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

Hello and welcome to the Metalheads Podcast.

This is George. This is Buke. And this is Jay. This is episode 33. Halfway to 66. Halfway to 66.6. Yesterday, Buke and I were at the barbecue with our friend Will. Let's call him Metalhead's Podcast Correspondent in the Field. Yes, Metalhead's Correspondent in the Field, Will. And, uh, I mean, Matt. Wasn't his name Matt? No, Jay. And, uh, you've probably,

They already heard all about that by now based on our

Gwarbecue coverage episode. But

Buke informs me that he's got a couple of things that he wanted to talk about.

One of the things going into it in the weeks leading up

in the months, we saw after last year that Gwar had

announced a express band for

the Gwarbecue to avoid any of the

Long lines for beer, bathroom. Entrance. Entrance, guar, merch, all that stuff. It was $20 or $19 or something. It would have gone up on the day of the event. And again, after a perfect day at the guar-beque was, not to talk bad about it, but the express band ended up kind of being a waste. It was.

And it would have been really helpful last year when you waited in line a long time for everything. It was like 45 minutes for a cheeseburger, half an hour to use the bathroom. It was just, you know, it got to the point where we were like, we were just like, forget it. We're not getting any lines because we're going to miss, you know, a whole band trying to get something. So when we saw the... How much? Go ahead. Well, I'm curious about the price on it. It was $19. Okay. Which is fine. And so when we saw this,

I was like, oh, after last year, fuck, 19 bucks, I'm willing to pay that to avoid that hell. And so then this year, they had their shit together so well, it wasn't necessary. So it was sort of redundant. And to be honest, I didn't see, other than if you went to the Guar-BQ merch booth, it was the only place I saw anything that, like, you could use your express band on. Oh, really?

Yeah, I mean, I didn't see anything at the food vendors, didn't see anything at the rest of the merch booths. I didn't see anything at the bathrooms. So I'm not really sure what that was supposed to be. But I wanted to add, this is kind of a two-sided thing. Yes, the $20 after last year was a waste, but I think they learned a lesson and they went over and beyond last year. Yeah, and I mean, like we said before, the free water,

The Free Water. The Free Water was awesome. Two times the food trucks. Yeah. Multiple official GWAR booths for merch and stuff. I think you can assume probably what they did was they recognized the problem, over-organized, and also didn't know if the band would be necessary. Certainly it wasn't. It seems like a good safety measure. I bet you next year they won't have it if it worked out that well this year. There were other merch booths though, which is cool.

I mean, was it just for the other bands or was there like record sellers and stuff? There was like indie merch was there. Oh, cool. And I didn't look at, I mean, some of them I just couldn't tell what they were. You know, some of them you could tell were bands. Troglodyte was obviously their booth and Valkyrie was, I think, sharing a booth with them. And there was a Goad Whore booth. Well organized time-wise and everything? Almost too well because there's no, there was,

No time at all. It was boom, boom, like right on time. Yeah. It looked, by the way, I will just throw in my two cents, which it looked like a blast, you know. Lots of texts coming from you guys yesterday, lots of tweets going up, which was a very good idea, by the way, just for the podcast and everything. Looked like super fun. Actually, you know what, looking back on it, and I knew this going in, but look at this great lineup, you know. Oh, yeah. A lot of good bands. And, you know,

Usually, I'm so anal retentive that I know everything about every band going in, and so there's no surprises. But I just didn't really have the time to thoroughly explore all the bands that were playing, or I couldn't find something about them. And there are a couple of bands, like Gritter was really good. Okay, checking it out. I assume it's spelled just like it sounds. Yep. Critter, but with a G.

Okay. And somebody else. Maybe it's Mutoid Man, which I already knew about, but they just fucking kicked ass. I'm telling you, they were amazing. Yeah. And I believe it. I believe it. George did a nice short little video of what I'm assuming was the opening track, because that was the opening track from the record. Yeah. Great sound, by the way. I told that to George Buke, all the videos he'd shot, the sound sounded great. Yeah, it wasn't all distorted, which was nice. No. And I'm assuming it was pretty good.

I mean did you think sound is pretty good Buke I was up front taking pictures but they fucking like a totally

trying to describe it last night like a fucking cannon blast right on those guys came out very cool I

mean the sound the sound seemed good across the board though for all the videos because George put up a little snippet of at least four or five guys mutoid man troglody of course down was amazing but these guys Valkyrie amazing yesterday all right great amazing yeah it's a good record too

I wanted to mention that again. Yeah, we had a bunch of great interviews. So if you haven't listened to that episode, check it out. Buke set up a bunch of interviews. We talked to Ben from Goat Horror. We talked to Troglodyte. We talked to Tony Forresta from Municipal Waste and Iron Rig. George, I'm going to interrupt you there. Who was Jay walking? He was walking around, Jay, enjoying it as we all were. Nice. We asked him if we could interview him.

And he couldn't have been nicer about it. Yep. I think they're from Richmond. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Is he the singer? I honestly don't know them by name. Yeah. I think he is like a really super cool guy. I've read some pretty good interviews with him, and I guess I'm about to hear one. So that's cool. Which I only mention because I'm, the video, even though we will have posted by this point, I haven't heard the coverage yet either since this is day after. But looking forward to it, guys. I mean, I'm really super excited. You guys talk to some cool people, man. Yeah. We also talked to Beefcake.

The Mighty from Guar, and Buketalk to Mutoid Man, and to Valkyrie. So I haven't heard those yet either because I wasn't there for those ones. So yeah, if that sounds interesting to you, check out our Guarbecue episode. My favorite two pictures of the day are you with Ben, George, and Buketalk with Phil Anselmo. I mean, just because I know that was like, I mean, I figured he was glowing.

Yes.

And, you know, today we've got a pretty cool interview going on. You want to talk about that, Jay, before we get into it?

Yeah. You know, one of my, you know, I really think these guys are the preeminent death metal band in the world, I think, you know, and there's a lot out there now that's like technically proficient.

So maybe they're not the miles ahead of everybody they used to be because some of the bands out there are insane now.

But Niall, we got Dallas Toler, Wade.

And, you know, and I think of him as Niall's secret weapon.

A lot of people, if you don't know the band really well, Carl Sanders is the kind of like, he's sort of the face of the band, you know, and he's got like a signature guitar and everything. But Dallas is right there with him, riff for riff. He's a super great guitar player. Seems like a really nice guy, you know, and he's also got a new record out that he's going to be talking about for his band called Narcotic Wasteland, which is really good, by the way.

I liked it too. I was pretty impressed. All right, well, let's get into our interview with Dallas Toler-Wade of Nile and Narcotic Wasteland. All right, you are listening to Metalhead's podcast. This is Jay. This is Buke. This is George. And we are very happy to be joined today by Dallas Toler-Wade of the mighty Nile and Narcotic Wasteland. Dallas, we can't thank you enough for coming on, man. Oh, man, it's great to be here. Cool. I can tell you, this is kind of one of those moments for me where,

We've been doing the pod for a while. I joined after the other boys. And every once in a while we score an interview we're really proud of. And you're a big deal to me, dude. I think of you as Niall's secret weapon. I think Carl's kind of the face of the band sometimes. But I think of you as the real fucking deal, dude. Up there keeping it real. Riffmaster. Sing a lot of the lead stuff. Love your stuff, dude. Thanks. Well, hey, man. I'm going to jump straight into it. Because one of the things I really want to talk about is Narcotic Wasteland.

Really great record.

And so one of the things I was going to ask you first off about it was how the project came about.

I'd love to know if these were friends of yours.

Did you kind of recruit these guys, the other members of the band?

What can you tell us about it?

Well, it started off as just like some stuff that I was working on just, you know, when Niall wasn't busy.

And I was like, yeah, you know, I'll probably just put it out and do all the instruments myself.

But as I continued to write for it, I just really, really wanted to have a band. And it not necessarily be a side project, but be something that I can do when Niles is not busy. And the lead guitarist, Ed Rohn, I've known that guy since I was a teenager. And me and him used to play in bands together back in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in my hometown. And we always really clicked, worked really,

We worked well together, had a great time together.

We had the issue that a lot of people have of just trying to find other members

that were as serious as we were.

So, you know, that kind of morphed into that, you know, and I really miss playing

with the guy and working with him because we did, like I said, we worked so well together.

And he recommended Chris, which is also a guy from our hometown, for bass and vocals.

And it just kind of clicked.

But you can't necessarily find a drummer of that caliber down the street, unfortunately. So George Coleus actually recommended Eric Schultek to do the record because it was coming to the breaking point. The record actually sat there for a whole year completed before I could find anybody that could pull the weight on the drum end. So we got up with Eric. He did a great job. He helped us. He pretty much helped. He mixed the record.

And did all that stuff. And, you know, we did all the tracking in my studio for all the other instruments. And, yeah, you know, we're trying to, in the future, get some shows and stuff going on. Right now, it hasn't had, like, a whole lot of... The response has been really good, but we don't really have the... The buzz isn't big enough to justify going out and trying to do, like, a tour or anything yet. And that's fine, you know.

I hope to do some of these festivals. There's a lot more of these festivals popping up in the US. So it'd be great to get on a few of those. You know what I mean? I do. I'd love to see you guys live, man. I mean, that's it's interesting to me that you've known the other guitar player for so long because it is so tight. And actually, I kind of want to mention one other thing, which is I think the production on it is exemplary. You know, it's sharp and clear and just in your face. It really sounds great.

I can fully see where you're coming from. Like you say, you got a little buzz going. But I think when people really, really hear the record, if it gets on the right places, you're going to have a following big time with this band, man, because it's just something special. Yeah, I heard this first time just a couple days ago when Jay was telling me about it. First listen through, I was hooked. It was a great album. Thanks, man. Glad you dig it. A lot of emotion went into putting all that together.

I'd like to talk about that very thing, if you don't mind, because I'll be honest with you, you sound pretty fucking pissed off on this record, man. And I'd like to know some of the driving stories, if I may, behind it. I know you said you lost some friends to hard drugs and things like that. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's something that's been happening on and off with friends over the years.

passed away. Back in the day, I used to party pretty hard myself. I never got into the pills and the heroin or anything like that. It was mostly just beer and pot and acid. Now it's just beer. Wasn't that also known as the Grateful Dead way of life? Probably. I don't know. You should have been a deadhead.

Yeah, you know, it was just something that really started to drive me. And then the second song that was written for this for the record was Absent Friends, which is the last track on the record. And that song is actually about a girl that I was kind of dating for a while that ended up, she ended up overdosing. And that was very hard for me to deal with.

with. But there were also other things like the title track, Widespread Narcotic Wasteland. When I say that there was a bullet hole in my son's bedroom wall, there actually was. Wow. Jesus. And he was with me that day, luckily. And stuff like that. So there is a lot of angst and aggression and just overall disappointment, I think, in people allowing themselves to just get that way. But, you know, it doesn't make a person a bad person to be an addict.

It's a disease. It's something that people just have. Some people just shouldn't drink. Or some people shouldn't do any of that stuff. They also come in many different forms too. People have a disease. That's why you have hoarders. That's why you have people with eating diseases. That's why you have OCD people. You have all different types. Unfortunately, with some people, they get hooked on it. And the allure of that feeling good for, you know,

a little bit takes over and you know you're overdosing on something tragically.

Yeah, some people can do moderation.

You can have one drink and you're good.

And other people, there's just no stopping.

You know, this kind of leads me into one of the questions I wanted to ask you at the start.

We're talking about, I love the honesty.

It's, you know, some artists and stuff that we've talked to, we've talked to a bunch.

It doesn't seem like they're a little guarded with some things.

Nile, it's pretty well known that all your guys' lyrical themes on a lot of the albums have this Egyptian type of theme with them. Was it kind of refreshing and was making this new project? Was that the only way you could start to do albums and songs like this because it was never going to work in Nile?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I play a lot. I practice a lot.

I have a set up here where if I get an idea I can just lay it down like that. Not everything that I think of will work with Niall. Not to mention the fact that the tuning for Narcotic is D-sharp standard. So it's only a half step off of standard E. Niall's way down in A. And while I love to play with that super deep heavy kind of death metal tone, I'm really more of a thrashy kind of

of punk. I'm really into crossover, like DRI. There's a band actually called Birth AD out of Austin, Texas. I don't know if you heard of those guys. Pretty fucking killer. So yeah, it is something that I just kind of wanted to do something a little different. I think Carl did the same thing too with the Saurian meditation thing. It's kind of like the other element. It's still definitely Carl and it's definitely got the Nile thing to it, but it was

Sometimes it breathes new life into whatever it is you're doing. Just branch off and try some different stuff. I've been playing music for about 30 years now. I feel like I've got a lot of stuff left, a lot of ideas and stuff that I want to do, particularly with the narcotics and with the music and songs that I can do.

to the Nihilist.

Wow, cool. That was awesome. You just said Nihilist.

