Happy New Year, and welcome to episode 434 of
Signals from Mars. We are in 2026, but this episode
we're going over albums from October, November
of 2025, playing a bit of catch -up here, but
I will let you guys know exactly why in a little
bit. So let's get ready for the episode. Quick
reminder that in addition to hosting Signals
from Mars, I've also worked behind the scenes
helping other podcasters. With over 16 years
of experience and more than 1200 episodes that
I've produced or appeared on, I offer podcasting,
editing, ghost hosting interviews, and repurposing
content into viral clips, show notes, transcripts,
and social media posts. If you've got a podcast
and need help making it sound professional, or
if you want to turn your episodes into content
that actually grows your audience, I can help.
Check out the podcasting services page over at
signalsfrommars .com. Just go all the way to
the right on the menu. You'll see work with me,
hover over that, and you'll see podcast services
and sponsorship. Let me help you make your podcast
stand out. Speaking of sponsorships. Signals
from Mars is sponsored by listeners like you
and also by great sponsors. If you've got a brand,
product, or service that connects with rock and
metal fans, I'd love to work with you. Our audience
isn't casual. They're collectors, concert goers,
and gear buyers who support the bands and brands
they love. Sponsorship packages start at just
$150 a month and include on -air mentions, social
media plugs, and even product features. If you
want to connect with a loyal rock and metal audience,
head on over to the sponsorship page on SignalsFromMars
.com to learn more. October, November 2025. We're
also going to be doing an episode this month,
which is December 2025. It is super important
to me to continue to talk about new music because
I think it helps keep this music that we love
alive. If we just sit back and listen to the
quote -unquote classics, this is going to go
the way that blues, jazz, bebop, the Andrew sisters,
so on and so forth. They're classics. People
love all of the big hits, but not too many people
know about any of the deeper cuts, deeper acts
outside of the bigger artists. So imagine we
stop pushing or promoting newer bands. And the
only thing we're left with is enter Sandman by
Metallica run to the hills by Iron Maiden, Living
After Midnight by Judas Priest, Crazy Train by
Ozzy. And that's the only thing that people know
about metal, hard rock or metal. So this is part
of the reason why it's important that we continue
to listen to new artists, that we continue to
follow the bands that we love and listen to their
new music and support whichever way we can, because
it helps keep music alive. These episodes, this
episode and another episode, 435, which I'll
be releasing on the same day or the day after,
have taken longer to come out just because I
was in the emergency room. Folks, turn your damn
lights on when you're going down the stairs.
And yeah, don't look at your cell phone at the
same time. I ended up in the emergency room after
taking a fall, flying through the air. I am bruised
to all hell. I've got a pretty major sprained
ankle and it'll be sprained. I've been told that
it's going to take me at least a month of rehab.
Considering, all things considered, what could
have happened? I know a specific space ace that
took a fall and didn't get off as easy as I did.
I'm glad that I only sprained my ankle. I'm an
idiot for doing what I did. So I'm the first
person to admit that. And I'm pissed that this
ended up happening. And because I'm hardheaded,
I really haven't deviated much from things that
I had planned. So yes, these episodes are coming
out delayed. It's something had to kind of give
away and podcasting has. Anyway, thank you for
checking the episode out. I hope this episode
turns you on to something new. Let's get on with
things. Welcome everyone to the latest episode
of Signals from Mars. I am your host, Victor.
Joining me are Ed and Jeremy. How are you guys
doing? Doing good, sir. Thank you. Yeah, also
doing good. Thanks. Excellent. So we're here
to catch up on new releases. We're going to do
the months of October and April and April. Yeah.
Okay. October and November together. And plenty
of good stuff. I've been catching up and listening
to a lot of different things. And so we're going
to start off with October 3rd here. We had new
albums from AFI, Dirk Snyder and the Old Gang,
Vernon Reed, Thrice, Michael Shanker Group, Cathedral,
Arson Charge, Supreme Mystic, Valdor, Orbit Culture.
Ryan Woods, Heath, VsaurX, Long After Midnight,
and Times Forgotten, an EP from Gore and reissue
from Coheed and Cambria. Jeremy, what did you
listen to this week? Yep, so obviously I listened
to Don't Sell Your Soul by the Michael Schenker
Group. As you're aware, it's got... Quite a few
different vocalists on this one, again. I mean,
he's done this before, hasn't he? Michael Voss,
Eric Grunewald, Robin McCauley, Dimitri Liapakis,
all sharing the vocal duties, which I don't like,
to be honest. I prefer just having one vocalist,
but there you go. This is what he's chosen. The
title track I really liked. It's very classic
Schenker. It had a sort of great riff, trademark
solo, great song. There are a few other good
songs on this too. There were a few others that
I've really got into listening to them a few
times. But what I would say is that there's not
any of those sort of killer tunes that Schenker's
known for. And I think that a lot of his stuff
that he's doing now is a bit like that. It's
kind of just... just doing stuff by rote, really.
I mean, we all know how good a player he is.
He's a great guitarist. But anyway, it was a
decent listen. I'll say it was enjoyable. I also
listened to songs of Awakening by Times Forgotten.
This is probably something that you won't like,
you two guys. It's very proggy metal. But as,
you know, with all sort of proggy metal stuff,
there's really great musicians involved, and
that's the main thing about this. It's actually
a Costa Rican band, which I wasn't aware of.
What genre of metal? Like heavy metal proggy
or thrash metal? Yeah, it's more heavy, more
proggy heavy metal, I would say, yeah. They've
got a female singer as well. But the other thing
I was going to say is that they've, they also
got quite a bit of sort of folky stuff to it.
So there's sort of folky elements in there. They've
got this sort of echoey haunting stuff going
on with keyboards. So, you know, there's a lot
of different stuff going on on this, this album,
but it has a really good sound to it. And, you
know, you've got to sort of congratulate the
producer for that. I think he's really, He or
she has done a very good job on it. I'd say the
last three songs on it are not so great. So,
you know, it's sort of it's. it's good up to
a certain point and then you know it it tails
off which you know as we know quite a few other
albums are like that so yeah that was okay it
was it was good uh in parts um and i also listened
to silver bleeds the black sun by afi uh this
one was a sort of goth uh sounding album it was
you two meet simple minds uh that sort of stuff
um Yeah, I was going to say, for that reason
alone, it's actually quite a good listen, really,
in the end. Remind me of that one later. Yeah,
sure. Yeah, so that one was actually quite good.
If I had to choose an album of the week, I'd
probably go for Michael Ciancarone because, you
know, he's such a great player. And there were,
you know, three, four, maybe five songs on there
that I would play again. All right, Ed, your
turn. So for, let me look on my calendar here
so I know where we're at. For this week, I didn't
have anything. So I'm going to make an announcement
instead for one of my favorite heavy metal bands,
Living Sacrifice. You've heard me talk about
them before. They're on Solid State Records.
So this is their third album called Inhabit.
It came out in 93. And it was a kind of a guttural,
brutal death metal album. And but again, kind
of suffered from production because they didn't
have a lot of money to put into it. So they've
been remixing and remastering some of their albums.
And this is one that they just did this autumn.
So they've got a new remastered version of Inhabit
for anybody that knows this band. I haven't listened
to it yet because I've got another album on the
way and I'm waiting until they both get here
to open them up and wash them. So I haven't heard
it yet, but really stoked too. And everything
I've heard is it sounds great. The other albums
that they've remastered have been just given
a whole new life to the sound of those albums.
So people that like that, you better grab a copy
before they're gone. You'll have to special order
them from their website. And did you just say
that you wash the vinyls? Yeah, you got to clean
them before you put them on your player because
they come with all kinds of crap on them from
the factory. So how do you clean it? Well, I
have a, I'm forgetting the name of it, but, you
know, a thing you put the record in with your
solution water and solution. I have to manually
crank mine. I'm not wealthy enough to buy some
of the ones that do the automatic. Or let's say
I spend too much money on other stuff, but they
have some really cool ultrasonic ones that will
use sound waves and such, which one day I want
to get those, and then I'll go through them all
over again. That'd be fun, but yeah. You've got
to wash them, or you're supposed to, if you want
to take good care of your needles. You're putting
me to shame because I've got the liquid. I've
actually got the liquid and a cloth, and I don't
use it, and I should use it, shouldn't I, really?
Yeah, that's right. You should. That music's
a good investment. You've got to take care of
it. Yeah. All right. See that? You learn something
new every day. Yeah. So, Ed, you went with Living
Sacrifice. What was the name of the album? Inhabit.
