Post-Black Mahna Mahna

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hello everybody, and welcome to our I suppose it should
be our spookier reviews edition of That's That Metal this October.
We are your weekly rock and heavy metal podcast, and
we are here this time has said to bring you
some spooky and there are a few sort of gothic
reviews this time around. Yeah, I was gonna say it

(00:48):
is yeah, you know, to fit the season. Yeah, this
is our reviews show for October. Here on that Start Metal.
We've had a busy couple of last months with the
reviews really live and up after the summer, and October
was the one I was looking at, being like, damn.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
There are a.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Lot of really big, high profile, exciting, you know, newer
band as well who're worth checking in on a lot,
coming out every single week in October, and we have
picked eight of them to really put under the knife.
The most interesting, the most exciting, the most worthy of discussion,
whatever they might be, we have got those ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Of you here.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
My name is Parin Hayish, with me here to do
this task. Sam Dignon is back once again. Hello Sam, Hello.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yes, really interesting albums.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
I'm really excited for this review is Bat's actually like
it's been a cool, cool sort of selection.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, has your week been?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah? Pretty good? Saw Killswitch engage.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
I know obviously you and Mark have already discussed this,
but them doing you know, their big Wembley Arena show
Hate breedon before, just like seeing Hate Wed play empty
promises in an arena one of those like this show
is kind of wrong, but also fuck.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, this is sick. Kill Switch reliably brilliant.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
The closing run of their set one of the most
ridiculous things I can see where I'm just like this
band on another level, where they're doing Arms of Sorrow
in Due Time, This Fire, which when they played This Fire,
which for me, I.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Was like, they don't always play it, so I was
really someone they did.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
And then halfway through the song, the screen behind them
becomes the CM Punk entrance video from like when he
had it at this fight as his entrance theme, and
myself and my three friends were whip all massive wrestling fans.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
None of us were prepared for this.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
And we all kind of just exploded and just started
losing our minds, which we're already doing enough, you know,
watching Kilchi's play one of their best songs that they
don't play in This Fire and then they do My Curse,
End of Heartache, my last Serenade to close, ridiculous band
Rows of Sharon second, like just one of like unbelievable setlists.
The new songs sounded really good life as well, like

(02:49):
they did spliceing enough cool new stuff. But it was
like when they were like just firing out these hits
and they did it all in seventy minutes, like they
wasted no time, ridiculously good just come like felt like
watching a hardcore band in an arena, really cool, really
cool time like kill been on killer form.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, shockingly, Mark last week didn't mention the wrestling prood.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I don't know if they have.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
I don't know if that was you know, the big
screen was just for for Wembley for the arena.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
But yeah, I mean obviously they had a big bill
behind them that helped. But it's nice to see kill
Switch actually playing in you know, arena venues like Wembley
and some because they always kind of felt like they
should be there really but they were just out of
reach for whatever reason. But yeah, sounded like a very
very good time ahead of us. In today's reviews episode,
we are going to be talking about the new albums
from a Fi Thrice, Military, Gun, Conjurer, Perturbator, Sanguee, Sugar Bog,

(03:41):
Tribal Gaze, and Agriculture. Before that, we have some news
to do, and we are going to be beginning with
what has you know in recent months kind of become
the That's No Metal Morning section, because what what a
rough few months it has been for losingant figures from

(04:01):
heavy and rock music, and we've got to really size
we wanted to talk about here, like right before, like
I was going to be set to uploading last week's episode.
So Thursday night, the news came out that Ace Threely,
of course A Freely, the former lead guitarist of Kiss
during their prime peak years of commercial and world really

(04:24):
global dominance had had passed away. And Kiss, ah, I mean, they're,
like I just mentioned it, globally dominant, right, like, one
of the most recognizable by anyone who has no interesting
rock music at all, bands that we've yeah, they've ever
ever produced. And even if that that layman might not

(04:45):
necessarily know Ace Freely and every single one of them
by name, they'll certainly have seen his face, you know,
and with the iconic spaceman makeup and the big rocket
boots and all of that stuff. And I think I'm
right in saying this is the first of that, you know,
that real or classic lineup of kiss. You know, the
four guys who you know, the guys on the cover

(05:06):
of a live the guys with the four solo albums,
that whole thing that, you know, the four guys who
really were kiss in their true form, the first one
of those to leave us. So that is a no
matter which where you slice it, no matter how big
a kiss found you maybe not be that is a
real moment of you know, that is a moment of
significance for our genre for sure.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I do like Kiss a lot.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
And this was kind of I think you see, he'd
had an accident and he was on like last four
and when I said that, I was kind of like, ah,
we're gonna.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Have do this again.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
And it was just again a real tragic one one
of those monumental figures like again like you know how
kissed again. You know how the spaceman looks he like
people people like to say the Spaceman that carried a
kind of aura to it, and that like is a
real sort of sad thing.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
To sort of like process.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, and his kind of reputation in Kiss in that era,
I suppose is like the genuine kind of wild spirit
of the bunch. I suppose where Kiss were Obviously they
were marketed as a gang of maniacs, you know, and
you have these two absolutely larger than life rock star
figures in Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. But both of

(06:14):
those guys I think were really on top of the marketing.
I suppose they was on the business side. They knew that,
yeah that you know, obviously Gen Simmons more than anyone,
but they knew how to make Kiss kind of a
globally you know, successful enterprise with the toy line and
all that shit. Whereas Ace Freely, I think is the
genuine sort of rock and roll maverick out of those
four members of Kiss. And it's arguable that they lost

(06:36):
some of that when he he, you know, was no
longer in the band. And I mean, I'm a I
would say, I like Kiss these days. I'm still I'm
fairly casual Kiss enjoyer. I've got my you know, my
my selection of tunes from all across their albums that
I returned to and enjoy. But some of those you know,
some of the songs that Ace sung his contributors to

(06:58):
the Love Gun record in particularly kind of sring to
my and I mentioned those four like, you know, when
the four members of Kiss each put out kind of
a solo record in the same year as part of
their you know, their kind of game plan that they
had going on. My understanding from the war hardcore Kiss
fans out there is that most of those albums are
not actually very good apart from the Gym in the
Bunch is supposed to be Aces one, So you know,

(07:18):
some some genuine talent behind that then yeah, I mean,
and even beyond whether you are or not again a
huge Kiss devotee, and you know, all about their records
is inarguable their influence. Where when this news broke it
was like every obviously guitarist in particular because it was Ace,
but every like guitarist of the generation that I would
look to as being like the all time rock metal gods,

(07:41):
you know, all of those people from the eighties and
so on. Every guitarist from one of those bands was like,
oh my god, it's Ace. You know, Ace is the
guy who made me want to want to play I mean,
you know, obviously name checked in Weezer songs and so on,
but everyone from him to down through like you know,
your thrash metal guitarists. I know for a fact how
much of a huge, like formative influence Kiss were on

(08:03):
the kind of rising generation of Norwegian black metal musicians
from the nineties, like when you're when those guys were
all ten, let's say, getting into rock music. Of course
Kiss are going to be there as one of the
huge things. You know, din Bag Darryl famously buried in
a Kiss coffin so an absolute you know, you remove
that domino and god knows what happens after that point.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
I mean that spaed to like Hate Breed were like yeah,
like they are like massive. Kis says like, because I
think any band of a certain era, just when you
were growing up games one music, Kiss would have been
just one of the most kind of like this is.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
What a rock band is, larger than life.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
They look like they could only be rock stars and
in that and then you get like Ariel on the
guitar as that kind of like Maverick like guitar god,
and of course that's going to change the shape of
so many aspiring musicians.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, so a major member of Kiss lost here and
then also later in the week Sam Rivers from from
this has really come out. I mean, you know, who
knows what might be playing it behind the scenes, you know,
But for for us as kind of the general public,
this absolutely came out of nowhere.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
This one knocked me really because there'd been no kind
of like mention that he was anything, and it was
just kind of like Sam Rivers and it's coming so
soon off of the age really when I was kind
of like two at once.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
But this one for me, the hard thing for me
for this one was.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
The day after when Fred Does put out a video
sort of discussing it, and like, limp Biscuit are characters.
They are these larger than life like lunatics who.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Were Limp Biscuit don't seem like they should die, you know,
like they just don't seem like that should be a
physical possibility.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
And Fred Does shouldn't be emotional in the way like
that is that since it like and it was such
a like fuck me, this is the kind of the
facade of like the Boises larger sort of thing of
limb Biscuit gone, and then kind of like fuck me.
This is you know, again someone who fought helped him
form the band and to such a like key part
of their sound is gone and aft that that is

(10:04):
a huge loss.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Absolutely, And again it's another case where the kind of
you know, the core classic line of olymp Biscuit, the
envision in your head one of those guys now no
longer here, and you know it goes to that saying
that the rhythm section of lymp Biscuit is not only
extremely talented but also absolutely like if they're not working,

(10:27):
then the entire enterprise of Limp Biscuit becomes bollocks, right.
Can you imagine listening to like Fred Durst rapping and
Where's balland's really quite weird, you know, not conventional in
their rhythm riffs if they did not have that apps.
I mean, you hear olymp Biscuit and the word that
comes to mind is bounce, right, and that is John

(10:48):
Otto and that is Sam Rivers, and that was it.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
I think I was like, man, one of the like
I don't want to say like underrated sort of rhythm sections,
but I think people kind of like, sure overlook because
because obviously you have got Fred and were's is that
kind of the biggest sort of thing in front. But
John and Sam Rivers they had they they're the ones
who kept it locked down, who had those kind of
like that groove, that bounce and just that life sort

(11:11):
of blood that kept in Biscuit from ever veering at
their best, every viewing too much into like ridiculousness. I
can think of like Sonni in businesses when I'm that
baseline where it's just kind of like pulsing along and
just sort of like and you know, it's building to
the pop off when the drums kicking the everything, and
it's a truly poled some many time, but it always worked.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, So massive condolences to the limp Biscuit Camp two
really kind of out of the blue losses there, but
two huge figures. Who got between the two of those guys.
How many people they inspired to get into our world
and pick up History's or whatever, unbelievable. So yeah, rest
in peace to ace freely into Sam Rivers. Let's move
on to the announcement that Sick New World is going

(11:53):
to be returning Sick New World. Of course, I think
everyone knows what that festival is, so it doesn't eat it.
Explaining the cancelation of last years line up, what was
it like a month or two after it has actually
been announced, Like really bizarre. Yeah, and we still don't
really entirely know what happened there. One of the most
bizarre sort of like hey, what's going on over there
sort of festival stories in recent years. And I guess

(12:14):
that that fact makes it slightly more bizarre that with
Sickney World's announcement of their return, it's not only the
Las Vegas event that they have done for the prior
a couple of years, but they're also expanding to do
a date in Texas as well. And so we have
two full as that you know, as of the fashion,

(12:34):
two full massively stacked posters for two sick New World lineups.
The majority of the bands on them are the same,
but there are a few you know, differences here in
there between the two of them.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Like I said that, the interesting part of this to
me is the part that we don't know of what
has been going on business wise with them to make them,
you know, back out of the last one so quickly
then expand this, so we don't really know that lineup wise,
it's kind of been sutral for Sidney World. I suppose
it's got you know, the kind of the big staple
kind of bands that you expect to be headlining them.

(13:09):
So system of a down are their corn are there
bringing the horizon or on one of them the Texas edition.
This is interesting if he just Deaftones, but also Slayer
celebrating forty years of Rain and Blood, which is mad
because obviously I wasn't there, but I do kind of.
I remember people talking about the twentieth anniversary Rain of
Blood when they played like Azure Palace or something. Yeah,

(13:30):
so I wanted to go to Yeah, So twenty years
on from that and from that is crazy, I know.
But there we are with forty years of Rain and
Blood and it's a half hour long records, so of course,
so I'll have plenty more to do. And Marilyn Manson
is their front and center in the poster on both dates,
because these places have no shame. But otherwise, someone in
our discord put it really well saying that these festival

(13:52):
posters have such strength and depth that it becomes uncanny Valley,
and I agree, because you look at it and there's
too many names and take in when you also then remember,
as we said various times before it's a one day fest,
so there's no way you're seeing them. So I find
it hard to be actually impressed when I look at
these lineups. There's obviously there's lots of lots of really
really strong artists Acid Batha back on It, who they'll

(14:14):
actually get to play Sickney World for the first time,
having announced their line up their reunion bafflingly as part
of the canceled one. But other than that, like I said,
I find it hard to be genuinely impressed by it.
I suppose because it does enter that strength in depth
Uncanny Valley and this was it.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
As I was like, I feel nothing looking at these
lineups now, because I'm like, that's just this is what
these corporate nostalgie facare they They like when we were young,
happened like this weekend.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Just gone, and I was like, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
I barely heard a piece bad it because it's just
kind of like part of the furnish now where they're
just going to book all of these in like stacked bills,
but then you're gonna see eight bands over the whole
day because of how it sort of lines up, and
with the cost of a ticket, you're you know you're
gonna want to see the biggest.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Eight bands on there, aren't you really sure?

