 I just screwed something up. All right. Here we are live on the metal voice today. Wow. The reason for Sunday and we're going to review a big album. But before we get into the album review, I want to give a shout out to Chris Holmes. I know he's he's going through some radiation therapy. He's doing some chemo, you know, you know, and when you're doing chemo, you're not feeling good, you know, hang in there. We're all going to give you our best. I know Alan sends his best. So Chris Holmes, who's a, you know, a frequent guest on this show is wife Kathy, who is like an amazing person. They're coming to Canada in September. So that's going to be amazing on the Canadian tour. So the show is dedicated to Chris. And we're saying all of us, be well, be strong. And you can do this. Yeah, well, Chris, I like Chris. I think Chris is a really, really good guy. And I really, he doesn't get the appreciation or recognition for his talents. I think that he deserves it. I think he deserves a lot more. Not that he doesn't get recognition, but he deserves more. He's great. Chris Holmes is awesome. I had a chance. I had a chance to meet and interact with Chris. The first time he came with Wasp and Montreal. And he left me a really, really good impression. I thought he was first of all the nicest guy in Wasp. And I thought, you know, okay, he's the guy who enjoys a bit too much to good things in life, but he can do it. He can do it. He was happy. And you can't say that for the rest of them necessarily. Exactly. Black, he was the guy who always looked like he was in a crappy mood. He was the guy who always looked like, you know, Blackie, let me bridge the gap with the fans here. Yeah. Anyways, well wishes to Chris Holmes, a funny guy, a smart guy, and a strong guy. And of course, to his wife, Kathy, you know what, all the best to you. They're like family to us at the metal voice. So we'll be there when he returns to do. Absolutely. We're all going to be there. All of us Canadians will be at the shows today. Ghost Impera, Impera, which was released what on Friday, Friday, November 11th, Loma Vista Records, taking the world by storm in a sense, right? They're just so everybody knows a little bit of background. I collect all the ghost albums here. And Orlando buys me all of them. Every year he goes out and he buys me some ghosts. So we've got a few about a few of our family don't like ghost. I mean, Orlando hates ghosts, right? That's right. We have a number of no and and Khalil, I always apologize. I hope I say his name right. I'm just such a I'm such a cracker that unless someone's called Jim or Bob, I just have trouble with their names. You know, well, Giles this morning, one of our followers who was labeled as a top fan on Facebook, I noticed he said goodbye to the metal voice and a comment to Jimmy. He said goodbye, metal and quotation marks voice are basically insinuating that we're going to talk about ghost on the show. He's leaving the page. So okay, well, I'm a name, but I noticed that this morning. Is this Khalil? No, not at all. Not in our good friends and fans have been with us a long time. He's a really good guy. I like him a lot, but it's a strange one because I know he has a bit of a struggle with AIR in general. And the ghost have got tons of AIR. So I think it might just be some inherent kind of thing that he just doesn't like. But then he picks like the then he picks like the worst song on the record, relatively speaking, and singles that out as like I don't like the song 20s, you know, all right, all to say, all to say, the ghost is very polarizing and that it'll certainly be a topic because it just seems that in the last everything successful is polarizing. All right, all right, Stefan, quickly, what do you want to say? No, I want to say to this viewer, I don't know what his name is, but don't leave until you've heard what I had to say. Okay, all right. Look, you gotta people have to understand that metal is not just, you know, double bass drums and screaming and, you know, chug chugs, you know, that's not metal. Metal is there's a whole poison white snake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So okay, so let's get begin. What we could do is we could go quickly around the table. 10 seconds. What did you think on the first listen? Yeah, what did you think on the first listen? Then we could kind of go track by track very quickly. And what does everybody think of all the tracks? All right, so let's start off Stefan, boom, boom. What did you think? First impression, I guess your only impression. Okay. This is definitely not the type of metal I listen to. It's it's Stefan, I just want to say something. Can you bring your camera a little your head's kind of getting cut off right here? Yeah. Sorry, I have a big head. Okay, go ahead. It's it I, look, I don't I don't like this type of music. I'm sorry. I don't know. But I can certainly appreciate that there was a couple of good songs on it. A couple of songs that I maybe I'll be able to add this to my rotation of new songs that I playlist, you know. Look, it's not my thing. I don't think it's a metal band. I think it's a little it's a metal brand. It's a metal market. It's bubblegum metal is the word bubblegum it is Charles. Yeah, I mean, this is all this is all in first impression, the context of 2022, isn't it? After after we've had like, you know, 25, almost 30 years of 35 years of things like Pantera, death, you know, death metal, all forms of extreme metal that have found their way into the mainstream. Whereas if we were having this conversation in 1986, there would be no question that this was heavy metal. So it's all about context and heavy metal in general, for it to survive needs commercial jumping on points. Now, whether it was the music, you know, the mega bands of the 70s that kind of started it, or whether it was a new wave of British heavy metal that became a commercial entity through things like early iron maiden and death leopard and stuff like that. In the early 80s in England, or whether it is the Desmond child era of Bon Jovi slippery when we're Europe, the final countdown poison, open up and say, ah, death leopard hysteria and that kind of stuff that arguably at the time people were saying wasn't metal, but most metal fans use that I knew growing up, those were there that at that age group of that age group. Those were their jumping on point records to then get into heavier stuff and deeper stuff and more and more metal stuff. So for the genre to survive, you need to have something occasionally that comes along and grabs a more widespread mainstream audience to draw them in. So then they can go and discover the, the Ravens and the merciful fates and