Metal Nerdery Podcast

There’s no denying that the drummer in a band can radically impact (good or bad) the overall dimension, weight, and power of a band’s sonic palette. And when that drummer is DAVE LOMBARDO, and that band is TESTAMENT, and those two forces join together, it results in the most dynamically brutal album of their entire catalog.  Testament’s 1999 opus, THE GATHERING, is the first and only album (thus f...

Since this is our initial excursion into unfamiliar territory (specifically bands covering songs by a specific artist), we figured what better way to kick things off than for us to pay homage to the artists who have paid homage to the Founding Fathers of Metal, the almighty BLACK SABBATH!!!     The beauty of cover songs is the myriad of unusual ways in which they can be performed. Some artists sta...

It should come as no surprise that we’re releasing an episode celebrating one of the finest (and also, one of the youngest!) bands ever to emerge from the thrash metal mecca known as “The Bay Area” (located near the fabled “Emerald Triangle”) on Saint Patrick’s Day, a day when NOT wearing green will get you pinched by that Lucky Charms dude (and/or that drunk chick at the bar that needed your help...

Sometimes it’s imperative to “step away” in order to continue evolving. While it seemed that SACRED REICH had permanently stepped away and slipped into thrash limbo during their hiatus, the thrash quartet hailing from Phoenix, Arizona was working towards their comeback and, quite literally, putting the band back together to record 2019’s “Awakening”, their first new album in over twenty-three year...

…AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (or AJFA if you’re an acronym fan), the 4th album from METALLICA (and the last album before “The Black Album”) was a strange yet glorious time for fans because it marked the beginning of a new era, with Jason Newsted taking over on bass duties after Cliff Burton’s tragic and untimely demise during the Master of Puppets World Tour.   Some people call AJFA “The Last Great Metall...

NWOBHM is the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” that followed the “The Unholy Trinity of British Heavy Metal” (TUTOBHM? Wait, that can’t be right…) comprised of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. As stated on a previous episode, the blues were to Zeppelin as NWOBHM is to Metallica, and if you’re even remotely familiar with Metallica (especially those first four albums), then you’re alrea...

With the release of REINVENTING THE STEEL, the 9th (and final) PANTERA studio album (and 6th consisting of the “classic lineup” of Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown, and the brothers Abbott:  Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul), it seemed as if the southern metal lords were set to begin yet another decade of heavy metal domination in not only a new century, but also a new millennium.  After consistently releas...

Letters are important. As children, we learned how letters combined together can form words. As adults, we unlearned all of that “logical absurdity” and broke words back down to individual letters because words are “exhausting and off-putting” and often are offensive and hurtful, whereas letters somehow don’t hurt and are usually “perfectly safe.”   Unfortunately, that means you can really only ha...

Love is a complex, multi-splendorious thing.  Especially our love for thrash, and MOST especially, our love for Bay Area Technical Thrash Wizards, FORBIDDEN.  In fact, if FORBIDDEN doesn’t make you “swollen and girthful” (“hard” btw) with their uber precise, mathematically challenging brand of techno-thrash shock and awe, then clearly YOU don’t love FORBIDDEN as much as WE love FORBIDDEN.  JOIN US...

Thanks to stylistic innovations such as the dawn of punk, the proliferation of shock rock, and the ever growing prominence of guitars in riff writing, the sound of 70’s rock music gradually morphed into the grittier, grungier and heavier realm of sonic bliss that would become heavy metal, a genre of music as LOUD as (if not LOUDER than) the gaudy home décor and fashions of the day.   It’s time to...

“We’re gonna do a number now…which was the very first song I ever wrote in my life…”   After 2 successful solo albums with his solo band (Blizzard of Ozz), OZZY OSBOURNE was set to release a live album consisting exclusively of songs from his former band, Black Sabbath.   “Wooo! Wooo!!”   SPEAK OF THE DEVIL is a double-live album of classic Sabbath tracks from the storied Ozzy era of the band thro...

Without RIFFS, we’d be without METAL, because “the riff” represents the foundation, the anchor, the “meat” if you will, of the song. Irregardless (and/or regardless) of the artist, whether it’s Sabbath, Maiden or Slayer, the power of the riff (according to Jimmy Bower) is indeedly compelling and critically important to creating catchy, MEMORABLE, timeless metal tunes.  It’s a New Year of nonsense...

Time to tear open a sack of salt and vinegar “California Potato Chips”, get ready to “get bleached”, and prepare to become “more boned” whilst “choking it down” as you  JOIN US for a gratuitous abundance of tangentional burp core from deep within the luxurious (albeit cavernous) bowels of our 33rd Floor Inverted Underground Bunkerpoon Studios as we conversate, postulate, and perhaps even “percolat...

