It's now time for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, as we again shine a spotlight on announced upcoming metal, hard rock, and/or punk albums from Sault Ontario artists! This month's installment features one brand new entry, one with edits (both are noted with their titles in italics), while one album is being removed due to the now unlikely chances of it coming out as planned. We'll have more on that band tomorrow. So, where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!
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Chase James Wigmore - The Chaotic Rite
Rumoured Songs: "A Song For The Apocalypse", "The Speciesist", "The Cities Alive & It's Angry", "From Beyond The Clouds"
Background: Ever
the prolific artist & songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal
musician Chase Wigmore has been working on an extensive rock opera for years (once claimed to be a 33 part work),
originally named
"A Story
About A Kid Named Todd". Worked on in between his other unrelated solo
albums, released for sale or otherwise, Chase posted a lengthy
elaboration of the rock opera in 2022, now titled "The Chaotic
Rite", outlining its concept, recording plans, and long-term release
timeline. Clips of songs have surfaced on his Facebook page,
as have full songs not explicitly tied to the album, as well as the final artwork. In his most recent promotion, Chase has
hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final
eponymous solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more
than his prolific rate of original material.
Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.
Current Release Status:
Your guess is as good as
mine for when this will finally come out, but remember that Chase
is very prolific
and varied in his musical interests, and not every album of his has
seen a formal paid release, either by finishing it's lifespan as a demo,
or by being released online for free. Regardless, he has been working
on the rock opera for years to ensure a quality product, so stay tuned for updates from his camp!
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Convergence - Gemini
Rumoured Songs: "Gemini", "In Bloom", "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon", "Kraken Mara"
Background: Just over a month after releasing their sophomore EP "Dead And Dreaming",
local progressive metal band Convergence announced on
February 9th that EP #3 would be named "Gemini", despite the obvious
twin implications of that name. The cover artwork
for "Gemini" was released at the same time, with the band asking fans
if they should release singles in advance or put it all out at once.
While we have yet to hear full songs of any kind, teaser clips of the title track and "In Bloom" were posted as "Shorts" videos on their YouTube channelin May. Guitarist Brendan Christie revealed the names of all five songs in a recent Facebook conversation, one named after the band's prior name Kraken Mara. New drummer David Peredun (who was confirmed to have joined
the band in late February) will presumably make his studio debut with
Convergence here.
Current Release Status:
No clue, and given the complexity of their music yet their independent
studio trappings so far, that could bode a quick or lengthy timeline for
"Gemini" to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their
modern studio cycle commenced last year, things have been relatively
steady for Brendan and Jake as a recording act, and here's hoping that
Convergence keep that up for their third offering!
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Fort Creek's debut EP
Rumoured Songs: "Hammer Down", "Battlefield"
Background: Background: Local
southern/hard rock band Fort Creek have sporadically teased plans to
record an EP since February 2020, but they wouldn't release any samples until almost two years later when they shared this snippet of their single "Hammer Down" on their Facebook page, later posting this 72 second clip. The guys debuted it at their headlining concert at Soo Blaster
in June 2022, and have played it live regularly since. The band has been
working in studio throughout 2023, revealing that "it's coming along" in a
Facebook post on March 22nd of last year, and teasing new recording sessions following earlier "learning experiences" there in
May. A new original named "Battlefield" was teased in this picture
from studio sessions in September, and they have still been recording as of April. The band quietly parted
ways with bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer Anthony Fabiano last
fall, and it's not clear how involved they will be on the final
product.
Current Release Status: Fort Creek revealed in a comment reply on their Facebook page on April
17th that their originals are "set to be released this fall", which
follows their unrealized plans to release an EP in "late summer", then
"late 2022", all obviously since passed. There are a lot of
unknowns either way,
especially given the 3+ years of production time and that this is a band
primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit, let alone what their rhythm section leaving could mean. It
will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned!
