Merry Christmas, everyone! In today's largely seasonal post, we have new concert videos and a new batch of Christmas carol covers to check out, but let's lead off with something not seasonal that I have delayed for way too long. As you may know, Heavy Lies The Crown guitarist/ex-drummer Jason Massaway has been dabbling in his own solo material in the past couple of years, including his own solo YouTube channel featuring covers on vocals and/or acoustic guitar (some H.L.T.C. videos with him drumming made it there too). However, Jaxon (under the handle "Jaxon James") has recorded and released three original songs to major streaming services this year, entitled "Nameless" (no relation), "Evergreen", and "Nostalgia". The latter two songs are country influenced and fairly melancholy ("Nostalgia" is really short too), but if you wanna see what Jaxon as a solo metal artist, "Nameless" is where you'd want to go.
This is also short (1:46 in length) but it's a promising extreme metal song with a djenty riff and solid harsh vocals, and it does show what Jaxon is capable of as an original multi-instrumentalist! Jaxon doesn't have a proper social media/band page for his solo music that I'm aware of, and he hasn't played live with Heavy Lies The Crown for most of the year due to travelling commitments with his day job, but this is all promising for him as a rising young musician, and here's hoping we hear more from Jaxon in or out of the band in 2025! Check out "Nameless" below!
Next up, here's some new Christmas content from local classical metal band Theatre of Night! As you may recall, before they began doing Christmas tour runs with a full live band (well, not this year), Theatre of Night operated as a studio band, bringing on German soprano singer Gaby Koss in the early-mid 2010s as an official band member to sing lead on new Christmas carol covers at the time. Five old and new songs featuring Gaby were collected as a "Celtic Christmas metal EP" on their YouTube channel this month, where you can hear her singing with Craig & Steve via covers of "What Child Is This?", "Carol Of The Bells", "Silent Night", "The Little Drummer Boy", and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". The former two songs are older recordings featuring Steve's brother Greg Giles on drums during his stint with the band, while the rest feature his replacement Erik Sales. It is neat hearing Gaby on new material with Theatre of Night, and her classically trained vocals suit their material well!
The language used with the description does not suggest that she has rejoined Theatre of Night (remember, they had been touring with live vocalists up to last year), but the collaboration has always produced quality material, and if the description of this "Reel" on Gaby's Facebook page is anything to go by, they may be collaborating on a full new album next year! Check out Theatre of Night & Gaby's free "EP" below!
We'll wrap things up in Sault Ontario via videos from two bands from last month's eleventh annual Toystock at The Grand Gardens! Prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci's YouTube channel is the source, and he was in attendance that afternoon to see the two full bands from the first half of the program (in between DJ Dark Mark and the acoustic solo artists). The 3:00 band this year was local punk trio Redundant in their first show since last year's Toystock and since the departure of bassist Andrew MacDonald, with Chris filming them covering The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" and, as embedded below, playing their original "That December". I still haven't found a public reference to the identity of the new bassist who debuted at Toystock, but he and/or drummer Rick White should really add backing vocals, as that is definitely missing from their live sound
The new bassist fits in well from what I can see, no backing vocals aside, and the band sounds good here, so hopefully we're not waiting another year for Redundant to play live again! Check these Christmas Cheer concert performances out above & below!
Finally, the 2:00 PM act at Toystock XI was Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band in their last gig of 2024, with Chris filming them playing Mike's original songs "If Ever Comes The Day" and, as embedded below, "The Nature Of The Times". Compared to Mike's live-stream of his set that day, this was filmed a little further out from the opposite side of the stage, but Chris got a good angle of Mike & crew rocking out while capturing some of the attendee action during this all-original set, and it looks like a good time was had by all! Check out these new videos of Mike and his band above & below!
That's all for today, but again, have a Merry Christmas and enjoy time with your families and friends! We'll be back tomorrow for weekend concert previews. Thanks everyone!
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