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Metalheads Podcast is a metal-themed podcast featuring George, Jay, Will, John, Matt and Markisan. The guys discuss metal news and new releases, perform in-depth interviews with great metal bands, and just generally have a blast arguing about that greatest of musical styles: Metal!
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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 Situational Paradox.
This is Markisan.
And welcome to 2025's first episode. We made it another year. Indeed. Wow, everyone sounds so enthusiastic. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I'm just distracted by several things. One of them being football. Okay. So new year, but you know, before we can begin the year proper.
happen. Actually, there's two things that have to happen. Because before that, we got to do t-shirt and beer check. Wow, man. I'm on the clock that fast. It's like, wow. But then we're going to get into the stats from the year end. All right. So, Markisan, what are you wearing? What are you drinking? Well, I am drinking the brand new By the Horns mead from Brimming Horn.
for my congratulations.
Exciting. It's a dragon fruit and vanilla mead aged in oak barrels for six months. So it's like the previous one, but then John threw it in the oak barrels. So thanks to John for crafting this fine elixir. You know, I love you. I love By the Horns. I love Brimminghorn. I love mead. But when I went to go order two bottles of it and when I realized the shipping costs, I'm like, it is way cheaper for me to just drive there.
Will, should we order together? We should make a road trip, me, you, and George. Road trip. Yes. I've been wanting to do that for years, and we never do it. I want to do it. I'm not in the meat club. Anyway, I cannot wait to try it. I want to try it, but I may just drive there and get it because the shipping cost was astronomical. Astronomical. Astronomical. People can get it on Brimming
and meadery.com if you want to pay those shipping costs, I guess. But that's what it costs. And now the bottles are bigger too. Like they've upped the size of all their bottles. And if you're in the club, you don't pay any extra, which is pretty cool. Hells yes. They're like, do you want the regular one or do you want Will? Yes, exactly. And for my t-shirt, I actually got a little surprise for you gentlemen. Yeah, Wilson. Nice.
Yes, I'm wearing my brand new Wilson t-shirt. That's amazing. I just got an Amazon, some company that makes shirts. I saw it. I was like, oh, maybe I'll get it in time. They already made it. It's like a made-to-order type shirt, you know? So it wasn't like a custom, like make me this and this, and you send a vector file or anything. They already had it made. No, no, they had the design, and it's just made-to-order. I love it. Love it.
from Cast Away. Nice. Anybody, because you can't see it. Yes. Very nice. I'm ready. I'm ready. Right on. All right. We'll be seeing about that pretty soon. All right, then, Matt, or the situational paradox, as you may be. The sitch. The sitch. So my neighbor got me this. It's a 12 Days of Christmas pack of beer by The Brewery. Oh, yeah. Nice. I can't remember what day this is. I think it's number seven, which it goes along with the song, but it is a
It's a Belgian stout. It's quite lovely. And then I am wearing my long-sleeved Gorguts tee that I bought from Luke himself, and I am shrouded in my Temple of Void Snuggie. That is, like, wrapped around your neck like a sweater? Right now I'm looking fancy, but fairly soon I'll look chilly. Fancy boy. It's an 80s, the popular people, what do you call them? Not the jocks, but the preps. It's an popular preps style. Yeah, preps.
I have a tennis match when this is done, so if we could move it along. All righty. Nice. All right. So I'm wearing my Prog Power USA 23 shirt, which I'm sure I've worn on another episode. You were just wearing that earlier. You did not change the podcast. You didn't just preview. No. Fresh up. No. I showered. I just didn't change my shirt. Stop. You wanted to keep your musk on her. Oh.
Yeah, the hour of that after my shower. Jeez. All right. So today was the fifth anniversary of the local drinking establishment that Jen and I and Will and George has been to called the Casual Pint. So we had to go because we've been to all their anniversaries. So I'm going to just rattle off. Started off with lunch from Maine. Nice. Beer company, which is always good. Then I did have a double decker IPA, double IPA from Fairwinds Brewing.
I've never heard of them before. Do you guys know Fairwinds? Yeah. Never heard of them. Nope. Never heard of them. Then we had this L Station Brewing Company, Hop Sneeze Gen 2. Had that, another IPA. And now, at home, I'm drinking from Marcason's hood, Revolution Brewing. Right away to heaven. Revolution Brewing. It's cool. They're actually shutting down their
Brew Pub.
So they're still going to make beer, but they're shutting down the restaurant portion of it, which is sad because they had really good food there.
It was a good space for events.
In fact, Tracy's work held their annual holiday party there, 2023.
Not uncommon, unfortunately.
It's happening in a lot of places.
I've actually been there when I was back in 2010.
So this is, you know, 15 years ago.
Yeah.
Sadly.
Sadly, it's happening in a lot of places.
It really is.
So that's where I'm at, beer-wise. I'm wearing my Genocide Pack hoodie, a local DC death metal band, and I have a glass of red wine. Glassy. I'm having a glass of water. I've just finished my supper. I'm soon to have iced coffee. I'm wearing my possessed Revelations of Oblivion. Nice. This was the pre-order. Very cool. It came with the record back.
It's only been washed a couple times. Still nice and shiny. It's a long sleeve t-shirt day here. Is it like 65? That's a fair question. No, it's only up to like 50 today. It's cold at night. I know that. It is. And when that wind kind of picks up a little bit, then you really feel it. I mean, I'm a little sad they didn't have that shirt in yellow because that's your color, but it looks good. That's merciful.
Get me interested. Just make me a yellow shirt. First you need a yellow album cover. That's the first thing. You yellow. And also I'd like to throw a shout out to Will for doing his math so fast there. He said I was there. What did you say? 2010. Yeah. And then you were like, that's 15 years, man. Shit. You need a calculator or anything. I'm still stuck in that being 14 years. That was awesome. All right. I am starting off with a black flag,
is sometimes thick with two C's. And I got this because of the hot wizard with the sweet ass on the cover. Magic ass. Yeah, it just made me think of Markisan for some reason. By the way, her ass looks like some balls, by the way. It's a he, and he's got a big long white beard and a butt that hangs like boobs over the side of the can. They look like balls hanging on the side of the can. That too.
So anyway, yeah.
Is it good, George?
Yeah, it's pretty good.
How do those balls taste?
Not bad.
Not bad.
So I'm wearing my chemist hoodie, but it's getting a little warm in here.
So let me just take this off.
Nice.
For Will.
Oh, my God, dude.
And underneath that guy.
George, George, I just want to ask you one question.
Have you ever seen them live recently?
No, but I wouldn't mind it.
I like their music.
This is my brand new tribulation shirt for Sub Rosa in Aeternum. It's very nice. Yeah. Okay. And I wore it just for Will. Yep. It kind of matches my Wilson shirt. It does. We're both black, white, red. We're a tag team. It's weird we're all wearing black tonight. That never happens, right, John? So fucking weird. Yeah, I can't imagine if we're wearing black. What? It's just nice that we're inclusive of all.
genres of music, including the cure.
Hey, not wrong with the cure.
I love the cure.
Yeah, me too.
New albums are great.
Yeah, better than anything they've done in a while.
Probably since Blood Flowers, I would say.
Hey, welcome to the 90s Emo Podcast.
My name is Will.
Oh, should we get back to some football or baseball?
Well, I'm going to go as soon as we can, yes.
Yes.
How is everybody feeling about their shovels? Don't get us started, man. We're going to get a full John length tomorrow. Three inches tomorrow. You should be happy that's all it is. We're supposed to get four or five, but nearly John twice. Or just half of George. Wait. Oh, exactly. Exactly. I'll run with that. Hey, Will.
Apparently not. No, no, no, no. Oops, wait. Yeah, shit. Yeah. A couple weeks ago, we got half of a B, by the way. Speaking of math. Yes, it is now time for the year-end stats and awards as featured and provided by John. Real quick. All right.
So it's that time of the year.
Where we just talk about some numbers.
We don't have to, but we do.
Why?
Because we do.
Because we do.
All right, let's run through them.
Will wants me to go quick.
He wants me to get this over fast.
He's not even here.
I don't.
I want to savor this.
All right.
So to start off this year, we had 89 albums on our list.
We cover a lot of ground. We do all right. I feel like this is a little less than last time, but not by much. But still, 89 is a lot of albums between six people. Oh, they blocked that shit. Sorry. Do I need to check my phone to see what's going on? Anyway. The Texans tried to do a field goal in case he blocked it. Sorry. Sorry. It's all right. And they still got a penalty against them and gave it to Kansas City. So anyway. So yeah, 89 albums.
from 23 countries, and we had 48 labels. We had fewer labels this time, which was kind of easier for me to put together, but whatever. All right. So we had albums from all around the world because we're so inclusive on our metal, but they still all come from just a few countries. Our big countries, as always, is the U.S. We had 38 individual albums. The U.K. was next with seven.
But since I like football so much, we'll divide it up. England had five, Scotland had two, so seven there. So you said like what you said, 38 to seven? 38 from the U.S. Right. And seven from the U.K. All right. So seven was the next runner up. Yeah, well, the U.S. always has the most every year. Well, I mean, yeah, of course, because we're awesome. America, fucking. So I finally watched that recently. Thank you. I think I told you guys this.
Wait, wait, just now? Like, finally? How old are you? Like, 73? Yeah, yeah, almost 74. And? It was fucking dumb. I mean, I'm not saying it didn't have funny parts. I hate you so much. Let's not stop John anymore, all right? Yeah, yeah, just John, go. Hey, George, move a little closer. I don't even remember that. I don't remember that from it. Oh, fuck you, Hans.
Oh, you're so cute and dumb. Hi, everyone. My name is Al Baldwin, and I'm the president of the Film Actors Guild. All right. So let's start over with the most selected albums by country. Yes, U.S. has 38. That's low for us, actually. It's usually higher. U.K. had seven, Germany seven, Canada, and Norway five, Sweden four.
So, and that's individual albums. When we do the total number of albums from each one, that means how many times it shows up on all our lists. U.S. was 64, U.K. 15 with England 11, Scotland 4. We've been seeing a lot more metal in the U.K. the last few years. I don't know if you guys have noticed that. They've always had metal, but it seems like there's more bands that I seem to like from there. Yeah, I think I've had more on my list over the next couple of years.
I just feel like there's a lot coming out right now which is good that's awesome
Sweden 11 total Canada Germany Norwood eight each
all right so now we got to figure out who is the world traveler of our group and who is the America
fuck yeah of our group those are the awards for countries so mark a son 10 from the US you had 12 different countries your big deal was the UK
And Scotland with 2H.
That's good.
Nice.
Yeah.
Matt, you also had 10 from the US.
12 countries also.
But yours was a little more spread out.
You were Canada, Germany, Sweden with 2H.
Nice.
That's good.
Me?
John?
Wait, how many of those countries did he make up?
Like, Askratistan, I can tell you, is not a country.
Yeah.
Slovakdeborg.
Yeah, you've got a good point, Will.
Swedenstan is not a country. Hey, the Schreier is a real place, okay? It's in New Zealand. Bitch-tonia. Yeah, it's a good point. I didn't think of that. However, the situational paradox itself exists outside of the space-time continuum. I'm not really here right now. Yes, exactly. It's a good point. I'll have to go back and look at that. Matt may have a different category.
All right. For me, I had only seven from the U.S. and 13 different countries. And the U.K. was my big one also. Two from England, one from Scotland. Now, this sort of gives it away, but we'll do the process. Will, you had 18 from the U.S. Of course. All right. And five total countries outside of the U.S.
England and Sweden were your two big ones with two each. Jay, you had seven from the U.S., ten different countries. Norway, you were in the frozen section this year. You had four from Norway. Frozen, chosen. And then George. It's the opposite of where he lives. Yeah. Except at night. True. And then George, you had 12 from the U.S., nine different countries, and you spread it out a little more. Germany, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., England specifically, two each.
So, our world traveler was me this year with 13 different countries. And it wasn't obvious, if you didn't get it the first time, the obvious choice for America, fuck yeah, goes to Will. I mean, he's won it like 18 years in a row. But not at that level. That's pretty high. 18, I was like, holy smokes, that's a lot. But hey, it is what it is, right?
We like what we like
Alright so let's go to the labels
Like I said we had 48 different labels
Which was a little less than normally
What we have
We usually have a lot of labels
But this year we didn't
And also we usually have a lot of independent releases
As far as I can tell
We only had four total independent albums on our list
So there's a lot of bands on labels
I guess that's a good thing
I don't know
We'd have to ask the bands
But it's hopefully a good thing
That they have a little bit more support
Than they did in the past
Right?
So individually released albums. By labels. It's all the usual suspects. But this year we had a new. Top Dog. That was Prosthetic Records. We had seven different albums from them this year. So they had a good year. Century Media had six. 20 Buck Spin, Metal Blade each had five. And then Seasons of Mist and Nuclear Blast had four. And then if you want to look at it by how many total albums from each.
Prosthetic with 13 total on our list. Century Media, 12. Metal Blade and Seasons Amiss with 9 each, and then 20 bucks spin and Nuclear Blast with 8. So a lot of the usual suspects, some big names and some smaller names. I guess we can consider like 20 buck and Prosthetic on the smaller end. They're not smaller, but they're not as big as I guess the Century Medium. Medium is probably good, yeah. At a medium pace. So it's a good year. Good year.
