YouTube Channel Profile Series: Craig Harrison

It's finally time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as again shine a light on a YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk concerts/artists, as randomly chosen from our YouTube subscriptions! This month's selection takes us to Sault Michigan (well, by way of the Lower Peninsula) for a look at a prominent local musician's YouTube output from the late 2000s through the ensuing decade, so here's what you should know!

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Craig Harrison (http://youtube.com/craigharrisonshortdog24)

Owner: Theatre Of Night keyboardist Craig Harrison, also known from past local/Grand Rapids bands like Integrated System Of Machines, End Of Existence, and Dust N' Bones

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 11th, 2008; Videos uploaded from April 2010 through September 2020

Channel Summary: A personal use channel, Craig noted in the description that, as he is "a composer, singer, songwriter, adventurer, etc..., my channel has a bit of weird variety". Most of his 34 videos include in-studio performances, either jams/rehearsals with bandmates or solo performances on keyboard and sometimes vocals. Craig's channel also includes two live concert videos (one of him on stage, one of the mosh pit at a 3 Inches Of Blood show in Detroit), some studio samplers and introductions for Theatre Of Night, and non-musical videos ranging from a comedic rap song to outdoor sports-centric to a timelapse drawing of a zombie to one featuring corrections officers from over 25 years ago.

Why You Should Watch: This channel will primarily be of interest to fans of Craig's 2010s work in Theatre Of Night, giving a bit of a behind the scenes look that is especially notable, as not all of their official content and pages from this era is still online in 2026. The existence of an even rarer I.S.O.M. live video shouldn't be overlooked either! The rest of the videos will have a mixed appeal for most, but Craig wasn't lying about this channel having "a weird variety"! For more recent official Theatre of Night videos, visit that band's active YouTube channel and their social media accounts.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Integrated System Of Machines- I.S.O.M. live: While outviewed by the aforementioned rap song and corrections video, Craig's most popular video otherwise is also his first, which sees his old local epic metal band Integrated System Of Machines playing their self-titled song on the Ozzfest Stage at the annual Carnival Of Chaos Festival in Stanton (four hours south of the Soo) on June 27th, 2009. Joining many other bands as openers for Taproot that day, their exact lineup here isn't 100% obvious, but it is good seeing Craig and singer Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten on stage again, and while the video is shaky, you can't be too harsh for an almost 17 year old concert video, and it sounds good for its age. Strong charging song with a catchy chorus and good aggression without getting too extreme! Yes, that does appear to be Craig's future Theatre of Night bandmate Rachel Mender on backing vocals.

 

 

Darkness Falls Within: A good array of solo performance videos by Craig made their way to his channel, mostly of him on the keys (though Dust N' Bones fans won't want to bypass his singing on some clips), while some of these have extraneous video filters added in post-production. Despite being the primary leader of Theatre Of Night, you don't often see videos that really show off his keyboard skills, and this April 2014 performance of their original "Darkness Falls Within" is as good as any for that. The filter is completely unnecessary, but this is a fine showcase of their epic symphonic qualities with a dark ambiance, so if you're not familiar with their non-Christmas material, this is a good introduction! Hear the full version at this link.

 

 

Late night jam session with Theatre of Night and Flesh for the Beast members: In his final channel uploads aside from a shred video in 2020, Craig Harrison posted videos from an April 2018 jam session featuring Theatre Of Night bandmates Steve Giles (guitar) and Erik Sales (drums) plus guest musicians from their friends in Grand Rapids death metal band Flesh For The Beast, who Steve was an alum of. Both videos (including this 13 seconds-long one) feature different F.F.T.B. members on bass, one presumably being Craig Riley, but Craig H. didn't specify names in the descriptions. There are some odd reflections, as if Craig H. was filming behind glass or plastic, but the performances here are sound, and it'd be neat to see Theatre of Night do more with Flesh Of The Beast, live or in studio! Just a shame that Erik was largely obscured behind that pole from this vantage point.

 

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will be back on or around April 26th, while our next monthly feature post will be our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post tentatively scheduled for Thursday, pending how weekend concert previews are blocked. That's all for now, but look for more on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!