Lots Of Woods Of Ypres News And Updates!

It's an all Woods of Ypres post today at The Sault Metal Scene! As it turns out, there's a LOT of stuff that I couldn't just spread out from post to post, so I have to get at least one Woods-centric post in to cover some of this news! So today, we have the latest video footage from their current tour, a lengthy audio interview, some new "Woods IV" reviews, and a big confirmation for thisd Saturday, so let's get this post off the ground!

Metal Injection contributor Atanamar Sunyata (who reviewed "Woods IV" last month) has posted three new videos from Woods of Ypres' concert last week at The Bowery Electric in New York City onto his YouTube channel! These include videos of the band playing their songs "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground", "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & "Halves & Quarters" and "Wet Leather", so click on each link to check them out! The video quality isn't bad, you get a decent angle of the band on each clip, almost suspended over the crowd! The big problem with these is that the audio is muffled, especially on "Wet Leather", with David's vocals almost sounding inaudible. Overall though, the videos are fairly good, I just wish the audio quality matched the video quality! Check the above links for more, and here's Atanamar's video of Woods of Ypres playing "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & "Halves & Quarters"!



Next up is a brand new audio interview with Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold, and this has to be the longest audio interview I've EVER heard for SMS purposes! This was conducted with Hellbound.ca's Jason Wellwood on March 9th, the day before their concert at The Roosevelt Hotel, and it's no less than 38 minutes and 33 seconds long, as broken up into 5 videos on Hellbound's YouTube channel! In my quest to make sure I have informed and accurate information on here, I listened to every inch of this interview, and without giving too much away, here's what to look out for! Part 1 of the interview features David talking about the band's recent press junket, their connections to Sault Ste. Marie, David's general living conditions of recent years, and rough details of their recording and touring plans for 2011, including a rough estimate on when we could expect "Woods V". Part 2 features David discussing Woods of Ypres' signing with Earache Records and his teaching work in Kuwait last fall, along with how both impacted the band then and now. Part 3 was focused solely on "Woods V", it's status in terms of what was recorded last year, what has changed, and what to expect from it when it does come out. Part 4 has David talking about the end of their "do it yourself" mentality, working with Earache Records, what he wants "Woods IV" to mean for them, and the possibility of Earache reissuing the first three Woods of Ypres albums. Finally, Part 5 features some discussions about Woods of Ypres' struggles with their Thunder Bay concerts, the Madden brothers' border travels, and info on some of the contributing artists on "Woods IV". Click the above links for each chunk of the interview!

It's a nice long interview with lots of well spoken answers and statements from David Gold, but a couple things would have been nice to add, like more "Woods IV" background from it's recording sessions, and insight into last year's "fake breakup". As well, each segment of the interview ends abruptly without continuing in the next video from where they left off, so there are missing parts. Overall though, it's a very good interview, if you can listen to it for 38 minutes straight! I'll embed the first part of the interview below, but the above links will direct you to the rest of it if you want to check it out, so give the first part of David's interview a listen!



Now, to some newer reviews of "Woods IV: The Green Album"! Laura Wiebe of Exclaim! Magazine gave a second look to the album after previously discussing it after it's initial release. She praises the album's atmosphere and scope, calling it "utterly satisfying" in this brief review of "W4", which you can read at this location! Dan Marsicano from About.com Heavy Metal praised "The Green Album" as "an emotional roller coaster" that can relate to anyone with relationship issues, though he did note that it runs out of steam late and can be exhausting. Positive review though, click here to check it out! Also, independent reviewer Zach Boucher (a.k.a. Vision & The Voice) posted a video review of "Woods IV" onto his YouTube channel on Wednesday, which you can check out at this location! Zach seems to be reviewing this on the fly, and he gets a couple points wrong here and there, but it's a good review, where he recommends the album to Type O Negative fans & doom and stoner metal fans! Finally, I came across two French reviews of "W4", so I recommend running them through Google Translate to get a rough idea of what is said if you're not fluent in French. A review on Pavilion 666 gave the album a 9/10 , with high points scored for it's emotional content, while a review on Metal France got a 4/5 score, and they described the CD as "a metal rich & varied flora". Good stuff, check the above links for all the new reviews!

And finally, I'd like to officially announce that TOMORROW'S CD review on The Sault Metal Scene will be for Woods of Ypres' 2002 debut EP "Against The Seasons: Cold Winter Songs From The Dead Summer Heat"! With no new local metal or hard rock albums to speak of this month (surprisingly), I decided to dip into the Sault Ontario archives for the first time since our Tym Morrison CD review last June, and fittingly, I wanted to tie in this month's review with a local concert. Woods of Ypres' local return on March 10th fit perfectly, and now, "Woods I" will get a long overdue look on the SMS on Saturday! Is it surprising that this will be our first Woods of Ypres CD review in almost 16 months? Hopefully it won't take that long to get to "Woods V" upon its eventual release! So look out for that at some point on Saturday, it should be a good one! That's all for now, but in case there's no news post later tonight, there will be one Saturday, I guarantee it! That day, we also close down the current March Mayhem polls and launch the next 4, as we continue to find out who's graduating to the second round of this tournament, so stay tuned for that as well! Thanks everyone!