Welcome one and all to the latest episode of
Signals from Mars, episode 442. And we begin
2026's album reviews. This is Ed, this is Jeremy,
this is myself, discussing albums that have come
out in January of 2026 to help you guys keep
track of albums that jump out at us. I'm ready.
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great as well. Please subscribe, like the episode,
tell your friends about us and all that great
stuff. Thank you for taking the time out of your
busy day. to listen or watch this episode. Welcome
everyone to the latest episode of Signals from
Mars. I'm your host, Victor. Joining me is Jeremy.
Good evening. In the UK. And Ed. See, that's
easy. I can just point down and get that right.
Ed in Kentucky. So awesome to have the band back
together here. We have Edgar Winterson in the
chat. We are talking January 2025. albums so
as usual there's good music coming out all the
time can't say that every week had good music
but uh um still music has come out all the same
hey sean richmond how are you sir uh all right
so um In your opinion, what do you guys think?
Have we started the year out good? Are there
albums here that you guys will be listening to
throughout the year? Well, there's definitely
at least one that I'm going to be listening to
through the rest of the year. I think it's pretty
typical of any year. It's a slow start in some
weeks, and in other weeks it's really good for
me. Yeah. You, Ed? Yes. I have several things
already that I'll listen to all year long. Okay.
So, yeah, first couple of weeks, I wasn't so
sure, but we ended this month or last month really
well. Awesome. So, yeah, Sean, we started a little
late because we were discussing things off air.
So, anyway. So let's get things started here.
January 2nd, we had releases from Chris Emmert
and Aurelia and Cohen. They both released their
separate Magnolia sessions. This is kind of a
bluegrass, western type of feel with the music.
I actually thought that... that Ed might be able
to pontificate upon this, but seems, I don't
know if this has caught his attention or not.
We'll see. There was another album by Allende
and Oliver who released Neverland. And depending
on what list you look at, that was either released
in December or was released in January. So I
don't know if maybe in December the digital copy
was released and maybe the physical came out
in January. Whenever I notice that kind of stuff,
I usually list the physical copy as a reissue.
But anyway, there were those full lengths. There
was an EP from Gravity Chasm and a reissue of
the Queen of the Damned movie soundtrack. Jeremy,
you pointed out that there was really nothing
that stood out for you this first week. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, this is probably, you know, the
worst week for me of the whole year, I would
think, because there really wasn't anything that
stood out to me at all. So I, you know, I didn't
really want to even listen to anything, to be
honest. It's a very, you know, it's a very short
list. And, you know, I'm going to talk about
other things another week. So, yeah, absolutely
zilch. Okay. Ed, anything that stood out to you
for this week? Nope. This was a nothing week.
That's for me. All the way up through the 10th,
right? Yeah. Yeah. Nothing. January 2nd. I'm
looking at... It's kind of to be expected because
it's so close to the holidays, I think. Yeah.
And that's basically what... What happens both
in December and January, a week before the holidays
and a week after is pretty slow. That's right.
We've already got our good spammers in the chat.
Let's make you popular. All right. So for me,
the only thing that I'm going to say stands out
to me is the reissue, the Queen of the Damned
soundtrack, which I've had that on CD for years.
This was just released on vinyl for the first
time. And if you don't know what this is about,
this was a soundtrack that Jonathan Davis of
Korn put together, wrote everything. And then
it turned out that lawyers got involved and basically
said, hey, wait a second, you're on, I forget
what label they were on at the time, and he wasn't
allowed to put it out. So what he did was he
got other artists to record his songs for the
soundtrack and then had a few others add their
own music. Let's see. Ed Ferguson here is throwing
out names of albums. I don't know if these are
real or not. Zoo with Ferrum Ciderium. Okay.
And Gumshoes. Happy New Year. Best of album.
January 1st. Okay. Let's make a word for it.
All right. So anyway. Yeah. So that's all I'm
going to say about January 2nd. January 9th,
still kind of a light week here. We had, although
there are some big name artists here, we had
the self -titled album by Alter Bridge. We had
albums by Orchard Thorn. I don't know how you
pronounce that. They're a Mongolian band. Lionheart.
Redriver. Bullet, Beyond the Black, Wretched.
Those are all full lengths. And then there's
an EP from Nano War of Steel, Terror Garden,
and Deadwood. There's a live album from Iotun
as well. Jeremy, anything that sparked your interest
here? Yeah, actually quite a lot. I listen to
four and recommend all four. So Kickstarter by
Bullet. Really enjoyed that one. Sort of an ACDC
except kind of bastard child from Sweden. It's
hard actually not to imagine Udo Dirkschneider
hasn't joined ACDC on this album because that's
the kind of thing you got on the vocal. The riffing
is fairly similar as well. That aside, it's actually
all really good fun as well and it's a good listen.
I really enjoyed it, but I couldn't help thinking
that it was those sources on it. I listened to
the Alter Bridge album. I'm a bit like you, Victor.
I listen to Alter Bridge and I'm hoping for more
every time and they don't quite deliver it. I
really liked the first song on it, Silent Divide.
