SweetKenny - "Perception" Review!!

With our busy news stretch passed, now's a good time to post our 53rd monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're taking a look at Dafter, Michigan hard rock artist Kenneth "SweetKenny" Sutton's sixth studio album "Perception"! His newest album as of this writing, I chose this one over the upcoming "Cracks In The Wall" (which was postponed to a November 22nd release date) due to it being heavier overall. Released for sale on June 30th, "Perception" was recorded at the Waterfall Recording Studio in Dafter earlier this year. Unlike on SweetKenny's previous album "Doo Hickey", Ken handles all instruments & programming, along with most vocals, with former Plastic/Bent Rollercoaster drummer Paul "Dorothy" Burns providing guest vocals on the second track. "Perception" can be bought for $9.99 in mp3 format (or $12.97 on CD) at this location, while all 10 tracks are available for a free stream at this link as well (each song title below is linked through there), though buy the whole album to support Ken's work! His longest 2013 album, "Perception" has 10 songs stretched across 44 minutes, so let's begin our review with the first song!

"Perception" begins with "Daddy's Little Girl", which begins with a hard driving riff that has a fast road trip feel, and Ken's vocals match the mood well, but his gritty tone doesn't strike me as the best use of his voice on this one. Relentless and quick song here, and it gives you the vibe of a drive down the open road, with his instrumental talents put to good use on one of his heavier recent originals, but I'd have liked to have seen more melodic singing and more of a guitar solo. For coming together by accident, it turned out nicely and is a fun and heavy way to kick off the album! Track 2 is "Pages the Break of Dawn", featuring former local hard rock drummer Paul Burns on vocals, who wrote the lyrics based around past experiences of his in jail. Featuring a unique element of the lyrics being a phone call, the song has a Sykotyk Rampage essence with it's trance-sounding instrumentation, though if you're expecting something heavy, only the lyrical impact would fit. Paul's singing isn't the most refined or rangy that I've heard, but it fits the mood and message, and knowing the song's based on real events, everything works for what it is (and best of luck in Wisconsin!)

Next on the CD is "Burn Notice" (named after the TV series), an instrumental hard rock number that has a solid groove that, while never getting too fast and intense, keeps steady with solid hard rock riffing and drumming! Nice bass too, even having something of a surf quality on some of the guitar work, though some of the instrumentation sounds a bit staticy. I would be curious to hear lyrics based on the "Burn Notice" show here, but it's an effective instrumental that delivers the rock goods and never bores in the process! Fourth is "All Lost, No More", a song about Jesus Christ and his acts of healing from a few Bible passages. Having a slow rock vibe, Ken employs his Elvis Presley-esque vocals here in a very deliberate and clear manner, which I imagine was deliberate to get the song's spiritual messages across. Nice vocal control and bass on this track especially, and while it's well played and has good emotion, the structure and pacing offers few surprises, and you may not appreciate the lyrical content unless you have good knowledge of the Bible.

After that, we have "Groovin' Zombie", another instrumental (aside from a brief Elvis callback) that, while not sharing much in common with zombies, has a fun groove to it! Nice and melodic with solid guitar work as expected, it's one of the longer songs on "Perception", but it never gets bogged down with repetition or drawn out stretches. Everything comes together well for a lighter rocking sound, with the guitar riffing and lines giving most of the song's bright moments! I think I prefer "Burn Notice" in terms of enjoyment, but "Groovin' Zombie" is no slouch either! That's followed by "Magic Girl", which is based on Ken's memoriues back in Detroit-area bands of some of the "freakier" girls back then. Almost bluesy in tone, this song features spoken word verses and sung choruses, which work well to tell the story, but if you don't listen and get into the story, you might find this to be repetitive after a while. I enjoyed that angle, and I liked the more extensive guitar solo, so while there are more technical songs on "Perception", "Magic Girl" has it's own unique flavour!

