Welcome one and all to episode 378 of Signals From Mars.
Jeremy is back and we are back talking about new releases from new bands, from old bands,
from bands you love, from bands you hate, from bands you may not even know exist.
In any event, this is our dive into new releases from March 2024.
Alright, so most of you guys know the drill.
If anyone is new to this show, you know what this episode is all about.
Jeremy and me discuss new releases from March of 2024.
We don't touch upon everything because there are some things that slip through the cracks
and honestly, I first add things from labels and PR people that send me stuff.
Then I add bigger name artists if I don't have them.
Most of the times I don't.
And we take it from there.
We listen to as much as we possibly can.
Some months I get to listen to a lot of stuff, other months it's just impossible to do and
I just stick to things that kind of stick out to me or labels that kind of usually have
something that I'm into.
There are certain labels that only put out certain sub genres of hard rock and metal,
so I know what to expect more or less or I'll give something a quick listen and it just
doesn't work for me so I'll skip it and move on to other things.
There are other albums that do surprise me along the way.
So we do talk about some of those every month as well.
And there are times this month you'll see that for me there are things that I really
like and there are other months where things are just there are other weeks I should say
where things are just kind of a lot or they don't really do much for me.
Anyway, this is a fun chat with Jeremy.
We also talk some music news type stuff.
Jeremy's great at coming up with different topics to talk about and similar to what we're
doing tonight with some of my other patrons, we are going to be talking about some topics
that I think are kind of cool to discuss.
If you check any of these hour one episodes out, you'll know that it's just music fans
talking about music.
It's those discussions that you had growing up with your friends.
It's those discussions that you miss having where different topics come up and you can
join us in the chat live.
You can also join us on Patreon if you want to get on the screen or pitch subjects to
us and in any event, just go to signals from ours.com.
You'll have links to all the social media platforms where you can follow the show or
you can comment on the show where you can subscribe to the podcast or follow the video
replays.
You can also help out by picking up some merch, doing a PayPal donation, doing the old buy
me a coffee thing, joining us on Patreon.
What else?
There is also the value for value podcasting apps as well where you can make donations
through that.
So had a few, haven't had much, but it's cool when all that stuff comes about because you
see that people are paying attention and usually on those platforms, it's new people.
So that's awesome that people are taking the time out to check this show out almost 14
years into this.
So almost since 2009, almost 15 years into this.
What am I talking about?
So in September of 2009, the show started up.
It's going to be 15 years in a few months.
So anyway, I do want to send a quick overall shout out to my Patreon supporters, to my
patrons for supporting.
I do want to thank all of you for listening to this show.
Those of you that do share it, it means the world to me.
It means a lot that you listen to this all these years in when there's a million other
big name shows that you can be listening to, but you do come back and listen to us.
So that is awesome.
Thanks and let's get on with the show.
Welcome one and all to the April 5th edition of Signals from Mars.
I am Victor.
Joining me is Jeremy for another monthly recap of new releases this time around, as you saw
in the intro piece there.
It is March 2024, which we will be talking about.
It is April 2024.
But anyway, Jeremy, how are you, sir?
Yeah, doing well, Victor.
Obviously, since we last spoke, I've seen Judas Priest live and we might be mentioning
Judas Priest a little later on, I think, with the album reviews.
But how are you doing yourself?
Not bad.
I will say that I had a small kerfuffle when it comes to Judas Priest.
We were supposed to see them in June, but over the course of these holidays, the tickets
seem to have sold out, so we will not be seeing Judas Priest as we previously thought.
But anyway, hopefully there will be around sometime in the future, but we'll see.
I've seen them twice already.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah, hopefully you'll see them again.
Yeah.
Anyway, so March, big theme for me for this month.
I always say this.
There's a lot of great new music that comes out on a weekly basis.
But sometimes we found that with some weeks we don't find something that really jumps
out.
I will say that this month has some tremendous new releases and has quite a few letdowns
for me personally.
But all right, so let's get into this.
March 1st, we saw new releases from Bruce Dickinson, the Mandrake project ministry with
the Hopium for the Masses, Zack Sabbath with Doomed Forever, Forever Doomed, Firewinds
Stand United, Suicidal Angels, Profane Prayer, also new albums from New Year's Day, Big Big
Train, TSOL, Defocus, Mannequin Pussy, Devastator, Souldusk, Dreams of Grey, Blazar, a few more
I guess this is French, J'est un Etre, I guess that's my best attempt at French there, Hands
of Goro, Alienist, Saturnalia Temple, Messiah, Sentry, Blind Channel, Unsufferable, reissues
from Enslaved and Live Christine and Compilations, various artists, New Wave Donut from the label
New Wave Donut.
Jeremy, what are some of the things that you listened to and what stood out to you this
week?
Well, obviously I started out listening to the Mandrake project, the seventh solo album
from Bruce Dickinson.
I mean, there were some songs on here that were very Iron Maiden for me.
I mean, Rain on the Graves was Iron Maiden.
It could have been on the Final Frontier or the Book of Souls.
It was that kind of song.
