Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to That's Not a Metal.
We are your weekly rock and heavy metal podcast. We
come here every single Friday. We let you know what's up,
what's been going on this edition This week is our
biggest episode of the month because it is our reviews
bag episode for July. July traditionally, I always view it
this way is a lower key month. Less of the
big names are releasing their albums, but considering the couple
of very highly notable, long awaited releases the Absite to
drop in July, and a couple of records from just
like the end of June, for example, that we hadn't
got to yet, we have managed to piece together quite
a sizeable I suppose it's up for debate and question
that we will answer whether it is a tasty reviews batch,
but definitely some prime T and M names that we
have to be getting into. So later in the show
we are going to be reviewing the new albums from
Loathe Muse, the Mensingers, the excerpts Fuming Mouth, No Cure
and Arise from Worms. My name is Paren Haish and
with me to enjoy all of this stuff we had
ahead of us is Sam dign on here. Hello, Sam,
how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Not it's a bad excited about some of the news.
Speaker 2: You've got to talk about interest to chat about some
of these albums and kind of get into thinking. I say,
it feels like a big July batch actually compared to Yeah,
it usually is because normally, you know, it's the summer,
it's festivals, that's all that's really going on, and the
albums are a little bit sort of sparse. But I mean,
I've my summer album dropped last week and I haven't
stopped listening to it. No spoilers on what that might be,
if anyone knows my taste, but I.
Speaker 1: Wonder what could it possibly be. It's also it's the
oddyssey week, so I've been looking around for cyclopsters. I've
been being wary of any trojan horses left on my doorstep.
I'm absolutely might my surveillance levels, my wariness is up
to a peak.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing it again on Saturday on like the big
seventy milimeters screen in London. I'm not I can't get
to like the Imax one because that's sold out until September,
but they're still like the massive seventy millimeters one, so
I'm seeing it again on that because yeah, that's a
movie that I want to see again on like as
big as thing, because like, yeah, good movie.
Speaker 1: It is good, it's bonkers. It's also obviously very very metal.
I always feel like any sort of big, grand fantastical
mythology type spectacle we have gone on it always chimes
quite well with We've normally got some album or other
dealing with some of this stuff. But that's what has
been filling our weeks before we get into reviewing those albums.
We are, as you were saying, we have got some
news to run through, and our top story that we
are going to open up this week is not one
that I was anticipating, you know, arriving this time last
week when we were doing our last episode. The first
news story we've got to talk about comes courtesy of
some little band called Gallows, who we don't know what yet.
Maybe by the time that you're hearing us on Friday,
everyone will know. Obviously we're recording this Thursday night, so
if they have confirmed anything, we don't fucking know yet.
But we don't know what they're up to. All we
know is that they are up to something, and that
is considerably more than they have been up to for
a very long time. Actually, twenty nineteen was the last
time that Gallows were like a genuinely active band, when
they played a handful of shows, including the House of
Van show in London, followed by then Slam Dunk that
same weekend that you know, we attended. But that's the
last time Gallows actually concretely existed and seven years past. Right,
we're going to talk about some of the things that
have gone on in that time involving, you know, members
of Gallows that have made it seem like Gallows was
in no way really a top concern, but it looks
like something's going on.
Speaker 2: It feels crazy to me because like when Gallows came
back in twenty nineteen, it felt like they'd been away
for age, yes, and it'd been like it really did,
like it has been like three four years. I can
remember exactly how it was, but it felt like they
they were done. And then they still had come back
and was like, yes, Gallows are back. And then COVID
because they had plans to tour like twenty twenties for
that as well. I think they were doing reading festival
or something. And then COVID happens, and then the Gallows
reunion just vanished off the face of the earth and
that was it.
Speaker 1: No more, no more Gallows again.
Speaker 2: And then as it eight year passed on and it
was like, I think Gallows are done. And I mean
we in our discord were having a discussion the other
week literally about Gallows and yes, the likelihood of them
ever coming back. What iteration of Gallows is it? Who's fronting,
who's doing what this and what and whoever? And like,
And the point we saw came to was like, regardless
of Gallo's come back and play shows, I just want
the Gallows catalog, all four albums, both ears, to get
the recognition it deserves again because it feels like Gallows
have kind of been lost to time a little bit,
like obviously definitely outside of the UK, but even in
the UK now where they were still you know, they
had a reputation, they had an aura to them that
just feels gone regards with whatever Gallows it is. So
it was really nice to sort of see initially just
a blacked out Facebook page and then an Instagram link
of sign up to get news, which I've signed up
for again. I don't well, I don't know when it's
dropping in or we could be tomorrow, it could be
a couple of time, but something's happening. I was just like, right, cool, Fine,
at least we're going at least we're getting Gallows back
in the conversation. And as a bunch of people to
and again that's what I like, a bunch of people
getting excited about Gallo's come back. And I was like, good,
this is what we need. If anything, just Gallows being
back in the conversation. Then we're kind of remembering what
a fucking great band they are. And again, right now,
I don't care who's running, who's doing what, what the is?
I just want Gallows back in the conversation. Everyone's kind
of go, oh, yeah, all four of those albums are
fucking awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I agree, because you know, we've been speaking for ages
really about what a you know, unprecedented place hardcore is
at right now as a cultural force and as like
a genuinely mainstream force, and the way you generations of
bands like Obviously Not Loose and Turnstile and you know,
Code Orangine their time and all that, you know, all
these kind of domino effects that have gone on where
hardcore is so ubiquitous right now, it does feel like Gallows,
for whatever reason, their part in that has fallen away
from major discussion. And when people talk about the greatest
hardcore bands of all time, I know, obviously there is
a absolutely a cult following that we would certainly count
ourselves as a part of who do regularly tout that.
But that when people talk about you know, hardcore on
Twitter all the time, which is as I said, all
the time, right because it's it's such a you know,
a unavoidable scene, Gallows do not come up anymore anywhere
near as much as I think they should. So I
agree that that is like, out of anything that could happen,
I just want, I just think they should be recognized
more so about what this actually you know, will be right,
because we have a little trail of evidence here, as
you said, started off with you know, blacked out social
media pages, which always just sort of a sign of
like you know, battle stations everyone, something is coming, but
the scale of what that might be is unknown. Then
we got the email link, which, like you said, which
to me at least indicates that that sort of you
know takes up or not right, that there is something coming.
Are we looking at you know, live shows being announced
like something like that, you know, tour dates, whatever it
could be. But also I want to touch on, like
you were saying, what form of Gallows could actually come
back if we assume that this you know, piece of
activity here is in fact the band again re emerging
from their slumber to play some shows. It's not just
a reissue or something like that. We obviously don't know
what that actually means in terms of Gallows because the
different version of Gallows that have existed, we have, like
you were saying, when we've had conversations kind of off
Mike about Gallows, I have said actually for a little
while that if Gallows were to come back soon, I
had started to believe it was more likely that we
would actually get the Frank reunion than the you know,
the last known active version of Gallows that was threatened
by Wade McNeil coming back. And the reason I sort
of felt that way is as the more time passed,
I suppose, the more again the WAYE version of Gallows
looked like it had run its course, in the way
that the original Frank version of Gallows had had run
its course. Obviously, you know the fact that there was
a hiatus after they released the second album with Wade
that then resulted in them coming out of you know,
hiding for those shows that we mentioned took like four years.
That was like, yeah, Gallows is of not the top,
you know that Again, the primary concern of all the
people involved right now, the fact that everything that's happened,
you know, since the turn of the decade really only
made me feel more that way. Where obviously we have
Alexa on Fire becoming you know, a much more active
band again after that with their new album and very
constant touring and stuff like that. On top of that,
Wades even during Thursday and has been playing with them.
He's got his you know, pig pen exactly like other
hardcore bands that he's been doing. So he's like he's
a very busy man, Like if I wanted to grab me,
always just's he's always somewhere. So I didn't know how
much time Gallas would have in the schedule. The other
members of Gallows, you know, Lags has been doing then records,
I know that, you know, Steph Carter's doing stuff, stuff
with Marshall, Like they just all seemed like they were
doing other things and the wide version didn't seem like
it had a you know, an immediate demand to exist,
I suppose, And the longer that drifted away, the more
I think the maybe the nostalgia call of getting the
original guys together. And I don't mean a nostalgia call
in terms of like trying to bank to an audience
or something. I meant in themselves, right, because we've seen
over the last however many years now, all these you know,
the great photos of like, oh, here's Frank Carter and
the Gallows guys. They're just hanging out, being buds at
a show or whatever. Clearly like all on good terms.
And I started to believe, like if Gallows were to
come back, which I was not convinced would happen prior
to this event that we are currently talking about, I
was not saying that it was a guaranteed thing, but
if it was to happen, I had started to believe
the Frank you know, incarnation of Gallows was the more
likely thing to re emerge then the way version. The
only you know counterside to that, obviously is Frank has
the matter in his you know, touring schedule of playing
with the sex Pistols, which I know because that's not
a creatively active band. Maybe that does leave room for
him to go and be, you know, the front man
of Gallows and the front man of the Sex Pistols,
but obviously being with something busy also. I think it's
worth noting earlier today, I believe, as we're doing this,
Frank Carter posted on his Instagram story because I guess
people had seen the Gallows announcement and have just started
like reminiscing and posting stuff on social media, all this stuff.
He posted something basically recognizing how often he was being
tagged in things, and he said something along the lines
of like it was an old tour poster. And he
says something along the lines of, like, the best thing
about whatever the fuck Gallows are doing right now is
just me being reminded of all this great stuff we
did to get right. And the wording of that obviously
implies that Frank Carter does not know what Gallows are
doing now. Could he be doing a kerry king about this, right?
Could he be? He like he hasn't said I do
not know what Gallows are doing. He said the best
thing about whatever the fuck Gallows are doing, which he
could well be involved with, We don't know. He could
be Kerry King Slayer reunioning this. It's difficult to know.
So with all that in mind, let's speculate again. This
could happen tomorrow as this episode goes up, but we
don't know right now. What do you think and what
do you want to happen with this? Gallows And I.
Speaker 2: Think this is initially going to be a tour. I mean,
like I love the way Hearer Gallows stuff. I want
to see Frank Carter Gallows because I've never got to
see Frank Carter Frank Gallows, Like I would love to
see those songs performed by him, because like I never
wanted to miss way from those songs because he was
fucking brilliant at doing none of his reason and misery.
But the idea of seeing Frank Carter perform them has
always had that kind of I mean, like Great Britain
is in my top twenty albums of all time. I
think that album is a masterpiece. It's one of the
most like brilliant stories in hardcore, one of the most
forward thinking, unique hardcore records that doesn't get nearly as
much praise as it deserves for fucking with the rules
of just about every genre and every kind of like
business practice in alternative music. It possibly could. I think
it's like one of the great kind of outlaw stories.
Speaker 1: I think it stands next to Jane Doe is the
greatest hard grabbing full time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would not disagree, and I would the idea
of seeing that is something that I've clung on too
so long. I've always goind of made peace of I probably.
I don't think he's gonna do it the whole whatever
gas anything. He's not gonna give away on an Instagram
story that he's coming back to Gallows. He's gonna play
it coy like regardless of what something happens. Like, I
think everyone deep down knows that the dream is to
see Frank Carter come back, and that's what would make
this Gallows reunion explode more than if it was just
another waveun Like. I think the Wave union would be
that same kind of like cult fan base who all
like rocked up to House of Vans and went fucking
meant like that gig and had the best time. But
I think the idea of like a Gallows of Frank
would be like a hope. I think Frank Carter needs
something like this as well. I think like him doing
the sex soff has been cool, but I like but
I think his reputation is one of like the incendiary
figures of UK music has diminished in the years, and
I think it like a return to Gallows could reignite that.
I would love this to be a tour that then leads.
Speaker 1: Onto an album.
Speaker 2: I again, like anything that's wrong that puts Gallows back
in the prompt position is what I want. Realistically, I
think we're getting a Gallows tour ten end of this
year or early next year, and then maybe into like
festival season next year, some extra eight and then that
might be it. It might kind of just be like
a one of those this is you know, the last
ride of Gallows, be it with Wade and Frank We
coming come back for one last actual like properly build final, right,
That's what I think is most likely to happen. What
I want to happen is tour, it go really well
album and then Gallows are back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I just would say for the record, I
do agree. Obviously, I have seen the Wade incarnation of Gallows.
I have loved the Wad incarnation of Gallows, but like you,
I did not see the Franco Carnation of Gallows, and
as someone who loves those first two records as well
as the two with Wade, I would love to see
It's the dream, like you said, everyone would want to
see if they never saw it the first time out,
that to happen and it would be a feel good story.
The only thing I would all so add on to
that is the worst thing about Gallows fan base going
back over ten years, has been this tribal act about
even while the weighed version of Gallows was active and
around and people weren't fucking appreciating it because they were going, oh,
get Frank back, right, Yeah, if they post this you know,
teaser and get people excited, and they get those people
excited and then they come back and it's the Way
version of Gallows. Which if we got the Way version
of Gallows back, particularly if they were to then make
an album, right and if it wasn't just like twenty
nineteen and we got actual new music because the last
Wade record, fucking Desolation, sounds brilliant record. Barely anyone's heard
it because people are fucking stupid about that band, but
it's an incredible record there are very few punk wo
Hargo albums released in the decade since that are better
than that one. But like I said, if they post
all this and they get the Frank purist excited, who
have spent you know, the following fifteen years diminishing the
activity of that band, and then they come back with
the Way version of Gallows and those people start going, oh,
you got us all excited, when it's just for the
Way version coming back, I would just absolutely say once again,
fuck those people, and it would be tremendously excited. So
whichever version of Gallows does appear, I will be happy.
I agree that the one that would be more cause
for like, oh my God, would be obviously the Frank version.
But either way, like I said, prior to you know,
a couple of days ago, I did not we didn't
have any Gallus activity. Considering the esteem that we hold
that band in and all of their you know catalog,
that is absolutely cause for celebration. So maybe it happens tomorrow.
It certainly has to happen soon. Obviously we are waiting
to see what's going on with Gallows, but they seem
more alive than they were before, so good news. There
some bad news. To sort of trade off that with
talking about bands in the UK rock scene is Marmozettes
have announced that they have split with Sam McIntire. Sam
McIntyre obviously the sibling of Becker formerly McIntire now Becker Bottom,
leave the front women of the band. The Marmoset's comeback
has been like oddly, I don't know, it's it seemed
on and off, isn't it. Where they came back released
the album. We spoke about how the album maybe like
wasn't as tremendous as their their first two albums, but
it's still got a good amount of love. I know
that when they went and did the you know, some
shows for it, people talking about how great it was live,
and then they even like released I'd forgotten about this
until this announcement came out, But they released another song
like beyond the album, like a couple of weeks ago.
There was another extra single, so they seem to be,
you know, have a lot of material hanging around. But
then we've also had news like this where the kind
of you know, chemistry within the band and they've said
that it's due to the the you know the relationship
between these members of the band, by which I had
just been Sam and the other members, the other three
primarily of the band becoming unworkable seems to have you know,
had had its bumps already, even though it doesn't seem
like they've been that, you know, that long since they
have gone back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean obviously, like the film with this one
is like it was kind of known they were going
to be taking a break after the Simc Becker is
like several months pregnant again, so like that was coming
to But it just feels weird that that that, like
this has kind of been the sort of ending point
of this initial first one of their reunion is one
of the sort of members leaving. And again because it's
like Marmosets has always been like a family unit, it
feels extra odd then when you're like there is strong
creative or like like differences in how things are going,
and that's clearly caused the rift and the marmos Its
union's kind of like just been very much like yeah,
it's good, and then it's kind of stalled out and
then it's kind of got but going and the like
people say, like the two Thousand Trees set, the vibe
did seem off. I didn't, I can't come out. I've
just seen people say that, like you could. They felt
like there was tensions on stage, which might be what
then just led to this thing of kind of like
you know, I'm done and that's it. It's yeah, it's
just it feels like an odd kind of place to
leave this Marmots union at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very weird. Ghosts have confirmed the details of their
next concert film. We've already got a second one. It's
pretty crazy that where they haven't even taken you know,
a number of years between them, and they've just gone right,
next album, next tour. Immediately. It's almost becoming a regular thing,
the Ghost trip to the cinema. But their new film
is called Too Big, Too Rig and that is going
to be out in cinemas and imax as well August
the twenty sixth. This one obviously captures the Scaler tour
in the way that the previous right here, right now
film did the Emperor Tour. I guess the curious part
but this is how different will it be from the
previous film. Obviously, I know the tour is different, but
I mean from a filmmaking sensibility, the previous film famously
had a lot of the sort of skits and like,
you know, the comedic narrative elements and stuff around the
actual concert film part. I don't know if they will
be doubling down as much on that. Interestingly, I watched
the trailer for this, which is only like a you know,
one minute thirty seconds long. There's not a lot to
take from it, considering most of it is obviously going
to be you know, the concert footage of them playing
live and stuff. But there's nothing in there in that
trailer that you know, there's none of that usual you know,
fucking what's her name, Sister Imperator or like, you know,
the characters of the Ghost Universe. None of them are
in there. And there's actually more like little interviews and
stuff with what appears to be the crew and the
people like putting on the show, and there's more like
shots of again the assembly of the stage and stuff
like that. So I don't know if this film is
going to maybe have a little more more realism to
it in terms of like peeling back the curtain a
little bit and talking to like some of the you know,
the production side of what's gone into the Ghost stage show.
Maybe instead of the narrative elements I don't know, but
like that's all I can go on are really from
the again like the ninety second trailer, but that's that's
too big to rig.
Speaker 2: Well when it's called two big rig that has a
kind of feeling, yeah, setting up the stage show and
that kind of like the production aspect of it. So
I do wonder if this is going to kind of
be you know, the concert film with the kind of
the behind the scenes sort of thing is quite a
popular thing at the moment. Again, like that that kind
of like peak behind the currency you're the artists like
off stage and like ghost through that, but actually doing
it seriously and not with these like with the silly
comedy skits.
Speaker 1: I mean, that could be. That could be interesting.
Speaker 2: It might justify this being you know, another concert film
really so quickly if they bring me different to it.
I wondered it and mind this thing. When I heard
that we're doing, sayone was like did they just realize
the skit thing were bad? And they were like, right,
when you just want a live document that has got
that without the comedy and the characters interrupting the flow
of the concerts. That was my again, biggest gripe with
right here, right now is like the con stuff is great,
and then every now and then you'd have to be
pulled away from that to have these like silly behind
the backstage sort of bits of all the characters that
I just wasn't invested in. But then, yeah, I think
like Ghosts are the band who can pull off multiple
concert films. I feel like that again because each tour
is such a different spectacle. So if you didn't like,
I didn't see I didn't see the skill of tour,
so I might go on to this just again to
get a glimpse of that.
Speaker 1: But I think, yeah, it could be good fun. Yes,
here is an interesting stat for you, Sleep Tokens album
Take Me Back to Eden, which was the twenty twenty
three there third album, and I think we would all
sort of largely say the album where the sleep token,
you know, rising cults became genuinely like the dominant global
metal force that they have been. That album has been
officially certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America,
so that means platinum in America. Obviously, there are other
countries around the world who have their own sort of
version of UK platinum whatever, but America obviously the biggest market, right,
That's that's the big one. This is, you know, obvious
a combination of sales, but also over two billion global streams.
And I saw this thing and I was just sort of,
you know, it occurred to me. I was like, I
don't know, off top my head, how many you know,
big metal releases or rock releases in the past. However
many years have actually been certified platinum because it's something
that we associate a lot more with, you know, the
kind of golden age of record sales. Right, yeah, I'm
just going to say a lot of older stuff, like you know,
obviously you know, if you say that hybrid theory or
fucking you hysteria or whatever is however many times you
know certified, then it makes sense. But in the modern era,
when sales are not what they obviously used to be,
it's something you see less often. And I was like,
I don't know, like what other albums have done that
in recent times. And if anyone, like again I was
just doing a cursory google, that might be completely wrong.
So if anyone has like other knowledge or information on this, like,
do share it, because I would be interested but I
was just thinking like, Okay, what are the other recent
really big, like really like again prominent heavy bands, right,
so obviously a google Ghost, I was like, do Ghost
have like a platinum album? And as far as I
could tell, they have one in Sweden, but they do
not have an American certified platinum album in the way
that taken back to Eden's would be. And then I
was like, what about Bringing the Horizon, And as far
as I could tell, they do not have one. And
you might look at records like Send Paternal and that's
the Spirit which obviously be around way longer than sleep
Tokens albums, and as far as I can tell, they
have not been either. So a genuine rarefied air thing
that that album from three years ago has gotten to do.
So that's again an interesting stat Nonetheless, otherwise, we have
got a whole bunch of just album announcements really to
rattle through. Chelsea Wolf, who obviously shared those two singles
the other week, she has shared a third one called Cold,
but also the news that her album is called The Dark,
sharing the name of one of the previous singles she
put out, and it's going to be out on August
the twenty first, which is the same week that she
headlines ARC Tangent and also plays a show in London,
which I'm very fucking jealous of, you know you having
trying to.
Speaker 2: Get tickets for that because I've not fingers and sell Tomorrow.
I'm gonna I'm gonna try that because I've not seen
Chelsea Wolf yet and her I think she's doing The
Dark in full in the Dome in like a time,
which is a small Yeah, that's going to that's going
to be a kind of a cool show to see
some you. I'm gonna try and get to that.
Speaker 1: Yes, but just obviously know I don't want to talk
about too the song too heavily, but just to confirm
off the back of the previous two songs, which are
more of again the kind of the you know, earthy
folk music type route of her material after obviously the
previous album was more like electronic. This new track cold.
I remember when we were talking about the previous singles,
it might have been The Dark, but Elliott compared one
of them to Florence in the Machine and we sort
of giggled a bit. And then I heard this one,
and I think this one is actually a little bit
more like definitely going that kind of alt folk, you know,
sort of direction for this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it's it's one of the cool
things about Chelsea Wolf where she can kind of like
climb out for it and it still feels kind of considered.
But this is I said that that old folk thing,
that from Streme thing. It's probably the most she's ever
sounded that. I think it's cool, though, I'm down to
storp here. I wonder for again, the album will kind
of go into like sha like more shadowy trains with
this particular sound I'm guessing against versically they kind of
hint that that, but yeah, I'm I'm intrigued. It's I'm
glad it's going to be a very different vibe to
the last.
Speaker 1: Album you always imagine it will be. I'm on a math.
I've announced their album. It's called The All Father Awakens.
It's out October the second, and yes, it does feature
that acoustic song that I briefly mentioned on I Think
last week's show. I Hate Breed have got their new
albums called Fatal Paradox and that is going to be
out later in the year. That was going to be
out in November. I believe as much as we love
Hatebreed right, and we do love Hatebred and we talk
about them regularly, I will say the last Hate Breed
album is the most like completely memory hold by the
world at large has happened. Like even when it comes
to their festival settlists. I know that some people say, oh, yeah,
everything passed two thousand and nine or whatever. It might
not be as good as the Glory Days, but you
can trust, like, you know, looking down the Barrel today
became their biggest song, like literally, whereas the last album
they don't play anything off it, like it completely came
and went. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that last album was decent, but it was
it landed before Hatebreed kind of re cement themselves in
the hardcore scene fair yeah like, and they were just
kind of like riding off the wave of sort of
them in the melt scene. So I think this new
album might actually make more of an impact. I think
the lead single off It Killed Can Increase is a
fucking banger and ends with one like the sickest most
parts Hatred have written in a long time. So I'm
like they are channeling their hardcore side. They are getting
back in touch with that kind of vibe. It's like,
so I wonder if that's gonna make this album. Maybe
won't do so well with you know, the download festival.
You're kind of like Fest of Masais crowd. But if
you want just kind of pure, like violent mosh anthems,
I feel like Hate we might actually delive on that.
I'm kind of excited. And you know, there's a John
Tardy guest spot on the album, on the track this,
there's a CC cover, So I'm like, I was just
uite like, I'm kind of down for this Hate We
record like I've got a good, good feeling and it
could be, could could come, and it's like, oh yeah,
that lead single is good, the John Tidy guess what's called,
and then the rest of it does get kind of
memory hold again. But I want to.
Speaker 1: Believe, all right. Also in that Vain Pain of Truth,
who had a pretty well liked Daily album a few
years ago, they have announced their second album, which is
self titled, and that's out on September the twenty fifth.
And also on the confirming album fronts, you know records
that we've already had music from, but now we have
news about the albums. Uncle Assen and the Dead Beats,
the Eternal Enemies of Damon, Albara and the Guerrillas. Their
new album is confirmed. It's called Shapes of Midnight and
that's coming out on September the eighteenth, again September. Shaping
up pretty well at this stage in time, employed to serve.
Speaking of bands we've had music from recently, they have
dropped another potentially I guess, standalone single. They had a
single called Dead Reckoning, which came out in May, and
obviously this is you know, they've had their their Fallen
Star album last year, wasn't it. So I don't know
if this seems like it would be quite soon to
be expecting another album, but they are dropping like a
series now of individual tracks. This one's called a Moment
Gone Too Soon. And when Mark and I were speaking
about on the show of the Week that they released
that previous record, and we were like, this is, you know,
considering fall and Star had experience more melodies and electronics
stuff like that. That track was like, oh suffocation, like
more of the brutal death, no influence, And this one
I was sort of expecting, you know, a second track
in a row to go in a differ direction, but
this one actually still very death metal influence, like very
clearly drawing on, you know, Sammy's love of death metal ripping.
And then there is a really fucking cool, like proper
naughties metal corese style heavy metal lead guitar flourish that
comes in the chorus as well, So full on, we're
back to like genuine ripping metal stuff after maybe the
previous record still had that for sure, but you know,
again explore some of the other shades as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again I liked that last Employed SEF but
it was the first one I kind of had to
kind of like grap all of them doing things that
were again a bit more commercial leaning, and and I
was like, they do it work better than a lot
of bands, but it was kind of like a flavor
was going they had to adjust to them doing these
two songs. Again, I wasn't there to review the first one,
but I was like, this is like so fucking good,
and this new one, I think I prefer the previous
one to this new one, but I don't know if
this is going to be you know, just in between
alms out where we'll get there the sort of the
real gnally employed to stuff. And then the alms might
again play in a bit more of the sort of
like modern metalcore thing that they were doing on the
last album. But I mean, this is a really fucking
cool single and if it's to go along with this tour, like,
that's sick. If we get a new album an ounce
soon off the back of these singles and they're on
it's that's sick as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'd love an EP, like, give me a
five to six track EP of the employees.
Speaker 2: I'm just doing a deaf metal EP where it's.
Speaker 1: Just like blasting and slamming employees. Yeah, like twenty five
minutes of that. That would That's what I would manifest.
And they are doing a UK and Europe co headline
tour with the Danish death core band Cabal going through
November as well, so they might well be coming somewhere
near you. And finally, also on the touring front, Warning
have announced a UK headline tour around of five dates
supporting their new album, which came out a month or
so ago. And I'm really excited for this because I've
seen Warning twice and both times they've done Watching from
a Distance in full, because that was basically the only
material that they had that people wanted to hear alive
and I as someone who I still fucking love that
new album they put out, and the idea of go
and see Warning like not at a festival, but headlining
their own show in a you know, a smallish venue
as they are doing with a combination of like you know,
tracks pulled from like a real proper band, you know,
like a just setlers drawn from you know, across their records,
old and you is really exciting to me. So in
December when they are playing Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester, Bristol
and London, if you also want to share in that,
then Warning are coming around. So let us move on
with the show. And firstly I want to talk a
little bit about what we are doing over on the Patreon,
which is the place where we do our best stuff. Essentially,
like you want the best podcasts that that's not metal makes,
they're on the Patreon because that is where we designate
a topic and we go in deep. The most recent
thing that we completed last week was the final parts,
the fourth concluding part of our band special on corn
a special that in its totality across those four parts
I think is something like a bit under sixteen hours
of diving into the band who invented new metal and
spread that across the world and the influence and the
long term effects for our world that has had, but
then also went off and made a whole string of
their own albums kind of in their own bubble to
all sorts of varying degrees, really really fascinating. This final part,
we were looking at the four albums that they have
made since Head returned to the band includes some real
like career highs records like the Nothing that we were
going in deep on, like why they were such standouts
for them at that point in time, and also summing up,
like I said, the strange last couple of years they
had had where they haven't even put out an album
in the last couple of years, and yet the paradigm
has shifted, yeah, if you like, in terms of where
corn City we were trying to get to the bottom
of that and assessing that and where they overall sit.
And as I've said a couple of times, that was
a special of one of the most influential bands that
we were talking on the show, Like I think that
they are batting around the top five of the most
influential heavy metal bands of all time and the bands
of that statue that we had left to do. They
are the one that was like they were a specter
over us for many, many years. People wanted us to
do it, and having done it and having completed it,
I'm proud of the effort we've given it. So that
is out there over the next couple of weeks. Having
completed that, that obviously took a lot of our time
and attention working on that over the last few months.
But over the next couple of weeks, we've got some
other stuff that we want to be doing. We do
want to bring back T and M does Horror, which
has been essentially on you know, kind of a hiatus
slumber over the summer as we have been busy, Sam
was away, etc. But we do want to bring that back.
And it turns out it's been a crazy few months.
Like you dipped at a time when horror went fucking
mental and.
Speaker 2: Like the two movies coming out whilst I was away,
being like the two most like talking point horror movies
of the year, I was like, great, cool, missing out
on all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we're going to sort of, I suppose try
and sum up a little bit what's been going on
over the summer. Obviously, we have to talk about the
obsession of the season, right obsession, which has if you
have been following just movies, let alone horror, but just
sort of movie numbers and stuff, it's been a genuine
phenomenon in a way that very few movies achieved. So
we're gonna have to talk about that. We also want
to talk about the new Evil Dead movie that's just
come out, Evil Dead Burn as we always want to
talk about Evil Dead. So those will be the two
primary movies of discussion in our next episode there. But
I think we're also maybe a little you know, to
just touch a little bit on again some of the
stuff that's happened over the last few months, movies like
you know, backrooms and so on, everything else has been
going on, so we have that to get to. But
we're going to be doing an album club episode. The
last one of these we did was a couple of
months ago when we looked at the likes of bringing
the horizons count your blessings ahead of what has now
happened with the twentieth diniversary celebrations and all of that.
But we are going to get back to it myself,
Samon Elliott, and the four albums that we have got
assembled for this upcoming album Club Batch are a really
odd ball bunch in a way that has a loose
theming around it that I think is very interesting and
will be interesting for us to do and we can
get some stuff out of it. First of all, with
the news of the band's return and one of the
most acclaimed, enormous in stature albums that has never been
on album Club, so we had to get around to
doing it. This is the right time, Faith No Mare's
Angel Dust. Then we have one of the most revered
but also one of the most unique, never really to
be quite replicated bands from the goth sphere. We're going
to be looking at Dead Can Dance and their eighties
album Within the Realms of the Dying Sun. Then we
are going to be having some cowboy punk, I guess,
with the self titled album from One Social Distortion. And
then finally again another really weird album to throw in here,
but we're gonna have some fun with it. I think
we are going to be looking at Alva's healthcare themed
orchestral noise rock album Blood Inside, a proper weirdo album
that most people, I guarantee will have not heard, but
we're gonna have a discussion about it and see what
the hell they were cooking on that one. Those four,
like I said, really eccentric records all over the shop
are gonna be going under the album club microscope next time. So,
like I said, if you want to hear that, as
those episodes go out live, you can hear them on
That's Not Metal Patreon, patreon dot com, slash That's Not
Metal right into the reviews today and looking at this bunch,
I'm gonna warn people up front, it's not smooth sailing.
I don't want people to sort of tune out of
that and go, oh, they're just gonna be negative nancies whatever,
because we're not broadly painting with the brush right tar
this that or the other. But I think certainly I
can speak for myself even in some ways that maybe
you don't. I don't know, but I think collectively we
might have some difficult feelings about some of these albums.
But these are some massive albums that are some of
the most again noteworthy in the T and M calendar
of this particular year. So let's get into them. And
the first one of those is Loathe with their new
album A Stranger to You, which is one of the
most anticipated heavy album releases of the decade. Actually because
finally after six years five if they count, and the
Little Ambient one. But yeah, after six years, we have
got the new Loathe album in twenty twenty, I let
it In and it took everything, became one of the
biggest breakout metal albums of this current decade, an album
that made them incredibly central to the modern metal conversation,
to the point that, like, I know, they did have
a debut album in twenty seventeen, but twenty twenty felt
like when Loathe blew up to the points of almost
leaving anything before that in ancient history. You know, It's
almost like Rose to Judah into sun Bath. Like they
were peripheral to the conversation in twenty seventeen, and in
twenty twenty, very suddenly they were unignorable. And that album,
in its reception and the way people continually down the
line have taken it to heart is one of what
I think you might call the gen Z metal classics,
where if you talk to people under the age of
I'll say under twenty nine because I'm twenty nine right now,
and I feel like this is something that I have
sort of distantly observed rather than being actively part of.
But what are you know that demographics favorite metal albums?
I let it in and it's if everything I think
is an incredibly popular choice. And if you were to
look at, you know, the massive medical bands of that generation,
you might say that the kind of the big three
of that are like Sleep, Token, bad Omen, spirit Box,
Loathe or almost like the artistic favorite, like a little
bit of rung below those bands in terms of size,
but the love that people have for them and the
praise that they lavish upon them is kind of a
step beyond and in his own world to the point that,
like I said, back in twenty twenty one, we reviewed
an ambient album that they put out just because there
was so much interest in what Loath were going to
do next after le and it took everything and instead
of carrying on that momentum and striking while the eyron
is hot, they have taken six years to follow it
up properly. We have been talking for so long about
the next Loath album. Recently, when they played Outbreak, I
went back and I looked at some coverage of the
last time I went and they played, which was Outbreak
twenty twenty three, and their people were saying, let's not
wait too much longer for the new album now, and
that was that was half the time ago, and Sam,
you and I have had conversations in those six years.
How you know, interest has seemed to ebb and flow
in that time, as you know for everyone else musical
life has had to simply carry on.
Speaker 2: It's such a bizarre to me this in this amount
of time, like for so many people, that the interest
of low will have like come and gone because they
took so long. But the idea that a new band
could take six years to follow up an album ten
years ago that would have been like Chris suicide taking
three years to follow up album was considered too long
and you were past there and you were thrones to
the side. The fact that there is now the patience
to let Loaf take this long is feels insane. And
the fact that actually in the long run it is
the smartest thing they could have done because it has
let their legend grow in the six years they like
Ireland and took everything was like a big deal in
the UK. I think when it came out, But over
that six years now this album has kind of like
spread and they are like it is earned its place
as like like as seen as like one of the
great metal albums of the like I said of the
twentifefth century, that crowd, that octane gen z, metal core
crowd whatever, like the sort of thing they look at
Eilean and like it is it's their white pony. It
has that level of like like And again I like,
I really like that a lot. It was in my
top twenty of that year. I don't I don't look
at that. I'm on that regard, but that younger audience do,
and I think fair enough because it was I mean
to me, it was now that exposed that metalcore crowd
to more sounds that were just metalcore and pop music
like that, that's all that sort of we're kind of
getting from their metalcore and love kind of like offered
additional flavors and that, and then you know, the ambient
album kind of showed that they could do more. And
again I was very much like, come on, guys, come on,
you just get the album. Like and I My interest
did wane over the years, but for a lot of
people taking so long, it's just meant that legend has grown,
that buzz and that e Simon has grown. And so
this this new album is this mythical like fear and
oculum style long awaited like biblical second coming album because
because that six year wait has allowed Loaves kind of
like stature within that Again, I'm insing that is within
this core like fan base, that is where this Loaves,
that is what Loath I'm mainly marketing to, and that
is where Low are going to have their most success now.
And they have kind of like deified Low in the
build up to this album, and it's meant the long
way it has meant the album is more exciting than
it could have possibly been if it had come two.
Speaker 1: Three years after after I let it in. It's covering.
