YouTube Channel Profile Series: Rick Styles

On this 22nd of the month, here's our newest YouTube Channel Profile, our last before we formally include channels in our random selection that have a high ratio of local punk videos! This month's selection in our monthly look at YouTube channel(s) with a majorty of SMS-relevant clips takes us to a channel that's been a steady source of metal & punk action since the mid-2000s, and is owned by a very familiar face, so read on below for this month's YouTube Channel Profile!
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Rick Styles (http://www.youtube.com/fitswitch)

Owner: Frightlight guitarist Rick "Styles" White, also known as the drummer for Redundant, T-Rex Manning, and The Thrill Junkies, and for past work with bands like Fitswitch, Caveman Morrison, Browbeat, The Pisstanks, Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking, Chronic Demonic, and The Northern Mudsliders, among others

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 16th, 2006; Videos posted from that day through March 2014

Channel Summary: Originally the official YouTube channel for Rick White's popular mid-2000s punk/metal band Fitswitch, Rick began expanding the channel to include other bands & videos in December 2006, later including an early No Arrow performance and two clips referring to his old band The Pisstanks, though neither features the band playing a song. After his last Fitswitch video from one of their reunion concerts went up in the spring of 2009, later uploads would revolve around Rick's newer bands, focusing on Frightlight & Redundant through 2012, and Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking in early 2014, with his most recent video being a solo guitar cover of The Kittens' song "Great Dane".

Why Should You Watch: Rick's channel is worth checking out if you've ever been a fan of any of his more prominent bands, as it's got some solid concert footage spanning over 8 years, and the talent and live energy is present on these whether you're a punk or metal fan! Note that the quality of the videos can be sporadic (especially the older Fitswitch clips), and aside from the Redundant videos, there's no footage relating to bands that he drummed for. For reference, note that while Rick did post videos on his channel earlier this year, it's not uncommon to go months without new postings there.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Suicide Girl - Fitswitch: Though Rick's most viewed video is actually of a pool party, it's not connected musically to any of his bands, so we won't embed it here. Instead, here's his second most viewed video, of Fitswitch playing their song "Suicide Girl" at a basement jam session circa September 2006, late in their original run together. Their lineup at the time featured Rick on lead guitar alongside Frightlight bandmates J.D. Pearce & Chris Thompson on vocals & drums, plus his Redundant bandmate Justin Langlois on rhythm guitar, and ex-Sense of Truth bassist Curtis Beauchamp, though with the band wearing what appear to be Jason masks, it's hard to tell without the end credits. The video is very dark too, and the colour filters don't necessarily help, but it's a strong performance musically, with a neat ambiance, and J.D.'s melodic vocals fit well throughout! Give more of Rick's Fitswitch videos from the late 2000s a look above!



Fright Light - Dead town (live): Rick uploaded two videos of his recent punk/metal band (and Fitswitch successors) Frightlight onto his channel from a concert at the old Coch's Corner on June 16th, 2010, which was the famed "secret show" that still has never been publically detailed in it's entirety as to what happened that night. All I'll say is that the events of their Toronto tour date vlog from 2012 (also from Rick's channel) bear a large common element. As for the videos, an attendee filmed Frightlight's then lineup (Rick, J.D. as "Johnny Pints", bassist Mike "Eddie Fright" Gingras, and drummer Jeff "Shrek Ogre" Richards) playing their originals "Fright Night" & "Dead Town Anywhere" that night, though the audio can be tinny through this camera, and the absence of a second guitarist is noticeable. Still, this was a solid early performance from the guys on a big night... you had to be there!



Redundant Live Halloween Show 2011 at Feedback: Running for 41 minutes, Rick's longest video comes from his current punk trio Redundant's Halloween night concert in 2011 at the former Foggy Notions (then in it's brief run as Feedback, now the current Coch's Corner.) The video features Redundant (also featuring frontman Justin Langlois & Rick's brother James on bass) in Green Day costumes playing an all-cover set, including covers of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (with usual Metallica intro), Green Day's "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?", Screeching Weasel's "Cool Kids", Weezer's "El Scorcho" (with usual TLC interlude), Del Shannon's "Runaway", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Blink-182's "Dammit" (with Fitswitch alum Larry Mousseau on guest drums), Green Day's "When I Come Around" (with "Friends" theme intro), part of Tool's "Sober", and NOFX's "Bob", before a noise complaint and a police visit called the show short. Strong energetic set, and well filmed at stationary and moving angles from near the stage, so fans will enjoy the fun yet attitude fueled covers on display!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll profile a channel picked from our deepest pool yet of local channels due to the punk expansion (217 and counting!), but what channel got picked this time? Through 100% random selection, we've chosen Bad Back drummer Nathan Sauve's old YouTube channel, which features videos of him with Bad Back, Lion Ride, Fuller, and more, so there's a wide array of sounds for fans to enjoy there! Look for that on or around August 22nd, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!

Late & Loud Concert Preview, More Joan Jett Videos, And This Week's Classic Video!!

Let's kick off Wednesday right with a new news post, and in this one, we have a bunch of new videos from the Joan Jett concert on Friday, this week's classic video, and leading the charge, a concert preview, so here's all that you need to know!

