New Guitar Playthrough Videos, A Vocal Cover, And More Recent Updates!!

For our presumed final post of March 2021, we're looking at some recent video uploads, two being playthrough performances towards upcoming album releases, and one being a solo cover, while some assorted news items round things out. We'll start with St. Ignace, Michigan progressive metal quintet Heavy Lies The Crown, who uploaded a new guitar playthrough video for their new original song "Choke" on their YouTube channel two weeks ago! Apologies for the delay, it just fell through the cracks. Filmed and edited by vocalist Brandon West, the black & white clip features guitarist Ted Olson playing along to the song, giving us out best glimpse yet of "Choke", if not completely in it's final studio form. I'll hold comment on the song pending the final album release (no word yet on when that will be), but extreme metal fans will want to hear the "Choke" playthrough for themselves below, and watch out for the 8 ball!

Next up, let's head north to Sault Ontario for another guitar playthrough video from a local band working on a studio album, this time courtesy of progressive metal duo Kraken Mara's YouTube channel! Like for their "Vibe Check" playthrough video, this was published well in advance to "premiere" on YouTube yesterday, but unlike then, this solely features guitarist Jake Valois across multiple camera angles (some in motion). The song featured here is "MinMaj" (short for "minor major", I assume?), and if you want some more technical prog metal, you'll want to give this a look below, but stay tuned for more on their upcoming "Press Start" EP when it rolls in!

Also, here's another new solo cover from ex-Sense of Truth/Skeyes of Seven frontman Cory Murchison's YouTube channel on Sunday, though unlike his usual recent uploads, this is just a vocal cover along with the original track, karaoke style, with no guitar. Here, Cory is covering Audioslave's "Like A Stone", though with an odd video filter that ghosts his movements. Nicely sung rendition overall, if a little "rocked up", so to speak, compared to the original, but give Cory's new cover a watch for yourself below!

Finally for today, here's three shorter assorted news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• If you've noticed that local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback have recently been playing live-streamed concert jams on Twitch and are wondering why we don't cover them on the SMS, it's because none have been saved to watch on demand, and they appear to be streamed only the once for live viewers. If they do happen to store any to watch after the fact, we will absolutely discuss them here, but in terms of the live airing... I'm lucky to hear about them while they're in progress, let alone early!
• Prolific local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore announced on his Facebook page on March 19th that he is "almost finished with something that is on an entirely different level of magnitude than my normal work". Does this reference his long-gestating and long-running "A Kid Named Todd" rock opera, or something else entirely? Stay tuned for updates!
• New local hard rock band Dealing Without have added ex-Redundant/Elements bassist James White and former Re:Born singer Robert Nevitt (guitarist Rick Atkins' old Big Mistake bandmate) to their lineup, as per their Facebook page earlier this month. Now, existing singer Jordan Rains does not appear to have left the band, so how will Dealing Without juggle two singers in a genre that normally doesn't require them? We'll keep you posted, but Rob & James should be solid additions!
  

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and features on the site in the month ahead! Thanks everyone!