New Videos, Changing Waves Updates, And Some "Woods V" Reviews!!

Let's get some more news and updates out there for you guys on this, our 1,000th post on The Sault Metal Scene's blog/website! I've got nothing special planned site-wise, but I do wanna thank you guys for supporting the SMS in the three+ years we've been based off of Blogger to help us get to 1,000 posts, and I appreciate all of the interest and readership! You guys are awesome! As for today's news, we have some new videos from a notable local band, another video from a Sault Michigan drummer, updates on the early days of a local hardcore act, and, finally, some "Woods 5" reviews, so here's what you need to know! (Updated Thursday at 1:12 AM)

Winkstinger drummer Jonas Gasperas posted four more live videos of Winkstinger in action onto his YouTube channel yesterday! Nice to see some new live footage, it always helps to get some new videos of this talented and brutal quintet! The newest upload comes from Winkstinger's concert at Foggy Notions (most recently known as Feedback) on December 18th, 2010, when they opened for Garden of Bedlam for Foggy's one year anniversary since their 2009 re-opening. Of their song "Feel All My Hate", it appears to be from the same filmer of their "From Bullshit To Buzz" video that we posted last year, and it's a nice quality and very heavy song, so click here to check it out! Most of the new videos, however, come from sets that Winkstinger played at various Roosevelt Hotel concerts in mid-2011 (specific dates weren't given, but I wasn't at all of them.) Of the three videos, we get amusingly titled songs like "Move It, Peenie-Weenies, My Hands Are On Fire!" and "Jimmy Got His New Legs (Derp)", but I've embedded their set opening performance of "Stop! You Can't Interrogate Someone With Brain Damage!" (preceded by an instrumental cover of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose") below to check out!

These are good quality for the audio, but the videos from the Rosie are very dark, with only the old lighting brightening most of the band. You can't even see guitarist Jason Ladouceur most of the time, but that's not the filmer's fault. Solid videos, and kudos to Jonas for posting them finally! Check out the first video from their Roosevelt Hotel show below, and remember to see them and their new singer there THIS THURSDAY!!



Next up, here's some assorted news from local hardcore quartet Changing Waves (well, these are older, but they're new to me!) Following their surprise debut at the Total Chaos-headlined Oddfellows Hall show in November 2010, it was some months before they finally posted an official band page... or so we thought. While doing research for another SMS post the other day, I came across a MySpace page for a local band named FallsColour Turn Spring that were active for about a month in the fall of 2010, and as it turns out, they appear to be an early incarnation of Changing Waves, judging by the inclusion of their original lineup (including ex-bassist Devan Lauzon) and the posting of early versions of some Chaging Waves originals! Two ("Tital" and "Divine Intervention") are frequent sights at their concerts, but an extra song named "Hands of Gid" (did they mean "God"?) is posted there, and it has some familiar elements while still bringing some heavy metal! It'd be cool to see that in their live sets more, but overall, it's cool to find their early incarnation's MySpace page, even if their old name doesn't quite roll off the tongue! Check out more from Changing Waves at the above links, and also check out their SignMeTo page which I also just recently found at this location!

Thirdly today, Trail's End drummer Jake LaLonde has posted a new solo performance video onto his YouTube channel, and unlike his well performed though unexpected cover of Cee-Lo Green's "Fuck You", this goes back to some hard rocking, as he covered Breaking Benjamin's "The Diary Of Jane" in his newest video that went online yesterday! Filmed in black & white from overhead of him & his kit, he definitely has the original song down well, and the drumming's nice and audible! Very good work once again, so give Jake's new drum video a look below, and stay tuned for more from him and Trail's End very soon!



