2025: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year! As usual for the SMS at year's end, I have cobbled together a lengthy "year-in-review" post, and after a quite busy and eventful 2025, here's a window into the big events, news stories, and so forth during that span! I'm sure I missed things (I always do), but hopefully this is a fun and informative look back at the year that was!

2025's biggest hard rock concert in Sault Ontario has to have been the Our Lady Peace/Collective Soul concert at GFL Memorial Gardens in March, and very well timed with The Fox now on the airwaves to get the word out for it! Across the past 12 months, other notable touring acts like B.A. Johnston, Bon Jovi Forever, Cory Marks, Damage Case, The Dayglo Abortions, Epic Rush (née Rust), Ikons Of Rock, Insurrection, Just Leppard, Kaonashi, Mean Bikini, Queen: It's A Kinda Magic, Selias, Virvum, and Who Made Who (among many others) made their presences known on local stages. This year saw the returns of Toystock, Rotaryfest, and (despite very bad weather) The Northern Vibe Festival, plus a healthy number of touring tribute bands at multiple venues, Mike Haggith's high profile Downtown Plaza show in September with his Big Finish Band, and a number of big Soo Blaster shows, with and without touring acts. There was a lot going on as usual!

Over in Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, they had no shortage of interesting concerts in a busier year than recently normal! At The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, fans were able to see Tesla in February, Clutch in June, and both Night Ranger and Trixter headlining separate hair metal concerts in October, while touring bands like Driving Dawn, Fyrbird, Ghidora, Oz, Peril, Scarkazm, The Sky Pilots, Spun, Tribe989, and Violet Scum (among others) all made their way to smaller local venues in this calendar year. Despite the lengthy Sault Ontario drought for such events, two battles of the bands hit the E.U.P. in 2025, with the debuting Crush winning the Superior Whitefish Festival battle in Brimley in July, and the debuting Dynamic Duo defeating About:Blank and other regional acts at the third annual Lake Superior State University Battle. 

Multi-band E.U.P. concerts happened at a wider clip this year in general, including a bunch of mixed genre shows from Serious Business in Brimley and at Pizza Hut(!), while Heavy Lies The Crown played their annual St. Ignace show in August for frontman Brandon West's birthday, and nine acts gathered at Bird's Eye Outfitters in March for the Musicians Unite benefit in honour of Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins' wife Mary Jo's cancer battle. Not to mention all of the solo shows from local hard rock acts in 2025, and this was a really solid year for Sault Michigan and area that bodes well for 2026!

For general news items outside of concerts, there was arguably nothing bigger for local rock fans than the format change of Country 104.3 in January, transitioning into 104.3 The Fox, and giving us two rock radio stations on the FM dial, one on each side of the border! With local bands, the likes of Bone Yard 225, Crush, Exit 808, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, and Tarnished hit the road for gigs outside of our coverage area, while Sault Michigan's Sole Aggressors joined the rare list of E.U.P. bands to play gigs in Sault Ontario in the past two decades! 2025 saw the former Vibe Lounge and Primavera Hall relaunch respectively as Beck's Bar and The Full Throttle Saloon with new regular band lineups, though The Distraction closed indefinitely in July due to fire code violations discovered during the planned Ripcordz show that month. Sault Ontario wasn't able to get planned battles of the bands at Jay's Piston Broke Pub and the Downtown Plaza off the ground, and for the first time, Go Skateboarding Day was completely rained out.

The Northern Vibe Festival was severely compromised by a major rainstorm that rendered the Forest Stage unusable on the Saturday, and the planned Headstones concert (booked opposite Rotaryfest Saturday) was cancelled a few days prior. In a positive light, we did see new music videos from HeadF1rst and The Bear Hunters, the beginning of work on a Woods of Ypres biography, and new Convergence frontman Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio's runner-up run at The Soo's Got Talent, so this was certainly not an uneventful year! Hopefully we get more big news and notes in the next 12 months!

Unfortunately, the last third of the year saw three deaths among local hard rock musicians, starting with Stone Smyth founder and veteran local guitarist Troy Isaac, who lost his battle with cancer in September at the age of 63. In just the past week, we learned of the passing of two more familiar faces, including Rebel Priest/ex-Glass Statues guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds (a.k.a. Benny Blitz) at the age of 35 over the weekend, while former Brutally Fatal frontman and Far From Fine drummer Austin McCrea also passed away at the age of 30 after a three month battle with worsening medical concerns in hospital. We also mourned the deaths of former local journalist and concert videographer Mike Caruso, Queen Street Cruise founder Gary Trembinski, and Darsombra synth player/vocalist Ann Everton, just one week before the Baltimore psych-hard rock duo was supposed to play at The Downtown Plaza. May all of them R.I.P.!

Like last year, 2025 was abnormally strong for new local metal, hard rock, and punk albums. Seventeen by my count, and we still have seven of them to review next year! No one was busier this year than Matt Hicks' new solo industrial metal act The Realignment Project, who released three EPs ("Afterthought", "The Frustration Sessions", and "War Songs") throughout the year, while the ever prolific Mike Haggith released his fan club exclusive album "Frequent Flyer" and his new full-band live album "Under A Moonlit Sky". This year also saw the sophomore albums from the reunited Fuller ("II"), hard rock quintet HeadF1rst ("Road Trippin'"), and alt-rock favourites Handsome Sandwich ("Collage"), while we also got local/Barrie crossover thrashers Spades GT's second post-move album "United", the posthumous physical release of grunge trio No Arrow's album "Souls For Sale", Agnosticism's new folk punk EP "Atticcore Fornication", ...

