Another Local Metal Video Showcase!!

Before we get into the meat of today's post, I wanted to apologize for an error in our reporting of Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's show at The Harp last week. The Facebook event page for it said it took place on Thursday, but despite the date never being corrected there, it was indeed on Friday as usual, as confirmed through personal Facebook posts and on SooToday. I did note at the time that the date seemed unusual and I'd correct it if possible, but I didn't hear confirmation until after the fact, so I apologize for the error, and hopefully there was a good turnout on Friday! Now, today's post is an all-video spree, including recent concert footage, a commercial, a new cover, and first, a video from a new band's first show!

New local/London death metal quartet Saints & Serpents played their first concert on Friday the 13th at The Richmond Tavern in London, and the first video from their set is now online! As uploaded to singer Steve Rhodes' YouTube channel on Saturday, this is of the new band playing "Vampiric", which you may recognize as an early 2012 original from Saints & Serpents' more familiar predecessors The Valentine's Day Massacre! Remember, all V.D.M. members except drummer Kyle Umgeher are in this new band, so there are natural similarities. Filmed by a front row attendee, it's great to see Steve, Andrew, and Adam playing together for the first time in 9 months, and the audio quality's very good too! The lighting isn't hot, but it actually helps the mood and drapes the band in shadow. My only issue is it's cut short, missing the last minute+ of the song, but this is a nice sample of this new partly local metal band, so give their first live concert video a look below!



Next up, here's a new commercial for the upcoming Bret Michaels/Firehouse concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on January 18th! Uploaded to the Kewadin YouTube channel on December 5th, this 30 second spot (which might be airing on local TV) features just still photos of the performers, with no video footage, but the presentation is about standard and does it's job! Backing audio of Firehouse's "Don't Treat Me Bad" is sandwiched between snippets of Poison's "Nothin' But A Good Time" and "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" in the ad, but I have to ask, why not use audio of Bret's solo originals, or at least of his solo band playing those songs? Yes, his Poison work is better known, but Poison aren't playing the show, only Bret is. Effective commercial though, so give it a look, and get your tickets A.S.A.P.!



Also today, Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy's newest solo performance clip was uploaded to his YouTube channel on Sunday, and it introduces some different wrinkles to his cover videos! Along with his recent usual trends of singing and playing guitar, he plays bass and includes talkbox effects and keyboard backing work on this cover of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life", but if you're gonna go this far, why not at least have programmed drums to completely fill it out? Well done again though, albeit with somewhat more reserved vocals, but Alex is definitely a talent to watch, so check out his new cover below!



To close today, here's a new video covering this year's Soo Zombie Walk that features some brief clips of the musical entertainment before this annual brain-eating late October rampage! Uploaded to the YouTube channel of Sault College's digital film production wing on Thiursday, it features a bunch of assorted clips both at the starting location of The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center, the end location of The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, and the walk itself, as laid over Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", but local music fans might be curious to see the brief snippets of the bands early on at the museum! Strange Coyotes bassist James Watterworth's solo set is caught in the video for three separate 5 second segments (at 20, 31, and 42 seconds in), though at least for this portion of the night, he wasn't alone, being joined by bandmate Chase Wigmore and Punch/Project 421's Daniel Horton on guest drums (a role he filled as a guest with their old band Project Legion.) I think members of Haggith appear briefly during the brain eating contests, but they're not playing when seen.

Though James & company didn't appear to wear zombie makeup, at least 2 members of Sykotyk Rampage did (those being Shane Kokis and Paul Becker), as you can see in their close up shots at 1:03 and 1:23 of the video during their set! We don't see a lot (or hear a thing) from their sets, and nothing from Haggith or Greg Callaghan's sets was included either, but this is a well put together video, and I like the rotating camera angles used for a lot of it! Check out this Zombie Walk compilation video below, and keep an eye out early for the band clips!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for last month's poll results and our first "Favourite _____ of 2013" poll! What are we touching on this month as we begin our looks back at the past year? We'll soon find out! Thanks everyone!