It's been a incredible year down here on planet WttW. Throughout it, we worked with dozens of amazing local acts at venues stretching far across the state. From Detroit to Lapeer, to Lansing and beyond to Grand Rapids, we captured high definition moments in time that can be viewed for generations to come. Now that the year has come to an end, it's time to find out which of your favorite bands made the cut for the top ten most viewed videos of 2013!
#10 - Past Tense
"You Can't Bring Me Down/Caught in a Mosh"
Adam Ray of All Ends Black had us out for the second year in a row to film his yearly event "Capital City Chaos", this time held at Uli's Haus of Rock. Classic thrash and power metal cover band Past Tense played a highly entertaining and accurate set of everyone's favorite old metal tunes, including the two in this video that they opened with; "You Can't Bring Me Down" by Suicidal Tendencies, and "Caught in a Mosh" by Anthrax.
 |
| Click this to watch the video (it wouldn't let me embed) |
#9 - Saprogenic
"Removing a Phantom Limb"
Legendary Michigan brutal death metalers Saprogenic headlined Diddybop Entertainment's 4/20 Metal Bash at the Token Lounge in Westland, and boy did they lay waste to those still left standing after such a heavy line-up before them featuring GutRot, Nightkin, Meat Beastly, Domestic Terror, Two Neck Noose and Kill Whitey. It was my very first time seeing them live, and they played quite a bit of new material from the yet-to-be-released new crushing album "Expanding Towards Collapsed Lungs", such as this years ninth most viewed WttW video, "Removing a Phantom Limb/Expanding Towards Collapsed Lungs".
#8 - Manic Outbust
"Warstorm"
# 7 - Konkeror
"I, Monolithic"
Though technically filmed in 2012, the Konkeror dudes managed to slip onto the eligibility list because this video wasn't released until January 3rd 2013. I cannot praise enough how good this band is, and their album "The Abysmal Horizons" has not left my playlist once the entire year (thank you again for the CD guys!). Even though it's only 720p, and filmed with our crappier set-up, it's still one of my favorite of all my videos. They also filmed an official music video with Santa Carla Films in the summer, which you can see here. This amazing live performance of album opener "I, Monolithic" garnered them enough views to land at #7 on our countdown. Hopefully we will work with them again in the near future with our better equipment.
# 6 - Execrate
"Tomb of the Self Ingested"
Lapeer MI's Execrate lands solidly in the middle of this years WttW top ten with a live performance from when they closed out Damagefest 2013 at The Machine Shop. This is another one using our old camera set-up, so it is only viewable in 720p, but this video does mark the second time only that we used audio direct from the soundboard instead of our own captured audio. We were supposed to film them with our new equipment at DaleFest, but ended up being rained out. We did however film them recently at The Detroit Pub, so be on the lookout for the new vids very soon!
Execrate live at The Machine Shop during Damagefest
#5 - From Blue to Gray
"Get Up and Kill"
The longest song we ever filmed is this rarely played 10 minute epic, "Get Up and Kill", by Mount Pleasant metal heavyweights From Blue to Gray received steady views throughout the year, which just goes to show that they have what it takes to keep an audience at attention. It also doesn't hurt when you have a bass player who can throw down like Jordan Myers can, not to take anything else away from the other guys, because the entire band excel at their chosen instruments. They opened the first ever Damagefest with a panache rarely seen from an opening act, and luckily we were able to capture it. This is another band that we hope to work with again in 2014.
The epic live performance of "Get Up and Kill" by From Blue to Gray
#4 - Nightkin
"Air So Foul"
If you wanna talk about some heavy shit, then look no further, because Nightkin is fucking heavy. It's not hard to see why though when you find out that Nightkin consists of 1 part The Red Chord, courtesy of Mike "Gunface" McKenzie on vox; 2 parts The Black Dahlia Murder (ex-members Zach Gibson and Dave Lock); and 2 parts local Detroit phenoms (Matt Gauntlet and Matt West). Needless to say we were extremely psyched to find out that they hopped on the very last minute, and was going to play their second ever live show during Diddybob Entertainment's 4/20 Metal Bash event at The Token Lounge. The two songs that we filmed had no song titles as of that time, and were simply given numbers for titles. Now known as "Air So Foul" on their recently released ep that you can purchase here, the formerly titled "#5" is the number four most viewed video of 2013.
Nightkin with "Air So Foul" during their second ever live performance
#3 - GutRot
"Beavis & Butthead theme/Gorging on Menstrual Chunks"
The masters of Michigan brutal death/grind, GutRot, took the number three slot in this years top ten, with this punishing video of them opening their set during the 4/20 Metal Bash at the Token with an ode to the Mike Judge masterpiece, Beavis & Butthead, even wearing the appropriate garb for the performance, and then charging forcibly into "Gorging on Menstrual Chunks". Even minus a bass player for the night, it is really, really goddamn heavy. Word on the streets is they will have some brand new material out in the near future!
#2 - To Be Fed
"Commonwealth Cannonade" (Official Music Video)
The debut official music video from Welcome to this World Video Productions featuring the song "Commonwealth Cannonade" by avant-garde metal band To Be Fed ended up being the second most viewed video of the year at the WttW YouTube channel. That is not even counting the 1,800+ views for this one that Blank TV's YouTube channel hosted. It was filmed over 3 days in late August/early September on location in TBF's hometown of Melvin MI. We are extremely proud of the outcome and are looking forward to finding out which will be the next band to work with us on their next music video.
The official music video of "Commonwealth Cannonade" by To Be Fed
#1 - Nightkin
"Undivine"
The only band to make this years list twice, the mighty Nightkin easily ruled the realm of WttW in 2013 with over 4,000 views since it's May 14th premier, although probably 50 of them are mine alone. A lot of those views came from the fact that the Metal Injection and Metal Sucks blogs both posted the videos, one of them even had the headline "Killer Live Footage of NIGHTKIN..."! "Undivine" is my personal favorite tune from their recently released self-titled debut E.P., and this live version of it is just as good as that recording. Here is the most viewed WttW video of 2013...
Nightkin performing "Undivine" during their 2nd show ever
2013 was an amazing year for us here at Welcome to this World, and we thank everyone out there who has helped us become what we are so far. We look forward to growing and putting out tons more high quality Full HD videos for you all to enjoy. If you know of any bands or promoters that are in need of what we offer the local music community, then do them a favor and send them are way, they will thank you for it. Who knows, they may just end up on the most viewed videos of the year list for 2014?!
- Ian Pfister
Creator/Destroyer at
No comments:
Post a Comment