefully the band releases some full song performances too, cause I know we'd love to hear more from the new album, concerts, and lineup! Check out the vlog for yourself below, pretty interesting stuff!



Thirdly today are some more updates from Sault Ontario hard rockers Browbeat! First off, it appears that the band are looking for a new bassist! It looks like frontman Dutch Vanderploeg will be remaining on guitar after all, so the band now needs a bassist again! I actually found out about this through Matthew Silver from Silver Dream, who uploaded this photo/classified ad to hype the search! If you're interested in joining a local hard rock band and are willing to learn original material, contact Dutch at dutch68@live.ca A.S.A.P.! Also to note: Browbeat have uploaded a new song onto their Reverbnation page, entitled "Moving On"! Sounds good to me, it's heavy and has nice pacing, but keeps their trandemark melody too! Click the above links to check it out, I'll keep you posted on more Browbeat news!

Now here's an interesting discovery I made the other day. Sometimes, when I search for local band updates and pages on MySpace, I'll come across a musician's solo page that has metal/hard rock solo material, or even rarer, stuff from their old bands. This happened to me the other day, when I found the MySpace page for Sault Ontario rock bassist Dan Beaupre. I immediately recognized him from his work in 100 Gran, who weren't a bad rock band, though I wouldn't say they were SMS material. It was reading his bio and listening to his songs that made me go "OK, this belongs on the SMS." It says that one of the bands he played for backed up Dio (how cool is that?), and on the bands he was listed as being a member of, I spotted a few familiar names, like Carbon Black, Metal Militia, and Hollow. Now who else was in those bands....oh, that's right, Tym Morrison! Sure enough, after some extra fact checking, I can verify that Dan and Tym were bandmates! That being said, the Carbon Black and Hollow songs that he uploaded don't feature Tym, they have guitarists Terry Eaton and Adam King, so they must have been recorded before Tym joined or after he left.

Did you catch that? There's Carbon Black and Hollow original material on Dan's MySpace page! I find the two Carbon Black songs uploaded ("Misconception" and "Angry") are catchier and heavier than the Hollow songs ("Flesh & Bones" and "Abducted"), especially "Angry", I'm really digging it's groove! These songs sound really good, I wonder if they were released on a CD or cassette at any point? Because if there's anything floating around on a released album, I'd love to review it here! Dan's got some real bass skill, it shows on these songs, and he's kept it up since in other bands like Tom Foolery, 100 Gran, and The AUC Jazz Ensemble! Dan's apparently working on a new band project as of May 30th, we'll have to see how that sounds! Check out more of Dan's work and back catalog at his MySpace page, see what you think!

Also to note: When checking around for other bands related to Carbon Black/Hollow members, I found a band called Buster Cherry from St. Thomas, Ontario, featuring former Carbon Black/Hollow guitarist Terry Eaton and drummer Vince Milosevich. They are metal, and they would absolutely fit in our out of town bands with local members profile series! Not sure when I can fit them in, but keep Buster Cherry in mind!

That's all for today, stay tuned for more news in the next few days! I should have at least one news post before Wednesday, when I plan to profile The Disciples Of Rock and Violet Fuse in our next profiles of out of town bands with local members! Stay tuned for that, and more!

Five Updates From Five Local Bands!!!

Before I get to some new updates, I have an apology to make for a missed story. As it turns out, Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle played a weekend set at Dondee Lanes Friday night and yesterday. I could blame the band for not posting concert listings on MySpace, but I take full responsibility for missing these shows because they were hyped on The Dondee's Facebook page on Wednesday and it completely passed me by. I only first heard about them today in a commercial on Rock 101. So my apologies for missing these concerts, I bet they were awesome, and I'll try harder to pay attention to The Dondee on Facebook for upcoming shows there!

Today, we'll take a look at 5 different local bands with varying updates to share, including a new band page, a new magazine article, membership changes, an album update, and your first opportunity to a certain local band live in a different setting! Here we go!

Sault Ontario's own Lion Ride are featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Urban Male Magazine! This time, they were the focus of a "Music Buzz" feature by UMM's Keith Carman, where he sat down with Mikey Lion and Marky Lion to discuss the band! The article discusses Lion Ride's sound, background, philosophy, and much more. Among the notable tidbits: Their opinions on energy compared to hitting the right notes, their evolution from their over the top glam-influenced stage shows of 2007, and what the only kind of music they currently buy is. Fun read, though it'd be nice to feature a real sit-down interview/transcript rather than capsule replies. It's awesome to see Lion Ride get more press, and it's definitely worth reading! Check your local magazine-carrying stores for the newest issue of Urban Male Magazine (self-promoted as "the best Canadian magazine for guys"), and if you wanna subscribe, click here for details! Just $1 an issue, not bad! But if you don't want the full magazine, no worries, the band uploaded it to the internet for all to see! Click the image to check it out, and I know that the words are small, so if you want clarity from the interview, click here to read a transcript! Stay tuned for more news on Lion Ride, including news on their upcoming album that they hope will be "free of any songs that suck"!

