Kraken Mara EP Updates, A New Local Metal Radio Show, And New Videos!!

Before we get into the meat of this post, today marks the 14th anniversary of The Sault Metal Scene's launch on July 4th, 2007, and I wanted to thank the vast, vast majority of you for your support and kind words over the years! I just wish that we weren't in a pandemic during the anniversary for a second straight year, so I won't get too self indulgent, but hopefully I can time it with a proper concert to mark year #15 in 2022! Today's sixth post in as many days (amazingly) has new videos, the impending launch of a new local internet radio show, and leading off, some new album releases (maybe?), so here's what you should know!

 

Local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara may have quietly released their debut EP "Press Start" for sale.... AND a second EP.... and I mean, quietly! The band has not publically announced anything regarding a release on their Facebook or Instagram pages (they haven't even posted on either since April), but at some point in the past month, Kraken Mara posted "Press Start" and a 3 song follow-up EP named "Game Over" on their website on Wix. Both appear to be on sale for $15 each, but when I attempted to click through to see what Wix's online storefront process is like (I have never heard of a heavier local band only putting out an album this way), neither allowed you to proceed past entering an e-mail address to get the files sent, so I am thinking that they haven't completely finalized the release. In any event, this confirms that both "Press Start" and "Game Over" are complete and fully streamable there, both remain instrumental releases, and like "Press Start", the second EP features session drummer Cliff Aubut.

"Game Over" features the song "Moon's Haunted" (a prior removal from "Press Start") and new tracks named "Escort Mission" & "Antipath", mostly shorter than what made the cut on the main EP. Even if their sale postings worked, I probably wouldn't be reviewing "Press Start" on the SMS until next month (Molten Imp are waiting in the wings already), but if you want to hear all eight songs for free until/unless you can properly buy them, click here or above, and we'll keep you posted when we hear more!

Next up, do you recall the occasional teaser from musician interviews on local internet radio station The Borderline where a guest was suggested/teased as the host of an upcoming metal-centric program? Well, one is finally debuting tonight! This has not been announced on the station's website at press time, but former Winkstinger/Twistory frontman Josh Amendola tells me that he will be hosting a metal-centric series named Metal Morpheus that debuts tonight at 9:00 PM! Naturally, the first episode will go through the roots of metal in the 1960s and 1970s, but Josh did say that local bands will be in the eventual playlist. If you can't tune in live, one imagines that episode #1 will be available for on-demand streaming after the fact, once Metal Morpheus appears on The Borderline's website. For obvious reasons, it's great that The Borderline finally has a metal show!

Adding some musical diversity beyond the occasional interview or one-off interview is very welcomed, and it's nice that it's slotted earlier than you may expect for a metal radio show on an otherwise non-metal station! There are unknowns yet, but tune in to Metal Morpheus tonight at 9:00 PM to hear how Josh does in episode #1, and I apologize again for the delay in mentioning this on the SMS! He originally caught me in a busy stretch what with all of the new concert announcements in the area, no hard feelings whatsoever!

We'll close today with new videos, starting with a new cover of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" from ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau's YouTube channel on Friday! His first upload there in three months, this vocal/acoustic guitar rendition lets you hear a higher and softer aspect of Buzz's range that isn't as apparent from his proper bands, and while I prefer later, more progressive Radiohead songs, this is well done across the board! Give Buzz's newest cover a watch below!

Finally, here's a new instrumental jam video from veteran local hard rock guitarist Mike Cliffe's YouTube channel on June 23rd! An progressive rock playthrough alongside pre-recorded drums by Washington-based drummer Bill Ray, Mike suggested in the description that this isn't finished and may have had a timing slip-up, but it sounds fine so far! Smooth and melodic, well handled by a prolific musician who knows complex prog rock very well, and it's nice to see more new content from Mike's YouTube channel, so give this video a watch below, and hopefully we hear more from Mike soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site later this week! Thanks everyone, and to all of our American readers, have a happy Fourth of July!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tarnished), Project 906 Updates, And Much More!!

Another July 4th is here, so of course, Happy Independence Day to our American readers! Coincidentally, The Sault Metal Scene launched 13 years ago today on our original Facebook group, and of course, I would like to thank all of our readers and local musicians for all of their support and content over the past year, especially so over the past four months! At this point last year, I never would have guessed that a global pandemic would pump the brakes on the local concert calendar and make us swap over to a new normal, but as you saw with our 91 day posting streak from March-June, I was able to get new content out there to keep everyone informed as best as I could. The summer concert season has been decimated due to social distancing measures, though with Spun allegedly coming to St. Ignace next month, and the LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (yes) ahead, you can see that the Sault Michigan area is trying to bring some semblance of a live concert schedule back.

I'm hoping the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has came and went, especially given how the Algoma District and Chippewa County case counts have been small so far, but with fears of a second wave ever present, I hope everyone is being cautious and safe, and hopefully we'll have a full concert schedule for the summer of 2021. Thanks again to everyone for their support over the past 13 years, and now, let's dive into some big Sault Michigan news!

Barring another COVID-19 lockdown, Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished will play their first public concert since the spring on Saturday, July 18th when they headline the "Rock the Block" event at Crooked Music at 540 Ashmun Street! Yes, this will reportedly be inside the music store, despite the obvious space limitations brought about by social distancing, Tarnished confirmed as much on their Facebook page on June 19th. That said, they are encouraging social distancing and face masks, so if you do attend, please use common sense to keep everyone safe, and maybe more shows could happen in the near term. This will be Tarnished's first live show with new drummer Gary Croad, and their first show as a plugged-in quartet since October, so if you've missed Tarnished's full band setup in 2020, this will be worth your time! Three opening acts were sought in the above Facebook post on June 19th, and they are now confirmed, including Detroit hard rock quartet Letters From Abel in their local debut!

Having a downstate band open for a local band may seem atypical, but Letters From Abel are relatively new from what I have read, and they do have a Sault tie, as their drummer is Midnight Logic alum Kade Desarmo. You can see them cover Nirvana at this link, and they are a promising young group! The other acts are solo musicians, including singer/guitarist Kevin Blakeney, who you may recognize from the last three Rudyard Musicians Festivals, and who does have grunge and alternative songs in his repertoire. The other performer is St. Ignace solo artist Austin Graham, who performs under the name Grayham Entertainment. I don't know what he plays, but you can find out tomorrow when he performs at The Club at Breakers in St. Ignace. Note that Tarnished's online ticket page advertises Illinois blues project Concreteslim as playing on July 18th, but it looks like Kevin replaced them for unannounced reasons.

An all ages event with a 6:00 PM matinee start time, Rock The Block will have $10 admission at the door or via online tickets purchased above. Of course, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is not magically going away in the next two weeks, and while I hope this show goes off without a hitch and with all of the proper safety measures, the situation is volatile, as evidenced by the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the state. If this concert is cancelled, postponed, or relocated, we will let you know, but fingers crossed everything works out for everyone involved! See the above links for more details!

Finally, let's look at ex-Tarnished drummer Tommy Korcal's current local hard rock band Project 906, who have been staying busy during the pandemic working on original songs for a planned debut EP! On June 21st, the guys revealed on their Facebook page that they hope to record it later this year or in early 2021. Fans may have seen them play originals live on occasion, but now you can hear copies recorded from their jam room (I'd guess), starting with a fully public re-upload of "It's So Easy". Other original song names include "The Comeback" (watch them perform it live here), "Walk On", and "8th and Nowhere", but embedded below is their newest song posted on Thursday, entitled "The Lonely Few". I'll hold comment on the songs for now, in deference to the album review that will follow the EP's release, but it's great to see Project 906 staying busy and productive while they can't play live! Get more updates above and below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Din & Project 906), Plus Remaining Weekend Concert Previews!!

Here's our last weekend concert preview for this batch of shows, and just off the bat, I wanted to acknowledge that the Elements' preview should have been yesterday instead of Peril due to the Friday-only placement. Blonde moment, but I hadn't forgotten the show, and it's previewed here, along with two SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, despite their attachment to big festival events, with a new video from one! Here's what you should know!

Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Project 906 will provide musical entertainment at the fourth annual Moloney's Michigan Beerfest at (and outside) Moloney's Alley on West Portage Avenue TOMORROW! Apologies for the short notice, the band only confirmed their involvement via their Facebook page this past Saturday, and with no posts scheduled until Monday, we opted to hold them for this weekend's previews. A festival devoted to craft and independent breweries in Michigan, 17 in-state breweries will be on hand with their wares for fans to try for themselves, which will be very exciting for beer aficionados, so visit the official Facebook event page for complete non-musical details! It's also worth noting that half of the proceeds will go towards the ongoing cancer battles for young area residents Jessica Jorgensen (who was similarly supported at Pop Evil's 2013 show here) and Alex McCready, so keep them in your thoughts when attending Moloney's Michigan Beerfest TOMORROW!

And yes, this is the latest Project 906 event at Moloney's Alley, which they have played prolifically in recent weeks, though they will look slightly different, as bassist Dustin Paras will be out of town this weekend. Filling in is former Scofflaw/Broke on Sunday bassist Barney Gravelle, who you may remember from playing with Joe Jenkins & Will Storey in 906's predecessor band Ten Kings, so keep that angle in mind TOMORROW! Moloney's Michigan Beerfest begins at 3:00 PM, but Project 906 will be on at 6:15 PM as a (the?) featured band, and tickets are $20 in advance, $25 on Saturday, with 4 drink tickets included, 5 if bought in advance. Tickets are available at Moloney's Alley, The Palace Saloon (just down the road) and the Downtown Development Authority office at 511 Ashmun Street. Visit the above links for complete details, and for a preview, here's a brand new video of Project 906 live at last week's Sidewalk Sales event at Crooked Music!

Though the weather wasn't as bad as forecasted, the downtown music store still hosted their musical entertainment inside, with their Facebook page confirming the day's musicians mid-sale, including Dead Water Tapes guitarist Garrett Chevrette, two-man-band The MC Experience (featuring Connor Tetzlaff & Tantrym Tyme's Mike East), former Half Stupid bassist Matt Williams, and a joint set from Stuck In Reverse's Raven Griffin and Retro Troop's Cliff Schaut. Project 906 (sans Dustin again) headlined, with a store staffer filming them covering The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See". Solid acoustic performance of this southern rock classic, if a little pixellated, so give it a look below, and stay tuned for more from Project 906!

Next up, here's one more late notice show announcement, as Sault Ontario alternative/hard rock trio The Din are back at it TOMORROW NIGHT for a special Roberta Bondar Pavilion concert as part of the inaugural Fringe North International Theater Festival! Again, apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via it's official Facebook event page on Tuesday, and hadn't previously been advertised on the festival's website at that time (though it's on their schedule now.) An early event in this Buskerfest-succeeding festival of theatrical, street, and musical performers at varying downtown locations, TOMORROW'S show will double as the anniversary concert for their debut studio album "Give In To The Din", which came out on August 12th last year. In honour of the anniversary The Din will play the entire album from start to finish, as well as selections from their upcoming second album, so keep all of this in mind!

Though not advertised by the band, Fringe North's website lists local Christian rapper Bold Noize as opening, which does make sense, given his past guest appearances with The Din. Look for him to start the night and on three future days under the tent! Fringe North vendors will be on site for this FREE & ALL AGES concert at 9:00 PM TOMORROW, and of course, finally we'll see The Din rock the border at a (partial) music fest! Despite the unusually late notice, this should be a fun concert to commemorate The Din's one year old CD, so see above for more details, and here's The Din live!

Finally, here's a preview of one more previously announced concert taking place TONIGHT, as local funk/ska/hard rock quartet The Elements will play a rare headlining concert at The Rockstar Bar! Preparing a set chock full of varied covers and all of their originals for tonight's concert, this will definitely get a ska kick compared to their other recent shows, as saxophonist Josh Norling will return as a guest performer for the first time this year, so look for some smooth sax to compliment The Elements' hard hitting covers and originals tonight! Local alternative/hard rock quartet Bizotic will open tonight's proceedings in a rare Rockstar Bar stop, giving both bands some horn instrument action, and they should compliment things nicely, so don't be late for their set either, or to get some new stickers! A 19+ concert, expect a 10:00 PM start time and no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more on this intriguing concert, and here's The Elements (and Josh) live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site over the weekend! Thanks everyone!

Happy 10th Anniversary To The Sault Metal Scene!! (2007-2017)

On this day 10 years ago, on a whim and a lark, I launched the initial Facebook group for The Sault Metal Scene as a group to network local metalheads and alert them to pertinent concerts and news. 10 years later, we've evolved into a full blog/website covering metal, hard rock, and punk concerts in each of the Twin Saults, and I wanted to take a rare opportunity to mark this milestone on the site and thank every single one of our readers for 10 awesome years! It hasn't always been smooth sailing for readership, concert activity, and not to mention growing pains as I learned how to manage the site and report news effectively, but it's been an extremely worthwhile decade, and it has been an extreme privilige to be a source of news, media, and entertainment on local metal, hard rock, and punk over this time!

With Scott McLeod's old Sault Music Scene website having closed the year prior to our launch (to the dismay of myself and other fans), I affectionately named the Sault Metal Scene in homage to it with a more genre and local-specific focus, and even after we formally started covering punk bands three years ago, the original name has stuck. I admit that it can be hard to read some of my older posts, especially after I refined and cleaned up my writing style, but for someone with no formal journalism training, I hope that I've been able to be a useful resource for concerts and bands of the past decade, especially in connecting Sault Ontario fans to Sault Michigan bands & concerts, and vice versa. In case you're reading into anything from what I've wrote, don't worry, The Sault Metal Scene is not  going anywhere, and there is a lot of gas in the tank with more than enough opportunities to fill up along the road! How could I fold things before our 100th monthly CD review in October anyway? There's so much more to do!

