METALHEADS Podcast Episode 1
Episode #1: In this episode George and Buke introduce themselves, discuss Record Store Day 2014, some classic metal albums, a curious metal release from overseas, and even a book!
Episode Transcript (click to expand)
This transcript is provided to make the episode more accessible and searchable. It was generated with automated transcription technology and may contain errors or inaccuracies. We apologize for any mistakes and appreciate your patience as we work to improve transcript quality. George Hello and welcome to the MetalDisciple.com Metal Heads Podcast. My name is George Washburn. Buke And I'm Buke. George And today is April 19th, 2014, also known as Record Store Day. We're going to talk about Record Store Day today, but first, since this is the premiere episode, I thought we'd talk about ourselves a little bit. Me, I'm George Washburn. As I mentioned, I run the website MetalDisciple.com. It's a website that does reviews and news and videos all about heavy metal music. I've been a metal fan for roughly 30 years. Introducing the masses. Yes. I've always been obsessed, I guess, maybe. with finding new heavy metal. At some point, it just made sense to start a website and talk about all my finds because so much of the music that I come across, I find that most people haven't heard of. I mean, metal as it is these days is not exactly popular with the masses. It's kind of lonely having all these cool bands that nobody knows anything about. I started writing about it. I have to admit, I did start the website as a ploy to get free music from the record label. There were a couple the website has saw different names over the years yes it started off first called rock rock music critic rock music critic dot-com that was my ill-fated attempt to cater to all kinds of music but particularly metal I like classic rock and even Some like 80s pop music mostly for the nostalgia. I hated it back in the 80s But now it reminds me of the good old days I wanted to be able to cater to everything. Partly just because I didn't want to pigeonhole myself. And partly because I wanted to be able to review the latest Dark Throne album next to the latest Bruce Springsteen album. So that maybe somebody might actually, who's not into certain... Just your audience is that much bigger. Yeah, to sort of, you know, bring metal to people that maybe wouldn't actually normally come across it. And I might say too, that was years ago. Oh boy. 10-12 years ago. Before this digital age we live in now, when everything is so easy with Twitter and Facebook, the exposure to new music, too. Totally. That kind of failed miserably in the sense that by the early 2000s, anything that was not metal really kind of turned me off. I mean, I like classic rock, but most of the classic rock bands aren't really doing anything good these days. So it was really just metal music on Rock Music Critic. And I said, you know, nobody really gets the rock music critic thing. It's metal music. Fuck it. Let's just change the name to Metal Disciple. Yeah. You know, I was a little concerned at first that people would think it was a religious website because of the Disciple part. So I try to put as much evil stuff on there to, you know, skulls and stuff to make sure that people understand it's not a religious website. It's Disciple. The Disciple part actually came from an 80s early, like, proto-threatening band called attacker they were one of the early metal blade bands their album battle at helms deep and they have a song off that called disciple and it fucking blew my mind when i first heard it on this metal blade compilation back in the 80s and i still do they love this song and i was listening to the song around the time that i was trying to come up with a new name and i was throwing around all sorts of horrific possible names for the site i was like disciple that's such a cool i'm like and it's true i'm like i'm a true disciple of metal of all the various things in my life this This is the thing that's been a constant for the last 30 plus years. It's like a religion to me. While the site is not religious based, metal, I hate to go all Manowar on you, but metal is like my religion. I know it is. I don't, I'm not as crazy as that comes across, but I thought it was a cool idea. So that's what I went with for the site. Yeah. So, you know. And now, what about a couple hundred reviews later, a successful 365 Days of Metal video series on on YouTube. That was grueling. 2013, I'm a photographer as well as a metal guy. And a couple years ago, I did a 365 project where you take a different photo every day of the year. And it's to keep you engaged with photography, to help you build up your skills by making you come up with new ideas every day. I decided that it would be a cool way to engage people with the site to do a different video every day for a year about a different album. and just, you know, help people learn about new bands. What I didn't really account for was the fact that taking a picture a day is relatively quick and simple. Shooting a video every day and editing it and posting it. Oh my God, 2013 was hell. For those of you who don't know George, he's a perfectionist with a lot of things he likes to do. He likes to make sure it's perfect. Who, me? Yeah. Likes to make sure it looks well, you know. Buke Sounds well, backgrounds well, you know, everything's done well. George Yeah. So by the time 2013 rolled to an end, I was ready for a break. I took a couple months off from writing, reviewing, whatever, decided to spend that time being creative and, and rebuilding the, uh, the metal disciple site. I like to do that every year to just to keep things fresh. Although as soon as I finished this latest incarnation about a month ago, I