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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.
I am still the Metal Adjacent situational paradox.
And this is Markisan.
And Will is not here tonight. He is out being father of the year again. Such a good father. But I did see him recently, but we will talk about that later. Perhaps you've been wondering where we've been. It's been a minute. And if you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you may be used to the fact that around August we all kind of disappear in our own rabbit holes and we're just not around for a little while. So sorry about that.
But we're back. And we got some hopefully interesting stuff for you today. But before we get into anything interesting, let's do T-shirt and beer check. T-shirt and beer check. Man, what a loaded statement for the rest of the episode. I'm just being a silly goof. Oh, boy. Yeah. Well,
I start. So I'm wearing my Mastodon baseball tee in remembrance of Brent Hines. We'll be talking about it. It's got a barbarian woman on it holding a bloody axe with skulls at her feet. And I am drinking a beer. It's called Celestial Death. Since this podcast is focused on the sad departures of some incredible metal musicians.
Black Barley Wine from River North and Third Eye Brewing. It's got a pretty rich roasted malt, kind of a dark cocoa flavor to it. 10.3%. Pretty good. Very nice. Matt. I am wearing my Suicidal Tendency shirt bought at Psycho Vegas in remembrance of Psycho Vegas. Where are you, Psycho Vegas? I am drinking
And I also have a rye old-fashioned. I could go for an old-fashioned right about now. All right. So I'm wearing my newly acquired November's Doom Rock Power T-shirt that they brought specifically just for the fest that I was at earlier in the month. And I'm drinking something called No Clouds. It's an IPA. It's a West Coast IPA. So it's just an IPA. And it's from...
A local burpee called Salus Buraya. And it's quite good. And I could see through it, which is awesome. Alrighty. Jay. Wearing the water head. Let's see. Iron Fist, 40th anniversary, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not drinking even water. No. You're just going to get dehydrated during this episode. Yes, well, it'll be supper time before long. All right.
I am wearing my Buc-ee's t-shirt that I recently acquired in Brunswick, Georgia. I was down in St. Simon's Island, Georgia for a couple of weeks, which is why I was not here podcasting. And, you know, a couple of the guys mentioned, I think it was actually when Will was here, Buc-ee's on possibly the last episode or one of the previous ones. Or maybe it was offline. I don't know. But I was like, hey, Barb, there's a Buc-ee's.
We should go there. And we should buy a shirt. And I did. And I was at the beer store. So it's just a yellow circle with like a, I don't know, a beaver? Is that what it is? Yeah. I think he's a beaver. With a red hat on. The big teeth in the front kind of gives him away. Yeah. And I was at the beer store today and some guy walked up to me and started talking about a band called the Flying Squirrels. And I was like, yeah, it's not this.
Buc-ee's is for people who don't know, George? It's this massive gas station slash mall. It's got like, I don't know, like 50 gas pumps. It's like, you know, gas pumps to the horizon. And I went in, never having been to one before, and there's like, first of all, there's registers lined up on each side. And then you go in, and on the right, you've got Cracker
with all the Cracker Barrel-y type stuff that you can find that's knick-knacky country
stuff. On the left was just shirts and every kind of, you know, Gene Simmons heaven of like every type of branded Bucky's item you could possibly think of. And then that moves into the other half of the building, which is food. And there's just like coolers for miles and some sort of fudge thing.
and all kinds of hot sauces and jerkies. And I didn't actually go all the way into the food thing because we'd already eaten. So, but it was, it was massive and awe inspiring and kind of scary. They do barbecue there and stuff too, I believe. And I mean, I've never been to one, but we just got one in Virginia. Oh, did you? Yeah. Yeah. That's the Harrisonburg one. Yeah.
Yeah, we saw it on the way down and we're like, oh, well, there's one down there. We'll just go to the other one. Yeah, it's like where Walmart meets a gas station. Yeah, exactly. That is a great description. Walmart meets a gas station. It's crazy. Yeah. We drove down to the Wisconsin Dells a few months back and saw that they're building a Buc-ee's somewhere along that route. We're going to get a message from one of you guys one time, I found vinyl at Buc-ee's.
And if you're going down 81, it's also like south, oh wait, not 81, 95.
South of the border is kind of a, you know, Bucky's doesn't have rides yet, but it might eventually.
Yeah, south of the border isn't that great of a reputation anymore.
Oh no, it's like a ghost town there. It's kind of sad.
I know.
And in terms of what I'm drinking, I just finished a collaboration between Destination Unknown and Coastal Kitchen.
It's called Coastal IPA. It is an IPA with coconut, mango, vanilla, and lactose. This was given to me by my good friend Justin when we were in Hershey last weekend. Justin, you're right. This is pretty good for an IPA. If it was a stout, I would have expected it to be a lot sweeter with all that in there, but it was fairly low-key. So, yeah, it was good. And now I am drinking Three Floyd's Evil Beast of Athanasia.
1,000 bodies, double IPA.
Nice.
Alrighty.
John, do you want to give a little shout to Prog Power?
Sure, why not?
First, I will say this will be very brief.
If you want the full lowdown on it, you can go over to our sister podcast, Stairway to 11,
where TR and I, we both attended together this past four weeks ago, I guess, three weeks ago. You can get the full lowdown there where we go in way more detail. You'll hear stuff about bands and beers and hand puppets and all kinds of interesting stuff. Maybe some Thai food gets mentioned. So you'll get all that over there. But I'll just briefly mention that this was the 24th edition of it. Hard to believe.
The main promoter, his name is Glenn Harveston. He's got one more left and he's retiring. And he's done. He's out of the business. And it probably is coming at a good time for him. Because this year was just fraught with so many visa issues. They lost so many bands. But they replaced them with some great bands too. So while I feel for people who wanted to see certain bands, apparently there was a lot of angst over the fact that Night Flight Orchestra had to cancel.
There were some good replacements. Unfortunate, fortunate is the way you got to look at it. And it was a rough year, so I don't envy those guys that had to do that. Glenn does the main fest, which is the day three and four, which is Friday, Saturday. Nathan, who is from Matt's neck of the woods, he handles day one, which is on Wednesday. And then Milton handles day two on Thursday, and Milton will be taking over.
Not next year, but the year after. He'll be in charge of taking the legacy forward. Anyway, just real quick, I'll just run down the bands and then just tell you who I stuck around for, TR stuck around for, and then if you guys have any questions or comments or whatever, I'll answer them. So the first day, day one on Wednesday, this started the Wednesday right after Labor Day. They had a band called Aries Descendant. I did not watch them. I don't know anything about them.
I just couldn't make it. Secret Sphere, I missed that one too. Wednesday, I might have been somewhere drinking. I do not remember. Definitely drinking, John. I don't remember. Oh, wait. I don't know. That might have been the Puppet Museum that day. And then Typhoon. I can't remember. Anyway, so I made it for the third band, a band called Eclipse, which was just a hard rock band. They're fine. It was cool.
I'm not buying anything from them, but I enjoyed their set. They brought a lot of energy and it was good. Next band that I was there for mainly on the first day was Green Carnation. And while their set was awesome, it was very disappointing. They were like 45 minutes late getting on stage because they could not get their stage setup set. So they had to cut about over 30 minutes of their set. So we lost four songs. So they played their whole new album, which had not been released.
It dropped two days later. So we were the first people ever to see it in its entirety. And then they had to stop, unfortunately. So they made the best of a tough situation. You just can't let these, you can't cut into other bands' times, unfortunately. And that's just how it goes sometimes. The final band was supposed to be Hammerfall. They were off of the fest. They had to back out. And so they had a band called Visions of Atlantis. At that point, I was like, no. I think there were pirates in power metal, and that's not my thing.
I have not saying anything yet about the band. It's just not my thing. So on the day two, first band was Alterum. I was not there for them again. I didn't make it for the first band. And I didn't make it for the second band. Maestrick, I think is the name. I don't even know what these bands play. And I apologize for not knowing that. The third band was supposed to be The Ocean playing all collegial, but they backed out like literally the next day after it got announced last year. Yeah. Which that kind of pissed me off. I was like, you wasted everybody's time.
Oh, we don't know who's going to be in the band in the visa issue. We won't be able to get them in. All right, whatever. But they were replaced by Ancients. Nice. Yeah. And they fucking slayed. They were good. They were so good. Now, mind you, I'm there with myself and our friends, Julie and Lance. And you guys may have seen Julie. She contributes a lot on the New Music Friday. She's always posting. And her husband's Lance. I was with them. Tiara did not go to the first two days. He was off doing other stuff.
So he missed Ancients. After Ancients was supposed to, after them was originally going to be Iron Savior, they bowed out. They didn't want to come for their own personal reasons. So we got November's Doom. Fine by me. Much better. Yeah, they were awesome. And they cranked. Now, we'll stop at November's Doom real quick. Paul Kerr from November's Doom, the singer, sang with Green Carnation on a song the night before. So it was pretty cool. So it was nice. Next band was a band called Vola.
who I never really listened to him but Julian Lance convinced me to check them out two years ago they're kind of a modern prog metal band have some gente vibes a lot of synth vibes to them they're awesome live I've watched both their sets that they played there and they were great I don't know if I'll ever get anything from them but we all have bands that we go and see them live we love it they're like yeah maybe I'll check them out later maybe I won't but while I see them they're great so and the final band was
Sonata Artica. I don't know how to say that name. Artica. They have like power metal and wolves on their covers and not my thing. So. All right. To the second day. The first band was this band called Majestica. I did not watch them. I don't know where we were for these opening bands. I don't know what we were doing. We did make it for the second band, which is a band called Sometime in February. They were an instrumental group. What I did not know is that they were
is the guitarist filling in for Between the Buried and Me. I didn't know that. Great band, instrumental, which instrumental bands don't play there, but they're a replacement band. They replaced the band Temek, who couldn't get in because of visas. Next band was Bellacor from Australia. You know, melodic death metal. They were awesome. I mean, I like Bellacor. I like all those melodic death bands, like Insomnia and Bellacor. I have a bunch of stuff. I don't really listen to them that often.
But they were great live. And that's, I think, their first time ever in the States. They're doing a full U.S. tour. They were great. Just they crushed it. Very good. The next was supposed to be Night Flight Orchestra. They were out. They were replaced by Rivers of Nile. And they were intense. I mean, they... I don't even know how to describe their set because I didn't expect it to be that much. I was even tired after that. I was like, yeah, it was a little bit much. And I like them. I mean, I'm not a super
fan, but I like them. And it was just nonstop onslaught the whole time. They just did not relent. It was good. They're on tour also right now, so they kind of fit the bill. They could slide in. Next band was supposed to be the new album, John. Sorry. They played a lot from the new album, yeah. But they covered a lot of ground. Okay. The fifth band was supposed to be Vandenplass, Jay. They had to bow out because one guy couldn't get in. Wow, that's crazy. This is an uncommon amount of bow outs here.
Well, it's so... Without getting political about this, it's hard not to, because the visa issue has become much worse this year than it's ever been. Yeah. It's not that it hasn't existed. It has gotten worse every year since it started. So now that's stated, John, is there a very specific thing happening now? Like, did they start charging for the visas? Oh, yeah. They charge, but the fees have gone up exponentially. Okay. And the wait times have gone up exponentially.
Okay.
And you're at the mercy of who's handling the case for the band.
Yeah.
And so with Vandenploz, it was literally one band member?
I think it was one band member they had an issue with.
Vandenploz has never had an issue coming in, ever.
Yeah.
Ever.
They've always been there.
But I'm going to tell you why this is kind of funny in a dark humorous sense.
They were replaced by a band called Project.
Prog.
P-R-O-G.
Jack.
Get it?
Get it?
And they were a cover band and all they did, they said, all we're going to do tonight is play 70s prog rock classics. And then they proceeded to play a bunch of Rush songs from the 80s. I was like, yes. And all they did for an hour and a half was just cover Genesis. Yes. Rush. Emerson, Lake and Palmer UK in Crimson. I was in heaven watching this set. It was so good. And Mike Keneally was on guitar. Jonathan Mover on drums. The keyboard is from Spock's beard.
The Bassist from a number of bands, but from Zappa Plays Zappa. And the singer is the new keyboardist and backing vocals for Band & Plas. God damn it. So I don't know what happened with them. Wow. Yeah. So with that said, I had a great time because they're playing all these. And it was all medleys too. So they ended up playing like probably 40 different songs, but they're all pieced together. So, and I needed that.
After Bellacor and Rivers and All, I needed a break. So the final band was this Odin Ogen. And TR and I have watched them both times that they were there before. And they're a great power metal band from Germany. Apparently their lead singer got sick right before the set and couldn't play, but they still went on stage and played. I was just too tired at that point, but kudos to them for still putting out their set. I mean, that's tough to go out there when your singer's like, I'm out. All right, last day. Sorry, I've gone in longer than I thought. So the first band is supposed to be Aviations.
They had to back out. And I don't know why. It's crazy. Yeah, it's horrible. But they're from the U.S. So I don't know what happened with them. So they were replaced by a band called Lux Terminus, which was an instrumental band. But their keyboardist is like this young guy from Cleveland. And he's playing with like everybody around the world right now. And I think he just became a permanent member within Temptation. I'm like, what's this guy? He's all over them. They were great. And it was it was more prog rocky kind of stuff. But again, what's Glenn going to do?
do. Next band, All For Metal. Guess what? They didn't play. They were replaced by a band called Night Demon, Jay. Oh, I love Night Demon. Yeah, but you admit that would probably be right in Jay's wheelhouse, don't you think, Marguson? Yeah. Jay, if you don't know Night Demon, it might be in your wheelhouse. Okay. It was pure 80s with the headbanging and the running around the stage and the outfits and the Ron Jeremy mustache on the one guitarist.
I mean, and they cranked out. TR was loving it. And I was just like, all right, I was there for that too. And I'm moving on. So, but he, he loved it. So yeah. Next band was supposed to be Jalicic. I don't know if you guys know anything about this singer Jalicic. Did he, was he the singer in Rainbows? Anybody know the new singer for them? I don't know if he was, I can't remember. He's this amazing singer. And I believe, is he, maybe I'm wrong, from Croatia? I could be wrong about that. Check. I don't know.
And I don't want to I'm probably wrong so sure somebody's correcting me he's a fabulous
singer he had to bow out and I was really bummed I wanted to see him because he sang on one of the Mike
Romeo the guitarist from Symphony X one of his solo albums so Saigon Kick played oh wow yeah with uh George you'll have to correct me I always get his name wrong Jeff Scott Soto did I say it right yes yeah he sang with them I would have stuck around to watch him sing because he's a fabulous singer but I was like uh I need food
because it was going to be a long night. Next band was Cemetery Skyline. I don't know if you guys are fans of this band. They're kind of a gothic rock metal band thing. It's the guy from Dark Tranquility, the lead singer. I think I actually liked that album. Was that like last year? Last year, I think. Yeah, it was a good album. So he's been to Prague Power three years in a row for three different bands. Because he also has the halo effect too, I think. I don't know if you guys are fans of the halo effect. Yeah, they're good. Yeah.
So he was there
I would have stayed
But I was like
I'm going to have to be there
For the next two bands
And so I got to take a break
So two bands left
Next band's called Skald
Oh I love Skald
Yeah
That's like old school do?
No
Oh maybe it's a different
S-K-A-L-D
Okay
They play a lot of like
Tribal Celtic
Nordic type stuff
Okay
I thought they were from
They're from somewhere in Scandinavia. They're from France. So I'm guessing it was all Celtic type music. It was cool for 30 minutes. Then I was like, all right, let's wrap this up. Because it's the same. There's no drums. There's, you know, tribal beats and everything. And they're fabulous musicians. I got a little tired after a while with them. And they did an encore too. And they weren't a closing band, which I thought was kind of odd. But anyway, the final band was Symphony X.
And they totally jerked our chains hard because they came out and played the first four songs at Divine Wings of Tragedy. Which I was like, I said, I looked at TR by the third song. I said, dude, if they if they play the accolade, they're playing the whole fucking album. This is going to be amazing. And they played the accolade. I was like, yes. And then they proceeded to not play the rest of the album. So I was like, oh, but they were great. Exactly.
That's one of the best shows I've ever seen him, though. The lead singer, Russell Allen, I don't know if you guys are familiar with him. I think he's a great singer. Probably one of the best vocalists, you know, singers in metal. And he does a lot of hard rock type stuff, too. He does stuff with Jorn Laund, who is another great singer who's kind of channeling David Coverdale all the time, but better at this point. He had a lot of nice moments where he he singled out
Glenn right up front and talked about how proud he was to play at the fest with the band and the band would never have missed that in a million years and it was cool so I went longer than I should have but that was it it was a great fest considering all the the bands that had to back out for various reasons and they had me excited when you said Scald because S-C-A-L-D is an epic doom metal band but why would they be at Prog Power and they wouldn't be well you never thought November's doom would be there good point yeah and I
What was your favorite performance, John? Well, Symphony X is always good. I mean, you guys don't hear me talking about them all the time. I love them. And I'm not a huge power guy. And they're like a mix of product and power. They're always awesome live. It was great to see November's Doom on the big stage. It was great to see Bellacore for the first time ever in the States. Green Carnation, despite all that. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if anyone stands out. They're all fun this time. George, do you want me to real quick do the lineup for next year? Because it's hands down.
their best lineup ever. Do it. All right. So I don't want to take too much time. Sorry. All right. These are all tentative. But this is what they came up with for the final Prog Power with Glenn as the main promoter. All right. So the first band on Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 is going to be a band called The Reticent. Literally, everyone's going to be crying during their set. They're hard to stomach and watch. I don't know if you guys are familiar with The Reticent.
They Made My Top 25 and their last album came out a few years ago. It's all about the main guy's grandfather, somebody's family having Alzheimer's. So it's hard. It's hard to it's it's tough. It'll be cool. Next band is called Nevera. Neveria. I don't know. I have no idea. They're from Italy. Another band from Italy, Fabio Leone's Dawn of Victory. So that's just going to be Rhapsody for a full hour and 15 minutes, probably. So if you like Rhapsody, you're going to love that.
Next Band's Threshold, so I'll be jamming with that. They're a prog metal band. And then the final band, En Saphirim. I don't know much about them, so I know they're a big name. All right, so it starts to pick up a little more here going forward. So Thursday, Fires in the Distance is opening Thursday. Nice. Yeah, Scardust. It's the next band, Don't Know Them. Next band, Taramaze from Australia. They're cool. They're a prog metal, kind of prog rock-ish power kind of thing.
Next is another band from Italy. I don't know what's going on. Apparently, Italy can get in the country, no problem. A band called Elven King, and they're playing special sets from two different albums. So I'm imagining there's going to be a lot of Legolas dudes walking around for that set with pointy ears and long blonde hair. Next band is Conception, which I'm all about. They're a progmental band from Norway. They're one of the first wave progmental bands, so that'd be cool. And the final band is a band called Iluvati. Is that how you say their name?
I always get that they're kind of a raw or a folk yeah kind of uh melodic death melodic death yeah they kind of touch on a lot but the folk is their big thing it's it's cool stuff all right day three this is the main fest which is this is these are Glenn's picks and I I'm shocked how he got this all to play through so first bands DGM again another band from Italy what is going on uh they're cool they're kind of a
I've seen them. Brainstorm from Germany is a power band. I don't know if you guys are familiar with them. They're cool. They're not traditional power like, you know, singing about slaying dragons and eating a lot of cheese and gang sing. It's not that stuff. Next is Crimson Glory, which I was like, fuck yeah, that's going to be awesome because they're back. Hammer Falls returning. They couldn't play this year, so they'll come back next year. Sure they are. Yeah, until something happens. Next band's Nevermore. They're going to make
come back to the fest i heard that so everyone's kind of waiting for that and then this was an obvious you knew ever gray was going to play somewhere during the fest and they're headlining friday glenn's good friends with them so that was going to happen and they're they've been to the fest five or six times all right last day a band called sunburst followed by a band called seven spires that chick from seven spires excuse me that woman from seven spires scared the hell of me when i saw her singing on the promo she's good though that's pretty good actually yeah she can crank it out man she brings she
She brings the pipes. All right. Next is Roy Kahn, who is the singer for Conception. So he's doing a solo set also. So I'm like, fuck yeah. Roy Kahn's another great, just clean vocalist. Three bands left. Redemption's playing their prog metal band. They've been a fest favorite. They got ties to other bands, so that'll be cool. The Gathering is coming back. And they're going to be playing all of Medellin for the 30th anniversary. It's called The Gathering featuring
and a band called Voyager from Australia. This is a big deal because the lead singer from Australia has cancer. And I believe I could be wrong. It's terminal. I could be wrong about that. Maybe it's not. But for all intents and purposes, they had no intention that they would be able to play at Prog Power. And he's still here.
So they're going to headline the whole fest, which is cool. Nice. Yeah. I'm tempted to go just to see the gathering. Well, I will tell you this. There are only 300 tickets left. Oh, wow. Because what he did is he announced that I am opening the tickets to everyone here at the fest on Saturday from one to six. So you don't have to pay Ticketmaster fees. And it's a way of saying thank you to all the loyal supporters for 24 years.
sold, I think, 600 tickets or over 500 tickets in that five-hour span or some crazy number. So there's only 300 tickets left for the rest of the fest for those two days. Wow. Yeah. So, because all the VIPs and gold badges are sold out already. So that's another, I think, 300 people or something like that. So anyway, sorry, George, I went way too long with that. I apologize. That's all right. We're not done with you yet. No.
You may recall that our last episode, six or seven months ago, was the mid-year in July. We were late for that, and we're late for this. All right, let's roll through this even faster than I just did. Sorry, I apologize, guys. I went too long. All right, we do stats. It's mid-year. I won't dwell on this as much. I'll kind of give just the cliff notes to it, and we'll get to the awards.
because nobody cares about these stats. They only care about the awards. They want to see what's happening there. And rightfully so. Real quick, just general. We only did a top 20, so we had 120 total albums. We had 85 unique albums out of 120. Whoa. That happens at mid-year. I feel like it kind of... This year especially was the most... It does. I agree. And it will tighten up this year, I think. And I don't know what difference it would have made.
If we had the extra five picks each, that may have made it worse. May have been more. So, but that's about 71%. I don't think we've ever had that much before in the past. So, 17 different countries the bands came from and 46 labels. So that, you know, no big difference there. So, it's obvious US always has the most bands, you know, for these albums that we listen to each year. But we seem to like a lot of
We have stuff out of Sweden and the UK this year. As well as Germany. I think we had eight albums. Or eight bands from Sweden this year. So yeah. You know. It changes every year. Let's see. For each of us. Most selected. Oh yeah. We have to do our America. Fuck yeah. And our global citizen. All right. So. Markasson. On yours. You only had.
Four from the US. Yeah. You traitor. I'm fine with that. That's crazy though. I'm a little surprised. Well yeah because we generally there's just generally more bands from the US. It's what it is. It's not anything. Yeah. And you seem to enjoy a lot of music from Australia this year. Matt you had eight from the US. Yep. Eight different countries and you were
I like in France a lot. Oui, oui. Me. And this will be pretty obvious where this is going. I had 14 from the U.S. 14 different U.S. bands. And I only had, you know, a couple each in France, Italy. So, okay. America, fuck you. Pretty much. Just say it right now. I got the America, fuck you. Fuck you. Will only had six bands from the U.S. How unpatriotic. No, it's usually, usually he
They're all from the US. I know. Yeah. So, eight different countries. Jay, ten from the US. Six different countries. George, ten from the US. Eight different countries. So, we have a three-way tie for our global traveler. We like three ways here. Yeah. Well, Matt, Will, and George, get on down, baby. You're our global travelers. All right. So, onto the labels. I mentioned 46 labels. That's really not that. Yeah.
in somewhere in the high 40s to the low 60s just depending on what we got uh big labels this year season and miss with eight as a big year for season of miss metal blade had seven and then from there nuclear blast profound lore prosthetic and will it have had three each so that's a lot even for 28 you know 20 albums each eight from seasons of miss it's quite a bit yeah think about it that's quite a bit so all right now let's get to the fun the podcast
Connection.
It's not going to go as well as some of you think.
We need a Chuck Woolery quote for that, George.
Yeah, we do.
And we need to say, well, then what happened on the date after that?
I'll tell you what happened.
He showed up.
He was wearing a Hankins shirt.
And Chuck's just laughing and thinking, I'm getting paid for this.
This is amazing.
What a life.
All right.
Markisan, the most you,
so what the love connection is,
is who we match with list wise,
what albums we have in common with each other.
Right.
I'm going to say Markisan,
you didn't do so well this year.
I never do.
Well,
this has taken it to a whole new level.
Zero.
Zero.
Or new depth,
I should say.
Oh my God.
All right.
So the most you matched on was with Will.
Three.
Holy shit.
And it was with Will.
which I don't think I match up with Will that often. No. Wow. Which is probably the regular number with Will. It just so happened it was there. Yeah. Well, he surprised me with a couple because he had Colts Blood on his list and I didn't expect him to have that. Yeah. Some other albums. You and I are not in love. We had one match. What? Was that my second highest? No. Everything else would be two. Okay. Jesus. All right, Matt, your most was with me. Six.
You're gonna see a common theme here. And your lease was with Will, one. Oh, geez. My most was with Matt and George, six. My lease obviously with Marcus. We're gonna start to get redundant here. Will's most was with George, six. His lease with Matt, one. Jay, your most was with me, Will, and George, five each. Your lease to Matt was with Markisan. And George, your most was with myself and Will, six each. Your lease was with Markisan with two. So two for
Jay and George with Markisan. All right. So the get a room, Matt and John, John and George, Will and George. Let's make it a foursome. We had six each. And then we've, these, all these different names, Cosmic, Petrefaction, Arch, Enemies, Nemesis, Markisan with John, Matt, with Will. One each. Wow. Yeah, I know. That just shows how many individual albums we have. All right, let's, let's keep, keep it going. Because we got way more to talk about.
I'm always surprised by these stats. All right, here we go. Volleyballs. Boy, I'll give you a guess who's winning this one. Markisan you had 16 volleyballs. All right, Matt, you had 11. I had nine. Will had nine. Jay, you had 11. George had seven. Markisan you win the Welleson Award. I crashed it. I mean, yeah, that's a lot. That's a crazy amount, though. That was Joe DiMaggio at 57.
seven games.
16 out of 20.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So,
uh,
a clairvoyant,
you know,
the great prognosticator,
who's our clairvoyant.
We need,
we have,
I wish we could play burst singing that.
That'd be kind of cool.
Anyway.
So that means the most in the top 20 are top 20.
Generally it's top 25.
This time,
top 20.
Markisan yet five,
Matt had 10.
I had nine.
Will had eight, Jay had seven, George had nine. Matt, you are our seventh son of the seventh son this year. You're the podcast clairvoyant for the mid-year. All right. We only have one Jay Award. One. And I'm shocked. Yes. Ancient Death, Ego Disillusion, Marcus Son, and Matt, and John, and Jay, and George had it. The death metal guy did not have it on his list, Will.
I keep thinking there's a mistake somewhere. That's just gotta be a mistake. I feel like he talked about ancient death. Did he not? I don't know. Was it his album of the month? No, he went with cancer. Oh, that's right. So now what would be really funny is if we all jade the shit out of that album and we'll put it on his list. Yeah. That is really surprising. There's your mid-year. Sorry it took so long with all that stuff. Sorry. You know, what I like about
about the year-end is how you kick so much of your mid-year off the list, and that final year-end list is just fucking tight. You almost forget how good all things were at mid-year. Yeah, I already axed over half my list. I'll be honest, guys, I struggled with this, for various reasons. I did not listen to as much music, but I'm pretty... Well, that's part of the reason we did 20 instead of 25.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be locking up 25 with no problems. Oh yeah. Especially after September. I'm throwing albums off my list right now because I don't have any room for them. Yeah. So anyway. Thank you, John. Yep. All right. Next we're going to move on to In Memoriam like they do on the awards shows. And frankly, I think this should be the name of the episode.
because it's kind of a theme. Since our last episode, we have lost a heck of a lot of talent. And we're just going to go through a few of those now. The big one, of course, is Ozzy Osbourne. Who could have seen that coming other than Jay? He's laughing. Well, actually, it would have been Matt. He is clairvoyant. Right. No, I did start calling that one a while ago, but it was because every time I saw him,
It's just terrible. But it still came as a shock when it was only like two weeks after the final episode. Final show. Wow. Did that one hit? And it hurt. I tell you, I was wailing like a banshee in my office for like half the afternoon. It was rough. So starting to sink in now, but damn. Yeah. I mean, he created heavy metal with Black Sabbath.
So the band was phenomenal, but you know, they just really sparked that explosion of creativity of dark musicianship. And then it's been 50 plus years and we've spawned this entire culture. It started from that. And we've all been immersed in that since we were kids, you know, without Ozzy, without Sabbath, we don't have the same identity. I don't think we certainly aren't doing this fucking podcast. So without metal,
we don't even meet so to say that ozzy was important and influential and meaningful in my life and our lives and in the lives of all metalheads that's an enormous truth but it's also a massive understatement you know he's the genesis of metal the godfather of metal and that's sad to see that go you know yeah it's
I don't even have words I really don't yeah it's a lot of times too I mean that's it's well we've talked about this before but we're sort of in a weird place right now generationally and and you know they're gonna we're gonna start ticking off a lot of these sadly you know we're our parents now yeah because I remember every time somebody passed that my parents grew up listening to her enjoying
And it just seemed like it was always happening. Like, man, I don't even know who these people are. And now we're in that position. Yeah. Marcus, I couldn't agree anymore with what you said. It's the truth. And what I find so funny is I was so glad to see so many people minus one douchebag from Pink Floyd. Yeah, that was Jack's response was amazing. Yeah, actually, you know what? It was along with everybody else who said something. Yeah. Just not necessary.
And I'm not even going to go in it because it's a waste of time talking about him. But it was great to see no caricatures of Ozzy. Like literally all that, the Oz, the family show, all the hijinks and dumb shit he did didn't even matter anymore because we're like, man, one of the guys is not here with us anymore. Yeah. You know, and that's, that was nice to see the outpouring. I mean, it was going to happen, but it seemed way more genuine than I thought it might be because I was afraid.
It was going to be the whole Kardashian shirt thing. You know, wearing a Motorhead t-shirt. You don't even know who Motorhead is, right? Kind of thing. Yeah. But there wasn't any of that. I mean, it was, I mean, seeing, uh, who was it? Was it the drummer from, uh, was it, who was the drummer that was crying with Bill Ward backstage after the show? Did you guys see that? There was a drummer that literally was bawling when he met him for the first time or something like that.
It was after that show. Yeah. And it's the show where Tony Aomi said that Bill Ward looked like Gollum or whatever without his shirt on. Yeah. I did see something about that. And I bring that up because I think that's how a lot of people felt when Ozzy passed. There were a lot of people. It meant that much to them. He was sort of Alice Cooper. The way Alice Cooper was in the 70s, he was just a fucking celebrity by this time.
It wasn't going to be the whole
the guy who bit bats heads off
and stuff. It's way too ubiquitous
for that now. It was the guy who kept
reinventing himself every like decade
That's pretty true. You know, he really did
Just to take a step back two weeks
previous to the death
Can I just say that I didn't
watch every bit of the show
by a long shot
but the highlight was fucking
Jack Black
doing the stuff he did
It was so good. He was in that studio and he was wearing the tassels. It was just like that video. It was with the School of Rock kids. So I think it was Tom Morello's son, wasn't it, on guitar? Yeah, I think. And then maybe also Robert Trujillo's kid. I think that was one of them. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah. I still haven't seen the final show because I haven't stopped moving since it happened. Yeah, I watched it all.
It was great. I mean, I watched from Guns N' Roses on in real time, and then I kind of went back and rewatched everything. And it really was just, you know, whether you like the bands playing or not, it was kind of a celebration of Black Sabbath and Aussie. I mean, everybody, if they didn't play those songs, they were playing, you know, their popular songs. And it really didn't matter, you know, just to hear people covering Aussie songs and Black Sabbath songs to no end is like, that's great. You know, it's just, it's, it's, it is crazy that it
when it did.
That's how it goes.
It's not crazy.
Millions of people.
Crazy.
Lavazie in this world.
Yeah.
I mean, when I saw that he was in his seventies or whatever age he was specifically,
I mean, I was happy that he lived that long.
I mean, I know his life had been, you know, full of challenges as he was getting older
and, you know, he lived a good life beforehand.
So it was good to see that, you know, he made it that far.
Obviously we would want it to be longer but
I always like I mean the thing about
Ozzy is that even if you if you take
the metal out of it so many people
know about who he is I mean my mom was
even like we loved Ozzy because they
watched the show that he did with Jack
on the History Channel the Ghost Swans
and the Seeing America ones and you know
he was still a relevant figure in that
piece obviously we're you know the most
concerned about metal and to your point
works on all the all the stuff that they
created in the beginning I mean they were
the antithesis of it for us.
Yeah, it's the beginning.
But yeah, you're right.
Because he was part of popular culture, not just metal.
He had a reality show too.
Even if you didn't know about the music, people still watch that show.
I think a lot of people have.
They've gone back.
I saw bits and pieces of the Osborne, but I sat down and watched all of them.
I mean, it's only four seasons, so it goes quick.
I'm like, honestly, I was just like, you know, like, oh, buddy.
Yeah, I've never seen it. I should watch that.
It's, to be honest, as, you know, having two kids and being married, I felt a little bit more sane after watching that.
Like, when you live that life and then you look at Ozzy and how he deals with that life, it's like, oh, man, that just makes, like, life makes more sense.
You know, one interesting and not terribly poignant thing to say, but that first of all, that Osborne was already 20 fucking years ago or something. And yeah, it's crazy. The fact that I remember his 50th birthday was one of the episodes. And he really wasn't in great shape then. So, I mean, I would say that his quality of life was not grand for the last 10 years, you know, and that's neither here nor there. It's just the fact that he held on as long as he did.
is pretty impressive. Once the ATV accident happened, he dramatically changed because he broke his neck in that, didn't he? Yeah, and then had like multiple surgeries. Yeah, and he just didn't recover from it to get back to some semblance of what he was from before. Yeah, well, once you get to where you kind of can't stand so good, and then all of a sudden now you have going along with age, a sort of sedentary lifestyle and stuff. You know, it's too bad. It's too bad.
And just to do that final performance, that was pretty remarkable as well. So at least he got to go out doing that, having this celebration of his life and Black Sabbath before the end. He died the same amount of days after his last performance as Lemmy did after his last performance. Quickly bring up that here we are doing the In the Morning
And today is the anniversary of Cliff Burton's death. It is. Wow. Yeah. Crazy. And one more thing, not that it matters. I thought Ozzy sounded great. I thought everybody sounded great. You know, both Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I mean, it was four, I think it was like eight or nine songs total that he sang, but I thought he sounded great. So. Nice. Yeah. John, I looked up that drummer. It was Aloy Casagrande from Slipknot.
and he was overcome with emotion because he met
Bill Ward. Okay, I thought it was
slipknot. I just couldn't remember. And the picture is
I mean, it kind of
it kind of
it's interesting because it's led
to something else maybe on another
podcast later on. But
you know, meeting your heroes
sometimes everyone's like, oh
I'd be cool. I'd be calm. I'd be collected. Then
you meet one. You're like
Right, exactly.
I think I just pooped myself
You know, because you get so nervous. And other times you meet some famous people like, man, look at this ass clown. Fuck that guy. You know, so I mean, I had to get into the one. I said that already nine times. Yeah, I know nobody else probably watched it, but I watched the Grammys and they did a tribute. So I heard and Youngblood played a couple of songs. And then and he was at the final show as well. And that's like spurred now a whole collaboration thing with Aerosmith, hasn't it? Outside of all this?
Well, he did some stuff with Aerosmith. But they're going to continue, I think, now, aren't they? Do something else? I don't know. They're making an EP or a record. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, funny that it would be Aerosmith doing that. And if there was ever a band that would be close to Ozzy's trials and tribulations of not taking care of themselves at a certain point in their career, Aerosmith might tick that box a little bit, too. Yeah.
decided, hey, maybe we shouldn't party like this anymore.
Yeah.
You know, they reinvented themselves.
Kind of funny how that comes around.
That's true.
Well, and I just wanted to point out, too, since it sounds like we're getting to the end of the Aussie talk, but there's a two-hour documentary on the life and final years of Aussie dropping on Paramount Plus on October 7th.
And it's called Aussie No Escape from Now.
There's a trailer out for it.
And it actually looks quite good.
There's a quote from Sharon Osbourne. She says,
this film is an honest account of what has happened to Ozzy during the last few years.
It shows how hard things have been for him and the courage he's shown while dealing with a number of serious health issues, including Parkinson's.
And in addition to that, there's a one-hour BBC documentary called Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne Coming Home.
It's coming out on October 2nd, but I'm not sure where we can watch that.
But so and we're going to talk about this a little bit later but
Hulu dropped into the void which is a
documentary series about metal icons and there's an episode about Randy Rhodes in it but
it spends as much time on Ozzy because their lives are so intertwined so yeah yeah
yeah so i'm glad the celebrations of his life and just recognizing his contribution to metal but not
just to metal but to music in general continues so yeah yeah yep all right so the next one we've got i'm kind of disappointed we haven't really heard a whole heck of a lot about this one past the first day but uh eric wonder from cobalt died a little bit after ozzy did 42 years old cobalt one of my favorite bands slow forever one of my favorite albums yeah uh
I was like, come on, don't do this to me now. Or, you know, more specifically, don't do this to him right now. And God, that one just freaking hurt. Yeah. And that was a band we just kept waiting for another album. Yeah. Like, are they going to ever do one? Like, is there something sitting in the vault? I don't know. Yeah, that. They didn't really talk about it that much. That was a huge gut punch for me. It was. And there's really nothing said, you know.
said he died of heart failure and that's really pretty much it. I've heard nothing else about it. And I'm not saying I need details of what happened, but just like, I don't know, an acknowledgement of what we lost here, you know? Yeah. Yes. And I just want to say real quick, we're just talking about metal, by the way. There are other musicians and other genres that passed away during this period. It's a strange time.
So, yeah.
It's just tough too because 42 is pretty young, you know, and there was still a lot more that you hoped he would get out, not just from Cobalt or his other project man's gin, you know, but who knows what else he could have done in like the next 20 plus years if he was still around.
Yeah.
So that's always tough to stomach, you know, and even Cobalt, like they didn't put out that many albums.
They didn't tour that much.
So, yeah, that's a real tough one when you have somebody so talented and put out this, like, these incredible albums, some of my favorite records of all time, and gone. And really, there's just not that much coverage on it either, because, you know, he's not Ozzy, he's not some of these other people we're going to be talking about. But for me, in terms of metal, it was a giant, because the albums that he put out, especially the Cobalt, are some of my most played records.
Yeah, and this is another one of those cases where I had the opportunity to see him. I had a ticket. I wussed out and didn't go because I just wasn't feeling it and there was nobody else going and never got to see him. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot like that. When we get to our top five, you know, I lamented the fact that there's people that have passed away and I never saw them. They can't go on my list because I never saw them.
them and I wish I had because when I was younger I always felt like I've got time I got time to see them but you you don't know that yeah I never saw Rush yeah I saw them later on and it was great but I waited too long on that one even but there's quite a few bands that I wish I had seen and key members passed away and so now I go to like almost every show I can so just
real quick side uh sidetrack but going the same direction jenny uh my better half has said to me hey i want to go to this show because i don't know how much longer this band's gonna be around for and it's all these old rock bands and i'm like oh yeah okay fine well she wants to go and i'll go and it's not like i dislike this band we've ended up seeing a lot of bands i never thought i'd see like i never thought i'd see the band chicago right i had a great time it was awesome i was like i know all this stuff you know and they didn't play too much of the sappy stuff
But she said, we gotta go see the Doobie Brothers. I'm like, well, hell yeah. Seen them a few times. Steve Miller. I mean, she just, she's not dragging me. At some point I'm like, all right, fine. Yeah, let's go. But yeah, that's where we are now. I hate to say that, but that's where we are. If it's a name and they're old and they come around, I'm like, man, we gotta go. But here's the thing, though, that I was trying to make this point is that they don't have to be that old. Like, if you really like a band, you want to see them.
They could die early on. You don't know when somebody's going to go. So if you really like a band, you should try to see them when you get a chance. Absolutely. Agree. Agree. Yeah. Yeah. I just went to see Garbage last week. Was it last week? No. Couldn't have been. Two weeks ago. And they, at the end of their show, they said, you know, we're not going to be doing any more like big tours anymore because there's no money in the music business.
and it's just not financially viable to keep doing these big tours. So I hope you enjoyed it. You know, and I'm sure they'll like do what a lot of people do and play festivals and stuff like that. But, you know, I'm I'd seen them before, but I'm still glad I saw that because it was an amazing show. Yeah, that's interesting that she said that because I read the quote that was in D.C. She yes quoted saying it's the U.S. is very tough to tour now.
And she stuck to the promoter and music industry side of it and said, they're just greedy and they'll bleed you dry when you come here. It's getting pretty problematic, yeah. And she made reference to how tough it is for younger bands. I just read something, I don't know how true it is, I haven't verified it, but I read something where the CEO of Live Nation said, ticket prices should go up more because they're not where they should be. They should be higher. And try to make points to say, well, you know, if you go to a basketball,
They cost this much for seats. So the industry wants to drive prices up even more. And I'm thinking, oh, he's making reference to the top like 100 acts or whatever that tour of the States. I'm like, but that's bullshit because we all go to shows for smaller bands and the prices are skyrocketing on those bands too. Still like a hundred bucks to see a band. I can't, I just got Opeth tickets again for, I'm traveling to see it. I dropped like 150 bucks. You know?
So I mean,
and they're not playing anywhere big.
I mean,
it's a,
it's a big place for them in the States,
but imagine all these smaller bands that are trying to make do.
And,
and then you have the CEO of live nation saying we should charge more for
tickets.
Yeah.
So she,
yeah,
no,
I,
I,
I got seats cause I can't stand at shows.
My,
my,
my,
my back just,
I can't do it.
I can't stand for four hours anymore,
but think about how George,
you got,
I made a comment to you about how I saw what she said. And then literally a week later, the Live Nation guy pops his head out of the ground. Unreal. Synchronicity. Just more proof for living in the Matrix. Yeah. I want my steak. All right. Let's move on to our next in memoriam, and that is Brent Hines, recently and formerly of Mastodon.
Unexpectedly passing away after
getting in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta.
That one was quite shocking, especially because he'd already been in the news
because of the split with Mastodon.
And so there was all this press and all of a sudden, you know,
and the turnaround because, you know, there was all the sniping between him and the band,
mostly him.
And then it's just, holy crap, you know,
everything got real fast.
I'm going to jump in and just say this one actually hit me harder than Ozzy, believe it or not.
And I think it was the sheer unexpected nature of it.
And he was not an old guy.
You know, I mean, he was our age, basically.
He was 51.
51.
And also, I remember when he got slapped his head on the pavement back in Vegas a while, some years ago,
and was in a kind of coma for a while. And I remember at that time being like, no, no, no, I'm gonna fucking take this guy. And he's a, he was a difficult guy of that. I'm positive. I'm positive. He earned his way out of Mastodon with his behavior and the way he acted, but he was so innovative as a guitar player that I literally think he was one of the more important voices, you know, post 2000, you know, especially up to what we all consider our favorite records.
He was just so fucking unique.
And I love the way he played.
And I know John in particular didn't necessarily like the way he sang,
but I liked his voice.
I thought he was so unique and such a cool thing to have stuck in the middle of this heavy metal band.
Probably a prick, honestly.
I don't think I would have liked the guy if I would have met him.
I've read way too many things that just made it sound like he was just in his own zone
and he didn't give a shit about anybody else.
A lot of people came forward, though, and said how much fun.
He was nice. He was nice. He was and stuff. Did you see what Mike from Opus said about him? Yeah. I will tell you, and I'm not saying this because I hate dropping names, I've hung out with him before. With Mike, actually, in Silver Spring at an Irish bar after a show. And surprisingly, he couldn't have been any nicer to me. Yeah. Well, I'm sure he was lovely in ways, but I think he took his- No, my point I'm making, Jay, I'm sorry not to cut you off, is that I do believe all those stories.
But then my experience, and I'm not saying I think he was a great guy all the time, just the moment in time I had when you said, well, I don't know if I'd want to meet him. Well, I got a chance. Act it like I was his friend. But who knows, the next day you could have been, you know, at the wrath of him. I think that's the kind of guy he was. I think he was purposely eccentric. Yeah, I agree. He kind of bought into his own, not guitar hero thing, but like I'm a rock star thing. His own mythology.
A little bit so I can kind of act like I want wherever I go. And there is something prickish about that, but it doesn't mean he wasn't a nice man. Yeah, I think he I think you just ran the gamut when you met him. I think so, too. But in any case, that's my two senses. I shouldn't put in the negative stuff about him because, like I said, that one hit me harder than Ozzy. Like it really shook me up a little bit. I was like, well, that's the way he died, too. I don't care who's at fault. Because I know there's conflicting reports. It doesn't matter. It happened. That's all that matters. You know, and just
As a quick sidebar, TR ran into Brand Daler in Atlanta when we were down there at a bar. Oh, wow. Really? One of the nights we didn't go. And it's funny because I was telling him, I said, I ran into Brand Daler at a bar one time in Atlanta and hung out with him. So just, it's a small world down there. Even though it's a big major city, it's still a small world. So. So, but rest in peace on that one. And it wouldn't have mattered to me. Mastodon has already kind of passed their prime to me. So it didn't matter.
to me if he came back to the band or not. I wasn't really banking on any of that. You know, they're kind of a first four, first five albums band for me. It was too bad. It's too bad. He was a real guitar hero. That guy was fucking great. Any dude that chicken picked to hardcore? What's that? Any guy who could chicken pick to like a hardcore, you know, post-core, whatever you want to call it, the early stuff that they did? That sludgy, hardcore sound? Any chicken pick during some of those songs?
Yeah. Come on, man. Yeah. Well, he started on banjo. That's what his dad made him do. He was as great as he was. He just had such a unique musical vision. Yeah. Sorry to see him go. And the band was unique too. I mean, such a force in metal, change things in metal. So he's a huge part of that. And I was happy to see they had a parade or some kind of a march or something in Atlanta for him. So that was
And to their credit, uh, brand and bill both showed up. I think, um, Troy doesn't live in Atlanta anymore. Hence him not showing up, but you know, that was good. And I was glad that they were very classy in the statement they made, by the way, you know, not that they were going to tell him to go fuck himself or something, but they were like, he was her brother. Doesn't fucking matter. And I think everybody immediately, even though they just kicked him out, I think everybody was like those poor motherfuckers. They might, their hearts must be broken. Oh, absolutely. Spent all that time.
They're brothers. Yeah. You know, and I'm sure they would have reconnected in a more civil way down the road as Eddie survived. Of course. Plus, by the way, not he was married not that long ago, you know, leaves people behind and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a that's a big loss. And our last in memoriam item.
Russ Lindbergh from At The Gates and a number of other bands Night Rage, The Crown, Lockup, Disfear, just to name a few, also recently passed. That was a surprise. I mean, they had mentioned that he had had cancer, but it didn't sound serious. It was like oral cancer or something. And usually, you know, I mean, like Bruce got through that.
Yeah, but did you read the whole initial first statement, though?
They talked about how they removed a portion of his, I guess, the roof of his mouth. And I heard that. I was like, okay, this isn't good. Yeah. I mean, this does not sound good. I mean, if anything, I can't imagine he's going to ever sing again. Right. And one of his friends who did a very nice tribute to him, and it was somebody from another band, and I can't remember who, I'm sorry. But he said he didn't realize how long he'd been fighting this thing. A long time. A long time, yeah. Yeah. And some of it was real suffering, you know, so.
And I will say, and I'm not trying to be flippant here or tongue-in-cheek, but we actually had an interaction with him in Philadelphia, Jay. He said, I'm talking to fuck myself. You know what? Now it's kind of iconic that he did. What it was, was, and I'm sure I've told this on this show before. Well, first of all, we hung out with Jonas for a great period of the day. He was in the band for a while, and then I don't think he's with him anymore. No, that went south.
So we kind of bonded a little bit there. And he went to a record store with us and blah, blah, blah. But they came in and we were holding court at the couch at the entrance. So we met everybody who came in and we had pizza and beer and people, carcass, and people were stopping to have beers with us. Some of the guys and... Other bands? Well, I'm forgetting Tommaso.
At the gates? At the gates. That's the whole point of the story, Jeff. Yeah. The whole point of the story. Anyway, long story short, he came in and they all came in together. They must have just landed or something. And he came up and we offered him a beer. And I said, hey, how often do you get to say, as you walk through the door, at the gates is at the gates. Ha ha ha ha. And he said, yeah, I've never heard
that one before. Turned around, did not take the beer, and walked away. You cheesy fuck. I thought it would be somewhat unique, but we saved space with Jonas hanging out with us for really like a whole day. Am I not mistaken, was Bill Steer with us when you said that too, I think. He may well have. He was with us for a couple hours. And everyone will knew from any band who were hanging out with us.
out there too with us and literally everyone just turned and looked right at jay
we need to do a top five times we looked like a jackass in front of famous rock stars
to jay's credit he was like well i step in it i'm gonna have to stay here for a little while
and i just was like that was just one of the most amazing things i've ever seen
so we have wow we have one positive story from his story one positive story and he wasn't a prick
about it.
No, he just, I hadn't heard that before.
It just walked right by it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This one.
I was incredulous too.
I was like, really?
You hear that joke all the time?
That's a great fucking joke.
I thought I came up with it super unique.
You know what I mean?
Worst dad joke ever.
No, you know, Marcus, no.
We're not even going to give it a dad joke.
That's an insult to dads.
That's true.
That's like a great grandfather joke.
It's just really? It's a really joke. I will say I was not a big At The Gates fan. I think I have one album. But it still sucked because so many people got into metal with that whole melodic death sound at that time. Some of those albums and some of those bands, like early in Flames too, people just hold on to that. Like it's their... Matt and Marcus, maybe you haven't seen this. Do you guys remember Mr. Dad with Michael Keaton?
