Dead Skin Mask is my favorite Slayer song as well. But I’m not sure you could call Slayer the biggest heavy metal band of all time, unless you don’t consider Metallica and Iron Maiden heavy metal bands. From my perspective, Slayer is a band whose reputation has built over the years and only looking back on their career can they be called huge. When I was in high school, there were a lot of metal fans at school. But none of us were into Slayer. I can’t really explain why, because everyone was in to the rest of the Big 4 bands. The only thing I can think of is that Slayer’s reputation hadn’t yet been established when I was in high school the way that other bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica had even though Slayer’s seminal albums had (just) been released at that time.

It sounds like skipping the Clutch show in favor of seeing Nails at Saint Vitus the next night was the right call. Although the Nails show was a little odd as well. One of the things I love best about Nails is their tone, and I was curious to hear how they would sound live. From where I was standing, they sounded like a wall of treble and not in a good way. However, when I watched 17 minutes of footage posted by Metal Injection, it actually sounded way better on their footage than my ears heard live. And the crowd was a little tame for a hardcore/grindcore act (or whatever you’d classify Nails as). The Nails frontman even said during the show “we don’t even know what the fuck (sub-genre) we are. And we don’t give a fuck.”

I’ve been listening to Unwelcome by Arsis all week and I think it’s only ok. It is the definition of a 3 for me. It’s not a bad album but it lacks any high points that really grab me. The song Unwelcome is really the only song that even stands out for me on the whole album. Some of the guitar solos are cool, but I expected a little bit more of the technical nature of the songs and guitar playing from them. I guess I wanted more of that “showy” nature on this album. The cover of Sunglasses at Night is a throwaway. Look, I’m a child of the 80s and I remember this song when it was originally released when I was a kid so it has some childhood memories for me, but Arsis’s cover of it is a novelty that I listened to once, listened to the guitar solo of it one further time, then skipped it every other time I listened to the album. So “Unwelcome” is a “welcome return to form”, Brian?

“New Jersey is the deep south of the northeast.” “There’s no pants for them in Brooklyn.” Hilarious!

I too agree with the seasons affecting music listening. I tend to shy away from Black Metal and Doom in the spring and summer, thought rainy or gray days are still good for Katatonia and the like even if it is 85 out.

I can’t speak for Kyle and Nick, but I have not checked out Beatallica. I know what their “shtick” is but never bothered giving it a try. I guess I’ll have to look into it a bit.

Speaking of things we haven’t gotten to…spoiler alert…we’re plan on checking out the new Clutch album for Episode 84 since, ya know, you requested that a few times now. lol

– B

I think you’ve brought up the subject of the time of year affecting your enjoyment of an album and I completely agree with Nick and Kyle about that kind of thing. It needs to be a cold, rainy spring day for me to be able to appreciate Katatonia at this time of year. When the sun is out and the temperature finally hits above 60 degrees, I’m ready to listen to Killswitch Engage, Kvelertak, and Clutch.

Kyle, don’t worry, I already called out Brian and Nick for not liking the new Kvelertak album.

So now this year you’ve reviewed Stone Sour, Audrey Horne, Coheed & Cambria, Sevendust, and probably some other hard rock / borderline metal albums that I can’t think of, but no Clutch? Earth Rocker is a pretty good album that is worth your time checking out. It’s not some groundbreaking masterpiece, but it is solid and something that falls into that “almost metal” category that those other aforementioned bands fall into. If you are waiting for Kyle to suggest reviewing Earth Rocker, you might be waiting a while.

Speaking of which, I have a new addition to the drinking game: drink every time some says “I wish Kyle was here to tell us what he thinks of this album.”

I didn’t know that Lacuna Coil didn’t have a bass player. And Nick, are you saying that Andrea Ferro is the worst singer in metal? I mean, he does sing with an Italian accent (the lyric “seconds, minutes, and hours spill over” becomes “secoinds, meenits and hours speel oveh”) but beyond that he’s not that bad.

Only one song this week? It would have been cool to hear some Anciients and one of the Pyrithian songs I haven’t heard, but I know there are reasons why you can or can’t play the music on the podcast. I’ll just have to seek it out myself.

And lastly, when are you going to announce the winner of the Killswitch contest? Didn’t that end 2 weeks ago?

However, being more Progressive, whether it be in Death Metal, Deathcore, Stoner Metal, whatever, has it’s own share of issues, which is mostly going too far in that direction. I do not think Fallujah did that, as I stated in my review. While I was seemingly alone on it, I thought Mastodon did that on Crack the Skye. From has been said about it, I think August Burns Red is about do it on their next album. After the Burial, on the other hand, put some Progressive elements into their last album without sacrificing any of their Metalcore sound.

It’s all about finding balance. I personally think The Contortionist went too far. Fallujah seemed to find it here, and hopefully the full length will stick with that.

Your music appreciation totally makes sense. To play devil’s advocate with myself, i guess it is also easy for some non-musicians to take some of the skill for granted, which is why it seems more and more technical ability is “demanded” form bands. It can be easy to say something like “oh, Spawn of Possession has been doing that for years, so why can [tech band] do it?”

And about the teasing…that was an honest mistake. On our release list, the Ghost album was set for release last week. But, a little before it’s release, it got pushed back do to art issues. I had kinda forgot about that. Oops. We did however review Eyeconoclast before it came out, so we still review and album early…just not the one we said we were gonna do.

– B