Local Metal Video Showcase, Including Our First Christmas Surprises Of The Year!!

Continuing into our surprisingly slow pace for local metal news this December, we do have some news to get to this week, but because a lot of stuff I have this week is in media formats, I thought I'd start with a local metal video showcase! Most of it is actually new uploads from our YouTube channel, including this week's classic video and our first Christmas surprise song uploads, but first, here's a brand new album upload from a recently prolific local band!

On Saturday, local grunge quartet Haggith uploaded their first live album (and third release overall), entitled "Flight 75" to their YouTube channel! Though the album's formal paid release won't occur until next month, we can now hear all 11/12 tracks of "Flight 75" for free like with their earlier albums, so what should you know about it? The cover art's not bad (though the title seems tacked on), and the track listing is more or less the same as was in their live compilation video from their Bushplane Musical Madness set, albeit with some differences. "Public Enemy", "These Four Walls", and "No Cure For Insanity" are not present on the "Flight 75" track listing, with "Chaos In The Streets Of Aftermath" and "Rage Train" being added on, while the track order mostly flows with the live video (save for the song changes and "I Am" & "75" switching spots.) A new review of a Haggith album on the site won't come until the spring (to avoid any biases), but I'll say that the recording quality is pretty good given how it was captured, and at times, it's hard to tell it was from a live concert!

Until we get a chance to formally buy "Flight 75", check out Haggith's first live album below, and when the guys fully return from the holidays, we'll have even more news from them as it comes in!



Next up, here's this week's classic video! With their long awaited return from London coming up THIS FRIDAY, I figured it'd make sense to tie in this upload with local deathcore band The Valentine's Day Massacre! In particular, we're tying this in with frontman Steve Rhodes, who (as you may remember) fronted defunct local death metal band State of Misery off & on from 2010 through this summer. Most of State of Misery's videos have made it to YouTube already in one form or another, but there's at least one outlier from their early days, that being the last of their four December 2010 jam session videos! Featuring their original/final lineup, this was one of four videos from this same day that were posted onto the band's Facebook group at the time, including performances of their originals "Bleed" and "Don't Break The Silence", and their cover of Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell", but we are only now just putting the last of these four videos (mostly shot by Ashley Lacasse) onto YouTube. It's of an original song (name unclear), and like the other videos from this jam session, the audio is a bit scratchy, but State of Misery's early promise and brutality are clear!

This video was uploaded to the band's Facebook group on January 3rd of last year, and you can see the original file at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=116105025128457. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit goes to Ashley & State of Misery for this video, I'm just trying to share it with a deserving wider audience! State of Misery are missed, but the members are still active in exciting newer projects, so give the last of their early jam session videos a look below, and so see Steve with The V.D.M. on Friday at The Algonquin Hotel!



We'll close today's post with the return of something I gave you guys last December, that being Christmas surprise videos! For the holiday season, I thought it'd be a nice idea to upload some rare or previously unavailable audio tracks from local metal bands onto our YouTube channel once again, so like last year, I've picked 5 batches of songs from 5 different local bands to post as a present for you guys! The first couple went up on Monday, with three more just having been posted this morning, and the others will go up on Friday, Sunday, and finally, on Christmas Day. So, what surprise songs did we start with?

Well, I went all the way back to 2004 for our first Christmas uploads, as these are two early audio recordings from defunct classic hard rock quintet That's Chester! We covered these on the site last year, but as a refresher, guitarist Gabe Tessaro had posted two covers of theirs onto a personal page of his that was linked through the band's former website. These date back to That's Chester's original lineup, which featured Gabe and Eugene Orlando on guitar, Aubrey Falls on bass, and Ric Datson on drums, alongside original singer Richard Fullerton, who's now musically active in the Ottawa area. The songs, which I assume were recorded at a jam session, are covers of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down" and (as embedded below) Kiss' "Detroit Rock City", and even at this early stage of their 8 year run, they're rocking out well! Ritch arguably has a better range than his successors in That's Chester, and while there's the occasional misstep, this veteran local band has the chops to pull off these hard rock classics, and it's great to hear some rare older recordings of theirs! Check the above links to hear the Queen cover, and here's That's Chester losing their mind with "Detroit Rock City"!



And finally, our second Christmas surprise uploads for you guys are three original demos from inactive local metal band Sativa Rose! We also plugged these on the site last year, but as a reminder, drummer Alex Palmer uploaded three instrumental demos of the band's three original songs ("Fall From Grace", "Bellows of the Beast", and "Deliver Us") to the streaming music website Grooveshark circa July of last year, as part of a (now deleted) playlist of their setlist at the time. Sativa Rose's mid-2011 lineup is present here, with Alex joined by now-Valentine's Day Massacre bandmates Andrew Angelic on guitar & Adam Veale on bass, alongside current Winkstinger guitarist Anthony Orazietti. I assume that the demos were instrumental due to the band's search for a singer last summer, so they forgone having Andrew or Adam sing for these more formal non-live demos, but versions with new singer Marisa Valois never turned up before Sativa Rose went inactive earlier this year. The recording quality isn't bad, and the members show some blistering metal chops with great solos, but the vocals are missed, as they never played these songs live in an instrumental format.

Most of these songs can still be heard on Grooveshark at this location, but "Deliver Us" was quietly deleted at some point, and as I don't think any videos exist of it, I think our YouTube upload of it is the only publically viewable version of the song. These are solid quality demos from Sativa Rose's peak, so check out "Fall From Grace" below, and give the other Sativa Rose originals a listen above! Stay tuned on Friday for our next Christmas surprise uploads!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news hopefully tomorrow, weekend concert previews on Friday, our next Christmas surprises, this month's YouTube Channel profiles, and much more! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (For All That Is Lost), A Band Breakup, And New Concert Videos!!

Before we get to the news, I wanna offer my condolences to the family and friends of former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, who passed away today at the age of 71. Jon was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968 & featured heavily on their albums during his tenure with the band, along with stints with respected acts like Whitesnake, and a respected career as a composer. I've always enjoyed & respected Deep Purple and their musical contributions, and Jon was a huge part of that, especially in their early years, and his loss is definitely being felt by many. R.I.P.! Now, to today's local metal news, as we have a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month in the Sault Ontario area, a band breakup, and a couple of new local concert videos, so here's what you need to know, and also check out our latest all-Woods of Ypres/David Gold post below this one!

After last month's successful F.A.T.I.L. Gathering in Laird, local death metal quartet For All That Is Lost will host and headline another similar event named "A F.A.T.I.L. Requiem" at 436 Neebish Road in Laird (which I believe is a band member's home) on Saturday, August 4th! This time however, the concert will be shorter and a bit tighter organized due to noise complaints, but much metal will be had at this concert! For All That Is Lost are listed to headline and open the show at 5:00 & 10:00 PM respectively on August 4th, with four other local bands joining in. Those include local death metal bands The Valentine's Day Massacre at 9:00 PM, The Bear Hunters at 8:00 PM, and Crimson Crusade at 7:00 PM (all of whom played last month's F.A.T.I.I.L. Gathering), but the 6:00 PM slot is currently open (though I have heard tentative news on that slot, which I'll have for you guys soon!) There will be a $10 admission charge for this show, it will be an all ages event, and it all starts at 4:00 PM that day with bands to follow. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Hopefully this is another great F.A.T.I.L. event, and even with plans to make this smaller, hopefully the quality's just as good, so stay tuned for updates, and hopefully I can make the trip out to Laird for this one!

Next up, this might be somewhat of a broken record statement, but local death metal band State of Misery have disbanded once again. Drummer Nick Kainula confirmed the news via e-mail correspondence the other day, saying that they were "completely done", though he and bassist Kevin D'Orazio are working on a new project. Like their previous breakups, the writing was on the wall once again, thanks to their return set at the West of Hell concert two months ago not going well, half of the band's current primary projects (The Valentine's Day Massacre & March Into Regression), and imminent out of town school plans for a member, so I'm not surprised to see them end again. I was hoping that this second return would lead to local prominence akin to their early 2011 run, but who knows what exactly happened behind the scenes, and hopefully their current paths are the best for them individually. Best of luck to Steve, Ray, Kevin, and Nick in the future, and if they come back for a third time ever in the future, you know we'll cover it here!

We'll close this post with new videos, starting with a new "music video" for an out of town metal band, featuring footage from a local concert! Sudbury improv/comedy death metal trio 85 Pound Poutine's set-closing song "Bacon Fuck" (as titled/suggested by an attendee) was filmed at their co-headlining appearance at the Hallows Die show at The Canadian Nightclub on June 29th, and it's been posted onto the band's YouTube channel, complete with song lyrics! Filmed at the side of the stage by another attendee, the video quality is very washed out, but everything is heard well enough, and if you have trouble deciphering Gravy Smith's death growls, the added lyrics help (and though I know this is how their other videos look, why paste the words over the middle of the video?) Nice stuff, and amusing, so check out 85 Pound Poutine in the Soo below!



Finally, here's a new video from our newest addition to our band links, young local hard rock/metal quartet Ashes To Dust! An attendee of their set at the second Sewer Swampstravaganza filmed them covering System of a Down's "Aerials" on Friday, and the results were posted onto their YouTube channel after their set. Quality's pretty good for the camera, and the guys sound good here, but I dunno if this is the best song for Noah Morden vocally, as parts of it are a bit above where his range can go. It's nice to see another video of them in action, especially at a non-Superior Heights performance, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more Ashes To Dust updates as they come in!

March Into Regression Updates, A New Solo Recording, And This Week's Classic Video!!

Time for some more news on the site, and after a day full of Sault Michigan news and this month's YouTube Channel Profiles from this afternoon (in the post below this one), we have some more overdue news from Sault Ontario to get to! Tonight, we have this week's classic video (overdue, I know, but I wasn't in town half the week) and a new audio upload from a local musician, but first, here's some more big news relating to a recently reunited local metal band!

In case you guys didn't see my late notice post on our Facebook page yesterday, local death metal band March Into Regression made their return to the stage last night at the F.A.T.I.L. Gathering in Laird! As such, it was the band's first concert since their name change from Unleash The Blackened Sky and their first official live show since the Shaw TV-filmed 21st Rosie metal night last June, when they were known as Bring The Misery. It's great to see them back after such a long hiatus, and hopefully they can build on their slow start last summer and show their real potential! As such, they've also been announced as the third band at next Thursday's 47th Roosevelt Hotel metal night, where they'll open for The Valentine's Day Massacre (featuring their former singer Steve Rhodes) and local hardcore quartet Changing Waves. My source is that show's Facebook event page. Nice addition, and I definitely intend to head to The Rosie next Thursday to check out their first Sault Ontario show in over a year! That said, how does their lineup look? Their Facebook page still only lists guitarist Ray Cowan and drummer Travis St. Amour (both holdovers from last year's lineups) as being in their incarnation, but some other recent Facebook postings have indicated other members!

According to a comment on the Facebook event page wall for their next show, the band's new second guitarist is named Christopher Neveau, and I'm not familiar with him musically at all, but hopefully he's got the chops to hang with the rest of the guys in March Into Regression! Former guitarist Dan Souliere (who played at their first show last June before initially leaving) is back in the band as well, though he's now M.I.R.'s bassist, and from what I know, he'll do just fine in that role! Christopher also credited "Josh" and "Jeremy" as band members, but I don't have 100% confirmation if they're in, who they are, or what they play. Bear Hunters guitarist Josh Stephney would make the most sense for the former, given his singing past with Dan and Travis in Bring The Fallen, but I've seen nothing concrete crediting him or anyone named Jeremy as being in March Into Regression. I'll keep you guys posted as I hear more, but I'm not entirely surprised the lineup isn't updated yet, as Unleash The Blackened Sky were slow to announce lineup changes last summer too. Even still, I'm curious to hear how M.I.R. sound after a year's absence and retooling, so stay tuned for updates on their lineup and more as they come in, and don't miss them at The Rosie next Thursday!

Next up, here's a new audio track from ex-Sneaky Pete guitarist Mario Carlucci! Entitled "The Fury", it was uploaded to his YouTube channel earlier today, and it's a solid instrumental composition! Heavier without being too fast, it's got a nice melodic pacing and his talent is well used, though the backing drum track is way over done. It sounds like he put in double the hits than a song of this style needs, but it's nice to see Mario keeping busy while we wait for his next band project, so check out "The Fury" below! (Also, on an ironic note, did anyone notice that this guitar-driven song shares the same name with the old local band The Fury, who had no guitarists? Just thought that was worth mentioning!)



And finally, here's this week's classic video! With LemmaFest and the F.A.T.I.L. Gathering going down this week, it made sense to focus on one of the bands playing at either event for this week, and we actually found ourselves drifting back to March Into Regression again for a connected video this time around (more specifically, drummer Travis St. Amour.) Years before re-entering the local scene, Travis was gaining a strong local name as the drummer for the young local metal band Fountain of Betrayal during their late 2000s run, alongside his brother/sometimes bandmate Tyler (now of Social Suicide) on vocals & bass, and guitarists Chris West and one I can't 100% verify (first name possibly Ryan?) They peaked with a victory at the 2008 Case's Music Battle of the Bands, but this classic video comes from a later set from Fountain of Betrayal at a December 21st, 2008 Case's Music event with other bands formed and linked to Case's Music's Rock Camp. Two videos were filmed during their set by attendee Kelly Godson, and while one was of their cover of "The 12 Days of Christmas" (fitting given when this event took place), this video is of F.O.B. covering The Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)", and for their ages then, it doesn't sound too bad!