For labels. Yeah. I mean, we're never going to see the small labels show up there. It's always going to be somewhat the usual suspects, but whatever. All right, let's go to the podcast Love Connection with Chuck Woolery. If anyone remembers who he is. All right. Back in two and two. So, Markisan, you matched up the most with Matt, Jay, and myself with six each. And the least with George, two. That's per usual, I would think.
It is what is right? So Matt, here's what gets really interesting with Matt. So Matt, your most was with Will, nine. Your least was with Markisan which was six. You were also Markisan tied for most at six. I don't know if there's ever been a match where that person has been both the most and the least for somebody. That is crazy. That is a situational paradox right now.
It's a situational paradox, exactly. George, thank you. I was hoping somebody would say that. That's fantastic. Isn't that wild? All right, so for me, Jay and I had 12 each. That's a lot. Wow. And my lease was Will, five, which is actually up, so that's good. Usually it's less than five. I love you, Will. All right, Will, your most was with Matt and Jay, nine. I love you too, John. Thank you. And your lease was with Markisan four.
Jay, we already talked about the most with me was 12. That's your most. Your lease was Markisan six. It's a trend here developing with who's least. Clearly, I don't come up on anybody's list. I'm the loner. Well, you're all right. So George, your most. Matt, Jay and myself with eight and your lease Markisan. So the get a room goes to Jay and myself with 12. Wow, that's big, dude.
It is. That's actually quite a bit, if you think about it. John has been wanting to hear somebody say that his entire life. Wow, that's Big John. Jay's making up the bulk of that stat right there. Well, Jay always has the biggest love connection. He does have a lot of love connections. He's kind of a little slut. I do, but it floats around the room, so I don't think John and I shared it. But 12. That's 50% of our records. I know. That's a lot.
So, George and I were talking, the name for this next one, we have to kind of figure out, Cosmic Petrefaction seems like a lot. And I think you said, did you say Nemesis, George? Yeah. Or like Frenemies or something? We have to come up with a new name for this one. I mean, either of those sound pretty good, actually. Yeah. So is Markisan it, George, with two each. Or two total, I should say. Wow. And there's no, everybody loves this time. I still love you, George. You too, buddy. Jay had the, everybody loves Jay last time, where Jay was everyone's number, our top connection. But,
We didn't have that this time, so. But that's all right. What were our two albums? Gyrea? What would be the other one we matched, George? I don't remember. I don't know. Gonorrhea and syphilis. Crip Sermon. Crip Sermon, right. Crip Sermon, yep, yep, yep. All right. Now, this shit's getting serious. That was just, that was the opening act. Here we go. You know what the first one is? The Volleyballs. Yeah.
All right, let's start. Marcuson, you had 14 volleyballs. You got a team and a bench, Marcuson. All right, Matt, you had nine volleyballs. That's less than Marcuson's 14 volleyballs. That's not even close. I had eight volleyballs. That's less than Matt and Marcuson. Will, 11 volleyballs. Ooh. Jay,
I don't think you know what volleyball is. You had three. I had how many? Three. Now this puts me back in the Everybody Loves Jay award. Almost. Yeah, you were, your presence was well known. Least likely to get lost. Hey, I know that guy. That's Jay. The guy you're most likely to find at a show. Yeah, that's it.
George.
11 volleyballs.
Markisan you wear that shirt proudly.
I did it.
Yes.
You are a Wilson of the year.
Again.
Second year in a row and still.
So it was funny because on the year end show,
I remember you saying,
John,
that Matt probably had a lock on it.
And I was like,
you know,
you roll because I am the Lord of the bloody volleyballs.
And you're like,
I have a match or disqualified because he,
well,
his aren't even.
So I would just like to take this moment
and sincerely thank
the Metal Heads podcast for this prestigious award.
Living on this island for two straight years has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.
So I have to try to say something, Marcus.
So my brother from another mother, Richie,
his family, before his mother passed away,
They had this head. I don't know what it was. And each year, somebody who had the head would mail it to somebody else for Christmas. Oh, yeah. And you'd open the gift. Oh, what is this from Rich? And it was the head. And you had to keep that head for the year. And at the end of the year, you decide, who am I going to send this to in the family? So every year, it was like their own version of like Secret Santa with the head. And everyone's like, who's getting the head this year? Well, so I thought of that because I,
I used to do that too at work. I had this book called The Proud Book. And so I would tell people they did good jobs. And if they did a really good job, I would give them The Proud Book. And they would keep it until like the next year when, you know, I would single out somebody who had major accomplishments. So with this volleyball, I'm going to do that same thing. If anybody dethrones me, which I don't think is ever going to happen, I think I'm going to have this forever. But if anybody takes the title from me,
If anybody becomes the emperor of the island of misfit toys and dethrones me, I will send it to you. Well, I know what I'm going to do with my list. I'm just going to find the most obscure crap ever and put it on my list. All right. So now we get to the podcast clairvoyant. Who's the seventh son on our team this year?
The top 25. That's good. Matt. 13. I had 14. Will had 10. Jay had 18. That's crazy, man. Holy shit, Jay. You can't even predict that. Oh my god. Stealing homework again. Yeah, well, yeah. We've always said
that Jay somehow has hacked into all our laptops, right? And then George, you had 10. So Jay, you are clairvoyant for this year. That's hilarious, dude. Seventh son of a seventh son. Jay was the clairvoyant last year. I was last year, too. All right, here we go. The big award. The biggest. The Jay Awards. Are we ready? Yeah. Are you ready? We have three Jay Awards this year. The first one is for the album Blood Incantation.
Absolute Elsewhere. George? Who was that? Matt headed one. John headed three. Will headed six. Jay headed four. George headed two. Markisan his J for that album. Jade. Yep. Jade it. Next one. Judas Priest. Invincible Shield. I know where this is going. Invisible Shield. Matt 11. John 5. Will 1. Jay 2. George 5. Markisan J. It.
Last One.
Opeth.
The Last Well and Testament.
Matt Seven.
John One.
Will Twelve.
I love you, Will.
Jay Seventeen.
George One.
Markisan Jadet.
Jadet.
Wow.
Three J's for Markisan this year.
I have a trick of J's.
And all the top three albums for the Metalheads podcast.
I humbly accept the first ever Triple Crown J Award.
I don't know.
Hold your roll.
You are not the first to J3 albums in one year. Really? You are not. I went back and I looked at all the J Awards. Oh, this is interesting. Yes. First off, it shouldn't be called the J Award. That's the first thing. But we know why it is. But back in 2019, I was the first person to J3 albums in one year.
They were Cattle Decapitation, Death Atlas. Oh, I love that record. Bastam. What's that? I can't remember that. Oh, Bastam record was amazing. Hold on. Wait a second here now. Take that back. It was 2020. Back it up. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. 2020. Incantation, Ulcerate, and A Feather and Bone. I jade all those albums.
What? All three albums were amazing, John. You suck. Well, he always J's Ulcerate, though. Yeah, and I don't dislike Ulcerate. I just never got into Ulcerate. Matt, Ulcerate is amazing. That of Feather and Bone albums. Believe it or not, so I apologize. Not 2019. It's 2020. I went back and did 2019. Wow. Because Marcus, on your first year, you came on for a year and was 18, right?
as a guest. I believe so, yeah. Yeah, so these J Awards go from 19 on since we're all six together. I have totals. I've got receipts. That's the new phrase now in today's world. I've got receipts. I've got receipts, man. That's cool. I really thought I was going to be the first one. I love how you guys are bragging about and trying to be in a competition who sucks worse. About sucking, yeah. Oh, no, I suck worse. But, Will, you go back to 2018, I suck worse.
I don't give a fuck.
The new benchmark is four.
Yeah, exactly.
Good George.
A feather and bone ulcerate?
I mean, come on, man.
But here's the thing.
This has given me purpose.
I am going to get ulcerate on this podcast to talk about this topic.
Oh, I'll be the biggest questionnaire on that podcast.
It's going to be awesome when we're on at six o'clock in the morning when they're in New Zealand.
We can all drink at six in the morning.
Yeah.
Unfortunately.
Oh, amazing.
Hey, Will.
Unfortunately, they're going to sound like this. They're going to be like, yeah, we're from New Zealand. Hey, I'm all for it because you know it's on at 7 o'clock in the morning, my time. All right, so real quick, I did go back and look at all the total Jay Awards. It's telling. Marcus, you have three total. You got them all this year.
Jay'd an album. Well... Of course, none of your albums are real, so how could you Jay an album? Very true. But I thought I Jay'd that King... What was the band? King Goat or something? Wow. Oh, yeah. That would have been 2018. Yeah, but that'd be true. This is since Markistan's been a full member. A full member, which is... Good point. Yeah, I was on 2018, but mine didn't count. It didn't count to 2019. In 2019, I did it just for the top 25, not for the 40. Because I wanted to keep it consistent for every year.
Just so you know
I do like how Matt's like
hold on
it's like I know the exact
album I jaded
Yeah exactly
From many many years ago
I jaded
and then they were on the podcast
so I felt like a complete dipshit
just like Temple of Void
They kind of jaded themselves
with everybody
so I mean
True
So it's the guilt
I felt the same way
like I was actually
on the podcast
interviewing them
and I'm like
ah you know
the guy Trim
like his vocals
don't do it for me
and they're like
think about
I'm like, okay, I get it now. Okay, we're good. I like it. They're overdue, too. I know. It's been a long time. I think they have an album coming out this year because they've been talking about it. It's been like, what, six, seven years now? Yeah, they said their album's coming out this year, so get ready. Rocking Doom. All right, so let's finish it up. I have seven J's over the last six. One, two, three, four, five, six years. Will, you only have two. J, surprisingly,
The person the award's named after has won. Chemist. It's Chemist probably that year, yeah. And then George, you have two. All right. So we gotta change the name to the John Award. No, no, no, it stays J because I pioneered that shit. Yeah, because J ends up jacking albums up by saying, well, my number 25 is. And you're like, oh, what? Well, but no, but there's also the reverse J. And the reverse J is putting something number one that nobody has on their list. Yeah, and then you.
Let's just go back to Jay jacking it and then Jay likes to reverse jack it. Yeah. Well, that's clear. I mean, it's on my fucking Facebook page. Everybody knows that. Yeah. So Marcus, welcome to the 3J club. Now. The 3J, yes. I'm happy to be in that club. Show me the J. When we say J, it's a euphemism for orifice. And also from now on. Which, by the way, that's the name of that vast amount is orificial purge, I think.
I'm going to take this up a notch. From now on, not unlike the volleyball, whoever has the most J's, I have to live with them for that whole next year. What I want to know is who's going to be the quad J next year. Jay, that may be fun. It would be, but I'm an expensive guest. No, I'm moving into your house. I'm going to Arizona. You're coming to my place. Okay, that's fine. I'm going to Arizona in the middle of absolute nowhere. Where's Will?
and yeah we're gonna have a good time will's in the airstream about a mile away from here yeah
get a little intent at the top so another year another good year we had a lot of a lot of good god good music that we all kind of it was an exemplary year yeah it really was last couple we've said this but the last couple have been pretty damn good yeah and we cover a lot of ground i mean i know we're just a small sliver and a big ocean but i feel like we do a
a lot of different stuff.
All right.
Awesome.
Well, thanks for doing all that, John.
Thank you, John.
Fantastic.
And thank you, George.
And George also did a lot of work.
Oh, umpteen amounts of work.
It's ridiculous how much George does.
For the covers and all that.
So thank you, George.
Hence, The Bodfather.
So I'm thinking not to belabor this anymore.
I'm thinking for the end of next year. It's Ozzy. Yeah. Yes. It was Ozzy B-Light. Yep. Show me your hands. Show me your ass. We love you. Thinking that maybe we, I don't know if this will work, but maybe set with seven years, we can look at our albums, which albums that we have that, or which bands seem to show up on our list all the time. Yeah.
But that's still hard to do with only seven years because the band might only release two albums.
Yeah.
But I'm going to look for something a little different for next time.
Well, there are some podcast darlings, that's for sure.
Oh, yeah.
Well, maybe that's what I'll do.
Maybe I'll take all our lists and put them together, which bands show up on all our lists combined all the time.
I mean, I'll do that.
All right.
That'd be cool.
Let's move on to the news.
First news item, Exodus has inexplicably parted ways with Zetro and is inexplicably bringing back Rob Dukes.
That is a big disappointment to me. I understand that Zetro may be a handful,
Maybe a jackass. I don't know. But Rob Dukes? Forget it. Well, here's the thing for me. And I know exactly where you're going with this. I'm speaking for both of us, which is, I think, um, uh, Shovelheaded Kill Machine is one of their best records. And, um, and, but so here's the interesting thing though, is so I was kind of in the Rob Dukes camp, but now since that's what's been back, I'm totally in the Zetro camp because I really liked these last couple of records.
And so now I'm kind of like, well, shit. So even though I like Shellhead of Killman Machines so much. Yeah. So I don't know what to say. Well, I bought Decibel Philly tickets on the premise of seeing Exodus finally with Zetro. And now I'm like, don't give a fuck. So that sucks. Because if you were really expecting it, it's the only one you really want. It's the only reason I decided to go. And now I'm like, well,
But you were saying, well, and I'm assuming it's going to be
Shuttle-Headed Kill Machine.
Well, I would say
a couple things. One, I think
Gary Holt has been spending way too much
time with Kerry King, and he took
his HRPR
cues and like, hey, I'm just
going to fire somebody on social media without
telling them first.
Did he really do that?
