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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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You must listen.
You must listen.
Now, here is the podcast, Metal Heads Podcast.
Hello and welcome to the Metal Heads Podcast. My name is George.
This is Jake.
This is John.
This is the return of the math situation.
And this is Markisan.
And we're very excited to welcome Chuck BB to the podcast.
Chuck is one of the most metal comic book artists on the planet he's the creator of Stone Cold Lazy a comic strip found in the pages of Decibel Magazine every month and he co-created and illustrated the epic Eisner award-winning graphic novel Black Metal Chuck also does professional design work for production houses studios and game companies including Exploding Kittens which is a game that I love I love that game got a quality beard welcome
Welcome to the Metalheads Podcast, Chuck. Thanks for hanging out with us. Oh, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm currently an exploding kitten, you know? Wow. I have to know how that came about. Oh, I was working at Warner Brothers doing animation for this Teen Titans Go cartoon. We're doing background art for that. Yeah, and a buddy of mine who I'd known for a while was part of the early team from Exploding Kittens, like part of that Kickstarter team.
They were starting to expand and grow a little. So they were looking for a professional artist to join up. And yeah, we were already big fans of the game. So they said, come on over. So I've been there for close to like four years. Wow. Have you done some of the other games like Babies and Monsters? Is that the other one? Yeah. Bears versus Babies. Bears versus Babies. That's what it is. Before I joined, but like the I did like right when I joined, I did this game called
called Poetry for Neanderthals, which is actually one of the more successful ones. Yeah. It's like a taboo game, but you can only speak in single syllable words. So everybody sounds like a caveman when they're trying to get someone to guess like a word. Like, yeah, but the best part is if you get it wrong, they got this inflatable bat and you get to hit people with it. That's my bat. You created the bat. Wow. All right. Well, you just like went up another notch.
That's awesome. I love that. I'm trying to climb. Second question is, how did you get roped to being on here? Well, you know what, George? I was going to say, with a resume like that, are you sure you understand what I showed? Yeah. It was me. Yeah. I just sent him a message. And, you know, Chuck, I haven't really seen you do that many interviews, actually, or just anything on camera or on podcasts or anything like that. Yeah. Here and there, it's been a while. I have kind of like, when I've been working on
and animation and for the game company, I haven't really been doing a lot of like public facing stuff as much. So I haven't been putting out a lot of comics and things like that. But I'm kind of starting to ramp that back up. So I think like recently I was like, I just joined a new platform called Instagram. Very bad timing. That's the forefront of technology. Yeah. So maybe that's what, what brought me back into the fold. I don't know. Was this a cold call type deal or do you know Chuck Markson? I don't know. I mean,
I mean, I mean, obviously I know his comics, I'm in comics and I've just been a huge fan. And, you know, we get Decibel Magazine and I just, I get a good laugh out of Stone Cold Lazy. And, you know, me, I'm always looking to try to get new and interesting guests on the show. And I, you know, I've had brought some other artists on and I was like, oh my gosh, Chuck would be a really good one to have on this because he's so closely aligned with Decibel. He did a book called Black Metal. And so I just reached out to him and he was all about it.
Yeah, yeah. I've listened to the podcast before. I've seen you guys floating around and stuff. So it was really cool when Mark sound came over and hit me up and I was like, hell yeah. Why not? 16 hours of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah. Edits down to 22 hours. Somehow it gets longer when you edit. I add more dramatic pauses. There's a little store here by me and it's a very little store. I really am not going anywhere.
and I ran there to get a Coke and I was wearing my carcass shirt and this dude goes, hey, nice shirt. And just a guy who came down from Tucson for the day and was like, hey. And we got to shotgun and I told him I was on a podcast. And he's like, what's it called? I'll listen to it. And I was like, nah, don't. You are getting grumpy, Jay. I was like, you'll like me a lot less. No, I told him where it was and everything. But I said, just be forewarned as long. Yeah, yeah. That's what Will said. And Will may be joining us later. He said he would, but he said he would be late and leaving early as
a grumpy old man will do. So yeah, I wear my shirts around all the time and get people asking me about that stuff. And that's why I wear them. It's free publicity. Random strangers go, hey, what's that podcast? Yeah. You know, that first the first Stone Cold Lazy strip, I think I did. It was just like, you know, there weren't a lot of metal comic things at the time. And I the first one I did, I think it was like, this two guys at a party. One guy has
like a T-shirt on and the other guy has, I forget what the other band was, and they just instantly recognize themselves or each other. They're like Instabros basically. How did you get hooked up with Decibel doing that? When I did the black metal series, you know, I got on a lot of metal radars and I was already a subscriber to Decibel at that point and they hit me up and I was like, dudes, yes, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Was it Albert? Albert along with, I believe, Nick. Okay.
But it's been 15-ish years, I feel like, so I've really lost the thread. Wow. Really? Has it been that long? Yeah. Wow. I don't think so. One of my favorites, and I apologize if this was something you were in no way associated with, but I always loved the metal activity book thing that was in Decibel there for a while. My favorite one ever was, and it was like an obvious picture of Lemmy, and it said, connect the moles to see whatever order this is. It was like one of my favorite drawing things ever.
It was not me, but awesome. I think it's really cool how Decibel brings in those kinds of interesting artists and has some fun with that stuff. I mean, yeah, it's great. Was Stone Cold Lazy created for Decibel or is this something you were already tuning around with, Jeff? Totally created for Decibel. They were like, hey, would you like to do a comic for Decibel? I'm like, yes. They had really no idea what. They kind of suggested some stuff like you could goof on lyrics or, you know, whatever. And so I just kind of started to
And it's changed a lot through the time, like the way that I use it. But yeah, I just was like, it was purely created for Decibel. So yeah, I noticed that they tend to tie in some theme from the issue. Do they go make it about, you know, this band or, you know, or, you know, what's their, what do they dictate to you for an issue? Yeah. So for a long while, there was really no dictation and there still is no dictation at all.
I'm not being told to do anything. After many, many years of doing the comic and trying to figure out, which is still a pretty kind of kooky thing to do to try to make art or a story or comic or something funny about music, which is not visual at all, I asked Albert, hey, why don't you give me a heads up what's going on in this issue? Since then, I've been very often picking something from there.
of what's in there. I know what's in there top five of the year. You know what I'm saying? Stuff like that. And so sometimes I'll take that and kind of run with it. Or sometimes just whatever I'm feeling. If I've got some fire under my butt to do something, you know, or say something, which is rare. But otherwise, it gives me an excuse to like dig into metal. So I often use it as like a window into seeing what's going on. Like what, you know, getting, hearing music I've never would have heard before. Because it's like, I've got this list.
of stuff that's potentially going to be in the issue.
Can I make a suggestion for an issue next year?
Yes.
So when you get wind of the, like, eight-month early top 40 issue that they released,
it would be really funny if you made fun of everyone who comments on the top 40 list,
like when you look on Facebook and everything, you're like,
it's only November, you know, where's my fan?
Yeah, I mean, it would be really funny if you could, and I'll tell you this now, because you'd have like a year to think about it. If you could really, because I used to post, I don't know if you guys ever noticed that. I've done that a few times, like, let's go over the guidelines again for this. And I know Albert took a shot at fans this year, which was kind of funny. Well, I think it's annoyed him for a few years. But he's like, and in case any of you didn't know, even my favorite band didn't make the list this year. Yeah. Is that right?
And then I was like, well, Paradise Lost didn't release an album. So. Well, I was going to ask to Chuck, because, you know, that that list is kind of Frankenstein, you know, it's based on all the staff picks and, you know, they try to put it together to to kind of encapsulate what everybody likes. Do they ask you about it or is it just the staff? I think in the past every now and then they've asked me like little lists, but I don't get to be included in the in the top 40 itself.
But I will say that this coming issue, I think, will be there like the top 40 of the year. Yeah. And I did do something that sort of plays into the trolley aspect. It's not an online thing. Oh, nice. It's a Switch fulfilled already. Honestly, it's a very stupid joke. But if I can make a quick stupid joke, like in three panels, I'll do it. I liked that Decibel had horrendous at number one. I thought it was great. It was a great record. It's fine with me. Not a bad choice. Yes, yes.
Maybe is that the issue that did it come out already? I don't even know. They drop it digitally a little early. Oh, okay. Okay. They call it the leaked version. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't surprise me. That album is really good. It was great. Half the people were happy to see that and half the people in the comments were not happy, which I loved. Oh, I didn't read it. Really? Oh, God. People are just losing their shit. Yeah. Well, I don't know if you saw it, Chuck, but.
up there too, wasn't it? There's three, I think. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. Sorry. But yeah, Horrendous was our top album of the month and all six of us picked it. And that only happened twice in the whole history of the cast. It just sounds new. You know, it has not only that, it has all like the tropes of so many genres that are like you've heard a million times, but somehow it all sounds fresh. I was going to say,
Fresh. There's no wasted space on it. No. And you described it exactly right. It pays homage to so much of the past, but it's its own new little thing. That's fucking great, man. Yeah. Anywho. And Fresh is with a T. Oh, for sure. Yeah, of course. You meant Funky Fresh? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, it's Funky Fresh. Of course. Well, I think we should go back to the beginning and talk about your art. When did you first start drawing? When did you develop a love for art?
and get into that.
Jeez.
I mean, I don't know.
I obviously drawing when I was a kid all the time, kind of gave it up for a long while.
And then after high school, I picked up, like got into some like indie comic stuff, not even necessarily like Vertigo stuff or Dark Horse stuff.
And I had grown up like reading X-Men and Wolverines and all this kind of stuff, Spider-Man's, which I still love.
But like getting into Preacher, Concrete was like the Dark Horse book, Hellboy, all this stuff.
just kind of opened my mind and I was like I can draw so I just started exploring and pushing myself and I've been pushing myself ever since you know but it's what's funny is like my dad he rarely ever likes any of the art that I do because it's always like grotesque or weird or just not pretty flowers but he has this old drawing of mine hanging up on the wall that's like knights like from when I was maybe like eight years old or something it's like knights fighting and they're like bleeding and there's like this doorway with this demon on it with like
the same eyes that I drew in black metal. And I guess I've just been doing the same shit since I was a kid. Like my whole journey is trying to get back to that, you know? Oh, wow. That's so cool. Very cool. Very cool. I just got the first comic ever drew. The first comic, like a story. Ooh. I mean, I did this like, so I did this little short for Steve Niles on like this, on his message board. He's the guy that wrote 30 days of night, which it was a film.
And from that, he was like, hey, you want to make some comics? So we did Secret Skull after that. And just before that, I did this little anthology in this Western horror series called Western Tales of Terror. And I think that was probably the first published thing that I did right before that. I had Tony Moore from who did the first few shows of The Walking Dead, did the cover. It's a pretty fun little book if you can find. It's like a little anthology. And then, yeah, from then on.
Secret Skull with Steve Niles, like a four-issue series.
How did you break in, Chuck?
That's the story right there.
I mean, I had been doing like little zines and stuff like that.
So I'd been going to like indie conventions, just trying to get my stuff out there.
I got some nice feedback and explored stuff.
But when I went on like Steve Niles' message board, showed some of my art, he was like, let's do this comic together.
It was Secret Skull, the one I was just talking about.
And that was like, that was my breakouts.
Like it was an IDW book. Um, and yeah, it's a big company. Yeah. And so from there I did, I was still in like college. I was in art school at the time. So I was trying to do the comic and do all the things at school. And then I did like some short story and like this flight anthology, which was an anthology, like a nice thick anthology series that was really cool. And then by the end of my school time, I was like really trying to make this black metal kind of comic. Like,
I just wanted to make a metal comic. And I started just like, like my final thesis in college was like this giant painting of Satan, like with his hands cut off, bleeding all over the floor. And I had to come up with like a thesis statement. So it was all about redefining Satan. So I was very, very. God must've hated that very much. I don't think he even looked at it, but I was like thinking about redefining Satan as a hero, you know, the working class, like,
Antichrist, you know, whatever. So yeah, what a dork. But I like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's something there. So yeah. And then after that, I met up with this writer, Rick Spears, who had done a comic called Teenagers from Mars. So like, I also have like a good, yeah, it's awesome. And I also have like this punk sort of background. So of course, I love the misfits hearing that. And he was new to black metal.
And I was like, listen to all this shit, you know, send him a bunch of stuff and then like, see what you'd come up with. And that's kind of how black metal started. So that's kind of my comics journey. And I've done things here and there in between and all around, but yeah, maybe too much of a response there for me. No, there's no such thing on this podcast. Well, I mean, you actually, you won a special recognition Eisner award for your work on black metal. For folks who don't know what the Eisner is, it's basically the Academy Award.
of comics. It's like the highest award you can get in comics.
So I was wondering what it was like for you to receive that honor for your work.
And how did you find out about that first?
It was really weird. It's really, it's, it's an honor, you know, all that it's impressive.
Like I didn't think I was going to win.
I was up against some very talented people and I don't know how I got in there.
I was working at Disney at this like video game studio at the time.
And I remember like looking on whatever the webs like Newsarama or something that had all the Eisner announcements just for fun. And here I see my name on there. And it's like, holy shit. And I went to the convention. I'm a young guy. I'm like 26 at this time. Kind of a dope. So I'm like staying. I go down to San Diego Comic Con party. Mostly didn't spend a lot of time at the convention, just mostly partying outside of the convention.
and like crashing in a hotel with like 10 dudes and so like i go to the eisner awards it's this big thing you've got like i feel like sam jackson was like the the host there were all kinds of celebrities i can't even remember frank miller's there talking and they get to my thing and somehow i get picked to go up and i don't know i'm like a little dork i go up there i'm like and you know i don't know i think i just didn't really understand how rare something like that was i
I wasn't thinking it would happen to me. So I got up there and I don't think I gave a very impressive speech. Somewhere buried in YouTube, I think there is like video of it. And I did say like, like, hail Satan or this is for the metal. That's awesome. Kind of thing. But like, I don't know if you've ever been on a stage like that where the light's on you and you can't see anything out there. And it's a very awkward thing. Like Tom Kinney handed me the award, who's like the voice of SpongeBob and also on like Mr. Show. Just like.
Very odd, but really cool. And after that, I won the award. I partied a little bit at the Oni Press party, and then I walked back to my hotel room a mile away and climbed into a space between two of my friends to fall asleep, sadly. That's the truth of it. I think it's an interesting thing because I didn't go on to do a lot of other Eisner award-winning things after that. I don't think I really knew how to leverage a win like that into something.
the way I would today. I mean, you're exploding kids guy. I think you're fine. I'm doing all right. You know, but it took a long time to get to like adult wages in the art world. You know, a lot of time. Comics is a tough, a tough place. Oh, I know. Well, can you tell people, you know, what black metal is about and like how you guys came up with a concept and worked on it? Yeah, yeah. Black metal is
It's been a long time since I've given a pitch on the books. I think the last book probably came out in like 2000. Pitch it. You want people to buy this, man? Yeah. I don't know where you can even buy it at this point. Although I did just get a bunch of those, like the hardcovers, which I know I want one. This is like the final collected edition, which is the black on black. That's pretty. It's funny. And it's funny because I, I mean, I'm talking, been talking to Chuck back and forth because I sent him the itinerary and all the information. And then I was like, Hey Chuck,
I'm doing research on you I've got the soft cover I've got in digital but I see that there's a hard cover I can't find anywhere do you have one lying in a couch cushion somewhere that I could have he's like you know what I just got a box the last box yeah yeah like what yeah we're down to the last um for sure here it is awesome man wouldn't have worked that way yes so black metal is totally a love letter to all men
I think it's interesting because people can get into without being into metal but kind of getting into the visual stuff and if I can convert one person into a metalhead you know I've done my job but it's these two brothers Sean and Sam Stronghand they're like scarred with like corpse paint and the first book is kind of like a fish out of water story they're the metalhead kids in high school there's jocks all that kind of stuff and they find this this record from this band Frostax which is a
which we created for the book which was kind of like an immortal kind of band shirtless corpse
painted and we actually had i don't i cannot pronounce this dude's name christoph spitz
yeah like his logo and stuff he actually ended up we got him to do like a version of the logo
so it's in the second book we have like his design but yeah they they play this record backwards
and they find out about their heritage and like basically go on a journey to hell and the next
a few books really like it's all in hell we just kind of went harder and harder with that but it's a good time adventure probably the first book's probably like a 30 minute read it goes pretty quickly and yeah that's funny it's fun it really showcases your art like you said because you can read it fast but it just that's so so much fun i can't believe it that was when was that 2004 something that came out really long time ago yeah 2006 or 2007 maybe the first book she is yeah oh man
And when that first book came out, you guys remember MySpace? So you'd go to MySpace and you'd go to this front page. Everybody would have to go to this first page. And somehow the guy who was programming what to feature on there, we only gave him a 25-page free preview. And so for one day, everybody that went on to MySpace saw this black metal thing on there. So it was a huge boost. That's probably how this all happened. I was going to say.
Christoph did our logo as well. Ah, cool. I mean, he's red. Yeah. Yeah. Super nice. And honestly, like should probably charge more than he does. Dude. At the time we had him do it. I want to say it was like $30 or something like that. Yeah. I think I like 150 bucks or something. And this was only, well, a little less than 10 years ago, probably. Yeah. I think he just loves doing it. I mean, I remember seeing it.
It was like a scan and on the back of it you could see it was like some other piece of paper that he had like just like scratch paper that had done this freehand design on. Yeah. That's like what he does man. Yeah. Exceptional at it. I think he just does it when he's not doing something like because you know he does things that like most people would crochet he turns into like stylized you know like home sweet home kind of stuff that would be in knit and put on your grandmother's wall but he does that stuff in like super crazy.
It's just amazing
Yeah, they're beautiful
Beautiful pieces
So how did you get into metal?
Because obviously you did black metal
And you wanted to do it
You got Rick Spears to do it
So you must have really been into metal
To want to do that
So how did that start for you, Chuck?
Very much
And very much black metal
But like, okay, let's go back to childhood
I'm a kid in the 80s
I'm watching Headbangers Ball
So like I'm exposed to a lot of metal
I was really into like hair metal
When I was a kid
Like Poison was like my favorite band. I'm a kid. I remember writing in chalk like the Poison logo on my stairs, you know, and my friends love Def Leppard and we were like, you know, fuck those guys. Now I'm like, Def Leppard is clearly a superior band, but I had no context at the time. But then I kind of just got into like, as I got older, I got into pop music and into high schools when I discovered like punk rock. Punk rock, loved all that stuff, like fat records and all this. And then hardcore.
And I immediately loved those harsh vocals. And somehow through hardcore made my way into the more extreme metal stuff. And I don't remember, it was early internet days, but I was getting this black metal stuff and I'm just like, what the fuck is this? I think the first thing I got was some, I don't know if you've ever heard the band Mythotin. They were like an old black metal band. Oh yeah, it's the dude from Falconer. Yes.
exposure and I long for old days in some ways because I lived here in this house across the street was a record store they would have like bands play there and stuff and they had like a metal like an underground metal extreme metal section and so that was like my education ground it was this record store called offbeat and I just dig through I talked to the clerk he'd be like get emperor you know blah blah blah and yeah once I got emperor that anthems to welcome at the dusk or to the welkin at the dusk whatever they reached out
Yeah, that one was like, just fell in love with it instantly. And then just gobbled up whatever I could. I'd go to the rec. I'd go to like different record stores, look for stuff I've never heard of, you know, local, whatever, the weirder, the better. So, and yeah. It's interesting. Your journey parallels mine a lot. Cause we just did a top five albums that got us into metal. And I was talking about how Headbangers Ball was there, hard or hair metal, hardcore. And then led me to that with your music. So it's pretty interesting that yours is kind of
Yeah, and it wasn't like, I got into black metal, and I got deep into everything, you know, got into the lore as well, obviously, and it wasn't like, until after that, I was like, backwards getting into like, Black Sabbath, and stuff like, like, I dug around through everything from black metal, which I think is odd, usually, like, you're going through the classics, you're Metallica, then you're finally make your way to the... I don't know, that's interesting, because I think, I mean, yeah, that makes sense what you're saying, I think that's the more common one.
But no matter where you came into it at the timeline, I think it was, then you start moving backwards, whoever you are. It doesn't matter where you start. Then you're like, well, who's this fucking deep purple everybody's talking about or whatever it is. You got to find the roots. The bloody roots. Like if you were, you know, if you were, yeah. You know, so that's interesting to me. I wonder, though it is, it's funny because we always talk about, it's frequent for us to say like, what was, what got you into extreme metal as a metal fan. And so it's interesting.
It would be interesting to know what gets people into metal. As an extreme metal fan, what band breaks up into clean vocals or whatever? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we all live that in reverse, you know. Well, you mentioned your local record store. At least where are you? Where are you? I'm in Redondo Beach, so the LA area. Okay. Yeah, there were like, when I was growing up, there were like three or four record stores. You know, I know there's actually some again now, but yeah, there was just tons. You're still in Redondo.
Yeah, I've lived all around Los Angeles, but I haven't left the area.
But I'm back in Redondo right now.
I like LA, man. It gets a bad rap.
By the way, I moved here from San Francisco, so I should hate LA.
But I don't. I think it's a great city and a lot of great areas around there.
LA's a cool place to go.
I didn't like it the worst time.
Jay, you weren't born in San Francisco.
I know. They put it on your birth certificate.
Pretty much.
Is there some sort of weird thing between LA and San Francisco?
because there's really no competition, actually. It might be more. Well, first of all, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but it might be. A little bit, yeah. Okay, good. Well, Slayer's from L.A., and so is Metallica, technically. Well, half of Metallica is. Yeah. The other half's from the Bay Area. Yeah. I do not deny that the Bay Area has brought us a lot of great things, but as far as, like, comparing cities, it's like, I mean, L.A. is, like, top five.
Three, you know? Yeah. As I started to say, the first time I went, I was... Top three of what? This is not going to go the way you think it's going to go right now. Chuck, I was born and raised in San Francisco, so I'm just having fun. I'm just having fun. But anyway, upon subsequent visits, I have decided that I do like L.A. So I'm looking forward to coming back again. Yeah, come on back. It's cool. It's very expensive and all the problems of a large city, you know, lots of problems.
My brother-in-law lives there, so we've got a reason. Look, and also, like, weather. I mean. Yes. Well, last time I was there, it rained almost the entire time. Which is rare. Actually, are you guys getting some weather now? Because I thought you were going to be a big river heading in. Yeah, I see the storm clouds, but I haven't gotten the rain today yet. But it looks like it's going to rain, so I think we're expecting something. The El Nino's coming this year. I think it's going to be real, John. I think that's really going to happen. Yeah, they're saying this is going to be.
Quite an adventure this time, which the state needs the water. Hopefully, it just won't cause any flooding and mudslides. Yeah. As long as I don't have to be on the road at the time it's happening, because Jesus. Yeah. Well, you want to try not to be on the road a lot of times, unfortunately. If I could. Yeah, yeah. Are you on the road a lot, Chuck? No, no, not. I think it just means driving around. Yeah, yeah. I'm on the road. I didn't know if all his different adventures, it takes him on the road.
I have to relate a very brief and funny story about that because having moved up here recently from the Bay Area and there's really there's people here but there's also nobody fucking here so you can I can drive for an hour to Douglas Arizona and not pass one car it's so awesome amazing but I pulled up and there's one stop sign about I don't know six miles from my house and it gets you on what's known as state line road that's literally the road between New Mexico and Arizona and I was going to go to
I got to get some groceries and I get up to the stop sign and there's somebody
and there's a lot of birders and sightseers
out here and shit so somebody's sitting at the stop sign
and they're just kind of
rolling up real slow and I'm like
this mother fuck like how fast
you can go back to like traffic
being a problem
one car
and I'm like
fuck let's just go home
this is unbearable
there's one car here and I gotta be
behind it and I'm the guy behind it
I hope you're stopping at those roads when you go 20 minutes without
seeing anything because you know just like literally a quarter mile down somebody's just
sitting there waiting for you to blow through that stop sign to pull your ass over.
Actually, you know what it is? It's Border Patrol. We have so much Border Patrol around here.
I would be careful. It's like, ah, no one's out here. They're not going to see me do this.
Yeah. So the other thing is, and I'm not making this all about me, but the other thing is that there's these intermittent white crosses next to the road because
It hypnotizes you, man. You're driving in the desert at night. You can easily crash because you just lose your mind all of a sudden. Oh, God, yeah. Those white crosses are not comforting, but they wake you up real quick. So I died there. Well, that happens. Jay, you know where I lived in California. They're all over the Pacific Coast Highway. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. It's easy. Easy to fall in that trap when you're driving. Yeah, we have those here. It's just there's all these candles underneath.
the crosses, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's a good time. That's how the wildfires start, right? Yeah. You see this fire that was in LA actually underneath the freeway? I don't know. The 10 freeway in downtown, they had all these pallets stacked up. This was just this previous week and somehow, and there was pallets, like wooden pallets stacked in a storage thing under the freeway with a hand sanitizer. Somehow this thing caught on fire and it's just like an oven cooking underneath the freeway. So like this portion of the freeway is going to be
be closed for a while.
Wow.
Didn't help the freeway.
Somehow they said it's going to, the thing is going to stay.
But yeah, it looks crazy.
I mean, that's like the most burnable wood ever, you know?
Yeah.
No, it's perfect.
Dry pallets.
You didn't even have to put anything on.
Those things will spark up on their own.
Yeah.
I know they have that space between them.
Yeah.
They'll spark up on their own.
Yeah.
So that's added extra pressure on the traffic.
I drove into the city this week and I had to go.
like 30 minutes outside of my path to go cut back into Hollywood. So anyways, welcome to traffic talk. Yeah, we do that around here. We talked about gardening for like an hour. It's very beneficial. It's a fertile topic. What are you working on right now as we speak? What are you working on? Well, geez, too many things. I mean, I've obviously I've got a day job. I'm exploding the kittens. But when I'm not doing
that I am trying to work on some of my own stuff. I've got this project that I shouldn't really talk too much about yet. But it's a bunch of creature illustrations that I want to have like a stat block for like D&D sort of thing. So you could like, so I have an excuse to do these crazy creature illustrations, super gnarly, bloody, whatever. But like, but the someone could actually choose to encounter these things, you know, I was gonna say, are you doing a monster manual?
Basically, yeah. It's an art book masquerading as a monster manual. That sounds awesome. So that's a ways off. I've also got a black metal record I'm shopping around that has some, like a little like art book zine to go with it. Nazca of the Void 2? Oh, yeah. No, it's a whole different thing. So it's a spiritual successor to that. I've improved a lot since Nazca of the Void. And so. Is it a bad camp or anything? Not yet. So it's tough.
I have anything to say, hey, go to this. If anyone wants to see anything that I'm doing, I'm putting time into like Instagram right now, too, which sucks, but I'm having to do it. So I'm spending like some time every week posting, setting up posts for all weeks. I've been posting lots and lots of art on there. Stone Cold Lazy stuff, too, strips. So that's probably the only thing I can point to right now. Like one of these, I did a comic cover for this new Rick Remender and Brian Posehn book called Grommets, which was just announced. So like I have some stuff up there from that.
But it's going to be a while until some of these things come to fruition. Like the album, I'm trying to find a label and that's the whole thing. So any labels listening that like to support a guy like me. Well, you know, Decibel does put out music. And just to kind of cut you off there, Chuck, nobody's listening. Oh, okay. So it's a joke we make about the podcast. You can drop anything you want and nobody's ever going to hear it. People listen. Well, hey, could you send, would you mind sending the Black Pocket Metal record to Jordan?
or something so we can hear it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we won't send it out into the world. When you have it at a promo stage. I have a link with all the things. Okay. We'd love to hear it. I want to go back now to Nasca the Void. You know, how did you come up with that? It says you did everything. So what all, how did you put that together? Why did you put it together? What did you do to put it together? So Nasca the Void was my first musical effort ever. I was playing this video game. It was called Hollow Knight.
I don't know if you guys are familiar with this game. It's a really beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack of its own. Just and it's this game where you can spend hours and hours in it. It's a Metroidvania. It's really gets into your soul. The more you play it, it's like this thing that all you can think about is this kind of love crafting in that way. That's not a descriptor of the game, but it really like it's the first time I ever played a game where I just kind of like it really took over everything for me. And it's very difficult game to play. I don't typically do that kind of stuff.
But it just hooked me and
Would you repeat the title quick?
Yeah, it's called Hollow Knight
Okay, sorry, go ahead
Sure, and
It's
I could tell
Anyway, so I got really into the
This game and eventually I was just driving to work every day to Warner Brothers
And I started like thinking of a song that was like a goof based on it kind of like a misfit style punk song
And I was like, maybe I should try recording this
And
So I started playing around with some recording
stuff. I had never really played guitar seriously, but I just felt like I could make something out of all this.
