Thursday, July 12, 2012

CASS Cafe Metal Video Showcase (Part 3)

It's now time for our third of four CASS Cafe metal video showcases! After two solidly entertaining installments on Friday & Sunday, we've got a few more videos from Central Algoma Secondary School's student concert series to share, including a solo performance and three sets from collections of local musicians (including some familiar faces), so check these out below!

First, we'll head back to Durera guitarist A.J. Biron's YouTube channel for these next videos, which come from CASS Cafe sets circa December 2009, and the first one features three future members of For All That Is Lost (guitarist Brook Moreau, ex-guitarist Allen Piche, and drummer Kameron Nicholson) covering Lamb of God's "Laid To Rest"! For this performance, they were joined by fellow CASS alum Nathan Hache on vocals (I have no idea if he has any other band experience), and though his growling is patchy, he has the right aggression for the cover. The F.A.T.I.L. guys sound pretty good, though the song started a bit rough. Interesting rendition, but imagine how they'd sound now covering "Laid To Rest"? Check out this performance below, and free Randy Blythe!



The other video from A.J.'s channel that we're sharing today features five notable musicians covering Megadeth's "Peace Sells"! The performers here include Allen once again (this time on drums) alongside future F.A.T.I.L. bandmate Tyler Sperry on vocals, Christopher Neveau (now of local death metal band March Into Regression) & A.J. on guitar, and Column Ruins bassist Travis Garside, but unlike the above video, this isn't of the highest musical quality. The video description mentions that the guys only practiced this the day before, and it sounds like it, with a number of flubs & timing issues, plus monotone singing (Tyler should have growled here), but the guitar isn't bad! This definitely does not capture these guys at their best, but there is some good stuff here & there, so if you want to check it out, do so below!



Finally, we have a pair of linked videos that are actually on two YouTube channels, those being the ones for CASS alumni Ben Kemp-Reynolds (of The Lust Boys & various local bands) and Ken Coventry, but there's no difference in the quality between the two. The first of these videos is of Benny Blitz himself joined by drummer Mike Christie (he of the drum solo we shared on Sunday) and bassist Will Hurley (likely a relation to Brent & Ty from Durera) for a joke-inspired "metal riffing extravaganza" named "The Andy Song". The lighting's poor (aside from the strobe effects), the audio's muffled occasionally, and the camera angle is odd, but this May 2008 CASS Cafe performance isn't bad, and there's a great liberal use of galloping guitar riffs throughout, so check out "The Andy Song" below!



The other video from this May 2008 CASS Cafe performance is a Metallica medley by just Ben & Mike (though Will introduced them and helped on vocals & bass briefly at different points.) Here, they played portions of "The Four Horsemen", "Motorbreath", "Fade To Black", and "Orion" (at least), and they seemed to know the different parts well, though it'd have been nice to have had Will on bass for more of the medley. The same camera issues from "The Andy Song" apply here as well, but if you can get past those, you'll find some solid Metallica jamming, so check out this video below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned later today for this weekend's metal/hard rock concert previews, including the Sewer Swampstravaganza's return, andLink much more! And yes, our last CASS Cafe video post is coming soon as well, hopefully over the weekend! Thanks everyone!

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