Last fall, you may remember that I plugged a new local death metal band named End of Existence, later renamed to In Memorandum, who were fronted by current Elipzis drummer Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten, who you'll recognize for his work in Clownsack, Weed, Chord On Bluez, and most notably, Integrated System of Machines. Well, they honestly slipped me by after an inactive period, but they never broke up, and they're still going strong! Now known as End of Existence again, they launched a new MySpace page and website last month (the old one is still online but inactive) with updated bio information and material! They're now listed as being from Grand Rapids, though they were formed and originally based here, so make sure you guys remember that if you question why they're being covered here! The same original lineup remains now, with guitarist Steve "Sven Gilesten" Giles on guitar (also an ex-I.S.O.M. member) and his brother Greg "Grg Gilesten" Giles on drums. You may recognize both of the Giles brothers from some other Grand Rapids-area bands, notably Steve's work in Flesh For The Beast. At present, End of Existence are searching for a bassist and keyboardist, contact the band on MySpace if you're interested!
Reportedly, End of Existence are working on an 8 song EP for release on August 15th entitled "Sun Is Gone", which was the name of their original demo on their old MySpace page. Their website says that they will "post the songs" on that day, so who knows if "Sun Is Gone" will be sold in any fashion. Sounds like some exciting things are coming up for End of Existence, check out all of the above links to get caught up! And last, but not least, they have a video online! The band have launched an official YouTube channel with a promo video featuring samples of their original songs, including "Inside You", "Deathbed", and "Recurring Dreams", along with photos and video footage of the band and other "things". Sounds good, Orb's clean vocals are being used more aggressively than I remember him doing in I.S.O.M., and the instrumentation is good, but it feels a bit empty. Maybe it's cause they need a full lineup yet, but it sounds good! Check out the End of Existence promo video below!
Next up, some bad news from a recently prominent local hard rock band. Blind Baby frontman Tadd Gravelle posted this on his personal Facebook page on Wednesday: "Blind Baby is no more! Goodbye to frustration and headache, and hello to myself a new day has begun!" A later post on his page that day questioned whether one should move on from doing what one loves to do if they're no longer able to do it without anger and frustration. If you ask me, the two posts sure sound linked, but the latter sounds intentionally open-ended. So it's clear that, at the very least, Blind Baby have parted ways with Tadd, but have the band broken up? He said that the band was "no more", but that could just be a general statement about their presence in his life. For what it's worth, neither the band's Reverbnation or Facebook pages have been recently updated. I'll keep you posted with updates on Blind Baby's status if I hear them, and fingers crossed that they're not ending! It's sad to see Tadd leave the band, he wasn't a bad singer, especially when using a heavier vocal style!
Thirdly today, we have some more Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival updates! Kewadin Casino's Facebook page was asking fans for input and suggestions in the aftermath of the Kewadin Festival, including what people liked and didn't like, and if people would want to see the festival return. I'm not sure how much of an impact people's suggestions will have towards Kewadin events going forward, but why not suggest things? Was there elements you REALLY liked or wanted gone? Would you go to a second festival next year? Click here to voice your opinion! Also, photos from some of the meet and greets from the headlining bands and celebrities have been posted on Kewadin Casino's website! There's photos from the meet and greets with Three Doors Down, the Playboy Playmates, Detroit Lions legends Herman Moore & Billy Sims, Henry Winkler (THREE PAGES, no less!) and, most metal of all, Bret Michaels! Odd that there was no Vince Neil meet and greet, but hey, you take what you can get. Click here for all of the meet and greet photos, and here for the Bret Michaels shots! Good quality, he looks happy to be there, as do the large contingent of female fans in the pictures! I'll have more fallout from the festival as I hear it!
And now, we have new demos from young local progressive metal band Analog Deficiency, led by Monkey's Uncle frontman Henry Switzer's son Nathan on guitar! I gotta say, these guys are really improving, and the new demos are more proof! Production's a little iffy, but the new demos really shine! One's amusingly titled "We're Dealing With A Samsquanch Boys", and the riffing is of a high quality and is very catchy! Instrumentation shines all around, these guys know what they're doing! The solo comes later than it really should have, and it does get repetitive, but it's a very promising demo! The other new song, "Lamps Falling From The Sky" takes a more Korn-like sound like their first few (now removed) demos exhibited, but on a bit faster pace. These guys have really grown from when we first heard them, and once they get a singer, they've got a great base to really make some noise on the concert scene! Check out the new demos at this location, and I'll keep you posted with more information on Analog Deficiency!
And to close today's Sault Michigan-centric post, two quick updates that have passed me by. One is that Nixxon Dixxon have launched a page on Eventful in a contest Eventful is running to find individual local openers for Kiss' next North American tour! Nixxon Dixxon entered to try and become openers for Kiss' Detroit show on the tour, but are just in 121st place with a single demand for them to be the openers. Wanna help Nixxon Dixxon out? Head to their Eventful page today to demand them as Kiss' openers in Detroit! Personally, I thought they were sleepers to win the Kiss Battle of the Bands in December, and they definitely have the goods, so help them out! The other quick note is a show I missed. Local progressive metal band Hammerspace defeated Elipzis and Scofflaw (haven't heard from them in a while!) in a battle of the bands at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill on June 26th! Congratulations to Hammerspace, I bet it was an awesome battle! My apologies on missing that battle, concerts at The Corner Pub are VERY hard to find information about online. Their MySpace page doesn't announce new concerts regularly, so I usually have to rely on individual band announcements for details. Hopefully we'll hear more from Hammerspace and the other competing bands real soon! My source for the battle of the bands updates is a MySpace status post from Hammerspace.There, I think we're mostly caught up on Sault Michigan metal news and updates now, but rest assured, more is on the horizon! Stay tuned to the SMS TOMORROW for my newest out-of-town bands profiles on Jar. and Thrawsunblat, and more news and updates are to come after that as well! Thanks everyone, I'll be back real soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment