LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (River Witch), New Videos, And Our Next CD Review!!

Hey there everyone, I have some more local metal news and updates to share on this Tuesday afternoon, including the latest from The Barking Eye, a cool new fan video for a song from a local metal band, the 100% confirmed identity of TOMORROW'S CD review, and kicking things off, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!! So here's what you need to know!

Sault Michigan modern/classic rockers River Witch have announced two more dates in town for this month! We haven't heard much publically from them since last month, but they finally posted a band update onto their Facebook page detailing their next local shows, which will take place on October 29th and 30th at The Bird! Note that the post mentioning these shows says that the shows are on the 20th & 30th, but the 20th is a Wednesday and wouldn't make sense, so I'm under the assumption that they made a simple typo. They also announced two shows for this coming weekend at Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, which is outside of our "local" range for SMS coverage, but make note if you're in the St. Ignace area! Apparently, River Witch were at The Bird for a couple of weekends prior as well (band members' Facebook pages confirmed this), but the band never announced them on their page. Still, my apologies for missing them! Looks like the River Witch shows on the 29th and 30th have a 21+ age limit and a 10:00 PM start time, with no announced cover. For more details, click here!

Remember, River Witch are the band made up of most of the former members of Blind Baby, with Aaron Fasel & Chris Gurnoe in place of Tadd Gravelle & Bill Ogston. I'm told that Blind Baby play covers and possibly originals, but I have yet to hear audio of them in this current form. Check out Blind Baby's old material at this location for a possible glimpse at what to expect, and I'll keep you posted as I hear more from River Witch!

Next up, here's a cool discovery I found on YouTube earlier today! I'm sure some of you will be aware of fan-made music videos for songs, where they make up their own visual accompaniment for a song they like, be it band clips, effects, stock footage, or what have you. Well, I found one from YouTube user TheUnlovedEntity that may pique your interest in a local fashion! Under their "company name", Sanctuary Studios Production, they posted their own fan music video for Woods of Ypres' doom ballad "Allure of the Earth" from 2004's "Pursuit of the Sun/Allure of the Earth", and I have to say, it's not bad! TheUnlovedEntity puts their own spin onto the song by adding a lot of video clips that feature or refer to space, astronauts, moon landings, rocket blasts, and so on. I don't know if I'd agree that it's a good lyrical fit, but musically, it flows mostly pretty well! The videos used are pretty cool and can be affecting, with all having filters and effects placed on them, making everything seem like it's shot through thermal heat sensitive cameras. Possible reference to the sun? It is a major topic in "Allure of the Earth", after all.

This video is well edited and put together, and it's nice to see a local band get a video like this, instead of a photo slideshow or something simple. Good song too, it shows Woods of Ypres' musical versatility well! Check it out below, and click here for more Sanctuary Studios videos from other bands!



Thirdly, here's a long overdue look at the latest SMS-relevant article on The Barking Eye, which is Flat Stanley drummer Glen Thomas' great music blog! After a two plus week break from updates, Glen posted a new article on October 1st which was referred to as "The Barking Eye Flashback Attack!" In this first post of this new series, Glen posted three solo demos from local musicians of the scene's past, including the song "Things You're Missing" by '80s rock band Total Stranger (featuring local singer/guitarist Steve McPhail) and "Candy" by The Frank Rodi Project, a pop rock-sounding band that Glen once drummed for locally. However, this makes the SMS cause the last song he posted is definitely of the metal persuasion! It's from former Driver/Hostage frontman Paul Pozzebon, and it's a solo metal track called "In The City"! Not bad, has sort of a Judas Priest vibe, with great riffing and pretty good singing! Glen had said that Paul seemed to drop out of the music scene completely, I wonder what happened? Good song, check it out below, and more from Glen at The Barking Eye at this location, including the newest demos from his old band Wishbone!



And finally, I just wanted to make two SMS notes for tomorrow. First, our next CD review WILL be of Kiss' "The Hottest Show On Earth: Live In Sault Ste. Marie", as I had previously suggested! No other new local metal albums are out as of today, so I will get to reviewing our live album from August's Kiss concert later this evening! Stay tuned for that tomorrow at some point, possibly as soon as midnight! The other note is that a special SMS banner to hype you guys up for next week's Sevendust show at Kewadin Casino will be posted tomorrow as well, and will remain up for the week leading up to the concert. Should be a great one, hopefully you guys have tickets! Stay tuned for those TOMORROW! That's all for now though, but I should have more news Thursday or Friday, along with weekend concert previews! Thanks everyone!