A New Album Release, Spades GT's Facebook Relaunch, And New Videos!!

Before a busy concert weekend gets underway, let's tackle some big recent news stories on the SMS today, including a new music video, a solo performance clip, and a band's return to Facebook to go with their relaunch out of town, but first, here's a surprise album release to take note of!

The original crash band are back, as Sykotyk Rampage quietly released a new studio album to their Reverbnation page yesterday! After a four year public hiatus, the blue Chinese metal crash punk veterans have given us "Hell Bent Heaven Sent", their 62nd canon studio album, which features eleven songs and quite the distinct cover artwork!  While Sykotyk Rampage have been publically inactive since the release of 2018's "Live At The Paris Hilton", the masters of the crash never officially broke up, and guitarist/vocalist Dirk Becker (an old friend of my mom's) would occasionally tell me that Sykotyk Rampage were still jamming and planned to record new music. Aside from some re-uploads of back catalog albums, nothing followed until now, but it's great to see the guys back at long last, even if only in studio! They have not played a truly public concert since 2016.

"Hell Bent Heaven Sent" is on sale in mp3 format for $9.99 ($1.50 for individual songs), so if you've craved more eclectic original music recorded in their own improvised and very sykotyk way, click here or above! Yes, this album is eligible for a review on the SMS, but we're in a very busy stretch for our monthly review series, so for placing this in chronological release order, it's behind The Din, Vanity First, and Chase Wigmore (more on him in a bit). It's looking like Sykotyk Rampage's new album will get its SMS review in July, but we will see how things go, and it's great to see the Beckers, Shane, and Tony back at it! See above for much more!

Next up, local/Barrie punk/metal quartet Spades GT have indeed launched a new Facebook page, giving us our first public media of their new lineup in the process! At some point in the past month or so, the former Jack Spades quietly took down their original Facebook page, taking all of their official Facebook content from their 2013 debut onward along with it, but my hypothesis that the deletion was to signify a fresh start for the band appears to be true. In fact, their biography says that they "formed in early 2022", even though the band announced their relocation and planned return in November of last year. Of course, to Barrie locals, they might as well be a new band, and as they like to say, "we haven't heard of you either!" The band's lineup is given with aliases, including returning singer "Johnny Pints" (J.D. Pearce, of course) & guitarist "Handsome" Dan Horton, plus new additions Daniel "Odie" Rodbard on bass and Tyler "JeeB" Reiner on drums.

Posts on the new Spades GT page largely reflect media from their set opening for The Dayglo Abortions and Random Killing in Barrie this past weekend, along with posters for that show and their set opening for Anvil next month. This minute-long video was also uploaded as a promotional clip for the Anvil concert featuring footage from their show last week, and while it does not have live audio from the set, it looks like Spades GT are off on the right foot! I wish they hadn't deleted their old page outright, but check out more from the new-look band above! Like with the H.L.T.C. video on Monday, Facebook content matched the background song ("Rise" from their 2014 EP "The First"), so the video can't be embedded externally here.

Also today, here's the second official original song and music video from Rising Tide/Inner City Surfers frontman Dustin Jones' solo project Jonesy Land! As seen live at Rotaryfest last year, this has been Dustin's main band outlet while The Rising Tide have been dormant, but activity has been fairly slow, pandemic acknowledged. Maybe their new song "Moral Blackout" will help, especially as it's a proper punk song, unlike last year's "Sunshine Parades", and it features Dustin's Surfers bandmates Brad "Example" Lacell and Mikey Hawdon to boot! No Dave, alas. The music video proper features Dustin singing to a GoPro camera (or variant thereof) both poolside and at Searchmont Resort (on the slopes and on the ski lift) with lots of clips of skiing and snowboarding for good measure. If you get 705 Video Magazine vibes from this, you're not alone, and there's even a few behind the scenes-ish clips to be had!

The song proper is a fun and upbeat punk rocker that Surfers fans will instantly take to, but I have to wonder if the video (uploaded to Tidal Records' YouTube channel yesterday) is a little late? I love winter, but as of the video's release date, snow's almost gone in the Sault area. Hey, maybe you can live vicariously through the skiing action, so give Jonesy Land's new video a look below, and we'll let you know when more comes out!

Finally for today, here's a new solo performance video from prolific local metal/folk punk singer/guitarist Chase Wigmore's Facebook page! The sub-2 minute clip sees Chase playing a 1980s prog metally instrumental on his acoustic electric guitar, and while it was uploaded in grayscale, maybe that's because of his sunglasses? If you don't get the reference, watch They Live. Solid showcase of Chase's pure guitar skill that a wide array of fans will take to, so give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!