“#16 is Ominous Presence's "In The Darkness". These guys are young group of hard rocking artists that take a page from the Black Sabbath playbook and add their own brand of fire and thunder to it. I great start to their young career and I look forward to hearing lots more in the future.”

"For this category, I kept the list of candidates narrowed to local, unsigned artists from the Michigan area. Working with that in mind, there wasn’t a band more deserving then Ominous Presence. A younger group of guys who released their first CD this year, a crunching release that harkens back to the greatness of Black Sabbath. These guys consistently put on amazing live shows, work their ass off on the promotion side, and are always mentioned in when speaking of bands that bar people love."

“With an overwhelmingly fresh approach to the origins of metal, Ominous Presence debut album "In The Dark" is enriched with incredible vocals, classic guitars, extended song lengths, rich, heavy bass lines, and percussions that every front seat, traffic drummer would love in his repertoire. This is the kind of album that could have been heard on vinyl back in the 70s and rivaled Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and more. Keep your eye on these guys. They are contenders.”

“I really enjoy Ominous Presence when they do sets at Rocky's Pub. Probably one of my favorite bands in that genre!”

"Ominous Presence - You guys had the best opening set in the history of rock! You guys killed & we can't thank you enough for being there all day! You rock!"

"OK, everyone knows I love the local music scene but I really love looking out for and helping the young guns. Everyone knows I love Meet Me At The Skyline. The Porcelain Doll Collection, Innocent Till Dark, Names Unlisted, Bulletproof Snow, Soldier's Last Breath, Blind Season, SHOCK WAVE, etc. Honestly after listening to Ominous Presence, they are in this group, WOW I just watched a video of these guys at a talent show from last year covering "War Pigs" by Sabbath, I will say this if they didn't win, the winner better have been Sabbath themselves, WOW!!! I am adopting this band and will help them anyway I can, these young guys are F***ING AWESOME!!!"

"These four recently burst onto the scene with their performance at the All Around. Hailing from New Boston and opening the show with fantastic, energetic versions of classic, hard rock, and metal covers, these boys got the attention of all attendees as well as other bands. I have to admit that Tyler Emond, Anthony Munoz, Kyle Nieman, and Garrett Kohls were pretty impressive. We look forward to seeing them at upcoming Detroit Live shows."