We have a midweek concert to preview today, and it's the return of Late & Loud to The Speak Easy TONIGHT! Details are scant on this show, but it will be the talented classic metal quartet's first headlining show at Algoma University's campus bar in over a month, and first concert of any type since a Rosie metal night in late September. The band mas only minimally plugged this concert since announcing it last week, but I assume it will be mostly similar to their usual Speak Easy concerts. For the record, I have no clue if this show will have a Halloween tie-in, but if I hear anything more official on this concert, I guarantee you'll hear it here! That said, I expect this show will be a 19+ affair (except maybe for underage Algoma students), a 10:00 PM-ish start time is likely, and I'd bring cash in the event there's a cover. Check the above links for more details! Regardless of a lack of information, Late & Loud's word is good, and with past members of Stillbroke, The Glass Statues, and Losing Ground in their lineup, you know there's plenty of talent to go around! Check them out tonight at The Speak Easy if you can, and for a preview, here's Late & Loud covering Witchcraft's "Chylde of Fire" at what is now Feedback earlier this year!



Now to some more new Joan Jett & The Blackhearts concert videos from this past Friday night at The Dreammakers Theater at Kewadin Casino, and first, here's four brand new ones from a new video source! These come from YouTube user Gwen Walker, who uploaded four videos from the show onto her YouTube channel over the last two days. Her videos were all shot on a cell phone camera, and they feature Joan playing her song "Fake Friends", her covers of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" & The Runaways' "You Drive Me Wild", and in the video we're featuring below, her encore songs "Little Liar" and a cover of Sweet's "A.C.D.C."! Gwen got a decent angle of Joan and the band from the left of the stage, but on a narrow cell phone camera, you don't get the best view. The audio works well enough though, and everything sounds about as clear as you'd expect! Nice videos overall, so check out all 4 of Gwen's videos from the Joan Jett concert above, and here's the encore from the show!



Also new from the concert are four more videos from YouTube user scott45044, who had previously uploaded videos of Joan & The Blackhearts playing their two newest songs "T.M.I." and "Hard To Grow Up" on Monday. Well, Scott followed those up with four more videos yesterday, and if you saw how good of a quality the first two videos were, you'll definitely wanna check these out! In the new clips, you'll be able to see Joan play her cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" again & her classic "I Love Rock N' Roll", as well as her songs "Go Home" (or part of it), "Love Is Pain", and "The French Song"! The quality's as good as before, and Scott deserves a lot of props for giving us such good videos from the Joan Jett show! Lots of good stuff here, but note that the audio is out of sync with the video at points. Because it's a hard rocker, was recorded in full, and wasn't embedded on here before from another user, here's Scott's video of Joan playing "The French Song", but check the above links for the rest of his videos from the show! Also, it's still odd that no videos of "I Hate Myself For Loving You" are out, but maybe it wasn't in the setlist. Oh well, what we've got works really well!



And finally, here's this week's classic video! With two huge shows of theirs coming up, it made perfect sense to tie in this week's video with local horror punk quintet Frightlight, who are of course opening for The Misfits in Toronto TONIGHT, then headlining the Coch's Corner Halloween party this Saturday! That said, this is another video from a recent Fitswitch reunion concert, and remember, every Frightlight member except Mike "Eddie Fright" Gingras were in past Fitswitch lineups. Like our classic video of Fitswitch covering Frightlight's "She Screams" from August, this comes from the very same concert set at The Elks Hall on March 22nd, 2010, in honour of guitarist Kevin Powe's stag & doe. In this video however, the classic Fitswitch lineup (including four past or present Frightlight members & Andrew MacDonald on bass) fittingly covered The Misfits' song "Dig Up Her Bones", and they don't do a bad job! On the original video (which guitarist Rick White uploaded to Facebook shortly after the show), there is some self-deprecating jabs at the lack of practice for the set, but it sounds pretty good still, even if some parts are messy! They know their Misfits and they pull them off well!

The original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=408246021302, though after posting it to YouTube, I did edit the lighting to make it a bit brighter and less washed out looking. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Fitswitch and Krista Kelly, who filmed this and other videos from this set. They did all the hard work, I'm just sharing this video with a wider audience! With that said, check out Fitswitch covering The Misfits last year below, and go see Fitswitch members OPEN for The Misfits as Frightlight TONIGHT in Toronto if you have tickets! It'll be a good one!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for our next Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on The Lust Boys (featuring Glass Statues guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds) later today! Thanks everyone!

Sykotyk Rampage's New Albums, Half Past's New Videos, And Much More!!

Time for some news at the SMS! We have some good stories to share today, including this week's classic video, the final band on a show this week, our first glimpse at a local band's new lineup, and much more, but first, some new albums are now available to stream, so let's begin with that!

Three of Sykotyk Rampage's new albums are now uploaded onto the band's Reverbnation page to stream for free! Their 26th, 28th, and 29th albums "Bucket of Ham", "Space", and "Zombies" are now online to check out, with the 24th, 25th, and 27th albums (the "Genius Mushroom" albums and "Karrs") yet to be uploaded. None of them are currently available to purchase yet, just stream, but we'll of course let you guys know when their store is updated. How does the new crash music sound? I won't divulge too much personally, seeing as I still don't know which one I'm reviewing next, but from what I've heard, their more irreverent material is definitely back, and the songs range from crash fury to amusing experimental songs to ones that are just plain hard to describe. While drummer Paul Becker still sings on most songs, guitarist Dirk Becker gets a lot of lead singing time on these albums, compared to his single appearance on last year's "Bella Disgusta". Also, the "Space" album is similar to "Zombies" in that the title of the album and songs doesn't necessarily mean that there's a consistent concept to be found. It's odd that the albums are out of order, but the rest should be up soon! Check out the 38 new Sykotyk Rampage songs at this location, and stay tuned for details on the rest of the new albums & which one we'll review first!