I'm guessing most all of my picks are going to
be things that aren't on your spreadsheet. It
doesn't matter. It's all music. You are welcome
to add whatever you'd like to the spreadsheet
as well. That's not a problem. I do that sometimes
as well. All right. For me, I listened to the
Michael Schenker. I listened to the new Cathedral
album, Society's Packed with Satan. It's six
songs, but it's almost an hour long, if I'm not
mistaken. I listened to the new Thrice, Horizons
West. And this week I listened to also Silver
Bleeds the Black Sun by A Fire Within, also known
as AFI. The California band has actually been
around since 1988. They are a chameleon of sorts
and they've changed their sound, especially the
last 20, 25 years. Every album they sound a little
different. which is cool. They remind me a lot
of the cult in that sense. And some of the different
influences that you mentioned, Jeremy, you could
almost overlap with, you know, the cult or, you
know, because they're really doing that goth
rock style of music from the early to mid 80s.
If you're into that, I'd recommend you checking
the album out. So cool. Move on to October 10th.
And I can never pronounce the name of this band.
It's Angus Scubab. I don't know. They're a death
metal band. Incubus supposedly released Something
in the Water. On the 10th, I haven't been able
to find that, so no idea. John 5 released an
album, All Hell, Silly Goose, Living Dead Girl,
Grey Haven, Heavy Hitter, Dead Heat, Frail Testament,
Scold, Warrant, and not the California Warrant,
but their German band, if I'm not mistaken, who's...
Used the name way before the Glam Metal Band
did. And Bluetot. There were reissues from Letters
Sent Home, Arch Enemy, Cold, Dark Chapel, and
Ghost. Ghost released the 10th anniversary of
Meliora. And two of these reissues are... Deluxe
issues. You had Dark Chapel, which has Dario
from Black Label Society releasing the deluxe
version of Spirit in the Glass. And Arch Enemy,
which is the weirdest thing in the world. They
released that deluxe edition and part ways with
their singer. So when I first saw that, I was
like, wait a second. They just re -released their
last album in a few days. Do you think they saw
that coming? Maybe it was she left them. Yeah,
I don't know. We'll see within the coming years
what they say. What a lot of people don't know
is that Angela Goso, their previous singer, is
Michael Lamott's partner. And when she left the
band, well, previous to leaving the band, she
was already managing them. So she just moved
over to do the management thing full time. Also,
Alicia had this solo album in the can for years.
So that's why, you know, the day after the, or
not even the day after, the night that it was
announced that they had split, she released that
first single. Which also she's playing a Michael
Amat Dean guitar in the video. And also that
video came out just like right after she left.
It was that night. Both press releases. So I
guess it was no surprise. So I'm guessing this
was in the works for some time. So we'll see
in which direction. It'll be interesting to hear
the interviews in about two or three years when
they get a little more loosely. Well, Arch Enemy
has already said that 2026 is around the corner
and that they're excited about the next phase
of the band. So they have to have a new singer
in the wings if they've got tour dates and stuff
lined up. Their original singer has said that
he's not involved. Does Angela come back? Do
they bring somebody completely new into the mix?
We'll see. I think next month we'll find all
of this out. So, Ed, what did you listen to this
week? So, on the 8th, there was a band that I've
not heard of before from Poland called Pandemic
Outbreak. They've got an album called Torment
Beyond Comprehension, which is a good mix of
death and thrash metal. I'm still enjoying that
one because the songs are so good. You had on
your list All Hell, the Sunsetter album. That's
very good. That's a band from Asheville, North
Carolina, apparently. And they call their...
It seems they describe their music as thrashing
black and roll, and that's a good way to describe
it. It's kind of a mix of black, death, crust
punk, and the songs are really good. I've enjoyed
that. There's another good album for people that
like Power Trip from a band called Dead Heat,
Process of Elimination. It's just a classic crossover
thrash metal. And it has the same kind of vocals
as Power Trip, you know, with a lot of reverb.
And the guitar tones are kind of the same. And
the songs are really good. That's another reason
I'm recommending it. It's not one to throw away.
Another good death metal band, which was good
for October and Halloween, Heads for the Dead.
They're kind of like a horror death metal band,
I guess. Let's see, they put out an album called
Never Ending Night of Terror. That was good.
But my pick for the week just freaking blew me
away. Surely you guys have heard it, the New
Testament album. Because I was... What? You haven't?
Yeah, I was joking. Yeah, I know. I was telling
you all about it on Patreon when I was first
listening to it. I couldn't believe it, what
I heard. They got a new drummer. Maybe that's
making a difference. That's what they're saying.
It's either him or maybe Eric Peterson, too.
They've been listening to black metal bands for
a few years now, you can tell. Because even in
the first song, the production's great, although
it sounds a little bit different than some of
the... previous records, but it's still a great,
I actually might like it a little bit more the
way this record's produced. The vocals, you know,
Chuck Billy's doing different things. He's hardcore
and then goes to growly vocals. And he's even
adding a tens of black metal vocal. And in that
first song, it starts off, you get some death
core jug even. And then it just all of a sudden
turns into a full on black metal song. and i
just couldn't believe what i was hearing as a
matter of fact i'm sitting here working in my
office listening to that and during a couple
of these songs i forgot i was listening to testament
i had to remind myself that it was um and track
after track was great uh you know after you get
to two or three songs of that album and i mean
they're just changing up all these genres um
Alex, who is always just the expert guitarist,
you'll notice that no matter what style they're
playing, he comes up with a marvelous guitar
solo. I mean, that guy is just beyond gifted
in being able to not only play well, but to craft
a guitar solo that you really enjoy listening
to. And he's so versatile. And a lot of that,
too, is because I think he's jumped in and out
of different genres because, you know, he had
his jazz band for a while. Yeah, he still does.
I think whatever he gained in talent doing that,
you can really tell it's helping him craft guitar
solos, no matter how extreme the metal is, to
elite level guitar solos. And you'll continue
to hear these death and black metal sounds all
throughout the record. And now at the end of
the record, it starts to sound a little more
like your normal Testament to me. But every single
song is good. Well, hold on. They put a ballad
on there. And I've told you before, I don't care
too much about Chuck Billy and ballads. Although
I think it's a song that, It's a good ballad
when I'm in the mood for it, I think. And I like
it better than some of the other ballads I've
heard. But every other song is great. I mean,
you've got sounds of even Iron Maiden and other
bands in their music. The last song is a classic
track, too. They just did... An awesome job.
They just really throw everything at you, especially
in that last song. They threw everything at you.
It's black and it's doomy and it's hardcore.
And then it kind of ends with like this little
clean Metallica sounding bit to kind of quiet
the album and finish you off there. But anyway,
if you heard it, I'd love to hear what you all
thought about it. And that's my pick for the
week. Jeremy, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I agree
with you for the most part, Ed. And what I think
about this album is that it's got such a variation
on it. And I think that we've talked before about
bands that are producing great stuff in their
later periods as opposed to the earlier stuff.
We've talked about Judas Priest, you know, with
their latest album, which is just an absolute
killer album compared to their very first album,
which, you know, there's no comparison. Testament
are producing really great stuff on here, and
I think it's better than the last couple of albums
they've done. I take issue with you slightly
in that I love this. the soft song meant to be.
I just think it's, it's amazing. It's amazing.
And I do love a ballad. You know, I'm a, I come
from a classic rock background, so I love a classic
rock ballad. It sounds a bit Metallica -ish,
but I, I think it's amazing what they've done
with that song. And I love the, the last few
songs on there, Nature of the Beast, Room 117
and Havana Syndrome. They're all for me. They're
often made to a Testament fan, whereas some Testament
fans like all the very, very thrashy black metal
stuff, death metal stuff, you know, there's very
hardcore stuff. I'm not into that as much, but
I think there's something here for everyone.
And that's what they've done with this album.
And it's very, very good. Very good. As you say,
it's well produced. So for me, it's also my album
of the week. But I'll just mention a couple of
others if I can just quickly before Victor is
going to come in on Testament here as well. But
Process of Elimination by Dead Heat. It's a sort
of crossover hardcore. It really works for me.
Really good stuff. It's kind of like a pub band
with a lot of energy. So I really like that one.
I also listened to Legions of Metal by Blutgott.
This is a project of the guitarist Thomas Gurath.
He sort of brought all his bands together in
this one, including Debauchery. It also features
Tim Ripper at Owens on it. So that's interesting
as well. Sort of a pre -style epic on there.
And so, yeah, that's got good rhythm. Good heavy
metal record. But yeah, going back to Testament,
got to be album of the week. All right. So for
me, I listened to a bunch of things this week.
I listened to Conspiracy by Living Dead Girl.
That's electronic rock going into like an industrial
realm. A bit too polished, a bit too... poppy
for me um it's a little and not poppy so much
um probably the better word or the better description
is that it sounds like a lot of other things
and it isn't as good as other things that sound
like that so um also listen to scold uh with
caught in the throes For those that don't know,
that's Tim Skuld, who started his career way
back when in a band that was known as Kingpin
that had to legally change their name to Shotgun
Messiah. He was originally their bass player,
switched over to vocals. And then the last Shotgun
Messiah album was an industrial album. The band
split. He ended up doing some solo work. Working
with Marilyn Manson, working with KMFDM and put
a new band together called MDFMK. And then has
always been putting out solo music throughout
the years. And it's kind of more of the same
industrial stuff that he's put out over the years.
