Sunday, January 29, 2012

As It Stands EP Updates, New Videos, And More!!

Here's some more news and notes for this snowy Sunday morning in the Sault Ste. Marie area! Today, we have the latest news on a prominent local band's upcoming EP, new videos from two Sault Michigan-area metal bands, and some more assorted news from the last little while, so here's what you need to know!

As It Stands' third EP is now in the mixing stages, if you haven't heard yet, and a couple sources are dropping hints about it's progress and future news towards it's release! Brendan Clace at the local recording studio Dimension Studios has been working on the mixing for this EP since December 22nd, which he's said that he's been "stoked" to work on numerous times in the past while. Guitar tracking reportedly started on Boxing Day, and he said most recently on Thursday that he wished you could hear "the awesomeness" coming from his speakers, so click here for his recent updates. Sounds good to me, hopefully all the hype that Brendan's been building up isn't for not! Band sources have been noticeably quieter about the EP, but more cryptic at the same time in recent updates. On Thursday, the band posted a status on their Facebook & Twitter pages simply saying "#feb29th", which happens to be a Wednesday and the last day of February. Does this imply a possible release date for the EP, a new concert, or both? I don't know enough to say, but if they're putting a hashtag before it, that could be encouraging future reposts of it, so take that for what it's worth. Stay tuned for more future updates on As It Stands' next release, including updates to our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post on Thursday!

Next up, here's the latest videos from Eckerman, Michigan metal trio Swampghas, who've posted two new videos onto the Werehold Records YouTube channel on Wednesday. One is just an audio track from their forthcoming album "The Raco Tower Incident", entitled "How Can I Miss You, If You Don't Die?", so click the song title to hear it. J.R. Johnson (we now know his last name) has some solid charging guitar work here, and Jason Mills' aggressive singing fits nicely too on this song! He did tell me a while back though that the Swampghas album is entirely comprised of songs under 3 minutes long, so the short length is by design, but they pack a lot of headbanging goodness into the track, so check it out at the above link! The other new video is their music video for their song "Bog", and it's embedded below to check out! This was posted on YouTube in unfinished versions before that I was requested not to post yet, but the full version with vocals is online (for now at least.) How does it sound/look? It's very dark and grainy, but therein lies an amusing storyline and some solid heavy metal, and it's worth checking out all around, so give Swampghas' video for "Bog" a look below, and stay tuned for more Swampghas updates as they roll in!



Also new for videos from local bands across the river is the latest video from Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet End of Existence! We last heard from them last month when they posted their second "Making Of..." video onto their Youtube channel, but it was since made private for unannounced reasons. In it's place (as uploaded on Thursday) is a shorter "2012 edit" of it that now also features a preview of their new original song "The Elements", which the band describes as "genre-defining". That takes up the first three minutes of the video, and how does it sound? From what I can hear, it sounds solid and in line with the aggression and creativity of their earlier originals, but I'm curious to hear the full track! The remainder of the video consists of about 2/3rds of the first "Making Of... (Part 2)", which features everything from Giles home improvements to rehearsal footage to shots of keyboardist Craig Harrison jet skiing, and for the record, I think the more entertaining footage from the previous version of this video remains intact on the new version. It's worth a look (and listen), so check out End of Existence's new-ish video below!



And finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while. As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:
  • Kincheloe metal band Chained Memories have confirmed their current lineup's instrument positions, with guitarist Sean Roush moving to bass, Ryan Nicklas remaining on guitar, and Mike Rynberg taking on vocals as well as drums. Hopefully this holds well, I'm curious to hear what they've got going musically! Check the above link for more!
  • Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau will be the subject of a Sault Star article in tomorrow's paper! A preview entitled "Singer finds peace in Garden of Bedlam" is now online to check out, which implies that the article will explore Buzz's search for musical bliss and Garden of Bedlam's local success. Watch out for the full article tomorrow!
  • Sault Ontario metal quartet Late & Loud now have their own Twitter page, where they've indicated that they now have new stage lights and no less than 3 smoke machines for future concerts. Good to know, so follow them at the above links for continued band updates on Twitter!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our review of Foothill Road's second EP by Tuesday, along with more news as it comes in! Thanks everyone!

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