Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to That's Not Metal. We are
your weekly rock and heavy music podcast. I am just
about trying to calm down from the news that broke
literal minutes ago about one of my favorite bands in
the world reuniting. So we'll get to that in a
little bit. But there is a lot that I'm very
excited about in this episode. We are here for a
fairly big episode in terms of it being the final
big reviews bag of this calendar year twenty twenty five.
We have got our last albums that have come out
from the month of November and certain surrounding to bring
you and discuss before December arrives. But has said there
is a lot in those reviews outside of them, I
am itching to get into some of this stuff, so
we're gonna do that.
Speaker 2: My name is Paren.
Speaker 1: Haysh with me, Elliot Paisley and Sam Dignon. How are
we all doing? Are you as giddy as I am?
Probably not, but good going at least.
Speaker 3: Oh no, Like the moment you dropped that message in
the discord and I was like, yo, what Yes? That
got me hyped.
Speaker 4: I had to just throw on a song on the
edge just to be excited before. But yeah, I'm good,
you know, guiding the missed Damnation. That sounded like it
was a good time going off your review last week.
I had a nice some listening to that. But I've
been getting busy going to hardcore shows and stuff, so
all good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it feels like I mean, normally this time of
year is it's quieter. It's been weirdly busy in rock
music recently. It feels like every day there's been a
really exciting piece of news, which kind of makes for
a change. Normally around this time it's you know, it
feels like the years wrapping up.
Speaker 1: Dam Will you say you're going to a show? Did
you see?
Speaker 2: How was it?
Speaker 1: Gorilla biscuits and Terror? Is that what I gathered?
Speaker 2: You saw?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Gorilla biscuits, Terror, no pressure at the Electric Ballroom the
other night, which venue of a barrier?
Speaker 3: Turns out, the barrier is more of a concept if
you want.
Speaker 4: To believe it that way, and not a barrier because
Tera just decided and for some reason security will call
of it. People could just clouds over the barrier, get
on stage, and then just yeat themselves over the barrier
onto the crowd, like some of the like the longest
or distance covering stage divers I've seen in a while.
Speaker 3: It was crazy.
Speaker 4: And Gorilla Biscuits like legendary hardcore band, like such a
great band. Water Strifles is just one of the coolest guys.
Like cool to finally see them just play, you know
that one album's worth of like absolutely timeless hardcore punk
material and a few of the you know the other
bits of like various EPs and stuff.
Speaker 3: Had a great time watching that was really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are, we're recording here a day later. That's
why we are currently a day late, which it turns
out I'm quite glad for because of some of the
news that we've then been able to include. But reason being,
I was at quite i would say, quite an important
gig last night in that I was seeing for what
I presume will be my last time Svalbard. Apparently I've
seen them nine times, which is annoying because it's one.
I want to see them one more time, just to
get it up to ten. I don't know if that
will happen, but I was treating this like it will
be my last time seeing them, of course on their
farewell run, and it was quite a you know, reflective evening,
because when you've been seeing a band for nearly ten years,
it brings up a lot of memories about kind of,
you know, what's gone on in that time in those
different occasions. The first time I saw Svalbard was at
twenty sixteen's Damnation when they were on at the same
time as ep Era Conjurer, and it was a bit
of a thing of like, oh, these two bands who
were on the same label at the time, on at
the same slot, and I seem to remember the Employer
Serve guys who were also playing and also on that label,
going back and forth and like half and halving the
set and stuff, and I was just thinking about how
far all of those bands have come, right, you know,
they were all upstarts at that point in time. Sparbard
were on the bill at one of my personal favorite
shows of all time when they supported Oathbreaker on the
rail tour. I saw him at the Starring Garta in
Manchester and here they were playing to you know, a
larger headline crowd than Oathbreaker did back then. It was
you know, like a few hundred cat venue, but it
was pretty close to being sold out, and that was
you know, kind of bittersweet in a way when you
see a band, you know, playing to the largest headline
crowd that you've ever seen them play, but it's while
they're on their way out. But also you'd rather that
than not, you know, because you want them to be
able to go out on a high. And I chose
to kind of look at it as testament to, you know,
what Svalbard have built over the ten years or so,
because following a band in real time when they were
going through the set, it was one of those like
I was thinking about where in my life I was
for each one of these songs as they were arriving
where they open with disparity from one day All This
Will End, which is the record that I discovered them on,
and having revisited them all this week, it is ultimately
my favorite, as I loved them being this kind of
post rock inspired answer to tragedy with that like arena
crust sound and for all the bigger things they went
on to do. I love that that song pretty much
always stayed there as their opener, but then straight into
second Open Wound, which five years after that. That was
around the time that like Era two of T and
M If You Like was winding down and I was
gearing up to start again and go again. And several
years ago I saw them in this same venue. I
saw them last night supporting Ohmes and Omes have gone,
you know, a few years ago now, but Svalbard packing
it out as they're on their way out, and they
had two bands, Knife Bride and Cage Fight supporting them,
Cage Fight having one of the guitarists in a chair
because he dislocated his.
Speaker 2: Knee in the pit the previous nights. He was still
giving it a good go. Bless him.
Speaker 1: But that show years ago with Ohmes was so much
less populated than this one, where I imagine Svalbard and
Omes at night probably played to less people than the
opening band did at this one. And that's some progress,
you know, And that's some achievement there. And I'm not
attached to either of these these opening bands in that
same way as of yet, but in some way it
was affirming thinking about the changing of the guard like that.
You know, who knows what those bands might go on
to do and who they might bring along with them
in their wake. And Svalbard's part in that chain accumulating
over the is that many people coming to wish them
well a bloody good one.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: They released a final song this week which they played
as a kind of a cap on it all, but
then go all the way back through to the encore that.
I don't know if they've been doing this like every
single day necessarily, but they ended on if anyone has
like the early EP's discography compilation record super super Oldie
from that, and that felt right, you know, and they
seem to be having genuinely loads of fun talking about
you know, we're ending this while we're all still friends
and feeling celebratory. They have been the you know, kind
of epic crossband in the UK for the past ten
years and then more on top of that, and after
you know, seeing them play that set and kind of
go on their way out, then best of luck to
whoever comes next in that and I mean that very sincerely,
really nice seeing Starbard for a final time. We have
got on our reviews gauntlet for today's episode the new
albums from Creeper, Pupil, Slicer, Drain, Astronoid, Home Front, Lamp
of Murmur, and Master's Hammer. But we have some exciting
news to prelude to all of that, and as we
might as well start talking about new music. First of all,
the first one, the exciting one for us, of course,
is New Converge, who returned this week with their first
single from their upcoming album. It's called Love Is Not Enough,
which is the title track of that album. It is
their first album. Dependent on what you count as an
official Converse studio album or not, it's either their first
album since the Blood Moon album in twenty twenty one,
or the first you know, only dedicated Converged album since
The Duskiness in twenty seventeen. And we have been I mean,
if you were to count it in those terms, that's
the longest gap between Converged records by a mile. And
considering how strong that record is, as all of them are,
I'm sure I don't just speak for myself when I
say how itching we have been for like some years
now to hear New Converge material, and so to have
a new album announced which is coming out on February
the thirteenth of twenty twenty six, and a first track
on it, which is the opening track on the album,
and it is about two and a half minutes long.
There's something about that itching for you. Converge material and
you know the heights and the lengths they're capable of.
It's always surprising when a new single turns up and
you go, oh, it's like two and a half minutes
are the same thing happened with I can tell you
about pain from as a first track from the duskin Us,
but just be like, oh do you converge? Oh fuck,
it's already over. But there is a lot of course
in those two and a bit minutes to really sink
your teeth into.
Speaker 2: Has it been a.
Speaker 1: Lovely exciting experience for you all week getting two and
a half minutes of you converge to sit your teeth into.
Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, Ah, I've just been giddy at this, Like
I adore blood Moan. I think blood Meat is like
a wonderful talk, creative endevor for them. But convers come
back with, you know, just two and a half minutes
of them at their most ferocious. There's a drum fell
early on in the record. I was like, the guy
that's it, Yeah, yeah, that's the guy right there. The
best drama.
Speaker 3: The riffs are absolutely savage. Jacob is like as feral
as ever.
Speaker 4: It just it's what I want from like fast scrappy,
ferocious Converge and it's just like, yep, I've got that
rovers album.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to see where they could like.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there will be more adventurous passages across the
whole record, but just as the first taste, this was
exactly what I want from just the greatest band, going
like more of this, more of whatever you got served up.
But this is now the album that like looking into
nature that I'm like, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Speaker 5: Now, I've been on the mightiest Converged kick or we
just I didn't know this was coming, but within like
forty eight hours before this came out, I listened to
about five Converge records and I was going like, this
is the best band ever. I just have to go
on Spotify and saw that this new song was out.
It's it's hard to judge Converge songs in isolation. They're
always better in the record, but this one is such
a raser. Knowing it's the first track and quite different
for the you know, the last few albums. It converts
proper albums. They open kind of similarly a single tear
dark Horse and Aimless Arrow they're kind of this really melodic,
soaring kind of songs and then this one's so low
and mean. And Jacob Bannon in the press has been
saying that it's the first time they've agreed on a
track list and this is track one, and he said
they deliberately sequenced it so it gets more intense with
each song. So just so you know, this is the
least intense, least asset song on this Converge album. And
also if you can go find that, the track links
are out and it's going to be their shortest album
so yet. We have waited nine years for a new
Converge album and it's about thirty one minutes long. It's
going to be mental.
Speaker 2: That'll do me. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I was struck by Converged songs are always immaculately produced
because they have like the best producer in their field
of music playing guitar in their band. But there's a
certain kind of clarity about this production job that's maybe,
like you could say, maybe a little bit cleaner than
what is usual by about five ten percent maybe, but
the riffs are still so crazy. And then I read
a quote from Jake talking about this album or this
song and he says, I think that realism is missing
from a lot of modern music of any genre, but
especially our genre. Things either go super raw and almost
chaotic to the point where it's distracting, or bands take
the life out of what they're doing by editing every aspect.
And this is kind of you can hear that in this,
you know, it's like it's an exact middle ground, like
it is like it's not chaotic or you know, kind
of shrouding itself unnecessarily. It's all like perfectly clear, but
it's also real and exactly as at it as you'd
want Converted to be. So of course mege excited about
new Converged album coming on February the thirteenth of twenty
twenty six. We also got a second surprise EP drop, well,
I suppose the first surprise EP drop, but it's the
second EP from Nowhere to Run, which you may remember
is Jamie Morgan and Shade from Code Orange's current electronic thing.
The other EP which the announce dropp a few weeks ago.
And I don't think we actually disgusted, but I liked
it well enough. It's kind of, you know, obviously, the
more kind of soundscapey soundtrack ish side of Code Oranges Electronics.
I listened to it on like I'd come out of
the cinema watching a horror movie, and I put it
on as I was going home, and I was like, yes,
this is like the perfect vibe to be listened to this.
Then this new one, which is called Blood Rave, obviously
named after their big kind of electronic party events that
they've been running over in the States for a while,
is way more like the hard electronics side, like way
more the big daft beats and the big you know,
rave moments. So I think those two EPs together are
kind of suggesting something interesting going when I've enjoyed them
both for what they are. More new music news, Worm,
which if you've been following the underground for the past
couple of years, is one of the more hyped bands
in the realms of kind of black and doom metal
and stuff. They have interestingly signed two Century Media for
their upcoming record, which I think is also coming out
on maybe the same day as the Converged record next year.
But Worm have been kind of an underground dialing for
a little bit, but here they are stepping up to
a larger label in the world of metal, so I
would expect maybe to hear about them a little bit
more when the new year comes around, and when it
comes to new music. We've got a double dose of
Christmas here on the penultimate week of November, and we've
got two Christmas songs that have caught my eye. One
is an original Christmas song, which is I guess the
one I would prefer, even just before looking at who
it is from. I would rather hear an original Christmas
song than you cover in whatever the fuck you choose
to cover out of the pantheon. But the fact that
it's Airborne.
Speaker 2: Is so abusing to me. They've released a.
Speaker 1: Song called Christmas Bonus. Have ivery you listened to the
Airborne Christmas song.
Speaker 4: I have not listened. I've seen some of the lyrics.
I'm like, yeah, cool, fine, I can tell you.
Speaker 1: I can tell you exactly what it sounds like. It
sounds exactly like Airborne, but with sleigh bells.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 5: Oh, there's actually sleigh bells they've that's actually that's quite
progressive for Airborne, to be fair, that's quite outlandish. I
mean I've said before how heavy metal Christmas songs are
one of the worst things in the world, and the
only thing worse than that is bawdy Christmas music. And
again I've seen some of the lyrics. This combination does
not appeal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like every single Airborne song but co
with Fate sleigh bells in the background. But the chorus
of You're the Lady Boss, I think it's safe to
say you feel warm down there in that special way.
Give me a Christmas bonus every day.
Speaker 2: I just like that.
Speaker 1: Even if ACDC aren't doing it, ac DC spirit still
always lives on. And Joel o'keef going ho ho ho
is ho ho hilarious And as I said, I'd much
rather that one than the one I could barely bring
myself to listen to, which is Good Charlotte adding another
fucking cover of this song out into the universe fairy
Tale of New York Sam. Sometimes you're like, oh, good
Charlotte ants they're bads, Good Charlotte are a good slam
dug headliner all of this kind of stuff. Are you
still currently prepared to say nice words about Good Charlotte
right now?
Speaker 2: Having dropped this, I mean.
Speaker 3: I haven't listened to it because I don't need to hear.
Don't cover a fairy Tale of New York.
Speaker 2: No, you don't do they do?
Speaker 3: They do they drop the slur? Do they are they like?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't think they prove wider
than that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean Good Charlotte.
Speaker 4: Fine, I've defended them in the past that like Good
Charlotte creatively in twenty twenty five like fuck off. But yeah,
just one of the most deeply unoriginal Christmas songs to
cover go away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you cannot wait to get into the Christmas
spirit until fucking year before December this year, I would
at least recommend the Airborne one over the Good Charlotte one,
because it did make me smile in a way the
Good Charlotte one didn't. All Right, let's get into what
we were alluding to before. This has literally been announced
like twenty minutes to half an hour before we started
recording here, So this is why my brain has been
a bit frazzled. But a lineup dropped for the Northwest
Terror Fest twenty twenty six, which is a festival that
happens in Seattle. As you can kind of imagine from
the name, it themes around heavy extreme music. I've heard,
you know about the festival in the past and always
seem to have good lineups. Cool seeing a poster for
the Northwest Terror Fest and it features a whole bunch
of good stuff. It's got Pig Destroyer playing prowler in
the yard. It's got dead guy doing fixation on a coworker.
Both sets that we have, of course seen over here
Werma on there mentioning them are Rancy Pazuzu, Kretin Kay
Lesser or bunch of good stuff. But when I looked
at this poster and I read the words black Breath,
and I hadn't even yet been prepared for. I hadn't
seen a headline saying Black Breath Reunited. I saw this
poster and read black Breath on it. It is, you know,
in its own special way. It's the most like ah
I have spen about a kind of just spotting a
name on a poster, maybe since Acid Bath on the
fucking Sick New World One. Because Black Breath coming back
is Black Breath are one of my favorite bands who
certainly they're one of my favorite favorite bands who I
never got to see. And I if you were to
ask for the past few years, if I've been asked like,
what are like three bands who you know, within reason
you could like wish back into existence. I would have said,
like in Solitude, Altar of Plagues and Black Breath, because
those bands are immensely important to me, and in a
way I was losing hope because Black Breath it's been
ten years since we've heard from them.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately. The reason for.
Speaker 1: Their hiatus for a little while their basis, Elijah Nelson
passed away in twenty nineteen. So that followed by you know,
COVID taking everything off the words, but then hearing nothing
from them after that made me just kind of believe
that Black Breath were done, you know, and just without
any prior teasing warning anything. Seeing that name pop up
on a festival poster, even if it is thousands of
miles away from me currently, is it's news that has
just painted a tremendous smile upon my face. How are
we feeling about the just the fact that, ignore where
it is currently, they might come here, they might not whatever.
All we can say right now is that prior to
half an hour ago, Black Breath had not been an
active band for basically a decade, and now they are
confirmed to exist, And just that fact alone, I feel
like doing fucking backflips.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel the same, Like I'm hoping we get
UK thing as always and whenever there's one of these
core reunions. But just because it felt like they kind
of just like faded away, never kind of got their
kind of moment, everyone going to be like, yeah, you know,
Black Breath, they're they're they're the fucking guys. It's just
cool that they're you know, giving it again to give
another shot. And even if it's just this one show
where they'll probably get like a hero's welcome in a
crowd that will go absolutely like batshit for them, I mean,
that's just gonna be really fucking cool.
Speaker 3: And like if it means more, hell yeah.
Speaker 4: If it doesn't, then at least, you know, they get to,
you know, just be Black Breath again and remind everyone
that like one of the hardest bands around.
Speaker 5: I mean, I feel like they're one of those bands
who genuinely were taken for grant. At the time, Heavy
Breathing Sentens of Life were big records, underground arms all
the same, but they were widely discussed and they were
an end of year lists and all the major magazines,
and then the third record, it just felt like people went, oh,
this is okay, but you know, I guess we'll see
and then they disappeared, and it's like that album was
fucking great, but we didn't know at the time that
that was going to be the last we heard from
them forever.
Speaker 1: It was ahead of its time in all of the
hardcore kids discovering they liked death metal is the thing.
Five years later, that record would have been way more received.
