Metalheads Podcast Episode #149: The Equal Opportunity Pizza Eater featuring David Gregor of Morta Skuld

This episode we are joined again by David Gregor of Morta Skuld. David talks about the latest album, Creation Undone, the band’s tour in South America, Alice Cooper, and his love of pizza (as well as what make acceptable toppings.) We also talk about the recent Decibel Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia, and we learn about the origin story for TR’s newest nickname, The Linchpin. And of course all the usual segments: News, New Releases, What We Are Listening To, T-Shirt and Beer Check and finally, Picks from the Crypt. 

What is Metalheads Podcast?

Metalheads Podcast is a metal-themed podcast featuring George, Jay, Will, John, Matt and Markisan. The guys discuss metal news and new releases, perform in-depth interviews with great metal bands, and just generally have a blast arguing about that greatest of musical styles: Metal!

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Now, here is the podcast, Metal Heads Podcast.

Hello, and welcome to the Metal Heads Podcast.

My name is George.

This is Jerry.

This is John.

And we are joined today by Dave Greger from Mortis Gold.

Welcome back, Dave.

Thank you for having me again, guys.

Hell yeah, man.

Yeah, excellent.

Glad you could make it back. It was a little bit of work making this happen. We talked to Dave for a second before we just did our launch here, but now I suddenly hear the Wisconsin accent like big time. Oh, really? Yeah, I heard it. Wouldn't it? Yeah. Oh, no. That's part of his day. No escaping that one. No escaping that one. No. It's not quite Fargo, but you know, it's Midwest. Close enough. Yeah. So thanks for,

making some time with us today back in February. Thank you, man. I'm sorry. My schedule is so crazy this last month. It was like, wow, it's just weirder than normal. Yeah, it's what it is, but we made it work. Absolutely. And back in February, Mortis called released your seventh album creation undone on Peaceville records. Congratulations on that. Thank you. How was it kind of watch? We're all friends with, with Dave on Facebook. So it's kind of, it's fun to watch the stages. There was recording. There was like recording guitars today.

All of a sudden there's records. Yeah. Yeah. I try to keep that fresh too. You know, I think some, I don't think everybody really, not so many people care about it, but there are some people, you know, that do like to see that stuff. And yeah, you like to see the progress and the development. See how the sausage is made. Yeah, exactly. I think you'd be surprised. I think a lot of people do. I think it's just, yeah, it's more of a dying burrito. Yeah, it really is. No, it really is. Cause I noticed even like on Facebook or Instagram, you'll post something like, Hey, we're tracking guitars today.

people like it and nobody comments. You're like, wow, like this is weird. 10 years ago or when, even five years ago, man, you would have had a whirlwind of people. And I don't know if that's because maybe there's more bands out there, maybe. Because I kind of feel like there's more bands and less fans sometimes. And I don't know if that's just me, but. Yeah, there's the algorithm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But also, it's an old guy thing too, though. I mean, I think as old liner note readers and staring at the back of album covers, that's the kind of context.

That guy's already like. No, and I, dude, I completely, Jay, I completely agree with you on that. And I noticed that in the demographics of our fans. You see the difference between the older fans and the younger fans and what the older fans like versus what the younger fans like. Yeah. Interesting. So how was it recording the new album? Facebook posts aside. What was that last part? Facebook posts aside. Yeah. The details in between. Yeah.

The Last Record Suffer for Nothing. So same guy, same studio. It's always a different process. It's never the same. He never does the same thing every time. So he'll switch stuff up, whether we're going to record this first or record that first, or hey, let's try that. Let's try this. This time, man, I honestly do not like it on Bandjah. This is our best record, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. I think this is our best record. I mean, the guitar tone, I'm never happy ever with guitar tone. I'm never

I'm never happy with anything after we're done with the studio record. I usually don't go back and listen to it. Once we're done, that's it for me. But this record, I've listened to it. We've gone back to it. We used my guitar rig this time. I got a little bit of a different preamp rig going on. We did right through a cabinet. We just right off the bat was like, okay, this is the guitar tone. This is it. We're going to track with this. I don't know, man. I just think the stars aligned for us.

at this point, because everything on the album, I mean, from what I've heard on the reviews, just all the reviews across the board, like the guitar sound good, the bass sound good, the drums, it overall just sounds sonically good. And I'm very happy with it. I mean, we did master with a different person this time, so I don't know if maybe that was the magic touch, but it definitely was a fun process. Like if it did a couple of different things, I didn't really double track a lot of the vocals like I normally do. We solo wise, I double track all my solos, which I usually

We don't do. Kind of give it like that Randy Rhoads kind of feel or a sound. And just really, we just, I don't know, we just did. We just had fun with it. We just went in, did our thing, and we didn't really feel pressured or nothing. And we felt all the songs were good. And that's the one thing we really focused on were the songs. We can, because we had started writing a year, like three years ago already, maybe three, four, whatever it was. And we had a whole year of writing.

And we basically got to a point where we were jamming with a different guy. Scott had left the band. We were jamming with this new guy, wrote a bunch of songs. He left the band. Scott came back. And then it was just, I don't know what it was. We just kind of started writing at that point. And we just had, we had four or five songs and we were like, you know what? And I think three of them were like mine that I wrote. I was like, I don't know. I kind of like, we had started a brand new song and I'm like, I kind of like this direction. So we canned a lot of material and really focus on each song.

as a song. So instead of writing a song and then playing it and then starting to write it, we just, every session was focused on just writing a song or finishing what we had to start. It kind of makes this your pandemic record too a little bit then, doesn't it? Because if it was three years, so you guys started this during the pandemic, I'm thinking. Yeah. Maybe after. Yeah. Yeah. Sometime after that. Yeah. Because 2020 was what, Suffer for Nothing? And yeah, probably like 2021. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. We had started.

So go with the whole you made your best record thing. A lot of people made their best record during this. Yeah. You know, like I said, I always hated saying that because I feel, you know, I'm biased. I'm in the band and all that. But like, I just, I don't know. I just really like, I can listen to the record now and not go like cringe or suffer for nothing. I feel that that was a good record, but there are a couple of tracks in there that I feel like we could have left off. And that was a weird process too, because

was our bass player at the time and he just started writing songs as he was leaving the band and we were like this is weird like he had just started writing and then all of a sudden boom i'm leaving the band so it was kind of a transition uh and this one like i said this one just felt really good we just kind of took our time with it and just like we're just gonna we want to write we wanted to write decent songs and we wanted to write what we wanted to hear yeah so this sounds like go ahead john uh sorry i was just gonna

I follow up just real quick with something George it sounds like a lot of bands say that because they're trying to promote their album but it sounds like what you're saying is that the whole experience also plays into you feeling this was maybe your best effort and I think that's interesting because I wish more bands would be more honest about that and say it's almost more the whole process that makes this our best album because we feel so good about it usually they're just hawking their album because they're trying to get sales and usually those bands you're like well this is not exactly

their best album.

You know, so I just, that's what it sounds like you were saying just now.

Yeah, yeah.

I just wanted to get that in.

Yeah, like the whole writing experience, we weren't, like in the past, we would,

we'd write a song and then next rehearsal, we'd rehearse that song and then start writing

a song.

And I noticed with this record, we didn't do that.

We just went into a brand new song.

We, we just continued on.

I mean, literally we were spending like each rehearsal, probably two or three hours and

just honing the song and going, do we like this? Do we like that? I don't know. And just kind of going through it. And then once the song was done, we just put it on the shelf and then we move forward. And I think what it did for us is it gave us more of a fresh, each practice was fresh. You know what I mean? Like you weren't like doing a whole set and then trying to write material. And we've done that before. We're like, okay, we're going to rehearse a whole set and then we're going to start writing material. And then by the time you rehearse a set and start writing material, you're tired, you're at the end of your day or whatever.

And this was totally different. And yeah, the whole process was just, I don't want to say different, but just it was a good experience. And with David Terrell mastering it, man, I mean, it wasn't like we were throwing stuff back and forth. It was like he threw us a mastery list and then we're like, yeah, can you do a little list? Yep. Okay. Boom. Done. Okay. We're great. We're there. Oh, Terrell mastered this. Oh, well, no wonder it's great. Well, yeah, we were running him. Well, the story is he was supposed to master something for nothing.

And what happened was, boom, it's just time. He got bogged down, and he just couldn't do it within the time frame we needed it. So Chris DeJurek, which is our studio guy, did everything. He tracked it, he mixed it, he mastered it. And this time around, I really pushed the label. I was like, no, I want somebody separate mastering it. I want a whole fresh set of ears on this. And yeah, he knocked it out of the park, man. He really did. Yeah, I think just the levels are great.

Nothing got like squashed or sometimes in some,

sometimes in mastering you can,

you know,

you can squash certain parts or certain parts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So is that an industry term?

What was that George?

Brick wall.

That's where you compress it.

So that'll actually come up later.

Okay.

When we talk about the new high on fire album.

Oh shit.

Yeah.

But yeah,

brick walling is where they compress it so much that the,

The waveform is just a straight line. There's no ups and downs. Ups and downs, ebbs and flows. Yeah. And it, I mean, it sounds good, but it's also a little flat. High volume too. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There's a guy. Cause that's one thing we always do. Hey man, it's gotta be louder. It's gotta be louder. It's gotta be louder. And on this record, we were like, all right. Cause we actually like, Hey man, can you make it a little bit louder? Well, I can, but here's why I don't want to. We're like, okay.

And I figure, yeah, that's what the volume knob on your system is for. You're turning it up. Which, John, I think I already know the guy you were about to reference. There's a guy on Rate Your Music who's got close to 26,000 ratings on there. And you always take ratings with a grain of salt because you don't know if it's competition, if it's just somebody who doesn't like the genre, whatever. But his big thing is loudness wars.

And I don't think he listens to anything. If he hears what he thinks is the loudness war, he gives it a 0.5 score out of five. Like I said, he's got close to 26,000 ratings. He's got, I think, close to 7,005 ratings on Rate Your Music. He's not even listening to the albums. He's just like, the production sucks in my mind. This whole album sucks. I just want to punch this guy in the face. I don't care that he calls out to production.

But I don't think you ding an album to the worst score possible because of anyway, when you mentioned that George Brickwalling, I just started laughing because I thought of this guy because he crapped on a couple albums that I really liked this year. And I just want to comment. But I know I'm not that guy. I'm not just going to get into a flame war online. Yeah. Warrior. I mean, sometimes it's fine and sometimes it's not. I'm not. I agree. I'm a production snob sometimes. But as long as it sounds good. Sometimes. Sometimes. I was going to say. Every once in a while.

That sentence was one word too long, George. And that you've heard Marcus's voice now has joined us. Welcome, sir. Yep. Hello. And hi, David. Good to see you again. Hello. You too, my friend. How's Illinois treating you? Pretty good. Pretty busy lately. But yeah, I love it. I love being back in Chicago for sure. Nice. Did you go to Violence last week? I did not. Okay. Fair enough. No. Was that last weekend? Yeah, Reggie's. No. Oh, we were in Decibel. Yeah, we were in Philly. Oh, okay. I was Decibel.

Awesome. Who was the highlight? When you game one band, you're like, they were... Two Mold. Two Mold. Really? 200 stab wounds, I think. I know Marcus doesn't agree. And Crowbar. They sounded good. They're just not my favorite. But yeah, Two Mold was the highlight. Yeah. Nice. I don't know. Who else? They're on the same agency that we're going to be signing to. Oh, really? Heavy talent. So, yeah. Nice. I really like Deva a lot, too. I thought they brought it. Deva?

Pretty good. Yeah. The guy basically half a Crip sermon. They're like, like black and thrash. Okay. They're pretty awesome. Very good. I think the record came out last year, right? Or two years ago. Yeah. Check out their last record. I think you might take it, David. It's good stuff. So you got, you, you had the same crew on this album as the last album, right? Yep. Yep. Same guys. So was that maybe an adult?

a traditional bit of like comfort and that you didn't have to learn somebody in the studio again or oh yeah i mean all it was the second record with john and this is like the third record with eric and then and the third record with scott so and scott i mean all eric scott i mean we're i mean we're all seasoned veterans so it yeah i never worried about anything or like that i mean i knew everybody was going to do their job and do it to the best of their ability and we just went in there took care of business and that's kind of i think what

We always really do regardless of who's in the band. Nice. I did read some reviews. We were talking about how good the album is, and I did not see a single bad review. I did see a couple of... Yeah, there's a couple like... I can't think off the top of my head who, but yeah. There's a couple I'm like, oh, wow. Well, screw them. You know what I mean? I don't know, man. We live in that age, dude. Everybody's got an opinion, and we're one of those bands. I always tell people we're the Roddy Dangerfield of Death.

I feel like it's like we put out this record and there's still somebody that's

gonna shit up you're like really dude come on that's the internet age one guy called me Chris Barnes and I'm just like what oh god no I was like whatever I don't care man Barnes sucks yeah angry metal guy didn't didn't shit on it they gave you a three which for angry metal guy that could be great a lot of times yeah no no he's a 4.5 and he liked it exactly Marcus then you know decibel was real like oh really they didn't want they didn't want to review it I was kind of

I was really mad at them because I was pushing my publicist I said hey man when's Decibel

gonna review it yeah they passed really have her mouth passed they passed I'm like what

what is the deal with these guys it's a good record like why I was like fine and then the

there's a gal from Decibel that interviewed me and that's right they interviewed you but they

couldn't review it exactly and she interviewed me she asked me three questions and that was it

And I was like, wow. I raced home from my job at lunchtime to get on. And I was, it literally took me less than 10 minutes. Wow. All right. But I don't know, man. I know. So like I said, we're not the flavor of the month, man. We're Ronnie Dangerfield. It is what it is. Well, I read, but you know what? I'm happy with the record. That's all that matters. I'm happy with it. I think a lot of other people are from what I was reading. A lot of the fans were really into it. And like you said, I didn't really hear a lot of like,

negative or really poor reviews. So, hey, it is what it is. It would have been nice to get on, like, Blabbermouth because they have a great exposure, things of that nature. But I don't know. Just it is what it is. Their volume is, like, pretty low on reviews these days in general. I feel like I don't see a lot of new. I mean, I always just look in the margins. So I don't know. Maybe there's a shit ton of them. But yeah. Yeah. Well, they're talking about the stupidest shit, like Stephen Adler's lunch or something like that. They are. So and so says this. And then the next article.

Well, he says this, and you're like, how is that news? I don't know. I think the guy who runs it made that comment that he wants to provoke those kind of responses, and I guess I can't remember who it was, and I don't know if I told you guys in the chat that we have for the podcast, but somebody finally fired back and said, no, you're lying. Go back and read what you wrote, and then come back and apologize for lying on the headline, and they did. They actually apologized in the post about whoever the band was.

I called him out. That's all it takes. Isn't it Roadrunner or somebody? Or at least it used to be. I don't know if it still is. I like metal injection more now. I feel you, David. I look at that stupid fucking site every day and I'm like, why am I looking at this fucking thing? Every once in a while I'll be like, oh, I didn't know that. You look for the tour dates. Because they usually have tour dates before most sites and that's the reason why you look for it. Most people I talk to, they're like, we don't even, I don't

I don't go there anymore. I don't pay attention to it. It is what it is. It was just kind of weird because a couple other of our label mates got write-ups and all that on there. So I thought for sure they'd want to do ours too. But it is what it is. Not everybody's going to like it. So it is what it is. They have their opinions and I got mine and it's all good. Opinions are like assholes. How's the label treating you? It seems they're doing a lot for you.

I've been with them since what 1991 or something like that and then even after the three records were released I still kept in contact with them so I mean I've always kept in contact with them on and off yeah this record was really like oh wow because Suffer for Nothing came out during the pandemic and it kind of just like whoa where's all the press and when it was like they attributed to the pandemic okay nobody's in the office people aren't writing reviews now or or like now people

want to start charging because they're out of work or whatever the situation was with that record and it kind of is like a little bit upsetting because that's i feel like that was a really good record too and i feel like it kind of missed a lot of people's radar but on this record i think they came out swinging i mean we had we had a publicist the normal publicist for the label in the uk and europe and then we had a u.s publicist and then we had a spain publicist and i was like wow that's we've never i never had three different publicists for a record before

So even with just the reviews, I was like, oh man, they're really doing their job. I mean, they were shooting these reviews out to everybody in any, you know, for review or write-up or whatever. And yeah, I think for a solid month and a half, it was just, they really pushed it hard. And then they did the lyric video, which I really enjoyed. Matt Vickerstaff, he works for Peaceville. He did a great job. And then we decided to film a pro video. And it was really weird.

was all this stuff was done last year. So we were like, really, a lot, Bam was really impatient. Okay, can we get this album out? Can we get this album out? And the label said, hey, we'll put this record out in, how about December? And we were like, hmm. And I remember back in the day, December was like the kiss of death. Right. Still is. Hasn't changed. No? Okay, okay. Well, some of my friends know what we're talking about. We don't have Sam Goody. We don't have Sam Goody's anymore. There's not Christmas records coming out all the time. So you shouldn't worry about it. But I was like, you know what? I'm going to

And so they offered us, they said, well, how about February? And I was like, fine, let's do February. And a couple of my buddies in the business were like, February is a pretty good time. Beginning of the year, fresh, people are starting their lists and all that stuff for the year. So it, yeah, I think it came out at a really good time. And once deeper than time, our first record back on Peaceville came out in February too and did real well. So, so I figured out that we'll keep it in February. February is a really big month. It seems the last three or four years.

January gets a few releases, but then it just blows up every February.

That's smart.

I called December and January the doldrums of music because either if it comes out in December, it's missed all the lists and people aren't paying attention.

In January, everybody's kind of burned out from the holidays, everything.

Nobody's paying attention.

February is when you're really like, okay, give me some new music and it's a great time.

Yeah, it's after the holidays.

People are fresh.

Yeah, no, I agree with you.

I think it was a good time of year. So what sort of things influenced your writing this time around? I just, man, I was, I told the story a couple of times, but I was listening to, I don't listen to a lot of new stuff. I'm going to be honest. If I'm going to listen to death metal, I want nineties, nineties death. If you were a band back in the nineties, I'm probably listening to you. And that's just me. And I mean, there's a lot of great, talented new bands. So, and they're all there. I mean,

a lot of really good new bands. But I just, I don't know, for some reason, I gravitate more towards the old school. So I remember I was listening to Extreme Aggression by Creator. Nice. And I was like, man, I was like, and I was listening to a part, and the drums were like kind of syncopating with me. I said, nobody seems to do that anymore. Kind of take their time and build the song up. And I just kind of noticed that. So I was like, I kind of want to do something like that kind of, but like with what I'm writing. And so I just kind of was,

I was like goofing around one day and I wrote a riff and I was like yeah this is like my creator riff joking haha you know whatever and and I just kind of was like I would just listen like we would just be I would just be in the car listening to bands like immolation or suffocation or whatever and I'm like wow that's a really cool part I really thought that was really well done the way they did that and I don't know if that like subconsciously got in my brain or whatever but I just I can't think of a song off the top of my head but there's a song and I think I want to say the end of reason I think it is

And there was like a squeal or something. And when we were writing the song, I was like, hey, man, I was like, I want to put a squeal in here. Like, Immolation does those like pitch harmonics and stuff. And I was like, dude, I want to do that because I think that would sound cool here. And so I call it like little homage or homage, whatever you want to call it, like little like tributes to these bands. And I was like, oh, that's really cool. I want to put a pitch harmonic in there. So just little stuff like that. I just kind of would listen to my favorite bands and I would just pick a little snippet out of it. That's really cool the way they did that.

Or like I said, I would just be writing a riff and then all of a sudden I would just kind of pick something up subconsciously, but without copying or replicating.

Yeah, some of the reviews, Angry Metal Guy and Angry, I can't talk, Angry Metal Guy in particular made comparisons. And as reviewers, I myself do the same thing. When you're trying to explain a group, you go, it's this or it's kind of like that. And they said they compared you to malevolent creation and morbid angel and suffocation.

And personally, I get like a Sepultura vibe, like early Sepultura, like the good stuff. So my, my, my fiance, she told me on the last record, she was, you kind of sound like Max a little bit. And I'm like, I'll take it. I'll take it. Hell yeah. So Dave, you obviously love the nineties. What are some of your favorite bands other than Marta Scald, of course, that you love that you listen to over still? Oh my God. I'm, I'm a huge, you probably can't see it, but right behind me, I got a huge Michael

I really,

I can't I think the guy's a little nuts because I watch his interviews and he goes um you just come to me like gems everyone they're perfect you know I'm like who the hell said who the hell dude music does not just come to me and you know what I mean sometimes you gotta work for it but according to him everything just comes to him he really is he really I saw that exact interview and he was talking about that he was talking about his practice regimen which he doesn't have one he's just I just get up and play and I'm mining for gems exactly

So what we're saying is that Dave, you need to work on your gem vision. Yeah, no kidding. So he's one of them. I'm going to stop you for two seconds. Just say I'm so pleased to hear somebody refer to these last three or four records, which are so good. Like some of the best stuff of his career. Yeah. Oh, big time. I think in, I don't know what the guy's doing, man, but he's got to keep doing it. And I like the fact that he's, I like the very first record he put out with

All Four Singers, I thought that was amazing. I went and saw that in concert. It was just by fluke. A friend of mine was going to take a girl. She backed out. He's like, hey, you want to go with me? And I'm like, hell yeah. And we went and I was like, oh man, he plays so perfect. I never hear a mistake. It's just flawless. He's one of my big time favorites. I'm a big Alice Cooper fan. I like trying to think what else was it? Riot.

I've always loved pretty much everything they've done up and Thundersteel and back is great. Anything forward, I'm not really a big fan of, but big fan of theirs. I mean, I like all that, just all that stuff. It's just the older stuff. That was Cooper stuff. And like, it's Michael Shanker. I'm trying to, I mean, and I got a couple of like, like Coney Hatch. Who's that? I saw them live once. Yeah. Back in the old days. And then I get, then I get a little bit weird, like the outfield. I love the outfield.

That's another like huge guilty pleasure of mine. And I love the 80s, like techno kind of stuff like Berlin. And I love, I can listen to that stuff. All the Gary Neumann. I mean, all that. I love all that stuff. All the 80s. Talk my stuff a little bit here. I'm trying to remember if you posted about it. And I think you might've commented. Cause I do follow your Facebook stuff. And I know I remember you talking about Shankar one time, but I'm trying to remember if you had something about that last Graham Bonnet record that came out, which was also very good.

by the Alcatraz, right? No, he did a solo record just called the Grand Ballant Band that came out maybe two years ago. Yeah, okay. I'm not a fan of his solo band. I'm just not. But the Alcatraz record was awesome. That was really good. But it's so strange because that's a great record. And then he leaves the band and you hear all this stuff about he hates heavy music and all this other stuff. But now he's going to work with Jeff Loomis and Van Williams. You ever want to work with it? And now he's online and his girlfriend.

talking about, you know, she's trashing Alcatraz. I'm like, come on, Graham, come on. And then you hear, then I heard some really upsetting stories that he's pretty much lip syncing. He's got backing tracks. I don't know if it's true. I do know he has his lyrics written out on sheets of paper all over the stage. Yeah, I do know that. I've seen that. More and more older singers are doing that now. When they did the first Shanker Resurrection Fest thing, I'm sure you have the live records. Yeah.

It's cool because it's good and it's good and everything

and the crowd's digging it. But when they launch into Assault Attack and he comes out,

the crowd goes fucking crazy.

Oh, yeah. I don't, you know, I think personally, I think he should,

if anything, I think Michael should do another record with Graham.

I think it would be awesome.

I did the last record, trying to think, now I can't think of it,

Universal, I think it was.

Yeah, Universal.

Yeah, I'll have to go look at it, Tim.

Yeah, I think it's Universal where he had Jolin Turner.

I thought, man, he did a great job too. I'm a big fan of the Rainbow, that album he was on. I'm a big fan of that. But like, Alconcrazzi. Straight between the eyes. Straight between the eyes. Man. That's a great record. And you know who has it? Well, the reason why I say this is because I was a teenager when all these records came out. And I just remember getting heavily wasted like all the time. And these records would be, we'd be in my buddy's basement. His parents would be upstairs.

He was a Polish guy and his dad was just saying, "Yeah, whatever. I don't care." And we'd be downstairs drinking Hacker Shores, spinning Sad Wings of Destiny and Defenders of the Safe and all these different bands. And I look back at that time and go, "Man, that was such a good time in my life because I didn't have a care in the world. All I cared about was a nice cold brew and whatever we were spinning at that time."

My neighborhood, Dave, because that sounds exactly like my upbringing in the early 80s. Mine too. It was great. What's stopping you from doing that now? My back. I don't have a turntable anymore. I don't want to get this in real quick. I don't want to interrupt him, but it sounds like you're at this stage that I'm at in my life because I'm 56 now. I'm 57. Yeah, everything's nostalgic to me now. Yes. And I go back and I know I've talked with these guys about it, but I just keep

We have a joke, George and I, on the other podcast we do called Stairway to 11, which is our rock podcast. I keep saying that 80 to 83 period for me is like the gold standard. There's just so many great records. I go back to them all the time. Well, the thing is with the 80s is, man, I don't know what it was. I don't know what was in the water or what was going on, but there was like never a bad, nobody put out a bad record, like Foreigner 4. Yes. I love that. I just listened to Foreigner last night.

I remember I had a paper route on the shoulder yep save my money we used to have this thing at our local state fair called the record riot and I loved it and it would just be this huge building of nothing but records and they would have a band play another one of my favorite bands Helix oh yeah I saw Helix play there yeah so Helix play there I saw you know Yngwie with Alcatraz play there when he was with Graham Bonnet I saw Quiet Riot play there

I mean, a lot of really good bands. And I think the 80s was like the 70s. You listen, I'm not a big 70s guy, but I'm starting to appreciate it. Like I've really been getting into Steely Dan a lot the last couple months and really appreciating what they do. And I'm listening and I'm going, these guys had to play. They had to know their instruments. They had to play. They had to know what they were doing. And I think when you put the 70s bands and you threw them into the 80s, it just kind of, I feel like the bar went up a little bit, you know?

But the 70s bands, so many underrated players, so many underrated bands. The musicianship was so awesome. And then you come into the 80s, and things kind of were a little bit more like metal. I felt like the 80s kind of went a little bit more metal, a little more heavier. But yeah, the 80s, I do the same thing now. I look back and I go, man, those were some golden years, man. Well, back then. I have a distinct memory of going to a record store, and they had a display up of whoever it was, Epic Records, maybe or something. I can't remember who it was.

I was watching simultaneously Queensryke's first EP and Helix knows it rest for the wicked and I bought them both on that day nice loved them both very different records loved them both came out with their next record was like way heavier after that there's the record after no right but see what I this is what I liked about that time was that it was all music yeah we didn't have categories we did you could be with your friends and you could put on one minute Slayer next minute you could put on the cure or soft sell or

And it was just all music. We didn't really care at that point. And going back to the boom box, I remember having the boom box, my buddy and I, we walked everywhere because we were kids. And it was so funny. We'd always have pockets full of batteries. So one guy, one guy, one guy with the batteries on them. And then the other guy's in the other guy with the cassettes on them. So we're walking around with all this hardware and cassettes and all that stuff. And all batteries are going. Time to change the batteries. Let's put in a new cassette. Any fanny packs? No, not yet.

No, I don't think we have those yet. Hey, Dave, who had the pencil? What? Who had the pencil for the tapes? Oh, yeah. You know what was so funny is we, this label, Stumbler, did like a reissue of tapes for us. I think it was the demos or something. And he included pencils. And I was like, and I looked at him, I looked at him, and I go, wow. Oh, yeah, that's right.

You couldn't do anything around the house, but you could surgically repair a tape. Yes. Open it, reel it back, straighten out the chewed up part. That shit's science, John. I remember. But you couldn't mow the lawn to save your life. No, but you could put a cassette back together. I remember a time when the car would eat your cassette. It would be real bad. You couldn't really fix those. Or worse, your friend's cassette. Oh, fuck. Oh. You give it back to somebody and be like, hey, dude, I got to tell you something. Man, I remember the King Biscuit flower hour, and I'd be

All Night Waiting for it. Now they have to press record. Like they have Ozzy Live when he was with Rhodes. I had to get that on tape and buy it on record. Westwood won, baby. Yeah, I remember all that. I used to record the Flower Hour every week for a while. I used to just, I was sitting there waiting to take it. Right? Right? Good stuff, man. Dude, good times, man. I remember when I bought my Exodus Pleasures of the Flesh cassette and I got it home and

There was something fucked up with it. It wouldn't play. And so I had to do brain transplant. I cracked that sucker open, cracked open like a Memorex, and I transferred everything into the other case and put it all back together and it worked. And did you bridle the Memorex to make sure you knew what it was? Yeah. And you know what, man? And speaking of X's, their last record, just awesome. Oh, yeah. They're another one of my favorite bands that I grew up listening to that I still continue to listen.

We actually had a little mile, not a fight, but we argued about, I called it their best, and that's sacrilege to some people, but I think Persona Negra was fucking awesome, man. Oh, yeah. I saw him last year in Madison at the Sylvie with Anthrax and Black Label Society, and I'll be honest, I'm not a Black Label Society fan at all. I just don't know what it is about that dude. I just don't really care for the band. Great player, don't care for the band. But man, Exodus came on, and

My buddy took me because he's really good friends with Anthrax. And he's like the biggest Anthrax fan. I mean, his basement got signs and neon signs and all kinds of memorabilia and stuff. And I like Anthrax too. But man, I felt like Exodus mopped the floor with them. They just came out kicking ass. Gary Holt. Yeah. I'm not worthy. Yeah. Especially now. They're one of these bands like Priest. We've been talking about the new Priest record lately. And it's weird that Exodus should be.

That's invigorated this late into their career. I mean, to be this good. Well, you got Faulkner. Well, we got Richie Faulkner. I mean, he's a young guy. He probably breathes new life into the band. I've heard Tipton still did a lot of writing on the record. So, I mean. Have you heard it? Maybe that correlation. Maybe the young guy, you know. I think you're right on the line. I think I can recognize the Richie Faulkner riff now. There's killer riffs on the record. Yeah. I still haven't listened to it. My friend got it, and he said he loves it. Yeah, that's amazing.

It was like, what, three, four of our albums of the month last month? At least three. The last record was really good by them, too. Agreed. I think it's absolutely amazing that Richie was on Death's Door on stage a few years ago, and here he is back on stage again, and what might be their best album in a really long time. I still say they get KK back and do an Iron Maiden.

They have three guys. That's what I say. That would be awesome. You know what? I haven't heard that proposal yet. That's a pretty good one, dude. I would have no problems. I just, if they're going to do that, they better iron their shit out first. Right. I don't want to have to watch, what is it? Rockstar, the movie. Yeah. And KK getting pissed and just storming off stage in the middle of the set. I think there's too much water under that bridge now, though. I honestly think on both sides, they've made statements like that. When Ian Hill is saying he ain't coming back,

The guy who's in the corner for the last 50 years, then you're in trouble. Yeah. And who also doesn't say that much at all anyway. I know. It's so funny when I hear that. He's the only original member. Yeah, it's not like Glenn hasn't been in the band for 50 plus years. I know. No, I'm laughing when I hear that. It's a ludicrous statement. It really is. It's the funniest thing ever. So when they're on tour and some of us are going to see them next month, obviously Richie's going to be playing. And if we're lucky, we'll get Glenn.

Who's going to be playing if Glenn's not there? I mean, it used to be Andy, but I didn't think it's going to be Andy anymore. It is still there. Oh, he is. Okay. He grew his hair out long. That was literally one of those times when so many people spoke out that they quickly turned around and were like, sorry if we fucked up. Oh, that's right. I remember that now. Yeah. Okay. And so that relationship. Now, I don't know if he's on Invin's Shield. Does he play on it? I don't know. Don't know.

I'll give him this he said he would walk away because everyone was upset yeah he was cool about it yeah also did he produce the new one I don't even remember if he did or not I'll have to look up because that's where the relationship started I mean he's the reason for the production side yeah fucking good he did produce it he did okay and he is a fine job additional guitars oh he did oh cool yeah okay so yeah because this album I don't know what you guys think but this album more than firepower sounds more

I think more so it still works I mean it's still priest and no it's totally this is a

richie record I think playing wise yeah I think so all I know is it kicks ass you guys well all three of you had it as your album a month for sure and I think Will did too Will did a last second change yeah so Dave what obviously you like a lot of different music you got death metal

I love your death metal stuff. Have you ever thought about doing something else in a different genre? Maybe a soft sell cover band? Yeah. That was a nice name. You got the talent to do whatever you want. Well, thank you. Honestly, man, I've always wanted to do, I know this probably sounds stupid, like an SOD tribute band. I always felt like that would be kind of cool. I don't know if I could get away with the synth. You might have to pick and choose a little there. I wonder. That's a good question.

I don't know. I want some milk. Right. Well, it's funny because my, one of my buddies, Mario is, he's the new guitar player in violence. And he was on the road. We did a couple of West coast dates with skeletal remains and he was their merch guy. And he asked me, he goes, Hey man, he goes, you want to play second guitar in violence with me? And I was like, are you kidding me? No, I'm not kidding you. And I'm like, man, I would love to. I said, but I'm not really good at like picking up songs on my own.

So I would probably have a lot of troubles that way, but I was, it was just honored that he even mentioned it. But yeah, I don't know, man. I mean, I did when Mortar Skull did break up in 98 and two-ish, three-ish, whatever. It took me a couple of years to kind of get back into the game, even though I never stopped, but I did do a new metal. Well, we were called new metal, but it was called Nine Millimeter Solution. So I did do a band differently for about eight years. We did two records and it was,

It was like a static X kind of type of skin lab meets like a watered down fear factory. I remember you talked to us about this last time. I did that. I mean, that was fun. I didn't have to sing. I was just doing backing vocals. I really didn't have to be the front guy. So it was kind of cool for that particular time. But then once I started getting back into death metal, I really was like, okay, this is more my, I guess my forte or something like that. So I don't know. It answers your question.

I don't know. I think if something came knocking, I wouldn't shoot it down. But I'm not like, I got nothing really on my plate at this point. I'm nothing calling me at this point. But yeah, I'd entertain something. Like I said, he's like, yeah, come on, we'll be in violence together. And I was like, what? Are you serious? And he's such a monster player, man. I went, like I said, I went and saw him and we were hanging out and I was like, dude, seriously? Wow. I don't know, man. Interesting. So you just got back from doing some shows.

Where'd you go? We were in South America. That was wild, man. Wow. Tell us about that. That was wild. Any good stories? Well, yeah. Oh God, man. Probably go on forever. So it was really weird. So we start, we start the initial flight and a couple hours to our layover. And then I can't remember where it was. I think it was Jersey and then Jersey to Bogota. And we get into Bogota. It's late at night. We're tired and we don't speak Spanish. We're waiting for our handler.

or liaison, whatever you want to call them. Real nice guy, Wilson. Really amazing guy. And came and got us, picked us up, got us to the cabs. And it was really weird because I'd never experienced this before where there were fans they knew. But yeah, like we literally got to the hotel and there'd be like just a bunch of fans waiting with records and wanting to sign stuff. And we're like, okay, we got him. We're like, all right. And we were there for, I think, I think two days before we actually played the Ace of Space.

and really big nice club very professional sound i mean just the whole night really great venue and so

they're like oh yeah they're like well we're gonna we got security for you and we're like

security the hell are you talking about security literally they are not lying man they had so many people

in there like they had to like rush us like you would have thought we were metallic or something like

they had to rush us through and people are grabbing at us and so so we go we play the show and as soon as we

And I mean, and there's like a separation. I mean, I'm on like a whatever, six, ten foot stage. And then there's a barrier separating us. And they're grabbing us from pulling us off the stage because they want selfies. And I had, I mean, and I've taken selfies before, but not to this degree. I mean, we literally couldn't get off that stage. They were just grabbing at us and shouting my name. I'm like, wow, this is weird. I just, the weirdest stuff.

And so we get done with the show and they, boom, they shuttle us back to the hotel. We're like, okay. And the next day we're out, boom, there's people camped out. They want autographs, asking for pics, all kinds of stuff. So it was, yeah, it was a really, like a very weird experience. I had never experienced fans like that before. So yeah, it was like, and there was one club tour. He's okay. Do not, you do not go out in the crowd without. And we're like, well, he goes, no, I escort you everywhere. Trust me. And we're like, really, dude? Wow. And then there was one show we, and I think

was Ecuador, which we got in late, and Malevolent Creation was just finishing. So we had just gotten off the plane, taxied right to the venue, and we're like, what is going on? There's cops everywhere. What is going on? And the promoters, hurry up, get on stage. We're like, what's going on? He goes, there's a curfew here. I said, what do you mean there's a curfew? There's a curfew here. I guess there's a big kind of civil war going on between the police and the cartel. Oh yeah, Ecuador, that's right. Yeah, I think we didn't know.

And we're in the venue, we're outside it, and there's a big wall. And there's shards of glass on top of the wall. Like bottles broken and planted. Or what the hell is that? He goes, that's to keep people out. I'm like, are you kidding me? So anyway, so we get there, and we only got to play three songs. Three songs before they cut the power, rushed us off, you're out of here. And the fans were like, they were like apologizing.

They were like, oh, we're so sorry. We're so sorry. And I'm like, well, you guys didn't do nothing. But same situation. Grab it at us and let's take pictures and David and guys kissing me on the cheek. And it was just, it was a surreal experience. And I mean, we were there. So it was two weeks. It was like eight flights, three buses and four or five cab rides. It was a lot of, a lot of transportation. So yeah, I mean, we, especially like after the first show, it was like the next couple of days were just exhausting.

It was like, go to the airport, six-hour plane ride, get off, cab ride, sound check, back to the hotel room, go back, play the gig, have some beers, go back to the hotel, boom, next morning, you're off. So, I mean, it was, yeah, it was really exhausting, but it was a really great experience. But the third world countries, they're very poor. They're very poor. Where all did you hit? Yeah, so coming back here, I was like, oh, man, I like kissed the ground when I got home because I was like, I mean, everything's different. The food's different. Their toilets are different.

Everything's different.

And it's after we were there a little bit, we started kind of getting a little used to things,

started picking up a little Spanish and start talking to people.

But it was like different.

Like here you go into a store and you can shop there.

You have to knock on the door and you got a little like,

and you got to look and you got to point to things and they'll bring it to you.

And everything's locked up behind bars.

And it's, yeah, it's definitely in Ecuador.

We were really scared because John lost his passport in the cab.

And we were literally scared. Like we were like, uh-oh. And then we found out that you can't be on the streets if you're Americans. I like to kidnap Americans. So we're like, oh, man, what did we get ourselves into? You know? But the fans, yeah, the fans across the board just, whoo. You were a celebrity there. You were more than a fan. You were celebrities. Yeah, you were like Bob Barker or Vanna White or somebody. I don't know. I was like, oh, this is correct. I'm like, wow. I'm like back home. And here they're like, ah.

I saw you post a lot of food pics, a lot of pizza. Yeah, I'm the pizza king, man. I'm telling you. And it's weird because I belong to this group called Pizzaholics on Facebook. My buddy invited me and I thought, oh, this will be cool. My favorite thing. And one week I got a pizza, a mac and cheese pizza, and I posted on it. And oh my God, you would have thought that I literally went and pissed in everybody's mouth or something. Like they were just, who the fuck is this guy? I mean,

They were just on me. And I even wrote, I go, I thought this was a friendly site. And I go, yeah, you are sadly mistaken because we are not. And I was like, so when you post your pizza picture on there, you better brace for some kind of backlash. That sounds like some good pizza there. Fucking delicious. Well, it's a war between the East Coast and the West Coast and the Midwest. But yeah, when we were over there, the rest of the guys went to this kind of a fancier restaurant with the brazen beef and all this good stuff. And I don't know,

I was like, yeah, I don't know. And there was a pizza place right next door. And I'm like, hey, take me next door. I want to get this pizza. And so there's a picture where we're on this fancy restaurant and they have all their fancy dishes. I'm holding up the pizza box like, yeah. So we found, I found pizza that Ecuador actually too for breakfast one day or lunch, they had pizza. And it was kind of a little weird because they undercooked their pizza a little here. We kind of cook it. They kind of undercook it. And it has like ham and all kinds of stuff on it. I'm like, yeah, I normally probably would eat or,

put on there. But then we went to Chile and that's where we had the mother load. I was like, we were in a hotel room, we're drinking beers, we're having a good time. And we said, our manager like, man, we're really hungry. What can you do? And he calls this place and they bring these pizzas. And it was like, oh my God, this is like some of the best pizza I think I've had. So yeah, I'm a pizza freak, but there's a lot of beef over there. A lot of beef, a lot of beef, meat. Everything is served with either,

French fries,

French fries,

mashed potatoes or rice or all three.

A lot of French fries and a lot of French fries.

Argentina is a big beef country.

Oh yeah.

They have some of the best beef in the world.

Yep.

Well,

yeah,

so that was,

that was really quite the experience.

And then,

and then,

uh,

in Argentina,

they,

they wouldn't let us,

they wouldn't let our guitars in through customs.

So we had a six hour,

we had a three hour bus ride and then something like a six hour,

uh,

plane ride.

And then we're stuck in this airport for five or six hours. And we're, are we even going to get to play? They thought we were going to, we were selling our guitars in their country. So us and malevolent, they, they kept our guitars and the promoter or whoever, excuse me, they, they made them pay $1,600 to get the guitars in. So once, so, so, so we're exhausted. I mean, we're exhausted. We, so we play the show, we get done, we go back to the end. And then the next morning, we have to go,

back for a really early flight. And sure as shit, they don't want to let the guitars go. Because one of the guys didn't want to, like, he didn't pay for it in full or some weird stuff. And so now here we're held captive again for another couple hours in the airport. It was just, yeah. It was a little brutal in Argentina. I'm really a fan of that country after that. But not going back. When we were just... If they asked me, I would probably not do it again. I would do Bogota and Chile in a second. Ecuador, I'm a little weary of that country.

Beautiful. A lot of beautiful scenery and rustic stuff. But actually, we're probably going to be going back because I just talked to the guy. He's like, hey, there's this festival in Santiago and they want you on next year. We're like, all right, we'll do that. That's cool. So when we were just a decibel, Justin's friend, Mike met Scott Burns, like the producer, because he was at the fest signing his book. And Mike is Brazilian. And he had a little Brazil patch on his vest. And Scott Burns told him,

about recording Arise down in Brazil. And they had a similar situation with the gear where, and I'm going to totally misquote this because it's like third, fourth telling, but apparently they had a small budget for the record and it all got used up like bribing people to get the equipment into the country because they were giving them a hard time bringing the equipment in.

Yeah, and I never knew about that until we experienced it. But I was told when I got back from several friends have been there, he goes,

Oh, yeah. There's some countries that are so corrupt. They'll make you pay for all kinds of stuff that you really shouldn't have to pay to get in. Yeah, that's too bad. Yeah, it really is. It really is. I mean, it was an experience. I'll tell you that much, man. It was an experience. So, David, how is it for you touring now that you're getting older? How is it touring compared to when you were young? Well, we never toured when I was young, which I feel like that was the biggest mistake of my life that I could have made. Like, I should have been doing it.

I even tell people like when I come home from a tour I'm like man I should have been doing this in my 20s and 30s like why am I doing this in my 50s but you know the opportunity and we had opportunities back in the day we just didn't take them for some reason I don't know I know my drummer at that time was in school and he was working full time and doing the band full time so I don't know if that was I know some of it was he didn't want to have to leave school for stuff so but even after that it just seemed like he didn't want to really travel much

And we just never had the opportunity. So yeah, but touring in my 50s, it's yeah, it's I mean, I'm grateful that I have the opportunity and I can still do it. But there's a lot definitely a lot of preparation. I, a lot of times I don't have as much fun on the road as I probably should because I'm always prepping. Either I'm either making sure Oh, where's hot water for my tea and my throat coat when I got to do my exercises and I got to warm up or I got to do this and do that. It's not like I'm 20 or I can just run out there play and then who cares.

So there's a lot of preparations. And even when I'm home, in between everything, I do as much cardio as I can. I just try to kind of keep myself as much to that level as possible. Because I know when we started touring in 2017, I ran into a lot of problems where I just felt like winded a lot. And I really wasn't doing anything to keep the instrument up. And as I started, like you said, as we started touring a little bit more,

I was like, okay, well, you can't go out and do this again. And I mean, I lost some weight, I had to lose some weight too. And that had a little bit of a play in it too. But I'm always real conscious and like almost nervous sometimes. Oh, I don't know. I don't know how bands do it for 30 days. I don't know how I really don't. Like, I think the longest we've been on the road is two weeks. So that's 14 days, which is a lot. With the South American stuff, it wasn't too hard because we had breaks.

We'd play a show, and then we'd have a day or two off. We'd play three of our shows, we'd have a day off. But when you're doing a tour like in the States or Europe, a day off is you're losing money. You're losing money at that point because you're taking a day off. So for me, yeah, it's just a lot of preparation. It's just a lot of I've got to try to stay as fit as I can. And like I said, it could be me. I could be psyching myself out because I was talking to Buddy about it. Nah, you could do stuff. But I'm like, wow. But yeah, some of these bands,

I'm like wow how do you do three four weeks but yeah it's I'm always trying to like I said keep myself in shape regardless of whether I'm on a treadmill or I mean we got a stationary bike in here I'm always jumping on and I feel that kind of helps too with the vocals a little bit more so maybe you can keep up that that that power or that that stamina a little bit more and then also hydration too I take like hydration pills I take airborne I mean I do all this crazy

shit that I think some guys would probably laugh at me like what are you doing but taking care of yourself I mean you're 56 you got you got to 57 almost 58 oh wow but yeah so no I that's a great question I appreciate it because yeah it's it's not easy man it's I like I said why am I why didn't I do this in my 20s what what is your problem I mean I think about it because we go to these festivals and stuff and I can definitely feel the age creeping up and the maximum stamina is not what it used to be

when I was 20 or something, I can only imagine what it's like to actually get on stage and play and then go to all these different dates and have to perform and deal with all that. Sure. Well, in the travel too, when we did that, the Texas run, man, that was brutal, man. I mean, because it all depends on when you're going to, how far do you have to drive? When can you get to the hotel? And I mean, there was one tour where we weren't getting into our hotels at four and five in the morning. And then you got to check out at 11. So you're getting like,

Maybe four hours of sleep, maybe.

And then you're right back out on the road again.

That's because we don't.

I mean, and I've seen some bands where they sleep in their vans or they got bunks, and that's great.

I wish we had something like that, but we don't.

So we definitely have to find hotels, and it can be a little bit in and out.

You've got to drag all your stuff in the room, and then three hours later, you've got to drag it right back out.