I know, I was thinking that too.

Sweet.

You know, I got to tell you, it's cool that you described it the way you did Nihilist,

because it is almost like a crossover record, you know, because it's such socially conscious lyrics

that it's got a kind of punk avenue to it a little bit, you know, and to me that brings in this little extra artistic curve that I really dig, you know.

I'm going to keep turning this interview into me praising you, but it's really cool. That works. It's really working on the record. So cool stuff. That's cool, man. A lot of people, actually, well, not a lot of people. Some people really did get the lyrics. Some people thought the lyrics on the Narcotic Record were terrible. And my argument to that was, well, what constitutes, I'm not writing poetry here. It needs to be straightforward. I wasn't trying, because there's a lot of bands out there in the

the death metal category or extreme metal category or whatever in the metal category they have a bunch of thesaurus words put together that don't mean shit yeah and i didn't want to do that you know uh i wanted to i wanted it to be really straight and you know if one day you're gonna drown in your vomit and die you know there you go perfect that's great i think no i feel like i know i feel like you know i know what you're trying to tell us on the record and uh and that's it it works man hey you

You just kind of mentioned a band from Texas. I wanted to ask you kind of what are the bands that you like these days? And I'd also like to know like what are the bands that kind of got you going as a kid too? You know, who are some of the people you love? Well, you know, when I was growing up, I started out on the drums. And so as soon as I discovered Rush, that was pretty much probably all I listened to for like two years. Right. But of course, you know, all the usual suspects, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heat, Deep Purple,

Rush, Yes, all the stuff, early Alice Cooper stuff. Actually, the stuff that my mom was listening to. She grew up as kind of a rocker, too, so that was kind of stuff she was listening to. I remember returning the favor later by turning her on to Rush. She'd never heard of them. Big Rush fans, and then, of course, we had an AM radio station I used to listen to, and I think that was the first time I heard Slayer. On AM radio. Wow.

Rock 1450. Yeah, and they had them, and they were playing like that, and Metallica, and all that stuff. So I started getting more into that. I was big into Van Halen, too, but not really a guitarist yet. But I think the band that really made me want to play guitar, I think, was probably that first Metal Church record, when I was about 14, 13 or 14. We were just talking about that album. Just talking about it. I love that.

I was just specifically talking about the track Battalions. I fucking love that song. Yeah, I think my favorite one is probably the first one on the record, Beyond the Black. Yeah, that's really good too. When we played, Ninel played 70,000 Tons of Metal a few years back, and Metal Church was on that, and they played the whole first album in its entirety. Wow. I'd love to know how that experience was, that 70,000 Tons of Metal, since you brought it up.

Oh, it was great. I mean, what I remember of it, we were

having a good time. My bar bill was ridiculous.

It was 70,000 tons in fucking

70,000 tons of liquor.

Yeah, we had a good time, man. We had a good time.

The strange thing was when I got home

finally and everything was still kind of

moving. Does it get any better

though than not having to drive?

Not even being able to go anywhere

because you're on a fucking boat.

Yeah.

Which is pretty bad, mind you.

Yeah, another highlight of that show, which was also another early influence of mine, particularly on guitar, was Flotsam and Jetsam.

Love them, too.

What's your favorite Flotsam album?

Dallas, we were just talking about this.

Why do you think ever since No Place came out, they've kind of lost their way?

I don't know man I kind of I think quattro is pretty good but I I'm still my favorites that first one man there was just maybe it was just because it was the first one I heard and I was so young and impressionable particularly on the guitar at that time and I just loved all the I don't know I love the tone of the record yeah I first heard Hammerhead on the the metal shop radio show back in the day you know it was like every Sunday

night at like 10 o'clock at night they'd play metal for an hour and and each each week they'd play you know have like a new release they'd play a new song and that was my first time here in flotsam was when they played hammerhead they're putting together their new record right now we were just talking about that recently so we're all interested to see what they're gonna do on the next one oh yeah and those guys are so good live i mean wow they're super tight and the and the dude still got the voice too man yeah we saw them just like uh like maybe two years ago and they sounded great

Yeah, yeah. Super fun.

I had the good fortune to see you guys on the last tour of Dallas where you did the sort of basically what I would call an evening with Niall. You did two big long sets, something off every record. What is it like after a night like that, man? I mean, you guys were up there for a long time. And is it physically demanding to play guitar live in that fashion?

I probably liked the first week. I was probably feeling it a little bit. But luckily, the second set was more the older material, which we've been playing for so long. And some of it's not quite as fast as some of the new stuff. So it felt kind of like a break on the second set. All right, we're over the hump. So let's grab a beer and give them some Blessed Dead. You know what I mean? You know, you had a big smile on your face, man, by the way.

You really look just happy to be up there. I saw you in San Francisco. That's where I live out here. And you just look like you're having a great time. Good old Sims, right? Yeah, Sims. Yeah, that's a good place to see a show. Speaking about looks and about looking good on stage, Dallas, I mean this with the most respect. I'm not poking fun. When did you realize the hair and the Devin Townsend look was a losing battle?

For me,

I remember when I saw a picture of you with a shaved head,

I'm like,

who is this guy?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um,

I had,

I had actually shaved my head years ago when I was like in my late teens,

early twenties.

So it's not anything new.

Um,

really to me,

uh,

it's just,

it's one extra step that you have to take care of when you're on the road and all that stuff.

And I'm looking to,

I'm looking to streamline my life.

You know, I'm not trying to fucking deal with staring in the mirror with my hair all day long. You guys on stage look fucking badass whipping it all around. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, you know, so we're kind of talking about Nile here, and I got to tell you, we are in a very fortunate position because we have this little program, and so we get promos before they come out, so we've heard and got the new Nile record, which I also want you to know, though, I firmly believe

in a financially supporting band, so I also pre-ordered it on vinyl. It's devastatingly great, super heavy, super good record. I got a first question to ask you about it is, I read an interview with George and he said it has the hardest Niles song he's ever played on it, and I'll be fucked if I can guess which one it is, but do you know what he was talking about? It's probably the fill work that's in the title track. That's probably the licky.

I think I know the lick he's talking about. It's some kind of shuffly quad thing. Just the overall, there's a lot of changes in some of the songs. So that can be pretty challenging. I know for me personally, songs like Call to Destruction, Evil to Cast Out Evil, those are going to be definite songs we'll end up playing live.

and playing at the same time will probably be one of the most difficult things I've ever done.

Actually, Dallas, you keep hitting on the questions I want to ask, and that's great.

Because one of them is, I do play and sing. I'm in a band myself. We're not an aisle, mind you.

But one of the most challenging things is to play and sing at the same time.

And I'm not joking, dude. There's nobody else in metal that I can think of that I look at and I think,

How the fuck does he do that? Because you guys' stuff is so all over the map. It's startling. So it's interesting to hear that there are some challenges for you. Oh yeah, definitely. And you know, my most straight path to success with that is to get so comfortable and familiar with the guitar playing to where that's really a second nature kind of thing. And then just

read along,

because what will end up happening is,

especially if it's been a while,

if you're bringing back an old song,

you'll have like the lyrics there.

I'll,

I'll duct tape them to the wall of the rehearsal room.

So then at that point I'm reading,

singing and playing at the same time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know,

and it just takes rapid.

It's just repetition,

man,

to get that muscle memory going and,

uh,

and getting just familiarized with the song.

And then what,

one ends up happening is the singing and the playing becomes one,

One, all expression.

Yeah.

Right on.

That's really impressive.

As someone that used to fancy himself being able to do both singing and playing,

I was never able to do them at the same time.

You know, as soon as I say one word, my hands just...

Off on their own.

Yeah.

I've never been able to do those two independent thoughts at the same time.

So that's truly like mind blowing that people can do that.

You know, talking about the new record too, I feel like it's got a little bit raw, a slightly more raw production quality in a good way. Something I'm really enjoying the new record. I want to let you know I think Call the Destruction would be a great song to open with on fucking tour because that's a fucking killer opening track. What are your feelings about the record? How are you liking it now as you're getting to finally listen to it? I really enjoy it. I think we achieved exactly what we wanted.

We didn't really like the sounds of Sethu. What we were going for was kind of a thrashy but super clean sound. And we discovered, well, the super surgical squeaky clean thing doesn't really work for this band. It just, as tight and as fucking crazy as that record is, it's just too clean. But you can't, there's two things. You don't want to put out the same record every time and you want to try different things and experiment. So we did that.

So we came back to this and we were just like, well, you know, we were kind of missing that big wall of Nile guitar. And I think some of the fans were missing it, too. So we gave them the wall again. We gave them the secret signal path, the secret Nile ingredient, once again, got fired up and it came out beautiful. Me and Carl worked really hard on it very closely every day, dialing in the tone and all that.

And another thing that we wanted to make damn sure this time is that there was some bass guitar on this fucking record. You know, it is bass guitar on the record. Absolutely. You know, and the production style to me sounds like maybe somewhere mixed between Annihilation of the Wicked and maybe something a little bit one of your slightly more darker records like maybe Black Seeds of Vengeance. It's like you mash those two together production wise to me. I mean, it works, man. And it's not. I have a medium grade stereo in my

in the car and it's just punishing in my car. Sounds great. Good, good, good. Yeah, because, you know, when you're listening to stuff and you're trying to make critical decisions about it, it's good to listen to it on different speakers that you know what they're supposed to sound like. Yeah. So if it's crushing in the car, then hell yeah, mission accomplished. Because I think a lot of people mostly listen to stuff in the car nowadays anyways. I think the days of the audiophile and the 15-inch Sirwin Vegas and the home stereo system,

are kind of over, unfortunately.

First of all, not for us here, but like 500 vinyl records over my shoulder.

Hell yeah.

But hey, if I'm asking, one of the things that shines through about you guys always is you and Carl seem to have a very close friendship.

It really shines through that a lot of these other bands, I know we're just talking to you right now, but it seems like a lot of the bands that we talk to or we being the public see it's separate entities always. And you and Carl seem like you guys could be fucking brothers. It comes off, and I wanted to credit you guys and ask you, what do you attribute that to?

Well, you know, we're like-minded for one. I mean, we want to do the same things and accomplish the same things. And, you know, we've been through hell and back. Yeah. I was just about to say, I'm sure at times you're like, Carl, I hate you. Well, actually, you know, we very rarely had anything like that. And when we do, if there's a misunderstanding or something like that, you know, we just talk about it. There's people,

There are people out there that will bottle some shit up and never say anything. And I've never been that guy. I tell you like it is to your face. And Carl's kind of the same way. We usually end up having problems with other people. We're a team, man. We're here for the band. We're not here for any individual gain. We want to move forward and look out for each other, man. We're both family men.

And, you know, we depend on each other to fucking be there. And, you know, we always have great conversations on the phones. And, you know, the chemistry live is always a lot of fun. It's probably safe to assume when you said, hey, I'm going to do this album, from what you just said, Carl's like, okay, probably fucking do it, man. The Narcotic Wasteland you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah, I remember playing the demos for him one night. I was over there.

I think this was probably right at the end of the set-through sessions or whatever. I remember playing some of the demos or whatever. He seemed to really dig it. Yeah, the guys have been totally supportive about all that. His solo records are really good too, by the way. You mentioned them a while back then. He astonishes me with his sort of knowledge of Eastern scales and so on and so forth. It's almost bizarre. He was sort of born at the wrong time. You know what I mean?

I read in an interview recently that he'd been invited once to go to a college and talk about Egyptology, but that he turned it down because he thought he'd just be the metal oddity in the room, you know, so he was sort of like, fuck those guys, but yeah, I mean, his knowledge is pretty startling towards that stuff. I'm kind of still on the Nile trip here. I want to ask you, do you have a favorite Nile record, Dallas? Oh, wow, that would be a tough one, but Annihilation has always really stuck out for me. That's my favorite.

All right. Well, we have that in common then. I also want to point out. Go ahead. May I ask a follow up to that? Please. With it being so hard for bands to catch on and get some traction in this day and age, to be an extreme band, which you guys are, when you have seen success and a name in the metal world is almost a household name, when did you start to realize like, hey, there's something here to this? Was it around maybe in their Darkened Shrine?

Was it around Annihilation? Well, Shrines is when things really started to take off for us. And that, yeah, that was the record that kind of broke through to our surprise because, you know, when I joined Nile and by the time Carl and Pete and Chief were doing Nile, pretty much all of us had given up on, like, going on tour and trying to actually do it. We didn't give a damn anymore about that. And, of course, that's when things started to happen.

We got those Morbid Angel tours on the first record. That was a big help to us. And then Black Seeds came out. It was really well received. We got to do another trip to Europe. And then when Shrines came out, I don't know, something definitely broke. Because the next thing you know, we're headlining. We sold

I think Shrines was the one that definitely broke through. And then Annihilation was a really successful time as well. And it's been pretty consistent since then. No, no, like,

or downs or even further ups or anything like that. It's just kind of a steady burn.

