Double Down & Separate Wayz/Guilty Party Updates, Plus A New Video Interview!!

Before we tackle another round of weekend concert previews, here's a new news post on this Wednesday night, which includes lineup updates for some bands on the weekend rock cover circuit and a new interview discovery with a musician who had a brief but noteworthy stint in a local band, so with all of that said, here's what you should know!

We have some big lineup news from two (kinda three) local classic/hard rock bands, as Half Past drummer Johnny Amendola has joined both Separate Wayz and The Guilty Party, replacing Brent Royer. As per Separate Wayz' Facebook page on Sunday, Brent amicably left due to being unable to "commit (to) the amount we want to play in both bands" (not unlike why Steven left), and while the statement was only made on one of the two bands' pages and didn't directly say that Brent left The Guilty Party too, singer/guitarist Terry Eaton confirmed that he did in a Facebook e-mail yesterday. Brent had been a founding member of The Guilty Party last fall, and only just joined their sister band Separate Wayz three weeks ago, but he played just one weekend with each group before opting out. He's a talented musician (you have to be to drum and sing at once), and hopefully we see him in a new band soon!

The son of Headrush bassist John Amendola, Johnny has been a familiar face in local rock bands like Cherry Crush, Tripod The Dog, and Skeyes Of Seven since the mid-2010s, and he reportedly is gelling well with Terry, Jim, and Nicole so far, so we'll have to see how things go for the two bands in 2026 now that they have a drummer who is purportedly more available! Terry also confirmed that Johnny will take over for Glen Thomas behind the drumkit for Soundcheck's reunion gigs next weekend at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, which only makes sense. Stay tuned for more on the two full-time bands' next shows when they roll in, let alone Soundcheck next week!

Next up, here's the latest from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down, who confirmed on their Facebook page on Monday that this past Saturday's concert at Beck's Bar was their last with Mid Life Crysis bassist Lori Reinholtz as a fill-in, as their regular bassist Dan Beaupre is finally returning after being AWOL since the summer for medical and travel reasons. Apologies for erroneously covering that Dan was on bass for their show at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on December 12th, the band never said either way who was on bass that night. It will be good to have Dan back for their Water Tower Pub gig on February 21st, if not sooner! While we're on the subject, the band posted three videos from their Beck's gig on Saturday to their Facebook page, one with each regular band member on lead vocals. Alas, all three were shot vertically and none are full, but what was filmed?

The uncredited attendee filmed Double Down & Lori covering Collective Soul's "Gel" (with guitarist Joel Syrette on vocals) and Weezer's "Island In The Sun" (with drummer Ric Datson on vocals), but embedded below is the longest of the three, of their take on the Thin Lizzy version of the Irish standard "Whiskey In The Jar" with guitarist Beej Syrette on vocals. Nice sampling of their live sound with everyone singing well when called upon, and while I wouldn't have shot these vertically, the filmer at least got some close-up angles from all over the stage, including the band's view of Beck's! Give Double Down's new videos a watch above & below, and kudos to Lori and Alex for filling in with them since last fall!

Finally for today, I figured this was worth sharing, even if the musician in question was only briefly a local band member, and only became publically known as such after the band dissolved. As you may recall, after Woods Of Ypres frontman David Gold passed away in December 2011, it came out that he and guitarist Joel Violette had enlisted American musicians Brendan Hayter & Rae Amitay to serve as their new bassist and drummer the previous month. Obviously, their 2012 tour plans never came to fruition, but Joel would add both Brendan and Rae to the lineup of his studio-only black metal band Thrawsunblat, and Brendan appeared on their albums through 2019. Brendan is otherwise best known for his New England-based atmospheric black metal band Obsidian Tongue, who predated his brief Woods tenure and are still active today.

I bring all this up now because Brendan was interviewed about his career (including Woods Of Ypres) by Shayan S. of the Iranian/British interview series/podcast Iblis Manifestations last year! You can watch the whole hour+ interview below, but if you want to jump straight to the Woods section, that begins 34:40 into the 67 minute interview. Here, Brendan talks about how he and Obsidian Tongue got the chance to open for Woods of Ypres on their last tour in May 2011 and how he befriended David and Joel afterwards, how he got the bassist gig, and his perceptions of "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" before it came out. He outlined plans for him and Rae to drive to Ontario in January 2012 to rehearse with the band before flying to Great Britain for label dealings, a music video shoot, and European tour dates, which leads into how he processed learning about David's death and the lost opportunities therein.

