Another Local Metal Video Showcase, Including A New Album Release!!

After our first off day of November, we're back with news on this Thursday morning, and yes, weekend concert previews are coming tomorrow! For now though, we've got another local metal video showcase, and today, that includes this week's classic video, a new guitar cover, and a new original song, but first, we'll start with another local metal album release, so here's what you need to know!

Keeping with a surprisingly busy two months for album releases, we have another imminent one to note, and it's of local grunge band Haggith's second album "Apocalypse"! Previously forecasted to be their third album after 2013's planned "Deuce", drummer Mike Haggith confirmed on our Facebook page yesterday that it's already completed & available to stream online via the band's YouTube channel! Copies of it will be on sale at their concert at The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center next weekend, which is awesome news (though an mp3 download copy through Bandcamp or any other sites has yet to be posted.) Expected to be their first installment of a planned concept album series, the zombie-themed "Apocalypse" runs 44 minutes long in total with 14 songs (some of which we've heard live), and they were generally composed by Mike and/or guitarist Daniel Horton, with Mike producing & mixing the album at Paperclip Productions, and singing on more songs. The same lineup from "Dragon Joy Ride" is present here, though new bassist Caleb Cachagee features on one song & guest backing singer Taylor Emlaw features on another.

It's great to see Haggith continuing their quickly prolific pace, even if this took us off guard slightly! I have yet to hear the studio tracks yet, but the songs from "Apocalypse" at the Soo Zombie Walk afterparty were encouraging, and hopefully this lives up to the hype! That said, I'll hold another Haggith review until next year to avoid biases (I tentatively have April 2013 lined up for our next Haggith CD review), but definitely stream it below and at the above links, and if you like what you hear, buy it officially one week from Friday at their next show, and hopefully online soon!



Next up, AlterWhite's Mike Matthews has posted another solo metal track onto the band's YouTube channel! Like his "Connected By Life" tracks from September, this is part of what he's calling his "second album" with a planned release next year (note however that "Connected By Life" was never released for sale as an album.) This song is entitled "Save It", which honestly almost borders on a rap metal sound combined with his Metallica-influenced earlier material, but it has welcome aggression, if being a bit repetitive. Solid enough though, so give Mike's new solo track a listen below!



Also new for videos is this cover of Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" by Ashes to Dust guitarist Alex Hemy! A bit light compared to Alex's usual cover repertoire, he uploaded this to his YouTube channel on Tuesday. His playing here is good, and he blends in pretty well with the original backing track, so if you like Bryan Adams or Alex's videos, give this newest cover a look, and stay tuned for more of Alex's guitar covers!



And finally, here's this week's classic video! With Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie playing his first gigs with his newest band The Suicide Kings THIS WEEKEND at The Nicolet Tavern, I thought it'd be fitting to tie this week's video in with one of his older bands, that being inactive local metal quartet Borderline Divine! As you may remember, Mitch played with them for the past 2 years (joining the former Stillbroke on bass in 2010), but their last major activity came in early-mid 2012 following their name change & Mitch's switch to guitar last year. A couple months before their first show as Borderline Divine, a couple of videos were posted on Facebook from a March jam session of two new originals (one being "Ride Of Your Life"), but this week, we'll start with their song "Lie To Me"! The band's final lineup is present here, including singer Jesse Frigault, Mitch on guitar, Skull After Betrayl's Justin Polutanovich on bass, and Sam DeDominicis on drums. Despite poor & dark video quality, this is a quality metal track that showed Borderline Divine's heavier evolution from Stillbroke's sound, and a lot of promise is here that I'd like to see resumed if Jesse ever moved back to the area!

Jesse originally uploaded this to Facebook on March 10th at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150578344527805 and NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Borderline Divine, I'm just trying to share it with a deserving wider audience! It's a nice short metal song with clear talent and nicely developed metal singing, and it's just a shame that the Borderline Divine era didn't last longer! Check out their song "Lie To Me" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and possibly more tomorrow! Thanks everyone!