Of course, it's immeasurable how much the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes have changed in the past 10 years. You can count the number of SMS-covered bands that are still alive and functioning that were here when we launched. Of course, Stiffler's Mom are about as active on the bar circuit now as they were then, while Mayadevi (now Ashoka At The Show) remain active as an Elliot Lake-based solo project, Mike Cliffe still records solo music & Audiofumes collaborations, and As It Stands, Life's Eclipse, and Syktoyk Rampage may still be functioning bands, even if they haven't had much to say in recent months. The days of Gates of Winter, Fitswitch, The Inner City Surfers, Free Beer, and Clownsack have given way to The Bear Hunters, Jack Spades, A Dire Setback, Id Iota, and Stoned Ape Evolution just a decade later, and many of the visible active sights in the local scene when we launched have moved on to new bands, new hometowns, and even new creative focuses.

Sure, we've seen such 2007-era musical standouts as Mikey Hawdon, Bryan Belleau, Jake Lalonde, and (soon) Mike Mikus relocate from the Soo area in the past 10 years, but we've also seen key musical players like Mike Haggith, Tym Morrison, Terry Eaton, and the late David Gold all move (back) to the Soo since, so there's always been a lot of talent to cover! Think of all the huge and well received concerts that took place locally in 2007, like Kiss' outdoor show at Kewadin Casino, the Heaven & Hell and Three Days Grace concerts at The Essar Center, Matthew Good at The Speak Easy (well, maybe not the last one), and it's very hard to believe that these all took place 10 years ago, not to mention such locally-headlined landmarks as Lion Ride's live debut, Gates of Winter's huge pre-album release show at Algoma University, and The Inner City Surfers' live music video shoot, among many others.

Also, look at the bands locally that weren't even a thing in 2007, and aren't active now, that made a huge mark, like Garden of Bedlam, Gnaeus, Bring the Fallen, The Pixo Control, Late & Loud, and Half A Man, among many others. Even the venues of the era have seen a major shift, with Foggy Notions, GLOW, the original Coch's Corner, Madison's Pub, The Outback, and The Bird/Golanka's Bar ending their local runs, while The Rockstar Bar, The New American Pub, 180 Projects, and (for a time) The Roosevelt Hotel became top destinations to host metal & punk concerts at. Even in general, we've seen sweeping changes, like the early 2010s rise of death metal to the mid-2010s surge of young alternative bands, and with each, they've given way to exciting young and new artists that helped define the scene in their day, including some performers that were still children when the Sault Metal Scene proper launched! It's been very exciting to see things develop over the past decade!

The SMS has given me so many opportunities, friendships, and learning experiences, and I can only hope that the next decade will provide much more of the same, so my sincere and endless thanks to all of our readers, supporters, fans, and yes, even critics for all of their input and readership over this past decade! Even I only heard from you to give corrections or to announce a concert on very short notice, I appreciate any input to make our coverage better, and there's much more ahead. Thanks everyone for the past 10 years, and here's to another decade!

Rad Zone Anniversary Bash Fallout, Destroilet's Newest Member, And More!!

Here's our first all-news, no-previews/profiles post on the site in almost a week! Along with some assorted recent updates and new song uploads, we're leading off with the first fallout from this past weekend's concert that celebrated a great store's big anniversary, so here's what you should know!

We'll kick things off today with some long awaited fallout from Saturday night's Ripcordz-headlined Rad Zone anniversary party at The Rockstar Bar, including a new article and photo album from SooToday's Donna Hopper! Entitled "Some punk for Monk", the article (which went up on Wednesday) features a recap of the night's entertainment (though with no mention of DJ Seith's opening set, oddly enough), but mostly focuses on Rad Zone owner Paul "Monk" Muncaster, which reflects on his 30 years owning The Rad Zone and it's predecessors. The article does feature comments from Paul himself, including confirmation that he wants to retire from running the shop in around 10 years, saying that he wants to "sit & enjoy life with a fishing rod", and that he knows someone will pick up where he left off then. That will be a sad day when it comes, but make the most of his music and vinyl knowledge where you can, as he's been doing awesome work in this town for decades for the music & skate scenes (and beyond!)

Yes, Local2 video cameras were rolling too for a Tuned episode, but as of this writing, it's not online yet. We'll keep you posted when it's up! As for Donna's photos, which are all in black and white, she got 23 shots on Saturday, including 10 of The Ripcordz, 6 of Jack Spades, 4 of Destroilet (though none of DJ Seith), while Paul is the focus of three, one featuring the Rad Zone's birthday cake. Great shots as usual, so be sure to check them out above!

Next up, here's the big Destroilet lineup news that was publically revealed at the Ripcordz concert this past Saturday, as the band has added veteran local musician Brenton Ellis (a.k.a. Diamond Brent Panther) to their lineup as a co-lead singer, who will share vocal duties with Mike Hull going forward. Brent is well known locally as a singer and/or bassist from bands like Lion Ride, Detroit, and Tha Bombed Squad, and for out of town bands like The Labour Of..., The Sexual Vigilantes, and most recently Maximum RNR, who Brent parted ways with last month prior to moving back to the Soo. It's not clear yet whether Brent will sing alongside Mike during shows or will trade off for certain songs/verses, but he will debut with the band at the Rebel Spell concert at The Moose Lodge on Thursday. This is an intriguing surprise for the now six-piece Destroilet, and I just hope it's not considered a demotion on Mike's part. It's great to have Brent back in the area, and we'll have to see how things sound next week, so keep an eye out!

Also today, here's the first completed song from Haggith drummer Mike Haggith's next announced studio solo album "The Warinside"! Entitled "September", this was posted on his solo YouTube channel yesterday, and it's an instrumental track that's "of particular significance" to him, but is not similar to the rest of the album, which will be heavier, though with something for everyone (source here.) Recorded at Galactic Records in Windsor, Mike's hoping to have this album complete by early next year. I'll hold comment for now as a review of this album is likely, but give this short interlude a listen!



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

• Though technically not a metal or hard rock note, Staind frontman Aaron Lewis will return to our area on November 22nd for a solo country concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino. Fans may remember Staind's well received headlining gig here in April 2009, and while this tour is definitely focused on solo songs like "Country Boy", he is known to cover Staind songs in this setting too. For more details, click here!
• New local punk/grunge duo The Red & Black posted two new songs onto their Bandcamp page on Tuesday, along with a higher quality version of "The Army Song". The new tracks are "Put Up or Shut Up" and a yet-untitled song, and while the former is reminiscent of frontman Chris Shoust's Telephone & Address work, the latter is an experimental drum/piano piece that Spider Fingerz fans should like! Check everything out above!
• This is admittedly late, as the show took place yesterday, but local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver were added on short notice to yesterday's Northern Horde concert in Toronto alongside fellow local bands AlgomA, Bad Back, The Apocalypse Afterparty, and Crucify The Whore, plus non-locals Fox (replacing Ghost Daze.) Sounds like a very solid concert, hopefully everyone made a huge splash! Our source is the Facebook event page.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and this month's new poll on the site TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!

The Rad Zone 30th Anniversary Bash/Ripcordz Concert Review!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian readers! After a delay partly due to some holiday weekend commitments, it's now time for our review of Saturday night's Rad Zone 30th anniversary bash, which actually took place upstairs at The Rockstar Bar rather than the advertised Algonquin Pub downstairs. If the reason for the switch was announced, I didn't hear it, but given The Rad Zone's long run as a record store (and more), the accoutrements of upstairs fit the setting better! Owner Paul "Monk" Muncaster and current Rad Zone staff were on hand to take in the festivities, which featured a number of prize giveaways, including Vans shirts, hats, wallets, shoes, and more, along with cupcakes (some branded with band and Vans logos) and a chocolate 30th birthday cake (complete with the show poster as icing) to help celebrate! Though my luck didn't follow to the draws, I did get one of the free Rad Zone records that were free to claim at show's end, and it's on the wall in my room now!