Yep.
is that. I have this wonderful book and I got this at the... Decibel? Vinyl Altar, whatever it was there. Oh, Vinyl Altar. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and there was a series of these and there was one for Pope of Cross and stuff. And Tomas wrote the intro to this and I immediately sort of fell in love with him because I was like, you get Merciful Faith the way I get him. Like he explained it and how he first heard it and blah, blah, blah and how it came off to him and stuff. And I was just like, this is my guy.
I was a big fan of their music, but I loved that he related to something the way I did. Slaughter of the Soul was one of the first death metal albums that pulled me in back in the early 90s when I was trying to transition from thrash and power, not that it was called power back then, but just traditional metal type stuff, into heavier, more extreme music. Slaughter of the Soul was absolutely one of the first ones that helped do that.
Yeah, totally accessible, but still crushing at the same time. For a lot of people too, George, I think that's... I know John BT was a huge fan, and I'm sure he was crushed when this happened. Yeah, no, that whole Gothenburg scene was big for me too, because it came around the time when I was also transitioning from hardcore and all that stuff, and I'm trying to move into metal, and I loved it. And I feel like that sound,
even though you don't get a lot of that pure gothenberg sound although it's starting to come back a little bit more i think the style has reverberated it has been incorporated into a lot of other bands throughout the years so without like at the gates like i don't know that that sound would be as prevalent as um interesting uh without without slaughter the soul in particular because that's the one that really popularized that that sound yeah they were i
Which is to say they were deeply influential. So he wasn't just a talented and known entity in the genre. He was important to the genre. On the whole, metal. He's one of those guys that was part of a movement that really became something. Too bad. Too bad. And I'm sure, by the way, another guy where all the tributes that were coming in on various platforms were all names.
and it was cool too that you know they were gone for a while and then they reunited
for a tour and then they reformed i think it's like 2011 or something like that sounds about right
and they did three more records so that was cool that he got back together with the band and then he
could still put out records and they were good records you know uh not my favorite records but i still
like admired that they were able to put out such quality uh music after all that time away so
I don't know that I caught his age. How old was he? Does one of you guys know? Probably also around our age. Let's see. Thomas Lindberg. He was 52. Yeah. Right in the zone. So wow, what a weird period of time, man. This last so often has been. And I mentioned earlier about other musicians and other genres.
the main guy the singer slash keyboard player i think yeah one of the two singers now i know it's not metal i get it and he was much older but it just seemed like it was one after another after another after another it's like what the hell is going on oh no hey man breakfast in america's great fucking record and then and they've got other good stuff too but no no no they were fucking huge in the 80s man yeah breakfast in america dominated the radio that year
I liked their second album a lot and I've drawn a total blank right now on it but had Bloody Well Right on it. Does it have some sort of is their name written like as if like in the stars or something like that like a trying to think of what it's called. Crime of the Century. Yeah. I love that album. It's got School on it and Dreamer, Rudy and then Bloody Well Right was the big song off that. He's the singer on that but
I guess me bringing up is just it just seemed like we're getting hit left and right yeah so well I mean okay so just to add another one too is um yeah that's the one I was talking about John it has it's it looks like it's the name is written in uh what do you call it a constellation yes yes you're correct um and and then of course sorry to reach outside the not only the genre but the field but you know Robert Redford just died sure
Of course. Iconic. Yeah. Not going to Jamal Warner. It's all happening at the same time. Yeah. It's all happening at the same time. Yeah. So. Oof. But, you know, and I hate to say that I've become desensitized to some of it, but you sort of do. Like, I agree with you. When Ozzy passed, as much as it was hard, I was like, okay, yeah. Unfortunately, and then you hear about other ones that,
maybe hit you a little harder maybe because you just didn't expect them like you were saying
earlier about Brett Hines so yeah I did not expect Ozzy to hit me like it did I mean I knew I was going to be sad but I was sad and I'm not trying to like you know you know oh poor pitiful me but I just was not expecting you know and part of it was that I was here alone and so I could just like let it out you know and I I put on Boneyard
And like put it I usually I use headphones but I put it on the big speakers and I was even crying along with frickin what's his name? Jose. I was like I was choking up with him because he clearly was upset as well and I may not like the music that he plays and whatever but I you know I felt it and I was singing along and screaming and crying and just
just losing my mind along with a lot of other people in the world.
I had an interesting experience.
And it was because I learned about it from one of you guys.
Somebody texted the text thread.
And I was just walking into the dentist's office to get a crown.
And I go in there.
And, of course, I kind of wanted to say something to somebody.
And my dentist walks in.
He's probably in his 40s.
But he's a total dentist.
you know, clean cut guy and everything. And I said, Hey, did you hear Ozzy died? And he did. And he knew Ozzy was. So that was very, just sort of proof of his, you know, wildly hugeness. And, and then his assistant, he said to his assistant, who was maybe in her early twenties, he said, you probably don't even know who that is, do you? And she said, I don't. So, but it was interesting to see these two generational takes on it. One was, yeah, of course I fucking knew he was. And the other one has never heard of the guy, you know?
Yeah. That's when you said, I feel really sorry that you don't know him.
Yeah. Well, I think I told you guys this one time, I'm sure I've told you this, but when the Osbournes first started, literally right when it started, a friend of mine that I worked with, his friend worked on the Osbournes, but just like in some low level, you know, assistant camera guy thing or something like that. And he, he had this sort of generational experience where, I don't know if you remember, but the first thing of,
the Osborns is they're kind of moving into their house right Matt since you just watched it but they're kind of moving into their mansion or whatever and so they were moving all the stuff and the camera people were there to film it and they and there's Ozzy's memorabilia and stuff like that and one of them said to this you know third party person that I'm vaguely attached to said said to him it was a younger person they said was Ozzy in a band or something I mean they knew Ozzy as a solo artist it wasn't that but
They saw this Black Sabbath stuff and they were like, did he used to do a whole other fucking thing? You know, they'd never... This was before the reunion and everything, you know. Now that he's gone, we have the opportunity to start an Aussie cult. We can go door to door with a copy of Black Sabbath under our arm and say, do you have some time to talk about our Lord and Savior, Aussie Osborne? And then the person next to you has to yell out, show me your hands!
Because Ozzy loves us all. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. We're going to move on now. Should we raise a glass to our fallen metal heroes? Cheers to them. School. All of them. Rest in power. All right. Let's move on to the news.
So last weekend, I was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with some of our brethren to see Slayer. I didn't even know this was coming up for some reason. I didn't either until Justin told me about it. You know, how quickly did you learn and then have to turn around and go?
Oh, that's a few months. Oh, okay. So, okay. You were prepared for it. But, you know, Slayer, like Ozzy and other bands, retired and then said, psych, we're not going to tour, but that doesn't mean we're not going to play. And I know they played Riot Fest and some other shows, but this was kind of weird because it was like, we're going to play Hershey in the middle of bumfuck Amish Pennsylvania.
Where Chocolate Comes From. How many bands were there? I will get to that momentarily. In fact, I'll get to that right now. So there were a number of other bands that played this show. But before I get to that, so I heard about this from Justin, our good friend Justin. He messaged me and he was like, hey, would you want to meet up in Hershey and go to see Slayer? And I'm like, yeah, it wasn't quite that quick. I'd, you know, get permission and all that stuff. But, but, you know, and
I was like, hey, you know, Nick's going to go too. And I was like, sweet, Nick. And then it turned out that Will was going as well with his friend Vern from high school that got tickets for them. So we had this little crew and we converged upon Hershey, Pennsylvania, along with a lot of other people.
Slayer shirts, let me tell you. I bet it was. And Hershey Stadium is not small. It's not huge, but it's pretty sizable. And the lineup was, first of all, the lineup was completely ass-fucking-backwards. But it opened with Exodus doing the Bonded by Blood thing again with, what's his name, Rob Dukes.
Moving on to Cavalera Conspiracy doing Chaos AD and some other stuff. Then Power Trip with their new singer. Suicidal Tendencies. And then some fucking stupid ass punks knocked loose. Somehow they were direct support for Slayer. I don't know how given all the other bands. I mean Knock Loose is pretty popular, aren't they? I guess. I've only just heard of them a little bit.
I mean, there's gotten a lot of notoriety.
They're fucking horrible.
Are they from, maybe they're from that area?
I don't know.
I mean, they're, they're like screamy punk, not really punk, but like screamy hardcore
punk kind of thing.
And he's just like, you know, like Mars attacks or some shit.
And it was fucking horrible.
But it was a good, nice little break before Slayer to go walk around, get some food and
some beer.
There you go.
But anyway, so we get to Hershey. And we meet up at Iron Hill Brewery and have some beers and hang out. Will was not there. Will was late. But I don't know if you've ever been. I know John has. If you tried to get to like Jiffy Lube Live here in Bristow, Virginia, it is a shit show.
trying to get the last mile into the venue parking lot. It literally took us two hours to go three blocks for Black Sabbath. Yeah, because someone made the bright idea. It was like, one more beer. Yeah. I bet that was Will. It doesn't matter. We got stuck in an extra hour plus to go three blocks. And so we actually managed to avoid a lot of traffic.
But we still got there late for Exodus. But I don't know. Exodus started early. It was supposed to start at 4 p.m. and we were in line at 4 p.m. and they were almost done. So I don't know what happened there. But I didn't care because Rob Dukes. So we got in, found our seats, which were pretty good. Cavalera Conspiracy came on and they fucking killed it. And I got to hear two songs I didn't think I was ever going to hear.
We Who Are Not As Others and Biotech Is Godzilla. And, you know... That's always a treat. Every time I see these guys... You know, I mean, I've been a fan of Sepultura since the 80s. So it's not like I don't know that they're awesome or anything. But, you know, they just kind of, like, hang out in the background. And then you see them and you're like, God damn, this is good. And I have to go home and, like, put everything that Max has ever done on my phone to listen to again.
You know, I'm going to interrupt you on purpose because I can't wait to see what you thought of these guys. But it's apropos to what you said, which is every time I see Suicidal, I'm like, Jesus, these guys are fucking good. It's always such a good live show. Like, seriously, dude, Suicidal so brings it. Oh, they do. It's why I wore the shirt tonight. I just knew this was going to come up. Yeah. In particular, actually.
They were fucking awesome. Weren't they, man? Remember that? People were singing as we walked back into the casino. Yeah, absolutely. Just cheering, chanting for... You guys bought a case of Pepsi afterwards? We did. Just one. Just one. Literally, John, like no other show at that festival did people walk into the casino from the theater going, S.T. Yeah, there was a lot of that jantin going on.
Anyway, sorry, it was a fairly short set. Well, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Power Trip was next, and I've never been a particular Power Trip fan, but they were really good. And it made me go, let me listen to some of this, maybe check it out again. Everything I've seen of them live, they've always sounded good. Yeah, they were good. Well, you're going to pull it in form now, too, because they got the new singer and the guy died. They're kind of like what John was talking about before. There's bands that he
He sees it. He doesn't really buy the records, but when you see some live, like, oh, yeah, I'm really into that. That's how I kind of feel about Power Trip. And one of the guitar players was wearing a shirt that led to my pick from the Crypt today, so we'll talk about that later. But then Suicidal was on, and they didn't play a very long set. But what they played was good. They did not play my favorite How Will I Laugh Tomorrow, which was kind of a bummer. But I saw that at Decibel, so I'm good.
But they did play You Can't Bring Me Down, Send Me Your Money, stuff like that. Some stuff off of Join the Army. That was good. Was Dave Lombardo playing drums from by any chance? Or is that era come and gone now? I think it has come and gone. You would have known if he was there. That would have been a little weird, don't you think? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're right, Jeff. Hey, Dave, get out there with your other band. Yeah, that was completely out of tune. Let me show you how it's done, but I'll do it with somebody else.
My bad.
Yeah.
And then after Suicidal.
This just got awkward.
Yeah.
I didn't even think about that.
Yeah.
And then Suicidal, after that, Knocked Loose, which was horrible, we walked around
and got pretzels and popcorn and beers and shit.
And then Slayer came on, and god damn, did they kill it.
You know?
They played some songs that both Justin and I were like, ah, I didn't expect to see
them play that.
I think they played 213.
The Dahmer song.
I was like holy crap.
Divine Intervention.
That's what it's from.
I couldn't remember it at the time.
Divine Intervention.
Did Gary Holt play in both bands?
He was in Slayer.
I didn't.
But you failed to mention.
I thought they did the Exodus thing.
They did but I missed most of it.
Oh you missed it.
We walked in on the last song or so.
Oh okay.
But he was up there for them.
I did see him on the screen.
Yeah, I'm sure he was. George, they played songs from 11 albums. Slayer? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was, it was, and it was all so good. And I mean, you know, Mandatory Suicide and Angel of Death, of course, Postmortem. Frickin' love that song. And they actually did Postmortem into Rain and Blood. When we, when you and I saw them with Will, they did Postmortem and they did something else before going into Rain and Blood, which. Right.
It breaks up the you know they go together like chocolate and peanut butter
Well interesting because you're at Hershey you would say that
Exactly they played Chemical Warfare
It was
Yeah it's a good it's a good set
I was just looking at it
One of the things that I've noticed
and I haven't seen any of these reunion
shows but I've seen you know videos and things
and I
at the end of the long rather long farewell
World Tour. You know, Tom's screams were kind of down a little bit and stuff. He was probably tired. It was a long thing. His voice is 100% back. Oh, yeah. On the videos I've seen, you know, he can do he can do the whole Tomarea thing. And again, it was probably just fatigue after a two year tour. Yeah. He's got rest now. He's not out there every day. Yeah. So he can really bring it when they do these shows. And that's pretty great. And you know, one of my favorite songs of the set was a song that I never
even really used to pay that much attention to off of seasons in the abyss because it's towards the end of the album it's good song but born of fire yeah born of fire is great you know i mean him playing that live it was just so intense and the whole you know ending on the scream of born of fire it's amazing i love that song now i mean i loved it before but i love it even more now and uh spirit in black dead skin mask oh my god nick and i were
out during dead skin masks singing at each other. So, um, yeah. So it was an amazing show. It was a motherfucker getting out of there afterwards because, uh, we had to Uber out. So we were there for another couple hours waiting for an Uber. Uh, didn't get back to the hotel till like one in the morning. Uh, and it's only like two minutes or two miles from the venue. So had we not been tired, we could have walked it, but we didn't.
How many hugs were there? Oh my god, so many hugs, so many ass slaps. Yeah. Awesome, man. Sounds like you had a great time. Except for the knock loose debacle. Yeah, it was just poorly planned there. I mean, they shouldn't have been there in the first place, to be perfectly honest. And they definitely did not rank over all these other veteran bands. I don't care what... I'm telling you, dude, that band is super popular with the kids. Like, it's a crossover band, I guess. Are they like Sleep Token and Ghost and all that?
that? I think they're like on that level now. They're nominated for Grammys and stuff. Like I've heard about them. I've listened. I tried to listen to music and I had kind of the same reaction you did. It is very generic crap. But they aren't anybody that likes them. It's popular. They suck ass. I would say of that lineup, that band is the most popular going, you know, obviously Slayer has got cred forever, but I'm saying it at the moment in the moment right now, they should not have been new audiences.
They should have opened. That's it. I agree. I mean, come on. Exodus, Cavalera, Suicidal. Those are the elder statesmen. They don't get stuck after these stupid little punk-ass emo bitches. Maybe they wanted to go on early so they could get out early. Well, there's that. I did consider that. You know, you get older, you're like, yeah, I'll play four. That means I don't have to be up until two in the morning. Yeah. Maybe they wanted to attract
I mean, those bands, I think, attract a lot of people from different ages, even though they've been around a long time, but maybe they wanted to put Knock Loose later to get in the younger, fresher crowd. I do not accept this. I don't know, dude, you got to look them up because I don't even, you know, I'm not a big social media guy and I hear about Knock Loose everywhere. I heard about them like, I don't know, a year ago and I like said, all right, let me listen to this. And I was like, nope, no good.
But it sounds awesome, man. I'm glad you get to hang out with all those guys. Yeah, it was great. And then the next day, Justin and I went to Chocolate World, so goodbye, which is the Hershey chocolate store that has every conceivable Hershey chocolate and then some. Sounds fun. Yeah. I've been there once when I was a child. Hershey Park. Yeah. In the background, there's roller coasters and stuff going on.
But there's a theme park. All right. Nick was here pretty recently, actually. We spent the day together. He was in Chicago. Oh, really? With the Kuma's and he had beers here at the house. And yeah, it's a weird thing. Whenever anybody comes to visit me, never any pictures. I never think to take pictures. I never get any. But yeah, get to hang out with me. I'm the same way as you, Marcus. I never think. That's not what I'm thinking of. I never think of it. Yeah. Even at shows. I just went.
I don't know, two or three shows. I maybe took one picture, but I didn't think to put it up or share it or anything. I take pictures at Prague Park because I'm sitting. I can put the phone on my knee and snap off a few quick shots and I'm done. Oh yeah, see I'm usually in the pit. Yeah, yeah. I would love to be on the floor, but I can't do that anymore. I'm glad you guys had a good time, George. Yeah, it was a much needed respite from the
and work and all of that. Yeah. Good for you. And cool that Slayer is still playing. Like, I know they're like, oh, we're not going to, we're done. But I like that they're still doing shows because they put on such an amazing performance. They sure do. I'd like to see them again. Yeah. Well, you saw one of the, you saw one of the reunion shows, didn't you Mark? I did. Yeah. It was supposed to be the last show in Chicago. It was at Riot Fest. So I was, I think that was that before I moved to Hawaii. I think
it was. So it's like 2000.
They're the new kiss, but cooler. Yeah. I think it's smart. It's like, you can keep going. You play a few shows a year, big, big shows, big festivals, and that's it. You know, and you're still going, you're making money and people get a chance to see you and you're still at the top of your game. So why not? That reminds me, and you're not beholden to me in any way, John. So don't worry about it. But did you, did you read that?
thing about the who? Not yet. No, I have not. It's such a nice article. This guy wrote this article about the who, who really are on their end of the road right now, I believe. And it's the nicest article. I can forward it to the rest of you guys if you want. He just reviewed it so nicely. From what I've seen, the clips I watched, I think it would be advisable at this point. I saw them on what I'm guessing was their previous tour.
And it was really good. Yeah, but Roger
Roger Daltrey does seem to have
slowed down significantly
on stage. It's 82
years old. It's to be expected.
I don't even expect him to be
performing at that age. Exactly.
No, you don't. 82?
Dude, you know,
Jefferson Starship
I think is still playing. There's only
one member from the airplane. It's the
bass player, so it's really not
any...
Did he just diss bass players? I think he did. No, what I'm making is he's like 87. Oh my god. It's like, what is going on here? It's like some Tony Bennett level shit. I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure he's way up there. You know, this is completely unrelated and has nothing to do with the quality of music or anything, but I saw this weird post the other day and it was Rick Springfield ran into Dick Van Dyke at a workout place and he couldn't believe how
in shape Dick Van Dyke was at 99. But then Rick Springfield turned around and said, it makes me proud for how good I look at 76. He looks awesome. He's 76 years old. He's not wearing a shirt on stage right now. I'm like, put your shirt back on. Oh, no, you're cool. You look pretty good for 76. You actually look good. I saw Rick Springfield like last year, maybe. Well, it was 75 when you fucking saw him. If not, it was the year before.
I'm sure it was last year because yeah pretty sure it was and he was awesome that's crazy though how some of these guys are chugging along at these ages when TR and I saw the Sammy Hagar you know best of both worlds with Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani and Jason bottom Sammy's 78 I thought he was even older I thought he was like like hitting 80 well maybe now because that was last year we saw him yeah and he was still
and pretty damn good. How old are the dudes in Maiden? Like 52, 53. I think they're all late 60s. Getting close to 70. I would say Steve is probably the oldest one. And he is born in 56, so that would make him 68. Yeah. I mean, he's still running around like he's... Yeah, they're young. Did you see the picture? Adrian might be older than that. Yeah.
Sammy Hagar is 77. He's a year younger than my parents. But did you see the picture of Crypt Sermon with Bruce? Yeah. It put things in perspective to me because I'm like, I know these guys. I've been in the room with them. I see how tall they are. Bruce is freaking short. Oh, yeah. He's only 5'6".
I'm like what? I'll tell you what though. That's still tall compared to some. I think the tallest guy in ACDC is 5'5". That's just one of them. Yeah, but like Bruce could hang out with Dio and be like, what's up? He kind of towers over Dio. Look, not everyone is Opeth, all right? Those guys are all like six feet tall, right? Well, it's like me. I'm like 5'7", 5'8". It's pretty close. Yeah. Pretty short. Yep. It's the camera angle.
You know, we say the camera angle on television shows makes you look 10 pounds heavier, right? Well, the camera angle music makes you look three inches taller. I guess. I mean, I never would have put him at, you know, I just figured like, you know, 5'10". I mean, because you see him on stage and he's just running around like, I never realized he was a little shorty guy. I gotta be honest, I never even think about that. I wouldn't put Bruce Dickinson in my pocket. I wouldn't be like, oh, hey Bruce. Little pocket Bruce. Pocket Bruce.
Are you stealing a puppet joke? So having quickly googled everybody, they're all 67 or 68. Yeah, it's kind of crazy how they're all relatively the same age too on top of that. Was Nico the oldest of those guys? That's a good question. I think he was. And also, how old is Rob now? 72 or 73? 74 maybe? He's the tallest person in Priest. So imagine how much that
Jacketways on stage. Yeah, you're right. Nico is the oldest. He's 73. That's what I thought. Rob is 74. I keep waiting for Maiden to announce their American tour for next year. Stay on target. It's coming. Because I want, I got to see Maiden when I'm 50 and they're still 50, you know, like I want, I want to do it this year. They announced next year dates for not here, which I know. I thought they were doing not here this year, but.
I thought too, George. I was like, oh, dates. I saw it. Come on. You're in Europe still. Don't worry about that because I saw Priest on their 50th anniversary and it was year 51. So, I mean, he just said to you, it will be the 50th anniversary, you know? Yeah. Well, my buddy, the captain has never seen them. And I was like, what? You have to see them. So we're going no matter how much the cost is, which I'm sure will be high. Bruce is still about 75, 80%. You know, I think overall.
for everything he does.
He's 100% on stage running around.
There's no doubt about that.
Vocally, he's like...
He's not going to be there forever.
I mean, he even admits that.
He's done a lot of solo stuff.
And there's been dates here in Chicago.
I haven't gone to those, but...
Yeah.
It's been a pretty successful tour, I think.
Yeah, it really has.
All right.
Wow, we are really not moving far.
We are not.
We got no will to keep us in check.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, right. Anyway. All right. Well, when he starts nodding off, you know, it's time to, you know. Yeah, then we get delayed. We get delayed with that then. Like, hey, are you okay back there, buddy? We love you. All right. Well, let's, we can skip through the next news items pretty quickly. The band Watain announced that their next album will be their last. Hasta la Vista, not that big a fan, but I thought it was worth announcing. Is that a little bit of a surprise, though? Well, you know, they said they're just, they want to go out on top.
Okay. They've been doing it for 30 years or something. Their 30th anniversary is 2028, and that's when they're going to buy out. That's what I found remarkable about this news item is I don't remember a band ever announcing the end three years prior. Well, those Satanists, they plan things better. Slayer's was like two years. Slayer did at least two. Not like this grand plan for the band. They have like a spreadsheet of what they want to do, basically. So I really like that.
They're doing it. They're going to go out on their own terms and they're going to make this like sweeping finale for the band. I really I think that's pretty cool. Are you familiar with Kiss? Yeah. They're on the 10-year retirement tour. Kiss has been doing this for 25 years. I know. I'm not joking about that. But I feel like because they've announced this and they have this three-year plan, they're just they're going to be done. Are you familiar with Motley Crue? Again, they announce it, but then they just keep going. This is like an actual plan. No, they did. They actually
They actually disappeared. I was like, this is awesome. And then they came back. They have a three-year plan to do it, though. But Mick's not in the band anymore, is he? No, no, no. They came back with him, remember? They did come back with him. Then they had the whole thing that he can't play and they're not playing on stage. Which, by the way, Vince looks like the monster from that cartoon. Yeah, he does, too. I don't think we're big fans, but relevant news. Vince Neil had a
He said he had multiple strokes over the years. That's right. Yeah. Well, that yeah, but that's not a health issue. Are you talking like Billy Squire had a stroke? Is that where you're coming from? Sorry. Did Billy Squire have a stroke? Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Oh, I know. I have that. I actually have. I like that album. George, stop jerking on the cast. Don't say no. I love that album. Yeah, I love Don't Say No.
All right. All right. So Mark's on pretty much already talked about this. I don't know if you want to talk about it more, but Hulu is releasing into the void documentary. Yeah. Has anybody watched them? I've watched six of eight. I have not watched any yet. So when you give me a rundown, I started and it was like, clearly this is going to be a Randy Rhoads episode. And for some reason I was like, I'm not ready for this. So are they all related to Sabbath or Ozzie in some way? No, they're all different. They're all different. And you can, you don't have to watch them in order or anything like that.
