Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, metal's my religion, and yeah, it's my zone. Standing in the thunder, I stage in the pouring metal rain. What a feeling, baby, the lights are exploding.

Welcome back to the Metalheads Podcast.

My name is George. And I'm Buke. And we are here for a second week in a row while the miracles never cease. Boom. Look at that. However, I have to warn you all, you enter the house of plague and death. We are both pretty sick at the moment. I thought I sounded bad until Buke showed up. I was like, dude. So if I'm lower than normal today, or if you hear any sniffles or anything, we're trying to keep them off the microphone.

We're both here. Yeah. I was concerned that perhaps as the episode goes along, my voice may start to go out on me. I sound reasonably okay at the moment, but the longer I talk, I noticed yesterday I was on the phone for a while. The longer I talk, the worse it gets. So bear with us. And I worked last night and I worked early this morning. So I am, for those bar beer drinkers out there, I'm starting the podcast off with a flying dog, Brewhouse Rarity, Mexican hot chocolate stout. Not too bad. You should warm it up.

And me, I'm trying to get through the episode here with this box of Kleenex that my wife got me. You don't normally mention a box of Kleenex, but I've never come across something like this before. It's a Puffs lotion, or it's like plus lotion, and this one is a Vicks, and if you just get up on the box, wow, it's got like Vicks vapor rub on the Kleenex, and so I can just sit here and sniff the box, and like,

Sniff the box. The mentholation. George loves to sniff the box. I certainly do. It helps clear out my sinuses a little bit. So anyway, yeah, so in sickness and in health doesn't apply only to marriage. In this case, it also applies to podcasts. Yep. As we frequently do, we got some input from our friend Will. Why don't we go ahead and jump right into that? Will asked what our ultimate three-band bill would be.

He also wanted to know what two bands to add to the big four and he asked us to talk about the local DC band that just released their debut album yesterday's Saints. Do you have an ultimate three-band bill? I went with bands that are still alive. Okay bands are still together on top of that. I also went with bands that might not be made in priest on that level right where it would be a blow you away show I went with you know like a personal show that to me I think would be pretty cool.

I'm actually going for the opener. Okay. Because I had so much fun back a couple months ago seeing them. Gwar. Okay. It was just a fun show. I thought it would be fun for them to come out and open the show. But now the real list. Number three, Lamb of God. Okay. Because I've always been a fan of them. I haven't seen them enough live and I'd love to see them again. Number two, Megadeth. Okay. I've never head-banged more at a show.

as long as they can play the old stuff doesn't make a difference really who's in the band and a lot of it's just Dave I don't think I've ever seen a bad Megadeth show yeah I left the show with my friend Rick and our necks not for that reason aches yeah our necks aches from head from head banging for the next you know a couple of days at least I like to sniff the box and number one I've seen him a lot but Opeth playing a classic

Old set. Okay. Nothing new. Nothing from Damnation on. Just, well, nothing with clean vocals in it acoustically. So, Ghost Reveries, Watershed, that type of stuff. All right. Well, if you're going to do four, then I'm going to tack on a fourth one, too. And my three-band, Bill, is one that I've wanted to see for years and years, and so you'll probably recognize it because I've mentioned it before. But my fourth band that I'm going to tack on at the bottom is

Because this is a power metal fantasy themed bill. Number three, Running Wild. Oh, I like that theme. Number two, Blind Guardian. Really? Number one, what do you think? Sticking with the theme of the other bands? Hmm. I don't know. Man at War. Man at War. Yeah. Wow, okay. Okay. I've always wanted to see those bands play together. Never ever in this world happen. That would be cool. And would the fans come out for it?

Do you think there's support for Running Wild and Gamera here in the States? Not enough. Yeah. Everybody that I've told that set list to, they're like, Running Wild? Pfft. Nobody likes Running Wild. I like Running Wild. Yeah, you like Running Wild. They're not super bad. Not super bad. Just kind of bad. No. They're not, you know, pirate metal. You know, they're not your drink from last year. Oh, now that would have been a good one to throw on there, too. Maybe some ale stuff.

Yeah.

Okay, buddy.

What's up next?

Well, obviously, Will hasn't heard the many episodes where I've talked about the big four and the big seven.

Yep.

So for me, you know, if I had I wouldn't add two bands, I'd add three bands.

The big four, in case you don't know, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer.

The three bands that I would add to that, making it the big seven, would be Overkill, Testament, and Exodus.

And me, I would take off testament, sorry, I would take off overkill, keeping testament in Exodus to make it a big six. I thought maybe you'd throw a death angel in there. Oh, man. That's, now you're talking. Okay. I would take- I can't believe you disrespect the overkill like that. I would take off Exodus and put on death angel. Can't believe you disrespect the Exodus like that. All right. As for yesterday's saints, we're going to

Talk About Them Again A Little Bit Later So I'll Leave That For Now Okay Moving On Let's Get Into Some News Stories Shall We The Reunited Stuck Mojo Is Working On New Material Does Anyone Care There Was That One Album You Gave Me From Them Years Back I Used To Really Like I Know You Did But It Was Like 1996 27 Somewhere Around There Did You Consider Them Rap Rock Rap

Yeah.

Was that before? Were they one of the precursors to that?

They were...

Gosh.

I know I listened to them before I ever heard any, like, Limp Bizkit or anything like that.

This is before Machine Head even dabbled into the rap rock?

Yeah, it was.

Probably, yeah.

So at the time, it was kind of, oh, that's different, that's neat.

But then Limp Bizkit came along and just...

They whizzed in that pool.

That genre is dead and gone.

Yeah.

Dead and gone.

So unless they're planning something more straightforward metal, I can't see getting into that. So James Hetfield says that validation from fans is like the most amazing drug I've ever taken. I can understand that. And personally, I'd like to get hooked on that one. So, you know, if you fans out there would like to validate me, even if you want to just validate my parking, whatever, man, I would love to be doing that drug. So please validate me.

Was James ever into the drug scene? Or was alcohol just his drug? Not really sure. I've heard rumors that I'm not going to substantiate. Of course. Because Metallica will come at us for everything. Yeah, I don't want to be like, Mr. Washburn? Lars Alvork jumps through the doorway and starts spazzing out on me. What are you talking about, man? We don't do any drugs?

Yeah, I always heard alcohol was their thing. I didn't grow up with it like you did. I had never heard of, you know, if they were like a philansomo and escapades with drugs were known. Yeah, no, I'm not aware of any like hard facts or anything. Speaking of Metallica, did you see the video for the sock puppet parody of Master of Puppets? Yeah. They're made up a band called Lintallica.

and the song Master of Sock Puppets. That was pretty damn hilarious. That was pretty good. The music and the singing were quite good, and the lyrics were hilarious. Yes, and the sock puppets were done well, too. Yes. So if you haven't seen that yet, go up on YouTube and look up Lynn Tallica, Master of Sock Puppets. I think you'll be amused. Down released a video for the song Conjure from Down 4 Part 2.

Yep.

Aren't they about a little, like a year late to that party? Didn't that come out a year ago?

Shouldn't they be releasing like part three now?

Part three should be out this year.

But it probably won't be.

Probably not.

They'll just release a video and go, that's it for this year.

That album, you know, it's one of the songs from that album made my top songs the last year.

It's a great album.

Anything to kind of keep that album, you know, people talking about it.

Yeah.

That's cool.

I guess.

Speaking about Down, did you see the Down members, Pepper, did you see that Corrosion of Conformity? It's playing Autobar tomorrow. It's a local club here in Baltimore. And my favorite Corrosion of Conformity album, Blind, has a Blind logo right next to Corrosion of Conformity. So is Pepper singing? I believe so. Dude, why are we not there? So if they're playing Blind, that's pretty sweet. Especially if

Pepper singing. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he only sang one song on that album. Yes. Damn. I Hate God is There, Crochet of Conformity. How did we miss this? We're just not metal. I've never been to Autobar. It sounds... Someone was stabbed over there over the summer and killed. Yeah. Yeah. It was like one of the bouncers or something. Yeah. Like a fight spewed out into the streets and he was stabbed. In the neck.

Is that near where we go? I don't know. I've never been. I figured if I haven't been there, I must be a real dive. And with people getting killed there, maybe I don't want to go there. I am looking up the show tomorrow because it was pretty cool lineup. Never mind. The lineup's not as strong as I thought it was, but it's I Hate God, COC Blind, Cro-Mags, Misery Index, and Fuck You, Pay Me. Hmm. The Misery Index is okay. And I've never been a real Cro-Mags fan.

Did one of their singers stab somebody too like a year and a half ago or a member of the band? No, I don't remember anything about that. Yeah, I believe so. He raged at his show and stabbed people. Well, anyway, probably won't be going to that even though I'd like to see COC. Moving on, there's a new Ensiferum song called Heathen Horde available for streaming over at SoundCloud. I've given this album a listen and sounds like it's going to be pretty good. Yeah. I also heard a new Moonspell song called Extinct,

which is also the name of their forthcoming album. This is also streaming at SoundCloud. I was really digging this song because it's got like harsh vocals in there with like some of his really cool clean vocals that he does. It was cool. Is it going back to the earlier stuff that we liked from them? Because they kind of lost me in the past couple years. Yeah, I mean even their last album was kind of like this. It was like Wolfheart with a little bit of Irreligious in there. Hmm, okay. So I'm definitely going to be checking that out.

I know you're going to be interested in this next one. Yeah, even though I have all these, they were hard to find. Mastodon is re-releasing all their reprised titles on vinyl in the next few months. You already have them. I do. The only one I don't have is Call of the Mastodon, and that's some of their early stuff. Right. Do you have, and they're not the biggest Mastodon person. I like their earlier stuff better. I do have a couple of earlier ones, but there's probably one or two that I don't.

I have the leviathans the one with the whale yeah I have that I have

blood mountain I have crack the sky what's the one before leviathan I don't with the horse on it

yeah that one that's as that's a fan favorite yeah so and somebody's screaming right now at their speakers

you know we can't fucking pull it up it's uh remission yeah that's right I had to be reminded about

But I don't mind reissues. No. No, I might pick up one or two of them. You can avoid paying crazy costs for first prints that, to me, don't make a bit of difference. Like, I got my job for a Cowboy Sun Eater vinyl the other day, and it was one of 500. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't make a difference to me. I just picked up the Tiamat Wild Honey reissue. It was like double white vinyl, and I paid like 30 bucks for it.

Prior to this release, if you wanted this album on vinyl, you had to pay like 300 euros, which is like, I don't know, friggin' at least $350. Yeah. So I was definitely happy to see that reissue. So there's a petition going around to have Odorous Yurungus added to Mortal Kombat 10 as a character. Yes. Yes. I can't imagine that's gonna happen, but wouldn't it be cool? It would be badass! It's, hey, anything to immortalize him.

to play as him. That would be sweet. That would be. I would almost want to get that. I've always loved the Mortal Kombat series. The last one before this was excellent. I don't think I've played Mortal Kombat since like Sega in the 90s. Could you picture an odorous fatality where he like uses the cuttlefish bends him over and fucks him. I fucked your skull. Until his head explodes or something. Yes. That would be cool. An odorous fatality.

Yeah. I'm down. Yeah. I'll sign up. Definitely. There's also a story about an ex-periphery fan who lit a periphery hoodie on fire because of his distaste for the direction that the band has gone. I think you would join him after when I asked you what you thought of the album. Totally. I mean, I listened to a couple tracks off the new forthcoming double album, and I was just like, what is this shit? This is what the kids listen to. I called it, what did I call it?

It was like the singer for Bowling for Soup doing emo metal. It was like half Bowling for Soup, half Slipknot. But how are these bands like these guys getting so popular? I don't know. I know I've listened to them in the past. They were not bad when they first debuted from what I heard. I remember that. I remember going, man, they're alright. It wasn't really my thing. It was a little more proggy, I thought. But when I heard this, I was like, oh no. Definitely not into this.

So yeah, I'm with that dude. It was kind of funny because one of Periphery's guitar players apparently saw the posting on Facebook and liked it and said, that's so sick, dude! At least he has a good... You gotta respect their sense of humor with the whole thing. And we heard that interview with the one guy on the Metal Sucks podcast and, you know, sounds like a good guy. I'm not trying to knock him, but I really don't like their music. Did you see these latest pictures of Lemmy?

Not good. Scary. Oh, man. I get sad looking at that. Scary. Because it almost, you know, you hear when somebody's seriously sick, what's one of the common symptoms? Weight loss. Yeah. Like that, like scary weight loss. And he is really scary. Because you know he's not having like his stomach tight or something from being a fat guy. Right. And he just looks old. He does look rough. You know, I mean, I think he's 69, they said, which I thought. In Lemmy years, that's like 300. Yeah. You know how dogs always say that, like 7 or 11.

