Welcome one and all to episode 376 of signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor and for this episode
Jeremy Weltman is back for our February 2024 albums review. Oh yeah don't know
about what albums may have come out this past month. Don't know what new music to
check out. We've got you covered. Up next me and Jeremy. I'm ready. Let's do it!
There was a lot of good music that came out in February of 2024. This episode just
highlights some of that. We try to cover as much new music as possible. Obviously
there are things that escape us altogether. Me personally I try to sample
as much as possible. Some months I can listen to a lot of stuff, others I can't.
This time around I was able to at least sample almost everything that came out.
Usually I go by band name and then after that if I don't know what to check out
I'll look for labels that maybe have things that they've released in the past
that kind of jump out to me. And yeah I found quite a bit of music that I think
has been interesting and good. And now that we are in March I'm sure March will
be no different. I'm essentially half an hour away from the New Judas Priest
album which I will be checking out at the top of the hour. But yeah I'm sure
there's gonna be plenty of other things that we'll discuss that came out in
March. Discuss them in April. We wait till everything comes out and then we jump
on it and discuss it. December is the trickiest month because December has
usually has the least amount of new releases so we kind of do that a little
earlier. You can count on Lord of the Lost to release something every December.
At least they have the last few years. Which is kind of cool because they surprise us
with something new out of the blue. A band that has really gotten quite a few
my patrons to check them out as a result. I posted pretty much every video of
theirs to Patreon and at least the ones that have come out since I've started
the Patreon page. I have to think that they have the most amount of posts on
the site. Just based on the sheer volume of videos that they've released. But for
the most part it's usually good. We tend to enjoy it. And yeah again talking
about new music is where it's at. At least for us. Anyway let me just run down
our current list of patrons real quickly before we jump on into the episode. Sean
Richmond, Chrisin Zak from Despogeek Podcast, Tony Espin, Anthony Mackie the
wonderful graphic designer behind graphic artists behind our logos, Ed Schred
Ferguson, Johan in Sweden, Metal Dan, Jose in Connecticut, Gabriel in New Jersey,
Brad Doll, Mr. YargMetal himself, YargMetal.com, Mike Jones, Jeremy who joins me on
this episode, Mr. Twisted, Steven Hoker and Steven
Saylor. Thank you guys for all of your support. And thank you guys for listening
to the episode. Remember that you can go to signalsfrommars.com to pick up
merch, to check out all the platforms where the podcast is available, where the
live stream is available, where you can watch replays of the live stream, and all
the podcast episodes of course. So go there that's where you could find all of
the latest and greatest on Signals from Mars. Thanks again and I know that other
shows are kind of picking up on this theme and and kind of glomming this which
I've been saying for a long time but I do want to thank you for checking out
this episode. It means the world to me. There are a million other things you guys
can be or could be listening to or watching at the moment but you choose to
be here with me so that warms the the cockles and the inner cockles of my
heart to know that you're actually here. Yeah I'm stealing that from Dennis
Leary. Anyway thanks again for for listening to the episode and I hope you
enjoy and check out some of these new albums.
