Welcome everyone to episode 384 of Signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor and this is another hour one episode where I'm joined by a bunch of patrons to discuss a bunch of fun. Hot button topic, hot topic, hot whatever. It's just music that we're talking about. It's a fun chat, fun discussion. Find out more next. I'm ready. Let's do it. All right, so this is kind of crazy. So I was looking to see if there was a podcast episode that needed to be released about a week ago and for whatever reason
nothing was listed within the previously recorded episodes. So I spaced out and thought, hey, there's there's nothing out, you know, there's nothing. All right, cool. So I'm good for this following week or whatever and I go to do graphics for what I thought was 384 and I saw that there were graphics for this very episode. So I've decided that I'm going to release both both episodes, excuse me, back to back and hopefully you guys enjoy both.
And I'm actually recording these hosts for apps after the ones that you're going to hear for the official 385, which is going to be as the host with Jeremy Wellman. So this is a fun episode with a bunch of my patrons where we discuss the new Def Leppard single, just like 73. New solo albums from Tony Iommi and Phil Mogg, Andrew Freeman fronting Jack Russell's Great White, new Guns N' Roses material, Ghost releasing their film right here right now, and Ed Ferguson gives
us a review of the new Kerry King solo album, Hell I Rise. So these episodes are always fun, they're very therapeutic because we get together and we discuss a bunch of things that we love. Sometimes we don't love so much, but we help kind of spread the word on various projects, albums, and different things that are going on. And sometimes you go into discussion, really not having anything to talk about, and then you hear someone else's perspective and
you're off to the races, my friends. It's just that simple. So I do want to give a shout out to all my patrons here real quickly. Sean Richmond, Chris Sinczak, Tony Espin, Anthony Mackey, Ed Ferguson, Johan Edstrom, Metal Dan, Jose Ruiz, Chris Vaglio, Gabriel Ruiz, Brad Doll, Mike Jones, Jeremy Welman, Steve Hoker, and Steven Saylor. Thank you guys all for your support. Saw that Steve Hoker posted that it was our 10 year friend anniversary on Facebook.
Which is cool. It is ridiculous that we've known each other for that long. Almost the entire length of me podcasting, I mean podcasting since 09, so it's going to be 15 years shortly. So most of that, he and I have known each other. We'll be meeting him in a few weeks. Will be very cool to do so to finally meet up with the mysterious Steve Hoker. Other episodes will be coming up soon. Hopefully I get them in the right order.
Hopefully I number them correctly. I just need to get everything in row, get all the graphics done and just set it all on autopilot and hope you guys enjoy the content that I've put together for you guys. I definitely had fun putting this stuff together and if I were checking out other shows, it would be something that were worth my while. That's all I'm going to say. In any event, let me leave you and let the rest of the episode take over. Thank you guys. See you.
Welcome one and all to the June 14th edition of the podcast. Welcome one and all to the June 14th edition of Signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor joining me from all around the world. We have Ed Ferguson in Kentucky. We have Jeremy Weltman in the UK and we have Metal Dan in California. Hope everyone is doing well. Hope everyone that is watching or listening to the replay of this is also doing well. This is one of our hour one
shows. This is a straight up music discussion. We love having these. I love hosting these and we always have some great chats about music that we love. Sometimes music we don't love so much anymore. Anyway, how is everyone tonight? Fantastic. Yeah, good. Awesome. Kicking things off here, a band that I think we all love their early beginnings and their opinions and verbal diarrhea and just different things that they consider to be their
more important albums and whatnot always drive me crazy. But Def Leppard just released a new single called Just Like 73, which features Tom Morello on the track. And Jeremy, we've talked at length about their last release. Does this stray all that much from that last album? No, it's very much a continuation really in terms of the 70s feel to that track. They did quite a few on that. They did a few on the 70s feel to that track. They did quite a few
on that last album. I'm wondering why they've released a single as well again just now because they'd actually just released that album. What was it? Was it last year? It's not that long ago, so it seems quite close in time. I actually liked it because there were three or four tracks on the last album that I liked and they were the rockier ones. And this is a rockier one. And this is a rockier song and it was quite good. I'm not raving about it. I didn't think it was
fantastic. It's not high and dry or pyromaniac or whatever. But I thought it was pretty decent. If they're going to go in that sort of 70s direction and play that's the style they want to do now, why not do a lot more of that sort of stuff and make it rockier and do a whole album of it? And then I think it'd be okay. So yeah, I thought it was better than I was expecting, given the fact that the last album was a bit of a letdown really.
So did that single have all three guitarists on it or did he replace Vivian or something? Yeah, I think he only plays the solo on the track, which to me is kind of baffling considering the fact that they do have Vivian Campbell and they don't really let him solo. They also have Mr. Hysteria Phil Cullen as well. And do we need Tom Morello on this track? Seriously? I mean, it's only the name there, I think.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I think there's a lot of bands doing that at the moment. They sort of have guests on and like you say, to have the name on, but it's also just to do something a bit different with another person in the industry. And who knows, maybe they're thinking of bringing out an album with a guest on each song, doing sort of a bit of a slash and doing that. We don't know yet.