It seemed like it was very sudden.
Kind of like the way
they fired
Lombardo.
And Lombardo is cut out of everything now.
It's almost like Lombardo was never in Slayer.
You buy
reaction figures
of the Slayer
and Lombardo is not on there.
Including
that one that is the live undead thing.
Yes.
And I have it.
And there's only three figures in there.
Well, maybe he didn't clear them to do it though.
Well, anyway.
Are you saying he got bill warded?
Yeah.
Yes.
Anyway, I have mixed feelings about this, and I'll keep it short, that Zetro is classic Exodus, even though he was not the original lead singer, but he's been the lead singer for a while.
That's Exodus's sound.
However, I thought that the albums with Rob Dukes were heavier, and I really enjoyed them.
The Trusted Exhibit. I thought they were awesome. I love them. But it wasn't Exodus to me. It's not even the vocals. Even the sound. Everything was different. And he's going to do Bonded by Blood at Decibel. And I'm like, no. No, you're not. Could be interesting. Not for me. Rob Dukes. To me, Rob Dukes is actually a better singer.
Don't care. But it's not the Exodus sound. But that's the thing. It's almost like Bobby Blitz in Overkill. Yeah. A lot of people may not like his vocals. But he's Overkill. Yeah, exactly. But he is Overkill. It wouldn't make sense with anybody else. I get it. I want to be clear. I'm not pooping on Rob Dukes because he's not good. He's a good vocalist for sure. But him with Exodus just does not sound like Exodus.
Yeah. And you're right. I'm not saying. Yeah. He may do good stuff with Exodus, but it doesn't sound like Exodus. And so I don't care. Yeah. It is weird because I feel like it's not just the vocals that change, like the sound. Everything is a production. It's tonalistically different. It's interesting. The approach is different. Yeah. I'll say I like it better. Like I like Rob Duke's better. I like his aggressive, huskier style a lot more than Zatro's. And I like those albums better, but I've never been.
The Biggest Fan of Exodus. Those are the records that I like the most. So for me, I'm actually more excited. I wasn't probably going to skip Exodus, but I might check it out just because I am kind of curious to see how he'll do the other songs on different albums that he did not sing on. I will skip for you. Well, and he will go watch Tribulation and jerk off to like... Hey, if they were there, I'd definitely be watching that.
I think they even write differently with him. I mean, it is. It's a whole different approach. It is amazing how it's such a different band. Exodus A.D. Yes, in a way, George, you're right. But the thing is, I really liked all those albums that they put out. Because it was so different, but it was almost like a different band. It was like, hey, look at this great Bay Area 90s thrash band. I wonder if they sold more.
I felt like they were more visible when he was in them for some reason. The Zetro thing was kind of like there was a nostalgic. Yeah, I could see them selling better just because it has more of a modern sound, I guess. I like Zetro too, but. Yeah, I would assume that the earlier albums, and what was the one with Toxic Walls on it? Oh, Fabulous Disaster. Yeah, Fabulous Disaster. Like that probably is, I would have guessed when we talked about it,
You're talking about album sales, and you're talking about way back when, and the way back machine, when you actually bought albums. Fabulous Disaster may be their highest selling album. By the way, that raises an interesting question. Well, question, not an interesting one. Did anybody buy his book? I was going to, but now I don't want to. I'm just going to Gary Holt right now.
Oh, I did buy the one. So Adam Tepedella. Yeah. So he wrote it and it was autographed and I bought the pre-order of the autograph one. Yes. I'm a sucker. I will say, and I'm indifferent to the situation, but at this point, you say you will say, you mean I am a Wilson? Yeah. There's two. There's two else in it. I, I, it does feel like a weird move to me.
to be like, well, this guy that we had back is now gone, and now this other guy that was here is now back. And by the way, we have all these things going on. To your point, George, playing an album in its entirety that Rob Dukes was not on. The first time I ever saw Exodus was with Rob Dukes. The first Exodus album I ever heard was Shovelheaded Killing Machine. That said, I kind of went back, and I think Good Friendly Violent Fun was the first Exodus album I was ever aware of. I just didn't go out and listen to it at the time.
So I definitely would be curious as to what the reception is. Because Exodus does feel like one of those bands where Rob Dukes was kind of like filling the gap for a while. And then, you know, I mean, he was on four albums. They dicked him when he left. I was kind of surprised that he came back. And that was, that was, he was like, I was just getting married. And I got this phone call. I'm like, Oh, you're fucking out. Yeah. And in the articles talking about him coming back, it goes into say, like, it was just a couple of years ago where he's only been able to get out of time.
to talk about this because he's been so pissed. So that in itself feels a little bit. But you know what? Hey, money talks, bullshit walks. It can't be that much of it. But you know, the whole Zetro thing is weird though too because they made their comeback with him and then he was gone and then there was Rob Dukes. Now the thing I'm trying to remember is who did the Bonded by Blood re-recording thing? Is that Rob Dukes? I thought it was Zetro. I thought it was Zetro too but then I was reading the article.
I think Duke started it and then that was the end and I think I want to well I don't know I think Duke's did it the the re I don't know like I don't know I think the remake of bottom by blood was done by Duke's but I think that was the beginning of the end what was it called again um yeah I think you're right because I was reading something blood in blood out I think no that's the or that's his title let there be blood yes yeah that's it and it is
So I guess it makes sense that he's doing it. Even though it doesn't make sense that he's doing it. Personally, Dukes is a better singer than Zetro. By far. Don't care. I've known Exod since first or second album. I really, really enjoy the albums by Dukes, with Dukes. But they just don't sound like Exod.
I think that's a common theme. It's funny you brought up Bobby Ellsworth because he's not completely different from Zetro. Yeah, it's got this weird screechy kind of like untraditional. Yeah. But the thing is, if I heard that now, I'd be like, fuck, what the fuck is going on? I grew up on it. This is the soundtrack from my high school. Exodus and Overkill and Metallica and Anthra.
and Testament and all that stuff. So like, yeah, I'm an old motherfucker. I'm 52. Like this is, this is my soundtrack. And like, I don't know any better. I would say Exodus with Rob Dukes is like, just for me, there's like anthrax with John Bush. Yeah. Which I don't like either, which I prefer. In taste wise, I would a hundred percent disagree because I grew up in Exodus. I grew up in anthrax fan. And when I just felt like it
And I loved John Bush and Armored Saint, but when John Bush took over Anthrax, the band changed. It's the same situation. The band completely changed sound-wise, yeah. Yeah, that's my point, though. And it should with a new singer. It shouldn't be the same thing. The band changed with Exodus, but it changed for the better. It was heavier. Yeah. I agree with you. I totally 100% agree with that assessment. I like John Bush with Anthrax, too, Marcus. I'm not a John Bush guy at all. You thought the Bush stuff was heavier? That is a complete... No, I...
I said, no, no, no, no. I do not like your heavy bush. Gotta trip that shit. All right. Okay, I just wanted to make sure we were clear on this. So who's going to watch Exodus then at Decibal? Not me. I'm not even going, so. George, do we go drink somewhere then? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Marcus, I'm going to send you a text where we are. I don't think I'm going to even see you guys.
I don't even know if I'll go day two. You're going. I don't know why. I mean, you're going to you're going to see all of us. Yeah, well, I won't be a day to myself, but I mean, but all the people that are friends that are listeners are going to be there. Well, I need to I need to talk to the venue about getting a chair outside then because that's where I need to be able to sit outside and hold
I mean, I'm not even the biggest Exodus fan, but if nobody's going to go, then maybe I will skip and just drink. We'll see. Let's just see what happens. That's three months from now. Four months. It's not all get all bent and shaped at this point. Is that your movie back in the band by then? Yeah, for all we know. Ozzy might be singing with them at that point. You don't know. Also fair. All right. Well, Jay's not going. Matt's not going. Will's not going.
Oh, but is tribulation going to be there? No. That's true. Wow. No excuses. Can you stroke yourself in the middle of the audience? That's gross, dude. That's for show and tell. Oh, I'm sorry. I know tribulation, show and tell, same thing. Middle-aged men just struck themselves. Maybe we should go to the next news item. What? Yeah, we can do that. We're still in the first one. Yeah. All right. So Christian Munzner,
who has been on this podcast claims obscura plagiarized songs on their upcoming album. Contraversy. Boy, did he ever. Yeah, he did. He went after them. After stepping big time. Well, I mean, plagiarism. I mean, I get it. It just seems like the wrong word, but I get it. It's more. It's I mean, plagiarized is I stole your shit. And that is what they did. He did. So I guess plagiarized.
Note for Note. Stole everything. Entire song structures. Yeah, everything. Sorry, what did he steal from? He said that the riffs that he had written were stoned. Note for Note. Song structures. And he said he was guaranteed that they would not be used by the band. He stole from who? No, no, no. His own people that were no longer in the band. Obscura took those. He left Obscura. And he had written all these riffs.
And they parted ways because of creative differences. And now all of a sudden on this new album, they've got these riffs that Chris wrote. Christian Munster. Who left first? I'm going to drop out this conversation because too long, didn't read, don't care. And I don't know what the fuck you guys are talking about. George introduced it. Move on. Have a beer. We'll go fuck yourself.
Hey! Normally you'd be like, oh, it's a he said, she said, but his posts have been detailed, and it's like, I don't know, you're putting yourself out there. If you're bullshitting, you're setting yourself up to get a reciprocation of a lawsuit. It sounds like there might be legal action on it, because I get the whole intellectual property part of this. We'll see. This isn't the first time I've heard this about Obscura, though.
No, the Exist bassist. Alex Weber. Alex Weber is the other one. His stuff was lifted also for this album. Yeah. So I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like Obscura. It sucks to be Nuclear Blast right about now. Well, yeah, Nuclear Blast is kind of like thinking shit. And so you might say, oh, well, these are just riffs. But according to Christian Munzner, this was all music he was going to use on his.
Yeah. So that's, but this sets up an interesting case because of intellectual property, because there's no way to prove this, I guess, if you're not copywriting everything in situations. So I know they're not, it's not like this is like a muse, the band muse or somewhere radiohead that this is an issue, but who knows if this could set precedent.
It's just bad because the people in Obscura that are left, they promised that they would not use that material. Alex Weber from Exist said he has written confirmation of that. Christian said that he got a guarantee that they wouldn't use it as well. He left because they had creative differences. They told him they weren't interested in what he wanted to do and then they go and use his stuff.
Yeah.
So we'll see.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
But they're sure making it,
he's sure making it seem like,
based on how he's posted,
he's not holding anything back.
But how good was Christian Munz around here?
He was really good.
He was awesome when we talked to him.
I joked about this with George the other day.
I was like,
I loved how he was on.
We all got on early because we're like,
oh, he's in Germany.
He says, no, I'm in Mexico City. I'm behind you guys at the time. I'm like, what? I thought that was so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So. All right. Well, we could move on to some other controversy. Jeez. Nevermore announced that they're coming back and auditioning singers. Some people think that's a good thing. Some people don't. I'm kind of indifferent because I never really liked Nevermore.
was, oh, cash grab. And they're saying, nah, it's not a cash grab. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. How much money can they make? That's the thing. Right. Well, I mean, still, you know, if you have the opportunity to start a new band or start or do an album with an already established name, you're going to go with the established. But, well, I, George, I would almost always agree with you, except for the fact that the two main people of Nevermore, one being World Dane, the other,
was Jeff Loomis, who wrote almost all the music for the band. So we're in a gray area, I guess, for some people. I think Marcus and I are in the same camp here. I think we kind of said this. It's kind of a wait and see and let's see what happens. I'm perfectly fine with it. Yeah, I mean, if Jeff Loomis is writing all the music for the band, then let's see what happens. Yeah, hey, maybe I'll like it. Who knows? For me, it's two out of the four original
members resurrecting nevermore and loomis is the guy who writes all the songs so i'm okay with that yeah i want to see how it shakes out i mean i wish jim shepherd was there i don't he i don't think he can tour i i maybe i'm 100 wrong it just seems like his medical stuff going on yeah it seems like his wife caused all the controversy maybe i'm wrong about that well so they did the tease online which said resurrecting the dream nevermore a new chapter rises 2025 maybe they just tore that's it who knows i don't know well no they said they wanted to do material
I hope so.
They want to get a new bassist, new vocalist.
But after that tease, then Jim Shepard's wife called the reunion disrespectful.
I know.
So then there was a letter that came out from Jeff and Van that said that, you know, we haven't even talked to Jim in a long time.
People don't know what was going on behind the scenes that led to this decision.
Apparently it was pretty bad.
Before, beforehand.
Yeah.
But if it's only, and this is devil's advocate because I really don't have a horse in this race.
No, I get it.