So there is the Randy Rhoads episode and like I said, it spends as much time on Ozzy as it does on Randy Rhoads and Sharon's in it and she's really emotional. I thought that was good. Enemy episode was also really fucking good. NME, the story of Kurt Strubing, you know, killed his mom with a hatchet and scissors and like goes to jail and he comes back and has this whole life and I won't tell you everything that happens in it, but it was really good.
Like I knew of them, but I didn't know everything.
Yeah. I'd never heard of that. And you had, you wrote in the chat that, and so like dark side of the ring to me, when my kids were young, there were, there was a few things I could turn on TV and they would immediately stop and stare at the screen. One of them was baby signing time. But for me, that is dark side of the ring. It's taking those older like stories from wrestling, but it's a little bit true crime. There's a little bit of tragedy. There's a little bit of just like these weird events.
that change things. It's not all criminal, but yeah. No, but there is a little bit of true crime in there, but it's a lot of just noted events in the history of wrestling, and it's the same thing here. Because you had said that, and it just didn't quite register. And then I put the Randy Rhoads one on, and I'm like, okay, yeah. And then it went to the enemy. I was like, oh my God, this is exactly the same format. It's just now music. Yeah, it's really well done, and they get a lot of good people to speak on each episode.
But the Chuck Scheldiner episode was excellent. And we know the story. But I don't know the way they portrayed it was different. Because there's a whole documentary on death. It's like a movie. And I have it on DVD. But this is the way that they portrayed it. I like a lot. Because it's the dark side of the ring, people. Probably my favorite one was the Anne Boleyn one. Did you watch that one, Matt? No, I've only done the...
Randy Rhodes enemy and then I'm in the middle of the Judas Priest and so Lynn the singer not the yes from alien Wow that's obscure it was and it was awesome because you know she she persevered through you know assault she was targeted by Ted Bundy which I forgot about it's like almost got killed by 10 but she persevered through this assault sexism in the in the industry
I didn't know that like Dio and Wendy like brought her in and tried to make something of. Yeah, I remember that. And so it was pretty inspiring, but it was heartbreaking because she was an amazing talent, but nobody wanted to sign her because she was a woman in metal and they didn't want anything to do with that. Even with Dio trying to help guide her for a time, it didn't happen the entire time in their career. And then I'll just give one more highlight, but the
There's a Judas Priest episode as well. And it's all about the legal battle that they faced after these two teenagers. There's already a documentary about that. Yeah. It's Dream Deceivers. I have to say, I'm looking at the episode breakdown here, and one of the ones I'm most excited to watch is the Wendy Williams one. Oh, sure. I watched that one, too. I was just thinking of her when you mentioned the other woman. I was like, well, there should be one on Wendy Williams. The Plasmatics. Plasmatics, yeah.
I want to see that bus on fire again. That was pretty fucking cool. It's weird to me we never talk about them because they had a couple of really good fucking records. And she was friends with Fleming. I liked her solo stuff too. So like with the Judas Priest one, they actually talk about that documentary you're referencing and you interview the guy who made the documentary. So it's kind of a little bit more of a spin on that. Well, and the lawyers that were like prosecuting.
which was very strange because they were so religious it was it was a weird take just to remember that that even could have happened and and that that could have and could happen it could have changed everything you know i've got this great if priests lost it could have changed everything about metal i have a fantastic book that i really recommend to all you guys and it's called satanic panic and it deals with some some of the metal stuff but not just that just how weird
the 80s were for that. And, you know, like there was always like weird things, like people thinking there was a satanic ring in a daycare facility or, you know, they'd find a pentagram on an underpass and that was it, man. There was stories all over the place. The satanic panic thing was a real thing. And I would say the Judas Priest trial was one of the culminations of it, even though they weren't.
It was really interesting because they had this thing with the subliminal messages where they thought it was saying do it on the record. And so they would play it, you know, and then the reason that priest was able to win that that case is because they brought in another record and they told him like this is what it says if you play it backwards. And because you're saying that and then they play it and you hear it, you're telling somebody what you should hear and then you hear it. And so the judge is like, oh, yeah.
So they're saying do it and it's because they were saying that that you're hearing it not because it was actually there on the record. But I thought that was fascinating. Just what what an innocuous phrase. Yeah, it is. I mean that that could ever made it into a courtroom is ridiculous, you know, I know you've got me excited to watch this all of it. They're excellent and they're all about 45 minutes long. So they do a really nice pace. I think for each one.
At a medium pace.
Today she's D, hello.
Yes.
Cool.
Yeah, I love it.
Love it.
I hope they do more.
I'll probably finish the last two tonight, actually.
What is, how many are there in total?
There's eight.
Eight, yeah.
Oh, there's the Judas Pace.
I'm waiting to try and get Barb to watch with me because, you know, she's come a long way.
She's like, oh, that's Motorhead, you know? I think she'll like it. It's just interesting stories. Even if you're not doing that, it's interesting stories about people. Yeah, I mean, she generally likes the metal documentaries when she watches them, but she has not been in the mood, so I'm not holding out. Well, this is a good one to try to get her in because it's 45 minutes, so then you move at a brisk pace, you get a really good story, and they're just fascinating. You want to know what happens at the end of the documentary, so. You know, I kind of, I think, somewhat famously watched musical,
I just love them and yeah whether you like the band or not a lot in common with a lot of different music and so that that being said I was surprised how much I liked it just came out and it's on either Hulu don't tell me it's the Lilith Fair no it's the Billy Joel one oh that I want to see yeah it's long did you watch it no because it's long we and it's on our it's on our list and I love Billy Joel how personal so many of his lyrics were he also tried to kill himself
when he was a kid. It was really interesting. And it really gave me an appreciation for his talent. Because if nothing else about that guy, he was gifted with the voice of an angel, man. And he's a writer. He's a great writer, too. I love documentaries. Even for musicians I don't care about. Yeah. I recommend the Billy Joel then. Because I was... It's a two-parter. I'm going to watch the Zeppelin, too. Got to see that. Becoming Zeppelin? Mm-hmm. Oh, the Zeppelin one's good.
It's a little further into their career
Yeah
The tragically hip one, I think I told you guys about that one
Yeah, I want to see that too
That was excellent
I just watched the Charlie Sheen documentary
That was pretty crazy
Yeah, we didn't watch that
I dug it
Okay, I'm interested
Alright, last news item
This one's for me and Jay
Twisted Sisters doing a 50th anniversary tour
And you can bet your ass if they come around here. I am going to that. Yeah, I'll go out of my way. Yeah. I'll go out of my way. But only three of them, right? Only three guys. Well, Mark Mendoza is not taking part for some reason. And I don't know. And that's OK. They can live without him. And I don't know. About the drummer. You may remember, John, that Mike Portnoy. Portnoy played. Yeah, because AJ Perreault died after AJ Perreault died. But I don't know if they have you seen if they announced a drum or anything, George?
I think it's all just like imagine it won't it won't be him because dream
theater is torn big time right now so they'll get somebody but you know and it might be kind of a no-name
but um but it'll be d it'll be jj it'll be eddie you know that's that's the core and and d and um speaking of again I've we've recommended this before but if you've never watched we are twisted fucking sister it's awesome I loved it I absolutely loved it yeah yeah and it it
It also will give you an idea of the balls they had as a band. And I don't mean they were brave. I mean, they were hard. Oh, yeah. I love that documentary. And I don't even care for the band at all. It's very well done. Yes. And what people don't realize is, and I know maybe George likes them. I don't know. Maybe Jay. I don't know if Matt and Marcus are on too. Zebra and Twisted Sister were on the same kind of trajectory at that time.
And they were both playing these, probably Twisted Sister was playing bigger shows, just these huge shows without record deals. They were filling the same places, John. They were filling 1,500 seat halls. Well, Twisted Sister was playing the Palladium. I was 3,000 plus, no record deal. That's crazy. Yeah. You know, and so I think it's just a testament that they made it bigger. I mean, they both made it. Well, Testament made it bigger, sure. Yes. But it says a lot about those two bands. Hellion was kind of like that, too.
in the Anne Belinda documentary, maybe not as many people, but they had to put out their own albums because a record label wouldn't sign them. But they got a video on MTV. And it was like, they got pretty big because of that for that small blip. George, you're right. I think, George, I'm sorry, Jay, real quick, you were going to say, which is saying something for the 80s where bands were getting signed left and right. Is that what you're going to say? No, just that you couldn't put out a record in the 80s on your own. Oh, no. Unless you were Steve Vai.
Yeah, Steve Vai's literally the only person who did. I mean, people did, but it wasn't the norm. No. Sorry, Jay. But just funnily, John, I walked into a place just a couple miles from here. We don't have much out here, but there's a little place, a cafe and stuff. And I walked in the other day and Zebra was playing. Yes! Where the fuck that was. I love that band. They're doing some kind of anniversary thing right now. Yeah, 50th anniversary. We were supposed to go see them up near George's neighborhood. The Weinberg.
Yeah. And they canceled the show because they sold like literally no tickets to it. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah. I just saw them a few years ago with Jen. She never saw them. I was like, dude, this band's awesome live. Well, there was this period there in the early 80s where they didn't quite understand heavy metal yet. And these various artist albums were coming out and it would always be like, it would have like metal health on it, but then it would also have like Ted Nugent and stuff like that. Yeah, I have one. They were awesome actually. Well, just to finish that
I promise which is but every one of them had tell me what you want by zebra on them
yes the one that I had had it on there and it had it had quiet riot it had Dio it had rush it had it possibly
I love hearing crocus name drops because they were big back then from yeah now it wasn't right I don't think I don't think rainbow was on there see that would be death alley driver that was a pretty big song when I get death alley driver was showing up
Stone Cold was pretty big too back then. You could forget how big that record was. That was kind of like the biggest rainbow record, I think. That 1980 to 83 period is just a whirlwind of what came out and how everything was just mixed together at the same time. That was the original European Fest. You go to Europe and you can see crazy lineups of genre bending. They mix so much. That was the early
the 80s. It really was. That's why I love all that stuff so much, even though it's not very heavy, a lot of it. It doesn't matter. It's just... But it was kind of what they had to throw in that package at that time. You know, I mean... We're a Triumph in there with them, you know? Yeah. But we've talked about this before, about how you would have a battle vest with Ozzy and UFO on the back. And as much as I like UFO, I know they're not. No, but you would, because Shanker was a big guitar hero for people. Then you have like a Triumph thing.
And then there'd be that one dude with Uriah Heep on his back. You know, I mean, it's the truth, though. Speaking of battle vests, when I was at Garbage, I saw a dude with a battle vest. I'm like, what? And then I'm looking at it, and it's like, it's mind-bending because it's a completely different genre of battle vest. It was all, like, alternative bands and stuff, and I was like, what? Will Co's on there and Weezer. Yeah, yeah. I was like, what is that? I was like, I can't
I believe somebody did that. That's actually kind of badass. That's kind of cool. Yeah. I'd walk and say, not my music, but I see what you're doing. I like it. Well, I mean, I like some of the bands, but it was just so, it's not a metal vest, but it looks like a metal vest. Oh, I see people do that with comic stuff. And it's, it throws me off completely because it's not what I'm expecting. Yeah. But you should put a Bucky's patch on your vest, George. Yeah. That's the back patch, dude.
That's the giant fucking beaver. Awesome. Yeah. Oh, actually, you know what? Sorry. Here's an interesting thing. The guy who's playing drums for Twisted Sister is one of the original drummers. Oh. Oh, wow. That makes sense. Joe Seven Franco. How old is that, dude? He's got to be up there. 952 years old. The bassist is just a guy named Russell Pizzuto that I've never heard of. Just a guy.
This year it's going to be worldwide, so I guess they're going to get out there. I wonder where they'll play. I mean, will it be a theater thing, or do they think they're going to be able to pull small arenas or something? I wonder. I can't imagine. It'll probably be like Fillmore or something like that. Yeah, or maybe the Warner. I can't see them pulling off. Yeah, maybe Warner. Anthem might be too big. Anthem's too big.
And these are venues in the D.C. metro area. The Fillmore is roughly 2,000, I think. And that's completely full. That's in Maryland, Silver Spring. They could probably pull 2,000. I think they might. Anthem's probably like twice Philly Fillmore. Anthem is 6,000. Yeah. That's big. You just don't know how big that place is. It's surprisingly large for a place with no seats. Yeah. So, George, you took the picture you sent.
was the same picture you and I took the first time we went there for priests. You go all the way to the back by the board, and you're just like, this is a mausoleum. It's massive. It's so big. And it's, once you're in, it's kind of a cool place. Yeah. You know, were there seats up where we were? Because they were there, because we were leaning on the rails, but I was like, oh, look, the balconies have seats. There's two rows of seats in front of you on that, and then in the middle,
above the board, I think it's like six rows of seats.
Yeah, I saw people up there.
So if you're ever in D.C., get a chance to see a show anthem.
There's no way it would ever happen, because they could never make Decibel that big.
But that would actually be really cool if they played there, because it's just huge.
It is.
There's plenty of room, is the point I'm making, to move around.
And it's set up like the Decibel Philly.
A little bit, yeah.
But twice the size.
It's like a giant 930 club, basically. It's almost the same setup as 930, just significantly bigger. But you're right, it does look like Philly. You got the stairs in the back that goes up and all that, so yeah. Cool. All right. Wow. Moving along. Slowly. All right. We're going to move on now to new releases. We are now, from our perspective, in our third hour.
Spend your heart or money now!
I know you like it talk about it I do I mean I've only heard it once so far but it was enough to make me go hot damn and uh of course I then had to reach out to John and go hot damn and uh yeah it is something else it's all over the place wild but it is good eating it's definitely all over the place it's true I listened to it yesterday did you like it I did I you know I've I really got into colors years ago
and kind of followed them. And I've kind of been just checking in with them periodically. And it's probably been an album or two since I've done a good check-in. And obviously with the conversation that was going on in the chat about AOTMs, you can cut that, George, if you need to, because that's a bit of a spoiler. But it was good to check in with them again. I like how their sound has evolved. Yeah, it was good. Excellent. Yeah, wild would be an understatement. I would be, it would behoove me to say I'm a huge fan,
because I literally finally jumped on board with Colors 2 in 2021.
Really?
Even though I had seen them like a gazillion times live with TR.
Every time we saw a show, we saw them.
I just could not.
It just wasn't clicking for me.
I was like, everything about this band I should like.
When they moved past the kind of metal core, which I'm not.
That's been a while.
Yeah, but I'm saying you would think after that I would have caught on early and I just never did.
Minus this one night, I don't know if I was really hammered one night, and I had XM on when I was living by myself, and I had it on late, and I think they were playing something from the Parallax. I was like, this is fucking good. Who is this? I was like, oh, I don't like these guys. No, Parallax is awesome. This song is really good. It does not compute. And Coma Ecliptic as well is amazing. I'm like fucking on board now. Yeah. It's wild. I mean, if you don't want Avon, you want Prague, metal,
With the metal cores back a little bit, just a little, avant-garde, all over the map, there's fucking country guitar riffs on this album. It's all over. I love it. It's fucking awesome. I think it's awesome. I'm glad you guys like it. You know what? I think they'd be fun live for sure, but they're absolutely incredible live. I hated this. How can you hate this? I knew it wasn't for me after about 10 seconds, but I did. Oh, shit.
Oh god, just the opening riff is just like cringe. But I just I did force myself to preview each track just to see if there was anything on the record that I'd like. You said the second song, I'd give you the second song, but the opening riff is just something. No, I can't. I don't even like that. No, no. So yeah, a lot of wild funk, 80s synth, industrial I heard, you know, obviously some metal on there. Is this the same album? I don't know.
I'll have to I'll have to I'll pick circus music for sure some circus music that's that that's that that country guitar shit they did I don't like that I know you don't like that yeah no yeah what's that other band that kind of that I called circus music that you like George uh was it the uh oh sleepy time gorilla music yeah yes it kind of has some of that in there and I don't it's not that it's not that I agree no it's not that far but I has some of that on there some of that guitar uh that
Country Guitar Plane. After a while, you're like, all right, all right, come on. Yeah, I just, listen, I got to give them credit for just putting all of this, throwing it into this garbage plate of an album. Like that's, and trying to make it into something cohesive. Go see them, if you haven't seen them, see them at least once, because live, you're like, they don't stop for like an hour. It's insane how they just keep going. They're incredibly talented. Yeah. Yeah, I don't doubt that. I just,
It's not for me. That's all there is to it. That's fine. Don't worry. It'll make our top 25. Oh, God. All right. This is a crazy month, by the way. The last month and a half, two months, whatever. Just so many releases. So let's roll them. Yeah. All right. Next up, we have the new Black Braid album. Three. Their third album, ironically. New York Black Metal. And I like these guys a little more. This guy.
a little more with every album.
And I love this one.
Love it.
So I'm just not in a black metal mood anymore.
I'll be honest with you.
I really not.
And I listened to it.
I thought it was fine.
I didn't have an issue with it, but it's just, I don't listen to much black metal anymore.
I don't either, but I listened to this and I was like, damn.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's good.
I love black metal, but I, especially atmospheric black metal, but, and I like Black Braid.
I think the album is good, but it just doesn't move the needle for me the way I hoped it would. So after listening to this, I kind of feel the same about Skagasawa's music. It's good. It's solid black metal. It has a chance to crack my top 25. The last album did. I think it came in maybe 25 or 24 or something like that. But I definitely prefer a ton of other black metal projects to this.
I don't think BlackBraid lives up to the level of hype and excitement that they seem to achieve on every record. Somebody else said that to me. They're so really good. It was Trevor, actually. They definitely have the back end or the front end, whatever you want to call it, is definitely way more honed in than other bands. I agree with that. It is kind of strange how good it is.
Yeah. And I trust me, George, I know you like it. And I know Matt and Jay, I'm guessing you guys like it too. There are other people I know that absolutely love it. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm missing here. But I'm not knocking it. I'm just not gravitating to it. No, it's good. It's not like a favorite for me. But it seems it's going to be on a lot of lists this year. And to how you're kind of wording it, Marcus, it's not a negative. It's a really good album.
But like, I mean, the first album was my number one whatever year that came out. It's been good, but like, okay. Yeah, like it's really good. Cool. It's funny because, and George, you're jumping on now even more. Yeah, I was, the first album I was like, eh, whatever, it's typical black metal. And then the second album was a little better. And I was like, all right, I'm with you. And then the third one, I think he's really progressed to a good place. That's wild. They just played here.
Was it last night or the night before? Really? Yeah. Yeah, they played last night in Baltimore. Yeah. Yeah. And you're right, John. They are like taking off quite a bit. It's just blowing up. I mean, the show here was sold out. It's been sold out probably for quite a while. It may have already happened to. Yeah, I might have gone to that. So I think what we have to wait and see is I think a lot of people are gravitating to because of the aesthetic behind the band. Sure. I think that you have fans that are fans. Ooh. I don't know.
about that. I want to jump in on this. See how many of those people stick around and see if they keep their loyal fans who don't care. They like it, but they care just about the music. That's all they care about. I think that's part of it. I'm not knocking it at all. I'm just saying I think you get some fans for that reason. The American Indian thing? Yeah. I'm sure of it. Yeah. You're absolutely right. We'll see where it goes from there because I think it could go one of two ways. It could make the same album again or next
And he's done that each time. It's gotten a little different each time.
I agree with that. It's changed a little bit each time.
Yeah, it has.
But I think it hasn't, the changes haven't made me more affectionate for the band. You know what I mean? I still feel like it's uneven play. Well, I take it back. The first record to the second record, I thought that was a big leap.
The second to the third, it's kind of even for me now.
I remember that for you.
Yeah, sort of jumping on the bandwagon thing, and I'm not sure that's how you stated it, but I think I'm susceptible to the American Indian thing. Oh, absolutely. I know I am. It's a draw, and I'm not... Well, there is some controversy about that, though. Yeah, I know. There is. There's actually quite a bit of controversy. Even if it wasn't present in any way, even if it was simply that I knew it was an American Indian musician, and let's say just verically, thematically, he was, and that was all that he brought in, that would still be
enough. Sure. You're drawn to it. I equate them and just take this with a grain of salt. I equate them to like Ghost a little bit in that everyone liked the Ghost aesthetic a lot. And I'm like, wow, this is really cool. So I thought they got a lot of fans for that. And they've just slowly gotten bigger. Not slowly, but you know what I mean? Every level, they keep jumping with each album. And now it's, are you on board because of the aesthetic or are you just a fan now? And I kind of,
It's a great example. And I know they're not the same. I'm not trying to... No, I think that's perfect because I think it's the aesthetic that makes the band, but they also happen to be a good band. White Ward had that at the time. When White Ward made it big with that last album, it was like the whole... But the aesthetic pushes them over the top for people in their minds. And Ukraine was a hot button item. But the album was good, though. I liked it. And so I think that that drew people in. Oh, they're Ukrainian. I got to like...
I got a list of this. And the fact that it's do it yourself. Yeah. Totally. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Matt, but it's do it yourself. Like this guy, he's got all these record labels who've tried to sign him and he's like, nope. And he's just doing himself and doing a really fucking good job of putting out albums and distributing it and getting his voice out there. And that is admirable to me. Yeah. What were you going to say, Matt? I was going to say about Ghost. My ride or die, a friend of the podcast, Eric, him and his daughter,
We're in town. Hey, we're going to Ghost. Do you want to go with? I'm like, yeah, why not? I cannot believe how big that band has got. They're huge. They're playing in an arena. And I go there. And we went to go get some food beforehand at a restaurant. There's just Ghost shirts everywhere. I mean, there's just people. Which is funny because they're kind of outside the genre at this point. Yeah, they really are. They're just a hot band. So the singer was talking like, hey, you know,
We played here this many times, but we played
at this place called Station Something
the first time we ever played in Minnesota.
In my head, I was like, yeah, I was there.
You didn't talk.
You actually were supposed to be with Enslaved,
but your visas didn't go through, so you're on your own little tour.
And now I'm looking around like, and I thought when I went
that they were going to be like the lower bowl of the arena.
No, it was the whole arena was full of people.
It was just crazy.
And that sort of happened while we weren't paying attention, Matt,
because I don't I mean that's why I say they're outside the genre I mean John I know you can speak to this
part of what I'm about to say which is I first of all I remember when the record came out the first one and I was like this is fucking cool yeah I like the first record I love it because it had it had this kind of weird it almost sounded like an old metal blade record but
merciful fate the blue oyster cult thing and then there was this kind of mysterious image and then
this is what the John part they opened for Opeth and I believe it was the watershed tour and it was their first time to America and everybody was like crazy about them right at that moment and then they got the Maiden tour and then they snuck off and became this massive fucking thing they opened for Maiden and they played all the big arenas in the states yeah and they just blew up absolutely blew up and you're right they're outside the genre because you don't see them at a lot of like top metal lists like real metal
They're their own thing. Exactly. They're ghost. Exactly. They ghosted metal. Yeah. We're so weird. What's that other fucking band that does like hip hop and shit? That band's kind of the same. It's the same trajectory. Except that they are absolutely 100% bullshit awful. I actually liked their first couple records when it was more metal. Actually, it was better. I love that you didn't even say that. Sleep Token.
That's a great example of another band that just blew up out of nowhere. There is nothing remotely metal about that band. The only thing metal about them is that they look like every other metal band wearing a mask. Yeah, the music is not really metal. In the beginning, they were more metal, though. Not the album I heard. Dude, they are just like the prog darlings right now. Yeah, they're definitely the next ghost. I mean, I guess they're already here because they're selling out arenas, aren't they? Huge.
Is the stage they play on, is that metal? That might be. It might be aluminum. It's all plastic. Is that a dad joke? Yeah. There's another band right now that's blowing up like Sleep Token. I can't think of what they're called. I was just like, what is happening? Is it that kind of thing? It's the same, like we're talking about with Ghost. And I don't put BlackBraid on that yet because they're not going to play. No, certainly not. I mean, they're metal still.
They're still metal, but they're never that style. It's never going to escalate. I think their whole attitude is different. Oh, we wait for number four. Well, look, literally, literally Emperor came to the States and George and I saw them at the Fillmore for 2000 people. And you would think, wow, this is a band might play a bigger place. No. And it's about as high as you're going to get in a black metal world. Yeah. You know, it's ironic, though, with BlackBerry. I feel like they could incorporate more elements.
like that and be a better band because they are very straightforward black
metal it's pretty i feel like they could yeah yeah if they incorporate something else into it i'd
probably like it better i think you know i think the the primal matches the aesthetic too
if they brought you know a little bit more of like the way wayfair does it which is they
yeah they really bring the old west thing into it and it's there and it's present and it's still black
And I do think BlackBraid needs to bring more of the American Indian thing in. They had it on the second album. They cut back on it on this new one. Or again, he. Yeah. It feels like, and you guys know better, it feels like there's more of a nature aspect to this album. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. There's like nature sounds. It goes for like two minutes. I'll tell you, the artwork is outstanding for the album. I love the artwork. When I first heard the album, I texted Jay about the
The Forest of Eternal Dusk. And I was like, does this remind you of anything? And between us, there was like three or four different songs. To me, it was like Eddie Van Halen, Ain't Talking About Love, but there was also Don't Fear the Reaper. It's a pretty universal chord progression, but in a super minor way. Barb heard Crazy Train. That's right. Wow.
