Metalheads Podcast Episode #129: Tastes Like a Rusty Fence

Show Notes

This episode our friend Steve McDowell returns to the podcast to fill in for Will, who just finished up his radiation treatments. Get better soon, buddy! We kicked things off with a spirited roundtable on bands doing reunions without key members. Then we discussed the latest metal news and new releases, and shared what we've been listening to lately. Plus, John locks us in the Metal Thunderdome with two of the best post metal albums of all time - Neurosis "Through Silver in Blood" Vs. Isis "Panopticon" - and Steve's wife Maggie makes a surprise appearance at the end of the show to talk about Bathory, the perils of Country Thunder and the baddest bitch she ever met.

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's the podcast, Metal Heads Podcast.

Hello, and welcome to the Metal Heads Podcast. My name is George.

This here is Jay.

This is John.

This is Matt.

This is Markasson.

And we are joined today by our friend, Steve McDowell.

How you doing, Steve? Welcome back. Yeah, how you guys doing? Pretty good. I had no expectation of you calling me in or messaging me and asking me to come on. So yeah, I'm super happy, man. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Unfortunately, Will can't join us. He is recovering from some treatment that you may have heard about and hopefully he will be with us next time.

So he's recovering. He won't be scanned for a while to see how successful it all was. But send your good thoughts this way because that's just really hard on you. He's feeling like correct. Yeah. So a hearty fuck cancer to cancer. Fuck cancer! Get better, Will. Yeah, I'm sure various of us have been sending him little care packages to try to keep his spirits up. Yep.

All right, well, we are not doing an interview because Steve's already been on before, but we are going to do a round table. But before we do that, we have to do t-shirt and beer check. So, Steve, what you got? Yeah, I'm wearing a Morphous Privilege of Evil. Okay. Yeah, it was before the podcast. I mean, guys, I've, it's actually my third time buying this shirt because it's just one of those albums.

that really affect me. And I'm horrible with change, so I just keep buying the same t-shirts. But yeah, I actually found somebody that works with the Amorphous guys and has a really cool website. I can share the link. But I got Tropical Beer Hug. Now, it used to be a Chicago thing, but it's Goose Island.

Somebody bought them. All I know is it's 9.9% alcohol. It doesn't taste tropical at all. It tastes like a rusty fence, but it was on sale. All right. Mark is on. Yeah, so I'm wearing a Metallica shirt. Too bad Will's not here. What? In honor of all the hype around a master of puppets on Stranger Things. Indeed. Which we're going to talk about.

It's a fantasy skull deer demon with blood skull antler bling all over it. Oh, dear. I've been out of the Metallica shirt game for too long. Yeah. They're jumping on the mastodon bandwagon, apparently. Yeah, deers. Animals. And then I'm drinking Brimminghorn's Black Cherry Piment with hints of oak in it. So I haven't had

I did just so I got my stuff from the subscription the club coming but I also ordered their five year anniversary beer that they did it's called like anthropomorphic something so I'm kind of excited about that one because it's a regular mead but they put different forms of honey in it nice and we should note that Markisan is recovering from COVID right now yeah you can hear it a little bit in my voice there because I haven't talked how to clear it

I had to clear it a little bit. Yeah. So excuse me if I sound a little gruff. A little sexy. Sexier. Sexier. Speaking of sexy, let's move on to Matt. All right. I've got emulation from MDF for my shirts and then for my beer. I am drinking. It's called Monk in the Park. It is a dark strong ale from Barrel of Monks Brewing.

I have not had this before and it's good. It says I chose wisely and I would agree. So. All right. John. Nice. I'm wearing a face warning shirt that I'm pretty sure I've already worn on here at least once. I'm cycling through shirts. I'm in that 15 shirt pattern that just, you know, somebody's going to, you're going to run into somebody who sees the same shirt three times over the course of a month. But, and I'm

Drinking from Settle Down Easy Brewing, which is right here in Falls Church, Virginia. It's called Clank Your Chains. It's a double IPA. And it's one of the original skulls. You know, they're a rock and roll brewery. So it's, you know, the deadhead kind of thing here. But the Clank Your Chains is, they took over an old bike shop, a bicycle shop that used to do repairs there. They are now brewing in that space. So they kept some of the aesthetic from the old business in theirs. So. Nice. All right.

I'm drinking ice cold water and I'm having and I'm wearing in honor of less than a month for Cyclops. I guess I got the old Melissa shirt on. It's a long sleever, pretty cool shirt. And I, um, it's also fucking cold here too. So it's been long sleevey around here. It's just, it's the foggiest fucking San Francisco summer we've had in a while. And it's been like fifties and sixties every fucking day. So, and by the way, the merciful faith thing will fit in with our round table. It's first to me.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I am wearing my Decibel Metal and Beer Fest shirt from 2021, partly so it was one that I haven't worn much, but also because of the recently announced Decibel Philly for 2023 in April that seems so far away, but I am definitely looking forward to. Unless, of course, all the bands suck.

So don't let that happen guys. Uh, and I'm drinking something that I didn't know existed until I saw it in the store. It's from devil's backbone and it is guar's blood geyser. Uh, it is a, uh, uh, what is a blood orange IPA, uh, with artificial color. Speaking of guar, George knows that none of us has talked about, there's a new document.

I keep seeing little that's right but I don't know where it's viewable or anything does anybody know I mean

yeah um I actually watched it right before the podcast yeah guar was like my entire youth we like I I would ditch school and hitchhike to every quart concert and they always played in Chicago on Halloween but um yeah I think it came out yesterday it's on shutter

I know Odorous had his show. Did you like it? Was it good? Oh yeah, it was all teary-eyed before coming on here. I don't think there's a band in the world that has put as much effort into what they do as they did. It's the only band that's toured with an actual loader truck full of dinosaur

and stuff.

You know, but yeah, no, it's, it's great.

I was really looking forward to it.

So it came out last night.

I watched it today, but yeah, I would definitely recommend it.

Okay, cool.

Appreciate it.

You know, that and I don't, the deal thing kind of premiered and then never heard

another thing about it.

So like to see the deal.

Is that out?

Well, that hasn't come out.

I don't know.

I don't know where it's.

It's not out yet, Jay.

They're doing it on the independent circuit where they go around festivals and show it and stuff like that. But for the public, we haven't had a chance to see it. Whatever became of that enslaved documentary that we saw part of that never released? Well, remember, George, they said, what was it called? Enslaved 30 or 20? And they were like, it's probably called 30 because it was enslaved 25. Yeah. And so they were like, it's probably should be farther out because that's how long it's taken us to make this fucking thing. So, yeah. You guys remember there was a,

Another Fenelope's Ferris movie that never got released. We sold our souls for rock and roll. No. It was based on Ozzy and the whole Ozfest thing. And I went to the first screening of it with Fenelope's Ferris, like talking before and after about it. But between that time and when it was supposed to be released, I guess she got sued and she wasn't able to release it. But I didn't find a copy of that. Wow. That's weird. Who would have sued her?

Not Sharon.

Oh, probably.

Yeah.

It's just odd.

On deck for later, I wanted to mention that, Markisan, I did find eventually some of that Vasan Norse.

They did not have it at the store we got it from.

I went in there and it's like, hey, you got any more of this?

And they're like, oh, no.

He's like, I bought up all the stuff in the state and now it's gone.

Are you talking about the saga?

It's.

It was.

Saga was the one I had. I think Norse is the one that you found, which is a different one by that brewery. Oh, okay. Well, anyway, I didn't get Saga. Sorry, I just tanked your story, George. Yeah, no, I thought it was the same one because I thought it was a white can. No, it's a blue can and it's called Saga. Ah, well, anyway, I've got the Norse one and I've got another one that's called Ragna. Hmm. And they're both pretty good, so. George, you've had that before with me. Which? The Norse. Have I? Yeah, we had it.

I almost positive we were getting food before a show down at Jiffy Lube. And we were at BJ's at the restaurant. They serve it there because I get it every time I'm there. I love that Jiffy Lube is right next to BJ's. Isn't that funny? When John said we're at BJ's, that should be an outtake. Well, no, we have actually two different BJ's. There's the BJ's brewery that's all over the country. Then we have a BJ's wholesale.

I'm like, fuck. There's Will's Garage. Glory Hole Incorporated. Well, yeah. And then the glory hole's called BJ's, too. So, I mean, it's confusing wherever we are. We need BJ's. Yep. All right. Well, anyway, let's move on to the roundtable. And I'm sure you won't be surprised that the topic that we're going to talk about is bands doing reunions without key members. Who could we possibly be referring to?

Yeah, well, what I thought of was, of course, the band we don't care for. Yeah, exactly. Well, I used to care for them, but the guy that's still around, I don't care for. So, Pantera announced that they're going to be doing a tour with Phil Dickhead, whatever. Zach Wilde and Charlie Benante, right? Yeah, and Rex. So, I like Zach. I like Charlie.

Rex, I don't really have an opinion on, but Phil can fucking suck it. So I was pretty disheartened by the fact that they're calling it Pantera. You know, it's not Pantera. It is light years from Pantera. It's some good musicians, but it's not Pantera. And you should be calling it either something completely different or at the very least a celebration of Pantera.

Well, it has changed since it first came out. Did it? I haven't really paid attention. That biker dude that Matt loves to sit there and listen to. I love Jack. I don't know where that accent came from because it's morphed over the years. He did not sound like that. No, no. He was more glamish early on when he didn't have the leather jacket. But he is, and he's saying all the right things, he's calling it a tribute and celebration.

of the music. But the first reported stuff, when I sent this, and George and I were originally talking about this, they were calling it a reunion. And I don't know if that's true or not, or if that was, you know, the media outlets jumping on it. Or if their PR group, you know, their management said that, and then it backfired on them. You know, oh, no, no, it's a tribute. It's a tribute. You know, it's not a reunion because I'm with you, George. I mean, well, Rex has been on every album. You know, he's not an original,

I think he's a little bit of a bass player, but it's stupid because he's been on every single album. So he's been there pretty much since the beginning. It still would be a little strange to call it a reunion of the band. I don't know what size places they're going to be playing. They'll probably be big enough for the arenas. They'll do all right. I mean, Zach Wilds is a big name, regardless if he's so. I mean, he might play in smaller venues himself, but he's got the cachet with him now for everyone. I think he's also pretty good at copying styles. So I think he'll come out and

I'm not even a big fan of the band, but I think he'll try to do a faithful reproduction of... Oh, I'm sure he will. I'm sure he will. Just no pig squeals. I love those. By the way, in both of the advanced Ozzy tracks, there are no pig squeals, thank God. But one of them, I know he's playing on it. Is Zach playing with him again? Actually, he might not be on the whole thing, but I know he's on some of them. Because the first song, the guitarist, sounds just like whoever played on the last album. Oh, is that... What's his name? It was like the producer.

Yeah, but it's the guy. He's from Greece, isn't he? Is Gus G still with him? That's a good question. I don't think so. I don't know. I can't remember. He's gone through it. Apparently, Zach has been on every album since he first hooked up with Oz, except for one I was reading in some form or another. So I don't know, because I stopped paying attention. I think No More Tears is the last one I actually cared to listen to.

I got the one after that but I didn't like it and I just stopped did you see Steve

Morris left the purple gym yeah yeah yeah to care for his young wife yeah yeah which is too bad because I I love Steve Morris he apparently is a super super good dude um but George to get back if you want to reign it back to the yeah yeah I was gonna I was gonna compare it to uh the talk about the the Van Halen uh

Tribute thing that they were talking about doing. And I felt that was handled much better. Big time. You know, with Wolfie and Alex and Dave. And see, I always thought they had the best setup they could possibly do because everybody knows nobody could play like Eddie could play the stuff. He had, he just still was unique. Any guitar player would tell you, they still are trying to get his sound. Nobody can get his sound on his old rickety shitty equipment that he,

used, which is really funny. I always thought that they could, if they could somehow all mend fences and get everyone there, probably Gary Sharon probably wouldn't be there on this deal. But, but, but Sammy there to Michael Anthony, they could literally just do a one-off or a couple of shows in LA and just bring in a different guitars for every song. Do you know how many big names would jump on that in a second? Oh, he would, I'm sure he would do it. He, you know, but I mean, Satriani, suppose he was linked to it.

You know, you know, which would have been cool, but it would be nice to hear all these. Like, Phil X would be cool, because I don't know if you guys, if you know much about Phil X, the guitarist. He's about the closest I've heard to sounding like Eddie. I mean, he's a disciple, big time. But there was some quote, and I just chose the headline, and I didn't read the story I'd met, but apparently Wolfgang Van Halen said, somebody's being a pain in the ass about it, and I'm guessing it's David Leroy. It has to be. It has to be. Yeah. And I don't even know what,

the nature of the pain in the ass was, but it was just sort of like, there's a lot of people who are kind of interested in doing this, and one of us is being a prick. Well, look, here's how it's going to work, Dave. We're going to bring Sammy in, because even though he's like 74, he can still sing his balls off compared to you. I want to do vaudeville. You know, which is all he wants to do. So I'm going to throw in... Yeah, it was the son that said that, somebody who was being a pain in the ass, and it was very much directed David Lee Rod. Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm going to throw in a merciful fate because Matt and I are going to see him in about a month. Jerks. And they. So Kim Rez is dead. And that's not to be helped. But they did not invite Michael Denner, who was the second guitarist or the first guitarist, however you want to put it. And so here's my take on it, which is I don't give a fuck because I've seen footage and they're fucking killing it. So it's going to be great. I don't understand why they left him out.

I don't know why they left out the bass player that was rude

I mean invite would have at least been nice

oh

that's a hot take

I'm just kidding

and actually I'll be honest with you I don't know who the drummer is

I don't I suspect I think it's

Snowy Shaw or somebody or it's not like the original drummer

I suspect but in any case

maybe this one doesn't

count as much because

I mean King Diamond is an important face of that

band and has kept the whole

thing alive for so many years just by being King Diamond you know what I mean yeah but Jay don't you like I'm not troubled by it but don't you think Jay would that be as big as King's mythology behind his character he's created over the years and his persona they're still known as a guitar band though too I mean their their guitars are beyond respected from all walks of life in metal and hard rock and it's weird because he's such a big figure King but yet everyone always talks about

They're so good. And you know, really, John, if you listen to Melissa, and King Diamond was not on it, let's just say it was an instrumental record. It passes as a 70s priest album, frankly. I told you guys we did that Thunderdome. Do you remember I said, I said, this would win hands down any day of the week. I just, I got fatigued from King after a while. And that's why I went with the other choice on that one. Yeah.

I think I went with, but I would have gone with that 99 times out of 100 if he was a little lower register for me. So it is a weird thing, though, because the other guitarists will be there and those Hank Sherman and Michael Denner, and they were doing stuff together previous to this reunion. They had that Sherman-Denner thing. Right. It's like an EP. I don't know. They did two records, actually. I think they did two whole records. They might have an EP and a record, but in any case, so I don't know what went down.

I'm not going to let this is also a fairly small string of shows only one in the States. I've heard the videos they sound amazing. Joey Vera is there. Yeah he sounds so good with them. I can work with this one it's okay with me there's no part of me that's feeling like this is a jip you know. You know George and I saw an interesting reunion and we both I think came away disappointed by the show because I didn't think they were that great even though I'm a big

I'm a fan of the band. We saw In the Woods

at MDF.

It's just a drummer now.

I really wanted to like their show

because I like In the Woods.

I think everything they've done is cool.

They're different on every album.

They run the gamut on style.

I was like,

I'm a drummer,

but I have a hard time when drummers

end up being the main focus of the band

because what's left.

There's very few drummers that write music along with that. If you guys have ever heard of Virgil Donati, he's a world-class drummer, but the guy plays piano, plays other instruments, he writes music himself. But those guys, musicians are far and few between. It's usually a guitar player, a keyboard player that would be writing a lot of the music. Well, I have a question for you, George, and it's because you just saw these guys and it wasn't really a reunion, but there's no part of me that feels like you didn't know.

see the who. You know what I mean? Like, and even though Keith Moon has been long gone now, but also John Entwistle, they were both massively important parts of that band. Right. And that's where... The who is the who, kind of. Yeah. Still the who. Yeah, I mean, okay, I'm internally shooting down what I was about to say because Pantera has the same situation. I was going to say, yeah, but you know, Keith Moon and Entwistle are both

both dead and what are you gonna do um but but but pete townsend wrote all their music

right roger daltrey sang all their music you know pete sang all their music so and and they all got along

okay what what what part of the problem is is that pantera broke up because the abbott brothers did not get along

with presumably just Phil. I don't know about Rex. I thought they all along with Rex. Steve, you don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to raise your hand. But the point is that the key members that died would not have wanted to do this with him, probably. Probably, yeah. And so he's taking advantage of that. Steve. That's a good point, George. No, no, go ahead. Go, go, go, go, go, Steve.

I love that album.

Yeah, the whole New Jersey biker thing doesn't really float my boat. Yeah, not really a black whatever society. I'm not really a fan of them, no. That Pride and Glory album was good, though. It has moments. Second point, it seems like all these people are, it's like people that would all be interviewed in Revolver magazine.

They actually had on YouTube the other day the first interview with a couple of the I know Benante wasn't there but it was that that jack off from who do you hate everybody? No, he's got like a spiky haircut. He's a total douchebag. Oh Ricky. No, no Jose Jose. Oh, did he spike his hair out?

I do in the interview. Yeah, I told him. Dude, so I'm here with Pantera. Fuck yeah. Jose Megan, biggest douchebag in metal. Like he was trying to like wipe his tears and shit. I'm like, this fucking blows. I was never a huge Pantera fan. I saw them on the Great Southern Train Kill was the last time I saw them. And Stacey Devoni, who I know you guys know, her best friend's sister was dating that their head roadie, the guy with the long black hair that's in all the videos. So,

You know, we got backstage and that was I Hate God, White Zombie, Deftones, Pantera in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin. So I got to hang out with them and drink that shitty drink they drink, the black tooth grin or whatever. Hey, don't knock the crown royal. Well, no, it's fine. But it was cool. I just can't imagine them. I mean, Pantera was like a party band. It was like a traveling party.

All You Heard was Van Halen. Their whole motif was to be kind of like Van Halen, but more hardcore. Who could drink themselves to death quicker kind of thing. Now they're all old. Zach Wild doesn't drink. If they're going to do it for fans to miss that band live, I don't see it really paying off. If it's $80 a ticket.

Oh, it's going to pay off to Phil. Yeah, it is. Well, yeah, I don't think it's making money. So we got a paycheck too, but you know, so two things. One is when you say Wisconsin, you never have to say middle of nowhere first. We just assumed. I, um, I, I saw, I guess it was the Misfits. That was one of his tribute things. And he, he opened, he was like one of the early bands in that lineup. And, um,

They did the Pantera stuff. It was Phil and Samuel doing a Pantera set. I've never heard of that. People loved it. I've heard of him doing like 12 other stupid bands, but I've never heard of him just going out and doing Pantera stuff. Yeah, it was literally billed as that, and it was him and the Illegals, I think, if it was that. Oh, okay. And they did a Pantera set from start to finish. They did nothing else. It might have been a one-off because of the Misfits thing. I don't know.

How would you guys feel about it if they announced, say, Charlie was going to play drums? It's hard to switch drummers every song. But if they did something like I was suggesting with Van Halen, say they had like a couple one-off shows here and there, and they had like six or seven guitars that would come out. I wonder if that would ease it a little more, because then it does feel more like a tribute then at that point. That'd make it better, I think. And by the way, Charlie could probably play guitar. That motherfucker could play guitar. And every time a new guitar

The Who.

So here's a band I know Markisan and I love but George had some interesting takes on this is good no not at all he just didn't feel like maybe they should still call the band name the same name but cynic was one we had that conversation for Genesis dude I'm the fucking hardcore in that one no but that's interesting one because you know Paul writes all the music but you lost to signal especially Sean Reiner because he was in the band the whole time Sean Malone was in and out of the band.

out of the band. But you lost two main parts of the band that had died. I still think they should go by Sinek. I remember, George, you were saying you thought maybe they should go by a different name at that time. But that's an interesting one. Sinek AD. Yeah, Sinek AD. But that's an interesting band where everyone unfortunately has passed away of the three key members of the band. But the main guy is still there. And I didn't have a problem with them carrying it. Who would you pick? Guys from like Gordian Nod or any of those?

Well, Matt Lynch was already playing drums with them. So he was, I guess, sort of a member of the band. Yeah, I mean, there's a whole slew of players I guess you could get. So they had the two guys, I don't know if anyone's familiar with the band, called Exivius. So they're an instrumental kind of proggy, kind of fusion type band. They're kind of like we're cynic, basically. They actually used, two of the guys used to play in cynic at one point.

with them.

But I don't know.

I mean, I don't think they'll ever tour.

I think they're just an album band going forward if they do put anything out.

Although something's brewing because Paul's been putting out a ton of shit lately on social media.

It's weird because it's like a case-by-case basis for a band.

Because for Cynic, I'm perfectly okay with him, with Paul, just going out and playing Cynic shows with other people.

But, you know, another band, they could be missing like a drummer.

I'm like, fuck this. I don't know. I don't know why that is. Quiet Right's another good example where you had just the drummer left and he wasn't even remotely close to an original member. I think he came in late also, but they rode that train all the way. And I think they're still quiet, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's one that I'm like, you know, once Kevin died, I'm done. As long as there's county fairs, John, they'll have places to play. I know. I mean, as long as it's the principal,

songwriter. And I would say if it's the singer or like, you know, if the principal songwriter is like the musician, like the guitarist or something like that, if they're intact and they fill in the other spots, I'm usually all right with it. Like Megadeth. Right. Yeah, pretty much. That's a great example of it. Exactly. So that's, I'm okay with that. But then, you know, obviously key members die, you know, like, like Alice in Chains is a good example. And like, I,

Loved Alice in Chains. We've talked about him a lot. Lane Staley's gone. That was a tough one for me. I, you know, when, what's his name, William? When he came in, I was like, no offense, dude, not listening. Okay? For years. Yeah. And it took me a really long time to listen to this stuff and go, all right, it's good. Not to mention, that guy is classy as fuck, dude. Yeah, yeah, no. I'm like, this guy's fucking rock solid son of it. He's like, just really cool. There's something interesting because Lane Staley,

is the one that gets all the attachment in that band. Jerry Cantrell wrote like 90% of the music and sings on 90% of the songs. It's just that Lane Staley is such an iconic voice. It's hard to hear Alice in Chains without his voice on it. Jerry's got a good voice, but it's more generic. Not generic, but it doesn't have that Lane iconic tone.

