After a slight delay, here's our final "Where Are The New Albums?" post of the year, where we're looking at the newest public updates on the whereabouts of upcoming albums from local metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands! This month has no removed entries, but Chase Wigmore's successfully released "We Are All Going To Die" is obviously removed from his existing write-up. Five of the seven acts below have newly updated information, as noted with the titles in italics. 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: Multiple
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 earlier this year, now titled "The Chaotic
Rite", outlining its concept, recording plans, and long-term release
timeline. Clips of songs from the album have surfaced on his Facebook page, as well as the final artwork, while in promotion for his last release, Chase has hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final eponymous solo album.
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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Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's fourth album
Rumoured Songs: "Lost & Found", "All Broke Down", "No Control"
Background: Local Celtic punk veterans Dustin
Jones & The Rising Tide began recording sessions by October 2018 at Dustin's own Mission Control Studios, as per their Facebook page. In January 2019, the band confirmed that they were indeed recording a fourth studio
album (and first since 2012), which will presumably be
released through Tidal Records, and will also be their first album with second guitarist Liam Seymour & drummer Chris Johns. While "All Broke
Down" was initially cited as the first single in December 2018 (source here), the first two released singles were "Lost & Found" in March 2019 & "No Control" in December 2020. Credits on the above songs' music videos note that Kyle Whittaker at Strange Pumpkin Studios
in St. Catharine's is mixing the album, as he has done for multiple
Tidal/Mission Control releases. Dustin posted a handful of solo songs on Tidal Records' YouTube channel in 2020, but it's not publically known whether or not they'll also be used as new Tide originals.
Current Release Status:
When The
Tide shared a teaser clip for "Lost & Found", they mentioned that
the album was
"coming soon", which doesn't tell us much, especially as the band has
only posted sparingly on Facebook since the end of 2020 (in fact, they're nearing our one year's public inactivity marker). This may be
partially due to
fiddler Sheldon Jaaskelainen's recent out of town commitments, with
Dustin focusing on Jonesy Land, The Cover-Up, and Bookclub since.
Still,
with recording sessions well
along the way, and two music videos now public, it's
likely that Dustin and company aren't early in the process,
but we'll let you know if more comes out on the album!
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Fort Creek's debut EP
Rumoured Songs: "Hammer Down"
Background: Local
southern/hard rock quintet Fort Creek have sporadically teased plans to
record an EP since February 2020, and while the pandemic lockdowns may
have gave them more time to record, they wouldn't release a sample from
the sessions until almost two years later when they shared this snippet of their single "Hammer Down" their Facebook page, later posting this 72 second clip. The guys debuted it at their headlining concert at Soo Blaster in June, and have played it live regularly since, but they have yet to release any full tracks online. It's not clear if new rhythm guitarist Bill Brouillard will be part of the recordings, or if his predecessor Matt Sibilo's tracks will remain on the final product.
Current Release Status:
Fort Creek originally planned to release the EP in "late summer", but their Rotaryfest Stage 1 write-up
says that it will come out in "late 2022". We're there now, and the
band will return from a three month hiatus next weekend, but whether the
break was to work on the EP isn't publically known There are a lot of
unknowns either way,
especially given the 2 years of production time and that this is a band
primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit (though some
members do have experience in name original bands, especially Matt and
Tony). It will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned!
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Handsome Sandwich - "Deconstructed"
Rumoured Songs: "All Or Nothing", "Bitter", "No Entry", "No Idea"
Background: After taking a year+
long hiatus during the pandemic, local "no genre" band Handsome Sandwich reunited last summer with a new
lineup, with Jesse Cook & Johnny Belanger now
joined by singer Taylor Emlaw, guitarist Mitch Sirie, and (as of this summer) bassist Rafael Medina. Via their new Facebook page & YouTube channel,
the band almost instantly began teasing a debut album (after previously
being covers-only from 2017-2020), posting videos of them playing original songs. In June 2021,
Handsome Sandwich revealed that the album had began pre-production, with recording at Unsalted Audio
with producer Dustin Goodall. The band also confirmed in July
that guest saxophonist Josh Norling will appear on their new song "No
Entry". Last month, the band confirmed that the album's name was changed from "Lettuce" to "Deconstructed", and that recording sessions had wrapped, with Jordan Zadorozny set to mix the tracks at Skylark Park in Pembroke
Current Release Status: If you believe Taylor's on-stage remarks at The Soo's Got Talent in October (source here), the album is slated to be released on May 5th, an oddly specific date given the then-7 month time gap. Regardless on if that date will prove to be true, the new look band has definitely hit the ground running since resuming activity last year, and they have gotten a positive reception for the new material so far, so stay tuned for updates from Handsome Sandwich's camp when they have them!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mike Haggith - "All The Best In All You Do"
Rumoured Songs: "I've Seen It Before", "Twist of Fate", "If Only You Could Hear Me"
Background: During his live-streamed Facebook concert
in February, local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike
Haggith revealed that he was working on his newest studio album,
entitled "All The Best In All You Do". Like his other Thompson-era
albums, this will have an overarching concept, this time about the
transition out of depression and being manipulated by others, into a
happier personal life. At the time, Mike was 35% done with the album,
and he has played two new originals planned for it in live-streams and
in his 2022 concerts in both Thompson and the Soo, as well as "If Only
You Could Hear Me", a still-unreleased song from early in his time in Thompson. A single version of "Twist of Fate" was unveiled in July, and live videos of all three songs can be
found on Mike's Facebook page and/or YouTube channel.
Current Release Status:
Given Mike's day job and personal commitments, he hasn't been as active
on social media in recent months, but he is playing live dates and
presumably working on recording the new album where time allows.
It is worth noting that Mike strongly hinted that he's moving out of Thompson in his live-streamed concert from last month, but he has yet to publically elaborate on that or how it may affect the album. Hopefully things are progressing naturally in studio, and we'll keep you posted!
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Mike McCleary - Fallout From Midnight Tides
Rumoured Songs: Unknown
Background: After taking a couple
of years off from public updates on his solo music (and taking down much
of his prior back catalog from streaming services), local hard rock
solo musician Mike McCleary announced on his Facebook page
in January that he was working on new original music. In April, Mike
clarified that this would be an instrumental album (his de-listed albums
all had vocals) inspired by his own curiosity and creative thinking.
Mike has since posted a sampler video featuring the planned album artwork and title,
and he also revealed the album's planned track structure (seven songs, three
being 7+ minutes long), but has kept most specifics close to his vest.
Current Release Status:
Mike was very optimistic about the album's progress, but was
intentionally not putting a public timetable on when it will be
completed, and things were complicated when his hard drive containing
his new music crashed last month (the files still hadn't been recovered
as of the 10th, and no updates have followed). Hopefully he can recover
everything
and that this isn't a huge bump in the road towards his new album, but
we'll keep you posted when we hear more!
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"
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
have 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" last October, finally confirming there that they are 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, but whether that
exact recording will be included on the band's own album is unclear.
Current Release Status: No clue,
which isn't helped by The Uncanny Valley's age and relatively unfamiliar
profile for many readers, not to mention the complications of the
pandemic, but they have played a number of local concerts in the past few months.
That said, they are a
talented group who seemed to be taking the
right steps for the future, and hopefully more updates on The Uncanny
Valley's debut
album follow in some form or another when ready!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series should return on or around January 2nd to kick off 2023 in this series, while our next monthly feature profile will likely be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Saturday. That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