It was the very classic sounding Shadow of the Gods, which again, you know, was a similar
sort of thing.
And then of course we have another version of If Eternity Should Fail called Eternity
Has Failed.
I'm not sure why he did that.
He obviously hated the fact Steve Harris persuaded him to use it in the first place and he wanted
to put out an original version of it, which he kind of envisaged in his mind in the first
place.
But I thought it all worked very well on a song Mistress of Mercy.
I thought that was a really good song, chunky rolling riff.
I like that.
I like Shadow of the Gods, you know, when the main riff comes in and then it sort of
does really kind of distinguish itself from Iron Maiden.
Overall, I didn't dislike that album.
I thought, you know, it was a good album, but I just didn't think there was enough on
there for me to buy it.
And I just thought, you know, I wish he hadn't done it so much like in the sort of Maiden
style.
So that's what I thought of that one.
So I moved swiftly onto the Greek thrash band Suicide Angels.
This is their eighth album.
In fact, it's Profane Prayer.
Not a band that I've kept much focus on, if I'm being really honest, but there were some
real sort of genuine thrash elements here, you know, with some very melodic overtones,
which I liked.
So it was all a nice, decent listen.
It wasn't my album of the week.
My album of the week, and by the way, this is a marginal choice as well.
It was the one by Firewind, Stand United.
I don't suppose there's any shock there for you.
I like Firewind.
It's their tenth studio album in 22 years now.
And I wouldn't say, you know, I like all power metal bands, but I definitely love Firewind.
It's my go-to power metal band.
I love Gus G on guitars.
I like Herbie Langans on vocals.
I think he adds something to it.
And I don't think it was their best offering at all.
But, you know, I find the songs always grow on me on a Firewind album.
And there's enough solid tunes on there to, you know, to keep me returning to it.
And, you know, I'd like to see the band one day.
I'd like to see them live.
And that just was my pick of the week.
OK.
You touched upon exactly what I was going to say with the Bruce Dickinson.
OK.
Mistress of Mercy to me is the best song off of the album.
For the most part, I find the album very boring.
It was a huge letdown for me because to me, Accident of Birth, Chemical Wedding, even
Skunk Works, three tremendous albums in a row.
There are aspects of Balls to Picasso that I really like, and there are aspects that
also bore me.
What I loved about his solo work and Tyranny of Souls I really loved as well.
So those four straight solo albums, I think, are great.
He tried to make another Maiden album with this.
What made those other albums stand out to me is that they were Bruce doing modern metal
at that time and doing a great job bringing in the right songwriters and putting some
great compositions together with him.
And when I mean songwriters, he isn't reaching out to Desmond Child or anything like that.
It's Adrian Smith.
It's Roy Z.
It's people that have history with him.
I so wanted to like this.
And the first two singles that he put out, I think we were both kind of like saying, OK,
this is all right.
Let's hope that there's more on the album.
And there really isn't.
There's only a few select albums that are tracks that are OK.
And the rest just really bore me.
When I saw that Roy Z wasn't going to be touring this album after touring every other album,
basically with him, except for one, I thought, that's weird.
And you're right.
It sounds like Shinjitsu Book of Souls.
He didn't need to do this.
And now with him declaring this week that he's got some songs left over, that there
may be a Mandrake Project Part two that's released in a few months to coincide with
the last comic that's going to be released, it worried me.
I mean, Bruce and Maiden as a whole, they've got too many yes men around them.
And it kind of.
I've seen other people online say, wow, this is so great.
And look, this is all opinion.
This is all objective, subjective to what everyone's opinion is like.
But seeing people say that this is the best album that's come out this year, his best
solo album that he's released, stuff like that.
I'm thinking they're either going to have him on their show.
They're pandering to him some way.
They don't want to piss him off.
I don't understand that.
I don't get it.
I listen to the Ministry album, Hopium for the Masses.
It's got some cool tracks off of it, but like Mike Jones has said on Patreon, it's ministry
being ministry.
There's really nothing different that you can expect from them.
I like Monty Pittman's playing on this is so long as great as usual.
And the Fire Wind, I had a feeling this was going to be your number one.
I thought or you know, your pick.
I was thinking, OK, it's either going to be this or the Bruce.
Let's see how much how much he likes the Bruce or not.
The Fire Wind is exactly what you said as well is really kind of par for the course
for what they do.
Gus's soloing is obviously the star of this album.
The vocals are good, as you said as well.
There's really no reinventing the wheel here.
You know what you're getting with Fire Wind.
I'll just echo what you said.
I'll go with Fire Wind for for my pick for this week as well.
I just think that, you know, the to me, it could be a toss up between the Fire Wind and
the Ministry.
But again, both bands are doing exactly what you would expect from them.
All right.
March 8th.
We had the Afferment and Judas Priest with Invincible Shield.
Midnight with Hellish Expectations.
Ghost, not the ghost that people are, you know, not not with Tobias.
This is another band that goes to does more of Darkwave type metal.
So they release Prophecy and it's G.O.S.T.
Yeah, G.O.S.T.
Excuse me.
