Riffology: Iconic Rock Albums Podcast
Remember when payday meant choosing which CD or vinyl you were blowing it on? Standing in HMV doing the mental maths, convincing yourself two albums was basically essential. Riffology is Neil and Chris chasing that feeling again, one classic record at a time. This is a show about the albums that raised us — Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Skunk Anansie, Gojira, Soulfly and the rest. If it’s 25+ years old, loud and iconic, we’re in. Each episode is two Gen X mates diving into studio sessions, producer chaos and band drama plus the joy of taped-over cassettes, dodgy car stereos and sitting on the floor with a record sleeve. We nerd out when we should: Albini vs Vig, room-miked vs close-miked, Neve consoles, dynamic-range disasters and those “how did this get approved?” moments. If you grew up when albums were events, this is your place. Some weeks it’s an old favourite; other weeks it’s something you abandoned in ’94. Either way, Riffology’s here to talk rubbish, tell stories and remind you why these records mattered.
Episodes
December 1, 2025 • 84 mins
Where Skate Punk Grew Up and Got a Grammy Nod Episode 72 | Suicidal Tendencies, Lights, Camera, Revolution (1990) | Duration: ~84 minutes | Release: 8 December 2025 Episode Description Neil and Chris dive into one of Neil's all-time decorating records, a 1990 album that transformed LA's banned skate punk outcasts into Grammy nominees. Suicidal Tendencies' fourth studio album represents a pivota...
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November 24, 2025 • 81 mins
When Tuning Your Guitar Became Revolutionary Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~80 minutes Release: 24 November 2025 Episode Description Neil and Chris tackle L7's breakthrough 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy, the record that proved you could be authentically punk, unapologetically feminist, and radio-friendly all at once. Between discussions of Butch Vig's game-changing production advice (tune your gu...
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November 17, 2025 • 92 mins
When everyone said no, radio said yes Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~92 minutes Release: 17 November 2025 Episode Description Bush's Sixteen Stone shouldn't exist. Dropped by their first label for having "no singles and no album tracks," Gavin Rossdale went back to painting dentists' offices while his debut sat in limbo. Then a tiny record label called Trauma took a chance, American rock radio ...
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November 3, 2025 • 79 mins
Quiet verses, screaming choruses, and the album that accidentally invented grunge Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~79 minutes Release: 17 April 1989 Episode Description Doolittle wasn't just a Pixies album, it was the evolutionary stepping stone between 80s sludge and the Seattle explosion that followed. Released in 1989, this Boston band's third studio effort traded Surfer Rosa's live room chaos...
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October 27, 2025 • 80 mins
When Raw Vocals Beat Polished Perfection Every Single Time Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~80 minutes Release: 27 October 2025 Episode Description Some albums capture lightning in a bottle because they refuse to be tamed. Hole's Live Through This sits right in the Goldilocks zone between the savage spikiness of Pretty on the Inside and the polished hooks of Celebrity Skin, finding that perfect b...
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October 6, 2025 • 93 mins
When Tool made a debut that refused to sound like 1993 or anyone else Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~93 minutes Release: 6 October 2025 Episode Description Neil and Chris wrap up their dual-Maynard trilogy with Tool's April 1993 debut, a record that arrived in the shadow of grunge and nu-metal but carved out its own menacing, atmospheric space. Produced by the legendary Sylvia Massey, Undertow ...
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September 29, 2025 • 76 mins
Maynard's side project that forgot to sound like a side project Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~76 minutes Release: 29 September 2025 Episode Description Maynard James Keenan takes a detour from Tool, rents a room to guitar wizard Billy Howerdel, and they accidentally build the most elegant "super-group" debut of the millennium. Neil and Chris unpack A Perfect Circle's Mer de Noms (French for "s...
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September 22, 2025 • 75 mins
When shoegaze crashed the nu-metal party Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~75 minutes Release: 22 September 2025 Episode Description Deftones refused to be baby Korn. Released at the absolute peak of CD sales (June 2000), White Pony was their creative declaration of independence, a shimmering, atmospheric heavy record that blurred metal with trip-hop, shoegaze, and cinematic soundscapes. Madonna's...
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September 8, 2025 • 79 mins
When the vocalist change actually worked John Bush replaces Joey Belladonna, Elektra replaces Island Records, Dave Jerden replaces Mark Dodson, and somehow Sound of White Noise becomes Anthrax's highest-charting album (Billboard #7, certified gold in 1993). The first album without Joey's operatic thrash-metal wail could have been a disaster, but Bush's growly Alice in Chains-meets-Armored Saint...