It doesn't suck, but you're really not hearing
anything new. If you like Tim Scold. or you like
any of his scold work, check the album out. My
album of the week is Parabellum by Testament.
I mean, you guys described it fairly well. They
mentioned that this was going to be a throwback
to The Gathering and Demonic and stuff of that
ilk. Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson did produce
this one as they did Titans of Creation. I will
agree with you, Ed, that it does sound a little
different than Titans of Creation. And that they
credit their new drummer, Chris Dovas, I believe
is his name, as really kicking the band's ass
and allowing them to do some stuff that maybe
they hadn't been able to do. to do in the past,
which is weird because it's not as if they didn't
have some kick -ass drummers along the way because,
you know, Gene Hoagland was the drummer for the
last few albums and Paul Bostoff as well, going
back to Formation of Damnation. So it isn't as
if they've had slouches. I don't know how old
Christovas is. Maybe he's just younger. I was
about to bring that up. Maybe it's because he's
a younger guy. He's a young guy and maybe can
do certain things that these older cats can't
do. But yeah, when I got to listen to the track
Parabellum, my first thought was there's a reason
why they named the album after this track because
As you said, it's got everything. I think it's
my favorite track off of the album. But Havana
Syndrome is great. I get to that song and I'm
like, what the fuck is this? This is just a full
on like 80s classic heavy metal song, you know?
And I wasn't expecting it, but it was refreshing
to hear it because that's what I like. I like
when you're listening to an album and then all
of a sudden a band. throws you a curve ball that
you're not expecting and it still sounds good.
You know, I've, I've had somebody recommended
a bunch of hardcore albums last night. And because
our conversation was that a local, the local
press mentioned that a band had, had released
the best hardcore album of the year. And this
person had posted on his Instagram. You know,
what a sham. They're just going with the popular
band as opposed to, you know, the really good
hardcore albums that have come out this year.
And I wrote him right away and I said, the album
sounds like an 80s pop album. It's got, you know,
a lot of dark wave and synth wave stuff that's
popular right now. But there's really like only
one or two hardcore songs on the entire album.
How could this be the hardcore album of the year?
I get it. They're known for hardcore, but the
album isn't a hardcore album. So long story short,
he recommends a bunch of albums for me to check
out. And I listened to all of them within the
last 24 hours because they're all like the longest
album is like 27 minutes long. So I was able
to listen to them and the songs that really stood
out to me are those curve ball songs that don't
sound like your typical hardcore. It's where
they're mixing something in out of the ordinary.
You're like, wait a second. They're actually
going for that on this album. They're actually
throwing in like some like stoner type riffs
in here all of a sudden. Like, wow, that's, that's
cool. So, um, So, yeah, so that's what I like
about the Testament. It has a little of everything.
It's like almost them saying, you know, we're
here. We're still here. This is us. You know,
we don't have to hide behind just doing this
on this album, this other thing on the other
album. This is everything. You know, if we don't
release another album, we've kind of thrown everything
together. And unlike other bands, Judas Priest,
They don't sound like carbon copies of things
that they've done in the past, like what Judas
Priest did when they got back together with Halford,
you know, until I'll continue to say it until
they got with Andy Sneap. That's when they took
their last two albums are at a different level
because of that. Between Halford coming back
and Firepower, there's a lot of potential there,
but there's. awful sound on the albums. And it's
them, in my opinion, just copying themselves.
And it's not to say that the last two albums
from Priest are 100 % original because with Invincible
Shield, there's stuff that you say, oh yeah,
this could be on Stained Class. This could be
on this album. But they're all songs that are
great. So that's to me what Testament has done
with Parabellum. Got out of their way to say,
listen, we like all kinds of music. We can write
all kinds of metal. This is our calling card.
Yeah. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Go ahead. That
ending track, Parabellum, that's a good track
to highlight, especially I think that the best
guitar solo is in that song. Any guitar players
listening, go check that out. He was channeling
Bach and Vivaldi, I think, in that. It was so
beautiful. Yeah, that song right there is the
recommended song, I think, for anybody who wants
to see what they did across that entire record.
Yeah. I think this album's actually finishing
a lot stronger than any album they've done in
the recent past. I think their albums have been
great early on, and then they tail off. The last
couple of albums they've tailed off, and it's
been sort of, you know, just... general thrash,
but they've thought about this a bit more and
it's much better for it. Yeah, way to go, Testament.
Do it again. Absolutely. If you're still around.
Interestingly enough, it's the first album in
some time where they haven't released a cover.
I hope that Anthrax is taking note of how high
the bar has been set. before they release that
next one? Well, Charlie's saying that a lot of
people are going to be surprised because they've
taken a lot of chances with this album. Yeah.
Does that mean it's breathing lightning chances?
Does it mean that him playing with Pantera has
awoken another side? Also... He released that
album with his now wife, Carla Harvey, the Violent...
Oh, damn it. Why can't I remember the name of
the band? I apologize. Violent Hour, I believe.
Is that it? Yeah, the Violent Hour. So if you
check that EP out, it's Carla Harvey with Charlie
Benanti. I think John five plays on one song,
but Charlie does the drums. He does the bass.
He does the guitar on every song. So yeah, that's
kind of important too. I think because one of
the things that we've spoken to or spoken about
in the past is how, um, during certain areas
of the band, they took more risks with what they
were doing. Because they were writing different
things because different things were influencing
them at that time. Yeah. I listen, I'm a huge
fan of, of the John Bush era of the band. I know
that not everyone is. There are some songs that
I think are. Among my favorite songs by any bands
during that period. But there are others that
fall short. But that's not exclusive to that
period either. Because I think that them and
pretty much every band has that. Yeah. We'll
see. I guess we're supposedly supposed to get
a single this month. There isn't a lot more time
left. There are 20 days left in this month. Yeah.
So is it going to be an oh shit moment where
we're like, oh my God, we're blown away? Or is
it going to be something that's, you know, to
me, the last two albums have grown on me, both
of those albums. But the lead singles for both
of those albums, We're like, okay, that's cool.
Sounds like anthrax, but it wasn't what I was
expecting. And I think a lot of that has to do
with the fact that the last album with John Bush,
We've Come For You All, is similar to what we've
just mentioned with Parabellum in the sense that
almost every song is a different style of music
to the point where For example, the song Black
Dahlia has portions of it that's black metal.
So coming out of that, coming out of something
so strong, the other two albums have been difficult
for me to grab a hold of, but I'm trying to be
optimistic. Me too. All right. So moving on to
October 17th, we had new albums from Battle Beast,
Biohazard. An abstract illusion. Now I've done
it. Age of Ruin. Eternia, I guess is how that
would be pronounced. Tribal Gaze. Sintage. Grave
Ripper. Cowpe. Daredrick. Coroner. Human Fortress,
Sabaton, Wretched, Tombs, Wings of Steel, and
Hellbearer. Wow. So I, last few weeks really
weren't that difficult. Those, that week had
a few that were challenging for me. Reissues
from Crematory, Two by the Cult, The Red Cord,
and Queen. So Queen has re -released A Night
at the Opera on vinyl yet again. All right. So,
Jeremy, what did you listen to this time around?
Yeah, Steelbound by Battle Beast, album number
seven for the band from Finland. Of course, I'd
listen to this. It's mostly power metal with
fairly pop tendencies, as you'd expect. They've
got a good vocalist, as you know. They write
good songs. Sometimes, of course, it's a bit
cheesy. I'm tempted to say, though, this would
probably sound quite good live. And funnily enough,
I'm going to see them next summer at a festival
by chance. So I'll get to see them live. I probably
wouldn't buy this kind of album, but it does
have something about it. They keep it heavy.
And there is a very good sort of surefire hit
in Angel of Midnight. So if anybody likes a sort
of a hit song nowadays that should have been
a hit in the 1980s, then that's the one. Darker
Fates by Hellbearer. This is one of those sort
of raw, unreconstructed thrash albums. Uh, it's
sort of heavy on the very basic, uh, and it's
probably all the better for it really. It's the,
um, apparently it's the band's second album.
Uh, and what I didn't realize was they're actually,
they actually hail from Manchester very close
to me. Um, and they played the new blood stage
at bloodstock, uh, this year. So, um, yeah, that's
good. Uh, that it's very energetic stuff. It's,
um, you know, sort of very young metal thrash
sort of beats hardcore, I guess. with a very
angry sort of shouty singer. But it's, you know,
it's really great. Yeah, it's worth a listen.
And then the final one, Winds of Time by Wings
of Steel, the LA band sort of thing I sort of
loved in the 80s. You know, real sort of powerful
traditional metal band, this one. Flashy old
sort of school guitar playing. The high -pitched
vocals were there. The drumming that sort of
involves really smashing the skins with a pair
of anvils. It lacks the superior sort of songwriting
quality of the 80s bands, but it's still an enjoyable
listen. And apparently they're on tour with Sabaton
next year if anybody wants to go and see them.