Next up, did you miss Hempfest and are still curious as to how local hard rockers Half Past sound with new singer Jordan Rains? We can now find out, as a number of videos from this past weekend's debut are now online at the band's Facebook page! I can't embed Facebook videos here, but five videos are up of the band covering Silverchair's instrumental "Madman", Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness", Drowning Pool's "Bodies", Godsmack's "I Stand Alone", and Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name", so click each link above to give the videos a look! Nice quality overall, and the band are playing as well as I expected, but how does Jordan sound? Well, I was right on my hypothesis that he'd have a higher singing voice than Half Past's old singers, and on melodic songs where he can show that off, he shows real promise. He doesn't do as well on songs with harsher singing though, at least not from the videos I've seen. His stage presence is a bit stiff too, but it could be first show jitters. I'd like to see how he does on Half Past's originals or on songs with more melodic singing, cause that could be where he's best suited. Good first look though, I think Jordan will prove to be the right choice! Check out much more from Half Past's new lineup at the above links, including photos!

Now to a concert update concerning THIS THURSDAY'S 29th Roosevelt Hotel metal night! The final opening band has been confirmed, and after a month away from playing locally, Desbarats death metal band For All That Is Lost are coming back to town to open for Vancouver death metal band Abriosis on Thursday! Notably, this will be their first concert in Sault Ste. Marie since guitarist Allen Piche left the band last month (which resulted in their last minute dropout from the Titan's Eve show), and as he hasn't been replaced yet, it will be their first concert here as a quartet. Should be interesting to hear the band with only one guitarist, but either way, their death metal speaks for itself, so don't miss them! They'll of course join local hardcore band Changing Waves as openers. Aside from the lineup news, a Facebook event page and poster have been released for the show, as well as news that the show will have a $5 cover charge. That can be expected for metal nights with out of town headliners, though the amount varies. Either way, $5 for 3 quality bands? It's extremely worth it! Stay tuned for more on this show in our weekend concert previews!

Now, here's some assorted shorter stories from the last little while. As always, these are in alphabetical order by band, venue, or site name:

• In case you didn't know, The Roosevelt Hotel has a Facebook page featuring photos, events, updates, and news from the Korah Road bar! Become a fan at this location to stay up to date on all events and happenings at The Rosie!
• I've updated the SMS' YouTube channel to further emphasize our extensive video collection and introduce new playlists that group together full concerts and out of print albums that I've uploaded (or partially uploaded). Click the "Playlists" tab at the link above to see the full albums & concerts we have all in the same spot! Hopefully that proves more convenient!
• What's the status of Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold's "Korea Metal" documentary? It's on hold until the "Woods V" sessions end, then he'll work on it again in the fall, with a projected release next spring. For more details, including quotes from David on the documentary, click here!

And finally, here is this week's classic video! With Frightlight rocking this year's Art In The Parking Lot event on Church Street, I thought it'd be fitting to tie in this week's video to them, and this time, we're going to Fitswitch, the old punk/metal band featuring 3/5ths of Frightlight in their classic lineup! This video comes from one of the band's scattered reunions following their 2007 breakup, as their classic lineup reunited on March 22nd of last year for guitarist Kevin Powe's stag & doe at The Elks Hall! Featuring Kevin, his future Frightlight bandmates J.D. Pearce & Rick White, bassist Andrew MacDonald, and drummer Larry Mousseau (also a former Frightlight member), Fitswitch jammed out a selection of their classics and some covers at this gig, and attendee Krista Kelly filmed a lot of it, some of which is posted on the old Fitswitch YouTube channel! One video that didn't make the jump to YouTube last year is of Fitswitch covering an early version of Frightlight's "She Screams", which sounds mostly similar to the version we now know and love, though the vocals are more reserved in the choruses. Good first performance either way, though the Elks Hall isn't well lit, so things aren't too bright, despite the good video quality.

The original video was uploaded to Facebook in March of last year by guitarist Rick White, and you can see the original version at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=408246541302. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Krista Kelly and the members of Fitswitch and Frightlight, They did all the hard work! So with that in mind, hopefully you guys enjoy this look at Fitswitch covering Frightlight's "She Screams"!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews, last month's poll results, and this month's poll very soon! Thanks everyone!

Last Month's Poll Results & This Month's New Poll!!

It's time once again to unveil a new poll on The Sault Metal Scene, but first, we have last month's poll to detail the results of, so that will lead off the post! But first, you'll see that the custom banner on the site this week is in homage to Garden of Bedlam's debut EP, hope you guys like it! Now, to last month's poll, as we posed this question to you guys: Which of these defunct or recently inactive bands would you most want to hit the stage again? We got 44 votes this past month in our return to standard monthly polls, which is a good number, thanks to everyone who voted! So, how'd all the bands finish in the poll? Here are the results!

Fitswitch (9 votes, 21%) Other (9 votes, 21%) Gates of Winter (7 votes, 16%) Dirty Virgin (3 votes, 7%) Sense of Truth (3 votes, 7%) Detroit (2 votes, 5%) Quite Frankly (2 votes, 5%) SBD (2 votes, 5%) Stillbroke (2 votes, 5%) Renderware (1 vote, 2%) Soldiers of Misfortune (1 vote, 2%) Time of Ruin (1 vote, 2%) AtrophiA (0 votes, 0%) Browbeat (0 votes, 0%) Driving Dave Home (0 votes, 0%) Infrastrate (0 votes, 0%) No Arrow (0 votes, 0%) Paraside (0 votes, 0%) Sue Inside (0 votes, 0%)