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September 1, 2025 • 94 mins
When Anthrax grew up but kept the chops Joey Belladonna's last stand before a 19-year hiatus delivered Anthrax at their most mature—darker lyrics tackling social justice and mortality, mid-tempo grooves that hit harder than pure speed, and production that finally matched the Big Four's best. From the ticking-clock intro of "Time" to the Joe Jackson cover that somehow makes perfect sense, Persis...
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August 25, 2025 • 102 mins
When Max Cavalera built a new tribe from tragedy and world music Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~102 minutes Release: 25 August 2025 Episode Description When Max Cavalera left Sepultura, he didn't just lose a band. He lost family, lost the outlet that had carried him through tragedy, and found himself in that dark void where music had always been. Six months later, Soulfly emerged, not as Sepult...
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August 18, 2025 • 99 mins
When Brazilian Thrash Met Florida's Drum Triggers Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~99 minutes Release: 18 August 2025 Episode Description This is the one that changed everything. Sepultura's Beneath the Remains arrived in 1989 as a lean, hostile middle ground between thrash and death metal, recorded during graveyard shifts (midnight to 7am) in Rio's Nas Nuvens studio because a pop band had the da...
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August 4, 2025 • 63 mins
When The Nirvana Drummer Became The Frontman Nobody Expected Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~63 minutes Release: 4 August 2025 Episode Description Chris and Neil tackle the Foo Fighters' self-titled debut, the improbable 1995 record that launched Dave Grohl from grieving Nirvana drummer to reluctant solo artist. The album arrived wrapped in secrecy, 100 cassette tapes distributed anonymously aro...
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July 28, 2025 • 81 mins
When Welsh Lads Got Big, Warm, and Ready for Arenas Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~82 minutes Release: 28 July 2025 Episode Description Chris arrives early and prepared, an event so unprecedented that Neil suspects a parallel universe shift. The pair dive into Stereophonics' second album Performance and Cocktails, whose title came from a business card handed to Kelly Jones at Shine, a bizarre N...
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July 21, 2025 • 91 mins
When Liverpool Got Melodic and Death Metal Grew Up Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~82 minutes Release: 21 July 2025 Episode Description This week, Neil brings his childhood death metal obsession to the table with Carcass's 1993 landmark Heartwork. While Chris was discovering Oasis in his thirties, Neil was already deep in the extreme underground, waiting outside record shops for this very album....
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July 14, 2025 • 85 mins
When Birmingham Got Dark and the World Paid Attention Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~85 minutes Release: 14 July 2025 Episode Description Your hosts tackle Black Sabbath's Paranoid, the 1970 album that essentially invented the template for heavy metal while the rest of the world was still doing flower power and hippie vibes. Recorded in just two days at Regent and Island Studios in London, this...
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July 8, 2025 • 122 mins
When Council Estates Met Knebworth in Twenty-Four Improbable Months Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~122 minutes Release: 8 July 2025 Episode Description Two landmark albums, one meteoric rise, zero business plans. Neil and Chris tackle both Definitely Maybe and What's The Story Morning Glory in a single epic episode, tracing how working-class Manchester lads practicing opposite the Hacienda (but...
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June 30, 2025 • 84 mins
When Bradford Met Chaos and Made Friends Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~85 minutes Release: 30 June 2025 Episode Description Recording on Neil's birthday in sunny Glastonbury weekend weather that feels decidedly un-rock and roll, the hosts eventually remember they're here to discuss Terrorvision's 1993 debut Formaldehyde after an expertly chaotic 40-minute warm-up covering heated car seats, Sta...
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June 24, 2025 • 76 mins
When British Guitar Rock Discovered Itself Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~76 minutes Release: 24 June 2025 Episode Description Neil and Chris take an affectionate dive into Feeder's 1997 debut Polythene, a record that made zero immediate impact but eventually went gold anyway. This is album-as-time-capsule material, the kind of British rock that defined the late 90s for anyone who wasn't fixate...
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June 16, 2025 • 103 mins
When the Manics lost a member and found strings, grace, and stadium success Hosts: Neil & Chris Duration: ~103 minutes Release: 16 June 2025 Episode Description Dedicated to long-time listener Lindsay, this episode tackles one of the most emotionally charged albums in British rock history. Manic Street Preachers' Everything Must Go arrived in May 1996 as the band's first release as a trio follo...
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