 The boom, boom, boom, boom, zoom in. It's a little bit of an error there. Okay, we're live. We're live on the metal voice. The greatest night of the year. Maybe we should put a Christmas hat on or something. I got my whole Christmas tree right here, but I don't want to move my tree. Christmas toque. Yeah, yeah. Hello, hello, hello. Look at this. So what are we talking about today, Alan? Some people, some people don't believe this is real. Like, they really don't believe this is a real thing. They think it's just some sort of weird picture, but no, Alan, I spent all day polishing it up because as you know, the Oscars have their little man there. The Grammys have that sort of record player thing. And in the metal voice we have the nut. The nut. The big chestnut, the one and only. That's it. That's right. So this is what we're gonna do. We did 10 to six. Yep. You're 10 to six and my 10 to six. What's nice about this list is we had some two choices that made our top 10 together. So we cheated and that allowed me to pick up two other albums. Since we had a consensus on two, perhaps maybe even three. There was a consensus maybe on three either. All right, it's our show. We can do whatever the fuck we want. That's the motto, my friend. That's the motto. Okay, here we go. We're gonna do what we want. When we want, here on the metal boys. You bet. Okay, so this is the agenda today. I will, they always say when you start off a meeting, you should start off with the agenda. Yes. Are there any questions? Do you approve the agenda? And we're gonna do this. We're gonna do our honorable mentions. Just toss out a few. They didn't make the list this year, but we're great albums. We'll do our number five. We'll bring on Kenny, the man on the street on these posts. Kenny, whoa, yes, sir, we love Kenny. Eric Martin, unfortunately, could not make it. He had a headache. He had a headache, I don't know what happened. That's why she did it to us. If it's a riffles again, could be, bad flu. We do our number four, and then we bring on Todd. We're bringing Todd on a little bit earlier this time. So Todd, if you're watching, you're coming on a little bit earlier. We're gonna do our number three, our number two, and then our number one, and then the fireworks go off. We bring out the big nut. We congratulate the bands. And last, but not least, do you approve the agenda, Alan? I second that emotion, yeah. All right, let's begin. All right, some honorable mentions. Oh, there's the phone. Honorable mentions, Alan. You just toss out a couple that you thought that were really, really good. Could have made the list as number 11, number 12. Well, like I said, the last show, you know, it's the albums that I went back and listened to a few times, you know, and you keep going back and listening to it, it must be a good album, right? So one of that would have made my top 10, but I don't consider a metal album, even though it's probably from what could be considered a metal singer, is James LeBrie's album. I came out his solo album, very acoustic. But that's one I click on, go back and listen to. And of course, let me just pull up the album's name. James LeBrie. Solo. I forgot what the album's name word. It's a beautiful shade of gray, yeah. Beautiful shade of gray. So I love that album, acoustic. I called it his, you know, Dark Side of the Moon, his Tea for the Tiller Man, his great album. And I thought that was thoroughly enjoyable. Keep going back and listening to it. And another honorable mention, it has grown on me throughout the year. I think it's Michael Schenker with Universal and the ever popular Ronnie Romero singing on that. We got the chance to interview Michael. That's always a- So it was a pleasure listening about his brother. It was an esoteric experience. Yeah. And it was used to be a guy, and there's a lot of, I see, I heard a lot about a rainbow influence, a lot of rainbow guitar work, but as Michael quickly corrected me, I don't sound like anybody I sound like Michael Schenker. So hats off to him. I thought that was a grower for myself. So those would be my two honorable mentions. I think another one that you and I really enjoyed was David Elfson's Soto, Vacation in the Underworld. It kind of, you know, just underneath the 10, I think it was really a solid album. I kept going back to it when it was released. So congrats to them. I thought it was a really solid album. I hope they continue. Because this year, my list is about momentum. Fans are on some serious momentum forward. That's my list now. It's like the Oscars. That's how I'm built my list this year. But also hats off to Iron Allies, you know, David Reese and company, you know, blood in, blood out, not Exodus, not Exodus, blood in, blood out, Iron Allies, I think David Reese is doing an excellent job. I had to have a shower after listening to that. It was like sweating. You know, there's a workout that album. Here's the problem now. And there's just too many great albums. There's just too many great albums. I don't want to let everybody down. There's just too much great albums. And here's a rock album, a hard rock album that you and I probably enjoyed. Riot Act, closer to the flame. You know, the boys from Riot. You know, well, at least Rick Ventura is back with the, you know, I guess, the band that Lou and him put together. And a great hard rock album more in the style of hard rock and rock than of metal. And those are my, and also one more. Graham Bonnet, day out in nowhere. You know what? It was kind of a last minute, listen to this. And you know what? Graham Bonnet at his age, pulling out some great music congrats to him and his band that Graham Bonnet bad for. But it was a worthy mention. Okay. All right. So we begin, Alan. We begin the dissent. Here it comes. The dissent to one. Should we look at some comments before we start going? Sure, Jim, whatever, man. Kenny, hang on. You're going to be on and after. Yeah, people waiting, man. We got to move. All right, we got to move. We got to move. Everybody's talking about your big nut, Jim. Everybody talks about my big nut. All right, number. Let me get the graphics ready. Number five, when you're going first, I'm going first, we're going first. I'm going first. Number five, Voivod. Synchro-Henarchy. Great, great album by a great band. And again, the theme of this year for me is upward momentum. These guys, excellent production. Chewie, the guitarist, is probably one of my favorite guitarists of this decade, I would say. Oh. The band is spot on. I would say they're actually getting better. I hate to say this. I hate to say this to the legacy of Voivod, but the band's getting better. Super Prague. And I will say, Alan, I always tell you this, the reason why I like this band is because all the other bands are on this direction playing this type of music. They're always over here in their own world, playing their own style. And that's what draws me to them. And congrats to them. So that's my number five. I was actually able to meet Chewie. Him and I were leaving the Rush concert years ago, Snakes and, no, sorry, Clockwork or Angels Tour on the plains of Abraham in Quebec City. We were both coming out at the same time. I looked over, hey, Chewie, I'd seen him literally just a couple of months before when they opened for Aventasia. So a couple of days before, I was crazy a week before actually. So it was nice to see him. And yeah, Voivod's a great man. Oh, great bunch of guys there. And they are on my trajectory of upward momentum. See that? Consistent albums over and over and climbing, climbing higher and higher. So there you go, congrats. All right, Alan, let me get the graphics ready for you. Oh, okay. You tell me when you're ready there. Is this- You're ready? This is a big production. You're ready? Boom. The hue. I'm going with the hue of number five. Rumble of thunder. I mean, I love their last album. I think it made our top 10 list that year. But I mean, you listen to a song like Triangle and try to get that melody out of your head. The opening song, this is Mongol. Just that groove. It sounds like they have a little bit more electric instruments in that. But just that groove alone is unbelievable. Mother Nature. Now you're talking very, it could be like a Yanny or Enya and a very emotional, very moving piece. But for me, it's a more mature album and the masterpiece is Black Thunder. I think it's over seven minutes long and it's got everything. It covers all the spectrum of the hue and what they're great at doing. Thoroughly enjoyable album. And I'm glad they keep releasing them. They are the poster boys of Mongolia. Mongolia. There's a few songs. There's some chanting in there. Sounds like Native Indians here in North America. The same kind of chanting. I don't know where the link would be. Mongolia and Native American Indians. But it was interesting to hear. You can see a correlation. But again, Black Thunder. There's one sign you ought to check out on that album. It's a masterpiece Black Thunder. And of course, this is Mongol just for that groove, man. Hats off to the who. I remember the first time somebody told me about the who. I thought it was the who. The hue. The hue. They said the who, not the who, the hue. The hue, hue. We're trying to get Kenny now. We're getting Kenny on. Oh, Kenny Kessel. North, Northeast, US. Kenny, you got to hit your video. Hit your video, Kenny. Hit my video. Let me see. We on? We are on. Look at you with a nice, glossy background. I borrowed my wife's work set up. All right, tell your wife, thank you. Kenny, what's going on? How are you doing, guys? North, East, US. Metal voice correspondent himself. Alan is good to see you. Great interviews all the time, Kenny. I'm honored to be on this with you tonight. Both of you. Glad to have you. Golden walnut. It's an honor. A golden walnut. You want to see it, Kenny? Have you ever seen it? There it is. That's it. Not a chestnut, it's a golden walnut. All right. OK, Kenny. All right, how do you want to do this? I want to say this. First of all, where the heck's Eric Martin? I think he's playing with the weather. He got into the hotel late. Where's Eric Martin? I'm sorry. I was supposed to be at Daryl's house already, so, you know, I'll be over there later. It's OK. It happened the same thing happened to Alan at Aventasia when he was supposed to meet Eric Martin. He was there at the King backstage. He was, look, Alan, I got the sniffles. Got to run. Listen, we could do a little Zoom thing with him later. Alan, if you want, you want to jump in here. Let's get to your top three. I want to get the Kenny's top three. That's all right, Kenny. Count them down, Kenny. My top three. I'll do them really quick if you guys stretch the time there. Number three. And this is because our good friend Giles. It's A to Z. Oh, Mark Sander. Mark Sander's project. Very good. Ray Adler doesn't disappoint. I was missing Fates' warning and wondering what was going to happen. Hold it up. Hold it up. I want to see the album cover. Look at that. Very good. Me and Alan, we interviewed Mark. We interviewed a beautiful album cover. We got to interview Mark Sander. The other album cover is unbelievable. And they were saying, we wanted a straightforward rock and roll album. I didn't really hear it. I agree with Kenny. It's a little bit more prog and a little bit Fates' warning-ish. That-ish. It wasn't as straightforward as a lot of the publicity made it sound, but a good album. Just step away. It's missing Jim, you could see. But it's different. It's different. I loved it. Loved it. Yeah. I took a page out of what you said earlier, Alan, and been one of the- Ah, he listens, Alan. He listens. You listen to most during the year. And these are the top three things that I listen to the most. And the last one came out in a way, so. Go. Number two. Put a boom. Go. Boom. Go on. Tony Martin. I love Tony Martin. He's probably the singer I saw the most with Black Sabbath. I've seen it. I love this album from start to finish. It's a very strong album. I met Greg Smith. I got to talk to him about it in February. And he was very pleased that he was even on the album. It was an honor, he said. Well, you know where we spoke to Tony Martin and Tony, a hell of a guy, a hell of a singer. And he did put out a fabulous album. It was on my number, Alan was in my number six or seven or somewhere around there. All right, yeah, I was there on our list. It was on the last show. Shadow's trying the whole thing. What a vocal. What a vocal. He didn't lose anything. All right. Ready? Number one. Number one. Number one came in very late. The end of November and it is Rodney Monroe's Monroe's Thunder, The Black Watch. Nice. It is a concept album about the Mary Queen of Scots. And it's a very good album. Again, start to finish. It's a storm burn. It reminds me of when George Cole joined Klovenhoof. Yeah. This band, it's David Mark Pierce. I think he's from Scotland. He wrote all the music and the guitars. And so Rodney did the lyrics and the melodies and stuff. But it came together with Rodney's wife had passed away. Joy. And this is dedicated to her. And she sings on one of the tracks. It's a very strong album. I suggest everybody go check it out. It's released. It's on, let me see the record label, RFL Records. The RFL Records, absolutely. You know, with Between You and Our Buddy and on the West Coast that we had on, you guys always bring new albums. And I listened to this album, Kenny. And my favorite song out of there is Babington Mary. Oh, yeah. And I want to just let you know that if you like this album, you should check out Poland's own Screammakers, their album, Bloody King, that was released. I think you might like it. If you like this album, you might like that one. So I just wanted to let you know. Thank you, Alan. Thank you. No problem. All right. Just stay on here, Kenny. Wait, Rob Johnson saying, Christie, Tony Martin rules. Christie saying, thank God, someone else likes Tony Martin with Black Sabbath beside myself. Of course. Who doesn't? What a fine nut. That's gas masks and hand grenades. I'm looking at Rob saying, Christie Saxon's album is brilliant. Ben is saying King's X album is excellent. Russ is saying the halo effects. Everyone's chiming in on their favorite ones. BFJS, Synchronarchy is my number seven. And Momentum by JBJ. That's actually, I know that's my call, but anyways. Momentum, Legacy Band. All right. So hang in there, Kenny. We're going to do our next one. I want you to weigh in on our picks. OK, Alan, we're going to go to the agenda. Let me go to the agenda. Yep. OK. Alan, you're going to give us your number four. OK. You ready? OK, go now. But a boom. Alan is frozen. What happened now? You're going to number four? You froze there for a second. Number four, Alan. Go to your number four. Yeah, I froze. You froze again. It's a good thing you got the fiber. You ready for my number four? Yes, go your number four. You're going to your number four. Your number four. My number four, no surprise. There it is. Sword, their third album, aptly titled Three. Hey, we got to interview Rick and the boys. Spend some time in their rehearsal pad. And Rick told me that he spent so much time getting the vocals perfect. He's actually having some difficulty reproducing them live, which I'm sure he's going to have enough rehearsals. He's going to nail it. But just a great album, a great comeback. And for me, the highlights, Unleashing Hell, that takes me right back to 86, Dirty Pig, and Took My Chances. Those are my top three off that album. So this is where we just. Mike Plownt's guitar. Oh, yes, incredible. This is where we cheated, Alan, because it was one of my pick, too, so we go, OK, Alan will put it on his side. Yeah, we're going to be able to squeeze in some other albums that way, so. That's right. Kenny, have you heard the new sword? I haven't heard it. Time to put it on, Ken. Time to put it on. Got to check it out. All right, I'm going to give you guys my number four now. There we go. Hold on. Just going to get the graphics. It's always about the graphics. Doot, doot, doot. Boom, Saxon, Carpe Diem. Very good. Wow, wow, what an album. Again, up about momentum. Here's a band that has not let up. You see, I don't want to pick those one-off albums, right, in my top 10. In other words, I don't want to pick those sort of the bands get together for one album. They make one. It's pretty good. But then you never hear about this band ever again. I want bands who've been chugging away, playing the clubs, the theaters, the arenas, album after album, tour after tour, and still maintaining that consistency. And that's what Saxon, Carpe Diem's all about. I mean, I've talked about this album in length on our reviews and our interviews. Monster of an Hour. Alan, OK? Great album. Great album, great band. Their list, seven or eight, they had a little blip in the late 80s. And that was it. They've always put out strong stuff. That's a great album. Biff and the Boys, keeping it strong. Another strong effort. And I agree with Kenny. They lost me towards the end of the 80s. I think it started with Rock of Nations and Destiny. He was, but ever since coming back strong, for me, Call to Arms and Everything Since has been basically a second career for them. So, you know, it's interesting because me and Alan, we went to see Biff on the Call to Arms tour, right? And that was kind of like and the big question I'll ask them at the time was because back then they weren't touring North America. It was like they just completely stopped. It was sort of putting their toe in the water to gauge the interest and allowed them to come back numerous times since on numerous tours. A lot. And I think COVID