Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Sewer Swampstravagnaza's Newest Band, Acention Updates, And More!!

We're actually close to clearing out our recent news cache, so much so that I'm low on new stories to report in the coming week as of right now! Even still, there's stuff to talk about, including new "Woods V" reviews, a new video added to one of our monthly feature posts, and the latest from a newer local hard rock band, but first, here's info on the newest band on a major upcoming concert, and what heavier material they play!

A new band has been added to the lineup for the second Sewer Swampstravaganza concert at The Oddfellows Hall on July 13th, and they're a punk/rock quartet named Ashes To Dust! They were quietly added to the lineup in the last few days, making them the 9th band (and counting) for this huge all ages show. Never heard of them? That's alright, I hadn't either before today, but they're a young band comprised of Superior Heights students that formed in December, featuring Noah Morden on vocals, Alex Hemy on guitar, Kyle Breckenridge on bass, and David Peredun on drums, all of whom I haven't heard much on before musically. Now, Ashes To Dust admittedly aren't a full fledged metal or hard rock band judging by the covers posted on their YouTube channel, but they do have a couple heavier covers posted! These include live performances of Three Days Grace's "Break" and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" at Superior Heights gigs (the former's last verse is from a jam session) and a cover of Stone Sour's "Through Glass" (with multiple angles, nice touch!) by half of the band, so click each link to check them out! Other posted videos include covers from bands like Green Day, The Rolling Stones, The Foo Fighters, and My Chemical Romance, so visit the above links to check those (and more) out too.

While not a full-on hard rock band, Ashes To Dust aren't bad for their age, and they know their covers well enough that I've heard! Noah's singing voice is pretty good for clean singing & punk material, but his upper range needs more development (especially on the "Break" choruses), and he missed parts of the lyrics late on "Paranoid". I'm curious to hear how they sound live outside of the school, and hopefully no matter what they play, they'll make lots of new fans in July at The Oddfellows Hall! Check out their cover of Three Days Grace's "Break" below!



Next up, here's the latest updates from the new local hard rock band Acention! The deletion of their Facebook group did not mean anything negative for the band's status, as members have recently been updating their Facebook page with new information and photos. One piece of news is that Acention appear to have parted ways with singer Danielle Wierzbicki and drummer Johnny Amendola, likely around the time their Facebook group was deleted. A reason for their departure has not been announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened, and best of luck to Danielle & Johnny in their next musical steps! Since then, the three surviving Acention members have revised their page to feature some interesting new details about their sound, including a more grunge-heavy style influenced by everyone from Avenged Sevenfold & Papa Roach to Metallica & Nirvana. In some other recent posts, band members have indicated that they had a "rough start" but they are jamming and laying down some songs, and they're hoping to unveil some material and play shows soon. I'm interested to hear more from Acention, and I'm glad they're still alive, so keep posted on their next moves at the above links, and if you're interested in singing or drumming for them, it's worth a contact in case they're looking!

Thirdly today, here's some more "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" reviews from the last little while! In January, Dave Steed from the pop culture website PopDose gave Woods of Ypres' last recorded album a favourable review, calling it "virtually perfect in every way" & "their crowning achievement", while also adding that it's one of the saddest records you'll ever hear, given it's release after & the connections to David Gold's passing. Nice review connecting to their past, with some well used lyric excerpts, so click here to check it out! Also, Jason Guest from the progressive rock site Sea of Tranquility gave "W5" 4½ stars out of 5 in a brief review from March, calling it "damn near as perfect as it gets", while stressing the weighted experience of it and how close and sad the lyrics are given real events. Nice review, if short, so give it a look at this location! Finally, "Cneaz" from the blog Metal Comment gave "Woods V" an 8.5/10 rating in February, and this is maybe due to the hit & miss Romanian translation, but he barely went into any detail on the album beyond David's death in summing up his score. Still, he called it a great album, though monotonous at times, and give his review a look at this link! Stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews in the future!

And finally, I wanted to alert you guys to a major update to one of our YouTube Channel Profiles. Before our next Banned-centric one goes up on Tuesday, I had to edit our YouTube Channel Profile on local electronic hard rock project Candle Hour, as for the first time, a video recommended by us on a profile in this series was deleted from YouTube. That was Candle Hour's music video for their song "March to the End", which was quietly pulled for unknown reasons this year, though it's still available on other websites. As a result, I replaced it with this 2010 video for their song "Overture", which is set to footage from the 1903 silent version of "Alice in Wonderland". Check out my thoughts on the video at this profile linked above, which was also updated to reflect their latest video postings from this spring, but for now, give "Overture" a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes, including a preview of Wednesday's Fuck The Facts show, in the next few days! Thanks everyone!

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