Wednesday, May 30, 2012

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison), Woods Of Ypres Updates & Reviews, And Much More!!

In what will probably be our last news post of May 2012, we've stacked the deck with plenty of stories, including this week's classic video, plenty of Woods of Ypres news (including a new interview & some new CD reviews), and even more, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month, so here's what you need to know! (And make sure to check out our weekend concert preview post, featuring some recently announced dates, in the post below this one!)

Fresh off of the announcement of Caveman Morrison's late 2010 lineup's reunion this weekend at The Rosie, frontman Tym Morrison has also confirmed his next solo concert dates, which will come on June 15th & 16th at The Service Grill! These come four weeks after his solo acoustic set returned with his new guitar, and like his shows at the Korah Road restaurant last weekend, these will both include two sets of four hours in length on both the Friday & Saturday gigs, so there's plenty of time to catch Tym's entertaining metal & hard rock covers live in two weeks! Both of these shows will likely have no cover charge or age limit (knowing the restaurant setting), and the sets each night should begin at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM with a one hour break at around 7:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! These should make for a solid weekend of unplugged covers from Tym Morrison, so if you're up for lots of great music at one of his favourite venues, keep these shows in mind next month!

Next up, here's a brand new audio interview with Woods of Ypres' guitarist Joel Violette! Though it was posted on May 12th by interviewer Matt Longo on the website Mind Over Metal (who interviewed late frontman David Gold as well for that site last year), the interview actually took place before the David Gold tribute shows in April, and lasts a little over 40 minutes in length, as bookended by "Woods V" tracks. It's much longer than Matt's interview with David, and in it, he and Joel discuss "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", Joel & David's roles on the album, how Joel joined Woods of Ypres, his work in Thrawsunblat, David's changing looks & world views, the band's lyrics, the posthumous praise of "Woods V", the new album's sounds, the circumstances & rumours surrounding David Gold's death (including Joel's belief that the lyrics on some songs weren't foreshadowing suicide), why Earache Records released the free promo album in the way it did, the planned Woods of Ypres European tour this year & the then-upcoming tribute shows, and when exactly did "W5" come out, among other topics! In terms of new Woods of Ypres topics relating to their future, Joel confirmed that there would be no new material (though "Woods VI" would have been summer-themed), and he reiterated that the only possible posthumous release he can see would be a piano-based album of re-recorded material.

This is a great interview that touches on a lot of topic and subjects relating to recent Woods of Ypres history, though the audio quality early in the interview on Joel's end isn't great. I still believe that an album of demos, outtakes, and unreleased material (i.e. the full "Woods 4.5" material) would be great, but who knows what the future holds. Click here or check the above links to hear the full interview, which starts about 1:44 into the audio file, and hopefully we hear some more exciting news from the Woods of Ypres archives in the future!

While we're on the subject, here's even more recent reviews of Woods of Ypres' last recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! Last week, Brian Giffin from the metal webzine Loud gave"W5" a 98% rating, calling it "a stark, disturbing, beautiful album", and highly praising the lyrical content and it's philosophical nature, only criticizing "Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide)" as a weak point. Solid and well written review, so check it out at this location! In another recent review, Pete Woods from the Metal Team U.K. Metal 'Zine gave "Woods V" an positive assessment, and though he noted it's tough to review and you need to be in the right mood and without distraction to fully appreciate it, he called it a "very special album" and noted it's impact and beauty numerous times. Another very nice review with a lot of honesty as to it's feelings and themes, so click here to check it out! Finally, Ellis Woolley from the Danish website RockFreaks.net gave "Woods V" a 7.5/10 in a March review, and while he praised the album for it's unique sound and accessibility as a doom record, he docked points for the production, which he felt smoothed over rougher and heavier parts of the CD. I'll have to go back and hear it to see if he's right, but this is another good & honest review, so check it out at this link, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews next month!

Also, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or venue name:
  • If you're curious to see the demolition of local concert venue/Sault College campus bar The Outback, which took place over the past week, then check out this time lapse webcam video courtesy of local musician Mike Cliffe's YouTube channel! It's sad to see The Outback go, but hopefully the new health & wellness center that replaces it will be a success, and fingers crossed that the college hosts concerts somewhere on campus in the future!
  • I'm probably badly overdue to mention this on here, but I've replaced our link for The Roosevelt Hotel on the site, as it now links to their Facebook page rather than their older Reverbnation page. Small change, but I thought I'd make sure you guys knew about it!
  • Local death metal band Social Suicide (featuring Bring The Misery & Bear Hunters alumni) are reportedly planning to play a "small show" of some type next month, followed by plans to play outdoor gigs this summer (potentially including the Bellevue Park Bandshell.) It's been too long since they launched, and I'm very curious to hear them live, so hopefully this all pans out! My source is their Facebook page.

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With the Roosevelt Hotel metal nights returning after an over two month break tomorrow, it made sense to feature a video from both that series and performers at tomorrow's show, so I focused on Bear Hunters guitarist Josh Stephney, though you can only hear him in this video, oddly enough. As you may remember, he fronted another local death metal band, Bring The Fallen, from 2009-2011, and one of their last concert videos is only now on YouTube, though it's from an angle you don't see much of from local bands. This video is of Bring The Fallen playing their original song "Defiling Despondence" at what I think was the 4th Rosie metal night on January 6th, and it was filmed on what looks like an iPhone camera from below drummer Travis St. Amour's kit, so while you hear the full song, you only really see Travis' left leg, left arm, and some of the drums. I assume the video was originally filmed at this angle to focus on his drumming, but it should have been positioned somewhere else, as it's not placed somewhere with a good view or lighting (though I did brighten the quality after posting this video on YouTube.) Even still, it's a nice later glimpse at Bring The Fallen on stage for it's decent audio quality, from before breakup rumours dominated the spring 2011 news on them!

This video was originally posted onto Facebook by Travis on January 27th of last year, and you can watch the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=1686359892899. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit goes to the ex-members of Bring The Fallen for this video, I'm just trying to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves! Though the angle is odd, it's a solid performance from Bring The Fallen's later months, so check it out below, and go see Josh with his current band TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rosie!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our last post of the month (our review of the Insipid Brutality album) TOMORROW! It will be an auto-post due to some personal plans tomorrow, but keep an eye out for it tomorrow afternoon, and I'll see you guys at The Roosevelt Hotel tomorrow night as well for the latest Rosie metal night relaunch! Thanks everyone!

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