Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Drayton Fever

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, and after a Sault Ontario summer for this series, we're spotlighting a Sault Michigan band to kick off the fall season! As always, this monthly feature looks at a randomly selected local metal, hard rock, or punk band from the past, in order to showcase and promote their run and accomplishments for modern readers, and it is quite fitting that this month's selection is a band who readers in the early 2010s will remember from releasing music on Friday the 13th, a date that returns this week! Here's what you should know!

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Drayton Fever

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie/Paradise/Hulbert Township, Michigan

Genre: Thrash Metal

Lineup:

Doug Reed (Bludgeoned, Half A Man), all instruments

Audio/Video: Surviving media from Drayton Fever's run is only publically available on their label Werehold Records' YouTube channel, which features four songs that they recorded for Werehold's former Friday the 13th new music posting events in the early 2010s, as well as this clip of Doug recording "The Browning" for the Friday the 13th event in June 2014. An album called "The Longest Summer" was in pre-production at his old Half A Man bandmate Erik Rintamaki's own Hot Box Studios in Brimley, which would have had eight songs, but it was never completed as planned. A song named "Mary Kelly" was once streamable on their MySpace page as well. Here's the intended opening song for their album, "And On With The Killing"!

Info/Analysis: Active from around 2008-2014, Drayton Fever was the long gestating solo project from veteran E.U.P. metal musician Doug Reed, who signed to his Swampghas bandmate Jason Mills' now-defunct indie label Werehold Records in the latter half of their run. Updates through 2011 are largely gone thanks to MySpace's degradation, but Doug was working on "The Longest Summer" throughout the turn of the 2010s, describing the album as "a brutal collection of (my) life journeys & interests over the past 12 years in sickly brutal musical form, none of which is pretty". The album would have featured unspecified guest singers and drummers, and the songs on offer were influenced by bands like Exodus, Machine Head, Slayer, and Acid Bath. Drayton Fever only updated their Facebook page in 2012, and while they took part in Werehold's Friday the 13th new music events through June 2014, they were not involved in the series' mid-2010s installments, and likely fell inactive by 2015.

Full-on "metal" like this hasn't always been an easy sell in the E.U.P. (not that Werehold managed to release completed albums from their roster), but Drayton Fever were a solid and reliably heavy project that deserved to get bigger in this area! Doug is a talented multi-instrumentalist with a good ear for what works in thrash and groove metal on songs like "Beatnik" and "Fleshwork", and vocals were optimally deployed when used. It's a shame that Drayton Fever could never publically break through beyond one-off songs on Friday the 13th, but hopefully we haven't heard the last from Doug in some musical form or fashion!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! For the first time in over two years, this series will have two bands featured in the next installment, as the first randomly selected project doesn't have much in the way of public details, so a similarly slight project was picked to fill things out. As such, look for our profiles of Sault Ontario metal solo projects The Shaner and Sir Hell on or around October 10th, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Highway 63), New Rockstar Bar Videos, And Inactive Band Notes!!

We're back for a surprise second post today, as we have SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to take note of, but be sure to check out this morning's Emergency Festival preview post (with notes on the Downtown Association surviving) in the post below this one! Today's second post also has new Rockstar Bar-related videos, and a bunch of notes regarding bands moved to our inactive band links, so here's what you should know! (Updated on Saturday at 12:19 AM)

Sault Michigan classic/hard rock quartet Highway 63 will return to The Satisfied Frog for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the very short notice, the band only announced the shows on their Facebook page yesterday, and The Satisfied Frog doesn't have their own Facebook page (that I know of) to plug concerts. After taking almost a month off, these will be Highway 63's first local concerts outside of the Kewadin Casino umbrella since their Frog debuts in early April, and hopefully they can keep the good will going with another entertaining weekend of hard rock classics! There's no announced cover charges this weekend, you must be 21 to attend, and 9:00 PM start times are likely. Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, we have a new Facebook video to share of the Monkey's Uncle/Sir Charge successors in action, so what should you know about it?

Filmed by attendee Wendi Clement and shared by the band on their Facebook page, it's of the Switzers and company covering Boston's "Peace of Mind" as their closing song at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on July 18th. Sadly, it's not of the full song, but you get the unique visual of the band getting closer and closer in view as Wendi approached the stage early on, and it's a solid cover of this classic rock standard! Give it a look below, and don't miss Highway 63 at The Frog TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT!