Originally posted at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=105153910261, it's a bit rough around the edges, and the higher tuning makes the song sound jollier than it probably should, but given how young the guys were back in 2008, you can't be too harsh. The guys (especially the St. Amour brothers) have grown a lot as musicians since the Fountain of Betrayal days, but this is still worth checking out for a nice rendition of a hard rock classic, so check it out below, and keep an eye out for Travis & Tyler's current bands!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including hopefully some LemmaFest fallout, and this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile later this week! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Dutters23, StateOfMisery2011, and mdj60'sChannels

Six months after we last covered this many channels in our YouTube Channel Profile Series, we're once again giving three YouTube channels with a minimal amount of local metal-relevant videos a look this month! I apologize again for the day's delay, I didn't want to overshadow some news that had to go up yesterday. Thanks to random selection and the need to fill out the post due to the channel's size, we're profiling the videos, information, and other stuff on these three YouTube channels so you know why you should check them out, so without any further adieu, read on below for this month's profiles! (Edited on October 16th, 2013)
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Dutters23's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/dutters23)

Owner: YouTube user Dutters23 (Real name unknown, though he is Canadian)

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 9th, 2006; Videos posted in April & May 2012

Channel Summary: Though I can't verify if dutters23 ever lived here, his YouTube channel was half comprised of the opening songs from local doom metal notables Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", before all of his videos were quietly deleted for unannounced reasons in late 2012. Previous plans were to upload a different album there every Tuesday, but after uploading all 3 songs from Between The Buried & Me's 2011 EP "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" in April, his only other uploads since were "Lightning & Snow", "Death Is Not An Exit", and "Keeper of the Ledger" from "W5". As a "Woods V" source, this was fairly redundant given that other channels have these songs in ample supply, but these are still quality doom metal tracks from the late David Gold! My favourite of the three songs is "Lightning & Snow", but I'll embed the most popular of Dutters23's uploads here ("Keeper of the Ledger", this version courtesy of Mohammed Yaseen), and check the rest of the above links for active YouTube copies of the songs that Dutters23 posted!


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StateOfMisery2011's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/stateofmisery2011)

Owner: YouTube user Ashley Lacasse (niece of ex-Half Past bassist Arthur Lacasse), though the channel is credited under the name of local death metal band State of Misery

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 3rd, 2011; Videos posted that same day

Channel Summary: I can't confirm whether this was an official YouTube channel for the band, but Ashley Lacasse launched this channel 3 days after State of Misery's set at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) on New Year's Eve 2010, where they joined Winkstinger, The Bear Hunters, and Sativa Rose for a night of metal mayhem! Their original & final lineup was present for this early show of theirs, and Ashley filmed their songs "Don't Break The Silence" and what I think is "Bleed" during their set, though both video titles only credit the band name & the live New Years' setting. The quality isn't bad on these videos, though the lighting is very red, and the audio is fairly scratchy. Still, these are pretty good compared to their other 2010 clips, so check them out above, but note that the channel isn't in active use now. As it's the most popular of the two (with over 200 views), here's "Bleed" from New Years Eve 2010!


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mdj60's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/mdj60)

Owner: YouTube user and Sault Ontario resident Mark Jones

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 1st, 2007; Videos posted between December 2009 & October 2010

Channel Summary: Mark has used his channel actively since it's 2007 inception, but he's only posted three videos to date, both from a pair of major local concerts in Sault Ontario in 2009 & 2010. One is from Canadian rapper K'naan playing his hit single "Waving Flag" at the Kiwanis Community Theater on October 5th, 2010 during that year's Algoma Fall Festival, but the other videos are from Norwood, Ontario hard rock quartet Three Days Grace's second headlining concert at The Essar Center from December 8th, 2009! Both are fairly short, with neither crossing a minute in length, but they're filmed from a good angle (despite it's distance from the stage), and the audio quality is clearer than you'd expect! One video is just of the pyro and end of one of their songs, but embedded below is 54 seconds of 3DG playing their hit single "Break", and it sounds good with a nice crowd reaction from what I can tell. Though I liked their first show here better, this is a nice clip from their 2009 stop here, so check out Mark's concert videos above & below, especially if you like Three Days Grace or K'naan!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Next month, we're actually gonna do 3 channels again, as the first YouTube channel I randomly chose only had one video, so I kept adding more until we got enough to fill at least 3 different videos' worth! So our next YouTube Channel Profiles on or around July 22nd will include Garden of Bedlam's original YouTube channel (featuring one 2009 video), former Skull After Betrayal frontman Mike Vincent's YouTube channel (featuring two S.A.B. videos from a 2011 jam session), and YouTube user taylortrecroce's channel, featuring 2 more videos from Three Days Grace's show here in 2009! The joys of random selection, I suppose! Stay tuned for that next month, and more news tonight! Thanks everyone!

Last Month's Poll Results, Link Updates, And This Week's Classic Video!!

It's the 18th of the month, so it's time to reveal the results from last month's poll at the SMS, but before that, I'm just letting you guys know that we're posting details on next month's poll separately from this post due to the size and content of the discussions relating to it this month, so we have some extra stories at the end of this post. You'll see full info on our new poll(s) later today, but for now, remember that I posed this question to you guys last month: What was your favourite local metal concert of 2011? 32 votes, down from the two half year polls, but still a respectable amount of feedback, and I thank you guys for voting over the past month! So, here are the final results:

The Dayglo Abortions at The Rosie on June 16th (6 votes, 19%)
Garden of Bedlam at The Canadian on December 26th (4 votes, 13%)
Sneaky Pete at The Rockstar Bar on April 8th (4 votes, 13%)
Woods of Ypres at The Roosevelt Hotel on March 10th (4 votes, 13%)
Other (3 votes, 9%)
Helix at The Rockstar Bar on December 3rd (2 votes, 6%)
Skull Fist at The Canadian Nightclub on November 6th (2 votes, 6%)
Napalm Death & Shit Liver at Feedback on October 15th (2 votes, 6%)
Half Past at The Rockstar Bar on October 22nd (1 vote, 3%)
Garden of Bedlam at The Roosevelt Hotel on July 21st (1 vote, 3%)
The Bear Hunters at The Oddfellows Hall on July 20th (1 vote, 3%)
Unleash the Archers at The Roosevelt Hotel on June 4th (1 vote, 3%)
Farewell To Freeway at The Roosevelt Hotel on May 12th (1 vote, 3%)
Sewer Swampstravaganja at The Oddfellows Hall on April 9th (0 votes)
Lion Ride at The Rockstar Bar on April 9th (0 votes)
Dead and Divine at The Oddfellows Hall on April 29th (0 votes)
Fuck the Facts at The Roosevelt Hotel on May 9th (0 votes)
Garden of Bedlam at The Rockstar Bar on June 17th (0 votes)
Smeltzer at The Oddfellows Hall on August 12th (0 votes)
Caveman Morrison at The Rosie on December 9th-10th (0 votes)

