Fuck The Facts Concert Preview & The SMS March Mayhem Finals!!

Hey guys, it's time for another post, with two aims: To psyche you up for a concert tomorrow night, and to launch the finals of the SMS March Mayhem tournament! First though, let's get previewing!

Ottawa grindcore quintet Fuck The Facts are returning to Sault Ste. Marie for the first time in 2 ½ years tomorrow night! After last devastating a local audience in November 2008 at The Grand Theatre, this female-fronted outfit will make their way to The Roosevelt Hotel on Monday in a Dismembertainment-promoted night of metal madness! If you enjoy brutal fast death metal with guttural and brutal vocals, you'll enjoy Fuck The Facts, so don't forget this concert! Two local bands will open at this show, including extreme quintet WinkStinger & grimecore rockers Shit Liver! For WinkStinger, this is their first show in a month, and first Rosie appearance in two months, so it's been a relatively long time coming for their next show, while Shit Liver are back in full force to deliver their own unique brand of death metal as openers! This show will have a special $4 cover, but you know that if a Rosie show has a cover, it'll be of extra quality and prominence, so it's worth paying! This show will also be 19+ with a 9:00 PM or later start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

This should be an awesome show, hopefully I can make it out! I need more metal, and fast, so hopefully they'll deliver from after their last show here! For a preview, here's Fuck The Facts' music video for their song "The Sound Of Your Smashed Head"!



And now, it's time for the finals of the SMS March Mayhem tournament, as we come down to the final two bands left after seven weeks of voting! First though, here are the results of last week's semifinals!

Frightlight def. As It Stands 89-76

Sykotyk Rampage def. Mike Cliffe 127-87

What do you guys think? The Frightlight win wasn't what I predicted, but it was a close vote all week long, and both bands have put in great showings and support from the beginning! Sykotyk Rampage ended Mike Cliffe's Cinderella run in the tournament with a more decisive victory, as their also-surprising run takes them into the finals! Congratulations to Mike on making it this far though, it's a good sign! With those matchups now wrapped up, here is the updated tournament bracket!

Amazing that this is almost over, huh? Well, without any further adieu, here's the tournament finale, the final matchup!


Can Frightlight's horror punk attack take out the surprising Sykotyk Rampage's crash punk sounds? It will be interesting to see who takes this final matchup, which you have ONE WEEK to vote on! Vote at the left of the page for this final poll in the SMS March Mayhem tournament! Who'll win it all? We find out next Saturday! Stay tuned for that, reviews, and more very soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Half A Man) & The SMS March Mayhem Semifinals!!

Hey guys, I apologize for this being later than it usually is, but that's the joys of vacation plans. This post shall lead off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, but then we'll transition into the latest SMS March Mayhem updates, including the debut of the final four! Let's get things going!

Brimley hard rockers Half A Man are playing a rare all ages concert on The Fourth of July! This will serve as both an official outdoor show and as a Fourth of July barbeque to take place at 6816 South Main Street in Brimley. I believe this is likely at or near a band member's house, but don't quote me on that. This event has a 1:00 PM start time, but I imagine the band might not play until later. It is definitely an ALL AGES show, and there is no listed admission price. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like a fun time, and what better way is there to spend both Independence Day & the SMS' 4th anniversary? Details aren't entirely out there yet for what's going on, but stay tuned to the above links for info as it comes in!

Now it's time to update the SMS March Mayhem bracket as we finish the quarterfinals, narrowing the bands down to a final four! Who made the final four? Here's the results of the third round!

As It Stands def. Destroilet 35-17

Frightlight def. Lion Ride 39-19

Mike Cliffe def. Shit Liver 109-106

Sykotyk Rampage def. WinkStinger 48-22

What do you guys think? As It Stands' victory is what I predicted, though it was a bit more of a blowout than I was predicting. Destroilet had a good run though! Same goes for the Frightlight/Lion Ride match in terms of the finish, as I thought Lion Ride would have at least lost by a closer amount. Mike Cliffe's surprising Cinderella run continues with a stunningly high vote total, narrowingly beating Shit Liver in this past round! Who'd have thought we'd get over 200 votes on a matchup? Sykotyk Rampage's win of WinkStinger is also a surprise, though their fanbase is quite devoted! So these are the quarterfinal winners, and here's the updated tournament bracket!

