Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas From The Sault Metal Scene!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Consider today's post our big Christmas present to all of you, including some seasonal videos from some local bands, our last Christmas surprise uploads of the season, and our final weekly classic video of 2011, so let's "open the presents" so to speak in today's Christmas post!

Let's start with our final Christmas surprise of the season, and it relates to defunct local hard rock quintet Sense of Truth's unreleased self-titled debut EP! It's already almost 2 years since this talented band hit Stereo Soul Studios to record the material towards their first CD release, but with Sense of Truth's breakup this fall after months of slowed band activity, a formal release for their only EP seems unlikely at best. That said, after such a long wait to hear the EP, I know I'm not alone in saying that fans would like to hear at least some of the material from it, so in that spirit (and as a Christmas surprise), I've posted the tracks I have from the February 2010 recording sessions onto our YouTube channel! Two of the songs I have ("Push & Pull" and "Vicious Cycle") were downloaded from Stereo Soul Studios' website (where you can still stream them), I received "Crawling" in an e-mail from drummer Ryan Haryett earlier this year as an EP preview, and I downloaded a 51 second sample of "Land of Greed" from the band's MySpace page, where it was among three samples from the EP that fans could check out. So I essentially have 3⅓ of the 5 songs planned for the EP, only missing the full copy of "Land of Greed" and the 5th track that band sources never revealed (possibly "Pieces of a Mirror"?)

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED WITH THESE UPLOADS!!! All credit for these songs goes to the former members of Sense of Truth, as they put in all the hard work trying to record and release this EP, I just want to share what I have of the intended CD with a wider audience! The songs I have are very entertaining slices of modern hard rock from one of Sault Ontario's biggest and most promising local bands of the late 2000s, and even if these songs never see a formal release, there's definitely an audience to enjoy this material! Click the song names above to check out each of the Sense of Truth songs I uploaded (I'll add what's missing in the future if I get the tracks), and here's "Push & Pull" from their unreleased self-titled EP!



Also today, here's our final weekly classic video of 2011, purposely early as a Christmas surprise, and conveniently, it's of local metal quartet Garden of Bedlam, who of course will rock The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow night for their "Everything Will Die" CD release show! While most of their videos are on YouTube, some are still floating around on external websites, including this one of the band covering Tool's "46 & 2" at The Other Place (last known as GLOW Nightclub) on April 19th, 2008! One of Garden of Bedlam's earliest shows, they opened for defunct local Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band Sikamikanico at this concert, and though a few videos exist from their 2008 shows at this former Gore Street concert venue, this is easily the best quality of them. The band sound really good here even in their early days, though the audio quality on the filmer's camera has a muddy quality on softer stretches of the song. The video quality isn't bad, but the clarity depends on the lighting, which changes frequently during the performance. Solid stuff all around, and it shows how talented they were and continue to be now as they approach the release of their second CD!

This video was uploaded by bassist Evan Belleau to Garden of Bedlam's Facebook group a month after this show, and you can view the original video at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=20579770931. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!!! All credit for this video goes to Garden of Bedlam and the original filmer for the hard work they put in almost 4 years ago, I'm just sharing this quality early performance with a wider audience for the holidays! Check out Garden of Bedlam's 2008 cover of Tool's "46 & 2" below!



Let's cap off this Christmas post with two very seasonal videos relating to the local scene, starting with this slideshow video from Sault Michigan classical metal trio Theatre of Night! Featuring 3/5ths of End of Existence, this talented outfit has made a definite splash in the local scene in the last year on the heels of their "Christmas Night" album of seasonal orchestral metal instrumentals, and remember that you can buy it for $6.99 on mp3 format or $9.99 on CD through their Reverbnation store! You can also buy it for slightly higher prices on iTunes and Amazon. I highly recommend "Christmas Night" as a seasonal album for fans of local music and heavy metal, and it definitely has a Trans-Siberian Orchestra vibe (if they had three members), though some songs could stand to be heavier or include more drumming. Last month, the band uploaded their cover of "Carol of the Bells" with an accompanying photo slideshow to their YouTube channel, and despite the largely monochrome hues of the used pictures, it does put you in a holiday state of mind. Check it out below, and pick up "Christmas Night" today!



And finally, here's a classic video from 5 years ago of a notable local band giving some love to a TSO/Savatage classic from a holiday season concert of their own. A fitting and hopefully unharmful way to end this Christmas Day post on the SMS, so I wish you all a Merry Christmas, a continued Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy Holidays all around from The Sault Metal Scene! Stay tuned for more news and updates very soon, including (fingers crossed) our next Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Repetitions tomorrow for Boxing Day! Thanks everyone!

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