YouTube Channel Profile Series: Agnosticism - Topic

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series returns to kick off a new year with another look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians/concerts, and as luck would have it, we drew an auto-generated YouTube Music channel for a second straight month! Incidentally, this act in question has become this year's first monthly album review pick due to Ha!ls' concert earlier this month, in order to tie in an archival review with a recent concert. Here's what you should know!

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Agnosticism - Topic  (http://youtube.com/channel/UC7Lm8kLNksj62-bk0TnsR3w)

Owner: If anyone, Agnosticism frontman Mikhal Muto, though the channel is auto-generated to facilitate the project's catalogue being available on YouTube Music

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 7th, 2022; Videos uploaded from two days later through July 2024

Channel Summary: This channel exists as the home of Hails/Vanity First guitarist & Apocalypse Afterparty bassist Mikhal Muto's folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism's studio material for YouTube Music streaming purposes, though the songs can be experienced on regular YouTube as normal videos as well. The project's full-length album "Happy Pills" is streamable on YouTube Music, as well as two of their EPs (one being last year's "A Letter Of Resignation"), their most recent standalone single, and three single postings of songs from other releases.

Why You Should Watch: If you want to hear Agnosticism's studio back catalogue, this is a good (if not comprehensive) way to do it, though note that other major streaming services also have these same songs, so pick and choose based on your own preferences for layout, content, and subscription models. Some services, most notably Apple Music, have exclusive content, though not everything there is available for sale, just streaming. Of course, Mikhal does run a standard YouTube channel for Agnosticism, which features "Happy Pills" as well as some standalone uploads and two free EPs not on all streaming services ("Chaotic & Dysfunctional" and "Eat Shit & Die"), which both notably feature songs later taken on by Vanity First, so don't bypass that channel either.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

i'd probably kill myself if i had the motivation: This a slight teaser for our first album review of 2025, which hits the site later this week, but Agnosticism's first album released for sale on iTunes (not just to hear for free) is their September 2022 full length album "Happy Pills". Normally, I would highlight a song that I like the most in this sort of situation, but to avoid skewing my thoughts of the album in advance of my review listen, I'll instead point you to "I'd Probably Kill Myself If I Had The Motivation", a long and emotive song that lets Mikhal spread his wings as an acoustic singer/songwriter. A demo version of this song was included at the end of this album as well. For more in-depth thoughts on "Happy Pills", look for my review of the whole album on the site by Friday!

Song 3: Surprisingly, the most popular Agnosticism song on their YouTube Music channel is the basically untitled "Song 3" from their November 2022 EP "4 Hours", released less than two months after "Happy Pills" (it will be eligible for an album review on the SMS no sooner than July due to my self-imposed 6 month buffer period between reviews of the same project's albums to avoid potentially showing a bias). This spare and short song escalates well with self deprecating jabs at Mikhal's solo music and song lengths, so keep that in mind as an example of his range as a lyricist, even if it can be a little too quick to make out all of the words at points!

Light Pollution: Bypassing me at the time due to (in part) Agnosticism's lack of a true social media page beyond Instagram, their most recent original song on streaming services is "Light Pollution", quietly released on July 9th of last year, with no sign yet of it being part of a new album or EP. Curiously marketed with a picture of Mikhal under a "Happy New Year" banner despite being released 5 months prior to January 1st, this song has a folksier yet fuller structure while still harbouring his distinctive emo/pop punk-inflected vocals, and while I like my Agnosticism to be more intense than this, it's good to hear some new material from Mikhal's acoustic act, and here's hoping for more from them in 2025!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series' second installment of the year will come on or around February 26th, with next month's randomly selected channel finally giving us some actual video content (that moves), namely YouTube user CrazyCarLover1990's channel, featuring 14 videos of Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide live in the early 2010s! Look for that then, and for more news and notes (plus our "Happy Pills" review) this week! Thanks everyone!

Agnosticism - "A Letter Of Resignation" EP Review!!

It's now time for our 179th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're taking a look at local folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism's newest EP "A Letter Of Resignation"! While this is my first time reviewing an EP from this project (whose only social media account is on Instagram), Agnosticism has released two prior EPs (2021's "Chaotic & Dysfunctional" and 2022's "4 Hours"), plus their sole full length album "Happy Pills" in 2022, as well as numerous one-off singles. Quietly and independently released on February 23rd, "A Letter Of Resignation" was solely recorded by prolific local punk guitarist Mikhal Muto, who is better known from his work with Vanity First & Hails and as the second bassist in The Apocalypse Afterparty. You can stream "A Letter Of Resignation" on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Boomplay, and if you want to legally buy it on mp3, it costs $4.95 on iTunes.

