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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year! I apologize for this only hitting the site now, but our year-in-review posts always take a long time to go back through the year that was, so I can catalogue the big events in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scene from pillar to post, and while I'm usually good to get it up on December 31st, time got away from me this year. Everything is done now though, and I hope I got to the biggest and most notable stories, events, and shows of last year, so here's our look back at 2023 on the SMS!

With the pandemic fading even more into the past, we had an even stronger lineup of touring metal, hard rock, and punk bands in Sault Ontario and area this year, including the likes of AMY/DC, B.A. Johnston, Bed Of Roses, Big Wreck, Cory Marks, Darsombra, The Dayglo Abortions, Destroyer, Josey Scott's Saliva, K-Man & The 45s, The Merves, Queen: It's A Kinda Magic, Random Killing, The Ripcordz, and Sponge all gracing a local stage in 2023! Local concert goers could check out multiple bands at events like Rotaryfest, Toystock, The Northern Vibe Festival, and Lopstock, while newer and unfamiliar venues like The Art Hub At Spring, Broers Jansen, The Distraction, The Loft, and The Queen of Hearts Club gave artists some welcomed options to book gigs at last year. Also last year: Storm Rausch won The Soo's Got Talent, four of Mikey Hawdon's past/present bands gathered at Soo Blaster in November in honour of his wedding, ...

...LopLops Lounge welcomed the 12 20 Musicians of Christmas last week, The Sault Community Theatre Centre hosted the Soo Soundcheck & Northern Echoes concerts in June, Mike Haggith joined forces with Brian Tremblay for the Face To Face storytellers' concert in May, and The Apocalypse Afterparty gave another metal shot in the arm to the Madchild and Robbie G rap concerts at Soo Blaster. Look for even more big concerts in Sault Ontario and area in the year ahead!

Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula had a quieter but still eventful year that was arguably peaked early when Pop Evil returned to The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino in March alongside special guests The Word Alive & Avoid. That was the only heavier Dreammakers Theater show last year, but fans could also see touring acts like The Almas, Cell Rush, Fyrbird, Ledhead, Overdrive Orchestra, Peril, Redburn, The Rock Show, Scarkazm, and Scotty Austin on regional stages. One of the big events of 2023 was the first ever battle of the bands at Lake Superior State University (won by new punk quartet The Sole Aggressors), the first event of its kind in either of the Twin Saults since the pandemic began! Fans could also check out the true public local debut of Heavy Lies The Crown at The 2nd Street Music Festival in St. Ignace in August, as well as many one-band gigs across the year!

In terms of general news events, fans got to see official music videos released from bands like Handsome Sandwich, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, Jonesy Land, and The Uncanny Valley, while the first three of those bands, Bone Yard, The Northwest, and Tarnished all hit the road for tour dates outside of the Soo area. Now in his new hometown of Barrie, Mike Haggith launched his own indie label MorningStar Records, with local artists signing on to the artist-friendly imprint as the year progressed, 2023 saw the passing of ex-415E drummer Tony Hubbard and Destroilet frontman Mike Hull, the cancellation of the Just Leppard/Saturday Night Special concert, the postponement of Skid Row & Buckcherry's Sault Michigan date, Mike Haggith's freak knee dislocation on stage at Rotaryfest, and the withdrawals of Tantric and a reunited Frightlight from concerts this year, but we also saw the opening of the downtown plaza, ...

...the huge multi-band private concert at Robbie's Church in Leeburn, Soundcheck guitarist Terry Eaton's Great Northern Opry induction, the return of The Rockstar Bar as an occasional live venue, and the debut of Sault Noir into the local concert promotion game. I'm sure 2024 will be just as, if not more eventful, for musicians in the Twin Saults!

As evidenced by our lack of archival album reviews in 2023, last year saw no shortage of album releases by local metal, hard rock, and punk bands! The year was bookended by two new albums from "the original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage, namely "Genius Mushrooms With Thoughts Of The Stoned Ape" & "69", while early year albums also included the C.T.W./Molten Imp split "Pyrolytic Punishment", Mike McCleary's instrumental EP "Fallout From Midnight Tides", and No Funeral's self-titled EP. Handsome Sandwich's long-hyped debut "Deconstructed" went on sale in May, soon followed by Convergence's debut EP "One", Jonesy Land's singer/songwriter-influenced debut "Zoom-Out", and Jack Spades GT's latest "Sewer City Radio". The summer also gave us rapper Bold Noize's debut punk album "God Save Me", new punk trio Ha!ls' debut EP "Rock and Rolls", and of course, Mike Haggith's long awaited studio album "All The Best In All You Do", including its limited "Rose Edition".

