Welcome one and all to episode 425 of Signals
From Ours. I'm your host Victor and for this
episode we welcome back Jeremy Weltman at Ferguson.
We're talking September 2025 new releases, new
music, new things to help you lighten the load
of your pocket and hopefully turn you on to some
great new music. I'm ready. Quick reminder that
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head on over to the sponsorship page on SignalsFromMars
.com to learn more. All right, all right, all
right. Bad Matthew McConaughey. Right, all right,
all right. I don't know. Anyway, just want to
send a shout out to my patrons, Steven Saylor,
Steve Hoker, Jeremy Weltman, Mike Jones, Brad
Dahl, Gabriel Ruiz, Chris Vaglio, Metal Dan,
Johan in Sweden, Ed who appears on this episode.
Jeremy appears on this episode as well. I've
already said that. Anthony Mackey, great, great
graphic designer. who helped put everything together
graphics -wise for the Everything episode 300
onward. Wow. It's been 125 episodes since we
rebranded. Tony Espin and Sean Richman in the
UK. Also want to thank the returning Mark Striegel,
who is now a patron once again. Not sure how
often he listens to this or listens to the actual...
a Patreon podcast, but his support is appreciated
nonetheless, as is yours. If you want to become
a patron, you can do so for as little as two
bucks a month. If you want to just reshare, like
turn people on to the shorts that I've been posting,
all of that is extremely, I appreciate it extremely.
That's what I'm trying to say. So I do want to
thank you. And like I said before, we do these
episodes to talk about music, talk about things
that are exciting us, to turn other people on
to stuff that maybe they don't have the time
to check out. Maybe they have no interest in
sitting through a bunch of new music. And as
we discuss certain albums in the different way
that we describe them, so on and so forth, maybe
it interests you enough to check them out. So
if you do, we've done our job. In any event,
go to signalsfromars .com for anything related
to this episode, to the show, whether you want
to see where you can check out the YouTube version
of this, the video version, if you want to check
out previous audio episodes as well. It's all
there, signalsfromars .com. Thank you once again
for listening. Let's get on with the show. Welcome,
everyone, to the latest edition of Signals from
Mars. I'm your host, Victor. And joining me today
are Jeremy Weltman in the UK and Ed in Kentucky.
How are you guys tonight? Yeah, good. Thanks.
Really good. Doing good. Excellent. Happy to
see you. Happy to see you guys as well. Before
we jump into the episode, I do need to make an
announcement. The next Patreon special will be
October 24th. And what I'm going to ask people
to vote on is the 10 bands that they associate
most with Halloween. Fun. Now, this can be because
their imagery maybe. you think is associated
to Halloween. Maybe they spooked you as a kid.
Maybe the lyrics of a song, whatever you feel
are the 10 bands that most relate Halloween to
you are the bands we're going to discuss. So
I want people to vote, send their, their 10 bands
in. And as usual, if you can't send 10 in and
you've only got five that you can think of, three
that you can think of, one that you can think
of, whatever you send me is what I'm going to
work with. And how these polls work is whatever
your number one is gets 10 points. Whatever your
number two is gets nine points all the way down
to 10, which gets one. And this is a different
topic than what we usually talk about. And given
that Halloween was coming up. I thought it would
be something cool. And I'm not going to take
responsibility for coming up with this because
this was pitched to me by Brad Dahl. Brad Dahl
had quite a few different Halloween related different
show themes. And this was, this is, I think is
the easiest one to pull off. He talked about
having us put together like a master Halloween
playlist or Something like that. Or, you know,
the 10 spookiest songs for Halloween. So maybe
that's something we could do in the future. But
I think we'll start out with this and it should
be fun to discuss, no doubt. But tonight we're
going to talk about September 2025 releases.
We hope that you enjoy these episodes. We're
trying to help people with finding new music.
And, you know, I always feel and I think that's
kind of the consensus here is that there's always
good music coming out. You just have to find
it. And we're giving you guys a nudge as to what,
you know, we feel works for us. And, you know,
hopefully ends up on your year end list when
we do that big show in December. So anyway. Without
further ado, we kick things off on September
5th with new albums from Fury, Bless the Fall,
Condition Critical, Cult Burial, Dreams of Grey,
Glenn Hughes, Nailed to Obscurity, Primal Fear,
The Rods, FM, Dark Angel, Via Nova, Speed Queen.
Jesus, I can't talk. Speed Queen, Fawn, Ambush,
Bentsy, EPs from Elaine and Revenoir, I guess
is how you pronounce it. Reissues from Night
Demon and Slipknot. A lot of, I guess you can
consider heavy hitters for that first week, depending
on what you like. Ed, what did you listen to
that jumped out at you? So one band that I found
interesting, not one that I like a lot, but I
got to bring it up. They were unusual. Cult Burial.
They have an album called Collapse of Pattern,
Reverence of Dust. And they're kind of a death
band. slash black slash doom metal band okay
they they have a lot of atmospheric sounds you
know stuff that kind of gets a little bit old
to me but this whoever these guys are are very
interesting when you read their lyrics okay um
this guy is like extremely poetic and verbose
he would be He would be, I've got to read you
just one, the start of one of their tracks. He
goes, in this quietude, a faint exhale comes
through. Utopian sweet abyss, thy arms I eagerly
come to know. Let me drift to neither bliss nor
pain. Despondency's feather born on dusk waning
gasp. And every single paragraph and every single
song is like that. Oh, wow. He would be an interesting
dude just to interview if you ever got the chance,
even if you don't like their music. I'd kind
of like to see what's going on in this guy's
mind. And it would be amazing to see him do a
live show and remember all of this poetry that
he's growling in his death metal. It's interesting.
So for those who like, you know, death, black
doom metal bands, check that out. I know I'm
not here to give recommendations on heavy metal
bands, but I have been enjoying the heck out
of that Speed Queen. Okay. Any one of you choose
that record? I got a chance to listen to it,
actually. Man, when I listen to that record,
it takes me back to being like in those days
right before kind of those speed metal days,
right before thrash metal took off. Let me get
my notes on this open. And you're welcome to
talk about any of the releases. That sounds good.
