In this episode the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes set the lads the task of finding three albums or bands that were in some way linked to criminal acts. And not just misdemeanours, thank you very much - these had to be crimes for which jail time would not only be inevitable, but also very lengthy. So, enter stage left Richard, clutching a copy of ZZ Top's Deguello (you'll have to listen to the episode to discover how it meets the brief). It marks a change of direction for the Texas boo...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 82
For this edition of the podcast the lads are being driven to drink. Not literally, because that would be irresponsible. No, this time the Sadmen had to find an album each that had a link to alcohol. Richard travelled back to Canada to pick up Nature Of The Beast, an album thought by many to be the finest hour of April Wine. Steve opted for the comfort of 1986 and the rock-lite Thrill Of A Lifetime by Carmine Appice vehicle King Kobra. Mark, ever the adventurer, went a little off-piste and turned...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 81
The Tico Torres Tombola of Topics & Themes handed out a banger for this episode, with Mark, Steve and Richard tasked with finding three albums released between 1970 and 1995 that had a tangible link to the subject of 'school'. Steve went all Billy Bunter and drew inspiration from the1950s when teachers in English schools were still known as 'masters'. Any excuse to get messers Hetfield, Ulrich, Newstead and Hammett back on the show, right? And so the Bay Area gods' 1986 MASTERclass - and the...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 80
The boys didn't have to venture too far for the latest episode of the podcast - in fact, just a short hop and skip on Eurostar across La Manche and straight on to Paris. Because this time the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes had tasked Richard, Steve and Mark to find something distinctly French to c state with each other. Paris wasn't a prerequisite for the show, but nevertheless that's where our plucky trio ended up. Not only that, but they all ended up with a band formed at the arse en...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 79
In the latest episode of the Sadmen's journey down a rock and roll highway that starts in 1970(ish) and ends in 1995(ish), the lads pull out the corduroys and the paisley shirts and head for the warm bath of psychedelic bewilderment that was 1972. Having encountered Jethro Tull's Aqualung some 68 episodes previously, and hashed out the whole 'is it a concept album, isn't it a concept album' debate, it was time to make the acquaintance of its successor - Thick As A Brick. There were many question...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 78
So, in this episode the lads were eached tasked to find an album with a tangible (this word is important) link to the letter H. Yes, we know. You're squinting at the episode title and the featured bands and wracking your brain to think of a Pink Floyd album beginning with H. Let us help you out: there isn't one. A, O, U, S, P, D, W, M and F, all present and correct. H? Not so much. Anyway, we'll let Richard explain his bizarre rationale for bringing 1975's Wish You Were Here to the table. Back i...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 77
So this episode is all about the albums you bought and lisened to and thought, fuck me that's a great album! Or possibly, fuck me, that's terrible! And then, 30 years later, you discovered your opinion had done a 180 degree turn. In this episode, Mark revisits the much maligned Black Sabbath experiment that saw Ian Gillan step up to the mic, Steve discovers that Ratt's Detonator tickles his ears a little differently to he way it did in 1990, and Richard recalls he moment Van Hagar suddenly made ...
Jul 03, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 76
Yes, Sadfans, we're giving over our 75th episode to the unsung heroes of every band that ever set foot in a recording studio or onto a stage - those apparently indefatigable timekeepers without whom there would be little or no momentum. Stuck behind the kit at the back of the stage, these are the artisans of the hard rock and heavy metal engine room. Whether it's a sense of rhythm combined with a diver's boot (h/t to Gillan's Mick Underwood), the professorial science of Neil Peart, or the tour d...
May 29, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 77
Episode 74 sees the lads tackling the subject of inventions. If ever there was scope to push the envelope on a theme this, surely, is it. And so it proved, as Mark fishes out a set of what can only be described as 15th Century blueprints to qualify Dokken's 1981 debut, Breakin' The Chains. (Don't get antsy, America - we know the better known version of the album was released in Amercia in 1983 with a title tweak - Breaking The Chains rather than Breakin' The Chains - and a very different running...
Apr 30, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 76
The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast finds the boys in more familiar territory as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes serves up 'Death' as the theme for Episode 73. End of life certainly offers up a wealth of stuff to go at in the world of hard rock and heavy metal, which makes it even more bewildering that Steve and Rich didn't follow Mark's lead and go with something completly literal. As it was, Mark arrived at the Sadmen party with an album in another one of those covers t...
