LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Go North Music Festival!!)

Single topic post today thanks to a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as Juno Award-nominated Saskatoon blues/hard rock band Wide Mouth Mason will (as far as I'm aware) make their first ever local concert appearance as one of the co-headliners of the eighth annual Go North Music Festival on Saturday, July 25th! A staple of Canadian rock radio and MuchMusic in the late 1990s thanks to hit songs like "My Old Self", "Why", and "Smile", it will be neat to finally welcome Shaun, Safwan, and crew to our area (if not the Soo proper) this summer, and their jam-friendly alt-rock sound and distinct vocals still set them apart! Wide Mouth Mason are really the only hard rock-leaning outpost for this year's festival, which didn't have anything that really crossed our radar in 2025 (when it was headlined by Big Sugar, featuring former W.M.M. bassist Gordie Johnson). Presented by SooToday & 104.3 The Fox, this annual event returns to the old Cornfest site at Centennial Grounds in Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island for two nights of music.

As seen on the poster, the headlining Saturday band this year is Juno-winning Halifax indie rock quintet Wintersleep (of "Weighty Ghost" and "Amerika" fame), who have also never played in the Soo area before. While their name sounds heavier than they are, Wintersleep are a very talented and acclaimed band, so don't bypass them this summer! Also making their way to St. Joseph Island in four months are three acts from Toronto, namely alt-indie trio Jackie, pop rock musician Loviet, and alternative singer/guitarist Keegan Powell, who should also make some waves with their skill sets and rising national profiles! Your only local band on July 25th is CASS FM, the Central Algoma Secondary School student rock band (a'la Mustang Sally), who are multi-time veterans of Go North, if with a lot of lineup turnover. As well, London children's music group The Thinking Caps will return to headline the kids stage that afternoon.

The night #1 lineup on Friday, July 24th has more local ties despite only having three acts, those being fan favourite Niagara Falls brass/funk collective My Son The Hurricane (still featuring former Rising Tide drummer Danno O'Shea), Oakville country/soul hybrid duo Yassin & Sean Terrio, and local indie rock quartet Lucy's Diner (née The Hollow Heads). Along with the announced musicians, attendees can also expect to find local art and food vendors amongst the outdoor surroundings on Centennial Grounds, and if you're bringing the kids, there will be interactive Science North exhibits, games, crafts, and a mural that everyone can help paint at the family zone. Timeslots for the individual acts are not out yet, but gates open on Friday at 6:00 PM and Saturday at 3:00 PM, and bands are projected to wrap up nightly by 11:00 PM. On-site camping is absolutely available as usual, and a fireside jam will again be held after hours.

Advance tickets are now on sale at this link, and minus online processing fees, day passes run for $40 on Friday and $70 on Saturday ($20 and $25 respectively for teenagers 13-18 or students under 25 with valid student ID). Camping passes for 2 or 4 adults for the whole weekend or Saturday only are also available (kids/teens are free to camp thusly but must be with an adult), but these do not include festival tickets, which are a separate purchase. $15 premium parking passes are also available if you want to get a really close spot, but this is an optional bonus. Discount bundles for two adults with camping & premium parking are also available. It is great to see the Go North Fest back for year #8, and while they have had heavier lineups, there's a lot of established and up & coming names to watch out for here, so definitely visit the above links for more on this year's event an hour east of the Soo! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Craig Harrison

It's finally time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as again shine a light on a YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk concerts/artists, as randomly chosen from our YouTube subscriptions! This month's selection takes us to Sault Michigan (well, by way of the Lower Peninsula) for a look at a prominent local musician's YouTube output from the late 2000s through the ensuing decade, so here's what you should know!

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Craig Harrison (http://youtube.com/craigharrisonshortdog24)

Owner: Theatre Of Night keyboardist Craig Harrison, also known from past local/Grand Rapids bands like Integrated System Of Machines, End Of Existence, and Dust N' Bones

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 11th, 2008; Videos uploaded from April 2010 through September 2020

Channel Summary: A personal use channel, Craig noted in the description that, as he is "a composer, singer, songwriter, adventurer, etc..., my channel has a bit of weird variety". Most of his 34 videos include in-studio performances, either jams/rehearsals with bandmates or solo performances on keyboard and sometimes vocals. Craig's channel also includes two live concert videos (one of him on stage, one of the mosh pit at a 3 Inches Of Blood show in Detroit), some studio samplers and introductions for Theatre Of Night, and non-musical videos ranging from a comedic rap song to outdoor sports-centric to a timelapse drawing of a zombie to one featuring corrections officers from over 25 years ago.