New albums from Sonata, Artika as well, Clear Cold Beyond, the End Machine with the Quantum
Phase, Jesus and Mary Chain are back.
Kim Gordon, the Neptune Power Federation Turbulence, Kill the Lights, Linda Fahela and Dave Farn,
I guess how you pronounce it.
Altarium, Long the Night, Floja, Goat Major, EPs from just one from Before the Dawn, reissues
from Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies and Warbringer released, we released three albums
Waking into Nightmares, World Torn Asunder and Four, Empires Collapse.
And we had a new album from the Rolling Stones live at Wiltern.
So Jeremy, what stood out to you this time around?
Yeah, so this week I only had a time for a few selections and one that stood out to me
was the Quantum Phase by the M Machine.
Obviously, I wanted to listen to that one, the George Lynch and Jeff Pilsen project that
we know about.
It's now their third album since 2019 and their first with Girish Pradhan on vocals
as well, who seems to really do it justice, I think, with a fairly seamless transition
from Robert Mason.
As with the previous album, which I still think the previous album is the best of the
three to be honest.
This is a sort of similar mix of classic rock sounds.
It's got sort of that Dock and Over tones, it's got very classic rock stuff, isn't it?
But maybe, you know, I just feel that the band could push itself a little bit more.
I just feel that it wasn't my album of the week.
I felt sort of there was something missing from this album and I don't know what it is.
I think the previous one was slightly better, but maybe it just needs to bed in a little
bit and I need to listen to it a bit more and maybe turn it up a bit.
But I'd certainly recommend someone to have a listen to it if you've not heard it before.
But I moved very swiftly on to the big album of the week, which of course is the 19th studio
album by Judas Priest, Invincible Shield, released four years after The Mighty Firepower.
And I just thought this was a really great album in my opinion.
It has really super production.
It has really solid vocals from the Septuagenarian Rob Halford now.
I mean, if you think of his age, he's still doing it and he's doing it live as well.
Very exciting riffs and solos from Richie Faulkner, who bear in mind, you know, nearly
died on the treatment table a few years back as well.
In many ways, it's a bit like the latest Scorpions album, I think.
It's paying homage to the past glories.
There's a lot of songs on there that have a bit of a touch on their previous career,
whether it's on Sin After Sin or Stain Class or Painkiller, the songs there that remind
me of those albums.
I saw them live.
They played three tracks live.
They played Panic Attack, they played Crown of Horns and they played the title track and
they seemed to really gel into the existing set list really well.
I think it would be a big surprise if this doesn't feature in the top 10 at the end of
the year.
We kind of know it probably will.
And I just feel that there's, you know, I was leaping from track to track to sort of
think about which was my favourite and I think that's always a good thing as well.
So I think it's up there with Firepower and I think it's a really solid album and obviously
my album of the week.
Do you think it's better than Firepower?
I personally do, yeah.
In my opinion, at the moment I'm enjoying it more than Firepower.
Whether that will always be the case, I don't know.
I think Firepower had a nice mix of songs, you know, it was a broader range of songs,
but I think there's some tracks on here that I think are better than on Firepower and that
have really sort of got me, you know, in a sort of, I think it's a little bit heavier
in some ways, a little bit faster, a little bit heavier and a little bit more together.
But I think, you know, it's you sort of choosing between family members.
It's one of those, you know, it's it's I like Firepower as well.
I don't want to diss that one either.
How many bands can you recall this far into their career that have released a Firepower
and Invincible Shield back to back?
Because I can't really think of any this late.
These two albums to me.
Kill anything Maiden has done since Brave New World.
You look at other contemporaries like Ozzy.
As much as I like his solo output.
I think this trumps anything that Ozzy's released in decades.
What other bands can we kind of compare it to?
You know, you're a huge Saxon fan.
Do you think that Saxon's releases compare to these two?
To be honest, I don't think they do.
And I really like a lot of the recent Saxon stuff.
I think they've had a renaissance in recent years and they've produced some very solid
albums but they've not produced quite the quality that Judas Priest have got on these
two albums.
No, I agree.
And the same with ACDC.
We know that the last ACDC album was a really solid effort.
We really enjoyed it.
But the one before wasn't quite up to that mark.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So real quickly here, I listened to the Midnight album, which is, I mean, if you like Midnight,
if you like the whole Black and Roll, I guess it's called, they're probably the best band
that does that type of metal.
So if you like their previous releases, I would check it out.
I didn't get a chance to listen to the Exhorter, which I wanted to.
I wonder if Ed Ferguson got a chance to listen to that.
The N Machine, I felt, was better than what I expected.
I think you really summed it up.
Very doccony sounding.
It really reminded me of the one Lynch Pilsen album that I really like from around the year
2000, which is just called LP, which really gave you a taste of what makes that duo special
and so great.
I think Arish did a lot better than what I expected as well on this album.
I have to go back and listen to the second album to see if I feel the same way that you
do.
But I really enjoyed this album a lot more than what I expected.
But Judas Priest is a monster.
It's everything that you said, I think, with Firepower.
And I think Priest has done this to an extent with every album since Agile of Retribution,
where they've hearkened back to different periods of time in their career.
