X's & Y's - "The Obsidian Dream" CD Review!!

It's now time for our 184th monthly CD review on The Sault Metal Scene, but with another change of plans. Due to the comic book tied into Sykotyk Rampage's new album still not arriving, I'm bumping that one more month, so today, we're looking at Sault Michigan metal solo project X's & Y's' debut album "The Obsidian Dream"! Officially released on October 11th through the AFR Records imprint (also credited to the former Werehold Records on physical copies), X's & Y's is the current original metal project from former Life's Eclipse frontman and Swampghas guitarist (among other projects) Jason Mills, finally fulfilling long-held plans to release a paid physical CD. "The Obsidian Dream" has been in the works since at least 2019 at Scholomance Studios in Brimley, and features Jason on all instruments aside from guest appearances on two songs. Jason produced this album alongside local alt-rock musician, ex-Plastic frontman, and Crooked Music owner Zac Crook.

Mastering was done in Lansing by Mitchell "Mitch Michelle" Wells, who previously performed with Jason in the short lived project Shatterhand, and guests on "Houses" on an unexpected instrument. X's & Y's album is on sale on CD through Jason (contact him at this link) for $10 USD, and while it was carried at Crooked Music, the store is liquidating in advance of its closure later this week, so I wouldn't count on copies still being there. Digitally, the album can be streamed for free on YouTube Music, Amazon Music,  and a handful of smaller streaming services, though not Spotify or Apple Music that I have found. With eight tracks running for about 41 minutes, let's begin this month's CD review!

"The Obsidian Dream" ominously leads off with "Just Above Under", whose droning intro and sudden spoken word interjection leads into a pounding industrial metal number with the distinctive guitar tone that Werehold loyalists will recall from their heyday! Jason delivers some nice melodic guitar passages in between the riffs, but I will admit that some of the backing sound effects and samples really feel out of place, especially what sounds like clanging pipes in the first half. Effectively brutal instrumental if you can get past the noises in the background! Next up is "A Flow Of Touch", which is a faster but more straightforward number accentuated by a somewhat trippier intro and more rapid drum beats, and crucially, much less in the way of background samples. Jason also lets loose with a more of a technical and complex solo, which is definitely welcomed! Solid track that is an improvement in terms of what I like out of metal, so we're moving up already!

Third on the CD is "Ursa Minor", which is more of a deliberately paced song that really shows off the bass more than anything else. For me, I prefer songs to be faster and heavier than this, let alone fuller, as the guitar really isn't prominent in this at all, but as a showcase of what Jason can do on the low end, it definitely succeeds! It's rare where local bands put bass on this high of a technical pedestal, and short of slapping it, he did as much as you could ask for! I would like to hear some guitar in the background, as it's kind of an empty song beyond the bass playing, but a definite curio for fans! The first half of the album is met with "Solid Glass", which is the only song on offer to run for under 4 minutes. Guitar is definitely back on this song, which is the most djenty (is that a word?) song yet, so progressive metal fans will want to sit up and take notice!

Still harbouring the distinctly tuned guitar sound of earlier tracks, the guitar playing alone makes this song recommendable, and while there are better showcases on the disc for proper guitar solos, I definitely appreciate Jason's technical skill set on this song, and the percussion is well timed throughout! Fifth on the album is "The Starving Rust", which opens up a very eerie and spacey intro before the metal is unleashed, and while bass is again a lead instrument like on "Ursa Minor",the song is fuller and feels more like a realized final product. The drawn out ending is way too reserved and spare for my liking, but until then, it's a solidly brutal track that bass fans won't want to miss! Sixth is "Houses", which features the aforementioned Mitch Michelle on mellotron (basically a keyboard using magnetic tape to play sampled notes). You can hear Mitch's involvement throughout this song, with the mellotron being used to create a very folk/bardcore sound.

Progressive rock fans will be very familiar with the mellotron, and with Jason largely backing Mitch up here, this definitely feels the most different of the songs on offer, but certainly not in a bad way. A casual listen that almost feels like a boat ride through the countryside (if a nighttime one in the medieval era), metal-or-bust fans may want to steer clear, but "Houses" is an intricate and well composed prog rock piece, and good on Mitch to get involved in this way! The penultimate (and last guest-less) song is "Oculus", and this is a full return to guitar and bass-laden metal, which is definitely welcomed! Not sure that the springy backing sound effects in the breakdown are necessary, but we get some good guitar work and more prominent bass action, and it comes together well, so this is a strong return to X's & Y's usual form! The album closes with its longest song, the almost 9 minutes-long "Never Left", which has lots of guests.

