Lots Of Defunct Local Band Link Updates & Deletions!!

Today's news post is a little different, but by no means lacking in information, and it constitutes some long overdue updates to our defunct band links, as a number of past local bands listed on the SMS have seen their primary link deleted, either by band members directly or via the closure of the site that the page was hosted on. I was able to salvage some names, but not all, and you will find information on the first 12 links below in alphabetical order! All are from Sault Ontario unless otherwise stated:

• I have changed the link for mid-2000s local punk band A Fall From Innocence due to the deletion of their page on Bandspace, a music networking service that quietly shut down without any visible warning in early 2017. I now have them listed via their MySpace page, which barely has enough surviving material to warrant a present link. Hopefully everyone's doing well nowadays, and don't miss alumni Wayne Watkins & Marc Santos with their current band Northwest once they can play live again!
• I have changed the link for late 2010s black metal solo project Abhorrent Forest from their  now-deleted Facebook page to their Bandcamp page, which still hosts copies of their three studio albums. As one of the few acts to carry the black metal flag locally, I hope Old Man Wyrn resurfaces with new music of some kind!
• I have removed early 2010s Sault Michigan acoustic hard rock band All The Dirty Words In One from our band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook (and only online) page in the last few years. A.T.D.W.I.O. had some promise, and hopefully Josh, Cody, and Dan are still working on new music in some form!
• I have removed mid-2000s ska punk band Break The Violence from our defunct band links due to the quiet deletion of their Tripod page at some point in the last few years. In this case, this isn't a massive loss, given that most of the band would form the far better regarded As It Stands shortly afterwards, so be sure to check them out!
• I have removed early 2000s Sault Michigan death metal band Bludgeoned's posthumous Reverbnation page from our defunct band links due to it's quiet deletion in the last couple of years. Given their original run was two decades ago, we should be glad this existed at all, but hopefully the guys are still active in music!
• I have changed the link for 2000s-early 2010s metal cover trio Caveman Morrison from their now-closed website to their Facebook group. Tym's Flash-heavy band and solo websites were well made and useful for content, but his musical and personal approaches have evolved so much since then. Look for Tym Morrison's next live-streamed solo concerts on Tuesday & Thursday!
• I have changed the link for mid-2000s noise metal duo Das Skalpell Kampf from their now-deleted Facebook page to their Bandcamp page, which still hosts two original songs and relevant band information. "Fonzy" and "Chachi" had an intriguing thing going with their extreme metal attack, and hopefully the guys have new music in the works in some form, regardless of stage name!
• I have changed the link for late 2000s metal band Despised Eyes from their now-deleted Facebook page to their MySpace page, which still has barely enough material to be a replacement. It would have been nice to see Despised Eyes pick up where D.O.T.H. left off, but hopefully everyone's still musically active!
• I have sadly removed early-mid 2010s classic/hard rock band Havadder from our inactive band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook page in the last couple of years. Other official pages survive, but they have nothing of substance that is publically viewable, alas. Jason and crew had a good 7 year run, and hopefully we hear more music from their wide array of band members!
• I have changed the link for early-mid 2010s progressive metal solo project Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe from their now-deleted Facebook page to their Bandcamp page, which still hosts their 2014 self-titled EP. Project-leader Matt Parr has since moved back to his hometown of London, where he has since joined the alt-rock quartet Czech Hotel, so give them a listen to see what he's been up to!
• I have removed mid-2010s punk supergroup Killer from our defunct band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook page in the last few years, and I don't believe they had a page elsewhere. Non-seasonal successors to the one-off Rude-Offs from Toystock IV, this band had an impressive lineup, but never got off the ground in 2016 as planned. Look for members in Destroilet, Treble Charger, and Bone Yard once the pandemic ends (hopefully!)
• Lastly for now, I have removed 2005 local punk/emo band Murder By Romance due to the deletion of their Tripod (and only surviving online) page at some point in the last few years. An all-female punk band in this era was definitely intriguing in concept, and hopefully their members are still musically active in some form!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: 9 Pounds Of Brownies & Despisedeyes

Before we dive into this weekend's concert previews, here's this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, as we kick off a new year for our monthly feature series on randomly selected YouTube channels featuring at least 50% of their videos containing a local metal, hard rock, or punk band/concert relevance! This month's installment features two bands once again, as the first channel that we randomly selected only had two distinct types of videos that fit our coverage, so we added a channel with only one video to full it out. With that said, there's some entertaining videos from both sides of the border to check out, so read on below for this month's profiles!

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9 pounds of brownies (http://www.youtube.com/scub115)

Owner: YouTube user Jacob Cross, formerly of the Charlevoix, Michigan-area metal band 9 Pounds of Brownies

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 21st, 2008; Videos posted from May 2009 until May 2010

Channel Summary: Though intended as an official YouTube channel for his inactive Charlevoix band 9 Pounds of Brownies (with four videos of them featured from shows in 2009 & 2010), Jacob's channel largely features videos from the Ace Frehley-headlined concert at The Dreammaker's Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on November 13th, 2009. These include 6 videos from his set, and two from openers 16 Second Stare's set.

