Hello, everyone, Welcome to That's Not Grindcore. This is your weekly grindcore,
heavy metal, rock music pop music podcast. We are here with you
every week to let you know everything that's going on in those realms. Can
you tell we've got a bit of a theme this week. My name is
Parin Hayish sat across from me. We've got the return of Elliot Paisley over
there. We've also got Sam dign On here once again. How are we
all doing? You know, went to the big Grindcores show like that.
That's just what's kind of been on my mind for the past like near seven
days, just thinking about, like God, that was a time enough sonic
abuse in a night to last a lifetime. Literally one of the most like
ridiculously disgusting lineups I think you're ever gonna see and just just sticks with you
in how like filth it was. Well, the whole time since then,
I've just thought why I should be able to do that every weekend? Where
can I move or I can have a grind care shower that constantly because I
just feel like a better person afterwards. Yeah, it was a very busy
week actually for kind of heavy tours up and down the country. I know.
There was the Not to Loose tour with Death Heaven that I don't thin
any of us managed to make it too, but if you did, I'm
sure it looked like a bloody hard time. I saw a video of George
coming out with Not Loose and just fucking wretching all over the place, and
that's an amazing guess spot. There was the Cattle Decapitation tour that I know
some of you will have got to before we talk about that. I had
a pummeling sort of forty eight hours or so because the night before the show
we were all at I went along to the Enslaved Svalbard Wayfarer touring bill,
which I mentioned when it was announced as one of the tours I was more
excited for because obviously it's I guess a black metal package, but as like
a ven diagram of things, it was brilliantly eclectic in the like Spalbard and
Wayfairer in particular, I cannot imagine a scenario where I will have seen both
of those bands in the same night, apart from both supporting a kind of
legendary band like Enslaved and Top to Bottom. That was just such an appealing
night for me, Wayfairer really were like the you know, if I would
go to that show anyway, but after American Gothic, I needed to see
Wayfairer again. They are, you know, the most handsome band in black
metal suited and booted hats on set was like, obviously it's an opening set,
so it was about half an hour long. It was basically four songs,
I think, all from American Gothic, which for me, you know,
meant I got to see like some of my favorite riffs from last year,
you know, to end to my house, justified tracks like that,
and I guess it just cements that everyone's seems to be like, you know,
some of the other bands were commenting like, oh yeah, we're so
stoked to be out with Wayfairer. That new album is fucking amazing. It
just seems to have cemented them as kind of a band of the moment that
everybody is really excited about and that's brilliant. And I was because of their
you know, supporting band. Isaac the drummer was using a drum kit,
not the one at the back, kind of one further front. I was
sort of stood in a position near the front where I could literally see his
foot on the double bass pedal just going and I was just watching that man
absolutely bummele that thing. That was brilliance Valbard much more. You know,
obviously I've seen Svalbard hundreds of times. I do exaggerate but fair bit,
and I like that they still open with disparity after like how many of you
know records they put out. It. There's something very familiar about seeing Svalbard
and despite what they might be touring, just coming out to do Do Do
Do, Do Do Do, and it just always puts me in a good
mood. The other you know, obviously the newer songs. I haven't returned
to the newest album as much as the prior ones, but hearing some of
those songs live for the first time was a, you know, a reminder
of their quality in particular, really really strong. And then some of those
tracks from the last album, like click Bait with the kind of big fuck
off like it seems to be very firm classics in their set in terms of
how people respond to him and enslaved I mean the third time seeing them in
six months for me, but like the first time I'd seen them doing new
material I was gonna say, it must have been a very different sett list.
Yeah, in about like, I think the last time I saw them
touring a current album was about five years ago, and obviously in that time
they've put out like, you know, the Outguard album from twenty twenty,
as well as Hehindal from last year. Outguard is one of my favorites of
kind of their recent run. Heindal is like one of their kind of more
out their records. I think like it's got some really strange, avant gardee
type stuff on it, and I think that's really cool for a band like
Enslave still at this stage, to be kind of pushing that kind of stuff,
And obviously it was heavy on that material. It was one of those
sets where like if I was to draft up like my top twenty or thirty
en Slave songs, only a handful of those really were in the zetlist,
and some of those are the ones from Below the Lights that they were playing
a Damnation where they you know, they STI were still doing the the Dead
Stare with that amazing kind of killing jokey type part at the end and just
reminded of how hard that goes again and they were still doing a havenless of
course, which is sam the song with the big arms in the air kind
of Norse chant. Everybody doing that lovely time, but particularly seeing again those
Hindel songs. There's a song call Congelia, which is like seven or eight
minutes long, and it's pretty much entirely built on a blast beat, and
towards the end of that song, I was kind of like forgetting my whereabouts,
you know, just sort of like lost in something or other. The
title track of that song of that album. I don't know what fucking tuning
they dropped to whatever, because it just dropped to like the heaviest level.
It's like the nastiest like eight string or something guitar tone is that they weren't
using eight strings. And it's got this like long fucking light throat singing drone
type section in the middle, just like really weird and really cool. And
it was a few years ago they lost their their drummer and their keyboardist who
did the clean singing, and they ended up replacing with a clean singing drummer,
and that guy behind the kit has got some fucking pipes. Like some
of those choruses in the last couple albums, are really really strong and like
they're funny as well, because I don't think that they don't quite get put
as often in that sort of like Opeth Paradise Lost kind of dry banter category.