 ...their frontman Mikhal Muto's band Hails' self-titled album, "the original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage's latest "WYRD Radio 3: The Midnight Horror Show", Pillory's long-awaited death metal album "Old Soul", and new ska punk trio A.S.D.P.'s debut album "Atom Bombs & Lemonade". Meanwhile, Sault Michigan's X's & Y's put out their second album "Ruination Coactive", and Theatre Of Night reunited with session vocalist Gaby Koss on this month's "Christmas Night 3". Hopefully 2026 is similarly bursting at the seams with new albums from local talent! 

A bumper crop of new bands made their debut across the Twin Saults this year, and some of those emerged quickly with their own material, including the aforementioned Realignment Project and A.S.D.P., while Sault Michigan newcomers Crush and About:Blank (both featuring Tarnished alumni) also debuted with their own songs right away. While they have existed as a studio band for years prior, Sault Ontario progressive metal band Convergence made their live concert debut in the spring, and other new bands to the live scene this year included hard rock quartet Maynard Hayes, BookcluB's acoustic side project Dos Amigos, classic/hard rock sister bands Separate Wayz & The Guilty Party, and just last week, new local punk quartet P.R.O.D.. We also saw the debuts of bands like Bards With Beards, Pearl Jam tribute Even Flow, One Shot, Spun Out, and The T.R.I.P. that could have big 2026s ahead, and hopefully that holds true on all fronts!

There weren't many severe lineup changes in local bands in 2025, but there were still a number to note. One of the bigger departures was guitarist Brandon Ruch from both Handsome Sandwich and BookcluB in advance of his move out of town, while we also saw Dan Beaupre replace Brad Stephen on bass in Double Down, Sean MacNab finally fill Spades GT's bassist vacancy, a returning Devon Lucier replace Blair St. John on bass in Pillory, Spencer MacGillivray replace Justin Pregent on vocals in the former Sault Side Squad, and Joe Miller replace Tony Kajnar as Generations' guitarist. In the E.U.P., the now-defunct Exit 808 welcomed back original guitarist Nathan Webber and (briefly) bassist Brad Pringle, while Jaxon Massaway returned to Heavy Lies The Crown after a year's hiatus as their new second guitarist, and Jamie Costner replaced Justin Lawless as The Nameless' drummer. I'm sure there's more big lineup turnover ahead in 2026!

In terms of major band breakups, Sault Michigan had the biggest finite and publically addressed losses, with hard rock bands Exit 808 and Dirty Musky both dissolving in 2025, while 2023 LSSU battle-winning punk trio The Sole Aggressors went on hiatus in August in advance of members leaving the area for college. Sault Ontario didn't have band breakups on that scale, but the likes of Treble Charger, Vanity First, Slumshine, and Mikey & His Uke have all been publically inactive for over a year as of last fall. At least the Vanity & Slumshine itches can be scratched with Hails! A number of notable bands have been publically inactive for the past 6+ months and will be kept an eye on in early 2026, including A Dire Setback, The Bear Hunters, Bullet Train, Crucify The Whore, Hollow Sky, The Northwest, and Rhythm & Brews. Hopefully these bands or their members therein turn up in new projects in the new year!

As always, let's end with comebacks, and there were a number of big ones from bands on the shelf for a year+ in 2025, with one of the most notable being the dual reunions of 1990s punk bands Fist Magnet and The Spigots for an ARCH benefit concert at Soo Blaster this past Saturday! Room 206 had to drop out of that event, but fans weren't entirely left out in the cold, as that band & The Inner City Surfers also reunited in April for 206 drummer Allan Watson's stag & doe at the same venue! In the interim, 2000s emo/post-hardcore notables Fuller reunited for a new album and a Rotaryfest Stage 2 headlining set, and local classic/hard rock cover band Quite Frankly reunited after 15 years themselves! We also saw a one-off Mike Haggith & The Din reunion in January in honour of Daniel Horton's late mother, while The Northwest emerged from a year+ hiatus to open for Our Lady Peace, and The Isolation Sessions also returned for a gig in March after a few years away. 

I hope you guys liked this look back at 2025 in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes, and we're picking things back up right away tomorrow with the first weekend concert previews of 2026, so stay tuned for those then! Thanks everyone, and please celebrate and party responsibly tonight! 

2024: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year, everyone! After a slight delay for personal matters and just the sheer wattage of research and editing that this annual post takes, here is our 2024 year-in-review post, as we take one more expansive look at the year that was before we dive headfirst into 2025 at large! It was an eventful year for local metal, hard rock, and punk musicians, concerts, and related entities, so here's a good chunk of what went down last year!

As always, we'll start with concerts in Sault Ontario, and where there were no major hard rock shows at the Gardens in 2024, lots of familiar and high profile faces rolled through last year on tour, like B.A. Johnston, BALM Squad, Blood Opera, Cory Marks, Cross Dog, The Damn Truth, The Hazytones, K-Man & The 45s, Matthew Good, The Ripcordz, Selias, Teenage Head, Total Chaos, The Trews, Wax Mannequin, and many more! On the festival circuit, the Go North Music Festival, Rotaryfest, the Poutine Feast, Toystock, and The Northern Vibe Festival all came back with stacked lineups, while the inaugural It's The Pits Festival rocked Robbie Adamson's church in Leeburn in June. Also this year: Lime frontwoman Madii Schomogyi won the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent, The Distraction ramped up their upstairs and downstairs bookings to local and touring bands alike, the Downtown Plaza began occasional use as a concert venue, the split between the Dragonfly Run and Jay's Piston Broke Pub leading to the similar ARCH Run that same weekend, ...

...the return of extreme metal to the former Roosevelt Hotel when Vaegon headlined at Jay's in July, the Band Together To Rock Cancer fundraiser for Mustang Heart guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri in September, the debut of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Club as an occasional venue last fall, and many more shows from local and touring artists alike with varying degrees of hype and attention. A lot more is sure to be on the docket in 2025!

