SweetKenny Album Updates, Local Musicians' Short Films, And Much More!!

Let's clear out all remaining backlogged stories for The Sault Metal Scene today, so what's in store? Along with some shorter recent items (including an upcoming EP release), we have some link restorations, a recap of short films by local metal artists that recently recieved their local debut, and first, some big news and updates concerning an upcoming album across the river, so here's what you need to know! (Updated at 7:34 PM)

Dafter, Michigan hard rock solo artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton has announced some larger details concerning his upcoming eighth solo album "Ink!", so what should you know? Scheduled for release on March 31st (three weeks from tomorrow), Ken describes it as "a 'heavy rock' fun album" with a mix of instrumentals and songs with vocals, and it features 10 tracks in total. Unlike his last two vocal-featured albums, there are no credited guest performers, though like his 2013 releases, streaming copies of all 10 songs are now available to check out at this link! Now, as we just reviewed SweetKenny's album "Perception" in November, I will hold our next review of one of his albums until May to maintain our minimum 6 month buffer between repeat reviews of the same artist, but if it comes out on time, "Ink!" will be next for his albums! For reference, we haven't reviewed his presently newest album "Cracks In The Wall" from last fall yet, but I chose "Ink!" because it's heavier on average. Watch out for that in two months, and pick up "Ink!" on CDBaby and other sites upon it's release!

Next up, I wanted to give a mention to a pair of short films that were filmed by local metal musicians, as I attended their debut local screenings last night at Algoma University! One was from Frightlight bassist Mike Gingras (a.k.a. Eddie Fright) and Party Island Productions, and it was "The Kid Who Made The Face", the very same film from last summer's benefit show at The Rosie. It's a mockumentary about the fallout from & search for a kid who made such a horrible face at a Toronto mall 25 years ago that it changed the lives of everyone who saw it, including a character played by Mike's brother Dano Villano (of Howling Bullets fame.) Well made and full of amusing moments, it even featured some Frightlight in-jokes (a character wore a band shirt, and another complimented their stature), though Mike told me that no Frightlight music was included because all of their songs are already about movies. The second movie was "The Last Strand" by AlgomA frontman Boyd Rendell (a.k.a. Darby Wigwaus) & 62nd Chamber Productions, so how was that?

It was basically about a night in the life of two mall janitors, one eccentric & crude, the other serious and ill-tempered, until one hits their "last strand". If the credit date is accurate, the movie was filmed before AlgomA's launch, so there's no direct band references (though bassist Kevin Campbell has a small role as a mall employee.) It was a well made movie too with an interesting contrast of characters, and a nice familiar setting, though the audio sounded distorted for much of it. It was nice to get to see Mike & Boyd's hard work pay off, and look for physical copies of them in the coming months!

Also today, I wanted to let you guys know of a couple more restored MySpace links to our listings on the site, thanks to the website's recent revivals of old photos and videos! That said, I'm glad to return defunct Sault Ontario concert agency Big Voiced Records & former Sault Michigan studio Klusterfunk Productions to our "Other Local Metal Links" sections! That said, I opted not to restore the links for Adamantium Productions, the Bell Border Jam, Hitman Productions, Infamous Productions, idioRECORDS, Lucky Limb Studios, The Mistresses of Metal, or The Satisfied Frog, as they lack videos or relevant detailed photos, so their restoration would depend on MySpace bringing back profile information. Big Voiced Records was local musician Jeremy Hannah's former hardcore concert promotion agency, and their MySpace page is full of concert posters from 2007 & 2008 like this one, while Klusterfunk Productions worked with artists like Clownsack during their mid-2000s heyday. It's great to restore some old content to our links, even if just in two cases, so check the above links for more old/new info, and stay tuned in case there's more!

Finally, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Local death metal standouts The Bear Hunters will indeed play at this year's Sewer Swampstravaganza at The Oddfellows Hall on May 3rd, as confirmed on the Facebook event page yesterday! The fifth confirmed band, their addition (and RedD Monkey's hiatus) will make them the only act to play at all 4 Swampstravaganzas. Great addition as expected, and stay tuned for further lineup updates!
• The now-London based djent metal project Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe has uploaded a handful of short clips and breakdown samples onto their Soundcloud page in the last few weeks! Though unfinished, all have promise and brutality, so even though Matt moved down south, give his very solid new audio previews a look above, along with older material!
• Though a post on the Facebook event page post yesterday by singer J.D. Pearce indicated that local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades would release their debut EP at this Saturday's Anvil show at The Canadian Nightclub, he revealed on our Facebook page tonight that there was a "snag" in production, and they're now aiming for an April release. Disappointing, but look for some new originals from them on Saturday regardless!

That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Thanks everyone!