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.

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

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 32

Bombay has hosted performances from numerous metal acts in the past decade or so. Our guest this week is a metal guitarist who was visiting the city as a tourist and not to perform here, Jason Gobel.

We spoke to the former Cynic guitarist about the genre defining release – Focus, the Florida death metal scene and a lot more.

Thanks to Vishal J Singh (Amogh Symphony) for all the help!

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 31

It’s time for another Versus on this episode of Horns Up, and it’s one that’s really, a timeless debate. On Horns Up we pit Ride The Lightning against Master Of Puppets in a clash to find out which one is the better Metallica album.

Nishtha Kanal Revankar (https://twitter.com/RootKanal) joins us to discuss, debate, and figure out who wins this round of Versus on Horns Up.

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 30

There has been a revival of thrash metal in the past decade with the retrothrash bands like Toxic Holocaust and Havok among others. This has also resulted in a comeback from bands including Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and more recently Exhorder.

American quartet Sacred Reich released their 5th album Awakening last month, their first album in 23 years. We spoke to frontman and bassist Phil Rind about how Awakening came together, the addition of Joey Radziwill on guitars and their upcoming tours in US and UK.

Phil Rind also shares what metal means to him and the influence of his practice of Tibetan Buddhism on Sacred Reich.

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 15

The mighty Iron Maiden is the focus of this episode. Animesh and Peter are joined by The biggest Iron Maiden fan in India, Nolan Lewis (Kryptos) in a debate about the seminal band, specifically their 5th and 7th albums, Powerslave and Seventh Son of the Seventh Son.

Introducing “Versus”, where one album is pitted against the other. The basis of comparison isn’t just restricted to subjectiveness, the albums should have similarity i.e. same number of tracks, a common theme, artist etc.

So which album came out on top, Powerslave or Seventh Son of the Seventh Son? Hit Play and find out. Up the Irons!

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 14

Aggressive guitar riffs, pummelling drums and growled vocals are some of the elements of death metal and they are now being replicated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Animesh and Peter discuss Dadabots, a AI project by Berklee College of Music graduates and what it means for the future of death metal and metal in general.

The guest on this week’s show is Mallika Sundaramurthy of Brutal death metal act Abnormality. The boys speak to Mallika about her gateway into death metal, forming Abnormality and also their latest album, Sociopathic Constructs.

Mallika also shares with Animesh and Peter they story behind her collaboration with Indian death/grind act Gutslit and her thoughts ahead of the band’s upcoming European tour.

Hit the Play button and raise those Horns Up!

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 12

Hacktivist hacked the music industry in 2011 with their Rap meets Djent sound. There was a polarizing response to the band but they kept going and have performed around the world including in Mumbai, India at the Big69 festival in 2015 where Animesh and I caught them live.

We spoke to vocalist J Hurley about their meteoric rise to success, their latest single Reprogram  and also their upcoming plans

We also discuss the Indian band Bloodywood and their addition to the Wacken Open Air line up. Hit the Play button and raise those Horns Up!

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 8

In the present age of streaming, singles have taken precedence over albums. On the latest episode of Horns Up, we discuss if there is a perfect album in our new format All A’s Album. The first album under the scanner is Pantera Cowboys from Hell.

Cowboys from Hell was one of the first metal albums I heard when I got into metal close to 20 years ago. You can hear about the impact it had on me in the episode. Music journalist Anurag Tagat joins us as a guest. Click play below and find out if Cowboys from Hell is a All A’s Album.

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Horns Up Podcast: Episode 7

Last week, I attended 3 shows in 4 days (Plini, Devin Townsend Acoustic and Control Alt Delete), don’t remember the last time I did that. Also managed to record 2 new episodes of the podcast, one of which is now online.

In the new episode of Horns up, our guest compared to our previous ones
is on the opposite end of the sound spectrum. We caught up with Australian guitarist Plini just before his gig in Bombay to chat with him about his journey, devoting time to the business side of things, new music, and, life.

Animesh and I discuss Devin Townsend and the experience of an intimate, acoustic gig.