If you had to choose one out of the three, oh,
I don't know. They're all fairly much for a muchness.
Yeah, maybe go for Wings of Steel. Why not? Ed?
One that was on your list was Grave Ripper. They're
from Indianapolis, not too far away from me.
Kind of a black thrash speed metal band. And
the songs were good enough that I've left it
in my music library for a couple of months. I
really had a lot of fun playing that Cavalera
Conspiracy track off of the Street Fighter 6
soundtrack. Actually, I didn't even write down
what the name of that single was. But I think
you posted a video of it one day. Yeah, I believe
so. Didn't you on Patreon? And, man, when you
want to hear something fun, that's a great tune.
Now, getting back to what we were talking about
earlier, here's a band that's an example of this.
This is a death metal band called Internal Bleeding.
And they put out an album called Settle All Scores.
When I was looking up info on them, I learned
that they've been around since 91. But they're
kind of a new band for me. And I think what I'm
realizing is, you know, back in the early 90s,
when death metal was really taking off, there
was, you know, just there became a whole bunch
of it. A whole bunch of bands doing what they
were inspired to do by death and Morbid Angel.
And Deicide and Cannibal Corpse just became an
explosion of bands. And we have a local college
radio station, too, that had a metal slot on
Monday nights, like two or three hours worth
of metal. And there was one point where there
was this metal chick that was the DJ, and she
loved that. And she would play three solid hours
of nothing but that. uh, all those death metal
bands. And it got, it would get old to me really
fast because, you know, I need to hear you mix
it up with some other styles to keep me interested.
And so I'm re but I'm realizing that especially
even this year, uh, like benediction, they put
out an album that I've loved and listened to
all year. It's probably going to be on my top
10. Uh, this is another great, just good old
classic death metal album. And, but these guys,
and I've never heard of them, but they apparently,
are pioneered slam death metal brutal death metal
along with bands like suffocation and such but
it's like we're getting to a point now to where
you know these bands have they've had these careers
and they're starting to be able to produce albums
and write songs that i'm enjoying the heck out
of so you know before it was kind of boring nothing
really caught my attention unless they were a
really good band like obituary or you know all
the all the big dogs But now I'm starting to
add a lot of these death metal bands to my collection
because, man, they're writing some awesome stuff.
That's kind of what I meant when you were bringing
up Halloween before the show. Oh, yeah, and then
I've got to finish my picks here. The best one.
Now, this is a surprise. Coroner. And I've got
the date. It was October 17th. They released
Dissonance Theory. Now, I know who Corner is,
and I've listened to their stuff in the past,
but I've never been that into them. It's been
a little bit too proggy for me. You know, they're
kind of considered a progressive thrash metal
band. And I can like that kind of stuff if it
has a really good production. Another band that
they remind me of is Believer, which was the
same thing, kind of a technical progressive thrash
metal band. they had a production to their albums
that I like that a whole lot more than Corner.
The Corner is, you know, a band you hear people
talk about a lot. A lot of people revere Corner.
And then I put this album in my library, expecting
it to be something similar. But I think, and
I'm probably not the best guy to... hear a review
on this record, you might want to get a Coroner
fan to give you the best details on the differences.
I think some Coroner fans are maybe upset at
some of the liberties that they've taken on this
new record. But whatever they've done, I loved
it. And as I started listening to this record,
instead of kind of hitting that next button in
the middle of a song, I was listening to it all
the way through. There was even songs that I
enjoyed so much, I started repeating them. And
then I sat down and listened to the whole album
straight through and just determined, yeah, that's
definitely my pick of the week. It's a marvelous
record. And I feel sorry for the corner fans
that maybe are, like I said, I can't give you
the details on what's so different that maybe
someone doesn't like it. But I think it's a superb
album. And that's my pick of the week. Yeah,
I was reading a positive review about that album
only this week, and it made me want to actually
listen to it. So now you've mentioned it, I'm
going to check it out. I think you'll like it.
Yeah. Yeah, I got a chance to listen to it. I've
always heard the name but never really checked
them out before. A lot of people are comparing
it to the Testament album. I do think that the
Testament album is stronger than The Corner.
So I checked out The Corner album. I checked
out, I think I wrote this wrong. Fear Darkness,
is that the name of the album? By Tombs. Did
you get a chance to listen to that, Ed? I don't
think so. Tombs. Yeah. Yeah. They are a. Did
you tell me to listen to that? I did not. I thought
you would have listened to it. If not, I would
have mentioned it to you. They are a death metal
band. What is the name of the new album? Ah,
wonderful. I've got it up here on Metal Storm.
Discography. They've been around since 2008.
Feral Darkness. Feral Darkness. Okay, there you
go. So I wrote, I had the L in the wrong spot.
The L and the R. And it seems to be their maybe
second highest rated record or something. Yeah.
But yeah, I don't think I've heard this one.
Yeah, I listened to a previous album of theirs,
if I'm not mistaken, and really enjoyed it because
yes, there's black and some death metal elements,
but there were other things along the way that
made it kind of stand out to me as well. I see
why I didn't. Because, you know, they list all
this stuff on Metal Storm. But they're described
as black metal, sludge metal. So I probably did
not put that in my list to listen to. So when
you do see something like that, that you think
I might like to check out, yeah, do point it
out. I will. I also got to listen to Battle Beast,
Steelbound. And Jeremy, you described it. To
a T, it is, you know, what we've heard in the
last 20 years, the Eurovision medal, as Anthony
Mackie has coined it, where it's just happy,
poppy and whatnot, which is, to me, kind of,
not that it sucks, but I think that their singer,
she's got an amazing voice. I'd love to hear
her in a different setting. And I know she does
stuff for frontiers with the singer of smack
bound and, and she's done collabs over the years,
but for her to do something that's like straight
up heavy metal or even thrashy where it takes
advantage of of the aggressiveness in her voice.
Um, so yeah, I mean, and there've been several
examples of singers, uh, to do that. For example,
you've been a big proponent of, uh, Sanhedrin
for some time, something along those lines. I
think she would great. Yeah. Um, just to be a
little different, uh, I'm going to give you guys,
Biohazard with Divided We Fall as my album of
the week. I'm just in a hardcore mood for some
reason and it's happened over the last two months
or so and this really fits the bill for me. They're
not doing anything new. It is classic Biohazard.
It's classic sing -along choruses where it gets
you really pumped up. And if you're a classic
fan of the band or of hardcore metal, I would
recommend that you check it out. All right, moving
on to the 24th here. We had new albums from Soulfly,
Wino. Ronnie Romero, Doro, Mammoth. The band
is now called Mammoth as opposed to Mammoth WVH.
I guess he got the licensing for the name. Shiraz
Lane, Psychonaut, The Acacia Strain, Dayseeker,
Downswing, Tyson, Matzenbacher. Valetta, Century
Moon, Reveria, Scorched Tomb, Electra Storm,
Glossia, Leah Martin Brown, Centrix, Our Ocean,
Them, Jet Jaguar, or Jet Jaguar for those in
the UK, Bird Freed. Nine, Nine Reassures, Surge
Tankian, Sumo Psycho, and something that Ed recommended
to me, Bonginator. Two reissues from The Gathering,
a live album from Moe's Generator, and a compilation
from Five Finger Death Punch. Ed, what did you
listen to this month? Bonginator, man. That album
was so fun. The name is fun to say, Bonginator.
I've got a new heavy metal friend that I met
at a local head shop in town. He's like in his
30s. He's a disabled Marine, I think. And so
I walked in the shop one day and I told him that
he kind of looked like the lead singer from E
-Vile. And we got into a big discussion about
metal and now we're good friends. I mean, I listened
to this Bonginator and I, sent him a text with
this video. And I said, you got to listen to
bonginator. And he said, I was listening to bonginator
on the way to work. And we were like, Bill and
Ted. Okay. So there, how do I explain this? They're
death metal at the core, but they have a lot
of fun with their death metal. Um, I, I, they,
you could call them a stoner death metal band.
So it's death metal, but the vocalist changes
his styles a lot. He'll go from kind of metalcore
to hardcore to death metal vocals, black metal
vocals. He throws it all in there. And it's also
super kind of low -end bassy death metal. Like
it's kind of hard to turn it up to hear the guitars
without everything starting to fall off the shelf
because of how loud they have the bass and the
music. But and especially if you're someone our
age, if you go back to the 80s and 90s, you'll
have a lot of fun with this record, even if you
don't like the music so much because of all the
stuff that they throw in there. Hence the title
Retro Death. And I mean, they throw in all kinds
of. Movie clips that take you back to the past.
Industrial metal sounds. There's some new wave,
synth wave sounds in there. Things that take
me back to, you know, like 81 and the beginning
years of U2 and some alternative things. And
they keep switching it up over and over and over,
keeping you interested. Like the first four or
five songs, you don't get tired at all listening
to it. The first song, too. Has this real intense
groove. It makes you feel happy. You almost feel
like dancing around the kitchen. And I don't
know, I just had so much fun with this record
that I kind of wish everybody listened to it
and enjoy it with me. So did you get a chance
to hear it? Oh, I did. I listened to it. I didn't
think you would love it, but I thought you might
appreciate some of the industrial and other sounds
that they were throwing in there. It's a fun
album because you've got those movie samples.