I think your followers are kind of like Slayer followers. I once heard somebody say about Slayer, you never hear anybody say, yeah, I was kind of into them for a summer. You know what I mean? Once you're a Nile fan, you're kind of dyed in the wool after that.

Yeah, I could see that. That's one of the things that you know you're making an impression when somebody walks up and they have Nile tattoos on them.

Yeah, yeah. Dallas, you just mentioned them going on tour. Have you read into any of this drama going on with Morbid Angel now? Not really. I've heard a few things because we have the same manager and we use some of the same crew. But I haven't really heard much about it. I heard that Trey fired everybody. I think that's about right. Dallas, for all we know, someone could come out and things were so,

fluid and volatile for a couple of days. It could have been announced like you were the next guy for Morbid.

There's pretty much everybody coming out and going, either I am in the band or I am not in the band. Whether you're in the band or not. It's just a guessing game of who is in Morbid Angel today.

That's kind of crazy, man. I have no idea what the hell is going on in that camp, but I wish them the best.

I remember reading something from Tucker. Somebody was saying, is David and Tucker going to be jamming together? And Tucker said something like, no, I play death metal. I was like, wow. But, you know, I like to hear information. It's frustrating for us, too, because, you know, obviously we're all fans, man. And we are fans that obsessively read liner notes and shit, you know, and so we need information, too. You know what I mean? Like, I got to know when's the tour starting, what's happening. And I like to hear in-depth interviews and so on.

and so forth, you know, not unlike our show. You know, I much internet stuff being out there, Jay and Dallas. It seems like a lot of websites and stuff now to put out that, hey, Niles going on tour. That's almost. Yeah, we're going to put it out, but that's kind of boring. But if Dallas, if they have video of you punching Carl fucking this plastered all over 30 sites. That's what people want. Really. You think they care.

about. It's tabloid stuff, man.

You'd think metal would be above that.

Yeah, you'd think metal would be above that.

Yeah. Hey, you know what? Guys, I'm going to take a moment here because I want to steer us a little bit back towards Narcotic Wasteland, but I also want Dallas to let us know what is the first song we should play off of this. We're going to play two songs on our show here today.

And you got one in mind that we could plug in here, Dallas? And can you say something about the particular title?

Yeah, it's going to be Addicted to Junk. And the reasoning behind this is because it's one of my favorite songs on the record. But in all of the stuff that I've seen, nobody's really said much about it for whatever reason. And Ed Rohn, the lead guitarist, wrote the music for the song. I wrote the lyrics. And it's one of my favorites. It's the fastest track on the record. And it's just got a lot of guitar sorcery. And it's got a really kind of heavy,

Nasty thing. You almost want to take a bath or something after you listen to it.

Because it's just delirious and everything. It's got a kind of slithery, sleazy feeling, dirty heroin needle kind of feel to it.

That's about the best intro we could ask for. So without further ado, here is Addicted to Junk.

I'm living from one to another

I will take control of every aspect of your life.

Through the eternal, you're vomiting in the heart, leaving nothing behind but the memories, death and souls.

You betray your family, you betray your friends, you betray yourself. Look in the mirror and despise the person you see is no longer there.

Bugs exploded, gosin' bleeding, wrapped up, bustin' of the brain. Sand up, digged down, forgot, digged back to one of them, being the same.

You take the rules of data, do it all to my heart to you? Ignoring all you've learned from your own fuck-tossing friends Heart's exploded, nose is bleeding from the dust of the bird Shand a few of the fucking dead past you will never be the same

If you are ingrained enough To become addicted to junk Then one day you will die You will ruin everything you have ever won for If you have ever won for anything Leaving nothing behind But those of memories Your family will feel guilty But really

You think the rules are things you do, not a lie to you. Ignoring all you've learned from your old-fashioned friends. As you spawning, hoes and wading from tough vessels of the rain. Shared up that you forgot to pass, you will never be the same.

You make a long shadow of your form and self Underneath the heroines of the earth of life and death

All right, that was Addicted to Junk from Narcotic Wasteland's first record. I'm hoping there's going to be a second one. It's one of the things I want to ask you about, Dallas. Got any plans for the future here with this band? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm about five songs into the new one already. And it'll just be a match.

It's a matter of having the time to finish up a few more songs and then track it and put it out. Awesome, man. And then you already sort of mentioned it, but I'm really hoping we're going to see a possibility for some tour dates with this group. I'd love to see you guys live. So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed about that one. Me too. Right on. Hey, I wanted to ask you about a particular track on the record, if that's all right. It has an interesting title and it's called Coastal Killings. Is that kind of

Based on some actual factual things, can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, it's kind of the, well lyrically it's kind of the oddball out on the record. It's about South Carolina's most famous serial killer, Donald Henry Peewee Gaskins. Oh man, he was doomed from the start, he had to be a serial killer. Oh yeah, and he was a little guy. But I read the book, it's called The Final Truth.

And it's basically someone that basically recorded him talking about everything that he had done and made a book out of it. And as soon as you open it up and start reading it, it's like, by the time you start reading this, I'll already be pretty much fried in the electric chair or whatever. But he was one of the most, he was one of the worst serial killers that I know about. There's some stuff that I don't even want to mention that he did that's so horrible.

But he also was into extortion and chopping cars and burning down barns for insurance money and shit like that. He was into all that kind of stuff. But he also had this, you know, he would get this feeling in his stomach and he had to kill. And that happened right out near Myrtle Beach or Sumter, South Carolina. I found it really interesting. And, you know, it is kind of a departure from what the other songs are talking about.

But at the same time, I've said this in a Nile interview. Somebody said to me one time, so are you guys ever going to run out of material, blah, blah, blah, this, that, and the other thing? Are you just going to get bored with it? Well, first off, there's thousands of years of history there that you can pick from. But, you know, we don't necessarily have to write songs about Egypt if we don't want to. I mean... You have to or else the internet would fucking explode.

I always write songs about Iron Maidens.

You know?

Yeah, right.

But could you imagine the headlines if it was announced tomorrow, the next Nile album was about like Paris, France history?

Fucking the internets would explode.

Excellent.

I kind of want to hear that all of a sudden though.

I want to know.

I got one question, George.

I just got to sneak in though, which is that sound bite at the beginning of Coastal Killings.

Is that him?

Yes, it is him. There was a show on Investigation Discovery called Twisted. And it was all about these documentaries about serial killers. And he was the first one. He was the first show. And yeah, I took those straight from the show. It works. It's so spooky because of just the kind of like business-like way he's talking about it, man. It works. It works really well as an intro to that track. Yeah, and what he's talking about is,

is the last person that he killed, he was already on death row. But the person that was in line to be in the electric chair in front of the guy, he had robbed a convenience store and shot this dude's parents all up that they own the store. And the guy was trying to hire Gaskins to kill him. So he snuck in the makings of a bomb.

and told the prisoner that if I run this wire up through the wall, we can talk to each other. We can have walkie-talkies, and we can talk to each other while we're in our cells. Wow. And as soon as he put that thing up to his head and said, can you hear me now? Boom! He blew his fucking head off. Holy shit. While he was on death row. He killed somebody while he was on death row. That's how fucking evil this guy was. That's messed up. That's a fucking judge. And I don't know where anybody stands. I still don't know.

I stand about the death penalty, to be honest with you. There's a lot of controversy. There always has been around it. But if you don't believe in it, he'll make you want to believe in it. George, I totally interrupted you. It looked like you had a burning question there. It wasn't burning, but the moment sort of passed. It was when you were talking about, you know, Niall doesn't have to write about Egyptian themes. I was curious if when the songwriting process happens,

And do you ever come across Egyptian terms and you're like, how the fuck do I say this? Because I know, I feel like I read a lot and I can say words, unlike Buke here, has a little trouble with that. Do you ever go, what the hell is this Egyptian word? Because I know, you know, going through the songs and some of the lyrics, you just come across a word and you go, well, it's obviously Egyptian because I cannot say this.

Yeah, we take our best guess at it. And sometimes I'll ask Carl, do you have any suggestions on how exactly this needs to be pronounced? And he's like, well, shit, man, who knows if anybody's even said that thing in a thousand years. And it's pretty much whatever best guess you can make is what it's got to be because we don't know. And there's no way to actually know how some of that was said.

That does take a little bit of the pressure off when there's not going to be some pharaoh stepping up and going, excuse me, you said that wrong. No witnesses. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we, you know, we try to get it as accurately as possible. And some of the, some of that stuff is pretty tricky and it's, it can be a tongue twister to get right. And then after a while you just get used to it, you know, and then it works. But yeah, we, we definitely, especially on some of the earlier records, it was like, what the hell is this? You know?

It's like a bunch of abbreviations and stuff.

Yeah.

So I was hoping we could just briefly, I'd love for you to plug it, A, but also just kind of want to know what your touring plans are coming up.

I know when we were trying to set the time up for this, I told George, well, maybe we could do something in September.

And George said, no, he's in France.

So I know you're going to France.

What else you guys got coming up?

Well, we're leaving on the 25th to do a European tour with suffocation.

And the first day is going to be in Warsaw, Poland. And it's going to be called the Massive Fest, the touring company that we use over there, Massive Music. They're celebrating their 25-year anniversary, I think. And so Marduk's going to be at that show. I think Vader's going to be at that show and Us and Suffocation. But yeah, it's our European tour. We leave out on the 25th and I'll be back on the 28th of September.

One Day Off. Rock and Roll, right? That's rough, dude. Rock and Roll. Can I ask you this, brother? I saw a video the other day of you guys playing Bloodstock in 2012. And I've seen clips of you guys playing Valken in the past. How is it playing these huge festivals for all these people? It's a lot of fun. There's, with faster music,

It doesn't seem to translate as well, in my opinion. I think real fast music belongs in a small club, so you can hear the details. Out there, it's great. You get to connect with a lot of people and all that. Of course, some of the slower stuff really hooks well live in a big open setting like that. I love the big festivals. I love the atmosphere of the big festivals. As far as the sound quality,

to play a shitty dive. That's why you love Jack so much. They had a great system in that place. Yeah, well, it's gone now. I think it was better on stage. Yeah. Better on stage than in the crowd, these boys tell me. Dependent on the show. Well, that sounds great. I mean, I want to kind of really be respectful of Dallas' time here, so have you guys got any kind of questions you want to close up with or anything like that? I'm good. Buke?

I have nothing. I will defer. Yeah. Well, I'm just going to kind of say, so you got that. You've got American tour coming up, I assume, sometime shortly thereafter, Dallas? Yep, yep. We'll be going to, actually, we got Australia and China for November. And I think we're home until January, February. And then that's when the American tour happens. Cool. I'll be out front. Anything else you want to talk about? Anything else coming down the pike that you'd like people to know?

I mean, that's plenty. No, man, that's pretty much what's going on. Hey, I got a suggestion for a business proposition for you. And I don't mean between you and me. I mean, so I can buy it. And it's I need a guitar instructional DVD from you, dude. Love to see you do that. That's cool. You know, I was thinking about I need to upgrade some of my equipment. I'm kind of still in the last century with my recording gear. I love the way the old stuff sounds, but I need to kind of ramp it up. But I was thinking about maybe I've been getting some questions.

about some of the solo work that I've done on various things. And I was thinking about just maybe throwing up a YouTube channel and breaking down a few of the solos or whatever. Because there actually has been some interest for that. And I just got to get the time to put something together that I could actually put something together with some quality. Yeah, you'd get some followers too. For those who want to follow you, Dallas, what's the best way they can reach out to you? Facebook. I got the Facebook thing going on. That's fine. I need to go ahead and make an official page.

I've always been, I'm just, I'm very recluse. I'm kind of a private person. So all that stuff is kind of freaking me out at first. But yeah, you know, check me out on Facebook. I'm definitely there. You can check out the Nile website. You can check out the Narcotic Wasteland website. And that's a good way to get in contact with me. Cool. I can't thank you enough for coming on, man. This is like kind of a high part of my podcasting life, really. I'm a big fan of yours, big fan of Nile. Thank you,

Thank you guys.

All right.

Well, that was our interview with Dallas.

I told her Wade so happy that he came on.

Honestly, kind of a little hero of mine, underground hero of mine.

So couldn't be more thrilled.

That was one of my we got a short thing we'll be talking about later in the episode.

And he's one of my little would like to interview guys that so it's a little feather in my cap.

Jay, I don't know if we could ever do a top three of Niall because I'm not a fan.

You're I'm not, you know, versed in them like you are.

Could you do maybe your own, put you on the spot, maybe a top three of their albums? Yeah, definitely, man. In Their Dark and Shrines, Annihilation of the Wicked. That's my favorite one, Annihilation of the Wicked. But I always have these really long titles. Their last album. Black Seats of Vengeance, one called Black Seats of Vengeance. And the new one is really good, by the way. It's outstanding. Yeah. And make sure to stick around to the end of the episode where we will play you another song from Narcotic Ways.

