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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 John.
This is the situational paradox.
And?
Also, brew metal will.
And this is Markisan. As you may have surmised from the intro, Will is not going to be here today. However, the part of Will will be played by the person formerly known as Matt. Will. So, welcome to episode 151. I wanted some sort of, like, you know, liquor joke there, and I just couldn't think of anything. So, yeah, 151, baby. And this is our mid-year episode.
Top 25 Albums Mid-Year 2024. You know what you're in for. Strap in and let's do T-Shirt and Beer Check. T-Shirt Beer Check. T-Shirt Beer Check. T-Shirt Beer Check. Dude, how is it mid-year already? It's nuts. Oh, no. I can't believe it. All right. So I am drinking a Rye Imperial Stout from Incendiary Brewing.
It's just called raw imperial stout. And it's 14.5%. It's got skulls on it. So I was like, oh, that's appropriate. Skulls. And then I'm wearing a Lago shirt for Will. I think I wore this at the first decibel that I attended with you guys. And so Will sent me a voice message the other day because apparently he got a preview of the new Lago album.
that's coming out pretty soon. I don't know who gave it to him. I think he's friends with the people in the band. So he just sent me a voice message saying, you're going to need to change your pants when you hear this track. It's like one of the best things I've heard. So he doesn't often leave me voice messages. So that was pretty cool. So miss your will. Hope you have a good trip. Yep. All right, Matt, or whoever you want. I've got a Cannibal Corpse t-shirt on.
I picked it up at the last tour. And I need to remain a functional human being today. So I have a Boddington's Pub Ale. Taking it easy, taking it slow. I'm not really into this adult crap, but that's where I'm at. What do you think Will's wearing? Gold blimey thong, you know. I think we'll let John go first. All right. All right. So. Nice.
I have a new shirt in honor of the new album coming out hopefully soon and I am not drinking anything today because I have been sick for two weeks yeah and I had a throat infection which I've never had before and so I have finally I think this is my first day off antibiotics it has been rough I'm not whining about it it's just I'm not gonna put my body in bad shape so I'm drinking tea and water
However, you can teabag.
Not teabag.
There's no teabag here.
I am drinking out of my casual pint mug club mug.
So at least I have that for me today.
But all right, we'll take a couple of days off from the recycling center.
You know, you know, you want to get 100%.
I wasn't there.
That's the problem.
There's nobody working.
And there's going to be a riot.
Yeah, I roll.
It's backing up.
It's backing up over there.
Trust me.
Hey, John, what'd you think of that?
The first Aronsi track that they put out, I don't think we've talked about that. I mean, it's them. I mean, I love everything from them. So, but I have to go back and listen. I was distracted by, there's another Aronsi adjacent release that just came out that I know George picked up that is really good, but it's not metal at all. It's not even, it's all psychedelic and kind of crowd rockish. And so I've been focusing more on that. I haven't had a chance to go back
to the Orancy song. I liked what I heard. I just have to listen to it more. Is that the band that has orchestra in their name, John? No, that's Waste of Space Orchestra. Sorry. No, this one is. That's awesome. No, this one is called Haunted Plasma. Oh. And Marcus, you might actually like it. It's got some kind of cool synthy stuff going on. And Jay, I'm not sure if you're into that stuff. We never really talked about it. You might know, because if you're an Orancy fan, you might like it.
So everyone might actually like it. I listened to Haunted Plasma and I liked it. I like parts of it. I didn't like all of it though, but it's something I probably have to spend a few times to really digest. Oh yeah. It's not a singular listen at all. Yeah. Close. Yeah. I am wearing my Las Vegas. Don't break the old shirt. Drinking water also.
A gift for John of sorts. Since George couldn't come up with a 151 joke, I just googled it just to see where the 151 area code is. And because I thought we could make this a something something episode. And it's actually in a place relevant to John. It's one of the few places in England with the three code. So take a well guess. It's in Liverpool. Yeah. Liverpool is the 151. There you go. Yeah. Yeah.
Did you know that I grew up in Liverpool? New York. Liverpool, New York is where I grew up. It's outside of Syracuse. I'm glad you said that because I thought there must be a Liverpool United States. I need to make sure there's a signal because I don't want to get this wrong. It says it's one of the few with three digits in the area of Costa. So Will, I mean Matt, I mean Will.
A Cannibal Corpse shirt as well. And also drinking body tints. Wow, you guys are really pairing up today. Okay. We have a very parallel thing going, as you said. A bit of a paradox, if you will. Yeah, yeah. All right. I'm wearing my new Misfits shirt. I believe it's American Psycho. I didn't realize that until after I bought it. But I like that album too, despite Michael Graves being a D-bag. But it's a cool shirt. Most importantly, it fits.
And then we have the Brimminghorn Red Ruby of July. Red Ruby of July was created by our mead maker's daughter Pearl Talkington. It's made with pure honey, red raspberries, peaches, vanilla beans, and cinnamon sticks. Fruity and sweet with a hint of spice to welcome in summer. And this is freaking amazing. You know, I mean, everything they do is great, but way to go Pearl. And on deck.
The Shoots Symphonic Chronic Double Dank IPA. Whoa. Really? Let me see the candidate, George. Double Dank. It's big. From The Shoots? Yeah. I hadn't seen it before. It was at a place down the road, and I was like, what? Oh, nice. I'm going to have to look for that. It's good. The Pazuzu. It's a good one. Nice. All right. Anything we want to talk about?
I mean,
I would just say it was a really good year so far.
I actually had trouble making,
uh,
this list.
Cause there's so many good records.
Yeah.
I have a pretty tight list.
I was talking to James a couple of days ago from decibel and,
uh,
we weren't talking about this,
but he randomly brought up that he had like a hundred albums and I was
like,
Oh, dude, you know, you ought to, you ought to come on today. But he, he was busy. So he's not here, but he had a hundred albums on his list. And I was like, well, I have 25. I would say there's been a lot of good stuff put out, but I would say the amount that has blown my mind is small. Yeah. I'm the same way. Same way, Matt. My top five is top five to eight is, you know, magical.
Everything else is really, really good, but I could swap it out at any place. And that continues below the list. I feel like my list, at least at one point without, I mean, I literally am typing something up now because I've totally forgot about an album. But like, and even yesterday, I forgot about an even bigger album. And I feel like my list is very death heavy, even very, like, I felt like there was a lot of really good tech death that came out this year. And so it's been fitting it in with some of these other genres.
and a few other bands that really surprised me.
So, yeah.
Well, I think I agree with that, but I think that's what made it difficult for me because I do like that top, maybe 10 is like really strong.
And then the rest of it, I think is a really good albums.
But like, what do you, what do you slot in there?
There's a lot of those really good albums that, you know, maybe deserve a position on the list.
Yeah.
But how do you, how do you choose?
Because to me, I'm sorry, go ahead, Jake.
My Experience is parallel and I would say Most Passionate of my top five. Yeah. Fading down to ten. And then after that, like eleven through twenty, I had no idea what order to put them in. Because I was just like, none of them were like, dude, I'm a number twelve album, you know what I mean? Like, usually what I'll do is I'll literally go back and listen to everything, at least, you know, jump through it while I'm making my list. And I'm like, no, this one's better than that or whatever. But I just got a little murky there.
But again, I think everybody else's comments are relevant. There's nothing on my list I don't like. It was easy to come up with 25, but it was hard to come up with 25 I was passionate about. Yeah, I'm the same. Because I've been sick for the last two weeks, you guys, I was telling George, you know how I'm always like a week before posting pictures of me watching football saying, I don't have a list to work on anymore. I'm done. I locked in. I didn't start really until Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday for my list. I had an idea, but
My List is not great. I like everything. What I mean is that I didn't have as much time with it. So I would say I had the same experience. My seven, Pop Seven, I've, yeah, I could easily, and those will be on my year end. So there's no secret there. But the rest, and into my honorable mentions, any one of those 25 albums or whatever could easily be on my list anywhere. So it was way too hard for me to try to sort them.
So I just did the best I could given the limited time I had, unfortunately. Well, the best part is that, you know, you got the year end to really do your list. You've got another six months to figure it out. Like, this is the best record. Yeah. I think the mid-year is the hardest by far. I think the year is way easier to do. It is, but it also gives you this, like, framework to work with then for the rest of the year. It makes the end of the year a lot easier.
And like we've all kind of said, you know, you've got your five or eight. You're like, this is going to be, this is going all the way probably. Unless somewhere. Yeah. That's what I've been saying for the last month is like what I'm doing now and how much, how painful it is will help set me up for the year. Not that that's necessarily easy. The other piece is like, at least from my standpoint, like my list is a living, breathing thing. I'm not just taking what I, you know, like I don't have like a decibel count or like a number count of the top 25 albums. I mean, if I did that, maybe it's like,
All Death Albums. But I want Variety My List. It's like this living, breathing, organic thing. It's based on feels. It's based on what songs have been stuck in my head the last six months. And that is difficult to do. One more comment is that I had my number one was nailed in for a long time and got knocked off. That's fun. Not that long ago, something came out down the pike.
Actually, he's doing this thing called My Years in UFO, so I'm excited about that. Yeah, no, no, something else came out, and I really thought, wow, nothing's going to happen. Wow, what knocked Saxon off the list? Honestly, not on my list, believe it or not. I'm trying to remember what live albums came out. Hey, Jay, is this an odd or an even year for Saxon? It's a bad one.
Not bad, but not the good one. Yeah. All right. Well, why don't we dig into it then and start with Markisan giving us your number 25. Here we go. Here we go. All right. So I kind of hate kicking off the countdown with this choice because it's a really good record. It sort of feels like I'm voting the first person off the island.
on Survivor.
But actually, you're saving the last person to get onto the island.
It's the last thing you pulled out of the water, Marcus.
Well, thank you. That's a lot more positive.
The last person off the Titanic.
I already feel better. Thank you. Thank you for throwing me that life raft.
As a family, we've been watching Survivor because my kids have gotten into it.
So I am. That is hilarious. But anyway.
Oh, yeah. I'm a huge Survivor fan.
I keep thinking that I want to apply for it and I just I haven't done it so we'll see but anyways getting back to the list it's got to be done so number 25 for me is Necrot lifeless birth I think if you're in the mood for ultra catchy groovy skull boring death with just mammoth guitar solos and a glossy sheen then this album will do the job for you
Perfectly. I like it, but I don't love it as much as other albums on this list. As much as 24 other albums. Exactly. Today. Tomorrow, who knows? Tomorrow, it'll probably still be 25. What about tonight? Yeah. All right, Matt. All right. Number 25, kicking things off with an epic post-medal selection that dropped back in January.
This one-man project from a former member of SOAR's live lineup, whose spirit can be heard throughout, shares an apocalyptic narrative of a quest across a desolate and destroyed world. It's not an uncommon tale, but in this instance, it utilizes an audible canvas in a strange and unique fashion. This album is a collection of well-crafted, dynamic, and memorable songs that illustrate the journey beyond that of the spoken word. The progressive influence only elevates the depth at which this chronicle is brought to life.
The Band, I believe it's pronounced Sile, S-G-A-I-L-E, that is Gaelic meaning shadow. The album is Traverse the Bailoch. It's a second album, UK post-metal, off of Alvarncar Music. Makassan, is that you? No, I think it's pronounced Skull, Traverse the Bailoch. Yeah, I looked it up and I wrote it up phonetically, but I might still have it wrong. I ran it through Google Translate, but that can always be
a little shaky.
Indeed.
Was this one of your albums of the month, Mark?
I believe it was.
Yes, it was.
Early.
It was.
Well, January, obviously.
When was it?
It was January.
Hold on, I'll look it up.
Yeah, January album of the month.
The very first one.
All right.
And also, I feel bad for voting that off the island first.
It's such a good record.
Yeah.
All right, John. Hey, Matt, do you want to forward me your list? I think you're out of words now for the rest of the episode, aren't you? I love it, Matt. You wrote out something. That was spectacular. I'm going to do very basic descriptions from now on. I did it last time, and I felt so accomplished. But mind you, with 25 of these, after each one, I needed to shower and sleep for about four hours. Or you've written out stuff for every one, Matt.
Yeah, I have. And they're all going to start to sound the same because I'm pulling in the same adjectives and same verbs as we go. But just, you know, bear with me. What's a variation on a theme? Yeah. Except for that one record you just added. Yeah. All right. So my number 25, a little surprised it's here, but it is. I haven't really gone back to it that much. And that is Lord Dying, Clandestine, Transcendence. Number 25.
Yeah, it is.
Rocky sludgy stuff out of, I guess, the Portland area.
I like this album, but I got to be honest, and going back to it,
I just feel like the previous album was just the one I liked the most.
Mysterium Tremendum was so much better, in my opinion.
So there's a lot on this album, a lot of kitchen sink stuff,
meaning they go in a lot of different directions.
And sometimes I feel like it could have been a little better
had they had a little more focused direction.
But it's still a very good album.
I still like it a lot.
I mean, I feel the same way you do.
It's like a record.
Yeah, I feel the same way.
It feels a little long, even though I think it's shorter than the last record,
but it just feels a little bit long.
Yeah, that's what Will said.
Yeah.
About that album?
That's weird.
I almost sent Will this advertisement I saw the other day that said five inches of power.
I don't even remember what it was for.
That's called half a will.
I wasn't for anything tawdry, but I was... All right, so back to Will then. All right. Just remember, opinions are like mid-year lists. Everybody's got one. My number 25, 10-ton slug, Colossal Oppressor from Galway, Ireland, independently released. I like that in your mind, Will occupies a Wolfman Jack place.
It's a hybrid of, you know, Dirty Harry, Chuck Norris, and then, yeah, Wolfman Jack. I like that in there. We'll see what gets added. And a little Chuck Norris in there. Maybe two listeners know who Wolfman Jack is. I do. Jay dating himself. I'm retired. And for the benefit of the listeners, Matt, much like Superman, transforms by putting on something
to become Wolfman Will.
That's the only way it can be done.
So we get a visual cue.
You just get the audio cue.
Five inches of power.
That's right.
I got to go find that.
It was hilarious, whatever it was.
Oh, wait, that's metric.
Yeah.
My 25 is the first album that I should have put up higher.
And here it is all the way down to 25.
I got my list.
I'll settle in.
And I was like, yeah, I'm happy with that.
And then did the thing you do last night, which is kind of scoot through everything. And I was like, what the fuck are you thinking? It's on the list, though. It'll probably climb if it sticks around. In vain, solemn. Nori band. Kind of black and deathy stuff with some slightly big behemoth type production qualities and stuff. And some cool kind of mellow weird things stuck in. And I must say, excellent production. You know, I have a couple records off of, and it's not,
It doesn't come up on the list, John, when we do our spreadsheet, but it's indie recordings. And I don't recall this record label being around, and suddenly I have two records off of this. No, they're an established label. They are established? Okay. I'm constantly adding stuff all the time. I just didn't recognize it as a home for, I don't know if I've ever had anything on indie records. I try to update it each time from you guys. I assume, yeah. How did you not have that in there?
They do a lot of black metal. I think they've got to be like Scandinavian label or something. Both of my bands, one of them is from Germany and one of them is on this label and the other one is from Norway. I don't have Greenland on the country part, but we haven't had a band from Greenland yet. Once we do, I'll add it to the list. They're in our region label. When you start doing that, John, when I do my list,
I update that in a separate tab too. I have 216 labels in my tab right now. Part of the problem is a lot of us will get a band and they'll be on some really obscure labels. I add it and then pretty soon I'm like, I got 170 of these and you're like scrolling through looking for the one that you want. So it's good and it's a little rough because then the list gets long and it takes forever to scroll through because you can't
Key, Sensor, or Sensor, I can't think of the right word to use. You can't start keying and then go straight down the list. It's not one of those active lists. It works that way on my end for some reason. It doesn't for me at all. Yeah, when I type in Nuclear Blast, I get halfway through Nuke and it fills it out. But also, the show, John, that you've obviously done a great job with, that I've only got four records that had to go. Oh, that's fine. And then they will not list it. One-fifth of my list.
Five.
All right.
It's me.
Yeah.
So my number 25.
The album title is kind of what it would normally be like if I was in here with John and Will and perhaps a guest.
The album is called Rot, Stink, Rip by the band Tombstoner.
United States death band.
And yeah, despite being called Tomb Stoner, it is not Stoner Doom. It is more death metal. Rot. Stink. Rip. Hello. It's kind of wild. Yeah. Probably a volleyball there. Give me mine. Oh, yeah. I like them. I do really watch the movie Tombstone now. Tomb Stoner. It's like the 100th time. All right. Back to you, Marcus. Back to me. All right.
Another one of a surprise number. So it's high on fire. Come with the storm and MNRK heavy records. It's a good high on fire album. It's heavy. Cody Willis on drums is a seamless fit. I love the unconventional Middle Eastern instrumentation that they use on some of the tracks. The guitars,
and blister as expected, but I just think that the songwriting is a step below previous albums, which is why it lands here. So I do feel like this album is a grower record, but I have listened to it a lot, and so I'm not sure what's going to happen when it's final list time in December. And as you guys know, I've had every single High on Fire album on my top 25.
So this could be the first one that doesn't make it. I do really like it, but... Pike's got to bring it. You know, it's still a really good run if it doesn't make it at the end, and it's still a good, good, solid record. It's just not one of my favorite high on fire records. All right. The tribe has spoken. Matt, I think you need another Boddington there before you get going. Just FYI. It's getting empty, isn't it? All right. Me?
Yeah.
24.
With the first spin, I found myself struggling to latch onto this album.
It's the second full release from this band, the first of which I was pretty head over heels about.
Composed of symbiotic qualities, though, I soon found the celebration of deathly, doontastical chaos consuming my body, devouring my thoughts.
I was fully encapsulated in its darkened webbed.
Technically speaking, this album is a 45-minute glorification of that which lurks below the surface,
Slow and brooding at times, blistering and chaotic at others. The only way to fully embrace and comprehend this exercise is to become it. I'm talking about Sparagmos by Spectral Voice. Death to Metal from the U.S. Second album, Be It, Dark Descent. Nice. I think you meant the glory holification. Sure did. Sure did. Bit of a typo there. Yeah, it's okay. It's what we're here for.
We got each other's backs. I wonder if somebody would have that record on their list. I wonder if I would. It was only until recently that I kind of fell back into it and totally appreciate it because first listen was like, whoa, and then just set aside. There's enough equity there that I would want to go back and visit a Spectre Voice album. And then once I did, and I was in it a little bit, and then it just hit me. I was like, whoa, okay.
I struggled with that one because I do like that band but there's something about that album that just kind of it doesn't resonate with me like previous ones I think John and I talked about this a little bit and like I want to really love it and I just I just don't so and it happens sometimes with with bands they did something a little bit different than before and it doesn't really it doesn't really do it for me
There.
John.
All right.
I have to say, listening to Matt so far, and the way he's describing these albums,
I know we're only two albums in, but it's like his version of Penthouse Letters, but metal reviews.
It's just, it's like, I know this is really hard to believe, but I put this album on the other night kind of thing, you know?
I also am not going to be able to talk for the next two years.
Yeah, you're using all your words.
I love that he's cosplaying me that's what I really enjoy
he's taken out a loan on his
verbiage sorry John
you're good so
my number 24 is an interesting
selection
I'll describe it first a little bit and I'll give you the title
it's
one of these cavernous
death doom
funeral doom albums that
just oozes atmosphere there's
tons of crushing riffs
it's atmospheric
And it is an album that I like, but I don't know how much I like it, because I've struggled with it too. The best quote I ever read about this album, and reading through what people's reviews are, is that it feels like you're being torn apart slowly. And I feel that way when I listen to the album. I think it's a good description. Interestingly enough, this album has already been mentioned at 24, and has spectral voice, Spragmas.
I don't know how much I like it. You'd like it 24. Well, that's because I didn't have much time to put my looks together. Yeah, I feel the same way as what you, Markisan and Matt have said. Going back to it, I love the heavy fast parts of it. And I love some of the atmosphere. But it kind of feels like it drags a little bit to me, but it's still very good. It's just not as good as their debut. Yeah. So I mean, it's really well crafted. I think it's the balance that I don't like.
that really dooms slow parts. And then when they get the death metal parts, you're like, yeah. It's not even doomy. It's almost funeral doom-ish at times. And I'm not a super fan of funeral doom. But it's cool. All right. Will Jr.
Siege Machine Vengeance of Eternal Fire, a ban from Richmond, Virginia via Profound Lore Records. I think it's Richmond,
Motherfucking Virginia. Oh, my bad. Or you could just say RVA. I mean, once in an article that said Yngwie Malmsteen officially changes his middle name to fucking. All right. When you guys get a chance, I sent you a video on the chat thread of who's hanging out in my yard right now. All I got was
Right now, but no video. Oh, it's probably coming slow. Okay, if it's a video, yeah. Yeah, there's a Havolina out there eating the seeds. Okay, I'm going to start. This is probably one of the controversial picks worldwide for lists, you know what I mean? Oh, it's NSBM. Wait, is Chemist? Did they put on an album? No, not controversial for me. Controversial for everyone. I think there will be, there's enough
on this record to make it a metal record comes from a metal band there were definitely some mixed reactions in this group um i listened to it enough to warrant a spot on the list i wonder if Markisan can guess what it is i think i know where you're going let's hear it uh ball bear yeah you know it's um they made will's new favorite black album for sure and so yeah it's gonna be interesting to see how the wider world
It's got stuff on it that's just straight up not metal. You know, 100%. But I would just make reference to the song Ashes on Foundations of Burden, which I thought was a beautiful song. Kind of this weird Pink Floyd-y, late 60s Pink Floyd-y kind of acoustic number in here. Anyway, I thought it warranted a spot on the list. Probably won't survive, but it'll be interesting to see where it shows up for other people this year, if at all. Right on. Yeah, I think it's great.
So I will come up again
so I get to talk about it later
I thought if anybody was going to say it would be you
I actually enjoyed it
a lot more than I thought I would
on the first listen
I just haven't gone back to it
any time recently
but much better than I anticipate
actually there are quite a few songs
well there's not a lot of songs
but there were a few songs I liked a lot
and some of them are real heavy too
by the way
it sneaks in under the wire
there's some metal
I think they've done on that record actually. Yeah. I think I liked it because it was so deeply personal. And I like it when people in metal try to do that. I mean, I don't think I'd want a lot of it, but I like it when somebody realizes you can kind of talk about the real world. I have to give it a listen. And with year end, I think it's important to note that they could find an idol or get immunity. So all bets are on.
of this, yes. I want to watch Survive With You now, Matt. I've watched every season. We've got a new season coming in the fall, I think. I totally do. We should at least chat about the episodes. Absolutely. Awesome. All right. My number 24, possible volleyball, but I don't know. We'll see. Well, soon. This is a band that used to be around, and then they weren't around for a while, and now they're back.
That was a real rollercoaster joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was meant to be underwhelming. You went around and around there. This is the band Black Pyramid and the album The Paths of Time Are Vast. They put out a couple albums, I don't know, like 15 years ago maybe. And then like somebody left and they put out another album with somebody new and then apparently that guy
I left and the original guy came back to do this one. And it's just cool enough, just different enough to catch my attention again. So. I threw out a yep there and it wasn't agreement or confirmation. It was merely that, yeah, I think that's probably it. It's volleyball. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Well, that's an album I had on New Metal Fridays and then the band actually responded to me posting about it. So it is a really good record, George. But a volleyball.
Probably a volleyball, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, what do you have for 23? This will be a volleyball for sure. It's a Trexial, the serpent abomination on non-servium records. This is a harrowing ritual summoning in metal form. It's bleak black metal with a lot of layered complexity like shrieks and atmospheric dissonance, but it also has a
has this swirl of a melodic, I would say, etonal guitars that keep it structured and more accessible for this kind of just really devastating black metal. And it's by far the most venomous thing on my list. I always feel a little bit more evil whenever I spin it. So if you haven't listened to this one and you really dig black metal, give it a shot.
Not to take any jabs or anything, but I feel like you were trying to be Matt there. You're trying to be Matt trying to be you. Yeah, that's just getting confusing. You know what's funny too is I didn't really write much stuff, so I'm kind of doing more off the cuff, whereas Matt has written it down, you know? Which I cannot write nor can I go off the cuff, so I'm really just flailing here. Oh, you can go off the cuff. I like what you're doing.
I believe what you're doing to the market zone is known as free ballin'.
Free ballin'.
Yeah, in the wheel cyclopedia of terms, free ballin'.
All right, I think it's Matt now.
Okay, number 23.
Each time I listen to this album, I can literally feel the grit on my teeth.
It's as though someone smashed their fist through a cinder block wall and then punched me right square in the draw.
And then I asked for another. And the truth is I would never refuse a second helping of this band's unabashed, doom-in-a-sludgy hardcore blend, nor should anyone. If your favorite wrestling program had a 34-minute intro, this would be the soundtrack and you would feel every body slam, every powerbomb, every elbow from the top rope coming through your TV. And the reality is I'm someone who still digs hardcore, so I'll take the breakdowns. I'll take the uncomfortably overdriven guitar sound and I'll take the anthem as vocals. While this album is titled Deprecipice,
I'm actually quite in precipice with it. And the band is Mastiff. The album is Deprecipice. They are a blend of sludgy, hardcore metal from the UK. Fourth album, the Monarch Heavy. Nice. All I can say is, oh yeah! Yeah! Oh yeah! Well... Snap into it! Snap into a Slim Jim! Yeah, brother! I do like the thought of anything having a 34-minute
All right, John.
All right, my number 23, I'm guessing is possibly going to be a Wilson.
My 23 is Wheel, Charismatic Leaders, Inside Out Music.
They're a progressive metal, I guess you'd say alternative metal band.
They have a tool vibe, I guess, to them a little bit on this album.
They sort of remind me a little bit of sermon from last year that had that same vibe, but not as rhythmic. Interesting. I know them. I've got some of their earlier albums. I thought they were more of a like trad doom, but maybe they've evolved. Yeah. And that's, I think it's slightly different on this album for them. So, and that's the reason why I think I'm listening to it is interesting. It kind of caught me for that. Solid release. I like it. I don't know if it'll survive for my year end, but it's one of a number of
of albums coming up in a row where
I don't have anything of their
previous releases. I got into these bands
on these releases and
oddly enough, they're like the third
or fourth releases, so it's kind of strange.
And they all ended up
one after another on my list.
Interesting.
I got some of that too this year.
I do too, actually.
A fair amount of bands who have been around for a while,
some of which you guys, I think,
at least some people on the podcast
have long been into and stuff, but I've never
seen that. I've never bought anything by these guys.
And it's just crazy
because obviously
we listen to a ton of metal
you'd think you would hear
about some of these bands
but there's just so many
There's so much
out there so
It's saturated yeah
Alright
Back to the Will
Once when Brew Metal Will
was trapped on an island
he found a volleyball
and destroyed it
His number 23 pick
is Black Pyramid
The paths of time are vast
Yes!
The Maryland
Totem Cat Records
Eat My Volleyball
Volleyball resurrected. Thank you, Willish. Well, that's Will for keeping it local. He sure does love to do that. I didn't realize they were local. That's interesting. Prepare to possibly moan a little bit here, Markison, or groan, I should say. He'd rather moan, I think. You're always very gracious, so I don't think you'll be a 23, but this was a record that started out really
hard with me like I mean in the best kind of way and I was and honestly it circled my number one spot for a week or two what that's a big drop but it it needs something a little more it's missing a few dynamics they had a little bit was a little more dynamic and just a couple more hooks so the riffs are hooky as fuck anyway not the first time that appeared on my list dune void kind oh does that thing on a southwest flight I don't say that that's the only plate that's the only
The only company I fly. Oh, no. Number 23. Yeah, I know. And you would never do that. So I take that. But I do know this one, I think, was close to your heart when it came out, at least when it came out. Yeah. It's very large sounding. I'll give them that. I mean, these guys are fucking heavy, but it's very muddy. I think they're circling their best record. Hey, you know what? I am gracious. And at least it's on your list. You know, I don't know.
who's going to have it on there. I'm not. I mean, I didn't think George would. So, yeah, no, it's phenomenal. So it'll definitely come up again. I haven't even seen Dune Part 2 yet. Oh, dude. Who are you? I'm waiting to have 12 hours to watch them both together. Jay has no excuse. Yeah, I know. You have sort of an excuse. To prove that, Marcus, I've watched it twice. Oh, you have?
