Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
We're going off the rails on a crazy train.
It's the Album Nerds podcast.
I'm Dude.
I got Andy and Don with me.
Andy, how's it going on this fine, fine day?
It's going pretty well, buddy.
You know what my favorite kind of metal shredding is?
I don't really care, but please share anyway.
I mean, yes, please.
It involves a cheese and a cheese grater and a quesadilla.
Nice.
Thank you.
Don, how's the life of an academic?
I don't even know.
Never mind.
You've proven that higher education is a sham.
How you doing, man?
I'm good.
Ready to shred.
Shredder.
It's Shredder.
Remember the guy from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
Of course.
All right.
So this is the Album Nerds podcast.
We love albums and the album format and talking about them just brings us such joy.
Today we're going to be focusing on some heavy metal shredders.
On today's show, we're going to be going over our listening week.
What albums were we combing through to make this important decision?
Then we'll go over our individual album selections.
We're going to answer a question loosely related to today's topic, and then we're going to
find out what we're going to talk about on the next episode.
This week, let's get shredding.
Excellent.
That's what I'm talking about.
Heavy metal guitar style is rooted in 1960s era blues rock and psychedelic rock.
Metal guitar playing uses a massive sound characterized by highly amplified distortion,
extended guitar solos, and overall loudness.
The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically
been the key element in heavy metal.
Heavy metal bands often have two electric guitarists with one guitarist playing rhythm
and the other playing lead guitar.
Today each of us will present an album featuring a great heavy metal shredder.
How did we fare gentlemen, listening wise?
Find a lot of good stuff?
Discuss.
Yeah, I mean, I was trying to focus more on some later albums, but I did go back a little
bit until the 90s, Pantera, Annihilator, Dream Theater, but then some later stuff, Dillinger
Escape Plan, Liturgy, Gorguts, all pretty extreme stuff.
This is about tenders to gravitate more towards the sort of tech and death metal side of things.
Yes you do.
My personal flavor.
I know you guys love it so much.
I think we're just older enough than you that whatever it is in people when they get old
that makes them hate that noise, what is that noise?
That is there.
What do you want to do with your life?
And vice versa too.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah, we're talking about classics and you're like, oh, the 80s production is so, it's like,
okay, okay.
Yeah, so I would have loved to have gone with Metallica, but we've talked a lot about them.
The shreddiness is quite choice.
It is such choice.
Van Halen 1, not quite metal, but in that area and Eruption, that song alone would have
been good for discussion.
Megadeth would have been fun, but we just did them.
And I tried to go more modern.
I looked at Trivium.
I think it was a Sedentary, Power Trip, Nightmare Logic from 2017.
But I also did try to focus on the classic heavy metal shred guitarists like Joe Satriani,
Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen.
The albums, although super interesting shred wise, didn't have a lot going on.
They had guest vocalists and stuff, but it wasn't wrought for nice conversation.
I tried to look at something somewhat modern.
I checked out Avenged Sevenfold, who I've never spent a lot of time with, but their
guitarist Sinister Gates was pretty good.
I listened to that City of Evil album, which I didn't hate.
Went back to Pandera.
The Red Bull Special.
That sounds good.
I went back to Pantera and Dimebag Darrell, that Vulgar Display of Power is a good album.
And then I actually thought about doing Richie Blackmore, a Deep Purple album machine head.
But I think similar to Van Halen, I wasn't sure if it really was metal.
I mean, it predates metal.
It's metal's dad for sure.
Yeah.
But yeah, I picked, I think I made a pretty obvious choice.
Yes, you did.
But it was the right choice.
All right.
So speaking of choices.
Anything to tell the fans right now about how you feel Chuck?
Yeah, I'm only in it for the money too Chuck.
Yes, I'm sure that the dollars were pouring in for this band.
Right.
Metal Shredding album.
We're talking about the artist Death.
Fourth studio album, Human.
This came out back in October of 1991.
Their debut record, Scream Bloody Gore is considered among the first death metal records
that came out a few years prior.
Yeah, actually my wedding song is on that album that we danced to.
Oh yes, a common choice for wedding receptions.
Well, I have a microphone and you don't.
So you will listen to every damn word I have to say.
This album, their fourth studio album marked a shift towards a more progressive technical
death metal sound.
We are going to play, I believe this was the lead single, maybe the only single.
I'm surprised there were any singles.
Yeah, I know.
