Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A New Local Band, Plus Some Newly Discovered Videos!!

Hey guys, I have some more news today before we focus on weekend concert previews and our next YouTube Channel Profile tomorrow, so here's what's on tap for today! Mostly, we have a few videos, including an old discovery of a cool cover from a local band, another Hempfest concert video, and leading things off, everything you should know concerning a newly discovered band, so here's what you need to know!

I'm actually fairly surprised I haven't featured this band on here yet, given their output, but this new band is a Sault Ontario metal project named ApocalyptiCDistroyeR! The band has actually been active under slightly altered names since 2008, but with a low profile and some pages indicating they're from London as well, they've passed under our radar. Their lineup features singer Kory Middaugh and (I believe) his cousins Jesse & Brach Middaugh on guitar, with bass and drum positions to be filled (though Ben Woodhouse was listed as their drummer at one point.) I'm not familiar with any of them from other local bands, but it's nice to see such a family-linked band locally! ApocalyptiCDestroyeR launched in 2008 with a Reverbnation page, then gaining their current form and name spelling in 2009, with band pages on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, SoundClick, and more being created. Apparently, the band has worked on at least two demos, a self-titled release in 2008/2009 and "The Devil Doesnt Influence Me, I Influence The Devil" last year, though none appear to have been officially released as an actual "album". There's ambition to be seen here, but as far as I can gather, ApocalyptiCDistroyeR have not played live yet, nor have band pages (YouTube aside) been updated since February.

How does ApocalyptiCDistroyeR sound? Sort of a straightforward metal style, with a good amount of originals in the works, but they need work on song structures. They have a ton of demos and song parts posted on their pages (including 44 individual tracks on SoundClick), and though the guitar work is generally solid throughout, the other instruments need work. The vocals that I've heard usually sound distorted or too low, and the programmed drums are often out of time and sound too artificial (even making cracking sounds sometimes), but Jesse and Brach have definite guitar skill! If they can build around that with some similarly talented musicians and more developed song structures, they could definitely be able to carve a larger name locally! I'll link a video below, but if you check out their YouTube channel linked above, you'll notice that most of the posted videos are of just Jesse Middaugh playing original demos and some covers, but there is a couple of ApocalyptiCDistroyeR audio tracks to "see"! One is for their song "Vlad The Impaler" (sans programmed drums) as synched up to clips from the anime series "Hellsing", and check it out below to hear some of the Middaugh brothers original guitar skill!



We'll close with a couple more videos I recently came across, and first, here's one more video from Half Past's set at Hempfest last month! Like the one we shared on Thursday, this comes from drummer Chris Thompson's YouTube channel, and it's of their cover of Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" that night! Again, this was taken from a previously posted Facebook video and edited afterwards to give it various filters, effects, and colours, though unlike their Silverchair cover, the video doesn't spin. I do like how he framed Alain Fletcher's guitar solo though, nice touch! Good stuff, check it out below, and stay tuned for more Half Past news as it comes in!



And finally, here's a cool metal-relevant video I came across on YouTube the other day. Punk fans in town may be familiar with the local punk supergroup Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, who you often see in recent years at reunion concerts around Christmas time, but have made waves at punk shows since the early 2000s. With Lion Ride's own Mikey Hawdon and Mark Rand in The Taliband, you know some heavier stuff would leak out of their sets occasionally, and in the case of this video from an August 2006 concert at Foggy Notions, they covered The Misfits' "Dig Up Her Bones"! Uploaded onto Mikey's YouTube channel only a couple of days later, I only just saw it now, and it's a good video! The vocals are way too quiet, and the audio quality is slightly scratchy, but it's awesome to see this video! I need to check out Mikey's videos more often, I'm surprised this passed me by for so long! Check out Bin Hawdon & The Taliband getting their horror punk on below, and if I find any more old school heavier covers from Mikey's bands, I'll let you guys know!



That's probably all for today, but stay tuned at midnight sharp for our latest YouTube Channel Profile, as we take a look at Garden of Bedlam's YouTube channel and the videos that lie within! Then, stay tuned likely Thursday afternoon for weekend concert previews! Thanks everyone!

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