Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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!
Metalhead Podcast, Metalhead Podcast, go!
You must listen.
You must listen.
Now, here is the podcast, Metal Heads Podcast Go.
Hello, and welcome to the day that CrowdStrike took down the internet globally.
Also, my name is George, and welcome to the Metal Heads Podcast.
My name is Jay, and I'm on Starlink, and everything's working great.
My name is John and I didn't have any problems at all today. Excuse you. I am the situational paradox and I was on vacation today but I could not buy a Powerball ticket. And this is Markisan and with us tonight is Jason Roberts of Roseneath, Violescent and Brass which just dropped a brand new album today. Today. So welcome to the Metalheads podcast Jason. It's great to have you on and congrats on the record release. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
And I hope that people were actually able to get to it today. I wonder, actually, that's a good place to start. Are some of those services down? Sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to say I was consistently watching my Spotify plays, and at least some people were able to access it. I don't know. That's cool. I went to Starbucks, and they had trouble with their registers. So it was more than just, you know.
the government and banks and airports and stuff like that, I guess. I think that company's from my hometown to Austin, Texas. I was just in Austin, like Memorial Day. What, CrowdStrike is from there? I believe so. Yeah. Are you still there? No. I moved away in 2017. Where are we talking to you from? Richmond, Virginia. Oh! South of Georgia.
Richmond motherfucking Virginia.
That's for Will.
If Will was here, he would have said it.
But yeah, yeah, we're just a couple hours north of there.
Or well, some of us.
Me and John.
Anyway.
He's in Northern Virginia.
Will and I are in Northern Virginia.
I'm in Maryland.
Okay.
Okay.
Awesome.
Chase in the desert.
I'm in Chicago.
And Matt's in Minnesota.
Minnesota.
Minnesota.
All right.
Well, Markisan, why don't you start digging for the truth?
Or at least the facts.
Yeah, I'm really excited about this because I found Breaths last year.
And the album that you put out was just, I think it was just a year ago.
And now you have another new one.
Was on my top 25 of 2023, Florowit.
I love that.
The new one's self-titled.
But my first question for you is what really pulled me into your music for Breaths
is the way you really merge this dreamlike shoegaze sound with black and doom and post-metal. So how did you first know that you wanted to create music that merged those particular styles? I think it was less of knowing that I wanted to do that and more of not knowing how not to do that. I just like so many different things equally and it just kind of all jumbles together when I write. So I honestly thought like,
I put out my first album during the pandemic back in 2021, I think. I didn't know how people were going to receive it because I thought it's just too all over the place for people to understand. It jumps from, I think that album's even more extreme. It's got a 12-minute doom song and then a black metal song and then it's just all over the place. So yeah, I just have an appreciation for a lot of stuff and I try to cram all my influences in. I actually tried to not do that on this new album though. The one I just released today,
I purposely tried to make it less of that. Yeah, it leans more heavily into shoegaze than the last record. Yeah, I just I don't know. I was really in like especially over like the fall and winter last year when I was writing and I was just really in a big shoegaze kick. I mean, I've always loved like bands like Home and like the heavy shoegaze from the 90s. My Bloody Valentine. I've always loved that stuff. I was actually going to ask you if you liked My Bloody Valentine because I hear some of that. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I actually found them.
later, much later. Like, my first, really, introduction to any sort of shoegaze was probably Home Stars. And I know that's not really shoegaze, but, you know, it's in that vein. I think when I was a kid, they played it on the radio. And then, like, Deftones, Be Quiet and Drive had that shoegaze lean to it. And then when Black Gaze came out, I was like, Deaf Heaven, Alsace. And then, like, Holy Fawn came out. And I was like, wow, this is... Oh, I love Holy Fawn. Yeah, they're one of my favorites.
Are you a Justin Broderick fan? Oh yeah, I love Yeesu. I was going to say, because I hear a little influence from Yeesu. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it sure sounds like there's a little bit on the new album. Oh, for sure. I haven't listened to his stuff in a while. I mean, he always pops up on my playlist that I have, and I pretty much love all his projects, but that one specifically. He's pretty prolific.
I like his earlier period which was like the first like 10 releases that includes all the EPs and I haven't followed him as much but like Conqueror I love that album and Silver. That's my favorite one John. Yeah Lifeline you know those are all great EPs too so. Some of the newer stuff is really good too but yeah I'm with you I like that like Silver and the earlier works for sure. Yeah. Well you've created a lot of different kinds of music in your career but Breath
is your main project. It's like your baby. And you do all the music for it for most of your projects. So can you talk about what it's like to just compose everything? Yeah, so I kind of tried to branch off into different. So Breaths, this new album actually started as a project called So May, which I was trying to do like different sounds, different band names. And then I realized I'm doing everything for like three or four of these different things. Why not just make it Breaths and people can listen or not listen?
whatever happens.
But I like the control in the sense, not that I'm a control freak, even though I think my wife would say that I am.
But, you know, it's not for that necessarily.
It's just that I get really carried away in writing and recording and I move really fast.
And when I have other people and I have to wait and I get impatient.
And then, you know, like Rosneath is me and another guy.
He actually writes like the new EP we just put out.
He wrote all the music for that.
But it's very 80s, post-punk synth kind of stuff, which is stuff that I like, but I'm not super into, so it was a challenge. But as far as breaths, I do everything except I can't play drums. I won't pretend that I can. So all the drums in my breath stuff is programmed. That's simply because I'm just not a skilled drummer and I don't have the money to hire session musicians for every time I want to do a record, which is multiple times a year.
I don't know how this grossman's got to be pretty cheap because he's on
everybody's album
it's true yeah I mean honestly I just kind of do this you know for fun at night when my wife and kids are
asleep this is like my instead of playing video games or whatever you know hobby this is my thing I just come down in my basement and which is where I'm at right now and I just write a song or two and
together over the course of a year or so. And there's an album. Do you record at home too? Yep. Everything's at home. Everything right here in this chair. Pretty much. Sounds great. I actually, all the guitar and bass tones, it's all digital through. I have a helix. Um, I do have a bunch of amps. I'm looking over at my amp collection in the corner. Um, but I can't mic them up loud most of the time unless my kids, you know, are away.
and wife's away and crank it up. But yeah, everything's pretty much digital. I sing, you know, on weekends. I'll take 30 minutes and do like vocals on a song. But I just, you know, get down here and do it when I can. I love your voice. It's so lush. It's gorgeous. I think I have a crush on your larynx. I appreciate it. Yeah, you got it. I think something I never really asked anyone before.
How did you discover your ability to sing? And what went into developing that sound? I sang along with Chino for many, many years. Oh, nice. I just, I sang along to other records that I won't admit to. Well, I guess I'll admit to when I was a late teenager, early twenties, I sang along to like Stain's Break the Cycle and Good Lord, you know, I wouldn't claim Aaron Lewis anymore these days, but
You just sent Matt's heart aflutter, so it's okay. But I bet you Matt feels the same way about him today. I do. At the time, I loved the album. I loved the first Cobalm, so I felt like I could match those tones. I would sing along to a lot of things, but primarily, like, Deftones really taught me how to sing, and then it took me decades to come out and say, I want to sing on a record. I was always the guitar player in my teens and 20s. I used to tour. I played with bands like Slipknot.
I've opened up for bands back in the 90s and 2000s, like Mudvayne. I mean, not to name drop, but it feels like a whole lifetime ago. This was 20 years ago. And then I dropped out of the scene for probably a decade and came back and moved to Richmond. And my wife was like, you should find a band. And I convinced them to let me sing. And they said, sure, why not? And that band was short-lived, but it kind of pushed me to start doing this.
And this other project, Channeler, that I have, it's spelled with no vowels. It's C-H-N-N-L-R. It's kind of inactive now, but that was like my first studio project. And the first real project that I really sang on in the studio and then breath was shortly after. Well, let's go back to that a little bit. You were mentioned that you were in these bands and you opened for some pretty big acts. So what happened with all that?
And then you took time apart from music. So what happened back then? So when I was 16, I started a new metal band. This was in 98. Yeah. Started a band called Eighth Ground. It was in Austin, Texas. Very like Soulfly, Sepultura meets Rage Against the Machine and Deftones and Cold Chamber. It was all over the place. But very new metal. But like, I don't know, not the cheesy new metal. Unless someone considers all new metal cheesy.
It's coming back now, actually. Yeah, it is. I'm here for it. I dropped out of high school. I was going on small tours. We had Roadrunner Records and Universal Records at our shows, hyping us up, giving us demo deals. We were in the studio. We were in our practice space writing for a record to go demo for these labels.
went to school for eastern medicine and which is good on him but at the time i was pretty sour about it
because he decided he didn't want to play music anymore he just wanted to do the eastern medicine doctor thing which now he has his own practice somewhere in washington and that's awesome but at the time it just i was so like jaded um and everything imploded but i picked up found another band it basically happened all over again we got to the point where tooth and nail records like was kind of
us for a little bit.
That band was called Furthest from the Star.
It was more like Emo, Screamo,
pop punk,
like somewhere between Amberlynn and Under Oath meets Four Years Strong.
I don't know.
Anyway,
and then it all imploded again.
And so after that second time,
we're really pushing it for 15 years in two different bands.
I was like,
I just had to walk away.
So I did.
And then I lived life for a while and met my wife and
And we got pregnant and she was like, we'll do it for fun. I think you really want to do a band. So come back to it on your terms. Yeah. Yeah. So I did. And it's much freer, much more fun this way, much more inspiring to do it for, you know, of course I would love to do that for a day job, but who does that for a day job? Very few people. Yeah. So yeah, it's nice to be able to do it when and how I want and not really answering.
I still answer to my wife about everything else.
Do you have any fun moments when you were on tours back then when you were a teenager? That's a while ago.
A lot of our stuff was not like, you know, we weren't out for a month at a time or anything. It was like a week here, a week there, Weekend Warriors. It was very like a lot of things booked back to back, but there was breaks.
So I didn't really get any of the tour lag because it was kind of shorter and you come back home. But I think just the times I mentioned opening for Slipknot, because I met Slipknot when their first record had just came out. It was a complete just coincidence. I was at a Cold Chamber Machine Head show with my singer at the time. It was Cold Chamber Machine Head and Slipknot. We were standing on the side at the bar area. This little short dude comes up behind us and says,
says, oh, you know, it's really hot in here. I don't know. My singer was talking about being hot in here. And he's like, you should try being on stage. And we're like, who is this guy? A little guy wearing a cowboy hat. Just looking very like, you know, who is this dude? And then he was like, kept talking to us. And we're like, all right, I guess we'll engage. And we saw like Slipknot laying there. And we're like, what's your name, dude? And he's like, oh, I'm Corey, Corey Taylor. And then, yeah, just got to talking to him.
He invited us on his bus and met the rest of the guys and opened up a show for them in like Killeen, Texas, which is like an army base there. Every time they came to town, we'd hang out for, you know, a few years period before Iowa came out. Lost touch after that, but I saw him at a few stone shower shows and we ended up opening for Mudvayne and Flaw. It was Mudvayne, Flaw and I think 40 Below Summer maybe. That was a good show and like Nothing Face.
I played a show with them back in the day. That was really cool. So just some of my heroes like back then opening up for some bands. I was only like 17 at the time. So 17, 18, like not even old enough. I had X's on my hands. This one Slipknot show, the one we opened for, they tried to make us, they tried to make me not come in the venue at all until we played. And Corey was like, no, they tried to make me then sit on the side of the stage.
Corey again was like no this kid's here playing in a band like
don't treat him as such put him in the corner
I mean I haven't seen that dude I highly doubt he would even remember me at this point this was 25
years ago but it was a fun experience he used to call me the blue hair kid because I had blue hair back then
you're gonna die at any time soon again
No.
Those days are over?
I mean, I would.
I don't know how my work would like it, though.
They don't care about the tattoo, so I assume they'd be fine with it.
You could dye the beard.
I was dyeing the beard.
Like, I was not ready for all the grays yet.
Just for men.
A year ago, I was using, I don't even know what beard dye was, but yeah, I've embraced
it now.
Do you still talk to those guys that were in those bands, or were there bad brands?
I talked to a few of the guys in the last band that broke up in the mid-2000s. Good friends with a couple of those guys still. The earlier band, not really. A couple of them went off in different directions just life-wise and especially with all the chaos in 2020. There was a lot of weird political stuff that they were into that I couldn't get behind. So I think we kind of...
Whatever little we did talk, we didn't anymore. Right, right. So. Well, you do have a new band. I do have a new band. So how's that going? It's Violessent, right? Yeah, it's awesome. It's fun. I missed, that's one thing I really missed, you know, doing Rosaneeth, doing Chandler, doing breaths, doing all these studio things is getting in a room and just cranking amps loud and drums and just playing.
So it's nice because we play like sludgy, doomy, just loud, fun music. And we get to scream a bunch and guitar and collect amps again. We're working on an album right now. We got a song out. We just finished a second song. We're kind of, I have like skeletons of all the songs recorded, but we're like building the album as we go along. So hopefully it'll be done later this year-ish and then we'll start playing shows and probably the fall.
That's great. Yeah. Well, going back, I want to go back to Breast because you talked about, you know, touring well as people. We've had some really great guests on some Breast tracks. You had Matt from Cryptopsy on Florowit. You had Chad Capper of Frontier on a song on a split. So how did you how did those collaborations come about? Accident. Frontier.
Chad actually just like messaged me when my first album came out and said he really liked the album I don't know how he got a hold of it wow it was my own called lined in silver was breath record and then we just started talking and like a year or so went by and I was like hey I got a track I think it'd be really cool he'd kind of like hinted at doing a guest spot said he had a home studio and I was like well you want to do this track and he was all about it and he put some vocals on
I don't know. Yeah. The rest is history. It was awesome. I love that track too. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and then with Matt, similar deal, he, um, was turned onto the second record by, um, a guy that he works with on his podcast. I think that kind of like turns him onto new music. Um, and then he just reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be on the podcast. So I did. And then we got to talking when the podcast was over, um, his,
He just said, you know, if you got any music you want me to guest on, send him my way. And I was like, actually, I'm working on a new album right now. So I'll send a track. And then that's how that worked out. So it was just two nice people putting themselves out there. And I was like, I will take you up on that right now, as a matter of fact. That's great. Yeah, it's always nice to hear about that. Stuff like that. Yeah. Sorry, Mark's on. No, go ahead, George. No, I was just saying, yeah, it's cool to hear stories like that.
that.
And I,
when I first got Matt's vocal track back,
I mean,
I knew he could sing on,
you know,
I'd heard some of the cryptopsy stuff like that.
He was on where he did cleans,
but it was very few and far between.
There's only a couple of songs in their catalog where he's on doing any cleans.
And I mean,
I guess it makes sense on the song that I sent him,
but it totally just different direction than I ever thought.
And I got it back and I was like,
holy shit,
this is perfect.
This is exactly what I didn't know I needed on this song. And yeah, I was just, I think it kind of took everyone else back. Like people maybe that didn't even realize how well he could. Cause I mean, he honestly could be away like with his clean singing. He just has a super strong, like projecting, you know, metal type clean sing, which mine is more airy, like the Chino thing more in my opinion. That's how I see.
But no, it made for a cool contrast. And I'm just stoked that they did it. I still can't even believe it sometimes that I had them on my tracks. Who's next? I'm just kidding. Well, spoiler alert, I haven't had anyone else ask me to be on it. I thought you were going to drop something good there. No surprises. Yeah, usually spoiler alert has something fun after it. Spoiler alert, I'm going to... Spoiler alert.
I'm going to tank all of your expectations. But I mean, I'm always open. I love when people contribute things to my music, not just because it's people I listen to that I enjoy their music. It's just fun to get a different perspective. Like, that's why I like the Rosne stuff, because I would never write some of that stuff in a million years. But that's cool that it's challenging to me to write vocals over that music.
that I didn't come up with.
That's cool too.
It's like that grungy and a kind of post hardcore shoegazy sound definitely reminds me of 90s stuff.
So is it hard for you to take a backseat since you do everything else yourself and perform on something else somebody's written?
I think, well, that record.
So the grungy one, that's, I think there were like three songs on there that were songs I wrote.
There's a newer one we put out about a month ago that's all just barely in a guitar. It's very synth-heavy, post-punk, like, new order sort of sounding. That was not hard for me to take a backseat necessarily because I was busy with breath stuff, so I was kind of like, if you have ideas in a direction that you want to take it in, please do and send me the tracks. And I dug them and I put stuff over it. It actually is kind of a weight lifted off my shoulder because then there's no pressure for me to, like, write songs.
and do all these things that I'm kind of doing with breaths and
violescent at the moment. So it's, I don't know.
I don't know. Always a control freak.
No, only when I really want to be.
When you write, do you write music and then words or words and then music or both?
Usually music and then words. Occasionally I'll have a vocal melody that I'll put to music,
But I'd say that's one in a hundred times. It's not very out. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. It seems to be the prevailing trend in most bands. Yeah. I feel like my, I do have a singer that I used to work with who definitely would come to me with like, here's this vocal melody. I'm like, I don't know how to write to folk and I'll give it a shot. Um, I think that kind of taught me a little bit about how to do it. If I want to, I just don't usually have a vocal.
as easily as just like noodling around on guitar. So the music informs the path that the vocals will take. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Well, you've self-released a lot of your stuff, but you have worked with trepanation recordings on some breath stuff, and they picked up Roseneath. They did the CD and the cassette, and then also 30-something records put out the vinyl. I love 30-something records. I just found those.
a couple years ago. And I got the Orange 9mm liquid-filled vinyl from them, which was awesome. Yeah, I love that band, too. So, you know, what was it like for you to work with those labels and put out the physical releases, you know, having somebody else help you with that? It was cool. I mean, Dan at Trepanation was just, like, one of the nicest dudes. Just always helpful, always, like, ready to go.