put a stop to that. I hope they do come back again. I hope they do this. What a bad life. Unbelievable. The Marshall stacks, the guitars. These guys have been around for decades and it shows when you perform. You never leave a Saxon concert disappointed. No, and just generally nice guys, too. Oh, yep. Nice. We're going to do now, guys. Kenny, we're going to you're going to stay on. We're going to bring Todd on. We're going to you're going to pass the baton to Todd. You're going to drop off. Very dead. That's just like a race. That was my number four, Todd. All right, all right. Let me let me bring on Todd now. Let me just see what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. Let's bring on Todd Lettari. We're bringing him on. Mr. Lettari himself. There's Todd Lettari. I wonder if he's eating. What is it? I'm super curious to know. I just got to eat. Hold on. Hold on. I wonder if he's eating. That's what I was thinking. I was like, I wonder if he's eating food right now, waiting for us. I just was eating chips with sour cream and onion dip. Kenny, you're passing the baton to Todd. You drop it off. Be good, Todd. All right, man. And I promise I won't ambush you by the tool box. Use out. All right, see you. Thanks, Kenny. Thanks for all your work. Be good, guys. Turn it off there. You bet. Turn it off. OK, close your computer now, Kenny. What's going on? There he is. There he is. And the audio. Kenny, Kenny, Kenny. You just get it off. Don't do anything you're not supposed to do, Ken. There we go. Todd, what's going on, man? Oh, dude, I'm like Jello right now. You know, finally home, doing laundry, sleeping in my own bed. Got to, you know, organize the studio and it's a bit in disarray. But yeah, just totally relaxing, really not doing much of anything for this whole week. And then, you know, I got lots of things to take care of. All right, so how was the pre-store? It was awesome. Yeah, yeah, it was great, you know, doing that that second leg was awesome. Better time to to kind of speak with everybody in the band and and hang out a little more. We did like one of the nights they we had this bar. We were in San Antonio. And they invited us, everybody to go to this kind of restaurant bar thing. And they kind of roped it off where it was just the band and crew. So that was really cool. That was a lot of fun, you know. And then as soon as we were done, they went to South America. So they're they're now doing some shows. And it was an awesome experience. I mean, just like I said, after that first leg, we did. But to do it again and was was really great. You guys are gelling now, that's what it is. You guys are gelling, right? You're gelling as a group. It's a it's a perfect package that just works so well. And, you know, the behind the scenes stuff that people don't realize that's very imperative is, you know, we're a self-contained unit. We have our own front of house consoles. We have everything we run. Like we're basically not in the way of their of their stuff. And so it's a 10 minute stage turnover, you know, and we're really professional and out of their way. And it just makes life for them so much easier. I have to think we're probably one of the easiest bands they've ever worked with in regards to just these kind of things that go on behind the scenes that make everything flow smoothly. We were right on time. Every time we were offstage. Exactly every time we were supposed to be, you know, there was no complaints. So it was a lot of fun. It was really cool. And who knows, maybe we'll get to do something again with them in the future. Or maybe we get to do some stuff in Europe, for example. I mean, nothing was said about it, but you never know. So, you know, it was it was a good time. Pat says Calispera, Jimmy Allen, and please tell Todd I say hi. Hello to everybody. Yeah, Pat is our is our is our good friend from from Greece. He lives in San Diego, but he's he's from from Greece. OK, so right. All right. We're going to you're going to do some color commentary here of the albums that we are on the spot. I don't have nipples. Glad you got to spend some time with the Judas Priest boys on the on the second leg. So it was awesome, you know, just, you know, I talked to Rob a lot more on this on this run. And everyone was just really great, you know, just super cool, very chill. Yeah, it was it was great. All right, we're going to go right to the next album, Todd. We're at number three, we're counting them down. And if you have, I think you've already seen the nut, right? Nice, you've already seen the nut, right? Yeah. Yeah, there it is. He's so proud. Hey, just just to just to preface this for your audience, I am very not I'm not very current with a lot of the new stuff that's come out because I'm busy doing stuff with Queens, right? I've been we've been torn our asses off and I just haven't had really adequate time to dig in. There's been a ton of new music that's come out. And I just I'm not terribly familiar. I've heard you've been on the road for a year. You've been on the road for a year, right? I mean, I've I've heard I've heard I've gone through albums. I haven't listened on front to back, but I've I've heard stuff from bands that have put out new music. So, you know, it's not like I'm going in completely blind. But, you know, I got you. No, no, and it's understood, of course, it's understood. And that's why we're kind of talking before. Should you give your top ten or should you just jump on? Just, you know, yeah, chitchat with us, you know, yep. But Alan, you're ready for yours, Alan. I'm ready for my yeah, Jim. OK. All right, let me just get ready. Let me take a big inhale for this album title here. Here it is. Go, boom. Avatar, a paranormal evening with the Moonflower Society. How's that for a title? It's good. It's good title. That sounds like something Rob, Rob Zombie, you know, his his album titles are always really, really long. So all the usual suspects are back, you know, like to my jacket up, guys. Erin Martin, Jeff Tate and a nice addition. Floriancin from Nightwish sings two songs and she's absolutely fantastic on it. For me, anything Imitation does automatically makes my top ten. It's a band I love, listened to for years. Toby's back. He's rejuvenated. Covid gave him a rest. His voice sounds better. He was able to rest his voice. And I think it's another strong album from the Avitasia gang. Oh, did you mention Eric Martin was on it? Yeah. OK. That's what we're going to have him on just to tie it in together. You're you're in Landy. And I think even Bob Calley is on it. So the whole gang, the regular gang. Yeah, I think that isn't that band always they're they're always featuring guest singers. Yeah. So I kind of they're they're shtick. Yeah. But he wrote one song. I think it's Scars. He wrote that. I mean, he had Jeff Tate embedded in his brain when he said he wrote that song. And it's just this you could tell that it was written for Jeff. So yeah, your buddies amongst many other singers. He said he doesn't go out of his way to find new singers. He's happy with the ones that have participated. And again, again, this time around. But yeah, he always tries to introduce one or two. He said Paul Stanley was one that he would love. Yes. And Bruce Dickinson. Yeah. All right. It was my number three. I was great talking to Toby. Yeah, we talked to him just about a month ago. Yeah. So check that out, everybody. OK, here's mine. This is my number three. It's Megadeth, the sick, the dying and the dead. All right. Here it is. I think it came out about four or five months ago. Man, great production. You got to love the guitar playing. They just the whole. They're back upward momentum. That's what I say, Megadeth never sounded better. It's angry. It's spitting out nails. It's furious. It's melodic. It's everything you'll love about Megadeth right here. And it was really tough for me. These last three albums, one, two and three could just by hair. Just by hair. I've been raving about this album for about a few months now. I just love it. I've I've still listening to it since the day it was released. OK, the album cover is not the best, but the music is. Todd, have you had a chance to listen to Megadeth? I listened to a couple of one of the first singles and then actually today I was doing some stuff in the garage and I I played, you know, played a lot of the record. And it definitely sounds like Megadeth that you would want to hear. And the production is killer. Guitar work. Yeah, but I mean, the production sounds awesome. And I mean, I hear a little I don't remember the name of the song. I was actually going to write it down and I forgot. But you could definitely hear stuff that was like that rust and peace. And then then then then that stop and go. I'm just hearing like pieces that are like very reminiscent of stuff on that