Yeah, which by the way, I think one of the primary differences is that the songs are a little shorter in Narcotic Wasteland, a little more to the point. He's definitely talking about more socially conscious stuff, as we talked about in the interview.

So a couple days ago, Iron Maiden premiered the first song off of their forthcoming new album, The Book of Souls. And to put it mildly...

Jay loves it.

To put it mildly, it has created a civil war among the Metalheads podcast. And so we are about to enter the Iron Maiden deathmatch. Three will go in. Only one will come out. Only two will come out. So you guys, you guys, I think I will say this. I think your reaction was more visceral than mine. So I want you to talk about it first. All right. Iron Maiden, speed of sound.

In a few more words, as you may have heard from Will, Will said it sounded like a 70s Kiss song. And he's right. It definitely has a 70s vibe to it, which they may have existed in the 70s, but they did not release any albums in the 70s. And so therefore, there's no reason why they should.

Iron Maiden has never sounded like a 70s band. Actually, Roundhouse Tapes might have come out in 79. Official albums. Yeah, fair enough. But even then, they sounded like New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I have to tell you, the funny thing is, is I like almost everything you guys dislike about it. That's the irony. I feel like they're doing something a little different. I think it is heavy, though. I mean, I recognize that the riff is not a big

you know kind of like a trotting trooper riff. Right. And I hear you. I hear what you're saying. It's not necessarily a signature thing. I think that you know what it reminds me of a little bit is some of Bruce's solo stuff in all honesty. And that's exactly the same thing that I don't like about some of Bruce's solo stuff. He has some good solo stuff. I'm not knocking at all. But that was always a complaint of mine with his solo stuff was that it just wasn't particularly hooky. You know, there was nothing that, you know,

Like Ghost of the Navigator. I can, that song gets so stuck in my head. It's got such, it's got a groove and the fucking wicker man, the ghost of Navigators, you know, I mean, it's just fucking, it just fucking gets in your head. And it actually reminds me of that song a little bit. And I, but it doesn't because it's so even all the way across, you know, they're, they're playing the music and it doesn't have any, like, I don't know, like a time change or a, or a, a, a, a rhythmic,

I don't know the right terminology but you know it just stays the same all the way through which so but I feel like and and feel free to crucify me on this but I feel like I have a parallel from their past and I have to tell you that when this record came out this I wasn't thrilled about the single and it's two minutes to midnight and because it's that it's a similar kind of riff it's not a big diggit boogadoo you know it's not a big chunky chunky chunky trotting riff and

I mean I'm not saying it necessarily reminds me of that song I just remember when that came out I was like well this is kind of radio friendly or something like that you know at the time and I and I realized that's not necessarily what you guys think of the new song that it's radio friendly but I also think it was radio friendly I'd be okay I mean probably their most well one they're probably their two most radio friendly songs can I play with madness and wasted years yeah I love both of those songs you know because it gets

stuck in your head. Can I play with madness? It gets in there and it rattles around in your brain. This one is kind of stuck in my head though, man. I swear to God. The chorus. Dude, it's pretty slick, man. But I will say, and the truth is, we weren't really going to decide this matter because the truth is you guys don't like it and they do. But here's the other point, and George and I were kind of arguing this one back and forth, which is I think it's a good sign for the record.

because I think the record's going to kind of be not experimental, but I think it's going to go to some different places. Given Bruce's tendency to write songs that don't have hooks, this 18-minute song could be unbearable. Actually, did you read the, they talked about that, the song a little bit in an online news story. And actually, I am a little worried about that song now, though, because it sounds like, if I, if I, I have to admit I didn't read the whole article, but it sounds like it's

It's primarily based on piano. But it might be that Bruce was beating it out on the piano and that was how he taught it to him. I don't know. Maybe I read the article. I should have read that a little more closely before I quoted it. But I have to tell you, actually, I walked away from the article feeling like a... But I love it. I honestly think it's a good song. I think it's a little adventurous for them. I don't think it says that the whole record's going to kind of not be more in the Iron Maiden thing. And so what I'm waiting to see is if in the continuity

of the record itself, if it turns out to be a great record, if you guys don't come around on that song a little bit, we'll see. We'll see. And I mean, if you just hate it, you hate it. And that's all there is to it. Or really dislike it. It's just really bland. Yeah. So, you know, I would love to then get the album and be like, oh, the rest of it's awesome, though. Yeah, yeah. It's funny, because I honestly think it's just one man's junk is another man's treasure. That's what we're dealing with here. Because it actually works for me, because it's kind of dissonant

It's kind of in a weird minor key at the chorus, which is a weird choice. And at least the vocal parts are. Treasure my junk, Jay. Treasure my junk. You know I do. You know, Jay, when I was listening to it, I have, when George and I did a top three Maiden list, Brave New World, I think it was two or three on my favorite Iron Maiden albums. They had a couple missteps after that, in my opinion, with Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death. There were a couple of songs on each of those albums.

maybe one on Dance of Life and Death that I liked. I didn't like that record at all. Final Frontier, when that came out, I was like, man, this, you know, El Dorado at the start, Mother of Mercy, Coming Home, The Alchemist, you know, pretty cool, catchy songs. And then after four years, this comes out and we hear the song. And the first thing I told George is that they sound old. And we're, we're, we're,

I only hear Bruce, but it just sounds old. You know, that's actually a point that I'll take. And I'm not going to kind of even go against you on that. And so there might be some part in my kind of accepting or not accepting of this that allows for the step they will have lost just due to the passage of time. You know what I mean? I understand. It's like that Black Sabbath reunion record. It was good, don't get me wrong, but go back and compare it to, you know,

like the way Ozzy was singing on Snowblind. And it's a whole different thing. You know what I mean? Like it really is. I understand that Bruce's voice is not going to be what it was in 1983. Yeah. But that's not really what, you know, he could sing in a lower register like he does. Yeah. And still have hooks. He doesn't have to hit the high notes to have a good hook. They just need to write a good hook. You know, one of the other things that I'm going to kind of put forward about it that I like too, which is,

And there's a complaint that's been kind of coming on the internet of basically all the Reunion stuff. And some people, you know, there's a lot of people who don't like Brave New World, which is probably not a surprise to you, which I love it too. In fact, we did our Reunion records recently when we all chose it. It was one of all of ours. But a lot of people feel like they repeat their choruses a little bit too much these days. And like Matter of Life and Death is a great example. It opens with, you know, like a little kind of bass line and then it takes off. You know what I mean? Like they were always, they all kind of start and end the same, that kind of thing.

I'm not that's fine with me a lot of people have a problem with that I felt like this one is this tight compact it's only like four minutes long might even be less than that just kind of in and out and and we talked you know we talked yesterday via telephone and this is what George hates about it and what I love about it which is it kind of reminds me of a deep purple song yeah yeah and I mean in that which is not to say George hates deep purple it's just he wants his maiden to be his maiden and that kind of thing exactly keep you chocolate out of my mouth

I hate the purple.

You know,

another thing,

this is me personally,

Jay,

I like those,

you know,

as a guy who loves live albums and you hear it so well with,

with Iron Maiden's live albums that they do.

I love those booming,

repeating courses that a crowd of 70,000 down South is fucking singing.

Like,

you know,

the run to the hills,

The Blood Brothers.

And we're on the same page on that. That's not a complaint I share with you at all.

I mean about it.

Yeah, this doesn't. I know it's only one song. I know this is a double album.

But I will say this too. I do have one actual criticism of it.

Because I like it as noted several times obviously. I don't think it's produced that well.

No.

The sound is not magnificent and I thought maybe it was like a pre-release. They don't want people whatever whatever.

Which is by the way.

It's the same guy that's produced all the albums since Brave New World. And the same complaint has been around. But I went and listened to the preview track on iTunes, because you can get the whole song now. And it sounds the same there. So it wasn't just some pre-release. So that disappointed me a little. And actually, I do kind of went one step back to kind of change the subject slightly, which is, you had to like the video, though. Yes, I was thinking that, too. A bunch of video game stuff, yeah. I loved it. It was like the evolution from the early 8-bits, all the way.

the way up through first-person shooters. It was cool. But still, it was an awesome video. But Maiden being the band they are, their videos have still come off recently a little cheap. You know? It's like, you're a fucking Iron Maiden. Put some real money behind this. You know, that's been a kind of post-2000 thing with them in general, I think. Everything from the production to like, honestly, none of the covers

are that amazing.

You know?

Never.

Not since Derek Riggs.

Yeah.

And he did do Brave New World, I believe, right?

He did the cover of Accident of Birth, too, the Bruce solo record, which is like a really cool cover, too.

Right.

You know, I won't say, I will say this.

I will allow for this.

It's not the greatest Maiden song I've ever heard, not by a long shot.

But to me, as a lead-in to the new record, this is probably the biggest gap between us.

It's given me hope, and I think it's sapped some of your hope away.

Yeah, I like it. I like it, man. It's good. I've listened to it a few times, actually. Did you guys give it one shot and that was like goodbye? Or did you think, well, maybe I'll take another spin? I listened to it like three times. One for me. Now you make it through the whole thing. Wow. Really? Wow. Okay. You know what? I'm right. You're wrong. I think that's clear to everybody here. Well, by the time this podcast posts, the album will be out and we will know. So we'll follow up on

on our next episode with the ultimate fate of the new Iron Maiden album.

And I can't wait to see what we think of it. I mean, the truth is, is we, I, everybody on this podcast believes that you like what you like and you don't like what you don't like, and that's all there is to it. So it's not really about the quality of the thing that we can totally hammer down.

I still have hope.

I, and I, and I, I expect this to be a pretty neat record. I'm looking forward to it. And, uh, and I also will say this, it is kind of an experimental sound for them, or at least it's a

a little different than the usual norm. But I don't expect that the whole record will be like that. There's going to be some maiden bangers on there. You know it. Let's hope. Yeah. So, all right. Well, undecided as far as the universal right and wrong goes. But interesting. You know what? Their releases post-2000 always divide people. Always. Yep. Because I hated Dance of Death. I thought it was terrible. It was almost nothing I liked on there. Yep. And probably the worst maiden cover of all time. That was horrible.

All right, well, bloodied and wearied from this deathmatch, we move on into news.

All right, so this first item, I almost passed it by, but I decided to click on it and take a look.

Wasp is premiering a new song from their upcoming Golgotha album. And the song's called Last Runaway. And yeah. I hated it, dude. I went and listened to it only because, I mean, I didn't know about it. And you put it on the script. So I went and checked it out. Wow. It's like a Journey song. It's really bad. It's like, it's funny because one of their later albums that I really liked is Headless Children. Headless Children. And it sounded like,

a much more commercial version of something from Headless Children. You know, because that is, by the way, that is one of their later good records. I remember when that came out, I was like, whoa, these guys are kind of back on track here. But no, I don't like it. I didn't like it at all. It's too commercial. I mean, I will give Blackie just the merest hint of credit that it's a decently well-written and performed and recorded song. However, it does not fall within the boundaries of what

I listened to anymore. It's an 80s journey song. And I kind of stared at my computer in non-belief. I mean, I don't hold out much hope for them anyway. That was with Headless Children was the last one I owned. Me too. I do have Crimson Idol, which I know Buke is a fan of. I was never much of a fan of it. Headless Children was really it for me. They are. It's interesting. We've never talked about them by before, the three of us in any case. And I'm glad that we are because, you know, I still to this day, like that first record. God.

I love Wasp and I really like The Last Command. Yeah, I agree. And then Inside the Electric Circus is a steaming pile of feces. Yeah, that was when they took a left turn. And then we came back to Headless Children. Which was great. Which was pretty damn good. You know, he's a good singer. I like the way he sings. He's a good writer. There's no question about that. But yeah, I agree. I don't know what he was going for in this, but not my cup of tea. And it's too bad because I wouldn't mind. If they did something good,

I'd buy it. You know, if they did something, I would. Yeah. Yeah. They were one of the bands that I never saw that I always wanted to see, but now I'm like, no, I couldn't go see them now. Me either. There is a pretty good, I mean, it doesn't quite count, but there's a pretty good, some concerts from the 80s on YouTube you can watch. Right on. One of them, which was like live in London was an official VHS thing or something, and I watched it a couple times. It's funny that, and I did that like a few months ago because I'd never seen them either. When I was in eighth grade,

I had an albino long-haired hamster. And I named him after my... I inherited him from a friend who wasn't taking care of him. It wasn't like I was like, oh, I want this. It was like, hey... It'll die if I don't take it. Yeah, it was a rescue. And so I named it after my two favorite people at the time. D. Snyder and Blackie Laws. I called him D. Lawless. And he was the first, so he was D. Lawless one. Yeah, I was a huge fan, man.

