Alternate titles for this episode: Do the Shuffle; Truffle Shuffle; Sideshow Shufflé; The Sideshow Podcast AD; The Sideshow Podcast BC; Ten Ton Lawsuit; In Which We Find Nick Still Doesn’t Like “Brocore”; Funny How Song Writing Makes All the Difference
Reviews: Iced Earth – Plagues of Babylon (Century Media); The Kennedy Veil – Trinity of Falsehood (Unique Leader); Tempel – On the Steps of the Temple (Prosthetic); Throwdown – Intolerance (eOne)
Iced Earth – Plagues of Babylon
The Kennedy Veil – Trinity of Falsehood
Throwdown – Intolerance
Tempel – On the Steps of the Temple
The Sideshow Podcast 
I’m curious as to why you choose to play the song “Among the Living Dead” off the new Iced Earth album? If your intent was to show the mediocrity of the album, then you picked the right song. I’d say about half the songs on Plagues of Babylon are good and the others are mediocre. My favorite song is “Spirit of the Times”.
There’s no wanking from The Kennedy Veil? Then it’s a skip from me, especially if you are going to call it tech death. What then makes something “technical” as opposed to regular death metal? To me, it’s the guitar wanking and noodling is the best and distinguishing part of tech death. All those weedly deedly guitar riffs and fills are what makes the best tech death so great.
Speaking of tech death and another Unique Leader band, at this time of year I often listen to non-current stuff. One of those that I’ve been meaning to point out to you is the band Cytotoxin. I’ve been listening to their album Radiophobia which was released at the end of 2012 and it is some awesome tech death. It might be the closest thing to Unhuman that I’ve been able to find. Cytotoxin is over the top, but not quite as out there as Unhuman. I’m not asking you to review Radiophobia, but I’m just saying that if you ever in the mood for some real tech death (unlike The Kennedy Veil) that is somewhat similar to Unhuman, then give Cytotoxin a try.
Another album I won’t ask you to review is the new Alcest. I haven’t listened to it enough yet to know if I like it, but I have listened to it enough to know that you guys probably won’t like it.
Revisiting the drinking game is a great idea! As you noted, there are numerous things in the drinking game that reference Kyle that don’t apply anymore. There should now just be one rule regarding him: drink any time Kyle’s name is mentioned.
Another one that need revisiting is any time “Nick expresses his disdain for death metal.” He doesn’t seem to do that anymore. But one that certainly does still occur is “Brian rips apart a band and then gives them a 3”. You could argue that it happened twice this week with Iced Earth and Throwdown.
Here’s some new suggestions:
Any time Nick says “I don’t like 10 minute songs but I like this!”
Any time Nick comments on the bass tone.
Any time it is debated about having a 10 point rating scale.
Any time someone says “one of these weeks one of us is going to miss an episode”. Two drinks for if/when it actually happens.
And missing from the official list is an obvious one: drink any time Brian rates something a 2. Two drinks if he rates something a 1.
Solid modifications to the drinking game. I was reading over it after we mentioned it on the show this week and realizing just HOW much of an update it needs. Right now it’s more of a fun time capsule to see how we have evolved and grown over the past couple years.
We’re making similar arguments about The Kennedy Veil. I didn’t consider them to be a tech death band after listening to the album. As a straight up death metal act, it isn’t bad. Not overly impressive, but a solid foundation to build upon. As a tech death band, they are missing just about every element of that – except the drumming. That guy is a monster! I gave it a 3 by choosing to ignore the micro genre classification and judge is simply on the merits of what was actually on the record – solid, but not groundbreaking, death metal.
We chose “Among The Living Dead” for a couple reasons. Firstly, we have limited options of songs to play from Century Media. It needs to be a song that was promoted/released already by them. Some labels give us the go ahead to play whatever we want, some labels are very specific in their requirements. Secondly, of our options of what we were allowed to play, “Among The Living Dead” best exemplified what we were discussing in our reviews of the album. “Spirit Of The Times” is a MUCH better track – no argument from me!
This is the problem with labeling a band before hearing them. The band doesn’t even call themselves “technical death metal” as I noted in the show, but that was the impression I got just reading about them. So, going in under that label, yeah it could be disappointing. But going into them under”modern death metal”, it’s really solid and you can hear some technical aspects, but not criticize them for not embellishing that more. So, I guess it is my fault for mislabeling them.
Are you trolling us with Cyotoxin? I am listening to “Frontier of Perception” and i am getting a lot of squeals and grunts with not much more technicality than TKV. Nick wouldn’t make it through the first 45 seconds of this song. This is more Brutal Death that can actually play. I don’t dislike it, but this song itself makes think more of Cerebral Bore than Unhuman.
Ok…trying the title track now. It’s better. But, if we are talking Tech Death, bands like Spawn of Possession, Gorod, even Oblivion are better than this (IMO). If we are talking Brutal Death, then this is some solid stuff. Again…labeling…
Lastly trying “Absym Nucleus”…starts off very technical. But then goes into more staightforward stuff. So based on what i have heard, this band falls between the Kennedy Veils of the world and the Spawn of Possessions and Unhumans of the world. I still think Nick will be very put off by the vocals though.
Anyway…I agree with Nick: good work on suggestions for the drinking game. We will definitely be working on that.
Ha, that’s funny that you think I’m trolling you with Cytotoxin. No way. That album Radiophobia is awesome. “Survival Matrix”, “Abysm Nucleus”, and the title track are all examples of some awesome guitar playing. And for me, that’s what tech death is all about: awesome guitar playing. I certainly admit that I am a “guitar guy”, and by that I mean I definitely focus on and gravitate towards the guitar in any music. Take Inquisition for example. The only good thing about that album is the guitar. But it’s enough for me to really like it. All that noodling in tech death is what defines the genre and makes it great for me. Radiophobia has that in spades. About 6 or 7 years ago I lamented that there was no good guitar music being made those days. When I got my head out of my ass and actually looked for some good current guitar music, I found it in extreme metal and it opened up a whole new world of musical discovery for me, having previously only been a “traditional” metal fan. Radiophobia by Cytotoxin is just one recent example of my search for great guitar music. Besides, if I was going to troll you, I’d come up with something “better” to troll you with. “Hey guys! You should really listen to the new James Durbin album! You know him: he’s the guy who sang Judas Priest on American Idol! You’ll love it!” Now THAT’S trolling.
Ok, “trolling” was a strong word. I listened to “Survival Matrix” and again to “Absym Nucleus” and yes, they’re technical. I guess they just weren’t blowing me away…maybe it’s the vocals. I’m still warming up to brutal gutturals and that much squealing. Also, I guess the Technical Death Metal I (and this podcast) have been exposed to can obvious be really heavy, but hasn’t actually gotten into this kind of Brutal DM territory.
That being said…have you tried Wormed’s “Exodromos”? That album is exhaustingly brutal (down to the vocals) and extremely technical. I’m not even sure how much I actually liked it, but it was certainly an experience. You can stream it on their bandcamp page.
While your at it, after listening to Cyotoxin, I was looking around Unique Leader and found Kamikabe. I like their style more at this point. You can stream their album “Aberration of Man” on bandcamp too.