Welcome one and all to the March 1st edition of Signals from Mars. Joining me
tonight is Mr. Jeremy Weltman and we are both here to discuss new music that was
released during the month of February 2024. Jeremy how are you sir? Yeah doing
well thanks Victor. Just been watching Queen live in 1975 on the TV here in the
UK and that was quite interesting but we're here to talk about new music so
how are you? Doing good doing good not watching Queen previous to this was
getting tomorrow's game ready and was watching what was I watching watching
something on Amazon Prime I don't even remember what but anyway here we are
talking about music from February there's quite a few things that I got to
listen to or at least sample a little bit of and a few surprises along the way
this month any surprises for you this month Jeremy? Yeah there were one or two
I think we'll come to them a little bit later probably in the last week maybe an
album that I thought was much better than you know I was expecting and
probably another one that was a little bit worse than I was expecting but there
you go. Okay cool so let's get on with it February 2nd we had new releases from
KMFDM with Let Go or Let's Go I believe
Marath with Karma being as an ocean with Death Can Wait, Enterprise Earth with
Death and Anthology, Barrett Barrett Wow
Baratro okay Big Science Nowhere, Meth Slope with Freak Dreams, Transit Method
with Other Void and the Death Tones with Universal Monsters, EPs from Level,
Persephone and Mean Streak and live album from Artillery. Jeremy what are
some of the things that stood out to you this week on February 2nd and what is
your pick for the week? Yeah well I started off actually listening to that
Baratro album that you had to pronounce just then it's apparently it's an
Italian three-piece I didn't know much about them myself either because it's
their debut album The Sweet Smell of Unrest really nice album cover I thought
to this one and what you get is a sort of very sort of brooding rather
unforgiving death metal sound on this one but there were some good touches you
know very little stuff on it like the song Grotesque I quite like that one
kind of worked for me and certainly wasn't one I was gonna pick as my album
of the week I moved on to Big Scenic Nowhere with The Way Down which is their
third album there was quite a bit of contrast on here it was a seven song
39 minutes collection of sort of psychedelic stoner music it isn't my
favorite style of music if I'm really honest but after playing it a couple of
times I did sort of get my teeth into it a bit and I appreciated it
particularly the song BTOH I'm not sure what that actually stands for and of
course there was one classy song on there Sarah Smile which is the Hall and
Oates cover which did sort of fit rather uneasily on the album and I do to sort
of appreciate it if you if you view that song as rather nauseous but but there
you go but my pick of the week this week was a bit of a surprise it's a rather
sort of gothic influence seven song album that in reality is sort of little
more than an EP it's called Universal Monsters by the Death Tones it's a band
from Milford Pennsylvania apparently and look it was a very lean week so you know
we've got to bear that in mind but it did remind me a little bit of Sisters of
Mercy and other sort of goth style rock bands which you know I kind of liked
back in the day in the 80s and each one each of the songs was about a sort of
ghoulish fictional character like Dracula and the Invisible Man and
Frankenstein and that sort of thing so it was it was different it was fun and
you know that's what matters really sometimes so that was really my pick of
the week
excellent I know where Milford Pennsylvania is actually it's actually
very close to where Ace Frehley is currently living with his girlfriend
yeah it's it's right over the border from New Jersey into Pennsylvania cool so
I do want to send a quick shout out to Edgar Winterson who's joining us in the
chat Brad Dahl Sean Richmond and excellent glad to have all you guys here
tonight so for me I listened to a lot of different things I listened to a little
bit of that death tones album that you mentioned I listened to the entire KMFDM
let's go album the Marath Karma album the transit method over void I was
listening to that and liked aspects of it and and thought you know this
possibly has elements that Jeremy would say ah they're they're a pub band but
yeah I really enjoyed the the KMFDM I really liked that one the Marath for
some reason they don't have the entire album up on Apple Music not sure if
that's because they want you to buy the album what I heard I enjoyed but the
album that stood out to me was freak dreams by slope a band that I've never
heard of before and essentially I mean they're crossover thrash metal with a
funk element to it think of Robert Trujillo era suicidal tendencies with
fishbone or something like Mordred or even elements of faith no more really
enjoyed it really really a mix of thrash and funk and a few other things mixed in
there and really throw back to stuff that I really listened to a lot during