Secondly today are some updates from local metal band Silver Dream, who continue to creatively keep fans updated on band news via Facebook-uploaded images. Apparently, Silver Dream are now ready to play live shows! That being said, they need shows to play on, so if you're in a local band that'd like Silver Dream to open for you, message frontman Matthew Silver on Facebook by clicking here! Good 80s metal sound that these guys have, mixture of heavy and lighter material, they'll go over well! Leading from that, the band will be playing at an open mic night TODAY at The Royal Canadian Legion on Great Northern Road with local folk rock outfit Blackwater! My source for this is this image. Now I'm not considering this an official "concert" because it appears to be completely open mic, but if you want a live taste of Silver Dream, you'll wanna be at the Legion between 3:00 and 11:00 tonight! Matthew has played a few open mic nights with members of Silver Dream and solo in recent months, maybe you've seen him/them at one! Nice to see them finally getting out there, once an official concert is booked, I shall let you guys know!

Next, we have updates on the upcoming 23rd album from Sykotyk Rampage, entitled "Bella Disgusta"! Though audio samples have yet to appear online yet (well, not that I've seen), the band have posted some information on the album onto their Facebook page! The album will have 11 tracks for a total run time of 50:54, much smaller than their last album "22" was, though to be fair, that had a number of re-recordings. The band's lineup remains the same as it was on "22". Of the songs on "Bella Disgusta", probably most notable to fans of their live show is "Bag On Your Face", which the band has performed live, including during the t-shirt giveaway at the Scotties Tournament Battle of the Bands from earlier this year! The track listing features a number of songs that seem to refer to girls and love, if the song titles are something to go by. Might this be a recurring theme on the album? If so, I wouldn't expect this album to be "soft", this should be another shining example of the blue Chinese metal crash punk we've come to enjoy over the past so many years! Click here for the full setlist and more! Now it also says the album had a release date of June 1st, which has come and gone. No word on an official release date, but when it comes out, expect an SMS review!

Closing today's updates are stories from a pair of local bands with a page on Reverbnation, which is a really good music site that I think more bands should take advantage of. We'll start with the discovery of a page, this one for Sault Michigan's own Blind Baby! If you've been following their Facebook page hoping for band updates with no luck, then check their Reverbnation page out! So here's what I can tell you guys about the band now that I have more to go off of: Blind Baby were previously known as Stone Circle, in case you remember them. A full band lineup is listed too rather than just nicknames, so I can now confirm the full lineup of Blind Baby, including singer Tadd Gravelle, guitarists Darian Causley and Bill Ogston, bassist Chris Leask (from the now-on-hiatus Muskegon rock band Kilacel), and drummer Ivan Shliska from Scofflaw! And also, the band have uploaded eight demos to the page, so now you can hear what Tadd sent me through e-mail! Definitely a progressive tinge to this stuff, but heavy enough to keep a nice groove, definitely check out Blind Baby on Reverbnation to get a taste of their sound! Click here to check out their new page!

And finally, we have lineup changes for Sault Ontario hard rockers Browbeat, and these are pretty noticeable! Bassist Tiffany Emmerson has once again left the band, reasons not stated, and replacing her on bass is... frontman Dutch Vanderploeg, who will trade instruments but will continue to sing. So who's playing guitar for Browbeat now? None other than local guitarist, concert promoter, and radio host Rich Moreland (pictured), who you may recognize from his work in local bands like Time of Ruin! Believe me when I say that Rich is extremely talented on the guitar, this is only going to help Browbeat with him in it! Dutch tells me the band will be even heavier with the current lineup, so we'll have to see! Definitely much different looking than it has in the past, but hopefully all will fall into place this time! I'll keep you guys posted with more on Browbeat as I hear it!

That's all for tonight, sorry again for the slowness of this post, usually I have more news more frequently, but at least I'm keeping my self-started goal to have at least one new post every three days! I'd rather have new stuff quicker though, things should pick up soon though! I have stuff on the Kiss show, the Kewadin festival, and more by Wednesday, hopefully sooner, so keep an eye out!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Turner Up), More Local Videos, And Rush In The Soo?!

The news keeps flying in, and luckily, we'll get back to talk of local metal and hard rock bands today! If you were expecting more Kiss updates, I do have some, but I'm postponing that until later today or tomorrow, just to focus mostly on local bands today. Before we start, just a quick look at what to expect in the next few days: Tomorrow will feature previews of this weekend's concerts, I'm tabling Friday for a possible news post (if I have enough stories), and Saturday will have my reviews of the concerts I hit on Friday (Downtown Showdown and Phatstick, if you forgot.) Now, we'll begin with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