And finally for today, I wanted to finally share some of the recent reviews for Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" on here, which we're way overdue for as it is. I had to do some searching to find some of these, and there's much more to come, but this is at least a start! On Friday, "Juular" from the metal website Heavy Blog Is Heavy gave "Woods V" a perfect 5/5 stars in a lengthy review exploring Woods of Ypres' evolution, the doomier sounds on this new CD, and how bleak and depressing it is, even suggesting that David Gold's death may have helped with that vibe. Overall, he called it the band's crowning achievement and "nearly flawless", so check out that full review at this location! Also, David Gehlke from the metal site Blistering gave "W5" a 7.5/10, dismissing what he percieved as David overly copying late Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele, while highly praising the music and themes, saying that the album stands on it's own regardless of the circumstances. Read his review by clicking here! Finally for today, David Perri of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles gave "Woods V" a perfect 10/10 that he explicitly said it was deserving of, not thanks to sentimentality. He called it the band's "artistic pinnacle" and a rebirth for Woods of Ypres, even suggesting that some songs induced shivers when listening. Another great review, click here to check it out, and stay tuned for much more "Woods V" updates soon!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news shortly, including weekend concert previews, a likely review of Thursday's Rosie metal night, last month's poll results, and this month's new poll! Thanks everone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Turner Up), New Videos, And More Assorted News!!

Hey guys, it's time for another news post at the SMS, and before we get into it, if you notice that the background is now static on the site, that's on purpose. I thought that'd be easier on the eyes for readers rather than a constantly scrolling background when reading posts, and it's easier for future customization, so don't be alarmed! In today's post, we have some new videos from some local acts, a bunch of assorted news items, and leading things off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!

Local classic hard rock quintet Turner Up will return to the local concert stage THIS SATURDAY, but not at a venue you'd expect. In just their third concert weekend since the new Turner Up's launch last year, they'll be rocking the Sportscentre Bar & Grill at 624 Wellington Street West on Saturday, in what I think is the first show from any version of Turner Up at this spot. For reference sake, the Sportcentre Bar & Grill is beside Wizards Cuts, it's a road over from Carmen's Way, and it's close to the Steelton area, in case you're curious of it's location. We haven't seen Turner Up in four weeks (though 4/5ths of them have played more often in Havadder in between), so if you've missed their brand of classic hard rock covers, then don't miss them at this West End concert on Saturday night! There is no announced cover charge, there's no Friday date this weekend, everything starts at 10:00 PM, and you must be 19 to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Though I'm not familiar with this venue at all, Turner Up should deliver another solid set of rocking covers, so definitely consider attending this concert if you can, and stay tuned for more on it later this week!

Next up, here's some new videos, starting with another new album teaser from Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids metal quintet End of Existence! Hot on the heels of their first teaser from Sunday, the band has posted a 79 second trailer featuring a preview of another song from their planned debut album that's coming out on February 29th. The visuals here use similar effects to the first video, though the featured photo is of guitarist Steven Giles. Are we getting one trailer video featuring each band member in the lead-up to the album's release? I dunno, but this is another promising preview, so check it out below, and I'll keep you guys posted as updates roll in!



Also in new videos are three new solo performance videos from ApocalyptiCDistroyeR frontman Jesse Middaugh, who has uploaded three new videos onto the band's YouTube channel over the past nine days. One is (oddly enough) a short rough guitar cover of Bruno Mars' "Grenade", which seems out of place, but his playing isn't bad. He also uploaded a new cover of Three Days Grace's "(I Hate) Everything About You", this time with a new electric guitar of his, and he sounds alright on it, especially with a plugged in version, though the transitions between verses and choruses are choppy sounding. Embedded below though is his new original demo, tentatively titled "The Special One", and he shows some nice softer acoustic playing here for this newest original, so give it a look below, and check the above links for more solo and band material from ApocalyptiCDistroyer's channel!



And finally for today, here's three assorted stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band, website, or channel name:

• If you're an active local music forum user or reader, you may have noticed that the 705 Video Magazine forums were down lately. This is due to a move to a new host and planned relaunch, and from what I'm hearing, the new site and it's content will be more impressive than ever before. Sit tight, things will be back up and running soon!
• Brimley metal quartet Half A Man have unveiled their first official new band photos since their late 2011 lineup changes, and you can check them out via postings on their Facebook page, which also finally has an updated band lineup on the information section as well. The pictures look good, and hopefully we'll hear some more exciting news from them shortly!
• I've updated our YouTube Channel Profile of myangels1266's YouTube channel to reflect the fact that channel owner Cami Hubbard's son Chris' band Splitshot is now defunct. Not a major change, but I thought you guys should know just in case!
  

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this week, and just FYI, our very next post on the SMS website will be our 1,000th overall! Amazing how fast three years of blogging go when you enjoy what you do, huh? Thanks everyone!

"Woods V" Release Updates, Studio Updates From Sault Michigan, And This Week's Classic Video!!

