Sunday, September 27, 2020

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Project 421

It's now time for our last monthly feature post of September 2020, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This regular series looks at 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists or concerts, in order to spotlight what can be seen there for fans and potential subscribers. This installment features lots of strong footage of a fan favourite local band from the mid-2010s, so here's what you should know!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project 421 (http://youtube.com/channel/UCjffE-do3Kl5Lx1UUWSmdZA)
 
Owner: A member of 2013-2017 classic metal/power rock band Project 421 (exact identity not stated, but my guess would be guitarist/vocalist Blair Burch)

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 19th, 2015; All videos uploaded that same day


Channel Summary: Project 421's channel features 15 videos filmed at eight concerts and two jam sessions across their first couple of years as an active band, all uploaded on the channel's inception date. Concert videos here include performances at The Algonquin Pub, The Grand Theater, and The Oddfellows Hall, among other locales.
 
Why You Should Watch: If you were at all a fan of Project 421 during the first half of their run, this channel will be appointment viewing, and there is a lot of old school metal and hard rock renditions to take in, plus select originals! However, many of these videos were previously posted online on other pages (our Facebook page included), and this channel has not been actively used since these videos were posted, so nothing is included from their concerts in their last two years together.


 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out: 

"No One Rides For Free" - Project 421: Three videos here come from "The Basement Sessions", as filmed in 421's then-jam space on March 9th, 2014, featuring then-new singer Curtis McKenzie (The Bridge Heads) alongside guitarists Blair Burch (Re:Born) and Frank McGillivray, bassist Daniel Horton (Jack Spades), and drummer Larry Mousseau (ex-Fitswitch). Filming is credited to PaperClip Productions, the studio that Curt & Dan co-owned during their time in the band Haggith. Alongside covers of Black Sabbath's "NIB" and Iron Maiden's "Powerslave", the guys were filmed playing their original "No One Rides For Free", which is well performed and suits their sound nicely, and from an interesting camera angle too! However, note the dark lighting and occasional visual glitches. One more jam session video from August 2015 (of their original "Into The Darkness") is also on this channel.



"Am I Evil" - Project 421: The most viewed video on Project 421's channel comes from their fourth public concert, which saw them open for Anvil & Caym at The Canadian Nightclub on March 15th, 2014, where they covered Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" As filmed by yours truly (original URL here), I admittedly didn't have my best camera on hand for this concert, but the guys sound good on this lengthy live favourite, bolstered by Curt's strong vocal range! A higher quality video from a different filmer of them covering "Powerslave" at this show was also uploaded here.



"No More Mr. Nice Guy" - Project 421: In March 2015, a now Curt-less Project 421 took part in two local battles of the bands, including the Speak Easy Battle at Algoma University and the VM Radio Battle at The Rockstar Bar (both saw Gnaeus winning with 421 outside of the top 3.) Videos from both of these battle sets are on this channel, but the higher quality one is their Speak Easy set on March 5th, where they covered Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" as the final band of the night, complete with Daniel's new short haircut. Originally filmed by SaultOnline's Mike Caruso for his own YouTube channel, this multi-camera footage is well done and edited, and while not as rangy of a singer as Curt is, Blair's vocals are a good fit for this song!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around October 26th for another multiple channel feature, as the first randomly selected channel (death metal solo project Black Cloud's channel) only has three audio demos, not enough for a single profile. As such, I randomly picked two more channels who I could only realistically feature one video from each, namely Frank Thomas' channel (featuring an Offspring video from their concert here last year) and Dave Prendergast's channel (featuring a live video of his old band Nebraska Arms). Look for these next month, and for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!

No comments: