Mike Haggith Concert Preview, Heavy Lies The Crown Updates, And Much More!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for two missed concerts, as veteran local ska/hard rock trio Tripod The Dog played at The Esquire Club for Saturday matinee concerts on both March 26th & this past Saturday. I only belatedly heard about both shows via bassist John Amendola's personal Facebook page, as Tripod The Dog have not launched an updated social media page to promote their shows, but The Esquire Club's Facebook page did plug both back in February. I profusely apologize again, hopefully both shows were hits, and I will keep better tabs on The Esquire Club's Saturday matinee series in the future!

Today's post otherwise looks at some assorted recent notes and big updates from an E.U.P. band, but let's lead off today for a special Tuesday night concert preview for a Sault Ontario homecoming, as local/Thompson, Manitoba solo stalwart Mike Haggith will play his first Soo date in over two years TOMORROW NIGHT at the Mane St. Cafe on Queen Street East! While certainly visible to local fans with his live-streamed concerts and new albums, Mike hasn't graced a local stage since playing at Outspoken Brewing in August 2019 (partly due to the pandemic), so it'll be great to see the former Din frontman back in town tomorrow! While this solo acoustic gig is far smaller in scope than his cancelled CD release show in 2020, Mike will play both of his Thompson-era albums "If Ever Comes The Day" & "Bridges" in full tomorrow night, along with select older and newer cuts, so prepare for lots of songs you haven't heard in concert here before!

This show has no opening act, and is presumably on a Tuesday due to Mike's busy personal schedule, especially given his day job. This is a FREE & ALL AGES show with a 7:00 PM start time, and CD copies of his two newest albums will be on sale for $10 tomorrow at the Mane St. Cafe (right near Case's Music). It'll be great to have Mike back in the Soo, if only for one night, so fans of his extensive solo catalog who've missed seeing him live in the pandemic era will want to head downtown for all of the festivities tomorrow, and at least it'll end early on a work/school night! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Mike live!

Next up, here's the latest from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, who have finally announced their teased return show! Unfortunately, it will not be local, instead taking place 3½ hours downstate in Saginaw, which is mildly surprising given that a factor in the departure of 3/5ths of the band was distance, but if you followed H.L.T.C.'s pre-pandemic live schedule, booking shows downstate rather than in the E.U.P. isn't anything new. Heavy Lies The Crown will be one of six Michigan metal or punk bands on the lineup for The Rock Rebel Show at the Hamilton Street Pub on May 26th, and you may recognize some of the other bands from Lansing rock radio station Q106 's Music Mania tournament last month. Hopefully Brandon & Ted's first live concert in over two years is a hit next month, but how will they look? Well, they have indeed found a new bassist & drummer!

After announcing on their Facebook page last week that they were "back at full strength", they shared this photo featuring an unidentified drummer (so Brandon won't have to drum on the 26th after all!), while also throwing the idea out of playing a show in Gaylord, which is a 2 hour drive from the Soo, customs/bridge traffic permitting. Yesterday, this video was uploaded featuring slow motion grayscale clips of Brandon, Ted, the new drummer, and their new bassist, finishing by teasing that they will be "announcing shows soon". As of this writing, they have not identified the new members by name yet, and they do not appear to have added a new second guitarist to replace Nathan at the moment, but we'll let you know if they clarify anything (for what it's worth, I don't recognize the new guys). Of course, it's great to see Heavy Lies The Crown getting back into the full swing of things!

Even without their massive lineup overhaul earlier this year, the band has not played live since before the pandemic, but the two year break gave them time to record and release their full length album and get more confidence and studio time under their belt, and with just Brandon & Ted left from H.L.T.C. lineups of yore, stage rust won't be as much of an issue in Saginaw next month. Hopefully we'll see them north of the Mack at some point for local fans, but check out all of their new updates above! External embedding of the new lineup video is unavailable due to Facebook content matching the background music from the band's new album.

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or show name:

• If you've been following Sault Ontario metal radio show Metal Morpheus on The Borderline in recent weeks, you'll likely know that the series has continued airing reruns in the past month, hence why I haven't recapped any new episodes lately. No word on where Josh has been, but at least in this hiatus, reruns are still being regularly aired on Sunday nights and re-posted after the fact, unlike for most of their winter break. We'll let you know when/if first run Metal Morpheus episodes resume production!
• Vanity First guitarist Mikhal Muto posted again on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group last week, this time inquiring about jamming or writing with "younger punk musicians" around 17 years of age. He can also sing, and he's open to playing covers. What this means for Vanity First isn't clear, and while Mikhal is still listed on their lineup on their Facebook page, the band has not made any updates there in over a month. In any event, if you want to work with Mikhal in whatever's next, message him at this link or above!
  
• Local/Barrie punk/metal quartet Spades GT will return to the annual Spiderfest in Meyersburg on July 8th! Before the pandemic, the former Jack Spades frequently hit the road for this multi-day punk festival, but now from Barrie, it'll just be a 2½ hour drive. Spades GT are on the smaller Friday lineup without acts familiar to local concertgoers, but Saturday the 9th will see the likes of The Ripcordz & Random Killing, among many others. Hopefully the guys have a great time as usual at Spiderfest this summer!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & Fort Creek), An Unreleased Woods Of Ypres Song Clip, And Much More!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for missing a late notice concert this past weekend, as local hard/funk rock cover band The Wyld Stallyns played at The Water Tower Pub on Saturday night. The band never promoted the show on Facebook publically, but the venue announced it on ultra late notice that day (personal Facebook posts indicated that the Stallyns were late replacements for an unidentified act). I hope the show went well, and I profusely apologize for missing this one on here, I'd have covered the show if it had even one day's notice! Last weekend was a nightmare for late notice shows, alas. Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, an unreleased song clip, and much more in today's news post!

