Horns Up Podcast – Picks of 2021 so far

We are already 6 months into the year so on the Horns Up podcast, Animesh and I decided to picked our favourite albums of the year so far on Music on our Mind

Tune in to find out picks

Here are our pick (in alphabetic order)

• Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
• BigIBrave – Vital
• Boss Keloid – Family of The Smiling Thrush
• Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined
• Crypta – Echoes of the Soul
• Devin Townsend – Devolution Series 1 Live in Leeds
• Fear Factory – Agression Continuum
• Gojira – Fortitude
• Harakiri for the Sky – Mære

Tune in to Horns Up on your favourite podcast platform for your weekly dose of metal.

Fistful of Metal # 29

As part of the Fête de la Musique last month on Boxtout.fm, I spoke to Auré and Butch from French metal act AkiaveL about their 2nd album “Væ Victis”, French metal and much more.

Track list

Wasted Land – Fade Away

Akiavel – Frozen Beauties

Akiavel – Zombie

Gojira – Born for one thing

Albatross – The Neptune Murders

Fistful of Metal # 28

My guest on this episode is comedian and Banger TV host Blayne Smith and we talk about their new series Heavy Metal Hitchhiker and play some tunes. 

Heavy Metal Hitchhiker is the first comedy series from Banger Films, the creators of Metal: A Headbangers Journey & Metal Evolution

Track list

Primitiv/ For King Primitiv –  Squishy and Spongy

Hellripper – Hells rock and roll

Ripped to Shreds – In Mourning

Heavy Sentence – Age of Fire

Out of Hand – Exhility 

Assault – Oration of Lies

Fear Factory – Disruptor

Fistful of Metal – Boxout.fm India Covid19 fundraiser

This weekend is a special episode of Fistful of Metal. It is a part of the India Covid19 fundraiser stream on Boxout.fm.

My guest is Dan Tompkins from Tesseract/White Moth Black Butterfly

The stream is for 72 hours and features a line-up of over 100 artists & DJs from over 20 countries, all contributing with exclusive sets & performances to help raise funds for the current COVID-19 crisis in India.

To donate visit – https://boxout.fm/fundraiser The page will be live till 19th May.

All proceeds from the audio-only broadcast will be donated to GiveIndia, a not-for-profit organisation actively working across India to help COVID-19 patients, their families and healthcare workers at this time of extreme crisis.

Check out the full line up below

Update: The conversation was part of the latest episode of the Horns Up podcast. Tune in below.

Bandcamp Recommendations – 7th May 2021 #BandcampFriday

Hope everyone is doing safe and healthy. Things are pretty bad here in India. A few Indian bands have stepped out and are contributing to Covid-19 relief efforts. Do pick up their music and merch. This is not to last #BandcampFriday for this year so let’s get straight to it.

My good friend Abhi Meer has his entire discography for sale on Bandcamp. 100% of the proceeds will go to the Hemkunt Foundation and Feeding From Far.

New band from Hong Kong based hardcore lifer Riz Farooqi. Straight up no bull shit hardcore punk. Love the dual vocals.

Bangalore Doom act is back with new music in 5 years and it sounds good. Stay tuned for the album.

Death metal act Godless will contribute 20% of all their merch sales from this month to NGOs fighting the pandemic in India – https://godlessindia.bandcamp.com/

Moar hardcore punk! D beat driven side project of Allfather members made wish live gigs were back. Hey ho!

Shape shifting act Peter Cat Recording Co. have put up their back catalogue on sale for a week with 100% of the proceeds to Hemkunt Foundation – http://www.pcrc.in/donate

Canadian grindcore stalwarts have released a previously unreleased track from Desire will Rot. Get the track or album if you haven’t already.

New dark metal act from members of American death metal act Vex featuring members of Obsequiae, Panopticon, and Horrendous.

Happy shopping everyone!

Fistful of Metal 20

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Riley Gale, the front man of American metal act Power Trip.

Track list

Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
Capra – Torture Ship
Allfather – Poison Soil
Grid – Disinformation = Facts
Grid – Insatiable
Skeletal Remains – Illusive Divinity
Necrot – Asleep Forever
Cloudkicker – Code Language
Hinayana – In Sacred Delusion (Ft. Toni Toivonen)
Foretoken – Bewildering Duress/Retribution
Jupiterian – Mere Humans
Cynic – How Could I

Bandcamp Recommendations – 2nd October 2020

Here are my picks for this month’s Bandcamp Friday

Is it Bandcamp Friday? pic.twitter.com/Z49KWfn39k

— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) October 2, 2020

This British trio have released one of the most intense metal albums I’ve heard this year. Believe the hype around it.

9 tracks of catchy melodic Black metal from the American quintent. Yes, it does have clean vocals.

Latest album from the German collective adds a new depth to their progressive sound. Their best as yet.

Over a hour of doom curated by the good folks at Sleeping Village

The who’s who of the Metal put their spin on Alice in Chains – Dirt on the 28th anniversary of the album.

Compilation with a stacked line up that benefits the family of a killer metal musician.

Check my previous picks here and here

Podcast Recommendations

As today is International Podcast Day, here are some of the podcasts that I listen to regularly.

Andy Social Australian musician Andy Dowling interviews people from all walks of life. The chats are quite detailed which make it a good listen during a run/walk. I am featured on Episode 196

Dumb and Dumbest A daily podcast (I have no idea how they do it) focused on the music business. Hosted by consultant Matt Bacon, Music Publicist Curtis Dewar and Social Media expert Keith Chachkes.

History in 5 songs with Martin Popoff Author Martin Popoff is a human encylopedia on rock and heavy metal music. He packs in a lot of trivia in a short time (Averages episode is 20 minutes). You will look at your favourite rock/heavy metal artist with different eyes after listening to each episode.

The Ex man Podcast Musician Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves, ex God Forbid) talks to professionals in the music world and other creative industries about the challenges and transitions of leaving monumental ventures. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from the guests on the podcast.

Vox & Hops This podcast covers two things I really enjoy, metal music and craft beer. Host Matt McGachy, frontman of extreme metal band Cryptopsy interviews metal musicians and brewers in a casual manner, leaving one feeling that they are at the same table listening to the conversation.

Don’t forget to check out my podcast too – Horns Up

Bandcamp Reccomendations – 4th September 2020

Here are my pick for this #BandcampFriday

The debut release from Foretoken is a melodic mix of death and black metal. Features Hannes Grossmann on drums. Great signing by Prosthetic Records.

This 5 track live release from Allfather proves that their raucous metal is best experienced live. Includes demos of 2 new tracks.

Another live release. This time from Scottish (post) rock act, Mogwai

32 tracks of doom metal put together by the awesome folks at Doomed and Stoned

50+ minutes of doom/drone from the new project of Ganesh K (Kryptos/Bevar Sea), Megadrone is truly a listening experience.

Another compilation. This one has a stacked line up

New album from Cloudkicker. A blind buy for many.

Fistful of Metal # 11

Tracklist

Corbata – Corbata
Corbata – Alba
Smallpox Aroma – Torturous Hours
AtomicDeath – The Last Letter
Iron Curtain – Danger Zone
Ancestor – Bloody Repression
Haunt – Mind Freeze
Primitiv – Squishy & Spongy
Devoid – Drop Dead Gorgeous
Intronaut – Cubensis
Limit Zero – Gravestone Constellations
False Flag – Counterfeit
Heathen Beast – Ab Ki Baar Atyachaar
Pallbearer – I saw the End