Metalheads Podcast Episode #167: The Wheel of Pain

A new era of the Metalheads Podcast begins! We introduce an exciting structure for the show that includes streamlined discussions of New Releases, What We’re Listening To and Pick From the Crypt. After tackling those familiar segments we unveil THE WHEEL OF PAIN! At the end of each show we’ll take turns spinning a virtual wheel with 30 unique discussion topics. The spinner will then lead the segment selected in the next show! For this inaugural Wheel of Pain, we pre-selected the segment, Behind the Curtain. Led by Jay, we discussed the legacy and impact of legendary producer Martin Birch. Plus, George and Will recap their time at Maryland Death Fest and we spin the wheel live for the first time. Find out WHAT our next segment will be and WHO will run it!

What is Metalheads Podcast?

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

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Hello, and welcome to Metal Heads Podcast.

My name is George.

This is Will.

This is John.

This is the Mets situation.

This is Marcus on.

And Jay will be here.

He is resolving a cat situation.

and will be here as soon as he can and sends his love. All right. So before we get into this, I know it's been a minute. And so I wanted to send out my apologies to both the listeners and my pod brothers for the lapse in episodes so far this year. It's been a busy, crazy year. We've been trying to work on a more new svelte format for the pod. Much like the Council of Nicaea, that shit hasn't been easy.

will be a work in progress. Uh, we'll likely continue to make some tweaks, but hopefully from here on out, we will get back into a regular groove. So let's see how this works out. Shall we? How y'all been? Smurfy. Good. All right. Miss hanging out in the podcast. So glad to be back talking to you guys. Yeah. It's a little, a little weird, a little sexy. And, uh, just to build on what you're saying, George,

The Matt Situation and the Cat Situation. Careful, or I might start by going by the fat situation. The P-H-A-T. No, not the regular fat guy. You're my infatuation, George. What? You're my infatuation. Well, that'll work. Yeah.

But also, I mean, the new format that we've worked out is pretty cool. So hopefully people really will enjoy it. Yeah, yeah. There's going to be a little bit of, oh, what is that? Wheel of Fortune going on? So that'll hopefully keep things fresh and interesting. I prefer to call it spin the bottle. Ooh. Oh, well, we need another wheel, John. Damn it. I got to update the wheel. It's true. We need like a beer bottle.

Why didn't you say that before, Will? Sorry. It's going to be a little bit of growing pains getting that taken care of. Yeah. We have it. We'll get there. We tested it the other day and it worked. Yeah. Nice. And it's nice to kind of work a part game into the whole thing. Yeah. All right. Well,

Someone made it known that maybe we should talk about MDF a little bit. I was there a little bit, but before I was there, Will was there. Yeah. I try and get to Maryland Death Fest every Memorial Day for at least one day, half a day, something. So the only day I could really go was Wednesday was the pre-fest. So it was some grindcore band that I called.

the last four notes of their last song when I showed up by the time I got there from my son's baseball game.

But after that, it was Primitive Man, which is like a super doomy sludge band from Denver, which I like them a lot.

They definitely did like a whole set that was just a lot of the doomier side, very slow, a lot of it.

But they were great.

And after them was Monstrosity, which is the old, old school death metal band from the late 80s, early 90s. Corpse Grinder Fisher from Kennibal Corpse used to be their original lead singer. I've been a fan of them for a long time. Their older stuff is a lot better. But they were great. You know, they're older, so there weren't exactly a spry running around. They weren't exactly, you know, Mick Jagger running around there.

Yeah, that young Mick Jagger, he really got the moves still. Nobody's Mick Jagger at 80-something years old. Yeah, I know, right? Bruce Dickinson's pretty good. Yeah, he is. He's 20 years younger, or 15 years younger. Yeah. But yeah, it was just good to see them live for the first time, and I've been a fan for, I don't know, like 30, 40 years, whatever. How old am I? Good God. And then after that was Repulsion, the famous punk grind death band that put out one

that has like 500 songs on it and uh so they played a bunch of those songs that was cool and my friend chris moore has been drumming for them for like 10 or 12 13 years now so uh i got to i get so i was up in the balcony uh because it was at nevermore hall which is part of the complex right there in the inner harbor area where they have their own death fest and formerly ram's head for those that know yeah um and then uh so anyway so i got to talk to chris for a little bit

after the show and it was kind of cool and then uh the headliner was napalm death so yeah

they did that so they did that um so i saw them in a more intimate show i can't really talk about

but um like a week less than a week before it was like me and like less than 100 people uh at a very

small show that napalm death did and they did that they're like oh okay we're done anyway so then

And it was great. It still cracks me up the way Barney Greenway does not look like the guy who should be singing those vocals. Those things should not be coming out of his mouth. He's got suspenders on. He's got his pointy elbows running around the stage and his short Beatles haircut. It does not match with what is coming out of his mouth. But I think that's one of the endearing things I love about Napalm Death. It's great. Then he gets up there with his heavy British accent.

You know, fuck this and fuck that and all these other things. But anyway, that's my take. It was a lot of fun. I saw a bunch of people there that I knew. George, you said that Nick may be there, but I didn't see him. I told him that you were going to be there. He was in town, but he was too wiped out to go out. Okay. Anyway. Did it rain for you? Yes, it was raining. Okay.

the fuck out of that weekend. Other than, I guess Sunday might not have, but I bailed.

Yeah, and the one thing I have to complain about with the MDF and the tickets is that I could have went up, I think, Friday night or Saturday night because I wanted to see Creator, even though I've seen Creator a bunch of times. But some of the tickets were like, the tickets that were available, if you didn't get like a full four-day pass, all access to all the venues, it was always like, oh, you can only get Marketplace.

and like never more but you couldn't get soundstage like it was like the way the tickets

were they were selling the tickets at that late in the game it's like i was like there's no

point i was gonna spend like 80 to go see a bunch of bands i didn't want to see and the ones i did

want to see i couldn't get tickets to so i was kind of annoyed by that so i would have went to more days

but then george posted a photo of him completely miserable in a poncho in the rain and i'm like you

You know what? There'll be other years. Yeah. And they were super like about the wristbands. Like the image of the weekend is people walking around like this with their arms up because they're like, show your wristbands, show your wristbands, show your wristbands. So. Yeah. It'd be easy to sneak in if you didn't do that, I guess. I mean, Jay could probably pull it off, but. Sneaky as fucking hell. But like normal human beings, maybe not so much.

What was your favorite set, Will? I'd probably have to say Repulsion because I had never seen them before. And my buddy Chris is in the band. And I just saw Napalm Death like six months ago at Baltimore Soundstage. And then I just saw him at that thing and the small venue thing. So yeah, they put on a great show. They had great banter. Yeah, so I think that was my favorite set.

All right. Well, I went Thursday, Friday, Saturday to Maryland Death Fest and I totally bitched out on Sunday. Thursday, I went and picked Justin up at the airport. Friday, I picked up Stacy at the airport. Sunday, I took Justin back to the airport and I just kept on rolling. I was just destroyed between the constant rain,

the constant standing, being old, being fat. It was just Sunday was just, and I was sick. I was trying to, I was trying to convince myself that I was having allergies, but as the weekend progressed, it was clear that I was sick. So it started up in my head by the time Sunday rolled around, it was in my chest and I was just miserable. But while I was there, despite all of these rain and afflictions,

It was a great time. As long as, you know, we didn't get shot or mugged like other people. But so what was good was good. Yay, Baltimore. Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. Are you going to talk about that a little bit more later? I will, but we can talk about it now. No, no, that's fine. All right. So I was there Thursday. Didn't catch a lot of bands.

Did See Our Wake. Cool Music. Screechy Vocals. God old after a while. Bongzilla? No. Bong Ripper. That's Hail Satan Worship Doom, right? Bong Ripper, not Bong. There's two Bong bands, and I don't know which one it was. I'm pretty sure it was Bong Ripper. Yeah. Yeah, because they were in the power plant. And so we saw Bong Ripper. November's Doom was fucking awesome.

there.

And they played a lot of the new album, right?

I think.

For that show.

Because when I saw them at Prog Power, they mixed up their set.

But I looked, I was like, damn, they played a lot of the new album.

Fuck.

That would have been cool to see.

Paul sounded amazing.

I gave zero fucks about Solitude Eternus since they pulled their last minute bitch fest

and fired Robert Lowe two weeks before the fest and brought in... Guy from Watchtower. Jason McMaster. How was he, though? Did you hear him at all? Like 30 seconds. Jeff said he sounded terrible. So who knows? I heard a little bit, but I like Jason McMaster. I'm a big Dangerous Toys fan, to be perfectly honest. Vocals don't match the music. Yeah. And I'm like,

You know, the only thing I really liked about Solitude Aternist was Rob Lowe. And... I like those first three albums, but if he's not there, I was like, eh. Yeah, I just was like... Yeah, that was a huge disappointment. It had to be. Yeah. I'm like, just finish out your obligation. And then, you know, I read some stuff... Or just don't do the fest. Yeah. Well, it's too late. They probably would have had to pay. Yeah, I read that...

He's been having a lot of trouble with singing and that it just hasn't been good and there's been complaints. And so I guess I understand if they wanted to try and replace him and put on a better show. I understand that desire. But come on, give the people what they paid for. At least if it sucked, we'd go, yeah, you need to replace Robert Lowe and not bitch at the band. Instead, we'd bitch at the band.

the band because I just didn't see the point.

Well, you don't really know what went on behind the scenes.

No, I don't.

I mean, based on comments that I read, it sounded like the last few shows he did, he was really, really bad.

And so...

If I'm not mistaken, he's had issues in the past too, I think.

Yeah.

Hasn't he?

Yeah.

I'm not saying he's the most perfect individual.

And I think that was with Candlemas also.

If I'm not mistaken.

So they report if he pulled out of the fest or of the band, the band, the band did it. It was their decision. Yeah, they sacked him. So I would have preferred to have a shitty set with the guy I paid to see. Like I, if, if, if he hadn't, if I had known when I got the ticket, I would have just skipped Thursday. You know, I like November's doom, but I've seen him a few times. It's, you know, I was there for solitude, a turnus, and then I wasn't. So, um, so I don't know.

Maybe people liked it. I haven't really looked at the reviews. I heard them as I was walking away. That's all. Anyway, Thursday. Friday. There was some shit going on Friday. And by shit, I mean some good bands. All right. So I think the first band I really paid attention to was a band called

L-O-O-M-L-O-T-S-K.

Was not familiar with them, but it was in Nevermore, and I got to sit my fat ass down.

And so I was like, all right, I'll check this out.

And these guys come out wearing, like, trench coats and gas masks.

And I'm like, tell me more.

And they-

Did you pull out your gas mask as well, George?

I am the gas mask.

And they proceeded to rip it up.

We were all, even Nick was like, these vocals are amazing.

Because the vocals were really clear and upfront in the mix, which for a live situation and like a, you know, an extreme metal thing, that's rare.

And yeah, it was quite impressive.

So I immediately wrote that down and I listened to the album when I got back and it's okay.

I think the live performance definitely

is the selling point.

So if you have a chance to check these guys out,

I recommend them.

I remember listening to it,

and I thought it was decent.

But yeah, sometimes those live performances

can elevate the band.

Yeah.

So it's hard to capture that.

When a band's good live and they can't capture it

on the album, that sucks.

Because you miss the energy from the live performance.

Yeah.

There'll be more of that.

So then I hung around

and watched Pan-American Native Front.

I'm like, Native American? Tell me more.

And I need to send you guys the video.

They were sound checking.

And, you know, as they do, they're like, you know,

they play a little guitar, they play a little drums,

they play a little bass.

The vocalist comes up and he comes up, you know,

and everything's quiet.

And then he's just like,

And so I filmed this because it was just kind of without any context. It was really funny. Within context, it makes sense, you know, but and they were OK. I didn't like them as much as Lomsk, but they were OK.

Then, let's see. I don't know about the timing of these things. I think Rotting Christ was the next band I saw. And this was a bucket lister for me. Somehow I've never seen Rotting Christ. Oh. That's surprising, George. I know. I know. It's like they've been around a bunch, but it's always like when I'm not here or I just can't make it. And so I was really determined to catch them. And I was super happy that I did because they rocked. They really did.

And, you know, they were playing some of their, they're playing an 89 to 95 set. And I'm just like, man, this sounds so good. They sounded so good live. And so I came home and I was like, I'm putting on the old Rod and Christ, yeah. And I'm like, wow. Really? Okay. It's, you know, compared to what they were doing live, it was a little thin. You know, I was like, oh, that's like, what is that? Like one single track to guitar? What's going on there?

It just did not have this big, massive sound as early 90s, whatever. It's funny because I've always been a huge fan of Triarchy of Lost Lovers, but after seeing them, I was like, ah, it was a little bit desired. But regardless, they were awesome. Then skipped Wayfair because they were playing at the same time Wolfheart was playing.

See Wayfarer instead. Also, it turns out, if you haven't seen Jeff lately, Jeff's a little buff. And Jeff looks a lot like the singer from Wolfheart. Also like J.R. from Brimminghorn. Like in miniature. Wolfheart's an interesting band because I feel like they're solid. J.R.'s tall. And so is the guy from Wolfheart. So I'm not knocking on Jeff. Jeff is beautiful.

And way buff.

But yeah, Wolf Hart was cool.

And they put out solid albums, but I never really loved their stuff because it always kind of sounds the same, but I can see where they would be pretty good live.

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same.

I like what they do.

It doesn't necessarily blow me away, but they're cool live.

All right.

That moves us on.

Wait, are we Friday?

Okay.