Local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek will make their debuts at two different downtown venues this spring, as they'll head to Shooters Downstairs Lounge on Dennis Street on Saturday, April 16th before rocking Soo Blaster on Queen Street East three weeks later on Saturday, May 7th! Both were confirmed via separate concert poster uploads on the band's Facebook page over the last few days The Shooters gig next month is one of many Saturday night shows that this venue has been booking since their re-opening in February, helping give cover-centric bands on the weekend circuit another venue to play at, and clearly Soundcheck's show there went well if they're going full steam ahead! Soo Blaster may seem like a very large venue for one band alone, but Fort Creek definitely seem to be approaching it as a bigger deal, with advance ticket sales, a guitar draw, and even the live debut of an original single from their planned EP!

Both of Fort Creek's upcoming concerts are 8:00 PM affairs with 19+ age limits, and while the Shooters show next month has no announced cover charge, the Soo Blaster concert in May has tickets running for $5 in advance, $7 at the door. If you want to buy tickets ahead, call the number on the poster or head to Trio Auto Supply at 20 Second Line East (the band did not specify if Soo Blaster would have any, or if you could set something up by contacting band members directly). Visit the above links for complete details on both of these shows, and stay tuned for more from Fort Creek!

Next up, aforementioned local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge themselves for their second show at the Memorial Gardens-adjacent nightclub on Saturday, April 23rd! While not yet confirmed by Soundcheck (who usually begin plugging their own shows on Facebook the week of, sometimes the day of), Shooters themselves announced the concert via their own Facebook event page on Sunday, so we have an uncharacteristically large amount of advance notice for this one! Yes, I am well aware of their Reggie's shows this weekend, but those are being saved for this weekend's concert previews due to only being announced this week, so check back on Thursday or Friday. Again, it's definitely a good sign that Soundcheck's Shooters debut went well, as the venue is ramping up their cover band bookings (albeit on Saturdays only), so their return seems very welcomed!

Like with Fort Creek on the 16th, you can take in Soundcheck's old school blend of hard rock, classic rock, and country covers on the 23rd at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge, but please be mindful of any and all extant public health recommendations at Shooters, especially as it's not a massive venue. Visit the above links for more details, and look for our preview of their late notice Reggie's shows later this week!

Also, here's something I'm surprised I've never addressed before on the SMS: A 45 second snippet of an unreleased Woods of Ypres song! Preliminarily titled "Song Five" as per the iTunes library used in the video, this was posted to Earache Records' Instagram page way back in May 2017 during the label's 30th anniversary celebrations. The caption says that this an "unreleased Woods Of Ypres song from Woods 5", but remember that this could be a song from the cancelled "Woods V: You Were The Light", a five song EP recorded locally in 2010 before their false breakup and signing with Earache, after which they reclassified that EP as "Woods 4.5" (but never released it) and began work on the "Woods V" we all know and love. To date, three of the songs from "You Were The Light" have surfaced: two were put out on 2011's "Home" single, while a remix of "Accounting For Your Cruelty" was officially posted online by frontman David Gold that year. Is "Song Five" the closing track of that cancelled EP?

In any event, potentially putting out "Woods 4.5" and/or unreleased Woods of Ypres content has been teased by Earache on Instagram before, but if you're at all active in the Woods of Ypres Facebook community, you'll know that David's mother Esther (a.k.a. Mama Gold) has an obviously deep interest in her son's music and legacy, and there have been occasions in the past where it seemed like she wasn't aware of/unequivocally on board with Earache's plans. While the hardcore fans would obviously want to hear this song (and more?) in full, I'd definitely want all parties in agreement. What we hear in the clip sounds promisingly dark and fitting of Woods' doom era, and give it a listen for yourself below!

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Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or show name:

 

• On Saturday, local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore launched a new Facebook page to replace their previously deleted Facebook page, which Tyler implied was not his choice (I'd presume the content of many of their songs/albums were flagged on both of C.T.W.'s prior Facebook pages). So far, the page just features photos, videos, and links to concerts, music, and photos from their 2010s heyday, but Tyler did "promise a special little treat or 2 for everyone throughout this year". No idea what that's hinting at, but stay tuned for updates!
• After just two new episodes following their unexplained winter hiatus, local metal radio show Metal Morpheus aired reruns for the past two Sundays on The Borderline, specifically last year's doom metal & goregrind episodes. No word on why Josh didn't produce new episodes the last two weeks, but hopefully the fact that he went a few months with reruns or nothing at all and came back is a good sign that Metal Morpheus will return at some point. In case that is Sunday, tune in to The Borderline then at 9:00 PM!
• Local indie punk quintet The Northwest have confirmed that they are working on a new EP called "All In", and the first single will be entitled "Long Hair (Longer Nights)", with a release coming next Friday! Presumably that'd be April 8th, as April 1st would be this Friday. You can pre-order the single (which they say is "a post-lockdown anthem") on Spotify at this link, so stay tuned for updates, and get more at The Northwest's Facebook page!
  

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the days ahead! Thanks everyone!

Our Newest Metal Morpheus Episode Recap!!

Single topic post today, as another new episode of local metal radio show Metal Morpheus debuted on The Borderline on Sunday night, so what should you know about it? Following last week's heavily (and divisively) topical episode, host Josh Amendola brought back his planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the metal scenes of countries from around the world for this week, and after previously jumping ahead six countries to look at Austria for differing topical reasons, he headed back to the regular order yesterday to look at metal bands from Andorra, an extremely small (but highly developed) principality on the French/Spanish border. For context, Andorra is only barely more populated than Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario! I am surprised that Josh didn't lump Andorra in with the next A countries in line, which also have small metal scenes, but he made Andorra alone work by playing local bands for almost half of the episode's runtime.