I do agree about again the sort of you know,
tool esque mythical reputation, even in just six years compared
to you know, fucking thirty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the time rames are different and the scalars different,
and it is, but again I want to that's gonna
be saying the album in general is that. But for
again the metalcore crowd who are oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: For that demographic, it's absolutely comparable, like you were saying,
and my relationship with Loathe is a bit of an
unsteady one, I would say, because this is here obviously
as lead review, because as we've said, this is one
of the most anticipated and I would say important albums
of this year. But it is also I think important
for us as people approaching this reviewing this to establish
that there is that bit of a disconnect in that
we are reviewing the new album from a band where
to their primary fan base they are a already legendary band.
They are, to their converge, their death tones, right, they are.
This album is everything to again that that demographic who
have been waiting for it in that way, and we
merely thought they were good to begin with, and I
let it take everything. I agree it is a good album.
I think one of the best of their contemporary scene,
even for the reasons that you were saying, But it
is not within one hundred miles of being in contention
what for what I think the best heavy albums of
this decade are right, and you again agree, very fine album,
But you've suggested, like you said, that you've maybe drifted
away from the little bit in that time when I
let it came out, I remember saying this, like they
are a clearly really talented and able musicians with a
dynamism way beyond what mostly passes for metal court these days.
I hope they can come out with something more original
next time, and to be fair, they have like this
album is less van fleet for Deftones than that record was.
This album does show I think the kind of creatives
that Loathes are primarily interested in being in what they
have made after six years is not just part two
of that record, nor is it even really an expansion
of the things that might make Loathe more sort of
broadly universally appealing, you know, like this is, whatever else
we might say about it's one of the densest, most
complicated albums made by a major metal band this year.
Speaker 2: For a commercial metalcore band to do an album like this,
I think is really admirable because this album it is
like I don't I'm not gonna say's slow band because
I don't think it's like a slow burn, but you're.
Speaker 1: Right, it is dense.
Speaker 2: It is weaving in so many different styles and elements
and even again not just playing to what the metalcore
crowd go for. I know, like obviously we've gone here.
Like Sleep Took can have somehow managed to sell kind
of like weirdly ambling long form of like gent instrumentals
with a pop vocal like that that do kind of
like go into weird places. They've managed to sell that
to a crowd, and Loath are like not doing exactly that,
but it is. It is just fascinating how the milicle crowd,
who I associate with some of the most just cookie cutter,
they will lap up anything sort of thing. And maybe
this is this is the why Loath have been so good,
because they fit in that sort of crowd, but they
offer they do offer more and again on this album
they offer even more.
Speaker 1: So I think that's why this album.
Speaker 2: Might be like a mind daughtering, like oh my god,
there's so much more out there experience for all that crowd.
I do think that ambition is going to be the
is one of my sticking points with Loath on this album.
It's a really like my thing of this album are
really complicated because I admire the fuck out of the
swing Loath of Taken.
Speaker 1: And We'll get and I think there are things about
it that work.
Speaker 2: I think there are things about it that I've just
left me completely cold. But it is like again, like
someone who really likes I think this album for my
taste and what I think is and just in terms
of actually like for all its ambitions and sort of things,
I think it is a worse album because I don't
think it works nearly as well as that album, but
it is in a way a more interesting album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I'm very mixed on this. I think
this album is in many places very cool, and I
would like to say that, like I said, I admired
Loathe Dynamism compared to their peers on I Let It In,
and here they are continuing to stream in that direction.
Our biggest criticism of so many bands like that is
how interchangeable they are, and that's certainly not Loath At
this stage. They are like pretty wildly at times, striding
into their own direction of things, and quite a bit
on this album I would also say is really good.
I don't know if this album congeals and is able
to become more than the sum of all the different
things they've thrown in the pot together, and particularly how
they have tried to package and wrap up those things together.
It is a series of moments for me inside a
package that is just as often quite amusing, and I
think it would be maybe easy to go overcooked, right Obviously,
it is one of these really really fucking long in
the making, you know, Chinese Democracy esque albums. It could
be easy to say they've spent too long on it.
I can't say if that is the case. Overall, I
would like to applaud this album because, like we're saying,
there is very evident ambition on show. This is an
album that wants to innovate, and they have taken six
years from their breakthrough album with the intent of coming
out with something that goes far beyond what they had
done before. This is again it is a metalcore album
that it's base, but it contains hip hop music, industrial
shoe gaze, R and B dance music, and it can
be thrilling like the fact that Low with what already
a band who are aiming towards that kind of cinematic
sort of appeal in their albums, and then they get
to the first track on this entrance bringing you into
the world of the album. It genuinely it sounds much
more like the intro to a jazz rap album like Legitimately,
and that alone is a massive statement and it sounds
beautiful genuinely, and it's such a beguiling introduction to the album.
Speaker 2: I was like, right that immediate kind of opening gambit
or entrance with like I say, like this like sort
of like jazz club intro with a sort of spoken
word poach you've been going on over it like it is.
It is a way to sort of say that this
is more like than just a sort of metcore intro track.
We are that the soundscape stuff they were doing on
the on the Ambient album, there's bits of that in there,
and it is very kind of like classy sounding. I
was kind of like I could see some people kind
of bouncing off of this and maybe, oh, it's very
pretentiou because I think is quite financial by taping album.
But at the same time, I think there is a
real conviction behind it. I don't know who it is,
the guy they've got doing the prior's I know it
is like a guest contributor, but like he like is
doing it again with like a gravitas to his delivery.
The backing music is like classy and more interesting than again,
what any of Love's peers could could think to come
out with, So I think it's a it's a cool
way to start the AMP and it does grab your attention.
I think it is a strong like even if it's
one that I'm like I remember saund I might sometimes
to skip over it just to sort of get the songs,
but I think it is an interesting and I say
bold way to kick off what is a bold album?
Speaker 1: I really like the way again just a meet. When
I put this album on, the first few seconds of
it makes me feel like I'm going to be, you know,
really experiencing something. The album takes three minutes and forty
seconds for a metal guitar riff to come into, and
it's not you know, fust about attention spans. At the
same time, there are parts like that I think again
sort of particularly that the beginning of that second trackers
into and then you look at the long outro of
Gifted every Strength as well. There are quite a few
parts of absolutely the superfluous extensions of things undercutting momentum.
Eventually block of Flats, which is that second track comes
in and it has this like other guitar riff that's
much more like a really gleaming like shaft of light
kind of refracting at you and odd angle. They are
again clearly not from just the opening two minutes this
album alone, not a diamond does a metical band. They're
clearly amongst their scenes mostalented musicians. I don't know if
they are as good overall across this album at being
hyper experimental as they think they are. And we kind
of felt this when when we had Gifted Every Strength
came out as a single over a year ago. I'm
kind of shocked it's on the album because it felt like,
considering it came so long ago, like it was, you
know again, almost to stand alone thing. And I wonder
if the fact that that song came out over a
year before the album does speak to the the overall
tweaking and gestation. Yeah, the idea that they were working
on this album even past that single coming out, you know,
but when that track came out with that first big
piece of new Loath music in year and a lot
of people were like, what is this like big long
chain of genres and experiments non song. And the thing
that gets me about that song is it's got actually
a massive riff. But I do come out the other
end of it and I go, would it pain you
to write a memorable tune, boys, and that is exacerbated
by the production on this album is fucking baffling, and
I am conscious that for regular listeners here we might
just sound like old bitches at this stage, constantly yammering
on about one key production jobs on particularly metalcore albums,
going ooh the mastering. You know, there are albums coming
up in this review show that are going to say
some things about as well. But it is utterly bizarre
some of the choices that have been made here, to
the point that it has to be I think one
of the major talking points about this album, like, it's
not just us who are highlighting this, it's a clear
stylist decision what's going on here, And it's not just
the usual bad production that all metal bands have. Now,
it's uniquely weird decisions going on with this album. And
I think with Loathe right, their albums are done basically
in house, like they are a quite fiercely dry about
it actually self producing band, and in one element maybe
you can respect that, but for the love of God,
we've got to stop their guitarist from producing their records.
Because when this album is heavy, it is the muddiest
sound I've heard on a record. This side of My
Name is mud by Primus, Like it is so oddly
mixed where the bass drum is so dry and upfront
where it sounds like it hasn't been mixed properly compared
to then the guitars, which are like water logged. It's
this weird thing of sounding underproduced and overproduced simultaneously, and
it's not consistent. Right there are again, like we was
saying about the cogestation of the album, it veers from
track to track block of flats. When it comes in
with the full on riff is like really overstimulating with
the way it has this like dance feeling there as well.
And I actually find that when the way that song
hits you, it is quite exciting, I think. But then
you've got songs like Fortress Down, which is this like
higher end, quite dreamy song in the guitars, except you
can't hear that because you've got this graceless, fucking wet
hamhock of a bass drum all over the top of it,
or Harder to Pretend, which is a shoe gay song
except someone is flicking an elastic band against your ear
approximately once every second. It's demented that portions of this
album have gone out the way they have, like.
Speaker 2: The heavy parts of the bits, where again that the
production immediately jumps out to me is like and again,
this isn't me going all the horribly overseused guitar tone
the guitar.
Speaker 1: To on this is just different. Yes, it just there's
something wrong.
Speaker 2: Like it feels that they have pushed all them up
to make it as loud as possible, but it just
sounds like like there's like like blown out sound. It's
like I like I I again, I think they're trying
to avoid falling into the traps of a lot of
like modern milcor production. They're not trying to do that
kind of like pro guitar sort of jake sound that
all these band's doing. But what they've hit is like
something else that just sounds off that you're right with,
like the drum thing where it's like drying wed Like
I think, like the production with some of the melodic
bits is really nice. There were something like the more
like dancy riffs that sort of skip along and I
think they sound really cool and I'm like, great, you're
you're doing round this. But every time the distortion kicks in.
There's distortion on like Kideam's focus at times where he's
screaming and it like it's drowned down. I was like,
I was like, what is the reason for these decisions?
It's it just it takes me out so many of
these songs and it isn't again, it's not consistent throughout
the whole record. The production changes and like like they're
clear trying to like play with different sounds depending on
what they're doing on the songs. And I think that's
a cool idea in practice, look in theory, but in
practice and what they've actually come out with, I just
don't think it works. Like the most parts in this
album just sounds so like overwhelming, but not in a
like oh my god, that's really heavywhere it's just like
blowing out you speak, because in a way that doesn't
sound cool to me. It's it's mean banging out. Production
isn't my again, it's not my usual metalcord production complaints.
I just think this album's production is just messy and
weird and it and not conducive to getting the best
out of these songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I say, it's uniquely odd in how the
production because it does again fluctuate it you can clearly
tell it's a kind of an in house job rather
than just again the other extreme of what we were
talking about, where everyone goes to the same producer and
puts the same.
Speaker 2: Same sim sound and the same guitar. Yeah right, name redacted. Yes,
Like this is the other extreme end of it, where
it's just like a bit of a car crash at times.
And obviously there is there is a Code Orange link
in that. There's the presence of Nowhere to Run on
the song Revenant, which those you know very distinctive like
noise squalls and stuff, and I do like that a
fair bit. It's great to hear Jamie in there as well.
But I was thinking about when when Under and Underneath
by Code Orange came out, which is their densest record,
when that came out, and they a lot of expectation
off forever. Obviously there was a.
Speaker 1: Vocal contingent of people who were saying this is so
messily produced, like it hurts my ears, this doesn't work,
And I didn't agree in that case, but this I
can kind of hear what they were experiencing, and the
school of like twenty twenty six, even what we were
saying about the Static Dress album when we reviewed that.
On the last episode, Rath reviewed Bag, which we will
largely praise that album, but we were talking similarly about
the kind of bespoke production from track to track and
how it fl fluctuates. It doesn't. Not every song sounds
as neat and tidy as the next song, and then
lo and behold, I look, that's produced by the loathe guitarist. Right.
I think that's a guy who this is his approach.
And I think if bands aren't going for the interchangeable
plug in sounds, there's this other direction of bands who
have this instinct for messier production. And I don't know
if it's a thing of everyone who's got too many
tools at their disposal now or what, but the big
low genty guitars on this sound messier than the original
mixed version of Much Sugar's Nothing from two thousand and two,
and they were basically inventing that as they went. Like
I said, that hard to pretend song is wildly aggravating.
You cannot tell me that that song is served better
by that mental bass groove that they've cranked up the
way they have in that the guitars on Gemini, which
is one of the heavier songs, are this like absurd
computer regurgitated sludge, and I don't know if that is
a case in that song of them trying to match.
Later on, there's like a mad, like gabberish kind of
hard bass bit that comes, but it's I don't know
if they're trying to you know, match the heavy part
of the song to when that part comes in, but
it's a horrifically blown out sound, and to me, for
as dynamic and involved as this album is with all
its components, it's the thing that makes it sound amateurish.
It's like it can't keep a grip on all of
what it's doing. And I was thinking about like that song,
for instance, I was thinking about AFI and their song
Death of Seasons and it has this rave edm break
that comes in and like the middle of a punk song.
And how with the grace of like proper high end producers, right,
they pulled that off and it sounds seamless, and it
seems a lot more impressive now after hearing something like this,
which is you know, wild eclectic, I would say, almost
completely graceless.
Speaker 2: And this is again why I don't think that. Wheen
of people think, you know, it's a slow Burn album.
I was like, I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: I think it is.
Speaker 2: There's a long songs and the long one, but it's
rushing to get some of these ideas out and it
sort of froze them in there well, like I say,
with a sort of a lack of grace, so that
the transition between genres and styles it doesn't always hit
with like these like the seamlessness that you would like,
say that Death of Seasons one. Some of them just
feel so jarring and it's kind of like, yeah, we're
doing a heavy ban now and there's a pop bit
and the shuegos ben it's a dance bit, and and
they don't flow in the way that makes the song
was kind of like, oh, this is a cool sort
of industrial rave metal song. It's kind of like it's
an industrial song, and then it's a metal so and
it like and it just it leads to again a
clunky stort thing. And again part of that is times
of production. I think part of that is just down
to the songwriting. And again, where they have I don't
know if they've just quite kind of figure out how
to sort of tastefully weave these ideas together. But it
does just it does just make the songs kind of
feel very slap dash at points and again just kind
of rushing to show to show their hand. I think
the second half the album is has problems in a
different where I think it slows down then too much
in the second half and we get songs that that
languishing ideas for too long where they should maybe.
Speaker 1: Tren sort of experiment things a bit too much.
Speaker 2: Like the first half the album is kind of like
overloaded with ideas and it's like impressive in a way,
but it also then just it's none of it kind
of flows into making the best songs. I think Revenant
it's probably my first sorong there and they know where
to Run sort of thing is there.
Speaker 1: But I think it's the most.
Speaker 2: Cohesive song and kind of like just doing this kind
of like stabbing electro hardcore kind of like what the
code on is no where to run something within just
think it kind of it hits on that for just
the entire sort of thing of the song. It is
the most abrasive, glitchy electro hardcore thing that Code Orange
perfected and it's doing it, and the like the Demonic
Jamie Guessp is like pierced on Fews, and that's one
was like, You've delivered the most cohesive, considered song the record,
and I'm like, that's do the heavy songs.
Speaker 1: That's the clear standout.
Speaker 2: And then other songs have like moments and ideas I
think are great, but they never stick around for long
or they kind of just clunkily collide into the next
idea and.
Speaker 1: It kind of makes me like, ah, you've kind of.
Speaker 2: Spoiled the vibe I was enjoying there, and it just
it just means I can never fully settle into the
groove of what this record is going for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of the heavier songs, I agree about Revenant, but
to swing it back to some of the stuff that
I think really works, I think some of the better
stuff is when they stop interfering with themselves and loathe.
I think it was already kind of a thing in
their identity that they were bringing in more of this
kind of soul element into both their melodies and the
instrumental textures as well. And because part of the problem
is that the heavier stuff it's so overdone. There's barely
any actual hooks, like for a major mainstream metal album,
and considering their last album did have at least a couple.
Speaker 2: Two mirrors when they're best sort of vocal melodies that
they've come out with.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's everything their strongest suit, but choruses
are swallowed up in the morass on this and ultimately
coming out the other end of this album, I could
barely sing you, certainly a vocal melody. I can't sing
from you, which is a major problem. But when they
throw themselves into some of those like more soulish textures
while same simultaneously showing the you know, the restraint to
let them breathe. I think some of the best stuff
is the Way It Breaks, which is basically a shoegaze track,
but it has both this sort of cybernetic trill that
the record has, which is quite engaging sonically, and then
gradually it brings in more of those things like those
R and B derived bass parts and a guitar lead
as well in that which cool flavored Oh yeah solo nice.
I like this, this is this is good? Yeah, I
said that mixture of like you know, they've taken shoegazy
ort rock, which is fucking again Diamond Dozen. All these
bands want to do it, but at least they've given
it again that kind of like soulish r and bish
influence and texture, which to me makes that mixture feel
soon per Low like that feels like a trick and
a combination of things that is theirs. I don't really
like the song the Ladder, That kind of acoustic guitar
rhythm feels a bit too.
Speaker 2: I think it's, yeah, the one that's really misjudged in
the back half of the record. I think this is
like acoustic ballad sort of thing. Is it's sappy in
a way that I don't think Loath have ever been,
and it just it feels again, just a bit misjudged.
Speaker 1: There's something about that kind of slightly sort of syncopated
like again acoustic strumming that feels a bit too like
quirky indie chirpy for me. But and again it has
an absolute for a ballad type track, It has an
absolute vacancy of a chorus. But I will say sonically
again that song is more inlaring with what I'm talking
about in terms of it does have a kind of
more of control over itself, harder to Pretend, which I
mentioned is a ghastly song sonically for the first two
minutes of it. But the best bit of that song
by A Miles is the outro where you get this
little lounge break with the piano again chimes, that kind
of that intro track that the album had, and then
the interlue track that follows as well, and I think
that element on this record, when again it's not being
interfered with, those parts do sound actually fantastic and they
give it some shine. And then you get Fangs, which
is in a heavy sense, like because it's built off
a big fuck off gent groove, right, but it's still
basically are kind of R and B almost funk song,
and it's almost like the kind of shit that I
hate about Sleep Token, except Loathe are much much better
and more authentic with it. It's not completely mortifying hearing
them go there, and it actually complements what they do
really well. I really like Fangs.