Apr 12, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 75
Sometimes artists feel the need to escape the confines of the environment in which they made their name and give voice to the individuality of their art. Or some such bollocks. In any event, whether going solo or, in the case of Doro Pesch, being forced by a legal ruling to cease and desist using the name of the band which made her famous, rock and roll's highways and byways are crisscrossed by the tracks of musicians who have wandered off the well-beaten track. We meet three of them in this edi...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 74
So, a question. How maqny albums can you name where the title track is worthy of its status? And of those, how many eclipse even that honour to be classed asd truly epic? That was also the question that was asked of our hardy rock and roll adventurers by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes for this, the latest leg of the marathon attempt to review the greatest hard rock, heavy metal, prog (etcetera, etcetera) albums of all time (well, of 1970 to 1995, at least). It's worth saying from t...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 73
And on we go to Episode 70, in which the lads work to a brief that shouldn't have been too challenging to meet, even for men of singular taste and discernment. Yes, in this run through another three albums from hard rock and heavy metal's golden era (that's 1970 to 1995, for the uninitiated) the boys were tasked by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes to find examples of 'Power'. Whether electrical, nuclear, steam, wind, strength or gas was up to them to decide. And so we end up slap ban...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 72
For their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's many-faceted highway, the Sadmen's destination was that utopian land of pianos, synthesisers, Moogs and mellotrons. Yes, friends, having done vocalists, singers and bass players, it was time to pay tribute to some of the ivory tinklers who help to make up rock's great tapestry. But if you thought we were going all Tony Banks, Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman or Richard Wright on you, think again, fans. Yes, in this episode we do touch on some obvio...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 71
And so following the previous episode, which - according to Rich - featured Diet Cult and Diet Marillion, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes rumbled ever on and this time spat out a topic which challenged the boys to find albums that had a 'white' theme. After they all studiously avoided the apparently 'obvious' Whitesnake, they each entered the Sadmen Sound Studio with more white stuff than you'd find at a mid-Eighties Motley Crue after show party. First up for discussion was Steve's ...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 70
And so to an episode in which Richard, Steve and Mark were tasked with marking important life moments. Mark and Steve opted for a broadly similar seam to mine - that of parenthood. Rich, on the other hand, eschewed the opportunity to reflect on bringing new life into the world, or discovering love for the first time. He spat in the face of death and pooh-poohed the notions of age, friends and work. No, it seems that Richard's most notable moment in life is, in fact, stowing a lilo under his arm ...
Mar 25, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 69
The lads were having such a good time, dipping a gnarly toe into the cool waters of the late 70s and early 80s, when Steve decided to spoil the party with a dirty protest in the form of a thrash album that burned through 14 songs in fewer than short - albeit painful - minutes. Luckily, you, dear listener, have dodged the bullet that Mark and Richard took on your behalf, and you'll only have to endure about 2 minutes of Nuclear Assault's live offering, Live At The Hammersmith Odeon. Before that, ...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 68
A landmark moment for the Sadmen as listener Tony, from Australia, picks three albums for the boys to cast their ears over - and what an eclectic three they turned out to be. First up, novelty sensation Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction with their debut, Tattooed Beat Messiah. With their 'out there' look, hilarious alter ego names and chart-bothering single Prime Mover, was this British oddity just a very clever joke - or is there more to it than that? Following hot on the heels of Zodiac ...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 67
In their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane, the boys are checking out supergroups - those bands formed by musos who made their names in other bands. There were some obvious ones to choose from - Bad Company, Audioslave and, erm, Revolting Cocks, for example - but the boys dived deep and came up with three outfits that were all new to at least one of them. Anything involving Sammy Hagar and Neil Schon was probably dependably good (or was it?) so they all felt comfortable...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 66
After a short hiatus, the Sadmen are back with the latest instalment of the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame - an ongoing mission to create the definitive best-to-worst list of hard rock, heavy metal and prog released between 1970(ish) and 1995(ish). The Hall of Fame unique's selling point is the fact that each and every track on each and every album is marked individually, with the averages of those scores calculated to give the album as a whole an overall score - often to 5 decimal pla...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 65