So it can become a little taxing, but my thing is I love the playing part.

I don't really like all the other stuff too much, but the playing part is the part I like the most, especially when I'm on stage and I see people are getting into it and they enjoy it and they appreciate it. That's the part. That's the payoff. You guys are amazing live. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I saw you. I mentioned it last time. We saw you at MDF, which was where I was like, Oh shit, these guys are back. And that was great. But Atlas, that was fucking amazing. When a small little place like that, you tore that place up. That was a really, that was a really,

Really cool gig. Nice place. Yeah. We're still waiting for Maryland. Ask us back, man. I keep messaging. I keep messaging both of those guys like yearly. I'm like, dude, when you get us back. Yeah. Do you have any other shows on the horizon? Anything you ask right now? There's a festival. I don't know what the name of it is. It's in Chicago. That's coming up. It's right next to the live wire camera name of the venue, but I guess there's a venue right next to live wire. And I guess he's having a fest in November. So we got that planned. And then later, right before Thanksgiving, we go over, we're going over,

to Europe for nine days. Nice. Yeah, so we'll be doing like the UK, Germany, Prague, and I think France. So and then we got an offer for China recently. Wow. I don't know if that's going to pan out because I don't know if I, again, that's more traveling. And then you're talking about Dubai, you're talking like 18 hours flight. So I don't know if that's going to pan out. But so far the Europe, the Europe thing we're going to do. And then we'll see what happens. Like I said, I know we're

Our booking agent just signed with a bigger agency. So we're hoping maybe some, we were hoping to do California Deaf Fest, but we haven't gotten a response. I was hoping to do Maryland as well. We haven't gotten a response. So unfortunately we won't be doing those, but probably, I mean, if nothing else, we'll probably do enough, probably do us next year, probably do something definitely for the U S. Excellent. Hopefully come around this way. I would like to see again. Oh yeah. The East coast, man. Always do. God. We played the East coast.

So many times,

it's always awesome.

What is it?

It was,

what was that place called?

I can't think it was in Massachusetts,

Middle East.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We played the Middle East and then Kung Fu necktie.

Uh huh.

And then,

yeah,

there's a couple,

there's a couple.

Is that,

isn't Kung Fu necktie in Philly?

I think it was the run we did with Mutal Atrium.

I think.

And we,

we had a lot of really classic like venues that like a lot of,

I want to say it was Kung Fu necktie.

They were like, oh, suffocation, cut your teeth here,

and all this other stuff.

So we definitely played some really cool, iconic places.

And the East Coast has always been good to us.

I mean, we've been up and down the East Coast a couple of times

in the past couple of years.

So, I mean, I don't see why we wouldn't.

Is who around?

Atlas Brewing.

Is that still around?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Will hasn't been doing as many shows lately,

but somebody's still booking it.

Yeah.

He was really good to us too, man.

And that beer he gave us was awesome. That was really. Yeah. Will takes care of people. Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah. But so far, like I said, we're working on it, but yeah, I just, we did a small U.S. run in January and then we did, what is it? West coast did a couple of dates there and then we did the South American gig and then now we're going to do Europe. So, and then like I said, probably next year, probably focus on the U.S. a little bit more. Awesome. Wow. So it doesn't sound like you have any time to do anything else. No.

No, this year's been real busy, and especially with the record coming out, and like I was mentioning before, the publicist, they were just like, man, I think for six weekends, I did nothing but sit in this chair and did podcast. I mean, it was, I mean, I literally at one point, and I'm not trying to, like, I'm not trying to be egotistical about this or nothing either, but I literally at one point had to have, I had to print a list out because I couldn't keep track, I couldn't keep track. It was like,

1215 blah blah podcast 130 cast 215 three o'clock five o'clock six o'clock and yeah

there's one yeah there's one day i did six in a row and they were all over the place they were like

australia europe you i mean everywhere so i mean it was it was definitely humbling and it was cool that

the people took out the time i think there was a couple of no shows though i remember that i'm on like

zoom and i'm watching the thing tick and i'm waiting for i'm waiting for it says the host to chime in

And I'm waiting and I'm going, I guess he ain't showing today. On to the next one. That's not cool. But yeah, for six weeks, there was just nothing but interviews, podcasts. And because that's the way a lot of people are doing interviews now. They're doing it over Zoom. Yeah. And then they'll type it out or whatever. So, but yeah, it was a busy couple of months. So, I mean, I'm grateful that people are enjoying the record. And even we even had a local record store sold out of all our CD copies like right away. So, I mean, it's really, really cool.

cool that people are embracing this record. Like I said, I feel the production's there. I feel the songs are there. The songwriting. I mean, I really couldn't have asked for a better record to have. Absolutely. It's great to see you have all the opportunities too for shows and for media and stuff too that you're out there getting the record out there in front of people. It's great. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said, I'm 57, man. It's like sometimes I feel like I'm just scratching the surface.

of things. Or I feel like I'm still kind of, because somebody asked me once, you still seem hungry. And I'm like, yeah, because I still feel like I haven't gotten to that point I want to get to. You know what I'm saying? I'm not on a tour bus. I don't have people lugging my gear around. Would it be nice? It would be great. And I don't know, I probably will never get to that level, but hey, at least I'm at a decent comfortable level where we still kind of have things in our control. If we don't want to do something, like we just got offered a

with a couple of like sinister and I was like, eh, well, there, there were some logistic issues with that, but we still, we're still getting some small offers here and there. And it's definitely humbling. And I appreciate everybody, the fans down to the booking agent. I mean, everybody. So, I mean, it's definitely been cool this year. Yeah. Definitely got to get you at Maryland death fest. That's like a no brainer. It seems. I know, man. I'm like, it's been like what, six years since we played or something like that. Really? Wow. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. It was, I guess. Time flies.

You played Rams Head for that show. Yes. Oh, man. That stage was amazing. Oh, my God. That stage was amazing. There was this big rumble. Every time our bass player played, it was like the whole stage just shook. John and I were up on the balcony for that. We were in the balcony. Yeah. Yeah. And when I was looking out at the crowd, I'm like, oh, my God. I can't believe there's that many people here watching. It was weird. But even last year, we played the Milwaukee Metal Fest.

Oh my God. I was like, holy cow. I'm like, yeah, we're playing at three, three 30. I'm like, eh, there'll be a few people there. And we go on and I'm like, oh, wow. The room is just packed. So I mean, what was the venue? What was the venue at Milwaukee? The rave Eagles club. Oh yeah. I've been there. Oh yeah. That place is wild. There's four different rooms there, isn't there? Yeah. Yeah. There's the bar and then there's the main, the rave bar, the ballroom. And then there's a downstairs too. Yeah. Getting into that.

places kind of wild because you have to walk through some of them.

And yeah,

I saw Opus play there years ago.

It was just sane.

It's a historic venue.

It's been around since what?

20s,

30s or something like that.

They used to,

the reason why they call it the ballroom is because they,

the rave used to host ballroom dancing.

Yeah.

And that's what it was about back in the day,

ballroom dancing.

Now it's a mosh pit.

Yeah,

exactly.

I'll tell you that.

They've done a lot of really cool upgrades. I mean, the bathrooms are all redone. It's pretty nice. We had a great set. Did real well. I couldn't ask for more. I was hoping to get on this year, but I know they didn't want to keep bands, so I get it. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. David, do you have a favorite performance that the band's done? Yeah. UK Death Fest, which obviously the Maryland guy,

that was theirs. So far, we've played, I think, everyone. I think we've played everyone. We've played Netherlands Death Fest. We've played UK Death Fest, Maryland Death Fest, California Death Fest. So we've been on every one of their fests at least once. But the UK was just, man, I was so, like, I honestly was transported back to when I was, like, in the 90s. Because I'm sitting here with all,

Bands I grew up on, but bands I was friends with. Like the Immolation guys, me and Ross were hanging out. Nuclear Assault, me and John Conley hanging out. I'm hanging out with the guys in Autopsy. Hanging out with them, trying to think, look, Carl from Memoriam. And it's crazy because him and I go back to 1990. He played a small club here up in Sheboygan when he was in Boat Thrower. And we have this kind of weird photo where my head's like, I got a crush on him or something.

So when I found out he was playing, because they had two venues, they had two venues for the UK Deaf Fest, and he was playing at one of the smaller ones. And I remember running down the street in London, not knowing where to help him, going like, where's this venue, where's this venue? I had to get in, I had to see him, I rushed all the way through the crowd to the backstage, and he did the same thing to me that he did back in 1990 or 91, where he sees me, stops singing the song, and just starts talking to me.

And he did that back in 92,

which I thought was so cool.

So I went backstage and we got the picture together,

the shit eating grins.

And we got the picture.

And the other highlight was a nuclear assault.

I had been a fan of there since I was like 16 or 17.

And I'm on the side of the stage and John Connolly's motioning,

or he keeps doing this.

And I'm like,

what does he keep doing?

What is he?

And I noticed there were cans of,

I don't know if it was soda,

beer.

I don't know what it was but it was a can of some kind of refreshment and he wanted the refreshment so he's nudging me and I'm like am I thinking what I think he's thinking and he said yeah so I run out on stage crack open a can and I'm feeding him this beverage while he's playing the song and that guy is 60 or 61

and he was all over that stage like an 18 year old i was like my god baby like how are you doing this the one thing i thought was fascinating was is he had a little binder and he had all the lyrics when he was because as we get older your memory kinds of go and say and i've almost done that a couple of tours i'm like i think i'm gonna forget the lyrics to this song man i should bring a sheet with me or something when a lot of people are like oh you can't do that man that's cheating or whatever it's called so so yeah so he had to get the lyric sheets and stuff

And when he was done, he gave it to a fan. And I was backstage talking to him and Dan Luker and all that. And just an amazing guy. And I did not know this, but at that time, that was the last, that was our last show. Wow. He was like, we're done after. He's a school teacher. Yeah. He's a school teacher. And he said he didn't, he just didn't, he just, it just wasn't it. But then Dan Luker said he wanted to retire. And now here he's playing with Anthrax. So who knows?

But that was probably my highlight of the performances for me. And just experience, man. Just seeing all these bands that I... It was almost like we were back in 1990 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest. And I'm hanging out with Cannibal Corpse and Malevolent Creation and Atheist and all these guys. And back then, we were just all a bunch of kids. Just hanging out, joking and smoking, having a great old time. And that's what the UK Death Fest felt like to me. And also, I got to meet Paul.

which runs Peaceville Records. So I got to meet him for the first time. So that was really cool. But it was just a great experience. And everybody sounded, oh, and Cancer played. I mean, there are label mates. And so it was really cool seeing them play. And I've become friends with Daniel since then. And that was great. That was amazing. That was like, I was like, all right, this is cool. I felt like a kid again. I'm like, all right, I'm good. That's great. Yeah, that's pretty special. I was gonna say, I got to see Nuclear

assault finally at MDF a few years back. It was prior obviously to their final show but it was I think it was one of their or they had announced that they were quitting. Yeah it was pitched as I think it was the last US show. Yeah and so I was very happy to see that. Yeah Conley's just a super and it was funny I even went up to him and I said hey I said I know you don't remember me. I said because we met 34 I almost wait 40 yeah for almost 40 oh my god can't we

I said, I met you for the first time. And I said, you guys needed a roadie. And I was in the Marine Corps at the time. And I went and saw them and they wanted me to come on the road with them and be their like road guy with one of their other guys. And I remember going, I'm kind of scared, man. Like I've never went on the road or not like that. But that was my first time meeting, meeting them. And then a friend of mine that I went with, he took these pictures. And like just about a year ago, I came in possession of those pictures.

And I was like, oh my God, this is crazy seeing how young John Conley was and all that. But he was just, he was really cool. He was really cool. He goes, yeah, I don't remember. I said, oh, I get it. I get it. But he was a real standup guy. Very nice. Very humble. I was really sad that they weren't going to be playing anymore. And they're one of, they're like one of my probably top 10 bands that I just would listen to anytime. So yeah, that UK Death Fest was amazing. So many good bands. I mean,

Oh my god. And it was just like one after the other. They were just, everybody's just killing it. It was just, it was a great show. Nice. Hey, does anybody else have any other questions? I know Markisan stepped away. Did he? Oh yeah. He did. No, honestly, no. I mean, for one thing, you've already given us more time than I think you had available. So, so just thanks in advance for that. Yeah. Well, it is funny because my,

And so I was kind of worried because I it's it's a long story but for a whole

nother conversation but a lot of times like we only get them once a month so a lot of times I feel like they have to go off and do things and he's always he's I don't worry about it I'll stay home who cares whatever if I can hear him I can hear him right now he's right above me singing he's he's playing video or he were he downloads video game clips and theme songs.

and then plays him over to his earbuds and sings along with him. And that's pretty much what he does most of the day. I used to do that with TV shows. I used to do that with TV shows when I was a kid. Me too. Fall Guy, Dukes of Hazzard, Magnum P.I. Dude, I thought it was weird. I thought it was strange with this. Remember the big cassette recorders? Yeah, I'd record it off of the TV. I'd put the mic up there trying to tape it, you know, or I'd hold it and I'd be like, you know. And my introduction to music,

was soundtrack. Yeah. I started listening in Star Trek. The motion picture was like my first. And then Flash Gordon, the Queen soundtrack. Yeah. Dude. And then Kiss the Elder. And like people are like, that's how I, that's how I started listening to music. And then we were, I think I was in high school. And my buddy, we were in like a pizza hut, the old good pizza hut. And they had a jukebox and he was playing a crazy train came out. And I was like, dude, who's this? And he goes, who's this? Did you ever hear of Black

And I'm like, no. And he's like, oh, well, we got a lot of catching up to do. And then it's funny, as soon as he played that song for me, because that's right when Ozzy started his solo career, I remember my mom asked me, what do you want for Christmas? And I was like, I want every Black Sabbath album that's out on cassette. So I wake up morning, Christmas morning, and there it is. I don't know how many were out at that time, but she got me all the cassettes of every Black Sabbath record. And then right from there, it was just, it was odd. I wanted to be on it.

You know what I mean? I wanted to be a singer and then I wanted to be a guitar player because of Randy and it just yeah just wow music music was just and I hate this I mean I feel like you guys are way more into music than I am sometimes because sometimes I'm kind of a snob where it's I don't even want to listen to music I just want silent and if I remember back in that back when I was young I couldn't get enough I couldn't get enough I live breathe and sleep it We're still in that arrested development

I gotta tell you.

Actually, to go to your nostalgia there, by the way, I live out in the middle of nowhere in Arizona now.

And so a couple things have survived here in the weirdest sort of way, and you can still go and have the old school Pizza Hut experience.

Oh, wow.

In Wilcox, Arizona.

We don't have them anymore.

Remember they had the buffet?

The whole thing.

Are you serious?

Douglas, Arizona is right on the border.

Well, I gotta make a trip now.

And we were just like, it's Mexican food. And I was like, I really don't want to do Mexican today. And I was like, let's go to fucking Pizza Hut. And it was glorious, dude. Oh, man. Nice. The red cups, the soda, the salad bar, the whole thing. And it was cozy. It was like a dimly lit. It was wonderful. I'll have to make a trip, man. I miss that, man. I miss that. And it's so crazy. Like, the older we get, how, like, stuff disappears.

And then with COVID, it's like a lot of things really disappeared. You're like, wow, man, this really sucks. I remember a different way of life. It almost seems like the last three, four years, it just seems like it was a lifetime ago that we went through all of that. Nobody was open, no buffets anymore. Oh, man, this sucks. I remember going to a pizza hut in Fort Stockton, Texas. And this was, this is like West Texas, middle of fucking nowhere.

And there was like a sign on the door. It was like, don't bring your guns in. And then, well, that's how those, that's why we have stuff like that here. Cause those places have been there since 1980 and nothing else ever came. So they still, yeah. What part of Arizona are you in? Extreme South East corner. I'm a couple, three hours, two and a half hours South of Tucson. Okay. Yeah. I'm next to something called the Chiricahua mountains. It's I don't have a lot of neighbors. It's,

He's in the middle of nowhere, literally. Yeah. Wow. But I'm like about 50 miles from the Mexican border and about five miles from the New Mexican. Oh, wow. Okay. I feel like there's an Eddie Money song here. But you've rung so many bells, I'm sure, for all of us from my youth with a lot of the things that you've been talking about today. I mean, for instance, by the way, 4104 was my first cassette, my first actual cassette. Oh, man. Was that really? It's a great record. It really is. Such a great record.

And even if you don't, like, I don't know, man. Dude, I saw them perform a couple years ago, and I thought they were just fantastic. Another thing is what we do is my girlfriend, soon-to-be wife, we go to hockey games here in Wisconsin, and they bring bands. And we saw Tesla a couple months back. Sure. And then we saw Night Ranger. Nice. And then there was another, I can't remember the other band. And that's the only time we go, though. It's the only time we go when they have a band.

And you know what I love about it? The hockey game's quick. The band comes on. And we're still home before midnight. Nice. Honestly. And even a lot of times we're taught here, I think Markinson was talking about, you go up and you play and you travel and you got to be exhausted. There's a lot of times, especially in the U.S., where I will be like, hey, look, I will tell our booking guy, I don't want to be on that stage past 1030. I got to be on by 1030. And that's my demand because I feel like past then, it's like I'm tired.

So the fact that these hockey games had these bands on so early and then they play like a nice hour and 10 or hour 15 like sticks man we saw them at Summerfest here which is a big music festival and we saw them at one of the grounds BMO Harris or whatever it was and they just they're another band that I actually remember in high school being 16. They would be at my friend's next door and he was a big Atari freak and he had to sit there all

All night and all day, he would sit and he would master whatever game Tetris or whatever he was playing, Space Invaders and Asteroids. He would stay up all night. I remember he had a rocking chair. I'd just sit in a rocking chair with the headphones on, man. I'd crank the sticks and pieces of eight or Paradise Theater and all that stuff, man. There were some records and bands that came out at that time, man. It was a great time. It was a great time. I saw Ray Charles after a minor league baseball game one time. Damn. Really?

It didn't give a shot. I'm a baseball fan, but it was not in a place where I can't shit about the teams. And I love Ray Charles. And it was the only chance I ever had to see him when I went after this. And it was amazing. Well, the fact that he can play and can't sing is what the hell. And he, the guy was addicted to heroin for a while. I've always thought, like, what was it like bouncing around in the dark like that, man? That must've been tough. Right? Yeah. But I like those things that you're talking about where they kind of tack something on.

You can go see some cool band or something. Hell yeah, man. I mean, dude, Night Ranger killed it, man. I mean, Tesla was awesome. Yeah, I love doing it, man. It's like we can see a classic band and you can get a hockey game. It's like a twofer. I'm down any time. We were supposed to see REO Speedwagon, but they can't. The pandemic came and they canceled. So I'm hoping they hopefully they come back around, too, because there was another thing. That singer still sounds good, too. His voice is held out. What's the hockey team?

The Milwaukee Adults. And like what level is that? Triple A kind of thing? Yeah, they're not like, what is it? They're not NHL. So I think they're like, whatever. Yeah. And I forget what the NHL minor league is even called, but yeah. Yeah. There must be a lot of the minor league teams up there. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I think it was just not even a couple of months. I think a couple of weeks ago, months ago, whatever. They were like, they won 10 or 11 games in a row or something like that. It's like they were on fire, man. Right. So yeah, I, like I said,

I really enjoy it man especially you go you see a band game hey we're good to go but so many amazing like I said it just so many amazing and you know I was even when we were watching a Night Ranger I was kind of like I'm gonna I'm like I'm on my phone and I'm wikipediaing wikipedia these guys and because I wanted to see what their ages were and Brad Gillis is like 72 wow yeah dude 72 he's up there wailing

And it's funny, but one guitar player, I can't remember his name, but I know he's been in a lot of other bigger bands, too. He's the youngest of them all, and he's like 55. They're all up there like 68, 70, and I'm like, wow, these guys are wailing at 70? That's incredible. Brad Gillis is so underrated. It's underrated. I saw him. When he did Speak of the Devil, I'm sorry, man. Even though it wasn't Rhodes, and I remember a lot of us were, oh, we're kind of disappointed.

But he still came in and kicked ass. He did a fantastic job. And I think I saw a YouTuber interview with him where he said, what, two weeks or something like that? It might have been less than that. Less than that. Yeah. You got to give it to the guy. But you're right. He's very underrated. I saw him play for Ozzy on the Diary of Mad Men tour. And then I, right after that song. Really? Yeah. Then I saw Night Ranger open for Sammy Hagar for their first album. Wow. There's actually a DVD. It's just on fire. Him and,

And Jeff Watson, too, was great. There's a DVD, David. There's a DVD in it, and probably it's on YouTube, and it's the Diary of a Madman tour, and it's Gillis playing. He was so good. Yeah, it's a professionally filmed show. And I have to tell you, he pulls off the road stuff pretty fucking good, dude. Yeah. I saw a Facebook post by him just the other day for some reason. He shows up in my feed sometimes, Brad Gillis, and his wireless system is inside his guitar. That's bizarre.

And he was with his tech and he was like, a lot of people probably wonder why is there like nothing, no cords or anything? And he said, in the 80s, I came up with this. And so he's got like cutouts in his guitars. And in the back, the wireless systems on the inside, there's no semblance of cord outside the guitar. Wow. That's cool. Yeah. So he's kind of an innovator too, in his way. Yeah. I loves guitar. Absolutely, man. Yeah. I mean, Tom Schultz, Boston. I mean, that was what I thought of when I

I saw this interview.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, another, like I said, I don't know what was in the water back then,

but there's so many good bands.

And I just like the fact that we didn't categorize them.

We didn't be like, no, you got, you got black metal.

You got death metal.

You got this metal.

You got that metal.

And we just didn't care.

We just didn't care.

We listened.

We listened.

We listened to, yeah, it was just rock or metal.

We listened to all of it.

And like I was telling you, man, I mean, oh, here's something funny.

I love Alice Cooper. My girlfriend loves Alice Cooper. I am not as big a fan of his rock stuff as I am his new wave material. Like Special Forces, Flush the Fashion. Those are two of my favorite records, man. I love them back to front. There's not a bad song. And I like his newer stuff and the rock stuff, but that stuff is like, just to me, it's okay. I'm not worthy. And then that guy, oh, that guy too. Look at how he rocks. We were on tour.

last year, so I couldn't get to see him, but my girlfriend went and saw him with Lita Ford, and she was like, and Ace Frehley, I think, opened up. Oh, wow. And she was like, and she asked me, she goes, what's wrong with Ace? And I said, what do you mean? She goes, dude, he was boring. He didn't move, and I said, yeah, he's an old dude, man. I said, but then she was so with Alice Cooper, and he was running around. He's all over the place, yeah. I did the backstage experience thing with Alice. Really? Oh, he killed you, didn't he? It was awesome, dude. It was amazing.