But they're not far off it, you know, like they are like
they you watch them and they remind you how funny they are, and they
were kind of doing these are like absurdist band introductions where they were like,
you know, on the guitar, the leader of the suffragette movement and the
inventor of red bricks and just like same bullshit like that. Do you know
about Ivar's family guy tattoo? I mean I've heard about this, Like the
guitar is from Enslaved. Yeah, he has a tattoo of himself as Peter
Griffin because the guy told that he looks like him. And that's just I
guess that's very endearing with the kind of characters Enslaved are. That was a
really really nice night and then, as said, the following night for me,
it was a different night for you guys, but we all saw the
same package. The the the second annual in a row tradition that dates back
sometime now, but they seem to be kind of ramping it up Napalm Death.
You may be aware that they for a long time now was in literally
going back to you know, their kind of heyday, have at varying times
put together a sort of touring package which they have called the Campaign for Musical
Destruction. I believe the first one is in like nineteen ninety one or something
like that, and you can imagine the kind of bands they had on them
with that bill. They have brought them back from time to time. One
of the first times, I think maybe the first time I ever saw Power
Trip was on a Napalm Death Campaign for Musical Destruction where they were like the
second band on the tiny venue Bloody halcyon days there. There was one in
twenty twenty, just before COVID hit where they had like Misery Index and I
Hate God with them. I went to one of these last year this time
last year when it was the one We've dropped dead out with them, which
was fucking great. And they also had this I think Russian band called Siberian
Meat Grinder with them, who are all bare themed and a squealer grind,
which is maybe not as cool now as it was one year ago. But
when they came back, you know, one year later with like that one
last year again, it was really really cool seeing drop Dead in particular,
was like, oh yeah, sweet, that's the kind of band I maybe
wouldn't have seen if nap hadn't brought them out. But when they announced the
following year's addition was Napalm Death picked Destroy a Primitive Man and Worm. You've
heard us talk about that before, and I guess it just sort of cemented
that these touring packages if they again, I don't know, you guys.
Liverpool was the last night at the tour, and Barney said like, yeah,
we kind of want to do this every year now, like we want
He said about it doing it being an annual feing. Yeah, if they
make that a thing, and if they continue to bring out nights of this
capacity, what a treat we maybe have on our hands for the foreseeable.
I mean, they've set if it's gonna be an annual thing now, they
have set the bar about as high as you can get. I mean,
like, I've you know, seen these the tours they're doing, and I
considered going to some of them for get around to it, but I mean
this one when they announced it even people who aren't like diehard Grendel fans.
I mean, like they having to just book three of my fans. I
you know, I quite like a little bit grind call, but they haven't
book three of my favorite grind core bands on this package. So I was
like, well, yeah, of course I've got to go the thing I
like about when particularly Obviously Primitive Man are an outlier, and that's something they
often do again that the one I Hate God they often book kind of like
a slower band in the middle of it up. But the Napalm, Death
Pit, Pizzroy and Wormrot is like three generations of grindcore, which is the
really cool thing about it. And you could make the convincing argument that each
one of those bands is the best grindcore band of that particular you know generation.
So seeing those three together in that like tour through the ages of like
thirty seconds songs is fucking amazing. Oh yeah, absolutely. But if they
do do this every year, they're almost going to have to change it to
some extent because I don't know if you could put together a better grindcore bill
than this, because all the bands that are active, I really think these
are the three best ones like maybe you cold put full of Hell in for
worm and Roll like nails and full of Hell like would be the one you'd
want to see kind of subdi in, wouldn't, isn't it? Yeah,
but that's kind of it. Like grind cale might be my favorite genen of
extreme music, but it's like brutal truth aants together anymore discordants access on a
band. I think Gridlink are already back in hiatus. So it's like when
this was announced, the race at which I passed with my money, it
was like a kind of desperate drug deal. It was just like fumbling with
my wallet, trying to get the car, like the police play police with
police and just it could have been my birthday. It was like the whole
night was just it was it was catered to me. Yeah, I think
it's fair to say that, you know, maybe not every single campaign Musical
Destruction will be as sort of like must see as this one. I imagine
they're always going to be worth attending. I mean, for a start,
you're always going to see Neapar and Death and that's guaranteed the amazing headliner.
But you know, we'll just see what kind of you know, what variants
of stuff they can bring because it's just opportunity for cool stuff. This particular
one was very very special. It opened up with worm Rock who. I'll
be honest, I spent ninety percent of their set with my eyes just glued
onto the drummer because honestly, I couldn't believe it, Like dude, like,
it's the most I've ever been capped. When you were talking about,
you know, glued to a Wayfarer's drummer, I was like waity till I
was talking about worm Ware Dramma who. I was like like him being set
in stage and the evity being either side and being a bit more stack him
just kind of going. And the function in London was their drum to character
constantly like every song come and fix a bit of the drum playing so hard
and you can see this symbol wabbling more and warning, but that's going to
cap it off and hit someone if he doesn't like calm down soon. Absolutely
insane set from one I like, I come with the last time I've been
in a venue at six thirty and it's been full completely like London, I
coudn't quite work out From the first Electric Electric Brickston Oh I've not been to
that one, right, maybe not quite as big as the form. I
think it's like one thousand and five hundred and six in capacity, Like it
was so full for worm Rock when they came on at half six, and
I was like, not many things can get people down to a venue in
London at six thirty these days, and everyone seems to be talking about the
drummer. When they went off, I heard about a dozen people talking in
the individual groups about the drum and two seeing them last year. He's had
quite the transformation in that time because at that Manchester gig he was this kind
of nervous guy in a beanie and glasses. He looked more like a drum
tech than he did a rock star. But now he's like he kind of
like a grind called Dave Groll, like Dave Roll, but of extreme,
like yeah, like I punk and all that going on, Yeah, kind
of rock star energy. And I mean, like you say, it was
kind of absurd listening. I was seeing something like that and then at end
you look at your watch like it's six thirty five and I've just heard the
song Seizures, which might be the biggest riff of the night, and like,
when this bill was announced, we were kind of saying, who are
you know if you have Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer as the top two grind
call bands. Ever, maybe who are the third place? As time goes
by, I start to think it might be warm Rock, because that's setless
they put together. They didn't play anything off Abuse or Dirge, which are
two perfect grindcore records, and yet there was nothing I would have changed about
the set. I wouldn't have asked for anything to be swapped out because at
this point it's all killer. Yeah. The thing I like about see sort
of grind core sets in general is obviously you can know the records very very
well, but often it just becomes a just like fucking just a battering ram
of just like they are moving through songs so quickly that your brain is trying
to catch up with like ohit, yeah, that there's a riff I recognize,
you know, like that one, and then it would just be like
everything just flying past your face in such a flurry. And so it is
really great when like the sort of like we're talking, yeah, the sort
of the hits in the bunch kind of I mean again, earlier on that
was a bit for me, and we're just kind of like whipped me back
into it after I say this complete well wind of rifts and and then you
get that hook coming in. And I was like earlier on doing Fall into
Disuse from the previous album, of those bigger type songs, it's like those
moments hitting it's like you sort of you you reset yourself and then just get
yeah, fucking abused by a whole lot of other things. And again,
it was the last night of the tour in Liverpool and the guy they sort
of like went in for a group hug and stuff, So it just had
a very sort of nice vibe going on for a Primitive Man. As said
the slow band in the bunch used to kind of break up that set.
