Metalheads Podcast Episode #154: Unapologetically Satanic

This episode we talk with writer, editor and avid Metalheads Podcast listener, Holly Interlandi, about writing Gene Simmons' Dominatrix and her Last Song comic books, her time as editor on Famous Monsters of Filmland, and how she got into heavy music. Holly also reveals the 3 Albums that Would Help People Get to Know Her Better, then helps us break down the latest in Metal News, New Releases and What We've Been Listening To. Plus, Picks from the Crypt and Top 5 Bands We Want to Play at Decibel Metal & Beer Fest Philly. 

What is Metalheads Podcast?

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

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Hello and welcome to the Metalheads Podcast.

My name is George.

This is Jake. This is Will.

This is John.

This is the situational paradox.

And this is Markisan.

And with us tonight is Holly Interlandi.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Writer, editor, comic book creator, and most importantly, avid poster on the Metalhead's Facebook page.

Welcome to the cast, Holly.

Indeed.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm very excited about this.

Awesome.

So I guess we just want to talk about what you do because you are a comic writer.

And we started talking because I love one of your comics that you did, The Last Song.

Yeah, and I love your comics as well.

I remember reading Voracious before I even knew who you were. Have you tried any of the recipes? I haven't. I haven't. That'll be a new challenge. Hard to get the ingredients. They're pretty fun. Yeah. It was cool with that too because we started off with our recipes and then we got real chefs to do recipes. So some of them are pretty good. But how did you get cooking and writing? How'd you start off?

I was one of those annoying people who decided I wanted to be a writer when I was 12 years old. I was 12 and I was like, yeah, I want to write stories. And I think I had just finished reading a Robert R. McCammon novel. And I was like, this is so amazing. I want to make people feel that. I didn't actually get into writing comics until I was like late 20s. I've always been a writer.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer too. One of my, well actually two of my uncles are writers, like published writers. One of them was even friends with Carl Sagan back when he was a person. Oh wow. Yeah, a real writer. But anyway, I, so you know, I tried my hand at writing in like fourth grade, fifth grade, you know, total bullshit stuff. But my favorite thing to do was write, I guess it would be called fan fiction these days. It was like Conan porn writing.

From a fifth grade perspective, of course. Fanfiction is the best, man. It's a bad rap, but everybody hones their craft on fanfiction, regardless of what you call it. Yeah. Loved me some Conan. Anyway, sorry to interrupt. Are you reading the current Conan from Titan Comics? I am not. Wait. I am. It's great. I'm reading the Savage Sword magazine is awesome. Did it start like a year or two ago or in old man jobs, maybe three or four? Okay, I read the first few. I just haven't kept up.

They have a big crossover now, the Blackstone. They're crossing over with comics, the magazine, and with a novel. So it's like all one story, which is pretty fun. Yeah, back in the late 80s and up through the mid-90s, I was pretty addicted to comic books. And so at some point, I went cold turkey and stopped because it was just kind of ridiculous how much I was spending every week. I'd go into the comic book.

They'd try to lift the pile of my reserved comics onto the thing. And, you know, it just had to, it was, I had to stop the madness. And so, but I still, every once in a while, pick stuff up. I feel like everyone has a drought of some kind, like however long it lasts. You grow up with comics. And then in my case, you stop reading them for 10 years for whatever reason, while you work on a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing, condemning yourself to a life of poverty.

As one does, really. Major creative writing. Oh, God. What did I do to myself? What did I do? It's crazy, yeah. I know I did it, too. Although it worked out pretty well for me. I'm pretty happy. But yeah, so I got into your stuff from the last song. You've done quite a few projects with comics and music. And I just wanted to see, like, how did that first come about for you, that connection between the two?

Well, it actually first came about because I wrote Last Song as a novel when I was in college, like 20-odd years ago. More than that. God, I'm old. It's been a long time. Anyway, yes, I wrote Last Song as a novel in college, and I tried to get it published for 20 years as prose. And then I got to working at a comic shop, reading comics, and making comic book connections.

And I had never, until that point, I had never really thought about turning it into a comic book. But I met and made friends with Matt Pozzolo, who's in charge of Black Mask Studios. And he would hang out with us at Meltdown Comics RIP in Hollywood, which is where I worked for many years. And I basically, I told him that I'd been trying to tell this story for 20 years, and I pitched it to him. And I was like, we could do it as a black and white rock and roll comic.

And he was into it. He actually took a shot on it. On this black and white, 64-page per-issue, slice-of-life, rock-and-roll, sex-directors rock-and-roll kind of book that probably no other publisher would have touched with a 10-foot pole. So I was very lucky to have met him. And it just so happens that the story I wanted to tell the most for many years was a rock-and-roll story.

And that's also because metal and rock has been such a mainstay in my life since I was a teenager.

Why don't you talk about that a little bit? How did that come about?

Well, here's the thing. I sort of got into metal. I want to say I got into metal backwards because I grew up in the 90s.

And most people my age have stories about a dad or a sibling or somebody who got them into metal. Who brought them aside and showed them all their records or showed them videos of the 80s. Like, here's, you know, this is Slayer. And you'd be like, whoa! And so many people have that story. I don't. Nobody in my family was into metal. I had to do it myself. I mean, my family, my parents were in a folk band.

And, you know, they were into Led Zeppelin, but that's as heavy as it got. And so I had to basically dig into it from bands that I was listening to as a teenager in the 90s, like Silverchair. I would listen to, like, I was really into Silverchair and I would listen to, like, interviews with them and they'd be like, oh, you know, you gotta check out this Helmet record or, oh, you know, our biggest influence is Black Sabbath or blah, blah, blah.

So because of that, I got into bands who were influenced by their early metal bands before I got into those early metal bands, if that makes sense. Like, I was listening to Cannibal Corpse before I ever heard, like, Slayer. And I was listening to Cradle of Filth before I even owned any Iron Maiden records. So it was very, like, very backwards.

You backed into it. Backed into it gently.

I did. I backed into it. But luckily enough, my sister got married to a rocker who did grow up in that time period and enlightened me on. Because I realized when I was in high school or when I was in college, too, my metal record collection stopped after Black Sabbath and then started at Metallica. And there was nothing in between. And I was like, that's got to be fixed. So what was your first metal band and how did you come about it?

I guess you could say my first metal band. Probably, I mean, Helmet doesn't really count because they're more hardcore. They're like the first heavy band I got into. I guess you could say the first metal band I got into was Tool because it was 1994 and Undertow had just come out. That was what everybody was listening to. So yeah, Tool and then

just all the stuff that was coming out then like Deftones, Helmet, you know, I don't want to say

I don't want to say nu metal because I was never into Limp Bizkit or anything like that.

Matt was.

Yeah?

For like 10 minutes.

No, hey.

But all the other bands you're talking to, I mean, Helmet, I completely cut my teeth on Meantime.

That was such an influential album in my life.

Also, I like that Marcus song was like, hold on, let me kick Matt in the balls real quick.

Yeah, no, I have a bag of ice right here, so I'm good to go. Crazy, sweetie, he's tough. So how did you get from it? Sorry, the new metal badge of courage, or sorry, what do I say? The new metal letter. Sorry, I'm confusing all those books. The new metal scarlet letter? I have my sweater that has an N and an M on it with an umlaut, and that's the cross. I was a corn fan. I was wearing giant corn t-shirts and big baggy jeans and wallet chains. Henceforth it will be known as... That was me in 1997.

New Metal.

Oh jeez.

That's terrible.

You know what?

The funny thing is I had this, I've been just so like retrospective in what I listen to these days.

And there is a piece of me that wants to like make a documentary about New Metal to figure out where did this come from?

Like how did this even like come to fruition?

And I blame, in some ways I blame Sepultura, you know, as they were going out and then, you know, some other influences that came in.

But I shouldn't say I blame Sepultura, but I feel like the end of Sepultura, as we know it, really was a heavy influence on Nu Metal. Well, Roots was kind of Nu Metal. Yeah, it really gave birth. But I mean, when you're into Nu Metal, you really, and again, when I was unaware of everything good beyond that or behind it or the influences, because everything else, you know, grunge kind of killed a lot of what was going on. And this is a huge tangent, so I should probably stop talking. No, you shouldn't. Anyways, yes. Keep going. Wait, Matt.

Isn't there a Metal Evolution episode

where they talk about new metal?

Yeah, I think so.

Yes.

I think there is.

Yeah, no.

It absolutely is.

But those things are so cheap.

He's always like, I need to understand power metal.

And so he goes and talks to Ross, the boss,

and he goes, now I understand power metal.

So it's not very exhaustive.

Well, you know, Matt.

It's a new metal episode, yeah.

Matt, at least you started there and then figured it out.

I started out proper in the 80s.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I still have three Limp Bizkit CDs in my collection. Everybody's got to start somewhere. In the early mid 90s, there wasn't a lot going on with metal. I mean, death metal, black metal. Yes. But I mean, on the larger stage, that was what was going on. Commercial metal, you mean? Yeah. And so I was just like, what is this? It took so long to get into 80s stuff because I had to go backwards.

And nobody I knew was into it. So I was like, I need. Yeah. And it's not like the record stores were crowded with it or anything. Yeah, no, it was, you know, it was the mid 90s. So stuff that happened in the 80s was uncool. Yeah. I mean, my first, we were rejecting it. My first Slayer record was Seasons. My first Slayer concert was on the Dialobus tour. So if that says anything, right. So that's kind of, you know, in a sense is a backward step. Yeah. I don't care what anybody says. Diabolus is a good album.

It is.

Kiss my ass.

But it was with Fear Factory and Kilgore.

Fear Factory is cool.

Which is an interesting.

I like Fear Factory.

A couple albums.

Yeah.

First couple up through Demanufacture anyway.

And then maybe a little bit after that.

Yeah.

I feel like they were pretty big for a time.

A couple albums there.

They were.

And they toured a ton.

Yeah.

I mean, Demanufacture blew my fucking mind when that came out.

I saw the one after that too.

It was so heavy.

I think I saw them on.

Didn't they tour on the Gigantor?

I think I saw them on that tour.

I saw them open for Iron Maiden in Detroit. At Harpo's. And this was, of course, the... At Harpo's? At Harpo's. Yeah, Iron Maiden played Harpo's because this was the Blaze year. This was the X Factor tour or one of those. I have to ask real quick, George, where did you stand? Did you stand in the pit, in the mid-level, or up towards the back? I was on the bar level. Bar level, yes. That's right. I did the pit and bar level once there. I saw Manowar there once. Manowar there once, too.

I've only been there a couple times.

Yeah.

Oh, I wouldn't want to be in the pit for Manowar.

No.

With those loincloths, you're looking up at them.

Yeah.

Hey, you know, I never thought I'd be seeing them again, but Keith D and I are going to Brooklyn at the King's Theater in Brooklyn in New York.

You're going to King's Theater?

Yeah.

That place is supposed to be awesome.

Yeah, that was, I mean, what did we just, I just saw somebody just played there.

Opeth just played there.

Yeah, yeah.

Place is supposed to be awesome.

Yeah, it looks like a really nice place.

Every time I've seen a man-o-war, it's been, well, other than Harpo's, which is a decent, you know, it's a dive, but I mean, it's still a real place. It's big though, actually. But I saw them at like Sonar in Baltimore. Oh, you know, fucking hole in the wall. Which room at Sonar? There's like three rooms there, remember? I don't know. It was small. Can I be where all of you are, like geographically? I am in Maryland. Okay. That's it. Nobody else anywhere. Yeah.

Northern Virginia for me along with Will. Which is why we're bitching about distance. And I live in Southeast Arizona. I'm in Minneapolis. Chicago. All over the place. Yeah. Mostly East Coast and then well no that's not true anymore. What three East Coast two Midwest and one. Yeah. I mean Will John and George are pretty close. We're within an hour near each other. Yeah. They're like 10 minutes.

or whatever.

With stoplights.

I'd like to find out that it's been probably 10 minutes since we asked the question in this interview.

And she asked it.

I just needed to get, like, you know, my visuals going.

No, no, no.

I just, I feel like we're doing good information.

Oh, I had a follow-up, which was, how did you get from tool to extreme metal?

Oh, I didn't actually get into extreme metal until college.

All right.

Most of my high school years were... What got me into extreme metal was an unusual path. I got really into Japanese visual K and Japanese metal. Marcus-san, you know that I'm a huge Darren Gray fan. Me too. Yeah. And that was just one of the bands that I was listening to in college and beyond. Most of the mid-2000s, I was listening to all that kind of like...

like we can we can do this one second and then scream for a second and then howl for a second and then all of that because the what was cool about the visual k scene at least back then was that um being in the visual k scene meant that you could basically do whatever you wanted musically as long as as long as it was like had some element of metal in it so it would go back and forth between extreme and sing along and melodic and whatever you wanted um so after you know after i got into a bunch of that that's

I went backwards again and started looking into more extreme metal in general aside from just the visual case stuff like you know I think my first I think my first extreme metal band that wasn't Japanese was like Amanomarth you know and then I think it was like from there was or no way maybe it was maybe it was in flames I don't know how extreme they are though at the time they were you know melodic I

I loved Inflames back at the time. Yeah. Well, speaking of Japanese, were you into Psy? I wasn't. No, but are you now? No, I'm not familiar. You don't know Psy? Oh, you should. I have a bunch of other Japanese bands I was going to bring up. Are you into Boris? Am I into what, Sue? Boris. Oh, Boris. Oh, Boris. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, I better hear loudness. Thunder in the East. My friend Rich would kill me if I didn't

He grew up in Japan. Oh, okay. Well, one of my formative records is not loudness, but loudness adjacent. So, but yeah. And you're just not going to tell us what it was. Oh, well, I am, but I haven't been asked. So I wanted to like, you know, honor the order of the podcast. All right. Well, I'm asking. Sorry. Anybody into Japanese, Visual K and Metal,

It wouldn't exist, basically, without X-Japan.

Oh, yeah.

I just got into X-Japan in college, so I had to go, rectally go backwards.

Their first record is great.

Vanishing Vision is, like, entirely thrashed.

But the record that really, like, cemented them,

and the one that, like, flows through my veins, like,

as, like, you know, I know these songs so well, I could probably,

like, it's just ridiculous, is Blue Blood from 1989.

And that's the one where X-Japan sort of, they started putting sing-along rock songs in between the thrash stuff. So it was like, really heavy thrash, and then sing-along rock, and then really heavy thrash, and then ballad, and then thrash, and then sing-along, and then prog, and all sorts of random, like that album goes in millions of different places. But the actual, the famous tracks on there, like just Weekend, and

and, you know,

Kodonai, like that stuff is just so ingrained in my soul.

Like it, it, it's just feels,

I don't know. I, I wouldn't be me without all those songs.

I really wouldn't. And it's not my favorite X,

my Fair Doc song is actually Dahlia, but, but that,

that album is like half ballads. So.

I got to go Obi-Wan on you and be like,

X Japan, that it's a name I haven't heard in a very long time.

You knew they were cutting edge when they put the X in front of their name and not after their name. Yeah. Well, when they released Blue Blood in 89, they were still just called X. But that's because they didn't know that X existed. They didn't know X was X. Yeah, exactly. Damn it. Did they have MTV? Come on. X was on there all the time. They decided they wanted to like reach out into an international market. So they were like, oh shit. So in like 1992, they were like, quick, add something.

I just completely taking a left turn here but next time somebody asks us where we all are let's say we're all in different rooms of the same house yeah it's like one of those MTV things you know it's a really big house yeah we'll put it in a dream location somewhere I'm in the dungeon I'd be in the attic I think light no light Jay well I can't decide the sun's going down

It's getting dark in here, but three. Oh, wait 4:30. Oh, I mean, not dark yet. We're actually, where are you? Holly? We didn't ask you or LA. Los Angeles. Okay. I moved out here from San Francisco Bay area, by the way. So, oh, okay. Yeah. Last year in October, I was there for 20 years, but I love LA man. I like it's a bad rap. I think it's great. Yeah. I love it too. Hey, Jay, you're not from the Bay area, right? Yeah.

So I don't have to hate L.A. Jones. Yeah. And I don't hate the Dodgers either. Sorry, buddy. Oh, God. Don't go down that rabbit hole, please. Just like acid pouring from the ceiling of my house right now. Well, yeah, sorry about that. I'll be sure not to mention the Dodgers. Tough year for John. Fuck, man. Had they just lost, everything would be fine. Except that then that means the Yankees would have won. Yeah. I don't understand how that's better.

We don't either. Well, if you're a Giants fan in your group in San Francisco, that would be better. The Freddie Freeman storyline was a lot of fun. It was, man. I'm glad for him. I agree. That's like the Mr. October. During the season, everybody was focused on Shohei, and then it was like postseason, all of a sudden Freddie Freeman was. But the Freeman story was great because of his son and everything, too. Yeah, that's part of it. But that first walk-off, man, that first walk-off was sad. Yeah, I'm sorry.

It always happens every cast. It happens, we do it. But isn't it funny that Jay made the first comment about how we deviated off the road for 10 minutes without asking a question and then here he goes deviating off the road. You know what? I was like, let's talk about something I want to talk about. You can only deviate on my path. Well, I definitely want to talk to you about some of the music comics that you've written.

You did that dominatrix. I don't actually ever finish. I didn't. Well, I didn't. We finished it, but the last issue never got released as Opus went bankrupt before it happened. Right. And that was Gene Simmons's comic. So I want to find out first if you if you worked closely with him on the comic at all. I mean, not. I mean, you know, we had like a two hour long phone call before I started writing. Yeah.

She's not gonna dog him

I thought how you would expect

I mean he's a

you know

self obsessed but not

not mean just just sort of like

you know

yeah I used to watch his Gene Simmons

I used to watch his reality show

and I was kind of like

yeah yeah he's all about the whole like

rock star like porny kind of stuff

but he seems like a nice guy

Yeah, no, he's not, he's not like, everyone's like, oh, so-and-so is such a dick or whatever. It's like, no, he's not a dick. He's just self-obsessed, like most rock stars. Yeah, that's right. It's a job requirement. He also doesn't care if you call himself obsessed. I think he would say, yep. Well, yeah, he knows it. He knows it. And what I do, what I do respect about him is that his mind still goes, like, still wants to be creative, like, he still has, he's not like, oh, yeah, I'm done with Kiss, now I'm done thinking and done being.

done like making stuff up it's like no it's like he's really into like

this storytelling and dominatrix and and and just um the world that he wants to create so i really

respect that that's cool it's too bad it didn't finish an opus i know i've i've been i keep trying to

like bribe other publishers to be like hey like my editor from opus uh is doing magma comics right now

I keep wanting to be like, hey, do you want to put out a train? Do you want to dominate? Maybe it'd be better at Dynamite, where they have like Purgatory and Vampirella and all those other things. It would fit in, although now they're doing like Disney shit. So that's kind of a strange juxtaposition for them. Is it finished? Like, is the whole comic finished? It's finished, yeah. The whole comic is finished. This fourth one just didn't come out. I've got the fourth one if you want to read it. I do. Yeah, I definitely want to read it. Sure. You've got it with?

illustrations and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was finished and letter. What was the one? What did you, did I miss what, why the, why the fourth one didn't come out? The publisher folded. The publisher folded. Oh, they folded. Okay. Yeah. They did a lot of music comics and, uh, yeah, well, because they started with, um, they started, uh, with, uh, a website, like a retail website, Incendium, that had a bunch of, uh, metal band properties already. And so they were already selling like cradle filth figures and like, you know, I think Hammerfall

was one they had and and exodus and a whole bunch of other band stuff that they were selling from the website and so that's what that's um when they that's why they got into music comics in the first place i haven't said much but i will say this one thing send you them because i ordered some like dio and murray like large figure and never showed up i emailed them they're like go yourself so i never got my small scale murray the one from super seven yeah those are all oh did super seven do it or incendium

I thought Incendium was the one that was doing those Murray figures. No, I got a small one from Super 7 with Dio, but then I ordered the big one from Incendium and never got it, paid whatever, $40, $50 for it, never got it, emailed them, never heard a response. Well, obviously after they folded, I guess. You don't have to talk nice about them to me. I hope you got paid before they went belly up. It's funny because this will kind of come up again later. We're not going to talk about that.

With one of our new releases. But yeah. I wonder what you were saying there for a second. It took me a second to catch on to that. So this last comic is sort of like the Wu-Tang Clan album of comics. Like that album that nobody, there's only one. I guess. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a digital copy. Well, if it is, then I suggest you sell it for a million dollars like they did Wu-Tang.

Did you know that written into that contract that Wu-Tang contract they sold that record to that Martin Skrilli piece of shit guy? Yeah. And written into the contract was that and this is true I'm not making this up that it was solely his and it belonged to his but if they could have it back to sell on a wider range if Bill Murray could somehow steal it. Nah. That is awesome. That's a very cool. Bill Murray specifically. Yeah. Bill Murray.

I don't know why they put that in but they literally said if Bill Murray can somehow steal this out of your apartment you can't fucking complain it's our record again and we can do it what we want it's a true story I don't know if they know Bill Murray or if they were just being cheeky or what but so I'm thinking that we could work that into this comic sale well that'd be awesome they could put together a strike team to get Bill Murray into that apartment and get it back it's so specific it's so specific yeah

All right, Mark, son, you want to put us back on the rails? Sure, sure. One of the things you've done a lot of, Holly, is you've been an editor. So you've edited for Famous Monsters for a long time, which is really cool, and the Frazettaverse. Can you talk about your editing work first at Famous Monsters, how that came about, and what you were doing there? Before you start, can I just say I love Famous Monsters? Oh, great. Cool. I love it.

Yeah.

You just went up like 10 marks in my book.

Oh.

Excellent.

I should have mentioned it earlier.

Yeah.

No, I was hired as a copy editor, actually, fresh out of my first corporate retail bookstore job at Barnes & Noble.

And because I had been like editing and writing and stuff all since college.

So they hired me as a copy editor.

It was sort of a matter of being the one still standing. People kept dropping flies by the rest of the staff. Everybody was either insane or just not really committed. I don't know. It was a crazy time. But I had a lot of fun. And I ended up as the executive editor in 2017, finally, after, as I said, being the last one.

Hey kid, do you know how to do this? Yeah, I think I can do it. Here you go. Yeah, I can do it. I can do it. And I also... Is that published out of LA then? It was published out of LA for a while. And then in 2016, the owner moved it back up to where he lived in Santa Rosa. So that was where... It's still coming out, isn't it? Is it still around? Yeah, well, under new ownership. Is it? Okay. Yeah, yeah. And even the guy who bought

He invited me to the Film Fest for free. He's a cool dude. They're mostly doing events right now. I think they've done one issue. I was going to say, I don't think it's a monthly anymore. I saw it not long ago somewhere, but it might have been a quarterly thing or something. I don't know. Yeah. Well, when I took over, we had an annual. It was like a 250-page annual that we put out every year.

I did a independent comic book publisher in we started in 2015 and it came about because my my my publisher got the rights to two unfilmed lost in space teleplays from the original 1960s tv show from yeah and he and he and he was he was like you know we need to do something we could make these into comic books and he sort of came to me and he's like hi you know we have these because he knew I was the comic book person and so he's like holly we have these you know we got these losses we

I want to turn into comic books can you do that I was like yeah so suddenly we had a comic book publishing company that we took forever to name because you're like I think we I think we ended up in American Gothic Press because people told us that people actually pay more attention in the previous catalog to the beginning of the alphabet like like they actually they actually when they're reading like the the comics that are being solicited they

actually stopped caring like about halfway through the alphabet so you're like okay we need we need this is this needs to be like we need to start with an a publishers told me that when i was doing voracious it's like the phone book it's like a phone book man that's why there's like triple a towing and you know stuff like that yeah it's true it's true they were telling you can we rethink the title yes because as a v originally it was called cretaceous but i never quite liked that and then voracious came about as part

It was a perfect title for the book.

Yeah.

