Sunday, September 1, 2024

Pillory & Hails Updates, Plus Much More News & Notes!!

Happy September, everyone! Yes, it's just a month, but as things start to quiet down with the fall season truly beginning, I hope to catch up on lots of backlogged news items in the near term, and that starts with some assorted recent notes related to current live bands, so here's what you should know on this sunny Sunday afternoon!

We'll start with new videos from reunited local death/thrash metal trio Pillory, courtesy of drummer Bret Shuttleworth's YouTube channel! Three weeks ago, Bret uploaded seventeen videos from their return set at the all-local metal show at Robbie Adamson's old church in Leeburn in July, though the catch here is that they are all "Shorts" (a.k.a. YouTube "Reels"). Thusly, they are all vertical and none exceed a minute in length, though at least you can embed them on external websites! Most of these "Shorts" are clearly from the high balcony vantage point seen in the previously uploaded full-set video on Bret's channel, but from different filmers. Only six were filmed at floor level, and one is embedded below, but Bret didn't give any unique titles or descriptions or any of these "Shorts", so I can't tell you individual song names for every clip. Still, Pillory are definitely back in full force for fans of their mid-late 2010s death metal era!

It is worth noting that attendee Cole Speers shot a 2 minute video of them opening for The Fixer at Soo Blaster last month, as seen in a comment reply on a post on Pillory's Facebook page on August 24th plugging that event. As it was uploaded from a personal account to a comment thread, I can't embed it here, but the (unlabelled) song is suitably brutal, and shot horizontally(!), so it's a shame that it's not easier to access! Check out one of the longer(-ish) Pillory "Shorts" below, and stay tuned for more updates from Robert, Blair, and Bret soon!

Next up, here's the latest from local skate punk/crossover thrash quartet Ha!ls, so what's new from their camp? As you may recall, they took a road trip to Southern Ontario for two concerts this past weekend, with a "Reel" being posted on their Facebook page on Thursday from their set at the Humber River Arts & Music Festival in Toronto! The short, vertical, and unembeddable video sees Hails (sans guitarist Carmen Muto, who didn't make the trip) playing their non-EP original "Crustal Displacement". though the clip focuses on Carmen's brother Mikhal's guitar solo. Was it raining, judging by the camera lens reflection? What we see in the video is promising (if way too short), so give it a look above! The Vanity First sister band will be hitting the road again for a multi-band event in Bay City, Michigan later this month (details here), but in a new confirmation, they'll also play downstate in Ypsilanti at a similar concert on November 28th!

Ypsilanti is 5 hours south of here (outside of Detroit), but it is neat to see Brent, the Mutos, and Keeghan continuing to get opportunities to play across the border, and if you want to know how they're jumping through the necessary hoops, give them a shout! In the meantime, we have a new video from Hails' Facebook page to share here, and while it is short & vertical, it is not a "Reel", so I can embed it here! The video sees Ha!ls playing their original "Ghosts" at the aforementioned Leeburn concert in July, specifically focusing on Carmen's guitar solo, as filmed from the high balcony seen in much of Pillory's footage. Impressively performed & very heavy, and well framed for a vertical clip, so check it out below!

Now, let's look at a rarity: a commercial hyping an upcoming touring band's gig here! This comes to promote Sudbury-based Rush tribute band Rust's local debut at Soo Blaster on Saturday, November 2nd, and was shared to the Facebook event page while also making the rounds as a paid/sponsored post on relevant user news feeds. It features lots of footage of Rust (featuring members of past local touring tribute headliners Just Leppard) playing "YYZ" in concert, along with text to promote their concert at "the Soo Blaster". It's always good to see specific promotion for local concerts like this straight from the touring band, so give it a watch below, and tickets are still available at this link and at the venue!


Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from last month, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

 

  • In the first public update on his last(?) studio album "The Chaotic Rite" in months, local folk punk/extreme metal singer/guitarist Chase Wigmore revealed on his Facebook page last week that the album was 95% done when it "got trapped on my desktop's hard drive", and without an available backup, he is still trying to recover the files. Also, his three newest original songs "The Speciest", "From Beyond The Clouds", and "A Song For The Apocalypse" were never planned for "The Chaotic Rite", but may be packaged in a separate digital EP. Hopefully Chase can save the files, especially after the years of work that he's put into the album!
  • In an e-mailed press release from Fort Creek guitarist Bill Brouillard last month, he confirmed to me that the southern hard rock band have abandoned their previously released/teased original songs like "Hammer Down" from their long-gestating debut album "as a show of good faith" to former members Robin "Bones" Lee and Anthony Fabiano (now of Bullet Train), who quietly left Fort Creek a year ago. Justin, Shane, and Bill have effectively started from scratch to rebuild their studio and write new original material, so it'll be interesting to see how things progress for Fort Creek in studio and for their presumed eventual live return!
  • Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 will run it back this Friday when they will indeed serve as local openers for North Bay country/hard rock musician Cory Marks' second local headlining date at The Machine Shop! Silent 9 debuted on the public stage at Cory's show here in July 2023, and it's good to see that fans will get an encore, so stay tuned for our preview of that concert later this week, and click here to get your tickets! Yes, Silent 9 are double booked on Friday, and will head west to The Esquire Club for their return to the weekend nightclub circuit after their set.

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!

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