It's interesting to hear how Brendan balanced his thoughts about grief and loss from his place in the band, especially as he didn't know David that well yet, and he approaches things at a very mature and respectful level while not asking for pity or playing the blame game. The Woods of Ypres section takes up about 15 minutes, and it's an interesting look into the tail end of the band's all-too-short run, so check our Brendan's entire Iblis Manifestations interview below, and black metal fans shouldn't bypass Obsidian Tongue!

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

New/Old Video Uploads Related To Woods Of Ypres!!

Just a heads up for anyone who reads this post on the day it went up or shortly thereafter, but this was largely written during the great Facebook outage of October 4th, 2021, so I apologize if any of the links or photos in it are slightly awry. I did intentionally choose topics that aren't reliant on Facebook to write about, in the event that Facebook remained down, and while it was back at the time this post was published, it was still running sluggishly for me. In any event, this post is all about a long lamented local metal band via some recent YouTube uploads, so let's get this one rolling!

As some readers may recall, ex-Woods of Ypres drummer Evan Madden and late frontman David Gold's mom Esther were both interviewed a little over a year ago by metal singer, comedian. and NewMusicNation VJ Robbie Stevenson for his YouTube series Metal Health, with topics centering heavily on Woods of Ypres in both, as tinged with discussion on mental health, which Robbie is open about dealing with personally. If you liked those, then let's make it a trilogy, as Robbie interviewed Woods of Ypres' final lead guitarist Joel Violette for a 44 minute episode of Metal Health last week! Woods fans will recognize Joel from his 2010-2011 stint with the band, including appearing on the "Home" single, the Juno-winning "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", and the "I Was Buried In Mount Pleasant Cemetery" music video, while also playing in both Woods' final local concert and 2012's Ypres Metal Fest.

Since the "Woods V" release, Joel has focused on his New Brunswick-based folk/black metal band Thrawsunblat, with him on lead vocals & guitar alongside the surviving members of Woods' never-debuted final lineup. No one in Thrawsunblat is from the Soo (let alone Ontario), so we don't cover them on the site day to day, but if you like Woods of Ypres, you will like Thrawsunblat for their doomy black metal sound and nature influences, and Joel is carrying their musical torch very well. Likewise, Robbie is a good candidate to interview anyone related to Woods of Ypres, as you can tell by his shirt, his albums, even the name of his cat! After opening with discussion of patches and the Metal Health set, Robbie asks Joel about Thrawsunblat's upcoming EPs, how he adapted during the early stages of the pandemic, how Joel connected with David musically & ultimately joined Woods of Ypres, ...

...his first tour with the band, Thrawsunblat's vinyl releases & their sole live concert, and Joel's day job outside of music, but after Robbie runs through Woods of Ypres' history in 2011, they kinda wrap things up and just talk about whatever for the last 10 minutes or so. Sault Ste. Marie does come up when Joel talks about working with Miguel Gauthier at Stereo Soul Studios, plus touring through Northern Ontario, including their ordeal over a broken windshield travelling from the Soo. It's also worth noting that Robbie said that he was planning to do a four part mini-series on David Gold's life and legacy for NewMusicNation (details are about halfway through the video), which would definitely be interesting to see! This was a likable interview, and Robbie is more casual & in the element, but this was almost to it's detriment as it felt like there was a lot of stuff Joel could have talked about if only he was asked.

I also was somewhat out of the loop as to Robbie's evasive references to Woods' old label Earache Records (are their people liable to complain if they're openly criticized?) Still, a fun watch featuring two guys who are clearly easy talkers about anything that comes to mind, complete with lots of jokes from Robbie, so give it a watch below!

We'll close today with a new-ish upload of 21+ minutes of Woods of Ypres at the inaugural Northern Lights Festival at Club Rockit in Toronto back in June 2003! If this sounds familiar, it's because David posted all of this to his YouTube channel in 2007 in three different uploads, but YouTube user HairpieceForDogs combined it all into one upload in August & stretched it to wide-screen. The Northern Lights Festival was (according to David) "the 1st ever black metal festival in North America", and it featured a few other recognizable names, including Lansing veterans Summon (who later featured Sault Michigan native Mikey Bishop on drums), Krankenhaus Records signees Vanquished, and "Heart of Gold" tribute album performers Eclipse Eternal, among others. That said, I am not 100% certain on the Woods of Ypres lineup here, but David was still just their drummer.

