X's & Y's - "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars" EP Review!!

It's now time for our 208th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and for a second straight month, we're heading to Michigan, with this month's review being of local metal solo project X's & Y's' third CD "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars"! Posted online on January 13th in advance of a physical CD release exactly one month later, this EP features two versions of the title track along with two bonus holdover originals. A Werehold and AFR Records production, the songs here were mixed and mastered in Lansing by Mitchell "Mitch Michelle" Wells, with Jason as the only credited musician this time. X's & Y's forgone the usual streaming platform release for "FTMFTS" (Bandcamp doesn't even have the middle two songs), but the whole 20 minute EP is officially streamable on YouTube. CD copies only cost $3 USD, which is a pretty good deal, so contact Jason on social media if you want to inquire about availability eight months later! I have no idea if there are/were any physical storefronts in the EUP carrying the CDs.

Let's begin this quick review with the title and longest track, "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars", a 7+ minute song that Jason said leaned "into doom/drone/horror territory". This is undeniably a metal song, but it really slows down with an extremely deliberate and ominous pace. A rare Jason Mills-led song with vocals (albeit just seventeen yelled words), I'm not gonna lie and tell you that this style of metal is my favourite, but it's distinct, punishing, and will be a fitting choice for inclined listeners over the Halloween season! For my tastes though, the song might be more effective if sped up in Audacity. Next is the EP's shortest song "Hand Of Cydonia", which continues the space concept, as Cydonia is a region of Mars. This song is particularly distinguished because Jason uses a tremoloa (a zither often used to replicate the sound of a Hawaiian steel guitar) as one of the included instruments, which he couldn't find other examples of in metal music.

If the droning nature of the title track wasn't your thing, you may appreciate the pounding djent riffs of this instrumental, and the tremoloa does add suitably spacey/other-worldly affect. It's still a doom metal song, but the aggression and quicker pace works better for what I like, and it would suit a sci-fi movie or TV show well! The last completely new song is "Crater", which is peppered with backwards guitar playing, including the first 30 seconds.before the full song kicks into gear. Definitely not as heavy as "Hand Of Cydonia", but it has an effectively eerie feeling and strong instrumentation, including what sounds like more tremoloa input in the background, and the last 52 seconds is just a mild harmony to keep the existing vibes going. Not a bad song at all, especially for seasonal mood music, but metalheads will take to the opening tracks more for heaviness.

The EP closes with an instrumental version of "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars", which is the exact same song minus lyrics, and the song wasn't verbose as it was. The vocals aren't essential to appreciation of the song, but they are also a variance to its structure and pacing, so I do prefer the main version to the instrumental. Your mileage may vary! Overall, I did like X's & Y's' new EP, but for what I go for in metal, I did prefer their full-length albums "The Obsidian Dream" and "Ruination Coactive" more. It has the diversity seen on the former, including the doomy overtones and tremoloa usage, but this wasn't as fast paced and hard-hitting on average. "Hand Of Cydonia" was easily my favourite song here", but fans of AlgomA and later Woods of Ypres will want to check this for a more modern example of local doom metal. Honestly, there's so much material that Jason could have sourced for a full space concept album similarly to the Contra-themed "Ruination Coactive".

Still, my reservations are mostly of the "existing metal subgenre preference" type, and this is a good collection of songs. Here's hoping that Jason returns to the studio and works on some new X's & Y's material soon, but check out this EP above, and I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! Next month, we will return to Sault Ontario for a look at local metal trio The BAG's debut album "Sacculus", so look for that in November, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Viscera), A New Local Band, And Two New EP Releases!!

Tonight's SMS post is 100% focused around Sault Michigan, specifically two small-lineup metal bands with new EP releases, one brand new to our coverage and prominent in our latest LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know on this windy Wednesday night!