It's like classic heavy metal, like everything
I was listening to before I discovered thrash
metal. But it also has a lot of early thrash
metal sounds. Like the production is kind of
like Show No Mercy, Fistful of Metal. So it's
got that kind of production. But the vocals remind
you of vocalists like Ron Keel. It's almost like
if Ron Keel had a speed metal band, this is what
it would sound like. And this would be another
band that I think would be super interesting
to interview if you ever got the chance to ask
them how. Because I swear, when you listen to
this record, you feel like you just walked in,
or it sounds like they somehow walked into a
studio from 83 to 85 and recorded that album.
And I would love to know how they captured that
sound so perfectly. Right. And you hear riff
after riff that sounds like that good old stuff
that you were listening to back then, but it's
still fresh and sounds new. So everyone in the
Signals from Mars group, I think, should listen
to that. But my pick for the week, you know,
I told you I was a little bummed for the first
part of the year on metal releases for me. But
last month, you know, there was a couple of good
ones with Insight and Castrator. This month has
gotten even better. This record from Condition
Critical. is uh amazing did you happen to pick
that one uh jeremy i know sometimes you'll pick
a good yeah yeah no i'm interested to hear so
this is a thrash metal band that everyone in
the patron group would like um to me it's the
thrash metal album of the year so far it'll probably
be my number one but you know if you're fans
of all the stuff that we used to like if you're
fans of anthrax metallica exodus This band also
reminds me a lot of Indestructible Noise Command.
Okay. The vocals are similar to Billy Milano,
especially his MOD vocals. Right. Sometimes you'll
hear a little bit of that Nuclear Assault vocal
in there, too. So it's got all that classic sound
that we used to love in those early thrash metal
bands. The songwriting's great. It's got that...
you know, dynamic songwriting like we like from
Megadeth and Metallica and Anthrax with the riffs
that, you know, they kind of assault you with
the speed and then they'll slow you down and
take you on a, you know, headbanging journey
through your living room mosh pit. And, and they're,
and they'll, they're good at like those big thrash
bands are so good at, they're good at, you know,
taking those mosh parts and building tension
to build up into. Other jams, you know, some
kind of assault of electric jam to end the song
with. Right. The drummer in this band, I'd be
interested to hear you listen to and talk about
some time. He's a lot of fun to listen to. He
adds a lot of character and quality to the songs,
kind of like Dave Lombardo does or Charlie Benanti.
Okay. He's so interesting that without him, the
songs would be noticeably not as good. Okay.
But yeah, this record is, it's like a five -star
thrash metal record. Plenty of mosh pit moments.
All 10 songs are great. And I'm going to have
to give a couple of songs to Brad to put on yard
metal. And with the vocals not being too growly,
everybody will like it, especially Metal Dan
will like this record. So I went on for a while
there. I'll stop now. That's fine. That's incredible.
And everybody in the group needs to listen to
that. Cool. Jeremy, how about you? What did you
listen to? Yeah, this was a really packed week.
I mean, Ed's just mentioned a couple that I didn't
even touch on. And I'm going to be up late tonight
listening to them because that's great. I mean,
I listened to Primal Fear. I listened to Glenn
Hughes. And I'm not even going to touch on those.
I know you listened to Primal Fear. Victor, so
you can comment on that in a sec. I started on
Wild Dogs Unchained by The Rods. As you know,
I'm quite a fan of The Rods. They remind me a
little bit of Anvil. This album has been released
within, I think, within 12 months of the previous
one, really. It's all the same sort of hardcore
pub rock metal sort of stuff. It's all basic
stuff. It's all blue collar metal. But I like
it. I like it because they're a very genuine
band. You know, there's always some good riffs
on there. So, yeah, that was a pretty good start
for the month for me. I moved on to Brotherhood
from FM, which I guess you guys won't be into.
But as you know, you know, they're sort of British
soft rockers. I like them. They're a bit of a
comfort blanket. They've released a lot of quality
albums since they reformed around 2008, 2009.
And they produce quality stuff. They know melody.
And I sometimes think, I know Ed comes from a
different sort of aspect of this to me sometimes,
but I like a lot of melody and I like a proper
song. And they do it well. And it's not for everyone.
It might be for the Bon Jovi fans out there,
but it's not for, you know, your death metal
fans. But there you go. So then I moved on to
my pick of the week, which I guess one or two
of our fellow Patreon members are going to be
happy about because I picked Interceptor by Fury,
which is now is a bit of a favorite of all of
us, really. And you've interviewed them before.
you know i like this band i would say they're
not my favorite band but you know i think they're
very very good and i'd like to see them live
um that's that sort of new wave of british sort
of classic rock um i thought this one you know
it sort of had probably it had a lot of energy
to it but i thought it had a lot of um you know
sort of um variation on it as well so i think
that you know they they've matured a little bit
should i say um so i think they're releasing
some good stuff um i'm not raving about it uh
but i think it's a it's worthy of my pick of
the week and uh it's a very enjoyable album and
i'd like to return to it okay so i got a chance
to listen to uh some of the stuff that you guys
you guys mentioned i got to listen to the speed
queen Um, I got to listen to, uh, bless the fall
with gallows. It's their first album since, um,
2018. Um, this is going to be a common theme
and I've been talking about this on Patreon the
last few weeks, uh, bands that started out being
death core or metal core or even death metal.
Um, Coming out with real radio -friendly albums
now all of a sudden. Yeah, I can't stand it.
We need to do an episode just so I can bitch
about that. But it's weird to me because, and
I'll get into this more with another album that
I listen to, but it's weird to me that this is
so blatant. radio production and radio hooks
and there are certain things where it's like
there's already a million bands doing this you
know and it makes you feel like when these bands
first came out 10 15 20 years ago they were just
jumping on a on a wave on something that was
trendy at the time and they're now doing the
same thing to try to stay afloat all these years
later So it's just kind of weird. Primal Fear.
