Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Unleashed

It's time once again for our latest Defunct Local Band Profile, and for what is likely the last time of 2012, we're looking at a broken up or inactive band from Sault Michigan in this monthly feature series! As always, these profiles look at the history, happenings, material, and other information relating to one or two defunct or inactive local metal/hard rock bands, and this month's choice made some waves as a young local presence in their late 2000s run, so read on below for what you need to know, and if anything's missing or incorrect, please let me know!
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Unleashed

Genre: Hard Rock/Punk

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics)

Isaac Terrian, vocals/bass
Jacob Hotlen (Tantrym Tyme), guitar/formerly drums
Chris Verhaagh, drums

Jack Slater (415E, 7/47, The Highest of Fives), guitar
Eli Reilly (Beyond the Surface), guitar
Maddy Lama, bass

Audio/Video: Only two known videos of Unleashed exist in a publically viewable form, both from performances at The Sault Theater in the late 2000s. The first comes from an August 2008 concert, when their original lineup (Terrian, Slater, Lama, and Hotland) covered Pop Evil's "Somebody Like You", as uploaded to Guitar Studio rock camp director Joey Beairl's YouTube channel. The other video, which we're sharing here, is from a Sault Theater event the following summer, where their then-current lineup (with Eli Reilly & Chris Verhaagh now on guitar & drums) covered the Judas Priest classic "Breaking The Law". As uploaded to ex-guitarist Jack Slater's YouTube channel (albeit on a further camera angle), you can check out this cover video below!

   
Info/Analysis: Unleashed were a young Sault Michigan hard rock band that were active from 2008 to 2010. One of many young rock groups formed through local guitarist Joey Beairl's Guitar Studio rock camp, they were primarily visible at Guitar Studio events & at local summer music festivals, including sets at The Sugar Island Music Festival & the Brimley Whitefish Festival, among other events. Though young in age (the members were mostly preteens when they formed), Unleashed did attract positive notices locally, even gaining some coverage in The Soo Evening News in 2009! Public band updates stalled after June 2010 postings on their Facebook page, and they likely dissolved that summer, with some members moving on to newer local music acts. Unleashed seem to be one of the bigger successes from recent Guitar Studio acts, and though the members who still play live have grown a lot since the late 2000s, they did show talent for their ages! Their videos are rough around the edges though, with stiff stage presences, monotone singing, and some errors, but remember, the guys were around 12 years old when they started. Unleashed had some promise, but hopefully their former members realize their potential and continue to build on it in the coming years!
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I hope you guys liked this month's defunct profile! Next month in this series, we'll return to Sault Ontario for our second-last profile of 2012 in this series, and through completely random selection, we'll be taking a look at Amethyst, one of the more prominent late 1980s-early 1990s metal bands in the local scene! Despite their age, they have material online and a posthumous band page, so hopefully I can pull the right material together to make this another entertaining installment of this monthly series, so stay tuned for it on or around November 10th, and stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more in the next little while! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: joeybeairl, bigphatwilly, and kewadincasinos' Channels

As promised, it's time for our last YouTube Channel Profile of 2011, and for the first time in our newest monthly feature series on the SMS, we're focusing on multiple YouTube channels! The first one I randomly chose to profile this month only had one video, so I added extra channels until we had enough to fill a full post with three featured videos, so it's a triple assault of YouTube channels you guys should know about! Below, you'll find out about what each channel offers, the people connected to them, the videos' qualities and contents, and more, so let's start with our first of three profiles below! (Updated on February 4th, 2013)
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joeybeairl's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/joeybeairl)

Owner: Local metal guitarist & Guitar Studio rock camp director Joey Beairl, best known from bands like NoXcape, Krosswalk, Shift, Kickback, and Wild Fate

Channel Timeline: Launched on October 4th, 2007; Only video posted in September 2008

Channel Summary: Despite his impressive resume, the only video on noted local guitarist Joey Beairl's YouTube channel is not of one of his bands. Instead, it's of the inactive Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Unleashed, who were a product of his local Guitar Studio rock camp, which has produced a number of young local bands! Notably, Unleashed's lineup in this video included Joey's stepson Isaac Terrian on vocals, along with 415E/Highest of Fives bassist Jack Slater on guitar, Maddy Lama on bass, and Tantrym Tyme's Jacob Hotlen on drums. Joey's posted video is of an Unleashed performance at a Guitar Studio concert at The Soo Theater circa September 2008, where Unleashed covered Pop Evil's "Somebody Like You"! It's a good cover, and the members of Unleashed show talent for their young ages, though Isaac's singing isn't too varied, and their stage presences are kinda stiff. That said, they were kids in this video, and you know they've gotten better and more confident since! Nice work from Unleashed overall, and their only video that I know of is worth a look if you like listening to young local talent!