He choke you to death? Yeah, yeah. So, because I'm an Alice fanatic. Yeah, so like you got to go there and go on stage like before the show and put your head in the guillotine and all this different stuff. And then after you got to sit and chat with him and get your picture taken with him and stuff and sign shit and stuff, it was the best. It was the fucking best. See, and I worked for him. I used to do like stage or production work, so I used to be like a production assistant. Far out. And he came to the rave like back in the 2000s and I was like,

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I never got to meet him. He was always, he was either golfing or performing. Yeah, he was either on the golf course or performing. That was it. So I never got to meet him. And I've met some, I worked for some pretty big bands. Was it Clapton? A long time ago when he came. Springsteen, Seven Dust, and I mean, Slair and Marilyn Manson, Green Day, a lot of rap groups too, throwing in there. And just, I worked with,

So many big bands and I just never got to meet Alice and that was always a big like damn. Well, he so I do live out here in the middle of nowhere now and their concerts do come to Tucson. So okay, but the first thing just announced that since I've lived here for just six months now is Alice Cooper just added a date. So that's gonna be the first show. I'm gonna drive a distance to go see Alice play at some casino in Tucson. Why not man? And now he's got what is a Nina Strauss back with him. So yeah, she's I was not

I like that was that Razor Fist and Yell yeah he did two or three with him I want to say yeah he did three did he do Constrictor yeah I think he's on Constrictor and then there's Razor Fist and Yell and then whatever came after that thought after that was was trash yeah is he on trash or is are you thinking he's not I don't think he's on trash I think that was somebody else because that was way more commercial I think he wrote because I read somewhere he wrote some songs that he wasn't on you so that might be

I was so surprised that he pulled him back like that. Well, you know what I want to see is that most of the guys are all still alive, man. He can still get the Alice Cooper band back together. And I like these ones. But one guy. Razor fisting yells. One guy is not. The guitar player is not. Dennis. Is it Dennis? Yes. Yeah. Because here's another funny story about that is I'm not a book guy. I'm not a reader, right? So for Christmas, what does my girlfriend get me?

She gets me the Dennis Dunaway book about Alice Cooper. And so, no, she read it and she's giving me the info. I'm like, what happened? And every time she reads a chapter, she fills me in on what's going on. So it was kind of funny. But yeah, there's only the one guy that's not alive. And I do believe on the last album, Detroit Stories, a lot of those guys were on, I think, a song or two. Because they say something in there about, they kind of mock him about,

They miss him because he's not on stage anymore. Yeah, you got it. Well, he could do he still could do something with those guys. Well, they did do something which was a few years back. They played a show in a record store in Texas. I think strangely and it was all of them was Dennis was still alive and they released it on record store day. It's amazing. It's so good. Yeah, it's on. Let me grab it. I'll show it to you record store day tomorrow and I and I has since been I think

Released Now is a general release thing. But it's just, I'll get it so I can tell you the title. Okay. Let me just sneak in here while Jay's away from the microphone. First of all, Raise Your First and Yell, as far as I'm concerned, heaviest Alice Cooper album. And yes, Cain Roberts did play on one track on Trash, and that was Bed of Nails, which was probably the heaviest song on that album. Okay. Nice research. It's Alice Cooper live from the AstroTurf.

Oh, wow. The whole total original band. I'm going to have to get that because my girlfriend would love that too. Well, this is the record store day one, but like I say, you can just get it now from iTunes or whatever. It's out. Okay. And it's great. They sound like themselves. I mean, it's such a deal. Is it like the old track list? Like the first four records? Absolutely. Let me, I think it's worth your time for me to tell you. Ooh, that's pretty.

I'm 18.

Yeah, it's everything. Is it my body?

I'm almost a nice guy under my wheels.

They sound like themselves.

How big is that downstairs?

He just kept running.

I know. He's like going off into the distance.

He comes. He's coming back.

It took like 20 minutes.

Is that the book?

Yeah, I'm literally going to order that like right now.

Totally will order it.

Yeah.

It's pretty massive, man. It's got really cool. It's got a couple posters. This is what I want to... Because I've got on my wall right now, I've got Michael, I've got Randy, and Chuck, showliner, and I think this is going up there now. Dude, I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know that existed. You're slipping, Jay. Alice Cooper at 75. Okay. And it says Gary Graff, so I don't know if he's the right.

That's not the Dennis Dunway thing. That's just like a regular, like, uh, like smaller paperback book.

Then I think I did know about this, but I don't have it. It was, it came out from a very specialized publisher. If I'm not mistaken, they do a lot of cool things like that. Yeah. Well, the whole thing is, like I said, I'm like, Oh, thanks. I'm just not a big book guy, but I think it was fascinating because she was, he was going on about when they first started and then how they got so big.

And then they were the South America tours. And so there's a really a lot of a plethora of information from that guy. And it sounds like he's got a pretty good memory about it, too. Yeah. And I mean, a positive memory, you mean, or like a detailed memory? Like detailed, like he's pretty. Yeah. He states a lot of facts. And, you know, that's one thing I've always liked about Alice, too, is just how he's he just handles himself real well. And, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, this guy is a devil worshiper or whatever.

And he's like the hugest Christian. Some people are like, what? Like, I didn't know that. I'm like, yeah. And I'm glad he got Nita back, though, because I think she's a super shredder. And, you know, I think she does a really good job. And so, yeah, I know he's coming here, but I think I'm going to be gone again. So I don't know if I'll get to see him. Yeah, I'm trying to remember if this is fall dates or summer dates or what's coming up. But yeah, maybe you're, it's too bad if you're booked. But he doesn't seem to stop. So you're probably going to get another chance. Yeah, I know. Hey, I'm like,

Like, dude, how is this guy doing this, though, man? And that was another thing in the book that they talked about, too, is about how he, like, and I think this happens to a lot of bands where the management gets in the way, and they were seeing that Alice was the popular part, and the band maybe wasn't, so they kind of, I think that's what they did, and I think that's maybe what happened to the band, is they kind of separated them and maybe kind of played them against each other or something like that, because... Ah, no, they shot themselves in the foot. They were all like, let's all do a solo record, and he was like, okay, but

My name is Alice Cooper. And they went over their solo records and nobody gave a shit about them. And then Alice blew up in his own way. There's a really good documentary. And I'm sorry, we're turning this to the Alice Cooper podcast, but documentary. I cannot recommend enough for you. And it's called super mensch. And they called super what? Super mensch. Like the Jewish word mensch. Okay. And it's about his manager and this, how was his fucking name? He managed like Hendrix and Janis Joplin and all these different people.

And he retired. He's this really cool guy. The story itself is just cool to hear about this guy. His name I cannot remember. The guy retired like 15, 20 years ago, Shep Gordon. And Alice won't work with anybody else. So he retired, but he still has to manage Alice Cooper. Wow. Alice says, dude, I want to keep going. I won't work with any else but you. And he's got the coolest fucking story. So you got to see this documentary. And it's also right up my alley.

And also Super Duper Alice Cooper, which is Sam Dunn. And that'll walk you through the split up. Okay. Interesting. Because it's like with the Kiss thing, too, when they kind of all did their solo records. And honestly, out of the four of them, dude, Ace is like my favorite. Like I liked his. I didn't like any of the other ones. I liked his, you know. There's almost a weird punk aspect to it in the weirdest sort of way. We're talking about the Kiss solo records? Yes. Yeah, Ace was the best.

Absolutely. Yeah, I thought so. I don't know. His new record's not bad. I mean, dude, some critics were slamming the shit out of it. I mean, it's awful. Well, he's never been a great singer, but he had some good hooks. I, dude, I don't know, man. New York groove, man. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, back then, that was, that's amazing. But, but like the new record even has some good hooks. People are talking about it a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I have to check that out. I like it.

I thought it was good. I'm not really a big Gene and Paul fan. I don't know. I know the other two guys had problems with drugs and all this other stuff, but it was like, if you guys are doing this farewell thing, you should have them. In my opinion, they should be part of it. They should have been part of it. They're still alive. Bring them out. How hard is that? What's that thing they're doing now with the whole cartoon? Seriously? You're going to go pay $70 to see a cartoon?

No.

That is one organization that does not have a voice in it that goes, I don't think this is a great idea.

You know what I mean?

Well, didn't they? And they just sold their catalog, too.

Yeah, I saw that.

They were rumored. I guess it was $300 million, I think I heard.

Jeez.

Yeah.

That's it?

Everybody's doing that.

Yeah.

I know, John. I thought it wasn't a big, huge number.

How much did Bowie sell his for? A billion?

Was it that much?

It was some crazy number.

I never knew that.

When he sold. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought he sold for something.

I know Neil Young just went out pretty large. I'm trying to remember the number. I know Dylan was a lot. Yeah, Dylan was a billion for sure. Wow. Oh my God. That's insane. Yeah, isn't it? You don't have to work another day in your life. Yeah, and they interviewed me. I saw an interview with Neil Young and he was like, dude, there's still my fucking songs and everything. I'm 70 years old ever. I just got a huge fucking paycheck. What do I care? You know what I mean? I'll just take it all now.

I'll sell mine for 50 bucks. I'll take that. We'll give you 48. Dave will sell his for lifetime pizza. Yes. Yes. That would be awesome. It's so funny you guys say that because I know when I was four in South America, like what? No pizza? I'm like, oh, I'll find it. Okay. So here's the question. What is your favorite pizza chain? Oh, man.

I don't have one because I don't go to chains. I go to, well, I shouldn't say that either. Okay. Well then what's your favorite pizza place? Hands down right now in our town right now, I would have to say that's a place called Ian's. I'd say Ian's or a pizza shuttle. I like those guys a lot too. Cause I like it all. I like it all. I'll do Detroit style. I'll do. I'm sorry. There's a pepies for the sausage and the sauce.

And what's your go-to pizza, David? What? What's your go-to pizza? Do you like sausage on it? Yeah, I'm just a cheese and sausage guy. That's it. I mean, I'll eat some of you. It's funny. Dude, and this happened on a couple occasions when I was a single gentleman. But, you know, you'd be having a couple too many, and I'd fall asleep, and the pizza would burn. And I'd like, I'd still fucking eat the goddamn pizza. Oh, yeah, burnt pizza's the best. Yeah, I mean, there's really not too much you could put in front of me.

that I wouldn't I don't like peppers I don't like green onions or black olives but I will tell you if you put a piece in front of me I'll probably eat it anyways yeah what about frozen pizza is there frozen pizza preference yeah I like if I'm feeling rich if I'm feeling rich because frozen pizzas have gotten really expensive there as much as like a small dominoes now or a medium dominoes you can pay seven bucks for a dominoes or seven bucks for a frozen yeah so I used to bella torres pretty good

I like that a lot but honestly my go-to is tombstone tombstone yeah I like as a kid I just remember it as a kid like we were talking about nostalgia I just remember throwing it in the pizza oven cranking on a vinyl blah blah blah you know and every bar back then always carried tombstone so I just that's like a go-to I'm you may think I'm crazy but I like Totino's dude I was just gonna say that George because the crust on those things is so good pizza yeah there's something magic about it

The combination.

If you're feeling cheap, Tony's is still pretty good for a cheap pizza.

It's not bad.

Yeah, it's not.

But they have so many different, like Connie's.

I used to love Connie's before they changed their recipe with the cornmeal on the bottom.

I just wanted to try, though.

Here's one.

So I go to Costco.

They have a Motor City Pizza Company, and they make this double pepperoni.

And it's freaking good.

And I think you get two in each pack.

And the price is good because it's Costco. Yeah. And that's my favorite by far because it comes in like this black tray that you just put into the oven. And so it crisped it up. Sometimes I take the pizza out and put a little butter in there and then put the pizza in there. Nice. Costco's got a great, if you go to their concession, they have great slices. And so does Sam's. So every time someone's like, hey, you want to go to Sam's? You need a thing? I'm like, yeah, slice of pizza. Yeah. I honestly am like the biggest.

I'm a pizza freak ever. And I've been, I have a buddy in town and he actually reps village pub pizza. I don't know if it's just, it must maybe just here, but he reps them. And I'm like, yeah, they're okay. But we're always going back and forth and we're always sharing. There was one, he just shared me now in our local soccer, Nancy's. And it's a deep dish. And I still have yet to find a good deep dish. Like I can't find a good one. Uno's sucks. Gino's East sucks. And he finally goes, Nancy's. And I'm like, Nancy's.

And then my other buddy Pequots Huh? Pequots? What? You never had Pequots in Chicago? No What? Come out here I'll get you some pizza All right Pequots is by far the best pizza here I'll make the trip I am fine in Chicago Let's have pizza together Pequots is by far the best Don't tell me with a good time Actually I have a pizza place called Chicago's Pizza right around the corner And they make really good deep dish Oh my gosh Chicago You live in Chicago man Come on No That's not the actual real Chicago

It's a place in Racine, Wisconsin, which probably in between both of us called Wells Brothers. Amazing tavern style pizza. That's where most of my relatives are in Racine. Really? Yeah.

My mom grew up and went to school there and my grandparents died there and my uncle's still there and stuff so I used to be in Racine all the time I was born in Madison so Oh really? Bell City? Huh? Bell City? Yeah I lived in a small town called Mount Horeb Yeah I know what it is About first 10 years of my life but yeah Racine and there's a big Italian contingent in Racine big Norwegian one too but Italian so a lot of good Italian food Racine Oh yeah yeah

I always kind of watch him sometimes. The bar pizzas? Yeah, barstool, whatever. Barstool sports, whatever. Some of his reviews are, like, I don't know, I started following his, like, dude, that looks great. I just sucks when he gets a shitty review or something, but he was at Wells Brothers in Racine, and when we were recording the record, my, because my aunt Chris DeJurek lives in Racine, and his studio's in Racine, so one night after recording, he's, hey, let's go to

And I'm like, are you kidding me? And he goes, no, let's go. And man, we had the best pizza, man. That was really, really good. I gotta get you to Pequoise. Hell yeah. Pequoise has got caramelized crust and they have handmade sausage. So it's like perfect for you. I'm still. That's the best. And a lot of places too, it's the sausage and the sauce can make or break it. Oh yeah. And a lot of people don't realize that. Like you can have really good sauce and bad sausage and it's still. But yeah, I'm a pretty equal opportunity pizza.

I'll probably eat anything stuffed in front of my face. But the Walmart, my buddy was talking about the Motor City Pizza. It's like a Detroit style. Yeah, that's what I was talking about. That's at Costco. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I gotta try it yet. I still haven't tried that one. And I usually I'll try one of everything once. And that's my favorite frozen pizza by far. It's the only one I get now. Like, you said, you know, you say they have it in Walmart? They used to be kind of good. Now they're kind of, what is that? I'm so impressed that George brought up Totino's. I can really get that out of Totino's.

That's like a classic. That's like a classic 80s. Yeah, for sure. Oh, that's the one. It's crisp. Remember the school pizzas? Oh, yeah. They were great. And they had the little holes in them. Right. And everybody's like, oh, my gosh, we're awful. I'm like, what are you talking about? I could eat those. I love me, too. When you're six, when you're six beers in, it's perfect. I'm college. In college, the pizza bagels.

I still make those. Better when you're 12 beers in. That's two pizzas then. Or a burnt one in my case. I literally, no, no lie. This is probably like maybe 20 years ago. I'm in my apartment. I'm drinking and I just happened to fall asleep. And I made the pizza when I had a few too many and I left the cardboard. I took the whole damn thing with the cardboard. But man,

I still ate it. I was like, I cannot let this pizza go to waste. And it's weird too, because like where I work my day job, like on the weekends, they'll buy the staff, they'll get like a meal or something. And they usually get pizza. And then I come in on Monday and it's still in the fridge. I'm like, so I'm always like kind of trolling the fridge on Monday mornings. And for the last two months, they've had no pizza. So I walked up to the bar. I said, what the fuck is going on?

because on Monday, I look forward to that. Wow. I love this. You're going to get metal suggestions on this cast and a shit ton of pizza suggestions. Oh, yeah. You know, I miss the I miss the Detroit style from MDF. That was like life saving pizza right there. Especially when Jay's at the help me out here power plant with the pizza outside the railing going. I got pizza. I thought you were going to say when he was passed out behind the garbage bin.

No, that was earlier. It was so funny because that was a very comfortable nap, but I woke up to the faces of two very concerned medical people. Okay, man. And I'm like, yeah, no. You heard fine form that weekend, Jay. Right? I see this Motor City Pizza on Walmart. I'm going to have to get me some of those. Yeah, dude, it's really good. Yes. Okay. Good things. Yeah, it looks good. It's my only real shopping choice around here, so I'll pick one up because. Yeah, I get a Costco and like I said, you get two in each one.

They're big. I mean, that's not bad. And the price isn't bad for getting those two big pizzas. And it's thick because it's the Detroit style. So. Hell yeah. I love it. I've told people about this and they get it. And then they're all about it. I've converted like at least seven people. Yeah. Time to get a Costco membership. It's worth it just for that pizza. Right. And I've had their like regular slices at their concessions. And I'm like, geez, like. Actually, the Costco, if you just get their pizza, like the one they make, it's like,

10 bucks for a giant pizza that is a good pizza it's really good i know it has fans yeah and i love it i've gotten a couple times it's awesome and then quick trip too quick trip has their take and bakes that are like oh man i like it and trust me we're on the road and we go to these gas stations like i've been sheets i've been jets i've been quick trip i've been bucky's all of them and it's like you are in casey's and yeah quick trips that got like

a really good take and bake.

It's pretty.

So you're a Wisconsin guy and I'm not sure if these are still around.

So forgive me if,

do you remember as an insult to this chain,

but do you remember Rocky with Coco?

Oh,

hell yeah.

They're still around.

Oh,

yeah.

Still around.

Okay.

Yeah.

We don't have them out here and I don't think they're in California either,

but no,

I remember my stepdad was electrician and he put the electric in at the first one in

Madison.

And we were like,

we got to go for the train of speeds.

You know what I mean?

I wouldn't help them.

Oh,

hell yeah.

As a kid.

And they had the first space invaders game.

I ever saw two. Oh, the best. Hey, we're supposed to be wiring this thing with my stepdad. I'm not useless anyway. Cause I'm like nine and I'm just like, can I have a quarter? I just played space. And then when we finally finished the place and it opened a couple of weeks later, we wouldn't have the pizza. That's awesome. Nice. No, it's still around. There's one in the, there's a mall. Well, one of the only malls is still left around. They've, they're in there. And then they have at least in Milwaukee. And then they've got two locations in Milwaukee still. Was it a Wisconsin chain then? Or was it just,

Yeah, I think it's just Wisconsin. Gotcha. Yeah. No, they're still around. What else can we talk about? I love this because George is like, oh yeah, David can only stand for an hour, but then you start talking to Alice Cooper and Pete's. I'll give you another hour for that. There's a great, you've got, there's no way you're not in this group, but there's a great group on Facebook and it's not a group. I just look at the posts, but it's Wisconsin dive bars. Okay. Yeah. You might look for it just because it's everything about,

your youth and growing up and all that stuff is all in this site. It's just people go around taking pictures of these places. Yeah, I mean, you had like the beers too. You had Schlitz and all that. Oh my God. But every neighborhood like in Wisconsin, it'd be in the middle of a street, like a street with nothing but houses and then there's a bar on the court. Yeah, I think Wolski's is like that. Wolski's. Is that in your neighborhood or are you?

No, it's not. No, I don't. I think it's in West Dallas. But they're like a famous, like, they actually have their own bumper stickers that say, I closed Wolski's. Everybody has to get one. They got the shirt. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I mean, West Dallas, I think there's, God, there's probably a bar in every corner. But you could probably walk in a circle two miles and you'd probably hit like 12 bars. Yeah. Like, it's just, that's just how. And in the Midwest, everything ends with skis. Everything.

And it was funny too,

because like when we were in South America,

they're very beer friendly as well.

And I remember a couple of times we were like,

yeah,

where's the beer is really like,

Oh my,

Hey man,

we're from Wisconsin.

Right.

All right.

We got to have our beer.

So.

Was it a good beer down there?

What do they have?

Yeah.

Yeah.

They got the names.

I also like a lot of the beers in Europe too,

because they're all lagers.

I'm a big lager guy.

Matter of fact,

hold on,

let me get the name.

Cause I,

I of course had to take pictures of every beer.

because the names are so bizarre.

And I'm like, where did they get this name?

So one was, was it there, this one, Poker.

So Poker, I probably can't say it, but it's Poker's one.

That was everywhere.

And then, let's see here.

Come on now, phone.

Poker.

Oh, then this one is Andiana.

I don't know.

And you liked them, though?

They were good beers?

Yeah.

Yeah, and of course, here's me with the pizza. He doesn't take selfies with people. He takes selfies with people. Oh, and then here's one that's just called, it's P-I-L-S-E-N-E-R. So is that Pilsener? Pilsener. Could be their take on that. But that's another one, yeah. Oh, yeah, and it's only $1.35 a bottle. I'm watching your tour on Facebook. The thing I was most jealous of was Bogota because I've watched the Narcos thing, the

Bob Laskobar story in Colombia is a beautiful country, man. Oh, yeah. And sidebar Becker. There's another one. Becker. So just, yeah, the loggers are incredible. No, Bogota, honestly, man, I wish we would have just stayed there, man. I was just real comfortable with the area, and we were starting to get to learn the landscape. But, man, whoo. And that was the worst part. At that point, I had no pizza. And I'm looking, and I'm looking. So, mind you,

We're in a city, a pretty populated, I mean, the city, I don't know if you know this, but on the sidewalks, they have bike lanes. And these people stopped for no one. I can't tell you how many times I almost got hit or run over, like seriously. And they're going fast too for these mountain bikes. But anyways, and then you see the streets and you're like, oh my God, like this is busy. I mean, you're talking about a third world country, but busy populated, like almost like New York. It was like, oh my God. And lo and behold, in the background across the street,

I see a dominoes. I'm like, are you kidding me? There's a dominoes. I can't get to it. I don't know how to get to this dominoes. I was so angry. I reached out to it. I said, you will be mine before I leave. And you couldn't cross the street. They don't have crosswalks like we do here. So you couldn't cross the street. So I unfortunately didn't get that. But later on, like I said, there was another place when we were walking in town.

And there was a pizza place. Right now you look at, okay, I recognize that. I see the pizza ovens. And we go in there and the guy that was, our handler was like, I'll order for you. And I said, can I just get just cheese? They don't really put sausage on their pizzas. They put like ham, Canadian bacon, pepperoni. And the guy says, and the guy is speaking in Spanish and this is it. So I'm like, what is it? Pepperoni? I'm like, all right, guess I'm eating pepperoni. Yeah. And that's it.

And that's a weird thing in Europe, too. If you go to Europe and you, like, say, you say, if you get, like, a kebab or something, you don't want something that's like, mm-mm. It's not Burger King. You can't have it your way. It just comes this way, and that's it. And then, like I said, when we were in Chile, we had some really, I'm going to say this much, it almost looked like dominoes, but it was, like, almost, like, three times as good. Wow. But it looked like a domino.

There's something they serve in Poland

and it's an old, not traditional, but it's an old treat there. People love it.

It's called Zapia Konki and it's Polish pizza and it's so fucking good, dude.

So yeah, it's almost like a French bread pizza.

Okay.

And then it's got, it's pizza.

There's no question about that.

You'll eat it and you'll be like, oh yeah, this is totally pizza.

But they do a couple weird Polish things to it.

Yeah.

Well, in Czech Republic too, I remember we went there.

I was like, oh man, like I can't eat the food here.

This is too weird for me.

They got this every country in Europe has their own version of the kebab. Yeah. And I think I got one and I'm like, this is gross, dude. You're putting like chicken in with cucumbers. I'm like, yeah. So as I look at it, as I'm eating it, right? So as I'm eating, I see the menu. I'm like, margarita pizza. I'll take one of those. Yeah. Can't go wrong. But you know what? It's so paper thin. It's like, you could almost see through it. It's like real thin. So it's a lot of people think margarita is like cheese, but it's not. It's a little different. Yeah. It's mostly sauce with a couple of blops.

Exactly.

Yeah, like a couple dollops of mozzarella and some basil.

Right.

So here's a controversial question, Dave.

Oh, no.

