Hello, everybody, Welcome to That's no mattal This is your weekly rock and
heavy metal podcast and everything else that might fall under the heavy music banner.
This is hyper Blasts. It's a bit of a pregame Hyperblast for us,
I guess because I am joined today by Sam Dignon, the two of us
plus Elliott. We're all going to be off to Damnation Festival tomorrow morning.
So we're off for the weekend and we'll catch up on all of that when
we return, but we're here just to give you a little bit of news
before all of that exciting stuff. Sam. I know we've just said that.
You know, we've got some big coming up this weekend. But have
you been up to anything this week? Not a work stuff, you know,
no, Jamie Lemmon this week at work. But so this was grinding
you down ahead of the weekend, right literally? Yeah, Like I was
like helping them opening up another store, and it was just like a very
busy time. But I'm already and fired up to you know, go Damnation.
I'm excited for Damnation. It's like I was looking at there's only five
bands on there I've seen before, and the rest of it is almost like
entirely new stuff for me, so it's going to be a really good time.
Yeah, I did get up something this week. I went to see
Employed to Serve on their headline tour, which I was really looking forward to
because Employee to Serve. I had not seen a headline show of theirs since
I think the warmth of the Dying Sun era, like just in terms of
kind of personal schedules, and then of course covid and fucked up a lot
of their touring for the last couple of albums. I'd not been able to
you know, I'm back like this year. I'm back to seeing them like
three times in a year, which is nice. But this was the first,
like you know, of their own shows I'd seen in a long long
time, and I didn't feel right going without that for for so long.
So I went along and I caught what is like madly the first proper headlining
tour for Conquering, released two years ago. It was a you know,
very good, you know UK as you'd expect with those guys, you know,
heavy Bill supporting them going off with the first band on. I know
you were really keen on the album that. Yeah, we spoke about earlier
at the start of this year. They seem to have really taken the Halloween
week thing to heart because I didn't even see them on Halloween, but I
walked in and they were on stage and they were in full costume. We
had ghost Face on guitar, we had hockey mask Jason on bass, and
the singer was complete full clown attire, like we are talking like, you
know, the full suit with the fucking little bobbles down the middle of the
chest, huge you know, fingered white gloves which are hilarious when he's throwing
his hands around in two step and stuff, you know, full face paint,
full fucking curly haired, wig, red nose, and it made watching
him perform going off songs just really surreal. Those songs, like I said,
they are violent, angry, like scathing hard core. Watching a clown
do that is going to be a weird. It was really intimidated. They
had some like there had some big tech difficulties at one point and he literally
pulled out some balls and started juggling to film. That's like, playmate,
I hope you've learned that tummit him into the just for this. Pupil Slicer
were second first time I had seen them since the release of the Blossom early
this year, which we all and a lot of you as well, very
very much enjoyed. It was an incredibly different experience to some of the other
times I've seen them because it was all Blossom material compared so, you know,
completely new lick of lick of paint from anything I've seen them do before.
But it meant that they were doing some things, like, you know,
kind of quite long songs with you know, some heavy, clean passages
and stuff like that that exists on record. They had, like they're utilizing
smoke machines and stuff like that. So when I've seen PUBI Size in the
past, it's often it's quite it's quite goofy in the you know, kind
of very self aware sort of way, you know, with the shades and
everything. This time it felt more like a kind of you know, it
had a bit more of a kind of atmosphere and a weight to it.
They still like they've not been able to equal the mix of the album,
I suppose in that in that setting, like when they were playing the title
track of Blossom, it took me a moment to actually recognize what song it
was. And it's an extremely recognizable song, but that chorus when they hit
it, it's like they've actually got a proper fucking chorus in the in the
set now. They opened with No Temple, which is just like the pure
groove on that record, just immediately really hard and it's into spice, spiced
with all these kind of like you know, electronic you know, breakbeats and
stuff like that. Yeah, so it was quite a different affair. And
then employed to Serve who seemed to be in a kind of unadulterated heavy metal
era, Like the playlist beforehand was like Saxon and all of this kind of
time. He was wearing like a ridiculous gearish blue black Sabbath Born Again long
sleeve. And then they came out to the Hellion as their intro and as
well as employed to serve, seeing them over the course of this year,
you know, performing essentially the the big game support for the Conquering record,
right because it was playing with Gajira, opening in you know, arena sized
venues and then you know the summer festival circuit as well, seeing them are
Bloodstock. It was all very focused on you know that that recent material,
which was right and good. I was really I wanted to see all that
stuff, and that's what you would put in front of, you know,
an audience, but also, yeah, employed to serve are a band who,
as I kind of allude to be for, I used to go and
see an awful, awful lot in some of their earlier days when they were
first being spoken up on this podcast. I have a real soft spot in
me for that era of that band, and I was like, you know,
I hope that there, you know, there are some kind of some
nods to the wider catalog rather than just it be completely being I guess someone's
like a new band on these last couple of records, and all fears of
that sort of dispersed when they came out and immediately opened with void ambition.
It was like my my heart soared in that moment, you know, the
first time seeing that song or anything off that record in like five years or
something, having it just smack out of the gates so so good, you
know. Obviously all the conquering and turnal for emotion stuff was really really great.
Got to see more of the Conquering record, Like I think it's the
first time at least I had seen them do the title track from that record,
which is my personal favorite on that record. So that was fucking wicked
that you know, that pit stir a riff in the middle part of it
exactly what I wanted to see Mark of the Grave as like the standard closer
now is so fucking big, but also in terms of like you know some
of that other you know stuff that you might not have seen on the festival
circuit or supporting Kajira this year, same way I thought of that void ambition
when in that last run of songs along with like you know, a Turn
of four Emotion Mark of Grave, I spend my days wishing them away with
Katie from Pupil Slicer coming out and like basically jumping into the crowd during that
that like you know again that we're still gonna get the full body head bang,
isn't there. Yeah, that's the one where I was like, if
you're gonna put one of the old ones into like the festival set, do
I spend my days? But that was so fucking rades see. And also
the maddest bit was I think it was dull Ake behind my Eyes, which
is the song on a Turn of FOURD Motion, which was the most kind
of like mathy and like the earlier stuff. Halfway through they like mashed up
the first half of that song and went into out of nowhere, the oh
this well way, it's aren't you breakdown from Beg for Rain from the first
record. And when that happened without warning, I was like I felt like
I had been teleported in time a few years. I didn't know what was
happening, and I don't know how many people in the room knew what it
was because I was talking to Just and she was saying, like, you
know a lot of people, you know, they know us now for the
more recent material, but big Groovy met Yeah. But like slipping in a
breakdown from Gray than new member essentially as an easter egg, was like very
much appreciated, and they but they were fucking brilliant. Like seeing them again
in their own kind of venue was a wonderful reminder of how just how on
it that band are. So that was thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. I hope
that you all enjoyed it if you went to other dates of that tour.
Let's get into the news and the first thing we're going to talk about musically
is something that is out today as this episode goes out. We have spoke
quite a lot this year. We spoke about one last week, if I
remember correctly, about a fairly big stream of high profile EPs this year.
It feels like there's been a lot of you know, the kind of buzz
bands have been really doing stuff with that format and maybe this will be the
last really big one for the year. I don't know, but spirit Box
are releasing their six track EPs that's quite a substantial one today. It's called
the Fear of Fear. I was, you know, obviously been announced for
a while. I was surprised in a way to see another spirit Box EP
because you expect them. I supposed to follow up Eternal Blue properly. You
know, you'd be looking next year to kind of really keep the momentum going.
Will they now do that within a year of dropping this EP? I
don't know, We'll say, I hope so, but you know we have
it's you know, two years of spirit Box EPs on the go. Is
this EP after you know, let's say the previous one and obviously album for
what enough to kind of keep you, you know, say, in an
interest and excited about what Spiritbox are doing. Kind I kind of fallen in
the middle of this EP. Really, I think half of it I think
is really good. Like I really like sort of half the tracks on here
and the other half I kind of think they could just have been sort of
offcuts from Eternal Blue. That's kind of where I'm landing on this EP at
the moment. Yeah, I think that half of this EP feels like stuff
they can do in their sleep. And I think, you know, when
you press play on it and there's that just scatter gun cellar door, cellar
doors, fucking yeah, that's one of the best songs they've done. That
fucking crazy poly rhythm in there, Like that's such a good way to open
it. And that's because it's got that kind of point. And then when
they really leans that low end beat down on it as well, I'm like,
this will be like anyone knows that it's probably pitstir Holy Rollers moment.
Yeah. The thing is that that didn't Holy Roll again. Holy Rollers a
song that came on like just between bands and I was like show the other
day, and that feels like such a kind of it cemented its place there
as a song that everyone knows. This doesn't feel like a floor filler in
the same way the whole of Rollie does. It's more like them going for
a kind of like a panic attack approach like that is it's the most extreme
song perhaps that they've done. Like the breakdown part that you mentioned is hilarious.
