Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Re:Born

After a return from vacation-aided delay, here is this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, in our last installment of this series of 2022! As usual, this serves to spotlight the active run and highlights of randomly chosen local metal, hard rock, or punk artists, and this month's selection is a talented and familiar metal band whose run was arguably curtailed prematurely due to the pandemic, so here's what you should know!

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Re:Born 

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Power Rock/Classic Metal

Lineup: (Members not in their last full lineup are in italics)

Elly McWatters, vocals
Blair Burch (Project 421), guitar/vocals
Chris Nielsen (A Dire Setback), guitar
Elijah Nielsen (Electric Church), bass
Brandan Glew (The Din, The Revolution), drums

Robert Nevitt (Big Mistake, Steel Sour), vocals
Frank McGillivray (Project 421), guitar
Fred Dunn (Eclipse), bass

Audio/Video: Re:Born largely took over guitarists Blair Burch & Frank McGillivray's prior classic metal band Project 421's existing originals like "Running Away" and "Into The Darkness", along with a similar cover set of old school-leaning metal and hard rock songs, but with distinct updates, including more influence from European power metal in some covers. Their Facebook page was quite good for uploading videos of every incarnation of Re:Born (even lineups that never played a formal concert), but Chris Paci's YouTube channel does have a few videos as well. Here's Re:Born playing their own original "Die Another Day" and covering Iron Maiden's "Die With Your Boots On" at The Grand Gardens North in 2019!

Info/Analysis: Shortly after the dissolution of Project 421 in the fall of 2017, Blair & Frank formed a similar new band named Re:Born (no relation) that publically launched in January 2018. Their original five piece lineup aimed to "keep that old-school attitude alive, while capturing a modern energy", debuting (with merchandise in tow) via Rockstar Bar dates opening for Archelon and All The Wasted Years in March & June, followed by the Pirie "Bear" Kaufman benefit show in October. After frequent guest singer Elly McWatters replaced Robert Nevitt later that month and Frank's move out of town in November, Re:Born's best known four-piece lineup debuted at Soo Blaster in March 2019, returning there in the following months to open for The Killer Dwarfs & Anvil, with some all-local and headlining gigs elsewhere into the summer.

Re:Born's final concert took place at Toystock that November, before a planned break was consumed & lengthened by the pandemic. Despite announcing a new expanded lineup featuring the Nielsen cousins joining Elly, Blair, and Brandan in November 2021, Re:Born threw in the towel in March 2022. Comparisons with Project 421 are easy to make, but Re:Born stood on their own with strong in-built talent, and both Robert and Elly brought their own unique styles to the table during their runs! Their style of power rock could attract old school and modern fans, and they were snakebitten by bad luck to an extent, but hopefully everyone's still musically active in new projects nowadays!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! After spending the last quarter of the year in Sault Ontario, our rotation takes us back to Sault Michigan, where are next randomly selected band will be early 2010s grunge/alternative trio Plastic! Stay tuned for that on or around January 10th, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!