What do you guys think? In ascending order, I'm probably most surprised that the Garden of Bedlam's shows in June & July finished so low in the polling, as both of those concerts finished in the top 3 of their respective half-year polls for 2011! However, they still placed high for another show. The rest of the results for the bottom 12 in this poll weren't terribly surprising given the vote dropoff and their prior results in our half-year polls. For the three-way tie for 6th with 2 votes each, I'm especially surprised that neither Skull Fist nor Napalm Death saw a higher vote total, given how big their 2011 shows here were (and their 1-2 finish in the second half-year poll), but Helix finished where I expected. "Other" came in 5th with 3 votes, and though I can't speak for what people had in mind, I wonder if any of those votes were for the Fatality/Immersed show at The Rosie last summer? It scored multiple votes in our second half-year poll, and I regrettably forgot it for the final poll, which I sincerely apologize for! The three-way tie for second place with 4 votes each saw Garden of Bedlam's CD release show and Sneaky Pete's debut finish high like I predicted, but I am surprised that Woods of Ypres' last local show doubled its vote count from the first half-year poll! Increased posthumous praise for the late David Gold, or just a coincidence of who votes? Interesting nonetheless, and it was a great show!

But the winner (like in the first half-year poll), with 6 votes & about 19% of the total, was the Dayglo Abortions-headlined 20th Rosie metal night from last June! Anyone that was there knows how big that show was, and from the talented local openers to the huge and lively crowd, it was proof that The Dayglo Abortions are hardcore punk legends and need to come back to town A.S.A.P.! Hell, I bought a framed print of the poster from this show, so even I know it was a huge event! Thanks to everyone who voted, and cast your votes in our current polls on your left if you wanna, as we're talking all about them in our post later today!

Next up, here's three recent link changes to our "Other Local Metal Links" section (for links with a local metal relevance that aren't in other categories), and all are due to Facebook group/page deletions. One is for the short lived (and possibly never completed) Sault Ontario recording studio Dungeon Studio, which (I think) was ran by ex-Time of Ruin guitarist Mike DiPasquale circa 2008 before he moved to Alberta. Their Facebook group was deleted within the last year, and with no alternate page, I've deleted it from our links, but hopefully we'll hear more from Mike musically at some point! Also, the more recent local recording studio Dimension Studio recently had it's Facebook page deleted, though other pages still exist, including it's website which is now linked here. I hope Brendan hasn't closed up the studio, as his work was pretty good, but I'll keep you posted if I hear anything! Finally, Destroilet/Belmonts drummer Matt Waples' graphic design company Sonigraphix Design Solutions had it's Facebook group deleted recently, but I just replaced it's link with it's still active Facebook page, so keep an eye out for more of Matt's excellent graphic design work! Stay tuned to the SMS for more link updates if we hear of anything that needs a fix!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With their late addition onto Sunday's Brat Attack-headlined punk concert at The Canadian Nightclub, it made sense to tie in this week's video with local death metal quartet The Valentine's Day Massacre... only anything of theirs is too recent yet. However, frontman Steve Rhodes' other band State of Misery have some older videos still that deserve a wider audience, including this video from their first ever live concert! This comes from just the second Roosevelt Hotel metal night on December 9th, 2010, and it's of State of Misery's original (and current) lineup playing their original songs "Don't Break The Silence" and "Bitch"! Note that the former song is included incomplete, so I left the two songs combined into one video. This was filmed by a concert attendee off of the webcam on frontman Steve Rhodes' laptop (according to Facebook comments on the video), and Steve would post it on Facebook two days later, making it one of the oldest live concert videos of State of Misery in action. The band sounds about as heavy as you'd expect, and their skills are clear, but the audio quality isn't. When the band play, the sound gets very scratchy, which I can't correct in post, but I was able to adjust the video quality itself from what was originally posted on Facebook at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=464742236395.

Before uploading, I fixed the mirror effect on the video (I have no idea why it was backwards when uploaded), and I also cropped the dimensions to remove the white support beam on the floor, as it cuts off the far left of the view for most of the video. Hopefully now, it looks better and focuses more on what's essential: State of Misery! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to State of Misery and the original filmer, I'm just trying to share this video with a deserving wider audience! Scratchy audio or not, it's a nice early look at this talented young local band, so give it a look below, and don't miss The Valentine's Day Massacre on Sunday night at The Canadian!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for all of the details on this month's polls later today! Thanks everyone!

West Of Hell/Tribune Concert Review!!

Hey guys, it's time for my review of last night's West of Hell & Tribune concert at The Canadian Nightclub, featuring two major local band returns after year+ absences! What went down, and what'd I think? Read on below!

First up last night was local hard rock quartet Borderline Divine (formerly Stillbroke) in their first concert in over 2 years, so how'd they sound? Essentially, they were like Stillbroke with a huge injection of heaviness and intensity, and I honestly liked the Borderline Divine sound more than 2009-era Stillbroke on first listen! Their set had mostly originals, including new songs like "Ride of Your Life", "Lie To Me", "Burn The World", and "Vampire In The Night", as well as two Stillbroke-era holdovers ("Push Me" & "No Reason") that fit well with their current sound, and some covers of Audioslave & Static-X tracks! The new lineup appears to have solid chemistry, and I like how Jesse Frigault's voice has developed, especially in terms of throwing in some death metal-esque growls here and there! Justin Polutanovich fits in well on bass, and though Sam DeDominicis has traded his long hair & guitar for a goatee & drums since I last saw him live, he's definitely qualified behind the kit! My only real quibble was that, on most of the new originals, Mitch Sirie's guitar solos sounded extremely similar, and he should shake them up a bit. Other than that, this was a clear success for Borderline Divine's first show of this new era, and as long as we're not waiting 2 years for their next show, this should be the start of something big!

Oddly second last night was Vancouver metal quintet Tribune (pronounced "try-bune"), but earlier in the night or not, they delivered some solid brutality in their second local appearance! Last night, I sort of got the vibe that this is how Changing Waves may sound if they get to the point where they're releasing albums and touring, and that's certainly not a negative statement. Going in, the studio tracks I'd heard of Tribune's were solid, but I'm glad to say that singer Bryan Baker's clean vocals weren't as high pitched or nasally as they sounded in studio. He mixed up harsh screaming and growling with lots of melodic singing, and it worked to their advantage! Terry Anderson & Sean Culley's guitar work was nice and technical throughout their set, which saw Tribune play songs like "Man on the Outside", "The Succubus", and "The Warrior Mentality" for their local fans. I enjoyed their mix of genres, and they shown a lot of diversity in their originals, plus some good enthusiasm to be back in town, and I'm glad I finally got to see them live after missing their last stop here last fall! Good stuff all around!

