Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to That's Not Metal. We are your
weekly rock and heavy metal podcast, and this is another
edition of Hyperblasts where we come at you every week
letting you know what you need to know and what's
been going on in the news and the releases. You
are going to want to hear loads of new tracks,
loads of new announcements this week to be talking about,
and we try and keep you up to speed with
everything that has been going on in our world. This
Hyperblast is coming very slightly late. I'm hoping it will
still be out by the end of the day, but
it's coming very slightly late. We move back our record
from yesterday for reasons. We have really really sad, unfortunate
stuff that we have to be talking about this time.
But let's lead off with a little bit of positivity.
The reason that we didn't record last night is, Sam,
you were at a fucking crazy looking hardcore show in
London yesterday, So tell us about your your sparkler of
an evening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so last week Haywire, who are one of the
sort of real buzzies or bands in hardcore at the moment,
like they've they've gone virable several times because of doing
shows like this, whether it's one they did in a
wrestling ring or just in like crazy locations.
Speaker 3: They're a Boston hardcore band. I saw them earlier this year.
They're great.
Speaker 2: But they announced that they were going to be doing
this one off random London show at a secret location.
Speaker 3: They'd be announced on the day it was free.
Speaker 2: It was them the band Dead City, who I'm not
familiar with but I'm into now, the Chisel and Impost
who I am Brian Hardban.
Speaker 3: I saw Haywire.
Speaker 2: But basically, so what got announced earlier around midday yesterday
they were like, it is this location in Hackney, across
the bridge from a skate park.
Speaker 3: Here's the coordinates if you can't find it, and everyone's like,
that's not a venue, Like what what what? What's the deal?
Speaker 2: And then one kind of clocked if you've been like intargled,
because you might have seen videos over the years of
like say, bands playing gigs underneath bridges or in car
parks where it's just like a total pop up DIY thing,
whether like they've all just sort of set again. I've
got a little like generator and it's just a total
like no rules apply, you're not in a venue. So
the traditional rules of like a gig are out the window.
Anything goes and these shows look like absolute chaos, but
they have a lot in America and you just don't
get them over here, so hey, why putting one of
them on over here or something.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm gonna go be.
Speaker 2: At and it was fucking insane, like it kind of
had like a niceess calace where like Imposta there again
a Brighton band that they had, you know a good
bit of washing the odd flare going off, but it
was kind of quite quite well behaved. And then each
set like the Chisel, who are like rowdy, they're more
like punk and hardcore, but they're like proper like just
rowding your face punk, And that was again just like
Ever's all kind of saying like, oh, this is totally
like it, and you can sort of things see things
escalate from there. But it was when Dead City came
on and that's where it turned into a war zone essentially,
not just like flares being logged into the crowd for
people to sort of run about waving whilst they're.
Speaker 3: Washing between members of like.
Speaker 2: Hey, why having actual fireworks and they were just launching
off into the crowd.
Speaker 3: You also people doing like makeshift flamethrowers to sort of.
Speaker 2: Give like fire sort of things at the back with
the lights and a can, so like you just like
they were going all in on this, like the sort
of spectacle you would see at a normal show, except
the fireworks were going into the crowd and you were
having to like fucking dodge the mortual washing lives genuinely
a bit fearful life.
Speaker 3: When like the first and it was kind of funny.
It was like they were all going up into this
thing and so they'll kind of go cunding ease again
not saved, Like I would not recommend this.
Speaker 2: But then there was one that went off and like
it cleared the pit because it was just like and
was like fucking hell this, I'm actually about to get
a firework in my face here.
Speaker 3: And then they no more vibes after that.
Speaker 2: They were like, yeah, cool, well pull it on the
fireworks now, because that one went like a.
Speaker 1: Like a Council of State Ramstein show with no lis
like it.
Speaker 2: Juli was that, but like you know, just people diving
off the stage like it's like dead City.
Speaker 3: They're like a la punk band.
Speaker 2: They're like crusty at times it's very all paced for them,
like not really like one for the beatdowns, but it's
just like full on like agro pace.
Speaker 3: They were really cool.
Speaker 2: Actually, I definitely want to, Like I go one of
their ABMs listening to afterwards and it's like ten songs
and eight minutes long or something like that, Like that's
what bad they are. But haywire work fucking Brilliant's head
on and again they feel like in the way that
you know, Speed have kind of been the band of
the last or two years to like the proper hardcore
band to really break big. Hey, I feel like they're
next in line for that, just the way they're going,
the way they conduct themselves, the kind of like viral
moments that they're creating from doing these sort of shows.
Speaker 3: And I think the thing as one is like they've.
Speaker 2: Got I think three releases now man tweet P's and
they've already actually got like actually bangers in the set,
Like there are like choruses that are like getting everyone
piling on to get the mic.
Speaker 3: They are like actual like sing along choruses.
Speaker 2: They're like just big shouting moss parts, so that they've
actually got a selection of songs going already, which I
think is one of the huge differences as to why
they're they're really starting to cross over.
Speaker 3: But they're they're great life.
Speaker 2: They're so in your face, like it's like Boston hardcore,
so that and that they're fulling on that kind of
like stomping kind of like punk beats sort of thing
that they were like genuinely brilliant. Again, like lots of
I saw them was early this year, like a sort
of small venue in Brighton. This is almost on one
of the biggest leaps up in like amount of people
I swear between where I saw them a couple of
months ago to now and again this is a free
show in London, but like it was a huge crowd
of people who turned up and everyone kind of like
realized what a sort of special one off show this
was and and got like the fucking involved and it
was like pretty special. But it was just like, say,
there will stay a moment where I feared my life
because the fireworks and I was just like, this is
the we like in the trenches right now, bombs going
off around you. But yeah, anyone who was there will
kind of talk about this being like one of the
hardcore events of the year in the UK, which is
like really fucking cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the videos looked absolutely insane, so we we'd moved
back our record from the usual you know, Thursday night anyway,
and then about the time where we would have been
going to record yesterday, the news broke that Brent Hines
had been killed overnight in Atlanta in a motorcycle accident, which,
by the sounds of it, it wasn't even you know,
it wasn't like his fault, by the sounds of it,
It's just kind of a car failed to give way
and someone knocked him over. And I am I'm so
fucking sad about this. I words have been failing made
over the last twenty four hours or so.
Speaker 2: This one hit hard for me because this felt cruel,
like we you know, we've ren EIDs this, this is
one of those like completely out of nowhere, just like
he's been taken and the current news cycle of masterd
on like you like you don't want to end on that.
I know, we'll kind of get into that sort of thing,
but like, just this is when I was kind of
I was glad we weren't recording this last night because
it would have been too raw to actually like try
and talk about it was like I genuinely felt crushed
by this, and again I was on my way to
a gig, which was I was going to be like
I want to be in a good fibe for when
I was kind of like, but I need to realize
what the fuck's going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like it just the last few weeks of
this show have just been like I'm I'm really tired
right now of doing this. It's been a rough few
weeks because you know, Ozzie almost exactly a month ago
basically that you know, we spoke about that, and then
you know, a couple of weeks ago, I spoke about
Eric Wonder from Cobolt, who was a musician who I
really loved, and now Brent, and the timing just feels
wrong because you know, Brent has been in the news
a lot this year, of course because of the ongoing
you know, fall up of his split with Mathodon. But
when they split in March. On the podcast, we almost
did like a little retrospective of like, this is what
we feel he brought to Mastodon. This is the level
of kind of impact and the level of magic those
four guys had together. And then to six months later
be talking about him again. But you know, firmly in
the in the in the past tense. It just feels
fucking wrong and weird, and you know, like we don't
know where things have gone, but that this has happened
when there was clearly a lot of public bitterness between
the members. I think, you know, even if he never
rejoined the band, I think we'd all hope that there's
some possibility that they may have patched things up personally
and that much sting the other guys so fucking bad
right now that you know that rift between them is
is where it ends, because like we all picture those
four guys as such a unit together at so many times,
you know, through our history. Like I can speak for
this myself, like whether you got in on Leviathan or
Crack the Sky or The Hunter or Emperors, and like
I mean, I've said this before and I'll say it again.
I believe, on the kind of overarching level, Mastered On
are the most seminal classic metal band of the twenty
first century. And you know, to go beyond that, I'm
saying this because I genuinely believe it. Those untouchable bands
that we kind of act like sometimes no one else
can ever get close to, you know, your Metallica's, your
Iron Maidens or you know, or who are't on the
prog side, your Rush, your King, Crimson King, Crimsons whatever.