So it works.

I mean, we still did pretty well with the book, but yeah, it was like almost the exact same title.

But yeah, they told me that there's like, you might want to rethink it and do something towards the beginning of the alphabet.

And I mean, by the horns is towards the beginning.

I didn't do that on purpose.

I just, I just picked the title that fits.

I don't really care, but it does seem to matter a lot to publishers.

It does.

I love that I just learned that.

That is amazing.

Okay.

Okay, but now, see,

now there needs to be some metal song

where they actually rhyme voracious with cretaceous.

Yeah.

That would be the greatest lyrical accomplishment.

That will definitely be a song or album by the ocean.

I was thinking the Wu-Tang that you mentioned before.

Anyways, go ahead, Holly.

So yeah, we did a bunch of,

We eventually had a big slate of mostly sci-fi horror comics. My publisher had a lot of... He wanted to be a filmmaker, so he had a lot of ideas in his head about stories he could tell. And then we would hire writers to do... We hired Steve Niles to do some, and we hired Paul Tobin, and we hired a bunch of other people to write the stories. And I was basically in charge of all of it. I was doing all of it with the artists.

and scripts and writers and setting deadlines and writing solicits and all that fun stuff. So, and all that experience is what led Denton Tipton, who was with Opus, that's what led him to hire me at Opus, because they were the ones doing the Frisetta stuff. Right. Although amusingly enough, my experience with the Frisetta didn't start there. It started at Famous Monsters in 2013 when we were working with Hermes Press to put out a,

the memoirs of Frank Frisetta Jr. as an art book. And oh, I could get into that story. I really could. That was an interesting experience. But Frisetta was part of my life way before I was hired by Opus to do Frisettaverse stuff. It just felt like coming home. So we were doing Death Dealer and then Dawn Attack and all of other things. But it was the same. I apologize.

Did you deal with his son? Or was he gone? In 2013 we were dealing directly with his son. The Opus had the Frazetta rights and they were talking to the Frazetta girls. Sarah Frazetta and all that. Which is pretty big right now. They've really grown that into something huge. Yeah. They have. Is it like a museum now and stuff?

Publishing and Print they're doing toys prints every pretty much everything and Sarah's like in charge of all that and the comics they do all these comics based on his drawings and it's a it's pretty big business now doing the Gene Simmons thing yeah yeah if it exists we can market it pretty much pretty much like we talked to various guests from time to time that

make me feel so unimportant like really interesting stuff to be involved in that's really cool

she's like a hike

you did a lot of important work and uh now you just get to relax

yeah man god uh god i wish i could retire yeah that's all i want to do is retire

I mean I was still right but like you know like the the busy work and the stuff that makes money is what I would stop doing what are you working on Holly what am I working on now I'm I'm I'm editing a series of new prose short stories that Steve Niles is writing new Kyle MacDonald prose short stories he's been a friend of mine for many many years and I've been I've edited for him for a long time so that don't know he did a 30 days of

Night, like a pretty big comic and a movie. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, and his favorite character that he's created is named Cal McDonald, who's like this boozing LA drug hound. Let me ask a behind-the-scenes question then, too. What did he think of the movie? He liked it. I loved it. I liked it, too. Me, too. I thought it was great, too. I haven't asked Ben Templesmith what he thought of it, but I know Steve liked it.

Yeah. And was he, did he have a hand on it a little bit? Or was it sort of like, I hand you over my property and then off you go? Or do you know? I mean, it was, you know, I think they kept him in the loop, but it was, it, he didn't work like directly on set or anything like that. Yeah. That's a really good movie, actually. Yeah. No, it's, it's really good. I love it. I think it's awesome. Very underrated. I thought about that when I went to Norway. I know it's, I know it's not in Norway, but Norway.

does have, you know, midnight sun.

That whole Scandinavian, like, you know, in the winter, they have like three hours of sunlight.

I'm convinced that's why there are so many amazing Scandinavian metal bands.

Because, like, they just, they, you know, they go through winter and then they emerge in the other side of the darkness with, like, the fury of a thousand dead Vikings.

Yeah.

Exactly.

My sister lives in Tromsø, Norway, which is up at the tippy top.

And, you know, I saw this thing about Svalbard the other day, which is, of course, where the polar bears live.

and a very small population of people. And I was like, I wonder how far away that is. It's only 500 miles from where my sister lives. Which, I mean, 500 miles is, you know. I mean, 500 miles is a ways. It's a ways, but that's like here to Michigan. From like, you know, Maryland to Michigan. I mean, okay, it's not insignificant, but that's where polar bears are. I bet there's a significant difference in the temperature.

Yeah. I mean, I've, I've, I've been to Tromso and it is fucking amazing. So, um, I mean, it is the middle of fucking nowhere. So, and it's beautiful, but. I would die. I can't, I can't deal with the cold like that. I would just, just. Yeah. It was California girl. It was a nice 50 degrees in August. Mark, it's not Southern California. Trust me. It's not that warm in San Francisco. No. Oh yeah. San Francisco is pretty.

It's pretty like moderate temperature all year round. No, it's not. San Francisco is foggy and raining and freezing. It is? No, it's not. Where Jay was, it was, Jay, you could back me up. It's like a 15, 20 degree difference sometimes between San Francisco and the East Bay. It's crazy. It's funny, John, when I was in the East Bay, though, I was in this weird tunnel where... Did you get hit with everything you came across the bridge? Yeah, and so I was actually cold all the time. Yeah, I was always cold. Every time I go down to LA, it's like, wow, it is warm.

all the time down here compared to where I'm from. This is amazing. I don't know. I mean, I woke up this morning and took my dog out and it was 45 degrees. I was pretty cold. Oh, was it? Yeah, but then like it's 70 and everyone down there's more in jackets. You know, I mean, come on. What part of LA are you in? I'm in the valley right now. In the valley. Yeah, just like right outside the right above where the 405 like goes into the valley. The 405. On the side of Lake Balboa.

Yes, that's very California-heavy. It is. I know the area. I know it. You can't help it. That's where you live. Did you go to the Decibel Medal and Beer Fest when it was in L.A.? I didn't. When was it in L.A.? Because if I had known it was here, I would have been there in a heartbeat. I mean, it was pre-COVID. It was a couple years ago, yeah. No, Holly, it might have been 2018 or 17. It's been a while. I must have been working so hard I didn't even notice.

But in the late, from like 2018 to 2019, I was doing so much Famous Monsters stuff and just trying to stay afloat and make money. It was like... Go to Denver now. They have it there, which would be a nice little trip from LA. Yeah, that's not so far. It's not a bad flight at all. Yeah, they do it every year there now. I kind of like the lineups a little more in Denver. The last few I have, definitely. The last two have been... On the other hand, Holly lives in a place where if there's a tour, it's coming through. I mean, you know. Yeah. That's true. One of the great things about it.

Well, that's, that's, that's, that's, it, this, it sounds like ridiculous, but that's like a large part of the reason that I moved here when I did, because, because I was like, you know, I was a teenager and I was like, I was living in Nashville, Tennessee, by the way, before, before it was the hopping place that did nap, like it was dead in the nineties. No, nobody did anything in the nineties in Nashville. Like it was like, and nobody ever came. So of course I was like, fucking hell.

I'm going somewhere where I don't have to worry about that anymore. It wasn't overrun by beer-driven bicycle people with bridesmaids. I mean, I'm sure it was, but that's not the scene that I was, you know. I mean, me and my friends would hang out at Tower Records until midnight because that was the best thing I did when I was in high school. The best thing ever. I was hanging out of Tower. Oh, man. R.I.P.

That actually brings up another LA thing, which is what are your favorite record stores there? I mean... Come on. We know the answer to that. Come on! Well, maybe we do. It might be different. Let's see. I am in love with Amoeba. I try to go there, like, you know, regularly just because it, you know, fuels my soul. But there's also a great, a great record place in the Valley up here over in Tarzana called, it's actually called CD Trader because when they first, like, emerged,

They were doing almost all used CDs and stuff, but now they do mostly vinyl, of course. It's really cool. Of course, it's not nearly as big as Amoeba, but they've got a nice indie sensibility and a really good selection. A really good metal selection, too. Every time I go there, they've got the newest extreme metal releases. That's no joke, though, when we mentioned Amoeba. I think Amoeba was the answer we were expecting. What's that, Sean? It's no joke when anyone who talks about going to any of the three Amoebas, they're all awesome.

They're all different, too. The Berkeley one is the least of them. It's the smallest, yeah. And then the San Francisco one's a bowling alley, a former bowling alley, but the one on Sunset. Was that a bowling alley? Yeah. That used to be the old Rock and Bowl. The LA one used to be a bowling alley, but then they had to move. So now they're in the middle of Hollywood. It's a little smaller now. Oh, so that's right. They moved off that one, that massive one from before that had the upstairs? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That one was...

It's still like it's it's sort of like two levels but it's not it's not like that other one was freaking awesome massive yeah they had like the jazz room was bigger than some record stores sure in the back it was wild the place was so cool I've been to the San Fran one it was great yeah that one is stuff there actually yeah it's it's right across uh from the mc well it's close to the mcdonald's right there it's right at the park McDonald's John what's that they believe it or not they closed that McDonald's did they really they had to

Oh, wait, is that it's like a Whole Foods now or something? I think some dude. No, the Whole Foods was on the other side of the street, but it was just such a crime. Well, yeah, the last time I was there with Jen real quick, we ended up at a bar because they had Pliny for $7. And so she had never had it. So we ended up at this bar for like four hours drinking Pliny's. And we found out this is back when you could get it behind the counter at the Whole Foods there. And we went and apparently some dude got stabbed.

like five minutes before we got there so we walked into the store there's just blood all over the place and i was like and i was like man this sucks where's the pliny they hadn't actually cleaned up the blood it was just like they got the ambulance came and everything and the blood was still there and i was like that really sucks i was like that seems that seems negligent but we'll just leave the blood what do you want it's hate street yeah it's a rough corner

I used to live three blocks from there and the shit that goes on down there is unreal and it's tame now compared to what it used to be what part of time were you in when you were three blocks from there I used to live right on the corner of Fulton and Stanion right there because I was up on because I was going to USF I lived right there on the corner of the Golden Gate Park that was out my window every night every day when I looked out I didn't know why I didn't know that that didn't tell you

Fair enough. Okay, so CD Trainer, Amoeba, those are your favorites. What's your favorite venue in LA? Oh, this is good. Choose a place to have your... There's so many to choose from. It's crazy. Oh my gosh. I love the El Rey. I love the Terragram Ballroom downtown. That's where I saw My Life of Thrill Kill Cult.

Wow. Get out of here. When did you see them? Just last year. Really? I love them. Yeah. And then they were still, they were still like, they're still amazing. Like, I swear to God, they haven't aged. Like they looked and found it exactly the same. That's wild. Oh, man. I'm gonna have to pull some stuff out later and listen to it. Yeah, I have to refer you back to my previous Ben Kenobi comment because holy shit. It's been a while. TKK. Well, I mean, they were also

part of my formative years because one of my other big records uh when i was growing up was the crow soundtrack yes the crow crow the soundtrack to the crow a lot of metal people hold that in common a lot of metal people so good it was like so good it's so it's still one of the best soundtracks of all time like i mean when i saw the cure when i saw the cure i was like if you don't play burn i will burn this place

That was my gateway into Joy Division. Really? Was it really, George? Yeah, with Nine Inch Nails doing Dead Souls. I can see that. I think that is my favorite soundtrack. It was my gateway into metal helmet. And I immediately went out and bought Betty. Which it was a slightly different version than the one on Betty, because one had a Q and one had a K. And one sounded a little more raw, I remember.

I remember. I think actually one faded out and one fuzzed out with like static. Yep. Yep. Putting Betty on vinyl for a record store day this month. Yeah. They're doing the 30th anniversary. Oh my God. I'm so old. Yeah. You're not that old Holly, but yeah. Yeah. You're every time I say that I'm just like, Oh God. Well, no, actually I'm shocked by that because when you, you said that you had gone to college 20 years ago, I was like, what? Yeah. You don't.

I saw the crow when it came out I used to actually I probably still have a

signed Brendan poster signed by what's his name that oh yeah Brendan Lee no it was signed by the guy that

wrote it James O'Barr yeah James O'Barr yeah yeah yeah that was a big comic for me too oh yeah

yeah I have that I have like a hardcover version they actually did a soundtrack for it but you could only get it with the hardcover version they did a very limited run of it

They made music just for that. Who did the soundtrack though? Some guys that he knew. I can't remember the name of the band. I haven't played it in forever. I'll have to break it out and let you know. I've done that. I've bought limited comics before and gotten an exclusive soundtrack with them, but I didn't know they ever did that for The Crow. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I don't have a lot of those pop vinyl toys, but I have The Crow.

and I brought it to a comic convention where James O'Barr was and he took it out and redrew the makeup on the crew and then signed the bar because he didn't like the makeup it was great so I got that upstairs yeah I watch the crew every year I got to interview him at Famous Monsters and he's a really interesting dude that's a great segue so what are some of your favorite interviews that you did like memorable interviews that you did at Famous Monsters James O'Barr but who else?

My favorite interview I've ever done was with George Clayton Johnson, who was a writer for The Twilight Zone. And he was like 80-something when we did the interview. This is back in 2012. And he is just one of the most articulate, intelligent, deep people I have ever spoken to. I still have that interview on the entire thing on MP3 because I just had so much fun doing it. And it was just... That's awesome.

That was the kind of interview that kind of changed my life. I was like, whoa. You are so smart. And you are so talented. It's one of the greatest shows ever. Absolutely. My favorite TV show of all time. Do you know some of the episodes he did? Was there any particular episode that he wrote that's worth mentioning? If that came up in the interview. Well, there was one that was based on the short story. He writes a lot of short stories about one of his collections. But there was one that was based on

All of Us Are Dying. I don't remember. Then, of course, he wrote the Kick the Can episode. The Kick the Can episode. Can you describe the plot? I don't always remember the names. Oh, the kick where the kids are playing Kick the Can and they actually regress back into being children. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember that. He wrote a bunch of

really good ones I can't I can't think of them off the top of my head right now but

well in any case though we were also perhaps there were other names you're going to mention of

people you enjoyed interviewing or felt lucky to interview or or yeah yeah um gosh uh well I love talking to James O'Barr

um I loved talking to uh Wendy and Richard Peeney of ElfQuest because I loved ElfQuest growing up

I loved talking to um I mean you know Rob Zombie obviously Robert Rodriguez he's one of my favorite directors oh yeah yeah yeah for uh Battle Angel Alita when it came out which was um the Rob Zombie interview for in particular was it a movie or yeah three from hell yeah three from hell did you watch his monsters thing like I can't I can't bring myself to watch the monsters thing I love love the Firefly movies like House of Thousand Corpses

and Devil's Rejects and Three from Hell, but I can't bring myself to watch The Monsters. It just looks so moving. Actually, let me just tell you, I think you've made the right decision. I mean, I tried. It's pretty brutal. They went for this real slapstick bullshit kind of 1950s bad comedy thing, and it just doesn't work, especially since it's in, if I remember right, it's in color. It's brutal. What about Halloween? I love his other movies. His Halloween. No.

I like his Halloween movies. I like them both. I'm such a John Carpenter fan. I can't go past that. I get it, but I still like it. I always felt like the Salem Witch one he did was kind of underrated. Lords of Salem. I like that. I thought Lords of Salem was cool, too. One last person. Doug Bradley. Because I wanted to marry Pinhead when I was a kid. I used to walk up and down the

the horror VHSI as a blockbuster and be like, that guy's so cool. He is cool. He is. He's very cool. I looked up that Crow soundtrack. So it's by a band called Trust Obey. And the soundtrack's called Fear and Bullets. So yeah, I'd never heard of them before. Trust Obey. And it was only released with the hardcover. And then I guess later they just released the album and James LaBar did some artwork for it, like a remastered version or something. But originally it just came out with the

with the soundtrack.

Well, now I'm curious.

Can I have to check it out?

I feel like we might have glossed over Robert Rodriguez there, too.

There's so much I like about him.

He started out as a true guerrilla filmmaker.

Oh, I saw El Mariachi in a theater.

I was living in Arizona at the time.

This would have been 30 years ago.

And I loved it.

I was so blown away by it.

I couldn't wait until he did more things.

And I don't recall, but I think

From Dusk Till Dawn was his very second

film, right? Wasn't it?

Was that the next one he did?

Yeah. I think maybe, yeah.

Because he didn't

And then he went back

and did, you know, the thing with

Antonio Berenderas

the sort of... He did the sequel, yeah.

Yeah. And then he did

Which I thought was good, too.

He did Sin City.

Oh, Sin City, man. That was great.

I haven't seen that in forever.

That was after Sin City, I think. Oh, Planet Terror, yeah, yeah. Sin City, yeah. And then Planet Terror. The Grindhouse stuff, yeah. And then, you know, Spy Kids. Of course. We can't forget Spy Kids. Is that him? I mean, forget about it. You know, he plays guitar at the beginning of one of those films, and I want to say it's

One of the El Mariachi things. The one with Johnny Depp maybe or something. And that guy can fucking play, man. He's a real musician. Once upon a time in Mexico. That was the moment Johnny Depp. I'm busting out my beer before it gets cold. Cheers. I mean, before it gets warm. Please. Before it gets cold. Wait a little longer. Let it chill a little more. Holly, where did you get that beer from?

to buy some of those that they get colder as they sit there. Right? Wouldn't that be great? Awesome. No, I never drink beer this early in the day. Save it. Don't say anything yet. Save it. But I've been hanging out with you guys for an hour and now I need to buy. You're going to tell us. No, I need a beer. You guys drive me to drink. I think it already, though. Might be the Stardust. Is it a hop? We'll save it for t-shirt and beer check. We want to give her the spotlight when she tells it. Fair enough. So,

maybe we do the three albums thing now sounds like a plan three albums better that's this is a terrible thing i've only you know the funny things i've already mentioned all three of them oh wow okay it happens sometimes just put them in the proper pegs it's one of the crow soundtrack one of them is the crow soundtrack because it it just introduced me to so many things so much heart so much heavy music and it was it was just so like it captured such a cultural moment you know like with everything

from like you know the the more obscure 90s bands like for love not lisa to you know to like got a

fucking pantera track on there to like just it's just so much good stuff like i and it just completely blew me away and i never get sick of it um does that second one is sorry go ahead no no go ahead please i i was trying to think of some of the other bands from that era that and i they may or may not be on the soundtrack um machines of loving grace are they on there yes

Yeah, I love those.

Machine of Love and Grace.

Stone Temple Pilots.

She's on there.

Violent Fan.

Stone Temple Pilots.

I love the Violent Fan.

Stone Temple Pilots.

Henry Rollins.

Henry Chain.

Yeah, Rollins Fan.

Yeah, Rollins Fan.

Ghost Rider.

What about, you know, I admit I'm not really educated on that soundtrack, but you guys

are basically, literally naming a time capsule right now.

Like, that really does sound like it was pretty definitive.

We could, like, recite the whole thing word for word, front to back.

Absolutely.

Do we have 45 minutes?

No.

It's my favorite movie of all time. I put it on. I can probably quote the whole film too because I watch it every year on Devil's Night. The use of the music in the film is so good. They integrate it so well. That scene of Brandon Lee running across the rooftops with freaking dead souls playing. It gives me chills every time. I think that's part of the reason why it's such a great soundtrack because it's got

good songs on it but the way they integrate it into the film is like perfectly done

helps with the aesthetic of the film the feeling the mood everything thrill kill cult playing

the show in the movie and then like the whole yeah floor collapses on top of it you know amazing i grew up in michigan so devil's night was a thing

but yeah after leaving michigan i realized that nobody else knows about devil's night or at least a lot of people do not know because other cities don't burn yeah like detroit does

Well, I mean, I was in Ann Arbor. You know, you get further away from Detroit. Things don't burn. They just get covered in toilet paper. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. So we got The Crow. Yes. Next one. The second is Undertow by Tool. Just because that was also 1994, same year. Just because to 14 year old me, everything about that record felt transgressive. Like, I just felt like.

I was getting away with something by buying and listening to it. From the lyrics of Prison Sex to opening up the back of the CD thing to find the photo of the cow licking its own butt. All sorts of stuff that they did with the packaging to the 69 tracks to disgust the page at the very end. That annoyed the shit out of me the first time I got it on CD. Everything about that record. It felt like I was getting away with something. I find I like that album more as I get older than the rest of their catalog.

I go back to that one. That's always been my favorite.

Yeah.

I'll go with Inema to be honest with you and well, and I mean, but it really is good. It really is a very good record and it's an amazing day. It's forgotten. I think now.

Inema is my favorite, but Undertow is the one that changed my life, so to speak. And that's the one that I kind of, that I kind of like, you know, you've got to listen to this to understand.

Yeah, that's interesting how it goes because I, I, Lateralist is my, is I think their best record, but I probably,

zuerstellen, was die Zeit.

Undertow ist ein,

Well, they do come up. But in any case, really, one of my favorite tool releases is when they were having the trouble with their record company and stuff, they put out this box set that had all their videos up to that point. This was pre-Lateralist. And then the disc on it is so good. It's got like Push It, that alternate version of Push It Live and a song called You Lied. I think I have that. It's the big square thing, right? Indeed. Yeah. And the audio disc in that,

is so good that's just one of my favorite things of theirs and if if for no other reason the push it from aynama the live version is an alternate push it is their best song in my opinion one of them i it's it's great yeah i think it came in a big box but it had like a small booklet it has a little small thing that's all i have now i don't have the rest of it that small part but which is a shame because you can sell it for a lot of money at a meeting i mean i would never sell it yeah i know the best um

The best track on Undertow, in my opinion, is the title track. Yeah, I'll buy that. Nobody ever mentions it because it's caught up in a bunch of other more bombastic tracks, but to me, it's all about that song. I don't know if you saw, and I don't even want to be judgmental about this, but I don't know if you saw the Maynard doing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thing. No, I didn't watch it.

That was the Aussie thing, right? Yeah, don't. You don't want to. It was brutal, actually. And I'm not even that. I couldn't care less. But I mean, I think he did Crazy Train or something like that. And it's not great. It doesn't seem like it would be right for his voice. No. I was just thinking that as you said that. To me, I could see him doing something like Believer or Suicide Solution where it's a little slower. It's weird. It actually kind of exposes his voice.

in this weird sort of way, even though I think he's an exemplary singer. So it's weird. He is, he is. But it's, yeah. And you could also almost say that, like, I don't, well, I'm not going to go there, but Ozzy is celebrated for many things, but his vocal technique is not necessarily one of them. No. He has, but overall he's not great. He has decent pipes, but you have to compare it to people like Dio. Well, that's an unfair comparison.

Well, actually, I recall him comparing himself to Dale one time and saying, I'm not a real singer like Ronnie James Do. Yeah, exactly. He knew his limitations. Yeah. All right. So he's a great, great frontman. Great, great, great frontman. But like, you know, vocal, vocal talent. Show me your hands. We love you. Two albums, right? That's two albums. Yes. And the third record is Blue Blood by X-Japan, 1989. If you have if you don't know the album,

I really recommend listening to it from start to finish because it's a wild ride. It starts with this like crazy bombastic like intro track that's like you know the cheesiest thing in the world like here comes this awesome band and then it just then it just blitzes into like Blue Blood the title track which is this insanely like fast riffage rough cut like thrash song that's just it just completely blows you out of the water.

And then it goes back and forth, like I said, between sing-along songs like Weekend and Cur and I to even more intense thrash songs like Orgasm, which is like two and a half minutes of the most insane playing you've ever heard. And then it goes to Rose of Pain, which is like 12 minutes of prog rock. So there's so much shit on that album. There's something for everyone. So it's a short prog song then. A little baby. Relatively.