Third was the second long awaited return of the night, that being for local death metal band State of Misery, but how'd they sound after a year's absence? Honestly, their set was lacking, but given their extended break, I won't be too harsh. I will say that it was good to see their original lineup back together, and their individual talents definitely haven't diminished! Their set was surprisingly covers-heavy, featuring Lamb of God, Pantera, Black Dahlia Murder, and As I Lay Dying songs, but I missed hearing more of their original material from last year! Where was "Don't Break The Silence" or "Pray For Me", for example? Some of their covers sounded a bit off, with a couple timing issues, and when they did "Walk" to cap their set, there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm, and that's not the way to end things. Steve Rhodes' growling was on form, but the guys' stage presences last night were stiffer than I remember as well. Again, this was their first show since last April, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Individually, they shown their talents well, with Kevin D'Orazio a welcome sight on bass again, and Ray Cowan's guitar work was solid as expected, but if State of Misery are back for good, they need to work on their chemistry and bring more originals back into their set. Their promise from last spring can still be extended upon, and hopefully they can get back into full gear!

Last up last night was Vancouver metal quartet West of Hell, and they completely stole the show with one hell of an entertaining set! Much of that is thanks to frontman Chris "The Heathen" Valagao, who had a great and funny stage presence that saw him mix a great thrash/classic vocal range with some fun onstage antics, like wearing a Roman centurion-style helmet during "To War", using the smoke machine like a spray gun, and using what looked like an angle grinder on a steel pipe to create some awesome sparks! Those frills helped add to original songs like "Faceless", "Unworthy", and "Water of Sorcery", and the whole band were on fire last night! Amidst the smoke, Sean Parkinson & Jordy Knute's twin guitar attack was blistering, and Andrew Hulme's drumming was excellent as well, but the whole band were an excellent blend of talented metal artists! Easily one of the most fun out of town headlining bands I've seen here in quite a while, they shown newer metal genres that old school speed and thrash metal is still king, and I don't think too many fans disagreed with that last night! I hope West of Hell come back to town soon, cause they deserve a bigger crowd and perhaps even a longer set!

Overall, this was a very cool (and newsworthy) concert that Dismembertainment deserves props for bringing to The Canadian! A bigger crowd would have helped, but the fans in rolling chairs up front was a fun sight during State of Misery's set! I did get photos last night, so click here to see them or visit our Facebook page! This also includes a new "Tag Yourself!" photo finally, so if you're among the crowd on the photo, feel free to tag yourselves! And yes, here's videos, those being of Borderline Divine playing their song "Push Me", Tribune's original "The Shadow", State of Misery's cover of Lamb of God's "11th Hour", and West of Hell's new album's title track "Spiral Empire"!









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

This Weekend's Local Metal Concert Previews!!

Before we get to the weekend's slate of metal & hard rock shows, I wanna apologize again for missing another Powerslug concert across the river, as the local hard rock outfit played at Golanka's Bar (a.k.a. The Bird) again last Saturday. Guitarist Chris Gurnoe only officially confirmed the show on his personal Facebook page earlier that afternoon, and it completely passed me by for coverage on here. I could blame their lack of an internet page or the late notice, but ultimately, I should have checked to see if they were playing that day. I'm sorry again, and I'll work harder on my Powerslug coverage! Now, to this weekend, which is a big one for shows in the Sault Ontario area, so let's now waste any time, here are your concert previews from Thursday-Sunday! First, we'll start with a big punk concert with metal involvement going down TONIGHT at The Roosevelt Hotel, and though it's not officially in the Rosie metal night lineage, there's no shortage of quality entertainment happening, so here's who to look out for! Two heavier bands are on the lineup tonight, including horror punk/metal quintet Frightlight (in their first Rosie appearance in 11 months), whose current lineup should be playing live in full for the first time since October! Also, local hard rock trio Pools of Booze (a.k.a. T. Rex Manning minus singer J.D. Pearce) will return for their second gig, as J.D. Pearce will mostly be focusing on his work as Johnny Pints with Frightlight at tonight's concert. However, I understand that J.D. will join his bandmates to play a couple T. Rex Manning songs during the Pools of Booze set, including their first original song, so don't miss that! The headlining bands are noted Toronto punk/alternative bands Die Mannequin & Dearly Beloved in the midst of their Danceland Tour, and they'll be sure to entertain tonight! Die Mannequin's energetic female-fronted style with some heavy touches have won them a lot of fans, and Dearly Beloved's punk & indie mix will also be pretty entertaining! The lineup is rounded out by local punk trio Redundant, who'll deliver a fun set of their punk covers and originals at tonight's concert, and you know they'll impress all at The Rosie tonight! I'm really curious to hear more of the original songs from their forthcoming debut CD, and hopefully Redundant knock it out of the park! Advance ticket sales have closed, so if you don't have a ticket, you'll have to try your luck at the door tonight, though the price remains $10. You must be 19 to attend, and the doors open at 9:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like this will be a great concert for punk fans, with some nice metal touches, and hopefully there's a huge turnout at The Rosie tonight! Check the above links for more details, become a member of T. Rex Manning's new Facebook group (finally) at this location, and for a preview, here's Frightlight playing "She Screams" at the old Coch's Corner in October! Next on the weekend schedule is a rare concert weekend at The Roosevelt Hotel from local classic hard rock quintet That's Chester! Not having rocked The Rosie since at least 2010 (possibly earlier), these hard rocking local veterans will sure add to a stacked weekend of heavier music at this venue over the next 3 nights! That's not the only difference though, as Cleveland Steamer drummer Mike Blair will be filling in for Ric Datson for the shows tomorrow night & Saturday night due to a recent joint injury that Ric suffered. Mike has the chops to fit in with the rest of the guys in That's Chester, and hopefully Ric gets better soon! This weekend's shows (the band's first since March) will be 19+ affairs with 10:30 PM start times, and there will not be a cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! These will be different from the recent norm for That's Chester, but their talents at hard rock covers will be ever present tomorrow night & Saturday night, so keep these concerts in mind this weekend! For a preview, here's That's Chester covering Deep Purple's "Highway Star" a few years back! Also this weekend is local metal quartet Garden of Bedlam's long awaited return to one of their favourite venues, The Rockstar Bar! Though last seen at the Ypres Metal Fest last month, this serves as the rescheduled date for their planned March concert at this venue, which was postponed following frontman Buzz' back injury and pneumonia. It's great to see them back for their first headlining concert of 2012 and their first Rockstar Bar gig in 11 months, and you know they'll have tons of their high impact originals from their new album "Everything Will Die" ready to melt faces with! This is otherwise similar to Garden of Bedlam's past headlining shows at The Rockstar Bar, with no opening bands, an 11:00 PM start time, a $5 cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Though I sadly can't make this show due to an out of town weekend, this is shaping up to be a huge show, and hopefully you guys can show up to rock out with Garden of Bedlam on Saturday night! They never cease to impress, and with all of their quality originals, this is a show you won't wanna be absent for! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Garden of Bedlam playing their song "Emptiness Without A Name" at The Rockstar Bar last summer! The final metal show going down this weekend is Dismembertainment's first concert since the Ypres Metal Fest, and they're continuing their relationship with The Canadian Nightclub with a strong lineup consisting of noted out of town bands and returning local favourites on Sunday night! The late-addition headliners are Vancouver metal band West of Hell, fronted by Zimmers Hole's Chris "Heathen" Valagao, and their old school speed metal style with modern influences will surely win them lots of fans on Sunday! Also joining them are Vancouver death metal quintet Tribune, in their first local appearance since the 31st Rosie metal night in September! They rocked the Soo hard in their first stop here last fall, and their mix of death metal styles and hardcore choruses will surely be well recieved this Sunday! The local openers are notably both returning from long absences from the stage, including the return of State of Misery! Now in their third run since their 2010 inception, the popular death metal band will play their first concert in over a year, their first show since their breakups & the departure of bassist Devon Overman, and their first with their original lineup since last February, so be sure to welcome them back to the stage on Sunday for their brutal original material! Oh, and it's their Canadian Nightclub debut as well! Opening this show however will be the long awaited debut/return of local hard rock quartet Borderline Divine! This concert marks a lot of firsts & returns for them, so let's mention them briefly: This will be Borderline Divine's first show since changing their name from Stillbroke last fall, their first gig in over 2 years, their first Canadian Nightclub appearance since 2009, their Dismembertainment debut, their first show since Mitch Sirie & Justin Polutanovich joined the band and Chris Villeneuve & Kyle McKey left, their first gig since Jesse Frigault dropped the guitar to focus on singing only, and it will mark the debut of their heavier sound & new original material. I think that covers it all, and it's great to see the guys back after so long! A lot has changed, but things are finally looking up for Borderline Divine! This concert will be an ALL AGES affair (as the other recent Dismembertainment shows are), the cover charge is $10 (which was raised after West of Hell were added, but the cost is extremely worth it), and doors open at 9:00 PM on Sunday. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This sounds like a great concert full of talented touring bands and notable local returns, and I guarantee I'll be there on Sunday night if I'm home in time! Check the above links for more on this very big metal show, and for a preview, here's West of Hell live in Vancouver last year with a special guest you may recognize! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more ahead! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tribune), The Return Of State Of Misery, And New Videos!!