Speaker 2: I really like Thangs because I like that R and
B mixed with down tune mosh grooves. It's one of
the I think against one of the best songs in
the sort of the second half of the record. I
think Fangs and what's me and my makers? And when
you say that, those are the two that are like
in the back off of the record, I think are like,
this is cool you You've got an idea. And again
in Fangs case, it is a genre mashing idea, but
it's cohesive and consistent and you've kind of just zeroed
in on doing this R and B kind of flavor
over like I say, just like fuggish down tune mosh.
Speaker 1: And that like that works and I bet the Issues
found in You is speaking to that as well. Exactly.
Speaker 2: No, but that is exactly And when you said the
Cio comparaison, it's like, yeah, but I think because again
it's the one time with the heavy thing doesn't actually
totally sound awful, like I don't know getting the heavy
productions on that song. Maybe maybe just because the vibe.
Speaker 1: Of the song is a bit more interesting. Could well
it has a clear riff rather than just a fucking
pile up right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exact, but yeah, no, that's it. And that's why
I think that song works for me, because it is
it is, like I say, there is a riff. It
is big and chunky, but the vocal stuff is just
more interesting and it's a it's a nice genre meld,
whereas some of the other things that they mel and
the genres they don't. They kind of just go one
genenre wandrument and just sort of flip between the two.
Speaker 1: This kind of puts the.
Speaker 2: Two together on top of each other and like and
they gel in a way that you wouldn't think they would,
but it works really well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that those couple of songs with
Fangs and the way it breaks and stuff are the
best tracks on the album for me, where they they
balance all these things that they are doing the best
on the album. I do wish even in some of
those cases, I wish I actually loved the songs, and
I think that's actually even more than the nightmare mixing
job that's going on lots of this. I think that's
my biggest thing that stops me coming back to Loath
because on an intellectual level, and it's very tempting to
do this when you're doing a review, right, you look
at all the different things an album does and you
go like, Wow, isn't this incredible. Look how dynamic and
forward thinking and all the stuff it is. But even
some of the things that I think work, like particularly
the soul element I was talking about on a track
like Fangs, I don't actually go much love for them
as songs because the record is mostly hookless, like the
riff and Fangs is really big, but again, what's the chorus? Right?
And in a way that stopped me loving. I let
it in and took everything as an album because I
had a couple of standouts. You know, is it really
You is the one that I always think is really
great on that album, But I don't think it's a
phenomenal collection of songs, and this, while it is much
less derivative and much more commendably like genuinely original for them,
I think is worse in that regard because it's so
again like like overstuffed, and it feels like the element
that they've paid the least attention to is are these
songs memorable? Are they impactful? Are they you know? Do
they connect with the listener rather than just shoving everything
into them? And I think it's worth saying that it's
certainly it's one of the most more original amount of
records this year. It's certainly among the most ambitious, and
you always want to praise that, but yeah, maybe it's
it's the amateur production. Maybe it's that they are experimenters
more than they are great songwriters, which I will always
say in the best bands, those are not mutually exclusive things.
In the best bands, they're experimenters and they write great
songs with those things. Either way, I'm left admiring some
of the swings this album takes more than actually connecting
with very much of it, and my head wants to
praise this album way more than my heart actually does.
Speaker 2: I'm exactly in the same position with you on this
one again, like I kind of like came in more
negative and then kind of fumal listeners kind of like,
well that, okay, I can see where they're going with
some of this, sure, but I do just like I
mean again, like there is nothing on the level of
Two Way Mirror, which again, Two Way Mirror is one
of the most kind of like this is just a
deaftone song, but it has a hook, It has that
melody that's stuck with me for six years, and I
think it's still Low's finest moment where that is the
song that see him live. It is the standard moment
of the set because it is that single or moment
that that actually the song stands above just the kind
of like vibe almost and that's what this album is missing.
And I'm not saying, you know, they should ditch Experimentation,
but just if they could have found a way to
weave choruses and hooks and memorable sort of things I've
been trying so hard to not make.
Speaker 1: Let's just say there's another band who achieved.
Speaker 2: That that thing is there is and I'm like, they
have hooks that have stuck in my head for so long,
and I'm like, it is possible to do it. And
that's again where that that experiment a great songwriter thing
that you still mention that to not be meet excuse
of that as an example, and again I want loath
to carry on being experiment as being the sort of
these sort of mavericks they are, because I think they
may the metal cores scene that again a huge by
of this words, I'm just so I'm so tapped out
of that metal cores scene. It is the commercial medical
scene I like has lost me like and that that
is one of the big differences between me and twenty
twenty and me now is I'm so out of that.
I feel like a lot of metalcore but the commercial
out of it is just not for me anymore. I
want Loath to continue to push that scene and fuck
around and ben the genres that and it's hopefully expose
those fans to more into music and if they get
into over and then they do broaden their horizons into
more interesting mans. If they discover cool shoegay stuff off
the back of this love record, great. I just think
as an album, it's ultimately not what I want to
listen to, and I think that that's the simple st
I think this album is worthy of praise in a
lot of ways, but I think has huge issues that
just mean I'm not gonna go back to listen to
it in the way that I would the previous Loath album.
Speaker 1: Yeah Where Are You Sitting With It? A Stranger to
You by Loath And next up we are going to
obviously the biggest band in this particular episode. I don't
know how many people will have been awaiting this quite
as feverishly as the lower one, but we have it. Nonetheless,
it's Muse and the Wow Signal, the tenth album from
one band that will always bring us together. Muse absolutely
one of the biggest stadium rock acts in the world.
I won't believer the intro beyond the point of laying
out what Mews for anyone who might have come to
us in the last couple of years since the last
time we reviewed a news record what Mews particularly mean
to us in that you and I Sam have a long,
long relationship now of you know, following Mews together in
real time from different perspectives, and then every few years
we get our little state of the address together about it.
They are to me one of them single most important
bands in my musical life, Like they are the band
that I was all consumingly obsessed with when I was
eleven twelve years old. They're pretty much the band who
taught me what the idea of progue was, for instance,
and that basically clued me up that I would like bombastic, grandiose, ambitious,
you know, forward thinking kinds of music. I know that
they are muse and their long past being considered cool,
but that to me was enormous and I think that
makes them hall of famous. In the two thousands, they
were one of the single best bands in the world,
and I'm not interested in debating that with anyone who disagrees.
They just were for that period of time, Sam, there
was a point around the Resistance and the Second Law
where you and I were at polar opposites on them.
If we were to track ourselves on the graph, I
was still up high, still loving those albums. You were
at a drastic low. And then over the following albums,
our graph positions began to sort of invert and meet
in the middle where I began to sink in my
assessments of the albums, and you, I would say, primarily
through the sheer power of comedy and willful stupidity, began
to climb and warm on them. And so on. The
lone last couple of albums, which have generally, I think,
at large like they are perceived as the low's like
simulation Theory and will of the People are overall the
worst reviewed, I think, particularly one of the people of
the worst reviewed MWS albums. We've sort of met in
the middle. It's been a long journey together, but certainly
in our time doing this podcast together our muse positions.
Actually we're not so different after all, are we? No?
Speaker 2: I think I think that's a fair assessment. I think again,
like I'm with you two thousands of mus I'm like
I will not dare to say the two thousands of
music albums are bad.
Speaker 1: I think they are.
Speaker 2: Like I don't care so much for the debut, but
like from the nineties anyway whatever, ARGI symmetry, great record
for the record, but like, yeah, like it's not what
I'm as into, but it's a good I think it's
a good record. I think like like say obviosly symmetry,
hysteria and backwards and relations like unbelievable records. They are
as good as two thousands rock music gets.
Speaker 1: Like I won't dare.
Speaker 2: Say a bad word against those records. They are they
stand on their own. And then the resistance like began
the downfall. I lost him from the album the second
law killed it. I was like, this is fucking dreadful.
Oh my good Drones of a rock band again, No,
Drones is boring as shit and stupid. And then simulation
theory just through sheer like darkness kind of like started
to crack my like cold like icehold like news heart,
and then the One of the People. It had the
first MWS song that I would genuinely think, I like
since like black holes in my revelations sort of muse
in you know, you feel like it's Halloween. I mean
that song is fucking great. It's stupid, it's daft.
Speaker 1: I think that song is brilliant.
Speaker 2: So yes, I am like generally, even if I think
though those museums aren't good, I can get enjoyment out
of the last two music albums in the way I
couldn't out of particularly the second Law and Drones.
Speaker 1: I would say, it's been this funny period of sort
of throwing our arms together and going, you know what,
at least we've got you make me feel like it's Halloween.
At least we've got properand and these things that are
so outwardly ludicrous that at least we could have a
laugh about them. I do think as a genuine News
fan actually trying to find some real merit in those.
Both of those last two albums have moments and tracks
here or there that have a bit of spark to them,
but very clearly there is no comparing them to the
period when News were credibly a brilliant band. And now
here we are at the Wow signal And despite the
stupid title, this one has been getting a different sort
of buzz to those last couple of News albums. Enemy
called this their best album in twenty years. Kerrang have
called it their best in a while, Louder called it
their best in a while. Athney Fantano gave it a
four out of ten, but did say that makes it
their best in a while. And there has been talk
from several people kind of you know, in and around
our community going, you know what, that New News album
is actually pretty good. It's much more like the old days.
And there is a world Sam where we come into
this review. And as the historically hardcore MWS fan, that
is my view, and I cannot imagine a world where
that was your view. But there is a world where
I come in and that is my view. And we
have a big argument here about this album, like it's
two thousand and nine and it's the Resistance all over again.
That's that's not the world, but I'm in instead, I
am going to be the voice of everything that is
opposite to that particular view, where not only is this
not any sort of return to form to the golden years,
I actually think this mus album might have the least
going for it of previous News albums.
Speaker 2: I think this could be the worst mus album, Like
I think this could be as bad as the second law.
Speaker 1: I think the second law is fucking dark side of
the moon next to this thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I saw him, you.
Speaker 1: Likes fair enough.
Speaker 2: I think this album, like, I mean, firstly, it is
the worst kind of mus album in that I think
it's boring. I think this album there are moments of
kind of like bombast and all that, but for me,
this is a band tasting the glory years and just
sounding washed. Like this is my big one with this
album is it's so clearly they're trying to recapture the
peak years of Muse, But there's so much about this
I think like is bad that Like it's got it's
all blust and bomb bass, but there's no actual drama.
Like there's loads of like orchestra, and when I think
that's like, you know, I don't like the resistance, but
the orchestral stuff on the album, what's.
Speaker 1: The the extra Genesis suite, which is fucking unbelievable. Brother
the way, and if people ever dismissed that album, I
go at least it has that and you can't fucking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I don't know the album, but I can
admire that as a kind of like exercise in maximalist
insanity and I think that I can, I can kind
of go, well, you know, fair enough, there is that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the or carera stuff on this sounds so.
Speaker 2: Like just blur and just kind of like it's there,
but it's not actually exciting and maximalist I think, I mean,
I'm just gonna I'm gett all my negives out the
way because like I'm just going in. Like my biggest
is on this album is Matt Bellamy's vocals. I think
he has It's the worst he's ever sounded. I like
he is trying so much this album to do this,
to do the full set of thing that he's you know,
always kind of been in a single thing, but like
he can't actually hit it anymore. He sounds like he
is straining through it. And maybe they're like they've tried
to give him more human production sound on it, but
I'm like, it just sounds like he's struggling to sort
of sing like that anymore. I think it's all blustering melodrama,
but there's no actual like power to it. The songs
don't stick around in my head that the best riffs
are like like cryogen is if plugging baby or shit,
like he is trying to tap into that kind of
like classic wirdily kind of like alien music guitar if
that like the plug Baby one is one of the
greatest of it of its era, and then the Cryogen
one is fucking rubbish Cryogen I can never cry again,
What the fuck are we doing? Like like like I
think he is so bad on this album and outside
of it, like there's no songs that are funny. The
songs just like I've got a lot notes of some
of the songs and other songs, I'm just like, it's there,
it's the Muse song. It's it's I'm doing the thing.
I'm sory as you'll go through it all kind of
chiming and what my issues with some of these songs are.
But I just I found this to just be the
biggest chore of all the albums we're reviewing this week
to actually get through. I was so bored and just
kind of like struggling to find things to stay about.
Speaker 1: So many of these songs. Yes, Simulation Theory I actually
think is half good. It has some awful bollocks on it,
and it was significant to me as a Muse fan
in terms of where my brain like finally fully divorced
from the band in their current state, but there is
a madman's streak to it that creates some brilliant material
on it as well, Like if you've not heard it
in a long time and you can't remember the song,
I mean, go back and listen to the song, break
it to me. What the fuck were they cooking? It's
delirious And then will of the people, even Patria, I think,
but as well as a couple songs like kill or
Be Killed actually being pretty straightforwardly satisfying, you know, heavy
Muse riffers. It is where we fully decided together that
as long as Muse were making us laugh, we couldn't
actually get mad at them because the moments of straight
up nonsense, it's like trying to review, like trying to
critique Crusty the clown. You know, it's just a level
of silly that we accept it together. And Mews haven't
made an album on the level of their elite tea
for a long long time, but as long as they
continue to make a smile, I did accept that the
wow signal of all of those publications I mentioned to
put out their reviews of it, the one that I
actually chimed with the most believe it or not is
the Pitchfork one who very neatly laid out the wow
signal is defined by the meuse paradox, too sincere to
have fun and too obnoxious to take seriously, and that
is the problem with this album. It's nowhere near either
fun or actually good enough to exist on its own merits.
And it's one of those albums where when it's described
as like a return to form or the classic sound,
I've seen a couple people go like, oh, this one
actually sounds like mws instead of them just doing like
whatever silly bollocks comes into their heads, it is primarily
dealing in like thelassic mew sound. For me, it's one
of those that makes the gap of them doing that
you know then and now much more transparently clear in
a way that's similar to whatever the fuck that last
Green Day album was called, where it came out and
people weren't yeah, it's not Father of All Motherfuckers, But
if you're going, oh, it's classic green Day again, it
just makes it abundantly obvious how far they are away
from being that classic band that we knew them to be.
Because this album is limp and unwieldy in every place
where the Mews of twenty years ago were like powerful
and lively and dexterous. And I can see what people
mean when they're saying old Muse are back, even if
it's unfounded, because it does as in it trades and
sounds that are familiar to a Muse fan's ear right.
The Dark Forest, the opening track, is the most absurd, pompous,
queen bullshit they've done in about fifteen years, and it
starts the album in a similar manner to songs like
take About Starting Black Horle and Revelations, where you are
brought in, you know, not with a big rock banger,
but are really like larger than life, larger than most
bands could conceivably in the studio, you know, pull off
orchestral pop prog song basically, and that is the shit
that I once loved from you is like take about
the United States of Erasure Survival. It's the shit that
turns off lots of people who have more delicate tastes,
but I would lap it up. This one. I don't
think is bad, but it doesn't make me feel anything
like for how expensive it sounds and how elaborately arranged
all those strings and the choirs are and it feels
like it should have this sort of like you know,
nice of Sedonia esque space gallop rhythm that they do,
but it's so flabby and meek, and it somehow kicks
the album off not with a big bang like that,
but more more of a whimper. And I think that
it's so percussion light and driveless. It is that way,
but even when the actual rock beat does come in
towards the end, it's really stiff and graceless in the
way that again, News Are twenty years ago fucking walloped?
Speaker 2: You like that NICs side, don't you Carason I've Got
My Notes' is the second half of that song where
they go into kind of like the space western kind
of like bit and like this you're trying to recapture
that Knights of Sidonia magic, and like all you're doing
is you're like reminding me how good Knights of Sidonia is.
And I don't want to hear this limp, stiff like
reiteration of it coming off the back of this already
kind of like over the top but not amusing and
kind of like engaging orchestral intro and it's like the
topic that kind of just got me off on a
on a bad notework, kind of like you've kind of
like done this big intro and then gone into a
worst version of one of my favorite Mews songs that
that that it was like, are you just kind of
like going like, look, remember the band wants where this
sounds like that?
Speaker 1: You like that?
Speaker 2: And it's where I'm going to go, like, sure, you're
you're you're training on sounds that are familiar, like I
say that Green album is a really good passion where
you are trading on sounds that are familiar to what
your classic sound was, but you can't deliver on that
anymore for whatever reason. And it stands out more when
I'm hearing like this iteration of mus trying to do
Knights of Sidonia or as I said on Crouch and
Plugging Baby, when I hear them trying to do it,
and it just doesn't sound anywhere near as convincing or
and vigorating as it did on those albums, like I
say in the two thousands, it does just make this
album feel even worse to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then quite hilariously, what they immediately follow that
big concerto shit Up with is the space dance floor song,
and this is how dire things are on this album.
I think night Shift Superstar is one of the best
couple of songs on it. It's a song that I,
if you were to tell me it's utter shit, I
do not feel compelled to defend or disagree with you.
But I quite like it and in a statement that
I think equally would make as many people gag as
it would attract them to it. It reminds me a
little bit of Automatic era Don Broco, that very particular
kind of like white Boy Funk with the big fat
bass line and Matt doing those hilarious falsettos where you
can perfectly envision in that song the stupid fucking novelty
sunglasses he is going to wear on stage when they
play that song, and the thing pointings strutting dance movies
he's going to do, which mus are not strangers too,
and they have they have a fewer songs like that
in their catalog. I don't think this is one of
the best ones, but it is one of the only
songs on the album where it has that little bit
of a viv to it and that little bit of
like oh, mus you devil's kind of charm that we
were speaking about on the recent albums.
Speaker 2: My notes for Nightshift Superstar is KnightShift Superstar is the
eighties song, you know, the song, that eighties song, the
eighties song.
Speaker 1: Fine, yeah it is, And to be fair, it is
probably one.
Speaker 2: Of the best songs on the record because like, like
they're having that like I think they're probably it feels
a woman when you can look like, oh, they're having
a bit of fun with it, and and that that
automatic comparison. It is that that modern rock take on
us of an eighties funk thing, you know, like what
like some of like the ninety seventy five have done
a few times. It's that but with a bit more
kind of like silliness to it because it's mus not
taking it as po fa seriously. I just I mean again,
it's this is one of the false set of vocals
Matter is doing. They just sound really bad compared to
what he has done in the past. You can you
can hear the cracks showing, and I'm just like I
would have scrubbed out in production, but I don't know,
like it's it's it's not the worst one on the record.
It is one of the least offensive songs. I can
kind of see it, but it also is just the song.