Woods had a lot of membership turnover in their Windsor era, but this is late in Robin Cross' tenure as lead vocalist. The multi-camera footage features Woods playing their "Against The Seasons" cuts "The Shams of Optimism", "Crossing The 45th Parallel", "A Meeting Place & Time", and "Awaiting The Inevitable". Between the VHS camcorder quality (remember, 2003) and the unnecessarily stretched aspect ratio for the re-upload, this isn't a pristine way to witness Woods of Ypres, but live videos are scarce from their black metal era, and it's a very interesting & convenient way to see them at this primordial stage with a very receptive crowd! Give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site by Thursday! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Band & Local Internet Radio Station, Plus A New Interview Video!!

Here's another news post to help keep things moving on the SMS while we have no concerts to preview, and here, we have a new interview featuring a familiar face, lots of details on a new internet radio station with a lot of local relevance, and leading off, here's some early details on a new band!

We have a new local band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are The Isolation Sessions, the new band from half of 2008-2012 hard rock band Half Past's final full lineup! If you follow the Musicians Wanted Facebook group, this is the new acoustic project that their ex-bassist Arthur Lacasse was posting about band member searches for, and he has returned to the guitar in this group. Joining him in The Isolation Sessions is singer Jordan Rains, who fronted Half Past's final gigs in mid-late 2011, and it's great to see the guys in an active project together after 9 years! Currently, Art & Jordan are still looking for a bassist and cajon-playing percussionist to complete their lineup, so message them above for details on that front. On their new Facebook page, they acknowledge that they launched this new band in a hard time, but despite the ongoing pandemic and self-isolation, "that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make things better for ourselves, or each other."

The Isolation Sessions' cover range fits in the Half Past mold, albeit unplugged, with Alice In Chains, Default, Seether, and Three Days Grace cited as bands they're tackling. In their first video postings, you can hear them cover Staind's "Epiphany" and as embedded below, you can see Jordan & Arthur covering Seether's "Plastic Man". These are spare but affecting renditions that suit Jordan's vocal style nicely, and it'll be interesting to see The Isolation Sessions on stage when they (and everyone else) is able, but give their first video a look below, and read more above!



Next up, this is admittedly overdue to hit the site, but a new internet radio station has launched in Sault Ontario with a decidedly local focus! After months of teasers, local promoter Adrian Vilaca debuted The Borderline Radio on February 29th as an all-local station that is devoted to Sault Ste. Marie-area artists and natives in their rotation, though you may hear touring acts who have/will play here as well. Following Energy Rock Radio's move to B.C., Audiofumes going inactive, and VM Radio's quiet dissolution in early 2017, there is a theoretical opening for a locally based radio outlet that regularly plays local musicians! Unlike VM Radio, The Borderline is a single station with no genre focus, though heavier and punk acts are definitely among the rotation. Commercials are limited, streaming is free, and the exposure possibilities are definitely strong if your music is played. Another difference from VM Radio is that The Borderline does have scheduled programming with local hosts.

Among the shows are Mystical Visions & Cosmic Vibrations, where Telephone & Address frontman Christopher Shoust explores local musicians of decades past, while Smart As Trees (solidly relevant Hip reference) features Adrian himself interviewing notable local musicians. Such familiar artists as Brian Tremblay and DJ Seith also host programming, among others, and some shows explore non-musical topics of local relevance as well. A regularly updated schedule of upcoming programming can be found on the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group, ran by Borderline staffer Mike Severin, who is recommended to contact if you or your band want to submit music for the rotation. The Borderline is still relatively new, but their website is cleanly designed and the streaming player works flawlessly! It'd be nice to see this listed on TuneIn Radio or with it's own mobile application, but maybe it will get wider exposure beyond their website in time.

In terms of the playlist, metal and punk songs are not the majority (The Billy Bastards had recently played as of this writing), but I concede that it'd be very jarring to have a death metal band between folk and indie rock musicians, especially if The Borderline stays as one station in the long term. Nothing is finitely stated, but I can see metal (in particular) being reserved for late night or for a future specialized program. I'm curious to see where The Borderline goes from here, and definitely check it out at the above links, or contact them above to submit music or to inquire about a role!

Finally for today, here's a new video that, while not locally produced, has a definite relevance for local readers, as it's an interview with ex-Woods of Ypres guitarist Joel Violette! Of course, he played on "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" and the "Home" vinyl single, and frontman David Gold also played in Joel's New Brunswick-based black metal project Thrawsunblat, who have continued on following David's passing in December 2011, even adding late-era Woods members Brendan Hayter & Rae Amitay to their lineup the following year. No one in Thrawsunblat is from the Soo, hence why we don't cover them day to day, but they have released three studio albums, three EPs, and a live album since 2012, with "Woods V" producer Siegfried Meier usually at the controls, so Joel has truly picked up where Woods of Ypres left off in more ways than one. The interview in question is planned for inclusion in an upcoming Maritime Metal documentary, so what should you look for here?