And so I put in a lot of time and I wrote this sort of like, it's a concept album about Hollow Knight.
So Nosk of the Void. Nosk is a creature that you encounter in the game.
It's this creature that is like at the very, it's, the game is like I said, a Metroidvania.
So it's this huge map that just goes everywhere and you can traverse all around it. And down in the deep, darkest portion of this maze is this creature that you encounter that looks like you. But it is this just disgusting thing that obviously eats everything. And it was just the perfect encapsulation for, I think like Nos, because this creature is like something out of a black metal kind of like a nightmare. It's got this like ghostly white face and then this like black spidery,
So I took this, I wrote these songs, practiced songwriting, lyrics I really enjoyed doing, and then I just got into GarageBand of all things and really started putting time into it, and I would drive to work, I would listen to the song unfinished and think about how I was going to change it, and I ended up buying a drum set so that I could try to play drums, and I had never done that before.
And, you know, it's an underground black metal record. I didn't expect anyone to ever really listen. Like, I kind of wanted it to be this weird thing that you just discover in a bin somewhere. I liked it. Kind of. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And, yeah, super rewarding. And this game just inspired me to make art, you know. It pushed me to do something I had never done before. And it was really rewarding, you know. Really rewarding to see something come out of nothing.
You know, do something creative that's not drawing. I mean, I was still staring at a screen, unfortunately. But not all the time. And exercising a different part of my mind. And I really, really love doing it. So I'll do more. I'll do more music. I'll get better. That's kind of the game. Well, you know, for a first try, that was definitely pretty good. Thanks. It's funny, but as I listen to you, it's interesting to me since Marcus and you work in the same, if not, you know,
exactly the same feels.
And you really remind me of Markisan in the way that your ideas come to you,
the way you present your ideas and stuff.
So comic book guys must all think alike or something,
but you're both fucking crazy.
Damn handsome.
That too.
And Harry.
To mention too,
just because of the book that you're working on or the,
the monster manual thing,
a pitch to you and also the other guys,
if you haven't watched it,
There's a great documentary about the art of and how it came to be and how the company came to be of Dungeons and Dragons. It's called Eye of the Beholder. It's such a great documentary. And if you have any love for the art in those books, you should totally watch this. Oh, yeah. I've got all the old D&D books. How it came to be and the people who did it and the little studio they set in and cranked it out. Gary Gygax. Yeah, the whole thing. And you don't have to be a Dungeons and Dragons guy to like this. It was super interesting. We haven't gotten to t-shirt check yet, but the High on Fire shirt.
and homage to the D&D. Oh, for sure. I love that. I've got an actual Dungeons & Dragons shirt like that. Dang. But I'm a nerd. You know, what are you going to do? Hey, before we move on, I just wanted to pass along some words from James Lewis. He said, Chuck Beebe rules so hard. He is wonderful. He said, you can tell him that. And he also said, and his record is good, too.
I'm happy to hear that people don't think it's terrible.
You know,
you want to hear terrible.
Listen to some of my stuff.
Good God.
Oh,
that's not true.
George.
Well,
maybe some of it.
Yeah.
Have you spent time with like,
you know,
James personally and stuff?
I mean,
he's kind of part of our,
our lives.
Or is this all done from a distance?
So you don't really meet and see Albert and stuff.
Or have you run into those guys?
I haven't seen Albert in a long time.
I met him.
He came down to like Comic-Con one year and he was down and I forget what like a murder fest in downtown or in Hollywood some concert series. Did you go to the LA Decibel Medal and Beer Fest? Not wait which the most recent one? Is that the cattle decapitation? No the most yeah that's good that you ask because I'd forgotten there was more than the one I saw the one the one I was that was the Celtic Frost one where the trip to Canada they did Celtics. Anyway I forgot there were they have done a couple more. And then they moved to Denver.
Yeah, maybe I'm conflating just the decibel tour, actually. But yeah, no, I didn't get to that. Very sad. Yeah. You wouldn't have had any quality time with James and Albert anyway. They run around. Yeah. I've known those guys. James has been on our show. He does the year-end list with us. How many has he done? Like two or three, right? Two, yeah. With us. Yeah. He was on a mid-year and then an end-year. We heart decibel. Yeah.
It's a wonderful place
I was so excited
To start working
Doing that comic there
Was so amazing
Like when I got that email
I was already like a big fan
Of the magazine
And you know
It's just a
It's just a solid magazine
It looks good
The design was always good
The art
Like the sensibility
Was always good
So much different
Than the other stuff
Yeah
It's the best
American metal magazine
You know
It just really is
It's the only metal magazine
In America
If you talk about Revolver
That's not metal
Sorry if you're friends
To be honest, to me, it's the best magazine. It's the only magazine I get. It really is. I mean, I used to be into Metal Hammer and Terrorizer and stuff like that, but they've all either changed what they cover or they've screwed me. Terrorizer screwed me. Metal Hammer turned into Revolver. Yeah, Metal Hammer just decided it was going to cover New Metal and stuff like that. Which is fine, but it's just not the stuff I want to read about, you know? So Decibel is like the,
you know beacon of light in the real and extreme metal territory days were when you had terrorizer and decibel so you got everything covered completely that you wanted to see and then terrorizer terrorized us in its last few good years metal hammer had a pretty substantive extreme metal section at the end of each issue but yeah i used to subscribe to both metal hammer and terrorizer as well as decibel yeah so well you need decibel now yep well
To follow up on that, because we talked about that first time, so now you got this new one coming out. What changed? How did you get better? What do you like more about this new project than the last one? I think I just got songwriting a little more. I got better at guitar. I got more tremolo, pick-ins, all this stuff. I also programmed the drums, but then I had this guy record drums, and they're just fucking killer.
I think when I was like, okay, maybe I need to embrace the fact that I'm an artist a little bit and do some artwork with it. It's not based on a video game. It's all just my own thoughts. You know, I got it. I just understand a little more every time I get in there and mess around. You know, I've got stuff that I'll probably never release that was like along the path of growing and learning. But this one is certainly like a lot stronger than Nosk of the Void. I think when I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know,
I send you guys that link you'll hopefully agree before you get through three of the songs and then you get tired of it well if it's better than that I don't see any problem because I liked it so if it's better no problem maybe we'll even get you back on to talk about it when it comes out yes whenever that is because Jesus like the worst part of it is like I've got this record done and now I'm just like trying to find time to find a place for it or either just self-release it again because like with Nosk I just did it myself I had like a
I had been checked out of the internet and social media for so long that I wasn't really like thinking about hey maybe you need to give a reviewer like some time to review it before it comes out so if you put out a record the day after the record nobody wants to hear anything about it after it's released you know so like I kind of botched the release there luckily like decibel very nicely like had a review and I put an ad in there and I could see like on Spotify the bump in place
as soon as that magazine started coming in, which is cool to see. So this time I want to approach like at least the release very differently. But I do hate all that part of it. Yeah, it's not the fun part. No, it's never the fun part. Did you ever think about doing like a graphic novel that accompanies it? Because that's been happening more and more, it seems like in comics and music. Yeah, it's not off the table. I don't have anything planned right now. But like, when I send you guys this link, you'll see that there's like, I would say like a good like,
I don't know, 20 or so page booklet. Each track has its own piece of art. And then there's all this other art to go along with it. And so it's not quite a comic, but close. So I think it probably behooves me to do stuff like that along with the music. I'm curious about your art. And I ask this question as a dumbass of art because I can't draw stick people correctly. So, but, um,
Do you draw by hand or do you draw digitally? So like black metal is all by hand with brush, like dipping that brush in the ink, doing that. And that's how I worked a lot. When I started working in animation, I transitioned to using a Mac and a digital thing. And I had like a Cintiq before this digital art, but I never really got the hang of it. But just from like using it a lot, I just got really comfortable with digital. So now I don't even have an art desk to work traditionally on.
So I can do that. And I still my favorite part about art or drawing is just drawing on a piece of paper. Like that's the most energy and the most fun and just basic. And I love that. But right now, professionally, I'm very digital, you know, and if I had more space, I'd probably get back to doing some traditional inking and stuff like that. But right now, what I love about digital is just there's a lot of, you know, room for error.
So I can fix things. I can tweak things. You don't want to get it too. You don't want to do too much tweaking. But like if you fuck up or whatever, like I had, you know, with art, I had drawings, you know, on this like 11 by 17 piece of paper, doing it all by hand, smearing it on the palm of my hand, having to go back and fix that with like whiteout or whatever. I had one experience where like my cat grabbed the paper and ripped it, like ripped it. So I had to like, you know, so none of that is an issue anymore now that I'm in the virtual world.
But you know, it feels a little shameful.
Yeah.
That was a really good question, George, because there's a lot of comic artists who've moved to digital.
You know, Jason does my buck by the horn says everything digitally.
Yeah.
Really, the only drawback is that you can't, you have no original artwork to sell.
And a lot of people who draw conventionally can sell like covers and pages and make a shit ton of money.
Yeah.
I didn't really know.
I mean, I guess I kind of knew that was a thing.
But the person who first educated me on that was Luke Orem.
When we had him on that time.
He did a lot of things that way. And I get it. And it makes sense to me. And I totally, it strikes me as just as legit a way to do it. But I am so far out of that loop. I didn't understand that technology was so advanced. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It had to get to the point where it felt like drawing on a screen. Yeah. Yeah. And now it does. And so I had to make, I was never able to like draw with like the tablets that you'd be like drawing over here. And then it would be on the screen over here. That's too far for me to go.
For people who are listening who don't know, you have a pen, you're drawing on the screen. It's like you're drawing. You can correct everything, usually, and change things and manipulate it and put color. And your palette is just so advanced and it's faster. I've tried doing that on my iPad, but even my stick people still suck. You gotta keep working on the stick. And I hear people say, oh, I can't even draw a stick person. I say, you can draw. Everybody can make art. It just takes a lot of time and a lot of practice.
and you had to find your own voice.
You know, like if you're trying to draw, I mean, it's good to have people to ref,
like artists that you like to reference and try to draw.
Like that's a great place to start.
But you also have to get comfortable with your limitations to, you know,
and like work, find your strengths, funnel your energy that way, you know, and spend.
It takes years and years, you know, doing it every day to get to like a decent level.
But I think you would find if every day you practice drawing, you would get better.
I think that's just the truth of it.
I have done painting.
You know, some are nice.
Yeah.
I've gone to those, you know, drink wine and paint classes.
And the first time was absolutely humiliating and I hated it.
But the second time was a little better.
And the third time was a little better.
And I mean, I still suck, but I can at this point make stuff that I'm like,
I'll hang that up.
You know?
And I was gonna say, I like that about paint because, you know, paint can be very
vague in how things look.
Whereas, you know, if you're using a pen or a pencil or something like that, it's going to be very precise. And I'm like, broad strokes. Yes, yes. I can do this. Pardon me for being kind of high flown here for a minute, but Cezanne couldn't draw to save his fucking life. But he was such a fan of art that he studied and studied and studied for years and became this great gainer. But at ground zero, step one, the guy was just an admirer of art.
Yeah. And do you feel good doing it? You know, like that's what Chuck was talking about. He really likes making music. Maybe he didn't really know how to do everything. He just did it because he had the passion and the drive for it. I did. I drew a cover for my first comic for races. I haven't drawn since I was like 18 years old and it took me months to do it. And then my buddy Jason helped me, but I just, I really wanted to do a cover. I really wanted to do one. And I finally got that cover done and I'm just, you know, it's not as great as some other covers that are out there.
and art, but I'm very proud of it. Yeah. And it sold out too, just because it was my cover. I'm the writer of the book. So it was something I really wanted to accomplish. I put everything I could into it and tried as hard as I could, even though I'm not, I wouldn't call myself an artist, you know? That's cool. I mean, it was for voracious appetite for destruction, which is the third series. I think it was like the fifth issue or something like that, that I did it. I don't look that up now. Yeah. I mean, I've got it.
I just have to go find it. I can't remember now. Let me see. I'll look it up. And by the way, I wasn't disparaging painters only that I liked. It's so long ago. I liked the, that, you know, you could do something that wasn't as precise and start with baby steps and things like that. There's all kinds of ways to get in, you know, whatever way you want to find. Like that's, I, I struggle with painting actually. You know, my wife is actually an excellent painter and that requires so much like
and you have to be very purposeful or you can be loose you know I don't know but I'm very like I'm more technician sort of like I have in my mind a way I want it to look and I want to like figure out the structure and the way everything connects together so and I've done stuff that's looser and I like playing with that and it's fun if you can like let yourself go you know maybe a little weed helps or something yeah to quote from quite Kevin
I'm a tracer. I just sent you guys in the chat. When I was a kid, my drawings were taking like coloring books and taking a thin piece of paper, putting it over top and tracing around, you know, the drawing and go, look what I drew. And it's like, you trace that shit. That's cool. I'm really proud of my skulls. That's the first thing that jumped out. You know, we're going to ask you, you know, what fans are like and stuff, but I mean, I think it's more relevant right now to ask you who are some of the artists that you're really
like, I mean,
in the book world or otherwise,
in anyway,
sorry,
broadly art,
anything up to including comic books.
But I mean,
there's just must be some guys in various disciplines that you really like or girls.
Sure.
Sure.
And I'm bad always like at pulling up names,
but like for comics,
it's like Mike Mignola did hell boy.
Obviously like that's a guy that brought me back into comics,
the way that he would work with seemingly simple abstraction and shapes and using shadow really helped me.
understand how like there are a lot of different ways to do this and also he is an expert in storytelling so like if you look through his panels you'll see just like some panels where it's not doesn't seem that important but it sets a mood and a tone but i also love like another comic artist jeff smith who did the book bone which is a kind of like a young adult book or kids kind of kids call it all ages chuck yeah it's all ages but it's safe for the kids but it's also kind of like a serious fantasy book beautiful
I also love like brush work you know I all black metal was done in a brush and something about the way a brush feels is not replicatable digitally you know it's it has a certain feel to it so like that you know there's this I was just I just got this like book it's this is not metal at all but it's this guy Ed Emberley who did these like kids drawings maybe you've seen it he would like yeah he would give you like a bunch of shapes and you would say like here's a pirate ship how to draw the pirate ship or
or whatever.
I don't know.
You'd get like all the, this is a terrible way to show anybody anything.
But very influential.
And I think a lot about that when I'm drawing, thinking about design, like how the shapes all go together.
Jeez, you know, too many artists to really name.
I'm sorry.
No, not at all.
I like a lot of like, obviously, I think, I do think, what's the fellow that did all the Maiden covers?
Yeah, I think Derek Riggs, seeing his stuff when I was a kid at the record store, those really always stood out to me, even though I didn't listen to it yet. So album artwork always kind of sings to me. Yeah, for sure. No, that's a great call out. And I think Derek Riggs is probably, I bet everyone in this podcast can say that there was a point where that was your idea about how good an album cover could be. Yeah, I had all kinds of maiden posters.
You see that cover and you just want to buy the album regardless
of you know
Why did they part ways?
Was there a Bad Blood there or something?
There is now I think but I don't know
Maybe
He's kind of out and about now
He does a lot of comic cons and art shows and stuff
where you can go meet him
Yeah I've seen him at a convention or two
I don't have any insight at all
I wonder if there's like
You know
Those album covers have to be
one reason why Maiden kind of like... Yeah. Definitely. I don't think I make that. I know, and I think that's the problem. I'll do some quick research, but I think he did not feel he was paid... Yeah, adequately. He probably became so iconic, and he probably wanted more money because he deserves it, because a lot of that contributed to Maiden's success. Because I know I would just pick up an album just based on the cover a lot of times when I was a kid, and Maiden always had the best.
artwork. You know, you just loved Eddie so much. So, yeah. So if there was any justice in the world, he would get a piece of Eddie's whatever, you know. Yeah. I wanted to have some sort of Eddie of the podcast, you know, an Eddie or a Murray or something like that. A mascot for the podcast. And I've never really. I'm like, I don't know, some sort of thing with a skull and, you know, something that's been done a million times. I don't know, but still time. Yeah. Yeah.
I just spell the mystery here and it just says that Maiden's manager, Ron Smallwood, was bothered that Derek Riggs' artwork for No Prayer for the Dying was too cartoonish and he thought it looked too much of comic book style and as a result he felt like Riggs had possibly exhausted his creativity for the band. Jump the shark. Kind of like the album. It's an okay album, come on. Nice shot there, John. I watched this documentary on Sylvester Stallone, I think it was on Netflix. I watched that.
It looks funny. You do have to watch it, but let me warn you. Well, not warn you, but it was really interesting. Really interesting at the beginning. And then at the end, in the middle, it's kind of like, and I thought that's kind of his career. You know what I mean? Like it was, it's accurate because by the end of it, you're kind of bored and you're like, this is a waste of time. But no, he's good now, man. Have you seen Tulsa King? Which is funny because he's awesome now on Tulsa King. Oh, he's super awesome. And he even says in the documentary, he said, I always tell people, he mentions that exact thing that when, when document, when you
Watch a documentary of your favorite artists. The end of it, there's going to be some downfall in the middle and the end is not going to be that much fun to watch. So it was kind of a prophetic. Yeah, it's it is worth watching. He's a pretty good dude. So it was fun to see where he was coming from. Did he self-deprecate during it? Yeah, I get a little bit. I saw I was laughing from that aspect of it. Yeah, no, he's got that about him for sure. Did he tell the Richard Gere story? No. Do you guys know the Richard Gere story? I don't know if it's the one that
You know. Everybody knows A or 2 D.
The one was about the Mothman prophecies.
Mothman was such a good fucking movie.
So.
Let's see what's up.
Oh, no.
I just, this whole thing.
I think it was Sylvester Stallone.
And was it, I'm trying to remember the film that he was in with Henry Winkler, too, when they were kids, basically.
It's called The Lords of Flatbush or something like that.
Something.
It might not be that, but it's their 50s kids, right?
Yeah.
And something about the fact that Richard Gere was, they were not filming.
at the time and he was eating a hot dog with mustard and I guess Sylvester Stallone. And I hope I'm getting this right. So if I'm wrong and somebody out there who's the three people listening, as Jay would like to say, want to correct me, please do. But I thought he told them not to eat the hot dog near him because it would drip on his clothes. Richard Gere did it anyway and it didn't go well for Richard Gere after that. And they got rid of Richard Gere and kept Sylvester Stallone, if I remember correctly. He was in the film? Yeah, they were supposed to be doing a film together.
I think Henry Winkler then took Richard Gere's place. Interesting. Which I believe would have been before Happy Days, which is... It was before Happy Days. It doesn't go well if you go up against the Fonz. I don't want to give you any spoilers, but that factors into Sylvester Stallone's travels to Hollywood and his car breaks down and the only person he knows is Henry Winkler. That's a great guy to know in Hollywood. Man.
Gere was the one with the hot dog. I believe. Yeah. Yeah. So he's the hero of the story. Well, I think he ended up being the villain. You know, did you? I don't know. If he dripped it on Stallone. How do you drip a hot dog? Sorry. You mentioned the Mothman prophecies, right? Is that what you're saying? Oh, I did. I just pulled it all around. When you guys watch that, man, that's a good book. A long time ago. That was a conversation killer. Okay.
I was disappointed by the lack of Mothman in that movie though. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. However, if you want to see a lot of kickboxing, you can watch kickboxer. So that's, don't worry about that. I'll watch any Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Once. Once. Except for Double A. Lionheart, we watched two times. Awesome. I love Lionheart. I never saw it. I never saw Lionheart. I remember seeing the billboards when I was a kid and I was like, I gotta see this.
have control at the time no thanks for different back then yeah it's the best got benson in it it's just like that's the sidekick so good like benson remember that show benson yeah wow i'm gonna try and like make time for this it's somewhere really it's by i think it's my favorite jean-claude van tom really oh wow i think i stopped at like blood sports yeah blood sport was pretty much it for me like it as much as i did Markisan but i still if you want to see him actually do act some acting i
I still think JVCD was I really liked it I think I watched it okay he's he plays himself and he's in this postal thing in Belgium that's getting robbed and he there's a couple of really moving scenes in there one I think his show was actually really good oh they they cut it loose he had a it was like a Netflix or something Amazon and only lasted a season what what kind of I can't remember what it's called to be honest with you but it was really funny and good he
He played himself and he was like a stunt guy was like down in his luck and he has to like come back and fight bad guys and it was he was everything that you want a Jean-Claude Van Damme show to be and it was even funnier than it had any right to be and I can't remember the name of it. Make sure you follow him on Facebook because he's like Schwarzenegger he posts kind of charming funny shit you know like he's Schwarzenegger's a blast on Facebook he's so funny. Oh yeah where he's putting all those videos of his animals and stuff. Yeah his little horses and
Also, when the first shots came out for COVID, he posted a little video of him getting this shot, and then he looked at the camera and said, come with me if you want to live. He's good at it. He's good at it. I want to meet that guy one day. All you have to do is just watch the movie Pumping Iron. That's all you need to see with him, and you'll know everything about him. Milk is for babies. Yeah. I'm coming to you tonight. It's the funniest. Get to the chopper. It's the funniest film, especially when
He tries to convince Lou Ferrigno that eating fried chicken before an event is what he does. Dude. It's just unbelievably funny, that movie. He is awful to Lou Ferrigno. I feel so bad because Lou seems like he's a decent guy and it's just a horrible show. I think he's probably a pretty nice guy, yeah. It's just so funny. He's like, oh, I eat a lot of fried chicken beforehand. It's just like, what? That movie is crazy. Pumping Iron is crazy. It's an amazing film. I don't remember the exact line, but
He's like, you know, I'm coming into going to the gym, you get the pump and the pump is like coming, you know, so I'm coming at the gym. I'm coming at home. Oh, my God. I actually have a I used to have a bunch of samples on my phone that I would trigger while we play. But when my phone got wiped, I lost all of those. But I had that clip and we would play it once in a while. He's like, it's like coming. Satisfying to me. Everyone just thought he was an idiot. He played everybody. Nobody knew what he was.
just way ahead of them way ahead
you hear the behind the scenes stories
of him now because i think he's become a very interesting man in his older
yeah he has yeah yeah he did one it was great on the netflix
like a multi-part one which i haven't seen yeah it was like a couple episodes
i don't know within the last year or so oh great okay well sold yeah so this show i was telling you
about it's called jean-claude van johnson it was on amazon so it was one season
And here's the description. The story centers on retired martial arts and action movie star, Jean-Claude Van Damme playing himself. It is revealed that the movie career and personal history of Jean-Claude Van Damme is all a cover story. He's actually a secret agent known as Jean-Claude Van Johnson. That's cool. And it was pretty good. I would encourage you guys to watch it. It was only six episodes, so a big commitment. Chuck, you were going to say something?
Oh geez. I don't know. We're talking about Arnold. Of course we were talking about Arnold. I was thinking about like predator and that you'd hear these like behind the scenes stories from predator where like they would measure their biceps every day. And I feel like I don't remember what it was exactly, but I think like Arnold would like do a bunch of reps before they did the measurements. Like he would get the pump, but he would like, it was supposed to be like the first thing in the morning. So he would always have like the biggest bicep and he would like bet, wage your money on it.
That was a stacked cast, too. I ain't got time to bleed. Also, here's another piece of little information. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator. That's right. In the weird costume. You can see him wearing the... There's a scene where he's wearing this weird alien thing, and they're like, we'll fix it in post. And he's too short, too. Oh, so he even was on set and everything. Oh, yeah. He's in the costume. Wow. You don't have to watch... There's this show on Netflix.
It's called The Movies We Love. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And one of them is about Predator. I haven't watched it. Yeah. I have. I love Predator. It's such a good movie. Oh, it's great. One of my favorite all-time movies. Yeah. This is what I'm picturing for Van Damme and Predator with Arnold. Okay. You know, cue the scene. Okay. You know, there's forest and the Predator decloaks and then does the splits between two trees. And then Arnold is like, what the fuck?
I don't know what he's whatever he had one joke about
and this was before Schwarzenegger was kind of beloved again anyway and he used to say it must be so hard on script
writers who are like writing their script and their meaningful thing and they're doing what's the Mars one
oh uh Total Recall and he says and they get down to it and there's a line and it says
you got what you want give the people the air man and the guy's like yeah it's good and then he gets to
He's like, you got what you want, get the people in the air, you know? It was just like, so brutal. For somebody with a vision of any sort, you know? And yet, it's the best. Yeah, it's the best. It still works. I love that movie. I mean, I got Conan's sword right behind me. Oh, yeah. How many years is he having that again? Not many. Is it even 50? It's really low. The one might be close to 50.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But other than that, not much.
Conan, what is best in life?
It's just to crush your enemies, see them driven before you or you.
And to hit the lamentations of their women.
Well, that's about 20 right there.
Yeah.
All right.
That's an excellent, that is just a super well-made film, John Milius.
Like, you don't need a lot of dialogue, you know.
What an excellent storytelling.
Just Oliver Stone, too.
I mean.
That's right.
He's a barbarian.
You know, I saw an on-set picture from that recently, and I know they're in the movie together, but boy, seeing Wilt Chamberlain stand next to him, dude, is ridiculous. He looks like a little kid. And that's the second one. Yeah. But in any case, I mean, the height difference is stunning. It even makes Arnold's muscles look small somehow. Yeah, well, he's freaking tall. Yeah. Yeah. So. Well, should get back to. Yeah, on the off chance that we want to talk about,
I don't know what's going on.
Arnold Corr recruited him so he's been in for a few years now if you ever any
opportunity to see Arnold Corr it's just a crazy show they're so good it's such fun just like all right
we'll do all kinds of stuff yeah come to Chicago come on so Chuck is there any chance that you're going to do a follow-up to black metal like death metal or progressive black and forest doom metal or something like that new metal
Oh, yes. Yes, definitely. Static X. We're going to do a Static X. Sweet. Do it for the nookie. I don't know. I mean, I think I would never say never. Rick and I have talked about it more recently than before, and I don't know what we would do right now. You know, I don't know if we pick up directly after, like, they're older or whatever. I don't want to spoil the end of Black Metal, but basically something.
Should I just spoil it? No, don't spoil it because this guy should read it. Read the book. It's great. Rick used to be in Virginia and he just recently, like towards the end of the pandemic, I think, moved to L.A. So we've hung out a few times, but it's pretty funny how like that happens and then you never hang out with somebody. But yeah, we've caught up a few times. We actually, the first thing he did when we came back is we went and saw Conan in the theaters. Oh, nice. To bring it back. I love his ride.
You mentioned Teenage from Mars, and I love that book. He hasn't really done that many comics, and I wish he did more because I really like his writing a lot. He did a great book called The Auteur that Oni published with this also awesome metal-ish kind of artist. I forget. He goes by Barf. I think he's done some municipal waste kind of stuff before, but he's kind of got that vibe. This book, The Auteur, it's like an auteur film director who's just making a film at whatever cost. He's going crazy, kind of like a fear and loathing.
The artwork is so cool, so weird, and I think you'd all dig it. Nice. That's cool. Now, Rick, pay me my money. I don't want to have to keep reminding you, nobody listens to this show. I mean, Chuck sold me on that video game, so he's selling me on this book, too, which I heard about, and I haven't picked it up yet, so. Oh, definitely. Yeah, check it out. And check out both. I love Hollow Knight, guys. It's like a $15 game on Switch or whatever these systems are. You want to waste a lot of time.
Well, he's going to assault me on the night thing, which I bookmarked here. What was it? Hollow Knight. Yeah. I'm playing Hogwarts Legacy right now. That's addictive. Oh, that's like the open world one. Yeah, that's good. That sounds cool. Sweet. It's fun. So should we do the what three albums? I was just going to ask you, are we there? Or is it, are we ready for the? Unless anybody has any more questions. All right. What three albums would help other people understand you better as a person?
All right. Good luck. Okay. Can I? You can do whatever you want. Okay. Yeah, you can do whatever you want. I'm going to say, look, I love the band Ulver. I think maybe the proper pronunciation. That trilogy could be my top three. Oh. Is that a ballsy pick? Like the whole thing? Like all three? I don't know. I have two others that I put on there.
Use your top three and then do honorable mentions. There you go. I mean, so yeah, the Over Trilogy, Over Trilogy, the Berg Tat, Krellsanger, and the Natanz Magdrigal album. I actually was like, sorry. Oh, I was just going to say that album is so hard to listen to. It's totally for me. I love it. It's, it hurts my ears. Yeah. The guitar tone is so raw. Yeah. It's too sharp.
I've got bad hearing to begin with. Maybe because I listened to that album, but holy crap, that is some raw fucking guitar work. I like that. I love the band, but that album is difficult for me. That's probably my favorite. That is probably my favorite. I love that stuff because even though it's purposefully done that way, it is clearly purposefully done that way. You have that crazy guitar tone at the beginning, so sharp, it hurts.