turned around and started all over again. I knew it was just a matter of time. Yeah. Well, yeah, there were things about it that didn't pan out the way I wanted them to. So anyway, Buke That's me. Let's hear about you. Myself, being a guy in his mid-30s, I am new to the metal scene. You're not new. Well, not new to it. Newer than me, but... I guess maybe the proper word to use is late. Makes sense. In my teenage years, before I started driving, I never really listened to music. I never really went out and bought CDs. I was never going out and spending my allowance. I was always... spending it on video games and stuff first. Then my junior year in high school came around. One of my best friends at the time suggested I go with him to take a trip to Best Buy for the new Pantera album that was being released. Pantera! Exactly. Reinventing the Steel was being released. And I thought, hey, I'll take a trip down to him. Sorry, down with him. And we went there. We went and picked it up. I'll never forget driving home in the car there. time hearing that CD. And it was almost like the first time you... Discovered yourself? Yeah. Discovered, like they say, the first time you have sex. And, you know, your eyes are open to something, a pleasure that you had never experienced before. A boy and his metal. Exactly. Exactly. The first time, you know, hearing Phil started in with the screaming lyrics, if I'm correct, I think Hellbound is the first track. and Vinnie Paul on the drums, dime starts in with the guitar. It just spoke to me. I was never one of those people that the lyrics at the time didn't speak to me, but it just captured me. And my best friend, Matt, at the time, oh, he still is actually, introduced me to George because Matt was in a band. Soul Mason. Yep, Soul Mason. And through some family and friends, you know, Matt had known George and Soul Mason needed a website. Worked on the website. So George came to a couple of shows. I met you there. That's funny. Now that I think about it, when we met, it was actually sort of like a, we didn't get along. We didn't get along because it's funny you mentioned it. I haven't thought about that in years, but it was like, I don't know, you said something. It was on the message board. Yeah, it's like something secondhand and I was just like, who's this buke motherfucker? What the hell is he talking? shit for it. You know, fuck him, Matt. What the, who is this asshole? And he's like, pukes cool, man. I was like, I don't know. I remember that. Yep, exactly. All over message board drama, which being a fan of video games still happens now on message boards now. So George and I, about the early 2000s, started hanging out, started going to shows. I took him under my wing. Yep. And this is, again, I had just had the Pantera CD. That was really my exposure to it. And of course, like a lot of people, I'm not from the South, But I thought Pantera was the greatest thing ever. I went out and bought every CD in their catalog. It's a good place to start. It is. It's a great introduction band. But then at the time in the early 2000s, record stores were still a thing. So George and I would make almost a monthly pilgrimage to our local Tower Records. Remember when there were Tower Records? Yep. And our friendship really started to form then. And from them going out, I would go there. George would recommend, hey, George Get this CD. Remember when I was trying to educate you on the ways of things that were not just Pantera? See, while I love Pantera at the time, I had this real problem with Hicks. Not that you're a Hick, but Hicks, and not that I have a problem with Hicks, but Hicks that only listened to Pantera, and that was their only metal. They're like, I smoke weed, and I listen to Pantera, and that's it. Yeah, their Pantera shirt has cut off sleeves. Yeah, and it's just like, Buke No, I mean, it's great that you listen to Pantera, but branch out a little. And so I took it upon myself to educate you. And I will admit, back in the day, you know, I was the guy who thought if you're a heavy band and you maybe scream for a second, that's metal or that's hard. So George and I, you know, started going down to the shows every, sorry, to the record store every once in a while. And from there, we went on to shows and stuff like that. He'd take me along. George blossomed into four or five hundred thousand CDs later. And here we are 12, 13 years later in George's Laked Brother to me. I also wanted to bring up, remember when I used to burn just tons of CDs for you? Books. I was like, oh, well, you don't know about Halloween. You don't know about Acid Bath. You don't know about this band or that band. I was like, oh, well, let me bring you a CD. It's funny, the other day I found the Black Vanity album. Buke I never would have found that. Like a cemetery? Yep. Wow. I never would have. No, there's no way. On my own, I never would have found that. That's such a good album, too. Without things like Spotify and the internet that we live in now, I never would have had exposure to bands like that. And we used to hang out every weekend almost and just sit there and, hey, you would, are you always, George is best known for knowing a band, knowing what album to start you with. Sure. It might not be their best album, but if you want to get into a band, this is the easiest door to walk through to get into listening to them. George The gateway drugs that lead to heavier and heavier music. Start you off with some Pantera, work you into some Metallica, some Megadeth, oh wait, Slayer, and then you know, oh what's this, Cannibal Corpse? Buke It's funny you mention that. Back in high school, I remember I went over to a friend's house, this was probably sophomore year. And he was a metalhead. And I