the 90s so I really enjoyed this album I'm gonna look for a video to post on
patreon by the band so there you go and oh yeah did I just mention patreon let's
see here I should be ready for this stuff if you are not on patreon you can
join us for as little as two dollars a month and you have a great troll free
environment you have Jeremy who's joining me tonight you have Brad doll
you have Sean Richmond and you have a bunch of other people that have joined
us over the last few weeks from Johan to Ed to metal Dan Anthony Mackie has been
on on the show recently as well and speaking of patreon and have my patrons
on I do want to formally announce which I will be posting this that we will be
discussing 1987 during the month of March the 1987 special will be on the
15th of March the Ides of March could play some some Iron Maiden on that day
could say a tube route a as well but anyway so yeah if you want to vote on
your favorite albums of 1987 just send your top ten albums to signals from Mars
at signals from Mars calm so look at that right is saying Johan is worth five
dollars a month alone all right by the way you can pick up some great merch as
well don't forget the merch let's talk about the merch in the next break okay
February 9th we had new albums from infected rain revolution saints the last
10 seconds of life morbid saint smoking snakes to Kida haystack the chisel
Derek stem bridge and Mike Petruna and scarefield we had reissue and we had a
reissue from five finger death punch at the afterlife deluxe album release
Jeremy what are some of the albums that stood out to you this week yeah well
obviously I delved into the the fifth album from revolution saints against the
winds featuring obviously Dean Castronovo Jeff Pilsen and on this one
Joel Hoekstra once again it fails to quite live up to expectations really you
know journey-esque melodic rock but you know I mean it's all very relaxing you
could put it on in the background and do the ironing to it but you know it just
it just sort of lacks umph you know there's I mean I don't know what what
everyone else thinks about this band but they it's a real shame it's a real shame
because you get to the sort of six song on the album will I see you again and
there's at least you know a bit of an attempt to show some energy you know
some some balls some energy and if they added a little bit more raw power it'd
be so much better so I mean you can't say it's terrible because it's
listenable but it's just not what you what you want from the those sort of
those chaps who are who are playing it so it certainly wasn't my album of the
week I didn't really listen to a lot in this particular week and so I I've
actually chosen danger zone by smoking snakes even though I you know the jury's
out on the vocalist in my opinion I'm not quite certain whether I like him or
not but it was a you know it's a sleaze heavy rock outfit from Sweden it's their
debut album on frontiers I gave them a fair chance and you know to be fair it
is a little heavier you know the much of the frontier stuff it's nothing new of
course but it you know it has kept a certain rawness that like and they
haven't ironed it out with terrible production either so that that was a
good sign is it the best album of the month no that will be clear as we go on
but it rocks it's a decent effort and it's a band that you know would make a
very enjoyable support act so you know that's that's my choice of the week
okay Revolution Saints like so many other super groups not so super after
all it just seems like the parts should be better than the than the whole sum
but it's it really isn't it just leaves you thinking you know with these players
you know what what could they've done and what were it used to be Casanova
Jack Bladen who was the guitarist the the original guitarist was it not sure
they had Doug Aldrich for a while but it was was it maybe someone before him
even no I think it's him like see
proud saying duck yeah Doug is yeah okay so Brad is saying Doug and yeah that
was that was my whole thing too is it a label thing that the label you know has
their writers and they want the album a certain way and that could be it because
I always mention this with Dean Dean's played with Ozzy Dean has played with
he used to be the the shrapnel records like labeled drummer so he's a he's a
real sick drummer he played on geezer Butler's first two solo albums and does
a lot of double bass and a lot of real heavy does a lot of metal drumming so
okay yes what's the label that insists I guess the case of the label saying we'll
give you the money but you got to do our music so shame let's see so for me for
this week I listened to infected rain album time and I listened to the chisel
what if I could what a fucking nightmare is the name of that one infected rain is
a band that I've really liked their last album I just didn't get into it and this
one just had like one or two songs that I really really liked the rest was kind
of just there you know just kind of generic modern metal for for my liking
anyway and it's a shame because it's a band that I really had high hopes for and