And then they follow it with Shimmering Scars, which is
the Bond theme, you know, the one the Bond.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually think that Chris, just to go back
to Scond, I think Chris Wilson home is the player
who gets out unscathed on this album, like he's the
star on it. Most of the best stuff, and even
on some of the bad stuff, he is at least
putting a shift in. He can come out with his
head held high. But the songs where they go you know,
classic news as in the more rocking end. You've already
mentioned a couple of very prominent examples. The rock songs
on the last album were going much more for that,
like big distorted influence from modern seven string metal kind
of sound, and there is a little trace of that here,
But there are much more songs on this that go
for like again a two thousands mus sort of rock sound,
And like you were saying, they're the ones that make
it clear to me how much better they used to
be at that. And there is a kind of uncannoness
about hearing them reinhabit but so so meagerly, and you
know you've already said it, but just to address it,
cry a Gin that riff might as well just be
plugging Baby played backwards, and I don't think cryogen apart
from that little you know, the chorus line that you
mentioned is funny. I do quite like the little cray
a Gin chorus like it's again it's one of the
better songs on the album, but it is weird and
uncanny hearing them like borderline self plagiarized like that, and
then in the process also remind me how much more
alive and explosive plug In Baby is. Very weird bit.
I don't know if you felt this as well as
a bizarre bit. In the last minute of that song,
they do a turnstyle break down like in the same
way that obviously he was talking about this that on
the previous album. Matt has been paying attention to it,
listening to like, you know, newer gent metal course stuff.
I wonder if he's also heard a bit of Turnstile
on God, I gonna have a little cracker, because there
was a genuine mus does Turnstile riff at the back
end of that song, which is it is fine it's
just weird. But the rock songs, they are delivered with
a sort of stiffness that again, they used to be
so much more fluid with Hexagons has that like galactic
space rock field that again, I can see why people's
brains are being tickled, going that sounds like news to me.
My familiarity senses. They're going off and Hexicans is not
quite Bliss in the way that Cryogen is not quite
plugging Baby, and sonically I'm into it well enough. It
is one of the better songs. And again as those
those fluttery space since are going along like I. Again,
I'm a muse fan, I'm trained to like that sound.
But you go back and listen to Bliss and how
it fucking blasts you like you are stood near the
back of a jet engine. And this song is much
more I don't know, sort of just well behaved about it.
And then you get the Sickness in You and I,
which is just more of a sort of like lump
and modern rock song that doesn't really have much much
going for it. It's much more like politely organized back
when they were wild. And then we flip over to
the ballads, and this is where I think I've said
this for a long time. Somewhere in the mid twenty
tens Matt singing approach. I think he must have obviously
got some vocal lessons or something, because if you go
back to listen to Origin and Symmetry or Absolution, that's
not a trained guy. Like that's a shrieking, huffing ball
of electricity. And at some point he learned to sing properly,
but I think he sounds worse. It's just the game,
Like the mat of the last ten years. Is clearly
a very different singer to how he used to be,
and he has this much more composed quality to him
that also makes it sound just a lot more po faced.
And the ballads on this they are a world away
from the great Muse ballads like falling Away from Me
or Invincible or what have you. Shimmering Scars is very portentous,
but without really being impressive in the way it needs
to be. To get away with that and then be
with you is a fucking sleeper, My goodness, absolutely urgent.
That song.
Speaker 2: That song is like Coldplayer, imagine Dragons Coded. I mean
that song is that might be the worst one on
the record for me. Oh maybe since down the Botto
Done Them part. I think that song is awful. I think,
like I said, like Shami Scars like it, that to
me is trying to do the modern Bond theme kind
of the Presties bonds or themes or thing. I'm always
surprised mus have never done one because it feels like
the sort of thing that.
Speaker 1: The Survival would have been the one if they missed Survival.
They never going to do one better than that, is
what it is.
Speaker 2: But like Smiy Scars feels like he's trying to do that,
and you know, because supremacy, I mean not yeah, I
agree with you, but like those those ones like Beer
Review is the one that is like the absolute worst
of it in terms of the ballads on this Yeah,
and Space to It at the end of the record
actually is rubbish as well.
Speaker 1: Gospel matt In twenty twenty six is like, let's leave
that shit to cold By, like you're saying, and then
say Space Debris quite boring. And then really bizarrely, mws
in over twenty five years have never had a guest
feature or a duet or anything like that, or an
album of theirs, and they've decided to do one, and
they've gone. Who would be a particularly on the Pulse
twenty twenty six pick to put alongside Matt Ah, Yes,
Ellie Goulden with this really bizarre bass groove that sounds
like other than like heavy Portugal the Man or something,
and then even weirder vocal parts absolutely half inched from
Billie Eilish's Bad Guy. It's so weird, like what is
any of this? Why are we doing this?
Speaker 2: Ellie Gordon doing that kind of breathy vogue against Matt
doing that. The full set of vocal is a nightmare.
Like I was like, oh my god, end my torture now,
like I'm raveling. It's just like, oh no, that's the one.
It is it hushes, the one with the hush, yeah
hush of the the duet one.
Speaker 1: It's yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, why in the twenty tens are we
doing this? Like this is a duet that should have
happened like ten years ago at the latest, Like it
is a real and again it's it's a really unconvincing
rock song as it is anyway when it tries to
get a bit more riffy, but like the duet vogue
thing just really you put me off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just because you mentioned Unraveling. That's my favorite
song on the album, and it's probably the one song
that I would unambiguously say as a Muse song that
I like, and that was one of the singles that
when we were released, we you know, weren't overly wowed
by it. But I do think as a continuation of again,
there were those songs that won't stand down on the
last album where they were doing that like Mick Gordon influenced,
you know, down tune modern metal sort of sound. I
think on that one they fleshed that out into one
of the better songs that they have done in that lane,
and that great operatic lift as in the chorus I
think is Matt at his best on this album. So
that song I think is good actually as just a
modern Muse song rather than them like impersonating themselves in
the past like they are on other bits of this album.
I do think, obviously I have a much higher tolerance
for mus bullshit than you do. I think most of
this album is merely okay rather than outright bad. It's
very listenable for the most part, but not having you know,
what the fuck are you playing at here? Cartoonish lows
that their last two albums have had. Maybe that is
something in its favor overall where I could, at least
from that perspective understand where someone could say this is
a better album than will other people, for example. But
because of that, it is the one where I find
myself most lamenting the loss of the Muse of Old
because it's not filling in that space with something mental
and hilarious for you to look at. Instead, it's just
a fairly meek reminder that they used to be the
best in the business. And you know, part of this
is definitely me being a bit sad that mus aren't
making me feel the way that I did when I
was a literal child, which always has some element of
unfairness on the band to be doing that. But go
put origin and symmetry on, or absolution or black holes
and revelations if you haven't a long time, and this
album has reminded you, because it's easy to forget sometimes
in our contemporary news poisoned world. But those albums are
still unbelievable and this album, while not terrible, is not
up to them. So there you go, the wow signal Muse.
But there is salvation for you, Sam, because If there's
anything that you need to cheer you up after a
Muse album, it's the Men Singers with their eighth album,
Everything I Ever Saw Sam. Obviously it's the Mensingers. A
bigger question than asking if this album is good is
to ask, have you ever or do you think you
could ever not love a Mensinger's album I'm not crazy
about Like the first one.
Speaker 2: I think they're cool, but I don't like love them.
But from on the Impossible Pass onwards, I love everything,
and I don't think I can not love everything because
the Mensingers just do my favorite thing in the world,
how basically, and they're doing it again on this album,
and guess what, I love it. I cannot be impartially
on this one. The Men's this is just this is
my shit. I'm so locked in. I think there are
ancient discussions have around this album, and like I understand,
the last few Mensingers albums haven't been as kind of
like feverishly received.
Speaker 1: I still really like.
Speaker 2: Them, but I think this one it just I'm a
sucker for it.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't help it. Like I'm going to just be
gushing about this record and it's going to be on
you to offer the more reasonable takes and I'll kind
of like and yeah along with them, I.
Speaker 1: Guess, yeah, But please don't be offended by some of
the things I will say. And just for the record,
I also love the Men Singers. For me, they are
the best band to ever play this kind of music
that they are playing, by which I mean this sort
of heartland rock derived lighter strand of punk rock. To me,
they're the best to ever do that, and part of
that is their highs are I think better than anyone
else is in that lane. But also now at this
stage you can start to say longevity as well. Like
it's nearly fifteen years since the record where they first
started to get real acclaim with On the Impossible Past.
Next year it will be ten since what we deem
to be their landmark classic album in After the Party,
and here they are, you know, a decade later, and
they are in fact still good and they have not
suffered any kind of cataclysmic drop off. I will say
for me, while that is true, and like I will
enthuse about the parts of this album that live are
the things that only the Mensingers can quite do. I
think we are quite comfortably in the sort of third
phase of the Mensinger's career, which is being you could
kindly say over the peak of it. The twenty tens
run whichever is your favorite, and for the record, Hello Exile,
I think is fucking brilliant as well. For me, there's
a four album run of Mensinger's being absolutely at the peak,
which is again from the possible pass onto that one,
but that twenty tens run is definitely them at their
best right whichever your favorite is, and the twenty twenties,
I think we are certifiably entering more of that punk
rock middle age. The last album Some of It Was
True was the first album where I really started to
feel that and we reviewed it and you were a
little bristling a little bit at me when I came
forward with that. To be clear, I still really like
that album plenty. I've never said it was poor. Hope
is a Dangerous Little Thing is honestly a top tier
Mensinger song for me, Like for the past three years
since that album came out, that's kind of been my
go to song of theirs, Like that's in the dream
set list, in the Mensinger setlist easily, and it's not
the only one on the record. Because you also have
There's no place in this world for Me a couple
of the deeper cuts as well. It's a very fine record,
but I did note that it was quite a bit
slower and lower energy and just less driven than them
at their best. And I don't see much point in
ignoring that that is happening to them in the way
that happens to most bands like them, because if you
look at the generation of the bands before them, whether
it be Right It's Against or Alkaline Trio or Against
Me or the drop Kick Murphy's whoever, they all have
that point where the records take a dip, even if
we still like them overall, the Mensingers aren't really a
band where we have a dramatic overhaul or you know,
direction breathed into a record to record, you basically know
what you're getting. The main point of interest for this
one from a hardcore fans point of view, is that
they're back working with will Yip again. Is that right? Yes?
That is that.
Speaker 2: That is the big kind of different differential factor between
this and the last records.
Speaker 1: For the record, again, I agree they have slowed down.
Speaker 2: I am just again I love Springsteen, like them showing
down means they're getting a bit more Springsteen, I would say,
and that is fine by me, and that I think
that's just where some people when we come up with
different taste, I understand, like you're going to be really
worried about the same things and getting me upset. I
have made peace with people being less infused with the
Mensingers at this point, I think I get it on
the last album. I think this album has a lot
more to like. I think this like has a lot
more going for it than that last album does. I
think this album is like a step back in the
right direction, or back in the right direction, a more
kind of Aners with more conviction behind it. I think
that is a part of that might come down to
I think the will yet production job. I think Greg
is standing closer to the microphone, like like there are
things like that. I get a lot more of that
from this record. I think again, like I'm not going
to say this is a perfect album, but I also
have nothing I dislike about this album is as simple
as that. I am just so this is my ship.
This is the sound of like one of my maybe
my favorite band at this point, doing the thing I love.
And again I've got eleven songs of it that I
think are all pretty much like. I really like all
those songs. I have one like, the one criticism I'm
willing to hear about this album is the first eight
seconds of it sounds like when we when You Were
Young by the Killers. The one like, the opening riff
on Chancing Counters is very similar to the riff when
You Were Young.
Speaker 1: I don't think the whole song, the whole thing is rip.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, it's it's literally that opening riff, like
the rest of the song sounds nothing like When You
Were Young by the Killers apart from the fact that
the Killers are ripping off springs and as well at
that point.
Speaker 1: But whatever.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's the one criticism I I I
will hobbs like, if you're saying that, I think that
is fair enough thing to point out that there is.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not that that that did not occur
to me. I actually think the ceiling on this one
is lower than on the last one, in that the
first two tracks on Some of It Was True are unbelievable.
And the way I was saying that hope is a
danger little thing is genuinely like a all timer men'sing
a song For me, I'm not actually getting anything to
quite that level here. But I think the trade off
is what you're saying about the production is it is
perhaps a more consistent listen. It does feel, you know,
the Mensingers supplying what they reliably supply a little more
than that record, and there isn't this large gap between
like the lead off singles and then the album tracks.
I think this album is really it's really nice, Like
it's a really good record. It's very cozy, it's very pleasant.
There's a couple of great songs on it. There's not
a lot to write home about. I think that it's
absolutely outstanding, but the thirty nine minutes of it do
you breeze by? There are a couple of less tracks
on this as well compared to the last album. That
maybe helps. I think this is one that the absolute
die hard Mensingers fans like yourself might take to heart.
But if you are a listener who you are a
little bit more like I go with the Mensingers when
they are really world class, I don't think you might
be as interested on this one because it doesn't really
bring anything new to the table, and it is just
I think still in that like middle career Mensinger's sort
of mid ground, but it is still really good, right.
And the thing that gets me with this is maybe
this is because I don't love many of these bands anyway,
but even with what I was just saying about the
Mensingers kind of being over the hill, they still sound
so much better at this than everyone else. Like if
we think about the Mensingers when they came along, they
were kind of picking up the baton that someone like
the Gaslan Anthem had put down right before it. And
if we look at the bands to have come after
the Menzingers who are doing this now, I guess Spanish
love songs. Even on the contemporary emo side, you've got
someone like Hot Mulligan who feel like they've sort of
filled the space at the Mensingers where maybe filling ten
years ago. That's what you know, this demographic of rock fan,
that's what they are into right now. And I don't
think the Menzingers, even at this stage in their career,
have been surpassed. Like they're just way better at this
kind of songwriting than anyone else around. And that is
evident to me from chance encounters, which I think does
if not again, as it's not a telling lies it's
not in America, You're freaking me out. It's not a
hope as a dangerous little thing. But it is continue
the tradition of great Menzinger's album openers, where it is
you know, it's not as purely energizing as though so,
but it is still fucking great and it is inspiring
with that Greg lift in the chorus where they may
never stand a chance, you know we still got to try.
I love that it's great, and I would say this
album is very cozy and familiar to the point that
you know you are getting those Greg song Tom song,
Greg song Tom song flips in the track list in
just such a like expected order, like Better Angels coming
right after Chance Encounters. Tom adds that kind of blunter
approach without that tremble that Greg has and a punk
skip as his song to do, and you get that
right as you are expecting it when Chance Encounters ends,
and then you know romanticism flicking back to Greg, which
is really trademark Menzingers with this kind of beautiful, vibrant
guitar lead before the vocal hits all the way down
to listing specific locations that he and this girl have
been at. It's a very like, you know, heart tied,
very besotted, you know, kind of song and paints that
into the canvas outwards. It's it's very very nice.
Speaker 2: I mean the thing that I think this is the
closest been to a literally like a fifty to fifty yeah.
Speaker 1: Greg Tom Greg Tom.
Speaker 2: Like I think obviously last album it lent a lot
more on the Greg side of things, and I think
in recent times Greg is obviously like the sound up
Menzing songs that everyone members are generally the Greg songs
because I think like he is the more immediately like
heart on sleeve. You're gonna get those mensingrisms that the
we were sixteen months we will never be again, lyric
and chancing counters the way he just sort of belts
that like it's irresistible. But I think the Tom song
of this, all of them just kind of like it
just means you get a nice percent point. You just
get the strong dynamic of like these two dident vocalists
who can bring different flavors. I think like Better Rangels
has that kind of like folk punk jaunt to it.
It's catchy and fun. It's got a nice sort of
sing along romantism, like you know your way around my dreams,
I know my way around yours. It seems it's like
just Greg doing it. The fact he sings for too long.
We were dancers in the dark. That was my Leo
pointing me moment.
Speaker 1: I was like Springsteen song.
Speaker 2: He said it, like like, oh it is not everyways.
Don't mean ship to us now, like come to your
heart out with me. It's just these are just mensing
and sort of things that I want to hear. I
love hearing and I'm just so happy to hear.
Speaker 1: Other people's money. You get that kind of ease.
Speaker 2: Off on there, and it's like this like Dusty Springsteen
kind of piano kicking in.
Speaker 1: Very fun little vocal hook on that one. That's one
of those ones that you know when you're singing those
fun little fucking tom vocal hooks.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, it's got all that all over it, Like
I love that ship gasolinea matches.
Speaker 1: When you were saying you were about to talk about
the intro of a song that sounds weird, I thought
you were going to say that one because for the
first ten seconds it sounds like I don't know a
ghost tracks by nine, Its Nails or something before suddenly
the Heartland Chords and the Spring The Spring. Yeah, after
this weird little synth indra, I was like, I was
gonna joe it. I was like, Oh, they're doing a simPRO.
I was like, oh no, No, they're just going the motion,
just a Springsteen song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, and Greg setting into that sort of story
tell a thing on gasoline and matches. It's so such
a natural sort of thing where I'm just happy to
sit there and he even gets that sort of Springsteen
vocal quiver going on that. I was like, Ah, you
are going your most Springsteen on this track, and keep
doing it please.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I do get a bit of a sense on
this one that I again, as every song comes out,
I listen to earlier today and I was like, you know,
these are you know, I'm enjoying all of these, but
I can't get away from the idea that the best
versions of all of these songs have been written by
these guys before, because better Angels and other people's money
and those songs were talking about. They have that coziness
when they hit that formulaically swapping between the Greg songs
and the Tom songs. But they're not hall of fame
Tom songs, Like they're not fucking thick as fees, you know,
they're just they're just not. Nor do I think Gasoline
and Matches or Romanticism are hall of fame Greg songs
because I think a lot of them they don't really
rise above themselves. Like they're very well tempered, very mild mannered,
even as they might swear in some of them, you
know songs, but them this album moves with it's lacking
that kind of that last ride desperation, you know, that
characterized something like after the party, that urgency about it,
and I do think maybe that had its last hurrahically
so far on a song like America You're freaking me
out from Hello Exile, that sort of like fizziness take
my hand, because this is the most important shit in
the world type feeling that those songs have. This is
much more leisurely than that. It's much more unconcerned with
doing anything above the tempo of life that it wants
to take it at. And every song hits with that
recognition of familiarity. This is the men's thing. Is it's
a thing that we like, you know, and they are
all good, But I don't think they're a great deal.