With a new EP from Convergence already on sale, and a teased EP from Handsome Sandwich already in the works, 2024 promises to be another good year for new studio material from heavier local musicians, so be sure to support these and other original local musicians' new & existing music by buying or streaming it where possible!

2023 was a good year for new and debuting hard rock and punk acts, and Sault Michigan was particularly busy in this regard late last year, with punk quartet The Sole Aggressors, hard rock quartet Double Jack, and Dafter-based singer/guitarist Molly Escherich stealing the podium spots at Lake Superior State University's battle of the bands over their far more established competition! Sault Ontario was hardly lacking either, with Generations, Double Down, Silent 9, HeadFirst, and (briefly) The Nostalgic Band all debuting on the weekend nightclub cover circuit in 2023 with many more shows between most of them to come. Also in 2023: Vanity First side project Ha!ls and Nebraska Arms successors Honest Work launched for local punk fans, Hollow Sky and Mitch Sirie's Sir Hell solo project brought some new extreme metal to the table, and Sneaky Pete successors Kickstart debuted at Toystock. Look for more updates from these and other new acts in the new year!

Another year saw lineup changes, additions, and departures in many local bands with none hit harder than Sault Michigan's Tarnished, with Nathan Webber and Isaac Royer breaking off in August to form Double Jack, with Tarnished adding Parker Talentino and carrying on as a trio ever since. Elsewhere in the E.U.P.: Jason VanLuven replaced Odin Osogwin on drums with Project 906, Marquita Bernard succeeded Rachel Mender as Theatre of Night's singer, Chris Leask returned to Rhythm & Brews in lieu of Brent Blackwood, and guitarist Christian Thanasiu left Heavy Lies The Crown. In Sault Ontario (well, Barrie), Spades GT confirmed the additions of James Roy Daley and (sometimes) Jay Sarrazin to their expanded lineup as they continued taking over the GTA. Also on the Canadian side: Jim Michaud replaced Paul Belair as Soundcheck's bassist, Tony Kajnar took over for Brandon Ruch on guitar in Generations, ...

...Mikhal Muto restored a second bassist to The Apocalypse Afterparty, Richard Fullerton returned to That's Chester for their Rotaryfest reunion in lieu of Greg Simpson, and the also-reunited Fuller swapped Nathan Sauve out for David Peredun behind the drumkit. These and a few other bands saw the revolving door for their lineups in 2023!

As far as defunct and inactive bands go in 2023, none made a larger exit from the local scene than Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Obsession, who ended their 18 year run in February due to guitarist Gabe Tessaro's retirement from full-time bands, with the other members splintering off into Soundcheck and Silent 9. Most other bands to be moved to our inactive links this year (or are on the verge of it) did not announce a formal dissolution, but notable names to quietly fade out of activity this year include punk projects These Magnificent Tentacles and Forever Will Be, death metal quintet Exploring Detritus, rising young hard rock band Sylo (née Raincourt), and Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters, among others. Bands like No Funeral, The Bearded Lounge, The Uncanny Valley, and PROV3RB5 are also on our radar for being publically inactive for 6+ months. Here's hoping that these musicians stay active in some form or fashion!

As always for our year-end posts, we'll look at comebacks and reunions to wrap things up, and no event had a bigger public splash than The Inner City Surfers' reunion at Soo Blaster in November, and 2000s punk fans had even more to enjoy a month later when Fuller reunited at LopLops over the holidays (with The Gambit playing their first show in a year as openers!). That's Chester also returned for a one-off reunion set at Rotaryfest in July, while The Bear Hunters returned after a couple years' hiatus this summer, and punk trio Redundant ended a similarly long break at this year's Toystock. The former Jack Spades (GT), Theatre of Night, and The Karstens played their first Sault Ste. Marie concerts post-pandemic last year, while Galactic Alignment returned after a near decade long hiatus, Kraken Mara were reborn as Convergence, and they even brought former State of Misery singer Steve Rhodes back to a local radar as a session vocalist on select material!

2023 was an improvement for concerts and activity over every year preceding it in the 2020s, and here's hoping that the upward momentum continues in 2024 and beyond! I apologize again for the delay in this post making it online, but hopefully it refreshes some good memories of last year, and we'll resume normal operations on the site next! Thanks everyon!