Shot in a Fredericton park, the video features Joel talking about Woods of Ypres' influence on him before joining the band, Thrawsunblat's first ever show just this year, how he and David hooked up as musicians, his tenure in Woods of Ypres (the Soo does come up), David's death, and their Juno Award win, before Joel sings Thrawsunblat's song "Maritime Shores" a capella in the park. In this form, the east coast folk aspect is very apparent, and if you like especially the early black metal era of Woods, Thrawsunblat are required listening even moreso, and Joel is a very capable lead singer for clean & harsh vocals alike. Check out the interview below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

Annex Theory Lineup Change, New Videos, And More!!

On this extremely snowy Tuesday, why not stay in with a new news post? Today, we have new videos from recent Kewadin Casino events (one you'd expect, and one you wouldn't), along with a few assorted shorter stories from recent days, but first, here's a big update relating to an upcoming metal show!

There's been a big change to the lineup of this Thursday's metal concert at The Roosevelt Hotel, as headlining Winnipeg progressive death metal band Annex Theory have been forced out of the show due to weather-related road closures, which have shut down the highways where they currently are (my source is their Facebook page.) This is extremely disappointing, especially for local metalheads who enjoyed Annex Theory's show here in 2011, but hopefully we'll see them back in the area at some point soon! Never fear though, as a replacement band has already been found, that being the original crash band, Sykotyk Rampage! As confirmed in comment replies on the Facebook event page, this will be Sykotyk Rampage's first live concert appearance of 2013 & their first show at The Rosie in over 6 months, and with their addition, they'll now take the middle slot on Thursday, likely making The Bear Hunters the new headliners at the concert.

It's great to see Sykotyk Rampage back in the new year, and while they are a stylistic change from The Bear Hunters & Shit Liver, they should entertain with their varied improvised hard/alternative rock originals! Plus, if guitarist Dirk Becker's doing sound already, that'd make the choice even more fitting! Stay tuned to the SMS tomorrow or Thursday for more on this show when we preview the weekend's metal & hard rock shows!

Next up, we finally have a video from a recent Dreammaker's Theater hard rock concert, as this video of the Steve Priest version of Sweet at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino is now online! Uploaded by YouTube user yoopergraywolf43 on Friday, this is of the April Wine openers playing their song "Love Is Like Oxygen", and it's a decent video! The filmer had a good angle of the band, though the quality is very mixed, with cell phone camera dimensions and staticy audio, but at least the filmed song isn't overly heavy (if yoopergraywolf43 had filmed "Ballroom Blitz", I imagine it wouldn't have came out as well.) This version of Sweet sounds good though, and it's great to finally see any videos from the April Wine concert, so check out this new video below, and hopefully someone has more waiting to be posted!



Also in the realm of new Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino videos is something a little different. On Saturday, this video was uploaded to YouTube by Grand Rapids live entertainment act Piano Party, who specialize in solo and dueling piano concerts at corporate and private events. Such appearances make the audience the stars of the show, with almost entirely audience-requested setlists and crowd participation combined with humour and widely varying songs, and it all definitely sounds like a fun time, but where's the direct metal connection? Piano Party performers Charlie Bauman and Nick Ayoub were recently booked for an event of some kind at the Soo Kewadin, and they were filmed during their performance of the Queen classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", which is very well done for an impromptu duo version! Great singing, and piano work, though some parts of the song definitely work a lot better than others (i.e. the opera part suffers, despite solid audience call & response.) Different, but fun in it's own way, so check out Piano Party's local Queen rendition below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• I've deleted Sault Ontario metal project Meatplow from our inactive Sault Ontario band links. One of the more recent local projects from ex-Amethyst drummer Phil Temporao, they were active from 2009-2011, but with the deletions of their videos and almost all online pages, there's very little surviving online at present to document them. Hopefully Phil revisits the project down the road, or at least re-posts their videos, as their industrial tinged sound was a neat addition to the scene!
• A new instrumental demo song has been posted onto Sault Michigan classical metal project Theatre of Night's Reverbnation page! Entitled "Dreams of Winter Symphony", it's a slower and more emotional sounding track compared to some of their more recent output, but it's very well performed and still has an epic feel, so check the link above to hear it!
• An interview from last fall with ex-Woods of Ypres guitarist Joel Violette for Thunder Bay college radio station LU Radio's Iron Maple radio show was just posted online this month, so click here to give it a listen! It's largely about his New Brunswick black metal band Thrawsunblat & their upcoming 2nd album, but Joel does briefly address the reception to "Woods V" and the David Gold tribute shows last spring, and it's a solid interview overall, if patchy for audio quality!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more as the week rolls along, plus this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Thanks everyone!