You could say that Primitive Man are the heaviest band of the world, Like
you could make that, you could like that watching them live is just a
fucking ordeal, Like it's not for me, unbelievably heavy. I just I
Jerry fought. From one point, They've been playing for half an hour and
I looked in it had been ten minutes and I was like, oh no,
it's gonna be one of these I can clearly can. I can kind
of get why people might like what Primitive Man do because it is monstrously heavy,
but just like I don't know, I was after worm Rot, I
was so in the mood for just like go fast like crazy. Yeah,
man was a bit of a roadblock that that voice coming out of that man
though, Like it's it's like how much chest space do you have to have
to have that sort of just swallowing the mic. Yeah, to have that
raw come out of you, that loud and thick and heavy, one of
the most insane, effortlessly terrifying voices I've maybe ever heard. Because I'm kind
of with you, Sam, I like Primitive amount on record, but for
me and that live capacity, I can find it a bit or deal is
the right word. It can be a bit draining, particularly between and Big
Destroyer. I think that's my point though, Yeah, albums are like WHOA.
Particularly I had to spend like ten to fifteen minutes just watching that guy
because it's like if you dropped a penny down his mouth. You're just like
there's this bottomless pit that he's fellow and you watch it and it's not like
he's wretching. He's not even exerting himself for that much, and it's the
scariest voice you've ever heard. So I think, like you say, that
kind of super heavy sludge with a gotta vocal, it can be a bit
tedious in that environment, but I think just having something like that, at
least for me, I found that pretty hypnotic. Yeah, and they are
just so just suffocatingly, bleakly, unrelentingly heavy that you kind of just have
to watch it and be like, yeah, fair enough. Pig Destroyer were
fucking bananas. Just again, this was not my I had to wait quite
a long time see picture. I think a lot of people in the UK
maybe did. My first time was at a Damnation, just you know,
the Damnation before last when they were doing Prouder in the Yard, and that
was fucking incredible, but god damn a second helping with a more diverse setlist,
closer up to you know, the stage as I was this time like
one of those sets where like it felt violent, Like I looked to the
pit to the fucking right of me and it looked like people were dying.
I mean, someone got knocked out or badly injured. In London, they
had to briefly stop like some sort of injury. But yeah, I didn't
expect Pictures Way to be such like fucking riot on yeah, and like like
I was expected a lot of like chaos and energy, but they were like
fun almost on stage and some of the energy as well, Like obviously we'll
get onto some of the more things. But the guy they've got doing the
samples and electronics of that now, he was fucking going absolutely bananas on stage,
and I was like, fucking, this guy's got it. I think
again, we were talking about the reason why he's been brought in in a
little bit when we actually get in to the news, but I think he
was like a long time roadie before who filled in that, so he probably
knows the set, he's seen it, you know. Yeah, one of
those kinds of situations where he's coming in the times. And he was like,
I think that what you're talking about is they have like a bit of
a crossover thrash energy like you could put Picture Story on with Municipal Waste,
except the music it's like more scary violent yeah, and live, I think
for a band that don't really have any gimmicks, they're really one of a
kind live act, Like there's such a band of misfits. You kind of
look them and go, how can how are you all friends? Because Scott
Hall is like, looks like some kind of truck selfie X Marine, and
then Adam Jarvis on the drums is like a viking. Ji Hayes is this
weird like nerd with a high pitched voice who writes the most macabre poetry you've
ever heard. And the bass player and maybe he lot this last time.
I was like, he looks like you'd be in Heaven's basement. He's like
proper out the bandana and the gold yeah. Yeah, And it gives them
this kind of like backward like ragtag backwards vibe. They probably like band of
misfits kind of just coming together because they want to make noise, and I
think that kind of that makes me more endearing, even though again though I
mean they're playing is like disgusting, Yeah, and they were just they were
scary tight against like speaking of drummers, watching Adam the fucking scary signed like
is comparing this to Napalm Death afterwards. Napalm Death had more of that sort
of like erratic carpet bombing type quality, whereas this is like tight punches,
but like fucking JoJo's Bizarre Adventure speed just absolute like insane and with you know,
the setlist of this, I was curious about what they they be doing,
and they they kind of they do this thing where they've sort of like
arranged most of their set into sort of like little sweets from albums. So
they open with like a terrifier suite with like six or seven songs, and
I was, you know, obviously that's probably the second most like there are
people like there where that's their one. I probably would have that as my
favorite Pink Detroyer album, right, yeah, fair enough, Yeah, And
I was I was with one of my mates who like is the same and
like them opening with that sort of sweeter songs was really opening with grave danswer
that is a fucker I And then again you just get in like absolutely annihilated
by like a just a hurricane blast of these type songs. I got.