Speaker 5: Definitely, Yeah, And I would just like, even if this
is just a handful of shows, if it gets the
conversation around Black Breath to change a bit, or even
just to start among certain groups of people, because it
feels like they're a band who for people at a
certain time into a certain style of music. They were
just the best, and they were so good. I never
got to see them. If it ever comes over here,
I will be there because especially those first two records,
as people, I imagine all of us people getting into
extreme music around that time.
Speaker 1: They were fundamental, such a seminal band for that era.
I mean, for me, like in terms of what they
meant to me, it's basically on par with what, for example, Nails.
Speaker 2: Mentally it was like.
Speaker 4: Them, Nails Trap, them well, I was kind to get
into that kind of like yeah, hardcore adjacent more extreme
side of things, like Sentence Life on one of examples,
like oh shit, this is like harder than a hardcore yeah.
Speaker 1: But Black Breath, for whatever reason, are the one that
I just held and you know, over the years after
they disappeared as well, just held particularly close. And I've
wanted to do like a one episode special on Black
Breath like we did for Nails for like a while now,
and fuck it, we're gonna do it next year after this,
because even if you don't know Black Breath, We're gonna
make you fucking know Black Breath because if they were,
you know, if they were a few years before your
time and you don't know them, this is a band
that you have to know. And just the fact that,
as said, they now are confirmed to exist and god knows,
you know, how active they will be, how far it
will go, Will they come back as a sort of
you know, a full time sort of prospect. I don't know,
but it's good a time as any. And one of
the reunions one of the bands who I wanted to
see you who, like I said, I was just forever
wishing and kind of never truly necessarily putting my you know,
all my eggs in it, but wishing that Black Breath
will return. And it's just a better world that we're
in that than it was half an hour ago when
they had not been confirmed to return. So that is
just the best news. As said, we're going to talk
about Black Breath more inevitably, but if you don't know
their three albums, one of the greatest heavy bands of
their era, Black fucking Breath. This is so interesting news.
A kind of broke a little bit over a week ago,
but we didn't mention it last time because we're doing
the Damnation Special, Sam. I just wanted to get your
opinion on it. The Outbreak London sort of continuation after
they announced it. Obviously they did the whole thing this
year with Turnstile in the Big Park, which everyone it was,
and the news that Deaftones are brought to headline some
variant of it, but rather than in conjunction with whatever
brand it was, I don't remember, that was kind of
in conjunction with putting on Outbreak London. This is in
conjunction with all Points East, so it's a kind of
combination of all Points East and Outbreak in London, but
death Tones are headlining it with a big bill that
also includes Idols, Ammial and the Sniffers. Death Heaven are
on their awesome basement show Me the Body as you are.
I guess the most likely of us to be attending
something like an Outbreak London or an All Points East.
What do you make of that announcement?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, on the whole, like collaboration.
Speaker 4: It is basically the same way Outbreak London worked this
year because it was Lido Festival, which is held at
the same site as All Points.
Speaker 3: East, just earlier. It's like earlier in the summer.
Speaker 4: But yeah, like I was going to be like, you
need to just accept Outbreak London is an actually Outbreakfast.
It's a day fest with an Outbreak branding slapped on
it where they because they're booking more terms of bands.
I mean, it's an even bigger outdoor Deaftone show. I
think it's kind of like crazy they're doing another one
already because then they did Crystal Palace, They've done like
a massive sort out arena too, and they're back doing
another outdoor show.
Speaker 3: Like we are not shy for like Deftones opportunities.
Speaker 4: But I look at this kind to go like you know,
for like a kind of like trendy alternative lineup.
Speaker 3: I think it's it's pretty good.
Speaker 4: There's there's some stuff that feels like even out there
for Outbreak, like Idol's enamel of the sniffers, you would
never imagine seeing anything like that at like the normal Outbreak.
So it is very much branded to not the crowd
that's going to go to a hard show, like it's
all the hardcore festival like you think Outbreak is. But
I think for what it is, it's a strong kind
of billing and be cool to see like some of
the people who will go who watch Idols go and
watch Deaf Heaven, like, have you something i'd want to
like just enjoy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Elsewhere around the country, Voivod, the great experimental thrashband from
the nineteen eighties. They have announced their first kind of
full you know, lengthy date. It's about nine dates UK
tour I think in a little while, and they're bringing
along with the Midnight and it is labeled as fifteen
years of Satanic Royalty from Midnight, which yes please, that
is a hell of a pairing happening through June of
next year. But if you are in London, Southampton, Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast,
Dublin or Limerick around the UK and Ireland, they're very
exciting combination of extremely heavy bands and speaking of things
that we didn't expect to be happening. A while ago
there was news of the Coalesce reunion happening at Roadboo
I think was the first place that announced for and
we were like, oh my god, Coalesce are back. And
Elliot I specifically remember hearing you say, oh, yeah, that'd
be exciting. I have no idea if it will ever
come here, so I'm almost going to stop myself bothering
from being excited. But Coalesce of an outside the UK
shows for for next year as well. They are playing
in Bristol, Manchester and London in April of next year.
The Coalesce reunion is officially something that UK people who
are not planning on traveling can be interested in.
Speaker 5: It's honestly this age of bands coming back and yeah,
being popular again. It's fucking bizarre because Coalesce would they're
associated with Caven and converged that, but they're ever as
big as those guys and the eye of them doing
a u K tour ever just seemed a bit mad,
and they are, you know if you haven't heard them.
The four Coalesce records are excellent. Like on the tier
below Convergent cave In you get Coalesce for that like
nineties metal coal thing. I am going to try and
go to one of these if I can, because that
would be a real bucket list item. I've been a
big fan for many a year.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I don't know if this is also on
your bucket list, but I know that you attended this
year awful. First, the dedicated Slam festival in Manchester have
announced there this is a festival that legitimately I know
it's a laugh, but they have legitimately been big, like
getting bigger and bigger every single years. It hasn't been
around for very long and the scale which is operating
has surprised me every single year compared to the one before.
They have put their headliners for next year with Devourment
and Regurgitation and Develourment.
Speaker 2: Playing a show in.
Speaker 1: Manchester, I would be genuinely tempted for it's it is
a festival, so you're paying for a lot of other
bands as well, but a.
Speaker 2: Devour but the UK show is pretty exciting.
Speaker 5: Well if you only buy a ticket, like for one day,
which is what I did. I did one day and
I realized that I wasn't mad enough for it either.
The barrage of Slam is pretty exhaustive if you're not alive, especially,
it's not an ideal place to be hungover. But this
that's all my criticism, it's all my fault. But a
day take It's like forty quid and forty quids go
see one of the best Slam bands ever plus a
bunch of other bands. That's a win. I didn't have
it on my list of going back again next year
straight away, but with Devourment back, that is more tempting.
I got to say. It's a funny trick of Slam
where so many the bands sounds similar. When I saw
it was Regurgitation, I'm not too familiar with Igurgitate, and
I was much more excited. I was like, oh, oh,
it's fine, but I'm yeah, I might do the Devourment day,
but I can only manage one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this is happening from July to twenty fourth through
twenty sixth of twenty twenty six in Manchester and it's
in the Breadshed next year, which I think the last
couple of years it was in Rebellion, wasn't it. And
the Breadshed is like, yeah, you know, at least half
of that size on top of that again, so Awful
Fest is the Awful is expanding, it is growing and
development are playing it next year. I want to quickly
talk about the health Fest announcement specifically, so Healthfest seven
outside lineup it's massive, it always is. You know the
deal with Healthfest. There's lots and lots of bands on it.
But I just specifically want to draw attention to the
Valley stage of the Sunday, which is just for our
recent activities. It's it's the Nola Sludge Special Stage, isn't
it right? It's down acid bath, corrosion of performity, I
hate God's Soilent Green and also Black Tusk, Gnome and
another small little name that I can't quite read there,
but that's just all the bands that we were doing.
That's a you look at that and go, oh, that's
where I've been the last month.
Speaker 4: I was like, that's the only stage you want to
go watch at this festival like Healthfare Soiage looks too
overwhelming to me. So I was like, just because of
what we've been doing, I just want to go watch
all those bands. I've just been the last it's missing Crowbar,
is anything that is like they would make it like perfect,
but that is you know, like obviously and tell down discussions.
We did all that on the special like take a
lands account, but all of those nolea slash bands in
one place, like you're going to be in the swamp, just.
Speaker 3: Like getting caked under the like the heaviest riffs for
like a day. That's so cool.
Speaker 5: I don't think anyone is more excited than me than
knowing that Soil and Green are in Europe, Like that
is exciting enough, Like because I wasn't. I don't know
how much they tour. I don't comment the last time
they played the UK. If this means they're coming to
the continent, I get them on. Get them on that
Acid Bath and Colon show please.
Speaker 1: Because I'm glad you mentioned the Acid Bathing. Actually because Conan,
the Liverpool Mersecy based doom band, one of the greatest
doom bands of the twenty first century. In my opinion,
certainly one of the UK's best got added as sports
like acid Bathustraia. But I'm curiously if anything else you
know appears on that but that nolar stage at healthest Man.
If you are a Manor Warrior, then look forward to
twenty twenty seven, which there have been a lot of
jokes this week about why have they announced a tour
for twenty twenty seven. The same thing happened for the
toy I Went to you this year. Like I don't
know if people remember this. I'm sure that the toy
I went to this year was announcing about twenty twenty
two or three, like the MANI War.
Speaker 3: Did a year to save up for tickets.
Speaker 1: It's true. Man Award just operate on Man of War terms.
They have announced a run of so the one they
did was focusing on their two nineteen eighty four albums,
Sign of the Hammer and Hail to England. They're just
moving on now. They're doing Fighting the World and Kings
of Metal and currently almost all of the shows announces
are in Germany, because that's that's what matter, what I'm
gonna do. But maybe if they come around again, you know,
that's just good stuff on those records over in the US,
big tour if you're an American extreme fan, because Emperor
are doing a little run with Blood Incantation openly. And
if you are one of the people I have seen
on American Metal Twitter in the last week either complaining
about Emperor tour but with Blood Incantation opening, or Blood
Incantation touring but opening for Emperor, you are all fucking posers,
the lot of you. Be happy with your unbelievable bill,
you spineless fools. Also big news for North America Prepare
the Ground Festival, which is the great looking festival in
Canada that I've actually highlighted a couple of times because
they keep adding some awesome stuff. Oath Breaker are making
their first ever Canadian performance because they have been added,
doing a rare date as they have been doing around
other festivals mainly in Europe so far. But if you
are in Canada and you never got to see they
apparently never played there before, they are doing rare at
that Prepare the Ground Festival. Horrendous are doing two anniversary
shows in America, one in New York and one in
Baltimore for ten years of the Anaretta record, which I
think the latest horrendous record might have just superseded that
for my favorite one of theirs, but Anaretta was very
much like one of theirs that I got really big
into at the time. And that's cool that they're doing
a couple of small things to acknowledge that awesome record.
And here's a piece of news that I guess, you know,
it is not maybe strictly within the kind of the
firm confines of what T and M is, but I
felt like we should acknowledge that Manny from the Stone Roses,
the iconic bassist who I knew who Manny was, and
I recognized Manny before I even really knew the.
Speaker 2: Stone Roses music.
Speaker 1: Like he's one of those people almost in the you know,
the league of like a Nold Gallagher or anyone like that,
where being a UK music fan, you just kind of
grow up seeing some of these faces. And Manny was
as unfortunately passed away this week, and in terms of
certainly iconic basis from that era of music, he might
be the top one of that particular sort of school.
I really liked the first Stone Roses album kind of
surrounding material quite a lot, and certainly to bring this
kind of closest to home when we talk about bands
like Hi Viz and whatnot. A big part of the appeal,
certainly for me is hearing those kinds of like base
grooves and stuff again, the likes of which many really
kind of laid out there and pioneered, you know, finding
their way into something like a punk and hardcore band.
So in the wider kind of scheme of UK rock music,
I suppose this is certainly a notable passing, So of
course I wanted to mention the passing of Manny from
the Stone Roses. We are going to spend the rest
of our episode going into our reviews bag, which, as
I said, is our final reviews bag of twenty twenty five,
and we have pulled together some great and fascinating releases
from the last couple of weeks to talk about. Here.
We're going to start with the most prominent release from
October that we did not talk about in our last one.
Obviously we wanted to give it its proper lead treatment.
It came out on Halloween. I'm of course talking about
Sanguavore two Mistress of Death from Creeper, and for the
first time with a Creeper album, we know at least
a good chunk of the deal here, I suppose because
this is the sequel to Sangreville. We all loved Sangraviore.
Sangrovore being, by the way, the first time that Creeper
won the TNM Audience Album of the Year pole, So
objectively speaking, for you guys listening here, this album is
a bigger than average deal, right. It's a sequel to
most of your guys' favorite album of that year. They
also won various other accolades saw at like metal Hammer's
Album of the Year, which you know, for a former
horror punk band, is really quite some going. I think
that speaks to the areas Creeper managed to sweep in
on Sanguevore. And if there's one thing that I take
away from the kind of combined Sangofore era of Creeper here,
beyond just the bomb bast and the absurdity and all
the things we said about the first album that are
just as prevalent here, I think it's the cycle where
Creeper have finally found their home in the rock and
metal scene. They have always been such a strange outlier.
Being around pop punk bands early on didn't really fit them,
being around hardcore bands, being around emo bands, they were
never really quite in tune with any of them. But
rather than feel the need to try and tap some
of those particular corners to the market for success, Creeper's
niche cult of loyalty that they have courted since day
one really seems cozy for them now, Like they have
that there, they Creeper fans feel like they have that
band's back, and with this more bizarre and outlandish than
ever thing they've got going on, they can kind of
embrace being an outsider band, being a weird, particular thing
in the overall rock sphere, and they can be a
band like the Cult or the Sisters of Mercy or
whatever who almost exist outside of the zeitgeist with that
cult there to support.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's about like them being allowed to exist
outside the zeitgeist because that it feels like Tony bands,
you know, Chasing Train, trying to do this something whatever's popular.
Creeper have always had this kind of freedom to be themselves,
but they've kind of like changed what themselves are.
Speaker 3: And I think like, of course each album it was.
Speaker 4: All felt cohesive in because of women what Creeper are,
but there was ways just a flavor to it, and
having that continuity.
Speaker 3: Between Creeper albums actually feels kind of novel for a changee.
Speaker 4: I kind of go like, I'm having to kind of
like realign what why I'm going from Creeper. But it's
great that they have a kind of like freedom to
be this but also the comfort where they can be
this like outlandish campus hell vampire heavy metal band now
and it just feel quite a normal, sort of like
secure thing for them to do. And I mean, that's
great that we're in that position now.
Speaker 5: I think it feels secure for them to the point
where like Creeper has a band who reinvent themselves album
on album. If another band who you know, someone like
Mike Chem or going back to David Bowie or Ghost
or whatever, if they did a sequel to one of
those albums where they were reinventing themselves, it would seem
a bit odd. Like if my Chem instead of doing
Danger Days, if they went We're doing the Black Parade too,
like that would seem strange. But in the case of
Sanglefore And I don't know if it's because Sanglefoe is
my favorite Creeper album, I don't want this band, and
that they are now to stop existing, like if they
are on the next album going to reinvent themselves again.
I almost want them to franchise Sangrefore and let a
Sanglefore band go on and keep making these records because
it feels so suited to them, and it feels like
the sort of band that should exist, and like there
isn't another one out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was funny going into this album because
in a way, for the first time, it almost felt
lower stakes to be Creeper, both because they seem to
have very comfortably found their home now in terms of
their place in the kind of ecosystem of rock and metal.
They're more than ten years in at this stage and
they're still here and they're still thriving, And on the
sangle Wore record, I think that kind of seeps in
because Creeper have never sounded like they are simply having
more fun than they are on the Sanguvores right, And
that I think is what gets us to a point
where we have a sequel album from them, because there
may be areas in their catalog that are equally artistically
fruitful to mine. You know, you think of sex Death
and the even avoid and what a unique urn that was.
But in purely having a good time enough to want
to just get comfy for a while and want to
do more. This is what they've decided on, and I'm
not surprised by that, because the overall vibe of Creeper
in these years is one of just you know, not
being in some kind of strife or turmoil, but just
loving the hell out of what they're doing and considering,
you know, with what they've kind of started with with
the EPs up to the first album again almost in
that kind of horror punk or goth punk kind of space,
having now turned into like an eighties goth rock come
eighties heavy metal carnival band as a big leap from
what they were, but it's as much a you know,
feeling at home sound for them as they've ever had now,
second helpings of something, you know, not always as good
as the first time, but that spirit of fun and
of just being at home somewhere is what you would
hope were, I guess, to be enough to carry Creeper
through once again, maybe even make a sequel that is
up to or even surpasses the first one. As said,
we all loved Sangrefore. I know again, like at least
one or two of us might have said that it
was their best record so far. Where are we at
with a Sangrovore to the squeak Wal?
Speaker 4: I mean, for me, this just feels like they're even
more confident in being sango Wore creeping Out where they'
kind of like we can push this further. I mean,
there's no you know, nine minute epic to open this one,
but just in terms of like theater heavy metal vampire
stuff they're doing on Sangopore, they've kind of gone like, yeah,
let's just you know, be more audacious. Let's open the
album with this like dramatic narration, which is something Creepbole
is taking like a couple of pelts for us, the
narration on their album being a bit cheesy and silly,
but on this one it feels so just like it's
so in line with the exact tone of the record,
where when you're hearing rock music is a horny vampire,
you're like, yeah, yeah it is with Creeper, this is
what we're getting. And that kind of just assuredness and
nothing about some feels like it's shrinking away. They're so
confident and they own every aspect of this that I'm like,
I would say right now, I'm feeling this is at
least as good as Sangle War for me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's you know, in the case of albums or
album sequels, similar to movie sequels, you can have ones
was your total reinventions, or you know, sometimes they just fail.