Here's some more news for this Monday evening for you SMS fans, so here's what's on tap! Tonight, we've got this week's classic video, new studio material previews from a couple of Sault Michigan bands, and leading things off, some cool news relating to Woods of Ypres, so here's what you need to know!

Let's kick off today's post with some Woods of Ypres news, and as this week's banner on the site would imply, "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" is officially on sale now.... well, it is overseas! Due to longer processing lead times over here, it won't be in stock for American markets until April, but if you order from Earache Records' European store, you can get your orders shipped right away so you can give David Gold's final recorded material a deserved complete listen! Click here to pick up "W5" on CD and/or vinyl from the European Earache distro, and note that there are still packages to get the album with a t-shirt or poster. I haven't heard anything about an iTunes release for "Woods V" yet, but I'd have to imagine it's coming soon. For the record, I haven't heard of either "Keeper of the Ledger" or Siegfried Meier's vinyl-exclusive alternate mix of "Finality" being up to stream online yet, but I imagine it'll only be a matter of time before both turn up in some fashion. Lastly on this CD, I know I haven't mentioned any reviews of "Woods V" yet, but I plan to feature many in an upcoming post. Without David to tell fans about the majority of them, they often slip my casual radar, which is why they haven't hit the SMS yet. Stay tuned for more "W5" news as it rolls in!

Before we completely move to our next story, I wanna note something about Woods of Ypres' planned European debut this past Saturday, where they would have opened for British thrash standouts Evile at the HMV Next Big Thing event in Manchester, England. At the show, Evile paid tribute to David by playing their 2011 song "In Memoriam" for the first time ever, which is an awesome gesture, and videos of the performance are now online! Click here to check out at least three videos of the performance, and kudos to Evile for doing this for David's memory!

Next up, Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet End of Existence are keeping the anticipation up for their planned debut album at the end of the month, as they posted an album teaser video onto their YouTube channel yesterday! It's just 1:41 long, and the visuals are mostly effects over their orange globe logo, but it does feature a 70 second snippet of a previously unreleased original song named "12.21.12", presumably referring to the Mayan apocalypse theories centered around that day. It's definitely a promising and heavy clip, but I'll hold full judgement until we both hear the full album and I get a chance to review it. Little else is known yet about this 13 song release, but as we inch closer to the end of February, we should hear more, so keep an eye out! For now, here's a teaser, and as more comes in, I'll have it here!



Thirdly, here's some news and updates from new Sault Michigan metal sextet Hoist The Sails! Like End of Existence, this band featuring Analog Deficiency & Seeking Reverence alumni have been hard at work on new material of their own lately despite no announced live debut date yet, and we can now get some more tastes of their work thanks to a couple of new postings on their Facebook page. One is the first full original song from their planned EP recording sessions, entitled "Mind Over Matter", and you can now stream it at this link. How does it sound? Very good, actually! It has a catchy groove, excellent guitar work, and interesting dual harsh vocals in the verses, and the clean singing doesn't sound out of place either! These guys definitely seem to know what they're doing musically, and it's hard to believe this has came together so suddenly! The other new media on their Facebook page seems like it'd be another preview, but it's actually a comedic clip of singer Travis Theel doing some intentionally bad clean vocals with some band member reactions, and it shows that they have a good sense of humour about everything! I see big things from Hoist The Sails if they keep on this same path, and hopefully we hear much more from them soon, so keep an eye out for updates, and check them out at the above links

And finally for today, here's this week's classic video! After a three week run of videos not tied into an upcoming concert (thanks in part due to a lot of light weekends), this week's does tie in with a band at an upcoming show, that being local deathcore quartet (and this Thursday's Rosie metal night participants) The Valentine's Day Massacre! Before frontman Steve Rhodes joined the former View To A Kill, he made local waves as State of Misery's singer in late 2010 and early 2011, as you may remember, and some off-YouTube videos from their run are still floating around online. One is of them playing their original song that I think was called "Bleed" at a jam session circa December 2010, which was one of four posted to the band's Facebook group on January 3rd of last year. The quality's similar to the other three videos (two of which we've already put on our YouTube channel), but it shows State of Misery's original lineup doing what they did best, and the song is brutal with catchy elements! I may have the title wrong, as they had a couple songs with titles similar to "Bleed", so if I'm incorrect, please let me know! This video was originally filmed by attendee Ashley Lacasse, and you can see the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=114911331914493.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to State of Misery and Ashley for the work they did in this video & performance, I'm just trying to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves! It's a solid performance, and State of Misery definitely attracted a good local following in their brief run, so give this newest classic video a look below, and go see Steve's current band rock The Rosie on Thursday!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news as the week moves along! Thanks everyone!

