Before we begin this post, just a heads up that Brutally Fatal frontman Austin McCrea's obituary was posted on SooToday yesterday, confirming that he sadly passed away on Boxing Day.
While it doesn't go into the specifics that the GoFundMe campaign did
about his medical battles, it does detail his courage & resilience, as well as his love of music, even noting some of the
projects he was involved in in the 2010s. He is survived by his parents,
son Richard, sister Jasmine, and many friends. Among those he was
predeceased by was his brother Matthew Nadon, who you may remember was
supposed to get a tribute concert in the winter of 2022-2023 that
Austin's band Far From Fine were scheduled to play at. Visitation will be on Friday from 1:00-3:00 PM at the Arthur Funeral Home's Barton & Kiteley Chapel, with a celebration of life at the Holiday Inn Express from 4:00-8:00 PM.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Algoma Autism Foundation would be appreciated by the family. Hopefully there's a good turnout on Friday to pay their respects, and we'll let you know when more comes out on the tribute concert that's in the works. R.I.P. Austin!
Today's post otherwise looks at new studio material from three local bands, starting with newer hard rock quartet Maynard Hayes, who I didn't even know were in studio! In their first post on their Instagram page in five months (remember, that's their only social media account), the band revealed that their debut single would drop on December 20th, accompanied by this teaser video featuring rare public video of them in concert at Soo Blaster. Why not post that in a fuller and not pillarboxed form factor somewhere with the raw audio? The song in question is named "No Security", which you can now stream on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Anghami, Boomplay, and embedded below via YouTube, and the lyrics (seemingly about empowering someone to stop using drugs and better themselves) can be read at this link. How is Maynard Hayes' first original song overall?
It's a melodic hard rock number with Damon King using some deeper clean singing to good effect, even if the song is more casual sounding than the pointed lyrics would suggest. Musically, I was kinda reminded of Avenged Sevenfold structurally, but the vocals definitely don't match. Solid enough first track, and we'll have to see if Maynard Hayes have more in the works! Also, thanks to artist credits on streaming sites, we can now confirm that their bassist is Gabrielle Abulencia, an Algoma University student that I'm unfamiliar with from prior local bands. Stay tuned for more from Damon, Nathan, Gabrielle, and David when it comes in, and here's "No Security"!
Speaking of active bands featuring drummer David Peredun with new original songs from last month, his progressive metal band Convergence released the updated version of their song "The Ebb" on Christmas Day as promised! As long-time fans may remember, this song was originally seen on their 2023 debut EP "One", but Brendan & Jake have since wiped their two instrumental EPs from streaming services in order to basically relaunch as a full band with David and singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio now in the fold, with their first full-band EP (possibly still named "In Bloom") still in the works. You can stream the new version of "The Ebb" on YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Anghami.. I'll hold comment on the song for now, as unlike Maynard Hayes, we do know that an album or EP from Convergence is on the way, even if we don't know many current specifics.
This is our first full song sampler of Convergence with Stephen on vocals outside of live videos, so don't bypass it above and below, especially as they posted this lyric video to their official YouTube channel on the 25th! Stay tuned for more from Convergence as the year continues!
Finally for this post, we have a studio teaser clip to share from local southern hard rock quartet Fort Creek's Facebook page! After a very quiet 2025, the band resurfaced with their first proper new update in four months on New Year's Eve via this 13 second sample of their second original song from their long-gestating debut album. As teased in the summer, it's for their song "Sweet Rosie", and while there's not enough here to comment on even without knowing that an album is in the works, what we hear sounds promising, especially as it's a full electric song compared to last year's acoustic "One For The Road". Check out Fort Creek's new teaser video below!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site as the week continues! Thanks everyone!
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