remember I was a, I still do, like Warhammer, the tabletop game. Sure. And he had a bolt thrower CD. And I remember looking at the artwork at the time, looking at it and saying, man, Warhammer. Mm-hmm. Space Marines. In battle, there is no law. Exactly. Put this on. I remember my sophomore year, probably what, 15, 16? Yeah. No, I was driving, so 16, 17. He put that on. Mm-hmm. George He carried the shit out of me. Hell yeah, man. Now here I am, decades later, a huge Bolt Thurder fan. Gotta love Bolt Thurder. Yeah. So that's a little bit about myself, our friendship. You're like a brother to me. Likewise, sir. It's about us. All right. As I mentioned when we first started, today is Record Store Day 2014. I like to liken the day to Christmas for Vinyl Fiends, of which I am one. Also, a newbie now. A newbie today got his first record player. And his first vinyl. Yes. So we thought that given the occasion that we would talk about our experiences on Record Store Day today. We live in Maryland. We're lucky to have several record stores in the area, some better than others. We started the day at 9 o'clock this morning at the Record Exchange in Frederick, Maryland. Yep, right in Old Town, downtown area. Yep, that's a very nice area. And we went there because we were looking for new vinyl. There's some stores that are good for used vinyl. We wanted to start at the one that had the new vinyl because we were looking for the re-release of Opeth's Watershed as well as I wanted to pick up Type O Negative's Slow Deep and Hard. I was hoping to get the Catatonia release of the B-Sides and there's also Machine Head 10-inch with some demo tracks from their forthcoming album. We parked. As we were parking, we noticed that there was a line in front of the store. I'm like, well, all right. Yes. They weren't open yet. Fine. But damn, there's a lot of people. Buke Yep. George We parked. We got in line. Probably what? 60, 70 people that we can see. That we can see outside the store. And we're like, all right, well, hopefully. And they opened at 9. And they opened at 9, unlike some places we know that don't open on time. And we're like, all right, well, hopefully this won't take too long. And we were there for, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 minutes. Hadn't moved at all. And it's funny, we were approached by a woman who works for the local newspaper. She wanted to talk to us about whatever it was that was going on here today. She was like, record, international record day or something. And I corrected her, it says record store day. She mentioned how she'd only heard about it yesterday. It seemed like, you know, the paper had said, go down here and cover this. And she's like, great. You know, this is what are these stupid people standing around on the sidewalk? And so, you know, she asked us some questions about what it was and what we were hoping to pick up. And I gave her my card hoping to pimp the Metal Disciple website. Hopefully she quits you. Hopefully there'll be something in the paper next week. And, you know, half an hour turned into an hour. Which I might add, a lot of people don't, nobody knows, but you never have business cards. Yeah, I know. You never keep them on you. I brought some today because I thought I might run into some people. You know, I was wearing the new Metal Disciple t-shirt, trying to pimp the site a little bit. So anyway, yeah, I had a card handy. It was the first thing we did, and I was like, here you go. So anyway, we gave her that interview, and we waited, and we waited. Half an hour turned into an hour. We started questioning whether this made any sense. Hour turned into hour and a half. Hour 45. We were finally getting close to the building. Thinking that we're about to go in, yep. We could see into the doorway, We saw the line that we had just been standing in. Mind you, they're letting people in two at a time. Right. So once you get into the store, there was another line that you could not see from outside. So here we are thinking, yay, we're in the store. No, you're just in the store to get in another line. And we're like, it took us two hours to get this far. That line looks just as long as the line we were just in. And then for God knows what fucking reason, I don't know who came up with this idea, They had the record store day selections roped off. And only two people at a time could be in there looking at it. Maybe four or five bins. Every genre. Everything was mixed into that little section. And so everybody in the store is standing around waiting while two people go through a number of records that like four or five people could have been looking at at the same time easily without trampling on each other. And I just wanted to scream at these people, let more people in. I've been to this store in the last two years and it was not like this. I don't know what moron came up with this idea. But Record Exchange Frederick, go fuck yourself. This was a complete waste of time. If you're a metalhead, do not go there. Yeah, I hate that place. On Record Store Day. Yeah, you want to go to someplace nice like Vienna Music Exchange in Vienna, Virginia. So that's what we did. When we got to the door and we realized that we were probably going to be waiting another two hours, we packed up. Fuck it. Cut our losses. Two hours were never getting back. And we left. And we griped a lot along the way. So from there we drove an hour down to Vienna, Virginia. Which, D.C. metro area people, if you've never been there, this is your record store haven. This is it. Yes. It's a small place, but it is very metal-centric. And I love this place. I can't get there enough. We got there. We parked. We walked in. There were two or three people in there. Finally got to meet the owner. Finally