really really enjoyed early on and I don't know their last two release just
haven't done much there's a bunch of things that I listened to and couldn't
get all the way through but my pick of the week is the chisel with what a
fucking nightmare it is old school punk rock in the vein of not old school punk
rock I mean it's 90s punk rock without being pop punk it's you know more in the
vein of a bad religion or rancid without the sky or reggae overtones so there's
just a lot of cool fast music on it I enjoyed it it's another throwback for me
and I thought it was it was an awesome release let's see Brad is also saying
that Dean is incredible drummer saw him with bad English and he was brilliant
yeah so let's bring up something that Jeremy wanted to mention before and we
have a bunch of different March being shown off the past few weeks Jeremy this
week is wearing the the Jeremy cap as it is referred to last week Brad had the
Brad bucket hat all right for those of you that are in the colder extremities
of the world you've also got the beanie hat
Jeremy is also styling the signals from Mars hoodie I've got the hoodie I've got
the t-shirt as well there's also a windbreaker jacket and a bomber jacket
you can scan any one of these QR codes and go directly to the store or you can
go to signals from Mars forward slash March and find it or just go to signals
from Mars and all the way to the top right hand side of any page on the site
you will find the merch the the hoodie so good by the way that actually comes
with a free hood so look at that there you go yeah and short Sean says he's
gonna get one there you go you got to get one because it's really warm Sean
especially in the the UK winter I'm really warming it now it's nicely lined
it's great it's awesome Brad is wearing the hat now the Brad hat now it is fire
is what he is saying there you go and and and for that Brad I give you this
all right moving things along this this for me is the week that surprised me the
most February 16th we had each Sean releasing his self-titled album we have
crazy licks with two shots of glory it is a rerecord album honeymoon suite
alive James Durbin with screaming metal screaming steel excuse me Steve Hackett
with the circus and the nightmare a luma shade with another side of you
Electra storm power lords profiler a digital nowhere
Boca so with all out all out of dreams dark space which I think is a reissue
I'm gonna move that to the reissues live on the air because I saw that the album
originally came out in 2006 anyway the obsessed gilded sorrow Ponte del
diavolo fire blades from the tomb bloom maybe in another life sujins save our
souls Leia I guess it's Leia or lay Lee maybe the glory of or the glory and the
fallen EP from forfeit the untrue with guard with gather the broken reissues
from Slayer show no mercy the helicopters grand a rock yeah from us in
dark space Rick Wakeman with a live album and Samuel with passage live Sean
Richmond said I've been listening to the obsessed album this week like it all
right I'll have something to say about that in a moment Jeremy yeah well I I
didn't I didn't actually listen to the obsessed album so I'm looking forward to
actually hearing what you've got to say about that one I actually started the
week listening to a live by the Canadian band honeymoon sweet it's their eighth
studio release since 1981 and a band that I'm afraid doesn't really rock it
up enough for me it's fairly sort of sickly sweet modern death leopards style
ballad II Brian Adams stuff and I mean I liked a few songs I just wish they
another band I wish they sort of unshackle themselves a bit more and
really rock out they don't really do it until the bonus track which is called
new girl now which is probably worth listening to although best of the bunch
is a song called done doing me which is a you know really good song that even
Def Leppard could have turned into a big hit so again it's that old adage you
know there's always a couple of songs on a on a on a bad album to listen to and
maybe so play up put on your playlist I've then moved on to screaming steel by
the American Idol winner Durbin which was a little bit better it was at least
metal but it just wasn't particularly convincing for me I thought the vocals
were dare I say a little dire on a number of tracks they weren't very well
mixed either and you know together and it sort of gave the impression the band
wasn't in the same room which it probably wasn't because I know a lot of
bands are dialing everything in these days I did though like the galloping
sort of song nature of Hallows there's a song called Hallows there which is good
and I like the downtune song the worshipper 1897 I thought that was okay
so you know I just think the band would succeed a little bit more if they just
went a little bit heavier and broodier and darker and you know went into that
area a little bit more there wasn't really much of a leap with power Lord's
the debut album by Electra Storm I listened all the way through I mean it's
young female fronted power metal that sort of lacks any real passion it it's
