SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Shit Liver & Elipzis), Plus Their New Drummer & Concert Previews!!

Today's weekend concert preview post is mostly Sault Michigan-based, as this weekend is surprisingly light for concerts in Sault Ontario. We'll lead off with some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS though, including what's going on at The Roosevelt Hotel tonight and a prominent local hard rock band's return (plus news on this band's lineup), so let's get this post started!

There will in fact be a punk night TONIGHT at The Roosevelt Hotel, and yes, there will be some metal content! Local grime/hardcore trio Shit Liver will return to the stage on short notice tonight as the middle band on tonight's lineup! If you wanna enjoy some dirty and crusty death metal with a punk attitude, The Rosie will be the place to be tonight! Headlining this punk night will be last week's opening band, RedD Monkey, whose cello/punk attack is always a welcome sight locally! Note of warning though, you may hear a Motorhead cover, so be prepared for that occasion! Opening tonight will be "The Midnight Meme Makers", who I believe are one and the same as The Night Owl Meme Makers, who opened at the Rebel Spell concert earlier this month which was also from the same bookers. They definitely have a unique sound, very hard to explain, so click on the link above to check them out! Apologies on the short notice of this show too, nothing about it was made official until this morning. As usual, it's a 19+ affair, there's no cover charge, and everything starts at 9:30 PM or later!

For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like a fun night of punk rock with a heavy edge, head to The Rosie tonight if you can! Check the above links for more, and for a preview, here's Shit Liver playing their original "(Friendly Old) Uncle Joe" at The Rosie in January!



Also new for this weekend is the return of Elipzis! They're back in Sault Michigan THIS SATURDAY for their first local concert in almost three months! The band were last seen on New Years Eve at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill, and they'll be back there on Saturday for a set full of original hard rock! Apologies for the short notice on this show, I only first heard about it early yesterday on band members' pages. Everything starts at 10:00 PM, you must be 21 to attend, and there's no announced cover charge, but have money just in case if you go! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like fun, it's nice to see them back up here! They don't come up here as often as most other bands, so keep this one in mind! Again, apologies for the short notice! As it's on Saturday, here's a video preview as well, of Elipzis playing their song "Take Me On" in Warren, Michigan this past December!



With that said, there will be one changed element of the band on Saturday, so here's what you should know. Elipzis have parted ways with drummer Bob Helsten (a.k.a. Orb Hearthstone.) No reason for his departure has been given at present, though this could explain his absence from their TV performance in Grand Rapids earlier this month. Bob had drummed with Elipzis from their local debut last year through earlier this month, and it's a shame to see him leave! He's a very nice guy and a talented musician, but at least he's still going in End of Existence and with his solo work! So, who's drumming with them on Saturday night? As it turns out, it's Muskegon based drummer Wally David III, best known for his work in the defunct Muskegon hard rock band One Past Mars, who shared a similar sound to Elipzis. He also appears to be a talented graphic designer and coder, so those skills could be put to use by the band! I haven't heard too much of his work, but the guys in Elipzis know how to pick musicians, so this should work out well! So remember, check out Wally's debut with Elipzis THIS SATURDAY at The Corner Pub, and check the above links for more on all of the Elipzis news!

Now, we move to tomorrow night at The Eagles Club on Trout Lake Road, where Tym Morrison is scheduled to make his return! After the cancellation of his Big Cheese concerts due to outside issues, this will be his first local concert in two weeks, so if you've been missing his acoustic solo work, you know where he'll be next! I should note that Tym hasn't been promoting this show on levels compared to his earlier Eagles Club concerts, giving me a bit of doubt to whether it's "on" or not, but it's still listed on his website, so I'll treat it as if nothing's wrong for now. Regardless, this is his last verified solo show on his website's calendar, so who knows what's up in April and beyond! Friday's show should have a 10:00 PM start time and a 19+ age limit, and there is no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! If it does go forward, it should be a good concert with lots of entertaining acoustic versions of hard rock classics, so make it out to The Eagles Club if you can! For a preview, here's Tym covering Extreme's "More Than Words" at The Big Cheese circa November 2008!



Now to the remaining concerts in Sault Michigan, and we'll start at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino, where local hard rock quintet River Witch will return for their first of four concert weekends this year! They'll take the stage tomorrow night and Saturday night at around 9:00 PM to rock out with what I assume is a covers heavy set, but they haven't posted media or a setlist for me to know either way. Both concerts will have 21+ age limits, and neither have a cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! News on River Witch is sparse when we get it (even playing concerts in January that they never publically promoted on band pages), but luckily, we heard about these in advance! I wish I could tell you more about River Witch and their sound, but hopefully in time we'll know more! Check out the above links for more, and check them out this weekend!