Comparing this to a movie sequel, this isn't like a
you know, a Dawn of the Dead or a Terminator
to where so I'm going to take that thing and
flip it on its head and do something completely different
with it. This is more like for a few dollars
more after a fist full of dollars, which is that's
not an insult, because I think I m like that
one just as much, possibly more. I think this is superb.
You're right in many ways, it is kind of business
as usual. It's like similar sound, same producer, Sex and Vampires,
similar archetypes of songs being repeated or mirrored across the
two records. The album itself is almost identical in length
to the first one, but there is just a self
assuredness on this one that makes it even more. I
don't know if it's quite as bulletproof as the first album,
but it in a way it's more fun to listen to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because what Creeper are doing is just one of
the most innately likable things in the world right now,
I think, because they are the vampiric equivalent of someone
being like, come on, are you having fun? Let's get
up and dance and have some fun, waving a rubber
bat at you in your face until eventually, if you
weren't already down at the beginning, which I was, you
just give in and go all right, then come on.
It's just such a purely good time. Sango wore two
delivers on that in spades, I think, and certainly in
terms of you know, album sequels to first albums that
I loved, I would say this is like, overall, if
I think about the history of them, it's got to
be in the upper tier of things that at least,
you know, approximate the greatness of the original, which not.
You know, again, maybe a big part of it is
the fact that it's come hot on the heels of
it and they haven't waited twenty years or forty years,
like Alice Cooper or whatever to do it.
Speaker 2: But it Sango War two just.
Speaker 1: Delivers on being such a purely good time in the
way that the original one was. And when I said
that they feel almost comfy doing it, it's kind of
an interesting double edged sword, because yeah, there are parts
on this record where it does feel like, you know,
we're all on the same page here already, we know
what they're doing. They're trading on a very particular stick,
and maybe there is room there for it to become
over familiar. But some of the best parts of Sango
Wore two are parts where that comfiness actually encourages a
bit of creative flexing because they're so happy where they
are that they're just kind of liberated, maybe from particular
expectations or being funneled into like each song needs to
be this kind of thing to be a success or
whatever the you know, the corporate tick box approach. They
feel pretty free and like they have the license to
just go and do whatever they want really and throw
gonzo stuff at these songs whenever they fancy, and that
is how you end up, for example, with kind of
an expansion of their you know, kind of rock opera structure,
where here we have a concept that almost sounds like
the natural inevitable conclusion for Creeper with a narrative about
an actual rock band of vampires touring across America on
the run from a vampire hunter named the Mistress of Death,
and Creeper are all about escapism. They're all, you know,
in love with the idea of narrative and its iconography
and what it can do. And they treat their whole
band like it is a musical basically, so taking a
step further into like, okay, this is a rock opera
all but about themselves basically a rock band full of vampires.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: It's the most rocky horror Creeper have ever been. I
think that's for sure.
Speaker 2: I think this.
Speaker 1: Record is tons of fun. For the past kind of
a little while, I've been trying to gear myself towards
just like letting the winds take me and throw myself
into the spirit of it rather than over analyzing it
and getting some of my critical faculties in the way,
because I think this record is great. It's so much fun.
It's also the first Creeper record that I think is
just great rather than like maybe my favorite thing to
come out this year, you know. And at first I
was listening to this album before it come out, and
I was like, I don't know how this is going
to go down necessarily, which is not the first time
I've thought that about Creeper in fairness, but it has
always seemed to pan out. I will admit to being
quite shocked to see a not insignificant amount of people
saying they think this is better than the first Anglepore,
substantially so in some cases that I've seen, because I
thought practically everyone loved Sangopore, and if you didn't love Sangapore,
I was like, this is sure as hell not the
album that would bring you back right, because it's everything
that was daft about Sangopore but dafter. My current opinion
is that this is wicked fun, in fact, better than
the majority of records still this year for the standards
they've set. Maybe it's a little low stakes, you know,
it's kind of DLC. It's playing around in the sandbox
of what they created. I am more than happy to
get that. I don't want to get that twisted at all.
I haven't truly fallen head over heels for this, like
every album they've done to date, but I am very
happy to still be in this sangle war zone and
having a ton of fun with these songs.
Speaker 4: I think that's fair. I mean, just dialing up the theater.
I am a theater kid at heart. That they happened
too so many things, but I've wanted to know conceptual
horror theme rock opera albums from punk bands, and there's
those things that could so easily go completely wrong, but
I believe could do it, and You've got that. And
then for me, the songs are still just you know,
pretty much bulletproof. This album comes out you like excuse
the pump. It comes out you like a bat out
of Hell. With Mississ of Death, Blood Magic and Headstones
as that opening trio.
Speaker 3: That's like some of the best material Creep have done.
Speaker 2: For me.
Speaker 3: I think those songs are.
Speaker 4: Like unbelievably good in just dialing up the bomb bast
they still mind you like Headstones, you still go oh,
that is still a punk band playing this song. It's
so like bawdy and silly, but they are just so
good at it.
Speaker 5: I think one of the things I think differentiates the
two albums is sang before one. Each song felt like
them trying to write a song in a particular archetype
in that goth rock realm, so like Criy to Heaven
is very clearly like Ultimate Sineer or Aussie further than Forever,
Pure meat Loaf, Sacred Blastming was afi Ballad of Spook,
and Mercy was Roy Orbison, Black Heemis Sisters Mercy, so
on and so on. And I think the impressing thing
about that records that it was so consistent at doing
all those different things. This time around, it really feels
like they've honed in on the glam rock aoar but
like a glam metal and like theatrical aspects of it,
it feels like they're not quite as adventurous maybe with
the types of songs they are, Like there are a
few songs on here that, especially towards the end. The
reason why I said it's not quite as bulletproof maybe
is because there are some songs that stills somewhat blend together,
you know, after having this record for a few weeks.
But I would agree that opening Run is as good
as anything on the first one, especially Mistress of Death,
that might be my favorite song from the whole double discollection,
that creepy going full billy idol, and that chorus. It's
just it's so euphoric and the melody is so catchy,
and again it's just it's such a cool differentiator between
the two records, where the last one opens with this
actual epic and this has an intro to it. But
it's just I say, it's like a biker metal song
in the tradition of that thing. It's it's so it's
so brilliant. Okay, I'll try. I think I'm gonna lay
out some.
Speaker 1: Of my reservations maybe early, because there's so much that
I want to get into on this album that I
just want to gush about and how sick it is,
but just to kind of clarify maybe some of the
what I was just saying before. One detail is that
it is the most self consciously I think they recognize this,
that this is in some way intentional. It's the most
overtly pastiche thing that they've done the concept of the
rock band musical. It gives them license to kind of,
you know, poker all sorts of particular details. And if
Sangravore was in some way, you know, embracing the excess
where we if you go back and listen to our
review of that album two years ago, we couldn't believe
just how kind of gloriously camp they had gotten. In
some ways this is more so right, some of these
songs on paper are just mad and they are audibly
having so much fun creating them, which is what ultimately
makes the album such an infectious Listen those kind of
fundamentals of you know, meat Loaf, Sisters of Mercy, trash
ear At, Alice Cooper, whatever. Like it's a ghoulishly fun concoction.
They're back in the studio with Tom Dalgaty and all
that kind of glitzy excess they had last time it's here.
It takes me a little bit to get into the
songs that I truly love because it is sometimes so
blatantly referential and almost parody. It's not always the most
conducive to I think, just fundamentally developing like a genuinely
deeper emotional connection in the way that Creeper have been
an a mentally important band to me in that way
at times. And I was discussing this with Mark a
little bit and he kind of summed up really well
when he said, it's hard to do a misery when
your tongue is planted so far in your cheek, and
that's a generalization, but that's maybe it a little bit.
Speaker 2: They do eke.
Speaker 1: Towards that kind of again pulling on your heartstrings drama.
That's the key moments. I'm not saying it's an album
that's without its misty eyed magic, but you know what
I mean, right, And it takes a bit for me
for this album to get into the songs. I do
go garga for the intro track where Patricia Morrison literally
says rock music as a horny vampire. I've been fine
really with the Creeper narration up to this point. I
would have left that line off the record myself, because
I know it's essentially what every review including ours, has
said about Creeper for the last few years. But there's
a difference between sort of flippantly summing up something like
that and then literally like overturing your art with that sentence,
you know, and kind of speaking it into your art.
I think it just does them a disservice a little bit.
Then we get Mistress of Death, which is a really
good fun song. It's well catchy. When you think about
this album's title, you will go must Asser of Death
I think as an opener, it's not necessarily the level
of like roller coaster, you know that Further and Forever was,
And it doesn't feel like Will in particular on that
song is giving that song the same level of wellie
that he does when he, like fully you know, goes
apeshit on something like a Further andan Forever or whatever,
and it doesn't necessarily feel like it's trying to match that. Instead,
it's almost more like the introductory credits to the album
if you like. Like I like the vocalizing with the
almost like spaghetti Western style kind of character ful nature
to it.
Speaker 2: That's fun.
Speaker 1: And I like the spooky riff drop in the bridge.
That's cool, and I do I genuinely like blood Magic.
It's a ritual as a song. I want to reiterate
that because when it's on, I'm singing right. I particularly
love the California infer no punctuation in the chorus.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 1: It is easily my least favorite major album single they've
ever put out, and it's because obviously and undeniably it's
the pastiche thing to the max, right and like it's
being pointed out load So it's not news, but that
song is a Frankenstein's abomination, made out of parts of
popular songs from the eighties right intentionally pulled into the
creepy machine. The chorus is heaven is a place on
Earth meets you give love a bad name.
Speaker 2: There's certainly some.
Speaker 1: Of that Aussie or Alice Cooper whatever in that riff,
and it's such a kind of dark, you know, flagrant imitation.
It's a laugh, and I can see why they've gone, Yeah,
for one song, we're having so much fucking fun. Let's
just pull all these kind of hallmarks of the rock
bands of the period that we're doing and smush them together.
But ultimately, even though I do like the song and
I think it's fun, I like it less than their
real original creations, and I'm not going to connect to
it in the same way I have basically every other
single they've released prior to this point, and it's the
first song of theirs where if someone was to go
that shit, I don't like that. I don't think that,
but I would understand maybe where they're coming from.
Speaker 4: I hear you counterpoint that key change, like no, I
do hear you, I do something where like they are
completely playing characters. This time it is sillier and it
is again not as wholly original for me, It's a vibe.
Speaker 3: Based thing for the struggle.
Speaker 4: For me, what I'm just so happy to just be
in again like this camp say rocky horror like theater
thing where again they are doing You're right amalgamations of
these like some of the most bombastic eighty songs ever,
and it just works because again it's still got, you know,
a big rocking riff. The keys of them on this
album are like over driven to fuck. The production does
make it sound as big and work together, and I
don't who the amount of backing vocals they have on
this album, like there's so much across the whole record,
where it also was like Will to have to do
as much of the heavy lifting on the choruses because they,
you know, they've got all these other voices coming in,
which again I can see how that might be an
issue if you're really if you really hang off will
when he has given it some Willie. But as just
a sound, who's gonna like get caught up in when
you hit that key change at.
Speaker 3: The end of Blood Magic.
Speaker 4: I am smiling, biggest maniac around, and I can't like
like the solos are like dramatic and like Transylvania as fuck,
and it's so just so inherently enjoyable the whole time,
where I can recognize some of the issues you're having,
but because I'm just having the best time, they don't
necessarily register to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm glad you mentioned about the choruses there,
because this is my last really last criticism really of
the album, and I was gonna pop it here because
I think these couple songs are maybere It's most notable.
I do miss Will's higher register vocals a little bit
on the album, and I know that might seem odd
coming from me because I'm always listening to Shit, which
has that got Goth baritone, and like my favorite song
on the first Angle All was Black Heaven, which is
the most that But I think some of that major
emotional pull in Creeper does come from when Will is
belting and using his his wider register or at least,
you know, fluctuating between and sangravore. As much as full
goth as it was, it did have some of those
piercing choruses like Teena Sacrifice or Chapel Gates it had
more than Death, which is a vocal masterclass this record.
It might make me want a boogie, and boy does it,
but it doesn't quite make me wanna like pop my
lungs with how loudly I'm singing along. And I think
a big part is that Will settles almost wholly into
his kind of Andrew Eldrich goth register on this, and
don't get me wrong, I like it. I'm not saying
stop doing it. I think adding some of that vocal
variation back in would do wonders. And that is part
of why when Headstones hits on the trap list at
that point, it's such a fucking like jolt to the system,
because that is a song where that classic creeper punk
energy comes in, still fitted with the kind of you know,
heavy metallisms of this current era. It's not out of
place or like a throwback, because, if anything, it sounds
a bit like Motorhead. But at that point in the
track list, track four, I needed some of that punch
and Headstones, particularly if seeing it live a bloodstock at
the summer total banger and the first little stretch of
the album there has some of my I'm enjoying this,
but why am I not quite enjoying this up to
the degree I'm normally enjoying Creeper pretty much From Headstones on,
I'm basically just having an incredible time.
Speaker 5: It's interesting here you say this because it's it's putting
into perspective almost why I like this record? A why
like these last two records more than I do the
first two, And it's because I've never really connected emotionally
with Creeper anyway. I've said before that I'm not that
keen on misery. I don't like I choose to live.
There's a bunch of Creeper songs that are, you know,
for people of our generation, modern rock classics that I
just I haven't found myself ever connecting with. And maybe
the joy of these records for me is the purden
of that question is kind of gone because I'm no
longer being asked to now I don't I'm not expected
to emotionally connects. I could just go This course is huge,
it's sweeping, it's exciting, it's you know, parts a fit
of funny, it's it's a it's a much less complicated
for someone like me who came to the band late.
It's a much less complicated ask.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think different Creeper fans will as much as
I think a lot of us will largely just come
together and celebrate everything. We will have our little sort
of variations about the bits that we prefer or whatever.
And yeah, it's interesting kind of clarifying that with with
with this record, and like I said, when Headstones arrives
and it is, it's the best instance of Creeper you
slide dogs basically a drag level of not even innuendo
but just saying the quiet bit out loud right and
the group backing vocal which does add that kind of
Eighties gospely you know, touch on.
Speaker 3: The ends well like yeh follow ham on the last chorus.
I love that shit.
Speaker 2: It's great.
Speaker 1: But that is the song that does make me want
to like pump my fists in the sky the way
that I want to do with Creeper and for my
kind of nitpicks, which I've largely gotten out of the
way now. And as I say, there's slight reservations more
than condemnations. They remain absolute hook machines, and the track
list just keep shoveling on them from this point on.
Pray for the Night that eighties slasher movie synth with
that little xylophone melody or whatever it is as well,
and will like does sound smooth as butter doing the
low vocal there before one of the most powerful choruses
on the record. That's where they nail this particular feel
of like this kind of thing they're doing of like
Lost Boys synth rock.
Speaker 2: It really really works.
Speaker 1: On that the later chorus when the SAPs comes in
and sounds borderline kazoo like, it's such brilliant color making
it sing in the most flamboyant way possible.
Speaker 4: I couldn't believe that chorus on Pray from that when
it hit, because you know that was where you know, oh,
we're in the kind of like dark simp sort of thing.
Now you're going on and will be again just way
too horny on the lyrics. But then when that ab
cast down that chorus was like, oh cool, they're just
dropping big fit of choruses into their kind of dark
synth tracks as well. And then last chorus, we've got
to get another key change in this time with saxophone
and like it's it is huge and like that's arguin
that then they feel they're about to be a bit
low key, they're gonna every time on the chorus, they're
gonna they're gonna switch up some like Parasite like which
again like moody to start, and then you get that
be map Parasite socks socks sock.
Speaker 1: Parasite is really killer, which maybe the biggest It's a
pure swagger from Will on that opening orus.
Speaker 2: She had her body just like a grave.
Speaker 1: It's it's great and yeah that the suck sucks suck
in the chorus. I'm like, is this even about vampires anymore?
Or is this just doing what it says? But it's
full of your production touches that are like a grab bag,
like they've just raided a Hollywood studio from the eighties
and ran off with everything they can, like vocal choirs
on the chorus, glitzy keys and then the fucking talk
box bridge And as we were with Converge earlier, I'd
be missed not to mention the Roto Toms as well.
Speaker 5: This strategy of songs here Pray for the Night, Daydream
and the Dark into Parasite. This was where I feel
like I kind of got a grip on what kind
of record it was going to be, which is weird
because it's when they're strangeous things, because it's kind of
where you go, oh, this isn't just a sang before
you know, it's taken from Sisters and Mercy and all
sorts of things. But it kin'd of I look at
that record and go, this was very deliberately heavy metal,
whereas this one is just more general Eighties because Pray
for the Night, some of the synths on it your
horror movie soundtracks. But also there's a bit of the
yanny about it, that sort of eighties new age thing
that was really popular at the time. Daydreaming in the dark.
Fol Brian Adams like nothing.
Speaker 1: Straight up fucking top gun music.
Speaker 2: What that is?
Speaker 5: Literally we've left goth behind for much of that song.
And then Parasite, you know, like you say, there's got
some of the more gothic elements back in it, but
there's a bit of the last they're just vestiges of
disco still going on. It's like they're pulling all sorts
of stuff from that time period, and you know, maybe
that's where it tips over into pastiges for some people.
But it is just a fun grab bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean again, I love this this little run of songs.
Daydream in the Dark is so volleyball on the beach
orrange sunsets, just maybe played by vampires who are starting
to come out at that time rather than go into
bed at that time.