you know sort of four songs in I'd say it was even generic power shit if I'm
honest everything sort of played as fast as possible with no feeling but hey you
know they may be really nice people so I'm gonna not not I'm not gonna knock
them too much I mean that that's fine so my pick of the week was fairly easy for
me it was the 80s hard rock feel of two shots at glory by Sweden's crazy
licks of course you knew I'd select that one it's my sort of stuff I mean
there's nothing new here of course it's you know it's a well-worn path it's all
done with the best intentions there's none of the sort of pure our teenage
sex and swearing of steel panther it's just a band playing homage and you know
sometimes that's okay you know it's got it's got the right vocals got the right
guitars got the right production it may not be a band I'll play again and again
but you know it was a it was an enjoyable listening it's my pick of the week okay
and real quickly new girl now is honeymoon sweets only US hit was a hit
back in 83 or something like that and I guess frontiers wanted them to
rerecord the song right so and and the crazy licks I believe except for a few
tracks they're all re-records as well but you've been on that bonfire
re-record theme so that doesn't surprise me huh okay it's a new girl now is off
for their first time yeah I've aside from that song I can't say that I've
really listened to much by the band all right so for me
Eshaan Eshaan is somebody who a lot of people know him for being in the black
metal band Emperor he really caught me by surprise with the album after and
I've really enjoyed a lot of his solo music because it's eclectic it's weird
it does have black metal elements but then all of a sudden you have saxophone
in a lot of his songs which just kind of out of the left field his last album I
didn't didn't care for was just two black metal for me and just was not my
thing this album has they've released a orchestra version and a metal version
and it caught me by surprise because unlike say Metallica's S&M where you
already knew the songs and instead of the orchestra stuff accentuating what
they had originally done release with the original S&M I always felt that it
sounded like two different things were playing this with the Eshaan album
everything was composed at the same time and it sounds phenomenal it sounds
really good let's see but this is gonna be hard for me because there are two
albums as much as I enjoyed that one there are two albums that this this
could quite possibly be a tie for me this week so Bokasa all out of dreams I
listened to today and I enjoyed one song after the other after the other the
entire album is strong it's a mix of prong propane mad ball sick of it all a
lot of different hardcore New York bands with some of the heavier edge stuff that
maybe prong brought out of that scene as well I really enjoyed this album and
it's something that I'm sure I'm gonna be revisiting as well and Sean brought it
up the obsessed I was thinking that it was just gonna be okay you know why no
with just another release by the obsessed or you know st. Vitus or
whatever he's whatever project he's releasing this time because I didn't
really care for the last album by them seems to be a common theme this time
around but I listened to this and I was like wow this is good this is really
good to the point where it's not just stoner metal yeah there's a lot of
stoner elements there but there's some songs that are just full-blown heavy
metal at times it sounds really cool it's a really cool mix I really think
that they've outdone themselves and I really think it is worth a listen so tie
for me Bokasa and and the obsessed I think that's maybe a first for us
all right so the 23rd and I will say this I've gone back and I've listened to
almost everything that that we've mentioned this week outside of the
the albums that that Jeremy has mentioned I wanted to try to cover some
of the other stuff also to see if there are things that really stood out to me
that maybe Jeremy hadn't hadn't listened to I mean if there are things here that
I would recommend to Jeremy maybe the the Transit Method album I think might
be something that you would like
Morbid Saint and Scarefield is probably something that our own Ed the Shred
Ferguson would like trying to see what else yeah that's that's about it for
this last week we kind of overlapped but only because I haven't had a chance to
listen to a lot of this stuff and my intention is to listen to a lot of the
things that came out on the 23rd that I didn't get a chance to listen to when
you connected you you got a sample of me listening to the Stygian Crown album but
all right so the 23rd was 10,000 volts by Ace Freely, Mcmars, The Other Side of
Mars, Job for a Cowboy, Moon Healer, Dustbolt, Sound and Fury, Lionheart,
Stygian Crown which I just mentioned, Monkey 3, Amaranth, Austrian Death
Machine, Orknagar, Darkest Hour, Ectomorph, Hand of
the Sea, Calakatch, North Sea Echoes, Pat, Shoreline, He Was God and Drifting in
Silence with Motorhead releasing the Lost Tapes volume 1 through 5 also.