Yeah. Jerry's voice is also good at blending with lanes. Like strangely, it's like Allison chains was had such a huge impact on my life. Like once lane died, you know, I tried to give, and the reality is it's not that I don't think the new singer doesn't almost sound like lane and that the music isn't amazing, but I just don't even want to touch it. Um, and it's not, I don't mean it out of disrespect. Like for me, it's kind of like, I have to close that door. Cause I love lane. I think it was a few months ago referencing, um, the mad season stuff.

I didn't know that there was the live set.

My mind was blown. I felt like I was back in whatever grade again.

But for me, that's kind of what we're talking about.

It is a case-by-case basis.

I can't think off the top of my head, but there's other bands where it's like,

you know what, they don't have the same singer anymore.

I mean, clearly years ago for me, it wasn't an issue with Anthrax,

because I was like, oh, yeah.

What is his name? John Bush.

Totally, yeah, let's do this.

But in that case, I really didn't have the Joey history to know what Anthrax actually was. That was when they were good. They were a completely different band. Well, the thing is, too, I wish I was there when they make the decision. When Alice in Chains, Lane Staley dies, do you go forward as Alice in Chains or do you form a different band? He did solo stuff for a while. He did for a long time. Buggy Depot? So that was kind of a legit move. But that's a good degradation trip.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the reality is I don't have any issues with Alice in Chains still existing as they do. Matt, open that door because you, Jay said, right. You could know you couldn't get a classier replacement to respect. Oh, I believe that a former member of the band. Then, then Alice in Chains got, I mean, it's, it sounds like it's basically an extension of Jared Cantrell's solo career, but he does great on all of the lane songs. They're all, they're awesome.

And the new albums are pretty good. That's the thing. And Jerry Cuntrell, I think his name is William Duvall, maybe. It's William Duvall. They sing great together. So, you know, it's different. I'm never going to have the safe reverence for that band that I did before. Of course not. But I got to respect what they've done going forward. It's still a really good band and super talented and they work well together. But, you know, they just recently toured here. I didn't think about

going to it because it's not the original band even though i do like the newer albums i still

probably wouldn't go to that show that's the thing i don't know how my mind works with this

three of the four original members so you know here's two i should say actually two yeah two yeah two here's one that i think personally was handled with class and that is that um the celtic frost reunion which was legit and then when they decided they were done and even though he went on to do

very similar stuff he renamed it and i that that was the right fucking move there i to me those two personalities together were so important to Celtic Frost so that's one good example for instance if Tripticon was called Celtic Frost i would feel very different about it believe it or not even though they're awesome records i'd be like this is fucked up man i just think i think with Alice in Chains being a guitar player my i know Jay you are like he had such a defined sound

You know, like his solos were perfect. They weren't too complicated. And I think it only works if it's Jerry Controlled solo or if it's House in Chains. Like you remember when he tried doing, he was the guitar player on the fifth dance ago on Black Acid Double. And it just didn't sound right, you know. So I don't know. I like it when Black Gives Way to Blue. Was that the first one? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, great songwriting. They don't have the,

You know, total depressive heroin agony. The death mystique isn't there anymore. Heroin agony would be a good name for a band. I'm going to throw another name out there. Oh, sorry, go ahead. It's off topic, but I will say I think Facelift is one of the best doom metal albums ever. See, you call them a metal band, which I do.

too, even though they get lumped and crunched, they're more metal than Seattle. I mean, he says he was lifting Black Sabbath riffs because he was a fan, you know, so. So one, one band I'll throw out that has come back in a bunch of different iterations with different guitar players and stuff and not giving a shit about none of them. Not, not really metal. And I'm not sure how many people are fans, but I was, but Jane's Addiction, like those first three records and things were so

They're fucking good. They're awesome. And I have not given a shit about any reunion thing they tried to do. Agreed. Even though there were points then when like Dave Navarro came back into the band and might even be with them now for all I know, but that, that is a reunion that I didn't think was. I think I saw them with Dave Navarro. Didn't they tour with Nine Inch Nails? I saw them with Dave Navarro, but like before they ever broke up. I thought they, I thought they'd tour with Nine Inch Nails. Um, and I saw them together at George's favorite venue, Meriwether Post.

Back in the day? No, I saw him with TR. I'm trying to remember when I saw him. I thought Dave Navarro was there. They were awesome. I feel like he's back in the band. I think he has. They just don't do anything. Isn't Porno for Pyros back now, apparently? Yeah, I just saw something about them. I saw them back in the day. It was not good. My record was pretty good, too. I liked their first record. I have a non-metal band that's a great example of this, and I don't know how many will get this joke, but how about Journey? I was going to,

I was going to actually bring up Journey and Foreigner because they're both bands whose catalog I like, but I would never throw money down to see them now. Even though the main songwriter is there still for both bands, it's just a revolving door. I actually disagree because I think the new singer is better than the old singer. The Filipino guy, Arne Alpenda, he's so fucking good. And that first album that they did, they did an

He's really good. And he's so he's better. He's just better than the old guy. I love the old journey stuff. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. So but his singing is is phenomenal. So we go into Walmart, but Walmart had an exclusive on their first album that came with the live DVD for $10. So I had to go get it. It was a Walmart exclusive, which means which means they have like five

5 million of them.

I love the documentary about that guy and I agree with you.

I think he's an amazing singer.

I also think he's a pretty cool guy and everything.

I'm not really interested in seeing them.

And I am not a huge journey fan,

but I had like escape in the eighties.

And I liked that record a lot.

A few other things.

I liked the great years.

I just don't think there's,

I think he's one of the greatest rock singers that ever was.

I really do.

So there's a,

But we, Jen and I just watched a documentary on them. I can't remember if it was on Reels or EEZ or if it was on AXS. I can't remember which one was on. But I got to tell you, if everything was either remotely close to the truth of what we watched, Steve Perry's a douche. Because he apparently, the band was navigating well and he wanted to start making it more about him and make it more about not just him,

Whereas they wanted to rock and he wanted to do ballads. Yeah. And like Sticks. What's that? It was also like Sticks when Dennis DeYoung. Yeah. And he should just get in a musical theater and be done with it. That's an interesting one. You brought up Sticks. Yes. He wanted to keep doing those kind of let's be at the piano type songs. It's actually like, you know, we kind of want to rock out more. And Sticks won on that one. Whereas Steve Perry kind of ripped that band apart.

I know the documentary you're talking about, John, and I watched it. And in it, there he is. It's a little rough. And Neil Sean's like, he came to me after this tour. He was like, we got to get rid of the bass player. And Steve Sean said, to this day, I regret I listened to him on every one. So real quick, quick story. When I was at school at University of San Francisco, I was living with a bunch of guys. And one of the guys was a DJ on his spare time. And he ended up going on to run the company. Is anyone from Monster Cable?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He ends up, he's basically, he owns monster cable. Cause his dad's the one who founded it. I used to live with him. And he told me, he said, Oh yeah, they fired Ross Valley from journey. He was in with them. Apparently he said, Oh yeah. I said, he can't play for shit. He sucks. After watching that documentary, that was all Steve Perry. I didn't know back then he got, he didn't want him. He got rid of him. By the way. Um, I, there's, there's a great mini documentary. And I want to say it was about the Texas jam or one of the Texas jams. I just saw that from 78. Well, no, it's,

because it was when Mr. Roboto was out.

Oh, God.

83.

83.

And Dennis DeYoung insisted on the rest of the band doing it as a play.

They spoke between songs, and it'd be like, oh, no, here comes Mr.

You know what I mean?

They had lines.

They had to read lines.

And the Texas State had just fucking destroyed them.

It was like, this is the worst fucking thing I've ever seen because, you know, it's like

them and Aerosmith and Van Halen or something.

Anyway, that was, I think, his death knell.

And I think that's a band that's better for him being gone. Apparently, I'm not a Super 6 fan. Apparently, their last two albums are spectacular. All the hardcore fans absolutely love them. And they're doing really well. And the whole Dennis Young thing keeps coming up. And they're like, who? I used to work with this librarian in Illinois. She was a librarian in all contexts and what that means. She was kind of nerdy and shit. And she used to follow sticks around. And I used to be like, really?

Okay.

That's one thing.

It just sticks.

All right.

Fine.

You know.

Yeah.

So then there's Queen.

Okay.

Okay.

With that one.

So yeah.

Obviously Freddie Mercury was the focal point of that band.

And then they did the Queen and Paul Rogers thing.

And I'm a big Paul Rogers fan, but I was a little skeptical of that.

And I didn't care for it all that much.

But then, last time they came around, I saw them with Adam Lambert. And holy shit. I mean, Adam Lambert is a much more appropriate replacement than Paul Rogers because he can do Freddie Mercury. And I was okay with that. I mean, what are you going to do? I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just saying, what are you going to do? Freddie's not here. And this is a really nice tribute to the music for the fans. And so I was good with that.

Queen doesn't bother me at all because all four of them contributed to that band in every aspect of writing and playing. They all wrote songs. They all sang. So that one doesn't bother me at all. I was okay with the Paul Rogers thing. Yeah, it didn't bother me. And I mean this too. Robert Plant, all those guys. Ian Gillen, this is a shocking statement I'm going to make. Paul Rogers is better than all of them. I'm serious. Paul Rogers is such a good fucking singer. So I was kind of intrigued

by that one. But I think the new thing with Adam Lambert is a much more fitting tribute. And frankly, I think it's kind of a nice touch that he's getting, to be perfectly blunt. Like, that sounds like kind of weird, but he also has a similar lifestyle to Freddie. So he probably held a place in this guy's upbringing, is my guess. You know, he's got to have held him in a high speed. Oh, I'm sure. Well, not even that. You can't just have a singer or play somebody in Queen. You need an actual performer. You know, he needs a man.

wear those outfits and really put it out there. Good point. No, that's the difference. You need a singer and a performer. That's a big difference, yeah. I'm not a huge queen guy, but I do like queen. But honestly, God, sometimes when I'm like at work and I'm bored and maybe even kind of feeling low or something, I will just go watch that US Fest or the, the, which, what was the fucking thing? Or Levid? Hermit? Levid? That is such an amazing fucking set, dude. And to watch all those guys,

The whole crowd doing the claps over there. Yeah. That whole fucking thing is just magnificent. There was really nobody like him. Like, fuck, man. That's such a great performance. And, you know, I mean, I'm a huge Queen fan, and I read the Freddie Mercury book, and their last real album, Innuendo, before he died, is an amazing album. And he literally had to be like,

Propped up in the studio. He was so sick. Yeah. And dying by that point. Yes. And he still put out this amazing performance. You know, me and Matt were talking about Queen on the way home from Death Fest. And I'm sure you guys must have the same experience, too. And it's like there's so many like the British like Van Halen was to America as Queen was to England. Like you can interview any guitarist from like the 80s and the 90s.

stuff. We had their rock bands and they all, Queen is their favorite fucking band from England. Always. They're always just a little fucking queen. Brian May, man. That is England's band for that period of time. Which is one of the reasons I think that Live Aid thing is so great was because people hadn't seen them in a while and out they came. Just fucking tore the roof off the place. It wasn't the roof on the place, but you get the point. I like how they started super hard rock and they got more

And then they came back with the Miracle album. And I mean, that sounded like metal when I bought that album. I want it all. And how good are those fucking songs on Highlander, man? I know. That was actually my introduction to Queen was Highlander. And I was like, who is this band? That was your introduction? Well, okay. No, I mean, obviously I knew songs like from, was it The Game? You know, Another One Bites the Dust.

I knew these songs, but I didn't buy an album from Queen until I... You didn't jump on board until then, yeah. Because I was like, you know, I was a nerd first, and I was like, Highlander, there can be only one. And, you know. Flash Gordon. Yeah. Nice. Okay, Marcus, that's a nice pull right there, because I remember that movie. I was like, God, this movie sucks compared to the serial. They used to call those shows serials back in the 30s. I was like, this is terrible.

I love them. It's funny. It brought that up though, too, George, because I do. It's funny. There are things you can not forget about the 80s, but one of them that doesn't kind of get mentioned, and I don't know why it would, I guess, is when the game came out, it was fucking everywhere. Massive. I think dominated radio airplay for whatever summer or year that was. Yes. I remember listening in the car all the time. My mom would drive us home when she picked me up from school. It was on every format.

It just wasn't one style.

And in the Bay Area back then, and I don't know how many channels are still around out there,

because Jay lives there now.

I haven't been back in a while, but when I was there,

there weren't just like one or two rock channels.

There were like eight, you know?

And then that's not even counting the top 40 stuff,

which ain't called top 40 back then.

It was just pop or regular, but it was on every channel.

It didn't matter where you turn on the dial.

I just, I do, do, do that bass.

It's just like, fuck, am I going to sound one more time?

I mean, it was everywhere. It was massive. I'm not even, that's gotta be their best selling record, doesn't it? I mean, I just can't believe it could be anything else. No, the one with Bohemian Rhapsody because that song alone, I think, is that, I don't know if you guys saw this, is that the first billion viewed video on YouTube? Is that right? For that song? I thought I saw that somewhere. I could be wrong, but I think that's their best selling album. No, you're probably, actually, you're probably right, John. Because that song, Wayne's World,

took it over the top i mean it was already big to begin with but not the opera is like

fucking classic it's just a loaded album on top of that it's not even remotely close to my

favorite song on that album no i know that's the thing is the some of the best songs on there

songs you never hear like 39 fucking love that song and i getting to see brian may play that

live you know because it's really just brian sitting in a chair playing an acoustic guitar and singing

and there's like oh so and then uh what's the other one the the prophet song

I'm not a super fan, but I do like that album. I would say

Share Heart Attacks, kind of a metal album. I'd put it up through the first Led Zeppelin album, just as a straight.

Aren't they credited as being the proto-thrash band with the one song?

Well, maybe because of the Raj Days.

No, George, you and I have talked about this, but I always forget which one it is.

Don't go crazy?

Yeah, I think that's a lot of thrash bands attributed that is the song that got them thinking fast paced. Yeah. And that was five or six years before, you know, priest started doing their kind of speed metal thing in the late 80s or 70s and before motorhead kind of hit their stride there in the late 70s. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna throw sax on the MX too, Jim, because they had Van Leather and the other one.

They had like three records out before 1980. Well, they had three records out in one year, it seemed like. It did not even seem like they actually did. They put out three records in like 15 months. It's like, what the fuck? I just watched that documentary again. And here's two interesting things I learned from it that are worth sharing, truly. And I think you guys will find these interesting. One is power and the glory for whatever fucking reason, the person who designed the album cover is Ridley Scott. I don't know why the fuck that is and what he did for a living back then, but Ridley Scott.

How did he miss on that one? It's not a very good cover, Mike. Second, Derek Smalls, namely Harry Shearer, toured with Saxon for some portion of a tour and doing research for Spinal Town. And they are convinced that two or three of the things in the movie are specifically

because of stories they told him and stuff nice on that note i for it's been years since i watched a year and a half in the life of metallica you remember it's fucking spinal tap dude oh yeah it's yes it's it's yeah it really is dude i i mean when i was a you know younger i was like this is so great and i would hang on every word i watch it now i'm like what the fuck it's a joke and it's filled by cocaine

and they're all 20 years old and got billions of dollars and it's just a bunch of people acting like idiots. Yeah. For like four fucking hours. Yeah, it's kind of phenomenal. Well, Jay, nothing's really changed. They still act like fucking idiots. Well, I got my obligatory Saxon thing in, but I also, it is worth mentioning at Speaking of Reunions, there was, you know, so there was this thing for a while where Oliver Dawson and one of the other dudes who got kicked out of the band sort of reformed

as Saxon something Saxon. They had their names and they got sued for that. And it was also a band I never would have gone to seeing. No offense, even though they were two key members of that band. But speaking of reunions, they got kicked out and reunited. They said, okay, we'll go reunite over here. I don't know who was singing for them or anything, but they were playing shows in England. Saxon shut them down. They sued them. Nice. Yeah. If they came here, I wouldn't have cared.

the metal side of the tracks a little bit more a little i mean more metal not pantera's reunion right

we decided we weren't going to talk about them that long yeah um but then well it's more less of a

reunion and more of a replacing key members but uh when uh when bruce left iron maiden well okay so

when paul left iron maiden that was a good thing i mean paul's stuff was good but bruce good too

I really didn't like anything from the Blaze era. Not for me. Might as well talk about Priest too then. Well that's a little better. I mean. I actually do like Jugulator. The second one Demolition. Yeah I saw them with Ripper and it was a good show. How big of a place was it? It was small. It was at the record theater in Towson. They played the record? Yeah. So did Dio. Fuck. That's small.

Like he owned some metal bar that was like failing horribly.

It has.

By the way,

it has successfully failed now.

Oh,

okay.

It's gone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the other band,

and I'm only bringing this one.

This is this,

I'm teeing this up for Steve.

Uh,

Voivod when,

when snake left and,

uh,

what's his name?

Eric took over.

I didn't like any of those,

but,

but I know Steve does.

Yeah.

I,

I,

It's a very unpopular opinion. And when I had Mike Hill on my podcast, I couldn't believe somebody else thought Phobos was the best Voivet album. Add a third person. I like that album. Who plays on Angel Rat? Yeah, I think when it came out. Whoever plays on Angel Rat is the best. I thought it was tough. I just thought, and it had the aggressiveness, but it had this psychedelia vibe.

But almost, again, not to, you know, precursor to anything, but, you know, when neurosis started getting a lot more, you know, it's almost like they took elements of reggae where you're listening and you might be young and down to the gills and you're like, just kind of going across the, you know. How did that go again, Steve? Yeah, I mean, that's what it sounds like. Wait, hold on. It's like random noises and stereo.

I'm going to have to get you to do that with nobody talking like three times and we'll just sample that off. That's like Mars attacks, right? The irony is I think he's imitating the sample. I mean, that's because that happens a lot with the reggae stuff. So, okay, I have two more that come to mind and they're not reunions, but they are should we just kill the band at this point? And this is one that I'm just going to say because I intend to do these as a

The Cage Match Thing or whatever the fuck with Thunderdome. Ooh. Well, spoilers. Yeah, fuck it. You guys will forget by the time it gets around to me again. I know. Oh, we all forget you. Rock and roll. I'm going to put it on the spreadsheet. We're recording. I got my pen. And it's these two records. Black Sabbath, Born Again versus Motorhead, Another Perfect Day. For those of you that are not totally

Diebärs.

I think it's great it's really good yeah I know and I feel the same way about the

Motorhead one by the way I think and so anyway the theme of that Thunder will be you know two there are two things that are very odd in the larger catalog of these bands and forgotten albums too oh yeah they had a video they're both good records another perfect day is great if you haven't listened to it you should get it yeah Born Again was Ian Gillen right yeah yeah that Bill Ward returned yeah and when he's singing about what's they had a video actually and it was like

Yeah, but I mean, it's I believe that shit. Yeah. Like these guys are seriously going to go in their car and they're going to be super coked up and like that's an autobiographical song. Yeah. Wasn't that like Ian Gillen putting the car in the pool or something? Yeah, it sounds like there is fuck. It's a real song. Vince Neil's Precursor. Yeah. Oh, Hanoi Rocks. Yeah. You know, Disturb

The Priest, Zero the Hero, that's some cool shit, man. Yeah. And the title track is one of my favorite songs of all time. And Zero the Priest and Disturbing the Priest. Fuck, that's one of Ian Gillen's best vocal performances. Child in Time, man. Child in Time is definitely the best one. Yeah. You know that Thunderdome, the next Thunderdome is yours. Well, if you guys got time to do something. No, it's Will. Yeah, Will. If he's back for us, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Also, by the way, I'm sorry to put you through this, but just, I really want to tell you guys again, you need to get another perfect day. It's fucking great. But is that not the greatest fucking cover? Yeah. That's one of my favorite Motorhead covers, too. So this is the one with Brian Robertson on it, man. Highly suggested. I'm not too familiar with that one. It's good. I mean, it's not not Motorhead. It's totally Motorhead. It's just he's a much more. I like the way you're thinking, Jay. There's a lot of effects on his guitar.

stuff. It's not like Fast Eddie. It's different. I always think about your Thunderdomes. One album I was trying to figure out to go against. One of my favorite albums for better or worse is Cruising Conformity Blind. I love them. Yeah, that's good. But with a bullet, bitch. But yeah, what would be a good album to go against that? What was it against? Say it again. Oh, COC Blind. Oh, okay. Yeah, they only have the one album. Carl. Carl, yeah.

All right, I'll just a thought. I mean, not right now. So that's like a late 80s. I don't have a Pantera question. We get to do a Thunderdome today, Steve. Yeah, we put Pantera to rest. Yeah. All right, well, do we have any more or do we want to move on? No, I'll say one that is a reverse that I always found odd, but I respected it. We're talking about when there's like one member left.

The whole band is left minus the drummer and they refuse to continue which is odd which would be Led Zeppelin. I always found their situation so odd that not I guess it's not because they were they actually were all close but they refused to tour or play or write music because he wasn't there. Yeah so here's but here's the thing about that and I yeah that's awesome first off I still think that's like one of my favorite. I respect that for sure. Yeah one thing it's fucking him though dude like John Bonham and and it's not just how good he

was. And this is, I've heard Jimmy Page say this many times in multiple interviews, and it's like, we had a kind of like mental, you know, silent mental understanding of each other on stage that I don't think we could fucking replace. Like, there's no, and I think a lot of it had to do with Bottom. If you watch any of the Zeppelin DVD stuff, he's fucking the man in charge for the most part. I mean, Jimmy, Jimmy's there too, but he is the fucking rock bottom, one guy.

You can count on at all times. It's kind of rare though that you have his son that's so good at drums too. I mean, that guy was in brilliant bands like Democracy. Yeah. And I'm just kidding. Oh, I've never heard that band. No, Democracy was that band where he got put with Ted Nugent and Scotty. Yeah. He had to sit through that. Yeah. He had that one Bonham solo album.

He's actually a very good player. He's great. He did about as well as anyone could possibly do on the O2 show, which I was pleasantly surprised with sounded as good as it did, considering they hadn't really played together. Now, I'll tell you who was not good with them was Phil Collins when he played at Live Aid. Granted, he flew across the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean. He had just played a show at Genesis or himself, his own thing, and then flew across the ocean to play with Led Zeppelin on the same day. I didn't know that.

Yeah, he actually,

Darren Laivate,

does anyone remember that at all?

I remember it happened.

He performed,

he performed in,

in England,

left the stage immediately,

got on a plane,

took the,

was it called the Concord?

He flew over to Philadelphia and play with Led Zeppelin and he was atrocious.

He was terrible.

You know,

it comes up a lot.

We've talked about Bonham many times in the show.

He really is.