7 years older than humans. Lemmy's like, all the stuff he's done in his life. Lemmy's like, for every year we live, 30 years for him. Yeah. And also, like I put on your Facebook the other day, the, I don't know what they call it, the Motorhead logo. The War Pig? Yeah, the War Pig. They're turning it into a statue. Yeah. That you can go online and buy now. That was pretty awesome looking. Yeah. And I said I wanted to turn it into a mic stand so I could podcast with it. Well, we're going to stop and take a break here so I can go.

a beer and I got a question to ask you that I was asked earlier in the week. All right. The guy is sick and he sounds like death and he goes to grab another beer. I don't know how he does it. I enjoy my days off. I could not do that. As sick as I am, I could not be drinking right now. The only alcohol I'm taking in right now is copious amounts of NyQuil. So, and you have a good point. I'm trying to be different. Now I'm drinking a yard sale winter lager. Since I'm sick, it doesn't

It doesn't taste much different than the first kind. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of a waste. Oh, well, I'm off work. I enjoy it. Our mutual friend, Matt, asked me earlier in the week, well, he sent out these messages on Facebook to like this artist. Okay. Some guy he met, you know, goes to these coffee houses and stuff and plays acoustic guitar and stuff. And I said, okay, thanks for sending it to me. I'm not going to like it because

I'm not what I listen to. And he was going on and on about how good this guy is and this and that. I saw that. He sent it to me, too. And I got in a little discussion back and forth with him about, sorry, that's just not my stuff. And he said, well, you need to expand your horizons and listen to more stuff. Well, you do. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to ask you, one, is it just me or do you see a lot of metalheads not breaking out of heavy metal? Almost kind of,

like you don't break the oath well unfortunately and two did you fall into this also and as you got older did you maybe see the air in your ways and say yeah you know what there is good stuff out there because i don't hate it just because it's not metal right it's just not what i currently want to listen to well when i was in high school it was death to false metal kill the posers nothing but fucking metal okay so this is like late 80s like into like early 90s and

And that was it. I hated everything that wasn't metal. For the most part. I mean, I actually dug a leg of the Beatles and a couple of classic rock things. And I liked some, like, 70s rock stuff that wasn't technically metal. But for the most part, anything that was like 80s music, I hated 80s pop music. You know, I was like, fuck you too. Fuckin' excess. Fuck Madonna. I like all those things now. After I got out of high school, I realized how high school, high school was.

And I was like, you know, just because I didn't like the people that listened to this music in high school doesn't mean that the music was bad. It just means I went to school with a bunch of dicks. Okay. And so, you know, during the whole like grunge 90s thing, I did branch out. You know, I listened to grunge music. I listened to blues music and I listened to jazz music. I listened to classical music. And I just basically stopped giving a shit what anybody thought, you know, in high school. It was like, well, if I listened to anything,

It's not metal. People are going to think I'm soft. They're going to think I'm weak. I'm a mamby-pamby boy. I'm a man. And I was like, no, no, must be hard like metal. But yeah, you know, as soon as I actually grew up a little bit, I realized that, you know, there is other good music out there. I just, I like what I like and I don't like what I don't like. And, you know, now that we're vinyl collectors, I have, you know, I'm going back and trying to get, you know, I've looked at like Rolling Stone and all those other music magazines on what they say is the greatest albums of all time. I'm trying to go back and listen to these.

And I cannot deny that there's not good stuff. Dude, you like Steely Dan. I don't like Steely Dan. That is some bad shit. I listened to that album the other day. It's not bad. There you go. You're branching out. I don't know if it's branching out. But I will admit it's a maybe childish, for lack of a better word, viewpoint to say that just because it's not metal. Yes, it is. It's not good. Yes. Most of the people I knew that were into metal back in the day are no longer into metal.

Really? You know, they evolved out of metal altogether. Do you think that listening to other stuff keeps you grounded in metal? Where it's not metal 24-7, 24-7, you're not getting burnt out with it like you have? No, I mean, I would say 95% of what I listen to is metal. I have had periods where I listen to more punk music or more blues music or whatever. I like singer-songwriters, you know. But honestly, these days, all I really listen to for the most part is metal.

But that's how like I can go and watch American Idol with my wife. And while I actually don't like most of the popular music of today, there's some good singers on there just from a can they sing standpoint. Are they doing stupid songs? Some of them do some pretty fucking stupid songs need to like Ariana Grande or whatever fucking coffee drink person. Or there's another one that's really awful. But then there's people that do some like just rock songs and they do them quite well.

And I'm like, you're not metal, but I might buy your album. And, you know, I think it's freeing to just listen to whatever you want and not be stuck in a box saying, well, this is all I can listen to because I can only listen to metal. How metal is supposed to be about being free, not limited. And it's also, you know, spun me into when we were at the show last week, we saw one of the employees of one of our local record shops. And I've talked with her about this before. Why is it that Metalheads, you know, might not

not branch out into other genres but their way of being different is to try and be more fucking obscure yeah then the next guy next to them is that the same you know maybe hardness factor to trying to look for yeah everybody wants to be like oh well yeah you like Metallica that's so 20 years ago I listened to the latest Russian funeral death from Siberia and all the way to get to their studios in a fucking on the snow

Yeah, you know, that's just a one-upmanship that doesn't belong. Does that happen in other music, do you think? I don't think so. I think we're the only ones dumb enough to do that. I mean, punk, you know, punk is like, you're not punk, you know, or I'm more punk than you. And I would expect probably like rap, like gangster rap. Probably, probably. I'm more hard than you. I don't know. I don't want to know if you're hard. Yeah, not for us. Okay, so some new releases? Yeah, there aren't too many of them this week.

that I felt I needed to talk about. One of them is the new album Ageless by Call of the Void. I listen to these guys. Not my style at all. It's kind of borderline for me. I mean, it's like kind of sludgy, screechy. Almost screamo. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm on the fence about them. Their last album wasn't too bad, but I haven't listened to this one yet. And the next one, I know you're not into this one either. No. This is the Exhumed,

Four Metal Redux, a Necrospective reissue. They got some shit about this. Did they? I haven't really heard anything about it. Just like they said at the concert. Oh, right. What was that they were saying? Yeah. They know the fans don't like when bands go back and re-record their early stuff with better playing, better recording quality, and that type of stuff. So they were probably trying to get the rights to it and couldn't get the rights to it, so they re-recorded it themselves. Probably. Yeah, it's about money. Yeah.

But if you like early, brutal, exhumed, where you can't make out anything... Yeah, it might sound better now. You're still not going to be able to understand what they're saying. Next up is a band that... I don't know if I can pronounce this. I was going to look it up and I didn't, so I'm just going to wing it. I liked their last album. The band is called Lykaion. L-Y-K-A-I-O-N. And the album's called Heavy Lullabies. The last album was very Sentenced-like. Very. And...

So I really kind of dug it. This one is a little more commercial sounding. Not quite as sentenced. Still not bad. Almost like a Poison Black. Yeah, maybe more like a Poison Black. Yeah. So yeah, it's definitely worth checking out. Almost kind of like a Brainstorm kind of sound to it a little bit. Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. Yeah. Next up, Black Metal Legends Marduk and their latest album, Front Schwein. That was good. This is, when you

You said Buke, this is modern black metal. Yeah. This is not bad. You know, it's not bad at all. Yeah, there you go. You know what you're getting with it. Oh, of course. These guys are not going to fucking break trend and do something. You know what you're getting. Yeah. But it's not like their earlier stuff I had heard. Right. Yeah, like the fuck me Jesus era. Yeah. So if you like, you know, modern traditional black metal, that's what these guys, that's what this album is. Hell yeah.

Released this week. This album, yes, is the latest album from Fulcandra called Ascension Lost. I don't know if you know this, Buke, but the singer for Fulcandra is also the dude from Obscura. Really? Yes. That's how I heard about these guys when their last album came out. I was like, oh, Obscura, okay, I'll check this out. I got the promo for their last album, and I was like, whoa. It's like dissection.

And that's exactly what I like. It's like melodic black metal. It's just fucking, it's raw and it's just awesome. Let me just say, if people listening, you know, now 22 episodes in, if you guys haven't understood me by now, and you probably can understand our personalities, my metal, my death metal, black metal, whatever I listen to, call me a pussy. I love the harsh vocals, but I also like the melody and some enunciation with it. And that's what you get with this. It's awesome. Yeah. It's awesome. Just like you said,

Dissection is a perfect description of this. Yeah, I mean, this is like Dissection Worship. Mm-hmm. You say Dissection, I say Dissection. Dissection? Dissection. Is this on vinyl? I don't know. If it was, I would have pre-ordered it by now. Of course. Of course. Speaking of which, I pre-ordered that Sleep Holy Mountain reissue. Oh, you did? Yep. Oh, man. Only $19.99. Wow. Yeah. Try getting that on eBay for that much once it comes out.

I put on Dope Smoker sometime over the summer when I got it. That just goes and goes. It does. It just goes. This one's actually got like six or seven or eight tracks. Yeah. Real songs. In fact, Matt was over. I called back to earlier. Matt was over at my house and I put that on and he goes, you're going to have to turn this off. I can't take the same couple of notes over and over and over again. You got to turn this off. It's a classic. People love it though. Oh yeah. Dope Smoker. Try it out.

All right, moving right along, let's get into our band of the week. Last week, the band that I said I was listening to was Deathlehem from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Well, I got a hold of these guys and said, hey, can we play some of your music? And they said, sure. So we're going to be doing that for you today. But before we get into that, make sure you check them out on Bandcamp. You can pick up the new album. It's called Destroyers of the Realm. You can pay what you like for it. You think it's awesome you want to pay $15 for it? You can do that.

You want to pay a dollar because you're just a cheap bastard? You can do that, too. You can put in zero if you're really fucking cheap and just check it out. The point is go get the album. I think you will be pleased. You should also check out their new video for the track Mystic Island. It's pretty damn funny. While you're at it, you should check out the video for their other song, Oathbound, too. That one's pretty amusing as well. These guys are pretty interesting. Yes, entertaining. Entertaining. That's a good way of putting it. As I mentioned last time,

I said they sound like a cross between

Guar and Blind Guardian.

If Odorous had used the

Cuttlefish on Blind Guardian, this would be

the product of that union.

Yeah, again, there's musical tracks where

they take a breakaway to do some

D&D-esque

storytelling and stuff. Interludes.

Yeah, interludes, exactly.

Yeah, and to give you a taste of what this album's

like, we're going to be playing you two songs,

but before the first song,

I'm going to play you an interlude.

So let's get into that now first we're going to hear interlude to curse of Goblin Town and then that's going to go right into a song called Final Voyage of the Goblinaut. Finding the Guardian Shield and defeating the Earthforger was no easy task but the warriors of Depth of Hem don't play on easy difficulty they play on hard Goblin Town sits on the shore of the vast sea of a hundred sunken ships Brutalitis the Bloodbeard makes the obvious suggestion that the

The Guardian Shield is leading them through Goblin Town and across the Deadly Sea. My old friend Dread Goblin Roberts will no doubt have a vessel for us to travel to sea. He owes me one for that time I saved his ass from that level 7 rape troll. Our heroes find the Dread Goblin Roberts at the local Goblin pub. Hi! Brutalitas! A beautiful Goblin B-hole would be like Beholder Blood Sausage if he hadn't bitch-blasted that burly bastard

- Two balls

The Goblinaut! I'll strike you in accord!

If you agree to help me defeat the Leviathan, I shall sail you to the Mystic Island!

Let's go!

And with that, the warriors embarked on what was to become the final voyage of the Goblinaut.

Редактор субтитров А.Семкин Корректор А.Егорова

HIGHSETS

Of the ships he's revenge for the legging king

As a storm from the mist that signals dead

Main wind

For the burning your god may be the last

On the edge of the bow where great winds crash

Serpent! Cast a shade underneath the strutters, why? Beware! The wildfire draws near! There ain't no room for fear on my shit! First the battle, and then the prize!

ATAGE!

Cannot fire to the sky!

Motor and slay!

Fire past this middle of the crime!

Mordor and slave

Final Voyager

I'm coming on, I'm coming on

By no more yet, oh

I'm coming on, I'm coming on

Spar from the depths

The sea of our general horizons

Beyond the sea quains

Skies of one thousand eyes, caught in its spell of the mind. A fault of illusion, a monster of multiple ways. This could be the end of size.

Riding in swelling flows, waters thrash and shout its own. Lighting crashes in the distant black, through a vortex we go, no turning back. Shaking demon, dumping ill wine, trigger, shielding, take her with me.

When veins are from women

SLEADLE!

SLEADLE!

SKILLS!

WON!

PROTECT!

TO NOW!

SLEADLE!

PRISTLE!

PRISTLE!

Final Voyager

"Final for your choice"

¡Dethlehem!

All right, well, why don't we get into our top three? I asked Buke last night, what should we do for a top three? He came back at me with Manowar. I was like, huh, I felt like we'd done that before, but I went and looked back through the episodes and I didn't see it anywhere. So if we did it before, hopefully we choose the same ones. If we don't, then we went back and thought about it in the last couple of months and we updated it. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure we didn't.

I think we're gonna match up one two three this was it until my number one oh see I know we're not gonna match up because I I know an album that you're gonna put on there and I'm gonna disown you for it really this is probably my number one probably because anything after like 1988 isn't gonna be on this list okay my whole list is shot then okay number one you won't guess what number one

What number three is? Number three. Louder Than Hell. Okay. Okay. Dude, the definition of Man of War songs, Brotherhood, you know, that fighting spirit, that will to carry on. Sure. Comes through more than anything on this album. You know, some of their best songs are Courage. Yeah. Number one, King. Mm-hmm. They're good songs, and it's a good album. I'm not knocking that it's a good album. It's just not top three. Number two, this has to be on your list.