Described as "a song for Jeremy" in the liner notes, the Jeremy in question is Illinois-based guitarist Jeremy Belter, who is joined here by former Heavy Lies The Crown guitarist Ted Olson, Florida-based musician Thaddeus Mitchell, and French metal guitarist Dorian Pied. The amount of guests shows in how the guitar parts are layered and implemented, with the longer length letting everyone show their stuff, but if I didn't know going in that there were four guests, I may not have assumed that there was anything radically different beyond just being more technical. The spoken word samples late are well utilized though, and the guitar skill levels are clear as day! As things change a fair amount, it never gets boring across its long run-time, but I'm not sure if the ending rough guitar outro (which sounds like a jam room demo) adds to it or not. A fittingly grand closure to the album in any event, and hopefully a harbinger of more big things from Jason musically!

So, what are my final thoughts on X's & Y's' debut album? I'm just glad to see Jason finally get an album out after all these years, but even beyond that, this is a very good instrumental metal album that fans of progressive and technical metal will take to! His guitar and bass skills were on full display here, and his bass-led songs will be a particular revelation to fans who are so inclined! Myself, I liked the fuller, more aggressive and speedy songs, but nothing on here is bad, and if you're a fan of Sault Ontario's Convergence, you'll find a lot to like here, and even "Houses" worked for me for how unique and fitting it was at setting its mood! I didn't find that all of the background sound effects and samples worked very well, I did find that "Ursa Minor" could be quite empty, and I would be curious to hear vocals on some tracks, as Jason wasn't averse to having vocalists involved in his old Werehold Records bands in the 2000s and 2010s.

It's great to see new extreme metal of any kind coming out of the E.U.P. in the 2020s, and while just a solo project, hopefully this is the start of more big things to come from Jason, be it with further X's & Y's material or something else! If you like instrumental prog metal, do check them out and buy/stream "The Obsidian Dream" for yourself above! I hope you guys liked this month's CD review, and I'm hopeful that I'll get the comic book for Sykotyk Rampage's "Waerlogas Saga 1: Konfysion Of Fyck" so that I can finally give it a proper review next month, so stay tuned in any event for that and more news & notes as well! Thanks everyone!

Spades GT Updates, Plus New Videos From Both Sides Of The Border!!

Let's cover some more recent news and notes as we play catch-up on this Friday evening, including some new studio recordings from two local solo acts, and leading off, updates from a prominent relocated local punk/metal band who look to have a busy 2023 start in a big way this weekend!

Here is the latest from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, who will play their first (non-local) concert of the year tomorrow night, but this one is for a special cause. You may recall hearing news stories last month about the death of Walter Froebrich, a beloved fixture of the metal scene in the GTA who was a frequent and friendly presence at concerts for decades, and who passed away in unfortunate circumstances after abdominal issues that he was unable to get prompt medical treatments for (click here for more details). A benefit show for Walter takes place tomorrow at The Rockpile in Toronto, with a whopping twenty-seven bands on the bill, Spades GT among them. For reference, none of the other bands are familiar from tour dates in the Soo, but there are recognizable names if you follow the rising metal scene there, including at least three tribute bands. Kudos to everyone for coming together for Walter like this, he'd definitely be proud!

Spades GT have since posted some teasers for the show on their Facebook page, including pictures from a recent jam session, and they indicate changes to their lineup, notably an expansion to a quintet for the first time since the former Jack Spades announced their Barrie relaunch in 2021. Late 2022 fill-in bassist Jay Sarrazin (drummer Tyler Reiner's old Caym bandmate) appears to have shifted to rhythm guitar full time, belatedly replacing Tiffany Stocco in the process. If he is sticking around, he has the chops on guitar for sure! With Daniel Rodbard apparently leaving the group last year for unannounced reasons, and Jay moving to guitar, their new bassist is James Roy Daley, a prolific musician and horror author who has also been seen in GTA punk bands like Stand Against Fear, Prior Convictions, his solo act Killroy, and even Puppethead, a literal parody of Motorhead starring puppets. James gets more and more interesting the more you read!