Haggith & Late And Loud Updates, Plus Woods Of Ypres' Alumni News!!

Keeping up with the news posts, we have some updates from three bands with local ties, including a fundraising campaign for the next album of one that is familiar to Woods of Ypres fans, what we know about a local classic metal band's current status, and leading off, what's went on with another local band over the past day, so here's what you need to know!

(EDIT, 8:22 PM) We had originally led off this post with updates relating to the local grunge band Haggith, specifically covering the announcement yesterday that they had parted ways with lead guitarist Daniel Horton, and as a result, would be shelving the release of their debut album "Dragon Joy Ride" in order to re-record most material and produce a new debut album with some new tracks. In case you missed the reports on that front, they are still on Haggith's Facebook page as of this evening. Well, Haggith announced on Facebook tonight that they have decided to regroup with Daniel and settle their creative differences in the name of their "public image, sound, and the release of 'Dragon Joy Ride'." A Facebook video was also posted with the update featuring Daniel talking about his brief departure, saying that they'll see how things go in the next couple weeks, while also complimenting the group and their sound, and apologizing for any inconvenience over the last little while. I can't embed Facebook videos here, so click the above links to check it out and the latest statement!

As a result of Daniel's return, Haggith have restored plans to release "Dragon Joy Ride" as it was originally intended, which is now scheduled to come out for paid release THIS SUNDAY! The release was postponed a bit before the last day's events over some cover art concerns, if I remember correctly. This means that the 6 added songs from their brief new album plans ("Safe on the Outside", "Public Enemy", "Leon The Janitor", "If You Get Out Alive", and the yet-unheard "August 5th, '08" & "75") will likely be postponed to future releases, of which we'll hopefully hear more on in the near future. It's great to see Haggith reuniting with Daniel, and hopefully the release of "Dragon Joy Ride" helps boost their local profile even further, so stay tuned for updates and news from Haggith as I hear it!

Next up, here's the latest updates from Late & Loud... wait a minute, didn't they break up? Since their last concert on August 31st, any indication from most of the members has mentioned them as broken up or on an indefinite hiatus (such as Brendan Christie's singer search for a new band & a September 23rd Facebook page comment reply by Josh Hatherley), but in the past couple of days, their Facebook page has been increasingly updated by guitarist Jonathan Tiberi with hints towards some type of future plans. These include updates to their Twitter page, this new psychedelic-inspired band logo, plans for something called "Operation Heavy Thunder", and indications of  "important stuff soon" & "unfinished business". Postings on Jon's personal Facebook page also indicated that he didn't consider the band inactive, just in hibernation, so what's going on in the L&L camp? A formal EP release? A band resurrection, possibly with new members? Something completely different?

Judging by what the majority of the band has said, a full on Late & Loud reunion seems a ways off (if ever) but Jon's updates are giving fans some hope, and I know I'm not the only person who'd love to see new Late & Loud anything, so when news & updates come up, I'll be sure to have it here!

Also today, I wanted to cover some updates from a band that, while no longer having a direct local connection, still has a lot of familiarity. As you guys may remember, late Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold was the drummer in numerous side projects, and one of the most prominent was Thrawsunblat, the Fredericton, New Brunswick black/folk metal project led by Woods of Ypres' final lead guitarist Joel Violette. We've already mentioned on here that final Woods drummer Rae Amitay has replaced David on drums in Thrawsunblat, but now they've also enlisted the remaining member of Woods of Ypres' final lineup (bassist Brendan Hayter) to join Thrawsunblat as well! Very fitting, and it's great to see Brendan a part of Joel & Rae's next musical projects! While none of the three are from the Soo, they'll always be known as Woods of Ypres alumni, which gives their plans for their new concept album "Thrawsunblat II: Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings" some extra local weight, so what should you know?