Number One, Sign of the Hammer. It is on my list. I listened to this on vinyl again the other day. And I'm not going to take you with Thunder, but it's an amazing album. Pretty much start to finish. Every single song on there is great. And since I only really got into metal in 2000, you know, 99, 2000, my first introduction to Man of War, after George had handed me all these CDs and said, hey, check these out, was 2002. It seems like it was 2001.

I know you're shaking your head. But one of my top three metal songs ever, Swords in the Wind, is off of Manowar's Warriors of the World. And I know, I know to a lot of people this is a cheesy album with... I like that song too. And there are some songs out there I like. But again, not top three. But I mean, I'm not knocking your choices. I know you're not. You know, you came into Manowar in a later era. I did. I did. And so that makes sense. And we saw Manowar, what, 2008?

2004, 2005 maybe? Something like that, yeah. That was the last time we saw them. It's been 10 years. Yeah. Damn. I don't think they've been around since. I'm sure they have. I don't think so. We would have been, or at least offered to go. Well, I don't know. All right, well. So, do your list, I'm going to ask you. All right. My number three, Sign of the Hammer. Oh, man, I thought that was your number one. No, it was really fighting for number two. Okay. Some of my favorite songs are on here. I mean, Mountains,

Thor, the Powerhead, Sign of the Hammer, The Oath, All Men Play on 10. I love all these songs. Give a little background. You and Manowar, for the longest time, Manowar was your band. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for quite a while. But, you know, at some point, probably after Warriors of the World, they really... I topped out after that. Yeah. I liked what they did up until that point. After that, I just kind of was like, oh, this album sounds kind of the same-ish.

really, you know, interesting. So I just sort of lost interest after that. But... Yeah, all those songs have like that, Warriors of the World, like, we're warriors of the world. Like that one song where it's like, I quit my job today. Yeah. It's like the same... It's just recycled. Yes, recycled. Yes, recycled. It is. And it's unfortunate. Like, I already have these songs. I bought them three albums ago. But anyway, my number two, Hail, Hail to England. Probably my most least listened Manowar album. Ugh.

Every song on here. One of my, another one of my, see, I don't have a top three. I have three runner up number ones. All these albums are my favorite Manowar albums. Blood of My Enemies is just fucking righteous. That is just. I love seeing the excitement. Each dawn I die. Hello. Kill with power. Okay. Cheesy title. Good song. The title track. Hail to England. Fucking brilliant. Army of Immortals. One of the first songs.

to talk about how awesome their fans are. One of the only ones I still like. Black Arrows, instrumental piece, Bridge of Death. Classic. Can't go wrong. Number one. Where's he going? Where's he going? The first one? Battle Hymns? I don't know. Kings of Metal? A lot of people like Kings of Metal. No. Fuck off. You're wrong. Fighting the World. Oh, yes.

I heard them on Metal Shop. They played like Blow Your Speakers, I think it was. And I was like, what is that? And I got the cassette and I fucking loved it. I mean, this album has my all-time number one Manowar song, Black Wind, Fire and Steel. That song just cha-ching, nips hard, goose bumps, tears in my eyes, you know. Still the only band today that I can put on and they're the fist instantly.

and you're just pounding your fist along to it yeah and you know okay black wind fire and steel number one man or song of all time defender you know or as i like to call it dark avenger part two um you know a classic song you gotta love that song holy war fighting the world carry on violence and bloodshed i mean this album's just so awesome so yes that is my number one fighting the world did it live up to your

expectations. It did. Now, did you, you know, Man of War, ever since, you know, their first promo pictures with the loincloths and stuff, has, maybe righteously so, had a load of crap. Oh, yeah, they get a lot of crap for that. They do. Did you ever get any crap for being a Man of War fan? Because of that? Oh, yes. Really? People will be like, hey, you're like guys in loincloths. I'm like, that beats the stupid motherfuckers that dress up that you listen to, and they're fucking stupid.

I'd rather wear a loincloth than, you know, some sort of latest fashion. If I could rock a loincloth, I would. But I'm not Manowar, I'm not Ted Nugent. I don't, I can't pull it off. You're wearing one right now. That's why you're sick, because you're so damn breezy all the time. But you say Manowar changed from the 80s to the 90s, of course, to where they're at right now.

What do you attribute that to? Well, one of the things is that after Kings of Metal, Ross the Boss left the band. Sounds like that's the name of a guy who only has, like, films porn with, like, six girls at a time. Yeah. Ross the Boss just slays them all. Yeah, so after Ross the Boss left the band, the sound just kind of changed. You know, they got David Shankle on there for Triumph of Steel, and then by the time Louder Than Hell came out, which seemed like an eternity, we had Carl Logan.

And Carl Logan's cool. He kind of brings his own sound to the band. Seems like a cool guy. But band members change and so does the sound. Was there any question if Warriors of the World would ever come out? Because that was like, what, 96 to 2002 or so? Yeah, no. By that point, it was like, well, maybe they're just gone. In the mid-late 90s, a lot of bands were gone by then. We thought nothing was ever going to come out again after Kings of Metal. It seemed like a long time ago.

In retrospect, now that I'm older in time, passes differently. It might not have been that long, but it felt. Now, gone again, you mean just move to Germany and continue to play Bigfoot? Well, you know, back then we didn't have the internet, so we had no idea what was going on with the band. It's like, are they broken up? We don't know. That was the biggest problem we had was like, we don't know. Are they around? Are they not? We don't know. How's it going to hit you when one of those guys pass? I know one of the guys. Well, Scott Columbus already did, and that hurt like a mother. So, yeah.

Like Joey or Eric were to go? I don't even know. Man, we may have to take a couple weeks off the pod. Yeah. Either that or just like the Manowar special. Yes, where we have music beds of Manowar. Yeah. So I want to jump over a few things and go straight to our classic for this week. Yes. Reason being, and I'm going to go ahead and do mine first, Battle Hymns by Manowar is my classic for this week. Yes. I like it.

I was like, you know, we're going to take Battle Hymns and give it its own separate piece. Came out in 1982. It's older than dirt. And I'm referencing the original version, not the re-recorded bullshit. If you go to the store and buy it right now, you're buying the remastered? I mean, you can tell by looking at the cover. So I haven't been to a store to buy music other than vinyl in quite a long time. So I don't know what you'd actually find there. But Battle Hymns,

Being their first album, being that it came out in 1982, for the most part, it had a drastically different sound. It was almost still 70s, kind of. Songs like Death Tone and Metal Days and Fast Taker and Shellshock, pretty much the first side of the album. Not as metal. I mean, it's metal, but it's not as ferociously metal as later material. It just had a, I don't know, maybe it's the production. Maybe that's why they re-recorded it. But I liked that sound. But it just sounded older.

What was their breakout? Song? Album what? The song. Do you remember? Well, I don't know. I didn't know them before. Okay. Before Fighting the World. But Battle Hymns, the second side, first of all. This is where the magic happens. This is where the magic happens for me. I like the first side. But the second side, side B, track one, Manowar. It's the song they open every show with. And it's, weee, headlights on, goosebumps. Makes me tear up a little bit. Love that song. Yep, that was awesome. And then the first song,

That song, oh my god, that gives me goosebumps.

That song is the epitome of epic. Yes. I will admit, I have not listened to the album enough. But because you said that, I'm going to listen to it again. Excellent. It's worth definitely checking out. I know, you know, all the fans, the ladies love him. Does Joey rank on the list of greatest bass players in metal? It's a good question. He's flamboyant. And he certainly is capable. He does, his fingers fly across that fretboard. But I bet you on any list of greatest bass players in metal, he wouldn't make it. He might make my list.

But he probably doesn't get the respect he deserves there

Is that again partly because it's because of Manowar?

Yeah, probably because people think Manowar's cheesy

Yeah, that must be hard, because you know

You and I have been to hundreds of shows

This is the honest truth

Aside from the occasional shirt I wear

Do you see people wearing Manowar?

No!

Occasionally

I can't remember the last time I saw somebody wearing Manowar

And I think that cheesiness hangs with them

Sure

Even people who aren't metalheads

They use that image on like reddit memes and stuff like that. Hey, manowar. Yeah, well fuck them. Yeah, my manowar kills My classic is actually when we saw exhumed last weekend, I started going back to try and find um, because they were talking to you. You said they're one of the early gore metal. I mean, sorry grindcore bands with the gore the heavier death metal stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to go back and try and find

Earlier Death Metal albums, 90s material, that was more akin to my liking, where you could understand what the people were saying a little bit more, but still heavy. Almost like modern technical death metal is now. A lot of modern technical death metal, I love it. Well, death? Yeah, exactly. This band, in doing a lot of research and listening to them pretty much almost exclusively for the past week, the consensus is they're generally overlooked, surprisingly, from a lot of people.

This is the band, and their 1998 release, this is the band Rune Magic. Okay. And their band, The Supreme Force of Eternity. Okay. Came out in 98, but they had released an album in 92 and put out some bootlegs and stuff that the fans had put out. But for the time, to try and put it with something now, it's classic heavy technical death metal. Yeah. It's awesome. Right on. It's awesome. Have you heard of these guys?

I have heard of them. I didn't think they were technical death metal though. So I'm, it's obviously been a while since I've heard them. Yeah. Check them out, please. Yeah, check it out. The Supreme Force of Eternity is this one. Right on. They may have evolved into that later as the years went on because they are still active recently. Okay. But this is what they found was then. It's funny how our styles really do come through with what we listen to every week. Yeah. FYI, things aren't classic until they're 20 years old. I know.

I know, but I wanted to try and piggyback off the Exume thing.

Yeah.

Because we're a couple years away from that now.

Okay.

All right.

So what are you listening to this week?

I found these guys also, when I knew we were doing Manowar, I wanted something epic.

And we all know I love power metal.

And I'm with one of the power metal bands I have been listening to recently.

And, you know, sticking with the whole cheesiness factor of it.

This is the 2005 release from the band Iron Mask. And the album Hordes of the Brave. This is power metal, but this is power metal with a guitarist who has licks that'll melt your fucking face off. I recommend you check out the first track, Holy War. And again, this is modern power metal with that added layer of, you know, crazy guitar work. Right on. Have you heard these guys? Yeah, I've heard of them. All right.

Well, by now, Will's got to be going, I thought you were going to talk about Yesterday's Saints. Well, as it happens, before he even asked us to talk about them, they were my band for what I'm listening to this week. Wow. Their album, Generation of Vipers, their first album, came out this week. I saw it among the list of new releases, and I said, hmm, what's this? And it's funny because I thought it was the band Generation of Vipers, which is a completely different band. And I was like, oh, no, it's okay, I don't need that. Then I was like, wait, Yesterday's Saints is

is the name of the band. I don't know them. So I gave it a listen and I was like, damn, it was pretty good stuff. What would you call their style? I, when I, when I, when I mentioned it to you, I was like, some of the vocals are kind of death metal, but some of them are, some of it sounds kind of like nevermore. It's like, it's a really cool combination of like heavier and not quite as heavy styles. It has harsher vocals than nevermore does, but they go into the clean vocals. The clean vocals at times, I was kind of like nevermore, kind of like Queensryche.

I was like, huh, interesting. But when Will came out here a month ago or two and said, hey, you guys, what local DC bands you listen to, we're like, nothing really. I'm surprised we haven't heard these guys now because they're awesome. Yeah, they're right in our backyard in DC. And you know, the drummer is former drummer of Pentagram. I looked that up. He played on one of the live albums. Yeah. Well, as it happens, I spoke to singer Matt earlier today and they are going to be our band of the week next episode.

And we're gonna have somebody from the band either on a call or in the studio with us. They're gonna see what they can put together. Badass! So... Bring them in! Yeah, you can check out Yesterday's Saints. They're on Spotify, right? Yes, they are. You can check them out on Spotify if you want to give them a listen. They're on Bandcamp. You can pick up the album there, Generation of Vipers. You can also get their 2011 demo there. It's a self-titled demo. Also good. I recommend it. So check these guys out and come back next time when we will.

We'll have some music from them and hopefully somebody from the band that we're gonna talk to. Surprise! Man, that's awesome! That's awesome! I kept that one in my pocket until just now. I didn't tell them about it. Man, now we really gotta be like, man, we're sorry. Yeah, we've been in DC music scene for years. Yeah, we just won't tell them that. Hopefully they won't listen to this episode. Cool, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, that'll be fun. In fact, he said that their bass player is a home brewer.

Maybe we can talk some beer. Oh, that's good with that. Yeah, I told him. I was like, hey, you know, we had Will on here a couple episodes ago. He brought us beer. So, you know, if you want to, we can make a... And Will brought some rare beer. So, that's a pretty high, you know... Yeah, a benchmark. Yeah. But either way, whether they come in, whether they call in, whether they bring beer or we just have beer on hand, sounds like it'll be a good time. And I wanted to say also, stay tuned to the end of this episode.

I'm going to be talking to Sean Rourke of NHL.com.

You might remember earlier in last year when we talked to Brian Slagle of Metal Blade,

he does a podcast called Metal Misconduct.

And his partner on that show is Sean.

And Sean's agreed to come on to me to talk metal.

