 big day. Okay, here we are live on the metal voice. Look at this Alan, this is what we've all been waiting for. Scorpions. Let me just take a look. See here my notes. I have to admit we did a show recently and one of the things we want to know what albums are the most anticipated and this was right at the list. Yes. Rock believer. But it's Scorpions. Yeah. This is believe it or not their 19th studio album Rock Believer. And it's going to be released February 25 on Vertigo in Berlin. I'm not sure if it's Vertigo Berlin or throughout the world, but there's different, you know, labels fine farm I have spine farm. It's coming out of spine spine farm. Yeah, it could be depending on where and of course on this album you had the James Kotak who was the drummer was been removed ever since. And now it's Mickey D. Mickey D. Thanks for Motorhead King Diamond. Don Dawkins. You name it. Incredible drummer. All right. So what'd you think? What would you how do you want to do this? You tell me you know what you put it on the first time? What'd you think? Okay. This is a sad day for me. Okay. So let's let's let's start. Let's get it out of the open. Okay. Okay. Love drive. sexy. Animal magnetism. Blackout. Love first thing. Even savage amusement, right? And vinyl. And then see these look I got even got you know, winds are changed face to the heat. They're all here. They're all here. Humanity hour one. Very integrated. Sting in the tail. Right. So huge, huge scorpion fan. But we'll get that out of the way right now. Okay. Enjoy the scorpions. Love the scorpions. But I realized today, you know, listen to the album that the scorpions I knew no longer exist. This is this is kind of the this is the way it's going to go from now on. This is this is the new scorpions. This is this is this is all we can expect. Now the positives. Okay, let's start with the positive. Well, you started off with the negatives. They no longer exist. They no album today. All right. Okay. But you know, the positives cause mighty his voice, right? Hey, let's look at what we say. Same as always. Sounds as good now as we did back in the 70s. I mean, just just a great voice. Doesn't change. You know what to expect. Like Brian Johnson ACDC, you know what to expect, right? Then you've got Mattias jabs, yobbs, yobbs, yobbs. Mattias yobbs. What a tone. This guy's got a guitar tone his solos. And nobody talks about when we interviewed him. That's what came up. Nobody ever talks about this guy. But what a tone. Just a lovely, lovely sound that he has on all his solos. Mickey D, right? Like you said, you know, obviously, we're not going to hear motorhead drumming on a scorpion's album. But there are a few songs that he's able to do a few little flurries, I can say. So that's the positives. Then, you know, but the songs that started with me with Peace Baker, when I heard that come out of me, I'm an average man, like, you know, after all these years, you want a big splash. For me, just didn't do it the first single, then the second single. Okay, rock believer. Okay, good lyrics. I like the lyrics. But again, it's just that middle of the road, kind of soft rock beat. Mickey, Mickey does this thing at the end, the little flurries and drums trying to liven things up a bit. But you got the second single out, you're like, okay, I was expecting more. Again, again, one of the most anticipated albums of the year, from a group that I think I've proven that I've supported over a decade now, and that I enjoy listening to. And, you know, you said it's, you know, back to, what was it? Back to Neverland? Back back to forever? Return to forever? Return to forever? Yeah, you were disappointed with that one. But I tried even hour one, I love that. I think in the tail, there's some some really good songs on there. So I'm able to find positives and everything. You can't find positives in this album. Rock believer for me. It's a little more difficult to find. Enthusiastic enthusiastic about many different songs. It's just not there for me. You know, Alan, I'm gonna also, I'm gonna ask everybody out there, if they have any questions, they'd like us to answer about the new album, you know? Okay, go ahead. No, that's that you're the mic is yours. One, one in my opinion, overall opinion. My overall opinion is like the reverse of yours. Okay, here's a band that I've followed just like you could pull out all the albums that I don't have them in front of me. And I have to say, I was kind of kind of bored on this one. I was kind of bored on that one. Not to say it wasn't so bad. But even though I liked it at the time, I was like, I'm never putting it on the old CD player, right? I'm just not listening to it. This album, what they brought back is sort of like sprinkles of their history. Like, oh, that sounds like dynamite. Oh, that sounds like the little reggae riff on is there anyone there? Is there anybody here? Is there anybody here? So, oh, Martin, pop off. Pop off. I want to jump on by all means. I agree with you. Who's that? Martin? Martin's watching. Martin, if you want to jump on, I'll send you the link you could jump on if you like. I mean, do we have time for Martin? We have time for Martin. We always have time for Martin. You're a big fan of Martin. You saw that. I