A press release for the album was posted on Facebook, which indicates the album's planned sound & influences, including confirming that the tracks for the album were recorded this summer with mixing & mastering by "Woods V" producer Siegfried Meier, but they are also looking to raise funds to release "Thrawsunblat II" with a fundraising project (a'la Kickstarter) to pay off studio costs & make it and a physical release of it a reality next year. Click here for information on how you can donate, and what rewards you will get for donating to the cause, or watch this video about the "Thrawsunfundraising", which includes some previews of the album's sound and some background on the leadup to this album & fundraising from Joel & Rae. I sure hope that "Thrawsunblat II" becomes a reality, and the guys deserve some major successes from their work! Without David & his labels around to help, a fundraising campaign will help tremendously if it takes off, and in a way, this is as close as we're going to get to a "Woods VI", so I'd follow Thrawsunblat's fundraising and check out Joel & David's first album "Canada 2010" (pictured) via the above links, and best of luck all around!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and likely some more news tomorrow morning! Thanks everyone!

Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: Jar. & Thrawsunblat

It's that time once again, where we take our monthly look at two metal/hard rock bands that, though never based locally, have featured at least one Saultite in their lineup in the past or present! Both bands are still active in varying states, are from opposite ends of the country, and feature some music that's definitely worth checking out, so let's begin this month's out of town profiles! And, as is usual, if there's something incorrect, missing, or lacking info/details, please tell me! (UPDATED: November 26th, 2014)
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Jar. (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED; ex-members in italics)

Garth Allen (vocals)
Chris "Weasel" Gorst (guitar)
Russ Bergquist (bass)
Rob Wade (drums)

Bryan Fratesi (guitar)
Chris Smith (bass)
Tom MacDonald (bass)
Tðrry Coµrte (bass)
Chris Hubert (???)

Official website: http://www.jarcanada.com
Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jarcanada
Official MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jarcanada
Official Reverbnation page: http://reverbnation.com/artist_924696
Official Angelfire page: http://angelfire.com/fl5/flybanger/
Official SoundCloud page: http://soundcloud.com/jar-10

Local Info: The only Saultite in any incarnation of Jar. (to my knowledge) was original bassist Chris Smith, and if you've been in and around the local scene in the past few years, Chris should be quite familiar! He's best known recently as the former bassist for local rock band Wishbone, who he played on two albums with during his runs with them! On the heavier side of things locally, Chris was also the drummer for local hard rock trio Browbeat in the mid-late 2000s, playing with them numerous times at many different concerts before leaving in early 2010. But before all that, Chris lived out west, making his mark in the Vancouver scene as Jar.'s first bassist until leaving the band at some point between 1997 and 1998.

Band Bio: Jar. were formed in the summer of 1995 by singer Garth Allen & drummer Rob Wade, who are the only original Jar. members left in the band. The band (then including Chris Smith) recorded their debut EP "Harsh & Discord" in 1997, and after he left the band, he was replaced by (believe it or not) Hedley bassist Tom MacDonald! Amidst frequent touring, the band recorded one LP under the Jar. name, 1998's "Knott Skull", before signing with Columbia Records in 1999, and changing their name to Flybanger (after a song on "Harsh & Discord") in 2000. As Flybanger, they released an EP in 2000 and a full length album, "Headtrip To Nowhere", in 2001, along with getting a song on the official soundtrack for the movie Dracula 2000, and opening for bands like Judas Priest, Tool, and Clutch. After leaving Columbia Records, Flybanger released a self-titled EP in 2003 under the name Jarr, and briefly went under the name Settlement before breaking up in 2004.

Garth and Rob kept busy in Vancouver bands Kill Rhythm & The Thick Of It, before reuniting Jar. in May 2010 with some of their current bandmates. Jar. returned to the stage for the first time since the reunion in September 2011, and have since kept busy with various recent concerts and a self-titled CD release in April 2013, so watch out for Jar. in the coming months!

Jar./Flybanger really caught me off guard with how cool they sounded! They have a punk energy but keep things heavy too! They're actually sort of hard to describe, they're definitely metal, but they don't really fit into a subgenre. Radio-accessible, but still heavy & containing a clear melody! Garth Allen provides tough yet melodic singing, along with nice creative riffing from Bryan Fratesi & consistently good drumming from Rob Wade! Chris Smith shown the same great bass skills we've came to hear from Wishbone on the "Harsh & Discord" material, and Tom McDonald surprises me on bass on the later CDs both on talent & because I can't believe that he's in Hedley! What happened? However, Jar. didn't take many risks into different sounds that much. Solos aren't a frequent sight, and they used similar styles in many songs. Plus, much of their Flybanger discography is recycled from older Jar. albums. Their first two CDs, especially "Harsh & Discord", have more experimentation & bite than the newer Flybanger songs, which sound too polished. But overall, I really like Jar., no matter what name they used, and they're one catchy hard rock band that you should check out