There wasn't anybody like him though.

Like,

I mean,

you can't,

I wouldn't want to,

I wouldn't want to step into that situation. I mean, I'm not a drummer, but... Well, there was. I mean, Carmen Appes, she obviously taught him everything he knew. I mean, let's not forget him. He's the greatest drummer ever to live, but... Is nobody getting that sarcasm? He literally comments all the time that he's the greatest drummer. I don't know the timeline on that. I mean, I'm the one who told him how to play good times, bad times. That's my drumbeat. But the irony is, John, is that... And I pointed this out to you guys one time. I sent it to you, but listen to the live stuff.

from that Mob the Mob Rules reissue. And that's Vinny Apicee granted. But I never realized how bottom like he was. I don't know, I'm slipping away and maybe Country Girl or something. It's a total fucking bottom vibe. He's a power drummer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even kind of his beats are similar. Like I'll, I sent one time slipping away to you guys one time so you can check it out because that's basically sounds like it came out of Physical Graffiti. That song.

I love it I don't know what it is I just love that song yes George we can move on unless anybody has no I just want I just thought that was an interesting yeah position to what we're talking about it's a complete opposite where like the who at the same time had the same situation losing their drummer and they decided to carry on which was cool because Kenny Jones is a great drummer but Zeppelin chose not to I just thought I think our summary here though if I'm may speak for most of us

It depends on the situation. Yep. And within that, we gained a complete educational history of a lot of heavy metal. Indeed. Indeed. And I know you're talking about all of us, but I'm glad nobody ever comes to my house because I'm serious. This motherfucker will not shut up about track six on this and why it sounds different.

I would be so fucking annoying to hang out with. We know. We think that. I don't know. I have a different opinion. I got drunk with Jay and ate pizza and all we did was talk about music for like four hours. That's exactly what we did. That's all we did. Speaking of annoying things, I'm going to suggest you guys all listen to Holy Diver and then listen to the Joe Barresi remix. It's kind of fucking cool. And there are notable changes, but they don't hurt the legacy of the album.

That may or may not be on my, what I've been listening to. Okay. Starting to think it will be. While we're talking about remixes, have you guys listened to the Gentle Giant remixes Stephen Wilson did? Which ones? Gentle Giant. Oh, no. I've got, he crosses a lot of the stuff I love, but I don't, I don't even know. No, no, no. Yeah, but Stephen Wilson took their first three albums from Porcupine Tree. Oh, no, no, for sure. I mean, he, Steve Wilson, he's done like some Jethro Tull stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's done a lot of mixes that I've been like, and I'm sorry.

I have respect for what he does and a lot of them are important to me so I get them but I don't know Gentle Giant at all actually. What's cool about that my dad is a huge fan and I grew up with a prog rock you know like jazz fusion bass player so I had you know I didn't get a much journey but I got a lot of like UK and King Crimson and like stuff like that but they would actually they were so good and everything was in like you know they'd go 7-11 to

you know six, eight. And while they would play a song, he said they would rotate instruments and they would all be able to play everything. Wow. Yeah. So, but yeah, it's cool. If you're familiar with that stuff for anyone that's listening, it's, he really did a great job. He's an honor to so many good proggy things. And the Jethro Tull ones he's done have all been awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And notably different. Like, I mean, he really, there's, there's something he brings to

It's kind of sad. John walked away when I said that. I know. John, Gentle Giant? Yeah, John, I just brought up the Stephen Wilson remixes of the first few Gentle Giant albums. And? No, I mean, like, are you here? No, no. Yeah, I just think I was praising it a little bit. That's all. Oh, good. No, I haven't listened to his Gentle Giant ones yet because I'm not the biggest Gentle Giant fan. I feel like I should be.

And I completely forgot that he remixed them.

Because I'm always...

It's hard to get into.

Yeah, which is funny because I like Spock's beard, which is kind of like the modern take of Gentle Giant a little bit, at least when Neil Morris was in the band.

But I actually like his remixes.

I know all the Yes fans either love it or throw a pitch of shit fit over him.

But I always thought he did a pretty good job of honoring the sound that they were trying to get that they couldn't back then, you know?

Do you like the Jeff O'Tall stuff that he's done? I think some of that stuff is awesome. Yeah, it sounds great. It sounds great. I mean, he's such a huge proghead, you know, trying to bring justice through his own ears. To this day, I wish Rush would have thrown a million dollars his way to do those 70s albums. I mean, they still sound pretty good, but fuck it. Let them do it. Well, they're already released. They already released all the remixes and stuff and anything that was done.

So they're not gonna do it again in other words. Well, they could do the what's the fancy dancy one, John, the one that comes up, you know, you gotta listen to it on high def or whatever. Hales of Tropicana Ocean? Maybe. No, no, no. I mean, there's a process. Oh. And it's like the super surround sound 5-2 mix or something like that. Maybe they could get him to do something like that. Oh, yeah. He only does like the 5.1 stuff now when he remixes. Oh, okay. If he can get that, then he's in. You know, I had an addendum, too.

the end of our conversation too though because we started the conversation with this and it kind of threw to their own purpose and it's like for me i i also still think deep people will never be deep purple without richie blackmore but that's stated i feel so bad that steve steve morris is in the situation he's in and now that he's leaving i'm like oh that's fucked up so over time i guess you do grow accustomed to your face he uh he was a good um member of the band in terms of he respected the whole idea behind

the band. He's a phenomenal player. George and I saw them with him. He was incredible. And I still think he got screwed by not being put in a rock and roll hall of fame because he's with them for like 30 years. But I mean, they put guys on that were in the first two albums got in, you know, but the guy who's there for 30 and I, whatever. So the dad rock, rock and roll hall of fame, screwing people over, John. Yeah, that's right. Unheard of.

You know, I hate that whole dad rock thing. No, you just suck because you listen to shitty music and all your fathers that you're making fun of listen to cool music. So don't don't. Oh, yeah, no, I'm just fucking around. I love that stuff. Oh, no, no, no. I know. I just hear kids say it's dad rock. No, it's actually cool stuff. You listen to shit. Well, I hear guitar players that watch YouTube and they're trying to figure out like an amp, you know, like how it sounds. And you got some guy noodling like John Mayer.

Like Licks, it's, you know, for someone that's into, like, decapitated, it's really not gonna. Yeah, I know. I know that guy's a decent player, but he just annoys the shit out of me. Oh, no, I don't like him at all. I don't either. I just, I know he can play, but. I remember that. Your body is a wonderland. Yeah. Yeah. His body is a wonderland or whatever. Whatever, dude. Yeah. Are you dating this week?

All right. So let's move on to the news, shall we? First up, apparently Bruce Dickinson was a little peeved with a fan in Greece when they were playing. He let off some sort of flair and Bruce went off on him.

and I think he called him a cocksucker.

Oh, it was great because they're playing number of the beast.

And after Dickens saying the line, what did I see?

He shouted a cunt with a fucking flare.

And he did call him a cocksucker and a Greek cunt.

Yeah.

And but how the fuck did a guy bring a flare to a show?

Have you not watched a football game in Europe?

There are flares firing off left and right at games all the time. Really? All the time. It's a big problem in Europe. Different types of security there, apparently. Apparently. That's nuts. You know what? I'm going to go on defense with Bruce here. You don't want a flare going off during a show and getting thrown because you don't know what's going to happen with that, especially in countries that are very lax in their code on how they handle shows. And you're going to make everyone gag around you. I mean, did you see the video? It was smoking like a bitch.

I mean, yeah, and that shit doesn't smell good. I think he was just like a huge, great white fan or, uh, right. Yeah. They should have tighter security. You should not be allowed to bring. I mean, you can watch any football game in Europe and there's flares all the time. It's crazy. What goes on during, I don't know how they get them in. It must, they must drone them in a little drones flying with flares and just drop them at the seats. I swear. It's crazy.

The Prison Purse.

I remember too, like, growing up, I used to go see Fugazi every year. I used to play with Shellac. And, you know, when you could smoke at venues, but there was no smoking allowed. Morrissey was the same way. I guess he's controversial now, but, you know, it's people that are... I just wanted to use the bathroom. I totally forgot to feed sugar at her time. Holy fuck, did I just get a look, dude.

I get panicked like what the fuck's going on look. Dude it's one minute after my feeding time. Yeah I fucked up. Steve what was what's what's Morrissey controversial about. Well not because he didn't he would kick people out if yeah like there were smokers too so I mean if there's singers out there that are touring and playing show after show after show and they don't want you know smoke in the air I think it fucking flared I mean if you watch the video it looks like a smoke bomb. Yeah.

all over the place. It's interesting. Didn't Eddie Vedder just bail out on the show because of the fires in France? He claimed that his voice was all fucked up from the smoke inhalation. Which is funny because he's a lifelong smoker. But at the same time, it's interesting that these both happened at the same time. And those flares, man, have you ever been up close on one of those things? It's bright as fuck to begin with.

And that shit smells and it gets in there and it just burns. So your beer is going to taste like it. Everything's going to taste like it. Yeah. Yeah. So. So somebody needs to build a better flair. If we can make a flair that smells like, you know, cherry vape and. It's a smokeless flair. A smokeless flair. Yeah. It's a smokeless flair. And it's only like, you know, kind of bright, bright enough to see.

and warn people, but not so bright to hurt people's eyes. We'll make a shit ton of money. Unnecessary. It's not a Whitesnake concert. Whitesnake. We'll also just cancel all their shit, John, because of... Yeah. I'm not sure if it was Cobalt. He lost his voice, which he lost in 2005, mind you. I was going to say, yeah. And then Tommy Aldridge had some health issues or something. I don't know. He's still around.

He's still an amazing player. He's like 74, 75 now? Yeah, he's gotta be. He's gotta be up there. Do you remember where he came from? Black Oak, Arkansas. Motherfucker. This guy's got fingerprints all over 80s metal. Came from Black Oak, Arkansas. That's right. Well, how long has it been since the Anvil movie came out? Oh, 10 years. Yeah, it's probably 10 years.

When Tommy Aldridge, like, you know. Oh, that's right. And he looked bad in that. Yeah. Yeah, he looked like leather. He looked like that when he was playing for Ozzy in 82. For some reason, in one of my, like, my YouTube scrolling, whatever, this video showed up and it was Tommy Aldridge killing it at a drum show, like, you know, like, the Zildjian drum extravaganza. And he just came out and just fucking tore the place down. This was, like, two years ago. Yeah, he's an amazing player. He really is.

One of my favorites. I put him up there with Cozy Powell, by the way. Bad driver. Ooh. Wow. Moving on. So what's our next news item? So Kerry King has announced that whatever his new project will be moving forward, it will include Paul Bostoff. Is that how you say it? So he's getting Slayer back together. He's getting Slayer back together. Yeah.

Paul was in it anyway. All the reports so far was that he's doing all his writing with Paul Bastoff. So I just assumed he was going to be the guy, but I guess it wasn't official until then. The only thing I read was it was going to be Bostaff and I think, I forgot where, but it was going to be Bostaff and Gary Holtz and Phil and Selma was going to sing. No! I'm serious. I haven't heard that. Yeah, that was the rumor. I thought you were going to say Tom Mariah.

You know, I heard that too, and my heart kind of sank. If he does that, Gary's dead to me. Well, I hope he doesn't, because I don't want to be part of that either, but I kind of hoped it would be the other two, Gary Holt and him, but I think Gary's, well, I don't know. He's got time. Yeah. But he's got time, I mean, I guess, you know, in between things. He keeps saying how, well,

It's gonna sound like Slayer if you got some racist dickhead singing for you

And you know what, even aside from that George, whoever they choose to front that band, that's gonna be a big fucking decision

And it's gonna turn people on or off

I just can't even imagine, I don't know who I would suggest

Not John Bush

He said that he has two records worth of material too

I was hoping they would just play Gemini over and over again. Hey, Marcus, is that the Conan sword back then? Yep. Did you see that that was used in Stranger Things, the Conan sword? I did. Yep. That's the Conan's father sword. I think they used the Atlantean sword in Stranger Things, which is the one he found. You said it like this. I believe that was the story. I believe that's my stapler. I'm also a librarian.

There's no way a wizard with a plus four staff could have killed that monster. And it was the sword, because I was like, oh, fuck, it's Conan's sword. It's the Atlantean sword. So I looked it up. It was the one they actually used for the movie. Seriously? Yeah. Well, and you know, the vest came from the Dio estate. Yep. Yeah, yeah, Wendy said it. I did know that, yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess we might as well. He's really playing Master Puppets, by the way. I've seen behind the scenes footage. That kid's actually playing the song.

Really? Really? Yeah, he can play. I thought it was Trujillo's kid that played it. No, I'm sure the soundtrack is not him, but they have footage of him playing the song as they're preparing for it. He took the time to learn the guitar riff, and he was playing along to a guide track. Maybe Trujillo's kid's playing bass. Who's playing bass? Trujillo's kid, he's a bass player also. Oh, right, right, right. He is, but he was playing the guitar part for the song in the

Yeah, so that is the next news item, which is that Master of Puppets made its debut UK Top 40 and Billboard Hot 100 entrance after Stranger Things featured the song. Is that true that it was never in the Hot 100 before? Not the song. Oh, the song. Okay. Yeah, the song. Do you guys watch Rick Diato? I know you're a guitar player, James. Yeah, he's awesome.

Yeah. And every once in a while, he'll do like the top 40 and he'll, you know, he'll play along with it and, you know, kind of get in the weeds with it. And it's pretty much crap for the most part. You might have like Bruno Mars hires a band that could do some like R&B licks and stuff. But to have Kate Bush and Metallica, you know, like my daughter just wants to hear Stranger Things radio now. So she's singing along with Metallica before.

was all Billie Eilish and, you know, some things I don't know about. And, yeah, I mean, especially Kate Bush. I mean, Kate Bush is so, like, inject that into the youth for sure. Yeah. You know, like, hopefully people get into it and they can listen to, like, Don't Give Up with Peter Gabriel. So who has watched Stranger Things? I have. Everybody. Two and a half seasons. So do you recall? I'm sure you've,

I'm sure you saw it, but when he says something, he says, that's not music, this is music. Do you remember what he held up? Yeah, it was Number of the Beast. No, Peace of Mind, actually. Oh, Peace of Mind, sorry, I knew it was made. Yeah, but that's cool. I mean, I like that they did that. Yeah, I think there needs to be an injection with the youth. Inject the venom. Yeah, I mean, it's just not music. Even the rap sucks now, for the most part. I mean, you got,

Some good rappers, but that's not what's popular. It's not like there wasn't a public enemy or, you know. So let's talk about the new Megadeth song for a second. I love it. Oh, I brought that up last time. No, there's another new one. And it's got Ice-T on it. Yeah, I haven't heard that. Shit, I haven't heard that. You're pretty fucking sick, dude. Is it? I mean, I like Ice-T. I liked Ice-T back in the day when he was just Ice-T and he wasn't an actor. It's just a thrash metal song, George. And then he does what he went

I mean, he's not really rapping. Yeah. So more like body count ish. Yeah. Well, do you remember? Go ahead. The first unofficial body count song on an Ice-T album was on the Iceberg album. It was called Girl Tried to Kill Me. I like the Iceberg record. Yeah. Do you remember that? That was the first time Ernie C and those guys were actually on an album. Suicidal. Do you remember what that

He and Slayer did a song for that Judgment Night. That's right. I saw Body Count play that live. Slayer was on the same bill, but they were playing later in the night, and I was like, please come out and play with them. What the hell is that song called? Disorder? I think it's called Disorder. It was a mix of two exploited songs that they fused together.

Who did the Judgment Night song? That seemed to me that was a fusion too. The whole soundtrack was real. Judgment Night is the actual title track is Onyx? Wasn't Pantera on there too? No. It was Helmet and House of Pain. Another body murdered. Red DMC, Living Color, Ice Teaslayer, Cypher Cell and Sonic Youth, Biohazard and Onyx.

Yeah, that is the title track, right. But one I really liked was Faith No More and the Booyah Tribe. Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. And then Cypress Hill did one with Pearl Jam, Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funky Homo Sapien, I think. I just watched the Dinosaur Jr. documentary, actually. Oh, man, I need to watch that. I loved the public enemy anthrax stuff, too. That was so good. Bring the noise. Those were really good things. Actually, the Judgment Night sound

I have a whole ton of shit on a running mix, and so that stuff keeps popping up all the time. So it's kind of stuck in my head. I brought it up. I didn't know it was so beloved. I don't even like rapping. I have it. One more comment about the Master of Puppets thing, though. It's so illegitimate to say for old people, that'd be us, to be like, I can't believe they don't know Bridge Over Troubled Water or something like that. But it does shock me that that

Hearing Master Puppets was a new experience for that. Enough people to get it in the charts. Yeah, I don't know if it's related to... Because Metallica is still ubiquitous, dude. I know. It also came out 37 years ago. You're right. No, and that's... So, yeah, Copa, like, of course there's people who don't know it, you know? I don't know if it's related to Stranger Things, but one of my Michigan friends said that his 17-year-old daughter was wearing a Metallica shirt and that she liked some songs. And I was like, well, I want to do that.

I wonder if that's related. I hate to tell you this, Jay, but we're really old. 37 years old. A lot of people watching Stranger Things weren't born. We're all going to be dead soon. Except for Matt. Quick trivia. Who was the director of the Onyx Slam videos, all the biohazard videos, typo negative, black number one, and what was the second? October Rust? No, no, no.

No, I'm sorry. Christian Woman? Yes. Yeah. It was all Paris Mayhew from Chromex. Oh, no shit. Oh, no shit. Yeah, I had him on my podcast. Yeah, I got wonky, so I had to redo it. He thought this was like weed, I guess. Hey, what happened to your podcast, Steve? Okay. Oh. No, no, no.

I try and like do one thing in my life like at a time and so it was the podcast we had 22 episodes I got to talk to a lot of cool people and then I decided to re-engage myself into a band situation and music so you know I have to travel an hour and a half to practice and you know I if I do anything more than that I'm taking away time from my kids so you know but

And I've heard your music because you've sent it to me. The shoegate stuff is really good. Oh, yeah, for sure. Thanks. Yeah, I'm working on something else now, too, that's a lot more amphetamine reptile with little black metal and demolition hammer type stuff. Cool. Yeah, but you know what? I miss it. I would like to get better at, you know, George is really good at editing.

And, you know, it's not really my forte. So it was kind of like hanging on the wings of Jeremy. And I was frustrating him because I think one week I scheduled like five interviews. And I was a total dumbass because I didn't realize that, well, other people live in other parts of the world. So I'd have like Serpent's Oath until like eight o'clock. Cool. And then I'd get a call at like four o'clock in the morning. Oh, we're on. What?

Okay, so I'd run downstairs, like, try and get my shit together and be like, all right, we're doing an interview. I did it with Mike Hill. I didn't, like, he's a straight edge dude that, you know, he said, okay, we'll do it at eight o'clock. And I stayed up and partied. A couple of my friends came in from out of town the night before. So I was up to like three and just listening to records. And I get a text from Mike. Yeah, it's AM, right? I'm like,

I just fell asleep so it was one of the only times ever I had to go like run to Juul or you know the grocery store and get like a like a pint of vodka and just like like slam it real quick just so I could fucking deal with that so I think my scheduling was probably off you know I interviewed a band from the Ukraine it was just I kept like putting things into

I live in the Midwest and these are the times. I was just kind of chasing my tail, but I'd have to wake Jeremy up. I think he just became super fucking annoyed. Pretty much anybody would be annoyed by that. I'm annoyed just listening to you say this. Some of it was fun.

I know Will just did a four-hour podcast with you guys. And then he came on to my podcast right after. And Maggie was fucking sunk. She had some of her girlfriends over, so I was trying to keep it together. It went fucking batshit crazy. Where's Maggie, by the way? He'll probably come down a little bit. Yeah, I'll grab her when we take a break or whatever. The one I did was awesome. Yeah.

No, I, well, I had to interview you twice because, you know, because we suck at technology and, you know, it didn't record. Yeah. But then you interviewed, who did you interview with me? I was the producer. Shit, why can't I think of his name? Oh, Sanford. Yeah, yeah. Oh, Sanford Parker. Yep, yep. That was good. I was on a couple times and it kind of, it was going full circle. Like we had,

What was it? The Chicago band. I went on your show right after. Oh, Mortis Cult. Yeah, Mortis Cult was on. And you totally took over that interview and then he went on your show and then he ended up playing Atlas Lounge. It was like a big... You made that happen, man. Yeah, it's a lot of fun, man. They just played yesterday at that Left to Die show.

I couldn't go to because I'm sick. Yeah, but interviewing all these bands, I'm like, dude, fuck this. I want to play shows again. I started missing it more and more. You're a really good guitar player, that's for sure. I can't wait to see you live. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just make sure you schedule those times right. My bass player is in two other bands. He's in a band called

called Panda Ride and Life Voils. And Life Voils just got the, they just got off like a two-month tour of the West Coast. And their new guitar player was the touring guitar player for Smashing Pumpkins for like 10 years. So like there's all these scheduling things. Oddly, my drummer is, he was in Soulfly for like 13 years. Joe Nunes.

Did he play with November's Doom, too? Yeah, I think he might have for a while. He's had a few thrash bands, but yeah. He was the drummer when Pantera toured with Morbid Angel and Soulfly. I saw that. Yeah, so we're the first band that he's come back to. He doesn't use social media. He hates people talking about Soulfly.

So it's a really eclectic group of people. So yeah, I can't wait to play shows either, but it's, you know, it's interesting. Funny, you mentioned Smashing Pumpkins, so we could have talked about them as far as reunions go too. Yeah, that's true. Because they definitely came back a couple times where they didn't have everybody from the initial band. That last album was awesome. Yeah, I, I, I, where I,

I took guitar lessons as a kid. Roselle Music. I know in the basement they used to do some like a cable access show and Smashing Pumpkins was actually the first band that recorded a show down there. Wayne's World, Buddy Time. Yeah, it was also where Ted Nugent, that douchebag. Motherfucking douchebag. Well, Lyle, the guy that owned the store when I was a kid,

and he worked all summer and put money down on it. So he got his first Les Paul from that same place. But I saw Aldi Miola. They used to have shows for students in the basement. So Aldi Miola, when he had the ovation contract, I know he did a four-hour show in the basement. Awesome. It was just students. Yeah, I was like 11 years old. Oh, fuck. Four hours of Aldi Miola? Yeah.

Tony McAlpine, Jeff Berlin. Oh, fuck. That's awesome. Yeah, so yeah, it was a cool place. But yeah, yeah, Pumpkins has always been kind of, you know, Chicago. You know, it always ends somewhere in the Smashing Pumpkins camp. Cool. We have one last news item. This one was on here just for Will.