They also released a song in 1993 that's a half an hour long called Art of Life. That's their real prog song. That's a yes song. Maybe a little longer. Although I didn't mention it, but their first record, Vanishing Vision, although it's very hard to find, it's a straight thrash record, but it's really, really great. Nice. I love it. The first time I think those albums have been mentioned in the what three albums would help people understand our guests.

I think the only thing that might have been slightly touched in the past was we might have had somebody mentioned a tool record and that's about it. I'm sure yeah somewhere down the line. Yeah well like I said I was getting into music I was getting in metal in the 90s so even the extra pan stuff from 89 was retro retrospective for me. Yeah. So yeah. Cool. Awesome. All right. All right. So Holly where can people find your stuff if they want to read your books or follow me?

If they want to read last song, you can go to the Black Mask web store. It's also on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com and all the other. The collected trade is available through pretty much everybody. And it's a big book. It's 25 bucks, but you get like 250 pages of stories. And the Opus stuff, unfortunately, is all out of print, as I mentioned, because they went under.

I do write a lot of columns for a website that I love called

Hilobrow.com. They do pop culture like capsules and a couple of my columns. One of my columns was actually about

milk toast and how it was like my formative heavy thoughts. So that's a lot of fun. And then

gosh, what else? What else can you find? I mean, you can find like, you know, old collections of like the

Like in Famous Monsters, we put out a big Best of Godzilla issue that you can still find floating around. We put out a Best of Hammer horror thing that I put together that is just, you know, I had to go and like scrape together all these articles and then go in and like insert little fun facts and shit. So that was fun. And so you can find those floating around. Gosh, come to think of it, the only thing that's actually in print still might be Lesson. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that you can find that's like,

Oh, wait, I lied. I wrote a

Edgar Allan Poe parody for Ahoy comics

that's in Edgar Allan Poe's

Difter of Death.

Nice.

How did you parody him?

Which was a lot of fun.

Sorry, what?

How did you parody him?

Oh, oh, I actually, I parodied

a little known story that a lot of

people haven't read.

Because what are you going to do?

Parody the Raven?

What the fuck?

No, no, you're not going to do that.

No, the story I did was, it's called

It's called Angel of the Odd. I don't know if any of you guys have read that, but it's absolutely absurd. And I turn it into a meta, a sort of meta exercise called Angle of the Odd, in which a writer is trying to find an angle for her story. And there's a little, you guys remember Clippy, the little guy in Microsoft Word? He used to be like, do you need help doing that? Well, there's a little angle in this story. He's a triangle shape. And he's like, do you need help finding an angle? And so he takes the writer through a bunch of things like musical and high school.

anime and kaiju movie and all these other ways to tell a story so that's probably the one of the most one of the some of the most fun i've had writing a writing a short is that nice i wish we could get through one episode without a guest mentioning clippy for god's sake it was so such a huge part of our lives yeah that ship has sailed likes to feature him sometimes in his jokes for some reason but wow clippy because everybody hated him

It's like, oh, it looks like you need help writing a letter. It's like, no, I fucking don't. No, I just pressed the wrong key. I know how to spell. I know how to format a fucking letter. Yeah. Oh, man. That's awesome. So, yeah, that's in print. And then I have a, you could, if you want to, like, look for my, whatever I'm doing, I have a website. It's just hollyinterlandy.com.

So you can see what she posts, what she's listening to.

Tell us about your dog. Speaking of your webpage.

Oh, well, he's right here. Buffy.

Hi.

Hi.

Yeah.

Why are you looking at me?

Yeah. Say hello to the internet.

Thank you.

How old is he?

He's 12. He's an old man.

Yeah, he looks like he's got some gray whiskers. Yeah, yeah. But he's actually sort of accidentally adopted him because I was living in a townhouse in Tarzana. And one of the other tenants had a full breed pub named Beardo, who was his dad. And in the house, the house was owned by a fetish artist who used to have other fetish girls come over and work in her studio.

And one of the fetish girls had a long-haired wiener dog that she would bring over. And neither dog was fixed. And so they ended up having wiener dog pug puppies. And all the other ones got adopted out somehow. But Bucky just hung around and then he started sleeping in my laundry basket. And then he just sort of imprinted upon me. And here we are 12 years later. I feel like that is the most Los Angeles story I've ever heard in my life. Why?

the townhouse of the fetish artists tarzanatown house fetish thing the whole thing that was perfect that was like actually it's like la confidential for a second yeah yeah well you know but the whole reason i got the dominatrix writing gig was because i lived with the fetish artist for five years there you go so did you yeah his name is lucky sorry what did you put that on your resume i wish initial talks with him i i mentioned yeah i mentioned that to

to Jean and to my other. That's a good sales pitch. Yeah. But my dog's name is Bucky. He's the best. Is that a Captain America thing? Yes, it is. Is it? Oh, that's great. Okay. Well, but see, I named him Bucky Winter Soldier Interlandy like six months before they announced the Winter Soldier movie. So that was one of my favorite superhero comics. And I've always been like in love with it and the Winter Soldier character. And then like six

They're like Captain America the Winter Soldier I'm like this is gonna suck

because now it's like everyone and their mother is in love with you know the Winter Soldier and I'm like

but my dog was there first yeah so it's okay I um by the way I just started watching on HBO for anybody who's interested and I think Holly and Markisan this you guys might enjoy this this new show and they're called The Franchise and it's about oh I've heard of it it's about Mark

No, it's about a Marvel Studios style place bringing out huge pictures and owning half the world. But it's a wonderful comedy. It's super funny. I bet you guys have watched Spaced. Did you ever watch Spaced? The British thing with... Yeah. What's his name? Sean of the Dead Guy. Yeah, him. The girl lead from that is in it.

and a bunch of other great people. And it's so funny. It's such a good take on how Marvel movies get made. I mean, I'm not into Marvel anymore. Obviously, Winter Soldier is my favorite movie they ever did. I'm biased. But yeah, but now I'm like, enough. I don't even fuck with Marvel anymore. Well, then I think this show is perfect for you because they just really take the piss on Marvel. T-shirt and beer check. Let's do this. We got a lot to talk about, so let's do it. Let's do it.

TASER BEAR CHAT

TASER BEAR CHAT

Holly, what are you drinking?

Is there anything on your shirt?

And who are you wearing?

I'm wearing a period-in-history-appropriate shirt

that I thought would be great.

First, my beer.

I picked this up at the local liquor store.

I don' know, I don't drink a lot of beer at home,

but when I do go out, I always get an IPA.

This is IPA, yes.

Yes!

I'm drinking a Sierra Nevada Cosmic Little Thing AZ Double IPA. Yummy. I recognized it. Yeah, it's very good. It's got like a bright poppy palette. It's okay. Well, it's Sierra Nevada. They're still good. Are you guys on Untapped, by the way? Yes. Okay. Yeah. All of you add me because I'm on there. And then the shirt. I'm going to have to stand up to give this like, you know, the effect that it needs.

and eats, but the shirt is just a dog going, fuck! I have plenty of band shirts, but this one felt more appropriate. That works. Definitely. Awesome. For a second, I thought it was going to be a pig destroyer thing, but it looks like the Terrifier. It's like some shirt. My sister actually got it for me on some Chinese website or something.

She got one for herself that's a chicken saying fuck. She has chickens. She lives on a farm in Maine. So it just said cluck? Amusingly enough, no, it actually still is. Yeah, but I was like, this is the best shirt I've ever seen. If it's from a Chinese website, they might think that's a Coca-Cola ad or something. Like Chinese people are famous for having bad English on their t-shirts. Oh, yeah. No, I love it. It's the same as Americans having like shitty kanji characters on anything.

Holly, I will just say that we do have one thing in common. I have a sister who lives in Maine who has chickens. No shit! Where in Maine? Freiburg, which is all the way on the New Hampshire border. Oh, okay. My sister is in right above Bath, so she's on the sort of the coast. The opposite side. Complete opposite side, yeah. Those two shall never meet. What's that? Freiburg? Yeah, Freiburg. Those chickens must be nervous all the time, man.

I finished a beer called Infinite Ghost from Parish Brewing. And now I'm just staying in the ghost family and I'm having the Holy Ghost.

Oh, nice.

Look at this bright can.

I like that.

That's pretty.

Shiny.

Yes.

And then I'm wearing a Fires in the Distance shirt that I got from a show a couple

months ago where they played with Amorphous and Dark Tranquility and the Fiery Raven.

Just saw them too.

Sweet.

Is this me?

Yeah.

That's a good one.

What am I doing?

What am I doing?

I'm wearing trypticon. Fuck yeah, you are. Whom I always love. Only death is real. I don't know. I've made a heard that somewhere. Uh, coalescence barrel age from Fremont. Nice. I like Fremont. And then, uh, George for you from Michigan. I'm going to have a hop slam from bells. Nice. Love bells. Nice. But I feel like my speech hasn't slowed yet. So I'm going to wait a bit. All right. John. Hey, Matt. Yeah.

Neither of those were that good. No offense. I'm not trying to do it well, Jay. There's only two people that can do that. Although, Will might disagree with you after a few beers at a venue. I'm assuming you're going to say Michael and... Right? No. He does a good one. Oh, no, he does. But it wasn't Mike that did it. Anyway. All right. So, I started out with a Kiwi pear pie mint from Rimminghorn.

Jen's not didn't want to try the Kiwi one so I drank it it's not bad I'm not I'm not usually a fan of fruity beers but well it's a mead so sorry go it's not like mead is okay if it's sweet because it's well it's mead yeah and then um going to a standard that I feel like people have forgotten about this brewery and I know a few of you know but Deschutes Black Butte order yeah that's a classic dude it is

And I feel like everyone's like, is there coconut in that or is it a smoothie? And my response is always like, just go away. Fuck you. I mean, you can never go wrong with it. It's not a big deal. Fresh squeezed. Yeah, now you're speaking my language, George. I almost had one of the Brimming Horns because I just got it in the mail. Pretty soon, new by the Hornsmead. I'm so excited. I love theme.

I love themed booze.

The fact that I never got my hands on Helmets Betty beer makes me so sad.

Well, we did a mead with By the Horns when the book first came out.

It was delicious.

And so this is that mead, but it's barrel-aged in oak barrels.

So for six months.

Is the Betty beer still being made?

I don't think so.

I don't know.

Yeah, no, I think it was a one-off thing.

And I saw it and I was like, why is this out of my life?

Sorry, I'm just saying that we're a good group of people to keep an eye out for you at various stores. Yeah. Yeah. Please. They literally made a Betty beer with Betty on it. Like it looks just like the cover of the record. Hi, my name is Will. Hi, Will. I'm drinking Arizona green tea with ginseng. Diet green tea with ginseng. But I am drinking out of my Bunny Man brewing. Oh, the Bunny Man. Yeah.

It's in Fairfax, Virginia. Yes, I've been there. Brewery there. I went there one time and it was pretty good. I liked it. But what I did like about it is they have these massive 20-ounce glasses. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm wearing my Scolder shirt. Scolder. Nice. So we ran into a couple of guys from Scolder when we were at a particular concert. I know. It was crazy. And they got a new album coming out.

Sweet! We ran into a ton of people at that particular concert. Yeah. It's funny because there's a guy I ran into at work. I used to work. A guy I knew at work was there. And then he kind of got dismissed and then he's back in the building somehow doing something else as a contractor. And then I ran into him at the cafeteria just like two days ago.

And I see him, but I'm kind of like out of the corner of my eye. I'm like, I'm going someplace else. And I hear this like, hey, Derek, Derek, Derek. And like, I know it's him. I'm like, he's looking at me like, my name's not fucking Derek. But then I was like, I don't remember his name either. But as an aside, somehow, I guess he either bought it or won it or something. He got the drum head signed by all the guys in Opeth. And he's going to put it on eBay.

And he was like, do you want it? Like, I can sell it to you or something? Like, no, I'm good. But I know somebody who may want it. He can keep it. Yeah. He knows that. He doesn't need that shit. I'm sure you may have, Michael may have tattooed his autograph on your butt at some point, John, but maybe, you know. That may very well be true. So I don't need the assigned drum head. All right, Jay, what are you drinking? What are you wearing?

Oh, wait, did you finish, Will, your shirt? Oh, I apologize. No, he did. I'm sorry. I interrupted. I'm sorry. I apologize, Jay. Go ahead. I'm back. Sorry about that. No worries. Not at all. We thought you did that on purpose after Jay's joke. It was pretty funny. Yeah, it was pretty bad. No, my phone rang, and my phone has Bluetooth turned on right now, so it interrupted my audio. So I couldn't do anything. Well, it was absolutely perfect timing. It was. It really was. You saved yourself. Sorry about that. So whatever joke you told, I didn't even hear it.

You know what? For the best. For all of us. It wasn't pretty good. I thought it was pretty good, but boy, the blank stares I got. It takes a lot. I've heard it before. Chances are it would not have bothered me. Oh, you know, it's nothing like that, but it's, oh man, it's just, I, gosh, I really didn't land that one, did I? Well, it, no, it's just one of those, you know, kind of jokes, you know?

Maybe don't tell that lump in your neck cancer joke to a guy who got cancer with a lump in his neck.

Well, I thought it would be. I was trying to be topical.

You're trying to relate it.

Could have been a lump in something else, but anyway.

All right, Jay.

Okay, I'm back.

That was it.

There's just a blue bottle of iced coffee tonight and Abigail.

Abigail.

Underneath the long sleeve shig is kind of fucking cold in here today.

The other king.

I like the Superman-esque reveal. I was just watching the original Christopher Reeves will always be my Superman. There's a new documentary about him on HBO. I haven't watched it. Oh, is it on HBO now? Yeah. It's called Super Slash Man, but I haven't watched it. I guess nobody has that. I didn't know it was out yet.

I saw the trailer. I wanted to see it. I just didn't know it was streaming. You know what? Don't take my word for that. Maybe it was in the trailers row. Maybe it's not up there yet, but I think it is. I'll check. All right. I am wearing my latest in line of Sisters of Mercy wear, which you're keeping them in business, aren't you? I am. I'm trying, man. You know, more people need to listen to them. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing this one is Black Planet based on the

a song by the same name. And I was lucky today to find something I haven't found in a while. Three Floyds, Pig Destroyer, Imperial IPA, Permanent Funeral. I haven't seen it in a while. This is like the greatest beer ever. This is the greatest IPA, Holly. If you've ever seen this, you want to drink this. Them's big words. Seriously, greatest IPA ever. It is. It is. I am an IPA fanatic. For what George has had.

I mean, okay, it's not Pliny, but not even Pliny, Pliny the Younger is the greatest IPA ever. Okay, this is the greatest regularly available. I don't know what I would call the greatest IPA ever. The regularly available. I had Younger twice and it blew me away. Yeah, I know. I hate that phrase too. I can't stand it. But in terms of an Imperial IPA. That's good because I can pretty much get that anytime. Here it's weird because you live there. Yeah.

But I'm just saying next time I come out like for Decibel I'll bring them some. Oh I know. Yes please because it's intermittent here. I mean it used to be I could get it more regularly but I haven't seen it in like at least a year. They changed the portfolio around a little bit in the area George. Yeah. And then now I am working on a local favorite Nepente Brewing out of Baltimore Aeromancer West Coast IPA. Who is now on Decibel's radar. Yes. Which is cool. That is cool.

Why on the radar? They're part of the Decibel Fest. They're one of the breweries. Okay. Yeah. Which is cool. All right. We got a ton of shit to talk about. We do. Let's get on that. All right. Go. News.

like three weeks old now, but we haven't talked about it yet. Paul Deano of Iron Maiden, the first two albums, he died. That was a bit of a shocker. Didn't see that one coming. I mean, he was very young. Yeah. 66. Not so great. No, I mean, yeah. When I say we didn't see it coming, I mean, yeah. Okay. His health wasn't great, but it was still a surprise. Yeah. No, he wasn't at death's door as far as we knew. Yeah. Has anybody heard what was the cause?

they didn't announce the cause but like you guys were saying he's been struggling with

illness for years it was like infection after infection like since like 2015. so he had a weakened immune system and he basically was susceptible of what infection of what just he had pneumonia oh and he's got some leg problems so he had knee surgery i think that was a problem for him he did that he was in a wheelchair and when he would perform in a wheelchair so i mean he wasn't doing great then yeah well my apologies for making us go in that direction i am

Sorry to hear this, to say the least. And I personally do think the first two Iron Maiden records with him on them are very good. I mean, that's like, I'm hardly taking a hard stance there. But I mean, Bruce obviously is Bruce, but Killers is a great fucking record. Yeah. Yeah, I listen to both of them. He's a lot of people's childhood for sure. After, yeah, I'm actually going to see Iron Maiden on Tuesday. I know Matt saw them recently as well. I'm going with TR. Metalheads Butler. Come on.

He's going twice? Yes, he is. He's going in Delaware and in Baltimore. I'm going with him in Baltimore on Tuesday. They saw him in Philly, I think. Wonderful. Three? I don't think he went in Delaware. Oh, sorry. He's in Delaware, isn't he? Yeah, he's in Delaware. He saw him in Philly. No, he lives in Maryland. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. There is a huge maiden following in Delaware. Yeah, ignore everything I just said. Philadelphia,

Baltimore. Wait, they're playing Brimminghorn Maiden? They're big in Rhode Island. Everything's big in Rhode Island. Exactly. What's in Rhode Island? Nothing. Brimminghorn's in Delaware. That's why everything's big, because it's so small. Oh my gosh. Exactly. Thank you, Holly, for at least getting it. I looked it up, Holly, and he did. He had sepsis. He got it in 2015, and that's what made him susceptible to other infections.

I'll do it. All right. And he's, by the way, the second, now that'll, you know, Clive. Yeah. Clive. A while back. So. That's a shame. He's 66. A little too young. A lot of our. Yeah. Yeah. What was it? Yeah, I mentioned. 66. Yep. That's young. That's pretty. Good metal age to die at, but, you know. I know. I was going to make a joke about how he, at least, you know, he was trying for that other six, but that's just way too much to ask.

Okay, yeah. Hey, to be fair, the man, he had enough class to say Number of the Beast was his favorite Iron Man record, so. That was my first main record. I mean, back, you know, obviously not when I was a kid, because to me, that was in my 30s. Well, that's a great place to start. But that was my first one, yeah. Well, rest in peace, I guess. I don't know. Absolutely. I will say, I saw the main show, the first maiden show after his death, and they did a nice tribute to him.

I saw that. I was hoping we're we everybody was kind of talking about it like are they going to change up the set or do something or not we're doing but they went into something off of the new album. I was a little disappointed with that I was hoping they would have done something from the second album or the first for that matter but they already had a phantom. They always do something from the first record though they did Iron Maid. They already they already were so I was like okay throw something from the second would be kind of cool. In fact Matt saw him the night after yeah he died

Yeah. Well, it was the very next day. Yeah. Yeah. Well, strange times. Up the irons, Paul. By the way, since we're doing medical updates, Jeff Beccaro from Possessed broke his femur in the wheelchair, as you may know. So I don't know how I broke it. So he just had to go through a big surgery. Ouch. Oh, femur. That's like, ugh. He's in a chair. That's major. That's like your biggest bone.

Yeah, he's a little more vulnerable. Yeah. He's had a bunch of operations. Yeah. I mean, he probably fell from being transferred from the chair or something. I mean, how else would you do that? I haven't heard yet. I just happen to be friends with a lot of Bay Area metal glitterati. And that's how I even found out was they were sending them his best

I like that.

Bay Area Metal Gluterati.

So I was looking for a way to introduce this and you just gave me an ENJ.

So let's go down a rabbit hole.

I've got a lot of stuff in the Metal Heads pod studio here.

And there used to be these things called cassettes.

And I have piles of them in here.

And I don't know, while I was setting up,

I just happened to look at something. Well, it started because of last episode with this. Will, I think what you recall talking about, corrosion of conformities, animosity, the pus head cover here. Sorry, I was muted, but yes, I said animosity before you did. Yeah, I bought this motherfucker in 1985 on cassette because I am OG motherfucker.

Possessed, Seven Churches, my cassette that I bought back in the day. The pre-proto-death, not first death metal album, but close to it, Seven Churches. I have a couple more here. This is mostly Will-based. Creator, Extreme Aggression. Oh yeah, I used to have that on cassette. And, you know, the best thing about cassettes back in the day was this. The red text on the white

background. You could see it for days. Yeah. It was like, who came up with this idea? Because everything had this. And the design of the liner notes was so unique always because they had to make room for the tape. The double tape. And they were all different sizes. So different from vinyl or anything else. They had to, I don't know. Just the design aspect of it really fascinates me. Well, you know, you call to mind some of the few that folded out. And I'm sure you'll all remember.

Mine folded out like for a week. Days. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the thing is you open up a cassette fold. It's like just keeps going. It never stops. No, the local bands is just like a J fold. Defenders of the Faith. This was another one. It's got the red on the side, you know. Yep. I had that. You know, just one of my favorite records of all time. Oh, okay. You are now family because that is a truism.

It's the best priest album. It is. Thank you. You're welcome. Somebody cut three mics right now. This is an ongoing fight. You're on team George Will. Let's just say you got on a team. What is the other team say? Painkiller? Stained glass. In this podcast, it's basically 70.

You know, it's like this is, it's just, you know, that red text. It's a little thing, but you wouldn't think it. I'm sure they can spank you while you're there. Yeah, maybe. But then. I think it was, but George, it was just one, if not label, but maybe one distribution or something that used that particular. But so many things in the 80s had that. Oh, no, a hell of a lot. Yeah. But you know what else they had? Here's one that John knows. We just talked about this one. I can already describe this before you turn it and it's going to be.

I like the debut better. Yeah, the two red lines. Yeah. Columbia House, baby. It's Night Ranger. Oh, okay. But it's a Columbia House release. It's a Columbia House release. Not a great spine design. I'm like, eh. It's not. Are you kidding? Oh my God. They're like, buy one CD and get 10 for 9 cents or whatever. And it was always like, holy shitty shit. Of course.

He didn't care because it was like volume. It was. Absolutely. And I think everybody on this screen probably played the game at least once. Oh, absolutely. I always felt a little gypped when I got those red line cassettes. I wanted, you know. Well, now it's cool. It just felt like the Ford kid. Now it feels cool. Anything cassette is cool. They're coming back, man. They are kind of coming back. I have one last one to show. And again, this is probably a Will thing. And this is mostly because it's so fucking

not known by most people.

And that's Power Mad.

Absolute Power Mad.

Sweet.

A lot of people don't know this band.

But yeah.

I do.

And yeah.

I don't know the band.

The Blue.

The Blue.

That's not weird that you don't know them.

No.

That's what's his name?

Very underground band.

Yeah.

From.

Do you know that Power Mad was in a movie?

No.

What?

Yeah.

They were in some movie.

It was something called Something Love.

It was a Nicholas Cage. What? Yeah. And I'm pretty sure Power of Man was in that movie. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Okay. I'll look it up. Interesting. I'm pretty sure it was Nicholas Cage. That's funny. Yeah. You have to look it up. Okay. All right. So moving on to our next news item. Slightly less lethal, but not without some blood. Jake E. Lee, formerly of Ozzy Osbourne and a few other bands,

was wounded by gunshot while walking his dog in Vegas. And for a while, I didn't know what happened with this, but I read about it yesterday. And apparently, well, you know, he's a night owl. And so walking his dog at like 3 a.m. was a normal thing for him. And apparently he was coming home and like somebody was like, these two guys were like trying to steal his neighbor's motorcycle or something. Yeah. And like they were like masked guys.

And he was like,

this is my interpretation.

Hey.

Hey.

What you doing?

Just stealing this motorcycle.

Hey,

don't do that.

Pow pow.

That's more or less it,

I suppose.

I would just be glad they didn't shoot my dog.

Yeah,

exactly.

Well,

he says the first thing I thought of when I was reading that too.

Yeah.

By the way,

he keeps putting up these sweet posts.