Are you going to whip out the pineapple, James?

I'm whipping out the pineapple.

Yes or no pineapple?

I'm guessing no.

That's a big fuck no.

I love pineapple on pizza.

That's disgrace.

I would, oh, I'll slap some of my feet.

It's funny you mentioned Domino's too in Bogota because I had some American chain

over in Europe one time. And it's different. So the other thing is, if you had that, it would have been a very different town. Yeah. Well, and that's another thing, too, is they're like burgers were like super popular. I mean, everywhere was burgers. And we were in downtown. So our guy, our liaison took us in the downtown. We went to the museum. And this was a funny thing. So it's in the middle of the day, we get in the cab. The guy's I'm out of gas. So he takes a liter.

Bottle jumps in the other cab. They take him to some, put some gas and comes back, pours it in, takes us off into downtown. And later on, it was at, it was nighttime. And the guy's, yeah, he goes, don't talk to, there's going to be people coming up to you. Don't talk to whatever to go to this burger place. And I mean, they're cooking up burgers right in front of you. And I'm like, Oh my God, these things look huge. They look delicious. I'm great. So we get one. I go back to my room. I take a bite into it. I'm like, hell no. It went in the garbage. I'm like, yeah.

So their food does taste a lot different. Yeah, it's chips too. They're chips like potato. I eat a lot of potato chips, a lot of french fries and their chips. They're not as salty as like they are. Same thing in Europe too. They're not as salty. They're like almost kind of bland. Yeah, and you can end up with a shrimp chip or something too. There's a lot of weird flavors in England. Oh God, yeah. Oh God, yeah. Everywhere. And it was just crazy the stuff that they put on burgers and just... I'm like, just no thanks.

I'm curious if you were blown away I shouldn't put words in your mouth but I mean the beauty of Bogota like it's a real beautiful place isn't that don't get me wrong the city because we were in the city but yeah we ventured out and we were just like yeah no there there was a the scenery is definitely very beautiful over there I have an interest in it I think because I just the show I watched and I was just like holy shit oh yeah and and the fans are like rabid over there it's crazy I mean

Like I said, there were probably two, maybe three. I think there were maybe two or three hotels we stayed at where they were camped out. We literally were going to lunch or something, and there was just a bunch of fans. They were like, you're here for us? They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, here's a sign. Everybody wanted a pick. I told the guys, I'm like, dude, I'm going to run out of picks here. I don't have enough for everybody. There was one particular guy where he was just waiting.

I can't remember what the situation was I think we went to lunch and I and he waited like overnight because I told him I was going to give him a pick oh and he waited overnight next day next morning we're going to breakfast and he's out there waiting and I remember I remember talking to him but unfortunately time got away from me we're drinking whatever and I remembered and something told me to take a pick with me and in the morning I gave him the pick and he's like hugging and kissing me and just I mean it's

Yeah, the fans are just like, holy shit. I have one more question related to that whole experience, if you don't mind, and it's that were any of those places, because I forget the geography of them, but were any of them like really high altitude so that you had oxygen? A lot of them. A lot of them. Did that affect you? Let me think. Let me think. Was it, I don't know if it was Chile was the highest, I think, but yeah, there was, it's funny you mention that because Adam, our guitar player, has asthma really bad. He was having a hard time, man.

He was having a real hard time because we were walking a lot. Honestly, me, I didn't notice a difference, which I was surprised. But yeah, there was like one. I'll have to ask my drummer because he was telling us, he's, dude, we're like at the super high. I think even one of the locals, they were like, you're at the highest elevation you can be at or something like that. Gotcha. Yeah, I was just curious because I want to say it was Maiden played Columbia on that 666 movie thing or something. I remember them where they were all like,

I can't catch my breath. You know what I mean? Like at one of the shows. Yeah. Well, and actually we were supposed to, ironically, we were supposed to have oxygen at the show just in case because they were like, yeah, you guys should have oxygen. And we were like, oh yeah, we'll get that. And then we got there and there was no oxygen. But I mean, we, most of us didn't have troubles with it, but yeah, I was really kind of shocked. And we all, I don't know, man, I don't know. It was kind of, it was just like kind of weird, but I didn't like feeling, but we knew we were, we knew we were pretty high up.

I think maybe I don't know if it was I mean it might be in Ecuador but I know it was really like we're pretty we're pretty high up above sea level yeah it might have been all the pizza might neutralize that shit that was a funny thing that the lunch the next day after the show in Ecuador to lunch was pizza and I was like what what are they putting on this shit man it was like ham and bacon you ate a lot of ham

I don't gather. And I was like, you know what? Screw it. I'm going to eat it. I'm an equal opportunity pizza eater. But yeah. And then like, and I remember one morning they had like bologna. It was almost like a piece of bologna with cheese. And it was like, I'm bread. And it was like, they put it in a waffle iron. And then they had a couple of eggs, a lot of eggs, a lot of eggs. When we first got into Santiago, we went to this bar and I don't even know what they were, man. They, it was a real nice lager, but it was a lot of eggs.

It kind of had almost a little darkness to it. Like kind of like maybe like a reddish ale or something. Super good. And we're pounding them down. And we said to the manager, hey, man, we're hungry. We're hungry. Let's get some food. I'll get you some bar food. So we're waiting. And they come and bring out this big plate. And I'm like, what in the hell is this? And what is a plate? French fries on the bottom. And like little pieces of almost like a pot roast almost kind of with a salsa.

And then two overeasy eggs on top of it. And that was considered their bar food. And yeah, I picked that thing apart like nobody's business and then nobody ate the egg. So finally I just stuck my fork and I just downed the egg. It's like a breakfast garbage plate. Oh yeah. But like real big, like you said, real big on beef, pork chops. It's always, it's always either pork chops and pork chops and rice or pork chops and mashed potatoes. That one bar we went to in, I can't think of it.

But it was near the end of the road. It was almost like a big chunk of pot roast with a big plate of rice and salad. And so, yeah, it was just like beef galore everywhere. Burgers everywhere. Burgers are just everywhere. But I'm starting to get hungry. I know. One of us is going to have a pizza tonight. I think we should probably move on to the next. I had pizza last night, actually. So I looked it up in the next part of the cast, though, George. Yeah, I'm George.

I looked it up and the highest elevation in South America is in Argentina near the Chilean border. That's okay. That's where we were. Yeah. That's what it was. And okay, Argentina. Thank you. I couldn't remember, but I know it was, I was like, Oh shit. Like really? This is good stuff. Yeah. We, we have McDonald's in Argentina and I was like, God, this is dog shit. Like how do they, how do you fuck up a McChicken, man? Like seriously? Like, I mean, I would say the McChicken's already fucked up.

Yeah, they are, but this was really jacked up. They forgot the mayo and everything. And it was just like, God, this is awful. And then we went back and I had a quarter pounder with cheese or something. And I was like, dude, this is gross. Yeah. I mean, the food is definitely very, like Jay was saying, the food's definitely different. Yeah. All right. Well, do you want to hang out while we do more of the pod or what do you want to do? Yeah, I got another like 10 or 15. All right. Okay. We'll make it easy on you. Well, I'm going to shuffle things around then. Let's talk about the news.

Instead of like t-shirt and beer check, because you don't care about that. Yeah, that sounds perfect. So, all right, we'll do the news next. First up, James Hetfield gets a tattoo with Lemmy's ashes mixed into the ink, and it's an iron cross with a spade on his middle finger.

Who gives a shit? What that guy does? Are you kidding me? I'm a big Hetfield fan. Are you? Yeah, I love Metallica. George put it on there because he loves it. I also like pineapple on pizza, so leave me alone. Oh, George. Come on. Do I have to come to Baltimore, right? Yeah, ish. I have to say, I appreciate David's comment because, and I would even, there's a few guys I throw into that now, and I hate to say it, but even

Bruce is like one of them. They're just like so ubiquitous and rich and stuff that I don't see them as real people anymore. I don't know. I think it'd be cool to have Lemmy's ashes tattooed on. Oh yeah. Well, hey, hats off to him, you know? Yeah. All right. Well, let's move on to the next one that nobody's definitely going to give a shit about. I mean, I care about this news item even less. Oh, I know. Me too. I've only mentioned it because I actually watched this, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees for this year are going to be

I know who gives a shit but I actually watch American Idol so

I'm gonna be watching that and bitching the whole time because it's gonna suck

so

can we vote for Mortis called yeah yeah you know what though but you know what a lot of that stuff is

like from behind the scenes stuff is a lot of it isn't really on your merit or what you've done

no like I saw this documentary or whatever it was and it was about this I can't remember who I

I can't remember for the life of me, but I remember the situation in that. He was an actor, and he was saying, like, when they get golden globes on, it has nothing to do with anything. It all has to do with your publicist nominating you, and then how much money you donate or something like that. So, like, a lot of those awards are really just fake. Like, they're not even... What a shock. Yeah. I mean, it's a fucking embarrassment, I think. I don't even know why we keep bringing it up in the cast, to be honest. So we can bitch about it forever.

I'll tell you what. None of us has any faith in that institution, if institution is even the right fucking word. Prostitution. The reason we bring it up is because we could celebrate Alex Lifeson's induction speech for Rush, where he only said one word for three minutes straight. That was blah, blah, blah. That's why we bring it up. Yeah, I realize. All right, next news item. Kerry King released a second song from his album. The song is called Residue. Did anybody listen to this? I don't know what David thinks of this, to be honest with you.

You know what, man? I think that guy's a punk. And the reason why I say that is because two weeks before, a good friend of mine here in Milwaukee works for Riot Fest in Chicago. And he got the Slayer gig. He told me about it before it happened. And two weeks before that, carries all over the net. Talking about screw Tom and Tom this and all this slandering about Tom.

And then all of a sudden, oh, hey, we're playing a show. What? You know, really, dude? I really hope Tom punches him in his bald head. Really? Why would you go and trash? Trash? And then all of a sudden, hey, we're playing a couple of weeks. We kind of talked about that, too. Yeah. Because, by the way, you're right. That was within a couple of weeks. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, man. Gary Holt, my boy Gary Holt, man. Dude, I love seeing him in that band, dude. I think he's on fire, dude. I'd love to see him again. But I don't know if I'm going to go to the Chicago thing because it's probably going to be

What do we think that paycheck's looking like, I wonder? Oh, I'm going to say, man, I'm going to say half a mil. Wow. Yeah. They're not doing it for love. Let's put it that way. I mean, there's probably some love, but you know, it's definitely not their motivating. Any of these bands that say they're going away and then they go away and then somebody dangles half a million or yeah, you're going to play. Motley Crue? Oh, they're awful.

Just call it a day, dude. Are you kidding me? Dude, the way they did Mick Mars? Are you kidding me, dude? Yeah. It's an absolute joke. You're a fat piece of shit. You can't sing. And then you got, what, Nikki? Backing tracks? Come on, guys. It's a John 5. Hey, great. But what is with all this backing track crap? Did you listen to the Mick Mars album? I have not. It's not great. I mean, it's okay. It's very generic, hard rock sounding, but it's better than Motley Crue.

So.

Yeah.

All right.

Last news item.

Sorry.

Oh, I was gonna say, what did you think of this?

Carrie King song though, George?

Um, well, Mark is pretty freaking awesome as a singer.

Yeah.

It does a good.

It does a good talk.

Yeah.

I thought I was gonna say he really seemed like he really tried hard to emulate top.

It might be.

Yeah.

The whole screamy thing.

But it kind of works and it doesn't.

It's not a total rip-off. I mean, it's funny because I agree with some of your comments about

Kerry King, but one interview I read and I was, okay, he's a little smarter than I thought. One was, he didn't ask Gary to be in it because he was like, I don't want people to just think this is just the Slayer thing. And still demo was a pretty good fucking choice. And then, I have to say, he really impressed me with the singer he chose. That's all. I think the music is a little watered down, in my opinion, but a lot of people did not like

I personally like the Rick. I thought it was good too. I thought the relentless was good, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it's another Slayer. I don't like as much as the first one they released. Yeah. Yeah. It's just interesting because it's like you get these new members in the band. It doesn't really add new dimensions for me or a different energy. It's basically Slayer continued but with different people and that's fine. If you've got an itch on your balls for new Slayer, like this is going to fucking scratch it. Yeah, that's a good point, Mark. Where's the other

Is it Riot Fest and then they're doing one other one too, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's a, I don't know if it's Tulsa or if it's Kansas or something like that. They're doing two. Okay. And then there was like, cause the first thing was a rumor that it was going to be a tour that got shot down. But Tom is, or I think Tom's wife is saying that they're just the two shows. Yeah. Okay. I'll probably go to the Riot Fest, but I'm waiting for them to release the tickets for one day. I don't want, I don't want to go to two days. Yeah. I don't believe.

Yeah, there's not a lot of good acts on the A-Fest. No, and actually, Riot Fests, the last time I went to Riot Fests is when Slayer played, and they did have a lot more metal there. Oh, nice. Like, Quarren was there and stuff, but they have not had a lot of metal since. I want to say that was probably the farewell tour, too, that you saw. It was the farewell, and that was the last time. It was, like, one of their last shows. Interesting. Yep. All right, so our last news item, the record store formerly known as Helvet in Norway was damaged in a fire.

This was the English translation is hell. This is where mayhem and all the early 90s Norwegian black metal bands used to hang out at this record store. Wasn't it owned by Euronymous at some point? Well, I hadn't heard this piece of news yet, but strangely in my Facebook feed has been popping up a lot of photos of people, band members of other bands in the basement showing that they got their picture with the black metal drawings on the wall.

And I wonder if that's why. Were people paying tribute or something? Probably. Yeah, I mean, it's the place where Jermonimus, he scrawled that famous black metal. And like George said, it was one of the meeting places for the black metal scene in Norway, which was... It's sad because they're really... I'm going to kind of segue. When we were in Bogota, our guy took us to... It almost kind of looked like a mall. Little shops. And there was this little record store. I can't remember the name of it. And then... But he had every...

everything. But it was little. It was tiny. It was like a closet. But he had this little record store and right across from it was this death metal, black metal bar. And we just sat in that bar for like hours drinking booze and just watching all the deal. And this guy was playing like all these killer bands, bull thrower and I mean, everything and all these black metal and death metal bands. And it was really cool. So when you hear something like this, it's unfortunate that it happened because I don't know about where you guys live, but up here,

There really are very few record stores. I think in our state, we've got, we had a chain called Exclusive, and then somehow they all went out of business, and then I think two locations were bought by private owners, which are still continuing and thriving. And then we have my buddy's Rushmore records, and he's been thriving since like forever, but he does a lot of weird, niche-y kind of stuff where I was in there one day, and the guy's like, hey man,

You got like that Iranian Jewish dubstep and he's oh yeah but we got the new what the fuck are you talking about the weirdest shit these guys were talking about I'm like Iranian dubstep what the but that's kind of his niche thing again back to this it's too bad because I've heard that's a very iconic place like you were saying that's where the black middle community met and all that so it's unfortunate it really is because it's like really yeah I mean it hasn't been called it hasn't been called the Helvete in a long time

They turned that basement into a sort of black metal museum. So that's kind of the real tragedy because it's an iconic place in the history of metal. And they're just really aren't that many spots like that for metalheads to visit. I went there a few years ago, so I'm kind of glad that I got a chance to go there. I don't know what's salvaged. I don't know if the black metal is growing. I would think the basement would be all right. It's great. You know, two thoughts here. One is Keith D has been

driving around stocking record stores with his albums and the chopping mall rushmore records um he dropped his stuff off at rushmore so that was cool that you brought that up and secondarily just a reminder if you've never seen the movie movieization of what is the one that was about the black metal scene until the light takes us i think no the it's uh lords of chaos lords of chaos if you've never seen lords of chaos i can't recommend it enough i thought it was yeah it was a good

It was good. Kalkin, he did a good job. That one. Yeah, that's the one I'm telling. I thought it was really well done. I don't like the fact that, what's the dude? I can't remember his name. The guy who killed dude? Dude. Varg. Yeah, you know what, man? Dude stabbed the guy how many times? I'm sorry, man. And then in Sweden, or wherever he was in prison, Norway. Norway. Norway. Yeah. And then you get to leave on weekends? Yeah. Well, the maximum sentence in Norway is

20, 21 years, something like that. Yeah. I saw the prison he was in up north in Tromso. And I was like. In a cinematic sense, though, too, that stabbing scene is disquieting. Oh, yeah. It is. It really is. But the unique thing about it that I thought, too, was like when they kind of explain how the cover blew his head off. He's, hey, let's sneak in a cover. And you're like, what? Who does that? Who does that? Hey, my friend just blew his head off. I think I'll take a picture.

of it. That was a fucked up scene, man. And it's one of the things that makes that movie so whatever it is. I don't know how. Yeah, I agree with you. The whole thing is like that stabbing scene. It's just so disturbing. And then you mentioned what Until Light Takes Us. That was pretty good, too. That was good, too. The documentary, yeah. It was kind of, was that the one about the three guys, right? They're like the three different blackmail guys? Is that what it was? Like Dark Throne was in there. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. Well, I think it's most of

following Fenris around, to be honest with you. Yeah, it is, yeah. I was talking about the scene and everything that happened back in the day. That movie, watching it kind of saddened me a little bit. Because I was like, wow, his life doesn't look very interesting. It doesn't look very happy. It doesn't, yeah. I think they followed Necrobutcher around, too, in that. Yeah. Because isn't his band, he's out there on Peaceville, right? He's on Mayhem. Yeah. I thought his solo, like, he has other

I've got other stuff.

Yeah.

I had the,

I met him one time at a book.

He signed his book.

I went to his books and we had just seen him at death fest and he was a very nice guy,

by the way.

And,

um,

yeah,

I mentioned him.

I always just say death fest and he spent the next five minutes bitching about how much

they had this big light at the top of this pole and they were trying to create atmosphere and fuck that place.

He was so mad.

He was just like,

we had this whole plan and we came out and there's this pole,

like a streetlight and we're like fuck you. I just want to mention too before I move down from this there is a GoFundMe set up for that record shop right now and last I checked they had reached their goal so that's good news for that. So it is still a record shop then obviously. Oh yeah there's a record shop upstairs in the basement where they did the Black Manow and they set up a it's like a kind of it's really it's they call it a museum but it's basically you go down to the basement and there's stuff just yeah put there. They just left memorabilia and stuff so a lot of that's

probably is the black metal straw.

That's the big draw.

Right.

You just,

you could fix it and put other memorabilia down there.

And that would be fun.

What's his name from Ard was one of the guys who posted his photo recently with that.

Mark.

Yeah.

Mark.

Like a bunch of people on my feet.

It must have been because of this.

I have done it too.

I was on the cast when I went there,

I think.

Did you?

I posted that picture.

Yeah.

It's a good one.

I'm going to leave you guys at this.

All right.

I'm going to cut you. I'm going to go see what the kid's doing. Oh no, he's going to get pizza. He better be getting pizza. We have to thank you for your generosity of time. And just like last time, you're a lot of fun to talk to. Thank you. It's just like having a buddy. Absolutely. I know. I feel like we're just like all in high school together or something. Absolutely. Congratulations on the new record. Everybody has a high opinion over here on the podcast. And thanks for the time, Bill. And David, congratulations on being engaged.

I just didn't know you're gonna get married yeah oh yeah thank you thank you I really appreciate it man what's the big date you got a date on the August 24th nice all righty buddy all right good for you posting pictures excellent look forward to it cheers guys sir what what all our best to you and yours thank you so much I appreciate you guys it's cool all right cheers have a good one man talk to you later take care buddy bye bye let's do new releases

All right. First up is the new Coffins album, Sinister Oath. It's their sixth album. They're a Japanese death metal band. I know Matt is a big fan of these guys. What do you think, Matt? Matt. Is Matt not here? No, Matt. All right. Well, is anybody else like this album? Yeah, I like it. It's a deep.

PITUATION. I like that. Yeah, I mean, he really liked it. It was his album of the month last month, wasn't it? I believe so. I think it was. So yeah, I think it's good. They're a little bit quirky in the death metal genre, which I like. I definitely don't like it as much as he does, but nobody likes it as much as he does. Nobody does. All right, then. Next item, Dune and their third album, Voidkind.

It's a Scottish sludge band and I know Marcoson like this one. Can I actually derail this for a second? No. I mean, yes. It's a question geared towards Marcoson because I finally saw Dune 2 and I didn't ever get to hear your opinion of it. I think you saw it. Oh, yeah. No, I loved it. Yes, I saw it in the IMAX with Tracy. I absolutely loved it. I love the first one, too, but the second one, it just had more of an immediate feel because you see

All of everything's coming to a head in it. Like the first movie really builds what's happening. And the second one, like it all comes crashing down. And I just thought the performances, the special effects. I was surprised to see the Elvis kid. And I didn't know he was in it. Yeah, I don't know that kid, but he was good in it. Yeah. And then secondarily, I fucking love Josh Brolin for some reason, dude. I just think he's the fuck. Yeah, he was perfect in that role too. Who's he playing? That was fun. I'm a military leader.

who's tight with the kid and ends up kind of as a, what would you call it? Not a terrorist or something, but. Is he one of the locals or is he one of the. Oh, no, no. He's part of the Atreides. He's like a, not a general, but he's kind of like a sergeant. That's what he feels like in the movie. I know that. He's like a sergeant. He helps train people and stuff. So he's pretty important in their family and pretty loyal as well. I know the books. So I was just wondering which character he was. I can look it up, but yeah. And if there is another,

one.

That'll it'll be interesting because are you familiar with these,

the series at all?

Yeah,

I have the books.

Like I said,

he's,

he plays Gurney.

Oh yeah.

Gurney.

Okay.

Yeah.

I like,

yeah.

Yep.

So yeah,

I have the books.

I haven't read them in a real long time.

I just got some new additions of the book.

So I think I might reread it because after watching the movie,

they have to do a third movie.

Yeah.

So it kind of ends to that cliffhanger.

Yeah.

So books get really fucking weird though.

Well, the series takes place over 10,000 years. Don't get attached to anybody because they ain't going to stick around long. But I mean, it's like people merge with worms and shit. And it's like it goes off the rails after the third book. Yeah, actually, it starts in the third book, really. Yeah. So anyway, all right. So how about that album? I mean, I love it. I've been talking this one up since we got the promo. So, you know, just what a mammoth collision. You said sludge, but I mean, there's a lot of progressive metal, post-metal in there.

A Lot of Times It Sounds To Me Almost Like It's Masked On Mixed With Cult Of Luna, but it's more of a high octane delivery. The vocals on it are absolutely stunning. And they're varied. I mean, you get a lot of the growls, but the song vocals are just, they're just gorgeous. I think this is an amazing album. I mean, it's going to be on my list. No doubt. It's one of my favorite albums so far this year. Do you think they released it to be in time with the movie? Play up on that? Be like, hey, let's get some extra coverage. I don't know, because the thing

of it is the movie got pushed back and stuff. So I don't know if they were ready and then they pushed it back or but I mean, I'm sure they thought about it when they were doing it. But you can't always time that properly. So I think it just kind of worked out. But because I think the movie is supposed to come out last year, maybe and then they got pushed back because of the strikes and all that. Right. So so I have to ask you to them. And I'm sorry that I keep going this direction. But John and I were talking about it. And was it always the intention to make a third movie? Or is this now just being discussed or?

I thought I had read that they were open to the idea and they were considering it. Is that, does the novel end at the same time as the second movie? Is the ending of the novel the ending of the second movie? The first novel is the end of the second movie. Yes, the first, the two movies encompass the one novel. Okay. I never understood or knew that it had ended on such a sort of book. It doesn't end the same as the book.

