YouTube Channel Profile Series: JoeNiemi17's Channel & Alex Hemy

Here is our last monthly feature post of the summer months, namely our latest YouTube Channel Profiles! This series looks at 1-3 YouTube channels featuring content at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk bands or concerts, in order to spotlight them for modern day readers and hopefully encourage views and subscriptions. This month's randomly selected channel only had two distinct kinds of videos (4 total that are relevant to the SMS), so I randomly picked a channel with only one surviving video to round things out with, and as such, each channel deals with a local solo musician from each side of the Twin Saults! Here's what you should know!
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JoeNiemi17's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/joeniemi17)
 
Owner: Former Analog Deficiency & Hoist The Sails bassist Joe Niemi

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 14th, 2010; Videos uploaded in October of that year

Channel Summary: Joe's channel features five videos, including two of him in solo bass performances and two videos a major Kewadin Casino concert. His last upload is of a pipe flooding at his then-school, which is his most viewed video, but has no music content.
 
Why You Should Watch: Give this channel a watch to see some of Joe's guitar skill from a decade ago, plus live footage of 10 Years' local set! The last video will primarily concern fans of fail videos or students who remembered the pipe incident. Note that this channel has not visibly been used since 2011, in case that changes your mind on subscribing.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out: 

Analog riff: Joe's main usage of his channel came late in his progressive metal band Analog Deficiency's 2009-2010 life span, and accordingly, one of his two performance videos is of a riff for a planned original song, as filmed to test his new iPod. It sounds promising, and Joe was a solid bassist, though both Analog Deficency and their successors Hoist The Sails struggled to break out of the Sault Michigan market, which hasn't been easy for extreme metal acts in the past decade. Joe's other performance clip is of him covering Lamb of God's "Laid To Rest" (and pretty well, I might add!)

Waste land - 10 years: This channel's two concert videos are from the Sevendust-headlined show at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on October 18th, 2010, but Joe did not film them or openers Since October & Anew Revolution. Rather, he filmed co-headlining Knoxville, Tennessee hard rock band 10 Years playing a minute of "Shoot It Out", and in his most popular music upload, their biggest hit "Wasteland". The quality and angle aren't bad for these ironically 10 year old videos, and the vertical resolution isn't too bad given where he was in the crowd! See more videos of 10 Years from their 2018 show here with Seether at this link.

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Alex Hemy (http://www.youtube.com/alexsguitarcovers)
 
Owner: Former Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 20th, 2012; Only surviving video uploaded in April 2020

Channel Summary: Alex created this channel to feature his solo guitar covers, which initially were in a hard rock/classic metal realm before increasingly getting softer, albeit better produced with backing tracks, and even featuring vocals on occasion. Unfortunately, Alex has deleted or privatized all of his old videos, which is a shame, as he is a very talented musician! His only video left is his new cover of "Driving Rain" by Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators (with the original song as backing), and it's well handled and heavier than we were seeing from him in the videos previous to this one! I'd have used the alternate camera angle well before the 3:37 mark though. Hopefully new (or old) covers of Alex's surface down the line!


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 I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Next month in this series, our random selection has given us a channel that can stand alone, namely defunct local classic metal band Project 421's official channel! Look for that on or around September 26th, and for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone! 

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

The news keeps on coming on this Saturday morning, as we have our first local metal video showcase of the month! Granted, it's half new discoveries of old videos, but they came from research for some upcoming feature posts, and have not been featured on the site before. Today, we have some new guitar performances and new song postings by two Sault Ontario grunge bands, so read on below for these new/old videos!

First, we have a new song posting from recently prominent local grunge quartet Haggith! The song is a brand new addition to their upcoming third album "Deuce" (despite not being on last month's posted track listing), and it's entitled "The Story Of...", which is intended to be a prequel to their cover of drummer Mike Haggth's solo track "Leon The Janitor". Uploaded in two versions (by itself & combined with it's sequel) onto their YouTube channel on Wednesday, this features their whole lineup with guitarist Curtis McKenzie on lead vocals. It works as a softer intro to the more aggressive "Leon The Janitor", but I'll hold full thoughts until we review "Deuce". As it's a fuller video with the two songs combined as intended, check out "The Story Of Leon The Janitor" below, and hear more at the links above!



Next up, here's a newly discovered video from former Devastation of the Heavens/Quite Frankly rhythm guitarist Joe DelBasso! We largely haven't heard from Joe musically since Quite Frankly's demise in 2010, but he still actively uses his YouTube channel, though he's based his channel around video gaming footage, playthroughs, and video replies since his initial guitar solo videos went up in late 2009. That said, he did upload one new guitar cover onto his channel in September 2011, and it's a rhythm guitar cover of Metallica's "Fuel"! At least at that point, he still had his guitar chops (as the video title indicates), but like from his 2009 videos, I wish he'd pick up some more lead work and at least try a solo or two. Joe was a good fit in his local bands, and hopefully we'll see him on stage again in the future, but check out his most recent solo cover video below, and if you're a fan of video game playthroughs and random other gaming clips, subscribe to his channel!



Also today, here's more old discoveries of guitar covers from another local musician named Joe (also with a YouTube channel URL featuring the number 17), that being ex-Analog Deficiency/Hoist The Sails bassist Joe Niemi! Though not a frequent sight on stage, Joe's been recently visible in young local extreme metal bands, and like Joe DelBasso, he also uploaded some guitar cover videos to his own YouTube channel in October 2010. The last time we mentioned his channel, it was from his videos of 10 Years' set from the Sevendust show at Kewadin Casino that month, so we missed his two cell phone cover clips, including a cover of Lamb of God's "Laid To Rest" and a video named "Analog Riff", which likely refers to a planned song by Analog Deficiency. The Lamb of God cover is generally good (albeit with some timing flubs), while the original riff video shows promise, and it would have added well to an original song! I'd be curious to see Joe on bass though, given his local band roles, but check out the "Analog Riff" below, and more at the above links!