Mastered On are the band of our era. I genuinely
think are that good. Like their run and their brilliance
equals that of any of those bands, of any band
in our world to have ever done it, I think,
and so as I say, like when Ossie died, like
of course he's the godfather of everything and we felt that.
But Mastered On our you know, to our generation, to
so many of us, they are are icons, you know,
and our legends who we've we've followed in that way
and seen blossom in that way, and like Mastodon means
so much to me to this day, and I know
I speak for a ton of us there. And every
album they made, certainly up to about album five, right,
like every album change shit for the scene, Like not
to do that once and they can splash, whether remission
or a Leviathan, but to do that and then rewrite
it again and again. I don't think there's a band
in our scene that parallels it in the twenty first
century and Brent's part in that one of the single
most influential inspirational guitarists of the modern age of heavy music.
Like the amount of bands in the last twenty years
where you can pick out there trying to do a
Brent Heinz you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, I mean I was ta fanzsas like maybe
the greatest guitars of the twenty first century, like in
the conversation in terms of like riffs, in terms of solos,
and again for me, like you know, mass On as
a band, I like famously not massively into progue, but
Masdon clicked with me so so long ago because they
were just that band. They would you know, there was
a kind of aura and reverence around Masdon, So it
would have been around like Blood Mountain Cracked the skytime,
where again I was just kind of like, well, yeah,
this band obviously just that brilliant, aren't they.
Speaker 3: You kind of everyone's in on it.
Speaker 2: And then the Hunter happens and that was when you know,
the love truly began because they started to take that
and do this kind of like what's their simplified album,
which is still you know, this mind altering like amazing
trip and that again every album like I agree, there
is no of Coross the albums.
Speaker 3: There isn't There isn't a dud is there.
Speaker 2: There is nothing you would say is below an A
ADS and a A push. They they were just so consistently brilliant,
and Brent was such a vile part of that, you know,
a prickly character, but someone who's character was important to
the DNA of that band and the music.
Speaker 1: And thinking of genuine innovation in you know, twenty first
century metal and having that distinctive touch, you know, with
Brent starting to play a lot of his stuff kind
of earlier in his career, he started playing banjo a
lot before he then started playing like kind of rock
guitar and those like chord shapes and the you know,
the kind of bluegrass touch of playing heavy metal licks
and stuff like. That's where everyone is trying to kind
of evoke and recapture and no one could do it
like him. And I just think about March of the
fire Ants alone, right first album track two. It has
one of the best rifts of all time in it.
That record is so crushing and such a game changer
for the underground. But to get to the point in
the second half of that song when the lead guitar
melody comes in is one of my favorite moments in
the Masterdon Cannon And to have been so punishing and
grueling and unforgiving as a band at that point in time,
but to just like out of nowhere get that beam
of light that like lifts your soul, that individual moment
in two thousand and two must have changed everything for
so many musicians who heard it. And at the end
of that album there's elephant Man, there's like gorgeous, rootsy
kind of guitar instrumental and metal is instantaneously better and
has more doors opened for having that in the world
before they then start their tear of all of their
other albums and like arguably their real golden era begins
and just again for the last kind of twenty four hours.
Like for a band who we often kind of lament,
we're never an arena band, you know, like they never
have become solid festival headliners. I can't imagine anyone at
that sort of level of like just under the peak popularity,
unifying everyone and getting the you know, the kind of
amount of love from kind of across the spectrum that
that Brent Hines and maybe any member of Mastodon, But
you know, Brent and his kind of impact on people's
lives has done over the past like day, Like you know,
on one hand, I'm seeing you know, like Relapse Records
and all of these underground American sludge bands like Wake
and High on Fire and stuff posting tributes reminiscing about
like the early days when they were coming through. And
on the end other end, you've got Queens of the
Stone Age and Shirley Manson and Rob Halford and everyone,
and like I mean, masterd On guided more people me.
I mean you you just describe your story there, like
more people to like underground left field sort of progressive
metal more than anyone of their generation. I'd say, maybe
next to Opeth. But like so many of us here
have coult with Lunar or Torch or Enslaved or Dillinger
or Death Heaven Records or whatever because of Masterdon and
because of Brent's part in them.
Speaker 3: I think that's it is.
Speaker 2: They were like they were the challenging of like progressive
like expansive, dentious band, but the one that that were
sort of like had this like crossover.
Speaker 3: And again I don't know, like there was just a.
Speaker 2: Character to them, like whether it's the risks, whether it's
the guys and things that did just sort of make
them feel more interesting because again, like for me where
I was, I wasn't gonna you know, go with Opef
much at that point, but mass On there was just
being different to them. And again with you know, Brent
being this like big guy with these like weird face
tattoos and his had and just again just a presence
that that that that guy carried. And again you're talking
about like the sort of tributes guys in melcor and
hardcore bands I've seen sort of saying like like the
members of Malevolence even like sort of saying like our
guitar playing without the lead work and all that, you're
going to go. Yeah, fans that you wouldn't think really
have much a comb with Maston will probably still look
at go when we're trying to you know, write this
massive lead guitar so part or anything like that. Again,
if I'm more near, they're channeling Brent more than pretty
much anyone else, aren't they, And it just it just
reaches so.
Speaker 1: Far vocally, like particularly in their most sort of classic era,
the most Maverick out of them all vocally, like you know,
he can sing Curl the Bull, but when he comes
in on like a colony of Birchman or Yeah, Sea
Beast or a divinations, it's just like, who the hell
is this? You know, so strange and intriguing to the
ear when he's like screeching like a demon out a
hell on the Wolfer's loose or a circle of Sye squatch.
I think he was almost like the litmus test for like,
are you weird enough for Masterdon? Like do you have
that quirk in your DNA to really love about like Masterdon?
He was the most immediate kind of hurdle to that,
and at the same time, you know, the Beast on
hushed and grim like, you know, even though he sang
less on latest albums, his voice was growing too along
with the rest of them, like you know, on the
Cold Dark Place EP as well, like kind of the
most sort of like soulful country music kind of esque
performances he given at that point. And then as we're
saying on to the lead work, which he's God, He's
probably in my top five personal favorite lead guitarists ever,
Like when he was out of the band, you know,
and we spoke about Brent earlier this year, even as
a maston go forward, we were saying, the big Brent
Hines sort of climactic solo moment of an album can
never be quite the same again, you know it, Heart's Alive,
Crack the Sky as an entire album for him is
like an individual performance anyone would dream of achieving. Like
that's as inspired a moment from any musician ever. You
want a name on their most locked in album, you know,
like a full on classic timeless rock album of any stripe,
and you can be something of a fly on the
wall for it if you go and watch the making
of doc on YouTube, which I've watched, you know, several
times before. But the last thing I did before coming
on to do this podcast was I watched that again
and watch Brent track his solos and like it will
choke you up, and then onto, you know, fucking Jaguar God,
which I've been sort of using of the last few
years as that example of that, like big let all
out kind of solo moment, and you watched him play
on stage like if he was having a good day
where he's particularly feeling it, and it's just like the
fucking fire that come out of that guy's hand. Like
it's one of the the times as a person going
to shows and being in the presence of a musician
where I felt like I was in the presence of
one of those Yeah, one of those like eternal, iconic
fucking rock stars like a Jimi Hendrix or a Prince
or someone you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like on like the later mass of albums,
where again it did get even more kind of like
emotional in the sort of like themes and lyrics. His
playing kind of like helped channel that even further. I think,
like those Moe likes on the most emotive moments on
Emperor of Sand, and again how he whether he's vocal
or not, like drives even more.
Speaker 3: And because that was why, like yesterday what happened em
for Sand was the.
Speaker 2: First record I saw reached for just because of like
thematically with album Explores, it felt kind of like a
way to kind of process what had happened. But it
just again they never stopped again hushed and grimmed. Maybe
want to make some of the bunch, but there's still
so many moments of magic from Brent on that album
where you're just going to go like you wondered what
more there was to give, and again it just the
sounds in this one was again is that there was
the rift in the band and that just sort of
making it even more like bitter to sort of deal with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know you mentioned before, like you know,
the look with the hair, the beard, the face tattoo,
Like I don't think it's actually said enough. How cool
through all the years those four dudes look together, you know,
like to use a word that is overused by the
kids at the moment, but I think more genuine aura
than almost because that's.