I was wondering.

Clutch announced that they have a new album coming out on September 16th,

which is called Sunrise on Slaughter Beach.

Not metal, but I'll give it a listen.

I mean, it's Clutch.

I love Clutch.

No, of course.

The album cover is cool.

The first song is cool.

I'm not sure why it's on the news list,

because we had actual metal bands announce albums in the last month.

Well, I didn't catch them when I was sifting through things.

But if there's anything.

Conwalker, I'm really excited about.

Who?

Who? Garia, Conan. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, it wasn't on the stuff that I sifted through like, you know, a day ago. But here's the thing. None of them conjure up past history like Clutch does on our podcast. I wonder what Will would say. He would tell me to fuck off for how many years in a row? How many years?

I probably would have started this with fuck off John. Yeah, exactly. Before you even said anything. Yeah. Have you guys all seen clutch live? Yes. Yeah. I'm actually seeing them this year. Cause they're playing with helmet and they're playing with, um, what's the other band? It's a big band. Wrong. No. Um, quicksand. Oh, I love quicksand. It's great. I eat dinner across the table from Neil Fallon.

He's in the area all the time. Yeah, well, he's from here and his sister helped make my groom's cake. Or like, you know, worked with because it was she worked at Charm City Cakes and they did my sister frog. I saw them at the Metro and it was them and it was right before I had no idea who they were at System of Down played and opening for Slayer and it was like an all like record dude thing. I have

I worked at Rigid so I can go. And yeah, Clutch just seemed like it was like the guy's voice is cool, but they kept like noodling like blue solos forever. Jam stuff. Yeah, and I just wanted to see Slayer, so I fucking hated it. But that guy's voice is really good. Yeah, it is. It's really good. All right. How about the new releases then?

How about them, George? How about them? Well, how about this first one? The band's called Altars. The album's called Ascetic Reflection. It's their second album. They're an Australian death metal band, and apparently it's been nine years since their last album. Just ten years, actually. Just a hot minute, yeah. So this one kind of surprised me. I was like, what? I listened to it.

This is like, you know, like post mid-year, this is like really bringing the metal. It's a warped dose of death and dissonance. A lot of unexpected melodies and rhythms on there that has that weird eeriness to it. Yeah, I think. Dirty, for sure, Matt. Dirty. But clean, too. And putting something out this good, though, after all that time, that's an achievement. I need to go back and listen to the first one and see what that sounds like.

It's good, but this is better, I think. This is better, yeah. No, this definitely has a chance to make the year-end list, for sure. It does. Yeah, those riffs, they're crushing, they're angular, it's avant-garde-ish, and then... But not too much. But not too much, and then they rip into some cool death metal, then they get weird again, and the production's really good, I think, considering how... I don't want to say it's busy, but it sort of is, without being busy.

the type of busy we all don't like.

It's just a lot going on.

They go a lot of different directions,

but it all sort of makes sense when you listen to it.

It's cohesive,

even though it's got a lot of volume to it.

It's got a lot of instrumentation.

But like Marcus said,

it's dissonant,

it's angular,

big time.

So don't expect like some,

oh,

this will be cool death metal.

It's going to be death metal that punches you in the face.

And when you're down on the ground,

then it'll fucking really beat your ass.

And it takes time.

Like you listen to it a few times,

you're going to notice different things.

Agreed. Yeah. That's the fun part of it, I think. In different songs each time. Yeah. Expect to get kicked in the groin as well. So an ice pack might be good. And is this not, I didn't get the final because it was too expensive, but is that not just fucking awesome artwork? It is a good cover. So I want to get the flag, but I was like, I'm not paying all that shit from overseas. You got to pick and choose your poisons when you spend your money now. I'm trying not to buy as much vinyl,

But I'm very tempted to get that one. Yeah, I am too. I'm just like, fuck, somebody in the US has got to get it. So. Hey, speaking of vinyl. Our work is definitely worth it. Completely turning down a tangent here. But speaking of vinyl, the sentenced boxed set shipped. George, how excited are you? Big boner alert for George. Yeah, somewhere in Finland right now. So. Don't lower that camera.

And who can you thank for that? John told me about this. Just some random night. Hey, dude. Or a random day. You may want to check this out. Literally. Bye. I just ordered. Yeah. That's awesome. Nice. That's awesome. So that's my first vinyl purchase in a while. Yeah, I'll keep you busy for a while, too. Yeah. Well, you knew you were going to get that one. Yeah. Because pretty much your favorite. Pretty much. Nice.

Next up, we have, I don't know if I'm going to say it right, but I'm going to say Antigama. Yes. And their eighth album, Whiteout. They're a Polish death grind band that just like to squeak in just under the wire of what's acceptable for a Lister album. And yeah, I was looking forward to this one and it does not disappoint. And it's been a while, I feel like, since they put anything out. Yeah, they had an EP a few years ago, but yeah, it's been a little while since the last

And by an EP, I mean, it was like 18 minutes. Yeah. Which is like actually not a normal grind album length, but. It's longer than a grind album. Depends on who you're talking about. So it's not my. It's like a double album. Yeah. It's not really my horn and mead, but if you like brutal fast songs that pretty much sound the same and pummel your brain cage for 20 something minutes. Yeah. 28. It is very. Then you'll like us for sure. Yeah. There's not a lot of variety, but there is a lot of punishment dealt.

Yeah, there's not a lot of variety. It's basically the same song each time. But if you like that, and you like it brutal and fast, then you're going to dig this. I think Andy Gamma is cool because it always sounds like them. You know what I mean? Like the riffs are always, you know, like the tritone kind of, you know, they don't do as many power chords except maybe in the verse, but their sound and nice. I want that burrito. How about it? Yeah, no, I like their consistency.

I think it's cool. You can definitely, if you hear them, you know it's them. So I think that's in itself pretty cool. The vocals kind of have like a napalm death thing going on. Yeah, definitely. So. All right, so next up, this band, or at least artist, has been on the podcast before, and this is Gates to the Morning, Walk Between Worlds, second album from New Jersey prog metal band, Gates to the Morning. Sean was on.

I don't know how long ago but

in three years I think now

wow that's because we've been around

a long time we're over eight years

old now

what a thought I think I was on when he was on

yeah so

like John is so fond of telling us this

is not a metal album

Sean actually contacted me he says

hey dude got a new album coming out it's

not really metal but if you guys mention

it'd be cool oh it's very cool album

we could do that that's not a problem yeah

I dig it I bought it and it's pretty it's really chill and it kind of has that like you know when was that damnation that was the Opeth album like there's there's moments of that in there and it's just kind of chill and I like it I like it yeah the story behind it is there's a few new songs there's some reworkings from the first album and there's some reworkings from the two albums that are coming he wrote

The band wrote three albums during COVID. This is the first one. And they released this one first because there's these reworking songs. So there's old rework, new reworkings from old songs. There's new reworkings from songs that are to come and then a few new songs. So that's what this is. I thought it was really good. It's a not quite unplugged reimagination of tracks. So it's mostly acoustic, but they have electric guitar solos in it, which gives it a bit of an edge that more

than I expected. It's kind of a pleasant, dreamy teardrop of ethereal forest light metal. Yeah. Yeah. And I love the vocal harmonies on it, too. So I was very pleased by this. It's actually a pretty good palate cleanser for. Exactly how I describe it. Yeah. Yeah. In general, it's a nice palate cleanser in general. Yeah, I agree. It's really well done. The one song, is it what, Moon in the Midday Sky? He, um,

He conjures up a little lane and

and Jerry Cantrell there with the

vocals on that song.

So it's nice.

It's a good album.

It is not metal, but still very cool.

And apparently the next two albums will be metal that come out.

So cool, man.

Cool.

Sean.

Keep it up.

All right.

Next up is Mantar.

Pain is forever.

And this is the end.

This is their fifth album.

They're a German, like, blackish sludge band. And I was having a conversation with our friend Justin the other day about these guys, because he was like, did you listen to the new Mantar? And I was like, nah, fuck those guys. And so I was like, but let me go listen to it again. And so I used to like these guys. And I really do like this album a lot. But what kind of peed in my Kool-Aid was seeing them at MDF.

That was a weird set. Because there's only two guys in the band. Live, you've got a guitar player and a drummer. And I think it was the drummer that sings. And it sounded like absolute garbage. It was noise. It was fucking, yeah, it was bullshit. And so, you know, with that in mind, I was like, oh, I'm not going to listen to that band because all they have is guitar and drums. They need bass and blah, blah, blah. But I, after talking to Justin, I went back and I

I was like wait a minute there's bass on this album there's layered guitars I think there might even be some fucking keyboards on there so pretty good production wise yeah no and I was like these are actually really good songs but you can clearly hear the bass coming in I mean it's right on top that's not buried there's there's a bass guitar on there or at least a synth that is playing a bass and I'm like okay well if you're gonna put this on the album play it live don't don't be just two dickheads on the

They're on stage making noise and being assholes. At least track it in. Yeah, at least have a backing tape. So is it me or is this album feel a little more rocky? It's a little punkier. It's a little more rock and punk based. It's groovy. But clean though. It's not a raw punk or it's not a raw rock. It's a production actually I thought was pretty good on this considering. It's solid. It's pretty heavy. It's melodically groovy. There's a lot of... But there's hooks on this album.

Yeah, there's a lot of repeat choruses on it, and I'm not a big fan of that, but I think they do a lot with little, because there's only two members, although George has pointed out maybe there's a bit more instrumentation on that. So the formula for it kind of wears its welcome on me, maybe like halfway through, but it's a lot of good headbanging, it's a lot of booty shaking when you listen to this, and if you like a good time, it's a fun record.

I think this album could probably pass in a bar and you wouldn't think about it and you'd be like you have no idea who you're listening to you know you really don't I mean because I think that it's catchy in a lot of spots yeah yeah so I went back and listened to the previous albums like just you know spot checking because I was like well it is a guitar player and a drummer and I assumed that I just didn't notice that in the past because there's other bands I mean there's what's the one that always plays with

Atlas Foehammers, just a bass and drums. And there's a lot of bands like that. And I just don't dig that because it's just not full enough. But I went back and listened to the last few albums and they all have bass and stuff on there. I'm like, it's like a bait and switch kind of thing. It's like our album has all this stuff on it. Come see us live where we suck it. You know, it's just, they kind of reminded me of Cobalt, which jogged my memory that they toured with Cobalt.

I know they played here with Cobalt for whatever reason.

New, new, agree.

Slow down there, man.

Don't even get yourself.

Yeah, I don't like that comparison.

Don't dig that hole.

Hey, I have a big shovel.

I remember that.

I remember that.

The Mantar album sounded to me like just, you know, playing with drummers.

It sounded like they recorded the drums and guitar live.

That's what it's unlike to me. Because you can't really fuck up if it's just two of you. I mean, you get an idea of a song, but if you fuck up, I mean, you guys are just going off. It sounded like they recorded the bass after, but it was a live thing with the two of them. It wasn't like they were tracking and they may have done stuff on top, but it sounded very natural. I've seen them live and I thought they were good when I saw them live at a small place called the Beat Kitchen here. And it was just the two of them?

I believe it was just the two of them. Yeah. George and I, we saw him at MDF and it was at Ram's Head. It was indoors. Yeah. We were just like, eh, not working for us. Nope. I didn't like the last album. It was like, Ode to the Flame or something like that. The one before that I liked quite a bit. No, there was one between there. There was another one between. Yeah. I liked them and then they put out an album and I didn't really respond to it. This one seems better. It seems different. It's just like John said, there's a lot more rock. It's

But it's their full songs, and that's the problem. It's like, okay, well, I'm gonna, now, you know, I've been burned, I know, it's an ode to the flame. I like the albums, hate them live, you know? Yeah, that's fine, you know? I mean, this isn't something that would make my list, but, you know, it was a fun lesson. Well, they should be able to, like, I have a friend's band that it's no live drums, Morgue Supplier, who just put out a note. Yeah, yeah. You know, and,

It's live. It sounds just as good. But, you know, like Godflesh, they kind of came from that school. Right. You could totally do that shit and make it full live. You just have to spend the time learning it. Or just bring in a couple people. It's like, if you're going to have bass on the album, just bring out a bass player. You can just for the tour. I mean, people do that, you know? Yeah. Just don't screw your audience by giving them a set that sounds like shit.

No. Yeah. And it's a totally mix for a guitarist to have to fill in for the bass. And we're going to talk about, I think, the last band on the list, who is unbelievably good at what we're talking about. Yeah. And there's definitely multiple layered guitars on the album as well. So it's like, I mean, there was even a solo in a couple of the songs on this album. A solo? Yeah. And so I'm like, okay, so there goes the rhythm guitar, there goes the lead guitar. How are you going to do that? You're just going to not, you're just not going to do that.

I knew it live. There was a guy who used to do it. He's no longer with us, but he knew who I'm talking about. He could do his rhythm and leads all at the same time. I'm with you, though, George, with the two. When you go on tour, it's nice if you have the full band. Because Bell Witch, I like their album, but then I saw them play live and I fell asleep. I think you need to round out some of that music when you're live. You just need more.

Vibrancy. That's when it's on stage. Last Neurosis Tour, Bell Witch opened up, and I don't know, the way they were positioned, like the drummer was high up and looking, and I mean, he was really like Dave Lombardo-ing things, and the bass player played, I don't know, 90-string bass or whatever, and I don't know, they pulled it off that time, but that was the only time I've seen him.

Well, no, he, that's how he plays. He actually reproduces everything on the record. That's what's amazing about Bellwitch in a sort of way is that he does, he plays with two hands on the neck a lot of times and that he's playing a rhythm and a lead at the same time. But it's not hard to fall stick to Bellwitch either way. I mean, it's not, you really got to be ready to. It's not Motorhead, I'll tell you that. No, but the opener was that band Deaf Kids. Do you know them?

South American band where they have like delay pedals on everything. So they got two singers. It's not always in sings. I was like, and I ate a bag of mushrooms on the way. And so that band was driving me fucking nuts. I had to go take a walk. So maybe Bell Witch was just a little more, you know. What's up, Jude? All right. All right. So next up, we have Oceans of

Slumber and their fifth album Starlight and Ash. They're a Houston Prague rock metal? I'm not quite sure. A little more rock now, I think. They used to be a little more metal, a little more rock. Hopefully a little less country. Nice Donnie Maria announcement or drop there. Well, I definitely did not expect this kind of record from them because it isn't metal. It's like this

I remember the band being more of a progressive doom.

So I'm not sure if this is a complete change in direction or just a detour.

However, I do think this style really suits the band well.

Yeah, it was nice.

It's emotionally compelling, a lot more emotional than what I heard before.

The singer is just really gifted and soulful.

So normally I'd be against a band shift away from metal, but I think this works exceptionally well. I think it's gorgeously crafted. And frankly, it's way more slumber-y for oceans of slumber. Yeah, if you're going to slumber by the ocean, this is your album. Yeah, it doesn't, I don't think it can qualify for a metal list, but I think it's an excellent album. I was shocked. I really like this album a lot. They've been heading this way ever since Cammie joined the band, the singer.

who is,

she's absolutely fabulous as a singer,

but they've,

they've shedded their death metal roots,

death doom roots.

They,

it's funny.

They still have a couple of songs that are a little doomy,

but they're not traditional doom.

They're kind of this Southern Gothic doom that they do.

But it,

this has been happening.

George asked me,

so I put this on the list for you.

I was like,

that's interesting.

Cause I've kind of gotten tired of them over the while because they have shifted so much.

The band is focused around her now since she's joined the band. They got rid of everyone in the band minus her and the drummer. They're both married, which I figured as much, but I confirmed it. I looked it up. They're married to each other, Jeff? Yeah, the drummer and the singer. Everyone else in the band was ousted and they brought in a whole new band. They've slowly been shifting towards this since their album Winter. George, you were into them on the first album, I think, before she

She Joined. Yeah. Because you and I were talking about the album Winter, and I was like, man, they have this unique sound. They still had a little bit of the death-y stuff going on, but it was mainly her as the focus, but they have shifted each album more and more that direction. And that's great. I'm not as big into it as I was before. If this is the direction they're going to go, they're going to do very well, because they do it very well, this style of music that they're playing. Production's incredible. That's the best I've ever heard of them. Yeah.

Even though it's not metal. I think they

because there's a lot of bands that make that shift, John. You're like

you're not quite good enough. You're just trying to

maybe appeal to a mass audience

and you're abandoning

your roots that you were actually pretty good at.

This is the opposite of that.

I feel like they change the direction

and it's benefiting them. Well, it's been

going on for four albums. I think they finally are now

in their comfort zone and that's why

it sounds so good. But yeah, it's

I noticed it on the last album

in the album before that. I saw them live, too. And this is their wheelhouse right here. So they're not a metal band anymore. The Brimminghorn guys are big fans. I love them, yeah. And this is not to dissuade anyone from listening to it, because it is a really good album. It's just not what I wanted from them when I first got into them. It sounds to me like what you guys are saying is that they sound a lot like Cobalt. They're more Bantar-ish, I would say. And I agree.

They sound to me like Cobalt. Let's just take it easy on the Cobalt. Matt, I thought they sounded more like Ginger, but like... I can't believe that word was said on this podcast. I didn't like it at all, but now that you guys are enlightening me on it, I'll go back and listen to it. Ginger. Yeah, that's crazy, dude. This is a great album. If you expect metal, and you want to be metal, you might be disappointed.

But it just as an album, it's beautiful. It's a gorgeously crafted record. I was shocked. They mix in some metal guitars here and there, but there's no quote unquote metal. Yeah, I was like running around like trying to do shit and I put that and I'm like, what the fuck? Nah, you want to hang out at home with the lights down, relax it, then it works. But yeah, if you're all doing shit, it's like, yeah, this is an unchanged. I'm not listening to this shit. I have never been that big a fan of Ocean Slumber.

I ordered the vinyl for this after I heard it because I think it's just going to play really well on vinyl it's just something I think I would play over and over I think it's that good of a record I'll be on the list but it's I will tell you this this band is very good at covering songs their covers are spectacular and I hate this one had House of the Rising Sun which I can't stand that song because I've heard it so many times

their version's awesome.

And on Winter, I think they covered Nights in White Satin.

No.

Is it that?

I have to look.

Whatever they covered on that album, it was outstanding.

Her voice is perfect for those songs.

So I'll give them that.

And they don't do it all.

They just throw in here once in there.

But it's good.

So they're a very talented band.

It's just, I was like, wow, this is not metal at all anymore.

I hope they continue in this direction though. Oh, they will. Yeah, because it's just her vocal style too on top of that. I mean, the music's really great in it though too, John. You're right though, it's very focused on her vocals, but all the music accompanying her is perfect for it. I haven't heard it. I just haven't. The other Oceans of Slumber album had just never really connected with me because maybe it's because they were competing against each other. The vocals and the music didn't work

This one, it does. Topically, the last video they put out, I don't know the name of the songs, but it kind of gave me a Zeal and Ardor type of vibe. You know, actually, now that you say that, some of the vocal melodies on this album did make me think of Zeal and Ardor. I was like, oh, yeah, I get that. Yeah. I'm glad you put it on here, George, because I don't think I would have even listened to it, to be honest. I was never big on Oceans of Slumber before.

So, and I didn't know they were going in this direction, but I don't think I would have played it at all.

Well, you're welcome. I was aiming at John and I hit you.

And I just smacked it over to Marcus. I said, you go to Chicago, motherfucker.

I like good music, you know. It's great. It's so good.

Hey, Marcus, check out the album Winter, and they do do just an unbelievable cover of Nights in White Sound. I just checked it. I couldn't remember because it's been a while.

Moody Blues.

And I'll tell you, her,

she sounds amazing on it.

So, and that's what got me hooked.

I was like, what?

They're covering this?

That's balls.

I was like, whoa, that is balls.

Baller.

All right.

So this next album's not really metal either at all.

And, um,

and I'm just going to throw it at Markisan.

Cause you know, because you know, uh,

this is the new wake album, thought form descent.

their sixth album, Calgary. I'm going to say death metal because they're not really grind anymore. It's more easy listening. More easy listening. Kind of like Oceans of Slumber, but you know. Very Cobalt. I guess it's Canadian death metal, which is more, you know. It's a little friendlier. There's no more grind in this band, no. No. But yeah, sure, I'll go. Listen, when a band puts out my album of the year like Wake did in 2020, my anticipation for the next record is insanely high.

is for a lot of us who have number one albums. But it's so, so rare for a band to do a follow-up that lives up to the brilliance of what came before. So, like, case in point for me, Immolation's Atonement was number one for me in 2017. And Acts of God, which came out this year, I really like, but it wasn't on my mid-year list. So, I don't make this following statement lightly.

not only meets my expectations with thought form dissent, they crush them like a trash compactor squashes dirty metal scrap on the Death Star. This is a phenomenal, viciously progressive and modern post-blackened deathgasm. And I love it. I've been spinning it since we got the promo, which was like a month ago.

And spoiler, after like two spins of the promo that we got in June, I told John he could just lock down this masterpiece as my album of the month for July. Locked. I love this record. I love the last record. I might like this record more than the last one. Doesn't mean it's going to be my number one because there's a lot of good records, but I love it. Your wording is interesting to me because I thought it feels like it takes a Wake album forever to come out because you anticipate it from the

the prior album came out. It comes out and you think, fuck, I cannot wait for the next Wake album to come out because this is blistering. And you're right, it is. So did you learn of Wake at Decibel Fest? Was it 2019 or 2018 when they played? Yes, I think that's right. That's the first one I went to with you guys. I saw them. I knew of Wake, but I'd never, because they were more of a grindcore band. So their older albums didn't, I thought they were decent, especially for grindcore, which I'm not a big fan of.

But it wasn't until I saw them live, I was like, what? It was spiritual. It was like grandcore spiritual. It was so good. Yeah. And all their live performances have been good. But the progression of the band since then has just been phenomenal. And I just think, I mean, I think they're probably like my favorite band right now. Just because of that, they've been able to incorporate all these different sounds and transform their metal into something completely different.

It's hard to categorize what it is, to be honest.

But it's still vicious.

The core, the metal, it's fucking heavy as fuck.

And yet there's all this other instrumentation,

these other influences that come into it.

And yeah, I can't get enough of Wake.

Right on.

Hopefully the rest of you guys like it too.

Yeah, when I think of an album like that,

when I put it on initially,

It was so good that I thought if you slow it down, is it still good? And it was definitely in that territory. And from a guitar perspective, a lot of the riffs sounded very like Pig Destroyer, Scott Hall influenced. But yeah, no, I thought it was brilliant. It's angry. I mean, those guys are definitely fucking pissed. They know how to record being pissed for sure. Cool.