got to meet the owner. We've been there a few times and there was always somebody else working. No owner. Finally got to meet him. No muss, no fuss. There we were digging through new metal. Granted, they did not have the record store day releases, but who cares? They had tons of metal there. I spent a mint going through that place digging out. I got Mayhem, the Dawn of the Blackhearts. Let me see my list. Here's your list right there. Here's your stack. I got three goat whores. Let's see. Those are nice. Yeah, I had all three of the goat whores. I was like, nice! Amon Amarth, Surtur Rising, Exhumed Necrocracy. Try to say that fast. Dark Thrones, Transylvanian Hunger. How could I not have that on vinyl? And this guy calls himself Metal. Hey, I've got all of this stuff on tape, CD, and digital. Now I'm getting it on vinyl. I'll just buy an album once I buy it three four times just to make sure let's see I got the exciter heavy metal maniac from way back in the day another one of the elf albums featuring your honor James Rodney James Dio trying to burn the sun these ones we got later oh yeah that's true I was just going through all this stuff that those which you got at Vienna yeah those were the Vienna ones so anyway that sort of took some of the sour taste out of our mouth from going to fucking record Buke Exchange in Frederick. Fuck them. May they burn in hell. Oh, sorry. Is that a little bitter? A little bit. That was a great experience, as always. By then, it was, I don't know, 12, 1 o'clock. About 1, yeah. And we said, you know what? Let's go back to Frederick. We're going home anyway. Let's go back. Let's swing by the record exchange. Let's just see what to have. Because you had told me in years past on record George You've gone in after lunch. There wasn't a crowd. You're able to walk in, browse what they have. I figured, you know, once the initial crush of people was done, that we'd be able to get back in, get what we wanted, assuming they still had it, and then move on to the next place, which we'll get to next. So we got back. We parked again in the same parking garage. Walked back. We didn't see a line out front. That was a good sign. Not out front. Not out front. We walked into the store and right into another line. Yep. At this point, I became a pissy little bitch. You don't like lines. Not after two hours I'd spent there before, and I started bitching to the random guy next to me. He's like, hey, how's it going? How you doing? I'm like, fucking fuck this place. Fuck it. Fucking assholes. And he's just like, what's the matter? What's this crazy guy doing? He was loving this place, thinking it was great. He had been going since, what, three in the morning at other shops. Yeah, I can't complain, man. That guy's more of a trooper than me. And I was just bitching about, you know, this is so ridiculously stupid the way they had this set up with only two people being able to look at anything in the store at a time. But this was our only opportunity to get the new releases by Opeth and Type-O. I'm just going to say it now. I am an Opeth fanatic. He is. I live Opeth. When I saw that Opeth had an exclusive today, even though I don't own, at the time, I did not own a record player, I said to myself, Owning that watershed reissue today. When we got back to that store and saw that they had it, I was not going to be turned away without getting it. Right. So this time we were like, we are not leaving. We're getting through this line. Actually, because we were talking to that guy, I didn't really pay attention. It was probably at least 45 minutes. About, yeah. And we finally got into the roped off area. You know, it was going to really suck if we went through almost three hours of waiting not to get the albums we wanted. And I was actually shocked. because some of the guys who we saw walking out when we were standing in line were wearing metal shirts and there were a couple of vests and stuff so who knows how many they bought to start with but we walk in that roped area and there was five watersheds. At least three or four of the typo negatives slow deep and hard. So I was happy there. I didn't get the catatonia I wanted. Didn't get the machine head. I picked up a Kingdom of Sorrow. Their second album was ten bucks. Yeah that was nice. What else? Oh I got the Demi Borgia. Your, uh, and sort of Diabli, Diabli, Diabli, whatever it's called. And, uh, I thought there were some other ones too. We got those at the other store. Are you sure? I thought I got something else there. I don't, it doesn't matter. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares what we got? Oh yeah. I got a Misfits, uh, Evil Live, and a live Nick Cave album. So anyway, we, uh, we finally got out of there. We still wanted to go to my favorite record store. It's not a, not a, He does have the occasional cool metal album, but the guy's name is Chris. He's passionate. Extremely passionate. He's very passionate. He loves vinyl. He loves music. And there are a few people that I come across that can keep up with me and even surpass me in their music knowledge. Not even Eddie Trunk. with the hard rock, not so much with the real metal. Yep, not with metal. Nope, but I love you, Eddie Trunk. You hear it here first. We're calling you out, Eddie Trunk. Yeah, it's time for a showdown. No, I love you, Eddie Trunk. You know, what you do for metal is great, but you know, we want more of the extreme metal. Yes. But I understand VH1's not letting you do anything like that, so you know, whatever. But anyway, fuck was I talking about? You were talking to Chris. I was talking to Chris. You know, His store is called Rock and Roll Graveyard. It's in Frederick, Maryland. It's a little place. You go down some steps into a basement. I just love