Why You Should Watch: This channel will primarily be of interest to fans of Craig's 2010s work in Theatre Of Night, giving a bit of a behind the scenes look that is especially notable, as not all of their official content and pages from this era is still online in 2026. The existence of an even rarer I.S.O.M. live video shouldn't be overlooked either! The rest of the videos will have a mixed appeal for most, but Craig wasn't lying about this channel having "a weird variety"! For more recent official Theatre of Night videos, visit that band's active YouTube channel and their social media accounts.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Integrated System Of Machines- I.S.O.M. live: While outviewed by the aforementioned rap song and corrections video, Craig's most popular video otherwise is also his first, which sees his old local epic metal band Integrated System Of Machines playing their self-titled song on the Ozzfest Stage at the annual Carnival Of Chaos Festival in Stanton (four hours south of the Soo) on June 27th, 2009. Joining many other bands as openers for Taproot that day, their exact lineup here isn't 100% obvious, but it is good seeing Craig and singer Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten on stage again, and while the video is shaky, you can't be too harsh for an almost 17 year old concert video, and it sounds good for its age. Strong charging song with a catchy chorus and good aggression without getting too extreme! Yes, that does appear to be Craig's future Theatre of Night bandmate Rachel Mender on backing vocals.

 

 

Darkness Falls Within: A good array of solo performance videos by Craig made their way to his channel, mostly of him on the keys (though Dust N' Bones fans won't want to bypass his singing on some clips), while some of these have extraneous video filters added in post-production. Despite being the primary leader of Theatre Of Night, you don't often see videos that really show off his keyboard skills, and this April 2014 performance of their original "Darkness Falls Within" is as good as any for that. The filter is completely unnecessary, but this is a fine showcase of their epic symphonic qualities with a dark ambiance, so if you're not familiar with their non-Christmas material, this is a good introduction! Hear the full version at this link.

 

 

Late night jam session with Theatre of Night and Flesh for the Beast members: In his final channel uploads aside from a shred video in 2020, Craig Harrison posted videos from an April 2018 jam session featuring Theatre Of Night bandmates Steve Giles (guitar) and Erik Sales (drums) plus guest musicians from their friends in Grand Rapids death metal band Flesh For The Beast, who Steve was an alum of. Both videos (including this 13 seconds-long one) feature different F.F.T.B. members on bass, one presumably being Craig Riley, but Craig H. didn't specify names in the descriptions. There are some odd reflections, as if Craig H. was filming behind glass or plastic, but the performances here are sound, and it'd be neat to see Theatre of Night do more with Flesh Of The Beast, live or in studio! Just a shame that Erik was largely obscured behind that pole from this vantage point.

 

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will be back on or around April 26th, while our next monthly feature post will be our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post tentatively scheduled for Thursday, pending how weekend concert previews are blocked. That's all for now, but look for more on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!

Saturday Night Concert Previews (Including Mammoth) Plus New Videos!!

As promised, here's the second half of our final batch of weekend concert previews for March 2026, all concerning shows with advance notice tomorrow night, but we also have a couple of new videos to look at, so here's what you should know on this frigid Friday morning!

We'll start with this weekend's main event, as Los Angeles hard rock/metal band Mammoth will make their local debut TOMORROW NIGHT at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino! The former MammothWVH have been breaking through on rock radio beyond frontman (and former Van Halen/Tremonti bassist) Wolfgang Van Halen's lineage, netting #1 hit singles like "Distance", "The Spell", and "Don't Back Down" throughout the 2020s so far, and with Wolf's multi-instrumental talent and a strong live band, they should deliver a fun night of original rock tomorrow! Joining Mammoth on their The End Tour is Knoxville, Tennessee alternative metal band 10 Years in their third appearance at the Soo Kewadin, following sets opening for Sevendust in 2010 and Seether in 2018. Prepare for familiar hit songs like "Wasteland", "Novacaine", and "Beautiful" tomorrow night as they continue this unintended 8 year pattern between local gigs! 