But I think to your point, songs like Devil in the Skies, which is probably my favorite
off the album, Either That or Giants in the Sky, and even the title track really hearken
back to 70s era Judas Priest, which I don't think they've done in a really long time.
Everything has been, okay, let's touch upon Painkiller.
Let's touch upon British Steel.
Let's touch upon Defenders and Screaming for Vengeance.
I think they've tried to key in on those four albums.
And not that they haven't here with this, but I think that they've expanded a lot of
the quote unquote beat tracks to look back at stained glass, to look back at Killing
Machine or Hellbent for Leather, however you want to call it.
So I think that they've done a terrific job in extending what they did with Firepower.
I think that this is the effect of what they were looking for with Turbo and Ram It Down,
where they wanted it to be a continuation, one from the other.
I think a lot of people have said this as well.
It's kind of like Defenders and Screaming, where they were two really good albums back
to back.
So I get that correlation.
And to me, until something else comes along, this is probably going to be my number one
for the year unless something else can surprisingly come along and kind of dethrone it.
And I mentioned this panic attack has kind of grown on me.
I don't love the song.
Crown of Horns has a really good hook to it.
That riff is just so nasty and so good.
It took a little while to convince me as well.
But a lot of it had to do with me liking Firepower so much.
And it's funny because with Firepower, I don't tend to listen to the singles that they released
off of that.
Not to say that the title track and Lightning Strikes aren't good, but other tracks off
of that are just so strong that it makes me skip over those tracks.
So to me, I think that's kind of going to be the same thing with this.
The title track, I think, is just great.
And they released that on the day that the album was released.
But it wasn't like one of these songs to kind of whet your whistle.
And even the video is kind of a real throwback, again, to me, as a 70s sounding song from
them.
And the way that Scott Travis plays, where he's playing sixteenth notes on the hi-hats,
he's doing certain little things, percussive things that Dave Holland did, things that
Les Binks did.
So I think that they've really tried to kind of open up the toolbox this time around.
So great album.
All right.
The 15th saw new albums from the Black Crows with Happiness Bastards, Scott Stapp with
Higher Power, Kid Kiapucci with There Goes the Neighborhood, Dragon Force, Dragon Force,
excuse me, pronouncing it like Mike Tyson, Warp Speed Warriors 4, Aborted with Vault
of Horrors, Mike Tramp with an album in Danish, Lords of Black with Mechanics of Predicy,
I guess that's how you pronounce it.
Also albums from Non Exister, Pyrrho, Wyberg, Thorn of Exile, The Pocket Gods, Atrophy,
Shock Withdrawal, Lips, Leather Lung, not to be confused with Liver Lips, Udad and an
EP by the Thousands, the band.
What did you get to listen to for the 15th, Jeremy?
Yeah, I actually started out listening to the Mike Tramp album, but it didn't get very
far to be honest.
I mean, it was OK.
It didn't really grab me, especially with it being all sung in his native Danish.
That wasn't the real problem, though.
I think it was just the music really didn't grab me at all.
It wasn't very rocky.
So I quickly moved on to the Black Crowes album, Happiness Bastards, which was very
much better and surprisingly so, I thought.
I know you aren't a big fan, Victor, yourself, but I quite like this.
It was a real sort of mix of laid back sort of bluesy, folky ballads and some hardest
Rolling Stones style, Southern drawl rock music.
You know, the sort of typical thing you expect from the Black Crowes.
I mean, I saw them live back in the day and I was very keen on their debut album at the
time, but then I sort of lost interest in them quite a bit.
But I was I think I was just in the mood for this one and maybe because I've got older
and it was a nice laid back listen.
And I thought it wasn't a bad effort at all.
And I've seen some reviews on it that have been very positive as well.
And I think they're fairly fair.
So overall, I was quite happy with that one.
But then I dived into the mechanics of what is it?
Predacity.
I've never heard of predacity as a word, but Lord's a Black Album.
Don't know what it means.
Someone will write in to us and tell us, I'm sure, the natural home for the roving Ronnie
Romero, of course, you know, where he's best off with his day job, should we say.
Very typical album for them.
Nothing new.
You know, it's really what got you into the band in the first place, this sort of stuff.
You won't be disappointed.
It's heavy.
It's full of all the minor keys.
It's classical intros.
It's power chord progressions.
It's the usual metal lyrics about darkness and nightmares, sort of stuff you expect from
Lord's a Black.
I'm a fan.
You know, I've listened to a lot of their stuff since they started and I've liked it.
I will say that I'm not totally won over by it because it's so similar to what came before.
You know, they are sort of treading the familiar path, but they do it well.
And I do enjoy listening to them, a bit like an accept, you know, where you're going to
get the same sort of music, but that's what they do.
And it was good.
And so, you know, I'll say that's my album of the week.
So, I listened to the Black Rose album.
I've never, as you said, never been a huge fan, but I thought that this album was really
good.
Again, you did a perfect job of explaining it.
When it's good, it's great.
It's very stone sounding.
I'm not keen on the ballads, but there's plenty to like off of this album.