News On Toronto's David Gold Memorial Show, Site Updates, And More!!

Let's keep the news rolling on this Sunday morning, so here's what's on tap! We've got updates to one of our monthly feature series, notes on a couple of band deletions from our local band listings and what led to that, a new video from a prominent local guitarist, and leading things off, some details on an upcoming tribute show for a missed local metal musician, so here's what you need to know!

Today, I wanted to start with news on the other David Gold tribute show coming up in April, and though it is in Toronto, it's definitely worth some extra coverage given his untimely passing in December. An event page for what is being called "A Memorial Concert For David Gold" has been posted online, and the event will take place at The Annex Wreckroom in Toronto on Thursday, April 5th. David played at this venue with both Woods of Ypres & Gates of Winter in 2008 & 2009, so it's a fitting spot for the Toronto memorial! This event will serve as both a memorial concert and the CD release show for "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", which will be played over the speakers for attendees (and presumably be on sale too, but that's not confirmed.) The lineup isn't final yet, but the show will be headlined by Chicago doom metal mainstays Novembers Doom, and also joining them will be Kittie, Hallows Die, and Gypsy Chief Goliath (all of whom will be at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario two days later.) The other bands currently confirmed for the Toronto memorial are all Ontario black metal outfits, including Toronto's Eclipse Eternal, North Bay's Empyrean Plague, Pagan Ritual from Oshawa, and Panzerfaust from Mississauga. More artists are to be announced, and a "surprise performance" may happen as well.

This may be 7 hours away, but it's shaping up to be an awesome tribute to David Gold's memory, so here's some extra details! Admission is strictly by donation, and all proceeds will go towards both David's final expenses and (this is news to me) a David Gold Music Scholarship that's being started in his memory for music students at Sault College! Now that's a nice and fitting gesture by his family! For more details and information on how you can attend or contribute, visit the official Facebook event page! This all sounds good to me, and though I doubt I can hit this event (given the distance and my night classes on Thursdays), I hope a huge local contingent can make it to this show & the local memorial that Saturday and pay a fitting tribute to David! I'm a bit surprised that no bands have been announced for the Toronto gig featuring ex-Woods of Ypres members (be they recent lineups or older), but maybe some will factor into the implied surprise performance in Toronto. I've also heard that some bands at both of the memorial concerts plan to cover Woods of Ypres material in their setlists, which would be awesome, but we'll have to see what's in store come April! Stay tuned for much more on the David Gold & Woods of Ypres fronts soon, and keep an eye out for the initial release of "Woods V" TOMORROW!

Next up, Trail's End guitarist Chris Hubbard posted another Van Halen cover onto his YouTube channel on Friday, and like his last video, this is of a section of a new Van Halen song from their new album "A Different Kind of Truth". This time, he covered the intro of "China Town", and covers it pretty well, though I'd like to see him tackle a full song from the new CD soon as well. His talents are impressive, and he definitely loves Van Halen, so give his cover of the intro of "China Town" a look below!



Now, I wanted to address a couple band deletions from our local band listings on the SMS. As I've alluded to on the site in May, Facebook has slowly been changing all groups on the site to the new group format, which is designed for smaller circles of people, rather than the old format that was basically a Facebook pages predecessor. As such, while wall posts, photos, and biographies are retained, all group members that weren't administrators are removed (but can rejoin) and the groups basically all look the same, barring continued use. Our old inactive Facebook group has already been changed over, for example, but not all have. As such, a couple of local hard rock bands whose primary online pages were Facebook groups now lack enough information to really warrant a link on the SMS (no offense to the members.) One is The White Knights (featuring Frightlight & Fingerbone alumni) and the other is the Stillbroke-predecessor quartet The Jesters. The former is a closed group that had minimal info to begin with, and the latter has been reduced to just a photo and one sentence of information, so not a lot is lost by removing them from our links, but the member's newer bands have had much more success! I just thought you guys should know what happened, and if your band's Facebook group still hasn't been converted, make sure you save info and media there just in case!