There's actually a music video for this, believe it or not.
Played on MTV.
The track is called Lack of Comprehension.
Beautiful.
Isn't that just gorgeous?
He sounds like a walker from The Walking Dead.
Well, they are called Deaths.
That is Chuck Schnulder, I believe is how you say his name.
Put your head on my Schnulder.
He is the founding and only consistent member through Deaths many varying lineups over their
decade or so they were active.
He's also the vocalist and contributes guitars to the mix here as well.
He's also the main creative force behind the band.
The three words I used to describe this album are death is complicated.
I'm a big fan of this progressive or tech or extreme metal sub-genres that have developed
from this early period in the 90s through today.
This is a pretty interesting record where you hear this progression actually happening
in real time between more straightforward death metal sound, which is very heavy and
guttural into this little bit more expansive and more intricate compositions they have
on these tracks here.
A lot of that comes down to the twin guitar attack, which a lot of these bands are talking
about today kind of have this style where you have like a lead guitar and then a rhythm
guitar and then bass and drums kind of doing a lot of work on the low end.
Yeah, there's some really interesting shifts not only to the pace but also just sonically
throughout these tracks here as you go along.
Some kind of catchy riffs at times, occasional melody here, there creeps in.
Yeah, I was really impressed.
I'm new to this band.
I'm not really too familiar with them.
I'm new to the name but I didn't really know a lot of their material and I found a couple
other albums pretty enjoyable and this one I thought was particularly interesting.
Why don't we play another cut from the record?
This is a little bit of Cosmic Seed.
That makes me want to play some Guitar Hero.
Death had to be on there, right?
I'm sure.
Probably.
I think they had their own addition just like Metallica and Slash.
Yeah, so that track there is instrumental which I enjoy.
I guess it gives you a break from some of that death vocal delivery but I like that
track a lot.
Not only just because of the constant shredding but it is a bit adventurous.
It's kind of all over the place.
I do like metal that kind of explores and gets a little progressive.
The three words I chose to describe the album are just give me death.
I mean I'm not the biggest metalhead in the world although I've been warming up to it
over the years and death metal will probably be among the last things to really creep into
my whatever.
But yeah, I actually found myself doing a lot of headbanging to this and kind of getting
lost in it.
I guess death metal and thrash metal, it's very hypnotic and I enjoy that.
I think it's about time that you grow out your hair and get a denim vest with some patches
of these bands that you've learned to love.
That's a good idea.
You didn't get to do it as a teenager.
I think this is your time.
Stroll around the hallways of that college you teach at and show off your flair.
It's such a shame because I lived through the peak of death.
I know, me too.
And I totally missed out on that opportunity.
But yeah, I mean the guitar is really amazing and I couldn't pick out which guitarist was
which but the guitar work is fantastic.
Face melting guitar solos.
Maybe another reason I didn't find the record too off putting is just the length of it.
I think 34 minutes is like the right amount of time for death metal.
Yeah, I definitely get too much of it for sure.
There's a little more versatility to the guy's voice than some other death metal that I've
heard.
But yeah, overall, I think it's a solid album.
I enjoyed the experience and it certainly, I mean if we're celebrating metal shredders,
this is a good album for it.
Yeah, I would say Chuck has, he almost sings at a couple of points on this record.
I wouldn't say he has a great singing voice.
Lyrically though, I think he gets into some interesting places on this record and dealing
with dark topics like euthanasia, loneliness, there's some science fiction themes that come
up.
Yeah, I mean I guess I'm also concerned about the young people of Asia but there's kids
everywhere that need help.
Yes, good to think of the kids everywhere in Manchester, Manchester, Asia.
That's right.
Good point.
All children matter.
I believe the children are our future to be honest but we don't need to get into that.
I mean if we learned anything from the last episode.
All right, while we play, well, this cut has a fairly memorable refrain on it, I would
say.
This is a little bit of Secret Face.
I love the way that track opens.
It's the right kind of riffage and then I don't like, we've talked about the vocals,
it's usually not my style for it to be constant barking but it works really well with the
playfulness of the riffs.
So the song reflects on people wearing masks, hiding their true intentions, often for personal
gain manipulation.
Kind of don't trust anyone was kind of what I got from it.
Pretty typical lyrical theme in this genre but delivered in a way that forces you to
consider the ugliness of humanity and I think once in a while it's important to think about
that, the people that are in your lives and don't get paranoid but what do they want?