I think Old Man's Child was next. And that was the wettest fucking show I have ever seen. Marketplace is outdoors. It's, I guess, technically the biggest stage. Because I think it goes back further than Power Plant. But yeah, it was just pissing down rain.

And we had ponchos on and squeezed in like sardines. But god damn did they kick ass. Galdor is a fucking man. They closed with Millennium King which just about made me split my pants. Yeah it was something. And you know what was funny is I was watching it. You can see the rain you know in front of the lights in front of the stage and stuff. And they're doing these strobes and it kind of looked like lightning with the rain.

It was very cool. It was like being in a music video.

Yeah, the facts. Yeah.

And after that, I was like, fuck this rain. I'm going inside.

So I had a plan there because I knew who was going to be in Nevermore Hall next.

And that was Der Weg Einer Freiheit.

And holy shit, was that awesome.

I knew they were like black metal but I didn't know about all the like synthy like cool stuff that they were doing and I went and found like a bench to sit on and I'm just sitting there going alright that's cool that's cool and then Steph was like you know fuck this rain fuck this standing and she came and sat down with me and she was like this is really cool I was like yeah it is so and I think at least one or two other people like messaged in from

wherever they were and they were like this is really cool so uh you know post-haste i uh took all the uh albums from these guys and put them on my phone for further inspection uh next next sorry it's hard to skip around on this thing it's not in any order i think i think at that point we were like we're not getting out of here because we need

to see Aronsi. And so we got to get seating because people didn't want to leave. So we managed to get seating for Aronsi Pazuzu. And if you've ever heard of this band, if you know anything about this band, you know this set fucking killed. And I was thinking back, this is the second time I've seen them. And the first time I saw them, I was like, this is the progression of my thinking throughout the set. First song. Huh? Really? All right. I guess. Second song.

I guess I kind of see what they're doing there. All right.

I'll stick around. Third song.

Oh, okay. I get it.

Fourth song. This is the greatest band I've ever heard.

Because it's like you've been indoctrinated by that point.

And it was the same way this time. I was like, is this going to live up to the last time?

I don't know. It's all right.

But, you know, a couple songs in, you're just like, oh, my God.

These guys, there's nothing like them. Nothing like them. It destroyed MDF when we saw them the first time. Yeah. Literally people coming up to me that I knew that hadn't heard of them and are like, I don't know what I just saw. I'm leaving. I'm blown away. Yeah. The one guitar player is insane and I don't know how they survive. Because he's the only one that just runs around like crazy the whole show. Barefoot like he's in.

That other band. Porcupine Tree? No, the other one. Something or other that we saw with. We saw with Kojira. Oh, the bass player from Tesseract. Tesseract, yes, that guy. But he was all barefoot and just like ballet dancing. He was so, his body was just so fluid. It was ridiculous. And I'm like, man, that guy's got to be feeling that the next day.

All right. This is taking way longer than I thought, but we're vamping for Jay. So that was Friday, Saturday, Saturday. So the first draw of the day. Well, that's not true. Actually, where are you? Warbringer was the first band of the day. And the Warbringer, come on.

They're awesome. And they were. They were on the marketplace stage. They were great. Then we went into soundstage to see Mello Harsher, a grind band, because Stacy was very insistent that we all have to see Mello Harsher, even though their albums, she's like, don't listen to their albums. They suck. You just have to see them live. And she was right. I mean, it's pretty straight grind, but they're fucking hilarious. Like the... How so, George? They just, they like...

Like half their set is banter. And it's just, it's just funny. Like the guitar player and the drummer both have mics and the drummer kept going, yeah. And like, there was like a reverb on it and everybody would be like, yeah. I know listening to you, that doesn't make sense, but it was funny at the time because they kept doing it. I mean, they got to fill the time in with talk because they're a grind band. Like probably they only have five albums and they're like 20 minutes. Oh, they even mentioned that. He's like, oh geez, we're going to have to talk more.

And they still played like 47 songs.

And they kept like referring to themselves as some man or cover band from the Midwest.

And I don't know.

I don't remember the specific bits, but we were all like, yeah, that was pretty funny.

So it's like, they should like be a comedy act that does grindcore instead of a grindcore act that does comedy.

I'm looking at one of their EPs they put out.

The Charlie Brown thing.

Yeah, it's eight songs.

It's five minutes and ten seconds. Yeah. I want to see how much they want for this. Four bucks? Hey, that's a buck a minute. Less than a buck a minute. They pay four bucks for a 20-minute song. Or a 20-second song. They should add the comedic bits into their albums. Exactly. That would absolutely help. Sorry. The actual good...

list of the sets that they had up for you to look at. They took down. And so now I'm looking at a really shitty rendition of what actually happened. So, Mellow Harsher. That was the only set that I did at Soundstage. So, Saw Laceration at Power Plant. That was really cool. After that, ran into Dave from Mortis Gold. Got to chat with him a little bit.

And that was nice. Saw Hell Butcher. At Nevermore. They did some cool covers. They did an Iron Maiden cover. What was it? I don't remember now. I want to say it was like the Trooper. And they did they did Venom's Black Metal. They did a couple covers at the end. And it was really good. They were cool.

I saw Whiplash a little bit. The old thrash band Whiplash. They were cool. And then I kind of bitched out because I was getting to the end. I was hitting the wall and I was like, I have to see how a crew knew. Is Whiplash the band that had the old song like Bolts and Blades? Yeah, like Ticket to Mayhem. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like in the 80s. I saw them when I was in high school. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I, and I was like, I got to catch at least a little bit of this. Cause you know, I got the first album on vinyl back in the day. Um, and they sounded good. Um, so the good stuff today, I bitched out. I met, I wanted to see destruction. I missed it. I wanted to see creator. I missed it. Uh, but have a crew. How did you miss creator? By not going back outside into the rain. Oh, were they, were they, but were they at the market?

Yes.

No, it was not covered. No, it was not covered.

Power Plant is covered. Marketplace is not.

So, so do they not had, did they not have the stage that's like right outside the door of Nevermore Hall?

That's Power Plant.

Oh, okay. So Marketplace is like the main stage out in the rain, but closer to soundstage.

Yes.

Uh, okay. That seems weird. Cause creator seems like they, they usually have the big headlining bands.

That's what I was thinking too. But I was talking to the gang. I'm like, which do you think is bigger? Because it seems like all the bigger bands, like Old Man's Child and Creator, are over here in the freaking rain when they could be here at Power Plant at least half covered. But Power Plant, I think it's wider, but it's shorter. Whereas Marketplace, you can go way back. Yeah, true. Okay. So that was, yeah.

That was interesting. But to wrap things up, Havokurunu was freaking amazing. And then I wanted to stick around for 1914, but I was just like falling asleep during Havokurunu. And I just, I was like, I still have to walk back 25 minutes in the rain to the hotel. There's no way I'm going to make another hour and a half to catch 1914. And so,

Yeah, that was one of the bands I really wanted to see if I got up there. It was Creator 1914. But when I went and saw on Wednesday night, I think I was up till some ungodly hour on Tuesday night and then woke up Wednesday morning. I think I got like four hours of sleep and then I got home after watching Napalm Death. I even left five minutes early because I'm like, I need to get on the road. I don't want to sit in a parking garage for a half an hour trying to get out.

I didn't get home to one third. So I think I was up for like 20 hours straight. I was just a zombie. So I get it. Yeah, I don't know. Even during napalm death, I was like, I'm really tired right now. Yeah, you know, they need to take the old metalheads into account. I mean, start a little earlier and a little earlier. You know, they're not really starting until between two and four o'clock. Start at noon and at midnight. I'm good. Catch it all. That's the way it used to be in Edison. Remember, they started right at noon.

And we were done by, I think, 10.30 it finished.

Yeah, it was great.

Yeah.

Yeah, because then we went out and drank afterwards.

Yeah, but this whole, like, not going to end until 1.30 in the morning, and then you got to spend at least half an hour getting back to the hotel.

Sorry, old dude can't hang.

No thanks.

That's a lot of metal.

Yeah, and you know, and there was a lot of shenanigans going on in the Baltimore.

Okay.

There was a shooting right outside MDF on one of the nights. And I'm pretty sure we just missed it because based on the timing, it happened right after we left. And I remember hearing all the emergency vehicles coming in. I'm going, what the hell's going on? And there were multiple, multiple reports on the MDF Facebook page of people stalking. They're like, we were just walking back.

our hotel and these two guys were following us and then they were in front of us and then they were behind us and we tried to get away and then blah blah blah multiple versions of this so people were definitely on the prowl looking to mug people from mdf dc is way safer for shows and stuff than baltimore you know i know dc has its areas but the areas that shows are not really those areas and so you drive down right in the middle of baltimore in the middle of the day

When I went up there for the show on Wednesday, I got there a little early. And it was like broad daylight. And it's just like a zombie apocalypse of homeless people on drugs everywhere. And I'm like, what in the fuck is wrong in the city? It's in downtown. It's like in the financial district. I'm like, what the hell? Yeah. You know, I would much rather see a show in D.C. So, yeah. Anywho, that was the much longer than I intended MDF recap.

So what was your favorite? Was it old man's child, George? Absolutely. You know, I never thought I was going to see that. But you didn't talk about the best thing you saw. And that was Nick's battle vest, which was a Metalhead's battle vest. Yeah. So Metalhead's logo on the back. Well, I'll let you tell it because you saw it. Yeah. So, so, you know, I, I, I head from home, I head into Baltimore, go to BWI, pick up Justin and we go and we head back into Baltimore.

get to the hotel and we head over to the power plant area we have to go to nevermore to get our wristbands we go into nevermore we get our wristbands in like five seconds which is amazing we turn around as soon as we walk out the door there's this handsome gentleman standing right across the way with a big shit-eating grin on his face turns out it's nick you know nick who's one of the long-time listeners uh from iowa right iowa who

who goes a lot of festivals when we hang out with him. He's a great guy.

Loved Nick. And he was on an episode.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, got to bring it in. Big Nick hug.

And we just start talking.

And, you know, I've been looking at his face because I'm talking to him.

But, you know, my eye just kind of wanders down to his shoulder.

Okay, it was his dick.

But on the way there, I saw his shoulder.

And it said, obey.

And I was like, what? So I looked at his other shoulder and it said, listen. And I was like, what? So I was like, let me look at his nipples. And on his nipples was me. My face was on his nipples. And me. And you. And I'm just like, holy shit, Nick, what have you done? What have you done, Nick? And he, the front of this vest says, listen and obey.

And it has pictures of each of us. If you've been to our Facebook page, the black and white photos, those were on the front. And on the back was the podcast artwork, the black and gray logo thing and everything. And I was just mind blown. I was like, what the hell, Nick? Where did you get this? Hey, Matt, didn't you make up the graphic design for all those profile photos of us? Yeah, you did. Yeah, I did our faces.

It was cool to see that he was able to get it on a vest and have it look good. I assume he just downloaded them off of our Facebook page. Is there any copyright? Yeah. Can we sue Nick? Yeah, hold on now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We love that you did this, Nick, but we need some monetary compensation here. I'm not sure if I want my likeness. I'm not sure, and Will, I think you might agree with this. I'm not sure if I want my image likeness near little Nick.

I think John and I are hanging right around in the balls area. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. No, it's, it's not, I've already spoken with my attorney. You guys want to get in on the class. Well, Matt did those images, but, uh, I did the banner for the Facebook. I think I may have upscaled them. So maybe he got a little bit of a better resolution, but they aren't very good resolution, but they look great on the, they did. They did. Apparently his wife. And I think it was, he said his sister. Um,

made this for him like for a Christmas present and uh he's held out since Christmas right oh talk about keeping a secret wow that's some fortitude right there yeah I wouldn't be able to I'd be like it's been five minutes I need to tell somebody it's like some serious metal blue balls right there yeah but I gotta say it was pretty slick and pretty sharp it looked good yeah yeah yeah it looked great so uh and and we met

I should say we look good yeah we met up with Ben a couple times and we do have a picture where Ben and Nick swapped so there's a picture of Nick wearing Ben's jacket and Ben wearing the vest I'm sorry I sent that to me yeah who's Ben Ben from endless metal yeah okay it's the other podcast I do you've met him a couple times yeah yeah for the listeners when you guys just throw out first names yeah you know yeah sorry

He's a great guy. Yeah, he's a nice guy. Love Ben. And I also ran into Albert and James at the Decibel Tent. I didn't see them Thursday. They said they were there, but I swear the people that were there were not them. But Friday, we ran into them and we talked to them and, you know, hugs and kisses and maybe a little making out. Not too much time. Hugs from us. Nice. Well, it sounds like you had a good time. Yeah, it was good.

Really good sets. Ran into Ariel a couple of times. Did get finger pointing with Metal Chris at one point when we passed in the crowd. Yeah, I saw Ariel on Wednesday night. I saw Metal Chris, but from a distance, he was down in a mosh pit for a May palm death. Yeah. Oh, and let me not forget Warren. Got to see Warren a few times. Not as much as I would have liked. Warren was holding court in the parking garage overlooking the marketplace stage.

with beers. And it was really, you know, from down on the ground, everybody up in the garage was like looking down. It was like probably a pretty good view of what was going on. But I could just never, you know, make it up into the parking garage to see them. I know Nick did. I think Jeff and Steph did. Oh, Stacy did. But I never did. So.