It doesn't, okay. Oh, really? Because everything else was very much... No, because he actually becomes the fucking, like, emperor at the end of the book. Okay. There's all these warring factions and shit. There's a lot more going on. Gotcha. Okay. Well, thank you for the digression, but also, that was fresh in my mind. I watched it just two days ago or something, and I really... I mean, Denis Villeneuve is the director, and I just... I think we've talked about this before, but I just love all his movies, because he did Arrival, The Blade Runner. Oh, I didn't know that was...

He's awesome.

Yeah. Awesome.

So is the album.

All right. We're going to move on to another album here.

Possibly another movie.

If there's one people want to bring up.

This is the new Exist album.

Hijacking the Zeitgeist.

Third album from this Baltimore

Prague metal band.

Fourth album.

Fourth album. I was curious about that because I saw that.

I was like, is that an EP?

Is that an album? What is that? So, okay. Fourth album. Fair enough. Sunlight's their first album. Fourth album. I stand erected. I'm going to toss this one over to John. Got to. Yeah. Exist is they're a broad, deathy, now people are calling them a gent band just because they have some of that. No, no gent. Yeah. They just have some of the sound, but they're not a gent style band. But I don't know why people like to jump down that road.

I guess the best thing is just to call them a progressive metal band now but they've had kind of technical death in their sound before all the guys have quite a pedigree Max Phelps is singer guitar player for death to all he's played as the other guitarist in Cynic and Alex Weber is the bass player right now for Obscura for their live band I think both of them have played with Defeated Sanity so they've got quite a pedigree they're a local band to us in Baltimore

It's their, like I said, fourth album. It's their, I'll quote them. This is what Max said. Musically, I think it represents a new era for the band with both the heavier sound and much more compact arrangements, which is very true. Maybe it's fair to say it's our permanent waves or moving pictures for those of you who are Rush nerds. Yeah. And I think that's a pretty accurate statement because it is, Marcus and I have talked about this. The album is shorter. It's more compact. It's, I don't like to say,

because I feel like that means that their other albums were meandering. It's not that. It's just I think they focused on a style that they wanted to stick to and focused on that as opposed to the music itself. It's great. I freaking love it. Ever since we got it, I remember I sent Georgia a message and I said, The New Exist just dropped a new song. And five minutes later, it literally goes, well, would you like to listen to the album? And I'm hitting my desk with the wood. Yeah, it's great. I love it.

It's slightly different. It's more aggressive. I was going to save this for what are we listening to, but you just kind of broke a bubble for me, John. And it's that I recently watched time stand still, which is the documentary of the final rush tour and really fucking good. By the way, it's on Amazon. If you want to watch it, it's just moving and wonderful and outstanding. And it has made me obsessed with the record. I overlooked. I wonder if you can guess what it is, John later rush. So you press die. I have to be careful.

Why don't you just say it? Because I don't want to say something about this album and I don't. I like counterparts. Clockwork Orange. Clockwork Angels. I know. I was being silly. Clockwork Angels is so fucking good. I absolutely love it. I didn't know. I don't know why I didn't know this. Oh my goodness. But I think it was just one of those ones that kind of didn't hit my radar and I must have listened to Clockwork Angels 10 times in the last two weeks. It's outstanding. Fuck.

Minus One Song. I don't like one song on the album. Well, I, so, but anyway, that's my recommendation. If you have not watched Time Stand Still, it's really worth your time. Anyway, I love the Exist album. I think it's great. It's definitely going to be a lister. They're one of the newer bands, newer meaning in the last 10 years that I absolutely love. So, and I'd love to get those guys on just to, there's so much to talk about with them because they have so many different things going on. Yeah. I mean, I like the last Exist record, but I definitely connect with

this one a lot more. John and I are talking about this just because they just really tightened up the songwriting for me. I think it just made them a better band in my opinion. Streamlining that style of progressive metal was just a really brilliant way to give the tracks more weight to me, more immediacy and energy. And so as much as I like the last record, this one just, I don't know, I can't stop spinning it. It's like hearing a band take on a new life to me and, you know,

I think they made the right decision with this direction so who knows what they're going to do in the future but I hope they continue in this direction and this material is old it's not new material because I think it's another COVID type release where they were working on stuff prior and the album if I'm not mistaken I believe that's what happened and it just got kind of pushed back a little bit so yeah I think his description of the band is perfect because the previous albums are more the songs are longer and they have more room to breathe in this

It's almost like you're listening to permanent waves again. How Rush did that? They got more compact and the songs became more immediate. So it doesn't sound anything like Rush in case any of those Rush nerds are out there listening right now. George, do you listen to it yet? The Exist? Yeah. A couple times. Okay, cool. Yeah. I mean, I listened to it when we got the promo. You keep asking me and I'm like, dude, I listened to it when we first got it. But I haven't really heard you say much about it. That's why. Well, yeah, that's cool.

Not a list tip, but it's okay. That's all I got to say about that. Right. So let's move on to High on Fire. And their ninth album, Cometh the Storm. Nine. Kind of feels like it should be more than that, but okay. Well, as I proved with the last one, I could be incorrect. That's right, actually, George. I don't know, you're right. I just, just feels like,

They've been. They've been. They're not an album a year. I like it, but you know, it's not hard for them to please me. I'm kind of, well, actually, I'll just say I like it and I kind of want to hear the brick wall comics. Yeah. So it's okay. In my opinion, I feel like it's more of a throwback to several albums before.

even early albums, which I know y'all like. I'm more of a luminiferous kind of guy. I feel like that has more energy. But in terms of the brick wall comment, this album is mastered within an inch of its life. Wow. Okay. If you, the player on my phone shows the waveform as it's playing. Oh, and most music is it goes up and it goes down. It goes up and it goes down because there's quiet and loud.

And that's how sound works. But things that are brick wall mastered, it's a solid line all the way across. There's no variation in the loudness. It's the same loudness all the way across. And I think on this album, that kind of made it all samey to me. It's not that it was bad, but it was just the same thing for 52 minutes or whatever it was. That's kind of their shtick, though. And I wonder,

how many of their records from their catalog you could put in your player and get that same effect.

Yeah.

Or lack thereof.

And it's interesting that you mentioned Lumina Ferris, though, because that one felt to me like it was the first throwback that they'd done in a while.

It was kind of a throwback to...

Really?

Yeah, definitely.

Much more so than Electric Messiah, which was interesting because we had Mrs. Pike on recently, and that was the record of...

Electric Messiah was one that he was least fond of and it was not unlike Tom. He felt it was because he was happy in this happy life and he made a record that didn't really shine with the way his feelings had been in the past. Yeah, I mean, I don't agree with George in that it's a throwback. I think some songs on it, like the last track, definitely could fit on an older record. But I really like it. I think it's pretty ferocious. It's really heavy. It's pulverizing. And it has some, like, cool as fuck, like Middle Eastern instrumentation.

on it like a Turkish Saz that I think works really well. They got a new drummer. I mean, he's been around a couple years with the first album. Cody Willis from the Melvins. That's right, man. Seamless Fit. We listened to that first track Burning Down, and some of us were like, it's good, but what kind of, I wanted to see how it fit in with the album. I think it slots in perfectly with the overall flow of the record. It was a weird lead track, by the way. It was, because it actually, it fits with the album, but just

Does it have it on its own on an island? It doesn't work as well? I think there was some part of you that might have been concerned it was the overall statement of the record and you didn't want that. And it's not. There's a lot of other things going on in there. Exactly. Yeah. And when Alyssa was on last month, she told us that Matt Hyatt told her the album, because she got it really early, he told her it fucking batters. And I think he was right, because it does batter. And that kind of fits with a George saying, like, that wall of sound.

And I agree with what you're saying, Jay. You probably put some of those other albums on. They have that kind of constant flow, that really high mix where it's just that pummeling sound, that wall of sound. And to be clear, I'm not bashing it for that. I'm saying that it's a little tiring because there's no variation in the frequency for the whole album, pretty much. Absolutely. No, I mean, and honestly, that was Motorhead's best blessing and sin at the same time.

I think sonically it does turn corners mind you but I understand where you're coming from. But it's still not bad I mean it is pummeling and it is not a bad listen I just felt like I liked some of the earlier stuff better. Fair enough. That's fair. I think Marcus and I are both slightly also more Pike devotees than you are just a little bit and like there was a while there where I was such a freak on my end fire so they really got to fuck up pretty bad

for me to be down on that. Yeah, I mean, I like all the records. I mean, there's some records that I would put in the upper echelon. I'm not sure where this is going to fall because I haven't heard it enough. No, no, no. Because it just came out. But yeah, I think all the records are good. There's no bad records. Did you make a statement one time about what your favorite, if you had a favorite, was? I don't think I've ever made the statement. Make a statement. I do like that. I do really like De Mysterious. Oh, interesting. Dumb Satanist?

I do like that one which is funny because it's the only one I don't have in a while I think and I that I made you a promise to send you that and I'll still do that I still I'll send it to you I totally forgot about that no I did and then it was like two weeks moved and I was like what was I thinking and I thought about it just the other day so you'll be getting a copy anyways well we can move on we've talked a lot about high on fire but I do love the band so all right next up we have the new my dying bride a mortal

It's their 15th album, UK Doom. Alas, I did not get a chance to listen to this, so I have not heard any of it. Oh, George! We've had it in the box for months. I know. If I get a chance, I mean it did not. I don't know. I just didn't. Sue me! Did anybody else listen to it? I've listened to it a few times. So I like the record a lot. I think it's My Dying Pride doing their Goth Doom thing. The songs are good.

all the way through. And it's heavier, I think, than the last couple, maybe. But I also think it's one of those albums where every song is well done, but there's not any real standouts on it. It's just like really solidly crafted all the way through. It's more of a cohesive effort to me. And I think it's worth repeat spins, but there's certain songs in their catalog that I just like love. And I don't have that feeling with this album, but I do every single song on it. I think it has a very good vibe across the record.

Yeah, I would agree. It was nice to hear some of the harsher vocals. Not that they haven't done it before in the past, but they just seemed a little more. Some of the riffs are a little heavier, but they do fall into their My Dying Bride vibe very easily. It's a comfort zone. So I liked it, but I'm kind of not sure where I feel about it yet. I have to disagree with you, but I will say one song that did stand out was the Apocalyptist.

towards the end of the album. That one was just a little different than their normal My Dying Bride formula, which I, maybe that's why it stood out so much, because it just caught me off guard a little bit when I heard it. I still don't know how I feel about it overall in their catalog. Feel the Misery's, what, two albums back? I liked that one a lot, and that was the first one I'd liked in a while. I mean, I like most of their stuff. They kind of have their own thing. They kind of have their own Catatonia thing going, where you know their sound when you hear them.

So I like it. I think I just need more time with it. Cause you're right. Markisan it's, there's nothing that super stands out on the album that, that grabs you like that. Yeah. It's not bad. I mean, it's good. We'll see. We'll see where it ends up. I don't know if I'll list it, but we'll see. I think if you're into my dying bride, you're going to really like the record. If you like that sound, it's not anything super new, but it's just, it's done well. It's done really well. Yeah. Now I'm just waiting to find out why they're canceling. They canceled all their shows for the

Oh yeah, that doesn't seem good. Cause I mean, there's speculation that maybe they're done as a band and this could be the last one. Didn't help that MDF kind of took a veiled shot at them a little bit saying, well, we know it's not medical, but the way they made their, their, they said that they know that they knew it wasn't medical this time. I mean, didn't they say there was a quote from somebody and they said something to the end of we're having some performance issues or something. Yeah. That,

The guitarist said that. I mean, I don't want to misquote it because it seemed pretty specific to me and I'm trying to remember what the hell he said. Yeah, I saw the same thing today. It just seemed a little veiled. They acted like they kind of just found out, but they've known about this for a while because Agaloc was, they had contacted Agaloc over a month ago about this. So, you know what really grabs me by the ass cheeks? Will. Will. Hello, Will.

Welcome, Will. Actually, I'm going to call you the Kaiser from now on. Kaiser Wilhelm. Kaiser Wilhelm. Hey, Jay, I was wearing that yellow carcass shirt on whatever day the 16th was. What's today, three days ago or something? Yes, today's the 19th. Bringing a big crowd, Will? No, but it was just a t-shirt I threw on after work, and I had to take William. I had to go do a whole bunch of errands, and it was William's 10th and a half birthday. So we went to Baskin-Robbins, and I walk into Baskin-Robbins, and the lady behind me

The young teenage girl, whatever, behind the couch. She goes, oh, man, awesome shirt. I'm like, are you a fan? She goes, no, I just think it's cool. I'm like, damn it. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I get that a lot. So people like this shirt. I walked into a store the other day and somebody was like, killer shirt, man. And I didn't ask, but I was like, that's not a carcass fan. They were just. Well, the kids these days, they're a little bit conditioned just to buy old school shirts because they're just, they're in like hot topic. Like they'll buy a Nirvana shirt and not have any clue who Nirvana is. And this, that's the puppet. The shirt's cool. Yeah. Thanks, Kim. Or the Kardashians or whoever.

Exactly.

What was she wearing?

Like a morbid angel or something?

This is basically Damage Incorporated rehash.

It is.

What was the shirt she was wearing?

I think, I know she wore a morbid angel.

Was it morbid somebody?

And then, was it Gary Holt?

Who wore the shirt?

Killed the Kardashians.

Killed the Kardashians, yeah.

Oh, that's right.

Created, made, and sold those.

Believe it or not.

I think she was caught in like a motorhead shirt.

And I was just like, just take that off.

Right now you have no business wearing that. Yeah. It was something like that. Yeah. So we've got one more new release. We're out of order, Will, because we didn't want to do t-shirt and beer check and the decibel stuff while Dave was here. Well, this is the record. Yeah. Sorry, Mr. Dave. Sorry. He did talk about how he loved Atlas and how well you took cover. Yeah. That's what I used to do. Not anymore, but that's what I used to do. All right. So our last new release is the new Necrot album.

Lifeless Birth. I believe this is their third album, unless it's their fourth album. Okay. This is what I have. Some angry fan contacting you and correcting. No, it's cool, man. I'm not busting your balls. I'm busting my own balls. I'm just like Matt. I'm just punching myself in the balls. By the way, Will, I don't know if you know, but Matt's not here. Where's Matt? I don't know. I thought he was here. I thought he was here, but he's not here. Anyway. Wait, I know I physically do not see him.

So Necrott, anybody like that one? Yeah, I like this thing. It has riffs for days. I feel like this is a death metal album that I've been waiting for a long time. Nice. I like it a lot too, but that's a very nice statement. I'd be one of the better of the year. Yeah, it just has, it's gone back to just almost like memorable, like it kind of reminds me of like old school death where it's like you can hear two riffs from that song. You know exactly what song that is. You can sing along to all the lyrics and stuff. And I felt like this

has gotten back into that, I don't want to say groovy death metal, but like death metal with hooks and bridges and riffs and memorable songs that have a certain structure. And it's not just like trying to do too. I think Marcus and I were talking about this, like sometimes bands are just trying to do too much. Yeah. I think that's actually, that's a really good overall description of this band in general. That's kind of their shit. So. Yeah. I mean, Outer Heaven was a band like their album. I loved Outer Heaven and they put that album last year and it just, it was too much. Like you should have,

I feel they do whatever they want but I felt they could have stuck with what they were doing and just add a few more flourishes but I agree with Will completely I think when you said groovy that is a perfect description never but I think this is just a another really good record from Necron I love that catchy rolling grooviness that they deliver in their death metal and though even though it's heavy the album has really a tight melodic focus

that really makes it stand out for me. Their style of metal to me is more fun. I think that comes across on their studio recordings and even more so live. And on this record, I especially love the soloing. I feel like they haven't done as much soloing on past records, but they do a lot of it on this one. So I'm actually looking forward to seeing them play these tracks on stage. And I actually, I have a side note on this album.

If you will indulge me boys. So today, Tracy decided to work from home because she was on a train to go downtown. And then it fucking started smoking while she's on the train. No idea what happened. But she got off and came home. And then later in the day, she came down to talk to me in my office. And she noticed the cast itinerary on my computer. And specifically, she saw the album title, Lifeless Birth.

and her verbal reaction to reading it was lifeless birth what the fuck so then i told her she had to see the cover which happened to be on display because i've been actually been listening i just got it it's right near my turntable so for people who don't have it in front of them or don't know about it it's this painting of a gargantuan winged hell creature standing in an ocean giving birth to a naked adult man and all these other

humans are caught in this circle vortex around their kaiju demon mother as she snacks on one of them like it's a fucking corn dog or something that is pretty messed up and then during this vicious circle of life there are smoldering comets streaking across the sky it's very disturbing so i show tracy the vinyl she looks at the cover and she divorced you she turns to me and says in complete disbelief and abject horror no thank you

walks away.

Isn't she sensitized to it by this point?

She is a little bit, but that was, they've always been known for their covers.

They've done a lot of this here, but with birth, a lot of birth.

I remember we, I think it was blood offerings where they had, they're sacrificing the kid.

And we interviewed him at a decibel years ago.

And I said something to him.

I got called a poser during that interview.

But I said something to him like, really?

Because I think William was like, he wasn't a new, he was like four.

And I was like, really dude?

As a dad.

As a dad.

You were like, okay, hold on.

Yeah.

They can explain it.

When it's okay.

Yeah.

And also, somebody was going on that they really wanted to see, and they kind of

got out of it.

Like, he was, he answered it, like, very diplomatically.

But then he was like, hey, we gotta go.

It was being his part.

Yeah.

But he was nice about it.

Yeah.

Life and his birth.

I tell you, Will, I was always impressed that here we were with this band.

We kind of liked this stuff.

And you're like, hold on, motherfuckers.

I was like, yeah, let's give it shit.

Not real, he don't care.

All right, let's circle back to T-shirt and beer check, Markisan.

T-shirt, beer check, T-shirt, beer check.

Oh, shit. All right, let me see here.

All right, the first beer I had, well, both of these I think are from Anchorage.

Yeah, so I went the Anchorage route.

The first one I had is dead? Question mark.

That's the other day.

They're both double IPAs that I have had. And this one, it says Phantasm Powder, Cashmere, and Mosaic Hops, 8.4%. That was good. This is the one I'm drinking now, Lycanthropy. I mean, they're covered. They're canned covered. They're awesome. Whatever. And this one I'd hate. So it's brewed with spelt DDH with Montueka hops. I don't know.

I like a fruit forward IPA but this one takes it to the extreme I think the passion fruit it almost gives it like a fake taste to it like a fake fruity taste I just really dislike it are those New Zealand hops? monowoc or whatever it is I don't know I think so yeah I think so it says it's finished on passion fruit I think that's what kills the beer for me because I've I know I've had those hops before yeah and they were fun there that's a whole different

I don't know but I really didn't like that at all but the dead was pretty good

and then my shirt is a bucket of blood baseball jersey I guess yeah nice so I'll be going there

tomorrow actually early in the morning for record store day because a bunch of stuff I actually want

and I think they have most of the record I think they have all the records actually that I want so

I'll probably go there camp out in the morning captain might come with me and

It's actually pretty fun

because people are really cool

and you could end up talking to everybody in line or whatever

I remember doing things like that

With that black and white baseball jersey

I thought you were going to say you were going to go to the White Sox games

and they're playing in Philadelphia right now

I'm like alright, let's go

Yeah, it does kind of look like a White Sox jersey, right?

Why not?

They're free games when only people are showing up

The offense is starting to come around

They're in second place

but they have the best pitching in the National League

as far as ERA and stuff. So I think they're like three or four games over.500 right now. Okay. So it's coming around. It's just that the offense has been lackluster. Bryce Harper's bagging like.219 or something like that. It's April. Yeah. Well, he's usually pretty hot in April. And he didn't play last April. So yeah, they're fine. But they just beat the shit out of the White Sox. The guy was throwing a no-hitter into the set. The Turnbull Phillies pitcher was throwing a no-hitter into the set.

And then Alec Bohem hit two three-run home runs during the game. Yeah, I just haven't looked at what the Phillies did. They're doing better now. They started off like just a crap, but it's easy when you play the Rockies, who I think are okay, but they're playing the White Sox right now. Rockies suck. They're one of the worst teams this year. Yeah, so they swept the Rockies, and I think they're probably going to sweep. I think the White Sox are the worst team in baseball. This is funny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rockies are much better.

They're four and 15.

All right.

John,

you know,

just real quick,

who's better than the Rockies and the White Sox and the Houston Astros.

Jay.

Hey,

the Sacramento A's eight and 12.

Wait,

where are they playing right now?

It's mostly out in Sacramento.

Yeah.

I heard they played the last game in Oakland,

but I don't know when the transition truly is,

but they thought they were going to Vegas.

No,

they are,

but they are like,

Waited out in Oakland until the stadium's built. And they were like, fuck you, we're going to Sacramento this year. So mid-season, they're going to move to Sacramento. All right, John. Okay. I hope I say this. Tenebrous from Adroit Theory. It's a barley wine. It was nice. One thing I like about their cans is that they give you food, cheese, cigar, music recommendations on the can. So that's a lot of information for one beer. But it's a barley wine. I like these. I got these, I think.

That's a lot of information for one beer. I don't have that on mine. No, I like that. Yeah, see? All the information's hard to see because of the white glare. I think I got these for us at Decibel, but we never got around them because we were just drinking so many other beers. And that's all I'm drinking because my voice is about three minutes away from going out completely because I've been struggling with it for a couple of days. I'm wearing my 2018 Decibel Metal Beer Fest. I felt it was appropriate to wear it tonight because I only got

to these shirts.

All right.

Will.

I am wearing my Temple of Void, The World That Was, long sleeve.

Nice.

And I am currently drinking a Canada Dry Zero Sugar.

Ooh.

Nice.

That's leading right into Jay then.

Yeah.

No, I did just finish my blue bottle iced coffee, which I have to have shipped in now

across the country. So I don't buy it very often. And as well noted, I'm wearing the carcass shirt. This is the famous yellow find me in any crowd picked up at Maryland death fest shirt. Nice. I'm wearing my woods of Epre woods five gray skies and electric light shirt, which I got a new one because the old one was kaput. I started with a droid theories battle master triple IPA. No recommendations on this

However, that's bullshit. If you look at this, I kind of wonder if this is Tim Hastings artwork, because this looks a lot like our artwork. And he's the guy that did our artwork. So they put the artists on the can. They do not. And I tried looking it up. It's a Droit Theory Battlemaster. And I couldn't tell, but it does look like his style. And I know he does a Droit Theory stuff. I moved on to a beer that I picked up in Delaware a few weeks back.

Miss Billion River Brewing, and it's called Not Today Satan IPA. Saved that one particularly for the podcast. Currently, Nepente Brewing's Aeromancer West Coast IPA. That's pretty good. I had that. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to a Decibel Retro. Last weekend, most of us were in Philadelphia for the Decibel Metal and Beer Fest, Philly.