Meanwhile, Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula had an eventful year in 2024 for concerts! Three major hard rock concerts hit The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino last year (Saint Asonia & Black Stone Cherry on February 24th, Skid Row & Buckcherry on March 23rd, and ex-Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy on September 21st), while Ace Frehley, Great White, and Slaughter toplined the '80s Rock Invasion outdoor concert at the St. Ignace Kewadin on July 20th. A surprising number of multi-band shows happened in the EUP last year, including the second annual Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands in October (won by Molly & The Other Guys), the H.L.T.C.-headlined 2nd Street Music Festival in St. Ignace in August, and two Serious Business-promoted shows at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley late last year featuring The Nameless, The Sole Aggressors, and touring headliners

Of course, many single-band concerts also happened across the river last year, with touring bands like Fyrbird, Oz, Peril, The Rock Show, Scarkazm, and Sunspot all making their way to our neck of the woods, while many local hard rock bands played solo shows of their own. from Dirty Musky to Unfortunate Sun.  2025 should be another strong year for Yooper bands and their fans alike, so follow along for updates!

There was certainly no shortage of general news items beyond concerts to take note of in the past year! Beyond the local stage, groups like Bone Yard 225, Exit 808, Hails, Handsome Sandwich, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, Tarnished, and Treble Charger all played shows outside of our coverage range, and Ha!ls' shows were notable in particular, as many of their road gigs were in Michigan (downstate, even!) The border crossover extended to a handful of punk acts from Michigan playing shows at The Distraction and Soo Blaster in 2024, something long welcomed at this scale, and there's more ahead next year, including from Sault Michigan talent! In 2024, we lost veteran local musicians Jeremey Salatuk and Dennis Becker, while we said goodbye to FirstLocalNews (nee Sault Online), Tazzi's Cafe, the planned Crucifest in Leeburn, and Sault Michigan's Crooked Music, but we also saw the complete Mikey & His Uke series of covers of Green Day's album "Dookie", ...

...the rebranding of Dryer Fire as Piecing It Together Shows, the Rendells' purchase of Case's Music, numerous local bands judging Shooters' Talent Quest karaoke competition, Bone Yard tacking "225" to their name, and numerous local musicians releasing new studio material not yet tied to full albums. I'm sure 2025 will be just as eventful as 2024 was, if not moreso!

While our immense two year+ backlog of new album releases to review on the SMS was finally cleared out in November, 2024 was still a very healthy year for new local metal, hard rock, and punk CDs, albums, and EPs! In terms of shows that had release parties, we saw relocated local solo project Sell This!' new album "Empires Everywhere", punk trio Vanity First's full length album "Identity Crisis", and HeadFirst's... first EP "Head Trauma" in early-mid 2024, while Vanity First guitarist Mikhal Muto also put out new albums by his solo projects Agnosticism and Choking On Appendages last year. Progressive metal duo Convergence started 2024 with their new EP "Dead & Dreaming" one year ago, while Late & Loud released their second soundtrack for their D&D podcast Late & Legends, and Sykotyk Rampage released their first "Waerlogas Sagas" concept album with an attached comic book to accompany its triple length runtime!

Meanwhile, Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula wasn't left out for new albums, with Heavy Lies The Crown quietly releasing their second full length album "Built For Us" in January, while veteran metal guitarist Jason Mills put out his solo project X's & Y's' debut EP "The Obsidian Dream" last fall. Good stuff by some very talented artists, and we should see more new albums & studio material ahead this year!

A relatively small but talented roster of new and debuting local metal, hard rock, and punk acts cropped up in 2024, and as a live concern, none were seen more than veteran classic/hard rock cover duo Dodge This, who played often in the second half of the year! Studio-wise, new bands like Bullet Train and Choking On Appendages immediately made a local splash with original music, while the previously Winnipeg-based Sell This! delivered their own politically charged cello punk shortly after making their live debut here in January. We also saw the live debuts in 2024 of online page-less metal quintet The Sault Side Squad, tech metal band (and Them successors) Bardo, and (as a live band) Jason Ladouceur's long-gestating project Without Compromise. Yoopers also welcomed Fake Chow successors Unfortunate Sun to Sault Michigan this year. Look for them and more new bands ahead in the coming 12 months!

The past year saw no shortage of lineup changes in local bands, with none seeing as much of a metric shift as the Sault Michigan band who began the year as Double Jack. After just one 2023 set, they were nigh unrecognizable by the spring, with a new name (Exit 808) and, aside from drummer Jackie Moon, a completely different lineup now led by two singers, and they've showed no signs of slowing down in the EUP and beyond! Frequent Exit 808 guest bassist Blaze Beairl also found himself part of big changes with St. Ignace's Heavy Lies The Crown, as they switched lead guitarists twice and Blaze joined on drums when Jaxon Massaway moved to rhythm guitar. Sault Michigan also saw big changes with Tarnished, as Josh Fair permanently left the drumkit to play guitar and the band parted ways with bassist Parker Talentino, while singer Henry Boucher left rising young punk band The Sole Aggressors. Sault Ontario had its own fair share of turnover!

Among others, Brandon Ruch replaced Mitch Sirie & Dave Bahun in Handsome Sandwich & Bookclub respectively, Beej Syrette replaced Adam King in Double Down, Matthew Voros joined & James Roy Daley left Spades GT, Matt Fronzi & Elly McWatters joined Mike Haggith's newly named Big Finish Band, Frank Deresti & David Peredun became Treble Charger's new rhythm secton, Carmen Muto joined Hails (and maybe Vanity First?) on second guitar, Redundant parted ways with bassist Andrew MacDonald, and Phil Greco joined the new look Fort Creek lineup on drums. Look for more lineup shifts from local bands in the coming 12 months!