love Martin. But, but anyways, that's what we want to get into the song. Again, what I did this time, I should have done, I usually do the John Zazzoula rule that we learned from Lips the other night that, you know, listen to it three times, right? Mm hmm. And I, you know, Mark Storaci, Storaci, this solo album, Live and Let Live, I did. And I'm glad I did. Waited three times. This one, I'm not. This I'm giving you my first impression after my first couple of listens here. And we're gonna go over the songs if you want. Look, this is my first impression. It's the actually the complete opposite of yours. I think Klaus, like you said, we agree on, he sounds phenomenal. I mean, Klaus, you know, at 70 something years old, his voice, it's, it's, it sounds great. You hear his voice, you know, right away, Scorpius, right? Absolutely. The guys that one of the most distinctive voices are on Matias. It's finally Matias. Okay, let's bring on pop off here. Hang on. My fight as well. Bring pop off on might as well, cheese. Oh, God, we got to bring him on. He's gonna, here we go. Here he is. There's the man. Let's bring it to a third person here. Martin, there's the man. Hey, folks, can you hear me okay? Talk about last minute. Should have asked you before. All right. Martin. All right. So, Alan kind of just, you probably heard a little bit of that, right? Alan's going through it. He's a little disappointed. He's historically we're all huge Scorpions fans. I'm kind of the other side of things. Guys, I'm getting a big echo. I'm getting a big echo going all over the place. You want to just maybe put some headphones on? We can hear you perfectly. All right. Turn, turn off the volume on your computer. We can hear you perfectly. Oh, maybe I gotta close the YouTube link. Yeah, that's right. You gotta close that. Rookie mistake there, pop off. Hang on. That's right. You gotta close that. Rookie mistake there, pop off. There's the delay. It's like, it's like, it's like the radio. Yeah, exactly. That is what it was. Yeah. Yeah. And YouTube going in the back. You think you would have learned by now, Martin? Yeah. You think I would have learned? Are you're an experienced podcast or my friend? I've never signed on to a show where the show is going before. So, anyway, it's just the way we roll. Martin, Martin got so upset from my initial review. He said, I gotta get on. All right. So, let me just finish up here. Matias Yabs, if that's how you pronounce his name, he brought his tone back. That, that, that, those, those little guitar fills and the soloing, it's all back from the black out era and and love it first thing. He's brought that back. He's brought back the little bit of that reggae, you know, they're bringing little sprinkles. I hear a little dynamite. I hear a little bit of reggae. I hear a little bit of everything from every era, but I also hear a little new scorpions, a new sound, a new direction, a little out of the box. Martin, go ahead. What are your initial impressions? I know. Yeah, I just wanted to find my notes on all this because, okay, so basically, um, I interviewed Matias and Rudolph for this and I had to write up a story for Goldmine for. So, I heard it a couple of months ago and I've been playing it kind of ever since and um, what, what I, what I said at the time on Facebook is, is I said, it's their best album since blackout, right? And then everybody freaked out. There was a lot of comments and then I, I said, guys, it's not hard to be the best album since blackout, okay? I didn't say it was better than Taken by Force or Virgin Kill. I didn't say it was better than blackout. I didn't say it was better than Animal Mag. I didn't say it was better than Love Drive. It's definitely better than Love at First Stink, I think, but in my opinion, right? So, my, my point is that, um, so with the, with the limited edition tracks, it comes up to 15 songs, right? Um, now they did, they did a, what's that? Four Too Many. Okay, okay, so, so 15 songs, limited edition. Okay, let's talk, let's talk about the album then we'll talk about the, the deluxe version with the extra tracks. Okay, so, so basically what happened is somebody who, who worked at the label, you know, is like, this is not rocket science. This is not hard to do, but someone at the record label that they, I guess, listened to and was a Scorpions fan said, hey, it would be great if you would do an album like blackout. So this is the story, right? And they said, okay, well that's easier said than done, but what a great idea. Uh, so they went away and they made their heaviest album since then and they made an album that has a lot of blackout elements to it. Now, now, I don't think it has Love Drive elements to it. I think it's, I think it's a cross between Love at First Sting, blackout, and, and, and animal magnetism. It's got that, Alan, you're right. It's got that simplicity to it and it's got those certain kind of like pretty mid-pacey beats. It's not crazy one way or another. It is pretty, you're right. I mean, Mickey is kind of reined in and he's pretty behaved. He doesn't do much too crazy on it, right? Um, but I, but I do love that it is, it is quite heavy. They did it without a producer. So they, so they canned the, they're friends, they