Finally for this weekend, Marquette hard rockers Nudge will return to Sault Michigan on Friday night and Saturday night for a short notice weekend of rocking covers at The Satisfied Frog! These concerts are unique in that Nudge will be short a member, as guitarist Tim Prisk will be in California with prior commitments, so things will sound a bit different this weekend. Still, Nudge are proven as an entertaining hard rock band, so they'll do just fine this weekend! Both concerts will start at 10:00 PM, there's no announced cover charge, and you must be 21 to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like these will be some good concerts, Nudge alsways entertain, and a short notice weekend is better than no shows at all! Check the above links for more, and for a preview, here's Nudge covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Mama, I'm Coming Home"!



That's all for now, but I'll have a new news post either tonight or tomorrow night, and yes, our new CD review will be on Saturday! Will it be "Woods I" or something new? Stay tuned! (Also, VOTE TODAY in our first 4 March Mayhem polls, time's ticking!)

Destroilet, Music Depot, And Woods Of Ypres News, Plus This Week's Classic Video!!

The news keeps rolling in, and we have some interesting stuff to share today, but first, here's what to look out for through the weekend! Tomorrow, we'll preview this weekend's metal/hard rock concerts, and on Saturday, we announce the winners of the first four March Mayhem 1st round matchups and launch the next four for you to vote on, and by the day (maybe earlier), we'll unveil our next CD review! Now though, here's today's news!

A third local band are trying to qualify for an Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands slot on this year's Vans Warped Tour, and it's old school hardcore quintet Destroilet! As in the campaigns for Frightlight & Garden of Bedlam, Destroilet also want to earn enough votes to qualify for a slot on an upcoming Canadian Warped Tour event, where they can compete against other bands for big prizes, but there's one big difference: They don't want to play the Warped Tour's stop in Mississauga, which is what Frightlight & Garden of Bedlam are going for. Instead, Destroilet are hoping to make it on the July 16th stop in Montreal at Parc-Jean Drapeau! Why? I'm not sure, especially given that the field of bands is larger and have more votes, but maybe Destroilet didn't want to compete with the other local acts. Still, Destroilet on the Warped Tour anywhere would be awesome, so vote for them today! Click here to vote, and if you haven't registered for a Battle of the Bands account yet, do so, it won't kill you or cost you a cent. They only have 13 votes, come on guys, help them out! They deserve it, especially with their raised profile of recent months! Vote today, and for reference sake, Firefox 4 DOES allow the media player on Battle of the Bands pages to work, so you can check out "End Me" and "H.D.M." no matter what!

Next up, here's an odd question: Have you ever found a brand new video of a band because you made a typo? Well, because of that, I found two new videos of Woods of Ypres from their current East Coast tour, all because I accidentally typed "Wood of Ypres"! Luckily, someone made that error in the title of a video, so that was a cool find! These videos come from their show at L'Hemisphere Gauche in Montreal last night, which was coinicdentally the release date for the re-release of "Woods IV: The Green Album"! YouTube user xes1978 uploaded these earlier today on their YouTube channel, and they're of the band playing "The Shams of Optimism" & "Crossing The 45th Parallel" and "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)"! Good quality audio on these, though the angles should have been more varied, as I don't believe the camera panned to Joel Violette once. The videos are dark too, but again, there's that nice red ambiance that makes things look pretty good. Nice to see this footage as well, check the above links for more! I'll embed one of the videos here, so check out their performance of "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)" below!