I was too. I really was. And I thought he was a cool dude and everything. And they didn't get as big as I thought they would. Yeah, it's too bad. But anyway, don't waste your time on it out there. There's nothing special about it. Nope. So honestly, I think Motorhead is on its very last leg right now. Apparently, recently, Motorhead was playing, and the band was playing Ace of Spades, and then they transitioned to the next song, which was Overkill.

And apparently Lemmy just kept singing the lyrics for Ace of Spades over Overkill. Have you watched it? I have not watched it. You might and and I'll tell you a couple things one is it's very funny name for the video which is over Spades over Spades. I know so that's cool but also it's worth watching just to kind of see that he just you can see he he didn't he didn't move very much because he kind of can't you know and you can see just watch it he looks like an old man.

standing up there with a bass guitar that's a little confused about the world so and he's just sort of on autopilot and yeah and his his auto autopilot re-looped itself around and didn't move on yeah and he just looks a little not flustered but you can just see he can't really you'll see you should watch it you should watch it he just looks like a guy who's been through a lot let's put it that way it is sad see the recent news that lemmy has switched from whiskey to vodka for health reasons a very wise choice yeah definitely better to go with the clear like

And he also says the orange juice, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I don't know how many more live shows there's going to be. It actually happened at the, whatever that big England thing is. You know what I say? Good riddance. Oh. Have a little respect, even if you don't like the music. Nobody in the 80s, nobody could sport super short cut off jean shorts like Lemmy. Oh, man.

Yeah, I've seen that. Have you seen a picture of those super short jean shorts? Mm-hmm. They're rough. Oh, my God. They're rough. But it's Lemmy, man. Well, it's a sign of the times, man. I mean, he's not. Let's just say this. He doesn't seem to be looking any better. Every time we talk about this. He's just a little worse. Yeah. That guy's losing weight at kind of a shocking rate. He doesn't look good. He doesn't look good. So I was a little surprised to find out that apparently Immortal is going to continue without Abbott. Hmm.

And Abeth is doing something too. Right. He's already played live. At least he's not calling it Abeth's Immortal. You know? And you know what? Okay. Maybe it will. Or Immortal AD or whatever. Yeah. Or BC. It may be that they will continue, but the truth is that Abeth will continue without them. Right. Well, it says they're already working on new material. I'm not, I don't, it's going to be very interesting to see who they're going to get to sing the songs.

I thought he was probably the primary writer I assumed

what's his name

the guy that used to be the guitar player

but he had to stop playing because of

like tendonitis or something

and he just does the songwriting

oh okay

him and the drummer are still carrying on

and

will they get a big name

you know so that it's

like

intriguing or will they just get somebody else

you've never heard of and just make a poor rendition of Immortal.

Well, I mean, in their little underground way, they're kind of kissed now, you know what I mean?

Like, there's not a lot that can be replaced there with respect, you know what I mean?

And what I mean is it's difficult to replace them with respect.

There's like this whole personality thing that happens in that band, even if it's just the memes you're into.

Yeah.

I'm sorry to hear it, actually, because I like them.

I like them together.

And I'll be more likely to look for his new record than theirs.

So who's left in Immortal? The drummer? Okay, whatever. Unless you're freaking Gene Hoagland or Hellhammer or some sort of elite drummer, I don't care. And who did the singing? Abbath. Who did the guitars? Abbath. Okay, so what's left for there to be in Immortal? It's going to be a completely new band. It is. It is.

If it was me, I would hope I would be like, let's just wrap it up. You know what I mean? This will just be a joke. I'm not really with like foreigners still tours. You know what I mean? But without the proper front man, the proper singer, what's the point? I'll give Journey a pass because that guy sounds so much like him and it actually kind of works. Did you guys watch that movie about them? No. It's kind of worth watching. What's it called? I think it's actually called Don't Stop Believing and it's about how they found him in the Philippines.

He was like in a journey, you know, my wife might like that. It follows that journey. It was worth watching. I'm not a huge fan, but it was worth watching just to see this guy. He is the guy was everybody in Philippines is poor and he was very poor and and now he's, you know, guys worth millions now and it's kind of a cool story to watch. But that sounds cool. I like documentaries. Yeah, it's worth your time. It's on Netflix. I think if you get bored. All right. So do you guys remember the metal grasshopper video short series that

Dave Hill did with Phil Anselmo. Yep. Where Dave Hill, Dave Hill like stalks Phil Anselmo at his home. Trying to like teach him to be metal. Yeah, he's like teach me to be metal. It was a really funny little, little series. In fact, I need to go and like catch the last few I did. I saw the first couple and they're really funny because, you know, he's this pathetic little wannabe metal guy and he just keeps annoying the shit out of Phil until Phil agrees to teach him the ways of metal.

And then he just fucking, you know, abuses the guy and treats him like shit. And it's, it's just kind of funny because, yeah, because it's metal and it's, it's humor. Uh, well, anyway, um, Dave Hill, the guy who, uh, came up with the idea for that and, and starred in it with Phil apparently did a black metal street performance in New York city recently. He dressed up in corpse paint, went out on the street with a guitar and a teeny little amp and just played.

RIPPING GUITAR LINES AND SCREECHED. AND THERE'S JUST A SHORT LITTLE VIDEO ABOUT IT ON THERE AND IT'S KIND OF FUNNY BECAUSE LIKE AT THE END YOU SEE HIM LIKE IN A RESTAURANT OR A MCDONALD'S OR SOMETHING AND HE'S JUST SITTING YOU SEE HIM THROUGH THE GLASS AND HE'S JUST EATING A CHEESEBURGER LIKE KIND OF PATHETIC LIKE AND YOU KNOW PEOPLE ARE GIVING HIM A WIDE BIRTH ON THE STREET SO. WAS IT LIKE TIMESQUARE OR SOMETHING OR IS IT LIKE. I COULDN'T TELL WHERE IT WAS I JUST I ONLY KNEW IT WAS NEW YORK BECAUSE

because it said it was in New York. Well, I haven't even seen the first thing, so I'm going to go watch that. That sounds awesome, the grasshopper thing. Okay, cool. I'll check it out. Metal Grasshopper. But I mean, I'll look forward to seeing this other one, too. I'll be honest with you, I don't know who Dave Hale is. Is he a comedian? Yeah, I think he is. Yeah, I hadn't heard of him before Metal Grasshopper. So unfortunately, Bruce Corbett of Rigor Mortis and currently of War Beast had to undergo

a heart surgery this past week. You know what's bugging me? It's been almost a week. I thought I read it wrong. I thought he was trying to get money to have the surgery. No, he had the surgery past Monday. This is just to defray the cost of the bills. It's almost a couple years to the date, right? For Mike Scotia? Yeah. That's too bad. So what bothers me is that the surgery was almost like tomorrow will be a week. And I couldn't find anything on, did he live?

How's it going? Yeah. So, I mean, I guess no news is good news. If he was dead, I'm sure they would have told us. Yeah. I was sorry to hear the whole thing. And I read it wrong, too, a little bit, Buke. But because I think at the very least when they posted the story, he hadn't had it yet, I think. But you know what I mean? But as George says, it's done past. Yeah, whatever. But yeah, man, that's, you know, if nothing else, it casts a weird light on the fact that a lot of these guys are getting up there to that kind of age now. You know what I mean? I mean, we're just talking about Lemmy's health.

That's one thing, but I mean, a lot of guys, a lot of the metal guys are 40 to 60 years old now, you know? Yeah. And so as we were sort of alluding to, there is a donation site. It's not a Kickstarter. It's, I can't remember the name of the site. I'll look it up in a second. But it's basically like a health donation site. And you can go, they're only you, you caring.com. Thank you, Buke. And they're only trying to raise like $9,000.

Oh, okay, and I I went and I donated some money and

In the name of the metalheads podcast for and so fucking special colored vinyl

What's that and for a special artery clogged vinyl? Oh, you're kidding

Because there's no there's no incentive plans. It's just a donation. I know I know

I was just trying to say you would do it for vinyl right they were doing one of these go ahead George

So, you know, I put my money where my mouth is, doing our part to help get Bruce back where he belongs, fronting a metal band. You know, you set an example, George. I'll follow you after the episode. I'll go over and do that because I was concerned when I heard that. Right on. You know, they were doing something similar recently for Van Williams. Wife was quite ill. Really? Yeah. But she is cured now. Really?

Oh, good. Because it sounded like dire to me. Okay, good. It was like stage four ovarian cancer or something. Also, hey, but in another medical news, the drummer from Tankard had a stroke. Really? I didn't hear that. Yeah. Hospitalized. I felt like the details were vaguely sketchy. They were sort of waiting to see how serious it was or whatever. Hard to be a drummer after a stroke. I should think so. Yeah. Well, we hope that he recovers soon. Of course.

Our last news item is one that kind of pisses me off, but I'm sure Buke is over there grinning and chuckling to himself. Ghost is doing a short unplugged tour leading up to the release of their new album Meliora. It pisses me off because they're going to be here the day after I leave for Seattle, so I'll miss them here. Oh, dude. And they're going to be in Seattle four days before I get there. So I miss them in both places just barely. I've lived that before.

I've spent shows I missed exactly that way. Basically, I think they're

free shows at record stores, aren't they? Is that what it is? Yeah, and if you buy a copy of the new album, they'll sign it for you. Oh, nice. And Buke is going. That's why I said he was chuckling, because he's planning on going. And I'm hoping, I'm going to put it out here for everybody to know, so now you have to do it, that I'm hoping that he will pick me up a copy and get it signed for me. Please, please, please. Maybe. Maybe.

Oh, did you?

And next time on the George and Jay podcast.

That's right.

I have to find out what to do with Bree.

That's the only, my wife would be at a bridal shower.

If you don't even go, I'm going to kick your ass.

What's the record store?

Soundgarden.

Soundgarden.

Is that a sizable place?

Yeah.

Yeah, big enough.

Well, we'll see.

I mean, and you know what?

They'll probably have 30 minutes to be my guess.

Probably do that.

something like, you know,

don't fear the reaper or something.

They're going to do some,

you know,

they're going to do a weird cover.

Yeah.

That's going to be one of the cool parts.

Well,

I hope you'll go to see it.

Somebody's got to see it.

Yeah.

You know,

I would,

I just,

I just shoot up all my vacation and they're down in,

um,

so they're doing it.

Southern,

Southern Los Angeles,

Southern California.

If they were coming to San Francisco,

it'd be no problem,

but yeah.

Yeah.

So,

yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Can we go back to,

uh,

a quick tour?

I just want to announce this. I'm probably going to be going to this Friday, September 11th. Ashes of Aries is playing in Baltimore. Won't you be at the Napalm Death Show with me and Frederick? I would rather go see Ashes of Aries. Silence. A deadly silence fell over. I'm just saying that because Ashes of Aries is on the five. I hear you. They're on the five city.

tour. And Matt was so cool to join us on the podcast. Where is it? We could meet him. They're coming around Atlanta, Richmond, Baltimore, Philly, and New York. Oh, Baltimore. Where are they playing again? Here? Playing at the Angels Rock Bar. Oh, I don't know that. With Ghost of War. Don't know them. Hmm. All right. Quandaries. Indeed. Yep. I was just pulled this up just looking for

We're talking about Van's Wife. Just go ahead. Alright, let's move on to new releases. This week's new releases! Yeah, they are! Spend your hard-earned money now! The last couple weeks have been a little sparse for new releases, but this time we have a whole shit ton of them for you. And this is actually spanning a couple weeks, because we're not going to be around next week. I'll be in Seattle. So, this is basically covering the next couple of weeks.

of just tons of new albums coming out. So I'm going to try and move through this semi quickly. The first one is Battlecross and their new album Rise to Power. You know, you had asked me previously, George, if I knew these and I don't actually I haven't heard these. I was thinking of Power Wolf. So honestly, I don't know these guys, but I know you guys have talked about them quite a bit. Is this the sort of like ever touring never stops? Yeah. Bukes been the one carrying the flag for these guys. I've I've listened to them before and been like, yeah, it's all right. But then when I saw them play,

with Crowbar, I was like, holy shit, these guys are really good. So I'm definitely back in this new album. Okay, cool. Really cool stuff. I do believe we have the promo, so I'll be checking it out today. Yep. And then, as we were just talking about, the new Ghost album, Meliora, will be out. I'm hoping I can, it comes out the 21st of August. I'm leaving for Seattle the 22nd, so I'm hoping I can get a copy of that to

Take With Me On The Plane. Right on. What's your guys' hope for this new album, from what we've heard? You think it's going to be that return to the first one? It sure sounds like it. I don't think it'll be a return, but I think it's going to be good. I mean, I think they've moved on a little bit. It's heavier than the first one, everything that they've played so far. And I think the production's tighter than the first album. You know, the first album had good songs that were reasonably well produced, but still a little raw. Yeah. Go ahead.

songs from what we've heard they're much cleaner production but they're more in the style well and more evolved sound from the first album whereas the second album just went way off in a different direction yeah with it was just maybe i don't know almost too elaborate yeah it almost could have been one of my for our top three today that's how much i just didn't like it and we'll talk about our top three when we get to it but it's yeah no i went into it yeah i like everything i

I've heard. I like everything I've heard, so I think it's going to be a good record.