He was like,

and by the way,

the real star of this story is the dog so here's another picture of my dog it's kind of nice yeah well he yeah he said um that there was a verbal confrontation yeah ended in an agreement that they he would walk away one way they would go the other way and then they shot him and then like he they umped a whole clip at him like one bullet went through the forearm went through the foot one through the back and broke a rib and damaged the lung but they didn't hit any

vital organs. Those motherfuckers, you know. So he's really lucky because he's expected to make a full recovery. Can't even, like, you know, stick to a deal. Come on. No, it's, yeah. Well, thankfully they had the aim of stormtroopers. Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, speedy recovery to Jake. You know, by the way, post that happening, and I hardly ever turn the radio radio on, but I, every once in a while, I'll turn it on in my car and before I have a chance to plug in my,

You know, MP3 or whatever. And I heard Bark at the Moon a couple times since this has happened, and I think people were doing that out of respect. Well, XM's been playing that a lot lately, and that is like my favorite song from my favorite album. Well, not my favorite song from that album, but one of my favorites from my favorite Ozzy album. I'm glad he's okay, but I also gave you a little glimpse into his life, too, because I always wondered how did some of those guys who kind of rose up but didn't really, you know,

sail into the atmosphere, probably financially. And he talks about his wife being a casino worker. It's just so interesting to me that somebody had that kind of very visible fame in the 80s, you know, and now his wife has to work in a casino. Everybody in Vegas has a story like that, I'm sure. But he isn't a, I feel like he isn't an active band. I can't think of the name. Well, he had his own band. Yes, thank you. I don't know. I've never even listened to him.

I remember when they came out, everybody really crapped on the lead singer. But then I think he got better or something. He had a bad tour or something. But it's an interesting point you make, Jay, because there's a lot of musicians who's played on these seminal albums in metal. And maybe it's like the only one they played on or maybe they only played on a couple albums with a band. And then they're gone and you don't really hear from them again. So yeah, it is interesting. I mean, I don't really want to catch up with somebody this way because I don't want to be

I want somebody to be shot but it is kind of nice to know that they're still around and doing things. He had completely disappeared to be fair and then suddenly he came back and a lot of people were really excited about that. I mean you know he also had that pretty good blues band bluesy rock band called Badlands. Yeah I was gonna say it wasn't even Badlands. Oh yeah. Yeah that was his he was the primary force in that project I believe though it had other. Wasn't that the one with the singer that died? Yeah he died of eight.

I think that's how he died. I think that's what it was. And his name, he has a, it's Ray Gillen, I think. Yeah, Ray Gillen, yeah. And it might even be spelled like Ian Gillen. I can't remember if it is or not. I don't think so. Maybe without the I. No, I think it's an E. It's just Gil-Anne, yeah. Or A. Oh, with an E, it might even be an E, you're right. E or A, one of those vowels. I'm glad he's okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're bringing

it down a little less lethal.

But not really.

Because Vinyl Altar, the record store that we love to frequent in Philadelphia,

that when we're in there for Decibel and Metal and Beer Fest,

is closing or has closed.

I'm not sure which.

Are they closed now?

I think it's closed.

They haven't said, but I think it's done.

I think he finally sold off all his stock is what it was.

That's a bummer.

It works.

It was a really cool story. Yeah. Yeah. Because in December 2023, they downsized and they did a video mentioning that the closing was likely inevitable. So. That is slow burn. It was. I feel like we're partly responsible because you guys remember when we went last one to Vinyl Altar at Decibel Metal Beer Fest. No, no. It was last year when you weren't there, but none of us

I don't think I went that yeah I stuff and Jeff bought stuff yeah but I'm saying like whoever I was with that particular time or whatever like no one bought a thing oh yeah I don't think I bought your fault well I usually do my fault well they were open for 10 years and you know always made a point to stop there I love the owner Christopher he was great he was nice and he was like always knowledgeable about metal and I always would ask him

about the local bands and get recommendations from him. And so he actually turned me on to some really great bands before they were really known, like Witching, a band called Honey, Deva, all like Philadelphia bands. So yeah, I really enjoyed going there and always made a point to do it. And we all did, really. I think every single year we all went there. Yeah, we were. I was actually going there before it was Vineal Alter. It used to be Digital Ferret.

And wasn't it a subset of some larger store or something? Or was it just... It was three different stores. It was like the Digital Underground. There was like a Requillery, something like that, Reliquary. I can't remember what it was called. Because there was a Gaming, the Record Store, and something else. It was kind of like three stores in one. So the first time I was at that location, because I feel like they used to be at a different location years ago.

I think it was Digital Ferret then when I went. They had a huge dark ambient section. I mean like a huge section. And like the people I was with were like all looking for other music. I was like just go away. I'm like going to be here for a while. I cleaned up. But that was going back probably mid 2000s. So I don't think they didn't have any of that. No because it became Vinyl Altar. It changed. Yeah. I mean they always had a good selection.

Almost every year I bought something there. Like I said, I would look for local bands that I didn't know about. That's what I'm interested in when I go to new areas. I want to know who the up-and-comers are. Sometimes you don't hear about them until the end. Those are always my favorite places. You can go in there and the people know a lot about the genre and a lot about metal. You can just chat with them for a lot of time. Last year, even though maybe we didn't buy anything, we were in that store for like an hour. I had a really good conversation

with John from Brimminghorn. I remember thinking, this is a great space to spend some time with Metalheads. I really like that I can come here and just chat about records or the metal scene. It's definitely a place that's going to be missed. When we walked out of Vinyl Altar, if you were with John, they were walking toward it. We met like a half a block away on the corner. We stood outside and talked for like a half an hour. Then I think we crossed

and you guys went to vinyl alter and we went someplace else but it wasn't a g-steak place you went to glory yeah so yeah the hails and horns forever the hole is silent yeah he says that he doesn't know what his future is going to hold um so i hope he lands on his feet i hope he gets to do something he really loves because that video is pretty emotional and uh you could tell he really cared about that that story so yeah i hope he gets to do something else that uh that

Gives him as much joy as vinyl altar did in the last 10 years. Yeah. All right. Our next news item filed under the, I'll believe it when I see it. King diamonds, the interest, the Institute is tentatively scheduled for late 2025. So they say we will see. I know they're out touring around right about now. And I think they're playing some new songs that may or may not be on that album, but, uh,

Is anybody gone? Does anybody have tickets? Well, I know Keith D does. He said he got some sweet tickets to see them in Milwaukee, I think. George, they apparently just played the Fillmore and Silver Spring, Maryland, just like last week. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I did I see, was that where I saw them? It probably was. No, no, no. I saw them at the Lyric.

Yeah, that's right. That was way better. Yeah, I saw them at the Lyric on the last, or one of the last tours anyway, with the meet and greet and all that, which I know Matt did that too. He did that too, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, that was the, that was actually the Institute tour. Yeah, again, the pre or previous Institute tour. Because the album's called the Institute. Mass Great of Madness came out and all that. But, you know, it just seems to me like,

They've been saying this for like four or five years. Like it'll come out next year. The only band to excessively tour an album before it comes out. And then when it comes out, they won't bother touring at all. Yeah. Well, they did give a plan though. So like George said, they've been playing two new songs, one called Spider Lily and one called Electrotherapy on their current tour. And they said that they are going to finish the new album after the tour is done. And then they're going to take a Christmas break and then finish the album. And then the plan is to release the record shortly.

after their European summer tour. So it's going to be their first record in 18 years. Metal Blade is going to release it and it's going to be a 2LP horror concept story. And apparently it's going to be broken into two parts. 10 years apart. Which even seems less hopeful to me because it takes so long to put one together. It just sort of feels like, okay. But I mean, you know, hey. Hope spends it to me on all that.

They talked about a plan, so it seems like they'll follow that, but you never know for sure. Which, by the way, he's getting up there, dude. I mean, he's late 60s. I mean, this could be the last. Oh, no, he sounds great and everything. It's just, you know, I mean, you can't take five years working on shit when you're in danger. When you've had your chest cracked open. Well, yeah. I don't know how old he is, man. He's got to be 60. He's 68. Jesus.

Yeah. But I feel like the Merciful Fave stuff probably slowed him down a little bit. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, the album, I should say. Yeah. No, without doubt. Which, by the way, and I mentioned this because they did, you know, the dates and stuff for the... Anyway, Slayer has announced their first 2025 reunion show, so... But wasn't that because it was like a reschedule? Oh, is that what it was? I didn't even read the article. Yeah, I think it was a reschedule. Yeah. Hurricane wiped out the... Yeah.

And our last news item. Decibel has announced the lineup and tickets for 2025 Decibel Metal and Beer Fest Philadelphia. And I'm going. If you're going, let me know. We'll see you there. I'm going. I think we're... Jay, are you going to come this year? Or next year, I mean? No, I'm holding out for... For better lineup, yeah. I get that. For better lineup, but also...

What about your friends, though? I love you, Jay. What about us? I can't afford to bring my friends. No! That was actually pretty good. I would love to go, but it's a long haul for me. I told Holly she'd come. If I did it in L.A. again, we could all go to L.A. That'd be a blast. A flight from one place to another is as easy as another. Well, I bet Holly's as far away from you.

Yeah, I will come to something, but you've got to admit, this lineup's a little whack. Yeah, well, you know, I... Decibel, Metal, and Beer Fest this year. Nothing. Go. I was told to make a top five, but... Oh, yeah, well, that's later. That's kind of a response, that top five is a response to the fact that none of us are really super thrilled with this year's lineup.

I like this lineup. The headliners are at least interesting to me and that is enough. Actually, it's not. Exodus, Dismember, Pig Destroyer. Dismember is headlining the first night and Exodus is headlining the second night doing a Bonded by Blood set even though Paul's dead. But I've never seen Exodus so I'm down for that. Exodus is playing next week or something here. I was not going to go and then Justin

gave me shit and now I'm going. Yeah, I was on the fence too, but because, you know, almost everybody's going, our friends are going, you know, that's the most important part. I am going here. I watched like two bands. Yeah, I'm going for the social aspect this year or next year. Yeah, I'm literally going for one band on one day and that's it. And you guys, of course, everyone. Yeah, I'm going for I'm going for monks and glory and everyone is with our group.

Hopefully Melissa's still there. And Mother of Graves. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. I really just want to see Funeral Leech because I really like their record that came out this year. But some of these other bands do put on good performances. I've seen Mother of Graves. They're really good live. Vastum, I like them too. I've seen them, so I'm like, eh. So this is, I don't understand you guys. You've got Exodus, Demolition Hammer. Maybe I'm the only Demolition Hammer fan.

I'm a passion hammer fan. No, no, no. Pig destroyer. I've seen pig destroyer like 50 times. Yeah. Okay. Eternal Champion. Who doesn't love those guys? They should be fun. They should be fun. Yeah. Vastom. Maul. I don't know Mother of Grace, but John does. Funeral Leech. How do you know Mother of Grace? How do you not know them? I don't know. That was John's number one, the last album. I mean, I don't give a fuck about Darkest Hour. Yeah, fuck them. I mean, not really. I've seen Devil's Mask.

They played Atlus before They played Decibel at the pre-show They're fun And Sonya I don't care about I want to see Sonya There's only a couple bands I don't care about I don't know Exodus, Dismember, Demolition Hammer Eternal Champion, Vastom, Maul It's not terrible but I'll probably be hanging out with people most of the time I think I agree with you Will I think when I first saw the lineup

It's not bands that are like my favorite bands. You know what I mean? But when I thought about it a little bit more, I think all these bands will give good performances and that it'll be worth seeing. And then we, of course, we're going to be hanging out. So I've kind of changed my mind. I've kind of come around to it. But I think you just hope for some of your favorite bands. Like we're going to do the top five, right? I'm more interested in our top five, to be honest with you. But they're not always going to be able to get all the bands that we love.

They should get my top five, though.

Yeah.

My issue is that this year falls on a week that I have the kids.

I know.

But you said you're going.

I did not say I was going.

With the kids.

You did say you were going.

He's going.

No, I said I'm the only one who, I felt like I was the only one who was excited, and I said that this week I have, this is a week that I have the kids.

I saw that.

I saw that, but I swear after that you said you were going.

I thought you did, yeah.

I did not say I was going.

Maybe I said I would try. I'm going to prove you wrong. Can't you just... Screenshot. I plan on going. That's what you said. I plan. There's a plan. I got a plan. I got a plan to not really go, but I'm going to say that I'm thinking about it. Yeah. I'm only going to be there one day. I'm leaving first thing Saturday morning. Because it's your birthday. Well, I already booked our room, Will, so it's going to be pretty lonely if you're not there.

I have to spoon with somebody else. Yeah. I'll see what I can do. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Get a babysitter. FYI. I'll be there Thursday. But you know, it's going to be a blast because all our friends are going, you know, we're going to, we love hanging out with each other. So it's going to be really fun. Are you, are you going? We haven't heard. I know. I was, I wanted to ask that. Matt's been very silent. Ask him. I have not committed to anything. My calendar is very busy. I have to talk to my people.

Get with your staff. Yeah. Why are you so busy, Matt? Get on it. I'm not. And the reality is the lineup doesn't bother me. I, you know, I thought last year, I mean, I watched. You don't like it. I would say I watched every band and I had a good time. So. Well, now I want to hear everyone's list. Yeah. We got like. We got like. We got like. We got shit to do here. Moving on to our new releases.

Spend your water money down!

Third album from this Denver death metal cheaple band. Also like five sixths of the album of the month for Metalhead's podcast. Somebody take this. Yeah. You literally took the words out of my mouth. Wow. Wow. This is also their fourth album. Is it really? Yes. Oh. Zero is their third. Yeah.

Sorry, it wasn't listed on the thing, so I got it wrong. Fourth album. Okay, sorry. I mean, I'm the only one who didn't have it as the album of the month. You know, I think it's a good record. I'm just not as crazy about it as the entire metal world seems to be because I'm just not a big fan of 70s prog. So there's parts on that sound exactly like Dark Side of the Moon to me. And it's interesting and cool to apply Pink Floyd to metal.

But it's just so blatant to me. I thought we would get more of a merging of sounds, you know, something more. Actually, more Tangerine Dream, I thought, than Pink Floyd, from my perspective. Yeah, but there's a song and it sounds exactly like Pink Floyd, John. You know it does. Even the singer and everything. See you guys, I'm going home. That threw me a little bit. Wait, I'm already home. I mean, it's not like it was a secret they were going to do this. No, and they can do whatever they want. I just, for me, it's not what I prefer. I definitely prefer

for Hidden History of the Human Race or even Time Wave Zero because that gave more of like a modern ambient journey with like echoes of the synthesized past. So I'm kind of wrestling with this record because I love Blood Incantation. I bought this album on vinyl immediately after it was announced, but I just don't really have that much of a desire to spin it over and over. I am going to see them and they're going to play the whole album in its entirety, so I'm thinking maybe that'll change.

how I feel, but I'm just not a big fan of that 70s prog sound. There's some exceptions like Rush or something, but for the most part, I don't really like that sound. Do not invoke Rush. Let's move on to the next person talking about it. I agree. I agree. It's a little bit too cosmic and meandering for me. Yeah, so Holly, we need your more deep input here. That was pretty good. I just get it. It's a little bit too like...

Ooh, and like meandering for me. So I'm going to, I mean, I'm going to ask you this. Are you saying that because you didn't like it? Or are you saying that because literally everyone and their brother has jumped on the ship at this point? Because I, and I, if you don't like it, it may be 50 50, because I do have, I do in my bones have a, have an element of like punk rock that like hates everything that everybody else loves. Yeah, me too. Well, yeah, that's, that's the reason why I ask. No, that comes with the territory.

because it seems like they get so much shit for doing stuff like this. And I'm thinking to myself. No, it's, it's, it's fine. Honestly, it's, I just have a very like, stuff like this is so subjective for me. And sometimes it's not even subjective for everybody. Yeah. I'm not even able to articulate like why exactly something grabbed me or why it doesn't. But that's why I wanted to ask you because you did make the, and I laughed when you, you posted the sheeple comment. I had a good laugh over that, but I asked that because so many people jumped on,

that are not Blood Incantation fans. And I feel like there's now this crowd that's going to shit on them because, well, everybody likes them out. And I'm like, thinking to myself, you do realize they probably only sold like 10,000 units on this album, right? I mean, they're not breaking the bank on this album. But it is true, John, because I've had people, I've had people ask me about this album that don't even listen to metal. Exactly. That's why, and that's, and I, if you guys aren't down with it, that's fine. I don't have an issue with that.

It's the two mold shorts thing. Well, you know, I don't give a shit. I love bloody incantation. I just, I'm not crazy about this one. But you don't pass yourself off as a true with a V fan. That's the reason why I asked. You're not good. I have two Vs. Glad I'm not wearing my true with a V shirt. Yeah. And so I don't care that you guys are lukewarm on it. That's fine. Or you think it's okay. I just, I'm always curious because I've just seen, it's either album of the year, which,

Everybody knows that's not the case.

There's another album coming out that's out of the air.

That's just obvious.

Or it's the worst

effing thing ever to come out.

And it's like, come on.

Oh, yeah, I'm not in that.

No, no, no.

There's a hard side to that right now.

Is there, John?

I didn't see that.

Oh, God, yeah.

Just in case you're wondering,

I did listen to the record before I saw that all of you picked it as your record.

Except me.

Except me.

Except for.

It was not a response to, oh my god, everybody loves it. We're going to have a couple other arguments coming up. No, it's funny because it's horrendous, tumult, and blood incantation. The three popular death metal bands right now. If you look at what blood incantation has done over their timeline, this is the next logical step in their evolution. It is. When you look at hidden history of the human race, which we, I mean, and you just listed it, top three death metal

bands for me, Tumult, horrendous, but incantation. When Hidden History came out, we loved it and we wanted more. We waited and we waited and we got Time Wave Zero and we said, who the fuck is this? Right? I actually was really jazzed about it. I was like, yes. But when you go in, like I watched them play that live in Colorado and you see all four members of that band put that entire album together, you know, front to back and you see them all play it together in this live.

like synchrony. You're like, oh man, this is amazing. And then this album comes out and you're like, of course it sounds like this. And it's perfect. You know, it's amazing. They're getting a little bit of the backlash thing, John, because some major outlet NPR, Rolling Stone or something did something. Which is like, not a death knell, but it officially puts them in the O-Peth, Now I Hate You. Yeah. It's so funny because all we hear

about us. Oh, we got to support these bands, man. We got to get them. They're due. The band gets it due. Fuck that band, man. Yeah. Hey, that's the way we are. Come on. I know. Like, it was interesting to me when the singer Paul said, like, Time Wave Zero was the most blood incantation album that I saw that. Yeah, that's funny. That was the closest to their sound. I think it was probably in the Dust Bowl article or somewhere else. Anyway. Which was like, okay, yeah. Anyway, Holly, your comment gave me a lot of fodder.

It just gave me a lot of fun to think, oh, man, she's going to be on. This is going to be a good time. Well, at least she got me as an ally. No, it's just honestly, I just thought there were so many incredible records in October to see like five of the same kind of made me go, really? That's why we have such a big new releases list because there were so many. October is good. Yeah, but I also it's fun to be called out like that. We are literally part of the lake problem at this point.

I was actually really surprised too that everybody picked it. I mean, no, because my album of the month decided, oh, I don't like the way the album sounds. We have to wait till the end of November to release it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. If Old Bethan would have came out, yeah, you would have, you probably would have been different. Maybe. I might have picked it too. I might have picked it. You haven't heard it yet though. So yeah, I told George, like, great. Well, at least I have a November album of the month now. Well, I had a, I just, I had a very close second.

And we'll come to that. Okay. And I just want to throw out, I picked this album as my album of the month on October 1st. Yeah, he did. It would have been September 30th, but I said, I'm going to wait. I'll wait a day. No, this month is loaded. So let's move. I'm sorry. Let's move on. Yeah. Let's, let's, let's breeze through this second one that nobody but me listened to. Um, that was correct. That would be chat pile and their second album. Cool world. This Oklahoma noise band. Oklahoma. Oklahoma.

That was a weird detour you took there, dude. I know, right? You know, I was really big on their last album. Not as much on this one. And I mean, it's not that it's bad. I like it. But I am not like, woohoo, like I was on the last one. Because the last one was kind of new and different. And this is just kind of more of the same. And I don't know, it's just not doing it for me. So. They seem to get the same kind of push.

I guess that's the first album or the last time I should say yeah I'm not really you know I'm so I don't know but it just didn't seem like a lot of people were talking about this one as much so you're right I didn't listen to it so yeah sorry hey you you you are par for the the the group so it's a good one to skip I think yeah I didn't listen to it either so all right I mean you don't get in trouble Holly only yeah

I normally like weird atypical rhythmic metal but I don't have this have the tracks and they sound like corn to me I was gonna say it is very corny yeah and just um and there's a ton of borrowed stuff on this like the drums on that frown land tracks on exactly like the drums on scentless apprentice from Nirvana and it's just I couldn't get through the whole record I just I don't like the style of playing it's almost like a real talkie

I just don't get it. It's very avant weird and either you get it or you don't. So yeah, let's move on then to something else a little avant. And that is the new Devin Townsend album. Power nerd. I hate to say it, but this didn't move me like previous stuff. I'm sorry, John. What are you apologizing to me for? Because you and I are like Devin buddy.

Oh, dude, he's got like 57 albums. I know. I mean, it's not bad. It's not bad, but. It's a little more, it's, it's, the songs are a little more rock focused, even though they're half the album. That doesn't bother me. It's just not as catchy. If you're going to do something that's clean vocals and rock based, it has to be catchy. It's not all clean vocals. He's got some harsh. No, he does. And this is actually heavier than the last album. It is. I would call this a metal.

album and put it on my list if I liked it enough. But yeah, I don't disagree with you, though. I'm like, it's good. Yeah, it's not terrible. I mean, I like it, but it's it's not what I was hoping for. I like I like half of it. I like a lot. The other half I'm thinking is OK. I mean, he'll come back and do an album that'll blow you guys away because, you know, he's just so talented. I'm sure I definitely don't think this is the one. There's two more albums in the cycle, right?

Yeah, it's another three-album cycle. And he specifically said that their other albums are heavier. I think. I could be wrong, but I thought I read he said that they're going to be heavier. I don't care if they're heavier. I just hope they're catchy. Well, heavier for him means chaotic, which is where he seems to live. Yeah. Regardless, I love the man and his music and whatever. It can't all be tens. Exactly.

Is it a listener or do you think it's not going to be on your list? I don't know, Marcus. That's a good question. I like it a lot. Given what we've got this year, I wouldn't expect to see it. Quite good. I don't know how the rest of you guys feel. I could do a top 40 easily and I would feel comfortable. I probably could. Just a lot of albums out. We all have different directions we go. But anyway, let's move on because there's like a ton of albums. Would you say different strokes for different

folks that were rude.

What are you talking about, Willis?

Sure.

To move the world.

All right.

Moving on.

Gurria.

Is that how you say it?

It's Guy Rhea.

Guy Rhea.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Their fourth album, Coma.

They're a Portuguese black metal band.

And honestly, the first time I listened to it, I was like, eh.

But I was not under the cans.

Second time I listened to it under the cans, I was like, oh yeah.

This is actually pretty cool. Thumbs up the whole way. Yeah, no, I dig it. I thought it was pretty good. What I like is all the little interludes that are not heavy. There's little classical guitar stuff going on. I felt like there was more on this album than the previous albums. That they had more atmospheric pieces to kind of let the song breathe a little more. Go ahead, Marcus. You finish your thought, John. I just felt like the album

was breathing a little more gave them a little bit of break and then they just pummel you again and also really melodic i thought i think you hit the nail on the head i every single guy read album they they've changed up a little bit and i think they've gotten more melodic and more atmospheric and they've just added more layers to their music and um because if you listen to the first album it's pretty like dense black metal so but it's still heavy like it no it's still heavy so they add these elements

but they still have that core sound where it's not like you're changing your sound completely or going more mainstream. They're not doing that. They're just giving you textures. And I love that about the record. Like I've been a big fan of this band. They're really good live as well. So I think this is definitely their best record. And I know Holly loves it. She's not here. I know. I was going to say, I thought she liked this album. She can come back to it. I thought this was the one I liked the most for them so far.