The news keeps coming in, so today's news post is packed with stories, including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, a confirmed band reunion, new songs from Half A Man, and this week's classic video, so read on below for what you need to know, and check out this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Winter of Silence in the post below this one!

A big metal concert has been announced for May 13th, in what is Dismembertainment's first concert since the Ypres Metal Fest and second of 2012! This show will feature two notable band returns after long live hiatuses, but this Sunday nighter at The Canadian Nightclub will be headlined by Vancouver death/thrash quintet Tribune! You may remember them as the headliners of the 31st Rosie metal night in September, and their local return 8 months later should bring some brutal face melting metal to The Canadian and local metalheads! Very aggressive mix of genres, you won't wanna miss them next month! There will be two local opening bands, including the long awaited return of the local hard rock band Borderline Divine, who'll be playing their first show since last year's name change from Stillbroke on May 13th! Also debuting their current lineup and originals for this show, it'll be good to see these guys for the first time in over 2 years next month, especially following the cancellation of the Music Mayhem show they were gonna be in a few weeks back! The other local opening band is the reunited State of Misery, but we'll get to them in a second, as there's more new stuff to say on their front.

Doors open at 9:00 PM for this show, there'll be a $7 cover charge (no word on advance tickets yet), and like the Ypres Metal Fest, it will be an ALL AGES concert! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This sounds like a great concert with lots of talent and some big returns, so definitely check out all the bands and circle this show on your calendars! I definitely don't wanna miss it!

As for State of Misery, the hints on their Facebook group are true, as the local death metal band have officially reunited for a second time! You'll no doubt remember them fondly from their initial 7 month run from November 2010 to May 2011, but their opening slot at the May 13th Tribune concert will mark both their Canadian Nightclub debut and their first live concert in over one year! According to the band's brand new Facebook page (their old one was deleted late last year during their second breakup), the original State of Misery lineup has reunited for their current incarnation, including The Valentine's Day Massacre's Steve Rhodes on vocals, Social Suicide's Ray Cowan on guitar, Kevin D'Orazio back on the bass, and Nick Kainula on drums. Ex-bassist Devon Overman (who played with the band last spring and during their brief late-2011 reunion) does not appear to be back in the fold, though I'm not sure why he's not back. It's about time that State of Misery reunited (again), as they were one of the fastest rising local metal bands in early 2011, and their breakups were disappointing for sure! Time will tell how far State of Misery go in this third incarnation, but hopefully they pick up where they left off last May, so go see them next month at The Canadian!

Also in the news, Brimley metal quartet Half A Man have kept busy with two new original song uploads onto their YouTube channel! One is a full version of their new original song "What If", though it's not from the studio copy that the chorus sample came from on Sunday, instead being a live version that they recently recorded and uploaded yesterday. It's very promising and has a Black Label Society vibe, though Erik Rintamaki's vocals are extremely quiet in the mix, so turn it up to get the full onslaught. In case this is going on their debut EP, I'll hold full opinions on it for now, but click here to check it out! Embedded below though is the newest of yesterday's uploads, that being another new original named "Reborn"! Like "What If", it features Erik on vocals, and it appears to be a live recording with the same or similar equipment, but it has a bit of a faster pace with some good aggression! Again, I'll hold opinions until it gets a proper release, but Half A Man's promise continues, so check out the newest songs (and more) at the above links, with "Reborn" below!



And finally, here's THIS week's classic video! We made up last week's lost ground, but what video are we posting to represent this week? Given the extremely light concert weekend for metal shows, I'm dipping into the archives again, and given their mathematical tie at the Humane Society battle, it made sense to focus on As It Stands this week out of fairness to the results! This comes from the prominent local hardcore quintet's headlining show at The Coach & Horses in Windsor on March 26th, 2011, from which we've already featured a video of them playing "Conception" in this series last month. This time however, it's of As It Stands playing their original song "One Less Than Wayne Gretzky", and like the "Conception" video, it was filmed by attendee Jo-Ann Chayka and posted to Facebook afterwards. The same video quality issues prevail here, as it sounds pretty good, but the interior lighting makes the entire video look extremely red and dark, which is hard to correct using YouTube's video edit tools. It's a solid video though of an entertaining original you don't hear as much in As It Stands' recent setlists, so it's definitely worth checking out! The original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150203284478274.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to As It Stands and Jo-Ann, I'm just trying to share it with a wider audience like it deserves! This is another good performance from one of the area's best metal bands (video quality notwithstanding), so check out this video of As It Stands in Windsor last year below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, along with our review of End of Existence's debut album by the end of the month! Thanks everyone!

Posted Around Preview, New Videos, And The Return Of State Of Misery?!

Hey guys, I wanted to first apologize for the delays in getting our YouTube Channel Profile up, but it completely slipped my mind while trying to get the Humane Society battle recap up and other related stuff, but I promise it's coming TONIGHT! Until then, here's a new news post featuring a preview of a cool art exhibition this week, a local band's possible return, and some new videos, so here's what you need to know!

