Two New Local Metal Albums, Plus Pixo Control & Id Iota Updates!!

We've got a busy post for your Tuesday afternoon, and while it includes the latest from two rising local bands, we're starting with not one, but two new-ish local metal albums that you should check out, with one from each side of the border! Here's what you should know!

Remember how Sault Michigan epic metal quintet Integrated System of Machines released and sold a CD when they reunited for last July's P.O.D.-headlined concert at The Dreammaker's Theater? Well, we can now confirm a lot more on it, and huge kudos go out to frontman Bob Helsten (a.k.a. Orb Hearthstone) for sending me a full copy! The CD in question (their second) was indeed a fully packaged and pressed album, was self-titled and produced, and features their current lineup of Bob alongside guitarists Chris Leask (Highway 63) and Jonathan Bennett, bassist Art Dietz (The Creepy Little Coffee People), and drummer Bart "Black Trab" Rennels. I.S.O.M.'s newest CD features 10 songs, and their set on July 3rd actually presented the vast majority of the track listing in order (as featured in this YouTube video from the concert). In order, the songs include "Screams", "Patterns", "Stays The Same", "I.S.O.M.", "The Writer", "Last Time", "Prison Farm", and "Been There Before" with "Words To Say" and "Underground" closing the album.

The album is half comprised of 5 re-recordings from their 2008 debut "Apocalyptic Vision", with "Patterns", "The Writer", "Prison Farm", "Been There Before", and "Underground" being the new songs. I can't confirm if the album is available via local merchants (if it is, Grooves Music would be an obvious locale), and if true, what it costs, but in any event, it's not digitally available that I've found. Still, it's great to know more on I.S.O.M.'s newest CD, and hopefully we see the guys back on stage later this year!

The other new album is a complete surprise, as defunct(?) local funk metal trio The Strange Coyotes quietly released their second album onto their Bandcamp page on Tuesday! Entitled "Strange Coyotes II", the album is actually the delayed culmination of their plans to release a live album recorded during their set at Sault Band-O-Rama at The Primavera Hall in November 2014 (their last concert to date), and that is basically what we have here, so it's great to have it out, even if 15 months after the fact! Released through PaperClip Productions, the live nature of it (and The Strange Coyotes' own improvised style) means that their set/this album has no songs in common with their 2013 self-titled debut album, but consequently, more familiar songs from their runs and from bassist James Watterworth's own solo repertoire! He is joined by singer/guitarist Chase Wigmore and drummer Mike Haggith here, but apparently, Chase had to bow out halfway through this set due to illness, so Crucify the Whore mainman Tyler Gibson (who played that show with Rotopsy) filled in for the remainder.

As well, there are five short filler tracks that Mike (who appears to have spearheaded this album's delayed release) recorded with former Haggith bandmate Jordan Leach, so keep those in mind as well. Copies of "Strange Coyotes II" can be bought for $5 through PaperClip Productions, and are available on Bandcamp on a "name your price" model, so be sure to check it out above! Now, with that said, will I.S.O.M. or Strange Coyotes be next for a CD review on the site? We can confirm that The Strange Coyotes are next in the coming week, as that's a brand new album (I.S.O.M.'s came out over 7 months ago), and we can tie it in with Mike's show with The Din earlier this month, but an I.S.O.M. review is definitely coming in the near future! Check out both CDs above!

Next up, here's the latest news from local alternative/hard rock trio The Pixo Control, starting with a disappointing note, as their planned show with Aldous at LopLops Lounge this Friday has been cancelled, as per the deletion of it's Facebook event page on Sunday. A reason for the cancellation was not announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened, and remember that Aldous will still be playing there at the Moon King concert on April 21st! However, there is good news, as The Pixo Control have released a teaser video to their YouTube channel featuring 20 seconds of footage for their first ever music video! It's for their song "Scratch" from December's debut CD "Probably Not", and it was filmed at The Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury when they played there last month. Of course, it features the band's current lineup performing, with mixer/masterer Dustin Goodall now the band's bassist.

Filming was done by Sudbury's Here Kitty Kitty Productions, who The Pixo Control had been filming "footage of all sorts" with at the time, and while one can assume this was the "salty surprise" that the band had mentioned, the teased acoustic performance is not available yet. This is labelled as the "1st teaser" in advance of a full release on March 25th, which strongly hints that more teasers of the full "Scratch" music video are coming, so be sure to be on the lookout for them, as this is shaping up well so far! Give the first teaser clip a look below, and stay tuned for more updates!

Lastly for today, here's the latest from local alternative hard rock band Id Iota, who have been relatively quiet since last summer, so what's new from their camp? The band (featuring Free Beer, Pixo Control, and Vertically Impaired alumni) has shared a pair of new updates on their Facebook page to note that "we've been secretly working on some stuff", and again referenced their current recording sessions, though it's not 100% official on if these are for an album or just some new studio songs. The band also shared this Facebook video of the aforementioned Dustin Goodall at the laptop with drummer Blair St. John listening to a track while delivering some percussion (of sorts) to it. Check it out below, and stay tuned for more!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more updates in the coming week and beyond! Thanks everyone!