Speaker 3: One of the things that drew me to them.
Speaker 2: And they again put them against other prog bands at
the time, Maston looked like renegades, like they they're no
band that looked like them, and that's why I was
kind of like, I want to know what the deal
is because you know, the hair, the face tattoos, just
the presence of them all like just a bunch of
like swamp dudes kind of like coming out of them
being rock stars and that like that cannot be understood
how much that kind of added to their presence and
overall package.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know when not a lot of bands
today really have that kind of aura, and Brent was
always kind of the most you know, sort of affronting
of all of them in that way. And I think
that uniqueness of just you know, how he looked, where
he came from, how that background then reflected in his
touch on metal and is playing, and just how he
how he was. You know, that's what we need more
of in metal.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like no one could teach themselves to be Brent
Hines as much as Brent Hines could couldn't teach himself
to be anyone else. And you know we said all
of this when when he split with Masterdon, but like
one of the last genuine embodiments of sort of rock
and roll spirit as a person, where his his edges
were unsanded, you know, he was untamed, and sometimes that
bit him. But we've all got our favorite stories, you know,
and I'm hearing more and more of them in the
last day. Like one of our good friends, he told
me a story about his guitar lesson things that shows
that he'd sometimes do where apparently he mainly just wanted
to sit around smoking weed and then kicked a guy
out for insulting Metallica, which is is kind of a
dick move, but also kind of based, you know, like
I love that Brent Hines did that. Now that he's
gone and he's still the guy who, you know, despite
being in this kind of internationally successful band Mastered On,
he would be up on stage all the time at
local Atlanta bars with like some weird bar band or another,
and you'd see some like shitty phone footage of and
be like, what's he doing? You know, he's just living
for it. He's like quite simply one of the realist
Like I don't think Brent Hines ever did anything for
money or plaued it. And the more Mastered On got big,
the more he seemed to want to actually do these
kind of like unseen things on the side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you say, like for the love of
the game all that, Like it kind of just defined
his And that again is where where wells the passion
or something of that wasn't in Animal So he was
always true to himself and what his artistic uty wanted
to make. And I think that that again, like that
is something you've kind of got admired of times, someone
who has their vision of what their creative passion is.
And we'll see it through and it's so sad that
we're not going to see that vision anymore and where
that could have gone. Like with this new project, we
were you know, intrigued as to what it would be
and it's gone now. And it's amameing that he's got,
you know, this amazing legcy and catalog to his name
to sort of remembered by. But it is just that
we won't get any more of it is a real
sad thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, after losing Ossie, you know, you
were thinking who are the people we have who carry
some of that kind of larger than life wildness in it,
those true one off kind of maverick people who seem
you know, fewer and fewer, and Brent Hines was one
of the few where you know, the wildness of metal
lived with and a little piece of it dyed with
that man. And you know, you know that you know,
this isn't playing. We're not putting on here like we
talk here week in week out about how much Masterdn
mean to us and you know, like he obviously wasn't there,
but like we were just a couple of weeks ago
talking about you know, seeing Mastered on and you know
his part still playing a huge role, you know, in
their music and the twenty first century of metal without
mastered on and Brent's contribution as guitarist and vocalist is unthinkable,
like just a twenty five year trail of changing shit.
And I I'm so fucking sad about this, Like I'm
I'm sad I'll never see another Instagram story of him
hanging out with some pigs or a dog or whatever.
Like I was literally considering going see c Ky in
a couple months, just to see him play again with
the WITHO face and it just this sucks so much,
but Brent hines like a giant of our time and
one of the greatest of all time. Rest in peace.
Let's move on to a big slew of tracks and
album announcements that we're going to make up the bulk
of this show. We're going to start with Joyce Manner,
whoever released their first single in three years is called
all My Friends Are So Depressed. And Joyce Manner, there
was a time, you know, when they were kind of
I think in the twenty tens, they were kind of
unavoidable for bands of their stripe, you know, the sort
of the indie emo whatever type bands. It feels like
in the twenty twenties they've been a little bit more
kind of by the wayside and not the most like
all eyes on them at all times. But you know,
when I put this single on, I was struck at
first by the kind of outlaw country vibes at the
beginning of it. You know, you've got your train beat,
you've got your sort of sladey acoustics, and then your
man starts singing and it's just sad emo again. But
for a moment I was like, damn, we're getting the
Joyce maner hodown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're definitely in the kind of a slightly more
like dour, downcast Joyce manor era, where like again when
you think like their sort of Peepio where everyone's going
on that, you know, the sub two minute powerpop songs
that were like the emo version of that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Now it is kind of just more like nice. I
like this song.
Speaker 2: I think it's you know, I like that it has
that kind of slightly country thing to it mixed with
the mortuis and emo elements.
Speaker 3: It makes I think it.
Speaker 2: This is already sticking in my memory more than anything
off of the last album. I think the chorus is, Yeah,
really like bizarrely catchy for how kind of like downcast
it is, which I think is like that that that
sort of sweet touch.
Speaker 3: That Joyce men have.
Speaker 2: But yeah, no, I think this is I think this
is cool and it's it's like got a kind of
American a thing going on with it, which I'm always
gonna kind of like be a little bit into when
these sort of bands draw and that. So yeah, instantly,
what what this sort of shapes into it? This is
a kind of like a one off thing of them
doing this sort of thing, and the rest of the
album is just kind of going to lean more into this.
If they are on this a I'm gonna play about
and kind of explore sort of territories beyond their sort
of typical realms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but at the same time, the kind of like
jangly acoustic does also make it feel slightly more the
Smiths than like the Head or already been, So yeah,
I agree that it does kind of stick out a
little bit more than maybe some of the more recent material.
There is an album announcement as of yet that I
have seen, but I imagine there must be one sort
of coming on the lines similarly on that same front
where we don't have an album right now, but we
do have a track that we're going to talk about
is the band Gairia, the Portuguese black metal band who
have signed with Century Media and with that signing out
went they've put out a new song called Submerged, and
I wanted to bring this up and sort of check
in with Gairia, particularly with you, Sam, because I'm interested
to hear the perspective of someone from outside of like
where I am, because this has been going on for
a little while, right Gairia. If you you know, if
you sort of casually follow black metal, you on all
the stuff that's sort of maybe making waves outside of it,
you maybe will have heard of this band. They've been
around for it. They've got a few records now. We
have reviewed some of their records, like you know, in
the past, but they have kind of increasingly over their
sort of you know, career so far. They started off
as you know, a European black metal band, but they
have kind of increasingly gotten I'm gonna use the word
shinier right in a way that seems to appeal less
to the core sort of you know, underground fan base
of black metal fans and is more sort of becoming
a much more polished kind of you know, poking their
head up above out of that scene. And over the
last few years it's been, you know, again in a
very insular sort of way where I don't know how
many people outside of the scene will be aware of this,
but it's been interesting to observe the kind of like
fan reaction to this band where if you go into
like the comment section of a black metal festival where
Gayria have played, right or being booked, there will be
a bit of kind of back and forth in the
comments about this band, and you know, if they are
you know, they are becoming one of those bands who
sort of feel a little bit like, you know, a
certain faction of true black metal fan is just they're
a pop band now, you know. And I said to you, Sam,
I was like, I'd be curious to hear your take
on this song, and you replied, oh, you mean black
metal sleep token, because that has kind of become like,
you know, a thing that has been thrown around.
Speaker 3: It is what I've seen them most over the last
sort of week or so.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm just seeing a bunch of like
things about like seeking pery, like the black metal band,
because I like casually was aware of this band. I
knew they were like a kind of anonymous black metal
band like that I guess had some cleaner elements, but
I never kind of picked them as like a band
that would still you know, I like I have Death Evan,
They've got cleaner elements, but they don't you know, get
picked up by those sort of fans. So I kind
of like in that kind of lane of black metal
bands along the side the likes of Death and you know,
some of like Black Braid, which is like black metal
that is kind of like got some kind of like
attention beyond the sort of the crypts of the usual
black metal goers.
Speaker 1: And it's accessible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wondered, like I was like, so what is
it about career that I'm particularly now that's suddenly got
sleep tooken fans in it beyond the anonymous sort of
like a sex and all that.