2022: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

As always, let's end the year for our last post of 2022 by looking back at the year that was for The Sault Metal Scene! 2022 got off to a quiet start out of COVID-19 pandemic-related necessity, as a partial lockdown in January and a rollback in indoor capacity measures ground most Sault Ontario concerts to a halt until March. Since then however, things have slowly gotten better, aided by the end of vaccine passports in February and indoor mask mandates in March, and while we're not back to where we were in 2019, this was our busiest year for positive news since then!

This was evidenced by touring acts to play in Sault Ontario and area this year, including names like The AC/DC Show, Alien To The Ignorant, B.A. Johnston, Blessed, Crush, The Glorious Sons, Gutter Creek, Just Leppard, The Killer Dwarfs, Marianas Trench, Pyramid Theorem, Sandman, Taming Sari, The Trews, and White Cowbell Oklahoma, not to mention two Queen tribute bands two months apart! Rotaryfest (Stages 1 and 2) and Toystock both returned to their full pre-pandemic splendor, while The Northern Vibe Festival returned with another stacked lineup in August, the long-delayed Glambition fundraiser finally took place, and the Clusterfolk Music Festival was reborn with a dual focus on music videos and young band promotion. Rap/rock hybrid shows also gained prominence via the multiple $onny Vybe$ benefit concerts and The Apocalypse Afterparty's involvement in rap gigs at Soo Blaster.

Loplops Lounge also resumed hosting in-person concerts in 2022, while Handsome Sandwich made multiple appearances during The Soo's Got Talent, Dryer Fire brought a wide array of genres to their Wilson Street temporary venue, and an impressive lineup of local musicians performed at Outspoken Brewing's second annual Oktoberfest at The Machine Shop. It's a slow process to get back to where we had them before March 2020, but this year had a lot of positive events if you looked for them!

Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula were not lacking for an uptick in concerts and live gigging bands in 2022 either, with The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino hosting two high profile metal concerts this year, starting with the oft delayed Black Label Society concert on May 6th (with Nita Strauss opening!), followed by Steel Panther's holiday season return show on November 26th. Both were surely aided by the end of the PCR test requirement for Canadian travellers, of course. Touring hard rock bands like Fyrbird, Overdrive Orchestra, Peril, Scarkazm, Spun, and Sunspot made their way to the E.U.P. for multiple dates in 2022, while locals Buddy Repperton & The Camaros and The Nameless debuted at the former Back Door in April, and cover mainstays like Tarnished, Project 906, 415E, and Rhythm & Brews were also seen. Look for much more from hard rock bands in the 12 months ahead.

Pandemic and concerts aside, a lot of important news stories happened in the local scene this year. For concert venues, Reggie Daigle put the wheels in motion to divest his two concert venues, with Reggie's West becoming Jay's Piston Broke Pub and Reggie's Place itself being up for sale. The Oddfellows Hall sold years after ceasing concert promotion in the late 2010s, while The Rockstar Bar put concerts on an indefinite hiatus in June, and The New A and The Canadian both closed, but Shooters Downstairs Lounge opened their concert floodgates, and The Esquire Club resumed nighttime bookings this fall. Local acts like Heavy Lies The Crown, Theatre of Night, Spades GT, Obsession, The Northwest, The Uncanny Valley, Soundcheck, and Tarnished hit the road for gigs outside of our area, with The Northwest's profile beyond the Soo really expanding with press features and airplay on non-local radio stations and even on NHL telecasts last season!

Also this year: the Kim Mitchell and Anvil concerts were cancelled, Metal Morpheus aired its final first-run episodes on The Borderline, Mikey & His Uke relocated to the Soo while continuing their impressive slate of cover videos, Jonesy Land continued their push with multiple music videos, the Marconi Meets World festival debuted this summer, Fort Creek hosted two instrument raffles for charity, and Sault Michigan's Tarnished performed on a float during their Fourth of July parade. With things getting busier in 2022, the outward growth should continue next year, for better or worse!

2022 was a big year for local album releases from heavier and punk bands, as evidenced by 11 of our 12 monthly reviews this year being of new albums from late 2021 onward! While not sold on CD, the biggest in scope would arguably be indie/punk quintet The Northwest's third EP "All In", which got a strong reception here & afar after its release in June! These Magnificent Tentacles, Vanity (First), and Forever Will Be also put out their debut digital EPs for fans on the punk spectrum, while Chase Wigmore, Molten Imp, and the re-emerged Sykotyk Rampage enjoyed a busy 2022 with multiple new album releases this year alone. Metalheads could enjoy local progressive metal project PROV3RB5' debut EP "What Dreams May Come" and Theatre of Night's new Christmas-laden re-release "Dreams of Winter", while The Uncanny Valley factored into this year's Clusterfolk compilation tape. Here's to more new local albums next year!