I listened to the Scott Stapp album, Higher Power, because previous albums of his have
caught my attention.
This album, the singles are OK.
And it just feels like the entire album is just those singles or songs that sound like
them and ballads.
The Kid Kiapuchi, really like the previous album.
This album is OK.
The singles are great.
There's one or two other album tracks that are fine, but the rest just kind of fell short
for me.
And the Lords of Black, I thought was the Lords of Black have has two really, really
good songs off it.
And the rest is, as you've already said, very similar to what they've done in the past.
I'm going to surprise you for my pick of the week is Black Rose.
Oh, what a shocker.
I thought it was good.
And I've never really been a huge fan, but I think the album is solid.
It's a good return for them.
And also, even though it sounds like the Stones, the production feel is pretty modern.
So it sounds it's got a good, clear, modern sound to it as well.
All right, so let's move forward to the 22nd.
We had releases from Leaves Eyes, Aylstrom, Hammer God, Ghost Kid, Hamfred.
I don't know how you pronounce that.
Polar, Fer Galac, Galico, Thornbridge, Cruise, Kijen Church, Avralese, Critical Defiance,
Mastiff, Thor and Zombie.
Jeremy, what did you get a chance to listen to here?
Yeah, so I sort of seemed to have very little time this week.
And it wasn't very much released either in the run up to Easter holidays as we gathered
from the list.
You know, my pick of the week is the sort of classic rock sounds of the Jungle Revolution
by a band called Crush, spelled C-R-U-Z-H, if anyone's looking them up.
I don't know a lot about these guys, to be honest, except they're from Sweden.
And this seems to be their third release.
I don't recall listening to the previous ones, but it rocks pretty well.
It has a Def Leppard style opening track and then some really hard-hitting songs like Angel
Dust, which I really liked on the album.
There's a lot of Bon Jovi on there too, as well.
But it's that sort of good rocking Bon Jovi, not the sort of the care home pat band that
we got used to very recently.
And overall, you know, I really liked it.
I could easily see myself sort of playing it on a road trip and, you know, put it in
the car for a long time.
So I recommend it for anyone who likes their metal played in the sort of classic 80s style.
You know, why not?
That we all like a band like that.
And then, yeah, it was good.
Yeah, so I got to listen to the album from Ghost Kid called Hollywood Suicide.
And I've enjoyed tracks from them in the past, but this album is just way generic.
It's not bad, but there's even though we're saying with a lot of these other albums, you
know, they're not doing anything new.
It's you know, they're not reinventing the wheel, but this is just way over just radio
friendly.
I'm trying to get on the radio.
It's just tries too hard and falls short because it sounds like too many other things.
I listen to Mastiff, how do you pronounce this?
The precipice, I guess, is pronounced.
It's OK.
Heavy riffage, thick riffs.
The vocals just don't do it for me.
And honestly, I really didn't find anything else that really stood out to me this week.
So for me, no, no pick for this week.
That happens occasionally.
Yeah.
Let's move on to the 29th of March.
And we had what's supposed to be the last release from Sum 41 called Heaven Times Hell,
I guess, the quill with Wheel of Illusion rage with after lifelines while she sleeps
alchemia, the rocky Valentine's suffer, coffin storm on Earth or in hell stoned again, heavy
rain and an EP, it's actually a split between Pussifer, the perfect circle and Primus and
a compilation from Lily and Axe called the Box Volume two, the quickening.
It's the quickening always reminds me of Sean Connery, Sean Connery in Highlander as he's
telling Christopher Lambert.
It's the quickening.
Jeremy, what did you listen to this week and what's your pick?
Yeah.
So I tried out first of all, the album Heavy Rain by the German progressive metal band
Ivory Tower on Massacre record label.
Somehow I didn't think the production was quite right on this one.
It was a little titty to my ears.
I mean, maybe I did not buy if headphones on for that one.
And sometimes it can sound a bit like that when you're playing it through, you know,
normal speakers.
I mean, there were some quite powerful songs on the album and it was a worthy listen, but
it just wasn't enough to make me sort of go wow.
So I moved quickly on to On Earth or in Hell by Black Abbasynth, three piece Canadian heavy
metal outfit from Toronto.
This band really kick up a fabulous storm.
I really like this.
They look like the British band Venom a little bit, you know, to look at, but have no fear.
There's no black metal outfit.
There's clear vocals for one thing.
And they have a sort of traditional doom style metal sound that, you know, maybe they lack
a little bit on the songs a little bit.
But you know, it was a real enjoyable listen and I quite like that one.
But it wasn't my pick of the week, which I moved on to one that really surprised even
me to be honest.
I went for Stoned Again by Max Boogie Overdrive.
New album this from an LA outfit that reminded me a lot of Clutch in a good way too as well.
They had some sort of frenetic stoner music on there that seemed to click with me right
from the off.
A nice cartoony album cover too, which had a vehicle that was very similar to the Scooby
Doo mystery van on it, which obviously is always a good thing.
A very listenable album, really good songs on there.
And you know, it was an album that I'd like to go back to and listen to again.
