Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Sykotyk Rampage's New Albums, Half Past's New Videos, And Much More!!

Time for some news at the SMS! We have some good stories to share today, including this week's classic video, the final band on a show this week, our first glimpse at a local band's new lineup, and much more, but first, some new albums are now available to stream, so let's begin with that!

Three of Sykotyk Rampage's new albums are now uploaded onto the band's Reverbnation page to stream for free! Their 26th, 28th, and 29th albums "Bucket of Ham", "Space", and "Zombies" are now online to check out, with the 24th, 25th, and 27th albums (the "Genius Mushroom" albums and "Karrs") yet to be uploaded. None of them are currently available to purchase yet, just stream, but we'll of course let you guys know when their store is updated. How does the new crash music sound? I won't divulge too much personally, seeing as I still don't know which one I'm reviewing next, but from what I've heard, their more irreverent material is definitely back, and the songs range from crash fury to amusing experimental songs to ones that are just plain hard to describe. While drummer Paul Becker still sings on most songs, guitarist Dirk Becker gets a lot of lead singing time on these albums, compared to his single appearance on last year's "Bella Disgusta". Also, the "Space" album is similar to "Zombies" in that the title of the album and songs doesn't necessarily mean that there's a consistent concept to be found. It's odd that the albums are out of order, but the rest should be up soon! Check out the 38 new Sykotyk Rampage songs at this location, and stay tuned for details on the rest of the new albums & which one we'll review first!

Next up, did you miss Hempfest and are still curious as to how local hard rockers Half Past sound with new singer Jordan Rains? We can now find out, as a number of videos from this past weekend's debut are now online at the band's Facebook page! I can't embed Facebook videos here, but five videos are up of the band covering Silverchair's instrumental "Madman", Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness", Drowning Pool's "Bodies", Godsmack's "I Stand Alone", and Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name", so click each link above to give the videos a look! Nice quality overall, and the band are playing as well as I expected, but how does Jordan sound? Well, I was right on my hypothesis that he'd have a higher singing voice than Half Past's old singers, and on melodic songs where he can show that off, he shows real promise. He doesn't do as well on songs with harsher singing though, at least not from the videos I've seen. His stage presence is a bit stiff too, but it could be first show jitters. I'd like to see how he does on Half Past's originals or on songs with more melodic singing, cause that could be where he's best suited. Good first look though, I think Jordan will prove to be the right choice! Check out much more from Half Past's new lineup at the above links, including photos!

Now to a concert update concerning THIS THURSDAY'S 29th Roosevelt Hotel metal night! The final opening band has been confirmed, and after a month away from playing locally, Desbarats death metal band For All That Is Lost are coming back to town to open for Vancouver death metal band Abriosis on Thursday! Notably, this will be their first concert in Sault Ste. Marie since guitarist Allen Piche left the band last month (which resulted in their last minute dropout from the Titan's Eve show), and as he hasn't been replaced yet, it will be their first concert here as a quartet. Should be interesting to hear the band with only one guitarist, but either way, their death metal speaks for itself, so don't miss them! They'll of course join local hardcore band Changing Waves as openers. Aside from the lineup news, a Facebook event page and poster have been released for the show, as well as news that the show will have a $5 cover charge. That can be expected for metal nights with out of town headliners, though the amount varies. Either way, $5 for 3 quality bands? It's extremely worth it! Stay tuned for more on this show in our weekend concert previews!

Now, here's some assorted shorter stories from the last little while. As always, these are in alphabetical order by band, venue, or site name:
  • In case you didn't know, The Roosevelt Hotel has a Facebook page featuring photos, events, updates, and news from the Korah Road bar! Become a fan at this location to stay up to date on all events and happenings at The Rosie!
  • I've updated the SMS' YouTube channel to further emphasize our extensive video collection and introduce new playlists that group together full concerts and out of print albums that I've uploaded (or partially uploaded). Click the "Playlists" tab at the link above to see the full albums & concerts we have all in the same spot! Hopefully that proves more convenient!
  • What's the status of Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold's "Korea Metal" documentary? It's on hold until the "Woods V" sessions end, then he'll work on it again in the fall, with a projected release next spring. For more details, including quotes from David on the documentary, click here!

And finally, here is this week's classic video! With Frightlight rocking this year's Art In The Parking Lot event on Church Street, I thought it'd be fitting to tie in this week's video to them, and this time, we're going to Fitswitch, the old punk/metal band featuring 3/5ths of Frightlight in their classic lineup! This video comes from one of the band's scattered reunions following their 2007 breakup, as their classic lineup reunited on March 22nd of last year for guitarist Kevin Powe's stag & doe at The Elks Hall! Featuring Kevin, his future Frightlight bandmates J.D. Pearce & Rick White, bassist Andrew MacDonald, and drummer Larry Mousseau (also a former Frightlight member), Fitswitch jammed out a selection of their classics and some covers at this gig, and attendee Krista Kelly filmed a lot of it, some of which is posted on the old Fitswitch YouTube channel! One video that didn't make the jump to YouTube last year is of Fitswitch covering an early version of Frightlight's "She Screams", which sounds mostly similar to the version we now know and love, though the vocals are more reserved in the choruses. Good first performance either way, though the Elks Hall isn't well lit, so things aren't too bright, despite the good video quality.

The original video was uploaded to Facebook in March of last year by guitarist Rick White, and you can see the original version at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=408246541302. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Krista Kelly and the members of Fitswitch and Frightlight, They did all the hard work! So with that in mind, hopefully you guys enjoy this look at Fitswitch covering Frightlight's "She Screams"!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews, last month's poll results, and this month's poll very soon! Thanks everyone!

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