Have you guys been wondering where the coverage for this year's Hempfest has been? I was curious as to the lack of news myself, but as it turns out, the second local installment under the marijuana culture festival's current ownership doesn't have a single metal band scheduled. The full lineup has been posted at the festival's Facebook group (and it's brand new official website), and from what I can tell, the full lineup of unique bands is much smaller than last year's as it is. Not counting DJs or non-musical acts, there were 13 different bands & solo artists on the main stage last year in Ophir, including 4 heavier bands, two of which were local. This year, there are just six bands over the four nights of live bands (August 9th-12th), playing a mix of folk, ska, and reggae music for the most part. Only one (The Blackberrys) are 100% verifiably local, but half of the bands this year are returning from last year's Hempfest. Each band this year is playing on at least two nights, and timeslots are being filled with the Willy High Games (which were a part last year's event), a DJ, music over the speakers, and in one case, a band playing twice on the same night. I will note that local punk trio Redundant are the official spare band if any of the scheduled acts drops out, but they're the closest to metal at the moment.I can only assume that the lineup is halved from last year due to monetary concerns (I may be wrong though), and having admittedly heard mixed things from last year's Hempfest, less bands may be an way to help fix some of the issues. It's a shame that metal won't be represented, but hey, at least the bands playing this year fit with the crowd & themes really well! Lineup aside, everything sounds about standard from last year, so click here for all current details on tickets and other festival rules and notes. I know many of you guys will still be all ready to enjoy Hempfest in August no matter what, so check out all of the details at the above links, and here's to another successful year!
Next up, I wanted to let you guys know about a series of Facebook page/group deletions for three local bands, though I'll note that all had alternate pages to replace them with. One is sadly for defunct local hard rock quartet Sneaky Pete's Facebook page, which was deleted in the past month presumably due to their breakup in April. I wish they'd have left it online for their old fans and to archive their history, including their solid year of local concerts, but what can you do? Luckily, their Reverbnation page is still online, so I just replaced the link for it! The other deletions are for a pair of bands featuring local guitarist Dalton Boissineau, those being new local hard rock band Acention and his former local band These Sins of Time. While the latter's page was likely deleted for similar reasons as Sneaky Pete's (T.S.O.T. broke up last year), the reasoning for Acention's Facebook group's deletion is unknown, though members' personal Facebook pages have hinted to jamming and band activity as recently as this weekend. If I hear anything definitive towards Acention's status, I'll have it here, but I've replaced both of the links for these bands with Acention's outdated Facebook page and These Sins of Time's MySpace page! Hopefully that's all for page deletions and bands erasing their online history for a while, because it is a bit disheartening!
Also for this post, here's even more reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! One newly found review comes from Will Cifer at the metal website Global Domination, who gave the album a 7/10, with the consensus that it was "solid shit fo' sure, but still nothing new." He gives a lot of good opinions on the album's conviction and it's fittingness as their final chapter, though he doesn't believe that "W5" will spur an after-death revival. I like his honesty, even if I don't entirely agree, and if you can get past the hit & miss English translation, check it out at this link! Another new review from January was by Neil Pretorius of The Metal Observer, who gave "Woods V" a 9/10, calling it their magnum opus & a very nuanced album, while praising it's dark and prophetic tone. Another good review, so check it out at this location! Finally for now, Brad Sanders from Jukebox:Metal gave this album 5 stars in a recent review, and though he connects much of his feelings to David Gold's passing (even saying it might as well be a suicide note), he called it their "most consistent & best album yet". Short but well written review, so click here to check it out, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews soon!Fourthly, here's some assorted recent shorter news stories, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band or musician name:
- Trail's End guitarist Chris Hubbard uploaded a new video to his YouTube channel last month to show off his new OLP guitar with some custom upgrades. Despite it's newness, he's selling it for $600 or to the best offer, so if you like what you see in the video, give Chris a shout and make a deal!
- Former Havadder bassist Daniel Horton is looking for a bassist & drummer (age range 18-21) for a new alternative/grunge project he's fronting. If you're interested, check out his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from Sunday, or message him on Facebook! I hope this takes off, as Daniel is talented and grunge bands are very scarce locally, so if I hear more, I'll let you guys know!
- Former Lion Ride guitarist Marco Pedalino is looking to join a new local band or jam with some musicians, and he's open to forms of metal. He also posted on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group yesterday, and he seems really eager to get out there in a band again. Marco would be a definite asset to any band locally, so if you're at all interested in his services, message him at this location!
And finally, here's some more updates to some of our monthly feature posts to make them more accurate and up to date! In the Defunct Local Band Profile Series, I've updated the joint SIGHdEFECT/Mugwort profile to note members' newer bands, including Jason Bourcier's work in Giwakwa, Matt Waples' new band The Belmonts, and Mugwort's Bob Helsten's new band Wearwithal. I also added a Giwakwa link for bassist Nolan Rainville on the Bring The Fallen profile, along with restoring a photo there. In the YouTube Channel Profile Series, I edited the profile for Lion Ride's YouTube channel to further emphasize their breakup and add notes on the channel's return to use and the upload of their "I'm So Excited" cover. I edited the Garden of Bedlam YouTube channel profile to remove dated references to their 2011 activity level, while I restored a photo on the profile for Bad Side's YouTube channel. In our profile of Joey Beairl's channel, I edited the reference to Unleashed drummer Jacob Hotland's current band, as they changed their name from Abstract to Tantrum earlier this year. Finally, I edited the profile for Scott Savoie's channel to note his band Swayze Train's breakup, make some date adjustments, and add references to his newest video, a Canada-exclusive Devildriver cover. There's more edits to come, but check the above links for all of the newly updated profiles!That's all for now, but if there's no new posts by Sunday, I'll hopefully see you guys that night for the West of Hell/Tribune show at The Canadian, and the big local band returns beforehand! Thanks everyone!
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