the, you know, the whomever else, you know what I mean. And this is exactly one of those things because they're always polarizing. They're always kiss was polarizing at the start. People used to say, well, they can't play. It's all show. Everything has been polarizing. That's had any, any, any number of success. I just think there seems to be a generation of people that seemed to be a little bit unaccustomed to the fact that other people have different opinions than them. All right. But we could also argue, and I'm not going to debate this right now that, you know, with Bon Jovi and with poison, that was like the end of metal, right, in a sense, right? It just kind of then it went to another direction. They kind of ruined it for everybody. Well, you know what I always say, when the cats and boots wound it, like, you know, glam metal died in 92. Guess what? Thrash died along with it. You know, it wasn't just, it wasn't just, right after, right after. All right, Perrin. Yeah. Well, look, I think you guys know, and our viewers know, I was a pretty big ghost fan coming into this. And we had heard a third of the album before it was released, right? There's nine songs on the album plus some other snippets. And we had heard three of them. So I was excited for the album to drop because I really liked three songs that we had heard. Is that a Canadian thing? North American thing. It drops. It dropped from the sky. From the heavens. It sounds like some goofy hips to speak to me. I'm a hipster. You know me. It's the marketing guys at the corporations who talk like that. So after hearing, after hearing three great tracks, I was really anticipating the release and I was not disappointed. I think the rest of the album lived up to the hype, really, really, really strong. Something I wrote the other day and a few people took exception to it was if Slippery When Wet and the Black Album had a baby while wearing kiss makeup, the night after they went to an Alice Cooper-Bloyster cult double bill, you'd have this album. And I stick to that because in this, I hear all of the things I love, right? I grew up in the 80s. I grew up when Bon Jovi could open for Judas Priest, but the next tour, Megadeth and Testament could open for Judas Priest. I grew up in a time where you can listen to Metallica, but I went to see Loverboy's Love and Every Minute of it tour. We're docking opened a lot of the dates. I come from that era where we had this cross pollination. And yeah, there were people who were like, how could you go see Loverboy, man? You're wearing a Metallica shirt. Well, I like Loverboy. I like Journey. I like Slippery When Wet when you're going to do your show tomorrow, I think. Jimmy with Rick Hughes about some of the defining things of the 80s. Well, I think Metallica and Master Puppets defines the 80s. You'd be lying to yourself if you said Pyramania and Slippery When Wet. Hey, what's going on there? Wait, wait, wait, where'd she go? My wife couldn't care less. Sorry about that. My wife is like, she like, does everything to ignore this. We're being avoided right now, or Stefan's being loved. So that's it. I stick to that. If Slippery When Wet and the Black Album Had a Baby, Wearing Kiss Makeup, after going to an Alice Cooper Bluestar cults double bill, that's what this album is. And I love it. All right. All right, cool enough. I like that little cameo there, Stefan. I love that little cameo by your wife. She's a great lady, by the way. She made you go to the hospital. She put the pants on. 15 more minutes and I'm out of here. All right. There we go. So let's just break this down. Okay. So a lot of people say this metal, this is not metal, but let's go through the tracks really fast, fast. We're not going to, and we'll just go, you know, a little feedback around. And I want everybody out there who's watching, what did you think of this particular song? Just you can rate it out of 10 if you think that's easier. All right, we're not going to start off with the first song because it's an intro. Caesarean. Am I pronouncing that right? Caesarean. Caesarean. Caesarean. What do you think, Stefan? It's the, the first song obviously, there was a very good hook on it. So for me, oh okay, we're off to a good start. And let me open a parenthesis. I do not know the band Ghost. I don't. I don't know their history. I don't know their past. So what I did is that I listened to this album through and through, and then I documented myself. Yeah, I liked it. Straight ahead rocker. And the first thing that struck me is like, Jesus Christ, he sounds like Buck Dharma from Blue Easter Cult, you know, that voice that I thought, okay, that's interesting. I can see where Perrin's very accurate description of a mix of Xar. But he's not proud of his description as well, actually. Yeah, I just, I wrote it down. I took time to think about it. He's got it on his wall. You cute little things that so-called journalists come up with. I don't know if they give Pulitzer's for this stuff, but I'd like one. My issue with Quesarion, Good Track, Straight Ahead, I felt I was listening to a song that was written, recorded, and produced in 1982. Hey, that's pretty good. Charles? Well, that's what I want. The intro sounds like Mr. Big Grington in 60s Mind, but it's a great song. And this is again, I mean, I'm not going to have a whole lot to add because I think that all of the songs kind of fall into what I'm going to say. This is that School of Desmond Child Hard Rock Heavy Metal songwriting, where melody is not a shouldn't be a bad word. This is the melody and the hooks that have been missing from heavy metal for decades now. And this is probably the most significant thing that ever happened in heavy metal since the first line made an album, or since Slippery and Wet, or dare I say it. Or dare I say it since Tony Aomey picked up a guitar. I love it because he's deflecting all the hate email and hate comments to him and away from me or anyone else. It's a good album, but come on. Since the days of Saxon and Priest and Maiden, this is probably the most significant thing. Okay, anyways, pair him quickly. So I actually loved Imperium, the intro. I think the intro, kind of the marching and the music. I'm going to pause right there. I can't stand intros. Every album has an intro that I skip every single time. I think it sets the tone. They're actually opening the show with that. Do you actually want to listen to it? It sets the tone nicely. It sets the mood for the album nicely. And then it goes right into the song. It's not one of my favorite songs on the album. Having said that, I think every song on the album is at least very good. So I think it's very good. It's probably the heaviest, most