Also joining the tour from Wales are alt-punk band James & The Cold Gun, and while a looser and more indie-influenced band than what's ahead, they'll set the tone well tomorrow! An Allstar Promotions event presented by Rock 101, this all ages show kicks off tomorrow at 8:00 PM, and tickets remain on sale at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or at the in-person box office. All center section seats are sold out, but sixth-tenth row seats in the left & right sections are still available for $54.50 USD, plus seats further back for $44.50. Consider coming out if you can to support major touring bands like this in Sault Michigan! See above for more details, and here's Mammoth live!

Next up, we'll head north to Sault Ontario and go west.... waaaay west, as reunited local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly will make their debut at De Marco's Boots & Saddles Roadhouse at 2667 Second Line West on SATURDAY NIGHT! The first ever hard rock-leaning concert that we've covered at this locale (a 5 minute drive from the airport), this will be Quite Frankly's first gig since rocking The Water Tower Pub two months ago. It'll be interesting to see how this show goes over, both for its remote locale and for a kinda new band hitting the stage at Boots & Saddles, so don't miss out if you're up for a little bit of a drive or will already be that far west! This will be an 8:00 PM event with a presumed 19+ age limit and no cover charge. For a preview, here's a brand new video of Quite Frankly at The Water Tower Pub, courtesy of their Facebook page, so what can you see here?

This compilation video sees Linsaey, Frank, Harley, and Joe covering an assortment of songs from the likes of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Journey, Shania Twain, Semisonic (shouldn't that have been last?), Carrie Underwood, Steppenwolf (with Frank on lead vocals), and Tom Petty, though each cover is only seen for an average of 21 seconds apiece. The first four covers were (sadly) shot vertically, and while the latter three are horizontal, all three were edited together in vertical dimensions with pillarboxing, and I'd have at least made these into two videos with different orientations if they were set on highlights rather than full songs. Quite Frankly sound good though, if with too deep lighting, so give this a watch below!

Lastly for known and advertised hard rock concerts in the Twin Saults this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will return to the stage TOMORROW NIGHT at The Full Throttle Saloon! Last seen at the same venue at the end of January, this show will end a nearly two month break for this talented veteran group, partly due to bassist John Amendola going on vacation in Aruba, highlights of which can be seen on their Facebook group. He even got to play some music while there! Now that he's back, the 1980s-leaning rockers should have lots of fun and crowd-friendly covers in store for Steelton fans, so keep this show in mind if you're a classic and hard rock fan, and/or missed Headrush lately! This concert goes down tomorrow night at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Headrush live!

Finally, here's a new 27+ minutes long rehearsal video of local death/thrash metal trio Pillory, courtesy of drummer Bret Shuttleworth's YouTube channel! This video was uploaded after the band opened for Demon King at Soo Blaster on Tuesday, but unlike at many of their shows last year, they admitted on their Facebook page that "we were unable to capture any of the set last night" for unannounced reasons. Possibly to make up for that, this jam video was posted to YouTube, as shot by attendee Lucas McNally. It makes no attempt to contain or label full songs, with fade-outs between clips, but the video captures raw and loose performances from Robert, Devon, and Bret, and you will hear song fragments from "Old Soul". No idea why the Pillory logo had to be faintly overlaid on the video in post-production, and Lucas' view is sometimes obscured by a wall on the far right, but this is a solid glimpse behind the scenes that you can watch below! 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & Tym Morrison) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

Before we begin this weekend concert preview post, just a heads up that in-person advertising at The Esquire Club reportedly had Bone Yard 225 playing there this weekend, but the shows are not taking place, and the band never confirmed them on social media. Your local 225 have only played one show (the acoustic St. Patrick's Day gig at Smitty's) in the past month, so hopefully things are well behind the scenes, and we'll let you know when they announce new gigs! Now, here's what you should know to start this weekend's hard rock concert previews, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, with Saturday's Mammoth, Headrush, and Quite Frankly concerts to be previewed in our next news post!

Prolific local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will make his return to the live concert stage TONIGHT at The Dive Gastro Pub! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via his official Facebook event page on Monday, though note that the venue has not corroborated this "Think It Over Thursday" booking at press time. As you may know, Tym broke his pinky finger last month, which has knocked him out of all announced and scheduled concerts since February 7th, but after what has to be his longest break from concerts since the pandemic, he's back TONIGHT. It will be good to see Tym on stage again after over 6 weeks on the shelf, and hopefully he has lots of entertaining rockin' covers in store for "The Naughty Corner"! While he was advertised to play at Misty's Fifties on Saturday as well, he has quietly removed both that show and his announced April 4th matinee there from their batch Facebook event page.