It hurts your ears. And then just for a brief moment, they go into this little classical guitar interlude to show you like, hey, we can do this. We're choosing to make it sound like unlistenable. And it's just perfect. And the melodies in there, they're like these sort of classic kind of European sort of sounds. And they're very pretty, actually. And the fact that you get each of these albums, that's the final album, and it probably pissed everybody off, but each one sort of changes.
It's almost like the first Brigtot album is like the most easy listening black metal album you could get these sort of beautiful choir sort of vocals and then it's like deconstructed into the two pieces with the following two albums. So Kabel's Anger is like that folky sounds exploration you know Euro folk, neo folk or whatever you call it and then Natanz is just like the true like true with a V. Yeah. Black metal.
things together. I was like, that probably that's why I pick it. That's so much me because I like all of these things. And I like this. It covers a lot of ground. It's one band. I love the fact that they, I still like all their shit. So I was gonna say, do you like the pop stuff too? Cause I do too. Yeah, dude. I flew out to New York to see them because I was like, I'm not probably not going to get another chance when they were doing the, the Julius Caesar album. I love that. That was one of their best albums in a long time. Like not everything is a winner for me for sure. But I like that.
I like that they seem to not give a shit what anybody else thinks.
And I like, I like that you can be that open-minded.
I like, I mean, I don't only listen to metal.
Metal is the stuff that I get the most excited about,
but there's a lot of people that are exclusively that way.
And I can't vibe exactly with that.
And none of us are, we list all kinds of things on the cast.
Metal is primary, I would say for me, but yeah, I love other.
I get crap for liking Lady Gaga.
Yeah. Nah, man. You know, so my totally metal nephew, because he's lives in Norway and only speaks Norwegian and is like four or five now. My sister sent a video of him singing the other day. And again, he doesn't speak English. And she was like, what's this song? And he's like, I couldn't quite get it. And then he was like, rah, rah, uh, uh, uh, mama. And I was like, lady,
I mean, I can't deny there's a skill there. And then, you know, I don't know. Pop music is like not where I spend a lot of time, but I know that it requires a lot of work, you know, and I know that like the vocalists in pop music, the best have to be very powerful vocalists. She's a killer vocalist. I like it. I think some are great. Like Lady Gaga. I like the newer Taylor Swift stuff where she was kind of folky, but then you got people like, oh, like Justin Bieber. Couldn't, I couldn't listen to anything.
by him or Justin Timberlake. I can't stand him. Katy Perry's got in a couple of songs that are okay. If it has good hooks, that's what pop music has to have. It has to have good hooks. If it doesn't have a good hook, then what are you doing? You know? And that's kind of a magic wizardry in and of itself. Like what is a hook? What is going to connect with people? Yeah. I mean, I like, and my wife was like explaining Sia to me last night. We were driving. She's cool. She like listens to Sia before she goes to work.
to sort of get her in a positive mood. And I'm like, this is better than a lot of the other pop I hear. It's good. But I see the design of it, you know, and I think that's interesting. I'm like, I like if, you know, I like the raw black metal shit where I kind of like the looseness and not overthinking it. But the opposite spectrum is kind of like the pop where it's like, this is very clearly designed. You're picking lyrics that are very relatable to people. You know, you're trying to identify. It's not necessarily coming from the heart, you know, it's powerful.
And it's, and you know, those albums these days really are done almost by marketing teams. Yeah. Which is awful. That's fucking awful. So I'll just get in my pitch for my current non-metal record, which is, and I mentioned this guy recently, but Chris Stapleton just released a new record. Yeah. No, I like him. His new record is awesome, dude. Yeah. Well, he's a bit more bluesy than country. I mean, he's country, but almost funky. He does some funky. If you didn't, if you couldn't see him, I think you'd think he was,
I didn't get to over till after that.
And I was just like, this is cool. The atmosphere, you know, the crazy guitar, like thinking about the compositions, you know, very classical, like I saw on his obviously. And again, I don't know. I've never said his name out loud to anyone because I don't talk to a lot of people that are like in the metal. But, you know, like at such a young age doing something like that, pretty crazy. And I like all their stuff. But that one just really connected with me. It was cool to see them tour on that album just recently. That was.
Yeah.
And it's nostalgic because it got you into it, dude. It was very nostalgic. And then like some of those lyrics that would come up and like you just put your hand in the air and you sing along and you're like, I never thought I would. Although I guess I had seen them when they came through L.A. after they had already broken up and I thought I never would see him again anyways. But playing that album all the way through, it was just, yeah, very nostalgic. Very cool.
We all continue to be big fans of his two. His solo albums always hit pretty hard and earn lists.
New one announced for next year.
Yep.
I saw something popped up on my Spotify recommendations, maybe like a single track, but I didn't get a chance to listen to it yet. I think it's coming out in what, February? February, yeah. A lot of things are coming out January, February, which is unusual. I called January the doldrums of metal because there's, it's usually pretty quiet after the new year, but there's some good stuff coming out. Right, because everyone's going through the last year's list at that point too. Yeah. Um, geez, my third would be Psy, Imaginary Sonic Scape.
Wow, where's the pole? And again, it's like this thing where I love black metal. I'm into the lore. I'm learning about all this shit, you know, in Norway and whatever. And then Psy comes along. They're on like, your own is his label early. And then I hear this album and I'm just like, this is just fucking super cool, weird. You know, the stuff that like Mariah does is just all over the place. Also, something about that kind of thing is very attractive to me. The synths, you know, I do like a lot of like analog synth sounds.
and whatever. I like weird shit. Something I've never heard before is the most exciting to me. And that was certainly that for me. Stuff that hurts George's ears. What are you talking about? I like Psy. You're talking about the other man. Psy. Oh, the Ulver, the Madrigal. Come on, keep on, George. Come on. Sorry. Yeah, no. Anytime I come across something I don't like, I tend to come back to it again and again to try and figure out if I liked it. Because
So many times, like early on when I used to do reviews and stuff, I would, you know, I blasted bands like Blue House Nord and I love them now, you know. And so I've learned that if I don't like something, I need to wait and come back to it when I'm ready. And on target, on target. Because if it's something, and particularly if a lot of people like it, it's probably that I'm not ready for it yet. I'm not, my head is not where it needs to be to understand this album.
And so I try not to be overly critical of things that I don't get in the heavy community because generally I've found that eventually I'll come around, I'll figure it out, I'll get my head around it, and I'll be like, okay, I get it. Except for Imperial Triumphant, never going to get that. I mean, some of these metal albums have so much going on in them that, you know, you can't, you might not hear it at first when you put it on, you know, or you're not in the right mood. That's got to be a top five for us.
We finally got into after years and years of disliking. We're not getting into it. Write that shit down. Let's do it the next one because I got a bunch right now because I'm like, holy shit, I actually like this. I'm like, where have I been the last 15 years? Yeah. I can't tell you how music is weird. Yeah. If you're not in the headspace, if you're listening to something and you miss it, you circle back, you're like, man, I missed out on a whole slew of great things.
I was just telling John and TR the other day that I finally figured out Exile on Main Street by the Stones. Oh my God. That kind of surprised me. Because I was... That surprised me a little bit too. Absolutely love that album. It's... There's not a lot of hooks though. No. You know, I was... I have to tell you, George, my boss, when I was still working and as a musician, came up to me a few months ago. And he goes... He said to me, you know what, man? I think... I was just thinking, you know what I think the best rock and roll record of all time might be?
And I go, exile on Main Street. And he goes, what the fuck? I don't know why. I mean, for one thing, people, some people say that, but yeah, I've heard that too, Jay. That's the thing is everybody makes such a big deal out of it. And I would listen to it and go, there's no hooks here. This is so good. And I, it's that time of the episode where I have to pimp the headphones, but the heavies headphones are fucking amazing. And I listened to exile on Main Street on this. And I'm like, I get it. He sends me a message. He's like,
Dude, this album is really fucking good. I get it now because it was like being in the room with them and I'm like, okay, this is very raw and bluesy and you know. It's so good. But yet the it's so clean and precise. Well, not precise because it's loose, but just like very clean and in your face instead of like raw. You know, you listen to Robert Johnson. You're like, wow, okay, that sounds pretty shitty, even though this music's cool. But Exile on Main Street.
They really are a great band because that's what they fucking sounded like. There's not a lot of studio magic going on there. There's a very good documentary about the making of that record that I highly suggest, George. It's called Exile Something. I can't remember what it's called. They made it while they were living in a tax shelter in a place in France. Yeah, and Lenning came by. I think he OD'd there, too, on heroin. You should watch it. I read the Keith
Richards book. So, but yeah, I'd love to watch that.
He really watched the record together.
Keith Richards, Johnny Depp senior.
So George, I've said this to you before, and I know we've gone back and forth, but the beauty of that album is there's only like one super big hit off that album.
There's like what 15 or 16 songs.
Yeah.
And I've said that for years that albums that people hold with the highest regard sometimes don't have a ton of radio hits.
It's just for hardcore fans. They gravitate to those albums. That's one of them. Tumbling Dice is the biggest song off that album. Yeah. I get it now. And a lot of people can't name anything off that album. Some of those songs that Keith sings, some of his best songs he sings on our own record. Yeah. Happy. Happy, yeah. Happy. He's got songs like Rip This Join, All Down the Line. He's such a good album. Yeah. Ventilator Blues. So, you know, what you rip today, you will love tomorrow.
And then you'll rip it again later. It's definitely a good top five to do. So yeah, that'll be fun. All right. Before we move on, I have to ask about those guitars there behind you, Chuck. That looks like a Strat up on the wall. Yeah. And something Gibson-esque. I don't know if it's a Gibson or an Apple. It looks like the Strat that Alex Lifeson used when I saw them on the Power Windows tour. It does. It does. No, he had that black plate on it. Well, I have a red Strat with a black plate.
Yeah.
It's an old one, but I was just curious what you've got back there.
Yeah.
This is like, I forget the, what is the, I'm not like as much as a, I love all the things, but I don't know all the terms and the words, but it is a strat.
It's like the Squire, I think actually.
Like the very inexpensive one, which I got because this guy was the guitar I had originally.
What is this?
The Epiphone, like that Gibson kind of style.
Right.
And I started recording the NASC album in my kitchen, you know, and I went to grab for a coffee and I dropped this boy because I didn't know about things called strap locks. Yeah. The strap popped off and it busted the headstock right off this thing. And I actually was able to get this guy to repair it, crazy repair. But that very day I went to work at Warner Brothers and they were having like a lunch for the whole animation department. They had a raffle and there was like one of these like basic Squire.
that comes with an amp. And I was like, I had just lost a guitar that morning that I'm not going to see for a while. And this guy wins it. And I kind of like was talking to him and he's like, I don't know what the hell to do with a guitar. You want it? And basically that very day I busted my guitar. Like, that's a blessed me. Exactly. Yeah. Or this guy. And I had my wife make him some cookies and I brought him the next day. You can. So that's the story behind that.
That's pretty awesome. And I like to put it so that my head looks like it's coming. You're like a uni guitar. Yeah, that's a new character. I'm working on. Yeah, it'll be in the manual guitar. You're listening to the mental heads podcast. And if you don't listen, then the hell with you. Just took a little break and who should show up. But we'll say hello. Well, hello, well, exactly. All right. So you're just in time.
for T-shirt and beer check. T-shirt and beer check. T-shirt and beer check. Now, I do find it funny, though. You're an hour and 50 minutes into this, and you're just doing it now. We had a really good interview. Is that what we are? Chuck's an interesting dude, man. Seriously? Guy won't shut up, man. You missed all the Arnold talk and pumping iron? Oh, that's right. And Jean-Claude Van Damme talk? Seriously. Yeah.
The Stones discussion? 25 minutes of Mossos. Chuck, be honest, it was 23 minutes, not 25, right? Get it right. All of Van Damme's movies all have like three words in the title, like, I forget some of the names, like Out for Blood, or if you think about it. Bloodsport. Target's got two? Well, all right, whatever. I'll shut up again. Lionheart is one. All of Arnold's films are like one or two words only. Are you thinking of Steven Seagal? Is that what this is? Is this hard to kill? Maybe.
That's it. That's right. One of them. All right. Well, Chuck, as the guest, you are forced to get out in front of T-shirt and beer check. So tell us what you're wearing. Tell us what you're drinking. Okay. Let's do the shirt. So this is that. What do we do here? This is Kekt-Arak. I don't even know how to say the name. Oh, yeah. I know that. I recognize the picture. Yeah. I've got that album. Yeah. That's a fucking good album. That was, again, one of these things. I'm like, this for some reason sounds different.
I guess it was the guy was like influenced by SoundCloud rappers or whatever and I can kind of hear it in like the background melody and I don't know if you're familiar with the SoundCloud rap like stuff like Bones and whatnot but it has this sort of like depressing kind of atmosphere to it so I think that's what gives it strangely I think but yeah I love the artwork too that's what hooked me first that image is great nice and then beer I have been drinking
Or Modelo, as we call it. That's that term. I found this beer that's been in my fridge since last Christmas. It's a year old. It's German. I think it's German as fuck. It's called like Ennegrin. I don't know anything about it, but it's huge. Is it Foster-sized? My head is huge, guys. Is that one of those German bees that's double S's?
I don't know. Chuck, you got to crack that open. I'm going to crack it. Ready? Yeah, let's hear it. I think it says mouse can. Hey, it's beer. Let's taste it now a year old. Well, it depends on what it is. What kind of beer? I'm cast. That's pretty metal. I did my research and it's safe to drink old beer, but the flavor might be different. I think that's what it is. I like how he looks up. Can I die? Dear Google, can I die from drinking old beer? I want to die in the Metalhead's podcast.
Guys, I checked more than two sources, okay? He's an expert. It's fine. It's fine. Cheers. Cheers. It's fine. Skull. It's a year old. It's fine. This feels like a TikTok challenge. That should be their motto. Tastes like an old folks home. It's fine. And he drank the whole beer. What the fuck? An old folks home? I'm going to have to pee in like three minutes, guys. Well, that's what an adult diaper is for.
I only have children's diapers. I don't even have children. Two words. I'm shitting right now, guys. Two words of colostomy bag. Off the rails before two hours. I thought I might get a little buzz going. I've got two beers now. Get it on, Chuck. All right, Marcus. All right, so yeah, I mentioned earlier that I'm wearing the High on Fire heavy battle metal shirt, and it's an homage to Dungeons and Dragons. It's laid out like a D&D source book. There it is. Sick. Nice.
It looks like at least third gen. Yeah. I finished drinking a mead and I don't remember which one it was because I put it in the kitchen, but it had like vanilla and nuts and it was good. Oh, is that the new club? Yeah, the new club. I haven't had that one yet. I want it. It was good. It was very good. Yeah, very good. And now I have moved on to 2023 Barrel Age Darkness.
came out here from North Carolina for his 50th birthday. And I'd made a whole plan and we did all kinds of things. And my buddy, Brandon came from Minnesota and brought this. I neck of the woods there. Yeah. Oh, so don't you know, don't I was going to say it's very good. It's very good. Yeah. I'm from Wisconsin. So I know the UFTA. We send everybody for Christmas. Real good.
Matt situation. I've got my long sleeve Gorguts colored scenes that I literally I bought from Luke. He literally put it on my shoulder as I was using my credit card on square. It was a wonderful evening. And I started the night. I got two beers from a local brewery. They're called Wild Mind. Do really cool stuff. I'll do some stuff I really don't like, but I forgive him for that. We'll cover your ears. This is Death Metal Yoga.
and it's a hazy IPA and for a hazy IPA it's not terrible and I followed that with Gates of Heck it is a black rye IPA 6.66 percent you just made up for it and uh it's quite lovely yeah it's I'm about to balance so yeah nice all right then that moves us to John Matt I'm really happy to see that shirt you and I and Justin we bonded Derek Gorguts that was a great set yeah all right so I'm really original
I'm wearing second gen metalheads podcast shirt. All right. My first beer alert to Chuck and Jay. This is from beer zombies out in Vegas. And it is called we are the weirdos West Coast IPA. Can't believe a West Coast brewery has to say West Coast IPA. But nonetheless, they do. It's got some cool artwork kind of hard to see because it's reflecting on the light. It's very cool. I see. It looks cool. It's a zombie with horns. And it has a
which is kind of cool yeah and my second one another west coast ipa again it's kind of pissing me off right now but they're from pittsburgh so i guess that's okay necromancer brewery and it's pacific gravity it's a dude surfing skeleton surfing so skulls zombies now and i can see through my beers so they're cool
My beers are Will approved. Very appreciative. You're welcome. So Will. I'm wearing my genocide-packed Order of Torment shirt. I think I bought this from them when they played Atlas for this record. And then I don't actually have any beer in my house whatsoever. Not a single can. What? I know. My kids were here the last three days. Wait, they don't drink beer?
No, they don't. It's weird. But I do have a beer-like substance. I am drinking the Spirit of Silent Neighbor. So Atlas Brew Works during the pandemic had all the Silent Neighbor stout. And they're like, well, it was in cans. What are we going to do? So they're like, we can't sell it anywhere. Or maybe it was in the kegs. I forget. But anyway, then they took it down to 1-8th Distilling, which is a neighborhood distillery.
down the street from Atlas.
And they have collaborated on stuff before.
So it was like, here's all our beer.
Yeah.
Distill it and then age it.
So it's been aging in barrels for the last three years.
And they just released it last week.
That's awesome.
And so I got a bottle of it.
And it's good.
I mean, it's really good.
And you can't call it, you can't even call it whiskey because it has hops in it.
You can't tell there's hops.
So it's whiskey.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, Chuck Will puts on metal shows at Atlas Brewing, which is near a few of you guys, actually. Yeah. Where is it? It's in D.C. Washington, D.C. And it's only 12 miles from my house, but it feels like 152 miles when it's a Friday evening to go see a show. That sounds amazing. Yeah. Technically, I, well, I guess I still do it, but I don't really do it that long. I don't have time. Yeah. So I'm not really that involved in a lot. I may get more involved lately or later.
But yeah, just not as involved as I was before. Oh, welcome. That's interesting. Are there like DC politics people that end up going to these things? Obama used to go to these things all the time. Just crazy. Like, you know, like very low. Like, I mean, that's the industry of the town, I assume. Oh, yeah. A little bit. I'm trying to think. I mean, my buddy Louie may be one of the closest ones. He's just a photographer.
for National Geographic and does some other stuff. He does a lot. He's on the news a lot because he's one of the main photographers that does all the hearings on the Hill. And there's people who work for the Washington Post who come. Journalists. Yeah, this is journalists. But I'm trying to think. I don't think we've ever had a... If we've had a congressman or a senator or somebody like that... Or even just an aide or something, you don't know.
I think it stands for reasons some of them are there. Everybody works for the government. I work for the government. You work for the government. John works for the government. Employees. Yeah. Yeah. Straight up government employees. There's a dime a dozen. Chuck, to be honest, we probably wouldn't want members of Congress at a show. No, and I wasn't really assuming that, although that would be interesting. But I was just wondering, because I know very little about D.C. I've never been there. I do follow this crazy world. Yeah.
I've taken a good step back.
But I gotta do it, you know.
For your sanity.
Yeah, for sure. Guys, the world's looking really good.
Everything's great.
I'm just gonna hot take here.
Hey, Chuck, where do you live?
I live in Los Angeles.
About as far away as you can get in the continental United States from D.C.
Pretty close, huh?
Yeah.
Hawaii?
I said continental.
Okay, Alaska.
Might be Mendocino then. I don't know. I said about. Aboot. Aboot. Aboot. I'd like to go to D.C. sometime. That's all. I'm curious. Yeah. I mean, it's a lovely city. As someone who did not grow up here, it is interesting and entertaining, but there's a lot to see. It's a lot of cool stuff. It's a ton to see here. Chuck, you should go to the Decibel Metal and Beer Festival. It's around the corner. One of these days, guys.
You ever been on a plane? It's fucking terrible. It is. I hate flying. It doesn't make any sense, for one. No, it does not. It does when you have to drive across country. I've done that. It's much easier. Takes longer. No, I've done it a few times. It sucks. Yeah, but you need a black automobile. That's what you need. But if you're driving across the country and you have one, I think. If you're driving across the country and you have engine trouble, you pull over. You don't plummet to the earth in a flanking ball of fire. Yeah. What are the strategies
- This is not a good argument actually. - Yeah, you're gonna lose this one. - No, no, no, because more people drive than fly. - I don't think this is Chuck's real argument. It's like, I don't really wanna go anywhere, but I'm trying to give you a different reason. - Yeah, well. - I mean, I would like to go. - But flying sucks. - We have a good time. We always have listeners come, we hang out and hang out with people at Decibel. - Man, so it's pretty fun. - I saw this lineup as well.
We'll be talking about it. We'll be talking about it in the news. I'll save that talk for later then. All right. Are we J now? Yeah. There it is. He's Spider-Man that shit. He was like Superman. What is his color? I don't know. It's very plus head style, but I don't think it's plus head because it's not signed. But me and Will and Matt all have that t-shirt in common. I think we all got them at MDF.
COVID. So it does protect two out of three people as you noted. You're also the only one who got his wallet stolen. Yeah, that is also true. It was a great weekend. It was a great weekend. And since my night always starts later, as it were, what I actually, it's hard to, there's not a lot of brewery stuff around where I am right now. Yeah, thank you. But what, so what I've been buying lately, what I have in the fridge right now is two of the Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPAs, but that's, that's the closest I can get to crafty at the,
camping store close to my house.
Wow.
You got to brew your own beer.
You could do your own snake venom, actually.
Scorpion blood.
There's enough retired folks around here in the median age of 65, and there's really not very many people.
But if you could open a New York pizza, you'd clean up here, dude.
All the people who leave from the Midwest and go to these places want that shit.
So I think a brewery would clean up here.
You're going to have to do some road trips, Jay, and get some beer.
I happen. Arizona Brewing has got some good stuff. What is your just major big box one out there by you guys? By us? Yeah, not brewery, but like. Box store? Yeah. Total Wine. Total Wine. Yeah, see, I didn't have those. We had them in California, but I didn't have them close to me. So that's the closest I have now is that. You guys have Bigs. Binnies is like near a market sign. Yeah. You might want to think about Tavor.
I was just going to say that. Seriously, Tavor. No, I do. And you actually literally got me to download the app and everything. And so I totally need to. So, Jay, the only problem with Tavor is it says it ships on Monday and then you get a message that says, oh, it's coming Saturday. And it never comes on Saturday. It comes the next Monday. That's the same as Remy Mark. Well, you can change the shipping dates. No, Mark, that's UPS saying, oh, we're going to deliver on Saturday. And you sit here and wait and they don't show up. They do it every fucking time. Yeah. Chuck, have you heard of Tavor?
I have not.
So it's an app where they have all these different breweries that are on there.
You can get beers from Alaska, places that you would normally not get.
And they put them on for a limited time.
And then you could put them in your cart.
And then you just basically just build up beers.
And at the end of the month, they'll ship all the beers for a flat shipping rate.
Unless you're in Maryland.
I said you could choose when you could have them ship right away or you can wait till the end of the month.
And I do that sometimes because sometimes there's like a pre-order and they're like, oh, it's going to come this time.
And I'll just move the shipping date back.
But it's pretty cool
because you can get beers
that you normally would not.
The only problem is
you can spend a lot of money on it.
Especially if you go on the app
when you're drinking the beers.
Yeah.
They usually pop up when I'm drinking.
I don't know if the phone is learned.
And I've got one of these
and I just said, boop.
Yeah, the other problem too
is there's too many sour smoothies on there.
And what's with these milkshake IPAs?
Yeah, it's all that.
I've never heard of this.
I know these IPAs.
I've been a hip guy before, but now I'm just drinking a Modelo. I like a hazy IPA. I like all this stuff. It's great. I like it. Sometimes it's got that refreshing. Some of these beers, they just fuck me up. My tum-tum. How old are you, Chuck? I'm 42. You're a little bit young. I'm a young man. I've been switching to the light beers, and I just realized
I can just keep drinking them forever. And it just, the drunk is like exactly right. It's easier to pay. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, it's nice to get that even buzz. Yeah. But I like that. That sounds fun. I'd love to try all these weird things. It sounds like a good time. Yeah. I gotta get back into it. You should. So, but speaking of UPS, you should see the UPS truck that comes out here. It's like a four wheel drive. It's bitching dudes. I don't know how to describe it except to say like the front end is a Ford truck.
and the back end is like a box on top of a Ford truck, but it's all. So when I saw you in a package, because there's so many shitty roads around here, but also, you know, there's one guy that comes in. When I was in the Bay Area, it was just like a million trucks stopping by my house. The guy's like, hey, I'm Ryan, a UPS guy, you know? So like, whoever brings you something out here, you know that guy, you know? When I saw you in a package, I was really nervous, Jay. I was like, is this going to actually get there? Honestly, man, I have to say,
I get Amazon and shit just as fast as I do in the Bay Area. So yeah, pretty efficient. Yeah. All right. I think it's me now. I am repeating my shirt from last time, which is the Stairway to 11 podcast shirt. This is our other podcast that John and I do with TR. So got to pimp it because it does not have the listenership that this one does. We're trying to work on that and get there. So, hey, if you like rock music to Stairway to 11, check it out.
So I started with some sort of Saki that didn't have a name on it, so I can't say it. But it came in a little glass thing with anime. And now I left it upstairs. Oh, because I... She gets something similar to that, George. I took a picture because... I love Saki. Oh, send it my way. Because she gets something like that. Will, do you have Saki at the point? No, but I don't really get to the point.
It looks like a snowman. It's like a single cup. Like you open it up. Yeah. It's got a cap that you get like a thing. She loves them. Yeah. She's a big sake fan. She knows way more about sake than I do. Yeah. It's one of those things that I like. I grab it when I just stumble upon it. And when I'm waiting for Barb looking at wine and I've got my beer already. I'm like, oh, sake. Let's grab some of that right there. And you're like, fuck this. You know, you guys know I love it. Yeah. That's what I miss the most from Hawaii. Yeah. Chuck, I lived in Hawaii for two years.
Two and a half years. And so they had a place called the Sake Shop. And they still know me there. And sometimes I'll order. If I go back and visit, I'll order and pick it up. But yeah. You know what's funny about that is apparently Virginia has the only like traditional sake brewer in the continental US. Yeah. In Charlottesville. Wow. I'm surprised we don't have that in LA. I mean, well, San Francisco or LA. Yeah. I think for a while, the city down here next to Redondo Torn
had the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. Yeah. Anywhere in the state, you would think there'd be something, right? That's crazy. Yeah. We have all the cheese too. Sorry, Wisconsin. Ah, suck it. California does have good cheese. Yeah. And the Harris Ranch, if you like beef. Yeah. I like beef. So my first beer is from a brewery called Beer Farm in Brookville, Maryland. This is their limited edition Big Westie. Can you guess what it is? It's a Westie.
West Coast IPA, 11.8%.
Can you see yourself through it?
I did.
That is the best part about the IPAs, isn't it?
As long as you can see your keys on the other side of the glass, you're good.
Yeah, this was like the Red Dead Redemption beer.
Jeez, that's like a triple IPA, 11 plus percent.
It is a triple, yes.
I've downgraded to a double called Dirty Prancing.
I love that.
This is Kings County Brewers Collective from Brooklyn, New York.
KCBC. KCBC, yeah. That's cool. I was like, the hand cover is pretty cool. Yeah, I was like, oh, it's the, you know, it's the dirty dancing picture, but it's dirty prancing. So I had to get it, you know. I buy my beer. I buy my beer like I bought my 80s metal because of the art. I'm thinking I got to get into this beer art game. I didn't realize there was like so many. Oh, yeah. You got to hook up with the brewery. You get free beer. It's going to be awesome. Tell me breweries. Yeah, you know.
You guys know three people that listen? Yeah. One of them is a... You got six of us here right now. That's wrong. So I was in the one of the local beer stores the other day and I took Markisan and Matt and Jeff there. That was where you got the Norse beer. You know that... Yeah, that was a good... Yeah, I go in there and I was wearing the shirt that John's wearing now, the Metalheads podcast shirt. And I went in and grabbed some stuff.
And I'm checking out and the lady at the register, I was wearing a sweatshirt over it so you could only partially see it. And she was like, is that an adroit theory shirt? And I said, no, it's, I said, it's for my podcast. And she's like, Oh, what kind of podcast? Blah, blah, blah, blah. But the point being, I completely forgot that the artwork was done by somebody who did adroit theory brewing stuff. And that's how I found out about him and gotten it. I should have told her the whole story.
