The Distorted Emporium

There is no question that the brief span between 1992-1994, quite literally, changed my life. Sandwiched right in the middle is the year 1993. That's when things got serious. I was no longer the only kid trying to dig into the world of heavy music. There were a number of us, and allowances and lunch money would not be spared. It really didn't matter if I had the money to buy an actual al...

Heavy on the destruction, completely void of grindcore. On this episode, I focus on the 1994 Priority Records compilation, Best of Grindcore and Destruction. I am pretty sure this compilation only found its way into the hands of a few people.  Hell, only 50 people have it on Discogs, and that's the cassette and cd combined.  Having said that, and absurd name aside, it is an awesome collection...

I've always had a soft spot for bands that could push the envelope when it came to songwriting and musicianship in the world of metal and rock. Those that could incorporate the ferocity and speed of extreme music while doing so have always been  held in high regard. Not every band featured in this episode are "prog-" in the 70's King Crimson/Mahavishnu Orchestra style of bombas...

It's almost impossible to imagine a world without Celtic Frost. What would metal even sound like? Sure, we'd have bands following in the footsteps of artists like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, and Slayer, but what would it sound like without the riffs and imagination of Thomas Gabriel Fischer, or Tom G. Warrior? I honestly don't know and I'm glad we don't have to w...

Without a doubt, Nu-Metal stands as one of the most polarizing genres of hard rock to ever exist. Despite it being reviled more any other sub-genre metal, hair metal included, it continues to sell albums, sell out arenas, and influence music to this day. With this episode, I've tried to showcase some of the bands, or at least particular songs, that stood out from the heap of generic, derivati...

2022 was another remarkable year for extreme music in the post-shutdown landscape. This episode highlights some of the best I came across last year. We discuss some old timers, some newcomers, and a local Bakersfield band that I think is on the cusp of greatness. Despite what some say, I feel heavy music is in a great place right now so dive and find some bands! As always you can follow me on Inst...

1992 - The year heavy metal infected the world. Or at least that's  how  it appeared to us kids growing up in Southeast Texas. Grunge ruled the world, but as we watched Headbanger's Ball and scoured the various mags we could find at the department stores and gas stations, it became obvious that something incredible was taking place. Every corner of the globe seemed to have a scene,  or s...

Where does one even start with the passing of a musician that is guaranteed a spot on the Mt. Rushmore of their chosen instrument? Not since the death of Eddie Van Halen in October 2020, has the guitar world been so shaken and felt such a loss.  The impact Jeff Beck had on the world of rock and guitar-driven music is beyond reproach. Once he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds, on three days no...

Whether in Sepultura, Soulfly, or his countless other projects, Max Cavalera has always embraced collaboration. While the obvious move would have been to explore the songs in which he brought in guest musicians on his own material  (which is an amazing list in and of itself),  I chose to dive into his catalog of guest appearances on the songs of other artists. This ended up being a very fun, and a...

Southern California. The land of scenic beaches, beautiful people, never-ending sunshine... and one of the most vibrant and explosive music scenes to exist in the late 1970's and 1980's. It was a bastion of creativity consisting of kids that were, if only temporarily, putting down their surfboards and skate boards and picking up instruments. Once bands like the Ramones and The Damned sta...

Ed Kemper, Ed Gein, Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish, and on and on. The list of mass murdering psychopaths that have inspired heavy music is an extensive one to say the least. Their influence isn't genre specific either.  As you'll see tonight, death metal, sludge, grunge, thrash... bands of all styles have used these atrocities as inspiration for song. This is an eerie, and at times unset...

Quite literally, Black Sabbath changed music, and heavy music in particular, forever upon the release their self titled debut in 1970. Debates have raged for decades as to who was the first "heavy metal" band, and while I am on team Sabbath in that argument, even those who oppose that sentiment have to agree that Sabbath is the most influential band in the history of heavy metal. Judas P...

For better or worse, 1991 is the year heavy music changed forever. With the release of Metallica's Black Album and the grunge explosion coming out of Seattle, heavier sounds were hitting the airwaves all over the world. However, if you were to turn off the radio and dig into one of the many fanzines or metal magazines that were widely available, you'd find that 1991 was a high water mark...