Why You Should Watch: Fans of Ace Frehley, Kiss, 16 Second Stare, or this show in general should want to check out Jacob's channel for arguably the largest active source of videos from that concert, and he had a good view of the action! The 9 Pounds of Brownies videos, though not local to the Sault area, do have merit as well for some rising young Northern Michigan musicians, so give them a look as well to see what you think! However, note that Jacob has not visibly updated his channel in over 4 years.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

fox on the run ace frehley @ kewadin 11/13/09: Jacob's six videos from original Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley's local concert include him playing his original "Outer Space", and covering Kiss' own "Shout It Out Loud" & "Parasite", Hello's "New York Groove", Black Sabbath's "Snowblind" (in two parts, linked here & here), and as embedded below, Sweet's "Fox On The Run", which has a channel-high total of over 1,700 views. These clips suffer from staticy audio in general, and most aren't of the full songs, but Jacob had a nice close view of Ace, and you'll still notice strong performances!



16 second stare fire in the hole @ kewadin 11/13/09: Jacob's other videos from the Ace Frehley concert were of his openers, Florida hard rock quintet 16 Second Stare, who brought an energetic nu-metal sound to the Soo on this November night over 5 years ago! Their filmed videos were of their originals "Eargazm" and (as embedded below) "Fire In The Hole", and while the audio quality is as patchy as on the Ace videos, Jacob got more diverse camera angles that focused more on each member of the band. If you like modern rock and nu-metal, you should find something to like from 16 Second Stare!


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Despisedeyes' Channel (http://www.youtube.com/despisedeyes)

Owner: An original member of defunct Sault Ontario metal band Despised Eyes (identity unclear), though the channel is credited to the band as a whole

Channel Timeline: Launched on November 4th, 2008; Only video uploaded that day

Channel Summary: The only uploaded video on Despised Eyes' channel was the music video for their song "I'm Myself", which is about being yourself no matter what others may think. Featuring jam session footage and action from a road hockey game, it's well edited but suffers from it's converter program being a trial version, as evidenced by the recurring watermark. Despised Eyes were a work in progress that never played live before falling inactive by 2011, and frontman Mathew Vincent's vocals are shaky and unrefined, but this song showed some promise that members Mike Vincent & Adam Brett realized more fully with their successor band Skull After Betrayl. Note however that Despised Eyes have not visibly updated their channel since this video's upload, but you can hear five more audio demos from this time period at their MySpace page.


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! So, what's coming next month in this series? Believe it or not, we'll be looking at two channels again for a third straight month, as the first channel that we randomly selected only has one video total, so we randomly chose one more with only 2 distinct video types to fill it out. With that said, we'll be looking at YouTube user Scott98633225's channel (featuring an audio recording from the mid-1990s local punk band BK), and one of inactive local hardcore punk/classical trio RedD Monkey's channels (featuring most of the songs from their 2 released albums), so look out for all of that on or around February 22nd! That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews either tonight or tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Despised Eyes

Today, we have this month's Defunct Local Band Profile for you guys, which is of course, our monthly look at one or two randomly selected defunct or inactive local metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands, so readers can learn more about them and check out what they did during their run! This month, we're looking at just one band for only the second time in 11 months, and while this band didn't get far off the ground during their late-2000s run, there's some familiar faces within! Read on below for this month's profile!
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Despised Eyes

Genre: Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Mathew Vincent* (Death Rise), vocals
Adam Brett (Skull After Betrayl), guitar
Willis Tholberg (The Dead Kings), guitar/bass
Mike Vincent* (The Bear Hunters, Skull After Betrayl), drums

(The * refers to band members whose last names changed during their run. Upon formation, Mathew & Mike's last name was Ladouceur.)

Audio/Video: Despite never progressing to the live stage, Despised Eyes have six surviving original demos on their MySpace page from their early months in 2008 that showcase a melodic & groove metal base, though unrefined from what was likely intended. The band's only surviving video is of their original trio lineup playing their song "I'm Myself" in November 2008, as edited into a music video featuring street hockey footage outside of a school, as well as the band playing in a jam room. The audio's scratchy, but it's well edited, all things considered, so check it out below!



Info/Analysis: Essentially the successors to the members' prior high school metal bands like Death Rise, Despised Eyes launched in the summer of 2008, and quickly began songwriting and jamming towards further band activity, though they never played a live concert under this name. After adding Willis Tholberg on bass in early 2009, the band announced plans to record a debut CD that summer, even announcing tentative new song titles, but new Facebook page updates didn't immediately follow. Despised Eyes were last visibly active in September 2010 when a member revealed on Facebook that they were back together and working on new music, but nothing publically came of that, and the band presumably dissolved by early 2011, with Mike and Adam surpassing Despised Eyes in prominence with their 2011 metal band Skull After Betrayl. Despised Eyes were a work in progress with shaky vocals & somewhat repetitive songs, but knowing the members' later band success, I believe they probably would have improved in sound had they posted material from their quartet era. Check them out above to see what you think!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series (which will be our last picking from our band links before adding defunct punk bands to the pool), we'll head to Sault Michigan next in our order, as through 100% random selection, we're looking at defunct hard rock quartet Elipzis! Fitting too, as their Muskegon successor band RedStone Riot are making their long awaited return to the stage soon as well, so look out for that profile on or around August 10th! Stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more news this week! Thanks everyone!