I could have bored that woman to death, but I didn't. But I was like two miles down the road when I was like, oh shit, a Dre Theory. Yeah. But yeah. I don't know if I'm aware of this shirt. What do you mean you're not aware? You have this shirt. I do. The one John's wearing. John has. Yeah. That's not the same guy who did a Dre Theory, is it? Yeah, he did. He did. I learned about him because I was asking Mark. I was like, hey, who does your art? Because you got such cool art. And Mark was like, you know,
I found the guy's name and I like found him on Facebook and I was like, hey, can you do some art for me? I like your joint theory stuff. And yeah, he's the one that did the podcast art like that. You know, I thought you're talking about because I anyway. Well, Chuck should definitely do some art. Yeah. Back to me. Yeah. Can we commission you to do some artwork for us? You can tell Chuck's a little he's a little tipsy. He's getting to that level. I'm getting a little.
Now's the time to real. Let's talk. Let's haggle price now while you're drinking. Yeah, but uh, would do you do commissions like that? Of course. All right. Well, let's talk later, especially for cool people, you know, he'd do a good mascot. You know, you're looking for that. Oh, that's right. I mean, I'm down. Cause he's an artist and a designer. That's true. I am more than simply a comic artist. This is my Mr. Burns fingers. I saw those fingers tickling each other.
what's going on. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of inappropriate behavior on this podcast that does not get seen. That's because of the love. A lot of scoundrel activity. Oh, yes. Just like Han Solo. Yeah, it's a high love scoundrel. You like scoundrels. Yeah, we're scruffy nerf herders. Nerf herders. All right. News, George? What? News. News, yes. Let's do the news.
First up, Geddy Lee from Rush just released his book, My F'n Life. I read an extended piece of this on Rolling Stone or something like that. I mean, I would have bought it anyway, but I'm definitely buying it now. Yeah. Everything I've heard so far, I'm going to have to read this. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I read Neil's book and well, one of Neil's books, which one, the motorcycle one. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually shocked. John, you haven't read it already. You are the biggest rush fan. I know. Not yet. Although I have heard cause he started his tour. TR just saw him in Philadelphia. And I don't know if you guys saw this when he did his show in New York, Paul Rudd came out for it. Oh wow. Which I thought was really funny. And so he's,
He's spilling a lot of beans right now about their history and everything. And it's interesting to hear him talk. Yeah. Like I was like, Rush did cocaine. Yeah. You read that too. George, you notice it was just like a small period. They did that. It was just, you know, Rush is like Dungeons and Dragons and Coca-Cola. Come on. They smoked a lot of weed. Oh yeah. Yeah. They drank a ton of beer, but it's just not one of those bands that you think about.
in the same sentence as cocaine.
But not to belabor, I heard one story that was really hard to hear, and that was the last thing he heard, the last conversation he had with Neil Peart before he died.
And Neil Peart said to him, he says, I'm really proud of the music we made.
I was like, fuck, just drive that dagger in deeper into the heart.
Yeah.
You know, yeah.
And it was also the other part where I think Geddy said that Neil was going back and re-listening to all the albums.
And so he would talk to him about it, like, and analyze the albums. And then he would say how proud he was of the music because he was listening to him again and just absorbing all of that material that they had done over the years. Which is like, it's crazy. And then now I guess we're finding out Getty did not leave on good terms, you know, meaning the band leaving on good terms. And they may get back together, him and Alex. Yeah. It's going to happen. Yeah, it is. But it's going to be like Pantera.
The two Bane songwriters are there, not lyrically, but musically are there. Yeah. Well, Getty said that they were going to have, they could have a discussion about it because, well, Alex had surgery for stomach problems, but once he gets healthy, I think Getty said he has really bad arthritis in his hands. I think he needed to take the break. So yeah, we'll see, but I'd like to see something. I mean, I don't think they'll call it rush. No, rush AD. Yeah, whatever, but I'd still like it.
Are you saying they're going to play with Zach Wild? No. Sorry. You heard it here first. Zach Wild and Mike Portnoy. Not Mike Portnoy. Not Portnoy. The anthrax guy. He's busy now. If they really want to do it right, they should do a tour and it would probably be some abbreviated thing. They're not going to do some massive tour. But they should bring Danny Carey, Stuart Copeland, Mike Portnoy. I got one name for you.
He's going to record the album.
All right, come on. He's on every album.
Unless it's Lombardo.
That's just America.
Okay, Lombardo's territory.
I'm going to go with Hannes. He's the prog guy.
So you're saying Cary King's going with...
I get it. I didn't see that coming, but I get it.
When's that new Cary King thing happening?
He keeps saying there's something coming.
Next year.
He's going to be at that dumb Rock, LaHoma thing or whatever. I don't mean to call it dumb because maybe it's not dumb. But the band apparently is just called K.K. because the thing is like K.K. He should just call it King. They should just have a better name. Yeah, just King. But they still haven't announced. It's not K.K. They haven't announced. No, it's the K.K. King killers. Let that sink in. K.K.K. Him and what's Paul? Bust off. Bust off. That's the only two confirmed members so far.
They probably know who the other members are, but they haven't. Oh, yeah. You think they know? It sounds like they've already recorded that. The legalese of it, Jay, you know? Exactly. And I think you're right. I think they have recorded it, Markisan. I think they are ready to go. It's been a while. I mean, we know the album's going to be called Kerry King as well, or KK's Kerry King. It's interesting that his name is bad, because it totally fits, because he seemed like he was quite a bit of a narcissist. It would be K's Slyke, by the way. Good one, Matt. I mean, he can say.
He keeps saying it'll sound like Slayer because I sound like Slayer. But Tom was such a big fucking part of Slayer. It's not going to sound like Slayer. The riffs-ish, yeah, fine. Whatever. Tom was a big deal in that band. Terry's also the shortest guy in the band. I'll tell you this. If it's got Phil Anselmo in it, I'm not interested at all. Just because that hardcore vocal style thing won't work for me with Slayer. It's going to be like Dialabus-era Slayer.
sounding. Which I can't do.
I like Diablo.
I like all the Slayer songs.
That's not to say I won't.
My ears will prick up when it comes out.
I'll be prepared to be surprised and pleased.
It's awesome.
We added a Slayer slot here in the news.
It's just funny.
Yeah, we did.
It was organic.
It was organic.
Guys, Rush are great.
From what I understand, they were very famous.
And they did not always enjoy being in the limelight.
I think it was the universal dream.
But it is only for those who wish to see. Those who wish to be must put aside their alienation and get on with the fascination. The real relation. The underlying theme. Thank you. I've never heard it. And Chuck may or may not have sold Alex's guitar. It's so funny. All right. Let's talk about another book. And that is Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper also has a book coming out next May.
Unsurprisingly named starring Alice Cooper. That's weird. I bet he's got a book to write. Yeah, I do. You know, I'll say this. I think there are several Alice Cooper fans here, but I was a resident Alice Cooper fan. But he, you know, he's been around forever, dude. Like his first record came out on Frank Sapa's record label. That fucker met Elvis, you know, or Carmux, Groucho Marx. Big difference there, dude. Really? Elmenor Dali. He did a thing with Salvador Dali. He knew Frank Sinatra.
I mean, the stories he can tell must be so fucked up. And there's one story that I actually heard. I think it was Liza Minnelli tell, and it was about meeting Elvis. And she met Elvis, and in the room were her, Alice Cooper, and I can't remember the other person, but it was just as random. And Alice Cooper, Elvis came out with like his guns, and he's like, you want to see my guns? You can feel, you know, whatever. It was because Elvis was a little fucked up in the 70s. Long story short, Alice has got some stories to tell, and I really
I really hope like he knew everybody dude he knew Hendrix he knew Janis Joplin like he knew those people you know he knew Jim Morrison you know that I'm definitely down to check it out yeah they always Cooper band started in 68 or something in Los Angeles they moved to Los Angeles from Phoenix got in Frank Zappa's situation and he had his manager to this day was Janis Joplin's manager and Hendrix manager and so he knew all those guys and everything and I just I can't imagine the fucking start
Do you hang out at the rainbow, dude? Chuck? Do you ever go to the rainbow? I mean... Oh, the rainbow. Yeah. Yes. I've been there at the rainbow before, sure. I've been to many shows at the Roxy, which is right next door to the rainbow. I've had a slice of pizza from that place. I went up to that little part of the bar where Lemmy's supposed to be, but he wasn't. This is when he was alive. Yeah. The one time that I was there a couple years ago, that was the same trip that was raining the whole time. They have like the Lemmy statue.
out in the outside bar and it's lemmy's lounge now at the outside part yeah and i'm not a fan of jack
daniels i'm more well just let's say other things but i had jack and cokes while i was there in honor of
lemmy and uh you know i went up all those teeny little stairs to use the bathroom and i'm like
this urinal has received the urine of so many gods of music it's a cool place it's kind of a cool dive
I love the vibe of it. Yeah. It's funny how people say it like, hey, how many famous gods of music have sat in this chair? But George is focused on the urinal. Yeah. Hey, I used to go to Tommy's joint in San Francisco. Oh, Tommy. Because that is famously where they hired Jason and he went up to take a leak. And when he came back, they were like, do you want a job? And the joke is, and then they were just like, okay,
you can be our new bass roadie which haha but so so everybody who's a Metallica fan knows that when you go to that bathroom it was the bathroom where he was taking a leak before he got the job one other thing about Alice Cooper too is remember he was part of that Hollywood vampires thing and I'm not talking about the band I'm talking about this group of guys that used to go drinking in Hollywood so Mickey Dolan's and then wait isn't Johnny Depp in that band yeah this is the drinking group vampires and these guys used to go to the rainbow in the 70s and they would just go there and hold
It was like Alice Cooper, John Lennon, some of the guys from the Monkees, Mickey Dolenz. Yeah. And so anyway, whatever. I'm going to get the book, but I'm dubious because it's coming out on this. It's the publisher largely publishes a photographic essay. So I'm not entirely sure that there's a script to this book. Yeah. There's a lot of pictures. Yeah. Like they did the, um, Ronnie James deal, black Sabbath book that I showed you guys a while back and, or Ronnie James deal.
They actually have some really cool fucking books, but I'm not entirely... I need to look it up and see what's what. And then advanced copies are fucking stupid expensive. So... Like even just the base one is $299 or something. What? Wow. Yeah. Maybe there's another... Maybe there's an Amazon version or something. Yeah. Maybe an audio tape comes with the pictures. Maybe Alice brings it to your house. Like an $800 one that's like... You can get the words,
but it's like a thousand dollars check. I'm not a huge Alice Cooper fan but there's one thing I like about Alice Cooper. Way back in like 2000 they put out this haunted house called Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet and it was like around the Brutal Planet album. Exactly around the same time and that was the best haunted house I've ever been to. It was unbelievably good and it only lasted for like a year and then it was gone. I don't know if they kept doing it and then they just couldn't use the name or whatever.
But that's what I always associate with Alice Cooper was the best haunted house I've ever been to. Let me add one other thing then too because this is so not his what he does but I've always loved this and that first of all he lives in Phoenix and he's I don't think he lives far from Rob Halford and because I know they hang out together in Phoenix to see each other. Anyway long story short he has a restaurant there and Alice is a big baseball fan and I just fucking love that the restaurant's called Cooperstown which is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is. So I just think that's like the perfect name for him.
And there's baseball memorabilia on the walls as well as
Alice Cooper memorabilia.
So, recently.
All right.
Before we move on to the next news item, we need some Will time because
Will's got to get going because, you know, he's got places to be and things like that.
So important.
My place to be is my bed.
I was going to say, he's clocking in the morning.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
All right.
It's a rare treat for us to get Will because his schedule is so ridiculous now for the government.
So it's nice to see you. Just for another couple months, the end of February, and my schedule should free up. He still grabbed my butt on Thursday, so. Oh, nice. Crapped or slapped? John and I had a little mandate there. With Jen. Yeah, three of us. There was a mandate with a civilized woman. A chaperone, as we call. Yeah. An unwilling participant, it sounds like. Oh, no. She was. She drove. She was willing. Oh, DD. Got it. Yeah. All right.
What do you got for us? Yeah, so for the new releases, when is the Suffocation album coming out? A couple weeks ago. Yeah, it's out. Wait, are you serious? How did I not see this? I don't know. I assumed that you would know that because you are Mr. Suffocation next to Justin. Yeah, I feel super dumb as usual. But I didn't listen to the first three down here on the new releases, but I do have...
I have two copies of the vastum because I preordered it and then when it came out, it was like vastum released it out. I'm like, oh, I got to buy this. And I'm like, literally Bandcamp allows you to buy it twice. It does. That's dumb. Those bastards. Yeah. Cool. And it wasn't even like late at night or anything. It was early in the morning. Like I woke up and my phone is pinging and I was like, oh, vastum. Yeah, that's right. I mean, it is good. Yeah. You never buy a Bandcamp before your second cup of coffee.
And then Zoth, George hit me up and said, I need to check this out. I looked, I listened to it very briefly. I did like it. And I need to spend some more time with it. And God, what have we been listening to lately? I feel like I haven't been on this podcast in like 15 years, but just real quick, Vastum. I did pre-order the Abhoria. On vinyl? Yep. Yep. I got it. Yep. I order it on vinyl. The new singer is freaking great. Oh, I love it.
I got a little advanced notice per se from Trevor because he knows I'm a big up horror fan. I think he's trying to make up for the fact that I'm not the biggest Ashen Horvath fan. You kind of are though. You're always talking. I mean, I know. You're a Trevor fan. You give Trevor more press than anybody. You're a Trevor fan. I just don't like the clean singing aspect of it. Like why ruin a good thing? You keep bringing it up and you keep bringing up his band. He loves it. I know, that's true. And
Anyway, I got the new, I pre-ordered the new Ampouria on vinyl. The, I got the new Left Cross, which is a local DC area band. Just the other day, I got the Alchemies of Flesh. It's a one-man band out of, I forget where they're out of. I mean, I sound, I think Florida, but I can't remember. But the album's called By Will Alone. These guys, their last album, I think was a little, yeah. I think their last album was a little bit better, but these guys, this guy sounds quite a bit like,
a morbid angel like a modern morbid angel nice yeah and then i got off of i think it was Markisan's album of the month the
yeah yeah i bought that pretty much right away i pre-ordered the new high spirits it's not really metal but i fucking love it
Obviously, I got the new Wayfair, American Gothic, the Sulfur Eon, Doppler, Primordial. I got the Primordial album. God, this thing is amazing. Some of you guys, I think. She really likes it. I was kind of like Luke Warma. I'm on board. I think his last one may have been a little bit better, but I'm like, I've been listening to this album way too much. Wow. Well, cut it off. You gotta go back to it, John. I don't know. I love Primordial.
We're not good at it. Maybe it's because I don't have the long primordial history that you guys do. Okay. So this is only the second album that I own. The last one and this one. But I really like this one. Cool. I think I just like primordial in general. It's just so like epic, like power. It's not quite power metal. I don't know what to describe it as. It's just kind of just extreme metal. Yeah. Epic. Yeah. It's not black anymore, to be honest with you. I mean, it's mostly clean.
singing.
I think it's a song six far beyond the fracture of the sky that kind of has a little bit more of a behemoth feel to the other ones but yeah yeah it's really digging in cool as far as the Thunderdome of course I voted for Slayer Rain and Blood in fact I was wearing my Slayer Rain and Blood t-shirt all day today and then when I had to go to this when I had to go to the synagogue to pick up my daughter from her first ever as an attendee of a bat mitzvah I changed my shirt
Yeah, I went to one of those. And then I don't have a top five because I don't have time. And my pick from The Crypt, I'm going to go back to one I go back to a lot. And I was listening to this the other day, but Overkill's Years of Decay. Oh, yeah. Nice. That is one of the, I feel like, the most perfect albums from start to finish. Good call. It's just amazing. Whoa, that album. Yeah, there's not a bad, there's not a single, in fact, it's not like you don't even say there's not a bad song around. Every song on the
is great.
It's.
Yeah.
That's my gold standard for all overkill albums.
Yeah.
Taking over was pretty awesome,
but then that was like,
boom.
Yeah.
Nice.
I'm trying to think off the top of my head,
top five bands with best catalog artwork.
I mean,
chemists is up there.
I love Sam Turner stuff.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think,
I mean,
any,
although we're not doing that top five,
but okay.
Oh yeah.
I changed it because I got yelled at.
Oh,
Okay. I didn't see that anywhere. Well, it's still art based. It's just for albums this year. Oh, we're going to do that. Top five. We have to. That's a good one, though. Yeah, you're right. Huh. Top five this year. Let me just scroll through this real quick. I kind of like the Wayfarer one. It's just kind of simple. It's really nicely done. Yeah, but sometimes those are the best album covers. Yeah. I like the white album and the black album.
I'm just saying. Well, this is by far the greatest album cover ever. It's not much of a spoiler, but that's on my list, Will, because their covers are always so indicative of what they sound like. They're so perfect. So I actually, that's one of mine. I think that's a great choice. I didn't mention this. I think. Is it on Chuck's list as well? Oh my gosh. No. Oh, but I, but I guess we shouldn't talk about that, but it's funny that you guys refer to it as simple because I look at that and I'm like, damn, that is like. Yeah, it's pretty.
Yeah. Not everybody can do it. And then like the amount of, yeah, it's like a Hemingway. It's actually, it's like a Allman Brothers band. That's what I thought. Southern kind of vibes, but I mean, it's very fitting for the band. I'll say that much. And well, and also the Allman Brothers thing is supposed to, you know, it's supposed to recognize an older Western script. So, yeah. But that I look at that and I'm like, this is like very professional.
To me, it looks extremely professional. It's kind of like that with logos when we were talking about earlier. I don't think people think that much about logos, but the design, what they put into it to make something that is going to be linked with the band forever. That's incredible. Sometimes I like the stuff that doesn't look as polished more. Obviously, Death's logo, it's like a teenager drew it.
I think a teenager probably did draw it. Yeah. And I agree. And yet it works so well. And they like, we find it and cleaned it up a little, but I like that old logo. Love that old logo. Anyways, unrelated, but Hey, no, it's just real quick. Some of the other ones I liked this year, the new, the cloak album cover, black flame eternal is really cool. I'm looking, I'm just looking through my band campaign. The wild beyond album cover is pretty, pretty cool. I like the Kriegs grave, Kriegs grave. That's good one. Fires in the hall. That's yeah.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. Serpent Corpse has a good one. And then
Tomb Mold always has a good one. The Enduring Spirit. Of course, Cannibal Corpse.
Vince Locke, gotta love it. And The Woe, Legacies of Frailty
is pretty cool. And Dope Lord, I was going to mention that. I think, George, you may like
Dope Lord. The songs for St. Album cover is pretty awesome.
Yeah. I like it.
I mean, the artwork is crazy. I have so many honorable mentions on my list. So. All right. Well, best album coverage out there. All right, man. You leaving us now? Yeah, I got to get going. I got to get to bed. All right, man. Well, thanks for coming on. Making an appearance. Good to see you. Working those 10-hour shifts on no sleep is fucking horrific. We look forward to having you back full-time, buddy. And he'll be here in the studio next month for?
Year-end episode. Yeah, work on it. John and I were talking about the other day, John's going to drive this year. I think mostly because I'll be on night shift. So I just don't want to. He's going to sleep on the way up. I don't want to be responsible for falling asleep at the wheel with my precious cargo. Exactly. Well, we'll see you then in a couple of weeks. So. All right, guys. Nice to meet you. Sorry. I didn't have much time to hang out. But yeah, you should start doing some.
beer and we need a mascot. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about that. Hey, Will, keep in touch. Let's drink at the pint sometime. Yep. You know, you could invite me to that. I'm an hour away from it, but I'll come. If you drink it, I will come. Well, wait, don't say that. I'm very excited about to see the results. It's funny. Did you say calming? Of course. Every time I pump the arm, it's like, I'm calming. Exactly. He wasn't even there for that. Yeah, for our interview before.
And yet he knows it.
No, just real, real quick.
The reason why that came, it came, it came together really quickly when I met John at the point, John and Jen at the point, because I was literally going to the recycling center and the recycling center is like halfway between my house and John's house.
And it's, you know, it's actually probably closer to John's house.
It's a glass recycling center.
Glass recycling center.
Yeah.
And I used to have to go like the way other parts of the city that took forever to go there.
And this one's like takes me less than five. I saved his life. I said, dude, it's like literally two minutes from your house. I know. It's amazing. But then I also had when John came over like several months ago, he left like a little like a koozie that you would keep like a bottle of beer and not an individual, like a big bottle. Almost like a wine cooler bag. I'm like, I got this. I'm near your house. He's like, I'm going to the pint. So I invited myself along to it. No, I was like, yeah, come by, man. Let's go drink at the pint.
So we did an afternoon beers and food. Yep. We love the picture. So yeah. All right, guys. I love you all. I will. I'm sure I'll chat with you guys shortly. Yeah. Nice to meet you, man. Bye. All right. Take care. See ya. All right. Moving on to our next news item. Yeah, go for it. Go for it, Chuck. Judas Priest announces the Invincible Shield Tour with Sabaton next to
And that is for the Invincible Shield album, which is coming out in March. I think so, yeah. They all of a sudden say, hey, we got an album coming out in a couple months and a tour. What? I haven't listened to the second song yet, but I listened to the first song and fuck yeah. It's good. It's fallen in the firepower vein, but it's happening. Jay and I and Georgie and I had the conversation a little bit. But a turbo. I think I had something to say, though.
It's like Judas Rising a little bit
Yeah
And it's a better song, George
It reminds me of Traitor's Gate
It's kind of more of a minor key weird thing
Without a big huge hooky chorus
It's fucking awesome
It's more like Firepower the second song, I think
Rob sounds so good right now
For a guy who's mid-70s or whatever the fuck he is
Rob sounds amazing
And I'm really excited about this new record
The tour isn't getting anywhere near me
I'm not entirely sure it's getting near you guys
You're never going to a show again, Jay. We have tickets, Jay. Where is it? MGM Casino. Oh, that's right. I did see that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even if I was in California, it's not coming near me. You're never getting a show again. I'm really excited about this record. Both of the lead songs are great, and I think that Richie Falkner has really given that band a kick in the butt. I'm just glad to see he can play. Continue playing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's a good point.
And I'm hoping we get Glenn this time. George and I didn't get Glenn
the last time we saw him together. And I didn't see him on the second leg of that tour. So hopefully get him this time.
I really would like to see them do a tour that was a little more worthy of them.
In that I think they still I know they stole the show at Power Trip,
which they were also a replacement band there. I don't think they get the fucking love
that they should get sometimes. I agree. Give it up, man. Let's just do a Maiden Priest tour and get it over with. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. And then... If it was my druthers, it'd be Maiden Priest and Saxon. You know, like, that would be perfect. But... I just want to see Rob and Bruce sing the one you love to hate. I would love to see them do that. So, Jay, you know the only band that's going to come tour by you now? Wayfarer? Sorry. UFO. Yes.
out there in the middle of the desert. Wait, what's that? George, what is that Bigfoot band? Oh, teary. But there is a Bigfoot band, though. Troglodyte. Yeah, Troglodyte, yeah. Yeah, we met them at the barbecue and interviewed the singer. You know, we've talked about this before, and it doesn't have to be about outdoing somebody, but Grease is in a better place than Maiden is right now, and I just wish they were getting a little more,
Maybe they are getting the accolades they deserve, but I just think Priest is making better records than Maiden is post-2000, especially these last couple. Spoken like somebody who doesn't like the last few albums when he should. I think Priest is doing fine. I think they're both doing fine. Yeah, they're doing fine. I wouldn't worry about that. I mean, take that with a grain of salt, but Firepower was more interesting to me than the Sinjitsu. And I like Sinjitsu. I thought it was okay, but it's just a little long-winded in places. They do have that.
They're a little bit stuck in the hole. Every song starts with a bass. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I mean, I'm more of a Maiden fan than I am a Priest fan. I switched parties at some point. I used to be there. Chuck, what is it? I was the Maiden guy for 30 years, but now I'm more of a Priest dude. I can't, I don't know where I land. That's a good place to be. This is a good, like, one of those questions for you guys as well, if you had to have it. I don't know if you've done it already, but. You have done a top five.
Some fences are good to sit on.
No, but we haven't done a Thunderdome priest versus maiden.
That should happen.
We haven't done a Thunderdome for Mason.
Wow.
I thought we did.
No, I think he's pretty sure.
Let's do it right now.
Yeah, we should do like a Screaming for Vengeance number of the beast or something, you know.
I mean, two powerhouses, lots of dueling guitars.
Very hard.
Guitar?
Yeah.
Yeah, and you know what, hey, some fences are good to sit on. I mean, it's not like Elvis and the Beatles. I mean, they're two similar bands on similar art, you know. One of the things we talked about a while back was that the biggest difference between their careers is the quality of their management, you know. Priest would probably be a little bit more in the stratosphere right now if, like Maiden is, selling out stadiums if they had fucking Rod Smallwood or something. They always had this kind of lackluster,
management.
Somebody should have told them no to Nostradamus.
That one snuck through somehow.
They said no during Turbo.
Yeah.
It's a shit ton of copies though, to be fair.
Man, we don't need no parental guidance here.
Anyway, it's cool that they're touring and Rob is one of those guys that's very vocal about, like, I'm getting older, I don't know, I'm going to do this as long as I fucking can, but let's be honest, I'm 74 or whatever the fuck it is.
So snatch them up while you can. If grease comes to sound, you're going to want to go. I've never seen them. You know, who would you rather hang out with, though? Rob. 100%, right? Yeah, 100%. No contest. Bruce might take me on a plane. Again, plane's terrible. Chuck, I want to revise my pick. Jay will appreciate this. I want to hang out with Ian Hill. I want to hear, because he's the guy who doesn't talk, so I want to hear from that guy.
You'd be able to find him, John. He'd be on the bookcase or something. You'd be like, what the fuck? Oh, wait. He's standing on the left side. Damn it. I knew he was over there. But I do think they're more, I think Priest is more down to earth. You know, like Bruce Dickinson is really kind of like a personality at this point. I don't think you could have a really good conversation with Bruce. No, he'd be running all around and stuff, jumping on, waving flags and shit. I don't know about that. I think he'd be probably pretty interesting to hang out with. But not as fun as Raul.
I think when you talk to Rob, you'd be talking to Rob. When you talk to Bruce, you'd be talking to this weird. Rob just seems like he would hang out on this cast. Do you know what I mean? I think Rob is almost like Dio. He feels like our pseudo metal dad. No, no. We're old enough. He'd be our metal dad. Well, for Markisan the mat, he'd be metal grandpa. Very true. And Chuck, too. Chuck's pretty young. That's true. Chuck, too. I don't feel young. Well, just wait until you're us. Yeah. I feel great. Okay, not him.
I might want to hang out with Nico and Yannick though. You might get hit in the head by a guitar from Yannick. He's all like, you know, there are a lot. Those guys are a lot. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I have a very, it's from a DVD, I think, but I always love this about Yannick. And it was at the, it's at the end of, it might be the early years DVD, but they're kind of summing up the whole business or something like that. And then they get to him and he's like out on the street, you know, apparently what he does whenever they go,
somewhere is just go find a pub but anyway i always love this quote he says well iron maiden he goes you know what if you've been our fan over the years and supported us bless you and he goes and if you haven't bless you too i've seen that jay it's funny he's probably a pretty good dude i mean he's irish right i think he always disappears like he's like well where's yannick i think he's at the pyramids right now i mean that you remember when they were in mexico they couldn't find him
All right. Well, speaking of Iron Maiden, let's move on to our next news item, which is Iron Maiden. Ooh. Nice trooper glass. German beer in a British glass, my friend. There you go. Iron Maiden has announced their 40th. It's a lot ahead. Not much ahead on this podcast, but not as much as we'd like anyway. So Iron Maiden announced the 40th anniversary peace of mind graphic novel.
which sort of works into where we are. I don't know why Chuck's not doing an art for this, but. I, they didn't ask me. He's not British. They heard that I wanted to hang out with Rob Halford. Have you seen it? It's really cool. Look at, I don't know about the novel, but the book is like the cover of the record. It comes in a box and you open it and there's an actual chain on it. Well, if you get the deluxe edition, you can just get the regular book.
But the book sits inside a padded room, you know, which is the cover of the album. So pretty slick, but I have no idea about that. It's from Z2, who does a lot of collaborations with bands and stuff. Bruce Dickinson wrote a story for it. So that's pretty cool. It has a lot of really good comic book creators in the book and has never before seen photos and art from that era. Peace of Mind is one of my faves.
It's pretty fucking good, dude. I mean, if it wasn't from Power Slave, this would be my favorite. Well, maybe it is, and I forgot, but Power Slave is pretty damn cool, too. But Peace of Mind, I think, is more, it just has more than Power Slave. Because, you know, Power Slave's got Rhyme of the Ancient Mirror taking up half the album. Rhyme of the Ancient Mirror, that's enough for me. I'm older, so I go a little earlier, Number of the Beast for me. But I love those three together. Those three are awesome. But Brian Pussain, were you,
I talked about earlier Chuck has a story in it with Michael Ivan Ome. Oh, so that's pretty fucking cool, right? Yeah. Stephen Grant who's been around a long time. I don't know Carson Thorne the artist Bruce Dickinson's doing a story. That's cool. I know Anthony Johnston. I know. I don't know. I've worked with him. Yeah, he's good. Chris Roberson. I've heard of that Dan. I never know how to pronounce this guy's name. Daniel says Zeld. You know that guy? Not personally, but yeah.
No, I know his art. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's going to be a cool graphic novel. I'm definitely going to order this. Cool. You know, just to kind of reflect on the fact that what it's celebrating is 40 fucking years, which is ridiculous. Hard to believe. That's most of my life, guys. I can't make sense of that. Chuck was two when this came out. Sophomore in high school. Matt was like around that age, too. It was five. It was five. That's nuts, dude. So, you know, you were
Really, it's hard to appreciate. Some 25-year-old kid now is really into metal, and peace of mind is just like some historical documents. Yeah, it's hard to believe. And that's peace of mind we're talking about. Remember, the beasts are obviously older, you know, as well as killers. Yeah, they're still not in the Hall of Fame. Let's not go down that rabbit hole. All right, move on, George, before we do. All right, so this is the last minute.
Wait, actually, before we do, just for fun, quick poll, but it's going to put you on your guard. No, favorite song of Peace and Mind. Start with George. I'm going to say this just to piss you off, Jay, and that's Still Life. Or not Still Life. No, Sun and Steel. You're thinking of Quest for Fire. Quest for Fire. Thank you, sorry. Still Life is awesome. But yeah, Quest for Fire is good, too. They're all good. That's a trick question. Everyone you pick, you're leaving one out, though. So, Matt, back to you, John. If you're going to die.
Okay.
Okay.
Die with your boots.
I thought there'd be a couple of those.
Check.
I'm just going to go with what my glass says.
Okay.
Yeah.
No,
that's nothing wrong with that.
Good call.
Oh,
yeah.
It is on there.
I had to.
Yeah.
That's the problem.
You had more time to think about it than anybody else did.
No,
you're in trouble.
I did.
I'm a still life.
I'm still life.
Matt.
I kind of like where you go stare.
Was considering it.
I'm going to go a little weird too,
but I don't think you guys will think it's weird and I'm going to throw out Revelations. Oh, Revelations is my next favorite after. Yeah, that is classic. Are you kidding me? It's amazing. I'm going to pick for I'm going to pick for Will and I bet he does but die with your boots on too. Yeah, I'm sure. No flight of Icarus fans. Oh, I love it, but they're all good. All good. All good. That's where the phrase all good comes from. Trick question.
The Origin of All Good is when somebody was like, hey, do you like the songs on Peace of Mind? And somebody was like, all good. And it just, after that, it went into the common vernacular, and there you are. I mean, I'm honest with you, George. You're actually, I don't know if you know this, but the reason the second album was called Killer, with a song on there called Killer, but it was because they felt they'd come up with every track they found on there was Killer. So they were going to call it Killers. Killers was the original title, meaning every song on here is Killer, but they
dropped it to killer. Wow. True story. Is there any bands out there with their album called Mediocre? Well, it's funny too, because I don't know if that's necessarily true about killers. I like killers a lot, but or killer. Yeah. All right. So our last news item is a last minute edition. Oh, decibel announces Philly metal and beer fest lineups for 2024. I hate to take us down this rabbit hole, but it's got to happen.
So it will be April 12th and 13th in 2024. I'm just going to read off the bands for each day and do what you will. Friday, April 12th, Witching, Terminal Nation, Enforced, Internal Bleeding, Jesus Peace, Crowbar doing an Oddfellows Rest and Crowbar set, and Biohazard doing the entirety of the
of urban discipline.
Saturday.
Deva.
We know them well.
Lamp of Murmur, or Murmur, however you pronounce it.
Wilhaven, which was an odd one for me.
Although I know they're kind of pimping that right now.
But 200 stab wounds.
To mold.
Dying fetus doing a special old school set.
Deicide headlining.
doing tracks from Deicide, Legion, and Once Upon the Cross. There's mixed opinions upon the podcast of these set lists. Some are happier than others. Where's the Biohazard discussion come down? Hey, I saw Biohazard on the Urban Discipline Tour, opening for Slayer on the Divine Intervention Tour. So I'm like, I'm kind of split. I'm like, I haven't really been a huge Biohazard fan since then, but I dig them a lot.
back then. So I'm curious to see how it stands up, particularly with, you know, the other bands on the bill. So yeah, I'm down. I mean, I think I can speak for John and myself. We're not really that interested in April 12th. So I do like witching, although I'm, I like their older stuff better than the new album. I haven't been able to get into the new album as much as the older stuff. So that's the only one I'm really that interested in. On April 13th,
There's a lot of bands. I love Deva, Tumul, Deicide, Dying Fetus, all that. Even Lamp of Murmur and Wilhaven I would watch. How do you not like Enforced? That's like, seriously? I think I'm either going to. That's like Sepultura AD. It's fucking, it's good. I like to go to the show just to hang out with you guys. So even if I'm not going to watch bands, I would go. Of course.
I'd drink beers. I'd probably watch witching and just drink all the beers. And then I'm going to go and have date night with John. Well, I'll be honest, Marcus. I'm not even going Saturday or Friday. I mean, I'll be there, but I'm not going. Well, that's what he means. He's going to hang out with you because you're not at the show. Yeah, because I'm torn. I can go to the show and drink beers because it's a day where I could just try all the beers. Yeah. Have you listened? I could skip it. Have you listened to Jesus piece?
I have a statement to me about this though if you'll bear with me and it's I'm not saying it's a waste of time or anything and there are some good bands there but I honestly have to tell you I feel like decibel lineup has gotten worse every year I'm not joking I am that were epic and I'm not saying this is not cool this is not good to do but well that I was so fucking excited for JD that just you me and Will went that lineup was just insane it was insane it was insane it involved
The Carcass. This is a very death-centric lineup other than Lamp of Murmur. But it almost always is though, right? Last year was that way. I'll be honest. I was bummed when I saw Agaloc was playing Denver. I was like, what? Yeah, exactly. Totally, dude. Totally. And so take that with a grain of salt. There'll still be a blast. I agree with you. You walk around and you drink beer and you go get some of your whatever you do. I'm going to peruse around. But there's been some that we did.
where you didn't want to leave the floor very much. And I just wish we'd get... This is the thing I want to say. Last year, the second day... Yeah. When you had tacos, I watched one band. And we left early. I actually loved hanging out that day. So... It was good. It was a situation, Marcus, and myself. But how about that... Good time. The year before when we all... When Enslaved came and we got to go to the Enslaved movie...
Yeah, it was great. And there was a bunch of great bands that year. It was just, you know, it was a better year for a lot. Yeah. I mean, it's, and it's hard booking these things. I realized that. I mean, they're trying, I told George this yesterday. I said, I'm going to get screwed because while TR and I will be probably, so here's the thing. We're going to be hanging out beforehand with you guys. Then you guys go, we're going to go drink somewhere and then we'll drink with you afterwards. So it's just,
I was like you know what's gonna happen
the pre-show is gonna be announced and horrendous is gonna plan
I'm like son of a bitch
we don't know what the pre-show is yet
which if that's the case
okay I'll be at the pre-show
I was talking about that good fucking year
remember pre-show was fucking
you operated on Will
what has that been
I can't remember
so it's cool I'm just saying
And, you know, he's got access to, he can swing for the fences a little more and get some. Yeah. I mean, listen, people are going to love this lineup. It's just, maybe it's not for us, but. Yeah. Yeah. I was not going to that first day. I might not do it too. Just so we can hang out. Just, hey, Markisan, join our little twosome and make it a threesome. I think I might. Will there be a yacht? I'm just asking. John BT man. It's about these bands. It is a fair question.
I have memories. I'm getting the temperature of the room. I mean, clearly the decibel metal and beer fest is the best fest. It is. Oh, we love it. We love it. As a semi representative of the festival, I see no issues at all. You should be coming out of your tastes or whatever. It is clearly the best lineup. I love how we we've been spending this time with Chuck and now we're starting to understand his sarcasm as it goes.
Well, I know you're being a sarcastically company man there, too, but I am going to just in person throw out the pitch for Psycho Las Vegas, which was one of the best fucking fests I've ever been to. Nothing announced yet, but I just I guarantee you it'll have 10 more bands that you want to see more than a right decibel. And it's a fucking blast. But when they postponed and they offered us refunds, Jay, and I said, no, you keep our money.
You just tell us where to go and when to be there. Our wives are fine with it. It's okay. And they're going to be at least five killer bands on the lineup that you guys will skip. Like Paradise Lost. The reality is Matt Pike was busy this year, okay? They had to push it back. Paradise Lost was busy. It's just unreal you walked out on Paradise Lost. We're never going to. So they went to Psycho Las Vegas, Paradise Lost. Maybe one of my all-time favorite bands. And they told them.
We listened to two full songs and some banter afterwards and then our lift was there. We had to leave. There's no refunds. I did see all of the rap and the new battle bands. I thought Bone Thugs was really good. Is that a real thing? I mean, I don't feel all the Bone Thugs were there. Bone Thugs were there? Yeah, I made my cohorts sit through it. That's the nostalgia. That's a thing you can do. Emperor was there. It was a fucking fate. Merciful fate.
and playing. Which I missed. Carcass. Carcass was there, high on fire. It was epic, man. Matt Files gambling in the casino. Wait, Chuck, were you considering going to that? No, I missed, I couldn't go to the Merciful Fate tour, that last one. I had surgery and I just was like, I don't think I can go to a show. Post-surgery. They're already in the United States, though, and Europe next year, they got a record coming. He'll get another shot at it. I've seen King Diamond before. It's wild, but yeah, I'd love to see. But yeah, I've heard about this. I saw the last, like, cycle Las Vegas thing.
It seemed pretty legit. I saw videos of people and there's like a pool in front of where everyone's playing. It looks wild. It sounds crazy. I typically hate to go to Las Vegas, but if you go for a specific thing, it's good. I hate Las Vegas, but if you go for a specific thing, it can be really fun. Yeah. If you felt crowded at any time, it's super easy to go somewhere and kind of be alone. Like it's not, it's such a big fucking place. Yeah. I mean, within the place where the show was.
It's 70,000 tons of metal in the desert. Because there's a pool. Much better than being on a boat. Yes. I'd rather not be on a boat. Yes, the pool. There's actually a mosh pit in the pool. We saw a bath do his motorhead cover band there. It was fucking rad, dude. They sound so much like early. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, a mosh in the pool. It's not great. I'm not going to go into that pool. I hope that surgery wasn't too serious, Jeff. Bacteria frat.
The Gallbladder. Oh, okay. Oh, which was serious enough for me. We're done. We don't want any more. You're like Ozzy, no more surgeries. No more surgeries. We're done. So I think now's a good enough time to announce the, you know, in the spirit of 70,000 tons of metal, the new Metal Heads podcast tour, which will be on a giant plane that flies from the East Coast to the West Coast and back again.
while bands play.
And it's going to be.
Sounds safe.
Yeah, it is.
It will be.
And yeah, more details soon.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
This lineup looks like a good time.
Looks like a good time.
It's always a good time.
I don't know.
The Lamp of Murmur would be a fun thing to see.
They're from Los Angeles, I think, or they're from California, or at least they're there now.
And it would be funny to fly to Philadelphia to see them.
Yeah.
So can I double back then too? Because I want to get on your comment and just say this. It's always a good time. So take my stuff with a grain of salt. Yeah, that's a thing with the list, but it's a blast. Jesus Peace fucking probably an excellent show. Yeah, I think I liked a lot of that. Like I came up in the hardcore kind of world. So that feels pretty effective. I mean, to mold. Come on. I know, you know, like I don't know anything about biohazard. I don't know anything about biohazard.
I don't like
I don't like Will Haven
I'm not familiar enough with internal bleeding
and
I was going to say
you've never experienced internal bleeding
I'm not a fan of dying fetus
but other than that I'm good
who's not a fan of that
And I'm from their state. They're from Baltimore. Eric was in town and his wife went to dying fetus. That's how good they are. They're not. They're not. I might walk off tonight. I may walk off. You're not walking anywhere. You don't have your snuggies. I'm actually really curious about the pre-show because I don't think I've gone to the pre-show the last couple of years. So it's real good. It has been. Skip the 12th. Hang out with John. Lots of cuddles. Yeah. Oh, God.
And then April 13th, you know. The big difference is you got to pay for your beers. And, you know, almost always a pretty good lineup. And the pre-show requires a yacht. That's the first time I actually touched Matt. Was that the pre-show? That's true. The first time Jay actually cut pieces off of Will. Oh, we didn't want to stay on the yacht. That's right. Yeah, we ran it. We knew the Airbnb. A buddy of mine, John BT, who joins us. And that part of Airbnb in the harbor that was a yacht, basically.
I really want Chuck to come to the show
just so we can meet him
the one that you guys are poo-pooing
the lineup of?
I'll be there Saturday
I've never been to Philadelphia
who knows
it's the city of brotherly love
that's what they say
Chuck have you been to Chicago though?
I have been to Chi-Town for sure
is that close?
it's not close is it?
Come to Philadelphia and we'll go to Monk's. Oh, Monk's. You'll be happy. Monk's is our place where we hang. They just have a really great beer there. Great service. They always give us like the back room where we take over. Not always. Not always. We got screwed one. Not always, but most of the time, right? Grease that wheel. Oh, it's great. Yeah. Monk's is for years considered one of the best beer bars in the world. And it's tiny. It's not that big. So it's just awesome.
We have so much fun there. This all sounds fun. This all sounds delightful. You got to get out and do some things, man. Now you know some people. Hang out with us. We'll go to gyms. We'll get some food. What else do they do in Philly? You go around and... I was talking with Mark Sandler. Yeah, the steps. I was talking about the cheesesteaks, but he said... Cheesesteaks. Chicago has better cheesesteaks. Nah, he's wrong. I'm never wrong about anything. No. But Monty's is... No, I like the cheesesteaks in Philly. I'm just saying that Monty's
They haven't had it, so they don't know. But I think they would agree. I've taken George to a place that I like, and Philly, he's like, I think this is the best cheesesteak I've had. George, you should trust me when I tell you. This is true. Now, they are from Philadelphia, and they moved to Chicago. It's technically still a Philadelphia cheesesteak, don't it? It is the best cheesesteak I've ever had. It's not close. And I like the cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. I'm just telling you. So, Dante's is my favorite place to go. I've converted lots of other people. Every time I take them there,
because I hype it up so much like this isn't gonna live like they're like this was better than the hype so all the people I've ever taken there every time so Chuck last wait no it was this year it was this year wow seems a long time ago yeah back in April uh Marcus and I and I went to a a cheesesteak place uh Cleavers and he got a cheesesteak with literally one pound of beef oh my along with the bread and other toppings I don't think
There's more pounds involved than just the meat. This is just the meat pounds. I did not need that much, but he and he somehow. How does that all leave your body? That's a lot of he got it in there. I don't know what happened after that. You need to ask Will about that. He was my roommate. I have a feeling it doesn't go out. It stays in, you know, I like seven years at least like the hot peppers because I like hot things. And we're moving material for sure. Yeah. Like I like what we're
Yeah, that cleavers. That was good. I go back to that one. Yeah, I like to talk about food. And then I like to talk about the aftermath of food, all the things. Talk about this. We never talk about the other side of the food part. You know, you're eating all this food. So I'm going to go back to Monty's, the best cheesesteaks ever had. They have one called the right. You can get a traditional cheesesteak. They have other versions. The one I get is called the Rocky. Okay, they grow their own hot peppers.
They mash them and they make this kind of like a paste and they put it into the
cheese steak and it's different every single time because they grow their own hot peppers so
sometimes they're a little hotter than others oh no and i always get that and then i get a side of hot
peppers because i you're a wild man so this takes us back to what you're a wild man yes this takes us back to what chalk was talking about the aftermath
The Aftermath. Hot Pepper Aftermath. That's my new punk hardcore band. Yeah, it'll clear you out, man. The next day, for sure, it'll clear you out. No, I did just have it, and nothing happened. You need to try my hot sauce. I'm maybe more powerful than I possibly can. Yeah, you might be building up the tolerance. I've had so many of those. My hot sauce will melt your face. Welcome to Pepto Talk. I love the spicy, but the
I'm feeling that now Chuck too because I used to be able to my wife's like human iron stomach I never get hangovers ever in my life and I still don't get hangovers but sometimes when I eat spicy foods I do feel it in my gut more and it's never happened before it's always been very iron it's called getting old I don't eat and so I have to kind of watch it that's why I was a little bit surprised when I had Monty's to be honest it was the hottest mash the hot pepper mash I've ever had and nothing
I think this is the time you need to double down actually
I'll take two orders
well that's funny Chuck because every time I go to Monty's I do get two
I order one I get the 12 inch and I eat it and then I order another 12 inch to take home
because this sandwich you heat it up 30 minutes in the oven at like 325 it's perfect
Marcus I need an air fryer
That's how good it is. You can cut that down by a third. You can't get that whole sando in an air fryer, though, can you? Yeah, you can. Ours, you can. The point is that Marcason likes 24 inches. Or at least 12 inches twice. I can take 12 more inches of this sandwich. Anyway, I want the boys to come here. I try to get, to me, Chicago is the best city. I've been to a lot of fucking cities. I've been to Chicago. It was scary. I left. Oh, I think it's a really great city.
The weather is shit, you know? I mean, I'm from central New York. The weather here is nothing compared to where I grew up. Yeah, I guess I'm comparing it to where I live, guys. Do you know snow, Chuck? Do you know what snow is? No, I don't know snow. You mean the radio weather? Or you mean when I ski? No, I mean like the stuff that falls out of the sky. We have snow. It's not that far. It's close. Yeah, we have all the weathers here. You drive to it. It's not that far. No, I'm being a jerk. What's worse, honestly, is the summers.
And your East Coast summers and your mid... Oh, yeah. Our summers suck here. It's all terrible. Anyways, we don't have to talk about the weather anymore. This isn't the weather, James. We do it all. All right. But look, the Decibel Show in Philly sounds great. I would love to... Hanging out with you guys is like a delightful time. We have a great crew of people there, and it's just amazing. It's the show of the year. Yeah. It is, because we have a lot of listeners.
and just people know the podcast people from decibel because we know people yeah it's really fun it
doesn't not make sense for me to attend it doesn't you should just think about it chuck you know we'll make sure you'll have all of us and more to hang out with all right so we move on new releases new releases
All right. And I'm going to say one thing. So I sent these to Chuck and Chuck is like, who? These new releases are crazy. We are like metal and like underground. And we are true with a V. That's what we are. Yeah.
So he spent time listening to him. So I'm really curious to see what Chuck has to say about these. Me too. I'm ready. I'm ready. I did. I spent time. I wrote some notes. Whoa. Excellent. All right. Well, first we have the new Mephorish album. Crystal. Ah, I'm not quite sure how that's pronounced, but it's their fifth album. They're a Swedish black metal band. This loosely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they used to be more black metal.
This time they figured out what a keyboard was. And they went to town with the whole choir monastic thing, which, you know, looking forward to that new art album. And it wasn't bad that they did that. But to me, it felt like the synth stuff and the vocals were over up in the top and everything metal was below that. And you had to really listen for it. That said, I still thought it was a cool album.
Yeah. I honestly, I don't think there's really a real stinker on the list of stuff I listen to, which is cool. I, this album is called Chris, Crystal. And I, it feels like it sounds like crystals. Like there's, it's sparkling. It's interesting. Symphonic cinematic, cinematic, you know? Yeah, definitely. But like you're saying, it's like heavy on the production. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But I call it Crystal. Yeah.
Listen, I think this album delivers some really good black metal with excellent orchestration, good atmospherics. I like the chanting parts. I like the layered vocals they use on this. But then there are babies crying on this fucking thing. There's like female sex moans that just... I have a story about the baby thing. They take me out of the mood, I guess is what I'm trying to say. That's the most black metal thing about it, I think, is that it made you feel uncomfortable.
So I was, I'm normally I work remote, but Friday I had to go into an office to get something updated. And I queued up this album to listen to in the car. Okay. On my phone. Cause I stream it in the car and I'm like getting ready. And I start coming down the stairs to leave. Did you say calming? Calming down the stairs.
And I must have bumped something and my phone started playing and it was that freaking baby thing. Okay. So it's like silence. And then all of a sudden, you know, and and Barb is like, what the fuck is going on? I was like, oops, I started some music. Did you play the sex noises for her? No, I, but I did think of that later on going, shoo, dodged a bullet there when it wasn't that part.
So now George is listening to porn music. Exactly. Well, actually, no, I was going to say porno grind. I've like looked into that based on, no, there's a thing called porno grind. Are you serious? And it's very, really super misogynistic. So I was like, it's more disturbing that I just found out about this for the first time or that three of you already know about. It's been around for a long time. I think it's, this is an older sub genre. Yeah. It's been around a long time. Yeah.
I mean, it's like be as disgusting as possible, you know? Yeah. And it's like, you know, grain of salt. I mean, but you know, you give like cannibal corpse, you give them a grain of salt. You're like, yeah, you know, it's horror stuff. It's whatever. But some of the stuff that I listened to in the porno grind genre, I was like, no, there's no pass here. It's just so wrong. Anyway. So I think it's a good album. I don't know. There's some things that take me out of it, out of that.
listening experience.
Yeah, we're in a weird place with music where like you can kind of do whatever you want with you have so many tools that you're at your disposal that you can just kind of throw everything at it, you know, and yeah, I don't know that I didn't dislike this album. It's cool. It's fine, you know, but it's like been jealousy kind of stuff stuff. I like all that. Yeah, but there's like all those different there's like female vocals and whatever, but it's all very
clean. Everything sounds so clean. Everything is so well-produced. Maybe it's just my taste. It's starting to get away from us a little, I feel. I do. I might be getting that through. But no, I get it. I hear that on there. But I liked it. It sounded like crystals. It was very sparkly and magical.
Magical Babies. In the sky with diamonds. Alright, so our next album is Sadis, and their sixth album, The Shadow Inside. Only sixth album. This is a Cali Thrash death band from way back. Used to have Steven DiGiorgio in there. 40 years back, I would say, George, right? Oh, is this? Yeah, I guess so. So, of course, Matt's not here. Matt's the guy that likes them the most.
I mean, I could talk about it. Does anybody else listen to it? I listened to it yesterday. It was all right. I've heard clips. I meant to listen to it today and I ran out of time. So. I love it. Good. I love it. I. I like their previous stuff. Here's the thing with bands like this. It's been like 16 or 17 years since they put out something, I think. Unfortunately for these older bands who have these like classic albums in their catalog, they always,
their new stuff always gets compared to the old stuff. So I've seen a bunch of reviews where they talk about that. And for me, though, it's more about how does this album stack up against the other albums that I'm listening to now? And I have to say that I think this is a fucking blistering LP. And when it comes to Thrash in 2023, I think The Shadow Inside has a pretty good
case for being the best LP in that genre. And that is impressive to me for a band that started 40 years ago and hasn't put out an album in over 15 years. So I don't think that from the reviews I've read, I don't think that they need to put out another Illusions or Swallowed in Black to fucking destroy your bones, right? This album fucking rocks, dude.
It's so good
Especially for a band who hasn't been doing it
Very much over these years
And so I have to
Toast these old metal dicks for this record
Because I really like it
Cheers
Yeah, I thought this was rad
I mean, it's
I'm not poo-pooing the previous band
But it is the kind of the opposite spectrum
You know, I wrote my notes
My notes are like
The drums
There's like this clinking sound
That's just super energetic
It's banger
It's like a banger. It's a slary, thrashy, violent. Track two, scorched and burned. I love the way it moves. I love the way it grooves. Their logo, the name, everything, the art. It looks and sounds like they sound. Classic, you know, thrashy, death metal-y, brutal. It's got a bit of techy thrash to it, too, which I like as well. Yeah. And, like, the vocals, I like it. They're pretty raw, but they still have some, like, bomb
to them.
They're not just raw.
There's skill.
It's cool.
Yeah, I'm really impressed.
For a band that's been around this long and they put this album out, I'm hard pressed to think of a better thrash album this year.
Really good.
What?
Matt, Sadis, what do you think?
I was peeing.
I can still hear you guys talking now because I got the earbuds in.
I was about to start yelling and I realized.
I'm glad I didn't say what a dick. That's okay. If you would have, I would still love you. So I still like, I like this album. Say this is one of those bands that in junior high, I want to say it was Vision of Misery. A handful of bands that, you know, people would bring to school and I would listen to and I'd be like, this is so sinister. I love it. Like people brought actual bands to your school to listen to. Sorry, like cassettes. Oh, okay. Sorry.
It's like, wow, that's better my school. Wait, what do you got there, Chuck? Oh, not that. That's the Black Braid cassette. Oh, sweet. Matt does love Black Braid. I do love Black Braid. I have too many cassettes. How many do you have? That's very good. How many do I ever listen to? That's the real question. I have roughly 600. I'm probably in the 100 space, maybe a little more. I don't know. Not that I'm trying to compare dicks or anything. It's a six to one ratio.
Quite a cool dick to compare. That doesn't actually count Georgie. The thing is that mine are all old, except for this one. I have many old ones as well. This is my dicks. This is Scala. My friend Chris, his band, put this out back in January. It's been sitting here since January. Let me just talk to you there and say there's no reason to be proud about how many cassettes you've owned. Exactly. Actually, the more you have, the less you win. I like it. They're smaller than anything else, which is cool.
But as far as dicks go. That's what she said. Chuck's 42, but he has a 60-year-old dick. He's like... I joke about cassettes, and I think it's silly because, yeah, it's hard to find time even to put them in and do the whole thing. But when you do, I think the fucking sound is killer. I think the warmth of cassettes is fucking nice, and it's not something you get from other media sources. And I'm here to tell you just that. Thank you. The cassette advocate. All right.
I like it. The sound is different. I agree. I have cassettes. I usually buy ambient albums on cassette because that's what they usually put them on. And I like from like when I went through the whole process of like with NOSC of the wood of like, you know, listening to my stupid shit like a million times on every different format and trying to like do the thing. My favorite sound by far was cassette. I'll send you all a cassette. This album, my album. I think it sounds the best. Sounds the most black metal. I don't know. Yeah. Whatever. I like old school cassettes and black
Black Metal Go Together like chocolate and peanut butter. Yeah. Deliciously. But sorry to interrupt you, Matt. You may continue. Yes, I'm sorry. It was very relevant. Cassettes are also super portable and you get a little bit of a break in between sides, which is nice if you have to go to the bathroom or anything. Yeah, which we can also do 20 minutes in. Hey, vinyl does that too. Very true. Not as portable. Not as portable. Not as portable. Especially if you're klutzy like me. Better art though. Yes. Very true. Very true. It'd be good in Shaun of the Dead part one and two. So, Satis. Love it.
The problem is it just doesn't
like what I was going with is I have kind of that attachment to it that feeling that sadist brought
me to as like sixth grade Matt you know kind of was that altar in front of me that brought me the evil in my life it doesn't do that anymore and of course the problem is nothing will yeah unless I'm listening to old sadist but to me it definitely stands up in this day and age and honestly the fact that they still are together and want to put out music I could be happier so yeah I mean what's a better thrash album this year
Totally. Metallica. That's funny, George. It's not funny. It's true. Well, okay. I can't say that because I haven't listened to the whole Sadist album, but. Is it sad but true? Metallica. I don't care. I am here to just tell you all to go fuck yourselves. I dub the infront. Oh. But now the new Metallica is awesome. Are they playing in your neck of the woods, George? And are you going to go? No, they are not. Wait, I want to know.
Chuck's feelings of Metallica. How do you feel about the band? Oh, I mean, you know, essential. But yeah, I haven't felt anything in a long time. Right, since they stopped being metal. Pretty much. You know, I'm like, I can appreciate it. Even the stuff that's like better. 72 Seasons is a very metal album and is really good. Tremendous. Chuck, play kidding, George. I was kidding.
It is good. I hear the song every week when it came on my radar, the new song they would put out. I'd be like, man, it's fine. It's cool. Like, it's all fine. It's fine. Yeah. That's how I feel. They can do whatever they want. That's like the thing with it's fine and everything is on fire behind him. You know, the meme. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like they're not moving anybody's soul. Are they really? Come on. No, but as a lifelong Metallica fan, I am pleased. I dig. I think the album's good. I like the album director.