Speaker 2: And for me, the.
Speaker 1: Moment when the gonzo everything at the wall caught into
the wind embrace of this particular camp iconogically paid off
the biggest my very first impression of this album when
I was going the Restless needs to work on me
a little bit. But the Hannah song is fucking outrageous.
Sangavore one, of course, not actually having a dedicated Hannah
solo number, although I would like to remind people who
may have forgotten it of Phantom Fantasia from the expanded edition,
which is like her Sally song for a Night before Christmas.
It's great, but raiser wire when we are introduced through
the narrative that this is the moment that the Mistress
of Death is going to speak, this is her moment,
and Hannah steps forward and is suddenly doing full Jessica
rabbit shit. When the scene has been set with the
shadowy kind of echo to the environment that the song's happening,
you're straight away picturing some like you know, jazz club
stage with the curtains opening and the pianos which come
we went are exquisite. The finger snaps in it later on,
and the melodies on that song bring that fucking house down.
Speaker 2: Decapitation is a last albeaby.
Speaker 1: The way she makes that line fucking swing like that
is one of those instant, classic creeper cool mantras that
you're gonna see on tattoo flash sheets whenever they do
a fucking pop up show, you know, because it's it's dark,
it's sexy. The bridge when she moves on to that
falsetto with a coffin for you, I'm a guillotine girl,
I'm a bed of nails. And speaking about the pastiche
and the through line of kind of referencing that they've
set this in, you know, the musical elements in Blood Magic.
There are lots of points on the album when your
ears will prick up a particular kind of referential line,
tipping the hat to like one artist or another of
the era, like you know, Pray for the Night has
the Sun Boys want to be consumed rhythmics in that
kind of thing. I'm only human, I can pretend to
be above it, but you deploy the right one. And
I am Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV when I
was already enjoying this song the most on the album,
and she drops the collect the heads of all the
boys and put them on my wall.
Speaker 2: Come the fuck on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is it's just so cool, like the Bob
Fossey just sleeves it all, like the whole song, like
this might be my favorite Hannah song ever, just all
of it about it, like so good shes it's.
Speaker 2: Up there with like ghost of Cavalry and stuff like
yeah that.
Speaker 4: Thing and it is like Broadway as shit like and
it's like, again, there's something where if they weren't so
like audacious out there, this would probably like land quite clunky,
but because they're so committed to it and again dropping
those lines like that bed of nails are that Like
it is a proper like show stop a number from Hannah,
and it is like, really fucking cool.
Speaker 1: You've done a jazz club solo number about decapitation with
a Sax solo and a Misfits reference. Fucking ten out
of ten, Like the entire enterprise of the sequel album
is warranted for that alone, It's.
Speaker 5: Also funny that on this record and this, you know,
with this band and what they're doing everything, the villain
of the piece going against the Horny Vampires just sounds
like another horny vampire, Like it's not managed to think
of a second character. Architect's like, everything's just the same.
This song, I agree, this was you know, the three
perccon songs that I sort of group together. I think
those songs are great, but I was going, oh, they're
kind of they're on a tear here, they're sort of
repeating the same thing slightly, and then Razor Wire it's
such a jarring makes it sound bad, but it's it's
such a twist like it's it's just it's such a exciting,
eccentric change of pace in the record. I do think
the album is a little bit front loaded, but it
goes out on one of its best songs, goes out
that the run ends on one of the best things.
Speaker 1: Yes, I do think going into the back end of
the album, a couple songs after as I can see
what you're saying, because after like, you're so giddy from
Razor Wire that the next couple songs maybe feel a
little more similar to one another. But yeah, black House,
I guess is almost like the obvious hollo up to
Black Heaven, where it has that skipping disco beat on
top of that pitch black kind of synth rock and
that wonderful star lit guitar line. That floodland type gospel
chorus as well, I think is well good. And then
the Crimson Bride heavy metal left we forget that Creeper
are at least halfway to being the heavy metal band
these days. I think they're both fun.
Speaker 4: The thing for me is this track list doesn't actually
dip really because you have like the real high peaks.
But I think the Crimson Bride is like great, like
just a big heavy metal ripper, like a real dramatic chorus.
Speaker 3: It sounds huge, like big lead guitar works and all that.
It's really cool.
Speaker 4: And again like Black House, like that really sleek thing.
The Devil's got dark Plans for you again, that's another
just like cool sounding line from Will it got like loads.
Speaker 3: Of struck to it.
Speaker 4: I think for me the track list doesn't ever really
let up. It's just come like I'm enjoying the entire ride.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and certainly a reason why I would not say
this album is top heavy myself. When we get to
closing track Pavo Nocturnus is where we get some of
the genuine stirring drama that I would always want to
go to Creeper for because the multi sort of segmented
track put to the back here rather than beginning where
perhaps that's an intentional flip from the first angle all
you know, Further Than Forever and Pava Noo Turnus now
bookend these albums as they're kind of shooting of the
stars moments on them. Pavel Turnus is maybe more like
a come down from you know, Further and Forever, which
has just you know, lights the real on fire. This
is that night time coming to an end, the story
winding down. But it's exceptionally well done. I think where
the acoustic guitars at the start are enchanting straight away
will as that is most Nick kiv on it with
the snarl that he's putting in, and I can't imagine
there's many people out there who heard that I know
it's only rock and roll female vocal and didn't immediately
melt a little bit, even with it being again another
famous lyrical reference, but it feels so sincere and just
so like in love with the idea of rock music
and its power for storytelling as we know Creeper are,
and that melody is wonderful.
Speaker 4: Creeper ending on the ballad is kind of there, like
go to move Them. I think it's nice of us
on that has a bit of space to it on
this one, like to end where you know, there's a
gradual build. You get that first course which is like
so delicate and kind of the emotional sincerity then comes
through and they can build on that in the second
Ian gets a just like another amazing solo on this
and it does you know, it brings the drama by
the end where they like kind of all gone hand
for the end of it. But it's a nice building
the journey in films, like a fitting crescendo to like say,
the whole kind of sang before project.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when before you know it, you've got to that
like peak Lost Boys level of angelic nocturnal choir, a
solo that sounds like the shit the Crow plays on
his roof, like genuine movie style kind of stuff. I
think more than Death is still my favorite Creeper album, Closer,
which I think it just claimed when the album came
out the powerhouse vocal flexing on that just really gets me.
But this ends this album with such sincerity that just
makes you feel better about the entire you know, kind
of journey you've been on. I think my favorites on
this album are Raise a Wire and Headstones, But I
totally get if someone picks this because it does kind
of melt you a little bit.
Speaker 5: And did these soors kind of blur together slightly more
than I'm sure if you rearrange the record, I might
feel differently about them. It's just it happens to be
the sequence is, and by the time gainst these last three,
as much as I like it, there is something kind
of exhaustive about this record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that's it being a part two of what
we've already have with part one as well. But I
think having it is such a pleasure, you know, like
every album we've had from Creeper, we've gone, oh, what
an impressive leap, and this one playing around further in
the sandbox. It's a fun sequel, right, Like as I said,
it's one of the better album sequels I've probably ever heard.
Like I maybe struggle to look at it with quite
the same level of gravitas that I imbue into their
first three albums individually, when it is so sort of
self conscious and reflexive. Maybe, but I would certainly I
would not say at all it's the filler either, you know,
Like it's tremendous fun and it's even more maybe than
the first one, arguably doing something that the rest of
the rock landscape isn't, which I think is a big
part of what's great about Creeper and why we try
and champion them so much, is because applauding the magic
that they can cast out there and the dreaming big
and doing stuff like this. Can they keep going at
this down this particular Sang of War route without it
eventually getting stale? You know, I'm not sure. That's not
up to me. But you know, if there's any impression
that I'm somehow not a board fully the Creeper train,
still like that's not the case. Like I have some
critiques of this put against the first Sang of War
and their other albums, but you catch me at the
live show, I will still be having a ball for
everyone of these songs, including those opening ones, And I
would so much. I think fundamentally, I would so much
rather have this to play with and hear how it
turns out here, how Creeper doing a sequel to sangle
Wore turns out they not have it, you know, and
together this fills in some things, you know, for example,
like having the Hannah song or you know, going even
further in to the fucking top Gun Sacks route whatever,
like this fills in things that the first angle War
doesn't actually have so together complimentary that they are stronger together.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I absolutely agree with that.
Speaker 4: I think as as a like I said, a whole
kind of era, a whole project to sort of not
a double album, but like these companion albums, they do
compliment each other really well. And I think just the
Creeper catalog is just so much richer for having these
two albums coming together to just deliver on the vampire
bomb bast of it all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think, you know, the songs on this record,
which I think are just as good as the stuff
on Sangropore one like said, it might not be as bulletproof,
but getting to hear them write more songs in that
style where the first sound felt more like a variety
pack almost of like these are the different kinds of
songs that exist within this general over of goth rock
and goth mel hearing them hone in on some of
those things and explore them further, I think it would
have felt like a bit of waste of potential if
they moved on to the next thing too quickly. To me,
it's not just like a DLC fun thing to play
with Creeper's catalog. I for all the albums going forward,
I would have thought, I wish they've done a a
bit more sangufore had they not done this.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: Next second review, we're going to follow up on another
of our favorite UK bands, Pupil, Slicer and flesh Work.
This is their third album and as their debut, Mirrors,
came out in twenty twenty one, they are one of
the bands I most just sort of prominently think of
as being, you know, a fixture in this country this decade,
and where Mirrors hit that spot of like absolute explosivity
with its ferocious mathy grind Blossom in twenty twenty three
took a leap to I think one of the more
ambitious visions that we've heard in this music of late,
where the experiments with with melody with larger crescendos with
writing actual metallic bangers as well, but all with this
like Icy Cold garbled through a glitching machine, kind of
digious sphere atmosphere to it. It garnered quite a bit
of a claim and expanded significantly on the capabilities. I
think what a lot of us thought this band could be, Elliott,
It must have been since you've been on the show.
But for some reason, I cannot recall at all what
you thought of Blossom as one of our sort of
current leading bands in these worlds of you know, grind
and a core, particularly with the kind of digital edge
you know meeting that's a flavor that I associate with you.
Speaker 2: Were you a fan, I was a fan.
Speaker 5: I think we I'm ninety nine percent sure obviously here
for the review of it, but if not, Yeah, I
thought it was a really exciting follow up to the
Day of ut I was big in Mirrors Beyond Mirrors
when it came out, like, I thought that was super promising,
and I was really curiously where they go next, Blossom.
They went somewhere I wasn't really expecting them to. And
it's it's just it's maddening that record, Like it's it's
not now might go back to all the time because
it is quite overwhelming to listen to. But I remember
being so impressed by what a leap it wasn't the
things they were pulling from, and like, it just seemed
like a very daring move for bands to make on
their sophomore record, Like for you know, a lot of bands,
it takes a while for them to start pulling in
those more disparate influences.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And so you know, follow up too,
I think one of the albums that a lot of
us were interested in just seeing what they'd cook up,
really and I guess, especially s heere as we've seen
with bands like The Callus Talboys for instance, that ultra
chaotic mathcore can actually be very popular at the moment
and kind of break out a little bit, And people Slicer,
you know, on Blossom, were like, oh shit, a lot
of people care about this band, like quite significantly so.
And there are some ways in which this album kind
of bucked against my expectations a little bit in following
up Blossom, But fundamentally, Pupil Slicer have become a really
confident sounding band. I think in a way that Your
Mirrors is wild eyed and savage and just kind of
overflowing with energy. But he on the kind of following
two albums, all of the sort of different stylistic influences
are becoming really like you know, fastened together and on
flesh Work, it's a really like dense, powerful, direct fist
of an album in terms of congealing those parts.
Speaker 4: I think this is like the most assured peoplecis ever
sounded to me, because I feel like, like the debut
Mental and then Blossom felt that they kind of skipped
two albums out and just threw their ambitions all the
way out there and it's amazing, but it almost felt
I was like Rains things in where they were kind
of like reaching a bit further. This time films are
kind of like we've taken all that and now just
candense it into the most direct, in your face kind
of like hard hitting, still quite challenging and not like simplified.
But this just feels kind of like a very much
more cohesive listening experience.
Speaker 3: Than Blossom Didiot.
Speaker 4: It's like, I think, you know, the length is kind
of like wound in a little bit everything. This feels
a lot more concentrated into just kind of like giving
you the direct pupil Slice of Experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's something about the sound of this now, which
one of the things that makes people Slice a sound
bigger than your average kind of math or grind band,
even though they are just so ferocious to some of
those things, is they've developed this really high standard of
production without it turning into like some annoying blown out
you know, Will Putney of whatever, like you know, it's
it's Joe Clayton in the UK who's done this, So
shout out to him, because this album sounds great and
it doesn't feel like a tiny underground production. It sounds
incredibly full and rich. And then what people's eyes that
were able to do with that is, you know, this
kind of destructive machine, like an industrial killing flow, but
it still has room for melody and for parts that breathe.
Speaker 5: See we've kind of touched on it earlier. Of why
this album so far isn't wowing me as much as
the first two h and I think it's because the
first album was so, like you said, like bug eyed
and mental and you just go this is one of
the most ferocious debuts a British band has put out
in a while. Blossom like much more experimental, far reaching.
I just thought, oh, I guess they're going to be
pushing that further, Like it just you kind of make
these trajectories in your head almost And that's not saying
that band should try and live up to that. But
on the third record, them kind of retracting and focusing
more on you know, groove and like more straightforward songs
simplifying things. Not saying this is especially straightforward, but this
being maybe they're you know, being assured is often a positive,
but in this style of music, I kind of want
to feel like I'm on the edge of my seat
along with the band, like I don't know what's going
to happen. And this feels a bit like it's slightly
suffocated by the kind of PS one MySpace old school
metal core of it all. I mean where it just
it feels like it's slightly too comfortable in that place
for me.
Speaker 1: I think we could sum up that by saying, and
I agree with this, it's their most sensible.
Speaker 5: Record, And yeah, for a band.
Speaker 1: Called Pupil Slicer, I understand, like I hear you, I
hear you, and maybe to some extent I agree in
terms of where this sits in their catalog, but I
love that The first track is called Heather, supposedly in
a nod to the protagonist from Side It Hall three,
and it is a sub three minute banger, kind of
like the Tackle track from Blossom, where it feels like
a borderline floor filler in like the most evil, demented
metal club that you could picture. And the way that
they use melody, not even in the vocal so much
a lot of the time, but particularly in the bass
when the bass part hits in Heather and the tone
is so in your face. I think bands look to
this album as an example of what a proper audible
based tone also doing some interesting stuff melodically can bring
to your sound as a heavy band. The way it's
used in this throughout this particularly if you look at
a straightforward example like that first track, Heather is exemplary.
In the fast songs like Black Scrawl, which is blistering,
it's doing all of this kind of awesome snap your
neck grooves and runs around the threats and stuff. At
times it's like Chris Walston Hope is in a hardcore
band and that shit is awesome, And I just love that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think Heather still has that kind of
ambition of Blossom because it's got that kind of light
footed indie dance kind of beat to it that some
of the things that Blossom that gave that they said
that demented floor full of thing, when they're like mixed
that with that frantic math coord sort of thing, and
like the Basin is amazing.
Speaker 3: It's one of those things.
Speaker 4: It just feels more like punching, gratifying, I guess immediately
from people's slides to where it's not gonna like having
to wrap your head around it. It is like intense,
but it's kind of wat you to make you want
to throw hands at the same time. This record on
songs I have and I think it's a really cool thing,
and then like you know, Gordon begins with that like
real like meaty groove. I'm like, this is a hard
album where it's kind of it is thicker and less
wiry than I maybe kind of think of when I
think of a band like Pupil Slicer and I think
it's it's calling. They'll still throw in some of those
interesting kind of technical riffs that that do have that
unhinged manic field to it, but it is all just
kind of like more than this, kind of like I
industrialized killing machine kind of take on Pupil Slicer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think what Elliott was saying. I can
totally see how this album is maybe in someoney's just
less surprising and less sort of violently thrilling in the
different places it takes you than either of their prior
albums wear in their own ways. But I think if
you look at it as a really fucking heavy record,
it has so many more kind of embellishments and a
lot more nuance in kind of its craft than you know,
the majority of records in that realm that we might hear.
Even a song like Sacrisanct, which is a full drop
tuning ignorance smash, you didn't beat down at the start,
and it doesn't really veer away from that too much
for its duration. It sounds like it's got depth to it. Sonically,
it's got these really eerie guitar embellishments. The slower songs
like flesh Work or Innocence have these lurking industrial kind
of tones that take the foot off the pedal, but
they do strand you in this sort of like horrible
pitch black Abbot to our kind of environment.
Speaker 4: Like it still sounds impressive and it has atmosphere, and
they again it's really like suffocating and and then like innocence.
So you say it's slow mid temple, but then you
get to the end of that song and they swing
that like blast of black male at you. So it
still has those kind of like sudden turns that keep
you on your toes.
Speaker 3: Right, I think it is.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's a bit more sell than you might expil
people slizer, but it's not one though. It never feels
it's it's lacking for surprises because they can still pour
them out somewhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that majorly keeps the kind
of the the unnerving, not letting you sit fully comfortably
air of pupil slicer is the vocals, I think as well,
because that kind of a tonal wretch that Kate does
on a number of songs that almost feels like a
kind of evil slurring of the whole Sascot approach vocally
when that is going on, and then melodically there are
parts where there's like something approaching clean singing, and there's
less of it than there was on Blossom, But I
appreciate how distinctive, like almost in the way like it
doesn't sound like it, but almost in the way when
Travis Ryan, you know, quote sings in Cutty Apuitation and
you go like, that's melody vocally, but it's not any
kind of comfortable melody that you would be used to.
