After a slight delay, here's this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! Our monthly feature looking at the current release whereabouts of announced local metal, hard rock, and punk albums that have begun studio recording sessions enters October with six entries, half of which have their titles in italics due to new information. There has been one removal, namely Handsome Sandwich's successfully released new album "Collage", which is the best way for an album to drop from these posts, so do check it out on most major streaming services! So, where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!
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Bone Yard 225's debut album
Rumoured Songs: "F.A.F.O.", "Gypsy Spell", "Fuck!", "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" (Mike Posner cover)
Background: After months of teasers
that they were planning to record original music (as previewed in their
live concerts prior), local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard 225
began releasing their own songs on major streaming services in July
2024, a whopping fifteen years after the pre-225 band debuted as a
country cover quartet. Their first three singles (all recorded at their
home studio) were posted online by January, though it took until May 2025 for the band to confirm on their Facebook page
that they were indeed working on a proper album. It's not immediately
clear if their existing three singles will be included, but it's not a
given, as Jonesy Land fans saw with "Zoom-Out". As of August 11th, it was reportedly "album tracking time", while this video
from three days later shows bandmates Alex D'Ettore and
Warren Reville recording backing vocals for their cover of Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza". That will be one of "a couple of covers" for the album, as confirmed by frontman Greg Simpson during recent concerts.
Current Release Status: In that Facebook post from May 30th, your local 225 said that "the album is coming along nicely", and they hoped to release it "by the end of 2025", but Greg has since adjusted the timeframe to "early 2026" when mentioning it during live shows. While singer/drummer Greg Simpson did release an EP with his old band Stiffler's Mom, it's hard to compare the release methods and schedule given that "The Demo" came out in 2004. It is neat to see that Greg, Alex, and Warren are going all in on a studio album, and stay tuned for updates as they roll in!
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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 in 2024, 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 last September 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, and the band will hit a year without a public update on band activity in December. 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 solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more
than his prolific original material.
Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.
Current Release Status:
Chase elaborated on Facebook last summer that the album was 95% done
earlier that 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 previous 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 - In Bloom
Background: Just over a month after releasing their sophomore EP "Dead And Dreaming",
local progressive metal band Convergence announced in February 2024 that EP #3 would be named "Gemini", with its cover artwork
being released at the same time. Teaser clips of most songs from the EP were posted on their Facebook page and their YouTube channel throughout
much of 2024, but most prior media was wiped as they retooled as a full
band, now including singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio and drummer David
Peredun. Convergence have been working in studio recently with
producer Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio, documenting the sessions in
Facebook "Reels", and while they did get cagey about the endgame for the
studio sessions, they have confirmed in concert that the EP (now named
"In Bloom") is still in progress. Live versions of early instrumentals
(now with vocals) have also been played in their early sets.
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 "In Bloom" to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their modern studio cycle commenced in 2023, 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 album
Rumoured Songs: "One For The Road", "Sweet Rosie"
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 2022-2023, with
studio sessions taking place in early-mid 2023 as well. After the
departure of bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer
Anthony Fabiano (both now of Bullet Train) in the fall of 2023, 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 two years. Now featuring Phil Greco on drums, their first single
(the acoustic "One For The Road")
was posted online in January, with the band confirming plans to now
record a 10 song album at Jettison Studios prior to returning to live
concerts. Their new single "Sweet Rosie" was said to be coming next, and
they teased being back in studio to record that very song as of August
31st.
Current Release Status: Prior release timelines for their debut EP reflected their early 2020s lineup's material, and Justin, Shane, Bill, and Phil have largely kept things somewhat close to the vest prior to putting out "One For The Road". There are a lot of unknowns, especially given the 5+ years of production time and their decision to basically start over in 2023, 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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Pillory - Old Soul
Rumoured Songs: "End
Of Small Sanctuary", "Specimen Of Egotism", "Sculptor Of Cadavers",
"The Angst Of Existence", "The Passing", "Abhorred Apprehension", "The
Curse Of Eternal Sickness", "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt"
Background: After a five year
hiatus dotted with occasional reunion teasers from band members on
social media, local death/thrash metal trio Pillory fully reunited last
summer, picking up where they left off in their 2015-2019 run. During
that time, they fully moved to death metal with harsh/growled vocals,
completely abandoning their originals from their 2013 debut EP "Cringe
At The Cross" in the process. While established mid-late 2010s songs and
new material have been played in concert in the past year, Pillory only
confirmed in this Facebook post
on band t-shirts from May 19th that they were working on a full-length
album. "Old Soul" was confirmed as its title this summer, complete with cover artwork and the release of "The Angst Of Existence" as an advance single on September 30th. It's not yet clear if Devon Lucier, his predecessor Blair St. John, and/or frontman Robert Sartini will handle bass on the final product, but the album was recorded at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall.
Current Release Status: Pillory have confirmed that they will release "Old Soul" on October 25th via a CD release party at Soo Blaster, with it dropping on major streaming services two days later, and a vinyl release has also been teased. This is all very exciting for local extreme metal fans, let alone Robert, Bret, and Devon after such a long run together, so whether you come to the release show or not, prepare for brutality at month's end!
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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 November 2nd, while our next monthly feature post will likely be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile that is pencilled in for this Friday. That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
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