What do you guys think? Seven bands tied for last with no votes, and while I can see why there may be less fan support for some of them, I'm surprised that no one picked Browbeat or No Arrow! Maybe if you could vote for multiple bands. Of the four bands that tied for 10th place with a single vote, none shocks me more than Soldiers of Misfortune, who were extremely over in my teen years. At least they got some love! Four more bands tied for 6th place with 2 votes each, and it's refreshing to see bands like Quite Frankly & SBD getting some attention in the polls, but I really thought Detroit & Stillbroke would get more votes. Dirty Virgin & Sense of Truth tied for fourth with 3 votes each, which is about where I predicted them, though I figured Sense of Truth would finish a bit higher. Third place went to Gates of Winter with 7 votes, a predictably high finish, though I would have pegged them in the top two. But the poll's winners, tied for first with 9 votes each, and 21% of the results each were Fitswitch and "Other", but keep in mind that the people who voted "Other" likely didn't all vote for the same band. I'm surprised "Other" finished so high, but that could mean many things, from fan support for recently broken up bands like State of Misery to old school love for a band like Amethyst, or even a different genre! But as I said last month, I stuck to more recent bands, though not freshly broken up ones to avoid a possible bias, especially when similar new bands are around. As for Fitswitch, it's great to see such support from fans concerning a possible return to the stage, though it's kinda odd for two reasons: A. Fitswitch do occasionally reunite on special occasions, and B. We have Frightlight now, who share three members of Fitswitch's classic lineup, cover them live, and sound very similar (if you refined their sound & added a horror motif.) That said, Fitswitch were very popular locally, I really enjoyed them in the mid-2000s, and they are a deserving winner of the poll! Who knows, maybe they will reunite more officially down the road, but I'd say enjoy Frightlight, they work extremely well! Thanks to everyone for voting in last month's poll, and as we've been hinting, this month's poll is becoming a July tradition at the SMS, so once again, I'll pose this question to you guys: What was your favourite local metal concert in the first half of 2011? There were a lot of major metal and hard rock concerts from January-June of this year, and I've picked 19 notable and successful shows from the past half year to vote for this month, with the ever popular "Other" at the end as well! So without any further adieu, here are your choices! Bands: Who Made Who Venue: The Canadian Nightclub Date: January 20th Info: AC/DC fans were treated to some more high voltage rock n' roll in January when Toronto tribute band Who Made Who returned to The Canadian to deliver a night full of AC/DC classics in their first of multiple stops this year! No strangers to Sault Ontario, Who Made Who likely pulled in a great audience (as they will at Hempfest next month), but was this your favourite show of 2011 so far? Bands: Bring The Fallen, Winkstinger, The Bear Hunters, State of Misery, and Sativa Rose Venue: The Oddfellows Hall Date: January 28th Info: Originally scheduled to be a private birthday concert for then-Bear Hunters guitarist Mike Vincent, medical reasons cancelled it, but bandmates saved the show and turned it into a public all ages event entitled "Icy Metal For Aborted Therapy"! Though a few bands were removed as a result, five talented local metal bands tore the house down in this all ages show, which included one of Bring The Fallen's last live sets. Was this your favourite show in the first half of 2011? Bands: Maximum RNR, Frightlight, and Destroilet Venue: Foggy Notions Date: February 19th Info: Hardcore and punk would collide at this well attended February show at Foggy's, headlined by Toronto hardcore punk mainstays Maximum RNR, who just happened to feature the Sault's own Brenton Ellis (a.k.a. Diamond Brent Panther) on vocals! The former Lion Ride bassist & Detroit frontman tore it up with Maximum RNR at this show, with Frightlight & Destroilet rocking the stage as openers! I was too ill to go, but did you guys enjoy Maximum RNR? Bands: RedD Monkey, The Fury, No Arrow, and Sounds From The Green Room Venue: Foggy Notions Date: February 26th Info: An interesting mix of bands would populate "The Swamp Donkey Romp" at Foggy Notions in late February, including Smeltzer alumni in their unique local bands RedD Monkey and The Fury, the surprise return of grunge rockers No Arrow to the stage (with their Murder Playground-era lineup in tow), and the local debut of SBD bassist Brad Griffith's hard rock duo Sounds From The Green Room! Was this a standout show for you this year? Bands: The Saigon Hookers & Brad Example and The Role Models Venue: The Rockstar Bar Date: March 4th Info: Kitchener hard rockers The Saigon Hookers have been known to Lion Ride fans for years through live and friendly association, but only in March did they finally come to Sault Ontario for a concert, their first of two this year! They delivered a high energy set of punk flavoured hard rock, with local punk supergroup Brad Example & The Role Models opening the festivities with their own well recieved set! Was this your top 2011 show so far? Bands: Woods of Ypres, The Bear Hunters, and State of Misery Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: March 10th Info: After 18 months away from the local stage, blackened doom metal standouts Woods of Ypres finally returned to our burial ground for a Thursday metal night at The Rosie! The first show on their "Woods IV: The Green Album" release tour (following it's re-release through Earache Records), David Gold and company brought a metal assault to fans in attendance, with some great local support all around! Was this the best show through June this year? Bands: The Great Sabatini, The Bear Hunters, and Shit Liver Venue: Foggy Notions Date: April 2nd Info: Dismembertainment brought us another high quality package of metal to help kick off April when Montreal sludge quartet The Great Sabatini rolled through Foggy's! Their uniquely slow & brutal sound won lots of local fans, while The Bear Hunters and Shit Liver proved more than up to the task as openers! I heard great things about this show, but was it your favourite metal show of the first half of 2011? Bands: Sneaky Pete Venue: The Rockstar Bar Date: April 8th Info: After months and months of anticipation, local hard rock quartet Sneaky Pete FINALLY made their local debut at The Rockstar Bar on April 8th, and by all accounts, the show was a hit! This talented group of local veterans rocked the stage with some great covers, and firmly stamped their name into the local scene with further shows over the next few months, but was