going there and just sorting through the metal bins. Not the metal bins, the record bins. Given any day, deeply discounted records. Most $2, $3, $4. Yeah, $2, $3, $4. You'll pay like $20 or something. I got the DRI crossover album. That was $20. That's still cheaper than you're going to find it on eBay or something like that. Great guy. I love going there. That's where we wanted to end our day. We actually ran into him when we were standing in line the first time at the fucking record exchange. And he sympathized. So we had to go see him later. We picked up some more stuff there. It was more... I picked up Rainbow Live. Yeah, the Rainbow. I got the DRI. I don't think I got too much in the way of metal. And again, I will say, buying these, still, I did not have a record player. That's right. Buke So as I'm sitting there buying these, I'm thinking to myself, I can't do my first record store day. And I've gone with George on these trips four or five times and not have a record player. So George gets six or seven records from there and we end up leaving. And I almost kidnapped George and take him to Best Buy where I buy a record player. Nothing top of the line, nothing super special, but one that serves its purpose. George I got a little misty-eyed when my boy got his first turntable. Yes. Here I am. So now I think he can't wait to be done with this so that he can go home and play with his new toy. Yes, you're like a proud dad today. That's right. So that's our record day 2014. Yeah. The best laid plans, let me tell you, you know, did not turn out quite the way I wanted it to, not the way I planned it to. Buke It worked out fine for me because I got no path, but George But ultimately it was a good day. Yep Alrighty So I thought next we would sort of get into what each of us have been listening to lately and enjoying Buke So Buke, what are you listening to these days? Boy, I think it came out a week ago, maybe two weeks now The new Steel Panther record Oh, you gotta love them All You Can Eat It's their fourth album No, third If I'm correct I can't remember I think it's her third George I like the album cover It's a take on Buke The Last Supper George The Last Supper Yeah Buke And actually you Take off the little slip case I don't know if you've seen that yet There's the There's a Naked girl On the table With her tits out That's Boobies Yeah That's If you've ever been to a Steel Panther concert That's right up their alley Is it Boobies everywhere So You know You're not expecting anything Original You know, original or innovative here as a Steel Panther. But if you want good, that's where I can put it. Amusing. Yeah, amusing 80s glam rock, you know, done with 2014 production value. Still, I still laugh out loud listening to the tracks on my third, fourth, fifth playthrough. Yeah, these guys are crazy, man. They are crazy. They are your, you know, Def Leppard. Bon Jovi. Yeah, Bon Jovi and all those other bands from these, Motley Crue, if they just came out and sung the lyrics that their lyrics were really thinking. That's what they were really thinking. Yes. Yeah. You know, songs on this new record talk about, you know, a gang bang at the old folks' home. Songs on this talk about, you know, a party like tomorrow's the end of the world. This is not the kind of album you listen to with your mom or your grandmother. Definitely not. You're not posting these tracks on Facebook for everybody. It's about as tasteless as it gets. Yes. But if you want to laugh, I recommend this album. It's just a great, it's not super, it's not metal, but it's just a great hard rock album that's right now been capturing me. I haven't listened to it too much, but I want to quickly throw out here. I found a band on Twitter last week that I started listening to. George I don't know when this album exactly came out. Maybe it would be last year or the year before. I feel like they have a new album coming out because I heard a, or rather I saw a video for a song. It seemed like it was recently released so they may be getting ready to release a new album. But I saw it and I subscribed to Censure Meter on YouTube and the best way I can describe them, and I tried to describe them to you in a text message, is like if you kind of blend, Buke with Children of Bodom keyboards and Speed with the harsh black metal vocals. That's the type of sound that these guys have. Really interesting. The lyrics are almost kind of Viking-esque, you know, kind of fantasy lyrics out there. It's hard to describe, but it was capturing me a little bit that I listened to it. Excellent. So that's where I'm at right now. I know nothing, my excitement can't hold a candle to yours. You know, I'm just going to say this. In the years I've been, you know, friends with you, and I rarely do I get excitement from you. I can name right now on one hand your excitement when you heard the first blood bath. You really like that. Yeah. The three inches of blood when you first heard that. Sure. Because you like stuff that's new. Yeah. Or different. George I'm always about the new. When you messaged me about this one, I think your response was, what the fuck? Or like, this is fucking amazing? Yeah. What is it, George? This is the new Trypticon album. I'm going to butcher the name. I want to say it's Milena Kazmata. I don't know. I saw it. I don't know what it is. All I know is it's the second album from Trypticon. Trypticon, of course, being the new band with Thomas Gabriel Fisher, originally of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost fame. This guy is amazing. The first Trypticon album blew me away. It was just so heavy. The music is so deep and doom-like, yet dark and black and twisted. He always has the H.R. Giger album artwork. Buke I was trying to think of