Real motivation.
Yeah.
I mean, what are you guys really doing talking to me about albums?
Obviously it's to ride my coattails and become hugely famous in the podcast world.
It's a very long plan.
Yes.
It's the long grift here.
To describe this album in three words, I went with Zombie Death Metal or Slipknot's Dads.
I didn't see this band listed in Slipknot's list of influences but it definitely has that
feel to it, that vibe, some of the vocal delivery, the way they interplay between the guitars
and the barking vocals and I did consider Slipknot for this as well but the albums are
so dang long that I just didn't have time to dig in.
But it's a drum and guitar assault like Slayer but with less structure.
It was Slayer-esque to me in its themes and the delivery but it was, I don't know, it's
hard to say Slayer is clean sounding but Slayer is much cleaner sounding than this anyway.
It is.
Yeah, you're right.
So that's what I came away with from this experience.
I hadn't listened to this particular album.
It's raw but as you said, it's also polished in the places that matter.
Yeah, it's a very raw sounding record, very kind of brutal so we're coming back to.
There's not a lot of like studio wizardry or effects or I don't think they even use
any pedals on the guitars from what I read.
There's a little bit of reverb sometimes but pretty straightforward for this period, a
lot of excess in the 80s and 90s.
Not too much here.
Well, there's a punk aesthetic to it as well.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
All right, well definitely an influential record and I think it holds up pretty well
by today's standards.
So if you're familiar with Death and their record Human, definitely worth a listen.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.
If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple
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Either we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy, leaving a review keeps
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I'm fucking zoned.
I just play any fucking thing.
And he played this fucking solo and I was like.
Okay, well my pick for a heavy metal shredder is a fella named Randy Rhodes, born Randall
William Rhodes in Santa Monica, California in 1956.
He is best known for playing with Mr. Ozzy Osbourne.
And so the album I'm presenting today is Ozzy's solo debut, Blizzard of Oz.
So here's the famous cut, Crazy Trade.
So today, you know, I mean that guitar might not stand out, but I think at the time, you
know, it was pretty innovative and pretty impressive.
Of course, you know, Crazy Train is a stadium anthem, you know, if you ever attend a sporting
event.
But the lyrics actually deal with the Cold War and the fear of annihilation.
Really?
Yeah.
Wow.
I always just assumed it was about Ozzy being crazy.
I did too.
I'm impressed at the depth.
Oh yeah.
Ozzy got a lot of help with lyrics though, right?
Just writing them out.
That was uncalled for.
He had one of those like Fisher Price devices where you push them.
Yeah, I believe the, you know, the other band members, you know, contributed to lyric writing.
I think a lot of the Sabbath lyrics were done by what's his, the bass player there?
Is it?
Geezer?
Geezer.
Geezer Butler.
So the three words I chose to describe this album, Blizzard of Oz, released in September
1980 is Reigniting the Flame, right?
So this is again, Ozzy Osbourne's debut solo album.
I think his approach with Sabbath, you know, eventually got stale and it just wasn't working
in the end.
But so then, you know, he assembles this new band, you know, and they're all, I guess,
contributing to the songwriting.
But of course, you know, Randy Rhoades, I think is maybe the most vital part of that.
And you know, Ozzy just sounds like a new person here, you know?
So it is like you're recapturing that magic from early Sabbath.
Yeah, it's, you know, he sounds vibrant.
He sounds, I don't know, I mean, he is like the Prince of Darkness and it's back.
I mean, overall, it's a great album, I think.
I mean, there's so many good moments on it.
It's maybe not the most consistent album, but really, you know, I think it's Randy Rhoades
is the star of the show.
You know, growing up during that period, he was the, like, this was metal, this was evil,
but it's so tame sounding by today's standards.
It's funny how things like that change where it just seems so PG, you know?
And at the time it was like the free wits of the devil, you know?
That's true.
Yeah, yeah, quite melodic, you know, especially, you know, compared to the last record we just
talked about.
Yeah.
So let's hear another cut from the album.
This is the infamous Suicide Solution.
Alright, so that song was famously known for a few things.
I think it's part of what spawned the 80s satanic panic in the music world, as well
as the lawsuit filed against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records by the parents of John Daniel
McCollum.
This was in November of 85.
This was a 19 year old that tragically took his own life in 1984, and his parents alleged
that their son's suicide was linked to listening to the song.
