Here is our penultimate "Where Are The New Albums?" post for the year, as we again look at the current release whereabouts of announced albums from local metal, hard rock, and punk artists that have seen studio recording sessions publically commence! For the most part, we're in a holding pattern from last month, but two of this month's six returning entries have updated info, as noted with the title in italics.
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Bullet Train's upcoming EPs
Rumoured Songs: "Atmosphere", "Illusions", "Profit", "Wayside"
Background: The current hard rock
band from former Sense of Truth/Skeyes of Seven frontman Cory Murchsion
and ex-Fort Creek bandmates Robin "Bones" Lee and Anthony Fabiano,
Bullet Train have existed solely as a studio band so far, releasing four original songs recorded at their own home studio to their YouTube channel
earlier this year, all very much influenced by their take on current
events. After a quiet summer due to "life's trials", Bullet Train
resurfaced on their Facebook page on September 1st to reveal that they were working on two
demo EPs, with the first one entering post-production as of the 9th,
though it's not clear if their 2024 singles will be on them.
Current Release Status:
No idea yet, especially as this band has no prior track record for
releasing albums, though all three band members have experience writing
and recording studio material to varying degrees. Bullet Train claimed
on September 9th that a release date for EP #1 would be announced "in
the upcoming weeks", a timeline not realized as of this writing. It'll
be interesting
to see how fast things come along for Bullet Train, so keep tabs on
their Facebook page for further updates!
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Chase James Wigmore - The Chaotic Rite
Rumoured Songs: "The Cities Alive & It's Angry"
Background: Ever
the prolific artist & songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal
musician Chase Wigmore has been working on an extensive rock opera for years (once claimed to be a 33 part work),
originally named
"A Story
About A Kid Named Todd". Worked on in between his other unrelated solo
albums, released for sale or otherwise, Chase posted a lengthy
elaboration of the rock opera in 2022, now titled "The Chaotic
Rite", outlining its concept, recording plans, and long-term release
timeline. Clips of songs have surfaced on his Facebook page,
as have full songs not explicitly tied to the album, as well as the final artwork. In more recent promotion, Chase has
hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final
eponymous solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more
than his prolific rate of original material.
Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.
Current Release Status:
Chase elaborated on Facebook this summer that the album was 95% done
earlier this year when the files "got trapped on my desktop's hard
drive", and he had been unable to procure a backup of the material or
recover the files as of that post. In any event, three of the full songs
uploaded to Facebook in the past year were clarified as not being
planned for "The Chaotic Rite", but they could surface on a separate EP.
Fingers crossed that Chase is able to save this album and put it out
when able, especially given the years that he's put into the making of
it!
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Convergence - Gemini
Rumoured Songs: "Gemini", "In Bloom", "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon", "Kraken Mara", "You Are Not Flesh"
Background: Just over a month after releasing their sophomore EP "Dead And Dreaming",
local progressive metal band Convergence announced on
February 9th that EP #3 would be named "Gemini", despite the obvious
twin implications of that name. The cover artwork
for "Gemini" was released at the same time, with the band asking fans
if they should release singles in advance or put it all out at once. Teaser clips of most songs from the EP have been posted on their Facebook page and their YouTube channel since May. Guitarist Brendan Christie revealed the names of five songs in
a recent Facebook conversation, one named after the band's prior name
Kraken Mara, though a new or renamed song named "You Are Not Flesh" was posted an advance single on Bandcamp in September. New drummer David Peredun (who was confirmed to have joined
the band in late February) will presumably make his studio debut here.
Current Release Status:
No clue, and given the complexity of their music yet their independent
studio trappings so far, that could bode a quick or lengthy timeline for
"Gemini" to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their
modern studio cycle commenced last year, things have been relatively
steady for Brendan and Jake as a recording act, and here's hoping that
Convergence keep that up for their third offering!
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Fort Creek's debut EP
Rumoured Songs: "One For The Road"
Background: Background: Local
southern/hard rock band Fort Creek have sporadically teased plans to
record an EP since February 2020, but they wouldn't release any samples
until almost two years later when they shared (now-deleted) clips of
their original song "Hammer Down" on their Facebook page.
The guys would play it regularly at concerts from June 2022-August
2023, and were working in studio throughout 2023, revealing that "it's
coming along" in a
Facebook post on March 22nd of last year, and teasing new recording
sessions following earlier "learning experiences" there that
May. After the departure of bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer
Anthony Fabiano (both now of Bullet Train) last fall, Fort Creek opted
to abandon material recorded with them "as a show of good faith", and
have been working on new material and rebuilding their studio over the
past year, with an acoustic single named "One For The Road" teased as
their "first release". We don't know if new
drummer Phil Greco will be immediately involved in that recording, but the band did film a music video for the song last month.