2024 also saw a handful of notable local bands and solo projects end their active runs or fall inactive, with none doing so more prominently than classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, who spent much of December on a farewell tour leading up to their final gig at the YNCU Curling Centre on New Year's Eve. The SMS also moved acts like Far From Fine, Tattoos & Scars, and solo artists Bold Noize & Mike Cliffe to our inactive links in the past 12 months. More familiar groups have been publically inactive since early-mid 2024 and could be moved to our defunct links this year, notably including Sylo (with frontman Eli Russell attending college out of town) and The Wyld Stallyns (with frontman Rob Speers focusing on solo gigs for much of the year), not to mention The Bear Hunters, Galactic Alignment, Hollow Sky, Mike McCleary, Molten Imp, The Northwest, and Sell This! as well. Hopefully we see some of these talented artists return to activity in due course!

As always, we'll end things with comebacks and reunions, and in terms of sheer time since we last saw the band in question, none ended a hiatus as long as local hard rock quartet Half Past, who played their first show in 12 years in February, and have followed that up with multiple notable concerts since! A few other acts ended 4+ year breaks in 2024, including Treble Charger at their Algoma University fundraiser concert in March, Pillory with some high profile metal concerts in the Soo and Leeburn this summer, and former Haggith frontman Curtis McKenzie's return as an acoustic solo musician for the first time since before the pandemic. Last year also saw the returns of A Dire Setback, Crucify The Whore, The Karstens, Redundant, and Sylo after a year or more away from the stage, while Heavy North Entertainment returned to local concert promotion after seven years away with the Selias concert in September. Here's to more big returns and reunions in the Twin Saults 2025!

With 2024 now well and truly in the books, we now look ahead to 2025 starting with this weekend's hard rock concert previews and our first "Where Are The New Albums?" post of the year, so look for those next and for much more as we begin another exciting year at the SMS! Thanks everyone, and again, Happy New Year!

2019: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

To end 2019, here is our annual retrospective post on the year that was, and there's a lot of ground to cover, as always! For the record, I am not doing a retrospective post on the entire 2010s decade, that would take research time that I don't have, but our year-end posts for 2010-2018 are all up to check out in our archives! Now, let's take one last look back at 2019!

As usual, we'll start with big headlining concerts at major local venues,  and the year got off to a good start when The Tea Party returned to Sault Ste. Marie on March 27th at The Machine Shop with The Proud Sons in tow! Yoopers had to wait until June 29th for their first major date of 2019 under the Kewadin Casino umbrella, albeit in St. Ignace, where Slaughter and Autograph gave fans a good old hair scare. Sault Michigan got spoiled on August 3rd when Pop Evil, Buckcherry, and Joyous Wolf rocked their Kewadin branch in a rare outdoor concert, but the biggest events came in November, starting with Muddfest on the 1st, where Puddle of Mudd, Saliva, Trapt, Saving Abel, and Tantric hit The Dreammakers Theater. On November 19th, Sault Ontario got a punk blast from The Offspring, Sum 41, and Dinosaur Pile-Up at GFL Memorial Gardens, while the year ended via local classical metal band Theatre of Night's Christmas tour stop at The Dreammakers Theater on December 14th. Look for more huge shows ahead!

Outside of these large venues, we had no shortage of notable concerts in the area in 2019. Sault Ontario was host to touring acts like Anvil, B.A. Johnston, Black Crown Initiate, The Cancer Bats, Cross Dog, Dave Evans, The Faps, K-Man & The 45s, The Killer Dwarfs, Michale Graves, Monster Truck, Random Killing, Striker, White Cowbell Oklahoma, and Who Made Who this year, among many, many others. Local concert festivals and annual events like Rotaryfest, Toystock, J.D. Pearce's Halloween Party, Go Skateboarding Day, and the Oh!No festival (in it's last installment in Leeburn) returned with heavier acts again, while The Rising Tide brought punk to the Go North Music Festival, 7 local bands played across both floors of the Joni Radford memorial concert in March, and The Apocalypse Afterparty made an impressive finals run in this year's The Soo's Got Talent competition. It was hard to sum up the entire year in a paragraph, but hopefully there's more big names on the way in the new year!

Sault Michigan had it's share of live hard rock concerts too, even if things weren't as busy as in Ontario. As usual, linked Traverse City hard rock groups Peril & Scarkazm came up north for numerous well received Kewadin lounge gigs, but otherwise, most of the heavier live performances in the E.U.P. this year were from local bands. Kinross' own Banned played their final concerts in the first quartet of 2019, before their successors Tarnished began their own busy slate of acoustic and full-band concerts this summer (including the Sugar Island Music Festival), while frontman Alex Traynor played a few solo gigs of his own along the way. Also this year: Project 906 maintained a reduced schedule for their live dates (including the Rudyard Musicians Festival), 415E reunited with a new lineup for scattered Kewadin concerts, and Highway 63 kept busy with their own gigs and the launch of their Mackinaw Trail side project. Here's hoping things are even busier in 2020!

The past year was loaded with major news and events relating to the local metal, hard rock, and punk scene, with notable bands like Coral Fang, The Guitar Gangsters, Jack Spades, Mike Haggith, Northwest, Parabol, Tarnished, Theatre of Night, and Treble Charger all hitting the road for notable gigs outside of the E.U.P./district. 2019 was a year of change for local music stores, with Northland & Thomas Walls merging operations as the local Long & McQuade branch, Crooked Music moving across the road, and The Rad Zone leaving the Wellington Square Mall, while live musical productions of Rock of Ages and We Will Rock You entertained local audiences at different scales. Readers mourned the passings of Joni Radford, Kayge Fowler, and Danger Cats alum Summer Stevens, while the Soo area also lost Reggie's Place, Studio 10, and The Tech, and concerts featuring Drowning Pool, Bobaflex, and Love 'n Revenge were all cancelled, as well as three different battles of the bands.

However, there were other good news stories in 2019, such as the return of the Northern Film Showcase, music video releases from A Dire Setback & Mike Haggith, Dryer Fire's two pop-up runs as a live venue on Bruce Street, Six, Two, Oh.'s re-branding as the Oh!No Collective, and don't forget about the launch of the Music City Sault Ste. Marie project and all of the ambitious plans that entails. I'm sure 2020 will be just as eventful as 2019!