Speaker 3: And then I listened to this new thing.
Speaker 2: I was like, I thought these were a black I like,
I genuinely like the new song was the most kind
of like this isn't the band I thought there was?
And I was like, no, no, no, it was, and
I kind of have listened to a selection of songs,
of course, and I can kind of track transition from
the earths of being more black metal, still again being
a bit more polished, to the last album, which was
like again as shiny sort of like like artsyer or
like what like all these sort of like really polished
ort of like emotional black metal sort of things could
but it's still I could talking of like translation know
that's you know, a treveler black metal, if that's a blastbeat.
Speaker 3: The vocals still got that slight wretch to it.
Speaker 2: And then this news song why departs of this sound
like the Amity Affliction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I again, I've seen this kind of happen
in real time where from you know, their earlier releases,
and then I've seen them live I think twice now,
and I remember being struck by and I've said, you know,
when I've reviewed them, that their stage presence, they you know,
they have the kind of the hooded, anonymous look which
the mainstream now associates with a sleep token and sell
and but in it's kind of the azure black metal look, right,
you know, you know, not a band we'd like to
mention too much, But like when Maguire broke out, it
became kind of really de facto that sort of what
a black metal band looks like more likely now than
a sort of full on corpse painting thing, right, you know,
Anonymous Hoods, you know are kind of black leather jacket,
that kind of look, and Garria sort of had that look.
But then their stage presence doesn't really feel like a
black metal band the way they move, particularly the front man.
I was like, you know, you're dressed as like Uada
or someone, but you move more like a metalcore band.
And I saw them at Fortress again and that was
where I really saw the sort of split to people
who are like, this band are incredible, and then I
get a lot of the other die hard kind of
black metal fans who were like, you know, they're the
thing I'm not interested at at this festival, and this
song is you know, I kind of liked some of
the earlier material, but as their records have gotten more shiny,
they have lost my interest really, but this song is
a leap beyond that, where the clean, atmospheric bits in
this song, I mean, it's interesting that you've said what
you've said, and I can't deny it, but they genuinely
sound like kind of twenty ten's atmospheric metal core, like
your sort of post Bring Me the Horizon Architects kind
of stuff. And then the scream comes in, particularly in
the chorus when he uses it melodically, and it's it's
a metalcore scream, like it's yeah, it's full on, polished emotive,
you know, yearning cinematic kind of metalcore, but with a
black metal sort of touch and foundation to it. And
if you know, if not necessarily the full hyperbole of
like black metal sleep Token or whatever, it is a
blacktal equivalent of those kind of songs.
Speaker 3: And the reason I went for AMNTI Vixer is because
they keep singing about water.
Speaker 2: That was it's reasonable, but like things I don't, I
don't dislike the song. I was like, like the bits,
I was like, yeah, you know, when I really liked
this sort of metalcore, I was like, it does come
home with some of the more like stirring moments, and
I think musically there is more interesting stuff going on
than a lot of those other bands that we would
kind of like compare this too. But it was the
vocals that were just like really distracting, Like there's a
few bits like the vocals and there's like a clean
guitar part, which is like what all of those medical
bands would do. Just before the chorus comes, the bigger
motive chorus comes in, you know, like you know exactly
what I'm talking about like that, And then when the
clean vocals, I was like, this feels like I was like,
I can understand, Like again, I'm not wanted to sort
of like, yeah, elitism is good all that, but I
was like, no, I can understand if black metal fans
want to you know, turn their nose uf like this,
because this.
Speaker 3: Feels like a leap like and it's not.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gay, but I just think it's like, no,
you have to draw liners to what like And again,
people argue about genres and what is what genre and
all that, and some people a lot of like clee
metical fans, people are like, oh, genre doesn't matter anymore,
Like no, no, genre does actually help, Like it's nice
to have a category. But I'm like, I get why
black metal fans want to be like, no, gayria, They're
not a black metal band if this is what they're doing,
Like we're kind of like drawing that line. I think
that's fair because I think on this song in particular,
black metal is like a touch in the music, like,
but it's so like scant in comparison to the amount
of metalcore that's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I for again, For a few years now,
I've sort of watched gay Aria turning into what I
would kind of describe as sort of like a gateway
black metal band, right in the way that you know,
bands like Watte and or Behemoth were for you know,
people like me ten fifteen years before or whatever. But
I have thought, like, you know, you're not necessarily making
the classics I think those bands are making. But now
if they're gonna go full like commercial black metal, metal
core or something like, I find it sits kind of
weird where I don't really know how to feel about
it because it's a band who again started off being
compared to fucking maguire or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what like recommended artists on like enough music,
and it's McGuire, and like that was like I could
not imagine sleep Tang fans or stumbling on Maguire or
the mcguireosurgence happens as a result of that, but.
Speaker 1: But there now, like I can genuinely imagine like an
Architects fan enjoying this more than someone on that side
of the musical spectrum. So it's doing it's kind of
it's you know, doing a number on my head. I
don't know how to feel about it, but I do
think a lot of people whose eyes maybe normally glaze
over when I start haanging on about black metal will
probably like this song. So I'm I'm fascinated where this
goes out if they're like really jumping into that direction.
So we haven't got an alum announcement just yet, but
there I imagine one must be coming as well, so
the trackers could submerge and I would be fascinated to
hear both what like you know, real black metal fans
and also more casual sort of outside lookers have to
say about this song. We have an insane amount of
album announcements for specifically the month of October here that
have come through that I'm just gonna whittle through. I'm
going to sort of do it in release date order.
So the band Woad, speaking of Blackmount of the UK,
black metal band who are one of my favorite black
metal bands, certainly in this country. Their last record was
in my Top twenty of that year it came out.
The follow up to that record has been announced. It's
called Uncrossing the Keys. It's going to be out on
October the third, so forward to that. The legendary US
funeral doom band, one of the heaviest bands in the
world Evoken, have got their record out on October the seventeenth.
It's called Mendacium. That's a band who has can off
to be the case for kind of funeral dumage bands,
they often take like seven eight years between a record,
so you know it's coming round. It's due, so there
we go. Also out on October seventeenth is the comeback
record from Coroner, the legendary sort of technical groove thrash
band from the eighties and early nineties, and they are
releasing their first record since nineteen ninety three. They've been
playing live for quite a while, but they've got a
new record coming out on October the seventeenth, and the
single that is out. I thought that was pretty cool
for again a kind of band coming out for after
that amount of times. So I'll be intrigued by the
new Coroner record on the same day, the new Tribal
Gaze record. This is one of those sort of brutal,
you know, very like meat headed caveman kind of death
metal bands that are very popular amongst you know, maybe
the kind of hardcore fans with the into death metal.
Their record is going out on October seventeenth. It's called
Inveighing Brilliance and there's a song out called Beyond Recognition.
Now we're going to get to another song that we
are going to talk about a little bit more because
it's a staple band of the TNN world. It's Conjurer,
who have announced their third full length album called Unself,
which is going to be out on October the twenty
fourth via Nuclear Blast, and there's a song out from
that called hang Them in Your Head. Conjurer are as
I've just said, they are one of kind of the
key sort of TNM bands in terms of, like you know,
bands in the UK, heavy bands who sort of trajectory
we've watched kind of come up from day one, and
they have released, you know, some records that you could
maybe argue are kind of modern classics of that kind
of scene of movement. Particularly think about the impact their
debut record Maya made in twenty eighteen. It does feel
like Kondura kind of really seem to come and go now,
Like I know they're often around, they're often playing shows
and stuff, but it feels like they really kind of
hide themselves away and work on records for long periods
of time and then sort of emerge. And it feel
like that happened between album one and two, and it
seems to have happened again between album two and three.
So you know, I'm interested in what that maybe does
for their general momentum or presence or whatever. But this
new Kundra track obvious, I'm looking forward to the record
because I've liked everything they've done so far, but this
new track, there's a real doom edge to that first
rift that's really miserable. And sometimes maybe it's again because
they had like Wretch popping off on the debut and
like Trivium and employed to serve fans or whatever would
like them, you can sometimes think of them as almost
like a mosh band, but they are like heavy, owing,
miserablest kind of metal, and that's what this song reminded me.
Speaker 3: It's what's funny, is like I needed me.