He's going to come on to you?

I didn't say that.

Sean has agreed to come.

Is he like bat his eyes at you and be like, hey, sexy man? Sean has agreed to come on and talk to me about metal, about some hockey, and us teams are approaching a trade deadline. So if you like metal, but you don't like hockey, maybe tap out after midway through the interview. All right. Well, we'll tag that on the end of this episode for you to check that out. Here we are at the end of the episode. But before we go, we'd like you to know that

You can check us out on iTunes, Facebook, Twitter. I'm Disciple OV Metal. I'm at Opeth Fan. You can get a hold of either of us at MetalheadsPod. We're on Stitcher. Check out the website, wearemetalheads.com. And if you go on iTunes, just, you know, leave us a comment. We've gotten a few nice comments on there. We'd like to see more. Remember the thing about me needing validation from the fans. Please. I want to try that drug. So, please, leave us some comments or shoot us an email. You know, good stuff, bad stuff.

Whatever you want to say, just get a hold of us. Just let us know you're out there. Yeah. You know, we would do this show if one person listened, but just let us know you're out there. Hell, even if you say, hey, George, I'm listening to this. Okay, cool. Yeah, whatever you want to talk about. Yeah, whatever you want to talk about. If you want me to be like, hey, George, you know, why don't my rutabagas grow properly? Well, I can look that up for you. Yeah, we can look it up and we'll get back to you next week. Exactly. And who knows, maybe our friend joining us from... Yesterday's Saints. Yesterday's Saints.

Well, maybe he's a gardener. You never know. I hesitate to consider what he might be growing. All right, we are out of here. But before we go, we're going to play you another song from the band Dethlehem. Make sure to check these guys out. Like I said, check them out on Bandcamp. You can pay whatever you want for the album. But, you know, be nice if you throw them a couple bucks. Here we go with the song Shadow Remnants of the Guardian Shield. See ya. Peace.

Дево

The key to the tower lies within the kindness

Surrounded by the dark room

Oh, kindness

Garnas

The torment guides me

In the heart of madness you will find

The artifact you'll see

I am here

Always nice

DROPORTION!

The path becomes undone

Shapes transform inside

The ancient shield is trashed white

The walls whisper into the waves

Tear back from what you came

A way opens to reveal the past With a bow, still to the truth And not show past Never takes this watching for a time To judge the ones who stay The audience here always lies

The treasured shield is in our sight

Is the time

Not full and pure may carry

The weight of the teeth

And the voices of my heart

Will speak without number

You will overcome your door.

The statues crack and move, overwhelming force on related cars, to sure might all perish, perish, and a slavery, eternal champion, immortalized insane,

Ago,

The lights in a battlefield of burning lights

Control the force of the fire The rage could mount armor! Reflag! Magic! Rebound! Advance! Break them down by the rodent! Fight fire with fire! A full run reveals all weakness!

I am so

Thanks for

I can't

Don't dispose my slime The legend we've been gained Fight the sun outside The giant chill ensues tonight

It's hard tonight

It's fucking up tonight!

Hey everyone, this is George again.

I'm getting ready to play you that interview that Buke did with Sean Rourke of NHL.com.

Before we get into that, I just wanted to reiterate what Buke mentioned earlier,

which is while Sean is a metalhead, he and Buke really kind of veer off for like an hour of straight hockey talk,

which for hockey fans like us, that's cool.

But I just wanted to let you know that it's like an hour and a half interview.

About an hour of it is straight hockey talk.

So if you don't want to listen to the whole thing, if you're not a hockey fan, then just wanted to give you a heads up. But it's a pretty interesting interview. So stick around. Check it out. Here you go. Okay, this is Buke from the Metalheads podcast, and I'm joined here with Sean Roark of NHL.com. What's going on today, brother? Hey, man, how are you? I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for joining me on Grammy Sunday. I'm going crazy on the Grammys here. Exactly. I brought you on to discuss who do we have as our album of the year.

in our pop song, Gag Me Now. Oh, you don't want to talk about Madonna for a couple hours or what? Yeah, come on, brother. I don't know about you, but I don't know what the hell is going on in the pop world now. I'll tell you a good metal Madonna story. You want to hear a good metal Madonna story? Lay it on me, brother. So I met Monty Pittman. I don't know if you know who Monty is. He used to play for Prong a little bit. Yep. And he's going to be playing for Ministry on their tour. They're going to Australia. Okay.

Guitar Lessons.

Yes.

And he taught Madonna how to play that Pantera song that she played live on stage once.

And she wanted to keep taking lessons.

So she said, why don't you be my guitarist?

So Monty Pittman, who is one of my favorite metal guitarists, plays guitar for her whenever she goes on tour now.

I did not see the Grammys tonight.

I don't know if he was up there with her tonight.

But there's your metal Madonna link.

God, how crazy is that?

And maybe because she's bigger than any of our artists we listen to, that'll probably draw some viewers to our way. But for those who are just joining us now and listening to this podcast later, earlier, a couple months back, Sean, we spoke to your partner, Brian Slagle. And at that time, you know, he told us that he does a little radio show with you called Metal Misconduct. You want to talk a little bit about that and how you got hooked up with him? Sure. So we've been doing Metal Misconduct. I think this is our fourth year now.

It's a once a month podcast. We do it the first Saturday of every month at 10 o'clock Eastern on hard radio. And then it's on demand on iTunes. And the reason Brian and I got hooked up was many moons ago, right around the Vancouver Olympics, I had a friend I worked with. I work at the NHL. I work for their website. And I had a friend who worked there who had been involved in minor league hockey and had met Brian through that. Brian's a huge hockey fan. And he said,

My friend Brian, I know what kind of music you listen to, and Brian's big in the metal world. And right away, I was like, he works for Metal Blade Records, and I had grown up on old school Metal Blade Records, the mentors and things like that. And I was like, oh, I'd love to meet Brian. And we sat down and we talked, and we started to form a friendship and a relationship. And I said to him one day, I said, you know, we have very similar tastes. You're very passionate about music, but almost seem more passionate about your hobby, which is

and I know a lot about hockey and I seem to be more passionate about music.

We should kind of bring those two worlds together and do a podcast where music and sports meet.

And mainly hockey, like I said, because Brian's a huge hockey fan.

And that's what we did.

We called it Metal Misconduct and we were off and running.

And if memory serves me right, the first guest we ever had was Drew Stafford of the Buffalo Sabres, who's a huge, huge metalhead.

And I was out in, uh, Brian's in LA and I'm in New York and I had gone out there to talk about it. And, uh, we called, uh, Drew from out there and he just blew us away with how much stuff he knew. And, uh, we've been off and running then. I think we've talked to almost every metal head in, uh, in hockey circles. That's awesome. And, uh, you, we've expanded to some comedy. We've expanded to some, we do some music guys, uh, talking about sports and, um, you know, and then we've gone on to other things. We've had Randy Johnson.

on. There's so many cool people. It's been such a great, great opportunity. And the fans have been jumping on, loving it, right? Yeah, no, it's been fantastic. I mean, because it's such a cliche, but it's so true. Like, the two things I wanted to do when I grew up was be a professional athlete and be a rock star. Yeah. And, you know, when you talk to the athletes, you know, like, Drew Stafford's like, I have no problem playing in front of 20,000 people. I couldn't imagine doing what musicians do where they stand in front of, you know,

500 people in the club and play. And then you talk to a guy like, I'm pretty good friends with Matt DeFreeze who's played bass for Unearthed and was in Chimera originally as a rhythm guitarist. And he's like, playing music is no problem. He's good friends with Drew. He's like, I can't imagine what Drew does on an every other night basis. So I think everybody has those two dreams in them. And even when you reach one, sometimes you want the other one even more.

Yeah, but now it's funny you say that. I also wanted you on here because aside from the Metalheads podcast that I do, I do a website called Talk to Red where we focus on Washington Capitals. I have had a chance to talk to many Capitals on this side and my favorite band is Opeth. Everybody knows that who listens to our podcast and I guess the metal fan in me, I've had Marcus Johansson, I've pulled him aside and Nick Backstrom. One of the first things I ask him is, hey, have you heard of Opeth?

I guess maybe the stupid guy in me thinks hey small country maybe they've heard of Opeth they look at me like I have the black death and they quickly make an exit but I'm still trying to find out that fan but I know you've had him on the show many times you have spoke with Dan Boyle I remember watching an NHL.com interview with him and they were talking about him and the music he controls in the locker room and he came right out and said yeah Lamb of God and all these other metal bands I've instantly been a fan of him ever since

Yeah, we had him on when he was still in San Jose. He used to have a radio show that he did. It was like a classic heavy metal rock show. And he had given that up. But he's a huge Metal Blade fan. He's always in the locker room wearing Metal Blade t-shirts and stuff like that. So we had him on. And his big band is Faith No More. He loves Faith No More. And they're coming back. And they are coming back. But, you know, he likes a lot of stuff that goes off of that. And a really cool guy.

And, you know, really interesting. We've had on, I'm trying to think of who else, from the hockey world. I know I'm really excited. Hopefully this month we're going to have on Yanni Ninema. I don't know if you've heard of Yanni. Yanni played in Edmonton, was an all-star one year in Edmonton, and played a couple other places. He played on the island for a year, I think. And then he went back to Finland. He's been back there playing. Now he's retired. He's back in the States. He's playing.

He's playing in the world's longest hockey game, which is going on right now in Edmonton. It's a 10-day straight hockey game. I saw you tweeting about that. Is it the same guys that just keep doing line changes? Yeah, it's 40 guys, and they play, I think it's four-hour shifts. And then the guy who's doing it, he's the eye doctor for the Oilers. He has a big rural place in somewhere.

in Alberta, outside of Edmonton.

And he built, you got to see the pictures, man.

He built like this huge rink in his backyard.

And he built this huge facility that goes along with it.

Because in order to set the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest game where the game is being played.

Wow.

So for 10 days, they have to stay there.

So in order to make it easier, he built like this bunkhouse with like showers and massage tables and beds and TVs and the whole thing.

So guys can stay there, do a little bit of work, get a little bit of sleep, and then they play. I think it's four or six-hour shifts. And the kicker is, like, that wouldn't be hard enough for me. It's like minus 20 there right now. That's insane. So, you know, God bless those guys. They're raising money for cancer research and to get something for one of the Edmonton hospitals up there, some sort of machine for that. And so Yanni, who's played in the NHL, you know, he came back and he told those guys, he said, this is going to be one of the greatest games I've ever played in.

We're hoping to get him before he comes back because that dude is a serious, serious metalhead. I remember when he made the All-Star team, I was covering that All-Star game, and he was a younger guy, and he went in the room and he put in, it might have even been mixtapes then, or he might have had a CD with all his favorites on it, and he went into the stereo and he put it on, and he's in there with a bunch of superstars, and immediately somebody hit eject and like, what are you doing?

and they were like, "Well, who was on the tape?" And he's like, "Well, you know, it was like Cradle of Filth. It was like Mayhem. It was this band. It was that band." And those guys had no idea what they're talking about. And I weaseled my way right to the front and I'm like, "Really? Which Cradle of Filth song was this one?" And when he walked away, all the Edmonton guys came up to me and they're all like, "You know what he's talking about?" And I'm like, "Yeah." And they're like, "Can you spell this bit?" Because they're all going to put it in their story.

thought it was great, but nobody knew who any of those bands were. So my partner I normally do this show with, he's older than me. I mention that because here I am at 32. George, my partner, has grew up in the metal scene. He's seen Metallica in every decade. What was your first introduction to metal? Okay, so first of all, I'm ancient like George.

That's why I got you on, brother. You can add some real depth. Yeah. I'm in that same wheelhouse, 46. And, you know, obviously, like my first couple of heavier albums, I remember, you know, I got Kiss Love Gun at Christmas one year and I got a couple ACDC albums. But the first album that I really found on my own off of that and really kind of sent me down the road that I've kind of tried to do was I got you on, brother.

music wise was um metal heart by accept oh wow still one of my favorite albums ever

yeah and uh when i was uh that was i was probably i want to say i was 14 and then like two years later they

came and then i grew up in rhode island and uh almost every concert in rhode island was at the

providence civic center that i could go to as an underage kid then there was also lupos and uh jr's fast lane

and you'd hear all these bands coming in that you couldn't go to. But there was an amusement park there that's been since closed. It's called Rocky Point. Okay. And Accept played there. And I went to see that show. I think it was the second show I had ever seen. I had seen Billy Squire in Nazareth was my first concert. Wow. Love Billy Squire. Great guitarist. Yes. I know he got killed in the MTV age because of what he tried to do with his videos. But that dude could play some guitar. And the concert was phenomenal. It was the Don't Say No.

So I went to go see Accept. It was that you paid to get into the park and they played for free. And I saw Udo Dirk Schneider. You've seen him. He's about 5'6", 5'7", in fatigues, big fat chest. And he just destroyed the place. I bet. And I was hooked after that. And then it was D.O. and Judas Priest together and all these other bands.

to the clubs, I did a lot of that, and just kind of went from there. Now, George will be the first to say he can't stand except vocal work. What do you think, obviously you're a fan, you said, what do you think about the changes they've had with vocals, with Mark now singing for them? You know, look, Udo's so distinct, you know, and it's like any of those great bands, you know, even Black Sabbath went through all those changes vocally, and there's people that are

"I can't listen to this era," for me, "accept" is more just the sound. It's that Teutonic metal. You hear it now from other bands and you're like, "That's part of that whole tree." You talk about coaching trees in sports. There's that Teutonic metal tree and to me, "accepts the root of it," and it's more the sound. Nobody's going to approach Udo ever.