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bigphatwilly's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/bigphatwilly)

Owner: YouTube user & likely Sault Ontario resident bigphatwilly (real name unknown, first name likely a form of William)

Channel Timeline: Launched on June 23rd, 2006; Videos posted in September 2010

Channel Summary: Though I know nothing definitive on the identity of bigphatwilly, I do know that Willy was in attendance for Kiss' headlining concert at The Essar Center on August 10th, 2010. He filmed at least two videos there, which were uploaded onto his YouTube channel three weeks later. Though far from the stage & featuring staticy audio, Willy had a nice angle of the action, including a video of frontman Paul Stanley's zipline voyage into the crowd leading up to their performance of "I Was Made For Loving You"! He only captured the first minute of the song, but the video gives a nice glimpse of Paul's flight over the Kiss Army, so it's worth watching on that basis! However, Willy did film a full song at the show, as seen in his video "KISS - Detroit Rock City - Sault Ste. Marie, ON", where the hottest band in the world played one of their signature classics to their fans in the Soo! Same quality as the first video, and the audio really suffers when it gets noisier, but for a good look at Kiss at The Essar Center last year, feel free to lose your mind in "Detroit Rock City"!


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kewadincasinos's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/kewadincasinos)

Owner: Nathan Wright, an area web-site administrator & likely a past or present employee of Kewadin Casino and/or related holdings

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 25th, 2007; Only video posted in September 2007

Channel Summary: Presumably launched as an official YouTube channel for Sault Michigan casino/concert venue Kewadin Casino (though later supplanted by a new channel in 2010), Nathan only uploaded one video onto this Kewadin YouTube channel, that being of footage from hard rock legends Kiss' first stop in the Sault area on July 20th, 2007! Entitled "Kiss Live at Kewadin Casinos in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan", the video features three minutes of footage from when Kiss received the key to the city from City Commissioner (and ex-Rock 101 DJ) Ray Bauer, followed by 30 second clips of the band's opening songs ("Detroit Rock City", "Deuce", and "Makin' Love") at that huge outdoor concert. The video quality's nice, and it's great to see legends like Kiss getting some formal recognition from the city during their first local appearance! Though this channel is inactive and not the primary Kewadin YouTube channel anymore, this video is still a must watch for Kiss fans to relive their 2007 show at Kewadin Casino!


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I hope you guys enjoyed this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! A bit different than our first bunch of posts in this series, but hey, I expected this knowing the amount of YouTube channels with a minimal amount of local metal-relevant videos. Next month though, we're getting back to normal with a one-channel profile to kick off 2012, as we're gonna look at Sault Ontario hard rock quartet Borderline Divine's old YouTube channel! (Technically, it's Stillbroke's channel, but it hasn't been updated since way before their name change.) Still, there's some interesting stuff there from Stillbroke's last year before activity slowed, so look out for this next YouTube Channel Profile on or around January 22nd!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news, concert previews, and Christmas surprises later today or early tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Darwin Project Concert Preview, Plus A New Video, Concert Updates, And More!!

There, now with classes out of the way until Monday thanks to my American Thanksgiving break, I have more news on time today, and there's some good stuff to share this evening! So tonight's stories include updates on a major concert next month, three new Facebook pages from a trio of local bands, and a new concert video from a recent Kewadin metal show, but we will begin with an oddity: A mid-week local concert preview! Also make sure to check out my Total Chaos concert review below this post!