straightforward song on the album. I felt like the drums were a little overproduced, but it's very European-sounding. Not that that's a bad thing. So good, but good pace for the opener. I think it's the right choice of the album opener. Well, I'm trying, man. Oh, we're going to keep going after you're done, man. We're doing a ghost marathon today. Boom, boom, boom. No, but I think given that Giles cannot stay for the whole show and at the same time, he really likes the album, I think Giles should have the floor until he has to move on. Because I really value Giles' opinion on this because he has, well, like all of us. So what you're saying is you don't value mine in parents' opinion, but you value Giles. No, sorry, I don't manage Alcatraz, but I mean, you know, or girl school. I know, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Here's my quick opinion, but we're going to flip this around. He's going to stretch it out a little bit. I like the chug chugs. I love the opener. It's a fast, upbeat track. And you know, if you listen, and I was telling the guys this, if you just listen to the guitar, like for all you metalheads out there could play guitar, listen to the guitar work. It's a metal guitar work. Listen to the key change in the middle. That's true. The harmony stuff. It's really well put together. It's really well put together. Some great guitar work. So metalheads who say this is not metal. I recommend you isolate the guitar, go to the guitar tab and say, oh my God, they're doing that simple, but well done, executed. All right, we're not going to do the singles that everybody knows. Let's go to Spellways. I love Spellways. This is probably my favorite song on the record. This one and actually Griftwood. I mean, these awesome songs, awesome songs. I love Spellways. This is our hook. You know, like I said, we have three decades of Cookie Monster bullshit. Now finally a band comes out with some, you know, a metal band with melody and then you've got an element of the fan base that's just freaking out. Well, let them freak out because you know, I want to touch upon what you just said. So Cookie Monster has been ruling for the 90s in the 2000s, right? Yeah. And suddenly here comes a guy who can actually sing and he doesn't have the highest range. Well, he can write, you know, he can write. But he can write melodies and he's a great, he's got a tone. Like you listen to him, you know it's him. He has a unique voice. I wouldn't say he has a great voice. He has a unique tone. I'd say he's got a great voice. But I think his strength is in his writing. And I mean, good example for me is Griftwood. I can hear Alice Cooper singing that. That sounds like that'd be perfect for, you know, late 80s, early 90s Alice. I'd love to hear Alice do it now, actually. Well, you see, you guys, you guys define a great voice with someone who's got this range and the good scream. And to me, I define personality and this guy's got personality. I define great voice as someone who could work a melody and sing it where people connect with people. And that's what he's doing. But I respect this guy. I think this guy's strength is in his writing. That too. That too, of course. You know, and maybe, you know, it's 70% writing, 30% singing, nothing wrong with his voice, but the strength comes from the writing. Agreed. Agreed. All right. So spillways, nice little keyboard intro kind of reminds me of foreigner in a bit in a sense, you know, cold as ice. Nothing wrong with foreigner. That's a that's a one of my favorite metal bands. If terrestrial FM radio existed in the same way it did back in the 80s and 90s, this song would be all over FM radio. It would be, and you know, they're very smart to with the album being released on Friday. This is the latest single spillways that's being released at the same time as the album, which I think is a brilliant idea, because I really think this song is going to blow up. I mean, I agree with Giles that spillways and griftwood are the two best songs on the record, probably the two most melodic and accessible songs on the record. I mean, really, I mean, I was full on teenage girl with a hairbrush in the bedroom kind of singing along. Like that's how I thought square hammer is probably the best rock song of the 2000s when they put that out a couple of albums ago on their EP. And I think this is just as good. So I think spillways has hit written all over it. Do you have anything that I don't disagree. I don't disagree. We have to be careful when you say this could have been a hit single in arena rock in the 80s. I don't necessarily agree because I appreciate why ghost wanted to go commercial arena rock things. But let's face it, they're 35 years too late. So it's very hard to compare, you know, what catches the public's imagination now versus what would have caught the public's imagination. If I can interrupt, are they 35 years too late? They're selling out arenas and their and their and their Spotify numbers and their YouTube numbers are freaking enormous. So are they really late or are they just in time? I'm not denying they're relaunching something. I'm just saying they did not invent anything new. Now it's well crafted. You cannot deny that. My favorite song is also Riftwood. I thought, you know, I was about to say Watcher in the Sky is a pretty good song, but I thought the lyrics were so stupid. That's great to sing along this song. But look, there are strong moments. But every time I hear a song, still was being one of them. I said, okay, but let me hear the next one. And I spent a lot of time in this on this record saying, okay, but I want to hear the next song. And I don't really get to it before the end of the record. If this was a vinyl record, you know, I would say first side, man, second side. Oh, I kind of like it. And it could have been a vinyl record, of course, because it's 40 minutes long. Yeah, and I think that's a bonus. And I agree with you on this. It is on vinyl, isn't it? No, I know. What he's trying to say is, back in the day with vinyl, right, there were eight songs because it couldn't fit anymore. Nine songs. No, I mean, I mean, it's amazing how when I do, working out release schedules for all the record companies for all the bands I manage, vinyl time has now become a thing again. Well, we need a vinyl. So you're going to have to lose a couple of tracks. It's become a thing again, because vinyl is the physical product that's moving the needle right now more so than CD. So not that there's a lot of it being sold, but it's still bigger than CD. So the vinyl time limit is now becoming a concern again, because then you get into a double one. And I think it should be because the greatest