J.D. and Daniel are now in the minority as the local contingent of Spades GT, but again, GT = Greater Toronto. It's great to see the band back at full strength, and here's hoping the benefit concert is a massive hit for Walter's friends and family in & out of metal! If you're in the GTA, Spades GT play at 7:00 PM. The full new lineup appear in this brief video to plug their set tomorrow and give Walter a shoutout, which was nice of them, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Spades GT when it rolls in!

Also today, here's some new videos from local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore's "Jason Walker" YouTube channel in the past month! After posting a free streaming copy of his newest solo album "We Are All Going To Die" (review forthcoming) and a separate upload of its song "Don't Worry, We Have A Plan" featuring unique cyberpunk graphics, he uploaded a song called "Gristly" under the project name Manitou (apologies for mixing the two up), and whose visual layout is quite similar to the proceeding (graphics in a square video with a title overlayed in the middle). Very doom/synth heavy, reminds me of something Molten Imp would have cooked up, but Chase says this was a collaboration with "non mammalian sentience", and Chase referred to them as "her" and "the old gal", so read into that however you like. No word on if this project will exist long term, but check out Manitou below!

Finally for today, here's the first new song from Sault Michigan extreme metal solo project X's & Y's' YouTube channel in seven months! This is a cover of the "Creeping Silence" and "Pleasure of Tension" songs from the 1988 graphic adventure video game Snatcher, which is best known in North America for its Sega CD port in 1995. If this rings a bell, you obviously remember X's & Y's leader Jason Mills' past work with his indie label Werehold Records, as he already covered "The Pleasure of Tension" under the project name Snatcher back in December 2017. Unfortunately, as the Werehold YouTube channel has been deleted since, I can't check out that version to compare, so assuming it's not just a renaming of the prior recording, I want to say this is more techno influenced than what Snatcher the band put out at the time. Could be wrong, but the metal is definitely present in this recording, and it has a solid groove to it!

It's worth noting that X's & Y's posted on their Facebook page for the first time since the summer in September to reveal that they have finished writing two whole albums since 2019, and while public updates as to either have not came out yet, their last post from last month noted that Jason was "ironing out the last of the album art". Will the Snatcher covers turn up? No idea yet, but remember that Werehold acts largely stalled out at free YouTube uploads despite a lot of promising material. Fingers crossed, but check out more from X's & Y's above & below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Gutter Creek) & A Bunch Of New Videos!!

Keeping our regular post streak going with this busy summer season (definitely a blessing after two years of pandemic curses), we have a bunch of new videos to check out on this Monday evening, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to help end the summer season with!

Multi-national southern metal band Gutter Creek will make their local concert debut on Thursday, September 1st at The Rockstar Bar! This relatively new band (only forming last year) will be touring Canada in support of their self-titled debut album, and a Soo stop is a given as their guitarist is Sault Ste. Marie native Matt Hanchuck, who many readers will know from the Thunder Bay thrash metal band Wreck-Defy. While we have yet to see Wreck-Defy perform on a local stage, that band's bassist Greg Christian (yes, formerly of Testament) will be performing on this tour, and Gutter Creek drummer Derrick Kroll (ex-Alphakill) was a prior live drummer with Wreck-Defy, so this is the next best thing! Don't expect an identical sound to Wreck-Defy though, with Danish lead vocalist Soren Adamson (ex-Denied/Dignity) being very distinct from Greg Wagner, not to mention their more groove-based, southern rock-tinged (but still heavy) sound.

No word on potential opening bands as of this writing, but it is good to see The Rockstar Bar booking outside of Saturdays again, if in a few months! Expect a 19+ age limit and 9:00 PM start time on September 1st, and ticket prices are not out yet, so stay tuned for details on that front over the summer. Should be a solid concert for fans of straightforward, old school metal with a diverse lineup playing a nice mix of styles, and Matt's homecoming alone will be worth noting, whether you knew him before he moved out of town or from Wreck-Defy, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and we'll let you know when updates roll in!