More than that, it is a really unhurried again sort
of leisurely album. I would say a majority of the
guitar riffs aren't especially memorable. I do like the one.
I do like the one and Breathe with Me that
go throughout the song as a sick, little kind of
rock and roll silo in there as well. I do
really like In terms of the album tracks, I do
really like the Fool. I think that is Tom's best melody. Yeah, yeah,
of course self Deceiver, and it's got a weird sort
of like novelty trumpet answer to the chorus, which is
a fun part as well, and some like cool countermiloity
arrangements in the final chorus. Well that is again I
am taking my song from this rank. I'm like, yeah, cool,
that's that's a really good one. I'm having the full
I'm having chance encounters, a couple of strange like party
instrumental touches that they've added into the mixt with that,
and there's a kind of organ that's at the start
of Nobody's Heroes as well. I think when you get
to the kind of last stretch of the album, it's
nice at that point to hear Greg finally, like nine
or ten songs in he decides to put a little
bit more of a gusto into his voice and it
lifts above that sort of standard comfort zone for a
little while. You get that with when She Enters My Dreams,
when again he starts adding that little bit of kind
of urgency into it a little bit. Even of that
song is just like again pure heartland lushness. That song
reminds me a little bit of the kind of thing
the band we're about to review were really good at
previously a couple of our to go definitely one of
the best songs songs on the record. And then the
ending title track really like maintains that as well with
a really worthy kind of final you know, grace note
for the record.
Speaker 2: So the ending the title track at then is the
is the exception. I said that that is Almo like
this is up there for me with like those I
think that that song like it has that kind of build,
that passion. That chorus is just like unbelievable kind of
just like Greg going at it. It is so good,
like you guys said, said the good and bad, the
half with the sad like it is again that because
that this ALP has a kind of feeling of like
kind of like they you know they are, they're getting
on there, that they're the Heartland punk unks at the moment,
and they they've kind of seen a lot of shit. Now,
like there's the paradeday before it is no Tom kind
of lamenting the loss for friends and kind of like
here's I see you again at the end of time.
Like so there is a feeling of the solum like
we have you know, we've been through stuff, We've seen stuff,
and that kind of like that feeling is all there
on the kind of like everything ever saw the I
don't want to real Lilyve, I just want to remember
everything I ever saw, kind of like going on these
journeys and having these memories. I think that that closing
track is the kind of thing where that's maybe why
I'm so fond of this album, because the last thing
I hear on it is my favorite thing on the album,
and it ends on just such a kind of like
romantic note for what I love about the Mensingers, and
I'm just kind of like my heart is so so full.
Speaker 1: By the end of that title track, I was like
I can't say it.
Speaker 2: I can recognize again, I can recognize where you're, where
you're coming from. Where, Like this is a consistent Mensing record,
but it maybe doesn't have those those peaks as much.
But it ends on such a high note for me
that I'm just so I'm so enamored. I'm just so happy.
I'll put the album on again and just be like,
this is all I want to listen to right now.
Sam's come out in July. We're in a heat wave.
And then when I put it on, I don't mind.
I'm just like the sun is shining. I'm listening to
new Mensingers and I'm getting, you know, these moments that
just sort of fill me with joy.
Speaker 1: I'm just sewing on this sort of thing.
Speaker 2: And again, because it ends on such a high note,
that's the lingering memory of the record for me that
I'm just I'm happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really good song. Again, that sort of
desperation that I'm talking about that comes through in select
moments now for the Mensing. Yes, that like I just
want to hold onto everything I've ever experienced, you know,
I don't want to relive, I want to remember is
in that and it adds it's more driving than the
majority of the album. I think part of what's happening
is you've reready said it is they've aged out of
being ragged Springsteen punks and in the process just more
into straight up Springsteen and I can take or leave that,
whereas you're having that pride out of your cold dead hands.
But I think that that dichotomy between us does maybe
convey again to people listening to us what kind of
mensing As they're getting and what they might be interested
in it. And I do think I think it's a
good album. It's a good album. It's got a few
great songs on it. It's way ahead of their peers,
and so if you love this music, even when it's
slow and old, you will probably love of this as well.
So everything I ever saw by the Mensingers, but onto
alluding to something a little bit there the excerpts and
their album I Think I Want to Go Home Now.
This is another of the bands like the Menzingers, who
we as a podcast would generally describe us as one
of our longtime, all time favorites when it comes to
like rush of blood to the head, emotionally urgent, heart
on sleeve, melodic rock songwriting, one of the straight up
best bands in the world at that throughout the twenty tens,
their first couple of albums, particularly then going into twenty
fourteen's There Is Only You, which is a fantastic, earnest
alternative rock sort of power pop album, and then my favorite,
twenty eighteen's Hold Onto Your Heart, where they took that
and further embellished it with these real timeless classic rock touches,
two absolute powerhouse albums there for a long time, criminally
overlooked as a band. Every time I'm out and about
and I hear like a Sam Fender song in a
shop or something, All the Killers, right, I'm like, why
the fuck couldn't this have happened? For the excerpts on
Daydream or Shaky in the Water or something like that,
Like no, you know, no shade against those artists, but
these are songs of that same caliber. Right, we have
this unbelievable world class classic rock songwriting band just kicking
about in our scenes, comparative underground for like fifteen odd years,
right who for whatever reason, they've built up, you know,
a passionate cult fan base, but they never seem to
be afforded any of the opportunities to break it much
bigger than that, despite the fact that they are packing
songs that literally everybody in the world should like. Like
the excerpts I think are one of the biggest disproportions
in how big their audience is versus how universal their
songs actually could be. Right when you look at first Kiss,
Feeling and Drive Me Wild and you go these should
be fucking standards, like what is the world doing here?
Where these are just songs from some tiny rock band
from Scotland. The excerts in full Flight we have been big,
big champions off But their last album, Learning How to
Live and Let Go in twenty twenty three, there's not
too much more to be said about it being about
the rush. It was a catastrophe, wasn't it. Yeah, like
we we like.
Speaker 2: I don't want to give album much more of a
kicking we we we went and it. I was like
even slightly generous to it. But it just it like
in terms of like drop off from albums that I
will consider maybe my favorite album of the year, it
came out to an album that I just don't ever
go back to at all, Like this is like you
don't get bigger drop offs in that really like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had to wait five years for it from
the previous record, and everything that was enjoyable about the
band had just been excised. And I don't even think
it's just the production, which is certainly one major point,
but the songwriting was way off that. Yeah, yeah, there's
a song on there called Eke with Sam Carter, and
it's one of the more energetic songs on the album.
And then before it's actually allowed to like arrive and
deliver the big hook or whatever, it's just done because
these like bite size micro songs aren't their strength at all.
And then you've got the problem that half the track
list on it isn't actually those ZIP songs or those
big gearish experiments like Gimme for example, that became the
kind of you know, the stick to beat that album with.
But half isn't that. It's these wet ballads that aren't
complemented at all by the sonic approach of that album
and how it sounds. Everything about it was just creatively misjudged,
and like I said, I don't want to labor it
or add too many criticisms onto it beyond what we
said at the time, because you know it's one bad album.
The Excerpts are a band who we historically love and even,
as I say, kind of feel a sense of injustice
for right so to trash all of that because one
album didn't work for us, it's not necessary. There's even
a song on this album, pretty Ugly, which very directly
responds to that album's criticisms, which I think we often
say when you start writing songs about people commenting about
your music on the Internet, you should probably take a
step back a bit, because you're just creating a miserable
feedback loop at that point that no one's happy with.
But I can at least understand it a bit with
the Excerpts, because they're not this massive band who have
a comfort blanket like in a data remember for instance,
who have done that and it is the first time
in their career really where they've had to face that.
So I imagine as a small artist is quite alienating
to suddenly have so much backlash when they had only
really up to that point been love from your fan base,
and then be like, what the fuck am I doing
in my life? You know? Can I move on from this?
I don't like that song on this record, but I'm
at least trying to relate to the headspace that Murray
has wrote that song from. Anyway, I think I want
to go home now. We are all hoping for us
to be the return to form, essentially, Sam, to what extent,
in your opinion, have they done.
Speaker 2: It depends on what you call a return to form,
what is formed for the excerpts.
Speaker 1: I think this is a film for the excerpts. Really
is there is there is any you? And how much
are we get into that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And if we're comparing it to that, we're not
getting there, like simple as that, we're not getting to
the heights of those records. I do think this is
a big improvement on the last record. And I think
this is you know, pretty comparative like three and quality
like not far off the the like the the very
early Excerpts records. I think what this album is is
it is more recognizably the exit. It's going back to
just doing the kind of like twenty tens power pop
Brit rock stuff that they kind of made their name on.
And I think for the most part, I think like
there are still some quibbles with the production I have.
I don't think it's it's the best production job they've
gone through. I don't think it's as garish as the
last album, and I think that, you know, there is
a steady stream of pop hooks across this area record
and kind of just stirring a motive, all rock songs
that I kind of get and go, Yeah, I like this,
this is this is the excesting way I want to do.
But again, I don't want to call this like a
return to form record because the the bath what I
know the excerpts are capable of, this doesn't cur And
maybe again that's really harsh to do this album, because
I do for the most part, I like this album.
I think it's it's good, but it's not. There is
only your hon chart. It's not delivered. Like again, there
is nothing on this album that even comes close to
like album tracks on those records. And again, those albums
are the best of their kind of era and that scene.
Speaker 1: So it's mixed feelings. I come into this album with
what I do.
Speaker 2: I am way more positive on this album than I
was the last album, but I'm not gushing about it
like I wanted a kind of like a oh my god.
The excerpts are back. They've never been more back.
Speaker 1: This is it. We can all be celebrating again. Yeah,
I think the majority of excerpts, fans who you know
didn't like the last album are feeling like you on
this album in at least being you know, pleasantly, you know,
reassured that their band sounds like their band again. Right.
So I think that if that is to be the
overall sort of lasting legacy of this album, how it
lands to people, I'm okay with that. I suppose I'm
personally feeling quite down on it in a way that
I really don't want to be like. It makes me
unhappy where I'm sitting on this, because essentially where I'm
sitting is I don't like anything on it, and I
don't want to listen to it again, which I find
really disappointing, both on a musical but also a kind
of personal level, because if this was one of those
albums where we could go, all right, let's just put
that last album down to a failed experiment, doesn't matter,
We're all friends again. That would be the easiest thing
as a reviewer to do. It would make the audience
the happiest, it'd make the band the happiest. It would
make me the happiest because the excert seem like nice people.
I want them to do well. I don't want to
be digitally knocking them down or whatever it was that
Whilst you Sleep said, But this album makes me feel nothing.
It is better than the previous album. I will not
disagree with that, but I do have to put it
with that album in the excerpts albums I don't like
compared to the two for that, which are the experts
albums that I do like. Right, I don't think this
is a or at least they're back on it type record,
because that would imply that it has qualities that I
love about the old ones, and for the most part
it doesn't. To me. They sound a bit lost on
this album, and I find that discouraging because the last
album what's wrong with it is so garishly obvious. You
can very easily go, well, you tried a big swing there,
it didn't work. Oh well, dust yourself off and move
on this. At least when we're I'm saying, it sounds
more like they've forgotten how to be that band that
we loved, which might be worse because it's more like
there is a void that isn't being filled. Rather than
it being filled with something blatant. You know, I want
to start positive first. For you, Sam, what are the
parts of this album where you can feel the excerpts,
you know, clicking into gear again. I think, you know,
do it to myself as an opener.
Speaker 2: It's it's got that kind of fizzy, upbeat power pop
excerpts thing that that they that they do nail on
a lot of the tracks on something like there is
Only You that the sat propulments and that. I think
it just it feels a bit more natural. It has
a pep to it, which I think again the last
album didn't have. I think like there is some nice
sort of just touches again. I don't think it's my
from with the sound is I'm gonna just be saying
things like it's nice, it's good. There's nothing to like
really get excited about, rather than like, I I'm having
a pleasant I'm listening to this. I think, like I
like that song. I think Sinking Feeling has you know,
a bit more strike to it. I I think I
could have to just isolate hold onto Your Heart as
a one off kind of like they're doing this thing
on this album and I don't know if we're ever
gonna get that again, because they threw everything at it
and it didn't pay off, so they don't and this
is this This does just feel like them returning back
to a comfort zone of twenty tens or of power
pop or rock, and for the most part, I think
it is doing that pretty nicely. I think if you
go to the closer, which again we sort of mentioned
about the ballads on the last album, I think in
Your Eyes is like that stirring heartfelt actually sort of
sincere exits ballad. Again, it's not as good as the
title track on There Is Only You, which is which
it feels most closely comparable to whether again they're they
going for that, but at least I can kind of
get a real emotion from it, which again I couldn't
really get from the last album. I think just for
most places that like I'm just I'm having a nice
time when this is on, like and again this is
like the damning with faint praise or problem I have
with this album is that I think it is consistently good,
but like if anyone was a Gogin to sort of
come to something I can't reach, sort of like Mount
the Strongest defense because I think it rarely, it rarely
excels where in a way that I think exces albums should. Yeah,
that's what that's it. I'm having with this sad where
I don't dislike it like I like like the Last Aime.
I don't think there is like bad decisions, a bad songwriting.
I just think it feels like a retreat to kind
of like a safety sort of thing that the of
a sound they've done in the past. But at the
same time, it's not as good as that thing in
the past, So I guess I can see I mean
where it feels a bit lost as an album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I actually have it's not so much for
me again, like you're saying that it's it's fine, but
there's nothing much to say about it. I actually have
do genuine abject criticisms of this record, about things about
it that annoy me, and I'll get on to those
in the moment. But they are definitely going for types
of songs that are more in the traditional spirit and
wheelhouse what the excerpts is right, Like you're saying the
slowest songs particularly, I think you know you've got Rinse Repeat,
which feels very trademark when it comes to the slower
stuff or dream you in when it goes ll gim
meet World Emo towards the back end of it are
really again, I think those are pleasant songs. I think
they're perfectly nice, and I don't doubt the sincerity of
any of these songs or what they emotionally mean to,
you know, those writing it. Like I was saying, even
a song like pretty Ugly, which falls into a type
of song that we usually find to be quite repugnant,
there is a clear vulnerability about that one, in an
almost Pinkerton ish way of like putting a sentiment out
there and showing people how you feel, even if they
were to perceive that feeling as quite off putting. Like
obviously the song is called pretty Ugly, right, and is
admitting essentially that it is shaken and unhappy, and it's
putting it out there. My major stumbling book with this,
and the thing that I think is keeping me totally
at arm's length from even the songs that I should
be okay with is it's much less obvious and garish
than last time, but I still think it's nonetheless suffering
under the weight of modernity in its constructure fair even
on like a shallow surface level. We were talking about
like yea, the all lowercase song title, we would all
you know, we describe that as like a hallmark of
like that came out and we were like, maybe this
isn't going to be so Ba's the Glory Days as
we hoped, because it's such a trope of like zeitgeisty
twenty twenties rock music. But sonically this album is sort
of coarse and unpleasant in a way that I don't
find the excerpts to excel in. And maybe that's the point, right,
Maybe it's trying to be this sort of difficult, you know,
little brother record, you know, trying to bounce back and
find direction, and it's sonically meant to be a little
ugly and a little rough, but it's not an abrasiveness
that either suits them or sounds any good to begin with.
I think a lot of the power pop sensibility because
this record is sorry, sort of downcast a lot of
the time. A lot of the power pop sensibility that
was in their songs is gone, and there's there's no
fun in this at all, And again, it's not the
record for it. Maybe like maybe that's not where they
personally are right now. It does have this it feels
like a more emo in mindset approach of even having
like the things like the little voice notes, like the
intro track or losing it as well, where they have
that like you know, intimately recorded sort of snapshot of
a moment that finds its way onto a record that
I was associated with that Midwest emo, except it's on
a like quite unpleasantly produced twenty twenties UK rock band
and they sound at odds with the rest of it.
The first song, Do It to Myself is this like
up tempo, nervous energy kind of song that should be
the starting gun for the record. And then the vocal
processing or Murray comes in on the verses and I
don't know why they've done that to him, Like he
was perfectly capable of carrying these songs for years before this,
and he's one of those vocalists who works best when
there is no barrier between him and the listener, so
he can just reach right out of that mix and
you know, pluck into, you know, the heartstrings of the
listener and he comes out sounding like a fucking deep
fried jpeg version of himself. And it sounds gross, Like
the first time I'm hearing his voice on the record,
past that little intro track, my immediate reaction is just
to recoil and pull backwards because of how he sounds.
And once I'm over that again, it's not a bad song.
It is better than anything on the last one, and
it probably could be much better live, right, But why
is my first response to this being revulsion? Like why
does it have to be that? And it keeps going
all the way through. Wow sounds a bit like Feeder,
but with contemporary compression on it, and then particularly you
get sinking feeling afterwards. There's this sort of instrumental sound
that marks contemporary attempts at recalling nineties old rock radio hits.
It's like nineties rock as remembered by TikTok, you know
what I mean? That really regimented way the beat hits
and the guitars click on and off, the vocals going
tinny for the ah, can'd shake the sinking feeling. It
reminds me of a bit of machine Gun Kelly, which
is not the comparison I want to be making. And
as this sort of sound that I immediately in my
head associate with disposable, and it's not a song that
I'm gonna still want to be spinning in a year's time.
The guitar riff at the start of Bury You has
that same kind of tinny fiercely beaten squarely into its
box type presence in the mix, or like I said,
how sort of contrived to sound raw and underproduced like
losing it is when it sounds the opposite, And it
baffles me because when I read about what they've been
saying about this album and how it was then getting
back into with making a rock record and letting things
ring out and capturing the sound of them in the room,
and that's not what the record sounds like at all.
That's what I want you to do, Like that's what
you're desperately crying out for. You need to go and
find a proper analogue rock producer to go and do
this with. But this sounds that they are still working
for the twenty twenty standards of you know, rock radio
play still when as a band who clearly have never
had any real flirtations with the mainstream pain them any
real interest, I think they should be running as far
away from that to provide the alternative.