So I was like, this is very, I thought at the time, I thought I was like, this has got to be some sort of tribute or something. But especially the like the title, it's like a passing over kind of thing. Well, you've seen them. There's this some fifties or like some like group like almost like a big band group and they do pop hits and stuff and they do ain't talking about love. Have you guys seen that? No, really fucking good. It's big band. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I want to know that. Yeah.
I want to know that. That'd be awesome to see. I'll put it up with that. Send it to us. Oh, it's Big Band. I want to check that out. I mean, it's more like a 50s female vocal girl. I'll send it to you. Okay. It's really good. Yeah. I would never claim to be, I was abused with Big Band growing up because, you know, obviously that's when our parents listened to that stuff. But I played in an orchestra band setup. And if I could hear some music that we liked by them,
I'm in. Yeah. Otherwise, I wouldn't listen because I'm not a fan. No, I dig that stuff. Well, well, mission accomplished, Blackbrain. You got people who aren't even fans talking about you. I mean, we talked about them a lot. Wow. Yeah. So. All right. Let's move on to the next one. The new In Morning, The Immortal, their seventh album, Swedish prog, Melo Death. Go, John. Yeah. I mean, it's exactly what it is. And I think it's kind of a sister album to the previous one that came out.
which I'm drawing a blank now what that was called give me a second here that came out in 2001 I'm not paying attention to my notes here I can't find it I'm tired I've been up since six yeah it's it's a it's a good album it's I think a little proggier than the previous albums not as much there's plenty of mellow death but I feel like there's more of a frog element to it in terms of the guitar the song structures I would say but I like it and I still wish
get them on but i'm not gonna chase after a band if they said they come on i don't really
right it's not the end of the world but yeah i like it it was my album of the month last month so
yeah i enjoy the record too you know big melodic death but it's soaring melodies like they have some
killer black metal riffs on there there are a few yeah yeah and i like that part of it um i like the gorgeous
Breezy Cleans. And they have this kind of like a slower honey guitar passages throughout the album that really deliver kind of an emotional heft to it that I thought worked really well with the song. So I like this record a lot. I haven't really been a massive fan of In Morning. This might be the one I like the most, to be honest with you. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry, my pages are all out of order.
I was looking for the last I was called the bleeding veil which I had as my number one in 2021 wow yeah and I think it's kind of a continuation of that sound but even better personally so yeah I definitely gets better it improves on the last one for sure and George well I agree with all your assessments of them in the past like the way to oceans I think is awesome and I agree that one album that you don't like the production on I agree with it it's a good album but yeah you're like shit this could be even better yeah the production's fine on this one yeah and it I don't have anything bad
to say about it. I did listen to it because every time they put on an album, I give them a shot. Because, you know, The Weight of Oceans, I loved that album. I know you liked that one a lot, yeah. But it just didn't spark anything. I can listen to it and go, yes, this is a technically good album. No complaints. Just wasn't what I wanted to listen to. Yeah, yeah. I hear it. They've never disappointed on any album. They're very consistent on that level.
So it's whether or not you like that kind of music
So they're not Insomnium
and not Bellacore for the Melodeath
because they're all similar bands
They're more proggy than those bands
I think so
But that's your thing
Especially this album
I feel like it's a little bit more prog
than the last two have gotten much more
than the previous ones
So yeah
Which is good I think
Good direction
I like it
So I mean if you like that style
you'll probably dig it
So
Right on
Next, we have John's shirt, November's Doom, and their 12th album, Major Arcana, Chicago Doom. Chicago! Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. I dig these guys. This is a great album. Yeah, okay. I did listen to it because I wanted to listen to it the day it came out, but something else happened, and there was no topping that, and so I was like, I'm going to wait a day.
You don't want to kill the list. Yeah, exactly. I mean, this is we were joking earlier about your whoopee bands, your warm blanket bands that you we all have a band we love no matter what they put out. It's just that's our band. We're sticking with them. Everyone else might not be on the ride. This is one of those bands for me. But this sounds good, though. A lot. I mean, they've had the last few albums have been good. But they haven't like drawn me back to them. I still go back to earlier stuff. This one, though, I like this is got.
hooks in it's weird it's not even death doom anymore i think it's just dark metal yeah because they get a little deathy little doomy but there's never that never is prevalent in the sound well it's so melodic too and it's very melodic this album yes i agree now Markisan are they did you i felt like you said you were gonna go see them or you said they were gonna be playing they did their album release but they yeah but they're doing i've seen them a shit ton yeah i have too and it's just
It's weird because
For a band that doesn't tour, I've seen them quite a bit
Right, well I mean, but also because
they're from Chicago, like they're always going to play here
I'm not a super fan
of this band. I feel like they're one of the most
consistent bands out there though
and this album is no exception
I kind of feel like
George did on the last
band we talked about, In Morning Morning
Like, I always
admire what they do, but it
doesn't really move
me that much
It just depends how I'm feeling, what mood I'm feeling. But they always deliver just a really well-done album of death, sprinkled doom, dark metal. Whatever you want to call it. It's a little gothic on this one. Paul Kerr sounds fucking great on this one. For his age. So they have a lot of health issues in the band, so they can't tour. They just can't. And they all have jobs. But they will play Death Fest, which George and I,
and J2. We've seen them there. And then you guys came. I think it's on one time there too. But we saw them, I think, the first time we all congregated together as a group in 2016. So they don't play much. They don't, no. I'm more of an evil Doom guy. I love Doom. It's one of my favorite genres. I'm more of an evil Doom. And this is more of a flowing melodic style of Doom, especially this record. So I think that if you like that style of Doom, there aren't many bands.
who do it this well. So it's not exactly my cup of tea, but I fucking admire the band and I love that they're from Chicago. Like I always want to support them because I feel like they're so good. So are they, their sound? I'll ask you guys and whether you like it or not, it's irrelevant. Is this a band that is a victim of consistency that they put, they put out consistent albums after a while you're kind of like, cause there's a band that's going to come up in my, what I'm listening to, which every album's great, but at some point,
You're like, I've heard this before. I still love it. It's a perfect question. And it's Saxon has it. Yes. Overkill has it. Just consistent. Every album you're going to like. Maybe even Behemoth has it at this point. But you've heard it before. But you pick the ones you like out of their catalog the most. Yeah, exactly. I feel like that's them. But this one, I like a lot. Which is fine, by the way. You know, you found the road you like driving down. Yeah, so you stay on it. Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know what's wrong with that. I mean, arguably. Yeah. The ACDC of doom. Yeah. My favorite song they've ever done, I think, is the one that they had Annika Van Geersbergen on. That's like, oh, 2011. That album's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and that had a little bit of a different curveball to me. But if there's something to be said for consistency, you want that. But I don't know. I like when bands try something a little bit different. You know,
I want a little bit. I want to get excited about something new in the band because they're excited about doing that. But sometimes people just like to stay in that one gear. Well, what I meant by consistency for them was even though each album has been a little different, it's not like they're putting out a dud. I guess that's what I meant by consistency. So there's no ups and downs. There's never a dud. Yeah. And so. If they had a sticker, John, it might actually help because then
And then they come back with like an amazing record. Holy fuck. What's on a shitty album, man? Come on. Just look at Celtic Frost. They have one of the greatest last albums ever. He's a good example. Anyway. All right. Yeah. All right. Moving on to the next. Hold on, Matt. Jay, do you guys need to take a break? I was going to wait till he said it. And then I was going to be. I'll just get ahead of it while I can. Sorry, George. Go ahead. Thank you. Next up, we have the new Paradise Lost album,
their 17th album.
And fuck you.
You go to hell, Jay.
He got up and walked away.
That's the joke.
I gotta go get something to drink.
You gotta wait two minutes before you go.
Yeah, and Psycho Las Vegas.
Two sentences in for George, and that's enough.
These geniuses left after two songs at Psycho Las Vegas.
Freaking ass clowns.
Yeah.
And he clearly doesn't know what he's missing,
because this album is fucking amazing. This was an oh shit moment. This is a huge album. Huge. Huge. This is, you know, it's very draconian times, which is hands down their best album. And they have returned to that style very well.
It's like modern Paradise Lost, though. But it does. It's still got the death in there, too. But there's a lot of really good, clean Draconian Times vocals. And so I went to the last one, Medusa, to see what the transition was. And it's there, but it is not remotely this good. You miss Obsidian's in between those two. Oh, Obsidian. Okay. Yeah. So you might dig that, because that's a little more Draconian Times.
Yeah, they started on Medusa. There was some good stuff, but it just wasn't as catchy. It was way doomier and sludgy. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about Obsidian. Sorry. No, you're good. Yeah, but this, I listened to this, and I couldn't listen to anything else the whole day because nothing was going to compare to this. That was the November's Doom thing. I was like, mind blown. I was like, oh my God, this is, it's metal.
It's deathy. It's doomy. It's gothic. It's gothic. And it's got hooks like a motherfucker. So holy shit. What did I say to you? I said it's like Draconian Times and The Plague Within, which is an album that came out in 2015, I think. Even Will liked that album a lot, which I was surprised. I didn't think he liked Paradise Lost. It's like those two had a baby and made a Plague Within type version of Draconian Times.
because it's heavier and it's a darker album, but it's still, there's songs on there that have those gothic books.
Yeah, I mean like, you know, the first song, Serpent on the Cross, is a little more like what I've been expecting from them. There's no real cleans on it. It's okay. It's a decent song.
It's slow. It kind of, not drags, but it's like that sludgy kind of, not sludge like sludge bands. It's just like you're grinding through on it.
Which is they're known for. Yeah, and I just listened to it. I was like, yeah, okay, whatever. But then when the second track, Tyrant Serenade kicked in, I was like, mind blown. And then Salvation. Oh my gosh, that's so dark. And then Silence Like the Grave. Silence Like the Grave. It's just, that could easily be on Draconian Times. Yeah. Easily. Lay a wreath upon the world. Starts off really quiet and clean and acoustic-y and then it gets heavier.
Deluvium surprised me. Even Savage Days is like a track that should have been from like One Second that was better. Like, yeah, let's just dial that. I mean, I like One Second, but let's just dial that industrial shit back. Yeah, One Second could have been a lot better, though. Oh, yeah, it could have. I liked it a lot, but at the time in the, you know, late 90s. But holy crap. You can't tell George and I like it. A lot. Clearly.
Oh, I, and I, I, and I, I'm praying, Albert, do it, do it. Just don't listen to your staff, make them number one. The first two songs were really good. And then you, you checked out. I like the first two songs. It would be my number one had I got to song three. You know, I, I, I, I love the ongoing joke about this, but you guys are going to do yourself a real disservice if you don't get into this one. Okay. Well, if you, if you like that,
That mid-90s gothic sound they had. It's that, but it's heavier. It's darker. It's riffier. I'll try it for you, but I feel like this has become kind of a part of the show at this point, so I think me and Matt can't like them. I am giving you permission to step outside of the joke and better yourself by hearing this contender for the year.
We did sign a contract. I'm going to rip that contract up. I will say this. Let me just get this in, Mark. Yeah, because I got to have some thoughts on this one. I just had to say one thing. All these bands recently that have been coming out with their gothic sound from the 90s. Like, oh, we can do this sound just like everybody else. And then they come and say, hold my fucking beer. We're the originators. So you can all just go back to worshiping.
us. That's what they did with this album. That's just my opinion. I think a lot of the
gothic, the newer gothic sounds are just awful. I hate that.
I tried listening to this album a few times and
it really hasn't clicked with me. I'm sorry. I'm listening to you guys.
I know I don't even understand.
Do you like Draconian Times? I did.
It's a very easy jump from that to this.
I understand. And I almost feel wrong saying this because I think the album is definitely this massive sweeping wave of catchy gloom. It brings back the memories of draconian times, but it also incorporates sounds from their later material, which I don't like as much. But I think I agree with that, but I think they do it much better on this. I do. I agree too, George. I love with bands are able to collide all their musical
in a cohesive, powerful way because it kind of justifies how they went to these other places because they learned something new and then they bring it back and then they make something even better than all the parts. And I think that Ascension does that really well, but it just, for some reason, it's not resonating with me. Maybe I've got to listen to it more, but I'm not.
I'm just not as much into that gothic sound. And I feel like a lot of times I'm listening to these songs, I feel like I'm trapped in a cathedral or something. There's so much goth on this one. And it's not clicking with me right away. And I'm shocked because I was a big fan of Paradise Lost and the Draconian Times icon. So I don't know what it is. I don't know if I have been able, maybe I'm just moving on. I have different tastes or what? I don't know what it is.
Hey George, you said that you didn't think the new stuff was as good. You didn't like The Plague Within? I think that's the best thing they did since Draconian Times. Well, honestly, I haven't given it a lot of attention. The last few albums. Go back and listen to The Plague Within, which is now, fuck, 10 years, it seems like. Yeah. Because I feel like this is Draconian Times and a collision course with The Plague Within. For me. I lost my train of thought now.
That's dream theater.
No, I, well, based on what Markisan said, I was, I had a response, not like necessarily to you, but just.
I got you, John.
Just so you know, that didn't go unnoticed.
Thank you, Jay.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
Thank you.
I hate to.
I don't.
Oh, I know.
I'm going to do it again.
I got it.
I got it.
I got it.
It had nothing to do with Markisan.
You just, it just thought of it while you were talking.
It's disappointing.
No.
Well, what's interesting about this is that I listen to most things on headphones. Stuff that I listen to in the car doesn't really do much to me because it's in the car. It doesn't sound as good. It's not in my ears. But the first time I listened to this was in the car. And the second time I listened to this was in the car because I was still in the car. You were driving around a long time. And the third time I listened to this was in the car.
But it was a different day. And it wasn't my car. And it wasn't until the fourth time that I actually put the headphones on. And then it got even better. I have not lived to do it on headphones yet. So I'll have to try that. So I don't know how true this is. But is it Greg McIntosh? Is that his name? Gregor. Gregor. He's the primary writer of the music. I don't know if this is true, but he had like seven songs and just wasn't digging them. So he scrapped them and started over.
And this is what he came up with.
Well, you should do that more often.
Well, okay.
But I want to hear those seven songs now.
To see where he was going with it, you know?
I don't know where I read that.
Maybe I'm wrong about that.
But I don't know.
It's cool.
You know what?
It got me really excited.
I was driving around Virginia.
And I put this on.
And I got really excited.
I got goosebumps.
I got like tears in my eyes listening to this album. It was one of those listens that it hit that hard. I gotta say him, uh, you know, Nick Holmes joining blood bath actually has given a whole new blood injection, you know, like pump injection to paradise lost. Cause he's brought back his harsher vocals, just not as harsh. And they've gone down a whole other Avenue now of bringing back their older stuff with the, with the
which is cool and you know which is funny i'm not listening to bloodbath anymore
right you know i certainly like it better than the last couple of records which
oh yeah i agree with that too oh no i i like this i thought ascension was great the one before this
well i need to i need like i said i i tried to go back and listen to some i guess i need to listen
to some more but deuce is decent and it's all right with it is the play within is awesome i think
That's their best one. All right. Since in a long time. I really hope you went a different way with the Albert thing than I thought you were. You're talking about the list. I really hope that they play Decibel in the spring. Of course. I said that to you. I said I hope they come for that. Because he's never had a chance to bring them, but now there's a new album out. And there's plenty of time that they can work on that. They have a whole book out about them. Yeah. And I would imagine at least some of the
guys in the band have visas because they are over here yeah not only that they revamped the
paradise lost book this year so it's like a new version of it with extra material
oh nice yeah so i'm hoping he and and he has some headline the whole thing so that'd be cool
yeah and we may hear that before the next episode depending on when we do october um probably
towards the end, given my schedule. Yeah. So, yeah, you usually hear in October about the lineup, so. All right, we got one more album from a band that has every aspiration to put out 1,000 albums in their lifetime. So, you know, I've talked about this before. The New Werewolves album, I haven't talked about the New Werewolves album, but we've talked about them plenty of times over the last few years. They just put out their sixth album, The Ugliest of All, Australian,
Black Death. And the last one that came out, I think my opinion was, you know, guys, you do good stuff, but you're diluting it by putting something out every year. But what I didn't know was that they have this goal of releasing 10 death metal albums in 10 years. It's like the 70s all over again, but death metal. That shouldn't change your opinion then. Well, no. It doesn't change my opinion, but it changes my outlook on understanding why they're doing this.
I'm like, okay, it's a worthy goal, but would maybe five really good albums be better than 10? Yes, it would be. But at least I understand why they're doing it. Just stop. But honestly, this one's okay. I think I like it better than the last one. Dude, it's werewolves. If you like what they've done on the last five albums, you'd like this. Their albums are basically interchangeable, which is insanely,
This is true.
Given that the whole werewolf concept is based on transformation.
That's true.
But yeah, if they just want to blast away and they're enjoying themselves,
I'm more power to them.
But I mean, I think that they, if they spent extra time to actually craft records
that express something different musically, they would definitely improve this band.
I think album number 11 should be total prog rock.
They're gonna be like, alright, we just blasted you with 10 albums of death metal in 10 years. Now we're completely changing years. Maybe that's when they transform. Yes. And George, it should take them 10 years to make it. Yeah, I was gonna, thank you, James. Oh, yes, 10 years for one album. There has to be a take a 10-year break and then come back. It's like, we hope you like our new direction. That's awesome. I mean, it's fine, but that's kind of a weird goal, honestly, to just like, just get as much out as you can. Did they sign that Columbia Records deal where they had to put out
10 records in 10 years. It's just like, yeah, I mean. Yeah. That's a 70s record deal. It's a weird move. Well, it's an interesting idea. I mean, I don't know of anybody else that has done something like that. I understand. Nobody else is doing anything like that right now. No. But it makes me not want to listen to their music because they have a timeline for it and it's a very quick turnaround. I get that. Which means that you're just going to try to crank out whatever they can to get the album done. And I don't like that. Like, I want.
music that actually means something a little bit more. Not that it doesn't mean something to do it. It sort of moves it into a different category for me. Like, okay, this isn't just regular old death metal. This is going to be over here by itself, and let's just see what they can do, even though it doesn't have the same expectations for me anymore, because it's just going to be the same thing. You just want to see them ride the silver bullet, don't you, George? Yeah. Hey, Matt, what's that band you like that uses all the Indian artwork?
That dude puts out an album, it seems like, every six months. Oh. It starts in E. E. K. Esco. Esco. Esco. Esco Trillium. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like every two weeks. Yeah, he's putting out 20 albums in 10 years. Yeah. Yeah, there's one this month. Yeah. That's what I thought. I just saw another one. I'm like, where's all that artwork coming from? Did you guys, like, pillage a library of artwork? Maybe it's a contest between the two. I don't know. Maybe he's in Wolves and we don't realize it.
It's like Kralis, man. Kralis just cranks out the albums. I'll tell you guys a secret. If you suggest a band to me, I'll go check them out. And if they have like 10 albums, I'm like, I'm not listening. I don't have the patience to dig through 10 albums to find something I like. What if it's Grind? That's like 10 minutes. Yeah, but then there'll be like 400 albums there.
I don't know what it is my patience
I want to come in on the ground
like that's why I'm surprised that I'm
on BTBAM because I'm like
I don't want to go back and each album is like
80 minutes long
I mean it's good to have a goal
and it's something that they're trying to achieve
so I mean I guess I can admire
that but I just don't think it's going to make for
good or different music
you know it's just going to be another Werewolves
album and I don't think you want to be
for that. I don't think that's what you want. Like the band Footprints in the Custard, every hole is a goal. All right. That means something else to me. That's a different goal. The hole is the goal, apparently. Yeah. All righty. We only have like three more segments to go, so we should be done by Tuesday.
This next one I'm going to fly through. So you won't have to worry about me. I've actually got a longer, not quite old school George list, but it's longer. So here we are. What are we listening to?
All right, well, I also have a long list because it's been a while, boys. So lean back and unbutton your pants because here we go. I have buttons. Can I just take them off? You can. You can do that too, George. All right. So the first one I have on my list here is Farseer, Portals to Cosmic Womb. It's an independent release. I found this band a week or so ago, and that ended up being good.
because their record release show is on Thursday night. So I went to it and I got to see the band play the album in its entirety at this tiny dive bar. And they're from Chicago. They play dynamic, progressive Death Sludge. And their first record was more psychedelic stoner sludge. So they really revamped their sound. And I think that was a great decision because this album has a pretty good chance of making my list. So you should check it out if you get a chance.
Did you say that that was portals to a cosmic womb? Portals to cosmic womb. Okay, so a.k.a. searching for space pussy. Okay, George, do you want to put it that way? I was just like, what? Just making a ha-ha that got a little bit of a laugh. Zero reaction, just for me. So is this like the first Star Trek episode at the end?
When Kirk opens the door, he's like, hey, what's happening here? Funny. All right, so my next one is Evokin and Dasium. We got the promo for this one, and it's another crushing descent into a slew, snarling, fanged abyss. And I've spun this album a bunch of times, and I love that every time I have done that, I hear a little something different in it.
I think the song composition on this, the layering is just gorgeously evil. The album doesn't come out till October 17th, I think. But it's great. Baal, the fine line between Heaven and Here, wrote to Masochist Records. Got to credit Matt for reminding me about this one because I changed my hell of a month at the last second. But this album blew me away on the very first listen and I haven't really stopped spinning it since then.
They play this epic blackened post-metal with titanic, ultra-memorable heavy riffs, and they have vocals that go from shrieks to death growls to cleans that have this kind of vulnerability to them that reminds me of emo singers from the 90s and early 2000s, which was my jam. I love that stuff back then. Emo. Yes. It's all right. It's all right.
Oh, it's phenomenal. So good. It's no paradise lost, but you know, I'll give you that. Oh God. Oh my God. Just fucking with you. Don't even respond. All right. Theurgion all under heaven on profound lore records. This is a melancholic traditional doom death with towering riffs, stunning vocals that go from heroin growls to these Danzig ask power croons, which I didn't expect. I like that one.
Good. I thought you might like that one. It's my album of the month for August. It is Doom, but it moves. It's really good. I think Decimal gave it a really high score, like a nine or something in the magazine, which was cool to see. Next up is another promo. We've gotten a lot of good promos. An Abstract Illusion, The Sleeping City, Willow Tip Records. We've had this promo for a long time, like months, and the album still hasn't come out yet. It comes out October 17th.
But I'm glad that I've had time to spin this one because I think the record is just a transfixing blend of progressive death and atmospheric black metal with beautiful harmonies and this Blade Runner style synth to it. It reminds me of 80s style sci-fi soundscapes, but it still has an immediate, modern, and just very heavy feel to it. And I really prefer an 80s style synth than two 70s styles.
So this one grabbed me right away and I've listened to it I don't know how countless times
yeah it's already it comes out in October there's a lot of good records going to October but it's it's up there for me
I remember their first album I was like I know that name
yeah that's a long time ago it was nine years ago
and the thing is I've never really felt this way about their music until this one this one really speaks to me
Next one is Sorcerate, Rotten Magic on Nattermacht Productions. This was a surprise find for me. This band plays blackened heavy metal. So the music is ripping traditional metal, but the vocals are black demon shrieks, and it's fucking awesome. Really good riffs on this one. It's one of those where you want to be in the pit for it. I don't ever want to be in the pit for anything.
I mean, you don't know, but imagine a younger George. Oh, yeah. Younger George did. But now George would like this. Current George is like, where's my fucking chair? Older George. Current George is somebody should put a stop to this. No, no. I like to watch the pit. I just would be fine being in the pit if they just put a chair in the middle. But you should still listen to this record because I think it's a really good record. And I never heard of this band before that. Next one. Innumerable forms.
"Diabolical Death Doom." It feels like music that's been saturated in a bubbling cauldron of dark, wet evil. Wet. Wet evil. Next up, "Yearning Arrows: Cloven Sons," an independent release. This is a pretty unique album of experimental progressive black metal. It has this kind of a strange but warm
Ritualistic feel to it. It's really hard to describe this record. I haven't really heard anything quite like this, and I like that. But it's still kind of accessible at the same time. So I just came across this randomly, and it's one that I've been playing a lot this month in particular. Kriegsgrave, Stormcaller, and Willetip Records. Ferocious atmospheric black metal combined with melancholic death doom. This album has longer,
and there's some touches of windswept post-metal. And I really like how they put together all those elements in a fluid way. It's a really great follow-up to Fires in the Fall, which made my list a couple years ago. And that's when the band had been around for a long time, but then they incorporated atmospheric black metal with Doom on that last record. And that really,
changed my outlook on the band and so they kind of continue this style on this record but I would say it's it's more blistering than the last one castle rat the bestiary king volume records this is doomed heavy metal steeped in fantasy lore swords spells and riffs for days on this record I really like the last LP but this one is another level of epic sorcery for the band
And it's much better than the last record. So I'm quite enjoying that one. Fetooth, Labyrinthine on the Flenser. This is a three-piece band that plays music they call Fairy Doom. Big sludgy doom wrist with some shoegaze mixed in, featuring growled vocals and ethereal sung vocals. Labyrinthine, it's very atmospheric. It's haunting.
