Metalheads Podcast Episode #168: Multiverse of Metal Madness

This episode begins with a lively discussion about brand new albums from Khemmis, Fires in the Distance and Godthrymm. We also share What We’re Listening To and creak open the catacombs to reveal our Picks From the Crypt. Plus, Markisan is in the hot seat for the Wheel of Pain segment, Would You Rather. Find out what imaginative hypotheticals the gang throws at him, then cringe in horror at the terrible choices he's forced to make! 

What is Metalheads Podcast?

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

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Now, here is the podcast, Metal Heads Podcast.

Hello, and welcome to the Metal Heads Podcast.

My name is George.

This is Jay.

This is Will.

This is John.

This is the Matt Situation.

This is Marcusan.

Hey, before we get into the guts of this episode,

Does anybody have anything they'd like to bring up? Sure, I'll add something real quick. This is our second episode under the official new format. So I know we've gotten a couple comments regarding what people think about the new format. So I would like to ask if people who do listen, if you could comment on the Facebook page when the episode posts. Or email us. Or yeah, anything.

Don't even send your new music Friday stuff. Just comment on the episodes. Um, because at least I'm going to get some comments on there. Uh, go ahead and let us know what you think of the new format. Yeah. Just curious what people think. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Anybody else got any tang? No. Alrighty then. You just sound like that dude from that movie. Pootie, Pootie Tang. I wouldn't know. I've never seen that movie. You never saw that movie with J.B. Smoove? I haven't seen that either.

I love J.B. Smooth.

J.B. Smooth, is it?

I love J.B. Smooth, but I don't know that movie.

I've heard of it. I've never seen it.

I've seen J.B. Smooth do stand-up.

Yeah.

He's awesome.

In person, in other words?

Yeah.

He's so funny.

Ejacolid?

He's a funny guy, yeah.

Ejacolid?

If you watch Curb Your Enthusiastic, you know what I'm talking about.

So good on that show.

All right, then.

Well, let's get into some new releases. First up. I'll take this one. Whoa. Oh, no, I'm sorry. It was the third one. Yeah. Calm down, Jay. I'm a judge here. Don't Jay the Jay. Jay, you're going to get your chance, Jay. He just Jay'd the first two so we can get to the third one.

He's all terrible.

That boy lives in his heart.

He means well.

All right.

So the first new release, not the third, is the new Fires in the Distance album, Circadian Promise.

Third album, their Connecticut Death Doom band.

They have a new singer-guitar player this time around, and I was surprised to find that it was Brendan Hader from Obsidian Tongue,

and a little band called Thrasenblot.

I don't know that I've heard him do

cleans before. Maybe he does on the last Obsidian.

I don't remember.

And I like Obsidian, Tom.

Yeah, but me likey.

This is good.

I heard some disparaging remarks about it

from other corners of the universe.

So I went and I did a little A-B

because I'm not the hugest Fires in the Distance fan.

And, you know, the previous guy was good, but I like Brendan better. Because, I mean, he's throusing Brendan. Oh, yeah. He was almost in Woods of Epre, right, George? That I don't remember. I thought I was reading where he was pegged to join the band. Oh, that might have been, yeah. And then, obviously, it didn't go that way. And that's, I guess, how he knows Joel. Yeah. Possibly. Makes sense. I'll jump in first, because I'll give somebody else more time at the end.

So, as you guys know, on the

sister podcast, TR is a huge fan of this band, which I find

very funny because he won't listen to any other bands like this.

Yeah, that's a little weird. For some reason, he's connected with this band.

TR's weird. He's not. I love him.

I do find that funny. And I actually, I asked him about that just recently. I was like, what the hell, dude?

But anyway, I seem to like this band more and more with each album. Maybe it's because they sound more like they're really honing in on their style. I didn't have a problem with the vocals. I know I've read online some people love them and some people aren't so big on the cleans. It's a change of pace, I guess, from what they were doing before. But now they're bringing in a guy who's got some pedigree, though, too, especially on guitar, you know, in composing music.

So I want to give them time to see what they can do with this. I personally like the album. I like that they give you a lot, but not too much, meaning it's six songs, but it's about 45 minutes, which is great. I have a distinct thing about these three bands that I've noticed because they all are similar worlds, similar umbrella they come from. Doomy. Yeah. And it's something I've noticed, but anyway, I personally think it's a pretty good album.

I think they sound better than they have. But as I told TR, I don't know how you guys feel about this. I'm getting exhausted with the piano over the music. Yeah. Is that you guys know what I'm talking about? Jay, you should know, like with Vandemplass, they do that piano over, they got this great crunchy groove going. And all of a sudden this guy comes in with this like acoustic sounding piano. You're like, really? I could go with synths, I think, more here. So just my tiny little gripe. But I like the album personally. I think it's good. Death Doom. Death Doom, gothic music.

with Melodic Death. It's like none of the three, but all the three at the same time. They're kind of like one of those mid-level bands, too. They're not going to change the wheel or anything like that. But I did Air Not Meant for Us. I was on either my mid or end of the year list when that came out. Yeah, I made mine. The second album. It wasn't on yours? Yeah. It's number 12 on mine. Yeah, I think we all had it at a decent spot. Most of us, I should say. I might have had the second one. I don't feel the vocal change.

I don't feel it that much. I don't feel like it completely changed the game or anything like that. I feel like it's a little higher. That was the one thing I noticed was that the previous guy had a more guttural sound. And this is more of a mid-range harsh. I'll have to listen to it a few more times just because they do end up on my list as was.

a few more times, but I like it, too. I agree with John. I'm not blown away by it. I'm not like, oh, it's going to be the album of the year, but it's good. I like the title, too. What was the last album called? Water? Air Not Met for Us. Air Not Met for Us. The first time I listened to it, I didn't really care for it, and then I started listening to it, and I was realizing that all the songs were kind of getting stuck in my head. Yeah. There's just something about it, and I think it kind of touches on what you're saying, John, and if we put it into more of a Gothic category.

I honestly was getting a little bit of any of vibes, but I liked it. It was melodic in a way that was almost addicting. Metallic and yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm not getting that on this album. I've only listened to it once, but it's just definitely not hitting with me yet. So I need to kind of dig back in, but I would agree it's not the vocals that's not hitting with me. I think it's just maybe all-encompassing. Maybe I just need a warm bath with some candles.

I don't think that's gonna do it well you need a snuggie well first I'll say that I had no idea that the original singer guitarist was even kicked out of the band and yeah first track dropped and I was completely surprised and so I was not a big fan of the first two singles they released for this record and after listening to it a couple times I it's a major disappointment for me that the new vocals

Brendan Hader I think his name is that's his name they sound completely it sounds

completely different from the last record I listened to the last record which I love and it does not sound like that at all I think his growls are just for me personally they're just nowhere near as good because they're not as cavernous as those of Christian Grimaldi who was the previous guy and George mentioned this earlier and I thought that style contrasted better with the synth atmospherics and then Brendan

is also doing cleans on this new record, which I don't think are particularly strong.

That's my opinion.

I thought they were really good because as I was saying, I didn't think I'd heard him do clean before.

And I was like, wow, for clean, that's not bad.

And it's only like one song, I think.

It's not bad, but I don't think it was like really good.

Hey, you like what you like.

I get it.

Yeah.

I'm not going to bust your balls, but I think one of the things that I didn't listen to them all that much before

was because of how the vocals just didn't like didn't grab me and i'm not saying that this is like that much better yeah um to me it's it's very similar i think it worked really well um yeah last one but uh i might listen to it more and what matt was saying and this is another thing for me i think on top of that i don't think the synth is integrated as well or and it's not

as it was on the previous album you know all those majestic enya sounds he mentioned yeah i love those and they're either buried on this or they're mellowed out more on circadian promise and the album it just does not breathe instrumentally the same way as it did on air and not meant for us and i just feel like fires they had developed a really a more unique sound on the first two lps especially the last one

And I felt like they pretty damn well near perfected it on that last one. It was number 12. That's pretty high for me. And now they kind of sound like, to me, a less original melodic Death Tomb Bim. And then they got the electro blips tossed in. It feels more like a dark tranquility vibe to me than a fires feel. I didn't get any dark. I didn't get that kind of melodic death. That's just me. I hear it's too slow for that, for me. His voice is a lot like that, though. Was the guy who got kicked out? Was he the sort of...

I don't think so. He was a guitarist on it, but I think another guy in the band wrote most of the songs. Maybe they need to change their name to just Embers in the distance. I don't connect with it, and I don't think I'm going to go back to it that much. Now, maybe they're going to grow into this sound, and I'll appreciate more over time, but this album doesn't connect, especially after the last one, which I just really love the last one.

But yeah, that synth sound, that Enya synth sound is definitely not really present on it. They do have the electronics on it, but it's just, it's not the same. And without the growls, those really guttural, cavernous growls, it doesn't work as well for me.

It's weird for me to hear you say that, because when you have gothic metal infused in all this, I think guttural death growls sound like crap in gothic metal.

I really do.

It's like the difference for me,

like listening to the first gathering album where they had guttural growls and

you're like,

this music would be awesome.

If the growls were more mid range on this,

that's just my opinion because I feel like it kills the atmosphere.

That's just me though.

You know,

for me,

it's case by case.

Cause I agree with you,

the gathering,

but,

but there's other bands that they do that.

And that's where that beauty and the beast stuff started.

And it got too polished and there's got,

to be a mid-spot to it. I don't want... I feel like Draconian gets it right for the growls, because it's a similar style music without that damn acoustic piano on top of everything. Also, just can I throw out, too, that Gothic has been fully absorbed now into... I mean, Gothic can still exist as its own thing, but the middle world has fully pulled Gothic in as a legitimate kind of direction, especially... There's a little renaissance going on, is all I'm saying.

with this right now,

the Gothic thing has really kind of become a big genre for metal.

That's funny.

Cause I have something to say on a similar line for a different sub genre during my,

what I'm listening to.

I feel like we're in a retro period for some styles right now,

which is fine by me.

So,

no,

it's what I like that we're talking about.

this album is everyone's got a different opinion on it so obviously the album resonates on some level with everybody whether positive or not positive and that's exactly what you want with a new album other than and then you move on to the next album right yeah so i i do want to say that uh i think i like brendan's vocals better on this than on the obsidian tongue because this is more polished i mean the obsidian is is black metal it's a little more atmospheric it's buried

Not too buried, but kind of buried. How much stuff did he do? He just played bass. Oh, he wasn't a singer in that band? No, Joel's the singer. He's been with Joel the whole time, right? On bass? A lot of it? I don't know, I'd have to look. What the hell's going on with Joel? Is he making a record or what? I don't think so. He's a dad. Yep. He's just, you know, walking around in the forest.

You know, enjoying things, just saying, fuck yeah. For those of us who were there for that, if you guys remember that. Yeah. Just walking around in the forest, you know, fuck yeah. Who wouldn't want to walk in a forest with that attitude? That's awesome. I love it. Just don't get eaten by the bear. Let's see. Was he on Great Brunswick Forest? He was not on Great Brunswick Forest, so he was not on T4.

Of course, I'm sure he was on T3. Yes, he was on T3. Yeah, I thought he was at least on that. I thought he was around for all the early stuff. He was on T2 as well. T1 was all Joel and David. Come with me if you want to play bass. Come with me. Yeah. All right.

Next up, we have the new God Thrim album, Projections. Another third album, this time from a UK Doom band. And I did notice that on one track they have Aaron Stainthorpe, formerly of My Dying Bride. And this is another band. Doom, I like Doom. I love Doom. I don't know why I've never particularly latched on too hard to this band.