Yeah, I'm optimistic.

Yeah.

Next up, we have the new Hate Eternal album, In Furnace. I'm looking forward to this one. I'm only a recent convert to Hate Eternal. In the past, they were maybe a little too brutal for me. The production was maybe, which is odd, you know, Eric Rutan being the massively awesome producer he is, it's funny that I would say I wasn't into the production, but it was a little muddy for me in the past.

Like the really early albums. So, uh, but everything I've heard from Infernus is pretty badass. Um, not on my radar yet. So I'll put it on my radar. We'll check it out. Yeah. I haven't gotten a promo for that. So it's pretty much going to be waiting for the, uh, the release. You were, um, um, you kind of nodded your head. Is this something you're into? No, I have always gone to the heavier shows. I always see people wearing their shirts. Oh. And,

When I have gone to listen to them, they're still... Here we go. Point of Laugh at Buke. A little... That too heavy for me. Yeah, yeah. Kind of comes off like a noise for me. Well, I think George was kind of right there with you for a second. So, I mean, I'll check it out. That's... You guys both give me proper warning. So, I'll go see what I think. Yeah, I mean, it's... You know, I think if you're a fan of Nile, which you are, I think Hate Eternal's right up your alley. It's sort of the same, like...

It's not brutal, like the real bloody gory brutal death metal, but it's pretty intense death metal.

Cool.

But I think the production's really good on the new album, so it just sounds good to me.

Awesome.

Next up is the second album from Lichgate called An Antidote for the Glass Pill.

I just happened to see this on the list.

I haven't heard anything about it yet.

I don't know what it's like but I did kind of like their first album.

That's a great title by the way. That's a cool record title.

Yeah.

So I'm going to be checking that out as soon as I can find a copy.

Cool.

Next up we have Rivers of Nile and their album Monarchy.

That I listened to just the other day.

What did you think?

I liked it.

I mean it's not amazing.

It kind of fits with Bukes' previous description of

of Hate Eternal, honestly. It's pretty heavy, man. To me, it's heavy, but it's in that current, in my style, like it's that technical death metal. Yeah, Buk requested this. He's like, hey, if we get the promo for Rivers of Nile, hook me up. And like 30 seconds later, I was like, okay, here you go. Because I hadn't downloaded it. Here you go, here it is. Beautiful. Yeah, I haven't even listened to the whole thing yet, but yeah, I mean, it sounds cool. It sounds cool. And you'd

You're digging it, I'm taking it

Okay, cool

I've only listened to a little bit, but so far I'm like, all right, maybe

Yeah, maybe, there you go

Next we have The Sword and their new album, High Country

Super pass, pass all the way

Yeah, pass, next

Did you listen to the single?

Nope, because I was, honestly, I value you guys as my good friends

You guys didn't like it, so

Hated it

Yep, moving on

I like Warp Riders

Yeah, me too

I think we're all in the same boat about that one. You know, Guys of the Earth was pretty good too, but they've consistently kind of been going more towards radio. The new one is basically a ZZ Top Record, from what I can tell. This next one I haven't heard yet, and I'm really curious to hear what it sounds like. This is the new Wild Throne album, Harvest of Darkness. Yeah, I'm interested, especially because there was a EP that came out after the... Okay, they have this release that's on Bandcamp, and then they have a new one

called Bloodmaker that's really different from that, from what was on I Think. George, I've seen this artwork. Do you have this? Which one? The Wild Throne. I got one of their albums at Death Fest, right? Yeah, I knew it. What did you pick up? Bloodmaker. Bloodmaker. It's very different from that first one, George. Is it really? I think so. Okay, maybe very is an exaggeration, but it's

It's quite different from that first album, which I know you also picked up on vinyl. Because I remember when you posted the photo of it, which has got a super cool cover. So I'm interested to see what direction they're going in. These guys seem to be growing or moving or something. I don't even know what. They're very talented guys. The guy's voice is a little harder for me to get into. Well, you should check out that first record, Buick. It's different on that one. Or maybe that's the one you're talking about. No, this is the new one. I just saw a video for today. Because I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Jay, isn't this who I asked the Mutoid Man guys?

Yeah, or they're about to be. Yeah, they're about to be. Yeah, I'm totally confused by these guys. Honestly, if only for a scientific experiment, go and listen to that. It's just a snippet of the first one on Bandcamp. He sings completely different. When I heard Bloodmaker, I was like, wow, this is so different. So we'll see. Yeah, so there you go. See what it's like. This next one I'm pretty excited about. In fact, I pre-ordered it on vinyl already.

Maybe even with a t-shirt. I think I did with a t-shirt. This is Wolf Heart from Finland and their second album Shadow World. Last year, I think it was last year. No, 2013, they released their first album Winterborn. And it was pretty awesome, sort of melodic death metal, black metal. The main guy for Wolf Heart actually used to be in the band called Before the Dawn, who were

a pretty cool melodic death metal band also from finland and uh he just sort of changed directions uh definitely went more black metal with wolf heart and i know my friend josh just fucking lost his mind over that first album so looking forward to hearing shadow world cool you guys come around on this next one yet yeah that next one he's talking about this next one he's referring to is the new ahab album the boats of glenn kerrig and uh

I have actually come around more to it. As I was mentioning before in the last podcast, when Jay was saying that he liked it and I was on the fence, I needed to put it on and focus on it with headphones and just sort of like kind of zone out with it because it's so mesmerizing in a way. Yeah. And so I did that a couple of days ago and I enjoyed it. I still want to do a comparison with the Giant to see what,

the differences are. Yeah, fair enough. But it is definitely a good album in its own. There you go. And it's not a groundbreaker, you know, but it's cool. It's cool. It's one I'll be listening to a few times. I'm not going to, it's not just going to die with me. That's probably the best I can say about it right now. I was, I was talking to Buke, I think it was yesterday actually, that I was predicting that by like two more albums from now, there won't be any harsh vocals.

Ooh,

that they're just going to keep big because I mean,

from where they started out to where they are now,

their sound has changed so much.

And I think,

I mean,

so much of this new album is clean guitars,

clean vocals.

There's still plenty of harsh vocals,

but I think there's less than there was on the last album.

And so I could see two albums from now,

no harsh vocals.

We need to do a chart because there's a lot of bands that go that direction.

We should do a three or four or five record chart that shows how it is you become respectable. It's called the Opeth Syndrome. Mastodon has it too. Yes. I tell you, you cannot go from funeral doom to all clean vocals. Unless that's the way you started. I mean, but it's weird. I kind of like that stuff. I like what they're doing though. I like, to me, the clean vocal parts and the way that even the tone of the guitar and stuff, it's a little different.

It's different than what a lot of people are doing

there in juxtaposition to the heavier parts

I like it

It's working for me

but these are all valid arguments

gentlemen

Clearly these guys are walking down a path

and it's leaving their past behind them

so we'll see

But they're evolving

and it's been a good evolution so far

Yeah, and they're loud

Can't knock them

Can't knock them

Next on the list

I'm going to take this one

Niall, what should not be unearthed

Definitely

We were lucky we graced with a promo, so I've had it for a while. So have the boys. And I got a vinyl copy coming. I like it. I will say this. If you're a Niall fan, you won't be disappointed. That's the best I can say. Yeah. Next up is the new Pentagram album, Curious Volume. There was a pre-release track or something. Did you listen to that, George? I did. Thus far, that's the only thing I've heard from the new album. I thought it was all right. I mean, it was in line with, you know,

What I know of Pentagram. Okay. So I'll definitely check out the rest of the album. Right on. Next album is a band that when I saw the video and I heard, not the video, but I heard the first single off of, we're talking about Amorphous, Under the Red Cloud, when the first track was released, finally I was given hope. Because I've said it before, I am a huge fan of later.

Amorphous, Eclipse, Silent Waters, Skyforger being my favorite. And then what was their album after that? Magic and Mayhem, the tales from the early years and the beginning of times, more importantly. The beginning of times was not good. The end of times. What? You crazy. It was a great album. And you liked it. I remember you liked it. No, sorry. I did like the beginning.

I just pulled up the album artwork. Circle I did not like. Really? I really liked Circle too, the last album. I was wondering why it was giving you hope. I'm like, their last few albums have been awesome. The Beginning of Times, Skyforger, I fucking loved. Circle, eh, maybe I'll go back and listen to it again. I think you should. Yeah. Alright. And the last new release really bears no more inspection. It is, of course, the Iron Maiden album, Book of Souls. Do they have a new album coming out? No. Apparently.

I think it's a repackaging of a reimagining of Iron Maiden in the mid to late 70s. For them it's I think Dave Weindorf is involved. I was surprised it wasn't the new best of. Well they'll do that after Book of Souls comes out they'll do a new live album followed by a new greatest hits collection. Live album, live DVD, greatest hits collection. It'll be the same greatest hits collection that comes out every year. And then there'll be like

A.D.V.D. series about Bruce flying fighter planes. Before we move on to our top three and what we're listening to, can I make an observation that just hit me about the crowd yesterday? Because my head's been spinning. I was looking at the pictures from yesterday. Sure. The Death Fest crowd, George, was all true metalheads for the most part. Like diehard metalheads. Yeah. Glad to hear it. The barbecue crowd. Not so much. It was more of a party.

atmosphere. Yeah. I mean, I didn't like see anybody running around that screamed poser at me. No, no, no, no, no, no. Or like to me rather than at me. But it was a more diverse crowd because it's a more diverse group of bands. I think I saw one vest. I saw one when we were walking in. You know, they're kind of a weird, you know that, but I mean, they're like a weird, there are people who go to see them for this almost performance artist. There are a lot of people who don't like metal that probably like that band. That's true. Another strange

thing, Jay, that Gwar was not the headliners. Oh, that is weird. I didn't realize. They said they were. It's their fest, but the Descendants played last. Yeah. Not sure what that was all about. That is weird, dude. Especially because if it was going to be anybody, might as well have been down. But I mean, weird. Maybe because when Descendants were playing, the sun was starting to go down and maybe Gwar wanted to be on while the light was still good so that people could

see all the stage stuff.

Because I don't think they had any lights set up.

Yeah.

My gruesome shirt is now ruined.

Used up.

Stained blood red.

Oh, is it?

It actually looks kind of better now, dude.

Yeah, it's more gruesome.

That's pretty cool, dude.

I like it.

It reminds me of the cover of a Merciful Fate record that I'll have to send to you.

You can't wear that anymore, though.

No, you can't wear it, but it's a souvenir.

You can wear it to shows.

If I was a homeless bum on the street.

No, I can wear it to another GWAR show again.

There you go.

Or any show. I mean, come on. It's a souvenir. Well, I have to say, yours isn't quite as appropriate as Will's. Will's almost looks like it's part of the shirt. Because his was like solid. All right, why don't we move on to our top three disappointments.

George, when you type this in, I thought we had fucking done this before. Pre-J. I don't recall. I bring a whole new level of disappointment to the show. Top three disappointments. Matt, Will, J. Which one was three and which one was one? Or is it just like a tie? The world will never know. All right, I'm going to go first because I usually go first. Yep. And this one is pretty recent.

I think George might like him but I thought that the last maybe three or four probably four Electric Wizard records were really interesting and Electric Wizard were really interesting and good the new one was so boring and lame and bad that I couldn't believe it it was not a good record and I and I record store day one yeah and to see it to have seen well I mean it was it was already out there was just like there was a special pressing for record store day but honestly man I couldn't

I honestly couldn't make it through the whole record. That's how boring it was. I've never been a huge Electric Wizard fan because production. Their albums are so raw, the vocals are so buried that I just get fed up with it. I'm a little more tolerant of it these days than I used to be, but I still haven't really gotten into them yet. Well, I would say if there was a title you should check out, George, it's called Let Us Pray. That one is immaculate production compared to everything else.

And I wouldn't even try that hard to sell you on it anyway. But yeah, man, I just couldn't believe, like, for this band, I was going around making, I thought, really interesting records, suddenly just took a left turn and just made one of the, it was my disappointment of this year, that record. It was just a waste of time. Wow. So, yeah, number three. All right, Buke, you're number three. Thinking we did this before, I'm trying to remember in my head, if I mess them up and somebody says, oh, you said different ones last time, it's a fucking podcast. Oh, hey, I remember doing it.