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Like these things aren't going to be cheap, so like
cool as it is to see, you know, Haywire and
Dying Wish and stuff pop up on these like you're
gonna want to make sure you're catching your Evanescences, Slayers, Corns, Deftones,
Sys with Doubt Light.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
So it just is that uncanny thing. It's just it's
too much. I'm just like, I don't really feel anything
looking at them now.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
M Yeah, agreed. Some exciting news for us though. Jamie
Morgan and Shade from Code Orange, of course, they have
announced that. So they've off for a long time now.
Ever since Code Orange is kind of you know, retreat
and hiatus, I suppose they've been doing stuff together. They
those two have kind of very much gone together as
the out of the Code Orange kind of rubble, and

(15:44):
they've been doing this Nowhere to Run sort of I
don't know, general media project.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
They've been doing kind of blood rave events and stuff
like that around where they are, but properly musically. Now
they've announced that I think next Friday, on Halloween, there
is gonna be an EP from the two two of
them under this name Nowhere to Run considering Code Orange
as we know are And there was an interesting Q
and A that Jamie Morgan did over on I think
was read it wasn't it this week? That kind of

(16:11):
he goes into a little bit more detail about where
Code Orange are at, and it certainly does not sound
like Code Orange are going to be moving forward anytime soon.
If they were to considering Code Orange, we can saund
as that might be for us, We can put them
in the rearview mirror at the moment. Are you excited
to be getting a different, you know, musical project from
two of the premium members of Code Orange.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, I really am.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I know, like because I've kind of been able to
sort of like, yeah, Code Orange is done. I can
look at this kind of like fresh Eyes, Fresh Ears.
They've obviously been putting out a few tracks and remixes
here and there. They've done a wrestler's theme song that
they've been keeping busy with this Noah's Run project. But
this film is like the first substantial kind of like
this was going to be And it's cool, It's It's

(16:54):
what I would expect from these two splintering off into
a kind of like side hustle from Code Orange. It is,
you know, it's very nineties, is very dark, very industrial,
but it sounds like it could be a particular vibe
I can really get on board with.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, I wouldn't expect much in the way of hardcore
even maybe rock music from this, so I'm imagining it's
going to be more of the electronic side of things.
But I liked that in Code Oriins, so I'd be
interested in, you know, following that further forward. And this
EP is gonna have a whole bunch of guests on it,
and I guess the two that would jump out if
you are, you know, maybe in the T and M
universe as recognizable are Backwash and Horror are both going

(17:32):
to be involved with this EP. So yeah, I mean
next Friday, you know, a week from now, I will
certainly be checking out the new Nowhere to Run EP.
Russia's reunion tour has just been gaining more and more steam,
and they're now up to fifty eight announced dates, all
in North America. So if you're going to go more
than fifty, you gotta gotta ticket somewhere else. But yeah,

(17:54):
up to up to fifty eight dates now currently all
in North America. Over who needs Rush, We've got Bleed
from Within, who are going to be doing a kind
of smaller than they have been doing, avoiding some of
the major cities, going to some of the maybe less
toured cities dates. This is happening in March next year,

(18:15):
and I think they're supposed to be maybe doing a
little bit more, sort of less of the obvious songs
in their set lists and whatnot on those as well.
And the new single that I was excited to get
today as we are listening to this comes from hell Ripper,
and hell Ripper have announced they've got a European and
UK tour coming up also next year. It includes their
largest hometown show in Glasgow to date at the Garage,

(18:39):
which I've never been to that venue, but from the
kind of the word I get from my Scottish friends,
I think that's probably a cool venue for a speed
metalish band like hell Ripper to be doing. I imagine,
because I know it's been busy in the recording kind
of state, I imagine that this will be a lead
single from a new album that will be out maybe
early next year. Sometime, so I was very curious about

(19:01):
what it would sound like. It's called Kinhile, I think,
is how I'm going to say that, which is a
kind of a Gaelic word. It is the battle cry
of the Mucbean clan from Scotland, so very much engaging
in kind of the end Scottish history and whatnot. But
this song keen Heile brackets goat craft and granite, great name. No, yeah,
this rips it's got you know, obviously, it's it's got

(19:24):
that motorheady kind of energy that you expect from hell Ripper,
but it's not like the same kind of thrash pace
that a lot of their songs have. And I really
enjoy when Hell Ripper songs. I mean, I like the
ones that are you know, Dave Lombardo beats all the
way obviously, but I also like when they mix it
up with some different kind of paces and stuff. I
think that's certainly like a setlist from them. I think
that really helps. And this track having this more kind

(19:46):
of on the rugged rock and roll kind of energy
with like new over British heavy metal licks and stuff.
It's got a really cheeky, slightly oddball sense of kind
of playful humor with the melodies and stuff almost in
a way I would associate with like Malacarpa and stuff
like that more than the kind of black speed stuff.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
It's really cool.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's a genuine toe tapper. It's got these big gang
vocal bits, but then also towards the end this like
slightly proggy acoustic break. And it's not like this isn't
one of the like sort of eight minute long, you know,
long form epic progressive hell Rapper songs that we saw
on the last album, but as just like kind of
a banger that also has these like touches and these
beats of Oh, this is more than your kind of

(20:26):
standard speed metal. I think this is a really strong
song that has me, Yeah, my apppite definitely wetted for
the upcoming hell Ripper album. And I suppose we should
also just mention out the the the twitch Fits, which
is the Twitching Tongues Misfits cover side Hustle thing. The
last several halloweens, they have been putting out an EP.
Basically what they're doing is they're slowly re recording the

(20:48):
entire Yeah, they must have I think it's about twenty songs.
That are on these combined releases they've done now, and
if you're gonna do it for any band, I'm of
the opinion that every band should re record the entire
the Mixfits. It's just made for it.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
I mean, as Twitching Tongues as a band are almost
like super made forwarding the Misfits these EPs that they're
always just really fun, like just a really like like
muscled up like Misfits covers, and then you know that
they play the twitch Fits show every Halloween.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
It's a cool kind of like seasonal thing for this
band to.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Do, although not for us here in the UK, because
not for us here in the UK, who.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Knows if we're ever seeing it.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
But yeah, I mean it's some fun bunch of this one,
because there was they've done a lot of the really
really big ones now and now they're knocking out like
dig Up Her Bones, which is a massive song from
the Graves era, and this particular EP also opened with
Cough Cool, which is a much more kind of deeper
cut of the Danzig era songs, and it's got like
some kind of spooky keyboards and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
So maybe I think that's just.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
How much of a fan Colin Young Ears of like Misfits.
He will he will go like, we're doing the deep
cuts this time.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
No, I'm absolutely all for it because I love these
songs as well. But what I'm saying is hopefully in
about you know, one or two years time, we will
be now really doubted, like really in the weeds of
the Misfits catalogue, and I support it all the way.
I think we should go and do every single one
of them. So that is our little news round up
before we go into our reviews episode, we will shout
out here that on the last time out of Patreon,

(22:15):
over the past you know, our recent period, we have
been working on the Nola Sludge Special, our trip into
the stinkiest and biggest riffs from New Orleans and those
legendary bands that came out of the nineties and have
carried on through the present day, constantly providing some of
the meanest, sludgiest riffs. I spoke about this briefly with

(22:38):
Mark last week on the Hyperblast when he was just
saying that he'd be listening to the show. But Sam,
we've done our first part of the special, where we
were recovering a lot of the nineties glory years of
these and when we kind of return to this in
very very soon we will be knocking out part two
and taking the story forward from there. But halfway through

(22:59):
this little journey, been doing through the swamps you having fun?

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Been listening to a load of crowbar. How can I
not be having the best time?

Speaker 4 (23:06):
Like just big riffs, like nasty music, but also like
some really cool of like uplifting, life affirming. It kind
of does all the live scene when you when you
really dig into it, there's there's like you know, you've
got crowsk for me, just the most rocking real music,
like you get a bit of everything.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
I've been having a great time kind of really, like
I say, digging into this swamp of riffs.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yes, And as said, the first part there where we
covered all of its origins and the real glory periods
of these bands. That is out that is available for
you listen right now, and soon we will be doing
the second part as said, moving forward into the modern
era with them. So if you want to hear that
along with all of our great specials that we've done,
then Patron dot com slash that's the metal is the

(23:48):
place to be. Let us get into this properly, and
we're going to start the reviews, and we're going to start.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
With me and you on a reviews episode. Sam.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Of course, we have to start with a new from AFI,
which is called silver Bleeds the Black Sun Dot Dot
Dot Sam. A couple weeks ago last time year on
the show, we were we briefly mentioned we were talking
about some of us kind of our between the two
of us are joint favorite bands and records and stuff.
And one that I didn't mention that I think would

(24:18):
obviously right up there with our collective highest it would
be AFI.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
I think between the two of us, they are they
are a band we share a real love for.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Like and not just you know, the Glory Years.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
We are as like AFI trupers all the albums as
it gets on at this point.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, and so this is obviously a real treat for
us when our big band review of the month comes
from AFI and we are here with a new AFI
era that's already been a fun one, you know, the
Desert Sex Cult Davy facial hair era.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
I've grown to like it. I really like it now.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
You know, it was always bold, but I think it's
certainly you know, it's you've got to respect the boldness
I think, and a musical direction that even and in
AFI is long history of doing this. You know, they
are one of the most kind of cameleonic, dynamic rock
bands of their generation, one of their more dramatic overhauls,
I think sonically as well as just mustache ly, AFI

(25:12):
have no bad albums. I genuinely think that if you
don't like one, whether it be Bodies or Crash Love
or December Underground or Burials, whatever taste is taste fair,
but you're the loser who is missing out because you know,
I mean, it is natural that a band with this
many twists and turns. It's fine if you know, maybe
they leave you behind on one album and then pick
you up again on the next one.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
But I think holistically with each album kind of offering
different things together, they just have like a historically brilliant catalog.
Crash Love used to have the position for a long
time that people would love to bash that one, but
I haven't heard anyone do that actually in quite a
long time. I see way more people celebrating it these days.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
It's like the Crash Love recommation is It's been slow,
but I haven't. We are everyan who is kind of
there and they're like, yeah, crash Love is like legit
so good. Even I was like when that came out,
I wasn't kind of in on that one because I'd
go into AFI on December rand of Ground, gone back
and discovered like single SI and all that and the hardcore.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Roots, and then heard the crashwal compan I was like,
it's a bit odd.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
I don't know if I like this, And now I'm
like man like beautiful Thieves, like Medicaid. These are some
of my favorite AFI songs. But I agree, not a
bad album. Some albums I love more than others, but
I think every album has its place near discogphy and
is worth kind of like listening to at least wants
to kind of like experience.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Where they are in their journey at that point.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, and the last album Bodies in twenty twenty one.
It did not have the most kind of overwhelmingly positive
reception that they've ever had, but I loved it. I
still love it. I listened to it early today, and
four years later, the band still seem to love it
the way they do all their records, and it's taken
its place as another you know, kind of distinct piece
of that journey. As we're saying, so in the long run,

(26:53):
I think another success, Silver Blea's A Black Sun is
even more of a distinct, well defined, very particular album
in their discography. I think because this is the album
that I can really imagine people either brushing off, but
I think maybe more so wholeheartedly embracing purely based on vibe.

(27:14):
And they they did warn us because you know, they
gave us behind the Clock as the lead single and
they said along with it for a rare occasion, this
single really is like the gauge for the whole album,
and the words us from the get go were this
is our mood album. This album is very particular for
us in terms of how it chooses to really inhabit
one primary space and you know, build an atmosphere out

(27:36):
of that. And even though you know there are things
in common with Bodies, because this is a follow up
from that, but Bodies is like a jukebox album, I think, ye,
this is a vibe album. And when Behind the Clock
came out, you know, I really liked the song, and
I wouldn't say I was nervous, but I did wonder
just based on that and that song, I was like,
is this potentially a point where AFI is you know,

(27:58):
total goth worship with Davy doing that voice and everything.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Is this maybe a.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Point where it could venture a little more into pastiche
you know what I mean. The record in the AFI
can and prior that this shares the most DNA with
is Burials, because that was the record prior to this
that had the closest relationship with like out and out
goth and post punk and stuff. But that that is
like a goth rock AFI album. This is AFI's goth

(28:24):
rock album, if that makes sense. Like it's not so
much kind of a flavoring and a prism through which
we feel the kind of classic kind of identity, but
it is an absolute full dive, possibly the most extremely
they have done with any particular style they have played
with in their history. I think the degree with which

(28:44):
they just wholeheartedly go like, yeah, this album, we are
going all in on.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
This is for them. I think it is interesting.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
I agree because like there's been you know, songs on
past alms that kind of do call back to some
of the vibes of them.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
I think twisted tongues.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
On like Bodies and that that had that kind of
like dark gothic flavor to it, and they have moments
on it of course, like a lot of their albums,
but this is the one where, again, like Bodies, You're right,
it's quite an eclectic album. It's got you know, synth pop,
it's got kind of like oat rock and that sort
of stuff. It kind of skits about a bit. I
think all the sort of albums post sort of like
come back here, I guess you could SAYFI, they've all

(29:22):
have been a little bit more eclectic. This is the
most kind of like you know, this.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Album is one mood, one vibe.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
We are like in this world for thirty five odd minutes.
But it is the most kind of like lush noir,
crush velvet, pure goth rock feeling a if I've ever done.
And when I heard Behind the Crook's lead single, when
I was like, oh, they're committing so hard to it,
and I see we mean whether they way that could

(29:49):
have become a bit pastiche but I think Davy and
the rest and they clearly love this sort of sound
too much to let it be PASTI should never let
it not be a completely sincere.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
It absolutely Yeah. I mean, this is the most fucking
Echo and the Bunny Men the cult album af I
have ever made. This is so firmly in, you know,
for the Goths that it makes every other record AFI
have made a famously associate with the Goths band seem
like limp biscuit, you know. But I mean, if you've

(30:21):
listened to the great several hour long interview that the
Hardwall podcast did with Davy Habit recently, there's a story
he tells in that where I think it was Peter
Murphy from Bowhouse like mock knighting him, and I think
that maybe go I would argue that's what AFI are.
I think like they very able to album, but fundamentally
I think they are part of that pantheon of great

(30:42):
goth bands that just happened to have been the one
to have come out of the hardcore scene and then
kind of intersected with the explosion of you know, mid
two thousand that they're vegan, straight edged the cure basically
is what they are, and rather than you know, a
pastiche or a pretentious move from a band who maybe
they forget to write songs or whatever as part of
this kind of Moodia Canvas. This record has turned out

(31:05):
so naturally and perfectly for them that it is kind
of amazing it's not happened before and just go back
to Bodies, like you were saying. It has a lot
of songs that have that kind of tonality too at times,
but Bodies I think of as almost being like a
kind of goth party record. This is, you know, it's
got that stuff in it, but it's more kind of
bubbly and effervescent that now it's like, you know, we're

(31:27):
after the party. We have moved now into the darker,
glowering kind of shadow of it. But the cool thing
about that also is it's the shortest AFI record since
Shut your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, you know, and
Bodies was already like for sure, I think that held
that title before this, but it's a good move I
think to have kept this album particularly tight, because even

(31:48):
though this is more shadowy and more contemplative maybe than
your average AFI record, it's still so listenable and replayable.
Where this absolutely has been the album this month for
me that has had the appeal of like I've got
half an hour I'll throw on the AFI album, even
though it is more theoretically slow burning its approach.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
The thing that they sounds for me.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Is like it is like moody and dofter that, but
the pop sensibility that I've always loved in AFI, it
feels that they've dialed that up just as much to
go along with the the goth it sound. And so
it's just maybe you've got these songs that are to
the point, but they are layered and textured and like
moody and have these amazing kind of atmosphere to them,

(32:30):
But they aren't.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
You're never kind of like languishing.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Around too much, even though it's like one vibe, because
that vibe is so like snappy as well as being
like like brooding.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
It just makes it so listenable the entire time.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, and like the four piece setup of AFI, considering
these are the same four guys who have been there
since Black Sails and the Sunset. Yeah, think about all
the different styles they have done since that record. You know,
but how absolutely you know able to morph they are
and ply themselves in such a way this, you know,

(33:02):
the kind of the playing of particularly the three instrumental
guys has gone. You know, this is not really anything
much to do with punk a lot of the time
and the way that if you listen to like Hunter
and Jane in particular, with the guitar and the bass lines,
there's not really a lot of like you know, big
cord punk even arena rock style stuff that they were
doing maybe Circus Single Sorrow or Crash Love or whatever.