Firstly for today, I wanted to preview an art exhibition that you guys should definitely be interested in attending! In cooperation with National Youth Arts Week next week, some of the organizers are hosting an art exhibition named "Posted Around" starting today and until Friday that will showcase local concert posters from the 1980s through last year! Metal concert posters are among those being displayed at the event (including the poster from the 11-band Sewer Swampstravaganja show at The Oddfellows Hall last year), and prints of said posters will be on sale for as little as $5, so if you like any or fondly remember a specific concert, you can own the poster for yourself! I'm not sure of how wide or large of a selection there'll be, but I bet it'll be a great exhibition with lots of memories and talents on display, both in the posters and the bands that played them! The event will be hosted at the Circle of Creative Arts building across from The Grand Theater on Queen Street East, with the grand opening taking place TONIGHT at 7:00 PM, though if you miss it, the exhibition runs until Friday. Admission is free and all ages (to my knowledge), but proceeds from sales of the prints will go to arts programming in Attawapiskat. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

I will 100% be there this week to check out "Posted Around", and I will definitely have photos and a recap for you guys this week as well! I wanted to make the grand opening, but my exam schedule doesn't gel well with it, so I hope to be there Tuesday evening, and I wanna buy at least one print to help the cause and support local art and music! I hope to see some of you guys there this week, and hopefully this jogs some memories of the scene as it once was, while introducing old school posters and bands to a new audience! Go check it out if you can, and stay tuned for my coverage of it!

Next up, remember last August when local death metal quintet State of Misery returned to activity after a three month breakup, only to quietly dissolve and delete their Facebook page by the end of last year? Well, it may be deja vu all over again, as recent postings on their Facebook group are hinting that State of Misery may have reunited for a second time. Nothing officially indicating a reunion has been announced, but drummer Nick Kainula posted a status there yesterday that says "big news regarding May 4th!", followed by posting a link a live video from a January 2011 concert. I'm not sure what the allusion to May 4th would indicate, but for reference sake, May 4th is one week from Friday. If they're reuniting, I'm not sure what their lineup will look like (given Steve Rhodes & Ray Cowan's current work in The Valentine's Day Massacre & Social Suicide), but the fact that Facebook is hyping up a date in May must mean something. If I hear anything positive or negative towards a potential State of Misery return, I'll have it here, but keep posted for updates, as their hard hitting death metal originals would surely be welcomed back to the stage if this is indeed another band reunion!

We'll close today's post with some new videos, starting with a new solo performance video from Bear Hunters bassist (and "Best Bassist" winner at the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands) Justin Lam! The first solo video he's uploaded to his YouTube channel of him on bass in almost four years, it's a cover of Trivium's "A Grey So Dark", and I like that he plays in the video like he does on stage in terms of presence! He seems to know the song very well, and compared to some other musicians, he doesn't have the backing track at an overpowering volume level. Solid work as expected, so check out Justin's new Trivium cover below, and fingers crossed it isn't another four years before he posts a new bass cover!



Finally, here's another archive audio upload from Flat Stanley/Wishbone drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel! Posted last week, this is of one of Glen's early 1990s hard rock bands named J.A.B. (short for "Just Another Band") covering "Rock Candy" by Montrose at an unknown local bar (it was in the Jamestown area), and while this is newly posted, it's one of three J.A.B. videos that Glen has put on YouTube. He originally uploaded tracks of J.A.B. playing an untitled original and a song named "Solar Angel" onto YouTube in November 2009, and all 5 feature Glen on drums alongside vocalist Gigi Micelli, guitarists Gerald McKinnon & Jean Paul, and bassist Dan Jones. The three songs are pretty interesting, and they sound like they had talent way back when! Gigi's singing has that retro melodic feel that flows with the material, Glen's drumming is as great as ever, and the band seems to have good chemistry! I like when Glen posts old audio recordings from his bands, they're a nice glimpse back at the local scene's past, and I can see myself rocking out to J.A.B. 20 years ago if I was of age to!

Check out the songs above, and their Montrose cover below, but note that the audio fades in and out here and there on these recordings. Also, click here for an interesting story relating to what happened after the concert that the song below came from!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes very soon, including our overdue next YouTube Channel Profile! Thanks everyone!

"Woods V" Release Updates, Studio Updates From Sault Michigan, And This Week's Classic Video!!

Here's some more news for this Monday evening for you SMS fans, so here's what's on tap! Tonight, we've got this week's classic video, new studio material previews from a couple of Sault Michigan bands, and leading things off, some cool news relating to Woods of Ypres, so here's what you need to know!

Let's kick off today's post with some Woods of Ypres news, and as this week's banner on the site would imply, "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" is officially on sale now.... well, it is overseas! Due to longer processing lead times over here, it won't be in stock for American markets until April, but if you order from Earache Records' European store, you can get your orders shipped right away so you can give David Gold's final recorded material a deserved complete listen! Click here to pick up "W5" on CD and/or vinyl from the European Earache distro, and note that there are still packages to get the album with a t-shirt or poster. I haven't heard anything about an iTunes release for "Woods V" yet, but I'd have to imagine it's coming soon. For the record, I haven't heard of either "Keeper of the Ledger" or Siegfried Meier's vinyl-exclusive alternate mix of "Finality" being up to stream online yet, but I imagine it'll only be a matter of time before both turn up in some fashion. Lastly on this CD, I know I haven't mentioned any reviews of "Woods V" yet, but I plan to feature many in an upcoming post. Without David to tell fans about the majority of them, they often slip my casual radar, which is why they haven't hit the SMS yet. Stay tuned for more "W5" news as it rolls in!

Before we completely move to our next story, I wanna note something about Woods of Ypres' planned European debut this past Saturday, where they would have opened for British thrash standouts Evile at the HMV Next Big Thing event in Manchester, England. At the show, Evile paid tribute to David by playing their 2011 song "In Memoriam" for the first time ever, which is an awesome gesture, and videos of the performance are now online! Click here to check out at least three videos of the performance, and kudos to Evile for doing this for David's memory!

Next up, Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet End of Existence are keeping the anticipation up for their planned debut album at the end of the month, as they posted an album teaser video onto their YouTube channel yesterday! It's just 1:41 long, and the visuals are mostly effects over their orange globe logo, but it does feature a 70 second snippet of a previously unreleased original song named "12.21.12", presumably referring to the Mayan apocalypse theories centered around that day. It's definitely a promising and heavy clip, but I'll hold full judgement until we both hear the full album and I get a chance to review it. Little else is known yet about this 13 song release, but as we inch closer to the end of February, we should hear more, so keep an eye out! For now, here's a teaser, and as more comes in, I'll have it here!