Human biology is the theme of the 63rd instalment of the lads' quest to compile the ultimate 'best of' list of hard rock and heavy metal albums. It's also an episode that sees debut appearances for two bands, along with the fourth of the six Metallica albums that are eligible for consideration under the pod's strict 1970-1995 (okay, 1996) parameters. The task was straightforward: parts of the human body. Steve went for 'hand'. Check. Mark went for 'spine'. Check. Richard went for ejaculate, bloo...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 64
So often pilloried and made to be the punchline of heavy metal jokes (Q: Where's the best place to hear a bass solo? A: In the bar/bog), this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast celebrates the 4-string virtuosos without whom much of the music we love would either not exist at all, or be significantly poorer. The lads were tasked with finding three bass players who each personified their band's sound. It was a remarkably difficult choice, with Geezer Butler, Lemmy, Geddy Lee, Phil Kennemore, JPJ,...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 63
For their latest journey down the time tunnel of hard rock and heavy metal the lads fired up the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes and found themselves transported back to 1974, where they discovered just how broad this church of hard rock and heavy metal really was. First up - and not for the first time on the pod - a bunch of German musicians who had hitched their wagon to that of an English vocalist. Epitaph's Outside The Law reflects a broad tapestry of influences that range from Sout...
May 29, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 62
The latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast heads off in search of hard rock and heavy metal band names, album titles, or cover art with a distinctly spooky flavour to them. Richard manages to push the envelope (again) by picking Sabbath's fifth outing, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath from 1973, on the basis that the images on the front and back of the cover depict a man being watched over by demons and angels respectively. Oh, and the whole shebang was recorded in a haunted castle. But when you're de...
May 14, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 61
The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen Podcast turns its attention to three albums that feature either either angels or towers, or (in two cases) both. First up is the ambitious 1975 self-titled debut from American progressive band Angel, famous for both their white and outrageously angelic stagewear and for having Greg Guiffra as a member. We then spin forward 5 years to the birth of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (at least in its recorded form) and one of its most influential releases - t...
May 08, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 60
The lads head into outer space for the latest trip down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane as they investigate and appraise the merits - or otherwise - of three very different albums boasting some sort of connection, however tenuous, to the worlds beyond our own. First up is Deep Purple with Fireball from 1971, the staging post between the previous year's In Rock and the genre defining Machine Head released in 1972. The band have since confessed to not being particularly enamoured with it; ...
Mar 13, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 59
The Enter Sadmen podcast is on a relentless, merciless mission to identify the ultimate list of the best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal albums (yes, and prog, and Grunge, and AOR, and thrash) released between 1970 and 1995 by rating them ... track by track. Hard rocking fans and critics, Richard, Steve and Mark have so far admitted 165 records to the Hall of Fame and the next to queue up at its gilded doors like Charlie Bucket and his grandpa brandishing their golden tickets outside the Wonka Facto...
Mar 07, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 58
Well, it was only a matter of time. After swerving Back In Black for 162 albums, the hand of fate intervened as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out the ball that correlated to a theme simply called "Black". With most of hard rock and heavy metal's behemoths already admitted to the Enter Sadmen Hall of Fame only four albums have occupied the #1 slot in the list - Priest's British Steel, reviewed in Episode 1, spent a week there before being toppled following Episode 2 by Moving ...
Mar 05, 2022•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 57
With more than a half a century of episodes under their belts, the most surprising thing for the Sadmen was that they hadn't yet been given an episode theme that centred on the word 'metal'. That all changed for this episode as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics & Themes finally did the decent thing and spat out the magic ball. But with two thirds of the eligible Metallica releases already housed in the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, the field boasting the bleedin' obvious had narr...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 56
The Seventies are often lampooned as the decade that fashion and music forgot. Admittedly, it was rich on Gilbert O'Sullivan The Carpenters and The New Seekers, but it also brought us Sabbath and the golden eras of both Zeppelin and Purple, so it wasn't all bad. in fact, as the snot-nosed belligerence of punk prepared to make its invective-rich entrance, the world of rock music - and especially progressive rock music - was an interesting one to inhabit. This episode features three albums from 19...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 55