I've never said, oh, I don't like them. I just never got the itch, you know? But I like this. It was good. Well, this one's completely different than the other ones. In a good way or a bad way? I think in a good way, actually. I think when I first heard it, I wasn't into it all that much because it seemed so different than the more slower Epic Doom on the last record. But after the second spin, it actually clicked with me. I think it's more dynamic.

It's more textured than anything they've done before. I read that they added a second guitarist and they also added a keyboardist slash co-vocalist in the band which you hear pretty prominently. So the sound is a lot more full, a lot more rich. It took me a moment to absorb and appreciate the layered work that they put into this record. I think I could probably use a little less of the male-female vocal harmonies, but aside from that, I think

It's just really interesting and unexpected progression that really expands the breadth of their musicianship. Clearly they finally improved enough to come on my radar. It's very different. If you listen to those other records, they're like a lot more spare compared to this one. So yeah, they definitely filled out the sound. And there's a little more tempo to the music on some of the songs.

So it's almost like the template is still there for the... And it wasn't sludgy slow Doom. It was slower Doom. I feel like they've done a little bit... I would call it that epic Doom metal from the 80s, which is really just Doomy metal, if that makes sense. You know, metal band playing. Kind of like, you know, how Trouble kind of straddled metal and Doom at the same time. They do a little bit of that. And I think what maybe hurts this band

is that everyone's so used to harsh vocals and doom now. And here you got a guy who's representing, that's not in Candlemas, that's representing that old kind of epic doom vocals, which he's a pretty good singer. I mean, he's not a weak singer at all by any means. I think people aren't used to those vocals. And so maybe that makes some people think, well, there's really nothing new here. And I agree with you, Marcus, this one takes a lot more to listen.

You can listen to the song with that guy Aaron on it. And I think I said this when we talked about the album before. It's the most My Dying Bride song they've done of the three. And I'm like, that's cool. And I'm glad they only did it one time. Because I don't want to hear My Dying Bride with them. I can hear My Dying Bride with My Dying Bride. So it's kind of cool that they took their doom direction slightly different. Just my opinion. And it's still doomy. It's just there's a lot more elements to this music than ever before. And it's...

I don't want to it's hard to say a doom band has riffs because I don't know where you distinguish the riffs in a doom band because if you're playing slow sometimes the whole song that just becomes one giant rift chug you know because there's no chorus there's no bridge it's just like you know grown like you know as you move to the next section I don't know I think it's pretty good too you just made me think of skepticism and then we really need a new skepticism album yeah I mean

Maybe there's a reason why those don't come out as much. Because it keeps it more active in your mind. If you're getting that same album all the time after a while, you'd be like, what the fuck? Can you imagine? And I like that one Bell Witch album, even though I can't do 45 minutes. No, I'm right there with John, 100%. And I was kind of one of their champions for a while. No, but don't you kind of like that they don't come out as often just because of what they do? Yeah. As much as you want new music.

And that's why I think they did that collapse. Kind of mixed it up for them. Although they're still slow as fuck. But that last Stygian power record is fucking phenomenal. Yeah. So. All right. Yeah. Anyone else on this one or do we move to the. I liked it. I mean, I, this is my probably first time listening to them and you know, I probably similar to Marcus on the kind of the male, female vocals got old after a while for me, but the rest of it are really, you know, found myself engrossed in and kind of.

want to dig into a little bit more well because decibel is very high on this band and they've had them very high on their list or at least they're on their list i should say they put out the vinyl for them and stuff yeah they really yeah so yeah i like the addition of the female vocals but it's them singing together it just was a lot like uh i don't know i just got tired of it a little bit but i do like that they added that they do have a lot of guest stars on it on this one too john you mentioned

But yeah, it's really good. I have to listen to it more because I think it probably is their best record. I don't know if I've had the other ones on my list or not. I don't think I have, even though I like them. But I like this kind of progression. So I'm curious to see what they're going to do in the future, if they're going to go down this road still or if they're going to try something new. Before we move on, the mention of Decibel reminded me of something.

I don't recall if I mentioned this on the last episode when we were talking about MDF. If I did, well, this is a follow-up to it. If I didn't, then here we are. So we went by the Decibel booth at MDF and Albert and James were there. And apparently Albert and or Decibel are affiliated with a new liquor.

Infernal Spirits is the distillery name, and Soulburn is the name of the whiskey. And it is a 106 proof, I believe, bourbon. Is it a bourbon, John? Yeah. It is. So anyway, I tried it while I was there and came home and immediately pre-ordered it.

It arrived last week. And I've got the hangover to prove it. It's so funny. When you said that, George, because I was not at MDF. So that was last Saturday. No, Friday. It was last Friday when this came up because I was all ready to watch the U.S. play in the World Cup first time in the States in X number years. Ready to go. And eight o'clock, a storm rips right through our area and knocks our power.

So, and on top of that, then Verizon, Fios went down too in the area because we plugged our router into a portable box. These guys can see it. It's like a small, like a football size battery that we have that holds a charge forever. And so I was like, oh, we can plug that in. And it wasn't working. And so I was pissed. So I was missing the game. And I shit you not. Literally, the power comes on.

right as they blow the whistle at the end of the game. Like, you've got to be kidding me. Please let me, I really want to believe that the announcer was saying something to the effect of simply the most amazing game we have ever seen in this lifetime. I got one better for you, Jay, than that. Five seconds. Do you believe in miracles? Which would have been the ultimate stat. Oh, that's brutal.

I was like, you gotta be freaking kidding me. And George was typing stuff. And I don't know if maybe the message didn't come out as you expected it, or just there was a finger involved on the keyboard. And you're like, oh, it's damn in frontals, whatever. And I was like, what is he talking about? I don't even know what he's talking about. And I come to find it the next day, we start talking about whiskey or bourbon. And he's like, yeah, I ordered this stuff. I was like, oh, now I understand what was going on.

What's going on during the blackout? Yeah. You know, it's really good. And, you know, when I was at the Decibel booth, Albert was displeased with me because I shot it. He didn't say, hey, this is gourmet whiskey. Don't, you know, it's sipping whiskey. So I'm, you know, I'm at MDF. I'm like, ah. So when I got my bottle, I did not do that. I sipped it, but I still had too much.

My bottle is arriving, I think, Friday. Nice. So, because... I had a revelation while all of that was going on. As so often happens while you guys are talking, I'm thinking, what is the next thing I'll say? I'm joking. But look at Matt. Okay, so you called out Matt as, what was it, a Zempick Brian Posehn? Yes. Okay, give us your profile. Turn to the right, Matt.

Justin Chancellor from Tool. Matt's everybody. Interesting. Right now, that's the beard he's rocking. And I even think I got his glasses and he's kind of got the drawn cheeks. Matt is everyone. He kind of looks like Phil from Chemist too. A little bit. Let's see what I look like next month. Or he's just Matt. He's just a situation.

and human fear. The beard is in progress. I want to put a little bit more linked on it. So we'll see what I look like. I was trying to do that, but then I had to go to a wedding and I had to trim it back and I have to go to another wedding this weekend and I had to trim it back again. It's not as much fun when it's gray though, George. That's why I don't go around anymore. Oh, I love it. I'm like, I'm freaking seeing a glass. I love my white sole patch. It's not even gray. It's just white. Yeah, white is better. It's Sean Connery. That's like gray snow.

That's called the Colonel's game. I've got you in my shite. The dude was James Bond, alright? Yeah. And he beat up women. Oh wait, that's not a good thing. I'm only talking about the fictional character. You can just walk around beating up women. No. But there can be only one. That's right. Well apparently not because it was a TV show that followed. And there's a new movie coming out. A new movie, yeah.

It should have been called There Could Be Only Two. That should have been the sequel. It said there shouldn't be two because the second one? There shouldn't be two. Oh, God. Yeah, the second one wasn't. I saw it in the theater. TV show is way better than the trailer. So did I. I saw the trailer and I don't remember what I was seeing that I saw the trailer and I was like, holy shit. There was no internet so I had no idea that there was a Highlander coming. I thought it was a dead concept and then, oh, boy, that was a disappointing movie. I just saw there's a new Spaceball movies coming. I saw that. I wasn't sure. Spaceballs.

the new one. I wasn't sure if that was real or not. It's real. Mel Brooks talked about it. It's real. But if you want to watch, he's done. I love the guy to death, but he's done. If you want to enjoy something, go watch. There's a very good documentary about Mel Brooks that just came out. Man, it was good. Outstanding. He's like 95 years old or something. He's more than that. He's like 100. Possibly on HBO. Or close to it.

I can't remember. It's one of the, I think HBO has, I think it's two episodes. It was great. Super entertaining. Just like, yeah, I've seen it. I don't just watch the Pee Wee Herman documentary. Actually 99. Oh, good. Wow. I don't know about you guys. I'm so done with Hollywood and they're rehashing. They're going to do two films of mine that I'm just, I'm done. Well, how dare they, how dare they touch escape for New York. And how dare do they go? I think they're going to do the thing. I'm like, I'm done.

Okay, I'll really throw you for a loop. Unless Carpenter's doing them. They already did one. They already did a remake of that. They're going to do another one? When did they do a remake of it? Not that long ago. They never did a remake of The Thing. No, they did. They did, John. That was a prequel. That's a prequel story. It wasn't a remake of The Thing. Oh. Yeah, yeah. I got one that pops in. And the movie, I'm sorry, Jay. No, please, go ahead. The thing that John Carpenter did is not a remake of the first

movie either because they're two different movies yeah and i think yeah and i actually think isn't carpenters more

in line with this the book i can't remember i've never read the book yeah so here's the other one i just

wrapped filming on wait for it how could you possibly improve this the exorcist no no this better be like her

child that she gave up when she was like in high school or something like that it better better be that

I don't know if it just exists in that universe. I know Scarlett Johansson is in it and I don't know who the other big name is. And they just referred to it as The Exorcist. I don't know. They redid The Omen. I mean, you don't touch The Exorcist, dude. That's, I mean, almost universally accepted as, for me, the greatest horror film of all time. I mean, easily one of the scariest. Not anymore. But look, and I'm sure Marcasson felt the same way about this. And then I'll shut

about this rant. I was really hesitant that they were doing a sequel. A sequel, not even a remake, a sequel to Blade Runner. I was like, do not do this. You're going to ruin it. And I was like, okay, I can live with this. This is, you know. I thought it was pretty good. Oh, it's great. I think John likes it a lot too. But I mean, we were hesitant in the beginning, I think. Of course. I was optimistic because I love that director. He also did Dune and he's just on all his movies.

are pretty awesome.

We do the rival.

So it's like,

but I still didn't like that.

They did it.

Cause they took away the ambiguity of is he,

or is he not a replicant?

Yes.

That's,

they took that away from us.

You can't tell you how many drunken fights.

And I'm not even exaggerating this.

I've had with my two non-related closest brothers from a different

mother,

how we have fought for hours over Deckard,

literally hours.

So that's also Han Solo shot first. The guy cannot be involved in something that doesn't become problematic. There's a lot of stuff like that. Like Prometheus from the Alien Universe. Yes. A lot of it for me. And that was by the same fucking guy. Really. Scott. There's a new trailer for that new one coming out too. Speaking of disappointments, we have one more new release. Oh.

Oh, the transition. Brutal.

All right, then let's get into it, punk.

I haven't listened to it.

So this is the fifth album and self-titled release from Chemists, the Denver Doom Band.

I do want to hear what you guys have to say.

I admit I haven't heard it, and I will listen to it.

I'm not that much of a cuss.

