YouTube Channel Profile Series: RezThrasher's Channel

It's now time for our last monthly feature post at the SMS for July 2020, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This monthly feature series looks at 1-3 YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts, in order to spotlight their public uploads for modern day readers and encourage hits and subscriptions. This month's randomly selected profile gives us some intriguing early videos from one of the biggest local hard rock bands of the late 2000s and early 2010s, so here's what you should know on it!

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RezThrasher's channel (http://youtube.com/rezthrasher)

Owner: Former Garden of Bedlam bassist Evan Belleau

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 8th, 2006; Videos posted from January 2008 until July 2009

Channel Summary: Evan primarily dedicated his personal use channel towards videos from the early run of his 2007-2015 local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, who feature in five live concert videos from a set at a local festival, and two early jam session covers. His sole video without his bandmates features Evan playing an original bass line towards a proposed future song.
 
Why You Should Watch: This channel is a must watch for fans of Garden of Bedlam, especially those who were around the band in their initial public rise in 2008, and it's interesting to see their early originals and covers in this still proficient state! The solo video of Evan's also shows promise towards the future, even if the visual quality can show it's age to a point. Note that while this channel has seen some personal use in the past decade or so, there have not been any videos afterward to document Garden of Bedlam's local run beyond 2008, but the band's official YouTube channel & guitarist Josh Belleau's own YouTube channel will fill in some blanks.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Headup cover: If you followed Garden of Bedlam's earliest concerts, you'll know that Tool and The Deftones were frequently covered by them live, and this is reflected in Evan's first two jam session videos from January 15th, 2008, of their classic lineup covering Tool's "Ænema" and, as featured here, The Deftones' "Headup". Featuring Evan alongside singer Erik "Buzz" Boissineau (ex-Barfly/Changing Lanes), his cousin Josh Belleau on guitar, and ex-Papa Fogals Chair drummer Derek Turner, both covers are strongly done, especially given the band's lack of live experience together, though the dark and fuzzy video quality really dates both of these.

Garden of Bedlam - Sober (Tool Cover): Most of Evan's uploads come from Garden of Bedlam's set at the annual Hempfest in August 2008 nearby Ophir (on the grounds of the current Northern Vibe Festival), back when the local marijuana culture event was still under it's original ownership. The Hempfest videos include two early original songs ("The Truth Will Set You Free" & "Sovereignty"), plus covers of Godsmack's "Awake" and two more Tool songs ("46 & 2" and the channel's most popular upload, "Sober"). A good crowd of festival-goers witness this solid performance, and as you'd expect, Garden of Bedlam definitely knew their way around Tool songs! Also, despite the age of these videos and the lack of zoom, the video & audio quality is more than respectable, with every band member clearly audible!

 

Something New: Almost a year after his final Garden of Bedlam uploads, Evan posted one last video in July 2009 of him playing a solo bass track. He noted in the description that this had "minimal structure right now", and he was seeking input on it, despite turning off comments for the video proper. The song in this form sounds fine, and it sounds familiar, but I don't know off hand if it became a later Garden of Bedlam original. Not bad audio quality either, and hopefully we hear more music from Evan down the line!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Our next randomly selected channel in this series will be YouTube user rubbs001's channel, featuring videos from a band active during Garden of Bedlam's early heyday, namely defunct Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Nixxon Dixxon! Look for this on or around August 26th, and for more news and notes on the site later this week! Thanks everyone!