That was a big deal at the time.
Him, you know, Ozzy biting the bat's head off and the bad behavior, peeing on the Alamo.
This controversy, the backmasking talk that there was stuff in the songs.
And then in the lyrics, you know, there's like, get the plans out Satan, Satan, Satan.
Like, I think playing to the evil thing, just like in Black Sabbath, but I don't think it's
really connected.
I think it was more of a theatrical thing.
But essentially the lawsuit went away.
It didn't establish a direct connection, but it helped Ozzy sell records, which I think
is the opposite of what those people probably were looking to do.
Yeah, drew more attention to him, unfortunately.
So the three words I used to describe the album are Prince of Darkness.
That's one of the things he used to be referenced as, and God, as a kid, so many discussions
about like people who were into Ozzy, probably were devil worshipers.
And I remember once in eighth grade, I think, me and this kid were having an argument about
who would win in a fight, Ozzy Osbourne or LL Cool J. Obviously it's LL Cool J, but...
That was my side of the argument.
Oh my gosh, I'd love to see that fight.
Well, Ozzy had the powers of evil on his side.
So Randy Rhoads carried this project and managed to not only create his own sound, but he wove
in enough of the Sabbathiness to make it work for Ozzy.
I mean, Ozzy is vocally a one trick pony.
He does the one thing and he needs a good band around him to support that and elevate
it and they all did a great job of doing that as a unit.
And his early solo records are great, but they sound like modern by 1980 standards,
modern black Sabbath records.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
I was surprised to find out that Randy Rhoads is not related to Nick Rhoads of Duran Duran.
Yes, it's shocking.
All right, well, let's hear another cut.
This is Mr. Crowley.
Yeah, I think Ozzy is really at his best when he is feeding that sort of dark satanic persona,
even though it seems like he had no real background in the occult or anything.
Yeah, my words for this album are anxiously clicking my heels together.
I did not enjoy my time in the Blizzard of Oz.
Oh, I get it now.
That's my ruby red slippers getting the fuck out of here.
Yeah, there are definitely some classics on this album and we've played most of them.
I think that is in large part due to the excellent guitar work, which I think is a great pick
down and it really does hold the album together here.
I think it's as integral as Eddie's guitar and Van Halen.
It's the sound here to come for.
Unfortunately, I just cannot get down with what Ozzy is doing on the majority of this
record.
I think the tracks where the guitar takes a step back, such as Goodbye to Romance or
Revelation Mother Earth, where Ozzy kind of takes over.
Goodbye to romance.
Like wow, you sound like you're really into this Oz.
Yeah, emo Ozzy.
He was zonked.
Yeah, I wish I was zonked to say I listen to those tracks personally.
Yeah, but the moments it works on here, like the opening I don't know and Crazy Train,
it works really well.
It's a great formula.
Other than that, there's not a lot here for me to really latch onto, but I don't know.
Ozzy was probably my first metal artist that I really got into growing up.
I used to really jam out to a lot of these songs, but coming back to him now, it just
sounds silly to me.
I don't know.
The Oz man goeth.
Yeah.
I also wanted to mention that Randy Rhoads was a founding member of Quiet Riot.
Of course, he left Quiet Riot to join Ozzy's band and that was before Quiet Riot really
hit the big time.
Then he only made one more album with Ozzy and then his life tragically ended early.
Anyway, if you want to enjoy the amazing guitar work of Randy Rhoads, you can check out Blizzard
of Oz, Ozzy Osbourne's debut solo record from September 1980.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Now, it's time for Deep Questions by Don.
Guitar shredding is an integral part of metal.
Of course, there are other famous elements associated with the genre.
What other aspects of metal culture do you guys appreciate?
I think the thing that I liked most about it growing up or even today resonates with
me the most is just the outsider-ness of it.
Getting yourself from the mainstream and being a little bit off the beaten path as I feel
like most metal fans are looked at strangely generally.
It's like Goth in a way.
It's tangentially related.
I mean, I like that.
I've always felt a little bit of an outsider.
I also appreciate that they...
We talked about Ozzy having this Satanistic or devil worship side of him.
I always found that just interesting and goofy in a way, just poking fun at religion in a
backhanded way.
I guess I appreciate that sort of lack of self-seriousness in the music.
Yeah, I mean, plus headbanging is kind of fun.
Sure.
Not as much fun in my 40s as I used to be.
