YouTube Channel Profile Series: Agnosticism - Topic

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series returns to kick off a new year with another look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians/concerts, and as luck would have it, we drew an auto-generated YouTube Music channel for a second straight month! Incidentally, this act in question has become this year's first monthly album review pick due to Ha!ls' concert earlier this month, in order to tie in an archival review with a recent concert. Here's what you should know!

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Agnosticism - Topic  (http://youtube.com/channel/UC7Lm8kLNksj62-bk0TnsR3w)

Owner: If anyone, Agnosticism frontman Mikhal Muto, though the channel is auto-generated to facilitate the project's catalogue being available on YouTube Music

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 7th, 2022; Videos uploaded from two days later through July 2024

Channel Summary: This channel exists as the home of Hails/Vanity First guitarist & Apocalypse Afterparty bassist Mikhal Muto's folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism's studio material for YouTube Music streaming purposes, though the songs can be experienced on regular YouTube as normal videos as well. The project's full-length album "Happy Pills" is streamable on YouTube Music, as well as two of their EPs (one being last year's "A Letter Of Resignation"), their most recent standalone single, and three single postings of songs from other releases.

Why You Should Watch: If you want to hear Agnosticism's studio back catalogue, this is a good (if not comprehensive) way to do it, though note that other major streaming services also have these same songs, so pick and choose based on your own preferences for layout, content, and subscription models. Some services, most notably Apple Music, have exclusive content, though not everything there is available for sale, just streaming. Of course, Mikhal does run a standard YouTube channel for Agnosticism, which features "Happy Pills" as well as some standalone uploads and two free EPs not on all streaming services ("Chaotic & Dysfunctional" and "Eat Shit & Die"), which both notably feature songs later taken on by Vanity First, so don't bypass that channel either.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

i'd probably kill myself if i had the motivation: This a slight teaser for our first album review of 2025, which hits the site later this week, but Agnosticism's first album released for sale on iTunes (not just to hear for free) is their September 2022 full length album "Happy Pills". Normally, I would highlight a song that I like the most in this sort of situation, but to avoid skewing my thoughts of the album in advance of my review listen, I'll instead point you to "I'd Probably Kill Myself If I Had The Motivation", a long and emotive song that lets Mikhal spread his wings as an acoustic singer/songwriter. A demo version of this song was included at the end of this album as well. For more in-depth thoughts on "Happy Pills", look for my review of the whole album on the site by Friday!

Song 3: Surprisingly, the most popular Agnosticism song on their YouTube Music channel is the basically untitled "Song 3" from their November 2022 EP "4 Hours", released less than two months after "Happy Pills" (it will be eligible for an album review on the SMS no sooner than July due to my self-imposed 6 month buffer period between reviews of the same project's albums to avoid potentially showing a bias). This spare and short song escalates well with self deprecating jabs at Mikhal's solo music and song lengths, so keep that in mind as an example of his range as a lyricist, even if it can be a little too quick to make out all of the words at points!

Light Pollution: Bypassing me at the time due to (in part) Agnosticism's lack of a true social media page beyond Instagram, their most recent original song on streaming services is "Light Pollution", quietly released on July 9th of last year, with no sign yet of it being part of a new album or EP. Curiously marketed with a picture of Mikhal under a "Happy New Year" banner despite being released 5 months prior to January 1st, this song has a folksier yet fuller structure while still harbouring his distinctive emo/pop punk-inflected vocals, and while I like my Agnosticism to be more intense than this, it's good to hear some new material from Mikhal's acoustic act, and here's hoping for more from them in 2025!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series' second installment of the year will come on or around February 26th, with next month's randomly selected channel finally giving us some actual video content (that moves), namely YouTube user CrazyCarLover1990's channel, featuring 14 videos of Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide live in the early 2010s! Look for that then, and for more news and notes (plus our "Happy Pills" review) this week! Thanks everyone!