Next up, if you've been wanting to see/hear some new content from prolific local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith, you're in luck, as he live-streamed an hour's worth of live performance footage onto his YouTube channel on Saturday! While he never promoted this in advance on his Facebook page, Mike provided musical entertainment at this year's Relay For Life fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society on Saturday, and Mike live-streamed both sets at the C.A. Nesbitt Arena that day in Thompson rather than including the intermission. In the first video embedded below, you'll see Mike play (in performance order) "MorningStar", "If Ever Comes The Day", a cover of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", a brand new song named "If Only You Could Hear Me", a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", "The Nature of the Times", and "Come On Home".

Set #2 (in the second shorter video) is almost all covers, with Mike tackling Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)", The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These", The Barenaked Ladies' "The Old Apartment", and Tears For Fears' "Shout", before closing with one more original song, namely "Take Back The Moon".  Filmed from the floor of the stage pointing up at Mike, the videos look clear but both suffer from a low framerate and very muffled audio quality, with the hockey arena venue setup likely a partial factor in that. Shame there weren't more responsive fans either, but Mike's performnances are technically sound and with fun banter in between, so give everything a look above and below!

Also, here's some new concert videos from another relocated local act, namely local/Barrie crossover thrash quartet Spades GT, who posted two more videos from their show at at The Rockpile in Toronto last month onto their YouTube channel over the weekend! One is of their existing Jack Spades-era original "Crossroads", but embedded below is their first brand new song that they never played before their move and name/lineup changes! The song is entitled "Hands", and it definitely fits in with the existing Spades oeuvre, if via a slightly more deliberate pace and relatively longer runtime. Solid stuff, washed out visual quality aside, so check it and "Crossroads" out above & below, and stay tuned for more from Spades GT!

We'll close today with a new song from Sault Michigan progressive metal solo project X's & Y's' YouTube channel last last month! Entitled "Oculus", this is the newest instrumental track planned for the Life's Eclipse successors' upcoming debut album "The Obsidian Dream" (if you believe the video description, it'll be track #7). Slower and bassier than Jason's prior song "Solid Glass", this still delivers some brutal riffs and djent action while it lasts, so give it a listen below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a surprisingly stacked batch of mid-week concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Hard Rock Band, Lots Of Live Concert Videos, And More!!

After a couple of single topic posts the last two days, here's a mix of stories on this Monday morning, including a local solo project's return with new material, lots of new YouTube videos from a prominent local cover band, but let's start with a new and very promising group to check out!

We have a new local hard rock band to add to our band links, namely Raincourt, a high school-age group that launched in August of last year! Raincourt's social media presence is spotty at best, so it took a bit of work to glean the information here, but you can get more on them via their Facebook page. Named for their lead guitarist Raine Rancourt, the lineup is comprised of current White Pines Collegiate students, all members of their school band The Pine Tones, and Raine is joined by singer/guitarist Elijah Russell, bassist Owen Dearing, and drummer Jakob Kuiack (a.k.a. Jakob Fice-Lesage). Curiously, their lineup is not given on their Facebook page, I had to get the credits from this video interview that Raine took part in with the local podcast series The Boar's Nest with Don Lewis last month. For the record, The Boar's Nest doesn't appear to be music-centric (wrestling moreso), but it's cool to see Don give Raincourt some early promotion!

Raincourt first posted on Facebook last fall via video covers (complete with face masks) of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" & Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" at White Pines, resurfacing in March to tease the release of their debut original single "Penny Arcade" (embedded below), though again, curiously not linked on their Facebook page. This was recorded at Mission Control Studios with producer Dustin Jones, so Raincourt are aiming high and working with the right people from the start, and you can watch more from those recording sessions in January via this video on their new YouTube channel. Official band t-shirts are also now on sale, for the record. Raine's interview on The Boar's Nest will be the best source of information on Raincourt so far (it's 57 minutes long, FYI) where you'll learn about how the band formed, Raine's future aspirations in music, the inspiration of "Penny Arcade", the support from White Pines students/faculty so far, ...

...their songwriting process, aimed local concerts to play at, recording at Mission Control Studios, musical inspirations, future plans, and much more. For hearing just one song, Don sure shows his fandom for Raincourt so far, which is cool! "Penny Arcade" will appeal to modern hard rock fans with it's catchy guitar riffs, strong production, and tight structure, and as Don often noted, you can be very surprised that this song was recorded by teenagers! That said, this is one song, so unless you're a Wolverine, you'll have only seen this and the above covers. Hopefully we hear much more from Raincourt in due course, but give their videos a look above, and here's "Penny Arcade", which is also on Spotify!