Yeah. No, it's a, I think it's the, it's a culmination of everything that they've done before and they've added more elements. And I think it's like the, the best version of them so far. So Holly, we're talking about the guy read album. So if you wanted to say that is my album of the month. I'm like completely obsessed. I didn't get into them until a couple of years ago. And then I, or maybe it was just, yeah, it wasn't because Mirage came out in 2022, right? Yeah.

That was the first one I listened to. And I was obsessed. Completely obsessed. And then I went back and listened to Unsettling Whispers and I obsessed with that. I've just been obsessed with all of them. I was telling Mark, they might be my favorite band right now. I'm just completely in love with them. Wow. Nice. So you like them, is what you're saying. Yeah. They don't suck. To be honest, after Mirage, I was a little bit nervous about where they would go with this album.

because to me, Mirage was the culmination of the perfect balance between atmosphere and harshness. Plus, the songs were just epic. It just felt like a masterpiece to me, Mirage.

I'm gonna go. But what I realized is that what they did was they added layering, like sort of like a 2D versus a 3D thing. Like there's more, like if it's like maybe just like even the clean choral vocals that occur throughout the album or just other instruments, other instrumentals or even like the fact that the vocalists

the new vocalist knew he was already in the band but he's doing vocals for the first time um

had like it's not just him doing the vocals there are a bunch of other you know layers to that to me to me it i was

very very pleased with what i heard because it it uh it took what i thought was their masterpiece but it it it sort of like it one-upped it

You know the meme photo of the iceberg above the water. I felt like this one was like the iceberg below the water. They just kept going. That's the coolest feeling. You listen to a record and you think, wow, this is probably the best they're ever going to do. Then they come up with another record and you're like, wow, you topped it. I didn't think that was possible. That's how I felt with them. I've loved all their records. I love how they incrementally add layers. I was saying the same thing that you were saying.

The layering of it, the texture of this record is just phenomenal. And it's more melodic and heavier. Like at the same time. Right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The next one will be their black album. They're like, oh man, we're so popular. This one was almost like the white album. Honestly, when I saw that, when I saw some of the promo stuff, it was so bright. Yeah. They were wearing like, not like a three

a three-piece suit without the jacket. I was like, oh man, what's going on? Well, that album cover is very not metal. I mean, it's metal, but it's so white. Well, it's incredible. It's like a ballpoint pen drawing, isn't it? Oh, it's very cool. But very unusual, you're right. Unusual for metal. I've moved to Chardonnay, so cheers. Chardonnay all day, baby.

All righty. Moving on to the next one, which is another George album that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for George. And that is the new Grand Magus album, Sunraven, their 10th album, Swedish Heavy Doom. Did anybody listen to this? Yes. I love these guys. Oh, I love you, Matt. Yeah, absolutely. I remember I listened to him and then I feel like they opened for, gosh, it might've been like an Amon or Mar show.

That makes sense. They're both Swedish. Yeah. There was a few bands playing and they opened and it was like, I mean, this album is probably never going to make a list for me, but I just enjoy listening to it. Were they at Valken? I'm sure they have. Were they there when we were there? No, we were watching Ahab. Well, I know that. I mean, in terms of like more of a, I just remember that moment with, you know, with Eric realizing that he didn't like doom metal.

They're straight up regular doom metal, not death to, but, um, it's so slow. No, it was like grand magus and then somebody. And then, uh, why can't I think of the name of this band? Arch enemy and I'm on a Marth and they opened. And honestly, I, I thought they were very solid and I very much enjoyed this album. Yeah. Their triumph and power album is like my apex for them. Sure. Um, and so I've been sort of,

extra judgmental since then because the song triumphant power is like catchy as fuck and they haven't had anything that's quite as catchy but this is still a good album they just they haven't they haven't had that commercial catchy aspect that i loved about it that was so man of war but i feel like i should listen to these guys because to one of the drummers from spiritual beggars and the singer used to be in spiritual

And I love Spiritual Beggars. I didn't know that. But yeah, no, he's... He's awesome. And they are awesome. Have you never heard him in Spiritual Beggars? I have listened to Spiritual Beggars. I just didn't know he was in the band. Yeah, he was in for a few albums. Nice. All right, well, if no one else has any comments, we can move on. Grand Magus. Grand Magus. Check it out. I like it. Do you? I did not expect you to like this. I love their older stuff.

And I think some of the middle

records I haven't liked so much. It's kind of a return to form for me.

It's just like more catchy.

Yes.

I don't know, better songwriting.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I thought it was pretty good, George.

I don't think it's like a lister for me, but I thought I was really enjoy spinning it.

But I think they're kind of back.

They're back.

They're back, baby.

All right.

Let's move on then.

Next up, we have Jotun.

and their second album kinship take it away mark is on i mean this is my album of

month i i went against the establishment oh god can i just can i just say like i i feel like i'm every

time i talk to people about metal bands and they say the name in the band out loud i feel like i'm learning

something new because i'll say i'll i'll pronounce it differently in my head and then and then i'll hear

Iotun. Oh, of course, that's the way it's pronounced.

How did you say it?

My head is going, Iotun.

No, that's not entirely wrong.

I mean, we've said it.

The band pronounces it.

Yeah, it's a Scandinavian pronunciation.

But yeah.

That makes sense.

But if I'm not up enough on the band to where I'm listening to how they pronounce it,

I always I have my own little we were the same way like we had to listen to an interview to hear him yeah say how they pronounce the band we didn't know at first we pronounced it too yeah yeah we were like I yeah that's what we said yeah so yeah we didn't know I think I listened to an interview I think we all sort of did at the same time yeah yeah I don't I mean it's my album of the month but I I love this it's everything I want from a metal album it's grand

Heavy Sweeping, Freaking Modern Progressive Metal, steeped in heartfelt emotion, phenomenal musicianship and song craft on here. There are tracks on here that I can sing at the top of my lungs and I feel absolutely exhilarated when I do that. I think on John Aldara, his vocals are just, they're stunning. And the growls are perfectly vicious on it. I don't know. I think it has the best guitar solos on any record I've heard.

this year as well. I can't say enough about Kinship. I play it almost every single day. So yeah, I think it's just a phenomenal, phenomenal record. The first record they put out, Access All Worlds, was my number two record. So, you know, this is probably going to be pretty high on my list. I think it's awesome. I really like it too. I definitely have a certain appreciation for Bombast. And not like over the top, but like when there's that kind of

element that balances it between the gritty, which I feel like this album does.

Oh, yeah. It's a heavy record. It's just so emotional, but it's just done so well because they're such good musicians.

Yeah, I'm really... I mean, I knew it was going to be a good record, but I'm just really blown away by it.

And it keeps you guessing. A lot of it just feels thorough composed.

It almost feels like there aren't really any refrains.

Which is one of my favorite ways that songs are composed.

I don't know. It might make me a nerd, but there we go.

You're a nerd for sure. Nerds are cool. You're a power nerd.

When I learned the term when I was doing music theory in high school,

I was like, yeah, this thing called thorough composed.

I was really into Tool at the time. I was like, I think I know what that is. Well, I'm also really happy to see, you know, it's gotten a lot of really great reviews all around the web. So, which I think is well-deserved. It's good. I just, this month was so, even though I think we've had it for a while, right? Yeah. It's just, there's so much out right now. I, there's very few albums this month that I've given super amount of attention to because there's so many this month or last month, I should say.

But it's good. I like it. I hope you get to spin it some more. It gets me. It's one of those records that just stays with you for me. It does not suck. Thanks, George. I think we can all get it. Yeah, I think that's the consensus. It does not suck. Best endorsement ever. Hey, I can see that on a magazine, you know. They got the album cover and the title and it just says Metalhead's Podcast.

Dash. It does not suck. It's our new tagline. I think we need to change it on all the socials. But George, that ad that you would see somehow be like on a billboard and it would be raining and it would just, all the letters would melt off and it would just say Metalhead's Podcast. It'd be this huge gap and it would just say suck. Well, yeah. Which would be far off, but anyway. All right. All right. So this next one. Is it a metal album? Nice.

It's heavy. It's heavy. This is the new Jerry. It's like the Alice in Chains metal. Sort of. Yes. Sort of. They wanted to be a metal band, you know. More metal than any of the other bands that were doing. Maybe early Soundgarden would come close. Yes. Yeah, for sure. We're talking about the fifth solo album by Jerry Cantrell, I Want Blood. Well, if he wants blood, he got it. You got it.

And holy crap, I loved this. I did not expect it. I mean, I like Jerry, obviously. I love Alice in Chains. But holy hell, this was way better than I thought it was going to be. And I love it. Have you listened to his other solo stuff? No, I have. But still, it was just all pretty good. Yeah, no, I know. But still, I was just like, damn, because this was a very Alice in Chains-y kind of release. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I thought it was really good. It did mostly make me want to spin Alice in Chains again. Yeah. But I, you know, I'm going to re-listen to this one because I thought, you know, it evoked those feelings and I need to give this one a fair shake as an album on its own terms. So I'll go back to it. But, you know, I pretty much love everything Jerry Cantrell does. Like his last time was a little spotty. I thought. I would, I would agree with that. Yeah. That's why I think this one stands out so much because this one's so much better. Yeah.

Yeah. And it just proves, whether you like Alice in Chains or not, that Alice in Chains is Jerry Cantrell. Yeah. He was the... Well, absolutely. I don't think... I mean, Lane, Staley, all the guys, all five of them, you know, because I'm counting in, was it Mike Starr in there too? They're all crucial to the band. But Jerry's the heart and soul of that band. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, there was definitely magic between Jerry and Lane. Without question. That's so...

Yeah, because he sinks on 75% of the parts. Yeah, he's the backbone. Yes. You can't quite recapture that perfect magic, but you can see where Jerry... Pretty close with William. Without Jerry, you don't have the Alice in Chains, not at all. Yeah, great. So I need to spit it more because I need to know if I need to shoehorn that in my list just because it's Jerry Cantrell. Oh, shit. I mean, if we're counting it, I'm putting it. I mean, I would put it on a rock list.

just because I have too many other metal things to go. I know. That's what's crazy. We'll see. Yeah, great, Marcus. We'll see. It's so hard because I am... We do 25. Like I said, I could easily do 40 or 50 records this year, I think, and I would be happy with that because I feel like they all deserve a little bit of a nod. Even Julie Christmas, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to put it in a rock category or metal category. I can't decide, and I love that record.

I can't decide yet. That is 100% qualifying for me. It qualifies. I agree, John, but it's also very much rock too, so I could comfortably put it in there and then save a space for something else. I don't know. Well, here's the thing. We're doing our year-end lists in December. What's in December? Christmas. You know what? You just sold me, George. Totally sold me. Hey, Matt? Yeah, I also do an

Top 25 Adult Contemporary.

That's on our new forthcoming podcast.

The adult contemporary podcast.

I mean, I do a Top 10 regardless of genre.

So what I mean, you know, one of mine is going to be this noise goth record I discovered earlier in the year.

Do tell.

Crippling Alcohol.

Yes.

The name of the band.

Yes.

It's incredible.

But the record is so so good

It's like Tom Waits

Like worms crawling up the jail cell

Wall

It's so brutal

It's really really good

I saw that and I was like Tom Waits

I love

Tom Waits is one of my favorite all time people

All time

Honestly it's a little bit more melodic

I agree

It's a little heavier than Tom Waits

I agree, but you said Tom Waits and that just sent me down this like, blah. But yes. Well, if you guys are at all into like goth, like intense, heavy goth. Crippling alcoholism is great. The record is called From a Padded Room. Yeah. That is definitely a terrible band name though. I know, but that it drew me. I was like, hey, I know I can relate to that. Yeah. No, check it out. Anyway, sorry. Didn't mean to. Sorry for

I don't know if it was like cripple whiskey or something that would be better I don't I don't know I don't like I hate that name has a few too many syllables it's on for too long I hate that cripple bastards hello anyone anyone all right fine next up mother of graves their second album the periapt of absence Indianapolis doom I'm gonna point this one at John

I like it okay no if you're if you're a fan of uh that catatonia that classic

catatonia sound then this is right in your wheelhouse it's just another I love that I'm bored of the

catatonia now I love their classic sound I I love the Brave Murder Day stuff too obviously because

Mike from Opeth was singing on the albums but it's cool I like it I just like I said I have not

I've given all these albums a lot of spins because there's so many albums this month or previous month so I agree I also really like yeah and it's nice that there's bands that are dipping back into that kind of 90s early 2000s death doom sound I'm a big fan of the peaceful three and I love catatonia again I'm bored with them now because they the same album last four or five albums but yeah it's cool and I can't wait to see him at decibel because I've never

I've never seen them. Oh, they're really good live. Yeah. And they don't venture too much. I mean, they played Birmingham, I think, once. I think. They were here, Chicago. Because they're from, yeah, Indianapolis, right? Is that what you said, George? Yep. Yeah. So yeah, Marcus, you probably would get a chance to see them. Yeah, I saw them once and I thought they were really, really good in a very super small venue. And they were one of the opening acts for a festival. There was hardly anybody there. So I really got to hear their sound.

Live. Great. It was excellent. So I'm actually looking forward to seeing them play again. So I like it. I mean, I know the last record was your number one. So I just want probably just hit some of the right buttons for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're kind of screwing up my decibel plans because I kind of want to see them. But I'm also like, I could hang out at Monk's for a couple more hours. So I don't know. Thursday is Monk Day. Fine.

Well, I am coming in on Thursday. So. A lot of people are. So I'm curious to see what the pre-fest is going to be. I don't care. I'm going to be there. Markisan his monks and glory. I mean, I guess. I mean, yes, definitely glory and monks for sure. But if they've got good bands in the pre-fest, I would go to that. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to I really want to get the tribulation because we'll still with us. So let's let's move it along. But first, we have to talk about something that I was hesitant to add to the

because of what it is. And that is the new knock misty album, blight privilege, the ninth album from Blake Judd, who, if you know anything about him or this band, he's a motherfucker. And he's, you know, he's a junkie. He takes your money. He doesn't give you shit. However, still keeps releasing albums. Well, no, but I mean, do you believe in second chances? Can people clean up and fix their shit?

I don't know.

You know,

I that's what I mean.

He just keeps releasing albums.

And I mean,

he's been given a lot of chances and he keeps fucking people.

So I don't know what to say.

It's tough.

The problem is,

so we've already discussed on this episode and probably every episode that I've been a part of is that I have a new metal past.

And as I was coming out of that new metal past,

getting reacquainted with extreme metal,

was a band that showed up on my radar and I fell in love with black metal part one and two. They were just very different. And granted, I hadn't like, you know, my palette for metal now, uh, 14 years later is much different than it was back then. But I remember there being something cool about these albums. And I listened to the subsequent albums afterwards. And then, yeah, you hear about, you know, kind of his shady past or, you know, shady dealings is probably what I would say.

And I've kind of like steered away from it. And strangely enough, I listened to this album and then Eric from the podcast reached out to me like, Hey, I really like that. The Gera or what band we were talking about. I can't pronounce it. But then he's like, and I was like, I'm digging that one. Totally agreed. And then it was like, knock missed him. He's like, I really dig that. I was like, I know, man. Do you know Eric though? Do you know? That's true. But I really, I mean, I thought it was good, but at the same time, you're always hesitant.

Because, you know, I mean, they talk about the heroin and then, you know, the ripping off of fans. And clearly the ripping off of fans is probably the more. Heinous. We care more about. Yeah. In terms of, you know, being cool. But. Yeah. It's not a terrible album. Exactly. It's not great either, though. So, I mean, I, who was it? It might've been Decibel that said this. I don't remember who said it. But they were like, you know, back in the day,

But like all these years later, it's the same. So it's like, it's cool, but it's not innovative anymore. So where do you go with it? I don't know. But I don't know what to do with this album. I really don't. I want to give somebody a second chance, but does he deserve it? I don't know. I don't know what to do. But what if Bill Murray were to steal the album?

If that were to happen, I would give it a chance. Yeah, that would be innovative. And so unlikely. This is the only one I didn't listen to on the list for all the reasons you've already mentioned, George. Yeah, no, I mean, I hesitated to include it just because I didn't want to give him press, you know? Well, that and it's just the same. There's not anything really new that you're getting out of this. But it's not, at the same time, it's not bad. No.

So I just don't know what to do with it. I'm just going to put it out here and you can do what you want with it. You're going to put it there and then we're going to move on. And their sixth album that I cannot pronounce, but I am going to call it Moon Tau Tuja. Or you could just use the English translation, Shapeshifter. Okay. Let's go with that. Let's go with that. Respect for not butchering the name.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure Yanni could probably pronounce this shit. I know he could pronounce this shit. He's finished. Yeah. But I can't pronounce it, Yanni. So you're not here. Fuck you. You know what, Yanni? Why don't you send us audio with the name so we could use it? There you go. There you go. By the way, I love you, but fuck you. But I love you. All right. John, hello. Cosmic Snuggy Matt. Yes.

Please. This is, I mean, you guys know how much I love this band. Yeah. This is weirder and more aggressive and off the wall. And I hear people saying, well, is it really metal? I'm like, are you listening to this? It's definitely metal. Yeah. It's not black metal anymore. It's just, it's a Ronzi metal. Yeah. They're in their own category. I think you described that right.

It's a little too off the wall for me, but I definitely respect it because, man, they're doing something I haven't heard. I don't hear this from anybody else. They are creative as anything. They really are. Like Inter Arma, this is one of the bands that I couldn't truly appreciate until I saw live. They destroy it live. And, yeah, I will never question them again after seeing them live because holy shit. So, you know. There.

So yeah, George and I saw them at Death Fest and they absolutely destroyed Ram's Head. And then Warren and I saw them with Horrendous and I think Insec Art at Metro Gallery in Baltimore and they play like most of the new album that hadn't been released yet and they destroyed that place. They're so good live. Yeah. So good live. Some things you just don't get when you hear it recorded. In the studio recording. Yeah. If you're a fan of Psychedelic, Avant-Garde-ish, just

Wild, weird metal. They're right in your wheelhouse, son. That's the way they describe it. I need to see them live because I don't connect to their records, but I've never seen them live. Well, that's the way I felt until I saw them. And then I was like, oh my God. I could see where that might change my mind. George and I were standing there after their set. And how many people came up to us? George just said, what the fuck was that? I just saw. I'm not even joking about that. No. Really, a couple of friends of mine that were there, they didn't know were there.

What the hell was that? Yeah. It's one of those things you just can't explain. Yeah. You just gotta see them. Cool. I've never seen them live and I am drinking the Aronsi. I know Matt was in that kind of like galactic kind of cosmic snuggie. He sent a message to me. He said, I just I'm at a different plane.

Yeah. I was actually surprised it wasn't your album of the month, John. I thought for sure this one. I thought it would be too. Right there. Right there. Right there at the cusp. Doesn't matter what happens at the month level. It matters what happens at the year end. That's true. Because you're going to listen to stuff a lot more. Yeah. That's true. I finally get back to it. All right. Next, we have the fourth album from German Black Death Band, The Spirit. Songs,

Against Humanity. Initially, this band came out just banging of dissection worship, and it was really good. And then, to me, anyway, they kind of dropped off. But this album, I like. I didn't get a chance to listen to it yet. Yeah, I agree with you, George. I really dug this one. It's just, it's really richly textured intergalactic melodic black death.

And there's just a lot of fire to this. I feel like the last record was way more proggy and grand. And this has remnants of that, but they definitely reigned it in. It's like way more streamlined. And I think that works way better for the band. I agree. It's kind of reminds me of Exist, right? That album that came out this year. Interesting. Where they went real proggy in the last time, and then they got a little bit more lean. It's still got proggy in it, of course. But their song structure is a little bit

more lean on that hijacking the zeitgeist album and that worked that really worked for me similar uh with this album like that it really worked for me they tightened everything and it's it's just more bombastic and full of fury and i like that yeah i'm with you yeah cool anyone bueller i have to listen to it i haven't listened to it yet yeah i think you would dig it john you got to listen to that one cool i'll check it out i think you'd like it too holly

Definitely check it out.

You didn't listen to it, Holly?

You gave her like 107 albums.

I'm just kidding.

I'm kidding.

Come on.

I tried.

I tried.

It's all right.

It's all right.

All right.

Next up, we have the ninth album from Finnish band Swallow the Sun called Shining.

And this is the one that I didn't really listen to much.

So please, somebody help me.

I listen to everything because I actually do my homework here. Yeah. I'm a teacher. I don't have to do the homework. I did, Marcus. I have extra homework. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. What did you want to say about it, John? I'll be real quick. I'm sure I've mentioned before. I like Swallow the Sun a lot. This is the first time where I'm just like, ah, it's okay. Half of it, I think, is good. There's nothing on here that is great.

is kind of like,

ah,

it's all right.

You know?

So I would say this is probably my least favorite Swallow the Sun album.

I think it's going to bring in some new fans.

You know,

every,

every band is,

deserves a chance to,

to do something a little different,

especially bands that's been around as long as they have.

So,

I mean,

wasn't my number one album of the year songs in the North.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

this is way different from that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

I mean, Marcus, I want you to say there's about three or four songs that are very good. I mean, they have that sound, but then it's very polished and clean sounding, I think.

I agree. Listen, I mean, this band used to be pretty crushing. Death do me had a death do me sound. You know, this is a lot different. This is a glossy goth rock to me, really. So it kind of reminds me of the way Catatonium morphed.

A little bit.

It even sounds like catatonia, like current catatonia in certain spots. But I think they actually did a good job with this newer sound. It's just not something I would listen to a lot. It's not really in my wheelhouse. So I recognize that sometimes bands have to do something else. They might get bored with what they're doing and they want to change and try something new. And I think, to be honest with you, listening to it,

That sound, this kind of glossy, goth sound, I think they do it well. I think they succeeded in that, but do I want to listen to it? I'm not going to reach for it when I have four or five other albums of theirs I'll reach for before this one. I agree. I've got to give them credit. If you move into that direction, you've got to do it well. I think if you like this kind of a sound, we're going to be talking about tribulation on this too.

If you like this kind of like, I don't know, shiny goth type rock music, I think you'll dig it. This is heavier than the Tribulation album. It's a lot better. Get that name out of your mouth. It's a lot better. Listen, I just want to point out that when we first started talking about this album in our thread, I thought it was a Shining album. Yeah. Black jazz shining, not Depress of the Inside of Black Metal shining. It's a little different.

I'm dumb and can't read, but still. All right. I'm looking forward to this album. Yes. Come on. We'll put your fucking gloves on, bitch. Will's ready. Tribulation. Well, go. Tribulation and their fifth album. Sub Rosa in a turnum. I fucking love this album. You and Jay, I wanted to talk to you about this, Jay, because Jay, you've been carrying the torch for these guys. You're muted. That explains a lot.

