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283: WILD CHARGE, DRUNGI, METRO SOCIETY | Metal Promo Review
5 Plays8 months ago
WILD CHARGE [Heavy Metal; California, USA] - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2lHcENm5i7fGkPmArHFSFO DRUNGI [Rock/Doom Metal; Reykjavík, Iceland] - https://drungi.bandcamp.com/ METRO SOCIETY [Progressive Metal; Colorado, USA] - https://metrosociety.bandcamp.com/ @wild_charge_metal #wildcharge #heavymetal #californiametal #usmetal @drungiiceland #drungi #doommetal #icelandicmetal #metrosociety #progressivemetal PODCAST THEM DOWN - https://linktr.ee/pctd https://patreon.com/podcastthemdown
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
I. Cast. Them. Down.
Metal Promo Review Segment Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
Hail Metal Nation! It is time once again for a metal promo review where we take metal promos that have been sent to us and review them based solely on the promo material and not the music. Speaking of the music, can you guess what this is?
00:00:30
Speaker
Is it Judas Priest? No, this is. This is something we gave two years in a recent metal promo review.
00:00:41
Speaker
Is it that French band? No. This is Ravage's Spider on the World, so... Oh, fuck yeah!
Highlighting Best Metal Promos
00:00:48
Speaker
I've decided that the prize for the best metal promo of each thing is going to be... Each episode is going to be a short highlight on the next one. Okay. Ravage's Spider on the World. I think it's out in April.
00:01:10
Speaker
And, uh, this is what it sounds like. All right. Well, that's enough of that. It's supposed to fade out, but instead it didn't. Thanks a lot. All right. So, uh, as I explained, shadows without the boring parts or eyes. And we're just going to let that sit there. I've noticed a level of belligerents from these two lately. We're not belligerent. All right. All right.
00:01:40
Speaker
There are too many moving parts now. All right. So melochromos. All right. You ready? This is I'm just flabbergasted. I wasn't even ready for the music. I'm just lost. All right. Well, spend all this money and they don't consult us.
00:01:56
Speaker
Alright, here we go. I hope your hopes are up because they're about to go down.
Wild Charge: New Single and Band Journey
00:02:02
Speaker
American new wave of true heavy metal band wild charge release city hunter single for worldwide media review and radio airplay. American new wave of true heavy metal band wild charge release the new single city hunter to worldwide. You just said that.
00:02:19
Speaker
The single is the first advanced track from upcoming, the upcoming Wild Charge debut album, sought to be self-released in early summer 2024. Wild Charge band members, guitars and vocals, Christian DeVore, bass, Eduardo Bautista, drums, Joseph Mancaruso. Okay. Biography.
00:02:42
Speaker
Wild Charge was started in 2011 as a school project by Chris McLeod and Sebastian Angini. He's a good boy while attending Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. Yes. What? So this is a school project gone wild? At the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. Is that a thing that I'm supposed to know what it is?
00:03:08
Speaker
After graduating in 2013 and going the separate ways, Chris decided to continue the project, recruiting longtime friend and bass player Eddie Bautista and other friends to continue the project. Chris and Eddie persevered through lineup change after lineup change for 10 years. I love it when bands put that in because it's like, no one will work with us because we're assholes. Because that's always the impression I get. You know, maybe the problem isn't them, maybe it's you. Anyway,
00:03:38
Speaker
They finally met drummer Joey Mancaruso. With this last piece of the puzzle, they were able to finally capture the sound they had been searching for a decade. Chris has been in several bands over the years, including, of note, Mad Ross, of which he participated in a US tour with. Wild Charge has played countless shows across Southern California over the last decade.