Jar.'s new album (featuring some old material re-recordings) can be bought online at this location, so give it a spin! None of Jar./Flybanger's albums are readily available nowadays to my knowledge, so your best bet to buying them is to check around online. Wikipedia has their full discography for reference, and you can find a few of their CDs on some sites. "Headtrip To Nowhere" is available VERY cheap on Amazon, and iTunes has their Flybanger-era material as well! However, if you know where to look, the vast majority of their back catalog is freely available online, including YouTube. Just search for the album names and Flybanger, most of their stuff is there to check out (plus live and music videos), notably at the "Jarbanger" YouTube channel! I'm going to show you guys Jar.'s music video for the song they eventually changed their name to, "Flybanger", and yes, Chris is on bass in the video! See what you think!


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Thrawsunblat (Fredericton, New Brunswick)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED; ex-members in italics)

Joel Violette (vocals, guitar, and bass)
Brendan Hayter (bass)
Rae Amitay (drums)
Jeff Mott (fiddle)
David Gold (drums)

Official MySpace page: http://myspace.com/thrawsunblat
Official CBC Radio 3 page: http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/thrawsunblat
Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thrawsunblat
Official Last.FM page: http://www.last.fm/music/thrawsunblat
Official Bandcamp page: http://thrawsunblat.bandcamp.com/
Official Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/thrawsunblat

Local Info: Ever the prolific musician, Thrawsunblat was one of the numerous projects to feature the drumming talents of Sault Ste. Marie native and Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold, joining his past work in Gates of Winter, Necramyth, Will of the Ancients, The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society, Proposition 86, Mister Bones, and L'Anguisette. Of course, you'll know that David's played here with Woods of Ypres numerous times, included the entire Gates of Winter lineup in the band for a brief period, and immortalized (for better or worse) the Soo in the "Woods III" song "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground"! Sadly, David passed away in December 2011, but his talents are still clear as day, and hopefully he continues to leave an impact!

Band Bio: Launched in early 2009, Thrawsunblat is the black metal project masterminded by Fredericton musician Joel Violette, who enlisted David Gold to supply drumming for the band. You'll also recognize Joel as Woods of Ypres' last lead guitarist, joining Woods in early 2010. Describing their sound as "raw folk & melodic black metal", Thrawsunblat recorded their first eight song demo in the spring and summer of 2009, entitled "Canada 2010", but further activity was minimal until after David's death, with Joel enlisting Woods of Ypres bandmates Brendan Hayter & Rae Amitay to round out their new lineup in early 2012. Though still a studio-only project, the guys released their second album  "Thrawsunblat II: Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings" in March 2013 partially thanks to a successful recent fundraising effort, following it with some EPs adapting older songs in new genres, and sessions for their third CD in 2014. Buy their albums at this link!

When I first listened to Thrawsunblat, they reminded me a bit of Woods of Ypres' first album in all but clean vocals, and they still give me that vibe, if they employed a folk metal edge, and I don't mind it at all! Joel Violette has considerably talent to play most of the instruments in this project, employing harsh black metal singing, and noticeably good guitar and bass playing, though oddly, I think Joel mixed them too low. His singing and David's drumming came through too high in the original recordings. The guitar work is heavy, but has good folksy melodic patches and solos, and the bass is solid, but again, both sound lower than they should. Joel's clean singing is alright, it gets the job done, especially on the lower register. David's drumming was also very solid and underrated, but their current lineup gives vibes of what could have been for Woods of Ypres in 2012, with their own edge and flavour. If you love folk metal, and black metal, you'll no doubt like Thrawsunblat, so check them out!

You can buy all of Thrawsunblat's albums at their Bandcamp page (plus their main two on iTunes), with streaming copies of most tracks available at the above links, so give everything a listen and pick some up! Click the above links to check out Thrawsunblat, and in case you're interested, the lyrics for each song are on their MySpace page. As this is a studio-only project, there's no live videos to share, but YouTube user Lordstormcrow did upload the opening song from their first demo, "Black Sky" onto YouTube, so check it out below, and if you like what you hear, download the whole demo above!