I like them and so I'll hold your hand George and will if you want to take swings at both of us you're more than welcome to do so yeah I mean I don't even know if will's listen to the record or if he just hated him in concert here it comes I have not listened to the album because I'm not going to waste my time I did see him in concert and I had no fucking idea what I was watching it was not what I was expecting I don't I

I was thinking like oh this is the band that

decibel gave a 10 to a couple years ago on their album and that's right and I'm curious what

I remember listening to like some older stuff I'm like oh it's kind of like polished black metal but

like this wasn't my thing I just never got it and when I saw him in concert I was like what in the hell am I watching

have you ever seen them live at least lately no okay well well I hope you let them I hope

I hope you like the cure I do I love the cure records great

I feel like there was a time I haven't even heard the new cure record

that's all I gotta say well why don't you tell everybody what you told me and TR during the show about tribulation and it's probably not safe for public consumption that's well that says enough I you know you know actually it's funny I I did see them a few good few years ago and I want to say they

were opening for behemoth on that satanist kind of rehash. They were on a ton of tours like that. And also, which also brings up one quick thing that I want to throw out, which is I think Mirakour was on that same thing. Well, you can take swings at that one if you want to too. But I mentioned that only because did you guys know she's doing the female stuff on the King Diamond tour? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't make the connection, but yeah. I say the female stuff. I mean,

It used to be King's wife who would do the female vocals. But Makura's actually, I think, opening. And then, I don't know if she's opening, but she's definitely performing with him. Yeah. I think these guys are a little more black and roll, kind of, to me. Yeah. Well, this album is definitely a big step in a different direction for them. This one is. Yeah, I think so. It is.

I partly wore this shirt because of them.

Because it's like Sisters of Mercy meets The Cure meets Nick Cave.

And a little bit of, you know, and a little bit.

No, man.

This is like a top five album for me.

I love this album.

Wow, George.

I mean, you love goth stuff.

I do, but I haven't.

Who doesn't love goth stuff?

Stupid People.

This is called the Metal Heads podcast, right?

Oh, it's still metal.

There's some harsh vocals on a couple of songs.

I love goth.

Yeah, but it is a very goth-centric record, which is a big step for them.

I mean, all their albums until now were pretty much mainly harsh vocal.

They were gothy up to a point.

No, you know.

Sorry.

I'll just start one thing and it's that there's a record I sell on this podcast from time to time and it came out in Jesus. So a long time ago. You're saying the time of Jesus. It came out in Jesus. Jesus time. Drinketh from my cup. It came out in 2013 and it's a band called In Solitude who all of a sudden made a record called Sister. Yes.

which is a super gothy record i'm not saying that this is that similar but i i thought that was such a legitimate turn i think it was their last record too i think it was they broke up no you're absolutely right jay secondly i don't think this is a huge departure for them and you know no it's a natural progression it is and this is a band i would say i've listened to more live than i have on in like let's say recorded material yeah um i i have zero issues with this album i love you

I don't have any issues with either. It's natural. It's silky smooth goth rock with a blood

droplet of metal in there. It's it's it's a shrug your shoulders type fine album to me. I'll take it. I'll take it. I expected to fight with you over this. I don't think it's bad at all, George. It's just I don't decimal rated a nine. They rated the last album a 10. I would not rate it that high. But you know, their sound is fine. I think they do good job with that sound. It's just it's not something I want

And that's fine too, because it's all subjective.

You know, I feel like...

It's probably also something you don't want to see.

Shut up, Will.

I kind of want to see it after a review of the live version.

I love you, Will.

But, you know, to me, this is a response.

Not a response, but, you know, the new Unto Others album.

I was just going to go there, George.

Is goth beauty.

It is amazing.

And this is like a cousin to that album. It's definitely more traditional gothy with the deep Sisters of Mercy type vocals. Well, Unto Others is like goth balladry almost. This one is more like traditional goth. My description of Tribulation has always been that if the original Universal Monsters,

and I'm talking about the black and white ones got together and made a band this is what it would sound like and even because and that's there you go I'm just Holly that's a little bit yeah but because it's a little bit dated in its way it's almost like grandpa's you know uh coughing car and the monsters type thing it's a little bit like that and I just I don't know they they capture this weird vibe for me that is like a 50s horror vibe that I love it I to me it was like if

- That is tribulation.

- That's fair to do.

another throwing out another seminal band that i just i can't agree with that holly do you have an opinion wow the comparisons in all these better bands i i don't i haven't listened to it but listening to all of these all of these uh all of these comparisons makes me want to if you like god you'll like this i did i love god are you kidding then you'll like and you you have can you just start listening to it now in your headphones yeah just we'll we'll wait just listen then you come back

I completely lose the conversation yeah sorry she she's got when I when I send the itinerary to guests I always put all the links to band camp and stuff like I hard to add extra shit into it so they can you know it's so she's got it they're just they're too I'm sorry there were too many of course of course that's fine all right well I've heard I've heard I've heard four to five

of them and that was a nice thing.

Oh, you did. You did great.

I don't have a job and I can listen to all of them.

But here's the thing. We just, we talked about tribulation a lot. So like to have that much of a discussion, it's worth listening to the record now.

Yeah. I mean, I I've, I've been anti tribulation for the last couple of records. And so I don't know if you were anti, were you anti?

But anti, but I wasn't as supportive and now I am like way back in their camp. So, you know, that's worth something.

But we have one more new release. And I'm looking forward to this one as well. You haven't spun this one either, George. I have. Okay. Many times. Okay. This is the new Undeath. Their third album, New York Death Metal, More Insane. Now, the first two albums, I was not terribly big on. I was not a big fan. I've seen them live and I've been like, meh. But this album, they finally figured out

out the production and it fucking rocks. It's awesome. I love this album. This was going to be my album of the month until Blood Incantation came along. Wow. Yeah, I mean. I was just double checking to make sure it was the album that I thought it was. And is it? Yes. And do you like it? I tried it. Oh. Wait.

Oh, well, I tried. I mean, I'm not really a big fan of this modern, like, bro death sound, but I have to say the riffs on this are really good. I think that was my problem. It was, it felt very bro-y. That's the trend in death metal. To me, this was much more like, oh, I want to be Cannibal Corpse. I mean, it's not Cannibal Corpse. Nobody's Cannibal Corpse, except Cannibal Corpse, but this was more in that realm.

to me.

Yeah, I didn't notice.

I can see that, yeah, for sure.

I didn't notice much of a difference from before.

Other than that you can hear the fucking vocals?

I mean, I've...

Well, we're not going to get into production with you, George, but I do.

You know what I do like about this album?

The fucking cover.

That cover artwork of a mountainside graveyard inside a decapitated, bisected head.

That is pretty wonderful.

Pretty glorious.

It's pretty awesome.

That's part of why I don't know why, you know, it was like, it's like click. Like, hello. Yeah. Well, and you guys know, like part of the reason some of these bands, this one and the, what's the other one? Frozen Soul or whatever. Yeah. I saw them live and they were just so bro heavy, just the delivery of it. And it, it really turned me off. And I try to, I try to turn that off when I'm listening to the records, but it is very hard for me to do that.

because we've been talking about how if you see a band live like a ron c pazuzu like you

totally get it like you see what they're what they're doing um because they're doing right in front of you

you know there's so many bands that are like that you maybe you're not into the album you listen to it live

this is the opposite for me where i thought the albums were pretty good and then i saw them live i'm like

you've turned me off marcus i 100 agree with you because when i saw them live i was like

Huh. This is not what I was expecting at all. Yeah. And then now that I saw them live, I can't unsee and hear that when I hear the new stuff. Although I do like the album. I was going to say, I thought Will might back me on this one. No, no, I like it. I don't know if he'll make my list, but I like it. But it's it does have those breakdown bro-y elements to it that don't typically jive with me.

But I feel like they have that delicate balance that keeps me interested and it keeps me like I bought it, you know, I like it. And I know one of the guys in the band. So, you know, I'm always going to support, you know, something I've known for a long time. But yeah, there's there's it's you know, it all it just comes from the lead singer is just was not when we saw that. His delivery is no. I agree with that. But I think he sounds amazing on this album.

Yeah. No. And I agree with both of you on this point. You know, like, I think it's a good album. It's just, they are catering to a certain audience. That's hard to catering to me, I guess, George. Anyway, I'm done. We're done with the releases. The longest releases ever. And this, this is the point where my time is extremely limited right now. Yeah. So we should do the top five. All right. Let's do top five then.

All right, let's get into our top five.

And this time we are poking at Albert because we are talking about the top five bands. We want to play decibel metal and beer fest Philly. And we're going to let Will go first. Hello. Hello. My name is Will. I will. I don't talk much. Yeah, I did like this. I don't know who came up with this idea, but I like this one. I would just say for the record,

I did find it interesting that there are certain there's like the news is bullet pointed on the script the new releases are bullet pointed but they're not numbered well no we number this because it's a top five I know anyway sorry just fucking talk all right um this is no particular order um but top five bands I'd like to see uh play at decibel metal and beer

in Philly. Like I said, not in any particular word. And this is just some of the things I thought off the top of my head, but sick of it all. I love these guys. This is one of my old school favorite bands. The lead singer is going through some, I think, cancer stuff right now. I think I donated. I don't think. I did donate to his GoFundMe. Yeah, just such a great catalog of just old hardcore. I don't like a ton of hardcore, but I grew up with these guys.

in high school and just really enjoy almost every single thing that I've ever put out. It's kind of consistent. I like it. And then this next one I just thought would be just be fun. And I think it's a band that we all like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizards. Yeah. I thought that would be fun. We wouldn't even know what the hell we were going to get. I'm not that into that band, but I would love to see them live. We're going to play a song from our 14th

I think they're on tour of the states. Our 14th album last month. And I would like to see them put out the album that they did last year. Not the, like the actual real album. The metal album. Yeah, the metal album. Yeah, the dragon one. Yes, the one with the dragon on the front door. With a really, really long title. Yes. That's why I called it the dragon one. That's perfect, Holly. Very perfect. And then next is a band I love.

I loved growing up in high school, but I have not seen them live probably since I've been in high school. Second Reich. Oh. Actually, we saw them at... No. The dude from Sacred Reich was at Valken. Right, Matt? We watched it. Yeah. Fucking word. Mm-hmm. Sorry. Go ahead. So, yeah, I would just love to see those guys live. And they put out a new album like several years ago, and it was pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised.

Yeah. So, um, like, I, I kind of love these old bands that I grew up in high school, grew up listening to in high school. And then like, like Atrophy is one of them that kind of like went off, um, disappeared for a while and came back and put out a pretty solid album. I liked a lot. So it's like a right kind of falls in that category. Uh, the next one. I just, they paid, they did play it in 2021. That's what I thought. Yeah. What? Yeah. Huh. Sacred Reich did.

How was the year I didn't go? It was the second. Okay. Well, it was the second LA one. Oh, yeah. Oh, but not Philly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. The next one. I think these guys are due and I'm kind of surprised to have not played yet, but Temple of Void. Yeah. I would love, absolutely love to see those guys play. And then the last one. Yeah. And the last one.

is a band I've really gotten into lately. I've always kind of liked, well, I kind of, I haven't always liked them. Like they have a catalog that goes like, for like 25 years or something like that, but Primordial. I will love this. But my only issue with Primordial playing Decibel, I think that the thing that would not fit well with Primordial Decibel is that Decibel has a pretty standard,

From what I remember, it's a pretty standard light show, pretty standard stage. You just usually have. I feel like I've seen a few videos and I've seen a few photos of Primordial and they need the massive light show because I feel like everything about them is just so big. Yeah, big. That they need almost like a bigger production behind them to fill out the whole experience. But yeah, I've been on a pretty big Primordial.

I'd love to see them live.

It's a no-brainer, and it's surprising they haven't played it.

They seem like a band that just would have...

I believe they're going to be at Maryland Death Fest next year.

Yeah, they are.

Yeah, I saw them at MDF.

I thought they just played last year.

Dread Sovereign played.

Actually, was it Dread Sovereign that played?

Well, I should say, I know Dread Sovereign played, because I saw it with Sam.

He's the one that drugged...

I told the story.

He drugged me to it.

And then when I heard them, I was like, oh, that's the guy from Primordial. And then I went in a deep dive and deep dive off the deep end. They're awesome live. They're so good. Yeah. I saw him at MDF probably before you guys went. He was there twice in one day, Twilight of the Gods played and then Primordial. I saw him at Prog Power. Yeah. Of all places. They were awesome.

That makes sense though. I can see that. So Matt, what'd you say? I saw Matt Valken. Nice. Nice. I also, I pooped my pants. Yeah. There. Not now. There. What's this? Right now. It's easy to do it, Valken. Everything is fine right now. That's the important thing. Well, actually, that sounded like. The poopy pants. It sounded more like you were telling us that just happened. You're sort of like, yeah, I enjoyed that record. I know.

I'm gonna need to change my Snuggie. Sorry. Yeah. I saw that Valken. Comma. I subsequently put my pants there. Not here. Promise. But if you see me dark in like 15. It was the food, wasn't it? It was the fucking festival food, man. Oh, man. Valken food is amazing. I don't trust it. I don't trust any festival food. No, man. Valken food is amazing. Yeah. And

Actually, at Valken, it's more about the pee than the poo. Oh, yeah. There's pee everywhere. All right, Will. But I do need to go, but if anybody go through real quick, what am I listening to? The new Oryx. I think, Jay, you like those guys. Primarily, those guys, the name of the album. The new Cryptopsy. The new Nile. Still listening to that. There's a new Cryptopsy. Yes. The Book of Sufferings, Tome 1 and 2.

The New Nile Record, which has a lot of long titles as usual. Glacial Tomb, Lightless Expanse, I think we all like them. APEP, which is like Nile, but I think they're from Germany, Before Whom Evil Trembles. Undeath, and then Deceased put out a new album that's really good. Children of the Morgue, it's called.

My pick from the crip, I probably mentioned this like 15 times in pick from the crip, but I still love it. Onslaught, Power From Hell. Oh, yeah. Which you can make an argument is the actual first death metal album, and I'll just let that stew out there. Ooh, them fatten words. I'm not saying it is, but I think you could take Seven Churches, you could take Scream Bloody Gore, and you could take Power From Hell,

Look at the dates that they were made, the style of music, and you could probably, somebody can make an argument for all three. I will say this too, Onslaught's next release was a precipitous drop after that. They never... Yeah, because I think they turned it more like power metal. Yeah, and that first record was so good. Yeah, I think that the second one, I remember, had like a melting clock on it. I don't even remember it. I just remember listening to it. I think I was in high school when Power From Hell came out. I know I was in high school.

I was in junior high when it came out. It was like 80-something. Yeah, I got it when I got Bathory the Return. That was so whatever year that came out. Oh, well. On slot power from hell. Thanks for doing that real slow like that. Yeah. 85. Holy shit. Yeah, I think it was 85. Like it was a long time ago. Okay, I was like a freshman or maybe maybe I was

18th grade i don't know 85 sorry we're really old i was 10 i may have been in six i was five 17 baby i was 14. i was junior in high school senior i wasn't driving not in the middle i was i was 13 i think i i was into he-man yeah by the power of graystone

I have the power.

I was sending college applications.

85.

I bought my first house.

Yeah.

All right, Will.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Yeah, I got to go, guys.

Thank you, Will.

Bye, Will.

Very nice to have you on holiday.

Love you all.

Love you all.

John, I'll probably see you.

Love.

Make sure you can come to Decibel.

We got a spoon.

I'm going to do what I can.

Also, I love that you dropped the origin of death metal and now you're going to leave. I get it. I get it. You know what? We do our homework and we can discuss it on the next one. I love that. I'm going to listen to it again now. We'll be done by then. We can get that in 25, I think. Sorry, 85, I was like, I had my first house. I don't remember death metal, but I'll look at it. Yeah. Was it one of those Fisher Price houses? Yes. With that kitchen. Still out of licking logs. Matt is the baby of the podcast. Or the bar.

The Barbie Mansion. With the Lincoln Logs. That's what we did. I had Lincoln Logs and Barbies and Legos. And He-Man. And He-Man. All of it. All of it. Why restrict yourself? Don't restrict yourself. Ever. All right. Bye Will. Bye Will. Bye Will. Bye Will. Bye Will. Peace. All right.

What are you rolling? We can pull this off. Yeah, top five now. All right. So, you know, Will went through his whole list. You can do that if you want, or you can play the game as it's intended and do your top, your number five, and we'll go around the room. I'll play the game. Although, I just want to make this clear. I made this list before I looked at

the lineup for next year.

Are all your bands on the bill?

No, but I almost put Dismember on there.

I was so close.

So close.

So close.

But I didn't.

All right.

So.

What is your number five?

I've gone with an international theme because I love.

Those are the bands that should be there.

Well, yeah.

And I'm not just like, I feel like, I feel like there's a,

There's an over-emphasis on European metal, as great as it is. There's a lot of other great shit. And also, I've never been to the Decimal Fest, so I was like, what goes well with beer? Many things. Death and thrash, mostly. I mean, I'm a huge lover of all subgenres of metal, but I feel like when you're drinking beer,

you want to you want to you want to scream so my number five pick is uh nervosa wow that's a good one

plus plus you know any beer fest needs some some non-male influence that's yeah well i tell you what when we saw uh

escuela grind that they fucking ripped they yeah that yeah they opened the fest a couple years ago and holy

Holy shit did they fucking blow the place apart so I mean all good cool all right uh yeah so yeah we didn't have any rules for this top five but I I decided to pick bands that he've either not played decibel or have played that I didn't see because I wasn't at the fest I've missed I think I missed the first two but I also decided to only pick bands that I have never seen so I kind of

more conditions on my picks. So my number five, with that in mind, is Majesties. I want some old-school 90s Melodeath in my decibel. They have tremendous energy, and I just think they'd be really fun to see at the fest, especially as one of the opening bands to just really kick it off. Oh, yeah. Tanner and who's the other person in that band? Carl.

Carl? Carl? What is, I can't think of his last name, but he's in the band. Crap. It's another Minnesota band. I don't know. Crap. With a K. Come on, goddammit. The only Carl I know is from Ash and Horde and that other band that rocked so hard with Carl.

because Carl does the short shorts like Lemmy. Hang on. My wrong. Carl Skildom. That clarified nothing for some reason. I looked down at Metal Archives. He plays live in it except we try. It's Carl Skildom. Okay, which is the tenor band?

Yeah, let's just do that. I have a top five. I have three honorable mentions. I have the same specifics that Markisan has because some bands play an entire album. I chose that for mine because this is my list. It's my party and I'll fucking cry if I want. Okay. Sadist performing a vision of misery in its entirety. I'm bawling my eyes out. Number five. Nice. Like Chris watching Europe.

Yeah. Hell yeah.

Get me the Kleenex and better have lotion.

The motion lotion.

Matt likes moisture.

And so my face doesn't get chapped.

Okay.

Fair enough.

So pretty.

What do you know?

Wind tunnel?

Number five, John.

I'm getting my three now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I have the same restriction and these are bands that have not.

I didn't know about these restrictions. There's no restrictions. I had self-imposed. I just chose that these are bands that I've not played there, but I have seen two of these five bands. And mine is in order of how they're going to perform. That's just the way it is. And we've got a couple special sets in here, too. So, all right. So my first band is a band I've just gotten into recently. They're by far going to be the biggest cricket band probably mentioned here of all of them.

Second biggest cricket band mentioned here tonight. No, it's by far. I don't understand why you would name your band this, but they're freaking awesome. And I'm in bands called bed sore from Italy. They're a progressive death metal band. And when I say progressive, it's like seventies, Prague meets death metal. And you might say what? And it works for me. And the reason I want them is one, because I'm into them right now. And two, I just want to see all the true.

in quotes with a V death metal fans just lose their shit like this is a death metal man. Listen, Bedsore is a better name than that asshole of alcoholism band that they were talking about earlier. Oh, hey. Crippling alcoholism. Come on. Well, Marcus thought it could be Bedsore, you know, for all I know. Bedsore. Bedsore.

How would you pronounce it? Betisore. Betisore. Betisore. Are you Italian too, Matt? I'll have the soup with this Betisore. No, I'm half Polish. Oh, you're Polish. Okay. I'm Sicilian. I just assumed. So, I have to admit, I mean, I'm a quarter Italian. My middle name's Antonio. My grandfather's from the old country. Yeah, I looked up Interlandi on the internet beforehand because I was like, oh shit, I'm going to have to say

this name. And I do this for like every episode because I don't know how to say people's names. And I was like, all right, it's pronounced pretty much how it sounds. But I was like, oh, this is very Italian. Okay. And Sicilian. Yes. Yeah. But very, very Italian. Yeah. Sorry. My relatives would would be very. Kill you. You'd be sleeping with the fishes, George. It's like North California, Northern California, Southern California. You don't just don't go there. Yeah. Yeah. But all right. My number five. My mafia family would be very mad. The ones who shake hands with like a

some secret code two fingers tucked i am my number five it's this is this let's see it which one for julie i was so happy when the emojis finally added that anyway go ahead sorry is there an emoji for that oh what do they call they finally added the italian oh come on spicy meat bar what did they call what did they call the mafia in sicily it's a different word i can't think of it

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. It's called dying. Our thing. Yeah. Well, I think, I think it just means the family or something like that. Um, he's family. Either way, George, you have to cut this. Yeah. People don't need to know Holly's mafia connections. All right. My number five is I put two bands cause they've both played and I don't care if I'm cheating a little bit, but they've both been great. And I would, and if he could score them once,

I mean,

there's bands that he seems to want to bring every year.

Bring Carcass every year, man.

What the hell?

Or more often.

I think those are the only ones I had that have actually played.

I was going to say,

Trypticon's played.

That was when TR passed out and John missed them.

I didn't miss them.

I saw the set.

I saw the set.

Especially because they did LA Festival Fest

and they did a purely a Celtic Frost set. George, you have no idea how that's going to come into play. Speaking of Celtic Frost, I don't know how, but I finally just came across a monotheist t-shirt that is in the mail somewhere. Dude, I had such a good one from that tour and I just cried when I kind of wore it out. George, what is your number five?

is Mortis Gulled.

Oh. Nice.

Because John and I, we saw them at MDF.

They were awesome.

Fucking ripped.

And Dave is a fucking cool dude.

We love Dave.

We saw him at Atlas, too.

Yeah.

And, you know, he's been wanting to get in at Atlas.

Or Atlas.

He's been wanting to get in at Decibel, and I would love to see these dudes play Decibel.

So Mortis Gulled.

He got married not that long ago.

He did, yeah.

I doubt he's listening but congratulations baby yeah yeah he's been a guest a couple times on the show and we've and he loves pizza we talked about pizza so much pizza I feel like I feel like that's a human like yeah right yeah I want yeah but hit the new album is awesome and so check it out if you ever heard it back around the beginning Holly what's your number four

As I mentioned, international. I'm going from Brazil. I'm going to pop skip over to Oceania and mention Black Lava, whose new album I fucking love. I do not know this band. They're great. How is this that I do not know? Melbourne. Melbourne. I've heard. They're sort of, I don't want to call them black and death metal. They're pretty basic death, but they're

I recommend their new record.

I will listen.

Always from Australia.

Wow.

Yeah.

She said black lava, not hot lava.

It's good shit.

It really is.

Yeah.

I'll check it out.

Yeah, we love learning stuff.

Now I'm thinking about ministry.

I'm sorry.

Oh.

Filth Pig.

Hello.

Filth Pig.

But the lava thing, you know.

Anyway.

Sorry, my brain just went. Yeah, mine too. Boop. Big. The album cover's pretty apropos right now. I remember seeing that album cover when I was like, oh god, when did the album come out? Like 96? I saw that too. I was like 15 and I saw that record cover in Rolling Stone because I just described Rolling Stone before it sucked. I was like,

Oh shit. That's really gnarly. I mean, it's not Psalm 69, but it was a good album. It was. No, it's it. It was more hardcore. Yeah. No, but I mean, I saw that. It was a little bit less. I mean, I was, I was, I was a kid. I was, my mind was blown. I was old. So yeah, absolutely. I was old. Yeah. Number four for me is the Anchor It.

Yeah, I mean, this band's got a great success story because, you know, it's an album that was Frankenstein together really during the pandemic as a project for Ed to keep sane and to connect with people. And it really wasn't intended to be much more than that. But then they signed a Willow Tip and then the record got showered with accolades, including the coveted number one spot on my top 25 list and John's. And now they've started to play shows, which is amazing because, you know, there's people.

from all over the world that came to work on this record. So I just would really like to experience them live because I love that record so much. So the next logical step is for them to come to Decibel and prod some shit up because we definitely need that at Decibel. Great pick. Stay tuned for my list. Agreed. All right, Matty. All right. Number four, Kralis performing their self-title. Kralis in its entirety, I am crying.