Next up, let's take a somewhat overdue look at videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck that have been uploaded to drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel since the fall! While some of these were uploaded to the band's Facebook page at the time, not all of them were, and it's odd that many have lived here without Soundcheck giving them a public push. Ten videos of Soundcheck (with Paul or Rob on bass) have made their way to Glen's channel in the past six months, including them covering The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" at The Esquire Club & The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking" at Reggie's Place. From Shooters Downstairs Lounge, you can see Soundcheck cover Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman", John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good", Kenny Chesney's "Young", and ZZ Top's "TV Dinners", while the other four are from Reggie's West shows, including two from a Thursday jam night & an overhead camera angle!

These include "Young" & "TV Dinners" again (the latter video uploaded twice), plus Harlequin's "Thinking of You" and David Wilcox's "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble". Singer/guitarist Terry Eaton sings lead on all but the Black Keys, John Mellencamp, and Kenny Chesney songs, which were handled by Cameron Oliver, and notably, Cameron was not featured in any of the Reggievelt clips except "Young". For the wide screen resolution and Cameron's presence, I'll embed the Shania cover here, believe it or not, but all will deliver for fans of Soundcheck's workmanlike and diverse set with some good hard rock bits along the way, so give these a look!

Finally, let's head to Sault Michigan, as local metal solo project X's & Y's is back in action! Led by former Life's Eclipse guitarist and Werehold Records founder Jason Mills, the project's Facebook page had been quietly deactivated in mid-late 2020, but it came back by December of that year (apologies for not noticing that until now) with a teaser video of a Casio DG-20 guitar synth. Updates were extremely sporadic afterwards, but last night, Jason uploaded a full track from the planned debut X's & Y's EP (title now anglicized from “Þe Obsidian Sömnen” to "The Obsidian Dream"). The song is named "Solid Glass", and it's a very djent-heavy instrumental that Meshuggah fans will take to, and this comes honestly to Jason if you followed his Werehold-era music, or saw his prior upload of playing all of the songs from Meshuggah's new album "Immutable" simultaneously.

The technical brutality is great, but given all of the planned Werehold albums that never got a formal paid release, who knows when "The Obsidian Dream" will go on sale, but hopefully it bucks old trends! Give this a listen below, and X's & Y's are back in our active band links!

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

New Videos & Lots Of Assorted Updates!!

News has continued to be slow as of late, so let's tackle a bunch of shorter stories today, along with some new videos! We'll start with the first live concert footage of new-ish local southern/hard rock quintet Fort Creek, courtesy of their one-off gig at the newly re-opened Reggie's Place on Friday, September 4th! Filmed by attendee Justyne Gilbert and shared from her personal Facebook page onto the band's Facebook page, this has Fort Creek covering Thriving Ivory's "Angels On The Moon", which is in tribute to frontman Justin Grayson's grandmother, who passed away in 2007. The performance is well done and suitably emotional, if not a showcase of their heavier chops, and everyone tackles their instrument nicely! However, the vertical camera angle isn't ideal, and Robin's usually obscured from view. The new Reggie's looks good, though I assume the band is cordoned off due to social distancing. Give it a watch below!



Next up, here's a new acoustic cover video from Guitar Gangsters bandmates Erik "Buzz" Boissineau and Tiffany Stocco, courtesy of Buzz's YouTube channel on August 28th! Some viewers may have caught this on CTV News Northern Ontario two weeks ago at the end of the 6:00 PM newscast, but it's on YouTube for all to see, and it has the ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman and Stegadeth frontwoman covering Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" with Buzz on vocals. Nicely done cover of this dark ballad, and Buzz's singing is a nice match, so give it a watch below, and hopefully they have more in the works!