the name right here. George Yeah, because they're both Swiss. Thomas Gabriel Fisher is from Switzerland, as was H.R. Giger. So anyway, the new Trypticon album, which... What label are they on? Century Media. Okay. The new album I've been waiting for like the last year, I've been like, come on, new Trypticon. And it finally came out, and oh my god, it is so fucking badass. I feel like a fucking fanboy. I love it. You guys don't know George, but I love the excitement from him. Yeah, I mean, I get excited about things, but I listen to so much. I get promos from all the different labels and I'm just constantly Every room in your house, George, there's stacks of CDs. Yeah. You, you know, you hear a lot of music. I hear so much music. And so, you know, you get a little jaded. It takes something really special to rock the boat and make you go, wait, what's this? And so, and that's, it's like I'm chasing the dragon. I'm always looking for that next album that makes me excited. Was that the Hammerfall callback? No, Dream Evil. Anyway. So, the new Trypticon. The first one was very bludgeoning. It was heavy. It was dark. This one, to me, it felt a little more evolved. It wasn't always quite as fast. There were some slower parts. There's some female backing vocals. Even some sort of spoken word. lyrics. It's just a little more dynamic, not just always going forward, full speed ahead. There's a lot more atmosphere and mood to the album. And my God, it just blew me away. I've been obsessed with it. I was telling Buke the other day, the only show that I'm aware of that they're playing in the United States this year is at the Maryland Death Fest. We happen to live in Maryland. How convenient. Yet these shows always sell out before we even hear about the It's going on sale. We live in Maryland, have yet to go to the Maryland Death Fest. And we've been to hundreds of shows. Yeah. So they're playing on a Thursday. Are they headlining that day? I couldn't tell based on the set list who was headlining. It makes sense that they would be, though, based on the bands that were playing that day. It's going to be at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore. And I'm like, I've got to find tickets to this show. I went on the website, of course, sold out. I went on to StubHub, nothing. So I'm like, well, I'm like, I should probably play the promotional card here. Get a hold of my person at Century Media and be like, hey, can you get me into the Trypticon show? And I'll do an interview with Thomas Gabriel Fisher. Me and interviews is a whole nother story. Let's just say that I've done a few. They haven't gone well. I'm not real good at interviewing people. So that's how badly I wanted to get into this show is that I would be willing to make a complete fool. of myself in front of my hero, Thomas Gabriel Fisher, just to see him play. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to make that call to Century Media to see if I can do that. I'll have to get back here on that. But that is really... If you had to rate this, 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10? Is this a 10 out of 10? This is my perfect metal album. I think you quoted me, your second message, you already said this is your album of the year. That's right. What I said was, Is it too early? Is it too early to declare an album of the year? Because honestly, the bar has been set and this is the album to beat this year. And honestly, I know there are a lot of good albums yet to come out this year, but it is going to be tough to beat this one. Rarely would I give an album a 10 out of 10. I don't actually rate things on the site. I don't like giving labels like that. I like to say it's good, it's not good, whatever. But for me, it just doesn't get better than this album. Obviously, it's not for everybody. People have different tastes, what have you. For me, this checks off all the boxes on what I want out of a metal album. So go get the new Tripticon. Yep, I even gave it a listen. Yep. All right. Moving on. Next up, I wanted to talk about a band that I've heard about them, I don't know, for a couple weeks at least, But I didn't give them a listen until last night. I figured it was kind of ludicrous and ridiculous and I just had no intention of listening to it. But I don't know. I came across it somehow. I listened to a YouTube video and I'm still undecided on what to say about it. The band is called Baby Metal. It's from Japan and there's these three cute little teenage Japanese girls singing pop vocals. over top of like heavy thrashing music. You know, normally these, in these situations where it's so obviously put together like a boy band, it's, it's, it's not a, an organic thing. It was, it was conceived in the laboratory for the sole purpose of generating money for some record label. I hate that sort of thing, but I was listening to it. And, and my wife, who is not a big metal fan, you know, she gets into some of the older stuff that I listened to, but, Buke She was even kind of grooving to it and singing along to it. Although it was in Japanese. Who knows what they were saying? It's called Gimme Chocolate. And I gotta say, this is not something I would listen to recreationally. Yeah. But I found it kind of cute. I will be the first to say, I, a couple months ago, saw a video of theirs when I first started seeing some talk on Twitter about them. While, of course, I'm not a fan of Japanese pop music and Korean pop and all those. J-pop. Yeah. You know, from being a video game player, I see people listening to them on Twitch and stuff like that. I will honestly admit the music that I heard behind the vocals is crushing. Yeah. The music is surprisingly good. Surprisingly good. Well done. I don't know if it's a real band. I don't