But if it's only two members of the original band, why not just call it something new? Yeah, but if he's writing... That's okay. Here's why I think not, and it's because even though World Dane had extremely unique vocals, of which, by the way, he was the reason a lot of people didn't like that band, even though I loved the way he sang it. I thought he was awesome, yeah, I agree. I would always hear people say, like, I just can't fucking stand his voice. I loved his voice. But Jeff, I still think Jeff Moore,
He defined that band to me. I agree. Whoever it is probably won't write the same kind of vocal melodies. Well, they won't write the lyrics, that's for sure. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. Maybe Loomis, he wants to write in that vein. He wants to do those Nevermore style stuff again. And I totally understand that. Yeah, me too. I'm down. And here's the thing too, like I usually when this happens, I'm kind of against it. But Alice in Chains did this, right? Lane died. And then they got the band back together with
the new vocals like within five years it's been like 13 years since nevermore did anything
and that decision you know for alice put a lot of fans off at first but they've put out a lot of good
material same thing though Markisan who was the driving force of that whole band jerry jerry can't trust exactly
and and so eventually but people were still put out by oh i was i people i didn't came around for a
awesome live when i saw them but they were so good eventually you know people came around because they
They play big venues now and around the world. One thing, though, is they went out and purposely found a guy who kind of sounded like him. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of choice. And they also respected Lane and how they approached it, too. That was, I think, part of it. So I think it was a much bigger band. But I don't think the scrutiny was bigger, too, though. But I don't think people realize that Jerry Cantrell sings on literally almost every song to some degree. But George, I'm curious about
since we're talking about Nevermore. How do you feel about Sanctuary? See, that's the thing. I love Sanctuary. And when Nevermore came out, I immediately bought the first album. And I was like, meh. Oh, no, but Sanctuary, there's still a band with a different singer. Oh, yeah, no, no, no. First two albums is it. I saw the band. Even the third album, I believe, is still Worrell. It's still Worrell. But I saw the band with the new singer. They were awesome. That may be. I haven't actually heard the band with the new singer.
But I only really like the first two Sanctuary albums. The third one I thought was good. I like it. All right. Here's the thing. I can't stay silent in this. You guys are ignoring the elephant in the room. That's me. Zetro is going to be the new singer. I'm totally down now. Yeah, I don't know why you're speculating who it might be. Sign me up. My God. Well.
I'm just glad Jeff Loomis and I'm actually glad Van's back. Yeah, I mean, Van's a good guy. I met Van and he was very nice to me. So no complaints about Van. I met Jeff once and he was, he couldn't have been, it was one time. So I have no idea if that's, you know, covers all grounds, but he was super nice when I hung out with him. So was he in and not, and then not in Arch Enemy? No, he was, it was actually Nevermore when they were touring with Opeth. But did he, I felt like he was in Arch Enemy for a while.
But then left. He left, yeah. After. By the way, was Blackwater Park and Dreaming Neon Black. What a tour. Stop. I didn't go, but, you know, because. Jay, that was the first time. Yeah. Oh, the second time was Ghost Reveries and This Godless Endeavor. Oh, fuck. It was fucking insane how good it was. I mean, both bands were just freaking awesome. They were so good. You know, Nevermore never was, to me, as popular as they should have been.
They should have been huge. Playing live and stuff. And it would be just this fucking small club without that many people there. And I was always like, what the fuck? Do people not know how awesome this band is? I'm going to go back and check them out again. You should, because me and John were talking about this not long ago on the Endless Metal podcast. We did a whole podcast on Nevermore. And so it was pretty fun to go back and revisit all that. Jay, I know you're a huge Disgodless Endeavor fan. I think you are, at least.
I think it's the best record in yesterday. I think it's one of the best records of the past. Well, when we did our top. We both had it on our list, yeah. Yeah, I think that was, I know it was my top from that year. Well, we did it twice. We did it on the top 50 albums, and then we did a, it pissed me off that we didn't define this by one year. Remember, best album since 2000? Yeah. Remember we did that? Yeah. You guys all had Brave New World.
your list. I was like, wait a minute, somebody said 2001 to 2015. Bastards, I wouldn't put this on my list. But no, I'm a huge Nevermore fan. And in particular, I think that record is one of the records like Number of the Beast or there's just nothing wrong with it at all. I mean, everything about it is fucking awesome. George, I'm curious, George, if you go back to hear what you have to say, because Dreaming Neon Black is just freaking awesome. Especially since you're kind of like the kind of goth
stuff these days, you know?
Yeah.
Dead Heart.
I love Dead World.
Okay.
Thank you, John.
That was the one I was going to ask about.
How does that fit in the mix?
Okay.
That was, that was my number one.
The debut's good.
That's my number one.
Yeah.
And actually, you know what?
I was wrong.
That was the tour.
Blackwater Park was Blackwater Park and I think Dead Heart and Dead World.
Yeah, it was Dead Heart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In 2001.
Yeah.
And that's when Nevermore headlined and Opeth opened.
But when they came back the second time, Opeth headlined and Nevermore opened.
You know what else was actually really good?
It was World Dane's solo record was really good. I remember that. We talked about that too. I like the second solo. I'm better than the first. Yeah. He was the big Paul Simon guy and he did patterns on that. The Paul Simon song patterns and it was so fucking cool. Yeah. And I love Sanctuary also. I read an interview with him one time and he said did he have any awareness that Paul Simon might have ever heard the sound of silence.
And he said he didn't and he really didn't want to know. He was like, I'm sure he would think it was awful or something and it would break his heart too much. You guys should listen to the Endless Metal podcast that we did because we talked about all this stuff and gave our favorites. It was pretty fun. Cool. So George, your item about Nevermore turned into a world day thing. Nevermore going to end. Whoa.
You came around, George, because you were kind of against it. You're a little more open now. Well, I mean, the knee-jerk reaction was like, oh, that's not cool. Because I am a World Dane fan above being a Nevermore fan. We are, too. I loved him in the band. But I just never liked Nevermore. What? I don't know why. I know. We talk about that all the time. Bands that we just don't get. So, you know, I'll try it again. Maybe this year.
I don't know I've listened to this godless endeavor I've listened to Dreaming Neon Black and I'm like me but okay maybe hey maybe it's like me with it's like me with it's like me with all story right well I agree else or it you know but uh it's like me with the top three albums from the metalhead podcast 2024 that's just crazy calling me a lot of names today well it hasn't stopped I mean the first thing I called you was sexy yeah first thing I called you
What's the first thing I did when you showed up? I bent over. Oh, wait. You did bend over, and I had to turn you around because we're in public and just kiss on the lips. You look me in the eyes when I see you. Anyway. Let's move on to another. By the way, the Commanders are playing now, George. Oh, shit. Yeah, all right. We're not even an hour and 15 minutes in. The faster we can go, the better.
For George.
Yeah.
At this time.
All right.
Let me just move that game over here where I can see it.
No,
no,
no,
no.
You blank it out.
So you go fast.
Okay.
So the next band,
I think we can all agree on that.
We liked them at some point in their career.
And that is iron maiden.
They announced that they will do deep cuts on the 50th year tour.
I want real deep cuts,
not semi deep cuts,
which won't be coming here until the following year.
I know.
So year 51. Yeah. Uh, and apparently there's a Netflix documentary, uh, on them announced. So nice. I'm down. I'm curious what Netflix will do with them, but it could be good. They also have Netflix just announced a Scorpions ones too. I saw that. Yeah. Oh, Klaus minor. So that's cool. I mean that they're kind of getting into that business. I wonder who's doing them. That's a good point. Actually being consulted.
What's that you think so matter you're hoping so no I'm hoping fingers crossed I mean Sam done the metal
headbangers journey guy I'll say this stuff is hit and miss but his easy top thing was so good
that I have absolute faith in whatever he wants to and the rush one was good too rush one was awesome
I don't think I saw yeah easy top one I think he's he's a super likable person to just have narrate a story yeah yeah
The Maiden one, 666, was good. Totally. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so we'll see. Well, we'll see. But as far as deep track, I'll believe it when I see it. They say that all the time, kind of. Hey, man, they did this tour. They did Alexander the Great, and I was like, yes! You know, there's this whole fan base that consistently would have petitions to get Alexander the Great on the... Yeah, well, I was totally full-matched.
All right, well, let's go around the room.
It has to be a deep cut.
If it has to be a deep cut, what would you, if you went, what would you be like, fuck, I can't believe they played.
Oh, okay, you want a maiden deep cut?
Oh, jeez, we're going to do it.
Still life.
I got one.
Jay, you'll be happy with mine.
I got one.
All right, let's start with you.
Go ahead, Marcus.
You go, go ahead.
I have to think about it.
I didn't, this is on the spot.
I got to think about it for a second.
Total eclipse.
Yeah, that's as deep as it gets right there. They haven't played it since Number of the Beast, I think. What's that, George? I was making a Bonnie Tyler joke. Totally keeps it apart. You sneaky little bastard. Nah, I know. I'd probably go with The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. I don't think they play that. That's a good one, too. I love that, Somewhere in Time. Yeah, that'd be good. Actually, a couple, Sea of Madness, I don't think they play that too much. Well, Jay and I would be on that boat.
there. Yeah.
We're on the sea of madness boat.
What was it?
That's why I said boat.
What'd you say?
Well,
heaven can wait.
Oh,
yeah.
We're going to,
actually,
I think they played on this tour.
Yeah.
Yeah,
they did.
All right.
Well,
fuck all y'all.
How about the still deep?
It's still life and death of Benjamin.
Fuck face.
That song.
Yes.
How about that one?
You guys listen to that one.
Fuck faces.
Will, you're a very angry man today.
I just want to go and watch football.
Well, I mean, you can.
It's an HR block commercial right now.
It is.
Fuck football.
Well, I think, Marcus, I think Sea of Madness is a great pull.
I'm just going to go weird and deep.
And I guess back in the village.
Back in the village.
Recently covered by Ashen Horde.
Wow.
Buddy Carl on vocals.
Coral.
Coral, not warl.
I got another one from Fear of the Dark.
Be quick or be dead.
That'd be nice to see that.
Right?
Yeah, that'd be cool.
Is there like, and so I'm not throwing anything out because I'm definitely not a good,
like example of someone who knows what a good deep cut from Iron Maiden would be because I'm just dumb.
But is something like The Wicker Man off of Brave New World, is that a deep cut or is that too popular? Yeah. It's been a while since they played it. They probably haven't played it since. No, they played it a little bit, but not as long as. They're like Blood Brothers. They play that a lot. Usually at the end. They play that all the time. Screw this game. It's Will Jr. That's good, Matt. Do you think somebody
Did Garfunkel play Sounds of Silence this time? I'm sorry. But I'm going to throw one more out. Would they ever play Number of the Beast? No. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to throw one more out. I got one. Remember Tomorrow. That'd be cool. As a nod to Paul. And honestly, I think that's a really good song. You know? I got one. Real rare. Yeah, I'd like to have to go deep down into it. Watch for words.
You know that I had a box set, John. The box set that Beast Over Hammersmith originally came out on had this CD of Mission for Mary, if you've ever heard that, and a bunch of others. That's the one where it's just Nickel McBrain yelling at Steve. Yeah, I know what it is. Yeah. And they did do Lost for Words on the Power Slave Tour.
And they were a live version of it on there. Yeah, it's on the, one of the releases for Live After Death has a three song. Yep. Oh, it's like a B-side. Extra disc, yeah. Yeah, because this, the box that I had had. Oh, well, speaking. Compilation stuff. Yeah, there's three songs. That was a singular release at Sanctuary from the Long Beach show. And then they did Lost for Words and Murder in the Room Morgue. Murders in the Room Morgue from, I think, London.
That's the last four words where he says, there's no singing on this. Oh, well. Yep, that's exactly the one. And he kind of hums off, which is kind of funny. Jay mentioned Power Slave, and I got one from that that they don't care very much. Can I try to guess what it is? Is it one of the last two songs on the first side? I'm not going to give you any hints. Just guess. The Duelist. The Duelist or Killed Your First Man. I'd love to see The Duelist. Killer Instinct Animals.
Sun and Steel. Sun and Steel is from Peace of Mind. Hold on, I'll get it though. But Sun and Steel would be awesome to play it. I don't think they play that very much. I don't think they ever play it. I think it's the last song on side one, whatever that is. Flash of the Blade? Flash of the Blade, you got it. That's the one, John. That's the one I want to hear. I'd love to hear The Duelist also. They have done that from time to time. I feel like I've seen them do Flash of the Blade.
I don't think they play that very much at all. So I think what we've discovered is there's not a lot of super deep cuts taken to. Still life, come on. That'd be cool. I'd love to see the Mercenary. I've never seen the Mercenary live. That'd be cool. I'm just really excited to see them for their 50th. Hopefully. Will everyone bitch that they have a different drummer? I won't.
Because there's nothing they can do. He can't play anymore. Because you think it's going to be 2026? I know it is. They're going to be next year they're in Europe. No, I'm saying it's only through May though, I think. They told us, Bruce told us when I saw him a few months ago, he said, blah, blah, blah, the tour next year. And he's like, well, we'll be here in 2026. So we'll see in two. Okay, okay. Yeah. No, I said, is anyone going to bitch because Nico won't be there? Nah.
I think because he chose to leave under his own power. It happens, man. Dude, 77 years old. It's a drummer. It's not the lead singer. Oh, just fucking stop right now. Yeah, I mean, who gives a shit about drummer John? Unless it's too old. How long has Scott Travis been in Iron Maiden? Like a couple years? Two years? Now if Scott Travis joined Iron Maiden, that'd be awesome.
It's not the running back. I don't give a shit. It's not just Nico's playing. It's his personality that makes everything great. I honestly think he has a sound he has that is hard to duplicate. I think Maiden's going to sound different now. But his personality also, he was the last guy off the stage.
all the time. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? Nico's Nico. I mean, come on. Plus, I mean, we're never going to see him in that red devil jumpsuit anymore. That's over. That's done. You can go have ribs at his restaurant. You might run into him. Yeah, so anyway. All right. Well, Matt and I saw him. Yeah. I just didn't want to see that tour for some reason. I don't know why. Well, we all saw him. But you saw him on his last tour. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Moving on to another streaming service. Hulu has ordered the eight part Into the Void docuseries from Vice Studios about the history of heavy metal. Oh yeah. Man, the production's currently underway and it's supposed to come out this year. So I'm really excited about it because it's overseen by the executive producers of the excellent pro wrestling documentary series Dark Side of the Ring. Yes. Can't say a sign. What?