Yeah, I liked it that much, man. Best sci-fi epic to come out in a long time on film. Yeah, it's so good. Nice. All right, my number 23 is Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God. It actually, I know, Markisan's making funny faces, but hey, be glad it's even on here, okay? With that bullshit production. What? What was it about it that got you?
to it and trying to figure out what it was and I think it's the
bass the bass is so
boomy and so
it has so much
it like brings this atmospheric
sound that blankets the
whole album and all you can hear is
that bass tone and it's
really fucking annoying
but if not for that it would be
great I love that record
it's phenomenal
maybe it's my old man broken ears
but all I hear is bass I'm kind
How You're Listening To Records With Heavis He said something about High End Fire where he would put it on and you know it has the levels and it was all the same when I listen to it on my system it has different levels throughout that record maybe I'm just kind of wondering how you're listening to it no no I listen everything in high res well I'm just wondering how you're doing it there well my flack it's the it's
I think maybe you're old. Nah. Well, I mean, yeah. Not as old as some. And my hearing is garbage. I don't hear the problems with the production on this at all. It's so muddy. So muddy. But it's still a good album. Hence 23. That was my compromise. Yeah. I mean, it's on the list. Yeah. But probably not for year end, it seems like. Hard to say.
Yeah, you got to listen to it again because it's such a great record. It's just, it annoys me. I hear it in your voice, man. Sorry. I don't want you to feel that. I want you to feel happiness and rainbows. Exactly. Well, if you just fall out of your chair and point at a rainbow, I'll be happy. Dude, I'm like, I'm feeling this. I haven't really eaten anything today and 14.5% I'm already feeling it. Noice. All right.
But we march on. Number 22. I haven't heard anybody talk about this one, actually. And I just discovered it a couple weeks ago. And it instantly grabbed me. It's Upon Stone, Dead Mother Moon on Century Media Records. I really like this record because it continues this growing trend of new bands reviving that old Gothenburg melodic death metal.
in the tradition of early at the gates and in flames so last year we got majesties which i loved
and in 2024 i think uh pond stone is the front runner for that resurrected mellow death crown
so it's 32 minutes of just aggressive cannerous joy it's a really great debut record and i just haven't
I heard a lot of people talk to me about it and like I said I just found out about it so and it came out early I think it came out uh oh shit let's see I wrote it down January so I missed it completely Matt you would you should give it a spin because I know you really like uh Majesties yeah it's not as good as Majesties but it's very good nice won't it
And now I'm on my number 22. There must be something in the German water, for it's the key ingredient feeling in ongoing historical consumption of beer. But could that same water be playing a role in some of Stoner Metal's best bands you may or may not have heard of? I ask because this next pick comes from a Stoner band whose sound feels more like a product of a lava lamp than traditional fuzz. Oh, crap. Having relinquished my lava lamp years ago,
For the first time ever, I yearned for the equalizer display of the iTunes of olden times would display. I stumbled onto this album on a New Music Friday, but then shelved it for further review at a later date. That never happened, though, because the psychedelic fluidity of these songs slithered their way into my mind and never left. All that aside, if you take the lion's daughter and remove the horse, since at certain times you would have the band Grin and their album Hush. They are stoner metal from Germany. It's their fourth album. It was independently released.
I don't know that one. Possibly a volleyball. Definitely. Your serve. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you're going to have to check it out for sure. I will get a marker and color this ball with a face. All right. For my number 22, another band, like I said, with my previous pick that I got into three or four albums into their catalog. And I,
probably got into them.
They completely changed their sound for the most part,
but that that's okay.
At least I'm into them.
Uh,
my number 22 is chapel disease echoes of light from van records.
I kind of dig this cross between sweeping and tribulation with these kind of eighties metals riffs and these kind of seventies progressive rock soloing throughout.
What's that throughout?
It's like one long solo.
Yeah, it's kind of wild. It is. This album is. And I know a lot of people are not happy about it. Seeing as their last album, I think is probably the favorite amongst most of their fans. But I kind of dig bands that sort of reinvent themselves and still have their sound. Whether this continues, I don't know. I mean, there's plenty of bands that change their sound for an album or two and then revert back. I think they're going to pull a full O path.
Who knows? I mean, I thought that was going to happen to Hail Spirit Noir until I heard the two new songs off the album that's coming out next week. So yeah, Chapel Disease, Echoes of Light. Nice. Will. Cool. Time waits for no man unless that man is brew metal Will. And his 22nd pick is Bong Ripper, Empty. From Chicago, Illinois, released via Great Barrier Records.
is empty. Gone.
All right.
I was having trouble with that band because
it just leans way too much into the weed.
That used to bother me. It doesn't bother me so much anymore
as long as the music
is not like
every song is about it or something.
Yeah, but.
Right, right. But how's the production, George?
Well, I haven't actually listened to this one, but
I would guess that
it might not be great.
I bet it's fuzzy. I bet it is. My number 23 from a one-man band who had a record a few years ago called Violator that I fucking love. Depeche Mode? Huh? Depeche Mode? No. Oh, I know who this is. And then when I didn't much care for it, it was okay, actually, but it was a little more experimental.
and almost a little industrial. Kind of back to their old big, his old big riffy ways. Uh, Reedhammer, God Slayer. One man band that doesn't sound like a one man band too. He's got like these big never more sized guitars. It's not a, they're not a never more, it's not a never more style at all, but super fucking heavy kind of German thrashy riffy hooky stuff. Cool. And the other record on indie recordings. So yeah. Somebody help me out here too, because,
I'm going crazy looking through all this trying to remember because my next band reminds me of this band and it's a band we love they're from England had had the guy on the show once big almost stonery fucking heavy we fucking love them I can't remember you trying to remember the name I'm trying to the name of the band they're like stonery I haven't had that many British bands huh we haven't had that many real nice dude that we talked to in um
Allfather. Thank you, John. John, pulling it out of nowhere. Yeah. Pulled it out of my head. Okay. Relevant to my next selection. So leave that there. But okay. Thanks, John. Come back to it. I can't believe I couldn't remember them because I mean, I love them and I suddenly can't remember their name. In any case, Georgie. All right. Number 22. Pass Me That Volleyball Bitches. This is the album Weird Tales, which is a comic
book from back in the day and the band is called the vision bleak from germany oh i know them
yeah nice me too they're kind of gothy kind of deathy more gothy than deathy um but i've always been a fan of
these guys and uh i dig it so are they sort of weird tale themed uh yeah it's it's actually uh uh i believe it's a concept album based around stuff based around weird tales but um i didn't pay that close of attention i just kind of listened to it and dug it so
I love those old weird tales and creepy and all those. Yeah. I remember being a kid like, you know, as a kid, you had comic books like, you know, Spider-Man and the Hulk and Thor. And every once in a while, I'd like get a stash of comics from somebody and there would be weird tales or, you know, tales from the crypt or whatever. And it was just like, oh, my God, this is insane. This is terrifying. I mean, even the Conan stuff was kind of scary.
But yeah, I always dug those really weird horror comics from back in the day. Well, they're actually, I'll just mention this quick. They're bringing back EC comics, which is all horror stuff, old school horror stuff. And they're bringing it back pretty soon. It wasn't like an anthologies. You can get a lot of these stuff reprinted and that stuff is pre-code too. So some is pretty fucked up, man. Yeah. In the best kind of way. Yeah. Okay.
Back to Mark's on for number 21. Number 21 for me is Wilson! And it's Hecatonkir Nightmare Utopia on Black Lion Records. Hecatonkir? No. This was a surprise find for me. It's their first album. They play this kind of creative, atmospheric amalgam of black metal,
What I like about this album is the way that the band arranges space to showcase all those sounds. So it can explode with crushing death and then downshift into this slow shadowy doom and then go right into this groovy chug engine of sludge. But it still sounds cohesive to me. And the album is just over 30 minutes, which I think makes it feel more immediate and dazzling.
and dazzling because it has all these different elements in it. So I think it's a really impressive debut and definitely a band that I will follow from now on. Cool. Nice. Matt. All right, 21. The year was 2021. I was in Mexico and for no comprehensible reason, I'd come to the realization that I was desperately in need of epic riffage. Armed with only an iPhone and a pair of AirPods, I was literally swimming in riffs, but there was only a
The lead singer and songwriter of this band, once referred to as the Riff Master General, seemingly spoke to me through ocean waves of margarita salts soothing my riff deficiency. From that day forward, I would devote my life to preaching the riff gospels, something I shared with said person when Jay and I became best friends with him in Vegas. Flash forward to this present day, the long-awaited release, this long-awaited release, is a continuation of the same, a collection of solid, slamming riffs to add to the vast catalog.
The addition of Western instrumentation is a welcome add to the mix as well. There's no surprise how seamlessly it fits into the overall vibe. If you've been paying attention, obviously I'm referring to High on Fire and the release Come at the Storm.
Yeah, I don't know. It's they do do new things because I like I mentioned the Middle Eastern instrumentation on there is pretty cool. Yeah, they've done it before, but I don't know. It feels like a different kind of an instrument on this one. I know. I'm not sure what they used before. I can't think of it. But I mean, not to call you. I'm sorry. That was like a douchebag. No, but I, you know, I, you know, it's funny. My opinion is higher of it. And I'll speak of it when I get to it because I figured it would be, Jay. Yeah. But I, but I'll
I'll tell you why and it's partially because it I think it harkens back a little bit towards sort of like blessed black wings type stuff and maybe a little bit post blessed black wings so I'm perfectly glad that they kind of went reverse a little bit to me it feels a little bit more like old old school yeah but I you know your comments are all digested and relevant me thinks I get it all right my number 21
the third in a row album or band that I got into on their third release.
And I think this is usually music I listen to after the year end.
I don't know why I'm listening to it before the mid-year.
And you'll see why here in a second.
So my number 21 is Traveler, Prequel to Madness, off of No Remorse Records.
They're, I guess, traditional heavy metal, U.S. power metal, speed metal band out of Canada.
And usually I'm listening to this stuff, you know, being nostalgic after our year end because I'm so burned out on the year of all the music we listen to. But I kind of dug this album. The cover caught me because it's got this bright yellow. It's like I was looking at Jay on the Internet. I found him, you know, right away in the yellow shirt. But it was the yellow album cover. So, but yeah, it's a cool album. It's I'm not a super speed metal fan because sometimes speed metal is literally the same song for 35 minutes straight.
But this is cool.
And they seem to have a lot of fans.
And there's enough of U.S. power metal in that that I kind of dig,
which is that kind of mid to late 80s style metal that was coming out of the U.S.
that was a little more aggressive than the traditional metal bands at the time.
So, yeah.
I like that record a lot.
Yeah.
I actually have it on vinyl.
So, yeah, I like their last album quite a bit.
And I think this one is the best one they've done.
Yeah.
So, good pull.
New Discovery for me. So. Right on. Will, what do you got? In the beginning, there was nothing. Then brew metal, Will Roundhouse kicked nothing and told it to get a job. And then for number 21, he chose Morta Scald, Creation Undone. The band is from Miliwake, Wisconsin, and it was released via Peaceville Records. Well, there goes that volleyball. Oh, sorry.
Will just keeps upending all your volleyballs. I know, right? Stop blocking my spike. My bad. By the way, George, on your previous one, you said hand me the volleyball, and it should be understood that if you have a volleyball, you're alone. Nobody's handing you nothing, buddy. True that. On the desert island. True. Which reminds me, I came up with a Helen Keller joke, if you guys would like to hear it. Always.
I'm pretty proud of this. Knock, knock. Who's there? See. Terrible. Not that most of our listeners will know who Helen Keller was, but. Too soon. This is my two things. Wow, John is circling my universe today because A, he gave me the All-Father, which I couldn't pull for some reason. I lost that, and I hate that because I love those guys.
Number two, this is my Sunderland band, John. Love to think that there's even a band from Sunderland and that they are at least somewhat sonically related to Allfather. A little more distortion in this band, but that same kind of metal, undeniable metal, and yet a little bit of a hardcore underneath it. Though Allfather comes with more Sabbath-y type wrist. This is probably a volleyball. Yersin, the Scythe is remorseless.
It's a fucking heavy record, dude. Yeah. If you haven't heard it, check it out. And you might be like, what? He said this was kind of all fathery. And you'll be like, what the fuck was he talking about? But it's there. It's just this really fucking aggressive, pounding. It's fucking awesome. I love it. The only reason it's on my list is because to me, it's an EP. It's under my limit. It's a little short. Yeah. But right now, it's on my top five EPs, because
I keep that list as well. But it is phenomenal. It's pretty close to album. It's like right at the cusp for where I cut it off. But yeah, it's great. That's a really nice one to mention on here, Jay. Everybody should check that one out. It's super aggressive. Let me see here if I can get it. Well, seven songs. And I'm not going to do the math, but yeah, it might be just under. It's 25 minutes. There you go.
I looked at Music B.
We've decided to bring the blood.
So it's basically a double grindcore album?
No.
I'd say not retrospective, John.
I mean, most of the songs are about three to four minutes,
and then there's one song that's under two minutes.
Pretty sure, yeah.
So they're, like, pretty good length songs.
Yeah.
You're right.
It's, boy, I'm going to say it's circling EP, circling album.
Well, you know, you do what you want.
That's just me, but I do really like it,
So it's cool that you mentioned it because I think more people should listen to that one because it definitely flies under the radar. That artwork is killer in the cover scene. Jersey boy. Okay. I will pass myself this volleyball. It's known as a dancing with myself. Dancing with myself. Oh, oh, oh.
This is a band featuring the original, but at least one of the old guitar players from Sepultura. This is the Troops of Doom and Amassed to the Grotesque. The guitar player from the first couple albums who I can't pronounce his actual name, but his band type name was Tormentor. I'm not on that page anymore.
Yeah, Tormentor.
And this is their second album.
And the first one came out a couple years ago.
And I mean, this is what, if you're like, man, I wish there was a new Sepultura album,
this is what you want.
It's good.
It's heavy.
You know, it's somewhere between thrash and death.
And it fucking rocks.
Check it. Cool. I haven't heard that one, George. You'll have to check it out. I saw it come up in some feed somewhere, but I didn't listen to it yet. You should. Okay. We will. All right. Back to Markisan number 20. Getting real. Number 20 for me is Abhoria Depths. Prosthetic Records. I've heard of them. Yeah. You might have heard about this.
This is my favorite Abhorio record, and we know Trevor is an excellent songwriter, but I think this album has some of the most vibrant and dynamic songs he's done. It's an assertive record, but it has great melodies and complexity interwoven throughout those nine tracks that are on it. And the addition of vocalist Ben Pitts from In the Company of Serpents really elevates the band for me. He's such a versatile,
And he just adds a lot of depth and color to the tracks. I love the way he shifts from black and rasps to this leaden death bellow pretty instantly. He even has like a doom frog throat singing part on some of these songs. So number 23, Abhoria Depths, just a phenomenal job on this record. Number 20? 20. Number 20. Not 23. Sorry. Number 20.
Oh, happy anniversary. Happy 19th anniversary to you and Alicia. Yeah, I saw that too. Happy anniversary, buddy. Yeah. And I don't know how he finds time to be prolific. They're always throwing axes at a wall or something. So the fact that Trevor really cranks them out and doesn't, is not cheap on any of them. But agreed. Happy anniversary to our friend. Yeah. Love you, buddy. Much, much better half, I assume. Great record. All right, Matt.
Okay, 20. While this band possesses all the great characteristics of a seasoned technical death metal band, they also offer a little moodiness, or dare I say, bitchiness. There's probably three or four tracks in, and I did an about-face, thinking I was now listening to a down album. Granted, I've disowned Phil Anselmo, but I still really love Southern Epic Low End Groove Fang. And to hear subliminally embedded in some tech death is a welcome surprise. Not as surprising are some subtle nods to the OG
Pioneers of Technical Tech Car Bomb. What I'm trying to say is that Omicide by Atrey Belise is the tech death snuggie you didn't know you needed. So Atrey Belise, Omicide, Tech Death US, second album via 20 Buck Spin. Right on. Nice. John, what you got? All right. My number 20, I didn't think it was going to make my list.
I'm a fan of the band, but it just wasn't wowed on my first initial listen on my own time. Listened to my decibel fest with Markisan at TR and I liked what I heard, but then I listened on my own. I was like, eh, been there, done that. But I went back to it being only fair and I liked it a lot more on the second go around. And there's no new ground really being broken here. They have their own formula like so many bands do that have been around for so long, but it's still a pretty deep
and that is My Dying Bride, Immortal Binding. I like it. It's got some nice heavy moments. As always, there's violin. It's never really disappeared from the band, but it seems to feature differently on this album than it has maybe in the previous couple albums. But it's still My Dying Bride. Nothing stands out from it, especially when you consider I really liked Feel the Misery in 2015, which I thought was the best release they had done since their
kind of heyday. They had a run of albums up into the mid-2000s. I thought that were great. And then they've been kind of spotty since then. So it's good. I like it. And I'll probably like it the more I listen to it. I just wish there wasn't so much damn drama with this band all the time. And it's all behind-the-scenes drama. And it's not for us to judge. I don't know what's going on. I kind of think it is for us to judge. We are, after all, a podcast of, you know, we should be judging.
them. In fact, literally, we are right now judging bands. But I mean, is this a historical thing for them? It seems in recent, about a decade, they just seem to always have something going on. And I know, obviously, one of the issues was what the singer's son, I believe, or his child was sick. And that's different. It just seems like there's some band interaction stuff that seems to be happening more often than not. So, yeah. Which is too bad, because I'd love to see them at least once.
which I don't think is ever going to happen. I've had several opportunities
and always missed out. Me too.
That's a really good point. I've never seen them.
Because they've suspended touring right now?
Are they figuring things out?
I don't even know if they're going to survive.
I mean, it's funny because
didn't the one guitarist leave to form
Gotham?
So I'm just wondering at some point
when does this whole thing kind of dissolve
on its own?
So, slowly. It's almost like it's my dying band. A little bit. Ouch. No, I mean, at some point, you know, bands just drift apart. That's what I mean by that. It seems like a slow burn, unfortunately. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just kind of bummed because I really like the band a lot. Yeah, me too. All right. Will. Brad.
instead of coffee in the morning.
And then he goes on to make his 20th pick.
Vecticinal Rites, Cascading Memories of Immortality,
a band from London, and the album was released via Everlasting Spew Records.
Is that London, Georgia?
Or?
UK.
Okay.
London.
Just checking.
Same place as my dying band is from.
Okay, then.
Wow.
Geez, now I feel like that's going to get clipped off and be on Blabbermouth or something. Can't think of them without thinking that now. All right, fine. My Dying Bright, which was very optimistic to begin with as a title for a band. Yeah. All right, Jay. I love it when somebody describes an album I've got on my list before I get to it so I can take a little nap, especially if they're pretty articulate.
about it, which John was. Chapel of Disease, Echoes of Light. I've liked this band really since, well, not the Inception, because they've got some stuff out that came out before they hit a label. And they've just done such weird, interesting twists and turns in their career. And they feel like Tribulation and old school, old, old, old school kind of death metal. You should probably check them out. Especially, I would also recommend the, what is it, the mysterious ways of
of Art, which was a record I loved. It was like two releases ago. Chapel of Disease. Right on. Nice. Very good. So what I like is when somebody not only does my pick for me, but they also do specifically my number 20 pick for me. And that would be Chapel of Disease. That goes a flight. There you go. This is where it starts getting a little weird. So I need to say no more.
That's three. That's kind of, I wasn't sure if anyone was going to go with it just because of how much they, I know you guys liked the previous album a lot. It was on both their lists. And I know Will likes the early kind of more death metal straight ahead. I don't remember if it, if it made it to past mid-year with me. I'm trying to remember again. I thought it was. I mean, isn't this somewhat of a, it's not an about face. It's like a get off the main road and go down parallel road type situation.
I think it is.
Yeah, they kind of did 180.
And I don't know.
They're such a weird band.
I think they're so capable of doing something fantastic.
Right.
So this was quite good.
Does it feel like they're going to do this again with the next album?
Just kind of right turn again on you?
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Probably.
Now, I think it's just the singer and guitarist, right?
Isn't it a whole new band besides him now?
That's the reasonable question.
Jay, I liken this band. Tell me if you think I'm close on this one. In terms of the trajectory, not sound. They don't sound anything like this band, but they remind me of Elder a little bit and how they've gone from one style and about face completely over the course of, well, Chapel Disease is like one album about face, but Elder was sort of building towards this and now they're nothing like they were at all. Yeah. I'll buy that. But there's still this kind of weird unifying thread underneath it.
Well, that makes a little bit of sense. Yes. And they both are kind of hitting on that 70s prog thing, too. The jammy 70s stuff. There's a thing in Germany about that, and I don't know what it is, but there was another brand I really liked from there that was doing something similar I can't think of right now. That's great, George. I'm glad you picked it, too. Yeah. And it's on Van Records, which is the same one that does, I think, Sulphur Eon and stuff. And I think these guys know each other. Which is also what
Swayven's on, isn't it, I think? I think they're also on that, which I get a lot of that vibe from them with the vocals and the music style. And I get the feeling they're all from the weird same town or something for some reason. It's all the same guy. It's just he keeps changing his name per band. All right. Background to Markerson. What did George pick? Chaplet Disease, too. Me and him both. You did? We're 20 buddies.
I'm behind the times at 22.
All right.
Number 19 for me.
All right.
Yeah, this has been mentioned before, and I actually had it in the exact same place that John had it, which is number 25.
But I listened to it again, and I just I couldn't put it there because it's just it's got too much going on in it.
It's just it's too the musicianship is too high.
And it's Lord Dying, Clandestine, Transcendence on MNRK Heavy Records. They refer to their music as progressive sludge, and that's a big part of this album. But the band, I think, really drops these cluster bombs of classic rock and dark gothic atmospherics on it that we just didn't get on their previous records. So I love the direction that they took on this album for the band, and I hope that they continue to explore.
it, especially the gothic part of it, because I didn't expect that when I spun it. And it's also a really interesting concept album. It's about an immortal character named the Dreamer who wants to figure out a way to die. So that's kind of fun, too. And I just wanted to say a shout out to Alyssa, who was a great guest on the podcast a few months back. She's the bassist in Lord Dying.
Yeah, that was fun.
That's great. I'm glad it's on another list. I'm guessing it might be on one or two more maybe potentially. I know it will, but I, you know, there's an interesting thing I wanted to ask you guys about that record and it is that it's on MNRK. First of all, you guys know that label? It's Monarch. It used to be E3 or E1. I couldn't help but notice that the new High and Fire is on that too. Yep. And is it, does it come out of,
Portland or something? Is that E1, Matt? It's what E1 became after. I think they got bought by Hasbro or whatever. It's Monarch. Monarch Heavy is what it is. They just use the letters. I think that was part of the Hasbro sale. But yeah, I believe it used to be E1. Is the E1 moniker completely gone now? I think so. Don't quote me, though. I'd have to dig in a little bit. I call it out as interesting simply because Matt and his ex-wife are both on the same label, and I was wondering if it was coming out of Portland or something.
I think I interrupted you there.
No, that's a good question.
Nice.
Good pick, Marcus.
Thanks.
Yeah, I mean, it's a really good record.
I feel like maybe I need to spin it more.
I just have not spun that one that much because I feel, and we talked about this when you had it on your list there, John, it just feels a little bit long to me.
But there's so much good stuff on it.
It's so well crafted.
I think if they caught a bit out of it, it would have, it probably would score higher on my list, I think. It is that album that when you listen to it, you have to stop and remember that you're actually still listening to it because of all this. I mean, all the pockets you described them as, Markisan. Yeah, that's why it feels long because they kind of venture so many different directions, but it's like every song or two, it's often a direction and it's kind of hard maybe to keep pace with it.
And they explore the new things, like I said. It has that gothic sound, which we never really got before. So maybe the next record we'll be able to hone in on that perfect running time. Maybe they'll take from everything they've done and really make the best record they've done. I don't know. We'll see. Interesting sidebar about them. I was looking through old lists, specifically 2015, because there's something I wanted to see.
relative to today. And Will had them on his list in 2015. Which is funny, because I don't know if he would have this or the previous album on his list, but he did have them early on when he and I were first on eons ago. Yeah, Will feels betrayed pretty quickly. Well, the cool thing about this band, too, is they've come such a long way. I don't know if it's their first record. Poison Arrows? Something like that. Something like that, yeah.
It's way different than this one. And the last record is completely different than this one. So I feel like maybe it's a band that's trying to find their footing. They're trying to find exactly the sound that they wanted to put out. That's such an interesting narrative line with a band. It's always interesting that I've always got four or five that I'm like, this guy's just, they're almost there. They almost got it. You know what I mean? And sometimes it doesn't happen.
Well, and sometimes it happens, and then they change, and then they've got to find a new sound. I feel pallbearers like that, which I'll talk about that later. Because out of the gate, you're like, oh my God, it's amazing. And then they change, and you're like, I don't know. So it's just a matter of what they want to do as a band. Maybe they're a band that wants to do something different every single time out, and there's nothing wrong with that too. But I feel like every time I listen to them, that they're kind of searching
for that defining sound for the band. And haven't quite gotten there yet. For me anyways. But for them, maybe they have. King, Lizard, and the Gizzard Wizard. Not searching for anything. They're just driving around. Flying off into various stuff. There's some bands, they do it, and then they just keep doing that same thing, right? And they're just completely content with that. Looking at you, Overkill. Where the hell are we? Matty.
Oh, is that me? Okay, 19. This album feels like an absolute step in their planetary evolution. It has more volume and depth, which in a sense means the album is aptly titled. They've also turned up the Sinister AF dial, or maybe it's a pedal. What I dig most about their sound is that it channels a black metal vibe, but in a vintage fashion while still sounding modern. The band I'm talking about is Abhoria, and the album is Depths. Nice.
Yeah, we're finally starting to match each other on a few albums. There for a while, it's like, we're gonna have to dump the Wilson Award and just start having like a All in the Gang Award where we actually do match. Except for George and Will. Oh, yeah, there's been a few now. I mean, but I've got more.
We've got quite a few Wilsons coming up already. So. Wilson! I've got, let's see, one, maybe two, definitely three, possibly four, five, six, at least. Huh. Who won Wilson last year? Was it me? I think it was me, actually. I thought you and Will tied. Yeah, I think it was a tie. I have to check. Or you beat him by one. It was really close. I think I won it outright.
Yeah.
You know what? I'm going to check.
You check.
I want to be in an island alone.
So, all right.
John, right?
My number 19.
This might be a Wilson.
I didn't even know about this band until recently.
Just came across the name searching through Rate Your Music's chart for metal albums this year, the rankings.
And I was like, oh, this kind of looks interesting.
I remember seeing the album cover, but I didn't listen to the album. Kind of glad I did now, because it's pretty killer. My number 19 is Dissimulator, Lower Form Resistance on 20 bucks spin. They're a technical thrash, technical death band out of Canada. I didn't know anything about them. Listen to it, because the album was rated fairly high. And it's some good blistering. Like I said, technical thrash, technical death would feel probably to fans of Vector.
And you might actually like it more because the songs are shorter, which is kind of nice because while Vector has incredible chops. They're fucking exhausting. Yes. They really are exhausting. I might have listened to the record from beginning to end once. That doesn't mean it's the only time I ever listened to it, but Jesus. A little less domestic violence. Yeah, well, there's that too. Yeah. These albums should, these type of music should be no more than like 35, 36 minutes. With all due respect.