A reason for both shows being cancelled wasn't publically announced, but things are definitely amicable, and he will return to Misty's after two months away on April 18th, and he has a lot more Saturday matinees planned there in 2026! As for TONIGHT'S return at The Dive, this is a 19+ event with a 9:30 PM start time and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Next up, in more Thursday acoustic action, Soundcheck bandmates Terry Eaton & Travis Sharpe will join forces for another unplugged two-man concert TONIGHT at The Full Throttle Saloon! Again, apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via the venue's Facebook page this past Thursday. While not a weekly occurrence, the former Primavera Hall has hosted Thursday matinee concerts with unplugged artists in the past, and they're branding this as "Happy Hour" (well, four of them) with specials, so if you want to enjoy some unplugged rock from the singer/guitarists of Soundcheck, keep TONIGHT's show in mind! While we're on the subject, I did want to apologize for missing their St. Patrick's Day-themed Misty's Fifties concert on March 14th, which that venue only plugged once on the Tuesday prior, and if Travis & Terry have a social media or band page to promote their gigs with, I haven't seen it.

Advertising for the March 14th gig, which was originally supposed to go to Tym Morrison, does refer to this two-man-band as TNT, as in Terry N' Trav... or Trav N' Terry (Misty's and The Full Throttle both called him "Trav" rather than Travis when plugging these two shows). Apologies again for missing the concert two weeks ago, I'd have happily covered it had I known, but here's your encore TONIGHT! The action in Steelton goes down from 5:00-9:00 PM with no cover charge, and The Full Throttle Saloon confirmed that they are open to all ages until 9:00 PM. Visit the above links for more on TNT, and we'll let you know when/if pages or media for this side project turn up!

Also, the aforementioned Soundcheck will take over Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies again for the short notice, these shows were first announced via the venue's Facebook page on Sunday, and despite the timing of the show in relation to a special day for half the band, Soundcheck proper have yet to corroborate these bookings publically on social media. Whether coincidental or not, TOMORROW & SATURDAY's concerts take place a few days prior to the birthdays of the aforementioned Terry Eaton and Travis Sharpe, which are a day apart next week, so if you make your way to the Korah Road nightclub this weekend, give one/both an early birthday greeting! One week removed from Terry, Trav(is), Jim, and Johnny's gigs at Reggie's Place, these will be the reunited local classic/hard rock cover quartet's first shows at the former Roosevelt Hotel in over a month.

As usual for bands at Jay's, these are 9:30 PM concerts with 19+ age limits and no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on Soundcheck's month-ending concerts this weekend, happy early birthday to Travis & Terry, and here's Soundcheck live!

Finally, here's a concert that was publically announced before this week, as we'll head downtown to Soo Blaster, where new local Pearl Jam tribute band Even Flow will play their second concert TOMORROW NIGHT! This new tribute debuted at Beck's Bar in October for that venue's Halloween party, but they weren't a seasonal one-off, and they have the talent to deliver the grunge goods for their local encore! In case you missed that show or our prior coverage, their lineup consists of Barbarians/ex-Elements frontman Rob Speers, Odd Man Out/ex-Sense of Truth guitarist Steve Myers, newer local guitarist Cameron Brock, and Rob's old Side FX bandmates Mike Bird & Derek Turner (both formerly of Papa Fogals Chair) on bass and drums. Very talented collection of artists, but they have yet to post media of them live in any form, so come out TOMORROW to see what Pearl Jam classics they cover, and how their stage show looks!

Coming not long after Soo Blaster upgraded their entertainment offerings with laser tag, bowling, and new arcade games, tomorrow's concert is an all ages event with an advertised 7:00 PM start time, and tickets run for $10 in advance at this link or through band members. See above for more on this grunge/alternative throwback tribute's sophomore outing, and we'll let you know when videos of them surface! That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Mammoth, Headrush, and Quite Frankly previews next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Write-Ups), Mammoth Concert Updates, And More!!

For this Tuesday night post, we're mostly looking at Sault Michigan updates, including a new video interview and updates relating to a big upcoming concert and some more assorted notes, but we'll start in Sault Ontario with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this spring!