I love that series.
Enough about that show.
Yeah.
It's about wrestling.
Yes.
But the way they do the documentary and spotlight the different characters and tell the story is phenomenally good.
I mean, there's wrestlers on there that I don't care about because I usually focus on the wrestlers that I love when I was growing up as a kid.
But I watched every single episode, even wrestlers I have never heard of.
And I'm enthralled.
So that's good news for the history of heavy metal because I'm sure they'll do the same thing.
Just FYI, everything in our life relates back to four things. The Mafia, Saved by the Bell, Shakespeare, and pro wrestling. Okay? Every situation in life. Excellent. George, don't start this, okay? We're on the same team tonight, okay? George, for the Lions. Some of the funny stories, George, some of the funny stories I've ever heard in my life were behind the scenes pro wrestling stories from people I know that were
And it's some of the best stuff I've ever heard. Well, I mean, I can't, I really can't knock it because I recently watched, and I know some of you have seen this, the Yacht Rock documentary. That's just such a stupid fucking term, man. Well, yeah, so. And it was made up by those two dudes that did that fucking series. Did you watch the documentary? Yeah, that's not even a real term. Those guys made it up. Sure.
But the point is, I watched this and I like got into Christopher Cross finally. And the Doobie Brothers. And even you, I even was like, dude, John can, I mean, Michael McDonald can sing. Oh, if you don't, whether you like the Doobie Brothers or not is irrelevant. The dude can sing. I don't care what anyone says. No, no, no, no. Yeah. But no, I actually watched this.
and was like,
eh,
whatever.
And then I'm watching it and I'm going,
all right.
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
It's kind of like the whole grunge thing.
It was made up by reporters.
It never was an actual scene.
Well,
my,
my favorite part was at the end when they,
they,
uh,
the director called up,
what's his name from Steely Dan.
I was awesome.
I loved it.
What's his name?
God,
I can't remember the main guy,
the TR,
the TR would know in a heartbeat.
Oh,
Fagan.
Yeah.
So the director calls up Fagan. And he's like, hey, so we want to talk to you about for this documentary. And he's like, what's it called? And he's like, it's called Yacht Rot. And he said, fuck you. And hung up. It's awesome. It's absolutely awesome. Maybe a bigger fan of him for that is like, fuck you guys. I was like, I don't know, man. I mean, I get why people could be offended by the term. Because it doesn't exist. But at the same time, it's bragging.
bringing people into the music it brought me in yeah i mean not the term the
documentary brought me in but the documentary was a called yacht rock so yeah you know
like i understand i understand him being annoyed though because they were
like a more proggy type jam band really a lot of jazz influence and everything yeah yeah so but lighten up
come on no i love it i think it's awesome i mean guys it's not like rob dukes was singing on the
Come on. Oh, that'd be cool. That would be cool. All right. Well, it is what it is. Moving on to new releases, of which we only have two. Because, you know, it's January. First up, we have the new Ex Deo album, Year of the Four Emperors.
Which I believe is this year, given that they're coming to town. Emperor, that is, not Dexdale. And this is their fourth album. They're a Roman-themed death metal band. I have not listened to this, but I know some of you guys have, and you have dug it. And I've liked them in the past, so I will go with your opinion. I think it's just an EP. Yeah. Four songs. Yeah, and each song's about the Emperor. Oh, okay. It's like 20 minutes. It's cool. I mean, I know Will's,
I'm a fan of them. They do the symphonic death metal with Roman. That's right. I like symphonic death metal. There's not a lot of symphonic death metal. Symphonic black metal, but very. Not much symphonic death. It's cool. I mean, it's not that symphonic though. Yeah. I mean, well, they, it's enough to be noticeable, but not like their previous albums. I agree. Yes. I mean, I think it's a really good death metal EP. So, I mean, if you like death metal, I mean,
I love watching these guys play live because the visual of them in the Roman armor is pretty badass. But I'm not as enamored by their studio stuff. I like that they're inspired by Rome and its history, but the music doesn't hit the same to me as other bands who use unique historical or regional instrumentation. Because there isn't really a Roman sound to me, I guess. There's strings and trumpets and spoken word that they do in their albums, but that stuff isn't as defining.
That's what the music sounds like. Right, that's what I mean. But something like Nile, where they use Egyptian instrument, that hits harder to me. But this is still really good. In that case, since it's not driving you crazy, I'm going to give people an alternative here. Which is, if you've never watched the HBO series Rome, it's totally worth your time. And it's only two seasons, too. I know. Was it only two? Only two. It's been a long time since I watched it. It's really good. Well, you know, as I was saying, there's not many
symphonic death metal bands.
No, there's not.
There really isn't.
But there is one of note that blew me away when it came out.
And this was the Flesh God Apocalypse Band, an Italian band, so very right.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And their album, King.
Oh, I remember you were big on that one.
Because it was like, it was death metal, but it had all this extra symphonic stuff that you just don't get in death metal.
And it was a very unique album.
I love it.
Pomp and Circumstance, wasn't there? Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. And there's like, you know, Italian, like operatic singing and stuff. And they're Italian too, right? Yeah. I think they put out an album last year, didn't they, George? Yeah, they put out an album. And it was good. I thought it was good. It flirted with my list for a little bit because I thought they'd do a good job of incorporating that stuff into it. But George, you're right. There's few and far between on that side. Yeah, absolutely. So, Ex Deo, you know. Yeah, it was cool. It was all right.
I know Will likes the band a lot. Let's cut to Will. Do I get to talk now? Yes. What? I like it a lot. So surly. Speak the word. The word is all of us. You good? He's eating. I don't know if you can do any better than that. That was pretty good.
Lions up. Hello. Yeah. So, yeah, that was fast. Uh, fast dish. I think they're at eight minutes left in the first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Fair enough. Hey, you know, I expect the, the lions to win, but if it's not a blowout, that's even better. I do like their gritty go for it. You know, saying I like kitties. I could get behind the lines.
I just want to see the Lions in the Super Bowl for the first time ever. Just get to the first game. Get to the Jabba! Because it's the Lions. Just get to the next game. Yeah. All right. All right. The next new release we have and final new release we have is the Halo Effect and their second album of Swedish Melo Death, March of the Unheard. Cool title. Yeah, it is a cool title.
I listened to a little bit of this. I was like, Melodeath? Whatever. I don't care. Because I don't really, you know, Slaughter of the Soul? Nice. Anything after that? Whatever. I don't care. I'm not really a Melodeath fan anymore. But I did listen to a little bit of this. Enough to go, I need to listen to a little more of this. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's a dude from Dark Tranquility, I know. I saw them at Prague Power. Not this year. Was it last year? They were good. For the first album. The debut for them.
And the dude from Cemetery Skyline. Hello. I mean, there's guys from In Flames. Yeah. He's the singer from Dark Tranquility is making a three-peat this year. Yeah, he is. But Cemetery Skyline is coming now. So he's done Halo Effect, Dark Tranquility, and Cemetery Skyline will be coming. Yeah. I thought it was cool. I mean, I love the 90s Gothenburg sound. So this sounds like it could be a lost album from
that era. And it has two In Flames, former In Flames members. Yeah, it's a mix of all those bands, isn't it, Marcus? Yeah, I mean, Jesper Stromblad, he founded In Flames. He's in it. And guitarist Nicholas Engelin, he's also in there. And they played on my favorite In Flames albums, Horacle and Colony. So I'm a big, big fan of those two albums in particular. So it's cool to see them continue with that classic sound on,
on two albums now. I believe this is the second one that Halo FX done. But I could do without the clean vocals that suddenly pop up on a few songs in the back half of the album. They just kind of take out. Yeah, I mean, normally I wouldn't care, but they just kind of pop up because they don't do it in the beginning of the record. And it kind of takes the aggression out because this is very melodic. It's more melodic than the old school In Flames, which had more aggression to me. So I don't like the cleans as much, but they do give the record some variety.
So I think it's pretty good. I'll probably spin it a few times. Seems to be that's the Dark Tranquility portion of the band seeping in. Yeah. Don BT is a huge Horacle and Colony fan. So you guys have that in common. Yeah. Dark Tranquility is great live. I just never bought anything from them. I've seen them, I don't know, like six or seven times. They occupy a weird space. They're amazing live, dude. They're so good. Yeah, they always seem to be touring with somebody that I like. Yeah. They occupy a weird space.
for people our age.
I saw him.
And kind of that whole scene.
Yeah.
I saw him with Amorphous and Fires in the Distance last year.
And that was one of the best shows I saw last year.
And Dark Tranquility.
That's the one time I didn't watch a Marcus.
I actually left early from that show.
Oh, geez.
So, and the thing is, like, I liked Dark Tranquility, you know, in the past.
I haven't really listened to much of their stuff now.
And so I wasn't really looking that forward to what they were going to play.
I thought they kind of stole the show.
They were just amazing live. They were really good. All three bands were good, but I was very, very impressed by Dark Tranquility. I saw them at Prog Power, but I saw them when they opened for Opeth like five or six shows on that tour. There was a time in the early 2000s where in 2002 to 2007, you couldn't go see anybody without seeing In Flames and Dark Tranquility. Yeah, they seemed like they were everywhere. I saw In Flames headline with Dark Tranquility underneath.
With Killswitch Engage underneath that. Whoa. That's actually a pretty big bill. It is. It's not big enough yet because you know who opened was sentenced. Whoa. Wow. That was the reason I was there. And you left right after sentenced? No. No. We left during In Flames because but when we left who was outside but the singer for Tranquility was on his cell phone in the parking lot talking. I was like, oh, it's a guy for Tranquility.
And how did he reply? Nah, he was just ignoring me. Thanks, drunk guy. Thanks, drunk guy. Yeah, it just seemed like every show I saw for a while there, like, I remember, I think it was Gojira on the Art of Time tour in Flames open for them, I'm pretty sure. Oh, I thought it was the other way around. I thought Gojira opened for them. That might be. I'm looking right now because I was just thinking of that, Jay.
I'm prepared to be wrong about that. No, no, no. I also go ahead, John. No, I'm done. Go. Jay, you are this far from being like a floating head. Yeah. I love. I wanted to point that out. Wait, wait, wait. Normally, you're like, normally you're, you know, just sort of there, but the lighting right now, everything in the background is dark. I can make it better. No, you look great. Oh boy. Don't change anything about
you. Yeah, turn it back off. You look great. There we go. Yeah. You look great. 2008. Gojira opened for In Flames. I saw that show at Ram's Head. I just checked. And so that would have been Art of Dying? Yes. I confess I might not have stayed for all of In Flames. No, I didn't. I left.
It was that way around. I only wanted to see Gojira, and I saw him at George Knows This. He's been there. Saw him at Rams Head at the power plant in Baltimore. Just call her up a little bit and then really make this effect. Am I seeing the video for Behemoth? Is this the real thing? No, dude, dude, you are Red Dwarf. You know Red Dwarf, right? That is amazing. What is it? Red Dwarf. You know the show Red Dwarf, don't you?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're the light. They're the floating hecka and red dwarf. Jay, actually, the way you look right now is how a new fucking sci-fi series on one of the streaming channels should start with just your head and you just talking to set the series up. But it would be something like this. Do not attempt to adjust your set. Oh, I miss that so much. I miss that stuff so much. I started watching Silo recently. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
I haven't watched the last one yet. Stop. Don't say anything. Well, no, that's just it. I watched the first one and I need somebody to tell me to keep going. Matt, did you watch the... I don't want to hear it. Yes. I've seen everything and keep watching. I liked the first one, but I just thought, do I really want to wait like four seasons to find out what the hell is going on? No, it was only two seasons. Well, so far two seasons. I believe they're going to only go two more, so it'll be a four total. It's supposed to match the book series. Matt, do we get... I will do it for you. And I liked it, so don't get me wrong.
details, Matt, in the last episode? A little bit. Yep. Okay. But I would compare the show to Lost. No, that's what I got out of it. Hey, Matt, I got to go out and clean. Yes, you do. Yeah, okay, so I know that much. Okay. So I will say the last episode of Season 2 reminds me of the last episode of Season 3 of Lost. All right. Hey, and it's the dude from...
What's the movie? That thing that you do. The guitarist from that band. Yes. He hasn't shown you up yet for me, so okay. Jay, don't listen anymore. Well, no. You can only ruin it so much. All right. Well, let's move on to what we're listening to because we got football to watch. We do have football to watch. All right. Let's roll.
What are you listening to?
What are you listening to?
For fuck's sake.
Marcus, what are you listening to?
Oh, God.
All right.
Let's see.
First one is Bloodbark, Sacred Sound of Solitude on Northern Silence Productions.
It's atmospheric black metal.
That label still exists? Oh, yeah. Northern Silence, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, man. Yeah, it's, like I said, atmospheric black metal. It's meant to evoke the spirit of snow-covered forests and mountains and creatures who live there. It's pretty good. And the band is anonymous. You don't even know where they're from. So that's kind of curious to me. But I feel like, is that in Idaho? Anonymous Idaho? I don't.