Each song is based on a different movie. They've
got samples from each of those movies. They've
got all those 80s synthwave elements that you
mentioned. Yeah. Plus with the industrial aspects
and with the death metal aspects as well. So
it's an interesting mix. It's fun to listen to.
And like you mentioned, you know, you're listening
to it and all of a sudden you hear, you know,
Rowdy Roddy Piper or Arnold Schwarzenegger or
stuff or, you know, RoboCop. I forget the actor's
name. And you're like, wow. You know, and it's.
It's classic stuff that you've heard a million
times, but within these settings, it's fun. They
must have had a lot of fun putting that together.
That's the only one that I like for the week,
though, so that's my pick. Jeremy? Yeah, so for
this particular week, I'm just pulling up my…
notes for a sec oh yeah jet jaguar yeah that
was the first one listened to severance um actually
a four piece from mexico this one um it's their
second album it's all pretty lively stuff for
for yeah for memory because obviously it's a
little little while ago since i listened to this
they're all sort of youngsters playing this stuff
and it reminded me a lot of um you know sort
of keel and vandenberg and all that sort of 80s
stuff yeah so that for me was great because I
like the fact that there's all these youngsters
who are doing that sort of stuff that we got
into back then. So it doesn't matter that I've
heard it before. it's it's for them isn't it
it's it's these guys doing it so yeah that was
good um that's that's good modern production
on it as well which obviously a lot of the 80s
stuff that we listened to didn't always have
so you know that they've got that added advantage
coming in and um yeah quite an enjoyable album
um the only other one i really listened to was
the ronnie romero album backbone um when i first
heard it I was a little bit disappointed because
I'd bought Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters, which
was quite a metal -y, quite a strong album by
Ronnie. I thought it was his best one that he's
done of any sort of stuff that he's done, because
it obviously hasn't done many solo things, but
he's done a lot of other projects. But this is...
This is kind of a sort of old school classic
rock album, sort of a homage to Rainbow and to,
you know, various bands of that kind of ilk.
As you know, there's even a song by Russ Ballard
on there, which I think you put up on your Patreon
site, Victor. And it's got a cover of Devil and
Daughter on there, although it's not kind of
listed on the... um the listings on the album
but if you get the cd i think it's on it's on
there as an extra but yeah there's a good quality
in there and if you like hard rock which is what
i do you know old school old -fashioned 70s sort
of hard rock it's uh it's really good and i think
he's good at this kind of thing so yeah for me
that's definitely album of the week i really
enjoyed it okay um so i listened to a lot of
different things This week, I listened to the
Soulfly, listened to the Wino, listened to the
Ronnie Romero, listened to the Doro, listened
to the Mammoth album, listened to the Dayseeker
album, listened to the Sumo Psycho and the Bonginator
album as well. A mix of a bunch of different
things. I can't help but think that Max Cavallaro
without a good writing partner is lost. Again,
the album isn't bad, but when he doesn't have
an Andreas Kisser, a Mark Rizzo with him, someone
like that to help. craft some of these songs
for him they're always missing something it's
I absolutely agree that's a perfect way yeah
there's there's no there's like maybe one song
that I really like off of this album to say okay
that'll go in my soul fly playlist but the rest
reminds me of soul fly 3 which is I think is
their worst album because again he worked as
a three -piece, if I'm not mistaken, and really
didn't have a good lead guitarist, someone to
kind of noodle in between the rhythmic stuff
that he does, and that's what I want to hear.
He's always kind of laying a good foundation
for something that could be incredible if he
had the right people to work with him and kind
of pull out what they did when they worked together
in Sepultura. You know, yeah, that's a good way
to describe it. Yeah. The Wino album isn't bad.
A lot of acoustic stuff in between the songs.
The Doro album has the one single that she's
released and then a bunch of live tracks. The
Mammoth album has like two really good songs
off of it. The rest is, listen. Wolfgang has
put out the best Foo Fighters album to be released
in like 10 years. So that's the best way I can
put that. The Day Seeker album is a little generic
for me. I think my album of the week is going
to be the Sumo Psycho album. give people something
different, but it comes down to that and the
bonginator album, to be honest with you, both
albums are fun. They're both, uh, they're both
very different. Um, but you know, having, having
that I've interviewed the band in the past, having
that I dig a lot of their previous music, um,
I was, I didn't like the album initially listened
to it a few more times. And there's some songs
that have really grown on me and that I've listened
to quite a bit since. But I don't think you can
go wrong with either of those two albums. All
right. Last week of October here. It's a lot
of music. A lot of music put out in October only
because... November is really when the holiday
albums start coming out, the greatest hits, the
live albums, the box sets, stuff like that. So
let's see here. Halloween saw new albums from
Desperate Icon, Avatar, Bastard Cross, Stillbirth,
Outlaw, Chemican, I believe is how that's pronounced.
Mystic Circle, which I think I previously mentioned.
So it's one of the two weeks. Akalina. Archaic
Thorn. Red Shark. Thrawn. Starlight Ritual. Creeper.
Laura Cox. Smash Into Pieces. Howling Giant.
Oh wait, I listened to that. Burn. Burned in
Effigy, Barren Path. I interviewed this band
and I still can't pronounce the name right. That
makes me, this Kentucky boy feel better if you
can't pronounce something. A Phenomer, I believe
it's pronounced. They're a French death metal
band. Moonspell. No, St. Agnes has been moved
to 2026. My bad. These Nuts, Gum, which is one
of the hardcore albums that was recommended to
me last night, EPs from Trivium and Envy of None,
reissues from The Who, live album from Duff McKagan,
and two compilations were released, both various
artists. One is Killed by Death, a punk tribute
to Motorhead, and Spaceship Landing, a tribute
to... um jeremy what did you listen to this week
yeah i'll be fairly brief i think we're sort
of running a little bit out of time and we won't
need to move on to november don't we but uh yeah
crucible of ruin by howling giant i listened
to that one i listened to sudden impact by red
shark and i also listened to rogue angels by
starlight ritual all um worthy of my time but
my album of this particular week was definitely
creeper Creeper are amazing. Listen to that word
again, amazing. You need to listen to Creeper.
They are unbelievable. I saw them live. They
were supporting Alice Cooper over here in Manchester.
And I thought, yeah, this is a good band, you
know, really dig their stuff. Really good, hard
-rocking goth band, British band, obviously.
Really making waves over here, selling out places.
Not arenas yet, obviously, but smaller places.
Great production. Really great sort of goth metal
stuff, goth rock. Great songs. They write good
songs. And they've made me want to go back and
listen to their earlier stuff. So without a doubt,
Creeper, listen to them. Would you say that the
album also has like a meatloaf type of a feel
to it, like a battle? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There
is that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. The two
things that kind of stood out to me were that
and like My Chemical Romance's Black Parade type
of a thing where I could definitely see them
going out and playing this album in its entirety.
It is a continuation of a previous story that.
you know, they've been writing upon in the past.
I checked the album out as well. And it's funny
as I was listening to it, I'm thinking, is this
an album that Jeremy can listen to with his wife?
Absolutely. Yeah. Because my wife loves meatloaf.
So yeah, definitely. There you go. All right.
Ed, what did you listen to this week? Okay. I'll
tell you what. Remember I told you I was going
to introduce a new band to you? Maybe we'll put
that off because there's a story behind that.
The album that I ordered hasn't come in yet.
I'll wait maybe for the December show. Hopefully
I'll have the album. I can show you and tell
you the history behind it. But real quickly,
that band is called Hope Deferred. They put out
a record on the 31st called Darkness Remains.
And the main man of this band, the lead guitarist,
was in a band on Solid State Records called Embodiment.
And they started off as like a brutal death metal
band. Then they got signed to Solid State Records.
They re -recorded their music in a more of what
people consider one of the pioneering deathcore
metal albums. Because they changed their vocal
style, not to just a hardcore sound, but it almost
had like a black metal vocal. Very similar to
what you'll hear in Zayo or Zao, if you are familiar
with that band. And then they only put out that
one album. They completely changed their sound.
And then that lead guitarist, his name is Andrew,
started another band in the 2000s called The
Famine. which was back to the embodiment style,
except even heavier. They did a couple albums
and then went away. And so anyway, that guitarist
has started a new band called Hope Deferred.
So it's a continuing of that embodiment. And
it's excellent, as always. The guy has got awesome
tone, writes great songs. Tell you more about
it when that record comes in. But I want to let
everybody know it's out there to buy. My pick
of the week, and I'm a little bit confused about
this band, is called Voorhees. I sent you a link
to one of their songs. They got this album called
Four. And the album cover has a Friday the 13th
type album cover. And apparently all their albums
have themes that have to do with Friday the 13th.