I thought it was a very good riff -heavy stomper
to start off the album, and I was really hoping
the rest of the album would be in that kind of
vein, but it didn't really shine through the
whole album. It was good enough to recommend
someone to go away and have a listen to, and
maybe it's something that I'll listen to again.
probably get a little bit more from but i know
that you know miles kennedy can be a little bit
sort of nasally a bit graty uh and you know that
that can be a bit of a problem the terra garden
ep is a really good recommendation this is a
really good superb new york band very like sanhedrin
the band that i've sort of mentioned a few times
they're kind of chunkier they're a bit heavier
They have a real good sort of mix of power and
energy, really sort of kind of what you really
want Guns N' Roses to sound like, but they don't
sort of deliver that. So, yeah, it's kind of
on the sort of Welcome to the Jungle sort of
feel initially on this. So really, really sort
of cool driving choruses on it. There's only
six songs on this because it's an EP and there's
only about 22 minutes of music. And it's not
the band's only output because obviously it's
called Terror Garden by Terror Garden, but you
can go back and listen to some of the older stuff
as well. I really recommend the first track,
Supermodel Virus. It's probably one of the best
songs I've heard in over a year. So not just
this year, obviously, we're right at the beginning
of the year, but in a good 12 months, it's amazing.
It's so loose and it's so raw and it's so...
It's just something that you can get your teeth
into. Really love that song. Really like the
song Hollow as well on that. So really good EP
by Terra Garden. Really recommend it. Might well
try and get, you know, some sort of hard copy
of that if I can. And then the final one, I don't
think you mentioned this, is by a band called
Venger. Actually, some people might suggest it's
Venger, but I read an article about them and
it's called Venger. They're actually, it's a
new project featuring Doug Scarrett of Saxon.
So, you know, you know all about him. It's a
very melodic offering. He's got a collaborator
on there called James Fogarty, who comes from
a sort of proggier, darker background. So it's
a nice mix of the two. And it focuses on sort
of fantasy sci -fi themes, that sort of stuff.
It had a really good tempo to it. Again, it's
an album that, you know, you want to listen to
probably again and again. So that was good. I
was tempted. I might sort of suggest my album
of the week might be Bullet. It might be Venger,
but I'm going to go for the Terra Garden EP.
Okay. Yeah. Like I just mentioned in the chat,
I mentioned it to Edgar because he's naming albums
that I don't have. When I put our Excel list
together, it is based on what PR people send
me or labels. And then from there, I still check
out other websites and pull. Stuff that kind
of sticks out to me depending on the label that
they're on, depending on who the artist is. I
honestly don't have time to add everything. I
know Metal Storm, for example, has an expansive
list week after week. I'd never be able to post
all that stuff. Thank God for the filter that
helps me whittle that down. Yeah. And even with
that, I go to a few different places. I go to
like four different sites. This week I worked
on updating our Excel sheet and there's releases
going up to April is pretty solid. May has a
few things. June has a few things. Even July
has something and there's. I forget when the
master plan comes out, but there's something
that's really late in the year. So there's stuff
already that's coming out late this year. So
Edgar can't reveal his sources. Well, you can't
reveal to us who you are, Edgar. So I guess,
Ed, what are some of the things that you listen
to? Nothing this week again, either. Now, I do
remember kind of, like I said, I still put everything
in there and listened to whatever you got on
the spreadsheet. I remember that Alter Bridge
sounding very well. It's produced really well.
Yes. Remind me, am I correct about that? Yeah,
absolutely. So even though it's not my kind of
band, I really enjoyed listening to that band
for... A couple of songs. Anyway, listening to
Miles playing his guitar tone, I like a lot.
And then I did listen to the folk albums that
you mentioned earlier. Okay. One was more interesting
than the other, and you probably know which one.
I can't remember the names of it. I think it
had a female singer. Okay. A lot of different
eclectic. Yeah. Types of sounds in all of our
songs. You know, living in Kentucky, I'm surrounded
by tons of music like that. Yeah. So I do listen
to bluegrass and folk and old -time country and
old blues artists and old jazz. But I'm 98 %
of the time a metalhead, and I kind of have to
be in the mood to listen to some of those other
genres. So I listened to that stuff, and it was
good, but I didn't really spend a lot of time
with it. And I can't really think of anything
else that grabbed my attention up until the week
that we're about to go into. Okay. So, Jeremy,
if Ed were to reference the boot scoot boogie
or anything like that, would you be privy as
to what that would be? The boot scoop boogie.
Yes. I have no idea. Oh man. All right. I listened
to almost everything that I mentioned. All right.
I listened to the altar bridge and it's the same
as usual for me. I mean, at this point they're
just releasing the same album over and over again.
There's maybe one song, as you said, Jeremy,
that first song was really cool. And everything
else just sounds like a watered down version
of that to me. There's one or two songs that
go into my Alter Bridge playlist. And even by
putting that on shuffle, similar to what you
said, I get a few songs in and I'm done. They're
really nice guys. But it's just, you know, I
wish they would do something different at this
point. What else kind of stood out to me? The
Lionheart album, Valley of Death 2. That's a
more new metal -ish type album. So if you're
into that, that's something you may want to check
out. The Bullet album is exactly what you said.
