Music / Toehider

Just call him Metal Mills.

Toehider is an Australian Progressive Metal project spearheaded by musician Micheal Mills (also works with Ayreon) and artist Andrew Saltmarsh.

Discography:

• Toe Hider (EP, 2008)
• 12 EPs in 12 Months (2009-10)
  • Children of the Sun: A Collection of Under-appreciated Cartoon Themes from the 80's (May 2009)
    • Children of the Sun Part 2: Another Collection of Under-appreciated Cartoon Themes from the 70's, 80's and 90's (2012)
  • Not Much of a Man (June 2009)
  • Old, Old, Old (July 2009)
  • Toehider Too! (August 2009)
  • How Did Counterquistle Lose His Pyjamas? (September 2009)
  • Metaltarsus (October 2009)
  • In All Honesty (November 2009)
  • Under the Mistletoe (December 2009)
  • 9 (January 2010)
  • Do You Believe in Monsters? (February 2010)
  • Never Mind the Hallux (March 2010)
  • Done and Dusted (April 2010)
• To Hide Her (2011)
• What Kind of Creature Am I? (2015)
• Mainly Songs About Robots (EP, 2016)
• "GOOD" (2017)
• I LIKE IT! (2020)

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Trope Hider

• Cover Version:
  • Children of the Sun and its sequel are Toehider's takes on underappreciated cartoon theme songs.
  • He had a minor viral hit (later released as an official single) with a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights". In the original key, no less. Based on a YouTube comment from his channel on an upload of the cover, he now regards it as something of an Old Shame, being displeased with the performance, explaining his original upload's disappearance.

• Deadly Euphemism: Apparently the "[funnythings]" in that cupboard aren't the hilarious kind...
• Design Student's Orgasm: Andrew Saltmarsh isn't the boldest offender but he has his moments.
• Die Laughing: In "[funnythings]" Dake and his cousin hear of a man who literally died laughing in the cupboard whose door they broke off trying to see what's inside. Yikes.
• Epic Rocking: Almost half their material likes to do this.
  • "Meet the Sloth" is 12 and a half minutes long.
  • "....." is neither epic nor rocking but the ambient track runs for over 11 minutes.
  • The entire Done and Dusted EP is basically just 19 minutes of Title Track.
• Heavy Meta: The aptly titled "But Mostly Metal". Comes with a Literal Music Video, too!
• I Am the Band: Mike. Aside from a couple guest appearances and live shows, Mills plays every instrument as well as being a Self-Backing Vocalist on every song.
• Incredibly Long Note: "But Mostly Metal" has Mike holding an F4 for 40 seconds straight!
• Irony: "Millions of Musketeers" yet not a musket in sight.
• Lampshade Hanging: "How Do Ghosts Work?"
• Last Note Nightmare: "Geese Lycan".
  • Kinda inverted, then subverted about 17 minutes later, in "Done and Dusted".
  • "[funnythings]", if you think about it...
• Metal Band Mascot: This dude.◊
• Metal Scream: Averted in most material, but "Geese Lycan" and "GO FULL BORE!" does demonstrate Mike's capability for types 2 and 3.
• Mind Screw: Mike's been fond of this trope even before Ayreon invited him aboard!
• Motor Mouth: "GO FULL BORE!"
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: "Geese Lycan".
  Part goose, part wolf....but I hear he's ALL man ;)
• No Ending: "Toe Hider". According to Mike, this was homage to what Dream Theater did in "Pull Me Under".
• No Title: Possibly all five tracks from 9.
• One-Man Band: In studio. Onstage, Mike plays mostly guitars with session musicians taking over the other instruments.
• Pungeon Master: Mike admittedly likes to make puns.
  • To Hide Her.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: Backup vox is sometimes where Mike tends to hit high notes.
  • Lampshaded in the liner notes of What Kind of Creature Am I?, where backing vocals are credited to "Mike Mills and the Mike Mills Choir".
• Shout-Out: "GO FULL BORE!" drops Bathory and even the DeLorean DMC-12.
• Special Guest: Arjen Anthony Lucassen, of all people, did nifty guitar work on "The Ballad of the Kianpraty".
  • Mainly Songs About Robots features former Black Sabbath and Dio drummer Vinnie Appice on all four tracks.
• Spell My Name With An S: Only recently has Mike changed the spelling of his first name from AE to EA. Arjen confirmed this when the two got to work together again for Ayreon's Transitus.
• Theme Naming:
  • Metaltarsus houses Toehider's most metal songs in their discography, ever.
  • 9 is, well, the ninth release for 12 EPs in 12 Months.
  • Done and Dusted is the last chapter of the 12 EPs in 12 Months collection.
• Title Drop: "Good" seems to double-subvert this, as Mike mumbles the word at the very end of the track instead of singing it.