I liked the last album a lot, Remnants of the Vessel. So I was excited to hear this one. They were a four-piece on that last record, and that's when they started. So this follow-up has a different, more of a spare vibe to it, but I think that really intensifies the emotional quality of the band. And I just saw them earlier this month, and they were excellent live. So I'm into that. Centuries of Decay.
A Monument to Oblivion independent release. This is an excellent atmospheric progressive black death album. It's their second LP, but I had not heard of this band before this one. So if you can imagine Ulcerate mixed with Dune, that's what this band reminds me of. So it has that kind of somber desert aura mixed with the brutal metallic guitar tones and inspired drumming.
like you hear on Ulcerate. It's killer. This is a really good record. Let's see. Autrest, Burning Embers, Forgotten Wolves on Northern Silence Productions. This one was very close to being my album of the month for September, but I got it too late, and I only spun it once or twice. It's atmospheric black metal from The Dark Forest at the witching hour. It's really good.
It's right in my wheelhouse, the stuff that I like. And then finally, the last two. I'm like tired of talking. Complete Death catalog. Everything Death. Because I watched the Chuck Scheldiner episode of Into the Void, I just started playing everything he did. Control Denied, everything on vinyl, because I have it all on vinyl. I've been spinning it a ton. And love it, of course. And also, all three Hellion albums. Because I, like I said, when we were talking about
I really liked that Anne Boleyn episode and I just forgot how much I liked those records when I was younger and so I've been spinning them again and it's really interesting because I had not thought of that band in so so long and they just never really got their due which I think is a top five we should do at some point like bands that never really got their due but should have you know we just did that on Stairway to 11 interesting
Well, it wasn't bands. It was songs. But still, same concept. But yeah, while you were talking about that, I was like, you know, I'd like to do, I don't know how I do it since like I'm old and Matt's young. But like, I was thinking of Hellion and like Obsession, Lieselord, you know, all these bands from back then that like nobody knows. Yep. Except Ariel knows them. He knows everything.
Errol knows a lot.
But that's my long list.
So lots of great stuff to spin and got to catch up.
Nice.
So Matt, your turn.
I love it.
I took the opposite approach.
I just kind of grabbed a few.
But, you know, to your point, it has been a while.
So there was a lot of stuff to talk about, per se.
Off the top, Ball, Bale, the fine line between heaven and here.
I had recognized the name on the whatever Friday it came out thinking like, oh, that feels like something I should listen to. Didn't realize it was going to like completely blow my mind. Really good. The next one's Basque. Their album is called The Turning. This album is just very interesting because there are times there are almost borderlines on country where you could call folk. And I just, I could not get some of those melodies out of my head and I kept going back to it.
What was this again? Basque? B-A-S-K. Oh, okay. I was thinking, I was actually, initially I was like, oh, Basque. I love Basque. I was like, no, this is Basque. Honestly, when you brought that up somewhere and I was like, oh, shit, a new record in it because you and I both kind of liked it. And I'm only just now understanding that this is a different band. I didn't listen to it because I thought it was the other band. Oh, interesting. I immediately thought of you, Jay, and I was going to reach out and I was like, oh, yeah, no, this is a different band.
I didn't even check it out but I'm I have just learned something because I was like cool
wasn't this your album of the month it was it was it definitely is resonating with me
um so yeah um another one the band is treasure the album is void quest they're a sludge metal band from
the UK this is our second album uh dear veg einer freiheit which means the way of freedom long awaited
The album is Inurn. It is the sixth album from a German post-black metal band. They're a very consistently solid post-metal band out of Germany. Normally I find them in France, but Germany has been a welcome change. I think it was, it would have been last Friday. I think this came out. The band is Ash Breather. The album is Le Grande Buffet. That sounds like a Phoebe Buffet album.
Sure. And this it's, I would, it was labeled and I would not disagree with it as progressive sludge metal. So this is a third album from a Canadian band. It's weird, but it definitely like, it kind of hit me. It's stuck. The title made me kind of hungry. Yeah. There's a great buffet around here somewhere. I think, well, I feel like the album cover wasn't like grotesque or anything, but it definitely, I don't think it like spurred my appetite. This episode is a buffet of metal, John.
We don't talk much about djent on this podcast, and I would not call myself like a, like I'm passionate about djent, but I like Meshuggah, and probably more so I really like Carbomb, and I don't know that I would say that they're straight up djent. They're like super technical, but this band is Vildjarta. They're from Sweden. I'm not even going to try and pronounce the name of the album. It's her third album. Definitely like listened, stuck in my head, really want to
I don't even know they had a new album did they put on EP or something last year or no he's not it's all new to me so they might have I know I mean I know they definitely have other releases are you talking about Carbomb yeah yeah oh yeah Carbomb was EP okay dying fetus gave us a new track into the cesspool I like it we got a new track from loot house nord shadows first from their upcoming album if the real horizons
Channeling Will. Kitty put out a new EP. Rerecording four songs from Spit. I mean, Spit was one of my, I loved it when it came out to hear these songs re-recorded. They sound great. Mentioned earlier, I went to Ghost. So I kind of checked back in their catalog. I listened, I think through like year zero was what I was familiar with in terms of their catalog. Kind of got myself familiarized with more modern things.
I also had a chance to see Nine Inch Nails, so I spent some time listening to their catalog. I saw that there's a new soundtrack. I don't know if it's actual music or not. It is. It's a mix. A mix? Yeah, that's cool. It's kind of like super short songs that you could, you know, for atmosphere, and then there's actual songs on it. I figured it must be because he used the Nine Inch Nails moniker. I have it digitally, if you want me to throw it in the box. I think I've got it. It's just, I haven't listened to it yet.
It's like that fine line between Nine Inch Nails and then
Trent Reznor and Atticus Rock
Right, right. I was like, it's got to be
more than just their normal soundtrack
stuff since it's not him
If you watch the trailer for Tron, you can
actually hear him singing in it, so it's one
of the songs. Okay, cool. Yeah, and they
played the one live. I want to see
this, hear this.
I have to say, man,
Nine Inch Nails is like, occupies
a really high
They're good live. Did they have good videos? Yeah, it was interesting because my neighbor ended up buying the tickets and he got us really good seats. We were like the fifth row of the bowl. So there was the main stage and then they did this kind of more intimate stage in the middle of the arena. And so they would walk right in front of us as they were going to the stage because they went back to it a couple times.
And so that had some really killer lighting as to just the regular stage. But it kind of went back and forth, I assume, just, you know, to have breaks and be a little bit more intimate. And some of the things were like the center stage was the second part was taking their tracks and kind of just celebrating more of the electronic piece of it. There was no live drums or like just other musicians. It was more just like synthesizers, keyboards and stuff. And there was the opening DVDs.
I believe he's like a British DJ I was not familiar with him but that kind of got worked in but it was really and I'm so dumb I've been taught like my neighbor and I've been talking about this and I know I think it was initially talked about as being a celebration of the downward spiral and so to peel it back to her we were standing in line like all this time had passed I was like oh shit peel it back that's from March of the Pigs from Downward Spiral yeah Matt will
to today. But there was a lot of stuff kind of placed throughout. So it was a very enjoyable, you know, Nine Inch Nails is a band that's able to maintain relevancy and sound, you know, good brother to do stuff. Yeah. And I honestly, in listening to him on Rick Rubin's podcast, which I would thank the gentleman from Scaldor for turning me on to that. He has a career that actually I'm super envious of. I think like just the things he's gotten to do and the way he's
done them starting with Nine Inch Nails and kind of being on that flagship version of Lollapalooza up into transitioning into soundtracks and someone who is just interested in challenges in life and the way he's been able to evolve. I think he's kind of a genius too. I feel like he didn't necessarily create industrial but I feel like he created a genre. Oh yeah I mean that music is still singular. Nobody sounds like Nine Inch Nails but at the
same time was hugely influential on other bands.
Yeah.
And he also has, but he has such a, he can really fuck shit up in the, you know, oral way, but he's also, he's a real good writer. I mean, he, his stuff is oral, AU.
Oral, yeah.
Yeah.
But I, yeah, I just, I have a great admiration for him.
Oh yeah.
He's been my inspiration since, since pretty hate machine.
Yeah.
That was when I decided, I don't need other people. I'm going to make my own music with all my own stuff. And of course, that worked out really well. But seriously, he's been a huge inspiration since the first album. And I continue to enjoy what he does. What I think I like most about Nine Inch Nails is there really is not a formula to a Nine Inch Nails song or an album. There is quite a bit of difference. One song I love, Burn,
from Natural Born Killers. But then you listen to Perfect Drug from Lost Highway, and I'm not trying to pick on soundtracks, but the songs sound so different. But they're still so good. And so that's why the stuff I've heard off of Tron definitely has a little bit more of an electronic cyberpunk feel. And I dig that too. And just to add to the soundtrack, Nine Inch Nails, the crow with the Joy Division cover of Dead Souls. Absolutely. Absolutely.
They keep calling me. Joy Division's cool and all, but that version is way better. Yeah. The one thing I went back and listened to, actually watched after that, was them playing at Woodstock 94. And it was so fun to see some of those songs that I had had my list of things I wanted to hear. Perfect Drug was one of them that they played. And I saw them probably 20 years ago with The Perfect Circle. So this time I had, I mean, I looked at the set list ahead of time, so I wasn't crushed, but I was like,
It was fun to hear some of those songs that I wanted to hear played live with, you know. I was at what's that 94. Were you really? Yeah. Did you break shit? I was at 99. That was 99. Yeah. Which I was at, but not 94. Yeah. Did I break shit? No, I didn't. Oh, that would have been 99, I guess. That was a disaster. Yeah. 99 was that too. So pretty good. The other thing is like with Ozzy's passing, I, you know, just.
A Lot of, like, I was, when I came into Ozzy in real time was No More Tears. And so, and I mean, I've gone back and listened to all of this stuff prior to that, and I just kind of spent some time focused on that. And what's fun is, like, when you go back and listen to things, sometimes new things pop up. And honestly, I really got focused on The Ultimate Sin. Not to mention, I mean, everything is so good, but that one, and not that it's better than any of the ones, but it was just, I'd never spent much time with it. And so you could hear the influences of that time period coming through in that album.
And yeah, it was enjoyable. The ultimate sin is both good and bad. It is a sin upon the discography. And yet it is also fucking awesome. I think it's totally underrated. It is. I mean, it's the second and last Jakey Lee album, right? Yeah. It was different. You know, it was more commercialized Aussie. For sure. But it was still cool. I mean, even Shot in the Dark is awesome.
It's good, but it's definitely one of the first rare Ozzy records.
But when that came out, Killer of Giants was so topical.
Can I say, though, too, that that record has one of the dumbest fucking covers of any Ozzy record?
Well, yeah.
I don't know how they came up with that cover.
That got through some meeting that was all coked up or something.
They were like, fucking let's go with it, bro.
It's just not a good cover.
But I listened the hell out of that album when it came out.
And then you look back one album previous, you're like, well, maybe it's not that bad. Yeah. No. Well, Bark at the Moon? Come on. I love Bark at the Moon. That is my favorite. He looks like a Sasquatch. Oh, you mean the album cover? The album cover. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, I love that album cover, too, because Ozzy was all in on that shit. Yeah, he was. He was all in on the video, too. But. This may be obvious, but did you know?
On the cover of Diary of a Madman, that kid is Ozzy's kid. He's one of his non-kid. Yeah, fuck yeah, I knew that. Yeah. One of his unknown illegitimate children, is that what you're saying? Well, I mean, known and possibly illegitimate, but that, I mean, that's why the kid looks so much like him. Ah, did not know that. Yeah, his name's Sean Osborne or something like that. He had him with his wife, Thelma. Ah, okay. Nice. Anything else, Matty? No.
But thank you.
Yeah.
All right, John.
All right.
I won't take much time because we've talked about a lot of them.
So I'll mention the ones we talked about.
Between the Buried and Me and the Blue Nowhere, Love It, and Mourning and Mortal.
That was my August album of the month.
We talked about November's Doom, Major Arcana.
We've talked about Paradise Lost Ascension.
So here are the other albums I've listened to that I like.
I had mentioned to you about Guilty by Consistency.
And this is definitely a band that falls in that. That's the new Amorphous Borderland that just dropped this week. I like it, but I've heard this album I don't know how many times. This is going the route of, what's his other band that I like? Or maybe it's not him, but it's the same country, Finnish band. Swallow the Sile. It's like, oh, hey, we're all meddling shit, and now we're not meddling anymore. I just, I couldn't, sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt.
I'm just gonna shut up. Oh, I thought it was metal. It's just
not as good as the previous albums. Sorry.
Everyone's love. Halo is freaking awesome. Yeah.
I think I agree and
all the prog nerds love Queen of
Time and this album and they diss on
Halo and I'm like. Yeah, and I didn't like Queen
of Time either. I thought it was just okay.
But Halo. Yeah.
So on this one, I'm getting vibes
of other eras like those first couple
of tracks. I like a lot on this
one, but they remind me of that Tsunula a little bit, the way that Universal with the guitar work. I was like, okay, I get it. But then after Bones, I like songs, but I'm like, I don't know how often I'm going to go back to this. And I love Amorphous. I love them. I do too, but I couldn't get past the first few tracks. It's just, we've been here before. And I think Jay has brought this up in the past. They're a band now where like, there might be an album you don't dig as much. And then two albums later, like, this is incredible.
from them. I think they're a victim of quality, meaning they never put out shit, but after a while you're like, okay, I've heard this. They're just not putting out 10 albums in 10 years like werewolves. I mean, it's very different than Halo. See, I think so too. But everyone likes what they like. That's something. They want to do something different. It just does not speak to me as much. This is more keyboard-y stuff. I still like it, but I don't know if it's going to make my list or anything.
If it does, it would be bottom end for me. George, yes, you're correct. Way more keyboard-y and way more hyper-focused on the choruses on this album than the previous albums. It's too generic to me. And I, you know, I love the band, but you make a good point. It's like early amorphous, beginning amorphous, awesome. Middle amorphous, eh. Okay, next era of amorphous, yeah. And I, you know, it's like, it's not consistent. I wouldn't call it generic, though, because I don't really hear other bands doing that. Maybe for them.
Well, like I said, this sounds like Swallow the Sun to me, and I don't like what they're doing now either. I think it's... So I see where you're going, but I think this is way better than the last Swallow the Sun. Yes. Personally, and I love Swallow the Sun. And I'm with you on them, George. I love them. Yeah, but I don't like what they're doing anymore either. No, I don't like the last one at all. I like what they've... the previous albums, but... Yes, yes, I like earlier stuff. But this... No, no, I mean, even the last two or three I like, just not this last one. I thought it was too commercial. But I get it.
I'm not feeling the love but I still like it I'll still listen to it but it's not going to be under the red cloud it's not going to be a cliff doesn't have an edge to it it's like happier or something I don't know what it is songs are good but it's just too I want an edge I mean I agree with you yeah and you know what's sad it doesn't even have to be heavier just an edge something Tommy still exhibits that he is the best two-way singer
right now, I mean, his growls are still harsher than Mike's from Opeth. They just are. Now, Mike's a better clean singer, I think, but Tommy's an awesome clean singer, too. So they're both top of the game. But I'm not dissing it. I like it. I do. It's just, I don't know how often I'm going to reach for it as compared to other albums. But that said, move on. I mean, I still like it. It's still more. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jay. Well, just purely that while we have been recording this episode,
I put that in as my album of the month in the text thread. Sorry. No backsies. It's outstanding. I love it. I think it's the best. No, I feel bad about myself. Best album of the month. I think we should take from this. We love Amorphous. It's just that and we want it to be an amazing record like that we would put on our list, but we don't feel it. And the truth be told, I've only listened to it twice.
So Jay, you really need to put that in there? Yeah. Okay, I'll get you. I'll lock you. Tell us what you like about it, Jay. I agree that it's pretty polished and there's no question about that. I do think there's some songs that have some of the edge you're talking about. There's a couple of little riffs and stuff in there that kind of remind me of some of the stuff off of, what is it, the Red Cloud? Believe it or not. And no, I put it on. I liked it right away. I'm not
I'm saying it's a game changer or anything like that but
I'll go to
one of the things you guys did say which is
they just always kind of bring it you know what I mean
and fair enough where
it sits in the overall
in their overall catalog
that's one thing but
I guess where it sits in September 2025
compared to what else came out this month
Jay just before you lock
that in totally maybe go
listen to that Paradise Lost album
that's not happening trust me
I mean I like the Amorphous better than Paradise
You can just stop talking right now. Just saying. You have my promise. I'll do that for you. I think you brought up a good point. I think not to keep belaboring this point of amorphous, but I think that when a band has such amazing records and then they put out, always put out good records, but they don't reach the height of the ones that you really think are like seminal. It's tough because they've got quite the catalog. And so I think they're a victim of that.
and, you know,
not really a victim, but you know.
Jay, you took the right approach.
You have to separate the album from the discography sometimes.
Yeah.
They just, and yeah.
So I think this album is sort of like the Paradise Lost album.
They have such similar trajectories, those two bands.
Sure.
They're both kind of doing similar stuff.
It just depends where you fall with that type of stuff.
Fair enough.
And to their own lack of benefit, they've also just been doing it so long that the catalogs are so large. Well, yeah, it's crazy. It's tough. It's hard to compete with yourself. They've got huge tracks of albums. I love that. What's so funny is that come end of year, I'll be like, well, I listened to it five more times. It's now my top ten. Who knows? All right, I got a few more. Let me get going so I can get to you, Jay. One album I mentioned earlier,
from Progpower, Green Carnation, A Dark Poem, Part 1, The Shores of Melancholia. It's the first album of a three-part album thing. I'm a huge Green Carnation fan, especially the last two albums, which are more my wheelhouse for their style. It's their seventh album, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock. They're from Norway. They're part of the whole In the Woods family. Yeah, it's just, it's cool stuff. I like it. It'll probably be on my list. But to just show you how crazy September
was for me. It's way down the list for all the albums that came out. It's just how it is. My last one that I listened to, and this one, I'm still not sure what I think of it, is a band called Species. The album's called Changelings. When have you ever heard two albums called Changelings or Changelings in the same era? Right, yeah. And it's this band called Species. They're from Poland. They're a three-piece technical thrash band. They just bring the 90s to
the current times.
I mean, it's.
I meant to listen to that.
You mentioned it and I haven't listened to it yet.
It was featured somewhere because it came on my radar and my radar is smaller than yours.
Was it?
Decibel, I think, had it featured.
It wasn't something like that.
Okay.
John's got huge tracks of radars.
And I took it too.
I agree with John.
It's cool.
It's wild.
It's got this high energy technical thrash with progressive metal injected into it.
The vocals are kind of wild.
I don't even know how to describe them.
There's plenty of twists and turns.
loads of riffs like i said wild vocals if you're a fan of the technical thrash with the prog element which would be watchtower corner you know me mekong delta voyvod those types of bands from that period this will be right in your wheelhouse it's it's a good album i like it a lot and like i said loads of riffs but it's tons of time changes they're all over the map and it sounds good it's not shitty production like some of those albums which i love
I love this shitty production on those albums too. There's some kind of a romantic feel to that, you know, from that era. But yeah, it's kind of wild. I dig it. And the album cover's kind of crazy too. And they wear Hawaiian shirts on stage, apparently. Yeah, I was like, what's not to like about this band? So, yeah. Anyway, it's cool. If you like technical, proggy, deathy thrash, then that's in your wheelhouse. Nice.
What band's that, John? Species, and the album's called Changelings. So, yeah. That's a good record. It must be pretty quick here. I've been listening to a lot of different stuff, but I mentioned something I was kind of digging through again recently, and then I got screwed by the world, or more specifically, Stephen Wilson. I got this super box. Screwed by Steve Wilson, a memoir by Jay Dickinson.
Haven't we all? Um, there's a, uh, there's deep purple, uh, made in Japan. Oh, he screwed you big time. Cause I paid out the nose for that fucking thing. I, when I learned of its existence, I bought it after, um, it was kind of sold out and I paid more than I should have for it. And I, and I mentioned it as in one of our recent, um, what are you listening to things that I was digging through it? Well, Steven Wilson just redid the whole fucking thing. And,
and atmos and blah blah blah and everything so now is the atmos sound good and it's a cool box set to have it's very cool and then on top of that um it's got a it's got it doesn't have um a uh holy diver feel to it but it's got the live evil remix feel to it um they didn't overdo it by a long shot steven wilson has a very gentle touch in ways but he can sure enhance the hell out of shit
And suddenly one of my favorite records
is available in a super deluxe box set.
It's sounding in a very cool new way.
So I have been spending a lot of time in that box.
He's been going back and doing a lot of that stuff.
He's revisiting those albums, Jay, for Atmos.
And he's like, this is the way to go now with them.
He is one of these guys that keeps getting his hands on my favorite records.
And that's great.
You know, it's cool.
I'm sure these are all passion projects for him, too.
I mean, he...
He cranks through them really fast. He does, yeah. He's a machine. But I don't believe, my firm belief is that he does the stuff he loves. And I like knowing that he loves this stuff. And this is such a, if you're a Deep Purple fanatic like I am, and in particular this album, and this is just the godsend box set, you know, on top of the previous one. So, bless Stephen Wilson for doing this. Thanks for nothing. 40 bucks, but what are you going to do? Motherfucker.
But it's a 10-album box set is why it's... So what you're saying, Jay, is there needs to be a discount code for the next 10-album box set that comes out for you? It's like, how many formats are you going to put the White Album out on? God damn it. But it's... Yeah. So... And I think that's all I need to write. I heard he knocked this one out of the park big time. But also... But that record is so important to me. So it's really cool to have this. And it's... I can get nostalgic about it right away when I start listening.
So it's cool that he did it. Plus it came with a cool book and all this shit. So, you know, really cool box set. 10 LP box set. But if you're wondering how they turned Made in Japan to 10 LPs, it was a very brief Japanese tour. And it's just every show they played on that tour is represented in the box set in totality. Yeah, it's kind of cool. Yeah. So, I mean, you're obviously like, you know, you're getting four versions of space trucking, but it's still really cool to see what they changed every night.
And Made in Japan is not one show. It's put together across all of the shows. So now you get to hear the complete show from everything. And I'm a nerd for that kind of shit. I'm glad nobody has to sit here and listen to music with me because they would fucking hate me. They do like, dude, we just listened to that whole other show. Why are you putting the next one on? Dude, this is child in time from the second show.
So this record's going to bury me alive. God, please stop releasing Made in Japan. And God bless Stephen Wilson. But Jay, it's the definitive edition. Exactly. It is. And you know what? He didn't change it. You would know it's the same. I know it was Minjo Barassi that did Holy Diver, but I mean, I will agree he didn't really change that record, right?
I mean, he enhanced it. He's BASF. Remember those commercials? Oh, yeah. We didn't make the music. We just make it sound better. Yeah. So there you go. Anyway, and I'll pass it off to you, George, but just know I'm in deep people, deep purple heaven and hell at the same time. All righty. Surprisingly, I have a couple of repeats with Markisan. Woohoo! Maybe we are more alike. Maybe.
Let's get a room, George. But first I have a couple that nobody has. Kind of surprised nobody mentioned the new based album, Colossal, fourth album, Danish Death Metal. I know some people say it's a little too produced, but I don't care. I think it's really good. Do they call themselves beast or based? I don't know. I feel like they call themselves beast. Maybe they do, but it's spelled based and that's how I'm going to call it. It is.
They spell it like that way because they got drunk one night? They're like, hey, check this shit out. They're like, oh. I don't know for sure, George, but I feel like. Maybe they do. I don't care. I pronounce it like it's spelled. Okay. You know, if you had a typo and it was supposed to be B-E-A, I don't know. To me, it's based. Or based. Anyway. I want to based a turkey now. I know, right? It does sound weird. I thought it was B-A-S-E-D.
It looks fine when I look at it, but then when I say it, it sounds funny. This next one, I don't know where I got this. Maybe it was just something I saw on Bandcamp or somebody told me about it. I don't know if they did. I'm sorry. It's a band called Bloodletter and their fourth album, Leave the Light Behind. They're a Chicago thrash band. Yeah, I listened to that. I bought it on Bandcamp. It's good thrash. Yeah, I liked it.
Now we have our overlap mark is on. The Castle Rat. I liked both of those. Picked up both Into the Realm and the Bestiary. Nice. You think Bestiary is better though, right? I do. I do. But I like them both. They're both good, yeah. Yeah. The first one came out, I kind of mocked it a little. I'm like, oh, a chick in a bikini, chainmail bikini, and you know, you're trying. Now she's got fur in her bikini on this one, right?
Yeah, but I didn't really give it that much of a listen. But then the second one, the first couple tracks came out and I listened to it and I was like, oh, shit. So then I went back to the first one. I was like, all right, this is pretty good, too. And they're on the cover of Decibel, actually. I haven't read that article yet. Yeah, that issue came and I was like, really? Really? But now I get it.
That's the previous month. There's already another one out. I don't have that yet. Yeah, the... Oh, yeah. I think I did get that one. I think I just got that one yesterday. This is the sequence bikini she's wearing. Right, right, right. That sword's pretty sweet. Yeah. Sorry, George. She's got this Red Sonja thing going on. Yeah, I was just thinking that. I just watched that new Red Sonja movie. There's a new one?
