I Hate Music

What makes a death metal vocalist truly great? Whether they are guttural, raspy, or barely intelligible, we are exploring the qualities that allow certain vocalists to stand out from the crowd of cookie-cutter, and cookie monster, styles. In this discussion, we share our favorite vocalists and examine the unique elements that make each of them exceptional. -------------------- Hosts: Jason Walton...

In celebration of Mortiis currently being on his "The Witches of Dystopia" tour, we are rewinding to episode 69 and our conversation with him from January 2024. You can also catch Mortiis on tour in North America now with Uada, Rome, and Wraith Knight. -------------------- Hosts: Jason Walton and Nick Wusz. Produced by Jason Walton for Earth in Sound Productions. -------------------- Support the p...

Often overlooked but celebrated by those in the know, Oregon’s Victims of Internal Decay made small waves in the ‘90s. IHM’s own Nick Wusz was a member of the band and shares with us the recordings he was a part of and enlightens us to the band's career as a whole. Join us to hear about Nick’s time with the band, their impact on a young Mr. Wusz, and listen to a couple of their songs. ------------...

Dear Food, It was an honor to finally have you sit down with I Hate Music for the podcast. As a long-time friend and a true hero of ours, having the chance to discuss your work was a personal highlight. The impact you have made as a pillar of outsider music—through Wheelchair Full of Old Men Records and your work with Sockeye, Fossil Fuel, and The Poops—cannot be overstated. During the episode, we...

In this episode, we listen to and discuss "Drowning in Rain," a 1998 single from Jason’s project, Nothing. We explore the recording process, the equipment used, and the personal context behind the song. We also reflect on whether the track stands the test of time and how this early work relates to Jason’s current projects. So join us for this look at some of his lesser-known work. ----------------...

No, we don’t mean “Human” and “Eternal Nightmare.” We are raising a question regarding whether actual violence and death associated with music and art changes your perception of the artist and the work itself. Specifically, does Burzum sound different to you knowing Varg killed Euronymous? Can you still listen to Burzum? More broadly, how do the actions of artists affect your enjoyment of their ar...

In preparation for Earth in Sound’s debut comedy night last December, we were discussing our upcoming sets when Nick decided to ask AI to generate a ten-minute comedy routine centered around metal. We found the results so entertaining that we wanted to share them with you. Please enjoy this short episode filled with laughs, metal stereotypes, and burritos. Happy April Fool's Day! -----------------...

In this episode of I Hate Music, we revisit two extremely divisive albums: Sepultura’s "Chaos A.D." and Entombed’s "Wolverine Blues." Both were records we disliked upon their release and haven’t spent much time with since. We discuss whether it was even possible for these albums to follow their predecessors and how we feel about them now in retrospect. So grab your comic books, grow out your dread...

We have a special short episode for those curious about Nick’s cassette collection. You’ve heard him mention them and seen them in the background of our videos; now, he provides a brief tour of his favorites and rarities. Join us on platforms that support video to see the footage, or listen in as Nick shares a glimpse into his world of cassettes. -------------------- Hosts: Jason Walton and Nick W...

We’ve toyed with an idea for a while that seemed just crazy enough to work: "What similarities are there between Iron Maiden switching vocalists from Paul Di’anno to Bruce Dickinson, and Faith No More moving from Chuck Mosley to Mike Patton?" Despite the unusual premise, we found more parallels than expected. In this piece, we compare and contrast both bands before and after their respective lineu...

We fired up Mike Browning’s time machine to go back to the pre-pandemic era and visit this old episode with our now co-host Nick Wusz in celebration of his birthday today!  Happy Birthday Nick Wusz! Come marvel at our old format and witness Nick as a guest, not as a host, as we delve into music, life, the universe and everything else. -------------------- Support the podcast by becoming a Patreon...

I dare you to take this down, Spotify!  I dare you!  Yes, we played two songs on this episode in fair use, and I dare you to take it down!  You can’t stop us!  Regardless, we here at IHM suffered an unplanned break from recording, but now we are back and ready for 2026!  We have lots of changes and ideas for this coming year so hang on - a new and improved IHM is coming soon! In this very special...

You’ve seen her behind the mixing board working with bands such as Front Line Assembly, Corrosion of Conformity, Blood Incantation, and Agalloch.  She’s toured with Alice Cooper and Judas Priest.  She consistently makes your concert experiences sound better and you should thank her for it.  She gives the craft the respect it deserves, and furthers the craft itself with her care, precision, and att...