(33:23):
It is so straight out of the back caves, straight
kind of eighties goth rock style guitar and bass parts
they're doing, and Adam really kind of inhabiting that you know,
four on the floor type feel with that as well,
but you're also hearing them do things that might not
you know, there might have been the room in prior
AFI albums for them to be doing that, because how

(33:44):
startling it was to hear the Bird of Prey opening,
and then you've got Spear of Truth later on as well,
which are mixtures of that kind of you know, Reaver
be Acoustic Echo and the Bunnyman Nocturnal Me sort of
type feel where you're on the first Adam on the
drums is doing this kind of rolling tom thing that
straight out of like pornography or something, and then like

(34:06):
genuine I would say, gothic neo folk.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
It's like Gothic Western to me is the kind of
like thing I can like drawing on this with like
you've got these guitars and almost like slide guitars. It's
got this kind of like dusty Western filter, but it's
got that just air of like gothic drama.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
It's such a cool combination.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Where this does feel again even if it is one vibe,
it feels really adventurous AFI where they aren't just kind
of doing the most stock basic take on like doing
a gothic post punk record or whatever like that.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
It's all over there.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
But there is interesting turns and deviations and just kind
of like character they inject into this album that makes
it a really still quite surprising and engaging listen.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, my mate messaged me when when this album was
out and was like, I mean, like better politics, I'm sure,
but was like, why did AFI sound like Death in
June with with like songs like Spirit of Proof and
stuff like that, And then there's got the kind of
dead can dance bells and stuff and listening to a
song like Spirit Truth or Bird of Prey and thinking
this is a band with a genuine like face down

(35:05):
hit in this mis murder, you know, and here they
are more like Current ninety three or something, and it's
absolutely not sure on kind of the escalation or anything,
because your spirit truth feels about forty foot tall when
it really peaks, but it's not using anything conventionally rock
to do it. And that's an example of how like
again deep diving and committing they are with this album.

(35:27):
Behind the Clock as the lead single, I think is
another example because it is one of the most out
there but purely oozing cool singles they have done in
maybe ever you know where this huge fucking like evil
how soon is now engine tunnel fucking washing machine drum
sound with that rolling thing and the vocal hook, with

(35:48):
the kind of the one in front of the other.
It's no one on that is playing like a punk band.
Like it's a real like stretching out of sound where
even Davy, particularly early on in the song, is like
really keeping his cars close to his chest. But it
creates so much kind of intrigue and mystery and this
like genuine sense of the cinematic.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
I mean, that's it's like I think a Bird of
Prey is like a really cinematic open where you've got
this like clapping percussion and you get this air oppression
that you can feel over it before it morphs into
a more like kind of rocks. But then Behind the
Clock when that comes in and you've got Davy krooning
about like David Lynch characters on the verse, and then
that chorus coming in and the drama that I was like,

(36:30):
that's AFI. That's the drama that Davy as a vocalist
can bring. We again, he's not singing in the way
that you might typically assume to him, where it is
a low regetero where he'll be creaming. But then it's huge,
it's dramatic, it's catchy, and it's still got that sort
of fun that I often associate of AFI within the
kind of like clarge of all the different things they
bring together. The something like never goes into like overdrive,

(36:52):
but it always feels big. It never feels like it's
shrinking away, it's never lacking in confidence, and that's Wagon,
the Udassian confidence to just sell all of this does
just make it work. And that final course where they
like kicking a little bit harder on Behind the Clock.
I'm just like everything I want from AFI in twenty

(37:12):
twenty five. I think this album is them aging so gracefully,
and I think I said a similar thing on Bodies,
where they feel like they're aging so well compared to
so many nineties punk bands, and this is them kind
of like just even owning that even more.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, I mean I like that track, but you know,
considering what we know now, if there's a way to
go back ten years in time and replace that Marilyn
Manson song on the John Wick sound track with behind
the Clock, I just think it like, that's why I
ape had a picture that it would work so perfectly.
And then when you're about five minutes into the record,
like slowly enveloping you, holy visions the most complete like

(37:48):
goth club banger they've maybe ever written, with that tight
dance groove that Sisters of Mercy baseline, even a little
bit of kind of bubbling electronic edge. It's a little
bit black audio and it just pops. That song is
like Candy Foster to me, It's just so sweet and
so sticky.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
This is one with that holy visual that pop sensibility
is all over this song where it is just like
bubbling along and it's got a like sort of a
tension and build on the verse. And then when you
get the Holy Vision and it goes on that chorus,
I'm like, ah, there it is. There is that magic
X factor that like that Davy as a vocalist and

(38:27):
just AFI as a unit together, the four of them,
Like Davy is the kind of like easy kind of
thing to draw on this album because it's the most
like charismatic and individualist he's been as a vocalist.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
But the entire unit.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Are so like in sync with each other and they
know when to like pop these songs up and when
to slink back into the into the darkness and let
that kind of like feeling right out.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I mean Davy on this really hamming it up like
a lunatic where like the voice kind of oscillation he's
out there on this album. You know that kind of
if you think about Davy, have some people's instantaneous thought
might be the kind of like the ah, you know,
that kind of high opening of talp song type thing.
It's not really here so much on this album. Instead,
he's really living in that baritone but milking that kind

(39:12):
of you know, rubbery hoo kind of showmanshit out of
it as much as he can, and you know it
might not be for everyone, particularly the way he's kind
of you know, he's mixed in to be part of
this Reverby sound rather than maybe people who are more
used to a kind of a pop rock vocal and
miss murder. You know that it's slapped on the top,
but he is so good good at it, and he's
really like committing and living for it. And even still

(39:32):
the best part of Holy Visions is probably the guitar
solo when just with that incredible guitar sound, it just
like skips with this incredible melody. It's so great and
like those like bangers that they make on this of
kind of mixing this like esoteric goth rock sound with
these like bits of really incredible studio kind of instrumental
play that they've not really done like this before. Jade

(39:53):
as a producer, right, is neo genius. Like I don't
know how he has not become this like constantly sought after,
tapped figure to produce other bands. Like maybe he's just
not interested in outside work much. I don't know, but
like hourally this is perfect. The synths in stuff like
A World Unmade are on the level of the stuff

(40:15):
we're going to talk about with Perturbator later. And that's
a guy who is like primarily his whole thing is
being an electronic producer. Blasphemy and Excess, that mean lurching
groove with that like twelve string guitar kind of loop
on top sounds insane, Like it sounds absolutely incredible.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
That guitar hook on Blasphemy and Excess is like one
of my favorite parts of this song, the way it
like twangs along and it is it sounds mean. And
again that song there here is Blasphemy and No Excess.
Hearing Davi sing those words, it just feels right the
way you can like spits out no fucking regrets. Like again,
that solo on this song as well is fucking great.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
And the castanets in the back of that chorus like
western things, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Sultry western pop song that like Spear of Truth is
like a once So I was like, that's like it
feels like this is kind of like the goth saloon
you've wandered into, Like it's such a cool vibe shift
in the album. And then you get ash Beck and
a Greenoue where it is like straight into the goth
dance pie with like that skip and that the way
like pulsate is so cool.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, stuff like Void would I Bend Back and which
kind of has this sort of like icy roboticized drums
in with the sort of rock band feel, and like
ash Speck and a Green Eye, which reminds me there
were songs on Bodies like Death of the Party, which
I think again this was kind of developing there, but
even more now in this sort of subterranean back cave
kind of incarnation. And as it's the perfect thing I love,

(41:42):
which is like it's really nocturnal, you know, but it
still has the struts with the machine machine the ball
is just leaking out with him and like that, and
like Marguerite as well, super immediately catchy in the way
that maybe songs like the Blood album or whatever We're
like really just like vocally, very very catchy. And when
speaking about the very purely committed gothic mood of this

(42:05):
record that even though it does obviously it moves with
those more sort of acoustic songs and then dancier songs
and all the type stuff, it does feel like of
a piece. Yeah, the way it violently shakes you out
of it at the very very end is really striking.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
This is what like no one Undergo is probably the
most recognizable as a FI to a large portion of
the audience. But it's like such like kind of like jarring,
kind of like Bam, Let's go.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
But it's still got that kind of like post.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Punk kind of like oppressive darkness that like the where
you can get some of that almost killing joke x
because it's got that apocalyptic like h lyricism and feeling
to it where I think of like killing joke and
you know, grave pleasures and those sort of things where
it's like it's that kind of obsession with the end
of the world in this guy like catchy punk song.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, it's it's coming right at the end with this.
You know, it might be certainly one of the shortest
songs on the records, like two and a half minutes
or something, and it is like it's the punk song
on the record, but a it still fucking sounds like
so weird and so sort of futuristic and bizarre because
the synse and the production on it on the chorus

(43:13):
like over davy just going ape shit, it's like it's
caving in over its head. It's really nty, and you
know the bassline that starts with is just really craved
and spiky, and it feels like it's you know, it's
an unsettled kind of song, and the way it hits
at this point of the record, I just thought, how
easy would it be for this record to have ended
on one of the acoustic type songs like a Bird

(43:34):
of Prey, you know, and maybe open with something like this,
and how much more stock that would kind of feel,
even if the songs were exactly as good as they are,
you know, like we're ending on an acoustic song. Okay,
this song's a bit different for them, but it's a
familiar sort of structure. Instead, you have this like the
voyage through this kind of shadowing world, and then you
get like violently shaken awake at the end, like a

(43:54):
kind of disorientating emergence from a dream. And it's like
the record has a panic attack at the end of it,
which really this kind of like again wide eyed maniac
kind of manic vitality to it, and it really feels
if you fear this was like a twelfth album from
a band thirty years in doing more of a slow
burn type thing. Maybe that has potential to be kind
of a bit letharger or monotonous or whatever. But this

(44:16):
feels so alive.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
I mean, that's it is, like there is a manic
energy to it where you're gonna go like, oh yeah,
this is the band that wrote Black Cells in the
Sunset kind of light, but it's just the darker, more
mature like it is. It is an oldest handing version
of that, but it just it never feels kind of
like an old punk I'm trying to sort of get
their pace going and then they're just taking that sort
of sound and making it work with what they have

(44:38):
now and it's just this again, this panicked like end
times like punk Ragia that just sort of snaps you
at the end of the album.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, I'm fucking loving this record. And I really think,
like I think you can maybe say Burials Onward is
like a particular phase of their career, if that makes sense,
where like that's kind of them that's the period of
them themselves back up into this being this very like beloved,
extremely credible, respected cult band after kind of the peak

(45:08):
of their commercial era ended after December Underground and then
Crush Love that is kind of this current period is
an unbelievable run of form. I think for a band
of their era, Like every one of those records builds
naturally into the next one, and I love them all,
So I don't think the quality of this one is
out of the ordinary for them, But this might be
just purely because it is so committed, one of the

(45:30):
most like complete in what it's doing records they've ever
put together.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
I think, like again, this has been a really sort
of interesting ten like or so years now for five
like for these albums where hmm, each one has just
sort of taken them further into the like I say, the
beloved cult band that they are less concerned with commercial
success and now and it just means they can write
for themselves. And I think that's where you get this
album is where they've gone, like we just want to

(45:57):
do a goth album and commit and just live in
that mood for for a whole album circle. And I
think it's really rewarding that they've done it because it
feels again, it feels authentic, it feels genuine. Nothing about
this feels like a try hard move to appeal to
any taste makers. It's just the truest or representation of

(46:18):
what AFI are doing. Are like in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, and it's that kind of sort of sort of
spirit and that feel of this sort of you know,
this little period that I mean, it's always been a
thing with them, but it's for me. It's really firmly
puts a stamp on you know, depeche Mode, Killing Joke,
the Cult, whatever, you know, Vegan, Straightedge, the Cure. Like
I said, that's that's what AFI are, you know, like
that's the lineage kind of band we're talking about. I mean,

(46:42):
like you know, if you like sort of goth or
dark wave records or whatever, but you've never gone for
AFI because you think they're my chemical romance, you know,
like absolutely is.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
We don't talk about them the way we talk about
a band like again, bands I love like Taking Back
Sunday and Census Foul and that sort of those bands
who had their boom around the same time. Will you
look at them kind of like like I looked a
little bit roast into with the nostalgia. Now AFI don't
have that sort of like thing to them.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
I absolutely agree. But I was going to say that
if you are, if you're fully like into the goth thing,
but you're you've never gone for AFI because of maybe
the bands that their associated with or whatever. This is
the AFI record that you should stick on now and
hopefully you kind of have this amazing catalog opened up
to you. And it must be said, on the same
release day earlier in October, there was a very respectable

(47:28):
double of kind of bands from that turn of the millennium,
post hardcore ish generation who have really been aging with
a level of majesty and elegance. Because we also had
Thrice return with their record which is called Horizons West.
Thrice came back after a kind of a short hiatus
with an album called to Be Everywhere Is to Be
Nowhere in twenty sixteen. And speaking of kind of certain

(47:51):
eras for a band, you know, this last decade now
from that record is the kind of particular era of
the Thrice discography where this is once a band who
were at the forefront of I think, particularly when you
listen to records like you know, artists and the ambulance
or illusion of safety or whatever. It's very pinpointable in
time post hardcore of the two thousands, you know, but yes,

(48:12):
much in the same way as AFI when you put
them next to many of the punk bands from the
nineties to who that they were alongside today Thrice. How
I think with these albums in this kind of current
era really managed to transcend purely chasing that kind of
those glory days of what people have been nostalgic for
about that time.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
I mean the thing is, obviously after that kind of
like post hardcore Heyday, they already made it sort of
transition into a far more interesting well those things, but
like progressive, not kind of like again not interested in
following the trends, and that that kind of took them.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
I like they sou more than I like the prior
Threst records.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
I mean that's that, and you know they had the
Alchemy Index double albums, and so they were they were
already kind of like moving beyond just being a post
hardcore band before they broke up and then came back.
And I think they just when they came back, they
didn't have to then again try and chase those those
post hardcore like Heyday. They could just be pick up
where Fry as well, which is a post hardcore tinged

(49:11):
rock band, but one who have like a progressive textured
mindset of how they approach rock songs.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, and that's not necessary to say. I think that
they're on a string of you know, classic albums. I'm
not really a Thrice devotee. I'm an admirer more than
I would say a dedicated fan. And we have reviewed
every Thrist album in this little run, but having you know,
not gone back to the last two since we've reviewed them,
I would say the last Thrist album that I have
like a concrete memory of, like really, you know, there

(49:38):
are some big songs on it was that twenty sixteen one.
But I also know that every time I put on
a Thrist album, I find myself admiring their very you know, authentic,
kind of unhurried, but also multifaceted evolution. Like was it
the twenty eighteen album that had like all these albums,
like a.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Lot of the SIMP stuff on it.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, it's all these radio heady electroniclements and stuff. And
I was like, that's cool. You know, that's more interesting
than I fucking Saved the Day album in twenty twenty
five or whatever. And you know, like I said, I
haven't heard every Thricet album. I haven't heard the last
few in a while, but putting this one on, I
will say. My immediate response to. It was, at least
from my memory of the last couple, stronger than it