This year saw a number of local metal & hard rock album releases, primarily from solo musicians, and none had a busier year than Chase Wigmore, whose extreme metal project Awokest put out their compilation debut "Enter The Nightlands" in January, followed by "Solving The Human Condition" in April. Later still, Chase's own folk/punk studio album "Songs To Punch Yourself In The Face To" came out earlier this month, with the surprise "One Last Act Of Defiance" following days later! Also this year: Crucify The Whore released their new album "Crucifiction Inquisition", while the soundtrack to the movie Ashes of K (featuring songs by Mike Haggith) also dropped this year. The Sault Michigan area saw Heavy Lies The Crown's debut album "Scatter Brain" & Tarnished frontman Alex Traynor's own CD "Crazy World" go on sale, while we unusually saw two 2019 releases (Mike McCleary's "Propaganda Model" & Black Cloud's "Abstract Sounds") pulled from online storefronts within months. Hopefully there's more new CDs to come soon!

A handful of notable local bands debuted outright or on stage in 2019, with none playing more frequently in the area than Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished, whose weekly Biggby Coffee matinees and assorted other electric and unplugged gigs have given them a solid profile in short order! The E.U.P. also welcomed Highway 63 side project Mackinaw Trail this year, while former Werehold Records head Jason Mills resurfaced with his new solo project X's & Y's, and the aforementioned Heavy Lies The Crown made their live debut, albeit downstate. In Sault Ontario, punk supergroup The Sick Sons got a big jump via major opening slots in late 2019, while Volbeat cover band The Guitar Gangsters stole the show at the Halloween Party, the online page-less Stoned To Deaf and the already-defunct Black Cloud played their first public gigs, and new southern hard rock quartet Fort Creek launched in their own right. Hopefully we hear much more from this talented rookie crop of bands in 2020!

It was expectedly busy this year for lineup changes, additions, and departures in heavier local bands, with none seeing more upheaval than revived local Foo Fighters tribute The Soo Fighters, who replaced Jeremey Salatuk, John & Jonny Amendola with Wes Greco, Max Ambeault, and Jonas Gasperas in time for their Halloween Party set. Don't feel too bad for the Amendolas though, as they took over for Sean Berlinguette & Brian Egglesfield in the reunited Tripod the Dog this year! Meanwhile, Sault Michigan's 415E welcomed Brett Blackwood & Jason VanLuven upon their reunion, while Highway 63 parted ways with keyboardist Brian Drumheller and switched from Justin Lawless to Russell Mayer to Ron Suchey behind the kit. Also this year: Redundant split with bassist James White, Cameron Oliver replaced Travis Sharpe as Soundcheck's frontman, and second bassist Alice Rose joined the unmasked Apocalypse Afterparty, among other lineup changes in local bands this year!

This year largely a quiet one for local band breakups, with the most prominent arguably being Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock trio Banned, who dissolved this summer, predicating the launch of Alex's new band Tarnished. We also saw the aforementioned Black Cloud suspend operations mere months after their album release, and Halfway Loaded appear to have stepped aside in favour of Fort Creek, but most of the other potentially defunct bands have just quietly fell into inactivity, and could be acknowledged as such in 2020. Among others: Stegadeth side project Poison Girl haven't been publically heard from since Tiffany moved out of town, the planned February reunion of This Is Your Band On Drugs never took place, and such groups as The Billy Bastards, Brutally Fatal, Destroilet, Handsome Sandwich, Id Iota, Rotopsy, and Winkstinger have not issued a new public update on band activity since the first half of 2019 (or earlier.) Hopefully everyone stays musically active!

As always, we end with reunions and comebacks, and we weren't lacking for those in 2019, with punk standouts The Inner City Surfers' first concert in 10 6½ years getting lots of attention back in August, and they have new songs in the works, to boot! They weren't the only reunited band on the scene this year, with Sailor's Tongue coming back for a set at Rotaryfest, Tripod the Dog permanently reuniting in their own right, Frightlight resurrecting for the Michale Graves show this fall, Late & Loud returning to support Benn's wedding, and both The Strange Coyotes & Sault Michigan's Tantrym Tyme surprising many with holiday season reunion gigs. Far-flung local acts like Shit Liver and Mike Haggith returned home for special gigs over a year after their last Soo dates, while a number of dormant bands returned to the stage after lengthy breaks, like 415E, The Apocalypse Afterparty, AlgomA, The Bear Hunters, Griphook, Pillory, and Telephone & Address, with hopefully more coming next year!

Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back, 2019 was a solid year for the SMS, and here's to another big year ahead as we kick off a new decade! Thanks to everyone for your support, and watch for our annual forecast post on the year ahead tomorrow, with our first batch of weekend concert previews following on Thursday! Thanks everyone!

2018: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

It is now time for our final post of 2018, and as usual, we're closing with a retrospective on the events of 2018 in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes, including the good and bad from bands, concerts, and general news from both sides of the border. Hopefully we hit most of the big stories, but this is always a fun post to research and compile, so hopefully this brings back some solid memories of the year that was! As always, we'll start with major headlining hard rock and metal concerts at major local venues, and this was a busy year in that regard!

We first saw Project 906 and a reunited Chord On Bluz opening for Laith Al-Saadi and The Chris Canas Band in the "Best of Michigan Blues" concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 10th, while Sault Ontario welcomed Big Wreck & Attica Riots to The Machine Shop three days later, and just a day after that, The Dreammaker's Theater responded with the return of Pop Evil alongside Palaye Royale & Black Map. The same venue hosted touring Boston tribute band Don't Look Back on April 7th, while The Machine Shop responded on April 19th with I Mother Earth, Finger Eleven, and J.J. Thompson. On August 11th, Kewadin Casino welcomed Seether & 10 Years back to the Soo alongside The Dead Deads, while Steel Panther and Wilson rocked the same venue on December 1st, and locals Theatre of Night headlined a special Dreammaker's Theater Christmas concert on December 15th. Look for many more huge concerts at these venues in the new year!