We have a new local metal band to add to our links, and they are a hardcore punk/metal duo named Viscera! Presumably getting the name from human internal organs and not the late wrestler, Viscera's lineup consists of former Small Town Society guitarist "Blind" Bob Quinn (credited as "Bobert Quinn") alongside drummer Mitchell Leon, with Bob on lead vocals. The idea of a minimalist two man metal band will appeal to a lot of Blood Shed Productions-tested Sault Ontarians, so Canadian readers may not wanna bypass them on that basis! While I only just learned about this band in the past week, they have been active since at least last fall, and they released their debut EP on major streaming services on October 30th! Entitled "From Feast To Famine", you can check it out for yourselves on Spotify and Apple Music (as helpfully linked via Distrokid) as well as on YouTube Music and Bandcamp.

The EP is on sale in mp3 format on iTunes for $4.95 and on Bandcamp for $9, so if you really want to support Viscera, buy and download everything! Five songs are included on "From Feast To Famine", with track #1 ("Disassociate") being released prior as an advance single. I'll hold comment on the EP itself pending our eventual review (in release order, it's now scheduled for June), but a jam session video is circulating on personal Facebook pages, albeit uploaded sideways. Viscera have a promisingly intense and sludge-inflected sound that gives the E.U.P. something rawer and heavier than you tend to see nowadays, especially an original band playing such music, so hopefully we hear lots more from them in 2026! If you want to see Bob & Mitchell live, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as they are headlining a St. Patrick's Day weekend concert at Three One Three On Ashmun on Saturday, March 14th!

Two bands will open for Viscera's local debut set next month, one being a touring group, namely veteran Marquette doom/stoner metal duo PonyWorm, who I have never heard of as a live act this far east. They've been a reliable presence in the western U.P. since at least 2012, and as it turns out, Viscera's proper live concert debut was in Marquette last month with PonyWorm opening (here's the poster). Now E.U.P. fans can see what the fuss is about! Fresh off of their unadvertised Savoy gig on February 7th, local punk/metal band About:Blank are slated to open at the former Back Door next month, and while I don't know if their guitarist/bassist vacancy will be filled in time, Parker & Kade may want to hold off for now to keep the two-man-bands theme going! Music aside, the poster promises "trippy visuals", so keep that in mind if you're coming out. This has the hallmarks of a Serious Business-promoted concert but I don't immediately know if it's their doing.

This presumably 21+ concert goes down on Saturday the 14th at 7:00 PM, and admission will be $10 in advance or $15 at the door. I don't know if there will be a public location or online link for advance tickets, but contact Bob, Mitchell, Parker, and/or Kade to inquire within. Here's hoping this show is a smash hit for all involved, and Viscera sure got off to a fast local start, so see above for more on them, the EP, and this concert, and here's "Dissociate"!

Finally, we'll stay in the realm of Sault Michigan metal acts with studio material. Do you remember when local metal solo project X's & Y's announced plans to release an EP named "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars" last week? Well, it did come out on CD on February 13th as planned, and if you want a copy, contact project leader Jason Mills via the band's Facebook page! Given that it's a shorter EP, discs only cost $3 apiece, though with Crooked Music closed, I don't know if he has plans to have CDs on sale at a retail storefront elsewhere. When we last left off with the Life's Eclipse successors last month, Jason had posted both versions of the title track on their Bandcamp page, but at press time, the other two songs ("Hands Of Cydonia" and "Crater") were not streamable there. However, if you want to hear the songs without buying the EP, the whole thing is on X's & Y's' YouTube channel!

On the release date, Jason posted the EP as one batch video, and while I'll hold comment on the final product pending our review of "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars" (Viscera's EP bumped it to September), definitely give everything a listen above and below to hear what X's & Y's have been cooking up in recent months! Where else will you hear a metal band using a tremoloa?

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

The Quite Frankly Concert Preview, Night Ranger Videos, And New Studio Recordings!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this Friday night, and along with finishing this weekend's hard rock concert previews, we have an upcoming EP release, a new studio track from a rising local metal band, and videos from a big local concert from last fall, so let's get things rolling!

We'll start by wrapping up this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, as reunited local classic/hard rock cover band Quite Frankly will debut at The Water Tower Pub TOMORROW NIGHT! One day removed from TONIGHT's Dodge This show at the same venue,  this will be their first show since rocking Beck's Bar in November and just their second public gig since their relaunch last summer.  It's worth noting that the Beck's gig last month actually featured new lead vocalist Linsaey L.W., not the departed Haley Alopaeus, so I apologize for the erroneous credit when we covered their Beck's video (embedded below) on here. Video quality on that assemblage of clips really varied, and the band didn't formally announce that Linsaey came on board until after that show had came and went, for what it's worth. Hopefully show #2 for the new Quite Frankly goes well tomorrow night, and that there's a solid turnout for their first gig of the new year!