The slightly shorter 55 minute episode begins with Josh noting that you can now hear The Borderline on FM radio locally at 107.5 FM, which is news to me! In checking around for details, they launched an FM transmitter downtown on or by January 22nd, and it is low power with an estimated distance of 5-7 km from the originating source, presumably their 527 Queen Street East home base. From my checks of the CRTC's website, there has been no public application for a new FM station at 107.5 FM, so the short range may indicate that their transmitter is the biggest they can get without needing a federal license. For the record, I did try to pick up The Borderline at 107.5 FM from about 2.5 km away, and the signal did not come in (disclosure, I didn't test it downtown), but if 5-7 km is just the furthest reported signal, the range could be comparable to the transmitters used at drive-in theaters. Your mileage may vary!

In any event, you can hear The Borderline 24/7 online at this link, but FM availability is great for anyone in range, and who knows what this could lead to! Back to the Metal Morpheus episode proper, Josh next gives some statistics about Andorra & its native music, before moving into the country's very small roster of prominent metal bands, so much so that the first FOUR songs come from the same band, namely melodic death metal sextet Persefone, including their songs "In Lak'ech" (3:00), "Underworld: The Fallen & The Butterfly - Act I: Clash of the Titans" (10:35), "Mind As Universe" (17:00), and "The Demise of Oblivion" (21:50). Josh finishes the Andorran half of the episode with a song from ambient black metal solo project De Veneficas Inferi, namely "Daemonic I, Stone Witches" (30:05). The final 21 minutes of this episode belong to local metal acts, so who got played in the back half?

In order, Josh plays defunct hardcore punk band The Harsh Heads' song "Carolly" (35:15) from their kinda-released album "First Hated Then Forgotten", three songs from mysterious mid-2000s extreme metal solo project Recognition (their self-titled track [39:05], "Flying Ashes" [43:00], and "First" [45:05]), late 1990s hardcore punk band Proposition 86's song "Another Lost Cause" from their EP (47:15), and defunct Sault Michigan groove metal band Lower S.E.S.' song "Bold" (51:00) from their EP. Before playing the final song, Josh did hint that he wants to do more themed episodes apart from the alphabetical country series once he finishes with the As, and for reference, 6 countries that start with A come after Andorra (obviously excluding the already-covered Austria), with Angola next in line if Josh stays in alphabetical order. Solid episode overall that takes Metal Morpheus back to its 2021 form with quality music all around!

Some of Josh's pronunciation of Catalan terms wasn't great (points for trying, of course), and for variety's sake, maybe he should have stretched out to include more than two Andorran bands, but Persefone are a strong and heavy group in their own right, and the locals on offer were fun to hear again! Hear this and other back episodes of Metal Morpheus at the above links, and tune in for the next episode (Angola or otherwise) on Sunday night at 9:00 PM and/or on-demand after the fact! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

A Band Breakup, Plus The Return Of Metal Morpheus!!

Tonight's SMS post deals in two topics, including a surprise band dissolution that broke this afternoon and a local metal-centric radio show's return to production, so here's what you should know!

Local power rock band Re:Born have surprisingly announced their breakup, as per their Facebook page earlier today. In their statement, the band said that "it is time to move on to other projects", and "there is no bad blood or conflict", but did not elaborate further on why they have disbanded. Effectively the successors to mid-2010s classic metal band Project 421, Re:Born (no relation) launched in January 2018, and while they only played seven live concerts by my count (and only three of those with a full five piece lineup), they definitely made their mark opening for notable bands like The Killer Dwarfs, Anvil, Striker, and Archelon through the end of 2019. The band took a break after that year's Toystock that lasted way longer than anyone expected due to the pandemic, but despite occasional promising teasers and debuting a new lineup in November of last year, they never ended up playing live in the 2020s.

With either Robert or Elly on vocals, I thought Re:Born picked up 421's slack nicely with their hard hitting and melodic originals and covers, but unfortunate timing and lineup turnover helped stall their momentum despite playing some big concerts during their 2 years on the live circuit. Hopefully we hear much more from Elly, Blair, Elijah, Brandan, Robert, Frank, and Fred in due course, and follow A Dire Setback to see what Chris has been up to!

Next up, after a three month hiatus, local metal radio show Metal Morpheus has returned to their airwaves on local internet station The Borderline, so what should you know? Last seen with the revised local metal episode on December 5th followed by a month's worth of reruns, the series seemed to end out of nowhere with no on-air announcement in December or January, host Josh Amendola brought a brand new episode to the online airwaves on Sunday night at 9:00 PM, but I have to heavily preface this one. As you may know by now, I try to focus all SMS coverage on music and the performers of it, and I only get into personal lives, current news events, or politics if they directly link with relevant songs, concerts, or charitable efforts linked to their music career in some way. That said, this episode is not themed after a genre or national metal scene like we tended to see last year.

This episode is heavily themed around the Freedom Convoy trucker protests and Josh's support of that cause, with Josh linking them to metal in that he believes that the genre is about freedom as well, and songs played all come from countries who have had their own convoy. If you heard prior episodes of Metal Morpheus, he did make the occasional statement about his feelings on the pandemic and related restrictions, and this episode does start with a disclaimer that all beliefs expressed are those of the participants and don't reflect those of The Borderline.  I will not be going further into the connecting theme and discussion here, as the protests do not directly reflect on the local metal and punk scenes, but be advised of the content of the episode if you check this episode out, as the protests are mentioned a lot, but he does offer some brief thoughts on the bands themselves also.