It's so extra like all the swirling guitar noise and stuff around that they
can go for that and I heard that and go like, yeah, fucking
fair play for them. I'm also I like, just one of the spirit
box tricks that they do that I really enjoy is when they get like a
real kind of like up tempo like dance energy bounce going, but they're able
to kind of deliver that with the kind of like glacial melodic sheen. I
feel like this song was released probably an age ago, but the Void is
like the Void is that That's Yeah, That one's really grown on me in
that it's it's more kind of major key than they've kind of been, I
think, and so brighter then, like even on their mormlodic passages, the
Void is actually quite bright and dancy, and I think that would go and
again really grown on me that those are the standout too, I would sell,
Yeah, I would agree. I think the rest of it is a
kind of bite sized version of some stuff that they do pretty effortlessly, right
like that kind of you know, the sort of the circle with Me kind
of template of that kind of you know, getting that beauty pretty effortlessly.
Like I do think they do it really well. Like you know, the
having the actual the humanity and the singing performances I think really really helps those
kind of melody of them get over the top. I think it's more is
this and there's not a huge amount of growth really with this kind of pretty
melodica stuff. They like they've done that on Eternal Blue to a high enough
standard. And you know, last time we were talking about like some of
the directions they went on Rotoscope and that doesn't really feel like it's been followed
up so much here. Uh So, you know, this old Ultra Violet
has some kind of sense builds and stuff, but it's still pretty normal.
I think this EP it's it's like a it's a reminder of the classic pretty
normal thing that Spirit Box do. And I think the harder leanings on something
like that first track are kind of the moments that will be more remembered for
I was they are still definitely better than most of these sort of other band
I like this EP. That's a start, right, Yeah, Like the
Gempans aren't really ripping off the sugar if anymore, they're ripping off the Architects
version of the Sugar. If it's because of they're doing the copy of the
copy at this point. Yeah, that first song that on this EP,
the really hard one, actually does remind me of Mush Sugar, right,
Yeah, that's the other one. I would say one of the other ones
is like, you are doing Architects doing with Sugar, yes, and I
like, but I'm still like there's more conviction in Spiritbox doing that than all
the other bands. I think, like the clean parts are really nice.
I just think, yeah, i Rotoscope is my favorite Spiritbox song. I
think that is the most interesting and just like bang a thing they've done.
And I kind of was hoping we get a little bit more of that kind
of smong the more industrial dance sort side of things, and this just feels
like, oh, yeah, you know, they're still good at the sort
of slightly techy genty metalcore thing, but it's not it's not kind of set
the world on fire a bit. Yeah, I think aside from that first
track. This does not excite me as much as the Rotors Go EP did.
But but you know, if we were to get an album next year,
I hope that they can bring some of these different you know, kind
of wells together and really, you know, show how, you know again,
where they can progress from Eternal Blue on something like a second record,
if they can take you know, again, some of the best parts of
both of these EPs and whatnot that they've done. There's also there's two more
Blink on eighty two songs from this new album. We've only just fucking spoken
about this album like two weeks ago, whatever it was, But there are
songs from the digital only edition of the album, I guess the one you
have to purchase that have also now made their way online. I put this
in the news here in case it's kind of like, you know, you
know, maybe these are some of the better songs on the record, in
case I like the sort of lost Shining Lights or anything like that. I
don't think these are that. I think one of them is best than the
other, the the more kind of the second one on the album, that
the more sort of tom led Sympthia one. I quite like that a bit
more than I can't do that. See You. Yeah. So there's there's
see You, which I listened to first, and to me, it sounded
like a like a worse auto tuney version of the kind of neighborhood zee.
I like the neighborhoods you think, so I as well, but this is
like a you know, yeah, a worse version. I cut me off.
A So we were speaking about some of the auto tune on the album.
This is so robot It's like it's almost this almost feels like they've actually
cut off the songs from the album that ended up sounding the most like our
City, like it's crazy. Yeah, no, I'm coming off in one.
I was like, I was like, oh yeah, you know them
definitely didn't need this, but I think I think see You I would There's
there's songs. I probably would have cut off the album and replaced with SeeU.
But cut me off. Didn't need that at all. Yeah, twitching
tongues. This week, of course Halloween, they play a show as the
twitch fits. This was actually I believe it was in relation to a benefit
chords for the tailor Young's the Pit Studio, which is having to move somewhere
else. But the video of that set looked really, really fucking cool.
This is of course a Misfits cover set, as he twitch fits. They
also then on Halloween Night itself, they put up a bunch of those songs
that they've recorded actually on streaming. And there's not a lot to say about
this, right, it's it's twitching tongues doing Misfits doing Misfits. But that
sounds like a good time to me. Colin has got the voice to put
on Yeah, yeah, goes hard. Yeah, I'm just down with this.