But I'd like to know, since it is, well, let's hear what somebody go and tell me where this is.

in the pantheon. Well, so I was... It's self-titled. It implies it's a statement. Go ahead. Yeah, well, I wouldn't call it their black album. Oh, no. No, I liked it. I thought it was pretty good. It is a little different, perhaps, but not so different as to not be chemists in my book. I agree with that. Yeah, agreed. I was quite happy with it.

Like the first song, it's like, oh yeah, I forgot. I really love Phil's vocals. He's got such a unique and pleasant voice to me. It's like, there's not what you would call like, you know, catchy choruses on this, yet there's catchy vocal work, I guess is how I would say it. It's like, it's not like an earworm that's going to be stuck in your head, but it's a very,

It's the only way I can phrase it, I suppose. So, love Phil's voice. Well, I mean, I think it's a great record. It's probably list-worthy for me. I think the songwriting is excellent on here. I think, you know, they meld all kinds of influences into that spicy metal broth. It's really easy to toss back, you know. It's potent. It's satisfying. I think for me, with

The direction they've gone in over the last couple albums isn't quite what I hoped for. The music feels more meticulously crafted to me and just less personal, I guess. It's got a lot more 80s metal, Judas priestiness to it. You know, they've talked about that over and over. And that's bad how? I'm not a big priest fan, you know.

You introduced them as a doom band. There's not a lot of doom like the original records. So I wish there was more arresting doom. Of course, they can make whatever music they want as a band. But as a listener, I'm just not hearing the same thing that initially drew me to the band. And I just haven't felt the same connection to the songs that I did on the first two records. I was hoping to hear Chemist lean into the more emotionally devastating songs.

to live in the turmoil space that they conjured with the bereaved. Or plummeted that kind of ghostly crash of Hunted, the last track on that titled record. Those had an emotional resonance to me. And the singing, too, I See Him, He Comes Forth from Darkness. That was the height of chemists for me. And they just really haven't gone back to that. They've gone in a different direction.

Which is, that's what they want to do. But I just don't feel the same as I did on those first two records. It's not that they're not a great band, or that these songs aren't good. It's just that I don't feel as invested in these songs as I did for album one and two. So that's just how I feel about it. You know, something else I thought of. Early on, I don't recall there being much in the way of harsh vocals.

I thought that was sort of a later thing, but I could be wrong. I just maybe haven't just listened to it a long time. But and I know in the past Ben does the harsh vocals and I'm assuming Ben does the harsh vocals on this one. But the the point that I am drunkenly stumbling towards here is that I felt like the the play between the two types of vocals in this album was really good.

I thought the harsher vocals blended in with the whole a lot better and contributed more than in the past where it was just sort of a tonal difference whereas this it's like it actually meant something more. Yeah I think that's where I'm talking about with the craftsmanship of it I think that they do that really well on it but I think you lose a little of the spontaneity I think that you had in those first two records. It's more

I don't want to say clinical because that's not the right word for it but it's definitely like they poured over it and really put everything they had to try to make these songs like as good as they can and I don't that's fine sometimes sometimes I feel like it's a little too much you know I want them to just be out go out there and play can I add a comment that might seem relevant to this and it is that I mean this is if you don't listen to us or haven't listened to us that's chemist record came on

I'm always on the opposite side of the fence with these guys, sometimes jokingly. But one of the fundamental things that I have not been able to connect with about chemists is, and I appreciate that you said spontaneity, but I have always felt they were really academic. Like, I always just sort of felt like it was... That's kind of funny. And I want to qualify that, because maybe that word by itself doesn't mean much, but it's... No, I can't qualify.

I don't know there's just some X factor that I can't find in it you know and I didn't feel that way in the first couple albums at all but I do feel that more but it is funny because they were like they are doctorates right George yeah that's why I was like academics no exactly and honestly and and I and I feel that approach in their music and I and not from whatever their disciplines might be I just mean it sort of feels like okay actually as far as sort

It feels like a bunch of doctorates made this record

That's what I hear from them

It sounds like a weekend

And I agree with that a little bit

I think sometimes you have to go out there

and just play and then something comes out

This one feels like oh we took this

and then we put this here

put this here, assembled it

You know what I mean?

Well I did notice something

I do want to point out real quick

I'm still hung up on this

John Carpenter is involved in the sequel. He is involved. It still doesn't mean I want to see it, though. I will watch it because I love John Carpenter. I love that it was eating at you. Bugging the absolute shit out of me. Yeah, it could be a Prometheus situation, dude, you know. Right. Although he has a very good track record. I'll just, George, I don't know if you want to say something. Let me just jump real quick. I like it, too. It's definitely more the 80s epic doom sound, which is going to

have more of that just 80s metal, more up-tempo. They still have the doom. There is one thing they are doing that, if anyone knows me and knows when I think about certain bands, after a while, it starts to get to me. And I don't know if it's just maybe I'm hearing it, you guys tell me. Some of these songs start off with a nice tempo and pace to them, but when they get to the chorus, they immediately slow down for the chorus. And then when the chorus ends,

they kick it back up again and they did that a few times and i was like on one album fine with

that but i really hope that doesn't continue because then that becomes like catatonia for me

or catatonia formulaic for you i was just gonna say it's a formula and the formula can get old but the

formula got old with maiden too i mean yeah of course i i got i was if you told me to pick my albums

for maiden yeah i it would be a small batch only because of that reason yeah yeah so um and my other

Last comment, and it's not John Carpenter related, is that have you guys noticed we have three Doom related albums here to some degree, and that each one of them is a slight change from the previous styles that they were doing. And it seems like Doom bands are more willing to make changes. Temple of Void has made changes the last few albums, and it seems like the Doom verse, which is not the shit verse, because

I do like Doom still. It seems like most traditional fans are getting kind of bent out of shape that bands are like kind of tired of doing the same Doom sound over and over again. So they try to incorporate new stuff into their sounds. And then there was like, this is crap. I can't tell you how many do bands the last couple of years have changed things up a little. I'm like, okay, cool. This is good. I'd rather hear this than the same slow sludgy thing every time. Yeah. And it's just going to lead us somewhere, John. Maybe we're moving into some new sub

I like that. I do think there's a group think that happens where we make jumps. Like, in all honesty, like I'm not trying to sound, you know, I mean, I'm literally speaking about collective unconscious. And you go back to like when Picasso was painting, that was when, you know, Freud was doing things and all that. And, you know, and things were happening in astrophysics and stuff. And that can happen on a smaller scale, too. I can totally see how a genre might start to get tired of itself and go, well, you got to evolve a little bit here.

It just kind of feels like that's already happened in death metal, obviously. Oh, for sure. Tech death, there's fraud, there's avant-garde, there's sissing. And it seems like Doom is kind of quietly just chugged along in the backs, you know, behind that and black metal and everything else. But the moment they do it, well, hey, hold on a second now. You've got to go back to your three notes every 20 stanzas, you know. And you know why that is, though? That's because it's rooted in Sabbath. And the funny thing is, none of these bands,

sound anything like Sabbath. That's what's so funny about it. Yeah, that's how far we have evolved. But I think that's problematic because it takes a brave guy at the party to sort of be like, yeah, Sabbath is great, man, but let's move on here a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, it really does because people are goofing. And so if your whole genre is sort of based on that, that's a tough macho thing to have to carry around. Even Sabbath did it. Now, they did it poorly on two albums. I'm sorry, they did.

Well, let's count Heaven and Hell in there, though. Because, I mean, yes, I know. Oh, no, no, I'm saying the two albums before Heaven and Hell were just like, okay, there's a reason Cocaine's bad. That's exactly what's wrong with those records. Yeah. George, you were going to say something and I cut you off. I apologize. Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, some people complain that a band always sounds the same like ACDC or Overkill. Exactly. And some people complain when a band stops sounding exactly the same as they always have.

And I feel like this is the nice

in-between

where it still

sounds enough like old chemists to be

recognizable as chemists

and yet it is not

exactly the same as what came before and so

it's growing

That's what you want, isn't it?

I will say this

Phil's getting better as a singer

Oh, absolutely

Anyway, Matt, go

I agree with the

you know just kind of how doom is evolving um i do feel like we should label it new doom um

and eu i mean i'm sorry matt i want to hear your comments in full but i have to tell this that was it that was it well it's

relevant oh i apologize in any case but it was just that simply somebody once said somebody hit angus young

up with all your records sound the same or whatever. And he said, I am sick and tired of people saying that we have 11 identical sounding records when in fact we have 12. I like that. I saw that. It was just the greatest comeback ever. I mean, and I don't think it's just doom because especially this year, I think there's a lot of bands who have like their third record, fourth record. Chemist was their fifth, you said, George? Yep. Yeah. You know, I think you've got to change it up unless you're going to be Cannibal Corpse and just do the same thing over and over.

So, you know, and sometimes that doesn't hit. There's been several records from bands that I really liked, and they put out stuff this year that I'm not really responding to, like Worm or Fires in the Distance. We just talked about Cryptic Shift, Stormkeep. You know, they've changed their sound a lot, and I just don't connect with it as much, and it's like their third record or whatever. It might be transitional, though, too. Could be.

Yeah, we don't always know which are the transitional records that are getting them to their new place. No, you never know. Like a band like Wyrm, like when they started, I didn't really like them. Then they started getting really good, right? And I love their stuff, and now I'm not really responding to the new records. So you just never know what's going to happen. They're just trying to change their sound, evolve, do new things. Yeah. Interesting. It's very interesting to hear you guys all be slightly more critical of this record.

I wasn't critical of it. Oh, no. My only issue was I don't want to see the same pattern of writing. And it's only I just only noticed it now. And it's problematic. Because there's bands like I was a huge Catatonia fan. And then at one point I said, that's it. It's the same album. Look, if anyone knows this band, I like Osric Tentacles. They're like a space like proggy jam type band. I've got like 17 of their albums. Yeah. They literally.

They all sound the same. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, I don't, why do I have all these? I only want, I should just keep the ones I like, but then I'm like, oh yeah, I like this. Oh, well, there's a reason why, because it sounds like the other albums. No, I've got, there are bands that exist in my universe like that too, and I totally get it. Yeah. And there is a comfort in that, you know. Of course. Yeah. You know, November's Doom's another band like these guys that have changed their sound. They still sound like November's Doom. They still have the heavy, doomy kind of, I don't want to say,

They're doing an open thing, but they've got those kind of riffs. Yeah. Boy, every album, they're like, oh, this is changing too much. I'm like, oh, I don't want the Pillhark Departure every album. I have that album. Do I need it 10 more times? Yeah. No, I hear you, dude. It's a fine line. It's different with every band that you listen to, too. But it seems like Doom really takes the heat, maybe because Doom is still not the golden child of metal, you know? And it's,

I think it's up well and it's honestly it's biggest um audiences pot smokers you know what I mean and I'm not trying to well stone or doom took over then I'm not trying to pigeonhole a group of people I'm just saying that it's a real specific experience a lot of people are going to look yeah yeah I got tired of stone or doom too but I'm electric wizard didn't put a record out a long time what a pity the other day that record came out a long time ago but I didn't particularly love the last one but I that they're a doom band I have a lot of faith

and loving and I haven't heard anything about them in a long time. It's been a while. Yeah. Yeah. So broken up over that. I've always been a detractor of Electric Wizard because of the completely buried vocals. Some of them are not like that. There's a couple where you would have had, if you gave them a chance, you'd probably like them. But I also think you can live a very happy life without them. Yeah. It's funny.