Next up, the newest episode of Local2's music webseries Tuned with Donna Hopper is now online, as she was there for the mayhem at last month's SNFU concert at The Rockstar Bar! Bookended and interspersed with video footage of SNFU's set during this Gonqshow event, Donna interviews SNFU founder & frontman Ken Chinn (a.k.a. Mr. Chi Pig), who reveals that he's actually watched Tuned episodes in the past! The interview itself features discussion about how he feels about seeing himself on video, and his thoughts of the documentary "Open Your Mouth and Say... Mr. Chi Pig", but it's less of an interview and more of a candid conversation that, while polite and fun to listen to, does contain some adult language. Of course, there's bloopers during the credits, and it's a fun watch, so give it a look at the above links! Remember, I can't embed the episode here, as Local2's video host doesn't allow external embedding.

Note that three other recent Tuned episodes are from the Northern Lights Festival Boreal in Sudbury and don't contain local bands, a point that Donna asks the organizer about in this episode, so give that and others a look also, but note that this festival isn't known for being a metal or punk hotbed.

Also today, here's a new Facebook video from newer local pop punk quartet Stereo North! As uploaded to their Facebook page, this is of the guys playing their original "Fall Before Me" at The Rockstar Bar, on August 8th, though there was some initial confusion regarding the filming date, as their Facebook page says it was posted at noon that same day, hours before the show took place. Well, it turns out that the video was filmed at last week's concert, and was posted on Wednesday, but the band gave it a retroactive date of the 8th for one reason or another. Thanks to Blair Burch of Project 421 (who also played that night) for clearing up the confusion! As for the video itself, it's got solid quality and the band sounds good, but it was filmed on a very high stationary camera that didn't have the stage at a center angle, so it's not the optimal viewpoint for the performance (and the black & white backdrop is a remnant of the previous night's Rockstar Republic event.) Still, give this new Stereo North video a look below, and stay tuned for more from them!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items, all related to Sault Michigan-area bands that we've moved to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity (there's more to come too.) As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• We've moved Sault Michigan alternative hard rock trio Division of Sanity to our inactive band links, as they have not posted a public update on any of their pages since plugging their Sault Summer Arts Festival set on August 5th of last year. Active since 2012, Division of Sanity released some demos and played frequently at special outdoor events, and though I'm not sure what happened to them, they had a unique sound that was a nice change of pace! Hopefully the guys turn up again soon, and best of luck to Caine, Myke, Gabe, and other former members!
• Also moved to our inactive band links is Drayton Fever, the Soo/Paradise-based thrash solo project from Half A Man alum Doug Reed, as they haven't been the subject of any new postings or media since label Werehold Records' Friday the 13th postings last June. Active off & on since 2008, Doug had good ideas and talent to take Drayton Fever far, with brutal demos to boot, and hopefully he revisits the project down the road!
• And we've also moved local hard rock duo Lift The Broken to our inactive links, as they haven't posted on their Facebook (and only online) page since last July, ironically in a status that said they were "back to work." A young band that was only around for a few months, they played at least one open mic set at Biggby's Coffee in Sault Michigan, but nothing major followed. Hopefully Carol & Nathan stay active in music, their postings seemed encouraging!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon, and remember not to miss The Emergency Festival! Thanks everyone!

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 6)

For the fifth time since April 2012, Eckerman, Michigan label/studio Werehold Records have posted lots of brand new music onto their YouTube channel to coincide with Friday the 13th, so in this special feature post today, we'll look at the first half of the new songs! In fact, there's nine today for the first time since the inaugural Friday the 13th spree two years ago, courtesy of 8 acts (mostly of the local metal variety), including our long awaited first glimpse at a mysterious project, but we're going to break up our coverage of the new Werehold tracks into two posts due to the amount, with the other coming this weekend. We'll touch on the songs in alphabetical order by artist name, so Life's Eclipse, Moss, Palaver, and Swampghas' new songs will definitely be in the second half! Now, to the first four songs, one of which being a new song by Isle Royale extreme metal quartet The 1,000,000,000s Who Died entitled "Pile of Tongues", and while the band is still somewhat of a mystery, there's promise in this short instrumental track, especially guitar-wise! That said, the drums sound very artificial, and they can be a bit too relentless, but give it a look at this link!