record. And it sounds like, you know, it's a killer Megadeth sounding album. And it's definitely like they're just doing what they do. It didn't sound like they were trying to be modern or, you know, they just wrote in that classic Megadeth style. In my opinion, I really liked it. I thought it was killer when the first single came out, too. I was like, wow, this this I was not expecting this. Just kind of 10 seconds. The sick, the dying, the dead. What an amazing song. Life in Hell, Night Stalkers with Ice Tea, Dogs of Chernobyl. It's got like this cool little metal waltz that's going on and Mission to Mars. I love it because I love space and I love Mars and I want people to go to Mars and colonize it. And I just love the way his little his sense of humor in that song. If you really pay attention, you know, he makes a speed thrash and sense of humor in there, which I really cool is really cool. And I dig Alan, I just I just have a question for Todd or something he said. And this album affected me that way. So, Todd, when you hear about a new Megadeth album, are you are you looking forward to hearing, like you said, the typical Megadeth album or you're a little disappointed because it's the same old Megadeth album? I mean, I'm always curious what they're going to what they're going to write. This sound this sounded like less commercial, like a symphony of destruction type of chorus does. This was more like just rooted in that thrash sound, you know. I mean, if they're going to play anything that sounds like what I listened to growing up, that makes me very happy. There you go. Yeah. All right. Totally. Alan, we're going to your. My number two. We're over here. Number two. Number two. It's going so quickly. I was really nervous before this show. I was really nervous. I didn't know how this night would progress. OK, but here we go. All right. Number two. Up, up, up, up, up, up. Here we go, Alan. Boom. Iconic second skin. Not for skin, not for skin. Now, the album cover looks like for skin, but it's called second skin. Here we go, Nathan James from Inglorious, Michael Sweet, Striper and many other groups. Joel Hopestra, right? White Snake. And now Revolution Saints. OK, Marko Mendoza, right? Lou Murder, then Lizzie, you name it. I think he's playing with Journey now, is he? And Tommy Aldridge, of course, the legendary Tommy Aldridge. What more needs to be said? I mean, the guitars are absolutely amazing on this album. Why? Michael Sweet, Joel Hopestra, again, enough said vocals. Nathan James, Michael Sweet, what more do you want? I mean, it's just an album that I cannot stop listening to. I was so happy when it came out and we were able to actually interview both Nathan James and Michael Sweet about it. And it's a strong album. It's one I've been probably listening to quite a bit throughout the year. So Todd, you get a chance to listen to that one? I have. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of. I see a lot of like. Conglomerates that frontiers puts together. Yeah, there's always, you know, I don't want to name names. Super groups, super groups. There's always the one writer who writes everything for everybody. I'm not a fan of that. I don't. I'm not a fan of forced putting things together just for the sake of throwing out a product. Sometimes it really works. This time it actually worked. You know, just because you have great players and great names doesn't mean you're going to have good songwriting or a good chemistry where it translates in the way that initially it thought it might have been or the way that they wanted to. But this actually worked really, really well. I love that Michael was playing guitar the way that he did on it. I think Nathan is an incredible talent. He's a killer singer and, you know, I mean, who doesn't love Tommy Aldridge? And, you know, what a rhythm section. Yeah, the rhythm section is killer. I remember the first single they put out. Again, I'm a little apprehensive because I'm just not a fan of that kind of thing. But I really liked it. And I remember that first single just had a massive, massive hooks and they delivered like a real band. I mean, it's you kind of get teased when when these things just get put together and then tossed out and they're not a real band and they're never going to play anything live off of it. But that's OK because everybody gets a bunch of music that they didn't have before, but it really worked. And I was I was impressed by it. I was definitely impressed by it. And I thought everyone did a killer job. And I mean, nothing bad to say about that at all. Yeah, I agree with you. You know, again, for me, that wasn't my list, but it doesn't mean there aren't great. There's there are in great bands that got together to make great music. Right. Yeah. Todd, quickly tell us about your upcoming tour before we get to number. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brought to you by. Brought to you by Todd LaTorre. This is that down. Hey, you don't even have this. This is the Japanese edition. Really? I thought it looked different. Yeah. Oh, it looks different. Like, what is that? A greatest hit? Look, what's there? Oh, my God. But Jimmy, I'll let you read that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we we have a our first headline tour to support the new record. Yeah. And that starts March 3rd and ends April 16th. It's a U.S. tour. Let's see, we have Marty Friedman as direct support, which I think people will really dig because, you know, it's kind of a more rare sighting to see him over here. And so I'm really looking forward to that. And then we also have the band Trauma, who's first on the bill for those that don't know that was the band that Cliff Burton was in before he joined Metallica. Yeah. So they have a brand new record out called Awakening that I've been listening to. It's really good. My one of my really dear friends, Brian Allen, is the vocalist of that band. He used to sing in vicious rumors. And then he was actually in a band called Dark Sky Choir that did some touring with us in Europe with Firewind. But yeah, that... Gus G, Gus G. He's playing guitar here. Feta Cheese here. Go ahead. He does. Go ahead. So, yeah, so that's gonna be a good six, six and a half week, whatever that is, turns out to be tour. And then, you know, we've got other stuff in the works for later in the year, but that's the first thing that's gonna be coming up. We are putting together a set list for that. Hey, look at that. What are you gonna have? Like you're tossing a couple of new tracks here after the new album, right? We're gonna play a nice handful of songs from this and the last three records. And then I think we're talking about doing some pretty deep cuts that have never been done in the band. And maybe something that hasn't been done for sure and at least maybe since I joined the band. And then, you know, you'll have your few staple songs, but I'm pretty sure that this set list is gonna be really for the diehards that follow everything we do because you're gonna have a huge chunk of my era with the band being played. So if people are following stuff, you know, if you're just gonna get a lot of the old stuff that we kind of usually play, a lot of that stuff's not gonna happen on this tour. So I'm looking forward to it. When this tour was announced, this is the first, I got like a whole bunch of messages. How come he's not playing Canada? Where's the Canadian dates? Where's the Canadian dates? That's the first thing Jimmy and I did. Scroll down, any Canadian dates? Oh, darn. But we get it, Todd. Todd, I know it's out of your hands. We get that. It's out of my hands. Call it banishment. Hey. Have your people call my people. Have your people call my people. QR, mixing it up. Yeah. And I think it's great. I think I'm glad to hear there's gonna be some todlatory era heavy side of the set because I think a lot of people will be looking forward to that. Yeah. And something that Michael, when we were talking about the list, one of the things he said was, I wanna play stuff we've never played before. So we're like, okay, what haven't we played? Actually next year will be the 10 year anniversary of the first record I did with the band. Wow. Time flies. Already. I know. I know. So, okay, what are we gonna play off of that? We're gonna play off Conditioned Human. We're gonna play off the verdict. You know, we played on the tour with Priest. We played in Extremis and Behind the Walls. We actually had a third one that I was saying, oh, we're gonna interchange. For whatever reason, that never happened. We just kept playing those two and kind of hammering those two. So, we'll play the third one that we didn't get to do on that run. That'll definitely be in the set. On the Road to Madness. What's that? Road to Madness. What about it? They played that before. Aren't you? You played