It's fine. It's not as good as anything else. You know what I mean? There's a part in my gut which dislikes that this band can be so massive and not... You know, like... Let's put it this way. If they didn't exist before now, the 72 Seasons was their first record, we wouldn't talk a bit of it. No. Yeah, and I'm not trying to shit on them because I like them.
I don't think that's what happens in a career. It depends on who you are, but... How many Picasso's you own? I mean, there's a weird... I'm not saying we wouldn't be talking about him. We might be talking about him, but... Somebody has to be the Metallica, by which everybody else is judged. But there's a weird thing where Metallica can put out stuff and people are still going to buy it in millions, no matter what they do. Everybody's going to talk to you like, oh, you're a metalhead. What do you think of the new Metallica album? You're like, I don't. I could... And actually...
I'm not sure you and I are really having a real conversation. Yeah. No, if, if somebody actually said that and said Metallica, I'd be okay. Most of the time it's like, Oh yeah. Like slipknot. Okay. I think if they didn't say 72 seasons, you still got about five minutes worth of conversation before you figure out if you can really talk to this person or not. Yeah. I mean, listen, sometimes when people do that to me, I'm okay with it because they're trying to speak to me on a level. They think that I understand. They don't know about,
They don't know what elitist douches we are. Douches. So I have to appreciate that on a certain level because they're trying. So I try not to be an elitist douche. And yet we are. What do you think of this Mitalika? I said, fuck, you get the fuck out of my face. That didn't happen. I'm a nice guy. It was playing in your head. A small and mild, not anecdote, but occasion that I wanted to share with Matt.
We've had this conversation about multiple bands that disappoint us now. Mastodon, even one of them. And I was fucking around on my Apple TV the other day. And years ago, I'd purchased Mastodon Live at the Aragon. And it's the Practice Guy Tour, Matt. And I watched it. And I was just like, Jesus, this is so fucking good. I was blown away again.
It made me sad for the fact that you won't probably get to see that again. So I thought of you because I was just like, yeah, it's so good. I know Matt when I was the Crack the Sky tour, they came on just a few times. Yeah, I mean, Crack the Sky is the last I really responded to. Yeah. I like the last one. And so I think this is relevant to the Metallica thing because, you know, it's okay. It's legit to like the new Master Iron Records. I don't have a problem with that and stuff, but it's just,
If you really go back and look at the glorious live at the Aragorn or go back and look at Metallica live during the Master of Puppets tour, you'll understand why this conversation happens. Go ahead, Matt. Funny story to build on what Jay's saying. Not this current season of Survivor, but I think it was the last season. Anyways, as a family, we've been watching it. My kids love it. I love Survivor. And this one girl was on there and she was a metalhead. And of course, they're like, oh, what do you like? And of course, she was from the Minneapolis.
I really like Mastodon. My daughter looks amazing
because my kids know I love heavy metal. She's like, do you like Mastodon?
I was like, we don't have enough time.
You're 14. I'm not going to be able to explain this.
Come back to me when you're older, kid.
It's complicated, okay?
Good for you. And that's exactly what I'm talking about.
And it's not a disrespect to...
No, because here's the thing. You always have those old albums.
They're moving on to do what they want. And I'm okay with that. Do whatever you want to do. I might not respond to it, but somebody else might. And we've talked about this too, where we've had the top five albums that you might introduce somebody to get into metal. And I had Mastodon on there and I picked newer albums because I know if they're into that and it's more of a cross-platform album, maybe they'll go back to the older stuff and that will lead them to something else. So I don't have a problem.
with it. I want bands to do what they want to do, but I don't always like the journey they take. And that's fine.
Here's the one thing I'll say. I am kicking myself that I did not go to the Mastodon Gojira tour that was this past summer. A, because it was in outdoor amphitheaters, and B, which is funny, because Gojira also falls into that category. And that was one of my thunderdomes about pitting those two, because we frequently come back to this conversation of, you know, to Yael's point of like bands,
that like they've evolved. We totally respect it. Like that's your journey. We're just along for the ride. However long we want to be on the train. But they're kind of another band that you know that I personally don't listen to as much. But I still would have I like I would still totally go to that show because I know it would still be good. Because they're so good live. Even the new stuff sounds good live. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. But however. We digress. Give me the new Mastodon over the new Metallica anytime. Of course. Yeah.
I wonder really if Metallica is making the music they really want to make actually a good
question and let's ask them you're way more famous than we are you need to ask him that Chuck I have one of his guitar pedals but that's the best I can do oh nice it's funny you know it's I was saying this thing about Bruce Dickinson a while ago about how he's like a personality more and I don't know that you could really ever talk to Bruce and it's got to be
It's not all Metallica's fault. It's not that. I mean, when so many fucking people love you so much and you fucking literally can't fucking go anywhere and you're worth a bazillion dollars and everything's a distraction and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's just never going to be punk rock again. It just can't. There's just no fucking way. It's a human problem we have here. But I would take the other tact here, Jay. When you know everybody loves you and no matter what you put out, you're going to sell millions of records. Why wouldn't you do something that's
It's just fucking really metal. I hear ya. Well, so I'll take a, and we won't, we don't have to stay on this forever, but I'll just go back two steps and say. I think we're losing John here. Well, to me, the new priest. We're talking about the new priest record. We're talking about fucking Metallica, and we're stuck in the new releases, and we're three hours and 40 minutes in. That's Chuck's fault. I'm having fun. Do it, yes! I do have one thing to offer. Jack is fucking killing me right now sitting here. Oh, man, the ground, John.
So can I offer this? I have arthritis in my back that doesn't help. I have one thing to offer up though and it's we talked about the new two new Judas Priest songs and that that suffers none of what we're talking about. They sound like an older version of Judas Priest but they still sound like a fucking straightforward kick-ass metal band. Yeah. It's possible. And so does Metallica. Let's go to the next one, George. Yes, we will. All right. So the third album of our new releases is the new
Yes, I know how to say it. Convergence is their third album. They're a prog death black band from the Netherlands. I know how to pronounce it because back in the wee early days of the podcast, I think it was their first album was featured on Metalhead's podcast. And we didn't have the band on because they said their English wasn't good enough to speak it. So we just played a couple of songs. So I know this band.
They've got the craziest name that's impossible to pronounce, but it's good stuff. Now that's how to open a beer can. Jesus. We'll move it quickly along, perhaps. I thought this is the new Borknagar for the modern days. That's my note. I wrote it. Yeah, Shalma Goner and Borknagar. Borknagar. But even the sound, you know, I thought the intro was cool. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. It has like this echo-y, vibrating, like shoegazer kind of thing. Then it kind of eventually moves into like galloping guitars.
I thought it was cool. I like the title for the song. I hear the mountains weep. Yeah. Viking emo action there. It's fun. I thought it was going to be instrumental after at a point, but the vocals came. Yeah. I said the same thing. I was like, it's like a 10, 12 minute first song and like most of it is instrumental. And then, Oh, last couple of minutes, we're going to do some vocals. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That was cool. I gave a spin yesterday and thought it was right. I thought it was a great record.
The Staticism on this LP is just fucking heavenly to me, especially all those pretty piano sections and the way they use the ivory as like an underlayer on the tracks too. Sometimes it's out front, sometimes it's just underlaying the tracks, which I think was really good. The guitars soar on this record and I love the band name. Shile. Sounds more Irish, but.
Yes. Yeah, it's cool. It's a cool record. And it took me a couple listens actually to get into it, to be honest with you, but I'm on board with it. I thought it was quite good. Yeah. Easy. Easy peasy. Yeah. All right. Next, we'll move on to Suffocation. Hymns from the Apocrypha, their ninth album of death metal. Will's not here to... It's bad when he doesn't even know one of his favorite band's albums came out. I mean, he mentioned it.
before he left so clearly he liked it no he didn't know it was out that's what he said he said when's it coming out he likes the band that's right he likes the band he doesn't know the album yet apparently that was bad i like it and you know yep it's good stuff i don't know i didn't know a lot i haven't listened to them in a while this is a new vocalist or or a band yeah this is the old vocalist is gone so i was like it does sound a little different i think they're gonna be just fine yeah actually they might be doing better yeah i liked it i thought it was
Totally hard to hate. Hard to hate. That's not a ringing endorsement, but no. It's like we're in the metal world where you use, you know, hate is good. Actually, that's a Steven Seagal movie. Three syllables, right? I mean, my ringing endorsement is the album that just like blew past me out of all these that I just didn't have. Like, it just happened. And I was like, oh, the album's over. You know, great. Yeah. I mean, that's a good thing to say, Chuck, because I feel like, first of all, shout out to our friend Justin.
who,
suffocation is his favorite band for me.
I feel like I've never been a huge suffocation fan and I'm not sure why,
because I feel like they're good.
They're consistent.
They always put out a sinister battering of death metal destruction and they continue it on this record,
But they're just not the death metal band that I reach for when I want to listen to death metal. And so I don't know what it is. I always feel like, all right, I listen to it. It's good. I'm just going to move on and listen to something else. I never want to stop and pause and reflect on suffocation. And I don't know. I don't want to take anything away from the band because I think it's good. Do you pause and reflect on Bolt Thrower?
Of course. Really? They occupy that exact same space for me, so I can totally appreciate that. And it's weird because they do have a dedicated following, but I think that's a common thing. Like, you either really fucking get it and you're into them or something, and they were, I think for the people who love them, they were like one of the bands that got into metal or something. And that's fine. It's not, you know, I don't know. I'm the same way because they really have a dedicated following. They're a good band. They're solid.
There's just something about them that doesn't move me to make me want to like
keep listening to it over and over to put them on my top 25 or something like that
and I can't point to what that is
it's just a feeling when I listen to it it doesn't
impact me like some other albums that's all
That's very good
I feel like the same like I don't they don't hold any place in my heart
But like I came into the podcast
You guys are like check this out
And I was like oh this is fucking good
If like if I had never heard suffocation before
And you're like this is a band called suffocation
I would say yes this is the band called suffocation
I can spell suffocation
I enjoyed it
Then let's move on to our next album
Vastum
Inward to Gethsemane
I have no idea what that
Gethsemane is
Gethsemane
It's like Yosemite, but not
No, I'm trying to remember
It's relevant to the Bible
It's a place where they took Jesus before they took him to the cross, I think
Yeah, it was like the garden
So they like tortured him and like prepped him for the fucking cross
So it's like
Something like that
It's like the green room for that shit
Okay, well that explains it
Let's get your end scene here
Pretty much, yeah
Well anyway, it's their fifth album
And honestly, this hasn't done as much for me as previous stuff
them. So it's not bad. I like a band that can just have a song called Vomitus. Yeah. I just like that. I mean, who doesn't really? Yeah. I mean, I'm a big fan of this band. I think they play some of the bleakest, most brutal old school death around. And this is a fucking soul ripping monster. There's lots of evil do me atmosphere on this, but they have some groove to the songs that really works really well.
well for me. I love the last record. I think the last record was on my top 25. Last record was very good. It was very good. This one is very good too to me. So it has a very, a lot of incantation in this to me. Obviously, you know, I love incantation and they just do death and doom really well. And I hear that in vast. Yeah, I really enjoy this record. So I don't know if it's going to land on the top 25 or anything, but I think it's one of the better death metal records,
Especially old school death metal records this year. For sure. It's a tough year. It is. Yeah, it is tough. All right. Our last new release. Zoth. X-O-T-H. For those you keeping score. Their third album. Exogalactic. They're a Seattle tech thrash death band. And holy shit. This is a great album. This is a great album. I've liked them in the past, but they leveled up on this album. And damn.
They powered up? Yes. It's like, Mario got the mushroom. He's like, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. I mean, it's good. Awesome. I'm glad people like, I know George likes it. He's like, put
mashup,
I'd say no,
but Zoff like fucking proves otherwise.
I think,
I think every song on this album is really great.
I read somewhere that the band actually ended up remastering the album at the very last moment because the promo just didn't get people excited at all.
Well,
that's funny because I got both promos.
Um,
you did.
I,
yeah,
I got the first one and I share them with us.
I did share it with you.
And the first promo blew me away. I received the second promo. I downloaded it, but I never listened to it because by the time I got to, it was very last minute. I just downloaded the Bandcamp version of the high res version. So I'd never listened to the second promo. Well, apparently they remastered it because there was people that just didn't like the original version. And I've never heard the original version. Apparently you sent it to us. I've never heard of it.
I did. But I'm happy because I think this record sounds amazing. So whatever they did sounds tremendous to me. I like every song on it. And, you know, it's a tricky thing to pull off when you're mashing up those two genres. Yeah, I would say it's more death metal forward, like guitar solos. Some of those passages are definitely, you know, like a power metal. Yeah. I didn't get any power metal in this at all, to be honest. To me, it's a tech death album.
that's got some melodic guitar playing.
But when I think the power metal, I'm thinking of like Ed Guy and Blind Guardian.
No, but yeah, the solos.
I get it.
Dragon Force kind of shit.
Yeah, I get what you're saying, Marcus.
To me, I just got more, it was melodic, almost a mix of melodic death and tech death.
As someone who listened to them before, they were much more just straightforward tech death.
And then they brought in like not all harsh vocals. And particularly what I think is what people are referring to is the fact that it sounds like Joe Satriani did all the solos on this album. Because it's like, it's so fucking metal. And then all of a sudden there's wildly melodic solos. And it's like, holy shit.
To me, it's power metal, riffs, and then solos in it for sure. But I can see what you're saying there, John, too. But I was like, whoa, this is completely different than what I expected in here. And I was like, the only thing I can equate it to is power metal. So that's how I felt about it. Yeah, makes sense. And it is just different enough from the traditional tech death formula to be freaking amazing.
Well, it's actually more traditional technical death metal than it is tech death, which tech death is the derivative, which is just all technical with no feeling whatsoever. This has a boatload of feeling, which is what original technical death metal was like in the 90s. Right. Yeah. This is not an Archspire album. Good as Archspire are, it's not an Archspire album. Not at all. It's really good. No, Marcus is right. There's a ton of feeling in it. You know, and I think you said that too, George. So it's, it's a modern,
a modern version of a 90s technical death album. It's a tiny bit thrashy in there too at times. Definitely. Yep. It's great. I enjoyed it. This is probably my favorite record of the bunch we listen to. And it's definitely not something we go, I'm sorry, I get into that much. There is, like the first album we reviewed, it's like this thing where there's a lot going on, right? It's so much going on. But I listened to the whole thing without a problem. I like the album art cover. It is a
Power Slave album cover. It is. That is the composition of the album. And then they, I don't remember, pretty early on in the record, they're like screaming reptilian blood. And I was like, what have I got myself into here? I kind of love the mashup of like the Lovecraftian space, whatever, but also like the conspiratorial stuff, which like I don't at all subscribe to, just to state of fact. But I love the idea of it. I love the idea of it. I love all conspiracy ideas except for the worst of them.
But then, like, yeah, the skill on display is crazy. And for someone who doesn't really do a lot of music reviewing, like, yeah, like, I was like, there's like, and I know I said this earlier, but like, for lack of a better way of describing it, like Dragon Force level fucking tomfoolery going on with these guitars. And yet somehow it doesn't suck. It doesn't. It's it actually remains rather brutal. And then but there's like that space for the science fiction kind of like atmosphere.
And yeah, it just works. I don't know why, but it just worked for me. It is crazy how much they mash into their, this album. And it just, it's very cohesive. I'm, I was astonished by that. Really good. I'm glad you liked it, Chuck. Yeah, it was fun. All right, let's move on to what we are listening to.
And we will now go back to Chuck again. Oh. To hear what you have been listening to. Oh my. So like I said, I think most recently I actually got, was listening to the new horrendous album.
I know it came out a little while ago and I had heard the single and I was like this is cool but I just didn't get around to it and I went on a trip up to Eugene Oregon and I took this thing on me with the flight and so like listening to it while I was looking out over the cityscape it's just perfect I drove it around in my rental car it was just kind of like the album of now for me it's great I love it like we talked about earlier I like this Strigoi oh yeah yeah yeah in the black sun which I is from this year I think I don't know if I got
It is. It is. It is. Really cool. The Dautenheims Guard. Oh, yeah. George loves you now. Yeah, that's my territory. Cool. Yeah, man. I dig all that stuff a lot, too. So that fits that bill that I've talked about before. It's just like weird shit. Interesting. They're doing stuff. I like them. They're doing stuff. For black metal stuff, this Mork, which is the album Diptid, I just started listening to it earlier today, and I'm really kind of digging it. I like the name. I like the logo. I know they're a thing.
But in a sea of like a lot of black metal stuff, it's kind of popping out. Lamp of Murmur. I really like this Saturnian blood storm. It just felt like the immortal album I haven't had in a long time. Yes, I said that when it first came out when we talked about it. It's like this is what an immortal album should sound like from the moment it begins. Yeah, absolutely. And also sounds like Chuck should come to the desk. Yeah, you need to join the party. It sounds like a good party to join.
I don't know I can keep going on and on I wrote a bunch of stuff down I like the give us more shit dude let's go I like this I like Zasser's latest album yeah weird stuff uh inevitably dark I just like that he unlike the Metallica as we spoke of before very comparable bands yeah um it's just clearly just doing what he wants to do and it doesn't it's not always successful it's weird but I just like that he's doing his own thing he is who he is and it comes
It sounds like that. He's heading down the Ulver road. Yes, without the high production level. Yes, but just in the drastic right turn kind of way. Yeah, yeah. So I love that Chuck's like, listen, Ulver, three albums, that is me. I am three albums. If only I could talk less, I would have just said it just like that. But the gums keep flapping. If only we could talk less,
these episodes be a half hour so i know this is a 2022 album but i love this mother of graves where shadows of dawn john's number one album of last year i love that old like that brave murder day catatonia kind of vibes like for the land yeah for sure frozen souls glacial domination pretty hard to i love i enjoy the frozen souls yeah i enjoy them i call them the frozen souls they were a decibel in april and they were pretty good
I haven't seen him yet, but I don't know.
All just pretty cool.
Great for driving around in shitty LA traffic.
Yeah.
Loved Terra site.
Oh yeah.
Loved it.
Loved it.
And I really liked this Ms. Morris prosaic.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Depressing.
Delightful.
Watch.
They put a music video for that first.
Yes.
It's so cool.
Is that the one with the, like the Portugal, the man guy thing or no.
It's, it's when he's like at a farm and he's.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the ground and shit, and there's like... Yes, I referenced that in my Stone Cold Lazy, because I did one about... Oh, yeah. It's so good. That's cool. But he did this thing with Portugal, the man, and I'm not sure, like, I don't know that band at all. Yeah. But that's a band. But it's like the coolest black metal video. It's like just this black metal dude, like Viking black metal dude with corpse paint stuck, like, waist deep in snow, and the whole video takes place, like, right there. It's really striking visuals. I think it's cool.
And the song is rad. I don't know. This guy who's in like some poppy indie band apparently likes his black metal. The band's called Portugal the Man? Yeah. And they're like, they saw many more albums than many of the bands we talked about. Yeah. Weird game for a band. I've heard of that. And I don't know. I don't know it at all. But like a big like pitchfork would follow them. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. But Mizmore did a thing with him and it's such a cool little video.
So I'll recommend that. Nice. Here's my last two. My last two. These are not new. The Manhunter soundtrack. I love the movie Manhunter. I only recently saw it. I fell in love with the soundtrack. Had to get it on vinyl. I especially love this. The Shriekback song called This Big Hush. This is fairly recently. I just got very obsessed with this record. I love it. Wow. And then last. That's a good movie. It's a fucking really good movie. That's the first Hannibal Lecter appearance. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Cox, but the score, the soundtrack, I mean, it's just killer. Who did Michael Mann? Michael Mann. Yeah. Michael Mann. One of the great directors of all time. Michael Mann. Oh my God. And I think he's just got like, it's the music is so tied to the movie that when I listen to the album, I'm seeing the scenes from the film. So I love when something like that happens. And then I'm a big fan of Fenris's podcast, Fenris Metal Pack. I'm a Patreon member. And he always like brings up the song, Dark Heart, Don't Break the Circle.
It's a fucking good song. Check it out. And I listen to it every now and again. Nice. Chuck bringing the heat. That's a lot of stuff. That was too many. I thought you guys were listening to it. No, that's not too many. Absolutely not. You appreciate the passion, dude. Yeah, there's no such thing as too many on this episode or this podcast. All right, let's move on to Marcasson. Yeah, so I just want to make a quick shout out. So I'm drinking this Don't Think About It beer from Anchorage. I was going to say it was like a good beer. And this is what I got on Tavor.
So that's one of the things
And then I've moved on
To Old Irving Brewery
Which is just around the corner from me
Virtual Vacation
And it's a double IPA
And it's good
Alright so what am I listening to
First album
Lurid
Fire Spell
This is an independent release
This is an album from 2022
But I had not heard of this band
Until last week
I stopped in at Meteor Gem, which is a metal-only record store here in Chicago. You have more than one of those? Oh, yes. It's Chicago. We have everything. Selenaplexia, which was my album of the month last month, I picked it up on vinyl. The band is from Chicago, which is great because, you know, there's just not a lot of Chicago bands. I'm like, I love this band from the place that I live.
with the owner of Meteor Gem, McHale, who I've seen plenty of times, and we always hang out and talk metal, and he told me about this band, Lurid, Fire Spell. So they play a black and death, but I'd probably reverse that to death and black. Is that a thing? I don't know if it's a thing, but it is now. It is now. Death and black. It's definitely more black metal with the death.
part to it. So it's very good. The second album on my list is Sacred Outcry, Towers of Gold, No Remorse Records. There have been a really good number of traditional slash power metal records this year. I'm thinking about Smolder, Helm's Deep, Blazin' Right, Megaton Sword.
You guys know that I'm really high on Gatekeeper. It was on my top 25 at mid-year. But this album, this may be the best of the bunch. The label, No Remorse, they bill this band as late 90s and early 2000s power metal fused with 80s US metal where Warlord and Blind Guardian meet.
And that's pretty accurate. Can't argue with that. The songwriting on this album, the musicianship on this album is phenomenal. It has an adventurous fantasy spirit, but the riffing on it is dark. It's heavy. And the singer who was in a band called Lost Horizon, former singer from that band, his name is Daniel Heyman.
His performance on this is incredible. This might be my traditional power metal album of the year. So if you like that kind of stuff, I would spin this. And the next album on my list is Litha. It's self-titled on Tartarus Records. This one just dropped yesterday and instantly grabbed me. It's a Cascadian black metal album.
There's a heavy dose of doom on there. Lots of gorgeous melodies. It's a solo project from a guy named Andrew Black, who was in the band Sorcerer, and he's friends with a dude in Mismore that Chuck was just talking about. So this is he's been doing ambient albums for a bit. And now he decided, I can't do everything that I want to do with ambient music. I need more aggression. So I'm going to go back.
and do this black metal record and it's excellent i would highly suggest that yellow eyes
ambient and black metal cross so many times there's guys that put their feet in both of those
things and i totally get that yeah no and i love that because i love both of those things
i know john's really into dark ambient and stuff so i love when that crosses over like that
But here's another one.
Post-Celtic Frost, that's what Tom was doing.
Yeah.
I can't remember the name of the project, but...
Yeah, and there's been a number of bands recently that have been getting more into that.
So I like that.
I like that they're kind of spreading their wings and seeing what else they can do with their music.
Yellow Eyes is my next record, and Master's Murmur on Sabera Records.
This was a pretty big surprise. Because Yellow Eyes has been one of my top black metal bands for the, I don't know how long now. And I know Matt really likes Yellow Eyes as well. But this is not black metal. It's this eerie, hallucinatory dungeon synth strangeness, basically. And I don't know how to feel about this one. I think they do a really good job with it. I think I was expecting another,
Killer, killer, killer, black metal album with field recordings because that's what they're known for. They do a lot of field recordings on that. This is an oddity, but I do like when bands take a bit of a detour and try something new, some kind of experimentation, you know, that ends up making them a better band. And this is supposed to be the first of two complementary releases.
with the same kind of spirit.
But the next one is going to be a full LP.
So I think the next one will probably be more in the vein of Yellow Eyes.
And this one will be, you know, something that leads into it that's more of an ambient.
So I'm kind of looking forward to it because they went on a complete detour.
And now they're going to do another album next year.
Maybe that will inform that and we'll get something even better.
A Flourishing Scourge.
Sickened Seed. I don't know if we've really talked about this that much. I know John found it, and I was really happy about that because they just kind of dropped it without warning last month, John. Yeah, I think we talked, I thought we talked about it last episode. I think we just talked it on Messenger. Yeah. You know, it's funny because that band has been on the podcast, and I totally missed this, and I still haven't listened to it more than just a few seconds, so I need to get on that. You need to. It's great.
I really like this record it was this is better it's rousing
progressive black and death really nasty riffs on it a mix of growled vocals and gorgeous clean vocals
i.e wills kryptonite and of course hannes grossman is on drums he wasn't on the last one he's on this one
And that, of course, makes it instantly sexy and awesome. But I really like this record. I, so this is, I'm going to do an aside here, like we do. I have a CPAP. I needed to get a new one in Chicago. If I need to make an appointment for a CPAP, it takes like months to get into the downtown office or in my network. I can go to the suburbs like an hour and a half away and get an appointment like the next day.
So that's what I did. And I ended up listening to A Flourishing Scourge
as I traveled to make these doctor's appointments. And
you know, sometimes when you listen to these albums like over and over, you really get a better appreciation for what they're doing. And I already liked it from the beginning, but now I'm really into this record. It was very close to being my album of the month. I think Selena Plexia, which was my album of the month last year.
Last year? Last month. The fact that it's a Chicago band and I haven't really had a Chicago band that I really want to follow and I think is going to make a mark in metal is what put it over the top for me. But this record is excellent, George. You have to spend some more. Oh, I will. I will. Especially because we got like one month, actually less than a month before we do year end. Two, three weeks, yeah. And my last record on this list is
Venus, obscured until observed on extreme music. I mentioned this on our Metal Friday post. Every Friday on Metalhead's podcast, if you go to any of the social media, but he does it on Facebook. We post the albums that we've been listening to, and then anybody can come in and tell us what they've been listening on that Friday, because that's typically the day that bands release albums. And so I only put this one album on there because I've been prepping this podcast.
because Chuck requires a lot of research.
But Venus is a great record.
So it's also a really great example.
People always send me messages actually from the listeners to thank me for putting some of the weird shit that I put on Metal Fraudist because I usually have a like a long list of just out there in music that people haven't listened to.
And this is just a really good example of the weird ball ways in which I discover these under the radar bands. So in this particular case, I listened to a science podcast called the shortwave. And on a recent episode, they talked about how the planet Venus got caught up in an 18th century space race. And after listening to it, I thought to myself, Venus would actually be a pretty good name.
for a progressive metal band. I'm surprised I haven't heard of a band with that name. So I looked up Venus on Bandcamp. And what did I find? A planet. There's a band named Venus who happened to just release an album on November 14th. And they play progressive, technical, sci-fi thrash metal. And the album is really good. Pretty fast most of the time.
because thrash. That's the main component. But when they slow it down somewhere in the middle of those songs and sit down on those riffs, I think the music really shines. And I hope they do that more on future albums. But there's this last track. For some reason, a lot of bands have put out great last tracks. Warnock, for example, John, right? The song's awesome. Right?
The Last Track on this album is called Subatomic Search for Human Consciousness. It's phenomenal because it's over 11 minutes long, but it just showcases the band's full bag of treats. And I think that it's their first album, and I just think that they're going to do a lot of really great things in the future. And I hope people listen to this one because Extreme Music is not, I mean, I haven't really heard that much about the label. I think I've listened to one or two bands.
over the years. But yeah, it's a really good progressive thrash metal album. So get it. Check it out. Done. You know, finding a band and starting it with a sentence, there really should be a band called blank and then just finding it is like, right? That's how I do shit. I love that. And then when it turned out to be good, that's good. It had to be. It was meant kismet,
As they say, it's good. Check it out. Cause I think, I think you guys will all be pleasantly surprised by this. This first album for this band. Oh yeah. Cool. Matty. I'm your Venus. I'm your fire. I was thinking that too. And you're definitely the fire, Matt. Your desire. Heat this motherfucker up. I'm going to burn it. A lot of stuff we've already talked about. Edward to Gassetomy by Vaston. Like it. Um,
I've also heard it may not be my favorite in the catalog, but again, I haven't spent a lot of time into it. Strangely enough, having COVID and being locked in a hotel for numerous days on end, I listened to zero metal or music at all. That was a huge miss on my part. I had all this good time in good headphones, but stupid. Book of Rudination by a band called Melancholia, Insinium by Witching. I'm also in the agreement that it's not my favorite Witching album, but I still really dig it.
