Welcome one and all to episode 404 of Signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor.
And for this episode we are back with another albums review. This is for the
month of November 2024. Yeah I know we're in January. We're about to record the
best of 2024 in a few days. And due to technical difficulties this is coming
off today. I'm ready. Let's do it.
All right so yeah so this is an episode a few weeks in the making just due to
various technical difficulties that I was dealing with from an IT side of
things. I have not been able to record this episode until now. I do appreciate
your patience and waiting for it to come out because I know that the millions and
the millions out there clamoring for this fucking episode all right. No
delusions on my end here. Listen I appreciate those that listen to this
podcast all these years later 2025. Been doing it since 2009 so whoever's here
listening whoever's still out there thank you. I do want to say thank you to my
patrons who have been following and supporting all this time. And I haven't
done one of these rundowns of all the patrons in some time. So you know I know
that in the past everyone people say well you don't have to do it every
episode. Well yeah sometimes I feel obligated to send the shout out to those
that support that keep supporting and I'm and I'm not on I don't only mean
from a monetary standpoint because a lot of these people also support on other
fronts share on social media so on and so forth. And just real quickly here so
we'll go from newest to oldest. Pasquale Shoemaker or Pascal Shoemaker
excuse me. Shoemaker and I'm sorry if I'm fumbling that. Sean Richmond, Chris
Zinzak, Tony Espin, Anthony Mackie, Ed Ferguson, Johann Edistrom, Metal Dan,
Jose Ruiz, Chris Vaglio, Gabriel Ruiz, Brad Dahl, Mr. Yargmetall himself, Mike
Jones, Jeremy Weltman, Steve Hoker, and Steven Saylor. Want to thank all you
guys for your support and like I said when we get together the few that do
like to come on the show and discuss music and whatnot is very therapeutic it
is very fun it reminds me of getting hooked on music in the first place. So
yeah so if any of you want to join us you can do so for as little as two
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spending any money but if you could share it on your social media and let
your friends know about the show that would be great. So yeah we're gonna be
doing our countdown of our favorites of 2024 and that will take place this
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send me an email signals from Mars at signals from Mars.com and on that note
again thank you for listening to this episode thank you for dealing with my
nonsense all these years and I realize there are a million and one shows out
there and I appreciate that you still come here to want to listen to me and
listen to my guests and listen to what we have going on on this show it means
the world to me thanks again and let's get on with the episode
welcome on and on to the latest edition of signals from Mars
I'm your host Victor and joining me today is mr. Jeremy Weltman how are you
Jeremy? Yeah hi Victor doing well been a tiring week actually I've had one or two
things going on but here we are and hoping to review lots of great albums as
usual. How are you doing? Awesome I'm doing good tired as well a lot of
different things going on still preparing for the weekend and figuring
out I'm gonna schedule in a bunch of different basketball games but that's a
different conversation we're here to talk about albums that were released in
November of 2024 to help you guys when it comes to your year-end polls here
year-end lists that you guys can start to send me our 2024 show will be done
on January 10th at this point just due to scheduling and and that way we can
get through the month of December although December doesn't really have
much there's a bunch of reissues and a few things here and there but the kind
of meat and potatoes ends in November so we're gonna discuss that anyway this
month had a lot of good stuff so much so that there are some weeks that I checked
out left stuff or I forgot to check out some stuff due to the fact that some of
the stuff that did come out was really really good anyway so on November the
1st we had new albums from Brothers of Metal, Vola, Bumbus, Breadfish, Dead
Icarus, Electric Frankenstein, Life Sick, Power Flow, Skillet, Slower, Tribulation
Arctis, Black Denim Rage, and an EP from Assassin so Jeremy what did you listen
to this week? Yeah so I started the month out with sort of brief listens to a few
albums I started off with the Skillet album Revolution it's not really the sort
of type of band that truly excites me if I'm honest there's a lot of generic
stuff on this one but yeah I had a sort of full-on production they do it well I
guess so it was okay similarly the debut album from Arctis had a brief listen to
that one and if you want sort of own reconstructed old-style amateurish
thrash then Chaos of War by Black Denim Rage might be your bag it was that was
okay you know nothing special but I did come upon something a little different
it was the album that you mentioned called Your Blood by Bumbus a metal band
that is from guess where Sweden of course isn't every band from Sweden now
and again quite unlike any other Swedish band though really I've not heard much
of them before if I'm honest maybe in passing though obviously they've been
going quite a while now since 2010 and this is studio album number five they
fleshed out you know a bit of a unique sound really there's plenty of synths on
there but to good effect and the the vocalist has got a sort of very gravelly
voice there are some sort of 80s goth tones some Nirvana traditional rock and
roll beats and doses of sort of post-punk as well really some some great
melodies as you know to cap it all off I mean it made for a sort of you know a
really interesting listen and and you know for the first week of the month
gets me off on a good note and that's my pick okay so I got to listen to a bunch
of different things I listened to loved by none hated by all by life sick got to
listen to power flows new album guerrilla warfare power flow has members of bio
hazard and Cypress Hill and former members of fear factory as well and it's
what you would expect from this band it's a new metal onslaught isn't bad I
listened to some mix between psych and stoner ish music from slower wasn't bad
either but my pick of the week is also a Swedish band and as I'm listening to
this I couldn't help but think of our good friend Johan and how he's been on a
cemetery skyline trip as of late if you're into cemetery skyline if you're
into typo negative sentenced sisters of mercy bands of this ilk gothic metal
per se my pick is tribulation with sub rosa in a tree a tree num