The songs played on air are Bolivian metal sextet Alma Eterna's song "Mamita (Homenaje A Kalamarka)" (3:15), Finnish folk/death metal band Amorphis' early song "Of Rich & Poor" (9:05), Mexican metal band Luzbel's song "El Angel De La Lujuria" (14:55), Australian industrial metal band The Berzerker's song "Ignorance" (19:20), Balitimore death metal veterans Misery Index's song "The Killing Gods" (22:15), French power metal band Sortilege's song "Metamorphose" (32:30), Dutch death metal band Pestilence's song "Out Of The Body" (37:35), Czech power/thrash metal band Arakain's song "Schizofrenie" (42:55), and Toronto progressive rock icons Rush's classic single "Freewill" (53:00). For the first time in Metal Morpheus' history, no band featuring a local musician was played in this episode, but Josh did tease that "more variety" and interviews would be coming in future installments, next presumably on Sunday.

No, he didn't explain where the series went for 3 months aside from saying that it was "back from the grave" in the intro. Again, I will not be commenting on the protests here, as The Sault Metal Scene is devoted to local music, and other than this Metal Morpheus episode, there hasn't been any direct crossover to speak of. Musically, he did pick some solid songs to play (though I do prefer newer Amorphis), but I can't objectively comment on the theme, as my personal views & Josh's are not close. Visit the above links to hear the whole episode if you want, but again, be advised of the theme. That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of The Last(?) Episode Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

Today on the SMS, let's finally cover the final(?) episode of the Metal Morpheus radio show on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may know, Metal Morpheus ran for an hour (give or take) on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM from July-December of last year, with host/local metal singer Josh Amendola typically featuring a genre or national scene each week, with at least one metal act with local membership per episode. However, following a heavily revised version of October's all-local episode on December 5th, the series fell into reruns for a month, and no new episodes have been posted on the station website since re-airing the power metal episode on January 9th. I don't know what happened to Metal Morpheus, especially given that Josh was very early into a planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the scenes in various countries, and he was improving as an on-air personality as time went on, so hopefully he isn't 100% done!

The possibility exists that Metal Morpheus is just on an indefinite hiatus, and hopefully we see Josh pick things back up for the series in some form when the time is right! If not, ending with the Soo Metal episode is a good way to go out, even if it was severely altered from what originally aired! I never recapped the October version on the site due to only catching up to it in the timeline after it was taken down. Alas, I do apologize for that, but how would I have known that it'd be deleted and overhauled? Just as a disclaimer, Josh does reference both the SMS and myself in this episode, and while he did ask me for suggestions of local bands to play on air last year and for input on how episodes turned out, I never knew he was going to make an all-local episode. I was as surprised as everyone else! As of this writing, I have never been on The Borderline in any on-air or behind-the-scenes capacity.

As for the revised Soo Metal episode, it runs for just over an hour, and it starts with Josh playing defunct local alternative rock band (and Papa Fogals Chair predecessors) Sulfur's song "Our Glass Universe" (0:05) from their 1997 CD "How Empty I Am". Next, we get a song by old school local hardcore punk band The Big Kahunas with their original studio recording "The Fighting Princess Club" (3:55), before abruptly switching gears to inactive Vancouver grunge trio Denderah with their song "Sweetness" (5:50). I've never heard of Denderah, but their frontman Kwin Cymons is a Saultite, so his band's material clearly found its way to The Borderline's rotation before passing my radar! They're a solid group, give their album a listen at their Bandcamp page! A rare Sault Michigan act hits the episode next via inactive progressive metal project Life's Eclipse's song "Not Dead But Dreaming" (9:05).

Fondly remembered local hardcore punk band Fistmagnet's cover of "Live To Die" (17:15) is next, followed by local/London instrumental prog metal band Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe's song "All Roams Lead To Roads" (20:10) from their self-titled album. Prominent and dearly missed local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam follow with the title track from their full length album "Everything Will Die" (23:15), while the second half of the episode begins with death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' song "Transcend Judgement" (28:20) from 2020's "The Dead Testament", conveniently followed by ex-guitarist Josh Stephney's old hardcore band Bring The Fallen with the title track of their posthumous EP "Stand Before" (34:40). This episode's only live cut is next, courtesy of defunct local metal band Sativa Rose with their lengthy original song "Bellows of the Beast" (39:10).

Juno Award winning local/Toronto blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres come next with their dark ballad "Finality" (48:10) from their final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", before heading back to Sault Michigan for defunct local epic death metal band Integrated System of Machines' song "Road To Valhalla" (52:10) from their 2008 album "Apocalyptic Visions". The episode ends with one more song by Denderah, namely "Natal Lies" (57:35), and no, neither this episode nor the last 100% new one from the previous week left any hints that the series was ending or taking a break. While Josh did leave some gaps regarding band members' full names or back stories (especially with Life's Eclipse given how we've covered them and Werehold Records over the years), this was an entertaining episode and showed how Josh was trying to expand the range of local artists!

Definitely give this and other episodes of Metal Morpheus a listen at the above links, as it is (was?) a good series and helped fill the metal void on The Borderline's scheduled rotation, and if Josh doesn't return to record new episodes, hopefully we hear more from him in some form, let alone more metal, hard rock, or punk-centric programming on the station! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Another Episode Recap Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!

For today's post, let's continue to play catch-up with the remaining un-recapped episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may recall, the series has been put on hold for publically unannounced reasons since last month, and said break continued into the new year, as both of the January episodes so far turned out to be re-airings from last year, while the January 16th episode either didn't take place or did not have an episode page put up. The fact that reruns aired at all was at least a sign that host Josh Amendola will be back with more new episodes, but the lack of even a rerun this past Sunday may be concerning. We'll keep you posted, but note that if Metal Morpheus airs live on The Borderline this weekend, it'd be on Sunday night at 9:00 PM. The two last (so far?) episodes include the heavily revised Soo Metal one on December 5th, which we will look at soon.