As well, congratulations to Habitat Shuffle frontman Christian Lemay on winning the door prize (a brand new Vans skateboard) at show's end! A Rad Zone banner hung above the stage as well for the show's duration, and given the season, The Rockstar Bar was decked out in Halloween decorations, which suited the late-addition opening act Shane Erickson (a.k.a. DJ Seith), who injected some seasonal music and cuts into his usual turntable mixes! This is the second time that I've seen a full DJ Seith set, and while I'm admittedly not the right person to critique such a performance, he still has a natural ease and flow when playing his mixes, and I liked hearing some familiar songs like "The Wizard" and "Intergalactic"! If I was him though, I'd have completely crafted a new all-out Halloween set with wall-to-wall seasonal music, especially having recognized some elements from his Oddfellows Hall set this summer, but it's great to have someone who loves vinyl records honouring a great store that specializes in them!

The first of three bands on Saturday night were local hardcore punk notables Destroilet, who made a surprise announcement pre-show indicating that this would be their last set with this lineup. We won't mention the change here just to spread things out to our next news post, especially given what's to come, but if you weren't at the show, I'll guarantee that it's completely positive and intriguing all at once! As for their set, the guys split time between 7 songs from their newest CD and assorted covers and newer originals like "Bamberg Witch Prison" and a brand new yet-untitled track, and if you've seen past Destroilet shows, the guys were at their usual intense level! If anything, it was surprising to see singer Mike Hull leave his shirt on for the duration, but he and the guys were on form, with John Conway & Christian Foisy's hard hitting guitar shining especially! Mike's vocals were a little quiet again, but this was a solid set, and stay tuned for more on Destroilet's lineup announcement!

Last of the openers was local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades, who kept up their recent momentum with an energetic set of their own! Along with every original song from their EP (save "X", as the original band was playing next), the guys played newer originals like "Motorwolf", "Fear Corps", and "Crossroads" for assembled fans, plus Misfits and SNFU covers, and if you've seen Jack Spades recently, you'll know they were on form! The guys had no major hiccups during their set, which featured strong melodic vocals from J.D. Pearce, excellent lead guitar from Jesse Cook, and steady and solid drumming from Johnny Belanger, all of which seemed to get a nice crowd reaction! So soon after Hardcore Homecoming, there wasn't much of a jump or change in quality, but that just screams to how consistent their live sets are, and don't miss them with Destroilet and The Rebel Spell at The Moose Lodge on the 23rd!

After an impromptu speech on The Rad Zone's impact and influence by former Lion Ride bassist Brenton Ellis, it was time for the headline act, as Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz rocked a local audience for the third time in 18 months with another intense and attitude-fueled set of their classic originals! Touring in support of their new CD "Made In Montreal", Paul Gott and company played some classic and recent hits like "Anarchy", "You Are Not Alone", "Ghosts of Griffintown", and "X" (with J.D. from Jack Spades on guest vocals), and fans ate up every minute! Even Monk jumped into the pit, which was a fun surprise! Paul, Matty, and Francois were in great spirits throughout their set, with Paul's serious intensity fitting their hardcore punk sound and presence, but it would have been nice to have seen more fans up front for their set, especially given the high attendance. Great set, and hopefully The Ripcordz roll back through here in 2015!

Closing with some kind words of thanks from Monk (who believed he had another 10 years in him at The Rad Zone, at least), this show was definitely a good time, and congratulations again to him on all he's done for local music and skateboarding in the past 3 decades! SooToday and Local2 were on hand for an article and Tuned episode, and we'll let you know when both make it online (and yes, we'll address Destroilet's announcement this week too!) As for out uploads, we posted plenty of photos and videos of all four acts at our Facebook page and at this link, plus a "Tag Yourself!" crowd shot, so visit the above links to see everything. And now, here's our videos of DJ Seith mixing "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Destroilet playing their newer original "iBomb", Jack Spades playing their recent song "Frederick", and The Ripcordz playing "Two-Four"!









That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!

Happy 7th Anniversary To The Sault Metal Scene, Now With Punk!!

Happy 7th anniversary to The Sault Metal Scene! After a year off last year from any new major updates or changes for our 6th anniversary, we have a big announcement today that will affect our future coverage: The SMS is adding most (if not all) subgenres of punk music full time going forward to our coverage! You may be wondering what took us so long to formally fold non-hardcore punk genres into our range of local bands & concerts, but over time, it's made more and more sense. While I myself am a metalhead first, I've always loved punk and listen to bands like The Misfits, The Exploited, Pennywise, and many others with regularity, even if one local band called me "some metalhead" in their bio. I'm also well aware of how strong and vibrant the punk scene was in the Soo in the 1980s and 1990s, as vividly depicted in Paolo Colasacco's book "Going Underground", and through the available songs, albums, and videos from the era. Plus, our band range on the site has slowly included more and more punk bands over time just from natural evolution and the amount of hardcore punk shows that crossover into both metal & punk realms.

As a result, the ratio of punk bands that we covered on here just through the extant metal ties has shrank, and it's almost ignorant to continue not covering the few punk bands in town that don't crossover into hardcore and metal subgenres, especially as we cover many of their shows already, and it's my hope that this can help in building the punk scene back to levels that it once enjoyed in the area. As a result, we'll begin putting up some feature posts this week to properly "introduce" active punk bands in the coming days (among others, Treble Charger, Redundant, The Northern Tragedy, and The Billy Bastards are guarantees), and after known active punk bands are rolled in to our links and coverage, we'll begin the process of adding defunct and inactive local punk bands with surviving online pages (i.e. The Inner City Surfers, Smeltzer, The Scary Uncles, Room 206, and many others) to the site as well. Full punk bands will also be completely eligible for our monthly feature posts and reviews (including for our out of town series) once rolled in!

Also, I'd like to feature archive videos on the site as a feature mini-series like we did when we expanded our coverage distance, but I concede that might be easier said than done given the amount that exist online. I'll see what I can do though! Now, in terms of added genres, this does not affect the general and classic rock genres that remain out of our coverage range (it gets very tricky to define many of those bands without stretching, unless they do actively play and cover aggressive material.) As well, bands that could be classified as "emo" from when that was a big sound will be assessed band by band, as some didn't fully play a form of punk, but we'll approach that when it comes. Lastly, I'll note that (at least for surviving online pages), there isn't a lot of straight punk bands that we can add from the Sault Michigan area, even on an archive basis, but I will definitely do due dilligence to add what I can from across the river!

This should be an exciting time as we begin giving punk bands the attention they deserve on the site, so be sure to follow along in the coming weeks and beyond, and if you're a diehard metalhead, never fear, as metal & hard rock are still getting ample coverage like always! Thanks everyone, and for our Yooper readers, Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 6th Anniversary From The Sault Metal Scene!!