I just realized Panopticon has an album coming out. That came out Friday, didn't it? I think it's another one. I don't think it's out yet. It was on Decibel's top 40, though. It's on Decibel's list, so I assume it was out. We all know I'm a big fan of the band. This feels like more of the same. I think there's three tracks out so far. Masters Murmur by Yellow Eyes. I'm very much in agreement. I think that it took me a while to get into it because it
is a while before you do get a little bit of that traditional yellow eyes sound buried in there for a little bit but then you know that that was enough to pull me in and i mean it's yellow eyes i don't care what they could have like you know they do it so well they do this style so well that it's like okay it really melts with their natural sound and i do think in the black metal run they do have a unique sound and like i said i think it goes really well with it it pairs well the band saver they were one of my
Like when we joked about me making up band names, they were on the list. Herod was another one who also has an album out this year. But I was like, oh, save or whatever. I just made that shit up. And then I went back to it and was listening to it. I was like, I actually really like this one. Engraved with Pain by the band Mourn, as well as Silence by the band Rorcall. I'm putting those two together because they're kind of like sludgy, do me, more sludgy takes for this year. In fact, I'm probably confusing them in my head between the two of them.
them. I like them both though. The new Lion's Daughter, Bathhouse, I love Lion's Daughter. I haven't had enough time with this album to kind of really formally say like where it falls on the list for me. But I don't like it as much as the last album. That's kind of where I'm at too, but I've only listened to it a couple of times. So I want to give it some. I still like it though. Yeah. The last album was great. This one was. And honestly, I liked the last album. I probably liked the one before it a little bit more. So it's been kind of a downhill thing.
And then Jay, thank you for the mention of Triumph of Death, Resurrection of the Flesh. I assume it's very similar to the set that we were able to see out in Baltimore. I was excited about it. You get a chance to spend a little time with it when it's on a recording. And that Hellhammer stuff just deserves to be revisited because of what it is. It is, absolutely. That's it for me. Also one I considered putting on for cover art on my list. Oh yeah, totally. Totally.
All right, John.
So that Panopticon comes out on the 29th.
Yeah.
Which is really weird that Despo would release their top 40 list so early in the year.
You know, it's November and December still to go.
I can't believe you pulled that off without laughing.
I will say this.
I think it's a great idea for a comic strip.
I think it's no fair putting it on the list when the rest of us can't fucking hear it. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Cause you know, they would never get that album in advance. Albert gets albums technically before they're even recorded. Yeah. He just knows in his mind. And he's like, okay. So. Albert is always like the sixth or seventh member of every band. Yeah. Yeah. You know. He's the honest grossman of all these bands. It kind of shows us where we are in the pecking order.
when I'm talking to James Lewis and he's like, dude, did you hear the new blah? And I'm like, nah, I ain't got the promo yet. And then, you know, like another month later, then we get the promo and it's like, yeah, that's where we are. Which is crazy because we get a shit ton of promos. We do, but they clearly have preference for people like Decibel where they're like, okay, hot off the press. Here it goes to Decibel. Everybody else, wait for it. Okay, now you can have it. I'm okay with that though? Huh? I mean, Decibel is,
The number one, right? Yeah. I'm okay with that. A lot of work to put together magazine guys. Yeah, I know. Before the thing comes out, I mean, I don't know anything about it. I get no promos. Zero. You get zero promos? You should ask for this, Chuck. You would probably get them if you just ask. You know, I had a zine when I was like in high school and stuff for like punk and stuff. I've been down this road of getting promos, but I never thought to explore this avenue. So, hey. There you go. All right.
So Markisan reminded me of a flourishing scourge. I have listened to that quite a bit. I thought I mentioned it last time because it came out the day I thought it came out. Well, you did in time, but no, it wasn't on the last episode. I checked John. So yeah, no, I just checked my notes and I didn't see it. So Zoth obviously I think is great. I've listened to that quite a bit. Then I got three more. I don't have too much because I always try to keep mine based in between episodes. An album I went back to from January, the Enigma division, self-titled.
It's cool. I like it. It's an album I listened to in January, and I was just like, ah, it's all right. But then I went back anyway and checked it out, and it was great. And I included them on our last New Music Friday, and they reposted our New Music Friday on their page. So it's always cool when bands recognize any of us post anything.
Actually, there are three songs that were released on the special deluxe edition of Anno 1696, the two-CD art book, but I didn't get that. So I didn't have these three songs. So they re-released the three songs separately. So I picked that up. And then, no one's talked about. And I'm surprised, but it kind of just came out to no fanfare. The new Sorcerer, Reign of the Reaper, which is their fourth album of their version of heavy metal.
Epic doom metal. They used to be straight doom, but they've kind of drifted more into the just straight on metal side of things. Solid effort. I like it. It's better than the last time, I think, which I wasn't so big on. I liked their previous two albums to that. So, oh, and last one, courtesy of our friend Christian Munzner from Alkalate Obscura and Eternity's End. He recommended this band called Oracle at Darkness Reigns as Darkness Reigns.
as an album. So I went back and listened to this. This is a fucking scorcher, man. This is great. Mid-90s. It's prog. It's U.S. power metal. It's thrashy. It's killer. I finally got a copy of it because I wanted a hard copy. It's really good. So I've been spending that probably the most of anything since he mentioned that to us. He had a lot of good recommendations. I thought it was funny because he mentioned that Scald album. And I was like, oh, man, that sounds really cool.
And I ran out to Bandcamp and I bought it. And I downloaded it and I went to go put it on my drive and realized I already had it. Yeah. Yeah. He made some good. I have to now check out the Greg Howell album that he mentioned. So good. So. Chuck, have you listened to Alkaloid at all? Yeah. But I don't know how more I can answer this question. Affirmative. I certainly have. But I guess the answer is yes. I thought maybe it would be something you'd be into because you'd like the kind of
weird, kind of out there stuff, and that's very progressive, you know, but aggressive at the same time. Yeah. I need to get a more recent shake, I think. Yeah. We had the guitarist on last episode? Last episode, yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, he's a phenomenal guitarist, but he gave us so many good recommendations, which we always appreciate. There you go. It's me now, isn't it? What about Jay? Oh, there he is. There he is. No worries. Yeah. You know, I'm actually going to mention
because really I am getting up my list now is what I'm doing. And so really I'm listening to everything is the problem. But of the latest releases and stuff that I've really been listening to a lot, the Wayfarer, obviously I really like that. I don't know if that's obvious, but I like it a lot. I still think the Pomorado record is really good. I've been listening to that. I was really glad to have the Triumph of Death thing as well. So I've been enjoying having the chance to actually listen to it in a controlled environment instead of a live concert, which is great. But that's about,
And then honestly, like my list is way too long past that. Cause I am literally fine tuning my list every day now. Cause I want to be ready when the day comes and got panicked and getting everything. So I'm literally listening to like 60 records right now. So, cause I just want to make sure I feel good about my list. So that's it. You have the time as a retiree. I do have the time. Yeah. And so it's my coffee thing in the morning as I sit and I'm like, I need to revisit this one and blah, blah, blah. Cool. No excuses, man. All you got to do is,
is sit around and listen to music. Stop walking around outside so much. No, he can walk outside. He just has to put the heavies on. All right. What I'm listening to, not much, actually. The one actual true metal album is the second album from Jesus Peace, So Unknown, Philly Death Sludge Band. Just sort of worked out that I was finally getting to this album when it was announced they were going to play it at the Decibel Metal and Beer Fest.
So awesome.
That's why I want to see them.
It's pretty cool.
The next couple albums I've listened to because of the other podcasts,
stairway to 11.
And that was deaf leopard's pyromania tears for fears,
uh,
songs from the big chair and the Mars Volta D loused in the comatorium.
Uh,
I didn't know you guys did that.
I was a big fan of those first few albums.
Yeah.
You're not listening to the podcast.
It's not out yet.
We just recorded it on Thursday. It'll probably post on Monday. Wow. You're telling me there's tears for fears on this podcast? Yes, there is. Hey, guys. Who chose the Mars Volta? Well, make sure to check out Stairway to 11. Okay, all right, fine. Chuck wants to rule the world. Hey, we talk about that. Chuck ruling the world, that is. Not the song Everybody Wants to Rule the World. We actually talked about Chuck wanting to rule the world. That album has a lot of hits.
I love this album.
And my final, what I'm listening to is a band called the Dead Brothers.
There's not a lot of info on these guys.
They're a Swiss band.
I think this is their seventh album.
Death is forever.
It's a, it's their final release.
The singer Elaine Crow Balian died back in September of 2021.
This music is difficult to describe, but I'm going to go for it anyway. Let's go. Dark Cabaret, goth country, folk punk. So Dark Cabaret is something that I've always kind of been into, even though I did not know that's what it was called. But there's a band, an artist named Voltaire. You know Voltaire? I mean, I've heard of the band.
Not Voltaire the writer or whatever, like Voltaire the artist. Yeah, and he's amazing. And it's like really, well, I mean, cabaret music, it's like, you know, live entertainment music, you know, not quite Broadway, but anyway. But this really sells it too, George. Yeah, jazz hands. You got it. But it's dark and evil and theatrical, and it's cool.
But anyway, I learned about this band, I don't know, within the last month or so. And as is typically the case, I was late to the party because the guy died two years ago. But so I picked this up and I went back and revisited the earlier stuff. And it's very cool. So if you're into that sort of weirdness, check it out. George, did you ever listen to Stolen Babies? Yeah. They're Dark Cabaret. Interesting. You mentioned weirdness.
So Chuck's already on board. I mean, Diablos 3 Orchestra too has some dark cabaret. Oh yeah, DSO is very good. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. Nice, George. Let's move on to the Metal Thunderdome results from the last time. Yeah. Last time, Jay put Metallica's Master of Puppets versus Slayer's Rain and Blood in the Thunderdome. And on the episode, everyone that voted,
Slayer won. However... I voted for Metallica. I was the only one. No, I did too. You and me against the world, baby, Lizzie Borden. But on the internet, on the interwebs, by a narrow margin of 52% to 48%, Metallica took it. That's what we predicted, though I thought it was going to be a wipeout. So that's interesting. However, if Chuck gives us his vote,
Maybe that sways it. Oh my god. I told Chuck he had to think about this. The pressure's hard. This is very hard. I told him I wanted his opinion. What? I took a drive with Slayer today. Listening to Rain and Blood. Yeah. Master Puppets is burned into my... Gotcha. Gotcha. And, you know, I wasn't into, like, metal in that way when I was in high school and stuff like that. I remember the metalhead kids and they would show me the Slayer with the cardings and the arms.
And I was like, hey, good for you. Enjoy that scar. But now upon reflecting and that fucking opening whale from Tom, like Angel of Death. It's just like this is the it's more metal, right? It's Master of Puppets is fucking amazing. Beautiful, right? For variety and like all the stuff. But.
I have to go rain and blood. Yeah. And it's like, it's with no, this is a terror. This is a, you have to kill a child kind of scenario. I agree with that. Yeah. It's very, it's, it's very hard to do. We know relevant to metal slayer, rain and blood. More. There's nothing wrong with the world. No, this was one. I can't believe we'd never done before. Jay pulls this on. I'm like, how have we not done this before? Sophie's choice.
Both albums are seminal albums. Yeah. And it came out the same fucking year. Yeah. And they're both classics in their genre. It's funny too though because I did consider them slightly different genres personally. They don't. Yeah. They don't feel the same at all. But one pushes Satan to the forefront and one does not. I think we have to ultimately. One goes back to the front. And the other one pushes Satan. Does that tie it then George?
I was going to say, if we weight Chuck as 2% of the population,
he's at least 2% of the population, the people that voted, then I say we call it a tie.
Yeah, I mean, that's appropriate.
I don't know. I'm not surprised Metallica took it, but interesting that it's by a slight margin.
But I do love that you were like, listen, I love Metallica, but I'm going to listen to Slayer. And I listened to it today or the other day. And you know what? This is the one I got to choose. It's just like, this is just true. Like, Rain and Blood is just truly more evil. I mean, the first song, I'm like, oh my God, I forgot that this is Auschwitz. And you're like, oh, we're going there right away. Yeah, yeah. That's uncomfortable. But uncomfortable is kind of,
It was a very uncomfortable album in 1986 the first time I heard it. I was like, uh... I literally felt bad for listening to it because I was like, this just feels evil. If it feels bad to listen to in that weird way, that's usually a sign that it's good. Yeah, but at the same time, that sort of popped that for me, and after that, everything was fine. Bring it on! I've listened to Slayer.
But it is nice to see that the audience, you know, was basically divided. These two albums, because I would expect that, you know. Yeah. We're not. We're talking about two classics. We don't always do that on Thunderdome. You know what I mean? No, we have to have one album that blows the other one completely out of the water so that we can all sound smart. Yeah. Or they're two obscure-ish albums or whatever. Or they're obscure. Yeah. These are two certified classics.
I had to be selfish and I had to say, does my career exist without Slayer? And there is no black metal comic without Slayer. I mean, it's probably not true at all, guys. But say it anyway. I had that one thought in my car is now and I'm telling you. All right, then let's move on to our top five lists.
La primera vez.
I might be getting a little drunk myself. I realized I started talking about 20 minutes ago. The words weren't quite as good as I wanted them to be. The word are not good. The word good sound fine. Club you with inflatable. Are you calming? What I want to do is mix this with my work. So as I'm sure you know, because you listen to so many episodes, you will give your number five. We will all give our number five.
we will move to number four and so on. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I'm going to, you know, this is hard. It's really hard because so much of the music I listen to, I'm not unfortunately looking at the cover art and that is just the world we fucking live in and it sucks. Yeah. Just a little teeny icon that you're like, what? Yeah. It's so surprising because you're an artist, Chuck. No, I think that it speaks. It's sad. You know, I think it's a loss. It's a big loss. It's a loss we've been dealing with for a long time. Yeah.
But I also wonder if sometimes some of the choices, like the ones that work as a tiny little icon that get you to click on it, which is not what art should be, are more successful. I don't know. But forget about that. I'll say my number five I enjoyed, and there are definitely album covers I'm not seeing that I missed or whatever. Of course, yeah. This is a tough thing to pull together. And I was like, is there a place where I can see all the album covers at once?
That would be nice
Yeah
I thought for my number five
I'm going to pick this
Ahab
The Choral Tunes
Oh yeah
I think it's just a nice
It's just a cool nice cover
It's nice to not just be
A random hellscape
You know
It's something interesting
It's kind of fun
It's a little cartoonish
And obviously
Very much fits with the band's theme
Yeah
Definitely
I think that's a good story
So did I
The article
And they always have good covers
By the way
Yeah
I mean the sea
Yields Mighty Illustrations. It does. All right, Marcus, on what is your number five? Yeah, so my number five is on the cover of a band called Spirit Possession, and the album is called Of the Sign Art by Luciana Lupe Vasconcelos. As you know, I always like to mention the artists because we're talking about art here. So when I saw this cover, it immediately
spoke to me because the style is so different and weird and it has this mix of reds that are really striking and creepy and the cover pictures this winged demon priest on its knees with its palms up receiving this blast of magma fire to the face are you sure it's magma?
I'm pretty sure. I was waiting to see what that blast was. And the blast is coming from this craggle rock horror beast emerging from the side of Blood Mountain. And there's this red sun of fucking Krypton burning in the sky. It's just, it's very different than covers I've seen before. It's a painted cover, but the style is just a little bit off.
from what you normally see on metal covers. And I like that part of it. I always look for something that's a little bit different. So if you want to check it out, Spirit Possession of the Sign, it's a really cool cover. Matt? Okay. Because I am super horseshit at describing things, this is my number five, the band of Assamnuri. That's so helpful to the listeners. Absolutely. I just, I want to share it with you all.
because it's kind of a, you know, it's a circle of trust. And if you're not here with us, you do feel excluded. I apologize for that. But so I really dig this color combo first and foremost. It's kind of this collage of faces, but then around the middle is being torn away and you kind of see this glowing eye and some flesh. And I could not find an artist on this one yet, but it's my number five. All right. That's a cool one. I love that Matt puts it up as his background, even though we don't.
not do video podcasts, but it's helpful for us. I like it. I want to share with you because I go that extra show. I have the video recordings of all of these. One of these days, I'm going to shit. Yeah. There's so much TikTok content right there, baby. I know. One of these days, I'm going to get around to doing the video. You just never put them up, Sha. Yeah. Not yet. I'm a graphic designer. I'm visual. I need to show shit because I can't talk about it. And I even, you know what I did? I flipped the JPEG. So the words look to you.
like they should.
It actually doesn't.
It's the reverse.
Oh, no, it's wrong.
It's completely wrong.
You did it wrong.
Zoom is.
Switch it back.
Switch it back.
You know what I was thinking about, though, is that to promote podcasts, I was thinking
about doing video clips, you know, well, I do record this and then putting them out
just little spots of things.
But I want to see what you guys thought about it before I did that.
Well, I mean, I used to make videos of it and just with the artwork and put it up on YouTube, but that's a lot of work. However, there's a lot of pressure to make video with your podcast. And there's a part of the service that I use for editing the podcasts has some sort of, well, the problem always is that I have to edit the audio, editing the video as well. That's just too time consuming.
But this service supposedly allows you to edit the audio and the video at the same time. In which case, we might in the near future have video podcasts. So we'll see. I have to talk to my agent. This is great. You guys are going to go on strike until you get like, you know, shit for, you know. And that's not to make light of the actors or writers' strikes. What about streaming? What about streaming?
I have to check with my agent. See if I can leave the state. Get your little ankle bracelet off. I thought this was a truck. How long I'm working? No, damn it. Yeah, it's your step counter. Yeah, it's a pedometer on my ankle. Oh, I already did it. Okay. So are we at me now or was Matt midway? No,
I think it's John now.
I'm trying to say it's John.
No, you're good.
So my number five is Lunar Chamber, Shambolic Vibrations.
I believe the artist's name is Moonroot.
It's an EP that came out.
It's great.
It's only got three songs and two kind of short instrumentals on it.
It's got an interesting kind of Buddhism-type aspect to it with a monk kind of, it looks like, I don't know, meditating.
and you could see off. They did an old kind of cartoon thing. Remember the cartoons had the little cloud above the head for what they were thinking? It's got that kind of aspect. Like the monk is traversing to a different plane of existence while also having this kind of Buddhism type thing on the image. It's got some interesting colors on it that you don't normally see. Kind of yellows and stuff. So it's the best way I could describe it. Lunar chamber, shambolic vibration.
All right. Jay.
My number five, as mentioned earlier, when Will was with us is Wayfarer's American Gothic. Wayfarer has, their first couple of covers were okay, but then they really started knocking out of the park with World's Blood and Legacy of Violence. And they just, a romance with violence, rather. Their records, their pictures that they've chosen look like their records sound to me. And like they're these somewhat altered in the other two examples, images.
from what I assume are really Old West photographs, but they've added some color in the other two, and then this one is like something from an Old Western Gazette or something like that, and I don't know. Their whole approach is so holistic to have pulled off this strange Western theme in metal. It's such a simplistic cover in its way, though, Chuck, I'm glad you kind of spoke up for it earlier because it's also very intricately drawn. But real basic cover, somebody kind of said Spinal Tap, you're not wrong, but that literally got on,
because A, I like the record, and B, it sounds, it looks, it fits it so well. It looks the way it sounds. So, American Gothic. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, also, it's the kind of album cover that works in the modern age, you know? Totally. Here it is. I need to click on this to read it, basically, you know? There's something, I don't know how to explain this, and I think you guys will appreciate the comment, though, which is, there's something haunted about Wayfarer's music. It's,
It seems like the terrible thing you would hear if you wandered into an old ghost town and walked into the wrong building. Like if there's the sense of menace there and that kind of thing. And they managed to translate that in their covers somehow, especially the last race. Well, something I love Wayfarer. They've been on my list for the last couple of years. For some reason, I am having a hard time connecting to this newer record. I don't know why, because I've seen a lot of
of people saying like, oh, it's the best one they've done. And I've loved Wayfair. Those last two albums have just been phenomenal. There's something about this one that I'm having a hard time turning the page on it. I love it, but I have an explanation for you, possibly. There's no real progression there. I mean, it's not. And so what I mean to say is it's just like, you know, when Maiden was cranking them out in the day, there was a point where he was like, yeah, it's another Maiden record.
And so that it's possible that it just doesn't have enough new thoughts on it for you. It could be that, Jay. I think it might be that. And also they introduced some elements that I don't like to it. Like, I don't know. There's like some talking on it and stuff that I just don't like. It's a little more cinematic. And I don't. Fair enough. I suggest you keep circling it, though. I am going to because I've been such a huge fan of Wayfarer over the last few years. And I don't. And I love I've seen them multiple times in concert. But there's just something about it.
There's some kind of a barrier to this record that I just haven't been able to get past yet, but I will listen to it more because we're coming up on our year-end, and I think they're one of the most interesting, unique bands. I mean, who else is doing music like they're doing right now? I can't think of any other bands. I throw Black Bright in there a little bit, but maybe that's just thematically. Now, that's stated. I also want to say I think this record not only has the right cover, but has the right title. American Gotham is a great title for this record, and for them it's thematic.
So it kind of reaches a new, I think this was a picture they've been trying to draw for a while. Well, I also love that you picked a text-based cover. It's not something that I expected. And now I'm thinking about it more like what goes into making something like that. It's not the traditional metal cover that you would expect. So very cool on you, Jay. I love me some text. My number five, the artist,
His name is Adrian Baxter, and this is Two by Black Braid. Ooh. Oh, nice. Ooh. Anything else, Church? Sorry, I was just waiting because it looked like Chuck was doing something there. I only have one, not two. Oh, okay. I kind of liken this to The Wayfair in that it's not as detailed. It's fairly simple. It's not simple because it's
But it's not a very, I don't know what to say. It's not like a painting or it's just more of a symbol, an intricate symbol. It's more of a design. A design. And yeah. And, but it was just like, wow, you know, that caught my eye and I really liked it. So. Cool. That's cool. Background check. All right. Number four. I'm going to, I'm going to try to add a background. Can I add a background? Yep. Of course. Do it.
Oh yeah. You can sang with saga,
bag,
waga.
Yeah.
That guy saying with sugar bag again,
this is not necessarily like the kind of thing I want to hang on my wall,
but I think it is interesting.
I think it's not overly complicated.
It's not beautifully rendered.
It's nasty.
It flows with their logo,
the logo that just kind of like drips down.
And then it's doing something interesting,
which I like,
which is mixing sexuality or,
Or this is like almost pornographic kind of female like pose against this disgusting like scorpion shit. And it's uncomfortable feeling. The whole thing is awkward feeling. And I like that idea. It makes you feel. It makes you feel something. So very cool. There you go. Grabby hands. I'm getting video content going here. All right, Mark is on trying to do mine too here. So my number four is.
Let's see if I can see this fucking shit. He's been kidnapped by aliens. It is Altar of the Horned God, Heart of Silence, art by Luciana Nettalia. I'm sorry for their pronunciation. This is a fucking eerie, unnatural album cover. I stared at it for quite a while. It has some kind of ghoul with a translucent
It's skin, so you can see its bones. Look at this fucking thing. Spooky. It is spooky. It's like spooky zoo. Yeah, so you can see its bones, you can see its entrails, and it's taking a gentle stroll through a haunted, misty desert mountain path during an eclipse. I don't know if you can see the eclipse. Let's see. That's cool. And for those that can't see this, Markasson is like trying to like... I'm trying. He's trying to bend over.
in a 90 degree angle. Look at the fucking album cover. That's all I can say. And accompanying our handsome friend on this walk are stakes, wolves, bat creature skeletons, and some kind of floating gazelle stake skeletons that Jay probably sees around his new house. I think actually that's Jay's house over there in the corner. That's Jay's house right there. So if you look at this picture, you know where Jay lives.
another fiend with a dress on you can see it right there oh yeah that lady she's crouched down maybe she's also about to become a see-through she-go the mojave or some shit like that and it's just creepy and i like this one because there's a lot of metal album covers they're very busy the thing i like about this is that there's space to it you know i like how you keep giving the space you get up and walk away and then he comes back
and talks more and then he gets up and moves out of the way so we can see the picture because you you you know how it is when you use we all do the video conferencing now and you have you can have backgrounds and if you're close you show up but as soon as you move a little bit away it it pulls you out of the picture and that's this technology kind of blows i'm gonna go on none again but anyways you saw some of it and it's just really really interesting and striking cover so i like the weirder kind of covers
You know, there's some really great images in metal, but I like these ones that I just, I don't even know what the fuck I'm even looking at here. What was the idea behind that? What am I looking at here? Are the beans over top of the Frank? Yeah, you like that outsider art. I do. I really like the kind of indie art, and I guess that's kind of like how it is with comics, too. You know, Chuck talked about a lot of the first comics that he read were very indie, and I was like that as well, and I'm still
I do like the occasional superhero thing but
mostly it's indie and when it comes to art
it's kind of like that as well
so there you go
I
Maddie
my number four
dragons of Kroll
yeah
it is journey to the black fortress
and honestly I just love this
because it kind of tells
that story it does look like a
journey to a black fortress with swamps and like dead trees and what i believe is a sunset or two of them happening at the same time two suns and way better art than the actual crawl movie damn right damn right artwork was done by timble kayono yeah he's amazing he also did he also did the chopping mall you know the bear with the cheese from the eyes yeah
So yeah, my number four. All right, John. So my next pick is a band that actually didn't really care much about the album, but I really like the album cover. And that is And Oceans, as in gardens, so in tombs. The art is from, the name is Adrian Boussin. The cover kind of reminds me like a cover, a color version of some of the Heaven and Hell depictions by,
Gustav Dori, if you guys are familiar, that is. Oh, yeah. Which were. That's cool. Yeah, inspired by the Vulgate Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy. It's cool. It's got a lot of blue and yellow kind of mixed together, and it looks like a mismatch of angels falling from heaven or whatever. It has that kind of vibe to it. That's cool. I kind of thought of Amorphous, too, just because of the, I don't know, just because of. But yeah, I like
that one too and considered even though I'm I mean it's an okay album but yeah yeah I I listened to it was all right but I love the cover though yeah so great it's been around a long time huh yeah yeah and that was the first album in a while wasn't it yeah they've been away yeah guys I used to intern at Century Media in El Segundo and I remember like getting an and Oceans album in like 19 or 2001 or 2 and I haven't heard
the name of the band since then.
So here we are.
And what a beautiful album cover.
Yeah.
Well, wait, John, did you pick And Oceans?
Yeah, that's my next one.
As in Gardens?
Oh, yeah.
I love that cover.
Yep.
Great one.
All right, Jay.
My next one is pretty straightforward, horrendous, ontological, Mysterium.
I've liked all their covers.
And I'm also just noticing just now that they've never put their name on their cover.
They've always just gotten out of the way of the artwork.
It's just artwork top to bottom.
No album title, no band title. This is a pretty well-known record at this point, so you may be able to picture it in your head, but their stuff always tells a story that I don't fucking know. And what I mean is, like, I literally don't know what, if this is just somebody's mind's eye, or if they're trying to represent something they read, or it's some piece of mythology that they're trying to represent or something. And so I have felt that all of the horrendous covers have told some sort of weird,
Hellraiser style story that's full of strange, dark, science fiction, weird realms, you know. And they're always kind of creepy, too. Plus, it's just like blood red and all these kind of strange, dark versions of red and light versions of red. And it's these two faces melding together, possibly more. Horrendous. The only thing I would say about this, and I think John mentioned this as well, when you get the vinyl and
When you look at that cover, it has this fucking slick. It's glossy. Glossiness to it. And you can't take photographs of it because it just looks weird. And I wish they would have just made it matte because it's such a terrific piece of artwork. And I kind of ruined it with that weird glossy sheen to it. And the physical form. Yeah, that is too bad. It's also like, is it the same guy who's done all their covers? Do you know? Alex Brown. Always the same guy. That's his name anyway.
I mean,
he's done all of the covers.
I think the only one he didn't do was a chill.
They seem thematically similar as well,
you know,
I think Brian Smith did the cover for ontological Mysterium.
It's pretty disturbing.
That's a good,
good choice by then.
Yeah.
It's a great cover.
Oh,
is it my turn again?
That's me.
No,
George.
Good.
Sorry.
I'm looking to.
Good.
Chuck's like I have to prepare. Oh yeah. Okay. Maybe it is Brian Smith. There's the credits list. Brian Smith artwork, Alex Brown artwork. So I don't know which one it actually is. I think it's Brian Smith. But anyway, that is also my number four. No way. Yeah. I was going to be all like, Jay, what's my number four again? But then we had to get on this rabbit hole of Brian Smith, Alex Brown, who fucking cares? Not who fucking cares, but who fucking knows. I care. I meant who knows.