Really it wasn't in like order, So I got really excited when Pretty and
Casts hit, which is the first proper track on the album, and that
like again you get those riffs which just hit you and you go, oh
shit, And that was just like so exciting and like despite how different their
albums have sounded over the years, like a light speed tour through them,
going from Terrifier to Phantom Limb to book Burner, just again just wildly extreme
and violent. When that Pretty and Casts came in, which is maybe my
favorite set of lyrics and any Pig Destroyer song and I was surrounded by his
people and you just had that like she'll only let me kiss her where she
saw and you're like, think of what we're saying people, But it's just
like that. That's one of the great things about them is they can make
really twisted, uncomfortable things still feel that way, but also loads of fun.
Like when the guy went down in the pit and I thought, how
they're going to kind of get the memento back up again. Suddenly you just
hear Jennifer wrestled her the ground and people are singing along. But like it
is like the ext to see a gold that end part of Jennifer whateveryone is
like no, no, this is yeah. Yeah. There was something like
newly exciting about that because obviously that's how the Prowler set started off, and
that's what it's really cool about. Kind of like a third of the way
into the set, you arrive at that Jennifer intro and again things like the
little Phone Call in piss Angel and stuff like that, and even like again
I Headcage, which was I guess their most divisive album because some of the
grind idiots thought it was like a new metal album. They only played they
played one song off it, and it was the Torture Fields, which is
a bit of a wild pick. I'd really love to see like Army of
Cops and some of these songs that are just fucking massive, and like some
of those bigger tracks, they didn't do like from the book Burner tracks.
They didn't do like the Diplomat, which is like the just hardest riff but
like just properly throwing you around. And I don't I don't think they did
this for you. But because I look at the setlist, they ended on
like the Prowler stuff, right yeah, But in Liverpool they ended on like
the Piss Angel into junk Yard god bit and then Scott just sort of looked
around the other guy and like very frantically gesturing and they're like, Okay,
we're gonna do one more and they just impromptu did Girl and this layer jacket,
which was fucking wow. I think we got some more Prowler songs in
the middle of it, because yes, he's such a weird guy. He
suddenly goes he looks at the drummer and Scott and then goes, no,
no, fuck that script. But he's trying to yeah, like he was
reading scop. He just goes, they're talking about giving you some extra songs,
and shit, okay, let's see. It was like, what weird
like character He's taken on for one song and then into like the most macarb
disturbed lyrics you've ever heard in your life. Yeah, and just I know
there is that fun dive about them, but I just found them so violent
and so oppressive. And again the crowd so you know, like lively and
and hectic that it just it had that air of kind of like looking around
like, God, what the fuck is going on? And uh, what
what an amazing, amazing a treat sy and again, please don't wait like
seven years to come back from the UK this time. And then there were
still the fucking headlines Ago, which was an apalm death. Who I guess
are a lot more you know, common a sight around these parts. I
think we're very lucky for that to be the case. I know that there
are people, maybe in other parts of the world where when Napalm Death come
into town is like their big event that they have kind of waited a long
time for. We have one of the all time great heavy music you know,
iconic bands on our doorstep all the time, and that's fucking great.
I mean, they're the only one I've seen of the on this package before,
so I was gonna like, yeah, come, I'm in comfortable territor
of nahor yeah. And so I guess there is a bit less to say
about them, in particular that it hasn't been said before because they are just
so often around in the UK. But Napalm fucking Death brilliant, always brilliant.
Yeah, just one of the greatest batters, like so much fun towards
like Barney is just one of the greatest front men. It's it's so endearing.
But they're so vital and fun and violent and cutting, real punk as
fuck band that when the sort of stuff he's talking about between sets, what
he's dedicating songs to doing his speech about, like how this song used being
about opposing conservative govern now it's an anthrom for trans riots and women's riots and
LGBT riots and all that, and I was like, fucking yes, Napalm
Death, like keep fucking doing what you're doing, and then just playing for
a set that where they just like again with the newer stuff they've got,
there, so much different avenues they can go down, while she's always just
being disgustingly heavy. Yeah, I mean I can compare this to for example,
like I went to the previous you know, one of these tours this
time last year, and a very different sort of run of songs and selection
of songs they're they're they're picking from me and from a slave into Abliteration opening
fucking rad That was nice. Yeah, the silence is Deafening is always like
the Napalm Deaf set opener in my head, but like this was a rad
one to throw in there as well. My sort of like you know,
I guess my my personal sort of favorite peak run of Napalm records is sort
of like smear campaign through to kind of Apex Predator that sort of like ten
year span like Utilitarian and stuff like that, and it was basically like nothing
off those records. And it's weird because there are songs that I've for the
amount of times that I've seen Napalm Death during those years, I see as
staples like I don't think I've ever seen an Apalm Death show before where they've
not played Smash a single digit and stuff like that just sort of absent.