It just really gets exhausting. But this is cool. It's good stuff. Oh yeah, that's a good record. And a great name, Dissimulator. Yeah. Awesome. Alright, Will. Rue Metal Will does not own a stove, oven, or microwave because revenge is a dish best served cold. As is my number 19 pick, Coffin's Sinister Oath. The band is from Tokyo, Japan. It is released via Relapse Record.
Excellent.
Will sounds like he's smoking a lot of cigarettes right now.
Maybe.
Maybe he has a cold.
He might be getting over a cold, too.
He's sexier and tougher at the same time.
That's cool because I know Matt's going to have coffins on there because I think it was his album of the month one, whatever month that came out.
It's a 50-50 chance.
I can't commit to it.
It's a possibility.
I'm a really good driver.
Are you, George?
No.
Actually, I've had like three people in the last same number of weeks pull over in front of me because I must be aggressively driving.
Yeah, they like pull over and I'm like, and I go by and they're just like shaking their head.
And I'm like, I didn't even realize it.
Who is this grandmother driving?
If you're going slow, I'm going as fast as I can behind you. Slow and steady wins the race, George. I'm never purposefully trying to get up somebody's butt or be aggressive to them. I'm just going as fast as I can, given the space between us. I hope you clip that you just said. You're never purposely trying to get up somebody's butt, George? Come on. It's always an accident. It's always an accident. Whoops.
That's a lie. That is a lie. I mean on the road. Misinformation, George. Yeah, that's good. I'm always surprised when they pull over and wave me on. I'm like, oops. Waving you on with their middle finger out the window. Yeah. You should probably move out here, George. Because I can drive for an hour and not see a fucking soul. So, you know. Yeah, that would be my ideal driving circumstances. It's pretty great, actually, I have to say. Yeah.
You don't even know what day it is, dude. You're like, you're in complete bliss right now. Yeah. Actually, I did know what day it was. And I joked, the reason I was gonna be 10 minutes late was I was driving to the store to get iced tea. And I was like, I gotta have this voice-a-thon for six hours or whatever. And then you were like, oh. I was like, but isn't it Friday? I was like, don't these fucking guys work on Friday? Why are we doing this Friday? And then I was like, I'll be late. And George was like, no problem. We'll just talk to you again on. And so I thought, okay, it is today.
Because, you know, he was thinking I was talking about something. And what's funny is I was actually sitting here thinking, wow, how good is Jay that he knows that tomorrow he's going to be 10 minutes late? Like, what is, how does he know specifically 10 minutes? Yeah, but I admit there are only one or two little bookmarks in my week these days that remind me what day it is. So, yeah. With that, I'm moving on to my number 19.
I think if you look at my lists and stuff, you would think I spent a lot of time with traditional metal. I doubt that much. You know, I usually find one or two things. This is the only traditional style metal thing. Well, save one actual traditional metal band. They made it onto my list, but I like it. I think if you're going to try to do the old school thing, the 80s epic power or whatever, you better have a good fucking singer. That's like my first fucking problem. And at that, it better be somebody who not just hit notes, but has a little passion.
and can sell it a little bit without it being, I don't know, a satire or something. This seems to be that band for me this year. A record I really enjoyed. Savage Oath, Divine Battle. Nice. Post-Mortem Apocalypse Records, a band from the United States. I don't know that one. It easily could have come out on Metal Blade when Armored Saint records were first coming out. Stuff like that. And it fits and works. They did a nice job.
It's a good album. I think we had quite a bit of talk about that
for New Music Friday
when I put that on my list.
I think Dan Clanchard
likes that album a lot.
Who did? Dan Clanchard
Clown Car. You know him as Clown Car.
He's in a bad mood right now.
Why?
Because of the Oilers? Losing their team.
Oh, he hates Edmonton.
Right, but isn't Winnipeg?
It's funny because I was trying to figure that out
Because I figured given the location that, I mean, it's in Canada, right? They all like each other, right? So I figured he'd be like Edmonton more than the Panthers, but like every time the Panthers, or sorry, the Oilers lost, he would say something positive about that. And I was like, is he being sarcastic? I don't understand. I think he's more anti-Edmonton than he is pro anything else. Probably because they're like a Winnipeg rival or something.
Like, you know, like Pittsburgh would be for me. Like Quebec. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, okay. Fair enough. Sorry, Dan. Yeah, sorry, Dan. Poor Dan. Jorge. All righty, my number 19, apparently listed too high, but cometh my 19 is high on fire, cometh the storm. Yeah, you didn't think it was even going to be on there, did you? No, because,
The Way You Were Talking About It. I said I didn't like the production. I didn't say I didn't like the music. Say that for every album. Get off my lawn. I'm always under lawn. I know. It's awesome. Yeah, that's all I got to say about that. Cool. What changed for you? It's not that it changed. It was just like, yeah, it's not my favorite High on Fire album, but you know, I got to give respect. I got to list it. It's good enough for that.
I guess I could have listed it lower. But it just seemed like the right spot. So is what it is. Cool. Cool. Oh, is that two? Or did Jay will definitely have it higher? Yeah. All right. 18, Mark. It's on 18. John, let us hug. Exist hijacking the zeitgeist on prosthetic records. Nice. Yeah.
I liked the last Exist record, but this reformatted, more streamlined version of the band hits the progressive metal sweet spot for me. The songs just feel more present, more immediate. They're catchier. I think they hit harder because the album doesn't have the kind of wandering dreamscape-y sections that Egoista had. But there's still plenty of jazzy,
technical prog parts that give the band its identity. They're just more compacted, just more focused. And I just think it's a really great record. I like this version of Exist the best. So I feel like this band and this album actually could go a little bit higher on your end. I just, uh, just here for right now, but, um, it's that good. Nice. Is it me or do his vocals just keep getting better every album?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Because all the death to all work he does. And now it's like, oh my God, I'm starting to hear Chuck a little bit when I hear them doing the vocals. It's kind of wild. Yeah. I think the way that they present these song structures here help actually with the vocals too. So yeah, I'm really impressed. Although I think they split the clean vocals. I feel like Alex Weber, I think it's his name.
the bassist. I feel like he's been doing a lot of the clean vocals. They've been wrong about that, but I thought he was. I'm not sure, John. I'm sure it's going to be on your list, so it should have a good showing in this mid-year for sure. Perhaps. Perhaps. Yeah, right. And Jay doesn't like burritos. I'm going to run this burrito today. All right. Nice. Okay.
Okay, 18.
If I try and digest this next band's catalog, I get a little stressed.
They've been very prolific but offer so much intriguing variety to said catalog,
and I never know when the release will drop nor what type.
Sometimes it's a killer collaboration with an artist I know when I don't or even the body.
Sometimes it's a compilation and sometimes it's a full length's worth of Nirvana covers,
which is my own personal Nirvana.
In this case, we have the band in their purest meat and potatoes form, or perhaps I mean to say shrimp and grits, with their patentedly unique brand of southern sludgy doomliciousness. There's something magical about unpredictable knee-jerk transition mixed with dropped B guitar tone that sounds like it's being amplified through a cathode ray tube. And the cherry on top is that of the vocals, a blood-curdling scream that fluctuates but doesn't miss a beat or lose an ounce of power over,
48 minutes and 47 seconds. Obviously, I'm talking about thou. The album is umbilical. They are do me sludgy metal out of New Orleans. This is their sixth full-length album, and it is on Sacred Bones Records. One thing I wanted to do, you can take a paragraph and you can put it in like a Shakespeare or like Old English translator and do that for like the thou reference, but it, I mean, I would have, it would have taken me 20 minutes to say it, but that said, that's my number 18 pick.
I knew it was thou when you mentioned the body
I was like oh
I knew it was thou
when he mentioned the Nirvana covers
that I knew what he was talking about too
I mean I love that band
and it's crazy it's their sixth full length but they've done
so many other albums because they do those collaboration
records
they're super prolific
the one we talked about recently
which I completely missed
was the one with Emma Ruth Rundle which is
It's an amazing album, but sometimes it's just nice to just get pure thou doing what they do. I won't say best, but just doing what they do well. Yeah, no, it's a really good album. Speaking of women that do collaborations with strange heavy bands, has anybody listened to the Julie Christmas album? Yes. It showed up on so many lists that I thought I should, but I haven't. I listened to some of it. It was all right. It wasn't as
be heavy as I would have liked but it was interesting. Sure. It got mentioned a lot so. I mean she's not heavy. No I mean just stuff. No. Yeah. So yeah. It's on my radar. I saw it but yeah I've always liked her collaborations better. So I got to spend it. I mean I dug like made out of babies which was precursor to her actually. I think bad wife was her first solo.
And obviously the stuff with Cult of Luna is spiritual. But I dug it after the first spin, but I'll probably come back to it a bit. Cool. All right. My number 18. I think so. It's already been mentioned. I have only one stand up straight ahead death metal album on my list this year. And this almost didn't make it. It's just death metal ain't doing it for me anymore. At least this year. Because everybody sounds the same to me now at this point.
because there's so many death metal bands, unfortunately. But I've spun this a few times. It took me a little while to get into it. But I finally got into it. And that's Necrot, Lifeless Birth off of Tank Crimes. Not much more to say. It's just crushing, nasty, old school death metal. You have to listen to it for the nuances because a lot of it does kind of sound similar, but there are some nuances that kind of give you the direction you're going with each song. It's cool. I like it.
I've liked all their stuff. They've just never really wowed me. I always thought they were a good solid band. So. I like the nuances, but I like the old answers better. I don't know the old ones. Wah, wah, wah. Bad joke. Wait. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah,
But you have to want it. I feel like a lot of us anyways have moved on to just more complex things. If you're going to have one death metal album that wasn't the one I wanted. But no shade or anything. It's cool. I was just hoping for mine. What's your favorite Necrot record then, George?
I mean, I've got their previous albums and their I-I-T, but this one didn't really do anything for me. So, yeah, a little too samey. Everybody talks about the guitar player in these, like, worshipping tones. He must be, like, so good. And it's not that you can't hear how good he is on the records, but I've heard Matt Pike and his, actually his ex-wife and some other, and I also saw this interview with Matt Pike and he was with somebody else from another band and they both just sat and talked about how fucking
great the guy is.
Which tells you nothing.
I expect it to be high on Will's list though.
Because I'm pretty sure he talked about.
Yeah, probably.
It's possibly.
It'll be top five with Will for sure.
Only Matt knows for sure.
No comment.
All right.
Yeah, Will 18.
Okay.
Brumetal Will recently had the idea to sell his pee as a canned beverage.
It's not called Red Bull. And his number 18 pick is Necrophobic in the Twilight Grey. The band is from Stockholm, Sweden. It was released via Century Media Records. I'm kind of surprised that Will likes that one. It's good. I dig them. George, I'm curious what you... Well, it's like it's death metal with a black metal edge, kind of, you know? Yeah. It's sort of in the gray area between the two, so, you know. He goes there, though.
Yeah, he does. I mean, I'm not like flabbergasted, but I'm mildly surprised. So. All right, my next one is, it's handy to have Bandcamp and just sort of read the description the band likes to give itself. I assume this was the band that wrote it. They're an atmospheric metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The works encompass different styles of atmospheric music inspired by classical and folk. Wanted to read that because it's exactly who this band is. I mean,
I don't have Bellum One, but they made a record this year called Bellum Two. This is a band called Aquilis. Somebody else can try to pronounce it for me. Aquilis? Thank you. It's Aquilis. Yeah, Aquilis. Aquilis. Wow, though, I didn't know about these guys, and this one fell into my view somewhere. And this is a super fun, super cool record that goes a lot of different directions. The cover is perfect for the record, and so was the last one, because I went back and listened to the last one. But yeah, really cool atmosphere.
I've enjoyed some of the earlier stuff, but I didn't really listen to this one.
This one's the best thing they've done. No, I'm really happy to hear you have it on your list. Jay, that's a good one. I did not expect that. I know they've been around a while, but I just, I didn't get the message, you know.
Well, their records are, well, the last one I think was 2021, but before that, it was like, I don't know, almost 10 years before they put out that first record.
They've only, well, it's one guy. And he's only done, I mean, they have a touring band that, and he gets people to play on it, but it's one guy who composes everything and does most of the instrumentation. But they've, he's only got three records. And that first one was a long time ago. Then 2021, I think was Bellum 1 and then, then Bellum 2 came out this year. So, but yeah, it's phenomenal record. So I'm really happy to hear it's on your list.
I ate my number 18. Cue the Orson Welles Man of War show intro. From Richmond, motherfucking Virginia. Enter Arma. New Heaven. Oh, yeah. Nice. Wait. I don't even know about this. There's a new album, buddy. New album. Enter Arma.
off of Jay's mid-year at the year end.
Yeah, you got a couple hours to listen to it.
When we stopped following new music Fridays at all?
When the hell did it come out?
I remember they were working on it.
It was like April, I think.
April or May, yeah.
It was, let me see.
I thought it was like mid-April.
Well, that is embarrassing.
Well, Jay, you might have been somewhat underwhelmed by the album cover
and just moved on by it when you were going through being camp. I'm not even. Is that a death heaven album? What is that? End of April, April 26th. It's our album cover. Yeah, that's kind of a fucked up cover. I get it. But still, okay. All right. Well, I got some homework. Fuck. You got a new album to add to your list now for next day. Yeah, somewhere between now and like 15, you need to listen to this. I don't need you to sell me on it, but sell me on it a little bit. I mean, just comparatively to the last ones. I mean, I've always kind of had an issue with the production.
The production.
But having seen them live
several times,
I can listen to an album now
and get what they're trying to save
if that makes any sense.
It does.
And yeah, you know,
I mean, it's definitely a number 18 material.
I'm not really a big fan of this one.
I haven't really liked the last couple.
The one, like two albums ago,
I really liked.
Yeah, it's called Paradise.
Yeah, that was a good one. That was great. And then the next two, I just, I don't know, it just doesn't feel cohesive. It just feels all over the place to me. And I feel like if we saw this, if they played it live, I think we would be like, oh, wow, I get it. You know? Because they're mind-blowing live, right? They are. They absolutely are. And they are definitely playing off of that here. Because... Is it Paradise Gallows? Is that the name of that record? I can't remember. That was right. Yep.
Yeah, you'll have to listen to it, but I didn't care for it that much. I've listened to it a couple times. Because I want them to get back to kind of that Paradise Gallows type sound that I really liked. But around other things. I really, I like the first track they released off of it. It felt a little bit different, but I really dug it. But once I went to listen to the whole album, which I've only done a couple times in all fairness, but I haven't quite had it.
that this the hearts in my eyes like literally this is music to cut off pieces of will by
since the release matter just none of them have ever done it for you oh no the prior stuff has you know
paradise gallows and the one before that were probably really pinnacle and then i had the one after that i
think had the word sulfur in it which i really like but it wasn't english so for english yeah yeah there you go um
so for english i like but i you know it's kind of like it was a fall off a little bit for me too
Yeah.
But that was the album we saw. I'm on it. That's the one we were all like fucking fuck.
But I mean, in terms of live show, I saw him here at what is, it's called 7th Street Entry, which is basically the basement of First Avenue. Tiny little club. Summer. It's like 150 degrees outside, you know, cold inside. They're the last band on. I mean, it was just like, you could just feel the terror coming out of their set, you know.
They also had a guy with the thing that bends sound. I can't think of what it's called. It's a oboe or something. No, no, no. It's the Jimmy Page thing. The old 50s movies. Oh, you're talking about the Star Trek thing? Yeah, but there's always a guy's name. It looks like a keyboard, but it's not. But he literally was bending sound. I think it was a one-off as part of the tour. Something gnome.
Not a metronome, but uh, oh, I'll look it up. I'll look it up. I've taken us off course. That's killing me that I can't say that. Theremin. Theremin, yeah. I mean, maybe that's not what you're talking about, but that was what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking of. I was thinking of an oboe. I just think that's a, geez, geez, have another glass of water. And, um, the further you move your hand closer and away from it makes, um, Jimmy Page famously uses one in, uh, yep.
That was it. Yeah, but Star Trek, come on. I've got to. All right. Where the fuck are we? I have no idea. Oh, George, that was George. Yeah, it was me. Okay, back to Mark's on for number 17. 17, let me see here. Let's see. All right, number 17 for me is
is Ciphorus Maze Envy on 20 Buck Spin Records. A little silly to say, but I almost didn't listen to this album because of the album title, Maze Envy. I was like, the fuck does that even mean? Who's jealous of a maze? And then you look at the album cover and you're like, this is like the simplest maze I've ever seen. Why would anybody be jealous of this fucking thing? But I'm glad I got past that because this is a really,
It's a really adventurous Death Doom album with a lot of great twists in tone and shape. And it has all the bludgeoning, broken sewer main riffs you want on here. But there are also just really thoughtful strings, soaring guitar sections, gloomy melodic moments that just really give the band more substance and diversity than what I've heard before.
So I think this is one of the standout death records. It's death doom, but I would say it leans pretty heavily into the death area. So great. Yeah, it's good. Cool. Thanks, John. Right. My number 17, based on name alone, I've wanted to span on my list over the years, but we've never quite seen eye to eye until now.
If one were to look beyond such childish means of classification, those which are not above clearly, they would see a blackened cauldron filled with a dense, almost uncategoric form, both swirling and oozing a pattern, that which resembles the dirtiest of dirty death, but also within the ooze are morphic sprinkles of doom. I would almost compare this band to Temple of Void, but with a genre flip, a term wisely used in the industry. If Temple of Void weren't a death-doom band, but a doom-death band,
They could be the long lost sibling of this cauldron encapsulating band audibly oozing what may or may not be Soylent Green from their mouths. And much like Soylent Green is people, this band is witch vomit. And the album is called Funeral Sanctum. They are a death metal band from the US. This is their third album. And it is via 20 bucks spin. You'd like them 20 bucks spin, don't you? I do. I'm a fan boy. Yeah, me too. And I just mentioned them.
a band on that label so wow they're getting a lot of love here whole lot of love i i i
all right we'll get your sermon out george
all right john all right all right my number 17 i'm thinking might be a uh wilson it is oubli at eternity
The Whispers off of Artisan Era. They are a traditionally atmospheric, melodic, black metal band, but they kind of added some melodic death metal to their song on this album. I think it's a good solid release. I believe the guitarist, who is married to the singer, I believe he is part owner of the Artisan Era itself. So kind of cool to see that. Interesting. It's a cool album. I think it's probably my favorite of their
They're not that prolific. They only have three albums out so far over the last X number of years. But it's a solid album. I like it a lot. I do not hate this. But you hate the other. No, no, no. That's an all-encompassing this as in I don't hate them. But I didn't, you know, I mean, I remember going, hey, John, did you know the Noobliad album's out? That's about as far as I went with it.
I listened to a little bit and I was like, ah, it's not where I am. Not to say that it's not good, it's just not where I am. Yeah, it's a little bit of a turn for them. Not much, but a little. I mean, most of what I'm listening to these days is like Elvis, Towns Van Zandt, you know, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash. That's where my head is. Good place to keep your head. Yeah. By the way, just real quick, did you see George Strait just played?
The largest show ever in the history of this show. What the hell was that? I mean, not that he's not awesome or anything, because I like George Strait. All his shows, he's playing in front of those type of crowds every night on this tour. He went from... He's the god of Texas, though. I mean, they... He's their guy, man. He went from driving to the liquor store on his tractor to... That's George Jones. No, it wasn't. That was George Strait. No, George Jones. Really? Yeah, I know that story all too well. And also, I was going to tell you, if you're listening to a lot of
and catch this stuff, go get a Jordan's record because nobody seems better than fighting Jordan's. Yeah, he died a few years ago. But that, you know, there's this great show called Tales from the Tour Bus. If you've never watched it, I'm sure I've read it before. It's cool. And it's Mike Judge animation and they, and they explore all these outlaws. And one of the episodes is about George Jones. And he, first of all, not out of his fucking mind, but he's, he famously, Tammy Wynette took away his keys and he had to drive down on this tractor. Yeah, George Strait is. Well, George Strait got in
It was some sort of drunken thing. Maybe it wasn't the tractor thing, but it was definitely alcohol related. But I don't care, man. George Strait's awesome. I don't know much about him other than the fact that Bobby Jarzombek from Watchtower and Fate's Warding is his drummer. Nice. And he just keeps seeing him standing there with all these cowboys and he's just like, this is the man. Period. It's wild.
I hate to go down a rabbit hole here. It's probably not a very deep rabbit hole, but did anybody watch the Willie Nelson 90th birthday thing? It was back in December, but I only watched it recently. It had George Strait, and it had all kinds of people on there. I saw bits and pieces of it. I saw that Chris wants his name stuff. Stapleton? Yeah. He rolled me up and smoked me when I die, and a few other things I did. He does some covers of Willie's stuff that's really good. Yeah, Willie's awesome.
in my wheelhouse these days.
He's getting up there, too, dude.
So, yeah.
He didn't sound all that great on his birthday thing.
I mean, he's, I mean, he's 90, you know?
So, yeah.
You know, the fact that he's too long to live.
Yeah.
The fact that he can get into a, in front of a microphone at all is great.
He's good.
Yeah.
Do you know, surprisingly sounds better now than he has in years and he's closing on
80 and still running around like a freaking 30 year old on stage?
No. Have you heard any of the stuff from the Stones tour? No. Oh, yeah. There's something wrong with him, man. He's from another planet. You talking about Mick? Yeah. It's crazy. It's ridiculous. I don't get it. I think he is 80 now, John, I think. He's got to be. And I have to say, sorry, I'll dig us out of the rabbit hole, but it's a Keith Richards thing and nobody says no to Keith Richards. I'm seeing all these memes of Keith Richards and it's all these memes
The pictures are from like the 1700s, 1800s. And here it is. Somebody says, here's the first picture ever taken in 1850. And Keith Richards is the photographer. I mean, all these waiting for electricity. It's just unreal how funny it is. And I'm like, you know, I bet he would still look the same if he was born 300 years ago. He literally is that guy's going to live to be 150 years old. When he dies, people are going to be all the mean people are going to be like, oh, but you know, you know, who else is like,
And it sounds awesome. Paul McCartney still. Yeah. It's crazy. They've figured out a way to reinvent their voices. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And then there's Ringo Starr who's like 80, maybe even 81, 82. And he's like doing jumping jacks on stage. I'm like, good God, Ringo, what are you taking? He looks amazing for his age. You know what? While we're on this, I'm going to give you an honest age of somebody. You're going to be like,
That cannot be true. It's not a rock musician. How old do you think William Shatner is? He's got a 91. 93. Wow. 93, dude. And he looks better than Markisan. No offense. Markisan, you need to take offense at that. Did you guys see that he actually went up to his face? The smoothness of his skin. Yeah. No, yeah. I look pretty smooth. Like I'm 50. Like I do not look 50. You know what?
He's just the one I was looking at when I said it.
Because it's beauty.
Yeah.
But I get what you're saying.
He does look good for his age.
How can he be 93?
That's insane.
Yeah.
And I did watch him go up in the blue whatever thing.
Yeah.
And how, like, blown away he was by that.
That was just like, oh, tears and stuff.
Because, you know, Captain Kirk and hell yeah.
That's wild.
Does anyone know where we are here?
I just did 17.
Oh, I want to mention too, because it was Oubliette, right? Yeah, Oubliette. It's a really good record. But you know what's funny is like, I never really listened to that band that much, but I looked up Oubliette. It's like, what the fuck does that mean? It's from, like, Labyrinth. It's a crazy torture device. It's like a hole in the ground they used to put prisoners in, and it would be, they'd put it like a bottle, so it'd be like this, so they couldn't climb out, and they would throw down, like, feces or rats,
and shit. And it just was the most awful torture voice ever. And I was like, why are we watching this? I feel scared. I don't know if I can listen to this album anymore because it's so horrid. Haven't you seen Labyrinth? I've seen Labyrinth, but you know, it has an oubliette in it. Yeah. It was the eighties. It was an eighties. I forgot about that, George. I forgot there was an oubliette in that. Oh, just a, just awful. Yeah. One of the worst torture.
devices of all time. Yeah, not the Iron Maiden or the Blood Eagle or anything. Well, sometimes they put spikes down there and throw you down there and like you would break bones and they would have other bodies decomposing down there. There's nothing worse. It's in the darkness. Oh, yeah. Suffering. It's probably made you listen to Steel Panther and shit. No, that to me is absolute. It's like you're stuck in a building and you can't get out because you're waiting for someone and that's just playing on the
speakers in the room you're in and you're just like
fine i confess i did it what did you do i don't know just anything i killed kennedy i know i
wasn't born for another decade but i killed kennedy just kill me at this point you know
i ate the dude's lunch get me out of here yeah yeah all right so i think we're at will now we are
If paper beats rock, rocks beat scissors, and scissors beat paper, what beats all three at the same time? Brew metal will. And then he makes his number 17 pick, slime lord. I can't pronounce that word or that word, but they're from Leeds, England. Thank you, doctor. Slime lord. I really want the record to be called I can't pronounce that word or that word. Oh my God. I want it to be called rock, paper, scissors now.
Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, slime. This font is too small. All right, my number 16. 17. 17. 17. Yeah. Stay on target. It's Saturday. Oh, okay, shoot. Oh, thank you. Actually, I really was. That's never happened before. This band took it. Yeah. I'm always 10 minutes early, John.
They are late. This band took a left turn down a left-hand path that they were already on. Some few years ago with a record called Rituals, they've kind of kept this song going. And I don't know, I find it enjoyable as this record didn't blow me out of the water, but I really like what these guys are doing these days, so it's a good one to put on here and there. Riding Christ throws wrist to noise. Yeah. I remember Will was really blown away by the last one, and I don't remember if I heard him say much about this one.
And it's similar, so we'll see. I liked it. I mean, the previous one and this one. It's not my number 17. Fair enough. My number 17 has been mentioned. It's My Dying Band, Immortal Band. I mean, Binding. Damn. We're dying. Yes. That's cool that you put it on your list. Awesome. Yeah, no, I mean, this is classic MDB, and it's up my alley.
I dig it. I like it. Yeah. There's room up your alley. There's always room in my alley. Is that supposed to be a joke, Marcus? Come on down. Is that a question? Half question, half joke. Yeah. Yeah. Geez. Really? Are we going there? Everybody goes there, right? Sorry, George. Exactly. See, George. Are we really going? Yeah. Well, everyone's been there.
All right, now number 16, Marcus. We're flying today. This is impressive. You know, I think actual Will is the problem. He complains about it being too long, yet he is the one that holds us up. Yeah. I'm kidding. Just kidding. I don't believe it's him, but algorithmically speaking, they're always shorter when he's not on. This is true.
through most of them.
So now Matt's going to start complaining the rest of the episode.
Yeah.
Well,
he probably has specific directions to do that around number 12.
Are we done yet?
Are we done yet?
I'm tired.
Shake a leg.
Come on.
Shake a leg.
Shake a leg.
Shake a leg.
ACDC.
Come on now.
Quit twiddling your picks and make a,
make a choice.
He doesn't do six hours.
He comes at four hours max.
All right, let me wipe that off and move on to the next clip. Wiping it off. All right. Number 16. Give me a squeegee. Number 16 for me is Unleash the Archers Fantema on Napalm Records. Unleash the Archers has been one of my favorite progressive power metal bands for the last few years, specifically because of Apex and
I really wasn't that big a fan before those two albums, but those are amazing records. So I was pretty excited for this one and when it was announced. And there are songs on here like Green and Glass and Blood Empress that I just fucking love. But I did have a harder time getting into this record as a whole, which is why it lands here and not higher like the previous ones. I don't think it equals either of those last
two records,
but it's still really strong release with infectious,
emotional hooks,
excellent musicianship and,
and prog nuances that I,
that I want from Unleash the Archers.
And Brittany Slays is just,
she's just one of the best vocalists out there.