And it was a good time had by all, I think, mostly. Except for TR, maybe. I'm interested. Oh, man. So, should I tell it, John? It's such a bullshit story. This is great, though. Okay. So, Friday, was it Friday we didn't go? Yeah, Friday we didn't go. Me, John, and TR, we did not go to Decibel. We just weren't as interested in the bands. So, we decided that we were just going to hang out and drink. We ended up hanging out.

out in the hotel for a bit of time, listen to music. Hold on. This is after we did a monks run. Yes. Yeah. I got to put that in. We had hit monks for a big gathering before everybody went before everyone to the show. Yeah. Which monks was really great. They're always so nice to us. Our server guy remembered us. He was very cool to us. Of course. It was awesome. So yeah, we had a great time at monks and had food and everything. And then afterwards, people went,

to the show. And then me and John T.R. went out to hang out. And we're in the room. And then we decide, well, John finds this place, Glory. Or when we, T.R. had been there before, but John found this place. He had been there, but I suggested we go there, yeah. Yeah. So we go to Glory, and it's fucking awesome there, man. This place is great. They have some of the best beers that we've had, I think, in the Philadelphia area. We have this awesome bartender. Her name is Melissa.

And she's really into stouts. So she actually suggests a specific stout called Gamork. And if you know anything about Gamork from The NeverEnding Story, he's that fucking wolf that's tracing a tree through the swamps and shit. And it was killer. That was killer. So we had a great time there. And food was awesome. Food was awesome, too. So we're going to be going back. I think that's only like three blocks from the hotel.

It's right around the corner from Khyber Pass. I have to just say one thing. What I really liked about that place is that it was like monks in Khyber Pass, which is our go-to. They're like smaller cramped rooms and everything. They had all the room in the world. Yeah, this place was huge. Spacious. Yeah, spacious, big tables. Anyway, that was... And it wasn't all that busy, even at any time. No. There's people there, but... It wasn't crowded. It wasn't like you couldn't move.

I think at one point did we have 13 or 14 people at our table I mean that's how much room we had yeah well that was Saturday yeah when Warren's girlfriend got there yeah so Friday I mean we had a great time we're drinking beers and then we can tell that TR is getting a little bit sleepy we had had another beer in between at the hotel we forgot that the smoothest out of the world the Celestial that I brought yeah and that was freaking awesome but it was also like 13

14%. He was getting a little tired at this point. He was getting tired there. To be clear, you were at Khyber Pass now, not Glory. No, we were still at Glory. Markisan the night, we were watching him. He was just getting a little tired. And we were saying this story affectionately. Yeah, we're saying this actually. So he goes, yeah, we love TR. We got to tell this fucking story. So he's getting sleepy at Glory. He had two pieces of meat left total on his whole plate. Remember, he's just empowering for this meat. So we're done with Glory.

We decide we're going to end our little drinking adventure with a beer or two at Kyber Pass, which is around the corner. We get outside and I look at TR and the guy just seems completely fucking done to me. He looks like he's going to fall asleep standing up. So I say, hey, let's just head to the hotel. TR, you're looking pretty tired now. I think you'd rather go back. Then all of a sudden, TR's eyes snap open with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

He fucking pierces my soul with his inferno eyes and he says, and quite frankly, the bitchiest voice I've ever heard, bitchier than Matt has ever been in his entire corn angsty life. No, you're not going to make me your linchpin of bullshit. So John and I hear this come from TR and we're in disbelief and we look at each other and we just fucking lost it, dude. If I had been drinking a beer at that moment,

It would have been all over John's chest because he's that tall and I'm not sure. So TR somehow busts out this linchpin line from nowhere and we're laughing. Then TR starts laughing, fully realizing that what he just said is absolutely ridiculous. So we finally calm down to a chuckle. We head over to the Kyber Pass because who the fuck is going to argue with such a rebuttal from the Metalheads butler? Nobody is.

John and I order beers. TR gets water. And then about 10 seconds later, after he gets this water, TR props up his head with an arm like this. Right, John? Yes. And promptly passes out. And this dude is out for half an hour as John and I were just shooting the shit about metal and life. Yeah. And as we're about to finish our beers and call it a night, the waitress comes over and she tells us we have to leave because TR is a

And John and I look at each other wondering, is this shit real? Because this is a bar. People literally come to this bar every day. They get shit-faced and they get sleepy. And TR, he's miraculous. He's got his head propped up, right? He's not flat-faced in a bowl. He's not laying in soup or some shit. He's not being a dick. He's not bothering anybody. He's not even snoring. He's just pleasantly closing. Quietly past his eyes. He's just resting his eyes. That's it.

So John and I, we're pissed and disgruntled at this point, right? Because we're whispering this. We're whispering our discontent. We didn't get mad at all. We didn't like yell or anything. We're just kind of like. We're doing it whispery quiet. Shocked. Like, really? Yeah. The waitress hears us though, somehow. She's got really good hearing apparently. And she comes over. She tells us she's so sorry. Like the command to kick us out came from management. So we're mad. But we wake up TR.

and tell him he's getting us kicked out. And I swear to fuck, this guy, he cracked a little smile when we woke him up. And as we exited, because he, I think he knew at that exact moment that he'd become the linchpin that he refused to be. And that dear metal heads is how TR went from Butler to bullshit. Butler to bullshit. And beyond. He got us kicked out of the fucking bar.

Yeah, it was like he knocked over stuff and puked on the floor or anything or peed on someone's table. He just was sitting there with his eyes closed. Not even like Markazan said, he didn't even start. You know how a cat falls asleep with their head straight up? You think they're awake and they're all cold. He was just like, it was like a cat sitting there. It was so quiet. It was so weird that they said that. That is weird because he also, I think, is somebody who is completely incapable of making a scene. Yeah. So, yeah, that is a little bizarre.

Yeah. Well, luckily, we don't ever have to go back there because we have glory. Yeah. If glory's open, I'm going there first. But the linchpin of bullshit line and the fact that he just fell asleep and then got us kicked out, like he became the linchpin of bullshit. Like he didn't want to be, but he was. That's his new nickname now, linchpin. The linchpin. You got to admire that, though, that kind of stick-to-itiveness, because he knew how tired he was and he was like, I am not the fucking problem.

He was like almost asleep. He was like, no! I mean, if you guys had watched him, he just kind of looked down at his plate at Glory, and he just, he put his, he had his hand up, and he just rested his head in his hand, and he just went, ah! With two pieces of meat left. He's like, I got it. He's had a long day, or what? I mean. No, he was just tired. Oh, no, he went, he went to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai the night before, and he didn't get home.

2 in the morning. George and I rolled up into his house before 8. Yeah. He hadn't even showered yet. He's like, what are you doing here? Where does he live? What time is he in? He's in Bell Camp, Maryland. So he's about, I think, 20, 25 miles northeast of Baltimore. Oh, okay. Right off of I-95. Gotcha. All right. So for those of us that were actually at the show, Will, maybe we want to talk about this a little bit. So the first band was Witching.

And they were all right. Second band was Terminal Nation. They were all right. That's all I got to say about that. No, they were cool, but I don't have a lot to say. Enforced, though, they were the third band, and they were more than all right. They were pretty cool. I love those guys. Yeah, I'm a big fan. Yeah, that was probably my second favorite band of the day. Internal Bleeding was after that, and I'd never been much of a fan, but they kind of, I was like, oh, they're pretty good. They sounded good.

Is Internal leading the band that it didn't seem like they didn't have a lead singer because he was in the crowd? He was in the crowd the whole time. Yeah, I was like, where's the singer? I know. I was like, I never really listened to them before. That's like an Outer Heaven kind of thing where he's down in the pit. Yeah, but I didn't realize that. I just assumed, wow, this is really weird because they just literally just have a backing track vocalist. Yeah, that's what I thought too. I realized like the guys in the crowd. Yeah, I totally forgot too. We saw Outer Heaven and the pre-show.

Oh yeah, you can talk about that later. Okay. After that was Jesus piece. And I was curious to see them and it didn't really do that much for me. Um, I liked them more than I thought I would, but you know, it's just not quite my style, but I thought I would like, Oh, I'm not gonna like this at all, but live there. They were pretty, they're good. I mean, the guy had energy and stuff. Yeah. It just wasn't, it's not my genre of choice.

Yeah, but after that was Crowbar, they did an Odd Fellows Rest Plus to the first album, Crowbar, set, and that was freaking amazing. That was really good. Justin was all over that, as it was I. Yeah, I just never, for whatever reason, just never been much of a Crowbar fan. I mean, I like Sludge, Doomy, Southern stuff, but I just never really dislike him. I just never, for whatever reason, just never got into him. Yeah.

And then after that was Biohazard doing an urban discipline set. And a bunch of us left. I did not stick around for that because I'm just not a Biohazard fan anymore. I was 30 years ago, but I'm not now. Will, though, you stuck around for it. I stuck around for it. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was great. Like, it just reminded me. I won't say it again, but it reminded me of my younger years. There you go. So I liked it a lot because I was so into like regular thrash metal and getting the death metal.

And then this sort of urban, hardcore sort of crossover metal thing came out. I was like, oh, this is cool. I can dig this. And Urban Discipline is the one, the album I like the most. So I stuck around. I thought it was great. Awesome. Yeah. All right. So then the next day. Those guys are still really in shape. Well, of course they are. They have to be. They're biohazard. So then the next day, I think everybody went to that one. And that started. Except for TR. Except for TR, because he's just there to party.

and get kicked out of places.

What's funny is that Nick continued to up the story.

It's like TR fell asleep at the table and you got booted.

Then it was like he beat up the waitress and he broke the glass window and he beat up the bartender.

And every time Nick told the story, it got more violent and more crazy.

But anyway, yeah.

So Deva was the first band on the second day. And they're all right. I mean, that's half a Crypt Sermon there. More than half. Three quarters of Crypt Sermon. Yeah, I really like Deva a lot. Yeah. I had him play at the George show. Yeah. Like a year or so. I feel like I've seen him a lot. And I don't listen too much, but I've at least three or four times. I think I've seen him like three times. Yeah. And then the band that I was really looking forward to because I was curious about them was Lamp of Murmur.

And some people liked the set. I thought they played well. They presented well. But the sound wasn't very good. The vocals were pretty much buried. And the sound was really raw, which I know is that type of style. But I was just kind of like, eh, you know, it was all right. It was cool to see them. I was drinking mostly. So I heard them through the, just from hanging out. I thought they were fine. I wanted to see them. I thought it was more interesting. The instruments.

they were playing. I swear I saw a Fender jazz bass on stage. Was one of them at least playing a Fender? I think the main guy was playing a Fender. It looked like a Strat. I was like, this is kind of wild that they're using these for their set, considering the raw sound they were getting. Nothing pointy or anything. Yeah. So then next was Will Haven, which while I love people named Will. Will Haven? Not my cup of tea. Never been.

Never Probably Will Be. I did watch the whole set, though, because I was tired and sat down, but I did not enjoy it. Not particularly. I mean, it's just not my thing. Yeah. Then was 200 Stab Wounds, which is a band that I had scoffed at. Didn't. I remember when the album came out and I was kind of like meh, but they kicked ass. I thought enough so that I went back and listened to the album and I was like, I don't know. I was thinking that was really good. So 200 Stab Wounds.

Stab Wounds, yes. A live performance can do that for you. It can. It's done it before. Inter-Arma did that. That's like my biggest like Inter-Arma, yeah. And then after that was a little band called Tube Bold. And yes, Jay, multiple people pronounced it that way on the day of the show. An homage to you. It's the correct pronunciation. And holy crap did they blow it away. I mean, I've seen them several times before.

But this was phenomenal. To the point where I was like, okay, maybe I did not like that latest album as much as I should have. And I'm going to go back and listen to it again, which I have. The group text around saying, I may have made a mistake on the year end. And like, you fucking totally did. You jade that. I did. And yeah, I listened to it. I mean, better than the other albums on their list there. I mean, honestly, I don't care for the vocals much at all. I think they're pretty boring for the type of music it is.

But the music is so good.

I thought they did two really cool things.

One was they had the blue screen of death as the backdrop.

It was like a DOS prompt telling you, well, if you're having problems with your machine, you need to turn it off.

But as you went down the list, and it was this gigantic backdrop, as you went down, they had the set list on the list, what they were going to play for that night.

And it's all in code.

It was all in code.

It was a little hard to read.

And if you look close up, you're like, oh, shit, that's what they're pointing right now. It had all seven songs listed. But what I like. They've since released that the image of the backdrop. Yeah, it was really cool. But they opened up with one of the proggier songs off the new album. And I thought, oh, wow, they're really going to. They're just going to just thumb everyone in the face. It's the shorts and the album cover and the mustache and all that stuff. They're just going to tell everyone to flip the bird. And then the next six songs, they absolutely destroyed that.

They just went balls out after that. I thought it was great. They played the heaviest shit. Yeah. In their catalog. We're just going to lead you on a little. It was awesome. And the other songs off the new album, while it's their progress album, they just sounded, they made them sound heavier. They did. For the show. They really did. It was just so good. So I have to tell Justin's story since Justin isn't here. So Justin and I were hanging out at Crowbar.

And actually, I think Stacy was there too. And we're watching Crowbar. And there's this guy standing in front of us with ponytail banging his head. That's a great story. And Justin's like, why the hell is this guy with a ponytail banging his head with a ponytail? If you got hair, you let the hair down. So when you head bang, your hair's all flopping around. So he just thought that was weird. And then his buddy Mike comes over and he's like whispering in his ear. And Justin's like, oh shit.

That's the guy from Doomhold. And we're like, ah. And, you know, by the way, then after the show, John and Stacy and I met him. Yeah, he was super nice. Yeah, he was. Super nice guy. Was he also wearing a video game t-shirt? Because they got a lot of shit for that, too, for the cover of the Decibel. Just people have way too much time on their hands. I know. Get out of your parents' basement.

Seriously, get a fucking job. Right. Yeah. I mean, they tore it up. That was definitely my set of the tour. Yeah. The show. Yeah. I mean, it's funny. Well, I don't know if I told you this when we were talking with him. I had mentioned Atlas and they're like 952 degree show that they played that night. And he remembered it. But I think if I had a little more time to talk to him about it, he would have remembered. I mean, it just was the hottest show I've ever been to in my life.

They've played twice. Once was in November, and then once was in the middle of August. I thought Pace and Power was going to absolutely just collapse. He didn't collapse, but at the end of the show, he just sat there. At the edge of the stage to drink a whole piece of water. Yeah, drinking water. He was just sweating. It was crazy. The show that I missed because it was Jen's birthday, it was horrendous and tumult. It should be coming up again later tonight.

always played on Veterans Day because I think I missed it one year. So I've never seen them play because every time they've come, I've not been here. I feel like we've seen them so many. I think at least five times I've seen them. Yeah, I've seen them a lot. I'm dying to see them. I tell you what, froze my ass off one night and I thought Will actually cracked my icicle ass in half. And it's right. We literally were freezing in that thing. Icecracker. Icicle ass. So then Dying Fetus played a special old

school set. And I've never been a big dying fetus fan, mostly because of the vocals, but I actually kind of liked what I heard. I was like, this is not bad. It's another one of those. It works for me live, but we left partway through that set. So we did not catch Deicide much to Will's dismay, but you did. So. Yeah, I caught it. Yeah. For me, I'm trying to remember if I've ever, I'm sure I have seen Deicide before. You saw them at MDF.

I was holding you up. Oh, okay. So he saw them. Yeah. Was I in 2022? There was cancer here. Yeah. Yeah. That was a fucked up year. You were not well. Night. Yeah. To be clear, not drunk, you were not well. Yeah. Yeah. It was free treatment, but not feeling good. Yeah. Yeah. I was not feeling good. I literally, I don't know what happened to me, but I just suddenly like I had to go sleep in the car. Like I know. I think I know what it might've been. Cancer. Yeah. Such a good guess, Jay.

Yeah, but I love the older stuff. And so the show at Decibel, it was great. They were tight. They sounded great. Obviously, they played a lot of the old school hits like Dead by Dawn and just hear it go, Dead by Dawn! Like the higher pitch, like screechy kind of. And then like, yeah, God, it was great. I loved it. That was my highlight of the whole thing. Absolutely. Nice. Yeah. That's the part you're awake for. Yeah. Yeah. Any other stories we want to tell?

I don't know. Weirdly enough, one of the highlights was Finding Glory. Whoever found it. That place is awesome. Yeah. And found it, but Tierra had been there before. And so Saturday, we went there both for lunch and then after the show. And Melissa was there both times. And so she was ending her shift when we were there in the evening. And she brought us all wild turkey shots and did a shot with us. Which was really cool.

Yeah, it's cool. And I should also state that the other server we had that night, she was great. And then the bartender, when we got there in the afternoon, he was awesome too. Yeah, he was. So everyone there was super, super good to us. Glory to glory. I got two shots because I got a good work to go and then I got another shot. Nice. And then I drank beer with Melissa the next day because I went back on Sunday. Did she drink with you? Yeah. Oh.

We're in her shift. Oh, yeah. I talked for 40 minutes because there wasn't a lot of people in there. It was Sunday. And so she came and sat down. We're like having conversations. And I got some another rare beer. And yeah, she's awesome. She friended me on Instagram and the Metalheads podcast on Instagram, too. Oh, nice. Cool. Definitely probably the most shocking thing that I'm aware of that happened is I don't think anybody bought anything at Vinyl Altar. I know the crew that we were in there.

We didn't buy anything. No, Jeff did. Jeff definitely bought something. Oh, he did? Okay. That's right, he did. The only thing I was looking for was the new Judas Priest. They didn't have it in my car. My altar was awesome, though, because I ended up talking to John from Brimminghorn for 40 minutes in there. We just shot the shit that whole time we were in there. Yeah, we were talking to all those guys before we went in. Yeah, yeah, we were talking to them outside for a while. And because when you go to the show, they're always there for Brimminghorn because they're giving out their great

Mead, but you don't really have time to talk because they're always trying to help other people.

So that was really cool to actually be able to have a nice conversation with John and talk about all kinds of different things and not just Mead, but like life in general.

So I really enjoyed that.

Yeah, and I didn't have a cheesesteak. Did anyone have a cheesesteak?

I did not either.

Nope.

We kept going to all these high-end beer bars and getting like umphreets.

Yeah.

I went to John's Roast Pork, which is supposed to be like a famous place there. It's won a bunch of awards. They do a roast pork sandwich, which I want to try, which is pretty good. And they also do a cheesesteak that's supposed to be excellent. It was fine. Not as good as some of the other places we've had. So a little bit overrated. My cousin later, because I did meet my cousin, Sandy, on Sunday. He came when I went to the bar. I went back to Gloria. Sandy came out and had a couple of beers with me. And he told me that place is way overrated. But I want to try all the

The Places. Cleavers, man. We got to go back to Cleavers. Yeah, Nick went there. Yeah. You and I, I think you, me, and Nick are the only ones who've had that so far. Yeah, it was some good stuff. I was hoping to get some. I actually, Saturday night, I was like trying to plan my leaving so that I could order from them before they closed. But then we got back and it was just glory all the way. And it was like, all right, let's skip it. Yeah. So.

Yeah, it was good decibel. I mean, I wasn't as jazzed about the lineup as I have been in past years, obviously, because I only went one day. And the beer was a little, I wish they would have had a little bit more stouts, a little bit more stronger beers, but it still had a really good time. And there were some good ones there, especially that PB&J sour. That PB&J. That was good. I hate sours, but I like that. And whatever that vomit thing that Nick liked so well, I was like,

I mean,

a lot of times I go to decimal and I'm not even paying attention to the bands.

I'm just hanging out with all you guys and everybody else at the show that we meet.

And that's just always the highlight for me because yeah,

I like seeing the band.

I'm glad I saw two mold because that was a fucking just killer set.

But some of the other bands,

I can just have them in the background and just be having a good time because I can see these bands anytime.

The importance of going to the show is always to hang out.

It's the social event of the season. Yeah. Hell yeah. Absolutely. And you know, Matt was there. Eric was there. Always good to see Eric. Well, we got to talk about Matt's t-shirts. That's right. Do it, George. Oh, well, so Friday we're at Monk's and I just gaze across the table and like down a couple and there's Matt sitting there and he's wearing this shirt and I'm like, picture looks familiar.

He's kind of sexy.

And then he, I was like, Matt, show me your shirt.

And he's like, and it's a picture of Will with his arms crossed in that like, uh, silhouette.

No, it's the Andre, the giant thing.

And it says obey underneath it.

And I was like, Oh my God, that's awesome.

Yeah.

That's a picture of me in the desert in Namibia back in 2000.

And I was like, that is he's just, he has it on.

He doesn't say anything to anybody.

You just have to notice it. Exactly. It's just Matt's way. And then we, and I swear to God, no one noticed that thing until maybe an hour into drinking. And all of a sudden, what the fuck is going on here? Yeah. And so he's like, I got another one for tomorrow. So the next day I made sure to look at what he was wearing. And that was a picture of J and it says Jade, J apostrophe D. And that was pretty cool too. And you were holding a little rubber ducky thing from.

There was a brewery went there that had some, I can't remember the name right now. But anyway, they, there, there was this, there's this weird joke about how when the first atomic bomb went off, they're a duck sort of, I can do something. So this whole brewery is based on that. You get a rubber duck with your beer anyway. So it was at that. He had sent me a picture of it ahead of time and Matt, it's just the prince of a, of a man. That's all there is to it. And I was like, honestly, it was like kind of moved and oh, that's so fucking nice of him. You know what I mean? So, so I kept my mouth shut cause he told me I'm going to

to pull these out at the fest. So it was nice of him to make sure that we were along. And he also sent me a picture of Will's, and I thought, oh, I thought Will was going, but I think he just loves Will that much, so he wanted twice as much Will. At least somebody does. Yeah. Will is twice as much as everybody. Yeah, exactly. But so, yeah, that was sweet of Matt. Our Matt, he's a special kind of lady. Yeah. Because I think the anniversary of our wedding is coming up, and the anniversary of our annulment, so.

You're a mess. Big day. In Vegas. Yes. Yeah. All right. Now do we want to move on to what we're listening to?

All right, Mark is on. Oh, yeah. So the first one I have on my list is Replicant Infinite Mortality on Transcending Obscurity Records. This one's kind of a surprise for me. I really like Replicant's previous LPs, but this album just massively elevates the band. It's just a perfect blend of smart, dissonant tech death with just catchy, crushing hooks and grooves. I don't think you can merge those styles.

I think this is just a phenomenal record. Lakai's Shroud, Wormfire and Starlight, independent release. This is a single song, progressive death doom album based on the fantasy book, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. And it evokes all the themes and emotional recollections of that book. And being a one song, it kind of takes you on a musical.

rollercoaster. It's good. I mean, I like all the stuff from them. Well, it's one guy actually. But this one was especially cool to me because I actually just started reading that novel. There's two novels out, The Pryor of the Orange Tree, and then there's a prequel book, and I have both of them. It's the guy from Soul Mass, right? Yep. Yep. Then next one on my list is Vorga, Beyond the Palest Star, also on Transcending Obscurity Records. It's a galactic,

I think this one really improves on the first record almost every way just to really

expands the textures and the atmosphere and their music and just really good song craft and riffs on this.

Love that one. Next one is Atrexial, The Serpent Abomination on non-Servium records.

I keep spinning this album and getting more and more into it. They play this kind of,

I guess I would say it's an occult mixture of black and death and it's just got this sinister ritualistic atmosphere it's perfect for late night listening which is I like to listen a lot of metal late at night so that's perfect for me kind of that one's kind of under the radar I haven't heard many people talk about that one and then the last thing on my list is the Totem Skin Bat Catalog so I've been loving the new Duds Reet

record so much that I went digging around for other material that the musicians in that band have been a part of. And so I found out that the guitarist and vocalist, Christopher Oster, was previously in this band called Totem Skin. And they played this kind of blackened hardcore layered with crust metal. And it's fucking awesome. It hits me right in the teen song sweet spot.