Anybody else? Looks like Jay's got his Indian food. Thumbs up. All right. Well, the masala has been eaten. Let's move on to the doll and a Lou Gobi, but let's move on to the next album. Second to last witchery and their eighth album, night side, Swedish black thrash. Now this is a band that I, I

Followed for a number of years.

Um,

and I've always found them to be a little hit or miss some albums.

I love some albums.

I'm like me.

Um,

and I'm not quite sure where I stand on this one yet,

but when all I'm going to say is that when,

uh,

I heard the advanced track of,

I think it's called Pope crusher is,

I think is the song.

I was like,

is this a new lamb of God song?

Ooh,

exactly.

I was like, uh, what? And so then I went into listening to the rest of the album with that in mind, and it just didn't do it for me. But I'm listening to it going, if I did not have this preconceived Lamb of God notion, I might actually like this. So I'm not really sure where I'm going to go with this yet. So I'd like to hear some other opinions. Well, listen, George, I'm not a big witchery fan. I didn't really listen to much of their stuff before. And I think this is a really fun,

of bouncy, head bopping, black and thrash. And I love the guest stars on this album. Jay was talking a lot about Hank Sherman from Merciful Fate. He plays a lead on Left Hand March, the song. And then Jeff Walker of Carcass does vocals on one of the tracks. And there's some other guest stars. I thought it was a really fun record. The only track I don't like is Four, which is like a minute and 45 seconds of talking in German.

that completely kills the momentum of those first songs. I don't know why they put that in. That was stupid. But that's the only misstep to me. I think they get their mojo back soon after that. And yeah, it's just, it was really fun. Record. So yeah, I think, don't think of Lamb of the God and just go back and listen to it too. Because I actually quite enjoyed it. And I'm, like I said, I'm just not the biggest witchery fan. All right. That's cool. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that Lamb of God thing.

Sorry. Yeah. I've been a witchery fan forever. I like, I still have the 2002, uh, what's it symphony for the devil? Be sure. I still wear that. Yeah. It's one of those I have to replace soon, but I don't know. Um, they're usually mid tempo, just kind of, I'd put them in a category the same way. I like deceased or it's just kind of considered, I don't like them as much as deceased, but, um, yeah, I always,

I knew what I was getting into and I bought a witchery album. Yeah. I feel like I don't know if it was the last one or the one before that I really liked a lot. It was the one before that. Yeah, that's a. It's called his infernal majesties. Yeah. It's really good. It was kind of a high watermark for them. Yeah. A lot of rolling. But the last one didn't quite quite sit. I'm going to say I'm still on the fence about this one. I need to listen. Yeah. Needs more.

I like them a lot. I think they're a good band. So I'm not waffling because I'm like, what? I just, I need to listen to it more. Yeah. All right. We have one more new release and I'm sure this one's not going to be as popular with many. Well, I don't know. Maybe half of us. And that is the new Wormrod album, Hiss. It's their fourth album. They're a Singapore grind band and Matt broke my heart. And I didn't know this, but apparently the singer left like a month.

It stinks. It stinks. I was like, what? He pulled a Caparella. Yes, he did. Because his wife was the manager. Yeah. But that said, I was really looking forward to this, and I was not disappointed. I feel like it was a little more varied for them. Like, certainly more varied than the Antigama album. There was even, like, on the, I think it was the

second track there was clean vocals and I was like what is this but it was like it wasn't like will clean vocals okay this was like Burt Bell early fear factory clean vocals you know like soul of a new machine kind of thing yeah and they totally it totally fit totally work and I was like all right well it's only on one song I can deal with this and it's and it's cool and yeah so I've only I haven't I've only spun a couple times but I'm digging it

Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. I have listened to it a ton. I have anticipated it a ton. I think there were two preview tracks that have been out for what felt like over a month. And even those didn't feel like stereotypical worm rot to me, but I still really dug them. And I feel like listening to the album really paints that whole picture. And you're right, George, it is varied more than I feel like any of their prior albums. Yeah, definitely works. Which makes it, you know, it's kind of that really bittersweet, like,

Man, this is perfection. And this could be their song.

Yeah, like are they going to carry on? Are they going to get a different singer? What's up?

It's one of the only bands that I watch every single live performance on YouTube.

Because I think it's a master class.

You're talking about a two-person band.

Perfect. He's got the tone.

I think he plays an amp-peg.

But just the way he sets his amp-peg, you don't miss the bass player at all.

And I like, I like Brian that has, like, it rocks at some point in time. Kind of like inhale, exhale, naze him. You know, you need that kind of. Yeah, man. It's not like I hang out with a lot of people that listen to him. But the, yeah, I fucking love him. I think Worm Rot is like the future of Brian. I think they're great. Or the past, as this name indicates. Yeah, I'm like, I wish there were more Nazem-like.

Yeah. Especially live. You want parts where you're like, yeah, you know. I had a hard time getting into this one. I like that there's a variety of styles on this, which is really good for a grindcore band because usually they're just really boring because it's the same shit over and over for like a minute. But it's also kind of bad for a grindcore band because the song shifts so quickly that it left me feeling unsatisfied when I would hear something different in the songs.

So I'll probably spin it again because I'm just not the biggest grindcore fan. But I do like that. They tried a lot of different stuff. I just wish that the songs were a little longer so you could digest that stuff a little bit more. So because sometimes you get those grindcore bands and they're like a minute long songs, but they kind of flow into each other because it's kind of the same thing. Yeah, this one. It's different each time. So you got to kind of readjust very quickly. And I don't think I like that. I don't like that whiplash effect.

from it, but you're wearing a Metallica shirt. You should like whiplash. I wish Will was here. Indeed. What, John, what did you think of the Wyrm Rock? You said you listened to everything. So I don't like Grancor at all. I know. I'm not a fan. And I respect that they can play like that, but I'm just, it never resonates with me because I get fatigue from constant blasting.

I start to kind of tone out when I listen to that. There are some cool parts on this album that I'm like, oh yeah, fuck yeah, I can get down with this. Then it just shifts into just, it's so fast. And I'm okay with fast music, but after a while I do get tonal fatigue. And I tune out quick. I have horrible ADDs, so it's like the music of my people.

But I recognize that a lot of people like this for the right reasons. They like it. I never got into grindcore. That's why I never... I'm the lone non-Pig Destroyer fan. I just never got... I mean, they're super nice guys. I just never got into that style of music. Just that's what I think. Some grindcore I really like. I mean, I used to not like it at all. And now I find myself... I'm like, there's some bands that I really like. Like Nazem is my fucking grind god.

and in like Worm Rot and Pig Destroyer and stuff like that. I love that stuff. And sometimes there's stuff that I just don't get. So. Yeah. And I and I still it's just it's still rubbed me the wrong way. This is my get off my lawn moment. But why is there 12 minute fucking album an album in my fucking 29 minute EP doesn't count for the top 25? You know, so it just drives me nuts that they get these fucking like singles or albums for them. I don't like it. It just bothers me.

I don't have too many albums on here. Speaking of which, I know this has been a point of contention on this podcast, but

give me a radio just, I think it was Friday, Mike Hill was on and he did the

a live playing of the new EP.

The Toomes EP. Toomes has another EP, yeah.

Yeah, they should just only do EPs. No, I'm tired of these EPs.

But aren't there EPs long, though? Some of them.

This one was way out there. He did a song with Dalek, the rap. Dalek from Doctor Who. Yeah. You will be exterminated. Exterminate. Yeah, they did. There was a Motorhead cover. Yeah, I mean, all in all, it was really good. I mean, the Dalek, whatever was, you know, kind of the... It just didn't...

It was really he's just friends with those guys and he did something with them.

Sure. Songs are great.

It was a lot more gaffy, you know, like he keeps getting more into like his fields of an Eflum.

Yeah. Influences and stuff.

I'd like to hear a full Toombs album in that direction.

Well, does he do that on, is that what their direction is on EPs where they kind of go off in these other adventures that they normally wouldn't do on the full lengths?

Is that the purpose of the EPs?

I think COVID kind of changed everything because I know he's using a lot more like Stephen Slate audio like drums and coming in with like a full song and then you know practicing or at least he had a good amount of material from that but I would recommend if you like the Everything Moon Black podcast they do have a Patreon and he posts stuff like all his projects things he's working on so you get to hear all this unreleased stuff.

There's a lot of good material out there that he's been doing. I like what Mike does. He was a really good interview. We talked to him. Yeah, I was lucky enough to have him on too, but I told you the back story. I was not in 100% shape. Yeah. Yeah. He was cool. He's a good interview, definitely.

He's very professional and good at what he does. All around. Between whether he's doing music or doing podcasts or whatever. He's a businessman. Well, his day job, he's an engineer. So he's, you know, he seems to put everything into everything he does. So I appreciate it. Right on. Cool. All right. We're done with new releases and we are going to move on to Thunderdome just as soon.

as people sit down. Yep.

We'll wait for Jay. He must be going back for seconds.

Or it is Indian food.

And maybe it works fast in his neighborhood.

Indian food, so much.

My favorite food.

You're listening to the Metal Heads podcast.

And if you don't listen, then the hell with your...

Thunderdome.

Thunderdome.

John.

So it's my turn.

So we all try to come up with our reasons for picking things. And I always try to come up with obscure themes that, I don't know, nobody thinks of. But it's funny because every time I do it, Matt somehow tries to find a way to fuck me on my picks. I do. I do. He did. He fucked me on the Macedon Gojira one. And you actually fucked me on this one without realizing it. I decided I'm going to go with the best final album from a band. And right away, Bolt Thrower came to mind.

And I was like, oh, Celtic Frost. And I was like, ah, fucking Matt had Celtic Frost on his, you know, best comeback album. It's the best comeback and final album ever with Monothea. So I was like, I got to come up with something new. So I wanted to be challenged this time a little bit. Not that none of the picks, any of us, including myself, have had that weren't challenging, but I wanted something that required a little more work than just a couple of spin throughs.

And I think I picked something that was probably a lot to do at one time because both albums are long. But I went with, I wanted something newer. So I came up with the, these are based on rateyourmusic.com sites, top atmospheric sludge metal albums, the top two. And I think this is probably fairly accurate. So number two is Isis's Panopticon versus the number one,

one rated atmospheric sludge album which is neurosis through silver and blood i thought these were great albums to pair against each other because we don't talk too much about this style of music that uh i mean we all talk about the bands here and there but we don't seem to give them enough focus to these two bands especially neurosis who i think is by far one of the most influential bands for today's music than we ever think of but they really are and isis gets credit for that too although isis

was highly influenced by Neurosis. So I thought this would be a good one to go with. And the funny thing is, and I'll get to my part, that my pick by Isis is not even remotely close to my favorite Isis album. It's just, it's one of the highest rated albums. And I figured that was a good one to go with because a lot of people like this album. So again, my pick was Isis, Panopticon versus Neurosis through Silver and Blood. Did you say something about them being newer?

Yeah, because most of our picks, for the most part, have been 80s. We've done a lot of 80s albums. 90s is newer. Well, yeah. And they're a band that they did in... Later 90s. Later 90s. Panopticon is 2005 or 2004. 2004, actually. Yeah, so... I just remember buying the Neurosis through Silver and Blood when I lived in Michigan 24 years ago. 96 for Neurosis.

But let's be honest, we haven't really picked many bands. In the metal world, that's sort of still kind of... I know, I'm just teasing. I guess. No, I get what you're saying. I guess my point was these were the two bands that, for the most part, I thought dominated the 2000s in terms of catalog. I think it's a really good pairing. It was not something that I could just be like, oh yeah, this. It's like the beginning of post-metal. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, it's a good choice. Thank you.

Actually, Marcus, it's interesting to say that Neurosis Through Silver and Blood is considered the first true post-metal album. Whatever post-metal is these days, but it's one of the original post-metal albums. Indeed. All right, well, we're going to kick this over to Steve and put him on the spot. Yeah, I mean, both albums I love a lot. I have a lot of history with, you know, in Silver Through Blood, I think I said before the podcast,

I went over one tattoo to get a bigger neurosis tattoo.

I learned all the Word is Law and Souls at Zero and Pain of Mind.

That was a huge influence for me.

When Silver Through Blood came out, you could really hear the swan's influence.

You could hear the got flesh.

You know, even bands like Throbbing Gristle. There was a lot of atmosphere that came with that album that completely blew me away. I was already a huge Neurosis fan, but that album was like an anxiety attack the first time I put it on. I love it. I know every note of that album, it's a huge, huge deal for me. That would be my pick for sure. I thought it was a good pairing because the Isis Panopticon

album. Again, I know we're talking kind of prior to the show, but

you know, Panopticon is about the prison system and life within the prison system.

And it's done in a way where the music really gives you, and if you look at the cover and you listen to the album, it really creates an incredible atmosphere. And I remember right around that tour, they actually played the fireside bowl with Napalm Death.

And I ended up in the back of an Ecoline van with Aaron Turner and Sean Embry just getting totally bounced. Like it was just join some whiskey. And I remember trying to get to, you know, the train and I had to get off at every stop and puke my guts out.

You know, but so yeah, both of them hit it different ways for sure. When I first heard ISIS, I was like, Oh, this is a fucking neurosis ripoff, fuck them. And you know, when I first heard Colta Luna, I was like, Oh, fuck them. They're ripping off ISIS. He's ripping off neurosis. So I definitely understand that that is the birth in a lot of ways. And I would put bands like, you know, anything Justin Broderick's done in that same category. Michael, Michael,

with the swans. But it's all part of that continuum. I think it's a piece of art. I don't think you really hear notes. You hear tones. And they got better at, that was like the big album. Like it was so full. Everything's at 11. And then when they came out of the Times of Grace, it became more of a minimalist approach where they still have the same effect.

So, um,

silver and blood, uh, for me,

but I think the Isis album is,

is a really fantastic album too.

All right.

But your vote is neurosis.

Yeah.

Well said, Steve.

All right.

Mark's on.

Yeah.

Well, first of all,

I want to thank Matt for sending me this.

Oh, hell yeah.

Fulton Thunder God.

Um, I asked him to keep a lookout for it because it has artwork from Walt

who did a seminal run on Thor in Marvel Comics that I love. Except they did not ask for his permission to use this and Marvel owns it. So I was like, fuck. I kind of want that before there's a lawsuit. But also because Walt Simonson found the beer and was drinking it and didn't seem to have too much of an issue with it. He's like, they didn't ask me about this, but oh well. It's pretty good actually. It's a stout with maple syrup, vanilla, and cocoa nibs. And it sounded like it's going to be too sweet, but it's actually

really well balanced.

I did keep one.

I haven't had it yet,

but I mean the,

just the,

the story that goes into it is so interesting.

You know,

it's just these,

these breweries just rip people off for art.

They just take this stuff.

And I mean,

they should get in trouble for that for sure.

Damn breweries.

Making all that fear.

Yeah.

It's a good beer though.

So that's the first thing.

Second thing is a fuck you,

John.

This is an extremely tough underdome.

These are two of my favorite post-metal records from the two very best post-metal bands. Well, Panopticon was almost my number one on my top 50 at 50, but that year Mastodon's Leviathan came out because that was 2004. So that record had to be number one. Obligated. It was a game changer. I'll trick to that. It's a contract.

I guess sea beast.

But the thing of it is, is that if I had to pick my favorite post-metal band of all time, Isis probably edges out Neurosis for me.

Because Panopticon, Oceanic, Celestial, Wavering Radiant, which is like one of my favorite final albums.

We're just talking about final albums.

There's another one in there, Tim, forgetting.

It's just a staggeringly strong catalog of post-metal. But of course, I love the Neurosis catalog as well. So when it comes to discussing and ranking post-metal, I just have a really hard time putting any record above Through Silver and Blood. I hold that album in the absolute highest esteem. So as I mentioned, it's the first post-metal record,

And it had an undeniably massive role in defining the genre. Steve talked about that too, where he thought that the stuff that came after was like ripoffs of it. So there's that going forward. But what I really love about this album and what separates it for me is that it's just so fucking menacing. Even when it veers atmospheric, it's just fucking so brutal.

It's not a tender post-metal lullaby like you get with some of the post-metal bands. It's this swirling attack of fire dagger teeth and flying saliva. It's a primal elemental force of metal. That's what I love about this every time I put it on. And when we did our Top 50 at 50, as I mentioned before, Through Silver and Blood was my choice for best album of 1996. And it holds its position here.

and John's horribly fantastic Thunderdome. All right, then. Great Thunderdome, John. I'm glad to hear that. It was nice to throw it on again, those albums, to put them on, because I hadn't listened in a bit. So, good one. Two Zip. Matt? John, when you threw this in the chat, I literally wanted to fly out and hug you at that moment. If I listened to these two albums every day, I would be a much better person.

But I just don't have the time. But now it actually was homework. And again, when you threw it in the chat, my first instinct was to choose one over the other. But I didn't, you know, obviously I wanted to listen to him. So I went through both albums four times and I still felt the same. And I guess it's weird to me to say like this is not a hard decision for me. But at the same time, like these are amazing albums. They define their genres for what they're in.

I mean, I don't know. I couldn't pick two albums I love more. And like I said, if I could listen to these albums every day, my life would be better. But Through Silver and Blood is, you know, when you compare them, they're equal in the sense of being post-middle. But Through Silver and Blood takes it to another dimension of raw, dynamic, just ridiculous aggression. And to have that little bit more like Panopticon.

as a masterpiece, and then a little bit more. And so I do have to go with Neurosis on this one. But like I say, it was an easy choice for me, but it's not. I mean, like I say, these are two quintessential albums that define their genres. And John, I owe you beers for making this year Thunderdome. I like this. Like what I'm hearing. Beers. I like it. All right, John, are you going to go last? Whatever you guys want to do.

John has to go last. Yeah. I always forget this. Okay. Well, that means it's Jay. Well, everybody's had really good, thoughtful comments. And so there's no point in going over the whole history again and how meaningful these are. There's an interesting factor for me, though, which is I didn't listen to neurosis until I listened to ISIS. And, and, but I discovered ISIS, I guess it was,

Oceanic might have been the one before that so it's been a long time and then of course then I started sticking my head in that realm and of course Neurosis is on everybody's lips and everywhere and everywhere you go and Mastodon mentions Neurosis and everything so I of course went and bought their catalog like you do and I'm not going to disagree with anybody I think these are both seminal albums but I'm going to disagree a little bit and that's just that I think Oceanic is a high watermark

for post-metal in general. And if you had chosen that, I would have chosen that for sure. I think Panopticon, for me, was the beginning when ISIS started to kind of go slightly different directions. I wasn't quite as interested in as I was with Celestial and Oceanic. Panopticon was the last, like, ISIS album I really loved. So that stated, as much as I would almost rather be the outlier here, I have to go with the Neurosis album, because I do think it's better than Panopticon.

But I don't think it's better than Oceanic. Nevertheless, these were the choices you gave us. And so I'll throw my head in with the Neurosis crowd. I can't say enough, like just to go back and there's a lot of Neurosis stuff I like, but I think Oceanic is probably one of my top 20 records of all time, possibly. That's how much I like that record. It's so fucking good. It just was just, and it felt new to me when I got it. I was like, what the fuck is this? Such a good record.

Like I always say that their catalog just ice is a whole catalog is super strong. I I don't know I always have a hard time picking me number one. I have a funny story to tell too and that is that you talked about Aaron Turner and I was so into Oceanic and Celestial and that stuff that I wrote to Aaron and I was like hey that was great. That was stuck in my head Jay I remember you tell me about that. Well so but I'll tell you something like first of all they came down here to play with Mogwai and it was the first time they played here and they were

to do it the last minute they opened for them so i went and saw him and i introduced myself to erin afterwards nobody really knew who isis was at the time so it's like easy to be like hey man what's up not that they were always mobbed and we kind of struck up a friendship and i wrote to him and we wrote back and forth quite a bit and i wrote him a letter when they were writing panopticon and i said like i've never really been eloquent to you and explain to you why i like your music and so i just explained to him how i was always like coming up to the edge but never falls off the edge and then when it

does finally fall off the edge at some point. I just put all my best words into one email and he wrote me back and he was like, dude, thank you so much for that email. He said, I read it to the guys at band practice for inspiration. And that was during the Panopticon sessions. So my little point of pride. That's amazing. You are a great writer, man. I read your D.O. Yeah. I probably still have the email, but it was just, I was so inspired by them that I had to tell them why, here's why I love it.

I love you dude. And yet you did not vote for the album that you inspired. Well, I'll reach out to him. And you always, I'm always like, Hey, it's that guy. And he's like, yeah, I know who you are, dude. You're saying oceanic. If it was against that, I'll mute pick that. I would almost say that, um, times of grace would be a better opponent for, uh, just for the stylistically speaking. Well, because it's after they got a little more laid back.

a mellow. Yeah. Like, well, you know what I mean? I do. Totally. Um, it's one last factoid is just that when I started buying vinyl again, I'm sure that one of the first five vinyls I bought was oceanic and I paid through the nose for it because I had to have it. I just liked the fact that Jay's pen pals with ISIS. That's amazing. Yeah. Don't take that out of context. All right. Me.

So I wasn't quite sure what to think when John gave me this. I like neurosis. I've never really listened to much ISIS. Like a little bit and I'm like, eh, whatever. It's never been my thing. I know, Markisan is making like, what the fuck are you thinking face? But yeah, I've never, never gotten into ISIS. And so initially I was like, well,

this makes clear sense to me. I like Neurosis. I don't really like them. But I have to be fair, so I have to listen. And my very first Neurosis album was Through Silver and Blood. I bought it at Best Buy in 1996, took it home and said, what the fuck is this shit? And threw it on the pile and ignored it for 20 years. Because I didn't get it in 1996. It was not where my head was.

was.

A Lil' George didn't understand the ways of metal.

Hey, I have numerous stories of this.

It's like, wrong place, wrong time.

I mean, yeah.

There's so many bands like that where I didn't get it when I first heard it.

I had to mature enough to understand it.

And eventually, yeah, I do.

I like neurosis.

And so I was like, all right, well, I'm predisposed towards that.

but let me give this guy a listen because

you know I know I've listened to them before

but it just was never my thing

and so I listened to the Isis

and I'm like alright

I started with that one

I was like yeah okay

you know it's alright but

yeah okay

and then I went and listened to Through Silver and Blood

and I was like oh yeah

I like Neurosis after this

and

okay so

the Isis album

is kind of more chill.

The Neurosis album is more heavy.

And I was listening to Through Silver and Blood going, yeah, it's definitely my pick.

But there's one thing that has always bugged me about that album.