But now it's like throws a joy in the jaws defeats them brown for quite
a long time now, so now they're doing like throws of joy b sides
from like extra EPs and stuff like. There is really weird, sort of
random selection of stuff like that. But I do think they are one of
those bands where you could kind of throw a dart at any of their songs
pretty much and put a Settlers together with that, and I'd just be completely
satisfied, because, like you say, my I don't know, it's my
favorite run. If I was ranked the Napalm Death records, it would really
be all over the place. But there were days where I think Utilitarian is
the best thing they've ever done. And the only song we got off that
is the Wolf I Feed and we didn't get you got nothing off that record,
huh, Well, I think then getting five songs off the new record,
I think Napalm Death are kind of out on an island when it comes
to like extreme Pioneers, or they at least have very few piers because they're
one of the only bands of their age, their style where going to see
them doesn't feel like a legacy act like Discharge or Venom whatever. You totally
agree with that, Yeah, you go and see them, because it's like,
I'm gonna go see the Venom songs, but there isn't the feeling of
I'm at a Venom show in the legendary sense. Nap On Death is one
of those where it's like, even though I wasn't there in the eighties and
the nineties, or you know, even the two thousands, I wasn't seeing
them in that run. We were just talking about the power of the band
is kind of unbelievable and to the point where I mean, they could make
three or four sett lists of songs they didn't play on Friday, and I
would have been happy with any of them, because it's just it's so unbelievably
ferocious. I have such good us offer sense as well. I always know
exactly where it's coming. You can enough times and you can see them gearing
up, And did you get a little bit of a pause in the set
as they start to go yeah they start, they exchange a couple of looks,
and I'm like, Okay, here we go. I always then forget
that dead comes like a couple Yeah. If again, if we get a
campaign for musical destruction in like a year's time with another set of bands,
maybe again. I think it'd be slightly unfair to compare their tory package to
this one all the time, because this feels particularly outrageous, but I'm sure
it'd be good. Maybe we can make this a bit of a yearly event
that we all go along to the fucking stacked as shit and a palm their
show, because what a wonderful time that is, Like I said, for
me, Liverpool was the final night of the tour. It was the very
next day actually that a piece of news broke that kind of tinged that,
you know, that great night before with a little bit of sadness. As
said, I was sort of watching Pig Story being like, oh when did
they get a new noise guy? Because Blake had been with them at the
dam Nation show and he'd been there for as long as I could remember,
and I don't remember any sort of announcement of him not being there or anything.
But the next day the news broke that Blake Harrison, who has picked
Destroyers sort of sound designer I guess you would call him the electronics guy,
had passed away. And this is it's just one of those ones that feels
like, obviously, any sort of musical loss is hard. And you know,
Blake Harrison is not like a rock star, you know, like he's
not one of the most famous people to walk into our walls. But there
are certain people where if you are kind of deep into certain communities, like
the extreme metal community, for example, there are people who just kind of
crop up a lot who everyone kind of seems to know who. People have
stories about, people who kind of regularly stuck their neck out for other bands
or just kind of like inserted themselves in a significant capacity into that kind of
community beyond just being a person from a band, and Blake Harrison was one
of those. He The sheer amount of the outpouring of kind of love and
tributes that I've seen for Blake Harrison over the last week or so speaks to
how significant a kind of shadow he cast over the again, particularly the extreme
metal sort of grassroots community. He held an was just, you know,
a very a solemn thing to again happen that particular week along with along with
this tour. Yeah, I was. I was pretty gusted when this news
came out, and in a way that I don't know, maybe this sounds
odd, but like I wasn't expect obviously it was a complete surprise. But
I think Blake Harrison is, like you say, he's just he's one of
those I don't know if he reluctance to the word, but he's kind of
emerged as something of a character in extreme music because he's just one of those
one of a kind interesting people like I don't think I've ever seen someone quite
like him as a you know, an air quotes like performer for lack of
a better term. Because you're seeing them at Damnation in twenty twenty two.
I'm not sure I've ever seen someone so at ease being on stage and not
in the soul I'm so cool and over I do this all the time.
He was just completely uninterested in putting on a show and in the coolest way
he would the way he would work the diet was like so the way you
were talking about the new guy jumping around like like hit, punching himself in
the head, diving in the crowd. Blake Harrison was like the opposite of
that. He woul He would tune the things just like he was on adjusting
the temperature of his fish tank. It was just the most like. There
was a bit we always talked, me and my mates who were at that
show, we always talk about it where he wandered out to the front of
the stage and just sort of looked out for half a song and then wandered
back. And then when he put on one of the samples, rather than
again putting on the whole show of waving his hands getting everyone hyped up,
he just walked away from his table, turned her face backstage and scratched the
back of his head. And it's like we're in front of like five thousand
people and he just for me. He was a huge part of that experience
and that's just live. Yeah. And he looked like you know those those
videos you see where like, I don't know if you ever saw this in
school, there's that like advert, like a road safety advert of it.
I was like, did you see the moon walking there where it's like a
bunch of people playing basketball and you have to like count the amount of people
playing basketball. Yeah, it's awareness thing. He's like that walking through a
Pig Destroyer set. It's like there's all of that carnage and he's sort of
like you know, Neo at the end of the matrix, just sort of
like swerving his way past anything in the most nonchalant way. And yeah,
I agree in that sense. But also, you know, even things like
if you're far enough into grindcore, you've probably heard a hate beat song at
one point and just see sort of spread around and that was him and you
know, like a like a long running decibel column he ran. So you've
probably you know, if you've looked at, like, you know, our
new releases coming out in Extreme melod you've probably read his words about them,
and like I said, just sort of a lot of people kind of have
those Blake Harrison stories of kind of him being significant in some way, and
that's yeah, it's just one of the ones that kind of the proximity of
it, I guess felt a little bit, you know, really noticeable in
that regard in terms of like you know, he joined the band just before
the Phantom Limb album and you know kind of contributed again sort of sound design
stuff to everything through that for me, his kind of maybe if you want
to hear the kind of Blake Harrisons sound playing masterpiece is recorded just before he
actually properly officially joined I guess, but I think it was the first thing
you did with them. Then Natasha EP, which I was listening to just
before recording this podcast, and it's an EP even though looking it's maybe the
longest Pig Destroyer release or like second longest or something. It's like pretty lengthy,
but in terms of an environment where that kind of thing really comes out
and can be shown as significant, there's really nothing like it. So yeah,
really sad news about the passing of Blake Harrison. News from here is
pretty easy, really not a lot of demanding stuff going on. We do
have the news that one of the pieces of news, I guess broke at
a time where everyone now who's going will already bought their tickets to it.