Moving to local bands, we finally have our first public look at Awaken Eidolen, a band that Werehold Records has teased in postings since last summer, but revealed nothing else on until today, so what do we know now? Well, the name alludes to waking the dead, but we still don't have an online page, confirmed lineup, or home base for them yet, but their new song "The Urge" is definitely a metal track! An instrumental rocker, it's got a steady crunch to it that's reminiscent of some other Werehold projects, but perhaps more melodic. I'm digging it, and hopefully we'll learn more on Awaken Eidolen soon, so give "The Urge" a listen below!



Next is the only project to get two songs on this newest Friday the 13th spree, that being local thrash solo project Drayton Fever! Led by Half A Man alum Doug Reed, his new songs (ironically both 4:58 in length) are called "The Browning" & (as embedded below) "Beatnik", so how did these turn out? "The Browning" has more of a groove metal/Pantera vibe to it, while "The Beatnik" has more of a diverse spread, ranging from a grungy into to full thrash at it's peak. Doug's vocals are effectively harsh, and these songs definitely fit with past Drayton Fever originals in intensity, so check out "Beatnik" below and more above!



Lastly for today's Friday the 13th Werehold coverage is "XYZ", the new song from Strongs metal project East Branch! Led by Swampghas' J.R. Johnson, you largely only hear from East Branch on Friday the 13th, and this is their most unique track yet, consisting entirely of what sounds like sputtering machinery or repetitive drum beats. I'm sure there's a message here that I'm not getting, but it's a far cry from their past songs, which lean to a dark metal base. Interesting if nothing else, so give "XYZ" a listen below!



Remember, we'll complete our look at Werehold Records' newest Friday the 13th posting event either tomorrow or Sunday with a look at Life's Eclipse, Moss, Palaver, and Swampghas' new songs, so be sure to come back to the SMS over the weekend for them and more news and notes from the area! Thanks everyone!

Jack Spades EP Details, Papa Fogals Chair Reunion Footage, And More Videos!

In our second post of the day, we have new videos from bands on each side of the border, recent news coverage of a band reunion earlier this month, and leading off, updates on a recent CD release, so read on below for what you need to know, and check out last month's poll results & this month's new poll in the post below this one!

Let's start today with some details concerning physical copies of local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades' debut EP "The First"! This is the CD copy's album cover (which I replicated from a scan of it), and while the whole booklet is in a monochrome colour scheme, the CD's actual label has a tan aged look to it. The back booklet of original copies features autographs from all 5 band members in this pressing, while the inside features the band's lineup, thank yous from each band member, and photos from Jack Spades' set opening for Anvil in March, as taken by SooToday's Donna Hopper. In terms of the technical credits, both Jamie Vincent and Mark Rand are given equal production credit, while the booklet and logos were created by Frightlight guitarist Kevin Powe. Copies were $10 at the EP release show on Sunday, but that also included admission to the show, so it's not clear yet whether they'll drop in price in other sale situations. Aside from an odd cut on the edge of my booklet, everything's really solid, so get your copy of "The First" A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for our review!

Next up, remember how Thessalon/London metal quintet Papa Fogals Chair reunited locally on May 3rd at The Moose Lodge in honour of bassist Mike Bird's stag & doe? Well, Local2 cameras got to attend this event and film a report that you can now watch at this location! Remember, Local2's video host doesn't allow external video embedding. Featuring an assortment of video footage of their reunion set (their first since 2010), drummer Derek Turner talks to the camera about PFC and a bit about their history alongside his bandmates, before transitioning at the end to footage of Derek's most prominent active metal band Garden of Bedlam, who were playing live for the first time in 2014 that night. No footage was included of Derek's other band The Side FX's set at the stag and doe, and we still await some new public updates from their camp. Though a stag & doe isn't an event that we tend to cover on here because of their personal nature, it's great to see Papa Fogals Chair back together, even if for one night! Check out the very solid video footage above, and hopefully this wasn't the last we've seen of them!

Closing today with videos that we can embed, here's a brand new preview of Sault Michigan solo project Drayton Fever's upcoming studio work for label Werehold Records' Friday the 13th music event next month! Posted onto the label's YouTube channel yesterday, this is the first Werehold video in 5 months, and the first depicting a live performance in 2 years. It's of project leader Doug Reed playing guitar for one of two new Drayton Fever songs planned to be a part of the June 13th upload spree, though does the video have to be so close with no camera angle changes? Short, but promisingly heavy, so give it a look below!