My regrets to Warren, but it was still good to see a buddy. Anybody else? I'm sure there were probably other people too, but I think we should probably get into the guts. Don't you think? All right. Oh yeah. We're 43 minutes in. This is not supposed to take that long. We're mostly vamping for Jay. So. Right. Did you want to talk about the new format of what we're going to be doing before we go?

get into it or are we just gonna do it? Yeah, well, we might as well give a little bit of a heads up. Like talk about like, you know, each thing, what do you want each cast? Yeah, so, and correct me if I'm wrong because it's been a few minutes since we talked about this, but basically we were looking to slim down the episodes so that they're not three, four, five hours or more long. You know, nobody's got time for that shit. Some people have told me please don't shorten the episodes. Well, sorry.

But, you know, in order for this to work for all of us, we need to make it so it's more convenient to do. And so the plan is a cold intro like we just did where we talk about some stuff, preferably for not as long as I talked about MDF. And then we'll get into some new releases, about three, you know, limit it. Then we'll talk about what we're listening to.

We'll keep that fairly limited.

And we'll throw in a pick from the crypt.

Because, you know, between new releases and what we're listening to, you gotta know what's going on in the world.

You gotta know what we're listening to.

That's key.

Don't we get to...

Like five per person for what we're listening to.

Yep.

I'm already gonna break that rule, but there's a reason and it works.

You'll see.

You rebel.

Yeah.

And then we're gonna wrap up each episode with a segment.

You know, we've had segments in the past, like Top Fives or whatever. Well, we have a slew of ideas that we've come up with for segment ideas. And John has created us some wheels of metal. I don't know if that's the official title. We need to come up with an official title. Hold on, let me see what I called it. I gave it a name. Yeah, it's, I really came up with a good one. Metalhead's Podcast Segment Wheel. Ah, right.

What's the wheel in Conan the Barbarian? Like the wheel of death? Wheel of... Oh. Torture? Wheel of misery or torment or something. It is something like that. Yeah. Or we could just go with the sax on and call it wheels of steel. But anyway, there's going to be a wheel. And at the end of every episode, we're going to spin the wheel to figure out what the segment is for next episode. So it'll be kind of random.

It'll change every time. Uh, but for this episode being the first one, no chance to spin the wheel. We picked a segment, which we will talk about later because it's Jay's segment. So I looked up the wheel. It's called the wheel of pain. Wheel of pain. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't that like one of the songs from the soundtrack? Probably. Yeah. I have the soundtrack on vinyl, which is hard to get. So do I. Um, but yeah. Uh, well also, do you want to talk about interviews?

to George,

because we're going to do them,

but it's not going to be the same.

So you may have noticed last episode when we had temple avoid on,

it was just an interview in the,

uh,

effort to keep things short,

but also to provide you awesome interviews and such.

Uh,

we're kind of thinking that interviews will just kind of be their own

episode.

You know,

we'll schedule them where we can if,

and whoever can make it,

we'll make it and we'll just do an interview and we'll put it up instead

of trying to attach it to an episode. If it happens that it's convenient to attach it to an episode, yeah, maybe we will. But it doesn't have to be. There's no rules now other than the rules. Okay? Yeah. So we'll see what happens. If you got complaints, if you've got praise, preferably praise, hit us up. Let us know what you think. It's a working project.

Any other comments? Let's dive in. Alrighty. Let's do it. And with that, I give you new releases. And the first of those three is Ash and Horde and their fifth album, The Harvest. Based out of LA and featuring our pals Trevor Portz and Carl Chamberlain, this, spoiler alert, is my album of the month. And, uh,

Man, what an album. Agreed. Yeah, no, I mean, I've enjoyed all of Trevor's Ashen Horde releases, but I feel like this album, it takes the band to a new level. You know, Carl's vocals, they add an extra dimension to the sound that I felt was kind of missing in the band. He's just so versatile. He can move from those black and shrieks to death growls to cleans pretty effortlessly. And when he sings on this thing, he fucking soars.

Yeah.

It's really, really good. And I think Trevor stepped up his songwriting on The Harvest, too, because we get a lot more melodic and progressive parts, while it still delivers that blackened, thrashy chord that you expect for Mash and Horde. So the Entropy and Ecstasy song, I think it was one of the singles. That's probably my favorite song they've ever recorded. And I love a lot of the other tracks on here, but I just feel like this incarnation of the band is going to craft even better.

songs in the future.

Because they started playing live for the first time this year.

And that's certainly going to help the band gel over time, you know?

Yeah, it would be nice if they can make it out to the East Coast.

I would love to see them.

I'm sure they will at some point.

Yeah.

I'm curious, Will, did you happen to listen to this album?

I listened to some of it here and there.

Because I know you've

playfully given Trevor crap about

clean vocals, but

I was curious if you had an opinion

on these clean vocals, because

fucking Carl, man.

Yeah, I like them better than

Trevor doing it.

No offense. I love you, buddy.

He does do backing vocals.

Yeah, but I like...

So I think, isn't Carl also

the guy in

I don't think I'm poor you isn't he the new is he the no no no he was in uh was it LCO yeah

that's right so I was anyway it's a different he gets new lead singers all the time yeah um in all his bands but uh yeah I do I did like the vocals more I'm just still not a big fan of I'll say I said it before I'll say it again like I don't think I'm poor in these clean vocals or not up for you uh action horde

And that's one of the things. The music's awesome. And even this one was a little bit, like you said, a little bit more progressive. But I didn't listen to the whole thing. I have it on my wish list. I know it's been released. I'm going to listen to it again. But I liked it better than the other stuff, for sure. Excellent. Yeah, so I'm going to get braggy. But I got to do it at least this once on here. Maybe twice. Maybe I did it before.

But Trevor lives on the West Coast. Carl lives on the East Coast. Never the two shall meet unless you know George. So a couple years ago, Trevor came to me and said, hey, you know any singers? Looking for a singer. And I said, well, I know a few. And I sent him someone else.

And I sent him Carl. And like 30 seconds later, these guys were like pals. And I was like, shut the front door. And Trevor was like, oh yeah, we're doing something. And so, you know, doing the podcast, it always feels like we're involved in music, but definitely from the sidelines, cheering on our favorite teams. And that's fine. That's our purpose. We carry the flag.

But on rare occasions, we get to contribute something that actually impacts the music itself. And that is a very special and cherished feeling. You know, we don't often get to feel like we make a difference. We don't get to go and have a lot of like bragging rights for things. But I'm bragging about this shit that I hooked up Carl and Trevor.

No, it's awesome. It's a good pairing. And we've had both of them on the podcast. You know, Trevor's been on the podcast a dozen times.

Yeah.

But yeah, I could see where they could become friends right away because they're both very personable.

Oh, yeah.

I'm glad it worked out.

And I mean, who's not going to be turned on by those short shorts that would make Lemmy blush that Carl wears? Come on.

The wife beaters that he wears, too.

Yeah.

So I'm proud to have been able to bring these two creative titans together and to see and hear the magic they've made.

I don't I mean I for this brief moments I do want to make this about me but only because it's just so mind-blowing you know it's one thing to brag about things and I know this is braggy and fuck me but it's also mind-blowing to know that just happening to know this guy and to know that guy can make something so cool happen you know that's the point I'm trying to make is it's just wow it's just wow so

You're a metal matchmaker, George. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't you link up Dio and Tony Iommi? Yeah, but that didn't work out as well. I didn't want to talk about that one. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, you've linked up all of us to the Metalheads podcast. True. That's probably your greatest accomplishment. True. Actually, Will linked me up to the Metalheads podcast. Oh, George. Upstaged. George, let me stay. It's fair. You let me stay.

Well, stay so far. You're on thin ice, buddy. Pretty much. And that's perfect, because the next band is Frozen Soul that we're going to talk about. Yeah. I looked. I don't see the email, so I'm like, this is new for me. What is he going to talk about? I swear you're on there. You over-prepared, John, and now you're like, oh, I don't have to. No, I didn't, actually. That's the whole point. I only listen to Ashen Horde on here, which I like a lot. I didn't get a chance to say.

Oh yeah, I did listen to Frozen Soul. Yeah. I, you know, I heard bits and pieces of this before it came out and I was like, Oh yes. Like the last album, I was like, it's all right. It's not bad. But I was like expecting something really massive here. Uh, it didn't quite hit that, but it is pretty good. I was expecting like, you know, like top five for the year kind of album out of this based on the clips I heard. Uh, but now I'm like,

Yeah, it'll probably place. But where is hard to say. So No Place of Warmth is their third album. They're from Fort Worth, Texas. The first surprise for this album was that Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance does the vocals on the first track. Not what you would expect from My Chemical Romance. Nope. My Chemical Death Metal, maybe. Like My Chemical Overdose? Yeah.

Yeah, that's better. I don't know the backstory there. I don't know how that happened, but okay. You know, it was all right. It's weird because it doesn't sound any different than the other Frozen Soul tracks. I was thinking that too. To me, they all pretty much sound the same. I agree. I think the production's better on it. It's a glossy meat and potato style death, right? Lots of song titles and lyrics about cold things. So there isn't a lot

of variation or really an attempt to introduce anything new, unless you count Gerard Way, but, you know, if you're in the mood for consistent, battering, burly riffs, I mean, this is going to fill that space for you for sure, because they excel at that. Agreed. Yep. All right. Burly. Burly wine. We'll be going. Number three, Panopticon.

¿por qué es el 12?

write songs that sound like they were written by Burzum. Or album titles, anyway. I don't know. It's his aesthetic. I guess so. I mean, more prior to him. I'm just curious, you know? I don't know. Yeah, it always does. He always has these foreign titles, but maybe he feels like it captures the music a little bit more. Has that happened once he moved from, was it,

Kentucky to Minnesota.

I mean.

I feel like.

It became more.

I mean he definitely has.

I guess maybe I would call it Scandinavian culture.

Like a heavy tie.

Yeah.

You know.

I feel like he sees some of that here.

You know.

Especially in northern Minnesota.

And as a lot of people do.

So.

There's a lot of Scandinavians in that area.

Mm hmm.

And just a similar climate too.

You know, especially like a Norwegian climate. Yeah, and the music speaks to that, that black metal, the atmospheric black metal. I mean, I love this record. I think it's a masterpiece. It's like atmospheric dark forest black metal, really. And I don't think I have to say spoiler because it is my album of the month, but this is not going to come out until after we do our albums of the month. So, you know, I think saying that it's my album of the month, I was surprised by that because I was not,

I mean, I think that Austin Lunn, who does, you know, all the music for it is clearly an immensely gifted musician and every album he puts out, I marvel at his ability and I admire the craftsmanship, but I've never really loved a Panopticon album until this one. I think this one strikes the perfect balance of song craft, heaviness, atmosphere, and emotion that I've always hoped that I'd,

Get Out of Panopticon. And The Haunted Heart is a good title for it because I feel like I feel the pained whispers and then the mystery of the ancient woods on here. And I also love that every single song, it features a guest support vocalist, especially Aaron Charles from Falls of Roro, which is a man I've loved over the last few years. And then Alex C.F. from Fall of Afrifa, archivist and lightbishop.

Those are two of my favorite musicians in metal. And there's other guests. Every single song features somebody different on it. He's the main vocalist, but then they have somebody else on it. And I thought that really enhanced everything on this record. I can't stop listening to it. And I was a little bit shocked by that. Cool. I know it is also the third in the trilogy and he, Austin does a nice, he does a good write up on Bandcamp. I have it. It's, it's a,

It's a lengthy set of paragraphs I have yet to dive into yet, but I haven't, you know, as someone who, I think it was Rose to the North, really kind of grabbed me and pulled me in to Panopticon. And I think just over time, I've, it's not as though I dislike what he's doing. I just, you know, been spending time in other areas. You know, I feel like, like a lot of people, my tastes are very fluid every year, I feel like.

And I've also just been, the last couple of years, I've been a lot more, what's the word I want to use, nostalgic with my, with my listens. And I've been just spending less time digging things. And I think it's also a little bit of laziness. Like, oh, I'll love that album. I'll get around to listening to it. And then it's like, poof, a year's gone by. Like, oh shit, I got to do that. But I think, I don't know, I totally geek out on trilogies, especially, you know, when, when, when there's a good write up about it. And so I kind of hope to dig in and, you know,

So your trilogy mention

just gave me half chub about something else

but before I get into half chub I want to mention that

I'm not as thrilled about this one or the last one

but the Laurentian Blue was freaking awesome

and I know other people are like it was kind of lame

that was the folky one wasn't it?

the folky acoustic thing yeah I thought that was brilliant

but that's what's cool about him

is that he's got so many different records. Absolutely. It's just which is going to speak to you. Yeah, and in fact, his catalog is much like another band's catalog that recently gave me Half Chubb, and that is a band that also did a trilogy by the name of Bluthaus Nord. Oh, yes. They have the 777 trilogy, of course. Yeah. But they also have the Memoria Vetusta trilogy.

Wait, is it a trilogy? So what evokes a full chub, George? The post today that's from Blue House Nord that said, Memoria Vetusta awakens once again. So I'm guessing the next is Memoria Vetusta 4. There's a lot of bands that do those trilogies. I mean, he has like an informal trilogy with the last three albums, just by sound alone. Yeah, the Mushroom Trilogy.