Speaker 2: I was like yours said they've been touring with a
lot of like metalcore bands, so I was wondering when
down that, like yeah, and then hiplan this is like
oh no, no, they're fucking like they are, like, because
this was the thing that took the second album a
bit of time for me was how after you know
that person Will had those moss parts to it, the
second did kind of really lay into the bleak like
sadness of the Doom Side. I was kind of like,
I was like, oh, yeah, no, this is still nasty,
like depressive doom metal that has that does like when
it fucking goes off, goes stupidly hard.
Speaker 3: But I was like, oh no, cool you are you
are still doing that. You're still keeping true.
Speaker 2: To that kind of like doom side, but with the
like modern metal kind of bursts in it. I think
this song is really cool and it's kind of got me.
You go, like, yeah, I need new country album now,
it's been long enough. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny because you know you said that, and
I haven't seen them on maybe their recent tours because
they've been playing supporting these bands like Make Them Suffer
or whatever, Like yeah, yeah, I just don't care about,
you know, But then you get to this and like,
even when it goes into the blast part, it's still
rooted in like sludgy heaviness even when it's fast, and
there's a breakdown in the middle, but it's a really horrid,
like sludge kind of breakdown. And you know, Brady's vocals
sound really piercing next to Danny's kind of, you know,
really muscular singing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Again, I'm always interested in New Kundra, but it's funny
the different ways they kind of leach out into the world.
But we will have a third full length from them
on October the twenty fourth. Then the there is a
new band formed out of members of the great kind
of modern legendary grindcore band Gridlink, who broke up and
then came back for a sort of surprise record a
couple of years ago, and then broke up again. But
if you are a fan of Gridlink and you are
wondering where that kind of you know, artistic trajectory may
be going, there is a new band featuring a bunch
of members of Gridlink, including the kind of primary guitarist
visionary Takafumi Matsubara. There's a new band called Barren Path,
and they've described it as what they kind of seemed
to be really from the song it sounds like, you know,
hyperactive gridlinky grindcore, but it's also kind of more death
metal and more heavy and sort of meaty rather maybe
quite as futuristic. But there is an album by them
called Grieving, which is coming out on October the thirty firs.
So if you are a big gridlink fan, or in
general a fan of you know, kind of interesting virtuoso
grind and death grind and so on, then that is
obviously going to want to be on your radar. So
let's move on to some other stories, because there's been
quite a lot going on in the world this week.
God Speed You, Black Emperor for me became the first
band I would describe myself as an active fan of
to remove all of their music from Spotify, protesting over
Spotify generally being shitty. But if you've been kind of
following this stuff in the last few weeks, there's been
a bit of a concerted kind of movement from a
lot of artists pulling their music from Spotify in protest,
and I think the kind of sort of straw that
broke the camel's back because we all know Spotify's shitty
practice in terms of paying artists and whatnot. But the
kind of thing that a lot of bands have gone, right,
that's enough, is reports that Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, was,
you know, rather than paying artists, using a lot of
those proceeds and funds to put them into investing in
like AI drone military technology. And so there are a
number of bands, King Gizzon and The Lizard Wizard a
couple of weeks ago, quite notable in the again really
popular band at the moment, they pulled all their stuff
from Spotify, and this week God's Bid You Black Emperor
joined them, which I'm not surprised by at all because
if you follow God'sbeed You, I know they are a
very politically minded, you know, left wing, anti capitalists kind
of band, So I'm not surprised by this, but and
I do support the move as well in terms of
the kind of ethical grounding of it. But as I've said,
it's the first band that I'm actively a fan of
who have removed their catalog from that particular streaming platform.
And so Sam I just thought we should check in.
Is this the beginning of a kind of you know,
maybe we have to header expectations and how far it's
going to go. Right. Just because God Speedy, Black Emperor
and King Gizzard are doing it does not mean that
I don't know, fucking Aerosmith or someone is going to
do it for the same reasons. But is this the
beginning of a sort of chain of dominoes of more
and more bands removing themselves from Spotify.
Speaker 3: I think because it's.
Speaker 2: Now you're starting to the actual like prominent band is
doing and not you know, just sort of smaller like
downs like God to do, Black Emperor obviously like a.
Speaker 3: Very sort of leisurely no name I said.
Speaker 2: King Gizzard are one of the most like they have
an album every year and they're just you know, very
popular amongst sen circles.
Speaker 3: So we bands like this doing it.
Speaker 2: I do think this might like and again I don't
think this is you going to lead to a mass
extus what everyone the leads part Spotify and the platform collapses.
But I do think you're going to start to see
bands get more selective as do they go do we
either just not release I know, I'm like on Spotify,
I don't know the insucts of how it works. But
I think you're still going to see bands following this,
even if it's not every band. I hon't really how
much of an impact is going to make. I don't know,
you know, like these corporations are huge, and it's going
to be like so I take it down, but if
you start to seeing more and more pushback, maybe yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am interesting again how many dominoes are sort
of knocks down largsputes for next year have announced a
UK and European tour. It arrives in February. They're playing
Glasgow and Manchester, Cardiff and London here in the UK.
But the interesting sort of thing about this that I
wanted to again get your sort of thoughts on this, Sam,
is they've announced that there is gonna be a certain
allocation as part of this tour of what they're describing
as low income tickets of you know, lower priced than
usual tickets, so that fans can be able to attend
the show who maybe do not have you know, as
high incomes to be able to regularly pay out what
you know, shows charging these days. And this is largest
beat right and not an arena band. I imagine a
large new ticket would probably be fairly reasonably priced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're looking at that.
Speaker 1: At the best of times. But it's a cool idea
that you know they will allocate part of this. I
am sort of unsure how it works. From my understanding
of reading this is it almost seems to work on
like an honor system.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It my take on it is an honor system. Of
they have so many tickets. These are the cheaper tickets. Please,
if you can afford a.
Speaker 3: Full price ticket, buy a four price ticket.
Speaker 2: These aren't for you. These are for people who won't
afford them. And this way I love the system. I
don't think it could work for every band. It's kind
of one of these things. It's going to need to
work for a band who are coming from like a
sort of a punk and dy ethics or background, where
like they need to have faith in their fans to
not you know, abuse and exploit it. And maybe maybe
they was just gonna be like how man lest fans
are gonna no, no, I want.
Speaker 3: The cheap ticket. I don't care, and they've gone for that.
Speaker 2: But I like to believe that Ladispeek fans are a
kind of in tune with the band's message.
Speaker 3: And their sort of morals.
Speaker 2: And they kind of go like, no, we do want
to like you know, not spoil this nice gesture and
kind of like just the people who this was intended
for then miss out. But yeah, I think it's a
really cool idea. I just you know, I can't see
it working at every show, yeah.
Speaker 1: Because you know, God knows, we don't trust people to
behave normally around tickets, you know, And I think it's
a lovely idea, and I agree, I don't know how
this would translate to like, you know, any larger show,
particularly the shows that actually have fucking real problems with
the ticketing prices and the practice and everything, which is
not really the same around like you know, a kind
of mid tier hardcore band, like a largest Pete or something.
But it's a nice idea, and maybe Large Pete fans
are just really nice and able to you know, kind
of behave normally with this, So I think because.
Speaker 2: If we have a history of doing these, you know,
like every unboxing day they do these pay what you
want for our albums and the money will go to
charity and people that are they said that they're all free,
but if you pay where you pay them and people
do like pay for those, so that there is a
kind of like a build up over the years of
kind of like charitability and kind of like shared ethics
and support among the band and fans that I think
they feel like they can deploy this idea and the
fans not exploit it. So I think it's like, I
don't think it's totally out of like our point FILA disputes,
sort of like expect their fans to behave and let
these low income tickets go to the right places.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Bad Omens have announced an arena tour in the UK
and Europe. They're playing Alexandra Palace amongst others, and one
of the openers for that band is the Ghost Inside,
So that's where they're at these days. Higher Power have
announced their first UK headline tour in four years off
the back of their new record. They're playing Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, London, Bristol,
Brighton and Swansea. Sangue Sugar Bog have announced a European
and UK tour and that features a bill that again
is big for Harkle fans and snapbacks who like a
bit of death metal because you have like you have
Sangue Suger Bog, the Italian sort of Luccio Fulci themed
band Fulci, who I think are quite good. There's the
band Gates of Hell and who else could open it
but of course Celestial Sanctuaries here in the UK. So
that is coming to you again in February early next year.
Speaker 3: Black Braid.