that before? I'm not kidding. You see what I do? I do the sucker punch thing. No, he's dry. He's dry. I remember hearing about it earlier. I do the sucker thing. That's, it's on the table. It's on the, hey, look at that. That's a good answer. I heard that on the Empire Tour and then they led right into, that was the last time they played and then they went into Operation Mind Crime and played the whole album. Who's they? Who you talking about? Oh, when was that? Too long ago. When I had hair. When was that? When was that? Who's the other guy? Hold on. That wasn't the full version of the song, I bet. Cause they used to do a medley or like a shortened version of Road to Madness. When we, when we played it in 2013 and 14, whenever that was, you know, we played the entire song from beginning to end, which is like a 10, you know, when you decide to play a song like that, you're like, okay, we're going to lose two, two to three songs, but a song like that is so awesome. You're like, ah, let's, let's do it. You know, but that's My memory serves, serves well. I think, I think they, they played the whole album. But Michael will correct me. I remember, I remember they, like Christy's saying, gonna get close to you. I think they played that live though. I think they played that during Rage for Order. I could be wrong, Alan. Probably. I think they, they probably did. Yeah, when they, I saw them, you and I saw them when they opened for Ozzy on that tour. So I would, Yeah, it's hard, it's hard to remember. It's been a long time. I guess we could look it up or, but you know, let's, let's, I'm interested like Alan. I want to hear more Todd Latore-era music in the set list. It's great to have the deep cuts of the old 10 years. Look at that. Look, there's so many great songs. You could put just a greatest hits of just your music, you know? Yeah, I mean, if I, if I add the four records up, it's like, man, if I, if I could pick like the best ones from those, I think it would just be a phenomenal record. But you know, it is what it is. But yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna push a lot of stuff from the last four records and then some, some super deep, deep stuff. Yeah, like Grow to Madness, like I said before. Okay, let's go. Next one. Number two for Jimmy. This is one that made my list as well. Okay, this is guys, I'm just gonna preface this. You know what? This was, this is like by a hair. It's by a hair. Okay, it's Striper, the final battle. I know Todd, you've also heard, you know, cuts from this album, like Holy Mackerel. Look, me and Alan, and I'm sure you too, Todd, I know your history, you know, fans of Michael, you know, throughout the years, soldiers are under command, but I would dare to say, this is probably one of the best albums in the last 10 years easily. And you know, it's just every, I put it on the other day because like it was released a few months ago. You know, you forget about it, right? You forget about it. Then you come back to and go, man, they've got some, you know, it's all about hooks and guitar solos and just song structures. It has everything, this album, you know, and it's more of a raw production. It's not as produced as the past albums. It would fall, I already told Michael Sweet this, it's somewhere between soldiers under command and yellow and black attack meets, I don't know what the hell with the devil, something like that. Hats off to Michael Sweet and Striper. These guys, what an album cover. Look at that album cover too. Isn't it wonderful? And Oz is playing on it, and Oz is back, and Oz is hopefully healthy. That's what we were told. That's the best news of all, so. It really is, yeah. I'm not gonna go through all the songs, but just well executed by a hair. Two, one, two, and three are by hairs, just light little hairs. My little hairs that I have left, that's what it is. You don't have much left to play with, just a little hairs, that's it. Todd, any thoughts on that album? Yeah, I mean, man, he's hitting some insane notes on the first, I think it's the first track. I don't know how he does it, but it's, I mean, yeah, the guitar work is all there. They got the harmonies and the vocals sound killer. It's definitely, you can hear that rawness when the guitars are crunching. That kind of has that, I don't know, I think they're still playing Mesa Boogie's, but it's got that old school, classic Striper Mesa Boogie guitar crunch, and I love that. It's got the crunch. He's got his, Sweet's got his own tone, man. He's got his own tone on the guitar. You know it's Striper, when you hear that guitar tone. And he's like obsessive compulsive about his tone. He'll tell you how he'll spend hours just, you know, tweaking and he knows what he wants. He's not just like plugging a Marshall and turn it up and that's the sound. Like he's very particular about his guitar sounds, but yeah, it sounds great. Not a huge fan of the drum production sound. That's kind of my, my only little. Cause you're a drummer, that's why you're paying attention to that, right? You're focused more on that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm listening to that stuff kind of, yeah, as a drummer first. I mean, the playing's awesome. And Robert, you know, Robert is, I hate to say somebody's underrated cause then it makes me sound like I think the general public doesn't think they're good. And that's not the case. But, you know, when people name drummers, you know, it's usually like these more popular names, but dude, this guy comes up, he always has that pocket in the group. But when you listen and you watch, he does things in a very unorthodox way sometimes. Like Rock and Field did, you know, he would play drums, like cymbals and cymbals like drums. And he would just do really interesting things, especially live, he'll kind of deviate and do his own thing a little bit live. And you're like, wow, that was so unique. I would have never thought to play it that way. So I'm a huge, huge fan of Robert Sweet's drumming. And I love everything that he does. The band sounds killer, it's all there. And good for them because I know, you know, especially with his eye. Really? Oh yeah, he was telling us the eye problem as Fox was just recovering from cancer treatment. And everybody still be able to put that together with these kinds of issues is like, man, you're digging deep because, you know, with no problems, it's hard to make a record. People- And the songs on this album, each song stands by themselves. They're like, they could be released as singles. Alan, just, I know you're, this was also on your list. Yeah, this was on my list. And I'm glad that made our top 10. Michael called it the most powerful Striper album when we interviewed him. I also agree with Todd. I struggled with Robert Sweet's drum sound throughout the 80s. And I actually, when we interviewed Michael three, four albums ago, I found the sound of the drums were a lot better. And on this album, I think they took a slight step back on the sound of the drums compared to where they were two or three albums ago. But again, for me, the three highlights would be the way, the truth, the life, rise to the call, and near. Whereas with my top three, I would recommend to people checking out. So a great album by Striper. And despite all the difficulties, I'm glad they were able to record it and release it. The song, your thing about Todd is a transgressor. That's the first one with the initial screens there in the video. Oh my God. It's like, Jesus. Yeah, I got to call them up and get some lesson on how to do that. Same old story. Could have been a hit single, heart and soul, near, out, out, up and in, rise to the call, the way, the truth, the whole album. The whole album. How many songs are on the record? I think there's 11. Perfect. It's like the perfect amount of time, well-structured melodies, sort of like you could actually. Michael's always been, he's always been great with melody. You know, I mean, and he knows that melody comes first. I mean, as a guitar player, he's always got that good riff, right? But then you hear a real singer singing great melodies and the harmony guitar solo work, which I'm a huge, I mean, I've always been such a huge fan of their guitar work. It's, you know, a little shreddy when it needs to be, but it's always very melodic. They're singable guitar solos. If I think of all my favorite Striper songs, I can mouth the guitar parts, right? The solos. That's a good point. And then they add the harmonies in. I mean, every band now, well, a lot of metal bands today, younger bands, it's all just overplaying. Everybody's overplaying and you don't hear any real singers anymore, right? That's right. This is so great at this stage in their career, to be putting out this quality of music will give any 20-year-old a run for their money on songwriting and pure metal. 