But the Memoria Vatusta Blue House Nord albums are among my favorite. And so the fact that they're pimping the possibility of another one, which is like more in the bath re-vein. Boing. Amorphous did a trilogy. Didn't the Ocean do a trilogy? They just announced a new record. Yeah, they're done with that. They're done with that, yeah. Yeah, it kind of extended back to an earlier album, even though

There was a trilogy. It was dumb. I saw that their new Ocean album is coming out in September. Yeah, with a whole new band completely. I think just one person remained from the previous band, which was disappointing. Is it the bass player? It is. Seriously? Yeah. I was not happy when they broke up the band because they canceled their show at Prog Power. They were going to play all of... I think they were going to play all of Plegio at that. Oh, shit. That would have been amazing. Yeah, TR.

and I saw that at, oh geez, I can't think of the name of the place, a real tiny club, just down at like a block and a half away from the 930 club. I mean, if there was 200 people in there, I would be shocked. It was so small. All right. Yeah, it's crazy because if you only have the bassist, that's a new band. You're not even the ocean anymore. And he's only been, given the number of members in that band,

He was there since 2015, so I don't know how many bass players they had before that. He keeps cycling through people constantly, but he got rid of the vocalist in the band, which was the signature sound for them. So what you're saying is, fuck the new Ocean album. No, it's cool. I mean, I listened to the song. No, fuck the new Ocean album. No, it's cool. All right. Well, if it's good, it's good, but it is disturbing when bands are not really the people that they used to be.

Well, he's always claimed that. That's why their actual real name, full name is the Ocean Collective. And he said, I, you know, we can, we swap. That's the whole point of this is to bring in new people all the time. The problem was he stuck with the same four people, I think, or whatever for like 10 years, you know, so you got used to them. Right. That's all. And they get, I think they get better because they play more together, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. But, and that's who I've seen live with them every time is this, that incarnation of the band. So. Yeah.

We'll see what happens with the new one. Could be amazing. Sounds cool. I like it. All right, then. Let's go ahead and move on to what we're listening to slash pick from the crypt. So, Marcus, you're going to start us out. Do what you're listening to and your pick from the crypt. Okay. All right. So, my first one is Duren Gray, Mortal Downer, Firewall Division Rex.

This is my album of the month for April and I really haven't stopped playing it since it dropped. So Dura and Gray is a Japanese progressive metal band that's been around for 30 years and I just think they've delivered some of the most unique and dynamic music I've heard. They put out some phenomenal albums including Uroboros which was my favorite album in 2008 but they're a band that can get really experimental. They like to reinvent their sound every time out and sometimes that makes it hard for me to get into all

their records, but Mortal Downer drew me in right away. I think it delivers the progressive and experimental songs, but the band stripped down its arrangements this time out, which I think opened up the sound in a way I did not expect. So the compositions really allow the emotional weight of the songs to crush you. It breathes more. And because of that, I think that Mortal Downer has become an essential album in the Duran Gray.

And then the second record on my list is Palaces Sun Hunting. It's an independent release. This is an absolute ripper of progressive sludge metal. It seasons with a bit of a remission era mastodon, some angrier neurosis, I would say, but it has these dirty post-hardcore riffs to it, odd time signature noise, and these hyper-aggressive

And the energy on this thing is off the charts good. It's a hot mix of adrenaline and technical devastation that will bludgeon your senses. And it just makes you fucking move. And I really appreciate that. Because I don't get a lot of albums like that. I usually listen to slower, doomy stuff. But this one is, wow, really moves. Then I have Miasme, Keep Them at a Distance on Fyad Productions.

This is a one-man Polish band of blackened post-metal with slow punishing doom riffs, layered atmospheric synth sadness, and monstrous death-style vocals. So it's a really interesting eclectic mix on this album. I love the guitar tone. It has this airy, almost ghostly underlayer to the heaviness, which I think adds the ambience.

I'd probably tag this album progressive post black actually. The songs are pretty varied. They flow well. It's one of the biggest surprises for me of the year so far. Then I have Dromos, Failing Light on Argonauta Records. This album was almost my album of the month for May. I had not listened to Panopticon and then that just took it for me. But this is a heavily atmospheric, slow, panoramic,

DOOM with a hypnotic, almost psychedelic flair to it. The vocals shift between growls to harsh screams to dreamy sad cleans pretty effortlessly. It's bleak but incredibly immersive. It's got colossal moments. It's reminiscent to me of DOOM bands that I love like Evokin or Early Bell Witch or Asunder, which is one of my favorite DOOM bands of all time.

And then the last one for what we're listening to, because we can only do five, is Astrea Atropine on These Hands Melt Records. I would call this a metal adjacent album, but I've been spinning it a lot lately, so I wanted to mention it. So Astrea, they play a dark rock with this kind of mystical yearning atmosphere to it.

It's got a bit of doomed heaviness with these haunting melodies and mournful guitars. There's some progressiveness to it with some arcane synth work in there. There's some cool experimental flute on the final track that doesn't even really sound like flute, but apparently that's what it is. And the singer, her name is, I think her name is Melina. She has this gorgeous, enchanting voice. It's filled with melancholy.

and tenderness. And it reminds me of Annika Van Geersbergen when she was in the gathering.

Boing.

When she was in the gathering?

Yeah, because, you know, the music makes a difference, you know.

Oh, she's back in the gathering.

Yeah, I guess that's true.

For now.

You know, the old albums, I'm saying.

I know, I'm just having fun.

Giving me the business.

Give you the business.

So this is the band's second album.

I never heard of them before.

I don't know how I came across it. I just listen to a lot of metal and sometimes a label comes up and then I find other things. But it's captivating from start to end. It's one of those albums that I immediately want to spin again after I finish it. You should definitely listen to this one, John, if you haven't. Anybody who likes to gather. Send it to me in the chat. Or privately or whatever. I don't care. Just send it to me when you get a chance. No rush. I'll check it out.

No rush. He's already got all the rush. That's true. He does. This Sunday, baby. I mean, I usually make a top five or top ten rock albums every year, and I'm pretty certain this will be on that for me because I just can't stop listening to it. So, yeah, good gathering vibes, but it's still its own thing. So that's what I got for what I'm listening to, and then I'm going right into Pick from the Crypt.

See, I feel like this should be separate since we should do our thing and then we should do this separate because now I feel like I'm talking too long, George. We can. This is the work in progress. I'm just saying. Work in progress. Yeah, we can stretch that shit out if we want. It was just sort of supposed to be a move things along, I guess. But yeah, we'll see how it goes. Go ahead. Okay, okay. So my pick from the crypt is, oh, I kind of wish Will was here because he probably knows.

this record, but it's Disincarnate, Dreams of the Carry. Oh, yeah. I know that one. James Murphy. Yeah. You got it, man. 1993 and Roadrunner Records. This is the only album this band has ever released. More's the pity. Right? It was led by excellent guitarist James Murphy, who people may know. Others will. Yeah, I know. I know Will knows Disincarnate. Yeah. So, you know, James

He played on death, spiritual healing. He played on obituaries cause of death. He played on cancer's death shall rise. He played on a couple of Testament records and more. He's got some great solo albums too. Yes, he does. Yes. But disincarnate was a death metal band. He started from the ground up and it's 1993. It was the first time he really got to craft songs and carry his own vision through because, you know, he's credited for half the songs on spiritual healing.

for example and he joined midway through the recording of cause of death so this is his album where he's stretching his wings out and it's it's just so good um it feels like a product of the two albums i i just mentioned because it combines the heaviness of obituary with the intricate progressive guitar work of death you know there's the big barreling riffs unconventional song structures incendiary solos every track on this thing slays

And for me, when I first heard it, it was because of the cover. We've talked about this before. Like, you might see a cover and like, oh, I have to find out what this is. So the cover is striking. It's a mixed media cover by Dave McKeon. And Dave McKeon created all the covers for the classic comic book, The Sandman, which was a favorite of mine when I was a teenager. So that's how I, you know, started getting into this. It was before I really started following certain

Musicians and stuff. So unfortunately, Disincarnate is a bit lost to time today. You know, I think Dreams of the Carrion Kind was re-released once maybe, and that was years ago. So it has cult status as this one-off gem, but man, it would have been nice to get a follow-up or two to this record. And, you know, James Murphy's still around. Mostly like producing and stuff.

He does guest guitar spots. Like George mentioned, he put out a couple of soul records, but that was a while ago. Yeah. So yeah, love Disincarnate. Yeah, absolutely. Totally second that. And, you know, I don't want to go into too much detail, but I have conversed with James Murphy and he is a cool dude and a righteous man. So. Will, you have any?

I'm actually looking it up now I don't think I've ever even heard the album whoa you're in for a treat dude yeah I mean I know I know the name I know the band I know it's James Murphy and I'm a huge James Murphy fan because I think everything he's ever done I've loved yeah um oh man but um I'm adding unfiltered and oh you're gonna like it no I'm adding it right now and I'm uh I'm downloading it and

Yeah, I will check it out. You're welcome, Will. Thank you. You're welcome. No, it's okay to say you're welcome. When Evelyn was young, she watched that Juana movie over and over and over again. Well, now it's your turn to make her watch it over and over again and go, Dad. No, no. They're coming out with a live action version of it.

I don't know how long it's going to last.

So I need to go soon. Yeah, we can talk about it more later. Sure. All right. So you good, Marcus? I'm good. Yeah. All right. Maddie. Well, if he's good, I am good too. What am I listening to? Art mentioned The Harvest by Ashen Horde. Terribly wonderful album. And I believe this is the first full length with Coral, correct? Correct. They did some one-offs or was it?

or something. Yeah. And that maybe some rerecorded songs. Was that? Maybe. Possibly. I mean, Stevie was on the last couple albums and Stevie's pretty badass. Stevie's an inferior. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Um, the descent by immolation. Uh, I've always been an immolation fan, but I feel like I've really fallen hard the last few albums. Uh, this is no exception. It was good. Yeah. Uh, a band called devoid of thought and their self title album devoid of thought.

They're this Italian death metal band. But just more of like a dirty, dirty death. Dirty, dirty, dirty death. But definitely just really double bass forward and stuff like that. Always gets me. I love me some double bass. The band, or sorry, the album Necropalace by Worm. Yeah. It was like, I kind of forgot that I dug Worm. It was a couple albums ago I really

into Wyrm and then I just never came back to them and then I remember watching them play at a Decibel Fest and I know they sounded good but all I could remember was how bright that guy's guitar was because like they had this total like black metal sinister thing and then just this like neon guitar which sounded good and I started listening to this new album and I was like I don't know I kind of like it and then I put it on a few days later and I thought oh my god I love this because it has like some total

It almost sounds sort of 80s, a little bit synth-y, and I am just a fanboy for that stuff these days, so highly recommend it. And lastly, good to get another album by the band A Forest of Stars. It's called Stack Overflow and Corpse Pile Interface. I can't remember the name of the album, like the first album I heard there. I think it was, let's see, might have been a Shadowplay for Yesterday's.

And I mean, I would describe them as like progressive black metal, a little bit avant-garde-ish. But it just, they just have a very unique sound and it just pulls me in like a tractor beam. And so, yeah, it's good that 2026 has a full length in them. And my pick from the Crypt, a few days ago, I had the chance to see Cradle of Filth, Suffocation, Ghostbath, and Cultus Black. I was going to see Ghostbath. And so to see Suffocation and

Cradle of Filth was, you know, icing on the cake. Suffocation, I've seen them before.

That's quite a diverse lineup though.

Well, that's, that's what I thought too, you know? And I was, I, it was, it was funny. I was with my neighbor who, he's not a muddlehead, but he's just out there to just take in whatever he can. And like suffocation got done and he's like, that's black mud on. I'm like, no, sorry. I don't know how to explain it. You know? And I tried to kind of go through the, the kind of some of the, the physical characteristics or the audio characteristics that separate the two. But I've seen them twice.

I've never seen them with Frank. This section I think was a different singer than prior. Still very enjoyable. Also cool to see Cradle of Filth for the first time. They were definitely one of those bands when I started to get back into real metal. Just one of those names that was accessible and always came up. So really got into some of their older stuff. Thank you for your recommendations, George. And their set list was good. It had a very kind of, I don't know, time-spanning mix of

songs. But really my pick from the crypt kind of goes, I mean, suffocation to just get pulled back in. Because I did prep listening to Cradle of Filth. I already had listened to so much Ghostbath and they were amazing. But I really didn't spend any, you know, revisit suffocation. And so just to hear them, I mean, it was just so punishing. And so Pierce from Within.

Pierce from Within. I was hoping it was Pierce from Within.

Yeah, that is my pick from the crypt. I mean, it's kind of a classic pick. It's definitely not hidden by any means, but it's definitely not one that I pull out all the time. So it's a pick that will poke because it will pierce. Excellent. I see the cat situation has arrived. Yes, Jay has arrived. He's wearing a hat. He's chewing a lot of food. He is like getting pumped. So hungry. So hungry. My wife, the cat is wobbling around the house.

as if drunk. Well, so am I. So am I. They had to put her out because she's the nicest cat in the world. But when you start poking tools in her face, she's like, I'm going to kill everybody in this room. Yeah. So they had to sedate her. The last time they sedated her, I think they used a gas and she threw and she wouldn't eat for three days. So they gave her an injection this time and man, she would not come out of it. And then finally she started to wake up and they said, like,

can take her home now but i just and she was like late she had to lay on her belly to eat because her legs are so wobbly oh yeah it's a sad comedy slash tragedy but she good good i was long there well we're glad you made it eventually i vamped us of the hour i i you're good all good i vamped for a really long time about mdf stuff that nobody wanted to hear but we'll see how that edits out

Maybe not that long.

All right.

That was Matt.

So now I think it's John's turn.

Yeah.

Okay.

So like we're doing five and I'm like, geez, I always just only do five.

So this is, you know, normal for me.

I don't have.

Yeah.

So my first one is actually my album of the month for May.