say. Martin, Martin, was it, was it, was it a, was it a Shanker, 90, like it was written by them too? Is that what it was? Like going back to old school? Yes. So what they did is, um, is, I guess Rudolph has a place and a studio in Thailand and when he was in Thailand he worked on a bunch of riffs and got all excited about it and then when they went back, so there were a bunch of COVID restrictions, right? And so they did this just down the road from where they lived in Hanover at a, at a studio there. They called it, it's peppermint, peppermint something. Peppermint Park. Peppermint Farm. Yeah. I don't know, I just, so, so they did this without a producer. So they had an engineer, right? And um, so it was, as Mattias said, Rudolph wrote pretty much everything. So it's not Mickey writing, it's not Mattias writing, it's not, it's not Klaus writing, it's not Pat, Pavel I think has one song on it or something like that. So it is basically Rudolph writing the songs, although a neat thing Mattias said was that he feels, you know, he gets his creativity in when he, he says, when I'm doing my soloing, I usually tend to write a whole new riff to solo over, right? So, so he writes those parts. But yeah, just basically, when I first heard it, I was hoping my impression wouldn't change over, over time and I don't think it has. I do feel it's got so much stuff on it. And when you get to the Extra Limited Edition tracks, it's got some kind of experimental songs like Unleashed the Beast, When Tomorrow Comes is kind of a weird one. So they were smart when they worked out the sort of sequencing to put the ones that were a little, little orders into there. But of those odd songs, that's, that's five songs, four of those are heavy. And, and of the 11 songs on the original, 11 of those are rock and scorpion songs, right? Now, I understand the lyrics can be a little, you know, they're goofy scorpions lyrics. They're, they're kind of Herman Rarebelli lyrics, right? And as they said, we're writing about our life, we're writing about scorpions, we're writing about our life on the road and what we've learned and all that kind of stuff. So it's, it's sort of autobiographical what they're doing. But I, I think, I think all of, all of the songs have a lot going for them, even the ballad. I don't know, man. I gotta tell you something, Martin. I'm going to stop you right there. I think I agree with you on most your points, but I think the ballad is probably the weakest link on the album. Yeah, well, yeah. We're headbangers, right? We don't want that. No, no, no, but I like wind of change. I like wind of change. I like when the smoke's going down. It's standing. Well, well, I mean, I'm a, I'm a headbanger, but I got a soft heart. Yeah. I got, I got a soft. Well, I don't like scorpions ballads. I love tons of mellow music, but scorpions ballads, none of them I like. Look, holiday, going back to holiday. Holiday always somewhere when the smoke is going down, wind of change. Those are great ballads, but I found this ballad on this album was probably the weakest of the ballads. But who cares? There's 15 tracks on it, right? That's the great thing, right? It's there's 15 tracks and they're all rocking except for one ballad done twice, right? Well, apparently to Alan, according to Alan, they're not all rocking and they're all been done and they're all kind of boring. I understand what Alan's getting at. He's making a very, very cool point. It's a very key point that they are in this conservative zone, right? I think that's what you mean, right? I can't get enough. That's a rocking song. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. There's no love drive on here. It even comes close to that as far as I could. No, but I think these songs are rocking the same way most of, most of the heavy stuff on, like I say, animal magnetism blackout and love it for staying a rock. Well, I would put it at savage amusement, crazy world, blackout, animal magnetism and a little bit of return to forever. Yeah. That would be my mix more, you know, because there is a lot of savage amusement there and return to forever. There is that because Klaus is not seeing super high or screaming, right? That's the other point. Yeah, I made that point early on when I heard it that I thought they wrote a little bit too comfortably in Klaus's range, right? Which is far from me a little bit. That's, they, Herman left the band because they were in that box that they didn't want to get out of. He wanted to be the rocker and go, we put up with a lot of albums over the time, like, you know, a current stink and savage amusement and it's okay because that's the scorpions, but there's always some kind of, I don't know, it just seems, this album seems to be just really too focused on that type of middle of the road, I guess I could call. I kind of agree, yeah. But again, you know, you clearly find a lot of things for me more because, you know, I've listened to Seven Sun, that's got that China white feel, like you would not believe to it. So now I understand what, you know, and when I lay my bones to rest, I mean, that's blondies one way or another, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, fast punky one I've got in my notes. They got the reggae one. Well, hold on a second guys, let's just go through each track like fast, okay? Okay. Gas in the tank, that's the opener. There's the sirens, you know, savage amusement era, crazy world opening song with some nice Matthias little bit of soloing there. It's cool. Alan, did you like that one? Wham bam, thank you, man. I think they lost me when I heard those lyrics on that song. I kind of agree, yeah. And I, my notes say mid-paced groover. So there's your Alan argument right there, right? It is one of those that it's really good, but it's not great, right? Right, that's the way I was finding it. Track two, roots in my boots. This is the exact riff of Dynamite. Or even maybe blackout. Blackout, sorry, blackout. I might not say it's like blackout, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's that, that, that, that, that is the sound, but the solo, Matthias, Yabs, all over the place, great tone, you know. Yeah, yeah, I like it. All right, good. Three, not be dead. The title, the title says it all. So when it comes to the lyrics, that's the best part of it is just going to get roots in my boots. I totally agree, yeah. That's an epitome of that song. Yeah. But I like the first two. And then the third one, knock them dead. Alan? But Alan makes a great point. It really will come down to, for a lot of fans, how much are the lyrics bothering you, right? Well, I mean, I'm Dynamite. You're Dynamite. She's Dynamite. I mean, if the lyrics haven't bothered you with all their albums, then this is not going to bother you. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you're expecting at this point. I bought this album, okay, Scorpions, which they were blowing off Rainbow on that tour. And I bought this up the same day I bought Coney Hatch's first album, okay? And I'm like, these are the Scorpions that have been around since the 70s. They're, they're, you know, they're headlining barns or co-headlining barns at Coney Hatch. This is their day two album, right? And I get to, like you said, just I'm Dynamite. You're Dynamite. She's Dynamite. But that is my favorite Scorpions album. And I'll tell you why. It's not because they repeat the same Coney lyrics. It's because of the attitude, the energy, and it's just so in your face. You know, it's crunchy. It's Klaus is like screaming. You know, he's got problems with his throat. So he's just yelling it all out. You know, that's why I like it. Can't live without you. Can't live, can't live without you. Again, the music's fantastic. But like, go back to your point when it comes to the lyrics. It's a little repetitive. But like you say, if it's by you then, just plug your own body or now. What's the word? Knock him dead. That's got a really good 80s feel. Yeah. A fantastic solo on it. I love that solo on it, but it's got, for me, that's more of an 80s feel to that. Yeah. Did you like that one, Martin? Yeah. My notes say more like a party rock and sleazy hair metal Motley Crew song. Cool exclamation mark. Well said. 100 in agreement, 100 percent. I did like rock believer, which is the next track. I love the lead breaks. Big hit. And I think it's going to be a song that it could be in their sadness for years to come. It has a cool pop kind of feel to it a little bit. It's got a really sophisticated chorus. I think that's that's one of the great things about this album, I think as well. It's got really cool sophisticated chord changes. Yeah. Yeah, it does. I love the lyrics, but that's where I really, you know, if this is the biggest hit off of this or the second one, it just falls short for me. That's all right. Shining of your soul. Shining. I love this. I was kind of surprised, you know, the is there anyone? It's is there anyone there, right? Or here, which is that off love drive? Is there anyone there? Yeah, Dan. We're off the left. That's the reason I have the same reggae feel and we haven't heard since then. Yeah. My notes say the best reggae tinge thing they ever did. Kind of a Russian melody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Seventh son. Of course, we talked about that. That's the China white track off the album. And most people have heard that. Great song. I think it's fine. Yeah. Probably better than China Wait, if you ask me. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't disagree with you, Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Hot and cold. Hot and cold. Alan. That's that's for me the weakest track on the album. Wow. For me, I think it's the heaviest song on the album. And it's I put killer galloping song. So this this is actually a different beat for them. And it's really heavy. But you're you know, everybody has their opinion on whether they like it or not. Right. Yeah. And again, I want to make clear I wanted to love this album. Okay. Like I said, I've supported them for decades now. Yeah. And just maybe after more listens, I don't know. And to your point there, Martin, you know, there's I think some minor key stuff going on there, which is not really typical of the scorpions on that track. You know, they're just they're just there's a lot of chord progressions happening there. All right. When I lay my bones to rest that's that's an odd one. That's an odd one for them. That's a punky, bluesy, upbeat song. I mean, it's not the greatest song, but wow, they're a little out of the box there. I totally agree. My notes say fast, trashy, punky, old rock and roll party song. Alan says one way or another. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. So I like the lyrics, a lot of fun lyrics on that. And they agree with that punky feel. Peacemaker. OK, everybody knows that song. I love it. I totally love the song. It's heavy even though it repeats. You know, I'm singing it. It's contagious. You know, I just keep singing throughout the day. Great song. Great song. No problem there. My notes say up tempo, melodic, simple, chugging, awesome chorus. Alan, what is yours? What are your notes? I heard it when your first came out. I'm like, oh, man. All right. Here's my big song. Call of the Wild. I think this is suddenly the Scorpions are no longer the Scorpions. They've become sort of this like this groovy Led Zeppelin. I don't know. The the vocal lines are great. The phrasing is great. And suddenly they're out of the box, but they're in a good area out of the box. They've got this great, great melody to me. That's probably the best song on the album. I know I'm way up there too. My notes say a weird, melodic, slow thing, different exclamation Mark Bluesy. Yeah. Out of the box doing some different things. Just like Blackout had some experimental things on it. So does this. And you know, the seventh son thing and the roots in my boots seem like they just like, okay, they told us to right now I'm like, Blackout, let's do those two, like those two songs. Like, like there's a direct correlation. But I think you get with something like Call of the Wild. You get some of that, that extra creativity. Okay. And Alan, I know you, I know you told me before the show started about this song. For me, it's the second weakest track on the album. But, but I agree with you guys. They are doing different things. There's, you know, so we have to respect that, I guess. Yeah. And then here comes the ballad. When you know where you come from, I thought this was probably the weakest track on the single disc. I don't know. It's just doesn't do anything for me. It's okay. It's nice to hear, but it ain't no end of change. It ain't no Valentine's Day song. That's what I'm trying to say. Thank God it ain't no end of change. You know, the scorpions, it's always funny because you, you meet a lot of women and they're like, you know, maybe I'm jaded because I couldn't get in to get a ticket to see love at first thing because there are all these women who were there because they're still loving you. But, you know, they're, I love the scorpions. Okay. You love winds of change. Yeah, yeah. And still loving you. Yeah, yeah. And all these ballads, right? You named them what? And then, then you go to the concert and you're either playing, you know, I can't get enough for the zoo. And they're like, what's that? You know, not so strong in that. So for me, I love all their ballads. I don't care what Martin says. I've always loved the scorpion ballads. May I remind you there's whistling in the cage. By far, by far, the weakest ballads I think they've ever made. But Queens Rates also got whistling too, Martin. That's right. Whistling, whistling is not allowed in that, in rock. All right. So that concludes, that concludes, that concludes the single disc. No whistling in rock. This concludes the single disc. So now to Martin's point at the beginning, they have one, two, three, four, five songs that are on the deluxe version. So that's 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. You know, what are those songs? We all listen to the deluxe version. So that's it. That's right. So the last song we could like knock off because it's just an acoustic version of the terrible slow song that's on the album. So that's a nice touch. It's okay. It's all right. Where are we at now? Shoot from the heart. That would be undisturbed. For your heart. Shoot for your heart. Yeah, I'm tired. I'm tired. My notes say up tempo, punky, great groove, simple, big chords. I can't remember what it goes like, but I was fine with it. There you go. We'll leave it at that. My notes say nice solo, savage amusement, fast paced rocker. Yeah. Okay. All right. And here it comes. Now number 13, which is this one, this is the oddball. This is why it wasn't on the album in my opinion. Because now we're slapping the bass. I think Klaus Maini is, he's doing a little rapping. A bullhorn sort of speaking, rapping in some sense. But the chorus is great. Martin. Yeah. My notes say one and three beat to start. So it's one of these and very German melodies, weird Klaus vocal over bass, post-punk experimental in caps. I'm great. I'm fine with them doing something cool like this, something experimental and different. I'm still totally on board. Okay. Alan, Alan. No. I don't have any problem than doing something different. Okay. Good, good to hear. And then Unleashed the Beast. I thought this was a Saxon song, but it wasn't. A little out of the box and a great nice melodic chorus. That's kind of like, it's a heavy song, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. My notes say weird electronic opening sound than rock and cool and groovy, dark, experimental again in