As for November 28th's episode, it featured the next installment of Josh's planned series looking at bands from countries around the world in alphabetical order, albeit skipping six countries after Algeria to instead shine a spotlight on Austria. This takes us to Central Europe and into more hospitable territory for a thriving metal scene, given how Josh didn't have to devote nearly half the episode to local bands! The slightly longer 71 minute episode starts with Josh acknowledging that he skipped countries intentionally due to "crazy shit going on" (his words) in Austria, but he promised to cycle back to bands he passed in the As, specifically name-dropping Argentina and Australia, though obviously, neither has followed yet. After giving some information on Austria (ignore the mispronunciation of some of the composers' names), Josh starts by looking at death metal trio Pungent Stench.

He gives them lots of back story before playing two songs of theirs, namely "Extreme Deformity" (2:25) and "Games of Humilation" (8:25). Next, Josh plays power metal quartet Stygma IV's song "Earth Children" (14:05), which is not on Spotify, before playing melodic death metal band The Sorrow's track "Heart Of A Lion" (20:45). The first half of the episode ends with power metal quintet Edenbridge (a rare example of a female fronted band on Metal Morpheus), whose song played on air is the 10+ minutes long "The Grand Design" (25:35). Two songs follow from the symphonic death metal band Hollenthon, who share a singer with Pungent Stench, and these songs include "The Calm Before The Storm" (36:20) and "Woe To The Defeated" (42:25). Afterwards, Josh plays death metal band Disharmonic Orchestra's grindcore era track "Disharmonisation" (48:40).

The Austrian journey ends with two more bands, including black/death metal veterans Belphegor (the band in this episode I was most familiar with) playing "Blutsabbath" (54:25), and lastly, prog/power metal quartet Serenity's song "For Freedom's Sake" (1:01:55). Before the episode proper ended, Josh played that week's requisite local band, though only partially, as he played a song by Down In Ashes, the Ottawa-based hard rock band featuring Sault native Steve Brogno (ex-Driving Dave Home and Turner Up) on drums. Oddly, Josh did not mention Steve by name, let alone that they're not technically a local band, but their song played on air was "Veins" (1:07:30), the title track of Down In Ashes' 2012 EP. They're a solid group for fans of modern hard rock, and it's a shame Steve's never brought them to home for a gig that I know of, but at least his other Ottawa band The Red Rails have been here!

Despite a few missed details in band bios, this was an entertaining episode of Metal Morpheus, helped by having a national metal scene that is more plentiful with less need to fill time or run the supply dry! With the series' return still in limbo, it remains to be seen if Josh will return to alphabetical order as promised, but Andorra, Angola, and Antigua & Barbuda would technically be next if he does (given their small national scenes, I'd bundle them together if I was him). The final new episode (of 2021?) will be spotlighted on the SMS next week, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site either tomorrow or on Friday! Thanks everyone!

Another Episode Recap Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

As you may have gathered following the reversion to Stage 2 of re-opening in Ontario and the usual January hangover following the holidays for the local scene (even pre-pandemic), news has definitely slowed down to start 2022, so let's use today's post to further catch up on Metal Morpheus episodes on local internet radio station The Borderline! While there hasn't been a public statement that I've seen, it looks like host Josh Amendola has at least went on a holiday break from the show, as every episode since the heavily revised Soo Metal episode on December 5th has been a rerun. The fact that it's still airing Sunday nights at 9:00 PM is a good sign that it will return, perhaps as soon as this coming Sunday, but we'll let you know if anything is clarified about it's current/future status. Due to the December reruns, we're only behind on three new-to-us episodes of Metal Morpheus, so let's continue on by looking at the November 21st installment!

That episode was the third in Josh's planned series of spotlight features on the extreme metal scenes of various countries from around the world in alphabetical order, and for non-disputed regions, third up was indeed Algeria, a large country in northwestern Africa. Clearly, there wasn't a ton of metal bands from Algeria to source bands from, so this episode only addresses them for just over half of it, and the episode proper runs for just 57 minutes. Starting things off with some information about Algeria and its native music, the first band played on air is progressive metal quartet RiverGate's song "Tears of the Machine" (4:30), followed by black metal band Orcus' song "Death Is Everywhere" (11:15). Active Algerian death metal group Lelahell are up next with their 2018 track "Insiraf/Martyr" (16:10), followed by the more technical death metal band Devast with "Chaotic Proliferation" (22:10)

The fifth and final Algerian band played on November 21st was the black metal project Berzek with their very long original track "Mourning In Oblivion" (25:30). After wrapping up the trip to Algeria, Josh flies back home to look at songs from four inactive local metal bands, starting with classic hardcore punk band The Harsh Heads' song "You're Pawning Your Mind, Asshole" (37:00) from their kinda-unreleased album "First Hated Then Forgotten", followed by the more contemporary grindcore trio Shit Liver's song "Liverated" (42:55) from their 2017 album "Hitting The Fan". We next get a live cut from 2010-2011 local metal band Sativa Rose (who never released an album), specifically their original "Fall From Grace" (47:15), and the episode closes with early 1990s metal band Amethyst's song "You've Been Caught" (53:00), which opened their 1992 CD "Innocent As Hell".

This was another solid episode of Metal Morpheus, and those Algerian bands were definitely intense and brutal in both expected & unexpected ways! As was the case with the Albanian episode from earlier that month, Josh was clearly struggling to give information on these bands, but giving them some exposure like this can't hurt their cause, even if some are not active anymore. Nice to see lots of local acts getting the spotlight too, and I never expected Sativa Rose to turn up, though the audio quality from the source video was definitely rough by comparison. We now have just two episodes of Metal Morpheus from 2021 to recap on the SMS, namely the revised Soo Metal episode and the next country spotlight one, but Josh curiously skipped six countries in alphabetical order to instead look at Austria.