*UPDATE* It happened again!  Spotify, our podcast host, removed this episode from streaming services throughout the world.  You can still find the original episode with all music intact on YouTube, but we’ve had to remove all music from this episode to keep it on streaming.  We are currently looking for a new podcast host to alleviate this issue. —-------------------------------------------------...

We don’t know exactly what happened with Episode 101, but we share what we do know, explain the situation, theorize on why it happened, and cross our fingers it doesn’t happen again with this episode.  We also dive into some listener emails, answer the latest 666 Degrees of Separation, as well as discuss our favorite movie soundtracks and extreme metal literature. Pro Tools rears its ugly head and...

*UPDATE* The original version of this episode was removed from all streaming services worldwide due to “recent changes with the music rightsholder.”  This was the case with all three songs we played on this episode.  This has never once happened to us before.  Our only recourse was to remove the songs and re-publish.  If you want to hear this episode with the songs, please visit us on YouTube wher...

In this very special episode of I Hate Music, we field a litany of listener emails and end up discussing various topics such as Autechre’s current tour, the My Favorite Murder podcast, the importance of Marc Maron, and explore the question on everyone’s mind - does Castle Metal even exist? Ghosts came up again and killed Nick’s mic about 20 minutes in, but don’t worry, we fixed it, we got this. @i...

There are ghosts in the machine, metal in our hearts, and Beherit in our ears.  On this episode we discuss a wide variety of topics from metal comic books, to IHM’s 8th birthday, Dave Matthews and Idles, advocacy for the Recording Academy, and we celebrate our 100th episode! Tune in, turn up, and drop out. @ihatemusicpodcast @protools @davematthews @nflcomics @idles @beherit   --------------------...

We are back after an unintentional summer break!  Sometimes life gets in the way, and we had a very busy summer so in this episode we share stories of our summer travels featuring places such as The U.K. for Fortress Fest, California for the Agalloch/Emperor shows, Serbia, Montana, as well as Brazil, Mexico and more.   We discuss the shows we saw and performed, the food we enjoyed and did not enjo...

It has been a while since we’ve delved into some listener emails, and since Hunter Ginn was in town for Agalloch rehearsals, we asked him to join us.  He appears in this episode as a ghostly, disembodied spector.  Regardless, some familiar topics arose such as AI, and Buckthead, but we also reveal our answers to the 666 degrees of separation segment, and discuss comments and questions posed by lis...

Andy Whale and Bolt Thrower defined a genre.  Even in 2025 those names are said with reverence and massive respect.  There is only one Bolt Thrower, and only one Andy Whale.  However, Andy’s career did not stop with Bolt Thrower as he also played with Memoriam, Darkened, and DeathCollector.   Now, Andy is creating electronic music, drumming for the fun of it, and enjoying family time.  Join us as...

Kelly Shaefer and Atheist blazed a trail in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that has inspired throngs of technical metal bands to this day.  The band was entrenched in the Floridian Death Metal scene in its heyday, yet Atheist remained one of a kind; truly unique.  In 2025 Atheist is more popular than ever.  They are working on a new album and hitting the road hard. In this very special episode we ta...

Johnny Valles is a rising star in the extreme metal scene.  He is currently drumming for, or has drummed for, many spectacular metal bands and is possibly best known as Blackbraid’s live drummer and for drumming for Max Cavalera’s Go Ahead and Die.  Most importantly, Johnny is a really great guy, a good friend, an awesome drummer, and we are delighted to have him join us. So, grab a drumstick, put...

Apparently Australia loves us, and we definitely love them. More letters from down under, some music from our koala loving friends, and hopefully the last time we will ever talk about Dethklok. Join us for listener emails, music, and a brand new segment. Kyles and Gwar rejoice! -------------------- Hosts:  Jason Walton and Nick Wusz. "I Hate Music" theme by Marius Sjoli.  I Hate Music im...

Here at I Hate Music we love love. Today is Valentine's Day so maybe today we will even love music! Most musical genres are known, and perhaps even defined by, love songs. But what about metal? Are ballads the only type of song in metal that has the theme of romantic love? Do bands like Cannibal Corpse have love songs? What defines a love song? What are some great love songs? In this episode we di...