caps, amazing, strange, Prague-y chorus. That's a nice way to say it. That's what I love. See, Martin's an author. Because he's a writer. He's a writer. Look at the way, Martin's an author. Look at the way he described that. I described this song with two words only. Complete filler. But see, I'm not an author like Martin. Martin was able to really give us an insight into the song. Well, you have to remember that I'm making kind of a few more words into these notes because I'm on a Zoom call with them and I got to kind of remember if they say, well, what did you think of that one? I have to say something, right? All right. Crossing borders. Now, this one to me was like a boring mediocre blues track and I would use the word as Alan would use, filler. But it's on a bonus diss. So I guess, you know, it is what it is. So my notes say, sleazy bluesy great white motley sound Southern Rock. Oh, I like that. I like that. It's a good thing we had. I don't say possibly my favorite song on the album, great groove. But not on the album. I love this song. I think it's not on the album. You know, that does kind of bother me. I mean, I think I hope I hope that everybody who ever talks about this album or thinks about this album thinks about it as a 16 track album because it's a juggernaut with 16 tracks. I'm glad they're all here like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So and I think that the last track is just the acoustic version of the slow song, right? I liked it better. I preferred that to the one on the album. The story on that one, I don't know if I said this, but they said they did the acoustic one first. And then the label said, you know what? You never know. You might have a hit. You better do an electric version to like a full band version just in case it's a big hit song. And it's a, you know, standard cliche hit Scorpion's Ballad. That's exactly it. The record company says I'm not hearing anything on this album. I need I hope this takes off because we're counting on the ballad. So put it on twice. So, Martin, is there anything? Completely jaded today. I don't know. It's because the Valentine's Day I'm sitting home alone. I don't know what it is. But I You celebrated yesterday. Did you know? So much. Yeah. I got the promo and I'm great. All right. Let's stop that right on. Let's start listening to it right away. What do you think of the album cover? I love that cover. Yeah. It has a very blackout sort of George Lucas. THX there was a call this first film there. Very sort of, you know, dystopian, you know, in a sense. We're talking about the same one, the red one, right? Yeah. Because let me explain. Always known for their album covers, right? Let me explain something. So they said that the first album cover that they had was the single they used for piece. I think it's no rock believer. The one that Klaus Vorman designed for them who designed Beatles Revolver. It's an amazing, amazing, cool drawing of the band. Very stylized. It's really neat. But for some reason they said that they didn't like it enough for an album cover. So they used that for the single and they went back to the label and said, can you come up with something different? And they liked this. And as Rudolph says, they really liked it because they've never used red on an album cover before. And it, you know, implies danger and passion and all that kind of stuff, energy. And they thought that was kind of cool. And they thought this girl, he goes, this girl, you know, she look at her, yeah, with her tongue out a little and it's got the tattoo. And she's a real rock believer. We thought rock believer. Oh, this is great. So we put a blanket over her and we hold her down. She is a rock believer. Exactly. We tattoo her tongue and hold her down with the blanket. She is a rock believer if she likes it or not. I'm glad to see they're back to a risky album covers like they had in the 70s and the early 80s. I just love the red like that, the red and the yellow. It's like, wow, this looks so 70s. Like that looks so cool anyway. I mean, there's no naked people or dogs or anything like that. So they got rid of all that kind of stuff. It's a little suggestive, you know. It is. But it's a little edgy. They've always been a little edgy. That's what I'm surprised. It's been a while since we've seen a few album covers edgy like this from them, I would say. Yeah, yeah. So overall, what would you give it Martin out of 10? Wow. I think I would probably go 8.5. Oh yeah. I would, I would agree with that. I would probably maybe give it an 8.3, 8.5 around there. And Alan. Solid 6. You know, that's good. It's good to have a little bit, you know, differences so people know exactly what to expect. What would you guys give it? What two marks would you guys give it? What would you give the 11 track version? And what would you give the 16 track version? I think it would be the same for me. I don't think it changes. I think the bonus stuff is just a little extra and it's not going to change my rating. If those last few tracks were horrendous, then it might have changed it. But there, I like them. I do like them. I think it's worth the extra few bucks, I guess. Just have a little more scorpions because you're probably not going to get another Scorpions album for a long time. So I'll go down to an 8 because I think I really like the added experimental-ness that you get on those extra tracks. I think that, you know, to Alan's main complaint about the album, I think, I think the fact that they are experimenting a little more makes the album a little better. I think the album is a little more, a little more conservative at the 11 tracks. Okay, so now I'm going to talk about the new loudness, Martin, and I want you to stick around. I don't know if you've heard the new loudness. Oh, I got to go, actually. Sorry, I got to. No, I have to go. Oh, Jesus. I've got to do stuff. Yeah. Oh, my God. Jesus. Well, thanks. And I haven't heard the new loudness anyway. So, uh- No, no. I was just going to tell you about my story. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for popping on. This was a lot of fun. Thank you very much. Feel free to jump on any time. Okay. Let's do segment on the middle voice. Pop it on with pop-up. All right. Talk to you guys later. Talk to you guys later, man. Thanks for joining. Alan, you just don't know who's going to pop on. So, you're going to do the loudness. Yeah, I'm going to do the loudness. You just don't know who's going to jump on this show. You just don't know. It could be anybody. You ready? Now. Now, this is what happened. Here we go. Alan, do not like the same thing of scorpions. Do not like the different things scorpions do doing the ballad. And he loves Iron Maiden doing the same year after year. Alan, do not like the same thing. I like, no, I've had problems with some of the Iron Maiden albums recently. I, but the last one is Stratigo. I really, again, again, the first listen Stratigo. I'm like, yeah, exactly what he said. They're the same. They're the same. They're the same. And then you just start listening to it more and more. And you're like, oh, actually, this one's not, this one's a little different. But yeah, I know a lot of Maidens. Yeah, they're not the Maidens of the 80s. And they seem to be a little similar. I agree. But again, the Scorpions, I wanted to love this album. I couldn't wait the moment I got the promo. I had to listen to it. I've listened to it. I'm going with a couple of listens. This is, I haven't really, Jimmy's probably listened to it, you know, 30 times already. Yes. That's just it. I mean, I'm maybe like it. Look, this is your first impression, we'll say. First impression, first reaction. It's the middle of the road. It's, you know, we all know Scorpions aren't the rockers that they once wore. These guys were crazy on stage. That's a super rock in Japan. They're in 84 with Anvil and Bon Jovi and Scorpions. Then Michael Shanker, then White Snake, right? Scorpions stole the show. Nobody, nobody could go on after these guys. And I'm just saying, and I've seen them recently, but it's okay. They're not those guys anymore. But you know, I thought they stopped recording. Now they're going to record. They were supposed to be all finished. So you're looking forward to this album. And for me, they just didn't do it. That's all. No, it's fair enough. Fair enough. You know, it's good to have a contrast of opinions, right? People could then decide after listening to us if Alan's right or wrong. Let's make a difference. Okay. Here we go. Loudness. People are saying loudness. What the heck? They came out with an album? Not, not only did they come out. And by the way, this is like old school leads up and there's no, nothing says loudness on it. Like you have absolutely no idea. If you turn it on back, it's called Sunburst. Or on the side, you have no idea. They released this album. And it's not one album. It's, it's a double album. It's a concept album that people have no idea that was released or they knew it was released, but they have no idea how to get it. So I, you know, here I am calling up Japan, right? And I got a copy and I went through the whole thing of trying to get it and I'm a huge loudness fan like you are. I know you are too, Alan. I finally got it and it came in this big package like this. And I go, what the hell's going on? A little CD coming in a big package like this. It's because it also came with a poster, Alan. Jesus, it also came with a poster. What the heck's going on here, Alan? Beautiful poster, right? It'll probably take me a year to iron this out because it's so tightly wound. So I got this whole poster with my loudness CD. Then DHL calls me up and they go, you got to pay duties. And the duties, I repaid all this money for the CD. You know, I got to pay duties here. I am, you know, what am I going to do? Like send it back, right? So anyways, I got it, finally got it. I'll let you hear it, let you hear it as well. And I got to say, the first thing is to your point, I need a Japanese dictionary. Who was your first impression? And there's nothing wrong with the Japanese language. No. There's nothing wrong with the Japanese language. I'm, you know, like the first few, you know, the first four were, the first four loudness albums are all in Japanese. It's all good. It's all in Japanese. It's all good. Soldier, birthday Eve. I even got Tusk and Gaguar. I love loudness. Loudness, I don't care if they're singing English or Japanese or whatever. But it threw me