My favorite bit is in Astro Zombies the way they term the PARANDU reactive
exterminate into it just a full on hardcore. I think it's Brody from God's
Hate, just coming on going extra like it. Do you do the fucking
us hardcore? You know, just all out version of that. So that's
rad And you can go listen to that if you want. We'f you're talking
about Creed for a little while and they've just brought to our attention here how
good their US tour announcement video is in the fact it's a follow on to
a like that. They've embraced the kind of like social media TikTok a little
bit and I'm like, you know what, self aware Creed, I can
kind of go with even more. But Scott stap you know, acting going
hey, we're going at tour, I know, just the guy to call
and literally getting his phone up there and then having immediately accessible on the other
end, facetiming what's his name from three doors down and going we and the
boys want you to come along. Very very funny festival stuff going on.
Bloodstock announced a I think a very good handful of bands here, Like this
is a you know, no major slots or anything here, but it's a
handful of bands that makes me go, oh yeah, Like the festival looks
tastier for having them on the on the poster. Whitechapel have been added,
which is good because they had to pull out last year. They're not in
that. I think they're playing like Beneath Malevolence, Beneath Architects, so that
that's a run that's a solid like Saturday Night that would be a very powerful
one. I was going to say they're not. They were when they were
meant to be playing last year they were doing the Sophie Tent headliner, but
are out on the main stage in a higher slot is perfectly good by Meat
as well. Dea Side is very fucking exciting because, like I saw de
Aside for the first time ever, even though they were the first deslot of
bands I got into like a couple of months ago around this Bloodstock and it's
because like they've been so rare to appear on the UK festival circuit and stuff
like that. So that's like something that would be I think, you look
at that and you go, yeah, that makes sense deside of Blood Stop,
but that's actually quite a rare thing to have, so that's rad.
We also have Grand Magus on their beefing up the heavy metal and speaking of
a real long in the waiting festival you know, proper summer festival appearance for
Eternal Champion in the UK there on the Sophie stage as well. That is,
you know, considering they're one of the smallest logos on the poster right
now, that's one of the biggest gets. So that's very good. And
uh, Sam, you just need to kind of bear with me for a
moment while I while I talk about I've mentioned before there's a festival that's happening
that I believe it started for its first year this year called Fortress Festival,
which is a black metal festival that happens in the Scarborough area, and I
was like, this year, I'd quite like to go. They had Panopticon
on there, they had Lampa Murmur on there. I was like, yeah,
that's I'd like to go this year. Then this time they have added
ten bands this week. One of them is a headlining slot from Trip Tocon,
so obviously I'm there. They also announced the the UK, the first
time it's ever happened in UK, Soil Wolves in the Throne Room playing their
seminal Two Hunters record in its entirety there, along with a whole bunch of
other good stuff. Dodd's reat are on there, which is a band I've
been wanting to do a UK show for a quite a long time after I
was so in love with their latest record. So this is now the thing
I'm looking forward to the most next year. You have to deal with me
me talking about it looks good if you're into your artsy black metal. Isn't
it that this is a proper They've pulled up the fucking stops announcement that is
like Trip to con a fucking two Hunters set. Some really good undercar stuff
going on as well. That's that's now my highlight of next year. So
you know, wonderful stuff Paren goes where Trip go. Absolutely, but I
mean it's it's fucking serious that and there's still a loads more to come,
so that is well exciting. And then I've grouped these two stories together so
we can sort of go through them. I guess under things that people are
mad at this week, and it's all it's all coming out of America.
It always does, isn't it as always where discourse happens. Yeah. The
first follows up on the band that we've just been speaking about, Blink one
A two this week did a small little show where they popped up at Denny's.
And at this show they were selling a what the Fuck up Is Up?
Denny's Blink Twentity two shirt, which if that sounds familiar, I believe
we've referenced it in one of the titles of this podcast, like you know,
not too many months ago. This is because this is referencing a already
happened kind of viral moment where the hardcore band lived without play. The show
at Denny's gave it the old what the Fuck Is Up? Denny's that immediately
became a bit of hardcore law Blink one A two doing it and selling the
shirt in particular, has riled up a lot of people basically accusing them of
being kind of corporate profiteers swooping in to do something, you know, rip
off something that much much tinier band who would never ever see the sales of
a Blank Twentity two have done, and to piggyback their merch off the back
of it, which I think, to be honest, it's fair enough,
that's a reasonable criticism. It's one of those I'm like, some of the
like level of like outrage has been a bit much like this isn't that blue
whited to play? Pay the band reparations and stuff like that. I'm like,
yeah, that's that's You're being a bit dramatic there, But I do
agree is it is a bit of a lame thing for like a massive band
to piggyback off another band's viral moment where and again, like a lot of
Blank Winy two fans aren't ever going to know that they might have seen the
video, but they're never gonna know who are And I think it's it's a
shame that they've kind of not credited the band for the inspiration. Yeah,
I could see, you know, I can almost see the the the innocence
in blank when they too doing this. You think it's cool or whatever,
but it is it's a bit shitty to have, you know, massive band
swoop in start selling merch with you know, a phrase that was maybe popular
by a band a you know, a billionth of a size, so that
is you know, yeah, like figure out where these things come from a
little bit more. And then the other thing is even stupider. And I
don't even know where we really take this conversation, but there was major,
major outraging discussion at least on my timeline recently because Frozen Soul played a show
somewhere in the US and a viral video went out that someone had filmed of
a group of guys sat in the middle of the Frozen Soul pit, people
running around them, having a full on game on the floor of magic the
gathering with you know, all of the cards and everything, and Frozen Soul
just took it in like a yeah, this is awesome, keep patter.
