Heavy Lies The Crown & Spades GT Updates!!

Today's post is devoted to overdue updates from two prominent local bands who get most of their live concert kicks away from our area, so here's what you should know from each!

With how busy that the summer season has gotten, I have completely fallen behind on updates from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown since the end of May, so what have they been up to lately? On June 6th, they shared this commercial on their Facebook page hyping their inclusion on this year's Michigan Metal Fest in Battle Creek on August 19th, and it promotes them well while adding some amusingly lazy touches (you have to watch to see what I mean, but it's meant for humour!). Much of their June posts were to plug that festival, which is absolutely stacked, if still a 5 hour drive from here. On June 21st, frontman Brandon West modeled an official H.L.T.C. beanie (toque, if you prefer) for this picture to gauge interest in selling them officially, and there definitely was interest! New baseball caps and dice bags (yes) did come in for sale, and were modeled in pictures on July 9th. After largely being quiet from the concert stage since the end of March, Heavy Lies The Crown did return to the stage this past weekend!

As we mentioned on here when first announced, the guys hit the road for Alpena (2½ hours southeast of the Soo) on Saturday to open for Katharsys Theory at the Michigan Brown Trout Festival, which was hyped in this video featuring music video and performance clips from that night's bands. Photos have been posted from that night on their Facebook page, and eagle eyed observers will note that bassist Christian Cook was unavailable for this show for unannounced reasons. In his place, the guys called in original bassist Danny Tucker to fill in for the night, and while they didn't publically elaborate, personal Facebook posts imply that Danny was asked to help out on very short notice (he lives in Alpena nowadays anyway). Neat seeing Danny back on stage with Brandon and Ted, and hopefully the set was well received! The next day, they played a very rare local concert set in their hometown of St. Ignace, albeit a private one.

Like they did in August last year, Heavy Lies The Crown joined local classic rock cover band Aisle8 for a private outdoor concert outside of a St. Ignace residence. It's a shame that H.L.T.C. struggle to get proper public bookings in the E.U.P. (let alone can't easily play in Sault Ontario, where they would be very well liked), but at least fans in St. Ignace who are in the know have a couple of chances to see them here and there! See above for much more on Heavy Lies The Crown's recent and upcoming activity!

Next up, let's head north to Ontario for the latest from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT! Their new "Final Girl" music video has been making the rounds on punk and metal websites this month, with The Metal Voice sharing it on Facebook, and both Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles and That's Good Enough For Me posting it on their websites linked above. All but the latter noted that drummer Tyler Reiner is the son of Anvil drummer Robb Reiner, which is handy for general readers who may not know! I remember pointing that out when Caym played shows here. On July 13th, they posted pictures on their Facebook page from their concert opening for Random Killing earlier this month, specifically of frontman J.D. Pearce guesting with Random Killing! Two local frontmen for the price of one, too bad there wasn't video footage!

On Sunday, the former Jack Spades noted that their song "Red" got played on University Heights, Ohio college radio station WJCU 88.7 FM on their metal-centric program Metal on Metal (another Anvil reference!). Good to see Spades get some American coverage, and it's a shame that WLSO as we knew it can't play them anymore! Upcoming Southern Ontario concert dates include another Random Killing show at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto on September 23rd, but first, they will also rock Cornwall for an all ages multi-band hospice fundraiser concert named Cornwall Chaos on August 19th! That show will see Spades GT share the stage with (among many others) guitarist Jay Sarrazin's Cornwall-based metal band Hellrager, who local fans will be able to see for the first time at The Northern Vibe Festival one week later. Good to see Spades GT and another of Jay's bands play the same event, which happens less often than you'd think!

To close, here's new videos of Spades GT in action, courtesy of their show at Inside Skate Park in St. Catharines this past Saturday! The name is not a misnomer, the venue doubles as an indoor skatepark, and the band literally played behind one of the ramps! Filmed for regional promoters/label AP Records' Facebook page along with other bands that night, the two 20 second videos (mercifully not "Reels") feature Spades GT (minus Jay) covering parts of Turbonegro's "All My Friends Are Dead". I wish these weren't shot vertically, but you do get a neat look at how they cram a concert and skatepark into the same indoor locale, and the band sounds good while they last, so check them out below and here!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!