So it was a worthy pick of the week for me.
Cool.
So I got to listen to the Sum 41 album.
I was a big fan of them early on, kind of lost track of them halfway through their career.
An enjoyable album if you're a fan of their early work.
Again, nothing really new from them, but a respectable album where I think some of their
previous albums have kind of fallen short.
But my pick of the week, and this could quite possibly be in my top 10 at the end of the
year as well, it is Wheel of Illusion from The Quill.
The Quill always seemed to have three, four, five songs on each of their albums that really
stand out.
This album is strong, top to bottom.
It surprised me how strong it is.
And I really enjoyed it from the opening track to the end.
And heavy riffs, cool melodies.
If you're remotely a fan of anything that they've done in the past, if you're remotely
a fan of doom metal or any stone or rock, check this out.
It'll be right up your alley.
So The Quill with Wheel of Illusion for me.
So awesome.
Like I said, even though they're not every week had stuff that really jumped out at me,
there were some really big releases that were released this month.
So I'm happy overall with March.
And don't be a lazy listener.
Check out these albums that we're talking about.
Maybe you agree with us.
Maybe you think we're crazy.
But either way, give them a shot and see what you think.
Before we wrap things up here, we do have a few different topics that.
That we did want to touch upon here.
There's always some hot button topics to to discuss.
And Jeremy's always good at sending me some of these topics as well.
So real quickly, let's go through some of these.
We have Sebastian Bach saying that he's got a good feeling that he's going to be back
in Skid Row.
Shortly now.
Lizzy Hale has been announced as their fill in singer for now.
Let's talk real quickly about Eric Gronewall stepping away from the band.
Let's talk about what Sebastian said, and let's talk about Lizzy.
A lot of people are not buying.
That it's Eric's health.
The reason why.
He's out of the band.
What do you think?
It's a difficult one.
I mean, I have to sort of accept what he's saying that he is ill and needs to move away.
I mean, he's only done one album with them.
Everything seemed to be hunky dory.
Everything was happy in the Skid Row camp.
They did a really good album with him.
It seems an odd thing to say, doesn't it?
If you're not ill, why didn't he just sort of say, well, we've separated ways.
We've decided to ditch it.
I'm not getting on with the other band members.
You could easily just be very honest about it.
I don't see why you would say anything else if you're not ill.
So I can't really comment on it.
I mean, we'll know in, I think, over time, won't we, whether that's the truth.
But as you say, Lizzy Hale has stepped in just as a temporary replacement because obviously
they need someone immediately.
And then they're going to have to look for a permanent singer.
And as we know, Sebastian sort of stirring things up a little bit and saying that he's
the perfect singer for the band, but then he's fallen out with them before.
So you think that's a bit of a non-starter as well.
I mean, what do you think, Victor?
I think honestly, with Eric, I think Skid Row wants to do more touring than what he wants
to tour.
Let's remember he really I mean, he was in.
In what band?
He was in Heat and.
How much does Heat tour?
Maybe a month a year, maybe two months a year.
Skid Row's a band that's probably looking to tour 10 months out of the year.
And I'm not saying that it isn't because of his health.
But I think that he probably doesn't want to tour as much.
Also his videos have been taking off online.
How much money is he making for those doing those covers online?
Maybe he's making as much money as he is within Skid Row.
And he's saying, why am I going to tour if I can record this at home and make as much
money?
Also, I can see him having a deal with the frontiers or somebody like that in place.
Where he isn't going to have to tour.
And he could become the next Ronnie Romero and be the voice of like seven projects a
year.
I don't know.
I'm speculating there.
I don't see Sebastian coming back at all.
I think that he's burnt too many bridges.
It doesn't.
I've said this.
There are people that are delusional saying, oh, they'll start playing stadiums.
Yeah.
Opening for what?
For Motley Crue and Def Leppard.
Them on their own or not, Sebastian coming back to Skid Row is not moving the needle
for the casual fan.
They're an opening act on a stadium tour.
Mid card, maybe they're touring theaters on their own.
They're part of a package deal for summer festivals.
They're not.
I mean, and let's be honest, did the album with Eric sell a lot?
Probably not.
Their producer on that album was Nick Rascalinix, if I'm not mistaken, who has worked a lot
with Hailstorm.
That's one of the things that that's been talked about that he's he's not doing this
new album that they're working on.
But I still think that he somehow is the connection that got Lizzie into that band.
She's come out and said that she's not singing with Skid Row just to do four shows, that
she's going to do a lot more shows than that.
OK.
Does that mean that she records an album with them?
Does that mean that she's got no problem doing double duty with both bands?
Hailstorm is probably a bigger band at the moment than Skid Row is.
But is this something that she's saying that she's a huge fan?
So does that play into it?
And that makes her want to do, you know, maybe not do 10 months of touring with Skid Row.
But maybe Skid Row is good with her doing four months of touring.
I don't know.
That's something we'll have to see.
I don't see Sebastian ever going back to that band.
No, I can't say it really.
He's said too much stupid shit over the years and every time that they've come close.
He's given the band another reason to not.
Want to have him come back.
So I just can't see it.