And it's the, like, give me the four zine.

That's actually ministry.

But the fucking spoken word psychedelic bullshit that's mixed out throughout this album annoys the shit out of me.

This is when they were still, I think this is kind of the end of them doing a lot of drugs. Yeah. It was all like, like slightly slowed down speech. It reminds me of the ministry. Give me the Thorazine. You know what I'm talking about? Somebody's got it on that one. Yeah. Give me the Thorazine. I do. And it's like, it's slightly slowed down and just kind of creepy. And when it's like interspersed throughout the album, I was listening to the other night and I was just like, no, no.

So I gotta go ISIS. For your reason. That is not the only reason. I did really like the ISIS album actually. So I should probably. Did somebody ask what do you hate George? I hate the Thorzy. Earlier in the episode. I hate the Thorzy. What do you hate? You know. Drug adult speech. So yeah maybe I need to listen to this Oceanic thing. When that album came out I was definitely taking a lot of ass.

And that, yeah, In Silver Through Blood is fucking nightmarish, for sure. It is. I mean, I thought I was going to go that way because it was heavier, but... Which is odd. Sorry. Yeah, go ahead. No, please. No, it was such a heavy album, but if you remember when that album came out, their two tours were the daytime second stage of Ozfest.

The tour right after that was them opening up for Pantera. Just to go full circle with this whole thing. Yeah. Do you remember who ISIS opened for on the tour for Pantera? When I saw them, ISIS opened up for Napalm Death. Oh, they got on the Tool tour. So they toured with Tool, and this was during... Oh, okay. And I believe that would have been Lateralist still. It was the end of the Lateralist tour, but it might have been

10,000 days, but I don't think so. I saw them around there, but it was Meshuggah opening up for Tool. They didn't do that much of the thing, but I saw them with Tool. They didn't do that much of the tour. Hey, you were talking about the cover, too, and I know we're getting to your trace, John. And what is that a photo of? I always assumed it was Los Angeles, but I guess I haven't looked at it that close. The cover of Panoptica. Yeah, I never knew, to be honest. If you look at their, real quick, if you look at their

their bandcamp page and you look at their picture of them jay this would only be for jay unfortunately

if you look closely they're standing behind a building i'm almost positive that is saying this is church at usf on uh

in san francisco i've been in that exact spot like a thousand times cool but it's just a strange place to

take a picture but i think that's where they are well so the first time i saw them was the film war but

But the reason I mentioned, there's a little piece of trivia about since they opened for Tool. And I don't know how they got hooked up with Tool, but Justin Chancellor is on Panopticon. He plays on it. He's like a guest on one song. Oh, shit. Nice. In any case, this brings us to the master disaster caster with the choices that broke everybody's heart, apparently. So, John.

Does the cheese stand alone? So this actually, when I first put this together, I had in my mind what I was going to go with originally. And I thought that. But I wanted to revisit both these. I love both bands, but I wanted to revisit because we listen to so much music. There's always going to be X number of bands that we love that we just haven't listened to in a long time.

And these are both of those bands. I've been fortunate to see Isis a number of times. I've never seen Neurosis, which that's one of the few bands I wish I could have seen live. But I've seen Isis a number of times, and it's really hard to describe how good they are live when they did play live. So I wanted to kind of capture some of that for this pick with these two bands. Two bands we don't talk about much, but really do wield a big sword in metal.

They're heavyweights. And unfortunately, ISIS is no longer playing live. And Neurosis is not the same band. That's not a negative. It's just they don't carry the same weight, I think, with some people anymore, which is kind of silly because I think all their stuff is pretty cool. It's just all different. So when I went back and listened to these, it was a chore. I jokingly said to George, I gave too much homework for us this time because these albums are long.

And I felt that way myself doing it. I was like, fuck, I forgot how long ISIS was. It's only seven songs. And then you put on the roast. Fuck, 70 some minutes, man. And my attention span for long albums is porous at best as I get older. So real quick on both albums. I'll start with ISIS since it's a newer band. They're obviously influenced by Neurosis and Steve Byrne. Good point where he said, yeah, ISIS is just pulling off of.

Neurosis and then Cult of Luna is just pulling off of both bands and that's true and yet I still find them to be the three big heavyweights of the post-metal world I mean there are no none of those bands none of those bands could be touched by anybody in my opinion and to some degree I think Cult of Luna kind of carries the torch now because they've been hunting out more work later on but in Listening to Isis I came away with their albums never represent their live shows because their live their albums are pretty well produced

They sound good, but they ebb and flow with heavy and these kind of quiet atmospheric moments that bring you back down. So they build you up, they bring you down, they build you up, they bring you down, then they smash you at the end. But when you see that live, it's otherworldly the way they do it. They are significantly better live than they are on album. And that's saying something because they sound awesome on album. By the way, just to remind you and everybody else, that's all past tense.

Yeah, unfortunately. They've only played one show the last, like, 12 years. So, and it, their sound is a little more polished. I mean, when you go back and listen to Panopticon, it sounds good. I mean, that's, for a post-metal slash sludgy atmospheric album, it's pretty clean sounding. But I really enjoy it. But I will say, I like Oceanic more. I only chose this album because I was going based on the two high

I just rated albums or rate your music. And I went with that site because both albums had significant number of reviews. So it wasn't like, oh, this album's got like 60 ratings. This one's got 40. They're over a thousand for each one. So I feel like somebody who's in statistics for a living, that's a fair number. So I thought that Isis would be my go-to album on this. And then I listened to Neurosis and I realized just how fucking good this album is on so many levels.

I wasn't dissuaded by the drug-induced voiceovers at all.

If anything, it added to it.

I agree. Definitely agree.

But something struck me when listening to the album.

I remember hearing an interview or reading an interview with Macedon saying,

oh, neurosis was our blueprint.

And I'm like, man, I just don't hear it.

I hear neurosis being slower, more atmospheric buildup.

And Macedon at that time was just fanatic.

But then you go back and listen to Neurosis, you're like, that's Mastone playing Neurosis right there when you listen to it and you hear it. And then you realize. Slow it down a little bit. Just a little bit. And it's all right there. And you're like, fuck, man, Mastone is ripping off Neurosis. You know, in a good way, of course. I think in the end, I ended up going with Neurosis as my album. And I feel bad now because they seem to have just destroyed this whole.

by taking over every pick. Only because it's a little raw and sound. It's a little heavier and sound. It's weird. Usually you guys aren't so wrong. I mean, you know. Yeah. Well, I think if I interject for a second, I think it's a very close Thunderdome. It's just that Neurosis edges it out for most of our picks, except for George's wrong. Now, I will say I am 100% agree with Jay. Had I shown Oceanic,

this it would be oceanic all the way and only for one song alone false light alone would just run the whole thing for me that song alone is is uh my favorite post-metal song um but i will say you see like post malone who who is that the guy in the eyes aussie album yeah yeah um i'll say one last thing so i'm meandering here on my talk um another

I want neurosis and it shouldn't be the reason why but it factored in for me is that when you look at the names of the bands that were influenced by them and I'm guessing this album through silver and blood was the main one you know Macedon Baroness Isis Yob full of hell Slepknot apparently was influenced by them Cobalt again with Cobalt they're showing up this whole fucking episode of Mantar also in the god damn it I mean I've never heard so much

I know.

I know.

Cobalt's so fucking good.

We need,

we need an album.

Even bands like Agaloc,

Wolves in the Throne Room,

Paul Bearer,

Converge.

I mean,

all these bands have pointed to Neurosis and I think there's a reason why.

Yeah.

Um,

so if you don't know.

To your point with,

uh,

Mastodon Neurosis thing,

I saw,

um,

today is today,

today is the day on the,

uh,

Isaac God tour.

So it was half a Neurosis.

I think if you blend that album with

with Neurosis you have Mastodon for sure. Yeah it's crazy I mean some of the early stuff you

wouldn't think that they is anything like it when when Mastodon was the more frenetic style you can hear it on on this album you just have to really focus and listen because they they get crazy fast and then they drag you back down into that ditch and beat you over the head with some crazy spoken word and drugs and then they pull you back out.

If you don't know these bands, by the way, don't get swayed by our picks. You really should give them both a spin because all the sludgy bands you listen to today are all because of these two bands. I think. How about that? Well, you know, it's funny. Two comments. One is, I know it was a side project, but I throw Old Man Gloom in the mix too. I just, I loved, to be honest with you, when ISIS started

going in a slightly more ethereal direction. I was glad that they still had that Aaron Turner saw this outlet and global man gloom because I love those records love those records and also just to the Mastodon thing I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know but Scott Kelly is on like every Mastodon record. Yeah he just he's almost indistinguishable I mean he's seen stuff and you're like and if somebody didn't tell you that you'd be like well that's just Mastodon. Doesn't he sing the part that the clowns

Sings in Blood and Thunder. Isn't that his vocal? I'm not sure. I don't know all of his parts. Do you know the crazy clown they have in the video for Blood and Thunder? I think it's... They actually did that. Did you see that Kate Pit thing that they did where Scott Kelly was with Neurosis and they did all the songs that Scott Kelly was on? I've heard of it, but I've never seen it. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Well, it was a great Thunderdome, John. Really good. I'm listening to these two.

And I know how much you love Cult of Luna. You throw them as your top three. I'm not as big a fan of Cult of Luna, so it was nice to listen to these two albums because I feel like I don't really have a successor to those two bands. Like I said, Ice is my favorite post-metal band of all time, and Neurosis is pretty high up there. I maybe would throw Pelican in there, even though it's instrumental, but that's definitely post-metal. They would probably be my third. Oh, yeah, that's a good one.

And they've been around a long time. But yeah, I just, I like Cult of Luna a lot, but I just feel like I haven't had, I haven't had that successor to these two bands. I feel like there's a lot of great post-metal records from bands, but as far as a catalog goes, like a whole catalog, there isn't another band that's like picked up the baton. Oh, I think Cult of Luna has, in my opinion. For you, yeah. Well, they've had, they've had like eight albums in a row that have just killed, they've slayed, you know? And it's funny. Now it's more like they've just,

This is such a well-established genre that they're maybe one of the leaders in the genre now.

They're definitely one of the leaders. I just don't have the same affection for them as John does other people.

See, ISIS put out only five albums.

Yeah.

And they put out a few EPs and then it disappeared.

And as much as I love ISIS, they just didn't carry on. They just didn't.

I mean, Aaron Turner's got 40,000 projects and he runs a record label.

I smell a reunion.

Is that right? Well, they did get together, like I said, for the guy from Cave and Caleb that passed away. They did that reunion show in 2018. How did that guy die again? I forgot. I can't wait for Zara. It's like a kind of a freak car accident. Yeah. You know, to that end, if anybody who's listening is like, because I think that's right, John, like if you like the sludgy stuff, go check these out. But I really want to suggest people also check out Christmas and Zizobra by Old Man Gloom. I just, I mean, they came out

Exactly the same time. I think one was the year Oceanic came out and one was the year Panopticon. And to me, they were like sister records. I just listened to the shit out there. So heavy. And they had Caleb. Yeah. Well, all those bands were incestuous with each other. They're all playing in like 18 different bands together in all different configurations. I always thought it was interesting and kind of laudable. Well, two things. One other point about Panopticon is that was when they moved from Boston.

to Los Angeles because they wanted to make it.

And they were like, I'm going to make it in Boston.

But I always thought it was laudable that ISIS as a band,

he never put them on his label because he was like,

it just seems like a conflict of interest.

So all the ISIS records came on Ipecac records.

Yep.

But Aaron Turner owns that label and he purposely didn't want other bands

on his label to feel like this is the label,

my band and it's going to get all the attention.

So that was kind of a cool move by them.

I mean, at times I've talked to him, you're right, Jay, you could walk up to him after a show and he was like, well, I got to break down, but give me a few minutes. He'd come back and talk to him. He'd be breaking down and talking to you. He's like, ah, come over here on the side and talk to me over here. You do all the time. I think when we're talking about this particular post-punk movement, there was really three big bands that when Neurosis was, you know, kind of coming up, it was I Hate God, Neurosis and BuzzEvan. And I guess more on a,

Big Stage, Crowbar. I like that there. Yeah, well, Crowbar would be one of the proto-atmosphere, because they were part of the sludge startup, weren't they? Them and, like, the Melvins would be kind of those early sludgy bands. But if you went to, like, an I Hate God show in the 90s, man, it was nuts, but it definitely had the same effect as Neurosis, and I know those guys tore it a lot together, and Buzzard. You know what?

I'm going to throw this out there too. I've always felt that post-metal is a cheap-ass way of not having to call your band a metal band. And I'm ready to just drop that now. These are fucking metal bands. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think it's weird. I think post-rock falls more in that, Jay. I think post-metal actually still says you're metal. It's more experimental metal. One of the genres. I feel like post-metal, because nobody wants to use post-metal as a tag. He's like, oh, it's not a real

I've read this. Post-rock to me is, I think, falls more on what you're saying. For me, personally. I just think, I think metal comes with so many connotations that people find goofy. And by and large, most of the post-metal bands are a little more intellectual. And I have had this concern that they were doing it on, you know, that's, you don't want to be associated with heavy metal, which I just think is a crock of shit. So I would say, I don't know. Jay, I would say Neurosis and Ice is probably just,

has big an impact on black metal as dark thrown an emperor at this point sure and and um i don't know about neurosis but i know erin turner has a really good uh metal lexicon you could talk to him about metal you know yeah yeah so where does you would know you're his pen pal i just i mean i don't know if you guys know but erin and i were having

I like how every episode is about how Jay wrote letters. He wrote letters to Will. He's writing letters to ISIS, which seems like completely the opposite thing. I'm going to say the State Department is going to want to talk to you. The dead language you're bringing. Yeah, Jay writes a lot of letters. A lot of dark. George, what were you going to say? I was going to say, where do you put Solstafir? Post-rock, post-metal? I straddle it.

The last few albums, I find them to be all over the map, but yet still within the confines of what they play. They do mix a lot of different stuff. They're a rock band. They're a metal band. They're progy at times or sludgy at times. I don't think they have a definition. I think they're more rock, but they definitely have a lot of metal in them. Lately, anyways. I don't know. Let's ask the drummer. He's got a lot to say about them.

I think it's cooler just to say underground music at this point. They wear awesome boots. I know that. And they're really good live. You know what? I think Enslaved defined their style of music the best for all these bands. They said, we are not this, and they would like this long thing they would come out with, and it's a black metal. They said, we're just an extreme metal band. I'm like, I can do that. That's easy. That works. It's tough. I mean, there's just so many labels out there, and there's so many bands that just defy those.

those labels, you know?

I have a hard time describing wake. Like I was saying before, I don't,

it's really hard to just pigeonhole them into one particular genre of metal.

Yeah. The two things that was correct.

The two things that was correct are the people who want to give something like 10 sub genres,

their description. And then there's, then there's that guy who's like, dude, there's no sub genres. It's just metal. Like that's stupid too. So shut up. You're, you're, you're saying that's just metal. And then you're fucking rocking out the poison.

So shut up. I listen to Joy Division just as much as I listen to Iron Maiden. And all those things exist in the same stratosphere. Me and Steve, we got the goth rock thing. Yeah, my favorite album so far this year is a band called Murder Bait. I like that. I like that. It's so good. I mean, if you're in like Peter Murphy and the Birthday Party and stuff like that. Peter Murphy's awesome. I mean, but all of her newer albums are kind of like that too.

They're more electronic pop stuff. It sounds like Depeche Mode. Yes, it does. Which I just put a bunch of their albums on my phone today. Depeche Mode, not over. I love Depeche Mode. I think underground music. Cool music. I like cool music. So no more genres. It's just cool music. I like it. It's cool. This is cool. We're done.

what we're listening to.

Steve.

I'm actually I was really jealous that you guys all got to go to Maryland

Death Fest and see Deicide play Legion. Yeah. So I know Stacy and I she bought me a ticket and the opening band In Human Condition I I've been loving them. It has the excitement of like early Florida death metal but it's more of a demolition hammer type aggressiveness you know.

Here, since I had a few beers, I took some notes. I knew that would happen. Oh my god, I got Oceans of Slumber up. Hold on. All right, it's the Spotify. Oh, Oceans of Slumber. Oh my god, yeah. Yeah, have you guys talked about the band Vahemus? Like with Things Over the E's, it's a French black metal band. Spell it.

VNCE. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know them. But it's not like the old school VNCE. Right. Not the... Yeah, no. It's like Frenchie. Yeah, I've been listening to that a lot. Father Befouled, I've been listening quite a bit. Perdition Temple. The new Nunslautter I love. How do you say? Corp Cest? Corp Cest, yeah. Okay, yeah.

I'm digging that quite a bit. The new Undergang. And then here again, the list here. That's a little more. Sorry. It's a little more sorry. No, no, no, no. Well, we have some dead space here. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. No, no, no. It gives me a chance to say something funny. It's so funny to be into a genre of music where you can just, in the most mundane and monotone way,

say, yeah, the new Nunslaught, I'm really into that. That's pretty good. You know what I mean? Just like, sometimes I pay attention to the titles we're saying. I realize how ridiculous we all are. I think I saw a new band called Gut Rot. I'm like, how many names can we attach to Rot now at this point? It's like the new A, D, or X. But Rot. In both of the last new release Fridays, I've kind of wanted to comment in a section that we are officially running out of metal band names.

I don't know if you guys heard of it. It's called Snuggie Rot. Snuggie Rot. Or just Rot and Snuggie. Both. Do you guys like that Holder band? Holder? Oh yeah, the black metal. Yeah, it's not bad. Yeah, I'm not sure if I like it really. It's pretty raw, but it's kind of cool. Yeah, but I will say Axioma. Have you heard those guys? Yeah. Yeah.

I love. That's. The Holder record was pretty good. Yeah. Oh, and there's a new Gotthram single that came out. Oh, there is. Oh, wow. Really good. Cool. Yeah, that I've been digging. Have you heard Mesa? M-E-S-S-A. Oh, yeah, we've talked about Mesa. Actually, Mesa was on my mid-year and Jay's mid-year, I believe. Yeah. Low, but not.

Yeah, the Hissing album was really good. Those are the ones that stand out. And it's funny, too, because when I first heard your show, I was like, oh, my God, how the fuck do these guys even remember any of this stuff? Because when you're a kid, you'd buy an album and you'd know every word. And you'd listen to it so many times. In the digital age. Yeah, those are the things that stick so far.

But I haven't gotten through your whole mid-year yet on your last episode.

So.

All right.

Well, get on it, buddy.

Yeah.

What are you doing here?

You should be listening.

You should be listening to that while you're on this one.

Yeah.

I did like that.

I got some notes.

The Spirit.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

I thought that was pretty cool.

But yeah, outside of that, I mean, the Voivod.

You know, I love the new Voivod.

Yeah.

The Blood-Assing Word.

I keep playing that over and over. That's some crazy shit right there. Yeah, it's amazing. Scary. It is scary. Yeah. And I appreciate that. Yeah, I'll probably think of a couple other things. But yeah, thanks for letting me start. Yeah, you guys go. All right. Mark is on. Yeah, I have kind of a big list. So Iron Flame, Where Madness Dwells. So Iron Flame is like one of my

Top 5 Traditional Metal Bands going right now. And this record really cements their position for me. Lots of really memorable songs with crackling guitar work and amazing vocals from Andrew DeCagna, who I actually tried to get on this podcast a couple times and he was supposed to come on and then he just kind of blew me off. But he writes all the music for the band. He also sings in Icarus Witch and he performs vocals, bass and percussion in Nachachwin, which we talked about at Midyear.

That's a gap.

Well, he's a great singer.

And the reason he started Iron Flame is because he had a friend who passed away who really liked that style of metal.

And so he just decided to do an album dedicated to his friend.

That's right. I remember that.

Now they're on the fourth album.

But what's cool about the band, too, is they always release these bonus tracks if you buy the physical copies of their album.

So there's at least two bonus tracks for each album. So when I bought not well, actually this record had two, the last record had two bonus. And then I also got a five song EP that had covers on it. And they did covers of rainbow sticks, which is came up earlier. Uh, Uriah, heat, the scorpions and Rocky Erickson and the aliens. And they're all really good covers. So I encourage people, if you like a traditional metal, I think a iron flame is carrying the toy.

I know I was just like Jay perked up on you said that let me I like it was it um could it be night is a vampire no hold on let me I have it on my music let me see if I can I think most of his stuff would translate as well honestly where's my iron flame um it was stand for the fire demon that'll work he went through a period where he was that stuff was meaningful to me he you know

He was schizophrenic as you know and he wrote a lot of songs about shit that he thought was happening. Yeah. I mean, you know, I can throw the album on the box and throw the covers thing if you want it, Jay. Please do. Okay. Yeah. I think you guys really like it because we all like traditional metal, but we haven't really talked. I think I'm the only one who really talked about Iron Flame, but I think they're really good band. Danzig 3, How the Gods Kill. So I read an interview with Danzig about the 30th anniversary. So I had to spin this.

I keep hoping that Danzig will put out an anniversary edition vinyl because I don't think they've ever repressed it. And I'm actually really disappointed this year because all these records from 1992 have not gotten represses like Alice and James Dirt. Like we've talked about. The Cure, Wish, is like my favorite Cure record. And I haven't heard anything about represses. Any of the Rollins Band stuff. Right. It's just like, what is going on? It's the 30th anniversary. You should be putting those albums out.

It's driving me nuts. You know, I think it's How the Gods Kill. The first song has that, like, clanking wrenches in it or something. Am I making that up? Is that in that? Is that off How the Gods Kill? It's the first song, and as it dies out at the end, it's like, it's like this big thing. That has always been so spooky to me, dude. There's something about that clanging sound that sounds like the worst alley in hell, and you're running into the, I'm serious, like, that record is so full of atmosphere for me all over.

And then John Christ comes in with that. The whole thing, man. That's probably my favorite Danzig record. It's my favorite. I really want it on vinyl and I'm just waiting. I don't know why. I have it on vinyl. Well, two, before you move on, Markisan there, what it's funny. You mentioned it though, because I was noticing for some reason in the metal new releases, there is a Danzig thing. And so they must be re-releasing some stuff. There's a re-release of 666 Satan's Child. And I'm guessing, I don't know if it was

like an anniversary edition or something but i was wondering why is this a new release so maybe they are doing some stuff i don't know i wouldn't have heard that's a weird you can get bootlegs on it is a weird they've never done an official re-release i think they've only had the one pressing in 92 so yeah i got boned on a dancing bootleg one time i i was it was an amoeba of all places and i was like no way i never see this since the first record i bought it it's totally a bootleg i mean it's crazy they haven't put it out again hey marcus and when that album came out uh they were

at Rolling Stones signing autographs and I convinced my mom to take me. I was a Jehovah's Witness kid, right? So we stood in line. It was just like all Liberty Spikes and, you know, all these old Misfits fans. And my mom was petrified. And I remember I got her to like, let me meet Danzig. And, you know, just beside myself. They're all jet black hair. My mom's like, what the fuck? Wow. I don't know how you convinced her. It's pretty good.