Thanks to the Facebook statuses of Len Ward and Jeff Gray for this: Local hard rock cover band Turner Up are back for another show THIS WEEKEND, and yes, that is in the singular! Rather than their standard pair of weekend shows, the band are playing just one concert this weekend, at a slightly unconventional venue, at a strange time to boot! On Saturday night, Turner Up will be headlining at The Royal Canadian Legion on Great Northern Road (across from A&W), with a start time of 8:30 PM! The Legion is mostly known for hosting country bands, but they have flirted with heavier bands on occasion, notably being the planned host for a Garden of Bedlam all ages show last year before it was indefinitely postponed. No cover charge for Turner Up's show has been announced, and I don't know if this show specifically is all ages or not. I wish the band made up event pages on Facebook again, they'd likely tell us more! According to Len Ward, the band really needs our support for this show, so there must be a more special/one-off significance to it. I'd go if I was free, but I have tickets for Sault Area Wrestling that night, so I can't make it, but if you guys wanna hear some great hard rock covers, head on out to The Legion on Saturday! And again, my apologies for the short notice, I only found out about this concert yesterday.

Three new videos to share with you guys in this update, so get yourselves ready! Firstly, we finally have new audio to share from local metal band Silver Dream! If you've been wondering why we haven't heard much from them in recent weeks, it's part their originality in issuing band updates, and partly my own ignorance. Frontman Matthew Silver does frequently update people on Facebook on Silver Dream's status and progress, but not through typical means. He actually issues them in pictures, uploading image files onto Facebook with many different band updates, ranging from songwriting to how they're doing in jam sessions, to even song lyrics! It's unconventional, which I applaud, but also hard to keep track of when searching for news and updates. To sum things up, they are close to playing live! The band are currently working on 10 originals for their live set (and presumably their first album, which they want to release sooner rather than later.) They haven't played live yet due to some outside problems, but hope to soon! Click here to check out Matthew's photos, where he has posted these updates, along with some other goodies from when he first started working on this band project to now!

That being said, Matthew uploaded the first public Silver Dream demo onto his YouTube channel! This really reminds me of a slower hair metal song from the '80s, and that's not a bad comment! I like his voice, his singing ability we've seen at his solo shows really comes through! Nicely mixed too, this sounds like it could be on an album already! However, I'd love to hear some heavier stuff from Silver Dream too, but this'll do for the time being! Check it out below, and thanks to Matthew for taking my advice to upload it to YouTube! Facebook Video's alright, but they don't let you embed videos on external sites, which can be bothersome. No matter, here's your first taste of Silver Dream!



Next up, we have new video online of Nixxon Dixxon to share! YouTube user myangels1266 has uploaded two new clips of the Sault Michigan hard rockers from their show this past Sunday at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino! The audio is fantastic on both, but the stage lighting hurts the video, you can't even see Chris or Kyle's heads most of the time! Aside from that, the videos are great, now how about the music? One video has the band covering the Van Halen classic "And The Cradle Will Rock...", which really turns out well, they played this almost to a T! Chris Hubbard continues to impress on guitar especially, he's a guitarist to watch out for! The other video, which I've embedded below, has the band covering the Ozzy Osbourne classic "No More Tears"! Aside from a bit of patchy vocals, I have no complaints! Great singing, great instrumentation, I see big things in Nixxon Dixxon's future! Check out "No More Tears" below, and more live videos from the band at this location!



Today's last video comes courtesy of Stillbroke, or, half of Stillbroke! A new video has been uploaded to the band's YouTube channel featuring frontman Jesse Frigault and new guitarist Chris Villeneuve performing a new song called "I Don't Wanna Say Goodbye"! It sounds like a hybrid of their heavier and softer material, it's a good mix! Nice to see some solo work from Chris in here, and the presence of a bit of a solo duel as well, that'll be interesting to see live! Jesse, as always, sings with a mix of passion and aggressiveness that works really well, and the lyrics are good too! Check it out below, and click here for more Stillbroke videos!



And finally for today, you know how Canadian rock legends Rush played in Sault Ste. Marie in the 1970s? Well, if you're a fan of Rush, here's a treat. Local drummer Glen Thomas has uploaded two photos from Rush's show at Sault Memorial Gardens in 1975 onto his new local music news site The Barking Eye, and you can check his post about them at this location! This picture is one of the two he uploaded, of Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart in action at the show! Glen also shared some interesting tidbits on Rush's local appearance, including the fact that they played here more than once, they were quite LOUD (as he intentionally capitalized), and their stage setup at the time included shag carpeting! Rush have got to be the biggest Canadian band to have not played here in the last 30 years, and Glen surmised that it might be because of their massive current stage setup. Maybe, but I'm sure they could scale it down if they did a smaller tour and knew there was demand here! Glen noted that he also sent these pictures to "Castle Stories" author Duane Roy for inclusion in his upcoming book about concerts at Sault Memorial Gardens, which is really cool! Check the above links for more, and cross your fingers that one of these days, Rush will come back!

Alright, that's all for now! I just realized that maybe I shouldn't promise certain things to watch out for in my next update, cause there was a few things not in this update. Well, I guarantee these are coming either later today or tomorrow: Updates on the Kiss show (or lack thereof), Energy Rock Radio, and WinkStinger! Stay tuned!