Inner-Strength Check Podcast

Deathcore pioneers Despised Icon occupy an interesting space. Equally as influential in pioneering the deathcore movement as they are distinctly their own sound, few bands just straight-up nail the melding of death-metal brutality with streetwise hardcore as these Canadian crushers. Whilst the wheels of the touring machine warm up, the band are preparing to drop 7th full-length LP Shadow Work on u...

Late last week, I was joined on the Inner-Strength Check Podcast by Noah See , drummer of progressive post-metal/doom heavyweights Conjurer (UK). With the imminent release of third full-length Unself later this month, as well as an upcoming slew of UK/European tour dates, Noah and Co are understandably keen as hell. Given the album remains true to the core musical dynamic yet also branches out fro...

Bay Area metal-progenitors Possessed are nothing short of iconic, having been a primary influence in the formation of death and thrash metal. On Friday, I caught up with vocalist Jeff Becerra to discuss the bands' first ever Australian tour, celebrating 40 years of their landmark album Seven Churches and much more! For full details on the upcoming tour, ticket links, artist info and more, head on...

Yesterday I was joined by Chuck Billy , the powerful and talented vocalist/frontman for Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament . During our conversation we discussed the interesting dynamics involved in the bands' writing and recording for the hard-hitting 14th LP Para Bellum , which releases on October 10th via Nuclear Blast Records . Naturally there's a whole slew of other topics covered during...

Far from the stereotypes you might associate with a nickname like, well, Old Nick, our latest vocalist-interviewee was candid, mirthful and excited in our midnight chat (very goth-coded, I know) ahead of Paradise Lost 's 17th (!) studio opus Ascension . Due for release on September 19th via Nuclear Blast Records , we caught up with Nick to discuss said album, but also branch out into directions ra...

Heading towards burning the midnight oil alongside myself on Friday night, I was joined on the podcast by Paula Damzal (vocals/guitar) and Nik (aka Nikronomikon Satanik - lead guitar) of incessantly guttural, HM2-soaked purveyors KÜNTSQUAD . With a renowned live show and the release of perennially family-friendly-titled LP Satan's Cock dropping on a scene increasingly interested in the old-school,...

A massive privilege and honour to have frontman Simon Calabrese of influential Australian melodic death metal legends Daysend , ahead of their upcoming national tour revisiting the massively-acclaimed album Severance. We discuss Simon's thoughts on said tour, stepping back into the band for the first time in 19 years and more! Check out the link below for tour info and links/RSVP for each of the t...

Link to Video Version (via our Youtube Channel) . Yesterday, for Music Monday at ISC I caught up with Ian Ahles (Vocals, Guitar/Lute) & Will Towne (Guitars) from up-and-coming Brisbane-based progressive metal outfit Ahles . We had a fantastic, fun and insightful chat about the project, merging the worlds of classical music/academia, the songwriting process behind recently released LP Between D...

In our third podcast interview for this week, your host was recently joined by two great dudes in Tomi Kouvisaari (Guitars) & Jan Rechberger of influential metallers Amorphis! We discuss latest album Borderland , touring and much more. See link for video/audio-only versions plus album preorder/info, artist bio/links, latest music videos ‘Bones’/’Light & Shadow’ and more, over at: www.inner...

Another splendid interview with a chill heavy musician! I was joined this morning by Isaiah Mitchell, guitarist of influential psych/space-rock heavyweight whilst he was on a summer's eve walk to discuss the upcoming tour of Australia/Europe/USA, thoughts on playing an iconic show at Uluru, the Australian music scene, live improvisation, his respect for First Nations peoples and more. You can find...

With an illustrious return to form with the highly acclaimed and record-selling self-titled release only a few years prior, the triumphant march of Helloween's progress shows no signs of slowing over the fourth decade! Especially not with one of their most bombastic and ambitious studio efforts slated for release within just a few weeks' time. I was fortunate enough to be joined by one of the band...

Note: For those just joining in on RSS.com, we have just migrated over to this site as our new podcast hosting platform! Link to original blog post, which contains video version of our interview with Dan Catania : https://www.innerstrengthcheckpodcast.com/blog/50th-ep-interview-wdan-catania-headbangers-australia 50 episodes! Most statistics show that the vast majority of podcasters (usually 60-80%...

(For those of you viewing this link via our new podcast-host profile page on RSS.com - note that existing episodes are still in the process of being automatically imported from Spotify, and may take some time to populate. Apologies for any confusion!) Recently, as your host for ISC Podcast, I uploaded a vlog to our Youtube channel + website blog and socials, advising we are leaving Spotify for Pod...