Welcome everyone to episode 375 of signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor and for this episode I welcome back some of my patrons for another hour one episode where we discuss some hot button topic, buzz worthy, click bait, whatever you want to call it, headlines in hard rock and metal. Next! I'm ready. Let's do it!
Alright, so for this episode I do welcome back Dr. Poison Brad Doll, Mr. Yard Metal himself. Check out his site yardmetal.com. We have Ed the Shred Ferguson in Kentucky and we have Johan up in Sweden and they're on the show because they are patrons.
You can join us on Patreon for as little as $2 a month and then there's merch involved as well. Oh yeah, if you want the merch without joining Patreon you could buy the merch as well. You can go to signalsfrommars.com and go to merch from the menu at the top of the page all the way on the right hand side there.
And look, any way that you feel inclined to support the show, whether that's picking up merch, whether that's following us on social media, whether it's telling your friends about us, whether that's joining us during the live show in the chat or actually becoming a patron, all of that is greatly appreciated.
I realized that in all the years that I've been podcasting, 13 plus years, there have been a lot of big names that have come to this. There have been names that have come and gone and is the crowd or is the audience as big as what it once was? No, probably not. But I do feel that we do have a cool tight knit family here that does like to come hear us discuss different hard rock and metal topics, likes to hear the interviews that I do, likes all the other things that I do have to offer.
So any way that you can support is greatly appreciated. Look, there's, I always say this, there's a million other things that you can check out. And it's just awesome that you're here. I really, really appreciate it. And I know that there are some people that say that just to say the right thing so that their audience is happy or whatever. But I mean it, man. I'm an independent podcast. I've got whatever following I do have. I used to get hell bent on that stuff and get pissed off too.
Why is this show have so many more people than than me? And you know, I can flip flop it with the drop of a hat, you know, let's be honest, but I'm trying to stay positive with all this stuff. And I do want to thank you guys for being here real quickly.
I do want to thank the patrons that do follow and those that I didn't already mentioned. We have Sean Richmond in the UK, Chris Inczak from Despogeek Podcast, Tony Espin in Barcelona, Anthony Mackie, the great graphic designer who set up the logos that you see on any of the merch or anything related to the show.
He came up with the original logo. And let's see, we have Metal Dan who joined us a few weeks ago. We have Jose in Connecticut. We have the metal dentist Gabriel. We have our Mike Jones, who was also on the show a few weeks back. And Jeremy Weltman who will be recording with me tonight when we discuss the new releases for the month of February 2024. You can check that out live tonight at 5pm Eastern and I would say 6pm Pacific. No, that's totally wrong. 5pm Eastern 3pm Pacific.
We'll figure it out for the rest of the US. What is that? 4pm Mountain and 5pm Central. For those in Europe, it's 11pm European Standard Time. And I believe in Australia, if you're on the East Coast, that is 8am. But anyway, join us, join us in the chat if nothing else. Some fun bands are there. And before running out of time here, I do want to also thank twisted Stephen Hoker and Mr. Stephen Saylor. That is all folks. Let's jump on into the episode. Here we go.
Welcome on and all to the February 23rd edition of signals for Mars. I am Victor. I am joined by Ed, by Johan and by Brad and Edgar Winterson says, wow, it's back. We've been back. We've been back for a few weeks, Edgar. You're here tonight. So real quickly, let's get some of the advertisement out of the way here. We have Brad styling and profiling in a Cavalier ish bucket hat. We like to call it the Brad hat.
Aha. I'm telling you this this hat. I mean, just the hat. I mean, what really makes it, of course, is the beautiful logo here on the front. But the hat is really nice. I mean, really nice. Yeah, I've had many, many compliments about this hat. So you, you won't regret buying one of these other than if you like somebody who doesn't want to be.
I don't want people to notice me in a crowd, then don't get one of these. But hey, you don't mind that. Get one. All right. I'm looking forward to wearing this to every show I go to. And and yeah, any kind of musical thing that I go to M3 maybe. Oh, for sure. For sure. This will be at M3. Yeah, we will definitely be rocking this at M3. We'll see. We'll see how many pictures Brad takes with his bucket hat with Mark Mark Striegel. Maybe. Well, yes. Let's see if he's
Or Emily, maybe Emily will come out. Yeah. If you're in the colder part of the world. You also have a beanie hat. I think that might be my next purchase. Okay. We don't have Jeremy here this week, but we do have the Jeremy cap, which he enjoys wearing. All right. We also have the stylish t shirt. Oh, which I have. It's beautiful. We have the hoodie. We have the windbreaker jacket.
And we have a bomber jacket. So, you know, is go to signals from ours.com click on March and help support the show at the same time. So very cool. Look at that. Edgar says I thought someone had died. Well, I'm sure there have been people that have died between the last time you've been in the chat and the show's gone on.
Okay, you saw the hoodie at the Paris Fashion Week doesn't surprise me Paris Rome Milan. It's been all over the place. Speaking of being all over the place. We've got some interesting topics to touch upon probably the biggest out of all, which, which I'm sure Ed would like to discuss is the Slayer shocking return from retirement. And I've been hearing all types of different things this week. And this isn't a tour, it's only going to be select dates.
And add instantly what's what's your thought on this. I immediately felt a jolt of excitement in my chest when I first heard the news. My first thought was just wait a couple of days because as soon as those kind of stories hit all the, you know, pranksters come out with their, their means and their new headlines in addition to the story that you heard. So you're not sure what to think yet.
And sure enough, that's what happened. I was seeing all kinds of funny things that weren't true that supposedly, you know, one big one was Kerry King, supposedly saying that he didn't know anything about this. Did you see that one going around. Yeah, yeah, when you see that I just thought to wait a couple of but my first thought was it would just be a, you know, a show or two, which, you know that that makes sense, you know, for any band to do.
I mean anyone that retires sometimes it'll still do do what they do a little bit after retirement. It's not, you know, full capacity. And you know, and with some of these older bands like Slayer. I kind of prefer it to be that way to where, you know, they're at a point if they're not especially if they're not making music and they're just going to play the same hit songs all the time. Right, it'd be better just to see him every once in a while at a festival or something.
Now, before knowing exactly what was going on. Like you were commenting this doesn't make sense it wasn't making sense because you have Kerry getting ready to put out a record. Yeah, one that he said that has some leftover Slayer riffs and songs on it. So, you know the headlines are making it almost sound like Slayer got back together, and going to be regularly touring. It was hard to tell exactly what story they were trying to promote there, but you know that's obviously not what's happening.
And, you know, if they're not putting out new music I'm not really even that interested. You know, that show that they're probably going to do. I don't know it's, you know, I guess, I wish all of these bands instead of saying, we're retiring. Give a different message that hey we're getting old we may not do this much longer we don't know if we'll be back you know we might play again if we can.
But it kind of feels like they're, they're always playing with our emotions when it comes to the retirement stories. I think they need to start sending out a little different message about, you know, because after a lot of people retire for a few years and they get itching to get back out and do it again. You know, kind of get bored you especially when it comes to the rock and metal you start to miss it after a while and start Jones in to get back in there.
And then you sit or you start to realize that you've got bills to pay. Yeah, it probably makes more sense for these bands to say hey we're going to go on hiatus. Yeah, we don't know if we're coming back. If we do come back, you've seen the last of what we're going to do. If we do come back. You know we're going to try to give you the best of what we can offer that time but you know we're done.
And then, three, four years later, they come back. Why because they're playing five festival dates at the moment, and they're going to make a shitload of money off of it. And the biggest problem is the one thing that you touched upon to me. Carrie releases the video announces the band. They're talking up the album napalm is, you know, probably among one of their bigger acts. And all of a sudden this happens which means that one is he can have time to promote this album.
You know, is he going to promote those shows over this album you know what's legally what does it say. Does this mean that his solo band is also going to play those same festival. Those same festivals, you know there's, there's a bunch of different kind of things that still need to be answered. Basically, it'll be an interesting story to see play out did you say five shows already I've only heard of two. Yeah, this afternoon I read that there was five. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I, you know, it's not like I wouldn't want to hear Slayer, it's one of my favorite bands but yeah I just don't want any of these bands playing with my emotions too much by, you know, making us feel like this is the last time we'll see you again. Yeah, and then when really they're going to be back maybe after taking a good rest. Right. Johan what do you think about this whole Slayer Union.
Well, I have seen Slayer a couple of times, or a lot of times since I think it was 1994. The first time I saw Slayer. And I saw them at that time. And it, you know, there were a lot of festivals in Europe Slayer, and they were, you know, they were good, but not great. They played their set. It was Slayer, and it was, you know, Slayer, but the last time I saw Slayer on the farewell tour at Sweden Rock. They were actually great.
And it doesn't have to anything to do with the farewell tour. I don't think they sounded great and it was something about them that they have matured. And I thought that this is not the time for them to end. I really can welcome this comeback or reunion, whatever, but they were not ready to end. That's my opinion.
Because the maturity of the sound and the live performance were, you know, before, they were more like, you know, not a smaller band, but they were absolutely not a smaller band, but they were not, you know, perhaps like a ice hall band at the most. Right. But the last time I saw them on the farewell tour, they were an arena stage band, and they were, you know, they were playing hits and they were playing new songs. It was something else. They were really good.
So I think this is a good thing and I hope they continue. Not the major tour, but, you know, do if they go to play, you know, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, don't go around, play big shows. I don't care. They're good. Okay. Have they confirmed the lineup? Is it the last lineup that went out with them or? That's what they say. Yeah. Okay, so I surely hope for Gary Holt because. With Gary and Paul. Yeah.
Okay. You know, you got to think too, when it comes to these bands, like with Slayer, I think that my impression is a lot of the retirement thing was driven by Tom. Right. And I think that makes sense because think of how exhausting his job must be, especially as you're getting into your 60s and beyond, because he's not just playing he's having to not just not just be a vocalist but it's a loud vocalist he's having to scream and
you know big vocals in those songs the whole time. You got to imagine if you're doing that night after night. After a while, it would wear you down to the point where you feel like you have to stop. And to, you know, if someone like Tom's voice is not sounding good, I don't want to hear them. Right.
So, I don't I don't know if I know that touring can be hard on any old body, but I imagine especially for vocalists. It could be even more, you know, hard on yourself and make you feel like you need to retire, but then after you've rested a while you and you're feeling strong again you want to get back out there and have fun again. Had your saying we might be back one day doesn't sell magazines. True. I mean, yeah, we can now add Slayer to the list of Motley Crue kiss the who the Rolling Stones.
You know how many bands, the purple, you know said they were going away and they eventually came back. One, one way or another. This was the most embarrassing though because they did the blood promise thing. Remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. They were cutting themselves to show how sincere they were that this would never be done. Rules were made to be broken. Crew. Yeah, that's just weird.
Yeah. They're the, as the late Bob now banding would say they they are the superhero band that fed into their own stories so what band do you guys think is next. I mean what band have we, you know, has kind of gone away that you guys think would would would be most possible for them to to jump back into the arena. We've we've mentioned a bunch of bands already. I mean, could you guys see honestly I mean kiss just went away. Could we see kiss come back in some capacity.
There's talk of Ozzy doing two shows. After doing these two shows does he, you know, somehow or another, decide that two shows isn't enough and start, you know, maybe not do a full blown tour but play selective dates like Slayers doing. Brad, what do you think what what band is most likely to be next in line. Ooh, that sounds like a deal thing there. Oh, that'd be the last in line. Okay.
That's a really tough question I'm scanning through the yard metal playlist for the next couple of hours. And I'm not seeing any band who has retired and stayed retired everybody is. I mean even oh my gosh yeah some of these people. Yeah, I mean, you could talk about like bands getting back together with the some of the people the important people that were part of it.
But as far as a band actually coming out of retirement, I can't think of anybody. I mean, Ozzy hasn't officially retired. I mean he's done that several times, but this time he's not retired you just can't can't do it. Right. But yeah, I'm. Holy crap. I mean yeah I think at this point it's reunion type stuff. Other than bands that there's just no even bands that everybody's dead. They're still playing.
Right, I hope kiss doesn't come back okay I think it's with me on this. That was a good way to end their career that that final show. Yeah, it's time to stop. Yeah, you can see that they were I mean they were really holding tight to get through that thing. And it's like yeah, this is a really good time to stop boys. I hope I hope they don't come back. So that's, that's really the only band I can, I can think of here. That is retired currently retired.
Johan which band that is currently retired, most likely in your opinion to come back. Oh, there's one band who likes a lot. Yeah, yeah. I can sincerely hope that rush, perhaps does one or two or three shows with a drummer like partner, my partner or so but other than that I really can't think of it. I, when Brad was speaking with, I was thinking a lot, you know, can I come up with something. No, I can't.
But I was thinking about bands that are still great, but are old, like, you see, a band like Europe here in Sweden. They do tours, and I'm going to see them in this in May. And they I mean, they draw full arenas, and not because of the old songs, because to the new songs and John Norum just turned 60, the guitarists so I mean, we can still be happy for the bands that still run, and, you know, don't they have a new album coming out this year. Yeah, yeah.
John Norm's last album was really good. I thought, yeah, yeah, I need to listen to that one again. So, even though you're old, it doesn't have to be bad, as you know, we all have discussed about Judas Priest, so it's. How about Fates Warning, I mean, they haven't really retired this is everybody's doing side projects. Yeah, Ray. I always get his last name wrong. Alder. Alder. Okay. I always say Adler, and I knew it wasn't right.
He said that Jim Mathias has no desire in writing more Fates Warning music. Really? Okay. Well, that could change. Brad, Brad, excuse me, Victor here. What's your opinion about Slayer? Oh, thanks for asking. You know, full disclosure, I've never seen Slayer live. I mean, obviously their legacy is huge. And, you know, part of the big four, the whole thing.
I don't begrudge them playing again. I know they said they retired and I don't know if it was like you guys talked about Tom and his physical ability and all that. And I don't know the reason for them getting back together. I would guess that probably there was a phone call that said, Hey, you know, we have this offer on the table for this kind of money for you guys to get back together and do a few more shows. Will you do it? I think that's probably what happened.
I would like to think that Tom, you know, after like Ed has talked about after a couple of years of not doing it, it'd be like, you know, Doug, I really want to get back out there and do it again. I mean, I'd like to think that these guys really want to play. There's nothing worse than seeing a band that doesn't want to be there playing. Yeah, that's the worst. I've seen that on several occasions already. Me too. Me too. Yeah. Van Halen at Monsters of Rock in Spokane. Eddie didn't want to play.
And him and Sammy kind of got in a fight on stage because Eddie's just like, Hey, let's go back to the hotel. Like, no, no, look, we got like 80,000 people here. What the hell? It was the most. Yeah, I became a real Eddie hater at that point. But then the next tour, they were really good. So and I understand he was having some issues. So I'll give him a pass. There you go. And you're saying Brad still has his seasons in the abyss. Blood pack CD. That's true. That's true.
Oh, there was a band I was in for actually quite a while and one of our guitar players, huge Slayer fan, like huge. And he would always bring a Slayer song to us to play and play it for us. And I'd be like, yeah, I'll give it a go. And the other guys would be like, no, I'm not playing this. A little bit, a little bit too much for them, I guess. It's intense music, man. You can't you can you imagine being like a Slayer tribute band and like being awful? I guess I guess I could imagine that.
Yeah, it's probably really to be awful doing that. Probably fairly easy. Yeah, I got my band in the 80s. I think it was like I was probably in the early 90s when we were playing a club and the owner was giving us a chance to headline. At this point, we've just been warming up for people. He's like, I really want you guys to headline. But he says the smart move is to bring in another opening act so you don't have to do three sets.
So like, OK, and they asked around and some guy recommended these guys to us as two brothers. And they were a Metallica tribute band. And they both play guitar and like Metallica, there was no bass, no drums, no drums. I actually got a little video of this, too. I'll have to see if I can tweeze that out and send it to you guys. It's hilarious. But yeah, they had like a little drum machine that you triggered by your foot. And it was it was it was pretty bad.
It was. Well, luckily, people people stuck around for us. So that was good. That's that's why I say that I'm pretty sure that most of the bands, most of the Slayer tribute bands that were out there. I'm not saying that there weren't ones that were good, but I'm. Wagering that the majority probably were not good. Yeah, we had a Pantera tribute band warm up for us once, and they were actually pretty good. They were pretty legit. Yeah. The thing is, though, Pantera's.
I would think is easier, especially for the drummer. Because it's more groove orientated, there isn't the constant double bass. The double bass is just kind of an added ingredient in some of the songs, whereas. A lot of the stuff that Slayer puts out, or at least a lot of the more recognizable stuff has Dave Lombardo doing double bass all over the place. So that's how many guys can play that. I mean, it's probably just a handful of guys that can play that.
I mean, there's a lot of people that can do it nowadays because of Dave's influence. The problem is that a lot of people don't realize that Dave has a specific feel and power to his playing. He attributes a lot of that to the fact that he is Cuban. So he borrows a lot from other Latin styles of music. But I've also seen him playing like Iron Maiden covers and Led Zeppelin covers and Kiss covers. And if you don't think about it, it sounds really cool. It's like, wow, this guy's different.
But at the same time, he's playing the same stuff. And then when you realize that Slum Bardo, it's a lot of the same parts, but played in a way more powerful way. He eats the shit out of the stuff that he's playing. He's just got he's got a feel to his playing where it sounds like he's a lumberjack chopping down trees. Basically, he takes like with the Zeppelin stuff, he takes the bottom stuff, plays it from note for note the same.
But then he's playing it where he's just hitting the drums so much more aggressively that that's just his the feel to his playing. So and it's no matter how fast he plays, he doesn't sound like a machine like so many other people can. You still feel the character in it no matter how fast. Right. And that's what I was going to say. That's the one thing to not only him, but a lot of the kind of OG players from that era.
Like you can't mistake them for a drum machine, you know, for as much shit as Lars gets, for example. You listen to a lot of those early albums and he's fucking breaking you ground on a lot of those albums. You know, a lot of people, you know, use revisionist history and don't realize it. But when those albums came out, when those first four albums came out, Lars was getting all these drummers of the year awards and, you know, this and that award.
And it was because those were landmark albums and that included his playing. Is Lars the best drummer even out of the big four? I don't think so. I don't even think it's close. Is he one of the most important musicians out of the big four? You could possibly argue that he may be the most important just because of the fact that, you know, he's behind essentially every Metallica song that's ever been released except for two.
You know, whether he's written the songs directly, I think just based on his input and just his overall know-how of what he's looking for in music, I think that's an important piece that maybe some of the other drummers don't have. I mean, I think Lombardo has that to an extent and I think Charlie Bonante has that even more so because he's the main, you know, composer in Anthrax. So anyway, kind of getting sidetracked here.
But my last question, which Johan kind of already answered for himself is, and we've answered this a bunch of times, but can you think of any band that you'd like to see get back together that isn't together now? And maybe they are together now, but you'd like to see a specific formation. I mean, in that case for me, I'd love to see Anthrax give it one more go with John Bush. So, Brad, how about you?
What band would you like to see get back together or, you know, bring back an old formation that really kind of speaks to you? I mean, is there a Blue Oyster Cult that you'd like to see? Actually, yeah, Blue Oyster Cult. I mean, one of the guys, the original guys is dead, so that can't happen. But the two Bouchard brothers, Albert did the thing that they most, well, that they're releasing now, the concerts where they did the first three albums.
He participated in all of those on the album part of it. He didn't do the other music part, the second half of the show. But he's been back in the camp. And then now they're releasing this album. I don't think it's coming up this month of old tracks that were never released, never finished, that they kind of dug out on cassettes and stuff and have put together. You know, I think we have the Beatles to blame for this. And yeah, you put one of them up on our page.
And yeah, it's not like it's a great song or anything. But it's sung by the original bass player who has not done anything with them in probably 40 years, I'm guessing 30, 40 years. And it would be great to see them do something one more time with the two brothers on stage with them doing their songs. That would be really, really cool. I don't know whether that'll happen, though, but it'd be cool.
Because yeah, those guys, every time I see them, it's like, boy, how much longer are they going to be able to keep doing this? Right. I know they'll do it till they die. But I guess that's really the answer when they when they die. OK. And I'd love to see that. I would really love to see that. OK. Ed, how about for you? Is there any band or you'd like to see get back together again or any formation of a specific band that you'd like to see get back together?
I would like Anthrax with Dan Spitz. OK. Maybe if all the alive members from RAP could get along. Ooh, that's a good one. Mark Neely with Stephen Piercy, maybe. And Bobby Udo with Accept would be nice. Yeah, that ain't going to happen. But yeah, that would be nice. Yeah, these are in my dreams. But you mentioned Lombardo. I would buy a ticket to go see that show. What did you say, Brad? You mentioning RAP makes me think of a couple of bands from that era who aren't really back together.
Still, I've done shows from time to time like Poison is one of them. Yeah. Will they? Will those guys ever get together and tour again? I don't know. I mean, the singer's singer gets out there and does this thing just like RAP. And the both of them are, I think, going to be in M3. And the other one is Cinderella. Will Cinderella ever? Of course, they're missing a guitar player now because he died. So yeah. But will they ever?
Will Tom Kiefer ever put together what he would call Cinderella and go out there? And I know a lot of people have cried for those bands to be out there doing their thing. Rat and I'd say those big three rat poison Cinderella. Well, that'd be a great tour, wouldn't it? Yeah, because I feel like Stephen can still pretty well sing. It's not as bad as trying to listen to Don Dock and do his thing.
Right. You're right. I mean, you know, you could argue that he sings just as well as he did back in 1984, which really wasn't that great back then. Yeah. He made it easy on himself. He was he never really like saying anything. It's like, holy crap. Wow. That's really tough to sing. So although it is tough to sound like him, I've heard plenty of people cover their music. And he's got a very unique voice. Yes, he does. You recognize him right away.
Yep. Oh, wait. Kicks retired. Oh, where's my old man? We need him. Yeah. Kicks actually retired last year. And I would love to see them get together and play again. So, hey, I found somebody that actually retired. Victor, look at that. Kicks. They retired and last show ever last year. But I'd like to see them come back. We'll see if they do. OK. Johan, you mentioned the guys from Rush. Is there any other band that you'd like to see get back together? Sure. Queen's Strike. OK.
Original original line up. That would be awesome to see. Chris Garmore again with Jeff Tate and the guys. Not impossible. They were live. So that could happen. As Ed were saying, Rat. Absolutely. And one of my favorite eras of Kiss is, you know, the Unmasked tour. The Unmasked. Now, not the Unmasked tour, but the years where there were not very make up. Yeah. I think that those records were those records are my favorites, not the world's favorite.
But that's no. Closest to my heart to see, you know, animalize, lick it up asylum again live with Bruce with Bruce Colick on guitar. That would be awesome. That wouldn't happen. But yeah, that would be great. But you're right. It is possible. I mean, all those guys still alive. Well, no, not Eric Carr. Yeah, no. But even Queen's Strike, why not? Queen's Strike would be amazing if they if they could somehow get those five guys together.
That would be that would be amazing. I yeah, I'm with you on this one. You know, I would I would go see that. Yeah. I mean, to see Rach for order and a warning. Yeah. And yeah, you know, the records, all the records, you know, to see something about the Empire. Yeah. That would be amazing. Oh, here's one more nonmetal Pink Floyd with Waters and Gilmore. They got here. We know it's not going to happen. We're dreaming. And Mason, he's gone. He died. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. The other guys. I'd be neat to see. They did it to that show. They were able to get back on stage for what? Five songs. And then they. OK, so it's right that died right. Good job, Edgar. Robert Wright, Richard Wright. I don't know. I'm not a big Pink Floyd guy. Something with an R. In any event, yeah, they were Richard, see, and it was Richard or Robert. They they got back together. They and they went back to bickering just like they had done before.
They, you know, kind of went their own ways. And man, I have to say that I know that there are some people that really loved Roger Waters reinterpretation of Dark Side of the Moon. I thought it was terrible. It was one of the worst things I've ever heard, because it's Roger Waters doing a AARSM or whatever it's called. It's it's him whispering the fucking lyrics to all these songs. So it's trying to think it's dark side of the moon.
So I've not heard that yet. Now I don't think I'm not last year. No, it's not. It's not BDSM. It's him whispering the the lyrics. It is. It is not good. It's like Don Dock and he's no Don Dock and actually sounds better than than than this. It is really. Somebody told me to play it. I'm making a list of people that sound that Don Dock and sounds better. We got one. There you go.
So, yeah, and it's a shame because I look, I said that I'm not a huge Pink Floyd guy, but I've played the wall a lot in my life. I've played Wish You Were Here quite a bit, played Animals quite a bit. Dark Side of the Moon, I could either take it or leave it. I mean, there really isn't much beyond those albums that I've listened to a lot. But so I can't really profess to being a huge fan of theirs. So. All right. We talked about this a little bit.
Ed was kind of the catalyst. ACDC reissuing for the 50th anniversary. Albums. Their albums on gold vinyl. Yeah, just bought all the 180 grams. Now I got to start all over with gold. ACDC. I'm just kidding, of course. I'm not going to buy all of that. But I don't really care much for. I told you before, I like black vinyl. That's my favorite. Right.
But I don't know. Still, sometimes it's cool to have some of your favorite records like Let There Be Rock. If I had it on different versions, I would enjoy having that my collection. But did you notice Let There Be Rock is not on the list? Huh. I didn't I didn't see the list because I've just seen a few ads. It pretty much all the important ones are, but not that one. OK. What's up with that, Edgar? Can you tell me? There's a clever, clever one, isn't he? Yes, he is.
Of course, I'm assuming it's a. Let's see ACDC gold. Reissues. So I was black and gold, too, I think. So maybe this is my chance to buy ACDC stuff. I've got a copy of Back in Black for you when I meet you. I'm keeping it here for you. Got your name on it. Oh, thank you. So it's nine LPs. It's high voltage. So March 15th, high voltage, 30 deeds, powerage, Highway to Hell, Back in Black for those about to rock, Who Made Who, Razor's Edge and the live the double LP live comes out.
So I'm guessing they're just sticking to the albums that are sold the most, I guess, to do this. Yeah. Strange. Oh, so you could buy them individually or all together, it says. Well, see now, buy them all together. If I'm going to buy all of those, I would need the whole discography. I mean, I would have these ones that aren't there. I don't know if I can do that either. And the entire thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing, too, is that. Oh, and they're exclusive to Walmart in the US.
Oh, well, sorry, Johan. No, in the US, in Europe, I've seen I don't know how many merchants that have sent me already, you know, to preorder. And I've seen it from several stores. So I'm wondering if the if the colored vinyl, like it's back in Black and Highway to Hell that they're doing it for. I'm wondering if those are going to be exclusive to specific stores. It's a great question.
Hmm. So, Ed, that's your deal breaker. They aren't all being released. So. Yeah, I wouldn't want to buy a box set of a band that doesn't have all everything included. That sounds weird for somebody who's collecting, you know, like that, if you're spending extra money to collect records like that. But yeah. And and and maybe the appeal for some people is that that it is a odd.
An odd collection. Yeah, that would be the one thing is if they just do it this one time, it'll be something that might be worth a bit in the future. Could be. Let's see. So the last thing that I have here on my list to discuss the new Judas Priest track, the serpent and the king, which I think Brad called the serpent and Elvis. Correct. My initial opinion of this is I think Anthony Mackie was was right in that it sounds like a track that could have been on 72 seasons by Metallica.
Just the way that the riff is just the way that the song structured. It's kind of reminiscent of that. Then again, 72 seasons is very reminiscent of New Wave of British heavy metal music. So that isn't steering that far away from from what Priest is about. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me that Priest would be trying to copy Metallica because they've copied several other bands in the past. So Brad, the serpent and Elvis, what do you think? I got kicked ass.
I think my only beef about it is Rob doing his what he calls his painkiller voice. He doesn't do it for the whole song. Thank goodness. I mean, to me, that kind of thing. It's kind of like the growling thing. It needs to be used in spots. You know, pick your spots where you kind of go there and hit like a line like that, not seeing the whole verse. I think I was close. You sing the whole verse like that. And it's like, OK, yeah, you can still do it.
That's the thing. We listened to it in the car and Shelley's like, holy crap, how old is he again? He's like, he can still sing like that. Well, the fact that you call it singing is pretty cool. But I love the song. I really want to hear this album. I'm excited. I'm I'm I'm going to enjoy it. And if this is what the third song off of the album, fourth song, your song. The previous I think. Let me think about this. Yeah, these four songs.
It's interesting. With with Firepower, they only released three and they're saying that this album is stronger than Firepower. Well, of course, they say, well, you know, we got a new album coming out. It's not as good as the last one. I've always said that there's never going to be a band that's going to come out and say, yeah, our latest album was dog shit. You know, don't don't buy. I wish I could remember who it was. I was reading something or listening to some band, kind of big band.
And they're talking about one of the albums and said, oh, yeah, that we we hate that album. It's like, well, wait a second. Weren't you guys there when it was being recorded? Weren't you guys listening to this? Didn't you guys write this? It was at some point, could you just say, hey, we're not doing this. We don't like it. But no, it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, stupid. Johan, what do you think of the track?
Martin Popoff said on his podcast that this this latest new Judas Priest album is their best album ever. And I mean, yeah, he said, I mean, yes. So I'm really looking forward to the album. But yeah, I think this song is good. I agree with Brad that that Rob should use his screaming vocal, you know, to, you know, some very old Swedish word is Vareera. So that Vareera you have to Vareera. You need dynamics. Yeah. Yeah. You need dynamics. Yeah.
You can't do the same thing for the whole frickin song. Anyway, I'm not the biggest fan of the album Painkiller. But this song is good. It's really good because I listened to it yesterday and today again at work. And this is a good song. How did this song go over at work, Johan? I had headphones. Yeah, I was alone at work. We have a break at work spring, kind of a spring, a winter break. So I was alone in the kitchen. So I had headphones in. That's.
You know, when I first started at the Poison Center, I was I was a much younger man and I would make people listen to my music. That's that's because you were you were in charge, right? No, I wasn't. I just started there. I was just, you know, I was the guy who showed up for work. So I was like, well, I'm here. We're going to listen to my music. And I didn't like blast it because, you know, you couldn't ensure phone calls. I pause it for a phone call or something.
But yeah, you guys had to listen to my music. Although some guy got back at me on a weekend, we were working together. He bought this huge box set of Bob Dylan. And he started from the first disc. And I mean, after about five hours of Bob Dylan, he he he he. I was like, OK, dude, we need to do something different here. Something different. You know, you talk about Rob Hoffer, you know, doing the same voice. But Bob was doing the same he he he for the whole frickin five hours.
Like, holy crap, I'd rather be listening to Kansas. But I mean, I don't listen to Bob Dylan, but I never have. Thank you, Victor. But yeah, I think that the songs from the latest album that has been released so far, this one sounds like painkiller and my favorite Crown of Horns. I feel it sounds like something from Point of Entry and Scream for Vengeance, perhaps. So it's really good. So I'm with Johan on this. We need to hang out more. Yeah, yeah, we do.
We do hang out. Yeah. I think perhaps the US priest has a really good album coming this March. It would be I mean, no one would be happier than me to to to hear a real good US priest album again. So I think it's it's good. And Rob sings. I mean, he sees seventy one to two to two. Yeah. Amazing. And the voice, it sounds like there's no, you know, effects on the vocals or so. He sings. It's all things. Yeah.
I'm impressed. And I'll tell you what, though, if you watch that as a blood stock, the KK's priest video that's out there, you watch the last song, Victim of Changes. And holy crap. And Ripper. Unbelievable. That dude can really, really sing. He's a little weird on stage, though, isn't he? I mean, he kind of does this. I don't know. He's a little he's a little weird. But man, that guy can sing. Holy crap.
When you just place where this is, you know, sorry for breaking in here, but when they were playing here in Sweden and when Ripper was singing, they played small places here in Sweden. And my friends were to see what to see them. And they went backstage and Ripper was like the other guys from the priest were rock stars. But Ripper was like kind of like he was like a businessman. He was he he he was he he was nothing like the others, even though they're from England.
He he was like an American businessman who met the fans. So that was a very special kind of a special guy. But he sings really well. I agree. Yeah, I'd like to meet him. Victor, you ever chat with him? I have. And he was cool. He was cool. There you go. When I interviewed him and I've exchanged a few emails with him way back when. And he was always cool to me. Maybe he's a really cool dude. All right.
That's that's another one of my goals after I get to hang with Ed in person, Johan in person, Ripper. Yeah, after my job and Steve and he's in Ohio. Yeah. Ed, what do you think of the new pre songs? Have you heard them? Yeah, I listened to it before the show and it was great. I liked it better than the video, the first video that you posted. Was that been a few weeks now? I can't remember. This one. No, it's been maybe two, three months at this point.
Yeah. But as usual, I'm glad the guys out there doing what he's doing. But as usual, Martin is wrong. You're not hearing anything that is different or better than screaming or British or sad wings. He says some weird stuff. Well, he's entertaining the list, but it's yeah, he's he's got strange, strange ideas sometimes. There's there's there's two things to consider. One, he likes to stir shit up. I think he does. And two, at the end of the day, it all depends on who's paying for more ads.
Yeah. So that's love. Hate must have paid him a lot of money. Yeah, that seems to be he seems to think they're one of the best bands of all time. I mean, he goes on and on about. Yeah, he's funny. Yeah, what's the chance of them having a reunion? Love, hate. Yeah. Very difficult. I mean, they could go out under that name.
But as far as the four original members, I don't think we'll ever see that, at least from the interviews that I've seen or heard Jizzy talk about that, you know, I guess the guitarist doesn't play anymore. And and he doesn't really get along with the other members. And so. Yeah.
Now, I'm I'm hoping to be wrong. You know, after I listen to it, if I'm wrong, I'll come back and apologize and admit my problem, though, is that there's probably nobody calling up, you know, Jizzy's manager saying, hey, got this big check here for you. Putting my love hate back together again. He seems he seems to think that in the UK, they've got a huge audience. Who knows? He probably knows better than I do.
Yeah, I don't know. I do have to say this. I never well, I guess I have I saw the love hate on the very first tour warming up for Dio back in the Rowan Robertson era, which was one tour. And they were really good. They were really good, man. The bass player that dude ripped it up, man. Yeah.
Their their their first few albums were, you know, were loved by critics and fans alike. And the the bass player was the one thing that stood out because you had someone who's playing like Flea basically within a hard rock metal band. You know, so it was unique at the time. It was, you know, predated Rob Trujillo and other people that maybe incorporated funkier style of playing with with in metal. So, yeah, that for their first album rock solid. That's really, really good.
Johan, go ahead. Yeah. You know, back in 89, 90, 91, I bought a lot of foreign music magazines, both, you know, both English and from US. And there was a lot about this band, Love and Hate. And back then and now they are pretty much unknown here in Scandinavia. I mean, I've only heard of them because of the magazines I bought almost 30 years ago. I don't know a song. I haven't heard a song of them. Now, perhaps I have heard. But you know what I mean. But they are so unknown here.
Yeah, but that's I think that's a common theme of them everywhere. I mean, they were kind of at the tail end of the whole L.A. strip scene and they really didn't fit in there either. I mean, they weren't they had more to offer. So I don't think they quite caught on because they didn't have, you know, the ballads that other bands had their biggest songs are probably all for that. First, what's that black out in the red room? Why do you think they know?
Yeah, those are the two songs that got a lot of play on MTV in the US. Then their second album really didn't get that much play. And then their third album, Eddie Trunk would play the hell out of the song Spinning Wheel and Let's Rumble, which the album I think is called Let's Rumble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those got played a lot, but they got played a lot because they had, you know, someone like Eddie Trunk who was really into the band and played them.
But they weren't really anywhere else. I mean, I guess in the pop off household, they got played a lot. Obviously. Yeah, I've never heard him actually. And I'm not saying they're a bad band. It's just like when you listen to him or read his album rankings of like best of all time. He ranks that stuff, you know, above some other things that just make you shake your head. Anyway, that new pre-song though was great. I love the tone, the riffs in that song.
Yeah, they were all sounding like they are on firepower. Hopefully it'll be, you know, another good record just like that. If not better. Let's hope it's better. Yeah. You know what's going to make it better? Is that Ronnie Romero's not doing the vocals. Nothing against Ronnie's vocals. It's just enough already. Okay. The problem is that if he's appearing on every single project that Frontiers has, it just gets boring after a while.
Exactly. Yeah. And plus it's like what's the viability of this band going out and doing shows? I mean, if he's there, you know, singer. Yeah, there's two chances, slim and none. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Shingers found that out. I mean, I guess he did a few shows with him, but yeah. Yeah. All right. So awesome. We're going to wrap things up here with another great discussion that we had tonight.
I want to thank Ed in Kentucky. I want to thank Johan in Sweden. I want to thank Brad who all of a sudden entered into a Frankie Goes to Hollywood video there with the laser lights going on. I'm shooting lasers out of my ass. There you go. It is kind of a Frankie Go to Hollywood thing, isn't it? There you go. Look at that. Edgar Winterson has got a Wasted in America CD single, which is the title track off of the second album from Love Hate.
Anyway, I want to thank Ed as well for keeping the chat lively as he usually does when he's here. Good to see you, Edgar. Yep. Laser beam me, I think is what you're looking for there, Edgar. In any event, thanks again to anyone who's watching live or watching the replay, listening to the podcast version. We will see you next time right here on Signals from Mars. See you. Thank you for listening to the Signals from Mars podcast.
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