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Handsome Sandwich's first EP
Rumoured Songs: "Without You", "Party Fuel", "Change A Bit", "No Idea", "All Done Now"
Background: Before even releasing
their full-length debut album "Deconstructed" in May 2023, local
alternative/hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich revealed that not all of
their existing originals would be on that album, with plans to instead
release them and some brand new songs on a forthcoming EP. On September
13th, they began recording this EP (which will reportedly have seven
songs) with producer Greig Nori at the Algoma Conservatory of Music,
with bass & drum tracks complete as of September 29th, and then-guitarist Mitch
Sirie was finishing his parts as of December 21st, with vocals still
to go. At least five of the seven songs have had their names revealed in
concert setlists. After only
contributing to the packaging on "Deconstructed", bassist Rafael Medina
will perform on this EP, and a "Reel" of him recording an unidentified song in studio was posted to the band's Facebook page. It's not clear if new guitarist Brandon Ruch will be involved on the EP in some fashion or not.
Current Release Status:
To be determined, and while they're not recording this EP at the same
place as "Deconstructed", note that the sessions for that album at
Unsalted Audio wrapped up four months before the album release. If the
timeline is similar, than we wouldn't see Handsome Sandwich's EP until
at least mid-2024, but it will be interesting to see how things progress
in the coming months!
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HeadFirst - "Head Trauma"
Rumoured Songs: "The Walk", "Don't Care, Don't Mind"
Background: In a mild surprise announcement on
their Facebook page last week, newer local hard rock quintet HeadFirst announced that they'd be releasing their debut EP "Head Trauma" with a release party at
Shooters Downstairs Lounge on Saturday, July 27th! It was known that they had released their debut studio single "Don't Care, Don't Mind" to digital platforms in May after previously recording it with producer Dustin Jones at Mission Control Studios, and another full-length original song ("The Walk") can be seen at
this link, but they never confirmed working on more material in studio until last week. "Head Trauma" is expected to have four songs.
Current Release Status: Again, the album will be launched with its release party at Shooters on the 27th, but HeadFirst have not confirmed if it will be exclusive to music streaming platforms or if physical copies will be on sale. Given how they kept the full EP plans close to the vest publically until last week, who knows what surprises could lie in store later this month, so keep tabs on HeadFirst's social media accounts for details!
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Mike Haggith's "Face To Face" live album
Rumoured Songs:
"MorningStar", "The Best You Never Had", "Into The Setting Sun", "Come
On Home", "I've Seen It Before", "If Ever Comes The Day", "Suburban
Dream" (The Din cover), "Out Of My League" (The Din cover), "Potato
(Should've Known Better)"
Background: In the lead-up to the staging of his joint storytellers "Face To Face" concert with local folk/country musician Brian Tremblay at The Art Hub on Spring on May 26th, 2023, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith announced plans on his Facebook page to release a live album from this event through his indie label MorningStar Records,
including a vinyl pressing. If this comes to fruition, it's not clear
if Brian's half of the concert (he and Mike alternated songs), let alone
the stories, would be included on the final product, which would
necessitate a double album on vinyl. In any event, you can
watch the entire "Face To Face" live-stream at this link.
Current Release Status:
Little has came out about the "Face To Face" live album plans since
first announced, and while that show went off without a hitch for Mike
(unlike Rotaryfest), it understandably wasn't his first musical
priority last summer, with his new studio album "All The Best In All You Do" being released as planned in July. We'll let you know when/if more comes out on this live album in any form!
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Sykotyk Rampage - "Waerlogas Sagas Konfysion Of Fyck"
Rumoured Songs: Unknown
Background: On May 15th, Bandcamp
followers of local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" veterans Sykotyk
Rampage were notified via e-mail that they released their 70th album on
the platform, entitled "Waerlogas Sagas Konfysion Of Fyck". The album
artwork can be seen on the e-mail, featuring a minimalist black &
white design behind a man in what could be one of the band's
"environ-mental suits" from prior albums. However, in the following two weeks since the album was released, the band already took "The
Waerlogas Sagas" down without an official explanation, though note that
in their studio project era since they last played live regularly, their
nine albums since 2017 haven't typically been promoted in
advance before being released. For the record, "waerloga" is Old English
for a traitor or liar, and the word "warlock" is derived from it.