Well, I was crying like a baby. I love the, I don't know who sent it. It was probably Jay, but maybe not. The whole Danzig on MTV when they were doing their like Europe tour thing and with Ricky Rockman at a castle. Oh, in Germany. He was. Yeah. Or maybe it was you. I don't know. Somebody sent me this and, and they just like could not be bothered to be interviewed.

He's just like, whatever.

It wasn't me, but I love the sound of that.

Was it you, Steve?

It was fucking cool.

It may have been you, yeah.

It was just so like, you know, oh my God, Ricky Rockman's such a poser.

I can't believe I'm tugging you.

And he would like answer everything with like, yes, no.

Oh God.

But for all of his goofiness, I love him, dude.

Like, I don't care.

I don't care.

Yeah.

He's kind of a douchebag or whatever.

He's fucking cool.

I've been holding out hope for many years that I know will never happen, but I really want John

Christ back with Danzig. Oh, fuck yeah. Because the only good Danzig albums are John Christ albums.

And apparently he lives around here, John. Yeah, he's a guitar teacher, you said, right? Yeah. And I'm like, I want to like drive out there and be like, dude, you need to fix this. You know, I probably don't talk about it as repetitively as I should, but I have to say, dude, like seeing the misfits

was such a highlight for me in my concert going life. You know, by the way, they didn't have a set list. They just came out and said, like, what should we play next? I mean, in an arena, they did that. It was so fucking good. It was everything I wanted it to be. Nice. I got to speed with Graves like four times. And by the end of it, he, I saw him literally fall on the drum set. Like he was so fucked up. Yeah. I saw Graves once. And then I saw him once with just Jerry singing. Yeah. I saw that.

I like the grave stuff. Well, at least the one. Yeah, I don't like what he talks about now, for sure. I have no idea. Oh, yeah, look it up. He's like all, like, he would have been on January 6th. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. John Schaefer, yeah. I love Days of Purgatory and something wicked, man. New band coming soon, Treasonous Bricks.

Oh, I feel bad for blind guardian, dude. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's just no great loss to him. Is it? I mean, well, they didn't have anything in the can or anything. Did they? Well, I mean, it wasn't, what was it? A year, a couple of years ago, they put out the last thing for demons and wizards. Yeah. Yeah. The third album, I think, came out two or three years ago. Yeah. What the hell's going on with blind guardian? Didn't they just put out some weird, some fun thing or something? They got a new album coming out. New album coming out this year. Do they? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, they're expanding the horizons. They're going to sing about Lord of the Rings this time. But it's one of the obscure books this time. Yeah, they're going to do an album about the Silmarillion. Jay, they got an album coming out soon. Barred Tavern, wasn't that their live album? Yeah. Well, I'll get back to my list. Jay mentioned this earlier, and I said,

I have something to say about it. It's a Dio Holy Diver, the Joe Barisi mix. And this was released to celebrate what would have been Dio's 80th birthday this year. And I bought the vinyl and it has the Barisi version on it. He used the original analog tapes to remix all nine tracks on the album. But there's also a deluxe edition and it comes with two versions of Holy Diver. So it has the Barisi mix and a newly remastered version of the original 83 mix.

But I love the Barisi mix because it gives Holy Diver a lot more punch and power. It sounds more modern. The guitar work is really bright on it and it's brought forward in the mix. And all the instruments actually sound better on the Barisi mix. There's a count in at the beginning of Rainbow in the Dark, which is pretty cool. And the Barisi mix actually adds about three minutes of playing time to the record overall.

So here's a key thing that I've noticed about it, and I love it. And it's that where there are vocal harmonies, where Dio's harmonizing with himself, he brought all the stuff in the background farther forward, and it sounds like you can really hear how he's expressing himself in those background vocals, so you can hear them better. But it's like hearing two Dio's, which of course it was like that before, but the background vocals are no longer background vocals. And that sounds wrong.

to hear me say it, but trust me, if you haven't listened to it, you're going to want to listen to this record. He did a nice job with it. He did a really good job. It's the version I'm going to listen to going forward, I think. It's better than the original. I recommend it. Plus, there's newly commissioned artwork from Mark Sasso to the original on it. It's cool. It was a really good pickup. I've been spinning it a lot.

Vital Spirit, Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind, independent release. So I've been going through everyone's mid-year list to try to reconnect with some of your top picks. And this one from Matt really grabbed me. I listened to this album before we did our top 25s, but I guess it just didn't register with me for some reason. But now I just can't get enough of it. It's spaghetti, Western, anti-colonialist black metal with this pistol-whip heavy guitar sound and these big,

It's a really good release.

Who do you compare it to?

I don't know. I can't think compared. Listen, the first thing that comes to mind would be Wayfarer.

But it's not Wayfarer, right?

It's not close to Wayfarer. It's completely different.

But that was my comparison as well.

That was the band that came to mind when you describe it.

Yes.

By the way, have we ever talked about Decibel Denver? Yeah. Okay, and I just mentioned it because Wayfair is going to be there. I know. And I actually have a friend who just moved to Denver and I was like, Tracy, maybe we want to go visit. I want to say there's some other, somebody else in the band. Oh, Glacial Tomb, I think is going to be there. Oh, yeah. I love Glacial Tomb. They're due for a new record. Pardon me. And then next one is Tome of the Unreplenished, Earthbound and Avant-Garde Music. This came out, I think, April

or May or something. But I kind of, I don't think I listened to it. I knew it was coming out, but I haven't listened to it till now recently. It's a grand sweeping melodic black metal voyage. It kind of, it conjures these kind of vast proggy atmospheric landscapes. I like the open feel that the record has. And then it has these occasional anthemic chorus vocals in it. It's really well done.

And then, um, and then, um,

I are wolves heritage, uh, independent release.

This is another band that I just happened upon the other day.

And, uh, it's a really energetic, progressive sludge slash,

slash post metal slash post hardcore.

Um, it kind of, it kind of sounds like Fugazi mixed with cult of Luna to me.

Huh?

If that makes sense.

So I really like that.

I would describe it the same way.

Would you?

Okay.

I think it's great.

It's really good. I never heard of this band. So they're from my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. Oh, are they? So I was cool. I was happy to see it show up on your list yesterday. Oh, right, right. Metal Fridays. Yep. Yeah, yeah. Fugazi mixed with Cult of Luna. That's what I think of every time I fucking throw this thing on. Next one is Midnight Odyssey Echoes of a Celestial Ruin on I Void Hanger Records. Midnight Odyssey is an atmospheric black metal band, but this is not a metal record. It's a spacey,

ambient trilogy that they crafted over the last three years. And it's just a stunning record with these gorgeous cosmic synths. It's perfect for late night stargazing and writing, which is what I do a lot. Is it like two hours long? Like most of the Midnight Odyssey? It is. It's basically three albums they did. So they released one like every year and then they put it together into this Echoes of a Celestia Ruin. These three versions. Is there a band that

Might sound kind of like them or like an Arian or black metal version. There's no metal to it, man. It's, it's, it's, it's, um, it's just ambient music. Well, it used to be 70s kind of like ambient type music to it. So they are a metal band, but they, they don't put any metal on this. It's kind of like, um, um, blood incantation. You know, they did the, uh, their ambient record, no metal on it, but this is way better.

This is way better than that. And I like

the bloody incantation. Yeah.

If you like John Carpenter or like a Blade Runner

type thing,

it's really good.

Hissing,

Hyper Virulence Architecture

on Profound Lore Records.

This is just a very dissonant

and chaotic death metal record.

I'm actually not sure how I feel about it.

I've spun it a bunch,

so I must like the record.

But it's one of those albums

We've talked about this before, where your mood really determines if it's listenable or not. So if I'm in the right mood for this kind of chaotic death metal, then it's great. Sometimes I just don't want to hear it. It's just noise to me. That's how Hissing's albums mostly are. I think this is probably their best record, though, overall. Teeth Grinder, Dystopia on Life Force Records. I stumbled across this.

Evil As Fuck, Krusty, Death Grind record the other day. Did you say grind? Yes. Yes. Pay attention, George. Oh, I was paying attention. I just wanted to highlight. Unlike the other grind albums we've talked about, though, this one hits the sweet spot for me, George, because they actually craft gasp full-length songs. What? Unheard of. So they grind your bones to dusty oblivion, but they also slow it down because they

They have more time

in the songs.

They slow it down

and then they assault you

with these enormous

death metal riffs.

So you get

grind and death metal

in their songs.

And that variety

of their assault

is just really compelling

to me.

I've heard them before

but I haven't heard this one.

Yeah, I have two.

This is by far their best.

Dude, please feel free

to use gasp

as an expression

from now on.

I love that.

Also, sigh

is one I enjoy.

So please couple your words with the names of sounds. I love it. Yes. So I, there's the thing, like I'm with John. I don't really like grind, but if you're going to do it this way where you're using it, but then you're also putting other things in and actually crafting songs that are of a decent length, you might get me. And teeth grinder does that. Well, we're not going to use a whole bunch of fucking genre tags. We're just calling extreme metal.

It's just metal. Oh yeah, I know that drum. This is a George-style list. Holy shit, I guess I really want to talk about metal. Former George-style list. Right, right, right. Witnesses, Holy Water EP, another independent release. I love Witnesses' album Doom 2. I think it was on my year-end list. I like the follow-up they did last year called The Collapse, but I just wasn't fond of the singer because they replaced the singer on that one. Now Greg Schwan, who's the

behind this witnesses band. He's back with a new witnesses EP and he's got another new singer on it. And this time it's a woman. Her name is Gabby Conan. And she has this gorgeous mournful voice. And it just brings all that heartfelt emotion that I, that I liked from doom two to the new EP. And then the music itself is kind of slowed down. It's this heavy, it's like a heavy melt,

And I think this is probably the best incarnation of the band. So I would really like to see Gabby stick around. I would like to have just one vocalist that you can actually count on. You can count on, but you know how it is with bands. You've got to gel. You need time to really make your best music. This is just an EP. So if it's the same players in there, you're going to understand.

understand better what they bring to each project. And I feel like you need that for witnesses, because there's something really good with it. But if you keep changing all the players, it's just not going to work. So I hope maybe this time that might happen. I got a couple more. Critical Defiance, No More Life Forms on Unspeakable Axe Records. So outside of the Ancestor album, quality thrash metal, options have been pretty slim.

for me in the first half of 2022. So I was really looking forward to this one because Critical Defines, I think they made my list on their last album. And I just wanted more speed metal in my ears. So this fucking delivers. It's just an exploding rocket whiplash of a record, fiery solos on it. It's really good. It's like 29 minutes right at that limit, like we like. And yeah, it's

Great. Cool. And then John actually sent me another thrash. I haven't listened to that one yet. I didn't get a chance to listen to it before we did the cast, but I got to listen to that thrash record that you threw up on the box, John. Yeah, I don't know, but I figured you would, you've been talking a lot about thrash at least, so I threw it up there. I miss it. This is like no good thrash, but there's lately there has been. So we got Critical Defiance and then this album by Battlegrave, Cavernous Depths on Bitter Lost Records. This is a, it's the thrash revolution. It started in the second half of 2020.

22 apparently. But this is thrash doused in a hot, heavy, molten pour of death metal. So this album tears it up, man. It's an absolute battle beast. It's great. I'd love to actually see these guys live because I think the crowd, the crowd would be worked up into a blood frenzy and listening to these tracks. What are the vocals like? What's that? What are the vocals like? They're like death metal-y vocals. I mean, you know, it's like thrash death metal-y vocals.

Yeah, I'd probably have to bring a helmet to that show because I think this would slay live. I really like this record. And then the last one I have on my list is an old record. It's Palms, self-titled, an epicac record. And so I went down the ISIS rabbit hole because of John with all the records. And then I remembered this awesome band that formed after ISIS disbanded. And I love this record. It's three members of ISIS.

And then they recruited Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno. And they created this post-metal, shoegazy, dream rock band. And it came out in 2013, I think. Okay, good. You confirmed it, John. I just wish they would do more. Because I don't think they ever disbanded. They just haven't done more. I'm hoping maybe, because 2023, right, is 10-year anniversary. Maybe we'll get some more. Something else. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. Right? It goes so quick.

But it's a great, great record. It's very lush, you know, but it's just phenomenal. That sounds like that Team Sleep album. Oh, yeah. The thing I like about it, too, because it doesn't sound like Deftones and Isis merge together. It sounds like its own thing. And I think that's always the trick when you bring those supergroups together. Is it just going to be, you know, the music of the one band and then the singer? No, this sounds just like its own entity.

And that's what I really liked about it. So that's what I got. Super long list. Sorry, boys. Hey, Matt. Previously mentioned, I want to say their name is Gaera. G-A-E-R-A. Kind of black and death metal. Their album is coming. They have a couple tracks out. I think just one. Really solid stuff. It's Gaera. Gaera. I've got to work on my pronunciations. Alters, which we previously talked about.

Behold the Monolith. I think that came out last weekend. Kind of solid stoner metal. Moinock. We have a promo, I believe, but they have a preview track out. Constant Spin has been the new Wake, the new Wormrot. And then also Iron Wolves. Like I said, Marcus and I was so glad to see that show up in your feed because I've been following these dudes for years. They're out of Duluth, you know, beyond the Great Wall, the Cold North.

I went up to see a friend of the podcast, Eric, to go see them play live. And they ended up not playing, but we kind of chatted with the bass player for a little bit. You know, solid dude. And this is like really good post-metal. I see good things for these guys. I'm glad to see them kind of get out and, you know, spin their shit in the world. So lastly, I have three other albums to mention. I've seen this band's logo.

Numerous times, but really probably never given the time that they deserve.

The new Haunt album is really striking a chord with me.

I'm really getting into kind of that traditional death metal or traditional heavy metal.

I think because I just like on my mind is so much about just rocking out.

I think that traditional heavy metal kind of carries that torch for me.

The other one I would mention with that is kind of more stoner,

But like the new Telekinetic Yeti album, I cannot stop spitting it. I feel like I'm really, back when I talked about being in Mexico in April and just needing those riffs and going to like a high on fire, you can see that transition to Telekinetic Yeti being smooth and just deep. The last thing I'll mention, and it's funny you had mentioned it prior, George, I was having a conversation with my neighbor, and he's not a metal guy, which is totally fine, but he mentioned like Nine Inch Nails and kind of like,

and industrial metal and I said hey have you checked out ministry and he said no

and then I just completely dove into ministry this week

kind of thinking mostly the mind is a terrible thing to taste

and Psalm 69 but also their live set from Bakken

Enjoy the Quiet I think is what it's called back in 2012

super good to listen to

yeah I love me some ministry

yeah it took me a while to get into Filth Pig

I loved Filth Pig

I saw them on the filth pig tour. I love filth pig. So good. I heard something on the, I think it was lava was probably like just randomly on the radio the other day. I was like, fucking filth pig. Nice. But like, I'm not a big live album guy except for like some really good, like historically good live albums, but ministry live at Hawken is pretty decent. Yeah. Cool. Me likey. All right, John. Uh, first,

Matt, next time we talk to Eric, say for me, hey, buddy. Hey, buddy. I'll tell him. You know? Tell him when you're in your underwear. Come on in, buddy. Or when he's in his. No, we're good. We're all good. Come on in. We're not sleeping. Come on in. Let's have a party. You need a beer, buddy? I'm not going to say no. All right. My list is pretty short here.

I did not listen to much metal at all post mid-year because I burned out hard because I been really busy with work and we had a lot of shit going on here at the house so I didn't get as much time to listen so I crammed a lot so I needed to take a break and most of my listening has been non-metal so but I do have a few here I have been spinning the altars album a lot this month I do like that a lot we talked about that earlier and also the gates of the morning we got the promo I've been spinning

quite a bit. So those two, I've gotten to. After that, I've only got two other things I've been listening to. One, the new Derek Sherinian album, Vortex, is out. This is not metal at all. Derek Sherinian is a former keyboardist at Dream Theater. He's in Planet X, Sons of Apollo, Black Country Community. He's played with Billy Idol, Kiss. He's a keyboard extraordinaire, but his solo stuff is all kind of proggy fusion, jazzy stuff. So he just released a new album.

And it's just loaded with boatloads of just unbelievable musicians like Simon Phillips, who I'm sure everyone's heard of him as a drummer. Tony Franklin, Jeff Berlin, Steve Stevens, who everyone knows from Billy Idol. Nuno Beccancourt, come on. Extreme. Extreme. But he's a fabulous guitar player. Joe Bonamaso, Steve Lukather. If you don't know the name Steve Lukather, you... You haven't been to Africa. Yeah. No, no. Exactly. But he's also a great session musician.

Jay and TR is like God that they worship at the idol of Michael Shanker's on the album, Zach Wild, Bumblefoot. So it's a killer album of prog infusion with all those guest stars on it. So I've been spinning that a ton. And then a lot of my listing this month has been Face Warning ever since I got the new biography, Destination On Board, the story of Face Warning by Jeff Wagner. I'm at the point where Awaken the Guardian is about to be recorded in Los Angeles.

And so I have listened to all the John Arch stuff for the umpteenth time in my life. And it's still fucking awesome. And I'm looking forward to just working my way through the book. I know, Marcus, you just got it. So I hope you enjoy it, too. It's good so far. It's great. I'll probably start it pretty soon. And the beauty of the book, real quick, is that all these musicians that are playing with them now in the band, they've been friends with since the very beginning. So it's not like they just picked these.

Musicians like Joey Vera and Bobby Jarzombik out of the hat. They've all been connected with these guys for a long, long time. So it's kind of nice to hear how that all started. Plus some interesting stories in the early days of Metal Blade, you know, when they were hanging out with Slayer and Armored Sane. It's kind of cool to hear all those stories. Yeah, it looks forward to that. Yeah, and Anthrax, not fans of theirs, you know, and the guy from Megaforce Records. I have to read some of the stories, not fans.

It's cool. It's really fun to read the early day stuff. So, George, if you're considering it, a third of the book is up through Awaken the Guardian. Yeah, no, I'd consider it the other way. And I know it's stuff you like the most. Yeah, sure. All right, then, Jay? All right, well, going late in the list always gives me a little room to say you guys said a bunch of stuff, but I will, some things worth mentioning.

The Witchery I'll be listening to more. Mark's going to be glad to know I'm listening to the Wake album and enjoying that very much. I've also been listening to the Alters album. I listened to the Dio Barresi thing, which is probably going to spin me down a Dio rabbit hole eventually here. And then, so that and whatever else I've been listening to, but I also watched, I mentioned I watched this Saxon documentary again recently, and I was going to get stuck in these cool wormholes.

where like sort of trying to reconstruct like what was heavy in 1979 because you lose when you when now that we have all that we have you forget that like motorhead was the heaviest band in the world for a while and stuff like that and so and so going down those rabbit holes sometimes like um pushes me towards something i never picked up and i picked up two records by a new wave of british heavy metal band that i always knew the covers misrepresented

what they were like. And also, I remember finding one in a record store, and I also got Venom Blackmittle on the same day, and this record cover went towards that. So I'll get to it. And it's a band called Demon, who is not, they don't sound like you expect them to sound. They're not like, you know, Slayer or something like that. But their stuff came out in like, they've been around since like 79. And so I thought, you know, I should really check them out. And they have these two records, the first one, Night of the Demon, the second one's

It's called The Unexpected. They're fucking awesome. I love them, man. I just love discovering stuff like this. I mean, it's about the speed of like UFO with like merciful fate lyrics. So it's really actually kind of bloister culty. Like, you know how bloister cult is kind of spooky because they are so weirdly accessible and yet they're talking about some odd things sometimes. Anyway, so that was like a really cool thing that harkens all the way back to the early 80s for me that I used to see in record stores. And I think I heard a segment one time.

I was like that is not what that band should sound like yeah I remember on the last episode I I'm almost through it but you were talking about the band Satan and how they're like the least satanic band yeah they are yes well this band actually lyrics are thematically pointed in that direction but it's so nice that you can still find something that I think had I been a little more open-minded as a kid I would have enjoyed because

It's not a slayer Accessible satanic music

Well it's definitely a new wave of British heavy metal

But it's early edge

It's like you know motorhead bomber time

You know what I mean

So and it was

It's because I watched the Saxon thing

And it is funny

The power with which heavy metal thunder

And some of those early songs hit people

There was nothing else like that at that time

And so I guess that pushed me on to go

Well what was there like that

Long story short I recommend those two records

if you're a heavy metal historian. They went on to make quite a few. They started to kind of wander off the plot a little bit after that, but only in a more proggy way. They started to edit some keyboards and stuff, but again, it's probably somewhere between UFO and Saxon, but with really good songwriting, great guitar playing, great riffs, something I should have probably checked out a long time ago. So that's my kind of like, hey, check it out for the week, Demon. First two records especially. Night of the Demon,

is the first one and unexpected guests is the second one.

That's it.

Alrighty.

I have a very short list.

What?

How can you be surprised at this point? I haven't had a long list in forever.

I just remember old George.

I know.

You got ridiculed a lot.

I did. I did. I was list shamed.

Yeah, their lists all got longer.

I know, I know.

Yeah.

Fucking jerk.

Mine's still short. It's always been short.

Yeah.

Little mushroom cat.

Mine's always been short.

Same.

Could you please, could you please cut that sound bite out of John's, please?

Mine's short. It's always been short.

I'd like that.

Thank you.

At this point, Jay, nothing's going to change it.

It's staying short.

Yeah, I got popsicle sticks and duct tape.

So, first up, we just got the promo for this.

It is not yet.

I think it's out next month.

with the new Amana Marth album, The Great Heathen Army, their 12th album. At this point, Amana Marth is like ACDC or Overkill. You kind of know what you're getting, but I dig it. I like it. It's, you know, it's like on that fence of like, well, we're kind of extreme metal, but we're kind of accessible. And hey, Vikings, who doesn't love Vikings? So, you know, it's not, I wouldn't say it would make my list,

But it's a fun lesson. Next up, I've got something I got from Justin. That is Night, N-I-T-E, Voices of the Cronian Moon. It's like an album of a Bay Area black heavy metal band. So it's like heavy metal music with black metal vocals. I thought that was interesting, so I picked that up. Ooh, ooh, we have a guest. Do we got Maggie?