Next up, here's some news from local music store Music Depot! Located at 137 Gore Street (close to the old GLOW location) It's a popular spot to get instruments, lessons, and gear, but only earlier this month did they launch an official website! We've known about their Facebook page since last month, but now, they have a website at http://www.saultmusic.com/, so what should you know? You can see the guitars, basses, drumkits, amplifiers, and mixers for sale, though some of the product tabs aren't active yet. You can't buy items through the site, but you can find pricing information and basic details on most listed items, as well as be diverted to their pages on Facebook and eBay. Many of the additional tabs and sections aren't finished yet, but in time, I'd expect spots for lesson info, used items, and product lines to pop up. Check the above links for more from Music Depot! While we're on the subject of music stores, I've edited the details for Sault Michigan music store Steve's Music, which has moved from 126 Ridge Street to 557 Ashmun Street, not far from the other music store across the river, Grooves Music. I'm not sure why they moved, or even when it happened, but to be fair, I don't hear a lot on Steve's Music, so maybe I've just been misinformed for a long time. If I hear some new stuff on them, I'll have it here!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! As always, I'm tying in the video with a band or performer at an upcoming concert, and in this case, it's River Witch drummer Ivan Schliska! Along with his more active recent work with River Witch, Ivan's long been a member of the hard rock trio Scofflaw, who've been rocking the area since 2007, despite sporadic band updates. We don't talk about Scofflaw much on here because they don't advertise many of their plans or shows, so I often don't hear about them, but I try my best! With that said, I found one video of Scofflaw in action, so here's what you should know! The band uploaded a video from a likely jam session onto their MySpace page on September 17th, 2008, as filmed by an attendee. It's of the band playing what appears to be an original song named "Love Destroyer", and it's not a bad performance, though there are elements I'd like to see corrected. Jeff Barnes' vocals seem to be too low, the song seems a bit too straightforward at points, and the location of the performance is mostly VERY dark, with only bassist Barney Gravelle being reasonably visible. Good stuff though, they have a grungy sort of unpolished feel that I don't see too much of from bands across the river, and it has a catchy element to it!

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT OR HARM IS INTENDED WITH THIS VIDEO!! All credit goes to Scofflaw and the original filmer, they did all of the hard work! The original video can be seen at http://myspace.com/scofflawband/videos/love-destoyer/43013670. I want this video and Scofflaw to get more deserved attention, they could use it! With all of that said, enjoy Scofflaw's performance of "Love Destroyer" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for previews of this weekend's concerts tomorrow, along with March Mayhem updates, more news, and our next CD review in the next while! Thanks everyone!

Updates From Bring The Fallen, Browbeat, Turner Up, And Woods Of Ypres!!

In what is shaping up to be our biggest month since last summer on the SMS, we have lots more updates to share today concerning five local bands, including a band's new name & page, the newest video footage of a local band in action, another band's Warped Tour quest, and one more band's departure from an upcoming concert, but leading things off today is some big news from a prominent local classic hard rock band! Here's what you need to know!

Reports of Turner Up's demise have been exaggerated, and I can now confirm that they are still together! Their last lineup did break up, but founding member Robert Brown and drummer Scott McClurg are in fact moving forward under the Turner Up name, with some big changes in place! Scott confirmed the details here with me via e-mail this morning, so there's my source if nothing new shows up on their Facebook pages beforehand. Firstly, the band has parted ways with singer Krista Marshall, guitarist Len Ward, and bassist Jeff Gray. Without public word, I won't state reasons why here, but nothing hinting towards bad blood has came to me over the past few days, so take that for what you will. Best of luck to Krista, Len, and Jeff though, they're all talented performers! With that said, the band has officially added singer KT Antler and guitarist Kyle McKey to the band. KT has made some waves in recent years for her original solo work, and I can vouch that she's a very talented singer! Kyle's well known as Stillbroke's former bassist, but his resume includes everything from Sailor's Tongue to Asylum Country to Rob & Scott's old band Lois Lane, effectively giving Turner Up and Lois Lane the same lineups, minus vocals!

So this officially makes Turner Up a quartet, with Robert moving to bass, though I should note that there will be a lot more instrument flexibility in this lineup than we're used to. Robert and Kyle can both play bass and guitar, while KT, Scott, and Kyle all have singing chops, so make note of that when you go see them next! Speaking of which, all of their prior dates (booked during their last lineup's run) are intact as scheduled, so your first chance to see Turner Up V4.0 will be NEXT WEEKEND on April 1st and 2nd at The Nicolet Tavern (they had this weekend off already prior to the lineup changes.) There is one exception though, as their planned weekend set at The Canadian Nightclub next month has been moved up two weeks from April 22nd-23rd to April 8th-9th. Aside from that, the only differences will be the band's lineup, so check our concert listings on your left for more! So remember, Turner Up have NOT BROKEN UP, but their look and sound will be different next time you see them! Thanks again to Scott for the news, and apologies for any past misinformation. I do my best to make sure things sound correct, but sometimes, multiple sources will have conflicting views on the same topic. I'll work to improve on that!