albums were only eight or nine songs. If you look at the classics. Well, I can give you a few examples of a few 70 minute albums I love as well. I think it all depends on the community. Yeah, but there are more in the minority. But in general, let's face it, the time restriction, the traditional time restriction of 40 minutes has always meant that bands had to record a tight album with their absolute best material. And I remember in the late 80s, when CDs became a thing, all of a sudden artists say, you mean I can play up to 80 minutes. And artists started putting everything they had in a recording session onto a CD. And sometimes you say, did I really need all these songs? So that's where the word filler was invented, right? I mean, we really we didn't really hear a lot about filler until we started having these long bloated albums. And then you would say, well, this is a fair argument for an hour, you know, between 55 minutes and an hour can be can be totally fine. All right, so I just want to go on. No, but I agree with Stefan on this. Like to me, the less is more because, you know, people just don't have time for an hour today. Well, then there's Iron Maid's last album, which was brilliant. And it was two discs. Well, that is the exception to the rule. I agree. I agree. But then you have like all the other albums that come out that just like you're just what we had back then is we also what I do miss is the old B side, you know what I mean? You had a single that had two songs that weren't on the album, you know, so you were getting I'd always I've always vote for more music rather than less. I just like to think it's all good. Yeah, yeah, not me. Like less. Oh, anyways, Call Me Little Sunshine. I want to add that as I was listening to the riff on this one, I couldn't help but to think of come as you are by Nirvana. You know, if you listen and I was watching a guy actually play it. And man, it's just that same sort of it's not the same vibe will call it. So everybody I recommend listen to Call Me Little Sunshine. I love it because it's not a minor key song, but it sounds like it's creepy and minor. I think it's probably the best song in the album for me. Yeah, I love that it follows spillways. And let me say this. I have so many problems with how albums are sequenced these days. And I think this album is sequenced perfectly with like a rocker to open it. And then like the poppy song next, and then something a little darker of Call Me Little Sunshine into Hunter's Moon. You know, I really think they put a lot of thought into the running order of the of the songs. And I think they did a really great job. And I don't know if enough people put thought into that to the list. I mean, I gotta I gotta go in two minutes. So I'll just give a couple of my thoughts. Sequencing is a lost art. It's something I take very seriously with my artists. I think this album is this is not their slippery and wet or their black album. I think there's still a couple of records away from that. But this is close. 20s is a bit of a dip for me. I love Griftwood. I love the record. I mean, I'm excited. I think it's easily as good as the last one. And it just seems like they're getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and good for them. And if you don't like it, don't listen to it. It's that easy. Well, you know, I think we should talk about this 20s. You know, Twinkies 20s. I thought it was one of the cooler tracks on the album. It's because it's got that vaudeville metal. Yeah, I mean, that's the sort of thing I don't like the vaudeville kind of goofy ass lyric. Kind of it's a bit weird. I don't hate the box. It's kind of out of the box. But it should have been pushed out of the box, I think maybe. Hunter's Moon. Again, I was hoping we'd get an extended edit of this on the on the record, because that chorus is so good. It should have gone around a couple of times at the end there. I think they just don't make enough of a meal at chorus. It was better tracks. That's mine. That's me. That's where I think I think I said to you guys that I would have loved to hear like a Bob Rock big, like I would love, you know, like they got their Fleming Rasmussen production, which is good. But I'd love to hear these guys with a Bob Rock style. You're going to get the Metallica analogy out of this. Well, you said Martin Burch. That's fine too. But a really strong producer who's going to say, no, you're going to do that chorus again. Hold on a second. I'm getting all kind of these contradictions here. This is like the greatest album ever by Jaws and Pear. And then suddenly you need a producer to fix the greatest album ever. Because it's a nine and 10. But how, but what would make it a 10? What would make it a 10 is the little things like, you know, doubling up of the chorus of Hunter's Moon or maybe the drums. It wouldn't ruin the song. It's just when usually when you've got such a hook and a great refrain like that, before you end the song, you have it go twice, go around twice. But maybe that's why you like the album so much because it has these little changes from what you would expect. No. Okay. He likes it because the songs are good. Hold on. I'll catch you guys later. Wait a second. Hold on. Always a pleasure to see you, Jaws. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. All right. That's too bad. I love when Jaws around. He makes it sound so funny. And but anyway, now I'm going to have to sound more intelligent to make up for his absence. Or you will sound more intelligent because he's absent. Or you guys could just gang up on me and why this album isn't so good in your minds. Here, I'm here. You know, here you and Jaws are talking about how great it is, but it's so great that you want to fix it. Like the production. It's not fixing. It's, look, in my mind, it's a nine. What would make it a 10 is a couple little things. I really do. You're not just nitpicking at this point. That's what I'm getting at. Yeah. No, I think I'm nitpicking. I mean, look, I think the production, like I said, the production is like a Fleming Rasmussen Metallica production, which was good. But a Bob Rock production is better, frankly, because it is. I think personally, Bob Rock would have ruined it. I think it's a very Swedish. It's a group of Swedes. And I think they've created this go sound that people like. And I think they got to run with that. I don't know. I just, my opinion, they sound big. I'd love to hear them sound big. All right. All right. Fair enough. All right. Stefan, what do you want to say to, let's say, look, we've been going through song by song. And you remember what I said at the beginning? I listened to the record without knowing the