Hey guys, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for supporting us over the past 6 years, as today marks our 6th anniversary from The Sault Metal Scene's launch as a Facebook group on July 4th, 2007! Since then, I'd never have guessed that the SMS would grow to such big heights, and attain such a loyal readership, but I appreciate every single hit, like, comment, and bit of feedback that I've received ever since! Without you guys, and the bands & promoters who put so much time & effort into their work, there would be no site, so you're way more to blame for us hitting 6 years than I am. Now, I know that in past years, I've had something big to add, unveil, or launch in relation to the site for our annual birthday, but this year, I'm gonna take a break from any major changes or additions to the status quo. Mainly, it's because (on a personal note) I want to get my personal life in order and settled (i.e. finding a full time job) before I dive into anything time consuming or unfamiliar in regards to the site, so that I don't promise the world & then not deliver due to my own personal commitments.

I had pondered expanding our coverage range again, but if we get too much farther than the 1 hour range that we have now, we'll hit bands that don't have a large association with the Soo or play here often, and I want to keep things as local to the Twin Saults as possible (but, if said close-ish bands do get engaged into the Sault area, that could easily change.) There's also the idea of launching a new monthly feature, starting interviews or podcasts, or producing merchandise to sell at concerts, but they're their own commitment to maintain successfully when I have so much else on my plate relating to the site, and I'd be more comfortable exploring them once my personal life and schedules are figured out. The only thing I really did to mark the occasion was expand the field where our posts are written by a few pixels, while shortening the link/listing sidebars a touch, just because I'm increasingly writing more in our posts, and a little extra room would help accomodate that. This will also facilitate larger videos when embedded in posts, though it shouldn't otherwise be a major change from what we already know.

Still, this is a big milestone, and I couldn't have got here without you guys, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your support, friendship, readership, and (in the case of bands) music in the past 6 years, and here's to many more to come! Don't miss The Golers' return show TONIGHT at The Rosie, and for you Yoopers celebrating the Fourth of July, Powerslug will follow the fireworks TONIGHT as well in their Back Door debut, so go occupy a venue! Thanks everyone, and happy Independence Day!

Happy 5th Anniversary From The Sault Metal Scene!!

Hey guys, today marks our 5th anniversary at The Sault Metal Scene, having launched the original Facebook group on July 4th, 2007, and this year, my computer isn't holed up at Staples getting repaired, so our big plans can go up as scheduled (and of course, happy Independence Day to all of our Yooper fans!) You guys are amazing for all of the support and interest since 2007, I never dreamed we'd be around at this level this far along, and I can't thank you all enough! That said, as we've hinted at on the site recently, our main surprise this month for the anniversary is that, for the first time since we defined a coverage range, we're expanding the "local" boundaries for what we should cover on the site! Thanks in part to the results that we received via our poll on the site in May, I was convinced that there was sufficient support to go past 45 minutes drive time from the Twin Saults for our work on the site, but are we going to instantly jump to a 90 minute coverage range on the site, like most of you voted for? I definitely have plans in mind to go that far, but I want to take things slow, so while we've expanded the coverage range on the SMS, it will just be to one hour for now. Though this doesn't seem like a lot, it opens up a lot of new stuff for the site that I'll get to in a bit!

Why the smaller initial expansion? Basically, so we can acclimate ourselves to new shows, bands, and topics that will come up for the site before we gradually move up to a 75 minute range, and finally, 90 minutes. Doubling the range overnight would be a major adjustment and I want things to be gradual and easy to follow for everyone. Note however that the expansions likely won't include the Lower Peninsula, as it's a very different area with few direct local connections, and with the Algoma District and U.P. almost being the same size, I wanna keep things roughly as equal as possible between the two regions.

With that said, what's new with our current one hour range for Sault Ontario! Well, the new towns we're adding into our range include Desbarats, Richard's Landing, Batchewana Bay, and Port Findlay, among other communities in between, which does add a noticeable amount despite it's seeming smallness! Probably the biggest news is that we're adding two new bands formally to our coverage, those being two recently prominent area death metal bands: For All That Is Lost and Inhuman Methods! Both are definitely due for equal coverage on the SMS, and along with the new band we're adding in Michigan, we'll be profiling them in an upcoming special post to sort of welcome them into the full fold, so keep an eye out for that! For concerts and venues, this probably won't add a lot of new places to what we have been covering in Canada, but one aspect this will add is the CASS Cafe sets at Central Algoma Secondary School in Desbarats, which has been home to a number of bands and genres over the past so many years, including metal & hard rock, and I'm also planning to profile CASS Cafe videos in a series of some kind to share these with a deserving local audience! Stay tuned for more of these new integrations into our Sault Ontario coverage!

As for the Sault Michigan area, expanding just 15 minutes more adds a lot more areas to our coverage, so here's some of the more notable spots! In Chippewa County, we've added Raber Township & Trout Lake Township, but neither is really hopping for bands or shows that I've seen. However, the expansion takes us into a new county for the first time, that being Mackinac County, which lies just south of Chippewa, and they've given us some noticeable local additions! New towns added to our coverage range include St. Ignace, Cedarville, Hessel, Moran & Brevort Townships, and the Marquette Township, and these will give us some nice new additions! One is a new band, that being the defunct Cedarville hard rock band Oddfellow, who achieved some solid notoriety in their 2000s run, and they'll add some solid archive material to our links! For shows, we'll get a lot of new additions thanks primarily to the Kewadin Casinos in St. Ignace & Hessel, which both host live entertainment (especially in St. Ignace), and we'll profile these new additions on the site shortly! There are scattered bars and venues in this new range that can also count for concerts, especially from road-friendly bands like Banned, so keep an eye out for some dates (and more) in our newly added communities in our Sault Michigan coverage range!

With that all said, we'll be unveiling all of the new stuff on the site shortly, including a profile post of the three new band additions, a series of CASS Cafe videos, alerts on all of the new concerts that now fit in our local range, and anything else that's newly local on the SMS, so keep an eye out for all that along with the news and feature posts you know and tolerate from before! Also, keep an eye out for our relaunched Twitter page as well, as I'm gonna give that the old college try again today and hopefully I'll stay on top of things there also! Thanks again for all of the support, interest, and readership over the past 5 years, and here's to lots more to come! I can't stress enough how important every one of you guys are to how far this site has came, even if your comments were on the negative side of the spectrum, as they made my work better for all parties. The best is yet to come though, and I hope you guys are along for the ride no matter where we go! Thanks everyone, and remember, further coverage expansions lie in our future!

Happy (Belated) 4th Anniversary To The Sault Metal Scene!!

