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!

Two New Woods Of Ypres-Centric Interviews From Metal Health!!

Single topic post today for this long weekend, as we're discussing some new interviews relating to a very prominent and dearly missed local metal band that popped up online in the last week. Here's what you should know!

Woods of Ypres fans will want to take notice, as two important figures in the local black/doom metal band's history were recently interviewed on the YouTube interview series Metal Health! Hosted by musician & stand-up comedian Robbie Stevenson (who is based out of Southern Ontario), he is self-described as "a schizophrenic recovering drug addict", and you can expect discussions in that realm alongside music discussion in his interviews with metal musicians and fans. Huge kudos to friend and long-time reader Mike Boychuk for letting me know about Metal Health, and he was actually interviewed by Robbie in this episode, which does include references to the local scene (the AlgomA shirt should give that away!) The two newest episodes relate to Woods of Ypres, starting with last week's interview with ex-drummer Evan Madden, who was behind the kit in their Sault Ste. Marie-based doom era from 2008-2011.

Readers will recall Evan from Woods' last three local dates, "Woods IV: The Green Album", and the "You Were The Light" sessions that led to the "Home" single & the unreleased EP that will allegedly be part of Earache Records' "Woods V" reissue (source here). As for the Metal Health episode, Robbie instantly proves his fandom by showing off his physical copies of "Woods IV" and "Home", so we're in good hands in this regard. The interview starts with Robbie and a now bald Evan discussing how he joined Woods of Ypres in 2008, their Gates of Winter-infused sextet lineup at the time (Robbie saw that lineup live in Toronto), Evan's current music projects like Drones For Queens, a memorable story from touring with Woods, how he heard about & reacted to frontman David Gold's death in December 2011, and his favourite bands. The audio quality on Evan's camera is somewhat abrasive, but this is a good interview that keeps things light!

Robbie has good questions, and while he still feels somewhat new to interviewing, he does come across as honest and as a true fan. His asides about his own mental health issues and personal experiences add a genuine touch, even if they sometimes veer off topic. Give Evan's interview a watch at this link or above! The second interview is embedded below, and it is actually with David's mother Esther Gold (a.k.a. Mama Gold) who has been heavily active with Woods of Ypres' fan community since his passing, as any member of the band's fan club Facebook group will know, and who accepted Woods' Juno Award in 2013 on David's behalf (as seen here). After elaborating on his Woods fandom, Robbie starts by talking to Esther about what music David listened to, his early experiences discovering music, switching from sports to music, and learning the drums, his teaching aspirations and ESL teaching stint in South Korea (including his joining Necramyth there.)

Afterwards, Esther reflects on learning about David's death (I admire her composure and candor), and she acknowledged that Woods of Ypres were planning a European tour in 2012, followed by David planning to return to teaching overseas in Dubai, and even to record a Nick Cave-inspired solo album. That's followed by Robbie and Esther discussing "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" and it's musical and personal impact, especially with fans contacting her to say how much Woods of Ypres and their music has affected them, and how she has became a mother figure for many fans in the past decade. This interview had less finite questions, but that was a good call, as Robbie let Esther reminisce about her son and what he brought to the world, and it's extremely clear that she loves and misses David, and I'm sure she has many more great stories to tell about his life and music than one 28 minute interview could contain. Really good interview, so give it a watch below, and see much more from Metal Health above!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

Woods of Ypres & Rock 101 News, Plus New Videos!!

Hey guys, here's some more news before we preview this weekend's concerts tomorrow, but also remember to check out our Jeff Nisbet profile in the post below this one! Today, we have some surprising lineup news from a local band, a cool new update from Rock 101, and some new videos (including this week's classic video), but first, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert. Apparently, Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Monkey's Uncle played a show at Golanka's Bar (The Bird) on June 18th, as cited on The Bird's Facebook page. I apologize for missing the show for SMS coverage, but in all fairness, the band never announced it themselves, and The Bird only announced it the day of the show. Hopefully it went well, they're a solid band! Now to the news! (Edited July 2nd at 2:33 AM)

According to a few different pages, local blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres have parted ways with bassist Shane Madden & drummer Evan Madden. Postings on a topic on Woods of Ypres' forum and Evan Madden's personal Twitter account seem to confirm the surprising news. I won't quote anything that Evan said online to try to avoid the negative feelings expressed (and to remain impartial; we only have one side of the story here), but let's just say that the split doesn't sound amicable. I haven't heard a concrete reason from any source for the Madden brothers' apparent departure, but from past experience, I imagine Woods of Ypres won't acknowledge lineup changes until new members are found. If true, this news is really surprising, as the band's current lineup seemed stable & successful! Evan had been Woods of Ypres' drummer since frontman David Gold's return from South Korea in 2008, while his brother Shane replaced Steve Furgiuele as their bassist before their summer 2009 tour run. Both Madden brothers were featured on "Woods IV: The Green Album" & the "Woods 4.5" sessions that led to the "Home" vinyl release this spring.