As you can see, the winners of last week's first two matchups and the winners of the last two matchups will face each other, starting TODAY, in fact! With that said, here are the matchups for the SMS March Mayhem Semifinals!


Can Frightlight continue their gauntlet run in the tournament with a victory over hardcore mainstays As It Stands? And in the battle of surprise semifinalists, can Mike Cliffe pull off yet another upset victory as he takes on Sykotyk Rampage? The winners of these matchups face off in ONE WEEK in the finals, so VOTE TODAY and pick your finalists! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news very soon! Thanks everyone, and GET VOTING!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Farewell To Freeway) & The SMS March Mayhem Quarterfinals!!

Another packed month of local metal news continues today with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT & the latest SMS March Mayhem updates, including the launch of the tournament quarterfinals, so that's the topic of this first post of the day! Before we get to the news, I will say that our next news-centric post (likely coming tonight) will feature new As It Stands & Half A Man videos, and some assorted other stories, so keep an eye out! Now, let's begin this post!

Another Roosevelt Hotel metal night from Dismembertainment is now confirmed, this time for the show on May 12th! (No word yet on the May 5th lineup.) This time around though, it will be the first Rosie metal night (I think) to feature two out of town bands! As part of their All Or Nothing Canadian tour, two touring hardcore bands will hit Sault Ontario for this show, including headliners Farewell To Freeway! Signed to Victory Records, this hard hitting metalcore quartet will be sure to incite some fury when they headline this Thursday nighter! Also joining them will be No Bragging Rights, a melodic hardcore band from Southern California who are a great compliment to this show with their own take on hardcore mayhem! Check the above links to give both bands a listen! The local openers will be As It Stands, adding another high profile opening slot to their spring schedule, so make note of them as well! Typical Rosie rules apply, including a 19+ age limit, 9:30 PM-ish start time, and no cover charge. For more details, check the above links and the Facebook event page! Sounds like a solid concert, I'll of course keep you posted when and if updates roll in!

Now it's time to update the SMS March Mayhem bracket as we close down the second round and head into the final three rounds of the tournament! I notice some campaigns are growing to get votes out, and I thank you all for voting over the past week! So, how'd the last second round matchups score? Here are the results!

Mike Cliffe def. Sativa Rose 40-33
Shit Liver def. State of Misery 80-73
Sykotyk Rampage def. That's Chester 50-13
WinkStinger def. Woods of Ypres 26-22

What do you guys think? I'm really surprised at how many votes Mike Cliffe got, I'm pegging him as the Cinderella of the tournament! Who'd have thought he'd outscore Sativa Rose? Nice high scoring match though, you can tell both have devoted fanbases! The Shit Liver & State of Misery match sure was the battle of dueling vote campaigns, as both would have crushed any other band's total had they took on anyone else! Shit Liver ended up pulling out a narrow 6 vote victory in a match that I thought was a coin toss from get-go! Sykotyk Rampage's win didn't surprise me given the shorter time period that we've covered That's Chester on the SMS, but this was a thoroughly dominating performance! Who'd have thought? WinkStinger's victory over Woods of Ypres wasn't what I expected, but I did figure it'd be close. I'm surprised that it scored so low though, who'd have thought it'd be the lowest voted of the matchups? And finally, is it ironic that the first band alphabetically in each matchup won? Odd, if nothing else! So that closes out the second round, and here's the updated tournament bracket!

As you can see, the winners of last week's first two matchups and the winners of the last two matchups will face each other, starting TODAY, in fact! With that said, here are the matchups for the SMS March Mayhem Quarterfinals!

In the battle of hardcore eras, can As It Stands build on their momentum, or can Destroilet lock up a third straight blowout win? Will Frightlight's gauntlet run continue, or can Lion Ride defeat them and advance to the semifinals? Can Mike Cliffe continue his Cinderella run against Shit Liver, or will their crusty and grimy sounds prove too much? And can Sykotyk Rampage emerge from the cave with an upset over WinkStinger's extreme attack? The winners of the AIS/Destroilet match and the Frightlight/Lion Ride bout will face off next week, as will the Cliffe/Shit Liver and Sykotyk Rampage/WinkStinger winners in the final four! The voting for the quarterfinals begins today, the winners are in next week's semifinals, and you have just ONE WEEK TO VOTE! Let's see some enthusiastic results and high totals again, we're nearing the end of the tournament! VOTE TODAY!!!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a likely new news post later tonight! Thanks everyone, and GET VOTING!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (River Witch) & SMS March Mayhem Updates!!

Second post of the day is now, and remember to check out our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on The Heatseeking Moisture Missles in the post below! Today, we'll start with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, but we'll cap off with the latest SMS March Mayhem updates, as we hit the halfway point of the second round! And yes I have a news post coming tonight as well in a rare triple post day, so let's get right to it!

This was partially a Facebook exclusive from yesterday afternoon, as I wasn't planning to post a new news post yesterday, but I had to get the word out on this before it was too late. As it turns out, this weekend certainly was busier than we had predicted, as River Witch also played/are playing this weekend! At 6:00 last evening, the band announced on their Facebook page that they'd be playing at The Bird last night and TONIGHT, which has to be one of the closest short notice announcements I've seen for a show in quite a while. So I plugged it on our Facebook page last night to ensure it wasn't forgotten about, and I promised to lead off one of our posts today with it, so here we are! Remember, TONIGHT'S show (just like last night's) is a 21+ affair with no announced cover charge, and it starts at 10:00 PM tonight. Apologies for the short notice, but it's out of my hands. I wish River Witch would update their shows and pages in further advance than they tend to do, but hey, what can I do? They'll still deliver some solid hard rocking shows this weekend, so check the above links for more details, and if you saw them last night, hopefully you had fun! Remember, they're back at The Bird TONIGHT at 10:00 PM!

And now, it's time to update our SMS March Mayhem tournament brackets, as we hit the halfway point of the second round, and determine the first four quarterfinalists in this poll tournament! I'm glad to see votes picking up in the second round, and there's some interesting results, so here they are!

As It Stands def. The Bear Hunters 27-21
Destroilet def. Browbeat 101 20-5
Frightlight def. Garden of Bedlam 38-24
Lion Ride def. Half Past 40-23

What do you guys think? I figured As It Stands would win given their solid local following, though The Bear Hunters kept it close and proved their own growing prominence in the scene, which is about what I expected! Destroilet pulled out a second straight blowout win, though the fact that Browbeat 101 officially broke up didn't help matters for them. Still, leaving them in was only fair! Frightlight got tons of votes, again showing the fanbase that's helping them do so well in the Vans Warped Tour Battle of the Bands voting, though it did come at the expense of Garden of Bedlam, who I thought would have finished closer! I'm really surprised at that, though their slow activity of late couldn't have helped. And Lion Ride's win over Half Past was what I expected, though I should note that Half Past had a solid lead for the first half of the week before Lion Ride surged in front to lead the week's voting. Good on Half Past though for a solid finish! With all that said, here's how the brackets now look for the tournament!


As you can see, As It Stands will collide with Destroilet in the quarterfinals, and Frightlight will continue their gauntlet run against Lion Ride, with these promising to be two highly voted matchups! The voting for these begin next week, along with the other quarterfinal matchups from the rest of the 2nd round winners. Speaking of which, those remaining second round contests begin TODAY, including the remaining seven first round winners and the last byed entrant. Without any further adieu, here are the final second round matchups!


Can solo artist Mike Cliffe pull off an upset against fast rising metal quartet Sativa Rose? In the battle of young local death metal bands, can Shit Liver's grime sounds take out the more extreme stylings of State of Misery? Who'll win the matchup of crash punk & classic rock when Sykotyk Rampage take on That's Chester? And can WinkStinger continue their run by spoiling the tournament debut of noted local doom metal quartet Woods of Ypres? The Cliffe/Sativa Rose & Shit Liver/SoM winners face each other next week, as well as the Sykotyk Rampage/That's Chester & WinkStinger/Woods winners in a quarterfinal matchup next week too, along with the winners from this past week, so keep an eye out! The second round ends with these four matches, so to decide the last quarterfinalists, VOTE TODAY in the polls on the left! No risks, no biases, just pick your favourites and help get their support up for the next round push! YOU HAVE ONE WEEK, so make your votes heard!

That's all for now, but we have a new news post coming tonight featuring a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, Cinderella fallout, the return of a promising local band, and more! Thanks everyone!

New Band Pages And The Start Of The SMS March Mayhem's 2nd Round!!

Hey guys, I apologize for not making it to any shows last night, we got caught up in a lot of stuff at home and by the time everything was free, I'd have been very late to any of the bands playing downtown. I'll be at a very long marathon of concerts tonight though, as I'll be seeing the Sewer Swampstravaganja and Lion Ride tonight, and I hope to see you there! Now, to today's post on our current 31 day streak of new posts, and we'll start with some new band pages, and then, it's SMS March Mayhem updating time! Here's what you need to know!

Three local bands have new pages we haven't previously mentioned on here, so here they are! Local hardcore band As It Stands are now on SignMeTo, Roadrunner Records' music discovery site, so click here to check out their page on there! It features a short band bio and all of the studio songs they've unveiled since their return, but little else at present. Give it a look and become a fan! Also, Brimley hard rockers Half A Man have a page on MetalHeadRadio.com which is honestly hard to navigate, but does contain band information, so click here to check it out! Disregard that the URL implies it's just a page for drummer Mikey Bishop, it's an official Half A Man page! And finally, Theatre of Night, the classical metal project from 3/4s of End of Existence, now has a MySpace page as well! Though lacking in band info, it does feature some new photos of keyboardist Craig Harrison, and one song not posted on Reverbnation, entitled "Mary's Epic"! It's a very nice instrumental song, it has that epic orchestral feel that I love hearing in metal, so give it a look at this location, and more at the above links for all three of these bands!

And now, it's time to update our SMS March Mayhem tournament brackets, and as we close down the first round and begin the second round! It's the "Sweet 16" now, as the winners from the past three weeks join the four byed bands in matchups over the next two weeks! Before we get into that, how'd the results shake down for the last 4 first round matchups? Well, here they are!

State of Misery def. Sneaky Pete 29-10
Sykotyk Rampage def. Stillbroke 11-6
That's Chester def. Turner Up 9-4
WinkStinger def. Tym Morrison 18-3

What do you guys think? I am pleased to see such a following for State of Misery in this round, but I chalk up the lopsided results partly due to Sneaky Pete's local unfamiliarity, only having just debuted on stage last night. It'd be closer if they'd been playing longer, but State of Misery pulled out a good win! Same for Stillbroke, kind of. If they hadn't been on a year long break from the stage, I'm sure they'd have gotten more votes, but they'll be back soon! Congratulations to Sykotyk Rampage on their win though, nice to see their support! In the classic rock showdown, That's Chester beat Turner Up in a low scoring but close win, which surprised me given the relative newness of our coverage of That's Chester. Interesting! WinkStinger won a very lopsided win over Tym Morrison, which really surprised me, as I thought fans of Tym's solo work would come out in higher numbers! Still, nice to see some high WinkStinger support! Now, with the first round done, here's the updated March Mayhem bracket!

As you can see, State of Misery will face Shit Liver in the second round, Sykotyk Rampage and That's Chester will face each other, and WinkStinger will face Woods of Ypres in the next round, after their own first round bye. Those matchups (plus Mike Cliffe vs. Sativa Rose) will take place next week, but how about this week? Three of the byed bands will make their debuts along with the first five opening round winners, but before that, I just want to clear up one note about a band that is now broken up, that being Browbeat 101. I won't replace them or delete them from the tournament because they already won their opening match, and it'd be unfair to them to remove them now, whether "dead forever" or not. So here are this week's matchups, the first four of the second round battles!

Can As It Stands make a big splash to begin their tournament against The Bear Hunters in this battle of prominent extreme metal bands? Can Browbeat 101 pull out a posthumous victory, or will Destroilet win another matchup in decisive fashion? In a marquee matchup for the second round, can Frightlight spoil the tournament debut of Garden of Bedlam? And can Lion Ride top Half Past in their first matchup, or could we see an upset? The As It Stands/Bear Hunters & Browbeat/Destroilet winners face each other and the Frightlight/GoB and Half Past/Lion Ride winners face off in two weeks in the quarterfinals, along with the winners of next weekend's second round polls! As always, these matchups are polls on the left hand side of the screen, and to vote, all you have to do is pick a favourite and vote! YOU HAVE ONE WEEK to determine our first quarterfinalists, so VOTE TODAY!

That's all for today, but I will see you guys at The Oddfellows Hall in an hour or so for The Sewer Swampstravaganja, and then at The Rockstar Bar for Lion Ride! Thanks everyone!

New Bands On Three Shows & The Latest SMS March Mayhem Updates!!