They encouraged it, they said, do it like this is funny whatever,
and a few people are like, yeah, this is great, but also
a lot of people I think this is good. This is coming off of
I don't know if we spoke about it on the show or not, but
the was it the death Grips the other way, the death Grip situation where
people seem to have lost their fucking minds of how to behave at shows.
And I think in particular, like I like, I'm not throwing my toys
out of the pran about It's like if I saw this, I wouldn't go
up there and I wouldn't stamp on their cards, right, But I do
lean towards here. These guys have clearly gone in with it in their heads
that we like, we are going to turn this show into a specifically social
media viral video. They're they're not going and playing magic for the fun of
it, right, Like they have gone in there with the contrived idea of
getting a viral video out of it and something that is supposed to be about
you know, a band playing and you know, enjoying the show and everything.
People making it so much about themselves and distracting from that for online clout.
I can't help but feel is a a bit cringe, but b I
do think it is a clearly escalating phenomena in recent years and months, even
as we've seen with things like the death Grip say I mean this, I
agree with that. I do think there is an ongoing thing of everyone wants
to be the next viral moment. They want to be you know, that
what the fuck is up Denny's moment essentially the thing that everyone they get someone
talking, and I find that verythating. This is one of the more harmless
ones for me personally. I'm like, you know, it's it almost was
in the back of we when the highlight of this was someone's filming a show
on their freed d s or something like that, like that being one of
the more innocent takes on this. But I know part of me was like,
I was like, I think a lot of the outrage of this is
coming from hardcore kids who are getting reminded that definitely kind of music for nerds,
a little bit like they were doing this in the eighties though like,
no, I know, but it's still like a lot of it. A
lot of the outrages come from I think the more hardcore side of the frozen
soul fans and the more metal side of them, like, you know,
it's funny. Yeah, I think it is kind of funny. Again,
I'm not I'm not going to fucking debase myself to being genuinely upset about this,
But I do like the principle of kind of going in with the idea.
Literally, you've brought something into a show with the exact purpose of during
X song, I am going to do this to distract and hopefully cause a
viral moment. I do think he's lame, and I think that that's a
mentality that we do for the benefit of, you know, shows going forward.
We need to poo poo it a little bit. Okay. Questions on
this edition of Hyperblasts. As I said, we had some leftover from last
week, so here they are. Arna Schrader asks, are there any bands
that make it hard for you to take their music seriously because their vocalist sounds
a bit too much like a cartoon character in your head? I really struggle
with at the Drive In Slash, the Mars, Volta, God Smack,
Idols, King Diamond, and way too many more. An incredible Rogues gallery
there of completely different sounding artists. I understand what you mean. And here
is the thing. Your list of bands there there is one major major outlier
for me because King Diamond, King Diamond, it's not just that I love
him, is that he is a cartoon character. And I agree, yeah,
And I think this is a difference someone like idols being like kind of
finding their vocal stick off putting is in part because of how kind of you
know, serious, faux deep whatever you may think. The the music to
be King Diamond is a enormous theater piece. So I I really really love
a lot of stuff in that regard that is kind of like super extravagant,
weird, you know, like off the beaten track vocal often because it plays
into that kind of theater world building or whatever. That real kind of character.
That to me is like a feature, not a bug, And it
is notably different from someone sort of posturing as a either you know, super
super tough or super super kind of heart on sleeve of motive or whatever.
Someone's sound being funny in that context is very different to me than you know,
what one of the all time goals down as examples of a King Diamond
of someone who is like it is the point that they are larger than life.
Yeah, No, I agree, Like I I I I was one
of the band says I go, yeah, I do struggle to take I
used to I'd quite like idols, but when he got more and more ridiculous
with his kind of es. I think they've had moments, but I could
quite happily never hear him again at this point. For me, like the
one I always struggle is not necessarily the ones where it's like it's it is
the sort of the foe. I'm so deep and emotional, and again,
I like a lot of singers who are overly emotional, but like and to
a point where the cans on a cartoon character. I know, obviously you
know Dylan's first love songs, but that one I feel like, I'm like,
no, that's just him. He's actually Genie pointing out that's why it's
known to me and then say fucking bad omens or any of the or amity
affliction. I prevail it where it's so yeah, where it's so forced,
and like I'm like, I don't buy your emotion. That's why that that's
why I find I can't take these bands seriously. Not the vocal sounds a
bit silly, because you know, I again, vocals sounds a bit silly.
