It's gonna be May, so it is now time for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! While our amount of upcoming albums to spotlight has dropped by one due to the successful release of The BAG's "Sacculus" last month, the other five upcoming albums with publically acknowledged recording sessions are back tonight, and two do have updated info since this post's April installment went live (look for the titles in italics). So, where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!
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Bone Yard 225's debut album
Rumoured Songs: "F.A.F.O.", "Gypsy Spell", "Fuck!", "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" (Mike Posner cover)
Background: After months of teasers
that they were planning to record original music, local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard 225
began releasing their own songs on major streaming services in July
2024, fifteen years after the pre-225 band debuted as a
country cover quartet. Their first three singles (all recorded at their
home studio) were posted online by January 2025, though it took until May for the band to confirm on their Facebook page
that they were indeed working on a proper album. It's not immediately
clear if their existing three singles will be included, but it's not a
given, as Jonesy Land fans saw with "Zoom-Out". As of August 11th, it was reportedly "album tracking time", while this video
from three days later shows bandmates Alex D'Ettore & Warren
Reville recording backing vocals for their cover of Mike Posner's
"I Took A Pill In Ibiza". That will be one of "a couple of covers" for
the album, as confirmed by frontman Greg Simpson during recent concerts.
"Fuck!" was renamed "The F Word" on streaming services in December, but
it's not clear if the less explicit name will stick on the album. The
band was still "in the studio finishing shit" as of December 4th, source here.
Current Release Status: In
that Facebook post from May 30th, your local 225 said that "the album
is coming along nicely", and they hoped to release it "by the end of
2025", but Greg has since adjusted the timeframe to "early 2026" when mentioning it during live shows. While
singer/drummer Greg Simpson did release an EP with his old band
Stiffler's Mom, it's hard to compare the release methods and schedule
given that "The Demo" came out in 2004. It is neat to see that Greg, Alex, and Warren are going all in on a studio album, and stay tuned for updates as they roll in!
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Chase James Wigmore - The Chaotic Rite
Rumoured Songs: "The Cities Alive & It's Angry"
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 more recent promotion, Chase has
hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more
than his prolific original material.
Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.
Current Release Status:
Chase elaborated on Facebook in mid-2024 that the album was 95% done
earlier that year when the files "got trapped on my desktop's hard
drive", and he had been unable to procure a backup of the material or
recover the files as of that post. In any event, three of the full songs
uploaded to Facebook in 2023 were clarified as not being
planned for "The Chaotic Rite", but they could surface on a separate EP.
Fingers crossed that Chase is able to save this album and put it out
when able, especially given the years that he's put into the making of
it!
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Convergence's self titled album
Rumoured Songs: "Gemini",
"The Ebb", "In Bloom", "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon",
"Kraken Mara", "You Are Not Flesh", "Dead & Dreaming", "Dig Up Your
Ghost", "Glass Statues", "Awake"
Background: After previously teasing a third instrumental EP named "Gemini" for much of 2024, local progressive/djent metal group Convergence wiped most most prior media as they retooled as a full
band, now including singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio and drummer David
Peredun. Convergence worked in studio last year with
producer Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio, documenting the sessions in
Facebook "Reels", eventually confirming in concert that the now-full length album (then named "In Bloom") is still in progress, with Adam Roxner mixing the songs in Sweden. A new version of "The Ebb" (from their delisted second EP "Dead And Dreaming") was released to streaming services on Christmas Day, while the song "Gemini"
followed last month. As "Dead And Dreaming" was pulled from streaming, the possibility of Convergence doing full versions of its
other four songs for this album has been hinted at, and other songs from
that EP have been played live with the full band. Now self-titled , you can sample the studio sessions for the album in this video.
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 this album to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their
modern studio cycle commenced in 2023, 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 album
Rumoured Songs: "One For The Road", "Sweet Rosie"
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 (now-deleted) clips of
their original song "Hammer Down" on their Facebook page.
The guys would play it regularly at concerts from 2022-2023, with
studio sessions taking place in early-mid 2023 as well. After the
departure of bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer
Anthony Fabiano in the fall of 2023, Fort
Creek opted
to abandon material recorded with them "as a show of good faith", and
have been working on new material and rebuilding their studio over the
past two years. Now featuring Phil Greco on drums, their first single
(the acoustic "One For The Road")
was posted online in January 2025, with the band confirming plans to now
record a 10 song album at Jettison Studios prior to returning to live
concerts. Their new single "Sweet Rosie" was being recorded as of August 31st, and a teaser of the song was posted to their Facebook page on New Year's Eve.
Current Release Status:
Prior release timelines for their debut EP reflected their early 2020s
lineup's material, and Justin, Shane, Bill, and Phil have largely kept things
somewhat close to the vest prior to putting out "One For The Road".
There are a lot of
unknowns,
especially given the 6+ years of production time and their decision to
basically start over in 2023, and that this is a band
that was primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit
before their rhythm section left. It
will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned for
updates!
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Mike McCleary's new album
Rumoured Songs: "Carousel"
Background: Background: A
talented studio hard rock musician who has released multiple solo
albums in the past (albeit almost entirely delisted from streaming
services as his musical approach and personal life changed), Mike
McCleary announced plans to record an instrumental album in 2023, but
after a year+ public hiatus, he opted to shelve that unfinished album in
2025 in favour of a new album with vocals. He signed with Swedish indie
label Rexius Records,
with plans to put out an 8 song album covering "a variety of topics"
and featuring "some fun, catchy, and energetic rock music for everyone
to enjoy". A teaser video from the sessions was posted onto his Facebook page
on December 6th, and as of February, the
planned first single had been recorded and was in the mixing process. As quietly confirmed last month, that song ("Carousel") will be released to major streaming services on June 5th (source here).
Current Release Status: Your
guess is as good as mine, but as this is is a one-man project likely
aimed at streaming services, this album could pop up at any time, and may be close given that an advance single is being unveiled next month. The
Rexius Records connection is a variable, but Mike is a strong
musician with morals and a lot to say about himself, and hopefully this
album comes out successfully in the near future!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This monthly series is slated to return around June 2nd, while our next monthly feature will likely be our next Defunct Local Band Profile schedule for a week from tomorrow, so stay tuned for that around then, and for more news next week! Thanks everyone!
For this post, I wanted to talk about a radio show that, while not technically airing in the Sault Ste. Marie market, can be picked up in the Soo with the right location and equipment. Last fall, a new 3 hour radio show named Metal Nation premiered on KLT: The Rock Station out of WKLT 97.5 FM in Kalkaska (serving Traverse City), and as you may be aware, KLT has long gotten fringe reception in the Soo via its more easterly repeater stations, formerly including WKLZ 98.9 in Petoskey. In 2020, that affiliate was moved to WBCM 93.5 FM in Boyne City during a station swap when KLT was sold to their current owners, but also joining the KLT network that year was WRGZ 96.7 in Rogers City (serving Alpena). Your mileage may vary, but for me, I have an easier time pulling 96.7 in the Soo, and the presence of KLT there is a big factor as to why it's hard for me to latch any kind of signal for the McMillan/Newberry-based Flash 96.7 (WMJT) in city limits.
The idea of a new dedicated local-ish metal radio show on a regional station seemed worth noting on the SMS, but if you can't pick up 93.5 or 96.7 FM with your radios, KLT's online stream is available on their website, TuneIn, and so forth, and is not geoblocked in Canada. Metal Nation is hosted by Sean "Finster" Finnegan (a.k.a. "The Mayor of Metal"), who has co-hosted the morning drive show Omelette & Finster on KLT since 2006, save for a 2016-2023 spell where he worked on other regional stations. If you're familiar with The Hair Scare on Rock 101, the same basic idea applies, but Metal Nation is devoted to metal of varying subgenres in an identical three hour timeslot. A big distinction with Metal Nation is that the show airs live, and Finster does take on-air requests from listeners, though an online pre-request is recommended for deep cuts or local bands so he can make sure the song is ready.
Compared to The Hair Scare, there's a lot of sponsorship, but hey, you've gotta pay the bills somehow! Select songs are introduced as weekly picks based on theme or timeframe, including the "80's Metal Haircut" (not always a hair metal band though), "Rusty Old Metal" (40+ year old songs), the "Metal Remake of the Week", and the "Request from Hell", where "Satan" calls in! There's also a "Metal Minute" featuring metal news, and a recent change is that a Metallica song leads off each hour. I listened to the show on Friday, and 29 songs were played across the 3 hour runtime, ranging from the "Rusty Old Metal" pick (Motorhead's self-titled song) to four cuts from this year. 17 of the songs came from the 1980s and 1990s, and there were no songs chosen last week that were released between 2011-2020 (not that this is indicative of every playlist; remember, Finster does take requests).
In terms of subgenres, Finster and listeners do lean to classic metal legends (the big four of thrash all got played), but with a surprising amount of modern nu-metal and radio metal. For example, Linkin Park's "In The End" followed Venom's "As Above So Below" to end hour #1, and in hour #3, W.A.S.P. and Pantera sandwiched the new Machine Gun Kelly & Fred Durst song. Metal has many flavours, and requests happen, just be prepared for variance! At least last week, nothing more extreme than Slipknot was played. I did like what I heard for the most part, and being a live show means that unscripted moments and amusing ad-libs can happen. You can tell that regulars and familiar faces do call in, from an 11 year old drummer to the frontman of Elmira hard rock band Driving Dawn (who played here last year), and Finster is a knowledgeable host who clearly is a metal fan and is happy to promote stuff that he enjoys!