00:04:02
Speaker
Some notable acts they have shared the stage with include Trauma, Hellstar, Power Glove, Animals as Leaders, Loudness, Raven, and Thawkin. Let me tell you why that's not as impressive as it sounds. I've opened for more than half of this. Oh my. And look where I am. I'm stuck in front of a... Oh, now I changed it. Never mind. I was stuck in front of the Sin after Sin cover. Anyway. Yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
But now I'm not the new single city hunter is based on an anime from the 1980s of the same name the song is about a hitman who operates in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo the upcoming album is currently untitled but officially has a working title TM 93 a special item in the Pokemon games that teaches the move wild charge Which is also the origin of the band names wild charge
00:05:01
Speaker
The band takes influence from bands across several musical genres, the main ones being Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Loudness, Motorhead, you forgot the Umlauts, Rush, Judas Priest, T-Square, Cacophony, Cassiopeia, Duran Duran, Racer X, Chicago, Megadeth, Triumph,
00:05:19
Speaker
In all honesty, we find things we like in the music we love and try to incorporate that somehow into our style and make it our own, even if it isn't obvious on the surface, the influence is there. Wild Charge is for fans of bands such as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Running Wild's the new one.
00:05:39
Speaker
Okay, alright. Magadeth and Lizzie, Judas Priest, or just Heavy Metal in general, or current discography, consists of the City Hunter single and a demo single of a song called Samurai Steel, which is currently being re-recorded for the album. Then the album artwork is... I mean, it looks like an anime cover. It looks distressingly AI-generated.
00:06:04
Speaker
Damn. There's a lot of letters in there. I think the typesetting would mean they either fixed it after the fact or it's not AI. If it was the school project, how come they only have one other song? Good point. All right. Here's, we're going to get
00:06:26
Speaker
Hate comments. Again, American new wave of traditional or true heavy metal or blank heavy metal is not a thing. Nope. And then you list not like, what is this list? I mean, Duran Duran, you say true heavy metal and Duran Duran and the same thing. No, you're wrong.
00:06:51
Speaker
And you can't reinvent true heavy metal. It's either true or it's not. If you're not in the box of heavy metal, which excludes Duran Duran in Chicago for that matter, you're not true heavy metal. Okay? The end. Sounds fair.
True Heavy Metal Discussion
00:07:08
Speaker
Figure out what you are. Maybe traditional heavy metal. You're not true heavy metal.
00:07:15
Speaker
Let's get our terms right here before we start. But thank you for putting down all these bands so I know actually where you stand. And, you know, you can go ahead and delete your whiny comment now because I didn't read any of the other bands comments. And second of all, we do that on the comment show. You call, you knew where I was going with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, we only read comments twice a year. Yep. I just know that they were whiny. I mean, clearly. That's not wild charge. Yeah, so I'd be interested. But yeah, my main objection to this is that they say the true heavy metal and Pokemon, the true heavy metal and anime, the true heavy metal and Duran Duran. Now,
00:08:12
Speaker
Come up with a different description of your sound because it is inaccurate period. Yeah. Despite all that, I'm going to give this one and a half years. Yeah. Yeah. You know, same.
Drungi's Single 'Alda' and Icelandic Influence
00:08:25
Speaker
Well.
00:08:27
Speaker
I've been doing a little research about the Musicians Institute. It is really in Hollywood. It is. Really in Hollywood. And I just hope that they paid attention at Professor Marty Friedman's guitar class. What? Because. What? Yes, that's right.
00:08:51
Speaker
According to the list of guest instructors, current and former, guitar Jimmy Boyle, Kim Carroll, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman. Let's just say it like Baltimore. He lives in Japan now. He went to Warhol High School. Marty Friedman definitely says his name, Marty Friedman.
00:09:17
Speaker
At some point in his life. Or even went to Laurel High School? That's amazing. Yeah, he was born in DC.
00:09:24
Speaker
You know, the other people I know who went to Laurel High School are not amazing. So yeah, so because of that, I am promoting my rating to 1.75 years. Yeah. In honor of their, their spiritual and actual mentor, Marty Friedman, I'm going to give them a 1.664.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah, our grievances about a movement that doesn't exist aside, they seem pretty promising. Yep. Okay, next up, walk into the ocean with Iceland's Drungi's new single, Alda, off upcoming album, Hamfariar Huygens, out April 2024. You get to hear me try to pronounce some Icelandic here now.