There's a similar thing that peoplel Slicer have kind of
developed for their kind of music, where it's singing of
a sort that really enhances the atmosphere of it. It's
there in flesh work with this almost like unsettling, choppy
singing and echoing through event thing like an alien pretending
to be a human or something. And then like someone's
like white noise, which is for that kind of melodic
urgency that Heather has, but with also this really teetering
over the edge ugly vocal or the last track where
it sounds like a fucking haunted baby doll. You know,
I appreciate how distinctive and not taking away but really
adding to the sense of disquiet that these like you know,
not exactly conventionally pretty melodic vocal lines bring to people.
Speaker 2: Slicer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, almost all the hardcore medical bands or even the
math care bands were kind of they're folding in some
of that nineties or rock into the sound. It's often
used as a kind of almost like a refuge from
the chaos. Yeah, and one of the coolest things about
Pupil Slices has always been the vocals. We talked before
about how now there's these techniques of how to scream
safely where you won't damage your vocal cords. There is
just there's that certain qua from stuff like the Latest
in the early nineties, before they knew what they were doing,
when they were doing serious damage to themselves. You go, ah,
you can't quite replicate that. It's not quite got that
danger factor. I don't know if Pupil Slice have found
a safe way of doing it. It doesn't sound like it,
like the wretches are frightening across the sing especially mapped
onto that production style, which is they say, is it's
a dull thud, but it is. It's a powerful sensation
and there's clean vocal parts. Against so many bands they
just think, oh, well, I'll do the my bloody Valentine
dreary shoegaysy singing, and I don't have to be a
great singer, and that'll be I'll get away with it,
pupile Slice, to take that moment, to really imview those
moments with personality of their own. I do think that
that goes a long way for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, keep this band far away from like loath style
deathtnes choruses and and give me like more of whatever
alien bazaar sounds are, you know, coming at their mouths
on records like like this and Blossom. And it's also
at the same time as doing that hard riffing Gordian
which is presumably named after of course, and not so
has that kind of association of twisting and turning, and
it's really you know, rhythmically intricate while having that kind
of beefy bouncing, just very metal sort of sound. You know,
it's it's melodically intricate with the base and everything I
was saying, as well as being rhythmically intricate. The thing
I was surprised with compared to Blossom is kind of,
as we were saying, how much easier this one seems
to go down and how direct it is flesh work.
It's about ten minutes shorter than Blossism, and Blossom has
a touch of the epic to it. That flesh work
kind of largely skirts. It's only again the last track
here pushes those buttons a little bit. And like I said,
as you know, embellish as they are, and I'm not
saying they are shallow. Stuff like sacrosanct and whatnot is
kind of pretty straight up mosh meat, right. I think Blossom.
Blossom does remain the one where I'm incredibly impressed by
the lengths that it goes to and the kind of
ambition that is on show. And this hasn't quite got
the same wow factor like you are. I mean, you
know what you said earlier about kind Blossom you don't
actually listen to very often. This one you could probably
stick on a couple times a week.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It's just hard and heavy and it's colorful, and that's great,
but it's not mind shattering in the same way. But
I do appreciate how all flesh work they've kind of
managed to, you know, they've taken some of the developments
from Blossom and maybe learned how to kind of place
them in less demanding of being unpacked structures. I suppose,
like it probably is that there's a nice middle ground
to be had there.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's it for me, is that, like I'd
like hearing the tones that they're playing with on this album,
whether it is no pure chaos and jagged Matthew riffs
on Black Scroll, which again then just goes with like
a sludgy breakdown at the end, This delivers on that.
And I just found this very kind of just like, yeah,
I could just slap this on thirty odd minutes of
music that makes want to throw hands, but still has
a kind of feeling of darkness and menace to it
that that means it's still sounds like it's coming from
a band called Pupil Slicer, Like it doesn't feel too
sanitized in a sort of a metalcore sort of scene
where like bands like this are so few and far between,
I will cling onto people Slices are doing this kind
of thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think some records you appreciate them more or
less depending on their context in the band's discography and
right now our listeners to I don't like this quite
as much as I do Albums one and two. But
it also it's not a record that Pupil Slice have
made before, and their songs that aren't they're not quite
the same as the ones Mirrors or on Blossoms so
when you go see them live, it's a new flavor
of added in And so to me with this record,
it's kind of going I was hope for you know,
I was hope for X and I got y. But
when the next album comes along, maybe I'll go back
to this and appreciate it more for what it is.
Like when you see it as part of the of
the church that they end up taking, maybe it will
make more sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't sound like it was quite as hard
work for them to put together. And I don't mean
that in a disparaging sense. I mean, and they're probably
enjoying themselves right now kind of sense.
Speaker 2: It's it's a little.
Speaker 1: Bit like if Code Orange made Underneath and then afterwards
went fuck it. I am king, you know what I mean.
And yeah, but just because it's not quite as like
sonically overwhelming or dazzling or whatever, doesn't mean it doesn't
reward repeat listens at the same time. And I do
think people Slicer are now, you know, between these two albums,
Blossom and this one. As different as they are, they
are one of the most distinctive and assured heavy bands
like them at the moment. So I'd still recommend it.
It's flesh work from Pupil Slicer. Let's delve further into
the bottle of hardcore and go to Drain, who release
an album called is Your Friend recently. Also speaking of
bands who have been firm fixtures of the twenty twenties,
haven't they? Sam Training are one of those popular hardcore
bands that everybody just seems to like, right, Yeah, they.
Speaker 4: Just seem to be anyone's favorite, like crossover like troublemakers
in hardcore that.
Speaker 3: They've they've they've gone beyond that.
Speaker 4: They feel like on the bands who are like, really,
when you look at the sort of the twenty twenties
hardcore bands, they're the ones who have like, yeah, they're
going big places, and it's kind of not hard to
see why when you when you just you see the
live shows, you hear the songs, it's it's not challenging music,
it doesn't require much for but you hear that guitar tone,
you hear a vocalist is like charismatic a Sammi kind
of it's so easy to go along with from me Drain.
Speaker 5: In the best way possible. They feel like a band
out of time. Their music sounds like you should be
watching a fish Eye Skater video from the nineties. It's
it's crossover, but there's a bit of Pantera and in
there there's Obrigigates the Machine and I think, you know,
talking about hardcore bands getting big, obviously in size, they're
not anywhere close yet, but they're upbeats and breezy, but
they haven't gone the Turnstile path of bringing in dream
pop and hip hop and like the flavors they're dealing with,
Drain have managed to do it while still sounding like
decidedly metal, which you know, I love turnstyle, but it
is a cool juxtaposition between those two bands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because every time they've come along, we get a
short album that doesn't outstate its welcome of consistently fun,
boisterous California hardcore. I do particularly like that edge they
had of kind of like Bay Area California thrash and
the crossover thing. There's no shortage of Slayer riffs in hardcore,
but this is such a fun example of like good
time Slayer riffs. But often when you talking about Slayer
RIfS in hardcore, you're thinking the evil Slayer if Yeah,
you know, the sort of nasty Vegan straight edge kind
of slayer riff this I mean Drain Now. Obviously this
band are very big as well. I'd put them maybe
on a similar sort of sphere to someone like Speed
in terms of obviously, you know, Drain have a lot
more like eighties fashion than Speed do, but they both
carry that infectious just jump up and down and have
a good time together kind of demeano. There's even a
bit on this before a breakdown where they do the
tag and they go Drain in the exact same away.
You know, Sam, where would you roughly rank Drain in
terms of contemporary hard because like you are, I have
just said they are short of your genuine kind of
breakout bands like Turnstile Speed Now as well, they're one
of the more unanimously popular ones where if they announce
a show anywhere, people will flock to it and they'll
go mad there. Are they just a tremendous live band
or what actual like quality of output on their records
have we had up to this point?
Speaker 3: So this is my thing we Drain again is these records.
I really like them.
Speaker 4: They got again the albums that just go super well
for me because I like that guitar tone, I like
kind of just like boisterous, bouncy hardcore. I don't think
they've ever like I'm still way for them to kind
of like maybe drop a classic. I really I think
the last album is still my favorite thing they've done.
I think that album they really hit sort of their
stride on that with like like some of the songs
in there and this one, it kind of just feels
like more of the same, which isn't a bad thing
when it is just super enjoyable. But I don't know
if they've kind of hit the moment of like Scowlers,
like the example, we've kind of gone like now we're
they're writing like just like massive rock songs, or I
would put them on a level of like Speed in
terms of quality, I think that they're the're the closest
sort of comparison of like this is turn your brain
off hardcore that if you're into that, I couldn't imagine
not having a good time listening to it.
Speaker 3: So I think like.
Speaker 4: This is it is just more of what Drain offer,
which is in and out breezy. There's like an escape
punk song on there, which is the kind of the
most amount of variation where they'll sing for one song,
but it's still, you know, really fun to listen to.
It's got loads of attitudes. There's other nothing but love
on that like if I live like, you'd hate me too,
sort of hooks. They've got that kind of braggadocious like
grand standing that you want from hardcore, but the kind
of like the bollocks and the swaggers to put it off,
So it's all just kind of just hits on sort
of ticks the boxes you want from me without I guess,
I guess to me, it's just it's kind of like
waiting for them to do that, for that will really
push them into the big leagues, because I feel like
they've kind of like nailed this sound now and it's
taken them to where they are.
Speaker 3: They now need to find that next step.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I liked California Curse quite a bit as
the first one I heard, and then I liked Living
Proof as well. This is now the third time I've
reviewed a Drain album, and I must say every time
I go, this is a lot of fun, and then
it doesn't enter my listening rotation at all, and maybe
it is built for kind of big hardcore live shows,
which you know, I haven't seen Drain, but they do
their thing very satisfyingly, but without for a more casual
follower like myself, many big sticky hooks where they have
the vibe and the cool factor of you know, ripping crossover,
possy fish eyelands skater video hardcore. But for how big
and established they are in the hardcore scene, I would
say an album three, I think they're kind of lacking
their defining you know, classic songs at this stage for
me to put them anywhere above really that consistently seven
out of ten sort of level. So I think for
all Drain are shouted about by the press and Champion
is one of the great hardcore bands at the moment.
I'm not sure how much beyond just die hard hardcore vibes,
which they have in spades, they really are four, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Yeah, this album for me has kind of solidified what
Drain are and probably what they're gonna be forever, because
there was some experimentation on the last record. It was
that rap inter Loo that was quite fun and I'm
not writing off a radical change in the future, but
based on these three albums, it's very clear what kind
of band they are and what kind of records they're
likely to produce, and I don't think it's gonna ever
be unless they do something completely different. It's never gonna
be a turnstar thing where people are gonna go. I
never understood hardcore. I'd never heard this thing before. I
don't like hardcore, but I like Drain. You know, it's
your mileage, which will vary depending on how much you
like thrashy hardcore. Ten songs, twenty five minutes. It never
gets too nasty, it's never too squeaky clean. However, I
do think they nail that thing like it really is
that same. It's it's not necessarily that they're the best
to ever do it, but the sound is pleasing to
my ears, even if it doesn't enter my regular rotation.
I really I like California Curse. I still go back
to that record, you know, once or twice a summer.
But I agree there aren't really any Drain ams which
I spin year round, and I'm among my favorite hardcrams
of all time. But every couple of years a new
Drain record coming along, enjoying it for a few weeks.
Even if that is it, that's maybe that's good enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't disagree, and the you know, kind
of the demeanor they have of sort of like lifting
you up live every day like it's your last that
kind of thing. The opening line of the album is
life is not a contest, but I've already won. And
I think that's that is kind of enough to kind
of hit you in that moment. And speaking of fat tones,
bas tones after people slicer, this isn't quite that rich,
but the baseline that you get at the beginning is
pure good vibes. And then suddenly though thrash rifts kick in,
which dare I say have a touch of like speed
metal in the hyperactive tail end of the rift, like
that could be like, you know, violence or something. When
that riff hits the intro lick of can't be bothered,
maybe laugh because I was like, yeah, let's do the
mid Middle Eastern bit from Holy Wars but at the
start of a hard core song would be cool, and
I don't disagree it is kind of cool. Living in
a Memory is so crossover that it might have one
of my favorite drain rifts to date, Like it's just
so eighties hardcore in a way that I always value
when you do still have a bit of that today.
Speaker 2: But it's mean and hard, and then.
Speaker 1: The melodic chorus and that song arrives and it's like, oh,
it's all chill, guys, sit down, grab a beer out
of the ice box, that kind of thing. And it's
those two flavors rubbing up against together of being mean
and hard and then actually realizing that things ain't that bad.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, yeah, I think like the good vibes do
carry this record a lot.
Speaker 4: Like even if you know something like Scared of a
Thing Enough on, which is mean and stompy and it's
all silly pitwalks, you then just bounce on that one
as well. After you've done your sleepitwalk, you're jumping up
and down, hugging your mates, having a good time, pumping
your fist.
Speaker 1: That is one of the dumbest silly walk across the
stage rifts.
Speaker 4: It's so good, Like I would always mark out for
that and again, you know, until next time, Like it
just bids us farewell, you know, looking back on the
good times, promising more good times to come.
Speaker 3: I'll take that.
Speaker 4: A nice time hardcore record that does still sound pretty hard.
Speaker 3: It's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nothing but Love has that kind of anthrax spin
kicking vocalists doing these sort of you know, agnostic front
or mad ball kind of cadence vocal lines, but then
again on the sort of anthrax killer, particularly when it
goes full on or war dance at the end type riffing.
I think the drummer, just to highlight an individual performance,
is rather good in terms of bridging that kind of
hardcore brutishness with that slightly more wiry.
Speaker 2: Thrash of sensibility.
Speaker 1: There's a little moment in loudest in the room when
he adds this kind of little double bass skip into
the riff later on that makes it kind of pop
but less that get too mean or too relentless. As
we said, the last album had that Descendants cover on it.
Here they go full on. Let's just do an original
pop punk song basically who's having fun still with our
usual heavy guitar tone on it, but it's got that
kind of like everything's good, you know, vocal thing on it,
and in terms of that style of melodic pop punk song, yeah,
obviously it's one of the better ones that's been out
this year. It's not necessarily my favorite thing in the world,
but hearing it with you know, licks still and the
kind of metal guitar playing still in there is a
lot of fun. I mean, hang around for our next
album review. Actually, if you want to hear great pop
songs with total horns up guitar playing, there's a link
that I wasn't expecting, but it's there. But yeah, eighties
crossover to stage time to lift you up, never actually
getting too scary or heavy, because the aim of the
game is easy, breezy. You know, the military gun fans,
there's kind of people they're gonna love it as well.
It's the sunniest album that's out this November. I do think,
like I said, three Ams in now, I don't think
Draine have any like genuinely seminal songs for how big
they are in their era. But I also can't say
that it wasn't a fun twenty five odd minutes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not the most spectacular album in the world.
It's not one of those hard crams where we'll going
it doesn't matter what you like. You have to hear
this show. It's yourself, it's going to define the year whatever.
But if you do like this thing, and really you should,
it is fun. And if you like the bands that
we've been naming throughout this review. I find it hard
to imagine that it wouldn't connect with you, even if
just for a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does make them a decent ambassador in
terms of go and play those big rock festival stages,
play Download or Coachella or whatever. And again, even if
you're not the say of the most extraordinary example, just
show more people what straight up hardcore is about and
what the spirit is and it will get the job done.
So Draine is your friend. As I was sort of
teasing a little bit there, what the vibe for our
next album is, it's Astronoid and Star God. Asterronoid are
a band who are very familiar here at TNM. Actually,
I think between reviews or other albums discussions, we have
spoken about every single Asteroid album so far on this show.
But there's still nowhere near known enough in the rest
of the world. So if you know all about this
band and it sounds at like okay, yeah, here we go,
we've still got to say this for everyone else who
doesn't know yet. Asternoid are I suppose you'd say a
progressive metal band. That's as kind of accurate as you're
going to get, really, because they are one of the
most fuck it, we don't really care about what the
rest of the world is doing at all. We're just
going to do our own thing metal bands I think
we have Currently, they are several albums deep into exploring
this sound of unbelievably bright, sunny, buoyant metal that has
drawn from a few different places and ended up somewhere
very unique. They released I think one of the best
debut albums of the TNM era, in Air, which a
couple of years ago I put it forward for a
summer album relect because it's one of the most just joyous,
blinding in its bright intensity metal albums ever really, and
that kind of drew on Black Gates a lot, but
funneling all of its like happiest, bounciest elements to the
point that it's practically a pop punk album. At the
same time, their next two albums after that sort of
rounded that out into the more of this kind of
prog metal sound, a little bit softer edged maybe, but
still very lovely. And we reviewed the last one, Radiant Bloom,
in twenty twenty two and Sam, we were very much
just like, what a fucking cool, distinct band we have here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I kind of like I don't know, I might
take because I kind of forget just how one a
time they actually feel where like again, you can kind
of make comparison with some bands that like, for me,
it's like they could have had that pop prog source
sensibility of something like cod and Cambria. But like again,
when they're drawing from like other things like post black
metal and a bit of shoe gaze, a bit of
easy core every now and then in some of the riffing,
like it's all there and.
Speaker 1: It's like, do you like Coheede four you Strong and
death Heavan Boy, do we have the band for you?
Speaker 4: Literally you could like if you like those bands, this
is it because I just put this band on. I mean,
and again, like some like Devil Sort Is Soul, the
bright moments of that band where it's like the thing
you know, you've got that in there, like all these
sort bands are like it's just kind of like actually
could be doing just post metal, but only the bright parts,
only the crescendos just constantly, and it's just such a
like it's such a nice thing.