Seventh on the album is "Oungago Mustard" (named after two words from a CAPTCHA identity test), which, at 5:46 long, is the longest song and third instrumental on this album. It has a jam/classic rock feel that is entertaining throughout, with solid and varied guitar riffs, a constant energy, and nice backing drumming! It doesn't feel like a 5 minute+ track, which is a good sign, but I'd have liked to have seen a guitar solo and maybe a faster stretch to shake things up a bit. Still, "Oungago Mustard" keeps the good feelings going! Then, we have "Bad Take", the album's shortest track (despite being 3:41), which tells of Ken's feelings about what was real in life, and the Lord's message to him. It reminds me of "All Lost, No More" in themes, vocal style, and pacing, albeit with more of a bluesy/jam feel to the instrumentation, so if you like that song, this one should be up your alley! I will say that the choruses here are a bit monotonous vocally, and the music itself isn't as lively as on previous tracks, but given the lyrical content, I wouldn't expect it to be.  Not my favourite song on "Perception", but it's very consistent!

Second-last is "Time For A Change", which leads off a quick drum intro into a slower rock instrumental (completing the 8 song alternating pattern of having/not having vocals.) This one has a bit of a darker essence while retaining Ken's classic hard rock vibe, though unlike some of the previous instrumentals, "Time For A Change" doesn't have the free-flowing energy or variance to keep it constantly interesting. Again, he handles the music nicely, with quality deliberate guitar work, but compared to the earlier instrumentals, it's not quite on the same level. "Perception" closes with another instrumental named "April That Girl of Mine", that improves on "Time For A Change" by having a more energetic driving sound led by some really good guitar work, but it sounds a bit fuzzy at times, and there isn't as clear of an overall structure as one some earlier songs. The bass is really good though, and Ken's solo instrumental talent is on display to end the album on a good note!

So what's my final verdict on SweetKenny's second 2013 album? I think it's a better release than "Doo Hickey" in terms of musical quality, but it's not perfect. The equal distribution of instrumentals and full songs with vocals is the biggest outward difference, but beneath that, the songs were longer, less repetitive, and didn't sound as rushed as they did when I first heard one of his albums. The songs were generally a bit heavier and more lively too, which I appreciated on tracks like "Daddy's Little Girl" and "Burn Notice", and Ken's time-tested skill and songwriting is there in the clear! That said, I found "Perception" to get a bit stagnant and slow in the latter half of the album, with Ken's vocals not as varied and rangy when we did get them, and a couple of the songs sounded a bit staticy & fuzzy when there was a lot of simultaneous instruments. I'm not sure how this stacks up in quality to it's upcoming all-instrumental successor "Cracks In The Wall" (which I haven't heard in-depth enough yet to comment), but "Perception" is so far SweetKenny's best 2013 effort, and I'm very curious to hear his next studio output!

I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! Next month, we're going to review an album featuring prolific local metal/hard rock artist Mike Haggith, but which one? With his soon-to-be-defunct grunge quartet Haggith teasing the release of it's sequel "Apocalypse II" next month at their upcoming farewell concert, I was planning to review it's 2012 predecessor "Apocalypse" to keep things in chronological order giving the conceptual nature of them, but that would be dependent on a paid release of the sequel next month, as the original is no longer "new". If it doesn't come out as planned, we will very likely review Mike's new band The Strange Coyotes' new self-titled album, which just saw a release earlier this week on BandCamp on a "pay what you want" sale model (a'la Insipid Brutality's posthumous demo.) Note that a review of Mike's newest unreviewed solo album "The Present Din" won't be next month, as it's too soon from our review of "Neighbourhood Watch II", so that's out until the spring at the earliest. Look out for my review of either a Haggith or Strange Coyotes album likely in early December, and stay tuned for more news at the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (That's Chester), SweetKenny's New Album, And New Videos!!

We're back with a new news post on this Remembrance & Veterans Day, so make sure to never forget the sacrifices of our veterans on either side of the border on this day, and don't forget your poppies! Today, we have new videos from a recent metal concert, and info on both a forthcoming album release and the identity of our next CD review, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the end of the month!

Sault Ontario classic hard rock quintet That's Chester will play their first public concerts since Rotaryfest on Friday, November 29th & Saturday, November 30th at Docks Riverfront Grill! Though they've played live in the interim in Batchewana and at the Comfort Suites Conference Centre, those were private events (the latter being a firefighter retirement party on Saturday), so it's nice to see them playing to a general audience again after 4 months! Notably, these shows (in advance of their December 1st set at Toystock) will be their first normal bar weekend gigs since reuniting this summer, and their first at Docks since March 2012, which is a long time coming itself! The post plugging these shows on their Facebook page teases that they have some "new surprises", but does that mean new setlist additions and/or something else? Be there at the end of the month to find out! A $4 cover charge is likely for both nights, you must be 19 to attend, and 10:00 PM start times are likely. For more details, check the above links!