Who's that? I don't know the girl who's in it. She was in
some movie called Revenge. I think she gets like raped or something in the movie. It's supposed to be a good movie, but
I didn't care for the premise of it. Right. But the Red Sonja movie was pretty fun. It kind of reminds me of the old like
80s sci-fi movies, you know? Bridget Nielsen?
I think it's better than that movie. That movie wasn't very good.
That was not good at all. No. No, no, no. It's like not as good as Beastmaster. No, nothing's as good as Beastmaster. Come on. Right. But it kind of reminds me of that kind of stuff. Yeah. It's worth watching, I think. All right. Next up, the Crypt Sermon EP, Saturnian Appendices. Thank you. I forgot about that. Yeah. That was really good. I mean, I know it has the Mayhem cover on there from the Flexi, but the rest of the stuff. Yeah.
I know that this is already the in memoriam episode but I really want it to be called not as good as Beastmaster but I'm just saying or it's not as good as Beastmaster yeah and next up Feytooth again Labyrinthine their second album I bought that and their first album because it's good stuff next see them live because they were they have a really good press
I bet. Next up, this one came to me from Justin. It's the band Floating and their second album, Hesitating Lights. They're a Swedish death post-punk band. It's like death, but also Sisters of Mercy. It's a really interesting combination of goth and death. I've never heard anything quite like it. Justin's like, you need to hear this.
And it's wild because there's like the jangly like gothy guitars going on perfectly mixed in with like death metal. It doesn't. It's wild. So check that out. Sounds cool. I heard that. Next up because of the whole Slayer Cavalera thing because Cavalera is just so badass. I had to pull out Nail Bomb point blank from 1994.
and listen to that again.
That was Max and Igor and a bunch of other people, a guy from Fudge Tunnel, and I forget who else was on there.
Next up.
I did watch Nail Bomb. Nail Bomb did like summer festival stuff.
I watched the full set. It's basically Max and his kids, but still fun to see.
Nice.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this one, or at least Matt didn't. The Panopticon Laurentian Blue. Oh, yeah. It's all totally folky stuff, but it's so good. Like folky Americana, isn't it? Yeah, so good, so good. I loved that. Another one from Justin, Stellar Blight, Eventide Dash, Synod of the Dying Steel.
It's the first album of a Polish death metal band. It's good. I mean, Polish death metal. You know, you know what you're getting. It's good. Another one from Justin. I didn't realize that until I just read it. The band Tithe and Communion in Anguish, their third album. They're a Portland death doom band. And now we metal has left the building. I was watching The Daily Show.
the other day. And, you know, usually they have like authors and stuff on there as their guests, but they had a singer from a band called Viagra Boys. And they're a Swedish post-punk band. And this is their fourth album, Viagra Boys. They split up the words. They put the A on boys. This sounds so stupid.
I already hate it. I haven't even heard it.
It is somewhere past the line of weird, but not quite too avant-garde.
It's punky, but not punk.
It's like butthole surfers
and violent femmes
and just I think Matt
would possibly like this
possibly Jay might like this
but Mark San no
Will no
John no
I just heard this band yesterday
and I bought it straight out
I was like yes
like every song on there I love it
it's weird
It's just your description
I'll find this band
I'm going to see if you agree with me
Have you ever listened to a band called Flipper, George?
I didn't care for them
Really?
No, but it's been like
probably 20 years
But I know who they are, they're a punk band
and they're popular
and classic and all that
But the stuff I heard I didn't care for back in the day. Pretty weird stuff on some of that. Anyways. So you know how if you listen to an artist in like, I don't know if Bandcamp does it, Spotify probably does it, and Kobuz, which I use, does it, where you get to the end of the album and it just starts playing something else like it? And so after Viagra Boys ended, I found three more bands that I liked because it kept playing stuff that was
It's cool. It's not as weird as Viagra Boys, but it's these three bands are like post-punk, parquet courts, and then two bands that three bands. Sorry, I found four bands. And I only heard these today, so I've not listened to the whole albums, just bits and pieces from each. I bet Derek from Ireland probably knows some of these. There's a band called The Murder Capital. They're from Ireland. Fontaine's, D.C.
which that name rang a bell to me but I like them and then Parquet Chords is from New York. Murder Capital and Fontaine's DC is from Ireland and the band called Shame is from London. And I'm pretty excited today because I found all these new bands that I've never heard of and I'm going to listen to them more tomorrow. But that's all I've got so I'm not going to bore you with any more post-punk shit.
I mean, you're not boring us. Oh, well then I've got this other thing. I mean, um. Just kidding. All right. Now we can move on to our top five.
We made a list and we all made a list and we're gonna tell you all about it right now. Morbid Tales. Indeed. This is top five deceased artists we are glad we saw live when we could. And I'm gonna start off with Markisan. Let's do it. Yes, I mean the first one is one we already talked about. I'm gonna go with Brett Hines of Mastodon. So
I was a massive fan of Mastodon in the early years, as we've talked about. I just think they left a really big mark. They helped redefine modern heavy metal. And so getting to see them play songs from those early albums live with the original band has now become, I guess, a precious experience for me because Brett's gone.
It was October 17, 2009, at the Aragon Ballroom here in Chicago. And that show happens to be the first live album they ever released as a CD-DVD. So the tour was to support Crack the Sky, and they played that album in its entirety, but they also did tracks from Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and they did a Melvin's cover as well. And, you know, it was a great show.
And Crack the Skies, like, from the beginning to Crack the Skies, like, that's the spot for me for Mastodon. So I felt like I got, I've seen them more times before that, but that was the last time I saw them and saw Brett. So, yeah, I mean, we already talked about Mastodon, so there's not really much more to say.
I'm never going to get that experience again I'm sure they're going to go on but I haven't had as much affection for them and I think a lot of that was due to him as we as we mentioned so that's my number five all right Matt I too chose Brent Hines of the band Mastodon I I had the pleasure of seeing them last summer they played I don't know if you guys have heard of their album Leviathan it's a good album and they
played it in its entirety live for me and some other people at the venue. And it was really good. And I'm glad I could see that. Matt, wasn't there some sort of change in your contract that we meant to cover and did not? I was thinking about that earlier, George. There was a change. Maybe I'll say that for October. It's a non-disclosure agreement, though, so we can't talk about it. There was NDA involved. I do not have the change in front of me, George, but I'm glad you brought that up.
brought that up.
All right.
If you have your people call our people and we'll see what we can do about this.
All right.
Maybe next time.
Maybe next time.
All right,
John.
All right.
My number five is not Brett Hines.
What?
Yeah.
Sorry.
I'm going to go with a guy that I got to see actually six times live,
five times with one band and one time with another band.
My number five is Warl Dane of Nevermore and Sanctuary. I got a chance to see them five times, or see him five times at Nevermore once with Sanctuary. So I put him on the list, not because Nevermore is my favorite band, although I love him, just because to see him live, no matter what he was going through, the guy could still belt out the music like very few could, and he just commanded a different presence on stage.
And now that Nevermore is going to be returning, you know, we'll see them at Prague Power next year. It's kind of an interesting chapter they're taking. I felt pretty good about getting a chance to see him a number of times in the past. So. Yeah. You know, I saw him. Good one. I saw him with Sanctuary back in 1980, whatever, with the first Sanctuary album, Refuge Denied. Wow. That's awesome. And that was good and all. But, you know, my.
The image that pops up in my head when I think of Woreld Dane is the last time I saw him at Vaken. I was up on the rail off to the stage left, so the right side of the stage, and it was raining but kind of sunny, and he was up there, you know, but he was singing, and that's the image that stuck in my head for Woreld Dane, and couldn't be a better image.
I'm actually glad I saw him well past Sanctuary in the 80s because I feel like his voice got so much better as he got older. Oh yeah. You know and he kind of became that just booming bombastic voice without being like Jeff Tate or John Archer. He never went that direction. It was a deeper bombastic which I loved. Oddly there were people who couldn't stand Nevermore because of his voice but I loved him. I loved him. Yeah. And I never got to see him.
And to each their own, right? Yeah, of course. It is what it is. So, yeah. I'm jealous of John for seeing him that many times. Five times, you said, John, for Nevermore? Five times on one tour. Because they must have played with Opens. That's right. And George, I'm jealous. Was that the same day as Ross, the boss? I honestly don't remember the day, but I remember that y'all left to go see somebody else. And I was up
Because I was waiting for like memoriam or something. Yeah. And it was like, and I was up on the rail and it was just a moment, you know, and who knew that it was gonna be the last time I saw him. So. Right. And me never seeing him. And now I fully regret that. It was like one grouping of shows we didn't see. You were there. You saw him through me. That counts. That's true. There you go. I will live through you. Yes. Vicariously. Okay. Well, I know you feel like it's a
a dick, don't you? Real dick. Good.
All right.
Before I do my number five, I was trying to think of this band, and it was based on the description you were giving. It might be way off, but you were of this weird genre you're getting into, George, and it's Turbo Negro, if you've never seen it.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know that.
Does that fit with what you're talking about at all?
I mean, kind of. Okay. I mean, Turbo Negro is a little more heavy. A little hard rocky. A little hard rocky. This has a lot more like electronic. I mean, it's like drums, bass. There's guitar in there, but it's not like heavy guitar. Gotcha. And just like weird stuff. So you should check it out and see what you think. But I don't know. It's just catchy. But yeah, I like.
And that was Hank, right? R.A.P. Hank Van Helm? Yeah, that was just a couple years ago he died. Was that during COVID? I can't remember. I'm going to do two also rands here because they're not metal and I want to stick to the metal format, but I'm very pleased I got to see both Jeff Beck and Leonard Cohen live before. Yeah, I saw Leonard Cohen. That was awesome. And those are two of the best shows I ever saw, so there you go.
My number five is Slayer in its entirety with both Jeff and Dave, who's still alive very much, but to have seen Slayer with the four original members and Jeff Haneman before he was gone on the South of Heaven tour, very pleased because I was a Slayer fanatic in those days. And there you go. Jay. Jace. I love you. Right back, sweetheart. My number five is Jeff Haneman. Oh, there you go.
I you know I have a prediction that at least three of us are going to have the same number one but we'll see probably the podcast in my mind indeed all right well back to mark us on for number four uh number four for me so it it was interesting because you added this person at the last minute uh when we were talking about uh deaths earlier on and it's Eric Wonder of Cobalt uh also a man's gin bud you son of a bitch you saw him
Yeah, I did. He's on my list because I absolutely love Cobalt. And he was the driving force behind the band. And, you know, I had really hoped that we'd get another Cobalt record. And there was just so much potential for more amazing music from Eric. And of course, that got cut short. And because Cobalt didn't really tour that much, I'm just really glad I got to see them play. And I saw them play September 21st, 2016 at a very small,
but excellent venue called the beat kitchen here in chicago and it's still here
and the album slow forever came out that year so they did a tour to promote the record i believe
they played with mantar and i think it's the last time they played chicago proper they did tour
in 2017 and made a stop in lombard illinois which is out in the suburbs um but after that tour ended i
I don't think they played after that. I don't think there were any more Cobalt shows. I'm pretty sure that was the tour that I bailed on. And the thing of it is, too, is they had to buy out of a bunch of 2017 dates because their van broke down. So they didn't even get to play all those dates in 2017. So yeah, I was really happy I saw them in 2016. I thought I would get a chance to see him again, but of course, he passed away. So it was an excellent show.
and to see it in such a small venue. I go to a lot of shows and this is one of the smaller places that I see shows. I do like Beat Kitchen a lot, but I was right there. So yeah, that one's a really sad one to me because I just really love that band and I always thought at least we'd get a few more albums from them and we just won't. Yeah. That's the end of it. Matt. I too missed out on that Cobalt tour and I'm realizing that we're too
and I'm going to feel like shit by the time we're done for all the
opportunities I've missed. Like a big real dick. Not the ones that I went to. A big dick.
My number two. You're number four. Yeah, sorry. My number four. I'm just rubbing it in. I'm already, I'm just so distraught. Sorry. My number four, Thomas Lindbergh. I, you know, I liked At The Gates. I was never like a massive fan, but I really do, you know, I even, even seeing them live, I had an appreciation for being able to see them live.
I felt like they did a fair amount of touring after they kind of took their break and came back. I know they were on at least one decibel tour and I feel like I saw them maybe with Arch Enemy or something. And just feeling glad that I was able to see that band and you know, you know, not groundbreaking, but just how like, you know, pivotal their sound was that that Gothenburg metal from back in the day. So yeah, I'm rambling just because I'm so
So distraught, but still. Nice. Virtual hug, Matty. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of creepy, but I did my best. We have to reach past your team. I don't like that. It doesn't look right. You look like a fetus. A dying fetus, even. Yep. That looks like... John. Oh, this is really just...
going to places we thought it would. So, by the way, I have a huge honorable mentions list that are not metal. Okay, good. I feel a little less bad about mine now. But my number four is not necessarily metal, but they're metal. The band. But he was larger than life. Like, fucking huge. And I'm glad I got to see him three times. I would never call myself a huge fan, but I am a fan of the band.
My number four is Lemmy. I got a chance to see three times and if you never got a chance to see a Motorhead that's a shame because they're badass live. Yeah they are. Just to be there and sure they toured a lot but again I didn't see him to the first time until 2003 so then I caught him a few more times after that. Just kick ass. He's a legend so I wanted to put put him on my list for that reason. Yeah. That was smart.
I never saw Motorhead. I'm not a huge Motorhead fan, but I should have gone to see just because he's such a legend and didn't get to. So you feel like a little dick, not a big dick like Matt. Because you're not necessarily a fan, so it's not that. I mean, I'm a medium. It's hard to come down from extra large. A medium-sized dick at a medium base. When you're Magnum, hard to go to tiny.
You mean the ice cream? Yeah, okay. Those are tasty. You mean P.I.? Yeah. My mustache is medium. My number five was Slayer, and I included Dave in that, even though Dave's still with us, so it was cool to see the band in that form. So not ironically, but this one is a little tainted for me. It is also Lemmy, but I'm not tainted, but it's a little sad because
What I really would like to have seen was the original Motorhead with, you know, Filthy. Oh, obviously, yeah. You know, if I could have seen that version of Motorhead, then I would really brag. Yeah. But, you know, that was, they were broken up before I was living near a big city and, you know, able to go. And I would also point out that all three members of that band are good at this point. I know. So, a shame to have not seen Filthy or Fast City. But there it is. But that stated, I love Motorhead.
I'm glad I got to see them while Lemmy was still alive. I saw them in several different situations. They were opening some package deals for a while there and I've seen them headline. Same for me. Real glad I got to see them. I knew that would be on your list because I know how much you love that band. I'm actually surprised at number three. I thought it might be a little slightly higher. This was hard.
It is really hard. Yeah, this was a hard one. All right. My number four, I'm going off the reservation a little bit because this is such an iconic figure. It's heavy, but it's not metal. That's Kurt Cobain. Wow. I didn't know you'd seen him. Wow. Good for you. Yeah, like, I don't know, like six months before he died. Wow. So it was in utero, was out, you saw that tour? Yeah, I saw him in November, he died in April. Wow. Wow, that's a good one. I hate myself. Yeah.
Hey, Matt. I'm the same because like huge Nirvana fan and never, never saw him live. I, like I said, when I was young, I didn't go to a lot of shows and I regret that. It's one of my biggest regrets is not going to shows when I was a teenager. Yeah. So, you know, and it's funny because Nirvana played in her, Ann Arbor before I knew who they were, which was like my backyard.
Yard.
Like their first record or whatever.
Yeah.
They played at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, and I didn't know they were there.
And I'm like, I could have gone to that.
It had been so easy instead of the one that I did go to, which was a pain in the ass.
But still, you know, I got to see Kurt throw a hissy fit.
So, yeah.
Nice.
All right.
All right.
Back to me.
This one's been mentioned by John.
I'm going with World Dane from Nevermore and Sanctuary. So I think I might have mentioned this when we did the Nevermore World Dane cast for Endless Metal, John. But, you know, obviously massive fan of World Dane. We've talked about it. But the impact that he had that Nevermore had on my turn into metal around 2000, like in the 90s, 2000, when the band put out Dead Heart.
in a dead world. They were kind of a transitional band for me because they were heavy, like hardcore and post-hardcore bands that I loved, but they had these amazing sung vocals of Whirl, which made their music a bit more accessible to me when I'm wading into metal. And then to this day, I just never heard anyone sing quite like Whirl Dane. So I've never seen Nevermore. Unfortunately, never got to see them, mostly because they
I don't think they ever really played anywhere near me in upstate New York. I tried to check to see that I missed the shows and I could not find any that were that were near me. But I did see Sanctuary and they played at a place called Mojo's in Joliet, Illinois, which is about an hour from here in 2015. And it has since become a venue called The Forge, which hosts a lot of really big metal shows. And I've been to quite a few of those.
Back in the day, it was Mojo's. And I remembered not wanting to make that drive out there. But because I had failed to see Nevermore, I never got a chance. And they were one of my favorite bands. I decided to attend and I got to see a world perform and just really glad I got to do that. You know, I, I'm glad you guys both, but I can't put them on my list because I never saw them, but I miss them. They were great, dude. And, um, not, and also, but what's funny too,
is one of the reasons you, they toured and stuff, but one of the reasons you didn't maybe get a chance that there was, they never were as popular as they should have been. No. They did okay. But I remember watching like videos from this Godless Endeavor tour, and I was kind of shocked by the small size of the places they were playing and how some of them looked and stuff, because, you know, I was a big follower of theirs. So, but just to say again, I, I, I miss that band, man. Yeah. That's a band that, you know,
a top five bands that didn't get their due, I would consider them for that list. They deserve better than they got. They should have been a bigger band. Yeah. Because they were making world-class records. I'm really, really curious to see what the new version of Nevermore is going to be like. I am too, and I will go see them no matter what, because if they're going to pull out all the stuff I love, which they're sure to do some of the old things, I'll go.
And who knows? Well, we'll see what happens. I heard they're actually changing the name. It's not Nevermore. It's Once Again. We still haven't heard any news about a singer, have we? Not yet, no. It's going to be a very key announcement. We'll see. I think it's coming pretty soon. They're already doing tour dates. Like John mentioned, they're going to be at Prague Power and stuff. So they have the person. They just haven't announced yet. I thought it was the guy from Exodus.
Yes.
Boy, that would not work.
Not at all.
It'd be kind of cool.
Where are we at here?
Matt.
Yeah, if I could just say, I mean, Sanctuary deserves fans that would have gone to see them live, unlike me.
I probably skipped out for some knock-lose.
Oh, Matt, poor Matty.
My number three would be Slayer Proper with both Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo. Saw them a few times. I couldn't tell you how many before the switchover. But I mean Slayer was hugely influential in my younger years. And yeah, to be able to see them live numerous times and that incarnation of themselves is something I'm happy to have done, unlike all my other concert failures.
At least she got that one in.
That's true.
Wow, I actually don't know if I've seen him with Dave.
Did you see him?
Well, I remember there was a Dave reunion.
Right, that's why I'm not sure.
The first time I saw him was Divine Intervention, which was Paul.
When did he leave the first?
Like 2011 or something?
When he came back?
I thought he left.
Well, it was a Christ Illusion.
He did what? Two records? Christ Illusion and World Painted Blood? He left him like 2011 or 2013. I might have seen him in there. I don't know. That's when he left. You probably saw him. I probably did. You probably saw him before that for sure, George. Well, like I said, the first time I saw him was with Paul. It was the first Paul album, I think. Right. Divine Intervention. And, you know, I saw him a few times after that, but I don't know if Dave was there or not. Honestly, if he was,
I think you'd remember that. Yeah. Uh, Johnny. All right. Uh, so my next pick is a twofer. I'm doing it and I, I don't know. I really don't care because both these guys were part of this band in different periods and they both did the same thing in this band. So my number three is a black Sabbath combo and it's Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. I got a chance to see them both sing for black.
I got a chance to see them both sing solo. I got the chance to see one of them sing for a band that pretended to be Black Sabbath with a different name, even though they technically were Black Sabbath. So, yeah, I got to see Ozzy six different times and Dio three times. But I put them together because they are, you know, part of that band.
They're the Voltron of Black Sabbath.
And the funny thing is I saw Dio first before I saw Ozzy. Because I saw the Mob Rules tour. Well, there was a dead zone there. It's just like that your age, you know, you weren't going to go what? You know, you weren't going to never say or never say die tour. It's just a little too young for that. Yeah. And then it was dead for a minute. You couldn't do anything for a while. So. Yeah. So my number three.
is not a two-fur, but it's a one-fur, and it's Ozzy. And I never saw Ozzy actually solo live, but I saw him with... I know that's true. I would have seen him solo on one of the OzFests. But by the time I was able to go to shows, as John was pointing out, Ozzy was kind of not where I wanted him to be. So the first time I saw Ozzy was with a Black Sabbath reunion tour, and it was fucking great, of course. And, you know, we're talking 20 or 30 years ago now, and Ozzy sounded great.
The Band Sounded Great. So important to have seen Ozzy under those circumstances. I don't need the Zach Wilde Ozzy as much as the rest of you guys do, but I did see him with Zach Wilde on the OzFest stuff. Well, he's one of the whole points of this episode and an important motherfucker. I never saw him once with Zach Wilde. Did you go to the OzFest stuff? Yeah, but I only saw Black Sabbath. The Black Sabbath OzFest. Yeah, and then I saw him once with Brad Gillis.
and Joe Holmes as his guitarist. So that was like for five minutes? Yeah. Yeah. For both of them. Yeah. Yeah. Making me sad. I never saw Ozzy. I never saw Dio. Jesus. You never saw Dio. I never did. I love Dio. But I just, like I said, I never really went to shows when I was younger. And then when I started going to shows, I never really went to big shows. So like I saw Maiden much later, you know.
A lot of the bigger bands have been around a long time. I saw them much later. But just never got a chance to see Dio in that. That's a crime. It's crushing. I'm edging my way back towards the metal now with Lane Staley. Oh, I knew that was going to come up. Son of a bitch. I knew you'd bring him up. Kata, he's another icon. I mean, that one actually qualifies for me. Well, yeah, I mean, Alice in Chains
gets lumped in with the grunge, but as everybody always liked to say, they kind of wanted to be a metal band. Dirt was metal, I'm sure. Basically they were metal. It's all metal. They were a metal band. I don't know why they got lumped in with grunge because they came out of Seattle and that was it. Even early Soundgarden's metal. Totally. Agreed. 100%. And Lane used to be in a hair metal band. Yeah. So there you go. Never saw him either.
So you should have just said my number three is yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sitting in a stupid chair because I didn't see Alice in Chains. Stupid chair. Well, did you want to say anything more? Well, I've talked about this one probably numerous times on this podcast. What an amazing show that was.
on the whole rain when I die thing because it was outside.
They stopped the show because it was raining.
They came back, played rain when I die.
I came.
It was awesome.
Awesome.
Was that with Mike Inez on base at that point?
I don't, or yes.
Yeah, I think so.
So Mike Starr was already on base.
Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Wow, okay.
Back to Mark Zahn for number two.
Oh, shit.
He's been mentioned a lot, Jeff Hanneman of Slayer. And I saw, you know, the full Slayer, Lombardo too, you know. It was 1998. You know, what can you say other than Jeff Hanneman was the absolute beating, bleeding heart of Slayer? I mean, he wrote the classics like Fucking Die by the Sword, Angel Death, Raining Blood, War Ensemble, Dead Skin Mass, Post-Morals.
He's the reason I love Slayer. So I saw him play back in my college days. My friends and I took a road trip from Oswego State University where I went to college. We went to Main Street Armory in Rochester. And it was the fall of 1998. And the show was part of the Diabolus on Tour Part 2 with Fear Factory. Oh, wow.
And the concert was in this odd gymnasium set up inside this old army facility for training soldiers. And it was an awesome show. There was a ton of energy that night. I was in the pit for most of it. After Slayer finished their set, a fight broke out. What a shock. I stepped in to break up the fight, but then one of these guys got involved in the, who was involved in the scuffle got like in my face. And so I ended up like,
punching them out and then I had to help them over to a wall because everybody was trying to get out of the melee. Back in the day, Slayer shows were not a joke back in the day. No, dude, it was fierce. So, but it was really cool too because I went to a handful of shows with my friends in college. The first year I was in college in a different place. Then I transferred to a Spico State and I met these guys who were,
really into metal and we started to go to shows and I can't even remember all the shows I went to actually this morning I messaged my buddy Garrett who's like an encyclopedia of metal and just like do you remember all the shows we went to because I remember the Slayer one almost had a fight I remember going to Deftones and Orange 9mm and stuff but I feel like we went to other shows and I just don't remember but anyways I'm really happy that I got to see like the fucking Slayer
proper back in the day of course i've seen them many times since then but uh to have that experience and then just have a fight break out too it just felt like the ultimate road trip to see one of the biggest metal bands uh that i could imagine especially at that time and uh you know he was an amazing musician who wrote the best slayer songs what else can you say word and he died crazy
because didn't he like get bit by a spider or something and then he did but the problem was that he drank too much and that's he died from liver failure or something right yeah he was waiting for a liver transplant literally that's how sick he was right but now the spider bite might i mean the guy drank from the time he got up in the morning until he went to bed like it exacerbated it find a seriously try to find a video interview where he's not drinking is not an easy thing to do and um now that's that's true
But I do think it exacerbated it too
because he had all this time on his fucking hands
he couldn't play guitar
and I bet you he just sat home and drank beer all day long
so I do think that it contributed to his death
but definitely he drank himself to death
But yeah, that's one of my favorite shows ever
I think we may have done
a top five
shows we've ever been to
have we ever done that?
