Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Kraken Mara & Dreamscape

It's now time for our final Defunct Local Band Profiles of 2018, as we continue our monthly spotlights of defunct or inactive metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands from the Soo area with surviving online pages! As randomly selected, we are finally taking a look at a band bumped from our November installment due to the first band then having more information than anticipated, but we have rounded things out for a shared profile this month. These two bands each feature familiar faces from recent metal bands, so here's what you should know in this month's profiles!
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Kraken Mara (also spelled as "KrakenMara")

Genre: Progressive Metal/Djent

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Brendan Christie (Late & Loud, Stillbroke), guitar/programming
Jake Valois (The Palm Trees, Exiled Earth), guitar
Benn Garside (Late & Loud, Lazer Queen), bass

Info/Analysis: Quietly forming in 2015, Late & Loud alums Brendan Christie & Benn Garside publically unveiled this new instrumental studio project the following summer, alongside Wawa music veteran (and Brendan's brother-in-law) Jake Valois. Though Benn left early on, Kraken Mara continued as a duo, and largely focused on recording their unreleased self-titled EP, with sessions heavily teased on their website & social media pages. Updates ceased after October 2017, and the band dissolved by early 2018, with Brendan later moving out of country. Four songs can be heard at this link, and as teased by their liking bands such as Tesseract, Periphery, and Polyphia, Kraken Mara's brand of technical prog-metal was very promising, extra heavy, and well composed, with Brendan & Jake pairing well on guitar, and it's a shame that the EP never came out (let alone the guys never playing live!) Here's their playthrough video for "Stratus" in a very familiar locale!


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Dreamscape

Genre: Funk/Metal/Alternative

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Kris "Funkadelic Fois" Foisy, vocals/guitar/bass
"Metal" Mike Beith, vocals/guitar
"Big" Al Palmer (Sativa Rose), drums

Info/Analysis: Active from circa 2003-2008, surviving information on Dreamscape is in short supply, but the band was visibly led by Kris Foisy, who said he was "just a songwriter who has something to share with those willing to lend an ear." Six songs are posted to their MySpace page, and while their player doesn't load (an unfortunately common occurrence on the site nowadays), the guys did claim to release an album of some kind in 2007. When I critiqued Dreamscape's songs on this site back in 2010, I noted that "Slowly Die" and "Heavy Tune" had good instrumentation and showcased their heavier side well, but most of their other songs were on an experimental funk bent, albeit showing promise in that genre range. I hope MySpace's players work again soon, as Dreamscape had good qualities, but check out Alex Palmer's later work in Sativa Rose in the interim!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profles! Our next installment of this series will also be our first one of 2019, and with a Sault Michigan band next too, but as our next randomly selected band again doesn't have enough surviving information to warrant a solo profile, I have rounded things out with a random Sault Ontario band in a similar state. As such, we'll be looking at late 2000s acoustic death metal duo (and Insipid Brutality side project) Condemned, and the short-lived 2017 Foo Fighters tribute band aptly named The Soo Fighters, so look for those on or around January 10th, and stay tuned for more news and updates soon! Thanks everyone!