And you look at their last couple albums, Stalingrad and Blind Rage, have had a lot of critical success in the metal world. Yeah, no, and I loved their last couple albums, and Udo's doing some stuff of his own, which I still like, and I'm not of those camps where you have to pick one or the other, because for me, Accept was a band first and foremost, and it was a band that I loved, and I think they've stayed true to their sound. Vocally, they've changed, because you have to

you just can't you can't replicate that sound and I don't know that you would want to but organically they're very similar to the band that put out Fast as a Shark and London Leather Boys and you know whatever else you want to talk and then that whole Metal Heart album for some reason I dug it up the other day and I listened to it from front to back still a great album metal heart Midnight Mover up to the limit

I don't know if you can see but this ain't video for people listening

but I'm really recently getting into vinyl records over here

and I'm trying to go back and get all these classic metal vinyl albums to get

so you know one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on is that

I know you work for NHL but as hockey fans and even as metal fans

it's that you know NFL is the big dogs

MLB is bigger than hockey. But the passionate hockey fans are diehard. The passionate metal fans are diehard. Is that something that attracted you to metal back in the 80s and so when you started listening to it? Yeah, to a degree. But you know what? When I think back about it, for me, that sweet spot would have been like 84. I was 16. I went away to college. I'm doing my math wrong.

Yeah, I went away to college in 86. Yeah, no, that's right. And so in that area, but metal was so much bigger. And maybe it was just, you know, where I grew up in Rhode Island. I mean, it was such a big thing. You know, every show, like I said, at the Civic Center was sold out anytime anybody big came in. And, you know, the leather and the chains and everything else was in. And I went to an all boys Catholic school for high school.

So that wasn't really an option for me. More straight laced, no long hair, none of that. So that way it was a little bit of rebellion there. But now it's not. Now it's in the fringes. Sure, that's an attraction. I think everything I like is a little bit that way. Maybe because I'm not mainstream and all the guys in my office are always giving me stick.

A, about the bands that I like. There's one guy in my office who actually keeps a list of all the bands I mention on Twitter or in the office. And I think he goes and looks them up later to make sure that they're really true and I'm just not making them up. But, you know, and then hockey's that way. You know, again, where I grew up, it was the biggest thing in the world, you know, right outside of Boston. And we had a great hockey team at my high school. And, you know, it was all I ever knew. We watched it all the time.

and we played all the time.

And then I moved to New Jersey when I was 21 and, you know,

working the newspaper business and there was no hockey to cover.

I mean, the Devils were here, but there was no high school hockey.

There was no college hockey.

And I couldn't understand it.

And my other passion is soccer.

And in America, soccer is the same way.

Like you just, you're on the fringes.

And to me, what's attractive about that is, you know, right away, like, look,

We've been talking for 10 minutes. But it's an instant connection. Because there's something there. We could talk about football and I wouldn't know anything about you. Same way. Because I can talk to anybody about football. But once you get past that superficial, hey, I like this and then I like that, there's almost these calling cards where you pass the test and then you're like, all right, this dude, he's in the trenches with me.

I'm sure he's seen something that I've seen or he likes something that I like. And we have that common bond that we can work off. It doesn't always work sometimes. You go down that road and you talk to a guy for 20 minutes. And then he says something completely stupid and you're like, oh my God. It's that opening salvo where you know that you're going to be on the same wavelength. Yeah, it's funny you say that because that's what George and I talked about this past week on the podcast is that I took my mom,

years back, about six, seven years ago now, to a Bon Jovi show here in D.C. And it always stuck with me. One, because he put on a great show. No. Because, you know, nobody outside, even though it's an older crowd, nobody was wearing a band shirt. Nobody was really talking outside of the group they were with or the person that they came to the show with. And last weekend, George and I saw Napalm Death, Exhumed, Iron Reagan, Black Crown Initiate,

And I mention that because consistently, no matter whatever show it is, Sean, you know that you can see other guys wearing whatever shirt. And I might not have met you until that time. But instantly, it's that instant brotherhood that, hey, this guy's wearing whatever. This guy's wearing a Dio shirt. There's that instant connection. That's that instant brotherhood that you see with metal.

Yeah, no, for sure. And, you know, I go because I'm an older guy now. And like I said, there's not too many guys in my office. And I'm a transplant here. So, you know, I don't have a huge metal community here. So I go to a lot of shows by myself in New York City or here. We got a club right near here in Sayerville that gets a lot of good shows. And I'll go to a ton of shows by myself. And people will be like, how can you do that? And I'll be like, dude, within 10 minutes.

I found somebody to talk to, to have a beer with, whatever. And I'll tell you a great short story. So there's this band. I was at a Clutch show. Clutch is one of my favorite bands. They've always been one of the bands that I've never given them their fair props. And I know that they're huge in the D.C. area here. Oh, yeah, no, for sure. That's where they're at. Funny story, we were in

in DC for the outdoor game on New Year's Eve. My son came down, my son's 10, and my wife and my daughter, they all came down. My son went to the game and stuff. They were there on New Year's Eve. Normally, the league has a big party, and they did this year, and Billy Idol was there. I sent my wife to the party with her girlfriend who was watching

who was watching my son at the game. Okay. And, but that same night, uh, clutch was playing at the nine 30 club. Yeah. It was their hometown show. And I was like, I tried everything I could think of. I'm like, how can I get to go to this show? Like, can I get my wife to come back at like 1130? I could sneak out. No way. Like I, and it broke my heart. Cause I've seen them like, uh, I would say eight times.

All the way from that first album, which was so heavy. That was a mean, heavy album. I was probably 23, 24 when it came out. It came out right around the same time as that first Korn album. Both of them out to their last tour. Now they're much more bluesy. They're still heavy, but it's a different kind. They're very musical now.

There's a lot of stuff going on with it. So I'm at this clutch show and it was at Toad's Place in Connecticut. And I'm sitting there and I'm in a shirt and I think I'm the only one that has the shirt on and I'm trying to remember the name of the band now. But it was a long sleeve black shirt. And all of a sudden I look and the guy next to me has the same exact shirt on.

And you know what? I wore an acid bath shirt to the barbecue a couple months back, back in August or so. I thought, I'm going to be the only one here wearing this acid bath when the kite string pops. So I'm around the corner, the guy's wearing the same freaking shirt. And we just started talking, and it was awesome. He was like, I can't believe you have this shirt on. And he's like, did you get it through the mail? And I'm like, no. I was there a couple of weeks ago. They played in New York City. They played in Brooklyn.

And he's like, get out of here. He goes, I don't think anybody had ever seen him. And it's really upsetting me that I can't think of the band now. I'm having one of those senior. It's okay. But it was unbelievable. So let me, I want to put your, you know, before we get much longer, I want to put your Twitter out there. You are at S-R-O-A-R-K-E underscore NHL. Again, that's at S-R-O-A-R-K-E underscore NHL.

N-H-L.

Listeners, give Sean a follow here and check him out.

He's tweeting about this longest hockey game going on.

He's always tweeting about hockey.

He's always tweeting about metal.

Sean, George and I a couple weeks ago just did our best of year list from last year.

Last year ended up coming on pretty strong.

Was there anything that captured you last year that was your album of the year?

Oh, that's a...

Sorry to put you on the spot. That's alright. I'm trying to think of what was last year. Because George, his album, I don't know how heavy you really go. George's album was Trypticon. That was his number one. His number two album was Tombs. Machine Head came in at number three. I went Primordial, Ghost Brigade, and then the Doom Band, Y.O.B. as my number three. Yeah, I really liked that Y.O.B. album.

And I've been into a lot more doom lately. So have I. I really, really enjoy it. So first of all, so I don't have a total senior moment, it was Hammers of Misfortune. Yes, okay. That's the band that I had the shirt of. And, you know, they never come across to New York. And they played a show with Gates of Slumber in Brooklyn at St. Vitus, which is a cool little club. And I was able to see them there.

So there's that.

Please know that us fans are eternally jealous of you, that you have that club close to you.

Because the bands I see playing there all the time, it's like, oh, O-Pess is playing there today.

Oh, Revocation's playing tomorrow.

Oh, Trypticon's playing the day after.

You know, just the lineup is consistently out of the park.

The other album that I really liked, and I don't know how many people heard it last year.

I don't know if it's my album of the year, but Brian has a band on his label called Kings of Asgard. Yeah, it was my number 20. Yeah, that Karg album was really good. I don't know that it was as good as their first album, but it was fantastic. So have you found over the years, Sean, that your style has really changed? Because I'll admit, black metal for me,

I've never been able to get into. The constant blast beats with the constant scratchy vocals have never been something I've been able to get into. But modern black metal, I'm able to get into it a little more. Have your tastes in metal changed over the years? Yeah, I think a little bit. I think it's gotten a little more... well, two things have happened. I've become a little more open in what I'll listen to.

It's not as pigeonholed as it once was. And I really like the stoner, dune, slow, drudgy stuff that I probably never could listen to before. Because look, let's be honest, I mean, part of the reason why anybody I think gets into metal is because of the inherent violence in it. That's right. I listen to it. That's right. The aggression. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you listen to it and you get all fired.

and look when I was younger I loved to go and go to a show and and you know mosh and bang around and you know I would tell people that when I was done like that was that I was it I was I was purged for a week you know whatever came along I could just let go because you know I got all my aggression out and I didn't have to get arrested to do it so you know for me that was for the longest time that's that's why I listened and and you know the testosterone and everything else and

Again, you know, now that I'm an ancient old man, I can't really do that anymore. And so for me, you know, it's more about the music and it's more about where I am in my life and not that I'm a stoner by any... But you just went that more chill. Yeah, and so now, like, you know, a lot of those bands are just, you know, what I find myself drawn towards. There's a band called Pilgrim,

They're out of Rhode Island. It's a three-piece doom band. It's fantastic. I listen to a lot of Electric Wizard, a lot of stuff like that. Obviously, Red Fang, and Fire, and bands like that. I find myself listening to a lot more of that. The one thing that I still have a lot of trouble getting into is the proggy instrument stuff. Even when I was a kid, Yes and ELO and bands like that, they were never for

me. There was a little too much going on. I'm a little more simplistic than that. You don't need a random guitar solo here. Odd stuff. Your partner, Brian Slagle with Metal Blade, I'm fascinated right now with in the whole music scene. Sean, it seems to see what was old is new again right now. Metal Blade has released Below.

Like Across the Dark River was an amazing Doom album last year. That is that they wear the Candlemas, you know, reference on their sleeve. Metal Blade just released the new Visigoth album, which is amazing already. I think what's old is new again, and it's great. Yeah, no, it's always going to be that way. And look, if I'm not mistaken, he put out the, well, that's how I got turned on to Hammer.

and that's kind of older type of stuff. He's put out a ton of doom lately, which is not really his thing. I guess it is, but that's not what he made his bones on. He's kind of a chameleon when it comes to that kind of music. I don't know if you've seen, he's got a band now, and I'm trying to think of the name of it. I think it's called

or something like that. It's Henry Rollins' old band. His backing band. And Scott Ian's playing with them. And they're putting out an album. And that's like, you know, the sound there is 15 years old. It's the old Mother Superior band. I don't know if you remember that. They would open as a band and then they would be Rollins'.

and Henry Rollins is one of my favorite people ever. And I've seen him in concert a number of times and I always loved that band. And Scott Ian did too and he basically brought them together to play his birthday party and they jammed and they did so well together that they're putting out an album and they're going out on tour. They're actually playing here next week again at St. Vitus.

There you go again with another great lineup.

Yeah, so, you know, he really is all over the place. And another old band, he has Floats Him and Jets Him on. Oh, we saw them last year. That was great. Yeah, so, and then, but he's still got the really heavy, you know, he's got Whitechapel on his label, really heavy, heavy bands. So he's kind of all over the place. You know, the thing that was probably, and you talk to him, of course, a lot more than we do, the thing that impressed me the most about talking to Brian is,

how in the metal world he's huge but the fact that one he took the time to talk to us but the passion that he still exudes like he's that guy you met at the metal show is was amazing to me yeah no for sure and i think you have to be that way look you're not going to be in this business and you're not going to be in the businesses we're in um to make a lot of money and and be famous and look i've

I've done what I've done for 25 years now. And I couldn't ever imagine it. And it's a lot of hard work and there's a lot of BS that goes with it. But there's a lot of great moments. And the only thing that keeps you in, there's a lot of people that I've done this with that have gone on and they've gone on to do other things. And they've pretty much reached the conclusion that, hey, this is a lot of fun, but it's not something I can do with the rest of my life because the rewards,

financially are not worth it are not good enough um and i haven't gotten there yet and you know that that passion um has to fuel you and i think it does you know with anybody that's good in any any business that they're in you know you can be you can it's the same thing with rock stars or hockey players you know you can be good at something there's a lot of people in this world that have the

and the skill to be a rock star. And they just don't have the will.