Anyway, now it's back to you, Chuck. Number three. I want to go back to that And Ocean's cover because that's such a great cover. And I was just looking at some of their other album covers because I remember their covers not being good. Yeah. 2002 Cypher. Yeah. That is like straight out of 2002. Yeah, it is. And I want to applaud them for really like leveling up because holy shit, that album cover is really great for the new record. Okay. What is my number three? Sorry.
That's sucked into the Annocean's universe. I haven't thought about that in a long time. I'm going to share my little image thing too. Maybe if I can do it quickly. Sorry to steal your time away from you. Time is no consequence to us. I hope that's true. My number three. Dying Fetuses album cover. What for? Make them bake for death? I considered that. That's a really cool fucking cover. Yeah. Simple. It's just
It's a man getting the head cut off or the neck cut or whatever you want to call it. It's got that fake. You know, I could give or take the fake weathering or aging. Although it feels right. It gives it that grimy street level nastiness. But it's just old school 70s fucking movie. And what I like about it, too, is you could be at the record store like five miles away from this record and you can see what's going on.
And you're like,
that's the kind of shit that I'm into.
You know what I mean?
Like,
you know,
this is the metal section and it's all the way down there.
And that's what I appreciate about it.
Cool.
Like stupid little knife in the title.
I was just looking at that.
I love it.
So good.
That's so Friday the 13th or something.
Yeah.
So maybe they had to do the weather thing.
Cause it's like clearly all that.
Oh,
they had to,
you know,
but yeah,
men do it.
Nice one.
I like how,
I like the variety of covers so far on our list.
I tried to be a little out there. Clearly Jay and I are on the same page. Yes. All right, Markisan number three. My turn. I'm putting it up. Yeah, it's to mold the enduring spirit for my number three art by Jesse Jacoby. I actually have a Jesse Jacoby original painting right to my left here. Big fan of his stuff. This is another stunning piece from Jesse. I don't think anybody does oozing organic alien environments like him.
And like his previous two mold covers, this is a widescreen gatefold image. So if you've just seen the front cover, be sure to find the full thing online or buy it on vinyl and you'll get that gatefold. The focal point here of this image is some kind of ancient biotech pilot with four bug wings emerging from the filthy gloopy earth. From something like an alien facehugger,
And this character appears to be dead, but then there's growing out from that character from its shoulder. There's this glowing white faceless female creature who stretches herself upward with arms to this like mosaic sky toward this tree of light that's breaking through the clouds. And this really reminded me of the movie Swamp Thing. I think we talked about this on one of the casts. We did. But do you remember when Swamp Thing, like he got his arm checked?
He's got this fucking stub plant for a fucking arm. And then he lifts his good arm up to the light and grows that shit back. That's what this reminds me of. And, you know, Justin Jacoby is really good at the overall environment. So the ground is made up of creatures and eyes that are merged with this sneaking organic structure that extends to the remnants of old buildings and mountains.
And also, I think George will really appreciate this, everything is wet. It's just a really stunning visual treat. And, you know, this guy never disappoints for covers. So, get out of the way. Oh! Oh my God, he was swallowed by the alien thing. I'm still here. What I want to know is, why do I like wet things? Why wouldn't you, George? Well, good point. So, yeah, I,
I'm always fascinated by his stuff because he has a very set style but when you look at it there's just so much going on every time I look at it there's something else there that I didn't see before so good job Jesse Jacoby yeah it's a great cover did we talk about the like the Dark Souls-ness of this no I don't know enough about it but a friend of mine who's a huge fan of the video game Dark Souls immediately saw this album cover and the
title and everything. It was like, this is a Dark Souls reference. Interesting. Dark Souls is like super influential to a lot of bands at this point, strangely. And by the way, if you like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight is a Souls-like game. I like Dark Souls. I feel like Dark Souls gets a lot of play as far as songs. Like there's a lot of bands who write songs about Dark Souls and then there's also images that are based on Dark Souls. So I don't, it's one of the most influential.
video games of all time on music. It just seems like I hear it constantly. I could not get through the first two hours of Dark Souls. No, you're either willing to give your life up to it or you're not going to be any good at it. I belong to the same group as you do. Oh, yeah. I started it. I saw what, yeah. Sorry. It's tough. It's like an exacting weird blah, blah, blah. It's too much work. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Matt. Oh, sorry. No, please go on. What were you going to say, Chuck? Oh, no. I,
I saw this I saw it in front of me and I said I can't do this yeah it was yeah the Dark Souls thing it's just not you know and I've done it once with Hollow Knight I had to give and I don't think I think Dark Souls requires much more than Hollow Knight but I gave it up for that and I can't you know oh yeah all right Matt yeah oh man there we go this is the dreamland ending worm split star path I love it just because you're essentially
taking the characters from each of these bands and pitting them against each other. Or maybe they're working as a team. I don't really know. But shit's going on in the sky. It's stormy. Their logos are involved. Dig the colors. But I also just kind of dig the texture that comes from it. Mark Riddick is the artist. And yeah, it's my number three. That guy's like looking right at you. Totally. Well, I mean, they look like adversaries. I love the logos too that are above them. It just works with the artwork.
That's really cool. All right, John. All right. I guess I need to try and see if I can display my image here to see if this works. Technology is not my strong point. You did it. Yeah. So my album cover number three is Gatekeepers from Western Shores. I'm not going to move that much. You can find the album cover online. Artworks by Duncan Store. It's kind of got this nice modern version of an 80s epic metal cover.
showing kind of what's the remnants of a castle-like gate with two towers along the shoreline during a storm, which in itself is kind of dark, but the really disturbing part of it is all the bodies that are being hung from the two towers on the gate. So it's somewhat disturbing to see them. It's like they're swaying in the wind during the storm. So a little darker version of the 80s type traditional metal.
It's really good.
Epic metal.
And also that album rules.
Yeah, it's a good album.
All right.
So as you can see from mine, Fires in the Distance, Airs in the Air Not Meant for Us.
And I like this a lot, A, because it's another one that's the middle of some mythological story that I don't know, perhaps just the story they're telling.
But they have this woman in such a specific pose.
It's also calls to mind
a more classical version of art.
It's not, though.
This is a modern painter.
He did their last cover as well.
I really like this record.
Again, I think this is a cover
that suits the record very well.
Yeah.
I don't have much else to say about it,
but I appreciate them going with more.
You can tell it's not by looking at it,
but it could be a painting from, you know,
the 1700s.
It could also.
I think you can tell it emulates that and that it isn't really that
because there's just a different level of skill and whatever that this person
that's not that's the wrong way to say it but in any case
I don't know I would like to see more people use paintings of this style for records metal records I think it really works
to me this is Princess Leia kneeling down to put a secret message inside Archie D2
she's like Obi-Wan you're my only hope
What is the actual album cover? I can't see the whole thing. I'm curious to see the whole thing. I'll put it in the chat. It's Fires in the Distance. Yeah, Fires in the Distance. Air not meant for us, but I'll put it in the chat. Okay, I got it. It's a great album. It was on the decibel top 40, actually, and I thought it was a little low for me. Oh, we're missing the bloody water there. Yeah, there's a lot else going on. I totally appreciate what's going on there. James.
Jay is zoomed in on Princess Leia, really. Yeah, I just, it's kind of an obsession thing. All right, my number three, I just want to be clear that I do not like this album at all. That's not true, it's okay. What? No, no, not that bad. Baroness Stone. John Baisley, both band member and artist. Really cool art.
I don't dislike Baroness. I just have not been able to get it into certain parts of their last few albums. Don't hate them, but I definitely like the album cover. So that's all I got to say about that. Listen, George, I mean, the first two albums that I mentioned, the covers, those bands are going to be in my top 25, but I just really love the album art. Yeah. That's how it goes sometimes. Yeah. I mean, you know, coming from the eighties, I'm used to this.
I'm like whoa and I buy the album and it's shit. Not that this is shit. I'm catering to Justin here because I know Justin's a fan. How diplomatic of you, Joe. But no, I don't dislike them. There is much I like about Baroness. It's just there's something about them that I don't like as well. Anyway, number two. Now let me get my background all prepared. Good thing I prepared this. This is a logical marvel.
Oh, yeah. I thought about that. Oh, yeah. This lurk album. What is it? Aegis. Yeah. And I did get the artist name Paolo Giardi. Yeah, it's good. It's cool from afar. It's like a big mess, but you look in it and it's the detail is insane. It's like your what do you call what's that guy's name or the old guy who like to paint a lot of hell stuff. Heronis, Heronis, Heronis Bosch. Yes. You know, kind of like weird stuff, the kind of design and then.
that takes some thinking that isn't
Garden of Earthly Delight or whatever it is
you know and the amount of detail the amount of
creatures and designs in this is
crazy it's just a crazy amount of
work to imagine putting this thing together
for what will show up on Spotify
playlist as like a
quarter inch image
nuts and that's the way most
people will see it I haven't even seen this
thing in person
gotta get the vinyl for this one
it's probably the most traditionally metal
album cover on my list
And I think it's some of the best of it. The form, the way it's curling around, it's just killer. It is. It's got a slightly Hieronymus Bosch thing in some of it. That's what he just said. Yeah, absolutely. No, absolutely. I think what's cool about Hieronymus Bosch, though, is like, we've seen a million, as Metal fans, we've seen a million interpretations of hell and demons with the horns and the goats and blah, blah, blah. But here you see that Hieronymus Bosch thing, which is like the weirder hell shit, the stuff that's not, it's not always easy.
It's evil looking. Sometimes it's goofy looking. I just like that. Yeah. You know, Cathedral's album, The Carnival Bazaar, is very Hieronymus Bosch as well. Big time. And this record calls its mind. Yeah. I mean, this is better, but. I love Chuck Beebe's background because, of course, it's zoomed into a section and it's like this crazy cave monster fucking regurgitating creatures and there's a fucking dragon. There's so many figures.
in this. Like, you could stare at this for days and pick out something new. And it's just... Wow. It begs you to do that. To paint that, it just blows my mind. Yeah. All right, Markisan number two. Yeah, switching to this, it has been mentioned, which pleases me greatly a couple times, actually. And motherfucking Oceans. That's not the real name. It's just Anne Oceans. As in Garden, so entombed. Art by Adrian Bousson.
And this is very nearly my number one. It's absolutely insane from an artistic perspective, but also from a design perspective. I can't even guess how many hours this thing took. So for people listening to this, imagine a colossal deity with a constellation for a face, a massive sun halo, and a body made out of organic steel cables in this black shroud.
that connect to hundreds of naked, floating, humanoid creatures. And then imagine each creature glowing or dissolving or bursting apart into star charts of some unknown universe. And that's not even everything in the image. You can just rock me to sleep tonight, man. Thanks. Yeah, it's just, this thing is fucking fascinating. It's bizarre.
And every time I look at this thing, I see something new. And I'm just in awe of this because Adrian, who painted this, just, wow, the imagination and skill it took to paint this. Like, I know from working in comics and working with artists, like, this is just phenomenal. I would really like to talk to him about this painting and how he, I think it's a he, I don't know, came to do this.
You know, was it something that the band wanted him to do or is it something that already preexisted? I just, I really want to get in the headspace of this artist to see how they came up with this thing because it's absolutely phenomenal. All right, Matt. My number two has been mentioned, so I'm not going to say a whole lot more about it other than I love, you know, 70s era slasher art, if you will. I do think the kind of aging texturing is a nice added touch to it.
it to kind of give it that even older feel. Dying fetus, make them beg for death. Not much more to say. All right. It's really fucking cool. You know, what calls to mind for me is Exhumed does similar things and old movie posters. I think that might be Danny Filth, by the way. Anyway. That's a really effective cover. Yeah. It's fucked up. I wonder if it's from something real. Yeah, I like it a lot. Guys, I miss doing these album covers. We haven't done these in a while. It's because the year end episode is
already like 93 hours and we all have time for it you could do it every week yeah well if we could only get the schedules of six people to work together yeah all right john man i love the fact that all your images are basically rearview bear images they're all reversed i know matt's like hey i put them up so you could see them and they're no they're the complete opposite of what he wanted to do but that's okay
I'm not going to spend a lot of time because I'm barely awake as it is. My number two is To Mold the Enduring Spirit. You've heard it. You know it. Go look it up. Go fuck yourself. Nice. I talked about it. It's an awesome cover. In the interest of getting John to his sleep. Mine is a band that Matt and I both, I think Matt had it. I don't remember if it was on his list or not. Yep. But we talked about it after. I think it's on your list.
from Seattle, like after the fall. And it's kind of, it's funny too, because it's kind of a Baroness cover since George mentioned you. When it first flashed up there, I was like, oh, Baroness. And I was like, nope, not Baroness. It would be the same artist. I'll have to look that up. Just a lot of good color in this thing. And, and again, it's, it tells a mysterious story. I don't quite understand, which I love. There's just a lot of, you can go a lot of places in your imagination of this record. Not seeing the whole cover here, but yeah, I really appreciated this one. It's like a tattoo, that one. Yeah.
I thought Flash Art, yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
All right.
My number two is not likely to be mentioned, but Mutoid Man, Mutants.
Ooh.
John Santos.
That's just, you know, it's in the same kind of two-mold crazy.
Well, I mean, it's not as detailed, but it's a little more crazy.
But, yeah.
I'm not going to.
I'm not an artist.
I'm not going to talk about it.
I can't figure that shit out.
I just like it.
So I put it on there.
It's crazier than two-mold.
Look at it.
Stop.
Stop giving me a hard time. It's my number two. Let's move on. All right. Number one. We're going to be very basic here. Oh, I'm going to add an image. I'm going to go ahead and say, hey. Ah, you know, at first I was like, I'm not sure when I first saw this. Me too, by the way. But it's really grown on me. I mean, I wasn't like, this is bad. I'm like, this is a really well done piece of art.
You have like the lighting from behind
all this like orange, you know, underneath him that kind of gives it that like
insecty clear texture
Just for the sake of the order, you've got to say it out loud
Oh, so sorry, so sorry
The cattle decapitation terracite
But it's different
It's different
And then in the context of the album
And this once I started getting into the story
I'm feeling it
I like it
I ended up seeing him and I got a hoodie with the art on the back and I was like, it's not my, it wasn't my favorite cattle decapitation art. I like a diarrhea, a human out of the back of a cow, you know, I even like that. The previous album, which is more traditional, like skull, like death, you know, death Atlas. That was a great. And this felt like it's a cartoon and it's, but then getting into it, it's like, this is a story. This is a movie. This is the creature from the story. It all kind of works. And it is like a very nice illustration.
And it's not gross or violent, but it is, I'm sorry, it is gross. It's just not gory, you know what I mean? But it's still, it's repugnant. Yeah, yeah. So I dig it. I dig the whole storyline for the album, the idea and everything, and I'm into it. I have to say one thing about that cover, too, because it caught me off guard a little bit, too, because they've kind of had a way of doing things the last few years, last film. It almost looks like a maquette. Like, it almost looks like a photograph of a model to me, like the painting, the way it's lighted.
It is an illustration, I'm sure of that, because I've looked at it very closely, but I... It's a damn good, yeah. It's, no, I mean, it's appealing. It looks real. Yeah, it looks real. Yeah, slightly uncanny. All right, Markisan. All right, my number one is on the cover of Aramint, wear of numerous forms, and the painting is by Adam Burke, and the painting is called Sub Templum. I own two original paintings by Adam Burke,
So there's something about his style that I respond to very emotionally. I feel like he captures these important moments in epic tales that always make me want to know more about the story. So that said, picture, if you will, dear Metalheads, a subterranean earth far below what you've ever known, forged in the recesses of
dark imagination and horror, where fantasy and darkness collide in a realm of hollowed space.
It is there, in those slumbered depths, where one warrior, clad in tattered armor and shadow, dares to stand before the specters of beings long forgotten.
As he approaches, the apparitions materialize in an ancient gateway, strangely curious to behold a mortal who has survived the long, improbable descent into their catacombs. The warrior wonders if he should draw his blade. As a waterfall cascades over the cavern rock, echoing all around him,
him as if he was on a boat caught in the eye of a hurricane.
He pushes the cacophony of sound from his mind and stares at the archway.
He's come for that. He's come for the nether door.
There has to be a better place for him than here, he thinks.
He must go through it at all costs. It's all that matters.
It's all that's ever mattered in his shattered, hopeless life. The phantasms tilt their heads unnaturally in anticipation as they hover beneath the archway. They try to recall what this planet was like eons ago when creatures were plentiful and still believed in them. When this long, ruined sphere
held any particular affection in their souls. Then the ghost gods of the dead earth watch the warrior place his hand on the raven hilt of his sword. And suddenly they remember the world exactly as it was. And scene. Nevermore. Love this cover. Fucking love it. I love Adam Burke. Like I said, I got two pannings from him, so.
All right, my number one. Follow that, bitch. Poor Matt. You just had to get it in there, didn't you? Sorry. I did it at the last second, George. I was only going to just talk about the album. It's tradition for me to do the stories. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.
It was epic. It was epic. And to anybody at home, I've accidentally put up the cover for Leviathan by the band now. It is a great cover, but clearly not for this year. Okay, my actual number one. Celestial Sanctuary, Insatiable Thirst for Torment. This is epic. Like, this monster, this winged demon beast, he's surrounded by other winged creatures that are flying over with cauldrons.
essentially dumping liquid torment into his mouth. The planet in the background is super close. There's some shit going on in the water. A couple things on fire. Looks like he's shitting fire into the water. Guts are coming out of them which are going into the water. Essentially that water is now not drinkable. It's not potable at all. Soggy guts. Soggy guts are bad. I don't know what happens after this but my number one. That's great. A good record too.
Moving on to John. My number one is what happens. I believe, Chuck, you mentioned this earlier. It's what happens when you have a futuristic version of Power Slave. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. The moment I saw that cover, yeah. The moment I saw it, I was like, oh, it's Power Slave. It's awesome. Yeah, but in the future with plenty of purple, but the purple, I think, kind of gives it a feeling of,
Outer Space, almost in a sense. It's exogalactic. Yes, it is. So the album is Zoth exogalactic. You know, that's a great background for your Zoom forever, actually. It is. There's something really good. It's really good. Imagine if it was exogalactate. Just saying. Yeah, okay. Sure.
It looks perfect with John's fucking gorgeous silver fox hair, too. I don't know. It's like windswept and imperial. Yeah. Sounds starting to look like Michael McDonald. It's just the front. It's not the back. It's just the front. All right. My number one is King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard. Cool. I mean, that's a lot of color, dude. I thought it was a Geico commercial. Sorry. What's that? I thought it was a Geico commercial.
Yeah, it is. Well, I'm going to read the name of the album just for fun. Petrodronic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night and Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. The record is about climate change, quite frankly, and who knows better about that than Australians, but also I just love the cartoon concept of this. The dual destroyers here are the product of the dinosaurs, which is the oil, and then the actual
come back to wreak their havoc on us. That's a pretty good concept, pretty good cover. I really dig it. And to just point out quickly that they've released three records since this came out. And I'm not joking. They have. Literally, there's three new albums on there. These guys don't stop. And every once in a while, they stop and make a metal record. But I still like this record. Also, I just think the cover is just actually fantastic. Yeah, it's good. It really actually does stand out.
It does. I'm not doing it. You're getting the crunched version of it here. I considered it. I felt like I had to avoid it because it's an odd, you know, like. It's so colorful and it's so, yeah. Oh, it's good. Yeah. And when I say who knows better than Australians, I'm talking about Mad Max, of course. So this has a Mad Max aspect to it a little bit. Everything they touch. All right. My number one, I'm going to finally try and put something
We'll see if it works. There it is. Nice. Whoa, that is pretty fucking badass though. Blut aus Nord and their latest album, Disharmonium Nahab. This was done by some person from Poland who has a Polish name that is unpronounceable. Not even going to attempt it. Way too many consonants. What are the initials, George?
K. Nice. Yeah, no, I'm not going to try it. I'm not going to embarrass myself. But if you look it up, Blue Douse, Nor, Disharmonium, Nahab, it's creepy as fuck. That is like some John Carpenter, like the fog type shit going on right there. And I think it's really cool. So it is cool. Wow. Okay. Here we are. Here we are. The album. All right. So we have fun. Yep. I'm glad we got to do that with Chuck as an artist.
Really good one. We haven't done the favorite album covers in, I don't know, a couple years. Something like that. I'm here to mess things up. We've wanted to. We just haven't because of timing. So yeah. Anywho, we have one more thing to do. As Jay mentioned, pick from the crypt. Pick one album, no matter when released, that you think people should listen to. And Chuck, what do you got? Well, it's not the album behind me. This was just my honor.
mentioned the band Primal Tyrant, which I haven't listened to a lot, but they have Egyptian dinosaurs. That is an awesome cover. Proof that the dinosaurs helped build the pyramids. Yeah, I was just kind of into it. The closer you look, the illustration maybe doesn't 100% hold up, but I'm into the idea. And it looks like they're fighting for me. It's dinosaurs is closed, so no, it doesn't hold up. No, one of them is holding one of those.
Oh my gosh. There's the Egyptians below, I believe. And you can't see, but they are wearing like dinosaur components. So I guess this is some fantasy narrative they've created where the dinosaurs and the Egyptians existed at the same time. Love it. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to throw this Rainer Landfermann Mein Wart in Diener Dunkelheit. Are you guys familiar with this guy? Gesundheit? Yeah.
I thought he was having a stroke. You know this band Bethlehem? Yes. You know this album, what was it? Dictus Tenecre? I don't know how to say all the names. Anyways, he was the vocalist for this one particular album. I think it's the coolest, like best sort of weird black metal vocals. This is his solo album. It's fucking crazy. It's fucking crazy. He is like, he's also a bassist in another band. The musicianship is not.
But it's not like I can't say it's straight up metal, but the drums are insane. They're doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Someone who likes metal will certainly extreme metal will certainly find something here. It's really weird. It's but he is just like blowing out his vocal cords doing all kinds of crazy shit and just saying and sometimes very pretty operatic vocal sometimes, but his scream and his guttural has like black metal stuff is kind of some of my favorite vocals. So yeah, Rainer land for my
You know?
Yeah.
Be weird.
From the crypt of a few years ago.
Nobody's going to find this.
No idea how to spell it.
But you go Bethlehem vocalist.
Solo album.
Solo album.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sounds good.
He only did vocals for one of their albums, I believe.
Gotcha.
Which is, again, the best one.
So.
All right, Marcus.
Pick from the crypt.
I love this new section.
So the one I'm going to pick is from October 11th, 1999. And it is a black metal record. It's a Vindir. So if you look at it, it's W-I-N-D-I-R, but it's pronounced Vindir. So there were a Norwegian band that played a melodic Scandinavian folk infused black metal.
hadn't been before at that time. The main songwriter was a guy named Valfar, who started Vindir as a solo black metal project, but then ended up forming a band. But this was the last album that he did by himself, I believe. And they put out four total albums, and they're all really good. But Arntor is my favorite because it delivers this chilly, edgy guitar attack mixed with Viking.
folk passages and harmonized melodies that the previous records had, but then it also incorporates keyboards and synth that just gives it a different sound. And on their next album, 1184, they put out an even greater emphasis on keys and synths. So I'm always torn between that one and this one, but I just like the heavier guitar forward sound that aren't normally
has on it a little bit more the record 1184 was just a bit more experimental so i feel like
vindir would have gone on to do even greater more musically interesting albums but
unfortunately valfar who created this whole thing he died of hypothermia in 2004 after becoming caught
in a blizzard on his way to see his family. So the remaining members ended up forming Vreed, Vryde? I don't know how you pronounce it. We always have this debate, I think. Vryde. And I know you love that band, George. And there's another band they also did too. But yeah, the four albums that they put out are really good. And I've been listening to them lately because they've been re-released not too long ago. They were originally on Head Found Records.
We released them in the last couple years. Head found or head not found? Head not found. I was going to say, if there's a head found, that's good to know. I want to find some heads. I thought it was head not found. Oh, hey, we found. But now they're on indie recordings. I don't know if they've released all the albums, but they've released definitely a couple of them. The first one I have, I have a couple of them. I don't have all of them yet. But yeah, if you're into black metal with a little bit of progression,
A lot of folk. I think that these guys were at the forefront of that way back in the day. And the albums are still just phenomenal. They didn't put out a bad release. So one of my faves. Definitely cool. All right, Matt. All right, I'd pick from the crypt. If you haven't done it in a while, go back and listen to Hellhammer's Triumph of Death demo. Just kind of building upon, you know, the live album that came out recently. Excuse me. I had to,
I find it on YouTube to actually fully spin it. And if anything in the comments, somebody wrote, like, I accidentally listened to this at a slower RPM and these make really good doom riffs. And actually, if you stop and think about it, like all of the riffs associated with Tom really have slowed down, could be killer doom riffs or they are doom riffs just sped up to sound more like death. But do yourself a favor, go back, listen to this, appreciate the goodness that is this, you know, awesome release. That's interesting.
That's interesting because Tom famously, well famously, he used to go buy 45s and he bought like the early Benham 45s and he would play them at 33 so they sounded heavier. That's a Tom thing. Tom was into that. All right, John. All right, my pick from the Crypt is actually a pick with a heavy heart, unfortunately. So my pick is the first Dream Theater album, Dream Theater, when Dream of Day Unite from 1989.
And I chose this in honor of the fact that their original singer, Charlie Domenici, passed away this week, which came as a surprise to everybody because he wasn't that old. So I went back and revisited the album and kind of was very nostalgic listening to it because it is now 34 years old. And I always liked that album. I know it gets slagged on by the newer fans of the band, but I always thought it was a good album. So.
Nice tribute, John. That's so nice. Yeah. It's always sad when you see somebody pass away so young. Yeah. She's so talented. You know, it's funny. We do these really, I think the whole purpose of this is to be like, if when people listen, be like, Hey, here's an old record you'd check out, you know, or record you might not know about. And I think people kind of know about this one. And then I thought, no, it came out 23 years ago, which is sounds wrong to me, but there was the kind of black Sabbath thing.
and they were kind of the doom and then there was like this period of black
sabbath worship which there still is but there was all these bands like saint vitus and stuff who
were kind of trying to do that thing and then i feel like this is the record that kind of broke the
door open for a new wave of doom that honored sabbath but also did its own thing electric wizard dope
thumb such a good such a fucking heavy record and if it's not in your lexicon or collection you
should probably take a stab at it they have a lot of records worth owning but this one just
came out and just fucking blew the doors off the fucking place you know it's so fucking heavy and for something 23 years old to be about as heavy as the thing can get still says a lot so highly recommend what a great title it really is and the lyrics are fucking hilarious like a dope from weed and legalized drugs and murder the whole thing you know yeah awesome all right my album is from a band called hollandthon
And the album is called With Vilest of Worms to Dwell. Came out in 2001 on Napalm Records. They're an Austrian symphonic death metal band. This was their second album. They had a third album in 2008 and that was pretty much it. Metal Archive lists them as on hold. So maybe we'll see them again eventually. You never know. One of the guys is from Pungent Stench and another one is from Belphegor.
If that gives you any clue.
It's a well-produced album with lots of things going on.
You just kind of need to listen to it.
I mean, it's orchestral and it's death, but there's clean vocals.
And I don't know.
It's probably not for Will, but I think the rest of the world might like it.
20 odd years ago, I was crazy for these guys.
I was like, when this came out, I was there for, I liked their first album.
This is their second album.
I was blown away by it.
I loved it.
I was waiting for more.
and then it just kind of never went anywhere. So that's what I got. Nice. Has anybody ever heard of this band? No. Oh, yeah. See, that is a pick from the crypt, bitches. That's what's cool about pick from the crypt, dude. I really like this new section. Yeah, that was a body. They couldn't even fit in the crypt. They were just like, so that woman did. Yeah, exactly. All right. I don't even know what George said because I can't stop staring at these fucking dinosaurs. I know.
Yeah, sorry. No worries, man. All right. We have reached the end now at nearly six hours. We haven't gone this long in a while. It's a long one, but Chuck, thanks for sticking it out. Yeah. Thanks, man. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for coming on. You're just the kind of guy we'd like to have back sometime if you're ever up for it. You're a lot of fun. Call me up anytime. I'll do a better job next time. A better job. You did a wonderful job. This is an A. We're going to go A+. You know what I'm saying?
It's the first time hanging out with us. So now you know how it goes. Now you know what to expect. Now you can. Yeah. Okay. I got it. But you prepared really well. Like you were so much fun to hang out with Chuck. So everything we imagined and fucking more. Oh, thank you. All right, fellas. Nice meeting you, Chuck. Yep. Well, thank you so much. Nice to meet you all. I hope to talk again. Absolutely. All right. Take care. See you guys.
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