Well, they've done that already. Several times they've had people appear. And my guess is that they've called Taylor Swift and at this point, she's not returning their calls now because she's kind of established now a little bit more than they are. So Dan, did you get to check this track out? I did only because you mentioned it as a bullet point. Otherwise, I probably would have skipped it. But now that I've listened to it, you know, it's a good, it's a decent song. I listened to it
again. I didn't notice on my first listen, Tom Morello. If he's there, OK, I'll try to it again. Well, yeah, it's good enough. And it has that feel of the 70s. Yeah. Yeah. It takes my interest. Yeah, it kind of I listened to it and I'm like, this is a leftover of the last album. They they chose between fitting another ballot on the album or putting something that sounded like the suite on the album and they went with the ballot instead. That's what it seems like to me.
OK, so. We had talked about Jeremy and myself last week about things that were released in May. The the audio version came out today and we we talked at Nausium about the Black Sabbath box set that came out from the Tony Martin, Tony Martin, IRS albums. Well, now Tony Iome is saying that he's going to be releasing another solo album. Yeah. Phil Mogg also from UFO is mentioned that he's releasing a solo album. Is it Phil Mogg and the Motels? Is that what the name is? Mogg's Hotel, Mogg's Hotel.
OK, OK, because I was I was going to say there there was a fairly popular band in the 80s called the Motels, so it kind of, you know, caught me a bit off guard. I will say this. I did a considerable amount of yard work today, had my big playlist playing and then the track wasted again off of one of Iome's solo albums that has Glenn Hughes singing on it came up and I was like, this is brilliant. And I forgot about how much I really enjoyed this song.
You just mentioned Jeremy, the whole thing with Slash with having all the different guests. To me, the greatest album that has different singers on each track is Iome's Iome album. I think the entire thing is great, in my opinion. The stuff he's done with Glenn Hughes, I think is pretty good. There are some outstanding tracks and then there are some kind of forgettable tracks. But I'm hoping that Tony, after so many years without releasing anything, that whatever he releases will be solid.
Dan, do you look forward to a Tony Iome solo album? Sure, absolutely. Yeah. And to have collaborators sounds great. Okay. Ed, what would you look for in a Tony Iome solo album? I agree with you. That last one he did was good. So I'd be, you know, interested to hear him do something else like that again. I like that last solo record better than stuff like, you know, the those Tony Martin era albums and, you know, the what was it? Seventh Star? Was that the name of
the record he did in 85? Yeah, I like that solo album better than that stuff. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Now that'll be interesting. He's heavily pushing because he just remixed one of those Tony, the last Tony Martin era album. He's actually right. And he's brought, he's kind of pushed the keyboards to the background, brought the guitars up, brought the drums up, brought the singing up and the bass is pretty prevalent as well. Jeremy, have you gotten a chance to listen
to that yet? I don't want to say much more. No. Okay. Not yet. Hearing Cozy Pal the way that he sounds on that album is beyond amazing to me. So that guitar friend of Ozzie's released that solo album and what I heard of it mostly sucked. But the song with Ozzy on it was okay. Billy Morrison. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So here's here's another thing with that because Billy is his, I guess, sponsor for AA and that's how he got on there. And Steve
Stevens is on several tracks because Billy is Billy Idol's second guitarist. So I'm assuming that the track Crack Cocaine that Ozzy sang on was one of the tracks that they had worked on for one of Ozzy's solo albums. I mean, Steve Stevens had mentioned that to Mark years ago on Talking Metal. So I mean, I would imagine that that's what that is. But Jeremy, I, I, Yomi or Mog, which, which of the two would you be more looking forward to? You know, I'm looking forward to both of them
because both of their bands are now extinct. So I just feel that what they're going to do with both of these albums is they're going to have some riffs left over. They're going to have songs left over from the, the, the bands that existed before. So I'm thinking that they're going to be a little bit more, um, UFO and a little bit more Sabbath because I'm sure that Tony I only must have done a lot of Sabbathy riffs and Sabbathy songs, which he was thinking of using for Sabbath. They only
made that 13 album, it's a long time ago now. So, you know, I just think, I just think, you know, it's going to be a good one. And the same with Mog, you know, he's a great singer. Obviously he's in his late seventies now. So, you know, it's, he's on his last, he's in his last sort of time. He's going to be producing stuff. He's done a bit of blues in the past. He's done a little bit of softer stuff, but I'm hoping it's going to be a little bit like UFO and, um, yeah, should be good.