Wow, that's very true. That's a great point.

And they don't have the staying power. I mean, how many times have you seen a guy, you know, at 20 years old, you go to a club and you're like, wow, this dude, he's going to be something. And then, you know, he falls off the face of the earth. He just, he didn't have the stomach for it. You know, the riding and the vans and the, you know, all the crap that goes with that.

This band on earth I really like. And Ken Sousi, who plays guitar for them, he's a huge hockey fan. And they were in New York a couple of, like two years ago. And Matt, who I mentioned earlier, was playing bass for them. He was filling in. And so Matt had reached out to me. They were playing in New York City. And he's like, hey, we're in town. And I'm like, why don't you come by the office? I'll show you guys around, you know, whatever. And they came up and I showed them around.

and I had this print of Ray Bork and never been a Ray Bork fan. I had gotten it from somewhere. Ken's from Massachusetts and I'm like, "Hey, why don't you take this?" and he's like, "You gotta be kidding me, man." I'm like, "No, no, take it." So we went down, we took the subway down and we had this huge print of Ray Bork and we got to the club and he's like, "Hold on, I'm gonna put it away." And I expected him to go to like a tour bus and put it

and they were in a van. Like, this is a band that's been around. Probably one of the biggest bands in metal now. Yeah, and they've been around for 15 years, and they were doing, this was towards the end of their tour, and they had done the whole tour in a van, you know, with some beds in the back and whatever, and they're, you know, they're not young guys anymore, they're not old, but they've been at it for a while, and, you know, that's got to be hard, you know? I can't imagine it. And you're just like, you know, that's the passion,

that drives people. And it shows. When you see those guys play, it shows. They're never going through the motions. It doesn't matter what's happened. Every time I've seen them play, that's the way it's been. And I think that's why bands do well, because they have that ability to power through everything and realize that that's what they're there for.

You know, and it's funny you say that too. A lot of times, it doesn't make a difference how big the band is. As long as you have access to like a merch table or something where it's at these clubs that we go to, these bands will talk to you for hours if they have the time. They never seem out of touch. And we're getting into you with your hockey link here, but it's the same thing works with hockey players. So many hockey players with open practices or after games,

are still so down to earth that they're still talking to you too. And that's what I've liked about being a metal fan and a hockey fan. Yeah, no, and again, it's part of that cult. And I think, you know, the people that are involved in it understand even the people that have reached the pinnacle and are, you know, players or musicians. I mean, there's nothing without that personal link. You know, it's what keeps you coming back. And it's, you know, like you mentioned before, like you don't need that in football.

You know, everybody's gonna watch football every week because it doesn't matter.

Very true.

But you know, what's interesting about that is when I was a kid, baseball. Baseball was king. They're not anymore. They're three, maybe. Boxing, huge.

Yeah, UFC, yep.

Boxing's ten now, you know, like they're a fringe sport. And so all these sports that people think are unassailable, you never know, man. Like the wrong thing happens and

And down you go. I mean, for baseball, it was a bunch of work stoppages. It was the steroid era. It was just the being above everybody. Like just thinking that your business was unassailable, that it was bulletproof. And there's very few things in this world that are... And neither of the things that we talk about, hockey or metal music, are bulletproof. You have to invest the time. You have to spread the message.

But look, we're all in, I'm trying to think of the word that I want to say, we're all... I think, you know what, I think the words are in your mouth. I think us as metal fans, we're all in it together. Because I'm sure all of you and Brian have talked about this. You look at how many people download music and stuff like this. You look at how many people admire music today, pirate music. I've read facts repeatedly, and I've even seen Brian tweet this out, that metal fans consistently

still go out and buy music. They're buying vinyl. They're buying physical CDs. They're going on iTunes and not buying one single. They're buying the whole album. And I think us in metal and in hockey, it's that unity. Yeah, no, for sure. And, you know, it's any niche music, I think, for the most part, because country's the same way. Like, you know, I've heard a lot of people say that, you know, the country stores better numbers than anybody else because

their followers will support it because it's important to them.

I think we're all in a place where we want to spread that message.

What we love, we love so much.

There's a difference between being a casual fan of something and being a fanatic.

I think you could be a casual metal fan.

I can't personally imagine it because it's so extreme and it's so hard to kind of be in that world because you always get that funny look and you get the, you know, really you listen to that. What's wrong with you? Did you have a bad, you know, your parents still together? What's going on? But it's, you know, you're disciples and you're trying to spread the word to other people. And it's just for me, it's the same thing.

The reason that I've loved my job in hockey for so long is because I have to tell the stories about the things that make me so happy about the game and how important the game is to me and that it's always been. For me, that's always been the link to my dad and music will never be that because he's not very musical and obviously he grew up in a different generation than I did and he could never ever understand what I choose to listen to and why.

It's important to me. But since I've been six years old, that's been the conversation for me and my dad. That's awesome. It has been sports and specifically hockey and football. We had season tickets to the Patriots when I was a kid. And that was a really important time for us. But it's always been hockey. Even those tumultuous teenage years when you can't really talk to your old man because you're in your rebellion years, that three hours when we could sit down and watch a hockey

and you could talk about the game of hockey and almost use that as a fill-in for the things that you needed to talk about that were more important has been unbelievable. And now we're both older and it's still that link. Every time we get on the phone, it's, you know, did you see this game? What do you think about this guy? Blah, blah, blah. So, you know, those are the things that hockey's given me. And, you know, I want as many people in the world as possible to,

to get to experience that. And so that's why I choose to do what I do. Now, Sean, thanks for, that's great about you and your father. Let's talk about hockey here. For those who don't know, what's your role with NHL? What do you do for them? So what I do now, and it's been for the last year or so, I've moved from a writer, more of a, I've moved into more of an editor role than a writing role. I started out as a writer.

I was a beat writer for the Devils and the Rangers 20 years ago when they each won their cup. And then I worked for FoxSports.com when they launched for a while. And I've been at the league with their website for 15 years. Wow. Yeah, I know it's been a good run. And now I do basically what I do now. I'm the director of editorials. So I kind of plan the editorial calendar, assign,

figure out how we're going to cover big events and do a lot of stuff like that. I still do a little bit of writing here and there, which is, for as long as I can remember, has been my biggest passion. So I don't know that I'll ever give that up. But it's been an interesting transition into doing a lot more of kind of planning and figuring out how you're going to cover big events and doing some stuff like that.

So that's pretty much what I do now. Sean, with hockey always being that sport that's always tried to compete, how have you guys with the NHL tried to stay competitive in this ever-expanding social media and stuff? Well, you know, one of the things is we have a slight advantage because a lot of traditional media in the past 10 years has gone away from cover.

and covering the sport, sadly.

You know, the LA's had, you know, two of the last three Super Bowl champions.

I mean, Stanley Cup champions.

And they don't cover, the papers don't cover them full time.

You know, so we've been able to kind of step into that breach.

And, you know, we have a writer in every market.

Freelancers, for the most part, correspondents, you know, other than our staff guys who cover the local teams,

which would be Philly, the two New York teams, and Jersey. We have

correspondents in every market, and a lot of them are ex-newspaper guys that have

lost their jobs or gone on to do

other things and kind of do it on the side. So we have a presence in every market, and

anybody that's interested in any team can find all that information on

NHL.com. We've been from the top, from Gary Bettman

who's the commissioner, there's been a commitment to social media, to all the emerging ways of communicating to fans. Because the fans of hockey, they're very knowledgeable, they're very technically savvy. You're able to communicate with them on a number of levels. And we've kind of, you know, been at the vanguard of doing a lot of that stuff, whether it's social media or, you know, through Game Center and all the other initiatives we've had.

the app and everything else. So it's been an amazing ride to kind of see how that happens and how far we've come. But, you know, there's almost nothing that's off limits when, as a site, we're trying to communicate with the fans, you know, because we have a very unique challenge in that we draw the whole spectrum. We draw the dude that just wants to know when somebody's playing because they want to get tickets to go to their first game.

to the guy who's scraping our stats for advanced stats conversations. And we have to satisfy all those things. So, you know, our editorial goes from a very simple, you know, like during that winter classic that was in D.C., I did a number of stories with Duff Goldman, the baker who's on the Food Network. And look, I'm not going to be shy about it. Part of that's cross-pollination. Like we wanted to get some of his fans to be able to do that.

be like, hey, what's this thing? I'm going to tune in. I'm going to watch it. Because both of us know if I can get you to watch a hockey game, there's better than a 50% chance you're going to watch another one because it's the greatest thing you're ever going to see. By far. So, you know, we do that all the time. But then we also, we have guys that write very technical. You know, we have a guy in Vancouver, our correspondent in Vancouver runs a goalie magazine. That's his other gig. So every Thursday, I have him do a goalie column. It's called Unmasked. And he gets in.

I was a goalie growing up and he gets into things that even I don't understand. And I know it's not for everybody, but I put it on the site because I know there's a portion of our readership that just love it. And, you know, we want to provide for everybody. We want to provide for that guy that's coming in for the first time or that lady that's coming in for the first time and saying, hey, I really want to check this out. So you can't be all like, you know, advanced stats and Corsi and all this, you know, because you're going to lose those people. Yeah, Corsi Fenwick, my head's going to blow up.

Yeah, so we need to walk a very fine line. But you also don't want to be like, this is the blue line and this is offsides. Then the dude that's been a fan for 25 years and is coming because he wants to read something a little more in depth is like, this is for, you know, training wheels. So that's been a really interesting thing to kind of negotiate.

Yeah, Sean, you just, you said at the start of that, you got correspondence that were, you know, me covering the Washington Capitals here, Adam Vingen is amazing. He knocks his pieces out of the park. You just said Adam or Neil Greenberg, or any of the guys we have here in Washington, or Alex Pruitt, they're always, you can always reach them. You can send them a tweet, and nine times out of ten, they're going to get back to you. Yep.

The hockey writers never seem like they're out of touch. And that's what I love about hockey, just like metal. Yeah, no, it's that sense of community, you know. And look, we've all, I like to think that we've all been very lucky to get where we are, no matter where that is, in the spectrum of covering professional hockey. I've been incredibly blessed. Every day when I think about it, you know, this is

all I've ever wanted to do and to get to close to 50 and to still be doing it.

I've been incredibly lucky and the reason is because of all the people that have come into my life and come before me and have given me opportunities.

I've made it very much a part of who I am that I want to do that for other people.

Perhaps the greatest thing that I've been able to do at NHL.com is start this program.

of correspondence. We started it about five years ago and we only had like maybe five markets, really big markets. You know, we had somebody in Boston and a couple of other. We had somebody in Chicago and Detroit. It was actually the same guy. Did both. You drive back and forth. Lived right in the middle. And we had a guy in L.A., Curtis Zupke, who's been with us the whole time. And then every year we've kind of added. We wanted to see if it would work.

and then we added a couple more. And what we ended up doing was we ended up getting away. You know, you asked how we compete in that market. What we ended up doing is we ended up getting away from using the Associated Press and doing our own game stories. Every game story on NHL.com is unique to NHL.com. I never knew that. You will not find it anywhere else. Every game story is uniquely written by somebody, you know, in that arena or if for some reason they're sick, we'll do it from the office. But they're all, we do

not use any AP copy at all. All our previews, all our game stories, and pretty much all of our editorial is written either through a correspondent or through one of our five or six staff writers. So the correspondent program, now I have, like I said, I have somebody in 25 buildings and we cover the other five. And to be able to give people that opportunity, and it runs all over the place. You know, it's from, you know, Adam,

is a younger guy breaking into the business. Our guy in Nashville, still in college, doing a great job. Wow, that's awesome. His name's Robbie Stanley, and he's doing a fantastic job. For a long time, we had a guy in Pittsburgh, Alan Robinson, who had worked for the AP and had left, was going to retire, and just wanted something on the side. To be able to do that for a guy like that was fantastic. To kind of give some of the guys that we've given an opportunity. You know what? Several of them have been hired to do other things.

And, you know, they call me up and they're like, hey, listen, I'm really sorry I had this opportunity. And I cut them right off and I'm like, good, go. Good, yeah, keep on moving up. And, you know, that's what I want to do. That's what people did for me and that's what I want to do. So, you know, that's been the most rewarding thing for me. But, Sean, again, I'm fighting the cold. How do you see the fans reacting? Do the fans like this interview?

and these writers that they can get to know and where it's not just an AP piece, where it's almost no personality attached with it.

Yeah, no, for sure. You want to be able to associate with somebody. I mean, I would imagine it's the same for you, but I grew up reading the newspapers and the guys that wrote the stories, they were almost as important as the stories that they were telling.

You got to know their voices and you got to know the way they wrote and you know some you liked and some you didn't and what's more fun than finding somebody that you don't like that writes and just you know reading them for that reason because you don't like them. I like it. Yep. And you just want to catch them making a stupid point so you can send off that email. You're such an idiot. I get these every day. I don't anymore because I don't write as much but you know.

I'll tell you a great story. I mean, I know a little bit, you get a lot of feedback. Before, there was a ton of email. When I worked back in the newspaper business, like I said, I covered the Devils and the Rangers, but I also did a lot of high school sports early on. And one day I was in the office and I got a letter and I opened it up. And when I opened it up, it was my story folded up like the guy had ripped it out of the newspaper. Oh, you excited him. And it was folded up. And when I unfolded it, there was a bunch of bird poop on it.