Next up, here's the latest lineup news for April 9th's massive Sewer Swampstravaganja all ages concert at The Oddfellows Hall! Firstly, here's some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Bring The Fallen have officially dropped out of this concert, which has long been rumoured. The good news is they're not breaking up, as frontman Josh Stephney confirmed on the Facebook event page's wall that they were "taking a break" while they write some new material. At least they're not breaking up, despite the rumours that didn't sound all that promising. Still, if it's true that they're merely laying low to write some new stuff, I can't wait to hear it! With that said, they haven't been replaced on the lineup, and at least at present, the organizers are going with just 11 bands, with a new concert start time of 3:45 PM. As such, the lineup's been amended again, so here's what's changed! Five of the bands were been bumped up one slot on the bill to reflect the new start time, though a couple got better promotions than others. Shit Liver got moved from 5:15 PM to 6:45 PM, while Frightlight catapulted from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM! The start times for Sativa Rose, The Bear Hunters, and RedD Monkey are unchanged, and only one band, Late & Loud, got pushed back in the order (from 6:45 PM to 6:00 PM.) For full current details on this show, click here!

Thirdly today, here's the latest news from local hard rock trio Browbeat, or should I say, Browbeat 101! Yes, they have altered their name by adding "101" to the end (allusion to Rock 101, maybe?) to avoid confusion with the defunct Italian metal band of the same name. I honestly wouldn't think it's a big deal when the other Browbeat is broken up, but at least this way, members won't sue or complain if they catch wind of the local Browbeat! With that said, the newly rechristened Browbeat 101 have launched a brand new MySpace page following the deletion of their old pages, which you can now check out at this location! It's pretty sparse at present, but updates are forthcoming, including audio recordings featuring the full current lineup, so stay tuned for that, and more! I still don't think they needed to delete all their pages, but this isn't a new concept for Browbeat 101 or for their past names, so I'm used to it! Stay tuned for updates!

Finally for today is some more new Woods of Ypres video footage! Two videos from Saturday's concert in Halifax at Coconut Grove were posted on YouTube this past weekend, and you can check them out at YouTube user ImpaledBman's channel! The same user posted videos of the band from a concert in Halifax from May 23rd, 2009 as well, the link above will point you in the right direction to check those out as well! The new videos are of Woods of Ypres playing their songs "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground" and "A Meeting Place & Time", and they're actually of very good audio quality! Everything's clear, these are some of the best sounding live videos I've seen so far from the current Woods of Ypres tour! The videos are dark, and heavily centered on Joel Violette and Shane Madden due to the filmer's placement, but it's more of a natural lighting. Don't judge the image on the video below before watching, that's auto-brightened by YouTube and it won't look that distorted when watching it. Good stuff, check out the video of "A Meeting Place & Time" below, and get more at the above links!



That's all for now, but I have more news to share very soon, and yes, our next CD review will be up by the end of the week ("Against The Seasons" is the leading candidate!) Thanks everyone!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nudge), Frightlight News, And More News!!

Hey guys, here's an assorted news post for your Monday, collecting a bunch of older news stories and some short notice LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so let's get this post up and running!

Marquette hard rockers Nudge are coming to The Satisfied Frog THIS WEEKEND! These shows are definitely more of a short notice announcement than we're used to, having not been included on their tour itinerary when I initially added their 2011 local dates to our concert listings, so make note of their return this Friday and Saturday! It should be noted as well that Nudge will be a three piece this weekend only, as guitarist Tim Prisk will be out of town, so this could be a more unique concert than you're used to. As is standard for Nudge's local stops, they'll be on at 10:00 PM both nights, there's no announced cover charge, and you must be 21 to attend. For more details, check the Facebook event page! It's always nice to see Nudge back in Sault Michigan with their hard rock cover attack, even if it's short notice and minus one member, so make note of their return this weekend when plotting your concert schedules! Stay tuned for updates, or if none come, watch out for a preview of the concerts later in the week!

Next up, here's the latest from Frightlight! Firstly, I forgot to mention this, but new rhythm guitarist Kevin "St. Mayhem" Powe actually made his debut with the band at that "secret show" at Coch's Corner earlier this month that also featured Motion Carried. I won't detail too much else though, it was secret for a reason. Now, to the big story, as Frightlight (like Garden of Bedlam) are also attempting to make it on this year's Vans Warped Tour through the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands! Like before, your votes can help send Frightlight to the Warped Tour stop in Mississauga on July 15th, where they can compete for big prizes, but you know what's happily surprising? They actually have a ton of votes so far, 1,240 at last count! This puts them at 22nd overall for the Mississauga voting, just a little over 500 votes from the top 10! Nice to see their votes so high, hopefully this leads to some big things, even if they don't make it to the Warped Tour! I've voted, hopefully you guys do as well! Click here to vote, and if you haven't registered an account to vote with yet (it's free and painless), the site will follow you in the right direction. Also, you do need Internet Explorer to hear the posted audio tracks (which are all songs from the "It's A...Live!" EP), as the player won't load in Firefox. Check the above links for more, and get voting!