(50:18):
had been in a couple. And I already thought that
their recent records were fairly admirable. So as the guy
who doesn't really listen to Thrice a lot, I'm happy
to call this a strong record for them. What's your take, Sam,
as someone who definitely does listen to Thrice a lot.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
Yeah, So, like I always kind of suppose because Horizons
East their last album, Yeah, like obvious sort of the
comeback here, I think, to be able to be known.
It's kind of like the classic, like this is what
a comeback ALM should be. It's got you know, blood
on the Sand, Black Honey, like Hurricane, amazing, huge, kind
of like interesting rock songs on it part, they had
some really interesting things as well as again having a

(50:54):
few bangers like the Gray and andF that I really
love those two albums, and then Horizons East was the
kind of like, ah, we were on the real slow
Burn Fries record now, which they have been known to do.
And it took me a good while to wrap my
head around Horizons East and so when four years la,
it's kind of like, oh, we're doing the companion album,

(51:15):
but it's you know, it's been four years. I was
kind of surprised for that, but like immediately I was
gonna I could see the links between this horizons west
and East, but also I found this to be far
more immediately gratifying.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
I think this is a.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
Darker, more brooding, a little meaner Fries album that can
still have these like amazing like songs like Albatross, which
is like this should be a radio rock song. To me,
this is what I want, like rock songs that how
on the radio to sound like it's big, rousing but
not kind of like really nothing about Phil Stock. So again, yeah,
I think this is a really strong, kind of like

(51:48):
latter Fries album.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, I agree, and the reminders that you get of
again you hear Thrice and you think post hardcore, but
the way songs like Blackout or is it the dark Glow,
I think it's cool that they've got the really like
almost like massive attacky kind of immersive electronic loops and
stuff with Dustin's really kind of you know, husky voice

(52:11):
on it, and that first song Blackout. It kind of
then eventually reveals this kind of more driving rock sensibility
and sometimes you forget that thrice, you know, because they
often are, particularly in their recent albums, if you're saying
more sort of reserved and languid, I always find myself
a bit taken aback when they really like go for it,
you know, and rock nowadays. But you have that alongside
these I say, more sort of like slightly avant guard

(52:33):
leaning electronic elements, and it's a really complementary kind of
mix at times. I really like the song undertow on This,
which kind of has that you know, portus, heady, massive
attack kind of feel that I jive with, and it's
also got these like skeletal acoustic guitars laced in that
genuinely sound like something from a Chelsea Wolf record.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
I think undertows a really cool sool because that's for you.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
It's got these for like low five beats, but it
kind of plays it like the really earth the like
raw feeling that I love from Fright or again like
Dustin's vocals, those sort of acoustic guitars, the piano lines
and all that it's and then when it does build
like into that hefty sort of second half, it feels
like a nice contrast. I think a lot of these

(53:15):
songs they do kind of like almost start quiet and
then building something. I think, like I say, I say
Blackout as an opener, it's really moody opening, and then
you get that Blackout the Moon, Blackout the Stars, Blackout
the some way it feels as like there's the post
hardcore band, but these songs they're not in a rush
to get anywhere, but they always feel like kind of
interesting journeys to sort of move through.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Yeah, and I think if you looked at you know,
Thrice in twenty sixteen when they came back with that album,
you could imagine them maybe turning into you know, their
scenes version of the Foo Fighters or like Pearl Jam
or something, you know, just kind of like, you know,
his well composed, heartily delivered rock songs for the kind
of adult radio market, but to do that well but

(53:54):
while also indulging these like left field and experimental impulses.
Like Nash is a rock song but also equally like
a dancing electronic song with this menacing, throbbing synth, and
it's also genuinely heavy where there's like an electro beatdown
at the end, with Dusty beating at the end. Yeah,
Dustin howling about the Teeth and Nash and it's like

(54:15):
it's heavy and it's scary.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
And it's rhythmically like way more interesting and creative than
a lot of like breakdown. I feel like Nash's kind
of has that earthy post rop finger I think at first,
but it's like really raw sounding again, that ripple in
the middle that kicks in before it ends on that
beat that's wicked. And then album tosses you like said
that is your like, there's your big radio single.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
It is.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Catch has a real kind of like soul bearing chorus
that again, Dustin one of my just all time favorite vocals.
I could listen to him sing anything like his voice
just like it melts them away all my kind of reservations.
I'm just like, yeah, croon, sing, shout whatever, you're good
at doing it all. The album should be a massive
radio here and again, maybe it is because Friestar too

(54:58):
interested in being artistic and challenging, where it's always going
to keep some people at arm's length to their albums.
But I just love that they can just throw these
like nuggets of like radio rock gold in there.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Yeah you know they're they're they're buttery Thrice. I think
they just they go down really easy, real smooth, even
if they weren't necessarily doing things that exciting, just because
they are Dust's voices so smooth. And I agree how
Albatross is really lovely, But when you add that kind
of spark of slightly more out there inspiration as well,
you know, the dark glyowatch I mentioned really kind of
like stretches itself out and has this like real push

(55:31):
and pull but also genuine kind of low end heft,
you know, and it is quite invigorate. And you know,
mentioning Pearl Jam before is like almost a generational equivalent
of what they could have been. It goes down so
much smoother than when Pearl Jam are doing like disco
fucking electronic songs or whatever. Like I remember when they
did that on that other couple albums ago, and it
was like, yeah, weird and rubbish. Thrice able to really

(55:52):
naturally kind of inhabit that without becoming like the embarrassing
dad at a wedding, And it never comes even close
to kind of like registering as that because it also
has this really thick, you know, darkness and atmosphere on it.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
The atmosphere is what carries it.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Yeah, yeah, there's a really flighty kind of drum part
on Distant Suns, which, along with kind of the melodic guitars,
legitimately sounds like Death Heaven like without the black metal obviously,
but it's that same kind of like delicate, elegantly upbeat
kind of post rock you know, Daniel Tracy, Kerry McCoy
type shit that's on that song. It's really cool and
it's really well produced where those electronic elements are kind

(56:29):
of set against that, you know, rugged. I like it again,
it's quite imperfect sort of rock sound with big, fat
based tone on stuff like Crooked Shadows and vesper Light
as well big kind of like real drum sounds and
stuff like that. And then I mentioned earlier when they
kind of like do turn it on a little bit,
and you can always sort of be taken aback by

(56:49):
it when you get a holding on suddenly a few
record songs into this record and it's like fuck, really
like driving you know, post hardcore rock guitars in a
way that does still them in this kind of updated
form at that point, because they're not doing it every song.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
It feels like a treat that.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
Holding them one that really says because you get like
that comes sort of at the end of almost like
side out of the recorders are kind of like, here
we go. We're kind of just gonna rock out for it,
and is it's that post hardcore. It sounds a bit
more major key, but it's as populous for us to
get while still sounding quite aggressive, and it's a really
cool change. And then you know, you get the dusk interlude,
which then brings you into the dark glow and it feels.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Like this where like almost at the first half it's
a little bit more media.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
Now we're kind of like slowing down and kind of
exploring the sort of the dark sort of nooks and
crannies of the sound in like interesting ways before you
get Distant Sun, big like throwing off into space again.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Yeah, and the last track, we're in a fucking like
a hole of wind chimes or something doing like a
really low group harmony that's more BARONESSI or even like
inter armor than it is like anything American wind chimes.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
Like they did a similar thing on Horizon Z, where
again it ends on the Unity of East, which was
again it's kind of like weird piano sort of tracks,
so that they clearly want to end these albums where
they want to mirror them in similar ways with their
most kind of experimental things, and this one is like
a really cool, interesting, kind of like left field way
to do it.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
I like their thing of what if that kind of
nice heartland dish American rock music also existed in some
kind of desolate wasteland that's only populated by like an
occasional burnt out nightclub. You know, it's just cooler than
what if rock songs were nice? You know, their best
album in a minute. I think I'm going to say
their best album nearly a decade.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Yeah, I I really like Poems, but I do think
like this album.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
It's made the last time make more sense to me
as a kind of like cohesive horizons East West sort
of thing. But I think the West portion of it
is far strong. If you are going to look at
these two albums as a kind of like whole project together.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Yeah, so Thrice Horizon's West very good recommend it. Certainly
were going to finish our kind of opening alternative rock trifecta,
I suppose not with an older band doing chin stroke.
You look how well we're aging stuff. But straight up, now,
Military Gun and God Save the Gun. Military Gun are
the band led by Ian Shelton of the absolutely diabolically

(59:18):
aggressive power violence band Regional Justice Center, who formed after
Regional Justice Center and then obviously got way way bigger
than anything associated with what that. You would imagine that
to be certainly in our kind of post turnstile popping
the fuck off and becoming way bigger than anyone could
have imagined world. Military Gun are right near the top

(59:39):
of the list of bands we have seen kind of able,
you know, enter through that doorway after them and also
really look to do some big things, isn't that right?

Speaker 4 (59:47):
Yeah, No, we're in an era of like hardcore bands
or like bands coming from the hardcore scene just deciding well,
you know, we're going to be the best rock bands
around right now, We're going to write the best rock songs.
We're going to be like doing rock music should do.
But it's all coming from a hard course scene. And again,
I mean, obviously Turnstar of the band that kind of
booted that door down, but it is cool to see
so many bands going to go, well, we're going to

(01:00:08):
pick up that and sort of do our take on
it as well, without just kind of copying Turnstile, which
I think is that the crucial thing here.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Yeah, and we didn't get around to reviewing it, but
they're twenty twenty three album Life under the Gun very
much one of these sort of star making albums of
that scene. In recent years, I haven't really gone for
Military Gun yet. There's one Military Gun song I think
is a total banger, even though it's like a bit faster. No,
it's a co lab, it's pressure cooker. It's like it's

(01:00:35):
there and I don't know who it is. It's like
Daisy or someone. I don't know who that is, but like,
there's that one song. And I remember I watched Military
Gun and Outbreak twenty twenty three, not really knowing any
of their music, and they played that and I was
just like, holy shit, that is a fucking hit. And
then the album didn't really connect with me. I know
a lot of people loved it, but just nothing really
glued itself in my head the way that song did.

(01:00:55):
I take it sound that you are very much a
fan already.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
I'm in on Military Gun like they were one where
I'm discovering them because they came on and played one
song during an Angel Dost set and I was like, hey,
it's madter cool, and then saw my outbreak the following day.
But yeah, I've kind of been in on Military Gun
because I think they're just they're just doing that kind
of modern at rock sort of like britpop leaning aort

(01:01:20):
rock thing that is all.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
The rage right now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
But they're writing like really fun, catchy songs for me,
do it fast off. The last album was like a banger,
like like massive sounding guitars.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
A big chorus, the kind of oh oh think.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
That there's kind of their trademarkt hit that I think,
like the last one wasn't quite a sort of arm
of the year material classic, but I do really like it.
I think it's a really fun album, and I think
like they've just been really interesting to watch how they've
progressed and risen up and are crossing over into places
that only bands who are coming from hardcore seemed to
be able to cross over into now from our world.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Yeah, and you know when we mentioned hardcore's because as
you say, it's that's where they come from. But this
is not a hardcore record, you know. I no, no,
not at all, Like and Military Gun, I mean, if
you're going to link them to anyone from at least
adjacent to the hardcore world. You could say, maybe they're
like the current us parallel to what we've got in high.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Vis or at least like the La High Vis.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yeah, like yeah, or at least like a higher power
or someone you know, where it's like roots are in hardcore,
but like you were saying, there's those reference points of
like indie rock and britpop and stuff like that, and
it's you know, it's it's fairly poppy, you know, sub
two minute songs like bad Idea at the start of
this which has kind of the spelling out chant and
it does it's that song that's got that kind of

(01:02:35):
like turnstilesh sense of like fun samba kind of party
percussion and stuff like that. How considering, like I said,
we said a couple of times, but I don't think
this is a hardcore band really, how would you describe
kind of what they do well?

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
Like again, to me, this is just like rock music.
It's just kind of like big, catchy alternative rock music.
It's it's all because this kind of is a bit
all over the place of times, it does kind of
like a few different things, but at their core, like
it's rowdy, in your face rock music with a little
bit of punk in there, a little bit of indie.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
It's kind of just like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Touch just touching on a few different things, but like
bad idea as the sort of yeah that that's like
really obvious rock song. But then you get you know,
God owes Me Money, which is very different in kind
of sort of so it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Sounds like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
The set on it, like yeah, like it's a it's
an eclectic kind of like rock album. This.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Yeah, everyone has agreed that this band are good, So
I'm going to give this album. It's one negative review,
and I guess I have the hot take that I
find this pretty boring and I get very little out
of it. It's kind of a point where hardcore tips
so far into just being Coachella indie rock that my
brain tunes out and starts desperately yearning to hear a
buy a Hazard song. So I'm I'm relying on you,

(01:03:49):
Sam to speak to like what is good and exciting
about this?

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:53):
I wondered if because of how you felt about the
last Turnstile album, which again you were you weren't negative about,
but you had you know, like it. Yes, Yes, is
this a step too fine into that. But I was like,
but then you really like High VI's So I was like, hmm,
but there's there is a difference. I mean, like High
VI's are grittier, they're a bit more bruising. This is
still quite rowdy like High Vis. But this is l

(01:04:16):
a sun kiss like rock music. It's kind of got
slack of vibes, is It hasn't got that kind of
like dirt and like rough, rough feeling that makes Hives
sound cool. So I get why, like this speaks to
you less.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yeah, And this is, like I said, this is not
a hardcore band. You know, the whole thing turns out
hardcore band or whatever. But then there's tracks are blatantly
hardcore songs. This is marginally heavier indie rock, and it's
it's a band, you know, who've got their roots in
the hardcore scene. And I understand that bands always have
a kinship with that and they're always championed by that
scene when they've emerged from it. But it's embracing kind

(01:04:52):
of indie styles of production and beats and whatnot to
be a very you know, bright pop savvy. I suppose
if people are more inclined to like it, I Am
kind of thing. Where As you mentioned, there are songs
that's how I m A E three on it. There's
a song called maybe I'll Burn My Life Down that's
kind of a like odd stiffer kind of Queens of
the Stone Age robot rock thing, particularly with the guitar licks,

(01:05:12):
very that kind of robot rock thing, and it has
this also like weird sixties almost pop choir of that
a feel trap kind of lifting up in the backing
mix behind it. Kick is basically Coachella dinosaur pile up
that kind of like, you know, it's that brick rock
type thing, but more you know, more trendy I for
want of a better word, Although there is there is
one moment in that song where I think it has
to be a direct sample of the synth from Killing

(01:05:35):
Jokes Requiem in the bridge it's like unmistakable, which fair enough.
That is a cool pool that perked me up. I
find it hard to infuse much about this. I think
it's it's perfectly agreeable, but to really move me, it's
it's not my speed. And I got bored with it
very quickly. And I think, just to mention you're saying,
I love bast High Vis and whatnot. I don't think
Military Gun have anywhere near the sense of liquid groove

(01:05:59):
that they do, you know, like just the bassist alone
in high Vis knocks it out of the park compared
to this where this I think one major problem I
have is it's very rigid and constrictive where the beats
and how the songs are kind of constructed. They're quite
lightweight and ephemeral, but also really stiff, and the songs
are really slow as well, Like half of these songs

(01:06:19):
sound like they're, particularly towards the back end of the album,
sound like they're playing on like half speed to me,
And I find the chorus is just very blocky and
without much fluidity and like fundamentally, I I mean, they
don't actually sound like they've got like a human punk
rock drummer a lot of the time, and I miss
the turns of pace and the liveliness and the energy
of anything that I actually like about punk.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
I mean that's fair because I think one of my
I really like this album. I really like these songs.
I think they're just a cool vibe to sit in.
I mean, in an effort for like for mentally sort
of that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
They're clear shooting for the big leagues.

Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
This feels that this is in an album that has been
poured over and analyzed, over produced produced like I don't
know if i'd say overproduced, but it has been produced
to within an inch of what it can be. And
I can see how that can be a sticking point
for me. I just I like the vibes like Kick,

(01:07:13):
I enjoy like I mean kick his monny because Kick
is almost like the most kind of like military gun
song here, but it's the slow down version of it
where he does the oo oo thing that he's known for,
but he does it at halftime and saying that though
that course, if I keep in the face, I'm sorry,
but I would do it again. That's stuck in my head,
like for the last like two and a bit weeks
that how long this has been out, Like these choruses
have stuck me. I'll change if you promise to say

(01:07:35):
the same on throw Me Away, Like filming with Paint
really bouncy like and it's just got this like cool
kind of like sun Kiss but slightly rowdy vibe that
I can just really sit into. I think the back
half of them does kind of like slow down a
little bit more, where you know, wake Up's always very breezy.
I Won't Murder Your Friend is like a really kind

(01:07:57):
of like sardonic acoustic ballad. The songs still kind of
like stuck me in catch and I Thought You're Waving
is like the real highlight in the back end of
the alph for me where it's kind of like this
like lost Wheezer song almost where like that's what they're
tapping into that And I think that's really cool. But
I do I see if you kind of if you
are missing that kind of punk urgency, if that's what
you're looking for, you're not really going to get that

(01:08:18):
from this album.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Yeah, And where people describe how I mean everything about
this band is how catchy and big the songs are.
It's not gone in my brain. And I think it
is in part because they are. They're samey and also
so rigid and blocky. Like I was saying, I mean
to go back to that song that I sort of
said is a bit Queens of Stone agy, There's none
of that liquid sleeze that they've got.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
It's much more.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Yeah, I get that big, mapped out, blocky percussion, and
then you get into the total kind of wistful indie
stuff like Daydream, which is not for me. And I
know there's obviously a lot of human sentiment in the
slower tracks like I won't eldly your Friend, but the
music I find to be a slog and I just
find them. I find them quite flaccid. I know I
am absolutely in the minority here, and like every single

(01:08:58):
thing I've seen about this album in the last week
has been absolutely gushing over it and like falling over
itself to pronounce them as, you know, the next big
thing or whatever. So the majority people listen to us
right now probably will love this record and won't know
what the fuck I'm talking about. So I don't want to,
you know, step on its toes necessarily.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
I just don't. I just don't like it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
Yeah No, But I can hear a lot of your
christms com FROMENT and I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
I think it's it's one of the times where if
you see, if you can see in the AMAS vibe,
you'll go with it completely. But I do see what
you mean. Well, I think this feels like because it
is the most like one of these bands trying to
write a pop rock album, almost like and I wanted
they want to you know, be embraced.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
By that Coachella crowd and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
Well, I think like they've been really good and I
think it actually fits Military Gone more than a lot
of if other bands tried to do this, I think
Military can almost feel like the most natural kind of
like band to move down that lane, as opposed to
I don't know if Angel Dust or something decided to
do an album like that, it would I don't know
if it would see it as natural as what Military
are going to have done here, But I do see

(01:10:01):
them where the vibe is. If you're not into it,
it can maybe be a little bit rigid and stock
and not not particularly exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
I guess, yeah, that's how I feel. But like I said,
everything I've seen about this album seems to be getting
really like, you know, one of the best kind of
alternative rock rock records of the year for a lot
of people. So, as you know, someone who can kind
of speak more for it, would you say kind of
justify in terms of this being one of the you know,
stand up rock records of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Yeah, I DENTI if I says my favorite. But I
do think this is a really strong album.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
And again, these songs have just stuck with me, and
again this is just kind of like it's just they've
just gone down really nicely with me. And I can
see why this is an album that is winning people over
because if you get on the vibes, the songs are
exactly what you want to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
Yeah, I'll offer the one dissenting voice in the world,
but everyone else says it's great, so I'm sure you
will like it. Military Guns record, God Save the Gun.
Next we are going to go much heavier and and
you know, maybe bring back some of that that gutsiness
if we lacked it there. Conjurer of all bands, of
course they're going to bring that unself is the name

(01:11:08):
of their third album, from one of the bands that
you know, we consider kind of a bit of a
cornerstone of the modern UK heavy scene. Their debut album Maya,
of Course, was one of the highlights of the back
end of the twenty tens in this country, one of
the most assured debut records of the modern era. How
they followed that up has maybe I don't want to
say split people because I think they're too strong, but

(01:11:29):
they've not necessarily created records that have gone down as
easily for as many people as Maya did. This is
a band who like smashed out of the gate but
then have gotten darker and thornia. I felt that with Pathos,
their second record, which I thought was excellent, one of
the best heavy records of that year.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Again, but it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Did seem much it's like the bleaker and more heavy
going cousin of Maya and going into Unself with the
first music that we were hearing, and then the talk
around it from them discussing a lot of personal turmoil
around things like gender identity, neurodivergency, kind of struggling to
piece together where you sit in the world. I mean,
the title is unself, you know, to kind of become undone.

(01:12:09):
That kind of felt to me like maybe where we
would be again conjurate are and have increasingly become I
think from those earlier years a very suffocating kind of
band to be so popular I suppose in the UK.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
Yeah, that's the thing is I think like after you
know how Maya kind of really took off, it felt
like they could, you know, ride that wave and go
on just like big kind of groovy metal songs and
then they were like, you know, we're a doom band,
aren't we like we're like like because the thing I
think the last time it was like they did up
the doom and the and the sadness and they kind
of like I found the album. I liked it, but

(01:12:45):
it was definitely kind of like, well, it took me
a wilst come rounds, and I think over the years
of like come out and appreciate what it did more.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
So I was like really intrigue us to.

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
Where they were going to go on un self, Where
were they're going to continue on that lane and kind
of continue for these like really darkly moving and quite
challenging records. And I think you know that they have
kind of just done that again, but it almost like
again feels that they're trying to find new elements they
can bring into that to make this feel even more
like interesting and accumblass but still like oppressive and challenging.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Yeah, And it's funny because I've kind of realized, even
though this is a band that I've been a fan
of for almost ten years, I don't entirely know how
to review Kunjur records sometimes because they're very hard to
gauge what exactly they're shooting for. I suppose because Maya
did so well for them that they felt like, even
though this is a band with you know, progressive and
post metal leanings, they're the kind of band that a

(01:13:38):
lot of people outside of those real hardwood demographics, you know,
would get into. But then Pathos and I think unself
as well, feel so kind of suffocating and tormented. I
mean that the fans of that was in the press
release for this album included things like Sumac, and I think, like, yeah,
that's spiritually and sonically that's what they're kind of closest
aligned to. It's that really dark, underground world of sprawling sludge,

(01:14:02):
and in terms of their intent, I think they're just
trying to make the most you know, honest, authentic records
they can, and of course we will judge it on
that merit. But they've also spent the time leading up
to this album supporting make Them Suffer and playing with
like commercial metalcre bands and stuff, and it's like, I
don't know where in the rock and metal ecosystem co
under a sick I suppose, And it's cool that they've
not boxed themselves in too much, and good for them

(01:14:22):
that they can play with both carcass on one tour
and then make them suffer on another. But it throws
me a bit. It's like, am I meant to be
reviewing this like a Sumac album or a Celeste album
or something where it is this is an underground proposition
for people, you know, it's just gauged for that kind
of audience. Or are we reviewing this like they were
kind of tipped on Maya to be a band breaking
into bigger things. It's purely academically. It's quite a curious thing,

(01:14:45):
isn't it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
That is the thing with people countries I've kind of like,
except that I felt like after that they've kind of
said no, no, we want to be a challenging underground band.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
But it's just what they've like.

Speaker 4 (01:14:55):
Because they have that kind of like ground swell of
popularity here in the UK. They they just film so
like a go to like people like Kundu. They can
you know, go on at all with any band. Are
they any metal band that's kind of about them? Be
it like say a commercial Australian meticore band or I
just say the most savage different band. So that they
kind of just like anyway, they feel quite chameleonic in

(01:15:17):
that sense, whereas musically, they aren't really chameleonic at all.
It is the leak I say, suffocating, sludgy kind of
like emotionally draining like they say sludge or do metal
web post metal, that kind of that that side of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
Yeah, and ye know, these last two Kanjur albums, I
found them to be, you know, not albums that are
going to necessarily totally wow you on first listen, because
they're so dense and smothering that they take a while
to reveal themselves. I think Maya was there, like, you know,
they're fucking wow, what is this explosion pathos? Once I
got to that point with it, I thought was very
strong in its own way unself. You know, it's still

(01:15:54):
earlier days with it judged purely on its own merits,
without all of that noise we're just talking about. It's
another very accompany plushed and certainly very expressive and emotionally
honest heavy record. I mean, one of the main flavors
that I just gravitate to in music is melancholy and
conjurer of all of these you know, progressively minded sludge
bands that have been kicking about in the last sort

(01:16:14):
of several years or so, I mean more than you know,
a Sumac or someone. They really go for that because
the fact that this is book ended with performances of
a one hundred year old gospel song called the World
is Not My Home. It is sadness and it's loss
and alienation and all of these emotions that I've come
to associate with Conjura's music, and the first time they
do it with the intro, it just collapses into fucking

(01:16:36):
feedback and noise.

Speaker 4 (01:16:38):
Feedback building up ask like ah, here we go. Like
I was like that that is a menacing sound, that
feedback as it kind of like just encroaches on this
as say, like this this gospel song.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Yeah, and we spoke about hanging them in their head
and just what a kind of pitiless dirge of a
lead single that is just like utter filth darkness. I
think maybe this album is a bit less kind of
suffocatingly dense in terms of the thickness then Pathos maybe
mercifully So, I don't know. I was reading an interview
where they spoke about kind of that was you know,
that was their co video record essentially, and so they

(01:17:09):
hadn't flashed out the songs to be kind of for
the live environment as much, and so they were really
piled with layers and stuff like that. This is the
first record with a new drummer as well. It still feels,
you know, all those kind of core Kundra rhythms and
fields and stuff, they still work as much as they did.
Maybe it doesn't have the moments of kind of wild
frenzy yet that I associated with the previous sort of setup,

(01:17:31):
and there's a bit more sort of stop start momentum
at times. I think, you know, the song that the
intro moves into all apart then kind of goes back
to sort of resets with the creeping, winding build up
that kind of thing again. And that is once it
gets there, pretty much just pure lightless doom, you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
Know it does.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
I think it comes to life a lot more in
the sort of last couple of minutes when it enters
this kind of haggard almost full of effrafi style kind
of crescendo building the couple songs after that. Then I
think the album really hits its stride with There Is
No Warmth, which has this like sick, heavy, elast sized
riff that does feel like, you know, a bunch of
kids who grew up on slipnot now playing in a heavy,

(01:18:09):
unforgiving band, and then the searing glow track four Let's
bring the velocity at this point and that just killer
cut throat intensity, very welcome at that point.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
Conj are always so good at knowing when to pull
the trigger and just like like now we are going
to go fast, and they don't. They don't like super
offerm but when they do it hits. I mean, I
really like the opening song. I think one of my
favoriteings of kind of is the jual vocal sort of approach,
the were like low sort of gulfing and then Brady's
like really like pain shrill scream. I think like that

(01:18:39):
they employ that really well, even when you know you
get the singing on this. There's like a clean chorus
in that first song, but it's not like a radio
metal chorus. It's a really sorrowful, like sad moment. And
I think that the thing is the Melochorn song is
like all over it. But I do think this is
just a little bit easier to sort of like sit
with than Papers was, where I think like these songs

(01:19:00):
that then they're not as like constantly suffocating, where there
is maybe a little more texture to play with, and
again you then get you know, there is no warm,
big lumbering grooves like like huge rifts, and then the
searing glow just blasting and that they're they're, they're, they're
so goa switching up those dynamics at the white moment.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Yeah, and as you're saying the Danny and Brady bringing
that just like blood spilling from the vocal cord savagery,
those like firing back and forth on basically every song,
but just both of them kind of self immolating. You know,
It's always been a hallmark and you've just got a
marvel of it as it goes on. Yeah, But then
there's that one bit in the middle of the sereing
glow I think it is that suddenly sounds like Boss

(01:19:40):
Halloyd where it has this like like a weird quirky
bass sauntering along kind of shiftiness, you know, where it's
like it's the ripper on the record, but it also
becomes something kind of more uncertain and and teetering on
the abyssle. And then when this does go into the
total kind of opening the floodgates heartbreak, the double of

(01:20:00):
Plea has these like beautiful weeping clean guitars, that something
sounds to me almost like something out of kind of
an American post black metal record or something like that. But
then into let Us Live, which maybe my favorite track
on the last album was that song All That You Remember,
and then just Letting kind of the despondent melody just
absolutely gush out. It always works on me, and let

(01:20:22):
Us Live as kind of this album sort of you know,
spiritual follow on from that kind of at least sonic approach.
It's a genuine thing in their arsenal that most bands
like them aren't touching. You know, like most really heavy going,
sort of progressive leaning sludge bands that are this bleak,
a lot of them won't bother to kind of you know,
carry genuine sort of heart melting melody in that same way.

(01:20:46):
And it really works when you get that. And then
when you go onto songs like Foreclosure as well, which
are just real slowburn desolation with just rinsing these sad chords,
you know, it puts you in a state of like, Okay,
I need to gaze out of a rainy window for
at least an hour while I'm listening to this.

Speaker 4 (01:21:02):
Yeah, Foreclosed was like, oh, this is like the most
tragically dooms on here.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
It does.