Ska punk fans will want to circle Friday, May 1st on your calendars, as Flint, Michigan ska-punk band The Write-Ups will make their local concert debut that night at The Speak Easy at Algoma University! Not the first time that we've seen an touring punk band from the USA cross the border for a show here (promoter Mikhal Muto brought a handful of Michigan folk punk bands here last year), but The Write-Ups deliver a suitably bouncy brand of ska punk fuelled with politicially charged and social cause-driven lyrics, and (as you'd hope) a horn section, so they should whet the appetites of subgenre fans! Fittingly, the local openers are newer ska punk trio A.S.D.P. (who Mikhal is the frontman of), and while they don't play live super regularly, expect some fun cuts from their debut EP "Atom Bombs & Lemonade" to kick things off! This is the first concert to cross our radar at The Speak Easy since another touring political punk band (Quit It!) played there in October.

Put on by Mikhal's new agency Underground Events SSM, this will be an all ages concert with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and admission will be $15 at the door or $10 for current Algoma University students with valid student ID (I have not seen any reference to advance tickets being sold online or in person). This should be a fun way to kick off the merry merry month of May, so visit the above links for more details on this concert!

Next up, here's some cool promotion for this Saturday's Mammoth concert at The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino that I wanted to address without clogging up our next round of weekend concert previews. As some of you may have heard live, Rock 101's Scott Cook interviewed frontman Wolfgang Van Halen on air on his weekday morning drive show Scott Cook In The Morning on March 6th! This is far from a unique occasion, but it's rare when The Sault's Rock Station posts interviews to check out on demand on social media, so kudos to Scott for conducting this and uploading it to Rock 101's Facebook page. The 11+ minute Zoom interview features Scott asking Wolf about how Mammoth's current tour is going, seeing him live out of town with both Mammoth and Van Halen, his family ties (including his uncle in Charlevoix), his uncle Alex Van Halen's current album plans...

...how he handles recording everything on Mammoth albums vs. playing the songs live with a band, their recent Billboard rock chart success, the inspirations of his song lyrics, and what to expect at the concert on Saturday, plus some more casual conversation. Pretty good interview with loose and friendly banter, and Wolfgang came off well here, so this is good hype for the big show in four days' time! Give it a watch below, especially if you missed the live airing of the interview on 101.3 FM!

I did want to note before we move on that promoters Allstar Promotions briefly had a post on Facebook last week indicating that this may be their final major show at The Dreammakers Theatre due to the costs of putting these shows on, coupled with how ticket sales had been going, but when I went back to their Facebook page to source from it, I couldn't find the post. I assume they took it down, but whether they're reassessing what was said (if not just the tone of it), I don't know. Putting on concerts of this scale isn't cheap, and for modern hard rock, Allstar Promotions are by far the biggest facilitator for bringing said bands here, so regardless of if they plan to put on shows beyond Mammoth or not, I do thank Dave & crew for all they have done over the past decade & a half! If you are curious, center section seats for Saturday night's concert are sold out, but there are still left/right section seats available from the sixth-tenth row ($54.50) and in further rows ($44.50) at this link, in person, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. Stay tuned for our full preview in a few days!

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

 

• I have regrettably removed the recently disbanded Double Down from our inactive Sault Ontario band links due to the recent deletion of both of their Facebook pages, which were their only online pages. It's never ideal when bands take down their pages after breaking up, as it pulls any official public content and media there offline for everyone, but alas, what can I do? I can only hope that the classic/hard rock cover band's breakup was more amicable than the sudden nature and social media exodus may indicate, and that we see everyone in new bands in due course!
• If you noticed that defunct Sault Michigan hard rock quintet Double Jack (better known as Exit 808) are listed on Kewadin Casino's entertainment page as playing at The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace on April 3rd & 4th, that is assuredly an old booking from before their early 2024 name change, and not even the first time that the St. Ignace Kewadin listed a "Double Jack" booking there after their breakup, as they previously did so in December too. This is good proof that some venues can and do book bands for lengthy periods in advance, but hopefully Kewadin gets an active band to fill in over the Easter long weekend!
• Local hard rock cover band Unfortunate Sun teased in their new cover photo on their Facebook page that they may be dropping "Sun" from their band name, and while most of the comments were jokey, this would be a way to signal a fresh start following singer Skip Parish's departure from the band earlier this month. Unfortunate (Sun?) haven't made a formal statement otherwise, but their lineup listed there now credits Jody, Brett, and Jason as all providing vocals. Time will tell if they're all indeed splitting those duties going forward or not, but we'll keep you posted!