Next up, here's the latest lineup news from Caveman Morrison! The band has announced the addition of drummer Willie Bellerose to the band, replacing Johnny Belanger. I've actually known about Willie's addition to Caveman Morrison for a couple months now, but he wasn't added to the band's lineup on their Facebook group until recently, so I hadn't posted it here. Johnny played with Caveman Morrison briefly last fall after replacing Jeff Richards in the band. A reason for Johnny's departure wasn't given on band pages, but he actually left late last year shortly after his Browbeat bandmate Dutch Vanderploeg left, and I believe their departures have a connection. Best of luck to Johnny though, his current bands seem to be doing well! I don't know much about Willie's drumming background, but from conversations I've had with frontman Tym Morrison, he is a very good drummer, so we'll have to see how he sounds when the band returns! Caveman Morrison have yet to announce a new bassist publically though, I'll keep you posted on that front! Tym has a good ear for musicians, so hopefully the new lineup will deliver when they return to the local stage! When more comes in on their new bassist and/or next concerts, I'll let you all know!

Fourthly, here's some more new Woods of Ypres footage from their current East Coast tour! These comes from their New York City concert on Wednesday at The Bowery Electric, as uploaded by YouTube user shesblonde the very next day. Two videos were posted, including a full clip of the band playing "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Cold)" and a short portion of "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", so click on each link to check them out! The audio quality's actually really good, very clear, though the video is darker than the audio would suggest. Only the Madden brothers seem well lit, and Joel Violette isn't seen too often at all, but the audio quality makes up for it! The filmer's camera died during the latter video, so I'll embed "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Cold)" below, so check it out, and stay tuned for more Woods of Ypres video footage and updates in our next news post!



And finally for today, here's a collection of the newest out of town concert dates for three local bands, in alphabetical order by band name! Firstly, local hardcore quintet As It Stands have announced a concert date on June 18th at The Sharon Hall in East Gwillimbury, which is a Toronto suburb, click here for more details! I also want to apologize for missing their show last week in Ottawa at Cafe Dekcuf, it completely slipped me by. Also, Sault Michigan's own Elipzis have announced a number of downstate concerts for the next few months, including shows in Grand Rapids & Muskegon in May, a weekend set in Mears in August, and most surprising of all, a show at a baseball park in August, where frontwoman Rachel Kiger will sing "The Star Spangled Banner"! Nice, I hope that goes well! Click here for info on all of their upcoming tour dates! And last but not least, Sault Michigan metal quartet Hammerspace will make their first ever out of town trip on April 27th when they head to Topinabee, Michigan for a show at Breakers Bar & Grill! Congratulations to them, hopefully this helps lead to bigger things for them as well! Click here for details, and check out the above links for news on all of these new out of town shows!

That's probably all for today. I have a lot of school work to get to, but I'll have more news and notes very soon, so stay tuned! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Skull After Betrayal & The Great Sabatini) & My Browbeat Concert Review!!

Let's close this weekend off right with my review of last night's Browbeat concert, but we'll lead off with some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS that should interest you metalheads! Here's what you need to know!

The next Roosevelt Hotel metal night will take place on March 31st (one week from Thursday), and it will feature the debut of a new local metal band! Skull After Betrayal (featuring Bear Hunters & Despised Eyes alumni) will make their first ever appearance on a local concert stage as one of the headliners at this concert! Remember to check them out on MySpace as a preview, but due to the quality of the posted recordings, you'll likely be better served to judge them live for a first impression. They do sound promising though from what I've seen! Joining them will be local hardcore quintet As It Stands in their first local show following a recent out of town swing. With new studio material in hand and a continuing heavy assault to bring to their local fans, look for another impressive set from them next week! Though the final band has not been publically announced by bands or promoters, I can confirm that the third band will be grimecore trio Shit Liver, in their first local concert since opening for The Rebel Spell earlier this month! They have yet to announce the show, but promoter Rich Moreland confirmed their involvement with me earlier today. The same house rules apply here from earlier metal nights, those being 9:30 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover. Stay tuned for updates if they come in!

The other new show will take place on Saturday, April 2nd, and it will feature an out of town band headlining! On that day, Montreal progressive sludge metal band The Great Sabatini will finally make their way to Sault Ontario over five months after a planned local date on Halloween last year that never found a secured booking, but this time, they'll for sure be playing at Foggy Notions! Their sound is quite unique compared to what we tend to see locally, with lots of doom metal inspired aggression, but they should make lots of local fans! One local opener is confirmed, and once again, it's Shit Liver (thanks Rich for confirming this with me!) It's a wonder they're not plugging these shows on their pages, time's ticking! A second local opener is expected for this show as well, but they have yet to be announced. This concert will be on April 2nd at Foggy Notions, and it will have a $3 cover, a 19+ age limit, and a likely 10:00 PM start time. Stay tuned for updates as they come in! This also sounds like a good concert, with some nice noisy and technical metal in store, hopefully I can make it out for this one! I'll keep you guys posted!