I was listening to that and I'm like, this is
Udo or Mark Staracci fronting ACDC. I remember
that too, guys. Now that you're sparking my memory,
I remember that same thing. Some guy that sounded
so much like Udo. Yeah. Surprisingly enough,
and I can't believe I'm going to say this, but
my album of the week is Beyond the Black, Break
the Silence. And this is a band that historically,
they're a symphonic metal band, which isn't something
that I tend to like. When they stray from that,
it's usually more of a Eurovision type metal
thing. But they've done something a little different
on this album where they've added some more heavier
elements to some of the songs. They've added
some proggier things to the songs. So it kind
of stood out to me. There's like three or four
songs that I actually enjoyed off of the album.
So that's why I'm going to go with it because
it, It caught me off guard. It wasn't what I
expected from them. So it's going to be beyond
the black for me. All right. So let's move on
to January 16th. We had new albums from Kid Capici,
Carry On Veil, Creator, David Boring, Grey Wind,
Vessels, Viserion, Of Sulfur. Glucifer, Eden
Bridge, and so on. EPs from Anti -Sapien and
The Eternal, reissues from Demons, My Friends,
Gazillionaire, Paul D 'Anno's War Horse, Warning,
and a live album from Death Cult, who is essentially
the cult, just recording their earlier material
live. All right, Ed. This week finally does it
for you. So, Ed, let us have it. Well, first
of all, I kind of want to go last on this one
in case one of you all pick. Okay, all right.
But I can give an alternate in case you all pick
the other one. Okay, all right, fine. Jeremy,
go ahead. I've got two very good picks. That's
okay, because I've only got one. for this week
and it's creator crushes of the world so you
may want to talk about that later as well obviously
it's their 16th studio album the german thrashers
um and we all know they're not inventing the
wheel on these these kind of albums now um it's
definitely what i call a thrash comfort blanket
very familiar themes the riffs um But to its
credit, I would say that they do have a bit of
a melodic edge to their music now, which sort
of distinguishes them from what, you know, I
would say was a less polished and almost slightly
amateurish start. So, you know, it's got more
polished in that respect. And I would say also,
you know, check out these songs and compare them
to the Testament album, because I think it stands
up very well against a band like Testament. And
I think that, you know, they don't get as much
publicity over this music that they're releasing
compared to, you know, a band like Testament.
So, yeah, for me, that was definitely album of
the week. It was kind of the only one that I
listened to, but I really enjoyed it. I thought
it was good. Yeah, I think that. they may not
be held in the same esteem as Testament. Probably.
I would say two reasons. One is because they
came a little after Testament, like Testament
was like the second wave of thrash and creator
was more of, I mean, obviously the first wave
of European thrash probably. But it was like
the third wave of thrash that. became popular
so by that time you are you know in that same
wave you had sacred reich you had sepulchra you
had other bands that became really big um also
creator did something else creator experimented
a lot in the 90s early 2000s so they've got albums
where they're adding electronic elements where
they're doing like new medley where they're really
down -tuned and stuff like that. So that is also
kind of, you know, maybe pushed people away also.
I mean, I don't know that there's another European
thrash band, though, that's bigger than them.
I mean, just off the top of my head, I don't,
you know, is there, when you think of thrash
that comes out of any place of Europe, Is there
any other band that you think before Creator,
like for as much as Sodom and Destruction and
all these other bands are there? I think Creator
is kind of at the forefront. Yeah, they're king
of the hill over there. Yeah. So, all right.
So I listened to the Kid Capicci, which I've
liked their first two albums. They've had two
members of the band leave. So there is a noticeable
difference with the music. This album is maybe
a little bit more rock oriented. There's less
like samples and less maybe experimenting on
this album than others in the past. It's got
some cool stuff on it. I have to sit with it
a little more, to be honest. But it's not a bad
album. The Creator, I liked a lot. I think the
Creator album is probably their most solid album
beginning to end in a really long time. There's
some really good stuff on there. What else did
I listen to? I listened to the Soin album. I
don't like it as much as their previous album.
Like their previous album really jumped out at
me. There were tracks that they were releasing
before the album came out. And this one, the
first single that they released was okay, but
it just didn't grab me. For me, my album of the
week, and Sean Richmond has already mentioned
it in the chat, is Glucifer's. Same drug, new
high. Glucifer's a band out of Sweden, which
had gone away for a really long time. just gotten
back together again and put out this album. And
this was a band that in the early 2000s, a lot
of people talked about them. Lars Ulrich talked
about them. A lot of big name people saying,
oh, these guys are going to be like them and
backyard babies. And there was this whole Scandinavian
rock movement, helicopters, stuff like that.
And people were saying how they were going to
be one of the next big things. And all of these
bands kind of all went away and they've all sort
of started coming back little by little. This
album is really good. It's energetic. It's exciting.
They're songs with catchy hooks. There's, there's
a lot to like off of it. This is an album that
I'm going to be listening to a lot. And I posted
one single on Patreon, which I really enjoyed.
And I really like, There's song after song after
this, off of this that I listened to. And I'm
like, wow, I like that one. I like this one.
So it's, it's definitely something to, to check
out. If you're into the hives, for example, I
mean, obviously this isn't straight up metal.