I see here they have some tour dates coming up so there must be another doing something

I uh I'm working on a project that I'll tell you about after um and I had cause to google us for some reason

and the google ai was like would you like to learn I saw my name in it I was like oh that's

interesting and and so I was like google ai tell me more about metalheads podcast and george

And it goes and like, you know, scrapes our site for information and citations and stuff. And it built this whole thing about me. I was like, oh, tell me about me. And I'm not going to go on too long. Some of it's pretty funny because it'll like, it'll, it'll cross like things that, you know, like a John thing with me and, or it'll say like, John is this. And it was like, oh, well, that's a will. But, uh,

The one thing it did get right was like, George is very picky about his production. Is that right? Yeah. I was like, oh, that's funny. So it works a part of the time. Yeah. And it picked up on the pot father thing too. I was pretty happy about that. But anyway, it's all those other events that cause catastrophes that are the problem. All right. Anywho. Crap.

Where are we? I just derailed us. Finishing up with chemists. Moving on to what we're listening to, I think. All right. Let's move on to what we're listening to then. Rock on. Hold on. I gotta get this beer off. Well, that kind of went well together. Rock on, Marcus on. Hold on. Yeah. Wait, are you rapping? Hold on. Say something else. Do you have some flan? Well, Jay might get some good flan. Oh. Hawaii beer. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Did you have a good flan?

I did yeah it was cool to go back and see the all the old places you know and there's some things that are gone restaurants and things that I liked but um you know I saw some people I was hung at the comic shop for like three hours so just because I used to go there and I would sign every issue of by the horns when it came out in Hawaii and those guys are just cool I brought treats I went to a bakery and brought stuff in and um so that was really nice but Tracy and I went some really good restaurants and

I just love the fish out there. It's great. I went on a submarine tour, which I've never done before. That was fun. So it's cool. Awesome. All right. So what we're listening to. Okay, here we go. Okay, my first one on the list is Lone Shore. Nothing left to deconstruct on Willowtip Records. This album isn't actually out until Friday, but I downloaded the promo for my Hawaii trip. And I got to say, I had a hard time.

taking this thing off repeat. So they play a, I'd say a dark progressive post-metal stirred with elements of atmospheric death and melodic doom. There's a mix of cavernous growled vocals and then these soaring cleans on it. And the vocalist has a gorgeous emotional voice. So I hear a little bit of tool in some of the riffage. Sometimes I get a little hint of dream theater. Even it's very tiny, but sometimes I hear, I'm like, Oh, I want to listen to some dream theater.

But it's all wrapped up in this gift of dynamic post-Wonderman, I guess. And I really like it. I have to put it in the box because I just downloaded it and then put it on my thing and then I went to Hawaii. But I have a bunch of other stuff to put in the box for you guys too. I just haven't gotten to it yet. But Lone Shore, yeah. I don't know if they've done other records before this one, but I really liked it. The next one is Apple Lastic.

"No Plenitude Without Suffering" on Transcending Obscurity Records. This is fiery, melodic death metal. It does a really phenomenal job of counterpointing its aggression with the tunefulness, and it also sprinkles in these occasional tender moments that almost give it a progressive metal feel at times. There's even one track on here that has saxophone on it that actually worked for me.

And because most, you know, I just don't like it in most. Of course, there are exceptions, like a number one album I may have had one year. Anchor it, I'm talking to you, put on another record. But this is an excellent debut. I think it's an energetic driving record just perforated by big, bright guitar beams. The next one is Memorandum, Coded Forever. That's the translation from French.

It's an independent release. This is three songs of tortured gothic funeral doom full of exquisite keyboard compositions, demonic gutturals, and meteoric, breathtaking guitar solos. It's kind of the musical equivalent of running through a collapsing cathedral in the setting sun as the night terrors awaken in the catacombs below. It was all written and performed by one woman from Quebec. Her name is Alice Simard.

I had not heard of her or memorandum before but there are several releases so now I'm kind of diving into the the back catalog because I really like it and I'm a little bit when it comes to goth stuff it has to hit the right note for me sometimes it can be a little too gothy but I think the vocals here help because they're not that kind of like goth bellow which I am not as into now as I was when I was a my dying bride kid back in the day

The Fifth Alliance Stenohoria on Tartarus Records. So this album, it crashes the barriers of Black and Doom with post-metal and features a really versatile vocalist named Natalia. And she has just joined the band. Apparently they've had several releases, but it's another band I just kind of found. But she's really good. She can glide from a fragile whisper to a passionate demon bellow.

She's definitely a big star and it doesn't sound like the

kind of commercial metal it's it's very very harsh it's really good the fifth alliance

uh then i have the last one on this part of it is silera an aberration of the void this is an

independent release and um ben from the endless metal podcast sent me this album and i was immediately

taken with it uh he wrote on their bandcamp page so i'm just going to read this ben because i don't know

that i don't have to describe it you did it so he says do not sleep on this remarkable cosmic black metal

record three complete spins in and i'm in awe at how solera create transitions and moments of tension and release

that are rarely ever obvious obvious yet an aberration of the void is so mesmerizing and heavy with

with emotional depth like the true masters of the genre this is a definite 2026 album of the year lister and i can't wait to see them live someday soon mdf would be perfect so that's what i had on my list for new releases and going into pick from the crypt we're doing it that way again george yep okay so my pick from the crypt is sadness demo 11. this was released in 2016.

But it was re-released this year on cassette by Third House Records for the 10th anniversary. And this album is actually a compilation of unreleased music from 2015. But it doesn't sound like a record of misfit songs. It's one, if not my favorite albums that Sadness has ever recorded. Because it's a bit of a swing point for Damien Ojeda when his songwriting was evolved.

into this more layered, more complex, emotional blend of black metal, emo, post-rock. It's got beautiful melodies, anguished vocals, but it was also produced in this very DIY black metal style. So I think the collision of those two factors just makes for an incredible sounding album because it has that devastatingly gorgeous and full of heart-wrenching heaviness to it.

But then the chilly, unrefined production just really brings out all the pained intensity of the music. I saw Sadness perform recently, and they were stunning. And they're coming back around to Chicago, I think, in the fall, so I'm going to go again. But I love when those solo studio-only projects, they become full bands, and then you get to see all those songs reinterpreted live. It's kind of brought a whole new level.

of connection to the band for me and they also sold demo 11 on cassette at the show so now i get to spit it on cassette and i'm in the quiet dark and then i can just cry so uh i love sadness and this guy uh damian oheda he's done i don't know how many sadness records it's a lot he's very very prolific and in multiple

multiple bands, but yeah, one of my favorites and a band, now a band, that I spin pretty regularly. And that's it. All righty. Situational Paradox. Yes, sir. First album, the album is Never End Lease by a band called Ingrina.

them as post-metal. Very heavy on the atmosphere with sprinkles of black metal. It definitely reminds me a lot of Bluto Snort. That came out February 13th on Medication Time Records. Next is a band called Muerto. They are from Mexico. The album is called Eclipsed Realms. It is really, to me, it feels like really stripped down black metal.

And the vocals are just, I mean, I don't know how else to describe them other than sinister. I think the album kind of fills out a little bit, feels a little bit more like post-black metal, probably some other sounds, but I mean, it just grabbed me right away. I feel like if there was ever like a documentary about a ritual killing, this would be the soundtrack. Definitely worth checking out. That came out in April on Transcending Obscurity. The band Rivers Ablaze, they are from Hungary. The album is called An External Dread.

It came out March 27th on initial music. It's just really catchy death metal with kind of black and

progressive leanings. I've been doing this like, and we can, when I spin the wheel again and I get my, the other one I wrote down, which was how you consume music. One thing I've been doing this year that's a little bit different is I've been putting just different playlists of stages where bands are at with it, where like it's a new release I'm considering or it's list worthy.

I took the considering and I made a playlist and then I put it on shuffle and I did a bunch of yard work outside. But, you know, normally, as we've mentioned earlier, even on this podcast, we listen to albums. We don't listen to singles. We're not necessarily in it for a particular song, but it was interesting to listen to it in that way. But I just I kept reaching for my phone every time. It would be like Rivers of Blaze. Like, oh, I love this song. You know, this is a good album. So we're checking out the new chemists listening to it.

a lot of that really digging it. Um, but I do agree with, you know, some of the stuff we talked about. Uh, and lastly, the band, definitely one of my made up bands from years past. The name is Eardve, E-R-D-V-E. They're from Lithuania. This album is called Epigrama, E-P-I-G-R-A-M-A. Uh, it's on season of mist came out recently, May 29th. I would, it's, it's kind of like black and sludgy hardcore. Um, I love the stuff.

MDF, weren't they? Were they really? I feel like they might have been. Pretty sure, because Ben

talked about them, and he loves that album. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's good. You know, there's a part of me that listened to a lot of hardcore back in the day, and this definitely hits those fields, although, you know, kind of the sludge influence definitely helps. And then my pick from the Crypt, George, there was a lot of things you said about MDF that really hit me.

One of them was,

you saw Rod and Christ for the first time.

And I flashed back to Valken and seeing them for the first time there.

And it was just this like,

what?

But you also mentioned some other things,

one of which was early Testament.

And so I,

I made a playlist called post pod and souls of black was the first

Testament album I ever knew existed.

And that was by the cover.

I was a small child and saw the ad in a,

whatever,

whatever,

metal magazine,

probably,

um,

metal maniacs at the time or whatever.

Um,

that is my pick from the crypt.

That's a way back machine.

That's like what?

90,

89.

Wait,

probably.

It's gotta be 90.

Cause I think,

I think practice what you preach was 88,

87 or 88.

And I'm pretty sure souls of black was after that.

And then it was the,

the ritual or something like that.

Okay. The other one that hits me is Return to the Apocalyptic City, which I know is an EP, so I didn't put it on here. But that was the other one that really resonated, especially visually. Yeah, I did go and do a little Mike Howe Metal Church. Yeah. Just like, you know, so good. R.I.P. Mike. All right, John.

All right. Another thing about the thing in John Carpenter. Just kidding. Sorry, as I was listening. Common misconception people have about this script. Well, at the end of the thing, you got to wonder, is he a replicant? Or is he an alien? Just so everybody knows, blood tests are a segment on the wheel. Okay. That is one of the all-time greatest.

sci-fi horror endings ever to any movie. It's one of the best sci-fi movies ever. It really is. Why don't we just sit here and find out? Yeah. As you guys are talking and I'm listening, I'm watching Ghana score a goal in the 95th minute of a game to take the lead. So I've been watching you guys and the World Cup at the same time. Thanks for giving us your undivided attention. I have answered everything and I have chimed in quite a bit, actually. I'm just teasing.

All right. Although I did think of you guys, because if you remember, we were watching, remember the World Cup where at your house that time, George, and Harry Kane for England missed his penalty kick. And I screamed and I was pissed. He missed the penalty kick today, but they, they gave the kick back to him and he made it. So that was kind of funny. All right. So my list, uh, I'll make this quick because two of mine, we've already talked about fires in the distance and the chemists. I like both albums. We've talked about them enough to know what I think about them, what you guys think about them.

I think so I'll mention those two. The next two are not so much metal, but whatever. One's called Sleeping Pulse, Dreams and Limitations. And this is a duo project featuring Mick Moss of Animatter. If you're not familiar who Animatter is, Mick Moss hooked up with Duncan Patterson from Anathema many, many years ago. And they, when he left Anathema, Duncan Patterson, and they formed Animatter. Well, now Mick Moss is on his own.

And he hooked up with this multi-instrumentalist, I believe, from Portugal, Luis Fazendero. I guess I'm pronouncing his name wrong, but it's kind of a mix of progressive metal, prog rock, and alternative rock. It's their second album and his first one since the debut in 2014. It's 2026, and I never thought that all these albums would be coming out this year from bands that hadn't released albums in a very, very long time.