00:10:16
Speaker
I didn't know we were a new wave show.
00:10:31
Speaker
Siafnar Bjorgvinsen vocals, Runar Galti Gunnarsson guitar, Marcus Loki Gunnarsson guitar. I have to write down Siafnar Gunnarsson for my next name for the podcast. Oh, I think Beth is daughter is the best one because it has the the P but it's like a DP.
00:10:56
Speaker
Wait, wait, nevermind. It has that letter that English used to have and doesn't anymore. Oh, the thorn. Yeah, thorn. They also later on come, are coming some curly D's with a slash in it. Anyway.
00:11:13
Speaker
Iceland's Drungi channel the vast landscapes of their homeland into eerie and powerful methyl that will invoke a variety of emotions and cast the listener into folklore accompanied by exciting music. They're releasing their debut album Han for Eir Huygens on April 5th and the first look is with the single Alda Wave, which is out now on YouTube. The band had the following today about this release.
00:11:42
Speaker
That's either a typo or just awkward before yeah, but well, they don't they don't speak English as their first language Their English is better than my Icelandic. So that's true quote Alda was the first official single of our upcoming debut album having been in the back of our bassist head for numerous years He presented it to the band and we took pity on him. No and something clicked in everyone's mind Why are you letting the bassist write songs? Yeah, don't let the bassist
00:12:11
Speaker
Following the intense feeling of drowning in one's emotion and the sometimes suicidal feelings one has following a downforce of emotion, the song emphasizes that feeling with a rhythm pushing the oceanic feeling forward. The band continues to say that the
00:12:29
Speaker
The flow of writing for Alda was significantly faster than most of their other songs, and it spoke to them in a way that many others had not, and thus it received the first single spot along with the first track of the album. It was something they knew right away would be a song worth sharing with the masses. The suicidal imagery of the songs comes from the Icelandic saying
00:12:53
Speaker
of Ganga e Soyin or walking into the ocean, which is still to this day a form of suicide practiced in Iceland, something each member of the band can connect to. Tragic, yes, but that is fucking metal as fuck. I'm going to walk into the ocean. Fuck you.
00:13:19
Speaker
Drungi, formed in 2019, is comprised of irony, readily- Yeah, did we say this already? Skip ahead. The band has been on a steady rise, captivating audiences with their unique blend of rock, black and roll, and doom. Having played notable festivals, such as Lemmy Rock Festival 2022 and Culture Night 2022, Drungi has become a force to be reckoned with in the Icelandic music scene. Track listing, Alda, Dokka, Othairth,
00:13:50
Speaker
Oh, man. How do you pronounce a K in Icelandic? Is it like in Swedish where it's like an S? SH? I don't know. I'll pretend it is. I wonder what frost means.
00:14:11
Speaker
Uh, and lined up live lineup. Is it identical? It's the same. Why, why did they separately list a band lineup and a live lineup when they're identical? Yeah. Well, anyway, that's it. The album artwork is, well, it's an Icelandic fjord it looks like, but it's in a, uh, it's in like, uh, one of those optical illusions. Yeah.
00:14:39
Speaker
It's like a magic eye. It looks like the silhouette of the guy from the Unforgiven video, but he's thinking about Iceland twice, maybe? Yeah, it looks like the man vase thing, but inverted. And then there's a fjord, and it says drungi in it. It's like, actually, if you look at this, you'll see both an old woman and a young girl, but you have to look at it very carefully.