May 25th, 1983. After fronting Rainbow and Black Sabbath during the 70’s and early 80’s, it was time for RONNIE JAMES DIO to assemble his own band of genius musicians to forge and unleash upon the world one of the greatest debut albums in all of metal (if not in all of existence): the seminal masterpiece known throughout the metal realm as HOLY DIVER. It’s the end of the year. Time to raise your T...

Not only was BRIAN JOHNSON charged with the extraordinary task of filling the void left behind by the passing of legendary AC/DC lead singer, BON SCOTT, but he also helped to propel the Aussie juggernauts to breathtaking new highs over the span of their extensive ½ century long career.  (Yeah, that’s definitely a LONG one!)   Oy! All you Metal Blokes and She-Blokes, it’s time to decorate the Holid...

Sometimes life just isn’t fair. (Actually, most times it’s not…but I digest.) Sure, the vocalist and the guitarist get the lion’s share of groupies and love. And yeah, occasionally, even the drummer might get some of the “leftovers”, but what about the BASS PLAYER, man? Because without BASSISTS to add the depth, dimension, and definition to the band’s sound, “heavy metal” would just be…well it wou...

It’s been a minute since we’ve had any new EXODUS blasting in our CD and/or MP3 players. But thanks to the Bay Area Thrash Lords’ latest offering of sonic devastation, PERSONA NON GRATA, that problem has been swiftly (and effectively) remedied. And for the record, everyone who’s saying “It’s fine” are WAY off and could not be more wrong! PERSONA NON GRATA is far beyond “fine”:  it’s absolutely SIC...

In traffic, LEFT TURNS are often far more dangerous than right turns, often resulting in far more accidents that sadly, many never fully recover from. Somehow, the same rule holds true in Metal* (and potentially, even this podcast!) as well:  some LEFT TURNS are legendary. But as is (sadly) far too often the case…many LEFT TURNS, not so much. Prepare for a lot of “marking the time”, find out who “...

It’s time to break out your old jean jacket (the one with the patches and buttons),  head to the mall to hand out flyers for your next show (wait, do malls actually still exist?), brace for the imminent tsunami of “Olan Mills” style Thanksgiving pictures arriving on Black Friday (fun fact:  “Olan Mills” roughly translates to  “Uncomfortably Awkward”), discover which band is the “Galaga” of thrash...

November 18, 2021:  Metal Nerdery Podcast releases an episode dedicated to HARDWIRED…TO SELF DESTRUCT on the 5th anniversary of this (double) album’s release and, coincidentally, on the 24th anniversary of the release of RELOAD (which represented the 2nd of “The Loads”, which was kind of a double album as well). Let’s just call November 18th “METALLICA Day”, to be filled with loads of positive aff...

Think of this episode as Metal Nerdery Podcast’s “double-concept-EP-hidden-bonus-split-album” podcast, with “double the content” (kind of…) of any of our prior episodes (I mean, not really…but also, definitely kind of…).   Not only will you get the Metal Nerdery Concert Report featuring a review of the boys’ recent KNOTFEST experience in Atlanta, but you’ll also get, for a limited time* (again, ki...

As you might recall from one of our earlier episodes, the “live concert album” is not just a recording of a band playing in front of a LIVE concert hall audience:  it’s a virtual concert experience.    With that being said, IRON MAIDEN’s “LIVE AFTER DEATH” is arguably THE finest LIVE concert album experience in ALL of metal (if not in ALL of existence). Everything about it:  the cover artwork, the...

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY (or C.O.C. “if you’re into the whole brevity thing…”) has continuously modified and improved upon the recipe for their heavy, hardcore, punk, thrash, doom, groove, metal infused gumbo to sound like one ginormous platter of Skynyrd Fried Sabbath deliciousness covered (nay, smothered!) in Riff Gravy.  Remember your teachings from the Wolf Steak Vocal Method and understand wha...

Nothing ghoulishly screams October and All Hallows’ Eve quite like TYPE O NEGATIVE, the hard core, goth-prog-doom metal crossover giants hailing from Brooklyn, New York. In fact, the only thing greater than TYPE O’s uniquely gothic and unsettlingly creepy, green aesthetic was their ability to NEVER take themselves too seriously; something which we here at MNHQ 33rd Floor I.U.B.P. Studios fully sup...

ACTUS REUS, the up-and-coming metalcore titans hailing from the suburbs of north Atlanta, are continuing the evolution of metal’s “Next Wave” by blending thrash, death, and prog metal into their brutally heavy, metalcore foundation. Keep an eye out for them, because they’re already making HUGE waves on the local metal scene throughout Georgia and all across the Southeastern U.S.   Prepare to disco...