2022. $1,000,000, sorry, Jim. 2022 is momentum. Go ahead, Alan. The $1,000,000 question that Todd is, would pre-Z-Write consider Striper opening for them? Absolutely. There you go, see? Done. Michael says a lot of bands that won't let them open for them. So I'm glad. I don't know why. You know, I think more North American promoters are more uptight about it than South America and Europe. I don't know why. Why? Because I think they're scared. Again, I think they're scared because once you put Striper on the bill, then no fans will come out to see the other bands. Which I find it, they played Mexico just recently, Merciful Fate. Yeah, they played at the Heaven and Hell Festival. That's right, no issues. In fact, people went even nuts. Here's the thing. I think people that are gonna, if we did a tour and say it was our two bands, the people that know these bands to go are gonna go. It's not like, I mean, these are bands, two bands that have been around for 40 years, 30, 40 years. I mean, it's not like it's a new band and you're afraid of what is gonna ostracize a crowd. Put it this way. I mean, they have, predominantly, a huge corner of a market because they're a Christian band. There's a lot of Christians out there that embrace, that are just supportive because they're Christian and it's the message. But, I mean, if you're a real musician, regardless of your stance on their message, you'd be pretty ignorant to think they're not a great band or a really good band, depending on what your standards are, if you just watch them and just see what they're doing. I mean, it's pretty undeniable how great they are. And one of the best concerts I ever saw in my life was on the In God We Trust tour. I mean, it was phenomenal. And they're not like just a studio band. Like, they deliver live. So, it wouldn't bother me at all if we were able, I would love it if the two bands could go out and do a tour. I wouldn't phase me at all. I would think like people would take issue with the fact that they're a Christian band. I mean. But I'm gonna tell you right now, Todd, I'll say this again. Promoters, worry in North America. They're uptight here because they're worried. They're really, and that is the problem. Not me, I'm not a promoter. I love it. Here's the thing though. They have metrics that they try to say, okay, what kind of numbers do they do? What cap rooms do they do? What is this band? What's their fee? How much can I charge for tickets? Blah, blah, blah. It's not like they're a band that plays to 100 people. I mean, they can draw plenty on their own. They don't need Queen's Rite to go out on a tour. What a bill. Right, but you do a nice package together. I would be hard pressed to think that a promoter would think it would be, they were gonna lose their ass because a Christian band is part of the package. I don't know. Hey, look at Kenny. Kenny was able to see Blackie Lawless. And Blackie said during that interview, 10 years promoters said, no, no money to be made. And they were sold out. They sold out the whole tour. So good. Well, so at the end of the day, the smart promoter will know where to put his money versus the guy who's not. Look, anyways, I don't blame any promoters because it's not easy for them either. They lose their shit. Look, it's probably, and there's certain markets, like, you know, you play in the Bible Belt. I don't see that being a problem. But if you're a band, you know, that's, well, my friends in Dark Funeral, they just, they're on tour and they were just protested by the fucking nut jobs at the Westboro Baptist Church. I mean, these are cult craziness, right? And, you know, so if you're on the other extreme of that message, you have issues too, where you have the religious fanatics that come out and say that, you know, you're gonna burn in hell and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's interesting. Me and Alan, we've talked to Michael about this all the time. The Christians hate them. The non-Christians hate them. The black metal people hate them. They seem to be hated, but they still seem to be loved. And yeah. It's a shame. They used to set their albums on fire and then pee on them. Remember that, Alan, or something like, or pee on them first and then try to set them on fire. I wasn't there. Okay, look, I mean, I don't wanna get into it. We know my feelings on the whole issue, but I love Striper. And I'm able to separate, you know, my belief system or lack thereof or my worldview with theirs, I can still sing, you know, Christ is the lover of your soul. And I love it, cause those are great songs and I'm not gonna worry about it. And here's the thing, instead of hating it, just don't listen to it. It's just music. Relax, people. So Striper coming in, the final battle, coming in at number two, and now we need a Todd regulatory drum roll. Oh, wait a second, hold on a second. Oh, you see. Todd, this is the song, The Greatest Night of the Year. Let's get all that, we've got the special jackets on. What's in here? What's in here? I don't know, what's in here? What's in here? I don't know. Alan, Alan's gonna give his number one first and I'll give my number one after, okay? All right. See, there's things in here. There's things in here. You know, Alan. I don't want to know. You know what, I'll get the graphics for you. You ready? You tell me when you're ready. Let me hold my nut, Alan. Hold my nut. Bust your nut. You're busting mine. I've been busting Alan's nuts for 10 years. You ready, James? Boom, there you go. There it is. There, I did it. Put it up. That's it, John. War to end all wars. I call this their operation mine crime. I mean, just the Christmas truce. Soldier of the Heaven. The guitar playing, the production. When we interviewed them, we said, well, maybe we have a little bit more time to spend on the guitar solos because of COVID. So recently saw them live. Nothing's rehearsed, nothing looks rehearsed. It's all, you know, it's just great to see a band go out there and not worry that they have to be in this section of the stage at this time and this time. It's all improv. I saw them in their first early on in their career opening for Accept and now they're playing arenas on their own. So it's a great progression. And I think this album just stands out amongst the many that they've released. And to me, this is a special album this year and it comes in at my number one. Alan and Todd, how do you explain a band that was opening up for Accept not even 10 years ago? They're headlining arenas, Todd. Where? Well, where you guys played with Judas Priest at the same arena. They headlined there. They had Epica with them. So there's another great bill. Still package, a package, but they headlined. How do you explain something like that? Hard work, hard work. It wasn't set up, Jimmy. The smaller, they only use like that. They bring it in. They bring it in a little more. Okay, bring it in. But again, the point is the answer to the question for me is tour, tour, tour, tour, tour, and tour, and tour, and tour, and tour, and tour, and tour. And we interviewed them years ago and they were changing members every year because nobody could keep up with the pace of touring. They had to find people that were willing to do that amount of touring and it's paid off for them. So yeah. I remember we played Hellfest and behind the stage, there were all these trucks from all these gazillion bands there. And they have their own semi things wrapped, like Sabaton. They're, I think they're, I don't remember if they're bus. I think even their bus said like Sabaton, which most bands like in the 80s would be like, you'd see the old videos like Motley Crew. Maybe you wanted people to know who was on the bus. Nobody does that now because you don't want that. They're, I'm pretty sure their bus said Sabaton. They've got semi rigs because they got this drum set that's like a tank and shoots out of it or whatever. They have a big production, lots of staging and stuff like that. They, I remember I played, I don't know if it's their own festival. It's called Rockstad Falun and it's in Sweden. And I remember they were the headliner. That was when I was with Crimson Glory. They were a headliner and I was like, who are they, I'd never heard them. Actually, sorry. I heard of them because that singer was one of these guest singers that did this tribute thing at Prague Power when midnight from Crimson passed away. So I met him there. He was a very nice guy. Anyway, they headlined this thing, you know? And it's very kind of major chords. Very, it's that- Upbeat, major chords, upbeat, yeah. A very chanty, singable, chanty chorus is like a Man of War type of chorus or something. But, and everybody knew all the words. And I was, I'm not into that style. You're a little bit embarrassed. No, I'm not into that style. I know, I know. But I was blown away. Like everybody here loves this band. And that was over 10 years ago, 12, 11, 12, 13 years, whenever it was, 2010, something like that. And they just got bigger. Like Alan said, they tour, they tour, they tour, they tour, they tour. And they're, they, I'm sure that they reinvest back into themselves and it's all about what you see. They put a lot of money into the image, into their production, into, you know, it's their career, their livelihood, this is what they do. So, you know, I have a lot of respect for them and for that. I don't know any of them personally. I met the singer once before and he was very nice, but yeah. You know, Parr, who runs the business and Joaquin, who also, you know, does the sort of, you know, putting it all together in terms of, you know, content and they have their own, they have their own channel, their history channel. They're their own managers at that time. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop. Yeah. They have their own what channel? History channel. What do you mean? Every song is like a history lesson. Then if you find the song history is interesting, you want to know more about the actual events in the song, well, they got a channel that'll tell you and go in much more detail of the events in history. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And I just want to add to what Todd said earlier. I saw something at that show, which I've never seen at any other concerts out of the hundreds I've seen in my lifetime. They had a song about the Bismarck and I was standing on the floor, right in front of the mixing desk. So everybody was in front of me. There's nobody behind me except the mixing guys and the sound guys. And all of a sudden at Bismarck, everybody in front of me sits down and starts rowing like this. Oh my God. I've never seen that before. And besides they had these Viking things where they would charge each other. I guess it's a Swedish thing, I don't know, but I've never seen these coordinated charging. Wow. It was a Viking festival. It's a good thing they didn't cover YMCA. Well, I think the point is they've created their own genre. They control their publishing. They control the management. They have their own channel. They're completely involved from A to Z. No one controls the business, but them. They run the backbone of the organization. They have their own office. It's completely run by two or three people. That's their success. Hard work, good music for the people who love that music and friggin' complete control. Every mistake all the other bands made in their lives, they're not making any of those mistakes. Not to say they haven't made, but they're hardcore businessmen. That's paramount because you can be a great band and not own anything that you write. Give your publishing away. People are telling you what to do. If they're running their own ship, pardon the pun, then that's great. And that sounds to me like they're doing everything perfectly well. All right, yeah. All right, Jim. You ready? We're all ready for you. Here comes the nut. This is it. There's actually something in the nut this time because I didn't have a copy of that album for Alan so I could have- You did this side by side. We got into this- So there was a protocol. Actually Todd did the show with us last year too. But it was a protocol. That thing hinges all the way up. It's kind of like a toilet. Like a toilet. Like a Pac-Bat in a way, right? Well. So every year we have the protocol. I go, Alan, I will now give the nut to you. Alan takes the nut, he opens it and he reaches in his hand and he- Cause like you have to have protocols, right? But since we can't do it cause it's Zoom, I'll just open it up. You ready? Do it. Mine, that was Alan's. This is my number one album of the year. I'm reaching in now. Drum roll. Can you hear the echo? Can you hear the echo? Yes. Sounds deep. Cause it is. I gotta reach my hand all the way in there. Gotta put my face in there cause I gotta see where it is. I misplaced it. There it is Todd. There it is. There it is. I didn't tell you. I didn't tell you, did I? No. No, I didn't tell you. And I didn't watch all the countdown so I didn't even know. No, you didn't know. He knew the album was in, within the vicinity of the time, but I did not. Yes. So there it is. DNA. It made our top 10 list, both our lists. That's why we invite you on the show originally. Oh, okay. But you don't want to tell you. No. Right, right. Right, right. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna- Look at this. I like for me. Look at this, look at this, look at this. It's beautiful, isn't it? I really love the cover. Look at that, it's beautiful. Yeah. Oh, Chinese writing though. No Chinese writing. I don't know if I showed you this. It's the American version. It's the Canadian version. I still gotta hang this on the wall, but- And from the comments, Todd, there's a lot of people that had this album there, Todd. Wow, look at that. Let me see that. Okay, let's see it. Wow, look at that. That's cool. Yep. I framed the limited blue and white double for that. Wow. I gotta hang it somewhere. I gotta move stuff around. There's a hard rock cafe that's missing that right now. Now, I've already told you this, Todd, probably on the phone, and Alan, me and Alan already discussed this, so I told Alan this. This is the best Todd Lettori-era album, okay? Not only is it the best Todd Lettori-era album, but there are songs on this album that are in the top 10 legacy of Queensrack. That's, and I've told you this before, you probably don't remember it because you probably don't listen to a thing I say. What? Like Alan. What? That's right. My point is, in Extremis, behind the walls, Forest, Hold On, Tormentum, these are songs that belong in the legacy of Queensrack, not only in the Todd Lettori Queensrack. Hey, Jimmy, you didn't mention Sick Death or Lost in Sorrow, which are my two favorites, so just remember how strong that album is. Yes, I agree, I agree. I just want to say those songs that I chose, I think for me, they're in the top 10 all-time Queensrack songs. Wow. That's very kind of you to say, thank you. So we were lucky enough to have you on during the recording of the album with Michael and Eddie and Hulk Hogan's house, I think it was. And so maybe tell us a little bit about the whole recording process, if it was easy, hard. Just your overall view of making this great album. Well, it was a lot easier for me because I didn't have the drum on it. The songwriting process took place where I'm sitting. Everybody convened here. Zeus, our producer and dear friend, he came here. And we all got in this room that I'm sitting in and Michael sat right where I am and he would play a riff and Zeus would record the idea. I had my electric kit set up right now, my acoustic kit set up, but my E-kit was here. And Casey would throw a groove down and I would get on the mic and make up some BS stuff, melodies just to get some ideas going. And we did that for a couple of weeks, a few times, three or four times. And Michael brought all, if you were, I think you remember, he brought a lot of his guitar amps here. So I had a stack of all these Marshalls over here. I had, he brought over the amp from the warning, Rage for Order, Mind Crime, Empire and Promise Land. So all those amps were there. And then at my friend, the Galinsky's, who owned the house that used to belong to Hulk Hogan, all the drums were recorded there in this insane room with these crazy ceilings. And it was really great. So all the drums were done there. The rest of the record was recorded at my place from guitar's bass. And then I think they had re-amped the bass. I don't remember where that was done. I think, yeah, I don't remember. My brain's a little foggy right now, but part of Eddie's tone is re-apping and getting, you know, 124 dBs where the speakers are like kind of distorting almost. You know, he has a very specific tone, but he tracked with the same specter that recorded Operation Mind Crime and Empire. And so, yeah, that was kind of the recording process of how that went down. And then all the vocals were done. And then we went out on tour with Priest the first time. And then Zeus did the mixing and the mastering. And actually, while we were on that tour, he was like, hey, check out behind the walls. You're gonna hear some synthesized keyboard stuff that I put in there that never existed. And then they were like, okay. And then I listened to it and I called it. I was like, dude, I love what you did. That sounds killer. It's got this certain vibe to it. And so he kind of wrote all these keyboard things. And he's like, I wish we had more time because, you know, I keep thinking of these colorful things that I wanted to add in there and whatnot, but, you know, that whole keyboard synth thing and behind the walls, for example. Oh yeah, it's