This would have been on it for sure
so I just don't remember, it's been a while
Damn, he was only 49. Jesus, that's younger than me. I know. Wow. All right, Matt. Not exactly metal, but I have to include it. I had a chance to see the Beatles and all original members. They played on a rooftop in London. Were you there or did you just watch the video? Fuck, that was a movie. Shit. I'm sorry. Oh, Rats.
Was it spelled B-A-E-T? Like based? Yeah. The B-A-E-T-L-E-S. The Beatles. Which, by the way, I looked that up, George. It is pronounced based. Thank you. Based. Matt, I thought you were going to say your parents were in London at that point. They were. That's how you saw them. I was there. I was riding along in a nutsack. That's how I saw the first Star Wars movie.
I just caught that down.
That's where I was kind of going with it.
George just took it over the hump.
Well, that's how he got here.
It was the hump.
The hump.
Very true.
The hump.
The hump.
My real number two would be Lemmy and Motorhead.
The set was cut short because he wasn't feeling well,
but I knew this was probably going to be the last opportunity I have to see them live,
and I'm glad I was there.
You know, that's a famous video, and that was Minneapolis, wasn't it?
Actually, it was in Germany. Okay. Yeah, but how many of you seen Lemmy in LA as a statue? Okay. I have. Okay. I don't know why I thought that was, I wasn't like trying to actually be cool there. I was just being silly. It's very cool. It is a very cool statue. I've been to the rainbow. Yeah. Yeah. So have I. Fucking love rainbows. Yeah, you do. But this is,
The Rainbow. I love Rainbows more than Dio did. That's questionable. Maybe you're right. Yeah. No. All right. My number two. It's another twofer, but I think you'll know what this is. My number two are the two Seans. Sean Malone and Sean Reiner. And I got to see them in all different kind of formations. I saw.
them together in 2014. I saw Sean Reiner without Sean Malone in 2010 with
Cynic. I saw Sean Malone play with John Wesley, who was the live guitarist for Porcupine Tree.
He was his bassist. I had no idea he was going to be there that night, and that's the first night I got a chance to meet Sean Malone and hang out with him a little bit because I know John Wesley. But then I also got to see kind of an informal gathering of three of the five members
the OSI meet in Portland at a show when Dream Theater was touring with Queensryche and Fate's Warning. Sean Malone, I guess, was living in Portland and he came out on stage and played with Portnoy and Jim Matthias when they played the song Shutdown. So I kind of got probably one of the few people to see. Wasn't an official OSI, but three of the five guys were there. So. Nice. Yeah. So that's my number two. Two for two. Fucking cynic.
I know we're not doing our number ones but my number one I just felt like I can't not put this as number one but the truth is is it was really hard not to put my number two as my number one and I'm probably the only one who has this not because I'm the only one who saw them but you just could easily not have thought of this but I think this person was so important to this group and underappreciated in that sense probably but it's like Simon and Garfunkel or something like I don't know how to explain it
except to say that was one of my favorite tours I ever saw. Eric Martin Ane in Celtic Frost. Well, yeah. I mean, it was that tour and he was such a big part of the presentation. A, the record, for one thing, Monotheist. But then secondly, his presence on stage was so important and he sings probably more than you realize he does on that record because he sang a lot and he was dressed in this priest outfit and nine fucking feet tall and thrashing his head off and just,
and it was just made it's i know we've had that vague argument about the
difference between trypticon and um celtic frost and to me the primary difference is the lack of martin eric martine
and um or you know and i'm so glad i got to see that tour i'm so glad he was a big part of it it was so good and
that's that's definitely like one of my crown jewels absolutely seen that performance and they did not shy away
from the record they did the shit out of monotheos they did some old stuff of course but wow so glad i got to see see that before that guy died yeah awesome all right my number two black black black black number one peter this was going to be number one on my list if we did i wish i'd seen before they died seriously i really wish
I'd seen Peter Steele. This was one of the... I mean, this is like probably a top five show because they didn't even play the theater. They played the lobby of the theater. This was the Capitol Theater in Flint, Michigan on the Bloody Kisses tour. So they weren't big yet, though they were headlining. But they were headlining the lobby. But they, yeah, they played in the lobby. Like the frickin' like popcorn booth was behind.
behind them.
You know?
We were just like, why aren't we going into the theater?
We're just in the lobby.
Just playing in the lobby.
I would love to have seen him.
Love to have seen him.
And Pete made the immortal statement before they played Black No. 1.
I wrote four notes.
I made a million dollars.
Next time I'm going to write eight.
Nice.
Wow. Yeah.
When was this, George?
94?
Somewhere around there. I don't know. Whenever that came out.
Yeah.
Yeah, about 94.
Maybe 95.
Maybe 95, yeah.
Maybe 93.
Let's see.
It was April 2nd, 94. I looked it up.
94.
It was fast.
Oh, yeah. April.
Which is funny because it snowed like a motherfucker.
I drove and I remember trying to drive home from the show and it was like warp speed in the Millennium Falcon because the snow was coming down so hard and fast in April. That's Michigan, I guess. That's probably Minnesota too. That's probably Chicago too, but you know. Nice. All right. Now, number one.
So I debated my number one choice a little bit because I don't typically think of this band as metal but I was flipping through my Decimal Hall of Fame anthology hardcovers and Soundgarden's Ultra Mega OK was inducted so that's more than enough for me to justify the late Chris Cornell being on this metal list and John even mentioned earlier that he thought Soundgarden early stuff was metal so
We're not going to argue with you on this one buddy
Well, you know, I like to be pure. So, um, I feel you're a little impure, but okay. Yeah. I'm smelling something. It smells like a Soundgarden. I don't know. Can't argue with that. Listen, I just think Chris Cornell is just one of the best vocalists ever to pick up a mic. He had unmistakable singular pipes with range and power, but he was also just a phenomenal songwriter. I love Soundgarden and
and his solo album, Euphoria Morning. I spin that a ton. I know he did other solo albums, but that is the specific one that I love. So unfortunately, I never saw Soundgarden, which is a huge fail on my part. But like I said, in those early days when I was a teenager, I just didn't go to a lot of shows. But I did see Chris Cornell play solo here in Chicago back in 2013 with my friend,
who grew up in seattle and she knew a lot of the 90s musicians when they were coming up so the set in chicago was part of an acoustic tour and it featured songs from soundgarden audio slave temple of the dog his solo albums and some amazing covers including like one of my favorite things he's ever done which is in a mashup of u2's one and metallica's one where he plays the music
from the U2 song while singing the Metallica lyrics.
And it's fucking phenomenal.
And I was really happy to see that live.
There's a great, I agree with you about his voice.
And I'm not even a big fan of the band, the original band.
But I did like a lot of things he did.
But I saw him do some sit down show in a radio place or something, like a radio show.
And he sang Nothing Compares to You.
And it was heartbreaking.
Yeah.
It was so good.
He had that rare talent where he could sing with power, but he could also be so delicate and emotional. What was the band he was in with in Tom Arello? Audioslave. Audioslave. I always thought that song Like a Stone was so fucking good. I really like that. He had a gift of a voice. I mean, there were so many amazing singers from the bands in the 90s who are gone now. George has mentioned a couple already. Yeah.
I think Chris Cornell stood out. Honestly, I'll just say it better than that. He was better in all of them. He was such a gifted singer. Yeah. Agrees. That's my number one. Matty. I'll be short. My number one. Like Bruce Dickinson short or Angus Young short. Or Angus Young short. A combo. Or Dio short.
I had a chance to see him live twice. Once with Zach, once with Jill Holmes. I'm talking about Ozzy. Mike Inez, I think, was bass for both, and then Mike Borden on drums. Yeah, I'm still kicking myself for not going to that Black Sabbath reunion show, but at least I can say that I got to see Ozzy, because I was talking to somebody today, I can't remember who, and they're like, yeah, Ozzy just never had a chance to see him, you know, and it's like, oh, okay.
You know, clearly I have a whole list of other people I didn't, but, you know, it was fun. Yeah. See Ozzy up there just spraying water on people and singing the hits. And getting the microphone off the stand and putting it back on immediately. Taking it off the stand and putting it on immediately. Yeah. He would sing it out. Okay, I got to put it right back. It was OCD. He had ADHD or something. Yeah. All right, John. All right. So my number one is not
He was a metal musician, but he influenced legions of metal musicians. And I was beyond fortunate to see him perform 17 times between 1986 and 2015. Neil Peart is my number one. Oh, okay. Can't even describe how much I miss seeing him play live. You know what? That was a huge overpowering.
I should have thought of that. You lose. Jay, do you have honorable mentions? That goes straight at the top of honorable mentions. I mean, he's number one in my honorable mentions just because not metal, but awesome. I was so happy. Metal enough. I mean, come on, 2112 is a metal album. And with that much talent, that drags you into any category. Doesn't matter. He influenced thousands of metal drummers. Sure. That all point to him. So he's metal enough.
Not just metal, but just all drummers. And he just, I can't tell you, even when I didn't like Rush, when I was fighting it because I was, you know, I had to be different than my one friend, Jim Rossi, who I grew up with when we were younger, I still was like, well, that drummer's still badass. Still secretly loved the drummer. I was like, oh, just get over yourself and just like this band already. And it's been all downhill since then.
That's cool. I mean, I saw him. I had not seen Rush. And my friend Brian bought tickets just to see him because he loved Rush so much. And he wanted me to go into experience and just bought me the ticket. And so I went because I did not go to big stadium tours. You know, I like smaller venues. But man, I enjoyed the hell out of that show. And then, you know, drum solos. And it was just like it was one of the best experiences I've ever had, especially in a giant stadium.
I was a big fan, but I didn't see them until Roll the Bones. I mean, it was that. Now, which now Roll the Bones was kind of a comeback album, though, in its way. So I can at least hold my head high in there. That was what they kind of kicked the keyboards out for a little while. But I was kind of a fanatic at the time. So it was. First time for me was Power Windows. So I will. Yeah, I'll say this, Marcus, since you said that anyone who.
I was like three dudes on stage. That's it. Just three dudes. No, and I was blown away by that. This the musicianship what they could achieve with just three people. It didn't seem possible. It seemed like there were like eight people up there playing if you go. Well, it's three people and get his feet to be fair. Well, no, I was just gonna say I was gonna say and Alex if you go back and watch videos, you could see them. Their feet are going like this.
because they're playing the bass pedals yeah so if getting if he's playing keyboards alex is doing the bass pedals also i mean they were all virtuosos i mean in total goofballs and balls yeah total goofballs on stage silly it's crazy and yeah crazy canadians one of the i mean top five drummers of all time i mean i don't even probably my number one drummer yeah depends on the style you like because
It depends. I mean, I've got about a hundred on my list to try to fit in my top fives. Yeah, it's hard. And then you got to talk about John Bonham and other different things. Yeah, then you watch Becoming Led Zeppelin like, oh, shit. Maybe he's my number one now. He's ungodly. I mean, he's insane. But don't tell Vinny Eppiché that. Oh, no, Carmine. Sorry, Carmine. You know, I, well, Vinny, he, he worked. He must
I have noticed so many things. I brought this up recently. Like, go listen to Slippin' Away, the live version. It sounds just like him, yeah. Dude. And then also, there's a song. I'll have to look it up in a second. But according to Carmine, Vinny would just be worshipping him because Carmine taught John Bonham everything. All right. Sorry, I'm done. I'm done. My number one is, I thought was going to sweep the episode, but I guess I don't.
I don't know everybody who hasn't seen him. Etc. etc. But it's just hard not I had to put Ronnie James Dio. He's one of my favorite just personalities in metal but he also has one of the finest careers across multiple bands. I mean you start with the first Richie Blackmore album and go all the way up through Last in Line and that encompasses three bands and it's like eight. Yeah.
You're right, you're right, Sacred Heart is amazing. And I don't know, there's just a few musicians I respect more for their natural gift. And when I saw him with Heaven and Hell, told this story, but I don't care, came out into the audience on this big thing that he just decided, I'm going to go up Mountain View, you know, the walk up the Mountain View thing, and he walked right up to my section, and I got to go shake.
his fucking hand. While he was singing, he came up to shake the people's. But I saw him both with Heaven and Hell and as Dio. And I'm very glad I got to see Dio. That would be a tough one. The biggest regret for me. And the more I hear about Dio, the more I like him. Like I was talking about the End of the Void documentary with Emma Lynn and how Dio and Wendy brought her in to try to make something of her when all these other
places wouldn't touch her because they didn't want to deal with that like
there's just so many stories that made me think oh man i bet he was a i mean of course he
probably had like a temper and didn't deal well with certain people but he seemed like a good dude
think of vivian campbell might say about that just a little do you know another band that he helped
out in the 80s i know jay probably knows well no i'm starting to search my computer banks is it um
They're not well known. They were just like an 80s. Rough Cut. Did he really help out Rough Cut? Yeah. Did he produce that record? Is that what it was? Yeah. That's not the worst record in the world. It's not the best record either. No, but Paul Sartino was a good singer, dude. Yeah, but Rough Cut is a deep cut. Yes. It's a deep, deep cut. What cover
is on that record do you recall and this would be a late song by chris christopherson or no not by chris christopherson but a janice joplin song well that narrows it down they do a copy of peace of my heart yeah huh interesting i don't even know why i know that band but i must have bought the record and well it must have been something in the 80s because sammy hagar covered that in the 80s also he did peace my heart yeah
on standing Hampton. I was watching the country music thing again, the Ken Burns thing, and it got to the Chris Kistofferson who wrote a lot of hits but really wasn't a very good singer himself or anything, and he wrote me and Bobby McGee. And the guy who produced it was talking about all the people who covered it, tons of people covered it. But when Janis Joplin's record came out, he got the record, they sent it to him, he listened to me
Bobby McGee and he said it was he was so blown away by it he said I was stunned and he said and I cried and blah blah blah and then he called Chris Christopherson who wrote the song and said you need to listen to this but make sure you're not alone when you do oh shit man that's how moved by that performance he was he didn't want Chris Christopherson to cry by himself wow all right all right my number one Jay
I love you. My number one is Dio, who I also saw solo. I think if Will was here, he probably would have gone Dio too. Huh? I think if Will was here, he would have done Dio too. If he'd seen it. I don't know if you saw him. Did he? Oh, that's a fair point. I had him tied for third. You know that Metal Masters tour though? Yeah. I thought of something after we were in the middle of this that should have been on my list, even though it's not metal, but it's going to be in the
Yeah, save it for honorables. Because I'm sure we have like a ton of those. Yeah. All right. So we bang these out because my back is killing me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll be done with it. Markisan. You got any honorables? I didn't write any down. No. Matt. Sorry, I am glad I saw Pantera with the whole family a couple times. Strangely enough, the one that popped into my head. I was glad I saw
I saw Static X with Wayne Static. I really liked Static X back in the day and they're doing a lot of touring now. I don't have any plans to go see them but I didn't see them till kind of the very end probably on touring on their last album but I enjoyed that. I was glad it happened. Nice. John? All right I got a long list but I'll go fast. Oh boy. Yeah. I've been very fortunate to see all these. So my first one that came to mind was David Bowie. I saw him three times. Yeah. Eddie Van Halen.
Jeff Beck,
Jeff Beck,
Alan Holdsworth,
Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Chris Squire from.
Yes.
I'm going to butcher the name,
but I think it's Peter.
Grew,
Dizinski.
He was a guitarist from Riverside.
Passed away.
Digging in deep here for Prague,
Keith Emerson and Greg Lake from ELP.
Some together.
Jay,
this one's for you.
John Lord from deep purple.
Oh,
bless you.
Brett Hines.
He was on my list.
I just had him on my own mentions. And then this guy named Andrew Mack McDermott, which was the vocalist for Threshold. I got to see, I've seen Threshold three times. They've played Prog Power three different times. It's the only time I think they've played in the U.S. maybe one other day and with all three different singers in the band for each one for each show. I got to see him one time. So. Nice. Well, John reminded me of two now that I should have, well, that at least should have been honorable mention. One is Neil Peart. The other is Eddie Van Halen.
I was very fortunate to see him. And I'll just repeat my original two, which were Leonard Cohen and Jeff Beck. Very, so, so pleased that I saw both of those artists. And Eddie was such a God and Neil was such a God that to be able to have been in the same room as those, that was, that was a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. I saw Leonard Cohen. That would be on my list. I saw Eddie Van Halen. That would be on my list. Ozzy, of course. And I put Brent Hines.
I put Lammy, Chris Cornell, Nick Menza from Megadeth. Oh, yeah. I couldn't remember if I saw him. I was racking my brain for that one. When was the last time he was with him? I don't know, was it The Trust? Wow, it's okay. Yeah, he didn't do the anniversary for Rest in Peace, did he? I'll look it up. Remember they did the anniversary, they played the whole album?
I thought they were all there. I thought Marty Friedman was the only one that didn't come. I can't remember. Anyway, I don't. Yeah. And Mitch Lucker from Suicide Silence. I was not a big fan of the band until I saw him play and he was amazing. And then the one that I was like, duh, the Ramones. They're all dead. But I only saw two of them. I did not see Tommy or Dee Dee. They were gone.
by the time I saw them, but I did see Joey and Johnny. Nick Menza was prevented from being part of that because of some sort of... Legal thing? No, health thing. Oh, okay. He didn't feel he had the stamina to keep up with the set. That was a pretty intense set when they did that. Yeah, I saw them on like a number of tours. Yeah. I had said when we started that maybe it would have been easier to do bands.
I wish I would have seen before somebody died or the person or whatever. And it probably would have been easier, but that list is actually so fucking long. Yeah, that's a long list for me, too. Yeah, that would be that would be too hard. Yeah, Neil Peart would be the only one that I can think of for this list. Did none of us see Metallica with Cliff Burton? Not one of us? Nope. I could have. I had the opportunity. My parents would let me go. Yeah. Oh, shit. I didn't see Matilda in Justice. And there you go. Yeah, I didn't know that.
One year too late.
Well, I miss Randy Rhodes by a couple months.
I was going to say that's another one.
That's got to hurt a little bit.
I miss him by just that much time.
Oh, I just thought another one.
Gordon Downey from The Tragically Hip.
I saw them many times.
He died of brain cancer.
And he was a phenomenal entertainer.
You probably, we might have even talked about this, Marcus,
but there's a doc about them.
Yeah, he mentioned it earlier.
Yeah, I mentioned it.
Yeah, it's like a four-part documentary.
It's a lot of good stories
to tell about.
Actually, while I got you in particular, I do love the comic book movies. I mean, like almost obsessively. And one that I've waited for for years, and I'm a little nervous about it. But did you watch the Fantastic Four one?
I haven't seen that one, no.
Okay, because that's like one of my favorite comics is Fantastic Four. And so I'm really, it's now on streaming, and I really want to know what to expect. I know Galactus is in it, and that's enough for me.
Yeah. I mean, I've hated that. I've never liked the Fantastic Four as a comic book. There's when Walt Simonson did it. I like that book. There's a couple runs that I like, but I just don't like those characters in general. I will see it though, eventually. Well, maybe I can tell you next time I talk to you. Superman was solid. I thought I was a little underwhelmed, but it was, I just, I'm, I think I was thinking it Henry Cavill too much and Superman gets his butt kicked for the first three fourths of the movie. And that's not what I like.
about something. Thunderbolts was interesting. I haven't. Okay. I'm slowly approaching that one. I don't know why I haven't watched it yet, but okay. It's on the list. All right. One more thing. Yeah. Pick from the crib. Oh, shit. That's right. All right. So I'm first. So let's see here. All right. So it's been a really great year for Doom.
with albums from the Urgeon, Colt's Blood, Evokin, Opia, Feytooth, etc.
So that's kind of made me dive back into the crypt to listen to some doom gems that I just haven't spun in a while.
So my pick from the crypt is Funeral Moth, Dense Fog from 2014 on Weird Truth Productions and Throne Records.
So this is one of the eeriest albums I've ever heard.
It's incredibly haunting, very spare songs that crush you at a glacial pace. It moves from mysterious, oceanside serenity to atmospheric murder house horror. And I just absolutely love the deep underworld vocals on this and the slow churn of the band. It's four songs, 74 minutes of
the slowest, most chilling doom imaginable. So most of you probably wouldn't be into it, but I really love this, especially when I'm like doing work and it's just this background and then it just creeps in. It's almost like it gets you. It almost grabs you. So they're from Japan. John's art just broke there for a second. It was like, it's 34 minutes and he was like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like that sometimes. It's almost like,
Like John and I really into ambient music. And that's what I like about some ambient music where, you know, it kind of creeps and builds. And this is what this is, but it's doom metal. And so I can't listen to it all the time, but I was in the mood for it now. And I haven't done stuff in a while, but I really like all of Funeral Moth's output. So there you go. Cool. Matt.
I could go with Ultimate Sin by Ozzy Osbourne. Oh, nice. It's not as deep into a crypt, but hearing that it's a little bit underrated and something that I just said never given a lot of time to, I think that everyone should go and take that in. I think that is a crypt pick because not everybody is as old as us. Very few people. There's some lost albums that don't take for granted that people know that record.
I think. Yeah. John. All right. My pick is somewhat deep in the crib. I went with Martyr. Warp Zone from 2000. I don't know if you guys know Martyr. I do not. Yes, you do. Daniel Mongrain. Chewy from Voivod. Oh. His band, Martyr. Gotcha. Technical Death Band out of Montreal in Quebec.
Yeah, I mean, if you're a fan of the 90s into 2000s technical death, then you might like this. This album especially is kind of a mix of mid-era 90s death, the band with complex technical song structures, some kind of jazz fusion-y guitar solo sprinkled in. I mean, he was just ripe for coming in as a replacement in Voivod because of the style. So, yeah.
Nice.
He's a great singer back then too. He was a great singer back then and this show opens with
Byrne and moves on to Stormbringer and keeps going and it's just so good and Richie was still in the band. It's everybody as good as Made in Japan in my mind at least representing this next era. Only a digital release but it's awesome. Deep Purple, live in Paris in 1975. I'm a little disappointed EJ. You said, but I'm living in the past. I was like, this has got to be a Toll album he's picking.
This is from the same zip code anyway. Yeah, exactly. All right. My pick was released in 1992. Way back. Yep. This is the band. Purple Live in Paris in 1975. No, it was from 1987 in Paris.
No. This is Solitude Aeternus Beyond the Crimson Horizon. Oh, I love that album. Why not? Texas Epic Doom Man featuring Robert Lowe on vocals, who you may eventually know from his time in Candlemas. This was their second album. They went on to release six albums. Last one. I love Solitude Aeternus. Did he get canceled or something? What the fuck happened to him? I don't know. Wasn't there some... Did he have some run-in?
And then they like when he left the band, maybe he was being a real prick or something. I don't know. It seemed like he had a falling from grace. Well, he I know he had at least one other band after that. Did he? Okay. Yeah. Um, it was, it was okay. Let's see. But that album is awesome. Yeah. I bought that on CD back at Tower Records back in the day in the day. You know what I'm saying? Um,
Back in 1992, yeah. Oh, come on. Where are you? There you are. Robert Lowe. He did Grief Collector. Remember that one? Oh, that's right. I remember Grief Collector, yeah. Yeah. And he's also got a band, Tyrant, that was... It just seems like he's been kind of quiet lately, but maybe I just haven't seen his releases. Wow. The last thing here on his discography is 2007. No, that's not right. Excuse me.
Reef Collector was 20, 21 had something. Yeah. Okay. Well, he's still kind of around then. Yeah. Hey, did you see anything, George? Did the Candlemas Messiah thing go down? I thought I saw a news item about that. Yeah. Me too, but I couldn't remember if it happened yet. No, I mean, I think I saw it when it happened. Okay. Did you see any videos or anything? No, I didn't. I wasn't looking. Just curious what he sounds like now. I think I was on vacation when that went down. And so I just scrolled past it on the beach.
I'll look it up on YouTube. I'm just curious to know what he sounds like right now. I know. I think if I'm not mistaken, I saw a picture and I thought he looked thinner. Good for him. Now I got to spin some solitude of fairness. I haven't done that in a while. I don't even know if they're on BandCat. I'll have to check. Anywho, we are here. It's almost the five-hour
Mark for us,
which is probably fitting given how long it's been.
It's been a while.
And it was necessary.
Yes,
it was necessary.
Yes.
It was fun.
Well,
and depressing,
but still fun.
Hopefully we'll be back before the year end.
But yeah,
we'll hopefully see you in October or you'll hear us in October.
Actually,
this may not come out until October,
We're given how it's the 28th of September. See us when you see us. Nice to see your faces. All right, guys. Until next time. Peace. Peace. See you boys. Have a good weekend. See ya. Bye. Later.