And when I look on their band camp page, it says
they're from France. Okay. An old school death
metal band. And so I'm just learning about them.
And I love this entire record. It's death metal,
old school, but it's got tons of groove, tons
of great headbanging music to it. But when I'm
looking at Voorhees the band, I also see another
band that was from Durham, England. A hard port.
hardcore punk band started in 91 have kind of
been in and out of the scene and they as well
have some Friday the 13th themed albums so I
haven't had enough time to research like if there's
any of the same members or just completely two
different bands that had the same ideas or what
but On October 31st, a band named Voorhees that
plays old school death metal with an album just
called Number Four. It's just the number, numeral
four. If you like death metal and you like death
metal that'll get you, you know, banging your
head and enjoying the groove. It's kind of got
a little bit of that death and roll feel to it.
Check that one out. It's actually probably one
of my favorite death metal albums I've heard
in the last few years. It's really good. All
right. Cool. So I listened to a lot of different
things that came out this week. I listened to
the Avatar album. If you like Avatar, it sounds
like Avatar. I listened to The Creeper, as you
guys could tell. I listened to the Boston band
Deez Nuts. Saudied, I guess is how you pronounce
the name of the album. I'm probably pronouncing
that wrong. Hardcore band. No surprises on this
one. Also listen to Gum, which is another hardcore
band. They released Beneath the Wheel, which
was the person that I alluded to yesterday or
before that I spoke to yesterday and said that
that was his hardcore album of the year. Listen
to the Trivium EP and Alex Lifeson's Envy of
None EP. But for me, Howling Giants, Crucible
and Ruin is my album of the week. Check out the
interview that I did recently with Tom and Sebastian
Boltz, the son of Accept's Peter Boltz, former
Accept bass player. Really cool album, in my
opinion. I've been a fan of the band for a while.
I was lucky enough to be able to interview them
recently. So we'll hold off to the end to mention
all of the albums that we picked. Let's start
up with November. Good thing November is a shorter
month. Yeah. All right. So November 11th or excuse
me, November 7th, we have new albums from. Agnostic
Front, November. Some Finnish band, I can't pronounce
that. Armor for Sleep, Cold Steel. Drain. Finger
Eleven, Hell in the Club. Jesus. Omnium Gatherum.
Paul Bear and Alcatraz. While there's a few albums
that I didn't listen to that I wanted to from
there. So I'll have to check them out. And there
was a new live album from Slash. Ed, what did
you listen to for this week? This was the best
week in November. Discovered a new death metal
band called Glorious Depravity. They have an
album called Death Never Sleeps. It's just good
old classic death metal, really good songs. I
think they've been around for maybe 10 years
or so. That band from Argentina that I told you
about, Avernal. Man, that's an excellent record.
They're described as death metal and death and
roll. So in other words, they've got a lot of
groove in their music. To me, it's a lot like
Sepultura, if they were more on the death metal
side. And his vocals are not even quite death
metal. It's a little more hardcore with some
growl added to it. Kind of in that Sepultura
vein. Then I listened to something different,
a band called Bliss of Flesh. Metapsychosis.
And they're described as a black and death metal
band. To me, though, listening to them, they
sound more like post -black metal. I was listening
to them in my room here while I was doing work.
And, you know, it's basically black metal, but
they are adding all kinds of other elements from
other genres. Everything from piano to old new
wave sounds. Just some good old juggy heavy metal
parts. They even have a song on there that I
might send to you one day that reminds me a lot
of Killin' Joke that I know you'll like just
because I know you, like me, you really like
Killin' Joke. This is my kind of black metal,
actually. It's hard for me to listen to the mainstream
black metal bands. It gets kind of old. boring
to me after a while just like you know a whole
bunch of death metal would without shaking it
up when people take you know a foundation of
black metal though and then start adding other
things to it i really enjoy that and there were
several times on this record where the music
was so beautiful and impacting and grabbed me
so much that i just i had to stop and just do
nothing but listen to the music and soak it in
But my pick for the week, and I'm so proud of
these guys, Agnostic Front. Man, they have just
put out one of the best records of their career.
Absolutely, to me, it's one of their best. Every
single song I've just about hit the favorite
button on. You know, to me, Agnostic Front, they're
the ultimate crossover band. If someone wants
to know what crossover sounds like, I would give
them an Agnostic Front album. They were the first.
band of this genre that I think that I heard.
I can't quite remember if I heard DRI first or
this, but I remember buying this song, one of
Agnostic Front's Cause for Alarm back in 86,
just because of the album cover. Took it home
and I discovered Hardcore Crossover for the first
time. Loved it. And you know, with each album,
they've become a little bit heavier, a little
bit more metal. And they made a perfect mix of
metal and hardcore on this album uh hence perfect
crossover um they have you know lots it's hardcore
and i i like the way he's doing you know there
was a time in gnostic front's career where his
vocals got kind of funny to where he was kind
of adding a little extra almost like he's about
to throw up sound before he before he says a
couple of words and then after a couple albums
he kind of calmed that back down I think he's
got a good style now that works and it works
good with both, you know, the hardcore sounds,
but then when they have the kind of more metal
riffy breakdown parts, his voice works really
well for that too. Yeah. If you're a fan of agnostic
front, this is one to spend your money on. It's
my pick of the week for sure. Pick of the month
probably. Okay. Jeremy. Yeah, just a couple to
tell you about. Joker in the Pack by Hell in
the Club. This is a Frontiers offering. Very
sort of solid, heavy rock. They've got apparently
a new female vocalist called Tetsy after having
a male vocalist previously. So quite a different
sort of sound for them. which I didn't realize
because obviously I was just listening to this
album. Very listenable, sort of hard -rocky,
melodic type of stuff, which is what I like,
obviously. And apparently it's album number seven,
so the band itself is very polished at this stage.
They've also toured a lot. I guess if you're
looking for what they sound like, there's a little
bit of Hailstorm in there. There's a little bit
of Pretty Reckless. There's a dose of sort of
Leather Leone in there. So you kind of get what
it sounds like from that. Good melodies, good
choruses, but they also keep it heavy enough,
which is what I like. I don't like it too soft
and poppy. So overall, it was a very good listen.
My album of the week, though, would probably
go to Prior Convictions by Alcatraz. Now, this
one's actually an album of sort of re -recorded
old songs with two new ones to sort of, I guess,
fill a gap in the scheduling because I think
they've mentioned they're writing a new album
at the moment. It's also a chance for the new
vocalist, Giles Lavery, to sort of sing some
of the old material, which obviously he's going
to do on tour. And I think he does an okay job.
I think he's a bit weaker than Graham Bonnet
and Doogie White overall. But, you know, there's
nothing you can do about it. They've picked him
now. But for the most part, it works because
Joe Stump is, you know, he's all over it, really.
And I think he's made some of these songs better.
The original production on some of the songs
as well was a bit so -so. And I think obviously
you've got this more modern production sound.
You've got Joe Stomp on there. And so all that
together makes it a better listen. Plus the fact,
you know, I haven't really listened to a lot
of these songs for a long, long time. So, you
know, it's, yeah, it's album of the week for
me. Pride Convictions. Okay. I got a chance to
check out the Agnostic Front. really strong album
as, uh, as mentioned. Uh, but for me, uh, my
album of the week is, is your friend from drain.
This is a, another hardcore album, and this has
some twists and turns and some different things
that I mentioned before that really, uh, stood
out to me. Um, and, and I just, Again, there's
some times where I don't want to pick the same
things that other people are picking. I mean,
The Testament was an obvious choice, but just
the ability to pinpoint another album and have
someone else check the album out is also why
we do this. That's right. It could have gone
either way, Agnostic Front or Drain. And since
you mentioned the Agnostic Front, I'm going with
the Drain album. Sounds good. All right. So November
14th, we had new albums from Cheap Trick, the
French band Rise of the North Star, Withering
Soul, Stellar Circuits of Mice and Men, NYC,
Piledriver, Skull and Crossbones. Skull and Crossbones.
Can't speak. And the Swedish thrash band. Mesro,
who I recently interviewed their lead singer,
Ufa. EPs from The Hanna and Fimble Winner. Live
album from Scorpions, Coming Home Live. And compilations
from various artists, No Life Till Leather. A
tribute to Metallica's Kill Em All, which is
where we got that Testament Metallica cover recently.
And there was a Rammstein box set that was released
for, what is that, 33. All right, Ed, what did
you check out this week? I really loved those
two singles. The first one by the New Metal Church.