know if it's digitally put in. Enhanced. Enhanced. Yes. I don't know if it's, you know, fake. Right. But it sounds good. George You know, if it was American teen girls like a Miley Cyrus or a Justin Bieber, oh, he's not American, but he is a little girl, it would not have been the same. There's something about young Japanese girls, and I'm not going pedophile on you here. I'm going more of a Godzilla movie, like the little Japanese girls with the mothra. You know what I'm talking about? Have you seen that? I haven't seen it in years, so I don't really know what I'm talking about. But there's just something adorable about little Japanese girls bouncing around and being cutesy. Much more so than stupid American pop star girls like Miley Cyrus. And since I've never heard anything quite like it before, while it's not really my style, I'm giving it a pass just because it's kind of amusing. It's funny you bring this up. There has to be some weight to this, or maybe it's just an advertising thing, but I follow Trivium on Twitter. And Matt, the late singer, was actually in a Japanese magazine with them for an article. Yeah. I was reading an article. It was in, I think it was Metal Hammer. It was either Metal Hammer or Terrorizer. And that's where it was. It was on my iPad, so the video was embedded in the article. And they were talking about all these bands that they'd shared the stage with Metallica and people like that. That's crazy. They're fans of theirs. And I'm like, you know, fans might be pushing it. That's, you know, that's the press machine there. Yeah. But still, it's, yeah, obviously it's not completely hated. It's obviously not. There's definitely a market for it. Well, we'll see where it goes. Yeah, we'll see where it goes. In this digital age, they could make a name for themselves. Maybe. I don't expect, yep, maybe one more album. I don't see this having longevity. Record Store Day 2015. Will you be standing in line? for the... Babymetal 2. Babymetal. Give me more chocolate. Yes. You'd be standing in line for their album? No. Probably not. No. I don't think so. So I don't know about you, but I'm a voracious reader. Not so much. My ADD ruins me. And recently, like beginning of last week, I started reading a book. I read a lot of like fantasy, you know, Jordan and what's the freaking Game of Thrones? I don't know his name. What the fuck is his name? Yeah. George R.R. Martin. And like horror, Stephen King and stuff like that. But as metal becomes more mature, we're starting to get books from metal people. Biographies and things like that. I've read the Ozzy and the Tony Iommi. Buke I've read a little bit of the Zach Wilde book. George I started the Zach book. It wasn't bad, but I got interrupted and I just haven't gotten back to it. And this past week, I started reading a book called Black Metal Evolution of the Cult by, pardon me if I don't get his name right, I think it's Dayal Patterson. I've read some other, well, one other book. There's a book called Lords of Chaos that's all about the Norwegian metal and South American metal and, you know, all the murders and all the church burnings and things like that. This book is more, it's the evolution of black metal. It starts off, The Origin of All Metal moves on to Venom and Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, stuff like that. You know, it's just sort of tracing the path of metal. And I haven't gotten not even a quarter of the way through it yet, probably. Right now I'm up to Sam I.L. And I have to say, it's a really interesting read. Some of the metal books out there, the metal literature, the writing is maybe not up to par with You know, mainstream authors. But this book, it reads well. It's very interesting. And I'm flying right through it. And for somebody that has been so obsessed with metal for 30 plus years, I'm actually learning new things about some of the bands that I enjoy. So I, like I said, I'm not that far into the book yet. But at this point, I can already recommend checking this book out. What's it called again? It's called Black Metal Evolution of the Segueing from the black metal book, I wanted to move on into a new piece. Everything's new this week. A piece called Classic Recommendations from the Vault. I've been listening to metal, as I said, for 30 plus years. There's a lot of great albums along the way that perhaps don't get as much listening time from fans these days. You may have missed your video project, I'm sorry. Yeah. In fact, I believe this album was one of my 365 days of metal. The band that I want to cover today is actually one of the bands in the black metal book. I was inspired to talk about them because I am currently reading about them and it made me go back and listen to the album again. It's been a couple years since I've heard it. The album I want to talk about is Ceremony of Opposites by Sam I L. This is a classic album. It's a great album. I mean, it's only... Where's this at in their catalog? It's their third album. I believe it's actually 20 years old this year. It came out in 1994, I think. I'm... I'd be wrong. Pretty sure it's 94. It's either 94 or 96, but I'm pretty sure it's 94. I'd have to look that up. Check your facts next time before you talk. Oh, well, any Wikipedia for the listeners out there. Anyway, great album. This was my first album that I heard by Sam I L and it just blew me away. It's not the one you gave me there to start with back in the day. I probably gave you Passage, the next album. That's another can of worms. But Sam I L started out as a black metal band. from Switzerland like my beloved Thomas Gabriel Fisher. And they were black metal. People like Euronymous from Mayhem were praising their black metal skills. Their first album was called Worship Him. Very