Finally, here's six assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, company, or website name:

• Blood Shed Productions have announced that they will be hosting a private bonfire jam this Saturday entitled "For Bunk Sakes & Headaches". The event will take place at "the park", but you have to contact the label for the specific address. Message Blood Shed at this link or above for full details if you are interested in attending!
• Despite a shared Facebook post on February 4th indicating that frontman Henry Switzer wasn't ready to play a full concert due to health issues, now-defunct Sault Michigan classic/hard rock quartet Highway 63 did play at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on Friday, March 13th, which was the last weekend before the full-scale lockdown, as per a comment thread by ex-Full Throttle guitarist Jason Lamoreaux on their Facebook page. Given Henry's earlier post, I opted not to cover this concert at the time on the SMS, which I learned went forward too late. My sincere apologies, hopefully it was a good show!
• Sault Ontario/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith was interviewed by Camille Mola of the Philadelphia-based lifestyle blog Positive Publicity last month, where he discussed his experiences during the pandemic, his musical background, what inspired his new album "If Ever Comes The Day" (he's more candid than ever about it here), and his future plans. Entertaining and informative read, so give the interview a look at this link!
• SooToday's James Hopkin posted this article onto the local news website on August 28th, which discusses the transition back into hosting live music for local nightclubs. The article features interview remarks with the owners of Soo Blaster (which has resumed live music) and Coch's Corner & The Whiskey Barrel (both of which hadn't at press time), and it is a good read to see how different venues are adjusting to "the new normal" and social distancing limitations when trying to host even one band on a given night. This has been a rough year, but hopefully things will ease up before we know it!
• Sault Michigan hard rock trio Tarnished announced yesterday that their planned live-streamed concert on Facebook on Wednesday has been put on hold, due to concerns about reported changes to Facebook's terms of use agreement that would penalize or take down accounts that included copyrighted music in videos. News articles since seem to have cleared up the concerns of many Facebook content creators (covers seem to be alright, but not the original recordings), but in any event, Tarnished indicated that they'd look into doing live-streams on other platforms. Stay tuned for updates either way!
• I have deleted local extreme metal solo project X's & Y's from our Sault Michigan band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook (and only online) page at some point in the past two months. Led by Werehold Records founder and ex-Life's Eclipse guitarist Jason Mills, X's & Y's had sporadic updates between December and June, including a handful of videos. I was glad to see Jason working on new music again, and hopefully he resurfaces in some form!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Spun), New Videos, And More Updates!!

Here's another news post for your Friday evening, and it includes some new videos from a pair of solo artists, some assorted shorter items, and leading off, some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS! Here's what you should know!

You read that right, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the first time in almost three months! Take these with a huge grain of salt given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Marquette, Michigan hard rock cover quartet Spun have announced scheduled concerts at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, August 7th and Saturday, August 8th! The Nudge. successors announced these shows via their Facebook event page yesterday, but if you read their Facebook page's updates in the past month, you'll see that they did return for an outdoor matinee gig (with appropriate guidelines) in Labranche in the Western U.P. on May 30th, and have slowly began adding summer concert dates in the Upper Peninsula since then. If these scheduled St. Ignace dates hold, they will be Spun's first in the Soo area since rocking The Satisfied Frog in January 2018.

Yes, Kewadin Casinos have re-opened with social distancing measures, but as of this writing, concerts of any type are still not taking place through at least the Fourth of July (source here), and they have not confirmed Spun's announced dates as of this writing, let alone outlined how they would enforce social distancing for a nightclub concert. We will absolutely let you know when Kewadin gives the all-clear for concerts, and in what form, but if Spun can make the trip to St. Ignace in August, it would be great to see them on a Eastern U.P. stage again! See above for more details!

Next up, we'll stay in the Sault Ste. Marie-area for a look at the new song from local metal solo project X's & Y's! As uploaded to their Facebook page yesterday, this 61 second video features footage of the tracking computer, plus a sampling of the track "A Flow of Touch", which has a djent-laden progressive metal sound that is definitely promising, and will definitely please fans of Jason's old Life's Eclipse and Werehold Records output! Time will tell how the full song sounds, but give the video a look below!



We'll head north to Sault Ontario now, starting with a new original song from local hard rock musician Tym Morrison's YouTube channel! In his first non-live-stream upload in a month, Tym shared his new song "Calm Before The Storm", which has very direct partisan lyrics that I won't get into here. Musically, the song is heavy but with a bit of a dream-like ambiance that adds some variety, though it does have some tinny percussion, and he again used the free trial version of Filmora to make the video rather than a truly free program. Well composed, so give it a listen below!