Speaker 1: Speaking of them earlier off the back of their you know,
I think quite well liked Black Braid three album that's
just come out. They're gonna be doing a UK run
in April and that is going to have the UK
band Winter Phillith as well as noctam as guests on
that tour. So that's a pretty awesome black metal tour
that's going out there. This is an announcement that just made
me go wow, and I'm not surprised by it at
this point, but it just feels like the latest cap
on this ongoing saga. Acid Bath have announced that they
are going to be doing a actual arena show in
you know, their home city of New Or on November
the fifteenth, and the band playing right under Acid Bath
is none other than Mastodon, and this also features Power Trip, Amigo,
The Devil, Soilent Green and Souplex, but Acid the Acid
Bath Reunion now going to the point where they're headlining
an arena show above Mastodon and Power Trip is fucking
crazy and it's an incredible bill.
Speaker 3: Acid Bath ND being one of the weird, oh feel
good stories of the year of these freaks like like rock.
Speaker 2: Star legends and reaping the rewards about I'm like, good
on your like again.
Speaker 3: Acid Bath headlanging arena with that music.
Speaker 2: I don't know how that works, how that makes any
sense to anyone, but I'm like, good on you get
that bag, like and and like you put together a
hell of a bill for this to be like a
kind of like outside like bands who all kind of
like you can kind of see a through line from
Acid Bath for like through stuff like Amigo the Devil,
I think power it's a bit like an order but
like call to them on there. But yeah, I mean
this is this is one of those things I'm like
never gonna go to. We're never gonna get to the
Acid Bath because why would they come over here when
they can headline of readers in America now, like is
what it is, but like it's cool in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then sadly we're gonna We're gonna bookend the
news here with you know, shitty news. But you know,
two giants I would say of the you know, the
T and M Stratosphere, bith Byford from from Saxon and
Thomas Lindberg from At the Gates as well as many
many other great bands that you should hear, have both
made announcements that they're undergoing cancer treatment. At the moment,
the Thomas Lindberg report sounds fucking rough. Apparently he's had
surgery that have resulted in like part of the roof
of his mouth being removed, and he says that there's
a new At the Gates album you know coming, but
that he recorded all of the vocals for it in
one day before having his vocal surgery, just so they
knew no matter what happened, they would have some of
that album in the tank, which is fucking crazy. And
he is the motherfucking champ. But all of our best wishes,
you know, go to go to those two guys. So
let's carry on with the show. Quite a lot of
news that we've gone through, but we are going to
bring back some questions here. And first of all, Ben
Wilmot asks you've done this podcast for a while. Now,
do you ever revisit top twenty albums from say, twenty
eighteen or twenty twenty one, or does the endless treadmill
of new stuff, deep dives and beloved albums from before
you've joined the pod mean they all get forgotten about
after the thirty first of December. I would say that
to a degree, I think maybe people inflate how differently
we behave doing this than otherwise, because I mean, you know,
I can speak for myself, because I'm a fucking nerd.
I did like top twenty album stuff before I joined TNA,
and you know, before I started writing for magazines and
started becoming you know, like getting paid to do it
or whatever, I was a nerd, so i'd do it,
you know. And I don't think it's especially changed too
much obviously, Like, yeah, stuff is competing for time all
the time. We do have a good amount of our
listening and our plan you know, directed by what we're
working on at any given time, but you know it, obviously, Yeah,
I'm not going to get the time always to pick up, Hey,
what was my Number seventeen album in twenty nineteen and
kind of whip it out, But you know, I still
love basically all that music. And if something comes on
you maybe something comes on shuffle or I, you know,
I just get the brain wave. I see something reminds
me of like, oh, I haven't listen to that. I
just stick that on. I will do it, you know.
And I look back at like, so the first year
that I did a Top twenty four T and M,
which is twenty eighteen, I look down at my Top
twenty and there's you know, there's Wataan and Ghost and
Architects and Bleeding Through and Behemoth and Roller to MASSI
and all this stuff. And I still think all of
those are great records. And yeah, some of them I
probably haven't put on in a while, but if I
was to get the brainwave to do so, I would
put it on and still have a blast with it.
So I do think that, you know, in general, I
think we often say they're too much music to have
a full, you know, ongoing at all times relationship with,
but sometimes going years without listening to a record and
then putting it on and being like, man, they're still rips.
It's not the end of the world. You know, you
can still have a meaningful relationship with an album in
that way without having a mandated once a month time
to put it on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like my listening is it's kind of
like is much dictated by like vibes, where Like there'll
be some albums where like I will love, but I
won't always want to listen to, Like some albums that
like I will kind of reach for every couple of
months to kind of just be like, yeah, no, I
need to you know.
Speaker 3: Remind us of this.
Speaker 2: But the others where I'm like, well, I just won't
necessarily in and might listen to like singles from that
album and and kind of like bits here and there.
But every now and then I'll just gonna get the
urge to be like, ah, then let's actually you know,
go back to.
Speaker 3: Uh I come albums from my head.
Speaker 2: But like a hardcore album that would have been in
my top twenty from a couple of years ago that
was kind of like I got twenty minutes just throw
this on and.
Speaker 3: Remind myself of like how much this album is. Maybe
want to run for a brick wall.
Speaker 1: But I mean, even before you know the news we've
had this week this year is the most I've listened
to Masterdon's hushed and grim since twenty twenty one when
it came out, and I initially had it in my
top twenty because again it's a long album and everything,
and I enjoyed it enough to put it in my
top twenty at the time. And then maybe I did
not have you know, tons of time where I'm listening
to that record. But this year, like a few much guy,
I picked up on vinyl finally, and then I was
refreshing myself on it ahead of just you know, the
Masterdon coming back live and everything, and then obviously, you know,
with the Brent News this week, I'm going to be
listening to Masterdon in general for you know, a good
while anyway. But like that's an example of an album
that I had in my twenty then kind of maybe
didn't touch so much for a couple of years, but
very organically this year I picked it up again.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's when there's an all of that recently
where my album of the Year in twenty twenty two
was radical by Every Time I Die, and given like
what happened notching on after that, I kind of like
hadn't touched that album. I know, I'm go I still
love that album, but I just the feeling to listen
to that every Time I album in particular didn't catch
me for a while, and then given recent podcasts of activities,
I was listening to a fuck load of every Time
I Die and then going back to that album and
being like, man like again, it's a shame how I ended.
But this has been the loss of a Time I
Die album where it's kind of like the most every
Time I Die album. I've kind of like, go, fuck,
this album is incredible and I do still love it
even if I haven't listened to it much since you know,
it would have been early twenty twenty three when all
that shit imploded. So again, just sometimes what goes on
around these albums can affect like when we listen to them,
but give enough time and you might then like, say,
just them the mood might hit you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think I've kind of made peace
maybe with the fact that I'm not going to be
able to just like listen to the same few albums
all the time as much as I did when I
was a teenager. But I still think, you know, knowing
you love something, but maybe picking it up here and
there over the years and you go a few years
not listening to it, but then when you return to it, it
still means something to you. Is still a you know, compelling,
meaningful relationship to have with a piece of music. And
when you are having that relationship with fucking hundreds of
albums at a time, you know, filling in wherever, they
do still love it. So there you go. Tom Fellow's
Howcroft says, Hollywood loves a remake. T and M has
been going strong since twenty fifteen. This is more of
an idea than a question, but here goes. Would you
ever consider essentially looking back at the first ever episode
and evaluating it based on what records were reviewed and
the state of the scene versus now. For example, I'm
pretty sure neck Deep were reviewed on that episode with
Life's Not Out to Get You and they are huge.
Now maybe do it as a special I would say
keep your ears peeled for a couple of weeks time,
because it is the tenth anniversary of that so the
meal coming up soon, and we had some ideas that
were floating around. They chime somewhat with some ideas that
have been floated here, So yeah, just keep your eyes peeled.
Sean O'Brien asks do you think this is really it
for Megadeth or will they pull a Slayer move and
return again after a few years. Has this changed your
opinion on the order the Big Four will retire? I
am both very reluctant to put a hard, full stop
on anything, as we've seen with Slayer, But I'm also
very reluctant to go full cynical. No, they're doing it
for the money, and then they'll be back in two
years and it'll be like nothing ever happened.
Speaker 3: I think you know.