I'm looking a little rough. I spent the day at the pool and I just got done like cooking and cleaning. You need to like move over a little more so we can see you. There you go. There you go. How you doing? Good. Belated happy 40th. Sorry, let me say that again. Belated happy birthday. Thank you. I'm cool at 40. I actually feel really good at 40. To be honest, I feel pretty good at 40. Right on.

Yeah, I mean, I think I got to go to the party. I got a fucking Viking drinking horn for my birthday. It was the best birthday gift I got. It was just awesome. Yeah. While I'm not using it, it sits like as a masterpiece on my dining room table. I love it. You did use it a lot at the 40th party. I love it. Yeah, I did. Yes, I did. Gotta have a good gift. 40th birthday is a big thing. So I'm glad you did. Yeah, it was awesome.

It was really, really awesome. I was actually so surprised that you showed up. I was so like, what are you doing? How are you even here? I didn't even know you were in like this side of the States. I was like, I'm back. Stevie, good job keeping that. I'm like, bro, you literally came from Hawaii to see me for my birthday. I was feeling really special. I don't know if I like it that much.

I felt cool about it. Yeah, George, can you introduce her to everyone? I don't think she knows everyone. I don't. Oh, wow. That's right. I've been on yours. You haven't been on mine. That's true. I haven't. All right. Well, I don't know what you're seeing, but from my perspective, we've got John over here. There's John. Nice to meet you. Markisan, you know. Hi, Maggie. And then there's Matt. Hello.

Hey, Matt. Hey. And then we've got Jay. What up, Jay? And Will, you know, but he's not here. The handsome one is Matt. The handsome one. Yeah, the handsome one. Do that. Yeah. So, what's going on? Oh, I mean, by life, I guess. Fucking mom. Yeah. You know, working mom.

That's it. That's what I do these days. You listen to anything? It doesn't have to be metal. Honestly, I am listening to incredibly loud machines at work. That's what I listen to. For real. So industrial metal. It is. Yeah. I do blast. Neubaden. I blast Bathory. Nice. I know it's commercial, but I'm still blasting Mastodon. All good.

All the albums are just

Yeah, I heard that. Did you hear that?

That was weird.

No, I got a sharp ringing in my ear.

Oh, dear.

Which Bathory albums?

No, which Mastodon album?

I want another Bathory.

I actually like the Nordlands.

One and two.

Okay, there you go.

Those are my favorite.

The rest are still good.

I'll still listen to them.

I still hang.

But if I'm going to, if I put it on like, you know, just a mix, then I'm still going to listen to it. I'm still going to love it. But if I'm choosing what I want to hear by Bathory, I'm actually doing Northland's one and two. Nice. Back to the Viking stuff. I fucking love it. I mean, I just love it. That's just, I don't know. I don't know why I like it so much, but I love it. All right.

I don't know. Anything through correct this guy is usually. Yeah, that's usually the correct answer. That's it. But I mean, even their newer stuff, I'm aware of and I know. And like I said, if I'm at work, I'm running a machine. So I'm usually putting on something I want to hear and then it just kind of scrolls through. But yeah, the ZZ Top here. Actually, ZZ Top played Woodstock last week. My son won.

Sort of ZZ Top anyway. Heart was supposed to play with them. Yeah, and they got COVID or whatever, so guess who Collective Soul? It was so bad. They replaced Heart with Collective Soul. Yeah. Did they shine? Apparently, I don't know. I don't go. I didn't go. Well, did it gel? I feel like they should have refunded a portion of the money for the tickets because the tickets were like 100 and like for basic seats. It was like 100 and something.

Well, you're going to replace Nancy Wilson with that. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, bro. You're going to replace Heart with Collective Soul. And then the tickets were still like over 110 bucks. That's a fucking rip off. Dude, yeah, it's like biker fest for sure. Oh, you know what? It's really funny. So I work in Wisconsin and I have to drive like about an hour northeast, I think. And.

Country Thunder is out here. I don't know if you guys know what Country Thunder is. It's like if you made OzFest all fancy jeans. But you can stay there for four days. Way more rape for sure. It's super rapey. But I have to drive past it. I have to drive past this place. So like my whole way to work is just like totally like a long Country Drive. And so Country Thunder,

is this huge like four-day, five-day music, country music festival. A lot of guys. Just out in the middle of nowhere with, in a field, basically. And so my last few trips to work have been so interesting because there's just like drunk news, which I'm no judge on anybody drunk. That's not my point. But it's just, there's just Trump signs everywhere. And it's just, it's really weird. It's just so, just in the middle of the country.

I'm coming across on my way home. I go to work at like, I usually pass it about like four in the morning. I guess if I was at a festival, I'd probably still be partying at four in the morning too. But I'm in a different headset. I'm in like, fuck, I'm going to run a machine all day. So I'm like, I'm a way to work. And there's just these country dudes drunk walking up and down the street. And I, it's

It's kind of rapey. There's like young girls and cowboys. It's just a really weird scenario. There were definitely some rape reports. They have it in this location every year for several years. And there are several reports. That's cool. It's kind of like the Catholic Church, I guess. Yeah. It pretty much is. It's exactly related, but not entirely. White dudes that have control and power over wind, so we're just going to fucking rape them.

It's not like it's their bodies or anything. We can do what we want. Exactly. My wife and I went for a drive in the country today and I turned on the radio and I got to hear, and this makes me happy, mind you, rhinestone cowboy and mommas don't let your babies grow up. They're cowboys back to back on the radio. It was a good day. I love those songs. I love old country. Old country is not, we ain't talking about the same thing here though. I know you know because I saw the look you just gave me in the

I know you know. It's a whole other thing. Yeah, it's not even country. I don't even know what it is. It is not. It is so not. It's like the... Well, it's pop rock. Yeah, pop country. Yeah. Yeah. It's formulated. Those good old boys and those dirty old girls. We're going to rape them. Well, here we are. Oh, that's probably unnecessary. But hey, that's just how I feel. It was weird. It's a strange.

It's a strange thing to drive through on your way to work.

I bet.

Well, right now we're doing What Are You Listening To?

And I think it's George's turn.

Yeah, I mentioned Night.

I've only got a couple more.

Next up is Order of Ovi, Riven Cathedrals, and their fourth album, Absolute.

This is an Italian death metal band.

You could say technical, but it's not like Arch Spire technical.

It's kind of technical, but it's pretty heavy, too. It's pretty brutal. I don't know. I sent this out to everybody. Nobody said anything. I think Justin liked it. Next up is another promo that is not out yet, but the new Psy album, Shiki? I don't know how to say that. It's their 12th album. They're Japanese.

Black Band. I love that band. Yeah, it's a great album, so you can look forward to that. And listening to this was like, ah, man, I got to go back and do a deep dive on these guys. I haven't listened to so much of their stuff in so long, so that's an upcoming deep dive after I finish my current deep dive, which I'll get to. So the second-to-last band is a band that Stacy sent me.

And they're called,

the goofiest fucking name,

but Sunrise Patriot Motion.

What?

That is goofy as fuck.

And Black Fell Flower Stream is their first album.

I love it.

Yeah, she's so bad to me too.

Yeah, it's like New York experimental black goth music.

Two of the guys, the brothers from Yellow Eyes.

Oh, that's the one.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, I was waiting, waiting, waiting.

I knew I'd get you guys to cook you with that. Now my interest is peaked. Yeah, no, I actually, I listened to it, but I couldn't remember what the name of the band was. And yeah. It's not a memorable name. No, that's odd. It's odd. Yeah, it was, oh shit, I should have written this down when I said it, but. It's been called Architecture for Curtains in Malaysia. It's kind of like. Ridiculous. To me, actually, so I think what I described it to Stacy was this sounds like Sisters of Mercy.

meets Godflesh.

Yeah, I agree.

Totally.

It's awesome.

What is it called, George?

The band is called Sunrise Patriot Motion.

It's not a memorable name because it's three things that just don't.

It's a terrible name.

It is.

I got it.

It's on Bandcamp, though.

I'm living in America and having anything with the name Patriot, and it kind of just turns me off.

Yeah, exactly.

But it's a crazy, interesting album.

It's amazing.

And it really, really inspired me. And it sent me off on my current deep dive, which is Godflesh. Because I was like, oh man, I gotta listen to some Godflesh after this. And so I'm about halfway through the Godflesh catalog right now. Godflesh is in my top ten favorite bands of all time. Yeah, that's some good shit. So, yeah. Thank you, Stacy, for huge amounts of inspiration with this.

I love that bitch. Oh, yeah. She's awesome. Well, I haven't met her yet, but you guys have, so I'll take your word for it. I'm like, what the fuck just happened? We'll probably go to metal shows soon. We keep talking about it. Text me. Yeah, well, we're hoping she'll come out. We don't get monkey box. Yeah. Hopefully she'll come out for decibels. We were talking about that, so we'll see. She's the concert queen, dude. I know. Every fucking day. She's like,

I'm at this show. I'm at that show. She's the baddest bitch I ever fucking met, dude, for real. Baddest bitch you ever met. All right. I feel like that's a soundbite. Yeah, I think so. I think everybody can agree to that. I think everybody can agree. I like this. This is actually really good. I'm listening. Oh, you're listening. Oh, okay. To Sunset Labyrinth. Sunrise Labyrinth. Patriot. Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. I don't know. Sunset Patriot. Oh, I can't see it. Sounds like it should be the

The soundtrack to The Boys. Yeah. You know what? I don't know if we talked. I don't think we talked about this before, but. We're on their show. What was that movie we watched? It was a fucking badass. And the end song was Tales of Murder and Dust. Oh, Hunter, Hunter. Hunter, Hunter, dude. And the end of the movie, they just played this fucking badass track. And now I'm just obsessed.

with this band is Tales of Murder and Dust. It's just fucking... It gives all... The Joy Division realm while a woman's getting back and... She just fucking pounds on him and just... Slicing him and like a... She is so pissed of torturing her that she like skins him slowly and shit. Just to fucking... She doesn't want to just kill the guy. She's like, you fucked with me and I want to fuck with you for a long time. I don't think they thought the podcast was going to look like this. Oh, I'm sorry. So,

I should just wash the dishes. Nah, nah, that's cool. So the band name is Tales of Murder and Dust? Tales of Murder and Dust is the band name, and it's fucking badass. I don't really know exactly what to compare it to. I guess you would say Joy Division, but this has kind of some of that vibe, too. It's between David Bowie and Anal Cunt. Well, that's a pretty wide range. It's between David Bowie and Anal Cunt, bro.

I don't know why you just come to me to remember this, but I have a movie, a movie recommendation. And it's, if you guys haven't seen this, um, Nicolas Cage thing, the unbearable thing of talent or whatever. So fucking funny, dude. I want to see that. Is that where he plays Nicolas Cage? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I kind of came into it a little bit like, I don't know. We'll see. But dude, I have not laughed that hard in a long time. It is fucking. You know what? It's funny.

Yeah, because I've been thinking all day that I haven't just busted a gut in like a while. So I'm still stuck on the tape of Ziggy Stardust here. I don't know what that refers to, but it still sounds funny. In between David Bowie and Anal Cunt, we've the tape of Ziggy Stardust. Everything fits in there. One size fits all. Nicholas Cage has been on such a roll, man, with Maggie and then

You know, the Colorado Space. Oh, the Colorado Space is a great movie. It was great, man. I love anything Lovecraftian, man. Oh, yeah. We did do that. Pig. I want to see Pig. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty good, too. That's like Keanu and his dog, but it's Nicholas and his pig. I'm guessing. Like you did Face Off, and then there was like seven movies where he was just like. Oh, Face Off was good. I totally forgot about that movie. Oh, so good. That was fucking good. He's got some stinkers.

For sure. The Rock. Well. The Rock. You know. Mandy. I love Mandy. I love Mandy too. Mandy. Word. You know what I really liked over the last couple years was, what was that movie? Fucking Sumner? You're looking at me. Midsommar? Yeah. I fucking love that movie so hard, dude. Yes. I've watched it like six times. I've still watched that shit. Maggie, you need to get the director's cut. I actually went to A24.

and they like sell the director's cut version and it's like 40 minutes longer but you don't even notice everything is just it's just better i love it it's one of my favorite horror movies the last i fucking love that also watch uh heredity yeah oh done there seen it love it fucking love it excellent i think do you guys all have shutter uh not anymore well you're gonna have to get it because the horror movie just came out on there yeah

Oh my god. That's what Matthew wanted to watch when I was camping up north. My little nephew, he's like, let's watch this movie. I tried looking for it. They just went out like the whole John Carpenter thing. My favorite John Carpenter movie is Body Bags. Do you remember that one? I haven't seen it, but I've heard of it. So fun. So fun. Actually, Sam Raimi does a cameo in it. Nice. Oh, shit. Yeah.

Mr. Evil Dead himself. Yeah, I haven't even seen Doctor Strange. It includes Shudder, I think. Yeah. So. Dude, get Shudder, dude. It's, they have like categories for like, if you want to watch witchy shit, there's like a thousand movies about witches. If you want to watch like, you know, gory blood shit, there's a fucking category. But it's like Netflix. They got all their own movies, you know. It's a really good dude. We've watched some fucking good shit on them. It's good.

Isn't it free? Oh, we pay for that? My dumbass. It's not super expensive, I don't think. My dumbass. I'm like, oh, you're going to pay for it. It's pretty cheap, actually. I think it's like five bucks a month, actually. Oh, well, that ain't shit. That's basically free. I mean, for something, if you're going to utilize it often, that's... Well, my favorite part of it is Joe Bob Briggs. Yes. Oh, I love Joe Bob. He's my fucking hero, dude.

So he drinks beer? He does. Yeah, he's like if Elvira was... Did he have a show called The Lost Drive-In or something like that? He did. Yeah. No, I love Joe Bob. Yeah, it's the best. B&T? I don't know. Isn't that a channel? Well, yeah, it was on one of those channels. I thought it was like... Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, you're right.

You're right, like a TNT. Yeah. That's pretty like old school. I'm thinking of ACDC. I knew it. The channel was called Dirty Deeds. Dirty Deeds. Thank you. Billy Bob's Dirty Deeds. Yeah, TNT after hours. Sounds right. Is there another part of the script? Yeah, we got to pick one album we've mentioned so far as our album on the episode. Did George finish this listening? I did.

I'll wrap it up.

What was your deep dive?

Both

Psy and Godflesh.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

And I'm actually

trying to do a

Depeche Mode deep dive as well.

Why wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So, all right.

So, album of the episode.

Steve, what do you got? What has been mentioned that is your album of the episode? Well, I guess in silver through blood. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it's like I said, I have a neurosis logo that wasn't big enough. So I based my arm off of one of the songs on where it is locked. So you're neurotic about neurosis.

For real.

That's a real life statement.

Yeah.

When I was 13, I had like anything in punk rock max and I would like glue them to a binder.

Yeah.

I've been there.

We actually still own them.

I think several of them.

Yeah.

It's not that cool when you say that loud, but I think it's pretty cool.

I think it's cool.

I used to have trapper keepers.

Remember trapper keepers?

And I would slice the plastic open and like stick in pictures from magazines.

and stuff like that George what no man it was all it was definitely hip parader well anything

pre-internet I mean that was kind of like your collection Ranger Rick oh yeah I mean I did my whole bedroom door front and back with like you know small pictures cut out of magazines and like collaged together the whole thing

I think we probably all did that. Yeah, that was... I mean... I never got over it. When Maggie met me, she went into my apartment and she's like, what the fuck? Well, because his kids ate there. I was like, they ain't no... Well, my kitchen was like a big thing of mayhem. Yeah. You know, and it had like the pig skull with the sword in it. Dead dude in the corner. It's really... Brains out. It shouldn't be in the fucking kitchen, bro. The kids eat there. I didn't know how to be appropriate. That's... It was weird, bro. I'm just saying. Just saying. Cool, but like there should be a room for that. Like that would be...

It was like the hugest poster. I don't even know what poster it was. It was so many years ago. It was above the kitchen table. And it was like a chick who had just been raped, hung upside down, blood run out of her. I don't know. That was above the fucking table where the kids are. No, we talked about that earlier. No, no, no. That was the relapse contamination poster. Welcome to dinner, children. I can't tell you what's in your seasoning, but.

Might be human. It looked like it was. I was like, okay. It is people. It is people. We have a lot of shit all about our house. Actually, a lot of people are weirdo, like our family members, and there's people that come in there and just don't ever come again because our house is weird. And I'm cool with that. I don't care. Well, Marco sounds weird. You're like a normal house to me. Right. Thank you. You know, maybe you put all your weird shit in the background.

No, we didn't put nothing up. I mean, I guess somebody that is, I'm about to sound like a real dick, but I guess somebody that was cool wouldn't have seen any of our things sitting around and been like, you guys are weird. But some people come over and they're like picking up books and like, don't put your energy on my fucking books. Don't touch my crystals. Don't touch my shit. I think it's weird to some people. Don't touch my crystals. Yeah, I don't want you leaving your dirtiest energy on my rock. Sorry about that. I've touched every single one.

You don't have no dirty NG. I'm talking about other people. Other people. I don't even know. I'm rambling now. I have no idea the point of. So it's your album on the episode. I just showed up, but hey, pick something. Mastodon. Neurosis. I didn't say neurosis. You don't speak for me. I was trying to get a vote. Oh, a vote. I got nothing. I'm going to be honest. I could throw something out there just so I looked

Cool, but literally I have. All in notes. Okay. I guess I'll go. Go, baby. We're never going to be invited back. I don't. You're always invited back. I should have never come down. I'm sorry. No, it's good to see you. Sorry, John J., Matt. It's just late, so some of these guys got to go to bed. Yeah, I have to be up in six hours to go to the beach. Girl, shut your mouth if you don't.

I'll just keep going.

Uh,

well,

I'll pick my album of the month.

So we mentioned a lot of classic.

Album,

the episodes.

Oh,

right.

Right.

I'm a little drunk now.

Um,

album,

the episode.

So,

uh,

but I'm going to go with the shiny new kid.

Cause,

uh,

this album was just out yesterday and,

uh,

I talked about it pretty passionately.

I'm going to go with a week thought form descent on metal blade records.

Shocking album.

And one of the best followup records I've heard in a while.

So.

Love it. Hey. Maddie. She'd come as no surprise because I'm contractually obligated to make this my album of the episode. If it is mentioned, it is Leviathan by Mastodon. Thank you, Steve. What's your second album of the month? It would have to be Wake. Or episode Wake. It would be a time-to-end Wake and Warm Rock. I don't remember. I know I mentioned it, but. Every time when I look down, or every once in a while, George, when you speak and I'm looking away,

You sound like Will sometimes. And I'm like, hey, fucking Will's there. He's not. Really? I sound like I have a giant dong? Play a Will clip. Play a Will clip, George. There's a vocal cord for them? Well, he's not like snow. Yeah, me too. Dang. I just got the text that we're shooting for 530 now. What? Yeah, gotta go to the beach. What beach is this? I'm gonna just trick myself out here. I was hoping Will was on.

No, yeah, I had to get up at 5.30 to go to the beach. Right. Well, then you're good for the night, George. Nobody has to do that ever. What? Get up at 5.30? For the beach. I would absolutely love getting up at 5.30 to go to the beach. I get up at 2 to go to fucking work. 5.30 beach? Fuck yes. All right, I will not complain then. It's going to be hot as fuck though. No, no, no, they still got to go.

John, right?

All right.

Mine's going to be Altars.

Aesthetic Reflections.

John really likes that one.

It's a contender.

Something new.

That's all.

Yeah, me too.

I'll go with,

since it's probably the one I spewed about the most, Oceanic.

All right.

What to do, what to do, what to do. I'm looking at everything and I'm not sure. I would like to give a couple shout outs before you end. Of course. That's okay. Well, I haven't done mine yet. Oh, I'll just get it over with. I think I'm going to go Wormrot. Now you may speak, Steve.

Yeah, I would like,

just to shout out a couple of my friends,

more to the player for sure.

The new album.

Steve was a very near and dear friend to us.

And,

you know,

like to give him some props.

It's a completely weird album.

Let's see who else wanted.

Oh,

Crusader.

They're traditional.

Nice.

Good call.

They're working on a new album. They're kind of like misfits meets like Judas Priest kind of stuff. That sounds interesting. Yeah, it is. They're good. Yeah, they're good people. Yeah, I would say Jimmy Doom from Flesh Grind. His Doom band now, Avernus, they've been around since the mid-90s. They're putting on a new album. Oh, yep. I'm missing Rick.

Yeah, Rick Hernandez is the drummer in like every guy. Everything he does is amazing. But yeah, Withering Soul, I don't know if you've heard that. He's amazing. Yeah, he's in Withering Soul. He just put out a new Thrash album where he plays everything. It's amazing. Imminent Terror. He plays drums in the band count. Hi-Reth, H-I-R-A-E-T-H.

Like three other bands, but that always he's promoting. Whatever Rick Hernandez is doing, he needs and totally deserves all the love and respect and attention. He's just amazing. Yeah. Manny Controla with Indyne. Yeah. That's really all I got as far as shout outs. But yeah, I just wanted to make sure I remembered. Yeah. They wanted me to say something. Well, they deserve a spotlight. They really do.

All right, well, here we are at the end. Thanks, everybody, for showing up. Thanks, Maggie, for showing up at the end. Thanks for having me. I know I probably just talked everybody's ears off and disrupted everything, but I'm good at that. We don't have enough of a plot to ever be interrupted. Yeah, we're under five hours. We're on schedule. If anything needed to be interrupted, I'm your bitch. I am your bitch. I'm here for it. I'll be loud.

I'll just talk about nothing all the time forever.

So yeah,

but I,

I,

I will say thank you so much for having me.

Um,

you know,

the,

the friendships that I have with George and with Markisan,

um,

you know,

Matt J,

John,

I,

I hope to see you at some shows in the future,

but yeah,

no,

thank you very much.

Oh yeah.

Let me join too.

Yeah,

Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Yeah. Believe me, if it was just us, it would be boring. Exactly. So maybe, you know, maybe try and think about a decibel in April. Yeah. That's a lot of time, though. Like, that's... That's why you have a lot of time to think about it. No, that's... No, it was an excuse. It did sound like an excuse. I was saying that's a lot of time, though. Like, we should be able to work that out. Well, make it happen. Make it so, number one. Do it.

That'd be cool. I could sell this. You what? Let's love this camera. Thanks, Jay. Alrighty. Thanks for coming on. It was nice to meet everybody that I haven't met and George. It was really super good to see you guys and talk to you guys again. Damn. Thank you. Until next time. Enjoy the beach. Put sunscreen on, George. Oh, lots. Bye, guys. Bye.

We're not done until Jay's butt hurts.