This is more rock. This is the kind of rock that
I like, you know, when people talk about, oh,
well, you know, rock to me is born in the USA,
Bruce Springsteen. That's cool and all. But this
is what I look for, something that kind of kicks
you in the ass, something that makes you want
to move, something that gets you going. It isn't
exactly ACDC. It isn't exactly, you know, over
-the -top metal either. It's somewhere in between
like the hives is. It's a little rock. It's a
little hard rock. So that's my recommendation.
All right. Ed, go ahead. Since Jeremy picked
Creator, I'm not going to pick that one. But
I agree with everything that he said. I was very
well pleased with this album. I wasn't a big
fan of the last one. For some reason, the songs
and the production, just nothing hooked into
me listening to that last record. So wasn't sure
what to expect with this one. But it was pleasantly
surprised. I feel like the songwriting was a
lot more creative. Do you feel that way, Jeremy?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, he was, I don't know,
it's almost like he spent more time with these
songs than he did on the last record, making
them more interesting. He's also got new people
in the band. So what I thought also... Yeah.
Is if he's getting new input. Yeah. One of the
songs even had like a female guest vocal on it.
Yeah. Yeah. So I get every song that I kept listening
to single wise. I was really enjoying. So one
night I sat down and listened to the whole thing
and I favorited four or five tunes that I thought
were really good. And like Jeremy said, I feel
like there's some melodies in there that you
may not have heard before. So just overall, it
was good enough to sit down and listen to start
to end with good songs placed throughout the
record. But since he chose that one, I'm going
to take you around the world today, beginning
in Romania. There's a death metal band called...
I'll spell that for you for your list. So it's
C -A -D -A -V -R -U -L. Cadaveral. Spell that
again. C -A -D -A -V -R -U -L. R -U -L. They've
got an album called Necrotic Savagery. And as
you can tell from that title, they're kind of
like a gore death metal band. I really have been
enjoying this record because it's got a kind
of an old school sound. It's got a nice production.
You know, like in the car, I can get some volume
that I like out of my death metal. But it also
kind of sounds like you're hanging out in the
garage listening to these guys play. It sounds
like something that was made back in the early
90s. It's got some hardcore influences to it.
got a mix of kind of extreme death and hardcore
sounds and one of the things that i found more
interesting about this band to tell all my death
metal friends about out there are the vocals
so you know how in bands a lot of death core
bands like black dahlia how they'll switch back
and forth between a like a death vocal and a
black metal style vocal so you'll kind of have
a guttural sound and then this witchy sound and
they go back and forth This band has both those
kinds of vocals. The main vocal is a guttural
death metal, but they also have that other witchy
-sounding black metal vocal, but instead of going
back and forth, they mirror them together. Now,
he doesn't do that the entire time, but there
are songs where there's a lot of verses and choruses
where both of those vocals are going together.
And I like that better than the going back and
forth. Because to me, adding that black metal
vocal on top of it, layering the two together,
it kind of adds to the intensity to the vocal
a bit. And kind of just adds a little more hardcore
feeling to the death metal song as it is. So
I'm having a lot of fun with that record. So
Creator was a great pick. That's going to be
my pick of the week to give you something different.
All right. Cool. All right. So moving on to January
23rd, we had new albums from Gavial, Death Dealer,
Crystal Lake, Textures, New Miserable Experience,
Coronauts. Coronaldus, excuse me, The Damned,
Helix, Megadeth, Poppy, Ritual, Arcana, Rotting
Christ, Sky Valley Mistress, an EP from Pelican.
And yeah, that's it for the 23rd. So Sean, you
mentioned Sky Valley Mistress. You mentioned
that twice. Okay, cool. He's saying... Check
out the too many ghosts video on YouTube. Excellent.
So I'll post that on, on Patreon. I've actually
got videos posted out all the way up to early
March. So I may squeeze that in, give you, give
you three videos someday. But yeah, Sean, the,
a lot of times the dates vary depending on the
source where you, Find the information. Sometimes
it was supposed to come out a certain week, and
then it's pushed back, and some sites don't even
bother changing that. But anyway, Jeremy, go
ahead. What did you listen to this week? Yeah,
I listened to a few this week. I listened to
Death Dealer, Reign of Steel. This is album number
four for the band, as you know, former Man O'
War members. It's kind of more of the same. It's
a mix of kind of traditional metal. It's a bit
of power metal. There's a little bit of thrash
elements in there, little parts in there that
sounds a little bit like KK's Priest. So it's,
you know, there's nothing new. There's nothing
fancy, but it's kind of, you know, it's good
metal. It sounds pretty good. There's some quite
nifty guitar work on there. So it's, you know,
it's quite an enjoyable listening. It's something
that I might go back to and listen to again.
I also listen to Helix, or maybe you say Helix.
I don't know. I see Helix. Scrap metal. What's
that? Yeah, we say Helix as well. Okay, Helix.
That's good. So, yeah, it's kind of, as you know,
it's kind of sort of blue -collar standard rock,
you know, from the Canadian band. They've been
around the block. I mean, we kind of remember
these guys from when we were teenagers. I don't
think I listen to them much, but I remember the
name. And I don't think they were ever really
front stage for me at all, but they rock. They
do a bit like the Rods. You'll listen to a Rods
album now and it's kind of blue collar. It's
kind of pub metal, pub rock. And I guess this
does the same sort of stuff. Probably wouldn't
be one that I'll listen to again and again, but
hey, they're filling a little niche there and
they're doing something. Good luck to him. And
then, of course, the third album of the week
is my album of the week, and it's obviously Megadeth.
