A Band Breakup, Plus The Return Of Metal Morpheus!!

Tonight's SMS post deals in two topics, including a surprise band dissolution that broke this afternoon and a local metal-centric radio show's return to production, so here's what you should know!

Local power rock band Re:Born have surprisingly announced their breakup, as per their Facebook page earlier today. In their statement, the band said that "it is time to move on to other projects", and "there is no bad blood or conflict", but did not elaborate further on why they have disbanded. Effectively the successors to mid-2010s classic metal band Project 421, Re:Born (no relation) launched in January 2018, and while they only played seven live concerts by my count (and only three of those with a full five piece lineup), they definitely made their mark opening for notable bands like The Killer Dwarfs, Anvil, Striker, and Archelon through the end of 2019. The band took a break after that year's Toystock that lasted way longer than anyone expected due to the pandemic, but despite occasional promising teasers and debuting a new lineup in November of last year, they never ended up playing live in the 2020s.

With either Robert or Elly on vocals, I thought Re:Born picked up 421's slack nicely with their hard hitting and melodic originals and covers, but unfortunate timing and lineup turnover helped stall their momentum despite playing some big concerts during their 2 years on the live circuit. Hopefully we hear much more from Elly, Blair, Elijah, Brandan, Robert, Frank, and Fred in due course, and follow A Dire Setback to see what Chris has been up to!

Next up, after a three month hiatus, local metal radio show Metal Morpheus has returned to their airwaves on local internet station The Borderline, so what should you know? Last seen with the revised local metal episode on December 5th followed by a month's worth of reruns, the series seemed to end out of nowhere with no on-air announcement in December or January, host Josh Amendola brought a brand new episode to the online airwaves on Sunday night at 9:00 PM, but I have to heavily preface this one. As you may know by now, I try to focus all SMS coverage on music and the performers of it, and I only get into personal lives, current news events, or politics if they directly link with relevant songs, concerts, or charitable efforts linked to their music career in some way. That said, this episode is not themed after a genre or national metal scene like we tended to see last year.

This episode is heavily themed around the Freedom Convoy trucker protests and Josh's support of that cause, with Josh linking them to metal in that he believes that the genre is about freedom as well, and songs played all come from countries who have had their own convoy. If you heard prior episodes of Metal Morpheus, he did make the occasional statement about his feelings on the pandemic and related restrictions, and this episode does start with a disclaimer that all beliefs expressed are those of the participants and don't reflect those of The Borderline.  I will not be going further into the connecting theme and discussion here, as the protests do not directly reflect on the local metal and punk scenes, but be advised of the content of the episode if you check this episode out, as the protests are mentioned a lot, but he does offer some brief thoughts on the bands themselves also.

The songs played on air are Bolivian metal sextet Alma Eterna's song "Mamita (Homenaje A Kalamarka)" (3:15), Finnish folk/death metal band Amorphis' early song "Of Rich & Poor" (9:05), Mexican metal band Luzbel's song "El Angel De La Lujuria" (14:55), Australian industrial metal band The Berzerker's song "Ignorance" (19:20), Balitimore death metal veterans Misery Index's song "The Killing Gods" (22:15), French power metal band Sortilege's song "Metamorphose" (32:30), Dutch death metal band Pestilence's song "Out Of The Body" (37:35), Czech power/thrash metal band Arakain's song "Schizofrenie" (42:55), and Toronto progressive rock icons Rush's classic single "Freewill" (53:00). For the first time in Metal Morpheus' history, no band featuring a local musician was played in this episode, but Josh did tease that "more variety" and interviews would be coming in future installments, next presumably on Sunday.

No, he didn't explain where the series went for 3 months aside from saying that it was "back from the grave" in the intro. Again, I will not be commenting on the protests here, as The Sault Metal Scene is devoted to local music, and other than this Metal Morpheus episode, there hasn't been any direct crossover to speak of. Musically, he did pick some solid songs to play (though I do prefer newer Amorphis), but I can't objectively comment on the theme, as my personal views & Josh's are not close. Visit the above links to hear the whole episode if you want, but again, be advised of the theme. That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!