I like special sets. I love your specific sets. Not only the specificity of your sets, but the specificity of how you're going to react. Yeah. Always crying. Always crying. I'm a selfish prick. He's my party. I'm crying if I want to. And I am crying. Cry away, dude. Nobody's judging. I can literally see you for some reason, Matt, and like opening the door at your Christmas party.

And let's say 15 people showed up at the same time. And your greeting to every one of them quickly is, hello, welcome. It's my party. I'll cry if I want to. Hi, John. I'm glad you made this party. Totally cry if I want to. Hey, Sylvia, glad to see you. I'll cry if I want to. Glad you're here. I'm a little bit teary-eyed because I want to. It's my party, baby. Where are we at? John. All right. So my number four pick will be

by far the most talented band at the fest my number four is alkaloid and my reason is honest grossman duh he's played it before and john it would enable any number of other bands to play the same fest so well and it would mean that i could be up front this time yes fair enough honestly there should be a hannes grossman fest where he just invites all the bands that he plays

And he just plays the entire time. Yeah. No, you have to eject a few bands in between to give him a break. No, no break for Hannes. He could do it. I believe in Hannes. John, also, if TR's there, you might not get to be up front. Oh, no. He's going down front with me. Oh, okay. He's going to be up front with me. And if I have to hold him up, we'd love TR. I want to text Hannes and be like, Hannes Grossman Fest, think about it. And can you do it in the States?

With this pick, Jon, you have won immunity for this round.

Oh, shit, Matt. We haven't talked about Survivor.

No. No.

No.

Not now.

Why would we talk about Survivor?

Matt and I love Survivor.

It's a guilty pleasure.

I don't even know if it's guilty. It's just one of their pleasures.

I watched the first episode ever, and that was it.

No.

No.

All right, I'm doing my number four. Jay, go. You got two possibilities here for Albert, and this might sound like strange to you, but I love this guy, Abath, and he could do a whole Immortal record since he likes doing that since Albert loves that shit. And at the very least, even if you bring Abath and he can't get the rest of the guys, then he could just do his Motorhead cover band called Bomber, which was fucking rad, which we saw in Vegas.

and they were so fucking good so yeah i watch a motorhead cover band what's that i just said i watch a

motorhead cover band oh they were so good i mean i can't say that about very many cover bands but yeah that's all we have left at this point they pulled it off they only did stuff from the original three guys so this would be up through what john uh iron fist iron fist and that's all they did it nothing after iron fist and they saw all you need just like fucking yeah i'm down with that we talked to about the

that's true yeah what a nice man he was he was very nice and then our fests are wrapping up real nice here georgie all right my number four should honestly just be the rest of everybody's list but um cobalt oh wow if they play they need a new album but i mean he did the man's gin thing

But we need a new Cobalt album.

But, you know, I had tickets to Cobalt in D.C.

in some fucking hole in the wall place.

I don't even know what it was.

And I didn't go because of work.

And I just think, yeah, I can't go.

When was this?

I mean, after the last album came out.

You know what?

They played a place that my dumb fucking band played.

And it was so small.

Yeah, it was a small place.

And I have to admit, I just didn't go. I regret that. I'm kicking myself because fucking hell, man. And I wasn't working. I just didn't go. That'd be awesome. That's a good call. And maybe, hey, maybe they're working on that. I hope he is. I bet they are. I mean, the singer dude from Lord Mantis that was on the last album was on the Man's Gin album, so they're still together, so I don't know what they're doing. All right. Holly number three.

Okay, we're catapulting from Australia back into Europe to a band that I have not seen, that I've always wanted to see, and that is Belphagor. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. That is a good one. Good call. You mentioned them earlier, actually. I did. Yeah, I love Belphagor. I just, I love, like, just completely unapologetically, unapologetically satanic.

They warm my heart. Yes. Cold black heart. They warm my cold black heart. Hell yeah. No, that's a great pick. Yeah. All right. Mark is on. Hold on. I have to write unapologetically satanic because that might be the name of the episode. Hell yeah. I write down different phrases. My next band pick is also satanic. So I write down interesting phrases in case it's

be a good album title.

You just came up with the tagline for the episode.

Yes!

My number three, I talked about them earlier in new releases, Jotun.

I don't have much to add.

I love this band.

Their first record was number two on my list, and I'm completely enamored with a new record.

I think they would be phenomenal live and they definitely add a different flavor to the

decibel list and I'd like to see more of that

in decibel I feel like sometimes they don't get enough

variety and so

I just I think they would just fucking kill it

on stage so

nice

that'd be a good pick yeah

I'd see that

alright Matty

picture me at the Fillmore in Philadelphia Pennsylvania

I'm gonna be sitting there. You see my face. I'm gonna slap your ass. You see the look. And people say, are you watching The Notebook? Or are you watching The Lion's Daughter play Future Cult in its entirety? I don't know which one. Either way, you're crying your eyes out. I am bawling my eyes out. There's not enough Kleenex. There are shirt sleeves in my face, and I appreciate them all. That would be really cool. To top up the tears. That would be cool.

But sobby and bitchy at the same time. Crying, bitching, bitching, crying. The notebook? Really? Okay. Markisan. Markisan? Why are you going back to Markisan? John. Oh, no, I'm just saying, hey, Markisan. How's it going? How's it going, buddy?

All right, my number three, two things. This is my first special set from a band, and it would not be a Metalhead's podcast suggestion if it wasn't a Death Doom band. So we need to get a Death Doom band in there. My number three is November's Doom, doing a special set of playing all of the Pale Hunt Departure. Nice. When did that record come out, John? 2005.

So it'll be the 20th anniversary. Oh, yeah. If they did it in 2025. Yep. We saw them in MDF. That was awesome. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm pretty sure we did. Yes. I've seen them a few times, but I would like to see them there. Yeah, I don't know. It'd be kind of cool. That would be very apropos, I think. My number three is a no-brainer for this podcast, and also they actually did a decibel tour, so it's not outside the realm of reasonability, and I don't know why they've never been there.

Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Absolutely. They need a new album, I think. Uh, you know. Well, I mean, they've been putting them out in a pretty good clip. Yeah. They could do anything and I'd watch it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to, I'd want them to have an open set list. Don't come in and just do one in record, but I agree. Whatever they did, be fine with me. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I don't, I,

I've never seen them. So yeah, that'd be great. I've never seen them either. They were one of the last bands I saw before the lockdown. George, you saw them at MDF. When? Oh, wait. No, I'm thinking. Sorry. You're right. Yes. Keep smoking that shit. You're thinking of a carcass where we all got COVID. I can't believe you've never seen Cattle Down. I haven't. I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, it makes. But my number three, if anybody cares. We do.

And I'm not picking this band because I love the dude that is in this band. You are. No, I'm not. I'm not. Because I really think we should see this band at Decibel, and that is Abhoria. Oh, Trevor. Come on. I mean, really. I mean, yes, Trevor. But still, I mean, couldn't you see Abhoria at Decibel? Yeah. But I'm kind of wondering why you went with, I mean, I'm not wondering why.

What? Say it. I don't know. I thought maybe you'd say Ashton Horton instead. I don't know. Because you didn't want to have to listen to Will the whole set. Because I don't think Philadelphia is ready for Carl's short shorts. Fair enough. That's why. But I mean, I just think Emporia is more appropriate. Because I'm trying to be realistic here and not because Trevor's my friend.

So it's a great picture because then we could actually have beer with Trevor. Like he could come hang out with us. Trevor doesn't drink beer. But he could just still come hang out with us. Yeah. Well, I mean, he was at Decibel a few years ago. He was at the third one. He was at the boat one. He was at the boat one. I'm sorry. I just, I got lost. It doesn't drink beer. And I went, oh. Yeah. People don't, but you know, they're still real people. It's true. Right.

He's a real boy. Well, at least we know Holly would be hanging hard at the Dezable. We know she'd be on the second floor at the Civil War. Speaking of Holly, what's your number two? Oh, yes. Okay. Keeping with the international theme and the satanic theme. Yes. Obviously, I've never, as I said, I've never been to this fest, so I'm just picking.

I really want to see. Hopping right over to the land of the rising sun with Sabat. I don't know if any of you are familiar, but they've been rocking satanic awesomeness for about, I want to say 35 years. So there's Sabat and then there's Sabat. This is the Japanese Sabat.

one. But both are good. Both are good. The Japanese Sabbat. Is it spelled the same? Yes. Yeah. Who are fucking great. Actually, they released a record this year that I think is probably going to be in my top 25 Sabbatical. And they're just shamelessly like, you know, sweaty, long-haired, underwear-wearing, ridiculous. Wait.

Oh no, I'm talking about like only underwear. There's something about like absolutely, you know, shamelessly Japanese bands and half naked that do it better than any other culture, in my opinion.

And I would love to see Sabata. Yeah. That would be good. Sabata called is a great fucking record too. I'm checking it out. Nobody mentioned it, but I fucking love it. I am familiar. Um, Marcus. Number two for me is, uh, Evoken. I mean, I'm a massive fan and I've never seen them live as per my list, my conditions,

It's mostly because they just don't tour a whole hell of a lot. But also because I'm just fucking dumb. Because they played Decel in 2018. I wasn't there. Clearly I'm dumb too because I was in LA and I didn't know. They played Decel 2018 the main show. And then they played the kickoff party with Crip Sermon in 2019. And it was at Atlas. So I didn't go because it was in a different location than the fest. That was my first time attending.

and I was traveling from Chicago.

So I interviewed them.

Didn't we?

We interviewed both bands and it was like a hundred people and all kinds of beer and so all kinds of awesomeness from both bands.

They were so good.

And I kicked myself because I should have gone to the pre-fest and I still haven't been to Atlas either.

So there's no reason to go anymore.

Right.

That's true.

But I'm just hoping they're going to come back because I know Albert loves the band.

He did a two-episode retrospective on Evokin for the Requiem Metal podcast. It's been six years since Hypnagogia was released, so they're due for a new album and a tour. I would expect this to happen. I thought it might happen in 2025 because it's the 20th anniversary of Antithesis of Light, but it didn't. But they also have some significant anniversaries for their other seminal records.

coming up that I think would be perfect to play like entire sets yeah decibel and that's uh let me think uh 2026 would be the 25th anniversary for quietus in 2027 would be the 20th anniversary for caress of the a caress of the void so I have my fingers crossed because I've never seen him and I know that Albert and decibels into that band and

And I just need to wake up. That matters. That's how you get. Yeah. Yep. Good pick. All right, Matt. I'm back at the Fillmore. I'm on the lower level. I've just finished a hummus platter. I have a paperback book in my hand, which I finished reading. I put in my pocket and someone comes up to me and said, did you just finish reading Old Yeller? Or are you watching Yellow Eyes play Sick with Blue in its entirety?

If I say, give me a moment, I'm going to the men's room, I will be back. But this set by Yellow Eyes is amazing. Secret Bloom. Yeah, man, that's a great pick. You know, Matt, you and I, we love the Yellow Eyes and that might be my favorite record of theirs. We literally, like, if I woke up tomorrow and my eyes were yellow with pain and jaundice or like, or whatever that thing is. Thank you.

I would love it.

That would be good.

I envy your dramatic setups.

I just hope they come true.

I picture them.

It will never happen.

I'm sorry.

If anyone is listening.

Yellow Eyes does not seem like a very decibel-esque band.

Maybe the pre-show.

We can dream.

It may be the pre-show.

I could see it at the pre-show.

Yeah.

All right, Johnny.

All right.

I won't be as dramatic as Matt. I'm not a lifetime movie. Who can be, John? I'm glad you got that, Matt. I think I pulled a muscle. I don't know which one, though. This is a family program. Don't pull anything. Sorry. I think it was a rib. It was a rib. Which is not a muscle. So my number two. You're going against a family. It would be

somewhat dramatic like matt only because they're somewhat of a big metal band i guess and i've never seen them and i've missed them every chance i've had which is not many times but my number two band would be borknagar oh i'd love to see them they were at mdf right i've just missed them the few times they've come through here so i would like to see them yeah that's a good one yeah that'd be fun to see live for sure

And we could ask them, is it Borknagar or Borknagar? Borknagar sounds terrible. I love Borknagar. I'm never going to live that pronunciation joke. No, you won't. I'm almost sure it's like a sausage they serve at a beer garden. It's probably neither. It's probably... Yeah, it's true. We might all be wrong. But yeah. My number two is another no-brainer, but I think this is something we've all seen many times.

I don't know how true that is but in any case

Goat Whore should totally play that

I interviewed

what's his name

Ben the singer Ben yes

at the Gwar Biki yeah Ben is

fucking cool they fit right in there man

people would love it yeah that would be awesome

so good I have so much energy

yeah they'd be great there

yeah they've been on a good set

that's a good pick

we need a new Goat Whore album

you know it's been a little bit

oh it's only been what two years

Really? Yeah, that's right. They did have a post-to-do record. It hasn't been that long. It always feels like you need to know. It was pretty high on our list, I think. It was real high. A bunch of us listed it real high. Actually, now that I think about it, I want to say it. Yeah, Holly's right. About 2022. Other than like, you know, carving out the eyes of God. Well, Blood for the Master. That last one was like one of their best records. We say that every album.

Well, that's true, too. They're always good. They are a band that is consistently good. Yes. George. All right. My number two. Y'all aren't going to like this one, but black and roll. No, no. This is more awesome. Zeal and Ardor. Yes. Yes. One of the greatest bands out there right now.

I'm totally down with that. Yes. I would love to see them. I think that's when John and I go get tacos and have beers. You know why I'm Markisan? Because I've already seen them. What? Yeah. Where did you see them? In D.C. What? That's part of a what? They were on a package tour. John did not buy tickets to go see them. No, I did not actually. I bought tickets to see Opeth and a band that shall not be

Named unless we want to start trouble again on the episode. I almost want you to name the band. I can't. I can't. I'm looking at my bottom right corner for the person who's crying. I can't mention that band. Oh, I understood. I have a... something got in my eye. Yeah, right. Well, anyway, a piece of corn. I gotta go in five. All right. Well, we're on to your number one. It's time for your number one.

And I was waiting for my number one because I wanted to be this dramatic. Let's do it. Be dramatic. I guarantee I did not look at next year's Decibel lineup before I picked my top five. Okay. My number one band that I have never seen that is another one of my, a band that I only retroactively got into, you know, in my thirties.

who is still putting out great albums i would like to say

exodus

and you know what they are still putting out great records they are they are they really are

and i swear to god i think i was i was like thrash and death and never want exodus

and like oh shit i need to look at the news items and if it's like visible it is it's like

Well, we'll see you in Philly, won't we? Good for me! You know, and not rubbing it in, but having lived in the Bay Area, I saw them a million times, and they're always great, and I can't say enough, they're one of the bands that's putting out some of the best records of their career. So, good for you, that's a good choice. And, George, even though I know Zetra was not unbinded by blood, you will recall they did the re-record of it, which may be sacrilegious, but, you know.

I love Zetro, so, you know. Yeah, that's a good call. You know, Paul's dead. What can we do? You know, Zetro's the best we got. And I love Zetro, so I'm down. Awesome. Marcus, let's get through these number ones before we lose money. Yeah, this one was mentioned. I was a little bit surprised, but Will mentioned it before he exited. Before he exodiced. No.

I've never seen this band live. They've been around since the early 90s, and they're one of my all-time favorite bands. So it really doesn't make much sense that I've never been to a show with them at it. But every time they've come to Chicago, I've been out of town. So I really need them to go to Decimal because I'm there every year.

And so my odds of finally seeing them will dramatically go up if they play decibel. Because I need to see that band. It's like a bucket list band for me, really. I've seen so much metal, but I've never seen Primordial. You'll get your chance. And I don't know, I'm trying to think when some of these albums came out, would they be able to play one?

Like in its entirety. I don't think he has a rule about how long. Go to 2007, Marcus. Oh, well. You have an anniversary there. Oh, shit. Like, yeah, that's the perfect one. So Gathering Wilderness 2005, so we're talking 20. They're not going to be there next year. So we're talking about, John's right, to the nameless dead in two years. Like, that'd be fucking perfect. So, yes, I would love to. Yes, it would. So, yeah, that's my number one by far. Right. Maddy.

It's sad. Matt, do you need a tissue? No, not yet. Because I'm at Applebee's. I had to step out. I got hungry. I'm having the classic combo. I'm full. I'm walking back to the Fillmore. I'm on the upper level. I have a portable DVD player with me in every DVD episode of Gilmore Girls. I've just finished it. And someone comes up to me and says, did you just finish every episode of Gilmore Girls? Or are you watching Julie Christmas and Cult of Luna play Mariner in its entirety?

It's only ever done in 84 at Roadburn in the country of the Netherlands. And I say, I just finished the Gilmore Girls, but this Julie Christmas Mariner thing with Cult of Luna ain't half bad. Awesome. That would be amazing. That is the best pick, I think. Also, I'm not kidding you. I just watched Gilmore Girls and just finished it. I love Gilmore Girls. I've seen them all. I've seen them all. Me too. Did you watch the 20 years later thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. I watched everything. I watched it. Like, my wife and daughter watched it, and I kind of pretended that I wasn't watching, but was watching it all. But you loved it. Yeah. I think Holly wants to hear the picks and not argue more girls. All right. No, I, it's just not my, not my jam, you know. I just finished watching Deadwood again. She's way tougher than me. You just finished watching what? There's no, there's no decapitation or exploding heads involved, so, you know. No, it's pretty bad. Internally, but yeah. No, I had waited long ago.

I watched Deadwood from start to finish again in like two weeks.

As retired people do.

The only thing I'd have to say is, welcome the fuck back.

It was so good.

Which I think was the tagline for the movie.

Yeah, yeah.

John.

John.

All right.

So my number one, Warren will appreciate what I have to say because Warren and I were just actually talking a little bit before tonight, before we came on.

This is a band I've seen more than a few times, but I don't care. They are the band that's going to rule this fest. And I want to see all the so-called knuckle draggers lose their shit and cry. Too much prog. That's all right. My number one, playing a special set for the 25th anniversary, plus, because it'll have to happen next year,

Still Life Anniversary, along with a set of Will-approved songs, since he had such a good time seeing them with me a couple weeks ago, we're going with Opeth. Opeth. Still Life, 25th Anniversary. Maybe the only band that might just be too big for this fest. They might be. I mean, how have they not played it yet? And I want them to destroy the fest and make all the hardcore fans cry.

I don't know. I think people will be thrilled. And after just seeing them a few weeks ago, that's the best they have played in a very long time. And they've always been great, but that was back to the mid-2000s. That's saying a lot, John. All right. My number one is a band that just, I don't know if they've even ever been to the States, but I love them. And I think they're a world-class band that does not get enough credit. From Norway, Sog.

I would love to see Sog. Wow. And they fit. I think they fit well with the first. Not as a headliner, but in there somewhere. Yeah, yeah. Maybe two or three below headliner. Maybe even open in the show. I don't know. Yeah, no, that'd be cool. Nice. I'm into that. I'm just trying to get him. I'm just trying to get them here. Decibles Dime. That's all. Yeah. All right. My number one. Also never been to the United States.

at least not as a band.

Arts.

Right on.

Nice.

Yeah.

With a full choir.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I mean,

yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

Mark,

cool fucking dude.

Out on tour with Winterfelleth right now.

But,

you know,

me and Dan from Decibel,

we were talking about this.

He was literally trying to find a place in,

a church in America where these guys could come and play.

Because the whole monastic metal thing.

I think the acoustics would lend well, that's why.

I would love to see him play here.

That'd be good.

We took this up to the limit, so I'm going to just do the right thing as a gentleman here and say,

I think we used up all of your five minutes that were left. We would like to thank you for your time. You were super fun to do this with. Thank you guys. This was awesome. This is great. One of the most fun times I've ever had. You're a great guest. Thanks for coming on, Holly. We'll see you back next month for the year-end list. Hopefully. I'm going to have a big controversial list for sure.

You're welcome if you want to do it. Yeah, and if you join our Patreon. It's not for the faint of heart. No. Before I leave.

What I'm listening to, obviously, Seal and Order. She can't leave without finishing. I like it. I love this record because I feel like it goes beyond what the original Seal and Order sort of gimmick was. I feel like it accomplishes more than that. And this is coming from somebody who only just discovered them recently and loved the self-title, just the juxtaposition of everything. But then the fact that it is.

It was incredible

It goes beyond

Exactly

The fact that it was always

Sort of

Oh here's the soul

Here's the black bomber

Here's the soul

This one I feel like

Does things that

Go beyond

Just that

Dichotomy

You know

And I love it

And I can't get enough of it

Hell yeah

Obviously

Koma

The new

Gatoria

Can't get enough of it

And I've

I'm putting together

These two

because there are two mini albums, but the two disembodied tyrant records, the first, the one they did with Cynetia and the most recent mini album, The Tower Part One, I was never a big Deathcore fan, really. I mean, I love all subgenres of metal, but Deathcore was never really up there for me. But the symphonic, experimental, just incredible things that disembodied tyrant is doing.

are just transcendent. You listen to it and it's like, what is going on here? In the first record, I mean, for those of you who don't know, it's the solo project. It was actually technically a solo project of Blake Mullins. But he combines traditional death bar with actual symphony.

actual strings and they even even even in in uh in the poetic edda ep they do a cover of all these winter

deathcore cover of winter which is the most incredible thing i love the vivaldi's yeah oh yeah it's cool

absolutely i mean this is like elevated deathcore exactly that's exactly what it is it's incredible

and i like i said i was never a big deathcore fan but what disembodied tyrant is doing yeah it's cool

enough that I'm really into it um uh number four swap coffin

except for the record it's not just sludge doom it's like mean aggressive depressing nihilistic

sludge doom like I hate the world kind of stuff like if you read you know you read about the kind of

the really horrible like you know suicide attempts and deaths and stuff that that led up to the

creation of the record and then you listen to it and you're like ah like you just you feel it you know you feel the anger and and just the absolute despair it's just incredible um and then the fifth is um a band it's like their uh their debut record is they're called black lf lf black lf i don't even know i discovered them on band camp and and it's like it's so post-metal it it's um

The bass guitar is distorted in a way that makes it sound like a soundtrack to a giallo film. It's deadly and thick and just so good for zoning out. If you want to lie down, if you want to lie in your bed and be like, I hate the world.

I mean, I always want to do that. Yeah, me too. Listen to this Black Oluf record. It's incredible. It's like there aren't even any vocals and you're just like, ugh. It like thunks. It thunks. It thunks. That's all you need to say. It thunks. And your Rube Cage, it thunks. Yeah. Nice. And then I was going to, oh, my one Crypt album I was telling Mark Sonnenberg. Pick from the Crypt, yeah. My pick from the Crypt. This is truly from the Crypt because it's a,

It's a record from a Taiwanese thrashman called Horseman. This record came out in 2007. It's virtually impossible to find unless you buy the record on eBay, on CD. The album is called Kill You One More Time. And I don't know. I adore thrash.

It might be my favorite subgenre of metal, one of them. But it's so hard to find genuine thrash that's really, really good past the 80s. Like thrash that's like just... It doesn't want to be anything other than thrash. Like that's what it wants to be. It wants to be like the gin, gin, gin, gin, like guitar and, you know, the heartbeat vocals. And this band called The Horseman

They released this record called Kill You One More Time. It's so hard to find. Like I said, I think you can go on YouTube and find some music videos or something so you can get some idea of what their sound is. But the production on this record, Kill You One More Time, is so good. The drums are so good. The guitar. I would put it in my top five, if not top three thrash albums of all time.

Wow.