This album, I don't want to say it's a complete
disappointment, but it's just paint by numbers
like power metal. And I felt like they reached
their groove like two albums ago, three albums
ago where. They had gotten heavier, like they
had added aspects to their music where they were
sounding, you know, more like Black Label Society
in certain parts where there was like a lot of
heavy chugging mixed in with anthemic stuff,
which is what they're known for. But now it's
like back to just paint by numbers power metal.
There's like two songs that I really like off
of the album and the rest is like, okay, there's
like. Double bass here for no reason. There's...
Okay, that sounds like... As Anthony Mackie would
say, that sounds like Eurovision metal. You know,
I don't know. It sucks. Again, I get it. They're
trying to make money. I'm going to have to go
with Glenn Hughes and Chosen. It's supposedly
his last rock album, he said. It's not as good
as his previous two solo albums, which I think
were heavier, funkier at times. This, I don't
have the liner notes. It's his first release
on Frontiers, I think. And I don't know if they
had a hand in writing some of the music because
sometimes they do that sort of thing. And maybe
that's why the album is a little more melodic
than the last few. But anyway, that's the one
that kind of stood out to me the most. September
12th, we had new albums from... Lorna Shore,
Arjun Anthony, Lucasen, Between the Buried and
Me, Never Tell, The Rasmus, Hellstar, The Switch,
Spite House, Restraining Order, Sweet Savage.
Sweet Savage, who is best known for being Vivian
Campbell's first band. Star Set, Hyperstrike,
Crippling Alcoholism, See a Saren, Year of the
Goat, Demon Hunter, Silverstein, and Crucible.
EPs from Colorblind and Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin
released a live EP, which I haven't checked out
yet. Never heard of them. Reissues from Asheron,
Behemoth, Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti. 50th
anniversary edition suite, a live album from
Fargo, and Motley Crue released yet another compilation
from the beginning, the definitive collection
of Motley Crue hits. So for everyone who still
shits on Kiss for putting out so many greatest
hits album, I think Motley Crue's got quite a
few as well. So Motley Crue may be up to the
same level, to be honest, at this point, because,
I mean, they're good for putting out greatest
hits like every four or five years. So anyway,
Jeremy, what did you listen to this week? Yeah,
so I started off with The Devil's Masquerade
by Hellstar, a Texas band back with their first
music in nine years, I believe. This one was
okay. It was okay as a starter. You know, there's
a lot of familiar elements in there with the
sort of riffs and the themes. It didn't grab
me that much, really. I wasn't that won over
by the vocal. It was kind of okay. Songs were
left a little bit wanting as well overall. So,
you know, I was hoping for something a little
bit better and I moved on for two really good.
albums uh songs no one will hear by aryan anthony
lucasen which you mentioned just before uh he's
the arion founder dutch prog musician um i've
not really heard much of his stuff before it's
a concept collection of eight songs um it's all
about having sort of five months left before
an asteroid impact hits the earth and sort of
what you do in the event of that not all of the
songs were brilliance on it but the ones that
were were Absolutely superb. I really liked it.
There was a slower track on there featuring Floor
Jansen of Nightwish. The final song, it's called
The Final Song, really good 14 -minute epic at
the end. So, you know, I'm not massive into prog,
but when I like prog and, you know, you get something
that's really good to listen to, really thought
this was an interesting album, really enjoyed
it, just as something a bit different. But my
pick of the week, Ed is going to prick his ears
up here because this is something I think he
was sort of almost intimating just a minute ago
because this is a debut by a Danish speed metal
merchants. It's Hail to the Force by Crucible.
It really reminds me of why he got into metal
in the first place. It's very amateurish. Well,
I say almost amateurish because I don't want
to be. too cutting it's a bit naive uh but there's
a real sort of ferocious intensity on the album
keeps you really involved in it you know that
sort of one that sort of draws you in reminds
you why you really liked it in the first place
real crushing riffs on there a little bit of
subpar sort of production quality on there but
that's okay um you know uh these are genuine
guys real rawness um even if there's you know
the vocals only sort of just about adequate uh
so you know the sort of guys you'd want to chat
at the bar with you know they're sort of guys
that would um engage with their audience uh and
you know for every sort of over polished band
that's out there we've got these kind of guys
doing this kind of stuff and this i think this
is why we do this program this is why we do this
live um live thing as well because you know we
talk about all the big bands but we need to talk
about the small bands uh They won't get known
anywhere else. So Hail to the Force, Crucible,
Pick of the Week. I can't remember if I listened
to that or not, but you have me interested. What
are the vocals like? Are they more like classic
heavy metal vocals? Yeah, kind of. I would suggest
you've got to look through the vocal a little
bit because you need to listen to the music.
It's the music that's kicking through. And sometimes
that's the case with these sort of bands, you
know, parts of it are not knitting together quite
right, but it's, you know. Like it's a character
though. Yeah. It's the character, the energy,
the enthusiasm, that sort of thing. Yeah. Cool.
Ed, what did you listen to this week? I got ticked
off listening to Between the Buried and Me doing
exactly what you talked about, you know, in the
last week. and remove that one immediately from
my library. The only thing that I kind of liked
was the Hellstar, but that was it. And Jeremy
pretty much summed it up. It's okay. You know,
it's just kind of, it's just, it's thrash metal
with kind of the more, the vocals kind of remind
me of Metal Church, except they're a little bit
more operatic or whatever. I think I would like
Hellstar better if he had a little more of a
hardcore voice. That's what is kind of missing
for me. But yeah, there wasn't anything else
that I picked that week. Okay. Would you say
that Hellstar is your pick of the week then?
Yeah, that would have to be the only pick I had.
The only thing I liked. Okay. Cool. So that's
actually one that I need to check out. Um, I
didn't get a chance to get around to listening
to that. So I got to listen to between the buried
in me, the blue nowhere. Oh my goodness. There's
a lot going on there. I mean, there are parts
of songs that sound like King Crimson. There
are parts of songs that sound like Van Halen.
There are parts of songs that sound like it's
got growly vocals. It's got clean vocals. It's
got It's all over the place. It seems to me,
I mean, yes, there's definitely a proactive feel
to this. It feels to me like they locked themselves
in a room and listened to a lot of Faith No More
and Mr. Bungle and then also decided at the same
time, similar to what I said before, Uh, we need
to move some units. So let's add some catchiness
to this and, um, and see where it goes. I, um,
I don't know because I can't consider myself
a huge fan of the band, but I do like stuff that
they've released in the past. This is just very
left field -ish in general. Uh, let's see. I
listened to What else? Silverstein, Pink Moon.
And Silverstein is a band that I've heard about
a lot. I've never checked them out before. And
I figured, well, why not? Let me give it a shot.
And I know they're very famous. I know they're
on the radio, but it's just very friendly radio
rock to me. Kind of generic. And my pick is going
to have to be Demon Hunter with There was a light
here. Interesting. Did you listen to that? Yeah,
and to me, it's just another plain old Demon
Hunter record. You know, I'm a big fan of their
first three. I love their third record. That
one I bought on vinyl. But every record after
that has just been the same thing over and over
again to me. So it's kind of become... I think
for the Demon Hunter fans, I think. Yeah, I think
it's interesting because they had been releasing
singles on their own and they hadn't mentioned
anything about an album. At least I didn't receive
any information about it. And some of those singles
were actually pretty cool and they ended up on
the album. But yes, to me, they've always been
either great. or mediocre like uh there are certain
songs of theirs that get stuck in my head and
i listen to a lot yeah and those are great but
then there are others where similar to what you're
saying and similar to what i said before about
like the primal fear where it's like oh okay
they're playing to the audience as opposed to
kind of working this out more and i was kind
of happy that they were releasing those singles
because my idea was wow for the first time and
I don't know how many albums they're just putting
out, you know, the grade a good stuff. Yeah.
Um, I guess that wasn't entirely the case. So,
all right. So let's, uh, move on to September
19th. We had new albums from November's doom,
higher power. Big Big Train, Dusted Angel, Paradise
Lost, I Prevail, Mike Tramp, Castle Rat, Parator,
Scorpion Milk, Igor, Hunter Oliveri, Dead, Soul
Keeper, Wolfheart, New World Depression. Krigsgrave,
Solicitor, Jonathan Wy... Jonathan Wyndham, okay.
Mirador, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Jesus, Didi Verney
and the Cadillac Band, Elder, EPs from American
Television and Kitty, and reissues from Bad Wolves,
Descendants, and A Perfect Circle, and a compilation
from... Camelot. So as far as you're concerned,
Ed, what did you listen to this week for the
19th? Yeah, this was kind of a weak week for
me too. Okay. Although I was very pleasantly
surprised with how good the Kitty spit 2025 record.
It's the 25th anniversary, yeah. Yeah. So I've
always kind of considered them a new metal band,
although they're also kind of described as groove
metal. And to me, checking them out more in the
last few years, I feel like they've probably
gone more in that groove metal vein, which is
probably why I'm liking it more as the albums
go on. Right. And I think they really nailed
it with this little four -song EP they have.
especially tracks two and three. They're a couple
of favorites of mine. Right. I don't know if
they're considered a new metal band. I think
they do it better than all the guys out there.
It sounds that good. It makes me like new metal,
if that's what it's called, a little bit. Great.
I meant to tell Steve Hoker, you need to listen
to this EP. You'll enjoy it. Yeah, I'm sure he's
checked it out. Yeah, he probably has. He probably
knows all the songs already. Yeah, I was familiar
with all them. I mean, they're re -records of
their original EP. But yeah, I got a chance to
listen to it, and they've heavied a lot of these
songs up for the 25th anniversary, which is,
I think, what you kind of need to do when you
come back. do stuff like that. I think Testament
did it best when they re -recorded stuff off
of the first few albums where they went heavier
with the tracks. And yeah, it's definitely how
they've been playing these songs the last, I
don't know how many years. Yeah. But anyway.
I love their vocals. I think this kind of music,
this new metal, groove metal, especially when
they have a good production. It's a perfect genre
of metal to express, how would you put it, to
express what's going on, or whatever those females
are trying to express through their music. It
really connects with their emotions in ways that...
goes beyond what the guys can do sometimes you
know new metal really connects with i think uh
that deep down anger especially people were feeling
in the 90s you know yeah um and and you can hear
that with uh you know with the the the lyrics
you know as the 90s went on um and just how it
fit the style of the music you know just really
expressing anger in ways that other genres of
metal hadn't not done yet right and uh And there's
some amazing bands, even though I'm not a big
fan of it. But especially some of these female
groups like Kitty, they take it to a whole nother
level to a point where it does move me. I think
it does a great job of expressing their emotions
through music. Yeah, I think that. They were
lumped in there because of the time period when
they came out, because I think that they definitely
were heavier than a lot of the other bands that
were coming out at that time. And also what you
mentioned, for a lot of people that I know that
are around my age group, that couldn't get into
a lot of 90s music. their gripe was oh you know
it's too depressing it's too angry it's too this
it's like well yeah you know if you're happy
all the time i mean that's kind of that's not
realistic you know sometimes you just need to
get out and vent your frustrations and obviously
a lot of the a lot of their music a lot of the
lyrics is about stuff that they faced in in their
lives and especially a lot of dark stuff yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talked about how, you know,
being women in a male -dominated genre, you know,
a lot of this stuff has come out of it. Some
of it's so dark I can't handle it. Like that
Opeth. Right. Man, some of the, I mean, they're
a great band, but some of the stories that she
tells, they're so dark. You know, because I guess
she's explaining her experiences in life. And,
man, it's just. it takes you to a depressing
place as if you're empathetic with what she's
trying to express, you know, through a lyric.
Yeah. Yeah. It can make it hard to enjoy the
music. Yeah. But, but that's how you, that's
how you deal with that stuff. That's what metal's
for. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything else
that you listened to that jumped out at you?
No, no, that was, that was not much going on
that week for me. Okay. So, all right. So I'll
write that down as your, All right, cool. Jeremy,
what did you listen to? Yeah, just a couple for
me this week. This Side of the Dirt by Dusted
Angel. I don't know if you know much about them,
but they describe themselves as doom rock. But
I say they're quite a bit punky as well. very
sort of long intro into the very first song.
So that kind of put me off a little bit. I was
thinking, oh, is it all like this? But once it
gets going, real sort of groovy, groovy music.
That's a very, very sort of neat and tidy. What's
all. what I'd describe as bouncy riffs and a
little bit of angst in there, a little bit of
metal coming in. So a very listenable mix of
tunes. I didn't know much about them. Apparently
they're from California. They've released one
other album back in 2020. Really enjoyed it.
It was a nice listen. So that was one. Of the
two, I'd probably pick the next one, which was
the Mirador. debut album again didn't know much
about this but then i realized i did um because
obviously you you played a uh put a track up
on your patreon page and of course it was formed
by two two guys and one of them was the greta
van fleet jake kiska um And, of course, it dawned
on me when I listened to the music because it's
very Zeppelin, it's very Rival Sons. And I like
that sort of music. And I didn't like Greta Van
Fleet. I just didn't like the vocal for some
reason. But I really like this. yeah, it does
remind me a little bit too much of Rival Sons
on occasions. And sometimes you can get a bit
too close to, to another band, but then it doesn't
stop Airborne or Crocus, you know, they sound
exactly like ACDC. So, you know, as I say, I
wasn't a fan of Greta Van Fleet, but I am a fan
of Mirador and I'm going to listen to that one
again and enjoy it. So yeah, that's my album
of the week. All right, cool. So for me, I started
listening to the Tron Areas soundtrack, which
was done by Nine Inch Nails. I really like the
one single that they've released off of the album.
To me, it's the best Nine Inch Nails song that
I've heard in quite some time. I'm probably going
all the way back to Hesitation Marks, which at
this point, probably like 15 years ago. So there's
that. I mean, it's instrumental except for three
tracks, and two of the three tracks with vocals
I think are good. The other one is just kind
of all right. I listened to November's Doom with
Major Arcana. This is a mix of a bunch of different
things. It's Doom metal, but it does have a little
bit of a growly vocal to it as well. There's
guttural vocals. There's melodic vocals. It reminds
me a lot of Paradise Lost. who also released
an album, which is The Ascension. I can kind
of say the same thing about both albums, is when
they're on top of their game, the tracks really
speak to me, and it's stuff that I really, really
enjoy. But then there's other stuff that just
does nothing for me. I think both have great
things, and even with the November Doom, there's
some stuff that... uh, goes into the, uh, typo
negative, um, territory with, with some of the
stuff. And I, I found it to be rather enjoyable.
Um, but, um, uh, my pick is going to be the,
the kitty EP as well, because I'm a fan of these
songs from way back when, again, I think that
they've done by redoing them. I think that they've
done them the right way. And I've been a fan
of the band for so long, and I enjoy the entire
EP. Okay, I think you're schooling me here. So
those were covers? Those were re -40s? Yeah,
Spit was their EP that they came out with back
in the year 2000. And the Spit 2025, okay. Right.
I didn't do my research on that. I just thought
it was some new tracks from Kitty. And I really
enjoyed them. They're all redone, but I think
kind of the idea for doing these tracks, the
way that they did them was that this has been
the lineup for, at least from the last album
and everything leading up to the last album to
now, this is the lineup that I saw live back
in 09. So before they went away for a, for a,
period of time this was this was the lineup and
so i think they wanted to both commemorate um
that original ep and also have this lineup play
it how they're playing you know how they've been
playing them these tracks for the last x amount
of years so that's good to know helps me know
what i'm talking about there you go all right
We have Dr. Sexy. So this is somebody who's joined
us, at least as far as I know, for the first
time. Saying, wow, Vic, you must be fun at parties.
Hey, guys, let's rock this joint with the new
Tron soundtrack. Listen, I'm a fan of Nine Inch
Nails, so I'm going to check out. Anything that
they put out. Does this compare to any of, you
know, my favorite albums or tracks by them? No,
not at all. But doesn't mean that I can't add
tracks onto, you know, my Nine Inch Nails playlist
here. Let's see. Let's move on to the last week
of September. We had new albums from Revocation,
Rage, Amorphous, Curse of Cain. Risen Atlantis
featuring Frank Beck. Corypheus, I guess is how
you pronounce it. Last Wretch. Moore's Principum
Established, I guess, or Estium, I don't know.
Overt Enemy. The Sorrow of Being Immaculate.
Fauna Paradox. High End, I guess, Sainthood Reps,
From Fall to Spring, Abraham, Indecent Behavior,
Terra Atlantica, After Earth, The Vintage Caravan,
EPs from President, Reissues from Acres, and
Apple and Shine from Mother Love Bone, and live
releases from Thunderbird, Divine, and Beat.
All right. So let's see here. Jeremy, what did
you listen to this week? Yeah, this kind of confirms
to me this week that the month was good overall.
I think it was a really good month. And I listened
to three albums in this week. The first one was
Dark Night of the Soul by After Earth, a band
that really reminds me a lot of Eamon Amarth.
So if you know, obviously, you know, Eamon and
Amarth, you've heard the vocals. The vocals are
identical. I mean, it is the same. The music
is quite similar. You've got that sort of chugging
melody with the growly sort of vocals. I mean,
there was a US band of the same name active some
years ago, but apparently this is a Swedish outfit.
They started around eight years ago. Not many
albums. I enjoyed it. It was fun. I like Eamon
Amarth, so I'm going to like this as well. Then
I moved on to Borderland by Amorphis, or Amorphis.
Album number 15, apparently, from this Finnish
prog sort of folk metal band. I may be wrong,
but I'm not sure that I've actually listened
to any of their stuff before, just through one
thing or another. It was a good listen, though.
There was a bit of a mix of growly vocals. There
was a lot of clear vocals on, nicely produced.
They do something that a lot of bands fail to
do. They actually write good songs. And so that's,
you know, that's something. They had some nice
haunting sort of soaring melodies there, which
I like, you know, because I like that sort of
symphonic sounds from the Nordic bands. I guess
you would say it's a little bit more Ghost than
Nightwish. So if you prefer Ghost than Nightwish,
you're going to kind of get into this. So, yeah,
that was a great, great lesson as well. Really
enjoyed it. But my album of the week is definitely
Portals by the Vintage Caravan. Not a band, I
would say, that's been on my radar previously.
I gave it a try. As we know, they hail from Iceland,
which is unusual. Album number six for them.
Very heavy sort of 1970s influence stuff. Slightly
folky, a little bit of space rock in there. Real
richness to the production, which I liked a lot.
Days go by, the song really hit the spot. It
sounded like a real sort of slice of deep purple.
They had some proggier Uriah Heep kind of stuff
coming in there. They had touches of Rush on
a song, My Aurora. And the song Current sounds
like it could have been a Rival Sons epic. It's
so good. So very sort of... very sort of loose
genre defying outfit, I would say, because they,
they don't sort of fit into quite one thing.
And for that, they're, you know, better off for
it. And I would say this is a real tremendous
album. I'd be surprised if this isn't in my top
10 for the year. And I really, really enjoyed
it. So obviously album of the week. Cool. Cool.
And just, just so you know, Edgar Winterson mentioned
that he picked up Amorphous' debut back in 92.
Amorphous, I've posted over the years on Patreon
because this was a band that I didn't know of
while living in the States. But when I moved
over here. Um, I was told by, I don't know how
many people, you don't know amorphous. Oh, well
they're sellouts now, but when they used to do
death metal and they used to do this, they were
great. But now there's too many melodies and
this, that, and the other thing. So yes, I've
had plenty of amorphous discussions over the
years and the vintage caravan. Um, since I've
started Patreon a few years back, I've posted
videos, uh, over the years from them. So, cool.
Ed, anything jump out at you this week? Yeah,
I had two things that I enjoyed. Okay. The first
one will be a band that all of you who like thrash
metal with good singing vocals is Paradox, a
German band. Mysterium is the name of the record.
And it's just a good old classic thrash metal
band, if you like. Metallica and Anthrax, and
you'll hear some Testament -like bits in there.
But the vocalist is more on the Joey side. He's
just a good old classic heavy metal singer. So
those who don't like the growly vocals or even
the Mustang -type vocals, you might like this
band. The song I thought was great has a great
Megadeth -like speed groove in the song. Those
Who Resist. That's a good track to check out
later on. Besides that cult burial I mentioned
earlier, this is probably the most death metal
-like thing that I liked. The Revocation, New
Gods, New Masters. They've been around since
2009. They're kind of a tech death metal band.
They remind me a lot of deathcore bands. You
know, they've got death metal, a death metal
sound, but their vocals are kind of a little
bit metalcore, deathcore -like. Yeah. And they've
been a band that I've kind of liked, but they've
done a perfect job with this new album. And I
tell you, the way they produce this record is
just absolutely perfect. Especially if you listen
to it on a good stereo in your car or at home.
It's got a really heavy, thick sound. It makes
me feel like if I've walked into someone's soundproof
studio and both guitars had a couple of stacks
and you're just being kind of wrapped up in this
heavy sound of distortion. And it's got good,
heavy jug to it. The songs are really well written.
The way they produced it is just perfect for
me as far as how you record metal to kind of
have it just right there in your face and getting
into where you're feeling the music. The last
record that I thought was produced that well
was that Evile record. I'm forgetting the title
of it. But I think I like the production of this
one even more. The songwriting is great. There's
one song called Data Chaos that you all should
listen to. Right. I'm going to even recommend
that one to Brad to play on his show. But the
production of it, it just takes it to a whole
nother level. If you can, you've got a good stereo
at home and put that record on and enjoy a tune
or two off of that one. Definitely my pick of
the week. okay yeah i got a chance if it wasn't
for the condition critical um i got a chance
to listen to that one as well and i mean um it's
funny uh i wanted to find the uh singer guitarist
name dave davidson i don't want to mess that
up but as i pulled it up it says progressive
metal groove metal and it's funny that they've
always had that kind of progressive label attached
to them but i mean they've it's not that progressive
really i mean the it's more on a technical death
metal side right right it's a whole nother uh
range of yeah it's the the playing is very technical
it's very succinct and intricate and whatnot
i mean the music is just outrageous on it uh
question too uh There's an album that came out
on the 30th. Does that include that? Are we doing
another week for those two days? What album is
that? It's a, it was just a good old classic
death metal band called rib spreader. Okay. That
was released on the 30th. That one kind of reminds
me of like dismember. It's got, you know, that
kind of. production to it it's just it's this
classic death metal on the songwriting and the
vocals and uh but and the guitar is kind of funny
it's it's like they have one of those old 80s
orange boss pedals and they've turned all the
treble up right and all you're getting is just
crunch crunch crunch and you know it almost sounds
like they took their small amp and put it into
a pringles can and you're just getting that really
crunchy canned sound to it But it's still getting
some thick bottom end from the drums and the
bass. And I think if you like bands like Dismember
and Entombed, this is, I think, a newer band
that you might want to check out. Came out on
the 30th. Okay. Yeah, I just have the 26th. I
don't have the 30th. I've got to check out. Get
some bonus material from Ed there. There you
go, as usual. Ed never disappoints. Um, so, all
right. So I got a chance to listen to the revocation.
I got a chance to listen to, uh, the president
EP, the king of terror, terrors, excuse me, plural
more than anything, because the band is releasing
or receiving, excuse me, so much hype that I'm
like, you know, I, I, I need to check this out.
They're being, um, uh, tied into the whole sleep
token thing as well. And I got to tell you, I
like the first track off of this, but then it's
similar to the Sleep Token. It just doesn't sound
like metal to me. You know, there's one thing
where, you know, a band like Limp Bizkit can
use autotune as a goofy thing in a song and they
can get away with it. Because of the type of
band that they are. But when you have bands like
President or Sleep Token using autotune and using
different overtly pop elements, I don't know,
and labeling it metal. If it wasn't labeled metal,
I probably wouldn't have an issue with it. But
it's not something that I reach to if I want
to listen to metal. I don't know. Maybe I'm just
weird. Maybe I'm just old. Who knows? Or maybe
both. Or maybe both. That's the way I feel about
myself. So there you go. And let's see. So the
last thing that I checked out, and it's going
to be my album of the week, and I was kind of
surprised with this because this is Rage with
New World Rising. Rage has been kind of paint
by numbers with their last few albums. It's not
that they're bad, but it's just more of, okay,
I've heard this already. Give me something. Give
me an explosive solo. Give me some type of a
melody line to a song or some structure to a
song that kind of grabs me. Big riff that grabs
me. And I have to say that there's quite a bit
off of this album that I like. I mean, again,
they're not reinventing the wheel. And sometimes
you just want something that sounds familiar
to kind of grab you. And it's not radio friendly.
It's there's I mean, it's for the most part,
it's a it's a mix of heavy metal and some thrash
towards the end of the album. You know, they
kind of loses a little steam, but. It's going
to be my album of the week. So let me go over
the albums that we picked for the month of September.
So we have on the 5th, Jeremy with Fury and Interceptor.
And we had Ed with Condition Critical and Degenerated
Chamber. I went with Glenn Hughes and Chosen.
For the week of the 12th, Ed went with Hellstar
and the Devil's Masquerade. I went with Demon
Hunter and There Was a Light Here. And Jeremy
went with Crucible and Hail to the Force. The
19th, let's see, Jeremy went with Mirador and
Mirador. And then both Ed and I went with the
Kitty Spit 25 EP. And then for the week of the
26th, Ed went with Revocation and New Gods, New
Masters. I went with Rage, A New World Rising.
And Jeremy went with The Vintage Caravan and
Portals. Real quickly here. um before coming
on the show uh ed brought up an interesting topic
and it is how we listen to these albums um you
know what we kind of do to to kind of get in
the mood and and absorb all of this music uh
ed what do you tend to do so i i keep uh the
new release tab for from metalstorm .net open
on my computer. Okay. And so what I've been doing,
especially lately since we've been doing the
shows, every morning when I get to my desk at
work, I refresh that page, and it'll tell you
what genres every band is. So I can easily pick
the thrash metal, groove metal, death metal bands,
whatever, and then I throw those into my Apple
library, and then I create a playlist. that's
categorized with everything released in September
with a rule that has a plays of zero so that
if I listen to a track, it'll take it out of
there because iTunes, especially if you favorite
something, it's going to play it over and over
again. And I want to make sure I'm getting through
everything. And I mainly listen to all of that
stuff in the morning as I'm going to work and
my head's clear and I'm ready for music. you
know, kind of helping me sort all my thoughts.
I play, I randomly play tracks from that playlist
and stuff I don't care for, I delete. And then
the other stuff that I am liking, you know, of
course I keep listening to. And then, you know,
towards the end of the month, I start trying
to listen to the stuff that I really enjoyed
in full so that I kind of refresh my memory on
what I've listened to. So and the only disadvantage
of doing that is that, like I said before, I'm
not having much time to listen to the stuff that
I like from the last month or even, you know,
throughout the year. So I'm kind of doing that
Monday through Thursday when I'm driving down
to my clients. And then on the weekends, I'm
listening to everything else, whatever pops up
in the playlist. Right. Well, that's cool. Jeremy,
how about you? Yeah, sort of. Well, I listen
to, I have a look at Heavy Music HQ because they
have a lot of albums listed for the whole week.
This is often before you put up your own list,
Victor. So I go through there. I have a look.
basically at the ones that are on Frontiers or
the sort of more melodic bands that I notice
that are on there. I pick out some at random.
I kind of know that the ones that are going to
be fairly death metal -y or whatever, you can
tell by the album titles. And I kind of, you
know, try to pick out three or four off there,
have a little listen, usually listen in bed late
at night or just pick out. maybe two or three
songs off each album. And then you kind of know
if you're going to like the rest of it. And if
you like the rest of it, then you go on and listen
to the whole album. And then I'll go back to
your list because I want to put the X's on the
spot. And then I noticed that you've got other
stuff on there that isn't on their list. And
so then I'll pick out one or two of those. And
then I condense it down and pick three, usually
three that, you know, the ones that I kind of
like a lot or, If I don't like any of them, then
obviously I have to pick out one or two that
I mentioned that are not so good. But yeah, that's
how I tend to do it, really. Pick a long list,
condense it down, and then you can't listen to
everything, unfortunately. It'd be great if we
could, but time's precious. Absolutely. Yeah,
for me, it's usually in the car when I'm taking
my kids to school. And whenever I'm working out,
so if I'm going for a walk or a bike ride, I'm
listening. Or if I'm working out with weights
at home, then I'm listening to something. I have
to, it's usually the last two weeks of the month
where I get backed up on what podcasts I listen
to because I set everything aside to just listen
to these albums. And, uh, and try, I try to listen
to as much as possible. Some months I can listen
to more than others, but, um, like I said before,
there's always good music coming out. Hopefully
we're helping you find some of that stuff. And,
um, I've always said it whenever I've heard that
you've lightened your pocket because you've purchased
something that we recommended here. It's, it's
a great measure of satisfaction because it's,
Kind of the reason why we do this. We're turning
people on to music that they didn't know had
come out otherwise, or maybe they didn't know
the band, or maybe they didn't realize that a
band had put something out. Next month, I'm going
to have a brand new band to introduce to everyone
that a lot of my extreme metal fans are going
to be very happy about. Wow, okay. Yeah, I pre
-ordered it. The vinyl's coming out. Yeah, in
October. So I should have it soon to listen to
and give you a review next month. Okay. And Edgar
Winterson there pointed out Taylor Swift came
out with her record. He said that was his record
of the month, but I think that came out in October,
right? October 1st or 2nd? I do not know. I'll
have to give you my review on that on the next
show. I think you're right. Definitely beginning
of October. Oh, man. I guess Edgar isn't a fan
of the Charlie XCX diss track. So let's see.