Speaker 3: To have on.
Speaker 4: I I just I put someone on, like it's a
warm hug, it's an album that's you the entire time
and just reassuring you that everything's going to be all right.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 5: I really like Ashanoid, but well, until this week, I
thought I was a one album man for them. Air
is sublime. I think it's fucking brilliant. The other two
are merely absolutely lovely. I very rarely go back to them,
but they're very good. But they just haven't entered my
listening rotation. If I want to listen to Ashanoid, like
I say, there was only one album always went for.
I think this is far and away their best record
since then. I've expected to come on here and go, yep,
you know this band, really interesting band. I don't think
they're going to touch their debut, but this is another
fine record. I'm not someone who has a huge appetite
for this sort of thing all the time. It's very clean, breezy,
progressive metal. It's not the sort of thing that I
have a bottomless pit of want for, but I I've
loved listening to this record this week. It is It's
just so nice. It's gonna be hard for review this
because the sensation of it is hard to describe. It's
just so deeply pleasant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm gonna have a good crack
at doing that. I think I've really enjoyed every Astronoid album.
I do like Again, there is because there's a difference
in style. I think there is a bit of a
there's a jump between Air and then all the albums
they've made since. But I remember liking you know, Radiant
Bloom a good deal. But even though you know, they
felt really comfortable and in command of their sound at
that point, the big hit of songs on it didn't
necessarily stay in my rotation as much as even like,
you know, the previous album. And from there I kind
of thought, Okay, you know, Asternoid are what they are now.
They finessed their sound.
Speaker 2: They are so.
Speaker 1: Unique and so laudable in that sense, but I don't
necessarily how many more surprises we're going to.
Speaker 2: Get from them, and.
Speaker 1: They could become one of those bands where it doesn't
ssarily matter if they repeat themselves too much because no
one else is doing it. And then I heard star God, which,
while not feeling I guess entirely out of the ordinary
for Asterrooid, it's still the same kind of you know, bouncy, poppy,
proggy metal. There are sounds in this and approaches in
this that made me, you know, they gave me enough
pause to go God damn it, they've done it again
and slot out a review slot for it here, because
I mean, just as the immedia again another kind of
for fans of to get people on board who don't
know them. If you like Devin Townsend at his most
kind of melodically explosive and driving I'm thinking Addicted or
Eper Cloud or the more sane songs on Ziltoyd the Ogiscient,
then you have to listen to this band because above
anybody else in our audience, that is who this is for.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: If you haven't already heard it, you've got to catch
on because there's no one else who even approximates that
sensation to the degree that asterronoid are. There are so
many people I see it all the time who go, oh,
Addicted is one of my favorite records.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 1: I wish we'd get some more of that, and the
last couple Devin records, right, they haven't really hit that.
But there is a band under your nose here who
are doing something sort of similar whilst having enough of
their own spin. And what they've done here is they've
got this foundation that they've always had of like kind
of bubbly prog thrash guitars, right, Like this slash metal
is an actual thing here, but with these radiant pos
vocal melodies like we're talking about now, they've pumped it
up full of this like eighties stadium rock sensibility. Tell
me there isn't some fucking aya the Tiger bon Jovi
Death Leopard sort of energy about this one.
Speaker 2: At times.
Speaker 4: My reference point for that was the eighties Transformers animated movie.
Speaker 1: They're like, I don't think that's inaccurate.
Speaker 4: Honestly, there are songs like Third Shot that just pops
off of those like over driven eighties like rock guitars,
and that the way it just builds them like this
is like Optimus Prime speeding down to rescue the autobots
like in the movie. Like if you watch the movie,
I'm sure some people will know the exact kind of
sound them talking about. But it's it's you're right, it
is that, and they you know that with the simps
and all that, it's so constantly explodes with just soaring,
awe inspiring melodies and and just sound like the biggest
thing ever just taking off into space on every song.
Speaker 5: I mean, pop has always been a factor in their songwriting.
The melodies have always been out of this world. But
this really feels like the modern case of when all
of the sixties and seventies prog bands went pop in
the eighties, like when Genesis did Land of Confusion, Yes
Do An Owner of a Lonely Heart, King Crimson going
yacht Rock, Pink Floyd doing Learned to Fly You Rush,
the eighties rush albums, those bands forever reason all decided
to make some of the most euphoric rock music that's
ever been made. After stretching it to its absolute limit,
Ashnoid have kind of they're channeling some of that energy
in the same way that Cobe did on A Column
Before the Sun, which is still my favorite record of theirs,
and it's been a long time since I've heard another
record that does a similar thing to that, and that
I do have a bottomless appetite for. I can listen
to that sort of thing all the time. This record,
by just tightening up the songwriting and getting punchy with
the guitars, it's so again I do like those last
two Asternoid records, this one is so much more ear
catching and addictive than anything they've done since the debut.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the first song when it embark has that kind
of when you say easy Coore Sam just that like
bouncy guitar melody that's honestly so from that kind of space.
But then these twin harmonies open up and they do
capture the feel of like riding the curve of like
an asteroid belt or the ripstream of Optimus Primes engine
right by what I imagine that feels like I've never done it,
but it's you know, fast and dazzling and wondrous, right
like they go for wonder more than most things that
have like an eighty thrash metal sort of engine. And
I love how genuinely ripping their guitars can be. But
you always forget because they just fit so seamlessly into
like the breezy melodic approach the riff throughout Love Weapon, which,
by the way, Love Weapon a big year for those
between this and Ghosts Love Rockets, you know, but you
know the kind of rare company of that kind of
band in terms of like contemporary bands, I agree doing
that like pomp bombastic pop metal like this, you know,
and this has an album it's got that aor arena
pop side to it where they've always been such a
fun bag influences from like thrash to emo, but here
they've got this like synthpop thing at times where you go, yeah,
it makes sense that Astronoid would love Duran, Duran and
depeche Mode and stuff. It just maybe hasn't been as
on the surface as it is here because the title
track massive eighties synthpop feels straight away that makes it
their most workout montage track they have done to date,
in the same way when you hear like Lakrima b
goes from their new record and those synths come in,
it's so excessive and so colorful in that way. And
that was the point in this album where I went, oh,
I see what we're doing on this album. This is
something new for you here where that is a song
I would love to hear on the end credits of
an eighties movie in the same way that your Ghosts
or whatever kind of have done. And you know, speaking
of top Gun earlier, all of the solos on this
are top Gun as fuck star Gods one particularly.
Speaker 4: I mean the solo at the end of Love Weapon.
I was like, oh, you're accelerating off the Moon album,
but Star God Joomp Cole eighty six, like the shred
on the solo on that one, Like when they are
like shredding, I'm like throw the horns to that. Like
there's so many just like fun turns you mentioned like
Depeche Moden. Does it get more like on the nose
than Depressed Mode adding in that kind of like eighties
goth synth at times, like and just having that kind
of like like cool vibe on it as well. Like
there's so there's just so many fun elements they constantly
throw into like keep these songs that are again just
all crescendo all the time, feeling fun and fresh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Depressed Mode has the air of a
joke working title that never got changed, you know, because
it's got a kind of pulsy, dusky synth I really like.
I also think that has one of the best choruses
on the album. Yeah you'll remember, and the third shot
really jump out to me. Depressed Mode also has come
of this like almost like tool like kind of alt
metal riff or something that turns up in the bridge
that like really smacks your teeth out and it's fun
but the chorus is between that and Third Shot. Third
Shot is like night Flight orchestral ready with the synth
rock cut of feel. It has those as a sort
of zill toyed e guitar accents that come in in
the second verse. It goes full Metallica chug on the
bridge and killer hook at the center of it, which
does that great thing where it gets even better halfway
through the chorus when it hits there.
Speaker 2: But worst of all, like You're a gun in for
those high notes right there with him.
Speaker 1: I think that that is a contender, certainly for the
best song they've done since there.
Speaker 2: It's if you had.
Speaker 5: Like a scale and on one end is Jimmy World
and on the other is strapping Young Lad. It's like
the idea that there's something in the middle of those
two things.
Speaker 1: Surely that makes everyone want to listen to this record.
Surely no one can hear that and go I'll skip that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, surely no one's left out.
Speaker 5: I don't want to listen to either of those, like
come on, pull yourself together, and the guitar work on
this record is I don't want to say else this
world gig because it sounds like a ship pun I'm
trying to make, yeah.
Speaker 1: But.
Speaker 5: It is outrageous. Like on the title track it sounds
like Eddie van Halen has joined Thin Lizzy to play
on China Sound, which is just as a pitch as
basically as good as it's possible for big rock guitars
to And then I'll get it on Explosive when it
goes full like U four eighties Yes Ballad the way
on their pop songs they managed to like Trojan Horse
like really clever stuff using the guitars that never feels
like it detracts from it. It's I'm not sure there's
anyone else doing it to their standard right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the opening run I think is absolutely killer Depressed
Mode I would say as my second half highlight. The
last track, Arrival basically acts as like Embark reprise, you know,
kind of book ends the album with the same kind
of riffs coming back in. Throughout all of it, you
do have these like big spacey keyboard lines. Explosive has
an absurd synth solo which big thumbs up for all
the way through, it's like infectious, it's rocking out and
it's incredibly non zeitgeisty again, right, and there's just something
it's so real about committing so hard to being flagrantly
pop like this, whilst also knowing it's got nothing to
do with where the actual mainstream is right now. You know,
it's just pure for the love of the game pop songs.
And you know, if you're loving sangle Wore two and
you want even more eighties cheese, non zeitgeist, brilliantly crafted
heavy networ kind of throwbacks like this, then on top
of all the other superlatives and kind of hooks we
tried to dangle difrately your face for it. There's another one,
Astronoid star God. Next review comes from a band called
home Front, and the album is called Watch It Die.
Speaker 2: Sam.
Speaker 1: This is a name that you brought up last week
when this album was released, and while I was ignorant
to them prior to last week, I have also seen
a few other people throughout the week raving about this,
and so I thought I'll check this out. Who are Homefront?
How did they come to your radar?
Speaker 4: They came onto my radar last Friday when I was
just looking for albums to listen to and I saw
this and was kind of like, okay, post punk, that's
kind of like they've been adjacent to some hardcore bands.
I like, just give this a spin. And I was
kind of like, oh, post punk, but we like that
kind of like synth punk thing that I've really enjoyed.
We seeing a bunch of kind of like pop elements
thrown in there as well. It's a real grab bag
of different things I've been enjoying recently that just came
together and I was, I think people are gonna are
gonna dig this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they're from Canada and they are I think
there's a live band on record. I think they're listed
as being a two piece. They formed in twenty twenty,
so there's still you know, a current decade new band.
This is their second album. And in when we say
post punk and when we say synth punk and stuff,
there's particularly now in kind of the twenty twenty is
a whole large realm of all those things. And when
you think about sort of you know, experimental hardcore adjacent stuff,
I suppose you might think about there's that whole sort
of Y two K almost dig hardcore. You know, we've
sort of spoken brief about bands like MS Paint and
stuff like that before, you know, stuff that is quite
zeitgeisty and experimental corners of hardcore lately. This is much
less that and much more eighties sheen on top of
a kind of core engine of proper punk rock where
it is decently experimental post punk. But it's much more
than what I was kind of just describing. It's much
more like a new order even like pet Shop Boys or.
Speaker 3: The new wave sort of thing going on with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with this sort of synth pop element on top
of genuinely an oil band. Yeah, right, Like I saw
a video earlier of this band covering Cocksparrow and considering
we a lot of this, we are going to be
describing full on fucking you know, like doing the robot
on the dance floor eighty since stuff. Try to before
you've heard this record, try to amalgamate in your mind
what you think those things sound like in one record.
And I mean, like the cover of this album, just
in a pure design sense, kind of caught my attention
in terms of, oh, that looks like the sort of
the vaguely gothy, new romantic sort of stuff that I
could be into.
Speaker 2: But I was not.
Speaker 1: Prepared really for the melding of approaches on it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I think that's fair because again I kind
of like went in blind just thinking this was gonna
be a sort of a post punk record, and then
I was when that synth dropped like halfway through the
opening track, I was like, hey, that's a different like
kind of like flavored to do it. And they just
kind of constantly throw these little like curve balls about
the almwhere like it's got that militaristic kind of like
post punk menace at times, mixed with like really bubbly
like disco simps or beats thrown over it, and it's
that might sound quite contradictory, but it goes surprisingly well together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I have to tell you, with that kind
of combo of you know, pop and punk, this record
is so up my street. In the last twenty four
hours or so, I have gotten obsessed with this album.
I've listened to this about four times today.
Speaker 5: I've only imagined to hear this once, and it was
on my way driving home for this and I missed
my exit because I was having such a nice My
views are not any more developed than that, but honestly,
you wouldn't think based on how nice we've been about
Creeper Asenoid andrain just today. But the eighties throwback thing
is something that I've said before. I'm kind I'm kind
of like at the edge of moving on from and
then an now I'm like, this comes along and I go,
there's a reason why people still draw on that sound,
and why that sounds still sounds fresh, and why it
is still so much fun to listen to this. Like
you say, this combination of things eighties new wave, not
fully like goth rock or the stuff that inspires synthwave,
but proper something that was very distinct to the eighties
with OI, it doesn't compute in my head. I get,
like I said, I've only given this one listen. It
was so exciting hearing those two things work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Because I think just one thing I would say is,
while obviously this is very you know, it's drawing off
sounds of a certain era and classic sounds, it still
feels so contemporary in terms of it doesn't feel like,
for example, like a pastiche or a kind of a
retro throwback. It feels so based in legitimate underground subculture,
right like bringing together punk and industrial and goth and
these kind of things. Anything that's a bit left a center.
I think this is like probably one of the coolest
you know, newer bands that we've had on here in
reviews in a bit, because this absolutely crackles with that.
The title track opens it and at first you wouldn't
think of that kind of synth pop thing that I'm
talking about because it's it's a sort of oi punk
song at first, right or even you could almost describe
it as like a sort of heartland rock kind of
song where there are moments of this on that record
where I can totally see Sam for example, you like
really clicking with that's.
Speaker 4: Got that quite stirring heartland rock fing going to which
I really like. I mean, like Light Sleeper has that
We're Born Alone we Dial on chorus, which is pure
like americanas or heartland rock thing.
Speaker 3: I love that shit.
Speaker 1: That is incredible, that oi punk hook of We're Born
Alone we Die Alone and it's so bleak, but it
also sounds so ralliant.
Speaker 4: But you don't have to live alone like that, and
they follow it that and that's where again that that
feeling like it finds like a real thing, like just
like nihilism and optimism where it is like quite a
bleak amra point because it is, you know, dealing with
the current state of the world, but it's trying to
find pockets of optimism within that, which I think carry
the album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again the lyrical sentiments that keep coming through
and through in terms of that really really pop, dark,
sort of post punk that's also joyous like a punk
rock band is what you have on For example, a
song like Light Sleeper, that song is kind of magic.
Another one that really got me straight away was Kiss
the Sky, which just has the biggest sort of pet
shop boys beat and it's so into the kind of
retro pop like that one's one for my new over
testamental heads, you know, like if you are not done
saying to that.
Speaker 2: Song, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And some of these keys lines like between the Waves
are the most like early eighties like Vince Clark era
Depeche Mode shit that you've ever heard, while also having
those big, kind of almost heartland rock guitar chords beneath them.
Eulogy has like the lush warmth of the Cure whilst
also feeling like a rock song in that sense. I
love the drum programming. I love when there are other
songs like New Madness and Young Offender when you get
this hard, insistent industrial beat and on top of these
other things we're talking about, it's suddenly like eighties Ministry
when it still had a bit of the pop pedch
turns up with this really like hyper nervous energy in
the beats and these you know, industrialized oi hooks with
you know on New Madness, Dance for the Leader, do
the police.
Speaker 4: Beat, dancing with anxiety and Young Offenders the one for
me of like hitting that, that's what that and young
Offender young Friend of thet keep on moving to the
beat like gives death my futures one foot in the
gravey like young Afriend. It's such a hard song, but
it's got again. This is incessant kind of like dance
beat to it. That that that really hits. Like I mean,
if you like you know, high Veers and Military Gun
and those kind of like hardcore adjacent lights or bands,
this has that sort of thing to it as well.
But like whereas you know, you kind of felt the
Military Gun album was kind of sparse and lacking. I mean,
this feels so many of those gaps that like a
military Gun are missing out on so.
Speaker 1: Far from it in that sense, the variations of the
album Young Offender vocally when he turns on the kind
of the growl on it legitimately sounds like Battle Ruins,
the band who I brought up before as being one
of my absolute favorite kind of niche poles from this world,
but in like the Matrix because it is synth Battle
Ruins and that makes no fucking sense, but I've heard
it now and it's brilliant.
Speaker 3: It's so good rock and roll all this way, Oh
my god, like.
Speaker 2: Starts with a fucking piano slide. How good is that?
And then when you want the full on punk stuff
for the children brackets fuck all. That chorus of fuck
all is all that's left for us, honestly one of
the most joyous punk choruses I have heard in god
knows how long.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's so tough to pick a favorite song from
this album because there's so many, but always like it
kicks in, and that's another where you can you I
feel that that touch a hardcore where you can tell
they're kind of adjacent to that scene where they've got
a real like bit between their teeth and they're going
hard but throwing in again these just amazing synth melodies
and one of the best chorus is like, it's so good.
Speaker 1: I straight away I want to see this live so badly,
because you can in the UK. You can imagine them
playing like two Thousand Trees or Outbreak or fucking like
super Sonic, like one in the Midlands where God Flesh
and Backwards play or whatever, like anywhere where punks and
sort of freaks and just sort of these again left
field musical cultures are intermingling.