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for news, features, and previews ahead! Thanks everyone!

The Demon King/Sentiment Dissolve Concert Preview, Plus Convergence Updates!!

Today's post heavily circles around a big metal show tomorrow night that we're previewing to lead off with, and one of the opening bands has a lot going on to talk about afterwards. Here's what you should know!

We'll start with a special Tuesday night concert preview, as three touring death metal bands from three different countries will descend upon Soo Blaster TOMORROW NIGHT! The bands in question are Nashville-based death metal quartet Demon King (not Maynard Hayes frontman Damon King), London progressive death metal quartet Sentiment Dissolve (who headlined at Jay's Piston Broke Pub in May 2025), and Norwegian tech death metal quintet Celestial Scourge. Quite a feast of brutality is incoming for local metalheads tomorrow, so if you just miss original touring death metal, give all three bands a listen to see what you think, and hopefully you can swing coming out on a work/school night! Your local support bands tomorrow are death/thrash metal trio Pillory (who opened last year's Sentiment Dissolve show) and progressive metalcore quartet Convergence, both in their first concert of 2026.

Both should get faces melting early, and we'll have more from Convergence in a second! Promoted by Mikhal Muto's Underground Events SSM, tomorrow's show is an all ages affair at 7:00 PM, and tickets cost $15 in advance through the local openers, at Soo Blaster, or online at this link (the door charge jumps to $25). If you can make it for this one, you'll be in for a crushing night of metal, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Demon King live a few months back!

Next up, here's the latest from the aforementioned Convergence, who surprised fans by releasing the second advance single from their upcoming album on "all streaming platforms" this past Wednesday! Of course, "all" platforms is impossible to guarantee, but it's in the usual places and in a few you may not think of first, including Bandcamp. The song in question is "Gemini", which was once planned to be the title track for their third EP dating back to February 2024, but as you know, the band wiped most of their back catalog as an instrumental duo and have been reworking some of their older material for their next album. Of note, you can still hear their 2022 debut EP "One" on Bandcamp, albeit with new cover artwork, but there's no sign of their follow-up "Dead & Dreaming" there, implying that the songs from that EP will at least partially resurface with vocals ("The Ebb" already did, after all).

The Bandcamp postings for both "The Ebb" and "Gemini" glean some more info on both songs, including full lyrics, the inspiration behind both, and confirming that Swedish musician Adam Roxner is mastering the album. While I always found it odd that "Gemini" was going to be the name of their unfinished third EP, Convergence explained that the name was influenced by how it started production when they were still just a studio metal duo (and that "it also just sounds cool"). To promote the song's release, guitarist Brendan Christie was actually interviewed by 104.3 The Fox midday DJ Zenga McCurdy on Friday, and the band helpfully posted the interview to their YouTube channel over the weekend. Neat to see Zenga promoting and talking to an original local rock band! I don't recall Dan or Mitch doing something similar when they were on the former Q104. What all does Brendan talk about and reveal in this 6 minute interview?

Zenga asks about Convergence's sound and influences, what you can expect from tomorrow's Demon King concert, how to buy tickets, how Sault Ste. Marie locals have taken to Convergence since launching, the album plans, and what to expect from their stage show. Of note, Convergence plan to release two more advance singles "in the next couple of months" before the full album comes out, and he did confirm that the album will have more songs that predate Stephen & David's additions to their lineup. Good stuff that helps sell the band well to Fox listeners, and Zenga came off well when asking questions, so give the whole interview a listen above! A guitar playthrough video featuring 33 seconds of the song was also posted to the band's Facebook page, complete with tabs, but I'll embed the full song here via Convergence's official lyric video on YouTube, also featuring some space imagery behind the lyrics.

Pending our eventual review of the album, I'll hold comment on "Gemini" for now, but everything is very well produced and put together so far, so give the lyric video a watch below, and check out much more from Convergence at the above links (and don't miss their first show of the year tomorrow night!)

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes as this week rolls along! Thanks everyone!

Heavy Lies The Crown Updates From Late February 2026!!