Always positive. Just giving me feedback. And just very stoked on everything. Just super nice guy. Easy to work with. There was never any issues. I know he put the label to bed this year actually. And that's sad. But I know he's the bass player in Mastiff. So he's got that going. And he does a lot of other things. But yeah, it was great. I don't collect CDs myself or cassettes really. And those are like the formats.
they put it on so like it wasn't as exciting to me as like the vinyl release was
because I do collect vinyl but I mean it's a physical you know my art my music it's I have them all I
actually bought a tape deck and a CD like boombox tape deck just to listen to the stuff that I put out on different formats oh man it's hard to find a good tape deck nowadays I used to have tons of that stuff and got rid of it and now I have all these tapes and I don't have a good way to
play them anymore. What is mine? Mine's a, I think it's like a Phillips or, I can't read it from here. You know, go to like a Goodwill, Marcus, son. That's where you find that stuff. Good, good, good thought. Yeah, I want to check that out. And it's just fun, like hearing my, I don't know, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I like to listen to my own music. Honestly, first and foremost, I create the music for me to listen to. If I'm being honest, I'm like, what mood am I in? What do I want to listen to? And then I'll make it.
That's awesome.
I actually end up listening to my own records probably more than anyone else listens to my record.
I love that feeling.
I like listening to the tapes and CDs.
It's just like a different sound than, you know, the digital.
It's like the nice lo-fi tape deck.
I don't know.
That's fun.
That's great.
I mean, I don't blame you.
That voice is pretty sexy.
Yeah, the 30-something records.
I actually just randomly sent him an email. I think it's like one or two guys. This guy, Matthias, that I work with most of the time. I just sent him an email and didn't hear anything back forever. And then he just randomly wrote me back. He's like, this EP, our first EP. He was like, I love it. But, you know, let's see what the record is like. So I sent him the full length and he was like, let's put it out. It was a pretty seamless process. Good dude. He has a bunch of copies. I mean, I don't have any bad things to say.
about it. I love having it on vinyl. I love all the far and orange nine millimeter stuff he's put out. Appleseed cast. Far? I haven't heard that in a long time. They're my favorites. I love it. That's actually far as water and solutions taught me how to sing too along with. Oh yeah. Great album. Great album. Are we going to get any breaths on vinyl? Because I want that. You know label wants to put it out on vinyl. I'm going to have to put it out on my little label. It's not for lack of me.
I've had a few that are like, yeah, let's do it. And then it doesn't get done for whatever reason. Really? Just they lose interest or lack of like, they think it's a good timing and then it's bad timing. I think most of my records being, or two out of the four are, you know, over an hour. So it's a double LP right off the bat. And that kind of turns labels away. I only had one record that was this newest one. And my second one that were short enough to go on one LP.
So yeah, you're not writing for the record. You're just writing because until it's complete for you. Yeah, exactly. Whatever fits. I think I this new one I did kind of keep in mind like I wanted to keep it somewhere around 40 to 45 minutes and it just kind of worked out that way. I stopped. I just completed it. It was like 44 minutes. It was perfect. And it just happened that way. But no vinyl pressing yet. I've got the. I mean, I could put it out myself.
But honestly, I release, I write music so consistently. I've already almost got another record done. Oh, new record just came out today. I mean, done in the sense that like I have the songs written, drums recorded, like guitars tracked, but no vocals or anything. But I mean, it's mapped out. Our friend Trevor does that too, from Ashen Horde and Aporia. Okay. So what, you know, given that you can just come down into your little studio,
and record whenever you want to. What kind of output do you think you do in, say, a year? Whether you use it or not, how many songs do you think you would write? Well, I'll use 2022 as an example. So I put out a record with Breaths, which was the longest album title that I have. I don't even remember the title of the album, if I'm being honest.
I don't know if it's long. So I put out that record. That was like six songs. And I put out two splits, one which is the one that Chad Capper was on with this band called Dim Wind. And then that was like a 15 minute song. And then I put out another split with two Black Gaze bands, Wounds of Recollection and Day Graves. And that was two songs that were 15 minutes. So that's two albums worth of material in 2022. Plus I put out an ambient instrument.
That was, you know, another four tracks at almost an hour. So that was, I mean, that's two out. That's like three albums worth of material in that one year. And that's only what you released. Oh, and then I put out a Rosany's EP that year too. Yeah, I pretty much release everything I do. I don't show any songs. Okay. I don't believe unless I just scrap it entirely. But usually that's like a riff. Like I'll play a riff and say, that's not
I just hate to scrap songs because I feel like even deep cuts
someone could enjoy it I'm going to enjoy it someone else out there even if it's two people
might enjoy it I don't know I subscribe to the like if you want to give me more songs I'm not
going to complain about it yeah well it sounds like you're pretty prolific then
I'm a lot of boredom I guess yeah that's cool well this is your hobby it sounds like
Yeah.
Because you got the wife and kid and her kids. I don't know if you have multiple kids, but.
I do have two kids. I have a six-year-old and a four-year-old. And yeah, I think that's definitely my outlet. And I've been, I feel lucky enough to have, where like for four or five years, not consistently, I've been able to churn out this many songs that I'm happy with. So I'm just waiting for the time that like writers block and then that's it for a while. But, and you know, until I hit that point, I'm just going to keep going.
So that's awesome.
Well, and we've talked just offline about you doing other kinds of albums as well.
Like you really want to do a doom record, like straight doom.
Is that going to happen to you?
That was, well, I hadn't really started Violet Lesson, I think at that point.
I remember that conversation.
So I have the song, a straight, more doomy sort of monologue Paul Bearer song on that record I'm working on now,
which I will give some real spoiler alerts on this one. So it's basically
gays music like but all types like I've got a dune gays song a shoegays like new gays song a black
gays song like a put what I call post gays. So it's like pianos become the teeth post hardcore
meets shoegays like at the end. It's weird. And then I've got a drone gays song that's like a 14 minutes just like
somewhere between like drone and like sumac and then throw in some weird shoegaze it's so it's basically all over the place and i have one very doomy song is the point of that um but i think viola lesson does a lot of doom so i don't know if i'll do a straight up just doom record anymore as much as i don't think you can do anything straight you'd like to merge the different genres yeah i think if i even tried yeah you're right it just wouldn't it wouldn't
happen that way.
Is the next breath, you said you've written a lot of it, is it going to be
heavier or are you going to keep it in the same vein as the one that released today?
It does have a heavier stuff.
It'll have like a very like black aids like Deaf Heaven, older Deaf Heaven, very kind of like what I've also done in the past, heavy, fast, screamy song.
But then it also has a couple songs that are very in the vein of what I just put out.
But slightly different.
So I don't know.
I might write some more.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Well, one of the things I wanted to ask you when we were talking about vinyl,
and one of the reasons I want vinyl, especially for Florowit,
not just because I love the album, but because I love the artwork on it,
which was done by your wife.
It was.
She's done a couple of them.
Yeah, she has.
But I particularly like all her stuff, but I particularly like that one because it has that kind of sci-fi feel to it, romantic sci-fi. And so I just want to find out, you know, how that particular concept came about and, you know, what it means to you to have her be a part of your music on that album and previous works.
It's too late for this world. Humanity has doomed us. Our planets, everything now is just like the end times. It's very like hold hands at the end of the world sort of idea. I didn't want it to be too bleak, have some positivity, but there was a lot of anger there too because I was, I don't know, it was just a weird time. I was thinking about weird stuff and when I was getting in the headspace of like,
everything that's happening and happened in the last four years, just a lot of. Yeah. Yeah. From all the political stuff, the pandemic, I mean, it goes on and on. And then, you know, also thinking about, you know, climate issues and just planetary destruction just got me in a weird space. But then I found this artwork. I was like on unsplash or something. It was very like some old building that looked very,
sci-fi like the cover eventually turned out to be um and i use that as sort of a
reference for her and then she kind of built in the the people because you know i had that like
dreaminess to it it wasn't all bleak um so that the couple there on the cover was her idea
um and then she just made it prettier with flowers but still dark and still weird and sci-fi
I loved it so I mean it's it's nice to have her a part of stuff I like that she's you know as long as she's into it I sometimes she hears my ideas and she's like well I got my own thing going and that's totally cool so it was like I got the song idea and I didn't like it I'd be like yeah whatever but I like it when it clicks and she's into it and really gets to put herself into the art which you know has only happened a few covers but they're my favorite covers so or album covers
Yeah.
She's created a few.
It's my favorite.
Yeah.
That's pretty cool.
Hopefully she'll do some more.
We'll see.
She will.
She has a lot of her own projects going on.
She does like a blog.
She does like,
it's called mom's outside motherhood.
So she really like tries to focus on moms doing stuff.
That's not,
you know,
mother related,
whether it be like her last issue was all about music.
It's like mom rocks.
So it's like songs and albums that inspire different mother and mother adjacent figures. And it's a really cool little zine she does. She does a lot of like sticker design. So she has her own inspiration and fun projects. I like that because I have friends who have children. And a lot of times when we go out, that's all they talk about. And I understand because you, you know, you live for your kids, but it's nice to know that people do other things besides just that, that they haven't,
lost the things that they love, hobbies that they love, and still can go back to that.
I think at this point for me, it would be very hard to not be a musician. I tried to shut that off for too long. I mean, I still picked up the guitar occasionally, but nothing. I was a totally different person. I mean, I guess that allowed me to get my career to a point where it is now, and school done and all of that good stuff.
But yeah, I couldn't see myself not doing it at this point. It's, you know, it's not just that it's fun and a hobby. It's like, I don't know, my mind. It's part of you. Yeah, my mind and my heart just have, like, let's go write a song. Yeah. I mean, that kind of segues perfectly into what I was going to ask next is going all the way back, you know, when did you first start getting into music, playing music, and into heavy music?
My brother introduced me to heavy music when I was pretty young. I mean, he had me like, my brother was 14 years older than me, a half brother of mine. So he had me dancing on the bed at like, what my mom says at like four year old to like Van Halen and like Black Sabbath and like all the 80s stuff in the 80s. I know Black Sabbath wasn't from the 80s, but you know, anything heavy that was around in Metallica or whatever.
And then he just introduced me later, like Type O Negative
and White Zombie, or like early
from both those bands
early Sepultura
what else
and then he gave me like Stone Temple Pilots Purple
which I know is not metal, but got me into the whole
grunge scene
And also awesome
I actually talk about that on a song
that I have on my second record
I mentioned like
the first introduction to that music was purple in this song anyway it's in the lyrics um
and then yeah i just kind of forced my own path a little later with like new metal
i got into machine head from there and like the first corn album came out i was into that
um but really honestly when deftones adrenaline came out and i heard that for the first time
When I was like 13, something about that clicked with like the like brutal just intensity that he could put in it. Just like the very fragile, like beautiful, pretty side of it. I had never heard that before and done in that way. I don't know if it had ever been done in that way before. So I think that that album really did it for me. And then the rest just kind of blossomed from there.
The Band On Your Shirt was one of the big ones for me. I'm wearing an Earth Crisis shirt for people who can't see me, which is everyone. I got the OzFest, like 97 or something on VHS, and it had Vision of Disorder, Earth Crisis, and Neurosis, playing with all these other bands that I knew, like Fear Factory, Cold Chamber, Sepultura, but that opened me up to post-metal with Neurosis and that whole genre, and then Earth Crisis,
and vision disorder. I was like, I've never. And then Hatebreed and Snapcase and everything in the New York team from there. Yeah, I love all that stuff. I'm from Syracuse, New York. So yeah, I grew up with that stuff. We've talked about it a lot on the podcast because the hardcore was my through into metal. That's how I basically started getting into metal was through that hardcore, post-hardcore stuff. I love all that stuff too. And that from there, it grew into, that's how I got into,
Like the Emo Screamo stuff was from hardcore. Like I got into like Zayo and like all the, you know, Tooth and Nail record stuff like embodiment and then kind of moved over to like the Finch record and like the Used and Glassjaw. I think Glassjaw was a huge one. It kind of bridged that hardcore meets Screamo gap that I had never heard. And then to me, when bands like Under Oath or Under Oath, the Used, Glassjaw
All these screamo, emo, Jason bands, they came out. They all sounded like they loved the Deftones to me. They didn't sound like Deftones. They definitely had a punk influence that Deftones didn't have, but they definitely were not that far removed, in my opinion, from that. It's like an easy kind of thing. I think Deftones is really influential, but it's just hard to play that style, you know? So you take bits and pieces from it, which, I mean, they're one of my all-time favorite bands. Yeah, I mean, you've got bands,
have gone in directions like loath or any of those really like that style and then some bands take it and i don't yeah i feel i see it on all over the gamut of different genres and then and when did you start playing music did you pick up a guitar did you start singing how did how did that begin i picked i picked up an acoustic from a garage sale i think my mom was like why don't we get that for you and i was like 13 or no i was probably like 12 and i didn't really get into it too much
I took a few lessons. It just kind of felt like homework. Played around with it for a little while. But really, I remember I played hooky from school one day. I was sitting in my room. I was probably 13. And I was playing 46 and 2 by Tool. And my left and my right hand just clicked. I didn't have to think about what they were doing individually. They just worked together. And that was a pivotal moment to me, which is one of the albums that I was going to play.
to mention later. And some other questions. Spoiler alert. So yeah. Guitar first. I always loved to sing, but I was always too afraid to do it in a band. So I let other people do it and I played guitar. And now I'm not as afraid anymore. So. Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? No. So. Okay. This is a fun story.
I do remember the first song I ever wrote now, but I was taking guitar lessons in this small town in East Texas called Longview. It's a very tiny town. I don't ever want to go back. Sorry to anyone listening that lives there, but not coming back to Longview. I was in guitar lessons. There was an older guy in there with me. He wasn't the teacher, but he was so advanced. He was in high school at the time. He was advanced and kind of helped the teacher out. We did a guitar recital, and he played
Tools H along with me. He ended up, so his name is Monty Pittman, and he went on later to play guitar for Madonna, and then now he's in Ministry and Song. So he was like my guitar teacher's student who played an or signed it with me, but I wrote a song on an old cassette deck around that same time, very Tool-esque, just kind of hit play on the microphone.
I don't have a name for it. I don't remember what it sounded like, but that was the first song I ever wrote and put to tape around that 14. Do you still have it? Probably not. Clearly you've played shows. You've played with Slipknot and all those artists, but have you sung live? Given that you're a little
You know, nervous about it? One time. So I was the front man and guitar player once. The band, when I moved to Richmond, I joined and we ended up naming ourselves Conductor. We put out a little three song EP. I played one show. We actually opened up for a really cool band from Boston, Lesser Glow. I don't know if you're familiar. They're on Pelagic Records. Anyway, we opened up for them. It was the only show we ever played. We broke up shortly after. And I sang.
That one, we played three songs. It was fun. Back in the day when I played before I quit music forever for the first time, I just did backup screams occasionally and backup singing, but it was very minimal. It was only if the singer made me and I would be hesitant about it even then. So that one show, were you shitting bricks? I had practiced enough. I was okay with it. That's cool. It was nerve-wracking.
But hopefully
it's not as nerve wracking this next time. We'll see. Awesome.
I actually was supposed to have a breath show about a year ago.
Sorry,
I had been playing with a live band to perform live with breaths.
And then I got bronchitis like two weeks before the show and it was lingering,
getting worse.
So I had to cancel the show and then our drummer dropped out and he,
and so I was like,
all right,
Well, I'm not going to put in the work to find another drummer. And I just said, screw it. We're done with breaths live. And I went and talked to the guys that I'm playing with now in Violessa. And I was like, I want to go a whole different direction and do something else that's not breaths. And so, yeah. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because I remember you saying that you were going to do a live breath that was going to be a full band. So that that also imploded on you. Yeah, we that was the one we practiced for like six months.
We had a show booked. I guess we practiced for almost not quite a year, but we went through a couple drummers, finally found a drummer, had a show on the books. We're ready to roll. I got bronchitis and I couldn't sing. The drummer was like, well, I quit. I was like, okay, well. Thanks for playing. Bronchitis can be a bitch to get rid of, too. It's brutal. I've had it before. It lingered. The cough and stuff lingered for months.
I couldn't fully sing.
I started playing with Violess and I was like,
it's going to be a little while before I can sing.
It's rough.
When you get it bad, it's rough.
I'm saying.
Well, I'm glad you don't have it anymore.
Well, Breaths is your main project.
Do you think you ever try to get a band back together for that?
To play?
I think Violess went to the wayside at some point,
which I'm having a lot of fun and the other dudes are into it.
It's just a three-piece.
So it's me and a drummer and bass player. Then I'd probably do breasts. I don't really have the time to do both. I've thought about maybe like booking a show and just playing like really loud guitar versions of my songs, just guitar and vocals and no full band. But I don't know how people would receive that. I know other people that have done that and it's cool, but I don't know if I could pull it off. These are all just ideas that I have in my head. I mean, you got to concentrate on what you're working on now. So that's cool.
that you got viola lesson. I'm looking forward to hearing more of the songs. Thanks. Yeah, I'll actually, I'll send you after I've got another track. We just got signed off. I got signed off from the other guys last night. So that's good. So I'll send you that track. It's not out yet, but I've got it on a Google drive. Oh, very cool. Feel free to distribute. I don't care. All right. Well, so we talked about you putting out music pretty quickly. So you've got another breath album on the horizon. You got viola lesson.
It's gonna go live
You're gonna do that album
You got anything else?
Are you gonna do more Chandler?
I work with another guy on Chandler
He actually was in that band
Furthest from the Star
With me
He was the bass player in that band
And we've been friends for decades
Love him to death
But he moves so incredibly slow
When it comes to music
We put out a single
Like in 2023 I think
Maybe it was 2022
And it took
That song was in the works
For like two years
Which to me, for one song, is painful to do it that way. So unless he comes to me with, like, here's a new song idea that I have for Chandler, I don't think anything else will happen. Because I don't write music for it anymore. I did it first. But all the things that were going to be Chandler, I took and made the first Breaths record. Because I was, like, tired of working so slow. Like, I have a whole record done, and I'm just going to do it all myself.