great. That's all Zeus, his own idea, he played it, was his own creative thing on there. And he did that on several songs. But yeah, that's, you know, it was different in this sense because we weren't emailing back and forth songs. We were all worked together in a room, like a real band and trimmed off all the fat and the stuff that we agreed we didn't like as things were being built. And I gotta say something in regards to Forrest, okay? Yep. Now the song, it's about one of the bad members loss, right? And I think what you did was you took those feelings and you sung it sort of so general that everybody, it could touch everybody and it could relate to everyone. Does that make sense what I'm saying? Yeah. I think you, the way you delivered that song, it's like, you know, I had a friend who said it's better than Silent Lucidity. So I think that song, if it was the 80s, probably would have been like another, you know, number one with a bullet, you know what I mean? I wrote that, you know, I wrote those lyrics and those melodies. Well, Casey came up with the melody for the pre-chorus. I can feel you all around that whole thing. No, but you delivered it. Well, let me get to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when we first did it and I wrote the lyrics, you know, fuck, what's the first line? Leaves, yeah, leaves go away, there they go, there they go. That kind of a thing. I'm a big fan of like Terrence Trent Darby. I don't know if you know who he is. Of course. Okay. Yeah, and it's Little Sister. Right. And you know, sign your name across my heart. Well, he would say, you know, fortune that the you. This very breathy falsetto-y kind of a sound. And I wanted it to be very airy. I wanted the idea, the idea I had in my head was this very empty, sad, melancholic vibe. And Zeus gave me this other mic. He's like, let's go, let's use this one. It's this whatever it is, Neumann something that's been modified. I mean, you can hear every, I mean, if the neighbor across street starts his lawnmower, you can hear it. I mean, this thing picks up every little piece of saliva in your mouth and breathing and everything. Chips and sour cream and onion. Including that. So when you do a, you know, leaves blow away, you hear that, you hear the breathiness and that delivery. And it's very intimate and personal. And I didn't want to do it in a fuller voice. And I wanted that gentle softness. And when I did that, I was like, hey, do you like this delivery? He's like, yes, dude, totally do that. You know, I did the same thing on the song, Just Us. You have, what can I say to you? There's nothing I wouldn't do. Then it goes, we've traveled so far. Now it's, then I get into my real voice. In that song, I do the same thing at the tail end of each verse. You hear a little more of my voice open up then it dials back into this breathy thing. We stacked all these, you know, ah, help me find a way, ah, I mean, I tracked probably 10 or 15 of those. You know, there was a wall to get. Plus the little keyboard, little sound, the little. No, I did the piano or, you know. The little piano. It goes up. Dun-dun-dun-dun. I can feel you all around. Dun-dun-dun-dun. You know, I played the piano, this midi keyboard with this, like whatever piano thing I had. And I played these very simple little notes. It didn't need, I didn't need to be a pianist per se. I just needed to play. A pianist. Yeah. As you hold your nut. I just, I just wanted it to be very subtle. I just wanted to say to use the proper terminology. Pianist. Pianist. Maybe I don't want to say it that way. Did the, I hear some death growl vocals one track at least. Yes. In the background. Do you do any of that? Is it a tormentum? No, just a little bit of back vocals. Yeah, they sound like one part of one song that's a little bit more of your death growl-y voice. How size die? Well, not that bad. At the end of tormentum, how does it go? The very end? No, it's not tormentum. No, it's sick, sick death. Oh, so that is going those eyes. That's right. I'm just whispering. Oh, okay, geez. I'm not going like those eyes. I'm going those eyes. Oh, okay. Such pain. And so it was a whisper that we doubled really up on the microphone. That was Zeus's idea. It was really hidden, but it did come through, so. Yeah, I mean, yeah. It was just supposed to be kind of eerie, you know? And so it's this whisper thing. But here's a little piece to trivia. What's the song? In, into the black lights out again. Can anyone reach you? You're on your back again, back again. So I had all the guys went back, back. And we did these stacked things, right? Like a thump, yeah. So when we were recording, Vader, my dog, this was at the big mansion house, Vader barked in one of the recordings that we were trying to do something. I said, shh. And he was rolling the tape and I go, dude, take his bark and pitch it down. So when you hear, you're on y'all, there's Vader's barking. Did he get a credit? Nah, he's in my thank you, though. We pitched Vader's bark from, to this darker, deeper bark and we blended him in with our gang vocals. So Vader is part of the ego back on that song. Then saying, Jimmy's looking for some way to bring King Diamond into this conversation. Well, look at the necklace. There you go, that's it. That's King Diamond-ish. That's King Diamond jewelry right there on Todd's necklace. That's our top 10 for 2022, guys. Todd, thanks for joining us. Always, always a pleasure. Same to you guys. How's things up there? Great. It's cold. It's gonna snow tomorrow. Big snowstorm coming in. Big snowstorm coming in. Really? Yeah. You guys wearing shorts over there, huh? Hey, I wanna wish you, if we don't get to speak to you, all the best during the holiday season. You too, guys. Good luck on the tour. Nothing but success on this upcoming tour. You guys deserve it. From Canada to Queensrack, tossing a couple of dates at the end of the tour there, you know? What's the closest city, the U.S. city to you? Montreal. Oh, city, yeah. No, Albany. Well, yeah, Albany or... What do we have in New York? Plattsburgh. Yeah. You don't wanna go to Plattsburgh. You could play the mall. It's gonna say if you guys could come out to a show in New York, that would be sweet. Yeah, yeah. We'll look at it. We gotta go meet Kenny sometimes. He's down. Oh, yeah, we gotta bring Kenny. Gotta bring Kenny over to Canada. Yeah. Todd, anyways, we're gonna bump into each other sooner or later. Thank you for the pick, for your pick, and adding our record. We really appreciate that. The guys will be completely surprised and happy to hear that. And thanks for talking about it and sharing it with your friends and everything. And we're proud of the record, but we're already working on things for the next one. Because I still think, I keep saying, the record with me has yet to be written. So, there we go. I really like this record. I'm proud of everything everybody did, but I still think we can blow this out of the water. That's the way every artist should be. Always pushing those out. But that's how I feel. I feel like we totally have it within us. I mean, we can do this. Absolutely. It's just a matter of like, you know, doing every song like, that's the hard thing. You might write some great songs on this record, some great songs on the record. It's, at that time, really creating something where every one of them is like, like an operation mine crime. Even, like I said, it's not my favorite record, but it's from an album standpoint, it's flawless. You know? My theme this year, I'm gonna leave everybody off with this. My theme this year was momentum. Why, you know, you guys have been consistently cranking out the albums, going on tours, writing music, going back on tours, making incredible videos. And then to have an album of this caliber, well, you know, it deserves to be number one. I'll leave you guys with two comments. One, Todd, read the comments from this show. A lot of people picked it number one, not just us. And two, everybody's looking forward to hearing Rebel Yell Live. Oh, Rebel, we forgot that. That's right, are you? Yes, that's it. Look at his face. Look at his face, Alan. Look at his face. Look at his face. Hey. It's like you uncovered the truth there, Alan. Look at his face. Look at his face. Listen, that song was not- With a Rebel Yell. That song was not in the 7th. But that would be a lot of fun because everybody knows it. You could crowd surf. You could- Exactly. And roll. No rowing. We don't roll, you know. But that would be fun. By the way, we still have a couple of videos that are already done that are still to be released. Wow. So there's more to come with videos from this album that are going to be coming out. All right. I think- Sign off with the nut. So I got to put away the nut for next year. On the metal voice. Todd, read the comments. Number one. All right. Thanks.