off. I'm just, that's all I'm going to say. It threw me off. There are a few tracks that they do sing in English. But I got to say, it's really good if you love concept albums. They're. What's the concept? We don't know. No, you don't know. I have no idea what the concept's about. I don't know what they're saying. How do you know it's a concept album? Well, because I read the notes. It's a concept album. But what I do like about this album, they're out of the box, kind of like we were talking about the scorpions and how they kind of broke out of the box. Well, they're not playing that thrash and speed that they've been doing for so many years. They're actually playing the songs, playing the solos. And for Akira Takasaki, he's actually, he wrote most of this album. And you can consider this, maybe this is even a solo album, but wow, it's great. K-man saying Ernesto Ramos, you are the new here. Jimmy and Al and our old school heavy metal fans. Ernesto, who is it? They wanted to know about the drums. Yeah, the drums are incredible. We spoke about the drums earlier on the scorpions. Mickey D has a few flourishes, especially at the end of Mark the Lieber. But again, these are the scorpions, right? So you're not going to get the drumming, maybe from Motorhead or some of the other bands you put in, like King Diamond, right? Yeah. And look at this. And look at this. Beautiful, beautiful. Just a beautiful album. And I have to say, I do like it, even though it's in Japanese, they did a great job. If you like concept, if you're expecting MZ-A, forget about it. It ain't going to happen. There are a couple of few hit songs on this, a lot of moody sections, a lot of conceptual pieces, a lot of different flavors with keyboards on it. But overall, very, very enjoyable. Very enjoyable. I did like it. Oh, hold on. Yeah. All right, cheater. Comments. Yes. There you go. Yes. Great album. Yes. Road racer. And what a song. I love that. Love Live Loud, a live loudness of Tokyo, a vinyl double album. Road racer. How does the new loudness compare to the old loudness? Different eras. You had the sort of the era that Alan's talking about, you know, that the early days, when they were much more traditional metal, I would say, and then they became sort of a little on the more popular metal side. Then they went into this other era of Pantera. And then they went into this sort of thrash speed. This kind of comes back to the early days in terms of musical style. But it is in Japanese, which is basically probably not the same thing as that. But point being, I do enjoy this, but I would wait for a US release before you fork over so much money to get it in Japan. You know, wait for an American release from this. They might even include some English tracks, more English tracks. So there you go. Alan, do you have any notes, any comments about that album? No? You like my poster? Should I show everybody my poster again? I got this. Is it upside down? What is it? Yeah, it's upside down. How do you like my poster? Nice. Okay, I got it. I should see it. Let's end it off with your comments on, of course, we love Triumph Rock and Roll Machine. You watched it last night. Yeah, yeah. I was looking forward to the documentary. We were nice and lucky enough to interview all three members. And Rick was saying, you know, a lot of stuff brought up some deep, deep emotions that he thought were varied. But talking about them in the documentary, you can see how emotional it was, talking about that whole breakup period. Even in our interview, he was a little, for Clint, if we can use that expression. And yeah, it was a good watch. I liked a few things. And, you know, how we always heard growing up in the 80s, how Triumph were immediate headliners. They never opened for anybody because they're a light show and stuff. And it explains a little reasons why they had the audacity to become headliners very, very, very early in their career. Yeah, yeah. Not released in the U.S. yet. Only released in Canada. So all U.S. folks are no spoil alerts. Just a great documentary, well made. Banger, banger film. Banger films covers their whole sort of era or their whole whole sort of, I guess their legacy and where they stopped and how they stopped and why they stopped. And like Rick Emmett told us, Alan, in his book, he's going to explain a lot more of what really sort of, more of the details of that breakup. Yeah, because I mean, you know, looking back, when I took away from the documentary yesterday, you know, Rick had to move on for he had good reasons for himself. But obviously, when you sing half the song and you're a principal songwriter, you know, you kind of saying, I'm moving on for these reasons, but I also know that it's going to be a nail in a coffin for you two guys, right? They tried coming back. You know, with the excess of edge of excess. Edge of excess, yeah. With, you know, Phil X, great guitars, but, you know, Rick, we're singing half the songs, right? Yeah, Phil X is terrible at interviews though, I hear. Yeah, well, we tried. I wouldn't know because he ditched us. All right, on that note, Alan, I'm going to go have supper. All right, man. Happy Valentine's Day to the whole world. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy. All right.