New Band Pages And The Start Of The SMS March Mayhem's 2nd Round!!

Hey guys, I apologize for not making it to any shows last night, we got caught up in a lot of stuff at home and by the time everything was free, I'd have been very late to any of the bands playing downtown. I'll be at a very long marathon of concerts tonight though, as I'll be seeing the Sewer Swampstravaganja and Lion Ride tonight, and I hope to see you there! Now, to today's post on our current 31 day streak of new posts, and we'll start with some new band pages, and then, it's SMS March Mayhem updating time! Here's what you need to know!

Three local bands have new pages we haven't previously mentioned on here, so here they are! Local hardcore band As It Stands are now on SignMeTo, Roadrunner Records' music discovery site, so click here to check out their page on there! It features a short band bio and all of the studio songs they've unveiled since their return, but little else at present. Give it a look and become a fan! Also, Brimley hard rockers Half A Man have a page on MetalHeadRadio.com which is honestly hard to navigate, but does contain band information, so click here to check it out! Disregard that the URL implies it's just a page for drummer Mikey Bishop, it's an official Half A Man page! And finally, Theatre of Night, the classical metal project from 3/4s of End of Existence, now has a MySpace page as well! Though lacking in band info, it does feature some new photos of keyboardist Craig Harrison, and one song not posted on Reverbnation, entitled "Mary's Epic"! It's a very nice instrumental song, it has that epic orchestral feel that I love hearing in metal, so give it a look at this location, and more at the above links for all three of these bands!

And now, it's time to update our SMS March Mayhem tournament brackets, and as we close down the first round and begin the second round! It's the "Sweet 16" now, as the winners from the past three weeks join the four byed bands in matchups over the next two weeks! Before we get into that, how'd the results shake down for the last 4 first round matchups? Well, here they are!

State of Misery def. Sneaky Pete 29-10
Sykotyk Rampage def. Stillbroke 11-6
That's Chester def. Turner Up 9-4
WinkStinger def. Tym Morrison 18-3

What do you guys think? I am pleased to see such a following for State of Misery in this round, but I chalk up the lopsided results partly due to Sneaky Pete's local unfamiliarity, only having just debuted on stage last night. It'd be closer if they'd been playing longer, but State of Misery pulled out a good win! Same for Stillbroke, kind of. If they hadn't been on a year long break from the stage, I'm sure they'd have gotten more votes, but they'll be back soon! Congratulations to Sykotyk Rampage on their win though, nice to see their support! In the classic rock showdown, That's Chester beat Turner Up in a low scoring but close win, which surprised me given the relative newness of our coverage of That's Chester. Interesting! WinkStinger won a very lopsided win over Tym Morrison, which really surprised me, as I thought fans of Tym's solo work would come out in higher numbers! Still, nice to see some high WinkStinger support! Now, with the first round done, here's the updated March Mayhem bracket!

As you can see, State of Misery will face Shit Liver in the second round, Sykotyk Rampage and That's Chester will face each other, and WinkStinger will face Woods of Ypres in the next round, after their own first round bye. Those matchups (plus Mike Cliffe vs. Sativa Rose) will take place next week, but how about this week? Three of the byed bands will make their debuts along with the first five opening round winners, but before that, I just want to clear up one note about a band that is now broken up, that being Browbeat 101. I won't replace them or delete them from the tournament because they already won their opening match, and it'd be unfair to them to remove them now, whether "dead forever" or not. So here are this week's matchups, the first four of the second round battles!

Can As It Stands make a big splash to begin their tournament against The Bear Hunters in this battle of prominent extreme metal bands? Can Browbeat 101 pull out a posthumous victory, or will Destroilet win another matchup in decisive fashion? In a marquee matchup for the second round, can Frightlight spoil the tournament debut of Garden of Bedlam? And can Lion Ride top Half Past in their first matchup, or could we see an upset? The As It Stands/Bear Hunters & Browbeat/Destroilet winners face each other and the Frightlight/GoB and Half Past/Lion Ride winners face off in two weeks in the quarterfinals, along with the winners of next weekend's second round polls! As always, these matchups are polls on the left hand side of the screen, and to vote, all you have to do is pick a favourite and vote! YOU HAVE ONE WEEK to determine our first quarterfinalists, so VOTE TODAY!

That's all for today, but I will see you guys at The Oddfellows Hall in an hour or so for The Sewer Swampstravaganja, and then at The Rockstar Bar for Lion Ride! Thanks everyone!