Hey everyone, its time for another news post at the SMS! We're mostly gonna detail the March Mayhem bracket, but we will start with some new bands on three upcoming concerts, and later tonight, I believe we'll have a new news post with some more stories from the last while! So let's begin this post!

I have new bands added to three upcoming Dismembertainment concerts! Firstly, local death metal quintet State of Misery have been added to the lineup of the next metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel on April 14th! This is sort of unexpected given that they're playing on April 28th as well, and there usually isn't the same band at consecutive metal nights, but they should do well! State of Misery join Desbarats' For All That Is Lost on the bill, and my source is drummer Nick Kainula's Facebook page, where he was asked by organizers if they wanted to play beforehand. Also, WinkStinger have been added as the local openers for May 23rd's Isosceles Project concert at Foggy Notions! My source is the official show poster which you can see at this show's Facebook event page, and if that's not a good source, I don't know what is! WinkStinger will fit right in as openers, joining fellow extreme Ontario acts Thekillingfield and Like Animals! Finally, Winnipeg metal band Annex Theory (featuring former Quo Vadis singer Trevor Birnie) will join Laika at the August 25th metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel, as confirmed on their summer tour's event page! I'm impressed with them, good extreme sound and awesome vocals, remember this show come August! Check the above links for more!

And now, it's time to update our SMS March Mayhem tournament brackets, and begin the last polls of the first round! Yeah, I know it's April now, but why change the name when "March Mayhem" flows so well? With two weeks of voting in the can, we're now down to 20 bands, and I again want to thank you all for voting so well in most of these matchups! Though only one of the polls crossed 20 votes, we got good results for all, so, here are the final totals for the 5th-8th first round matchups!

Half Past def. Late & Loud 12-4
Mike Cliffe def. Riverin 5-2
Sativa Rose def. SBD 13-5
Shit Liver def. Sense of Truth 20-18

What do you guys think? Half Past's win isn't surprising given their higher local profile compared to Late & Loud, who are relatively new, but with Half Past's scattered activity of recent months, I figured the results would be closer. I expected the Mike Cliffe vs. Riverin match to have low votes because they aren't the most well known bands (no recent concert history doesn't help), but thanks to those of you who did vote! I had no idea who'd win, but congratulations to Mike on pulling it out! Sativa Rose's win over SBD wasn't too surprising either, they've made more waves in recent months than SBD, whose concerts are less frequent, and I'm sure their genres helped influence the votes. Shit Liver's win of Sense of Truth was really interesting, in what was the only real "close" fight of the week. Though they never led, Sense of Truth were neck and neck with Shit Liver all week, and with that kind of a high result, imagine how it might have looked had they not been on such a long hiatus! But Shit Liver's loyal fans helped them win it all, and they're moving on to the next round! Now, here's the updated March Mayhem bracket!

As you can see, Half Past will now face Lion Ride in the second round of the tournament, thanks to Lion Ride's first round bye. Mike Cliffe will face off with Sativa Rose in the next round, and Shit Liver will clash with the winner of this week's Sneaky Pete/State of Misery match. The Half Past/Lion Ride match starts NEXT WEEK, with the remaining second round matches taking place in two weeks, so remember that! Other than adding the winners for the next round, nothing's changed to the bracket itself. With all of that said, the final 1st round polls for March Mayhem are now online, and the same rules apply as before. You have one week to vote, it's one vote per person, and pick your favourite band in each of the four matchups below with the polls on your left!


Can veteran local hard rockers Sneaky Pete take out fast rising hardcore quintet State of Misery despite not debuting on stage until Friday night? Despite their long hiatus from the stage, can Stillbroke overcome the crash sounds of Sykotyk Rampage? Who will win the battle of classic hard rock cover bands when That's Chester collide with Turner Up? And can Tym Morrison's acoustic solo project overcome the extreme stylings of WinkStinger? The winners of all of this week's matchups will collide in two weeks, where the Sneaky Pete/State of Misery winner faces Shit Liver, the Stillbroke/Sykotyk Rampage & That's Chester/Turner Up winners face each other, and the Tym Morrison/WinkStinger winner faces Woods of Ypres! So there are our last March Mayhem first round battles, and to vote, the polls are on your left! VOTE TODAY, YOU HAVE ONE WEEK! And remember, next week, the second round begins with bands whose names are between the letters A and L!

That's all for now, but VOTE IN THE NEW TOURNAMENT POLLS TODAY, and stay tuned for another news post later tonight! Thanks everyone!