Friday, May 18, 2012

Last Month's Poll Results, Link Updates, And This Week's Classic Video!!

It's the 18th of the month, so it's time to reveal the results from last month's poll at the SMS, but before that, I'm just letting you guys know that we're posting details on next month's poll separately from this post due to the size and content of the discussions relating to it this month, so we have some extra stories at the end of this post. You'll see full info on our new poll(s) later today, but for now, remember that I posed this question to you guys last month: What was your favourite local metal concert of 2011? 32 votes, down from the two half year polls, but still a respectable amount of feedback, and I thank you guys for voting over the past month! So, here are the final results:

The Dayglo Abortions at The Rosie on June 16th (6 votes, 19%)
Garden of Bedlam at The Canadian on December 26th (4 votes, 13%)
Sneaky Pete at The Rockstar Bar on April 8th (4 votes, 13%)
Woods of Ypres at The Roosevelt Hotel on March 10th (4 votes, 13%)
Other (3 votes, 9%)
Helix at The Rockstar Bar on December 3rd (2 votes, 6%)
Skull Fist at The Canadian Nightclub on November 6th (2 votes, 6%)
Napalm Death & Shit Liver at Feedback on October 15th (2 votes, 6%)
Half Past at The Rockstar Bar on October 22nd (1 vote, 3%)
Garden of Bedlam at The Roosevelt Hotel on July 21st (1 vote, 3%)
The Bear Hunters at The Oddfellows Hall on July 20th (1 vote, 3%)
Unleash the Archers at The Roosevelt Hotel on June 4th (1 vote, 3%)
Farewell To Freeway at The Roosevelt Hotel on May 12th (1 vote, 3%)
Sewer Swampstravaganja at The Oddfellows Hall on April 9th (0 votes)
Lion Ride at The Rockstar Bar on April 9th (0 votes)
Dead and Divine at The Oddfellows Hall on April 29th (0 votes)
Fuck the Facts at The Roosevelt Hotel on May 9th (0 votes)
Garden of Bedlam at The Rockstar Bar on June 17th (0 votes)
Smeltzer at The Oddfellows Hall on August 12th (0 votes)
Caveman Morrison at The Rosie on December 9th-10th (0 votes)

What do you guys think? In ascending order, I'm probably most surprised that the Garden of Bedlam's shows in June & July finished so low in the polling, as both of those concerts finished in the top 3 of their respective half-year polls for 2011! However, they still placed high for another show. The rest of the results for the bottom 12 in this poll weren't terribly surprising given the vote dropoff and their prior results in our half-year polls. For the three-way tie for 6th with 2 votes each, I'm especially surprised that neither Skull Fist nor Napalm Death saw a higher vote total, given how big their 2011 shows here were (and their 1-2 finish in the second half-year poll), but Helix finished where I expected. "Other" came in 5th with 3 votes, and though I can't speak for what people had in mind, I wonder if any of those votes were for the Fatality/Immersed show at The Rosie last summer? It scored multiple votes in our second half-year poll, and I regrettably forgot it for the final poll, which I sincerely apologize for! The three-way tie for second place with 4 votes each saw Garden of Bedlam's CD release show and Sneaky Pete's debut finish high like I predicted, but I am surprised that Woods of Ypres' last local show doubled its vote count from the first half-year poll! Increased posthumous praise for the late David Gold, or just a coincidence of who votes? Interesting nonetheless, and it was a great show!

But the winner (like in the first half-year poll), with 6 votes & about 19% of the total, was the Dayglo Abortions-headlined 20th Rosie metal night from last June! Anyone that was there knows how big that show was, and from the talented local openers to the huge and lively crowd, it was proof that The Dayglo Abortions are hardcore punk legends and need to come back to town A.S.A.P.! Hell, I bought a framed print of the poster from this show, so even I know it was a huge event! Thanks to everyone who voted, and cast your votes in our current polls on your left if you wanna, as we're talking all about them in our post later today!

Next up, here's three recent link changes to our "Other Local Metal Links" section (for links with a local metal relevance that aren't in other categories), and all are due to Facebook group/page deletions. One is for the short lived (and possibly never completed) Sault Ontario recording studio Dungeon Studio, which (I think) was ran by ex-Time of Ruin guitarist Mike DiPasquale circa 2008 before he moved to Alberta. Their Facebook group was deleted within the last year, and with no alternate page, I've deleted it from our links, but hopefully we'll hear more from Mike musically at some point! Also, the more recent local recording studio Dimension Studio recently had it's Facebook page deleted, though other pages still exist, including it's website which is now linked here. I hope Brendan hasn't closed up the studio, as his work was pretty good, but I'll keep you posted if I hear anything! Finally, Destroilet/Belmonts drummer Matt Waples' graphic design company Sonigraphix Design Solutions had it's Facebook group deleted recently, but I just replaced it's link with it's still active Facebook page, so keep an eye out for more of Matt's excellent graphic design work! Stay tuned to the SMS for more link updates if we hear of anything that needs a fix!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With their late addition onto Sunday's Brat Attack-headlined punk concert at The Canadian Nightclub, it made sense to tie in this week's video with local death metal quartet The Valentine's Day Massacre... only anything of theirs is too recent yet. However, frontman Steve Rhodes' other band State of Misery have some older videos still that deserve a wider audience, including this video from their first ever live concert! This comes from just the second Roosevelt Hotel metal night on December 9th, 2010, and it's of State of Misery's original (and current) lineup playing their original songs "Don't Break The Silence" and "Bitch"! Note that the former song is included incomplete, so I left the two songs combined into one video. This was filmed by a concert attendee off of the webcam on frontman Steve Rhodes' laptop (according to Facebook comments on the video), and Steve would post it on Facebook two days later, making it one of the oldest live concert videos of State of Misery in action. The band sounds about as heavy as you'd expect, and their skills are clear, but the audio quality isn't. When the band play, the sound gets very scratchy, which I can't correct in post, but I was able to adjust the video quality itself from what was originally posted on Facebook at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=464742236395.

Before uploading, I fixed the mirror effect on the video (I have no idea why it was backwards when uploaded), and I also cropped the dimensions to remove the white support beam on the floor, as it cuts off the far left of the view for most of the video. Hopefully now, it looks better and focuses more on what's essential: State of Misery! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to State of Misery and the original filmer, I'm just trying to share this video with a deserving wider audience! Scratchy audio or not, it's a nice early look at this talented young local band, so give it a look below, and don't miss The Valentine's Day Massacre on Sunday night at The Canadian!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for all of the details on this month's polls later today! Thanks everyone!

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