Man, that New Metal Church is sounding like.
some good old classic metal church stuff. Again,
that was just a single, but man, that's exciting
me for what's to come. That singer they have,
man, he sounds as much as the original as I think
he could have, as he could. But yeah, that was
good songwriting and nice headbanger. I also
really, I know this is just a single, but that
Raven cover or metal. Man, that's awesome. I
can't get enough of that. I'd like to hear Raven
do some more Metallica covers. They did a superb
job on that. And that Testament one was good,
too. But man, this one just is out of this world
good. My pick for the week, though, would be
the Mezro, which was just a nice, you know, just
a good old classic thrash metal album slash or
heavy metal slash thrash metal. They're really
good at. you don't get bored of the thrash because
of the other heavy metal elements that they add
to it. And, and, and it's, it's all fresh sounding
stuff, but it, you hear metal church and anthrax
and Metallica and Megadeth in their riffs. You
know, I'm also starting to realize that, man,
we all need to get back to listening to music
on home stereos. You know, I've finally got some.
a home stereo again over the last few years,
you know, put the parts and pieces together and
got big speakers. And I'm noticing that there's
a lot of records that I may listen to in the
car or especially on my headphones. And it's,
yeah, it's good, but it's not doing that much
for me. But then I put it on on the stereo in
here and it sounds completely different. And
that Mezro did that for me. I think I listened
to that Mezro sound before. And I didn't think
that much of it until you brought it up again.
And then I put it on the stereo here in my office
and just heard it in a whole different way. And
it makes me want to just listen to everything
in here on my stereo in my room. But if I did
that, then I'd probably have way more to talk
about than you'd want me to shut up a bit. No,
it's fine. So, yeah, the Masrow. My pick of the
week. And a very good interview that you did.
Oh, cool. Glad you enjoyed it. Jeremy, for the
week of November 14th, what did you check out?
Yeah, so First Nations Rock by Piledriver. These
are the German rockers. Fifth studio album for
them. The first in seven years, though, with
apparently a live release in the intervening
period. It's all sort of good times, slightly
amateurish pub rock, I think you'd describe it
as, in that sort of German style with a good
sort of dose of crocus as well, you know, and
even airborne in there mixed in. Uh, it's not
all mixed perfectly, but it's kind of got the
riffs there that, you know, you just want to
turn it up and play it and just enjoy it for
what it is. So yeah, that was okay. Um, but time
by skull and crossbones. Wow. Another band from
Germany, this one. And as a regular listeners
will know, and you guys know, I'm a bit partial
to a little power metal. Um, this is absolutely
tremendous. I mean, these are three members of,
uh, former members of storm, which. It's their
second album. And I can only say the guitars
just really, really rock on this. The bass is
pounding. It's very bombastic. It's very Halloween.
It's really amazing. There's loads of soaring
melodies on it, great choruses. You've got a
great high -pitched vocalist, Tobias Hubner.
It's a heavy metal band first, so make no mistake
about it. They're not a poppy type of band. power
metal band uh but whatever they do they do it
really great and and really loved it so yes but
it's one of that is on my uh purchase list so
time by skull and crossbones all right cool somehow
or another after listening to a million things
from the month of october um i kind of dropped
the ball with this week So I'm going to be honest
with you guys. The only thing that I really listened
to was the Mesro album. So that's going to be
my pick of the week. Ed described it perfectly.
A good mix of good old 80s heavy metal with some
thrash with a modern sound as well. It's a strong
sounding album sonically. So, I mean, as you're
describing the whole thing about... needing to
listen to it through big speakers. I get it.
I understand. So that makes a big difference.
That's my pick of the week for the 14th. 21st
saw new albums from Beast Eagle, Danko Jones,
El Muerto, Bloodbound, Cassidy Paris, Treat,
Striper, and Wolf Tooth. We saw that EP from
Aerosmith and Youngblood and reissues from Creed
and Korn. Jeremy, what did you listen to this
week? Yeah, I listened to Field of Swords by
Bloodbound. You know, really good power metal
sort of thrashy, well, mainly power metal band,
I guess. Great singer. But, I mean, what do you
expect? They're Swedish, so they're going to
produce some great music with good harmonies.
There's some keyboards on the songs, but they
keep it fairly heavy. I think the song themes
are a little bit overplayed, though. They produce
album after album of the same sort of song themes,
all sort of warrior and battle references and
all that kind of stuff. But, you know, it's a
good listen. So, yeah. I like that one. And I
also listened to the Def Leppard live album,
which is going to be my album of the week, simply
because Def Leppard, I think, is still a great
live act. Even if you don't like a lot of their
new stuff, you know, you're going to hear all
the hits. And we all love the hits by Def Leppard.
So that's the one I'm going to pick. How many
of the new tracks are on that album? Off the
top of my head, I can't remember now. Oh, I don't
know. I don't know. I don't think there's many.
I don't think there's many. Yeah, okay. Yeah.
Ed, what did you listen to this week? I only
have one thing for you this week. Just a classical
death metal band called Slaughter Day. They are
a band from Germany. This is my first time hearing
them. But yeah, there's... I don't have a whole
lot to say about it because it's just, you know,
basic death metal. It's a little bit different.
It's got kind of a grungy death metal sound.
Sometimes a touch of crossover. The vocals. The
vocals were a little bit funny because they're
kind of like. They're almost hardcore, but not
quite. Instead, it's more like he's talking to
you with and then. It's like if someone came
up and started talking to you, but they added
a little growl to it. It'd be weird if they did.
It kind of like, it's almost like if Oscar the
Grouch joined the band. You know, it's just got
that little kind of grumpy, growly sound to it,
but he's still talking to you. That's kind of,
it actually kind of, if you like Six Feet Deep,
you know, with Chris Barnes and some of his funny
vocals. He does some wacky stuff. Six Feet Down
There. If you like that, you'll like this band
too. I'm not trying to say that this guy sounds
like Chris Barnes because Chris Barnes, he does
some wacky stuff, like I said. Yeah, if you're
just looking for another good death metal band
to add to your collection, Slaughter Day, Terrified
is the name of the album. That's your album of
the week then. That's right, yeah. Only one I
got. All right, Slaughter Day. Terrified is the
name? Yes. Got to make sure that I got the right
thing here. All right. So I listened to three
things here. I listened to the Aerosmith with
Youngblood EP, which. A lot of people are ranting
and raving about and calling it, you know, saving
rock in 2025. And I'm thinking, man, there's
stuff that's so much better than this. And I
think it's great that Youngblood is helping turn
a lot of people's attention to Sabbath and Aerosmith
and other more rock -related stuff. From the
rock side of things, I know a lot of people are
calling him a poser because he comes from the
Disney side of things. And I think Mark has always
said it. If you've got a young person that's
trying to do something that's roughly related
to rock, you should applaud them and you should
try to support them. I have more issues with
the Aerosmith side than I do the Youngblood side
of things. Because, wow, is this polished and
wow, is it poppy. And no, that's not Youngblood's
fault because the perennial guys here that are
swinging their junk are Aerosmith. They're the
bigger name of the two. You know, I also, I kind
of hate it when people start saying things like
that, that he's the next Ozzy or the next, when
people do that about anybody, I feel like you
automatically jinx it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
yeah. And because to really be the next, like
I've heard people say that, you know, about singer
songwriters sometimes about he's the next Johnny
Cash. You would never know that until the end
of their career, whether they really were that
next person or not. And you're kind of trying
to force it on someone. And like I said, you
just kind of jinx the whole thing. And it takes
away from the authenticity of that person doing
it on their own without people making those claims.
Yeah. Why can't Youngblood be the first Youngblood
as opposed to being the next? Let him earn his
own thing. That's right. And if after 20 to 30
years, he's got staying power and he's put out
a body of work that a lot of people are into,
then great. You know, that's, that's. Yeah. Then
you can make some comparisons. So, um, so I listened
to that. I listened to Danko Jones, Leo rising.
Obviously I had a rich Knox, the drummer of the
band on the show recently. I also listened to
Wolf Tooth's Wizard's Light on Ripple Music.
Also got to interview three members of the band,
Chris Sullivan, Terry McDonald, and Jeff Cole,
which was the previous episode, 433. And because
this is my show, damn it, it's going to be a
tie between the Wolf Blood and the Danko Jones.
only because I greatly appreciate both bands
coming on the show. And I mean, I really like
the Wolf Tooth. I ordered the vinyl version of
that. Once they mentioned that Band Camp Friday
was last Friday, I'm like, aha, I'm ordering
it. And I think that Danko Jones is solid. I
mean, if you're a fan of Danko Jones, you know
that every album is going to have songs with
rocking attitude, cool melodies, and stuff that
you can throw into that Danko Jones playlist.
And that fits the bill. So I think Leo Rising
is really strong. A lot of people are really
loving the album as well from what I've read
online. That's going to be my pick. And then
the week of the 28th, which was the week of Thanksgiving,
so there was hardly anything that came out. Let's
see. There was Pale Horse Ritual, 1349, Struck
a Nerve, Steel, Arctis, Reissues from Mad Max,
Live Album from Dream Theater, and two... Compilations
from the Magnetic Eye, I believe it's called.
They put out all these Redux albums. So what
they did was a Downward Spiral Redux and Best
of Nine Inch Nails Redux. And they're interesting
compilations if you get a chance to listen to
them. All of the Redux, and I'm not just saying
that for the Nine Inch Nails. They've had Ramones.