Speaker 1: I said this when me and Elliot briefly discussed the
Megadeth news a couple of weeks ago. Does this leave
the door open for future performances as we've seen with Slayer, Yeah,
it does, But I also think you have to think
mathematically about it to a degree, and like Slayer, you know,
have a few years on the others now in terms
of retirement kind of calendar. Because Mustane is Dave Mustaine
is sixty three years old. By the time they've released
this album and done the farewell tour for a couple
of years, as they've said they're going to do, he'll
be sixty five, sixty six. Maybe. Do I think they
are going to you know, have four years off and
then come back as a full top as a full
touring ban We Mustane is seventy. No, I don't think that.
You know, it might not be the last Megadeath performance ever.
You know, we've seen this for Black Sabbath, right, But
I think the more years go on. As much as
we like to be cynical and be like, yeah, there's
always opportunity where people get paid enough money or whatever,
I think we also have to acknowledge that time is
not stopping and these guys are getting older and older
and older, and the later these bands choose to retire,
the later they are also able to reunite again.
Speaker 2: That was kind of my fall when it was I
was like, the've announced, you know, this is the last album,
the last tourn but again, how long is this sort
of last album tour cycle gonna last?
Speaker 3: It's going to be what two years? Do we reckon?
I don't know, have they like I'm not.
Speaker 2: Massively tuned like the meg thing at the moment, but
I'm guessing you know, there's going to be a world tour,
a festival season, and probably another tour as like the
final tour on the.
Speaker 3: Back of that isn't there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my final show will be earliest twenty seventeen, I
would say, sorry, twenty twenty seven, Yeah, fucking decade behind
early twenty twenty seven, maybe more like twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like, And that's the thing is that actually
that's gonna take Mustange well into sort of his mid sixties,
unless they're only gonna then be broken up for.
Speaker 3: Two years week Again, I doubt it. I think it
feels kind of.
Speaker 2: Realistic to say this is probably the end of Megadeth
as a Again, maybe you get a one off show
some there'll be some big event happening where Megadeth will
kind of like be called on to play. You could
get that, But I don't of all the bands of
the Big four to sort of sort of say we're
calling it, I think Megadeth might be the most finite
where if they say they're done, I think.
Speaker 3: They might be done.
Speaker 1: Maybe I would certainly say that. So obviously Slayer went first.
I'm not surprised that Megadeth would be the second of
the Big four to go because they are the one
where in the last few years we've been most aware
of health problems within the band.
Speaker 2: Thing as well, that I've been thinking of is obviously
Mustane's healthy, is using and all of that.
Speaker 1: So, you know, when I've seen Megadifa recently, I have
been sort of aware of, like, you know, these these
are some of the last times I'll see this band,
I'm sure. So I'm you know, I would have predicted
that Negadif will be the second to retire, and then
it's out of Metallica and Anthrax, and Metallica get more money.
Maybe Anthrax will just go forever and ever and ever,
because that's what they've always done in Yeah, so I
don't know who will go first out of Metallica and Anthrax,
but I'm not surprised by the Negadith news. No, and
Paul Terry asks, what was the most surprising performance you
saw from an artist during this summer's festival season. This
can be good or bad. So the festival season, right,
so I guess we can start it. We were at
Incineration together, you were Outbreak and two Thousand Trees. I
was at Fortress, Bloodstock and Mystic.
Speaker 3: We can count slam Dunk.
Speaker 1: Slam Dunk as well. I've forgotten that one, actually, now
I remember what you saw at slam Dunk. Maybe that's
the answer. We can count the back to the beginning
show as well, like even though we weren't there personally,
we've all seen tons of it, and then the big
outdoor shows from the likes of Slayer and Death Tones
as well. It's been a massive summer, as we've been
saying the whole time. So if we're now sort of
at the end of it, that's count all of that together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so'm I don't think I saw many like shows
that were really surprising, Like apart from I guess I
have to go with and I swore as my enemies
that ended up having a mostly fun time with until
they fucked it up. But Electric Cool Boy, I genuinely
didn't think I would enjoy it. I went in like curious,
but I was like, it's not gonna welcome me that
they're a rubbish band.
Speaker 3: They're awful, they're terrible.
Speaker 2: It's not gonna work. And then I was like, fuck,
it's working. They're kind of like explosion of energy.
Speaker 3: And pyrotechnics and all of that nonsense in the sort
of slam out same way.
Speaker 2: Again, it hadn't been a banner slam dunk here anyway.
It's particularly on some of the heavier bands. It was
kind of just like, this is just a bit of
like pizazz and wow factor that this slaming has been lacking.
And then again they screwed up where I could see
the real hit factory at the end.
Speaker 3: But it was a.
Speaker 2: Surprise to walk away from an Electric Collboys set and
not feel nothing but complete hatred and anger and actually
be like, pretty financially aren't.
Speaker 1: They Yeah, although we should stay for the record that
you were still complaining about their cover section and acoustic parts,
which which fair.
Speaker 3: Enough that they fucked it.
Speaker 2: They did that, Yeah they still you know, it was
about a solid forty minutes before that where I was
having which it would not have told happened in January
this year or whatever.
Speaker 1: Like sure, so I said on the Bloodstock review a
couple of weeks ago that my, you know, the most
surprising band of the festival for me were maybe this
band Dogma, who were kind of the sexy nuns heavy
metal band.
Speaker 3: Who want to see them? They sound fun?
Speaker 1: Yeah, who I went into not really knowing their music,
but they were really fun live, I guess. Obviously, Trivium
kind of surprised everyone with what they turned their set
into with fucking Master of Puppets and three from sleep
Token and and Singing in Waves and all that crazy shit.
Ministry and static X were also both baffling in different
kind of ways. I think back to Hate Breed at
Mystic Festival and that set list opening run that I
was telling people about and just remember going fuck me, like,
Hate Breed being great is not a surprise, But coming
out the gates as hard as they did did like
I had to recalibrate my whereabouts a little bit beherit.
I didn't expect quite that level of fucking explosiveness sonically
from them. And again, you know some of the polls
from back to the beginning obviously, you know we spoke
about fucking Johnny Blade and you know Good Years under
the Sun, which I got to see that one in person,
Bloodstock fucking Wicked World from Slayer, right, Like, that's such
a crazy.
Speaker 3: Weird moment in that set.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know a lot of people would say Young
Bloods changes as well, So yeah, I mean, just on
this particular category alone, it has been a fairly eventful
festival season and summer, I would say, so cheers everybody
for your questions. As we come to those, they tend
to come from the That's non at all group on Facebook,
So go and get yourself in on that if you
want to be part of this. For this, let's talk
about what we did on Patreon this week. And this
is a very eventful segment this week because we had been,
you know, in this kind of little segment rre I'm like,
we've got something coming up. I've been trying to tiptoe
around it, trying to tease a little bit, but it's
out in the open now. A lot of you guys
have heard it, and as I knew it would be,
as it always is when we kind of lean a
little bit more, Fascicle gets a really fun positive reaction
from people. The special that we put out last week
on the that Storm of Patreon for everyone who kindly
keeps his podcast alive by contributing a little bit our way,
was a special that we ended up calling the Trial,
specifically the Trial of hair Metal versus New Metal versus
metal Core, which is a template we had cooking for
a little while and we finally got down to do
it and release it out into the wild, and it
is some of the most fun we've probably ever had
doing a special.
Speaker 3: It was crazy.
Speaker 1: It produced so so many fucking out pocket moments and
so many laughs. If we have not heard the special,
I will pitch it to you vusly if you are
familiar of when we've done our Battle specials and we
put things versus each other and we have a kind
of level headed debate over it. This is not that
this is out and out war because the genres of
hair metal, new metal, and metal core were all assigned
a lawyer for the defense, a TNM host to live
and die for that cause. Mark Sanderson had hair metal
on his plate, Elliott Paisley had new metal, and Sam
Here had metal core. And as we went through the
series of categories that are you know, comparable to what
we've done on our Battle Specials, they each selected a
champion from their scene to go out there. But we
had a convoluted series of rules and stuff to really
make it fun and really make it interesting. And the
results of that were matchups I can safely say no
one has ever ever put together before. No one has
ever compared the ourists that the three of you put
together for most consistent band together and compared them on
that level before. And like I said, the barbs. They
were they were flying the sam This was incredible, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: I was so much fun.