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
It slows doing right down and it's all sorrow. Everything
is just drawn out and dripping with sadness. It's you know,
it's the seven minutes show piece at the the back
end of the album, but it's it's just it's so
constant impressive and again even at seven minutes doesn't really
outstairs welcome. Every sort of part of it feels really
nicely arranged to kind of like take you on that journey,
which well I think again, I mean that's song you

(01:21:29):
said about a lot these songs have something they've always arranged
in a really sort of nice engaging way where let
us live, as you said, like the way it builds
to that like Christian that sours and you get that
let us live bit like it is so stirring and
arousing and they can pull those like moments to that.
I mean, none of these songs ever feel that they're
languishing in sadness. They are sad and pain songs, but

(01:21:51):
they're always kind of moving on to something.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Yeah, I do think they make records that you have
to be in a certain frame of mind to really
kind of sit down and put on you know, like
they're not easy gratification. They very much take their time.
Even when there maybe is a juicy mosh part in
there somewhere, you have to work for it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
And the pure kind of excitement, that kind of giddy
love of the riff and smashing out they really have
with them earlier on their records. Now they feel I
don't want to call this one hope plus maybe as
much as the last one, because I know a lot
of it is to do with that again, sort of
that finding of the self where hopefully there is some
Catharsis in that, but they just get put through the

(01:22:26):
emotional ringer a lot where they they don't quite have
the sort of giddy metal energy. I think that made
them feel like a sort of potential crossover band, you know,
a few years ago. But if you are willing to
just kind of like venture into some of that darkness
with them, they're better than most bands at this sort
of thing, you know, not at least because as well,
they are the rare sort of post metal band if

(01:22:48):
you want to call them that, or even just modern
sludge who are so immediately recognizable in guitar sound, the
dual vocal dynamic, that kind of lurching bleak weight in
the rifts. They're very distinct along with everything.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
Yeah, no, absolutely, I think they have a character of
their own that and again maybe it's just because like
they're a UK band, they're kind of around, but I
feel like I can pick out Kando on to hit
the Man.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
It does.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
That sort of character and personality does make them against
a bit more palatable to me.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Yes so unself. The third album from Condra, another good
one from Perturbator is where We're going to go next
as we really re embrace the shadows of October. The
album is called Age of Aquarius, and Perturbator I think
is the unequivocal best at what he does. That's why
he's here in the review section when it's not actually
very often at all that we review another Synthway project,

(01:23:37):
even though there are many of them. Occasionally will do
the likes of a ghost or a carpet to brut
or someone who are good as well. But Perturbator has
been almost like the reluctant visionary of the whole thing
for kind of the past over a decade. He has
taken it to pretty incredible heights. When you see the
shows that he's able to play now on the level
of production and everything, and yet it still kind of
feels like he's just you know, he's just some guy

(01:23:59):
and he's just doing it for him. And Perturbator I
think more than you know, he's at the head of
the synth wave movement or whatever you want to say,
particularly as as records have evolved of late. This is
another band where I think the linear we should put
them in. I treat Perturbator records more like I would
a new nine inch Nails or Ulva or depeche Mode whatever,

(01:24:20):
like Health if you're into them, just heavy, dark electronic
records with a really bespoke level of craft, where while
I like other synth wave acts, I think Perturbator is
the one to have truly escaped just that kind of
boundary and instead has entered that kind of cannon of
just like great dark alternative music producers.

Speaker 4 (01:24:41):
Essentially, Yeah, I completely agree, because I mean, I think
immediately this album is is very different to the last
album in a lot of ways, like he similar, but
it never feels kind of pigeonholed into just doing that
one thing, and it's kind of like what kind of
avenue of just I say, dark electronic like mus is
he gonna go down on this project, And I think

(01:25:03):
that's because obviously the last album was shadowy and menacing
at times, and this is not quite that. This is,
you know, this to me is like pure cyberpunk twenty
seventy sevens or.

Speaker 3 (01:25:15):
Vibes all over this.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
But it's just like, I mean, he's just one of
those guys who like his approach to like dance music
and simps and industrial and all that it comes together
away that it's just it's super pleasing to the ears
to me, like I've had a great time with this album,
just kind of like just vibing out to it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Yeah, the new Tron movie with the Ninis Nail soundtrack
is crap, the movie itself, and they'll never make another
one because they don't make any money.

Speaker 4 (01:25:38):
I've heard in my notes it's criminal that will never
get a Tron movie of a pers beata sound drag.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
He should do the next one if they were to
make that ludatic mistake of commissioning another one again. Yeah,
his records they're a treat for me because I really
get to digest them like I do records by any
of these other artists that we might be mentioning, you know,
recent sort of developments with you know, it was always
a part of the culture that pervat in because it's
sort of pulsing French.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
Nightclubs and whatever else, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
But musically Perturbator has really crossed over into the goth
world of late and we are we're in an ear
in now that's it's less like that kind of stranger
thing soundtrack synth wave, and it's more this sort of
melding point between that and then forms of like goth
music and dark wave and whatnot. The big jump for
that with Perturbator was the last album, Lustful Sacraments, which

(01:26:24):
was so me all over for being that. I love
that record. Perturbator, I think spiritually is kind of still
in that realm of more gothic synth wave, you know,
and Age of Aquarius is. I think it's less extreme
a leap away as Lustful Sacraments was. I think there's
less of the over like post punk as there was
on that record, but it's almost a bit more like
a halfway house of kind of bringing these different things

(01:26:46):
closer together, looping these kind of different waves of perturbat
back into each other it's less I think headline grabbing
and like, wow, this is really something else as his
last one was the total like extreme gothat per bit
record is still lustle sacraments, but like I say, the
level of just kind of craft in electronic vis of
production is still sky high on this, and it does

(01:27:08):
still have this sort of cool, blue, icy sort of
tone to it compared to the full blaring, garish Neon
s stuff, you know, and it does make it feel
a bit more stylish and a bit more seductive maybe,
where you can't dismiss Perturbator as being some kind of
pastiche or parody.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
And that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Sometimes where these records can be you know, when they're
very hotline Miami or when I'm in one of the
kind of mental stylized nightclubs from a John Wick movie
or something like that, you know, and I like those things,
don't get me wrong, But sometimes like this, they can
also be a bit more naturalistic and a bit more
quietly confident about themselves maybe. And I think that's the
era of his output that Perturbator on albums you know,

(01:27:50):
five and six is now in and it really suits
him because I think he's got the you know, the
chops and the attention to detail, because I think going
for a subtle approach could be you know, it could
be a sort of kind of mper his New Clothes
where we end up with something really boring if you
strip away all the kind of excess. But these are
still so detailed and enveloping.

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
I mean it kind of like varies from song to
song on this way.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
Like I say, there are some songs that are a
bit more you know, like I said, like the sort
of side Unk twenty seventy seven John Wig, like that
kind of sort of thing. But then you know the
way the unbegins, we're like the first track and you
know the old guests pot, which is such a natural fit.
It is like classy and seductive, and then you know,

(01:28:29):
go to that harder industrial bit towards the end.

Speaker 3 (01:28:32):
But it is it's a.

Speaker 4 (01:28:34):
Cool vibe for how you want like dark electronic music
to sound. And it's like it's such an enticing sort
of like you yet playing this record and you're greeted
with that song and you're kind of like, yeah, cool,
I'm I'm in the zone for this, and it is
like I say, great opener, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
I mean, if you like this and you haven't checked
out the last three Ulva records, which have also been
this kind of like electronic goth pop song, you.

Speaker 3 (01:28:56):
Know I have, Yeah, no, I remember you may be
listening to one of the Letter record yeah in on that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Yet I'm speaking generally to anyone listening, you know, if
you haven't, if you haven't heard those O the records.
They're fucking amazing at it. And Christopher's voice is made
for this kind of thing. So already loving that vibe.
I was so ready to love that that song, you know,
and he knocks the fuck out of that chorus. And
I have been, you know, for the past couple of weeks.
That's the one that I've been singing with this really

(01:29:21):
you know, kind of jaded scene. It all before in
terms of like death and horror lyrics, you know, another
war to.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
End all wars again.

Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
Yeah, really like it does work, and the production is
still hard and heavy where you can feel how live
it's going to be, like really bludgeting. There's a sort
of break bit bit in the middle that really really kills.

Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
But that's what I was thinking of that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
Yeah, the beats go really hard, for sure, but it
sounds so expensive. It's the thing as well, and there's
something else about of records that increasingly feels like decadent,
almost in the way that Imperio Triumphant or someone do,
where it's these feelings of like insidious richness, you know,
and that kind of highbrow grotesquely. I mean, the album's
called Age Aquarius, which to me brings to mine kind
of Charles Manson Kenneth Anger era, you know, new age

(01:30:05):
cultist shit, and it gives the record kind of an
edge of darkness while also being something that you can
really bask in and the sort of like the psychedelics
or of trance effect at the start of the glass
staircase for the first minute or so, it's like really
wonderful before it then snaps into that like hard bass
groove that gives you a concussion and then the bit

(01:30:26):
of tremolo guitar that comes in as well. Though you
can feel that this is a meeting of also someone
who's clearly into black metal and how he can connect
those vibes to this sort of gothy electronic music, and
when it sounds that good and that expensive, you can
also just kind of update things as well, where there
are songs like Lunacy and more Ultimate Ratio which really
get the pace going and they just are as like

(01:30:49):
you are being chased down a dark alley by a
slasher killer thrilling as like his early twenty ten stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:30:54):
Was, Yeah, Lunises on Wagon. I was like, put this
on when I'm playing video games, and it's connected. It's
that vibe personally. There are some things that I'm nearly
it's like more as Automoratius that that is video game
boss music in the like bombas and intensity of it,
but it just sounds so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:31:09):
Oh of all, you know, we're grooving on that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
That is like the big Monster group for me out
of what When that gets pumping, it's irresistible.

Speaker 3 (01:31:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:17):
Like, there's just so many soundsy froze across these songs
that are always kind of really interesting. And then again
you you'll flip to a song like Venus where that
is on that like that has that decadence. It's almost
like an electronic doom song and it's kind of like
slow and luxurious approach. And again that's you know, got
Awe from Punisher bringing that like darker, downcast thing, and
that's one of the songs that is purely slow in

(01:31:38):
its sort of vibes, but it just fits in the
overall kind of like world and feeling builds for somewhere. Again,
it does split about a lot, but it always feels
kind of like a cohesive vision. It doesn't feel kind
of like a sort of grab bag of different electronic ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
Yeah, I mean that the beat transitions are always really impactful.
When a like twelve House, when it goes to the
sort of like sludgey low end, the switch is really affected.
You mentioned the author and Punish a song which is
almost like slurring and almost like artificially slowed down in
a kind of an interesting way, and then it has
this like weird stuttering vocal hook that's almost just like
a wretch you just sort of looped and locked into place.

(01:32:15):
And as a big fan of both of these yists
as well, a crossover track with Alcester at the end
is awesome because you don't normally associate Alcest with like
heavy electronics, but there is obviously the very shared reference
point of you know, Cocktail Twins and The Cure and
all this stuff, so it is a natural fit. Even
if the necessarily the landscape is a bit alien and it
has that classic, classic kind of Naige style wordless melody

(01:32:38):
of just the kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
Ah that warm you get from that, like it's pure
as but over that kind of like slow ber electronics,
really cool sound.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
Yeah, it induces that same sort of reverie that they have,
but with like Perturbators hard electronics as the sort of
root of it. It's you know, it's it's familiar to me
but also new in its sort of makeup and components.
And you know, if you don't think you're into the
synth way thing particularly, but you like nine inch Nails
or anything that's kind of noirre and gothy, and you've

(01:33:06):
not checked out Perturbator's current records, the guy is amazing
at it. So yeah, another good one again per Age
of Aquarius. Next up, we've got a double bill of
contemporary brutal death metal. Fair We couldn't decide which one
of these bands to do, so we're doing them both,
both rising bands of the kind where if someone outside
of the darkest bowels of the death metal underground might

(01:33:28):
ask you about a band because they've heard of them,
it might be one of these two. First up, we've
got Sangui Sugarbog and their album Hideous Aftermath, and they
have been at the four of that for a while now.
It's about half a decade now that Sanguy Superbolg have
been like a popular staple of kind of crossover death
metal we've reviewed. I think every one of their records.

Speaker 4 (01:33:47):
They associate like I said them with like Maya of
this podcast of being like one of the the popular
death metal bands of my time on the podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:33:54):
Yeah, you know, and this is their their their third
full length. They are ploppy, sloppy. If you've heard death
metal in the last five years, you probably know what
Sangue Sugar Bogs sound like. Their upcoming tour for this
album features veteran bands like Despised Icon and Defeated Sanity
underneath them. So they are a very popularizing band. And

(01:34:14):
if this record hadn't been a bit different, maybe I
might not have felt like with you in this because
I think you know Sangue Sugarbolt's first three records, we
all got a pretty firm view of what we felt
about them. You know, some people absolutely love them, some
people really don't. As they are representatives of for one
of a better word, a more stupid form of death metal,
and I've appreciated Angry Sugar Bog, but I must say

(01:34:35):
as the kind of more lumpen, pretty bone headed, you know,
of that kind of new school death metal crowd that
also includes Undeath, Frozen Soul, et cetera, they haven't been
the one that I, you know, most regularly turnty for
records that stick with me, No.

Speaker 3 (01:34:51):
I would agree. I think I didn't really care for
the debut.

Speaker 4 (01:34:54):
I think the Dave always kind of like it felt
just a bit too boneheaded and cartoonish and stupid basic.
I think the last album had its moments where I
was like, Okay, we're building something here, We're getting somewhere again.
There were still moments I found just a bit too
kind of like like lumpernan and not interesting, but I
was like doing that. And I think album Free, they've

(01:35:15):
kind of really certified themselves, and I think they have
actually developed as a band by this point. I think
this is comfortably the most I've liked to sang with
Superbog record.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Yeah. It's funny because I first brought Sanguy Sugar Bog
onto the show in twenty nineteen with their Pornographic Seizures
EP and that certainly of the first bunch, that's still
my favorite release because it was almost like the perfect amount.
You know, it's the perfect level of rawness and like
cavernous production on these slimy riffs and the full length
of you know, they took that core sound and you know,

(01:35:45):
kind of upgraded it to a level of increased popularity,
and you know, maybe they didn't entirely hit the same
hideous Aftermath is the biggest pivot that Sanguy Sugar Bog
have made so far in you know, to put it bluntly,
it seems like less of a meme band, you know,
Like the cover is this stark black and white image,
the lyrics are I mean, there's still death metal nonsense,
but there's not songs called dead as Shit and stuff
like that on this. And biggest of all, the sound

(01:36:08):
is much much tighter in a way that you wouldn't
expect from saying with superbowlg who generally sound like a
bunch of layabouts and assessment, you know, to sound this
is their attempt at being a kind of more sophisticated,
more precise less juvenile death metal band, and evidently that's
working for you.

Speaker 3 (01:36:26):
Yeah, No, I think it really is.

Speaker 4 (01:36:27):
I think these like, I think there's still enough of
that kind of like lumbering. Occasionally they'll slop it up
a little bit just to you know, remind you of
what the film they can exist in. But I mean
rotten in Tangent as an opener that that machine gun
sort of like drum blasting away the rift, the sort
of the slamming beat downs just kind of like, yeah,

(01:36:47):
this is when I want, you know, brutal death metal
to sound like this is this is thing. I think
this album it kind of has two mo's. It's like
big mean death mo songs. You've got the guest spot songs,
and then you've got the kind of like weird moments
of experimentation they sort of flirt with and all of
them kind of like work for me. It changes taxed
just enough to never get boring. Maybe a little bit

(01:37:09):
too long. I think like some of these songs could
maybe just shave a minute or so off just to
tie them up. But I do find this to be
like as Death Model goes, I mean, this is like
really easy listening, Like I've had a really just good
time just jamming out to this record.

