AGITATORS ANONYMOUS the Alan Averill Podcast

Episode 170 is a quick one before heading off to play 'To the nameless dead' at Beyond the Gates festival with Primordial, normal, or more normal service will be resumed next week. This one is about all the things you have to prepare for such a show, what can go wrong, the dilemmas, worries, stresses, costs and pressure involved, from the voice, to the gear to the airline not losing anything, to t...

WHY DO BANDS RE-RECORD ALBUMS? Contract issues, no royalties ever paid, in order to tour, to spike interest, a new singer, or maybe just for fun! and what ever happened to the classic live album? Nick Barker gofundme: https://gofund.me/4ea03ab2 support the show over at http://www.patreon.com/AlanAverill sponsored by Metal Blade records https://www.indiemerch.com/metalblade... promo code AA 2023 fo...

168 is a rambling random episode that started out as an attempt to answer questions put to me in Instagram that turned into a mini rant about everything from the drum machine on Bathory's 'Blood on Ice' via the dilemma of speaking your mind in interviews, wise man think all he says and dumb metal singer says all he thinks, which am I? does it do any good to debate who funds Greta or is Hate speech...

Episode 167 is a chat w/ JAMES PLOTKIN James is one of the most prolific underground artists of the last 30+ years, from his beginnings in the grindcore scene with Regurgitation in 1987, through OLD, Scorn, a myriad of solo and collaborative releases, from digital hardcore to dark ambient and many points between, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst, Jodis and now to a new Khanate album. He also is well known f...

As Primordial is this weekend about to make the first video for the new album I discuss what goes into that, the crew, preparation, initial ideas, interpretation of lyrics, finding people who can work for cheap in a contracting industry but more expensive world! and ultimately why I often find the experience vaguely unsatisfying as juggling the logistics, finances and hope and wish to get eyeballs...

Episode 165 of Agitators Anonymous is a chat with JOERY VERA bassist from Armored Saint, Fates Warning and also most recently the Mercyful Fate re-union! An LA metal OG we go back in time to the early 80s, the beginnings of the US scene all the way to the present day with loads of cool stories and 40 years of metal history along the way!! An absolute banger of an episode full of pedal to the metal...

With the release of the 10th Primordial album coming up, I thought it was time to look back on our 2nd album "Journey's End', perhaps the record that stands alone more than any other in our discography, a flawed gothic tragedy as one critic called it at the time. I look back over the writing and recording process and how it very nearly wasn't made at all! support the show over at http://www.patreo...

After receiving the Analogue Black Terror book made by Metastazis from France and printed by Nuclear war now productions, which is a compendium of Black metal flyers, demo tape covers with some interesting and provoking introduction pieces I was inspired to go back to the moment of 1993 to consider the anniversary of the Primordial demo 'Dark romanticism' and to the late 80s and the birth of tape...

A thousand years give or take a few after their creation, the Knights Templar still capture the public imagination, why? what is it about their myth that is so enduring, what is real and what is just pure fantasy? From Indiana Jones, to Dan brown novels to dodgy power metal albums their famous imagery, sigil and deeds still loom large over our history. Sex, Murder, Money and Intrigue! So in this e...

This one is a big one and long overdue, I look at the Irish potato famine which began in 1845 and carried on realistically until the early 1850's, Ireland's population was almost halved, over a million people died and a million and a half displaced around the world, often crossing vast oceans in unseaworthy vessels called the coffin ships, which is where the Primordial song takes it's name from. I...

Episode 160 is an exert of the last half of the most recent Metal Salvage chat w Joe from GAMA BOMB which is a video over on my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH-BtARZJ6ZgzQeqiWK3diw it started off about glam bands turning to grunge in the 90s but the last section we turned to the modern concept of being a musician, is it possible? you can hear my vaguely drunken anger at the unf...

This also appears as a video chat over on my Youtube channel, Chris recorded the Primordial albums 'To the nameless dead', 'Redemption at the puritans hand' and the new one! We discuss those albums, the recording techniques, pitfalls and adversities we had to deal with at the time among loads of other random tech nerd nonsense. Chris is also the bassist of the band CONAN so we get into their rise...

Discussing Ireland new proposed Hate speech legislation, what it means for freedom of speech, civil liberties and the right to dissent. With many countries moving in lock step with similar plans what kinda of future are we headed for? Or am I just being a C theorist? support the show over at http://www.patreon.com/AlanAverill sponsored by Metal Blade records   https://www.indiemerch.com/metal...

Episode 157 discusses Trey from Morbid Angel's onstage collapse last week in Florida, why this is harder than ever to cope and deal with as everyone onstage is being filmed at all times and sadly epic fails are more shareable than a great show. How in the past musicians had off days but escaped further scrutiny as no one was filming their every move. I discuss my own moments of onstage insanity, w...

Today's short sharp metal shock is about the rising cost of underground music economics, shipping and buying vinyl, wholesale rates, the huge dip in sales for most small labels, how can they survive? and a look at how much money is left after posting out some signed Primordial vinyls to pay off debt.....I think you can guess the answer. Whose to blame? Putin, good old fashioned opportunistic price...

AGITATORS ANONYMOUS PODCAST EPISODE 156 Black Metal 1993 - 30 years on Hard to believe that it's been 30 years since the class of 93 Black Metal, a year which saw so many incredible releases but strangely enough turned out to be maybe the last high point of BM in the 90s, just maybe.....Primordial contributed on some level that year with our demo 'Dark Romanticism' so I look back on the releases t...

This one appears as a video over on my Youtube channel if you want to watch it instead! https://youtu.be/pcuWdLdwiXo ...and it does exactly what it says on the tin! all aspects of the new Metallica album discussed! support the show over at http://www.patreon.com/AlanAverill sponsored by Metal Blade records   https://www.indiemerch.com/metalbladerecords promo code AA 2023 for 10% off your orde...

Inspired by a conversation with the artist behind the new Primordial album, I discuss the idea that in theory AI could replace all the creative links in the chain. A brief look at the first all AI band, could they play live? will younger fans be bothered and how close they already sound to many modern mainstream metal bands. Are 100s of millions of people fundamentally facing going from being used...

Tuesday's short sharp shock Heavy Metal miscellany podcast is a look at last weekends Dread Sovereign shows, one was a big loss and the other a big victory, so I get into the reasons why, how to take the L on the chin and get back up and fight another day and discuss the existential angst that happens after your ego gets a good sharp kick in the balls!! support the show at http://www.patreon.com/A...

No MANOWAR no list..... Rolling Stone magazine just released a list of the top 100 greatest Heavy Metal songs of all time. I made a video of my reaction to that list, I went in blind, not knowing anything about it, scrolled through and comment. No idea who compiled it or any other background information! The video will be released on my Youtube channel next week but this is the audio of that react...

Episode 153 is a chat with Matt Bacon from DROPOUT MEDIA, BACON'S BITS and various music industry enterprises. We discuss the micro and macro of the modern music industry, advice for bands starting out, how to use social media to your advantage, scene examples of bands making it and moving up, Matt is a positive counter balance to my natural born pessimism. I'm not sure if we really get to the hea...

What you have to do before signing, sealing and delivering an album. Getting the balance right of the final mix, how important is the running order, IRSC codes, the artwork, the aesthetic. Thinking about the impact of the photos, the videos for the singles, and then having to sit on the music for months before it comes out, and then who knows, perhaps no one will like the damn thing! That and 20 o...

Tuesdays heavy metal content is part 4 of a chat between myself and Joe from Gama Bomb about the metal albums released in 1983, which include Show no Mercy, Kill em all, Melissa and more, the first 3 parts are over on my Youtube channel at https://youtu.be/x_74QgkhCbw Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/agitators-anonymous-the-alan-averill-podcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

Last week in the studio is trying to prep lyrics, study arrangements, avoid getting sick or a flu before singing, summoning the muse for an hour or two then sitting around pondering life's important issues, which is a better album 'Powerslave' or 'Somewhere in Time'? Attempting to get the artwork and aesthetic in line and finalise the running order. All this and a discussion about the latest merch...

Episode 150! quite the milestone! and it seems fitting that this weeks podcast is made while Primordial is recording album number 10! so it's about amps, microphone techniques, which guitars we use, pedals, and various other heavy metal nerdisms! Politics can wait til another day! It also features near the end the famous Alan Averill remedy for kickstarting your voice if you lose it on tour or in...