For our last post of September 2026, here's this month's delayed YouTube Channel Profile! In our monthly look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose uploads are at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts, we have conveniently drawn the channel of a musician covered in this month's album review, so here's what you should know!
Owner:Heavy Lies The Crown guitarist and ex-drummer Jaxon Massaway, also known as a solo musician under the handle Jaxon James
Channel Timeline:Launched on November 9th, 2018; Videos posted from November 2022 through this spring
Channel Summary: Actively uploading videos since a few months after he joined the St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band, Jaxon has uploaded 62 videos here (34 proper videos and 28 "Shorts") over the past four years. Most of his mainline videos are from HLTC concerts, with the rest largely being solo performance videos on guitar and/or vocals, with Jaxon dabbling in his own original metal material in the past year as well. The "Shorts" are mostly brief vertical performance videos, some clipped from his longer uploads, but there is one Heavy Lies The Crown concert video in that section. A couple of videos here are non-musical, either for comedic purposes or to vlog about his time working in the culinary industry at festivals.
Why You Should Watch: "You filthy crowners" will appreciate the Heavy Lies The Crown concert videos here, though note that all come from Jaxon's time behind the drumkit, so you'll want to visit the band's Facebook page to see recent stuff since he moved to guitar. While Jaxon's music taste is more diverse than his band work may let on, he shows a lot of multi-instrumental talent across his solo videos, and a deceptively good voice for both extreme metal and country, so don't bypass what this rising young EUP talent has to offer! Note that the seven released songs in his solo original catalogue are not here, but you can stream them on his YouTube Music channel.
Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:
Choke - HEAVY LIES THE CROWN (LIVE AT THE FRENCH ROAD BASH): Of Jaxon's videos with Heavy Lies The Crown, the best in terms of actually seeing the whole band (as in, not at night and not a drumcam video) comes from their set at the annual French Road Bash in Alpena in August 2022, which they have played multiple times. Heavy were represented here by frontman Brandon West (the only other performer here still in the group) alongside guitarists Ted Olson and Christian Thanasiu and bassist Christian Cook. Between Brandon's long hair and Ted's headless guitar alone, it does give a good nostalgic feeling to see this era of HLTC again, and this performance of "Choke" captures them in their element with solid video and audio quality across the board! He also uploaded a video of "Choke" from their set at Summerbash in Gaylord the previous month.
Your Face - WISP (DRUM COVER): The most viewed video on Jaxon's channel is actually one of his solo cover performances, where he drummed along to the song "Your Face" by the shoegaze/hard rock musician Wisp in April 2024. This is actually Jaxon's only drum cover video, with every other cover here featuring him on vocals and/or guitar. I'm not the biggest shoegaze fan, but there is a Deftonesy vibe to this song, and the recording quality is strong, helping show off the drum skills that got him noticed by HLTC!
VØRRN (THALL): I wanted to highlight one of Jaxon's original songs here, but as already noted, he has kept uploads of his finished original music on the Jaxon James YouTube Music channel (you can also hear those songs on other major streaming services). Only three original pieces are on his own YouTube channel, including a demo named "Peripheral Vision", and two tracks given the project name Thall, one being a 34 seconds-long instrumental. Featured here is his newest Thall song, named "Vørrn" (possibly a misspelling of the German word for "front"). Brutal and technical song that death metal fans should be curious to hear, while also having a touch of shoegaze in the clean vocals, and Jaxon did good work to spice up the video in post-production! No word on if Thall will indeed resurface as a formal side project, but he hasn't posted a new video in the six months since this went live, nor released new original music on streaming.
I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series should return closer to schedule on or around October 26th, so look for that then and for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!
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