You know, again, I love the dude. It's nothing against him. He just got a lot going on. He just works slower than I do. You have different styles of working. Yeah. It happens sometimes. He's very, like, just goes over the same thing and wants a perfect perfectionist. I get it. But I'm like, eh, let's just do the guitar track a couple times and pick the best one. Let's go. That's cool. Well, I was thinking about going to the three albums question, unless somebody else has got something else they want.
I want to ask Jason. Go for it. All right, Jason. So I sent you the question and that is what three albums would help people understand you better as a person and why? And I've mentioned two of them already. Um, Deftones Adrenaline cause it's the, it made me go from being a music appreciator to being passionately in love with making, listening to, and then eventually making music tools. I don't know how to pronounce it, but we all know the record I'm talking about.
I actually looked up how to pronounce it and Adam Jones said it was Anima. I don't know if I... I always say Anima. Yeah, I always thought it was Anima. I thought it was like a play on making Anima not sound like Anima. So now I feel like somebody just made an Adam Jones AI video. I don't know what to believe anymore. So we'll just call it Anima, Anima, Anima. That one because it taught me... I mean, it's still an amazing album, but it taught me how to...
and click and I was playing along the song so it really was influential in my guitar playing and music taste in general the other one is or the third one is a band called dredge oh I love dredge the album is LCLO it is my favorite album of all time nice and I say that yeah and I say that because I've since it came out in like 2001 I've listened to it consistently at least once twice a year ever every year since every time
I find something new that I didn't hear before, which is probably the record I've listened to the most out of any other record. And to still hear like some subtle little like chime or like guitar part that I didn't notice before for me, like that's crazy. Cause I usually, it's like, Oh, this guitar is panned over here doing this thing. And I hear this drum symbol, but they're just, they're very creative people and very nice people. I've seen them live like 20 times.
Yeah, I love that band. Man, I haven't listened to that in a while. My album for them is Catch Without Arms. That's the one after it. Yeah. That's an awesome one, too. Love it. Are they still making music? They haven't. Sorry, I dropped my shoe. They haven't in a while. They've been teasing a new album for the past few years, which you keep leading to answers to later questions. That's what I do. I dig out the truth, as George said. I think they'll.
Their last album that they released, I didn't get it at the time. I think I appreciate it more now. It's like Chuckles and Mr. Mace. Yeah, Mr. Bubbles. It was a terrible title for an album. Yeah, and the album, at the time when I heard it, I wasn't into it. I thought it was a pretty terrible album, too, which them being one of my favorite bands was very disappointing. But I get what they were trying to do now. But I hear they're supposed to be releasing something, hopefully, in the next year or two. Who knows? Very cool.
Very cool. Can we just pause and just talk about new metal for a while? We can do that, Matt. Nice. You know, you were talking and I was thinking of some shows I had saw. It was like Glassjaw, American Nightmare, Christensen, Blood Brothers. Really great show. And then I flashed back to like the Snowcore tour with like Glassjaw, Snapcase one year. I'm trying to think of who else was on it, but just such good shows. I kept wanting to say Vans. I'm like, no, that was the whole summer thing. I'm like, that's,
That was always nuts.
And just, you know, that was the time where one week I saw like Coheed and Hopes Fall. And then a couple days later, I would see like, I don't know, Thrice and Thursday. And like, yeah, they were. I just saw Thursday last year. And Hopes Fall put out an album a couple years ago that was really great, actually. Yeah, yeah. I remember that. That was a good album. I've always been a big fan of that band. And I love Snapcase, Progression Through and Learning. I still play, I still spin that regularly.
I actually really want to cover a snap case song. I've always wanted to cover a zombie prescription. Jason, I feel like you could do a whole album of covers because you've named a lot of influences, you know, from the 90s and stuff. That would be pretty good. I've got one planned that I was I was going to redo spoiler alert. I may or may not do this, but I really want to redo alien
I'd love to do a snap case song. I'd love to cover it. I mean, I did a cover of
an Our Lady Peace song and a Smashing Pumpkin song that I put out a few years ago. Both were like anniversary gifts to my wife. You're continually speaking my language. I think Matt, you, me, and Jason need to do a 90s podcast. That'd be awesome. I want to cover Sunday Day Real Estate. I'm going to see them in September. Oh, that's awesome. I'm actually, they're one of the bands on the top that I've never seen live, never
got the chance.
I love this because a lot of times we're on the podcast and,
and the boys are talking about like much older albums and they were geeking out about that.
And I love that because they have a lot more knowledge than me about some of the older ones.
But now we're talking about the stuff that's like really in my wheelhouse.
Get off my lawn with a guest.
And I love it.
All right.
I think we can go on to news or whatever's next,
George, T-shirt, beer check. T-shirt, beer check. T-shirt, beer check. T-shirt, beer check. All right. Well, Jason, as the guest, you get to do this first, even though you don't probably know what you're going to do. But all you have to tell us is what shirt you're wearing. And if you're consuming anything, it looks like maybe water. I am wearing a Yob shirt because, you know, it was awesome. And yes, it is water.
I tend to go with the CBD THC gummies at night and not drink so much anymore. So nice gummy at the moment and my water. What kind? What flavor? I have this company five. It's like Delta nine or whatever the hemp based THC is. Just they're like standard. I think it's pretty light. It's like five milligrams of THC.
I cut them in half. I'm a lightweight, but it takes the edge off at night and it helps me sleep and I love it. Nice. It's been all my life. My wife has those THC things and I don't think they do anything to me. Like 50 milligrams or something. That would be a lot. She's got a 25 and she's got 50. You sure it's not just CBD? You sure it is THC? Mine has 25 of CBD, but then it's got like five of THC.
I agree that CBD probably does nothing but
yeah I don't know I don't know anything about that
she's just like I have these things you should try
them like alright
I mean I used to have really bad reactions
to smoking when I was younger
so I just stayed away from that
from WIDA in general
and then I tried these a couple
years ago and
I just I don't know
it's very controllable I know exactly how I'm
going to feel I don't wake up with a headache
no hangovers like I still drink
But not very often like I used to. I tend to get headaches. Anyway, sorry. I've taken this in a long way. That's what we do here. It's the cast. All right. Well, I have water flavored water. And then I'm also drinking, what is this? It's called Exposure by Nightmare. And it is an Imperial IPA.
Nightmare always has the most metal artwork. Is that like hologram? Holographic? No, it's just metallic. I think it's just showing up that way. It has like a metallic feel, but there's a screaming face for you. Yeah, I like it. And then, as we mentioned before, I'm wearing an Earth Crisis shirt. It's got Ghost Rider on it, so it's got comics and it's got, and it says, the wicked shall burn.
So I liked it so much I got two. As a comic fan, like Ghost Rider was a big one for me in the 90s as well. So pretty cool shirt. And to love Earth Crisis, like I was saying before, that's one of the seminal bands for me growing up. So even though I'm not really into, I mean, I like animals, but I'm not an animal rights activist. First time I heard Broken Foundation on that live video, I was like, holy shit.
I love Gamora's Season Ends. It's like a whole album. It's been that so much. I've been turning people on to that because they didn't know about that one. I think it's by far their best record. That's my favorite from them. That's the first one I heard. It's still my favorite for sure. Well, it's the one that I really kind of incorporates more metal, but it's not metalcore, I guess. It's like the early days when you were doing metal and hardcore together was so good. And then there was a period where it
It wasn't as good. Yeah. I kind of like when they went new metal for a minute. Did Slyther? No, no, no. You're off the cast. There's like rap on that. It's awful. It's not my favorite. I actually like Machine Head's Burning Red. So anyway. Matt. I'm drinking some 2024 version of Surly's Barrel Age Darkness.
It's really good.
And I've got my Cannibal Corpse shirt on, which I bought at their show last fall.
All right.
John, yeah.
So I'm wearing a Paradise Lost Medusa Tour shirt.
Everyone has probably seen me wear it before because we only do this podcast every so often.
It just seems like it just cycles onto the same shirts all the time.
And I really don't give a shit.
It's just easier.
My beer.
Markazan said Nightmare makes the most metal labels.
Well, I will take that up one step and say that I'm drinking some True 12. And this is cool because it's got like, you know, burning candles and it just looks like skeleton ribs and holding a beer and a scythe, which is always cool. But this is 12. It's a cold IPA. I don't normally drink cold IPAs, but I didn't want anything heavy. And we actually got True at our local place. I was like, well, I was just going to ask John. It's like True True?
It's actually, it's Truvy. Yeah. Okay. Brewing company from. I've never seen their beer around here. That's why I got it. You know, it's a cold IPA and it actually tastes more like, or drinks more like a lager, which is fine. I'd like to try that. Cause they're, I mean, they do so many sours and I'm not, I'm just not a big fan of sours. Yeah. I'd like to try that. Just something different. And you know, we have our little mini connection to them. So.
I always like to drink their stuff. Right, right, right. Well, John is wearing his Paradise Lost shirt and I am wearing my Never Get Lost shirt, the yellow. There it is. Carcass shirt. Can't get too many yellow t-shirts. And I just finished eating my vegetarian burger, so I'm going to get some blue bottle coffee going here. I know. I am wearing my new Ramones Mark 4 shirt. Mark 4 because every 10
I need to get a new one. And this is the fourth time I've done it. It's the classic presidential seal. And yeah, one of my favorite brands. So and then I started off with Kings County Brewers Collective. Squirrels Just Want to Have Fun. A double dry hop hazy IPA with crazy squirrels on it.
What's awesome is Cindy Lauper, I think she's doing a final tour this year because the captain told me. That's right. My buddy the captain is going to it. Yeah, I wanted to go to that too. Then I just poured Resident Culture Lightning Drops IPA. I'm not going to lie, I got it because it looked kind of metal. It's got an 80s feel to it a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. It's kind of like, it's kind of Markisan's shirt, you know.
The same color scheme going on there. There's a little
skull dude on a motorcycle.
It kind of goes right here.
Alrighty then.
Now it's time for John
to take the center stage.
Alright.
So Jason, just bear with me for a little bit.
I just love this is going on already.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, fair enough.
By the way, did everybody get their postcard yet?
No.
Okay.
You still have a chance, I gotta believe. Yeah, my team like last week. Exactly the same, dropped in the box at the same time. Jason, Jay went to Mexico and sent us all postcards, but this was like, oh, like two months ago, a month ago? Probably two months ago, and yeah. Jay, I think I got mine first, didn't I? I believe you did, sir, yeah. Which is crazy, because you always get mail laid, God. Where are you? I was sold. I was like, don't put too much faith
the Mexican Postal Service, but they did deliver, to be fair. They got it done. And Will got his, too, so we're at, what, three for five now? Yeah. Where did you go to Mexico? What's that? Where in Mexico did you go? We went to Mexico City and Guadalajara. Okay, cool. Yeah, Mexico City's just great. It's like this international, it really is like being in Europe in a way. And then Guadalajara is like the cultural home of
The Mexican rodeo and
The
There's traditional Mexican music and stuff so
You know just went and did all that
It was a blast
I like I like Mexican
I've never been
Yeah it was our 30th wedding
Nice
I've only been once but it was to like an all-inclusive resort
Outside of Cancun so
Yeah Cancun doesn't count
Authentic yes
Yeah yeah I think you kind of got to get to the interior of the country
to really feel Mexico.
But yeah.
I don't like old stuff.
I prefer New Mexico.
I've been there.
I've been to New Mexico and I do not prefer New Mexico.
Well, I haven't been to old Mexico, so I guess I can't really have an opinion.
But I love Santa Fe.
Yeah, Santa Fe is cool.
I've only driven through there.
I've moved across the country like four times.
So I've driven different directions.
Not on tour, but moving. Why'd you move so much? I moved from Austin to Connecticut because of a job. I moved back to Austin because the person I was with at the time didn't want to live there, and I got tired of hearing about it, so we just moved back. I moved to Seattle a year later because I don't remember why. Did you like grunge? It wasn't even my idea to move to Seattle.
I wanted to go visit and then decided we wanted to live there and I had another office in Seattle that I could move to so just moved there and then so you did it all for a girl well she was my she was my wife at the time not my first wife and then we split and in Seattle and then I eventually like the winters got to me up there
I just realized you've got Nick Offerman's eyes. In a jar on your desk. Here they are. Doesn't he look a little bit like Nick Offerman? No. Nick Offerman's eyes and the voice of an angel. He's got Marlon Brando's eyes so that he can see California. You can't see California without him. He does kind of have a Nick Offerman look, Jay. Now I can't.
All right. We interrupted John's launch into statistical. So let's, let's go back to that direction. It's really not that exciting, but it's an abbreviated version anyway, because it's the mid-year and it does a lot of work to put it together. And I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I didn't have as much time because it's my busy time for work right now for the next two, three months.
So, anyway, so every year, as I was saying, Jason, you'll have to bear with me, is I put together just some stats because I actually work in statistics, even though there's actually no statistical work being done here other than adding and subtracting. That's about it. Statistics for babies. But we just put together, we like to put together some numbers on how our lists go every year. We just did our mid-year.
episode.
So we all present 25 records and then
John finds trends.
Yeah.
And what it started out was, is that we put together our combined top 25.
That was what we were trying to do.
It's going way back.
And it's just kind of morphed into other stuff.
There's awards now and everything.
Jamie have contributed to the first award indirectly or unknowingly.
And it's morphed from there.
So let's run through real quick so we can move on. So there's 25 on each of our lists. We had 85 different albums this time, which was kind of nice. It was less than what two years ago we had over 100, which was a real pain in the ass to keep track of. But it came down a little bit. And they're from 21 countries and 52 different labels. So we really crossed the gamut, even though it's like, unfortunately for the countries for us is like that meme world tour. Have you ever guys ever seen that?
Meme says bands going on a world tour and it just shows North America, Europe, and like Australia and Japan as the world tour and the rest of the globe is completely like grayed out or looks like the ocean. So that's sort of our country. We don't venture much outside of the U.S. and Europe, but we get around a little bit. So in terms of albums, the most albums, specific albums from a country, the U.S. always,
We always have the most from US bands. But the last few years, the United Kingdom, specifically England, we've had a lot. And they took the top spot for non-US albums with 10 albums, eight from England and two from Scotland. I break out the countries in the United Kingdom. I'm a football fan. Just had the Euros on. I literally watched, I can't even tell you how many games I would watch Euros in the afternoon and then I'd watch Copa America in the evening. So I've watched a lot of games.
But then it's the usual suspects after that. We had seven albums from Germany, six from Canada, and five from Norway. So it's the usual suspects almost every year. In terms of, we have two, like, they're becoming awards indirectly. It's who has the most albums from the United States on our list, and who is the most anti-United States, or the
Global Citizen.
America Fuck Yeah Award.
Yeah, so we'll go to the America Fuck Yeah Award.
And this year it's going back.
Actually, it's...
No, actually it is.
It's leaving.
I thought you had it last year, Jay, didn't you, for the year-end, I think?
I believe I did, sir.
Yeah.
And I think Will is who it usually belongs to.
Yeah, it usually belongs to Will, and Will has regained his title back.
He is the America Fuck Yeah guy.
15 albums from the US, which is probably all death metal albums. And Jay went from America, fuck yeah, at the year end to now he's not so much into the US. He's a global citizen. Oh, damn. Yeah. Nice. So 11 different countries. So congratulations to everyone on your soon to be awards that we don't keep track of. We do at the end. Yes. So for the labels, the labels is really actually kind of hard to keep track of because a lot of bands,
and Jason, you probably know this, you can release on multiple labels depending on the format. You know, if you're going to release tapes, it would be one label. If you don't release anything but digital and a tape, and then later on you release on CD or vinyl, that could be a completely different label. Sometimes that happens where we get the same album on different labels when we do these. So I kind of dialed back the labels just a little bit because it can be a little hard to figure out which one's the right one to choose. They're both correct, you know, when you get them because they're both different.
formats. But to make that long-winded part shorter, in terms of what labels put out the most albums for us this year, 20 Buck Spins back at the top, and five albums from them already this year. And I suspect we're going to have a lot more. Nuclear Blast also five. Then we had four from Prosthetic, Metal Blade, Century Media. So again, a lot of the usual suspects. We didn't have many self-released albums this year. We only had five, which in the past we've had sometimes like
15 or 20 total on all the albums. It's only five so far. Happens. So I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. You know, if it's good that bands are on labels, if they get distribution or, you know. Is this just on the combined top 25, John? Yeah. Okay. That's it. Not many. Maybe it means we're not looking hard enough. Or it's just a year when everything comes out. I feel like I have a lot, but, you know, it's the combined.
So yeah, so
Well, no, I mean
I could tell you later if you want, but
I'd have to pull up it. I don't have it up right now. So I want all the stats John give them to me
I don't mean I'll think about it
All right, let's get on to the podcast love connection if you guys remember chuck woolery and the love connection show
So we got two things we got this thing called get a room
Who's who's loving each other on the list and then we got the cosmic future faction, which?
That's always going to be the same two people on that. And it is again. So the get a room. Markisan and Matt had 10 albums on each other's list. Nice. Hold on. Slow down. Matt and Jay also had 10 albums on each other's list. Wait. We're not done. Jay and George had 10 albums on their list. So there's quite the foursome going on there. It's going to be a weekend thing. I think George and I also had an unusual amount of things with him.
count of each other. Yeah. You guys do a lot. And as per usual, the cosmic future faction is Will and John. So four arms on each other's lists that match. The nemesis. I'm surprised it was four. We wouldn't have it any other way. So Jason, so Will, I mean, Will likes a lot of things. Everybody likes a lot of things, but Will really likes that mutant potatoes death metal. John is a progressive metal guy. So they don't always. So you don't know.