let's see if I pronounce this in Spanish it's a train okay rosa in a train okay
so what it means is more or less eternally under the Rose basically I
listened to an interview that Chris Aiken just did with one of their members and
really cool interview and basically in Latin it means like everything stays
hidden more or less everything stays under the Rose forever so that's what it
meant again goth rock some black metal overtones at time and yeah I think it's
an enjoyable listen again if you listen if you like that cemetery skyline album
or stuff like that I would definitely check this out
November the 8th we saw releases from defenses impel a Terry earthburner
Neil Morris we get the full name in here one of Neil Morris's million projects
damn so on there we go new Morris and the Renaissance
paragon
soul stuff here seventh crystal tungsten EP is from Delaine and seven kingdoms
reissues from 2000 stab wounds and rivers of nil and a compilation from
miracle of sound Jeremy what did you listen to on the
week of the eighth yeah the second week of the month I tried out obviously
entity by seventh crystal on the frontiers label don't I always listen to
all the frontier stuff it's a band that hails of course from Gothenburg in of
all places Sweden again so you know you're gonna get a vocalist who can
sing they've been going they've been going now since 2019 actually they've
been playing so perfectly listenable if very somewhat uninspiring a or there's a
sort of similar mix here it's sort of faster tempo melodic numbers softer sort
of piano based endeavors on there nothing special but nothing disastrous
either better perhaps was the the grand inferno by yet another Swedish band
this time the power metal outfit called tungsten look I mean if you like power
metal as you know I do and and you don't mind smatterings of night wish with some
sort of great vocals thrown into the mix but you know there's plenty that will
appeal here the title track is certainly a really good example of these sort of
pomp and bombast that will have the list of wielding a blow-up axe and
searching out their Swedish heritage on ancestry.com I mean there's a there's a
cute little melodic solo in that song you know so it's a song that really
works for me it was great that there are other tracks on there with a listen
including the album closer angel eyes but overall just probably not enough
really to you know select it as album of the week for me album of the week is
that is war machine by in pelotary it's the the band's 12th full studio release
since he formed in the I think the late 80s I think I mean it's a band that's
had you know as you know so many members but it but I think they're still
delivering the goods the opening title track really sets the tone for me on this
one you know you're treated to very sort of classic metal heavy fast-paced riffs
great vocals it's a sort of album I would really actively seek out you know
if I if I didn't know the band that it's the music I really like it's ballpark
metal it's sort of appeals to a broad cross section of fans it's very well
produced and in many ways it's the kind of music that sort of epitomizes the
mainstream heavy metal genre you know built with sort of on layers of
influences I'd say you know it works very well obviously it's a path well
trodden but for me it's easily album of the week okay so I listened to some of
the death metal leanings of earthburner and their album permanent dawn I also
listened to medallation from paragon and I would recommend checking that out
especially if you're into the whole power metal thing I think there's some
good stuff there I would say it's kind of a mix of priest with some other stuff
I mean nothing new there but entertaining at times but my album of
the week is war machine by impelatary as well I've been a fan of theirs stand in
line and this is a really good solid album beginning to end yeah again
nothing new being traversed here but there doesn't have to be anything new
it's just good it just sounds good and it's great beginning to end so yeah
great yeah okay so we have the 14th or no the 15th of November we had new
albums from zebrahead voodoo circle as I lie dying Empire of Eden less than Jake
Lincoln Park Lionville Lionville or Loinville I think the Lionville would
probably make more sense but I think I miss belted here poppy and star chaser
reissues from Steel Panther iron maiden power slave which is right there that is
the reissue Sodom and trapeze and we have a live album from John Whetton from
Asia fame and compilations from wasted youth was also released all right
Jeremy how about you for this month or for this one yeah so my album of the
week is power slave and that's all I'm gonna say no I was joking I was joking
obviously we can't we can't pick that one it's it's an old one but a favorite
of ours I started out actually listening to the
multiple artists project empires of Eden with the album title guardians of time I
didn't realize they've now done five studio albums and as you kind of might
expect is a sort of you know a good mix of fairly well written songs had sort
of different angles to it there's various players and vocalists on here
and overall I'd say it was you know it's a pleasant surprise there was some sort
of great melodic metal it spans you know a few genres as well even though
it's kind of grounded in power metal the tracks that you know that are a bit so
so or you know a fairly few than the you know than the listenable ones there's a
slight downside for me though the production is so powerful and in your
face that the vocals have been a little bit pushed too far forward it suffers
slightly from that and it gives you the impression the band weren't in the same
room recording it which I'm assuming was the case that's a shame because if it
had been recorded in one studio or even live and sort of slimmed down maybe from
12 songs to 8 it would be you know a real treat of an album I then sort of
quickly found my album of the week so I'm only going to mention two in this
particular week and it's hail the king by the German band Voodoo Circle I guess
it's I guess it's up for you know it's close to a new Whitesnake album as you
ever gonna get you've got that sort of David Coverdale S vocals of David
Friedman you know he's a Lancashire lab from Burnley not far from me really he's
featured in Tank as you know and Pink Cream 69 and Adagio among all his other
ventures he's a good singer this is good mainstream metal rock you know
he's got those sort of soaring Whitesnake melodies buttress by some you
know sort of chunky sizzling guitar playing John Sykes style Joel Hoogstra
style all that sort of stuff's there I mean they ain't inventing the wheel but
you know we say that a lot about a lot of albums now obviously because you know
we're hearing a lot of a lot of stuff over the years but they are producing
really enjoyable music and and if you if you like me and you're partial to a
little bit of Coverdale a little bit of Whitesnake it's clutch clutching pumped
power metal and I liked it it's my album of the week all right awesome okay so I
started listening to the new album from zebrahead it's a little of everything
there were a few tracks back in the day that I enjoyed it there's probably the
their most famous song is a cover of real life's send me an angel I listened
to the new Linkin Park album from zero and I have to say it's better than what
I expected because the last few albums by the band with Chester in the lineup
just didn't do a whole lot for me I wasn't really expecting much from it and
was surprised yeah there's some poppy commercial type music on here but it's
heavier than what I expected it's got some catchy melodies so I enjoyed it
speaking of poppy poppy's negative spaces is my album of the week a huge
fan of hers I think that she offers up a great mix of a lot of different genres
from straight-up rock to straight-up metal to
screamy stuff within metal to just full-on pop so she gets away with a lot
of stuff and she tends to do it fairly well so my album of the week is poppy
with negative spaces all right let's move on to November 22nd we had new
albums from Marilyn Manson opeth crossbones scully distant Sunstorm
srirachi 100 or excuse me 10,000 years die for my sins
mer body count and EPs from Zandria Zandria I guess that's pronounced
reissues from Judas Priest their rock and roll a 50th anniversary
Marillion the strange engine nothing more with nothing more 10th anniversary
edition Tigers of Pantang with animal instinct so Jeremy outside of those
reissues what did you listen to well I you know I started the week listening to
something on the ripple music label I used to listen to a lot of stuff and
I've bought quite a bit on that label haven't listened to anything for some
time so I listened to all quiet on the final frontier by 10,000 years which is
a band actually from guess where Sweden this is this is actually better than I
was anticipating it's all sort of fast-paced donor with some great rhythmic
riffing on it the song high noon in sword city in particular has a sort of
cult style groove which I liked it doesn't overstay its welcome either
there's just eight songs on the album it's a very worthy 34 minutes of my life
spent proving to I might add that Sweden does every type of rock and roll really
well as we've kind of proved tonight even by mentioning Sweden so many times
and finally a little mention too for their mighty fine arty album cover so
yeah gets all the thumbs up for me that one I moved on to the comfortable bed
fellow of classic hard rock with former croaker singer Marks to Rachie's album
crossfire the Maltese born Swiss frontman you would think might branch out
a bit by now but no it's another AC DC style effort that made his band famous
but hey who doesn't like an AC DC style wrong we all do don't we the song love
things dealer is so AC DC and not just the title you'd be really forgiven for
thinking it's it's not a new song by the band really it's so AC DC but you know
as we said I think before if it's good enough for Airborne it's good enough for
Starachi or any other band that tries to copy them and this isn't really an
album that's going to be defined by over analysis it's you know it's just punchy
the production is full you can hear every word he sings I mean let's be
honest we're reinventing the wheel on this one as we aren't on many others but
it's a perfect listen on a long road trip it's a decent decent hard rock stuff
there the third one is next up sorry is a is a an album called scream by a band
called die for my sins fairly new band I think founded by Fabio and Nicholas
Caluori of Heimdall it it also has Ralph Sheepers on this sharing vocals with Ian
Parry so I think it's worth a listen for most most of the listeners out there and
you know it's got the real balance of melody and heaviness on this album it's
it does sound a little bit like primal fear you know with those sort of Judas
Priest overtones but it's a nice listen overall and I'm kind of in between here
but I probably plump this you know the star archie one maybe is this album of
the week okay so similar to the star archie album you have the crossbone
scully album featuring Tommy Hendrickson who is best known for his work with
Alice Cooper although he was in warlock many many years ago full-on AC DC I mean
beginning to end I listened to the new opeth the last will and testament and
I've never been a huge opeth fan there's some songs of theirs that I really like
for the most part I just don't get them it's an okay album I know that some
people are shaking their fists at me right now but just kind of didn't grab
my attention I also listened to the 10,000 years album I thought that was
pretty good I was different than what I had expected listened to the new body
count merciless and I have to say I was disappointed with that one I'm a huge
body count fan their last few albums have been really really really good and
this one kind of falls short I think the lyrics also kind of just tend to be kind
of over-the-top horror type lyrics and they kind of lose me a little bit
whereas the stuff that kind of grabs me from body count is sort of the more
rebellious you know angst against the system type deal but anyway my
album of the week is Marilyn Manson's one assassination under God chapter one
for everyone that is saying oh this is Manson's return to you know return to
form it's their best album since Antichrist Superstar people I know
people that have been saying that with every single Manson release since it is
a very good album that is strong I I really I really like it and I've liked it
since the first few singles that I heard off of the album and to be honest with
you I thought it I had ordered this on vinyl and this week as I was scanning
albums into my discogs I noticed that the Manson album that I picked up and I
thought oh I've got a limited edition copy of the new album and as I'm
scanning it into discogs I realized that it's actually the
Pale Emperor so this is a reissue from an album from 2015 and the shopper I
bought it ordered the reissue instead of the new album so kind of my mess-up as
well where I should have noticed it in the store but anyway if you're remotely
a Marilyn Manson fan check this album out it is it is really good so the final
week in November November 29th now just so you guys know this is Thanksgiving
holiday and as I mentioned before a lot of a lot of companies stop releasing
music they'll release compilations live albums greatest hits stuff like that
just because that's what a lot of people buy for the holidays if they buy
anything at all so there's a short list of releases here whereas the 22nd had a
lot of new stuff so we have new albums from fire action the gates of slumber
shining the watcher demon bitch and hellfire 76 we have an EP from I don't
know if this is pronounced sag or if it's you know SA HG how exactly this is
pronounced but anyway they released in a an EP called more of nothing what did
you listen to this week Jeremy yeah so just a couple for you I tried out master
of the games by demon bitch which was you know a fairly balanced offering
between the sort of genuinely enjoyable and the outright ridiculous it's all
sort of old-school fun from the Detroit Michigan band that's you know they play
sort of new op and speed metal styles and fairly cool measure this sort of very
trouser tightening high-pitched vocals the sort of thing I guess that my teenage
self enjoyed back in the day but just a just a touch amateurish and dramatic to
be a must-listen and say okay I mean moving on I moved on to rags to rage by
hellfire 76 a band from Charlotte that sort of kind of combines a lot of
elements really some stoner some doom southern rock and roll you know bits of
metal you know there's some deep and heavy riffing on this it's a great tempo
it's their first full-length record by the way it's not you know it's not the
most fantastic music but it does remind me a little bit of clutch okay it
certainly has a few tracks on there that were turning up and I think it could
also be you know a bit of a grower so that's the one I that's what I'm going
for okay cool so I got to listen to the hard rock leanings of fire action and
their album until the heat dies this is on steamhammer SPV this could easily be
on frontiers to be honest with you not terrible but not sure that it's
something that I would reach for in the future listen to out of the dark from
the watcher which is on Cruz del Sur Cruz del Sur the southern cross
basically again stoner leanings not bad don't read doom have you want to look at
it not bad not anything new but the one that got me is the EP more of nothing
from sag again this is a band that's consistently put out entertaining heavy
metal there's always something on each one of their releases that I enjoy and
this album or this EP is no different out of given all the choices this is
what I'm going with here so just to recap here let's see you went with
bombas for the first week I went with tribulation second week of November we
both went with impel a Terry the third week of November you went with voodoo
circle and I went with copy the what is this one two three the fourth week you
went with the starachy I went with the Marilyn Manson and for the final week of
releases in November you went with hellfire 76 and I went with sag album
cool so folks look back at all of the episodes that we've done Jeremy and I
throughout the year if you're not sure as to what music to check out or what may
make your top 10 list for the year you've got almost a month before we do
the countdown you've got about three weeks to submit your lists and I know
somebody who's on the show outside of me who's already submitted their list but
anyway let's let's talk about some other points that some other interesting
topics that we've been going back and forth with the last week the last few
days and alright so probably the biggest news for could be this could be
considered the biggest metal news of the year I mean we've waited all the way
till the end of the year for this to happen but farewell to Nicko McBrain who
is leaving Iron Maiden now well he's leaving the touring side of things so
that the way that they've kind of described it is kind of interesting
because there's there's two things that I want to bring up one you saw them last
year with Nicko and you mentioned that you already sense that something was
wrong that he wasn't playing the parts as he had in the past that's one thing
the second thing is does this mean Nicko will continue to record with them will
he you know record a track or two maybe with the band and their new drummer who
you know I should be better prepared here I don't have his name but he's got
all types of credentials you know he played with the outfield for a very long
time which is a pop rock band he's played in a band you know in a in the
90s he was in a full-on metal band he's played in a bunch of different bands
over the years
and he's in Steve Harris's band Steve Harris and which is when this first came
up I meant and they're either picking him without knowing his name so his name
is Simon Dawson and I said it's either gonna be him or somebody who's been in
one of Steve's kids bands no the interesting thing is they're showing him
with a six-piece kit which I'm assuming that for Iron Maiden he will expand that
to be able to play some of these songs at least you would think you would hope
that he would follow the kind of aesthetics that the band is known for
with both Clive and Nicko haven't seen a bad thing about Nicko from anyone and
interesting how coming out of the woodworks have been a lot of different
musicians from different genres of rock music praising Nicko and for how nice he
is and stuff like that so it's always very cool to see yeah but what's your
take on this and what's your take on Simon Dawson replacing him yeah well
initially I was a little bit saddened by it because obviously you know he's been
in the band for so long I've only really known him as a drummer for you know
since the early very early days he's been on every album hasn't he since
number of the beast onwards or whatever so peace of mind yeah sorry yeah peace
of mind so yeah yeah exactly yeah came in then and then since then he's been on
every album well I mean what can you say you know he's forged a great rhythm
section with Steve over those years he's added a bit of fun you know he's
does seem like a fun character in the band so he's gonna be sorely missed but
as you say you know I saw them last year and I noticed I mean I didn't know at
the time that he'd been ill and I noticed that his playing was very very
limited it looked like he wasn't performing I mean I'm not a drummer
either you know I'm not a real drumming guy I'm going to guitars but you can
tell when someone's not right you know he was surrounded by all this sort of
perspex so we could hear everything properly you sort of shielded from the
rest of the band and he wasn't really doing much which you know normally you
know he's quite he's quite expressive let's say on the drums so yeah I mean
you know he's the oldest member of Iron Maiden so it's to be expected he's been
ill he's had the stroke he can't do it to answer your question earlier will he
do some will he record with them yeah I think that's possibly you know he's open
to him to do that maybe he won't do everything but a bit a little bit like
Judas Priest with with Glenn right you know he may well contribute stuff and
say what needs to be done and he may well be able to do it in private rather
than doing it in the live situation because he can go over and over what
he's doing and make it more perfect so yeah I think you know listen at the end
of the day that they've made the right he's made the right decision because
you can't go on forever none of these bands are gonna go on forever and rather
than rather than the band folding you know they've decided to go on without
him as for the choice of you know new drummer Steve's working with someone
he's happy with he's he's already working with him and as you know we
know bassists and drummers have to work together and so if he's happy we're
working with this guy he wants to do it with him you know in maiden and feels
that he can you know meet the challenge of doing maiden which will be a bit more
of a challenge I guess yeah yeah the other thing you brought up Glenn Tipton
yeah so they're saying that Nicko is stepping away from the touring side of
things again does it mean that he's gonna record stuff with them does it
mean that he could show up at some festival and play with them you've raised
you've raised something there yeah that's similar to Glenn yeah yeah yeah
yeah because being that it's the 50th anniversary of the band they're gonna be
playing music from a lot of those albums that he was on you know so all the way
they're gonna be playing from the first album up to Seventh Son you know could
he show up at a well they're not playing download but you know could he show up
at some you know big event in the UK something big in the States you know
where he turns up and I don't even know if they could announce hey you know with
with Nicko on drums you know for this show or you know I don't know with I
would assume that that may draw some people to say hey you know this is gonna
be our last time where we're gonna see him let's check him out I don't know
yeah or whether we might play with with the new drumming you know they might
have two people on stage at once doing a little bit of drumming during one of the
tracks or something I don't know I don't know it seems to me as if he wants to
sort cut ties completely in terms of live performances and you can understand
it you know he's had an illness that makes it probably harder to drum than
it does to play Living After Midnight you know living you know what mean mean
you can play Living After Midnight and I'm I'm not a great guitarist but you
know I can play a few chords and you know I can do that on stage and that's
easy for Glenn because it's it's in his DNA and you know he doesn't have you know
even with his Parkinson's disease he can actually play those few chords and he's
playing with two other guitarists and so they could easily turn him down if he
wanted to with a drummer it's a bit different I think you know especially if
he's doing it on his own right so yeah I don't know I think we're just gonna have
to say if he does come out it's great you know it will be fantastic to see him
again if not he's gonna be a drum he's gonna be doing tours with as a drum
technician you know selling is himself as you know a drum instructor and you
know go into these drum shows and all that sort of stuff and it'd be nice to
see him around to that yeah okay he doesn't know anyone anything yeah yeah
no absolutely doesn't all right Jeff Tate on the heels of our Queen Drake
discussion a few weeks back Jeff Tate will release a single at a time over the
next two years yeah so this is kind of interesting because this is what
Smashing Pumpkins did not with their latest release but with the album that
they put out before and they abandoned the concept completely for this new
album and interestingly enough I've been posting a lot of videos to patreon for
this week for this coming week and a lot of it a lot of my comments were hey this
is a standalone single hey this is standalone single I don't know when a
new album is coming out there's no news on any full-length coming out so yeah
it'll be interesting to see I mean I get it why he would do something like that
and there are some bands that I think should only sell things in this fashion
or release things in this fashion but what do you think yeah it's a little bit
strange in a way because I think he mentioned recently he was going to
record the new Mindcrime album didn't he? Mindcrime 3 as well so I don't know
what he's planning to do really are these tracks off that particular album
are they something different? I don't like it in terms of I like to I mean we
have a show here which is about albums of the week you know we listen to albums
still we're a little bit old school we like to hear a whole album and judge
the best songs ourselves and hear them from front to back and I don't like it
when these bands sort of release you know the odd song here or there or even one
after the other now and again I want to hear the whole thing right but I get it
it's a different way of doing it it might be yeah it might be good if they're
if they're great songs because you're gonna look forward to them on the other
hand what happens if he releases a dud one and you've got to wait another month
for the you know the one you really want to hear right I don't know I'm holding
out judgment on it I'm not I'm not entirely sure what what I think of it
until he releases it starts releasing them really but it's not it's not my
cup of tea it's not not what I want to hear from a band or a recording artist
okay so next up I'm trying to figure out dates here
all right so okay I guess there aren't official dates but anyway all right so
there's been a new festival announced Boardwalk Rock which is May 17th and
18th in Ocean City Maryland which is fairly close to where M3 is taking
place every year so the Saturday lineup is Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Hailstorm,
Bush, Chevelle, Flyleaf with Lacey Sturm, The Struts, Extreme, Everclear, Puddle of
Mud, Trapped, Kat Von D, and Royal Lynn. Sunday is Nickelback, Shinedown, Three
Days Grace, Alice Cooper, Three Doors Down, Bread Michael's, Candlebox, Night Ranger, Crossfade,
Dorothy, Blackstone Cherry, Fuel, Saliva, and Tim Montana.
M3 hasn't announced dates yet and they haven't announced who's gonna be playing
either. My whole thing here is because M3 is usually in May I'm not mistaken
my whole thing is is this gonna detract from M3 having this festival being the
same month same state fairly close I mean M3 takes place at
man I can't find it now
anyway it also takes place in Maryland as I'm saying.
Mary Weather Post Pavilion in Columbia Maryland and this is in Ocean City Maryland.
So I wonder let's see on Google Maps here.
Yes folks this is the most exciting part of the show as we research stuff.
I can sing a tune but but I can't.
Columbia Maryland.
So these shows are going to be a similar time you're saying. Yes. Well as being in
the same venue yeah yeah. That's an interesting one isn't it they've obviously gone for
direct competition which is strange if not you know a kind of American way of doing things but
why would they do that and they kind of dilute the fan bases for M3 which
is quite a well-established festival I think isn't it. Yeah certainly one that we know one or two of
your patrons go to regularly friends and patrons go to M3 and they're going to be
a bit weird. They've obviously gone for some decent scheduling there as well you know there's some
great bands on right so it's definitely attractive you know we've bemoaned Def Leppard on here on in
terms of their studio stuff but you know Live Act fantastic. Who doesn't want to see Def Leppard live
and many other bands that you've mentioned there and I think that's a really interesting
very attractive thing to go to. I'd be interested to know in the in the cost as well how they whether
they're very competitive on the prices because that will make a you know will have a bearing to
the rock fan who wants to go there will be some who want to go to both of course. Oh wow. If they can.
Yeah. Yikes two days yeah two days general admission starting at
$240. Right yeah yeah.
Yeah. One day tickets $165. Yeah. Have we got any feeling? Yeah go on. No I was going to say which is what
a two-day festival usually costs in Europe. Yeah. $165. Yeah have you got any feeling for M3 prices
compared and compare? I think they're cheaper. Cheaper yeah yeah. I don't know it sucks to me.
I've seen so many festivals fall apart because similar things to this have happened where
somebody comes in sets up same demographic few hours away. I mean there's basically a two and
a half hour difference from one place to the other one is close to I guess it's in between
Washington and Baltimore and the other one is Ocean City which is on the coast.
But yeah schedule it a different time I would say but you know. Well it's what is it's definitely
one to monitor next year and see what happens really in terms of you know who goes and what
they think about it. Yeah yeah absolutely. Here's one that you sent to me. Your eye heap to play
shows after a farewell tour. So this is kind of like what I mentioned about Nico. Well he's
going to stop touring. Well your eye heap is doing their farewell tour but they're not going to stop
playing shows. So it looks like they're going to continue to do one-offs here and there maybe a
festival date here and there. At least they're upfront about it. That said they shouldn't label
this a farewell tour. Yes I get it they're saying goodbye to touring but at the same time they're
still going to be playing shows and in the greater scheme of things you know I think that
they'll trick more than one person into going to see them as a result. Yeah yeah I mean this has
happened so many times. I mean I've been on the Motley Crue farewell tour, I've been to the Kiss
farewell tour, I've been to the Scorpions farewell tour, I've been to the Thunder farewell tour
and every one of these bands has then gone back out on the road and I've bought the t-shirt, I've
been to the farewell show because I wanted to see them one last time and it's becoming annoying.
I mean I like your eye heap and I like the guys in it. I think they're you know they're nice guys,
they play genuine music, they want you to go and have a good time, they don't overcharge you,
they've been going since the year DOT you know so they've built up a fan base and they're very
enjoyable music but I don't know it's probably not them, it's probably their promoters you know
the promoters do it on purpose to get people to go bums on seats and then they turn around and
saying oh no no we're not finishing it's just you know it's a farewell tour. It's just daft,
it's daft but it's marketing and we ain't going to see the end of it, there's going to be more
bands that are going to do it after them. I just wish they'd stop it and just tell us if it is the
very last tour. Yes, I agree with you. Category seven, band made up of Phil Demel formerly of
Machine Head and Violence, adrenaline mob guitarist Michael Orlando, Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall who
just left Overkill and Jack Gibson who is known for his work in Exodus and oh yeah their lead singer
is John Bush formerly of Anthrax and currently Armored Saint has cancelled their spring tour.
Interesting because there was going to be support from bands that I've interviewed. So for example
Dead by Wednesday, Opus and Engineered Society Project who I've had Krista Singer on the show
several times over the last few years. So that kind of bums me out.
And I have the category seven album right here. Anyway,
yeah so what's annoying to me about this is that for years people are clamoring to hear John Bush
revisit his Anthrax material. This is a project where he was going to be doing that and no more.
It's interesting to see what category seven will do now because obviously they haven't,
you know, no one's selling lots of copies of anything now unless you're Taylor Swift.
And they're saying that you know ticket sales were so poor that they weren't,
they were going to barely break even.
Right. Can I chip in and ask when were these shows about to be going live? When were they going live?
March 5th through the whole month of March.
Right, right. So yeah my immediate thought about that is that a lot of
people are saying that they're going to be going live. So I'm not going to be going live.
My immediate thought about that is that a lot of punters now are buying tickets late for shows.
I think a lot of promoters say that as well. So I think the promoters don't want to stick their
necks out because they think well if they haven't sold a certain amount that they need to sell at
this stage then that's when they cancel it. But I've heard that this is happening a lot with,
because there's so many concerts now especially for next year. I think 2025 is quite a cramp,
very cramped with concerts all the way through the first half of the year.
So it doesn't surprise me. I mean I don't know how much the tickets were and
there's so much competition. So much.
Yeah I'm not sure how much the tickets were either.
Yeah and people are delaying stuff. He's getting to Christmas as well.
Right.
And you know that's the sort of show that people would start to buy in January, February I think.
But they're not willing to hold out. You know they're not willing to hold out and think well
they'll be half full. They need to have some ticket sales up front don't they?
Yeah and that's kind of the argument where I've seen from some people saying hey you know this is
proof that you need to buy tickets ahead of time. You can just rely on walk-up. But
speaking of cramped, 184 bands have been announced for Hellfest 2025
taking place between the 19th and 22nd of June.
And let me go over some of these bands. So on the main stage for Thursday will be Korn,
Ramstein, lead singer Till Lindemann, Airborne, Apocalyptica and Skindred. Stage two,
Electric Callboy, Kim Dracula, seven hours after Violet which is Shavo from System of the Downs
new band. You have Helicopters and Turbo Negro on another stage. Then you have
Orange Goblin, Monkey 3 on another. Yet on another stage is Ginger White Chapel, Fit for an Autopsy.
Then finally on the Temple stage you have Alcest, Sunno and Eshaan amongst other bands.
Friday June 20th main stage is Muse, The Who, The Cult, The Warning. Stage two, Within Temptation,
Epica, Spirit Box, Kitty, Charlotte Wessels and Sun. Warzone stage, Sex Pistols with Frank Carter,
The Damned. Valley stage, Masters of Reality, Pentagram, Russian Circles is the headliner.
Alter stage, Exodus, Sacred Rite, Tankard, Three Inches of Blood, Nervosa, Burning Witches.
That's an interesting lineup there. Temple stage, I guess in Extremo is the only one that I kind of
know. Main stage is Scorpions and another combo that I was going to discuss, Satriani and Steve Vai.
Black Country Communion, Miles Kennedy, Tremonti. That's interesting. They're playing
by themselves one after the other. I wonder if they do any Alter Bridge songs together.
Main stage two, Judas Priest, Dream Theater, Savatage,
Ross the Boss, Warzone stage, Turnstile, Tear, Stick to Your Guns, Nasty, Valley stage,
Conan is the only band that I know off of this. Alter stage, Haken, Voila,
Persephone. Those are all progressive metal bands. Temple stage, yeah, this is all extreme metal.
Then Sunday, June 22nd, Lincoln Park, main stage one, Lincoln Park, Cypress Hill,
Refused, Eagles of Death Metal, Dead Poets Society, main stage two, Falling in Reverse, Data Remember,
Motionless and White, Lorna Shore, Poppy, Warzone stage, Knocked Loose, Walls of Jericho, Gorilla
Biscuits, Valley stage, Jerry Cantrell,
Kailisa, Prayers, which is actually Kat Von D's husband's band, Alter stage, Death Clock, Cattle
Decapitation, and the Temple stage. On to others,
Priest, and that's about it that I know on that. So 184 bands, there's a lot more that I didn't
mention. Speaking of cramped, as I said, I'm not going to go into that.
Yeah, as I was going to mention that Steve Vai and Joe Satriani will launch a band called
Satchvai Band, announcing the Surfing with the Hydra European Tour, where for the first time,
they will share a band and they will be flip-flopping songs back and forth.
That'll be a guitargasm.
Absolutely. Does Hellfest or even that Vine Satriani package interest you?
There's a Victor. If that Hellfest doesn't interest you, this is not the show for you,
because there's so many bands on there for everyone. There's big name bands, there's a
load of small bands we've not heard and we'd love to check them out. There's so much stuff on there.
I don't care how much that costs. It could be within a range. There's obviously so much
you're willing to pay, but it's fantastic. It's really fantastic what they're doing.
There's so much good stuff. The only thing you can hope for is good weather and it's not going to be
an absolute downpour that puts you off. You mentioned bands like The Damned and The Cult
and Judas Priest and Scorpions and a whole host of others. It's just fantastic. It's great to see all
that super music all on in the one venue day after day. It's a dream and unfortunately,
I guess it sold out pretty quick. Yeah, it's already sold out. It's sold out right after we last.
Yeah. I mean, the organizers of Hellfest should invite me and you free of charge because we will
give them a two-hour show live on that Friday night, live from the show. I'm putting it out
there now. If they want to do that, send us the tickets. We will come. We're very polite.
We won't diss any of the bands. We'll just give it a nice review and two-hour show. What do you
reckon, Victor? You can do that, can't you? You can set all that up. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Interesting here though, is that Scorpions gets billing over Priest.
Yeah. I don't know why that would be, especially with Judas Priest releasing a fairly decent album
this year. I don't want to go over the top too much because we've got our end year review of the
albums coming up and we don't know where it's going to end up. But yeah, that is a bit weird.
But Scorpions are very popular in Europe. True.
Where is Hellfest? Is it Germany? It's France.
It's France, right. Okay. So it's only next door.
It's in the south.
Yeah, it's next door. So maybe, they're probably very, very popular there.
Next door to both.
True. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Well, I don't know why that is. Normally for these sort of things,
they do it on album sales or they do it on what they've done in shows. They've got some
data behind it. I know they do that at Download. And I'm sure they do the same thing here. This is
a much heavier lineup than Download, even though... Yeah. Yeah. It's more old school. It's more old
school, isn't it? It's a little bit more old school because there are bands there which aren't
playing now at Download. Because... Yeah. And besides that, I mean, like you said, there's
a little of everything because on Sunday the 22nd, you do have Linkin Park and Cypress Hill,
for example. But Download had Sleep Token, Green Day, and I don't remember who the third
headliner was. I don't. Off the top of my head. But I mean, you look at the headliners here.
Pretty much all of them are heavier than those three. But anyway.
Yeah. Yeah. Real quickly before wrapping up here and talking about some anticipated tours and albums,
the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame has announced their inductees this year,
which include Dimebag Darrell, 20th anniversary of Life Celebration Induction,
Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy, Doyle Wolfgang, Ivan Frankenstein with the Misfits. Yeah, those
two are a pair. They're dating. They have been for years. Ricky Rocket, excuse me, of Poison,
KNAC, Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, Dangerous Toys, if you haven't checked out my latest
interview with Jason McMaster, the audio version is up now. And finally, Jeff Young of Megadeth
and Kings of Thrash. Jeremy, what do you think of the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame and that lineup
that they're inducting this year? Yeah. What do I think of it? I think of it probably what
some of the artists have said of it over the years. These sort of things, they're good in
some ways because they highlight bands or artists that are good in that genre and that should be
awarded and talked about. But on the other hand, it kind of passes me by. I mean, I don't really
take much interest in it really, apart from the fact that it might make me listen to a little bit
of the music. I listened probably about a year or so ago to Dangerous Toys. And now you've mentioned
them again. I might sort of go away and listen to them because they're a great band. I don't know
who else is in there. I can't remember who else has been inducted before. I can't remember who
hasn't been inducted. I just know that list that you've just given me for this year. And I think
well, I'm happy for them, but it doesn't really affect me. It's not something that I think about
from day to day. I'd rather just listen to the music. Okay. All right. So let's wrap things up
here talking about anticipated tours and albums for 2025. Any tours or albums that you are looking
forward to? Yeah. Well, we've mentioned your right heap. I'm going to see that one. I'm going to
see that one. I thought it was going to be the final tour, but still looking forward to seeing
them live. I've got tickets for that. I've got tickets for Iron Maiden. It'd be lovely to see
them again next year. They're going to do a big show for their anniversary. I've actually got a
ticket for Saxon later in the year. So all the old school bands are playing. Might even get to see
Judas Priest again, but I think they're only doing two dates in the UK next year on the sort of
doing a lot of Painkiller. So there's lots of stuff happening live, loads of stuff that I
haven't mentioned. In terms of albums, one in particular I'll point out, I'm looking forward
to a New Testament album. Okay. Because I've heard good reports about it, as you would do from
within the band itself, that they sound as if they're doing a much heavier album. Having said
that, aren't all Testament albums pretty heavy? They're a heavy thrash band, but it'd be interesting
to hear what it's like. Is it going to be along the lines of The Gathering? Are they going to get
their shit together now and really do a full album of great songs? Because the last few albums I
find four or five songs are absolutely tip top, and then it sort of fades a bit for me. So I'm
holding out hope that they're going to release something that I'll listen to all the way through.
I think Europe might be issuing an album next year. As you know, I'm a big fan of Europe and
they've been doing some really good rock stuff in the last few. Who else might be releasing stuff?
I haven't really heard a lot about what's definitely coming out. You hear a lot of
rumors, don't you? But those are the main ones for me. Okay. For me, I'm definitely looking
forward to a new Anthrax album, which is supposed to be coming out. Joe Holmes just released a single
and that features Mike Borden of Faith No More and Robert Trujillo of Metallica, which, oh yeah,
by the way, the three of those guys played together in Ozzy's band for some years.
And I think Joe's a very underrated guitarist and this track, I've scheduled the song, it's called
Crosshide Stare to come out on Patreon this week. The soloing is just ridiculous. Is it on par with
the Nuno Bettencourt solo that we were all in awe of a year ago when it came out? I wouldn't say it's
that over the top, but I think you're going to listen to it and you're going to be like,
damn, that's good. It's some good soloing. Listen to a new track from the Wild Hearts. They're
releasing an album called Satanic Rites of the Wild Hearts, which Wild Hearts have always been
either absolutely love or just don't get. And I think that's how Ginger's music is in general for
me. What else? Shadows Fall released a new single from their comeback album. Looking forward to that.
Trying to see if there's anything else here that kind of sticks out to me. Yeah, I guess that's it
for now. Just a couple of rumors, by the way. Thin Lizzy might be playing live with Scott Coram. He's
looking to reform a band from some older members. That might be quite interesting if it comes off
next year. The rumor, obviously, that Ozzy might be trying to get a formulation of Black Sabbath and
Ozzy members together and playing live. It was a rumor for this year, but it's also a rumor for
next year. That would be exciting if that really came up. Just a couple of things that would
excite me if it happened. Yeah, that sounds cool. And actually Black Label, I think, is supposed to
be releasing an album in 2025. That interests me. Testament interests me as well. I'm trying to think
of who else. I already have a 2025 playlist going. We're going to have fun from month to month,
I think, as we always do. We always think the next year can't be as good as the previous year.
Yeah. And there's always surprises that come along.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. All right. So there's a new album from Lacuna Coil that I'm looking
forward to. Arch Enemy, Dream Theater, The Halo Effect, Smith Cotson, Kill Switch and Gage,
Spirit Box, Ginger. Those are the ones that stick out right now where they've actually released
singles already. So, yeah, excellent. Jeremy, I want to thank you for joining me tonight.
A lot of fun, as always. Hope the episode was formal or informational for you guys.
Informational. Is that the right way of saying it? Informative. It helps you with your year end lists.
Always a pleasure, sir. And thank everyone for their support, for watching. And
let's see, we've got somebody in the chat all of a sudden as we're trying to say goodbye here.
Edgar Winterson, thanks for joining us a few minutes back. I hope you go back and
check out the entire episode. Maybe we look forward to having Edgar Winterson on Patreon
at some point this year. But anyway, all right, guys. So thank you so much for listening. Thank
you for watching. Thank you for all your support. And we will see you next time right here on
Signals from Mars. See you, folks.