00:15:08
Speaker
Alright, so then there's a, oh no, there's a picture of the band, and they're standing up the shore, and that guitarist on the right looks like he's contemplating walking into the ocean. Yeah, that is not a safe place for them. But not the bassist, because he wrote the best song, apparently. Yeah. Well, he's safe, but the rest of this band should not be by the shore. Alright, so my
00:15:38
Speaker
My take on this is most Icelandic metal is weird, like good weird usually. So this sounds weird. I don't know. I feel like I would have had the same amount of interest.
00:15:55
Speaker
if you just said, Iceland, drunky. I'm like, oh, okay. But then add in the thing about walking into the ocean, which is metal as fuck. That boosts the score. I'm going to 1.3 ears. 1.3? I will give it 1.3.
00:16:17
Speaker
three as well, but I'm going to have to diminish that by 0.5 because one of my ears is already in the ocean. I can't hear as well. Yeah, I'm going one year.
00:16:34
Speaker
Like the goth, depressing metal. I just can't do any more apart from the three bands I listened to for 20 years. But I always like the roots. Point of order. Point of order. You've listened to Paradise Lost for longer than 20 years. 22, I think. Yeah. Paradise Lost does have a good song called Let Me Drown. Oh, see. Do I smell a lawsuit?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah, but all the Roots Rock metal stuff. It's got a hybrid stuff I always love, so I'm sure they're great. All right, last one. Sorry, I had to look over there. Oh, wait, I'm not sorry. I don't apologize. Yeah, that's not very metal. Yeah. Visit 1898 London with progressive concept album, The London Conspiracy Chapter.
00:17:34
Speaker
One. Zero years.
Metro Society's Concept Album Exploration
00:17:36
Speaker
1898. From Metro Society, Chris Mangold and Ian Ringler initially came together to explore musical realms, and their collaboration took a chilling turn when they decided to infuse a conceptual storyline based on... That's a chilling turn. Anyone? The Jack the Ripper. Yeah. Close.
00:17:58
Speaker
Close, the Paris Metro system into their music for their debut album, A Journey in Paris, 2007. After a long hiatus, they return this time to the ominous streets of London, where the echoes of
00:18:15
Speaker
Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper! Oh nice, you get a point. His gruesome murders still linger. The London Conspiracy Chapter 1 1898 is an atmospheric and eerie concept album that follows an up-and-coming detective embroiled in a murder mystery. The band explains the album.
00:18:35
Speaker
quote we are going for the full album front to back listening experience with this album this is a story based album that we are hoping listeners will dive into the full album experience the songs are really meant to be listened together as a whole however we also feel that any of the individual songs could be listened to on their own and still tell their own story hopefully after our listeners hear one or two songs they'll want to jump into the full album to hear the rest
00:19:01
Speaker
I like how they came out and made a statement and then immediately backed off that statement. Please listen to the whole album, but if not, that's okay.
00:19:12
Speaker
The London Conspiracy Chapter 1, 1898 is a true showcase of musicianship. Each member of the band has moments throughout the songs that are rooted in the progressive rock slash metal style and really show off what the band is capable of on their respective instruments slash talents. Guitarist Mangold has some amazing lead guitar work
00:19:33
Speaker
In these songs, City Streets and Society, vocalist George Margaritopoulos gives an impressive vocal performance throughout the album that demonstrates his dynamic range of vocal styles. The rhythm section consisting of drummer Will Mangold and bassist Ringler provides a thunderous and intricate backdrop that drives each song forward while not skipping out on complex technical nuances. The album was produced by
00:20:03
Speaker
Chris Mangold, Ian Ringler, and Will Mangold. Mixed and mastered by Rob Murray and Kyle from Wilder Fox Studio in Vermont. And the album artwork was done by Harley Velasquez at Infinity Nuclear Art Studio. Nuclear art? That's what it says. Okay. Recommended listening for fans of
00:20:29
Speaker
Threshold, OSI, and Pain of Salvation. The London Conspiracy Chapter 1, 1898 is due out on March 1st, 2024. Oh, it's out, you can get it now. And the band's own label, Metro Society Records, and is available for pre-order, or ordering, I suppose, at metrosociety.bandcamp.com. Then there's two lyrics videos.
