Heavy Lies The Crown Updates From The Last Few Months!!

How did I go all of July without a post catching us up on St. Ignace deathcore band Heavy Lies The Crown? Given that they're returning to the local stage this month for the returning 2nd Street Music Festival, it's high time we check out what the guys have been up to since late May! When we last left off with H.L.T.C., they were hitting the road for another concert downstate, this time 5 hours away in Chesterfield Township (outside of Detroit) on May 30th, where they opened for Buffalo post-hardcore band The Bunny The Bear at The Diesel Concert Lounge. Drummer Blaze Beairl was unable to make the trip that weekend, so they did a bit of lineup juggling. Guitarist Kaycee Mason sat in behind the drumkit (he already drums for Alpena metal band Katharsys Theory anyway), and they called in Kaycee's old bandmate Paul Nolan to sit in on guitar "for the time being", including at a private birthday concert the following day.

In their first Facebook video upload of the summer, Heavy Lies The Crown posted a very high quality performance video from the Chesterfield Township show, and while it only runs for 40 seconds, I do sincerely hope that this filmer got more content! The video in question shows Heavy and Paul in action, and this was reportedly the first time that bassist Christian Cook deployed backing vocals on stage with them, catching frontman Brandon West slightly off guard (in a good way). Christian has a very capable death growl there, so I'd be game to hear him more vocally! You can see more from that night in this highlight video featuring brief clips of all bands on May 30th, but it's another one of those videos that dubs over all live audio with an H.L.T.C. original ("Friend" here). With how good this video quality is, I'd be showing it off on full songs, but what do I know. Check everything out above & below!

Much of June was spent with Heavy Lies The Crown entering a contest to try and get voted in as a performer at the Global Citizen Festival in New York next month, which would also net them a $50,000 prize and a feature in Rolling Stone magazine. The Global Citizen Festival isn't exactly a metal haven in any year, but H.L.T.C. made a solid run at it, going as far as the quarterfinals, so congratulations to them on getting as far as they did! In their next Facebook video from early July, Brandon was seen driving his vehicle while talking to the camera in more of an off the cuff manner (not even saying "Hey guys, Heavy here" at the start). The focus here was on his vocal styles in their songs and what he prefers to do re: harsh vocals and "scare screaming", noting that their song "Jell-O" and his vocals there will very much be what their next album will largely sound like. Fun little update clip, so give it a watch below!

Regarding their annual 2nd Street Music Festival in their hometown (one of the very few times that Heavy Lies The Crown ever play public concerts in the E.U.P.), Brandon confirmed on their Facebook page on June 2nd that the show has moved up a week from this Saturday to next Saturday (August 16th), while also moving it from its prior 2nd Street location to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5114 at 1110 North State Street, right along the shore of the Straits of Mackinac. Now simply called Brandon's Birthday Bash, the show will feature H.L.T.C. alongside two touring metal bands from Metro Detroit, namely metalcore quintet Nothing After This and alternative/nu-metal band Influence. as well as Hannahville "rez metal" band Ghidora, who made the trip east for the St. Ignace show last year. Ghidora are replacing Macomb Country metalcore quartet At Water, as per this video on July 25th.

Brandon only said that "things happen. Understandable" when citing the reason for At Water dropping out, but hopefully nothing too serious happened, as it'd be neat to see more Detroit-area bands play north of the Mackinac Bridge! Because H.L.T.C. have been fairly quiet this summer beyond teasers and hype (including a mention last month of more potential lineup changes), we are now caught up on their recent updates, but with the big St. Ignace show ahead next Saturday, there'll be more to discuss from their camp soon, so stay tuned for more from Heavy Lies The Crown this month, and for more news & notes this week! Thanks everyone!

Woods of Ypres, Frightlight, And Bad Side Updates, And More!!

Can you believe that this is my fifth SMS post in THREE DAYS?! The amount of news lately is nutty, and I still have at least three news posts to go before everything backlogged is cleared out! I love doing it though, and you guys need to know about all of this, so I don't mind! Today, we get to four bigger stories from my news desk, some of which have been postponed a few days thanks to the news pile I've had lately, but there's some exciting stuff here to check out! Let's begin, and remember to check out my first installment of our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series in the post below!