An intriguing crop of new local metal, hard rock, and punk bands emerged in 2022, if with a surprising lack of online pages for them to promote themselves with. The highest profile one may be new alternative/punk supergroup Bookclub, whose Oktoberfest debut and recent LopLops gig have let the Surfers-laden quintet get off on the right foot! Fans have also welcomed new local metal trio The BAG and Jamie Vincent's new noise duo No Funeral to the stage this year, while the already launched Vanity First and Sylo (née Raincourt) played their first public gigs outside of White Pines, Suicide Kings successors Ravencore debuted at Toystock, and two Skeyes of Seven alums brought the acoustic Short & Sweet to Parabol's return concert. Also, Sault Michigan welcomed both Buddy Repperton & The Camaros and The Nameless to the stage at Three One Three on Ashmun in April. Look for much more from these bands in 2023!

With 2022 being a busier year in general, there was even more lineup changes therein, and none saw more overhaul than the revived Exploring Detritus, with guitarist Dan Souliere adding Ryan St. Pierre, Justin Lam, a returning Anthony Boudreau, and (briefly) Mitch Sirie for their revival. Mitch also was part of the expansion of These Magnificent Tentacles from a duo to a quintet, with his long-time bandmate Johnny Belanger and half of Gnaeus joining Brent & Steve too this summer, and Mitch & Johnny also formed half of the revived Soo Fighters this fall. The Wyld Stallyns confirmed Alex White, Derek Turner, and long-time guest Josh Norling in their expanded six-piece lineup, while 3/5ths of Heavy Lies The Crown was swapped out, with Brandon & Ted now joined by younger St. Ignace-based musicians. Of course, the now-Barrie based (Jack) Spades GT saw J.D. Pearce & Daniel Horton round out their new lineup with GTA musicians.

Also this year: Warren Reville joined (and Brad Stephen & Ric Datson left) the stripped down Bone Yard, Jessica Amadio replaced Valerie Powley as Obsession's singer, Rafael Medeira joined the now five-piece Handsome Sandwich on bass, Bill Brouillard replaced Matt Sibilo on guitar in Fort Creek, and Raine Rancourt left his own namesake band Raincourt (now Sylo). Hopefully all of these changes prove successful for these bands, and that the former members rebound in other projects!

Things have picked up in the scene, but we're still not back to pre-pandemic rates, and it does show in the bands we said goodbye to in 2022, with only one major heavier band (power rock quintet Re:Born) firmly announcing their dissolution in February, without ever emerging from their pandemic hiatus despite their announced lineup additions. However, a handful of familiar bands were moved to our inactive band links after last being heard from late last year, including death metal favourites The Bear Hunters, Buckcherry openers Bad Chug, and punk trio Redundant. Horror punk quintet Frightlight fell inactive with Chris Thompson's passing and J.D.'s move to Barrie in 2021, and notable bands like Parabol, Tripod The Dog, and Sault Michigan's 415E, Buddy Repperton & The Camaros, and The Nameless have all been publically dormant since the spring. Fingers crossed that we haven't heard the absolute last from these bands!

Like in prior year-in-review posts, we'll end with comebacks and reunions, and with things opening up more than ever, we weren't lacking in this area! For bands in concert, The Northern Vibe Festival saw the returns of Jack Spades (now Spades GT), A Dire Setback, and The Soo Fighters after spending a year or more off the local stage, while fellow Northern Vibe performers The Cover-Up had already returned at this year's returning Go Skateboarding Day festivities. Mike Haggith, Parabol, Slumshine, and The Sick Sons (renamed The Gambit) all came back after a year+ away, while (The) Northwest made their own full comeback from the pandemic, and Heavy Lies The Crown did the same while almost exclusively playing in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. This year also saw the rebirth of Great West Falls as Forever Will Be and solo original project Stone Smyth, and the return of Downtown Street Parties, among other returns this year!

2022 was an eventful year, even if things weren't quite at the levels we might be used to from the 2010s, but it's only up from here... right? Have a Happy New Year, please drink responsibly if you're going out, and we'll see you guys back on the SMS next week (and next year!) Thanks everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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