Speaker 2: I think that's fair. Again, I definitely agree. I don't
like the production's record. I think I can get through
to the songs more on this one than when I could.
Why I couldn't really do on the last one, because
I think there is there is strength of songwriting that
is present here that wasn't therefore, But I do agree,
like the vocal processing is one of those things that
I've just I've just had to kind of like get
used to, and I'm kind of just.
Speaker 1: Sort of like, Okay, I can kind of handle that now. Yeah,
I do think it doesn't have to be that way,
Like why should I have to do that? You could
just not do that and make a good record that
sounds good, please because.
Speaker 2: The things I don't And then in a song and capacity,
I think they are trying to get back to that,
like say that kind of like rock songwriting things they're doing,
and I think they are showing it, and i'd say
in my capacity, it's then just kind of been smothered
a bit where yeah, I actually I have to put
in a bit more work to get to these songs.
Speaker 1: It's why I'm kind of like taking songs.
Speaker 2: I think if produced different, I could probably be all
in on and I have to kind of go like,
I think they're fine because they're they're good songs that
have been compromised.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've we think we don't have drawn a lot.
Speaker 2: Of similar conclusions. I'm just kind of a bit more
kind of like, well, I can still kind of go
with the songs. I think you're like that, yeah, yeah,
And I think that's totally fair. And I again would
come up for the same points, but I just it's
why again, I can recognize this album is better and
it does do a lot while out with the excepts,
but it's why again I can't wholeheartedly throw myself behind it,
and I kind of have to just be a bit
more like, yeah, you know, I mean it's pretty good,
Like it's it's a shame that that's what I have
to feel about about the excepts again and not like
gush about it.
Speaker 1: I can definitely see why.
Speaker 2: I like again, I've seen some people like, no, this
is a return to form, Like no, it's it's it's
better than the last album. It's a return to them.
What you like what it's why I come back to
what is formed for the excerpts, and I have had
to kind of like potentially just embrace her. That hole
onto heart is is it's the bubble, It's that it
was that time and place, and I'm glad I've got
to witness it. Look to this song's live, but I
just don't think it's I don't know they're going to
go back to writing those just amazing influence eighties influenced heartland.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like I said, I'm not going just make
hold on too Heart again, even though that is my
favorite record of theirs, and it's where I think they
I think they found on that record the thing that
makes their band sonically sing the most. But that's not
my exact complaint about this record. I mean, like pretty
ugly to go back to it, it's one of the
worst ones in terms of, you know, they've tried to
match the sentiment of that song by being spiky and
embrace it, but it sounds ugly in a cheap way.
It's not the worst song on the record.
Speaker 2: I think that is like the worst on the record,
where again, the production really doesn't know where they're trying
to be spiking, and like if that song had like
a raw, like a rawer production, where that like anger
and kind of frustration could actually lash out for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Really, it's like artificially distorted and it's got a
not quite the plot to bomb the Panhandle riff and
then a cheerleader chance towards the end. For some reason,
I'm just like, why do you, as a band who
work best when you are lush and you organic insist
on making your albums tinny? Like, why do you make
a singer as talented and charismatic as Murray McLeod sound
like a robot so often? And it doesn't feel like
they've learned the right lessons from learning how to live
and let go. They've learned that people didn't like Guinea
and Murray sounding like a literal chipmunk, even though still
not quite enough to not do it on do it
to myself, But they haven't had the real full reconnection
of identity, aside from easing off on some of the electronics.
They've got to remember, they're classic rock band, I think,
and that doesn't mean old or out of touch or whatever.
It's just about what kind of band you are spiritually
and what suits you. There is only you when it
was surrounded by all of the other brit rock bounds
who are all making there like Radio One, you know,
pop things. At that time, it stood out because in
parison it sounded timeless and like it was part of
a songwriting tradition that went back way further and you know,
hold onto your heart. They perhaps they doubled down more obviously,
and they made that comparison more overt, but that's essentially
what I want them to do, right Yeah, And it's
so frustrating. It's because I don't want to just make
that particular record again and again and again. I'm not
asking for fucking saxophone intros on every single track, but
it's mental to find your calling and then run as
feasibly far as possible from that right afterwards. No one
has ever gone, what if we took Tom Petty and
gave him to Travis Barker to produce, Because that's a
fucking stupid idea, And that's what it feels like we've
been stuck at with the excerpts, even if this is
a much less extreme example than last time. And I
don't think this is a horrible record, you know, to
bring us back down to earth a little bit more,
but it is more of a case of when I
know how brilliant this band can be hearing them not
capitalize on that potential. They have to be like a
genuinely timeless rock band who stand completely outside of any
trends of what's going on right now because of these
things that they do on a record that come out
unflattering to them and immediately a bit dated and just
having going like why have we done this? Like you
don't doesn't have to be this way, you know, And
I would love this to be the thing that they
get out of their system after the last thing that
they had to get out of their system, because a
step in the right direction. It is absolutely the majority
of this album is pretty all right, and maybe actually
at their core, you know, what they are is more
for other people than it is for me. And it
was almost a freak occurrence of how much they leant
into that timelessness I'm attributing them so much on those
two records in the twenty tens. Maybe I'm learning here
that they're not as much that band as I thought
they were. But I just think there's definitely still a
lot of work to do to really be fulfilling what
they're capable of rather than what's here, which is essentially
just not as horrible as the last one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fat. I feel like I said,
we are we are similar direction. But again, I just
is where I just can't go on, like I said,
the return to form narrative, because it is still they're
handicapping themselves for reasons I don' quite understand, and it
means that these songs that again, I having a lot
of these songs I could love, but I can't love
on this record, and it just means I'm kind of
having to just sell. And we're like, yeah, I think
we should know. This is a pretty good excess record
that's still probably like again, kind of in line with
some of the other stuff, but would we will probably
have to be their second worst record just through the
strength of the other catlo where there's again more to
pick apart on this record than there is the others.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there you go. But we are going to
move on to something a little bit harder edged, and
it's finally time for me to stop being a party
pooper because we are going to Fuming Mouth and the
Ringing Bell. In all honesty, I have thought Fumi Mouth
up to date have been a pretty decent band, and
I think this is a perfect point to give this
band some of their flowers a bit, because they arrived
in twenty nineteen with their debut album, The Grand Ascent,
and at the time, at the very end of that decade,
it felt like a bit of a throwback or a
carrying of the torch of some of the hardcore slash
death metal bands from the beginning of that decade who
had gone by the wayside, like Trap Them and Black
Breath and Mammoth Grinder like that point.
Speaker 2: At that time, that moment in Time Nails, they were
a well right full on like entombed core, you know,
hn two cruss death metal.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the hardcore zeitgeist anymore by twenty nineteen the
way it had been in twenty twelve, and while not
to the obscene quality of those bands that we have mentioned,
it was enough to remind you of them and go,
I'm glad at least someone's doing that thing well, you know,
And that has mostly been my relationship with fuman Mouth,
but they have shown at times a little bit of
ambition beyond that base level. There was a point on
their last album, Last Day of Sun, when they started
to integrate these more like melodic doom influences, almost in
a similar way to like when we were speaking about
Gate Creeepinglack on the Black Curtain, which is something that
again at times does yet picked up here as anyway.
The Ringing Bell is the third four length album from
Female Mouth. It's out on Triple B Record, which is
absolutely like Capital HC, a hardcore label, but they like
a band that black breath. I think they're pretty much
equally positioned to appeal to like metal fans and hardcore
fans are like I will explain why I think this
album is perhaps their most noteworthy album so far in
a minute, but sam plain and simple, this is the
kind of thing that it would be a shock if
we didn't enjoy.
Speaker 2: I don't trust people who wouldn't be immediately won over
by the intro to Cheap Death the moment you hear
that guitar tone.
Speaker 1: If you don't like it, I don't trust you.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not saying you have to love this record,
but if that hitting play and hearing that tone doesn't
just make you feel all giddy and like, ah yeah,
I like that, I can't trust a person because I yeah,
again I like femal Mouth. I've never been like that
the best of it, but their sound is just so like,
come on, guys, like, we can't not like this.
Speaker 1: This is this is that good shit? Yeah, it's crust
death metal played by hardcore folks. Right. It's recorded by
Kurt Blue, which is the most obvious stamp approval that
you need for something that sounds like krusty death metal
play by hardcore folks. This album also features the talents
of one Jay Weinberg, formerly of Slipknot, on the drums.
I don't know if he's actually joined the band full time,
as in like will be touring or recording future albums
with them, or if this is just a one off,
but at the very least he has done this, and
from a metal historians perspective, it's great to hear him,
you know, coming out of Slipmark, where it did end
kind of badly for him, and then joining up with
something where he can just go full extreme metal and
fucking blitz it, you know. And obviously, yeah, he's tearing
up the kit on this thing. But for as big
a name as you know, Jay Weinberg and Kurt Blue are,
you know, they both contribute what they do to this
record admirably. This is an album that feels powered by
Mark Wheelan, who is the guitarist and frontman of this band.
And to fully get why, there is a little bit
of context. Mark Wheelan had a diagnosis of leukemia in
twenty twenty one. And he's a young guy, right, He's
in his mid thirties now, and so this was a
case where like someone in our scene could have, you know, well,
have been taken tragically early. He was able to come
through all of that cancer treatment, entered remission in twenty
twenty two. And this was something that was going on
around the time that their last album, Last Day of Sun,
came out, and that was dealing with you know, there's
songs and they're called like kill the Disease, right, it's
very much in there. But I guess that album, you know,
being written and coming out around twenty two twenty three,
it must have been sort of more in the midst
of it, I suppose. Whereas this album The Ringing Bell,
as well as having a title that perfectly matches a
scary nighttime photo of a church as you have on
the cover art in cancer treatment termology, the ringing of
the Bell refers to this little kind of ceremonial gesture
that is done when the treatment is complete in order
to kind of symbolize like a re entry into regular
life and a new dawn, so to speak. And the
album from the title of track one to the title
of track eleven is unavoidably I think about even if
it's not directly about, you know, his cancer, which I
think I've read that he's maybe pushed back on that
a little bit, it is undenoyably about a sort of
re emergence out of such a period into a reclaiming
of personal strength and essentially right, it's HM two and
tumbed core. You know what that sounds like. It's done
really fucking well. It kicks and rocks in all the
right places. We know what we're getting and we are
enjoying it. But I also find that this album has
this particular animating purpose about it that really brings it
to life. Where this album feels like a rush of
blood and a fuck you in the face of death
that just makes it like kick that little bit harder.
I think that's it.
Speaker 2: I think, like again, the relative like the song way
isn't so far removed from what I think females are doing,
but there is an energy to this album that just
feels so invigorating, and again it's what makes it. It's
about that intro and cheap death. That tone is so good,
but the way they attack it, the way this album
just comes flying out at you and the first thing
you hear is him shouting live and cheat.
Speaker 1: Death, Like, yeah, that's so invigorating, and it sounds like
the physical remains of like, you know, whatever has been
in his path are lying vanquished below him. He's just
leany and going hah in its face, you know, like
I Have Survived, I Refuse to Die is the lyric,
and it's a really great example of like this kind
of extreme metal, which is obviously it's dark and evil
and all that stuff, but it's empowering, right. It's a
massive show of resilience and strength. It's gone through this
kind of tribulation, but it's coming out stronger on the
other side. And that's what metal does, right. It makes
you feel strong, it makes you feel invincible. And channeling that, yeah,
channeling that chest puffing demeanor out of this like very
real brush with human mortality. It's just really genuine in
that feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's what the hard thing of that,
like that community and that uned like that fighting back.
It's things that, again I love so much about hardcore.
Getting that in a kind of just more like crusty
death metals or thing. It just feels so like it
brings out the best in all of the hardcore and
the metal like this Some just captures all the best
of things about that and just sort of throws it
out there in this explosive, invigorating It is a heavi.
Speaker 1: As balls album, but it's so uplifting.
Speaker 2: There is just something about it where again, it is
dark in it, sound is heavy, is violent, but I
feel good that I feel good and I feel powered,
and I feel like the record wants to pick me
up with it and take me on. And at the
same time you're then getting that bendy riff on the
chorus to Cheat Death, which just sounds like so unbelievably hard,
and I think this is am though I've hit plowing it,
I've just been like, I this is my favorite thing
in the world right now, because it just is just
what I want to be hearing at this exact moment.
Speaker 1: That isn't the Mensingers.
Speaker 2: It's really this album has, like this week been my
sort of like alternating thing. If I don't want listen
to the Mensingers, I want to put this on, because
I've just pad this on and again. You know, it's
barely over thirty minutes. It's eleven songs. The songs are
punchy as hell, and it's just so invigorating to listen to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the next track is called Self Exhumed, like I
myself have climbed out of the grave that was meant
for me, you know.
Speaker 2: And there's this middle Fearless, Like all the songs have
that kind of thing to them, there's.
Speaker 1: This middle bit where it drops out for this just
eye popping raw of I'm Alive. It's just so fucking cool,
I say, uplifting through you know, extremity and violence and
all this stuff. You do have like a song like
a Blaze of Nihilism, which is obviously darker from the title.
It's crunching and destructive and that's tight on the death
metal end. On the hardcore front though. You've got the
opening riff of Finally, Fearless is like what HM two
pedal hate Breed would sound like. It's just spin kick
central and there are these classic gang vocals in the chorus,
you know, to match that feel and it's all about
you know, pushing forwards and moving onwards. The entire second
half of that song almost is a breakdown into the breakdown.
Speaker 2: It's fucking like the solo basically being the mos call
for the breakdown as it like it's so hard and
like again that's when that is like more evil and
just kind of like chunk of it. But it like
it just hits the spot for me. And I mean
they like a feel blaze of nihilism, has that kind
of like scraping sort of antagonism on like this thing.
Speaker 1: But it's got that again, this.
Speaker 2: Big chunky groove and the spooky am shit at the
end that all the songs just cause hill and just
that I want from this music. It's the constant stream
of the sickest sounds possible. Everything does it, and I
think like it's what it's meant. It has then been
like this is the best collection and I think ultimately
because of the vibe and the spirit of it that
fumal Mouth have come out with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's really admirable lead guitar work on
it as well. Like you're mentioning some of the solos
in a blaze of nihilism and such vivid revelations, opens
with like a dive bomb, but then screams back up again.
It's so fucking cool. But do you also start to
get some of those divergences I was talking about, like
into kind of the doom territory and like increased emphasis
on building atmosphere, which I think is one of those
touches that you know, it gives the music another dimension
beyond just being crunchy.
Speaker 2: Hardcore all the way through, more like smack bang in
the middle of the record just leaps out to you.
Speaker 1: I think that legal guitar, That's.
Speaker 2: What I was like, Oh yeah, this sort of the
definitely hardcore bands going, We're going to throw some doom
metal in there, and it's going to give us actual bangers,
Like and is that is that paradise lost kind of
strand of the throwing it into that sort of thing
gave him and Viewmale for both just kind of gone
this actually, like is really conducive to writing bangers, Like
it's really cool, Like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like that song, it's got that kind of anchor
of a lead line that it always like returns the
song to it. And yet the type of drag as well,
and that has that like a big booming melodic vocal
that's more classically like heavy netal on top of the
hardcore root of where they've come from. You know, it's
a brilliant combo. And Barbarian Scourge is the one that
to me really has that again a sort of gate creeper,
black curtain kind of grandeur of that like peace fill
type lead added on to a crusty death mold stomp.
And then in the bridge it does what has to
be like an exact deliberate callback to in Left Hand
Path by Entombed. There is the mid section where it
interpolates the Phantasm score on the keyboard, and the same
thing happens here, like the exact melody line. It's like
a nice homage to like I don't know where this
all started, Like we're allw it's thirty five or eight
years later, we're still doing the Phantasm score on the
keyboards and it's still great. It's still sick. I mean, yeah,
I think that that song.
Speaker 2: It's it's really cool that okay that you get that
like and you get so loo from out of that
as well, and all these sort of things they just
they're just good things to hear. And again, it's not
game changing. It is throwing back to literally like the
Bible of this sort of thing. But at the same time,
it's always going to feel good to hear those nods.
And I think I've got to just like you know
that and say, like, yeah, do that reference Left Hand
Path because that shit is the sickest, and hearing stuff
that sounds like that is still the sickest.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then you also have I really like the
way on the last track, which is called respect Mortality.
Like I said, You've had this incredible sense of like
you know, strength and resilience and determination all the way
through this record, but then it almost has like an
epilogue where it ends on this sort of recognition of mortality.
And you know, even if it's not this particular time, right,
there is the inevitability of the end, right, and it's
not yet, but it's coming. And I think there is
there's a cool arc to this record actually in a
way that like you know, gnarly death metal or hardcore
albums don't often have. You know, the way again, it
expands and grows from cheap death through to barbarian scourge
and then like I say, it has a sort of
coder at the end, it's like quite well, you know,
just executed very good record. I still think that Feman
Mouth are essentially like a really good band rather than
necessarily like an elite one. You know, I'm not saying
this is like a you know, Top twenty contender for
me or anything like that, but I think just the
really evident heart and like realness of intent that they've
put into this one really shines through. Like if you
can't tell, it's been quite a poor release month for
me personally and my tastes, but this is one that
I can like wholeheartedly recommend. The new Female Mouth record
is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm completely with you on that. I think because
I just have such example as that. Maybe I'm just
coming out this even more fondly, but I just I
think if you like heavy music, it's such a like
I just couldn't imagine listening to this and not just
kind of getting swept up in the end the attack
and again, like it ends on the Dirge song that
all of these HATM two krusty hardcore records have to
end on nels did it? But as you say, there
is a there's a through line to respect more time
to where it's doing the dirge and kind of having
a weighty message to kind of like match up to it.
I think it's a really cool end of the record.
I think the whole record, front to back, like perfect
length of this sort of thing has actual songs beyond
just kind of like HM two guitar tone is sick.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think like this is like a real kind of
like like statement from Human Mouth that they that they
are kind of like seriously coming to play, like.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's keep the bruising going. Though No Cure it
is going to get dark. These guys are a hardcore
maybe a little sprinkling a death court as well, I
suppose band from Alabama in the United States. Spiritually, I
think they do. Obviously they sit very much on the
hard core side of the spectrum, not least because they
are one of the most very like vocally confrontational straight
age straight edge messaging bands around at the moment. That
actually on their Facebook bio it reads the World's most
evil straight edge band. That's that's the self description of themselves.