And finally for today, here's some updates to our Defunct Local Band Profiles to make their more accurate and current. Due to photo links changing thanks to the Facebook group change-overs, I've restored one to the AtrophiA profile and replaced another on the M7K profile (the latter now has a newer photo of guitarist Mike Vincent from an old Bear Hunters gig.) I also edited The White Knights' profile to allude to missing info, now that their Facebook group has been crippled even further from the Facebook group changes. The rest of the new edits aren't Facebook group related, I promise! On the Renderware profile, I added a reference to ex-bassist Wayne Watkins' current work in the partly-local indie rock act The Small Town Rivals, while the Out Of The Mouth Of Babes profile now has a reference to former singer Josh McNally's current work in the blues rock band The Moves. I also edited the State of Misery profile to note frontman Steve Rhodes' current band's name change from View To A Kill to The Valentine's Day Massacre. Finally, I added references to the Bring The Fallen profile to note bassist Nolan Rainville's current work in the stoner rock trio Giwakwa. Hopefully things are up to date with this series again, so check the above links for the updated profiles, and stay tuned for our Paraside defunct profile next month!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news as the week rolls along, including updates on the "Woods V" release tomorrow and much more! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Local Metal Album, And Lots More!!

It's time for another news post at The Sault Metal Scene, but first, I wanted to note that if you were invited to a Frightlight-headlined fundraiser event at The Canadian Nightclub next month on Facebook, then don't expect it in this post. The Facebook event page for it was deleted yesterday afternoon for unknown reasons, but if this gets re-announced in some fashion, I'll plug it here for sure! However, we do have news on an upcoming album release, new Half A Man videos, and lots of updates from local bands on Soundclick, but first for today, here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! Tym Morrison's solo acoustic show is back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub THIS AFTERNOON! I apologize for the short notice, he only just announced this concert yesterday. This will be the Caveman Morrison frontman's sixth straight Saturday matinee concert at the Pim Street restaurant, and as always, he should have a solid afternoon's worth of metal and hard rock covers to go around for fans and regulars! Tym's hoping for a good turnout today to keep this latest weekly arrangement happening, so if you're up for some hard rocking and good tunes, a swing by Bossy's would likely be a good bet! Admission will be free, there's no age limit, and Tym will be on as usual at 2:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another solid solo concert from Tym, and hopefully some of you guys can make it out to see him rock Bossy's! For a preview, here's Tym covering Eric Clapton's "Tears From Heaven" at the former Foggy Notions in 2009! Next up, a new local metal album is apparently nearing release, and no, we're not talking about "Woods V" at the moment. That sees it's first official release next week, but right now, I mean End of Existence's debut album! Over a year after plans to release an EP named "Sun Is Gone" drifted into just some free song postings, the Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet are apparently planning to release a 13 song debut album on February 29th (two weeks from Wednesday), and it's definitely been well plugged on the band's Facebook page recently! A promo track of this likely self-titled CD can now be streamed at End of Existence's Reverbnation page, and it features 30-40 second clips of 8 tracks from the album, and after doing some quick math, I think there will be at least a few featured songs that we haven't heard before. Of course, recordings of original songs are no secret, as we've seen and heard new media from End of Existence a lot over the last year, but it's nice to see plans out there to formally compile these tracks on an album of some kind! If this happens according to plan, I think we're in for a very heavy treat at the end of the month, and you know I'll keep you guys posted as updates come in for it! That said, will it come out in time for it to be this month's CD review at The Sault Metal Scene? Probably not, and only because I'm at school all day on the 29th, so I probably can't make time to review it so soon. Honestly, with the late February release and "Woods V" tentatively reserved for March, we might not get to an End of Existence CD review until early April, but it'll be worth the wait if it comes to that! No matter what though, stay tuned for updates on this and other new CDs as the weeks roll along! Thirdly, here's some new videos from Brimley metal quartet Half A Man! Drummer Mikey Bishop uploaded four new jam videos onto his YouTube channel on Thursday, and though none have a real "title", they all show some promising jams towards what I assume are new original songs! The videos are all short (only one breaks 1:50 in length) and singer Dillion Semasky isn't featured, but these videos do show some solid metal instrumentals that I can't wait to see expanded on, so click the above link to see all four of the new videos, and here's the longest new video to check out here! Finally for today, here's some random shorter stories from the last little while, and conveniently, all relate to the popular music site Soundclick and local bands with pages on it. As usual, these stories are in alphabetical order by band name:

• If you've missed the sample of the Gates of Winter song "The Stars Call My True Name" since it's deletion from YouTube, then good news, as the band's Soundclick page (which is new to me) features a 2 minute clip of that song! Or, is it called "Dimensions"? Either way, it was posted there in September 2010, along with an album cover-ish image named "Veil of the Abyss". Stream this very heavy & very promising clip at the above links or at this location if you wanna!
• We haven't heard much from experimental hard rock trio SBD since they dropped out of the Sewer Swampstravaganja last spring, but they're still alive, as they posted a new original song onto their Soundclick page in December! Colourfly titled "Shut Up, You Stupid B****", it's an odd mix of energetic punk music with low melodic clean singing. It's not bad though, and it's catchy enough, so check it out above or by clicking here!

That's all for now, but we've got more news to come over the next few days, so keep an eye out for it! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Shift

It's February 10th, so once again, it's time to unveil this month's Defunct Local Band Profile at The Sault Metal Scene! For the first time in 8 months, we're profiling just one Sault Michigan band that has either broken up or been visibly inactive for an entire year, following a string of randomly selected bands without enough material for a full post. This month's band was fairly prominent in the local scene in the mid-late 2000s, so what should you know & remember about them? Read on below to find out! (Updated on August 19th, 2013)
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Shift

Genre: Modern Hard Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members:

Amy Beairl (Wild Fate), vocals

Joey Beairl (NoXcape, Krosswalk, Kickback), guitar

Tony Rogers (Toast, Clownsack, Swayze Train), bass

Mike Vollman (Seeking Reverence, Bad Side), drums

Audio/Video: Multimedia of Shift from their local run is extremely minimal from what I can tell, only comprising of two MySpace videos from a Shift concert circa June 2009 at what appeared to be The Satisfied Frog. One was a drum solo by Mike Vollman, and the other was Shift's cover of Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" that immediately followed Mike's solo, and though they were deleted in MySpace's recent layout overhaul, I did  post these both on YouTube as one combined video beforehand, and you can check it out below!

Info/Analysis: Active from around 2006 to 2009, Shift were a hard rock quartet known for their covers-heavy sets at numerous concerts in the mid-late 2000s. Known for featuring instructors in The Guitar Studio and it's connected summer rock camp in their lineup, Shift rocked numerous local venues like The Satisfied Frog and Dondee Lanes, along with appearances at many concerts in the Upper Peninsula, including sets at Pigfest in Ishpeming during their run. Shift went on hiatus in the fall of 2009 due to frontwoman Amy Beairl's pregnancy, but the band never came back as expected in mid-2010, and are presumed to have broken up. Since dissolving, most of Shift's members have remained active musically, most recently being seen in local bands like Toast & Seeking Reverence. I don't have much to go on for critiquing Shift, but their "One Step Closer" cover is pretty good, and Amy's singing voice meshes well with everything! The members have clear talent from what I've heard of their other bands, and I have no doubt that their concerts were full of great hard rock songs, but hopefully they come back down the road, or at least post some material from their heyday!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! This will be our last Sault Michigan profile until probably May (maybe April if it's there's two bands that month), so we're heading back to Sault Ontario next, but which band are we profiling? Through completely random selection, we're going to profile defunct local hardcore band Paraside, featuring the Hagerman brothers from Changing Waves, so look out for that profile between March 7th and 13th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews later today! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Trail's End), Sneaky Pete Concert Review, And Much More!!

Here's one more news post before we upload this month's Defunct Local Band Profile tomorrow, and today, we've got this weekend's concert previews, a half-cancellation for across the river this month, the latest updates on a prominent Sault Michigan band, and this week's classic video, but leading things off, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!