While some of the six in between would seem hard to get enough bands from (especially the tiny Andorra and Antigua & Barbuda), I would have thought Australia at least would have had ample bands to pull from, and Argentina, Armenia, and Angola are not lacking themselves. Josh did also tease at episode's end that he wants to do episodes themed around international metal subgenres (methinks Japan would lend itself well to that). Tune in to The Borderline this Sunday at 9:00 PM to see if Metal Morpheus is back from their winter break(?), and we'll have more episode recaps soon, I hope, plus more news and notes in general! Thanks everyone!

Another Metal Morpheus Episode Recap From The Borderline!!

With news slowing down for obvious reasons (both holiday related and otherwise), let's dive into another recent episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline! Just a heads up though for listeners who have caught up to the current episodes, as there was not an episode on Sunday, December 12th for unannounced reasons (unless it was quietly taken down after its live airing), while this past Sunday's episode was just a re-posting of the "Amazing Solos" episode from September 26th, with the original aired version being taken down in place of the rerun airing, again for unannounced reasons. Hopefully this is just a holiday break and it isn't a sign of waning interest in recording new installments, especially given Josh's ambitious plans to go through lesser known countries in spotlight episodes! Now, let's start with the Metal Morpheus episode from November 14th, which is a sequel to the guitar heroes episode from October 3rd!

This extra-long 72 minute installment covers some similar ground to host Josh Amendola's other two guitarist-showcase episodes from the fall, but none of the guitarists/acts from October 3rd were repeated six weeks later. The first band spotlighted is jazz fusion group The Mahavishnu Orchestra and their lead guitarist John McLaughlin via their song "Birds of Fire" (0:35), though Josh gets increasingly hard to hear over the song's introduction. Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher is next with "A Million Miles Away" (6:40), followed by American rock virtuoso Eric Johnson's signature song "Cliffs of Dover" (14:10). We next hear late guitar icon Shawn Lane's "Epilogue For Lisa" (19:30), followed by Hee-Haw host and country music legend Roy Clark's "Roy's Guitar Boogie" (23:00), and for the record, neither of the last two songs are on Spotify. Legendary Australian acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel is next with his cover of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" (26:55).

The first half of the episode concludes with "redneck jazz" stalwart Danny Gatton's lengthy "Song of India" (32:35), which isn't on Spotify either. Highly regarded jazz guitarist & instructor Ted Greene is next with his song "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (43:00), followed by 1970s jazz fusion band The Tony Williams Lifetime with their song "Red Alert" (48:40), also featuring the late Allan Holdsworth. If you have patiently been waiting for metal, the last three songs will have you covered, albeit starting with softer material than you may expect. We next come to instrumental progressive metal trio Animals As Leaders & their guitarist Tosin Abasi, who are featured here with their song "The Future That Awaited Me" (55:05), though this is a softer song than normal for them. Led Zeppelin and their guitarist Jimmy Page follow with their underrated song "Ten Years After" (1:01:15).

The episode closes with that week's local selection, namely 2008-2011 death metal quintet Bring The Fallen, who featured Andrew Chiarello on lead guitar & Dan Souliere on rhythm guitar, and their song played here is "Defiling Despondence" from their posthumous 2013 EP "Stand Before". I believe Bring The Fallen were also in the deleted all-local October episode of Metal Morpheus, for what that's worth. Another entertaining and informative episode here, with Josh shining a deserved light on more virtuoso guitarists that may not have had mainstream stardom, but still had all the skills in the world! Again, this isn't the heaviest episode of Metal Morpheus ever, but guitarists like these influenced a lot of shredders to come. Give this episode a listen on-demand at the above links (assuming it doesn't get taken down for a rerun), and unless I missed something, another new episode will air on The Borderline this Sunday at 9:00 PM!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new post of some kind by Christmas Eve! Thanks everyone!

Two More Recaps Of Metal Morpheus Episodes On The Borderline!!

We've fallen very behind on recapping episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline, so let's dive into some more back catalog episodes! I was originally going to look at episode #17 from October 24th, which was all about local metal bands, including a few from Sault Michigan, but that episode was quietly taken down for unannounced reasons and re-aired as last night's episode with a heavily altered track listing. I have no idea why Josh overhauled it like this, but we will look at it on the site when we catch up to December in the timeline! Instead, let's stay chronological with the October 31st episode, which began a new theme for the series, as host Josh Amendola is starting to spotlight metal bands from around the world with country-specific episodes, weekly local bands aside! Rather than starting with prominent national scenes, it looks like he's going in alphabetical order.

Josh started this theme with a 64 minute episode all about metal bands from Afghanistan, and if you've ever seen Sam Dunn's excellent documentary Global Metal, you'll know about the cultural differences and persecution that metal bands can have in the Middle East, so it's nice to see Josh putting a deserved spotlight on bands from that region! The first half of the episode is entirely devoted to the same band, namely Kabul-based atmospheric black metal band Almach, who get four songs played on air, including "Battle of Tours" (1:00),  "Dream Elegy" (10:00), "Sons of Umayya" (19:20), and "Kandahar" (25:45). The second half starts with New Jersey-based Afghani death metal project Strains of Bellum with their 2020 songs "Alive" (35:20) and "Children of Isis" (40:35), before closing the themed portion of the episode with masked groove/progressive metal band District Unknown.