I won't pass judgement on anyone connected to the band over the split, as again, I don't know both sides of the story. It's unfortunate to see Evan and Shane leave, but they do have a bunch of great bands in Philadelphia to focus on too, like The Green Evening Requiem, so hopefully they have lots of music in store for us metalheads! As for Woods of Ypres, hopefully they'll be back soon as well, and though the split is disappointing, I know David & Joel will be sure to have some great stuff up their sleeve for "Woods V" and beyond! I'll keep you guys posted!

Next up, here's some new updates from Rock 101, our local FM rock radio station! I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had this problem, but one of my qualms with Rock 101 over the years was the lack of a formal request line. Only The Hair Scare ever seemed to have regular song requests from listeners (if I can remember correctly.) Well now, Rock 101 has an official toll free request/contest line where you can call in to ask for certain songs and enter contests! The number is 1-855-876-2536 (or 1-855-8-ROCK-FM), and can be used FOR FREE on both sides of the border! You can use this number to call in for any occasion where the Rock 101 crew asks for callers, like during contests, request hours, and so forth. This appears to be a relatively recent addition to the station, and gets prime placement on Rock 101's website too, so take advantage of their new toll free number and get calling for whatever interests you at The Sault's Rock Station at 101.3 FM!

We'll close this post with new videos, and firstly, here's some new solo material from local guitarist Mike Cliffe! Mike has posted two new songs on his Reverbnation page, so here's what you should know! One is called "Shut The Front Door", which mixes a low volume hard rock instrumental with experimental talkbox-like effects to create an interesting little song that should wet the appetite of Mike Cliffe fans who've missed heavier original songs! The other new song is entitled "Rainy Day Romp", which is a shorter track but very heavy, using some slightly distorted riffing and a slow building pace to show off Mike at his rocking best! Very solid 2:20 of hard rocking there, but both of his new songs are worth checking out, so do so at the above links! Mike has also uploaded "Rainy Day Romp" onto his YouTube channel just yesterday, accompanied by a "raining fire" visualization of some type, which fits the song pretty well (typo in the title aside), so check out his video for "Rainy Day Romp" below, and get lots more from Mike Cliffe's solo project at the pages linked above!



And finally, here's this week's classic video! With Lion Ride back in town on Saturday, you may have expected this week's video to be of them again, but actually, we're gonna look at frontman Mikey Hawdon & guitarist Mark Rand's old band Detroit once again! During their 2008-2010 run (also featuring former bandmate & Maximum RNR frontman Brenton Ellis and his The Labour Of... bandmate Curtis Faux), Detroit tore up local and Toronto-area stages with their trademark short and brutal originals, and many of these shows took place at Toronto's famed Bovine Sex Club. A common sight there is area promoters' The Pink & Black Attack's Tuesday night concerts, and Detroit were part of a bunch during their active period. This video comes from one circa January 2010 (unsure of the exact date) in what may have been their last show before they went inactive! It's of Detroit playing their original song "Shithouse Ratt" from their original "Let The Hammers Fly" demo, and it's of pretty good quality! Trademark Detroit sound, and though the colour contrast makes Brenton yellow closer to the stage, it's well shot with a good camera!

This video was shot by attendee Misad Justdna Venture, who uploaded the video to her personal Facebook page not long after the show. The original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=236702511915 and I mean NO HARM with this upload! It's one of the very few Detroit videos not on YouTube, and it deserves a wider audience! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! With that said, check out Detroit playing "Shithouse Ratt" at one of their last concerts below, and for more Pink & Black Tuesday sets from Detroit from mid-2009, head to this link, click "Uploads", and search for "Detroit"!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for concert previews for shows taking place tomorrow-Saturday in our next post! Shows on Monday will likely be profiled Sunday night. Stay tuned, and remember, our 4th anniversary is in FIVE DAYS!!!