I have 10 disappointments I could have put. I could have put plenty of disappointments. I may have mentioned this last time. To a lot of the true fans of Demu, their Death Cold Armageddon album was not that liked because it brought in a lot of fans like myself into more of the symphonic sound in 2001. They fucking were blowing up around that time. They were playing, they had an Oz Fest or Mayhem Fest appearance. They fucking,

I had a tour, a headlining tour through the states. They're playing pretty big clubs. Sorry, this was 03, Death Call came out. And then Insorte Diablo, Diablo, whatever that one fucking is. Boring. It came out in 07. And then Abra Hadabra in 2010. And both of those, I've been, oh, I thought they've been horrible. Yeah.

George likes them. More or less. The Insorte Diablo, or Diablo, whatever it was, less so. I thought the Abra Hadabra one was pretty good. For what it is, you know, for being a symphonic commercial corporate black metal album. Absolutely, and that goes without saying. Because we all can go, there's a lot of stuff I sort of dislike in theory, but you know, like in actuality for a boring car ride. But yeah, no, I,

I agree man I thought they kind of started just to get boring or something

there's nothing in the sort of Diablo that catches my attention at all

is dark throwing triumphant your favorite George or storm blast

uh enthroned darkness

oh yeah or enshrined darkness

is it enshrined darkness enthroned darkness triumphant

triumphant yeah the um

I like storm blast that is a good one I like that a lot

no English good choice

yeah but yeah but enthroned has fucking spellbound

by the devil morning palace

yeah where are they now man

Oh, what's the one? I can't remember the name. Is something about Tormentor of Christian Souls? Yes. Yeah. But they've kind of fallen off the face of the map. And I read it. There was actually a quote from the guitar player not long ago, and he was just like, let's do it already. I think there's some dissension in that band, and some of them have gotten lazy. And some of them have side projects, too, that just sort of keep them occupied. Oh, do they? Okay. Yeah, I mean, like... Chrome Division? Chrome Division, and... Well, I don't know that there's been an old man's child.

I'd like to see another one of those.

Yeah, me too. George, your number three.

My number three. I could have picked a number of albums from this band over the last decade or so, but I went with Risk from Megadeth.

Oh, good choice.

Not for me, I like this album.

You like Risk?

Man, like Breadline or whatever.

I think I like Trust. No, yeah. Yeah, that is a good one. That's Cryptic Writings. Oh, that's Cryptic Writings. Now, that's like the last really good Megadeth album until United Abominations. I mean, what was the World Needs a Hero? It was another one that was really bad. And pretty much anything after United Abominations. Which there's been like two or three of them now. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, Risk is horrible. Yeah. But Risk was the first one.

where I was just like, what the fuck is this? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, I think the World Needs a Hero came out before this, but it was still kind of Megadeth in style, just not very good. And then Risk was just like, hey, we're Megadeth, we do pop songs. Yep. And I was like, whatever. Which it was kind of like around low too. So you know what I mean? It was sort of like that was what was happening. It was a little rough there for a while. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Jay, number two. Number two is the disappointment in the sort of more positive regard. There wasn't a band

I was disappointed in. Rather that they broke up. And it was that when Celtic Frost broke up for the second time, they were working on a new record to follow up Monotheos, which really ranks in my top five of all time. And I was just really sad to see that that kind of fell apart mid-stride. And who knows how far they were going to go with it anyway. And Trypticon is a very, very good consolation prize. But I was just really sorry to see that happen.

I read that right on and by right on I mean damn it that's right yes puke number two oh after hooking me with their first couple albums when children of Bodom released blood drunk in 08 that's a good that's when I started to come off the rails let a lot let a lot of people down yeah after hate crew death roll nothing was ever the same because it was hate it was going up up up up up up up up hate crew death roll and

Are You Dead Yet? Maybe. And then Blood Drunk, Relentless Reckless, and then Halo of Blood. And hopefully... Halo of Blood's not too bad. I kind of like that one. Even Relentless was a step in the right direction. I think I Worship Chaos is pretty good. I think they're back on the incline again. It's likely to me that that's going to be in my top 20 for the end of the year. I really think that that's just a tight... We're all high on it, yeah.

Compact, well-written, you know. And I agree with you, maybe it's an incline. Maybe there's more better coming in, I hope so. But I feel like they kind of hit the ball out of the park on this one. So I'm into it. Yeah. That's a good call, though. I bet you a lot of people would choose that. And that brings us to George's number two. My number two is a band killer for me. Up until this album, I was a big fan of this band. And from this album on, I have not listened to this band at all. This is Sepultura and Against.

which is the first album minus max cavallera that's a great call good call yeah i mean just just no no give me max or give me something else yeah yeah it was over all right jay number one all right this is gonna be kind of surprising to some people possibly i don't know maybe not so much to you guys but i would just say i have to i do have to go a little preamble if you lived through it like george and i did meaning you kind of followed these guys from the get-go

There's a reason that you might not like this record, and I didn't like it. And it's the best-selling metal record of all time. It's the Black Album. When it came out, I was just super disappointed. I was just like, this is not the band. This is not what I like about these guys. I was not that critical of it. I was sort of like, well, that's different. But I was such a huge Metallica fan that, I mean, I gave it a couple listens, and I loved it. And I still think it's a great album.

I understand the problems people have with it and the more commercial Bob Rock production. I'm sorry, Seth was talking to me. No, believe it or not, the Black Album. Yeah, I've heard it so many times, so if I never hear it again yet. I really like so many of the songs on there. I still don't quite see what people kind of saw on Inter-Sandman. I didn't think it was that great. It's not, it's not. But I really like songs like... Wherever I May Roam? Wherever I May Roam.

When this album came out, I was practically

Unforgiven.

I was practically a vagrant at that time.

George was like,

fucking this is my anthem.

Yes, and wherever I may roam,

it just struck a chord with me.

And you know what?

And I will allow for that,

what you guys have mentioned already.

Those are good songs.

It's just,

and I have to admit that part of it is

that,

and I am one of those people that really does consider

Master of Puppets probably the greatest metal record of all time.

I mean, how was where they started to go? Not going to be a disappointment. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's understandable. And it really was. I thought it just as far was okay, but I think it was amazing. And then the Black Album does have one killer fucking song. My Friend of Misery. Yes, I love that song. Fucking. But I would actually say Wherever I May Roam, just because that riff is so killer. But yeah. And you know, A Wolf and Man. I love that. Through the Never. I love that.

Don't tread on me man every time somebody across the ocean blows something up or kill somebody I'm like I throw that song on and I'm fucking you know let's go get those fuckers yeah and that's all those are all valid points but for me when it came out I was just like you know it was like I felt let down I felt let down I was they were just like before that they were like these angry surfer haired skater boy I mean like you know disposable heroes that sounds like that song sounds like about to spill over into the edge you

I have to say that extra production and stuff just didn't agree with me and I was just let down.

I think Injustice for All and the Black Album, since I was a young man when these came out, I think this sort of introduced me to the idea that bands evolve and change and you just have to deal with it.

Because back in the 70s and 80s, bands kind of stuck with the sound.

The Scorpions never really changed their sound all that much.

Once they hit blackout era, they found what they were good at and they ran with it. Now when Opeth changes, obviously they got to a point that I couldn't tolerate anymore, but when bands change, I think I got prepared for that by the fact that my favorite band at the time, Metallica, changed their sound every album.

And I am extremely open-minded about that and very forgiving. It doesn't require me to be forgiving. But this one just still fits in that category of, fine, it's cool that they did it. They made their own choices and I like that they're evolving. They just evolved into a direction I wasn't really looking to follow. And I was let down because I just loved them before that. I was crazy about them. Yeah. So, Buke, number one. George almost took my thunder. I can't talk on this so much because I am a huge fan.

You're a huge Opeth fan on Twitter. I was wondering if that's where we were going. After following up Ghost Reveries and Watershed, I thought Opeth was getting better and better with Deliverance, Damnation, while being all acoustic, the items were getting better and better and better. And then I remember I was going to Yellowstone four years ago around this time. George sent me a promo for it and said, here, go. Got new Opeth. Ruined your trip.

Just like when you see distant war and you hear the sounds of change coming. Yeah. And interviews and stuff at the time started to kind of give me the impression that the Opeth that I've loved was kind of dead. And this was Heritage. This was Heritage. Right. I'm actually surprised that anything Opeth would make it on your list over just about anything. Just because you like them so much that there'd be something you hated even more than that.

I hate telling this stuff. I can't. I just can't put... Honestly, I just can't put my finger on anything else right now. All right. No, but also you were just disappointed. I was just disappointed. That's all. Yeah. Should it be my number one? I'm just disappointed. Fair enough. All right. Well, my number one is Iron Maiden The X Factor. Oh. You know, I wondered if somebody was going to go blaze era on this. Yeah. You know, after Fear of the Dark, which was... Some people don't like it, but I think there's some pretty good songs on there.

Bruce does some good work.

George,

man,

just say,

I think you and Jay have something different here.

You guys were living these again.

This is another example where my disappointments,

it's kind of hard to go back on albums that have already had a huge span of time.

Sure.

Because to me,

I can just skip it and move on to the next.

Right.

I was going to say,

yeah,

anybody going into the Iron Maiden discography at this point,

they just know to skip over those albums.

and it's no big deal. But, you know, having been an Iron Maiden fan up to the point that Bruce left and then going, oh, hey, a new Iron Maiden album. Oh, that guy from Wolfsbane, huh? Should be interesting. And then getting the X Factor and you're just like, and I even saw them on that tour. And it was pathetic because every time I've seen Iron Maiden, it's been arena or outdoor, you know, amphitheater. But on the X Factor tour, I saw

them at Harpo's in Detroit, which is sort of a 930 club around this area. And, you know, it's just a teeny little place. And it sucked. You know, but you're right about the living through it big thing, too, because there's like when Turbo came out, you were just sort of like, what's going on? You know what I mean? Like, let me talk about Priest. So, but it's the same thing for the Opeth, you know? Yeah, because to me, Opeth is you guys with the black,

album where Opeth is you guys. Yeah. Yeah. It's like my hype is just growing bigger and bigger and bigger and then it happens. It's like with Demu and stuff. Yeah, it's weird. You know, you guys have already, like with Sepultura, since they've already were dead and not dead and gone, but as a band, they weren't the same before me. It's just, I just know, hey, you just don't listen to that. They never broke your heart. Yeah, they were never there to break my heart. Yeah. Right. You know, like the cool, cold mistress that it can

in the music industry.

Indeed.

And fandom in general.

Can I give a collective number one for all of us?

And can I say catatonic society?

I'm sorry.

Can we all agree?

Because I know doing some research on this just to see if I missed anything.

Jay, were you like George and I?

Did you have any hope for St. Anger when it came out?

Because that's what everywhere on the web has as the number one.

Right.

I should mention that we all agreed ahead of time that we would not mention Sane Anger or Lulu on our list because it's duh. Yes. I will even say this. There's one or two good songs on there in all truth. Well written songs. No, there's one called Dirty Window. That's a good song. That stated, no, I didn't expect it to be good and I was pretty shocked by it. I had hope when it came out. George and I have it. But you know what I mean? It's sort of like having a piece of the Titanic. Yeah.

I liked Load. I liked a bunch of songs on Load. Reload, I only liked The Memory Remains, I think, is the only thing I liked on that one. Yeah. Actually, it's King Nothing on that, though. No, King Nothing's on Load. And what about Hero of the Day? Also on Load. Okay. Yeah, there are some good songs on that record. Exactly. And so I considered Reload, it was just sort of a leftovers package. So I didn't consider Reload a real album. So going from Load into Sane Anger, I had Hope, but that was quickly down.

when I put it into my CD player, got a couple songs in, and turned it off. I had hope because S&M came out in 03. S&M has two of my favorite Metallica songs on it. No Leaf Clover and Mine is Human. And then, remember, the first Mission Impossible song came out. And while it's more of a catchier song, it's not a real metal Metallica song, I Disappear came out. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like,

Yeah, it was pretty cool. Not bad. Also, that's a cool video, by the way. Yeah, on top of that Grand Canyon or those cliffs or something. Yeah. And then St. Anger comes out and... That was it. And it is... It's almost... Actually, it's almost startling the direction they've gone. I mean, at this point, Lulu and that kind of... God, that's bad. That is so bad. I think the unnamed feeling is the only song off of St. Anger that I like.

I can't even remember how it goes. Nobody's listening to that record that much. I had an idea for something that I didn't really want to flush out into a top three based on all the interviews we did yesterday and the interview we did today. I wanted to know what everybody's holy grail interview is. Who is the band that if you could interview anybody, you would interview them and you would be like, all right, I'm done. That is the pinnacle.

of interviews for me.

I'll go first because it popped in my head as soon as you suggested it.

I don't want to steal your thunder, George, and I hope I don't.

But honestly, I think he's one of the great artists in the metal world.

I mentioned him too much, but Tom Gabriel Fisher.

I'd love to interview him.

That probably would have made a top three list for me, but it wasn't what jumped into

my mind straight away, so I didn't go with it.

Cool.

Buke?