And all he did was he wrote on the top of the story, this is what I thought of your story. And I just sat at my desk and I laughed and laughed. How much work did that take? Like to put the story in the birdcage face up so the birdcage spot it, and take it out, fold it up, address it to me, and send it off. And, you know, everyone's like, aren't you mad? And I'm like, no. No. This is great. That's why I would frame it and hang it on the wall. Yeah. Like, yeah, no, people,

want to associate with the people that write and kind of have that comfort level.

And then, like you said, to be able to converse with them.

When you look on the web now, everybody's doing chats and all these kind of things where the access has never been as great as it is now into how the sausage is made.

And it's in both the things we're talking about.

You've never had much access into how music was made.

It just showed up one day and you're like, wow, this is amazing.

Now you've got guys showing their tricks of the trade through YouTube, doing tutorial videos and everything else. In our business, everybody's so open about what they do and how they do it. Guys are waiting to get on the plane and they're doing 15 question and answer type things. That's the way it has to be now. You can never go back to the clear divide between inside defense and outside defense.

Sean, that leads me to a great point. You here with a couple decades now, one as a fan of the sport, but now working for NHL.com, a lot of the old timers may hate the, I do air quotes, the advanced stats. What is your take on that and how, one, a bunch of teams are hiring these guys and how even a bunch of websites now are just featuring advanced stats? Yeah, you know what? I'm of two

minds of it.

Because I will, I don't mean to cut you off, but I'm one to say, yeah, advanced stats are nice, but to me, a lot of them go over my head.

And, you know, here in Washington, if I talk to, like, a Neil Greenberg, he can throw stats at me that leave me speechless, because they can prove anything.

Like, hey, Sunday games at 3 o'clock on odd days, Ovechkin has this percent of scoring, you know.

It just blows my mind.

Yeah, no, and look, you can. Stats can tell any story you want them to tell, and I think they need to be used selectively. And look, there's obviously a market for it because teams have hired guys to do it, and before any of this came out, there were teams that had guys doing it, and you never knew about it. And to me, one of the biggest things is it's been somewhat militant in the way that the lines have been drawn.

Like, you're either with them or you're against them.

It's pretty strong.

And I don't feel that way.

Like, there's some advanced stats I can use.

Look, I went into writing because math gives me a headache.

So, some advanced stats are a little more than I can bite off.

And I have some guys on my staff who are really into it.

Corey Massasak, who spent a lot of time in D.C. before he joined us, has kind of led the vanguard for us.

and he's really brilliant about it and he's able to explain a lot of things to me about it. But it's going to be here and they're not that advanced. It's just taking the numbers that are already there and looking at them a different way. But I think in the end you have to do both. You have to look at those numbers and for me it's kind of what I find myself doing is going back and looking at some of those numbers after I've made a decision

myself from watching.

You know, like where I watch a game and I'm like, wow, you know, I thought Alec Martinez was really good in that game.

Then you can kind of go back and you can look and say, OK, the numbers back that up.

You know, obviously that's a very small sample size.

It'd be more like I think Alec Martinez has been really good this year.

And then you can go back and you can kind of say, oh, yeah, look at the numbers.

Look at, you know, where he started it.

each of his shifts, where he did this, what his puck possession was, what his course-y close was, what all those things are. And you can paint a better picture of what your eyes told you. That's a great point. I don't think you can just sit there with spreadsheets and try and tell a GM that you should sign this guy in free agency because his numbers are great. Because there's still things that go into it that you can't measure.

that you'll never be able to measure. You can't measure a locker room. And to me, that's a huge part of this whole equation is, you know, you look at what's going on with Evander Kane now and Winnipeg, and you can look at his advanced stat numbers and you can be like, hey, yeah, that guy, he's great. But they have a problem, and I'm not saying it's Evander Kane. And for those that aren't familiar, this is in the Winnipeg Jets, and Evander Kane's one of their young superstars, and he just, he's out four to six months for surgery,

But right before that, they had a big to-do in their locker room. Somebody took his clothes and threw him in the shower because they were angry. He showed up in a sweatsuit. But it wasn't the first time that something had happened with him. And that's what I'm kind of saying. You pick up these things when you watch the game, and the numbers can tell you whatever you want, but your eyes can tell you something different. And that's always been my problem, Sean. That's always been my problem, is that it's hard as the fan. And you know, we're passionate, but our eyes are seeing one thing on the

the ice. And sometimes the stats don't, you know what I'm saying? They don't go with that. Yeah, but look, it's a two-way street because that passion can blind you. You know, like you can be, you're right. You know, like you love a player and for whatever reason, you like his name, you know, the first game you ever went to go see him, he fought somebody and he beat somebody way bigger than him. And you can be like, I love that guy. And I think he's awesome. And no matter what he does, you're going to be like,

You know what he's not the problem. Somebody else is the problem. He plays hard every night. He has his chances. But you're blinded. And you don't know you're blinded because look, it's an emotional game and everybody has favorites and everybody has. But when you're the GM or when you're the director of player personnel or you're one of those guys making those decisions, they're just like us. You know, they have favorites. That's why guys have been on teams for years after you're like, how come that guy's still on this team? He's all done.

there's personal relationships and there's ties that bind. I think a lot of times the advanced stats and looking deeper into numbers helps divorce that. Helps say that I love this guy but he's no good anymore. I think if you look again, if you cross sports and you look, I think the Patriots in football are the poster child of that. They've had all these great players.

and they get rid of them the year or two years before they're done. Wes Welker, you know, when Wes Welker left, everybody's like, what are the Patriots doing? This is the worst thing ever. He's never been the same player. They understood that his lifespan as a productive player was coming to an end. They traded Logan Mankins, who was the anchor of their line before the year started. Everybody threw up their hands and said, what are they doing? And then they understood, and a lot of that is very cold and calculated.

I don't care what you've done for us. We're running a business here and you can no longer help us. And we're going to do something about it. And I think when you get into analytics in the NHL, you're going to see more and more of that. You know, I think one of the poster boys for that is probably David Clarkson. You know, in Toronto, you know, Toronto signed him because they saw they saw what they wanted to see. They saw a power forward that could score 30 goals and could do a lot of

of different things, but he was in a sheltered system. The coach that he played for loved him and played him a ton and put him in really favorable positions. I love David Clarkson, but when you saddle him with that kind of money and those kind of expectations in Toronto, it's a recipe for disaster. I think if you went back and you looked at some of the advanced stat numbers before that deal was made, and these guys that do that, I think they'll tell you immediately and tell you gleefully that they could have predicted what happened. Maybe not to the

to the degree that he's fallen off. He was a healthy scratch this week in Toronto, which is shocking. But even me who grew up, not grew up, I was an older guy when he got there, but who's watched a ton of devil games. And David plays the game the way that I enjoy the game to be played. He was a prototypical power forward that came out of nowhere and did everything for you. Scored goals, went to the front of the net, fought when you needed somebody to fight, did all those things. But you know what? That's a lot of mileage on your body really quick.

And like I said, he was put in really good positions with the Devils who did not have a lot of scoring talent on their team. So he was able to pile up some really impressive numbers and he hasn't been able to replicate it since he went to Toronto. So I think that's where an advanced stats thing can help a lot when you have one vision of them and you want to double check it. You want to say, hey, this is the way I feel about this guy. If the numbers tell me the same thing, I'm going to do it.

If the numbers tell me something different, I'm going to go talk to a third person, and that's how we're going to break this tie. Yeah, you mentioned that about your first experience with a player can set the way what you think of them. I saw Steve Downey fight Matt Bradley with the Caps a couple years back. I've hated Steve Downey ever since. Exactly. You'll watch a play, and you'll be like, he has no talent. He can't do anything right. And then you go look at the numbers, and there's things that he does well. Does Steve Downey do anything?

anything exceptionally well?

Well, I think he serves a purpose.

He does.

He's been in the league for a long time.

He has.

And he does, you know, look, he can...

Agitate.

He can play the game.

Nobody gets to this level anymore that you can't play the game.

He may not play it the way everybody wants him to play it, but, you know, I think he's a useful player in a lot of the things that he does.

You know, but it does. It colors you. Look, when I was younger and I was still in Rhode Island growing up, to me, Cam Neely was the greatest hockey player that ever I had ever seen because that's what I wanted to do on skates. I wanted to be that guy that went to the front. I wanted to be that guy that everybody was afraid to try and stop. I wanted to be that guy that when somebody got in front of me, you know, I just punched him in the mouth and took on all comers.

and said this is the way and then scored 50 goals. He did it all. To me, whenever anybody says who's the best player you ever saw, Cam's going to be right in that argument. I bet you if we went back and we did some advanced numbers, guys could find 10 or 15 guys that were better than Cam Neely. It doesn't matter anymore because I don't really care. He's in the Hall of Fame. I have my memories of him. There is an analytical point.

is the way the Bruins played because of who Camden was and the way he played and that they knew they were never going to be intimidated and that they were never going to be in a game where they were going to be on the wrong end of that kind of play. And that's a huge thing that you can never, ever quantify. So like I said, there's a place for those stats, but to me it can never be. Like your GM will never be a stat guy. I don't like it. Imagine an NHL GM. And look, people have the wrong...

the wrong idea about it all because

Billy Bean is not

a stat guy.

Moneyball and baseball

was about

stats and new stats and everything else

but it was about doing things differently.

If you want to get ahead in

anything, music, sports,

factory work,

I don't care what it is, if you

find a way to do something better than

all of your competition,

that's great. That's what you

should be doing and that's what these guys are doing now

It's find me a way. Find me a way to be more effective when I trade, to be more effective when I sign free agents, to be more effective when I call guys up from the minors. Find me a way to find better players. And that should be lauded for what it is, but it's not the be-all and end-all. Okay, great. To go back, a couple more questions and I'll let you go. Again, for those listening, follow Sean at sroarke.com.

NHL. Sean's been awesome to talk to. Follow him. Sean, to bring it back to my capitals here, Mike Green is in the last year of his $6.2 million contract. It's been said that the Caps may let him go after this season. What do you think? I think in today's NHL, I think if you don't think you can sign him, and look, if you can't sign him at a discount if you're the Washington Capitals, I don't know that you want to sign him. I don't think that he's the player

He was once. I think he's still a good player. I don't know that he's worth $6 million a year anymore. If you can't sign him, I don't think you can wait. I don't think you can say, all right, look, we're in the playoff race and we have a chance to do something special this year. I think the East is wide open and I don't know that there's an elite team, so the Caps could do something.

who say, all right, we're going to hold on to Green and we're going to go for it. And then Summer comes and look, he's one of your top five chips on that team. And now July 1st comes and you have nothing. Yeah. Nothing. So what do you do? Like, look, the NHL is all about assets now. It's all about asset management, you know, and with the salary cap, how you're going to manage your roster and how you're going to do all those things.

And if you're making that kind of money and you're not making that kind of impact, you need to do something else. And as difficult as it is, because Mike's one of those guys. He's been with the Caps since he was a kid. And he did some amazing things. Prior to where the Caps were now, he was there at the start. He was there for the whole Rock the Red. It's been him and Alex and guys like that that have brought the Caps from a more abound organization to,

One of the most exciting in the league. And, you know, had some great playoff runs and, you know, have turned Washington back into a hockey market that's, you know, one of the hottest in the league. But again, you know, we were just talking about the Patriots and there's a price for royalty. And you really have to choose whether you're going to pay it or not. And I think there's a huge price to be paid here. But look, you may put them on the market and you may not get what you want. And then you've got to make a really tough decision. Are you selling them for

on the dollar just so you can say I got an asset back. Look at the

Philip Forsberg deal. Are you trying to make me a

show me but that was a blast. You trying to make me sad.

But I'm saying that's where you're at at this point.

You're trying to change the team and you're trying to manage

your assets but these are things that are

franchise altering and I'm glad I get to write

about it and I don't have to make those decisions

because it'd keep me up at night.

Yeah, that Forsberg deal,

I think that may be one of the everlasting legacies

of George McPhee here in Washington.

I can't explain that one.

But you know what?

If it had worked, who cares?

Yeah, great point.

Look at the Gabrick deal.

Look at all those deals that LA made

and the assets they gave up to make them, they worked. So, like, what do you want? Do you want a cup and then you have to look at a guy on another team? Like, oh, we had him once and could you imagine if we still had him? But we want a cup because we gave him up. So, like, you make those gambles and that's what they are. They're gambles and you have to live with it. You know, it's like going all in, you know, hoping you hit on the river. And if you don't,

There's a big price to be paid, but if you do, you're raking in all the chips and you look like you're some sort of genius. And that's kind of the high-stake world these guys play in. So again, that dovetails back right into the analytics thing. I'm sure they're crunching the numbers and they're saying, look, where are we playing Mike Green? What situations is he playing in? What's his numbers when he plays in, you know, starts in his own zone compared to when he starts in the attacking zone? You know, what's his numbers against?

their top six forwards as opposed to their bottom six forwards. And all those numbers are being crunched. But the problem is now they're being crunched everywhere else too. And you're not getting that one GM that goes, oh, I remember when Mike Green had the 70-point season. Go get that guy because he's available as a trade target. I remember when he had eight goals in eight games. Everybody's getting a little bit smarter now. That's the problem. When the bar raises it, you only have a year where you can kind of take advantage.

of everybody and then everybody else winds up and says, okay, we're going to get up to that. You need to get up to the next level. It's an amazing thing to kind of watch. And so, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with Mike, but I do know that, you know, there should, I would think there would have to be an asset where there would have to be some sort of deal available to them. They would have to know that they had a good chance going into the summer that they could do something with them, even if they couldn't get it done by the trade deadline.