Beyond major venues, Sault Ontario welcomed a number of big concerts to local venues in 2018, with notable touring bands like All The Wasted Years, Alterbeast, Archelon, Beaver Slap, Carried Away, Cross Dog, The Faps, The Gabba Heys, Inferi, Lightmares, Rivers of Nihil, Ten Foot Pole, The Therapists, Who Made Who, and Whoop-Szo all hitting regional stages. Major returning events on the concert calendar included Rotaryfest, Toystock, The Northern Vibe Festival, J.D. Pearce's Halloween Party, Go Skateboarding Day, The Sky's The Limit, and the Oh!No Music Festival in Leeburn, and while there were no true battles of the bands, a few hard rock acts took part in The Soo's Got Talent at The Tech this fall. Fans also turned out for the Joni Radford and Pirie Kaufman benefits, the Rides for Autism & ARCH, the Downtown Street Parties, Soo Blaster's new Indie Music Showcases, and even Joe's Weekend Warrior Fest in September. I'm sure there's much more on the horizon in 2019!

Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula had it's share of notable concerts in 2018 as well, with Peril, Scarkazm, and Spun returning from out of town for more high profile headlining appearances, while Munising's own Infathom headlined in Brimley in May, and Peril side project Project 6 played a special Kincheloe convenience store set in August! Also this year: Project 906 returned to the Rudyard Musicians Festival (among a wide array of solo headlining gigs), Banned played at the Sugar Island Music Festival while also maintaining a similarly busy schedule, and Highway 63 side project Cousin Eddie played their final concerts at the Kewadin Casino branches. In fact, some of this year's biggest hard rock shows in the E.U.P. took place in December, like Theatre of Night's Pickford church concert on December 14th, and Highway 63's return from hiatus at the Dondee just over a week later. There's a lot of talent in the Sault Michigan area going into the new year!

2018 gave us a lot of general news stories impacting heavier and punk bands. Noted local acts like A Dire Setback, Banned, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Id Iota, Jack Spades, Mike Haggith, Redundant, Shit Liver, Soundcheck, Stegadeth, and Theatre of Night all hit the road for out-of-town gigs, while both Shit Liver and The Bear Hunters unveiled long awaited music videos towards their new albums! This year had it's share of bad news, like the passing of Fistmagnet's Chuck Ayotte, the closures of The Gore Street Cafe & PureVolume, the Michale Graves concert cancellation, and a complete lack of heavier Oddfellows Hall shows, but we had good news as well, like the growth of Room 21, Bird's Eye Outfitters, and Soo Blaster as active venues, the rebranding of GFL Memorial Gardens, the debut of Ernest Skinner's Rock Talk column, the return of Punk Rock Bingo in April, and Gliss' successful move to Spring Street, among many others. Here's to another eventful year ahead!

The past year has been unusually packed for new albums from metal, hard rock, and punk acts, with none getting a bigger launch than Shit Liver's vinyl sophomore album "Hitting The Fan", as bolstered by a hit Canadian tour! Redundant finally put out their debut EP in July at their Vans Warped Tour stop in Toronto, and fellow local punk rockers Northwest released their own second EP "Songs From 2015-2017" earlier this month. Mike Haggith stayed busy in Manitoba with two live albums, including his new solo release "From The Nickel Stage" and his old band The Din's posthumous "Suburban Sendoff". A couple of other Mikes put out multiple albums in 2018, like the five studio albums (and one reissue) from Mike McCleary to the debut studio albums from Mike Vincent as well. Also this year: Telephone & Address finally released "Monster", SweetKenny kept his score album releases going, and Sykotyk Rampage resurfaced with "Live at the Paris Hilton", among other new albums in 2018, and more should be on the horizon next year!

2018 was a lean year for debuting heavier bands, but a few notable names turned up! Arguably the most familiar of this year's rookie crop was power rock quintet Re:Born, who picked up where predecessors Project 421 left off with a trio of well received gigs, and hopefully there's more to come in the new year! J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween parties in October gave us a trifecta of new tribute bands, including Stegadeth side projects Coral Fang & Poison Girl paying homage to The Distillers & H.I.M., while a nameless one-off supergroup brought their Tool tribute to The Rockstar Bar stage for 2 show-stealing concerts. Also this year: Veteran classic/hard rock quintet Fluid 5ive finally debuted on stage after their 2016 inception, Chase Wigmore launched his grindcore act Awokest, 415E guitarist Chris Hubbard started his own emponymous solo project, and Halfway Loaded members formed the new acoustic duo Tattoos & Scars. Here's hoping these bands & more keep things going strong in 2019!

A number of local bands saw lineup changes, additions, and departures in 2018, with two of Tidal Records head Dustin Jones' resurrected punk bands seeing big upheaval, from Liam Seymour & Chris Johns joining the revived Rising Tide lineup, to Marshall Jaaskelainen & Aaron Dunn replacing Clint Wilson & Mike Yorke in The Cover-Up. Classic/hard rockers Soundcheck saw Steven Flint, Scott McLurg, and Glen Thomas behind the drumkit in 2018, while Elly McWatters replaced Robert Nevitt on vocals with Re:Born, Robert Sartini took over for Dan Linklater on bass in Id Iota, and that band's drummer Blair St. John joined Robert's existing metal band Pillory as their new bassist! Meanwhile, Sault Michigan saw Highway 63 enlist George Belleau, Justin Lawless, and Brian Drumheller for their return from hiatus, Tommy Korcal replace Will Storey as Project 906's drummer, and Stacie McCarthy depart Theatre of Night after one tour. Hopefully these and more were the right moves for each band!