So I won't say what I think of it just now. I
think maybe we'll have a little joint discussion
about it. Okay. Ed, you want me to go or do you
want to go? Is that the week we're on? We're
on the 19th through the 23rd? 23rd, yeah. Okay.
What do you want to do now? You want to go or
you want me to go? So this is the week of Megadeth,
right? Because we're going to have to nerd out
on this one for a little bit. Yeah, go ahead.
Let me hear your thoughts on it. Okay, hold on.
I was able to listen to the Gavial album called
Thanks, I Hate It. This was a mix of... Psychedelic
stoner and blues all mixed into one. Um, the
death dealer album, um, shout out to Ross, the
boss who's just been diagnosed with, uh, ALS
disease, which is terrible. Yeah. Um, textures
with genotype. I listened to that a long time
ago. because I was supposed to have an interview
with their keyboard player, which never materialized.
I thought the album was pretty cool. It was heavier
than what I expected. I listened to the Poppy
Empty Hands album, which was good, was in line
with what Poppy has done in the past. And I listened
to the Megadeth album. Ed, is there anything
else you want to talk about before discussing
the Megadeth? Just that I enjoyed some of the
Damned. I thought that was sounding good. When
it gets around to the holidays and winter, I
get in the mood a lot for some of those older
rock and new wave bands and tunes, and that kind
of fit right into the kind of things I've been
listening to. And I listened to Poppy, I think,
for the first time. And really, it reminded me
a lot of some of the chaotic metalcore bands
that I've heard throughout the years, like Norma
Jean. And he used to be called Ludacris. And
they changed their name to Norma Jean and Chariot
and a lot of those bands. Just kind of like a
real cleaned up modern day version of that with,
of course, the female vocal. And I think she
adds some more character, of course, I think.
But yeah, Megadeth, of course, that's on top
this week, I think, for everybody. Yes. So I
have nothing bad to say about it. I like it a
whole lot better than... 72 seasons. I don't
quite like it better than the sick, the dying
and the dead. And, you know, it's funny. I kind
of knew I was going to end up feeling that way
the day it came out. And I started hearing how
much all of you guys were loving it. Right. Because
remember, you all weren't talking about the last
album as excitedly as I was. Yeah. And so when
I heard how excited the whole group of you guys
were, I started thinking, yeah, this might end
up being more of a heavy metal record. than a
thrash metal. And, uh, I think the, to me, I
think this was a, it's a really good, even awesome
heavy metal slash speed metal record with some
dashes of thrash. Um, I really hear a lot of
just classic speed metal and this record and
I like it. That's one of the things that's helping
me enjoy it. If what you're just wanting is a
thrash metal record, you'll be disappointed.
And I think that's why I hear a lot of negative
comments about the record, like on TikTok, coming
from a lot of metalheads. But I still enjoyed
it a lot. What do you all think about what I
just said there about the record? I think you're
right in many respects. I think that, yeah, there's
not a huge amount of thrash on it. It is more
of a sort of standard metal album, you know,
a little bit speed and standard metal. And I
think that they've done that recently on probably
the last three or four albums, maybe the last
three albums. So I think they've moved. away
you know he's moved away and he's he's done some
more commercial stuff on the last at least the
last couple of albums and i agree with you also
that the sick the dying the dead is probably
a slightly better album for me because i've now
listened to this you know in its entirety i've
listened to it a few times and i really like
it there's nothing wrong with it and i think
also it's a little bit almost like the scorpions
when they did their last album it's a little
bit of a pot potpourri of um of all the stuff
going back because he's kind of fitting in stories
about the various things, the shred and how he
got into music and various things that are happening
to him. And so it's kind of like he's rounding
things off. So it's one of those kind of albums.
There's lots of different songs on there and
it's a bit like the previous album. But yeah,
I think The Sick, The Dying and The Dead had
a little bit more edge to it. Just a little bit
more edge. This album was more in that countdown
to extinction, euthanasia. But I think this album
has a production that if Countdown had had this
kind of production, I might have been more hooked
into those older records. And all these songs,
too, are very well written. He's got some nice
melodies. you know just listening to them sometimes
just jamming on those riffs and they're being
creative with the riffs they're not they're not
just basic heavy metal riffs they're doing things
to keep them interesting they got you know groove
they got uh jug and and melodies and all the
right places uh and like and when i'm talking
about like that speed metal sound i'm hearing
a lot of that you know the years before thrash
metal with um raven and motorhead And Judas Priest
and Accept. Man, there was one song on here that
as soon as it starts, it makes you think of Judas
Priest right away. It sounded like Judas Priest
from the early 80s. And then it goes right into
a riff that sounds like Accept, like off of Restless
and Wild. I've got it all in my notes here. forgetting
what song it was um and then also like uh that
song let there be shred that sounded totally
metallica to me it sounded like metallica covering
a budgie song um so uh and of course you had
a couple of good thrashers like tipping point
one thing that i i bugged me a little bit about
tipping point you know at the very end they do
this little like two second thrash bit and then
the song ends and man that's like my favorite
part of the song and i wish that had i was hoping
that was the intro to the next song the first
time i heard it and that they continued with
that one um but yeah going along you got a lot
of kind of basic heavy metal songs but i'm enjoying
them And when I'm in the mood for more of a,
you know, heavy metal, classic heavy metal, which
I get into, I'm enjoying this. What about you,
Victor? What do you think about? I, to me, I
mentioned it the last time. I think it's my favorite
album by the band since United Abominations.