And having finally seen them live to just,
that elevated the band in my estimation as well.
because they were incredible live performers. So this is a really good record. I'm interested to see what they're going to do next. Yeah, they're great live. I've seen them twice at Frog Power and they killed it both times. Yeah. Britney does slay, but I kind of prefer the first two albums over anything they've done since. I don't dislike it. I just prefer the first two albums. I mean, Apex and Abyss are by far their best records. The first two are
They're good, but they're super cheesy. Yeah. That's what I like. Yeah. Makes sense. If you like that, of course. Yeah. Apex and Abyss, I think that they just really found their groove musically and thematically in a way that those original records just didn't have. So I think they continue it on this, but it's a little bit troubled because they did the whole AI thing.
and people got all bent out of shape because they used a little bit of AI to do some of the lyrics because that was part of the. It was part of the whole theme. It was part of the theme and it was like one line or something like that. I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut you off Markisan. I'm just so. Go ahead, John. Tired of people railing on dumb shit. Here, here. So it was the whole point of the album and the music and the style and they were upfront about it. They were completely upfront.
That's the end of my rant. That's it. No, I totally agree with you. And I don't think the album has suffered because of that, but I just don't think it's as good as the previous one. But I still, I love this band. They had some people rallying against them hard. They really did. And they'll be the first ones to go when our AI overlords take over. And I am here to support those AI overlords. Please and thank you. Yeah. I mean, that's the culture, though. People just get bent out of shape over every single thing. They just take it too far.
That's what I hate about people. They're upset about this, but they're not upset that Skynet is real. Go figure. Thank you, Joan. I could not agree more. Fudge. Fudge. I don't know. I'm in old, like, sayings all of a sudden. When I heard shake a leg, it kind of spurred up some, like, old things to me. So I would say fudge. All right. Matt. Oh, me. 16. Wikipedia defines death metal as an extreme subgenre.
of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking. Deep-dwelling vocals, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring double kick and blast beat techniques, minor keys, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, oh, and a demon pushing what looks like a miniature human from its vaginal opening as they circulate through the air and are eaten by said demon. Oh, I know who this is. Lifeless Birth is a festival of all that is death metal, tried and true with a V to the core, nothing more.
Quote the Raven, Nevermore. Yes, I'm talking about Necro-T, Lifeless Birth, Death Metal, obviously, from the U.S. third album, Viettank Crimes. Nice. Shake a leg. That one's maybe leading in the... It's not going to last, trust me. They won't last, no. It's not. But I'm just saying it's leading for now, John. Because that's three? And try it while you can. Yeah, when Will puts it at number one, we'll, you know. It's number 25.
five for me so yeah yeah book ends yeah exactly evens out there all right hey matt can i get that squeegee i'm gonna need it for my number 16 because this um i just feel this disgustingly dirty after i listened to it in a good way though of course you know where this is going yeah it's heavy dirty swampy cavernous and it features members of cryptic shift
That is Slime Lord,
chytridiomycosis,
relinquished off a 20-buck spin.
Again, with that damn 20-buck spin band.
Damn them.
Or a label.
They're all over the place.
Yeah, I love this album.
But it is,
it's a disgusting album.
Yeah.
Can we get some wet naps here?
Wet naps.
We're going to need some serious blankets.
It is.
It's,
if there was ever a band title name,
Slime Lord,
to describe the type of music.
It's this.
And it's not just all just swampy sounding.
I mean, there's some cool stuff going on in here,
but it just makes you feel like,
oh, I got to take a shower after the first song.
I believe that's what they call Will down at the glory hole.
Well, with a name like Slime Lord,
you have to bring the just fucking sewer with you.
And then the whole idea, the chytridium mycosis,
which I never knew what that was,
But apparently it's an infectious disease that affects amphibians. That's weird. Amphibians kind of live in those surroundings. So it's just. John loves saying that word. No, I can say the word. That's the difference. You're doing a great job with it. I practice. Trust me. Before I said it the first time I was like, I got to get this down. Anyway. Good record. Will. Get it.
In junior high,
brew metal,
will didn't read Lord of the flies.
He read Lord of the slime and declared it his favorite fairy tale.
And then for number 16,
he shows horn doll head hammer,
man,
a Stockholm Swedish band.
And this is released via prosthetic records.
All right,
then.
Oh yeah.
I forgot about that horn doll record.
Yeah.
I thought Matt might have that,
but I wasn't thinking will would.
On my list.
Yeah, I think for sure we hear more about that. Well then. Jay. Let me read this. Sun Eater is a French brutal death metal one man studio project, a face melting music entity with the tech vibes in the vein of aborted Cronus and the faceless. So if you're searching for my next pick, make sure you don't spell it that way because you're going to put that fucking record.
This band is called S-V-N-E-A-T-L-E-R. Way more cult. No false. This is a sort of progressive, thrashy, deathy black metal from Vancouver, British Columbia. And well produced. Would be right up George's alley. Kind of reminds me of another one of my releases that I picked this year.
I'll talk about that when I get to it. So again, it's like somebody just reached, you know, that place you want to reach. I had a total Twin Peaks flashback. Isn't there like the, I feel like there's like a little guy in there who, when he talks, it sounds like he's reverse. Oh man. That was beautiful.
You pronounce it that way because I said for this year's podcast like look
I'm not going to give Jay a hard time for div me
I set myself up in advance but
It could happen to the best of us
Yeah
But you went there
That's okay I don't need to live that one down it's fine
Yeah it does seem like there's an unusual amount of bands using Vs for use right now
I feel like Matt's going to have to deal with that later
Possibly
Yeah, it's like they got tired of the AD, they got tired of the X at the end of a name, so now they're going to the Vs and the Us. So anyway. Go ahead, George. My number 16, yes. It is comforting, though, and I apologize, George, that the other Sun Eater is not a country band from, you know. You knew it was going to be a metal band. Anyway, please, George. Yes. So my number 16 is Jay's number 17. That is Rotting Christ.
Which is pro-something. Pro-is it Latin? I don't know. Fristu. Hold on. Let me look at it again. It's pro. Pro-zristu. Zristu. Maybe. Klaatu! Varata Zristu! I don't know, but you know, these guys continue to rock and continue to make my list.
I reached out to him to be on the show one time.
And they were like, fuck you?
No, the email I got back was in such poor English that I could tell they didn't want to do it because they didn't speak real good English.
Yeah, we've heard that before.
What was that band that everybody liked?
Oh, the sun.
Yeah, that was a reply.
They said we don't speak English well enough to be honest.
Oh, okay.
But yeah, no, they sing the lyrics well enough in English.
I know, right?
That's probably all like phonetics or whatever. It's called practice. Yeah. AI. Skynet. It's AI. I don't know that our English is all that great either. So, you know. Our English is awful. Yeah. It's brutal. All right. Before we move on to number 15, let's see what those few of us who are imbibing are consuming. Mark us on. Oh, yeah. We're not all doing that. Okay. So I have a beer.
called Exposure from Nightmare Brewing, which I'm very excited about because now they're on Tavor and I love Nightmare. And it's an Imperial IPA with 100% cryocitra and cryomosaic hops. And I know if you know Nightmare, people who are listening, they do the most metal artwork on their cans. So I've always liked their beer.
and I just haven't had one in a while and then they just started popping up on Tavor. So I've gotten a few. Now I've got to give Tavor a rest because the downstairs basement fridge is full. But I am quite enjoying this one. It is a little bit of a change from that Rye Imperial stuff, but a good one. Nice. All right. Matt, do you have a Boddington or anything? Oh. Yeah, no, I just poured a 2022 Firestone Walker.
It is a central coast quad ale aged in Whistlepig rye whiskey barrels. I love my Belgian beer. And honestly, in terms of rye whiskey, I really love Whistlepig. Whistlepig's awesome. Also, that's got to be a high ABV. Bye-bye, Matt. That's a good beer. It's in the 12s, I think. Yes. Nice. I recognize the box. I'm actually drinking something strong.
I'm drinking water so you know it's stronger than Budweiser, Coors, and Miller. You're right. The elixir, the elixir of life. Can't tell the difference. How are you feeling, John? I feel great. I could drink like 10 of these. H2 motherfucking O. Yeah. All right. I may be overstepping here, but I
I think we're going to jump to me. What now? Oh no, you're not overstepping. Okay. So I am currently finishing off a Vossen West Coast IPA. That's what it's called, West Coast IPA. That's good, I've had it. And about to get into some bling, yo, kindred spirit brewing paid in full double IPA. It's got the bling.
I've had this,
two of these previously.
It is very good.
Surprisingly.
Their beers are good.
Yeah,
it's very good.
So looking forward to that.
Do you know where they're from?
From kindred spirit.
No,
I don't.
Let me see.
Oh,
Richmond,
motherfucking Virginia.
Richmond's a great beer area.
Yeah,
it is.
And good for metal bands too.
All right.
Markasson motherfucking Markasson number 15.
M in the house.
All right.
Number 15.
All right.
It's getting real.
Sort of funeral leech.
The illusion of time.
I think we'll probably have this on his list because we have talked about it when we roomed together at decibel.
We were playing it and enjoying it.
and it's from Carbonized Records. This is heavy incantation school death doom, just done exceedingly well. Death doom is one of my favorite styles, as you guys know, but finding the right death to doom ratio that I like is actually pretty difficult. So I think Funeral Leech really nails it on the illusion of time.
This sinister, crushing darkness, as per my mathematical requirements. Of course. And they just seem to instinctually know when to pummel my organs and when to drop me into that lightless trench. So, you know, there's nothing real fancy about this. This is, like I said, incantation-style Death Dune, but it's fucking awesome. I just, I play it, and then I
I play it again. So that's why it's so high on my list because it just hits that perfect spot for me. Play it again, Marcus Sam. I will motherfucking Markisan to you. As Marcus Sam as in play it again, Sam. Yeah, that doesn't work, George. It does work. Play it again, Sam. Anyway. All right, Matt. 15, is that where we're at? Yes, sir.
Strangely enough, I think having such strong roots in post-hardcore contributed to my love of post-metal. I know it might sound weird, but when I listen to this next pick, I swear I hear a smidge of Fugazi at times. Although I also hear some Hendrix in there too. That said, this band represents a continuation of one of the pioneering groups of the genre, and why it's so easy for me to pick up and go with each release, regardless of how much time has passed, much like an old friend I haven't seen for a few years. There's nothing necessarily new or groundbreaking with this release, but rather a continuation
of their timeless sound. A pounding rhythm section that's a bit higher pitched than a lot of what I listen to. The transitions are fast and without noticed. The guitars are all over the map, briefly experimental at times and with no place to really call home. When you step back and look at this band as a whole, it kind of makes sense. I'm talking about The Healer from Sumac. This came out yesterday. I've been waiting patiently for it to come out. I know they have one
I think prior to that and I've always loved this band to varying degrees and I spun this twice yesterday and I was just madly in love and so here it is at number 15 on my list nice I have not listened to that yet though I have wanted to yeah I listen I like sumac but it's perfect for max it has that fucking dissonant weirdness that just Matt gravitates toward it's fucking Matt music it's also the name of my cologne
Dissonant Weirdness. From Bichy Matt Productions. All right, John. All right. My number 15, nobody has mentioned yet, and I'm wondering if anyone will. That's Arth, Untouched by Fire, from Prophecy Productions. Bitch, please. Doom Metal with medieval classical music. I said so far.
Yes.
Yeah, this is a great album. I actually like this one more than the first one.
Hmm.
It's just, it's nothing unique as the sum of the separate parts, but together it definitely is a unique style to have.
Doom metal with these kind of, like I said, medieval classical music and choral vocals over top.
I actually was thinking it would be great if Mark
could work with Gregorian at some
point as his vocals.
That would be somewhat
epic I think in sound because
he already creates an epic sound.
You know what I want is I want Mark
and Tanner
from
Magic or whatever but
Doc's his other band.
Obsequia.
Obsequia.
Yeah.
What's that Jay?
I was trying to remember his other band too. God, the Gregorian thing's got to have been done before. Yeah, it is. The band's called Gregorian. They've got like a ton of albums out. The one I like the most is called The Dark Side, which they did a bunch of metal and metal adjacent songs on it. It's wild. Is it just a Gregorian chant? Is it just acapella? No, no. I think they actually have a band too.
I think I reviewed them like many moons ago. There's a ton of albums but their version of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails I was just like wow. I like the Johnny Cash version. Oh yeah who doesn't that's awesome. But you'd be surprised I mean they they do all kinds of contemporary songs I mean their version of Heroes is amazing from Bowie. Bowie oh nice. Yeah I think there's like I'm not even joking if I say it's like 15-20 albums from them but they actually are called Grigori.
So I have two albums of theirs. So. Excellent. It's a good record. I feel like it's too much chant. It's too churchy for me. Like I can't, I don't ever want to be in church. So it's a little bit too much for me. I like the last record more than this one. It's the same exact thing. I think so. I mean. Too churchy. That's your opinion. But that's what he's going for. Yeah. I know he's going for it.
I don't need to be in church ever. Well, unless you're a hosier and then you got to take me to church. Pardon me. Brewmed at a wheel drinks napalm to fight his heartburn and then he makes his number 15 pick high on fire. Come with the storm. They're from Oakland, California and they're on Monarch heavy records. Shake a leg. Okay.
Hi, Jay.
Yeah.
You said you wondered if people would talk about it, and I really liked it.
Or you thought more people would be talking about it.
Horndall, Head Hammer Man.
There it is again.
This is, I think, kind of in a sweet spot for me.
I love this kind of stuff.
And this is half tribulation, half, you know, more old school black metal stuff.
Tells stories, but also progressive and stuff.
And I think these guys are really good songwriters, too.
It's just cool stuff. And all the songs are always about true things, apparently. They tell stories about... This one in particular is actually based on something that happened in Horndall, where they're from. But I guess they always tell true stories. So they're sort of a historic... No lies. Historical... Yeah. Interesting. Here, I'll read you their description. It's rusty, eclectic, metal,
from Sweden telling true horror stories from our dead post-industrial home town. So, yeah, more power to them. Well then. It's a cool record. My number 15 is not on any of your lists and shame on you because it beckons us all. And that is the new Dark Throne album. Yeah, I don't know why you don't have it on your list, but I know you
You're wrong. Damn it. No volleyball for you again. God denied. Well, I'm better, George, and just tell you that I think it's really good and you're going to be surprised how high I have it. I love you. No, you won't be surprised. I am surprised. I'm not surprised. It's really good. I mean, I mean, Dark Throne, you well, you don't always know what you're getting because they like to throw curveballs.
But this is, you know, I like everything they do, but this one was just had a little extra mustard as far as I'm concerned. It does. They're metal historians and they know how to pull shit out of their ass from the past and do it right. Yeah. So I was very pleased with it. All right. Well, then let's go to number 14, Markisan. Number 14 for me is Vorga beyond the palest.
Star on Transcending Obscurity Records, which I think is the first time I mentioned that record label, and I do really like Transcending Obscurity. But this is a galactic, progressive black metal full of melody and texture. I really enjoyed their first record, but I feel like this one improves on it in almost every way. It expands the scope, the deep space ambience.
in their music.
And I think it just really strikes a nice balance between ferocity and atmosphere that I really dig.
This band is great.
Yeah, that's all I got.
Nice.
My number 14.
In a year that I feel it's running rampant with various subgenres of death metal offerings,
my next pick could be considered the pinnacle for me.
Channeling Cattle Decapitation throughout this release is initially what pulled me in. But where cattle just keeps grinding, this band ventures out into more atmospheric territories. But fear not, the path always leads back to the unrelenting, technical, brutal precision to the nth degree. Those well-placed interludes in atmosphere that strongly contrast the brutality seamlessly blend with the chaos, perhaps offering a chance to catch one's breath. The band is a vitriol. The album is Suffering Become. They are a tech death band from the U.S.
This is her second album via Century Media. Nice. I like how Matt does his picks and doesn't even be like, this is volleyball, even though we all know it is. I already know because I made all this shit up. Unless you hacked into my computer and saw my fake list. Indeed. I have zero interest in doing any list after this episode because it's literally
Just all volleyballs.
It's way more work for me when it's like that.
John is a volleyball team.
Yep.
One man volleyball team.
It's way more work.
We might.
We all have a lot on here so far.
We do.
Though we might start to coalesce as we get closer to the top.
We'll see.
Will we?
No.
I think here on we might be more aligned.
Yeah.
Depending on what comes out, of course. In the words of Paul McCartney, come together right now. It does break my heart to tell you that's actually John Lennon, but nice word. As soon as I said McCartney, I was like, it's probably John Lennon. To be fair, Paul's probably said it at some point. He probably wrote the song. Who knows? Do you know the origins of that song? No. Timothy Leary was going to run for president
and he asked John Lennon to write him his campaign song. Oh, wow. Nice. That's awesome. I always thought Steven Tyler sang that song. Yeah. Well, he did eventually. I don't think it was ever used in that capacity because I think the Leary thing just kind of gassed out. Was he high when he said it? Yeah, it was one of those, dude, wouldn't it be cool? Yeah, exactly, George. Wouldn't it be cool? I'll write a song for you. I want him to do a song called Come Together in an Elevator. You know, by the way, this,
This brings up something that I've been meaning to tell you guys. I would check it out if you get a chance. Rick Rubin, I think, personally, is kind of a douchebag, but he did this documentary with Paul McCartney where they go over individual tracks. It was awesome. Paul McCartney is such a great lover of music. His enthusiasm is so clear that I felt akin to him. He notices the kind of stuff I notice. He's like, but wait, listen to this little drum part.
I was so enthralled by that. I would love to see more stuff like that. It kind of overshadows what's coming out of Rick Rubin. So it's like, oh, this is awesome. You know? Yeah, because Rubin looks like a... Rubin is just like, yeah, that's so cool. And you must have been just like, shut the fuck up, dude. I mean, at least there was somebody there to ask the questions. Yes. And handle the mixing board. But wow. I really enjoyed that. That was good. Am I the only person who wants him to just put some goddamn shoes on for once? I ran into him. Maybe Crocs, John.
In the time. Perfect for him. Right. I ran into him one time and this was in the time even when I knew George. So it was a while back. But and it was in Hawaii. You know, probably owns a house there. And it was at a coffee house. And I sit you not as a coffee shop in Kauai. And he was with this woman who was much too young and beautiful for him. And they were meeting. She was, I think, Hawaiian. And they were meeting some other local people. And everybody was talking. And his head was down on the table like he was sleeping.
Wow. Yeah. I mean, which I think is his stick. Wherever he goes, he lays on the fucking couch. Huh? Anyway, true story. Uh, yeah. Paul McCartney, man. What was, do you guys remember what channel that was watched on for those who might want to watch? I thought it was, I thought I watched on Hulu. I don't know. I thought it was Apple, but maybe. Was it Apple? It could have been. Actually, no, Get Back was on Apple. The, I know they might've been both Apple. I don't know. And I would, I would, if you haven't watched Get Back, I would say it's worth the time.
I'm going to throw it on in the background. That was great, too. Yeah. I'm going to really stick a knife in my own leg here and tell you another one I watched recently. And I promise you I have no affinity to this band whatsoever. But I kind of enjoyed the documentary about Bon Jovi on Hulu. Oh, that was good. I watched it, too. I came away liking him as a person. Well, yeah, because he was vulnerable. He's a pretty likable guy, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Unless you read the Subbias
and then it was like oh fuck no. Sebastian Bach is kind of a douche though. Kind of. But Jon Bon Jovi is just. Jon Bon Jovi is mafia. He's a mafia guy. I was surprised at how much I liked him. How interesting his story was. Even back to the like when Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Dukes or whatever the fuck were all playing those places. I didn't know there was a documentary because I'm. I love those early albums. Slippery When Winner.
I know all the lyrics. 7,800, bitch. It's really done. It's really well done. It's on Hulu. Mark is on. It's totally worth your time. It's good. Yeah, I have Hulu. So yeah, I'll check it out. I'm going to put it on my list. I love documentaries too. So just didn't know it came out. Is it a Hulu original type thing? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I wonder how Richie Sambora feels about him. He's in it. Yeah. And they never put them together because it was in a different location. I loved his.
The first solo album, I loved it. They cover that. Yeah, they talk about it. They're relatively nice to each other, even though they never in the same room. I think they're an important band in the history of music. I mean, I don't like a lot of their newer stuff, but that older stuff, man, was... I like that new song. That legendary or whatever it's called.
I dismissed them for a long time and I came away from this feeling like what you just said is true and I do remember what I'll say one there was one performance I saw John Bojovi years ago on Saturday Night Live and he came out and did that song forever which is not a very good song but I remember thinking holy fuck this guy can fucking sing like I didn't know up until that point and yeah anyway worth your time did they cover did they cover Young Guns 2 yes thank you yeah they really do the whole thing it's pretty well done
I hope we go out in a blaze of glory. I love this cast. I hated Bon Jovi at that time, but I liked blaze of glory. That's a good song. That's a really good song. It is. I'll just say he's not as plastic as I thought he was, you know? Yeah. And I, and I like, I like having people change my mind like that. Yeah. That's good. What did I, I just watched something like last night or, uh,
I'm so fucking new. Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't the Little Richard one. I still need to watch that. Oh, that was really good. Yeah. No, it was somebody else that was kind of old school, but not that old school. Well, you know what? You need to queue up, George. Walk down John's Road and watch The Searcher. Yeah. Fuck, that's good. Yeah. Like one of the best I've ever seen. Agree, 100%. All right. Whose pick is it?
Fair question. Is it me? I did 14. I did vitriol. Who hasn't done 14? Me. Okay. So I'll be anti-climatic and start up again. All right. Number 14, John. My number 14, I guess this will be only on my list. That is Borknagar, Fall, off of Century Media. Everybody knows who they are. Everybody knows what they do. Just another good album. They've been pretty consistent their whole career.
I do like their last three albums quite a bit. I think the direction they've gone is a little more palpable than I like. Although I still like their earlier stuff better. But it's another solid release. You guys got to stop predicting it's not going to be anybody's list. You know, that's solid. I can see that being on other people's list, John, for sure. Right. The only reason I say it is because we haven't really talked about them that much. It seems like it came out in February. And it got dwarfed by another album in February.
I think we talked about it in new releases though didn't we
yeah but I mean it's not like
it just we talked about it and then moved on
other albums like we mentioned
over the course of time even without an episode
so that's what I meant by that
that's a good album
yeah
Will
some kids pee their name in the snow
Brumetta Will can pee his name into concrete
and after that he picks number 14
Exorder Defectum
from New Orleans via nuclear blast.
Yeah, pretty much only Will likes that band, so.
All right.
George is glossing over that.
Oh, I'm only doing that because he's not here to fuck me up.
Yeah, sure.
I'll fuck you up later, though.
Is X-Order where Pat from Cannibal Corpse ended up?
Maybe.
I hope not because I like him better than that, but.
I think so.
No, you got it. Because I thought it was a band that played at Decibel this year, but that was X something else. X Mortis? No. They were like thrashy. I can't think of their name. X Hoarder is like Pantera Knot. Oh, maybe. I don't know. I don't know them well enough. Maybe they're thrashy. Anything, if you're from Texas, you're Pantera. That's all I got to say. I'm just kidding.
Just kidding. My number 14, we get into two now in a row here. I don't have to say much because, well, actually the last one wasn't very well, was not described, but this one has been spoken about. Lord Dine, Clandestine, Trinity. Wow, that's nice. Right in the middle of the pack, okay. Right in the middle of the pack, that's a good call out there. Yeah, I enjoyed it when we talked to her when it first came out. I was into it, and I put it back on several times, so it's sticking with me.
The middle of the pack. Oh, enforced. Sorry, that's what I was thinking of. Oh, yeah. That's right, Jay. They're from Richmond, motherfucking Virginia. Yeah. Very true. How many have we had now for, is that three or four? I think that's almost everybody except for, well, three. We've had three of you, George. Okay. You almost called me out, Jay. Please. I didn't say it yet. I thought you did, George. No, I talked about it.
Oh, but it was a comment about his surprise at how low you put it. So yeah. Yeah. All right. So my number 14 is another one that is a giant album that apparently nobody loves unless Jay has it on there and wants to prove me wrong again. Holy shit. You know what? I never say this, but if it's this low, I'm kind of surprised. So let's hear it. Bruce Dickinson, the Mandrake project. Sorry. Okay. You're like, no, I hate that.
Yeah, no. You know what? It didn't make it for me, George. I really liked this one. Clearly. You know what? I promised. I think it was Markisan I tried again and I haven't, so I'll double that promise to you. I forgot about it, to be honest. No, it's good. I like it quite a bit. I like it 14. I'll spin it again. All right. I like it so much, it's my 14th favorite album of the year. That's right. Nice. Well,
All right, number 13, not that you're here. He's out on tour, too, and he didn't get anywhere near me. I would have gone. I would have come out of the weeds for that one. Oh, Jay, there's a... Did I send you... The precinct? Yeah, you're... That's right. But I thought there was something else coming your way that's going to be happening that is worth your time, I thought. That's the only one I can think that you mentioned, so I'm going to have to look it up. By the way, George,
The Set List in Europe, they're already pulling out better songs. Dude, I noticed the Sinner, for instance. That's sad, actually. By the way, there's a really good 4K performance thing, and I watched Sinner. From Ireland? Yeah. Yeah, it's good. It's so good, and you're right. They just go deeper in Europe. Why did you bring up Priest? Sorry. Oh, I was saying to Jay about the show coming towards it. Oh, yeah. He's going to get a chance to see them. Yeah, yeah, they're new to it.
You get a second chance. I had tickets for the last one, but we had kids. Yeah, you're the only, are you the only city that's getting a second go around that area? Well, it's, it's like an hour away. So, which, it's actually, to be honest, it's, the facility to me actually looked a little better. So, I hope it's easier to get to for you than it was for me. George had some problems. I was not happy getting to that show.
But it was a good show. If you know where you're going, it's actually not bad. It's just the traffic. But if you don't know where you're going and the traffic, then it's rough. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the problem. All right. Markisan number 13. Come on, John. You got to say it with me. Number 13. Number 13. Markisan. Wait, why are you saying it together? Because we the previous two things we said at the
same time.
Yeah.
Sorry.
No, that's not.
That's cool.
All right.
My number 13 is job for a cowboy moon healer on metal blade records.
It's amazing how this band is more from this wincy metal core act to this premier progressive death metal Leviathan.
Moon healer continues what they started on sun eater, which was 10 years ago, but this is more.
It has more complex arrangements, I think. It's just a killer atmospheric chord progressions in this, radiant solos, and they just, it all flows so smoothly. And the production, George production, you gotta like it on this one, is amazing. You can hear everything on this album, especially the rhythm section. The drumming is phenomenal. Did I have a problem with the production? I didn't think I did.
I don't think you did but you shouldn't
no I just was like meh
overall yeah
yeah that's weird
on the bass
the bass on this thing slaps my ass
harder than a plenty field will
whoa it's fucking good
ooh that slaps
yeah it's a really
great record I'm
it's I it's so crazy
to think of a band where you just didn't
give a shit about and then just completely changes everything they do and now it's a band that's you know near the top 10 on my list so uh i gotta give them props for that because they've definitely turned things around and become a much much better band nice matt so for my number 13 you guys mentioned you know i'm saying my picks without realizing or maybe acknowledging the fact that they're volleyballs i will i will
We'll preface this back as a bit of a volleyball. The band is Judas Priced, and the album is called Invincible Shield. Invisible Shield. I don't know that we'll see it anywhere again on a list. No, absolutely not. Really good, though. I think these guys are going to blow up. They're going somewhere. I'll be sure to check that out. We're going to continue to hear from this group.
What were they called again? Judas Priest. Ah. Is there a B in there somewhere? There might be. Silent. Prevost. Prevost. From the UK. Just an up and coming band. Signed to Sony Music. I didn't get a new drummer a couple records ago. Oh, by the way, I sent you guys, I did send you guys all postcards. And I take it none of you got them. No. Not yet. Yeah, that's Mexico for you, baby. None of jeans is a bribe.