Jeremy, your thoughts on February 23rd. February the 23rd was an amazing week I
mean I'm gonna be like Michael Schenken now and talk for two hours without
breaking for breath I'll try and keep it brief I mean the reason why we crossed
over of course is because a lot of the the famous names were releasing albums
in this week and so it's obvious that we'd listen to the same sort of stuff
and I did kick off with the Ace Freely album 10,000 volts I mean I've seen Ace
live he's very enjoyable mid-festival act and you know I enjoyed him when I
saw him live I'm not the best person to review this though because I'm not the
massive fan of his music sure you know I enjoyed the title track I enjoyed walking
on the moon there were some pretty good stuff on here but I thought overall it
was a little bit one-paced it's a little bit stodgy I'm sorry to you know to down
it a little bit I thought Cherry Medicine picked things up a little bit and
I liked blinded I thought that was a decent song I just don't like Ace's
voice I'm sorry it's not for me I felt that you know many of the songs could be
improved with Paul Stanley singing on them because obviously you know he's one
element of kiss that is now defunct and even Gene chipping in as well so you
know I thought it wasn't bad it's not a bad album but I just don't think it's
good enough and it certainly wasn't good enough for me to pick as the you know
the album of the week so I moved on to the debut solo album from it Mars which
was really looking forward to for a long time I think we all were he obviously
missed a trick though he didn't call it signals from Mars he called it the other
side of Mars why he did that we have we on this show we have no idea but there
it there you go also a strike slightly strange decision he used to vocalists as
well he only gave one of them two songs which was a bit strange but aside from
that I thought it was fairly refreshing to hear his music you know that's
different from his motley crew days I've heard a few people on the internet sort
of slag it off a little bit but I thought it was you know I thought there
were some good songs that you'd go back to so you know it was a good listen I
really really like the concept album the grace of a dragonfly by Lionheart I
thought this was the best album they've released in probably in their entire
career as you know there are sort of a mini what's the word I'm looking for
where you get all the members of a band of the bands together sort of a mini
supergroup yeah mini supergroup and I actually remember buying their debut
album back in the day and not really listening to anything much since but
this is really good melodic rock it's great vocals great production I thought
they they'd written some really good songs they've been the war theme a
little bit because this is a sort of concept album about the Second World War
I mean they even introduced a song about the FA Cup final which wasn't going
during the war they had a song about the Bermuda Triangle but anyway it doesn't
really spoil it really really worth a listen there's you know good four or five
songs on there that are really truly excellent songs I could have picked
Mick Mars I could have picked Lionheart as my album of the week I could have
picked Blaze Bailey which I've only just listened to I liked quite a bit of that
actually it was quite a nice pleasant surprise but I need to go back to it
because I've only just heard it tonight and so you know it's a one-off listen I
really like the song Rage on that album so that's worth listening to but I
actually picked Sound and Fury by Dustbolt this is a band that I've really
morphed from a sort of what I call a traditional teenagers thrash band
complete with the cartoon album covers into a very modern grown-up sort of
downtune band they're sort of now adopting that you know a more sort of
grunge hardcore punky elements and they're you know they even sort of
rocking it out in white on the cover as well so they've really changed their
image a lot and I think it was a successful move as much as it was a
brave one I know others might disagree because they probably liked what they
released before I thought it could have gone really horribly wrong but it didn't
and you know I thought there's some really good tracks on there like I
witness a new flame and it was a it was an album that I really went back to
turned it up and really enjoyed a lot of the songs on it so for me it's Dustbolt
okay yeah we overlapped with three of those so you don't like Ace Freely's
over enunciation he's he's become like an old lady from Long Island with how he
he pronounces a lot of things listen I love Ace for people that are saying this
is his best album since since since the 78 solo album no it is not tis not I'm
sorry is it better than spaceman not difficult is it better than space invader
perhaps it's a better than anomaly don't think so is it better than the three
Freely's comet albums nope not by a long shot I like the album the songs are
catchy I get it he likes his he's in love with his new girlfriend I get it he
digs out an old demo that that he records properly for the first time songs
40 years old and but then we get towards the end of the album and to me it is
exasperating because it reminds me of the old ONA adage don't go don't come to us
for for serious news don't go to CNN for dick jokes I don't want to hear ace
freely talking about shooting down scientific facts I don't want to hear in
the next song ace freely or within that same song talking about empathy and shit
like that when it turns out that most people that are science deniers are the