That's just what it is. With so many progressive death metal bands out there, though, there's got... There is overlap. I don't like those as much, though. The minute somebody sings, like, one verse that's clean, that whole album's shit, he doesn't want to hear it, it's garbage. I love you, Will. I love you, Will. We love you, Will. Yeah. It's all for fun. All right, let's get to the awards. That's really the more fun part, and we've got, actually, a few. All right, so the...
Yeah, Wilson's. All right, let's start at the bottom from the fewest Wilson's and we'll work to the top. Do you want to explain what Wilson's are to Jason? Yes, I'm going to. So Wilson's developed from, if you remember in the film, I can't remember the name of the film. Castaway. Castaway, yeah. Remember Wilson, the volleyball floating in the ocean by itself? Yep. Yeah, so if you have an album that's on your list that nobody else has, it's considered a
Wilson.
Because you're out there by yourself.
Yeah, because you're on an island by yourself.
That's how it started.
And we just started yelling it.
Kind of like number nine.
And it's just.
There's so many things.
We just started yelling.
We just started yelling.
That's basically the podcast.
Don't ask the truth is I don't know who yelled Wilson first.
It's just gone.
I think it was George.
Yeah.
Oh, George, you had the.
Didn't you have a soundbite for it?
I did.
Back in the day.
Yeah. All right. So let's, so that's what the Wilsons are, or we call them volleyballs, whatever you want to say. So we'll start at the bottom. Jay, you had seven volleyballs. Wow. So I was at the bottom. Okay. That doesn't surprise me though, since I had 10 records in common with two different people. Yeah. So you are at the very bottom. And you did on the year end last year too. You had a lot of stuff in common with people. Oh yeah. Yeah. I will say the volleyballs are down. And I think that's because there's fewer albums, obviously. Right.
So I take that back. Jay, you're number two. George has the fewest number of volleyballs. His was six. Jay is seven. No, it was six and seven. Okay. See? And there again, one number only for each other. Right. We are adjacent. Adjacent. Adjacent. That's bad. Matt, you had eight volleyballs. Yes. And Will, who's not here, had nine volleyballs. However, we do not have a clear-cut winner,
because we have a dual tag team winners on the volleyballs. Markisan it. John had 10 volleyballs. Not that many because like in the past people have had like 14 or 15. Yeah, it's almost half though. Since you guys tied on volleyballs though, I think we should call that the get separate rooms aboard. You're close, but you know. We have an adjoining door between the rooms. I feel like that's becoming a pattern though, like you and me having
The most, John? You got it last time, I think. I won it last year. Yeah, and I think Will was one off from you last year. I didn't have that many last year. For the year-end, that is. All right, so we have another award, our podcast, Clairvoyant. It's pretty obvious based on what we've been saying. Well, maybe it's not. The Clairvoyant went to Jay. He had 16 albums in our top 25. So when we come up with our combined list, you know,
who has the most albums that shows up in our combined top 25 16. george and matt at 15. uh well mark is out of 12 and i only had 10. so i think i could save you guys some time and i could just write the year end list that's no problem or it's or like i said jay you somehow have you know kind of burrowed in on our laptops and you're just basically you're stealing checking out what we're listening to he copies our homework well it's funny because i hit my
What we're listening to this time is everybody's lists of the stuff I didn't know. I spent all the time. That's absolutely true. I love this. When we pass, I'm like, holy shit, this made their blast. I need to be. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So now we get to the most important award of them all, which is the Jay Award. And the Jay Award started because I believe Jay did not have chemists on his list one year. And we somehow turned it into a noun slash verb. Went from the Jay Award to being Jade.
And more specifically, what it is, was it torpedoed that record from somehow holding the number one spot. Yeah, it did. We call that a J. If everybody else has high esteem for something and you don't even put it on your fucking list. You J that. What an asshole. And the funny thing is, is I probably have the most J awards, if anybody, on the podcast. Yeah, it hasn't really been the J for a long time.
a real long time. Well, it only is when a chemist album comes out. That's right. Oh, I can't wait for their new record. We're only going to torpedo the shit out of that one. All right. So we have five this time, which is, I think that's the most we've ever had. Yeah. So let's just get to it. High on Fire, Come with the Storm. What is it? I don't know the album. That's right. That's right. Because I didn't even, because I got the J Award for that. I didn't even listen to it. So I like High on Fire, but I just, I don't know.
I don't really get and don't like you guys. So I didn't listen to it this year. So that's Jay Award number one. Jay Award number two. Judas Priest, Invisible, a.k.a. Invincible Shield. That album got Torpedo from the number one spot, thanks to Markisan. Markisan. I'm the asshole. Yeah. Yes. The Hamish here is me. All right.
J-Award number three, Lord Dying, Clandestine Transcendence. Will gets the J-Award for that one. All right, let's not stop there. J-Award number four, Lacrotte, Lifeless Birth. George, come on down, baby. You're getting a J-Award. Thank you. Thank you very much. And then the last one, Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God. John gets a second. John gets that one, yeah. So good.
I'll be the truest J on the list too because Ulcerate was really high with a few of us. Yes. So I didn't torpedo it on purpose as I told you guys when we had the mid-year. I was really sick for that. J's not always intentional. Yeah, I didn't do it on purpose. I did try to listen to it but I was so sick for about two weeks before the mid-year and it just it's just a death metal. I think he did it on purpose so he could have a double J. He got a double J. That's yeah, that's what I wanted to do.
Can I say the High on Fire record though? I wasn't into it High on Fire that much at all. The new one or just them in general? Until this one. Them in general until this one. I feel like it's lower and doomier, which is what I'm into. Less thrash, which I'm not as much into. And the production is just a step up from anything they've done. I don't know. Maybe it was the right place
Right Time for me, but man, I love it.
What was it that produced it? Is it Kurt?
Kurt Blue? Is that?
Blue, yeah.
I think I probably hit a hand in it, but yeah.
I saw him live a few weeks after that record came out for the first time as well, and man, I would definitely not sleep on that album, and I'm usually not one of them.
Not that I ever disliked them.
I just, it was indifferent.
They're amazing live, though, too.
Which is funny, because I may have seen them the most of anybody on the podcast, which is really funny, because I saw them when they turned with,
and I don't know how many shows I saw on that tour. And I've seen them then subsequently after that I don't know how many times. And I'm just like, I like them. I just never bought anything. That's kind of a weird bill. Oh, it was insane, that bill. Yeah, it was crazy. So we have nothing to add to our album of the month Hall of Fame. So it stays at two. That was a new thing I added because we finally got another album to add to that. But of all the times we've been doing this,
So this album Hall of Fame, whatever you want to call it, album of the month, is when each month we pick our album of the month only twice. And this only goes back to when Markisan joint, we've kept it. But I think that's probably it didn't ever happen before that either. It didn't now. We've only had two albums, two molds, Planetary, Clairvoyance, and Horrendous's Anthological Mysterium. The only two times that all six of us had it as our album of the month. So that I imagine will stay.
that for a long time.
I was going to ask you,
John,
for stats,
was Crypt Sermon the only album on the mid-year list where we all had it on our list?
There's got to be a few other ones.
Because I feel like it's the only one that had all six of us.
All right,
bear with me for a second.
But I'm not sure about it.
Hold on.
I still don't agree with the numbering on that one.
There's no way the Crypt Sermon beat out Judas Priest when Judas Priest had two number ones and a number two. You're more than welcome to review my work, George. I object. I'm fine with it as I object to Judas. Actually, as I look through the list here, I can totally believe what you just said. I don't see anything that I feel like we all said. I believe it's the only one we all six had on our list, but I don't do stats.
Give me a second. I just gotta sort. All right. The other thing is, I think it's really interesting what Jason said about High on Fire because we all have different kind of takes on it. George had it on his list, but he's not a big fan of the production on it. But Jason really liked the production on it. And I've had all the High on Fire albums on my top 25 since they started. High on Fire is a band that you could ask any fan what their favorite record is and everybody will name something different. Yeah, I think that's cool. Seriously, they're not a commonly, like,
Everybody names, you know, Screaming for Vengeance or something.
It's interesting because I don't, their albums are slightly different each time around, you know, and Jason kind of proved that because he wasn't that into it. And here's this one. It's a little bit different and it gelled with him. So, but this one didn't gel with me as much. It's on my list. I don't know if it's going to make it at the year end because I don't like it as much as some of the other albums or most of the other albums.
And I think Matt Pike took to heart some of the things that we, Jay and I said to him in Vegas as we became best friends. I'm just really like, hey, why don't you up the production on this one? Make it more do me. I appreciate that because, you know, now I'm a fan and obviously who would have been me as a fan of the guys. He's like, I can't take a picture with you, but I can definitely change what our albums sound like.
I mean, I foresee Matt Pike guesting on a breath album now. Yes. I wish. In the books. I mean, I've even regardless of my indifference or not indifference, I always thought High on Fire was awesome. I just wasn't as into like thrashier stuff for a while. I don't typically like anything that's fast anymore. I don't know why.
unless it's ambient or like avant-garde death metal like Ulcerate. But Sleep, I mean, Sleep's a band that I've been to for a long time. I know he doesn't sing in that, but he plays guitar in Sleep. And he's got legendary status at this point. Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry, George. I just want to answer Jay's question.
And my question. To follow up on that, I think we need a new award for when we all have an album on our list. It's called the Circle Jerk Award. Not bad, George. I have to know if my number one for mid-year made it on any of your lists. The new Thou record, did that make it on anyone's list? Matt had it on his list. Yeah. I love that record.
I love Thou. It's been on my list before. I just didn't spend enough time with it. That's why we always have year-end and we have a little bit more time to spend these records. So I do like it, but yeah, it wasn't on my list. I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say I feel like it's more brutal. It just punched me in the gut. I feel like they always do that, but this one in particular,
I was always a much bigger Thou fan in general than I would say have been High on Fire. The new record was like even more of what than what I expected from Thou. I feel like they're always doing so many collaborations or just albums that are, you know, grunge covers or things of that nature. And I love all of that. But to me, this was like a return to form and brutal. I mean, it just tore my face off. And so some of those songs have kind of gravitated.
into my daily playlist.
And as soon as they start playing, I'm like, oh, God, I love this album.
Like, if I'm driving, I almost pull over and just say to myself, I love this album.
So, yeah.
I think, I mean, I really like Thou.
I've liked almost all their albums.
But then they did the collab with Emma Ruth Rundle.
And I don't think anything is going to top that with Thou.
And so this album is kind of a come down to me a little bit.
And so I think maybe I have to get back in the mode of thou as just the band thou instead of doing that collaboration. I did love that one and the one they did last year with Ms. Moore. Yeah, it was a good one too. Yeah, but yeah, especially the Emerald Ronda one that was top two. I think it was my top, I think it was my number two album that year. No, I think it was number two that year. Pretty sure it was number two, Markson. Yeah.
They did an album and an EP that year, right? It was just like leftover stuff. Yeah, because you could order the vinyl and then get the EP with it, which I did. Yeah, and both of those were fantastic. All right, let's move on to the news.
I'm going to switch things around a little bit just because I didn't order it very well. All of them but one are upcoming albums, so I'm going to start with the Tenacious D debacle. I don't really know that there's a whole lot to say about this other than what the hell. I don't know.
So, as most people know, somebody took a shot at Trump the other day, and Kyle Gass, during a concert, made a comment that apparently lots of people took offense to. And as such... I don't even know if that many people took offense to it, though. Well, enough people did, apparently. And so I don't know if it was a joint effort or if it was Jack Black's decision, but they came back.
canceled the rest of the tour. Yeah. Um, I didn't spend all that much time reading into it though. It, it did seem to make national news. Um, but, uh, pretty big news, George. I mean, uh, there was threats to having them deported from Australia. Yeah, I know. That's crazy. So that's a little, that's a little extreme, but whatever. I'll say one thing about this. It was incredibly stupid. I feel this way, no matter who's on the receiving end of the assassination attempt, I don't care.
I don't care what party they're from. I'm not dragging this. It's incredibly stupid to do that because you're going to get blowback, which was obvious because he got dropped from his, I don't know, it was his PR agent or PR. They dropped him immediately. So yeah, I mean, it's. I'm curious if there's friction between them about this or whether I wondered about that too. But that's my biggest concern, honestly, because those guys have known each other forever. And I would hate to think that that would cause a rift.
Well, ironically, the very next day, and I don't follow these guys, but it must have just been trending, but on Facebook, the Tenacious D Facebook page wished him happy. It was his next day. It was his fucking birthday. Right. Which was the whole point. That was the whole point. It happened during his birthday, yeah. And they put kind of a, oh, that's right. He was getting it. Yeah, it happened because, yeah. And, well, so now, okay, now you're making me wonder if that post predates or post dates.
the situation.
Because it was just a very loving post.
Happy birthday to.
Ask the situational paradox.
I will say this.
Just from my point of view.
The controversy, whatever.
I don't know.
I mean, it was.
I agree with.
I think John stated it perfectly.
I don't want to dance in anybody's grave.
And.
But it was a dumb move no matter what.
That's just bad planning.
And.
Poor choice.
Poor choice.
And it might assume too much that the rest of the world thinks like you. Maybe not a good thing to do. But I'm willing to admit that my reaction, and it's not a terrible reaction to Trump's, to the shot, was he's going to be such a prick about this. Like, we're never going to hear the end of it, you know what I mean? And that was like, literally, I mean, that's so just me, like, I can't stand headlines. And I thought, Christ, why did somebody shoot at him?
Yeah, well, you know, he did the whole, like, fist raise thing, and now everybody is wearing stuff on their ear. I'm like, that's a little much. Come on, stop milking that. That's too much the other direction. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Anyway. All right, let's move on to something else. So, by the way, Jason, you want to jump in on anything, and I don't blame you for not touching that one. Don't wait for us to invite you. You're going to have to just jump in. Just throw a few elbows in.
Yeah, and please do.
I absolutely will on any other topic but that one.
Yeah, a smart choice.
Some fences are good to sit down.
I can't believe you guys are already down to the tenacious D.
No, no, no, we started there.
We started there.
Oh, you did, okay.
Now we can get the bad taste in our mouths for the rest of the news.
Yeah, and all the rest of them have to do with upcoming albums.
So, Trypticon is working on a new album that will hopefully come out in 2025.
I'm not going to hold my breath. I've been holding my breath for a couple years on that one. But they have made that. Even Hannes said something. So that's a very good sign. It's on. Yeah. That's what he basically said. He said it's on. Well, I mean, the actual story is that they're going down. Is it Hannes' studio? Or did they go to a studio? I thought one of them. I wouldn't be surprised if it's his.
But if he's saying he's going to play drums on an album, you know for a fact he's going to play drums on a new album. They're going to do the songwriting and arrangement sessions at Zurich. And then they go to another guy's recording at Santora's studio. The guitar player guy. Oh, okay. Okay, there you go. Tom takes his time. That's for damn sure. Yeah, but they made the official announcement. The band made the announcement. Everybody in the band is talking about it. So it's fucking up.
And they have an actual photo. It's definitely absolutely gonna maybe happen. I'll say this. I'm gonna side with George and say, we're probably pretty lucky if we see it in 25. I believe they're moving forward, but Tom, I'm slow. Yeah. Or meticulously, I should say. I mean, at this point, I just, even if it's another year, I don't care as long as we get more trypticon. Yeah. Because we've been waiting anyway, so we're getting it. Yeah, it has been.
When did Melancho Casamara come out? 2014. That would have been a lot of people's number one or two when we did the 150th episode. It's interesting too because in the announcement they mentioned that these songwriting sessions are taking place exactly 40 years after Celtic Frost commenced work on their debut, Morbid Tales.
for some reason. I thought it was 40 years from that. No, it was Morbid Tales. Morbid Tales, yeah. Get it right, Jay. Sorry, my bad. All right, next up, Chat Pile has announced their new album, Cold World, out October 11th. I know I'm the only Chat Pile fan here, but let's get you guys. I'm looking for it. You like them too? I love it. I already pre-ordered the vinyl and bought a shirt. Sweet. There you go. There's a song out, isn't there, George? Yeah, that's awesome.
I think there's a, or no, that's the, that's another one. Yeah. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but. I love the topics they sing about. I love the fact that they play new metal and then like do some weird, like spoken word, angry, something over it. That reminds me of like a weird Mike Patton. And it's like. Yeah. Whoa. Wait a second. A weird Mike Patton. No, I mean, cause you've got some, like, I don't know. My patent is never normal.
But you've got your faith in the more stuff that's like the radio stuff that's more. Yeah. And then Mr. Bongo. I wouldn't say it sounds like, to me it sounds like Beck. It sounds like Beck mumbling stuff about living outside and there's some sludgy riffs. Whatever. Yeah, I feel like I don't like that. Mike did some spoken word on the Dillinger EP, I feel like. Yeah. That's why I remember. I don't remember what that Dillinger EP was called. It was like my favorite. One of my favorite Dillinger
What was that called? Yeah, I'm totally spaced on the name, but I feel like there's a song on there where he does some spoken word, and that kind of reminded me about it. But yeah, I hear like an angry back or something. I don't know. I just love Chatfile. I'm going to throw a grenade into this conversation really quick, because I've always kind of held this close to my chest, but I'm going to say it now, and I'd like to apologize in advance. I really can't stand Mike Pett. Get out of here. I don't like, I think he's pretentious. I don't.
And I can really deal with pretentious music, but Mike has got a chip on his shoulder. And by the way, I saw them perform one time on the big one, the first big record. And it was amazing. It was so good. Like, I was blown away. But then he just kind of went on to kind of, it's like Primus. I just, I don't understand how somebody can sit and just like listen to Primus. I find it so not interesting. And I apologize to all of you who feel opposite. But I've never said those things out loud.
this podcast is.