And I love my thrash metal. But there's just
something about this album that speaks to me
more than some of the previous few. It's definitely
my album of the week. I bought two copies of
this already. I mentioned that last time. It's
far beyond what I expected from the band. Better
than 72 Seasons. I have to go back and listen
to 72 Seasons because I haven't listened to that
in a while to kind of refresh my memory. But
Sean Richmond is asking what our favorite track
is off of the album. Ed, what's your favorite
track off of this album? I've really been enjoying
Obey the Call, which is right before I Am War.
Now, I Am War is the one that has that Judas
Priest and Accept sound. Obey the Call, though,
actually, that song started off slow, and I was...
A little disappointed, thinking I've got another
slow tune. But right in the middle of the song,
he gives us a good thrasher to end the song.
And the riffs in that part of the song are some
of my favorite Megadeth song riffs I've ever
heard. That was what I was jamming on the stereo
when you guys joined the video. I was playing
that part of the song because it was so good.
So yeah, check out Obey the Call. It's got another
thing about this record, too. And Obey the Call
is one of them. And Hey God is another one. There's
some earworms on this record for me. For some
reason, Hey God keeps getting stuck in my brain.
I'm not like particularly love that song, but
there's something about, you know, that I think
both the lyrics and just the way the song goes
that I keep getting that stuck in my brain. Obey
the Call has something where he's kind of trying
to sing some kind of melody that. It's easy to
get stuck in your head. But anyway, yeah, check
out Obey the Call. And you know what? I listened
to all nine songs and was excited that we had
a whole album with no Dave talking parts. That's
true. The last song began. But actually, it wasn't
as bad as it usually is for me. what he had to
say on that last song he did a talking bit at
the beginning and at the end um i don't know
if i cared much for that acoustic guitar solo
i mean it's kind of like maybe cool to listen
to once but if i'm going to listen to it over
and over again i i'm not so sure how much i like
that but the message of that song was really
cool and also have you any of you heard the that
hidden track that's supposed to be on the target
cd I listened to it on YouTube, yeah. No. So
do you know if that was a thrash metal tune or
not? Or was it another one in the heavy metal?
I would say it was more of a heavy metal song.
So that would mean that Made to Kill was probably
the last speed metal, thrash metal song that
he's given us. And then Obey the Call has like
a one -minute thrash section that's a really
cool bit. But yeah, most of it's kind of like
a countdown to Extinction record with a really
great production. The only thing I do wish, if
I had a negative comment, where it would be that
I wish that the rhythm guitars were pushed up
a little more in the mix. I've noticed, you know,
because I put my headphones on and sit down with
the guitar, that I had to adjust my volume a
little bit differently because the guitars aren't
quite as loud as they were on the last few records.
It's still really well produced. Jeremy, what's
your favorite track off? Yeah, just to echo what
Ed said, the production is amazing on it. I mean,
I'm sort of torn between the first track because
it just kind of opens up nicely with Tipping
Point. And also the last track, the last note,
because it's the sentiments of the song. You
know, for me, it's all about the lyrics and about
what he's trying to portray. It's the last song
on the last album that Megadeth have ever done.
So, you know, I can't really. um i can't dismiss
that one i think that for me is going to be you
know in my head uh and i'll always remember it
so yeah okay um for me um it's a song i don't
care because for me the there's are you doing
it's playing on the track and there's there's
just something about metal with instead of the
drummer instead of playing the ride or the hi
-hat where he's Going Along on the Floor, Tom.
I've always loved that. Charlie Benante does
that a lot as well. There's just that, and there's
just something about Dave's voice in that song
that I really like, and I know that people have
come out and said, well, it's a dumb song because
he really does care, because all these years
he's cared about what Metallica said about him
and this and that, and I'm like, fuck it. I like
the attitude of the song. I like what he's saying.
It's perfect. So what? Let people talk. I'm going
to be me. So to me, that's my favorite song.
But I'm sure that will change because any great
album like this that has so much good material,
you get tired of listening to one song and you
move on to another. And real quickly, what did
you guys think of the Ride the Lightning cover?
I could have done without it. I mean, I like
the music to it. but I wasn't so keen on the
vocal, just because I'm used to the Metallica
sound. So, I mean, listen, at the end of the
day, he did it because he wanted to do it. That's
fine. I don't have to listen to it a lot if I
don't want to. And, you know, I'm not that keen
on covers anyway by big bands, so I just think
it could have done without it. But I see why
he did it. Yeah. Like Maiden covering Cross -Eyed
Mary? I like it. I have no problem with his voice.
It's Dave being Dave. I like the fact that, yes,
they've detuned for this, but they're pretty
faithful to the original outside of that. Like,
Dirk's playing is like Lars. Lars is playing
perfect. You know, I know that some people have
said that where it's kind of eerie how perfect
he is with his playing, but it's a classic song.