Current Release Status:
Prior release timelines for their debut EP reflected their early 2020s
lineup's material, and Justin, Shane, and Bill have largely kept things
somewhat close to the vest beyond optimistic teasers in the past year.
There are a lot of
unknowns,
especially given the 4+ years of production time and their decision to
basically start over last fall, and that this is a band
that was primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit
before their rhythm section left. It
will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned for
updates!
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Handsome Sandwich's first EP
Rumoured Songs: "Without You", "Partyfuel", "Change A Bit", "No Idea", "All Done Now"
Background: Before even releasing
their full-length debut album "Deconstructed" in May 2023, local
alternative/hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich revealed that not all of
their existing originals would be on that album, with plans to instead
release them and some brand new songs on a forthcoming EP. On September
13th, they began recording this EP (which will reportedly have seven
songs) at the Algoma Conservatory of Music,
with bass & drum tracks complete as of September 2023, and then-guitarist Mitch
Sirie was finishing his parts as of December 21st, with vocals still
to go. At least five of the seven songs have had their names revealed in
concert setlists. After only
contributing to the packaging on "Deconstructed", bassist Rafael Medina
will perform on this EP, and a "Reel" of him recording an unidentified song in studio was posted to the band's Facebook page.
It's not clear if new guitarist Brandon Ruch will be involved on the EP
in some fashion or not, but Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling may
appear again, as he guested with them to play "Partyfuel" at August's Northern Vibe Festival.
Current Release Status:
To be determined, and while they're not recording this EP at the same
place as "Deconstructed", note that the sessions for that album at
Unsalted Audio wrapped up four months before the album release. An article about the band
from The Sault Star in June noted that the seven new songs "will
likely be released as singles", but whether this points to a change of
release plans or is just an acknowledgement that they have seven
individual singles to put out, I don't know. It will be interesting to
see how things progress
in the coming months!
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Mike Haggith's "Face To Face" live album
Rumoured Songs:
"MorningStar", "The Best You Never Had", "Into The Setting Sun", "Come
On Home", "I've Seen It Before", "If Ever Comes The Day", "Suburban
Dream" (The Din cover), "Out Of My League" (The Din cover), "Potato
(Should've Known Better)"
Background: In the lead-up to the staging of his joint storytellers "Face To Face" concert with local folk/country musician Brian Tremblay at The Art Hub on Spring on May 26th, 2023, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith announced plans on his Facebook page to release a live album from this event through his indie label MorningStar Records,
including a vinyl pressing. If this comes to fruition, it's not clear
if Brian's half of the concert (he and Mike alternated songs), let alone
the stories, would be included on the final product, which would
necessitate a double album on vinyl. In any event, you can
watch the entire "Face To Face" live-stream at this link.
Current Release Status:
Little has came out about the "Face To Face" live album plans since
first announced, and while that show went off without a hitch for Mike
(unlike Rotaryfest 2023), it understandably wasn't his first musical
priority last summer, with his newest studio album "All The Best In All You Do" being released as planned last July. We'll let you know when/if more comes out on this live album in any form!
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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series will return on or around December 2nd for its final installment of the year, while our next monthly feature post will be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next week. Look for that then and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
The full multi-camera video of local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's set at this year's Northern Vibe Festival was posted to his YouTube channel yesterday! Like last year when he and The Big Finish Band rocked the Forest Stage on Poplardale Road in nearby Ophir, Mike had a single-camera live stream posted after the fact, while enlisting Justine Chalykoff of Chalykoff Studios to professionally film the entire set with multiple high quality cameras. While the final 2023 video wasn't uploaded to YouTube until May, the turnaround to get this year's full multi-cam video was only 2 months, which is great for fans of Mike's! Still no word on if the interview shot with Chalykoff Studios last year will ever be released though. Note that I won't go into a detailed blow-by-blow of the new Northern Vibe video, as I already did that when recapping the single-camera 2024 live stream in this post from September.
Just as a reminder, this was The Big Finish Band's first show with Elly McWatters on guitar for every song (Mike just sang here), and their all-original set only had three songs held over from Northern Vibe 2023. For extra minutia about the set, see the September post linked above, but Mike and crew played the debuting "Brand New Day", "Back Away Slowly", "An Act Of Strength", Mike's newer originals "I Really Hope This Gets To You" and "No Love", "Hot & Cold", "From The 55th Parallel", "Carousel", "The Nature Of The Times", "All The Best", and "Twist Of Fate" this year. Justine used even more cameras to capture Mike, Chris, Elly, Matt, and Brandan rocking out on the outdoor stage than last year, even utilizing a drumcam for the occasion, plus more fade transitions and mirror effects than before, so kudos for the extra work to spruce up the already solid performance footage here!