band. Okay. I heard the previous singles, you know, but this is not a band I'm familiar with. I had to go Wikipedia after listening to the album, which I thought was, okay, interesting, you know, not my cup of tea, but I can recognize a good song when there's a good song and Driftwood being one of them. I'm adding it to my playlist. But then I read about the band. And that's when I discovered that they represent everything I don't like about certain metal bands. This, in my opinion, ghost is not a heavy metal band. It's a heavy metal show. It's like the Alice Cooper show. It's one guy, well, at least a later Alice Cooper, but one guy with musicians, faceless musicians, who's writing something he knows will hopefully sell. And like baby metal. Yeah. If you look at the evolution of this band, they started out as a dangerous controversial band. Personally, you know, I'm a lapsed Catholic to the point of where I consider myself atheist now. But this whole writing about the Catholic Church, the Antichrist and all of that, it's like, guys, guys, you're not children. This is silly. This is dumb. Okay. So it's the beginning of their career. That's what they're appealing to. And, you know, the evil song and 666. My evil 666 thing was number of the beast 40 years ago. When I listened to ghost, I said, Oh, that thing again, you know, like this is passé. And when bands tried to build it, but it's okay, you can be passé and there's nothing more passé than I am. But at the same time, you're always looking for something a bit smarter than what's been done before. And when you write songs and you put together an image for your band and with the sole goal of shocking it, I find it cheap. I, you know, it's a one trick pony. Okay. So ghost decided to go commercial. So what you're saying is, and what I kind of alluded to before, when we spoke before the show, it's baby metal. Yeah, but they were never it's a contrived marketing thing. And you know, and you know, I watched videos by baby metal say, Hey, it's pretty cool. Karate Karate, right? You know, but there's no substance, right? The comparison is ridiculous. It's baby metal. It's baby metal for big people. Well, I mean, I think what you're saying is that it's kind of manufactured and created in a boardroom saying, let's do baby, let's take a bunch of girls playing over a bunch of thrash metal, death metal guys, that's what we'll, that's what we'll build. And you're saying this was built in a boardroom. But look, I think first Tobias is, it's not a band, Stefan, they're not a band. They used to be a band. They used to be a band, right? And he fired everybody. So he got rid of them. Well, I mean, they were a band. And I think the Alice Cooper comparison is a good one. But there was really one creative force in the band above everybody else. And he had a vision. And the vision was vaudeville. The vision was tongue in cheek. It's, it is a show, right? It's a little dark and it's a little comedic. And it's, and there's, look, what makes it interesting for me is there's like a lot of things thrown in there. And it's, you know, for me, entertainment is about your senses, right? And, and this flips a lot of switches in your, in your brain when you're taking it in, whether it's visually or just from an audio standpoint. And then it changes a little bit from record to record. But they've never been king diamond dayside kind of, you know, we are Satanists. They've never been that. It's always been done with a kind of a wink, right? It's okay. Let me just show you something. Okay. So these are the CDs that Orlando bought me, because he's a big fan, right? These are all the CDs by Ghost. All right. I bought them all. I bought them because in the moment, like this album, I'm excited about it. I really enjoy the songs. I want to have a copy of the album. And they never put them on. It's like, I'll never go back to them. After the hype is done, I'll never go back to them. To me, they're kind of fall into the category of YouTube. I really like you two as a band, but I'll never go and put on an album. I just love to see them live. I love to see them maybe on a video. I love to hear them on the radio, but I'll never really go into their albums and put them on like a put on Black Sabbath or deal. So what 90s and 2000s band? There's no substance. That's what it comes down to. What 90s or 2000s band do you find yourself going back to often? Clovenhoof. Okay, but give me a real band with our big record label. I got to go through my CD collections. There's a lot of them. No, no. I'm not disagreeing with you. I like the music a lot. I think there's a lot of talent there. There's great songs, but there's no substance at the end of the day. But you're alluding Jimmy to a cultural phenomenon that's happened since we've got in cell phones and media. We all gravitate back to our classics from the 70s and 80s and early 90s, but it's very hard to find something that will hold our limited attention spans. I agree. I agree. I won't disagree with you. But that's why I find they're brilliant in that they are coming at you from an audio standpoint and a video standpoint and on a lot of different levels to try and hold us our limited but not on a substance level and they've done it better defense point, not on a substance level. Yes, the visuals are there. Yes, the audio is there. The cool look is there, but there's no look man. I bought all these albums. I bought all these albums and I never put them on. How much substance is living on a prayer have? Honestly, well, that's another story living on a prayer because there's no substance for me. But right. So great, but it was but it was still massive. This album has a poison from Alice Cooper on it in Griffwood. This album has a living on a prayer on it in in spillways. No, obviously music doesn't sell the way it used to sell and it's not available on 24 hour video channels and terrestrial radio the way it used to be. But trust me when I say this is as close as you're ever going to get to that. Like guys, this album is about to blow up. This will be the best-selling hard rock heavy metal album of the year. This will be the most talked about. Won't disagree with you. Just like you too. Just like you too. Just like you too. And not because you know, so there needs to be something there that's holding people's attention that people are finding interesting. I don't think it's a bunch of people one week who are going to shelve it and then a bunch of new people the next week who are going to shelve it. Like honestly, guys, there's there's nine songs and three intros on this record. There's not a bad song on this record. It's been a long time since you say this is disposable. I've