If it's part of the package, I can go with it. Yeah,
I think, like I said, you know, with King Diamond,
you know, on the Halloween Roundubuck we're doing, we were talking a lot
about the band Manilla Road, and their vocalist is kind of one you sort
of could fall into this, Like I was dying your impressions when you just
go into the mid sentence like alas, yeah, it's brilliant, and you
know, I love that kind of character. But that feeds into it for
me as opposed to my biggest ones for these are I guess some of the
things that you've mentioned of like when someone sounds actively funny when they are trying
to be super like over Earnest is when it falls down for me again.
So like you know, you know you mentioned in Spanish Love Songs, guy
is one of the real ones that falls into there fucking dashboard confessional. Man,
I just that guy sings and I'm like, stop it, you can't,
you can't make me take you seriously, you know, the lardestputes of
this world, et cetera, and like right now, yeah, and then
here's one who I am like, I like a lot of this guy's songs.
So I'm not saying this one is a deal breaker. But people in
the kind of Jordan Pundick realm of like how are you a real man?
You know, like, how are you as like a what like forty five
year old guy singing? Actually then from neck deep has always been the reason
I can't get on, Like his fake American accent has always been like a
deal breaker for me. Yeah, but again I would encourage you, you
know, question ask her here again, We're with you on some of these
ones, like someone like Idol's begging you to take them seriously. Well this
or whatever, go into a King Diamond record or immerca or fake record.
With it in mind that it is all about extravagant. It's not trying to
I don't know, it's not aiming for you to be as grounded and serious
in that sense. It is about kind of escapism, and you know it
for me at least it works. Wonders callum Waal asks Mount Rushmore of modern
UK metal bands. Now that's you know, a very simple question that in
turn kind of opens it up to some vagueness. So there are different I
feel like there almost there are different categories of what kind of bands we could
put into such things. What was your first I've poured so much over it.
I was like, I mean, how modern are we talking modern?
Like what we're saying, what we're classing is modern at this point. Yeah,
I wonder where there was a cup of how long they've been around?
I mean, I've got like a couple almost different Mount Rushmos of different sort
of niches. I suppose because kind of end up pulling up the sound.
Yeah, because my again some of my own personal ones, my personal one
might be more towards the underground or whatever. But I feel like in terms
of I guess Mount Rushmore is meant to be the biggest of the big in
terms of current significant to like the popular, ye universally accessible metal bands.
There was an easy four for me, which was bring me Architects Sleeps very
tomorrow. That's perfectly fair enough. I I was trying to think a little
bit newer than that. I guess. I guess you know you could have
again, but as well do you count some of those metal bands still?
But I was if I had to go, like, why, I know
the talking points of UK metal where three of those bands have recently at least
sold out arenas, Yeah, one of them. I wouldn't argue with that
too. If someone's put that for I think that that's perfectly fair. Four
that I came up with similarly were again we're going almost like a tear down
in terms of not as, but this is probably maybe more metal. I
thought architects, malevolence, psilosis, believe from within that was exactly that was
gonna be another pick for me or everything smaller. If we weren't beang architects,
I would have gone malevolant, silosis, believeble being conjura or employed to
sell. Because because there we moved down to akut of my one, I
guess we should also throw out, you know, if you're going for that
really huge when we bring me in everything Sleep Token are currently kind of the
biggest new bands, so maybe they would, you know, have an argument
to get in there. But my my four I've gone for just like,
what are the four that I am most creatively kind of passionate about at the
moment, And again they come from kind of different realms of thing. The
only thing that unites in here is uk metal, I guess relatively close to
the underground, even though again employed to serve to me should be on there
with like the malevolence, you know, architects one, but my four that
I have is employed to serve Conjurer, Ashen Spire, and the fourth one
that I think are just the best in the country is the banded Voices.