It's great to have a more traditional slate of shows from That's Chester to end the month, and hopefully they're a good warmup for Toystock, so don't miss their busy weekend of hard rocking covers in three weeks time, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, Dafter, Michigan hard rock artist Ken Sutton (a.k.a. SweetKenny) has uploaded his seventh solo album "Cracks In The Wall" to listen to for free on his website at this link! The follow up to "Doo Hickey" & "Perception" from earlier this year, it's still scheduled for it's paid release on Friday, but fans can now stream the songs beforehand to see what they think. Recorded at Waterfall Records, Ken describes "Cracks in the Wall" as a "heavy rock blues style feel album", and unlike his last two releases, it's all-instrumental with no vocals or guest musicians, though he emphasizes the freestyle nature of it. Length-wise, it's basically an EP with only 6 songs (similarly to "Doo Hickey" in that regard), and the songs on it are "Can't Drive", "Some Kinda Song", "Big D", "Goose", "Booze & Broads", and "The Scorpion King", so click each link to hear them! Now, given that it's paid release is impending, will "Cracks In The Wall" be this month's CD review at the SMS? Actually, we're actually going to review his last album "Perception" first, as it's slightly heavier, and in cases where we have two unreviewed new albums from a band in the queue, the heavier one gets priority.

A review of "Cracks In The Wall" is still possible for next year, but "Perception" deserves a look in itself, so watch out for that review this month, and check out SweetKenny's new album at the above links before it goes on sale, which we'll have info on hopefully on Friday!

We'll close today's post with new videos, yet again from the Devil's Night all ages concert at The Oddfellows Hall! One comes from local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' headlining set (again as filmed by Stillbroke alum Sam DeDominicis on the high quality camera), and this time, it's of their song "Bloodthirst"! Posted onto the band's YouTube channel on Saturday, the quality is as good as the earlier official videos from this show, though for this one, Sam sticks to a side stage angle beside Mitch Sirie. Brutal and well filmed like before, so check out their recent performance of "Bloodthirst" below, and don't miss them at Viva La Battle on Wednesday!



Finally, we have a new video from what I believe was the half of James Watterworth's solo set where he was joined by now-Strange Coyotes bandmates Chase Wigmore & Mike Haggith! Uploaded to promoters Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Saturday, the title credits the performance to The Strange Coyotes, but that band formed as a result of this gig's success, and as I can't detect Chase singing, I don't think it was from Project Legion's abbreviated last set. The video is low quality (taken at a very red side-stage angle), but the audio works well for this funk rock track, so give this proto-Strange Coyotes performance a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for our special extended preview of Viva La Battle, where The Bear Hunters and new local bands Keep It Lit, North West, and Punch will compete for the last opening slot at next month's Bam Margera/Fuckface Unstoppable concert! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tantrym Tyme), A New Album Release, And More From Sault Michigan!!

As promised, today's post is completely focused around the Sault Michigan scene, so what's in store for this Independence Day weekend? Today, we have news on a band who DIDN'T break up (and their recent updates), a new band on two upcoming Kewadin Casino concerts, and a brand new album release, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS relating to an upcoming community event, so here's what you need to know!

Young local metal quartet Tantrym Tyme have announced two new concerts that I can 100% verify and source! Often, their shows either get late or no notice, and take place on an outdoor stage at various regional locations, but we do have some info on their next dates, starting with sets outside of Harmony Health Foods on July 26th & 27th as part of Sault Michigan's annual Downtown Days! Also known as the Sidewalk Sales, this is a yearly community event featuring outdoor sales from local merchants, kids games, and live music (you may remember that Free Refill frequented the Downtown Days during their run), so shoppers and Saultites in general should find something to like! Tantrym Tyme's location for the shows isn't random either, as drummer Ethan Twardy's parents own Harmony Health Foods (at 217 Ashmun Street, just seconds from The Corner Pub), and the band have played, been sponsored by, and sold merchandise there in the past. No times for their sets have been announced, but given the outdoor setting, there's obviously no cover charge or age limit. Check the above links for more info!

One more show was announced too on their Facebook page last month, but I'm waiting for more info before plugging it on here (especially concerning other bands.) Tantrym Tyme on rising fast in prominence and talent, so don't miss their next (announced) shows during Downtown Days in three weeks, and stay tuned for possible updates!