It's a song that so many people have grown up
with listening to it. And other people have pointed
out that it's weird that Dave bitched about Kirk
playing his solos note for note on the first
album. And now Dave is playing. Kirk's solo,
Note for Note, on this album. There's a lot of
different interesting things. Out of all the
songs that he was involved in, because he's saying
that he wrote some of the riffs. I don't remember
if he's credited or not on the original. I think
he is. He is? Okay. I think it's neat because
to me, for everyone that loves Master of Puppets,
to me this and Master of Puppets is a great song
and album. But to me, Ride the Lightning, there's
just something to this album. It's got a mystique.
It's got a sound to it. There's just something
to every time you hear that. that chord at the
beginning I don't I mean how they start the song
off or it almost well well no I've heard plenty
of bootlegs of Metallica playing it where they're
completely out of tune when they when they start
the song because it sounds like a dissident note
at the beginning where it sounds like it's a
little off but it really isn't so um I think
it's cool that he went for it I don't mind the
singing I like what they've done. I think it's
a cool cherry on top. And once I get my hand
on the CD this summer, I'll pass that missing
song on to you guys. How about that? Cool. So
let's move on to the 30th of January, the final
week of January. So we had a lot of releases
here. We had albums from Profane. Profane Eulogy,
I guess is how you pronounce that. The Hirsch
Effect. Shields. Francis Rossi of Status Quo
fame. Mull. Kosuki. Hashida. Exaperitus. I don't
know how you pronounce that. Shine. Raven Fire,
Lone Wanderer, Red Sands, Our Mirage, Jagged
City, Earn, Red Vox, Buzzcocks, Lord Elephant,
Stabbing, live albums from Therion, and reissues
from Alice in Chains and Quicksilver, and a compilation
from the Macaulay Shanker Group, Bad Boys, Macaulay
Shanker Group, 87 through 92. Who wants to go
first? Yeah, I'm happy to go first. I've only
got one. So for me, it was Earned, Setting Fire
to the Sky. The band I really had very little
knowledge of before. I think I probably have
heard something by them. They've been active
for a decade now, as you probably know. I didn't
realize that they hailed from London as well.
I could have sworn they were probably a Scandinavian
band, but no, they're British. Heavy sort of
modern metal sound, as you would know if you've
listened to it. Lots of other influences in there,
a mix of the growly and the clear vocals. The
added bonus for me on this is the mix. I really
like it. I think you can pick out a lot of what's
being played all individually, including the
drumming. I think the drumming comes across.
And as Victor knows, I'm not a drummer. I very
rarely say about the drumming on albums, but
I really liked it on this. It doesn't get lost
in sort of an overly polished production. The
songwriting is good on it. It's not really my
bag, you know, it's not in my ballpark, but it's
something that I've moved over to and think,
hey, you know, I can get into this and something
I could probably play again. So, yeah, the only
thing I listen to, but it's definitely going
to be Pick of My Week is Aaron. Cool. Ed? So
I have six things. So I'm just going to go quickly
through the first, like, four. So for all you
thrash metal heads, From Germany, we have Teutonic
Slaughter. They have an album called Cheap Food,
and it's just straight up thrash metal, every
song, the entire record. The next thing is Back
to the U .S. That's just some good old classic,
brutal death metal for you death metal fans.
A band called Stabbing. They have a new record
called Eon of Obscenity. So just another good
old death metal band, if anybody wants. I also
enjoyed this kind of black gaze, shoegaze band
from Denmark. They have an album called Dream
Crush. And the name of the band, you may have
to help me. They spell it M -0 -L. And so I'm
not too sure how to pronounce that. Yeah, I pronounced
it as mole. That's a letter in their alphabet.
And I don't know how that would be pronounced
either. So I just went for it with mole. I thought
the songwriting on that's very good, very creative.
You know, songs like that, they either hook you
in quickly or lose you quickly. And I've enjoyed.
Pretty much every song I've heard on that record.
Just something different for everybody. But my
top three that I really want to talk about. So
I was going to choose Earn before Jeremy picked
that. And so that was a great pick. You know,
I listened to that last Earn record a couple
of years ago. That was one of my favorites. top
10 of the year, 2024, they're described as a
sledge metal band. But they're very heavy. You
can tell they cross over into some classic heavy
metal sounds added on top of that, I think, which
is why I ended up liking it so much. And this
record still has that very heavy sound. But to
me, it seems like they've gotten much more creative
with their songs. I haven't had time to go back
and just listen to the old one to compare it.
But I find that these songs are very creative.