ones that aren't empathetic also to hear him sing about God and how God has done
this and that and blah blah blah thankfully kiss has never done any of
that shit you know whether whether ace likes that or not I mean that's awesome I
love ace ace is the reason why I got into music to begin with but some of that
shit just kind of turns me off and for everyone that sees putting kiss to shame
with this album is he really because I mean I love kiss I love ace I'm gonna
listen to both I I don't give a fuck about one side or the other to be honest
I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it and I'm gonna listen to both monster and
10,000 volts how about that so the dust bowl I really like the dust bowl it was
a lot of different things going on with the album and I listened to quite a few
times it's one of the reasons why I didn't really kind of progress with some
of the other albums that I'm gonna listen to this weekend I dropped a ball
in the blaze Bailey I didn't realize that it came out on the 23rd if not I
would have checked it out because what videos I posted the patreon sound better
than some of his other solo releases the McMars would you believe it that he's
supposedly gonna put out a single and he'll have a third singer which will be
John Karabi on one of the beef sides of the Mick album where it's where it's
strong it's great but it's got too many ballads for me too many slow tempo songs
is the only thing that that brings it down to me the ace the Mick and the dust
bowl is what I listen to over and over again if I have to choose between the
three this is difficult I'll go with the McMars only because I think the song
writing is slightly better the ace album is still very good regardless of what I
just bitched about that's just the the the the clown that I am and the the
dustbolt was really good as well so I don't think you can go wrong with any
one of those three albums but there's a strong week that's we don't we get that
occasionally it's been a strong month I mean like I said I've gone through a lot
of these albums and listened to parts of them to see if anything else kind of
grabbed me and I've still got a few to listen to here but it's it's it's a
strong start to the to the year there's there's a lot of good stuff that's
already been going into my 2024 playlist so yeah if it carries on like this it's
gonna be a really good year definitely absolutely so yeah before we wrap things
up here there's a few topics that Jeremy and I've been talking about behind the
scenes a lot of interesting things that have come out in different articles and
interviews and when first off though I did want to talk about the new accept
single humanoid which is the also the title track off of the album which will
drop next month Jeremy what did you think about this track I thought it was
very standard except stuff I thought it was there was nothing wrong with it I
just thought it was I feel that you know that the last few albums have been a
little bit samey looking for a you know topics to cover and nothing really jumps
out at me you know it's it's same old same old I mean they play great riffs
they they rock it out I played it three or four times and yet nothing really got
me inside you know it was something that I couldn't I wasn't shouting from the
rooftops put it that way but what about you yeah I thought it was it comes back
to something that we discussed a few months ago when we talked about last
year's albums when we talked about primal fear at this point in time who's
really except whose primal fear who's Judas Priest you know there seems to be
like a fine line between who's what at this point and the one thing that kind
of stood out to me on this track on humanoid was was the soloing on it I
thought that was kind of cool but I have to agree with the rest the rest is just
kind of paint by numbers except right now it's kind of what Peter Balz has has
mentioned in the recent interviews saying hey you know it just seems like
we're recording the same songs over and over again with just slightly different
lyrics so that kind of falls in line with what you're mentioning yeah I
prefer the undertaker by the way I thought off the previous album I thought
that was a really good song yeah clever and yeah this one's average yeah I think
that when they're good they're great you know but unfortunately it's what it's
what you mentioned there's just too much same Z material going on with the band
so all right Jeff Tate also recently discussed the fact that he's singing
songs in a different key and the band is down tuning to kind of accommodate it
it's interesting that he's come out and said that you know kind of no bones
about it saying hey you know this is where I am now and let's be honest a
lot of that old Queensryche is pretty challenging material so it really
doesn't surprise me that that that this is the case yeah I mean Todd gets up
there doesn't he I mean he says that he actually reaches the highs on and that's
how he got into the band in the first place but you know you got it you got to
think that you know Jeff's a certain age I mean as everyone ages their voice
changes I mean there are very few very few singers out there their voice
doesn't change and and do you really notice you know when you go to a show do
you actually notice that it's in a slightly different key sometimes you do
sometimes you're in the moment and you're singing along to the songs that
you love and you forget about it I mean I remember Europe saying for a
long time that they've played the final countdown at a much slower pace than is