this the best of the half year? Bands: RedD Monkey, As It Stands, Winkstinger, Frightlight, The Bear Hunters, Sativa Rose, Late & Loud, The Tenagens, State of Misery, Changing Waves, and Skull After Betrayl Venue: The Oddfellows Hall Date: April 9th Info: What started as a show to pay for RedD Monkey's new tour van turned into The Sewer Swampstravaganja, an 11 band all ages concert full of great local talent, including 9 metal bands! The music was wall to wall, notably including the live debuts of Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti & Changing Waves bassist Terrence Gomes as well! Amazing show full of great bands, but is it your top pick of the first half of 2011? Bands: Lion Ride & The Billy Bastards Venue: The Rockstar Bar Date: April 8th Info: There was no camping weekend in the way on April 8th, as Lion Ride made a triumphant local return to rock The Rockstar Bar with their energetic mix of punk and metal! A huge crowd took in this exciting high impact show, with country punk stalwarts The Billy Bastards delivering their unique musical blend to their fans as the openers! This show was awesome, but is it your #1 pick for 2011's first half? Bands: Dead & Divine, As It Stands, The Bear Hunters, and State of Misery Venue: The Oddfellows Hall Date: April 29th Info: Burlington hardcore rockers Dead & Divine made their long awaited return to Sault Ontario on April 29th for an intense night of hardcore and metal for all ages at The Oddfellows Hall! Three local bands opened the festivities, including promoter John Mignacca's hardcore standouts As It Stands and local death metal band State of Misery in their last local concert! Was this Oddfellows Hall show your favourite of 2011 so far? Bands: Crued, Dirty Virgin, and Motion Carried (now Redundant) Venue: The Canadian Nightclub Date: April 30th Info: If you wanted glam, you got it on April 30th, as Toronto-based Motley Crue tribute band Crued returned to The Canadian for another night of old school glam goodness! Always entertaining, a great crowd turned out to see Crued in action, with local openers Dirty Virgin (in their first show in 17 months) and punk trio Motion Carried delivering their own entertaining styles at the start, but was this your favourite show of 2011 so far? Bands: Fuck The Facts, Shit Liver, As It Stands, and Winkstinger Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: May 9th Info: Ottawa grindcore rockers Fuck The Facts made their triumphant return to Sault Ontario on May 9th, headlining a brutal Dismembertainment-promoted metal show at The Rosie that night! Their return was welcomed, and all the openers (including late addition As It Stands) threw down some heavy stuff to add to this concert, but of all the 2011 metal shows through June, is it your favourite? Bands: Farewell To Freeway, No Bragging Rights, Hallows Die, and As It Stands Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: May 12th Info: Who says a Rosie metal night has to have mostly locals? Three touring metal bands from two previously booked concerts joined forces on May 12th to deliver a devastating set of death metal and hardcore, including Guelph's Farewell To Freeway, California's No Bragging Rights, and Toronto's Hallows Die, with As It Stands fittingly opening the show! Was this show your top concert in early 2011? Bands: Blizzard of Ozz & Motion Carried (now Redundant) Venue: The Canadian Nightclub Date: May 14th Info: Continuing with their trend of entertaining tribute bands, The Canadian brought Blizzard of Ozz to the Soo on May 14th, and they delivered a great set of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath covers to the fans in attendance! Motion Carried again opened with their own solid set of punk rock, but did this show satisfy your Ozzy cravings enough for it to be 2011's best concert? Bands: The Isosceles Project, Thekillingfield, The Endprogram, and Winkstinger Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: May 23rd Info: Three touring Ontario bands returned to Sault Ontario after earlier well recieved concerts to rock The Roosevelt Hotel on May 23rd! With widely ranging sounds from instrumental progressive metal to experimental death metal to punk, these three bands tore it up on May 23rd, with local support Winkstinger making the most of their set with their own extreme stylings! Was this your top concert of 2011's first half? Bands: Unleash The Archers, Wear Your Wounds, Abstract & The Artist, and Changing Waves Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: June 4th Info: As Vancouver power/death metal quintet Unleash The Archers toured through the astrowaste, they stopped at The Rosie on June 4th for an awesome night of metal! Accompanied by Winnipeg hardcore bands Wear Your Wounds & Abstract The Artist, and locals Changing Waves, this show was a success with lots of metal to go around, but did you like it enough to pick it as the best half year concert? Bands: The Dayglo Abortions, Frightlight, Skull After Betrayl, Sativa Rose, and Shit Liver Venue: The Roosevelt Hotel Date: June 16th Info: What started as your usual Roosevelt Hotel metal night took a major upgrade when it was announced that Canadian hardcore punk legends The Dayglo Abortions would be headlining! And then it snowballed, leading to a HUGE audience, HUGE moshpits, and one hell of a concert from the legendary Dayglo Abortions! Also featuring four great local opening bands, including Frightlight's Rosie debut, was this your favourite concert of 2011 so far? Bands: Garden of Bedlam Venue: The Rockstar Bar Date: June 17th Info: After seven months away from the local stage, prominent local metal quartet Garden of Bedlam returned to the stage for just the second time since opening for Kiss when they headlined a solo show at The Rockstar Bar on June 17th! With loads of newer material and some surprise new covers (Metallica, anyone?), Garden of Bedlam returned with a vengeance last month, but did this late June concert manage to top the half year for you? Other: Perhaps your favourite concert of the first half of 2011 wasn't listed? Maybe I missed a major one, or you preferred one in Sault Michigan, or maybe even one with no metal bands? For reference sake, bands like 5150, Browbeat, Caveman Morrison, For All That Is Lost, Full Circle, Half Past, Phatstick, Sykotyk Rampage, That's Chester, Tym Morrison, Unleash The Blackened Sky, and We, The Undersigned played in local concerts not listed above, including many of the bands on the listed shows, so there's plenty of "other" options if this is your preferred choice! VOTE TODAY!! You have until August 18th to cast your votes, so do so on the voting form in red on the left of the page! I'm curious to see what show you guys pick, so make your voices heard and get voting! We'll have a new news post tomorrow featuring some more news, so stay tuned for that! Thanks everyone!