Well guys, we're keeping with a fast paced schedule on the SMS now that my computer's back from Staples, and now, finally, we can talk about our 4th anniversary surprises in detail! I was hoping to (obviously) do all of this on Monday, July 4th, which is the day we started the SMS in 2007, but hey, things happen and believe me, I was pissed at the inconvenience of it all. Now that we're back in working order though, I can properly unveil and detail the surprises and announcements in a way that Facebook statuses cannot! So let's kick this off with the biggest news of all for the anniversary! The first news is that we are now selling official Sault Metal Scene t-shirts! This was an idea that I've been deliberating on for some time now (you may have seen the occasional hint or reference to it on our Facebook page), but for the fourth anniversary, I finally decided to pull the trigger! Hopefully I can answer any lingering questions you guys have on the shirts, so hopefully this post will cover them. The shirts are black with our logo in red on the chest, with nothing on the back (Keep it simple unless demand grows.) They are nice quality Gildan's 100% cotton t-shirts, and they come in sizes S-XL. The shirts will be printed on a order-by-order basis by AudioLife through Reverbnation, where we already have a "band page" set up, and as such, we now have a "Sault Metal Store" activated there for you guys to buy the shirts from! A link is also now on the SMS page itself on the bottom left, and our Facebook page has a "Store" tab to allow you to buy shirts through there too. I opted for Reverbnation due to it's ease and integration with our existing pages, and because it doesn't cost me a dime to make merchandise to sell! I handle the designing, and AudioLife/Reverbnation make the shirts from recieved orders and send them out. I had a great offer from RedD Monkey's Steve Mozarowski to make up shirts with him, but I thought that this would be simplest in terms of cost, space, and online access. Still, "some metalhead" recommends you bands give him a shout, his work is great! The shirts cost $12.97 (tax included), which is the absolute lowest I can make them for this style without sacrificing quality. The shipping cost to Sault Ontario is $8.49, but shipping to Sault Michigan is only $6.39, so if you live over there or use Weir's Furniture Store, make note of the $2.10 savings! I could have raised the base price & earned the difference, but I don't want to take your money. I'm not making a penny through this, I just want you guys to spread the word and support the SMS if you wanna by rocking a shirt! At present, you can only buy shirts with major credit cards, though if you give me the total shirt/shipping cost in person, I could order you one and have it sent to your address. When I ordered my SMS shirt, it took 4 weeks to ship, though keep in mind that the postal strike happened in the interim, so it will likely come earlier than that with your orders, especially if you're shipping to Michigan. At present, Reverbnation does not offer PayPal as a payment method, nor do they offer shirts in kids sizes or in sizes above XL, but if those become available, I will absolutely let you guys know! And for the record, I have NO shirts stocked at home, this is by online demand only. At least at present, if you want an SMS t-shirt, you'll have to order it, but trust me, it's worth the order! My shirt is nice quality, it's well screenprinted and it's durable, so as long as you take care of it and follow the washing instructions, it will last! Of course, I don't control the quality of how AudioLife makes the shirts, so click here for details on exchange or refund info if it came to that, though hopefully it won't. If these shirts sell well (time will decide that), I'll consider expanding the store to include other shirt colours, designs, and types, and maybe even hats, mugs, and bags. That all depends on if SMS shirts sell well, and if you'll honestly buy them, so click here if you're interested, and check the above information for more! You follow us, why not wear us and show your support? Second for the fourth anniversary surprises is, obviously, the new design of the SMS page itself. With Blogger's new updated template designing tools and the general aging and busy look of our old layout, I thought it was time to freshen up the look, while keeping it looking similar to before. I won't burden you guys with every change, but here's the major ones. The sidebars with the links, listings, polls, and so forth are now transparent black, which is a cool effect, and gives a seamless flow to the screen area. The banner is now taller to increase the customization possibilities (and make our logo more prominent), while many of the "border lines" are gone from surrounding text and photos, giving everything a cleaner look. Visited links are now blue & links now only highlight in purple, as I felt blue fit better given our Sault Michigan coverage. Link colours also now apply to sidebars too. I freshened up our band links by splitting the Twin Saults' respective band lists in half: One each for active bands, one each for inactive bands (i.e. defunct bands or ones that have not been visibly active in the previous year.) This way, you guys can get a better gauge of who's currently active in the local music scenes on both sides of the border without clutter from defunct & inactive bands, who are grouped separetely below the active ones (though if I made a mistake in my categorizing, let me know!) Also, each post now features buttons at the bottom to share individual posts on external websites like Facebook & Twitter. I've removed the out of town concert listings too because, in all fairness, our local fanbase isn't within easy driving distance for most of the shows, though we'll still mention them! And finally for notable changes, we now have an official mobile version of the SMS page formatted for smartphones, iPod Touches, and so forth! It's not really custom to our layout yet, but I like the formatting for it's ease of reading, though you can switch to a desktop view if you want as well. I hope the changes don't throw you guys off, cause I tried to maintain our old look while bringing it forward in design and style. There's more tweaking to be done though, so I will let you guys know when I change or add anything new! Third for the anniversary surprises is a new monthly feature series! I debated between Twitter and the site we chose for this one, but in the end, we picked the more active and varied of the two on a local metal basis, so our new monthly series is the YouTube Channel Profile Series! There's tons of people, bands, and groups on YouTube that have videos of a local metal interest, from live concert videos to original songs to jam session clips, there's plenty there! On the SMS, we tend to mostly feature new videos, videos from bands playing from concert previews, and so forth. There's a lot of older & unexplored channels & videos that deserve your attention, so starting on July 22nd, we will profile three YouTube channels with either a 50% level (or higher) of local metal-based videos, or a high number of videos in general of a local metal interest. We'l tell you who runs the channel, what to see there, what the overall quality is like, what videos are worth watching, and so on, cause there's a lot of hidden gems! I haven't decided a method to pick the channels yet though, though there will definitely be a form of random selection, and for the record, the SMS channel will NOT be featured. I talk about it enough as it is! So watch out for this new series on July 22nd, and from the 19th-25th of each succeeding month! And finally for surprises, The Sault Metal Scene is now on yet another music site! We have accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and Reverbnation, but now, we've made the jump to PureVolume! I've been using PureVolume for occasional band sourcing and material for years, and though it's nowhere near as popular locally as other music sites, I thought we should continue our reach by joining PureVolume, which has a nice interface to promote band material and information! Active bands like Frightlight, Tym Morrison, and Sykotyk Rampage all have a presence on PureVolume, while notable defunct bands like Infrastrate and D.O.T.H. all have utilized PureVolume in the past, and in some cases, the only page I have access to for a given band is through here, like with Bad Habbit. It's a nice little site and has a ton of solid bands from all over the world, so definitely consider using it if your band wants to extend themselves further! Our official PureVolume page is kinda bare at present, but definitely visit and make note of it to check our over a dozen local hard rock acts (including a new discovery we're profiling this week), and become a fan or friend today! Stay tuned for more updates from the SMS & PureVolume! That's all for now, but I do want to thank you guys sincerely from the bottom of my heart for all of the incredible support & readership that I and The Sault Metal Scene have been offered over the last four years (and two days.) Whether you read every day or see me as just "some metalhead", I appreciate everything you guys have done and said to help this site prosper beyond my wildest expectations that I had in July 2007. I hope you guys will follow along over the next year as we hopefully make our biggest strides yet in the local scene, as I really hope we can get even bigger going into 2012. Seeing 1,000 Facebook fans would be awesome, but you never know what will be up next! Thank you all for everything, we wouldn't be where we are now without you guys! Stay tuned later today as we continue to get back on track from the weekend delays, as we review Monday night's Titan's Eve concert! Thanks everyone!