Speaker 1 (01:37:23):
Well, because the funny thing is the production is what
really threw me at first, because it's much more spotless,
where you know, maybe it's not necessarily how I do
always want my death metal to sound. And you know,
you could compare this to example, the last Undeath album
for a band cleaning up and kind of tightening their sound,
and sonically I do lean more towards that variant of it.
But it is quite something hearing this band, who were

(01:37:45):
almost defined by a certain sloppiness, really sounding like a
mechanical and cold blooded you know, it's not it's not
like a kind of soulless modern metal sound or anything,
because it's likely Kurt Balue who's recorded this one. But
it's also it's not what you'd imagine as like Curt
Polue produced death metal, because it's not got that kind
of you know, entomb thing or anything. It's just very sleek,

(01:38:05):
hypermthogical killing machine. I think the drum sound is what
really links it to the mosh world, where I think
the star player in this band always has been the drummer,
and now he's got this like crazy sounding kit, and
when you know, rotted entanglement gets going, it's pretty devastating.
And there are some kind of nice you know, sort
of eeria more dissonant rifts in the middle of tracks
like that that sound very kind of cold and sterile

(01:38:27):
in a good, unsettling kind of way, but then the
kit is absolutely cracking away underneath.

Speaker 4 (01:38:32):
It mechanized killing machine. Like I mean, there are songs
that are like a bit more clinical in their approach.
I think, like a Roic beheading, like it has got
a real like precise clinicals, but again that ending part
fucking goes and like there's just a lot of that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
I'm like, every time they look.

Speaker 4 (01:38:49):
Into a beat down or just like a big roove,
it's just gonna like it's so precise sound that it
just gut punches you in a way that just it
hits really hard.

Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
Yeah, I mean that sometimes there are drum parts that
are kind of the most memorable bit in songs, like
the way that he us the ride in bits of
Ritual of Autophagia before Todd Jones then turns up, but
that has like a killer beat down part at the
end of it as well, where yeah, I think maybe
there is a bit more liveliness in the arrangements and
stuff than there was before and where they kind of
take it as you said, I think it's like five

(01:39:21):
of the ten tracks feature guest vocalists, which is kind
of a bit of a trend now, particularly on records
that maybe have that I mean obviously hardcore but also
death core kind of you know boundary, Like the last
Aborted record had loads of it as well, with like
a bunch of largely identical sounding Death Corp vocalists. I
don't necessarily know if you need that many. That kind
of becomes like a bit of a crutch for the record.

(01:39:42):
But you've got appealing flash on Felony Abusive a Corpse
who they've like snuck up recently to become an even
buzzier like slam for hardcore kids type band. I mean,
they're on that six New World lineup, and that has
just got very again a horrid wall of noise at
the start, but as the song progresses again the d
I'm doing really like intricate shit on the snare and
the back end before the peeling flesh sort of slam

(01:40:04):
bit turned into like a crusspunk song.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
Which is cool.

Speaker 4 (01:40:07):
He gets properly wild on that, like that's a really
cool sort of turn of pace before you get the
like the pure just like slam like filthy, like gutt
all vocals and just sloppy noises.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
Like yeah, but the curve boy in the middle is
repulsive demise, which is a total justin Broaderick style Godflesh
Industrial Zone.

Speaker 4 (01:40:29):
I was really like, I was like, whoa, this is
This is the pivot that I think sangual Stop Bob
needed to make to kind.

Speaker 3 (01:40:35):
Of show Okay, we do have like other depth.

Speaker 4 (01:40:38):
Like I was going to say, Godfleshes are kind of
like they're clearly worsping that and just the kind of
like mechanized crushing machine and the beats that's all playing with.
It's so mean and menacing, and it just it comes
at the exact right point in the album. I think
for me where it's kind of like, right, I've had
like five or so songs of just like really nasty
death metal. You've had Todd Jones come up and just

(01:40:59):
sound more like garble and frosis as he tends to
do now. But then here you get this like really
interesting turnel kind of like cool, I'm in you do
more of this, And I think, like doing it just
this one thing on this song that on this album,
in this one song works.

Speaker 3 (01:41:13):
It's kind of like the sort.

Speaker 4 (01:41:14):
Of flirtation experimentation, but it does like allow a new
lane for Bog to go down and that could really
help develop their sound.

Speaker 1 (01:41:24):
Yeah, you know, and hearing super like the most godflesh
high hat groove that just makes me want to nod
your head the way those do, but with a kind
of brutal death metal guitar sound behind it, and like
obviously a bit bit clickier as well. Maybe it's it
is quite as quite a large leap in the middle
of the record, but it does for sure it helps
break up the rest of it. I think, even though

(01:41:45):
the record is quite different, I do have a similar
criticism that I did with the last album, which is,
I agree, too long forty five minutes plus at the
level of songwriting that sank with super Bogg are working with,
which is, you know, good but not exceptional. Maybe it's
a bit overkill. I think if this record was thirty
three minutes, it was overstay. It's welcome less than it does.
And the fact the way, like you know that that
kind of golfleshy track it goes into that song you

(01:42:07):
mentioned a Rottit beheading and certainly lyrically I was like,
come on, we've been there and done that, and they
do still have, you know, for the much as they
might want to go, oh yeah, this is our less
juvenile record, you are still doing that old fashioned kind
of you know, violent fantasy thing value. Yeah, yeah, you
know that you haven't kind of escaped from and past
that point in the record, I mean, you know, there's

(01:42:28):
a song with Travis Ryan, which he's done so many
of these things now that it's barely an event anymore.
But he's still the greatest death not of vocalist in
the world, so that's that's a plus. But otherwise, past
that kind of middle point of the industrial song, not
a lot really stood out a whole bunch. There's the
really that was like nearly eight minute long closing track,
which kind of becomes interesting when at the three minute mark,
almost exactly, it just turns into the full of Hellson.

Speaker 4 (01:42:51):
I say, yeah, I really like the two closing tracks.
I like the track song because that song actually sounds
a bit different. It's a bit less, yeah, lower in
chunk in, a bit more kind of like volatile and
kind of that has that kind of like weird and
almost like nervous, kind of like frustration and anger that
that I kind of associate with some character capitation.

Speaker 3 (01:43:11):
And again, Travis Ryan, one of the most.

Speaker 4 (01:43:13):
Distinctive voices in metal, was gonna sound cool and then yeah,
the the the full of Hell song.

Speaker 3 (01:43:19):
It's like three.

Speaker 4 (01:43:19):
Minutes of very standard like Sang Sugo stuff and then
bam stops dead and then we're in the full of
Hell nightmare realm And that part's really fucking cool, But
it do we need the kind of like is it
just kind of then then just tacking a full of
Hell someone to a pretty serviceable but not amazing Sang
Suga box song.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
The thing it was like, if you don't have those
first three minutes, then it's just a slow full of
hell song, you know, and maybe it's awk song. I
don't know, but that is the point where it becomes
you compelling. But compared to their other full lengths, I
would say this is the one that shows the most
signs of their being more going on, because I you know,
I wasn't I wasn't expecting a pivot from Sanga SUPERWORL.
I had them down as a bit of a one

(01:43:59):
tripone and as much as I like utterly Stupid Death metal.
Them doing something that does shed at least some of
that more juvenile quality that their earlier records had that
maybe stop people taking them seriously is an interesting move
on this one.

Speaker 3 (01:44:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:44:15):
I think that that is the case, and that's why
I've had a better time with this. And I'd say
the improvement is there, and I think build off the
best parts of this and shave off just some more
than kind of like, let's say, with it, and I
think they could release like a really good record down
the line.

Speaker 2 (01:44:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
And following this, we've got Tribal Gaze with inveighing brilliance,
in theighing being a word I have now learned it
means to speak or write about something with great hostility.
This one we haven't given a formal review before. It's
their second album that Nine Choirs came out in twenty
twenty two on Maggot Stomp, and so here we have
yet another band of the Maggot Stomp school, that being

(01:44:54):
all of these type bands death metal bands that we're
currently talking about jumping up to Nuclear Blast for this album.
So they're following the footsteps of Sangway, Tuga Bog, two hundred,
Stab Wounds, Frozen Soul, all of who have kind of
come through that label and then graduate onto bigger metal ones.
Tribal Gays are a band who increasingly now, just like
you did with those bands a couple of years ago,
you will see them mentioned by basically all the same

(01:45:15):
people who like in Champion these bands. That first album
I thought was pretty decent, Ditto the split they did
with dead Body. Now we are seeing if we can,
you know, if they can earn their keep in the
larger metal roster with the follow up.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
What do we make of Tribal Gaze?

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:45:30):
I like this, This is this fee is the most Oh,
this is hardcore kids playing death metal album where like
it just it feels exactly like say, from That's wort
of bands. I think I had a really good time
listening to this album when it's on. Didn't have loads
of staying power.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
Some of the songs I think, like all the songs
sound good. I think beyond recognition.

Speaker 4 (01:45:51):
It does the slow sligher thing at the start, with
all the required dive bombs, the main chunky good rolling drum,
big good slamming beat down, crazy elayer solo. Hell yeah,
this is what I want from hardcore kids playing death metal,
and then it kind of like just serves up more
of that, you know, emptying the nest really cool two
step riff, like nice and brutal, but it just just

(01:46:12):
little bits jumped out to me and I never was
like again, wasn't ever not enjoying it, but it was
kind of like, yeah, cool death metal.

Speaker 1 (01:46:19):
Yeah, That's where I'm at with it as well. I
think if you know, if Sanguay Sugar Bog right now
are at the stage of trying to evolve what they
do tribal gaze, we are more tried and tested earlier
on that kind of evolutionary path. But you know, maybe
if you find the news Aga Sugabog a bit too polished,
then maybe this is your antidoe, because this is basically
just similar style of very nasty, brutal death metal, but
this is still more kind of cavernous and cave man.

(01:46:41):
They remind me a bit of them as well. Of
all these recent death mat bands we talking about. Remember Zabalba,
who were like a band out of the hardcore world,
but also pretty early on we're doing kind of bolt
thrower obituary worship type stuff. Before that really like took
over everything and it's super down chewed and heavy. Tribal
Gays have a bit of that kind of flavor where
they are a death metal band, but they absolutely they

(01:47:02):
have tons of like basically hardcore parts where smiling from
the chariots. The first song, first minute, it's like a
two minute song exactly. The first minute always exactly, is
like slimy, crepuscular death metal, and then halfway through it
turns into a hardcore song, just very straight ahead, and
there's a riff in the last track, Lord of Blasphemy,
sort of in the middle somewhere that legit sounds like
a Gnostic Front or something like that, kind of like, well,

(01:47:22):
you know, jump in New York hardcore type feel. And
it's funny that this is the record where they've been,
you know, snapped up by nuclear blasts, because it's still
this doesn't feel like one of these jumping too a
bigger label type record. This feels like it would still
be on Maggot Stomp or Close Casket. Like it's still
just elbows out, moshy, quite low fi death metal. I
don't see any real upping of ambition or desired accessibility

(01:47:45):
or anything. It's just nasty, chuggy moshy caveman death metal
of that kind for people who like it.

Speaker 4 (01:47:52):
Yeah, that thing is like ruling in the Land of
No God. It's literally just a hard trung It rips.
It sounds great, but it is just, you know, it
feels that there's no like, you know, I'm definitely they
got picked up and you could kind of feel like
they're writing like the Bangers and Frozen Soul when they
will come like the groove and the crushing sort of
thing of that. All those bands felt like they were
kind of like picking up more and this just kind

(01:48:12):
of feels like they're quite content to just be like, yeah,
you know, we just want to write like moshy death metal,
and I like, I'm fine with that. I will welcome that.
It just it just feels like they show all their
tricks very early on on this record it and they
don't really have anything to sort of keep it as engaging.
But also the songs because they just I think they're
really like brief the song, none of the song's opposite

(01:48:34):
problem to like the.

Speaker 3 (01:48:35):
Same super record. This is so brief and doesn't outstairs
welcome that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:40):
It is hard to ever have like a bad time
listening to because it's just so just gonna like a
constant adrenaline shot of like bruising, rowdy death metal that
I am having a good time. Everyone got on and
I'm just gonna like it's done, and was like, oh yeah, cool,
that was done.

Speaker 1 (01:48:53):
Yeah I agree. I think, you know, they could definitely
do with working on riffs rather than general you know,
grunty caveman swing your fist vibes. I think this is
this is like the death metal equivalent of those beat
down hardcore records you hear where they don't actually have
many riffs on them, but they're just you know, jumpy
morsh parts. But I agree, thirty one minutes long, this one,

(01:49:14):
it's kind of hard to get tired of. There's a
runner songs in the middle or in the second half
that are all like sub two minutes long. There's literally
three in a row one minute thirty to fifty minute
fifty second long songs, and they're just built to the
third ones like a drum sialar or something. But the
other two they're just built to lurch around like an idiot.
And you know, I think this record is solid, nothing groundbreaking,

(01:49:37):
nothing particularly outstanding. If I was being mean, I would
call it dime a dozen because I don't think I'm
really gonna remember anything off it. But for another band
doing this innateally fairly satisfying slam your paced into death metal,
they're pretty decent. I think they've just been added to
the Incineration festival lineup as well for next year. So
and you know, after the death metal that I've really
championed this year has been like really mental extreme stuff

(01:50:00):
or a bit more left field bands like Malthusian or
Vacuous or whatever, I think we were probably due just
check in. Here's a couple of the popular ones, you
know that might be a bit easier for people to
get into kind of thing, And two prominent ones came
along at once, So Sangue Sugar Bog for all they're
trying something here, Option and Tribal Gaze for the meat
and potatoes reliable. Do go check out that Vacuous album
from the start of this year if you like these,

(01:50:21):
and that slipped you by because they're in a UK
band who don't play American hardcore festival so they're less popular,
but they have more originality I think, and more going on.
But if that was all a bit too low brow
for you and after that you need something from the underground,
but with a more eclectic palette. Our last album review
for today, I think we've made a good pace here.
Our last one is Agriculture and the Spiritual Sound. First

(01:50:43):
time again covering this band in the review section, but
another second album that I felt that we should do
because this band have pretty rapidly in the last two years,
basically risen to become one of the buzziest bands in
the kind of worlds of like experimental black metal and
post black metal. The Roe Burn sphere of black metal,
for sure is absolutely where we are for this. This

(01:51:05):
is a black metal band, but I don't think in
a million years they would play Fortress or Cosmic Void
or anything like that, because they are They're going to
be at Core, ut Tangent or whatever instead. And they
were very immediately pushed as like this is the next
big thing from the genre. Like when I look at
the writing around this album, it's getting like five stars
from the Guardian, you know, and I'm trying to avoid
the dated H word, but you know, the kind of

(01:51:27):
black metal where it's fans are much more likely to
be into backwash and chatpile than they are immortal and
rotten chrost, you know what I mean. That's where we
are with this. This is a post death Heaven band
for sure, but rather than the many many post Death
Heaven bands out there that are just kind of watered
down versions of it, Agriculture increasingly, I think here are
at least suggesting that there is something a little bit

(01:51:48):
more individual. So it's time for us to check in Sam.
I'll explain my history of agriculture. I think before I
ask you, I have to admit I've been not necessarily
put off. I think that's too strong, but the hype
around Agriculture has been very strong, and I hadn't yet
bought in where this is a weird detail, but they
have like a slogan where Agriculture's thing is I love

(01:52:12):
the Spiritual Sound of Ecstatic black metal by the band Agriculture,
like formatted that way, like a kind of bumper sticker
style thing, like it's made to sell T shirts. And
now their second album is called The Spiritual Sound, and
it's this odd kind of branding where like, even if
I know it's probably somewhat time in cheek there, it's
also cat like very precious wording where I get whiffs
of liturgy and that kind of transcendental black metal manifestos

(01:52:34):
and everything that kind of made me go, are you
actually just annoying? Like is this just the terminally online
twenty twenties mean generation equivalent of you know what we
have with liturgy in the twenty tens, and I do.
It came off kind of oddly cynical, I think, and
I kind of and everyone again telling me that this
band were amazing. I just kind of bounced off their
presentation a bit where they released their debut album on
the flintser in twenty twenty three, and it definitely, you know,

(01:52:56):
it registered in my sphere, but I didn't really fully
get into it. It was a bit overstated. When it did,
often feel like, Okay, we've got liturgy and a bit
of palis or whatever kind of you know, left field
style black metal, but not revelatory when those bands already exist.
It's not as bold or as weird as either of
those two bands can be at their best. So I
was a bit like, hmmm, yeah, this follow up album

(01:53:19):
at least has a few more tricks. Sam, you probably
have a purer first impression going into this than I had.