00:20:56
Speaker
city streets and pieces of the past track listing London 1898 city streets lost souls pieces of the past society underground inferno 4602 is the album length will that fit on an LP yes yes depending but yeah okay some places won't do that but hmm should fit
00:21:24
Speaker
All right. I do like the 90s point and click adventure game cover. Well, I appreciate a song or a whole album, in fact, about London with features artwork from someone who's clearly never been to London. Well, they have wide boulevards right by Big Ben. I don't know what this is.
00:21:47
Speaker
I also like the cowboy or Canadian mounted, uh, policeman off duty in the foreground. Like cuts of his hat. His hat, his broad shoulders and stance. Well, you need a manly man on your, it's like the, remember that, um, that, that.
00:22:07
Speaker
Edgar Allan Poe movie starring John Cusack. Yes. Like a Baltimore where there was a military-type police force in the 1830s. Maybe this is an alternate reality because all the Jack the Ripper murders occurred in 1888. It is a true conspiracy that 10 years later, they're just getting to the bottom of this.
00:22:37
Speaker
But yeah, no. So the reason I buzzed Pain of Salvation is they were talked up to me for years. And when I finally bought what was supposed to be the best Pain of Salvation album at the time, Remedy Lane, I was bored shitless. Oh.
00:22:58
Speaker
I don't know how anyone can like that album. And before you say, well, I also tried over and over again to get into Aerion and I couldn't. So this is nowhere near stuff I like. It might be very good and very impressive, but listing those bands, especially Pain of Salvation, I'm out. I'll give it a quarter of an ear just in case.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, but if I want to hear a song about
00:23:29
Speaker
about Jack the Ripper, I can think of two and that's one too many. Yeah. There's so many much better 19th century British things we could be talking about than Jack the Ripper. Paris Metro. Now that I'm interested in. I hope it's like current Paris Metro system. First of all, the name of the album should be London Underground.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yes You can keep everything else the same but that's already a better album title. You're welcome. Send the check Podcasting down studios Waldorf, Maryland 17 8 3 4 I'm not driving down to Waldorf fuck that But uh, yeah, I mean I I'm gonna give it a tentative quarter in here I I might be pleasantly surprised but much like
00:24:26
Speaker
Jack, the rippers, some things are better left on. Just like 90s style point and quick adventure games, which is a very distinct and real sub genre of games. I appreciate they exist, even though I find the boring, but are you thinking of like mist?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, but it goes a lot. Literally, if you go to Micro Center or whatever back when they sold physical media, there's the games, then there's the adventure games. We are exactly the demographic for them. But yeah, visual novels, that kind of stuff.
00:25:10
Speaker
I remember when we had missed and we couldn't it was like impossible to play because you'd like get to the next screen and had to read off the CD and then eventually it loaded and then like like three screens later you had to put in the other CD well I'm not going to bed tonight because all these are on YouTube all right did you give it a rating Doug I wasn't listening I have one here
00:25:38
Speaker
That's a high score. All right. Until next time, Metal Nation clicked and, uh, shit. You know, I, we re we revamped the opening and forgot to revamp the closing and I wasn't prepared. So, uh, so we said what the show's name is, but we'll, we'll give my closing this. All right. Keep listening to podcast them down next time.
00:26:10
Speaker
I was thinking the show got a new name and we weren't told about that either. Coming scene to the Patreon, Doug and Matt review, Sam and Max hit the road. Dude, totally. Totally do it.
00:26:30
Speaker
All right. The ridiculous cult following around that Blade Runner game from 1997. Oh, God, yeah. You're just cosplaying. Like, you literally live like a four below Rick Deckard. I wonder what he's up to. Yeah. I just remember you can check your voice about what it's like. And he goes, no messages. I'm in demand.