News From As It Stands, Life's Eclipse, Lion Ride, And This Week's Classic Video!

Hey guys, here's some more local metal news & notes to kick off the month of May, including the latest audio from Life's Eclipse, photos from Lion Ride, news from As It Stands, and this week's classic video! Before we begin, remember that tomorrow is May 2nd, so it'll be time for another "Where Are The New Albums?" post! Stay tuned for that, but now, it's time for the news! (Edited Tuesday, 2:03 AM)

Eckerman, Michigan metal quartet Life's Eclipse are staying active following their surprise resurgence last month, so here's what you should know! Firstly, the band now has a Facebook page, and you can check it out at this location! The band hasn't posted too many updates to the page since launching it on April 19th, but they did announce that they've been working on some recordings recently, and they posted some samples on the Werehold Records YouTube channel on Thursday! The samples are respectively 46 and 61 seconds long each, and neither has vocals finished yet, but they're very promising! One is a clip of the song "Cell Differential" from an older album of theirs named "Invasion". Unfinished, so it looks like they're adding vocals and getting it complete for fans, click here to listen! Heavy with a melodic touch, I can't wait to hear a longer version with singing! Of the two clips though, the one below is even better in my opinion! "Out Of The Cold" (from the "Deeper In The Woods" album) is brutal and very fast, and a longer sample to boot, so definitely check it out! I continue to be impressed with these guys, they're one the Sault Michigan area's hidden gems, so check out the above links for more, and here's the "Out Of The Cold" sample!

Next up, here's the latest news from Sault Ontario hardcore quintet As It Stands! They have 3 big updates here, so let's go in the order they mentioned them in their most recent Facebook page posting. Firstly, the band has announced that they are hitting the studio after their next two local shows to record their first full length album! This would be their third release overall though, following two out-of-print EPs from the mid-2000s (if you have them or the mp3s, LET ME KNOW!) I wouldn't be surprised if they're back in Stoney Creek for these sessions, and it'll be interesting to see if they re-record the songs they did at Stereo Soul Studios last fall for this CD, or add them as is. Hopefully this comes together, I'll absolutely wanna hear the finished product! Secondly, the band confirmed their next two concert dates, both taking place next week, including one new addition! One's the Rosie metal night on the 12th, but the other is at Foggy Notions the next day! The band didn't give further details, but I'm fairly certain they're opening for Toronto melodic death metal band Hallows Die that night, which was a previously confirmed concert already. Good to hear, they'll do well on this lineup!

The other news? They'll be on Shaw TV (Channel 10 for Shaw Cable users) this week for a performance of their original song "Conception"! The station's local news & videos are on a frequent rotation, so it'll be easy to find it with patience. With this and a recent RedD Monkey TV appearance (awesome for them as well), it's great to see some form of local TV exposure for local bands, so definitely keep an eye out for the AIS feature this week! Big things are brewing for As It Stands, stay tuned for all of that (and more) in the coming weeks!

Thirdly today, here's the full photo shoot that Lion Ride had with Curt O'Neil early last month! We'd previously only seen one sneak peek photo, but there's lots more to share now, including a nice write-up from Curt about the band and the photo shoot! Curt heavily praised the band for their sound and energy, and wrote about how much fun he had during the shoot, which took place at The Algonquin Hotel, site of The Rockstar Bar, where they played their most recent local show early last month. Photos of all types were taken in locations ranging from a boiler room to a bathroom to outside, including humourous and serious shots for all to enjoy! Great work as always, Curt's one of the best local photographers you're liable to find, and his work speaks for itself! Check the above links or click here for all these photos, you'll enjoy them, and as Curt recommends, blast some Lion Ride while checking them out!

And finally, here's our latest (and long overdue) weekly classic video! Apologies for it being delayed until the next week, I'll have this week's earlier than usual to make it up! With Frightlight taking the stage last week (along with two shows from guitarist Rick White's punk project Motion Carried), it made perfect sense to go back to the Fitswitch days for the first time in this weekly series! This classic video was uploaded by Rick White in November 2009, and it's of Fitswitch playing 3 songs from a 2005 concert at Madison's Pub! The lineup present here includes Rick, his current Frightlight bandmates J.D. Pearce & Kevin Powe, original drummer Larry Mousseau, and bassist Jason Bourcier. Filmed by an attendee and originally posted onto Facebook at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=203361591302, it features three full songs from that show: "Bitch Anthem", "Rust Angel" (now a Frightlight staple), and "March Of 1,000 Corpses" (itself making it's live debut.) NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED! I want people to be more exposed to Fitswitch, I was a big fan of theirs, and though their sound has progressed higher in Frightlight, this stuff should be seen!

Good performance, though the presence of alcohol is somewhat obvious. The "Rust Angel" cover is definitely lesser than we're used to from the later Frightlight version, but the other two songs have the classic punk/metal hybrid aggression that we loved in the mid-2000s! Quality's decent too, and HD as well, which is rare for the time! I split the video up to give each song it's own video, so check the above links or the SMS' YouTube channel to see all three, but here's the first song on the video, "Bitch Anthem"!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Browbeat Concert Review, Including Three Surprise Bands!!