Well,
proud of your truth.
I definitely agree with you on the primus thing.
Um,
I I'm indifferent about Mike Patton.
I don't,
I'm not a Mike Patton fan boy by any means.
I just really like a couple of things that he does occasionally.
And actually that's more accurate to how I feel.
Um,
the mystique of Mike Patton is better than the actual,
I'll buy that. And yeah. Okay. Interesting then. Okay. Cause I thought we, I thought we might've had a couple of Mike Patton devotees here, but okay. That, then those are, I think realistic. No, I mean, no, you're fine. Jay, we're not canceling the tour. We're still friends. Good. Okay. Representing you as your agent. It's funny when you, when you go to make a statement like that and you think you're being,
It's like saying, like, I don't want to shock you guys, but I'm coming out against the Vietnam War. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I mean, it was a little pretentious. To be honest, I mean, I don't agree with you, but it's your opinion. So knock yourself out. Well, George held his tongue. I appreciate that. Well, I'm not I'm not that big of a Patton fan, but I do like the stuff he does. So, yeah, Jay, if he's not the hell I'm going to die on. Jay, if I told you every single hot take I had.
We would need X number of episodes.
I just choose not to.
It's so funny.
I have so many.
And it's not even worth bringing them up.
We should just have a little journal you keep.
Trust me.
I've wanted to do a hot take top five forever.
But try to make it fun, not make it vicious.
Because I've got vicious hot takes also.
Well, Jay can cross out Mike Patton on his list.
Yeah.
It would be an honorable mention though. I feel like I got that off my chest now. I just came out of the closet. James seems kind of liberated there. I do. I appreciate it. He might actually drink with us tonight. Got anything else, buddy, that we can be like, meh, too? George, is that everything you wanted to say about the chat, Paul, or do you have more? I'm good. I'm ready to move on. Can I just say one thing? Yeah, yeah. No. Can I just say that irony is a dead scene? And also the name of the album we're thinking of? There you go. Thank you.
Like the Dillinger and Mike. With Mike. I think it was after Dimitri left and before the other guy who is now not with him. But I'll get a whiteboard. Aren't they done completely? I thought they called it a day. Well, but they did a like super recently. They did a reunion with Dimitri. I think it was just like some one off shows, but I could be wrong, which I usually am. But they did that first album.
in its entirety I think with him. Hey by the way speaking of one off when is the first Slayer thing? The Chicago thing? Yeah when is the? Not in Chicago. Isn't that Ritefest? But then there's what's the other one? I can't remember what the other one is. Oh but did you hear? I haven't decided if I'm going to go because it's like a hundred dollars and then if you get I like to
get the VIP because you get this special area where you can sit and air conditioning. It's like $150. All the metal acts are on that same day and Sunday. So I'm kind of on the fence because I've seen Slayer so many times. But I think John was about to say that. There might be more shows. Kerry King's already said. Since he's open to Europe. Europe. Here it comes. A full-blown tour in like two years. I'm going to top my money I know.
Hey, if you're going to tour Europe, you might as well do a new album. Here it comes. Here's the thing. I've never liked Slayer. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, but you know, Mastodon is playing Leviathan in full at Riot Fest, I think. And they're playing it here as well. With Kerry King. With Kerry King. And honestly, I've never liked any of those bands, so I don't even know why I'm going. It's awesome.
I love Leviathan.
We all do that.
Can I do a Slayer hot take?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do it.
Growing up and getting into metal,
I came into Slayer after hearing things like Cannibal Corpse,
Six Feet Under,
like all the other bands I mentioned.
And I just couldn't get into Tom Rye's voice.
I thought he sounded like such,
like a,
I don't know,
so weak vocally compared to like the brutal,
and all of the death metal vocalists and I was just like... That's an interesting perspective, dude. Too weak for me. I love Slayer now, but at the time in my teens, I was like, this is not heavy enough. We all had that with different whatever place we came in, if you were really into heavy stuff. And then it was problematic if you heard Iron Maiden before you heard, I don't know, Rainbow, you know what I mean?
you'd be like,
eh,
it's just not heavy enough or something.
I mean,
within reason.
Uh,
Jay,
that was the whole eighties for you being in George and Will.
Yeah.
I mean,
well,
we did it in order.
How many bands have we crap on?
I mean,
yeah,
exactly.
That we're fans of now.
Yeah.
Well,
it's brave of Jason to say that though,
because he can't,
he can't have that take anymore because he's got the freaking sexy time
shoegaze vocals that he does for his own band.
So he can't say that Tom or I is weak.
Well,
not to mention Tom has such a distinct voice,
but I,
I appreciate that perspective. That's interesting. Yeah. Especially when I heard Slayer, they were like the heaviest fucking thing I ever heard, you know, but that predates that. Well, when I was listening to Metallica and Slayer in the 80s, I heard Alice Cooper and I was like, this is lame. Exactly. You know? Well, they didn't have to turn around, but in my mind, they turned it around because when I saw them at OzFest 99, Fear Factory finished playing on the second stage.
It started raining
and then all of a sudden
and it's like
drizzling rain. I was like, holy shit.
That's perfect. Yeah.
So that my
opinion of Slayer completely changed, but that was
my initial opinion.
Yeah. Yeah. And all of us have had that.
I think John actually came up with a top
or somebody did. We haven't done it yet
where it's bands you hated
but you've changed your opinion on it.
Yeah. So yeah.
We haven't done that one yet. So we need to do that top five at some point. Yeah. I'm down. I got a lot of them. Yeah, me too. John's on takes. You kids on a block is right. Wait, what? I'm sure. I said music we're talking about. Hang tight. Speaking of metal, let's move on. All right. So this one was announced either
this morning, which was like three days ago or possibly yesterday. And that is the new Unto Others album, Never Never Land, which is coming out September 20th. Can't wait for this one. There's three songs out, which I, of course, have not listened to yet because today sucked, but I look forward to hearing it. Has anyone listened to this? I listened to the first single they put out, The Angel of the Night, and it's basically whimsical goth pop. It's like a ballad, George. Sweet.
I really liked it.
I liked it.
It's not metal really at all,
but it's pretty good.
Yeah.
Right on.
I feel like,
um,
I really liked their first record when they were idle hands.
Yeah.
I was just going to say,
isn't this the band that changed their name?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They got sued by somebody.
Oh,
is there?
I did hear that story.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's why they changed it.
So there was some other band by that name,
I guess.
Yes.
Yeah.
I think unto others is a better name.
So I think it worked out.
Well,
also idle hands are the devil's pork chops.
So,
you know,
yeah.
Yeah. Isn't that one of the new Kerry King songs? So he probably sued them in advance, saying, I'm going to write a song called that one day, so you can't have that name. But anyway, looking forward to that. And last but definitely least, Clutch is working on new material. And to be clear, it's not metal. That joke is all about Will, who's not here to agonize over it, but there you go. Well, it's funny to talk about him behind his back. Yeah.
Yeah, I like Clutch. We gotta rub that in because it's a running joke, Jason. But they haven't done anything in a while, have they? I mean, I wanna say. Oh, no. No, they do stuff all the time. Yeah, they did that Sunrise and Slaughter Beach. Yeah, it was only like a year or two ago. Okay, I take it back. But Jason, so Will had a Clutch album as number one on the metal list one year, and so he's gotten shit for that because we don't think that Clutch is a metal band. Boy, full shit. Good band, but not metal.
So 1998, I saw Clutch, Seven Dust, and Limp Bizkit. Oof. That's a weird bill. It was Limp Bizkit's first tour ever. Clutch opened. Or no, Seven Dust opened. Clutch was second. Limp Bizkit headlined. Wow. I know I've seen Clutch with Seven Dust. It wasn't Limp Bizkit, but it was the same thing. They did not fit the bill. I have seen Seven Dust.
I've seen Clutch many times. Link Biscuit's terrible. Seven Dust is still going. I remember liking that band. They're still putting out albums though. They've been on the wrong time. Regularly. There's a weird trivia about them and I think George will get this and I also hope I have the band right but I think I do. But Seven Dust had a famous manager early on. Yeah. He was a member of an 80s metal band. Oh.
Some would say hair metal band, but I wouldn't say that. It's not Snake Sabo from Skid Row, is it? No, sir. Paul Stanley? No, he's not going to take it anymore. That's not who you think it is. Oh, is it J.J. French? J.J. French. That's right. I don't know if he's still in the manager business. I never hear him talk about it because he does show up in places, but yeah, he was their manager early on. That's right.
All right, let's move on to new releases.
First up, this one didn't quite make the mid-year list. It came out at the end before we got a chance to listen to it. This is the 200 Stab Wounds second album, Manual Manic Procedures.
I already know that Jason is not going to like this one because it's way too fast. But I could be wrong. I do like 200 tabloons. I haven't listened to the new record yet. It's in my Spotify listen to this new releases that I need to go back and check out playlist. All right. See what happens when you assume things Jason. I like all kinds. I do like fast. All right. Fair enough. Yeah. Anybody else?
I like this one. I like it. It was my album of the month. That's pretty good. I mean, I don't really like this band, but I listened to it again to try to figure out really why it doesn't do it. It's a banger, right? It's punishing old school death. It's got some wicked galloping breakdowns. It's got those crunchy, hardcore inspired riffs. So you'd think that I would be into that, and I get why people are into the band.
But I just don't vibe with it. I have a similar feeling for this band that I do with like Frozen Soul or Sanguished Sugarbog. They just, there's something about the way they incorporate elements into their music that just turns me off. I just don't, I can't get into it. And I've tried. So at least I've done that.
I wasn't as into it until we saw them in Decibel back in the spring. And I was like, whoa, look at that ginormous bald dude in the overalls who looks like a serial killer. This is a cool band. He is. And you had a big wow face after that show. I did. I was like, holy crap. You mentioned him a few times after that. Oh, yeah. I'm all on board now. All on board. Yeah. So the visuals did it for you. Well, and it was.
I mean, I'm joking about the visual, but their live set was really good. And I was like, well, I got to go back and listen to this again. I've seen a bunch of times because they've played by the other bands that I've seen here in Chicago. I think they toured with Cattle Decapitation, I think. That's right. The Decimal Tour. It was Black Braid, Cattle Decapitation and them. Yes. So yeah, I don't know. There's something about it's not that they're a bad band. It just doesn't do it for me. And that just happens sometimes.
I mean, overall, like you, Mark, son, I've kind of struggled with this new school of death metal is what I would kind of call it. But I did kind of have like a gotcha moment with both 200 Stabuens and Sands with Sukabog. There was just something one day that completely clicked. And also having seen both bands live after the fact, I've definitely been able to get into them. But it wasn't out of the gate, I would say.
It was the new metal influence on the single
Sukabog that did it for me.
Because if you don't hear the new metal,
it's there. Go back and listen.
And you know what? I would not argue
with you one bit.
And that is probably something that
was kind of like subliminally affecting me
and I just didn't know it or want to admit it.
I do really like that band though.
Especially like in the,
as far as new school of death metal goes,
I think that's probably my favorite in that.
Yeah, I haven't figured that one out yet. Maybe it's the new metal thing, because nah. It's subtle. It's not like Chap Pile, where it's very riffs. It's subtle the way they do it, but I hear some hardcore and some new metal influence in there, for sure. 200 Stafford definitely has some hardcore riffs in there. Yeah. All right, moving on to the next album, Kralis and their 14th album, Inorganic.
I haven't listened to this one, but because it's their 14th album and everybody seems to know them, I put it on here. I have not had a chance to listen to it yet. They're from New York. I can't keep up with this band. Yeah, I mean, they probably put out more albums than Jason does. Okay, they have, but... I listened to this album last night, or yesterday at the gym, actually, when we went. I realized later it was on the list. It just happened to come up next time I listened to this new release playlist.
I like all their stuff. It's not anything I'm going to probably revisit, but it was good. Yeah, they're interesting. I mean, I know you like them. I haven't heard this one yet, but they're interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I usually check out everything they do. I mean, I really got into a lot of the earlier stuff, and it's not that I don't like their latter stuff. I think there's just so much other music that I'm venturing out into that I don't necessarily come back, and they have done some weird stuff.
Again, some collaborations should have been really good, but I do want to definitely give this one a few good focus spins. Check it out. It takes a few spins, at least for me. I like Kralis, but I've never been a huge fan of it, but I like this record. It took me maybe like three spins to grasp it because it has this kind of alien synth, symphonic atmosphere to it. But once that settles in, I think it's a compounding
It sounds unique and progressive. It kind of transports you to this weirdly ambient landscape. And so I like that about it because it has a different feel than anything else that I've listened to. But it did take me a bit of time to sit with it. So the way you're describing that reminded me of that last Yellows album. Because at first I listened to it once and I was like, I don't know. And then I went back and listened to it again and I was like, this is amazing. So I feel like I always want to make
I give you know this.
That Yellow Eyes album was so different than what I've done before.
Oh, totally. Totally.
But after, you know, probably by the third spin, I thought, you know, this is like amazing.
Now I need to revisit the newest Yellow Eyes.
I think I listened to like half of it and dropped it and didn't go back.
No, it's tough because it's not really black metal.
So it's like you.
That's fine.
Yeah, it was so different.
It took me a while to get into.
And Matt and I love Yellow Eyes. We do. We put them on the list almost every time. And then this comes out. I'm like, wait, what is this? We're fighting for you guys every month. But I'm okay with it because a band doesn't always have to put out what you expect. When Blood Incantation puts out an ambient record, I love that record. Now, a lot of people don't, but I'm okay with you doing something a little bit different. You can't always do the same thing. I mean, you can. You could be Slayer, I guess.
Unless your name is Mastodon or Gojira. But I'm just saying. I mean, I go the way every, I mean, obviously every song on my records is almost a different genre for the most part, except for this newest one. And, you know, I doubt I'll put another Shoegaze record out anytime. So I'm all for change it up every album. If I like it, I like it. If I don't, I don't. Yeah, I like that about your stuff. And you've got, I mean, I like your voice.
the shoegaze voice, but you do really good growls and stuff too. So I like to hear the different sounds that you put in your albums. I like the new album. I've only spun out once because it just came out. But Floor Wet, I definitely like the dynamics in that album. I just appreciate when other bands do that too. I mean, some bands do like to know like, hey, I can count on this band for this sound. But if they go in a different direction, sometimes, yeah,
It takes a few spins
That Crowless record gave me some weird
like Obscura vibes
I don't know if you like Obscura
Yeah
In the bass work
and like the alien sort of
synthy atmosphere
Anyway
I just
I liked it
I liked that
That was probably my favorite aspect
of the Crowless record
I actually really like the cover too
It's the perfect cover
for that record
Alright moving on
Next we have
We're Wolves and their fifth album in five years, Die For Us, Australian death metal band. I got to say, I really liked the first four albums in four years. But this fifth album in the fifth year has me a little burned out. I feel like they need to take a little more time. And I don't know. But I swear I just finished the last album and now they got a new one. So. Well, yeah, I agree with that, George.
I mean, as we were just saying, there's certain bands who have that one style and they keep doing it. So this is it's werewolves. If you like this band style of ferocious, like claw grinding death, you'll like this. There's nothing new. There's no transformation. It's just full Fury Wolf form all the time. No transformation. Nice choice of words there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, but it's good for what they do. They just don't do anything new. Yeah. They're like Marduk or something. You know, it's just we're going to just keep doing this for the rest of our lives.
Yeah, overkill, for sure. Yeah. Motorhead, you know. All right. Lastly, we have the fourth album from Wormed, Omegon. Spanish tech death band, and I feel like this is a matte band. This is definitely a matte band. This is probably the first tech death band I ever got into years ago, and I love them. And I mean, obviously my sound, like my tastes have refined since then, and so I don't know that
as gangbusters about them now, but I still really dig their sound, and I dig this album. Excellent. I have not listened to this one yet either. I am not prepared. I see that. I thought it was good. I'm not a huge fan of the vocals as much, but they have that kind of almost like the frog-throated vocals. I don't normally like that stuff, but the creative playing on it, the kind of the progressive tech part of it,
is really impressive throughout the record. So I'm going to have to, I only spun it one time, but I would go back to it and see, see what I think about it as a whole for sure. All right, let's move on to what we are listening to.
And back to you, Jason, what are you listening to these days? Today, I put on the newest Paul Bearer record. My vinyl copy came in and I spun that. I keep going back to that thou record. I was listening to that new Chatfile single. Oh, gosh. I don't know.
I was listening to Pianos Become the Teeth the last couple days. Yeah, I can't think of anything else I've been listening to heavily lately. All right. Makassam, what you got? I love that Paul Bearer record. So that album was on my list, and I think I talked about it forever on the cast because I was very hammered. Sorry about that voice. Yeah, I really like that, so I can't talk anymore.
about it because I've already shot my load on that when we did a top 25. Some of the other records that I'm listening to, I really, really like the new Lens record. It's called Liernes on Frozen Records. It's a super creative, progressive, atmospheric black metal album. It's like a haunting, vicious, emotionally layered landslide into darkness. Magic, Restless Wicked on Cause of Death record.
This is spelled M-A-J-A-K for this band.
And they play this kind of occult-heavy psychedelic metal.
There's a lot of rock to this as well.
I would say there's some thrash in it too.
It kind of has a weird vibe to it.
It almost reminds me of like a clutch vibe, even though they don't really sound like clutch.
But that's the kind of feeling that I get when I listen to it.