So they started in 2012 and they ended in 2015. And that's where Duds Read basically begins. And they put out two studio albums plus a couple EPs and a split. So I believe all their music is free on Bandcamp. So if anybody's interested in that, you can just grab it and take a listen to it. But I thought it was really good. And it's kind of interesting to listen to the previous band because that guy, Christopher Oster, I think he did. I think he wrote all the songs in this band.

and he's the primary songwriter for Duds Reet. So it's interesting to see the progression from this kind of like a black and hardcore to what Duds Reet plays, just like a melodic black metal. So pretty great. All righty then, John. All right, my list will be fast. We've already talked about a few of them. The one I've been playing nonstop since we got the promo exists, Hijacking the Zeitgeist. We already talked about it, so I won't say much more.

More Other Than That It'll Be On My List and It'll Probably Be Pretty High. Big Shocker There. This One's For Jay, The New Vandamplass, The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things. Jay, I don't know if you listened to it yet, but I got a chance to spin it today and it's another great release from Vandamplass if you're a fan of their style of progressive metal. They're one of the classier bands. They don't do any kind of crazy stuff other than have super long titles of songs and release like double albums.

like that come out one year

and then the next year comes out.

Pretty regularly, yeah.

Part two.

This was nice because it was just six songs, one album.

But it's the first album, the first lineup change in 34 years,

meaning it's the only lineup change they've ever had.

Their old keyboardist had left, so they have a new keyboardist now.

So it was cool.

We talked about Dune, Woodkind, good album.

Not much more to say to that.

We talked about My Dying Bride.

And then my last one is not metal at all. It's actually a drone ambient kind of jazz project. It's called Eventide. And the album's Waterline. And it's featuring members, two members of Epitaph, the French Death Doom proggy band, and a saxophone player, I believe from Brooklyn called Paul Brosey. I don't know them. It basically grew out of, there's a bonus track on the second Epitaph album, which is,

They kind of do a similar thing that Blood Incantation does, but slightly different. But it's an all-ambient thing. And they were just messing around, and they kind of improv'd a song with mixing synths and effects and saxophone and layered guitars, and it's now grown into a project. And they took that bonus track from that album, they kind of expanded it and played three more songs. And so they've got this kind of noise-ambient thing going on now.

It's kind of cool because when I say jazz, it's not like jazz music. It just has some jazz sax layered in with all this other stuff going on. So it's kind of a nice change of pace. Sexy. Yeah, but it's not sexy though. Not at all. So. Damn it. Almost, you know, Mark Slott, it almost has, it would be like a metal version of a Blade Runner soundtrack almost. Yeah. So it's got some jaggy guitars, but it's all noise, ambient related. Sold.

I don't know if it's your thing, but give it a try. You might like it, but it kind of just, the sax has that feel that they have that in the Blade Runner soundtrack, although it's synths. It just has that little bit of a vibe to it. Yeah, that sax is so good in the Blade Runner soundtrack. That's the love theme that they do it in. It's so good. But you know, it's not up front. It's just like you can hear it down the street kind of sound, so that's all I got. Down the street saxophone. I like it. All right, Will.

All right, I will be quick as usual. Today, I bought the new Antichrist Siege Machine album, Vengeance of Eternal Fire. They played some of the stuff, I think, when we were at a jury back in September. I booked them for that show. And then, I don't think I was even tracking this, but Bong Ripper just released an album called Empty. So, listen to that. I'm a big Bong Ripper fan. I'm just not a fan of ripping bongs. And then, obviously, the new Decra.

I've been listening to that like a lot and the new funeral leech illusion of time funeral leech is a great like funeral death doom band really digging that and uh the new ex-order defecum omnium I think I mentioned I may have mentioned that last time and then the slime lord I'm not gonna try and pronounce whatever it's the I'm not gonna try to pronounce it something John can pronounce it but I gotta see it sounds like a venereal disease John's forgot it now at this point

I just thought because it's such a long word. Chi tridiomycosis relinquished. Nice. I just remember that word Markisan seeing it. You just have to remember the chi part of it, right? Because if you can get that part, then you'll get the rest because you it's not intuitive to do it that way. No, sorry. Well, the last one, I can't believe I didn't have this. I swear I did. But if you guys remember Verminoff from York, Pennsylvania,

their album Primordial Tomb. And at the pre-show, I ran into Jeff Kormos. I met him last year at Decibel. And just out front of the hotel and just BSing with him. He's in a band. He's heard of playing Atlas. So like I tried, they did play Atlas eventually. I just couldn't make it to the show, which sucked. And then I've been trying to book him for the Adroit show like three times now. And they just, it just doesn't work out. But really great death metal out of York, Pennsylvania.

Land of the Amish. Yeah. Not quite Amish country, but not too far away. But yeah, because I think what was that? What was the name of that band that came out of York that had that? It was like some 90s. Yeah. Live. Yeah. That's right. So yeah. Coming out of York. That's it. Not very long either.

stuff that's been mentioned. So the Necrot, I've been listening to The High and Fire, which obviously just came out. Yes, I have got the Van de Plas record. I like it pretty much, Jen. Though I always need a minute with them to kind of decide where is this going to fall? Not necessarily in the whole catalog, but is it going to be? Because they kind of do, they're so strange. Every second or third record is really good. So I'm not sure about this one yet as far as where it falls, but I'm enjoying it. And then a lot of other stuff that I'll mention also again, just because I was such a pleasant

discovery on me, but Clockwork Angels

has been spinning a lot here. That's awesome.

I love it. It was just such a

treat to kind of realize how good this record

was. And I will fully

admit that it was because

in the documentary I was talking about

watching, Neil Peart

felt like it was their most complete record.

And I was like, I don't have that.

That documentary is hard to watch?

It's hard to watch.

Very hard to watch.

Yeah, it is, but it's a sweet telling of the story.

And of course, it was, if Neil was sick at that time, it was known probably not to anybody but him. But I don't know if he was, if he had had his initial diagnosis at that time. No, but he definitely had the shoulder issue. That's for sure. Yeah. And it's funny because that and the Sam Dunn thing and everything, so much of his physical trials are mentioned and stuff. But yeah. Jay, I was going to mention, I don't know if you know this, but Heavy Temple is a new album. I know you'd like that band.

And I just listened to it. It's called Garden of Heathens. That's a really fucking good album. You know what? I'll get it the minute we're off here tonight. Yeah, I like their stuff before. I think this one is way better than the last one. So I just listened to half of it today. So I was going to mention it to you. Thank you. I always got rooms. Most people listen to music to prepare for a show.

In this case, most of what I'm listening to is stuff that I was inspired to listen to after going to Decibel. So 200 stab wounds in their first album, Slave to the Scalpel. Duh. I listened to the first couple Crowbar albums because, yeah. Unrelated, I just stumbled upon this one because it's something that I listen to probably every couple of months, and that's Monster Magnets Power Trip album because, fuck yeah. That's nice. I saw your post on that the other day. That was nice.

you prompted me to go put them. Just the other day I was listening to Mindfucker. That's a good one. I never really was into Monster Magnet. I always liked that couple of their songs, but then when they played Dust Balls, man, these guys are good. And then I remember, Jay, you're a big fan, and then you kind of chatted him up, talked him up, and I was like, I'm into it now. Yeah, it's pretty rich catalog, really. Actually, we're probably overdue for a new one. Yeah, I think so. And then I listened to, I didn't

I think I would but somehow I listened to it and that was Paradise Lost's Icon 30. And? Does anybody listen to that? No because it's a re-recording that's why. I think I put it in the box. Yeah so this is one of those we don't have the rights to the original recording so we're going to re-record it which most of the time that sucks but I actually really liked this. It's a little more in your face and raw and so I mean when you

If you've listened to an album for 30 years like Icon, it's not just the songs, but it's the recording itself, the little nuances of it. And so that's why re-recording an album can be difficult because those things aren't there and it's just like a weird rendition. But this was actually really cool. And I wanted to ask Albert what he thought of this when we were there. And I saw him, but I forgot to ask him. But I think it's cool. I think it's definitely worth checking out. All right, we'll check it out. I thought it was great. I put it in the box last year, I think.

and like the high res because I liked it so much. Well, I was skeptical as well. Yeah. I ignored it because I was skeptical, but I don't know why I was just like, I'll just listen to this. And I was like, oh, damn, this is good. It's I like the original recording, but this has got a little more oomph to it. So. And then my final one back to decibel again, I did go back and revisit to molds the endurance spirit just to make sure that I am in fact an asshole.

Actually, I left a pretty important one off of mine. I don't know why I did, because I've been spending a lot of time with it, but Deep Purple released the 50th anniversary of Machine Head recently with Dweezil's Apple remix and the master of the album and a live show and stuff, and it's a cool little set, and I've been listening to that a lot lately. I love how Jay interrupted George when he was just about to reveal if he was an actual asshole or not. You know what? What did you discover, George? I am. I can't take it out to the public.

Okay, good. All right. Welcome to the club. All right. Now, we only have two more segments. Metal Thunderdome, Markisan.

Metal Thunderdome. All right, I gotta introduce it. Okay. All right. Metal Thunderdome. So we usually pick old as fuck albums for Thunderdome. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of great albums throughout the years. But when I was thinking about what I would do next, I decided that I wanted to switch things up and pit two recent records against each other because we just, I don't think we've done it.

Can I just say before you reveal them that this was pretty cruel choice. Like you really went hard here, man. Yeah, you're welcome. So, so yeah, so I wanted to pick two recent records and then this one day this matchup just hit me as the perfect Thunderdome, but also just a really difficult one. But I think that's the whole point of Thunderdome, right? Shouldn't be easy. So Thunderdome's not easy. It is hard. No, it's a fight to the death for Christ's sake.

So in the history of the Metal Heads podcast, there have only been two albums that we have all agreed on for album of the month. And each of these albums made all six of our top 25 lists the year they were released. And both of them went on to claim the number one spot on the official Metal Heads podcast top 25. So it's Tumult's Planetary Clairvoyance from 2019 versus

is horrendous ontological mysterium from last year. And it is pretty difficult. And Matt's not here, so he doesn't have to pick. I got his vote. I got his vote. You did. All right. Are you going to do that first, George? Well, he's later. Since you go last as the picker, he is next. So I will say Matt chose horrendous. All right. Did he say anything about it or he just picked? He just said, tell Markisan fuck you.

Okay, he didn't say that. He just said horrendous. Oh, wait. Actually, he did say something. He said, hold on. He just said had to go with horrendous. But I know this is a tough one. But isn't it a good one, though? Come on. It's not bad. It's a good theme. I like it. Yeah. All right. So then we go to John. All right. I'll keep it short. Yeah, this is a good one. I love both albums a lot.

I love the idea that there are only two Hall of Fame albums that we've ever all agreed on for an album of the month. So this will never happen again. It only comes around like Haley's Comet. So we got lucky twice in the span of four years. So I went with Horrendous. And the reason for it is I think I just like that it's a little progier and a little thrashier on the album, which I didn't expect them to get as thrashy as they did on the new album.

And so that's really all it is. And the vocals also. Which neither band has super great vocals. In terms of what I personally like. But I think I like the vocals better with horrendous. Because I can at least understand what they're saying. That's all. But I absolutely love the planetary clairvoyance. I think it's a great album. And if you ask me this question tomorrow. I probably would go with Tumult. And over horrendous. So for today.

I'm going with horrendous. So by the time this posts, I have to change it. Yeah. No. Well, yeah. But then by the time it goes through and everyone sees it, then I'll have to change it again. Gotcha. So we'll just leave it where it is. Just leave it at horrendous. Horrendous kicking ass right now. All right. Well, this one was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I personally know guys in both bands. They all played Atlas. But if you, I think, well, I'm going with Toon Bowl.

I picked Herndus's penultimate album. I can't think of it off the top of my head. Idol, maybe. No, there's one after that. Yeah, I forget. I can't think of it off the top of my head. Idol's the previous one. Yeah. So the newer Herndus's, it's a little too, like, proggy for me in some places. And I know they were trying to push the boundaries and do some different stuff. And it's cool, and I love it, obviously. But, you know, comparing it to Moe. Oh, you're right. Idol was the last one.

We're all making bad choices, right? I know. And you know what? I have to say this. I do love this, Mark. Because I thought when eventually in a couple years when I pick the next Thunderdome, I was thinking about doing something a little bit more modern because we tend to do like these old school 80s, 90s things. And I was thinking about doing something, not this exact one, obviously, but I think this one was brilliant. But I was thinking about doing a more modern one. Yeah. Well, you should be up in August. According to the schedule. My Sophie's choice would be

versus Thrasenblad. Impossible. All right. Jay. I said you were cruel, but the truth is it wasn't that hard for me in the end either for some reason. I think they both have, first of all, they are pretty different, so there's that. And what I mean is one is just really a much more old-school death metal album with some new tinges on it and stuff. But in the end, I had to,

I think John actually described it more or less how I would have. I went with horrendous because it's just a little prior year. It's got some kind of some cool twists and turns, a little thrashier. I don't think it's because it's a little newer and it's just fresher with me because two molders really kind of had a pretty heavy effect on everybody on this cast. But if I was going to go grab one and put it on right now, it would be the horrendous album. So I'm going to go with that. All right. So I do like both of these albums, but what it came down, you know,

They're both frickin' awesome.

So what it came down to was the vocals.

And that's horrendous.

Because the vocals are just more better.

They're better.

They're better vocals.

They're more better.

They're not just better, they're more better.

I like them.

They're good.

I mean, I said it earlier.

I mean, I like two mold, but the vocals are just mediocre.

And compared to the horrendous vocals, it's no contest.

The Horrendous vocals are very good. They're very good. So that's me. Mike Zahn. Yeah, no, it's really hard choice for me. Obviously, Horrendous has already won on this one. So, but I'm still going to go with Horrendous. I love the Tumult record, but the Horrendous one, they basically reinvent themselves with this record. Agree. There's so much, and I did not expect that. And I was not a huge fan of Idol.

I wasn't on my list. I liked it, but it wasn't on my list. Whereas the other records were on my list. Yeah. So I was thinking maybe horrendous is not going to be a band for me. Maybe it's going to be like a, like Paul bear. Maybe a slow, a steady decline for me that I'm not going to be into this band. And then they put out ontological Mysterium. Like what the fuck blew me away. Agreed. I was the same way. I, I thought they were okay before, but this sealed it. I have one comment.

about this and I think it leads into just while you're working your situation up a brief one that you that John that you had said it was a prior to your record and here's an interesting thought the guys in two mold are amazing death metal musicians I think the guys in horrendous are just amazing musicians you know what I mean there's something where they are able to pull in other aspects and I know those guys also are involved in like jazz bands and shit like that at least some of them stuff that doesn't necessarily make it a better record it's just interesting that it probably brings more

influences and things.

No, that's a good point. I mean, I think we're going to see more from 2Mold, at least from the guitarist. From Derek, was it Vela? Is that his name? He is branching out a little more, I think.

Yeah.

Anyway.

All right, so Horrendous 5, 2Mold 1.

I kind of thought it would win.

But with that said, this is a very 1A, 1B type selection in my mind.

And I'm kind of wondering, for no good reason, if it won't be the exact opposite online. I think I was thinking that, yeah. Yeah. We'll see. With the freshness of the horrendous being just a little bit to its favor, and the people who see our polls listening to the show and whatever, but so we'll see. I thought it was great because I love both bands, so it worked out for me. Yeah, it was a good choice. I just think that horrendous is just a lot. It's really a refreshing.

death metal record. Whereas Tumon is a great standard death metal record and they've gone on to do progressive things, but not like Horrendous has. They just completely changed everything I thought about that band and they're entering new territory. And I'm really excited again for this band to see where they're going. More excited than I was when I first found them and really enjoyed them. So that doesn't happen that often where you can reinvent yourself and do it.

and make it like even better than the first time like what so that's why i gotta pick uh horrendous okay all right we are moving on to pick from the crypt margason all right so i'm i'm continuing to revisit my crypt of album descriptions that i wrote years ago before i joined the metalheads podcast and this was one i had not spun in a while so that's kind of the fun of going back to these descriptions because i kind of

find some albums that I liked, but maybe I just haven't played in a while. So the one I'm picking is Centaurus A, Side Effects Expected. And this was released in 2009 on Listenable Records. And this is what I wrote about it 15 years ago. Centaurus A is a formidable band that manages to successfully integrate a variety of metal genres into one powerful galaxy of a first album.

and thrash metal are the star particles and the Centaurus A formula, as the band deftly switch gears with sharp instrumentation and complex bursts that never seem to overwhelm. Side Effects Expected really stays accessible throughout its ten tracks, and that is a real achievement given the vast musical space in which this band farscapes through. This is truly upper echelon tech metal.

The Centaurus A galaxy may be 11 million light years away, but Centaurus A the band should be a permanent fixture in your part of the universe for the foreseeable future. And the ironic thing about that last line is that Centaurus A only put out two records. But holy fuck, this is again like this is fucking a really good record. I don't know if anybody's ever heard it before, but I loved it. That was really fun to go back and listen to it.

But then, of course, we have this section. I'm the podfather. I know everything. That's true, George. Actually, it does sound familiar, but I can't recall it. All right, John. All right, so I didn't have a pick. Okay, then we'll start. When I started thinking about this, I had completely forgotten. And then I remembered that I saw a little news blip the other day, and that was that Michael Hackerfeld from Opeth turned 50.

And I was like, well, a new, another member joins the ARP team. So that prompted me then to just go with Opeth Still Life from 1999 is my crypt pick. Because nobody's ever heard of that. No, but I don't care. Maybe they should listen to it. Yeah, fuck them. Again, first off, it's my favorite Opeth album. It's also my favorite album of all time, but it's also the 25th anniversary this year. So.

I don't care. This crypt that I have is big. As Overkill says, we don't care what you say. Fuck you. Yeah. Big Elvis fit in my crypt. He's got a glorious sized pit. Crypt. Yeah. So. All right. There. Excellent. Willem. Chew. Chew. I picked it from the crypt. I picked it just now. I had to rearrange like my entire music, digital music library for, because I was running out of space.

So I've talked about these guys in the podcast before. We interviewed them at MDF, but Atrophy and their debut album, 1998, Socialize Hate, old school, not old school. Well, yeah, it's old school thrash, straight up thrash metal. Always had a little bit of a social message to a lot of the stuff that they used to do. And then, and I realized like they have another album coming out this year and I realized it was already released the last month. So I was just looking for it. It's not on Bandcamp, it's on iTunes.

So I may have to try and find some way to buy the CD or something. Yeah. Great, great album. Reminds me of my, what would have been like a freshman in high school. So like after high school. When you were 21. I get held back, man. Yeah. That's a biohazard joke. Yeah. Biohazard joke from this last weekend. Yeah.

All right, Jay. I put, and this isn't my pick, but I'll rationalize my pick, but I put Headcage on for the first time in a while, the most latest Pig Destroyer record. I hadn't listened to it in a little bit, and I put it on. I was, and God, Jesus Christ, it's a heavy fucking record. But I liked the, I liked the back catalog too of Pig Destroyer. I mean, and I think one of my favorites is called Terrifier, and I was going to pull that out as my pick, but I should be in mind, because the last one before Headcage, and the first one,

The First One to Feature, the recently passed Blake Harrison, is a very fine record. Book Burner. Book Burner. I'll go with A Pig Destroyer, Book Burner. He was on that Phantom Limb thing that they released. That was like a 45 with one big Doomy song. He's on that too, but Book Burner is a very fine record. If Headcage, Book Burner was like what was leading up to Headcage sonically. Really hoping these guys got something coming out in the next few years. They don't do it a lot, but.

They're actually playing probably right now up in Baltimore. Yep. As a headline thing? Yeah, I can't remember where they're playing. Probably south stage. If you like Pig Destroyer, this will be no surprise to you, but if it's the only thing you know is Headcage, which is probably the somewhat most accessible record of theirs, you should start walking backwards and check out the other stuff too. Is that the, they released the single and it had a very. That's the Phantom Limbo. I know it was one of the newer ones. It wasn't Octocon.

I thought it was Headcage where the single they released was very different and had some riffs in there that sounded like new metal. Yeah that song is called Army of Cops I believe. Yes that and people were losing their shit because they released the single and they're like oh my god they turned into like a new metal band or like a bro breakdown band. Even though that song is so heavy it weighs a million tons to suggest that the only thing that really grew up on that record was the production and that's it if you ask me but and okay some of the songs are a little longer but.

My turn.

Bookburner.

All right.

Nice.

So for my album, I went with something completely obscure because that's what I like to do with this.

Going back to 2003 on Dragonheart Records is the band Doom Sword.

Oh, yeah.

I know that band.

And their second album, Let Battle Commence.

This is their second of five albums.

They're an Italian epic doom metal band.

And back in the early 2000s, this was like, I mean, Epic Doom in the early 2000s was not really a thing. Like, symphonic black metal was a thing. And so this really stood out because it was just so old school. And I loved the first few albums. I don't think I've heard like the fourth and fifth one, but the first three albums are freaking awesome. Metal Archive says they're still active, but they haven't released an album since the Eternal Battle in 2011.

So I don't know if we'll hear anything from them again, but check out

Doom Sword. Cool. That's cool. I think they re-released that vinyl like within the last

couple of years or something. And I thought about getting it because I really liked that record, the first one, but I haven't listened to all the records actually. I have to go back now, George. It was like the horn resounding or something. And yeah, anyway.

Let's just take a moment and in his absence, thank our friend David Gregor for coming on again. And he's been texting me like steadily since he left. He texted me a couple things too. He wanted to follow up on Nails Cooper stuff, which I hope he watches it. And we'll be looking forward to seeing Matt again. Indeed. Always. He's not here. I didn't. I can't believe we didn't realize he wasn't here, but okay. That's weird. Sometimes you just don't know. Yeah. Usually he's really talkative.

All right, so one last thing before we go. As you may have heard, our 10th anniversary is upon us, and we would like to hear from you. So, Markasson set up a voicemail where you can leave us a message telling us what you think about the podcast, what you hate about it, what you like about it, all sorts of sweet nothings, as Markasson says. So, call this number and leave us a voicemail telling us what you think about the podcast.

Here's the number. Are you ready? 847-868-0480. Call us. Obey, as Will would say. And for God's sake, please stop trying to order pizzas on this number. This is driving us crazy. Oh, it would be fun to hear a message about that. Maybe David. I got a bunch of messages and they're all great. Really nice. Really appreciate the people that have

I put the time into say some things about us. It's totally hitting in the feels. Whenever I go into a bar, I just always put on, take a Sharpie and write in the bathroom stall for a good time call. I remember this one two frame cartoon I saw one time online and it was like a comic. And there's a guy in the bathroom and he sees the thing for a good time call. And then the second frame is him hang gliding with some guy and he was like, wow, man, this has been the best day.

And the other guys, yeah, can you believe nobody's ever called before? 8-6-7-5-3-0-9-y-y-y. All right. Nice to see your faces, boys. Sorry, I'm a kid. It's messable, but I'll catch you at the next thing. Indeed. Next month, the celebration episode. Yes. No guests other than the people that call in. Hello.

And Will, please remember that I like you better than the rest of these guys. Okay, thank you. All right. Thank you. Will. Hey, real quick with this, these voicemails. I haven't listened to any of them, but have we gotten any hate mail? Have we gotten anything like from somebody we don't know? It seems like we have gotten some from people we don't know. Okay. Is there any like fuck off and die? No. Okay. That's disappointing. Okay. I just can't. Yeah. All right.

Yep. See y'all next time. Bye boys. See ya. Bye. Later.