But Biffy Cliro, after a little bit of teasing where I saw the teasing,
I was like, what are you? What are you up to?
They announced the Silhouettes of the Like. They're performing their first three albums across
six shows. One show one album a night in Glasgow and London, which
made me, as someone in between these things go Okay, not not going
to do that one then, But if you are in Glasgow or London and
you were lucky enough to snag ticket to see them performing either Black and Sky,
what's the second one, I'm called Promise of Bliss, but Bliss that's
the one, and Infinity Land in full, you are going to have a
very special night. Indeed, I've got to get to the Infinity Land because
it was like it was that a Black and Sky like and I was like,
in terms of the album before package, I'm thinking Infinity Land. I
mean small venue for them in London game see bif Clire songs I've probably never
thought i'd see played. Yeah, I'm gonna have a lovely time. Yeah,
I would have been. Again, if I'd been a better situation,
I would have been very tempted by Black and Sky or Infinity Land in a
very again a different Biffy Clyro thing. It's nice that they still at least
kind of, you know, recognize though those albums and give them the kind
of treatment like this. We also have the news that No Effects are adding
two more their final, final, Final European shows. They're doing two more
shows in London at the end, which genuinely are apparently the last London shows
that you're going to see. No effects that so pretty big bills on these.
They've got the fucking Descendants on one of them, the Circle Jerks on
another one. Big punk time's going on there. But yeah, those are
no effects his final London UK shows. If you want to see them before
they go, that would be the time to do it. Over across the
pond, Weezer have anouts a huge anniversary tour for none other than the Blue
album where they're going to be performing that in full. They're bringing the Flaming
Lips and Dinosaur Junior along with them. I so want to go. I'm
not going to go. But it's like the slaughter of the soul, but
for nerds, because they basically, yeah, I've seen the entirety of the
Blue album. It's about the longest slaughter of the soul, isn't it.
Fuck? But the way like when we a damnination, we were slaughter of
the soil. You know, most of the big songs they play at every
shoulder, never in night order. That's that's that's what the Blue Arm.
You're going to be there and it's just going to be ten ten out of
ten Weezer songs in a row. And you know, I think Dinosaur Junior
are really good at the Flaming Lips are excellent. So I don't know,
maybe bring it to the UK Big Nerds night out for sure. Speaking of
Nerds, Glastonbury there their full lineup. I say you that because like apparently
the Glastonbury Nerds are like upset about the headliners because they're like too popular or
something. It's like glaston bree It's like, yeah, Cold playing Scissor and
they're like, oh, we need where's the cool bands? It's like,
motherfuckers, you're Glastonbury, don't pretend you're not into Coldplay. Fuck you but
rock relevance hi viz Mannequin Pussy and fucking high Lung. You've someone off that
list of relevant rock bands. Don't bring up averirl Levive for sake. Well,
Hireland, I think you're going to clean up the most out of all
of those. I think cross Over appeal. You think if they get the
right slot and catch the right people, maybe with the dream, Yeah,
they won't be following bad Omens whatever the fuck is it download or mister Bungle.
Yeah, you can imagine someone higher's piss at Glastonbury having like the most
spiritual experience, like where am I? I've gone back in time? I
am under you know, Viking Rule. High VI's I think is really cool
out of these. I know, yeah, they probably won't because they're tiny
and whatever, but I would love to see, like you know, when
sets turn up or BBC iPlayer whatever, I would like to actually see High
VI's at Glastonbury and see how that kind of happened. That's cool news.
They're a little bit of new music. Not a lot of kind of new
songs to speak of this week of much significance. The biggest one is just
the fact that Burton C. Bell seems to have launched his solo recording career
with something of a fear Factory disc song, Because the lyrics in this track
are I severed the machine that no longer served me. I'd rather be dead
than a slave to the factory. And I think there's a little bit more
meaning to it than that. But also it's very just we seem to be
living in a sort of a golden age of diss tracks. At the moment,
I don't know what it is. Like every few months we have something
and this isn't as good as like the Glory Hammer Power All Meltdown or whatever,
but like, I don't know, it is quite amusing. I mean,
I've never really liked Fear Factory and it's almost all down to we reviewed
their last album and that was when Alex was on here with us, and
I was like surrounded by people who like not liking Fear Factory in their prime
form. I mean I missed that. I missed that week, but I
did like that. I remember listening to that Fear Factory album in preparation for
him, was like this is yeah. I mean it's been about a decade
since I genuinely loved something crush as a banger, you know, Fear Factory.
I've got bangers go back. Oh, I've tried d Manufacturers. So
I've probably listened to that more than most people have listened to albums they actually
like. And just every time I pray and hope it clicks and it never
has. But because of that, a Fear Factory disc track loans down.
It's just it's because Burns done this a couple of times. He did it
in Fear Factory when Dino was sort of out in the willness for a few
years. But whenever he's not with Dino, he's like, oh, thank
god, I found out I can I can be good Now It's like,
no, you're the bad part. Yeah, this was I was still waiting
for the riff and Dino isn't there, so it doesn't come. It's like
it's this is like a full on industrial like not an industrial metal track,
just an industrial track. It's all right. He doesn't do any clean singing
on it, which is this is a blessing, which at times it can
be. It's sort of one of his trademarks when he's on it, but
you know, maybe maybe not recently. I just lights in the video he's
got some crazy claw hands going. I don't know what's happening there. I
was like, we saw them at work at Halloween to get them. Yeah.