A new single from Accept and we've we've heard what, three songs off of this new album so
far?
I think two.
I've heard two anyway.
But yeah, OK.
Yeah.
What are your impressions so far?
Sounds like Accept.
It sounds like everything they've done in the last six, seven, eight years or whatever.
Listen, Accept are a great band, they come up with great riffs, they keep a solid level
of performance, but we know what they're going to do.
They're not going to change the rules.
They stick to the script and it's a good song.
It's a good song.
Is it a fantastic song?
I don't know yet.
I'll have to, you know, I need to hear the whole album in its entirety.
But the last few albums I've really liked, they're very listenable.
I play them, but I don't think they're, you know, the greatest albums I've ever heard.
And maybe, yeah, they keep up the level of performance that you expect from the band
like that.
And that's as good as you can expect to this part of their career, I guess.
Yeah, it's good.
Is there anything that they've released compared to Firepower and Invincible Shield?
Oh, yeah, well, exactly.
I mean, yeah, I think the new Judas Priest is better, definitely, for me.
You know, I'd rather listen to Priest more.
But that shouldn't detract from a band like Accept because they have a different style
of music as well, the way they play and what they do.
And I think they do it, they still do it well.
They produce it well.
They don't make stinkers, you know, they don't make something you think, oh, my God, what
have they done?
You know, it's always a seven out of ten.
And I think there's always room for that.
I mean, Udo does the same, really.
I mean, he's split away from Accept and is still doing the same sort of stuff.
And you know, it's all listenable.
And we've got, you know, there are fans out there.
We know certain fans out there who like Udo, so we don't want to upset them.
But yeah, it's.
They're a good band.
I'd like to see Accept live.
I'd like to see them play this sort of stuff live.
And I'd like to hear the whole album because you do need to hear everything.
Yeah, agreed.
My biggest thing, and we talked about this a few months ago when talking about Primal
Fear.
And I think the last Primal Fear album was OK, whereas I think the previous two were
really, really strong.
I think Accept has kind of found that as well, where some of the albums with Mark on vocals
are really good and others are OK.
It's kind of more of the same.
It's not bad.
It's not a stinker, as you mentioned, but it's kind of not up to par with some of the
stronger ones that they've released with him.
So, yeah, I want to hear the whole thing and I'm holding out hope that it'll be good.
Let's see Leonard Skinner kicking around possibly a new album.
Ricky Medlock has has said this, and it's interesting because aren't they hanging it
up?
Aren't they going to stop touring?
And, you know, the remaining Vans and has kind of said he's he's done with everything.
So it's it'll be interesting to see.
Well, you know, do you want another album from them?
Strange thing is, they released an album and I can't remember when they released it now.
I think it's quite a number of years ago and I really, really enjoyed that album.
I thought it was good.
I can't remember the name of it and I can't remember the year it was produced.
We'll think of it in a minute.
But when I played it, I actually really liked it, I thought it was great.
And so, yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to a new album by them because I think if
they keep up that, you know, what they did then and produce something similar, I think
it'd be good.
I've always liked a bit that, you know, like their music, regardless of who's in the band,
obviously, it's a very different band to what it's set out in the first place.
But I thought, yeah, it was a sort of nice, rocky, southern rock band, you know, rock
music that I really, really enjoyed.
You got the name of it there?
Yeah.
Last of a Dying Breed.
It came out in August of 2012.
Well, there you go.
That's why I can't remember it.
It's a long time ago, that.
A long time.
Yeah, yeah.
Excellent album.
If you've never heard it, really good.
I like it a lot.
But the first, the opening track was really good on it from what I remember.
That was really good on it from what I remember as well.
Yeah, I liked it.
So yeah, the answer to your question is I would like to hear new music by them if they
want to do it, because I think it's worth a listen.
They've got a little place in rock music, you know, that's their own, isn't it?
They've got that little niche.
And I like Ricky Medlock, you know, I always like Blackfoot.
So yeah, let's hear it.
Excellent.
Last question that you sent me was regarding bands farewell, specifically the Foreigner
Farewell.
The interesting thing with this, similar to Scorpions and many other bands that have said
that, this farewell tour supposed to last like three or four years.
Because Jeff Pilsen had some knee issue and he's playing on a stool on stage and he's
pretty much said, oh, you know, for the remainder of this year, I'm going to be sitting.
But the tour still has like another three years left on it.
So by next year, I'll be standing again.
Yeah, I mean, we've seen this many times with bands, but I mean, you know, some bands are
finishing and we've seen it with Kiss recently.
I think they sold all their music today, didn't they?
There's a big splash on it for so many hundreds of millions of dollars or pounds.
Yeah, I mean, Foreigner, obviously, you know, Mick can't play much anymore.
I think he's got Parkinson's or something as well.
And, you know, he's clocking on 80 years old.
I saw him, you know, several years ago and he could only play three or four songs of
an encore.
Whether bands will carry on without their original members is another question.
But a lot of these bands now are going to fade away.
You know, eventually we're going to have to get used to Iron Maiden fading away in Metallica.