Speaker 2: Like again, I say stuff that I've now There are
recordings of me saying stuff that I don't believe, but
I had to say it in the moment because this
is It's taught me true Melk Warriors I needed now
more than ever where some of the people have questioned
my decisions for putting some of the most foundational like
important medical bands and sort of saying that's not mel
Court it's a metallic hardcore.
Speaker 3: What is metallic cardcore? I asked you, what is it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: It got heated, it got funny.
Speaker 2: I had to almost say bad things about someone who
I love more than coachings in the world and couldn't
bring myself to do it. The one moment where you stop,
I flinched. I couldn't do it. But Elliott coming out
of a bombshell that early like threw me off my game,
like insane takes Mark Sanson. Laughter is like the greatest
medicine and that where there was a lot of laughter
in that special so much fun.
Speaker 3: I like, I feel like it's one.
Speaker 2: That we can't always wheel out because it needs to
be the right kind of like magical kind of like
moments to it. But this was like capturing that moment
of like we are all locked in for war.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: People have asked us if we're going to immediately go
and do another one of these. I would say, treat
it like a great movie. If we get a great
idea for a sequel, we will do it, but we
don't want to force it and ruin the magic too early,
because there was something so perfect about the alignment of
like these three things, with the what they did to
each other. Yeah, and you know that the hosts or
having one to kind of like get behind. If we
come up with a great idea to do another one,
we will, But this one, I would say, is a
special that people should hear if they were to hear
how zany this stuff can get. People have been having
a lot of fun with it, and we had so
much fun putting it together in the weeks beforehand, you know,
picking your categories and all that stuff, and then the
few hours of just going to fucking town. It is
it's the event of the year here on. That's not well,
I can say that much. So if you want to
get in on that, you can go to patron dot
com slash That's not Metal and just have an absolute
blast with us. Let's close this up with the releases,
and we've got two weeks worth of releases because we
didn't cover them last time when we did the Bloodstock review.
I think it was and for some reason here in
like these couple of weeks of August, which is normally
not the busiest month, these two weeks, particularly this Friday,
have absolutely popped off. So I'm gonna be here for
a little while, but get your notepads out and I'm
going to let you know the releases that you should
be aware of. So first of all, from last week,
the fifteenth of August, first one I'm going to talk
about is Rise Against Ricochet and Sam. I've heard from
you and some other people as well who are discussing
this that considering the last Rise Against the album Nowhere
Generation was really good, their best one in a while,
I get the impression of this one isn't really up
to it.
Speaker 2: It's it's not like there's just weird decisions made on
this album production in particular, but it it's the first
one in a while I've gone like, ah, the fire
is not there like the sort of thing I turned
to Risers against for that that passion and that sort
of hanging off of Tim's word it is missing.
Speaker 3: And this is like again band I love.
Speaker 2: This is the first one of theirs, like which I
might go like this might be born on the pile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, bumma really yeah shame. Then we've got Jerry valanceon
Bray with hyper Youth. They are back yet again. They're
releasing pretty much a record every single year. This one
it has a lot of the classic Joey valanceon Bray stuff,
but it also has them sort of branching out doing
some more sort of introspective material and stuff at times
that's interesting to hear. Then the band Justice for the Damned,
which this band kind of I've forgotten about. They've they've
come back here with a record called Stay Relentless, and
I guess sort of like a metallic hardcore, you know,
hardcore punk kind of band. Then in your kind of
like you know, sort of indie emo, alternative rock kind
of spheres, there's a band Pool Kids with a record
called Easier Said than Done. And in a similar realm,
the band Kerosene Heights with Blame It on the Weather,
So there's you two for that fix. This week, Unleashed,
one of the original sort of Swedish Viking death metal bands,
are back with a record called Fire upon Your Lands.
If you're like a bigger Monomath fan, you've never heard Unleashed,
and you want to kind of work backwards on the timeline,
then I would recommend doing so. Similarly, Scandinavian death metal
with a bit of a heavy metal edge. The band
based with Colossal. Then from America there is a band
Castrata with Coronation of the Grotesque. This is a sort
of brutal death metal band. The vocalist is the same
vocalist as the thrashband Vicious Blade, who we've covered and
being very positive about in the past. This is her
and you know some other women doing very violent, kind
of feminist in them gory, brutal death metal. So that's
cool if you like that stuff. Pano to Con, the
great American bluegrass influenced black metal band, have put our
two records last week called Laurentian Blue and Songs of
High Wraith. One of those is a new record of
entirely kind of the folk and country leanings of Panopticon
and the other one contains more extreme material, but it's
more sort of material that has been recorded in the
past and is kind of being unearthed and sort of
brought together here. So those are out if you want
some sort of blackened post metal type stuff. There's a
band Phosphorus with a record Frail Grasp of Broken Hands. Then,
for the second time this year on Hyperbar blasts the
band fell Omen, which is kind of a one man
dungeon punk black metal, medieval armor type affair, with a
record called Kaylee Dog Summer, an EP from the band
fire Starter. This is straight edge hardcore with still holding on.
And there was a sort of I guess EP sort
of release from Cottle of Luna, who put out Beyond three,
four and five, which, if you remember the last cot
of Luna album, The Along Road North, there were two
little interlude tracks Beyond one and two. Apparently there were
more of those that weren't fit onto the record where
they've released them, and I think one of them has
like a Williams or someone on it. So there you
go today the twenty second, and this is a really
big day for releases. The biggest one is of course
Deaftones private music that will of course be our you know,
lead review on the show that we are going to
come at you with next week, where we'll talk all
about what we think of the new Deathtones album. Pendulum
a back for their first album in like well over
a decade called Inertia. Three Days Grace a back with
a record called Alienation. We came as Romans are back
with a recordord All is beautiful because we're doomed. So
it's a great day for really relevant bands. There's also
Hot Mulligan with the record The Sound of Body Makes
When It's Still, which when it comes to this kind
of like emo pop punk whatever you want to call them,
we were looking down this track list and we're like,
I don't think we're moved, particularly by Monica Lewinskibberdy, Like.
Speaker 2: I should like Hot Mallagan, but the song tracks are
just so operting the song time, I'm like, I can't
take you seriously, no matter how like much of one
of my like ernest kind of like emo pop punk songs.
Speaker 3: These stupid song titles. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then there is the return of the great brit rock
band Dinosaur Pile Up with an album called I Felt
I Felt Better, The emo band who are again kind
of you know, on those peripheris between post hardcore and
hardcore and stuff like that. The world is the Beautiful
Place and I'm no longer afraid die. They've got their
new album called Dreams of Being Dust. Also in I
guess or sort of brit rocky fair, there's a band
called Really Big, Really Clever, with an album called Huh.
Then there is a band called Faced Out with a
record at Eternity's Edge, which is full on ninety style
metallic hardcore. There is fire Schwans, of course, if you've
heard our blast review with the night Club Nightclub record
is out. Another heavy metal band, Burning Witches. They've got Inquisition,
the deathcore band Signs of the Swarm one of those
kind of upcoming popular death core bands. They've got Rid
Myself of Truth Arcadia, which is actually brand Dayla from
mastod On his kind of like synth prog funk whatever
kind of weirdo cosmic project. It's really like, it's full
on synthy, dancy craziness. There got out with a record
called The Exodus of Gravity. Then I think from Church Roads,
kind of blackened screamery type stuff. There's Malovich under a
Gilded Son the great long running Teutonic thrash band disaster.
Speaker 3: With an E.
Speaker 1: I've got a record called Kill All Idols and your
really heavy death doom pic this week comes from Innumerable
Forms and Pain Effulgence. Two EPs to close us out, Zetra,
the UK sort of synth goth whatever type band. They've
got a record called Believe and another one for the
kind of metallic hardcore fans out there, Fates Messenger have
Eternal War. So we got through that quite efficiently. Well done, everybody,
cheers for listening. As I said there, next week we'll
be back with review show for August, where we will
of course be leading with the Deathtones record. There are
a couple of other records in that list I've just
mentioned that we'll be in there as well, as well
as some of the other best and most interesting stuff
from August that we are selecting to talk about a
little bit more in depth. So if you want to
hear that then we will be back here next week
and thank you everybody for listening right now. As said,
if you want to hear our crazy crazy special of
the Trial of Hair versus New versus Core, then Patreon
dot com slash that's not all is the place to
be and Brent fucking heines Man, Brent hines forever. Cheers everybody,