Song names below are linked to their YouTube copies, and note that Mikhal labelled the album and songs in all lowercase officially. With five songs running for 15½ minutes, let's begin this EP review with its first song "New Year's Revolution"! Tied with track 3 as the EP's shortest song, this is an intense and speedily performed song that fits the folk punk trappings well, but Mikhal does get a slower bridge to show off his guitar skill. Any fears of this not being that "punk" given that it's acoustic and folksy are eradicated with a piercing scream midway through, and his voice in general is a good match for the subgenre, while also having the melodic tone that would suit a mid-2000s emo band if he was of that era (fans of the songs that he sings with Vanity will know that already). I would like cleaner and more professional recording quality, but this is an effective introduction!

Next up is "Just Promise Me You'll Stay A Little Bit Longer", and if you wanted things to be folksier and clearer in a singer/songwriter sense, you should take to this song moreso. Intense vocals do work their way in there in bursts, but this song just moves along on the same track instrumentally with the only variance in the strumming occurring at the very end. Not a bad song for folk punk fans who value the first half of that sound, and it's easier to get a sense of the lyrics here, but the "punk" side of things and the song's repetitive structure don't help compared to the opening song. Third is "Separation Anxiety", which opens with passionate and somewhat anguished vocals from Mikhal before he takes things into fast paced galloping territory, and he dips into Chase Wigmoresque territory with the aggressive vocal bursts here, so fans of his earlier folk punk albums will like what Agnosticism are cooking up here!

If you liked "New Year's Revolution", you'll like "Separation Anxiety", an equally short and similarly intense listen that captures the best qualities of folk punk! That's followed by "Lips", which isn't as varied and punk-leaning as the odd numbered songs so far, but it arguably allows for Mikhal's best guitar showcase so far, and it does have its passionate vocal moments late. It's definitely got more going for it for guitar riffing and melodies than track #2, and while not as chaotic as Agnosticism at their peak, the structure is well paced to let Mikhal demonstrate his guitar ability in an acoustic setting, so it's worth checking out! "A Letter Of Resignation" closes with its longest and only 3+ minute song, "Attic". This is the slowest and most ballad-like track on offer, and the lyrics seem the most personal yet, especially with all of the name dropping. The vocals are the star of the show here, with his guitar seemingly being an afterthought.

You have to be invested in Mikhal's lyrics and/or vocal style to appreciate "Attic", as the guitar isn't the focus here, and while I appreciate the direct lyrics, it has the same problem as the second song for me: going along on one track without shaking things up or playing up the punk in the folk punk on offer. Fans of "Breathe" from the first Vanity demo might beg to differ, but it's not how I'd have ended the EP. So, how do I grade Agnosticism's new EP? I admit that I'm not a folk punk guy, but Mikhal knows and likes the subgenre and it shows on a solid release for fans! I do think that he should focus more on the intense, rollicking folk punk songs like "New Year's Revolution" and "Separation Anxiety", and you will find more songs like those on earlier releases, but you can tell that he wanted to stretch and play some softer material here too, even if this listener didn't like the singular path on most of the other songs as much.

If Mikhal was born in the late 1980s/early 1990s, he'd have been one hell of a emo frontman during that genre's heyday, and his lyrics are very evocative, but on softer/more serious songs, I would try to still have a varied song structure rather than relying on just the lyrics to carry them. I have yet to formally review earlier Agnosticism releases to compare, but folk punk fans will find a lot to like from "A Letter Of Resignation", and hopefully Mikhal ramps up social media promotion for the project to better promote this and other releases, as there is something there! Buy or stream this EP above, and I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! While I have long stuck by a rule on the SMS that I wouldn't review albums by the same project in consecutive months, two separate bands featuring the same musician have always been fair game, so next month's review will be of Mikhal's main punk band Vanity First's new album "Identity Crisis"!

That album had a higher profile release in April and is currently the last album in our lengthy backlog of new album releases dating back to late 2022, so look for its review on the site next month, and for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

A New Punk Album, New Videos, And Band Link Updates!!