I think they're on another label too. As John was saying earlier, sometimes a label puts out tape, sometimes they put out vinyl, so I'm not really sure which one actually did it first. But it's just big atmospheric doom and a big doom fan, so I haven't had a lot of that this year that I can think of that's like pure doom. So that's been fun to listen to. I really like the new Liminal Shroud record, atmospheric black metal.
was on my list. And I quite like this one too. So that's fun. Commodus and Celestial Sword. It's a split. It's called Constellations of Fatality and Metamorphosis. And this is a full length album split. So each side is an EP size helping of material. And I picked it up because I like Commodus a lot. They put out an album in 2023 called Wreath.
of Bleeding Snowfall. And the band plays this kind of a winter moon style black metal with songs about bloody battles. So it's really right up my alley. And that was one of those records where it came out in 2023 and I didn't spin it until after we had done our lists for the top 25. And if I had, it probably would have made the list. So the songs on this split are just as good as that one.
And I just bought the Commodus side of the split. The Celestial Sword side is more of a raw black metal mixed with vampiric dungeon synth. They actually wrote vampiric dungeon synth on their Bandcamp page. So that's taken me a little bit to get into, but the Commodus part's great. And then the last thing really is just all the Julie Christmas. So I've been spinning her solo records a lot, especially the new one,
Ridiculous and Full of Blood, which I have on vinyl now. Mariner, which was her album with Cult of Luna. Love that record. Made Out of Babies, Battle of Mice. So just really enjoying her unique, quirky catalog. A mix of just alt-metal, noise, post-hardcore, post-metal. She's a treasure, really. I appreciate that she named this album after me. I love that Cult of Luna.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's my favorite called the Luna Record. Julie Christmas, when I first heard her voice, she really reminded me of this band, this new metal band from, like, the early new metal days called the Human Waste Project. Ah, yeah. It's very, like, under the radar. And her voice, I don't remember her name, is very Julie Christmas. He very, like, has that same, like, almost, like, babyish.
girl like quality like a weird very like delicate super feminine i don't know it's weird and totally reminds me of that well i dig it
all right um i'm really just going to pick it up where you left off uh really did a deep dive into julie
christmas love the new album i love bad wife i think the bad wife was probably the first julie christmas album
related album I ever heard and then kind of went back to is it Ruiner is probably the made out of babies album I dig the most I mean it's all good but that was kind of my first one with that group really dig it and obviously the the cult of Luna Mariner is pretty amazing and that was really took up a good chunk of my listening also new 200 stab wounds the new wormed this band Locrian I believe is how it's pronounced throughout of Chicago
Kind of ambient. Drone-ish, black-medal-ish, really bizarre, really dig it. And I've listened to a ton of classic rock just on random repeat. And just a lot of latter-era Beatles just did some really kind of dives into those areas. I don't even remember why. Yeah, what were you like? Fuck, I didn't know about this. This is awesome. Honestly, like Grand Funk Railroad is that song. Closer to Home.
I've listened to that song like 10,000 times. And I realize that's probably not a deep cut by any means, but if I've never spent time with it, it's kind of new to me. There's just been a few random things like that that I really dug. And I'm still kind of having a good PTSD from watching that Beatles movie on the Disney Channel. What the hell is it called? About Get Back? Let It Be, Sing, or Get Back. Yeah, Get Back. Just the writing of that album, all the things in there.
All the songs I didn't realize were Beatles songs
that some of which I had heard
some of which I haven't
and just like how moving I found them to be
which kind of
I mean the early Beatles stuff is really good
but at the same time when you kind of get into
like when you listen to some of their more bluesy stuff
or some of the stuff where they're clearly
more tripped out on drugs
like this is really compelling shit
You know what I love?
I love Dig a Pony
Oh my god
It's such a good song
Yeah absolutely
And then to watch it kind of like be created is kind of another thing. And then lastly, I finished Stephen Piercy's book last night. So I've been listening to a lot of earlier that. Was it good then? It was what I expected. Fair enough. I mean, if you've seen Stephen Piercy interviewed, it was exactly that. I will say this. I was way, none of the hair metal stuff landed with me, almost any of it at all. Because I was so far into Slayer and stuff.
But I bought, for some reason, I would buy one every once in a while. And I bought Rats Invasion of Your Privacy. And I thought that was such a good poppy, fucking fun record. I love Rats. Lots of good songs on it. Yeah. And honestly, he still sounds decent. I saw him a couple of times ago. Yeah, I'll see him this fall. I mean, he's totally still him. But I mean, they had some decent albums. I listened to a little bit of Arcade. And then there was one other band that he was in that was somewhat notable, Post Rat.
Yeah, that's it for me. Cool. John? All right. So I got a few, my first four albums are albums. I just didn't either listen to enough or they just came out. And then I got a couple that came out right at the year end. So that's all I've been listening to. And then I got a big behemoth at the end. But so the first one is the latest from Hail Spirit Noir Fossil Gardens, which came out a week after the year end.
And had we had this in time, this would have easily made my top 10. I absolutely love this album. And this is for everyone who thought that they were too prog now, or they went synth wave that I can't go back to this band. This is by far their heaviest album. And it's part of their most black metal is the album they have out. It's still quirky and weird. It's still them, obviously, but, and they're in this, their early albums were focused on black metal meets seventies prog rock, which at first I thought that's BS. Then I listened. I was like,
Holy crap. This really does sound like black metal that was in the seventies. Um, and now that now they're doing synth wave with their, their black metal, which is what this album has. It's wild. I love this album. Uh, the next one I was apprehensive about listening to, um, and you'll hear why in a second, the album is, I think it's Paya matter is a name under the shadow of a foreign sun. It's a third album from a progressive band, press metal band out of Brazil. They're heavily influenced by Opeth.
And I have a hard time listening to bands like this because as much as like Opeth, certain bands I just don't want to listen to other bands playing their style. Like that Rush-like band from last year? Yeah, I had a hard time with that. Was that Crown? Crownlands. Crownlands, yeah. I thought it was a great album, but that was so rushed, though. Yeah, it was. And these guys on their first album apparently was just basically could have been a new Opeth album. Second one was a little more diversified.
This one, I listened to it and I thought, okay, I can hear them getting their own thing and they've incorporated a few new things. It's good. I like it. I think it's a really good album and I'm starting to come around a little more on them. But I liked it. The next, third one is Sunburst Manifesto. It's a second album from a prog metal band out of Greece. If you know the band Conception, which is a prog metal band from Norway, they're one of the first wave of prog metal bands. Their first album came out in 91. I swear, this is like they put the album
But it's the 90s version of the band, Conception. I mean, the singer's a dead ringer for Roy Kahn. I don't know if you guys know who Roy Kahn is. He's an unbelievable singer. If you know the band Camelot. I'm not a big power metal fan. Camelot, I think, is pretty decent. I've seen him a few times live. He was with them for a while. He's just a great singer. This guy sounds just like him. It's scary. I mean, I don't think that was the intent.
It's just he sounds like it
It's I thought the first sound was okay when it came out a few years ago
But this one's really grabbing me. So I thought that was cool
And then jay will appreciate this. I went back finally and gave the new vandam plus album
the imperial equation of long lost things more time. Holy shit
I'm pissed. It'll be in my top 25 now
Yeah
I mean, I know you said jay and I like this band. Uh, they're probably went up back from jeremy. They've been around for
I feel like I should listen to this well I you know I yeah you should but I um I still think that everybody on this podcast would love them if they listen to the right stuff and if you were going to get one from them I would say get Christo which is just like it's good that'll hook you in and then you're done because there's stuff that's so catchy and so proggy at the same time but the new one is a fine place to start to yeah and I he his voice it just has there's certain guys that just
and girls who just sound, I don't know if there's a timbre to his voice that I just really appreciate.
He's unique. There's no doubt about that.
Yeah, he is unique.
And I'm just like, but now I'm happy because I gave a chance.
I mean, I have everything from them, but I just hadn't given enough time.
And then the last two were albums that just came out right before the year end.
And they actually made my, or not mid-year, excuse me.
And they made my mid-year list, even though literally they came out right then. That's the new Alsace, La Chance de Lior, I guess is how you say it, which I love the new Alsace album, personally. I think it's great. And then the Julie Christmas, like Marcasson mentioned, Ridiculous and Full of Blood, that made my list. I didn't listen to it the first week it came out, so I listened to it a couple days before we did the recording, and I was like, yeah, there's absolutely no way this is not going to be on my list, let alone in my...
Not gonna be in my top five. And it ended up being number four for me. So it's a great album. And if you like the Mariner version of Cult of Luna with her, there are two songs on the album that have a little bit of Mariner there. It might also help that the singer from Cult of Luna is on those songs. And in the last but not least, I've listened to a shit ton of Elvis the last few weeks, maybe because we may have done an episode on Elvis on that.
a stairway to 11 podcast.
And it's hard to just stop listening.
So I've slowly weaned myself back a little because it's just so much.
I really enjoyed that episode, by the way.
I posted on the Instagram for you guys because Jay guested on it.
And yeah, it was really good.
So I like Elvis, but you guys made me want to listen to more Elvis just by hearing you talk about everything he's done in his life.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, I think we spent more time not talking about his popular 50s hits and delving more into his semi-obscure late 60s, early 70s stuff, which is the stuff I like the most, personally. Yeah, for sure. And he's just such a cultural icon that you can not appreciate what the talent that was there. It's like it's overwhelmed by everything else. But I've fully winged myself because I'm now focused on
The next set of albums I have to listen to for that podcast. And everybody listening now, you know, check out Stay Way to 11. That's the sister podcast where John, George, and TR talk about rock albums. It's a really, really good podcast. Thank you. Jay. Well, I alluded to this earlier, but it's true. And it's that post mid-year, I like to go and review everybody's list because you guys are great jerks.
are investigative journalists, as it were. I thought you were going to say we're great jerks. That's what it sounded like. I'll take it. You guys are jerks. Throw you jerks a bone by listening to your list. No, but it's a good way to, you know, the stuff, especially your top fives and your top tens. So I spent, you know, the last few weeks listening to that stuff. I will tell you this, the two things that have impacted me most,
and these are sort of obvious ones was even though it was on my list the pallbearer my esteem for that has grown and I did talk about it for like an hour so I'm glad it makes me happy makes me feel like I made a good choice to talk about something it deserves some time you know and then I did not listen to this previous to the to the cast but the other one that made has made the largest impact is the
The Julie Christmas album is fucking great, just like you guys said it is. That'll factor into my year-end list without question. And then a lot of other little gems that you find. Every one of you guys, I can kind of, when I look at the covers of your monthly picks or whatever, I kind of think, this is one Marcus Unlikes, then I might not, but then I can see when there's one that's like, oh, this might be up my alley. So, like I said, you guys are good at ferreting out stuff that I can't find. So I spent a lot of time on your list the last couple weeks. And since Matt talked about his,
Classic Rock Obsession and John dealing with Elvis Presley. I spoke to George offline very briefly post Elvis Presley podcast and made a suggestion to him and immediately fell back into a way. Well, so I've been listening to Waylon Jennings a lot lately. I don't think there's a better country songwriter than him. And so I just get stuck on him for a while. He's so creative with his writing and I like his voice. So that's a lot of Waylon Jennings.
What about Billy Cyrus? No. Yeah, I was at a gas station down on the border this week. And it's at Douglas, Arizona. And that's where we go to get our groceries. And it's a border town, literally. So we go to the Walmart Supercenter there. And literally the line to go into Mexico on the street is right outside the Walmart parking lot. So everybody from Sonora, Mexico comes over and buys their groceries and stuff. So it's basically a half Mexican town.
Anyway, I stopped at my gas and blaring over the PA outside was a Spanish language version of Aki Breaky Hard. It was so funny. Trying to figure out how that goes. Yeah. And it was just glorious. Le Iki el Breaky. Corazon. Yeah. It was really funny, man. Nice. That's it, George. I'm not going to detail all your lists for you.
But you guys chose my playlist the last two weeks. That's cool. I mean, I always listen to everybody's list. There's stuff on people's list, too. Even if I listen to it, got to revisit it, especially that top five, top ten. Yeah. Because if you're passionate about it, I want to give it another shot. You might have missed something, yeah. Yeah. All right. I've been listening to that 200 Stab Wounds, already mentioned. The new Beaten to Death album, Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis, their sixth album.
Avent Grind. Then there's one that I just kind of stumbled across, a band called Black Totem, and their presumably third album, three, Sacrifice Tonight. They're a Finnish Danzig worship kind of band as a Misfits Samhain Danzig kind of fan. I was like, hey, you know, it's super not original, but it's still kind of fun. So I picked that up.
And then, yeah, I've just been listening to a lot of old blues and country and Elvis. I did pick up that Dreaming My Dreams album by Waylon Jennings, Jay. Oh, that's a good record. Nice recommendation there. Yeah, just all kinds of, like, a lot of old country. I mean, you know, Johnny Cash, Waylon, Hank Sr., just all kinds of stuff. Hey, you know, actually, George, since you're going through that a little bit,
I really can't recommend enough.
And it's an investment, but the Ken Burns country music documentary was great.
You know, it's just like the Civil War thing.
It's kind of long and stuff.
I mean, there are multiple episodes, I should say.
But it's super interesting, and you'll also learn about a bunch of artists that you might want to check out.
Yeah, definitely.
I've been looking through all kinds of lists for, you know, the people that, you know, you don't really know about, you know.
That is about as good a resource for that as there is.
Yeah.
I like turning over rocks and finding crusty old country and blues bands and artists and stuff that, you know, that, you know, maybe you've probably heard of, but you haven't listened to or something, you know, so. Oh, yeah. It's about the farthest thing from metal right now, but yeah, that's where I am. So continuing this, not in country, but I just want to give a shout out to Jay because he did a recommendation for the Bon Jovi documentary. And I, I watched
that. And it was really good, actually. I only really liked two Bon Jovi albums, but it made me want to listen to them again because the documentary was good. So while we're doing this, and I am not a fan, really, in any way, but I watch music documentaries. And I found him somewhat endearing in that. Now, I also have to mention something that I almost wrote you guys about the other day. And this is just because I stick my hands in a lot of stuff and different rock music stuff and everything, whatever. But I watched the other day,
Apple TV. I had to rent it for $3.99. Bruce Springsteen live in 1979 at the No Nukes concert in Madison Square Garden. And it was one of the most amazing performances that I've ever seen. It was like watching a carnival. The guy did not stand still for two seconds. Sounded amazing. This would be like Born to Run era. No, more like the River era. I couldn't believe it. And that was just a random pic by me. And I walked away just going like, holy shit, that was amazing.
Got to love the boss. Like a media Bruce fan, you know? Yeah. By the way, I forgot to mention, I also picked up the Prince from Another Planet Elvis live album. Nothing wrong with that one. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. I think his voice is particularly beautiful on the You've Lost That Love and Feeling on that one. And Never Been to Spain, which is a song I like very much anyway. Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. And the American Trilogy on that is pretty fun.
It is.
It is.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's move on to briefly discuss last,
last,
last times,
Thunderdome's results.
This was Markisan.
And I kind of forgot to post the poll.
And then we had,
you know,
anniversary episodes and mid-year episodes and just kind of forgot to
cover this.
So my apologies,
Markisan.
Oh,
no apologies.
We had two episodes where we were not going to get to it. That's why I reminded you for this episode, George, because, yeah, we had the anniversary and then we had top 25. We weren't going to do it then. So it worked out. We got, we got poll results. All right. And the listeners have spoken. Horrendous is ontological nightmare versus two molds, planetary clairvoyance. Sorry. Logical Mysterium. What did I say? Ontological nightmare. Did I really?
Yeah, it was great. I haven't even had two beers yet. I don't know where the hell that came from. I wish that was the name of the album. Ontological Mysterium, which is what it's called, and Planetary Clairvoyance, not whatever I was about to say on that one, too. Anyway, the results, the listeners, 71% of them chose horrendous. 29% to mold. That's a great record, though, too, isn't it? I mean, if you're going to lose
something. Which is what we picked on the podcast. I think we did. Was it unanimous? No. No. Or never unanimous. I think Will picked. Except for those two times. Oh, Will might have been. Tumult. What did you pick, Matt? That's not a huge surprise. Horrendous. But it was not an easy choice. No, I think the awesome thing about this is I just saw both Horrendous and Tumult last week on their tour with Immortal Bird.
And I have to say that watching them live, I couldn't tell you which band I liked more because they were equally exceptional on stage. And the songs they performed, they just were so strongly crafted and memorable. Those two sets on the same bill were the best live metal shows, sets I've seen this year. So I have a new appreciation for the Tummo record.
I like both records, but I picked horrendous. But I've since gone back to listen to Planetary Clairvoyance. And I think the gap closed a little bit just because of that live presence, which we've talked about a little bit on this cast about live and how it factors in. So yeah, they're both amazing bands. And if you can ever catch either of those bands live, just do it. Don't hesitate to do to get a ticket because
I've seen them both live but I had a ticket to go to that show because I think I was the night after you but then things came up around here and I was not able to make it but I thought like what if I just put my kid in the car and he can sleep and I'll just sit outside the club and put my window down and just hear it coming out of the door you know I was I was at least 58% serious about that because that's how badly I wanted I mean just to your point of seeing those two bands together and I
I feel like there's just fresh momentum off of fairly recent releases by both of them. So, and a really good pairing together. So. Yeah, that's a great pairing. I mean, I had to do it because like John was saying, when he was doing the stats, those are the two bands we all agreed on as album of the month. And they both went on to become our number one albums for the metalheads podcast. Like that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. So that's pretty special. So I was like, I got to put
He's head-to-head. But you know what I really want to know? What Jason thinks. Yeah. I was looking on Spotify right now. I love the two-mold record. I realize I totally missed their last year's record, though, The Enduring Spirit. Oh, it's so proggy. It's really good. It didn't clear the table like the previous one did for us, meaning the podcast.
I love planetary clairvoyance. I feel like it's, for me, it rides a line between that avant-garde style and the old school. It has a good mix of, and then a little prog. I mean, it's got everything I like about those genres. And then the horrendous, same thing. I did not, I missed, I really liked Idol when it came out. This is a thousand miles ahead of it. You're in for a treat. Okay. Yeah. The difference between Ride the Lion and Master of Puppets.