Unfortunately, a number of high profile heavier/punk bands ended their local runs in 2018 even if there weren't many major farewell shows in the process. Classic/hard rock veterans Stiffler's Mom, The 3 Day Millionaires, and Griphook ceased public updates this year, while hard rock quartet Eclipse abruptly ended their run, indie/alternative bands Vol., Bizotic, and The Noochin' Lanterns quietly dissolved, and Gianni Gagoots' reunion seemed to end before it began, among others. Sault Michigan appeared to say goodbye to Cousin Eddie & Stoned Ape Evolution in 2018, while the Werehold Records roster of metal artists have all been dormant since the spring. Also, a number of notable bands have went over 6 months without a public update, leaving the statuses of acts like Electric Church, Gates of Winter, Skeyes of Seven, Sykotyk Rampage, and Telephone & Address in limbo. It's sad to lose these bands, but hopefully we see them or their members out there in 2019!

That all said, there was no shortage of notable acts making big comebacks in 2018! With Rotaryfest's "Rewind" theme for Stage 1 this year, fans were treated to Treble Charger's return after a year+ break from the local stage, while That's Chester, The Suicide Kings, Tripod The Dog, and Turner Up were just some of the one-off returning bands this year, and fellow performers Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide had ended a lengthy hiatus of their own earlier in the year! Dustin's other punk band The Cover-Up also returned after 3 years away, while The Bear Hunters, Highway 63, Pillory, Redundant, and Shit Liver all resurfaced after taking a year or more off from local concerts. Hard rock trio The Din reunited for a one-off LopLops show in July, with frontman Mike Haggith resuming live performances for his own solo project in Manitoba. Frightlight & Plastic both resurfaced with one-off Halloween weekend sets, and The Billy Bastards, Sykotyk Rampage, and The Sorrow Fields came back for new studio sessions, among many others. Here's to more returns in 2019!

As always, 2018 was an eventful year for local metal, hard rock, and punk acts & concerts, and I know 2019 will provide much more big moments, so be sure to follow along next year for coverage of all that's heavy and punk in the Twin Saults! Thanks to everyone for following along and for their support over the past year, have a fun and responsible New Year's Eve, and stay tuned for our 2019 preview post tomorrow!

2017: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

For our final post of the year, I'm once again looking back at the events, shows, bands, and news stories of 2017 in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scene, which is always a fun post to research and reminisce on, so here's what you should know from January 1st until December 31st in another busy and entertaining year for the SMS!

As will be the case in 2018, last year got an early boost when Pop Evil returned to The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 25th, with openers Badflower & Kaleido also along for the trip, while Alter Bridge & In Flames joined forces to rock the same venue on May 16th! Kewadin Casino spread the love to their St. Ignace branch for a rare outdoor concert there from Lita Ford and Jack Russell's Great White on June 24th during their summer concert series. Sault Ontario wasn't left out in the cold, with The Tea Party returning to headline a free Roberta Bondar Pavilion show on July 16th during the ONTour concert series alongside a varied openers lineup, while Dokken, Firehouse, and Love 'N Revenge brought their tour to The Essar Centre on September 30th. The year ended with a bang at The Dreammaker's Theatre, thanks to the returns of Bret Michaels on November 25th and Theory of a Deadman (with openers Infathom) just yesterday. Hopefully 2018 brings us more high profile concerts like these!

Outside of these major venues, Sault Ontario got plenty of high profile concerts this year for metal, hard rock, and punk fans alike! In 2017, such notable touring bands as Adam's Mind, CKY, Darsombra, Destroyer, Diamond Head, The Gutter Demons, K-Man & The 45s, The Raygun Cowboys, The Ripcordz, Speaker, Special Ops, Vaultry, Who Made Who, The Wild, and Zaum all rocked a regional stage, among many other acts. This year saw many notable concert events of varying sizes and scopes, like the second annual Guy Thiffault Memorial Concert, Fishbowl Festival, and Sky's the Limit mental health fundraiser concerts, Live705's increased slate of multi-band events, the debut of the Oh!No 2017 Music Festival in Leeburn, the NLFB Meltdown audition/battle of the bands (won by M.D. Dunn), and familiar ongoing annual events like Rotaryfest, Toystock, The Northern Vibe Festival, and J.D. Pearce's Halloween Party (expanded to 2 nights this year!) Look for more shows like these in the new year!

There was a fair amount of activity in Sault Michigan and the Eastern U.P. to go around as well in 2017 for concert fans! Out of town cover favourites like Peril, Scarkazm, and Nudge.-successors Spun came back here for multiple shows throughout the year, while Ontario-based Bon Jovi tribute Keep the Faith played surprise shows at Bay Mills Resort & Casino, and local favourites like 415E, Banned, Highway 63, and Project 906 kept up their busy schedules at varying levels too! In scope, the biggest attractions may have been the Theatre of Night Christmas tour stops at The Soo Theatre and in Pickford earlier this month, giving a rare live platform to this classical metal project, while The Rudyard Musicians Festival and Sugar Island Music Festivals both returned for another year, and Bay Mills Bands Together resurfaced for two more benefit concerts in Brimley this year, the latter set at a softball tournament. Fingers crossed that 2018's even bigger for the E.U.P. scene!

The year saw many big general news stories not directly related to local concerts, such as out of town tour runs mounted by such familiar local acts as A Dire Setback, AlgomA, Jack Spades, The Elements, Shit Liver, and Theatre of Night, while bands like Bizotic, The Din, Soundcheck, and Treble Charger also hit the road for out of town gigs of their own. This year did have it's share of unfortunate stories, such as the passings of Terry Becker, Steve Pevarnic, and Jason Michaud, the closures of HMV & VM Radio, and the end of Paperclip Productions and Werehold Records' Friday the 13th events. Other sub-optimal stories this year included the Quiet Riot and Rock The Border Music Festival situations, fires at Reggie's Place and The Soo Theatre, no bands at The Soo Zombie Walk, April Wine dropping out of the Lita Ford show in St. Ignace, Mikes Haggith & Mikus moving out of town, and the cancellation of The Rad Zone Battle of the Bands.

