For our first post of December 2021, here's this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, a monthly feature looking at upcoming and at least partially recorded albums from local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists, in order to spotlight their current public progress and give updates as to when they might go on sale! This month's installment is down one album due to the successful release of Mike Haggith's "Bridges" (as reviewed in our last post before today), but two of our remaining five entries have updates, as noted with their titles in italics. Hopefully more are announced soon, but where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!
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Chase James Wigmore's new albums
Rumoured Songs: Unknown
Background: Ever
the prolific artist and songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal
musician Chase Wigmore posted
on his eponymous Facebook page in August 2020 to announce two more distinct acoustic albums and the
long-gestating completion of his 33 part rock opera "A Story
About A Kid Named Todd". In February & March, Chase released three
more free albums to YouTube, including one of those acoustic albums (the black metal-infused "Ruins Of Life"), Awokest's new album "Beyonder", and his classical piano release "The Symphonic Organism".
Most recently, Chase hyped up a progressive metal double album
entitled "Living Divisions", and while he promised a paid digital release for it, the album was also exclusively posted to YouTube, at least initially.
Current Release Status:
Your guess is as good as mine, but remember that Chase is very prolific
and varied in his musical interests, and not every album of his has
seen a formal paid release, either by finishing it's lifespan as a demo,
or by being released online for free. In fact, he hasn't released one of his brand new albums for sale since "One Last Act Of Defiance"
on Bandcamp in December 2019, though note that he posted a
dozen back catalog albums from various projects of his onto his Bandcamp page this summer, so some of his more recent free albums could follow there. Stay tuned for updates from his camp when they roll in!
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The Din - "Technically Live"
Rumoured Songs: "Leamington, Ontario", "75",
"Alleyways & Apartments", "In Search of the Perfect Moment", "Learn To Fly" (Foo Fighters cover), "Out
Of My League", "Remember", The Old Apartment" (Barenaked Ladies cover), "Flux", "Times Like These" (Foo Fighters cover), "Potato
(Should've Known Better)", "With A Little Help From My Friends" (Beatles cover), "The Rose", "A Drive Through The Peninsula",
"Differences"
Background: In a surprise announcement on their Facebook page on August 12th, defunct local hard rock/power pop trio The Din
revealed that they would release two posthumous albums later this year,
including an expanded deluxe edition of their 2016 debut album "Give In
To The Din" (which was released in October) and a live album of that CD's release concert at
The W.W. Baldwin Auditorium at The Tech exactly five years previous to
that date. The source concert
was filmed by Shaw TV for their OnStage series (sans outside covers),
but it's not yet known whether the album will use the Shaw video footage
for the audio or if they recorded from the soundboard too. Frontman Mike Haggith showcased a CD copy of "Technically Live" in his Facebook live-streamed concert from last month, which confirmed that the setlist will include four cover songs not aired by Shaw, but not his prior solo song "Of Cars & Criminals", despite also being played that night.
Current Release Status:
In said live-stream, Mike and drummer Brandan Glew agreed on December 26th (Boxing Day) as the tentative release date, but given that Mike has physical copies ready to show off on camera, that is a good omen for that date holding! In any
event, it's great to see The Din still have some life despite having
broken up in 2017 (let alone the pandemic), and look for it's post-Christmas release!
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Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's fourth album
Rumoured Songs: "Lost & Found", "All Broke Down", "No Control"
Background: Local Celtic punk veterans Dustin
Jones & The Rising Tide began recording sessions by October 2018 at Dustin's own Mission Control Studios, as per their Facebook page. In January 2019, the band confirmed that they were indeed recording a fourth studio
album (and first since 2012), which will presumably be
released through Tidal Records, and will also be their first album with second guitarist Liam Seymour & drummer Chris Johns. While "All Broke
Down" was initially cited as the first single in December 2018 (source here), the first two released singles were "Lost & Found" in March 2019 & "No Control" in December 2020. Credits on the above songs' music videos note that Kyle Whittaker at Strange Pumpkin Studios
in St. Catharine's is mixing the album, as he has done for multiple
Tidal/Mission Control releases. Dustin has posted a handful of solo songs on Tidal Records' YouTube channel in recent months, but it's not publically known whether or not they'll also be used as new Tide originals.
Current Release Status:
When The
Tide shared a teaser clip for "Lost & Found", they mentioned that
the album was
"coming soon", which doesn't tell us much, especially as the band has only posted one (now broken) update on Facebook in 2021. This may be partially due to
fiddler Sheldon Jaaskelainen's recent out of town commitments, with
3/5ths of The Tide performing as Jonesy Land in recent months. Still,
with recording sessions well
along the way, and two music videos now public, it's
likely that Dustin and company aren't early in the process,
but we'll let you know when more comes out on the album!
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Handsome Sandwich - "Lettuce"
Rumoured Songs: "All or Nothing", "Bitter"
Background: After taking a year+
long hiatus during the pandemic, local "no genre" (but functionally
alternative/hard rock) band Handsome Sandwich reunited this summer with a new
lineup, with returning members Jesse Cook & Johnny Belanger now
joined by singer Taylor Emlaw and bassist Mitch Sirie. Via their brand new Facebook page and YouTube channel,
the band almost instantly began teasing a debut album (after previously
being covers-only in their 2017-2020 run), posting two YouTube videos
of them jamming new original songs planned for it. On June 25th,
Handsome Sandwich revealed that the album will be titled "Lettuce", it
will be recorded at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall (pictured with the band and Bill Priddle), and that pre-production started on June 27th.
Current Release Status:
No clue, especially given that we have no prior Handsome Sandwich
albums to go off of, but the new look band has definitely hit the ground
running since resuming activity this summer! Staying busy and creative
when proper non-socially distanced concerts can't happen isn't a bad
idea either, so stay tuned for updates from Handsome Sandwich's camp!
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The Uncanny Valley's debut album
Rumoured Songs: "The Uncanny Valley", "Glowin'", "Middle Man", “This Love is Psychedelic”, "Stuck In Rotation", “Sweet Like Sugar”
Background: The new classic hard
rock band from 2019 Soo's Got Talent winner Adrian Sullivan, fans will
have seen original material of theirs right from the start, as The
Uncanny Valley debuted their own songs in their first live concert at
The Canadian on New Year's Eve 2019. Live concert & jam session videos
have followed on their Facebook page featuring their own material as well. After posting a teaser audio clip of "Sweet Like Sugar" in September 2020, they posted the full studio version of "Middle Man"
in October, finally confirming there that they are working on their
first album, though no other details have followed suit. The album will
presumably feature new bassist Brendan Bertrand, who replaced
Adam Fahrer in the band earlier this year.
Current Release Status: No clue,
which isn't helped by The Uncanny Valley's age and relatively unfamiliar
profile for many readers, not to mention the complications of the
pandemic and their public hiatus since releasing "Middle Man", though
their new lineup have played live a couple of times in the second half of 2021.
That said, they are a
talented group who seemed to be taking the
right steps for the future, and hopefully more updates on The Uncanny
Valley's debut
album follow when ready!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, and this series should return on or around January 2nd, 2022! Our next monthly feature post will likely be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile one week from tomorrow, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
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