Yeah, it's a young man's game.
It's a little dangerous at this point.
Yeah.
So I grew up in the era where kind of the height of metal as a cultural phenomenon.
And I was always kind of jealous of the metal kids because they had a community.
Like if all you had to do is wear your T-shirt or your jacket with some flair on it and you
knew that guy was in your tribe.
And us preppy kids or whatever, we don't really have that.
I mean, a popped collar and a swooshy haircut was pretty much all we had.
Metal has great iconography, I would say.
All the logos look so badass and you can recognize them right away if it's being metal.
It's really theatrical.
I mean, especially during that era, the hair, of course, is cool.
I was never able to pull that off.
But yeah, I mean, it's that fantasy world and all of that fun stuff.
It's just so open to just shred on a guitar and it can be about real life.
It can be about dragons.
It can be about devils, ghosts, whatever.
And it's just a really cool world.
And that's what's fun to me about metal is it's just wide open to letting your imagination
go wild.
I just picture all of the sketches on notebooks and stuff that my metalhead friends would
be drawing.
Yeah, I think, I mean, all of us seem to be talking about the fans.
And I guess what I admire about what we'll call the metalheads is just the passion.
Like I get excited, even though I'm not a metalhead myself.
Like I can always have a serious music conversation with metalheads because they're just so into
it.
Their knowledge isn't always very wide, but they know a lot about that genre.
And I think as I get older, people go to fewer and fewer shows and stuff like that.
I think the people my age and older who are still going to shows religiously, they're
all metalheads.
And so there's just something about that genre that just invokes a lot of passion, which
I admire.
Okay, what do you like about metalheads?
Let us know.
Join us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads.
Also on Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord.
I got that anthrax and it's the bomb baby.
So was that Dave Chappelle?
Yes.
So yeah, I went with another kind of, I think we're all hovering in the eighties here.
I went with the band Anthrax and their third studio album, Among the Living.
The album is considered one of Anthrax's most iconic and influential releases.
It's kind of a classic now in the thrash genre.
Lots of great tracks.
We'll talk about those.
The lyrics are inspired by various works of literature, pop culture, and the cast of characters
here is Joey Belladonna on lead vocals, Dan Spitz on lead guitar, Scott Ian on rhythm
guitar, backing vocals, Frank Bello on bass and Charlie Benante on drums.
All right, so why don't we get into it with the title track, Among the Living.
So that was a little bit of Dan Spitz.
Since we're covering the shredders, I figured we should listen to a little bit of his guitar
work.
I could swallow that all day.
The worst part is I feel like you've been holding on to that.
I didn't have that, but I wanted to get swallow in there somewhere.
Okay.
So the song Among the Living was inspired by Stephen King's novel, The Stand, particularly
the character Randall Flagg.
The lyrics describe the character's actions throughout the book.
It mentions Captain Tripp's, that was the virus in the book, and lines like divided,
they can't stand.
It's just, I just love that.
I love that there was this goofy, thrashy band with its contemporaries, Metallica and
Megadeth and Slayer and all that, that just had their own personalities.
The three words I used to describe the album are heavy metal hooligans.
There's a punk sensibility, comic book references, sci-fi, American history, lyrically unlike
their contemporaries.
I mean, Metallica got a little bit into like Kulukatulu and all that stuff.
Kthulu.
Whatever.
And Slayer, of course, all devil-y and whatnot, but there's just these New York City kids
that came up in the 70s and it feels tough.
All that chorus, yelling stuff.
It's kind of hip hop-ish in a way.
The way that those back and forth deliveries, which kind of plays along with them collaborating
with Public Enemy.
Yeah, just cool.
So a little bit about Dan Spitz, the lead guitarist here, recognized for his technical
proficiency, taught himself to play.
Very intricate lead guitar work, but then that really aggressive rhythm guitar of Scott
Ian, they play off of each other.
And Scott Ian's kind of the character of the band, writes a lot of the lyrics and plays
the rhythm guitar.
But together, I think that they worked really well.
And Scott Ian is credited with creating that chugging, Paul muted guitar style that came
a signature element of thrash metal.
So yeah, I think they really played off of each other well to make this a thrashy, shreddy
affair with a lot of fun lyrics and songs to enjoy.
So why don't we get into the next track.
It's Medley, A.D.I.
Horror of it all.
Yeah, I really enjoyed that track in particular.