And this is just another one of at least, I don't know, three or four bands that I like a lot that are doing that. But it's good. If you are interested, I would suggest checking it out. Our good friend Derek Weston, right? I'm tired, so I apologize. And I know I know this. I know I know this. I've been up since five. Our friend Derek from Ireland, he's a Sleeping Pulse fan, and he's an Animatter fan. And he just was telling me,

They finally ordered it and was waiting for it to come in the mail. I think he'll enjoy it. It's good. Where it is with the first one, I don't know yet. My next one, you know, you couldn't eat. The crickets would queue up crickets for this one. It's a drummer called Oliver Zisco, and the album's called Planet Based or Plant Based. You have to see the way it's spelled, but he's a Hungarian drummer who's most notably known for playing in the atmospheric black metal band,

He was in the band for a little while. It's his fourth, I guess, solo album, and it features former members from Cynic Dream Theater and Alan Holdsworth. So if you put the math together on that, what you get is a fusion prog. It's fusion prog. His words, fusion prog music with crushing metal guitars. And I would agree with that. And I absolutely love that style of music. So I only listened today for the first time because I feel like it's a

I forgot it actually dropped a couple weeks ago so hey uh if I may inject for a moment something you said just reminded me of something uh and uh we just do that right so uh you mentioned cynic didn't you think you did I did yes and that reminded me that when I was listening to the godthrim some of the female vocals on that reminded me of like some focus type vocals you know those weird vocals on focus oh the where he uses the uh

The Vox, whatever, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't like that, but it reminded me of that sound from the Godtharm album, so I just wanted to mention that. Or it could have been the Portal album they did, where they got rid of all their death metal altogether and just went in that direction. Okay, I got one last album, and it's not an album. It's three song drops, but they're all sort of related, and this gets back to a comment I made, I don't know if it was six hours ago.

or an hour ago. And these, I'll read the three song drops and then I'll tell you why. I lumped them all together. First we have The Ocean, Light Pollution from their forthcoming album Solaris. Then we had Mastodon drop the song called Your Ghost Again. And then, just the other day, Colta Luna dropped the title track from their upcoming album In the Shadow of Your Shadow, which is coming out in November at Blist Buster.

I found it interesting that all three of these bands released an album this year and Neurosis released an album this year. What is going on? Is this like a revival of the mid to late 2000s of post-metal? Because these are all now, granted, Mastodon is not post-metal, but they do have a sludge aspect. And all these bands at one time or another had a sludge aspect. Neurosis still obviously does and so does Cult of Luna. But it's like this weird,

It's not the shit verse. We're in a different verse right now. Where all these bands are coming back. There's like a revival. I think Jay, you mentioned that too. About there being something going on with another subgenre. And it just feels like this is happening with these kind of sludge atmospheric post-metally bands that kind of went prog or stayed in that realm. I never thought I'd have a year where all those bands are releasing music 20-some years later. But yeah.

Just something I noticed. All right. And my pick from the crypt, this one is for you, Jay. Today is the 23rd anniversary of a little EP that is three grindcore albums long. And that is John Arches' A Twist of Fate. That's a good one. Came out, which was, for all intents and purposes, the first actual release by Arch Matheos, although called just John Arches.

But it's a two-song 28-minute EP. It's outstanding from start to finish. It features Jim Matheos from Fate's Warning. At the time, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater and Joey Vera, who was, if you don't know him, Armored Saint bassist and also the bassist for Fate's Warning. And I just thought it was appropriate that today is the anniversary, and I absolutely love that EP. And like I said, it's three grindcore albums long, so.

It was in the form of two songs.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just two songs. So. It's a two song EP that is longer than rain and blood. Frankly. I think it's right there. Yeah. Yeah. Cause like 30 minutes. Yeah. So. What year? How long ago? What's the. 2003. And that was John Archer's first musical album. He was involved with since 1986, but since he left fate's morning in 1987, he put a lot of work into it though. Yeah.

And it's predominantly him, but it's a collaboration to some degree with Jim Athios from Thanksgiving. Yeah. Cool. All right. For metal stuff, this new song drops as mentioned. Mastodon, we're all curious to see where that's going. Listen to the stuff we talked about in new releases. Nothing else too interesting or worth mentioning as far as straight up metal goes.

But I'm going to kind of revert back to when we first got on, and this was before we pushed record. But I also started playing guitar again recently, which thankfully it all came out. Finally. Well, it's funny because I was a little bit like the first three days, I was like, I don't know how to play the guitar. And then all of a sudden it happens again, and you're just like, oh, okay, yeah. And your speed comes back and everything. But it's really made me thoughtful. I've gone a different direction, and this is relevant to what I'm listening to.

But I'm kind of staying away from the really high-gain-driven stuff. And I got an ES-335, George Nelson. What that is, John Prolly. Well, maybe everybody knows what it is. But we're talking about a big, hollow-body electric guitar. I still do what a Les Paul can do, but it's got some subtle things to it. I was disappointed it wasn't white, Jay. You know what? Blog was all they had. Yeah, I know you. You know what? I saw it. I just saw an interview where he talked about how when they got that first check, after they signed.

That's the first thing you bought. We're talking about Alex Lifeson from Rush. I gotta get him in, George. I'm sorry. I just have to. I love that guitar. He actually made all the stuff they bought, and they bought a good bunch of stuff. He bought the 335 and something else, and then the amps and stuff. But in any case, it's made me thoughtful about a guitar playing, but also guitar listening. And I've got this new app where I'm listening. It's called Spark. It's an amplifier you buy, and you can do everything

from just download and iron maiden if you wanted to and play along and it'll tell you what chords to play so it's pretty cool but it also emulates the sounds and blah blah blah but that's not really the stuff i'm leaning towards anyway long story short if you're going to play guitar and you want to play interesting guitar stuff there's a lot of guys you can get stuck in like peter green i've been playing stuff like that but my main listening obsession lately has been the first eight zz tap records of course and um and i've really i guess i've always listened

as a guitar player, but really, really listening, the way some of these things are layered, where some of them aren't layered and that kind of stuff. So I'm really in a big, deep, this would be for people who don't know ZZ Top, this would be a record literally called ZZ Top's first record up through Eliminator, which is the one everybody knows. And they continue to exist and have a lot of records since then. But those eight are foundational. So that, I've been enjoying that. That's my listening to. And I'm going to choose one of those. Before you move on. Pick from the Crypt, because I really,

I think metal people would appreciate them. And I'm going to throw out a weird one called Tejas. T-E-J-A-S, which is not the Spanish spelling of Texas. The Spanish spelling of Texas is Texas. And you just pronounce the X as silent. But in any case, a record called Tejas, and this would be the first record they did after the live record they did, and then they took a break. And they came back and started to become the Eliminator Band.

But it's about as heavy as ZZ Top gets. And yeah, it's worth your time to check it out. It's a lot of fun, this record. And I'm going to throw out one little thing about ZZ Top that I love. If you haven't seen the documentary done by Sam Dunn, you should see it. Sam Dunn. Done by Dunn. The Metal Universe did a very good documentary about them on Netflix. You can watch it for free. And one of my favorite parts of that documentary is

Dusty Hill, rest his soul, so be the member of ZZ Top who's departed us. They did their first three or four records and then they did this live record and it was kind of not huge, but they were playing big places. They didn't get rich, but they made enough money to stop for a couple of years. My favorite thing in the world is Dusty Hill went and got a job at the airport and he told them, my name is Joe, and he wore a shirt with a patch on it that said Joe, and he just worked at the airport for a year or two and drank at the bar on Friday night and everybody thought

He talks about it out there. Anyway, so ZZ Top, check out Tejas, check out Diguelo, check out Aloko. All of these early records are great. Nice. Jay, did you watch the Rick Beato interview with Alex Lifeson? That one where he talked about that stuff? Yeah. I saw, not in total, it got into my algorithm.

And so I've probably seen his answers to maybe multiple questions. There's a reason I ask, because you guys were talking about the 355. And they talk about that, the Alex Lifeson cord. Do you know what I'm referring to? I do. Yeah. It's he's this unique cord that he came up with on a Pharaoh, the Kings. And they talk about it. And, you know, that where the finger placement is and everything. And Rick Beato says, so, I mean, what do you call it? He says, well, you know, some people,

I just like to call it the Alex Lifesincord.

Good for him, dude.

And if you know anything about him, he's a clown.

He likes to...

He's a huge clown.

He just...

Every...

And Geddy cannot stop laughing when he says stupid things.

And so...

Oh, and sometimes he calls them out.

He's like, enough with the dancing already, dude.

Yeah.

The, um...

Hey, uh...

Have you been going radio silence on them, John?

I know.

I know everything.

Okay.

Which, by the way, if you're out there and you're a Rush fan, watch some of these clips. The drummer was a great choice. She plays wonderfully, and they sound great. Amy Mann joined them, I think, at the forum for Time Spence. All four nights she played or sang with them. Yeah, and this Rush comeback is legit, and the set list is off the charts. So if you're at all into Rush, you might want to look into what they're doing right now. I swear to God, there's one song.

They don't play it for any of the nights I go. I'm just gonna be pissed and have to buy tickets somewhere else to hope that I can see that one song. Is there superstition? Can we keep it from saying it out loud or can you tell us? That's already out there. Farewell to Kings. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Haven't played it in 47 years. How many shows? You're going to three shows in three cities? Three different cities, yeah. Okay, where are you going? Fort Worth. We're flying in just for a couple days and seeing the show coming right now.

And then we're going to Cleveland.

Where I may get to see.

Our podcast listeners.

Julian Lance.

I believe George has met them.

Right.

I don't think I have.

You met them at Prague power.

I don't think so.

I know TR knows them.

Yeah.

And then.

Obviously seen him in DC.

They announced a DC show.

And I was like.

Well why the hell would I not go to a DC show.

Yeah.

I mean, I know the tickets are $4,000, but still. Yeah, I can't even afford to go to the one here, let alone around the country. That list has been a little fluid, too, which is nice. I mean, they're really out there having a good time. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a keyboardist now, too. So did you see Getty gets mad at his bass guy? He had a bass that just quit playing the mid-show or something. Man, I never saw Getty look like he was losing his temper, and he sure looked like he was losing his temper. And he really didn't necessarily lose it. No.

He knew right where it was. And he was like, fuck you, kind of thing. It's kind of funny because they were playing 21-12. Yeah. And it cropped out and he was getting kind of animated. And the rest of the band just kept playing. Yeah, they did. And he was standing there and he's just like looking like, why are you still playing? They finally stopped. He got his bass and he did that. You know, you throw your finger in a circle. It's like, start it from the beginning. They restarted the song over. Which probably drove the crowd crazy.

In the best kind of way. Yeah. Yeah. Is anybody else going to Marcus over? You going to see rush? I'm not going. Um, I have opportunities to go. I just, I'm not going to make it. I'm not selling a kidney. Yeah. Yeah. I hear it's expensive and we've got so many other things. It's hard to fit it in. And I was just curious. Yeah. I do want to go though. Even Ben offered, he's got like an extra ticket. And I was like, I would say, I don't know if he does anymore, but, uh, I would imagine there'll, there'll be more dates and this isn't the end of it.

They're not just gonna do this and then I think they're having too good of a time. Oh no no maybe they'll make an album who knows. Maybe we'll see who's gonna write the lyrics but whatever. They'll tour more so I'm sure I'll catch him at some point just it wasn't working out. If you want to know about the lyrics just go back and listen to the first album. Yeah that's a good point. Well thank goodness they're back I think that's fun. Yeah. Anyway George are you great.