I think you know a lot of people would make the arguments for Ithaca to
go on that, and that's fair enough Svalbard. You know, have you
know, kind of put the work in and enough at this point to really
be on them argue for ver. Yeah, relative mass is again for that
kind of underground for I was like, what's their cut off point? Have
they been kind of around longer than the other one, you know obviously pupil
Slicer as well as another one. Personally, like purely selfishly my four would
be employed to serve Conjuration and spire voices, but I could you know what
I would got. I would go architects, malevolence, silosis, and then
I would probably go employed to serve. At this point, it was then
we'll bleed them within lif if I had to repick me personally, not just
kind of going who are the biggest and most like significant, But yeah,
that's why I pick us my my personal four Yeah, and then Ruddy mccahn
says, we got Actually, we've got two questions here that were essentially the
same. So I thought, because people have asked the same kind of sentiment,
I've got to put it in. But you know, I'll read both
questions. I'm a total punk and generally don't like progue or power metal,
but I think cod and Cambria and Blind Guardian are great. Hey, so
do I like? Did you rate this? So? So? What are
your musical exceptions artists whose genre or style you normally that enjoy but you think
it a great And then Matt Bailey individually asks which band in our world will
people not expect you like? For instance, I listen to mainly metalcore,
death Court and death Metal, buy a huge spot for Alter Bridge and Miles
Kennedy. So essentially the same sentiment of question here, musical exceptions bands you
like in styles you normally don't anything of the prog bands I like. I
wouldn't necessarily say Code because you know they've got that post hardcore emo thing,
but Lepra's kind of probably feel like one the obvious ones where they are like
a frog band and I have just everything I've heard from Lepros. I've just
been absolutely in love of the one of the sets I'm most excited about seeing
this weekend. So I would probably say like they're there the big sort of
standout one for that others much of the things there isn't like I've kind of
like dabbled in anything enough that that I don't think anything else where that's like
a genre I actively dislike where there is a thing that I think is one
of the best liked. Yeah, I guess I don't have many styles these
days that I like point blank, blot out right like one. I have
styles that I am much less keen on. I'm the same, isn't it
than others? But I don't think there are many genres where I just go
no, I don't like that at least we're in the walls of kind of
you know what we what we cover. But it always would be that kind
of like, you know, heartland punk. I suppose heartland rock, like
the Granddaddy's of it are not really into, so it always did feel like
an outlier. When I fell in love with the Menzingers even and then you
know the Mensingers and you know pre the latest one. The excerpts were the
bands who were kind of the standouts there. I've never you know, you
know, kind of I was never a tech fest guy, right, like
you know what I mean by that kind of instrumental tech metal or whatever.
That's like we don't really review this stuff on the show because I feel like
none of us really have the passion for it. But I really I've had
big kind of dalliances with Animals as leaders, Like I think on their their
best day, that band can be fucking brilliant. But even then, I
was trying to think of, like what our styles I don't like, and
one of the things that obviously came to mind sim is what we're saying with
another question before, is that kind of over emotional hardcore thing, like the
spoken words style you don't like or defeata But there's bike exception. I quite
like Defeata. Well, I was gonna say, is you quite like you
quite like Modern Life? Yeah? The Modern Life is War record I thought
was was was pretty good, but I was reminded this year because we saw
him an outbreak and I hadn't listened to them in like a few years,
but I was like, yeah, defeat her actually the one in that kind
of lardest ute two chet Lane. I don't know if they're a bit harder,
a bit less whiny. I don't know what it is. It's darker
and less kind of like all sadness, but like, yeah, I think
again, I'm not in love with them, but I think defita are you
a band? I happily watched the outbreak and really enjoyed what they were doing,
and then I guess, of the kind of current gente pop metal thing,
you know, talking about them earlier, I really like spirit Box when
I don't like a lot of the other ones that are, you know,
kind of as popular. I mean, you go, I hate a lot
of the sort of the TikTok music, and I love Scene Queine, and
she kind of does sit into that category of of TikTok alternate music, like
I I mean, most of that stuff is terrible, but I'm I'm all
about Scene Queen. There you go. Okay, Patreon this week making some
allusion to Manilla Road before the thing that went up. For all the lovely
people who support us and give their, you know, the harder money to
keep this podcast going, we absolutely appreciate all of that. What we gave
you the week was in lieu of the month's usual album club is we took,
you know, the once in a year opportunity to see the Halloween album
Roulette. That was myself, Mark and Elliott who came together to do that.
