For the first time in almost a year, local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters posted on their Facebook page yesterday, so what's new in their camp? Guitarist Mitch Sirie posted there last night to firstly indicate that he is planning to give away his extant Bear Hunters t-shirts, limited to two per person (one with their logo, one with the artwork of their debut album "Eternal Hibernation"), though note that he did not reveal what sizes he has. This may seem like a bad omen re: future band prospects, but not imminently, as he noted that if you send him a picture wearing a Bear Hunters shirt, you'll get "our next album" for free, and if you show photo evidence wearing both shirts, you'll also get into their "final show" for free as well! As you may recall, The Bear Hunters were resurrected last summer after a two year hiatus, headlining a technically private summer concert in Leeburn last July, but had been dead silent on social media since.
Given their incredible slowdown in live dates since 2017 (they played live just thrice from 2018-2021 before the Leeburn event), you can't be too shocked that Nik, Mitch, Justin, and Johnny are looking towards the end of the band, especially with how times have changed since their early-mid 2010s heyday. True closure on a big stage would be ideal, especially after the release of 2020's "The Dead Testament" was severely downsized by the pandemic, hence its abrupt Bandcamp posting. The guys did tease that they were working on new music when they came back last year, so hopefully things progress naturally on that front, and we'll let you know when more updates come out on The Bear Hunters' future/final plans!
Next up, here's some updates from a frequent promoter of Bear Hunters concerts during the peak of their run, namely ex-Them frontman Tyler St. Amour's revived Heavy North Entertainment! Best known from promoting all ages extreme metal shows at the former Oddfellows Hall in the early-mid 2010s, H.N.E. was recently brought back after a seven year hiatus. and has been taking new bookings for this and next year for the past month+. Tyler had collaborated in an unspecified capacity with last month's It's The Pits festival in Leeburn, and Heavy North "will be working" the upcoming Ripcordz and Total Chaos basement shows at The Distraction, but again, we don't know specifics as to how involved Tyler/the company are in these events. In terms of their own concerts, Heavy North's Facebook page has strongly hinted at shows coming up on Friday, August 16th and Saturday, September 28th, venues and specific bands unclear.
The only band mentioned by name so far for either/other gigs is Toronto melodic death metal band Selias, who extreme metal fans would definitely welcome to town, but we await further details. If you like true death metal and hardcore music, we have had a lot of lean years as live music goes, so kudos to Tyler for throwing his promotional hat back in the ring for the first time since 2017, and it'll be interesting to see what he has in store!
Finally, here's some brand new updates on local progressive metal trio Convergence, all given to me by guitarist Brendan Christie for release on the SMS before/in lieu of being posted by the band on social media, so kudos to him for the scoops! Apologies for the delay in these making the site too, these aren't as recent as I'd have liked given recent backlogs. Yellow Room Studios (where Convergence records their material) are rebranding to Woodward Avenue Studios due to copyright/trademark issues with the Yellow Room moniker, but social media hasn't been updated on this yet. Brendan has been hyping up his studio for usage by local musicians, so if this interests you, see above for more on what he's offering! Regarding Convergence's third EP "Gemini", he was hoping to have it out "before summer holidays begin", but that timeline has obviously passed.
The EP will have five songs, including an intro track named "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon" (sic), the title track, "Kraken Mara" (which was Convergence's original name), and "In Bloom", and there is a new teaser video on their YouTube channel for one of those five songs, which we'll touch on in a second. Convergence are reportedly "in talks with two potential singers" but they are still welcoming prospective vocalists to try out, so if you want to sing on their progressive metal material, send them a vocal demo and/or a recording over one of their instrumentals to one of their social media accounts. The guys are definitely leaning towards harsh vocalists with clean singing ability, much like when ex-State of Misery frontman Steve Rhodes guested on "Stratus". Note that Brendan told me that they intentionally held back on guitar solos on their second EP "Dead & Dreaming" because of the lack of vocal input.
Finally, let's look at that new teaser video for "Gemini", which was uploaded in vertical dimensions despite not being formatted as a "Shorts" video. In what appears to be a sample (if not the full track) of "Breaking News", we see a news anchor delivering a report about an alien threat on Earth on an old CRT TV set up in what looks like an alleyway. Given that this is to be one of the songs on "Gemini", perhaps only partially, I'll hold comment on what is heard, but the mood is definitely set! Check out the video below, and stay tuned for more from Convergence when it goes public!
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