Just four days after rocking Rudyard, Cheboygan hard rockers The Darwin Project are coming back to Sault Michigan for a one night only concert at a venue we don't hear too much from! Yes, TOMORROW NIGHT, The Darwin Project will headline a show at The Savoy Bar on West Portage Avenue, which is in the same general area as The Corner Pub Bar & Grill, just in case you forgot where it was! I know they've hosted concerts before, but I can't think of any notable metal/hard rock ones off hand, but it should be cool! Now I don't believe this show has any weird or notable quirks compared to other local stops, aside from the weekday scheduling, so just expect some great hard rock if you go see them tomorrow night! There is a 10:00 PM start time, no announced cover charge, and because it's a bar, expect a 21+ age limit. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If you're looking for some live music tonight, The Darwin Project's brand of alternative hard rock is a nice option! They come here often, but who knows when they'll be back, so make the most of it this weekend, as they have some great tunes in store tomorrow night! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's The Darwin Project playing their original song "Do You Want It" from a concert in January!



Next up, here's the latest updates on Lion Ride's local return next month! A new Facebook event page has been launched to hype their December 28th show at The Canadian Nightclub, replacing the old one which was deleted earlier today. The big news out of this is the announcement of the opening bands, and if you were expecting metal or punk, than you'll likely be a bit disappointed. Don't worry though, there is quality music! The first openers are local country/punk quintet The Billy Bastards, who've developed a good local following with their unique brand of music that definitely calls into the more extreme underground brands of country than anything commercial! Plus, John Conway & Aaron Gibbs of Harsh Heads fame are members, so that's notable on the metal side of things! Joining them as openers are the local indie band named The Pinecones. Just like Wojtek from the Zombie Walk afterparty, I have to admit: I've heard of them, but I've never heard them, so I can't share a lot on them. They played at this summer's Clusterfolk concert and at numerous acoustic shows, including a Relay For Life fundraiser, but I can't tell you much else about them yet. The only other real update is the poster on your left, which looks pretty cool! Hopefully I'll see you guys at this concert, it'll be a good one! Check out the above links for more, and note that on their MySpace page, they now say their new album is "coming soon", eliminating the previous "fall 2010" timeframe. Interesting, I'll keep you posted!

Thirdly, here's a brand new local concert video from a recent major concert at Kewadin Casino! This comes from last month's Sevendust concert, in just the second video we've seen on YouTube from it, but shockingly, it's also not of Sevendust! This is of another of the opening bands, Florida Christian metal quartet Since October playing their single "Guilty"! This comes from YouTube user iamdickard's channel, and it appears to have been shot with a cell phone camera. That being said, it's just 39 seconds long, the audio is VERY scratchy, and it's best you listen to this on low volume to make out the song the best. The video quality isn't bad, but it's darkness helps lessen the good angle it was shot from. It's not the clearest or longest video we've seen from recent major concerts, but it works well enough, and hopefully we get more from the Sevendust show soon! Check out this new video below!



And finally, here's three quick updates all revolving around the same general topic: Newly discovered Facebook pages of local metal/hard rock bands! Each band name below sends you to their Facebook page where you can become their fan! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Sault Michigan hard rockers Elipzis launched their new Facebook page this past weekend! It features individual event pages for their four upcoming Michigan concerts (none local) but I did add them to the out of town concert listings on the SMS! Aside from those, the information is mostly stuff we've seen on their other pages, but become a fan today, as updates are sure to roll in there!
• Fresh off of their debut performance on Sunday, local grimecore trio Shit Liver have launched their own Facebook page as well! It features some interesting quotes in their description, a photo from the Total Chaos show, and a discussion board topic on if the band should sell t-shirts. If you like these guys, become a fan today, help get the page going!
• Guitar Studio rock camp alumni Unleashed have a Facebook page that I only recently came across! Though information is sparse, it does confirm the band's current lineup and the members' last names, which weren't given on their MySpace page. Unleashed now features singer Isaac Terrian (Shift frontwoman Amy Beairl's son) who also now plays bass, replacing Maddy Lamma, plus drummer Jake Hotland & new guitarist Chris Verhagh (replacing Eli Riley.) No updates have been posted since June, but become a fan, cause you never know what'll be coming!

That's all for today, but I have more news and notes to come very soon, so keep an eye out! Thanks everyone!