So if you can dig up kill you one more time by the horseman it's just phenomenal it's the ultimate like driving record you know like when you're driving down the freeway and you're like that's awesome though I want it was great because Holly messaged me he's like I got this this album but it's so obscure I don't know if I should use it for pick from the crypt I'm like that's exactly what is the point like we want the most

that you could possibly get like it's impossible to find if you want to go on ebay and search horseman kill you one more time you could you could buy one or you can ask me and i'll burn it for you yeah no now we want it you got to get it for us so but that's the thing like especially stuff that's hard to find and somebody just has it like we want to listen to that and see what it's like because we don't want albums to be just lost in the ether you know we want to yeah yeah and some of the some and that's that's the crazy thing is that some of the best stuff

is that obscure like it's just it's just been you have to dig it up and and p and people who just listen to like spotify or just you know just do streaming or whatever the fuck kids kids do these days they don't under they don't understand the the excitement and the just the feeling of like digging through like a back issue bin yes which is where i found those horseman records they were in the asian section at amoeba wow

And I picked them up and I was like, I am so fucking glad I did that. Yeah. I mean, some of my favorite bands was, you know, Tower Records just flipping through shit for hours, hours at Tower Records. Everything. I went through everything. And I was just like, yeah, and found shit. And I miss that so much. Yeah. It can still be done, but you just. I know, but. It's not a.

like weekly kind of thing like it used to be yeah it's not a survival thing

yeah but but it's it's you know it's it's a lost excitement it is i i will i'll never get over it

digging through the bins and being like oh my god what is this i have to hear this yeah kids these days

just don't know just don't get it yeah i mean yeah and sometimes just like you see the cover and

and you're just like i have to have this because the cover is so great well that was an amoeba most of the time i'll go down to amoeba like every couple months and just like wander up and down the underground metal section and i'll if i see like a cover that's like that's rad i'll just i'll just buy it yeah yeah i still do that too yeah it's the way to be yeah all right well now we will officially cut you loose now i gotta go but thank you guys so much

Thank you. This was so much fun. I hope we'll do this again. I hope so, too. And I really, I hope I can, like, you know, meet you guys up at a beer or metal fest sometime. Come to Philly. That's all I'm saying. That would be fucking great. Yeah, if I can afford to, I'll be there. I sent you a Facebook friend request. If you don't accept it, I won't be a friend. Oh, that's good. Yeah, no. It's fun to keep. Come on, then.

Keep track of people who we sort of become friends with. Yeah, you were fun. Absolutely. More than fun. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. All right. Well, have a great weekend. Thanks, Di, so much. You too. Thank you. Bye. Cheers. I did have three honorable mentions. I'd like to see an ISIS reunion performing Oceanic, Temple of Void as well performing of Terror in the Supernatural, and Falls of Roars performing Key to a Vanishing Future. Oh, I would love that. Falls of Roars was at a decibel. They were at one.

of them do that to me.

Come on.

It was the Panopticon one too.

First one.

It was the first one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They were at the 2017.

Yep.

Okay.

Because I remember when they came on and fucking, what's his name?

The Panopticon guy.

Austin.

Austin.

Fucking pushed me out of the way so he could go see them.

He was like, boom.

I was like, damn, who's that?

Oh, it's Austin.

Okay.

Falls of Roars was also on my honor book because their last Keys to a Vanishing Future

was my number one record so yeah i've loved it i've never seen them so they were on my honorables too but same all right we're going to talk about our what we are listening to now mark us on what's up what's up okay what's up dude okay all right so first what's shaken is witnesses joy an independent release uh just really excellent atmospheric

Emotive Doom Metal featuring vocals from Simon Bibby of Thy Listless Heart, which I know we've talked about on this cast before. I'm always interested in New Witnesses, but they've changed singers at every record. And even though all of those records have been good, I just can't help but compare the vocalists and just wonder what the band could have been if they kept that same lineup and developed their sound.

instead of basically starting over each time. But that said, I do think this is the best version of Witnesses that I've heard. Because Simon Bibby is a really, really good singer that fits well with the music. I think the music has elevated. It's become more complex and intriguing as the albums have gone along. So I really like this record.

But I just hope that Simon sticks around for more. Because I want to see them build off of what they started. It just seems like every record they've been getting different people. Come on, baby, finish what you're starting. Yeah, I want to see a full band and see what heights they can reach, I guess. But it's really good. Next record is Ghosts of Glaciers, Eternal, and Translation Lost record.

This band for me has kind of quietly become one of the very best instrumental metal bands on the planet. So Eternal is just a heavy roar of atmospheric metal, doom, and post-metal. So I've always kind of been in instrumental bands, like I've loved Pelican and stuff, but I think Ghosts of Glaciers has really got this on lock, especially with this record.

they did a couple years ago is really good but this is even better

next one is challenger force of nature on dying victims productions so challenger plays this epic

traditional heavy metal in the vein of saxon or maiden but they have a bit of thrashiness

in there there's some harsh vocals thrown into the mix as well i was surprised by this i never

heard of this band i think it's their first record but it's it's really good um you know how

you hear about these new bands, you throw it on, and you don't have a lot of expectations. And you think, a lot of times for me anyways, I'll listen to that first opening part of a track, and then I'm like, it's not for me. This one grabbed me, and I just ended up listening to the whole thing. So I would definitely recommend it. Another album I really love is Lowen, Do Not Go to War with the Demons of Mazen Darin on Church Road Records. This is crushing, atmospheric

with Middle Eastern inspired rhythms and vocals and

Most of the vocals are sung in English, but then some of them are sung in Farsi and it is great

This is a really excellent record. I've liked their previous stuff before

But it kind of meandered a little bit and they they really tightened it up and focused on

Songcraft for this record and

I think it made a huge, huge difference. I'm pretty sure this is going to make my list. And then the last one I had on my list is Feral Light, A Reckoning with The Intangible. It's an independent release. Feral Light is a two-piece blackened crust band with, I would say, progressive structures and dynamics in their music. So I love all the stuff they've done, but I think this is the best record they've ever put out.

And unfortunately,

when they dropped the album a couple of weeks ago,

they announced that the band is done.

So that's pretty sad news,

but I think this final LP is just,

is a hell of a way to go out because it just takes everything that

they've done before and levels it up.

So yeah,

I love this,

this record and I just found it.

It came out a couple of weeks ago,

but because they just kind of stealth dropped it,

like some bands do.

I just found it a couple days ago. So yeah, I've been listening to this one a lot lately. That's what I got. Right on. Matt. I want to create a subsection. I don't know if you remember from our last episode where I say I haven't really listened to anything new. And then I list almost every album that has come out in the last few months. So I finished Geezer Butler's book, which is really good. I have not read that.

It sent me on a Sabbath spiral. I limited it to the first six albums, selfishly. And I very much enjoyed that, as always. Blood Incantation. That album, episode elsewhere is what I'm talking about. That album has got so much time. And I was talking about this with Eric. You can't really listen to five minutes. You can't really listen to one song. You pretty much have to listen to it front to back every time you listen to it. Excuse me. And so that has definitely taken up time.

The new release list actually kind of covered a lot of what I've listened to as well. The last Elmo mention, and I feel like Jay and George have mentioned this band in the past, and I feel like I've given them some time, but it's never really clawed on with me, but it is Shamash, Shamash. The Maldoror chants, Old Ocean is the new album, and I am just, I am madly in love with it.

I just feel like I've really connected with this band. I have a new appreciation for their sound. And I very much dig it.

I think George and I loved the first one. And then the second one really let us down. And I think that's true. I haven't tried this one yet, but you've given me an excuse to go back to them and I'm happy to do it.

Yeah, I think this is better than the previous. I mean, the first one that we loved was amazing. It was really good. It was like a wonderful thing. Yeah, I feel like this is at least better than the previous stuff. I haven't listened to it as much as I should to have a better opinion, but I can see where this would be appreciated.

from what I've heard. It's definitely better than it was. Because for me, previously, he really got into synths and doing stuff that was not as organic. And because I am somebody who has the same tools, I was like, oh, I know what he's doing here. He's using this program.

And he's using it just kind of took me it sort of breaks that like fourth wall kind of thing and you're like oh I know exactly what he's doing here and it kind of bugged me and I feel like he is back more in the true like doing metal things area and so yeah I yeah I can I can see why you would like this. So well that's interesting though because I feel like I was probably on some sort of random playlist which I honestly

I really wish that was what the entirety of my life could be. So Siri, if you're listening, could you just give me random shit all the time? But it was a Shamash song that came up and it was not the new album. And I almost had to pull over. I loved it so much. So that's why I knew this was coming out. And so I kind of delved into it. I honestly feel like another band I really love this year is Chapel of Disease. And I feel like I've just like really gained appreciation for just really good songwriting.

and kind of that really, I don't know, polished sound in that genre. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I need to listen to this more. I intend to. Cool. Thank you for reminding me. You're very welcome. John. All right. No big surprises because we talked about most of these albums already. So Blood Incantation, Devon Tone,

and Jot and Jerry Cantrell, Mother of Graves, and Aranzi Pazuzu have all gotten some time. I've listened to a ton of Opeth, which I already do to begin with, but more emphasis since I just saw them recently. Now I have an excuse to listen more because I got my 25th anniversary of Still Life because I needed an eighth different variant of the album. Of course. Seriously, I don't know why I have so many.

Maybe because I like it so much. And then I have one band I'll mention as my pick from the Crypt that I've been listening to a lot, so I'll save it for then. But then I've also been on this kind of, it's not much of a deep dive. They only have one album and one split, and that's that band Bedsore that I mentioned earlier. Their 2020 album, Hypnagogic Hallucinations. I don't know why I went back to it. I think I listened to the new tracks that were kind of dropped for their upcoming album.

that's coming out in a couple weeks called dreaming the strife for love and just that 70s prog sound with death metal is like man this is uh this is my jam so yeah you know and uh i'm gonna check it out i like it so uh yeah so that's what i've been listening to for the most part and then i got one more but i'll mention it for the pick for the crib all right jay uh you know what i'm

I'm just like going through my list right now so I I'm not gonna list a bunch of records it's getting down to tough time here and there's some stuff I'm catching up on if I'm gonna mention anything that has really stuck with me lately and it just won't be a spoiler but I agree the blood incantation record is great that was expected um taking some breaks here and there and just throwing other stuff in but I am list exclusive probably for the next three weeks so I'm listening to a little up you know

25 to 30 different records over and over. So that's it. I don't want to give anything away. Well, you know, I have not been a big what we're listening to Lister lately, but I kind of have one now. I mean, it's not huge, not like 30 like I used to have, but I do have some stuff and like most of it has not, no, none of it has been mentioned. So,

So sit back boys. First up cemetery skyline. Thank you, John Nordic Gothic, a goth metal band featuring the singer from dark tranquility. The drummer from what band sentenced. Yes. And one of the dudes from amorphous and another dude from insomnium. I mean, what could go wrong here? Let me tell you nothing.

if you like gothic metal. But, you know, it's good. I like it. And thank you, John, for pointing this one out to me because I did not know it. This is the year of gothy George. It is. It really is. I was like halfway to Michigan in the car and John's like, have you heard of Cemetery Skyline? I'm like, what? And I put it on. I didn't necessarily say it that way, but fair enough. Yeah, but no, he told me about this. I'm like halfway to Michigan in the car and I'm like, all right, I'm going to put this on.

And I listened to it immediately and I was like, fuck yeah. So what else has Lispy John told you about? Oh, he told me a lot about it. I know my audience. Exactly. Next up, we have the cure songs of a lost world. Not metal. Awesome. But it just came out and I was like, sure. And I've only listened to it once. It's definitely better than what they've been doing the last few albums. I look forward

to hearing more from it.

It's good late night listening for sure.

Absolutely.

And then this next one,

I really wanted to bring up because I wanted to know if anybody knew who this was.

And the band is Dodes McGeard.

I know.

Oh, yeah.

A.K.A.

Doddheim's Guard.

And their first quote unquote album,

Omniverse Consciousness.

This is the dude from Doddheimsgard. He wanted to do something slightly different, a.k.a. a little more metal. And what can I say? Fuck yeah. More of this, please. It was good. I liked it. I don't, we'll see if it's a lister. I don't know. I have to listen to it again. But yeah, Dodds McGeared. To me, this is like Doddheimsgard slash Totes McGeats.

You know, I mean, you know, what's with this name? I don't know. Dodes McGeard. It's so close to Doddheim's guard, but whatever. Whatever. Let's move on. Drug Church, Prude, post-hardcore band from New York. This is like their, I think, fifth album. I'd never heard of them before, but I saw them in, I think it was the most recent issue of Decibel, so I checked it out.

Yeah, I mean, it's not metal, but it's heavy. You said post-hardcore? Post-hardcore, yes. You just got into my little teen son heart. I know. I was thinking about you when I listened to this. What's the name of this band? Drug Church. Drug Church? Drug Church, yeah. It's not something you would be like, ooh, I want to listen to that. No, I hate that name. But I'll check it out. Really? Do you hate them? Like, you know them and you hate them? No, I hate that name. Yeah, it's not.

I don't know anything about the band. It's not a great name, but it's not a bad album. So check it out. I will. Next up, the new Flotsam and Jetsam album. Their 16th album. And these guys have entered their overkill phase a few albums ago where they put out the same awesome album every time. Early Flotsam was awesome.

much, but they have entered their overkill stage where they put out a great thrash album every couple of years. And this is another good one, so check it out. Next, I have something that is not remotely metal, and I put it on here to piss off Will, who's not here. And that is the latest Jelly Roll album, Beautifully Broken. I listened to this the other day. I fucking love this album. It's a Jelly Roll. He's like, Jelly Roll, he's like... You never heard of Jelly Roll?

He's a former rapper turned country artist. I've heard of Green Jelly. Yeah, of course. Actually, it was Green Jell-O before it was Green Jelly. Yeah, because of the Jell-O lawsuit. But you won't like this, honestly. But I put it on, like I said, I put it on here to piss off Will and he's not here. But I love this album because his songs are so, I relate to them. They're very angsty.

stuff that I can just relate to. He's, yeah. Anyway, I'm going to move on. I mentioned this already. Man's Gin, the reprobate. It's the guy from Cobalt. It's not metal, but it's, it's good. It's, I don't know what you'd call it. Americana, maybe. Um, that's, that's accurate. I think, George, but, uh, you know, it's a fun album. I really wish he'd put up a new Cobalt album, but I'll take

this in the meantime next is a band that has caused some controversy called neon nightmare and the album faded dream a an album that is 100% typo negative worship i don't know if anybody's listened to this yeah uh for a while nobody knew who this was but it is now known that this is nate from

Spirit Adrift. He did all of this himself. And I mean, if you like Typo Negative, you're going to like this album because it's, I mean, there's no hiding it. It's not like this is, oh, we're a band and this is what we sound like. No, he's creating a Typo Negative worship album and it's good. So if you like Typo, check it out.

And my final album, not metal. Nobody here is going to listen to this. The new Pixies album, The Night the Zombies Came. The Pixies have not been around for quite a while, but Black Francis, a.k.a. Francis Black, I guess he's back. They're back. They put on a new album. It's decent. Check it out. Man, I love the Pixies. I feel like they put on an album a few years ago. Yeah, maybe.

They're back. Yeah, I know. I haven't listened to this one, though. No. So I will. It's good. I like it. Alrighty. Picks from the Crypt. Picks from the Crypt. Okay. That's you. That's me. I get to start. Yeah. All right. My pick from the Crypt is Embrace, Coven the Eternal from 1996. Black Hand Production. So it's funny because

Holly had mentioned that she had this like Taiwanese band that she wanted to use and she wasn't sure and I was like listen put whatever you want we love obscure shit I actually have a pretty obscure album here as well that I think I'm going to use it must be I don't know it yeah it's gothic doom metal from Canada has an early my dying bride vibe some candle mass in there but it has a female singer so this is from the early days of

women joining metal bands as vocalists because it really didn't happen to like the early 90s like 93 94 so um this album has a really good dose of melody to it but there's also raucous moments as well even though it's a doom record so it's not all slow haunting stuff and this is the only album that embrace ever did um so it's pretty obscure it's a obscure canadian secret

I guess. But I somehow found the CD at a place called the Soundgarden, which is still around in Syracuse, New York. And in Baltimore. It's the same place. Is it really? I think they're tied together. Wow. Are they? I didn't know that. Well, Soundgarden has been around for fucking ever in Syracuse. Anyway, so I got it there. I played it a ton. And in Syracuse is pretty close to Canada. So we used to get a lot of stuff from up north.

that you just didn't see in other places so i actually went down in the basement uh and found the cd so i have it i'm showing it right now and uh you can listen to it on youtube but that's really the only place you can listen to the whole record unless you get the cd uh but i was drawn by the cover i don't know if you can even see it on uh this but um looks like a

It's like a sun. It's like a sun with like a ruin. Wow. I don't even know what's going on there. It's like almost like a cityscape or something burning. But I saw it and I was like, it's called Embrace. And it just looks really gothic metal. So I picked it up and I really love it. A really great record. And I don't know, I don't think this, the band members have ever really gone on to do anything else. So it's a really a weird anomaly out there.

But yeah, definitely worth a listen. If you like gothic kind of doom, more doom than gothic like we've been talking about lately, this kind of shiny pop gothic stuff, this is doom. But yeah, I really love it. And it's fun to revisit it. I thought of it when I was on the Endless Metal podcast, and we were talking about Halloween albums that kind of haunt us.

This is one that came up. It wasn't on my main list, but now I've been listening to it over the last week, so enjoying it. All right, Matt. I just want to point out that I'm not actually on this episode in real time, and George is editing everything in that I'm saying, and he's doing a great job of interweaving it into the episode so it sounds as though I'm actually on it. Thank you, George. I appreciate it. You're welcome, Matt.

Now, my pick from the crypt is not really from the crypt. It's fairly out there in the open. But because of my reading of Geezer's book and spending time with the first six Sabbath albums, I think it's interesting. Well, and it doesn't really even matter what Sabbath albums, just Sabbath in general. It's kind of listen to their songs throughout your life. Some don't really stand out to you, and then all of a sudden you kind of latch on to one. And so I'm going to talk about the album Sabotage.

And more specifically, the song Super Czar, which, you know, I've listened to like a billion times, but never taken the time to totally fall in love with it. And it came back on my radar when I watched some of the Vaken sets this summer, the band Black Savage, which Jay and also watched at a food court at Psycho Vegas. Their intro was the song. And I remember listening to them come to the stage and thinking like, what is this? And then realizing like, oh,

Oh my God, this is a song off of sabotage. Um, and honestly the whole album in general from hole in the sky to the writ is a fabulous work, but, um, that song in general has just kind of been kind of a top of radar top of mind for me the last, uh, 30 days. Nice. Very cool. Yeah, absolutely. John. Matt, hot take. My favorite Sabbath period is Sabbath

and sabotage.

It's kind of the basis for modern metal, really.

Even, you know, like, if you mix that in with the 70s Priest albums, especially later 70s, that's kind of where your own metal comes from.

I mean, those records just had more polish on them, slightly more sounding.

Anyway, I agree, you know.

Yeah.

It's, and to me, again, this is all being spliced in, but it's, to me, it's like they got, you know, they have their sound, it's going, and then, you know, you get to these albums, and it's kind of, they've worked up the kinks, they've kind of, like, found themselves, you know, going into those two records, and I fully agree with what you're saying.

Well, I think Sabbath Plenty Sabbath is kind of their masterpiece, and then after that, they managed to get so fucking mad that they came out and made this raw thing, you know, which they were mad.

They've complained about their record cover. I think Sabotage is a brilliant

record cover. To be standing in front of a mirror and have the wrong side of your

body showing, you know what I mean? That's brilliant.

Kind of like a grungy version

of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath with the front and back.

Yeah.

Anyway, yeah, I'm glad you guys

feel the same way about those albums.

Alright, my pick from the Crypt

is also something I've been listening to, so

I'm a big fan of this band.

have been since this album came out in 98. Just a quick thing here about it. They got the chance the albums are going to be reissued again. And they were offered to go back in the studio and remix the albums. So they remixed them how they felt they should sound now using modern technology in the studio. So all these albums I thought would not sound that much different. And the songs still sound like the songs, but they actually do sound a little different.

And so I was like, well, fuck, I might as well buy another copy because I've got like, I don't know how many. But when you have something that gives it a different flavor, it's almost hard. It's almost like a new album again, in essence. But the album is Threshold Clone. And that came out in 1998. They're a prog metal band from England. And this is the album that got me into them. And I've been a fan of theirs ever since. It's just really cool. They're solid. They're classy. They're sound. They've got really big riffs.

For a prog band, that's kind of weird to say, but they do. But they get super proggy on top of all of it. But I like it. So the band name is? Threshold. Threshold. Oh, okay. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. And that album is called Clone. Gotcha. I thought it, yeah, you mushed them together and I was like, what? Threshold Clone? Yeah, because it's like just two words total. Yeah. So that's kind of

Yeah, no, I know them. That's cool. It could meld. I don't know that one. I'll have to spin that. You might like that, Marcus. Yeah, it's a good band. I like them. Yeah, they've unfortunately had three different singers over the course of their time, and they've all done almost the same amount of albums, which is, you don't see that too often, but. Unless the band is called Witnesses. I wasn't planning on going in the direction that I'm about to go in to, but Matt prompted this out of me,

And it's not,

this isn't a deep history record.

It's not from long,

long,

long time ago,

but it still was this good kind of old school deathly metal type thing that came

out.

And I really wish people had paid more attention to the band has gone on to get more

attention.

But if you haven't heard chapel of disease,

his first record,

the mysterious ways of repetitive art,

I highly recommend that record.

It was one of my favorites of that year.

And they've gone on to be this much more exploratory thing,

which is cool.

So it's nice that their base is in this great place. And it's a pretty exploratory record too. So take that with a grain of salt. It's not a simple record. I like that a pick from the crypt is from within the existence of the podcast. Like I recall, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember Jay liking that album. But it's also one people easily could have missed. Yeah, absolutely. It probably did. Even people who might be checking out their new records might not know about this one.

I can't recommend it enough. Absolutely. Right on. Awesome. All right. Let me finish things up here. This is, I did not have a lot of time, so I picked this one because it just popped into my head. And this from 1991, the second album from Austrian death metal band, Pungent Stench. And I was expecting Will to be here to laugh at this called Been Caught Buttering.

Thank you for laughing in his place. Been caught buttery. Make of that what you will. You know, this was 1991 early death metal. I mean, you know, comparatively. Huh? Simpler times. Simpler times.

And, you know, a really cool band that is no longer around, at least not legally. They are, the members of the band have been tied up in court for years, trying to decide who owns the band, whatever. That's unfortunate. But if you want to listen to some good death metal from the early 90s, because that's when death metal was really kind of cool,

If you know

Been Caught

Buttering

By Pungent

I mean even the band name is hilarious

But

It is

But yeah

These guys are pretty cool

So

Check it out

Alright

We've come to the dead end

Yeah we are

At the end

And it's been a while since we've

I feel like we haven't done an episode this long

Since like maybe mid-year

It's been a while since we did an episode. Five hours? Yeah, five hours. Yeah. We just crossed that threshold a few minutes ago. So. Good to see you guys. Thanks again to our guests. She was amazing. And next episode is what? I can't believe it. Are we doing December 14th? Is that the consensus? That's the plan so far. I mean,

Did we hear from Will on that one? No. I don't think so, but we'll poke him. We will poke him hard. I'll check the corporate calendar here when we're done. That's like a month. Yeah, we got a month. A little more than a month, yeah. George, I put a link to Holly's book in the chat. I don't know if you saw it, but it's there. I will. Check it out. Thank you. All right, fellas. All right, guys. Awesome talking to you guys. We will see you next month.

We should get your list ready, boys. It's going to be crazy. I just want to say it's getting real. It's fucking real. It's on. I have to put some soccer on. I'm going to watch boxing now. All right. See you guys. Take care. Bye. Bye.