Second half is about the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed while
the bands were on tour together.
I believe that was in Europe, a year or two prior.
Three words I used to describe this album are shred the lyrics.
I really did enjoy the instrumental portions of this record quite a bit.
I think that's why I like that Medley track specifically.
It should be a metley.
A metley, like metal.
Yeah.
Clever.
Thank you.
Yeah, I think that the riffs are great.
Everything is super loud.
It kind of has like a grimy sort of like punk rock edge to the band, which I guess is kind
of similar, you know, common in thrash metal.
Yeah, I think they're at their best when they're going as fast as humanly possible, which,
you know, they do get some pretty good speeds up on this record.
Yeah, they're tight.
The low end is also really good in addition to the guitars.
I think the drums are pretty great.
But the big stumbling block for me was the lyrics, man.
I felt like they were super overly simplistic and kind of cringy.
It's metal, dude.
I mean, the fact that it's about anything is huge.
You can still be poetic or, you know, a little bit of illusion.
I think they're awesome.
I love the lyrics.
I love the way they're written and delivered.
It's cry, cry, cry for the Indians.
Yeah, terrible things happen to the Indians, Andy.
So shedding a tear might be appropriate, I'm just saying.
I'm not disagreeing with that, but maybe think of some other words besides cry, cry, cry.
What if he did, craw, craw, craw?
Yeah, would that be better?
I'll come up with some other words.
Because of Joey's wailing, banshee-like vocals that I freaking love?
That's what Andy does.
I thought the vocals were very good.
I did not get caught up on that.
It's kind of like an interesting mix between like the 80s and 90s metal sounds, I would
say.
He has a low end, but he also does get to the high end at times too.
But I don't know, the lyrics are like Russians, only people like us.
I just was like, I'll roll so hard for that.
Well, it's important to understand that they're not these faceless enemy.
They're just people like us.
Come on, Andy, dig in, connect.
I'm trying, man.
There's not much to grab onto.
I mean, if I can change and you can change, everybody can change.
That's from Rocky IV when he's addressing the Russians.
If I can change and you can change, everybody can change.
I think it's a good record.
I just, I can't get past the lyrics.
Yeah.
Wow.
I think we should do a little bit of imitation of life.
I haven't made my Floyd reference yet, so we got to get to that.
Yeah, we got a good take.
See, those thought provoking lyrics are about seemingly the music business and how phony
people are looking to take advantage of young artists.
Reminds me of Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar.
Of course it does.
So the three words I chose to describe the album are lighter shade of thrash.
And I think dude already got to this point.
Yeah, I think the difference between anthrax and the other, what do we call it?
It's not a trinity because there's four bands.
Is there like a magic word for the four thrash groups?
They call them the big four.
The big four.
So I mean, anthrax just seems to have a sense of humor.
It sounds fun.
And I think maybe it's because it seems to be more informed by that, even though they're
from New York, it reminds me of that kind of like California black flag.
Is that hardcore?
Whatever that California punk sound is.
Even though some of the lyrics were serious, it still, it feels maybe a bit more juvenile
and fun.
Yeah, kind of Beastie Boys-ish in a way as well, which also came from punk.
And I think that lyrically, this is very punk of that era too, where it's simple stuff.
Yeah, I mean, one of the, I think most fun aspects of joining the show is actually exploring
all four of those groups.
So we've gone through, we've done Slayer and Megadeth and just noticing the subtle differences
in each of them.
And so I mean, anthrax is very much a unique entity, even though that thrash sound is all
sort of, I guess, homogenous.
But yeah, I am becoming a thrash metal fan.
Yeah.
That's for some reason the part of metal I most connect to.
I most enjoy the thrash type bands or that kind of were spawned from New Wave of British
Heavy Metal, that they kind of grew out of that, Power Metal and all that.
I just wanted to mention the artwork, the album cover.
So it's basically, it shows all the same faces and then amongst them is this evil figure
that it's among us.
Yeah.
He looks like the preacher from Poltergeist movies a little bit.
Yeah.
So that's kind of, drummer Charlie Benante had the idea for the album cover and that
was at the time, like the most evil person he could think of.
So it kind of looks like that.
There's also others that think that it's depicting Randall Flagg from Stephen King's The Stand.
But yeah, it's just about how there's evil amongst us and it's an iconic cover.
It's creepy, but also something you kind of stare at a lot, which I love about a good
record cover.
