Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal band End of Existence have announced the addition of bassist Bryan Kindel (second from the right) to the band, adding the last piece of the puzzle for their now-full lineup! I'm not familiar with Bryan's past music work at all (I don't think he was in any bands with the other EOE members before), but I know they've been searching far and wide for the right bassist, and hopefully Bryan works well! With that said, End of Existence have posted their first song featuring both Bryan and keyboardist Craig Harrison onto their various internet pages, entitled "In The Distance"! It's nice to hear an overall fuller sound, and both Craig and Bryan contribute well, though I'll be curious to see how they're integrated into older songs. Fans of Bob Helsten's growling may be disappointed, as he sings clean the whole way through, but the song has a nice pacing, a heavy sound, and some solid guitar (and i-Pad?!) work from Steve Giles! Definitely has more of an epic feel than some earlier EOE songs, which isn't bad, though if you want death metal, you'll likely prefer other songs. Check out their Reverbnation page and related pages to hear this song (and more), but you can also check out "In The Distance" straight from End of Existence's YouTube channel below!
Next up, you know how Shaw TV (channel 10 for Shaw Cable subscribers) has been featuring a few local music-related interviews on their rotation in recent months? Well, did you know that the local Shaw TV station has a website where you can watch the past week's videos and check out programming and correspondent information! They do, and you can check it out at this location! Commercials are running for the local affiliate's site, but this is only a recent discovery for me. The site features 8 interview & news pieces that aired on half hour rotation in the previous week, and the videos change weekly. The site also features info on how you can contribute to Shaw TV, but why bring it up here? Because the Dismembertainment interview that aired last week is now there to stream! I don't know when it leaves the site, but it will only leave when the full week runs out and the next week's video cycle comes up. So if you missed it on Shaw TV, check the above links to watch it, and when it disappears from there, who knows, I may have a new YouTube upload for you guys! Stay tuned!
Thirdly today, here's an interesting note concerning a local photographer's entry in a major contest from a major hard rock band! Grunge legends Soundgarden have been running a photography contest to find 17 talented photographers to professionally capture one of their 17 shows on their current North American tour (their first since reuniting), and one of the winners was actually local photographer Chris Cartwright! For this contest, Chris submitted a photo from a Police concert he attended, and eventually got enough votes (most overall, no less) to be picked by Soundgarden as one of the 17 winners! He chose the band's concert on July 3rd at The John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario to shoot (complete with a guest photo pass), and a few photos from the show can be seen on Local2's article about Chris' Soundgarden contest experience! (Remember, Local2 is the successor to the now-defunct SooNews.ca.) The rest of his photos are also online via his personal Facebook page, though they're all watermarked. Awesome work, I'd love to see Chris keep this concert photography work up, especially given this highlight of his career, and hopefully he'll be up there with Donna Hopper, Brian Tremblay, & Curt O'Neil before you know it! Congratulations again to Chris!
And finally, here is this week's classic video! With Rotaryfest approaching fast, it made perfect sense to tie in this week's video with a band or performer at this year's event, and I went outside the box a bit this time. The opening band on this year's Tenaris Second Stage on Friday will be local rock quartet Wishbone, who aren't metal, but are the heaviest Second Stage band this year in my opinion. You may recognize guitarist Tony Kajnar & drummer Glen Thomas as mainstays in the local progressive rock band Flat Stanley, who are also very talented, and they have been known to occasionally cover hard rock songs live! We featured their cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" on here before, but this video comes from a November 2007 concert at Docks Riverfront Grill where the band covered Wolfmother's "Joker & The Thief"! Featuring their classic lineup (including bassist Mark Brandow & then-frontman Jim O'Leary), the band sound pretty good here, though the video isn't high quality. The audio works well though, and Jim's range is evident as he hits higher notes in the verses! Very nice performance overall, proof that us "Flat Heads" can get some hard rocking here and there when Flat Stanley play live!The original video was uploaded by Glen Thomas onto his personal Facebook page not long after this concert, and the original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=14109780474. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! Glen hadn't brought this video to his own YouTube channel yet, and I thought a solid performance like this deserves a wider audience, so I obviously mean no harm! Hopefully you guys like this video, and stay tuned for another video from the past next week!
That's all for today, but we have lots more news to get to very soon (including hopefully news on this week's Rosie metal night), plus weekend concert previews and much more! Stay tuned!
Thanks for the post of Flat Stanley Rob. Sorry I didn't see it when you originally posted it. ;-)
ReplyDeleteGlen "the Freq"