As usual for The Water Tower Pub, tomorrow's show is an 8:00 PM affair with no announced cover charge and a 19+ age limit. If you haven't seen the revived Quite Frankly yet, get ready for a crowd-pleasing array of hard and classic rock covers tomorrow! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here they are at Beck's last fall!

Next up, let's head across to Sault Michigan for some recent updates, starting with local metal solo project X's & Y's, who are releasing a new EP/single next month! It and its title track are named "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars", and it sees project leader Jason Mills dipping into doom metal, drone, and horror territory on its four tracks. You can hear the title track in versions with and without vocals on their Bandcamp page, and while this is technically their first song with lead vocals, they did use spoken word on 2024's "The Obsidian Dream". Along with that song's two variants, tracks named "Hands Of Cydonia" and "Crater" will be included on the final product, which will presumably make its way to streaming services along with CD copies on its scheduled release date of February 13th. Jason even uses a tremoloa (a vintage zither used in part to replicate the Hawaiian steel guitar) here!

No word on what CD copies will cost, especially as this is a shorter EP, but X's & Y's first two albums cost $10 USD. Alas, our backlog of new album releases to review is massive, so I can't promise a review of "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars" until August, but it's great to see a new EP soon to be on sale, especially from a talented Yooper project like X's & Y's! Stay tuned for more from them when it rolls in! 

Also today, here's some newly discovered videos from the Night Ranger concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the local Kewadin Casino in October! These were filmed by attendee Nick Cepecawer in the first uploads on his YouTube channel, though he also filmed at Foreigner's show in Sault Ontario the following month. We didn't cover the Foreigner show here because I wouldn't say they're a "hard rock" band, but he got solid videos from that night! Nick did not film openers Nelson in November, but he did get eight videos of the headlining San Francisco hair metal quintet, including videos of Night Ranger playing "Sentimental Street", "Goodbye" in two chunks (here & here), part of "When You Close Your Eyes", the drum solo (that the whole band takes part in... literally!), "Sister Christian", and as embedded below, "(You Can Still) Rock In America" (which he accidentally uploaded twice).

While more distant from the stage than we tend to see for Kewadin concert videos of this stature, Nick was relatively central and used his zoom where needed, and the audio generally holds up! His videos help accentuate more how Night Ranger spreads the wealth for members taking lead vocal turns, and the drum solo is a fun diversion while it lasts! If you're a loyal Hair Scare listener, you'll enjoy these videos above and below!

We'll close today with a studio original recording from online page-less Sault Ontario metal band With Gunfire! Along with the previously-covered live videos on drummer Jonas Gasperas' new YouTube channel, the former Sault Side Squad are the stars of this upload, which lets us hear their song "M.F.C." (short for "Motherfucking Consequence") in clear studio quality, complete with gunshot sound effects added in post. It's amazing that this beat anything from Spencer's other band The BAG's upcoming album "Succubus" out! I don't know if this is a sign that With Gunfire are working on a proper album or not (I had seen a personal Facebook posting implying that it was recorded for a compilation of some kind), but the song has promise and takes from a lot of metal subgenres, including chugging groove metal riffs and diverse vocal styles, including gruff straight-forward singing and some harsh growling.

The guitar solo is quite good too! I don't know if Lamb Of God were an influence on the songwriting, but the pacing of some of the verses is reminiscent of "Redneck", especially if you speed the track up in the settings. It will be interesting to see what With Gunfire have cooked up with 2026 in full swing, so give "M.F.C." a listen below! 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

The Next Local Battle Of The Bands, Plus One More Toystock Video!!

In our second post of the day, we're mostly focusing on a big event taking place early next year, but we also have one final video from another recent multi-band event to close things out. Give everything a look below, and also check out the first of this weekend's Sault Ontario concert previews in the post below this one!