But we were talking about Shredders and I just think I wanted to mention one more time,
Dan Spitz, he left the band in 95.
So he ended up going to Switzerland and studying under the masters and is this super talented
mechanical watchmaker, repairer guy.
That's why his timing is so good.
That's not usually the story of rock and roll excess that you hear from someone in a band
like Anthrax, so it's pretty cool.
He's at the back of the tour bus.
Yeah, before each gig he's like, synchronize watches gentlemen.
We've all been built precisely.
So yeah, I mean, this is one of my favorite Anthrax records.
It's so much fun and I enjoy the lyrics and Among the Living, of course, Caught in a Mosh.
It's a great track just about not only getting caught in a mosh pit, but getting caught in
life and how life can sometimes feel like a mosh.
I am the law, which is about Judge Dredd, the comic book.
I didn't know that when I was a kid.
I just thought they were saying they were the law and of course, and F and F and Kuf,
Kuf, Kuf, and NFL, which is it's it's backwards.
Nice fucking life.
It's about addiction and self destruction.
They tried to get into serious subjects, but they did it in a very Anthrax way.
So I appreciated that and I hope you all will as well.
So go check out Anthrax Among the Living.
Okay, so the three of us took a trip through the world of metal shredders.
What did we learn?
Sounds painful.
I'm exfoliated.
You're very smooth now.
The thing that stuck out to me most, it sounded like when the topic was announced on last
week's show, like something I would really have so many choices to go from because I
love metal and love guitars.
But I found out why I like most about metal or what most of the metal bands I listen to
closely are really more about the low end, more about the rhythm section, but the drums
in particular and the bass a little bit too.
So I think it was a real challenge for me to find something that focused on like guitar
soloing and shredding and riffage.
It's not as prevalent in metal I listen to at least.
So it's a little bit of work, but I did find it pretty interesting to really try and focus
on that guitar part.
And maybe sometime we can do drums of metal or whatever that show title would be.
Or double kicksters.
Yeah, there you go.
I had a similar revelation, a little bit different though, where I thought metal guitar shredders
were going to be easy that I'd pick up a Malmsteen record or whatever and just have a guy go
bleh-le-le-le-le for 40 minutes.
But what I realized was how it's so integral to the fabric of at least certain genres of
heavy metal, but kind of all of it is those guitar solos, but how alone it's kind of boring.
So it must exist and it is an awesome part of it.
And those guys, those shredders are necessary to make these bands great and these records
great and this music sound great.
But I was just surprised at how hard it was to just focus on that when I like the whole
picture better.
I was just thinking about how amazing these guys are.
I think sometimes maybe some metal playing could be dismissed just because it's so loud.
Oh, it's so loud.
Anything is going to sound good.
I assume we've all played with an electric guitar before.
I don't know.
If you turn the gain all the way up on a pickup, you know every little thing you do with the
pick, every movement of your finger, it's all amplified.
So you have to be really tight to not make it sound like a disaster.
And I just think it's so impressive that these guys can make something out of that, make
it sound so clean.
And it looks, as they're doing it, it looks easy.
You see their fingers going, and they're looking around and you're like, how the hell?
That's one to grow on.
All right, boys and girls, our destiny next week is in our own hands.
We are going to be listening to new releases from the year 2023.
It's our last chance to take a look back on the year before we get to our year-end
wrap-up in just a couple months, believe it or not.
Oy, oy, oy.
Been a great year for death metal.
It sure has.
Can't wait to feature that next week.
Now we'll do something a little different, I think.
I'm going to start a thing called Life Metal.
There you go.
It's going to be a mix of Thrash and Mr. Rogers songs.
You are my friend, you are special.
There you go.
Beautiful.
Mr. Rogers and Cookie Monster there.
Together at last.
So yeah, I'm sure you'll tune in next week for some new release selections from the three
of us.
Just a reminder, go to our website, albumnerds.com and our Discord, albumnerds.com slash Discord
to enter your topic suggestions for the Wheel of Musical Destiny and vote on any ongoing
Album Nerds Hall of Fame nomination.
Who's your favorite metal guitarist?
What's your favorite album from 2023?
What else are you listening to?
Let us know.
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Thank you so much for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast.
We'll catch you next time with new releases.
Thanks for listening everybody.
See you next week.
Don't ask me.
I don't know.
That's good.
That's an appropriate Aussie quote.