Woods Of Ypres' Juno Award Win, Plus Other New Local Metal Videos!!

With a major news story last night in the local metal scene, we have to address it A.S.A.P., so that's the main topic of today's post, but hopefully some people caught the late notice Tym Morrison show on Friday night that we couldn't rush into a full post on here, and hopefully he'll be back with new solo gigs soon! Today's post also features some new recent videos, but first, here's last night's huge top story, so here's what you need to know!

Woods of Ypres have won the Juno Award for Best Metal/Hard Music Album!! As covered on SooToday last night, amongst numerous media and metal websites and Twitter accounts, the defunct local blackened doom metal band's last CD "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" posthumously won in the Junos' second-year metal category at last night's private gala dinner (hosted by CBC's Jian Ghomeshi) at The Credit Union Eventplex in Regina, Saskatchewan, winning out over other nominees The Cancer Bats, Castle, The Devin Townsend Project, and Ex Deo. Though video has not yet came out from either the dinner or any pre-/post-gala press events, the award presentation was among the first last night, and the band was represented yesterday by guitarist Joel Violette and late frontman David Gold's family, with David's mother Esther accepting the Juno on their behalf. Among her emotional remarks, she said “I’m speaking to you as a mother with a broken heart”, “Everything that we think, say, feel and do runs parallel with our sorrow", and "He was a beautiful man (and) I miss him dearly” (source here), even getting the crowd to do the devil horns in David's honour!

The win was one of at least two for local musicians at the 2013 Junos, as country singer & Korah graduate Crystal Shawanda won the Aboriginal Album of the Year award last night as well. This is all absolutely huge news for the local metal scene, let alone the music scene, and to me, it's complete vindication of David Gold's work, dedication, talents, and efforts with Woods of Ypres and related ventures since their 2002 launch! It's also proof that more local bands can achieve heights like this, and hopefully this is just added incentive for the current generation of metal acts in the Soo area to keep plugging away and climb to similar heights! It's just a shame David couldn't be in Regina last night with his family and Joel to see the fruits of all of this labour, but I hope somehow, somewhere, he's smiling and showing his happiness and gratitude for this huge honour! That said, I do believe that Woods of Ypres will be acknowledged on air in some form during the live Juno Awards telecast on CTV TONIGHT at 8:00 PM, as the untelevised awards usually are, so keep an eye out just in case there's footage of Esther's acceptance speech!

For now though, click here, here, and here for the best photos I've found of Joel & the Gold family from last night's gala, and if I hear any more substantive fallout (i.e. major news articles, presentation/acceptance speech videos, local media coverage), I'll be sure to let you guys know! Congratulations to David, Joel, and everyone else associated with "Woods V", we're all extremely proud!

We'll close today's post with new videos, starting with a new talent show video from Sault Michigan metal quartet Tantrym Tyme! Uploaded to frontman Jacob Hotlen's YouTube channel last week, this is of the former Abstract playing at the Sault Area Middle School talent show (exact date unknown), and it features them covering Volbeat's "Heaven Nor Hell" and Rise Against's "Make It Stop (September's Children)". Their steady improvement is still very present, and it's cool to see more local bands covering Volbeat, but Jacob's vocals still need some development. His range has improved, but I'm curious to see how the tone of his singing voice sounds when he's a bit older. Solid stuff all around, and hopefully they have a lot more up their sleeves for future gigs and plans! Check out Tantrym Tyme's latest video below, and as a note to the school, good move not having the sound guy behind the band this year!



Finally for today, the full free demo from local/Peterborough hardcore punk project Kidshit has been posted onto YouTube (complete with lyrics) by local punk/metal album uploader Richard Dryfist, so there's another outlet to check out this material! Of course, this is the project featuring Cross Dog mainman/veteran local musician Mark Rᶏnd alongside AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent, and though I can't confirm yet if Cross Dog are similar sounding (or locally based), this is still some quality furious hardcore that calls to mind Mark's earlier Detroit work! Check out the demo's first song "Heroes & Cops" below, and click here for the rest of the material!



That's likely all for today, but stay tuned for more news this week, including this month's YouTube Channel Profiles TOMORROW and our preview of the Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands Finals on Tuesday! Thanks everyone!