So, so we're receiving a message in the chat now. What are the chances that this is not a problem? I thought you were laughing at me. No, well, there were two things that I was, uh, laughing at because, uh, one was the message and the second thing is, Jeremy, you're going to have to check out the episode that we recorded last night and, uh, and, and, and we discussed certain possibilities of things, uh, which will
be out in about two weeks. So I'll leave it at that. I'll leave it at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Intrigued by that. Uh, the, the film mog thing. I mean, obviously I love him and UFO. Um, I'd be curious. Okay. Thank you, Paula Pruitt for your continuous comments here. She's definitely a robot. It's an AI robot, isn't it? Well, first message I would never live with or anyone I couldn't drug test military, but I love AA environment and struggle with alcohol my whole life. I mean, excellent.
Well, hope you get some help for that. Paula. She does know this is a heavy metal discussion. Yes. Yes. She came to the right place. Um, um, Phil Mogg, I was lucky enough to meet him. Yeah. I'm looking, I wanted this to be really good. I wanted his voice to shine and to have some really great tunes. I think I would look forward to the mog over the IOMI, but I'm not going to blow off either, you know, what a voice. We're going to try a new feature out here, which is add to block list.
All right. Looks like it cleaned it up for us. And does the Phil Mogg solo album do anything for you? No, I don't know much about them and their catalog. I mean, you know, if you, of course, I'll listen to it when you put the videos up and I'll know then what I think of it. But I'll be interested to hear something new as always. Okay.
That's cool. Just, just sort of a chip in that ad. I mean, if you've not really listened to UFO, there are a few great albums out there that you like a lot of the only deaf leopard stuff. You like the melodic deaf leopard you'd like UFO. I think you need to step. Yeah. And I'm not saying I haven't listened to them. Some I have. But yeah, I haven't spent enough time learning what's good. You'll maybe have to tell me what you think I would like. Okay. That will help.
That definitely lights out and definitely the Wild, the Willing and the Innocent great album. Good to know. And Strangers of the Night is considered one of the greatest live albums. I hear about that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I assumed you might have heard that. Yeah. Yeah. The, I was gonna say Side 2. I mean, Side 2 kicks off with Lights Out and then Rock Bottom with Shanker doing an extended solo. And that to me is probably my favorite rendition of Rock Bottom.
But the greatest hits. Let's be honest. All right. Call this one of the most peculiar things that I've read in a very long time. So years ago, I got to interview Jack Russell when he released the first Jack Russell's Great White album. Due to legal reasons, there's great white and there's Jack Russell's great white. At the time, I think Jack Russell was the first one to release a great white album. I think Jack Russell broke the record for saying, you know what I mean, the most amount of times
in 40 minutes that I'd heard. Surprisingly enough, someone broke that last year in an interview that I did. Anyway, so being puzzling as things are, Jack Russell's Great White has done a few shows now with Andrew Freeman on lead vocals. So there were two things that came to mind. First of all, if the band bears the name of the lead singer, how can you have a replacement singer in there? That would be like having BB King's blues band and having someone else sing it.
Someone else having blues Saraceno as the guitars. Second of all, Andrew Freeman was the lead singer of Great White for like 10 days before he, quote unquote, had scheduling conflicts and could no longer do any more shows. And that's where they brought the kid that's in the band now. That's when he came into the fold. So I don't recall anything like this ever happening. Ed, have you ever heard of a band that bears the namesake of someone? No, this is a first. Yeah, that is hilarious. Yeah.
It's crazy. Dan, what do you think? So I followed the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. They're out here in Hollywood, California. I think it was two weeks ago. His band was supposed to play and they said, hey, unfortunately, Jack can't make it tonight. The band has to cancel. They're going to continue on with the support acts. I thought, huh, well, there's Jack again. I don't know. I haven't heard the news. I let Victor tell me the news most of the time. So I still don't know if he had a medical condition
or what. So then I saw the bullet point today and I was like, I kind of snickered and was like, well, I've seen Andrew Freeman show up at a few shows that I've attended over the years. I don't know why Roxanne, the band that I follow, they pulled him on probably the same label. He doesn't have a voice for, I don't know what he fits with. Well, I guess it's Dio Disciples, but it's a crazy story. I'm glad you brought it up. I don't know if it's funny or sad or,
um, you know, I have a long history of great white. I mean, that's, that's in my blood. Years ago, I had to won that contest. And just briefly, they said somebody, I guess he was joking that one of the show runners said, Hey, he said, I need to go take Jack back to his hotel. And I paused like, oh shit, really? And then I think they kind of, ah, just kidding. We'll have somebody else do it. But for a moment that they got me, it's like, I was like, Jack's looks a
little fucked up. I don't know how this is going to go. I thought to myself, I shared none of this outside my head, but it didn't sound, I was panicking, but that's my, so that that's Jack Russell. Go ahead. I was going to say, I don't, I don't, I can't imagine him sounding very good with great white. With great white, you know, the great Jack Russell, he's got that, you know, that kind of higher range voice, you know, like fast way and some of those guys that, yeah. Now, Andrew, when
I saw him with last in line, he was awesome doing that. But it's hard for me to imagine liking that voice, probably with great white. It doesn't fit. But there are other bands that have had other singers come in. I mean, we've had Iron Maiden, Bruce came in, we've had ACDC, Brian Johnson, very different. So you can have different singers. Not with the name and the band. That is. No, that's a different thing. Yeah.
Yeah, I think, yeah, you're right. Where they've brought people in and Maiden has done it three times with having three totally different singers. Bruce Dickinson, the solo show. And now tonight is Rob filling in. They're going to go, what the what is happening? This guy that. Yeah, weird. Yeah. This is just for touring or is it going to be recording as well? I mean, obviously great white. When was the last time? It's about seven years ago or something.
Well, this is not so actually. So great white, the band is on their own and they had that kid singer and they've been doing a tour across the US and great white is headlining and it blows my mind. So they're going to be playing here next Friday at an arena. I'm sure half of it's blocked off. I don't know. I consider going. But again, great whites, the headliner with Vixen and Slaughter. They must make money enough to do it.
And it's we're a hockey, the Anaheim Ducks play. So go figure. Seriously, it's next Friday. They're playing at the Anaheim Pond and great white is the headliner. Well, but here's the other thing there. They are the hometown act because they are from Anaheim, right? This tour has been going across the United States with Slaughter. Sometimes Steven Pearcey joins them. He's the headliner. Sometimes Steven Pearcey joins them. He's been on the East Coast with this tour.
This thing's been running its course for a few weeks now here and there. It all depends if they can put up with Steven or not. They send them away for a few weeks and say, all right, we need somebody to warm up, come back. Steven headlines, I think in these places that he's that they've done this with great white. But yeah, this is seriously in an arena. And so great whites, their own band with the kid singer and then Jack Russell's thing is his own thing with his name on the band.
And I don't know if it's health reasons or why he's not showing. It's an interesting thing to talk about. I believe he's having issues with his voice. Let me look this up real quickly here. There must be some reason. Which is a shame. But you know, we're all getting older and the voice is the hardest thing. Steven Pearcey has had the same problems and Bon Jovi and all that. That's why I owe me doing a solo thing is easier on guitar, right? Yeah. You just need a singer to fill in.
But yeah, and that could be the same for Phil Mogg. But I don't know what Jack's problem is. You know, he's had drug issues over the years and he's just, you know, he lived a life. He's had a great time, I think. Yeah, health reasons. Maybe he's taking over in Bon Jovi and Bon Jovi's retiring. That's funny. What the fuck? You said you mentioned Vixen. Did they get a new singer? Are they going to be able to do the show? I don't know. I don't like that band much.
I think they're kind of boring. I don't know not much about them. It'd be kind of interesting, though, to go and see them once live, don't you think? Just to see it. Yeah, I saw him on the boat on the. Oh, you did? OK, yeah, so that's probably enough for you. And they've been out here in the area for opening support acts in Southern California. I've seen them a few times and if they're like, OK, whatever, they don't throw me. Yeah, me neither. Personal opinion. This is crazy.
I don't know the history of Vixen and the singers and the good. I know there was a fight between them and whatever and somebody died. It's all sad. Yeah. They had that lady in that documentary they did on Hulu, you know, on the. I don't know if it was all focused on the L.A. bands, but I want a rock documentary or something. I can't remember. Yeah, I'm personally I've never been a fan either. This is crazy. I don't even know if the show is going to be on the show.
I don't even know if the show sold out. I'll look online to see how the ticket sales went for them at some point. But unfortunately, I'm busy next Friday. For the Great White Return. Oh, shit. On the set list. All right. So on Blabbermouth, they're saying that it's health reasons. But it's also saying that. That they did not only Great White, they did some Deo songs and they did some Bullet Boys song. Bullet Boys. Wow. Andrew goes, what do you guys know? Can you play a G here and a D there?
We'll put this together. Oh, he comes off as a nice guy on stage. He's got a lot of energy. He's got a lot of energy. He's got a lot of energy. He seems to be well liked and he fills in well for other people. And that's sad, though, of to to be in the Great White thing. And then Jack probably thought bad of that. And here he is doing his own thing. That's just it must have been shows that they couldn't cancel. They would lose money. You know, yeah, I assume.
I'm guessing that's that's the case as well. So, OK, cool. So, I guess I'm going to go with that. So. We've been hearing this for a few months now. We've heard Slash say this. We've now hearing Duff McKagan saying it. New Guns N' Roses material. Supposedly, they're going to work on it. Dan, I think I've posed this question to you already before. Does that excite you? If they edited it right, it can excite me.
I've I've gone back to Chinese democracy a few times and it's like I hear things and I was like, oh, if you would just edit it this way, this could be better. If you could fix that voice this way, it could be. So I always have hope. I don't expect much to come of it. But but yes, I don't think it's. You know, the new songs that they've come here and there have been hit and miss. So. Yeah. Is it hard to live up to expectations of what they've done before, Jeremy, regardless of what they release?
Well, yeah, because I mean, the the debut album was just amazing. And, you know, maybe the couple that came after that, Usury Solutions were also pretty good albums. And then, you know, they seem to have had a real nose dive. It's a strange they're a strange band to me because they seem to have released very little material that's any good, you know, just a small amount for such a huge band.
You know, if you think about all the big bands around that have released all the material, released all these great albums over the years, Guns N' Roses haven't done that. And I just think that the very latest stuff that they've released has been goddamn awful to me. I mean, I would never go back and listen to any of it. I mean, it's just nothing that would play on repeat. Really don't like it. So they'd have to really up the game. But I do agree with Chinese democracy.
I think there was some great songs on there and I think they were just so overproduced. I mean, they took so long to produce to bring that album out, didn't they? And, you know, there were some some cracking songs on there. So if they were, you know, they just spent much less time on that producing it. They'd have been fine. You don't hear that often if you just didn't tweak it so much, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Jeremy, tell us the truth. I'm not I'm not really. Tell us the truth.
You play hard school every every single day on repeat. No, I don't. And that's the honest truth. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty awful. All this all this latest stuff they've been bringing out. I really don't like it at all. But then I don't really like a lot of the Motley Crue stuff that they're coming out with. Some of these bands, they just need to go back to what they did in the first place. Same with Def Leppard. Just go back to doing what you did really well in the first place.
And it'd be great. For Def Leppard, getting back to them, I think it would be the hardest. Because all the guys that wrote those first few albums are no longer in the band. So just I was going to mention this before. And I completely dropped the ball on it. But they just did a private show for Sirius XM. They did 10 or 12 songs. So they rock rock to your drop photograph to live. Die Hard, the Hunter. Nice. Kick. They gave you song live just like 73. Then they went back. They did Foolin.
Billy's got a gun. Coming under fire. Wow. Rock of Ages. All right. And they ended it with hysteria and pour some sugar on me. And they almost did all of pyromaniac except for action that worked. Stage fright. Stage fright. Yeah. But man, that's pretty incredible. Yeah. They're a great live act, but they're just, you know, just on the latest stuff. But just to round that off, I mean, there's one band that are really doing it. And Judas Priest, their latest album is like their early stuff.
Yes, sir. It's a fantastic album. Yeah. Yeah, they're stomping on all these other bands with that new record. That's that's a discussion that we will possibly have in the coming weeks or days where discussing bands, the latter catalog and comparing. So. I didn't ask you, Ed, new guns and roses. Does that excite you? I do have a comment that I think that I would be interested if they fired Axel and asked Brian Johnson to do the vocals, then I'd be on vinyl even.
Well, Slash did have Brian Johnson. We did. And it sounded pretty damn good. Yeah. Yeah, it did. That would be interesting because now there's a definite connection between both bands for on various levels. Would you be satisfied with a Brian Johnson Axl Rose duet? No, I don't want to hear Axl at all. OK. Him or Eddie Vedder. I just I turn them off as quickly as I hear them. Not not a fan of the year. All right. My next point here. Ghost is about to release a film called Right Here Right Now.
A ghost has probably been. I mean, let's be honest, post slipknot, probably the biggest band in hard rock and metal that's come along in a very long time. And I'm saying post slipknot, that's 20 some odd years. Is ghost big enough to go out and do a theatrical release? I mean, I think of Metallica doing through the never. And that being considered a bomb. And Metallica is possibly the hugest rock band in the last. 20 some odd years as well. How's Ghost going to fare in the theater?
And is this something that you would be interested in seeing? Jeremy, what about you? Yeah, I guess I probably would be interested in seeing it because, you know, it takes a lot to get me out to the cinema these days. So, you know, I'd like to go out and see something metal related or at least as close to it as possible. So, yeah, I guess I'd probably be quite interested and intrigued to see it. But whether it's any good, we'll wait and see. That's the, you know, that's the thing, really.
I much prefer them to be doing more of a show. To be doing more new music because I really like the last album. I thought it was great. And we all I think you in particular liked it like me. You know, we reviewed it quite highly. So I prefer that. But if they're going to do a film, yeah, I'd give it a go. Why not? OK. Ed, your opinion on this? No, I'm not a fan of them at all. OK. I don't know anything. I mean, I've listened to this, you know, videos that you posted. And it's just not my thing.
OK. But, you know, you know, good, good for them that they're doing that well. OK. Dan ghost movie right here, right now. Will Dan be right here right now? Seeing ghosts. I paid twice to see Metallica through the never and IMAX. So I'm a paying customer of Metallica. I did the symphony. I paid for that. I took my wife. She was bored. Yeah. And when movies were hard up and so I did that this. No, I don't I don't think I have time for it. But you're asking the wrong person. I'm not a fan of Ghost.
I never got into it. And I know I'm I'm a minority on that. That's fine. But this isn't for me. I am surprised and I'm glad you brought it up as a bullet point. OK. Yeah. But you I think Ghost is a very polarizing band. You either love them or you just. Don't get them. I mean, does it make sense for them to put something out like this? Sure. Because they are a theatric band. They have, you know, they create various storylines for each one of their releases. So it makes sense.
I think it's cool that they do this because I do think that the advent of the Internet is kind of killed that whole. Specialness to. The VHS tape that the band released and you got that glimpse of, you know, 10 minutes behind the scenes or, you know, when that went over to DVD, now it's social media. You see that shit all the time. So it's really big of a deal. So I think it's kind of cool that with a band like Ghost, where they are selling, they're trying to sell.
You know, the ghouls and papa and this and that, that if you have a backstory that you can sell along with it. Sure. You know, why not? Why not check it out? In the next room over, I have I don't know how many VHS tapes. And I remember as a kid. Wanting to get them or going to the video store and and dubbing them and, you know, wanting to see that behind the scenes stuff that we never saw because I didn't go to a lot of shows, you know, so I just got to see what MTV showed us.
So, oh, my God, you know, I'm seeing them backstage, say stupid shit. And then we wanted to. Imitate all that dumb stuff without really knowing what we were talking about. You know, is one of one of those things. So. Yeah, I think it's kind of cool that they do this. And if it gets other bands to take a chance on doing this stuff again and properly release stuff like this, why not give it a shot? Yeah, I'm intrigued by them.
And I get to how the ghost comes into this, how Romstein they grew up, they started from a small thing and they got to be this big show. If they had not banked on that and tried that, how they may have never gotten to be as big as they are. So on that same thing, like Ghost, you got to reach for it. You got to put it out there and you got to try. And maybe it takes you to the next level, which maybe priest failed to do. And maybe other bands did at least put some money into it and try, you know?
Yeah, I think the problem, though, is that there are too many bands that are just content. You know, and they'll. They'll just do the social media thing and say, OK, we've done enough. We don't need to do more. But. Any of the bands that have staying power and that have gone the distance. They've had to spend money. They've had to put time into it. It just hasn't happened. Be a happenstance. You know, even as much as we shit on Def Leppard, as much as I shit on Def Leppard.
Early on, they tore their asses off. They did a lot of stuff with videos. They did a lot of, you know, different things with books and magazines and things that other bands weren't doing. They were willing to go out of their way to provide their fans with things that other bands just weren't doing for as much as people crap on Metallica. I will always come back to them because they were willing to let people record their shows. They were willing to let people exchange tapes.
They were willing to do a lot of different things that other bands just didn't want to do when they did live shit, binge and purge. They didn't give a damn that the guitars were out of tune in certain spots or that you could hear guitars pop. They just wanted to be an authentic band. And through all the drama and through everything else, I think that's lost on a lot of people. There's a reason why a lot of these bands became as big as they did. And it's because they wanted to go.
They wanted to reach for it, as Dan is saying. Romstein reached for it. You know, now you think of them, you think of big stadium shows. They can't do anything smaller anymore. And now it's multiple nights. And, you know, it's almost like EDC, you know, the thing that happens in Vegas and wherever else. And it's just a big thing. And you think of that. Romstein is not going to play little club shows anymore. So for Ghost to try this, push yourself up, see what happens.
If you got it, you got it, you know, you got the tunes. So you're not banking to see a Ramstein at Vamps anytime soon. I don't want to. No, I think I think it's a good thing. I want that big experience for that band. They make it happen. Yeah. OK. The other thing that we've been hearing rumblings about, and I've been wanting to eagerly hear this as well. Kerry King recently released a solo album called From Hell I Rise.
Our native Slayer fan, the biggest Slayer fan that I know, Mr. Ed Ferguson, you were fine. You waited until the album came out to be able to begin to end to give it the car test as well. Yeah. And I got really nerdy with it, too. I listened to one new track a day and what I and actually what I did here, I might start doing with other new albums because it's so hard to listen to a whole album and stay into the whole thing.
And then by the time I had listened to that third song or four song, I was adding a song, but only listening to those three tracks. OK. So that I could kind of dig into that part of the record for a while. So, yeah, I got pretty nerdy about it and I had fun. So I started off ready to be very critical of it. OK. And so I started playing it. You know, the first track is a intro called Diablo, and it was disappointing.
You know, when you listen to the kind of intros that they did in Slayer, those were really cool ass intros like the God hates us all intro, disciple right before disciple, you know, hell awaits. Or even if they just start the record off, slamming you in the face. This intro sounded like a leftover overkill riff from 85 or something. And it has a little kind of guitar solo with a little wah on there, just nothing exciting. So I was getting a little depressed.
But then the next track kicks in and it's a total thrasher. And my first thought was this is going to sound like Death Angel. And it starts off sounding like Death Angel. You're kind of getting ready to hear Mark sing. And the vocals kick in. And my first thought was, man, this kind of sounds like I wish Death Angel would sound on their next album. You know, because their records are always good.
But the last couple they put out had been a little bit too much of the same thing, a little bit dull. And that would be one great way for Death Angel to kick it up and not be a hit. You know, if they told Mark to add a little more aggression to his vocals like that, that'd be kind of cool to hear. But, you know, the more you listen to it, the more you're hearing the Slayer sounds, you know, the Kerry King character.
And that and after after about a minute of hearing that first song, I was getting the goosebumps. So that was a good thing. I don't get those often. So that first song is one of the best tracks on there. So you're hoping that the rest of the record is going to have something good to offer. So the second song gets kind of slow. And, you know, and I'm ready to criticize all those slower songs. And, you know, I didn't like it much. But then the next one's a thrasher.
And then it kind of goes back to another kind of heavy metal song. And then it's kind of a thrasher. So he's kind of mixing it up. It's kind of half and half. And what I found was even with those slower tracks, even though I didn't like him at first, I ended up finding those riffs stuck in my head at the end of the day and at night playing them over and over again and going back to those tracks and listening to him again. And but yeah, he's got let me get my list here of songs.
He they have a song called slower song called Tension, which does exactly what the title says. It kind of it's kind of slow, but it's building a lot of tension to the best song on the record, which is like a minute and a half long. Everything I hate about you, man, it's it's and it's actually a song. There's a couple of songs on here that makes you think, man, I wish Tom was doing vocals on there.
And that second song residue, the slower track after where I rain, that would have been a good song to hear Phil and Zellmau sing on. So it would have been kind of cool if he did a Tony I only kind of thing to where he had some different vocalists on different tracks. But I mean, you the Slayer fans should like it. You'll hear God hates us all sounds a lot, especially in the choruses. You'll hear some stuff from Christ Delusion. There's a there's a section that sounds a lot like cult.
There's another track on there that people, if you're a fan of undisputed attitude, you'll like to fist. I think it is. It sounds like one of the slower hardcore songs. Shrapnel has a really cool, groovy riff. It's got like more groove than you usually hear in a Slayer tune, almost like Dimebag kind of help them with the riff or something. So I've been loving this album, actually. I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would.
I read some reviews before it came out and a lot of the reviews were giving it like, you know, two and a half stars. You know, I wouldn't I wouldn't really call it a four star record, but I think there are a lot of people who like it. But I think they're rating it too low. Maybe a three point five for me, something between three point five and four star. I think it's good. And I'm still listening to it every morning. Kind of it's kind of like a good cup of coffee for me right now.
And the only one the one negative thing I have is in that song. Crucifixation is one of the dumbest lines I've ever read him right, where he says, I know why God is never one, because I'm the fucking smoking gun. What the hell is that? I listen to a lot of anti religious record or songs, even though I'm a man of faith. But that was just like, it's so stupid, it almost ruins the song for me. But the song is is such a great thrasher. I still I still love it. Good, good stuff.
So I think Slayer fans should like this. I like it better than Repentless, because I don't like the way that I don't like the tone of the guitars on Repentless. There's something different about it. It's almost like Terry didn't EQ it right on the on the board when he did that record. So even though Repentless has some of my favorite Slayer tunes, I like the sound of this record a lot better.
And I also think, too, that you remember a few months ago when we did our 1986 show and we talked about Rain and Blood, and then Jeremy was kind enough to check out some Slayer the next day. I think he was telling me he's going to I'm going to listen to some Rain and Blood here for that. I think that Jeremy, you would like this record better than most Slayer records. Because it's got you know, it's not just Slayer from beginning to end. He's got some good heavy metal tunes in there.
I've got it on now. I've just listened to the tension. I've got tension on now in my left ear. You got it on and it sounds good. And you have to you have to listen to the next song with tension, because tension builds up to what you're going to get hit in the face with on the next song. Yeah, I'm going to give this a listen, because because of what you've said, about it, really. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And it's also it's fun because it's one of those records that is continuing to grow on me.
The more I listen to it, the more I keep wanting to go back and listen to it again. So I started off wanting to be super critical. I skip over the intro. You know, if you're someone buying tracks, don't waste your 99 cents on the intro. It's just not there's nothing exciting about it. They should have just left that off.
You know, it's funny, too, because my first thought about that was, man, this sounds like they an afterthought, like, oh, yeah, we were we were supposed to write an intro and they threw something together. But then Kerry said that he spent the pandemic developing that intro. So he spent all kinds of time. He seemed pretty happy about it. But I think you just let that off and slammed us in the face with that Where I Rain track. That's that's, I guess, where they miss Jeff Henneman. Yes, they do.
And I'm available for a higher carry, just like for the sphere guys, if you want my commentary on your next record. You know, with my health, this could have been over a four star record, I guess is what I'm saying. So you brought he did a good first job. Yeah. OK. So he brought up the Phil Anselmo because for years they talked about the fact that Bill was probably going to be the second singer, and it just didn't work out that way.
