Come Together
Amongst this week’s bands we have talented show offs, a “supergroup,” and a band that probably needs a mouthguard. Also, Nick fought through the elements, construction sites, and a car fire to get to Brian’s house to record this show. Well, not specifically to do that, but it happened.
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Reviews:
Animals as Leaders – The Madness of Many (Sumerian)
Serpentine Dominion – Serpentine Dominion (Metal Blade)
Teethgrinder – Nihilism (Lifeforce)
First Impressions:
Disperse – “Stay” taken from Foreward out February 17, 2017 from Season of Mist
Teethgrinder – Nihilism
Animals As Leaders – The Madness Of Many
Serpentine Dominion – Serpentine Dominion
The Sideshow Podcast 
Disagreement! Drink!
I’m more with Brian on The Madness of Many by Animals As Leaders. I didn’t think this was 10 times as heavy as the last one, as Nick said. Did you listen to the last 2 songs on the album? Those certainly aren’t heavy. Here’s what I think Brian is looking to express (as this is my feeling): The Madness of Many doesn’t have any emotion. It has some nice songs, some good guitar playing, but it lacks any emotional appeal that drags you in as a listener to make you want to listen to it again. Even if you might think it is good, I would describe it as “chin strokingly good”. You wouldn’t raise your fists in the air or mosh to it. I do enjoy more cerebral music from time to time, but The Madness of Many isn’t one of those cerebral albums that I find myself enjoying.
I’ve begun working on my year end list. A week ago I thought that Metallica’s Hardwired To Self-Destruct could have a chance to crack my top 20. After another week of listening to that album, I’m now thinking it has a chance to crack my top 10. As I listen to Hardwired more, the riffs really shine through and stick with me even on songs on the second half of the album that I initially didn’t think were anything special, most notably “ManUnkind” and “Am I Savage”.
Nick mentioned Mr. Robot. I hesitate to even ask if that show is any good because I’m not sure which there are more of: good metal albums that I don’t have time to listen to or good tv shows that I don’t have time to watch. The supply of quality entertainment exceeds the time I have to consume it. But Netflix’s new feature to download content offline has enabled me to catch up on Jessica Jones and start watching Stranger Things.
Not even a hint as to what next week will bring on the podcast? Will you start the year end celebrations? Will there be shit you missed? Will you scrounge for some bottom of the barrel new releases? I guess I’ll have to stay tuned.
Yeah, definitely catch up on Jessica Jones and I would do Like Cage when you’re done. That said, Stranger Things should be priority.
Re: Animals as Leaders – As usual, somebody else can say what I am trying to better than I can. Lol.
Next week will have a returning Sideshow Sweetie (that’s what we called the club right?) and a couple of rad Bandcamp finds. After that we will get into the year end honors and shit we missed.
Yeah, Mr. Robot is pretty solid. It’s a bit slow from time to time (most notably the first half of the second season gets off to a real slow burn), but the story is a pretty good one. It is capable of making some pointed commentary and having a few good shocking moments.
Brian’s other show suggestions are all good as well. I agree on his order: Stranger Things, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage.
I have started my year end list, and man, this is a tough one. I have only given just over 20 albums a perfect rating this year (which you would think would make it easy), but trying to organize those into a logical order is proving difficult beyond my top 3 or 4. Additionally, there are a few 4’s that, as anticipated on some accounts, have grown on me throughout the year while some of those 5’s I haven’t found myself going back to as much as I had originally guessed.
Metallica is still proving to be one of those tricky ones for me. I seem to be ebbing on it a bit at the moment, but by next week I’ll probably be loving it again. It’ll probably be on the list, but where is a total mystery!
-n