I extended my segment there quite a bit. Sorry. I was going to say, I really think that the 335 is a very appropriate guitar for you right now, given I know what you're listening to and what you're enjoying. And I think that that fits the groove really well for like bluesy and country and stuff like that. Well, we're doing the Peter Green type things. And yeah, it's I think also there's an age thing there, too. And it's also it covers a lot of ground. Oh, it does. But it's such a pretty.

It really is, dude. Like, I sort of feel like, why didn't I get one of these like 20 years ago? Well, because 20 years ago you wanted to rock. Yeah, exactly. Now you want finesse. And you were probably like, I don't want that. And that is what I'm working on is finesse. And you've got, you hit it right on the nose. Yeah, that's what I used. Yeah, it's a treat to have. I used the 355 on the, I did a cover of Hank Williams' Lost Highway. Well, now I'm told the 355 has a pretty,

Rounded, bigger neck. Do you notice that? Well, I haven't played a 335 to know the difference. I only have the 355. I see. But it's quite easy to play. Yeah. You know what makes me want? And neither you or I can afford one, nor could we together, is a Birdland. Yeah, I was looking at that. I was like, well, what other old Gibson-type guitars don't I have? And yeah, the Birdland was, fuck Nugent, but

But you know, Birdland. I don't think they make them anymore. No, they don't. They don't. But you can get old ones. I think the Joe Pass thing might be kind of like that. There's a Joe Pass signature. In any case, you're absolutely right. And I'm glad that you know that and appreciate that because it's fun to talk about it. But yeah, it's exactly the right guitar for me. Oh, yeah. I play that more than anything, probably. And I like having so much to rest my arm on, too. Yeah. It's a big guitar. It's a big boy.

Or girl.

All right.

What am I listening to?

Well, first one up.

Did not think I was going to be putting this on my list anytime soon,

but I put Demi Borgir's Grand Serpent Rising,

their 11th album, Norwegian symphonic black metal.

And I mean, it's not like it's like,

ooh, blowing my mind or anything.

It's the overkill of symphonic black metal.

But I was like, you know, I haven't listened to these guys in a really long time. Let me check this out. And, you know, when they were one of the early bands that started doing the symphonic black metal, and at the time that was really cool, and I was really into that. But then, you know, like so many things that are good, everybody did it, and it just got to be like, yeah, I can't listen to this crap anymore.

And now, not as many people are doing it. And so I was like, all right, let me listen to it again. I was like, yeah, I can live without this, but it's not bad. You know, they do it well. You know what? I'm going to listen to it. I wasn't thinking about it, but it just inspired me. I'm going to listen to it. Yeah. I mean, it's, I wouldn't expect to see it on my list probably, but it was still fun. Blast from the past. Yeah. Cool to revisit something.

you haven't listened to in a while you know yeah for sure a band yeah uh next up the new

Genghis Tron album Signal Fire their fourth album New York Cybergrind I like calling it synth grind because

it's apparently cyber grind is a thing you can go on Bandcamp and look up cyber grind but I like it I like to call it

synth grind because it takes two things that just don't seem like they should go together and make it into a peanut butter cup

And the last album, Dream Weapon or something like that, I forget what it was called, Dream Something, was much more synth than it had barely any metal in it at all. This has a much bigger helping of metal. They brought in two of the guys from Sumac and a guy from another band that I'm not going to mention because I don't like them.

or just don't care about them rather. But this is a really cool album. This is up there with my like zeal and ardor kind of love for weird and avant-garde stuff because it's just it's very synthy. It's very 80s like Stranger Things synthwave kind of music. Although I dare say it kind of ventures into Nine Inch Nails territory.

But then they'll just be like, oh, we're doing grind now. And arch vocals, fast music. And it's just like, whoa. And it like transitions. Like, it's not like this jarring, like, where's the sound effect? Is it grind with the guitars or grind with synth? No, it has guitar. I mean, there is a lot of synth, but they do use guitars as well. Okay. And so they'll be like the beginning of one of the songs. It just goes straight into grind and you're like, yeah, that's grindcore.

And then it'll like sort of like a chemist song it like eases back and it goes and then the synth comes in and are the songs 27 seconds long no no they're all like four or five minutes long okay what was the name of it again Joe signal fire is the album by Genghis Tron which is just the coolest band name ever talking about that on the messenger so I'll have to take a look all right I'm checking

Yeah, I mean, you know, you gotta like synth music to get into it, which I do. But this is not, I mean, I would say it's probably like 6535 on the synth and metal. Okay, you know, but there's enough metal in there that you're like, you know, I'll allow it. I'll allow it. And what I thought would be really cool.

For these guys to do a show with Hoover, that would be phenomenal avant pop grind. I was thinking they'd do a show with the kids from Stranger Things. That too. That too. I guess they're not kids anymore. They're not. No, I guess not. Yeah. I mean, they're all mid-20s now, probably. At least early. Yeah. Hawaii. Yeah. So very cool. Very strange. Not yet.

typical album. Cool, Church. Next one is a little more typical, and that is the 12th album from Jungle Rot, Cruel Face of War. I think Will might have mentioned this, or it was his album of the month, I think. But yeah, this is straight up Wisconsin death metal. If you know Jungle Rot, you know what you're getting. And they surprised me a number of years back because I was like, oh, Jungle Rot, that sounds like another, you know, mediocre death metal band.

And that is not the case. These guys have always. Like they always show up. And I like this one too. So. And I know Will likes it. And that's all that really matters, right? Yes. This is the first time I think of. If Justin likes it. True. True. Sorry. Justin supersedes Will. Yes. Don't tell Will. All right. And lastly.

a live album called Symphonique. And it is freaking horrible. Oh no! Didn't expect that, George. Well, I love Voivote. Love, love, love. But I do not think their music translates to an orchestra. Yeah, I don't, yeah. I can see. It's too avant-garde. It's too strange chord progressions and stuff. And it almost, I don't know, it just sounded noisy.

Sure. I'll buy that. And, you know, Snake, I love him. How weird they released it if it didn't sound great. Well, I didn't listen to the whole thing. I just spot played it because I was like, oh, okay. I was like, well, what's this sound like? And I was like, oh, that's terrible. Let me just try a little more. Oh, that's terrible. And so, yeah, you know, this is not S&M. This is not, this is not The Moth.

This is something else.

They're touring now.

I keep getting notifications about their tour, actually.

Nice.

I would definitely see them as long as there isn't an orchestra present.

No orchestra, no strings.

Yeah.

And for my pick from the crypt, which I neglected to do and did while you guys were talking,

I'm going to go with 1993's High on Infinity by Count Raven.

I don't know if anybody knows those guys but uh I know but I haven't listened to that in a bazillion years yeah it's like obscure fairly obscure 90s Swedish epic doom that's a cool name yeah Count Raven um let me quote the google uh high on infinity stands as an absolute master class in traditional underground doom metal hailing from Sweden this cult power trio crafted an album that is widely regarded by genre purists

as their creative peak. It is a massive fuzz-drenched journey through human misery, societal paranoia, and heavy psychedelic soundscapes. And I'm going to skip down to... Where did I see that? Are you sure you're not reading one of your journal entries, George? Yes. But it also mentions something that I always found pleasing, which you would not normally think would be a pleasing thing, but the vocal delivery sounds shockingly like a direct reincarnation of Ozzy Osbourne.

This album is like

sort of

like the sequel to Volume 4

That makes it interesting to me

Yeah it's a very cool album

and all their albums are

pretty good

You had me at fuzz drenched

Kind of like my nerds

Well that's drenched fuzz

Now I'm out

Yeah definitely

Check these guys out. Alrighty, well. You can't get that vision out of my head now. Fuzzing arts? That's tough. Don, you gotta sleep at some point, buddy. Don't close your eyes. Alright, well, why don't we move on now to the segment of the episode? Oh, yeah. Let's bring it. So today's segment.

is on the shoulders of Marcus on. I'm going to let him explain it, even though he is not the original origin of it. And we'll get into this. Okay. Well, I guess I will just give a quick recap for folks who are listening for the first time. We have a brand new format at the end of every episode. One of us spins a wheel that has 30 different topics on it. And whatever topic the spinner lands,

will be part of the next show we aren't telling you what all the topics are so they'll be a surprise so the last episode i spun the wheel and i got this segment called would you rather which is something we'll like to do as a lightning round with guests so he would present them two horrid choices and they'd have to pick between them so with the wheel whoever spins gets to decide how to run the segment they land on

So at first I thought about being the one who presents the choices, but then decided I should be the one in the hot seat and have everyone else come at me with scenarios. So Will's going to kick off this segment with two choices. My winning choice then goes up against a new situation by a different host. And then we go around until we're all out of scenarios or I pass out from the horror of this heinous thing.

it to me, Will. All right. So I'm going to start off with an obvious one because this is one of those things that started this whole segment. But Marcus Hahn, would you rather listen to me complain about the Black Album or actually listen to the Black Album? Listen to the Black Album, definitely. Yeah. All right. So now it's Jay's turn. So I picked,

Listen to the black album. Then you present your other situation. Oh, man. I was going to go. I was going to go. Hold up. That's fine. Well, but this is going to be too easy for you then. Would you rather clean Led Zeppelin's hotel rooms or listen to the black album? Listen to the black album. Fair enough. Clean the hotel room. Holy shit. Literally. That's awful. House for the holy shit. So it's funny.

how George is saying or you guys were saying about the black album and it's it's winning right now so here's the funny thing about that is that this could be Will's worst nightmare we could get to the end of this thing and and the black album wins yeah and I and I realized that I know and I realize that I probably should have started with something different and the questions I had uh they were always pitting my individual questions against each other and I forgot I have to anyway um but you never know what I'm gonna do I can't be unpredictable yes all right so Marcus

would you rather listen to the black album or be the only human alive that isn't able to know that Darth Vader is actually Anakin Skywalker? We as a society have agreed to keep this as a secret from you for eternity. This is good. Oh shit. Well, I'm, oh my gosh. Um, I think I'm going to go with the Darth Vader situation. Okay. Nice. That sounds great. I like not knowing something. Okay. Huh? Well, there you go. Well, the, it's broken. Well, I mean, in my plan,

I like the sci-fi concept of... Yeah, that's pretty wild. That we're all a little bit like... It's my only non-metal one, but all of mine are about an alternate reality. So just brace yourself. Basically not know that Darth Vader is Luke's father. Yeah, but we all do. And we talk, we share it together collectively as a society. Who's his dad? I'm like, can't tell you, brother. Love it.

There he isn't.

You know?

Like Obi-Wan's is dead.

Why do you guys giggle every time you see Luke kissing Princess Leia?

Yeah.

You should totally date her.

What am I missing?

Hey, did anybody send me to Widow's Bay?

Not yet.

Let's go with something pretty simple.

The Darth Vader thing.

Or.

That thing you said. Wake up tomorrow with a giant tattoo of Fred Durst on your back. Oh, man. It's horrible. Yes, Darth Vader, for sure. Absolutely. That's a good one, man. All right. So I'm going to go now. All right, Marcus, would you rather not know who Darth Vader really is? Or would you rather attend a baby metal concert while holding a baby? Darth Vader, for sure.

Yeah, I don't want to hold any babies. You don't want to go to baby metal or hold a baby. Well, that's I know you don't want to hold babies, but I had to make it all about babies. So we made it baby metal. I mean, I guess babies aren't that bad. Depends on how long you have to hold it. You'd have to hold it for the whole show, though. Right. But baby metal is bad. Can we please make that the name of the episode? I guess babies aren't that bad. Sure. So Darth Vader is going to win because like that's way better than anything I'm going to give you. Yeah.