I don't know anything about Idaho. You're the hoe. Idaho, no you the hoe. I know exactly what you're talking about, and it's Idaho. Is there really a town called Anonymous Idaho? Please let there be. I hope so. Jay, we're all moving there, so just be careful. There is a place called No Place Arizona, or Nowhere, I think it's called. But we don't know who built the silo in Idaho.
Well, we know. Wait, Matt, they're in Idaho? I think. Now we know. It's that girl from the Mission Impossible movies, isn't it? Also, Greatest Showman. I know who built this city. Yes. Jefferson Starship. No, that was Starship. Don't even mention Jefferson. It was just Starship? Just Starship. The Starship, Jefferson Starship Enterprise.
Next album. I'm trying. Next album. This is bullshit. The next one for me is Onorofagus, Revelations from the Void on personal records. This is the third album from this atmospheric doom death band. It has a gothic feel to it. They create some really intriguing cavernous sounds. There's a bit of violin on there, but there's some massive death metal parts on it as well. I really like the songwriter.
on this release just came out friday so and then the next one is vitriolic black steel vengeance just evil black and thrash from finland and then i have faith extractor loathing and the noose on redefining darkness records this album was a bit of a surprise for me because i like the last few faith extractor albums but they were pretty straightforward big riff death metal records and
And this one offers a lot more than that. They put Doom and Black and Thrash this time around, and it makes the band more dynamic, more interesting. It's a great level up, I think, for Faith Extractor. Labyrinthus Stellarum, Vortex of the Worlds, an independent release. This album came out last year, but I started spinning it late in December, and it ended up being on my top 40. So they play a cosmic, atmospheric black metal with lots of
of heavy cascading guitars, warm melody. What's funny? Joy shared a picture in the chat. Oh, it's okay. Very nice. Yeah, lots of heavy cascading guitars, warm melodies mixed with all kinds of electronic bleeps and bloops. Bleep, bloop, bloop, bloop. It's a pretty good record. And then the last one on my list is Still. And the album's called A Theft on Floodlit Recordings.
So Dustin Kaufman, who is the vocalist and bassist for Glassing, which is a band I really love. Did you say Dustin Hoffman? Kaufman. Close. He named this album one of his favorites of 2024 on a list that he made for Invisible Oranges. And I had not heard of Still before. So I spun this one and it also ended up making my top 40 list. So it's a potent mix of avant-garde black metal, atmospheric noise, blistering,
Post-Hardcore with waves of melancholy. And it has shared vocals between the guitarist and the drummer. And that kind of delivers this feeling of turmoil in the songs that I like. Kind of a push-pull, which works really well for this release. So shout out to Dustin for that killer recommendation. That's what I got. Cool. Situational Paradox Man. First off, I wish the lines were wearing all black. This blue stuff is just stupid.
It's lions. They wear blue and silver. Come on. No, black. Regardless, I'm going to be super high maintenance. My favorite time of year is post year round because I can kind of decompress and just do deep dives into things that have nothing to do with new releases. Strangely enough, the one band I've listened to the most is Fear Fragment.
I think I'm just hellbent on this new metal documentary that at some point I will make but I've spent so much time on it and in the past I've spent so much time with this band so that was kind of fun also Nine Inch Nails kind of bridging the gap between the band who made albums and the band who scores movies yeah this Atticus guy is driving me crazy because I really believe he is the reason we are not getting Nine Inch Nails well so they announced not
Well, they haven't announced official dates yet, but I know they're going on tour and I'm excited about that. I will say the slip is probably the last Nine Inch Nails I devoured. And so anything after that, I've tried to revisit a little bit, including Ghosts, which I listened to the song on Ghosts 5, I think. And I realized, like, I'm pretty sure this is from The Bear because I was, I remember watching the episode of The Bear and thinking like, my God, this has to be Nine Inch Nails.
Just like when you watch, you know, Gone Girl or what is that one? Social Network or... Social Network. They also just won a Golden Globe for something this year. Yeah, they did. The Challengers, which I totally want to watch based on the fact that they did the soundtrack. Because when you listen to it, it's like, oh my God, this is them. So kind of fun. Otherwise, as we were talking about before we started recording, at the end of the year, I always have to kind of clear up my Bandcamp wish list because that is where I keep what I like.
And some things that really popped up. A band from Japan. Their name is all in characters there, but it actually means Sleepwalker. Delirium Path Mutogino Adductum, which translated means Sentimental Utigen Delirium. Super experimental black metal, kind of anti-God Hand meets Psy. Really, really good. Another band, Irshatu. The album is called Yomi.
Please stop me if you've mentioned this, but
here's the quote I got. After tackling
Mayan mythology via
their evocative 2023
debut, Zabalba,
the new album Yomi finds
the band growing in confidence and stature
heading deeper and darker climbs as
they immerse themselves in death folklore
of Japanese Shintu.
I'm saying this because the band
includes Vinsval
of
Bluto's Nord fame,
Hexenbrett, H-E-X-E-N-B-R-E-T-T. No. I know B Hexen. Okay. But no. I think this is different. Dritte Beschrungung dem Tufel eine Tuchter, which means Third Summoning, Daughter of the Devil, kind of German.
with goth leanings definitely worth checking out definitely uh band canis darus by the grace of death
uh kind of reminds me of enslaved vertebrae they are from my neck of the woods on bind rune that
came out in december and lastly from this year igor from the band aura they're a swiss band kind of like
crazy black metal very extreme okay 2025 releases the band wyatt e zamura ulta qurub something something
I'm pretty sure I saw this on Daniel Lake's driving playlist last week. I'm enjoying his driving playlist, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, Belgian band, Heavy Psych Sounds. The album came out on January 10th, the first chapter of a set of two concept albums in which the band deepens its exploration of ancient Babylon with an almost mythical approach through the eyes of exiled captors of Jerusalem. We're checking out if you can find, you know, love for that.
Loathing and the Noose as Mark Sun mentioned from the band Faith Extractor. And then I've got a few pre-orders, which meaning they have a couple songs out on Bandcamp. The new Scalder album for one, the little black metal. That'll be out January 31st. Memories Fragmented by the band Crown of Madness, kind of techie sledge from Canada that comes out late February. Something to Pierce by the band Sadist. That's kind of proggy death metal. March.
The Band Ren has an album coming out called Black Rain Falls, kind of atmospherical sludge metal from England that comes out late February. Transmissions from the band Telepathy, it's kind of progressive sludge from the UK, and that's late March. Beer Pelagic. Active Impalement is the band. Profane Altar is the album. Death Metal, Nashville, late February. Cult of the Serpent's Sun is the album. It's going to be by the band Night.
kind of black and influenced heavy metal.
Is that N-I-T-E?
Yes.
Yeah.
I saw that pop up, but I haven't listened to the tracks yet.
It's fun.
It's good.
I could totally see myself getting into the whole album, but we have to wait until
mid-March until it comes out.
And then Desiderium, the album is Keys to the Palace.
They are a progressive death metal from the U.S.
And that comes out mid-March via Willow Tip.
That's it for me. Alrighty then. Jonah. Alright. So every post year end episode I usually delve into 80s US power metal. This year I did not. First time in a long time I just dove into the Prague dork well. Nerd well. Really deep. So I'm not going to mention
But that's where I've been most of my listening. So all these releases are recent in terms of like the last week or two that have come out on the metal front. So the first one is the Obsidian Resurrection as Darkness Falls came out last week. They're a death metal band from Modesto, California. In the middle of the valley, which you don't hear about too many bands from Modesto. But I'm not knocking. It's just Shane knows what I'm talking about.
You just don't really hear about bands from a death. You don't. You really don't. But the album's awesome. I mentioned it to Will earlier today. I love it. It's death metal with some symphonic. George, it's funny you brought that up tonight. They have a lot of symphonics to their sound. For them, they say for fans of Morbid Angel, Decapitated, Slayer, and Demu Bourgeois. And I would say, yeah, okay, that's partially right. It's got Morbid Angel riffs with kind of an ex-Dio.
type of symphonics. It's good. I like it. And I've been in a conversation with them today on Bandcamp when I bought the album. They actually, first band ever on Bandcamp, I bought like a thousand albums, first band ever to actually send me a personal message to say, hey, thanks for buying our album. That goes a long way. Oh, it does. Yeah, it really does. So I think it's a cool album. I think the band includes the drummer from this band called Lunar, which is a rock metal band from Sacramento. Again, a hotbed of metal.
Sacramento, California.
Yeah, for sure.
And I say that because my parents live just north of Sacramento.
So I say that lovingly.
Anyway, that's the first one.
Great album.
I like it.
I'm not sure.
I know Will said he liked it, but he said he didn't get a chance to finish it because
it's a long album, but it's cool.
Thumbs up from Will.
Yeah.
And it's got a really cool, it's got a 90s album cover, which I miss those 90s album
covers, which the artwork, today everything just looks different. It's a personal thing. Get off my lawn. Yeah, sons of bitches. Not just one son of a bitch, sons of bitches. That's right. Multiple, plural. Second album, Kraft, which is an interesting way of spelling it, C-K-R-A-F-T, Uncommon Grounds. They're actually a French instrumental jazz metal band. I love it. Matt, you might like the fact that they're sex
I love fusion metal, jazz metal. I'm a big fan. So it's cool. Second album that came out. I dig it. It's not bad. This third one, you may know them as Dork Fortress, but I know them as Dark Fortress. They did. Well, they split up. Yeah. Break up, whatever you want to call it. But they did release a live album from that last tour in 2023 called Anthems from Beyond the Grave live in Europe 2023.
3. I figured I'd give it a spin. It's freaking really good. I mean, it sounds great. It's basically like a greatest hits live, according to them. But I will tell you why I like this album even more. I mean, there's already three members of the band which feature members of Alkaloid and Trypticon. However, this album includes a drummer. Does anyone care to guess who the drummer is on this album? From Germany.
Um... Honest? Honest Grossman. Yes. Well, of course, because Morian is the singer from... or goes by Flo, who's the singer. He used to be the singer of Dark Fortress. He's also the singer-yedart player from Algaloid. It's good. It's awesome. If you like Dark Fortress... Jay, I believe you mentioned that you liked their last album that came out X number of years ago. It was on my list. It was on my list. It's cool.
They've been around forever, it seems like. But they finally called it quits. Two more albums. This album has not been released yet, but they've released three songs from it. Almost 28 minutes worth of music. The great old ones. Kadath, K-A-D-A-T-H. New album coming out next week. I know, Marcus, I think you and I had them on our list when their last album came out. I definitely had it on my list. That's 2019? It's been a long time.
That's right. Atmospheric black metal from France. It's good. And the three songs from what I've heard so far, if that's any indication of the rest of the album, it's going to be good. And of course, Matt mentioned Scalder. We may have been privy to the promo for the new album. It's good. And hope to have them on the cast. Yeah, it's good. Melodic Death Metal, we might know them. Might be friends of the podcast. Will may have worked with one of the guys in the band. I mean, it's black metal, really.
Yeah, allegedly.
You said melodic death metal?
Oh, I meant to say melodic black metal.
Thank you.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, I misspoke.
I just misspoke, yeah.
Hey, I'm like four and a half beers in right now.
No worries, John.
No worries.
I'm not drinking light beers.
By the way, speaking of light beer, the passing of Bob Euchre.
What a bummer.
Yeah.
Seriously.
For baseball fans.
He was still alive?
Yeah, he was 92, I think.
I thought he died a long time ago. I think he did the same day as David Lynch. Yeah, and David Lynch passed away too. Yeah, that was messed up. Wow. So thank you for correcting me, Marcus. I appreciate that. No worries. I don't want to get that wrong. Well, at least Bob's in the front row now. He had some of the best self-deprecating wines ever. Ever. Anyway, that's my five new albums. Tons of Prague and like, I don't know, Desert Island.
I've been listening to lately.
Oh,
I wonder why.
Well,
we really need to do that desert islands album podcast.
Well,
we just did on Thursday.
Maybe.
Okay.
We I'll do another one.
If you make me Markisan,
I'm down with that shit,
man.
I love the desert island discs.
Yeah.
All right.
All right.
William.
We're at the,
what we're listening to.
Correct.
I guess. You got it QB. All right. Pillar of Light, Caldera. That was my album in the month. This is my big, my, when I saw John earlier today, I said, this is my big, I will have a big regret. My big regret is Mother of Graves. Yes. Periopt of absence. Periopt means like amulet, the amulet of absence. Come on down to the 90s death doom. And,
And I feel dumb about this because John mentioned this to me way before. Several times. Yes, I know. And you're like, this is when you're wheelhouse. This is when you're wheelhouse. And I completely forgot about it. And then, anyway. I've been listening to the new XDO. A lot of Opeth. Opeth kick. Yep. And then I cannot kick ulcerate. Ulcerate. God, fuck it. I love ulcerate.
What's your favorite Opeth album, Will? It's probably Blackwater Park. It's probably the old school stuff where there is more growls than clean. But Blackwater Park is that seminal album for me. That's more growls than clean.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Harvest. Drippery Falls. I've listened to it a long time. Maybe you love me. Listen to you long time. That's it. You want to know you come to this way. I'll tell you. You hang out with John more often. Well, if you would invite me to the pint like you, maybe I would love to have you. I realize it's an hour drive for you. And
Is it a long drive that I would be willing to make? Okay. Okay. All right. You're on the clock, bitch. You have to stay the night at my house. You're on the clock. Oh, no. Gosh. Maybe I'd get some. Just invite them and see what happens. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's all you got to do. I never get the invite. They just. Well, honestly, today, Will will tell you, today was literally, I sent a text. Very last minute. It's always last minute.
It's like, hey, we're going to be over there if you want to show up. Because he's got shit going on with the kids in his personal life. I know. And it just happened. I had William for part of the day today. It was not my day to have William, but we, him and I did something together. And then, you know, I dropped him off at some rec center where his sister and mom were. And I'm like, all right, well, I'm free now. He literally said, I will be there in 15 minutes. Yeah, and 45 minutes later.
Yeah.
What he
But my big obsession of late is there was this super deluxe box set that came out for Deep Purple Made in Japan in 2014. I didn't buy it when it came out because it was stupid. I've always wanted to get the files for it because it's like all the shows that were in Japan during that tour. I got a hold of the files. It's like listening to slightly different versions of Made in Japan for 12 hours, but I'm still going through it with absolute excitement and fun. It's so fucking good, Jay. That's why.
A lot of my listening time of late has been spent going through those shows. And I'm not going to mention anything else because I've had so much fun doing it. Do you have a recording of the show with Deep Purple with Christopher Cross on guitar? I thought it was Pink Floyd, I thought. No. No, Richie Blackmore missed one show and then Christopher Cross filled in on guitar. I thought that was Pink Floyd. No. Well, no, this is the famous, obviously, made in Japan, 72, but they did it.
and they compiled at one point all of the audio from their tour and put it on in this big box that which sells for like $800 now. Holy crap the Commanders are winning. Sorry. Okay let's keep moving then because I want to watch the game too. All right it's me. I'm just going to give you a heads up now particularly to Will. None of my albums are metal. Perfect. All right well then just skip them and let's watch Commanders. Let's watch Commanders win. Skip them. I'm sure it'll go quickly because no
Nobody will have any comments. So I've been on a Psycho Billy binge, which I'm sure you don't even know what Psycho Billy is, but it's, it's, we all know what it is. It's if the stray cats got bonked on the head and thought they were the misfits. All right. So, uh, first up is the band, the creep show. Holy shit. Just skip it. I picked up all their albums, but I've been listening to life after death and death at my door. Good stuff. Uh,
This next one is not Psycho Billy. It is The Helicopters, which is Nick Anderson from Entombed, but it's his rock band. They have a new album coming out soon. I'm looking forward to that, but I listened to Grande Rock and Eyes of Oblivion. Metal adjacent. Metal adjacent. Next up is another Psycho Billy band, The Horror Pops from Denmark, I believe. And I picked up all three other albums, Hell Yeah, Bring It On, and Kiss Kiss Kill Kill.
Good stuff.
It is sad that the shirt you're wearing is more metal than anything you just mentioned.
That's right.
All three titles are sounds like Will's bedroom talk, actually.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Next up, we have the Jesus.
I can't wait till you talk about sleep at the time gorillas again.
No, not to.
Hey, fuck you, man.
I like them.
Yeah.
But it's not metal.
Oh, yeah.
It should not belong on a list.
Yeah.
Neither is fucking football.
And that's been talked about a hundred times in this fucking cast.
Thank you.
Christ. So, uh, next up, I would talk about wrestling. Uh, because it's part of the metal documentary, you know, relevance, you know, actually in the metal documentary, it's just, it's adjacent because of the director. God, you know, if you let me talk, I'll finish sooner. Yeah. So we have the Jesus and Mary chain in their 1999 automatic, uh, back to the psycho Billy Reverend Horton heat smoke them. If you got it,
I saw you got that I was like I haven't heard that name in decades yeah next up rocket from the crypt scream Dracula scream yeah yeah another one I like rocket from the crypt all right by the way we're still only at two hours just in case anyone's wondering not even wow because he keeps complaining about it anyway speaking of meow the next one is stray cats built for speed nice I picked that up because you know I'm like forget the
Let's go to the Rockabilly. Yeah. And Brian Setzer's a madman and I love him. The whole band is. Yeah. And my last. He's a real madman and you probably know this George. But then when he went and did that big band thing. Yeah. That was good. Such an insanely good guitarist. Oh yeah. I've been. I didn't list it but because I just wanted to keep it short but I have been listening to the Brian Setzer Orchestra as well and that is amazing. Yeah. It's good. He's cool. Yeah. He is very cool.
And then lastly, a dude called Teddy Swims. And his first album, I've tried everything but therapy. He's like a soul pop country dude. I don't even know what to say. It's more soul than anything. I saw him on an awards show or something. Maybe the, I don't know, have the Grammys come out yet? I don't know. He was on something. It's coming in February. Okay, well I saw him on something and it was good and I looked it up and I was like, yeah, it's good. It's, you know, good vocals. Anyway, I'm done.
Esto es un poco.
Thank you for being here, Will. I love you. Will's going to love this. You're not going to love this. I'm literally barely here, but go. All right. So Metal Thunderdome, I am pitting Metallica's Black Album against Judas Priest's Turbo. Oh, fuck. Jesus. This is explicitly for you, Will. Turbo all day long. Right. Let's start with Markisan.
First, all right, let me think. Just give me one second. I got to think about this. Go to hell. You go to hell, George. I go to hell and I'll die. Yeah, this is weird. All right. I set this up explicitly to fuck with Will. I don't think this is going to be that hard for me, actually. Okay, so here we go. Here we go. This is not hard. Because I love Will. I agree. Turbo is one of the worst albums I've ever heard. Thank you. It's commercial glam cheese metal with synthesizers. Fuck all the way off. Fuck football.
Fuck this album. Have you heard the black album? I think Turbo is so bad it makes Cold Lake by Celtic Frost seem like a goddamn masterpiece. That's all right. Let's just not get too ahead of ourselves here. It's so bad, dude. Yeah. Listen, I've said it before. I actually like the black album. I've said this on cast. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I think it came out in 1991. Is that right, George? Yeah. So that's right.
That was really a transitional phase for me. I was just starting to get into heavy rock and hardcore then, so I wasn't really comparing older Metallica to this record all that much. I think I really only casually listened to Injustice for All at the time, so what really got me into Metallica was probably the Black Album. And looking back, I would think that, this is going off my memories here, I would think that it was a gateway record.
actually to metal for me. For a lot of people. So yeah, I'm sorry, Will, but this isn't even close for me. This is super easy for me. I hate that turbo record. And I got to give Black Album some credit because, you know, it was everywhere. And I know I liked it. I still like it now. And yeah, I had not really gotten into metal at that point. So this is a pretty important record for me in some ways, I think.
You know, after this record, I would have gone back and listened to all the other Metallica stuff. And I do love that stuff a lot more now. But I have to give this its credit. So there you go, George. This is what you wanted, probably, but going with a Black Album, easy, easy. Fucking turbo is just awful. This is George's way of, he's been having a hard time telling us that he wants to end the podcast. He ended Will. I don't know if Will will lie.
anymore. Well, to me, this was like, I'm going to make you choose the lesser of two evils. Even though I love both of these albums, but I understand that nobody else does. So, all right. Matt. Cold Lake by Celtic Frost is my winner. No, I mean, Cold Lake is horrible. That is horrible. Oh, nice. A couple of weeks ago, I got this in the mail. It was a package from my cousin who lives in Philly. Some of you have met him.
Oh, yeah. Nice dude. Oh, yeah. What it was at the time I opened it, it's this. This is a emulator that has basically every game from my childhood. And porn? Yeah. Well, I wish. But one of those games is Tecmo Super Bowl. That was a great game. Love it. Now that's football I like. And I spent hours upon hours upon hours playing that game. And you still lost every game? With the soundtrack behind me. Yeah, I did lose every game.
But I was, to be honest, I was the Lions a lot, and they just got a touchdown, and so there's definitely a paradox here.
This is a close game, yeah.
Yeah, that was an amazing catch by Laporta.
It was.
Yeah, so your pick is?
So to kind of build off what Markisan says, I was enamored with what I heard from Injustice for All.
That was kind of my opening to Thrash Metal.
Seasons in the Abyss was in the background, but it just wasn't as accessible to me as, say, Injustice for All.
Not so much globally, but just basically where I lived. Nobody really had Seasons in the Abyss at that point. So I listened to Injustice for All, was mind-blowing. And then came the summer and the video for Enter Sandman was some old man with a wrinkly face. You know, Metallica became the band that was everywhere. And while I realized looking back, it might have been too much, but what it was to me,
me was, it just was this explosion of accessibility to metal. And while I cannot listen to certain songs from that album, there are other songs that I will always hold dear in my heart. And what I played in the background as I played Tecmo Super Bowl was the Black Album. But I think of songs like My Friend in Misery. I think of A Wolf of Man. I think of The God That Failed, which my mom hated. To this day is my favorite song on that album.
I understand if people don't like Inner Sandman, but the rest, it's gold.
Inner Sandman, Sabotru, Unforgiven is kind of in that bank just because it was played so much, although it's super easy to play on the guitar, so everybody that hasn't played it yet can play it. But I have to go with the Black Album. And the reality is I actually don't dislike Turbo. I think that's a great album, but the Black Album has so much significance in my life that I have to go that route.
I see Will dying in his chair right now. It's awesome. I love making you guys do this. All right, John. I know where John's going. You're asking me to compare ass to ass. Is this record for a dream? What? I have only four words to say in my description. Out in the cold. Yeah. That is the only song.
I like on these two albums. Priest gets it for that song alone. I thought you were going to say Exit Light, Enter Night. I guess I was wrong. Out in the Cold is actually a fucking really good song. Oh, it is. And I always felt bad that that song was left out there hanging on its own on that album. It's so bad. No, that song's good. That song's good. That song's good. Sort of. And, well, the synth is cheesy, yes, I agree. Yeah, yeah. But the song itself is good. Yeah. You don't like Wild Nights,
Hot and Crazy Days? No. Dude. Locked In's okay. I was going to say, every month we make the Locked In joke. Locked In is okay. I don't mind Locked In. That's all right. You got me Locked In, Locked Inside your mouth. But Out in the Cold is actually a good song. I love that. That's my favorite song on the album. Yeah. And I've seen that live. I mean, I've seen Turbo Love I don't know how many freaking times. But that's the only redeeming
I can say for these two albums. Period. I'm Will's Turbo Lover. I'm so sick of hearing that shit. That's Inner Salmon. It's just all the time. So Priest only because, no, not even the two albums. I'm just going out in the cold. That's what I'm going with. I'm going with one song.
All right, well, I mean, do you want to say any more or are you just sticking with the priest? I mean, I know you're sticking with the priest, but do you want to say any more? Yeah, I'm going to stick with the priest. And this is what I want you guys to think about in context is that you had Metallica, which was the heaviest, if not the heaviest, heaviest band in the world. And then they came out with the Black Album. It was like night and day. It was like the
The most stark contrast to
holy shit
you were destroying the world
to oh
Let's piss Will off
Do you want a pillow to take a nap?
And yeah
yes
like Turbo
which was by the way like five years earlier
in the cheesiness
of the metal glam world
rock
okay
but like at least
Judas Priest, like, it wasn't, when you heard, you guys are all looking at this in retrospect. When you look at it at the time, it was like, okay, it may not be the best. It's not Defenders of the Face. It's not Stain Class. It's not this. It's not anything. It's still Judas Priest. And they came up, but the thing is, and then after that, there was Ram It Down. That sucked too. There was Painkiller. There was Invasion.
Invisible, Invincible, Shield. Metallica's never recuperated. Zero. Never, ever once have they ever recuperated from like, oh shit, you know what, that wasn't good. Somebody handed us a bunch of like these key guitars and you're like, oh shit, you know what, that wasn't a good idea. Let's go back to our roots and let's make a whole, let's make like 10 other albums that are amazing.
Metallica's like, oh yeah, this is awesome. Enter Sandman is awesome. Let's just keep going down this road and make shitty music that no one gives a fuck about. And we're the joke of heavy metal, but we're going to have a lot of fans because all those Taylor Swift fans, fans, who's like, oh shit, like, oh, that's kind of like hard country. These guys are cool. You know what? If I'm not going to listen to Zach Bryant today, like, you
You know what? Hey, I'm gonna put my Metallica mix. I love that. Are you fucking kidding me? Like, are you guys fucking kidding me? You broke them. You broke guys. You guys are all I mean, I'm super smart. As today. Oh, no. I'm done. That's a good sticker on the well. So I'll go now because it's my turn. But I'm sorry. You have to follow that. No, it's
And this is what I'm about to tell you is 100% true.
Three in a row?
And it's, first off, I've never jumped on Will's rants about the Black Album, but it was when I gave up on Metallica.
So here is my confession, and I swear to you this is true.
I've never heard the Black Album all the way through.
What?
That's not what I'm playing.
Wow, a revelation.
That's absolutely true.
I heard all the stuff was played on the radio over and over and over, but I was such a Metallica disciple.
And Jay, you're a better person for it? I started to give up on them during Injustice for All. I mean, I was, you know, everything was so wonderful up to the 590 ADP, and then they just started losing me. And then this is not a good enough reason to go the direction I'm going, but it's still the direction I'm going, which was I worked at this restaurant the year that Turbo came out. I was a dishwasher, and the cooks played fucking Turbo every night.