Mine to yours, John, since you apparently never get to read it closed with, maybe it's time to let the Scott Travis thing go. I'm going to say one thing about Scott Travis, and I'll keep it short. We got something very cool at our show. I don't know if he's speaking at all the shows, but he spoke for a few moments and pointed out how DC was a home show for him. Oh, nice. Because he's from Virginia. Richmond, mother, foreign Virginia. Yeah, he's from down that way. Well, a little
further south than that. But it was cool just to hear him say that. I was like, here we are seeing Judas Priest, up and coming band from the UK. And the drummer that everyone says has only been in the band for two years, albeit almost 36, is talking about how it's a home show, which is kind of weird to hear. So where is he from? That's cool. He is, I believe, from Virginia Beach. Oh, okay. That is definitely south there. Yeah. Yeah. So, but he's a homeboy because he was saying, come on, you got to be louder than
that don't let me down this is my hometown yeah that was cool we're kind of like at that point
like i'm tired yeah so that was cool anyway i'm not letting it go jay never never well then john how about you
don't let go your number 13 all right my number 13 hails from uh matt's neck of the woods
And that is Amon Seuss Reclamation Part 1. They're an Emtherio Audio progressive black metal band. Apparently they have two albums coming out this year and this is the first part. And I kind of dig it. It's a nice mix of atmospheric black, progressive black, post-metal, all that stuff all mixed together. This is a band that George and I saw in a fog machine in Frederick, Maryland.
God, I can't remember the name of the place. Cafe 611. Cafe 611. Yeah, we saw him there, which is kind of wild. There's only like 10 people there at the show, I think, which was kind of a bummer. But it was cool to still see him, even though, well, we didn't see them physically. We could hear them. So even though we were only like 20 feet away. Well, that's why it's right for you to say you think there was only six people there. Yeah. It could have been full. We don't know. And the sound was just atrocious. I remember the pictures, actually.
Yeah. I've always liked them. I was a little bummed that they never got back to me when I tried to get them on, but I've let that go because I stopped. I haven't. Well, if that's the case, then we should hate half the bands that we asked them because every time I ask a band to come on, they never want to come on. Will. All right. Brew Metal Will counted to infinity. Twice. And then he picked Necro Dawn.
S.C.E.R.E. was sculpted by torture as his 13th pick. They are from Sweden. It was independently released. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
And by the way, that was John BT's favorite album that year. That's a great album. It was very good. And they don't let you down. And I think one of the reasons we don't talk about them much is because they're one of those bands that's so consistent, put a record out every couple of years. You can take for granted. It's like an amorphous record or something, you know? Yeah. I mean, not uncoincidentally, but in any case, yeah, Borknagard doesn't really disappoint. So. Which is kind of wild considering, you know, they have lineup.
changes it seems a lot but it's all the same people coming and going it seems yeah you know because
isn't ic vortex is that his name he's been back in the band for a while but now he's singing
full-time with them so i see s vortex i see yes i always get that wrong i see jay you mentioned
amorphous i cannot wait to see them live you've never seen them i've never seen them and they're playing
they're playing with dark tranquility and fires in the distance and i'm really fucking excited to see
I feel like they're on every show ever. Yeah. I don't know how I've never seen them. I'm always flabbergasted by this because I go to a shit ton of shows. But I think what it is is they usually play outside of Chicago like this show. It's like 45 minutes away. It's in the suburb somewhere. But I couldn't pass it up because I do really like Fires in the Distance too and Dark Trencruity was a band that I got into. It was like early days of metal when I was getting
They're both headlining days at Prog Power this year. I remember seeing Dark Tranquility at Jack's. They were like middle of the set. I think In Flames was the headliner and Sentenced was the opener. Oh wow. That's a big bill. Yeah it was and like Killswitch and Dark Tranquility and went outside Jack's. As you do like right outside the door there at Jack's and the Dark Tranquility singer was like on his cell phone.
I'm not even a fan. I've seen them so many times. I've got a few like that too, John. I've seen them a bunch of times and I don't like it in flames. Somehow I've managed to see them. They would come around with Gojira or somebody. But Dark Tranquility is good live. I mean, they're a really good band live. So I never disliked any shows I saw. Anyway, cool. I'm glad you picked it, Jay. It's funny. I should keep saying that just so I know by your
If it's on your list.
That's awesome.
Well, we're probably, I'm getting out of volleyball.
Yeah, we're now getting into common territory soon.
Shit's getting real.
Yeah.
Let's reel it up.
Zimwa?
I see.
All right.
I'm going to pick up the volleyball off the ground and hold it high above my head
as I scream, KILLING KARMA!
By disbelief.
You literally like fuzzed out there. Yeah. Say that without yelling. Just the band name. Disbelief. Okay. I don't believe that you don't have this on your list. I disbelieve it. You can keep your volleyball. It's yours. I know it is. As are the next few. Unless, you know, Will has on his list. He might. He might. He might. He might.
No, I think the last one I had on. Did you? Yeah. I know we've heard they've been on the list. I think it's a good album. I don't know. It's always one of those albums I think is it's good, but it just it doesn't make my list. But it's number 13. Good damn it. For you. Yeah. Yeah. 13th best album for that's good record. Metal album for George. Yeah, man, that's close to the top 10. That's that's saying something. We're getting serious right now. Yeah.
All right. All right. All right. Well, Marcus, why don't you say something number 12? I am going to say something here. Okay. Whoa. That's not what I was expecting. Number 12 for me, definitely a volleyball. I don't know if any of you have heard this one, but it's a Thumos Atlantis on Snow Wolf Records. So Thumos is a band that I discovered this year. They play some of the best.
instrumental progressive post-metal I've heard in a long while. So I don't think I've been this interested in an instrumental band since maybe Pelican or Cloud Kicker. Pelican, Jesus. Were they still around? Yeah, they put an album a few years ago now. Yeah, they're still around. I think they actually released an EP not too long ago. But Thumos is one guy.
He makes this music by himself, and all his records explore the philosophies of Plato, which is pretty unique. So Atlantis, it feels like this journey through a mythological cityscape. It's packed with an earthy, almost heroic atmosphere and breadth to it. And there are only three songs on this record, and it's just shy of 30 minutes.
But it feels like this much bigger epic. I really like it. I don't think that if you put vocals in it that it would improve it. I think that, and that's, I think to me, that's the mark of a really good instrumental metal record is if you, if you listen to it and you're like, this is perfect the way it is, it doesn't need anything extra. Which is hard, because I do really like vocals. But I'm also really fascinated by this,
who makes this music because he's anonymous on all his records.
But his bio says that he's played in some prominent metal bands.
So there's this mystery to him that kind of makes the music even better to me.
But I really like this.
I actually bought the previous record on vinyl.
This one's not available on vinyl, and it's excellent too.
So if you're into instrumental music, I think this is one of the best bands going right now that's putting out heavy metal, instrumental stuff. So like I said, I just found it this year. So probably people haven't heard of it, but Thumos, I've listened to it a fucking ton. Love it. Excellent. Matt. All right, but number 12.
My next pick lives somewhere between Wayfarer and Enslaved, with maybe a bit of Primordial Sprinkles. While the interwebs list this band as a one-man, atmospherical black metal project, this being their second full-length album, there's such a primitive-sounding nature to this album that I can't quite put my finger on. Man holding torch, pounds chest, looks at sky, screams. The thought I keep having with this album, as ludicrous as it might sound, is what if Vertebra-era Enslaved made below the lights, or vice versa?
Driven by relentlessly piercing riffs that comfortably rest above a rolling rhythm section, this album captures the terror of running through the darkness, yielding only a flashlight that adjusts its path with each stride of the desolate landscape of the country in which the album was recorded, which is Iceland. The band is Vastiger, and the album is The Path of Perdition. It is Atmospheric Black Metal from Austria. It's their second album via avant-garde music. Nice.
I mean, you said below the light, so now I automatically have to check out this record. So that was the, and like, you'll listen to it and you'll be like, Matt's like, doesn't know what he's talking about, which is true. But as I listened to it, because I like, I'm not as well versed in that album. I know it. I'm more of a vertebrae person when I came into the fold with enslaved. But to me, I was just like, what if new enslaved recorded old enslaved or vice versa? This could be what that sounds like. And granted, this isn't as good as either version of enslaved.
But it's still, you know, worthy of time. So. Cool. George, is there a way to track how much Matt has talked on this episode? As opposed to other episodes? Because this may, this has to be a record. Well, so far he's done 90% of the talking on this episode. All the work on it. Like, unbelievable. This is like a slow clap kind of moment. It's like stand up and just, yeah. This is where I make my, this is where I make my, this is where I make my, this is where I make my, this is where
Where is this bitchy Matt? Bitchy Matt would not do this. This is a different Matt. Like I said, I felt like I had accomplished something the last time I did this. So now this is like, you know, I feel like I've got to put some time into this. And again, I've showered a lot and I've flipped a lot recovering from. I feel like I'm somewhat responsible because I know Matt would always say, oh, I don't know how I'm going to follow that. And like, then he would start doing a little bit more and a little bit more. And now, now Matt is just like,
The student has become the master. Exactly. I'm so fucking proud. Only a master of evil, Matt. And listen, your descriptions are great. These things that you've written out that you've taken the time to do are excellent. So really well done. Thank you. Bravo. Even though they all sound the same, I just changed verbs. Obviously, but whatever gets us through. Hey, John. All right.
Before I do my pick, Matt, I have to take a little umbrage of what you just said. You said what it would be like for new enslaved playing old enslaved. In their 30-plus-year career, the time difference between Below the Lights and Vertebrates, five years. I'm just going to say it's probably not as big of a difference as you think. They are. Interesting. The albums are completely different, but yeah, actually years are not. And the second thing I have an issue with is how have you not listened to Below the Lights from
I have I'm just not like fluent in that one
how many albums are between those two albums there has to be at least two right
yeah I probably it was like thinking like the enslaved today we definitely have a few years between each release
even though they consistently release albums and so I was just thinking that below the lights was older
granted when I came into vertebrae I need to remember that that wasn't their current album you know so to me it
I mean, I understand that because that sound is older. I feel like after that album, they've definitely turned a corner. They were already doing it on Below the Lights. They were doing it, but the next few albums, John, like. I mean, they were actually doing it on Monumentum. They were already completely changing their sound. They built, but I feel like after Below the Lights, it's really when they went all in on the changes. So I guess.
I still remember the first time I heard just the first minute of and fire swept clean the earth and I was like what the fuck dude like it just was so huge and new and good yeah it's crazy all right I'm gonna test Jace
and say that I bet this album is a Wilson. Let's see if that works. Why don't I back you up on this one, even though I don't know what it is. This is definitely my favorite Doom slash Death Doom album with some post-metal thrown in. But I think this is a gorgeous yet crushing album. And I just realized today it's actually a concept album. But I cannot pronounce.
the name of this album, so I will give you the English translation. The band is Hamforth, and the album is translated to But God's Hand is Strong. They are Metal Blade Records, and they're from the Faroe Islands. If you haven't heard this and you like Doom slash Death Doom, you might want to give this album a spin. It's heavy, it's emotional, it's crushing at moments, and then it's got just bits and pieces of post-metal,
which is kind of unusual to hear with them. The singer John Aldara also you might know is in Baron Earth and Yoten. He's the lead singer in all those bands. So I think this is a great album. I didn't realize it was about a tragedy that took place I guess what I have written here back in 1915 when 14 men died in a whaling accident that was witnessed by the local inhabitants of a town in the Faroe Islands. Source, Angry Metal Guy Review.
Judging by everyone's reaction, I think this might be a Wilson. I like it. I like it. It's an excellent record, dude. It might not be a Wilson. You never know. See, that's why I'm testing this out. Testing the waters in the Faroe Islands. See, I win either way. That's what's the beauty of it. It's a Wilson. Yeah, I got a Wilson. If not, it's like, cool, somebody likes it. I mean, you always win, John. You have that hair.
Faroe Islands. Where's the Faroe Islands? Is that UK? No. I believe that is northwest of Denmark. Somewhere between Iceland and Denmark. Denmark, I think, yeah. Okay. It's an island. Close, yeah. It's all in the vicinity of the, I think, the UK. Jay, I think you're not that far off. Actually, it's about halfway between Norway and Iceland. And, yeah, and the third part of the triangle.
would be England, so. But I believe it's, isn't it part of, or has ties to Denmark in some degree? Yeah, it's got the flag here. I don't know if the Danish flag looks like. It's the Faroe Islands territory. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, you got it, Denmark. Autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Apparently they don't have enough women there. Is that right? Is that one of the things? They gotta get the women on the Faroes? Yeah, because
There's too many dudes. It's a bit of a sausage fest on the Faroe Islands. And they need more women. Does Rush play there all the time? Yes. That is actually little known fact. That's where Rush originated. Really originated. Pre-Neil Peart. Yeah. All right. Cool. All right. Rometta Wilkins speak Braille. Yeah. And what he's saying is that his number 12 pick is Rod and Christ. Bro, some word.
They're on Season of Mist. Some word. I can agree with that. That starts with an X and I don't know what that sounds like. Let's put the X in sex. My number 12 is a band that kind of cranks out a record every year or so. But still just all cool black metal thrash thing. Midnight. Hellish Expectations. Oh yeah.
That's going to be on Will's list. That's going to be on Will's list. That makes sense to me. I pass them up a lot, but I ended up listening to this one a few times. Well, my number 12, I'm guessing is a volleyball. It could be on Will's list. Could be on Will's list. Could be on your list. If you're cool. Are you cool? Let's find out.
All right. My number 12 rises from hell. Because from hell I rise, Carrie motherfucking King. I am cool. You are cool. I like you. And I'm cool on my next choice. So we were pretty close on that one. All right. Yeah, you know, Carrie King, you got to love him. You got to hate him. One of the two. But you throw in Mark from Death Angel, which I know.
Mike Sound doesn't like, but this album fucking rips. I think he's become more likable to somehow. The interviews I've read, he's sort of more palatable. He's just kind of like more everyday Joe-ish almost. A little bit, a little humbler kind of thing. Yeah. And Mark Asagüita does a pretty damn good Tom Areia. He sure does. You know, and you could say that was a bad idea. I would get it if you thought so, but it's obviously not Tom at the same time.
It works. It's a tenor voice that he's used to working with. Yeah. Why not? I love that guy. Apparently they got together and either he recorded a demo for him or they played together or something and he said, can you do this all the time? He was worried that it would show up his voice and he's like, yeah, problem. Yeah, I was not expecting to like this as much as I did and I really do like it. I number 12 like it. There was a lot I wasn't expecting about it. One was that
the lineup would be what it was. I was sure that he, thank God it wasn't Phil Anselmo. I wouldn't even. Yeah. We wouldn't even be talking about it if it was. We wouldn't even be talking about it. You know, so yeah. Cool. Yeah. I mean, George called me out. I think it's solid. I called you out, bitch. It's exactly what I expected. And you know, it's fine. It's fine. I'll take fine. I'll take fine. Yeah. I don't, I like it fine. It's not, it doesn't make my,
But, you know, listen, Slayer's gone. So anything that we can get that's Slayer-esque, I'm okay with. It's Slay-tastic. I think they did a good job with this one. You know, it's not quite Slayer, but, you know, it's not going to be because it isn't. Yeah. But it's good for what it is. Exactly. Now, I agree with that. Just, you know. He doesn't get enough credit. Not on my list. But really, honestly, like,
how good of a guitar player he is. It was just really good. Yeah, it's great. He comes with cool artists and stuff. He put together a really good band. He did. And if you like Slayer, you need this record, I think. Yeah. I was reading an article that, I guess it was, it referenced an interview with Kerry, and it was about playing guitar fast. And Kerry was like, you know, you gotta not use your elbow when you play fast. You gotta move at the wrist.
you're never going to get that speed.
And I thought that was pretty cool.
It was famously what Jeff played from his elbow and was having problems giving up at the end.
And admittedly to his own admission that he played with his elbow.
So he moved his whole fucking arm.
I completely understand that because that's the way I do it.
And yeah, it's tiring.
You get tired.
Yeah, real fast.
So.
All right.
Back to Markisan for number 11.
11. Wow, we're almost in the top 10. That's like 11? 11. How long have we been going for? Oh, three and a half hours. Shit. Doesn't seem like it, does it? It does not. No, I mean, I love hanging out with you guys. So, all right. So number 11, this was my February album of the month. I feel like it's an album that definitely flies a little bit under the radar in metal circles.
The reviews I've seen have been really good for it, but just don't hear that much about it. And it's Praise the Plague Suffocating in the Current of Time on Life Force Records. They play this blackened doom sludge that's steeped in vapors of atmospheric dread. And I just really love how the songs build a mood on this record and the way they kind of break into these
Crashing Waves of Big Doom Chaos. So the album is equal parts doom and explosive black metal with a melodic darkness to it. That's a different one than what they've done before. So it's just gotten a ton of spins from me this year. I think it's just exceptionally well crafted. So for if you haven't heard it,
And I know a lot of people haven't. Praise the plague. Excellent. Right on. Matthias. Here I go. Here I go. Here I go. Here I go. All right. Number 11. What opens with an intro reminiscent of the soundtrack to a classic Hitchcock film quickly transitions into an aggressive and unpredictable death doom tale. What I learned only moments later that there's no blade thick enough to cut through the massive riffs that are splattered across the celebration of
"Dirty, Dirty, Death, Doom." Endless Symmetry is a transitional break, acting like an interlude. With the neutral fortitude of Switzerland, one composed of equal parts melodic happy tree and the eeriness of a stranger lurking behind said tree. Towards the end of this album, the riffs thin out and the pace picks up, which are clearly traits of a song titled "Garion the Plummet." One can only assume this is a reference to Garion's appearance in Dante's Inferno, where the winged creature carries Dante and Virgil to the circle of fraud.
Severis, Maze Envy. Not a volleyball, but it is some doomish death metal from the U.S. 20 bucks spin. Big shock. Big shock. Fanboy, 20 bucks spin. Did not expect to hear that one. Yeah. To be honest, I did not expect to hear it. Although John's reaction to when I mentioned it was positive. So you never know if John's going to have it. But wow, very cool. Yeah, it's really good. I think it's a sleeper.
Yeah, like you, I was kind of like, like, you know, Maze Envy. Hmm. Okay, cool. What does it mean? But because it was on 20 bucks spin, I feel like they, to me, they always get a pass in terms of, not a pass, but like, I always know that they put out solid music. It's whether I'm into it or not. And this one, I definitely, you know, once I kind of sat down and absorbed it, I was like, whoa, this is killer. Yeah. And it's just, it's different than what they've done before. You know, I think they definitely elevated their,
which is what you hope for bands you know um we've talked a lot about how
we've gotten into some records and we didn't really listen to this stuff before it you know
maybe it's their second or third record and it's kind of like that with maze envy for me too
you know i think i've heard some of their stuff before but i was like yeah this one
got my attention and clearly it got yours as well matt so that's cool
All right, John.
All right.
I don't feel like testing the Wilson theory here because I don't really care on this one.
However, I will say one thing before we go on.
Jay, I can totally sympathize with you now.
We just said that we're three and a half hours in.
I'm not drinking.
And you're like, what?
What did I ever see in these guys?
I feel like this has been going on forever
I know how that is too
I get it Jay
is it your pick John?
can your thoughts arrive now John?
they've been like they're in the green room waiting
well come on Jimmy
alright let's do it
alright maybe it will some
maybe not
odds are high they will be
my number 11
idle throne a clarion call from storm spell records
It's US power metal, technical thrash, progressive metal band all mixed together in one blender. And it's basically like that. It all sounds like that at the same time, which is kind of neat. They're a US band. I didn't get into the first album, but I got into it with the second album. And it's got loads of hooks, tons of riffs, there's fast passages, blistering solos. Musicianship is great. I think if you're a fan of like a band like Sanctuary, this might fall in your wheelhouse a little bit.
I like Sanctuary. Yeah, but they get a little progier. Sanctuary actually had some moments like that. I think people forget they were more thrashy U.S. power metal than what Nevermore was. I just talked about them in the last episode, I think. Yeah, but I think if you, again, I'm on a big U.S. power metal thing right now, so there's not that much of it. There's not as many bands, but it's nice to see some newer bands playing that style.
Well, that's an awesome surprise pick. I like Idle Throne. I saw them last year, I think, in a real dive bar, and I was blown away by how good they were live. So that was really the first time I was exposed to them, and so it put me on their radar. But I really, if anyone gets a chance to see them live, they're very, very good.
The Illusion of Time, a band from New York, uncarbonized records.
I knew that was going to be on his list when I mentioned it, because we had talked about it.
So I figured it'd be higher than mine.
Keep a poker face, but you know
You did a good job, Matt
Thank you
You always do
You have the best poker face on this podcast, for sure
Except for Lady Gaga
Oh, Lady Gaga
Thank you
Lady Gaga is bullshit
No, Lady Gaga is not
No, it's fucking terrible
I love Lady Gaga
Somewhat boringly
I don't understand
I spoiled my pick by
Vibging up with George
On his last pick, Kerry King from Hell I Rise
Reigning Phoenix Records, United States. Hell yeah. Wow. I like Kerry. And it's funny, because I don't think I did like Kerry for a long time. I kind of like him again. Yeah. Clearly, I mean, number 11, that's pretty fucking high, dude. Yeah, but I make it clear against you, I don't really, really care that much about everything except for about seven of them. Maybe five of them. That's not a lot of albums, Jay. But that's going to put him, that puts him in, you know, he's in severe danger for the rest of the world.
the next for the end of the year but we'll see yeah he might be the lower by the way even though that's pretty high to put stuff on mid-year knowing i wasn't going to put it on the end of the year because i just thought that's the third's mention that's an interesting stat i don't know if we can calculate that but it would be really interesting to see what's how our year end deviates from our mid-year yeah you know what albums actually make the cut on year end versus mid-year because you know
Sometimes it follows a pattern. Like, you're like, okay, one through ten, still on the year-end list. But a lot of times, maybe it's completely fucking different. I'm kind of curious about that. So I've never tracked it personally. A deviated list? A deviated list, yes. Very good, George. Thank you. I guess it's Tamina, yeah, because that was just Jay. Yeah.
All right, my number 11. I think I will take some crap for this because it's number 11. See? I expect pretty much everybody to have this in their top 10. I could be wrong, but it's like a flower, okay? In that if you were a Stygian rose, you would be Crypt Sermon, and that is my number 11.
Oh my god. And Marcus gets up and walks away as if I'm some sort of stupid punk bitch. Okay, then. Well, we could just skip him now that he's left. Yeah, I guess we could just move on to number 10 for Matt. I don't know. I mean, we're not gonna. But just so you don't see. But yeah. But this is not melodramatic at all. I have to assume there's more to the story here. Yeah, like he has to pee really bad. Yeah.
But we're going to wait and see because... We should all leave now. And he'll come back and we'll all be gone. Yeah. Because I actually have to pee. Well, then do it. Do it. Do it now. Okay, so Marcasson got up and left after I said my pick and now he's back. So... For fuck's sake. Clearly he has something to say about this. Or... You're telling me that the Crip Sermon album
is one level above the Cary King album.
Yeah.
And I mean, honestly, I was...
Are you fucking kidding me, dude?
I was afraid I wasn't going to list it at all.
It's...
This is not Crypt Sermon to me.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
Okay.
That's all I got to say.
You know, actually something, I gotta tell you.
Well, first off, I keep spoiling my list, but who gives a shit?
There's no real spoilers.
I put it one record above the K-King. George, Crypt Seaman will be our chemist. Seaman? Crypt Seaman? You're welcome, Will. Dude, that is a pretty good band name. Just, you know. But it will be our chemists together, George. We will George and Jay. I mean, that's ludicrous. I'm sorry. It's J-Gis. Yeah. Even another level above that?
I don't know I don't know I love you but that's crazy to me it's not that good distance between I mean it's 11 good but it ain't like number one distance I mean that's I mean what if it was between like Jupiter Mars that's hundreds and hundreds of millions of miles I mean thank you John I guess that's a good point I guess it depends on what else is on the list though oh you're not gonna like that just I mean it's pretty high I just I'm surprised
I'm surprised. I mean, I had to get a beer, but also I was like, what the fuck? Yeah. As soon as I said that, you got up, walked away. I was like, oh yeah. No, that was like, I was going to get up and I was like, oh, I definitely getting up now. I can't, I can't come into this. I can't deal with this shit. Cause the Carrie King album is pretty fucking basic. And then Stygian Rose is pretty fucking basic for number 11. That's, it's just ludicrous. Like I thought you were a musician. I thought you understood.
I do.
And I'm going to lean on Jay on this one.
He's a better musician than I am.
Yeah.
Well, let's find out what those other 10 albums are.
Those other 10 embarrassments.
He ain't going to like it.
Just saying.
It is all subjective.
Yeah.
No, it's completely subjective.
Yeah.
I'm just, I'm just, I'm really shocked.
Shocked.
Well, I think shit should get really real now.
because we are on number 10.
Is it my turn?
I don't even,
I feel like I can't even go.
Yeah,
we've been waiting for you since you stormed off the stage.
Oh,
fuck.
Jesus Christ.
I got to compose myself.
Oh,
what do you have a cleft?
We have to talk amongst ourselves now.
Fucking Kerry King.
You know what?
This is how people become homeless.
You're going to be walking around just muttering that to yourself.
Fucking Kerry King.
Number 11.
Kerry King.
One time.
You are opening a door that you may not ever possibly be able to come back to in the future. I would be very careful. You're about to be assigned a clutch-like kind of persona here. Because you don't want to drop something on us. Clutch? What was the thing with clutch? You're going to drop something on us, and somebody's going to be like, back it up a second. We're just allowed to get Will shit about clutch. John is just saying, watch this stuff. We're about to become the guy. I never feel like that guy.
I always feel like my uh I like it Jason you're gonna get clutched I like that I love clutch too I do too uh no this one actually has been mentioned so all right we're in the top 10 I'm surprised we haven't taken a break uh we're gonna fucking do this right now top 10 all right this one has been mentioned actually and Matt mentioned it and it's skull traverse the baylor
on avant-garde music.
This one's a nomadic metal journey through a post-apocalyptic Scotland.
And it paints just melody and atmosphere in a beautiful kind of energetic strokes.
And listening to this, it just really swept me away by just the gorgeous, airy lead guitars,
The Lush lead vocals and harmonies. I think it's a triumphant saga of post-metal, but it has flourishes of progressive metal as well, and folk, that really stays with me. I believe it was my album of the month when it came out. We talked about that a little bit earlier. I've been really enjoying this one, and it came out early.
that I keep spinning over and over. So I think it's got staying power for the end of the year. But we'll see. All right. Nice. Matt? All right. My number 10. As I did when one finds themselves in heavy metal rehab, the 12-step program designed to rid your body of the new metal demons. Somewhere around step eight is this band. Required for Step Eight is a modern band that possesses an epic level of epicness.
With their third release, this band has remained true with a V to form and still holds the position in the heavy metal center for holistic epic reanimation. This album opens with a bit of a prelude fitting of their catalog, but almost immediately tears into the beginning of the almost 45 minute black mass. This collection of their textbook darkly doom stricken heavy metal gives us a range of well crafted songs and stellar musicianship that upon completion leaves one only wanting to do
I'm talking about Crypt Sermon. Yes! And this is you and Rose. Ha ha! The darkness and records. Although my number 11 pick was not your pick. Matt. Still. I just want to say, I love you. I love you. And this, as Jordan and I were talking when you guys were not around us,
This is the album I completely forgot about until last night. Gasped and then started typing immediately. And this is where it landed. I mean, the reality is I just need more time with it. I have it on vinyl. I've looked at it. I've loved it. I've gushed. And yeah, that's where I'm at. It's right around the 10-11 spot. Yeah, that makes sense. I really want to picture you bolting up, like erect at 3 a.m. in the morning. I mean, I'm okay with Matt putting it there because he's got
better picks, you know, before. So, yeah. You saying my picks prior were not as good like Kerry King? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's exactly it. God damn it, I love you, Marcus. I love you, George. You pick whatever you want. I really, listen, I'm doing this reaction because I do think that this record should be higher on everybody's list. But you know what? Everybody's got opinions just like their assholes. It's fucking subjective.
