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werehold's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/werehold)Owner: Werehold Records founder Jason Mills, who's also well known as a multi-instrumentalist in numerous Sault Michigan area bands (all now inactive) that were signed to the label, including Life's Eclipse, Moss, Swampghas, The 1,000,000,000's Who Died, and Shatterhand.
Channel Timeline: Launched on April 14th, 2011; Videos posted from that day through March 2018
Channel Summary: Launched around the time of Werehold Records & Life's Eclipse's joint revival in the spring of 2011 (after both previously being active through the late 2000s), the Werehold YouTube channel would become the primary repository for new and old material from label acts, mostly on the metal spectrum, and many attached to albums that never received a contemporary paid release. Most of the 81 current uploads on the channel came from the nine Friday the 13th new music posting events held on every Friday the 13th (except one) between April 2012 and January 2017, largely comprised of audio recordings that were typically preceded with the Werehold logo and a title card for the song. A select few videos on the channel were for amusement factor and not related to local music, like this Star Wars video game parody that attracted over 1,100 views.
Why You Should Watch: This is a must watch channel for fans of Jason Mills' local music work as both an extreme metal guitarist and as one of the last major active proponents of local extreme metal in Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula, despite Werehold acts not being known for playing regular public concerts. I enjoyed a whole lot of Werehold's roster, even if many of the posted songs lacked vocals, and their roster deserves a lot more eyeballs than it got in it's original run or it's 2010s revival. However, note that both Werehold Records and all of it's signed musical acts have been publically dormant since early 2018 (earlier in the case of certain bands.) Also, note that this channel was not immune to certain old video deletions.
Our Recommended Videos To Check Out
Swampghas - Bog (sync up version): From 2011-2015, a prominent band on the Werehold roster was Swampghas, a then-reunited death/thrash metal trio featuring Jason Mills on lead vocals & bass alongside East Branch guitarist J.R. Johnson and Drayton Fever/ex-Half A Man drummer Doug Reed. During this second run, Swampghas was very active in studio, recording for an unreleased debut album named "The Raco Tower Incident", and in a Werehold rarity, they actually recorded a music video for their instrumental song "Bog", which was released in September 2011. The black & white video features assorted footage of the guys exploring a farm at nighttime, and there is an eerie ambiance to a lot of it if you can look past the heavy riffs. You also see J.R. & Jason jamming in a field, though faces appear to be obscured on purpose. A brutal song while it lasts, you can also see behind the scenes footage from the shoot at this link, and many full songs are posted on this channel as well.
Life's Eclipse - Welcome to the Vortex: The most popular Werehold video that is definitely focused on their musical acts is of their flagship metal band Life's Eclipse's short song "Welcome To The Vortex", which was to have been the lead single for their unreleased album "The Chemicals To Make You A Better Person", and was belated posted in July 2013. Full credits aren't given, but Life's Eclipse's last stated full lineup featured Jason Mills & Joe Semasky on guitar, Jason's brother David on bass, and Casey Amo on drums. Recorded in 1996 or 1997, this archival track showcases Life's Eclipse's pounding metal attack well, particularly with the riffs, though like most songs on this channel, it is an instrumental. If you like this song, there's plenty more from Life's Eclipse to hear on here from an assortment of older albums!
The 1,000,000,000's Who Died - Horrible Laughter (9 string song): As Werehold collaborator activity died down in the late 2010s, much of their 2017-2018 output revolved around Jason's own material, such as The 1,000,000,000's Who Died, his progressive death metal solo project that was comically billed from Isle Royale. This project was the most uploaded of the Werehold roster from 2014 onward, and showcased a more technical, intense style than many of Life's Eclipse's older tracks. "Horrible Laughter" was The Billions Who Died's apparent swan song from January 2018, and it makes great use of Jason's then-new 9 string guitar, which you can see him model in this actual video from that same winter. Jason also broke this guitar out for one preceding song, "Long Walk Upright."
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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around August 26th when we return to Sault Ontario for a double profile, as the first randomly selected channel we picked only had two distinct types of videos, so I randomly chose another channel with two videos much the same as each other to round things out. As such, we'll be looking at the YouTube channels of users paperclipprojectX (featuring 4 early videos from the band Haggith) and Thelilspirit (featuring a couple of notable covers from prolific local drummer T.J. Case.) Stay tuned for those then, and for more news and updates this weekend! Thanks everyone!
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