You never know what I'm gonna pick though. I might make it harder on you, but not yet. All right. All right, my turn. Markazan, would you not know who Luke Skywalker's father is or have Iron Maiden retire and never write or tour again? Interesting. That is interesting because to be honest with you, it might be time. Don't give him any hints. I feel like it is time, actually.

But I don't want to retire yet because I gotta see him. So I still gotta go with not knowing Darth Vader secrets. Would you rather not know who Luke Skywalker's father was or be Roger Waters' press agent?

Watters is a dick.

Well, first of all, you make a terrible press agent if that's where you're starting.

I think maybe if he acknowledged it and then we moved on, that might be good, actually.

Got to go with Darth Vader still.

All right, fine.

Jay, I think that was David Gilmore's press agent there.

With Roger Watters as a dick.

Wait, which one's the dick?

One of them's a dick, right?

It probably has a business card he gives to people here.

Wait, John, are they both dicks or just one? I think David Gilmore is... I think they're both dicks, but... Well, yeah, David Gilmore just doesn't do it in public. Okay, okay. Yeah, I do think they're both dicks, but Roger would probably win the prize. Who's the one that was, like, down on Ozzy? That's Roger. Oh, it's Roger Waters. Yeah. Okay. I just saw a thing where Phil Collins was like, yeah, I like his music, but Roger Waters... I think they all sort of feel that way, Bottom. Yeah.

Would you rather the whole Darth Vader thing that I'm not going to repeat? Or lose your entire music collection? You're talking like everything. Everything. Digital, vinyl, cassettes. Oh yeah. Darth Vader. Yeah. I was thinking about how I could rebuild that, but. You could. I could do that, but I don't want to. I'm old now. And I got a lot of shit.

It was like, it's not like insurmountable, but it sure is a pain in the ass.

Yeah.

Let's be clear here, by the way, this Darth Vader thing, that's a little weird.

You don't know.

Keep in mind, you're giving up some knowledge there.

The rest of us think you're an idiot, first off.

The whole world is like, what's this fucking guy doing?

I don't care what people think.

So there's that.

Yeah, I don't care.

And I wouldn't know.

I don't know.

But here's the great part.

That survived, and now it's back around the mat.

So he has to put his against his own.

Yeah.

I will say that learning that the truth is what we'll call it changed me as a child. Oh, yeah, really what it's really what was the permanent heroin in my veins. That is Star Wars. I think I got something that will go up against it, but keep going. Yeah. All right. So Darth Vader or live in an alternate reality where the only musical artist that exists is a band named Bolton Thrower, fronted by Michael Bolton. And they play two types of music,

songs that sound like Michael Bolton and Michael Bolton songs that sound like

Bolt Thrower for eternity.

Yikes.

Holy shit.

It would be interesting.

It would be interesting.

Fuck it. I'm going with Bolton. Let's do it.

Oh shit.

Bolton Tower.

I kind of want to hear that now.

Right? There's some

intriguement to it.

I'm intrigued. You put some thought into these, Matt.

Well, I mean, they're both personal favorite artists of mine, so. You know, you look like, Matt, you look like, oh, shit, what's his name? George Clooney? No. I'm just grabbing at straws here. Give me a second here. I'll tell a joke while you're looking for it. This old guy,

is living in a retirement home. He's 97 years old and all of his buddies decide. He's turning 98. Let's just let's get him a hooker. You know, he's an assisted living. So they had his birth the morning of his birthday. Are you reading your will or is this a joke? That's a joke. On the morning of his birthday, he hears a knock on his door and he goes to the door and out the hallways is a beautiful woman. And she says, I'm here to give you super sex. And he says, I'll take the soup.

What a perfect joke for this particular scenario. All right, Matt, you look like Brian Posehn went on Ozempic. Really? Oh, I kind of do, don't I? Matt always looks like somebody else. That's freaking me out. He looks like really handsome people. And then Brian Posehn. It's a filter I have in Zoom.

Is it Joy this time? Where are we at? No, it's John. It's mine. Sorry, John. All right, Marcus, let's see. Matt kind of threw me off there a little bit. Bolton Thrower. No, no, no. Meaning where I'm going to go because you'll know later. All right, so would you rather be in the Bolton Thrower multiverse or would you rather be greased up and naked in the pit for a Five Finger Death Punch concert? Oh, God. Bolton Thrower. I'm going to go over really big there, by the way.

I have to have to piggyback on that while we're here because it's almost exactly what I have for one but it's spend 10 minutes naked in a grind core pit where everyone else is wearing razor blade suits oh that's a got of the movie seven so since I'm not going to use that one now I had to piggyback it for that too oh yeah you know what I could have chose that one for you will all right mark us on

Would you rather listen to Bolton Thrower or see Cannibal Corpse live every day on tour for a year? Wow. I got to go with Cannibal Corpse for sure. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's fun. It was better paired with the other thing I was going to do. Well, inspired. Which also required you being naked, ironically. Yeah. I want to be naked for sure. I just don't want razor blades.

I don't want five-figure death punch. It's a given. These all have some nudity in them. Okay, so I'm going to kind of go along with Matt and pull something from a semi-popular movie and say, would you rather go to see Cannibal Corpse every night for a year, which, by the way, come on. And I'm saying that's a negative thing, even though I like them. Or, not unlike this movie, live in a world where you're the only one who knew the Beatles existed, and yet they just

And you're the only one who knew the Beatles songs. There was no Beatles to be seen, heard, or whatever. You had a movie yesterday. So this is the Darth Vader opposite. Opposite of Darth Vader. Okay. Something only you would know. Okay. So it's just normal life, except I know about the Beatles, which I don't really. And nobody else does. Okay. Interesting. My dad is a huge Beatles fan, though. So that'd be kind of sad.

Do I want to take that away?

You get out of wills free

Isn't this a movie? This was a movie, right?

It is. Yeah, I took it from there. Yeah, Matt inspired me in the movie. I watched not long ago. So I thought

I gotta go with that one because I can still see cannibal corpse every night if I wanted to

So yes, I'm the only one who knows about the Beatles. That's fine.

You have wiped out the Beatles

I don't know if it's any different for me

You just took the joy away from millions of people

I love that

I hope you feel good about yourself

Including all those bands you like that now

they don't do music

because they didn't have the Beatles.

That's fine.

Yeah, so like no cannibal corpse.

No, no, no metal.

Metal ceases to exist because the Beatles didn't.

I think metal's not going to exist because the Beatles.

Hey, the biggest rock band in the world, man.

We still have the Rolling Stones, so.

Yeah, maybe.

But we also probably won't have baby metal

or five-figure death punch, so.

I'm okay with that.

George.

Me.

Okay.

So now it is no Beatles versus you have every album ever made, but every album is missing one random track.

That's a really good one.

Cause I am an album guy.

And what's just one song, you know,

except that it's random.

Would I know that it's missing? I guess. Yes, you absolutely know. Because that makes a difference. Shit. Wow. That's a good one, George. Huh. Well, I guess you made a pretty good point about the Beatles. How would that influence music if nobody knew about them? I think it's self-metal. Yeah, but now everyone's just not going to let it be. This sucks. We've all seen back to the show. But we also just wiped out Yoko Ono. Score. Oh, this is a hard one. I'm going to go with

George's. I'm going to go with every album in the world minus one track. Because at least you're getting some out of this one, right? And I have everything. I don't think I could have done that. But just know, Marcus, on every album that there's only one track is gone. I know. It could be my favorite track, too. No, no Dope Smoker for you. Jesus. It could be a shitty, like, opening instrumental track. It could be the hit single off every album. It could be.

Could be like that song that ends after SATO. See you later. Can you imagine the black album without Unforgiven? I mean, that would be difficult. It could be an album from a grind record and it makes no difference. I like how Matt brings up that. It's good to bring up the black album every once in a while just to poke. He's sort of like, hey, Will, didn't your grandma die recently? Just like bring that up every once in a while.

Situations. You guys have no idea what it's going to go up against. So. All right. Who's up? Cause I'm running up against time. Yes, sir. That was George. So it's Matt's turn. So where did we land on that one? Every album with minus one song or be stricken with the bizocalypse curse, where you live in a world where the events of metal apocalypse come true, except it's called bizocalypse. And instead of that being the band death clock, it's Limp Bizkit for eternity. So like they, like our whole world revolves around their

music.

Oh, fuck.

Floating Island.

I got, I'm going to stick with the...

Give me something to break.

Albums with the one missing track for sure.

I hate Limp Bizkit.

Smart.

Matt doesn't.

Clearly not.

Is that the second time that's come up?

Uh, yeah.

The Durst tattoo.

Jesus.

Okay.

What's become of us?

Give me the nookie.

Matt's the real estate.

I hope Fred Durst isn't listening.

You know, I'm not a fan of theirs at all. I mean, but I saw that Wes Borland recently picked him on. I like him. He looks old, dude. He turned into a potato. He looks like a real estate agent now. I'm not joking. He totally aged like 30 years. And I mean, he didn't look up. It's not that he looks old. He looks super middle-aged, kind of pudgy. I was like, this is. Well, it's been about 30 years since they've been popular. I mean, that was like the mid to late 90s. I guess that explains it. Yeah.

All right, John. Matt's derailed my alternate universe once again. Oh, sure. We'll get to it on the next one. All right. So where do we go? You're still picking albums without a missing song? That's right. All right. So would you rather have all the albums in existence that are missing one random song? Or would you rather attend a Nickelback acoustic show where they perform a greatest hit special set tailored just for you? If it's tailored just for you.

It's like one song, A Goodnight. Pretty quick. Or they're playing the Black Album for you. And it's... I think I'm going with Nickelback. I'm kind of curious. I don't like Nickelback at all, but if I can pick the songs, I think they're probably decent enough musicians they can play it and then I'm out. And I get to say I saw Nickelback perform Cannibal Corpse or something. All right. And I have all the albums. With all the tracks. Yeah, you got your tracks back.

But you don't have all of them in the world anymore. Just the ones you have. Now you just back down to what your collection. That's cool. That's fun. Whack. So this is going to be a hard one because that's like only a few hour thing you got to deal with. Yeah. That's a lifetime of scars though. Yeah. I can never admit I went to that. Too late now we know. And we'd be like yeah he chose this.

known as the acoustic Nickelback guy. All right. Marcusan, would you rather go to your Nickelback personal show or lie buck naked on Chicago's Navy Pier in the middle of winter for 24 hours? 24 hours. Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I got to go with the Nickelback. It's like a lot less time. Yeah. You can get therapy, Marcusan. I can close my eyes and bring earplugs. All right.

Yeah. Would you rather go to your own personalized Nickelback show with a commemorative t-shirt, by the way, that you'd have to wear at least once a week for the rest of your life? No, no, no. There should be a tattoo involved in this. I would agree to that. I would agree to that. Well, or spend a full week with Lemmy Kilmeister in his current condition. Very small.

Wait, how much time? A week. A week in the grave? Like nut the butt cozying up in his coffin? His grave's about this big? Well, I mean, his current condition is, yeah, he's been, I mean, let's assume. Oh, shit. And he has been spread amongst people, so you would have to be spread amongst people as well to be with him. Okay, let's say Ozzy then, because I don't have to be with him. Is Fred Durst one of them? There's got to be a corpse involved. Yeah. Let's say Ozzy. Corpse without a soul? I'm not sure, so probably. No.

I'm not doing that. No, no, no. Fair enough. It gets pretty cool selfies. I believe they're called ussies. It's Nickelback all the way, buddy. All right. Sorry, I'm trying to zoom in. It's very small. Okay. So this is sort of similar to the missing track one. Would you rather we're still Nickelback, right?

