It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, where we again shine the spotlight on YouTube channels whose content is at least 50% devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts, all randomly selected as usual! This month's installment is of two channels, as the first only had three audio uploads, so a second channel that I could source two distinct videos from was added to fill things out. Here's what you should know in this all E.U.P. installment, of which the same musician coincidentally factors in both channels!
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Owner: A member of defunct Sault Michigan metal band Great Bodily Harm (exact identity unclear)
Channel Timeline: Launched on October 15th, 2009; Videos uploaded in March & April 2011
Channel Summary: This is the de facto official YouTube channel for the short-lived Great Bodily Harm, who you may remember seeing at a couple of local gigs in early-mid 2011 (including that year's Lemmafest). Their only extant online footprint of note is panzertera's channel, which features audio demos of their songs "You Don't Even Know", "Cuntrol" (sic), and their most popular track, "Jaw Breaker". G.B.H. featured vocalist Kirk Labadie (ex-Hammerspace), guitarist Doug Reed (ex-Half A Man), and future Power Slug bandmates Chris Leask (ex-Highway 63) and Bob Helsten (ex-I.S.O.M.) on bass and drums respectively. It's a shame that extreme metal bands from Sault Michigan never have a long shelf life, as Great Bodily Harm's very Pro-Pain-esque take on groove metal was very much welcomed 12 years ago, and these songs are all entertainingly heavy with some hardcore touches, but follow members' other bands to see what else they've done in the E.U.P. before and since 2011!
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Orb Hearthstone (http://youtube.com/orb609)
Owner: Prolific local metal musician Bob Helsten, a.k.a. Orb Hearthstone, who you may recognize as a vocalist with bands like Integrated System of Machines, End of Existence, and Mugwort, and as a drummer in bands like Clownsack, Power Slug, and Great Bodily Harm, among others
Channel Timeline: Launched on November 25th, 2006; Videos uploaded from April 2012-December 2019
Channel Summary: A personal use channel, Bob has posted six videos here in the past eleven years, including a gag video of a horse-style laugh, while the other five has his own original solo metal music. In the four latter cases, he uses the songs to soundtrack video game footage that he captured, though not always naming the game (the newest one was Teiravon).
Why You Should Watch: While the channel has nothing from Bob's prior local band work, this will be worth checking out for fans of his metal vocals, as the solo material on offer is reminiscent of I.S.O.M. and End of Existence in style and approach! Odd that he would post most of his new original songs this way though, just as soundtrack fodder for gameplay footage, and not always titled with the song's name (let alone that "Dirty Dingos" was only posted as an excerpt), but gamers may feel differently!
Destination: Credited under his I.S.O.M. stage name, Bob's first upload and only song with no video game ties is "Destination", which reminds me of I.S.O.M.'s more melodic material with him not singing in a harsh/extreme style, but adding grit where needed. The song bounces along in a style not unlike something you'd hear out of Sweden, but the thin production is a drawback compared to his band work. Good stuff for fans of his vocals!
I'm not as Eco as I used to be: The most popular video here that isn't of horse laughing, this song is set to video footage from the PC MMORPG game Entropia Universe, and features guest bass from "Refuge MirrorBlack Denied" (no clue who that is). "I'm Not As Eco As I Used To Be" is more of a straight-forward metal song that has a good lively energy and less of the European influence heard elsewhere. Nice change of pace that shows that Bob (a.k.a. "Opeth of Blackwater") can just rock out without going extreme, and Entropia fans seem to like how he edited the gameplay footage too!
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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around July 27th for another two profile installment, as the first randomly selected channel only had two videos from two different events, so I added a single band channel to fill things out with. We're staying in Sault Michigan with YouTube user 2010abstract's channel (featuring two videos of the future Tantrym Tyme) before heading back to Ontario to look at ander101's channel (featuring three performance videos from ex-Bring The Fallen guitarist Andrew Chiarello). Look for those then, and for more news and notes on the site toon! Thanks everyone!
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