Monday, October 26, 2015

Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: She Screams Of Royalty

Before we complete our split CD review, here's this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands profile, as we continue our monthly look at metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands from outside of the Sault Ste. Marie area that have featured a past or present Saultite in any of their lineups! This month's choice had a founding member that used to live here, that you may recognize from one of our profiles this summer, so read on below for what you should know!
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She Screams Of Royalty (Petoskey/Holland, Michigan)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED, ex-members in italics. This information is be incomplete, especially regarding ex-bassist Jesse Ripper's likely real last name, and the identity of the band's current drummer. Contact us if you can fill in any blanks!)

Troy Lawson (harsh vocals)
Nathan Post (clean vocals/rhythm guitar)
Dan Hiegel (lead guitar)
Cody Davis (bass)  
????? (drums)

Drew Skowten (vocals)
Jesse Brusseau (vocals) 
Brandon Jones (guitar)
Brady Becker (guitar) 
Daniel Harrell (bass)
Dustin Lantz (bass)
Levi Garrett (bass) 
Jesse "Ripper" (bass)
Vincent Navaroli (bass)
Mikhail Swift (drums)
Elijah Beckett (drums) 
Raeann "R.J." Romel (keyboard) 

Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/shescreamsofroyalty
Official Bandcamp page: http://shescreamsofroyalty.bandcamp.com
Official Reverbnation page: http://reverbnation.com/shescreamsofroyalty
Official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/ssorband
Official Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/ssorband
Official MySpace page: http://myspace.com/iaccidentally

Local Info: Original She Screams of Royalty drummer Mikhail Swift may be familiar to some Northern Michigan music fans as the former drummer for the Hillman punk trio NA, who were a familiar sight from 2006-2011, though locals may also know him as a 2012 graduate of Lake Superior State University. He wasn't visibly active in local music when he attended L.S.S.U., and we haven't heard a lot from him lately, but hopefully he keeps his music going in some form!

Band Bio: Originally known as I, Accidentally, post-hardcore band She Screams of Royalty launched in 2009 with NA bandmates Nathan Post & Mikhail Swift in their original lineup, but Nathan is the only member to survive numerous lineup changes since then. Updates from their earliest years are in short supply online, but after Mikhail was replaced by Eli Beckett in 2011, updates picked up on Facebook, where their then-lineup announced plans to record their debut EP "The Dawn" in Ohio that summer, started getting radio airplay on what's now Rock 105, and continued playing a number of high profile concerts in Northern Michigan, plus a road trip to Detroit to open for Mushroomhead in October 2012. Their EP was finally released in March 2013, and after releasing a now-deleted music video in early 2014, updates slowed before going on hiatus in late 2014. Nathan revived S.S.O.R. with a new lineup in March of this year, signing with Imminence Records and beginning plans to release a new album entitled "Lucid Dreams a Relationship".

When reviewing She Screams of Royalty, there are two different bands to look at in many respects: their 2011-2014 incarnation, and their current lineup, which only share Nathan Post between them. For old songs, S.S.O.R. had a hard hitting screamo sound that could have been a little heavier than it was, but Nathan acquitted himself well as a clean singer and guitarist from his NA days, and original harsh vocalist Drew Skowten was a solid compliment! It's hard to say how the new lineup will compare original-wise, but hopefully the new lineup can build on things well! Only a cover of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" is online at the moment of the current lineup, building on earlier covers of pop songs, and while it sounds good so far, Drew's harsh vocals were arguably heavier than Troy's. As for Mikahil's drumming in their early days, this YouTube channel features three early I, Accidentally-era songs that I believe Mikhail played on, and while they lack the polish of "The Dawn", the drumming is on point, and fans should enjoy them as well!

The above links all feature public media of She Screams of Royalty, including their EP (which featured guest musicians), pop covers, and teasers of material to come, so be sure to check them all out! Oddly, live concert videos are not in high supply (all I found a guitar solo clip), but here's S.S.O.R. covering "Bad Blood"!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month, I anticipate that we'll take our November sabbatical again to update past posts in this series, in order to update them and let readers know what they've been up to lately, if anything's changed! Look for that on or around November 26th, and stay tuned for the second half of our "Fed Up!" split CD review tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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