We start today with updates from Woods of Ypres as they continue their North American tour! Right now, they're in California, but these updates relate to the Western Canada branch of their tour! Firstly, bassist Shane Madden has launched an official tour diary over at Decibel Magazine, which you can read the first installment of at this location! Shane goes into great detail about the band's tour and the mishaps during it, though curiously doesn't go into enormous detail about the actual concerts, mostly the before and after parts. Great read though, embellished with Woods of Ypres videos/audio and some new concert pics to boot! Click here to check it out! If you check out the videos embedded with the tour diary, you'll notice a couple new videos, and I'll tell you about them too! Frontman David Gold uploaded a couple new concert videos onto his YouTube channel, which are the first full performance videos from the tour on his channel! One is yet another video of "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part I)", though this time, it's from their Vancouver concert. Dark, but it's shot at a good angle, and the audio quality's good! The one I'm embedding here though is a video featuring the band performing two songs off of "Woods IV: The Green Album" ("Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & "Halves & Quarters") from their concert in Prince George! It's filmed from the crowd, so it kinda feels like we were there! Great quality, check it out below!



Next up, we have tons of updates from local horror punk/metal band Frightlight! First up, the lineup has been finalized for Frightlight's benefit concert on July 17th at Foggy Notions, with a new local band named Jesus Chrysler joining The Fury as openers. No word on who's in Jesus Chrysler or what they play, but I'm told that they contain former members of Fitswitch, The Scary Uncles, and Strictly Classified. Good signs there, if the bands are any indication! It's also been announced that Inferno from local sideshow troupe Alowishes Grotesk's Traveling Tent Museum & Snake Oil Show will be there for a half hour of sideshow feats! I love sideshows, this'll be a fun and unique addition! It was also announced that there will be a potluck benefit before the concert at 1:00 PM to also raise money for Frightlight guitarist Rick White's nephew Logan, so if you want full details on that, click here! Keep up to date further on this benefit show at the Facebook event page and right here at the SMS!

While we're on the subject of Frightlight, here's a couple more updates. Remember their concert on July 10th at Coch's Corner? Well, Frightlight are now headlining it, as the previously planned openers, Toronto's The von Drats, had to pull out. That sucks, I wonder what happened? Tiny Trebuchet were originally announced as replacement openers, but they're out now too, so Frightlight need openers! Message the band at their Facebook group if you're interested in playing! It'll still be a great concert, and it now has a poster which you can check out on your right! Awesome work! Finally for Frightlight news, the band now have a Reverbnation page! It has band information, videos, their lineup (with stage names), appropriate links, and probably most exciting, songs! Four recordings from jam sessions are posted on the page, including the songs "Fright Night", "C.H.U.D.", "They All Float", and "Scream"! Quality's not fantastic, but it's great to hear more from Frightlight! Check them all out at this location, especially if you like Fitswitch, The Misfits, and horror punk!

Thirdly today are a bunch of updates from Sault Michigan's own Bad Side, who recently ended a months-long hiatus to return to the stage for a pair of shows in the Milwaukee area! On Monday, the band let fans know on their Facebook page that their performance at this year's Milwaukee SummerFest was filmed by a cable network named TheCoolTV, and will apparently air on said channel! As best as I can tell, it's not available in the Sault area yet, but keep it in mind! And most excitingly of all, their ENTIRE PERFORMANCE is now available to listen to on a music website called SoundCloud! 10 songs over 45 minutes, it's great quality audio too, and the band sound as good as ever! Haven't found video or anything else from SummerFest or the warm-up show, but having the whole concert in audio form works, and there's a couple other recordings there too! Click here to check it all out, and fingers crossed that they come back home for a show down the road! Also to quickly note, head to the band's official website for info on how to get one of the last remaining copies of their original tour shirts!

And finally for today, we have another band hoping to play in Sault Ontario! At Fall's End, a hardcore band from Belleville, will be on the road for shows on the August 27th weekend, and are open to play in Sault Ste. Marie that weekend! Guitarist Matt Demarell posted on our Facebook page asking for help to get a booking here, and they will play dirt cheap apparently! If you're interested in booking or helping book At Fall's End for a concert on the last weekend of August, contact Matt at this location or the band through their MySpace page! They sound pretty good, it's kind of like punk influenced metalcore, though their current stuff isn't completely representative of their sound, as Matt tells us that songs with their new singer will be posted on Saturday. Still, check them out, and if you like what you hear, help them get a local booking!

That's all for today, though it's a start to clearing out the rest of my backlogged news! At least special features are past us, for a couple days at least. Here's what to expect coming up: Tomorrow's post will have weekend concert previews and more news stories, and if I have to post a second time tomorrow, I will! At this rate, there will be a Friday news update too, and Saturday will be my second GarageBand Profile in this mini-series, all about Lee Maines' solo projects! My Phatstick concert review (with more news) will be Saturday or Sunday, depending on what day I go to see them. And finally, the SMS 3rd Anniversary is in only FOUR DAYS, so don't forget about that either! Until then, it's business as usual, just busier. Stay tuned for lots more!