A Band Name Change, A Possible New Show, And Lots More News!!

Before we get to today's previously scheduled local metal stories, I wanted to take a second to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sault Star reporter Frank Dobrovnik, who suddenly passed away just recently while vacationing in Italy with his wife. Frank had been a well respected writer & reporter for The Sault Star since 1998, and regular SMS readers may remember us featuring articles he has written surrounding certain major Essar Centre concerts, along with the Kiss concert campaign and aftermath, although his body of work stretches far beyond just those topics. I never met Frank, but I've been a fan of his writing style & articles for some time now, and this is completely shocking news to hear, especially for his young children and his own young age. Click here to read Frank Rupnik's tribute article from the paper, and local news sites should keep you guys posted on arrangements and donations to the family as they are made public. R.I.P. Frank!

Now, we have some more positive news to share on this rainy Tuesday, including some new songs, a band looking to play here, and kicking things off today, a local death metal band has changed their name! Yesterday afternoon, Bring The Misery officially changed their name to Unleash The Blackened Sky, after just two shows under their old name. With the name change, their Facebook page's link is different too, so we've updated our band links to reflect the change as well. No reason was publically given for the name change, though I imagine it's partly due to Dan Souliere's departure, as the "band merger" style of the old name (Bring The Fallen + State of Misery) doesn't have the same meaning when only one BTF member is left in the current lineup. Plus, the new name is more original, and it sounds very metal, so hopefully it sticks! Curiously though, their page still doesn't mention Daeson Lesage as their new rhythm guitarist, you think that would be updated by now. Stay tuned to the SMS for when we hear about Unleash The Blackened Sky's next shows!

Next up, there's another band looking for a local booking, so here's what you should know! I got an e-mail yesterday from Chris Woodford of the Toronto metal band Titan (not to be confused with Titans Eve), and he's looking for a local booking this summer! The band, who play sort of a mix of sludge and hardcore metal, are hoping to play a local concert on August 5th, between their Toronto & Thunder Bay shows on the surrounding days, and are open to playing anywhere that will book them! Dismembertainment can't do the show due to prior engagements that day, so Chris asked me if I could promote their search on the SMS, and I happily obliged! Titan are inspired by bands like Converge and Neurosis, and they have a nice slow and heavy sound with lots of aggression and intensity to get some moshpits going! It'd be cool to see Titan here on August 5th, so if any of you guys are interested in booking, helping book, or playing with Titan for a show that night, give the band a shout at their MySpace page linked above or at titanslays@gmail.com! Remember, if you wanna see Titan here, consider messaging them, they'd love to play here, someone just needs to extend an olive branch to start the process!

Now to some new updates from new local metal band AlterWhite! The band has uploaded two new demo covers onto their Facebook page (and their brand new YouTube channel), which may seem a bit odd when you think of metal covers. One is a cover of Creed's "My Own Prison" and the other (believe it or not) is of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper"! Now that's unexpected, especially the latter! Both end up sounding similar to their originals, as in they have some musical promise, but are very empty and unrefined, but remember, the band has just two guys at the moment. I find with both songs, the songs are obviously ratcheted up in heaviness, but honestly, Mike Matthews would be better served to actually try and sing the covers, not go into James Hetfield-mode, as it doesn't flow consistently with Kevin McCarthy's riffing. That said, I've never been a fan of George Michael, so I find the "Careless Whisper" cover to be an improvement! I want to hear these songs with another guitarist and a bassist, and maybe some more controlled singing, cause there is something there with AlterWhite that they need to expose musically! Check out the new covers (and more) at the above links, and here's their "Careless Whisper" cover!



And finally, if you've been a reader of the SMS in it's various forms over the years, you may know that July 4th is not just Independence Day, it's also the SMS' anniversary. We're coming up on 4 years since I started The Sault Metal Scene on Monday, and you may have seen a bit of a "countdown" of sorts on our Facebook page lately. That's just to build suspense, as we have 4 "surprise" announcements to make! Two involve the SMS blog/website itself, though what is happening there is up to you to speculate. One involves monthly features (all I'll say is none are being cancelled), and one involves one of our external pages. Yes, I'm keeping things vague for a reason, cause I want you guys to speculate and not know what's up my sleeve! Rest assured, nothing bad is happening, nothing drastic is going to happen in terms of overhauling our goals and aims, and (as I often reiterate), it's not related to me personally booking a concert. These announcements are all good, and in at least one case, I'll be able to provide you guys with something more than just text and media. Let the speculation run wild, and on Monday, you'll know exactly what we're doing to celebrate our 4th anniversary!

That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW as our final monthly feature post of June is unveiled, where we profile Saultite Jeff Nisbet's solo work in our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile Series! Stay tuned for that, and much more to come! Thanks guys!

Sykotyk Rampage's New Album Is Out!! Plus, More News & Notes!

Well guys, the 2010 Sault Ontario metal album season has officially kicked off with the first of a bunch of album releases, and that is today's top story, along with the latest news from two Sault Michigan bands and an upcoming concert, and a brand new local concert video! But first, it's time to go over what you should know about this new album!

The original crash band, Sykotyk Rampage, released their 23rd album, "Bella Disgusta" to their internet pages this morning! After an almost three month delay from the original announced release date, the latest collection of blue Chinese metal crash punk is out for fans to purchase and stream! Featuring 11 tracks, I won't go into detail on what to expect, but let me just say that fans of their last few albums won't be disappointed! It still has the same unique sound and style that got them where they are today! The album's available for $9.99 at the band's official SoundClick page by mp3 download only, or you can purchase individual songs for 75¢ each. Buying each song individually is actually $1.74 cheaper than buying the album as whole, but believe me, the whole album purchase is faster and more worth it. But before you download, you can stream the whole album absolutely free there, as well as on their Facebook page, so you can hear the album free before you buy it! So if you want to hear some crash music and get your Sykotyk Rampage fix, "Bella Disgusta" should work! Click here to buy it today, and use the above links to stream it beforehand!

And as you noticed at the top of the page, our banner has been modified in honour of "Bella Disgusta", as well as our official logo on our Facebook page! Check them out, they will be up through Friday! And finally, yes, I do have a review of "Bella Disgusta" planned for the next little while, but will it be the August album review? No, but here's why. I just reviewed their last album, "22", in March, and I try not to review two albums by the same band in a six month span, so I'll wait until next week to review "Bella Disgusta". My August review, which will likely be on Monday or Tuesday, will either be the CD SBD have been selling at their shows (if they have any tonight), or an album from WAY back in the local scene's past. I'll leave it that, and I'll have more soon!

Secondly today, here's a brand new video from July's Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival! This comes from the second day of the festival, July 23rd, and it's of Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way (featuring Lake Superior State University graduate Zak Stelmaszek) from their set that day as one of the supporting bands for Three Doors Down! The video, which was uploaded onto the band's official YouTube channel, features Fifth Way playing their song "Lose Control", and though the video doesn't capture the song in full, it's probably the best quality I've seen of any hard rock/metal performance clips from the festival! Catchy hard driving song, you should like this one, check it out below! And remember to stay tuned to The Sault Metal Scene next month when Fifth Way will be profiled in our next Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile!