The New Wave of American Heavy Metal is a controversial term used to describe the explosion of bands that rose out of the United States in the late 90's and early 00's in the aftermath of nu-metal. The earliest known reference to the term is from Cleveland, Ohio's Chimaira, who put the phrase on a shirt, and later cds, around 2001. While the  NWOAHM is obviously biting off of the no...

-1990- The year before all hell broke loose. Pre-Black Album, Pre-Grunge explosion, pre-nu/groove metal, pre-second wave of black metal... This was a very fertile, yet peculiar, year in the history of metal and rock. We had 3 of the Big 4 of American thrash all release classic albums, we had the first gold record in the grunge movement released, death metal was burgeoning and on the brink of explo...

Fire up whatever it is you're smoking and dive into episode 11 of The Distorted Emporium! Tonight's show gets hazy, cloudy, and very intoxicating as we explore some of my favorite stoner and doom tracks from the 90's to the present day. The Sabbath-worship is strong in this one, as it should be, and the riffs are massive.  As I state in the show, I stayed exclusively in the 90'...

In this episode of TDE, we wrap up our look back at 2021. As I've stated numerous times, 2021 gave us an abundance of killer releases and by the end of this show, we will have explored over 3 hours of new music for you guys to seek out. As promised, this episode features a new Jesus Christ Muscle Car song. Nothin' for Nada is the  song title and I think you guys will love it! This song a...

 2021 has proven to be an absolutely remarkable year in regards to heavy and extreme music. From old school death metal bands with 30 plus years under their belts to newer bands that are pushing the bounds of what extreme music can be, 2021 has given us an abundance of great releases. In fact, once I started compiling tracks for the show, I quickly realized this will have to be a 2 part series so...

Welp... it didn't happen. Psycho Las Vegas 2021 was set to be my return to the world of live music following all the covid madness. All access pass, spare room at my buddy's house, vacation from work all lined up, everything. Life had different plans, however. A few weeks prior to the festival, my wife had a horrible accident in our driveway which resulted in her leg being broken in mult...

To the untrained ear, everything with distorted guitars and harsh or aggressive vocals tends to fall under the moniker of "metal" or "heavy metal." While these terms are certainly subjective, in this episode I showcase numerous bands that are as heavy as any metal band but sit comfortably outside the confines of what, in mainstream circles, is usually defined as metal. Join me...

Welcome to Episode 8 of The Distorted Emporium!  In this episode, I try to navigate the bands that had a part in inspiring one of the most extreme forms of heavy metal. We'll travel from the early days of Black Sabbath and 70's hard rock, through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, to the early days of American and German thrash, and land squarely in the middle of the first wave of Blac...

Welcome to Episode VII of The Distorted Emporium! In this episode, I've  curated a greatest hits, of sorts, from Roadrunner Records illustrious catalog. Now before I get a lot of shit about leaving off this band or that band, I've left off the bands I covered in past episodes in order to highlight some other acts and songs that I dig. Having said that,  with Roadrunner's 41 year leg...

For a country that is roughly the size of California, albeit with a quarter of the population, Sweden might be the pound for pound champion in the metal world. In this episode, I dive into some of my favorite bands from the Scandinavian powerhouse and share some of the tracks that remain staples in playlists and on the turntable. While the sheer volume of quality bands made this a tough task for a...

Riffs, riffs, and more riffs...  In this episode, we continue to explore some songs that made my 100 Favorite Riffs list. These tracks crush and make for a killer mixtape!  Don't forget,  you can find the full playlist to all episodes of The Distorted Emporium on Spotify. Just look up The Distorted Emporium Episode 5 for this one and enjoy!

Morrisound Recording ( aka Morrisound Studios) is a recording studio in Tampa, Florida that was opened in 1981 by the brothers Jim and Tom Morris. With the help of engineer/producer Scott Burns, they helped to  popularize some of the most extreme music to come out of the post-thrash metal landscape. In this episode, we will explore some of the highlights that led to death metal ruling the world in...