Finally for today, we'll bookend with another new Sault Ontario grunge band audio upload, this time from defunct Sault Ontario trio No Arrow! An alternate mix of their song "Sikkha" from their unreleased CD "Souls For Sale", it doesn't sound much different from the original version, but it has a longer intro & a rawer sound on a first listen. Featuring their classic lineup (singer/guitarist Dann Pichette, bassist Harley Syrette, and drummer Joe Falco), and uploaded onto Dann's YouTube channel on Thursday, this was one of my favourite No Arrow songs from their heyday, mixing alternative rock with a solid heavy groove & nicely varied singing overtop, so check out the newly available alternate mix of "Sikkha" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles on the aforementioned Analog Deficiency & a surprise replacement band (I'll explain tomorrow), and of course, more news as it rolls in! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (As It Stands), Hoist The Sails Updates, And New Videos

In what may be the last news post of the month (I stress "may"), we've got some notable news and notes to share with you guys today! We have new videos from a pair of local hard rock artists, the latest news from a rising Sault Michigan metal band, and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this week, so here's what you need to know!

How'd you guys like an outdoor metal show in Sault Ontario for a change? Bear Hunters/Borderline Divine guitarist Mitch Sirie is promoting a metal show at the Roberta Bondar Pavilion THIS FRIDAY in cooperation with The Arts Council of Sault Ste. Marie and National Youth Arts Week, and though complete details aren't announced yet, the band lineup is now public! This show is slated to be headlined by local hardcore quintet As It Stands, with a local death metal three-for-all opening the festivities, including the aforementioned Bear Hunters, crust/grime standouts Shit Liver, and deathcore quartet The Valentine's Day Massacre, which adds to a solid lineup of local metal talent! This will mark most of the bands' first local concert sets since the Humane Society Battle of the Bands last weekend, but it will be Shit Liver's first show since the Ypres Metal Fest on April 7th. Plus, this is most bands' Roberta Bondar Pavilion debut (As It Stands aside), and it'll definitely be interesting to see metal rock the tent downtown for a change! Full details will be announced tomorrow when everything is finalized, but a 4:00 PM start time is tentatively being aimed for, and I can't see this not being all ages. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Mitch has been outdoing himself in recent days trying to bring local metal bands to more public and open areas (including his Rotaryfest campaign), and with hopes to make this just the first of many outdoor metal shows in the area, fingers crossed that this Friday concert event is a huge hit! Stay tuned for more official updates as they roll in, and also click here for more news and events for National Youth Arts Week this week!

Next up, here's the newest updates from newer Sault Michigan metal band Hoist The Sails, and first, it appears they have quietly parted ways with bassist Joe Niemi. A reason for his departure has not been announced, but he was removed from their lineup on their Facebook page at some point within the last two months. Disappointing, but Joe has talent, and hopefully he joins a new band soon! From what I can tell, he has yet to be replaced, but I'll let you guys know if anything is announced on that front. Aside from that, recent news has been sparse, but a new video has been uploaded onto Facebook indicating that they're still alive. Uploaded by singer Lucas Falkowski, it features guitarist Mitch Goetz showing us the band's recording area, where the other band members were at the time of filming, and a 22 second sample of a new original song is also previewed near the end of the 83 second long video. Click here to check it out! Hoist The Sails still sound like a very talented and promising new band, but hopefully updates pick up more than they have been in recent months, cause they definitely are off to a solid start! Check the above links for more, and stay tuned for more updates on Hoist the Sails' new material and bassist situation!

We'll close this post with new videos, starting with the latest song and music video from local electronic hard rock project Candle Hour! Well, this is more specifically credited to "Hugh Stephens, otherwise known as Candle Hour", but it's for sale and posted on Candle Hour's online pages, so I'll still count it as a band track. Continuing with the more downbeat tone from Hugh's last song "Azetta", this new recording (entitled "Missing Moment") is inspired by the idea that we've all lost moments in our lives that we wish we could relive. The song itself is an ambient orchestral instrumental with some piano accompaniment, and while it's not as heavy as some of Candle Hour's other songs, it is well performed! You can officially buy it at this location, but Hugh also uploaded it with a video of slowed down fireworks in reverse onto the band's YouTube channel on Friday, and the visuals add to the mood! Also note that before he posted this video, he deleted his most popular video from his channel, which was for Candle Hour's original song "March to the End". I don't know why he deleted it, but it's disappointing, especially as it was my favourite of his YouTube uploads for music quality! You can still see the video on other websites, but for now, check out "Missing Moment" below!



And finally, here's the latest solo video from ApocalyptiCDistroyeR frontman Jesse Middaugh! It's a "rough thought" towards a new original song that he's planning to use in his "new project". Details on that weren't elaborated on, but judging by the repeated use of the ApocalyptiCDistroyeR name in the video tags, it might just be a new version of that band. Uploaded to the band's YouTube channel on Thursday, it's reportedly planned to be a soft & catchy original, and he's going to make the final version less repetitive than in the video. It sounds alright, but you can tell it needs more variance and leads. Check Jesse's new video out below, and maybe he'll post some new heavier material sooner or later too!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our review of End of Existence's debut album by TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!