Finally, Brutaly Fatal frontman Austin McCrae posted a pair of new solo videos onto their Facebook page yesterday! Both are early versions of new original songs for the band, and they include "Belly of the Beast" and, as embedded below, the longer "Cold Temptress". Both are solid early glimpses at new material, but they're obviously unfinished without Rainey & Brandon involved, and I have a feeling Austin's not going full power on the vocals for these takes. We'll see how they turn out, but give Austin's new Brutaly Fatal song previews a look above & below!



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

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 5)

As you should remember, yesterday was Friday the 13th, and to mark the occasion, Eckerman, Michigan metal label/studio Werehold Records went on another song uploading spree on their YouTube channel! Last seen in July, this is the fourth time that Werehold Records dedicated this "unlucky" day to new music from their talented artist roster, so I found it appropriate to spotlight the material once again for you guys! In terms of exclusions, there's no new tracks from The 1,000,000,000s Who Died, Awaken Eidolon, East Branch, or Moss, nor did we get any from some of the featured artists from the September 13th installment, such as local guitarists Mike Libertoski & Scott Savoie. Actually, only 4 artists were featured yesterday, including Brimley techno project Palaver, whose new track is entitled "Jotunn" (Icelandic for "giant"), and it's a chaotic (if short) electronic number that keeps with their dark techno sound nicely, so give it a look at this link! Now, to the new songs from Werehold metal projects, and as before, they're in alphabetical order by band name!

One of the songs is from Swampghas drummer Doug Reed's solo project Drayton Fever, and while it's not a new track, it is an unreleased instrumental demo from his planned debut CD "The Longest Summer", as originally recorded way back in 2005. Entitled "Fleshwork", it's a solid and hard-charging metal number that would be cool to see with a higher recording quality and with vocals, and I really like the guitar work on this one especially! Hopefully we get some more news from Drayton Fever in 2014, and check out "Fleshwork" below!



Also among the "new tracks" is "Dreams & Nightmares" by Werehold's flagship band Life' Eclipse! From their album "Shadow Over Superior" (and one of the first 5 songs that guitarist Jason Mills wrote way back in 1995), "Dreams & Nightmares" stacks up with Life's Eclipse's other studio work with great instrumentation and a catchy groove, but it comes across as short to me, and like "Fleshwork", this version's an instrumental. I like where it's going for sure, so check out this "new" Life's Eclipse demo below!



Finally for this newest Friday the 13th, Strongs "backwoods metal" trio Swampghas (featuring the aforementioned Jason Mills & Doug Reed) were the main focus yesterday, as four instrumentals from a 2006 demo were posted onto YouTube as well! Entitled "Bog", "Eckerman", "Struggle", and "Killbilly", these were recorded solely by Doug and guitarist/East Branch mainman J.R. Johnson with the intent of reforming the then-defunct Swampghas, though Jason noted that these songs were recorded in 2 hours while "whiskey drunk". Compared to newer Swampghas material, the production quality and songwriting isn't as refined as we've been accustomed to, but it's a nice look at some early work from this talented regional metal band, and hopefully their still-forthcoming "Raco Tower Incident" CD delivers even harder! Check out the first song "Bog" below, and hear more at the above links!



The next Friday the 13th comes our way in June, so keep an eye out then for more original U.P. metal from Werehold Records, unless some more stuff makes it's way to the public in the interim! That's all for today, but I'll see you guys at The Canadian Nightclub in Sault Ontario TONIGHT for Bam Margera as Fuckface Unstoppable! $25 at the door, 19+, 7:00 PM! Thanks everyone!

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 3, Plus A New Local Band!!)

I know this is badly late from when it took place, but this got pushed back and back repeatedly thanks to other posts and some personal commitments. The wait is over though, as it's time for our coverage of the second Friday the 13th blitz of new material by Eckerman, Michigan label/studio Werehold Records! As you may remember, July 13th was a Friday this year, and Jason Mills' local label made good on plans to do another Friday the 13th song upload spree to the label's YouTube channel after the success of the first one in April, but this time with just 6 new songs, which is down from 9 that went up in April, so we'll fit this into one post rather than two. As a result, there's no new material from Moss, Wearwithal, or Orb Hearthstone's solo project this time around (or from a mystery band named Awaken Eidolen that Werehold pages also mention), but there is one new artist included this time around, and despite the smaller number of songs, there's a lot of quality songs to cover as there were in April, so let's start this look at what went up for Friday the 13th this month on Werehold Records' YouTube channel!