Yeah, there's plenty of stuff that's coming out
in October that looks very appealing. Does the
Testament come out in October? Yeah, that's what
I was just going to check out. All right. So
I'll be doing that one, too, because I'm going
to listen to that one. Yeah, I think we'll all
listen to that one. I tell you, I'm having a
hard time, though, with like TikTok, not hearing
stuff because I'll be flipping along. Then all
of a sudden I'm hearing that new Megadeth song
and I'm like, oh, no, I don't want to hear that.
So the first three, I heard like three seconds
and it sounded great. But yeah, I'm trying hard
not to hear anything. And it's the same thing
with the Testament. I so bad want to capture
that feel of when you would go to the record
store and you didn't hear it. You know, I know
sometimes they'd put a single out on the radio
if it was like one of the bigger mainstream bands.
But most of the time we had to wait until it
was released and then take it home and see what
we thought of it. Yeah, that's right. Testament
always released a single before the albums came
out. I mean, Souls of Black had the title track
that came out. Probably like two or three months
before the album came out. What did they play
it on back then? Headbangers Ball played that.
Yeah, so I didn't have cable TV anywhere I was
living at that time. So I guess I was missing
out. Yeah, so that. Electric Cross got played
a ton as well before. And also, I do have to
say that I was lucky in the area where I grew
up. There was a. a big metal station, which was,
uh, it's still around. It's a college station
for, uh, Seton hall universities, WSOU. You can
listen to it online actually. And it's got a
whole gamut of, uh, different, um, types of metal.
So, um, so then it should be awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, it, it shouldn't, I was going to ask
if you had listened to the Megadeth, and obviously
we just found out that you had dropped. I will
say, though, even from those three seconds, you
could tell that that new guitarist, Timo, is
picking the strings. That guy's amazing. I can't
wait to hear what he has to offer on this record.
Dave has said he's the best guitarist he's ever
had in Megadeth. We've never heard that before.
He just might be. When I saw that... paid to
watch that live concert that he played in. I
was just blown away by how perfectly he played
every guitarist's solos. Right. You could tell
that he's a major fan of Megadeth, and he just
respected the hell out of every guitar player
that he was covering. I'm really impressed with
him. See, now that's interesting because listening
to Zach Wilde talk about how he got the gig in
Ozzy. Yeah. And mentioning how he went in and
knew the music because he loved Ozzy and Sabbath.
And a lot of guys were there that really weren't
fans and were just looking for the paycheck.
Yeah. And it's funny because within the last
week or two, Al Petrelli has come out and said,
Oh, you know, I auditioned for Ozzy to replace
Jakey Lee and Al Petrelli has been seasoned studio
musician who has played with Megadeth, has played
with Savatage, Trans -Siberian Orchestra and
so on and so forth. But that's someone who's
had a million gigs and it seems like, and this
is no knock on him, but it just seems like he's,
been a sessions guy for a long time. So it was
kind of cool hearing Zach say, no, I really wanted
this gig. I love, I love that music. I respect
people that came before me. So it's interesting
to hear you say that about the new Megadeth guitars.
So cool. I really enjoyed watching on Hulu. The
first episode of into the void. Okay. I guess
it's a several part series, probably on musicians
that have died. And the first one is one on Randy
Rhodes. Okay. And they interview Sharon. And
yeah, man, that's super emotional. I thought
it was done really well. If you have Hulu, go
and check that out. Yeah, I have to see if that's
offered over here. Because, for example, the
Becoming Led Zeppelin, I think, is Netflix property
in the States. Okay. And it's something completely
different here. The licensing is to another streaming
platform. Okay. So, yeah, next month is going
to be a busy month as well. What'll be interesting
to see if any big band surprises us. with any,
any sort of releases because in November, you
know, you, you have Metallica and ACDC releasing
stuff historically, like without any promotion
or nothing. I'm not saying that that's going
to happen now because both bands have been touring,
but I wonder if there's any like larger band
that's going to release something right before
the holidays. So we'll see, because Yeah, there's
plenty coming out in October. November has some
interesting stuff as well. But once you get to
like midway through, it really peters off. So,
but we'll see. We'll be. hanging in there and
the good thing about having you around ed is
that usually only death metal bands release stuff
in december yeah yeah so yes so that's something
to talk about yeah yeah death metal and lord
of the lost will be releasing uh a december album
once again they will be releasing opus no air
volume two they released volume one earlier this
year So volume two will be coming out on December
12th. All right. Excellent. Guys, I want to thank
you for joining me tonight. I want to thank Edgar
Winterson for joining us in the chat. I have
a sneaky suspicion that Dr. Sexay is also Edgar
Winterson because he says, I'm Winterson. He's
taking the makeup off and letting us all know.
So thank you, Edgar. Hopefully you vote on the
upcoming patron show that will be live at the
end of this month. Again, just remember, send
us the 10 bands you associate most with Halloween.
And send that to SignalsFromMars at SignalsFromMars
.com. Or if you converse with me on any social
media platform, send it there. So, yeah, Twitch
is supposedly the streaming platform that took
off during the pandemic. and has come crashing
back down the fastest. So who knows? Who knows
what was going on tonight? So Halloween number
one could very well be. We don't know. Whitesnake
number two. Uh -oh, he's giving us his 10 right
here, live on the air. In any event, thank you,
everyone, for joining us live or checking out
the replay or checking out these shorts. that
seem to be doing well, remember that you can
go to signalsfrommars .com to pick up merch,
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and all that great stuff. Thanks once again,
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