I have to first give a thank you, George.

You have provided me with the opportunity to meet some of my favorite bands and allow me to conduct interviews like for this podcast when we interviewed Cam of Three Inches of Blood or when we did interview Michael years back. Akrafel. Yeah, Akrafel from Opeth. And when you got to meet Phil Anselmo yesterday. I got to meet him. He was on something. It was Phil. Yeah, it was Phil. But my holy

would be Phil. Two more to go along with. Phil won because he got me into metal. And I think if you get him sober and clean and clear head. He's got some things to say. He's Phil Anselmo. He is the modern Bruce and Dio. No matter what you may say, George may say, oh, Buke was a little buzz yesterday going on about this and this about Phil. Like what you want. American metal fans, not on our list.

level, what do they know metal as? Pantera. Yeah, you're right. No, I'm sure they're the big 90s, man. Actually, my number one is going to push that one right out of the way in terms of American metal fans knowing metal. Now, number one, I'm sure you're going to say, I'm sure I'm not going to say it, but the two more that I have because he comes off like a very smart man, and we did meet him and shake his hand, Randy Bly. Oh, yeah, that's a good choice. And also because he is always flying the flag of

music and has a lot of stories just from his podcast. I think Jamie Josta of Heybreed would be a cool interview to do. Definitely. Definitely. Cool. All right. Well, my Holy Grail interview would be the mighty James Hetfield of Metallica. I knew you were going to say that. You know, it's not beyond the realm of possibility. I cannot. That was actually what steered me down this path was the fact that I could not fathom interviewing.

James Hetfield. You know, when we interviewed Ben from Goat Whore yesterday, and even more so when we interviewed Guar, I think we were all, I mean, Ben, it went away fast, but with Guar, it didn't really. We were a bit starstruck and, like, nervous. And I'm like, if that was James Hetfield across the table from me, I would get up and walk away and be like, I can't do this. You know, I would be so awkward.

trying to talk to him because it's just like my whole like teenage years for the rest of my life my my biggest idol from the time i was 13 on was james hetfield he was you know i know james would hate to hear that and he would disagree with it uh and maybe even if i was like knew him on a friendly basis i wouldn't think this but i think he's just like the epitome or the epitome if you will of cool

You know, I'm trying for both of those. I'm going to try for Phil and James, damn it. I'm going to try. I would just piss myself and run away. As Jamie Josta is, I think Jamie would come on in a second. I could see us getting Jamie because he's so outgoing and has a podcast of his own that he would sort of feel probably at least a little bit of camaraderie with us just from a metal podcasting standpoint.

I mean, I just can't imagine him taking time out of his day to talk to somebody so beneath the metallic of my machine. I agree. And honestly, I mean, I would have to spend like a month preparing and trying to figure out what I would say to him. By a month of getting ready, he's popping Xanax for a month. George would be having like a countdown on his phone. Oh, God. Three hours, four minutes, seven seconds.

Yeah, I would definitely be beside myself in nervous energy.

I don't think that's impossible. Damn it, I don't. I don't. And it may just be because I live here, and I know that does not give us any kind of in whatsoever. It's just, I think the right way to go about it, and I'm going to do it, I'm going to work on both of these guys. Because the right way to do it, you get at them by just like, well, you find out a cause he's interested in or something, so you'd like to talk to him about it or something like that.

or whatever it is.

Or his car.

False pretense.

Good, good.

Or his cars.

Or something that he might like to talk about.

I just feel like this can be done.

I am putting this on my list.

Or you just wait until he's old and out of the scene.

Nobody cares about him anymore, which will never happen.

Yeah.

Right.

And I hear what you're saying, George.

It's a pretty unrealistic goal, but still.

And I think film wouldn't be that hard to get, dude.

It might be.

I mean, not James Hard. Yeah, definitely not. You mean to tell me Phil's not as big as James? Nope. I'm just joking. No, no, I'm saying not as hard. I think, you know what I'm saying. Wink, wink. All right, so what are we listening to, gents?

All right, I got a few here that I'm sure you guys might not know all these, but George, you might have said some of them in a recent list. I am listening to Dallas's record, Narconic Wasteland's good. Demon Lung, A Dracula. If you don't have this, check it out. Another band, Sweat Lodge, Talismana. Don't know them.

You know Sog?

Oh yeah, I love them

First record, it reminded me a lot of them

Okay

Two more, Blackfast, which I think, did you bring that up, George?

That was on my list last week

Yeah, I like it, I like it

And then finally, there's a band from Whittier, California that I do kind of want to pimp

I don't know them, they don't know me

Just that I kind of ran into their stuff

They're a band called Skeletal Remains

Condemned to Misery

Super cool, old school death metal

in the kind of like maybe, you know, leprosy era death type stuff. Really good. And like, it'd be good for the gruesome fans. Let's put it that way. Really into these guys. So that's my list. Excellent. Buke, what do you got? This is a, where my current trends are going right now, it's a current melodic death metal band from Azerbaijan. Wow. This is a band camp purchase. The band is Silence Lies Fear. And their album,

Future The Return. Again, Silence Lies Fear. Future The Return. Melodic Death Metal from Azerbaijan. Fucking cool stuff, man. It's available on Bandcamp. Great production value with this. Awesome technical stuff. $12 on Bandcamp. Can't recommend these guys enough. It's also on the Spotify's and all that. Right on. Check it out. Please check it out. I'm always trying to get you guys to buy stuff and check it out. I just want your guys approval.

I'm going to check it out. All right. So I've got a pair of albums that I've been listening to. And the first one, I have to even emphasize more than I would have. I actually wrote this down for Friday when we were going to try and do this. And after yesterday and seeing them play, I got to give them twice as much love. Troglodyte, Don't Go in the Woods. Cool. Yeah. You know, we saw these guys play yesterday. We interviewed them. They were a great bunch of guys.

And, you know, I dug this before we saw them play, and meeting them and seeing them play live has only increased my respect for them. So this is a 2012 album. They've got a new album that they're working on, hoping to release by the end of the year. But check out their first two albums. I think you will enjoy them. This is Bigfoot-themed death metal. Oh, right on. Yep, that's what the topic is. It's awesome. I'll check it. I'll check it. And they all wear Bigfoot masks on stage.

And you guys thought they were great and everything. So I mean, it's very cool. All right, I'm gonna check it. Yeah. That was the first time you've seen them, I take it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My second album is, it's actually an EP. I don't know specifically where they're from other than they are from the United States. But this is a melodic doom gothic band called Death White and their EP Solitary Martyr. Nice name. They, the vocals are clean and the music is kind of heavy.

Not in like a death metal heavy, but in a heavy doom, but not slow in a doom way. My first impression was like Catatonia, but a little heavier. So I haven't listened to it a lot, but it did. Did you listen to their Ethereal EP, George, that came out last year? Add that one to the list, Jay. It's Ethereal. Monotony, Ethereal. Ethereal. I'm a band name.

Yep. I have not listened to their first EP yet. I hope to find that when I have some time. But, and I need to listen to it more. It just sort of caught my attention and made me go, hmm? So. I like Ethereal stuff. All right. What's our classic for this week?

I would kind of pretty much I think we got a lot of middle of the road stuff but what the hell Judas Priest unleashed in the east that's a great record oh going live yeah I think that was the one that kind of got me into them okay Buick what do you got my classic is from American heavy metal band from George from Jay's area okay fucking machine head okay machine fucking head and this is their debut fucking album burn my eyes

Interesting.

20 years really.

Wow.

1994 June 1st.

That's why you were looking it up.

Jesus.

It's funny that you went with Machine Head because my classic is also Rob Flynn but a little earlier than that.

Awesome.

This is Violence and Eternal Nightmare also featuring Rob Flynn on guitar.

I love that album.

When that album came out it blew my mind.

I think it was like thrash metal with like I don't know it's just really fast like you know in the 80s everybody was always trying to get a little bit faster than everybody else and the Eternal Nightmare album at the time was the fastest thing I'd heard. According to him they were all on speed back then. Yeah and it just it was like blew my mind and for a while after that the fastest album I'd ever heard was actually Wormocked and Shark Attack.

I was going to the Phil demo was on that also. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. I've always thought about Rob, but I forgot about Phil. They also, by the way, just announced a nice evening with Machine Head tour. Not sure if there's a night in your area, but it's one of those things, no opening band. They just come out and play for a couple good long hours. Yeah, I don't think they're coming around here. Ah, shoot. Yeah. All right. Vinyl Acquisitions.

Long list, I'll read it fast. Perfect Circle, Myrna Noms, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Deep Purple House of Blue Light, which is a follow-up to Perfect Strangers, a record I like, but I don't think anybody else really did. I liked it. It's a good record. Power Slave reissue, Defenders of the Faith, Original Issue, Coda reissue, Orgasmachon reissue, Speak of the Devil,

"Rainbow Straight Between the Eyes", I like that record. "UFO Obsession", "Ban Halen Fair Warning", and believe it or not, "White Snake" slide it in, but "White Snake" was good from slide it in back. And then just a kind of a proto-punk-y metal Stooges I got on there. Wow, that's a haul. There were a lot of bargain buys there, George. I didn't spend a lot of money to get those. It was a good haul. All in good shape. Puke, what do you got? "Sigh, a Tribute to Venom".

Venom at war with Satan, Children of Bodom, Halo of Blood, and I didn't mention that last week, Amon Amarth with Odin on our side. And I forgot if I mentioned it to Crip Sermon out of the garden. Sweet. Was the Venom a reissue? No. At war with Satan? No. I only have one this week, and it came in at the last

This was the vinyl release finally. After several months of the album being out, the vinyl release just came out for Faith No More's Soul Invictus. Oh, good. Nice. Is that double vinyl or one record? One record. Yeah. All right. Deep Tracks. Let's do it. Yeah. Oh, cool. Mine is off of Scorpion's Blackout, and there's a song on there called China White, which is like the heaviest, weirdest Scorpion song you've ever heard in your life. Yeah. Yeah, China White. Good song. All right.

I don't have one. Really? Alright. This was just a busy week for me, so I apologize. Alright, well. I'm just being honest. I would rather save it than come up with something on the spot. Alright, well I have two songs from the same band, two different albums. Metal Church from their first album, the song Battalions, which I just fucking love that song and every time I hear it I get goosebumps, I get fired up. It's just a fucking badass song about

Vengeance and the second Metal Church song is from their second album The Dark and this is one that most people never talk about it. I think I know what it is. Go ahead. All right, what is it? Well, I don't know the name of it. Is it on the run? Can't put your back? Yes, burial at sea. That's a great song. I fucking love that song and I love the riff. The dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun

We don't need a near a crack in a killer song not watch the children pray I like that song but it was a single so it's not a deep track yeah yeah oh yeah it wouldn't be a deep track that's a good that's a great record god that's a good record yeah anything with it well the first two metal church albums are the best you could sort of that was you and not me having a stroke because you sort of went left right left right all right well we're about to close this one out

We're going to play you another song from Narcotic Wasteland. And before we do, though, make sure to check us out on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. I'm Disciple of Metal. I'm a Lopeth fan. At Catatonic J. We're also on Instagram. We're on YouTube. And you can check us out on MetalHeadsPodcast.com. Be sure to go on iTunes and give us a review. Give us some five stars, please. And let us know what you think. Thanks for listening. Yep.

All right. And we're going to get into our little outro with Dallas from Nile and play you the last song. So we'll talk to you next time. Okay. So we're back now with another song from Narcotic Wasteland to close out the show. What do you got picked out for us, Dallas? Well, I was going to go with one, but now I think what I'm going to do is go with Absent Friends. The track, I think I mentioned before, it's very special to me.

It hits home with a person that was very close to me that I lost due to an overdose. And the beginning has got kind of an unusual thing for metal. And I don't know if anybody ever picked this up or not. I've done it on a couple of little things on some Nile stuff. But the beginning guitar part, I'm using a slide. I'm playing slide guitar. I don't mind telling you, Dallas, I did pick up on that.

Okay, cool. I did, and I'm glad you chose that song because it does stand out as kind of a different thing. One thing, it's the closing track on the record, so it's a great way to close our pod today, but it's an emotional thing in the beginning, and then, of course, it comes up with some of that good Narcotic Wasteland anger and emotion. Fucking great choice, dude. Love it. Awesome, thanks. Thank you, man. Yeah, so without further ado, here is Absent Friends from Narcotic Wasteland.

You are lost but not forgotten You are with me everyday All of those insiders

Laughed through their lives away The mark they made on space and time Like the enemy became his fate away The epidemic is growing Taking more lies

Some drugs are even prescribed by a doctor They take emphasis on people everywhere

I wish somehow that I could have made them change, make them see how important they were to themselves and the people around them.

They became slaves to the souls that they could not help themselves.

They could not realize, so they passed away.

I tried to encourage them to embrace their jealous and gross. They could not realize they passed away.