LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Suicide Kings), Plus Plenty Of Other Recent Updates!!

In what actually may be the last post of our 69 day streak (I have very little in the queue to guarantee a Monday news post right now), we have a bunch of recent news and notes to get to today, including updates to a few upcoming all ages shows, an archive album discovery, a new concert video, and more, but first, we'll start with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!

Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands winners The Suicide Kings will play their first show since their win last month when they make their first ever Roosevelt Hotel appearance on Friday, May 17th! This is ostensibly a replacement for their planned Rosie debut last weekend (which was called off due to a double booking), though unlike those planned gigs, they are only playing next Friday, as the Greber-headlined death metal concert is already scheduled for the following Saturday (though Suicide Kings bassist Mitch Sirie will play that show too with his other band The Bear Hunters.) As for The Suicide Kings, it'll be great to see the battle winners back at it with their high energy hard rock originals & some newer covers, so don't miss their first stop at The Rosie come next weekend! Admission should be free for this 10:00 PM concert, and you must be 19 to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! I hope to hit this concert and go check out The Suicide Kings' full concert set for the first time, so stay tuned for further updates!

Next up, local hard rock/metal supergroup Skeyes of Seven have posted a new video from their Garden of Bedlam-opening set at The Rockstar Bar on April 26th onto their YouTube channel on Friday, and it's of their new original song "Fallen Faith"! Filmed by an attendee on an HD camera of some kind,  it's got nice video quality of this solid new track (I love the heavy choruses), though the lighting looks very reddish/purple through this camera, and the angle is a bit jittery early on. Very good stuff overall, and I can't wait to hear more, so give Skeyes of Seven's new video a look below!

Also in the news, here's the latest from all ages local concerts being promoted by AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent! Firstly, local death/stoner metal quartet Giwakwa have been confirmed as the replacements for RedD Monkey at the upcoming Sleep When You're Dead/Winkstinger concert at The Oddfellows Hall on May 29th! This will be their third local concert set and their first ever all ages gig, so be prepared for a brutal set of originals from this promising recent metal band! Also in recent Jamie Vincent-promotion updates, he indicated on his promotion company's Facebook group recently that Edmonton punk band Catgut (featuring his former Flint bandmate Jesse Silkie) are coming to town in August, which should be interesting, while he might be bringing in Vancouver drone metal duo Ahna in June, though this is NOT yet official. I know they've tried to get local dates here before, so hopefully this works out, but if you can help with a possible booking for Ahna's unique experimental sound around June 23rd, contact them at this link! Jamie's got a lot of big things coming up, so don't miss out, including the Royal Red Brigade-headlined punk/metal show on Friday!

In a bit of a shift, I wanted to let you guys know about an archive album discovery I recently came across that deserves a mention on here! During a trip to Value Village last month, I surprisingly found a local alternative hard rock CD among the used albums for sale, that being "How Empty I Am", an EP released by defunct local trio Sulfur way back in 1997! In case you're not familiar with them, Sulfur were essentially a predecessor to the early-mid 2000s London metal quintet Papa Fogals Chair (who featured all local/Thessalon natives), and the Sulfur lineup present on this CD includes singer/guitarist Andy Chillman (now of the London acoustic band Too Much Unsaid), bassist Mike Bird, and drummer Derek Turner (now of local metal standouts Garden of Bedlam), though future PFC bandmates Adam Chillman & Joey Grisdale are credited in the liner notes for other contributions. Recorded locally at Satellite Sound Studios, this 8 song album was in good condition, and it's proof that you should always have a sharp eye when browsing through a local used CD rack!

I definitely wanna review "How Empty I Am" on the site in the future, as it's heavy enough for SMS coverage (if a bit more alternative-leaning than PFC were), and when I do, I hope to post the album online for you guys to check out! That may depend on when I can get my computer's tempermental disc drive fixed/replaced, but stay tuned for more on this awesome find from the scene's past, and if you're at a store with a used CD section, don't take it for granted! Sulfur's album might be there, or more!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by profile, band, or site name:

• According to a post on the SMS' Facebook page on April 23rd, Sudbury death metal veterans Catharcyst are looking to play a show in the Soo, though an intended date wasn't given. It'd be awesome to have Catharcyst back in town, but they need some booking help, so contact frontman Paul Cipriani on Facebook if you can help out!
• In what's admittedly a minor update, Facebook event pages have listed weather forecasts for the timeframe of the event since March. This won't have a direct bearing on most local metal concerts, as few are outdoors, but keep that new addition in mind if you're planning around weather!
• In our last update to this series for the time being, I've added info on the final placements for Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands performers in our profile of last year' Sault Humane Society Battle at The Grand Theater, along with amending notes on winners Late & Loud's EP releases. Stay tuned for updates to another of our special feature post series' hopefully this week!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post early this week, if all goes well! Thanks everyone!