That band is heard via two songs of their own, namely "64" (44:50) and "Portraits" (52:40), before Josh acknowledges the loss of two local soldiers from the Soo fighting in the war in Afghanistan. Nice of him to pay respect in this way! He wraps things up with that week's local pick, namely hard rock guitarist Tym Morrison's non-album original song "Mystical" (1:00:35), so picked due to its Middle Eastern themes. Solid episode to take us through three promising metal bands whose Afghani roots definitely impacted their music, and I especially liked Strains of Bellum, so give the whole thing a listen above! As for the following episode on November 7th, the 67 run time belies the fact that it's topic (music from Albania) doesn't really have a huge recorded metal output, but Josh does make up for that by starting the episode with a historical lesson on Albanian music and its cultural origins.

Kudos to him for sticking with alphabetical order despite the obvious challenges for certain countries, but he clearly has his limits, given that some countries were skipped before his Austria episode on Nocvember 28th (was there not enough bands from Australia? Parkway Drive would fit!). Unlike the vast majority of recent episodes, a song list is not given on the episode's page, but the first song played is by Albanian progressive death metal band Gverr, entitled "Fail Philosophy" (4:15), followed by speed metal band Thunder Way's song "The Order Executors" (9:50). Black metal band Nihil (not Nile, different band) follow with their entire 2014 EP "Nën thundrën e dhunës", featuring the songs "The Majestic Word of Darkness" (16:30), "The Dark Side of Lust" (19:50), and "Macabre Ruins" (22:55), though Josh doesn't credit any of those songs by name. Death metal solo project Ethernil are played next via the song "Age of Awakening" (26:50).

The first half of the episode ends with the ambient/black metal project Cryptorsatan via their song "Hymn Ov Sathanaa (Weapons Ov Death)" (31:25), while Josh jumps back to death metal to end the Albanian portion of the episode with the band Aten's "I Call Upon Thy Name" (37:40). Possibly as a consequence of a lack of Albanian metal songs, Josh spotlights five acts with local talent to end the episode, starting with his old extreme metal band Winkstinger, via an Alan Wells-era live recording of their original song "Sadist" (44:45) from 2011, though Josh doesn't credit then-rhythm guitarist Jason Ladouceur by name in the intro. Josh does allude to recording an album that was never put out during his stint with the band, but I never heard pray tell of that outside of this episode. The deleted October 24th local-only episode aside, the first ever Sault Michigan band on Metal Morpheus is next!

Specifically, Josh went with alt-metal trio Weed via their 2007 song "4:20" (50:55), but I think he got his wires crossed keeping all these band bios straight, as he credits Papa Fogals Chair's Andy Chillman as being in the band (they were definitely from Sault Michigan, featuring ex-Clownsack bandmates). Josh next plays a song by defunct local punk band Proposition 86, namely "Scapegoat" (55:40) from their self-titled 1998 cassette tape, though I'm surprised he never mentioned that their drummer was late Woods of Ypres founder David Gold! Soo native Jeff Nisbet's old Kitchener-based solo project is next via the instrumental "The Juice" (1:00:55), and the episode ends with inactive local/Toronto hardcore punk quartet Detroit with their quick original "Spiritual Warfare" (1:04:30), specifically the "Brace For Impact" re-recording from 2009. Well, that was a lot to take in, but this was also an entertaining episode!

While the Albanian bands are definitely more obscure as a rule with not a lot of back story to draw from, I applaud Josh for trying to put the spotlight on the ones that he could, and it will be interesting to see what he can wring out of other perhaps unlikely countries! Just needs to pin down correct details moreso, especially on some of the local bands. Listen to both of these episodes at the above links, and stay tuned for more from Metal Morpheus as the month rolls along, including the next live episode this Sunday at 9:00 PM on The Borderline! Thanks everyone!

Two More Metal Morpheus Episode Recaps From The Borderline!!

Before we fall any further behind on recapping episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline, let's look at two today, including episode #15 from October 10th, where host Josh Amendola returned to metal subgenre-themes after his three week spotlight on guitarists, so what did he look at that week? Technical death metal, in what you could generously call a follow-up to the death metal episode from August, but this takes things into a further, more progressive category. The 62 minute episode begins with Virginia tech death metal band Arsis with their song "Looking To Nothing" (1:10), followed by Montreal death metal legends Quo Vadis (who Gates of Winter opened for on tour) with their song "Silence Calls The Storm" (5:40). Fellow Montreal death metal band Beyond Creation follows via their song "Coexistence" (11:15), and Josh noted that he opened for them live with a (presumably not local) band of his named Karmageddon.

The trip to Montreal ends with Vengeful's "Forsaken" (19:35), and Josh next spotlights German technical death metal band Defeated Sanity's song "Verblendung" (24:35) to end the first half of the episode. We head back to Canada next to spotlight Mitochondrion's lengthy original "Parasignosis (29:20), before next looking at Quebec death/thrash metal group Martyr's song "Endless Vortex Towards Erasing Destiny" (37:15). This episode's local content follows, courtesy of defunct London metal quintet Papa Fogals Chair, whose lineup was comprised entirely of Soo and Thessalon natives but were never properly based here. While not a technical death metal band, Josh does note that they had intricacies to their sound, which you can hear in their on-air song, "Disgust" (41:35). Next, we go back to Montreal, starting with Augury's "Alien Shores" (46:15), and like with P.F.C., this song is not on Spotify.

The Montreal quotient of the episode wraps up with Cryptopsy's "Slit Your Guts" (51:15), and the episode proper ends with the legendary Death's slow instrumental "Voice of The Soul" (56:40). While the episode is heavily dictated by Josh's time living in Montreal based on what bands he picked, that is a good sign. After all, the episode comes from a genuine love and appreciation of these bands & this sub-genre, and you'll get your brutal and technical fill from this episode without too many obvious selections, so give it a listen at the above links!