I've listened to this album like 20 times since it came out on Friday. Because we're reviewing it too, right? No, but not because I'm reviewing it because I like it that much because I keep going back and I want to hear it in my car and I want to hear it while I'm walking on my phone. I know Stefan wants the way in here. Go ahead. I just had a comparison when you were when Taryn was saying, oh, there's some of this, there's some of that, there's a mix of this, mix of that. It reminds me about a block away from my house. There's a restaurant very cheap where you can get Italian food, Greek food, French Canadian food. Definitely owned by a Greek, definitely owned by a Greek guy. But I would probably avoid it because there's no specialty. So they have everything you could want on the menu. If I want a poutine, I don't go there because I know a restaurant that specializes in poutine will give me a better one. If I want Chinese food, I'll go to a Chinese restaurant. If I want Greek food, I'll go to a real authentic Greek food restaurant. I do not go for my quality ethnic food to that, you know, place where, you know, the same chef with the same grill. Oh, okay. Chow mein. Oh, okay. So, Blacky. It just, you know, and ghost gives me that impression. A one stop shop for a whole bunch of jars, none of which they accomplish as well as the experts in those jars. You know what I'm getting at? But unfortunately, well, no, fortunately for ghost, there's still a few good songs. You know, there's always a restaurant that serves everything, but there's one piece on their menu that you really keep going back to. Could it be the pizza or whatever? And this is where Ghosts in Para album falls for me. Great introduction to a whole bunch of jars, but I will always be the one seeking for the authentic real deal. All right. So, you want, you want a good smoke meat at, you know, at the, at the smoke meat? I don't know where your favorite. So, he's saying if he wants to listen to Bon Jovi, he'll listen to Bon Jovi. If he wants to listen to King Diamond, he'll listen to King Diamond, but he won't listen to Bon Jovi trying to do King Diamond or King Diamond trying to do Bon Jovi or Royce. All right, everybody out there watching, I want to know everybody out there watching out of 10 rate this album, just rate this album out of 10. And we're going to start reading some comments. Frank Putven is saying, we Patron, I'll dress no relish, please. Eric, do you listen? Greeks love doing this. They have restaurants and they put everything on the menu because they want to capture everything, right? Hot dog, smoke meat, pizza, Suvlaki, they got to put everything on the menu. All right. Red Wolf is saying six out of 10. Metal Alert saying 10 out of 10. Martin saying 8.5 out of 10. Frank Putven saying, Dunn's on Metcalf. Yes, it's good. But I find Dunn's is, is, is very expensive. K-man says, I'll dress no relish sounds like ghost. Rob says 7.5 out of 10. Damien saying 6 out of, 6 out of 10. Holy Diver saying 9 out of 10. 9 out of 10, sorry. Walter saying 7. The original sound kind of gone on this one. Walter saying solid. Go ahead, Stephane. What do you want to say? I'm going to give it a 6 out of 10. I would have given better if I felt I was listening to something authentic, which brings me back to what I said earlier. Had I just listened to the album and not researched the band on Wikipedia, maybe I'd like it even more. I just don't like this whole look at me, I'm the devil, but this month I'm going to do a commercial album because I want to sell. I, that's my whole back. Musically the songs are there, but it will never be as good as those that inspires ghosts. All right. Before we get to parents rating, RC is saying 8.5 out of 10. Eric's saying 9 out of 10. Are people hating this album? Because everybody wants a great album. Everybody wants a hit. Everybody wants well produced songs. Everybody wants melody, but then when it finally comes, everybody hates it. I mean, are we all just a bunch of miserable people who hate everything, parent? But, but I don't know what you're talking about. The reviews for this album. Hold on. We fight says, Jimmy, how about that new Voivod album? I love the new Voivod album. Go ahead, parent. Let me find you something. Let me find you something. Let me find you something. What are you looking for? All right. I'm going to, you know, because you're okay. In the meantime, I need to find something. I just want to give an idea. This is, this album has been so well received by the metal press. It's actually quite in any way. I can't find it right now, but I mean, all brave words, nine and a half on 10, blabbermouth, metal, basically all of, and then mainstream media too. This record is getting eight, nine and 10s across the board. So don't, the people who don't like it, don't like ghost. That's what I'm saying. Guys, I'm going to tell you this. Okay. So I interviewed Tobias, right? A few years back, did the interview. It's something like 200,000 hits on that, on that interview. Just think about that. 200,000 hits on my interview with ghost. This is what I, this is what I've realized after this, putting up this interview. The people that listen to ghosts and go to the show, most of them aren't our generation. It's another generation. It's probably Stefan's daughter's generation. What am I? It's, it's, it's, well, you're old, you're old person, but I love them. No, I'm just saying we're not the majority of the people who support them. There's a younger generation that supports them. And here's where I just had a thought. When I began listening to heavy metal at 14, 15, I was into, you know, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Girl's School, all that stuff. And most of the people older than me at the time were saying, that's not heavy metal. That's not good music. Whatever happens to Black Sabbath, whatever happened to all those, you know, Jim, why aren't you listening to Jimi Hendrix instead? He knows how to play guitar. Why aren't you listening to Rory Gallagher? He knows how to play guitar. What is this thing about? The fact is, these were people judging my music from their generational point of view. So I don't have a hard time believing why Ghost is such a hot band and has such a devout following by people obviously much younger than we are. And just so you know, in the comments, in the comments of this interview that I did, and just to further this point, half the comments were by women. Okay. Well, that's also a winning recipe, right? That is the connection. That is the difference between mainstream and niche. All right. When you have the other half of the population also liking the band, right? It's a huge