Speaker 2: I've seen it.
Speaker 1: They're playing London in February, and I'm really fucking annoyed
because I'm want. I'm just I'm honestly, I've been listening
to this album intensively for about twenty four hours and
I am immediately so enamored with this. I just know
this is like for the next however long, I am
going to be stuck on this. This is again we
added this very last minute to the review schedule, but
I'm so glad we caught it. This album is so
fucking good, right, I insist that people listen to it
if you are interested in any of either of these
sort of realms that we're talking about here. And I
went and checked out a bit of their first ab
as well, from twenty twenty three because I'm so enamormed
with this one and it's good, but this is great.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, I'm saying like I threw it in the
disco because I was like half from my post was like, no,
people need to hear this because it's really cool. And again, yeah,
I went back into other peoples one that's cool, but
this is this is that step up and I hope
this catches on because it is such a like again
there are banging kind of like say like, oh, if
you like ms Paint, if you like Minting, you probably
will like this as well. But it's so much more
adventurous and just kind of like one of a kind
in that sort of field that I mean, if you're
looking at them, that is more ambitious beyond the kind
of melodic punk bands that are adjacent to hardcore.
Speaker 3: This has like so much more going on.
Speaker 1: It's so so bubbling with life and ideas and elliot. Again,
I wasn't sure if you're gonna have the time to
get this one, but I'm glad you giving it one
spin because I was like, you will like as well, right,
Dance synth Oil, What a fucking incredible concept that's us
all over right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, again, like I very nearly didn't because I thought
I've you know, I've got a lot, I'll maybe get
a listen to it.
Speaker 2: But we'll see.
Speaker 5: I can't fathom that I maybe would have let this
slip because I might have had a reason to go
back to it, you know, after this show. And now
it's like, I feel like I've got a whole new
album to spend the rest of the year discovering.
Speaker 2: It's.
Speaker 5: Yeah, full house, this thing is superb.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: This band called home Front the albums watch it die
from where I'm sat right now, I think it is
one of the best kind of newer bands we have
had on the reviews show all through this year, and
it's here on the final one. But do not let
it slip by you. Our last two album reviews of
the year. As it turns out, we are now going
to black metal both in some ways you could say,
of a more eccentric variety. We're starting with our maybe
safer ground here. Lamp of Murmur is first up. This
album is called The Dreaming Prints in Ecstasy. Lamp of
Murma are one of my favorite bands of the twenty twenties.
I think really the one man project The man in question,
known as MS, has blazed from where I've sat as
well one of the most impressive trails across the underground
in this decade, with a series of releases that have
evidenced one of the most dynamic, versatile, and naturally gifted
artists playing in the realms of kind of low fi
black metal in a scene that has so so many chances.
I don't need to tell you right that so many
For the past five years, he has been the guy
I've looked to and gone, that's the guy, because the
spark and the ingenuity in what he's doing is just
on another level. He started off playing very raw, low
fi black metal that also kind of gradually developed this
goth sensibility, giving it this kind of vampiric black metal feel,
like dark Throne dancing with Suzi and the Banchees in
some Transylvanian cave. That is like my very favorite stuff.
He's done, the stuff with that particular kind of duality
of flavors. The debut era of Ecliptical Romanticism would be
one of my key picks for the best black metal
albums of the last decades. Then suddenly, with last albums
Attorney in Bloodstorm pivoted into this style of essentially on
that album extreme immortal worship, with this greater sense of
like heavy metal triumph in it and this sense of
the epic, but still with his kind of natural flair
for very catchy riff writing. Intact, that album picked up
a few more fans who weren't necessarily tuned into the
early ones and Sam. We also, for example, saw Lampa
Murmur live together at Incineration festivals this year in his
cape and you were like, you know what that was sick.
Speaker 4: I mean, the last album got me more in on it,
and then seeing it, lads, we're like, you know, I'm
now fully in on, like exactly the sort of the
vibe that like he is bringing with.
Speaker 3: The Lamp of Mumber project.
Speaker 1: Yes, and now fourth full length of Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy.
I was obviously very curious where we go next, because
we have these almost two kind of different poles of
what had been so far, with the extremely victorious, heavy
metal laced Nordic feel of the last album and then
the more shadowy goth energy of the earlier stuff, and
this album kind of marries pieces of the two, but
also while very much being its own thing again and
for such a varied output now at this stage so consistent.
This is once again one of the black Mattle albums
of the year. From where I'm at, I also think
this is the biggest undertaking of any Lamp record to date.
Like we'll get to the fact that there is a
twenty two minute three part suite in a bit, but
he seems to have thrown everything at the wall on
this record, and if you are anything like me, that
is a bit.
Speaker 5: Of a feast when you think about this. This is
the fourth Lamp of Murmur record in five years, and
it's this ambitious and this far reaching, this eccentric and
just like dense with musical ideas and content. It's this
this album. Listening to it, you think this should have
taken those five years on its own. Yeah, And so
that he's been doing so many different things along the way,
It's not like they've been he's been doing the same
album over.
Speaker 1: Even in other fucking projects and other albums that he's
under different names.
Speaker 5: I know, But and listen, I love the previous Lamp
of Murmur records as soon as I laid eyes on
this one. Oh and this is probably gonna be my
favorite the name the Dream Prince and Ecstasy Sublime. I mean,
talking about favorite black met outfits of the twenty twenties,
I think the only one I'd have over Lamp of
Moment is Departure Chandelier, right, And this just looks like
a Departure album, Like similar album cover, similar fonts. It
pulls from precisely the strain of epic raw black metal
that I do have a real affinity for. I am
so taken with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this album is quite something. I mean I've said
that about every single Labum Moment album, so I'm not
going to bother ranking them right now in that way.
But I don't disagree with a lot of what you said.
Speaker 4: I think you were saying, But it's kind of like
melding the sort of the two sort of ten boles
has gone down. It's why I've kind of like found
this to be the lamb of album I've had the
best time with. I've really kind of gone on board
with this sweeping, epic, sort of gothic thing, like like
you have those like Coo instructory track, but then Forest
for Loose Nations, you know, that is like a big
undertaking for an opener kind of it just like heavy
metal bomb basted with like gothic keys. It's got those
sort of symphonic elements thrown all over it as well.
It is like grandiose as hell while still sounding extreme
and intense. It's a really impressive opener. And I mean
like not to like ranging them like like what we
talked about, you know, Laura Shrum, like the Sympolicgamon's being
so constantly overbearing and and they're never kind of.
Speaker 3: Being in the space and anything settle.
Speaker 4: The symbolic elements here feel really well integrated, and they're
like they sound huge when they come in, but there's
so much other stuff going on around them. There's much
more texture to the song, and it just it makes
the whole thing kind of stand out more and feel
more memorable as a whole, even if it's you know,
like what nine minutes as a black male epic to
open the record, and I was kind of like that
flew by to me because there was so many cool
things constantly catching my ears.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this album is It's spookier than Saturnian Bloodstom, that's
for sure, because I love no matter what he's doing,
how much Lap Records go to kind of just immersing
you in some kind of otherworldly realm. It's part of
what black metal is all about. And this one it's
like you're in some kind of decaying, old, abandoned opera
hall or something like. It's more baroque than Saturnian Bloodstore,
which again was very like icy Landscape. This that kind
of feels like it's sort of like horn throwing heavy
metal album. This has not necessarily lost the accessibility that
that record brought. Sonically, it's a different corner of it.
It's not so you know, at the heart of Winter,
but that specific style of like late nineties going into
the millennium black metal production when it was more grandiose
in the early nineties stuff, but while still not feeling
exactly modern. I like that he's still playing around in
that kind of feel, but a different area of it
because you have an album that feels, you know, looming
and imposing, sort of bridging that gap between hulking and
then really shadowy and evil. That creaky, clinky horror piano
intro is so good when that melody just gets picked
up without a beat by the intro riff of first
song proper and there are licks for days on this thing,
and that song Forest Hallucinations was the one released ahead
of the album, and I was like, hello, because this
is something different again where it's got those incredibly catchy
guitar lines, which is just one thing that I think
he's absolutely they came off right now. It's got the
one double bass part at the beginning of it. It's
also got that kind of, you know, some of those
still very thrashy and more all type riffs that make
you want to wear a chain mail. But it's got
those ghostly symphonic black metal piano lines running all over
its rifts in that real late nineties manner. And when
you hit the big like synth string that sweeps that
almost serve as percussions, smashing it into the rift right
when it goes don like I love that sound so much,
Like it's so grotesquely bombastic, I just want it injected
into me. Compositionally, these songs are phenomenal. Forester Hallucinations is
nine minutes long, and each riff flows so naturally. Six
minutes in, it's slipped into one of their disco beats,
and you almost notice because of how smoothly it's progressive.
Speaker 5: They've done a lot in their short career, but I'm
not sure they've ever written songs that feel so much
like avalanches of riffs, where like classic metal songs in
the nineteen eighty so we just got it's just one
incredible riff after the other, like the one that opens
the song after the fires induction, which I need to put.
A good intro track can do so much for a
black metal record, and so many bands just go, let's
just alternate two notes on the Casio keyboard and that'll
be fine, and normally, to be fair, I agree with them.
So it just tickles my brain. But having something that's
so you know, dramatic and stirring and opening up with
that mandatory suicide tritone riff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to think what it sounded like, and
it does have that almost like classic just kind of
air again you know something has arrived, and that's a
good comparison point.
Speaker 5: It's so attention grabbing on the scale of something like
you know when you first put on a Behemoth record
and it just feels stately and it commands your attention
in a way that often these underground rale black metal
bands don't even necessarily try to this song, the way
it also makes between Ethereal Emperor worship and those blasts
of early Immortal. As a black metal fan, you go,
what's not to like? And then they still find space
for them to put their own twist on black metal
in there. It's not pure pastiche HARKing back to these
classic bands in the nineteen nineties. It sounds like Lamp
from Murmur.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean hate Gate great name is some of
their most like unrelenting dark throne blasting in a while
with this kind of thick you know, war machine rift,
this like spiked gauntlet heavy metal feel, but also the
hardcore kids. He like, this band could kind of two
steps to that part a little bit. Something that he
gets that I think a lot of black metal forgets
is that black metal riffs can actually be extremely head bangable.
Like it's not a lightning tremolo blur or just a
dissonant fuzz. They're like primarily grooving things even But when
you are thinking that that song is just a rift
storm of very high quality black metal riffs, which it
could just be and still be awesome, six minutes in,
the most insane fucking keyboard pan pipe effect comes in
and I swear my soul leeds my body at that moment,
sounds like that out of that like outrageous, you know,
limbonic art, Old Man's Child kind of playbook is so
my shit. And then before you know it, he's actual
crooning over that part. And this is where I start
to go. If you've never wondered what nineties Dimu Borgir
or Emperor would sound like if they were more into
the Sisters of Mercy and Dead Can Dance, we now
have an album that answers that question, and it's so
like fired up and creative finding the ways to bring
those strands together.
Speaker 4: I think, hey, my my favorite so one of the
album because it's just it's so hard to begin with.
It is like jam packed with so many riffs, and
soon like and He's kind of new Year comes in.
It feels like an interesting change. It's always moving forward.
And then like when I was gonna like yeah, cool,
and then when that sort of gothic shift happens, I
was like, ah, man, you you pulled that out of
your like hardest song than you are now throoning in
like pure melancholy, such a cool vibe shift. I was
like the craft of the as well as I really
admire the song craft that he can put into these songs,
where these feel like interesting compositions. They're long, but I
never plume myself and sort of looking at the sort
of I didn't know when that sort of shift happened
to the song because I'm never looking at the sort
of the length fix. I'm just I'm so immersed, I'm
so enjoying every new strand that he's kind of like pulling.
And again though, just that those aggressive blasts that come
at the start, they are so like almost disarmingly chaotic
and unhinge in the way that someone's like when the
blasts are like, yeah, well there's just a blastbeak. This
film's like it's going that step even harder before you
hit these song headbanger rifts.
Speaker 3: It just keeps these songs feel so interesting at all times.
Speaker 5: And I think the reason why they sound so cohesive
is because even when they're being really heavy and really nasty,
they're still fun. Well, that main rift that keeps occurring
through the song, that's pure under a funeral moon. But
it's not even you said, discord it. It's not even
that it's more like umpa, it's just it's so buoyant
and jubilant when it's going along, but then when that
riff comes in at the end, it's it's borderline industrial
everything hitting it once it almost sounds like Ramstein. And
then they follow that with some of the like summoning
cassio worship that I happen to, like it's it's just
as a song, it's such a grab bag. And then
for that's going to Reincarnation of a Witch, which is
one of the most attic Lampo Murma songs maybe ever.
It's such as it's funny that there's a twenty two
minute song still to come and already you go, this
might be the most maximalist piece of run of songs
as bad as ever put together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Reincarnation of a Witch.
Speaker 1: He's been playing live basically pretty much since the last
album came out, Like he played that incineration when we
saw him just rampaging as you say, even dare I
say a bit of a vocal hook with the yeah,
like you know, croaked out by this fucking toad, But
it is a hook, right, And the first time he
does that, when it then switches open into this like
skeletal death rock guitar part that is such like a
perfect swerve at the perfect moment where it switches from
that like kill mode to dance mode essentially so efficiently,
and that side ay of the record right these like, yeah,
you know, handful of incredibly high standard as they have
been Lampemurma tracks with a few new strings to their bow.
Great Side B after another sensational pampipe interlude where I
agree even going back to like the earliest records, Lampa
Murma had the spooky interlude shit absolutely down. But Side
B is primarily taken up by the title track of
this record, The Dreaming Prince in Nestsasy, separated into three
parts labeled Moon Dance, Twilight, Orgasm and the Fall, and
collectively it's far and away the most ambitious thing that
Lampe Murma has done today, and it is the goth
second wave black metal fusion epic that I don't know
if the world has been crying out for it, but
I have.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I've been crying out for it,
but turns out I'm here for it. I like, yeah,
twenty minute, three parts.
Speaker 3: A week because again, each part feels really distinct.
Speaker 4: Moon Dances like got these amazing melodic riffs, like they
sound so good, like the keys going full on Phantom
of the Opera towards the end, like it is such
a momentous, real ride.
Speaker 1: The main riff in part one is actually it's a
grooving goth rock batcave dance floor part, so much so
that it sounds like the New AFI album, Like those
songs that Jade's doing on the New Fi album when
it goes full, like you know, skeleton on the dance floor,
That's exactly what this riff sounds like. And it embellies
that with these like fist pump, heavy metal chugging parts
so expertly that you think it was not unusual for
those two things to go together.
Speaker 5: And then for like the clean vocals to coming towards
the end again drawing on that new wave goth influence
that we know is so present in this band anyway,
And it's on a song which has pulled from things
like Iron Maiden and classic black metal, And you're right,
it doesn't sound incohsive. There's no element of this where
you're going, Wow, what a wacky combination. I can't believe
they've brought those two things together. Isn't that hilarious. It's like, no,
this is just a completely coherent sound. And then for
it's going to the second part, a lot of the
way it just it switches gears because it repeats some
of the same motifs, but it slams the brakes on
it and it becomes this kind of like a brooding
ballad where the guitar work beyond even things that iron made.
It sounds like Eric Johnson. It's soaring.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: Part two is like primarily the instrumental changeover, but it
goes so field of the nephylin and that kind of
the complete passage through a nocturnal dream world of their
Elysium album, which is one of the best things a
song could do. And when that song did that at
that moment, and I was just like, I am, I'm
on the same page of what we're doing here. The
slow pulsing build up, the pulling you through from one
side into something else, that's something like that record from
them does with all of those sounds swirling around you.
And then part three you get like the Dark Incarnate
Reborn with like the Malevola black metal leads rising out
of that. There's one riff in there around the kind
of two minute mark that's almost folky.
Speaker 2: But it's so regal and evil.
Speaker 1: At the same time. It cuts exactly the way I
wanted to. And then the harps accord, like, oh shit,
who did we forget to invite to the party? Who
we haven't we had already, someone's missing, that's right, the
harps accord.
Speaker 2: Come on in light this bad boy up and boy
does it.
Speaker 5: I was so happy. I was already I was already
having a good sign. I said that Barock flares to
this record is already charming me. The one thing it
needed in the final stretch before it changes gears again
on the final track was just some like harps arecord
ripping and then that juxtaposed with these choirs that sound
like they're offered lost a Arcturus record. It's just the
most climactic, wild shit. It's spectacular.
Speaker 4: It just it's like everything that's kind of been a
part of lamp Murmur. I think before I'm just gonna
go like this is almost like the great It hits
kind of collection of all my ideas coming together for like,
it feels like this is must He must have poured
so much time over and again clearly not because it's
comes so soon after the last album, but this is
like one of those probably magnum.
Speaker 3: Opus epic tracks where he's do that again.
Speaker 4: I might, in other hands find a little bit graating
and not something that I can go along with. But
because there's such confidence and such kind of like strong
compositional feeling to all, I'm so in on all of it.
So when you're getting Harper scored and opactic vocals, it
just feels so right in the vibe of the song
and the journey you've gone on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then it has one last little part in Gift,
which is the final track, which has credited backing vocals
from ket Iraq, which is another current black metal project
of the other way, Abu lapbamur Is and also Frankie Ero,
who has been Lampe Murmur's probable highest propile supporter. There's this,
you know, kind of melodic backing, kind of quiet chemical romance.
Speaker 3: Please, that would be so funny.