Before we dive into St. Patrick's Day weekend concert previews, here's a new news post on this Wednesday evening, including new videos, updates to our band links, and leading off, a new album release. With all of that said, here's what you should know!

We have a surprise new album release to note on here, as local folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism quietly released a new EP named "A Letter Of Resignation" to major streaming services on February 23rd! Given that this project (led by Vanity First, Hails, and Apocalypse Afterparty alum Mikhal Muto) is only active on social media via Instagram, it could be easy to assume that the album was plugged there and nowhere else, but nope, it wasn't even mentioned there. Mikhal actually told me about the release in a Facebook message, even acknowledging that he hadn't said much about it, so now everyone knows! The five song EP can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and even Boomplay (an Africa-centered streaming service that is getting more attention from local artists in recent months). Yes, this album is on sale on iTunes for $4.95, so it is eligible for a review on the SMS!

This and next month are sewn up with reviews of the newest Heavy Lies The Crown and Convergence albums, but our May 2024 album review will be of Agnosticism for the first time, so what will I have to say about Mikhal's unplugged folk punk originals? We'll know then, but give the opening song "New Year's Revolution" a listen below, and buy/stream this and other Agnosticism albums at the above links!

Next up, here's a new video from one of Iron Mountain, Michigan classic/hard rock cover band Oz's shows at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino earlier this month! Uploaded to the band's Facebook page last week, the video features Oz covering "Somebody's Out There" by Triumph, in what has to be a rare example of a band covering a Canadian song in Sault Michigan. Strong cover filmed from a good angle to capture the whole stage, and I can easily see Oz handling Rush singles if this Triumph cover tells me anything! Give it a look below, and hopefully Oz come back to the E.U.P. soon!

Also today, let's hop back to Sault Ontario for new videos from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations! These were filmed by attendee Christopher Bardawill (who has filmed them before) at their show at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Saturday. The videos were first posted to Christopher's personal Facebook page and then shared to the band's Facebook group. Interestingly, both songs that he filmed are ones where Valerie Powley is not on lead vocals, instead providing backup and playing tambourine. One is a cover of The Eagles' "Already Gone" with guitarist Tony Kajnar on vocals, but embedded below is their cover of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" with bassist Pierre Anthony on vocals. That cover is a little shorter, but I embedded it here because it's a harder rocker and he didn't film it while sitting at a table for the duration, so you get some a much closer side stage vantage point of the band in action here!

I'm no Eagles fan, but that cover and "Magic Carpet Ride" are performed well and make good use of their vocal harmonies, especially on the former! Alas, both videos were shot vertically, which really didn't help the "Already Gone" video's case, but kudos to Christopher for filming on Saturday! Give their newest live videos a watch above & below!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items, all bands newly moved to our inactive band links due to being publically inactive for a year or more. As always, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

 

• The first of the bands moved to our inactive links is local acoustic southern hard rock duo The Bearded Lounge, who last posted band updates or played live on March 4th, 2023 at The Water Tower Pub. Launched in 2017, this side project of Bone Yard appears to have been put on the shelf so that Greg and Alex could include Bone Yard bassist Warren Reville in their unplugged (sorry, "uncorked") gigs, now under the Bone Yard banner, which have continued in the past year. Look for upcoming acoustic Bone Yard shows at The Water Tower Pub and Gateway Casino!
• Also now in our inactive links is local/Edmonton noise punk duo No Funeral, who have not issued any public updates since releasing their self-titled album on Bandcamp on March 5th of last year. Featuring former AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent and his old Flint bandmate Connor O'Brien, No Funeral played one live date at Outspoken Brewing in October 2022, recorded an album while Connor was in town, and that was about it until the album came out. No Funeral were an entertainingly chaotic project, and hopefully they surface again if the stars align!
• Finally, I have moved local/Toronto progressive metal trio PROV3RB5 to our inactive band links. Given the studio-heavy nature of the band (especially as Bryan lives out of town), it's entirely possible that PROV3RB5 have been working behind the scenes for the past year+, but the band has not issued a social media update since guitarist Benjamin Roswell posted a playthrough video on their Facebook page in January of last year. PROV3RB5 are too talented to go away, if I may say so, and hopefully Ben, Bryan, and Phil resurface when the time is right!
  

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!