So, you know, it's how you respond to the music. And that's the best part of being on the Metal Odds podcast, because I'm going to get surprised. I'm going to hear picks that, you know, I would not put in those positions. And that's okay. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. But here, surprised translates as disappointed. Very much so, yes. I'm a little disappointed because I feel that you are experts in the metal genre.
Well, I have to say that I am extremely disappointed that you did not have Kerry King at number 12. I mean, Kerry King is not even in the top 40 for me. I still like the record, but it's not a top 40 record for me. A2, Marcus, on A2. Let's get Johns. Well, this is going to get a little awkward. Yes! Do it, John, do it!
Just kidding. That would have been good. I just turned the needle a little bit. All right. All right. So what's the best way to describe this album? Is it a Wilson? Yes. Are they from Canada? Yes. Independent label? Yes. So really, probably nobody's heard of this. Progressive Technical Death Metal? Yes. All right. Was it my album of the month in May? Yes. Nobody's still heard of it.
That's okay. I love this album. The album is from Dying Sons Calamity. Like I said, independent released from Canada, progressive metal, technical death metal. It's a Wilson and they're my May album of the month. This is a killer album that just caught me by surprise. And yeah, I've been going on about technical death metal recently. And I like a lot of it. And then a lot of it, I don't, cause it just, it sounds like the same on every song.
And this is one of those albums where they don't do that. Musicianship is great. And they win hands down for the best album cover of the year. That's the one that looks like PlayStation. Yeah, the PlayStation thing. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Nobody comes close because it's just a great nod back to our past. It is. So and it's it's a great album. And surprisingly, it's one of the few albums where it ends on a high note for me, meaning like, you know, some albums kind of drift at the end a little bit or you get like the beginning is good. The middle blows.
the end's good. This goes all the way through nice, but the ending just really kind of slays nicely for me. So. Nice. That's it. I listened to a little bit of this. Yeah. Because, you know, you liked it. I don't remember what I thought. I, to be perfectly honest, I just have not listened to a lot of metal lately. You know what, you know where my head is. You can't get in the mood for anything that's technical death metal anyway, right? But they had enough of the Proggy stuff that it might catch some people's attention. Yeah.
I think it's the drummer from, how do you say the name, is it Augury? A-U-G-U-R-Y? I think it's a Augury. Sounds right, John. Canadian technical death band. I think it's the most recent drummer, so I mean, they've got some pedigree in the scene, which it seems like Canada's just loaded with technical death bands. They sound like they're just like falling over the border or so many of them. Yeah, that's true. They have better math courses than we do. Yeah, it's that common core math bullshit fucking us all up, because, you know.
John, that's a really good record. Anytime you guys pick a top album for the month, I definitely spin it a bunch of times to see if I'm going to be into it. So I do really like that one. I'm hoping the next album covers PS2. Yeah. Yes. All right, Will. Do you like PS4 right now? Is that right? There's no PS5. There is a PS5, yes. There is? Yeah. Do I have PS4? I don't even remember.
I have PS4 and not PS5. Well, if we're going to talk about that shit, I got to talk about the fact that yesterday the new Elden Ring expansion came out. Oh, yeah. I haven't played it yet. I pre-ordered it. Hopefully, maybe I can get into that tomorrow. I've been thinking about getting that on Steam. It's good. I mean, it's hard. It's hard as fuck. But once you get over the hump of getting killed a million times, it's really fun. That's a good
Done Getting Killed a million times. Yeah. I want to hear Will Kill is next pick. Yeah. Well, first you need to know that if you want to list a brew metal wills enemies, check the extinct species list. After that list, check my mid-year list. Number 10, Atrophy, Asylum. That band is from Arizona and they're on Massacre Records. That's Jay's state. It is and it's really hot. It's not that hot. It's not that hot.
My number 10 is Crip Sermon, the Stygian Rose. Let's move on to George now. Oh man, Jay, now I really wish my number 10 was. It really is, too. And even though I already said it, I put it one above Kerry King, so. That is so funny. Bullshit. I love you, Jay. The quicker we move on, the better. It's like a thousand million times better than the Kerry King record. Or at least one more. At least one more. That's right.
Your top 10 is going to get scrutinized, Marcus. Yeah. Good point. All right. Whatever. My number 10, you might not think it even exists, but it actually does exist because it's hijacking the zeitgeist, bitches. I can't complain about that one. Yeah, it's a really good record. Exactly. From the Beemore. Balmer. Balmer. Balmer, Ireland.
exist.
Yeah. Very nice. Told you I liked it. I think you've had them now since So True So Bound. You've had them on your list every time, right? Yeah, of course. I love them. They're great. Cool. Wow. And Marcus don't like some too. I'm happy. It's not just me. Yeah. At some point. And that's pretty good. It's like two above Kerry King. It's going to be higher on your list, honey. Sure. For fuck's sake. I'm not even going to say the numbers now. I'm just going to be like two above Kerry King.
Three above Carrie King.
Oh, man.
That is awesome.
I would love to get Max and Alex on at some point in the future,
just because all the bands they're involved with.
Yeah, I don't even know how they haven't been on yet.
Yeah.
I mean, I have them on the list in the Google Drive.
At some point, it'd just be kind of cool.
Yeah, it would.
I would love to hear everything.
We could talk about Obscura, Defeated Sanity, Death Doll, Cynic. I mean, we can get all their projects in there, too. We wanted to. All this stuff. All of it. All right. So moving on to number nine in our top ten. Markazan. Yeah, this is an album that I think everybody should have on the list. It's fucking Carrie King. No, sorry. It's not that. Well, your Carrie King is one.
You mispronounced it. It's not fucking Carrie King. It's Carrie fucking King. Yeah, get it in the right order. Right. Sorry. Sorry. You know, I'm a rookie at this game, I guess. Compared to the rest of us, yes. Fun to watch you work through this. Yeah. I feel I so feel like off my game now.
I just feel like it's all right. I need so many more beers to get through this. Yeah. All right. All right. Number nine for me, definitely volleyball. It's Off or Not, Where Nothing Grows, an independent release. I listened to this album in Canada when we took the train from Montreal to Quebec City, and I played it twice in a row. I really like this band in the past.
But I think this is a phenomenal record, surging black and doom. But it moves into these stirring ambient passages and songs that are so in my wheelhouse. So I haven't really heard a record quite like this in 2024.
It speaks to me.
It sounds like a cookie that probably has nuts in it.
I like cookies with nuts. Is there a problem with that, George?
No, no, not a problem. That's what it just sounds like. And I'm not allergic. I love nuts, especially yours.
Yeah, no, this one, you know, it's always tricky when you merge ambient stuff with metal.
You know, because you could, there's always the danger that you're going to put too much ambient in it, and then you could classify it as a different genre. And this one doesn't do that. It's more metal, but then it gives you these passages that just kind of sweep me away in that ambient world. And I really like that. It was the perfect soundtrack for traveling on the best train I've ever been on.
Canada knows how to treat people. Unlike the United States, I've never been on a train like that in the United States. And I've been on a lot of trains in other countries too, but Canada, that was the finest train I've ever taken a ride on. So yeah, Offernet, where nothing grows. So I haven't heard much about it. The stuff I've seen about it has been great reviews, but you know, it's always one of those bands where
Maybe it doesn't come on people's radars as much. So. Where nothing grows. I think that has something to do with Will's laser hair removal. But. Wait, he removes hair with a laser? People do. What? Matty. Hey, number nine. If you want to know more about my next pick, listen to the May 31st episode of the Endless Metal Podcast with your friend in mind, V. Marcus and Nazo. Until then, know that this band represents
all the magical qualities of emotionally traditional post-hardcore repeatedly injected with black metal and turned up to 11 stairway not included or if the wb had focused the overall plot of dawson's creek on death destruction and the occult we would have had this album years ago regardless after you've read through all your little diaries and stop crying realize that glassing is a three-piece band from austin texas and you're not whoa well said my friend awesome surprised uh to hear that one
I'm very happy. If anybody was going to put on the list, I thought you might. I think you mentioned that. I think it was funny how like. Did I mention the podcast? I was taking a road trip to Duluth for a grad party. And so I threw that episode on because we had just done ours. I was listening to him like, like you devoted so much time to the glass. I was like, this is fabulous because I think it was your album of the month, whatever month that was. And then I kind of picked up on it. I was like, oh, yeah, this is totally in my wheelhouse.
And you had mentioned like, hey, sometimes I find these things. And then, you know, Matt appreciates when I do that, because then he can kind of ride the wave of that, which clearly I did. I was just listening to the whole breakdown of it. I was like, oh, my God, this is exactly what I needed, because I love this album. And, you know, to kind of get the backstory on it was fabulous. That's cool, because I didn't expect to spend that much time on it either. And we talked about it, I think, almost like 40, 50 minutes.
Oh, totally. It was a lot. But that's how I think interesting and good that record is. So they're definitely in band. Yeah, that band has been, and I feel like every single release, they give you a little bit something different, but then they elevate the band. They give you a greater scope. And it's only fucking three people in the band. And I just saw them recently live, and they were, they blew me away. And I couldn't believe how much sound came out of just three.
Musicians.
You know, obviously, there's a lot of them. Have you seen Rush live before? I have. I have. I have done that. And Nirvana. So, yes, I have. They're probably the loudest of them all, yeah. But how many days are like that, though? Actually, Nirvana was four people. Cream? Not in the beginning. No, but I mean live they were when Pat was there. Not in the beginning. But, yeah, when Pat came out, Pat Smir was much, much later. Yeah. But, yeah, there's not that many three pieces that I...
Wow, the cat is going insane. Sounds like it. Yeah, I'm really pleased that that class, and that's pretty high on your list, Matt. Thanks. I think you need to attend to things. And thanks for listening to the podcast. I appreciate that. You bet. I love those guys. Those guys need to be on the Metalheads podcast for sure. Endless Metal. Matt? No, Matt, that was Matt. So, John. That was Matt. I'm going to go see what my cat's up to here.
All right, so for my number nine, Matt, you might be interested in this, potentially. Yeah. This is what you get when you mix progressive metal, atmospheric black metal, avant-garde metal, and you throw in some hot, steamy, sexy sax. Oh. And this kind of falls in your wheelhouse a little bit. Yeah. This is Etheria Conscientia, I think is how you say the second name, and the album is The Block.
They're a French band on Frozen Records. It's their third album. I have to thank Justin, my brother, for this one. Dr. Death. Dr. Death. Dr. Death turned me on to this. And he mentioned this to me on their previous album, Corrupted Pillars of Vanity, back in 2021, and I liked it. And then I kind of set it aside, then I saw this, excuse me, was this coming out. I sent him a message. I said, have you checked it out yet? And he, I think, either hadn't or had
I just briefly listened. I went back and listened a couple more times. I was like, man, this is a great record. So I kind of dig it. I think an easy kind of not, I won't say lazy, but an easy comparison would be like to White Ward, but it's not as sax centric as White Ward is. And there's more of a, excuse me, avant-garde going on on this album. So that's my number nine. Number nine. All right.
Throwing them glasses.
The dinosaurs looked at Chuck Norris.
Pardon me.
The dinosaurs looked at Brew Metal Will the wrong way once.
You know what happened to them.
And after that, he announced his number nine pick, which was job for a cowboy.
Moon Healer.
Also from Arizona.
On Metal Blade Records.
I don't know about that, Mr. Brew Metal Will.
I don't know.
Great.
I only say that because he's not here.
Next one.
I can hear you'd be like, that's really well done. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry, what did John pick? Because I was dealing with my cat. Theria Conscientia. Oh, that's a good, so close to make my list. So close. Made my list. I know, it's a good record though. All right. Mine has been mentioned at least two times, maybe three. Necrot, Lifeless Birth. Oh, that's high, nice. It's like four?
They give you exactly what you want from that era, the old school stuff. And they do it right. You know, it's not, they're not breaking any ground or anything like that. No, and shouldn't be above Cripsermon. That's ridiculous. I like how you were looking around, you look like an air traffic controller while you were doing that. It shouldn't be above Cripsermon. Georgie.
Number Nine. Coming from the depths of prosthetic records, Abhoria. Wow, nice. Love you, Trevor. Yeah. Very nice. Trevor's awesome. It's amazing. It's awesome. It's number nine awesome. It is three better than Cary King. Just FYI. And that would make it two better than Crypt Sermons.
You constipated? You need to go? Why don't you grunt out your number eight? Yeah. Wait, I think, did George have this one, like, ridiculously low? Probably. Ulcerate, cutting the throat of God. Oh, yeah, that was like 23 picks ago. Even more Morty records.
It's just a staggering
Colossus of inventive
death metal
It's stark, it's desolate
It's atmospheric
And this one I feel
Like it's even more accessible
Like they give you
Greater riffs that you can grab onto
Than the last one
Which is more dissonant
To me
And I love the last one
It was pretty high on my list
But I feel like they've
They've elevated their music a bit more with this one. And the riffs are just phenomenal on this one. So it hasn't come out too long ago, so I feel like I need to listen to even more than I have. But even so, I knew it was going to be in the top ten when I heard it. And they're an amazing band live. I saw them for the first time last year.
the end of last year in december so i hope that they uh come around again so i can can hear the new songs because they're great break me if i'm wrong also a three piece and a biscuit yeah yeah that's right yeah maddie all right my number eight if the ocean were to dry up would be left with sand and just like the contrast that exists between the ocean and sand my next pick also has
that same aggressively harmonious contrast within its core sound. I'm also literally comparing my next pick to the Ocean Collective as their sounds have an eerie familiarity. In the case of said pick, though, I would say their more aggressive side is a bit more gritty, hence the sand. And they also dabble a bit in what I would label technical post-metal, which poses the real question, should it be tech post or post-tech? Who cares? If I were to hop on board the comparison train to the next stop, I would almost go as far as to say if the
We'd be grace with this release.
But I never said that, allegedly.
I'm talking about Dune.
I'm talking about Voidkind.
I'm talking about a UK band.
I'm talking about their third album.
I'm talking about Metal Blade Records.
Hmm.
That was so profound.
And you're talking my language.
Clearly.
Fucking Dune Records, great.
It is.
You started out like it was the intro to a soap opera there.
Actually, that is how I initially ended that paragraph.
I don't know if you know, but there's a spinoff called Bitchy General Hospital coming out next year.
Days are bitchy lives.
Just Matt yelling at people in his daily life.
This is wrong. I hate you.
The bitchiest doctor alive.
General Hospital.
John.
My number eight.
I don't think this has been mentioned yet.
I may have stepped out for a second.
And somebody may have mentioned it.
But somebody has.
Let me know.
But my number eight is no surprise that this would be on my list.
And that is Eson.
The album is Eson.
Candlelight Records. We all know who this is. We all know what it sounds like, although it does sound a little different than his other previous albums. He has an amazing knack for not reinventing, but pushing his boundaries further and further. And this time he kind of revisits the early days of his previous band. And while incorporating all the stuff that he does on his own and adding in some. Sorry, premature crickitation.
I didn't mean to do that.
Well, this just threw off everything I was going to say.
I'm sorry.
If you want to back up, I did not mean to do that.
No need to back up.
Everyone knows who Isan is.
Next.
Sorry.
You're good.
I just bumped it.
Isan is not a cricket, obviously.
Seriously, you want to go again?
No, I'm fine.
I'm fine.
I was just going to say that he just added the symphonics onto the album.
I was just about done. Sorry. Will. Rimetal Wilkin Parallel Park. A train. And after that, his number eight pick is Iporia Depths. Wow. From Handsomeville, USA via Prosthetic Records. Yes, he's so handsome. Which means he uses his hands some.
How many is that now? Four? At least three. At least, yeah. That's been mentioned a lot. All right, mine is a band from Madrid, Spain, and even though just because we're not saying it doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the time, but when was the last time one of us said this was produced and mixed by Dan Suano, or Don Suano. That's weird. Don Suano. Don Suano, thank you. Ooh. Ooh.
The Edge of Sanity, you'll know. Yeah. A bunch of influences going into this thing, but it's a big, mellow death, melodic death, death metal production. It's like a bloodbath of genres. I'm sorry about that. But if you, once I say the name, maybe it'll ring a bell. Eternal Storm, a giant ball. Oh, nice. Yeah, I really like this. Oh. A lot of cool atmosphere on there.
And it's funny because I just discovered the Don Slano thing just about two seconds ago and I didn't even realize he was wrapped up in this. So that's kind of a nice little place. If something is good, Don is there. He is there. I will do it. Nice. Good pull, Jay. My number eight. It is from the Peaceville Records. Creation Undone by Mortar Skald. Nice.
Yes, that's right. It's at least four above, Crypt Sermon. Come with me if you want to leave. Come with me if you want to be fucking metal. Play it again. That's right. And I know I'm sorry, Trevor. It's above a body. I'm sorry. What is that voice you're doing, George? It's somewhere between Dracula and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Terrible. Hey, I love it.
I will not leave you alone because I still have like eight more picks to do. Well then. Get on it. Number seven. My back is killing me. John's like I fucking need a drink. No. I need to get out of this chair. Get up. Stand up. Spin around. Sit back your ass down. It's only four hours. Yeah. And eight minutes. All right. This was mentioned by Matt I think on this last pick.
Like a good neighbor. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And so is Matt. Don't avoid kind on Metal Blade Records. Just, I do really love, love, love this record. It's a meteoric collision of sludge, progressive and post-metals. Thundering riffs, atmospheric synths, just tuneful varied vocals.
and a really balanced, well-structured song craft on this throughout the record. And I love the progressive guitar work on songs like Eleonora. Voidkind, it sounds to me, I don't normally do these comparisons, but it sounds to me like early Mastodon mixed with Cult of Luna,
but with more of a swirling, high-octane delivery. And I really love this record. I think it's the best thing that they've done. When you say Mastodon, do you mean like Leviathan? What? That's for me to say. I know, I stole it. It's weird, I was thinking more of Remission. I'm so good.
on a record. So, yeah. Number seven, Dune, Voidkind. All right. Mate. Number seven, last year I was spiritually blown away by the Anti-God Hand album. In two tracks into this release, I was fully immersed in a tidal wave of deja vu. Never Return is a gathering of sharp, punching, piercing riffs that were most likely boiled in a kettle of progressive black metal sweat and saliva. There are blood-curdling vocals that evoke only discomfort.
Then an underlying tone that nods back to the most traditional of heavy metals. There's a splash of southern groove in there too. Is that a problem? No. Is there a bit of a section that makes me feel like I'm listening to a new metal Matt flashback? He was also listening to Deadsy. Yeah. Should you care? No. Do I have the key to Gramercy Park? Of course I do. The band I'm talking about is Sniere and the album is called Never Return. It's black metal from Canada. It's their third album via Prosthetic Records.
Nice. I love it. Got the pronunciation a little bit wrong, but I'm going to let you know. Let's hear that then, Jay. I think Matt is okay because he, I think that was an album of the month for Matt. Oh, was it? Yes. So you, whatever you say doesn't matter, Jay. I think it's pronounced Bob. It's a big sounding record. Yeah. Okay.
I just want to mention too that I listened to that album when Matt named his album of the month
I was like oh shit I like that band I have to listen to this and I listened and I thought it was great
angry metal guy gave it a terrible review and I was like I do not understand it well that's how you know it's good
that's true yeah and I don't look at the angry metal guy that much but I wanted to look at it for a couple albums that I really liked
And I saw that one and I was like, Angry Metal guy, you're still assholes. I go there just to learn that albums exist because they do cover a lot of albums, but I could give two shits about what they rate an album. I really agree with your views. I don't go there that much, but sometimes I think it was for like glassing or whatever, because glassing is a band, obviously Matt has a list and I just feel like they're a little bit under their radar.
They just don't get enough press. The press they do get is very positive. The reviews for their albums are really good. But I wanted to see what Angry Metal Guy said. And then when I do that, when I look at that site, then I look at some of the other reviews and that one came up. And I was like, I listen to this record. It's way better than they said it was. You know what I think? You know what I think of Angry Metal Guy?
That's what I think.
You know, well, I think we've all feel the same way.
You know, I only go there now exactly as George says.
I'll go just to learn something that even exists.
And then honestly, when I'm doing my list, sometimes it's the only place I can quickly find out what label it's on.
If I didn't know what label it was.
Yeah.
And to be honest, I really I know I've pumped them up before.
I like Wonderbox so much better.
What's the call?
Oh, yeah.
Wonderbox Metal Reviews.
Okay.
Never mind.
They don't.
That's my nickname for Will, by the way. Wonderbox? Yeah, I don't get the name, but I'll be honest, Jay, I like them better. Most of the reviews are positive, so I know that going in. I look just for the band names. I don't have to sift through all the stuff. And also, there's no comments, really. The comments on Angry Metal Guy are just, they're so lame. It's like, great review, spot on!
Like, dude, they just shit on this album. You know? It's all subjective, man. I don't care. But I mean, I use that side. I do look at Angry Metal Guy just to see what they miss on. Because I do feel I miss on a lot of stuff. And just to see what's been released. That's it. But I use Wonderbox way more. When I do like the mid-year, John, I'm like, okay, I want to see what other people are saying about this album. I know how I feel about it, but I want to see what other people are saying about it.
An Angry Metal Guy is almost always the first thing if you do a search for whatever album you're going to do. So I paid Google for the search status. I don't know. So that's when it really comes up, you know. But yeah, but something like what Matt was doing is like, oh, yeah, I'm curious. Like, I want to listen to this album. I wonder what other people are saying about it. And yeah, but if you read the comments carefully based on some of the comments made by the writers, I'll keep this real short.
It's like regurgitation
It's like they literally will say
Well that's a great point
This album does suck for that reason
It's like well did you actually
Listen to the album
Or just the single track they provide
So that's why I hate reviews
Yeah
You know generally
And you can tell
On the Wonderbox
You can tell when they
May not like something as much
They'll say well if you like
This type of music
This might be up your alley
You're like okay
They don't dig it
That's cool
But they didn't like shit on it
You know so
Which what's the point of reviews
I think so
It was better back in the day. It was way back. When Metal Hammer was cool, like way back in the day. It was way, yeah. And bands were really starting to fly out. Before Metal Hammer turned into Revolver. Yeah. They would just put a band and say, you might want to check out Blank, and they would say, reminds me of Blank, Blank, Blank, and Blank. And it was literally just this, like, if you like Exodus, you might like these guys. What was the other thing? Metal Maniacs was the other one too that had a lot of reviews? That actually might be the one I'm thinking of. Is that Jeff Wagner? I picked up one with Tom Array on it.
I don't know. Anyway.
No, I'm with you guys. I mean, it was a zine, you know, but anyway, yeah, reviews are difficult. I mean, it's, I know.
And as we've commonly said, sometimes a negative review will convince me, oh, I'm going to totally like that. Exactly.
They just said everything I love about stuff.
Yeah. I really don't care what people think of an album. I just want to know that it exists.
And it might be something I want to check out, not based on your opinion or anything else, because I don't care what your opinion is. I mean, I think there's albums that I really love, and I'm kind of curious what other sites say about it. Not that it's going to change my opinion, but I'm just kind of curious what other sites say if I have this album in high esteem. And sometimes Angry Metal Guy comes up on that.
And a lot of times I just disagree. You know, the only time I really, my comparison thing is the end of the year. It's interesting to see how much of the stuff I put on my list ended up on your list. And sometimes I learn about things and I'm like, everybody's got this one and I don't even know what it is. So of course I'll check it out. Yeah. One last thing I'll say and then I'll do, I think I'm up, right? Number seven. If you're looking for lists of bands out when they're released and the label, Heavy Music HQ has a really good release calendar.
I think.
Because it's by week and they do include the label on there.
There's no links, but you can copy and paste.
That's easy to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because that is that sometimes I have a little trouble with that.
Bandcamp is not displaying them as.
No.
So you might want to try that site.
It's like Metal Storm.
Metal Storm has a good release calendar, but the heavy music HQ calendar is in alphabetical
order.
So that kind of makes it easier search.
So anyway.
All right.
My Number 7, I'm not going to waste any time with it because it's been mentioned a few times. I think it's a good album. I don't know how I feel about it overall, in general, in terms of being the greatest thing ever made. I don't think it is, but I think it's a good album. I think it does have, or should appeal, not does that, but should appeal to the Ocean, Kul T'Luna, and Isis fans. So Matt probably knows what I'm talking about. Maybe Markisan those too. Dune, Boydkind, Metal Blade Records, from Scotland, Progressive Metal, Post-Metal, Notta Wilson.
That's cool. Matt, what did you have it at? Number eight or seven? I think nine. Nine, okay. So John's got it at number seven. Yeah, which is exactly the same as me. Eight. Sorry, eight. Eight. So that's pretty close. Cool. All right. Consistent. That said, if it looks like chicken, smells like chicken and tastes like chicken, but brew metal oil says it's
If it's beef, then it's beef. Number 7 pick. Inter Arma. New Heaven. From Richmond, motherfucking Virginia. USA. Nice. You know, it's funny. I agree with all the talk about I don't care about anybody's opinions, but you guys have kind of talked me out of the high, and I never do this, but maybe I've got this a little too high, but it's where it is for now. And it's high on fire. Come as the storm. Here it is.
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I literally am doubting myself all of a sudden. Jay, it cometh on your storm. It is where it should be. There you go. Seriously. Yeah. I would say I'd like to better than the rest of you guys. But it's nice to hear it called out a few times. Matt doesn't screw up a lot. I like their big slug in a way. Yeah, Matt doesn't screw up. He screws down. I mean, that's the thing with these lists, you know. We can have our
discrepancies, I guess. But it comes down to what you really enjoy. So I mean, I'm always happy to hear High and Fire being higher than when I had it. Because that's a band that I've enjoyed for how many years now? Fuck, I don't even know. 20? 25 years? I think I'm a bit of a spiritual kindred with Matt Pike. And up to and including, like I've read so many things over the years when I was like, fuck, I'd love to talk to this guy. And to include one thing is, he's like,
He's talking about the album Born Again one time. And the Sabbath record. And he quotes a line in the song Born Again, which I've always loved. And it's the gray and plastic retards all floating in circles. And I was like, he does not know that fucking line. That's not cool that he knows that because I know that line and nobody else knows that fucking line. And a few other things like Matt. And that always translates in his music to me. I just, I get him.
Yeah. And it's like four picks above Carrie King. Which is okay, because pretty much anything that's above Carrie King is a good thing. A good choice. My number seven, I thought this was going to be a volleyball, but I believe it was John that took my volleyball away from me. Yeah, John said, fuck you, George. Yeah, it's a lower form of
or lower form resistance from dissimulator.
Oh, wow. That's high.
I gotta go, I gotta go back and check that off my list. That is not a volleyball.
It is not, you know, you mentioned, I forget who you mentioned, but to me, this is, it's Canadian and it's Voivod.
Oh, I, yeah. I just, the vector for the technicality.
Yeah. Vector was the other way they go.
Yeah.
Yeah. But no, this is, this is like, this is Voivod for sure.
Yeah.
I could see it too.
Well, they are Canadian.
Yeah.
I'm sure there's an influence there.
Or at least, you know, DNA.
Yeah.
No, you're right.
No, built is built into their DNA.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Very cool.
I didn't know them until recently.
Yeah.
No, Justin got me to listen to them and I was like, oh, fuck yeah.
Nice.
Very nice.
That's fine.
Love your nothing.
Fine.
I'll just take that off my Wilson.
and just put it on a whole list. That's right. We're going to be sitting on that island together like, you know, clink clink, drinking beers and like, yeah, man, dissimulator. Yeah. Kind of a cool concept, too, behind the album, I think. Sounds of metal. Yeah. All right. Number six, Markison. Oh, shit. To me already. Well, I'm sad Jay is not here. Oh, here he is. There he is. Good. I'm going to wait.
I'm here, baby. Sorry. Excellent. Well, you mentioned this album early on and, um, you were wrong. Of course, I think what Jay said was dead on. He, I think that, um, it's, I understand what he was saying because I think it takes a little bit more investment in this to, to really understand what this band has been doing. Um, because it took me a while.
to get it.