Yeah. Rather. Nickel crack or get free VIP access to every metal show on earth. But every venue bathroom you enter has just been blown up by the biggest, stinkiest shit ever. And it just gets incrementally worse each time. And you must use the facility at least once per show. Okay. Yeah.

George, because you didn't say I couldn't have smelling salts or throw some cotton balls in my nostrils. So yeah, I can see all the metal shows. That's fine. That's fine. But I just want you to know that odors are particulate. I can also hold my breath. You can do that pretty long. All right. All right. As you will. I'm doing it. All the metal shows. You can have a hazmat suit that's a battle vest.

I like that. Listen, I know Jay. I've gone through the worst of it. I'm battle ready. Oh, you haven't been on my worst, Jay. Come on. All right, Maddie. Okay, so we're talking about all the shows, or would you rather be stricken with the Angera for all curse, where you live a life hearing all music with the snare drum from St. Anger, zero bass guitar, and every lyric ends in raw for eternity. Oh.

Oh, God, no. All the shows with shitty bathrooms. Yes. Yeah, agreed. It's funny. I was going to do something with St. Anger. All right. So, Marcus, would you rather be in the shitverse for concerts? Or would you rather wake up tomorrow to find out that the only alcoholic drink available on planet Earth is Zima, and the only music you can listen to going forward is modern commercial pop country?

What? You had me there. Actually, they released it, I don't know, years and years later, and I went out and bought, like, two cases of it. I drank that shit in college. It's actually strong, too. What does it taste like? I think I've maybe had it. It doesn't taste like anything. It's kind of like a Sprite. Yeah. It's kind of like the original hard seltzer, in a way. It's actually pretty good. It's kind of like a Sprite, but it's a little fruitier. Yeah, it felt like it was sweet.

Yeah. I mean, I did. I'm sure it tasted years ago. It's actually really good. It's refreshing. That was the other half of that, John. I got that. Or I could have the shitty bathroom, go to all the concerts, drink whatever I want. So all the metal shitty bathrooms, please. The shit first. Right. Will? All right. This is my last one.

Would you rather go hang out, go see all the shows and have a shitty bathroom or quit drinking booze for a year? Well, I don't really want to quit. I don't have a problem. And you wouldn't get the shows. Shitverse. All right. I'll stick with the shitverse. All right. Would you rather live in the shitverse or

I live in the normal universe as it is, and everything about it is normal except for all the music you listen to, the cymbals are brought up 10%. That's harsh. Yeah, I'm not even sure how that would sound. Shitverse. Yeah, that's sensory overload, man. Actually, I have a question about that, and I really don't want to ruin popular music for people, but who the fuck decided that every 10 seconds in every rock song there has to be a

I think about this all the time because sometimes the symbols annoy the shit out of me yeah

snare drums like what if you just had no symbols and no snare and it was just like toms like what would

that sound like yeah toms tribal shit like that the symbols the explanation point song is just the weirdest thing to me I don't mind it but yeah I like I like a nice hi-hat that's just yeah yeah or you could just mic differently yeah or you could we could bring

John Bonneback from the grave who made everything musical. I was just mixing a song recently, one of mine, and I was tweaking the effects and stuff, and whatever I did, it made the cymbals extremely loud. And I'm listening to it, and it took me a minute to figure it out. I was like, what is wrong with this all of a sudden? I was like, oh, the cymbals are drowning out everything. So yeah, that is insidious.

All right. Okay. So what? Are we still in the shit verse? Shit verse. All right. All right. Am I the last one now? Yep. Well, I still have one more to do. Oh, okay. Well, then you can go after. So does Matt, doesn't he? Oh, he does? Okay. Well, see, I thought I was the end. No, I'll be the last person because Will went first. Okay, but I got it. I got it. I have to go. All right, Will. I'm glad you could come on. Let me do mine first. Give me 30 seconds. Would you rather dwell in my shit verse?

Or,

let Hannes Grossman play an extended drum solo on your nards.

Dude, it's hard.

Shitverse.

Okay.

That reminds me of the Simpsons when Homer quit and he went around on a golf cart playing the drums on Mr. Burns' head.

Do you remember this?

Those were years.

Many, many.

And he drives by Lenny and that other guy

and they're on the floor in the nuclear.

He goes, hey, he's getting a pretty good sound out of that.

Yeah.

All right.

You need to go.

You should go.

Yeah, I got to go.

Our game starts in 20 minutes.

It's going to take me 15 minutes to get there.

All right.

All right.

Thanks for coming.

See you guys.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

We're in the poo universe still.

Yes.

Or have your life become Will and Ted's excellent adventure

where you live a cursed life in a phone booth

that travels through time and only stops.

The only stops it makes are concerts of bands you hate for eternity. Oh my gosh, that's horrible. So I'm basically up against going to all the shows or having a time machine. I can only go to the places that the concerts I hate. Yeah, and I mean to be perfectly clear, if you were going to do every show that smelled like poo, you were basically just living a life of festivals. Yeah, that does sound tiring.

O que é que eu tenho que irá a cada um.

All right, here we go. Where does Marcusan end up? The Would You Rather segment. All right, Marcusan, would you rather continue to live in the shitverse, or would you rather sit naked in a sauna with a bunch of prog hobbits while listening to the greatest 1970s prog epics? Well, you know I don't like the 1970s. Yeah, no, I don't want to do that. I do not need all that moog.

So, uh, shitverse. Dude, I think you misunderstand. I think that was an invitation. Just so we're clear, you chose, you chose staph infections. George didn't say I have to like wade through the shit. I just have to smell it. Yeah, it's the, yeah, but every show, every time you go to a show, more people are using that bathroom. Yeah, and as I said, it gets exponentially worse each time. So at some point.

It's gonna be burning your skin, you know? Too late. Too late, my friend. You got stepping. Shit verse. Shit verse. I've stepped in the job. Are we done? You've done all the questions? Yeah, that's it. Okay, sorry about that. That's it. So I end up in the shit verse, but I get to see all the metal. Yeah, and nobody's gonna want to stand. Hope you got some penicillin. Yeah, so it's basically just decibel fest over and over. No, it's valken. Yeah, valken.

It was pretty awesome. Yeah. Nice. I enjoyed that. So I think that worked well. I'm glad Will could come on and do it with us. And his stuff was not that heinous, I gotta say. No, no. He's tempered. He's become a little less Will. I'm a little disappointed. Wow. I think it's interesting, too, that when we started out, the first winner, the first question the winner was the Black Album,

the last question you ended up in the shit verse so it's all very it's kind of related isn't it well it's a real journey john is what it was yeah you come full circle mark full toilet yes well thank you for uh entertaining my idea for this particular segment i was really fun and uh it's the first one with you spun for of course we did jay's awesome segment last time but that's the first one

we actually spun for and uh i enjoyed that so not everybody has to do it the way i did it and that's cool too and i liked i had fun coming up with that concept of how to do it and uh i like it i'm speaking of last time too and i and i just as a query here um the uh um since we last spoke and which we talked about martin birch um the maiden thing has become available online does anybody else watch that documentary yet no i was waiting for it to come online

Yeah, I thought it was going to be free. You got to pay three bucks to watch it. But yeah, it's worth it. Amazon. I'm talking about the documentary I went to see in the theater, right? Correct. Yeah, I thought Netflix has produced it, but it was Amazon, I guess. That was rentable on Amazon in any case. That's why. Yeah. Okay. Well, I have Mark's son remains the only one who's seen it thus far. But yeah, well, I'm curious to see what you guys think. I'll have to get on that post haste, given that the next Stairway episode is about.

Ja, wir sind alle, die sind schon lange. Wir haben alle gesehen, die Roktox sind.

That was actually pretty good. It was. So, just going through what's online and what I have on my shelves. When I think we agreed to the idea, I turned on something and there's an Earth, Wind, and Fire one coming out. Yeah, Barb wanted to watch that, yeah. How many guys, how many are you going to talk about? Just like, I don't know. Just a handful, probably. Yeah. Are you picking like your top three or five or something? We didn't really say. Okay. Like, I suggested when we do it, there's going to be some that we all are going to have on our list. So, when it comes to

We'll just come with a fair number just in case because there's no point in bringing it up again like my third time around or something like that. It just we'll do it all then. Yeah, we'll just throw them out until we get tired of talking about them. Yeah, so I've already watched a few and I'm just like I'm trying to find stuff that nobody has watched or will watch because then I feel like we can talk about more different stuff. But whatever. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. All right. Well, before we go,

We need to do the wheel. The wheel of pain. I respect you. So Matt has the wheel. I will be emailing you the wheel the day of. There may be some alterations to the wheel. Minus the topics, of course. Just to say, I think you said you were going to take off the ones we do.

Is that right? Well, we're getting,

Markasam was nice enough to start up a new thread or a tab on the dock,

keeping track of what we're doing. So if we, if it comes up,

we have to, we can do one of two things.

I can edit them now after this one and put, you know,

that it's been done so that if it does come up, we just spin again.

It's not going to hurt anything to re-spin it up.

We'll just, we'll probably do that after this one.

because now we'll have we can put it there on the dock or on the wheel maybe i can i can figure out how to do a strike through or something like that so we know yeah that'd be cool but yeah i'm keeping a list so we know what we've done yeah okay the last one we did was behind the curtain jay and then of course we just did would you rather yeah all right let's spin matt are you prepared to spin and just to be clear pretty usual i'm doing nothing so um right yes

que se ha hecho.

and done segment about battle vests. How would you arrange your battle vest? What's your main patch? Support patches? Share the thinking behind your choices. Any remodeling or updates you might want to make to your existing battle vest? How would you decide? That's interesting because I just acquired a piece today that I will not mention for my vest that is a replacement piece. So basically, if you have a battle vest,

How do you want to modify it? Or if you want to do a new one, I'm always looking to make new ones. So I'll probably talk about that. Or if we're going to do it. Yeah. This is great. It's been done. Yes. It's a one and done situational series because I don't think if we landed out, we'd be able to talk about it again. Yeah. So I have come up with replacement segments for when we land out. So we always stay. But we wouldn't be able to do it again.

for another how long it won't matter it won't matter

yes how long request that anybody you know of the four people that listen to this show outside of us if you want to share a picture of your battle vest you know please yeah we'd love to see it great idea and give us some ideas too or just a good example of a battle vest you've seen yeah because everybody kind of does it differently i know i've done mine differently i have like

Or battle vests. Sure, you're going to do a big patch in the middle. Yeah, I feel you. You can do it thematically, you know. Or if you just know how to spell battle vest, you know, we want to be totally inclusive here. That's huge. If you want to do a Metalheads-themed battle vest. Like Nick? With our faces on it, that's one of the coolest battle vests I've ever seen. And definitely sucking up to us. That's kind of what. Yes, that's cool.

That's not a suggestion.

I still haven't ruled out the possibility of a podcast tattoo.

I don't know what the odds are, Matt, because I don't remember how many segments you came up with.

So I guess I could figure it out. But the percentage is low, I think, because you had like two, three, maybe.

Yeah, I did the burn. I mean, that's my role here. You made up for it tonight, dude. Those situations were crazy. Well, you know, I love alternative realities. So my one I just thought of was shit verse or get the metal heads tattooed, the logo tattooed on the tip of your wiener. Ouch. That should be interesting. The very tip. Yes. That's awesome.

Yeah, that's pretty... All right. Well, it's been fun. Wow. Yeah, it's been a great time. Can I just say I'm surprised this episode lasted for six hours? I'm so tired. Yeah. Is it tomorrow? All right, well, until next time... Peace out. Take care.

I'm in it forever and ever.