Thirdly, here's some news and updates from new Sault Michigan metal sextet Hoist The Sails! Like End of Existence, this band featuring Analog Deficiency & Seeking Reverence alumni have been hard at work on new material of their own lately despite no announced live debut date yet, and we can now get some more tastes of their work thanks to a couple of new postings on their Facebook page. One is the first full original song from their planned EP recording sessions, entitled "Mind Over Matter", and you can now stream it at this link. How does it sound? Very good, actually! It has a catchy groove, excellent guitar work, and interesting dual harsh vocals in the verses, and the clean singing doesn't sound out of place either! These guys definitely seem to know what they're doing musically, and it's hard to believe this has came together so suddenly! The other new media on their Facebook page seems like it'd be another preview, but it's actually a comedic clip of singer Travis Theel doing some intentionally bad clean vocals with some band member reactions, and it shows that they have a good sense of humour about everything! I see big things from Hoist The Sails if they keep on this same path, and hopefully we hear much more from them soon, so keep an eye out for updates, and check them out at the above links

And finally for today, here's this week's classic video! After a three week run of videos not tied into an upcoming concert (thanks in part due to a lot of light weekends), this week's does tie in with a band at an upcoming show, that being local deathcore quartet (and this Thursday's Rosie metal night participants) The Valentine's Day Massacre! Before frontman Steve Rhodes joined the former View To A Kill, he made local waves as State of Misery's singer in late 2010 and early 2011, as you may remember, and some off-YouTube videos from their run are still floating around online. One is of them playing their original song that I think was called "Bleed" at a jam session circa December 2010, which was one of four posted to the band's Facebook group on January 3rd of last year. The quality's similar to the other three videos (two of which we've already put on our YouTube channel), but it shows State of Misery's original lineup doing what they did best, and the song is brutal with catchy elements! I may have the title wrong, as they had a couple songs with titles similar to "Bleed", so if I'm incorrect, please let me know! This video was originally filmed by attendee Ashley Lacasse, and you can see the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=114911331914493.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to State of Misery and Ashley for the work they did in this video & performance, I'm just trying to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves! It's a solid performance, and State of Misery definitely attracted a good local following in their brief run, so give this newest classic video a look below, and go see Steve's current band rock The Rosie on Thursday!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news as the week moves along! Thanks everyone!

New Videos, A Band Re-Breakup, And A Band Looking To Play Here!!

We've got a lot of news waiting to be posted on the SMS, so this is going up nice and early as an autopost so we can get another news post up tonight without downplaying anything. So let's start this busy news day with some new live concert videos, the latest video remembrances for the late David Gold, a band looking to play here, and leading things off, an apparent band breakup, so here's what you need to know!

It looks like Sault Ontario death metal quintet State of Misery have disbanded again. An official statement hasn't been made to that effect, but their Facebook page was recently deleted, which adds to other telling signs to their status, like the lack of official band updates since October, and band members' Steve Rhodes & Ray Cowan's recent work in View To A Kill & Social Suicide respectively. Plus, drummer Nick Kainula said in a photo comment on his personal Facebook page on Wednesday that "an actual reunion" may be in order for the future. This appears to end a brief & uneventful return for the rising young deathcore outfit, after coming back in August following a three month disbandment that started in May. I was hoping that their return would turn out to be a success on par with their fast rise in the local scene in early 2011, but who knows what happened internally late last year. Hopefully they do come back down the road, but I do wish Steve, Ray, Kevin, Devon, and Nick all the best in whatever comes next for them musically! They had loads of promise, so hopefully they find success in the local scene soon!

Next up, here's some new interview footage featuring late Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold! In August, you may remember when the Calgary webseries Extreme Metal Television featured live clips and an interview with David from Woods of Ypres' show there in May in the fourth episode of EMTV, which you can watch at this link. Well, in the wake of David's untimely passing last month, a tribute to David ends this latest episode of EMTV (as posted at this location on Wednesday), but the video's also worth checking out for pieces on Between The Buried And Me, Reverend Kill, and Kriticos. The David/Woods portion begins at around 12:17 in the video, where cohost King talks about his memories of David, including about his character, kind nature, and eagerness to see his music spread among fans. He also revealed plans for a tribute show to David in Calgary on February 24th, but details weren't elaborated on in the episode. Then, a video package rolls featuring some unaired live clips from that show and unreleased interview footage, where David talked about advice he'd give to up & coming bands, how times have changed for launching bands, and his own experiences promoting and getting the word out for Woods of Ypres.

The video closes with some amusing outtakes from when David did a plug for EMTV as well, so don't miss a second of the 8 minutes devoted to him and Woods of Ypres! It's a nice tribute featuring a great answer from David to the advice he'd give to up & coming bands, and it's clearly a well thought out response from someone who lived it and knew the realities of being in the music community, so definitely check out this new tribute video below, and stay tuned for more Woods of Ypres and David Gold stories as they roll in!



Thirdly today, another out of town metal band is looking to play a concert here in Sault Ontario! Yesterday, I recieved an e-mail from a member of the Calgary heavy rock n' roll trio The Shotgun Dolls, and apparently, they're looking to play in Sault Ste. Marie on their next tour run, although a timeframe for that tour wasn't given in the e-mail I recieved (if I hear anything further, I'll try and update this post.) Specifically, I was asked to recommend some venues they might be able to play at, and I've shot them back an e-mail, but as always, I'm opening up the floodgates for anyone out there who might be interested in hosting, booking, or helping The Shotgun Dolls in their local gig quest for this year! They're inspired by everyone from Led Zeppelin to Alexisonfire and have sort of a heavier classic rock inspired sound with some good catchy elements, and they'd be cool to have here in some fashion this year! If you like what you hear at the above link (featuring lots of audio and video clips), send The Shotgun Dolls a message at shotgundolls@gmail.com and if I hear more, I'll let you guys know!

Finally for today, here's some new YouTube video uploads from Brimley hard rock quartet Half A Man, who as you may remember, will return to the stage in time for this year's LemmaFest in June! Yesterday, the band uploaded two new videos onto their official YouTube channel from their April 16th concert at The Merchant's Bar, which was one of their last concerts before their lengthy break from the stage began. Featuring their early 2011 lineup, including guitarist Erik Rintamaki on lead vocals and ex-guitarist Denny Breslin, these videos are of Half A Man playing their original songs "Goodbye" (which is in memory of LemmaFest namesake Michael Lemma), and, as embedded below, "Freedom Ride"! These videos appear to be from the same camera as the previously uploaded videos of Half A Man playing "Don't Blame Me" and "Cripple" at this concert, so the same faults with the angle apply here, as it's centered on no band members, with Erik badly cut off on the left when singing. That aside, the quality's nice, and these are good performances! I think the addition of Dillion Semasky on vocals will open new doors for Half A Man, but I hope Erik's distinctively gruff singing still has a presence at future gigs. These are solid videos, so check them out at the above links, and here's "Freedom Ride"!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for another news post later tonight, along with concert reviews and our next YouTube Channel Profiles this weekend! Thanks everyone!