And when talking about singers to revolver, he said, for instance, if Judas Priest Rob Halford calls me and says, hey, I would love to be your singer. I'd have to go that way. Yeah. Let's see. He's saying Anselmo was considered my management, my promoter, my record manager. My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil. Phil's a good friend of mine, but I always thought he's not the right guy. That he's that has nothing to do with his ability. I just knew he wasn't the right guy.
When you hear Mark on this record, you know, he's you know, that's the guy I had to do due diligence because at the end of the day, had Phil been the guy, we'd be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff. We could play Pantera. We could play Slayer and fans would have been happy. It ended when Pantera when the Pantera thing came up. So also people you would like these guitar solos better than you would in most Slayer songs. You know, if you're not a big Slayer fan.
And I mean, some of the solos I get really impressed by and I start thinking that must not be Carey playing there. I'm going to have to dig in sometime to find out which ones he's playing or not, because they actually put some good thought into their guitar solos. And that's interesting because Phil is a ridiculous guitarist who's played with a lot of different people. Yeah, isn't really known for his soloing behind his. His his his whammy style or lack thereof with the standard Fender tremolo.
He's never really I mean, I guess probably back in the day he had a Floyd Rose, but he really didn't do much beyond what the Fender tremolo provided him. So yeah, I'll have to. But anyway, I like that. I think I'll buy a vinyl copy of it. OK, I want to hear on the big stereo in here. OK. Yeah, upon my first listen, I was outside working and it just kept building and building and I kept saying, damn, I was shouting out loud and probably a fool was watching me.
I was totally into it. Everything I hate about you is so good. I like the handle hands a lot. It's just yeah, it got back and forth. There is a song that kind of slows down and I kind of threw away, but it just picked right back up again. It delivered and that was on. What's the song? Oh, I'm sorry, man. One of the things they got to do the opposite where they do a thrasher and then they slow it down and have some kind of black Sabbath.
The riff, which I at first I didn't like, but again, I ended up singing in my head over and over again. And actually, it's a good too. I'm sorry, Dan. I didn't mean to interrupt you there. No, you're fine. It's just on the first listen, it already caught me. You know, sometimes you listen to an album and you're like, oh, I'm not sure. But this is a real listenable album. This is a go back to going to listen more than one time. This is one to keep. I've purchased the latest overkill.
I didn't really think much of it. But this Kerry King, I can listen to it multiple times. I've got it ready. It's good. That makes me happy to hear Dan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So so there you go, Jeremy. This is one neither one of us listen to in May, but it further feeds what I said in the fact that May was a monstrous month for new releases. And again, it adds to the point that there were a lot of different new releases, a lot of different styles that came into play. It wasn't all kind of same.
I think May 2024 could go down as the strongest month musically out of the year. Not saying that the best album came out, but I'm saying that overall, week after week, there was a lot of good stuff that was that was there. So cool. Glad that glad that the two of you have been able to share your points with us. I'm definitely going to check this album out this weekend. Yeah, I hope I didn't talk too much there. I could have gone on a little further, but no. Works for me. Now it delivers.
You know, I don't want to say angry, but it'll get you pumped up. If you know, it's it's not a sit quietly album. Mark is just on it with the vocals. I'm so pleased that Carrie has them in the band. What a great choice. Yeah, delivers, man. Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I hope Mark will carry some of that back to Death Angel. That would be a good little spice to add to their music. Death Angel is going to be our wasps on tour in the U.S. coming here at the end of the year.
But the dates at Death Angel are not supporting them across the U.S. are in my area. Really, fuckers? That's. You're you're you're ready to see Blackie in a chair. I did that last time with armored saying opening up and. I don't know what the condition I don't it's at the Palladium in Los Angeles in Hollywood. Which is a destination for me. It's a little bit of a pain in the ass, but I've been there. I know what's involved to go out to Palladium. I don't think I'm going now.
Not with Death Angel, especially not on the bill. But I'm glad to have wasp back. I did check it out and I was happy to see him. I had waited a long time for him to come back. So go if you can. But yeah, Death Angels on support with them. All that L.A. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys joining me tonight. As usual, the the hour has flown by quicker than expected. And a lot of cool things that we got to talk about.
This was this end discussion on the Carried King album is definitely the cherry on top and definitely gives me some homework this weekend. I do like. Yeah, I do appreciate you guys. Talking it up on that note, do want to thank you guys again for joining me and anyone that watches or listens to the replay of this. And we will be back next week with an interesting, an interesting turn of events with Jeremy kind of playing the role of host and me playing the host, the part of guests.
So yeah, I'm glad you're here. So yeah, I think it'll be a cool listen for most people. And the week after that, we have a really cool discussion. Ed was the catalyst on this one was talking about the sphere out in Las Vegas and where we see that going and what bands we'd like to see play that. So that's a that's a really awesome discussion that also has Ed Metal, Dan and Brad joining me.
So yeah, we're going to be recording some stuff during the week, this following week, and we'll be making sure that this summer will be full of signals from Mars. So thanks again, guys. And we will see you all next time right here on signals from Mars. See you folks.