Thirdly today is something we haven't done on here in a while: Quick notes on a few notable topics. These are stories that I don't have enough for a full note on that would be locally relevant, and coincidentally, all of the bands we're gonna touch on have a name starting with the letter E! So here we go, in alphabetical order, some quick news and notes:

• Sault Michigan hard rockers Elipzis are keeping busy with some more out of town dates as they continue to make their mark on the Lower Peninsula! Their blog on MySpace has news on some upcoming TV appearances they'll be making on some Grand Rapids-area stations, along with their latest gigs in Grand Haven and Battle Creek next weekend! Click the above links for more!
• If you were wondering why I didn't cover the announced release date of Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids metal band End of Existence's EP "Sun Is Gone" on August 15th, there's a good reason why I didn't. They actually pushed the release back to September 1st, as confirmed on a new ticker on their official website, as well as on the news section. No reason was given for the delay. I'll keep you posted as I hear more!
• As we've been plugging on the SMS, Endast, Blood Drunk, and the returning As It Stands will be bringing the metal to Foggy Notions on Thursday night. But why is it taking place at 6:30 PM, 3 ½ hours earlier than usual? Simple, because Thursday is karaoke night at Foggy's! That will be on as scheduled at 10:00 PM on Thursday, and expect this to be more metal than your typical karaoke night! Get more details at this location!

And finally for today, just some SMS housekeeping notes. Firstly, I've edited The Sault Metal Scene's official MySpace page to give it the new layout that MySpace is introducing for their profiles. It's a work in progress and admittedly not my primary focus for SMS things, but it does look cleaner and less like an HTML mess than it did. There's more to do, but of course, add us as a friend on MySpace today if you haven't already! Also, I wanted to clear up a little note on what cities, towns, and areas count as "local" in terms of what we cover on the SMS. My unwritten rule has been that bands and shows that we cover on here should be roughly within a 45 minute drive of Sault Ontario or Michigan, but what areas does that include? Well, here's what falls in that area for what counts as "local" for SMS purposes:

Outside of Sault Ontario: Laird, Garden River, Goulais River, Rankin Reserve, Prince Township, Gros Cap, Echo Bay, Bar River, Sylvan Valley, Aweres, Searchmont, and areas in between.

Outside of Sault Michigan: Kincheloe, Kinross, Barbeau, Kelden, Pickford, Stirlingville, Brimley, Raco, Rudyard, Dafter, Bay Mills, Sugar Island, Eckerman, Strongs, and areas in between.

Hopefully that helps clear up any confusion! I'm a bit more lenient for specific concerts (Hempfest, notably), but I try to stick to the 45 minute drive time area around the city for what I'd say is "local". No offense meant to any bands and promoters not in the above areas! That's all for today, I'll see you guys at Foggy's tonight for SBD, and I'll have a review, photos, and video tomorrow, and I'll try and post some live updates from outside Muio's as the night rolls on! I'll see you all downtown!

Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival Fallout & Videos!!

I'm back from Maniotulin Island, and I have loads of news to get to, but our main story tonight is fallout from the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, which wrapped up last night! Loads of stuff from there to get to, but first, an apology on missed shows. Apparently, this past weekend, Marquette hard rockers Nudge played at The Satisfied Frog this weekend for at least two concerts (Friday night and last night), though I can't verifiably prove if they played a "Nudge-coustic" show on Thursday night like they typically do. The band's MySpace page updates frequently to delete past concerts, so I can't check to see if they were there, but their Facebook page lists them, and according to it, the shows went well! Last time I checked their concert listings on MySpace, I'm pretty sure there was no local concerts listed for July, so either these were a late announcement or I didn't look hard enough. My deepest apologies to anyone affected by this slip-up, and I bet the shows were great!

And now, it's time to go over stuff that went down at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, starting with SooToday's coverage! Donna Hopper was there on Thursday for the Bret Michaels/Vince Neil-headlined opening night, and took a unique angle with her review by grading Bret and Vince individually on points to determine who had the better set! Donna gave Vince Neil points for his energetic drummer Zoltan Chaney and his performances of Motley Crue classics, but gave negative points for his 20 minute break while his solo band jammed covers. She gave Bret Michaels points for persevering from his major health setbacks and for his Poison classics, but docked him points for wearing a shirt with his own picture on it. Interesting way to review their sets, for more of the point breakdown, and to find out who "won", read Donna's article at this location! There's also 28 photos from their sets online, including some crowd shots, but there are no photos of any of the other bands, entertainers, or events. Reviews of the other nights on SooToday have not been posted as of tonight. SooNews.ca's Tami Fremlin got photos and filmed some segments at the festival for upcoming episodes of a SooNewsTV webprogram called Winging It!, and articles are online of Tami's encounters with Bret Michaels, Henry Winkler, DJ Chef, and the Playboy Playmates! Click on their names to read them! As of tonight, there's nothing else Kewadin Festival-related on there.

The Sault Star also had Kewadin Festival stuff to share afterwards, though only one piece revolves around metal or hard rock bands. Rachelle Labrecque from The Sault Star took a number of photos of Bret Michaels' set and the crowd during it, and there's some good shots, but there's nothing of Vince Neil or anything else from the festival in this album. Still good though, click here to check out her photos! The rest of the articles from The Sault Star so far revolve around Meat Loaf's set last night, including the panic beforehand that he may not perform after cancelling a Detroit concert on Thursday due to his doctor's recommendation. No worries, he performed as scheduled! Head to The Sault Star's official website for more on Meat Loaf, and of course, check your newer copies of the paper for the same articles above in print! Oddly, The Soo Evening News (the major newspaper in Sault Michigan) has had the least Kewadin Festival coverage that I've seen, the only new item I've seen being a photo of the mechanical bull ride. Hey, it's variance from the rest of what we've seen, but that can't be it, can it? I find it kinda odd as well that no major Sault-area news sources covered at least Three Doors Down on Friday, or any of the non-headlining bands, but hey, you take what you can get! If I hear or see anything else come out from the festival, I'll have it here!

And now, to cap off today's post: Videos, but believe it or not, there isn't a massive amount of videos yet. I thought there'd be tons by now, especially considering the bands, but regardless of genre or content, I've only found THREE Kewadin Festival videos as of tonight! YouTube user madmaddy361 uploaded a 10 minute video of the fireworks from one night of the festival, a date isn't specified for which day it was. Nice footage, but I was hoping for more concert clips, especially of the metal/hard rock bands! The only band videos I've seen from the festival (or "RockFest", as it's accidentally labelled) come from YouTube user Jeremy Dolce, who uploaded two concert videos onto his YouTube channel! One is a live video of Three Doors Down playing their song "Superman", and it's got nice quality audio, but the camera work is very shaky. Luckily, Jeremy did get some hard rock video, as he got a clip of Bret Michaels talking to the crowd, thanking them for their support, and sharing some cool possibilities for next year's tour, before starting into "Look What The Cat Dragged In"! Check it out below, and when new videos pop up online, I'll be sure to share with you guys!



I'll leave you guys with that for tonight, but stay tuned tomorrow for more news and updates that I have to get to! Lots of exciting things coming up, plus my next CD review and out-of-town band profiles! Stay tuned!