Metal Gateway Podcast

Season 2 Bonus Episode - How will the kids of today become the metalheads of tomorrow? I sat down with Decibel writers Tim Mudd  and Joseph Schafer to discuss the future of music discovery, and we explored what this will mean for the metal scene, given that we live in an era where a lot of recommendation comes to people via algorithm.  The rest of Season 2 is coming soon!  Show Notes:  Links to a...

Season 1 Episode 10 - In this episode, the first season finale, I had a conversation with Rebecca Vernon , whose latest project The Keening arrived in our ears last year. You may recall that Rebecca is the founder of the band SubRosa , whose influence has been felt across the doom/sludge scene for nearly 20 years. Rebecca and I sat down and she told me about her "uncool beginnings" (her words, not...

Season 1 Episode 9 - From his roots in country music in his home state of Texas, Charlie Anderson 's musical journey has taken him to the extremes of black metal, where he plays the fiddle in the now legendary black metal band Panopticon. Charlie was kind enough to sit down with me at Cascadian Midsummer festival and tell me the story about how he discovered metal music at quite a young age, and h...

Season 1 Episode 8 - If you're an accomplished cellist who really understands metal, you can have a fascinating and varied career, and that's exactly what Kakophonix has done. He's a core member of the dark neofolk project Osi & The Jupiter, which has played numerous metal festivals and tours. He also has a solo project called Hvile i Kaos, which he describes as "black ritual chamber musick." Link...

BONUS MINI EPISODE - I slept on Blind Guardian. I did this for over 30 years. For this transgression, to all Blind Guardian fans the world over, I am deeply sorry. But after my experience on Wednesday night I have awakened from my slumber. This is a Blind Guardian Appreciation Episode. Thank you for listening! 

Season 1 Episode 7 - The early 1990s in the US was a pivotal time for heavy music, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, with the emergence of Grunge. Matt Johnston had a front row seat to a lot of those moments, as he was the music director of KAOS radio - the legendary college radio station in Olympia, Washington -- from 1991 to 1994. During that time, Matt got to see a lot of shows and meet a...

Season 1, Episode 6 - Andrea Morgan plays the violin for a couple of bands (Exulansis and The Keening). She was kind enough to sit down with me last summer and talk about her metal journey, the presence of classical string instrumentation in extreme metal, and the role of small festivals in the metal scene today. Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoy the conversation! Links mentioned in th...

Season 1 Episode 5 - CJ Yacoub - CJ is the drummer of Canis Dirus, Vulning, and others. I met them last summer at Cascadian Midsummer festival and had a chance to sit down (literally, in the forest) to hear the story about how they discovered metal music.  If you're a black metal fan in Chicago on May 31, you can catch CJ playing with Vulning at Beat Kitchen - info and tickets here: https://www.se...

Season 1, Episode 4 - Joseph Schafer eats, sleeps and breathes metal. He's the vocalist for Colony Drop (everyone's favorite Gundam-themed metal band), he's one of the organizers of Northwest Terror Fest (Seattle's premier extreme metal festival), and he's a frequent contributor to Decibel magazine and other publications. He was kind enough to find time in between all of these projects to sit down...

Season 1, Episode 3 - From their formation in 1985 until they disbanded in 1994, Jeff Braimes was the vocalist of Panic, a Seattle-based thrash metal band. He's retired from metal now, but he stopped by the studio to tell me about how he got into it, and offered his perspective on what it was like to be in a metal band in Seattle when the whole Grunge thing happened. Enjoy!   A few links for folks...

This week's guest -- Matt Jacobson -- started Relapse Records in the basement of his mom's house in Aurora Colorado in 1990. In the years since, the label has become one of the most influential metal labels in the world.  Thanks for listening! Please like, share and subscribe!    Theme music for this podcast is provided by Tauntaun . Used by permission.  The Metal Gateway Podcast is a production o...

In this first-ever full episode of the Metal Gateway, Brian interviews his friend Joe Giersch, who you met if you listened to the Preview episoide.  Thanks for listening! Please like, share and subscribe!    Theme music for this podcast is by Tauntaun . Used by permission. 

The Metal Gateway Podcast - Episode 1 coming in March 2024! This preview episode explains the reasons why this show exists and what we hope to achieve with it. It contains an except from a conversation between Brian Sibley (host of the Metal Gateway) and his friend Joe Giersch, who was the inspiration for the project.  Theme Music for this podcast provided by Tauntaun. To check out their music, vi...