So yeah, burtnsy Bell is officially a solo artist. Now he is
dissing The Factory. We also have the news that Gate Creeper's new album,
which we spoke about, a lead single from which coming a few weeks ago.
It's called Dark Superstition. It's going to be out on May the seventeenth,
And there's another track along with this that I know we you know,
we don't tend to talk about sort of second singles. This one, I
might like it at least as much as that first one, which we were
so heavily about. And the really shocking thing about this one is is a
Paradise Loss song because because like the guitar lines in this, like I'm talking
about that, I don't remember there being so much melody in them when we
spoke out the previous one. This track is straight off of fucking Draconian Times
or something, And like, I am so down for Gate Creeper trying to
add Paradise Lost to the list of bands with Bolt Thrower and Habitchery and Entombed
that like hardcore death metal kids are into if we can have some kind of
like Peaceville three Doom Renaissance amongst like the Frozen Soul, Like I would be
so so down for that Gatecreepers leveling up moment. I think like that that
EP they put out a couple of years ago was really really solid and that
sort of step up there. This just feels like the ambition and scope of
what they're going for way bigger and again, like, I didn't immediately go
to the Paradoxics. I don't have the affinity for that band as much as
you do in this straight fucking paradise, but those those guitar melodies did immediately
stand out to me as something different that they haven't really done. I was
like, that's cool and exciting. So yeah, I'm really down for whatever
gay people have in store. It seems to be one of the fastest improving
bands ever because before it was each record at EP that we're getting better.
Now it's literally song to song because that caught in the trends. I think
I said at the time, this might be their best song, and this
one I think is, like I said, at least as good because I
mean, Paradise Loss. It seems weird say because they're quite a popular band,
but I think they're one of the most underrated bands, like in mesal
history, and if it takes a buzzy hardcore death metal crossover to give them
their dues, then you know, thank god. And I think it's so
cool because most bands that go, oh, we're really inspired by Paradise Lost,
it ends up sounding like Lacuna coil or something. They go really clean
and graceful. But one of the things that makes Paradise Loss records from the
nineties so cool is they are graceful and quite erudite, but there's real kind
of grit and filth, and this kind of taking that principle even further.
I'm so excited. Basically, get get your four sided gothic long sleeves ready,
Your your time is, Your time is coming. Unclasses than the Dead
Beats. We've not got a new trap from this yet, which I'm sort
of curious about this because they've said it's there's they've described as having no singles
or hits on it. But their new album has been announced. It is
called nell or A Blue, which is obviously Italian, on May the tenth,
and as you can very much tell from that title and particularly the cover
art, which is sort of styled like a movie poster, the entire thing
is a big tribute to Italian Giallo films. It features spoken word interludes from
Edwige Feneck and Franco Nero, which if you don't know who those people are,
that's fine. You're probably living a more well rounded life than I am.
But that means something to me, and this I just look at this
and I go, yeah, I am the person in the exact demographic for
an uncoll Acid album with fucking Edwige fennex poken word. I was about to
say, like, this is I quite like Cola. They've not been bad,
ever been massing in too. This is the kind of things like,
oh, maybe they found the way to fully convert me with this album.
So I'm keeping an eye on this one. I feel like Uncle Acid are
like it's like living in an alternate reality where ghost never liked kiss, so
there's no like glitz or glows or splendor. It's just further and further down.
Yeah, in so like the grizzly subterranean horror stuff. And yeah,
it's funny with say it's such a it's a niche thing, but they've kind
of landed on something that all three of us, yeah, are pretty literally
ecstatic. And the press release here, Kevin, he opens it up saying,
I know something like this might have limited appeal, but who cares what
you've got us, Kevin, We're in And the album announcements don't stop there
in terms of excitement, because Dark Throne are back yet again. This is
the most prolific, like because I go into the Dark Throne in sort of
the very early twenty tens, and throughout that decade, they they genuinely did
that. They worked on a one record every three years model ten, twenty
thirteen, twenty sixteen, twenty nineteen. Now we're on our like third of
the fucking twenties. It's wild. They are just properly like they've condensed everything
down to like, yeah, okay, every eighteen months, we are going
to write and recording new album sit months after our last ones come out all
the time. So we had eternal Hails dot dot dot dot dot dot,
we had astral Fortress. And now we have another tradition that I like them
picking up, which is every album announcement is just Fenras on Instagram in the
woods just having a sort of a slightly slightly disconnected mumble to himself about the
dark thrown uphand and then he's there in the woods. He's like the cheveled
beard and he's like gloves and he's walking poles. Like it's when you can't
remember where they got the album sitle from. He's like, if you don't
know what there is, listen to children of them buy a film again,
we can do a second takes. It's funny. We've gotten to a point
where the most exciting part of a dark Throwne album is the Instagram And now
we live in a world where Dark Throne have a quarter of a million Instagram
followers, and you know what, they deserve, every one of them.
And that does make it sound like I'm not excited for the actual album,
which I am because Dark Throne are one of the They're in that Cannibal Corps
category of the most consistent bands to like ever walk into music. I like
that they now just describe their music as like old metal. It's like,
we don't know what it is. It's just sort of old. On the
last few I really like, well all of them, but particularly like Eternal
Hailes. But this one sort of maybe they're done with that doom thing.
I don't know, but yeah, we'll have to see. The record is
called it beckons Us All, which is I think is a really cool title.