Now to my review of last night's Browbeat concert, and before anyone asks, their pages aren't down because of a band breakup. They're just down so the band can relaunch them completely with new info, material, and customization to reflect their current lineup. So last night, this was my first time seeing Browbeat live with new drummer Johnny Belanger, and the first time I've seen one of their standard length concert sets since their lone "Social Play" concert, and luckily, they delivered a very good show! It was nice hearing Dutch Vanderploeg's voice in top form after their abbreviated set in October especially, though the cold bug hit again this time around, with bassist James White's voice hit by the flu. It didn't affect their set too much though, and by the second set, his voice was getting stronger! Browbeat launched into three lengthy sets of hard rock and metal originals and covers, including original tracks like "Walk Away", "Sorry", "The Sound You Need", "Days Gone By", and "Narrow Mind", but their launched into some hard rocking covers as well! Along with heavier fare like Metallica, Megadeth, and Judas Priest covers, we also got some interesintg hard rock covers of Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" and even "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", which was definitely interesting!

The band were mostly in top form last night, despite a smaller than expected crowd, which peaked at maybe 20 people. I don't encourage poor attendance, but I do like one aspect of shows like last night, and it's the increased camaraderie and personalization that the band has and gives to the fans that do shows up, which is welcome! Respect who does show up, and you'll get respect back. Dutch made the most of his voice on almost every song, exmplying some nice aggression and melodies where needed, though his vocals on "The Ripper" could have been ramped up a bit. Nice guitar work too, he pulled off some great solos and never seemed to lose a step! James was great on bass too, I like his slap playing and he proved to be good at improvising when Dutch's guitar string broke mid-song! And of course, Johnny was solid on drums, and seemed to be a natural fit in Browbeat! He seemed at ease, and his sense of humour showed, as did the whole band's! Some guest singers even got a chance to join in, including Johnny's Bear Hunters bandmate Nik Deubel, who sang on "Master of Puppets" in clean vocals, oddly enough! I think his clean tone doesn't match what I'm used to for the song, but he proved he can pull it off!

Overall, this was a fun night of music, all things considered, and hopefully next time around, Browbeat can pull in a bigger audience! They've always been a very good hard rock band, and they've put in a lot of work to get to this point, so hopefully there's much more in store from Browbeat in 2011! I did get photos, so click here to check them out, or visit the SMS' Facebook page! And yes, I did get a video, so check out Browbeat playing their song "Sorry" right here!



That's all for tonight, but I have some long overdue news to share tomorrow, so stay tuned for that! Thanks everyone!

Destroilet's New EP, The End Of Turner Up, And New Videos!

Hey guys, here's one more news post before I head to The Rosie tonight for Browbeat! Today, we have news on a surprising band breakup, some new concert videos, and leading things off, the latest on an upcoming EP, but before all that, remember to vote in the first four matchups in our SMS March Mayhem tournament on your left! The post below details the tournament rules, participating bands, and other tidbits for this eight week event! Now, to today's post!

The news on Destroilet's debut EP is flowing in, with lots to say on it! The self titled EP, which is being recorded with Aaron Gibbs at Meat Curtain Studios, will feature six songs, including two covers! Along with originals "End Me", "Hypocrite", "My Life", and "H.D.M.", Destroilet will cover songs by two of guitarist John Conway's other bands, those being The Billy Bastards' "Mile 58" and A-Null Seepage's "Got Beat Up"! The cover and liner notes for the album can also be seen at this location along with lots of photos from the recording sessions! It all sounds good, but can we preview the EP yet? Why yes we can! Three unmastered mixes of songs from the Destroilet EP are now posted on the band's MySpace page to check out! "End Me", "Got Beat Up", and "H.D.M." are posted, and though they're not mastered yet, they'll give you a nice taste of fast paced old school hardcore! Noisy and aggressive, just as I expected! I won't give detailed thoughts as I do fully intend on reviewing this EP after it comes out, but I will say that with a clear studio quality sound, everything comes through really well! Check the above links for all current details on the Destroilet EP, and check out the songs!