black metal, very dark, harsh vocals. And then their second album, Blood Ritual, the production ramped up a little bit. It sounded a little cleaner. Still really dark and evil. Ceremony of Opposites was a real leap forward for the band. I want to say that this is maybe not the first symphonic black metal album, but if you listen to the song Baphomet's Throne, the intro of the song is like keyboards and drums, and it's very Demu-like, really. This album actually came out the same year as Demu's first album, and Demu's first album was not symphonic. No, it was not. So I think this was really probably inspirational to people. that were starting to form the idea of symphonic black metal. And it was just so cool at the time. You know, the earlier black metal stuff, it was raw, it was harsh, it was cold. This album introduced a little bit of a groove element. It had a little more, you know, oh, I can get in the pit to this and, you know, I can shake my booty. It's not that groovy. But it had a little more groove to it. The production was once again a little bit better. And it really set a precedent in extreme metal. And so I wanted to talk about that album today. And recommend that if you haven't heard this album, if maybe you're only more familiar with their later stuff that's a little more progressive, you should check this album out because it is killer. And my classic recommendation from The Vault, also going back to 94, I just picked this up the other day, is Buke the 20th year anniversary re-release of Pantera. To bring it back to the start of the show. Their release of Far Beyond Driven. That has been digitally remastered. Sounds killer. George Now I have to ask. Does the album cover on the reissue? Does it have the original cover? That's inside. Or does it have the dude getting plowed in the butthole cover? Buke It has the blue cover. That one. The original cover. The Dude is Inside. Okay. I know I'd seen that before. Yeah, that's Inside. I don't know if it isn't a dude. It could be a girl. It could be. Who knows? It looks like a girl. I'm not sure. I think it might be Phil. No, don't you go there. I would not argue with Phil if he wanted to be driven. Sorry, Phil. I don't mean anything by that. I love you. It's your standard reissue of an album. Again, digitally remastered. They added in a live concert from Donington in 94 as a second CD packaged with, I believe, extended liner notes. So that's my classic recommendation. The hardest album to ever debut, number one on the charts. Hell yeah. Still a killer album to this day. You know, Strength Beyond Strength. Slaughtered. Becoming. George The album is just freaking classic start to finish. This reminds me, and I neglected to mention it to you, earlier this week I put in orders that will complete my Pantera vinyl collection. Wow, which was? Well, okay, when I say complete, I mean the Cowboys from Hell on. I've got Cowboys, I've got Vulgar, I've got Driven, and I ordered Great Southern, Buke and reinventing. Reinventing's on vinyl. Yes. I did not know that. Is official live on vinyl. I don't know. I didn't look. I only really generally go. I'm going to say it now for future episodes. I'm a fan of live CDs, live albums. I know a lot of people don't like it. I like that capturing that moment in time. While it might not be the best vocal quality or guitar quality, George I like that. So I, in fact, today I purchased the Mastodon. That's right. I'm not a big live album fan. The exception being Iron Maiden's Live After Death. Greatest live album ever. It's not that I, I mean, actually I picked up that. I think Binge and Purge made me better. No, I know. I know that pulls from a couple different. I don't know. I don't know. We shall fight them on the beaches and on the landing grounds. And then they, you know, whatever. I also, uh, I also really like, uh, and I got this recently, the Dio live, like Sacred Heart in Philadelphia 86 album. I picked that up. That was really cool. Anything Dio is good. And since he's not alive, live is good. So yeah, my, my Cowboys on Studio Pantera collection is now to be completed. Are those all original? No, no, no, no. They're, they're reissues, like Rhino reissues or whatever, but you know, you take what you can get. However, uh, I now, I have my sights set on the pre-Cowboys from Hell albums. Power Metal. Something rather in the jungle. I can't. I can't remember. I know these things. I have them on CD, but I can't off the top of my head recollect them. But some of them are available on vinyl, and I'm coming after them next. All right. Well, I think we're going to wrap up this premiere episode of Metal Heads. This was the first episode, and hopefully there will be more in the future. Again, my name is George Washburn. And I'm Buke. Please, you know, if you like the podcast, leave us some comments, write us an email. If you have any questions. If you have any questions that you'd like us to talk about. If you want George's input, you know, decades surrounded in this music. If you want his input, and you're an old veteran, send in anything. We'll check it out. We'll listen to it. We'll review. Buke We may not review it. Well, maybe on the podcast. Maybe not on the podcast. We may give a quick second mention if it's true. George Give it a nod or something. But I'm so buried in promos that 90% or more of the stuff that I get never is going to get reviewed. There's just not enough days in the week. But make sure to check out the MetalDisciple.com website. You can find us on Facebook. We're on Twitter. We're on YouTube. You can find all that information on the website, MetalDisciple.com. All right. I think that's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. Let us know what you think. Take care. Until next time.