They've always got them down. It's got a cool cover art. Fucking
dart Throne. Hell yeah, albums that on eighth I'm just him walking through
the woods this time for the album Come Yeah albums out on April twenty sixth
a lot along with every other album ever and apparently it's so good that Nocturno
Colto shook Fenris's hand at the end of recording it, which he says they
haven't done since they met in nineteen eighty eight. So a huge metal event
coming towards us, if that is to be believed. Patreon dot com slash
That's not Metal. That is the place to go if you want to support
us, and if you like what we do, it's most most appreciated.
Our latest thing on there is they can coclusion still of our Alexis on fire
Band Special, which I do believe is the most sort of like thorough in
depth discussion of that band's entire arc that you will hear. I know,
I like to say that about these things because that is what we aim to
achieve. I think this time is certainly one of the cases where that's probably
true. If you just want to hear everything that is included under the umbrella,
other projects and all summed up over the course of many, many hours,
then you know the only band ever have their story told. Over on
the Patreon we also have our latest album Club Pack where we spoke about,
Yes, the Blackout, also you know Agaloc and fucking Rush Power Windows Hell
Yeah, put your fucking stung glasses on and we will have you know,
I guess next week when we do the review show, I will announce what
will be on the upcoming album Club Pact. We have more of that where
that came from releases today. It's a bit of a maybe sort of a
less high profile week than from the last couple, which is kind of kind
of nice. But we do have some real stars amongst us. Kid Kopeechee
kick us off with there Goes the Neighborhood. Who are any kind of buzzy
band in the UK at the moment. I haven't worked out necessarily if they're
for me or not, but I can certainly respect what they're kind of going
going for, sort of you know, indie punk. Well, how would
you describe them, Sam Like, I guess it's knna yeah, indie punk,
a little bit of grime almost in there, I guess, and some
of it kind of like a sort of crossed on a thing. Again,
I've not been computed with them, but there's been a couple of songs they've
released on the Boks that have really hit me that I'm like, I definitely
want to give this a listen and see where it goes. Yeah, so
I think that this one will certainly do very well amongst a sizable factor of
the audience. Speaking of the stars, amongst us, it's Scott's Stapp of
course, his album Higher Power, which was announced a while ago. I
hope that's on there. Yeah, so Scott stat fans rejoice. The Black
Crows also, I am have a They've got an album called Happiness Bastards,
which are the Black Crows. I only have only ever listened to like their
first one or two albums, which I know are kind of treated as some
kind of minor classics for a lot of people out there. I don't know
if people still care about their ongoing music. I generally don't know. If
you are a Black Crows fan and then they are exciting still, then great
Happiness Bastards is out there. We also have Gouge Away Deep Sage, that's
I guess the big release of the week for kind of you know, harder
sort of punk and the one alternative rock and stuff like that. So that
is cool. Indeed, there's also a band called Bleak with My Body is
Not Where I Belong, which is sort of a bit more kind of a
nineties Grungey type affair. Then going way over the other end of the spectrum,
Dragon Force back with Warp Speed Warriors. It's been I guess a couple
of albums now since I've genuinely loved a Dragon Force album, but I always
hope that there'd be something fun and good in the mist. We also have
in heavy metal sphere there's a I think this is a debut album. It's
called It's a band called Savage Oath. The record is called Divine Battle.
The main thing I know about them is that Brendan, the singer from Summer
Lands, is their singer so and he's one of the greatest current sort of
headed out of singer, so I'm sure that will at least have some wicked
vocal parts and everything on there. Moving into extreme territory, we've got Alta
Mass with a v Volta Mass. Their record epic, I hope it is.
This is probably one of the albums I'm more looking forward to checking out
this week because I really liked the first Ultimass record. It's kind of a
supergroup. It's basically, if you want to hear David Vincent, formerly of
Morbid Angels singing that all these days, this is where you've got to go.
It's got a Blasphema formerly of Mayhem on guitar, it's got a flow
from Kryptopsy on drums. It's sort of very stack and the first one was
like, actually, you kind of lived up to what you would hope some
of those guys coming together to sound like. So I hope that this is
as good. We also have aborted their latest record, Vault of Horrors,
which is that they've just seem to have gone so fully down the kind of
like horror reference rabbit hole with each ensuing record. So if that is your
vibe, then that is their necrophobic Swedish legends into the Twilight Gray. We
have ou Dad, I hope that's how it's pronounced. A self title record.
That's the guy from Mark doing kind of more black metal stuff. I
haven't quite word out with different between projects is, but that's there some strange
post metally type stuff. There's Ozon with Vermillion Hayes, and there's a couple
of EPs this week. There's one from Great Gray Wind, which is a
band i'd forgotten existed. I think they haven't released anything in a long time,
but they're back apparently with their record Antidote and Comeback Kid have an EP
always reliably good Comeback Kid. You know, I'm sure I'm going to listen
to this come back in EP a lot and have a lovely time. Yeah,
and I guarantee that with the Cave for some people out there as well,
So thank you very much for listening. As said, next week,
the next weekly, you know, free version of a TNM is going to
be our reviews show for March. It's kind of a bit of a like
I said, eight pro is so fucking busy that March is a bit like
quite quick fit things in before everything goes absolutely mental. But there are some
really high profile releases. Obviously, we just had a Due Priest album,
We had a Bruce Dickinson album, different you know, realms of haaving that.
We have something that aren't heavy metal in there as well. I'm sure
that Gage Away record for example. So come back here next week, we're
gonna be talking about all that for a few hours, as we always.
I will also, as said, announce the album club Pack, who followed
shortly after that, and yeah, fucking heavy metal. Everyone cheers,