And that's Draconian in Somnolent Rune, their eighth album, Swedish Gothic, Death Doom metal band that has been around for a very long time. They seem like they only put out an album like once every five or six years. And this is no exception. I think it's a great album. I love it. It's a return of their singer from their 2001 to 2011 period, Lisa Johansson. She's back with the band now. I think it's a little heavier than her last album, but I've had a chance to listen to it.

as much relative to their other releases. I'd like to deep dive the whole eight of them. I just haven't had time. I mean, I know all of them. I just would like to go back and do that sometimes when I get a new album from a band. But it's good. I like it a lot. Obviously, it's my album of the month. I love it. I think it's great, Chuck. Yeah. I mean, I was not expecting that second song, the monochrome blade. I was like, holy smokes, this is heavy. They've always been heavy.

But they dropped the gothic. It just went death doom on that one. So it was cool. Yeah. My second one is, I don't want to call it metal adjacent, although they're way progier now than they have been. And apparently I'm really into them now. But there is a pretty heavy album. That's the new Elder through Zero, which just dropped today. Actually, my whole list is everything that dropped today except for the Draconian. So, yeah, we're keeping recent. It's their seventh studio album. They're an American.

The Berlin Band, I don't know what you call them. What would you say, Jay? Like a prog rock, still heavy psych with metal mixed in all of it together? I would. I would think the progginess of like Mastodon, that kind of prog, you know, like a thousand riffs. Yeah, and it's just going forever. Yeah. I mean, it's like all their songs are like eight to ten minutes and it's just them. They're singing, but they do a lot of instrumental sections, which is cool.

I like this new album. Third one, God Thrim, Projections. Third studio album, Doom Metal Band from Yorkshire, England. They're part of the remnants. Two of the guys, at least, used to be in My Dying Bride. It's just good English doom. If you're a My Dying Bride fan, you'll probably like this. It's cool. I mean, even Aaron from X, My Dying Bride now, sings on one of the songs, which sounds like,

the most My Dying Bride song on the album, which is kind of funny when you think about it. But it's solid. It's good. I like it. The next one, I don't know what this is called, other than it's a Devin Townsend release. It's his new, like, mega, massive, grandiose rock opera called The Moth. It's rock opera meets symphonic metal meets prog metal. I've listened to it not even full way through because about two-thirds of the way through, I was like,

I got to stop and start over again. Cause I don't know what, I don't know what the hell's going on in this album. It is wild. It's, I mean, it's, as I was saying before you guys came, I was just George and I talking, I was like, you really, and maybe Matt was here. You really need to, it needs to be like an opera setting. It's just, it's, that's what it is. This guy's just cranks out the material and he's just doing something different, which is cool. Whether I end up liking it a lot or not, I don't know.

I have no idea, but it's his stuff. And I always appreciate any artist that is willing to put 100% into something that they feel strongly about. And they're not willing to do the same album for the last 30 years. John, did you listen to the whole thing, though? I got about two-thirds way through. This is now, you have to sit down. Nobody can be in the house with you, and you've got to put the heavies on. It's over two hours long. Well, there's, as you can see,

He's like, why haven't you listened to the whole thing, John? But if you look, it's like he's got a red beard from the elder CD right below. So there's one CD is the album. There's a second CD, which is he's been putting out demos, other versions of songs on the second CD. There's a third CD is a live version that he did live. And there's a Blu-ray. And I'm like, I need a week just to get through all this.

All that. So no, I have not. It's very long. Yeah, it's a lot. So and I trust me, I have a very. I got a lot of rope to hang myself with when it comes to him. And I'm just like, I'm going to need I need some time. So anyway, and moving on this last one, it's not even remotely close to metal. I don't really care. This is an album I've been waiting 13 years for and was shocked when it was announced last month it was coming out. And that is the new Boards of Canada.

The Inferno, which dropped today. They're an electronic, down-tempo IDM band. I don't really care. I'm putting it on here because they're one of my favorite artists. I'm going to call them a band. It's two brothers. Artists. Yeah. It's wild. So if you know anything about them and you like them, I would check it out. It's going to take a few listens to take it all in. They've only got five studio albums, a bunch of EPs, but only five since the

We talked a little bit about this on our

Messenger and I was like I gotta listen to it. So I did listen to a little bit of it.

It's not really my thing but I will listen to the whole thing now that the record's out.

I gotta give it a shot. My suggestion is if you are interested in exploring really just start at the first LP just because each one is different than the last and yet it sounds like the same band all the way through.

Okay.

Because then you could say, I like this, but I don't like this. Or I love this. I love all of it. It just, you can literally each of the five, it's them. You know, it's them. And they're just each slightly different. This one, though, is a lot different than the other ones. So, but it's cool.

I like exploring.

Yeah, John, you completely turned me on to them. And, you know, I mentioned that they're like five different groups I like all kind of rolled into one. Some of which that I listed to, you're probably like, fuck it, Matt. What? No.

But some of those things

I hear DJ Shadow in there

And I totally love it

It is so good

I should say they are so good

I fell hard

I have yet to listen to the new album

But it's definitely for the weekend

There's yard work to be had

And some songs to be spun

But they're another band

I'm sure Marcus on when you listen

I know George you've listened

You can't be distracted

Because there's so much going on

And even though it's down-tempo, which sounds really slow, but if you put headphones on, there are so many layers to their music. It's unreal. Anyway, I threw it on just because I've been waiting a really long time for this. Yeah, I've definitely heard them before, and I dig what they do, and yada yada. But I do want to say that, John, you turned me on. I feel like this is an ELP session. Oh, that's all I had to say about that.

Yeah, still, you turn me on. Yeah. And also that Jay, I'm sorry, but am I the only one that feels like Jay is at a baseball game? He's got his cap on. He's munching on the food like crazy. He's eating peanuts for sure. He's totally like, I'm here for the game. Hummus and crackers, actually. Yeah. I think it's the hat, but anyway. Yeah. Sorry.

I don't know why John please continue you're good you're good all right so my last so we can move on here to get to will uh my pick from the crypt is a band called Dark Suns and the album is called Swanlight came out in 2002 it is their debut album even though they had an EP before this it uh it's like a doom dark progressive metal band they're German has they're kind of like I don't want to say they sound like Opeth but they have Opeth type vibes but do me and they get a little deathy I guess but it's

It's more just dark progressive metal and some doomy, opethian vibes. It's cool. They've been around a long time. They're another band that puts an album out like every three to five years only. So they only have, I think, like five or six albums. So it's been a long time since they put a full release out. So. Cool. That's it. I like that record. Yes. Yeah. I'm glad we kept this segment because I feel like we always kind of reveal something that maybe we haven't thought about in a long time.

or something we haven't listened to like will had nerd disincarnate which is crazy it's a criminal i

guarantee you none of us i guarantee you none of you know my pick from the crypt i like being forced to go

back and listen to older stuff that i haven't in a while because we always listen to new shit right like

yeah yeah i like to be able to go back and that's the point it's really fun yeah point yeah yeah all right

what was yours actually i missed it when i was getting a picture in the crypt yeah oh uh pierce from

within by suffocation. Oh, okay. Nice. Justin will be happy with that. Yes. Absolutely. All right, Will, you are muted. Is Pierce from within the Decibel Hall of Fame in the last? I think it might be. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I totally forgot about that. Timely, Matt. Yeah. Well, and I, um, I just saw them. Uh, I went to the cradle. I was going to see Ghostbath, but suffocation cradle filled for on the bill. And so I just sat and enjoyed myself.

What do you mean by you sat and enjoyed yourself? You know what he meant? Watching the band perform. Okay. While I perform. In a public announce system. Touching yourself while the band touches their instruments. Yeah, Matt has a battle vest, but it's just Will on his battle vest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Will in military fatigues. Yeah. Yeah.

Or more importantly, without the fatigues. Well, it's just this fatigue, you know, t-shirt. Right. Above the waist is all business, below the waist, never you mind. Yeah. I want to hear what Will's five albums are. Yeah. All right. I will be quick. In no particular order, Lago and their newest album. Spoiler, not spoiler alert.

of the month for may uh the name of the album is vigil it is uh it is it's death metal shock um although i will say there is one thing on my list that is not death metal what oh yeah shit i'm gonna find out it's like death doom or something it's progress for will um it's death metal adjacent i was about to say that it's death metal adjacent adjacent

But for another reason. Anyway, so back to Lago. They're based out of Arizona. The lead guy behind it, Cole Jacobson. I think somehow I linked up with this guy, I think via Twitter, and then found out that he was also a Marine. I think he was in the air crew. He did like aviation stuff in the Marine Corps. Sir, yes, sir! Thanks, George. You're welcome. Anyway, it's just great death metal. It's got some dissidents.

parts has got a lot of morbid angel influence to it um i'm really digging it i know marcus on has been a fan of this band uh yeah and i like that record yeah i like it it's more technical than i expected uh but it's really good it's really good it requires multiple listens i think because there's a lot going on in it yeah it's definitely their last full length was sea of duress and it's a little bit different than that one yeah but it's really good yeah so anyway that's that's one uh the next

one I really, really like, and I can guarantee this will be high on my list. Well, Lago probably will be too, but it's the band called Ord, A-O, sorry, O-O-D-H. This is the guys from Barishi. So Graham Brooks from Barishi. It's him, and I think there's one of the other guys from Barishi, because Barishi broke up. They're based out of Vermont, and they started this band, and it sounds a lot like Barishi. It sounds a lot like

It's just sort of

brutal but weird

but like

yeah it's kind of hard to explain

It's got a lot of atmosphere too

Were they at MDF?

Yes they were

I didn't know that and I was kind of pissed

because I liked that album

Yeah because Ben sent me images from that

he's like holy shit I'm blown away by this

Yeah

Did they play

Angel's Rock Bar or one of the smaller stages

Sorry who was it?

I stepped away for a beer.

Or the guys.

No, I don't think they were at Rangers. I think they were at.

This soundstage.

No, no, I think it was.

I think it was.

No, actually, they were at soundstage.

You're right.

Oh, man, that's that would have been cool.

I like that.

I'm a lot.

Yeah.

So so check that out.

The next one is a bank, a new band called Gorgar.

They're local here in the DC area. That's the subtitle album. It's actually an EP. So self-titled EP. This is guys from Integrity in there. There's a couple guys from Ilsa in this band. So it's kind of just straight up cool death metal. I love it. Like kind of sludgy. Kind of like, you know, there's a lot of Ilsa, if you know that. They're on Relapse. A lot of that in there.

And then, uh, is that like, let it go, let it go. No, no, um, I'm going to skip over the one I said was adjacent. Uh, but listen to the new jungle rot. I mean, jungle rot. You're going to get what you, you're going to get what you get. Um, and I like it. It's a new album. It's called cruel face of war. And then the one that's on my list that may surprise some people was spear to drift. Oh, nice. They're out of infinite illumination. Uh, I've never really,

I never really got it like why is everybody love this band so much and so what happened was is um when I went to go see the decibel tour with um Cryptopsy which I'm wearing my awesome Cryptopsy slash Army of Darkness shirt oh snap nice that's awesome because they sample they sample the Army of Dark uh Bruce Campbell and Army of Darkness right right and the toward the end of the album um

So I'm like, I gotta get that t-shirt. Anyway, so it was Cryptopsy, and I'm gonna blow a blood monolith, local DC, guys from Genocide Pact, and some other bands, and then, God, who else to play? But anyway, so what happened, that's it with this, Fulci couldn't play because they couldn't get visas or something in time. Italian, yeah. Yeah, so they brought Spirit Adrift in, and so it was odd to see all these brutal death

And then you have Spirited Drift. Wait, there's one part you're missing. They had just played their last show and they called it quits. And they got added to the tour right after they called it quits. Yeah, so they said they were ending the band. Well, a band dropped out and so Spirited Drift decided that they would play that show because Decibel supported them so much. I thought it was very cool that they did that. Fulci dropped out.

Yeah.

Anyway, so

so they even kind of made fun of themselves like here we are

we're kind of like this

trad metal doom band and months all this death metal

but

but anyway, it was it was it was fun. So there

there's something about whether it was my state of mind

or

they slightly changed something on this new album, but I bought it and I was digging it

and they were great live

great great like tight live

Not surprising

I agree with you. The album is

is darker and heavier than the previous stuff. I feel the same way you do, Will. They're fine, but I never really loved the band. But this record, I think, is their best record. It's an amalgamation of their early stuff. They added the Doom back to the traditional metal, which I think is where they probably are at their best. Because they're good at both, but now they're really good. Yeah, because the early albums were definitely better. And then they went more traditional. See, that's funny. I like them better as traditional than I did their Doom.

Yeah, yeah.

Everybody likes something different.

Maybe that's why.

Because I've always gave them a shot because I know Decibel loves them.

And I'm like, okay, what's so great about this band?

Wasn't that Chance?

Well, Nate was in-

Sorry, not in that Chance.

Nate.

Nate.

Yeah, he was in Gatecreeper, right?

Gatecreeper.

They were in Spirit Adrift and then they kind of did the conscious uncoupling.

Right.

Chance is still in Gatecreeper.

Right.

And that's when they did that is when Spirit Adrift went more traditional metal.

Don't even talk.

I'm going to cut all that because I'm fucking wrong. Oh, who cares? I'm wrong all the time. You can be wrong sometimes, George. No, I cannot. Damn it, I should have recorded this. That's why he's cutting it. So, Will, that's awesome you like them. I meant Nate. Anyway, John. I was saying that's cool that you really dug them because I think this new album is great too. I love it.

It must have been that like like everyone said like this one's a little bit darker and doomier and then when I listen to him like oh I kind of like this and I started this doing more like I'm gonna buy this and I'm gonna enjoy this show and it was great

Yeah, that's cool. Well, it's darker because he's been through so much trauma over the last few years and it's all around what the band had been doing and so he just feel like he has to disband and stop playing in spirit adrift and start anew

So,

well,

plus he's got all his personal stuff going on.