It's come out recently, and Alice in Chains won,
and there's a few others. Just check out that
interview with Howling Giant. They talk about
it at length because they've done several covers
for them over the years. Jeremy, what did you
listen to this month? So Ed's going to fall off
his seat in a minute because I'm just going to
tell him that I listened to Winter Mass Live
by 1349. This is a glorious mass of black metal,
which I think he'd probably like more than me
normally. It really takes me back to the days
of Venom, you know, and to hear a live band as
well playing this sort of stuff live, it sounds
so much better than on normal recorded stuff.
It's really lustful. It's blood -curdling. It's
sort of stuff not for the faint -hearted, but
there was a lot of... underneath it there was
a lot of melody it was weird there was you know
there's something in there that you can grasp
onto so i kind of really enjoyed it and um just
sort of jumped into it by accident so that was
good uh i also listened to the um struck a nerve
album the eponymous album uh by them um it's
a debut album from a british band uh they sort
of described themselves as thrash but i'd say
they're kind of like a bit of a thrash hardcore
crossover which I kind of like. They're also
from Norfolk, which I don't know if you know,
but it's the home of the darkness. So not many
bands come from Norfolk, but yeah, there's two
now. And they're really kind of good. They're
good. Nothing new, but add a real sort of US
feel to it as well, which I kind of liked. So
that was good. But the band I'm going to pick
as the album of the week is Steel Arctus with
Dream Ruler. This was really good. This is sort
of epic power, trad metal, you know, all mixed
in, very epic stuff. They're a Greek band, and
I thought they sounded a little bit like Firewind,
but I thought they were better than Firewind
because they just really screech and soar, you
know, the guitars very much so. The singer is
a guy called Tazos Lazarus, and he's a real sort
of 80s. sort of Man O' War meets Kiel kind of
vocalist. He's got some really high -pitched
Rob Halford coming in there as well, which he
does really well. He doesn't sound too amateurish.
It just sounds really good. This was a really,
really fun album. I've got it on my to -buy list
as well because I went back and listened to some
of the release stuff as well at the same time.
So I really like it. It's the holiday season.
It's fun. It's with a capital F. Let's go for
it. It's Steel Arctis, Dream Ruler. Cool. To
be honest, this is a week where I kind of dropped
the ball as well. And the only thing that I listened
to were the two Redux compilations that came
out. My album of the week is going to be the
best of Nine Inch Nails Redux only because. It's
got more songs that I was into than just the
Downward Spiral. The Downward Spiral has some
neat covers on there. Just to give you an idea,
if you're a fan of Nine Inch Snails, there's
hardly anything that's electronic or industrial
on either one of these two. For the most part,
you've got sludge bands, you've got doom bands,
you've got... different types of metal interpreting
Nine Inch Nails. I think there's two tracks that
have any type of keyboard or synth on it, and
that's about it. So that's my album of the week
there. Let me just recap all of our albums of
the week real quick. Do you want mine for that
week? Oh, I didn't say that. I'm trying to rush
out the door here. We do, Ed. We definitely do.
I can keep this quick because Jeremy already
brought it up, but my pick is that struck a nerve.
When I heard the first song, it was just typical,
and I almost got rid of it, but I decided to
leave it around a bit more, and I really started
to enjoy it. You know, I'm noticing, I think,
that the... There's newer thrash bands coming
around or thrash bands that maybe have been around
for a few years and they're really starting to
come into their element. You know, in the first
wave of thrash metal, you had a lot of thrash
metal bands that, you know, they're fast and
lots of riffs and they kind of sound the same
one band to the next. And that can become a problem
with thrash metal, I think. But now, just like
with a lot of death metal bands. some of these
newer bands are adding some new things that are
keeping it interesting. And I think what I'm
learning is that when you have just a good old
pure thrash metal band like this, or like Jeremy
said, crossover, thrash, that kind of thing,
bands like Crysic, Warbringer, with the Shally
vocals, just lots of speed, lots of fast riffs.
I'm starting to realize that a lot of what keeps
it interesting are the drummers. And I'm noticing
that with this struck a nerve. This drummer,
just like Condition Critical, I feel like they're
not afraid to show that they're fans of Dave
Lombardo or Charlie Benate. And they're allowing
those influences into their songs and making
those songs more interesting than a lot of the
first wave thrash metal bands, I think. And this
drummer, too, in Struck a Nerve, he keeps doing...
As soon as I start to get a little bored, he
throws in some blast beats and just kind of raises
the intensity of the music a bit. Or he does
some work on the snare drums. That makes you
think, man, that reminds me of old Dave Lombardo.
They were having fun. So if you like thrash metal
and it's, like I said, a better than average
band, you said this is your debut? Yeah. On their
debut, they're already a better than average
thrash band, I think. I haven't had enough time
to spend with it to say a whole lot about what
songs are best, but I'm going to be enjoying
this one for a few months, I think. Cool. So
let's just recap real quickly the albums that
we picked. For October 3rd, Jeremy went with
Michael Shanker, Don't Sell Your Soul. And Ed
went with Living Sacrifice Inhibit Reissue. I
went with AFI Silver Bleeds the Black Sun for
October 10th. All three of us went with Testament
Parabellum October 17th. Ed went with Coroner
and Dissonance Theory. Jeremy went with Wings
of Steel, Winds of Time. And I went with Biohazard,
Divided We Fall. October 24th, Jeremy went with
Ronnie Romero and Backbone. Ed went with Bonginator
with Retro Death. And I went with Sumo Psycho,
Neon Void. Halloween. Jeremy went with Creeper,
Sanguinovor, Sanguivor 2, Mistress of Death.
And Ed went with Voorhees and 4. I went with,
what did I go with? Howling Giant, Crucible and
Ruin. And then for November, Novemba. Ed went
with Agnostic Front, Echoes in Eternity. That's
November 7th. Jeremy went with Alcatraz and Prior
Convictions. And I went with Train and Is Your
Friend. November 14th. Both Ed and I coincided
with Mesro and Embrace the Awakening. And Jeremy
went with Skull and Crossbones, Time. November
21st, Ed went with Slaughter Day and Terrified.
Jeremy went with Def Leppard and Diamond Star
Halo live from Sheffield. And I had a tie with
Danko Jones' Leo Rising and Wolf Tooth Wizard's
Light. And for the following week and the final
week in November, November 28th, Jeremy went
with Steel Artist Dream Ruler. Ed went with Struck
a Nerve and their self -titled debut. And I went
with various artists, the best of Nine Inch Nails.
Redux. Boom. It is done. An hour and 43 minutes,
folks. Hopefully we can keep this in one solid
show. If not, we'll just break it up into two.
And that way we get two weeks of content out
of it, depending on what you can do that. Yeah.
Yeah. Let's see what the platform allows me to
do. So awesome. I want to thank both Jeremy and
Ed for joining me today. These episodes are so
much fun. Ed, I do have to ask you one question
though. Yeah. As being welcomed into doing these
shows, has this turned you on to listening to
more new music as a habit as opposed to before?
Yes. I mean, it's always been a habit, but now
I feel like I have an assignment, so that helps.
Go ahead. This year has turned out to be one
of the best years for heavy metal, I think, in
the last few years. There are some excellent
albums. I'm going to really have a hard time
putting together that top 10 list that you're
wanting by the 17th. Yeah, that is correct, sir.
So did we not usually do that in January so that
you have the December albums? I can't remember.
We did that a long time ago. And the thing is,
since December is technically a really light
month with releases, there's a whole lot of death
metal that comes out that month. death metal
and black metal, but there's little else. Yeah.
See, that's going to be a problem for me. Yeah.
Um, I mean, we can do something else. We could
also do a recap of, um, in January, we can talk
about your death metal, um, yeah. Releases. Well,
you'll probably hear about it when we do an album.
Yeah. Yeah. It'll give us a reason for doing
a December review for the first time ever. Because
previous to this, we've taken December off. I
do have one album on there already. Cool. Hopefully
we can add a few more. Awesome. But yeah, I'm
on the ball, man. Every morning listening to
those jams. And like I said, when I hear an especially
good tune here and there, I'll hit that share
button and send it your way so that Patreons
can hear it and they'll have a little better
idea of some of the bands that I'm talking about.
So even if they don't like it, they at least
go. Kind of have an idea of what I'm trying to
say here. Yeah, at least they get something new
to listen to. And again, this month doesn't have
a lot of stuff coming out. So I only post one
video a day usually because if not, there's no
way to post two. But any new music that you can
share with us is greatly appreciated. It helps
me out tremendously. We'll have to give everybody
a bongonade or something. There you go. Awesome.
On that note, I want to thank anyone who's checked
the episode out, whether live or recorded. We're
recording this beforehand, but when it debuts
on Friday the 12th, I should say. Jeremy and
Ed, thank you so much. And we'll catch you all
next time right here on Signals from Mars. See
you, folks. This concludes our show.