point. The bands that blew up, let's face it, the hard rock heavy metal bands that get the biggest have crossover appeal because you could only have so much success when guys 18 to 34 are buying your records. But what makes a band, a multi-million seller and an arena sellout is having multiple demographics appealing to your music. And that's what's happening here. So Jimmy, I found what I was looking for. So just again, it's a myth. It's a myth that people aren't liking this album. All music, four and a half out of five, blabbermouth, eight on 10, classic rock, three to half on five, exclaims seven on 10, carang, four on five, metal hammer, four and a half out of five stars, metal injection, nine on 10, new music express, four out out of five. And me most importantly, nine out of 10. Nine. Absolutely. It's a nine guys. I'm somewhere between you and Stephane. This is the best thing. Ghosts are the most interesting, the most important and the best thing going in hard rock slash heavy metal right now. I'm going to tell you guys, when I spoke to Tobias, he seems like a very smart guy and you could tell that he has a lot of influences. And he said from Tory Amos all the way to Voivod. So that is the spectrum of his musical taste. And when someone has all those tastes, you could see that the melody comes from pop, but the riffs come from metal. If you listen to this album and I recommend all musicians listen to this album, listen to the music. There's a lot of down tuning, yes. There's a little bit of Randy Rhodes there in the playing of the guitar. There's a little bit of Eddie Van Halen on the riffage. Listen to the guitar work very carefully. Yeah, there's a couple of little bit of double bass drum happening, but there's a lot of metal elements in there. So listen to it carefully. You'll appreciate it a lot more. And the singing is huge. The guy, I know you guys think he's not a great singer. I think he's a phenomenal singer because people say, wow, that's ghost. That's a tone. That's a unique and identifiable, right? Yes. He's not a Jeff Tate Rob Hall for Bruce Dickinson who's going to go up here. But he doesn't have to. No, you're right. He doesn't have to be right. I actually think he's better when Tommy Little Sunshine is the perfect example. When he's in his lower register, I think that's the best place for him. But he can take it up a notch too, as long as he doesn't overdo it. So he's not a classically trained singer like a Dickinson, a Hallford, or a Tate. But what he does is very effective for the music that they're playing and different songs require different intonations. And he's really good at doing that. Exactly. And what you just said about those influences going from Terri Amos to Voivod, that's why the music is what it is. And it's not put together in a board room like Babymetal where they're saying, let's make a pop record to be successful. Let's have a dark sinister song because we need a song for the Halloween kills soundtrack. Yeah, yeah. When you have a person whose influences are so vast, this is what happens. Remember Marty Friedman for Megadeth? So if you watch, there's a really popular interview that's out there with Marty Friedman, where he talks about why he moved to Japan to be on the music scene there. And he said the reason he went to Japan to be part of the music scene is there you can make an album with a beautiful ballad. And next to that beautiful ballad, the next song being this crazy full frontal heavy metal death metal attack. And it's okay. And he said only in North America do people expect you to be in box A or in box B. And he loved being an artist in Japan, where he can be an eclectic artist, put it all kind of on one record because that's how he was feeling that year. And it's okay. And that's what I find this is to a certain extent. All right, so let's ask the next question to everybody out there. As we have eight minutes left, guys, is this a metal band? Is this a metal album? Are they, and there's two parter here, are they the future of metal? That's a big question. Are they, like as our Iron Maidens and our Black Sabbaths and our eyes, these kind of die off slowly retire and hopefully not pass away. But you know what I'm saying, sort of like ride out into the sunset, will ghost Stefan be the next Iron Maiden? Will they be the next Black Sabbath? Will they be the next big band that outlines all the festivals and all the fans go out to see? I don't know enough about the if today, like I understand have a huge following. Is it as die hard as Maiden? I don't know. But I'll tell you something about your, you know, women are into things. I once read an interview with Gene Simmons, where he said that if you could pick your audience, you want to pick a male audience, because women audience, and that's Gene Simmons talking, not me. Not you, not you, not you. Gene Simmons said women will give you the craziest fans with the shortest attention span. Male fans might not be as, you know, might not scream at you and fill stadiums, but they will stick with you. And that was a Gene Simmons approach. So I don't think personally that ghost has what it takes to become a long term legendary band. I think, I still think they're posers, but look, that hasn't stopped most metal bands from succeeding. It is evolving. So keep in mind, like that was the women of our generation, where there were a little more changing flavors, but the women of this generation, they seem to be, you know, evolving with metal, right? There's more women representing metal. And it's a new generation of ladies and they are becoming sort of what the men used to, I believe, they are becoming. I was listening to the plush record. I was listening to the plush record next to the ghost record and enjoying that a lot of it, you know. So I think there is an evolution in metal in general. Like it used to be this white guy, you know, back in the 80s, and it's evolved into different races and different ethnicities and genders. And it is evolving and changing, because in South America, you know, metal's huge, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's happening. It's good. I'm sure it's going to happen in China and it's, I'm sure it's going to explode in, you know, parts of the Asian world. It's just, they're not there yet, right? At that level as we are, right? But it is changing, which ladies is he referring to? I'm just saying the evolution of it started off as this, and again, I'm speaking in general terms, it started off as this niche white guy suburb thing, and it's evolved into this, you know, everybody loves metal and, you know, our fans and follow the bands of all genders, ethnicities, and it's evolved over time, right? Go