It's time for our second "Where Are The New Albums?" post of 2026, as we again spotlight the current public statuses of announced upcoming albums from Sault Ontario metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists! While this is largely a holding pattern installment without major changes from the albums from last month, these is a brand new entry, as noted with its title in italics, and because of alphabetical order, we're leading off with them, so here's what you should know!
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The BAG - Sacculus
Rumoured Songs: "Eccentric Refuge", "Our Rock"
Background: Immediately launching in the summer of 2022 with original music in their back pocket, local metal trio The BAG (featuring With Gunfire and Jupiter Marvelous members) quickly released their first studio single "Eccentric Refuge" to major streaming services, with "Our Rock" following in 2023. The BAG didn't confirm that an album was in the works until October of 2025, when they revealed the cover artwork for their debut album "Sacculus" on their Facebook page, also confirming at the time that the whole album was already done mixing and mastering. These were the band's only proper updates about their own activity, album or otherwise, in the second half of 2025. It's not clear if their first studio singles will be included on "Sacculus", and if so, if they were re-recorded in last year's recording sessions.
Current Release Status: The BAG confirmed last month that they will release "Sacculus" on Saturday, April 18th via an album release party at Soo Blaster, though specifics on the track listing, price, and formats are all forthcoming. It will be great to see the fruits of Spencer, Austin, and Bradley's quiet work last year finally out for fans to hear in the spring, so stay tuned for more updates on the impending release over the next couple of months!
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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, 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 2025, though it took until May 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.
"Fuck!" was renamed "The F Word" on streaming services in December, but
it's not clear if the less explicit name will stick on the album. The
band was still "in the studio finishing shit" as of December 4th, source here.
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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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 in mid-2024 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 2023 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 worked in studio last year with
producer Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio, documenting the sessions in
Facebook "Reels", eventually confirming 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. A new version of "The Ebb" (first seen on their 2023 EP "One") was released to streaming services on Christmas Day.
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 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 being recorded as of August 31st, and a teaser of the song was posted to their Facebook page on New Year's Eve.
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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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series will return on or around March 2nd, while our next monthly feature post will be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next week. That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!
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