So I've heard that record a hundred times. And I, as a heavy metal kid, I was like, fuck, I wish, you know, I was like, couldn't they put Defenders of the Faith on? But I was like, at least it's Priest, it's on, and I'm at work, and that's cool. So, and also, I think Judas Priest on their worst day is better than Metallica. So, I'm going terrible. Wow. All right. Read it. George, you are. I, it's. I really want to, one more time, with God as my witness, I've never heard that record all the way through. Wow. You should listen to it.
I don't know what they sound like. You should listen to the whole thing and let us know. Yeah, you should. There is fucking no reason to listen to that thing all the way through. No, I was just disappointed as well. So I got out fast. I was just like, honestly, I before Enter Sandman was even done, I was working at a record store when that came out. And before it was even done, I took it out and I was like, OK, I don't like these goods anymore. Well, you know, it should be your homework for next episode that you listen to it. And I'll take it away. Yeah. You got to listen all the way through once.
But I'm also kind of proud of it at this point. I know. I understand that. It's a badge of honor for him. Is George going to tie it or is he going to go fucking turbo? Real quick, are we breaking up? Is this going to worse? Yeah, we're just saying goodbye. All right. Well, yeah, it's a tie because while I love both albums, the Black Album is a massive, awesome album. I love every song on there. Even understand, man.
And, uh, George, we are breaking up, by the way. Oh, come on. It's really not about the black album. It's about your fucking tribulation shirt. The black album. I thought you were going to choose turbo. I don't know why. No, no, I love them both. But, uh, black album is, is a much more important album in the, uh, the scheme of things than, uh, nice, uh, than, uh, turbo. Yeah.
A lot of Tribulation fans say that. It's okay. That's all right. I like that this is a tie. I like that very much. Yeah. What I'm really curious about is to post this online and see what people say. About a dick in your butt. What does it feel like to have a dick in your ass? That's what you're curious about? Hey, George. If it could reach, I would love to know what that was like. So, let's, I don't even think I need to say this, but my prediction is the Black Elm is going to wipe it out online. I don't know.
I know three people are going to vote.
I mean, that would be funny if everybody abstain.
Yes, please.
Abstain from our next vote.
That would be hilarious.
All right, whatever you think.
Metallica is a huge album.
I will literally just go back to what I said.
Name one good album after the Black Album.
Name one good album after that.
That's not what this is about.
This has nothing to do.
But think about it.
It has nothing to do with album versus album. You know what, Marcus, you mentioned the Black Album. It's not, you're right, but you know how you said the Black Album is huge. Purple might be Priest's highest selling record. That would be interesting to find out. I'll find out. I think that's highly possible. Oh, but it might be, though, because it could be. I mean, look at Dio. Dio's highest selling album is what? Sacred Heart? Which is, of course, awesome. It is awesome, but it's not less in line. No, it's not. It's not Holy Diver.
But it was the anticipation, because back then, you could hear the album. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Holy crap. I can start that. So did you get that too, George? Unleash in the East? No, I was looking at the football score that's like... You didn't know that? What? Can we wrap this up? Yeah, we got one more thing to do. For fuck's sake. Yeah, we'll be done by half time. Unleash in the East is Jesus Priest's best-selling album. Is it really? Unleash in the East? Yeah. Which one?
Unleashed in the East? Wow. No. It's Screaming for Vengeance. And it sold 2,106,000 copies. Probably more than you know. According to what I'm looking at. Yeah, different sites is that. This is bestsellingalbums.org. And it's Screaming for Vengeance, British Steel, and then Turbo. And then Defenders of the Faith. Yeah. And then Unleashed in the East. According to this. And then the Black Album. Yeah. Yes.
The Black Album slays all. In sales, anyway. Well, George, are you happy you finally got to do this? Yes. Will, I have... These guys know about this, but I have been trying for over a year to get this on the cast. And it's like, every time it's my turn, you're not here. So what does that mean going forward? Congratulations. Tribulation wins. Who's next on the list since it's been out of order? Well, we did Will.
before George, but we skipped Matt because Will had not been on and Will wanted to do the Thunderdome. Yeah. So it should actually go back to Matt, but we can also continue. Yeah, we'll figure it out. I just care. We'll figure it out. All right. Let's. All right. We got one more thing here. Let's get Will out of here. It is pick from the crypt. Will, what do you got? Nope. Sorry, Will. You're going to have to wait your turn. Markisan. No, no, seriously. I can go right now and do it really quick and I can get
Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, do it. Whatever. Forbidden Evil. Forbidden Evil? Forbidden Evil? Oh! Dude, they played at Maryland Death Fest this last year. For me, they absolutely 1 million percent stole the show. Dude. They sound exactly like I remember them when I was a kid. I saw Forbidden on the Forbidden Evil tour. Or wait, no, it might have been the one after it, but they opened for Death Angel. Just in the forum. Yeah.
They opened for Death Angel in Detroit. Where they had a song called Step by Step, which is exactly the same song that I think like 98 Degrees or the New Kids in the Block ran. Step by Step. Anyway. Yeah. Forbidden. That's a great album. Love those guys. So this is me harking back to high school. I'm older than one of you guys on here.
Yeah, barely. But when they played that, when they were invited to Maryland Death Fest and they played that, they sounded immaculate. They sounded like when the last time I saw them at the airport music hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was awesome. It was amazing. If you are an old school thrash fan, if you like the old stuff, not Metallica, not the black fucking album.
If you're a really true hardcore fan, go listen to Forbidden and their album, Forbidden Evil. It's their debut album. Chalice of blood. Wait to fill up. When they played that, I lost my crap. I can't believe it's been 35 years. What? I know. But they sounded amazing. That's the best part about it. When you haven't seen a band,
in like 30 years and you love that band and you're like oh they're dead like atrophy was that band for me yeah and yeah anyway blah blah blah blah blah there it is blah blah great pick dude yeah go nice one all right somebody else go oh i thought will's gonna go but i guess not all right i am gonna go but uh i will bye love you later bye you might
He's kissing us. All right. Now, Margeson. Okay. All right. My pick is Newthgrush Kashyyyk. Wow. So Newthgrush plays this awesome, grimy, Star Wars-themed sludge do. So Star Wars nerds may recognize that the title of this album is the same name as the Wookiee homeworld.
released 30 years ago in 1995. And when I say released, it was the band home dubbing single-sided cassettes over random existing band tapes that they found at flea markets. So you'd get Kashuk on side A and side B would just be some other band's record. Nice. And the cover layout that they did for those cassettes was this cutout collage of different Star Wars.
images and other sci-fi pictures. And each time they did a dub, they'd end up adding more pictures to the mix. So the cover kept evolving as they would hand out these demos, basically. I mean, it was an album, but kind of like demos. But what I've been listening to lately is a remixed and remastered version of the album with a bonus track that just came out from Transylvanian Recordings. And the new version,
It kept the final collage for the cover in the old days, but then it expanded the insert to nine panels and it has photos from the same time period that Kashuk debuted. So it's kind of like a pick from the crypt, a new release, and what I've been listening to all in one. And it's just really fucking fun. It's a fun slap of crushing evil filth. And it was really nice to revisit.
Version of it sounds excellent.
And they're even selling tapes because that's how it was originally put out.
So they're doing that same thing by selling the tapes.
So it's like you can get those early, early versions of the band's physical release.
That's cool.
I haven't heard those guys in a long time.
Yeah, you should give it a shot.
It's on Transylvania Recordings on Bandcamp.
So you can listen to it.
Awesome.
Will do.
All right, Matty.
Okay, I just want to call out that Lions touchdown with Teddy Bridgewater quarterback.
That was amazing.
So as the new metal aficionado resident person for this podcast, I want to talk about something I mentioned earlier, and that is Fear Factory.
One of my favorite parts about Fear Factory, other than their sound, is their drama.
And there's been court battles and all that jazz. And I think over time, Dino has become the owner of the brand of Fear Factory, which is why I could not find two albums on Spotify by Fear Factory, because I'm assuming, and this is, again, me speculating, that he has had them removed because he did not play on them, one of which is archetype, one of which is transgression. I would like to call to everyone to think about archetype as my pick from the crypt.
I had not heard it in years. I mean, and my first Fear Factory album was Do Manufacture and then became Obsolete. In between those two albums, I definitely checked out Soul of a New Machine. Definitely fell in love with this band, saw them live, saw them live at First Avenue in my town, as well as at Falken in Germany. In my mind, it was really good. And then again, everything kind of fell apart with them.
I saw them on Do Manufacture.
Did you really? I did. Oh, man. Amazing. Well, some of the, I think one of the albums has live tracks from Ozfest, which would have been in my era, but probably not one I would have gone to. But I would like to say, I went back to Archetype and I listened to it. Some of those riffs were just so fresh in my head, not realizing like how much time I had spent with that album. So Archetype by Fear Factory is my pick from El Crypt. Nice. Right on. All right, John.
All right. My pick from the Crips of Bay and I kind of always have liked, but I decided post-year-end episode that I would kind of dig back through their catalog just because. I don't know why. They just happened to catch my eye when I was looking at my overall, you know, plethora of bazillion CDs and vinyl that I have. And I went back and listened. I was like, wow.
I've really liked this album a lot and it's just been a while since I've listened to it it's not a super old albums from 10 years ago but oddly it's 10 years old and it's weird that we're saying that now for some of these albums that we love but my pick from the crypt is dreadnought bridging the realms Colorado kind of prog metal post metal avant-garde with some black metal-ish do me shit going on they're a cool band
Yes.
All their songs are super long.
They probably only have like five, six songs, maybe four songs an album.
They're all 10 plus minutes and they have a lot of just hodgepodge of sound going on.
That's really cool.
I kind of dig them.
But this is the album I got into 10 years ago and I've been a fan ever since.
It's their second album.
It's weird to say a pick from the crypt from 10 years ago, but I kind of feel like they kind of go by and we don't see them there. Even though they're well known, but just my opinion on them. Yeah, I know. Good stuff. Mine should make you feel better about yourself, John, because it's even less crypt-y, but I do think people who are
fans who maybe listen to us aren't necessarily completists in some weird way we are or so to speak or you know would buy every version of something so so the one i'm choosing is not that old at all the record itself is old but the version of it i'm not choosing as old but if you let the joe barresi mix of dio's cool you know um one of my favorite records of all time somehow made better
Yeah.
Holy.
So the Joe,
but it has to be the Joe Barresi remix,
not the remaster,
whoever you are.
If you want to hear that record again for the first time,
um,
I wasn't even listening to the other day,
but I was thinking about it and I was just like,
man,
that was such a fucking achievement,
you know?
And thankfully he also did,
um,
some,
a good,
um,
job on live evil and some other stuff.
I'd like to see him get his hands on the last in line.
Um,
But that's not a deep one, but kind of a sub-release that not every person would have gone out and bought, but you owe it to yourself to check the version of the record out. I couldn't agree more. I totally agree. I mean, we've talked about this on cast before and how much we love it. It's just so, so good. It's the ultimate version of that record. It really is. You get all three versions. It's just fucking great. And a record I've heard hundreds of times, if not possibly thousands. It's one of the records.
I've listened to so many times in my life. And the fact that it got me so excited about it again and made me obsessively listen to it again says a lot. Awesome. Great pick. Matt, I feel like you should be saying Satan right now. Satan. I always feel like Matt should be saying that. He has the goblin in his hand. He's just slowly drinking. He says it in his mind all the time.
He does.
He does.
I literally do.
He has to focalize it more.
When he answers his phone, he's like, you're going with Satan.
Such a great moment of that documentary.
You're on speaker.
This is Satan.
What can I do for you?
The best is when he did the call-in for our big 10th year anniversary episode.
And literally, it was like two minutes of silence.
Satan.
Satan.
Satan.
Satan.
Oh, good.
And maybe the best version of you saying that ever, Matt. I don't think you can duplicate it. I think so, because it was just me, you know. Well, I think it was the Joe Barisi mix of you saying it. Oh, definitely. Yeah, I talked to Joe beforehand. I said, listen, I'm going to make this call. Can you remix it? Yeah. Sure. George, pick us from the Kripus. All right. So, so I was going to go with the new Tribulation album for Will.
But since he's not here, I guess I'll go with something else. From 1990, this is the second album from Sanctuary, Into the Mirror Black. Yeah. The whole Nevermore thing got me thinking, and I was like, you know, Sanctuary's my jam. Into the Mirror Black is seriously my jam. You know, I listed the first three songs here.
The First Three Songs on this album, Future Tense, Taste Revenge, which is amazing, and Long Since Dark. That's all you need to know about this album. And the rest of the album's good, too. But this is Warldane, as far as I'm concerned, at his best. It's good. It's good. I disagree with that, but it's a really good record. It is a really good record. So that's what I got. Nice. Sanctuary's awesome. All right.
So this is going to put us, those of us who care, I think in front of our television sets for the second half. So record. Yeah. Two, two, less than slightly less than two and a half hours. That's what happens when we don't interview anybody. Should we keep talking a little bit? I think we should. Um, I got a piece. I don't care. Yeah. What's your top five bands that were remixed by Joe?
Listening to Tribulation and World Dane what? On the Black Album. I never thought I'd see that many points put up by Washington in the first half. Good luck to whoever you're pulling for. I'm looking forward to it. My wife is not watching it live, so I get to see some of the stuff you guys have already seen. I think she's in the second quarter right now. Nice. Alright, guys. Good seeing you. Love you guys. Bye. Peace and love.
Waste!
Making the snow on the