ahead, Baron. Well, so to answer your questions, first of all, the future of metal is hybrids, right? The future of a lot of things is hybrids. And I think ghost is a bit of a hybrid. And I think that is the future of metal, because the more past you have behind you, the more influence and things you have to draw on. So yeah, I think they are the future because they are a bit of a hybrid band. And I think hybrid bands are the future. And then to answer the question, is it metal? Of course, it's metal. Metal has always had many forms. Like I said, I grew up in a time where I saw Bon Jovi open for Judas Priest, and I saw Cinderella open for Judas Priest, and I saw Guns and Roses open for Iron Maiden, but then I also saw Megadeth and Testament open for Judas Priest, and Dawkin went on tour of Loverboy, and, and, and, and, and, and. So, you know, we've seen a lot of people, you know, Sam Dunn and people like that do the metal tree, you know, and the tree has many branches. So yeah, there's the traditional metal branch, and there's the thrash metal branch, there's a lot of branches. And there's also, you know, if you ask me in 86, is Bon Jovi heavy metal? I would say yes. Bon Jovi was heavy metal in 1986. If you ask me the same question now, I would say now, today, Bon Jovi is not heavy metal. So our definition of heavy metal evolves over time. But I think for the time right now, yeah, ghost is, ghost is heavy metal. And you made a great point privately yesterday, Jimmy, and you encourage people to do it today. Take even, even like 20s, which it has a brass section in it, and it's a very swing time kind of song. Go find the isolated guitar track of 20s. It's incredible. It's full on metal riff fest. But when you get the full version of the song, there's a brass section over it. And there's the brass is actually emulating the guitar riff. And there's a guy scatting over it. So it's nuanced, but it's metal. So yeah, I mean, I made a great point. I made a great point. You made me go listen to the isolated guitar of 20s. Everybody go to 20s, not Twinkies 20s, and type in guitar track, and you'll see how they play it. If that is not metal, what is Stefan, what do you want to say? No, I agree. But, you know, Perrin is looking at the small compartments, adds it up and says, this is a good metal album. Phase value, I think Perrin is very correct. But I look at the overall band, the overall career, the overall evolution. And I don't agree with Perrin as much. I do not. I think this band is a curiosity because, let's face it, they know how to play their image. But ultimately, I do not think they have what it takes to become a legendary band in the same breath as Judas Priest made in that were cross generations. I don't know if we'll see that again, again, back to the whole the time we're in, the tension spans, how much is out there. But look, Ghost have been around 12 years. The first album came out in 2010. How many new bands get 12 years, five albums, two EPs? You know, not a lot. And now this is poised to be their biggest record, right? They've just now started doing arenas. So for me, this is their black album in the sense that, you know, Metallica, the first two albums were underground successes. But they really got notoriety on their third album. Ghost, first two albums were underground successes, but they really got a notoriety with their third album, Maloria. Then Metallica's fourth album, a little bit of a depth, people didn't know quite how to take it. Ghost's fourth album, people didn't know how to take it. Metallica fifth album, boom, mainstream success. Because they never managed to match anything since. I'm going to say this, guys, I'm going to say this, there are very few bands that have made it. We don't even know what made it means anymore. But Ghost, headlining festivals, you know, like you said, Spotify numbers, YouTube numbers, sales, vinyl numbers, they have managed to build a whole career and make it in the downloading era, you know, where people are stealing music, right? People, I told Jimmy offline, I went to a record store on Friday, the day that this came out. And I wanted to know if they had the vinyl and the vinyl was sold out at 11 o'clock in the morning. The store is open at like 930 or 10 here. So people were waiting to buy the vinyl for this. They're selling physical product, not just downloads. Well, came in saying, what festivals are Ghost headline? Well, right now there's not a lot of festivals, but I do know that in France, they're one of the headliners on one of those days, I believe, in Montreal, Heavy Montreal, they headline, correct, Perrin? Yeah, they were those, the last Heavy Montreal, one night was headlined by Ghost, the other was headlined by the Slayer for Well Tour. You know, you just don't headline if you don't have some sort of pull, right? You are, anyways, look, love them or hate them, they're here, they're doing well, and hats off to them. I say 8.5 out of 10. For me, I really think this is a great- Not bad for baby metal, Jimmy, not bad for baby metal. Well, look, it's like you too. I love you too. It's just, I won't sit there and listen to their albums all day, but when it's on the radio, I see a show, I love it. So we got a nine and an eight and a half and a six. Look, I love the police. We're talking about the police, me and Stefan, before the show. You know, I saw police, you know, at the Olympic Stadium, love the police, you know, and I put the albums on. I'll put their albums on. So it's a little different. Guys, thank you so much. Enjoy Cats, Stefan. Yeah, my wife is taking me to see the Broadway play Cats this afternoon. Is this something you wanted to do? That's what I want to know. I've seen it about 40 years ago on Broadway. I thought it was very impressive. Impressive. I haven't seen it since. I like this kind of entertainment because at my age, you've been exposed to a lot of shit. Yeah, looking forward to it should be fine. Just so you know, the nameless of the face, the ghouls from Ghost, a couple of them are in the cast of Cats. Just people don't know that. And just so you know, spoiler alert, there are lots of cats in Cats. Okay. There are lots of cats in Cats. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Okay. Memories, I'll remember that. Okay. Guys, have a wonderful Sunday and thank everybody who has watched today. All right, guys. Sorry, I'm a little tired now. And for the next show, please, let's compensate by having a real, real, real mean heavy metal record that will not be... We owe Sabaton an apology. We're supposed to review them too, so we got to do Sabaton next. Sabaton and Anvil next one, maybe. I like Sabaton. We'll be on. All right, later.