I'd seen the name and the logo as well. No
Cure around so much I didn't realize that. I think
this is technically maybe dependent how you look on it.
Their first full length like this racks up a respectable
thirty two minutes long compared to their like their couple
of releases they put out in the past couple of
years are like ten to twenty minute EPs, I suppose.
But this is the first time that we are talking
about them Sam No Cure in the hardcore world. Like
I said, I'd heard of them. They already had a
bit of buzz before the release of this album, and
I think this album has only increased that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are like in the kind of like post
not loose sort of world of like hardcore where that's
kind of something it's got a bit mainstreamed by being
kind of nastier. Nuku have kind of landed themselves in
that category.
Speaker 1: It's been a weird one.
Speaker 2: I quite like Nucure because they just do bruising kind
of like death metal tinge like very sort of spring
of deafinal hardcore in the way that like we're not
loose with springs, but they kind of deliver on that,
but in a real kind of like antagonistic, straightage way.
And that's suddenly caught wind and got people who again
wouldn't go for any of these bands normally, like people
probably never heard of Earth Crisis, like No Cure, and
I'm just kind of like, huh cool. And then and
they said this, I think it's it's a it's one.
But like for me, like No Cure, it is just
angry marsh music. It like it's there's nothing here that's
kind of radical or I don't want to say not exciting,
like but like game changing. But if you want music
that you are going to spin kick too and stomp
on heads too and just kind of like get get
really angry with, they kind of just serve up a
very very nice helping of that sort of thing. And
this album doesn't really change up the formula much. But
if you're if you're down for what they're doing, I
think this is you know, this is a good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the primary appeal I think of No
Cure as there is absolutely no subtlety about what their
vibe is and how they intend on delivering it. Like
this is sledge hammer music through and through. There is
a song on it that is less than a minute
long called I Am Still Fucking Straight Edge, which is
it's almost like a line in the sand, or I
could see plenty of people deciding not to go with
them as well because of like the you know, very
little room for grace sort of straight edge messaging. You
know that people if maybe if they've had experience with
the adiction or whatever, they might be alienated by. But
that exact splitting of people, I think it's pretty much
what no curer about. Because if something is, as you know,
unrelentingly agro is what appeals to you, then this is
going to get your blood pumping right. And and some
of the harder albums we reviewed on you know, previous episodes,
when they have been a little one dimensional, they've not
even been as like heavy or violent as needed to
kind of punch their way past that. This one the
name of the game is fucking punishment. And like, I
don't I don't think this album is essential listening or
you know, spectacular, but it is for half an hour
just invigoratingly mean, And I can't say I didn't enjoy that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's I mean, you know, when you've
got songs called Brain out of Displacement, like it's like slow, stompy,
mid tempo grooves, Like all the songs are violently like
the first song, even the song like the first song
being called when the Spasms come like that is like
a confrontational kind of like first song to put in
your album. It's just full on crush kill, destroy like music.
It has no like to say, no room for grace
or I think the crazy thing is how they're crossing
over without again putting in a single chorus or anything
like that. They have no interest in doing that. I mean,
it's just that that because that sheer extremity of the
like the violent nature of it, that's what's kind of
got people in and and I think that I think
that's cool that a band this violent and like this
confrontational can kind of like get a bit more traction.
And I think that is like really fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will actually say that, why are you we
right about that? There are a few points on this
where the vocalist is able to you know, deliver. There
are hooks like I'm not yeah, Like there are past
when they deliver a line with a little bit of
like you know, charisma, basically like in that first track
when the spasm scene. Care Now, I would say we've
all been sold down the river, so you thank them
with cirrhosis of the liver, like when he delivers that line,
it does like, you know, it hits your ear right
with a certain kind of zing to it, and it
has like a few little kind of heavy litt harmonies
at the beginning as well for good measure. But it's
it's just really obnoxious. I think the beat down riffs
are so sludgy and stupid on this. I was thinking
about like Desolated and that period of beat down bads.
We had a little bit like iron Clad the silly
Walk riff going on in that is boundless in that
particular area. There are some great little like rallying call
and response bits, like at the start of Starved in Sanctuary,
there's that they want you sick, they want you fucked up,
they want you feeling like you're oh of options. I
think that again, it carries the spirit of the am
pretty well in you know, trying to you know, bite
back against this idea of societal sickness. I am still
fucking straight edge, even as I am not straight edge.
That is a banger, right, I can see what you
look at that that album tracktlist and that song immediately
springs to mind, which is when you're reading the words
before hearing it and then you put it on and
it is about as again ferocious and sticky as a
fifty second song called I Am Still Fucking straight Edge
needs to beat, I suppose, and like I said, without
without having commercial elements, I think there are bits where
they are able to deliver, you know, in the wording
and just how again those those those you know, those
vocal parts hit you a bit, you know some singers, right, I.
Speaker 2: Mean again, I was mentioned on bringing out displacement, shouting,
smash of scoll over a beat down that's gonna stick
like that, that that that sort of thing like I'm
showed being like a fifty second punk song where that
I Am Still fucking straight Edge, or of shouting look
at the end, they pepper those moments through the album
where again it like again, even it hasn't got like choruses,
as we said, like it does just deliver catchy, like
ear catching moments of pure violent confrontation and aggression.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and some of some of the it's not even
being strictly about the straight edge stuff, but some of
the environmentalism as well. On a bliving crusade, there's another
chemical spill and presses it to disaster. They shill again
it Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, that's what I think. Like there is a conviction
to the delivery, but you know, they get the loads
of guest spots and to add that kind of hardcore
gang kind of like vibe to it. I think it
just it hits something like I think my Wooden Flames actually,
you know, brings in a bit of drama. I think
that that's one of the songs where they do again
so build the scope a little bit where it's not
just completely one note, Like I'm not like, I'm not
this is one of those arms I have a good honeson.
This is not probably going to be in my top
twe of the year. But at the same time, I've
got this on and I'm just like, yeah, I'm moshing,
Like I think it just it just it hits the
spot in the way you want it to. I think
there's like cool evil definitely riffs on there, the sort
of panic cord bits that again I'm like, keep serving
that up and I'll always go for it. It's not
as sort of derivative and one note. And again it's
not They've not compromised their sound or their identity to
go along with their new found kind of popularity. That
they are ading true to what they are and I'm
always down for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I will just add as well to maybe
sort of buck against a little bit of the idea
that this is just a really sort of, you know,
stupid beat down type album. I think these guys can play,
and I think I can tell that because there is
a little more flare in the guitars riffs like some
of these bands who there some of these bands who
are like just more basic and lumpen. You mentioned My
World in Flames or Everything I Love as Dead or
Dying has that as well. They're sort of like genuine
cool kind of metalcore riffage going on. They're convulsing in
the Dark has the most big, bolt thorough riffs, and
I like those Slowly Turning Blue has these kind of
wonky squeal riffs that do feel like ill and rotten,
like the subject matter. And then to go back to
you mentioned the guest verses as well. Again, it is
primarily hardcore, but they tag in these little bits of
death metal both in the riffing or Purity Spiral has
like Vincent from the Acasia Strain come in just you know,
bringing the demon on what is basically a two step
hardkore song, Brain Matted Displacement has that call and response
a all thing going on on a song that is
seemingly just about braining people over the pavement, and there
is I was also as a full hip hop guest
verse in there that it reminds me of when Iced
Tea turns up on the six feet Under song One
Bullet Left, which is a real compliment if you know song.
Speaker 2: The vocalist he's in the hardcore band Bayway, like who
are on those sort like like grid iroon kind of
hip hop fromview Tarkle band. But he's doing the full
on wraps of thing on this and it is again
it adds a load of character to that song. I mean,
that's one of the really fun moments on the record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you like the really you know,
brutal end of current hardcore, you can do a lot
worse than giving this ago. So No Cure is going
to get dark. I've even said I've seen a few
people on Twitter saying like this album maybe you know,
younger people being like this album's encouraged me to try
giving straight edge ago and you know, you can never
be sure how many of those people are going to stick.
But if an album is already having that impact on people,
then you can only respect it. So they yeah, no cure. Finally,
we are going to pivot over into full death metal
for our underground pick of the month. It's a band
called a Rise from Worms and the album title is
a fucking mouthful. It's a bleeding tree hanging self destruction
and it doesn't really get more sensible from there. This
is a debut album, but from a supergroup of sorts.
On the drums, a serial supergrouper but one of the
most legendary drummers of all time, Flow moon Air from
Cryptopsy on vocals is Morbid Angels vocalist Steve Tucker, the
voice of such monstrous records as Formulas Fatal to the
Flesh and Gateways to Annihilation. Pretty death metal, fair right.
But then we start to veer off a little bit
because the guitarist, and I believe the primary brain behind
this project, like it's his band, is a sort of
a guy who's played in death metal but also has
a lot of training in the world of jazz and
classical and stuff, a guitarist named Sunny Lombardozzie who's also
played an incantation, and then oh, what's this Derek Sherinian
keyboard player formerly of Dream Theater and Ingram Mounsteam and
Joe Bonamassa. What Clearly this is not the brutal death
metal which it first may seem. You scamp, you rascal
care and making me listen to this.
Speaker 2: Uh you got me with a people tump. You had me,
you know, in on the avn't gar death metal stuff
and you thought I'm gonna throw this at them, and like,
you know what, I I don't like this record at all,
but I also I kind of admire the like Shier
zero five.
Speaker 1: I find this album is so funny.
Speaker 2: That's the things I did. I laughed frequently on this album,
like some of the moments and the thing that there
there's there is actually thanks if I do like this album,
but at it's called this is like, we don't care
about songs. We're here to wank off our guitar and
keyboards and just play as technically as possible and like
and if you are down with that, then I think
you will have a all with this record, if you
just want to hear like some of the most insane
virtuoso guitar playing keyboard solos and then occasionally a little
bit of brutal death Moel tucked in there, like it
is there, but I have to throw I'm going to
deferred to you.
Speaker 1: All of this one. I just like, I was just
kind of like, what do you expect me to say
about these songs?
Speaker 2: There? You know a little bit, so I like, there's
like the odd vocal I'm like, oh, that was pretty hard, actually, babe.
I was like, oh, yeah, he's tossing off his guitar again.
Speaker 1: Like, go have fun. It's achieved his purpose in the
You've called me a scamp for putting this, making listen
to this, and that was my that was my aim
for sure.
Speaker 2: I knew it was I knew it was hit playing.
Speaker 1: You Rascal, you pairings. I can just imagine you being like, Okay,
arise from worms. The color looks pretty met. It's got
a more of an angel vocalist. I know. I'm probably
like yeah, and then and then hearing it be like
and again that that I wanted to achieve that impulse
when I say I find this album really funny. That's
not me saying that it's bad or like a laughing stock.
It's just it is wickedly mischievous. I think yeah, because
it came my way, because this is on Church Road Records,
and Sammy Irwin was buzzing about having Steve Tucker and
you know, Flow from Cryptopsy on his label, as you would,
but it was like, this is a weird progressive death
metal album and it's it's maddening, right. It is pretty heavy,
like if you do like the tight, smothering approach of
like Steve Tucker's era more of an Angel albums, there
is certainly much to like about the nasty riffing on
a song like Forgotten Keys, Forgotten Kings, even that starts it.
Steve is sounding demonic and he's lurking in the belly
of this mix as he does. But you get those
you know, those snaking sort of you know, az a
goth style riffs. You also then get mad Shred that
is actively comical in how widly it is, and I
understand that again the guitarists who wrote this saying he's
renowned for using like strange, unconventional note scales and stuff
like that, and stuff that I'm far too stupid to
really like, you know, fully, fully really comprehend, but that's
what all this is composed out of. And you also
get like piano stabs and then two minutes fifteen seconds in,
so that first song, it's been pretty overwhelming as a
start of a song, but you do it. You know
it's death metal. You're having a pretty good brutal time.
You go in with the blast beats all that, the
full dream theater keyboards come in and it like like
full synth, and it is such a wild sound to
be hit with at that point, it is. It's ridiculous,
and it's almost like the song just unwinds over the
course of it, like it starts off death metal before
just losing the plot completely in the back half turns
as this like manic prog bullshit. All complimentary by the way,
I think. There are like grooves on this are pretty
sick like when it goes stinky and low and suffocating,
you get some like demented circle pit thrash rhythms on
like power Obsessed, but they are never more than a
few seconds away from having their feet yanked out from
under them as they fall down. Some like Won key
instrumental rabbit hole. Like if you have waited over twenty
years for a necrophagious record and you like the idea
of them resurfacing but coming back wearing a cape and
having raided a nearby keyboard imporium for the largest, most
wizardly shit that they have, then this is the album
for you. It also reminds me a little bit of
bad like Blotted Science for the sheer, sort of like
instrumental lunacy of it, but it is, it's pretty bonkers.
And then you're going through the record, you're almost getting
into the flow of what's going on. You hit the
halfway point and there are two back to back instrumental tracks.
The first one Nine Walls. It is like the mid
album Divide in that it doesn't start straight away. It
has like the sort of desolate jazzy break at the start.
But then as well as being the longest one on
the record, again, it's a complete instrumental track, just playing
you with the most ridiculous like dueling, jarring, starting and stopping.
Got guitar and keyboard parts, which is the other thing, right.
It rarely just hits the rhythm and stays on. It's
always blocking you off. It just always goes over the like.
Speaker 2: Power obsessed, right, you get it. There's that genuinely sick
riff and then after a couple of seconds and then
back and then just like I was like, can you
please just keep the rib going for more than a
few seconds before doing that? I can't like this is
me Like yeah, I know you said, this is me
being like extremely stupid. I am way too simple for
this sort of stuff. But it was like, come on, Wolves.
Speaker 1: Has a perremine in there as well, and when that
starts coming, I'm like, you are off your rocker mate.
Like that was it.
Speaker 2: It was no more something like like like kind of
like jazz kind of like evil jazz Matthew sort of thing.
And then going from space with the like pherom and
I was like, right, yeah, all bets are off. I'm
I surrender myself to your madness. Arise from worms and
these are like that long too is again it's like
this runaway train kind of like instrumental sort of thing
where it's again throwing so many different things that I
was just like, why have we got who's was it?
Speaker 1: In a row?
Speaker 2: And then the more baffling thing is so when you
get to then Axes of the Violode Part one and two.
Speaker 1: Why not just have it as one long song?
Speaker 2: Why parts?
Speaker 1: It's so weird.
Speaker 2: But again, that song has my favorite part of the album,
which is the Avenges in the Name of My Father,
my brothers and I.
Speaker 1: That is hard.
Speaker 2: That bit goes hard. I'll give the album that.
Speaker 1: There are some hard moments in there. I think the
breakdown in Psionic being near the end is pretty tough,
you know. And like I said, Acts of the Voivode
begins with this sort of like epic classical instrumentation, which
I think it's a little bit of again of a
sort of an Asian influence going on. If you look
at the cover right, it looks sort of like, you know,
sort of Samurai s, doesn't it. They drag a little
bit of that. Yeah, a welcome divergence at that point
to give it a little bit more solid variety than
just but it does then indeed return to that past
that you're after the races once again, I think because
the death metal element, right, you know, when Steve Tucker's
growling and it's doing the dirty riffs, it is so
dirty and evil. This album definitely avoids the problem for
me of full tech death that I don't vibe with
because it's kind of polished and devoid of any fun.
Like this is a mad man's album, which is why
I wanted to review it. It's so fucking odd and surprising.
I am not anywhere near as much of like the
shred wank maniac as the guy who wrote this album.
So I can't say that this is my favorite death
metal record of this year, but it made me smile
a lot hearing these sounds colliding into each other. Every
time that daft Dream Theater keyboards since sound came in
over like a slimy death metal riff. I just couldn't
help being dear to it, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Mean that that keyboard sound is again Wow, it's like
we should destroy all keyboards.
Speaker 1: Well it was in dream Theater, so it makes sense
that you feel that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Again, Like I have my beef with this record,
but I do like I can kind of admire just
the sheer mad scientist approach to just throwing every other
and not and again like this is this is now
for a very particular type of person. But if you're
that person who is down for just the most obnoxious
kind of like guitar virtue to keep up virtue, So
we don't.
Speaker 1: Care about classic song structures.
Speaker 2: We want to just do what we want to do.
Like I could see people really liking this record. For me,
I again, outside this review, I'm never going to go
back to this. But I didn't hate this.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't have a bad time with this record.
Speaker 2: It is not my least favorite record that we reviewed
this week. Like is not the worst thing, even if
it's like something that in the past, maybe two three
years ago, I'd have been pulling my hair out. I'm
threatening to quit the podcast over having to Now now
I can kind of go like, well, you know what
it is mental and daft, and I mean because it's mischievous.
It gets away with doing things that I hate, because
there's is a kind of like mischievous that or like
twinkle to it that I'm willing to give the album
a bit of a bit of leeway. But I still
never ever planned to this ever again. So like you
got me, you had a good rib on my behalf,
you got me, well done? Yeah played.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun, like you know, messaging
some of my friends who love Morbid Angel and being
like if you heard this new Arise from Worms album
Steve Tucker's on it and be like, oh okay, and
then coming back two minutes into the first rap, but
you're like, what the fuck It's brought me joy this album? So, Elliott,
if you're listening, this is the one album this time
I want to hear so Arise from Worms, a bleeding tree,
hanging self destruction. I'm sorry if we, you know, were
a little bit DeBie downer during some of those album reviews.
I do trust that next month will be a bit
there for us, but still some really good stuff in there,
and absolutely even some of the albums that we were
maybe warm on, interesting discussions to be had about them.
So do let us know what you think about all
of these albums we've spoken about, from Loath to Muse
to the excerpts to Arise from Worms, A lot still
to get your teeth into their next time. Obviously, in
August we will have our next reviews. Batch can't top
Hendry remember what's in it, But I know there is
some pretty high profile awesome stuff to come next week
here on the you know, the regular weekly show. I'm
going to be an awful fest this week so I'm
continuing to get down and dirty. I guess I'll be
back with a report from that, speaking about wading through
the slam rivers as will be doing. But we will
see you once again for that, So cheers everyone, Bye,