However, there were good stories to come along in 2017! Music retail-wise, we saw the Station Mall launches of Sunrise Records and Spencer's Gifts, The Rad Zone opening their second branch at Vintage Games 'N Junque, and Grooves Music relaunching under new ownership as Crooked Music. In terms of bands, we did get to witness Nameus becoming Soundcheck, "Woods V" being reissued on vinyl, Jack Spades striking a sponsorship deal with Northern Superior Breweries, and The Din being featured in the new independent movie Ashes of K, among other good and bad stories this year!

2017 gave us a handful of newly released local metal and hard rock albums, with local doom metal trio AlgomA's two split releases on old formats getting the most attention on a wider scale, including their vinyl single split with Finnish doom/death metal veterans Hooded Menace from January, and then "Trading Faces", their covers-centric cassette tape EP with local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver that came out in September. The latter received a local release concert at The New A, an honour matched by The Din, who put out their second and final studio album "Suburban Dream" to a rousing response at their farewell concert at LopLops in October! Also this year: The Apocalypse Afterparty finally gave their debut EP "Bufflesnort" a soft release, SweetKenny put out four new studio albums for score purposes, Abhorrent Forest released their EPs "The End of Life" & "Ethereal", and special mention to Mike Mikus' debut solo album, which does feature some unreleased Pixo Control holdovers. Hopefully 2018 sees even more big album releases from many talented local acts!

This year wasn't as packed for high profile new metal, hard rock, and punk bands compared to 2016, but there were many familiar faces making some new waves around the Sault area! One of the biggest was new local genre-less but alternative/punk sounding trio Handsome Sandwich, who have been a fan favourite sight at various shows throughout the year, while new indie/hard rock trio Vol. have gotten off to a quick start since launching over the summer. Other notable debuting bands on the local stage this year included Apocalypse Afterparty sister band The Noochin' Lanterns, Cherry Crush's Foo Fighters tribute side project The Soo Fighters (get it?), veteran punk supergroup The HTs, The Elements' acoustic side project Kariokeheads Unplugged, and resurgent hard rock solo artist Mike McCleary. Add in new black metal studio solo act Abhorrent Forest, and there were some big new acts to take in over the past 12 months!

Something that 2017 gave us a lot of was lineup changes, departures, and additions in local bands, and none arguably had more upheaval than Jack Spades, who started their year by replacing every instrumental band member, then replacing new bassist Steve Shaw with Rob Speers, and then welcoming Tiffany Stocco and Johnny Belanger back after a year away! Speaking of which, Tiffany's other band Stegadeth welcomed Johnny on drums too after the departure of Daniel MacDonald. Theatre of Night also bolstered their (live?) lineup by jumping from a 2 man studio project to a 6 (briefly 7) person band featuring local and Western Michigan performers alike, just in time for their Christmas tour. Also this year: Chris Nielsen took over on vocals for Larry Babic in A Dire Setback, Josh Amendola & a returning Ryan Sherman joined Jesse and Jonas in Winkstinger, Brenton Ellis returned as Destroilet's second singer, Travis St. Amour replaced Kevin Overton in Bizotic, and Yannick Casavant joined Redundant, among other personnel switches since January!

Unfortunately, we said goodbye to a number of notable bands this year, and/or saw them fall into long-term inactivity, with The Din getting the highest profile send-off prior to Mike's move west via October's farewell/CD release concert at LopLops. Their friends in post-punk quartet Gnaeus previously announced their surprising breakup in the spring, while classic/hard rock cover quartet Mourning Wood merged operations with Soundcheck not long after, and classic metal veterans Project 421 disbanded themselves in the fall. Notable acts like Dullahan, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Gianni Gagoots, Heavy Head, Sykotyk Rampage, Tantrym Tyme, and Curtis McKenzie's solo project were moved out of our active band links this year, while The Band Camp Rejects would be nearing the same boat if they had an online page, As It Stands' cancelled comeback at the CKY show may have been it for their 2017 reunion, and 415E remain on hiatus since their last shows in the summer. Hopefully we see some of these bands back at it down the road!

As always, we'll finish our year-in-review post with notes on big comebacks and returns in the local scenes this year, and we had a large amount of those in 2017! Of course, the Guy Thiffault Memorial Concert last week provided lots of returns for it's second year, including one-off reunions of both Bankshot and Nebraska Arms, plus the return of Talk Shit after a year's hiatus, so punk fans got some nice late Christmas gifts there! This summer saw Treble Charger return after 2 years off for an intimate headlining show at LopLops and a Brantford festival, while Skeyes of Seven resurfaced after a similar stage layoff with their expanded five-piece lineup, and Shit Liver played their first local show in a year & a half during the "Trading Faces" release party. Also this year: Eclipse reunited after a tumultuous breakup last fall, The Billy Bastards came back for a stag & doe, Lucky 13 returned for the Taryn Bugyra benefit concert, and bands like The Bear Hunters, Jack Spades, Northwest, Them, Twistory, and Winkstinger came back from 6 month+ stage hiatuses. Here's to many more comebacks and reunions in 2018!

2017 was an eventful year as usual, if not quite as busy overall compared to 2016, but lots of positive things happened, and I can only hope that 2018 is even better! And yes, this year did mark our 10th anniversary back on July 4th, but I wanted to keep this post focused around the bands and shows, not myself. Still, thanks again for all of the positive words then, and not from an unfortunate private conversation later in the month! That's the last I have to say on the matter. Here's to a great 2018 ahead, and stay tuned for our post previewing the year at large tomorrow! Thanks everyone!