It's like they're a sludge metal band, but they
have many layers of other genres of metal that
they're adding to it. And so with almost every
song, there's something interesting in there
that you'll end up enjoying. So even if it's
a tune that it's not catching you at first, if
you listen to it for a minute, there'll be something
that they add to the song or they'll go in another
direction. And everything that I've heard on
that entire record has been great so far. So
great pick, Jeremy. There's a band in Brazil
called Death Razor. They've got an album called
Forged in Hatred, and they're a thrash metal
band. And they at first made me kind of think
of Noisium. You may have heard me talk about
them before. They're a band from a few years
ago that kind of had a possessed type thrash
metal sound. And this band, Death Raiser, reminds
me kind of of them, but the more I listen to
them, the more they actually remind me of some
old school creator. So if you're a fan of like
mid to late 80s creator, you should check this
band out. If you like any of that Sodom, Destruction,
or Creator in their early days, check this band
out. You'll really like it. And I think the band
that I'm going to be my pick of the week is,
uh from poland tech death metal band called banisher
and they have an album called metamorphosis okay
and i sent you a track of that and to me they're
labeled as a tech death metal band but the first
song that i heard which is the one that i sent
you actually sounded like a new metal song to
me or something kind of in the vein of slipknot
right When I listen to their songs, I keep hearing
Slipknot sounds or other kind of new metal sounds
from bands of the past. And that one song that
I sent you in particular, when it gets to the
chorus, man, they have this incredible sounding,
heavy, juggy tone. It almost sounds like they
went to the local music store and rented every
single amp in the building, took it to the studio
and put them all around the walls. And when you
get to the chorus, you get this incredibly heavy,
juggy sound that'll make your hair stand up on
your arms. It sounded so cool. That's why I sent
it to you. But looking into this band, it seems
like they, in the past, have been more of a straight
-up kind of tech death metal band. And I'm wondering
if they're kind of experimenting on this record.
Anyway. I think that's the one I enjoyed the
most, so that'll be my pick of the week. Okay.
And what was the name of that band again? Vanisher.
With a B? Vanisher? And it was Metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis. Hmm. All right. Just pulled it
up. It's got a great album cover as well. We
should mention covers because it's great to have
artwork as well. Yeah. So we went to Romania,
Germany, Poland, Brazil, Denmark, and the U .S.
and the U .K. It is all over the place. The world
of metal. So I listened to a bunch of different
things. I listened to the Maul album, which I
thought was pretty cool, the Dream Crush as well.
Listen to Lone Wanderer. I don't even know how
you pronounce the name of that album. I'm not
even going to try it. That was OK. That was a
little and it was death metal, which for me at
times is OK. It just seemed kind of same as he
threw out. Listen to the new Buzzcocks album.
Attitude Adjustment was OK. I listened to Lord
Elephant, Ultrasound. That is instrumental doom
metal, basically. There was an Alice in Chains
reissue. Obviously, I've listed that a ton. I've
listened to what I'm assuming is a lot of that
Michael Shanker, Macaulay Shanker reissue. I'm
going to coincide with Jeremy. I really like
this Earn album. There were a lot of surprise
hooks in there, surprising in that, you know,
what I know from them in the past. I think this
is the first time that they've mixed so much
melody within their music. And in the PR release,
it talks about how they've consciously evolved
their sound to try to go other places where they
haven't in the past. 33 -piece out of London,
as Jeremy mentioned. And Earns' Setting Fire
to the Sky is my album of the week. I'm also
becoming really impressed with the guitar player
in that band when I listen to his solos. He's
quite the shredder. Yeah, the whole thing. It
kind of reminded me of a heavier version of Mastodon.
in the sense with how intricate a lot of the
songs are and just the mixing of the vocals.
All right. So let's see here. Let's just start
out with the 9th of January where Jeremy went
with the Terra Garden EP. I went with Beyond
the Black and Break the Silence. The week of
the 16th, Jeremy went with, okay, Jeremy went
with Creator and Crushers of the World. Ed went
with Cat of Rule. Is that how you pronounce that?
Cat of Rule, Necrotic Savagery. And that was
Ed's album of the week. I went with Glucifer,
Same Drug, New High. On the 23rd, we all went
with Megadeth with their self -titled number
one album. Dave was finally able to get his number
one album that he always wanted. I thought that
was interesting. And then for the last week,
which is the 30th of January, Ed went with Banisher
and Metamorphosis. and Jeremy and I went with
Earn and setting fire to the sky. The chat was
very active today. I do want to thank Sean Richmond
and Edgar Winterson for all of your comments
and all the various vagrants who are in and out
of the chat with some of their scamming comments.
I want to thank them as well. for driving up
my viewer points there on the various platforms.
I want to thank Jeremy and Ed, obviously, for
joining me as usual. These episodes are always
a lot of fun, and look at that. An hour, over
an hour worth of content, and it flew by as if
it was five minutes. So thank you guys for making
this fun and making it a great episode as usual.
I've got homework. I've got songs that... or
albums that I want to check out. And there's
one thing that Anthony Mackie brought up that
I'm looking into, which is the possibility of
doing a playlist where we add songs from the
albums that we pick so that people can keep up
with them. That's something that we may end up
doing. I got to look further into how we can
make a branded playlist up with the signals from
Mars brand on it. If not. It's just got to be
a personal one, but we'll see. I just haven't
had time to look into it yet. Hopefully in the
next few days. But anyway, thanks everyone for
checking this episode out. The audio version
will be out this Tuesday. There will be a video
interview that I conducted with Kat from Hoaxed.
Hopefully... you guys um enjoy at least her part
of the interview which you can hear perfectly
mine kind of comes and goes it kind of sucks
but is what it is there's worse shit out there
on the internet so uh anyway on that note thank
you guys once again for joining us here and we'll
see you next time right here on signals from
mars see you folks podcast you can subscribe
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information this concludes our show