And it's Paul Bearer.
Mind burns alive on Nuclear Blast Records.
Listen, after hearing this album, I completely understand the growth and the change that Paul Bearer has fostered in the band over the last few years.
Because I think this is an exceptional record.
The vocal improvement, the structures of the songs, the absolute command of emotional dynamics on Mind Burns Alive is stunning to me. But more than that, it made me realize that they're just a much better band than they were before. On their last album, it didn't do anything for me.
It didn't put the pieces together
But I think
Doing that record
It helped them
Get to this place
On Mind Burns Alive
It was a transitional record
For sure, yeah
Just like all the previous efforts have
Yeah
And I feel like
The thing that I like about Paul Bearer
Was they've always carried this
Emotional
Weight
In many of their songs
And that's what I responded to
But on this record, it radiates out like I've never heard before. So I feel like this album has the heaviest stuff they've ever done. That last track is by far the heaviest thing they've ever done. And I think the weight of that heaviness is magnified exponentially by the songwriting on this because what they've done is they've doubled down on the emotional,
of the side of Pallbearer. And that makes the heavy parts matter more. And I think they've been kind of searching for that over the last couple albums. And they've captured it perfectly on this record. And it took me a few spins to get that. But this is one of those bands,
I'm talking a lot about this, I know. But I think this is one of those bands where we love those first initial albums and then they change direction significantly. And when that happens, we have a tendency to kind of not enjoy what they're doing as much as those first efforts. And that's justified for a lot of bands. Metallica, we talk about this constantly, especially when Will's on.
But I think with Paul Bearer, they've actually elevated their music by doing this. Because you can hear this emotional quality in the songs on those early albums. But it wasn't throughout the record. This one brings that to the forefront and still gives you that heaviness. But it gives you a payoff that I just never had on the Paul Bearer records before.
So if this band had put out this record and they had never done previous albums, I'd be like, what the fuck? This is amazing. The fact that they put out these older records that we really loved sometimes can be work against the band. So I'm trying to come to it from a fresh perspective. And that's what I've done on this one. And I feel like the
have accomplished what they set out to do when they first started with this record. So I know that was a long explanation about it, but I feel like if you like Paul Bearer, you should listen to this record again. You should go back and understand the progression they've made because they've always been kind of building towards that. And they were very limited in the beginning. Even though I love those fucking first two records, this one gets them to what they were trying to accomplish.
from the beginning. That's what I'll say. You know, actually, that's a really thoughtful group of things you're saying about that, and I'm going to hearken all the way back to the first track on their first record, which has always broke my heart, and it's called Foreigner. And the last phrases on it sung at a really glorious fashion are, shifting paths that makes it hard to find my way, wastes my strength, takes my breath, for the purpose of erosion of my will to carry on, and steals
the fire from my blood, lost within the shade, I call out for a helping hand. And I always love that that song ended with, I call out for a helping hand. And that is not metal at all. Like, that's not a very metal thing to do. And that song, I would inspire anybody to listen to that song again, because the way it builds up and gets to that moment I'm talking about. I think just as my way of saying, I appreciate what you're saying, and I'm actually going to make sure I listen to this record more now.
Well, thanks, Sam.
Yeah, no, I feel like they didn't have the skill to do what they're doing on this record. And they've been building towards it ever since. It took a long time to make it. So, I mean, I took a long time. Pretty sure this was their pandemic record, wasn't it? Yeah, I'm sure. And like I said, I mean, the thing is we love those early records, but you have to look at what they've trying to do with their music. And I think that they, on this record, they really,
bring all those elements that you really responded to on that first record into this one so that's why i'm saying that even though it might not be the same as those first couple records it's better so uh it's hard for me personally because i responded so like viscerally to those first couple records yeah but what they've done on this one is the dynamics in it is
So that's what I'm trying to get across for people who may love early Paul Bearer and then think that maybe they've changed and they've shifted into a Metallica-esque thing. No, that's not what they were trying to do. They're trying to capture this emotion that they put on the earlier records into something that you could really respond to personally.
And I think they do that. So does Metallica. Kerry King does it really well. This is such a good group of people because you can sit and pour your heart out for three minutes and somebody's like, yeah, you're a fucking tag. It's always something at the end. Anyways, that's what I got out of it. And I didn't expect that because one last thing I'll say, I did not like the last record at all. It didn't make my list. There were a couple songs
on it. Maybe one song that I really liked, but this one, the entire thing, I really respond to. I feel like it is an experience. It's a record that resonates in me. Matt. I'd like to say that my death style determines my lifestyle.
I close my eyes this album opens like a Wayfair classic and then segues into what might be conceived as a more progressive approach and then goes everywhere I hear Lion's Daughter I hear New Metal I hear Death Metal I hear Gojira I hear Mastodon I hear more Death Metal I hear Cult Leader I hear Atlas Moth I hear Thrash Metal I hear Tombs and I could go on and on and on obviously I'm talking about Lord Dying clandestine transcendence oh there it is again a band from the United States
a Monarch-heavy record since their fourth album of progressive sludge metal. Whoa. Whoa. Listen, I think it's a great record. I did not expect it to rank this high on people's lists, so this is awesome. You know, and I didn't at first either, and it just kept climbing, and, you know, as I listened to it each time, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that, and I remember that, and I remember that.
And so I don't know if it'll be number six or even on my list when the year end comes. Because it is, like I say, anything outside of that top five, I think is fair game. But definitely, I didn't initially latch on to it, which I feel like I'm saying this for everything. But I really, I liked it. But I was like, I don't know. Because I feel like a number of you chose it as your album of the month. And I was like, hmm. And then I kind of went in and, you know, let it kind of sink its teeth into it.
Wash over you.
Yeah, okay.
I dig this a lot so I mean and honestly when we had Alyssa on and she was just a really fun guest but soon we did the priest albums that was I love doing that with her it made me go back and listen to Lord dying you know with a fresh perspective because sometimes you know you get kind of caught up in all the other records that are coming out and you know it is just a really
One of the best, you know, records that have come out this year. So very cool, Matt. What is that? Three? Me, John, and you so far? I had a two. Oh, you did? That's four. Wow. Impressive. I remember where I had it. Somewhere. George, did you have it? Not yet. Not yet. Okay. I couldn't remember. Is it coming up, George? Maybe.
Redeem yourself for Carrie King. It's not redeeming. It's just more of my awesomeness. John. All right. So my number six, I believe Matt has probably been waiting for two words from me the whole time. I haven't mentioned my cheeky mover. Yes, I have been waiting. But I have two this time. Oh, man. Yeah.
I'm just apologizing, John, because I wanted that logo done by the time we were doing this. I haven't gotten to it, but I'm still working on it. The two words are removed pants. And if you don't know what I'm referring to, I love world football. And I love when a player makes a move that's really deceptive. I love when an announcer just says, oh, that's just cheeky. You know, it just sounds so dirty. Not dirty like as in grimy, just like, ooh, that was a dirty little movie made there. You know, that's sultry.
And it's just, I just kind of like that. So I, these are, these are albums that sneak up on me and this literally snuck up on me yesterday, which I don't generally do. But I've spun this album a lot. It's considering I haven't been feeling great and considered I had to do a list. My number six is Alces, Les Chanté Léor. This one totally caught me off guard. I mean, I've always liked Alces. I like everything they've done, but I don't know.
This one seemed to capture everything from their whole career on one album. And it covers all ground. So I know a lot of people are saying, oh, it's not metal. Oh, yeah, it is. There's there's half this album is got growls on it, you know, or his harsh vocals. It's got blast beats. And then the other half is gorgeous. It's an uplifting album. Minus that kid kind of yelling at the beginning a couple of times, which I kind of thought was annoying. Kids. Oh, no, don't tell. Well, yeah.
It's only like three countries
But I love this album
It's gorgeous
I think it's great
And it might be one of my favorite from them
Oh shit
John this is awesome
Because I only listened to it one time
And I was like you know what
I'm not going to try to bother inserting it
Into my top 25 here
I'm going to consider it for the end of the year list
Because it just came out
That was my plan too. Until I listened to it and I was like, whoa. You were that taken by it. That speaks volumes. Yeah. And I was surprised at how many sites gave it a favorable review. Really surprised. I'm surprised that Markisan gave us a clip that says, I was going to insert this into my... Into your mouth, Church. Anyway, if you're a fan of the band, I know some sites
Yeah, there's moments like Shelter, but there's moments from their whole career on this album.
But I fucking like Shelter. It's funny because people say, I guess, bad things about some of the later records. I actually really like all the records.
Every album I like.
I agree, John.
Yeah. They're more post-medally now than they were.
We don't say it anymore. Well, we can't say it because we don't have a giggling person. You can say black gaze or you can say post-black metal. I think I stopped the episode for like 10 minutes because Will laughed so hard when I said that that one episode. Will's laughing right now. He is. Right now, he just burst out laughing. He doesn't know why. Hey, Matt, can you put on sunglasses and just laugh? There it is. Anyway.
Speaking of Will, what is your pick, Will? Well, Brumetto Will once got bitten by a venomous snake, and after five days of excruciating pain, the snake died. And after which, I announced my number six pick, Midnight, Helless Expectations, Cleveland Rocks, Metal Blade Records. There it is. Is this like Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino all of a sudden? A little bit, a little bit. Get off my lawn, bitches. That's awesome.
My number six is Only Have I Mentioned Once, but here it's being mentioned twice. Well, one more time. One plus one is two. You get the math. Isan, self-titled from New Light Records in Norway. Isan is kind of a darling of this podcast in a way because his stuff usually charts with us. I agree with John's description was apt. He kind of went back to his past a little bit,
But still going in new directions like always and still a little bit of what he does on any of his other records. He's an amazingly talented musician. And I don't know how many instruments he plays or anything, but his stuff is always interesting. And he's also and then he'll turn around and just throw some world ending riff at you. You know, like it's a big mix, soupy mix. And then all of a sudden, blammo. The guy's just fucking talented, man. Yeah. I'm curious, George and Jay. And Matt, I apologize if I don't know if you're
I'm a biggie song fan, but do you guys feel like his clean vocals just keep getting better every album? I really do. I really do. And I mean, hey, I guess the voice is a muscle and then there's practice makes perfect kind of thing. But yeah, I think he's got a really good voice, you know? Yeah. And I guess you're right. I'd have to go back a few records and I might have been like, well, you know, he's got, you know, he's not quavering there or anything, but he's kind of a beautiful singer now, you know? And he rocks, he rocks the turtleneck. Yeah. Boy, I just gotta keep those vocal cords warm. And all I'm going to say is,
Will's got a great muscle. That's right. Wow. When I was looking up, trying to find the, because I don't naturally always know labels, and I was looking up for the label for this one and ran into maybe his Wikipedia page, and he's like 47. He's still not that old. Those guys all started when they were young teenagers and all those fans, and you're right. Isn't that crazy? Exactly. No, no, no, you're exactly right. Yeah. Yeah.
My number six, it's a bit clandestine, but it transcends, and it's Lord Dine. Wow, nice and high. Yeah, that's right. I don't know about y'all 25, whatever. I just got to bring it up into the six here. I know, I'm horrible. You're not horrible, I love you. Wait, hold on. I've had 20, what, 18, 19 albums better? I suck. Well, not this week.
Because you're on vacation from the recycle center, but... I have been sick for two weeks, yes. Exactly. But yes, Lord Dine. Nice. They placed well. Shit is getting realist of the real now because we are at the top five ships. Do we need a break? Do we need a break or are we going? We're going for it. We're going. Mark us on number five. Yeah.
This is my top death metal record of the year. Well, of the mid-year. Replicant, Infinite Mortality. I loved Replicant's previous records, but they didn't really make my list. But this album blows those records away.
It blows them out of the water. It's just a phenomenal blend of intelligent, dissonant death, but with massive hooks and catchy grooves. So, you know, a lot of times those things don't work together. And they've managed to find a way to do that on this record. So I think Angry Metal Guy actually named it the album of the month, which I was surprised because we were just talking about Angry Metal Guy.
And how they're dicks. And how we don't agree with them. But in this case, you know, I don't think I named them. It might have came out in April. I don't think I named them my album of the month, but it was very close. It was like the runner up that year. That year? That month? That month, yeah. I'm a little bit. I've gotten to the meat now, George. Pepsi Rainbows. That year.
really great record. Yeah, I didn't expect this because I thought that I would get the same thing from Replicate that I got before, but they'd taken it to just a different level of death metal. I think Justin was really into that. Yeah, I don't know if anybody else has listened to it, but I think it's... Let's do it several times, yeah. It was on my list, the belts around. I just don't think there's a better death metal record than this one, in my opinion, of course.
But... George, when you did your... You just did a really very good drunk voice there. My hat is off to you. And I'm completely stone sober. It reminded me that I got on YouTube the other night or something and I sat and for some reason fell into this rabbit hole where I watched a bunch of Foster Brooks. You guys remember him? He's the stand-up comedian and his whole thing was he was drunk. He was like in this Sonatje, you know, roasts and things. Anyway, look at Foster Brooks sometimes.
I can't let you laugh his whole shtick was that he was drunk yeah um man at number five with the infinite subgenres of metal that exists today I often overlook the root of said genres heavy metal or traditional metal or trad metal as the kids say clearly the west coast IPA of metal if I look at metal archives the span genre is listed as progressive progressive death metal slash hard rock which actually begs a much larger question are those
the key ingredients of good old heavy metal. I digress. Or do I? At their core, Chapel of Disease blends wickedly classic prog-influenced heavy metal with the oh-so-slightly harshest of vocals. A combination that should make you take a seat, put down your phone, shut your mouth, and listen. Chapel of Disease are a celebration of the utterly darkness, utterly darkest of melodies from which we were all conceived. Nice. I just think it's perfection. I think.
their sound is like it's at its core heavy metal but at the same time it just sounds unique classic modern really love it so
they're good about that they use um you know they back off on the distortion and stuff and that is such an
effective move you know and it brings in that weird old school element yeah it kind of helps
To me, it just increases the visibility of their talent when you pull away. But it's also... It has a similar effect to the real extreme poor production of Blackmail in that there's just some weird extra spooky edge on it because of that, to me. Wow. Very nice. Top five. Very nice.
John, what is your number five? My number five. I will say that I didn't get all bent over the album cover of this band or the name of the album. I was like, what is that? I didn't do any of that. But I do agree with the people who mentioned this already on their list. My number five is Sivris, Maze Envy, 20 bucks spin. We've already talked about it. I love this album. I love that it's got a darker
feel to it, especially with the kind of synths and the strings that they put in. Kind of gives it more of an ominous feel, an impending doom. Not doom, just that impending doom is coming your way. And it's heavy, it's crushing. It's cool. I dig it. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. And I think that's what it's benefited from is more listens than other things. But I do see this sticking around on my list. And I do like the fact that it's got a purple cover. I don't know why.
I don't really care about purple. Purple's kind of cool. The cover is awesome, but how do you feel about the maze? Doesn't bother me at all. It's not a very good maze. How do you know? Have you gone in it yet? Have you actually tried it? No, I look at it. Have you been to that maze? I can solve it in about a second. It is an awesome cover. I'll try it. I'm really smart. I would get out of that maze in about 125 seconds. Dude, somebody left me out. Anyway.
No, it's a cool album. I agree with everything you guys said about it that mentioned it. It's fucking great, John, because I actually didn't think we would hear this one that much on our top 25. So this is the third. This is the third. Yeah, very cool. Now, if Will would stop dicking around in the kitchen. Yeah, we'll never stop dicking. You know, Matt is like me. The kid came in and got some food. And if Gene does anything in the kitchen, I'm in there like two seconds.
to clean it up. I need to, I gotta feed my damn dog. I know. I saw it. I was like, oh, that's a dog bowl. All right, Will, what do you got? Well, I'll tell you this. Brew Metal Will jumped off a two-story building and landed on the third floor. After that, he listed his number five pick as Crip Sermon, Stygian Rose from Philly, Dark Dissent Records. Get out of here. He's way off on that. That's interesting from Will to feed out a leg. Will will go large on that. I thought he would go. Yeah.
At least top two. Not that that's not large, but. He loves Kerb Sermon, yeah. I don't know if you heard me. I jumped off the second story and I landed on the third floor. That's low. I mean, it's higher than anybody else so far. Yeah, I know. It's the highest. Well, it gets kudos. Highest sighting. And the top five, that's where it should be. All right, my number five is the Ultimate Volleyball Band for me, though. Oh. No, but that sort of leaves John out in the dark, which isn't fair. He has an appreciation for this band.
And I know it. I appreciate you. Of course you do. Appreciates their talent. But I just think they are such an over, over, over, not overlooked, but underappreciated band. The people who appreciate them appreciate the shit out of them. There's just not enough of them. Kind of old school, traditional proggy, metal, blah, blah, blah, with a modern edge. Vandenplass, the Empyrean equation of... Nice.
I just haven't listened to it enough Jay I feel bad about that no not at all I I um and you know what I haven't listened to it enough either so I'm wondering where it's going to go from five it's really good it's really good not to cut you off which is really funny Jay because it's a single album I know I know and it doesn't have a part one out of either so you know I you know oh man it doesn't say part one or part two these guys are just full of class man and god they can write and fuck you can sing and they
They can play like and their stuff has emotion and depth and it's a great band. Yeah. And it's their first band change in 35 years. I'll be honest with you. I don't know who changed. They have a new keyboardist now. Keyboardist. Okay. Yeah. But if you're a prog metal band or prog metal fan and they're one of the second wave bands from the early 90s consistently put out stuff. They do. Their quality is always up there. I mean they are a little Saxon to me. They are.
Sometimes I'll have every second record or third record is a little bit less. But always, you know, whatever. And they're always thick. So the truth is I'm going to have to listen to this one at least five to ten more times before I really know where it will. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if it makes my year end. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good, it's really good and it's one of the better things they've done in a few years. Let's put that in. I like the Ghost Experiment Part 1 a lot. All right, George. All right. I'm kind of surprised.
I haven't heard this one yet. I mean, maybe it'll come up again. I would think it will, but on the chance it doesn't, I'm not that superstitious, but this one is creeping up there. That's Gate Creeper, Dark Superstition. Markazan's like, what? That's like 10 above Crypt Sermon, what? I wonder if you'll get Will. I think I will.
I listened to it one time. That's it. No, I, well, you know, I wasn't expecting it from you. Although you were like, I got this one death metal album and I was holding out hope and it wasn't it, but I like, I like them. I just, I haven't listened to it, but yeah, no, I dig it. I'm a fan of gate creeper. You know, if you liked their previous records, you would like this one, but you know, it's kind of basic death metal. Honestly, I haven't been a big fan of their, I mean, I haven't not been a big fan of their previous stuff, but.
I liked this one better than previously. Well, it's definitely more accessible. I feel like they spend a lot more time on repeat choruses and things like that than the past, which I don't prefer myself. Personally, it sounds more different than all the other death metal out there. If that means being death metal that's more accessible, then it's different. It's more commercial, for sure.
It's like, I don't need another death metal band that sounds like the 50 other death metal bands that came out last week. Yeah. Because there will be. Yes. Yes. It's like, it's not that they're not good, but I've had enough. I don't need all that. I mean, if you looked at my list. It's interesting because I know you're making me wonder if that is the highest, you know, number of bands that enter every year.
Oh, I'm sure. We're just over in the style of music. Inundated with death metal. I love death metal. I do too, but I'm just like, give me something that sounds different than every other death metal band. And that's what this is. Is it more commercial? Yeah, it's more commercial, but it sounds different than what everything else is. Yeah, it's a lot more Lady Gaga, so I understand. Let's go to number four.
Number four, Matt already mentioned it, which I was surprised by, and it's glassing from the other side of the mirror. I love this band. Their last album ranked pretty high on my list. Not this high, but I feel like they improve every single time out. They deliver this just ultra-dynamic, emotionally textured post-metal, and this one is just really great.
So if you want to know more about what I think about it, go listen to the Endless Metal podcast where I talked about it for like 45 minutes. It was crazy. But yeah, it's awesome. All right. Nice. I knew that was going to come up at some point. Yeah. Matty. Okay, my number four. Bear with me. I'm not going to lie. Up until last year, I thought the term HM2 was a strain of hepatitis that I may or may not still have. That's a true story.
I discovered the origin story behind the sacrifice. Epic acronym. And what I mean is a true story. I did not understand. I didn't realize what HM2 stood for. It's a battle. I never thought it would be reaffirmed by this next pick. Sometimes labeled the desert darlings of death metal cactus core and ever growing sub sub genre. Good George is getting all excited. In the Pacific Northwest I completely got on board with said darlings. George loves cactuses. COVID. They put out an EP that latched itself to my daily playlist and never left. It completely shredded my immune system.
and it sheds and rips and I know it all.
I no longer need to get vaccinated against HM2 as this band's sound, which at one time was unbeknownst to me, was a celebration of the style so loved by all. I'm talking about Gate Creeper. I'm talking about Dark Superstition. It is their third album via Nuclear Blast. For me, this band also, I did not pay particularly close attention to their first two full-length albums. I thought they were good. And then, you know, I'm completely
I'm forgetting the name of that EP but it just blew my mind and then seeing them in Vegas Jay was that the band he left I'll ask him when he comes back I feel like that was the band he actually like because they played at the pool I think that was the time he actually like put his feet in the water but since then I've just loved and their style and well yes you can say it is you know commercial it's still just like speaks to me and I still get it yeah I mean they were like that
With the last album, it was clearly heading in a more commercial direction, but somebody ought to do it. I mean, yeah. I think you and I liked the last album, didn't we, George? Yeah, definitely. I can't remember if it placed for me, but I think it might have. I don't remember. I mean, I figured, I wondered if Will would have it on his list because he's the death metal guy, besides Justin. Of course, and I'm pretty sure Justin likes.
I don't remember but um Jay quick question what was it gatekeeper at uh
did you put your feet in the water for that one or was it like is that what you guys
I swear to you I was just gonna say that to you when George picked him I was gonna say what wasn't it the pool band yeah it was totally gatekeeper is that where you guys got married you were gonna get married
we're already married we got married before the festival that's why you're in the pool dangling your feet in the pool holding hands
That was totally the pool band and that was such a cool way to see a band. Yeah. That was awesome. Cephalic Carnage, I think. And then also a bath. Yeah. You took a bath in the pool? A bath. Yeah. Yeah, well, a bath was near the pool. The Motorhead, his cover band. Yeah. It was fucking great. Speaking of Motorhead, how's that Einherjir Deaf Forever cover? Isn't that awesome? Have you listened to that? Oh, so good.
One of my favorite Motorhead songs and Einherjer, they did a cover of it and it's awesome. Stone face dog, swirling fog, dead witness to an unseen fight. That's a great fucking song, man. Yeah, it is. Yeah. All right, John. All right, Matt, what are those two special words? Shake your mover. There we go. This definitely is one for me. I did not see this moving up so fast.
My List, seeing as I missed it when it dropped last week, and now it's my number four. I'm not surprised by it, but I'm surprised that it caught me by surprise, I guess, if that makes sense. I was a super fan of an album that came out in 2016 featuring this person, and I absolutely love it. You guys seem to all be somewhat slightly lukewarm or
and that's okay that's fine i think it's fucking amazing and is
completely blown up my list and that is julie christmas ridiculous and full of blood hey i brought
it up didn't i awesome i know i was hoping you wouldn't when you were saying it george is like damn
that shut up you fucker bastard because you brought it up for the reason i wanted to bring it up sorry
That's okay. I'm glad you did. If you don't know who she is, she was a singer of Battle of Mice and Made Out of Babies. Made Out of Babies is awesome. She also was part of the collaboration team with Colta Luna on their unbelievably incredible album Mariner that came out in 2016, which was a second match made in heaven. The first being
and it just seems like cult of luna and julie christmas go well together it sounds to me also like you guys feel about val and emma ruth rundle there's something about these combinations when put together with the right groups and artists it works and it just does for me this covers the gamut of everything i know george you had mentioned i think it was you mentioned you didn't think it was as heavy maybe it wasn't you that said maybe you did i can't remember there are a lot of heavy moments on here
There are also a lot of rock moments. I don't know what the hell noise rock is. Yeah, I mean, it's not like extreme, but it's not pop or anything. It's definitely heavy. She's got post-hardcore moments on it. I mean, her vocals are insane. And if you don't believe me, just listen to the second song, Supernatural. It's just the chorus is, and it's one word, and it's still amazing. Is that word hamburger?
No, it is not. I'm going to somewhere here. It's supernatural. What can I say? I know. Oh, I don't even want it. There's so many avenues I can go down right now, George. I'm not going to. No, I just love this album. And if you are a fan of the album Mariner, hint, hint, a.k.a. the situation, there are two songs on the album that features, I believe he's on both.
Yohannes Pearson from Colta Luna. It's the song End of the World in the Lighthouse. End of the World could literally be Mariner 2. Which is kind of a weird, like, you know, space program feel to it there on a satellite. I think it's awesome. I absolutely love this album. There's absolutely no way this album's not going to be in my top 10 at the end of the year. So, and sure, I get it. People say, eh, it's not metal. Yeah, shut up. Shut your mouth. And this is such a decibel pick for their top 25.
Oh, probably throw that ringer pick. The difference is this actually rocks and it's hard and it's heavy. Yeah. She's a freaking awesome singer. Yeah. I didn't listen to it that much just because it was just sort of like, eh, I got stuff to listen to. And this is probably going to be on my list, but I did listen to a little bit just because, and you know, it was cool. Yeah. I, I, I wasn't sold me. I haven't heard it. So yeah. I'm not a post hardcore fan, although it's really weird. I like the ocean. I like Colta Luna. I like,
Most of Mastodon. And they all come from a post-hardcore background, those bands. You know, I think even Neurosis has some too, don't they? A little bit in their early music. And so it's so funny for me to now say, oh, I guess I do some, like some of it. Not all of it, some of it. And it's, and it's very post-metal-ish too. On top of that, of course, there's some slower, toned down songs. Not slow, but toned down. But I think it's awesome. And George, you brought up a point that,
I kind of followed up with like look at my list. My list is littered with stuff that doesn't fall in line. Like the Necro is probably the most streamlined thing on my list. Then everything else is off in left field. Not all of it. A lot of it is. Like the Chapel Disease is off in left field for me, I think, personally. That's why I love it so much. That's why I think it's such a cool album. And so this is definitely off in left field for me. And I think it's...
It's surprising, but not unexpected. Yeah. I'll be honest. And you guys don't hear me go off that much about albums, unless it's Steel Panther. That's how much I like this album. Right on. I'm literally going to make sure I listen to it tonight. Yeah. Never. If you guys want it, let me know. Throw it up at the box. Please. I think I got it. Oh, and I think I got it for five bucks off of the queue, George. Off the queue? For 2448. Yeah.
I also ordered the CD too because I wanted to have it but I think I got it for like five bucks. Yeah. I'm not buying this 2448. That's now now I'm like being snobby about that 2440. It's bullshit. Yeah, it's not even 2496. Yeah, or 24196. It's on band camp too. If you guys want to give a spin, but if you decide you want it, just let me know. I don't care. I'll just say to you guys at some point. So cool. All right, well.
2496. And when he says his number four pick is also right, cutting the throat of God from New Zealand and they're on Debbie Muir Morty Productions. Expected that. Yeah. Right. Kind of did. Pop some eyes here a little bit because it's been a long day and you may not have remembered that I mentioned this was going to be on my list since I've been throwing things out often right here. But in any case, this record is like this.
of heavy metal to me. And it's a celebration of a lot of what I love about heavy metal. And it's well crafted and put together by people who know what they're doing. It's a little, it's got a little morbid tails edge to it with a little bit of beneath the lights to it, but it's an old school black metal record. And then also it's got traditional stuff on it. And every part of it is interesting. Why it should be something so late in somebody's career. And you would think that I would have always been putting this band's records on.
George said it had a little extra pepper on it. He's right. Dark foam. It beckons us all. Nice. It is just a fucking party of a heavy metal record. I mean, a negative party, but you know what I'm saying? Number four. Holy shit. I know that's high, but it's got it. It's so much fun. It's like, yeah, it is. In this record, there's a lot of my present in this record. And I just mean it sounds that make me happy. There definitely is like some Celtic frost on there. For sure.
And then there's like this big doomy one. It's the last time you'll, I'm going to say it or the last time you call my name or something. I'll have to look at it, but just fuck, man. It's just good from start to finish. And, you know, he gets credit for being a musicologist in my mind. And I know he has a massive extensive metal record collection. And, and, and he puts it to good use, you know? Yeah. In particular, I'm talking about pretty sure he does most of the way.
I did have a Norwegian black metal phase back when it was happening. And my favorite probably representation at that time was Darkstown, you know, amongst others. But anyway, I love that somebody can do this kind of a love letter to heavy metal. It works for me. They give zero fucks. They just do what they do. Yeah.
And it's like, yeah, I think my love letter to heavy metal is about the best comment I can make about it. Hell yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And it still sounds a little bit like I was recorded in the basement. Not totally, but I mean, you know what I mean? It's still, it's not. The studio in the basement now. Yeah. It's not your big music production stuff, but that works for me too, you know? Yeah. Hell yeah, man. That's awesome. Yeah. I know it's high, but that's sincere. Who cares, man? If you like it, you like it, right? Oh yeah. Now did this one fall asleep, by the way? I don't know.
Okay.
George.
So my number four, I thought it was going to be untouched by anyone but me, but it has been mentioned and that is art untouched by fire.
A boy, Mike Deeks.
Hello, Mark.
Fucking killer album again.
And you know, this is not a typical metal album.
You know, he goes to this place that really most people don't go to. And I love it. So the two parts of his music, there's nothing unique about them, meaning doom and in the classical medieval sound, putting them together and making it work. That's unique. That's what I think is special. That's why I really want to see him with Gregorian. Cause I want to see him with the, just, he, there's only one other person. I feel I want to see with a
Yeah.
George knows who I'm talking about.
There's only one other person that could make this massive choir and this massive wall of sound at the same time.
A metal band.
George.
Playing with my nipples.
Yeah.
I was going to say Devin.
Devin Townsend.
Yes.
But I was just like, that doesn't.
I don't know.
But yes, of course, Devin.
Yes.
I just, they both have a unique way of creating this grandiose sound.
And I would love to see it done with all the people involved. Very cool. It's nipple music. There's very little nipple music out there. And this is wonderful. Yeah. And I like that there's a theme to his albums. Yeah. Of the area that he's from. He seems very proud. I like that too, by the way. He seems very proud of it, and that's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. I agree. And if it's England, you're going to have all this great mythology attached to it anyway. So it's like.
Which is part of what he does. Yeah. Yeah. Which is wonderful. But yeah, that's awesome, man. Right. Now, did we lose a wounded soldier down there? I don't know. Mark Son, you there? Hello. Now we can't see. There he is. Ground control to Major Tom. Ground control to Mark Son. That works. That works. Yeah. Yeah. Syllable wise, that does.
You're clearly sleeping on your desk because you literally have a mark on your head. Right there. Right there. I can see it. Did you call it Rick Rubin? Were you Rick Rubining? Yeah. We are at your number three. Three. Three. I didn't know we're four. We did four. We did four. I didn't do four. Yeah, you did. What was your four? Did I? What was your four? Oh, I did glassing. Yeah, you did four.
For sure. Yeah. All right. Number three, Markisan long time ago. What are you guys talking about? Mostly you. Cool. Yeah, this is a man. I love this record so much. Duds Reach. Nocturnal will on Wolves of Hades records. I think this is just the ultimate version of what epic melodic
black metal can be.
And I don't know if I can say much more than that.
I just think this is amazing.
I know that Albert from Desbold loves this record.
So I'm kind of curious to see what Desbold is going to put it on their list.
Because I haven't seen him do much coverage of it.
But yeah, I love this record.
I may have listened to this one more than any other record this year.
I don't know.
There might be two more.
You guys listen to this one?
I think I saw it on some lists. Just a little bit. Not much. Yeah, a little bit. It was a contender. So good. All right. All right. Nice. Maddie. It was going to be on your list at some point. Yeah. Number three. Number three. Since March 29th, 2024, this next pick has been the soundtrack to all things situationally paradoxed. There I was in my cube minding my own business while making the world a better place when deadly angels began to growl and a blood red spotlight began to shake.
I began speaking what some might call a sinister oath. That said, I'm so undeniably addicted to double bass and this album has enough thumping low end to power the world for the rest of time. Add in some traditional death vocals and a handbag full of riffs more catchy than cooties and you've got the sands of time for the situational stays of his lives. Coffins, sinister, do me do me, deathy deathy metal from Japan. It's her sixth album, the Relapse Records.
And that is where I actually had the Sands of Time piece. I thought it was the other one. I like that. Doomy Doomy, Deathy Deathy. Or you could have just said Doom squared Death squared. Doom squared Death squared. Doom two death two. Or parentheses Doom times death close parentheses squared. Yes. We're getting... I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't done that kind of math in years. Math bad. All right.
My Number 3? This is an interesting album. I have it number 3. It's quite an amazing album considering the time that it was released and how long it took to get here. I think we all know this band probably by their actual legal name, but we also know them by Padre de Judas, otherwise known as Judas Priest, Invincible Shield.
You mean Invisible Shield? Yeah, I heard of that one. No, this is actually the Invincible Shield. Oh, it's okay. It's not that good. The Invisible Shield is in front of the Invincible Shield, so a lot of people make that mistake. Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha. I'm so pleased to hear it so high because, God, they hit it out of the park this year. Yeah, I think considering where they are in their career, to put out two super high-end albums for them at this point is great.
I don't think people appreciate Richie Faulkner enough for what he's given that band. He's helped sustain that band. The negative comments that they receive, which I just don't get, that they get it worse than anybody else. It's because of that new drummer. Yeah. Who, by the way, has been in the band for 35 years. Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day. I was like, you know, when Slayer retired, they retired with two original members. It happens to everybody. And I'm not comparing Slayer.
and Judas Priest to each other, because I know the main songwriters were still with Slayer. However, Glenn Tipton's still with the band. He's still there. He's still there. He just can't play anymore. No, but I, well, we talked about this, and I think this is a Richie record. Honestly, I think Richie probably went more to the table than anybody else as far as foundational stuff goes. Rob's at the top of his game as far as, like, as far as I'm concerned. His lyrics are all great and everything, and he sounds great. He's choosing the right, you know, he doesn't go hard.
As often as he should not, in the best kind of way. But... A lodger, hello. I really hope... I really hope... It's funny because Richie probably doesn't have a big career outside of Judas Priest, you know what I mean? And that's a shame because I'm starting to really fucking think the world of this guy. Yeah, he's a fabulous player and we should all be grateful, if we're fans, should be grateful. And again, you don't have to like the album, that's fine. We should be grateful for the fact that
He's even on stage right now. Yeah. Let alone writing music and recording music. He's on stage on top of that. That's crazy. And he's not an old guy. He's young. He's a kid still. Especially in that band. He's a kid. Yeah. You know, he's in his early 40s, I think. Yeah. That's young. Yeah. For what he's gone through. So I'm appreciative that we got to see them again. I've seen them more in the last few years than I have in like 30 some years. Yeah. So.
I think it's a great album. I don't know if it'll finish in my top five in the end, but anything in the top ten at the end of the year is, you know, as far as I'm concerned, is they're all great albums for our personal selection. So. Padre de Judas. See. All right, Will. The middle of Will doesn't flush the toilet. He scares the shit out of it.
He announces his number three pick, which is Deicide, banished by sin, Florida, unraigning Phoenix music. Hand him sunglasses. Damn it. Hey, Will, have you mentioned Judas Priest yet? I can't remember if he did. No? I have not. He's like, shit, I forgot they had an album out this year. When we got some album in the month, they'd forgotten. Yeah. It's like, how did you forget? Well, you were grinding.
at the show for I don't know how long. My leg was warm afterwards. All right. This is admittedly pretty high up the ladder for me. I mean, we're talking about number three here, but this is something that really captured my imagination this year. It's a volleyball, clearly, because nobody's going to have it this high at this point. I'm sure of that. And maybe not everybody knows it. I don't know. It's a band from Poland whose record cover looks
Exactly like this record sounds. And of which the first review on Bandcamp says, cold, bleak, and introspective, but oddly comforting in its own way. That's the perfect way to do this. This is a band called Hauntologist with a record called Hollow. Don't know. Wow. I love it. Huh. Atmospheric, blackish metal band from Poland.
It's fucking massive. I don't know that at all. I thought everyone would at least know it. That's interesting. No. It's great. And it's moving. All right. I'll check it out. My number three. Some, most might complain that this does not belong on a heavy metal list, but I am invoking the J rule. Yes. And it will be allowed.
And this is a bit of a quirky band. And their album of the last human being. This is Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum. Wow. Okay. I fucking love this album. In my book, and of course, you invoked me, but you get away with it. They're metal adjacent, or at least in the universe. There are definitely metal parts on this album. I always have been. Yes, of course.
And thought and mind, definitely. Yes. But are they completely left field for metal? Yeah, of course they are. But this is an amazing album. Oh, boy, George. You just blew my list up for the year end. You're like, all the things I can put on there now. Now I can go crazy. The crazy eyes that he just showed, I've never seen those crazy eyes on John before. Wow, I love it. Love this album.
And I know certain people who are probably sleeping right now would not agree. There he is. Would not agree with this, but I don't care because it's metal for me and it's good enough for Goonies. So yes, back to sleep with your brother. I love it. Except now it's your turn for number two. Boy, now I should put it on my year-end list.
I know. I know. It's like 12 above, you know, the Crip Sermon, but. Oh, God. Well, it's funny you should mention that record. Because it's your number two? It is my number two. All right. So I don't think I have to say any more about Crip Sermon. It's fucking so, so good. Decimal gave it a 10 out of 10, which is.
They don't do that very much. And I've listened to it a ton. I got it two weeks before it actually came out. And then they did a listening party. And I actually went on that on Bandcamp and listened to it and got to chat with the band a little bit more and ask them a bunch of questions. And that was pretty fun. So it's a phenomenal record. I think it's the best thing they've done. I think George said that it wasn't Crip Sermon to him.
But I think this is the ultimate version of Crip Sermon. I love the last record. I think it was pretty high on my list. But this one, I think they just found their right rhythm for the band, where it's doomy, but it's also traditional metal. And it's interesting because
I know the band said that they wanted to do something that was very memorable, that you would come back to over and over. But I feel like when I listen to it, the songs aren't that immediate. You have to really absorb them in order to get into the record. But having listened to it a bunch of times now, I definitely hear that. The melodicism, the richness of the textures that they're
They're putting into their music.
And the lyrics are really great as well.
Love Crip Sermon.
There you go.
Number two.
Excellent.
Nice.
It's a bass sound in my notes.
Nice.
Yeah.
She's been sleeping by the door all day.
She finally needed some human companionship.
You got to get down?
Some human companionship.
Say hi to everybody.
Enough of that.
She's out of here.
Bye.
Screw that.
All right.
She thinks it's time for two things. Okay. Matt. All right. Number two, an album that opens with the subtle clinking of metal and almost immediately lashes into what feels like the little cousin of Leviathan era mastodon. The second, the second song calling labor was the preview track I stumbled onto and also the tractor beam that pulled me into the vortex of this conceptual sludge opus. Um, via prosthetic, they wrote the great strike rages across the entire country of Sweden.
Local Union Uprisings are crushed one by one, but a small group stands defy it. The Ironworkers of Horndall, a group led by 27-year-old Ulrich Anderson, had Hammer Man as a tribute to Ulrich Anderson, a chance for his story to live on over 100 years after he took a stand for the people of Horndall. What I'm really trying to say is that Horndall, the band, are basically the Bruce Springsteen and Swedish sledgehammer. Nice. I mean, I knew of Horndall. I liked Horndall.
but this album just slapped me in the face when it came out and I've loved it ever since then it's been a regular in my playlist I was worried that the calling labor that first track was just gonna be that and then the rest was gonna kind of fizzle but it really held up and and this is a great album so third album like I said they're from Sweden and they are on prosthetic records sweet yeah all right my number two I'm
I'm questioning whether this should be number two, and I shouldn't switch it with my number 25. After all this talk today. But alas, it is here. And I think it's here because I just prefer this style of doom. Because I've been so nostalgic with my music now for quite a while now. I've been digging into a lot of early prog metal from the early 90s, a lot of US power metal from the 80s. So this style, or this particular,
subgenre seems to work for me. I like it. It's a really good album. I think it's their best. We'll see if it stays here for the end of the year. And that is Crip Sermon, The Stygian Rose. Cool. I've always been a fan. I mean, I actually had to go back and look at our 2015 list because none of us had it on our year-end list. Interesting. And I said to myself, okay, when did I buy this? Because did I buy it after we did the recording?
No. Just right after it came out in 2015. But I remember us talking about it afterwards saying, how do we all like this band, but we didn't have it on our list? Because I loved the first album a lot, too. I think they're a good reminder of what used to exist, which was that early Candlemas, Solitude Eternus, mixed in with a little bit of Trouble. Because Trouble kind of tapped into the doom slash heavy metal sound of the 80s.
And I kind of just dig that. I think my doom preferences are leaning back towards that a little more. I'm kind of tired of slow dirgy doom, to be honest. It's kind of pouring the shit out of me. You know, I think that's why the My Dying Bride resonated a little more. Again, because it reminded me of all that stuff from the 90s that I loved so much. Yeah. I mean, hey, I didn't hate it. It was my number 11, which is not anything to scoff at. It's awesome that it placed.
I'm assuming on all our lists. That's cool. Yeah. Hey, it doesn't matter, man. It's on the list. It's just like the Lord dying. I like the new album. You guys like it more than me. It's on the list, right? Yeah, it's all that matters. It's all that matters. As long as it's not Steel Panther, we're all good. Oh. Way to spoil my number one. Shit. All right. Well, yeah, I'm curious now because I haven't heard some albums from some of you guys. All right. Well, what's Will got?
O Will foi exposto a covid-19 e covid-19
had to go into quarantine for a month and
after that, I chose Neckrot
Lifeless Birth as my second pick
I feel good as much. California
and their auntie crimes. There it is
That's on a lot of lists too
It is. I'm not surprised
Will had it so high. Yeah. What is
Will s number one?
I know. Great question. Not Crips
not DSI
I have a guess, but I'm not going to say. I don't know. You don't? Well, we'll see. Who knows? We'll see. My number two is Newcast. Yeah. Back in Invincible Shield, man. We've talked about it a little bit. Knocked it out of the park this year. I mean, there's no reason Rob should sound that good. That they should sound that vinyl. The songs are all interesting. George said it.
Back when it first came out, there's nothing on the record I don't like. Absolutely. And I even said, like, I kind of like the second half better. That's not true anymore. What's great about great records is you're like, nah, I kind of like this side better. Side one's not my baby. The whole thing's good. Yeah. Well, you know what? Say no more. They're one of the foundational bands of heavy metal, if not the, and I even considered Sabbath in that because they came up with that,
Euro metal sound. So, wow. To have something this many years after it all started, that's saying something. And it really is that good. It's not just because it's Priest, but yeah. I mean, could we have asked for two better albums this late in our career? And I would almost throw Redeemers of Souls in there as well, you know, I mean. I know you love that one a lot, yeah. I do. It's not as good as Firepower, I admit that. And this is, I think, the best of the three of them, you know. Even though Firepower
is really good. So yeah, bless the priest, man. There are a lot of bands in their position that are not putting out good music. It is just hype to sell records from PR campaigns and stuff like that. It's just good. If you don't like it, that's fine. I get it. You said it perfectly, John, because here's what I think. And I mean, Richie and the younger guys, you know, it's one thing, but they seem enthusiastic about what they're doing. Like they're excited to make a record. They must've all been like,
It sounds cool. Blah, blah, blah, blah. To do something for 40, 50 years and still be like, fuck, man, this is going to be so much fun. Let's go make a record. That's awesome. And have it turn out that good. Yeah. That's awesome. Cool. All right, George. Get us into that first pick round. All right. Number two. From the country of Norway. With the self-titled album. Isan. Wow.
That sits kind of strangely nicely next to Sleepytime Gorilla Museo, actually. Yeah. In its way, you know what I mean? Just because they're both pretty eclectic. Yeah. As am I, apparently. Indeed, yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, this album just... I mean, most of these albums are like that, but this one was, I don't know, it's kind of special to me. Like, the last few. That's probably why it's self-titled, honestly. I mean, I think he thought, hey, this is sort of a little watershed for me.
Yeah, this is my black album. Yeah, why not? I mean, I feel like it might be my favorite since after. Yeah, it's good. It's like saying something. So. All right, Markisan number one. Holy shit. Go. Oh, man, I'm fucking sleepy.
Well, so is my number three. Yeah, sleep regardless. All right, number one. Holy shit, we're finally here. All right, it has been mentioned once before, and I was surprised by that. Thank you, Jay, for putting this on your list. And it is Aquilus. Wow. Aquilus.
Aquaman 2.
Northern Silence Productions.
I mean, I'm surprised that this is my number one pick.
This band wasn't even really on my radar until I happened upon the first single,
Nigh to Her Gloam, a couple months ago, on the Northern Silence Facebook page.
And that song completely blew me away.
And I ended up playing that particular song five times in a row. The song is 17 minutes long. So that's a lot to play back to back. But you know, this is what I live for as a metalhead. Finding a band, or in this case, a single musician who can just unexpectedly floor me with their music.
So Bellum 2 is a phenomenal cinematic black metal masterpiece to me. It's got arrangements that are beautifully written, effortlessly flowing from dread metal darkness to quiet beauty to classical symphonic heart-rending majesty.
And this album does not sound like anything I've heard before. Every time I listen to it, it evokes different emotions and memories. And it makes me feel like I'm reaching in and bringing back a new piece of myself when it's over. And that just not happened very often with music.
Bellum 2 by Aquilus is my top metal album at mid-year. And I honestly, I cannot wait to listen to it again. You really got to bite your tongue when somebody says you're number one. You're sort of like, ah, shit. Because I dropped it a little bit earlier. Yeah. Those covers are suitable for the Bellum 1 and 2, don't you think, too? I like the artwork that they selected for that. Yeah, no, they're gorgeous. I just got the vinyl in the mail.
a couple days ago for Bellum II, and it looks awesome. I mean, it's the right kind of folky or folk scene, you know, in the art. It's not folky art. Yeah, it has a folk influence to it, but I wouldn't say it's a folky album, but it definitely has that in it as well. It's just, it's very symphonic overall, and yeah, I just never heard anything really like it. It's phenomenal. Nice, that's awesome.
Again, just didn't have the time at the end to catch up on everything. So I got through, I think, one or two songs. I got to go back to it at some point. Yeah, I hope you do, John. Yeah, that's cool. Obviously, it's my number one, so I want everybody to hear this one and try to absorb it and get something out of it. So, yeah, I hope you do, too. Cool. Awesome. Very nice. Number one, number one. As I've been scrolling up my list, I realized I actually didn't write anything.
from my number one pick. Oh, thank God. That is because it's a placeholder for Carcass' next album. No, I'm kidding. I did not write anything, but that's because I need to be honest with you guys. I love Muddy Production. I don't know if me and I might have the same number one. So earlier when I talked about Crip Sermon and getting out of New Metal Rehab, one band that I
legit did come across that really pulled me back in to what is good metal was ulcerate and to me this album is a continuation of it i mean i literally don't know if i can find a sound i'd love more because i really do think that they're not a death metal band i think they're a brutal post metal band um this they're there's just so much killer melody in there but it is just so brutal those silly kiwis silly it's pretty damn dissonant
Yes. Again, it just came out, you know, Marcus, he sent us the link to listen to the whole album, so I've had some time to spin it a little bit more. And again, who knows what year-end will bring, but Cutting the Throat of God by Ulcerate is my number one album of the mid-year. Excellent. John? All right, my number one. Should be no secret. It's been mentioned twice. Won't spend much time with it.
That is Exist, Hijacking the Zeitgeist, Prosthetic Records.
Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm being cliche every time they release now, but it seems like they're in my top one or two.
But I really do love this band a lot, and there's something about this album that hits me into certain feels.
I am a super fan of kind of progressive metal melding with jazz fusion.
Not so much with the horn side, but just with the guitar work. Anytime I can hear Alan Holdsworth or John McLaughlin influencing the sounds of modern metal guitarists, to me, that's a good thing. I hear a little bit of Alan Holdsworth in this sometimes, just a little in some of his playing. That says a lot if you're a fan of him as a guitarist. I'm not a guitar player, but I have not met a guitarist that hasn't been really good.
that understood where Alan Holdsworth's place was in all of rock music, you know, and in jazz fusion. So. Eddie Van Halen, and this is true, and I think it was something that I read in something you sent me, John, but he, as you know, famously played with Alan Holdsworth on, what, one night or something, I don't know, maybe they did more together. They asked him about it in this guitar magazine, they asked him about it, and he said he needs to settle down. Eddie Van Halen at that time in 1970, blah, blah, blah, was saying he'd
Yeah, think about that. That's something. Yeah, I mean, and I know Eddie Van Halen had a strong connection with him and helped him out with a lot of stuff in the 80s. He did, yeah. I think he quickly gave him a career. Saved his career. Helped him out a lot. And he's the one guy, Eddie could get a little terse and trash some guys, especially when he wasn't in his best
frame of mind. That's the one guy he wouldn't touch with a thousand foot pole. He just would never say anything bad about him ever. So. And I bet you dollars to I'll bet you dollars to donuts. Bring it back those old phrases. Eddie Van Halen would probably take back most of those things he said about other guitarists. Except for Joe Perry. I think he really didn't like that guy. And the ones that were mean to him like Chrissy Blackmore. He said those guys were such jerks on tour or in the backstage.
All right. Here we go. Will. Here we are. Everybody will can download hardware. Chew on that. My number one pick. Some silly bag called Judas Priest. Invisible Shield. From Birmingham UK. On Sony Music. Will. Honestly, I was thinking it's either that or he forgot. I remember when he did
his pick of the month, he had one, and then he was like, oh, crap, Judas Priest. Yeah, we had to redo it for him. I agree. I think that Priest might take number one, even after your pick, George. I think it might be number one. I don't. Really? What do you think it'll be? Well, I don't. Well, here's the wrench I'm going to throw in the works all of a sudden. But it might not. Maybe it won't fuck the system too much. But it's that Judas Priest was my number one. I mentioned that.
I mentioned I had a number one for a long time. It was locked in and then it got knocked to number two and it got knocked to number two by a record that kind of took me over like a wall of sound. And I guess it might be kind of surprised to hear that it is Ulcerate cutting the foot. Yeah. Wow. I was blown away by this fucking record. It is so interesting and so many kick ass hooks on it. I mean, just fuck. Wow. This is sort of like the way the horrendous record hit me last year.
You know, it just really came at me a thousand miles an hour. I was like, fuck, this is so catchy and shit. There's so much good stuff in it. Well, Jay, I might be the kink in that wrinkle. Yeah. Because you jaded it. It's not that I jaded it when I wanted to listen, because it came out, what, two weeks ago? Or a week ago? Yeah, it wasn't long. It was like scraping metal for me when I wasn't feeling well. Oh, I'm sure. I get it. It just turned me off so bad. And I really want to like this band.
I really do.
And because I know you guys love them and I just can't get into them,
but I'm really happy to hear you guys.
I'll have it.
June is like the best month I've seen it forever.
We have so many albums in our top 10 from June.
Well,
I think it could be,
it's just,
that's two number ones that picked up.
And then it's going to be really close.
It might get it.
Well,
and Marcus are both top teners,
I believe on it.
And,
um,
however low it was.
Right.
Let's see.
It's in my top 10.
Wow.
It's going to be close. Those are the top two, I think. I think Crip Serpent is close number three, probably. Yeah, those are probably the three. I mean, that surprisingly is going to be higher than I thought it would be. Yeah. All of a sudden. Now we need to hear. Yeah, George, maybe you blow everything up. Maybe. Look at that. I mean, Ulcerate, two number ones. Well, I mean, Judas Priest also has two
number ones with mine. Oh, does? Oh, you know what? Hey, man. What a sneaky bastard. I'm a cheeky mover. Yes. Number ones, number two, and John was three or four. I think Priest is going to take Elserate. And you know what? I'm perfectly comfortable with that. Yeah. But that's okay. Elserate can be number two. Matt, you need a cheeky podcaster now to go along with Cheeky Mover. Wow. That's awesome.
Wow, Priest took two number one slots this year. That's great. There's nothing like that this year. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to quote him, but John P.T.'s the same way. I've gotten so many texts from him where he's like, dude, I can't fucking stop listening to this. Everything is so memorable and everything. Yeah, he's not wrong. So Will had it at five? Say again? Did Will have it at five? Will had it at one. Oh, who had it at five? No, Will was number one. Okay, Will was one. Matt was pretty high. Matt, you had it?
I was like 10. Okay. So, well, John, yours was pretty high. I was 13. Oh, 13. Okay. Okay. Well, this is going to be interesting. It's going to be tight. I like it tight. Nice. Very cool. Yeah. It's so funny when we do this. I didn't register that George hadn't said that yet. I was counting on that. There was two I was waiting for, George. That and Eson. I was like, okay, he hasn't mentioned these yet. That's cool.
So we got five priests and five ulcerate. So I don't think Markisan head priest. No. Okay. Not. Yeah. That's correct. Yeah. So we'll. Yeah. Okay. Oh, wow. I can't. So that kind of, that crimps it. I did this on my spreadsheet, so I'll send it off to today, John. Yeah. When you guys get a chance, I'd appreciate that. I'm not going to do as many stats with the mid-year. There's no point. I'll, I'll come up with some good stuff that we can talk about.
We'll have our top 25, of course. I'm sorry you haven't been feeling good, but I'm glad you started. Thank you. Were you out of work that whole time? I left work early Wednesday, and I did not return until Monday. And then I was off two days this week. So I haven't worked that much since I got it. I think I've worked three days. No, two and a half days I worked. Yeah, I just kicked it. And I tested. I did everything, followed.
I didn't sleep for half a week, maybe four days. So it was tough. Not whining. It just got me. It just really hit me hard. I definitely haven't been hit like you have, John, but I definitely had something going on this week that kind of slowed me down a little bit. And like summer cold, summer sick sucks. I mean, sometimes you'll be sick in the winter and it sucks. But when it hits you this time of year, it just sucks worse. Because everyone's traveling and people are coming back from where
A lot of overseas travel and stuff just gets passed around and merged and melded and amalgamated into something that you haven't had yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, hey, man. Here we are. This was fun. Another one in the books. Yeah. Sleep well, Mark. I get it. It's so sleepy. I get it. It's almost the rough equivalent of somebody holding their fist up like this. Yeah. It's just a thumbs up, you know, like a player gets hurt in a sports game and they're carrying them off.
The carton is the thumb goes up right as they go in the tunnel. Yep. All right. All right, guys. George, get in contact. See you boys. Yeah. See you guys. Next gathering. Yes. All right. Yeah. Be ready, Jay. I'm ready. I'm ready now. You can just say the word. All right. All right, guys. It was a pleasure. See you. Take care. See you.
"Making
Whoa! Hey! Congratulations on 150 episodes from your old pal Chuck BB. Oh, it's your 151st show. Well, congratulations on 151 episodes. That's even one more better than 150, and I don't know what more you can do from that, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry for missing the opportunity to wish you guys the 10 years.
of excellent metalhead podcasting or whatever. I appreciate you guys and I thought that that episode that you put out there where you talked about all the things you did and falling down in parking lots and stuff. That was great. And what I'd like to do is hear more of that because it makes my heart swim. I don't know what else to say but you guys rule and stay true.