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

• The Sault Ste. Marie Downtown Association has postponed the Downtown Street Parties scheduled for July 16th and August 13th on Queen Street East due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as per this news release. Artists like Soundcheck, Tym Morrison, and The Wyld Stallyns were among the musical entertainment at last year's street parties, so hard rock acts were certainly possible had these events occured as planned, but fingers crossed for 2021!
• I have added Anthems vs. Oceans frontman Dave Hunter's inactive record label idioRECORDS back to our "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links" section, courtesy of their still-active website. The former For July! were always the flagship band of idioRECORDS, but they also hosted EDM projects Audiosmile and Electric Therapy at last update, and they were the label for 2009-2010 hardcore band (and brief As It Stands successors) Out Of The Mouth Of Babes. Hopefully idioRECORDS resurfaces down the road!
• Also announced via a SooToday press release, this year's planned Sault Pridefest (scheduled for next month) has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, though the Sault Pride Community hopes to bring the event back next year. Live music was a common sight at the annual LGBTQ2SI celebration and events, and you may have seen acts like The Din, Re:Born, and Tym Morrison at Pridefest events in the last three years. Pridefest is a wonderful event, and hopefully they can return even stronger in the new year!

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

New Sault Michigan Videos And More Recent News & Notes!!

Before we post this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles and hopefully add some stories to talk about on the site this weekend, here's a new news post for your Friday afternoon, including some overdue b-sides and unreleased music, new solo performance videos, and leading off, big post-pandemic plans from some familiar faces! Here's what you should know!

Here are some big updates and videos from active Sault Michigan projects, starting with the latest from classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63! Yes, they are still technically scheduled for two different weekend sets at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino next month, we will keep you posted on the statuses of those concerts when word rolls in from the band, venue, or the state government. Last week, a post from frontman Henry Switzer's personal Facebook page was shared on the band's Facebook page, where he outlined plans for an outdoor community gathering and concert when the pandemic ends. To be co-organized by Henry and the owners of two other local vehicle service shops, this planned event would likely have a barbecue, involvement from an array of local businesses, and live music, and they are seeking volunteers, advertising, and any other assistance to make the event happen. Highway 63's sister band Mackinaw Trail also shared this post on their Facebook page.

This sounds like a great idea to help get the community back together in a safe and friendly environment, and fingers crossed that isn't too far into the future, but flattening the curve should be our priority right now. One or both of Henry's bands seem likely to be involved given the Facebook shares, but there's a lot of unknowns yet, so follow the above links for continuing details! As for that new video, this is also shared from Henry's personal Facebook page, and it features him covering Kiss' '"Sure Know Something" on vocals & guitar. Unlike his prior solo video postings, this features three different videos of him performing (two with him singing, one on guitar), as edited together in post-production. The video's well made, and Henry's vocals are very effective on this Kiss classic! If you've missed his bands as of late, give this cover a watch below, and stay tuned for more updates!



Next up, here are the first videos from newer local metal solo project X's & Y's' Facebook page! Both uploaded there on February 18th, these feature project leader Jason Mills (ex-Life's Eclipse/Werehold Records) demonstrating riffs for their new material, including this 17 second video of him dialing in a tone on his 9 string guitar. Embedded below is the longer 30 second video of him demonstrating an old riff he's brought back for his new songs. The green tint seems unnecessary, but these riffs are promising, so give them a look, and I hope we hear more from X's & Y's in the near future!



We'll close today in Sault Ontario with a long overdue find on local punk supergroup The Inner City Surfers' Soundcloud page! For site research, Soundcloud has proven useful in the past, but it's not a service I actively use, so the upload of this content in May 2016 has absolutely fell under the radar until now. Fans of the Surfers probably know that their four studio albums (including the elusive "Time To Travel On") are available to stream on Spotify, but they are also on their Soundcloud page (ran by bassist Brad Example), and an extra collection of songs is there too, entitled "BSides & Rare", which features unreleased original songs, covers, and alternate versions from their heyday. This is not a for-sale album, but it's a nice collection of extra material, including the original versions of "Step Back" (from "Laughing On The Outside") and their cover of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma Central 69", an acoustic version of "10 Commandments", and many other unreleased songs.