Okay, you look at this stretch coming up. Do you see Washington making a Metropolitan

playoff spot, or do you see them getting a wild card slot? It's such a crazy division. Isn't it? I said there's nobody. Like the Islanders. The Islanders are in first. There's no dominant team, man. It's like the Penguins can't pull away. The Rangers lost the ball. Yeah.

Yeah, Sidney hasn't been as good. He's still, you know, Crosby's still one of the top players, but he hasn't been dominant as much as he has been. And Marc-Andre Fleury's been great, but you just kind of wait for the playoffs and you want to see who Marc-Andre Fleury's going to be in the playoffs. And I like Marc-Andre. I've defended him for years. But can you defend him in the postseason? Yeah, yeah, I can. I think that team has more problems in the postseason than Marc-Andre Fleury. Okay. Go back and you look at those Flyer series that they played, and there's something wrong with them.

with that team mentally.

Being a Caps fan in the postseason, I can't speak.

Yeah, I don't mean it in a bad way.

I just mean that they change the way they play.

You're talking about a skilled team that can run people out of the building,

and all of a sudden they're losing their mind,

and they want to fight everybody, and Crosby wants to fight.

Teams in this league know when the playoffs come.

You're not going to waste your time doing it in the regular season

because it's too much effort for two points,

But when the playoffs come and you can play a seven-game series, you can make those guys crazy and see what they do. And that's going to be your best chance to beat them. So, you know, and then, look, the Rangers, I'm not sold on the Rangers. I haven't been all year. And now, you know, Lundquist is out for a month with that vascular injury he has, which is unbelievably scary. Crazy. Came out today and said if he had continued playing, he was, you know, there was a chance he was going to have a stroke. So.

Thank God they caught it. But now they have Camp Talbot in that. I mean, the guy's played 30 games in the NHL in his life. He's been very good at it. But now when he's a number one, what happens? So it'll be interesting to see what they do with the trade deadline. The Islanders, you know, this is new ground for them. So, you know, there is no elite team. And I definitely think, you know, with the way Brandon Holpe's playing and the way that Barry Trotz has that team playing, that they can be a top.

They could be one of the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division. And by the way, you've lived it all year. And I have to say from the outside, the job that Barry Trotz has done this year is ridiculous. There's so many great candidates for Coach of the Year. You've got Paul Maurice in Winnipeg. You've got Peter Laviolette in Nashville. I mean, Nashville leads the entire league, and you probably can't name five guys on their team.

And look, Mike Babcock should win Coach of the Year at some point, just for his body of work and what he's done. To me, he's one of the greatest coaches in this game. But what Barry's done in Washington is unbelievable. I mean, look at what he's done with Alex. I mean, all the stuff Alex has gone through. Yeah, look at that. He scored again today, 33 goals. Yeah, and forget the goals, because he's always going to score goals. He's playing hockey.

Yes.

He's not one-sided again.

And he's invested.

He's invested in this team.

And that's Barry.

I mean, look at what he did in Nashville for years.

He's one of my favorite people in hockey.

And see, here we go again.

This is the bias.

Like, I've always enjoyed Barry.

I loved when he was in Nashville and what he did with those teams.

He's always had time.

He's one of the nicest guys in the world.

So, my view is a little colored.

And again, that's where I would go and I would look and say, "All right, I think Barry's doing a really good job. Let me go figure out if I'm just being biased." And I'm not being biased. He's done a fantastic job. He's brought along some of those younger kids really well. He's fixed their defense to a degree. He's fixed the way they played the game. They can play a defensive game now without looking like they did under Hunter. When they played defense and it was painful to watch, they could play it, but it was so one-sided that they forgot how to play offense.

Now they can play both. And they're comfortable doing it. They're comfortable in a shootout. They're comfortable in a one-goal game. They can play a 2-1 game and they can play a 5-3 game just as easily. And what he's done with the other thing is Mitch Korn being there. I think that's made Braden Hopey's play step up tenfold. I mean, that guy has coached some of the greatest goalies in the history of the game. And he's done it in such unorthodox ways. And goalies rave about him. I mean, he had Dominic Hoshik for a while. He had Pecker.

He had Mason when Mason was in Nashville. He had all those guys and he made them all into quality goalies. And he's done wonders with Braden Holtby. And this is as good as I've ever seen Braden play. And if he plays that way, you know, look, I don't want to bring back another bad memory, but you know, that Montreal series. I was just going there, Sean. You're trying to make me cry. When Halak basically ruined your chance at the Stanley Cup, like, I think,

That's something, you know, with the way Braden's playing that, you know, when you get into playoffs, everybody's going to be like, oh, the Caps, you know, what about their goalie? Braden Holt, he's never done anything. And what's he going to do? He's that guy. He's that guy that can go on a, you know, on a 22-game run where, you know, he goes 16-6 or something like that. He's done it during the season. So, you know, I think they're a legitimate threat. You know, Sean, I think that two more questions and I'll let you go.

You've given me more than enough of your time. I think that's the problem with Washington here is that since 2010, the identity of the Caps. You remember the Bruce Boudreaux President's Cup winning Caps? We would come out. If we were down two goals, three goals, who cares? We'd come out and score four, five, or six goals a game. We were an exciting shoot-the-lights-out team. We played Montreal in that season, and they beat us.

by blocking everything that we shoot on net. They play a defensive game. Ever since then, the identity of Washington, I think, has been so up in the damn air that we've been trying to find who we are as a team based on the assets that we have, the coaches that we have at that time. But I think Coach Trotz right now is, you know, in the process of starting to turn things around.

Yeah, look, you need to have both in your DNA. Because the problem is, like, think about it. Who's the last run-and-gun team to win a Stanley Cup? It's the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. You know, every team that's won since then, it's been Chicago twice, Boston, L.A. twice. I might be forgetting one in there somewhere. But they're all two-way, 200-foot teams. It's the only way you can win. Because if you think you're going to get in a shootout,

There's teams in this league that can just clamp you right down. And they can take away your guys that can score. And they're going to clog the middle. And they're going to do all these things that are going to take away your offensive game. Look at the series you've played against the Rangers the last couple of years. The Rangers, until Elaine Vigneault took over, they were that team, man. They would just suffocate you to death. You need to be comfortable playing in that game. You need to understand how to win a 2-1 game.

understand how to win a 5-4 game.

Because you're going to face all kinds of teams in the playoffs.

I look at that run the Pittsburgh Penguins had a couple years ago when they got that scare in the first round against the Islanders.

And that was a back-and-forth series because neither goalie could stop a puck.

The games were 6-4 and whatever else they were.

And then they played Ottawa.

And that wasn't a great matchup.

And they were able to get through that.

And then they got into a series where it was really defensive.

And they just couldn't. You know, Boston just suffocated them. The Penguins had two goals, I think, in that series. And it was all matchups. You know, Claude dictated what they were going to do throughout that series. Char was at the height of his powers, and he could just take a line out by himself. And the Penguins knew no other way to play. They could not settle into that game and say, OK, we're going to play for one goal. We're not going to give you any. You're not going to give us any.

and we're comfortable with a twice deflected shot going in under the club. That's a great point. And we'll let that decide who wins this game. It wasn't in their DNA. Their players did not know how to do it and they lost the plot really quickly. Last hockey question. Sean, you work for the NHL, please. Can you explain what's happening in Edmonton? Can you explain it? It's growing pains.

you have so many number one draft picks. Is the team not gelling? How do you explain this? It's funny because I just did a story. We're doing our other outdoor game this year in San Jose. I had to do a piece for the program on the Kings being a model franchise because they're the team that's playing San Jose in that game. I went back and I looked. The Kings have 41 playoff wins in the last three years.

The two years before that, they missed the playoffs. So it takes a while to build. So you're saying Edmonton is building? Look, they've taken a few steps backwards. And look, the other thing I'm going to say about them is they've put all their eggs in one basket. They've built their forward line, their forward depth through all

All those high picks. And they don't have the other pieces. And again, we're talking about in NHL right now where you build from the back out. Think about every team that's good in the NHL right now. Quick, Rask, Price, all elite goalies. Crawford. These are all elite guys. You build that biggest chip on your team.

It has to be your goalie. And then after that. Anderson in the Ducks. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's your defense. It's look, the Kings won Drew Dowdy, Norris Trophy finalist. Maybe the best defenseman in the league. The Hawks have won. They got a Norris Trophy winner on their team and one or two other guys to back them up. The Bruins have won. They got Chara and Seidenberg. Right. Total shutdown D.

All those teams that are struggling and are in the back end, you think about Buffalo, you think about Edmonton, Carolina, goalie's just been a merry-go-round of guys that are NHL guys, but they're not elite and they're not protected by any kind of defensive system. I think that's what Edmonton's going towards now, what they're trying to do.

You know that the the nurse

uh... draft last year

I think that kids gonna be the defenseman for that

and that's where they need to build and even the steps they've made to try and do that bringing in andrew ferrets who played for the stanley cup champion Bruins

like he everybody's in the wrong spot

you know

you can have all the great young guys you want but if you can't slot them where they need to be

there's only very few

all world talents where you can take an eighteen year old kid

and put all the world on him and say, okay, go and do what you need to do. Alex was one of those players. John Tavares was one of those players. But a lot of players, they need to be protected for a couple of years. And they haven't been able to do that in Edmonton. And, you know, like Andrew Ferentz is playing. He's a top two guy in Edmonton. He's not a top two guy. He was a four in Boston and he was unbelievably successful at it. And they're all up in wait and that's where you get problems.

So until they can fix the depth in their organization and kind of be able to slot guys into the places they need to be, they're going to have a huge problem. I totally agree with you. Sean, last question of the day. And please, again, thank you for joining me. For everybody listening who's a metalhead, give us a lasting album or band that we should be checking out now. I don't mean to put you on the spot.

A new band? No, anything. Whenever you're listening, give us a recommendation to listen to. And also, one last hockey question. If you're building a team, do you draft Ovechkin or Crosby first? I think I still take Crosby first. As much as I love Ove, as you see in my office, cab stuff everywhere, I may take that same bet. Just because you need somebody that can do everything.

Yeah, you're right. But as much as Ovi does, and he does more now, I still think Crosby's a better all-around player. I think so, too. So there's a couple of bands I already mentioned in the course of this conversation. The Pilgrim Band out of Rhode Island, I really like those guys, if you like Doom. Hammers of Misfortune is kind of just like a trippy.

all over the place type of band. Like I talked about Clutch is my favorite band. And I know they're putting out a new album soon. And they're in the studio. And another band that I really love, and they're in the studio right now putting out an album, is a band out of Detroit called Battlecross. Oh, dude, those guys have been amazing. Yeah, thrashy, you know, just straight up rock and roll. And you know, you talked about great guys. Those guys are great, great guys. Great with the fans. Yeah, yeah, no, I've seen them every

They've come on and then you know I've gotten a chance to meet them because they're on Brian's label and but they're fantastic always always have time for everybody and you know their first two albums have been fantastic and they do things the right way and one of the bands that they were on tour with last year's band out of Canada called Crimson Shadows. They made my top 10 list also. Yeah yeah you know a little bit of Viking type Norse stuff.

I really like what they're doing. And the new Unearthed album is ridiculous. That might be my favorite album. I don't know if that was a 214 or 215. I don't know when it came. But if you're looking for an album of the year, that might be it. It was ridiculous. So that's a few of the bands I would check out if I were you. Or if I was your listeners. I know you've already checked them out. Yeah, I have. Well, Sean, it's been a pleasure to talk to you.

anything you want to hype here? Anything you want to promote right now? This final cup is like his brother. No, no, I'm good, man. I really appreciate you having me on. I love doing these kind of things and I love talking about all the stuff that we've talked about, so it's been great. And if people are into hockey, I can't suggest strong enough that they come to NHL.com because I think there'll be something there for them. But also to check out blogs like yours. There's a whole...

and the blog community is so strong now and so fantastic. There's something for everybody there. With a little exploration, you're going to find something that's going to make you a better fan or make you enjoy the game more and just explore and find your level and what you want. That's kind of the service that all those blogs provide. I hope everybody that listens just engages as much as they can in what they're passionate about.

and hopefully you or I can help them in some way do that. That's a great, but no, Sean, whoever runs your guys' social media, always, well, you can tweet at NHL and they always retweet. They always respond back. It's a great league. It's a great whole team that you're surrounded by. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate it. So again, follow Sean at S-R-O-A-R-K-E underscore NHL. Sean, it's been a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you.

Hey, it's been my pleasure.

And I'm glad you had me on because I've been listening to a couple of shows to get ready for it.

And I think, you know, I want to be a regular listener now.

Thank you, brother.