Hope everyone's enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend in Sault Ontario! I apologize for this review being late, I had a family gathering to attend to, but now it's time for the review of last night's Browbeat concert, which had a LOT more in store compared to what I expected going in! So here is my review!

Last night's concert at Foggy Notions was advertised to be just Browbeat as the sole scheduled act, after a bit of confusion over a possible alternate headlining band (as it turns out, it was supposed to be Sativa Rose, not WinkStinger.) And the concert started out like that, with Browbeat making their first live concert appearance under any name in almost nine months! They opened with a set full of a mix of originals and covers, including some Collective Soul and ZZ Top hits, and their own songs like 'Days Gone By" and "Narrow Mind"! Nice to hear some of these songs again, it's been too long! Frontman Dutch Vanderploeg was battling some issues with his singing voice, forcing the band to stick to songs that fit his lower vocal register, so a couple cover and original favourites didn't make the cut in their return. But the ones they did play, they played well! Dutch's guitar work was capably good as it ever was, and Rick White shown that he can definitely drum very well compared to his more familiar guitar and bass output!

Hell, they even broke out a Fitswitch cover ("I Only Wanna Be With You") with Rick pulling double duty on vocals and drums that was cool to see! Also great to finally see James White on bass at a live show, cause he's very talented, and he shown a nice stage presence as well! Their hard rocking sound was a welcome sight, but they still had a bit of rust on their sound overall. I imagine that when they get back on stage again, they'll sound at their top form, and I can't wait!

Does it seem like I wrapped up the review quickly? Well, here's why. After one set, Browbeat ceded the stage to some special guests! I was aware of said plans beforehand, but Browbeat kept this secret, and what a secret it turned out to be! Firstly, Dutch traded his guitar in for a bass as he was joined by his Caveman Morrison bandmates Tym Morrison and Johnny Belanger for a set of metal covers! Great to see Caveman Morrison back on stage again, even if was for just one set! We got to hear some very solid renditions of songs from bands like Metallica, Living Colour, Ozzy Osbourne, Journey, and more, and the crowd responded well! It was actually growing from Browbeat's set, which was nice to see! Tym was in good form, though his voice also had some weak spots at certain points. His guitar work was as great as ever though, but I missed his ventures into the crowd! Dutch kept up well on bass, and Johnny was great on drums himself, as he'd continue to be throughout the night (more on that later.) Good stuff all around, I can't wait to see a full concert set from Caveman Morrison again!

The second surprise band last night turned out to be local horror/punk quartet Frightlight, in what could be their first ever live concert appearance sans their trademark horror costumes and makeup. This almost resembled a Fitswitch show at parts (yes, this could allude to something.) J.D. Pearce, Rick White, and Mike Gingras took the stage for a set full of Frightlight's original songs, with Johnny from Caveman Morrison filling in for the absent Jeff De Rose on drums. I wasn't expecting to hear from Frightlight again this soon, but they put in a pretty good set chock full of their great punk/metal tracks like "Fright Night", "C.H.U.D.", and "Scream"! J.D.'s singing was as good as we ever see from him, with lots of aggression, while Rick and Mike kept rocking away at a high rate on their respective instruments! Rick's guitar work especially looked at top form, including on their VERY fast new original, which I'm excited to hear again soon! And though I don't know if Johnny has much familiarity with Frightlight's originals, he kept up well on drums, and if you listened quick, you probably wouldn't have noticed that anything was different! Great stuff, but take my word: You haven't seen the full Frightlight experience until you see them in full horror regalia, and you'll get your next chance in two weeks at the Zombie Walk after party!

After their set, J.D. and Mike left the stage, with Fitswitch/Scary Uncles bassist Andrew MacDonald (now sans hair, shockingly) replacing both and joining Rick and Johnny for a rendition of GG Allin's "Bite It You Scum"! Andrew has an underrated punk voice, and the crowd responded well to the song! You also may have recognized Andrew as the sound guy last night, and for jumping in on backing and lead vocals randomly during Browbeat and Frightlight's sets. Following that, J.D. returned to the stage along with (surprisingly) original Fitswitch guitarist Kevin Powe for a surprise three song set of classic Fitswitch songs! Kevin was in town this weekend and it was nice to see him back on stage with J.D., Rick, and Andrew! If only Larry Mousseau was there, we would have seen the original Fitswitch lineup reuniting again, but regardless, it was a great flashback! I regrettably couldn't get a full video of their set, but mark my words: They were good! Kevin was playing well, the rest of the band did as well, and Johnny continued to impress with his impromptu drumming! This was a real treat if I ever heard of one, and here's hoping this isn't the last time that Fitswitch reunite!

Browbeat took the stage for a couple more tunes to cap the night, including a rendition of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" with a special guest: Me? Yeah, Dutch was telling me that he wasn't sure if he could pull off that song vocally last night due to his throat problems last night, so I randomly suggested that I could sing it for him if they wanted. A few hours later, boom, I was singing on stage with Browbeat! I've heard good things, but I honestly felt like my voice was cracking near the end of the song, so I could have easily done better. Still, if you wanna hear how I sound singing "Crazy Train", click here!

Overall, this was a surprisingly fun show that exceeded all of my initial thoughts going in! What I thought would simply be Browbeat's return turned into a fun, well attended multi-band concert with a little something for everyone! You'd have to have been there, it was a great surprise and delivered well! For photos of all five bands (including the Andrew/Rick/Johnny trio), click here or visit The Sault Metal Scene's Facebook page! And I got some videos, which you can check out below! So here's Browbeat's original "Days Gone By", Caveman Morrison's version of Living Colour's "Cult Of Personality", and Frightlight's song "They All Float"!