But, you know, Metallica are a little bit younger.
Obviously they're our age as opposed to 70 or 80.
And it's just a sad matter of fact, they're all going to have to eventually end.
I mean, fortunately, if you like Motley Crue, you know, they've carried on beyond the time
they said they would finish.
But you know, the band splitting, all these bands split apart.
You know, some of the members don't want to play.
They're final tours or carry on.
And that's the way the world I've seen for in a live, they're fantastic live.
I really like them.
And it's sad, but they're going to have to go.
You know, they're going to have to go eventually.
I think the thing with Metallica, though, and if you listen to their Metallica Report
podcast, they talk about this, that they put a lot of money into restructuring how they
tour.
So they're only playing two shows a week and they're resting the rest of the rest of the
week from from playing there.
I mean, there have been a few things here and there where they've strayed from that.
For the most part, they're only doing two shows a week.
They're flying in and out on their own private jets.
They have doctors and masseuses on staff.
They you know, they have they've got the money.
They've got all these different accoutrements to make sure that their tour continues to
go.
I don't know how much longer they can do that.
I think this has helped kind of extend their their career.
But that's the question, isn't it?
Because how old are they?
They'll be about late 50, 60.
I think they're roughly around our age.
I think they're 60.
We shall find out the exact ages.
Yeah, I just turned 50.
So they're OK.
So yeah, you're younger.
You can you can replace them.
But yeah, I think, you know, James is James is 60.
Yeah.
Ours is 60.
60.
Kirk is 61.
OK.
Yeah.
And Robert is 59.
OK, so they're just turning 60, which is an age where you feel you can still do it when
they get to 70.
They're going to be struggling to play that sort of music fast.
Really struggling because it's not where they can slow it down to a just a general rock
band, a deep purple where they can play a little bit slower.
Metallica are full on, aren't they?
And that's going to be very, very difficult.
Very, very difficult at a later age, I think.
What do you think the shelf life is?
So 10 years, you think, Max?
For a band like them, yes.
They aren't going to go on to the ages that the Rolling Stones are playing.
There's no way.
Not the physicality of what they do live on stage.
They couldn't do it.
So yeah, I think 10 years maximum.
Yeah.
And that's even taken into account the rest days that you're saying, because I know a
lot of bands are having rest days.
I've seen Judas Priest do rest days and in between that they do two nights on and one
off, that sort of thing.
Yeah, I think what will be interesting is because they also do tend to take time off
between albums and tours.
So they release albums every five, six years, if not.
Yeah.
More space than that.
Because that ultimately, you know, after after they're done with the 72 Seasons Tour, they've
been off the road since November at the moment.
I think they're starting back up next month, not mistaken.
So they have taken.
I mean, if you look at that, they've taken half a year off already.
I know that they've got things scheduled until the end of the year.
So they're really six months, so 20 some odd weeks.
So they're doing 40 shows for all this year, whereas this band was doing like 300 shows
a year previously.
You know, that's a huge change.
You got to also bear in mind, it's a lot to do with people's health as well.
And we know James has fallen out with a band many times over the years and has wanted to
do other things.
He's got to be a different guy when he's 70 years old to what he is when he's 60 as well.
And I just feel that, you know, eventually either bands keep it going because it's a
money spinner and they but you have to enjoy it.
And we've heard Steve Harris and Iron Maiden saying, you know, he's not sure how long you'll
be able to keep going.
I mean, at the moment he's keeping going.
He's in his 60s now and, you know, maybe they'll have one more album in them.
But is he going to want to tour the world, you know, when he's 70 years old and put in
all that effort, you know, I don't know.
We're talking about the most energetic metal bands, aren't we?
We're not talking about the sort of rock bands that sort of, you know, can do a little bit
of acoustic and a little bit of walking off the stage and, you know, nice and gentle.
Because I think we're going to see Hetfield.
I think we'll see Hetfield eventually do some type of solo album and maybe an acoustic solo
album.
You know, so I could see something like that happening where Metallica goes away for like
five years and James does a run as an acoustic artist, you know, or James and friends where
it's James and Jerry Cantrell and, you know, some other like big name players going out
and doing, you know, sitting on a bunch of stools and playing acoustic versions of some
of their songs.
I mean, he reworked Blackened to do like an acoustic version of that during COVID, if
you remember.
I could see stuff like that where he's releasing an album that's more of in like a Johnny Cash
vein, you know.
So, I don't know, we'll have to see, but to your point, I would think Lars is the first
one to kind of drop out because of the physicality of his playing, although he's saying, much
to some people, chagrin that for the last two years, he's been practicing a lot to try
to keep up physically.
So, so we'll see.
We'll see how long that roller coaster, how long that ride keeps going.
Yeah.
Enjoying while they're here, folks, because that's what you need to do.
Awesome.
Jeremy, I do want to thank you for joining me once again for this review.
And let's talk about April sometime in May.
Thank you to everyone who's watching this or listening to this.
Thank you a bunch.
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Thanks again.
And we will see you next time right here on signals from Mars.
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This concludes our podcast.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Jeremy.
I'll see you next time.
Bye.