As this never received a paid release, it's not eligible for our monthly CD reviews, but given that some of these songs are clearly rough demos, the band may have always intended for these to be a free bonus.  For completionism, the "Bsides & Rare" playlist is definitely worth a listen to hear some lost Inner City Surfers tracks, and you can do so at the above links! That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tantrym Tyme), A New Local Band & Album Release, And More!!

Now that the equinox has passed, here's a stacked new news post for your Saturday night delectation! Along with a new teaser video, we have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, a new album release, and leading off, a new band to add to our listings, so here's what you should know!

We have a new solo project to add to our Sault Michigan band links, and they are X's & Y's, the new musical venture from Werehold Records founder and ex-Life's Eclipse/et al. guitarist Jason Mills! The launch of their Facebook page marks the first new public update concerning his music career since Moss' final online posting in March 2018, so this has been a long time coming. Don't take this as a sign that Werehold is back in operation too, as their Facebook page was quietly deactivated during his musical hiatus, and has been removed from our links on the SMS as such, but we'll let you know if the label returns down the road. Jason revealed last month that he is working on a release named “Þe Obsidian Sömnen”, which roughly means "The Black Sleep", though I do not know yet whether this will be a single, an album, or both. In any event, Jason's ex-Shatterhand bandmate Mitchell "Barph Blahgo" Wells will mix, master, and co-produce the new material.

There are a lot of unknowns yet regarding X's & Y's, including specific genres we can expect Jason to tackle here, but remember that his past Werehold acts (Moss aside) all tended to play a form of extreme metal, often sans vocals. I'm very curious to hear where Jason has planned for his new project, so visit the above links to stay in the loop!

Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, and it's very surprising, as defunct local metal trio Tantrym Tyme are back for a special one-night-only reunion concert on MONDAY NIGHT at Bird's Eye Outfitters! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via the official Facebook event page on Friday. We haven't seen Tantrym Tyme on stage (in an event with public online advertising, at least) since Downtown Days in 2016, after which they quietly dissolved, but it looks like Jacob's back home in the Soo for the holidays. Despite the odd Monday scheduling, it'll be great to see Tantrym Tyme back after 3 or so years! This is also a rare non-Project 906 hard rock concert at Bird's Eye Outfitters (the outdoors store/venue on the site of the former Bird nightclub), so if you've missed seeing heavier bands there, head to East Portage Avenue on MONDAY! Expect a 7:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no announced cover charge.

Tantrym Tyme (née Aux, Abstract, and Tantrum) were a welcome sight locally in the early-mid 2010s with their steadily improving skill set and impressive cover selection, especially given their young ages, having launched the band when the members were all 10-11 years old. Fingers crossed that this show is a huge hit, so see above for more details, and here's Tantrym Tyme live in Sault Ste. Marie back in 2015!

Let's head north to Sault Ontario now, starting with the latest from prolific local folk punk & experimental metal solo artist Chase Wigmore, whose public activity slowed down over the fall, so what's new to report? Well, on November 20th, he revealed that he was "sort of taking a vacation" due to positive changes in his personal life, though he did hint that his forthcoming true debut solo album "Songs To Punch Yourself In The Face To" was largely complete. In spite of mixed messages about the planned release date and issues therein, Chase posted the apparent final copy of the album on his Bandcamp page on December 7th for $7 (or more if you are so inclined), so now it is finally on sale digitally. He did leave the door open for a physical release down the line when monetary concerns are met, but this is better than nothing! As it currently stands, the album has 10 songs, down from the previously advertised 23 songs on a double album.

I'm unsure whether he made huge revisions to the final product or is shelving the other 13 tracks (including the 25 minute-long "Stray Dog Howl") for a separate release, but Chase has went through a lot to complete this album, and it's nice to see him get it on sale! As for when we might review this album on the site.... how does this month sound? Stay tuned!

Finally, here's a new video from Chase's ex-Strange Coyotes bandmate Mike Haggith's Facebook page earlier this month, and while it doesn't feature him on camera or performing, it is relevant to his upcoming studio album "If Ever Comes The Day." The 17 second clip features Justin Fuciarelli, Mike's bandmate in the Thompson, Manitoba pop rock cover band Between The Ditches, playing some solo guitar for what will be one of two guest spots on the CD. This has a bit of a country twang, but Justin's a solid guitarist, and it'll be interesting to hear how he fares on the final product. Check it out below!



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