on the the actual album you know because they can't they can't play it at the
speed it's on and that I think they have it in a different key as well but if it
works for them it's fine you know what could we expect they're all aging yeah
yeah absolutely their time where it to me sounds pretty cool in the sense that
it kind of makes some of the songs sound heavier so at cuz at cuz demanding
his money back and you're all edger says I always notice and I go straight to the
ticket office and demand my money back how dare they do that to him yeah there
you go his question previous to this mention Jeremy he says are he says I
wonder if Jeremy remembers stacker humanoid single from 1989 you know I
don't maybe I should but it doesn't ring a bell no no okay and the last topic
that we have here is KK downing talking about the fact that jugulator and
demolition are not available on streaming services and yeah okay so
they're not half for albums I get that but similar to what we talked about
last week with the AC DC reissues why are they only reissuing nine out of
whatever 15 albums or 17 albums this is kind of the same why just why exclude
those two because Rob wasn't in the band let's not forget that Rob's the guy that
left the band and your says that he has jugulator I have demolition on CD still
so I have no problem myself but yeah this is and this is the question that I
asked you Jeremy chances that KK decides to rerecord both of these albums as a
result hmm well I guess that we've got to be clear as to whether KK can do that
on his own obviously there's gonna be fairly detailed contractual arrangements
with these sort of albums and that's why they're probably not on Spotify as well
assuming he can rerecord them would he want to do it he sounds like he does
doesn't he because the way he's pitched it it sounds as if he's pushing that way
I mean he's done two of his own albums and they've been fairly similar in tone
and songwriting and then I'm thinking well it may be fancy is another challenge
and rerecording them he's got the singer in place he's got you know he
could do it straight away and yeah may sound pretty good if they're
rerecorded to be to be fair we'll wait see what's down the line with it but
yeah I mean it's not just cake it's not just Judas Priest albums missing I mean
Black Sabbath have got some missing albums from Spotify they you know they
right that sort of stuff the other bands are the same and it is a shame because
when you want to listen to all of the stuff and go it deeper into the
catalogs you know it's it's harder to do it either way you know obviously Black
Sabbath is going to be rerecorded well we're expecting the re-releases to come
out in May Tony Iommi said they're definitely coming out so hopefully we'll
hear we'll hear them again yeah he said may not sure what year though yeah I
think that it's an easy way for KK to possibly fulfill his contract
because the songs are already written it would help bring the albums to the
attention of maybe people that are checking KK out at a festival and didn't
know that those were Priest albums yeah I could also see Priest pull a dick move
and once he announces that he's releasing rerecords that they released
the originals you know just just mess with KK maybe yeah because there doesn't
seem to be a good relationship there at all but surely Priest would get a they're
gonna get some revenue from anything that KK re-releases because they'll be
they'll own the songs as well you would have thought so presumably they all gain
from it you know and it would be a good move for them all I mean it raises the
Judas Priest name at the same time unless he puts it all under his KK
Priest banner and just you know rerecords those songs I don't know who
actually owns them because I thought KK had actually sold his catalog at some
point could be yeah but also let's let's take this on what would stop him after
releasing those two albums to just do a rerecord of Judas Priest greatest hits
you know I could I could see I could see that's how this all unfolds where he
does Ripper Era albums and then he does the Halford Era stuff just so that you
know again he can sell that stuff to the fans and you know the gullible
collectors that a lot of people our age happen to be they I would I don't think
people would have an issue picking up whatever it is that he decides to do
hmm yeah it makes sense and definitely the ones that he's written he's he's
probably entitled to rerecord them right he's done you know variants on on his
on his songs anyway so yeah maybe he can do that but yeah definitely
rerecording the Ripper stuff you can see that it's definitely a logical step for
many yep yeah I agree 100% so cool another awesome show hope this helps you
people listen to some new music some of the stuff you'll listen to and maybe not
care for other stuff hopefully will be a home run for you and you not only check
it out and streaming services would maybe decide to pick it up so on that
note Jeremy any parting words no just keep rocking go out and see music and
of us obviously pick it up in your record store and listen to it there you
go folks thank you so much for checking the show out this week Edgar in the chat
Sean Richmond Brad doll as well it is greatly appreciated to have you guys
here and for all your support be on the lookout for this album I do hear that it
is a very important and of historical value but anyway thank you once again
for checking out the episode live or the replay that is all for this week's
signals from Mars remember to send your votes in for your favorite your top 10
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