Ontological Mysterium is like the band completely recrafted themselves.
And Ontological Nightmare is like the band didn't even record it.
You have to listen to that time.
The remix.
I'm totally blown away by Ontological Mysterium.
Because the previous record, I was not as big a fan of as their stuff before.
I like horrendous a lot.
I've always been high on them.
But the one before that, it didn't make my list.
This one, it just completely blew me away.
the way that they just came up with a completely new style. It's still horrendous, still identifiably horrendous, but it sounds so fresh and new and not like anything else in Death Metal. So you got to listen to it. I think you'll really dig it. Yeah, you're in for a good time. I'm adding it to a playlist now. Actually, both those records. Yeah, I had never heard it. Idol's the only horrendous I'd ever heard. I didn't like it enough to go back in their catalog, but I liked it enough to remember it.
That's almost even more perfect, because I think you'll, then you'll be like, holy shit, like, like, I can see how you might have been somewhat underwhelmed by that one. This one, no. They're like night and day, those albums. Yeah. Even though they're both great. Yeah, even though they're both good, yeah. On the list, I will listen to it. Let's do this list. This is because I'm kind of looking forward to hearing what I've got. Right, so top five this time.
We made a list, we all made lists. We made a list, and we all made a list. We made a list, and we all made a list, and we're going to tell you all about it right now. Bands we wish would release new music. This is five plus years or more.
So and then we decided pregame that if they have maybe done an EP in the last five years, that certainly fits the bill. Unless you're Markisan. I didn't decide that. You'll understand when I get there. I chose one of mine did have a record in the last five years, but it was a record of covers. And I'm not counting that. That's almost like an extra bullshit thing. So I cheated a little bit on that one, but the rest of mine are pretty clear cut. All right. I want you to do a podcast called Jay's Extra Bullshit.
That's going to be J-in-a-ve-oreign scorpions in the desert. Yes, and I'll set a list of rules and parameters and constantly break them for myself. On this week's episode, we've got the chupacabra. Yeah. Javelina's been popular lately. By the way, I got a wildlife cam that I've been putting out the last few nights. Nothing too exotic yet, but I'm getting...
If you get any good footage, you need to share. Oh, I will. No, no. It has been good, but it's nothing I don't see every day. So, so far it's Javelina's, Deers, and Coyotes that I'm getting. But the videos are fun, so I'll share some. Cool. Anywho. All right. So, Jason, you get to be the first to go. Now, I don't know if it's been explained or not, but what we do is we all list our number five, and then we go around and each do our five.
our four and so on until we get to our number ones so if you would what is your number five um i did not order them so i'll throw one out just off the top wind hand was a big one for me yeah i haven't heard them in a while another virginia band a rich virginia band richmond motherfucking virginia band right indeed she put out a solo record but no no wind
Yeah, when was the last one? 2018, I think. Yeah. Most of my list are 2018s, ironically. Didn't plan that, but it worked out that way. All right, mark us on. Right, so my number five. First, I want to say this ended up being a perfect top five because of the big trypticon news, right?
I've been a lock on my list. Yeah. I left it off for that very reason. Yeah. Right. So, and we didn't know that when, when John came up with this list and then we decided we didn't know trypticon was going to make this announcement. So, um, since, since it's actually happening, I crossed it off just like George. Uh, so I could talk about other bands. So number five for me from a person who's near and dear to our hearts, Keith D. I've mentioned this before.
on the podcast, but the first Metalheads episodes I ever listened to featured Keith D talking about Unearthed Elf into the Catacomb Abyss when it dropped all the way back in 2016. But he's working on the new one. He's since talked about writing the sequel, and I'm sure he's got bits and pieces done at this point, but it's been eight years. So, so Keith. Get on it. It's time to get your motherfucking Elf on. I need you to shred me some medieval,
I need this shit.
So I really love that album.
I was going to put on Arctic Sleep, but then it dawned on me that
because I'm not doing EPs like George's because I'm being pure.
Arctic Sleep released a two song EP in 2021.
How do I know that?
Because I put it out on my label, Skull Fracture Records.
I asked for him to do songs for my comic.
So that didn't count.
But I want a full length from Arctic Sleep as well. That's kind of like 5B for me. All right. Matt? I have a very strict rule for my list. Like I need it in hand. Like I need a release date. Otherwise it doesn't exist to me. And so for my number five, I want new music from Yob. I believe Our Raw Heart was the last full length they put out. And that was a year that I don't remember off the top of my head.
But it has been five years. It's like 2018 maybe? I don't know. Yeah. Jason wore the perfect shirt for that number five. I noticed. Though now I'm not going to have a number three. Oh, you can use it. We double up all the time. We double up. This guy's always spoiling everything. I don't understand what this guy's doing. He doesn't stay in the podcast. Didn't even give us the spoiler alert on him. And George, I give specific directions about how each thing goes.
Every guest, by the way. Okay. But I didn't know that we were going to be reusing. Yeah. I actually like it when that happens. We're like, yeah, that guy's. We're not a team. Yeah, we're not a team. This is all individual competition. It's more of an exhibition than a competition. No wagering is involved, but yeah. But at the end, we vote one of us off. And that's why Will's not here. Yeah. He didn't have enough for the same picks. He got relegated.
on the podcast jury got relegated i love it
you're welcome that i either spoiled things ruined things or made them more interesting i don't know
i don't know what i do i mean you know when we post the episode it'll be in the description
yeah i write the description by the way also i think it's all three i think it's all three jason
all right i believe it is john's turn yeah so i have one album
or one band where they did release an EP, Nine Minutes is not enough music for me to consider that being active. So I wasn't that strict. But like you, Matt, I need to know that it's actually coming out. If I hear bands are working on an album. Great. Yeah, I need to know more. I need to hear something from that, especially bands that have been silent for a long time. So I have a couple of those. Here's a band that I think we all liked when their last album came out.
in 2018.
Oh God, the album's awesome. Well, and I got the box set that they put out like maybe last year or whatever. So it has the first three. It doesn't have that, that one, the latest one, but I've been spinning it a ton on vinyl because I just didn't have them. Yeah. There were some updates on writing and stuff like, but I want to say that hasn't even been like two years now since he's said anything. Right. Yeah. And so I, I just need to hear something. Then I'm like, okay, it can't be on the list. They're actually really doing this.
So thanks, Tripticon. He took one off my list, too. My number five will probably only resonate with George. Not that it has to resonate with everybody. But I know he appreciated this release, too. And then they kind of disappeared off the face of the map. I even wrote to this guy once, and I was like, hey, you're going to put on a new record? That's how much I liked it. Cretus. He had a record called Dukes Mia Lukes that came out in, I want to say, 2015.
And it's just somewhere between EP and full record length. Probably closer to full record. Kind of new wave of British heavy metal kind of cult-y rock stuff. If Ghost didn't suck. If Ghost didn't suck and was a little bit heavier. And I really liked that record a lot. It's got some cool riffs and stuff. And so I was just looking forward to see what they were going to do. Yeah. They might have fallen off the face of the planet. So I would love to see a new Kretis record. Nice.
My number five,
there's rumors.
I think that there might be a new album coming,
maybe more than rumors,
but their last album was in 2018.
The Atlas Moth.
Oh,
fucking great.
I literally are,
whatever.
Yeah.
I love that album.
I was like number two on my list that year.
I think,
I think that's the first year I was on metal heads.
Yeah,
definitely was.
I saw them.
around that time when that album came out. I can't remember who they played with. They were good. That was a good reminder to go back and revisit it. I loved that album and the one before it. And the one before it. John, it wasn't with Subrosa and Boris. No, I feel like it was with Solstafir and somebody else. Oh, maybe that was the show. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was Subrosa. Anyways,
Sorry. No, you're good. Jason, let's get your number four. Number four was actually, sorry, that was Yob. What was my number four? Nice. God, what is that? You know, that record came out the same year as the Slugged record, didn't it? Did it come out? Either that or I like that record, by the way. It wasn't as popular with everybody else on the podcast, but I really liked that last one quite a bit. Whose name I forget. I know Will.
I think Will didn't like it that much. Really? Yeah, him and George and me all had a grudge match about it. Hmm. Neither of them liked the guitar tone that much. They thought it was a little less heavy. Sorry, I was taking a work text and missed which one it was. The last Yab record. Oh. Yeah. I know something. I might like it more now because the production didn't bother me that much.
It was just a little muddy for me. Jason, you don't know what year that was, do you? It was 2018. So that was the same year as the Slugged record. And again, with High on Fire, I feel like I liked the production on R.R.A.R.A.R.A.R.A.R.A.R.A.R.A.R.
And I want to say it has the word leaves in the title. And it's just this beautiful ascending almost ballad. It's so good. I just used to fucking love that song so much when that record came out. Also, by the way, the record in which he kind of digested his, what is it? Diverticulitis. Diverticulitis. Okay. Digested is an interesting word to compare with that. But a personal record in any case.
And Jay and I did run into him at a festival and we did say like let's change up the production on this one. I actually did run into him Matt at Decibel LA. Oh stop. Nice. Number four for me. Yeah. It's Cobalt. Oh yeah. That's a good one. That last Cobalt record.
It was fucking phenomenal. This band has come up, I feel like it's come up anyways, on some other nostalgic top five lists for me, but I really can't get enough of their black and sludge metal sound. So Slow Forever was the one that you heard. Yeah. And it was 2016. Wow. Yeah, he's due. So yeah, he's due. And it was the first record to feature vocalist Charlie Fell from Lord Mantis. So I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more music, because usually when you get
those new connections, it kind of results in bursts of revitalized creativity. So Eric Wonder was like the main guy in Cobalt. He's got a dark folk rock band called Man's Gin, and they're releasing a new album in September. So I'm thinking maybe Cobalt might follow. Maybe that'll be next. I would love that. So yeah. That record in particular, but that band deserves to be much more renowned than they are.
That record is a fucking pro-world-class fucking record. And people know about it, but not as many. And by the way, I think it was a double record too, wasn't it? Yes, it was a double. But that's why they got to release more, Jay. Because if they put out newer albums and people know about it, then they'll go back to the other stuff. And then you get greater respect for their catalog in the past. Because to me, it's already a classic. Yeah. Slow Forever is... I mean, it's got to be like top five in the last 10 years.
Yeah, I'll be there. You know, easy. That's reasonable. I believe what we are talking about is the cobalt paradox. So I want to put a term with it just so we know how to associate it. Is it me? Number four, I want more Gorguts. Like I need more Gorguts soon. Badly. Oh, no, no. I'm thinking.
I feel like they might be writing stuff but again there's this thing called AI and I don't believe it
with AI you can write your own album well I was going to say I thought Gargut was done but I'm confusing them with Agaloc who is kind of done right no they're back yeah you should play at MDF
yeah but where are they going to record probably now that now that he's not as canceled as he was yeah fair enough
So, Matt, this is kind of strange for me to say this. They did play with Soulstaffir and they played with Paradise Lost on the Medusa tour, which is the shirt I'm wearing and I completely forgot they were on that tour. So, you could have left right after Soulstaffir. I stuck around to see Paradise Lost. Two songs. Two songs and you're gone. Wow, I get that. I mean, it takes...
You're gonna hear half of something. Jason, we give Matt and Jay shit. Mostly it was me giving him shit because the Paradise Lost played at a festival in Las Vegas and they only watched like three songs and then left. Two songs. Was it only two? Oh my god, I'm giving you more credit. I don't know. And I was like, it's Paradise Lost and they stayed for like an entire rap set or something. I'm like, are you kidding me? I watched. I was there for Bone Cucks.
What we did was we watched a dude from Wu-Tang Clan play chess for about an hour. That was worth our time. That's right. That was. So let's just go to my number four. I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense. Number four. This is a band that has been on the podcast a few times. No, once or twice. I can't even remember. Maybe twice.
Greatest sound clips ever from one of the former members of this. Oh, I remember four is perihelion chip. Their last album to paint a bird of fire came out in 2017. Because Yanni's not in the band anymore. I know the sound bite and question. Jay is my bitch. Jay is my bitch. Yeah. Yeah. If he wanted us to stop so we could perfectly record that member George, I think he asked you. So George, I want to say.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I would love to hear something new from them. It's nice to strike a chord in the hearts of our guests. I heard something from Anders not that long ago. Something personal or. Yeah. Like he reached out, sent me some stuff. I mean, it's probably probably like a year or two ago at this point, but it seems like it wasn't that long ago. That's a good pull, John. Cause yeah, they've, they were kind of our little darlings for a while there. Yeah. Kind enough to actually even mention us on the Leonard.
for the last album. I remember you guys talking about that band when you were doing your top 25 before I was on the podcast. I didn't even know anything about this band and you guys introduced me to them. We liked them and we liked them. They were nice. They were awesome to talk to. We did a top, was it them that we did the top five keys boarders with? Probably, yeah, with Yanni. And John Lord ruled the day. Every once in a while,
Johnny will just get hammered and like text us. It's like four o'clock in the morning in Finland and he's like texting us. I'd like to refine that statement and say I think he's hammered all the time. We love those guys. Make a new album guys. Yeah. My number four is the aforementioned band who did do an album of covers maybe three, four years ago but I'm not counting it.
They were obscure enough covers that you could have tricked yourself and said that was original music. This dude's getting old. He needs to put out as many records as he can. I think their music is more complex than he gets credit for. Monster Megan. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm a big fan of Dave Wendor. And I'm going to assume that they probably are working on something. I thought they were. I thought I heard something about that. Yeah, they do albums. It just takes them longer now. Yeah, he takes four or five years.
He's getting up there.
My number four
is their last album
was 2018
and the band is called Storm of Light.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Is that Josh Graham?
I don't know their names.
I feel like that is from
Red Sparrows, which is funny
that I was just talking about Red Sparrows the other day.
I feel like that is maybe a rock. By the way, this one's not on my list, but Marcus just mentioned Immortal Bird and we haven't heard from them in a while. They got a new album coming out in October. Okay. So it's a 20 bucks spin. So, you know, I'm friends with Nate, the guitars, and I just saw them and they played songs live and they were awesome. The singer just put out an EP in another band too, the Immortal Bird singer. Yeah, they're all kind of mixed in and a bunch of different stuff, I think. Yep. Yeah, there's like
She was also, as I recall, involved in the soundtrack for the Doom video game. Remember that? She talked about that when we interviewed her. It was her and a bunch of other metal musicians, and they all went down to, I think, and actually did the work on it down there. Yeah, that's a while ago. All right. We're right here.
Back to Jason, I think. Yeah, number three. I've heard rumors about some new candaria potentially on the horizon. Oh. Interesting. I think that becomes a thing. They've gone a lot of different directions, but I've liked them all and really big influence in the early days, so it'd be cool. That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Nice, Jörg.
They're 300%. When is the last time they put anything out? That's a really long time ago. Let me see. Shit. It's been a while. Wow. Yeah, I haven't heard that name in a while, but they definitely were a prominent band in my listening circles back in the day. They did one in 2016. It was like a re... They got back together and put out another on-buzz.
I did. Okay. Eight years ago. That's a long time. That's me. Yep. Number three for me is Minsk. It's one of my favorite bands from here in Chicago. And they play a unique style of psychedelic and melodic sludgy post-metal. So their last album was The Crash and the Draw. And that came out in 2015. And they did do a split in 2018.
had about 20 minutes of new music, but that was still six years ago. So as far as I know, they haven't even played live in a couple years. So I just really like to see them get back on the scene and put out some new material. That's another band where I feel they're really under the radar, but what they do is amazing. If they were a little bit more prolific in their writing, that they would be a lot bigger.
So I just I love Crash in the Draw. One of my top albums that year. Yeah, I think that might have been on my list. All right, Matt. Great album. My number three. I already mentioned Atlas Moth. I really love Co-Como Noir, but I am just gangbusters about not the one.
before that, but the one two before that, and even the one before that, one of them is a glorified piece of blue sky. So all of their albums. It's like you can see through me, John. You can read between the lines. I'm just being bitchy. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. I guess that's two for Koma. So George, I just realized what your number one will probably be. Okay, well then you just hold on to that. I'm gonna. Oh yeah.
I guess I'll just move on then
so my number
three is a band
that I did not hold as strict as
Markisan
because they did release an EP
that came out I think
I don't know if it was 19 or 20 maybe 19
but it was only nine minutes of new music
on it so and I think one was
like a one minute instrumental so
now I'm going to go with their last
full length which came out in 2017
that's a band I've mentioned I'm pretty
I'm the only one on the podcast that likes these guys. That's what makes it great that we have so many freaking bands that we all like. I'm actually happy we're not doubling up as much on this because there's a lot of bands I forgot. I haven't released albums in a long time. But mine is The Contortionist. Their last album came out in 2017, Clairvoyant. I really like their last two albums a lot. I swear their last album was on your list like two years ago.
me. No, we just talked about them.
We talked, I mentioned them on the 2014 list that we did.
Okay. Yeah. That could be.
So I did read, I did mention them recently. Okay. So, but yeah, it's, it's hard to believe it's been seven years.
So I love the contortion.
I ran back to say that I love it.
It's awesome.
I gotta get there.
Oh man. I'm happy to do that.
Language is my favorite album from God. The last 15 years, maybe. Get to the microphone! Jason actually contortioned his body to get back to it. For all you listeners who can't see it, it's really impressive. I love Clairvoye, too. I've seen them live a few times. Yeah, they're great lives. I actually saw them when they toured with Reza Now when the singer couldn't tour anymore. He just couldn't sing because of his hearing. It was kind of wild to see them connect.
that situation. But it was a great build. Both bands were awesome.
My number three comes with a hyphen in the middle of it.
And even though, quite frankly, I don't expect either of these to be that good.
And that sounds terrible, but it's true.
But goddammit, let's get a King Diamond or Merciful Fate record out there for fuck's sake.