That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the next few days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Free Refill) And More Assorted Updates!

Hey guys, before I head to Manitoulin Island, I have more assorted news stories to share with you today! Some are backlogged from last weekend's inactivity, while others still are newer! Let us begin with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! (And if you're here hoping for Kewadin Festival recaps and updates, you're out of luck, but I PROMISE to share what I know and have on Sunday!) Sault Michigan hard rockers Free Refill have announced another upcoming concert, this time at an upcoming battle of the bands! The United Way of the Eastern U.P. are holding a battle of the bands on August 5th at The Strahl Theater at Sault Area High School on August 5th as a fundraiser to raise money for Kids Against Hunger! Free Refill announced their involvement on their MySpace page and Free Refill's Devin Anderson confirmed the news with me by e-mail, so there's one act for the battle! I can't confirm any other bands, but the lineup isn't finalized or complete, so if you're in Sault Michigan, there's still time to enter! Registration is $25, forms are available at the Facebook event page, or e-mail Chrystal Tharp at this location for details! If you're interested in attending, it's at 7:00 PM at the high school on August 5th, with an admission price of $5. Check the above links for more details! Best of luck to Free Refill, I wonder who else will join the bill? Also, Devin gave me the news that apparently, they're playing at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival at 1:00 PM tomorrow on the second stage! This would mean that they are replacing Electric Motor Fish on the bill for that day. I wonder what happened? No matter, great to see Free Refill again! I'll keep you all posted with more updates! Next up, I promised you all continued Mike Cliffe coverage after I discussed him in the GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, and I'm making good on that! The veteran local experimental hard rock guitarist has uploaded three new songs onto his Reverbnation page! My favourite is called "Waiting For World Cup", and it's a hard charging instrumental that is seemingly inspired by this year's FIFA World Cup! I can't picture this song fitting with a soccer game, but it's well played and catchy! A bit too much dead air between the chugging riffs, but it's a solid song that would work especially well with backing instruments! Another new song is a collaboration with Utah indie/progressive outfit Higher Than Pope (Mike has a wider reach for his material than you may realize!) It's definitely not the heaviest thing in his catalog, it has sort of a techno influence with bouncy progression to it, and decent vocals! Not bad, though don't expect metal out of it. The other new song is a cover of The Mothers of Invention's "Any Way The Wind Blows", which is a nice experimental carefree cover of the original! Not personally a huge Frank Zappa fan, but Mike breathes some nice energy into this cover! Check out the new songs, and much, much more by clicking here! There's something for everyone in his catalog! Thirdly today are some intriguing new YouTube uploads from Duane Roy, the Wawa-based author and metalhead who frequently attends major Sault-area concerts! You've likely seen his concert videos, but did you know that he also makes bootleg audio recordings too? Good quality ones, no less! Duane's uploaded ten audio recordings from local shows onto his YouTube channel, and lucky for us, five of them are metal! This includes Tesla performing their song "Gettin' Better" from their show at Kewadin Casino last month, Ace Frehley playing "Snowblind" at Kewadin Casino last fall, Alice Cooper singing "Is It My Body?" from his August 2007 show at Kewadin, The Scorpions performing their classic song "Holiday" at Kewadin in September 2007, and Kiss playing "I Love It Loud" from their Kewadin outdoor show in 2006! I'm really impressed by the audio quality here, I wonder what device he used? Particularly of interest to me are the Alice Cooper and Scorpions songs because we don't see a lot from their local concerts online! Check out the songs (really good quality all around) and more at the above links! I'll embed one here to show you guys, The Scorpions in Sault Ste. Marie playing their song "Holiday"! And finally, I found a pretty cool discovery on Facebook the other day that I wanted to share with you guys! Former Fitswitch guitarist Kevin Powe, it turns out, is a very talented graphic designer! Of course, if you were in and around Fitswitch and the local music scene in the mid-2000s, this will be no surprise to you, but Kevin recently uploaded his graphic design portfolio onto Facebook to share! I don't typically share Facebook photo albums on personal pages, but there's too much cool stuff on here for me to not share! Kevin's designed logos for bands like Fitswitch, Frightlight, Faithless Sin, Time of Ruin, what is now No Arrow, and classic local bands like Tyrants of Euphoria (remember them?) and others! There's also album artwork and scans for Fitswitch albums, including a few that I've definitely never heard of! Lost in my searches, or never released? If real, I'd love to get my hands on them, hint hint! Also, you'll find assorted other logos, and best of all, loads of concert posters! Everything from classic Fitswitch shows, to Gates of Winter, Lion Ride, No Arrow, Caveman Morrison, Behemoth, The Downfall, and more! Awesome to see some of these posters again, it's like a flashback to when bands like Coalesce, Soldiers of Misfortune, Hellbound, and much more were in their heydays! The Time of Ruin poster above is really awesome, but check out all of his work, cause Kevin's got HUGE graphic design talent, and I wish he'd get back into making posters and logos, cause his work really stands out! The posters we get nowadays, when we do get them, don't have a lot of graphical flair like Kevin's work did, and I never would have guessed this was all courtesy of a band member! Check out his portfolio at this location, you won't be disappointed! And if anyone out there knows if the Fitswitch album artwork posted there led to any albums besides "The Rust Angel E.P.", let me know!! That's all for today, hope you guys enjoy your Friday! An auto-post is coming TOMORROW AFTERNOON with the first installment of our Defunct Local Band Profile series, where we discuss AtrophiA! Stay tuned, and I'll be back home on Sunday!