Next up, here's a big scoop I just heard about earlier today, and it's that local classic hard rock quintet Turner Up are parting ways after tonight's concert at The Rockstar Bar. Guitarist Len Ward told me in a phone call earlier today that the breakup is mutual and is basically to allow the band members to branch off into different paths musically and personally. I won't go into detail though, unless the band does, but most of the members are planning their next musical steps. As such, tonight's show at The Rockstar Bar with Machines Dream will be their last as Turner Up, and I have removed their remaining 2011 concert dates from the SMS at least for now, cause for all we know, a new band from Turner Up members could take them on for themselves. Turner Up have been active since late 2009, and amidst numerous lineup changes and sound alterations, they became one of the most frequent local sights at numerous area bars and concert spots over the past year. This news came as a complete surprise to me, especially given their busy nature and good chemistry, but best of luck to Krista, Len, Robert, Jeff, and Scott going forward!

Remember, to get your last taste of Turner Up before the breakup, head to The Rockstar Bar tonight, and if anything new on the breakup comes out, I'll have it here! And FYI, to account for their imminent end, I've removed them from our SMS March Mayhem bracket and replaced them with new local metal band Skull After Betrayal, with some matchup adjusting as well to keep things alphabetical. The post below features a new updated bracket!

We close this news post with some new videos, and first, here's the newest videos from Monday night's Buckcherry concert! YouTube user Brian H. Myles posted two videos from the concert onto his YouTube channel earlier this week, and they're of Buckcherry playing their songs "Sorry" and "Crazy Bitch"! Both appear to have been shot on a cell phone camera judging by the dimensions, but the quality's actually fairly good! Brian was a bit far from the stage though, so you get a lot of views of people's heads. With better quality audio, I can see what some people were saying about Buckcherry sounding off, especially with Josh Todd's singing, which seems more on one note than I'm used to. Not bad videos though, especially considering how they were shot, though I'd like to see more from Papa Roach and Fallen Heroes' sets! Check the above links to check out Brian's videos from Monday night, and here's his video of Buckcherry playing "Crazy Bitch"! It's heavier, it's a much longer video, and it features some good on-stage banter, so check it out below!



And finally, here's some more new video footage from Woods of Ypres' current East Coast tour! YouTube user impaledonafence1 has uploaded 5 new videos from their concert on Tuesday at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia onto his YouTube channel! You may recognize this user from his videos from their Philadelphia stop last July too. Like those, these videos are all filmed from sort of a top down isometric perspective, and all feature a nice red ambiance! Good quality, and the audio's very clear, though Joel Violette seems buried in black on the videos. The new videos from impaledonafence1 include footage of the band playing "The Shams Of Optimism" & "Crossing The 45th Parallel", "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)", and "A Meeting Place & Time", so click on each link to view the new footage! Good stuff, and I'll embed one here, so check out their performance of "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)" below! Stay tuned for much more from Woods of Ypres in the next little while!



That's all for tonight, but I'll see you guys at The Rosie TONIGHT for Browbeat, and I'll have more news tomorrow as well! Thanks everyone!

Last Month's Poll Results & The Debut Of SMS March Mayhem!!

It's poll day at the SMS! I apologize for this being late a day, I was working out a lot of kinks in what will constitute our next poll(s). This will be interesting, to say the least, but before we get to that, we have a poll from last month to outline the results to! As you may remember, we posed thia question to you guys last month: "What was your favourite local metal concert of 2010?" 31 votes, decent total, could have been better or worse! Remember, this poll included almost all of the choices from the prior half year polls on 2010 concerts, and does this declare a definite winner? Give it a look and see, as here are the results!

Frightlight at Coch's Corner on June 16 (7 votes, 23%)
Garden of Bedlam at Foggy Notions on February 27 (3 votes, 10%)
Turner Up at The Canadian Nightclub on March 27 (3 votes, 10%)
Algoma Hope4Haiti at Nite-Life Dance Club on February 20 (2 votes, 6%)
Sense of Truth at The Canadian Nightclub on February 26 (2 votes, 6%)
Lion Ride & Sense of Truth at The Canadian on May 22 (2 votes, 6%)
Garden of Bedlam & Half Past at The Canadian on April 2 (2 votes, 6%)
Endast & Blood Drunk at Foggy Notions on September 2nd (2 votes, 6%)
Total Chaos at The Oddfellows Hall on Nov. 21st (2 votes, 6%)
Sativa Rose at The Roosevelt Hotel on December 23rd (2 votes, 6%)
Other (2 votes, 6%)
Garden Of Bedlam at The Rockstar Bar on November 12th (1 vote, 3%)
Sativa Rose at Foggy Notions on December 31st (1 vote, 3%)
Caveman Morrison at The Roosevelt Hotel on April 9-10 (0 votes, 0%)
Crued at The Canadian Nightclub on May 1 (0 votes, 0%)
Downtown Showdown at The Oddfellows Hall on May 28 (0 votes, 0%)
Kiss at The Essar Center on August 10th (0 votes, 0%)
Gunz N' FN' Rosez at The Rockstar Bar on September 23rd (0 votes, 0%)
Grady at The Grand Theater on November 16th (0 votes, 0%)
The Mark Rand Band at Coch's Corner on December 29th (0 votes, 0%)