Next up, a new local album was just released on June 30th, so it's time to give it some overdue press, as Dafter solo hard rock musician Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton's sixth original studio album "Perception" is now on sale! Independently released through and recorded at the Waterfall Recording Studios earlier this year, this is a much longer album than it's predecessor "Doo Hickey", featuring 10 songs. In terms of personnel, it looks like Ken handled all instruments (I don't believe collaborator Scott Schroen is featured this time), while one song ("Pages the Break of Dawn") was sang and co-written by Plastic drummer Paul "Dorothy" Burns (formerly of Bent Rollercoaster & Hammerspace). Ken describes the album as "a fun rock n' roll album with a summer feel to it", and the album's page on his website describes some of the songs' themes. "Perception" is now available to buy for $9.99 in mp3 format (or $12.97 on CD) at this location, while all 10 tracks are streamable at this link as well, but buy it to support SweetKenny's work! With that all said, when is a review of it coming to the SMS?

Not until the fall, as it's still too soon from our review of "Doo Hickey" in March, but I'm currently leaning towards the fall for it (as the summer's booked up, and I don't know finite dates for Mike Haggith's next solo album to be exact otherwise.) SweetKenny's newest CD will get a fall review though, so don't worry! I'll hold full thoughts on the album until we review it, but pick it up above, as Ken's a very talented veteran guitarist who deserves the support!

Also in recent news, Detroit hard rock quintet Fifth Way will apparently return to Sault Michigan for two opening dates at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino later this month, as they've been announced as openers for Shinedown & Devour The Day on July 21st AND Tesla on July 27th! My source is guitarist/Rudyard native Zak Stelmaszek on Fifth Way's Facebook page on Thursday, though note neither the promoters or venue have officially confirmed their addition. The Shinedown gig will be Fifth Way's first local appearance since opening for Evans Blue at The Dreammaker's Theater in September, while it will also see yet another bassist change, as this will be their first local date since Anthony Palsgrove replaced Victor Wooten in the band last fall (by my math, that's 5 bassists in a 4 year span!) As for the Tesla show, that's familiar ground for Fifth Way, as they opened for Tesla at their last local concert in June 2010, so hopefully their modern hard rock blend will be welcomed back after 10 months away from the Soo in time for these huge concerts! Stay tuned for more if it comes in!

Finally for today, I have an apology to make, as in April, I incorrectly reported that local hardcore band The Eleventh Hour (formerly Angelic Genocide) had likely broken up due to the deletion of their Facebook page. Usually, that's a good indicator, but instead, they quietly launched a new Facebook page last fall and didn't delete the old one right away, hence the confusion. Their current lineup credits singer Sean Roush, guitarist Josh North, and drummer Joe North as still being in the band, alongside new addition Zach Howe on clean vocals (replacing Cathy Burgos), while guitarist Cody Reed left the band as well last year, and a Google cache of their Facebook page indicates that former bassist Alex Boyer had briefly rejoined before leaving again. The band was temporarily named Changing You For Better Days earlier this year before reverting to The Eleventh Hour, and while news has been slow (partly due to Zach living in the Traverse City area), they have rough plans to release an EP called "Eyes of the Wretched", with lyrics to an original song named "I Have A Voice" posted on Facebook as well.

The new Eleventh Hour page features one original sample via a Facebook video (as a result, I can't embed it here), but it's a rough instrumental that suffers from staticy audio. It's heavy enough though, and I'm curious to hear newer material of theirs with better quality and vocals! It's great to see The Eleventh Hour are still together and plugging away, and hopefully they can get over the hump that many recent extreme metal bands have been stopped by in Sault Michigan, and make a big name for themselves! Check the above links for more, my deepest apologies for the mix-up, and they're now back in our active band links!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for some Sault Ontario news and updates tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Theatre Of Night), SweetKenny & Mike Haggith Updates, And More!!

We have more news to get to as we kick off the last week of May 2013, but before that, I'll note that I'm bumping our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Giwakwa guitarist Chris Page's old band Lead The Dead to tomorrow so I don't de-emphasize the content of today's post, which includes a preview for a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!! It's for a great cause too, and it's the debut of a popular local band, so I wanted to give that the proper attention, so for that and more updates from two local solo projects and much more, read on below!

Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night will make their live concert debut TOMORROW in the parking lot of The Corner Pub Bar & Grill to help honour Memorial Day! Apologies for the short notice, the Facebook event page was only just created on Friday night. For the occasion, Theatre of Night will be playing numerous songs from their second album "The Dawn's Early Light" (with "Taps" kicking things off at 12:00 PM), and there'll also be a barbecue & silent auction to help benefit The Forgotten Eagles of Michigan, an organization that helps assist war veterans in the state. For Theatre of Night, this will be their first live set in the area that I can source, and if so, I believe it will be the first public concert that Craig Harrison & the Giles brothers have played together since I.S.O.M.'s 2009 breakup! Note that the songs being performed are all instrumentals, so I wouldn't expect singer Gaby Koss (who lives in Germany anyway) to be featured. There's no admission price or posted age limits for this benefit event, and everything starts at noon tomorrow. Check the above links for more details!

It's great to see Theatre of Night playing a live local concert finally, and given their proud American heritage and recent material, it's awesome to see them paying tribute to those lost protecting their freedoms! Hopefully this is just the first of many live concerts for them, and if you can make it down to The Corner Pub tomorrow, donate generously and rock out for a great cause! For a preview of tomorrow's event, here's one of Theatre of Night's promo videos for their American/patriotic themed album "The Dawn's Early Light", which you'll hear songs from tomorrow afternoon!

Next up, here's the latest from Dafter, Michigan solo artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton! First, he's revealed a tentative release date of June 30th for his sixth original studio album "Perception" (album cover pictured), and he plans to upload songs from it soon as a preview. No word yet on the full direction or length of it, but the most recent song posting on his Reverbnation page ("Magic Girl") mixes a hard rock groove and spoken word verses, so if it's on the album, it might be heavier-leaning! Now, if it comes out as expected this summer, we won't review it on the site until September at the earliest, as it'll be too soon from our review of his last album "Doo Hickey" in March, but it'll come if it does get released! As well, Ken put the call out for musicians in the Upper Peninsula to join a band on May 13th, presumably featuring him, though no word on if this will be an extension of his solo work or something completely new. This could be very interesting, so message him at sweetkenny@sweetkenny.com if you're interested, and stay tuned for more from SweetKenny!

Also today, Haggith drummer/local solo musician Mike Haggith has completed his YouTube channel transfer by posting four more back albums of his onto his new YouTube channel! His old "Sid Fucktard" channel has been deleted, along with some older audio tracks (he cited only bringing "relevant" material over), though I believe anything that didn't come over was posted before he moved to Sault Ontario, so nothing too familiar to local fans is gone. The new channel now has full uploads of 7 of his last 10 solo studio releases (only "Ace" and the not-previously-uploaded "For My Fallen Angel" & "The Best of Mike Haggith: Volume 2" aren't featured), though in at least one case ("The Curse Was The Cure"), the track listing is altered as an effective "re-issue". Among the postings were a couple of demo tracks that weren't released in this form on his albums, including a 2010 studio demo of "In A World" from his solo/The Thorns album "Laps In A Lake Of Fire", and a 2011 instrumental demo of "The Day The Lights Went Out" from "Neighbourhood Watch"!

Both are clearly unfinished, and "In A World" has some messier elements, but there's good stuff in each, so check out the instrumental take of "The Day The Lights Went Out" below, and stay tuned for more from Mike, the Haggith band, and The Din as I hear it!



Finally for today, here's three more assorted recent news items, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Local all ages concert promoter/Algoma drummer Jamie Vincent appears to have secured a show for Vancouver drone metal project Ahna on June 27th, as per a posting on his promotion agency's Facebook group two weeks ago, but full details and confirmation of the show have yet to come out. It's great to see Ahna finally get a local booking, and stay tuned for updates!
• I've updated our GarageBand Profile on T H E I D to further emphasize the now-inactive status of drummer Matt Hicks' more prominent later band Dirty Virgin, who have not made any public updates since last spring. Hopefully we see him back at it with Riverin or another project soon though!
• I've also updated our Defunct Local Band Profile on Faithless Sin to reflect frontman Jason Bourcier's recent addition to Winkstinger's lineup, as the profile was posted before Winkstinger publically confirmed that he had joined on bass. Not a major edit, but it makes the information more current, so I thought I'd acknowledge it, and don't miss Winkstinger's return on Wednesday night!

That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Lead The Dead! Thanks everyone!