And they're working on them so long that I almost don't expect.
I think his motivation now is just like, look, I'm fine.
I'll do a tour every couple of years.
So I have no faith that either of them will.
Yeah.
Oh, they've been talking about those for like three years at least. Uh-huh. And the updates are always so minimal that I literally think there's just a lack of motivation there or something. The institution is going to be the next Chinese democracy. I do. I know. And I mean, yeah. So, you know, fingers crossed. But it's true that I don't expect it. None of them will be. They're not going to live up to the hype of the old days. But, you know. No. It'll still be interesting.
Yeah. George. George. My number three has been mentioned, which is allowed. Slugge. Nice. Need some more of that for show. Yeah. With two Gs. Slugge. Slugge. With a D in between. Slugge. Slugge. That sounds like a line out of, oh, what is the movie called?
Oh my god. You can't dust for vomit. This one goes to 11. Spinal Tap. Ludge. With two G's. Lick my love pump. I think we got the name of the episode. The saddest of all keys. We may have mentioned Spinal Tap during the last episode of
Stairway to 11. When we discussed all this. Yes. And the first episode. The first episode too, of course. Disrespectful now. Yes. Stairway to 11 is what you think. Our stairway goes to 11. That's one more. Why don't you just turn it up? Yeah. All right. All right. Number two, Jason. Dredge. I haven't heard from them since a disappointing album.
and I think, I don't know when that album came out in 2014. It seems like it's been a long time since we've heard from them. Yeah, but they've been teasing this new album for a few years now, so we'll see. I'm looking up, the last one was 2012. Wow. Was that the Mr. Chuckles and the Circus of Love or something? Whatever it was? Chuckles and Squeezy, or what is it? Just, yeah. Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy. Okay.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
So the last really good one was 2009.
Then the pariah,
the parrot,
the delusion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would love to see that.
That's a long ass time.
And they've teased it.
Just hasn't happened.
The guitar players in another band called black map.
Oh yeah.
I like that band.
Uh,
he,
so I think he's been busy with that.
And the bass player does something else.
And I'm not sure,
but the drummer has been,
He's toured with like crosses. I've seen him on tour with crosses and some other projects. Here's hoping. All right. Well, my number two is Evokin. Oh, nice. It's my standard for slow, unrelenting doom darkness. And I've, I've loved every single release they put out. Hypnagogia was their last album in 2018. So good. I mean, all their albums are fucking so good.
And, you know, I haven't heard a peep from this band. I haven't even heard, seen anything on social media, nothing. I have a little bit of hope, though, because next year is the 20th anniversary of their third album, Antithesis of Light. So I'm hoping for an appearance at the Decibel Metal and Beer Fest, because I know Albert loves the band. And if they added an album, a new album to 2020-25, that would be a good one.
be a pretty big return.
So it's time.
It's time for some new evoking.
Yep.
Nice.
All right, Matt.
My number two already mentioned something from either or both King Diamond or Merciful Fate.
Please.
King.
It's crazy, too, because there can be either or.
We don't care.
We just want one of them.
You might be waiting a while. Unfortunately. All right, my number two. Nobody will definitely have this on their list, and I never thought they would even be playing again until they got a surprise announcement that they're playing Prog Power, which I'll be at in a month and a half. Pagan's Mind is my number two. They haven't put an album out since 2011, their Heavenly Ecstasy album. Wow.
So yeah,
looking forward to seeing them.
I'm assuming they have new album to come out or they're just doing a one-off to come
over.
So,
right.
Cool.
High number two is,
um,
you might say,
uh,
there are still an active band.
So you're probably,
you could easily sort of be like,
well,
that wasn't so long ago,
but it was head cage,
head cage came out a while ago.
I want a new pig destroyer record.
Yeah.
Especially since head cage was so good.
And you know,
I expect that they'll probably work along in that vein moving on. And yes, your eyeballs imply that Blake died, but I think they'll... He was already out of the band, though. He left the band. Oh, had he left? I didn't know that. Or maybe I forgot that. Yeah. Anyway, time for a new Pig Destroyer. They just played some shows, so they're still around and still active, but they've always been a little slow. Yeah, no, they've been playing shows. Like, you know, last month, this month. Yeah, I want to say they did.
It's a mini tour or something.
All right.
My number two.
This is like the hopeless pick because they're never going to put anything out again.
Or charge.
They put out one album.
This is the one I trot out whenever we talk about things like this from 2005 when their last album, their first and only album came out.
Timeless Miracle into the Enchanted Chamber.
The greatest power metal album ever. I can't believe I didn't think of that because I know you bring that up all the time. I do. It's like it's power metal, but it's gritty power metal. It's catchy as fuck, but it's not wimpy. There's no literal cheese coming out of the guitars. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Are they still a band though, George? Well, you know, they're usually still listed as active and they've had
an album called Under the Moonlight TBA on their Wikipedia page for like 12 years. And sometimes you can find something from them on like YouTube or something where they're like playing part of a new song or something. But it's been 19 years and no new album. So I don't know what's going on in Sweden, I think is where they're from. So what's the name of this man? Timeless Miracle.
You've all listened to it and gone, George, this sucks. But I don't care. You can bite me. I mean, it's funny that it's called Timeless Miracle. I know, it sounds ridiculous. It's not a factor for this band. It'd be a miracle if they did really listen to it. That's true. That is ironic. They have songs about werewolves and the devil and cool stuff. I have to listen to this. I feel like I have not listened to it. You have, because you've ripped on it.
before. I have? Yeah. I don't remember that. Yeah. Go listen to it again. You can rip on it again. Yeah, next episode. You can tear it up. That sounds pretty fun. All right. All right. Let's wrap this up. Back to Jason for number one. Bring it on. An Icelandic progressive-ish rock metal band. I don't know what their genre is exactly, but Agent Fresco. Oh, wow. It's a band that's been teasing a new album. Their last album, Destiere, in 2015.
is one of my favorite albums of all time. Love it to death. And I've been waiting for a new one for a few years. They've been teasing it for a good since before the pandemic now, at least four or five years. Everything that comes out of Iceland is so dreamy. His voice, whatever, you know, all the flattering remarks I've heard about my voice on this podcast, multiply that by about a hundred. And that's how I feel about this.
I think in particular two other famous bands that have come out of there which is Bjork and Sigur Rós both of whom I like very much and Iceland just produces some really weird cool musical stuff if you ever get a chance to see Sigur Rós live I've seen him like five times I went um so good I saw the first time I saw him was on the parenthetical record I don't know what is the one that came after yeah that's the one yeah exactly and it blew me away blew me away
They're amazing. Good stuff. Mark is on. I like how that singer is the Jason Roberts. Like for me. Okay. Number one. Number one is Atlantean Codex. Their last album, The Course of Empire, dropped in 2019. It was my number one that year. And I think it's
It's one of the best epic metal albums of all time. And then their previous record, The White Goddess, was also my album of the year way back in 2013. So they do not do albums quickly. But just the breadth of the storytelling in their music, the lyrics, it just really speaks to me every time they release a new material. So it's been a tough wait to hear something from them. But I'm hoping for something in 2025, because there was
a six-year gap between the second and third albums. And now it's going to be six years in 2025. So fingers crossed that pattern continues. Six, six, six. A new record, yes. That would be great. Yeah, I listened to it today, actually, when I was finishing up notes for this podcast and blown away yet again. Right on. Matt? My number one, I get the impression that
Some of you have this on your list, but in light of recent news, you took it off. And I'll go back to what I first said when we started this list is I want actual proof. Okay. Trypticon. Like, I mean, artificial intelligence. I'm just saying the news you heard may be fictitious. Or factitious. Fictitious. Yeah.
You never know, Matt. Still a good pick. I mean, Carcass' new album was number one on my list for seven years before it actually came out. So, you know, this could be another thing. Yeah, unless if they hadn't made that announcement, it would have been pretty high on my list, too. Yeah. Yeah. John. Allegedly. Allegedly. Matt, I don't think AI could keep up with Hannes Grossman's prolific playing on albums for it to be fake.
So if he announce it, that shit's happening. When it happens, who knows? He's probably already recorded drums. He just does in his dreams. Exactly. Tom has yet to write the songs, but they're all done. He's done his parts, yeah. So my number one is interesting because the guitarist of this band has put out two solo albums that you could swear were albums for that band. They certainly are better than the last two albums.
from this band. And TR and I just saw them recently live because they're touring. We haven't had an album since 2015. So my number one is Symphony X. The last album came out in 2015 was Underworld. It's like, come on, guys, let's go. You've put out like one album in the last 15, 16 years. So I'm ready for some new material. Right on. Nice. So my number one could have been Possessed because I like the last record so much.
But I know that they are in the works. So something's going to happen. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. My number one has been mentioned several times, but it is the band I would most like to see something come out with. Let's say Sludge, Let's Get a New Record. Esoteric Malacology was just really one of my favorites the last 10 years. And also they had progressively gotten better with each previous record, building to that one. So I hope we'll see something.
And while we were talking, I skimmed Matt's Facebook page, and he hasn't mentioned music in a while. So I don't know. Yeah. Fingers crossed. All right, John, what's my number one? It's got your name in it. If you like, you know, work it around. But your number one is Throssenblatt. My number one is Throssenblatt. Yes. Remember Throssen, George? Has it been that long? Well, they've got the EP.
Yeah. So the thing is the last full album with the band was 2018 with Metathonia. Joel has released. That was 20, that was 2016. Sorry, 2016. Sorry, 2018 was a great Brunswick forest. Sorry. Yes. I don't know why I jumped over that one, but thank you for correcting me. He has released two EPs by himself since then where it was just Joel.
Nobody else. So good as they are, a full Thross and Blot album has not happened since 2018. So Joel, get on it. Have you talked to him lately, George? I talked to him before the anniversary episode. We were trying to get him to record something for, you know, the voicemails. And that was the last I heard. He's been busy the last few years.
It was cool that Chuck BB called in after the fact and left that voicemail because he forgot to do it for the 150th episode. Yeah, it's really good. And if you didn't hear that, it's on the end of the last episode after the outro music. All right, as all of them, we've got one thing left to do here. Yes. Pick from the rocket from the crypt.
Did Markisan explain this to you, Jason? Yeah. I guess I totally missed this part, so yeah. Just pick an old record. It would not have to be old, but just pick a record. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. I picked a record, didn't catch the title. I think Piano's Become the Teeth Keep You. I've been listening to it the last few days. It's definitely far from metal. It's very, like,
Post-Hardcore, almost dredgy. So Pianos Become the Teeth, Keep You is the record that I would pick. It's a very interesting name. Pianos Become the Teeth? Yeah. Yeah, they started out as like Screamo, Scram, sort of like that vein in the 2000s and just kind of graduated to a more melodic post-hardcore sound. Damn, I like that band.
That's a good one. Right on. All right. Well, Jay actually mentioned this band earlier, which is a kind of nice little segue from earlier. Taking you back to 2006 with this one, and it's Agaloc, Ashes Against the Grain, 2006. Like I said, and this is, as I've been doing on these, I used to write descriptions before I knew you guys.
when I would do the top 25. So this is what I wrote about it in 2006. Agaloc continues to stun me with their innovative and haunting sound. This is an absolutely gorgeous, atmospheric, melodic metal record filled with guttural growls, folk, psychedelia, and a touch of black metal. Ashes is nothing short of a sprawling emotional landscape with more dramatic twists than a Jack Bauer rescue attempt. The riffs on this record soar.
The Growls sound like some sort of ravenous demon clawing its way through a collapsing space portal. And every song is like a stark and desolate painting of a world waiting for hope. Agaloc has delivered one of the best metal records of the year. I can't wait to see what they come up with next. All the way back in 2006. Jack Bauer, which we've talked about Jack Bauer before on this podcast, but that was definitely of the times.
All right, Matt.
I'm kind of going to mention from our top five list.
It is Don't Break the Oath by Merciful Fate.
Classic.
Which you should listen to almost weekly.
But, you know, if you don't, that's your choice.
Make the Oath.
Listen to it weekly.
Right.
Okay, John.
All right, so with my pick, with my last pick, I had Opeth, Still Life.
And I got some like, well, that's not much of a crypt pick. Everybody knows that album. I might have got a comment like that from George. So I was like, all right, fine. I'll go. Even though now we've had Merciful Fate and Agaloc mentioned, which, you know, nobody's heard of those bands. So I went real deep. Yeah, exactly. Damn right. You better put some milk in that little jar or bowl. I went real deep to the point where this album is now out of print. You can't find it. Nobody's even selling it like on Discord.
There you go.
So it's something they can't find.
I love it.
It's so deep that I even forgot some of the albums.
I had to go back and listen to it.
The band doesn't even know they're on them.
Exactly.
My pick is a band called Digital Ruin.
And the album is Listen.
Came out in 1997.
It's an extremely dark progressive metal album in the vein of Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime.
but way darker to the point where I think that's why the band wasn't as successful because a lot of people didn't like how dark it was so but yeah I went so deep like everyone's like huh what never heard of it exactly because I kind of went the opposite way because the ones I've picked before were were kind of more obscure so I'm like I'm gonna pick one that's a little well less I most of mine have been obscure till still life kind of got what the hell's this everybody's
We don't talk like that at all, John. Yeah, that was a terrible imitation. Hi, Jay. That's your album. That's better. That's more us. This is the band whose output you could just randomly pick something and be pleased enough, but if you don't know them, you should know them. And if you're going to check them out, I'd suggest Memento Mori by Sog. Such a good band. That's probably my favorite record of
I like SOG3. Literally, it just kind of came to mind. And so now it has prompted me to listen to it. So I'm going to have to listen to it tonight. That's a really good record. Nice. Yes. But you can't go wrong with any of their records. You know, if you're really going to go deep, you should probably go back to the first one. But George. All right. So I've got a twofer because this band put out two albums. Actually, they might have put out a third album. But I chose two of their albums.
Back to Back, 1988, 1989. There is a current band by this name, but this is not that band. This is the band from the 80s, Sabbat, or Sabbat, depending on who you are and how you pronounce it. History of a Time to Come, 1988, and Dreamweaver, 1989, featuring some guy you may have heard of called Andy Sneap on guitars.
And Martin Walkeer on vocals, perhaps you've heard of his other band, but maybe not, Skyclad. And this was, sorry to say the word thrash, but kind of thrashy, late 80s British metal. And it was quirky, as Martin's stuff tends to be. Well, well respected, by the way. I mean, people, they have a following, like, I'm trying to think about it.
I'll think of it while you talk. That was about all I had to say, really. So, you know, good stuff. I think I have at least one of them on the set. Who had that record King of the Dead with this? That's Sirith Ungle. Yeah. So Sabat or Sabat or whatever is sort of like them. They have this dedicated group of followers to just a couple of records they put out in the mid-80s, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
George.
It's good for Andy Snead, by the way.
He managed to make a nice little career for himself.
Indeed.
Up to and including being in Judas Priest almost long enough for John to fight for his pride.
He's part of that cover band version of them.
So.
It's not like he's been in the band as long as Scott Travis.
Travis Scott.
What the hell's his name?
Scott Travis or Travis Scott?
You got it.
No, you got it.
Yeah.
Yeah, so Travis. Freaking me out there for a second. There's no point remembering his name, George, until you're sure he's going to stick around. Yeah. He's got to put in at least three decades. When we were talking about Jay's postcards, I wanted to bring this up, but it just got lost in the weeds. But something, Jay kind of took a shot at me on the postcard. He said, maybe let the Scott Travis thing go. So I literally just cut that part out of the picture to let him know I got this.
And I sent it to him and I just wrote my response. No. No. Nice. All right. Maybe I got the postcard from you now. I haven't checked the mail yet. You will. I hope you will. I mean, I certainly sent you one. I tried to personalize them all to you, too, so we'll see what happens. I mean, I tried to pick a photo that would work for you and pick on your weak points like I did with John. That's not a weak point.
Markson's like, I don't have weak points. That's a defense. I do. That's not true, George. Rainbows, bitch. Rainbows. That's right. All right, well. I want to see Skittles all over your face one day, Markson. That is the weirdest request I've ever heard, but I like it. You don't know the expression, taste the rainbow? Taste the rainbow. But you've got to whisper that, though. Taste the rainbow.
I yell things on this podcast. I'm going to interrupt you all to thank Jason for being so... That's where I was headed. We appreciate you spending the time with us. Yeah. Sorry if I ruined segments and whatnot. How would you do that? This is a hard podcast to really ruin. Have you listened to us at all tonight? No. Yeah, mostly what is there. As long as something comes out of our mouth, it works, you know. Yes. You participated, you were fun, had good stories. We really liked that.
I really love the new record so I hope it does well for you. Somehow three and a half hours have passed and it's didn't even didn't even feel like it at all. I know it's just hanging out with friends man. No I appreciate you guys having me on it's been awesome. Yeah that's the by the way that's the funny he's talking. Yeah glad to have you on. Right. Actually with the gummies you could be like it's been like 12 hours. Come on. Hey man I haven't moved from this chair in like 15. Somebody said
Something about rainbows? Jason also wins Best Beard Award as a shot guest in the podcast. Come on. And by the way, much respect for just embracing the gray. And it looks good. Yeah. That's why I don't grow mine, because it's gray. But not because I'm a studded. Well, no, also, I just look like an idiot. I've gone past gray. I've gone white. I still have a lot more black than Jason does. And I'm older. Look at Matt. Matt never seems to produce a gray hair. What the fuck's going on?
Right here. You got a couple in there. Okay. Yep. They're mostly in his nose. Before my children were born, it was all black. Oh, I'm sure. Kids will do that, huh? Yeah, they'll do it. Yeah. All right. Well, you're a prince, sir, and it's nice to see you, fellas. Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, guys. Have a great rest of your evening and weekend. We'll talk to you later. Bye. All right, guys. Bye.
FIGHT!