Sam. I sent you the podcast listened to and you'd sent over this
morning that you were listening to alude to Vinamin Sannas for the first time in
however long? How much of that has been awoke in you? Like I
was, I was sad, I was in part of this, but I've
not listened to the whole thing. Yeah, I've still got the Macca part
to go. But maddest going back to going back to the first Morbid Angel
album I ever heard, and and kind of going like, hang on a
minute, this album is daft, stupid and terrible and I'm having a great
time listening to it. How much fun did you like? Rad? I
was like, fuck me, Like, like the thing is though, is
like Blazer with ba is actually like fucking legit banger. I mean, that's
what's wicked. But there was like two extreme in radical kind of bookending the
album. Even though there's stuff, it's just like Jesus Christ This album is,
Yeah, it's terrible but kind of brilliant. The Halloween arm Wreck we
did it was it's the longest one of those we've done by a fair old
way, and it's entirely on the last two albums because essentially what we did
is we had a you know, the pretty normal way we go about the
Halloween album without picking stuff that sounds spooky or whatever. We had a nice
little conversation about you know, things like Niller Road and the Coffin Shakers and
you know, some some stuff for the punk fans and stuff for the metal
fans and all of that. But then the last two albums we just just
sidetracked, like it just it went so much deeper into like again, with
Morbid Angel, one of the most like just infamous has to be dissected,
what the hell happened here moments in any metal band's creative history. It's one
of those moments. And then with Macarb it was like me and Elliott seemed
to have built up so much macab law from over the years, and it
was like, we're never going to talk about the band again. We have
to get it all out. It's like this is someone chance to talk about
all things but carb and it's it's a fascinating album in terms of, you
know, how it makes you feel, the ethics of it, et cetera.
We went into all of that, but yeah, it was it was
like a normal album Roulett to begin with that was, you know, always
enjoyable as they are. That then went fucking deranged towards the end. So
that's why it ended up as it did. It was really really funny to
talk about as a result. So I you know, if I really recommend
you go out and check the Hallow I've heard I've enjoyed a lot. Yes,
yeah, just an absolute hoot and holler talking about some fucking sick,
sick stuff. So that is the how we down that. That was that
patron of com slash that's not metal. We will be resuming the Allison Chain
Special with the third and final William Devall themed part within the next couple of
weeks. And now let's just close this hyperblast with the release ran up for
this week. First thing, I guess first week of November and the I
guess that the probably the most hot high profile release here in the UK at
least comes from Green Lung. It's their record this Heathen Land. That is
a band who have a lot kind of expectations riding on their shoulders, I
think with this one, so you know, good luck to them there.
Also, if we jump to the as a side of the Atlantic, the
highest profile releases perhaps the new Dying Wish album Symptoms of Survive All these second
full length album from one of the most beloved current bands in metallic hardcore.
Continuing down the hardcore all least heavy route, Fuming Mouth that is the kind
of death thrash hardcore band who we've spoken about a couple times over the years.
Their record Last Day of Sun is out and from here we will go
to Sugar Horse, Truth or Consequence, New Mexico. That's a band I
know that in kind of when they've released records in recent years, they've had
a fair bit of kind of interest in them. So that is out on
Blue Grape Records. That is the label that is now home to Code Orange
and many others. You go listen to the self titled Spiritual Cramp record.
This is one that involves members of you know, Convert and Death Heaven and
all that kind of you know, death Wish supposed lot Sexless Marriage releasing a
record This is not Love. I think, you know, if you like
those bands. Jake Bannon does some guest vocals and stuff on parts of that.
You know, go go down in that avenue elsewhere. We have got
actually continuing in that kind of death wishy type route, you know, produced
and mixed I believe by Kurt balou Morna. We're Engraved with Pain. That's
some kind of sludgy post metal stuff there with that, you know, blue
filter on it, your kind of alt rock emo. Stop this Week is
a self titled a record from a band called All Get Out. And as
we move into the extreme stuff, we have death metal icons Suffocation returning with
their album Hymns from the Apocrypha. This is their first album in Pharaoh.
I think it's like six years now, but I think more notably, it's
the first with the new Suffocation lineup that now features no longer features Frank Mullen,
their longtime vocalist has now fully departed the band, and they've now got
the guy Ricky, the guy who has been doing vocals with them live for
a long time. This is his first proper studio recording, so you know,
I guess something riding on that Suffocation record, but it sounds like they're
kind of, you know, supplying what Suffocation always do, which is what
people I guess want from them when they make a change like that, some
finish kind of occult seventies rock. We've got Crypta with Altu Laksu and speaking
of occult Italian freaks, I suppose Mortuary Drape Black Mirror. We also have
the live album from Wata, which is called Die in Fire, Live in
Hell, Live in Hell, whichever you prefer, I presume, but that
is their recording of, you know, the whole the agony and NEXI of
Watan live cycle they've done and they've immortalized it in live form and a few
EPs. We have STREEGOI Bathed in a Black Son. That is Greg McIntosh
from Paradise Lost. This is his kind of crusty death metal project that followed
on from his Valan Fire project Melo Death. We have Insomnium Songs of the
Dusk, and of course we have the spirit Box Epia that we open this
episode talking about. So go and listen to those. Thank you very much.
We are now off, but we will return next week and be with
you once again with what we've seen what we've been up to and anything else
that's happened in the week since. So yeah, we'll see you all there.
Bye bye,