New Sykotyk Rampage & Haggith Material, Plus An Old RedD Monkey Video!!

Happy September, everyone! Hope you guys pumped "Outro: The End of August" by Woods of Ypres to help send off the summer months, and we're running full gear into the fall, so what's in store for today? We have an archive video relating to a prominent local band, and the latest practice audio recordings from another, but first, here's some info on a bunch of new songs and upcoming albums from one of the most creative local hard rock bands!

Some of the latest studio material from the original crash band is now online, as Sykotyk Rampage quietly uploaded two new albums to their Reverbnation page on Friday! Previous indications hinted that the alternative/blues rock quartet had 5 albums in the works, but in fact, they have at least 8 planned for this year, and yesterday's uploads were completely new to me, so what should you know? They're titled "Yamaraja" and "Beat Your Ox With A Bag Of Kittens", and though they were first to be posted, they're considered the band's 42nd & 43rd albums, with 6 more forthcoming. The albums mark the studio debut of current bassist Tony Briglio, and all 8 should be around 12 songs in length. For reference, the remaining albums are called "Adventures of Captain Awesome Sex & Chastity Boy", "Revenge of Professor Perv &  The Crimson Nipple", the three previously unveiled titles "Eye For An Eye", "Wonder About Baby", and "Sykotyk Rampage", and the new reveal "Environ-Mental Suits", with covers for each available at this link. In terms of content, none of the songs on the two revealed albums are familiar from live shows, but "Beat Your Ox..." seems mostly comprised of drinking songs, and "Yamaraja" is almost entirely comprised of one word song titles.

As well, the "Adventures of..." and "Revenge of..." album titles feature stage names for band members (Paul Becker & Tony on the former, Dirk Becker & Shane Kokis on the latter), but could that point towards a heavy focus on songs sang by those specific members? Tony does provide some vocals on at least some of the songs (in fact, all 4 members sing on the track "Bag of Kittens"), but I haven't heard the new albums in full yet to fully know how much singing he adds. I'll note that like their last 7 albums, the newest uploads are not up for sale as a digital album, and are currently only available as a free stream, but if they formally make it to their online store, I'll let you guys know! Sykotyk Rampage's oddly creative original material is back in full force from what I've heard (especially if the album covers are any indication), and I'm definitely curious to hear the new albums in full (for sale or not), so stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and check the above links to hear the new postings!

Next up, here's another "new album" of sorts, courtesy of local grunge quartet Haggith! The second of their live in-studio recording sets to be posted on YouTube (following "In Sesh" from August 7th), this one's called "Swamped", and it was recorded on August 8th at PaperClip Productions before finally being uploaded to their YouTube channel yesterday. Shorter in length with just 5 songs, the tracks include "If You Get Out Alive", "Rage Train", "No Cure For Insanity", "I Am", and "Anthem", none of which were featured during the "In Sesh" recording. On a first listen, "Swamped" (which isn't getting an immediate release to non-YouTube sites) sounds good, and of comparable quality to "In Sesh", but given that each features unique songs from the same lineup during the same timeframe, your enjoyment of "Swamped" may depend on your personal song preferences. Myself, I'd like to see Curtis McKenzie play guitar a bit again, as some songs do sound emptier without a second guitar, but other than that, the guys are on form! Check out "Swamped" below, and follow the above links to head straight to the individual songs, or to hear/watch other uploads!



Finally for today, here's an older YouTube video of local cello punk/hardcore trio RedD Monkey that we couldn't slide into our last all-RedD Monkey showcase coming later this week! This clip comes from the Total Chaos-headlined all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall on November 21st, 2010 that they were among the openers for, and it was filmed by attendee Darcie Piche for what appears to be the official YouTube channel for defunct local punk trio The Fury. However, aside from drummer Joe Bumbacco's then-membership in The Fury, the channel has no other direct connections to that band. The video features RedD Monkey playing "Monkey's Paw (5th Wish of the Swamp Donkey)", and the audio generally holds up (if sounding a bit tinny), but the lighting is way too dark with only flashes of visibility. If you can get past the lighting, you'll find a quality performance of one of their more aggressive tracks, so give it a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!