And then,

uh,

my pick from the crip,

I can't remember.

I feel like I've,

I've said some of my picks from the crip multiple times,

but I'm going with flotsam and jetsam.

No place for disgrace.

Oh yeah.

Oh,

uh,

came out in 1988.

So depending upon what time of year it came out,

I was either a,

uh,

in eighth grade or I was a freshman in high school in 1988.

8th grade. I love that album.

And so I was at one of the local balls, and they have this Records and Rarity. It's a record shop. And I saw that. I'm like, you know what? It was on vinyl. I'm like, that's one of those classic albums. I just need it on vinyl. And then I listened to it. I'm like, man, I remember how much I love this band. Like that album. Because some of the other stuff I was like, I don't know about.

The One After That Was Really Good Too. Yeah, and the one before Doomsday for the Desi. Doomsday, yeah. And then some of them were kind of like, I'm not sure. Then some of their later stuff was actually pretty good. I mean, they had a ton of albums. I just kind of like forgot about them. Yeah. And then I listened. So anyway, there's not a bad song in the album. Like that and Metal Church's Blessing in the Sky is one of those albums I put out there. Like there's not a single bad song. Like not even like a mediocre song. Like they're all just great songs.

So I have to segue back to MDF for a second. Nevermore between sets. They played a hell of a lot of Metal Church and Testament between sets. I think when I was there, I heard them play Metal Church. Yeah. So they played, I mean, they played the song Metal Church. They played Beyond the Black, but they also played some stuff from Blessing in Disguise. And I was like, oh my God,

I remember this is so good why do I not listen to this every day

and so I came back and I put all the middle church albums on my phone

but they also played a shit ton of early testament too which was like

I mean yeah I think I love testament

but yeah I'm sorry go ahead

no I was gonna say I think I remember them playing

a song off practice what you preach it's all about the environment

yes

Environmental Holocaust.

What to do.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Sins of Emission.

That's the name of the song.

But yeah.

I was just like, man, why am I not listening to Testament every freaking day?

Because.

Yeah.

Those early albums were amazing.

Yeah.

So I put all of that shit on my phone and.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Yeah.

That's what I got.

I believe this brings us to Jay. Yeah. And that's probably previously referenced. I don't know. I wasn't here, but I was, I came in real late. Um, was taking care of a disabled friend. We, we, we mentioned. Yeah, you did. Okay. Uh, but in any case, I'm not prepared at all, but so I'll just skip what I'm listening to. Cause literally I've been driving for the last three hours and sitting in the vet office, but, um, but I'll do, I'll pick from

the crypt and it'll be an honor of a discussion we are about to have and i will say if you have never listened to i don't know i don't know if our listeners really listen to some of the older stuff i listen to but i'm going with deep purple's fireball right record and i won't i don't know if you've mentioned what we're talking about so i'll just leave it at that because but we have not okay perfect yeah well it'll make sense soon why i would have why i wanted to honor our topic of conversation later um yeah

Let's just leave it at that and then I'll dive back in when we're ready to talk about that

Anything you've been listening to you want to mention?

You know, I'm not going to say any metal stuff because I'm not but I have I was talking to George and TR and John while we did Stairway to 11 the other day and I've just finished watching what's currently available of the bear which will there's another season coming thank goodness

It's a good show. But

I have to say, I have been spending a lot of time

listening to the things they put on that soundtrack.

I don't know who's picking the songs

for that show, but they're right up on it.

I do the same thing with other shows.

I feel like

people are really

paying attention to what they put

into the soundtracks these days.

Well, up to and including

in The Bears, some of the songs are

they'll have a whole

four or five minute song and

and they seem to have written their scenes brilliantly along to these songs. So in any case, it's bands like Decemberists and like there's some acoustic Eddie Vedder stuff and just all these kind of cool alt bands that I don't really pay attention to. But since somebody is obviously sort of curating this for me, they're picking these bands best tracks probably. So I'm not necessarily doing deep dives on any of these bands, but man, and it's kind of an emotional show. So they're almost all emotional tracks.

Are you caught up on the show, Jay? Yeah, and the new season is coming, I think, next month. Did you watch Gary? I did. We should talk about that, and I'll just say briefly now, I mean, I think I was surprised they went with such a cruel day, ending to that day, and I don't mean the very ending, I mean that Michael kind of, but I think that was, they were painting him as, you know, bipolar. I mean, I think they had, we're going to go off track a little bit here, but

I think they had to because every time you see him on screen it's like happy it's like the memories of how much they loved him but you know what happened you know from the very first episode this is a guy like committed suicide so I feel like they had to show yeah that part of it like how you got to that and you know it was powerful I'll also I'll say this I think you're absolutely 100% right it just but it was just

It messed with my bare high. You know what I mean? But it was totally legit. They had to do it. I agree with you. So actually, while we're on the subject, and I promise you I'll stop this in 30 seconds. The performance is turned in by Jamie Lee Curtis in that show. It's amazing. And I finished it, as mentioned, and I usually about 9, 10 o'clock, my wife goes to bed, and then suddenly I'm in charge of the TV. I'm usually reading until then.

And I have, I watched it on Disney streaming, and all of the episodes are basically queued up to my favorite part. And there are scenes in that I have watched so many times. Like the scene where Jamie Lee Curtis, where he finally goes over to her house. Yeah. Wait, what, sorry, what show? The Bear. Oh, okay. You guys, have anybody else watched it? I watched one episode. It really goes, man. I mean, the first episode won't sell you.

I love that actor who plays Richie. I love it. I do have an emotional attachment to it. Hence, it's really guided a lot of my listening lately. I see now that since you've watched it, you understand the legitimacy of that. That's awesome. I love that. I think you've watched it. Yeah, I love it. When you say Richie, I just think of the line he keeps saying, which I think is a David Lee Roth line, but he says,

I'm not like this because I'm in Van Halen. I'm in Van Halen because I'm like this. And he just keeps repeating that. And I just, I don't know, there was just so much zen to that statement. Like I was at work that actually I couldn't stop saying it to myself because it just makes so much sense. But it's so great that you're into the soundtrack because, you know, it really informs the show. Like you want to listen to the soundtrack to remember the things that happened in the show because it affected you so much. And that's the mark of a really good soundtrack. Well, along those lines, the Decemberist song I was mentioning,

was when they're all under the table at the wedding. Oh yeah, that was a good scene. And it's just such a great scene. It's such a great song. I love the Decemberists. There's even some Nine Inch Nails in there. I think it's off of Ghosts. Not the one through four, but I think there's five. Maybe it's five through something or just five. Because I was listening to it and it had some stuff with him and Claire. And I was like, God, this fits the scene so well. And then I found that song and I'm like, God, this song is so good. Yeah, so my head is off.

to that. It's a great show. Of course, I have a huge connection to it because it's in Chicago. I've been watching it and I sort of, I'm sure that there's a lot of familiar sights and sounds in there for you. Oh yeah. That definitely crosses my mind when I've watched it. So, so thank you for bearing with me on that, but it was vaguely music related. Bearing with you. I love it. And I'll just reiterate that Fireball by Deep Purple is my pick from the cross.

All right.

I believe that brings us to moi.

And.

All right.

We'll just do this.

So first up.

Thunderkill.

Global Cataclysm.

The first album from the ubiquitous music madman Keith D.

This time out.

He has his sights set on classic thrash metal.

And Keith always hits the mark. When you're done checking this out, maybe you should check out some of his other bands. There's only a few. Arctic Sleep. Chopping Mall. Dragons of Krull. Panda Kingdom. Unearthed Elf. Fight School Nick.

There's something in there for everyone. If you don't know Keith D, you should know Keith D. I don't know what to say. If you like thrash, you like Thundercule. I like thrash. It's a great thrash record. It is. It really is. Yeah, I've recommended to people who are like, oh, I really miss like the kind of old school thrash. Like, have you heard this? And even in the artwork and stuff, he, you know, he goes to great lengths to make it seem like

like old school.

No.

So.

Thunderkill.

All right.

Number two.

Redivider.

Sounds of Malice.

This is their first album.

They're a Louisville death metal band.

I just heard this band from Justin over the weekend at MDF.

He was playing this in the room and I was like,

bang.

And I went and bought it because it's pretty fucking cool.

So, I mean, it's death metal. Will? Yeah, what's the name? Redivider. Sounds of Malice. It's on Bandcamp. Go get it. I'm going to look it up, because if Justin said it, then it must be good. Yes. Most of what I listen to now is based on Justin. Kidding, but not kidding. All right. Next up is a band that Justin did not tell me about.

And this is Lividis.

And their full-length debut, Scarabeus.

I'm hoping I pronounced that correctly.

It's a Portland Prague death thrash band featuring the vocalist Uda Plotkin, formerly of Witch Mountain.

It's proggy, it's deathy, it's thrashy, it's clean vocals, it's harsh vocals, it's awesome.

I love it. You should listen to it.

All right. So I've done three of my five.

I have four more.

But they are all breaking the rules.

Yes, but I'm breaking the rules because I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.

The next four are all deep dives.

I'm not going to mention specific albums.

I'm just going to tell you, you should listen to these artists.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Steve Von Till from Neurosis. He has a whole shit ton of acoustic-y type solo albums. They are wonderful. And I finally got around to just listening to all of them and I love it. Okay. So just check that shit out. It's really good. Yeah. You should check out Ben did a huge interview with him on Endless Metal. I wasn't on that.

I bet. Good stuff. All right. The rest of this is deep dives based on MDF. Dervig Einer Freiheit. Go listen to all of that. Okay. Do it. All of it. All of it. Have a crew new. Go listen to all of that. All right. All of it. And as I mentioned, I did a deep dive on Rodgers.

because of their wonderful set at MDF. Granted, the recordings are not as awesome as the live, but it's still good shit. So go listen to all the Rotting Christ stuff. There we go. See? Neat and tidy. Oh, would you like a pick from the Crypt 2? All right. You said we wouldn't know what it is, so now we're going to get it.

I guarantee nobody on this podcast or anybody listening knows this album. This is the band called I Saw the Deep. Anyone? Crickets, yeah. There we go. The album is called Astro Navigation. This was an independent release from 2012. The band is from the Netherlands, and this was their first and so far only album.

They released a pair of EPs in 2020, and I need to check those out. Their Metal Archives page calls them progressive stoner metal, a description that I don't disagree with, but it's a bit better produced and more up-tempo than I would expect from stoner. It's definitely more on the progressive side. It's faster. I'd even call it grungy.

Back in 2012, I was all about this album. And I came across it recently while I was not purposefully looking through my collection for picks from the current. Okay, I was. I gave it a listen again and I was like, damn, this is still really cool. Like 14 years later. Is it really 14 years later? Shit. Yeah, it's still really cool. So I think you should check it out on Bandcamp.

If you go to Bandcamp and look at it, you're going to go, wow, this artwork is a bit lacking. The artwork is not good. It would not make it onto the latest Stairway to 11 podcast artwork episode. It's really bad artwork, but the music is really good. So I think you should check it out. And I would like to hear from people what they thought. Okay. Right on. Will do, George.

All righty. Now. The segment. Spin the wheel. Oh, wait. We will spin the wheel at the end. Oh, right. For this segment, we gave it to Jay. Ahead of time. And it's called producer's chair. Now, Jay. And so we're going to we're talking about a pretty big chair to fill.

We're talking about Martin Burch today. And I just thought we'd sort of talk about his impact on heavy music in general. He somehow seems to have been. I mean, part of it is there's some skill. Obviously, the man was talented. But he also was in the he had a lot of right place at the right time kind of things in his life. He grew up in the right era or something. It was working in the right era. I'm not going to get too much into his personal life or anything. But I will tell you this. We'll just go straight from Wikipedia. He was born in 1948. Began his recording.

career as or his career in music as an audio engineer working with people like Jeff Black, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple so on and so forth. He died in not over long ago in 2020 at just 71 years of age. They never disclosed a cause of death for Martin Birch. So I don't know what that is but in any case I guess obviously most people are going to be familiar with him. Most metalheads will be familiar with him because of Iron Maid because of the run of albums that he did with

that are just sort of cornerstones to the 80s metal scene moving and and beyond up the irons and if you and if you've ever watched um a documentary any iron maiden documentary he's bound to show up in it um i don't know if he was in the new one well he couldn't have been could he i mean unless they just showed him okay but you know like if you want to watch the early years or something you're going to end up hearing uh martin birch talk and see him talk and he's got lots of cool behind the scenes stories with

with Iron Maiden, because of course he was always there for those crazy 80 days, crazy days in the 80s rather, let's say. So for instance, when they were recording Power Slave in the Bahamas, Martin Birch was there and they were not only making a great record, but they were all drinking and coming up with crazy stories for the rest of us to appreciate from a distance. That's stated, if you are an Iron Maiden fan, it's entirely possible. You don't know how many,

I think he gave more to these bands than just his production.