So, how do the results look? Well, seven concerts tied for last with no votes, none more surprising than Kiss at The Essar Center in August. Seriously, NO ONE picked that enormous concert? Very surprising. Garden of Bedlam's Rockstar Bar show in November and the New Years Eve concert at Foggy Notions tied for 12th place with a single vote, both of which seem a bit off given the reception they both got! Amazingly, right above them was an eight way tie for fourth place with two votes each, and while all deserve a high placement, the logjam is something I'm not used to seeing. You think there'd be more of a spread! The second place options tied with three votes each, those being Garden of Bedlam's Foggy Notions show in December and Turner Up's March show at The Canadian Nightclub, though voters on that choice may have just picked them in general for the whole year. I expected they'd get higher, no worries there! And in first place, just as they were for the first half of 2010 poll, was the "secret" Frightlight concert at Coch's Corner! The secretive nature of it kept people wondering, and if you were there, you'll recognize why this had such a big impact! I still wish I could have attended, but there you have it, the winner of the "favourite concert of 2010" poll is Frightlight's secret show in June!

So, what is this month's poll? I've decided to try something different, as inspired by the current NCAA college basketball tournament! I've long been against polls on the SMS which compared bands individually, as I don't want to seem preferential or biased towards specific bands. However, I had a good idea for a poll event that would feature bands competing in a fun, hassle-free tournament a'la "March Madness" to see who could be considered the "winner". After getting a positive reaction from some SMS readers when I proposed the idea, I'm running with it, and we'll see how it goes over! So, I'd like to announce the debut of The Sault Metal Scene's March Mayhem! (EDIT, 4:24 PM: I replaced Turner Up in the bracket to reflect their demise as an active band, and replaced them with Skull After Betrayal, with alphabetical adjustments where needed.)


Click on the image to see the full bracket, which will be updated frequently! This will be an eight week tournament event featuring four matchups a week (until the "final four" are decided) involving 28 of the higher profile active metal and hard rock acts in Sault Ontario! I wanted to get it to 32, but I was having trouble getting that high. The 28 bands I chose are all active at present (well, maybe not Bring The Fallen, but nothing's official), and they'll face off in this single elimination tournament, a'la "March Madness"! Nothing's on the line here besides bragging rights, it's simply for fun, curiosity, and to see if something like this would even be popular for the SMS to attempt. In case anyone's wondering, the seeding is done by alphabetical order, as I found it's the only fair way to do it, I couldn't rank bands and risk alienating or seeming biased towards any of them. That said, if you've noticed As It Stands, Garden of Bedlam, Lion Ride, and Woods of Ypres got byes to the second round, it's only to ensure that after the first round, the tournament can have a 16-8-4-2-1 breakdown like a usual tournament, with no screwy rounds. Those four bands were given the free pass for their recent local prominence, not on personal preferences, so that's why they'll skip the first round.

SMS March Mayhem will take place over the next eight weeks, with the opening round taking place over the next three weeks through April 9th. The second round will be two weeks long, ending on April 23rd. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will all run for a week each, ending with a final winner on May 14th! So each individual matchup will be it's own poll, running for a week, with four matchups taking place each week until the semifinals. So the first four 1st round matchups alphabetically will run until next Saturday, so VOTE TODAY! Here are the matchups!

Which death metal quintet will take the battle between The Bear Hunters & Bring The Fallen? Can Browbeat frontman Dutch Vanderploeg overcome his old band Caveman Morrison in this contest between local hard rock trios? When Changing Waves collide with Destroilet, will old school hardcore trump the new? And can Gates of Winter pull out a victory over Frightlight despite their slow activity and low profile of recent years? VOTE TODAY on your left to help decide! Remember, the Bear Hunters/Bring The Fallen winner faces As It Stands in three weeks, the Frightlight/Gates winner takes on Garden of Bedlam, and the winners of this week's other matchups face each other! You have ONE WEEK to pick the winners of these matchups, so get voting!

Stay tuned later tonight for a new news post featuring some more big recent news, and I'll see you guys TONIGHT at The Rosie for Browbeat! Thanks everyone!