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw Lampa Mamba and Devil Master together
if you just had that exact same build, but Michael
Correa afterwards turn up with it. But that closer is
a straight up dead can dance style melodic, Gothic, kind
of medieval folk truck again in the way that, for example,
a recent touch point stuff like Bird of Prey or
Spear of Truth from that newest AFI record is kind
of in that realm. There are these parallels here, but
this is as a record like it's just catnip for me.
He is a master of the craft. This is expertly done.
You won't have heard another black metal album this year
that sounds like it, even as so many parts of
it do feel classic, and personally I'm very happy to
hear the goth elements coming back into the four for
the Lampa Murmur, even as this feels spiritually maybe still
closer to the last album in terms of its big
sound and more colorful production than the earlier stuff. But
I agree, like, you know, fuck it, if you've heard
Behemoth or Demi Borgi or Emperor or you know, Satiricon
or whatever, there's not much going on in the underground
right now that is this is better than this. He's
still evolving and it still rips.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I this thing is absolutely wonderful. It's sometimes hard
for albums that come out later in the year to
really make their mark as highlights of the year as
a whole. I'm certain I'll be talking about this album
next month and possibly later in that episode if I
continue to if it continues to grow on me as
it has done this week, I am totally enamored with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was one that again I saw the release
date and I was like, I will be looking forward
to that one the whole way. And it is certainly
one of the best black metal albums of the year.
And it's nice again to end to have our final reviewpisode.
I'd be talking about one of the best black metal
albums of the year in it our final album review
of the whole year. Though this is so good that
it's turned out this way comes from Master's Hammer and
an album that's called Malderow Disco. Now, I am aware
how kind of indulgent on the surface this appears to
put two underground black metal albums in a row at
the end of this month, but park those thoughts one
second hold on. I put this album on the review
schedule before hearing it a couple months ago on the
soul strength of the single and accompanying music video that
came with it for the song Beast Within from this
When this was announced, which let's just say that video
gave me pause. And when I saw that this album
was coming out right at the very end of November.
This album comes out on the twenty sixth, bizarrely, but
in you know, the final week of November, when almost
all other releases have slowed down. I was like, get in,
we will have reviewspace around there for this, because oh
my god, this is not here as a black metal
pick in the way that Lampa Murmur is here. This
is here as a wild card pick. This is here
as a torture sam pick. Maybe in part Elliott, Yes,
Let's talk about massus Hammer context a little bit first,
because massus Hammer are at least at one point and
in some shape or form, a black metal band from
the Czech Republic with an incredibly rich legacy. Their history
stems back to the late nine teen eighties and they
are maybe the most kind of quintessential name when it
comes to the the Koukia side of black melt. I guess,
particularly coming out of places like Central Europe, there's something
about the region there that just breeds eccentricity in these bands.
So when we look at acts like Malacarpatan for example,
today and that kind of cheeky forest goblins and a
drunken stupor in the woods kind of creatively unhinged demeanor
which we raved so much about on that last Malacarptan record.
Both of us had that in our favorite records of
that year. That's a very Masters Hammer kind of heritage
that they're they're, you know, kind of following on through there.
Speaker 2: Their early work.
Speaker 1: Master's Hammer is seminal. Their debut album, Ritual, which came
out in early nineteen ninety one, has been described by
Fenris of Dark Throne as the first Norwegian black metal album,
despite it being check so in many ways, if you
were to look at black metal in the nineties solely
just looking at the Scandinavian bands, they would be one
of the most important, primary missing links that you would
miss out on doing. Even if everything we are going
to talk about sounds insane to you, you should go
hear those albums if you want to have a simply
a better picture and a better understanding of black metal history.
But that is just the beginning of the Master's Hammer story.
Speaker 5: See Master's Hammer are a band which I've been meaning
to go all in on for a while because, like
you say, Ritual is a classic album, and there are
bands that I love who cite it, and as far
as eccentric, off the wall extreme metal of the late
eighties and nineties goes, which is a thing that I
have a massive affinity for. Masters Hammer one of the
few major bands that I had left to go in on.
So when you said, oh, we're doing a Masters Hawer,
I thought, oh, fantastic. I will listen to their new album,
I'll be familiar with their debut, and then I'll be
able to connect that. There cannot be dots between these
It doesn't.
Speaker 2: Make sense to me.
Speaker 5: This is an insane leap that we're talking about. It
has to be, I said. So when we decided we
were doing this, I was curious because I thought, what
is it about this band? I know that like they're
in the underground, they're very revered, but I thought they're
going to be pushing out some bigger things, even if
it's at the end of the year. And after Parrinoid
did the record for the Damnation of You last week
and I mentioned that I wasn't that familiar with Master's Hammer,
but I was looking forward to this album. A glee
which worked across your face. Yes, And then when the
email came through of the promo and I read the
word disco, I really then started to wonder where this
was going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you said to me, I only know ritual,
I was like, ah, so you're not aware that Just
two albums later they made their initial swan Song, almost
a joke album of nightmarishly avant garde headache circus music
versions of European folk songs, including a Chuck Berry cover.
I was going to say, are you looking at the
thirty years in between the two albums you've heard going,
how the fuck did they chan? Maybe that's a fun
way to spend the Christmas break, you know, because trust me,
this band are Wild and Master's Hammer have broken up
or gone on hiatus several times. I kind of got
into them around the mid twenty tens when they were active,
putting out a couple albums at that point, but then
they seem to retire. Around of twenty twenty, they did
one of their various farewell performances only to reveal actually
they've not broken up. They've got more to offer, and
the album that's materialized is Malde or Disco, which the
fact that this is not only what we are here
to cover, but the context that this is a comeback
album also next this one of the best things we
could be reviewing right now. I am elated. I'm so
happy that it turned out this way, that this is
what we get to end our year of reviews on.
When they have a guitarist called necro Cock, for one,
thing like Eccentric does not begin to cover Master Hammer.
They are v do not give a shit band from
the black metal scene. This is not a black metal record.
I don't think. Maybe God fucking knows. The video single
that atracted my attention features essentially a Gangomaniacs in the
wood and there is an extremely prominent ketar featured in
that video doing the most obnoxious synth riff and it
basically it looks and sounds like one of the most
like one of the more insane Eurovision entries from the
mid two thousands, when that kind of stuff was most rife.
When you see like compilation videos there it was like
two thousand and you know seven from Ukraine and it's like,
oh the fuck are these guys? Why are you why?
Like why do you look and sound this way? That
kind of being infected by the fungal infection of European
extreme metal, like it's from the Last of Us or something.
Kind of sounds a bit like Lindermann that song like
his solo project, like when you have the most insane
eurodance bits filtered out with Ramstein into.
Speaker 2: This like big, full on.
Speaker 1: Keitar centric metal tune once again. I saw that video,
heard that song on the beat within, and I was like,
this is going in. I'm gonna surprise the others with this.
They won't know what the fuckers hit them, and I'm
glad that it's basically turned out exactly as I thought
it would.
Speaker 5: I'll give them this. It's not background music. There is
there's no putting this on and making yourself some lunch
tiding your flat. It probably isn't safe to operate heavy
machinery in the presence of this record. To use a
gen Z term, masters hammer are scaring the HUDs. Yeah,
I agree, off its fucking rock at this thing. I'm
really at a loss for how to describe things. The
only way you can really describe what the songs of
this sound like is just picking two like you've just
done completely desparate things and saying, now, imagine those together,
and anyone listening is going to go I can't. That's
that's that's going to be the experience of trying to
convey what this album is, because let's say it's it's
sort of Eurovision came up a lot more than I'd
anticipated an album that references throbbing gristle. This is an
album that meets those two worlds. And if you're down
for it, which in theory I am, I have no
idea what quite what I think of this record. It's
it's kind of broken my brain.
Speaker 1: I was hoping that would be the case, and you know, Elliott,
you and I can have some some sort of you know,
more more measured discussions about it. Maybe, Uh, Sam, I
knew what you'd think of it, and I, as you
put it earlier, I was rubbing my head together with glee.
Speaker 3: This is bottom ten albums you've ever made me review
on this? Well?
Speaker 4: Why genuinely Like I was trying to make notes on
this and I was like, this is this is futile.
There is no point, like, how do you the first
song when it's just like tuneless bleeps just happening before
tuneless vocals. I mean, I was like, oh, it's like
this album is just an unpleasant cophony of sounds happening.
Speaker 3: Over and over again.
Speaker 4: There are bits of like okay, that does sound a
bit like Ramstein, but with no weight and no atmosphere
and just like trying to just sound abrasive and unpleasant
as possible. And that beast within song I couldn't stop
laughing during that song, like I want to kill the
beast within me.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, like.
Speaker 1: Dam I put it to you that if that riff
was in a cross face track, you'd rate.
Speaker 3: It maybe, but.
Speaker 4: Like because there's others have going on there, Like the
vocals on this album are like just so unpleasant. They
are just not nice to listen to. They like where
but was actually trying to sing always as the kind
of like.
Speaker 1: Weird kind of like not scream but not it's a
it's a croaky kind of black metal gobbl in sort
of voice, right, which is one thing they've never really
changed or gotten rid of that much with throughout their
their catalog. The first track is it's kind of like
a crowd rock thing, I suppose, but combined with like
full blown Eastern European techno music. And then you get
this like check speaking black metal voice enter and essentially
starts doing the robot over it, and Ellie, I thought
about the amount of times you brought up Streeborg, and
I was just like, this is gonna be.
Speaker 2: This is like exactly, this is exactly the.
Speaker 5: Zone Streborg, because I vividly remember when I mentioned Streebog.
I think I was just saying nice about them, and
you laughed in my face. And here we are two
years later, basically listening to a Streeborg album. I mean
that first song sounds like if Census was made by
Varga in prison.
Speaker 2: It's like.
Speaker 5: It is if you had a Cassio keyboard and you
went through every single synth choice. I went like, which
one's the dorkiest, and went fine, whole album.
Speaker 2: Sounding like that.
Speaker 5: The guitars are pushed way in the back, but it's
he's desperate for the attention. He's covering the thing like
pinched harmonics, which just sound insane. And it's so funny
that he does that voice and goes, we should also
tune this. It's important to me that, oh my god,
we really hit the right notes. It's like Franca, the
problem is more fundamental than listen. The voice in the
concept of a black metal record sounds great, but left
out in the cold by these dorky cassio synthoos. It
kind of exposes why that singing style isn't too popular.
Speaker 1: This is muscle habber are not concerned with how popular
they might be. This is something that only the most
galactic of Central or Eastern European mind would come out with.
And I'm part Hungarian, so something within me does stir.
I am caught within the tractor beam of the eurogoblin ray.
I mean even the title maldaror right, presumably referring to
the nineteenth century novel The Chance de Malderoor, which is
about a character rejecting kind of conventional Christian morality. Shamasha
also doing a series of black male records about it.
And then disco. Right, he's evil and he's cutting shapes
on the dance floor. Try and stop him. He's got
his flares on and he's too evil to care. And
there are keyboards on this that sound It's that like
nineteen sixties idea of what the future sounds like, in
that you know, sort of craft work, the model kind of.
It's a lot about disco today, haven't we It's been
a very disco centric November for whatever reason. But it's
it is like kind of craft work as processed through
the eyes of a you know, nearly forty years in
the European underground metal scene band or all of that
stuff that sounds like you're in a kind of like
retro future space observatory in the science.
Speaker 2: Museum, you know. And I'm into that.
Speaker 1: The whole album is that this very particular dance floor
temper you mentioned the fucking throbbing gristle referenced with a
song called Genesis p Orrige with a big fuck off
synth riff, which is a little bit like eighties rush
meets sixties doctor who.
Speaker 3: Like video game sounds.
Speaker 1: I'm having a decent time, and then take it on,
which I again, I say this with full sincerity. I
love the complete embrace of how dated these sins are
going to be. There is no concern to make this
grounded in twenty twenty five. Jordan Fish is nowhere to
be seen here. We have not even PS one since,
but like Sega Mega Drive since or something, and then
a croaky man crooning in check at you and like, yeah,
I'm well aware that combination of things, right, It's not conventional.
It's not going to be for everyone. That's also precisely
the reason that Marster's shammur A here forty years in
fucking trying it. I have no idea what is going
on with the high pitched backing vocals all throughout the album,
But the fact that I have no idea about them
kind of just makes me go with it.
Speaker 5: That song sounds like if they were making a remake
of The Jetsons with no money, and to do the
theme song, they decide that it should be a collaboration
between my German great grandfather and the last living Castrato.
That is the sound of take It or Leave It.
The combination is so strange. Again, part of me ad
mys it. Part of me is kind of enjoying the
sixth thrill of it, but I'm not convinced it works
per se.
Speaker 4: Trying to like round then the mindset they went into
making these songs at anymore. I was like, I don't
I can't.
Speaker 3: Think like the person who writes songs.
Speaker 4: Like I like Chorus and my Heartfelt, you know, the
stuff we talked about here.
Speaker 3: I like, well that this album is like Sam, this
is not for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean beast Within is definitely the most
like kind of put the catamucks the pigeons. There's probably
a reason they put that one out first. Bored ofline
again sort of like Eurovision novelty song on the album
and I heard that and that's what made me go, right,
I've got to make the guys listen to this. A
lot of it is kind of again the sort of
like craft worky left field metal sound combined with this
again very like creaky intentionally creaky kind of again like
several decades in early like first way proto black metal
sort of thing. And that is obviously it's an eccentric
that's the name of the game. With Masters Hammer, it
will be the maddest thing that most people have ever heard.
I think it's so much fun that we have bands
like this right, Massive Hammer have existed longer than all
of us have been alive, and bands running for decades
at a time in corners of the underground, creating this
kind of madness so far out of sight of what
is popular. People listening to this right now who don't
usually list to Glad that Massama will be like, what
the fuck.
Speaker 2: Are these guys on about?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: You get to the song el Tidy near the end,
and it's like I fall sixty five core with like
the trance and the vocal filter and stuff, and it's
the sound of people who helped invent, genuinely helped invent
what second wave black metal would be rejecting, you know,
all of the conventions as they did back then that
would have prevented them from doing that, But then they
kept on going. They did not stop at that, and
they've just kept on going dad a rabbit hole that
the vast majority of people would not be insane enough
to follow them down. But like I said, I put
this album forward and I knew at the very least
one out of the two of you would be like,
this is the shittest thing I've ever heard, and the
other one would probably be I do not know what
is going on. I kind of admire the carnage, but
God knows if I like it or not. I have
maximum respect for Master's Hammer. They are so beyond caring
what the hell anyone thinks they should be. I mean,
you think, after like decades are insane releases? Right, They've
got some mad records. Like I said, Ellie, you should
go and listen to the last record they made before
they broke up the first time in the nineties, Because
you will be it's more head scratching than this one
in a number of ways. You'd think after decades of
releases like this, people would have caught on. But when
they released that Beast within video, I looked and there
were still a bunch of comments from people being like, well,
I like ritual, but what the fuck is this? And
Master Hammer do not give a shit. They are the
man running through the center of town screaming, flinging his
shit everywhere, and you can't tell him not to do
that because he's not gonna listen. And I think this
record is a maddening, quirky trip down a lane that
I wasn't otherwise going to hear, and God blessed Master's
Hammer for continuing to do that.
Speaker 5: You know, I've had this album for three days and
I've tried to get as many listeners as I can stomach,
really in that time, because I really wanted to come
on and be able to say definitively whether it was
genius or terrible, I.
Speaker 2: Think this is better than life has not put a
dream by.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: I was good, I was gonna be nice pering I don't.
I might have to think that statement more. I think
it works as a more an overall more cohesive peace
than life has put a dream.
Speaker 2: I'll give it that much.
Speaker 4: I'm going to like rank the ten worst albums that
you've made me review, and I'm going to see where
this lands against that fold record, like and the fire
Swan's record from this year. And this is the category
of albums I'm putting this in with like Miserable Time
for Me Leave.
Speaker 5: I gonna say what I was going to say was
I applaud Master's Hammer every step of the way, for
every in fact, for the same reasons as I applauded
that Avenge seven fold record. I happen to think that
album is incredible. In this case it is purely like
it is almost entirely an admiration from the position of
I applaud because the act of actually sitting and listening
to it I find pretty unpleasant. But I would so
much rather have this than a rerun of Ritual in
twenty twenty five of them just doing the same thing
that they were doing back then. Like you say, I
love if you're an underground band and you're never going
to be big no matter what, why not do stuff
like this, like what's stopping you? Like if you lose
all your fans? Fine, who genuinely there is something infects
spot seeing a band who genuinely don't care.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd love so much that this band have again
early on made a couple of records that are so
foundational to so much music that I love. And I
do absolutely love those records. But the spirit that help
them make them of kind of rejecting everything just continue
to go so so far. And I would wear that
T shirt with pride, you know. And this record comes
out final week in November, as said, you should give
it a blast and expand your horizons. And that is
incredibly the final review that we are doing in twenty
twenty five. What a capstone that is, and what a
bunch of reviews that is. Like I said, I was
really excited to get into some of these because even
though we are, you know, a couple weeks away really
from doing all of our end of year stuff, I
think there are genuinely a handful of all round year
highlights in this bunch, from the big established names that
you already know to some newer, more unknown names that
you don't already know, So go and check out all
those records whichever one kind of sang to you the
most as we were describing them. Let us know, of course,
in a couple of weeks what your favorites are. We
will be back with one more Hyperblasts next week before
we start rapping all that up, and we will explain
there how of course, end of year season is going
to go here on That's Not Metal, But for now
you can enjoy those records to your heart content, get
grooving when the Malader or Disco comes out to you
next week, and we will be here with you next
week for another edition of That's Not Metal. So cheers everybody,
see you later.