Speaker 4 (01:53:27):
Yes, I knew next to nothing about this band sort
of going in.

Speaker 3 (01:53:32):
I kind of had seen buzz.

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
I'd seen the album work pop up in a few places,
and I was like, okay, that's sort of the gray
people are into this avant garde black metal.

Speaker 3 (01:53:41):
Ah, here we go, right, where are we landing with this?

Speaker 4 (01:53:45):
So I was racing myself this because again, as we've discussed,
I'm I'm a lot more kind of like open to
some of the more weird experimental extreme sounds that you've
put on. It can be a bit hit and this
or that, but you know references like like for fans
of Death Eavan. I was like, okay, could this be

(01:54:06):
the one where like a weirdo like experiment I haven't
got a black metal band speaks to me. And the
thing is is the first twenty seconds of this album
is crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:54:15):
I was like, oh Jesus, but I was like no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 4 (01:54:19):
And then they lock into the Sickest when I was like, cool,
all right, and they fuck around with that with and
like this album is mental.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
I love this album. It's great.

Speaker 4 (01:54:32):
I like couldn't believe how like and again, maybe it
is that kind of death heaveny sort of touch to
the black metal, which again I understand what you sort
of say, like for you, as you know, someone who's
come from a more to an emperor and that sort
of thing, it's less the sort of vein of.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
Black metal that you're going to go for.

Speaker 4 (01:54:50):
But this pits with me where it's kind of got
that post Blackmoth thing I like, with a kind of
like free spirited experimentation that makes them way more interesting
than any other kind of like post black metal band
that's come along since Death Heaving where everyone's gone, oh
you like Deaf Heaving, You like, you know, not to
disapartie them too much. I think they're a good band,

(01:55:10):
But like Mold for example, I kind of one of those, Ah,
they're the you know, thegrest thing to post moment.

Speaker 1 (01:55:15):
I'm like what that means is you like pretty things?

Speaker 2 (01:55:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:55:19):
I do.

Speaker 4 (01:55:19):
I do like pretty things in my extreme mel yeah,
but this is this is a band who've done that
with a kind of a more free spirited mental kind
of edge to it, which I find.

Speaker 3 (01:55:30):
Really interesting and exciting.

Speaker 4 (01:55:32):
Maybe it's because I'm now in on that because of
Imperial Triumphant and the like booting the door down, But
I think this is great.

Speaker 1 (01:55:39):
Yeah, I mean this might actually be the rare, you know,
sort of avant gard black Mette record. I think you
actually probably like even more than I do, but because
I think it's still is very much the world of
black metal that we're describing as we've just laid out,
that is very much where it is coming from, rather
than the more when I think haven't gote black metal,
I do think more sort of the you know, the
the left field DoD Heims Guards whatever it like.

Speaker 2 (01:55:59):
This album is.

Speaker 1 (01:56:00):
Yes, I think they're from California, and it's just it's
a very like it's a very fucking like la type
presentation and everything and vibe that they have as opposed
to you know, Norwegian or anything like that. But it
is really like very is compared to the previous Acqua Drab,
which I thought, like, what's the revelation here when liturgy
already exists? This one, I go, well, they're doing stuff

(01:56:24):
because this has some utterly wild stuff on it that
this app's getting a lot of praise and stuff and
I can at least see the like, hell, yeah, this
is something that is really trying for things and is effective.
The first song on my garden. It's like an it's
like a post black metal prong song, like it's got
like a for fall it like it has got these
crazy discordant shred bits and stuff. But the core groove

(01:56:46):
is like a nineties industrial metal floor filler that is.

Speaker 3 (01:56:50):
That fucking goes yeah, and it's.

Speaker 1 (01:56:53):
Pretty sick, and I would say it's a banger, but
then two minutes in it slips into this kind of
bizarre half sung indie rock sort of melody that kind
of you know, that does derail the sort of gym
playlist appeal that song maybe you had at that point,
but it's keeping you on your toes and already I
think that first song has more kind of curveballs and
eh kind of surprises than the whole first album did, where,

(01:57:15):
like I said, it makes you want to hit the
gym during a post black metal song while it is
also throwing these different sounds at you. I think as
well as all these black metal bands and stuff, I
thought about bands like Pupil Slicer, where it has that real,
you know, it's outlandish, flying in all directions, futuristic extremity,
but at least or something like that also has like
this bizarre ability to sling a groove around, which, like
we say, a lot of the post death Eavan stuff

(01:57:35):
is just purely pretty. You know where this brings with
it genuine unpredictability and also doses of harshness and ugliness
alongside that. There's a song called Meeka, which is not
to be confused with the terrible UK singer from the naughties,
but it's like a blackened punk song with.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
A scape punk song. I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 4 (01:57:59):
Black Scape's a thing, and that's a song where I
fell in love with the album.

Speaker 3 (01:58:05):
Even that song is amazing. Well, I was like, ah,
you're you're.

Speaker 4 (01:58:09):
Kind of free spirited Finnis post to genre mashing. You've
hit on things that I just love. You've kind have
taken a hardcore and skate punk and black metal, and
it's got that motive core of bands like two che
More and stuff like that I really love or like
any of those kind of like you know, twenty ten's
sad hardcore bands. It's got that, but like like with
black metal, but with like a hardcore pace, and I

(01:58:29):
think it's such a cool vibe.

Speaker 3 (01:58:30):
I waskind of like, yeah, I'm so all about what
they're doing here.

Speaker 1 (01:58:34):
Yeah, I think that and the first song I'm probably
my favorites on the album because they just they really
lock in, but it was an unconventional again groove thing
you would expect with the style of melodies and whatnot
in the black metal department that they're using. But then
there's also songs like the Weight, which is just all
treacle sludge and if you want to call it a
solo section, literal just threatwanking noise terrorism on that song,

(01:58:57):
and they're doing they do weird chit rhythmically consistently. The
Reply is kind of built on a blast beat, but
it's not like a powerful metal blast. It's like a weird,
tiny toy drum kit indie blast beat, you know. And
people say this shit about death Eavan if it was
definitely you know, it was definitely true in terms of
their taste and influences, but because they never had an
actual sort of singer until their later albums, this album,

(01:59:20):
Legit is about thirty to forty percent full on American
indie rock, like you would hear at a Pitchfork fest
or something, and the replies crescendo at the end is like,
let's take some I don't know, Sophia and Stephens thing
or something that I would never really listen to, but
then build like a blackened crescendo out of that. The
high watermark of what the fuckery on this album is

(01:59:40):
a song called Body and Armor, which is built on
a just like very simple A section, B section, back
and forth transition between like a big, fat wide arena
rock riff that is like if you if you're enjoying
the new Deaftnes album, you could probably stick that riff
on afterwards and vibe with it. It's very bright and

(02:00:01):
quite triumphant, but what happens to it is hilarious where
you have that riff play like a full minute, like
it goes for a while and then everything drops out,
but what the fuck even happens after that? It's like
an isolated, demented screech of someone being boiled alive, and
then a pivot into this like uncomfortable whimpering vocal like

(02:00:23):
way right there in your ear drum over nothing, but
just like broken apart rhythmless, scattered apart drum.

Speaker 4 (02:00:31):
It's yeah, that to me feel it was the real
like Okay, this is what you're all about them, You're
you're you're throying effing in here where again big rif
and then like say that gut wrenching screened by the
kind of like really delicate, like barely audible kin like
clean vocals, and then bam, that big riff comes right
back in again afterwards, and it's so just like Jesus Christ,

(02:00:54):
you are like, no where this song goes bleak.

Speaker 3 (02:00:57):
It is like legitimately quite harrying.

Speaker 4 (02:00:59):
And then like the solo that comes in at the
end of this song is like pure like rock stark
and like, yeah, we're on a cliff, we are solo
in hair swept back in the wind.

Speaker 3 (02:01:10):
It's so like it is jarring.

Speaker 4 (02:01:12):
But I was kind of like along for the rider
and just really enjoying these individual aspects.

Speaker 3 (02:01:16):
I was like, I don't know where you've got where the.

Speaker 4 (02:01:19):
Cohesion between this is, but because you're kind of doing
it with such like gusto and like and just really
owning it, it all just worked for me.

Speaker 1 (02:01:28):
Yeah, that the solos in that and the song Flee
as well, both have these like you know, more people
past the Kerry McCoy's of this world need to start
lepping rip cool guitar solos on that song I like them,
but that the transition in that song bodied Armor, it's
it's genuinely like it is comedic, Like it's it's the
you know that that muppet sketch the Monomenum thing with

(02:01:50):
and the guy comes aging Monomenum and then he just
like rifts for a while and then the other two
puppets go back to do like nothing's happened. That's what
this song is, like, it just fucks about and I
can't stress enough how there is no pulse to it
in these moments. It's like an anti song intentionally, so
when it's in those kind of b sections and then
just goes that back to that big bubbly riff like
nothing's happened, it's so odd. I genuinely like it cracked

(02:02:13):
me up genuinely the second time it went back to
the verse, because like, what a fucking what crackpot idea
sent you in that direction? Yeah, the riff in that
song is almost like the first thing that you would
show to someone to get them into this because it's
it's a big, cool, bright riff and then the rest
of the song is like delivered by psychopaths and it's
obviously they're intentionally you know, putting things that don't go together,

(02:02:35):
and you know, because they're they're it's not a normal,
reliable way to write a song, and you have to go, well,
it's definitely not conventional, you know, and I think there is.
I think the spottier, less remarkable stuff fills up the
record as well, where if people are rushing to try
and crown this, you know, the next sun bathe or whatever,
I think it's scattier than that. There's a song called Serenity,

(02:02:55):
which is basically just three minutes of those kind of
buzzy Liturgy ish tremolo riffs that don't really do much
out of the ordinary. And then that's followed by Dan's
Love Song, which is just a very simple vocal melody
over about five minutes of like shoe gayzy ambient that
also doesn't go to a whole lot of places. There's
a song called Hallelujah, which is just a very simple
indie emo song. So I don't know how, you know,

(02:03:18):
actually great or memorable. A lot of these competitions are
in their own right, but I think if Liturgy are
the kind of band who's general demeanor and their album's
slipperiness annoys you this band will either do exactly the
same thing or offer a maybe slightly more attainable.

Speaker 2 (02:03:34):
Way into it.

Speaker 1 (02:03:35):
If you love liturgy and that side of experimental black metal,
then you've probably already got the spiritual sound of agriculture
bumper sticker already. If you like your black metal to
be half indie rock, you know, then this is a
record for you. I'm kind of a similar place where
where it's creative, you know, manic energy crackling through it
has not necessarily fully equated to like a wholly compelling

(02:03:56):
mood that will keep me coming back just yet.

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
But when this record.

Speaker 1 (02:04:01):
Swings, it does have stand up moments that I do
go some way to justifying some of the attention and
do just make me go fucking what.

Speaker 3 (02:04:09):
I think it's that.

Speaker 4 (02:04:10):
I think it's the fact that again this album it's
forty five odd minutes. This is now that that feels
that like it crams that time with so much experimentation.

Speaker 3 (02:04:19):
I've like tried liturgy once before. I'm bounced off at too.

Speaker 4 (02:04:23):
To re said, this, Almo feels like kind of taking
that and making it's just a little bit more like
here's a hard coreythia. Sam you can you can latch
onto that and then could have come with us on
our weird like magical mystery journey through all kind of
like sonic monsense that we're gonna subject you to. And
because I'm kind of like bought in on the sort
of like the experimentation and the mania, I don't mind
those kind of like shoe gay songs that just kind

(02:04:43):
of drift along with for a few minutes because I'm
just I'm along for the ride and I'm swept from
brought into the mood and even that that goes on
way in selling this album to me.

Speaker 1 (02:04:53):
Yeah, if they can get past the kind of the
meme shit and the fucking weirdly cynical branding slogans and
stuff with this to go on, there is certainly at
least an intriguing band in there, and I'll be curious
to know what people think of it. So the Spiritual
Sound by Agriculture and that is eight albums from us
under the ninth in a bit over two hours. So

(02:05:13):
there you go. Thank you very much for listening. That is,
as we say, one of the most stacked months of
the year. So let us know what your favorites are
out of that bunch. We reviewed there and also what
ones we maybe haven't covered that are also worthy of
the attention. But lots of cool and interesting stuff to
get into. Their cheers very much for being here with us.
As said, next you know, big show from us is

(02:05:36):
we are going to be diving back into the swamps
and we're going to be knocking out part two of
our Nola special when we get the chance that goes
over on the that's not old Patreon. But we will
also be here once again next week for Halloween I suppose,
And yeah, we'll be here with you, so we'll see
you there.

Speaker 2 (02:05:52):
Bye.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Ruthie's Table 4

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Post-Black Mahna Mahna

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Ruthie's Table 4

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Post-Black Mahna Mahna

On Purpose with Jay Shetty