For the first time in over a year, Sault Ontario will see a full battle of the bands on Friday, February 20th at The Rednecks Saloon! Hosted by new local sound company Twin City Sound, this will be the first formal battle of the bands (Soo Band Roulette aside) since November 2013's Viva La Battle, so if you've missed this sort of event, you'll want to take note! Promoters have revealed that the battle will take place at 8:00 PM on February 20th, and it will feature 10 bands, which would be the largest one day battle in recent memory if that holds up, but spots to compete are available on a first come, first serve basis with no holds, so if you or your band want in, message promoters Steven Flint & Terry Eaton through the Facebook event page A.S.A.P.! To sum up the criteria, each band will have a 25 minute set, and there will be house instruments supplied for bands to use (to ensure a level playing field), though individual requests can be made if you want something more personal.

The first battle of the bands to feature a panel of judges since the Rockstar Bar Battle in April 2013, they'll be judging bands based on their enthusiasm, crowd engagement & response, originality, and skill of the band's members, and while original songs are not mandatory, making covers your own will play into the scores. The judges will be Midway frontman Paul Leclair (who you may also know as the president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians union), battle co-promoter Terry Eaton (also well known from his work with Asylum Country & Mourning Wood), and.... yours truly, making this the third battle of the bands that I've had the privilege of being a judge for. As such, expect our coverage of this battle to once again be impartial to all competing bands, and I will not play favourites! An unspecified cash prize awaits this battle's winning band, and though more specific prize details have yet to be announced, we'll let you know when more is publicized on that front!

Signed up bands will have to pay a $100 registration fee to compete at the battle, but like at 2013's Rockstar Bar Battle, bands will get 10 tickets to sell for the event on February 20th, and as each ticket costs $10, you'll make your money back if you sell all 10 of the tickets! That will be the likely cover charge for the battle as well, and as The Rednecks Saloon is a bar, this will be a 19+ event. As for what bands you can expect to see, the field's wide open (especially given the gap between battles over the past year+), but local grunge/hard rock favourites Haggith have already shown visible interest in hopping aboard. All we can really say otherwise at this point is that bands affiliated with Twin City Sound and/or the judges won't be playing, but given the talent in this city, a full field of 10 bands should be easy to attain! In case you're wondering, there is another battle of the bands coming in March, and we'll address that on the site tomorrow, so stay tuned for that as well!

For full details, including complete information on the battle of the bands' rules,. sign-up criteria, and more, click here, and apply A.S.A.P. to ensure you or your band are among the 10 competing bands come February 20th! I'm excited to be a part of another battle of the bands, and even if I wasn't judging, it's been far too long for a new battle in Sault Ontario (especially following the cancelled Rock For Dimes battle), so be sure to stay tuned for updates on the first 2015 battle of the bands in the city in over the next 2 months! SIGN UP NOW, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, and stay tuned for news on the March battle TOMORROW!

We'll close this post with the last of the known public Toystock videos, courtesy of Mike Case's Junior All Stars, who did cover Joan Jett's "I Love Rock & Roll" last month in their set! The student youth band was filmed for their entire set by YouTube user dtwalker79, whose daughter Hannah is one of the band's singer/guitarists. He also filmed Mike Case's student bands at other recent events such as Toystock 2013 and Rotaryfest, and I'll look through those videos in the coming days too so we can see if they have any hard rock covers in those! Filmed at a generally stationary camera angle (though it switches to a closer view of the lead vocalists for the last 9 minutes), the lighting here isn't much and only lights up a few members very well, but the audio's solid! The Joan Jett cover is 18:29 into the video, and in order, the All Stars also covered songs by Hot Chelle Rae, One Direction, Icona Pop, Serena Ryder, Katy Perry, Miranda Lambert, and Bob Dylan.

Mike Case's Junior All-Stars are developing their musical talents and live stage experience well, and it's great to see them have a successful set for a second straight Toystock, though I concede that most of their cover selections aren't my thing. It will be interesting to see where the kids go from here, but for now, here's their complete Toystock 2014 set at The Canadian last month, and we'll let you know if dtwalker79 has any other hard rock covers!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for Sault Michigan weekend concert previews and full current details on March's battle of the bands TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!