So in any case, he goes all the way back to 1969 with the original Fleetwood Mac. This would be the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac, which was the best Fleetwood Mac. Hands down. There you go. So I appreciate you coming and saving me there, John, because I was going to pause and say, well, I don't know. People are going to be like, but yeah. I've been listening to a lot of Peter Green lately based on this. And yeah, Peter Green, thumbs up. So many good songs. It was great. And I don't

I don't want to cheapen this bike because Peter Green was great on his own but for instance he he's he wrote Green Manalishi which Judas Priest later did so that's one connection if you don't really know who he is but he also wrote like um Black Magic Woman yeah I mean yeah I mean and he was an astonishingly good guitar player died not over long ago and Kirk Hammett famously paid an anonymous amount of I'm sure a lot of money to have his famous guitar

So Martin Birch also produced a great string, the best string of Deep Purple records that would be everything from Fireball, Machine Head, Made in Japan, often considered the greatest live record of all time, arguable because everybody's got one. And then on into the next stage of Deep Purple, this would be the David Coverdale,

Stayed with him even after that and did pretty much everything up until a record called their last concert in Japan. He did Bernie Marston's records, John Lord's solo records, Wishbone Ash. Now, if you don't know who Wishbone Ash is, that is one of, ironically, one of the great influences on Steve Harris. This is where one of his great loves of

A Melodic Dual Guitar Plane comes from, you owe it to yourself to check out a record called Argus. Argus. Produced by Martin Birch. I'm sure a combination of Argus and also the Deep Purple stuff, you know, I'm sure that's why Steve Harris wanted him. He also produced Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, that'd be the first one. Well, let's just forget it. He did all the D.O. Rainbow records, every single one of them.

Blackmore's Rainbow Rising onstage, Log Live Rock and Roll. He did every Whitesnake record from 1978 up through what I consider their best record, which is Slide It In. Slide It In! That was the cool Whitesnaker. That was when, you know, what's the guitar player's name? Is that John Sykes? John Sykes was still in the band. He produced two very important records in the 80s, 1980 and 81.

He produced Blue Oyster Colts, Cultosaurus Erectus, and Fire of Unknown Origin. He produced every Iron Maiden record between 1981 and 1992. He produced Jeff Beck's Beck Ola. He produced Peter Green's solo album End of the Game. He produced a Faces record, a Gary Moore record, Cozy Powell record. TR, if you're listening, he produced Michael Shanker Group's Assault Attack. I shouldn't have to tell you that, and I'm sure I don't have to tell you

that. Um, Martin Burch, um, when, when a killer, when he got together with Maiden to make Killers, um, he said to them, why didn't you ask me on the first record, man? You know, like I would have done it. And he said, we were scared of you. We didn't think you'd do it. You know, why would you want to produce this nobody band that you've never heard of? So Maiden's first record, no matter what you think of it, left, right, or center could have sounded a whole lot better.

if Steve Harris had a little more self-confidence back in those days. Little cojones, Steve. The only other thing that I'll add as far as just like informational type stuff is this. I truly believe that with all of the bands he worked with, but I'll use Iron Maiden as the best example, that he was involved in production, which is huge because those records sound great. And I mean, he has this stamp. He knew how to make everything bright, everything available, everything punchy. You can hear every instrument.

But I truly believe he was also involved in the sequencing of the albums, which is to say the order that the songs went in. All those Iron Maiden records have a very similar flow, especially those early and mid-80s records, which is to say, you know, banger opening track, single or ballady type thing, on and on and on. You know, and then you have to start side two with The Trooper or Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, you know. And if you look at the Deep Purple records,

they're kind of the same in that way so i'm positive that his production not only mattered about the sound of records but the flow of a record um i don't know personally if he was a musician at all if he made musical suggestions i have no idea though certainly he was able to make them no he did he definitely did i mean he he's credited as a producer and engineer but also mixing and i read some interviews jay where where maiden would ask him for input on songs with

in regards to tempo and structure. And he was involved in the process and development before the songs were ever even recorded and mixed. So he was very instrumental in creating albums even before he twiddled the dials. Which, by the way, is what production is, you know? I mean, there's pre-production, you know? And I know that a lot of the Maiden stuff was kind of written in the studio. They came in with, you know, ideas.

But they pieced it all together from there. So I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts. I just, having read that kind of long, but honestly not exhaustive list, you can see that he had his hands on a lot of like seminal records, you know, records that we all look at with great reverence, records that all sound great. Records that made me produce semen. You know, I will say that. Full chub, George. Full chub.

He seems to take a weird left turn on

The one record

that I, as I was thinking about this

and listening to this, where he sort of took

a weird left turn was Mob Rules

That's got a different sound than all of the other stuff

he produced. It's a little sludgy-er

a little muddier

Yeah, fuck that album

Nah, I'm just kidding

You know what, I'd like evil Joe

Beresi to get his hands on it, but I'm just saying

So

you know, I'll just

I'll pass it around here now for everybody to speak but I you know I will just say this if I was an Iron Maiden and we were getting the guy who produced Made in Japan I'd be like we're golden we're golden you know I and and to realize that he was already that important by the time he got there that could be even though arguably kind of made his career with me so so anyway I thoughts comments anything please I mean

I think as a producer he really helped to propel like multiple bands to global success so I don't know if that that would have happened without him producing some of the the records and I think he was just really great at having partnerships with band obviously he worked with Maiden I think it was from like 81 to 92 something like that I mean he retired in 92 he was only 42 years old when he retired which is nuts but

I think that he was just really good at pulling out the best performances for musicians. I think that's pretty legendary. And the other thing I really liked about his producing was that not one instrument dominated the mix, right? He paid attention to every single thing that was happening in an album. And so you could hear it clearly. And I really liked that part of his

You know, I would use as evidence of that, any Iron Maiden song, because everybody who likes Iron Maiden knows exactly what Steve Harris bass lines are, but they're not mucking up the track. You know what I mean? Steve and Dave are still right there. And if you want to tune them out, you can tune out Steve Harris, but he's famously somehow completely audible in the mix, which is not that easy to do.

Yeah.

I think all of his productions, they had a similar feel to them in that he was able to create space and make each instrument shine on it.

So, but also just really good at bringing out vocals.

You know, he worked with Dio a lot because it wasn't just in Black Sabbath, but also in Rainbow stuff.

So, yeah, I think that's hard to do.

Usually a producer focuses on one thing or they have a certain style that they want to impose on a band or the band wants to adopt that style. But with him, I felt like he got the best performances out of everybody in the band. Yeah, no, I think that's fair to say, you know, one calls to mind the story of Number of the Beast, which you can Bruce tells it on possibly several different places.

But the one I think it's on is the early years. And he talks about the opening scream on Number of the Beast. And that he made him literally do the whole intro. You know, I left alone. My mind was blank. He made him do it for like four hours straight. And it was like, dude, I'm going to kill you. You know what I mean? And then he had this very specific kind of dramatic thing. He was going there. And finally he got to it. He got a take he liked. Martin Burst did. And he said, okay, you can do the scream now.

Wow! That's right, because he's so pissed at him. That's nuts. I think that goes along with what you're saying. I mean, his nickname was the Headmaster. So, I mean, he was a lot of discipline there, but I think it worked for bands. Apparently, and also when hanging out with Maiden, and I don't know, maybe other bands, but when he had a few, he had this drink limit, and when he passed the limit, he became a character known as

He was no longer Martin. And Marvin was apparently capable of some crazy things. Well then. Yeah. So the next day they could all be like, hey, Marvin came out last night. And he wouldn't even remember it. But it would be, you know, we trash the place kind of stuff. Interesting. Yeah, I had not. I mean, obviously I knew who Martin Birch was because of Iron Maiden. I did not know.

The Extensive Catalog, of which he was a part of, particularly The Deep Purple. Wow, I mean, he was an engineer. He was not the producer, but he was an engineer for Machine Head. Smoke on the Water. Right? He was there. And a number of Deep Purple albums after that. And, you know, Blackmore's Rainbow, Plus Rising, on stage.

Long Live Rock and Roll. Come on. Slide it in. I just have to slide that in one more time. But Heaven and Hell Mop Rules. Come on. It was also part, you know, that made him part of this weird, wonderfully. And I one time for the podcast was going to the podcast website. I was going to try to do a family tree of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Dio, so on and so forth.

And it's impossible. It just goes like this. It's so incestuous. Yeah. Do you guys remember the family trees in the rock books when we were younger? Sure. And it's just, it was, you know, they'd be, you could, they had sometimes pullouts in the books and it was just like a few bands. And it was like, there's like literally 80 entries on this tree. Exactly. How they were all just everywhere. Some people. So. Yeah. I mean, like, I mean, Don Airy comes to mind. Dio comes to mind.

And Martin Birch was part of that weird, large, incestuous family tree. Long story short. Because, of course, he worked with White Snake partially because he worked with Deep Purple, you know, and so on and so forth and on down the line. And he worked with Black Sabbath because he worked with D.O. and Rainbow. Yeah. I mean, it's and they're all so oddly connected. But in any case, it's funny to think he's part of that big shit show. So the one album that stuck out to me.

was Blue Oyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin. Yeah. Now that one was a surprise to me. I didn't know he produced it. Yeah. And that has so much classic BOC on there. Burning For You is, of course, the big radio hit. Veteran of the Psychic Wars. Heavy Metal, The Black and Silver. Joan Crawford. Come on. This album fucking rocks.

was tied back to him. So kudos to Martin Birch. Yeah, I mean, I would say, I mean, one of the things I really love is Heaven and Hell. You know, that was Black Sabbath's first album with Ronnie James Dio way back in 1980. And, you know, at the time when Dio joined the band, you know, Sabbath had been on the decline.

for years, you know, but still replacing an icon like Ozzy is no easy sell. And obviously we know Dio rose to the challenge, right? He helped rejuvenate the band. But I'd also say that bringing in Martin Birch to produce the album was just as vital because he had worked with Dio and Rainbow and he knew how to get the best out of him. But he also added just an incredibly sonically rich,

temporary shine to Sabbath music that I think they desperately needed.

At that time, he added that extra dimension, that electric jolt, I think, that sparked the band to life in a big way.

And I think it could have gone horribly wrong in the hands of a different producer because you got this new singer, you got a band that's kind of like on the downslide.

But thankfully it was Martin Birch. And Heaven and Hell, I think, became an important, incredible comeback album. It gave the band a new vitality. So I always mark that when I listen to that because it just sounded so different than the other albums that Sabbath had put out. Not just because of Dio, but because of the production.

Well, you raise an interesting point there, and I would point out that that record came out in April of 1980. And you, I mean, people can sort of say like all these kind of other things were starting to happen on stuff. Honestly, it's kind of like the first 80s metal record, this band that had kind of been, you know, rolling around in the muck of the 70s and all this kind of stuff. And I agree with you, he made it contemporary, but he sort of almost made it the first one he made the scene, you know what I mean? Like, he produced the template.

for 80s metal. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Yeah. And who knows how it would have gone if it was a different person. I don't know. You mean like Born Again? Hey, now. Yeah, I know. George and I are going to forgive you for that one, because I'll fight three men over that record. I didn't say it was a bad album. It just sounds like shit is what I'm saying.

Yeah. So I agree with everything you guys are saying. For some of us who are just a couple years older than others, I do remember these albums when they dropped. You know, I had Heaven and Hell when it came out, and I was just like blown away. Same with Mob Rules. I was getting into Rainbow. And it's funny, because all these albums have a similar vibe to them, even though they're slightly all different musically.

But George mentioned the album that I was going to mention the most as the one that stands out the most to me is Blister Colt's Fire Run and Origin. It's just something about that album. I read a line. I think this sums up his style. And I think it applies to all these bands. But it really applies to Blister Colt and I would say also Black Sabbath in the early 80s in that he gave the band a modern yet classic sharp-edged sound.

And I think that's exactly what he did. He maintained the band's identity, but he made them sound current and gave them punch, you know, which it's so funny. You would never think to mention Boyster Cult. They're metal adjacent. They have a couple metal-esque songs in 70s style metal, but they're also kind of goofy, you know? But they're also kind of awesome. Oh, I love Boyster Cult. I love them.

Love 'em. But that's kind of their schnick a little bit. They have a song called Godzilla, they have a song called Joan Crawford. But then like you, George, you mentioned Heavy Metal, the black and silver, you're like, whoa. And also that album was supposed to be the soundtrack to the animated film Heavy Metal. And all the songs they wrote for it didn't make it. And the one song that wasn't intended for the movie, Veteran Second Wars, made it. So. Yeah.

It just makes you wonder had he not worked on No Prayer for the Dying and actually worked on a little album, I don't know, A Justice for All. We might have some bass. We definitely would have. That was in my head when I was saying, just literally when I was just saying, you can always hear Steve Harris. But you cannot knock Fleming Rasmussen. Oh, not so much that. I'm wondering if Lars would have had the balls to say that this guy,

who worked on all these albums, whether it be... Which, by the way, his favorite record ever. Deep Purple, yeah. Yeah. Just get to tell that guy when he says, Lars, you need to leave and let me do my work. It's kind of like telling Ted Templeman what you're going to do and Ted says, leave. I think Eddie Van Halen's the only guy who ever back-talked him and got away with it. Yeah. No, that's a good point. That's a good point. And no disrespect to the other guy. It's just, I can't imagine that Martin Birch would say, oh, okay, yeah, we'll do it.

I'll do what you want to do. Okay. Yeah. How many albums have I worked on? I got a couple of pull quotes. If you want me to share MJ from Steve Harrison. Yeah. So Steve Harris said, this is like after he, he passed away. He was just absolutely brilliant. He wasn't just a producer. He was a hands-on engineer too. So he knew how to get a great sound. He was also fantastic at motivating.

He just had a knack of getting the best out of you. He was also a really nice man. Great fun with a terrific sense of humor that made him easy to work with. And then Bruce said, "To me, Martin was a mentor who completely transformed my singing. He was a psychotherapist and in his own words, a juggler who could mirror exactly what a band was. That was his special talent as a producer. He was not a puppeteer. He did not

the sound of the band he just reflected it in the best possible way apart from all that he was apart from all that he was a wonderful warm and funny human being that's pretty good yeah i'm gonna say um there's a biography about him look that up real quick oh yeah that's something i'd like to read a question i'm pretty sure uh in bruce dickinson's book uh what's

What's this button for? What does this button do? I'm pretty sure he was talking about

Martin Birch. He was saying he also had this alter ego. Marvin. Yeah. Where he would get really drunk. He was very

even keel a lot of times. All business. But then he'd have this alter ego

that came out and it was just completely batshit crazy.

Absolutely out of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of thing. None of us have that. It's funny to think about that too because just that also means you know they were friends you know and they all hung out and they all did things together and they you know they were with each other for months at a time him and all these bands you know because it was different back then too that was the other thing like you know what they used to you know when Maiden used to go make a record they'd rent an off season

in the Bahamas for the whole winter or some crazy thing. You know, they'll be over there for six months or something like that. How insane must that have been? That must have been the best, dude. Just like, oh, let's take a break and go barbecue on the beach. Yeah. Okay. All right. You've convinced me. But how did that work? This fall, we're going to go to the Bahamas and record episodes from the Bahamas and see what happens. Yeah. I can tell you right now. Pay your own way.

But you know

My two cents on

Martin Birch is

You know when I was looking at some of the albums

that he produced and I was like what's the most important

one that I think

to me and it was

it came down the tube

I think hands down it was Heaven to Hell

and just because it was such

a transition not only from

one decade to another

but one singer to another

but if you

If you see quotes from Bill Ward at the time, it's not even Black Sabbath, because he was kind of on the album and then wasn't, and Vinnie Epicy came in. So he kind of trashed it, because it's not even Black Sabbath. This is a completely different band. They should have changed the name, and I think Ozzy had some stuff that he was saying. But to be able to just introduce a completely different style of vocalist into one of the most famous bands,

in the world. And just to pull it off with a phenomenal record that just sounds like, I feel like it's the most important work that he's done to me. The other one would have been Number of the Beast, where I know he did Killers, but I just felt like the production, the musicianship, the mixing, all of it, the above, the difference between Killers and Number of the Beast is a gigantic leap forward. Absolutely. I think Number of the Beast sounds better than peace of mind.

You know, and so do I. So the production is better on it. And interesting you brought that up too, because there was also vocalist change at that point, you know. Yeah. And those things, those got to be hard things to work with. I mean, no offense to anybody in Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath, but Tony and I just wrote the songs. They didn't know how to pull that stuff off. And I don't just mean the sound. I just mean to somehow fit this new singer incorrectly. They wrote it, came up with great songs and was able to sing them, but it was going to take somebody

to not kind of screw the pooch on it in the technical sense well yeah exactly so i couldn't agree with you more both and i i also would count those i would include those i would say those are the two most important too and i would pull something out of the deep purple catalog too but well i and i would also i mean obviously heaven hell i talked about it and i had the similar feelings to will because that was a monumental achievement and i love the dio sabbath the most but i gotta put power slave in there as well

because I think that was the album that really catapulted Maiden to like superstardom and you know the songs on there it's like the most ambitious record at the time for them and you know it's got some of my most favorite songs on that record so I thought that was super important because he had worked with them yes but it was like the culmination when power sleeve came out like it was like another levels like they had reached

He had reached the peak with Maiden right there and then now they're just this iconic band. So I wouldn't want to understate that record because I think it was super important. Which, but just more proof that the guy was in a lot of rooms where a lot of cool stuff happened in the history of heavy music. Which by the way, did any of you guys see Iron Man put Infinite Dreams in their set list this tour?

Yeah, you can watch it. You can watch it. Watch them from the first show. It's good, too. It sounds really good. Can't deny. I put Infinite Dreams, honestly, parallel to Revelations. I think it's that good of a song. Interesting. Matt, do you have any comments that you want to throw in? And if you don't, that's fine. You know, I was kind of, I think it was George who mentioned it. I mean, I knew Martin Birch was, you know, a prolific producer and, you know, heavily tied to Iron Maiden.

But when I actually looked at the list, I was just astounded. I was almost overwhelmed because I thought what I would really like to do is just line them up in order and just go through and, you know, kind of evaluate more so just the whole catalog on its own. I mean, when I kind of looked at the list and just some of the things that jumped out to me, even like Rainbow Rising, I think of, you know, Rainbow Second Albion.

what that sound has meant to me and to know that he was kind of a part of that and it also just being their second album as a band it's the same thing with mob rules i mean i get i get the heaven and hell thing and i get the change but i think you mentioned it jay mob rules is such a different sounding album um but still sounding like this new incarnation of um black Sabbath and then the other one obviously number of the beast it just there's something about it you know

the production value on it, but also that change in the singer and just the album itself and what it has meant to metal in general. I am going to contradict myself now because even though I just said Heaven and Hell was the first 80s metal record and it came out in April of 80 and I don't mean chronologically the first, but you know, that helps. You know what? I'll go first.

I kind of didn't think about this, but Rainbow Rising is the first 80s metal record, and that came out in 1976. It's the first metal album of the 80s in 1976. The prototype. Listen to Rainbow Rising. It is sort of like Stay in Class, and that is sort of like, whoa, what corner did we just turn here? It's all right, you know? It's all right. And it's got that more modern,

production and distortion sound on it and stuff so that's interesting

that came out that's crazy rainbow's an interesting band to me because i we i don't like

the studio albums as much as i like rainbow live i love much rather i don't think that's a bad

thought oh and you just got that uh live in germany one right i did yes yeah i sent you the

picture of it for record store day yeah it's freaking awesome i don't recall what the cover on that was

but I there's a piece of trivia that's tied to it that I've always loved and um if it's not you may have an alternate cover but there was um um a European version of the that German performance was released once upon a time and so here's the weird trivia Richie Blackmore was the weirdest son of a bitch in the world still is he still is um had this had a his martial amp and he said and this and so they said how did you get your tone and this is

this is it this is the weirdest story and he said well i had it i had this marshall amp and we kind of did some things a couple little things too but nothing major it was still essentially just a straight up marshall and he said and then we took the base um whatever produces the base i don't know what you call it circuitry or whatever in the amp we took that out and he was and then he was like but then i was playing and i was like this has no base and i went first first of all i was like yeah dude you just took the circuitry out you know what i mean like that's the weirdest part of the story to me he's like

flummoxed by the fact that it suddenly had no bass in it. So he did this weird thing and how he came up with this idea I don't know but he had this reel-to-reel recorder and he put it next to the amplifier and ran some wiring through the reel-to-reel recorder back into the amp and then he controls the bass on his amp with the bass control from the reel-to-reel recorder. It doesn't record or anything he's just using it for sound circuitry and the reason I mention this is because in the original

from Germany release you can see that real the real thing sit next to his amp it's he used this for years isn't that bizarre the weirdest dumbest oddest thing and it he does have a very unique tone but i always thought it was so odd that he did that and he never tried to kind of like you know tom shoals the thing or anything like that he just thought well we got to bring this everywhere we go now that sounds kind of beastie boys ish to me it does sound a little beastie boys but in any case kind of interesting yeah well we didn't go on a

Length and we already have but just that anybody wants the closing remarks but I I think you know a we wanted we wanted to start talking about some different things and have some different topics and I thought this was a good one just honestly mostly because not unlike yourselves and myself if you really go look at Martin Burge and look at his discography you're going to be like holy cow he was on that too and that too and that too and and so if you just think he's the number of the beast guy you're wrong you know he he was a very important

on modern heavy music as we know it.

Yeah.

I had...

Martin Birch to me was Iron Maiden, period.

Sure.

Until you brought this up, I did not know any of this.

And I'm glad to now have a better understanding of this.

So, thank you.

I was thinking this.

I think he probably saw them as the primary band he produced in his career.

Oh, of course. I mean, most albums of them. I think it was just a no-brainer that they both cleared their schedules at that time, made the bank on a record. We got to be there and he's got to be there. You know, whereas the other ones were probably sort of negotiated and stuff like that. So I do think that was probably the biggest part of his career. But yeah. I mean, I think it was clear, too, that he had a real relationship with them. And I think that's probably why there's such longevity, creative longevity.

between him and the band. But the thing that I would close with and reiterate, because I already mentioned this, dude was 42 years old when he retired. And we just mentioned a shit ton of amazing records that he produced over the years. So that is incredible. Like he could just walk away and he's got a catalog that anybody would be envious if they were in their fucking 80s. Totally. And so that's... It's sort of Beatles-esque, isn't it? You're sort of like, they're all together for now.

for nine years. So it's definitely along those lines.

And I don't know why he retired. Was it because production had changed and it wasn't the old school way? Did he just feel like he had done enough? I don't really know what the reason is, Jay. Maybe you know.

I don't, but I think let's at least just... I'll give this probably something about...

Money.

Let me just really quickly look here on this on this page and see if any says anything. I retired in 1992. I have pretty soon I remain this fear of the dark. It was the last of the 10 records he produced for the group. No, they don't cover any. They don't they don't say why. Yeah, it may be out there, you know. Yeah, no, I wonder that's it's a really good question. I mean, he certainly done a lot in a short amount of time, which also can burn you out. And he probably had a pretty big checkbook. But sort of that who knows.

You know? Yeah. That'd be interesting. Hopefully somebody will do a biography about him someday. I bet it'd be a lot of fun to read. Yeah. Agreed. Cool. That's what I had. Thank you, Jay. All right. Yeah. Thanks, Jay. That was fun. And we'll do more of these kinds of things in the future for sure. We'll pick out some little behind the scenes people. Maybe if we spin the wheel and get it. The wheel shall be spun. Let us spin the wheel and find out, John.

It is time to spin the wheel. Has this been explained to the audience? It has. Maybe you should explain it one more time before we do it, though, George. All right. So, you know, we have all these things that we want to talk about, and at the same time, we're trying to slim things down. So we said, let's figure out a way to have something different each episode.

that will tie into all of this and give us options so that it's not the same thing every time.

And we created a shit ton of segments. How many segments do we have, John, on the wheel?

So right now they're, so I slimmed it down in the sense that we had multiple names for the same thing.

So I didn't, I just took whatever name I thought sounded the best of them.

because some of them like you and I had this right I cellulite whatever metal whatever you

you included everything so I just grab what I thought looked good for the wheel what also fit on the wheel so I think we have so we have 30 right now I added one new one to it because to give us 30 so there's 30 and let it be known to the listening person that we that there is an actual wheel it's a digital wheel but it's very cool and John created this a little cool digital system where it spins just like the wheel of fortune or whatever you want

And we are going to spin it. We're going to spin it at the end of every episode. Wait, how are we determining who gets to spin, though? I think it has to be John. I mean, John spins it, but who... It could also be the person like Jay that did the current episode. But yeah, we haven't really talked about that. We haven't. This is live. We're figuring it out. Well, in any case, John created the wheel, and if... Yeah, so he's a very rich man. But the...

Not the wheel. Spin the wheel, John. At the very least, John is spinning the wheel right now. You're welcome, world. All right. So we have up before us the Metal Wheel of Pain. This will decide what segment we do next time. Markasson will be doing the next segment. Woo-hoo! What, John, will Markasson

be discussing. Spin the wheel. Spin the wheel of pain. Are you ready? I am ready. I'm ready, John. I'm ready. Give it to me. Here we go. Holy shit, this is nerve-wracking. I'm gonna get skull crushers, which I don't like. Ah! Oh! Oh, shit. Would you rather? Would you rather? Okay. That sounds like a will.

It is. So this is Will's lightning round. Will style. So it's like, Will, do you want to explain the lightning round? I got to do your lightning round thing. You have to do Will. Yeah, so it's, we used to do this thing in lightning round where I would just ask completely ridiculous questions like, would you rather listen to the Black Album or get your balls

shaved by a chainsaw.

You know, and clearly it's the latter is the correct choice.

So it's just stuff like that.

Or do you like Coke or Pepsi?

Or do you like death metal or trad metal or, you know, Ford or Chevy?

Like it's just completely random, weird stuff like that.

So come up with some good questions.

So, well, here's the thing too.

So, so we did the wheel and then whoever spins it gets to do this topic.

And then they get to come up with how they want to do it.

and then they get to lead that discussion. So I will probably think of a variant on that for it because I got to we've got six people. Well, I got five people I got to do it for. I mean, I'll make a suggestion. Would you rather bring Jimi Hendrix back from the dead or would you rather bring so-and-so back from the dead? You know, that kind of thing. Just tough, tough musical choices. But of course, I leave it to you. Well, I think what I've seen online is like maybe I'd say, you know,

If I was doing it with a J, I'd be like, oh, pasta or rice. And you'd pick one, right? Pasta, duh. Okay, you'd pick pasta, right? And then so that would be the winner of that round, and then it would be pasta versus something else, like beans. And then we would keep going. But I would do it with metal, probably. Probably, but not necessarily. I don't have to. It's up to me! I keep running into that exact video you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about, John?

So I'll probably do it like that with each of you. But I don't know yet. I have to think about this a little bit. I want to get in Will's head. That's what makes us so awesome. Anything can happen. You go do this work in private, mister. I will. So I will think about it and then I will send you how I want to go about doing Would You Rather. But that's going to be our second segment. You can also just surprise us the moment of it if you want. It's up to you. For this one, I could do that.

If we don't have to pry. Oh yeah, yeah. Fuck you guys. I'll just do it off the cuff. Fuck you guys. I can't believe I got Wills. All right. I can't wait. I'm going to do it individually for each of you for sure. I can't wait to do it for Will. It's going to be the best part. So you better be on cast, Will. See if you can corner him into the Black Album somehow. It's going to be all Black Album questions. All right.

Well, this was good, guys. Thank you. We will see y'all next time soon. Peace. Night, everybody. See ya. See ya, boys. Take care, y'all. Night.

I've never known for