Let's first look at the bands that either lie outside our current coverage range or aren't metal first. One of the new songs is the "seriously truncated" instrumental mix of Isle Royale metal band The 1,000,000,000s Who Died's track "Declaration", which has promise and a solid low groove, but it's fairly repetitive, and I'd like to hear it with vocals and some more variance. Click here to check it out though! Also new on the 13th was "Nameless", the new song from Brimley electronic project Palaver, and like their earlier tracks, it's an edgier techno/electronic instrumental that isn't as monotonous as other similar songs I can think of by other artists. If you like electronic music, Palaver are an interesting listen, so click here for their new song!

We'll go in alphabetical order for the rest, starting with a new (and overdue) addition to our band links, that being the local thrash metal project Drayton Fever! We hadn't listed them on the site before as their pages described them as being from both Paradise & Hulbert (both outside of our current coverage range), but their Facebook page lists their current location as Sault Michigan, and knowing this project's leader's local band work, they definitely fit for further full coverage on the SMS, but their addition was inevitable regardless! Drayton Fever are led by veteran local musician Doug Reed, who you may recognize from past work with bands like Bludgeoned, Great Bodily Harm, Half A Man, and currently with fellow Werehold acts Swampghas & Wearwithal. A solo project at it's core, Drayton Fever have been active since 2008, and have been working on a solo album named "The Longest Summer" off and on in recent years, which is based around Doug's recent life events. This album is where the Friday The 13th upload "And On With The Killing" comes from, and unlike the other new Werehold tracks, this has vocals! I like the varied singing styles that Doug uses here, but his heavier singing does sound a bit forced. That said, the music (though short) is well recorded and very heavy, and it lives up to earlier tracks like "Mary Kelly", which I really dig!

Drayton Fever is definitely a promising metal project, and hopefully Doug keeps at it so we can hear "The Longest Summer" in full at some point! He's got lots of talent on different instruments, and he puts them to good use on the Drayton Fever tracks I've heard, which is good, as pure thrash metal is a rarity for active local bands. Check out "And On With The Killing" below, and for more on our newest addition to our Sault Michigan band links, click here and the above links!



Next up is the new song from Doug's Swampghas bandmate J.R. Johnson's Strongs-based metal project East Branch! Though they still don't have an online page that I know of, this latest instrumental "haunt" is called "Hillbilly Highway", and it's a lot lighter than "Black Market Body Parts" from April. It's harder to describe than it's fellow Friday the 13th uploads, and almost feels like two separate songs, as the first 90 seconds sound much different from the rest of the song. It's well done, and it has sort of a lonesome travelling vibe going for it late, but it's something you'll have to hear to really get. You can do that below, as it's worth a listen!



Also for the new uploads is a new old song from Eckerman, Michigan metal quartet Life's Eclipse, as led by fellow Swampghas member Jason Mills! Again, we have an instrumental track here (entitled "Up From Sleep"), which is part of an (unreleased?) demo from 1998 named "Deeper In The Woods". I really like where this one's going, as it's very heavy with a dark yet upbeat vibe, but a guitar solo and some vocals would definitely help it be less repetitive, especially midway through. I've always really enjoyed Life's Eclipse, and this song definitely fits with their solid local track record, so check out "Up From Sleep" below!



Finally for the latest Friday the 13th Werehold Records songs is (who else?) Swampghas, and not just the members in other projects this time! The Strongs metal trio's contribution to July 13th's uploads is a demo mix of their song "Fistfight With A Microwave" from the forthcoming "Raco Tower Incident" album, and thanks to the video description, we now know the inspiration for that song title! Despite commenting that this was the version recorded so lyrics could be written, it's also an instrumental, but a heavy and fast paced one, and slightly longer than their earlier originals! The riffing's fast and very heavy, and the drumming suits it well, so I'm eager to hear the full track! Give a listen to "Fistfight With A Microwave" below!



I hope you guys liked this latest look at Werehold Records' Friday The 13th extravaganzas! If they plan to do a third installment of a new music blitz for the label on Friday the 13th, it won't be for a long while, as the next Friday the 13th will be in September... of next year, but when Werehold Records have new media and updates to share, you know we'll have them here! Stay tuned as well for two more all video posts tonight and early tomorrow, including our last CASS Cafe video showcase and this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, and I'll see you guys at the Rotaryfest Second Stage TONIGHT! Thanks everyone!