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Hope you enjoyed this month's profiles! Next month, we've got a couple more notable out of town bands featuring Saultites, so here's who we're profiling in August: Hellhitch, the Toronto metal band fronted by Saultite Mike Lawrence, and Muskegon hard rock band Kilacel, featuring Saultites (and current local band members) Chris Webster and Chris Leask! Look out for that at some point in August, I won't name a date yet cause I wanna work out a more spaced out schedule for special feature posts so they aren't all clumped together at the end of a given month.

That's all for now, stay tuned later TONIGHT for a new news post with some more exciting local metal news, including some new shows! Stay tuned!

The First Concert Previews Of 2010, And A Bit More News!

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you guys had a great night of partying and whatever all else! It's amazing to think that the SMS started in 2007, and almost 2 and a half years later (January 4th is the 2.5th anniversary), we're still going strong! Hopefully 2010 will be our biggest year yet, thanks for all the continued readership and support!

Last night, there was no major advertised metal concerts in Sault Ontario. However Bring The Fallen did play at a New Years' house party with The Fury, Redd Monkey, and Black Water last night! Also, I heard that a new local cover band, Turner Up, played at Foggy Notions last night too! Though not metal, they do feature Driving Dave Home/Renegades drummer Steve Brogno, so that's notable! I'd have done something amazing last night music related to cap off the decade, but family stuff got in the way. And the metal continues tonight with the first local metal concert of 2010, Nixxon Dixxon at Kewadin Casino! Then tomorrow night, we have two shows in the Sault area, one on each side of the Twin Saults! So here are your local concert previews for tomorrow!

One show in Sault Michigan, and it comes courtesy of Riot! By Night, in their last of three holiday season shows in an eight day span! Now that we're having our day to recover, us who are 21 or older will be ready to see Riot! By Night rock The Satisfied Frog once again tomorrow night at 10:00 PM! Expect another great concert of "modern rock with feeling", as they put it! Still can't tell you how they sound, hopefully they'll upload audio or video real soon! I'd consider going if I was old enough to American bars, but if you are and are gonna be across the river tonight, why not head to The Frog? Check out more from Riot! By Night at their official MySpace page, and once I hear more updates and such from them, I'll let you guys know!

Meanwhile, in Sault Ontario, we'll get our own metal concert at 10:00 PM tomorrow night, this time headlined by Caveman Morrison! The popular metal cover band will return to Foggy Notions for the first time since the VIP Night last month, to help ring in the new year! Another 10:00 PM-2:00 AM concert should be in the cards, where Tym Morrison and company will once again break out some awesome covers of metal bands and non metal bands alike! For more information on this concert, visit the official Facebook event page, and head to their official website to check out Caveman and Tym Morrison audio and video clips! Still have no video clips to show, but I will be there tomorrow night and will take a video of one of their heavier songs to show you guys when I post my review on Sunday! Hope to see you guys there or at The Frog tomorrow, never too early in the year to bang your head!

Next up, you know how Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold has drummed in other non-Woods bands, including Necramyth, Will of the Ancients, and the Sault's own Gates of Winter? Well, throw another band onto David's resume, as he's recorded the drums for a new demo release from New Brunswick black metal band Thrawsunblat! Click on their name to visit their CBC Radio 3 page, or click here to download the torrent from Mininova! The demo has 8 songs, very solid stuff, it actually reminds me of older Woods of Ypres material a bit! Check it out, David's drumming is at top form here! Also, Hellbound.ca have officially named "Woods IV: The Green Album" the fourth best Canadian metal album of 2009, behind only Voivod, Sacrifice, and The Devin Townsend Project, and ahead of bands like 3 Inches of Blood and Musk Ox, who guested on "The Green Album" as well! Awesome to see the new album continue to gain recognition like this, it really is a triumph of an album! Check out the full top 10 at this location!

And finally, if you've read Sault This Week this week, you may have noticed that the Hot Spots section, which always lists upcoming concerts at many local bars, features a mention of Garden of Bedlam playing at Madison's Pub tomorrow. Seeing as the band have not promoted this show at all, and have already implied that their Boxing Day show might be their last before hitting the studio, I wouldn't get my hopes up. If they were playing there tomorrow night, they'd have made an official announcement, which they have not done. Chances are it's a mistakenly posted ad, like when they posted that Gates of Winter would be playing there last spring even after they went on hiatus, or their show last month was accidentally reposted. Who knows!

That's all for now, Happy New Year, see you guys at Foggy Notions tomorrow night, more news to come very soon! And remember, next week, my review of Clownsack's debut CD, "Rotten Candy"! Probably earlier in the week, but you'll just have to wait and see! So stay tuned for that!