Let's play catch-up with St. Ignace, Michigan deathcore quartet Heavy Lies The Crown on this Sunday afternoon, so what have the guys been up to over the past month+? While we left off with their new bassist reveal on February 16th, we actually skipped over a big teaser from three days prior, namely a new single of theirs named "Rewind" that was being uploaded (via Distrokid) to major streaming platforms. Why they didn't delay the "Notions" release a couple of weeks to include this song, I don't know, but it officially premiered publically on February 20th. The band shared a preview of the song with this 15 second clip of them jamming, and while it is in black & white and not visibly synced with "Rewind", it is notable as the first public video featuring new bassist Bubba Hillz (who still hasn't been acknowledged by name that I have seen). It's high quality video, why not post more of it?

As "Rewind" isn't (yet?) guaranteed to be on an upcoming album or EP, I'll give it a quick review, and it definitely signals H.L.T.C. getting heavier and crunchier with djentier riffs and more death growling, and it's a tight package overall that also really gives the drumming some space to show off (granted, I am not 100% certain on who is drumming here, given that Brandon, Jaxon, and Blaze can all drum). A guitar solo might have broken things up a little, but if you like how their music has been drifting in recent months, you'll wanna check "Rewind" out below or at the usual streaming haunts!

On February 20th, Heavy Lies The Crown revealed that they will take part in the Influence The Crown tour in late April & early May alongside their friends in Detroit alt-metal band Influence, who you may recognize as playing at Brandon's birthday concert in St. Ignace this past August. Arguably the widest scale tour that Heavy have undertaken yet (complete with rare gigs out of state), the roughly clockwise routing will start in the Lower Peninsula with shows in Eaton Township and Taylor on April 24th & 25th, followed by gigs in Lima, Ohio and Bedford Park, Illinois. They end April with two shows in Wisconsin before returning to The Delft Theater in Escanaba on May 1st. This U.P. gig actually won't be the closest stop on this tour for the guys, as the route ends at The Jordan Inn in East Jordan outside of Charlevoix (2 hours south of the Soo) on May 3rd, so keep that close-ish concert in mind if you wanna see the current lineup, at least before August! 

Around that same time, H.L.T.C. launched their official Instagram page, and in an exclusive upload there that is not on Facebook, they posted this video on February 21st of them at a jam space, giving us our most substantial look at the band's current lineup on video yet. Uniquely filmed from a high vantage point above Blaze's drum kit (yes, it's vertical, but it's quite an angle!), the pink lighting is a little strong, but you can't fault them for giving this a distinct angle and viewpoint! If you want a more natural (if still vertical) look at this jam, this Facebook video has a 10 second snippet from that day. I stress that the Instagram video is a "look" because the video is synced to the studio version of their older original song "Friend", and there are points that don't line up with the song. Still, for how this video is shot, don't bypass it, so give it a watch below, and follow them on Instagram above!

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As they have done occasionally in the past, Heavy Lies The Crown tried their hand at a contest of sorts to get named as openers for a big Michigan metal concert asking for submissions, this time the Arankai concert in Grand Rapids on June 5th. Submissions are ongoing, so head to Opnr to join their "Fan-Claim" to get on this bill! Surprisingly, it took this long into an H.L.T.C. post to address a vertical update video from frontman Brandon West, who posted this clip onto their Facebook page on February 27th to talk about the aforementioned "Rewind", so what did he reveal? After noting that it was "kind of a dud, it seems like" (I assume he's referencing its streaming counts so far), he reveals that his daughter Valkyrie helped co-write the song and appears as a backing vocalist on the choruses. I didn't pick up on that when first listening, but it is neat that father and daughter worked on a song together like this!

To close, we have one more new video from the band's Facebook page, this time from their show at The Sanctuary in Hamtramck (outside of Detroit) in November of last year, which was their penultimate gig with drummer/guitarist Kaycee Mason and brief fill-in bassist Rob Vandewiele. Purportedly one of "a lot of clips (that) we just haven't been posting" that was shot by an unidentified member of Influence, the video uniquely sees Brandon sitting beside Kaycee and letting him sing part of this song while drumming, before Brandon heads back to the front of the stage to rock out. Only 55 seconds long, but well shot with some neat looks at the stage and audience, so check this video out for yourselves below!

That's all for now, but we'll pick things back up with Heavy with their activity and touring this month, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS tomorrow! Thanks everyone!