As for episode #16 from October 17th, that episode was also on a metal subgenre, specifically on crossover thrash, so if you're a fan of punk and/or thrash metal, this episode will straddle both lines and hopefully please both fanbases! Given the shorter song lengths, more bands are crammed into this episode, starting with The Dirty Rotten Imbeciles' classic "I Don't Need Society" (0:45), followed by subgenre pioneers Beowulf & their song "Lost My Head" (2:45), which is not on Spotify. Iconic sludge metal band Corrosion of Conformity follow with "Loss For Words" (6:15), which comes from their pre-Pepper days playing hardcore punk in the 1980s. British punk stalwarts G.B.H. are next with "Sick Boy" (11:10), followed by hardcore punk/thrash legends Suicidal Tendencies and their fan favourite track "Send Me Your Money" (14:05), featuring Metallica's Robert Trujillo on bass.

New York thrash band Carnivore (featuring late Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele) are next with "God Is Dead" (18:40), followed by songs from two very notable New York hardcore bands, including Agnostic Front's ultra short "Victim In Pain" (23:55) and The Cro-Mags' "Age of Quarrel" (24:55) to end the first half with. California crossover thrash band Excel's song "I Never Denied" (30:40) comes afterwards, preceding the legendary Nuclear Assault's song "Game Over" (36:10). English anarcho-punk band Antisect's song "They (The Eternal Myth & Paradox)" (39:10) is played next, but it isn't on Spotify either. The last non-local band is the killer thrash quartet Sacred Reich with "Death Squad" (45:25), and Josh closed that week with three songs by 1999-2004 local punk band Downshift (later Burn The Past), all coming from from their 2000 debut album "Before You Knew Me..."!

While not a true thrash band (Jack Spades would have been closer to the theme), Downshift sure have the fast punk quota down via their songs "Ground Zero" (50:30), "Hold My Head Up High" (54:00), and "Worth Repeating" (56:10). Josh doesn't elaborate on back stories for these bands as much as he did for the technical death metal episode, but he covers some very fun and intense bands here, and this is another fun episode to listen to, especially with how into the hosting duties Josh has gotten! Check out both of these Metal Morpheus episodes (and more) at the above links, listen to episode #21 live on The Borderline this Sunday, and stay tuned for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Episode #14 Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

We're falling behind on recapping episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline, so let's take a deep dive into some more, starting with episode #14 from October 3rd, where host Josh Amendola concluded his trilogy of guitar-centric episodes with one all album all about guitar heroes! Specifically, these are guitarists that Josh is a big fan of as musicians, and with one exception, none were previously featured in the preceding Metal Morpheus episodes on shred guitar or amazing solos. Also, most of these are not "metal" guitarists, so just a heads-up, but they were influential on metal guitarists to come. The 67 minute episode begins with Josh explaining his criteria for inclusion in the episode, and the first artist on offer is pioneering Mississippi blues guitarist Charley Patton's song "Poor Me" (0:50), followed by the father of jazz guitar, Eddie Lang and his song "April Kisses" (4:40).

Blues guitar legend Robert Johnson is next via his song "Hellhound On My Trail" (8:30), with Josh flipping back to jazz pioneers with his next two cut, they being legendary French guitarist Django Reinhardt's song "Nuages" (13:20) and American guitarist Charlie Christian's "Swing To Bop" (19:20). We go to Spain next via influential classical guitarist Andres Segovia with his relatively brief song "Bach Bouree" (23:20), followed by the flamenco musician Sabicas with "Arabian Dance" (25:20). The first half of the episode concludes with a shift to rock via the late great Jimi Hendrix with his song "Hear My Train A Comin'" (29:55). Next, Josh returns to flamenco via Spanish guitar virtuoso Paco de Lucia's song "Impetu" (36:10), before surprisingly playing a song by country guitar great Chet Atkins, namely "Dark Eyes" (39:00). We get back to a heavier track with the legendary hard rock band Van Halen! 

Featured the previous week in the episode on amazing solos, this time we get an Eddie Van Halen solo showcase via the minute-long "Spanish Fly" (42:25). Rap metal icons Rage Against The Machine and their guitarist Tom Morello are next via their song "Ashes In The Fall" (44:05), but we follow them with this episode's last divergence outside of metal, courtesy of late Canadian jazz/country guitarist Lenny Breau's "The Claw" (49:15). Metalheads will get their fix via the episode's penultimate song, namely British metal pioneers Black Sabbath and guitarist Tony Iommi's Dio-era cut "Computer God" (55:10), and the episode ends with that week's local artist pick, namely early 2010s local/Central Algoma death metal band Crimson Crusade! Their song here is "Pillage" (1:02:10) from their 2013 EP "Upon The Eve Of War", which featured Devon Lucier and Pillory frontman Robert Sartini sharing guitar duties.

Josh does wrap the episode up by implying that this is just "volume 1" for episodes on guitar heroes, with "many more to come" featuring guitar greats not mentioned on October 3rd, but the episodes to air so far have largely returned to band-centric topics, and we will get to those hopefully soon. While the metal quotient of this episode is definitely lacking compared to prior weeks, the purpose was to outline influential guitarits who paved the way, and to to ignore these guitarists' contribution to the modern day tropes of metal guitar playing would be foolish. If anything, I'd have considered going chronological with this episode to sort of count the steps as we got to metal and it's evolution, and Josh's pronunciation of some names was a little off, but this was an informative and entertaining listen, and tune in to The Borderline tonight at 9:00 PM for episode #19 of Metal Morpheus!

Of course, you can hear all previous and episodes on demand on their website, with tonight's episode following suit after the fact, and we'll look at episode #15 on the SMS soon as Josh returns to spotlighting bands rather than guitarists individually. That's all for today, but stay tuned for news on a big recent album release and more this week! Thanks everyone!