Monday, October 10, 2011

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Detroit

It's time once again for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! After a stopover in Sault Michigan last month, we have another profile of an inactive metal band from Sault Ontario this time around, and they were definitely more prominent and prolific, so there's a lot to check out this month! As always, this month's band was randomly selected from our Sault Ontario inactive band links with no biases beyond the presence of an online page. Without any further adieu, here's what you need to know for this month! (Updated on May 6th, 2013)
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Detroit

Genre: Hardcore/Punk/Thrash

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie/Toronto, Ontario

Members: (Members not in their last lineup in italics.)

Brenton Ellis (Maximum RNR, Lion Ride, The Labour Of...), vocals
Curtis Faux (Maximum RNR, The Labour Of..., Adam Faux), guitar
Mark Rand (Cross Dog, Kidshit, Lion Ride), bass
Mikey Hawdon (The Fairmounts, The Inner City Surfers), drums

Audio/Vide
o: Audiowise, Detroit have a good amount of material thanks to the release of two EPs, entitled "Let The Hammers Fly" and "Brace For Impact" that I've recently uploaded to our YouTube channel, so click the above links to check them out! Both were memorably launched at local CD release shows in 2008 & 2009, as you may recall. As for videos, a few scattered Detroit videos are posted on Mikey Hawdon, Mark Rand, and the SMS' YouTube channels (just search for "Detroit" on each), but a number of live videos (many with material only played live) from concerts at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto by YouTube users dnahahaha & vflindall are also online, so search the above links for those as well! Here's one of Detroit playing their song "On Madness Reared" at a Toronto show in January 2009, but these generally go by fast, so watch more at the above links!



Info/Analysis: Essentially a side project from the members' other bands, Detroit was a hardcore punk quartet featuring 3 then-members of Lion Ride in swapped roles, with singer Brenton Ellis' current Maximum RNR bandmate Curtis Faux on guitar. Launched in late 2008, the band debuted with an CD release show for their EP "Let The Hammers Fly" at The Oddfellows Hall on December 27th, followed by a number of Toronto area shows through mid-2009, mostly at The Bovine Sex Club. After returning to the Soo for the "Brace For Impact" CD release show on December 29th, 2009 at Coch's Corner, the band played their final shows in the Toronto area over the next two months. After Brenton left Lion Ride in February 2010, Detroit quietly went inactive, with members focusing on other projects, including Brenton & Curtis' work in the similar sounding Maximum RNR. Though not a frequent local sight, Detroit kept fans moshing with many fast and brutal hardcore originals, the majority of which didn't even last 2 minutes! Brenton's singing was aggressive but had punk attitude where needed, Mikey's drumming meshed well (gotta love the consistent intros too), and each song was a speedy punk tinged hardcore assault that any old school fans could appreciate!

Though they ended way too soon, definitely check out Maximum RNR for a similar extension of the Detroit sound, and fingers crossed that Detroit reunites down the road! Check out their two EPs and lots of live videos at the above links, and prepare yourself, as their songs are often over before you know it!
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I hope you guys enjoyed this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! So, who gets a posthumous look next month? For a second time in three months, we're looking at two bands at once, as the first band I randomly selected didn't have any posted audio material to help make for a full post. So I picked a band from Sault Michigan (they were next for December anyway) to fill things out, making for a double profile from each of the Twin Saults for the first time! That said, we're looking at early 2000s Sault Ontario quartet SIGHdEFECT & inactive Sault Michigan project Mugwort next month (on or around November 10th), so keep an eye out for it! That's all for now, but keep an eye out for a new news post very soon! Thanks everyone!

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