Kewadin Casino's entertainment page has been updated to reflect concerts taking place at The Rapids Lounge through May, and while some are previously announced dates are there from earlier postings, there are some new dates from various local and Northern Michigan bands, and among them is a newly announced concert weekend from Trail's End! The hard rock trio featuring Splitshot & Nixxon Dixxon alums Chris Hubbard, Kyle Beaumont, and Jake LaLonde will return to The Rapids Lounge on April 20th & 21st for what will be their third concert weekend at Kewadin's bar since their inception late last year, and you know they should deliver an entertaining set of hard rocking originals and covers this spring! There should be no cover charge, you must be 21 to attend, and both nights should have a 10:00 PM start time. It's great to see Trail's End booking some more concerts, and hopefully these add well to a huge month in the local scene, so stay tuned for updates, and go see Trail's End at Kewadin NEXT WEEKEND!

Also, before we move on to the weekend concert preview, another note on Kewadin's entertainment page is that Swayze Train's scheduled concert weekend there in two weeks has been halved to just a Friday show on February 24th. The reasoning for it appears to be a schedule conflict, as The Rapids Lounge will be showing UFC 144 (go Ben Henderson!) that Saturday. No worries, we'll get lots more Swayze Train action later in the year, so all's good!

Now to a concert preview for this weekend, and in an otherwise fairly quiet weekend in the twin Saults (anyone know of any other metal/hard rock shows?), some hard rocking good times will go down at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday night, as Sneaky Pete will return for another concert! Just three weeks after their last show at the Algonquin Hotel's upstairs bar, Sneaky Pete promise to rock away your winter blahs with their eclectic set of hard rock covers and classic renditions, and if you wanna step out on Saturday night to rock out, you know exactly were to be! This is a 19+ show, they are not playing at The Rockstar Bar tomorrow (just Saturday), a 10:30 PM start time is listed, and there will likely be a cover charge of around $5. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's nice to see another Sneaky Pete concert go down, especially so close to the last one, so definitely consider their show on Saturday night for your concertgoing needs! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Sneaky Pete covering Saliva's "Ladies & Gentlemen" at The Rockstar Bar last month!



Thirdly today, I wanted to address recent news from the young Sault Michigan hard rock band Abstract, and why we haven't publicized much of that news on here. Last fall, you may remember when they quietly removed guitarist Kyle Burton from their lineup, and it later became public knowledge why he left earlier this year. I initially resisted mentioning the details on here because things got very public and unamicable in recent weeks relating to Kyle's departure, the reasoning behind it, and attached issues, and I didn't want to add more negativity or speculation on to everything. All I'll say on that is that Kyle left partly due to his religious beliefs and their conflict with some of Abstract's planned covers. I'd suggest that such issues shouldn't be publically viewable, as fans will just worry and assume for the worst, but Abstract's Facebook page was recently deleted anyway. That could be at least in part due to a planned name change, as a statement released to the remaining members' personal Facebook pages about Kyle (which is positive, don't worry), ends with "formerly known as Abstract". Makes sense for a new beginning, I suppose, but I don't know why they had to delete their Facebook page over it, they could have just renamed it and deleted posts they didn't want to be seen.

As their Facebook page has been deleted, I've replaced it with their Google-hosted website until we hear more about their new name and any future Facebook presence. This is a lot of disappointing news for sure, but hopefully Jacob, Mike, and Ethan get back into the swing of things this year, as they're very talented for their age, and we miss them around the area! I'll keep you guys posted as updates come in, and best of luck to Kyle in the future, he deserves to get into a new band!

And finally for today, here's this week's classic video! With another light concert weekend on tap, I'm dipping into the archives this week, and I've chosen a video from local classic metal quartet Late & Loud to feature on YouTube! Most videos of theirs are on YouTube already, but one exception is this video from of Late & Loud covering The Surfaris' instrumental "Wipeout" at Foggy Notions (most recently known as Feedback) from last February! This is a popular cover at Late & Loud shows, and they put a good heavy spin on it! The video quality's nice too, but I wish the camera was better positioned to capture Brendan Christie in frame, as he's cut off frequently on the far right. Filmed by an attendee of this concert, you can view the original video on Late & Loud's Facebook page (where it was uploaded on February 22nd of last year) at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1856412968398. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to the original filmer and Late & Loud, they did all the hard work, I'm just sharing this video with a wider audience like it deserves! It's a nice energetic performance of a very recognizable song, so check it out below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Defunct Local Band Profile on Shift tomorrow, along with more news this weekend! Thanks everyone!