Current Release Status: Really, we
don't even know if this album will get re-released, be it in its
complete form from May 15th or with some type of edits. Given how fast
Sykotyk Rampage pump out their albums (improvised in The Cave before
mixing at River Front Recreation Studio), we could see album #70 at any
time, be it "The Waerlogas Sagas" or something else. Stay tuned for more
on what the Beckers, Shane, and Tony have planned!
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As well, I have removed one album due to its now unlikely release status, so here's what you should know on it:
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The Uncanny Valley's debut album
Rumoured Songs: "The Uncanny
Valley", "Glowin'", "Middle Man", “This Love Is Psychedelic”, "Stuck In
Rotation", “Sweet Like Sugar”, "Fumbling Through", "The Village"
Background: The new classic hard
rock band from 2019 Soo's Got Talent winner Adrian Sullivan, fans will
have seen original material of theirs right from the start, as The
Uncanny Valley debuted their own songs in their first live concert at
The Canadian on New Year's Eve 2019. Live concert & jam session videos followed on their Facebook page featuring their own material as well. After posting a teaser audio clip of "Sweet Like Sugar" in September 2020, they posted the full studio version of "Middle Man" that October, finally confirming there that they were working on their
first album. The guys did
record a studio version of "Stuck In Rotation" at Unsalted Audio for the Clusterfolk Music Festival
and a related compilation album
in April 2022, but whether that
exact recording would have been included on the band's own album is unclear. The band released their music video for their
song "The Village" in June 2023, in their last public act.
Reason For Removal: Unfortunately, The Uncanny Valley are now past our inactivity threshold of one year without public band updates or concerts, so it does appear that the band quietly disbanded last year, if not late 2022 with their video for "The Village" being a posthumous final act. It would be neat to hear what Adrian, Matt, Brendan, and Dylan had recorded for the album, but hopefully we see the guys out there in some form down the road, and don't bypass the Clusterfolk compilation (digitally or on cassette) if you come across it!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series will return on or around August 2nd, while our next monthly feature post will likely be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile one week from tomorrow. That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next! Thanks everyone!
We'll start with a special Wednesday night concert preview, as Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will finally play Sault Ste. Marie for the first time TOMORROW NIGHT at Soo Blaster! This concert is over five years in the making for Woodhawk, as they were supposed to headline at LopLops Lounge back in April 2020, one of many local concerts scuttled due to the first pandemic lockdown. It's very rare to see a smaller touring band (let alone not a tribute band) reschedule a cancelled Soo show from 2020, so come out tomorrow to party now that things have calmed down! Alongside the retro-influenced stoner and hard rock originals in store from Woodhawk, fans tomorrow can also see local hard rock quintet HeadF1rst and online page-less metal supergroup The Sault Side Squad, which should add up to a diverse but still uniformly heavy night of rock if you can swing coming out on a work/school night!
Finally for today, let's head back to Sault Ontario for a new cover from a band that we've talked about but never fully featured here before, namely local country/bluegrass quartet The Golden Scoundrels! SMS readers will be familiar with this band for featuring ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno and former Handsome Sandwich bandmates Brandon Ruch & Johnny Belanger (plus fiddle player Todd Webb) in very atypical waters from what we are used to. While they obviously fall outside of our genre range, fans were surprised three weeks ago to hear The Scoundrels cover Motorhead's "Iron Fist" for their YouTube channel! Filmed with multiple cameras by Josh's own Spacebag Productions with Hails frontman Brenton Ellis providing partial camera-work, this cover is certainly a bluegrass take on Motorhead, and while recognizable structurally, there will be an adjustment given the genre switch.
