Thursday, July 19, 2012

Two New Local Metal Bands, New Tym Morrison Material, And More!!

It's time for a new news post at the SMS, including lots of notable updates, but first, just letting you guys know that I don't think there's a Rooosevelt Hotel metal night tonight, despite today being next on the recent bi-weekly schedule. Nothing official has came out about the 48th and next installment of the Thursday metal concert series, so I doubt there's anything imminent, but I've heard rumblings about a show on August 2nd, so stay tuned for updates! Now, today's post features updates to one of our monthly series, new material from a prominent musician, and leading things off, two new local metal bands, so here's what you need to know!

Our first new band is a local progressive hardcore outfit named With Blood Builds Character, and you may recognize their lineup as featuring four members of March Into Regression! This new band features Like Father Like Son frontman/sometimes concert promoter Jeremy Hannah on vocals, guitarists Ray Cowan (ex-State of Misery) and Christopher Neveau, and Social Suicide bassist Tyler St. Amour (no drummer has been announced yet), and they will play their first show under this band name as the last confirmed band at the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem in Laird on August 4th! They'll take the 6:00 PM slot, but they forgot the "With" in their name on the Facebook event page. This all said, what does this new band's formation mean in terms of the status of March Into Regression? M.I.R. drummer Travis St. Amour (who, along with Josh Stephney, is not visibly in this new band) commented on the event page above that the two bands "have no affiliation", and he has been looking on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group this month for singers & guitarists to work with, so it sounds like the four members of W.B.B.C. broke off and started a more formal new band for some reason or another. That said, M.I.R.'s Facebook page hasn't been updated since July 9th, so I can't say for certain if they are completely gone, or what M.I.R.'s next steps are, but I'll keep you posted!

With Blood Builds Character do have promise judging by the Jeremy-sung songs that they did when I saw March Into Regression, and hopefully they can last locally and inject some creative heavy metal into some upcoming concerts! Stay tuned for updates on both With Blood Builds Character and March Into Regression as it all rolls in, as well as the Laird show next month!

Today's other new band to add to the SMS listings is the Sault Michigan metal project Denaturant! Currently, the band only has one member, that being former Hammerspace guitarist Justin Smith, but he's currently on the hunt for additional musicians to complete a full lineup that would "take a specific journey through music." Denaturant was actually launched last July, but Justin has only recently returned to actively updating the band's Facebook & Reverbnation pages towards a proper launch. Plans are for Denaturant to play all original music and to bring back "the raw energy and skill that it deserves", but more musicians are needed to further those goals, so message Justin at this location if you wanna try out! Aside from a video of a brief original sample from last fall, there's no previews yet of Denaturant's sound, but that video has promise, and I liked Justin's work with Hammerspace, so hopefully he can get this new band even further off the ground and bring some more active original metal to Sault Michigan! Check them out at the above links, and both Denaturant and With Blood Builds Character are now in our active band links on the SMS!

Next up, here's some news from local metal musician Tym Morrison! Though best known recently for his solo acoustic cover gigs and his sets with his band Caveman Morrison, long time fans are bound to remember his original music as well, which led to the release of his debut album "Solo Project" in the mid-2000s. Samples of 9 songs for a planned "next album" have been streamable on his official website for some time now, but in recent months, all we've heard from Tym in terms of solo material has been newer compositions, mostly of a softer or comedic nature. However, he's been posting a bunch of new solo original recordings onto his YouTube channel over the last couple of days, including new versions of the planned album tracks "Dungeons & Dragons" & "Lay It On The Line", new takes of his songs "Someday", "The After Life", and the 9/11 tribute song from his website, and two newly posted originals entitled "His Sacrifice" and "Termination of Exystance", so click each link to check them out! Apparently, Tym is working again on his second CD according to recent posts on his personal Facebook page, and if these new songs are any indication of what to expect, I think things are in good hands!

Under the premise that these will be on an album coming out, I'll hold detailed thoughts for a future review, but these songs do cover a wide range of topics and sounds, and if you like heavy metal, most of these will fill that void! I'll share "Dungeons & Dragons" below (featuring some very good singing on Tym's part), but check the above links for more, and stay tuned for updates on Tym's second CD and future original compositions!



And finally for today, here's the rest of the recent updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series posts to make them more current and accurate! On the Algoma University Battle profile, I added a trivia note on Creedon & The Animal Detectives drummer Terrence Gomes' future battle appearance as Changing Waves' bassist at the Battle For The Blood last month, while the Sault College/Scotties Tournament Battle's profile saw updates to reflect first place winners Blackwater's inactive status, third place act Sykotyk Rampage's current album count, and the current solo projects for Blackwater frontman Cody McMillan & Sykotyk Rampage bassist Brian Cattapan. Finally for this batch of updates, the Downtown Showdown profile now refers to third place winners The Tenagens' recent reemergence in the local scene and guest Bring The Fallen bassist Mike Kyle's almost-return to a battle when his current band Shit Liver were listed to play at the Battle For The Blood at one point. Things aren't completely up to date with these profiles though, as these were part of edits I made so long ago that there's stuff I missed (i.e. With Blood Builds Character's formation), so stay tuned in the near future for more updates and fact changes to this and our other monthly feature series at the SMS!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for previews of this weekend's Rotaryfest Second Stage TONIGHT! Thanks everyone!

No comments: