Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Underrated Solid State Bands Fantasy Draft

Transcript

Underrated Solid State Bands Fantasy Draft · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

• 0:01
  All right, today we've got Jason Kirk and Justin Hunter with us, two
• 0:35
  good friends of the podcast, and we're gonna do a underrated solid State fantasy
• 0:42
  draft. That's a mouthful, but these are gonna be This is gonna be
• 0:45
  a fantasy draft of bands from the Solid State world that they that we think
• 0:50
  are underrated. Okay, So, uh, we're gonna get into all the
• 0:54
  rules and how we're gonna do this draft, and then we're gonna obviously get
• 0:58
  into the the draft itself and hopefully there's good debating and arguing, uh,
• 1:03
  as good music nerds should be doing. Uh. But before we get into
• 1:07
  all of that, both Justin and Jason have some fun things to plug that
• 1:12
  I feel like you all should know about. So Justin, let's start off
• 1:15
  with you first. Obviously, you're an incredible photographer. You've been at furnace
• 1:21
  Fest every I think every year since the sort of resurrection of furnace Fest,
• 1:25
  right, definitely. Yeah. So I mean, if you're a furnace Fest
• 1:27
  goer, you probably probably have seen Justin upfront hanging out doing his thing.
• 1:33
  Uh. Justin, Uh, you know, what, what do you want
• 1:34
  to like kind of plug in terms of like maybe the photography business, or
• 1:38
  maybe got some other things. Maybe gets to plug. I don't know,
• 1:41
  but tell me what do you want? What do you want to tell the
• 1:42
  people? So I shoot a concerts. My name is Justin Hunter aka the
• 1:47
  al So you can find me on Instagram. Alt Kink Photography is on my
• 1:51
  concert portraiture. And then I also like, I like to smoke cigars,
• 1:53
  So you probably somebody smoke a cigar a furnace fest, shooting a band,
• 1:57
  putting the cigar down, running back, shooting them, lighting a cigar back
• 2:00
  up. And I shoot for about thirty different cigar brands. I just had
• 2:04
  one of my shots be in an international magazine. It's a full page ad,
• 2:07
  which is super crazy. So yeah, I think it's supposed to be
• 2:10
  seeing about five million people. So I'm just yeah, it's super crazy.
• 2:15
  It's insane. Like I work for a local magazine out here in rural Alabama
• 2:20
  living Jasper. Ever heard Jasper come to see me? Get smoke a ciguar
• 2:23
  together, hangout? I might take your picture, but yeah, that's what
• 2:25
  I do. I've shot furness the last couple of years, in this kind
• 2:29
  of resurrection of it. I was too little to go to the original furnish
• 2:34
  vest. My mom definitely would not allow me for kicking me to furnish the
• 2:38
  original one. But the last couple of years, I've been blessed be able
• 2:42
  to shoot. A shout out to Jhnny Grounds and those guys. But yeah,
• 2:45
  I've shot thousands of hundreds of bands now because the furnace vest is just
• 2:49
  a ton of work and it's so fun. It's there's no other festival liking
• 2:52
  and I'm that that it's kind of transitioning to something new. So, as
• 2:57
  a photographer, what's like the biggest difference between shooting a for or like shooting
• 3:01
  a sort of scene or whatever however you would call it for cigars versus like
• 3:07
  shooting a show. Like, obviously there's gonna be like skills and like just
• 3:10
  techniques and everything that are probably going to transfer for both. But what's like
• 3:14
  the biggest difference between like shooting a cigar ad versus shooting a concert where you've
• 3:21
  got people doing over you. Yeah, besides like almost getting like your face
• 3:23
  kicked in, that's for a big one. It's definitely that, But also
• 3:29
  like the control of the scene, like being able to capture a moment something
• 3:31
  really sweet But other than that, it's the same skills and the same skills
• 3:37
  that go into shooting an ad goes into shooting like a band. It's like
• 3:39
  you want to be captured the right moment. For me, it's always finding
• 3:43
  the right moment and being able to convey that to whether it be a band,
• 3:46
  whether we post your image, or being able to get your image to
• 3:50
  like a cigar. But hey, I shot your stuff. This is what
• 3:52
  it looks like. It. The biggest thing is I make sure that it's
• 3:53
  sharp. I can't stand this new train of blurry images of it at all.
• 4:00
  No one's tax sharp. I'm trying to keep it out tax sharp as
• 4:03
  much as I can. All that. What what's uh like? What band?
• 4:08
  Would you say? Is probably your favorite? Just one image? Your
• 4:13
  favorite image that you've taken? What what is that band? Oh? Okay,
• 4:16
  My one of my absolute favorite images is of the Death Heaven Set.
• 4:24
  Interesting that that Death Heaven Set. I've got some crazy like black and whites
• 4:29
  of their vocalists and you can just like Teazy snarling and he had like you
• 4:33
  know, the the like he was the most interesting person I've ever photographed.
• 4:39
  But yeah, that was probably one of my absolute favorites and then I got
• 4:42
  a shot if we're want to keep it in the solid state world of of
• 4:46
  of Dan from zoh like the first year he has like the lights all behind
• 4:50
  him, was he looking like a demon because he sounds like that. Sometimes
• 4:56
  they've been seven four like wings on and there's just like I love it,
• 5:00
  man, Yeah, that's so cool. That's probably one of my absolute favorite
• 5:04
  shots. You get to shoot them. But you know, for instance,
• 5:08
  is low key, like like a solid State festival most year, so you
• 5:13
  can just check off solid d One last question before we move on to Jason.
• 5:17
  Here, if you had one opportunity to photograph one scene, one band,
• 5:25
  one one whatever, whatever it is that is, is that that's like
• 5:28
  your your pet project, the thing that you've always wanted to get your hands
• 5:30
  on, or the scene to like have in front of you, to be
• 5:34
  able to photograph what is it one scene in front of me that's like music
• 5:40
  related. It doesn't really Oh yeah, that's a that's a vast question.
• 5:46
  Man. If I I would love to be able to do promo shots for
• 5:51
  Zo if I could, like if I can get Zoh, Dan and the
• 5:55
  you know, guess and those boys in front of me just to do like
• 5:58
  a full promo set for the and that's like, yeah, childhood, like
• 6:01
  just crying. Just maybe we can try to get you hooked up here afterwards.
• 6:08
  Yeah, there we go. Be cool, Jason. Let's introduce you
• 6:14
  now. You've got a book out now, but more so than that,
• 6:18
  like you're also like one of my favorite Twitter follows ever, Like I can't
• 6:23
  believe we haven't been connected earlier. I feel like it's been maybe just over
• 6:26
  a year now since we've been connected, or maybe I don't know, two
• 6:29
  years. I have no idea at this point, but like you seem like
• 6:31
  somebody who I've should have known my whole life and just have now only been
• 6:36
  knowing about for the last like year or so. But you're just so cool,
• 6:41
  You're so funny. I'm just like, I'm so upset that I haven't
• 6:44
  known you longer in my life. Like that's my one. There's many regrets
• 6:47
  I have in my life. I'm adding the fact that I don't haven't known
• 6:49
  Jason Kirk longer as one of my regrets. I think he's gonna propose next.
• 6:55
  Let's good. That's fine, that's fine. We got a lot of
• 6:58
  catching up to do. That's when to do it. So, yeah,
• 7:02
  got a book out at the list of people who say it's good does include
• 7:06
  Mason. Mason's name is in there next to words that he wrote, so
• 7:10
  he's on record is saying it's good. If he decides in the future it's
• 7:12
  bad, it's too bad. I already got his words right. It's also
• 7:15
  been positively reviewed by you know, publishers weekly and Kirkus Reviews and Independent book
• 7:19
  review and things of that nature. But but Mason, that was that was
• 7:23
  the big one. I would say. It's called Hell is a World Without
• 7:27
  You. I would say it is unbelievably relevant to anyone who listens to this
• 7:31
  podcast and who likes this music world. So many of the bands that you
• 7:35
  guys talk about and have talked to I have not, unlike you know you,
• 7:42
  their song titles as chapter titles, like there's Norma Jeene in there,
• 7:45
  there's Zao you mentioned is my favorite band ever? There's I mean, actually
• 7:49
  I wrote it down. I wrote it down. The bands that are mentioned
• 7:54
  most frequently, all of these are like tied for second place, all right,
• 7:58
  Amy Grant, Carmen DC talk further seems forever. Kirk Franklin Outcast they're
• 8:01
  the oddball here, Reliant, k Rich Mullen, switch Foot and Zao number
• 8:05
  one five Iron Frenzy who they dominate the rankings because my favorite character her screen
• 8:13
  name in the book. I have lots of like aim conversations. Just dated
• 8:16
  myself by saying aim, But her screen name is. Her screen name is
• 8:20
  one Girl Army of five Iron Frenzy song. So if you grew up evangelical
• 8:26
  and you are less evangelical these days, I'm telling you this is the book
• 8:31
  for you. In addition, all proceeds that are received by February twelfth are
• 8:35
  going straight to the Trevor Project. We have already donated thirty nine thousand and
• 8:39
  looking to think that number bigger? Sweet? What is the what is the
• 8:45
  Trevor Project? I'm sorry, I'm ignorant here. The Trevor Project is a
• 8:48
  charity devoted to reducing self harm among LGBTQ youth. Oh awesome, Okay,
• 8:56
  thanks, So I like that they do Yeah, they do work. And
• 9:01
  uh yeah. The fact that I just saw you like had posted like your
• 9:03
  recent like donation or whatever, and I'm like, oh my god, Like
• 9:07
  that's so much money that you've already been able to donate. I mean,
• 9:11
  it's it's kind of unbelievable how well received the book has been, and it's
• 9:15
  it's kind of unbelievable. Also the fact that like you were even willing to
• 9:18
  ask some like who gives a shit person like me to like, Hey,
• 9:24
  I like you enough to put your name in my book and ask you to
• 9:26
  write words about it, Like it was just like cool moment for me.
• 9:31
  Nah, I mean a lot of people care what you have to say and
• 9:33
  care what you think, and I need those people on board. Well,
• 9:37
  I am fully on board with anything that Jason Kirk's going to be involved in.
• 9:41
  The funny thing here is, Jason, is the fact that you obviously
• 9:46
  you've got this great like novel. It's so funny, it's really really relevant
• 9:50
  to obviously a lot of the listeners of this podcast, but also like that's
• 9:54
  not your main gig, Like people know you also because you're you're Charlie Kirk's
• 10:01
  brother. Oh god, yeah, do you think about that really? Well?
• 10:07
  Me and my very close, very close brother, how do you think
• 10:11
  about that? But for people that don't know you're a sports writer and specifically
• 10:16
  college sports, I don't know if you want to say anything more about like
• 10:20
  what you do in that world or not. But I still remember, like
• 10:24
  one time, I'm like, who is this Jason Kirk guy? And I
• 10:26
  looked you up, and now I saw New New York Times next to your
• 10:31
  name, and I'm like, who the fuck is this? Yeah, it
• 10:35
  doesn't really make sense that I worked for the New York Times company. I
• 10:39
  went to a college I heard of were FCS. No offense to FCS,
• 10:41
  Mason, you're an FCS guy South go to state FCS team ever? But
• 10:46
  yeah, Jack, wait, multiple Jacks? Okay, all right, yeah
• 10:50
  Colin Colin was a thrower for the Jacks. Yeah, Okay, I forgot
• 10:54
  about that part. I remember Mason mentioned that. But but yeah, I've
• 10:58
  been blessed to have a Kirk. We're in a college sports I work for
• 11:01
  the athletic and the newsletters editor there, which means I get to work with
• 11:05
  a lot of really good, really good writers, Zach Carper, Chris Branch,
• 11:07
  Lee, By Weaver, Jana Bardell, just a bunch of writers covering
• 11:11
  really great sports. And I have a sports podcast called The Shutdown foecast with
• 11:16
  Spencer Hall, Ryan Nanny, and Holly Anderson. We usually cover college football,
• 11:20
  but kind of not and I have a podcast with my wife called the
• 11:22
  Vacation Bible School Podcast. It's not about sports, its about the Bible.
• 11:26
  Yeah. Uh, Jason, do you ever work with David Lombardi? Binding
• 11:31
  chance, because it's it's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure that
• 11:37
  we had some sort of an encounter some point. Okay. Anyway, I'm
• 11:43
  a big forty nine Ers fan, and you know, all his stuff is
• 11:46
  on Athletic and I was like, I know a guy at the Athletic.
• 11:50
  Now maybe maybe they know each other, but anyway, you know Spencer Hall,
• 11:54
  I listened to him all time on podcast. That's crazy. Yeah,
• 11:56
  yeah, that's insane. Also, justin are you you You've got to be
• 12:05
  roll tied right, You're not to take your right in the world. No,
• 12:09
  I bleak Crimson like hell yeah, we had you know, there was
• 12:13
  definitely rituals performed in front of you know, Nick Sabans, you know statue,
• 12:18
  you know with the old milk cream pie to coke, the coke out
• 12:20
  there. It was it was like this like I was sitting in the cigar
• 12:26
  lounge. It's it's like when dies. Oh, it was like people like
• 12:30
  this really comes in the ticker like Popeye bomb hold Nick Sabans retiring and was
• 12:35
  just checking up all the campy guys. He's still alive, he's he didn't
• 12:39
  die, but Alabama football isn't. So he looked at me with the Good
• 12:43
  Lord in our eyes like he's gone, he's away. It's funny because there's
• 12:48
  a there's a really uh popular thrower for the track team at at Alabama and
• 12:54
  she was she's a relatively good looking gal and she's posting some thirst traps on
• 13:01
  Instagram and the comment section is the funniest thing you've ever seen because it's all
• 13:07
  Nick saban related, the entire thing. Laugh my ass off at that one.
• 13:18
  Roll Tide time. All right, so let's get into the draft.
• 13:24
  So this is how it's gonna work. Obviously, it's underrated solid state bands,
• 13:28
  so you might be wondering, like, what does underrated mean in this
• 13:31
  solid state world? So that is actually up to the person drafting. We
• 13:37
  have to make an argument, Hey, this band is underrated because of this
• 13:41
  reason. Maybe it's because they didn't sell a lot of records, but you
• 13:43
  thought they were really good. Maybe you thought, okay, even if they
• 13:46
  sold like a decent amount of records, they should have been way bigger within
• 13:50
  the broader metal or hardcore scene, whatever it might be. But we have
• 13:54
  to make that argument of why they're underrated. You also might be wondering,
• 14:00
  like, what qualifies as a solid State band. I think for us,
• 14:03
  it really just means they released one album on solid State, Okay, So
• 14:07
  it doesn't necessarily mean that they've had to have like all of their albums on
• 14:11
  solid State. Just as long as they've released one album on solid State,
• 14:16
  they qualify as a solid State band. The other thing is, we're gonna
• 14:18
  break me down. It has to be a full album, correct. It
• 14:20
  can't be an EP because if we're including EPs, my list changes big time.
• 14:28
  So I think I think we need to keep it at albums specifically,
• 14:31
  LP's full LPs. Okay, let's let's go LP. Just one LP.
• 14:37
  Yeah, at least one LP. You know. It sort of reminds me
• 14:39
  of when we did our Tooth and Nail one. We could technically have added
• 14:43
  uh pod to that, and it's like they released like a three song EP
• 14:48
  or something. It's like, does that qualify as a Tooth and Nail band?
• 14:52
  Then? Not? Really? So all right, one full length album
• 14:56
  on solid State. At some point in their career. That's what qualifies as
• 15:01
  a solid State ban. The other thing is we're gonna break this down by
• 15:03
  eras. Now you may disagree with me on these eras, that's totally fine,
• 15:09
  but we're gonna break it down to the beginning of the solid State years,
• 15:13
  which I think is like ninety five or ninety six. I forget exactly
• 15:16
  when solid State the imprint started, but we're gonna start with that to two
• 15:22
  thousand and three. So sort of think of it as the beginning years,
• 15:26
  the year, the few years maybe what is about seven years or so that
• 15:28
  solid State started as a record label, obviously as an imprint of tooth and
• 15:33
  Nail. Then we're gonna get what we considered like the golden years of solid
• 15:37
  State. So that's gonna be a different round. That's gonna be a different
• 15:41
  category. So the golden years two thousand and four to twenty thirteen is kind
• 15:46
  of where we're putting that estimate. Then we're gonna go the kind of more
• 15:50
  current era of solid State, and that is twenty fourteen to now. So
• 15:56
  we're gonna break it down to those three categories. One round is gonna be
• 16:00
  the beginning years. Second round is going to be the golden years, and
• 16:06
  then the third round is going to be the current years or the most recent
• 16:11
  years of solid State, and then we're actually gonna do a fourth round,
• 16:14
  which is a wild card of any one of those eras. Okay, so
• 16:17
  we're gonna have four rounds of four different picks of each of us, so
• 16:22
  sixteen total picks, and we'd love to know from you listeners what who you
• 16:26
  think has the best team assembled? Right, Like, That's what it comes
• 16:30
  down to, is we're gonna make our arguments for why we pick who we
• 16:33
  pick, and then at the end we're gonna try to figure out who had
• 16:37
  the best team in total. So that's what we're gonna go with, Colin.
• 16:41
  Is there anything else in terms of rules or stipulations or regulations that meaning
• 16:45
  to talk about? I think the only other rule that you should probably go
• 16:48
  by is if you're going to have a definition of what is underrated to yourself,
• 16:56
  it has to be relatively insistent throughout your argument for all of your bands.
• 17:03
  So don't be like, well, they're really underrated for the label,
• 17:06
  and then this one's underrated for like pop music in general or whatever. So
• 17:11
  try to keep it consistent. So that otherwise, otherwise the arguments are just
• 17:15
  gonna get insane. Colin, Uh yeah, are we ready to pick names?
• 17:22
  Here? Let's let's pick names. Let's see our draft order is going
• 17:26
  to be. All right, here we go. I'm spinning the wheel,
• 17:30
  the wheel of death. What do you got, Mason? You are first?
• 17:37
  Oh fuck? Okay, so we are gonna also I didn't tell you
• 17:40
  guys this, but we're gonna do it sneak draft. So I'm first,
• 17:41
  first round and I'll be last in the second round, if that makes sense.
• 17:45
  Next is me, Oh what the hell? I have never gotten the
• 17:56
  first pick. I'm pretty sure Mason's gotten the first pick every single time,
• 18:00
  or maybe every time that we've done that. Uh. Next is Jason Nice
• 18:07
  and then Justin will be last last, which means you will go twice at
• 18:12
  the end. Oh perfect, good, good deal, good deal. All
• 18:15
  right, let's get rock and rolling. Then Mason your first ninety five ish
• 18:22
  to oh three, all right, I'm on the clock. Uh god.
• 18:26
  There's so many really good bands in this era that I think don't get a
• 18:32
  lot of respect. But this is a band that I think ended up becoming
• 18:37
  very influential in the solid state world and uh, actually it ended up playing
• 18:47
  here. Sorry, there's so many bands now, I'm really now I'm rethinking
• 18:52
  my pick because you want to you want to trade down in the draft,
• 18:56
  that is, that would be nice missing their who wants to trade up for
• 19:04
  Trey Lance right now? Troy Williamson? Oh god? You know that?
• 19:11
  Also? You know how there was like this like Twitter thing the other day
• 19:15
  Jason of like name a random UH receiver. Troy Williamson would have been a
• 19:19
  great one. I didn't even think of that, all right, So all
• 19:23
  right, I just made my decision. This is a band that eventually became
• 19:29
  a very not underrated Solid State band, but they were a band before the
• 19:37
  the the band that became a very non underrated Solid State band. But they
• 19:40
  actually just recently played at Furnace Fast I think because they had just let me
• 19:48
  give the people what they're waiting for, you know, the band I like.
• 19:56
  I like the foreplay of it. It's great, you know, give
• 20:02
  me a second. So well you've gotten seconds. Let's go true Love waiting.
• 20:06
  That's right, I yes, So all right anyway, this band,
• 20:10
  UH, I think is just severely underrated, not just in the tooth and
• 20:12
  Nail scene and solid State scene, but they just were so inventive at their
• 20:18
  time. Uh. But that band is Training for Utopia. Oh, obviously,
• 20:25
  eventually Ryan Clark and Don Clark eventually start Demon Hunter, which obviously is
• 20:30
  not an underrated solid state band. They are very appropriately rated, we'll put
• 20:36
  it that way. But I think A Training for You Tobia was so interesting.
• 20:40
  They were doing really just uh, you know, kind of that new
• 20:42
  metal sound, but they had like this really interesting hardcore sound and metal core
• 20:47
  sound. They were really really well, just a fascinating band. Uh.
• 20:52
  And yeah, they probably were a little too heavy for the average listener,
• 20:56
  and that's probably why, like demon Hunter eventually kind of went their route and
• 21:00
  got really big. But yeah, I think Training for Utopia is legit,
• 21:06
  and I think they qualify for sure as underrated. I would say, obviously
• 21:11
  a great band, for sure. I love them. I don't know if
• 21:18
  they are underrated necessarily. I think they're rated exactly where they should be,
• 21:22
  solely for the fact that those recordings are not very let's say clear, it's
• 21:30
  a little too di y sounding, even though it wasn't di y. And
• 21:36
  I'm also going to say that judging by the crowds at Furnacefest. I think
• 21:44
  that they were rated just how they should have been underrated. Says like,
• 21:47
  hey, maybe maybe they can't quite fill the shed at Furnace Fest. I'm
• 21:53
  wondering how much of that is, like their their lasting staying power, how
• 21:56
  much of that is because of Demon Hunter? Do you think I think big
• 22:00
  time? Yeah, I feel like they're underrated, like on their own,
• 22:07
  like transfer you own its own, it's underrated. But Ryan Clark the Clark
• 22:10
  Brothers are like they are just like not under a good thing. I didn't
• 22:14
  pick the Clark Brothers kind of which sounds like a gospel trio. The thing
• 22:18
  I'll say about CFU is when they came out, they were the scarier parents
• 22:22
  band. Yes I was allowed to listen to Paradoxic granted, but like they
• 22:27
  like, I'm probably a bit older than y'all. But when this band came
• 22:32
  out, it was like, oh man, I got something that can annoy
• 22:34
  old people. Now because they're used to living sacrifice now, they can handle,
• 22:40
  you know, most of this stuff. But this tfu's first album,
• 22:44
  the second one was a bit more rock and roll. The first album was
• 22:45
  like these guys are a little bit unhinged for Christians, yeah, dude,
• 22:51
  I dig that. That's a good way to put it. They were kind
• 22:53
  of like the soft rebellion band. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:59
  Then that did that great noise album. It's more like a noise well it's
• 23:02
  not even metal, it's more that noise noise heavy kind of rock album.
• 23:06
  That's really good. So yeah, So anyway, that's my picker. All
• 23:11
  right. It's an interesting first pick, Mason. I think it's a strong
• 23:15
  one. It's it's a good roster pick. I don't know if they're necessarily
• 23:19
  underrated. Uh. My first band ninety five ish to three, I'm gonna
• 23:26
  go with a little known band from Oklahoma City called Still Breathing. They had
• 23:33
  a single LP and this band was of its time and also ahead of its
• 23:40
  time at the same At the same time, you had a dynamic uh female
• 23:47
  vocalist who I will be honest, the first couple of times I listened to
• 23:51
  this band, uh, thinking back, I did not know she was a
• 23:55
  woman. I was terrified of her screams and her her singing voice. There's
• 24:03
  a couple of songs like, uh K Carol. The name is like just
• 24:07
  just one Kiss or one Kiss or something like that. It's it's like a
• 24:11
  heavier version of deaf tones, and it is it's creepy like with like this
• 24:18
  like whispery, almost h back of your throat kind of singing, and then
• 24:23
  it just comes in with the heaviest screams you can possibly imagine. Super dynamic
• 24:27
  album, great songwriting. The girl's name, I think her name is Uhcy
• 24:34
  Dacy. Yeah, just goes by Dacy. I love that it's like Beyonce,
• 24:37
  but just like Dacy. Yeah. A band called Still Breathing. Yeah.
• 24:44
  The thing the only thing I like about them is that they that you
• 24:47
  know, you don't see a lot of female vocalists in the metalcore genre in
• 24:52
  the early two thousands, that is very very uncommon, and one that holds
• 24:56
  her own like she does is i would say, almost heard of in the
• 25:02
  entire music scene in terms of the heavy music scene, I should say at
• 25:07
  that time. Yeah, today, I mean, we have we have plenty
• 25:10
  of of of of trailblazers there, but she she's kind of an enigma,
• 25:15
  a thought onto her own. I think when it comes to truly being underrated,
• 25:23
  she is underrated. That band Still Breathing is still very underrated. Yeah,
• 25:30
  I don't think there's any debate here. This is truly an underrated band
• 25:33
  because of the fact that it's like one album, not many people ever talk
• 25:37
  about it. Yeah, there's no debating here. That's underrated. Yeah yeah,
• 25:42
  I'll be honest. I considered this band and I didn't know that their
• 25:47
  singer is a woman. Yeah. Wow, that's what I'm talking about.
• 25:49
  She almost sounds like like a death core singer or like a like a like
• 25:55
  a doom core singer. Like it's it's wild, and we especially had so
• 26:00
  very few female vocalists to listen to in the Christian world. Like it was
• 26:04
  even less than ye than secular loud music at large. It was it was
• 26:11
  like you know, fly Leaf, not that they were that extreme, and
• 26:12
  that's pretty cool to it. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah yeah, yeah,
• 26:19
  yeah, yeah yeah. But she doesn't really scream, you know.
• 26:22
  I mean, she's a great singer, but yeah, yeah, I love
• 26:29
  it all right. Next is Jason. So I decided that my criteria that
• 26:36
  I would attempt to go by it would be current Spotify listens so we can
• 26:40
  say, like, oh, okay, lots of people still into this band.
• 26:44
  So this band, they're floating at three hundred and sixty per month.
• 26:48
  This is a band that more people need to get out there and uh and
• 26:51
  catch up on from Dallas, Texas Society's finest one solid state album. And
• 26:56
  then they did a couple of others and it is and it all holds up.
• 27:02
  It's all pretty basic metalcore, nothing too crazy going on, little melody,
• 27:06
  little creativity. But like two things about this band. One, I
• 27:10
  remember when they when they came like their first year, like Cornerstone. It
• 27:15
  was like me and the homies, we show up, We're like, what
• 27:18
  are the bands were most excited to see? Zo? Of course, you
• 27:21
  know the ones that were really big. This was our like our pick,
• 27:23
  this is this is next, this is our rookie of the year pick.
• 27:26
  Right, Like we thought this band was going to be huge. This was
• 27:30
  before Norma Jean was Norman Jeen. This was before under Oath was the thing
• 27:33
  we think of as under Oath. Under Oath was still in their in their
• 27:36
  first era, so it was kind of like, who's going to be the
• 27:37
  band in this scene? This is the one we would have bet on only
• 27:41
  one album. Tons of talent went through this band. They had members.
• 27:47
  One of their singer went on to be the front man for Zeo for a
• 27:48
  while. They had a member from sixpence None the Richer was in the band
• 27:52
  at one point. What I guess that guy from as Ila Dying was in
• 27:56
  the band, but he just played guitar. Don't blame Society's Finals for him.
• 28:00
  But like the list of Society's were one solid state album on a couple
• 28:04
  other albums that no one listens to anymore, was insane. But yeah,
• 28:07
  They're They're, They're, They're They're one album that I ever really paid attention
• 28:11
  to. It still holds up, So I feel good about that. I'll
• 28:15
  be honest, I've not listened to Society's Finest, So that's a that's definitely
• 28:21
  gonna be underrated. Yeah, for for you, it's yet to be determined.
• 28:26
  For me. Also, I can't believe this is a band that,
• 28:30
  at least in their like first iteration, they were only around for like five
• 28:33
  or four years, and they had on their Wikipedia it looks like they have
• 28:40
  like almost at least twenty people that have been in the band. Yeah,
• 28:45
  they were just in concept with a multist band, just like always just someone
• 28:48
  leaving, Like it was like you play the way people talk about some of
• 28:52
  these bands that have shifting memberships, you know, this was that crunched into
• 28:56
  half a decade. It's like it's like communist society's finest. It's just a
• 29:03
  community. It's literally pulling. They should have a city government. I'll be
• 29:15
  honest, I've I've never heard of this band. I couldn't tell you anything
• 29:19
  about it. But because of it, because of that, like truly at
• 29:22
  least fits underrated. Whether they're good or not, that's up to you know,
• 29:26
  that's up to debate. The fact that that you know, you obviously
• 29:30
  like you grew up in the world where it was like early solid state stuff.
• 29:33
  The fact that like under Oath was coming up and some of those other
• 29:37
  bands were coming up, and you thought that this would be the band that
• 29:40
  broke out. That's pretty impressive to me. Yeah they didn't. They didn't,
• 29:45
  but you know, have a faulty foundation with so many like all right,
• 29:56
  justin, let's hear it. Last pick of the fast round or the
• 30:00
  early era of early era since since huge pretty much soul training from Toby for
• 30:06
  me, I was like I got and I shot them live like I could
• 30:08
  shoot that band and took it up out. I already need what you're going
• 30:11
  for, So I did a little shipping around. I went with n IV
• 30:15
  No No Innocent Victims. So their last record kind of falls in the first
• 30:19
  wave, first era of solid you know what we're talking about, two thousand
• 30:22
  and thirty. And I actually remember looking at h in the magazine in like
• 30:26
  the Christian bookstore and sings Suffering No Loss, No Suffering the Loss in a
• 30:33
  magazine. Oh I love that, you know, the hands that was flaming
• 30:37
  the eye and then lo and behold in IVY. You know, they disband,
• 30:41
  but their vocalist is probably one of the dopest vocals live, great funt
• 30:45
  Man No I might know him. He plays in Comeback Kid, every from
• 30:48
  Combat Kids. So he was ariginal VOCs vocalist and No Innocent Victims and for
• 30:52
  me, you know, Innocent Victims kind of underrated. They kind of disband
• 30:56
  in that mid era. They didn't play for a long time. But if
• 30:59
  you want classic hardcore music, you know, there's nothing kind of innovative but
• 31:03
  just good solid hardcore. That's my band. So as a hardcore you know
• 31:07
  youth you know, Youth group Kid, you know, seeing seeing that ad
• 31:11
  kind of brought back you know, I've seen them, you know, and
• 31:14
  it's it's fun. So it's you know, they'll never play again, but
• 31:18
  they're underrated because they's no reunion. Wait, no, they're supposed to play,
• 31:22
  but they didn't play. They were supposed to play, Like was this
• 31:25
  like what what had become ineligible for this draft? Right? Yeah, that's
• 31:33
  why they didn't play. Then we have to win this bitch. Uh uh.
• 31:41
  You know something really strange about No Innocent Victim. I was at my
• 31:48
  local park one day in Watertown, South Dakota, and uh, I was
• 31:53
  playing the play playing at the playround Highland Park, and I found owned a
• 32:00
  button like a like a pin on button that said no Innocent Victim on it,
• 32:05
  And I was like, this is cool, and I kept it at
• 32:07
  somewhere in one of these boxes to the left of me. I'll find it
• 32:13
  and I'll see if I can send ever get rid of anything. No,
• 32:15
  I don't. I also have a comeback Kid button that I stole from my
• 32:19
  sister. So yo, Yeah, the bands will do buttons, buttons the
• 32:22
  thing that's just out with the arrow. So I don't think people do buttons
• 32:25
  anymore. Yeah, they don't. They should. You go to a birch
• 32:30
  table. There's buttons everywhere. You have a dollar fifty. They don't do
• 32:32
  stickers anymore either. I think it's because there's not enough there's not enough meat
• 32:37
  on the bone to make any money. You know, Yeah, you're sending
• 32:43
  a forty bucks on the shirt. You can't. You can't a dollar for
• 32:46
  a button. I'll say n IV. I think that they're one where the
• 32:51
  ras is interesting because these days, I would say, like pretty off the
• 32:55
  radar, Like at the time they were like the hardcore band in this scene,
• 33:00
  but like doing this draft now it's like, yeah, yeah, they're
• 33:02
  mostly forgotten, so it's kint of Yeah. I think they might have had
• 33:07
  like if I was listening on Spotify and they just make sure I was tuned
• 33:09
  in. I think it's around like two thousand or less, like lessons,
• 33:13
  Like they used to be huge, but now like no one knows who they
• 33:16
  are, right, I mean they were they were touring with Terror, Hate
• 33:21
  Breed, Mad Ball, Pod, Like, they were touring with really really
• 33:23
  big bands, and obviously they probably weren't like the headliners for those types of
• 33:29
  tours, but the fact that they were even in the conversation, like people
• 33:32
  that were listening in pod would also be listening to know innocent victim is probably.
• 33:37
  I mean they clearly had some traction going on. Yeah, they they
• 33:43
  clearly had something going on. Yeah, so uh great pick. I mean
• 33:49
  cert like certainly underrated, but also like of those bands that people really really
• 33:52
  respect, especially if you're in the hardcore scene. Totally get it. Yeah
• 33:55
  all right. I'll also say that for a first round that was those are
• 34:00
  some heavy hitters, I think, Yeah, heavy hitters for underrated bands,
• 34:02
  right, all right, justin it's back to you already, back to me,
• 34:07
  back to me, okay for four through twenty thirteen. So because I'm
• 34:15
  just a Ryan Clark disciple, he's just probably my favorite vocalist, I'm gonna
• 34:22
  go with focal Point. So yeah, so that's like the band that he's
• 34:27
  in before he's in training for Utopia. So it's just it's like, you
• 34:30
  know, for me, like I'm just a Ryan Clark fiend, So anything
• 34:35
  that he does, regardless of what it is, I want to pick it.
• 34:37
  So I listened, I listened through him today and maybe not my favorite,
• 34:42
  but I'm in love with Ryan Clark, so I'm gonna, you know,
• 34:45
  with much Ryan Clark I can get on my list. For me,
• 34:49
  I would have been trained for training for utopia the focal point, but because
• 34:53
  you know, they said, but they're just underrated. I listened through the
• 34:57
  album today. I loved this. So we're going for two thousand, we're
• 35:00
  doing We're in the Golden Age. Okay, then if if that's it,
• 35:09
  then it's the Famine. Oh dude, Yeah, it's dude. I fell
• 35:20
  in as a Southerner, that Southern metal, that kind of gritty, groovy,
• 35:25
  just brutal. First album, like I remember being in was that junior
• 35:31
  or junior high school, like while we were in like Disney World with the
• 35:35
  Famine shirt. And I can't tell you how many times I've spun that record.
• 35:38
  So for me, it's just malicious. And they didn't go anywhere like
• 35:45
  they had. This has fallen out about the actually loving Jesus was just then
• 35:50
  released one more album and that was it, and I was like, I
• 35:52
  was so wanting more Famine, but you know, it became a famine game
• 35:57
  scarce and they were out of there. So yeah, dude, I have
• 36:00
  to one agree with you. That song Consumed Devour repeat off of album is
• 36:05
  one of the heaviest albums of Solid or one of the songs of Solid State.
• 36:13
  Oh yeah, dude. For sure Alabama. Yes. I will also
• 36:17
  say that their album cover for Architects of Guilt Is is easily in my top
• 36:24
  five favorite album covers of all time. I think that is so cool the
• 36:31
  way that they did that. So if you haven't seen it, go look
• 36:35
  at it right now. It's hard to believe that they were actually a Christian
• 36:37
  band with that album cover. Well, I don't think they really were.
• 36:42
  Come the second album, they were not. Yeah, but they were even
• 36:45
  on a label like that though with that album cover. Yeah, yeah,
• 36:51
  well, I I think I think that they were kind of one of those
• 36:54
  bands that they were kind of like he Is Legend, where they were like
• 36:58
  where you've never said we're Christian, we're not really Christian. And then what
• 37:02
  ended up happening was they they were kind of done disservice by the Solid State
• 37:10
  label, not necessarily intentionally, but by the fans, because the fans kind
• 37:15
  of picked up on the fact that, A, you're not claiming yourself to
• 37:19
  be Christian, so therefore we're not gonna listen to your album. Yeah,
• 37:22
  that's that's kind of my take on it, but that's just that's just me.
• 37:28
  Yeah. That was the big thing with that one was when people found
• 37:30
  that they weren't technically a Christian band, and they were like, well,
• 37:35
  so y'all wash their hands of them. Yeah, and we never got a
• 37:39
  third album. I was just like, come on, guys, it's just
• 37:42
  one more, just one more for the people. Dude, it sucks.
• 37:46
  It's it's a great, great pick. I think you're dead on with that
• 37:51
  being underrated for sure. All right, Jason, your your Golden age era,
• 38:00
  what's your pick? So this one was tough for a couple of reasons,
• 38:02
  one being like, there's so many hits in this in this decade,
• 38:07
  so it's like every band is like, well, they're not underrated. They're
• 38:10
  not underrated there. So I decided to stick with the same rule and call
• 38:14
  on glad you mentioned keep the rule consistent because I decided to stick to one
• 38:16
  album bands only. Oh oh wow, which yeah, so that hope this
• 38:23
  one, and I'm gonna go with they're not my favorites, not really even
• 38:30
  my favorite genre. But I listened back to it today and it was fine,
• 38:34
  gwyn Stacy is what we're going with. Sure, sure, they're not
• 38:37
  underrated when they were around, I know. So that's the thing is,
• 38:42
  like I was looking on Spotify to try to find a band in this decade,
• 38:45
  in this in this decade that's like underappreciated, and they're one of the
• 38:50
  lowest on from Thealid State's roster. Yeah, probably because there was only one
• 38:54
  album, only one Solid State album. But yeah, it's it's it's this
• 39:00
  is a hard decade to actually find something that I could even talk myself into
• 39:04
  being underrated. I think just the fact that if they'd stuck around, you
• 39:10
  know, they would be they would be huge. But because they only had
• 39:15
  one album, they can only be rated so highly is the argument I'm giving
• 39:19
  myself that. And the other thing is this decade was like when I was
• 39:22
  like completely paying zero attention to Christian and Christian adjacent's music. Like to use
• 39:30
  this, to use the terminology, this was like the jack middle of my
• 39:36
  deconstruction face, so to speak. It was like I'm good with ZAO and
• 39:39
  that's it. I don't want any of this other stuff. So like a
• 39:43
  lot of this has been coming back around and like, Okay, here's what
• 39:45
  I missed out on during this decade, right, sure, but yeah,
• 39:50
  yeah, I'm gonna have it. I'm gonna have an argument against you,
• 39:53
  and I'm gonna say that uh, Gwen Stacy. Here, here's the thing
• 39:57
  about Gwen Stacy. Everybody I knew that listened to Solid State had the Gwen's
• 40:02
  Stacy album, but no one said it was a good album. So,
• 40:10
  and I'm not trying to talk trash or anything like that, you know.
• 40:14
  I know that those guys probably worked hard on it, but it's just not
• 40:16
  very good. In my opinion, I think it's trying too hard in so
• 40:21
  many ways, and that it was really kind of a marketing genius kind of
• 40:29
  thing that everyone who listened to Solid State bought that album, or maybe we
• 40:32
  were all just too young and didn't quite understand what good music was. But
• 40:37
  that album is just not good. I've tried so many times to try to
• 40:40
  like see what it is about that album, and I just I don't think
• 40:44
  it's underrated because I don't think it's very good. Yeah. I so they
• 40:52
  had the two the two albums, one of them the two as bad,
• 40:54
  and then one on Solid State is like it's it's it's fine, it's fine,
• 41:00
  a couple of services and that's about it. Yeah. Yeah, Like
• 41:02
  outside of the context of needing a pick, I wouldn't hard for it,
• 41:07
  but uh, good call I mean, I don't really have any Yeah,
• 41:15
  I didn't particularly like them as a band, but I do think they qualify
• 41:21
  as an underrated band. Whether you think they're good or not, that's up
• 41:23
  to you know, everybody to figure out for themselves. I didn't really particularly
• 41:28
  like them, but they certainly I think are underrated in the sense that like
• 41:31
  not a lot of people listen to them in comparison to their contemporaries. Uh
• 41:37
  yeah, all right, my my pick. This one's actually one of my
• 41:43
  favorite bands that I like to claim as my favorite underrated bands. It's this
• 41:50
  is for any genre or for any label or artist or whatever. The ascendicate
• 41:55
  if any of you guys listen to this band. But this band, yeah
• 42:00
  so went so hard on the verses and went so poppy on all the choruses,
• 42:07
  and had like these like cool like little interludes and everything like that,
• 42:12
  and they just they were great songwriters. They were kind of like a super
• 42:15
  group of sorts. They had one album, and I think they formed in
• 42:21
  like two thousand, but their album came out in two thousand and eight,
• 42:22
  and then they didn't do anything else ever. Again, it's it's such a
• 42:30
  weird anomaly, the fact that this band could write so many good songs.
• 42:34
  The entire album is great through and through, and it's completely uh completely lost
• 42:42
  a time. It got no like press push from from Solid State or anything.
• 42:46
  It was just like, here's an album, all right, next one.
• 42:50
  So I don't know, I don't know why that band didn't have more
• 42:55
  following. I still remember around the time that it would have come out.
• 43:00
  I remember calling you like you were like, these guys are legit, and
• 43:05
  it had, you know, just so many different kind of genres going on
• 43:07
  with it. It was. It was fascinating. It is kind of unbelievable
• 43:10
  that it just didn't get the traction that I think you're probably right that it
• 43:15
  should have deserved. You know, they're not like they certainly wouldn't be like
• 43:16
  one of my favorites or anything. But the fact that they didn't get as
• 43:20
  much traction, given the fact that like so much of that sound at that
• 43:22
  time was also like really well liked, it's just hard to believe that they
• 43:28
  like didn't quite get ride that wave in the way that a lot of other
• 43:30
  bands, even from Solid State, were riding it. Yeah, yeah,
• 43:35
  no, I remember that band coming out, and then I remember them breaking
• 43:38
  up and their guitars going to Damon Hunter. I was like, Oh,
• 43:42
  this is a cool band, and I was like, oh, now he's
• 43:44
  in Damon Hunter. I was like, that was a weird, Like I
• 43:46
  just remember saying them and like, oh, dam Player, that's that.
• 43:52
  I actually have checked that out. So that was just all that was that.
• 43:54
  So yeah, it was a weird, weird, anominally kind of situation
• 44:00
  there. I don't know, a great band, though they deserve more.
• 44:04
  Well, one thing I find interesting so far is none of us have really
• 44:07
  picked any bands that we would think are like debatable to be a part of
• 44:10
  a different scene or like or sorry, a different era. So like,
• 44:15
  you know, there's some bands where like maybe they could cross over from one
• 44:17
  era or the other, and then you have to make the argument that you
• 44:21
  know, they actually should be in this era. It doesn't like it seems
• 44:24
  like all the bands that we picked so far have been cleanly in one era
• 44:28
  or not. Well, it helps because most have been one album wonders,
• 44:30
  you know, Yeah, the ones that are norma Jeane is tough because they
• 44:37
  were rated highly enough to make numerous albums, but right, yeah, they
• 44:40
  would be probably one of the few that would be them and maybe under Oath
• 44:45
  would be able to be a part of every single era that there might be
• 44:51
  only a couple of those bands. Norman Obviously under doesn't because they went they
• 44:58
  went to f Yeah. True, true, So they didn't stay with Solid
• 45:01
  State. No no, no, so they don't count beyond like right,
• 45:06
  But I think like Norma Jean and under Oath, I think at least had
• 45:10
  an album in each one of these eras. Yeah, I know Norma Jean
• 45:14
  did. Yeah, certainly Norma Jean. I think even under Oath might have.
• 45:17
  I think I under Oathed as well. Yeah, Xall does Extall.
• 45:22
  Yeah, that's a good point, that is true. Yep, so yeah,
• 45:25
  uh is it my turn? Yeah, it is all right. So
• 45:30
  this is a band that I also think is really underrated, although maybe in
• 45:32
  comparison to some of your ass picks they might have like more Spotify listeners.
• 45:37
  But it's also like important to like realize that this is a band that literally
• 45:42
  was like opening for under Oath and Norma Jean and some of these like really
• 45:45
  really big bands at the time, and to me, they had a sound
• 45:50
  that would have taken them to the links, you know, the kind of
• 45:53
  heights of devil Ware's Prada and Attack Attack and a lot of the big metal
• 45:59
  core that was coming out at that time. But for some reason, this
• 46:01
  band just didn't hit that wave in the same way that all of these bands
• 46:05
  that were releasing albums, especially on Solid State, they were releasing albums at
• 46:09
  the same time, and I thought were just as talented, but they just
• 46:13
  didn't quite make it as big. But that's inhale exhale. Oh yeah,
• 46:16
  that's a good one, man. They're just under at least on Spotify,
• 46:21
  they're just under a ten thousand monthly listeners. But if you listen to their
• 46:24
  stuff, I mean they were just as heavy as like an August Burn's rad
• 46:28
  They had just the poppy elements, the songwriting that was poppy enough that you
• 46:31
  would hear in like they're only chasing safety from under Oath. Just they hit
• 46:37
  all of these things, and it's like, how weren't they as big as
• 46:39
  an under Oath or as big as an Attack Attack, or as big as
• 46:43
  Delawar's product. Like that never made much sense to me, because they had
• 46:46
  all of the talent as any one of those bands, and I think the
• 46:51
  songwriting was just as good as any one of those bands, But for whatever
• 46:52
  reason, they just didn't make it as big. So anyway, I think
• 46:55
  Inhale Exhale. I still remember listening to them when I was in middle school,
• 47:00
  high school and thinking they are so good, and even at the time,
• 47:02
  I was thinking they are so criminally underrated in comparison to all their contemporaries,
• 47:07
  even on the Solid State label. Yeah, yeah, they they really
• 47:10
  had it going on. They had They had a lot of like that those
• 47:13
  poppy kind of chorus kind of situations, and then they went they went heavy,
• 47:16
  you know. They they really had that under Oath vibe without being under
• 47:22
  Oath, without the baggage that is under Oath. This is I tried to
• 47:27
  talk myself into counting this band, but I was like, it's such a
• 47:30
  big Spotify number, I should have just gone for it. Ex really is
• 47:32
  that? Do you think like that's why they're underrated. It's because they were
• 47:37
  sounded. They were too much like under Oath to be like under Oath Light.
• 47:40
  It's all this under oath. There's a lot of version of it,
• 47:45
  maybe, but every band was like that, right, I mean people said
• 47:47
  that that Ascidy's burn was was under Oath Light as well, you know,
• 47:52
  right if if in Hill exhal Let's say they had like even fifty thousand monthly
• 47:59
  listeners on Spotify right now. I don't think I would have picked them,
• 48:01
  but the fact that they're under ten thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, to me,
• 48:06
  it's like and then their contemporaries like under Oath or over a million,
• 48:09
  you know, certainly August Burn's reads over a million. I would imagine some
• 48:13
  of those other bands I just mentioned too, like Attack, Attack and devil
• 48:15
  Ware as product, they're probably over a million monthly listeners and this band has
• 48:19
  less than ten thousand. And this band was literally playing for them, you
• 48:22
  know, probably at the same time where they may be even selling as many
• 48:27
  albums, maybe maybe not quite as much. But like to me, they
• 48:30
  were just as talented. They were so good, and they should have been
• 48:35
  bigger. I think so. I think of them as underrated in the fact
• 48:37
  that they should have been as big as an under Oath, or they should
• 48:40
  have been as big as an Attack Attack, but they just aren't. Mason,
• 48:45
  I want to have an argument against you, but I don't have one
• 48:49
  like that. That's just a good pick. Great, I'm all about that.
• 48:52
  Whenever I can leave you speechless, all right, is it is it
• 49:00
  my turn again? Now for Current, it's your turn again. Yeah,
• 49:04
  Current Band fourteen present. I'm very excited by the fact that I get to
• 49:08
  have a current band as a first pick. I'm gonna go with a band
• 49:13
  that let me look up their monthly listener on Spotify, you know, given
• 49:16
  the fact that like Spotify numbers are going to be way different from like a
• 49:20
  band that was only released one album in like nineteen ninety five versus a band
• 49:23
  that we think is underrated but is releasing stuff in twenty tens and twenty twenties.
• 49:30
  This band, I think is criminally underrated in the sense that, again
• 49:32
  they don't have a lot of monthly listeners, but they are extremely talented,
• 49:38
  maybe one of the most creative bands on the roster of solid State right now,
• 49:43
  and nobody like seems to like recognize that. But that's the ongoing concept.
• 49:50
  We interviewed them last year with their new album Callin, But they are
• 49:52
  as creative as any band that has ever been on solid State, and that
• 49:57
  includes my favorite band of all time, like the Chariot, which I think
• 50:00
  is maybe one of the most creative bands I've ever heard. But the ongoing
• 50:02
  concept is just as creative as any band you'll ever hear, they're just as
• 50:07
  talented, and yet they have less than fifteen thousand monthly listeners on Spotify.
• 50:12
  That's why. And they're contemporary. I mean you like think of like the
• 50:15
  current bands that are on Solid State right now, Like you've got Silent Planet,
• 50:22
  which I think is about five hundred thousand monthly listeners right now. You've
• 50:24
  got Fit for a King that's probably close to a million. Even, You've
• 50:29
  got Norman Jean, which is probably two hundred and fifty thousand monthly listeners.
• 50:31
  So you've got some really big bands that are like on the current roster as
• 50:36
  well, and Ongoing Concept doesn't even come close to those numbers. And I
• 50:42
  think they're just as talented as as any of those bands. And I love
• 50:45
  all those other bands, but all those bands have the popularity that you would
• 50:47
  expect from the creativity and talent of those bands. But the Ongoing Concept doesn't
• 50:52
  have the popularity as some of those other bands. So I'm going to take
• 50:55
  them as my contemporary round pick. Yeah, Ongoing Concept. I think I
• 51:02
  think maybe the reason that they didn't quite get that push right, that that
• 51:08
  cult status that we often find in the Solid State realm is because they were
• 51:15
  in that period of death in the genre. Yeah, Like the first album
• 51:22
  from on Solid State was twenty thirteen, which is like, that's why I
• 51:25
  like create the thirteen or twenty fourteen. That's like where this era starts,
• 51:30
  because yeah, there was just like a death in the general music scene.
• 51:34
  It was for Solid State. Yeah, it was like it was the doldrums
• 51:37
  of the genre. Everyone was was was doing an exodus away. They're like,
• 51:42
  all right, enough of this cookie cutter bs and the ongoing concept is
• 51:45
  nothing like a cookie cutter band. But because so many fans turn their back
• 51:51
  on that scene, I think that they were kind of left in the dust
• 51:54
  for that reason. I also think that maybe like they had a couple really
• 51:59
  really good in those first couple albums, they had a couple of fillers though
• 52:01
  as well, and I think that maybe I think that maybe hurt them a
• 52:05
  little bit. But in terms of like a band that was like super DIY
• 52:08
  and really like focused on on, uh making the best music that they possibly
• 52:14
  could, at the moment, I think that they are definitely underrated. Great,
• 52:22
  I'm I'm glad that you continue to approve my picks, calling that doesn't
• 52:24
  happen very often. Yeah, you know, it is what it is,
• 52:29
  got to give you the wins when you get them, I guess. So
• 52:30
  all right, is it your turn? It is my turn? Okay,
• 52:34
  So this one I was fumbling around with quite a bit because there's a lot
• 52:37
  to choose from right now. There's a lot of really great bands that aren't
• 52:38
  getting enough recognition in this scene, especially in the solid state realm. But
• 52:44
  I'm gonna pick a friend of ours, a really good friend of ours,
• 52:46
  who's been on the podcast just about more than anybody else, and that is
• 52:52
  The Undertaking. Oh. I think, you know, Mason, you talked
• 52:57
  about just a little bit ago that you know, you think The Chariot's one
• 53:00
  of the most creative bands that you've ever that you've ever listened to, and
• 53:05
  I would agree with that. I think The Undertaking is cut from that same
• 53:08
  cloth, and they deserve that same kind of recognition. They are. They're
• 53:14
  they're great songwriters, they're great people, they're great performers. They like to
• 53:19
  play around of the word time signature is they like to do things a little
• 53:22
  against the grain, which I appreciate significantly, And I think that every single
• 53:27
  time that they do something. It's something interesting and new and fresh and desirable,
• 53:31
  but for some reason it's not quite hitten into that next echelon of listenership.
• 53:38
  Yet I don't disagree. Yeah, they're probably I don't even know,
• 53:43
  maybe a couple thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, and certainly I'm one of them.
• 53:49
  They are extremely talented and creative, and I think you're totally right.
• 53:52
  I don't understand why they aren't as especially when you see bands like The Callous
• 53:58
  Cowboys get really big right now with that kind of creative chaos, it's like,
• 54:01
  yeah, or you know, especially obviously you've got like the lasting power
• 54:05
  of Dylan erk skate Plan, but you're now seeing like better lovers kind of
• 54:09
  get steam in that world too. It's like, how is the Undertaking not
• 54:14
  getting that scene kind of steam? I mean they were. If I wasn't
• 54:17
  picking the ongoing concept, I would probably would have picked the Undertaking. So
• 54:21
  I think that's been on a great live show like photo like Abandoned Get the
• 54:24
  Photograph, Like those guys are so cool the photograph, Like there's high energy
• 54:28
  show, like they're jumping up their cry so like it's a it's a full
• 54:34
  experience to see them live, So if you haven't seen them, please see
• 54:37
  them record Yeah by the record good All right, Jason, I had two
• 54:45
  I was debating for tops in this round. Undertaking was one of mine.
• 54:50
  I just look like that whole chariot Dowboys. I don't even know if you
• 54:58
  whatever sub genre you call that, but yeah, I love all that that
• 55:01
  stuff ed about going with spirit Breaker. Oh yes, this was also on
• 55:08
  my list. I almost did. This was only a couple of listeners,
• 55:12
  which is crazy because there's there're twenty one. To me, it sort of
• 55:15
  feels like, and you know, this isn't a disor slide or anything.
• 55:20
  I'm picking them obviously. I like him. It sort of feels like twenty
• 55:23
  tens under Oath the next just like they take a lot of that core sound
• 55:28
  and build on it in creative ways, and they they have a lot of
• 55:32
  sounds to them. I don't know, I'm really excited for uh, wherever
• 55:37
  they take this. Yeah do. Their singer is an absolute monster. He
• 55:43
  can do absolutely everything vocally, There's nothing he can't do, and he's got
• 55:50
  dreads that at least at the time we talked to him, that were that
• 55:52
  rival Justin's Yes, I love any I love any vocals with dreads and if
• 55:59
  you if your band has it's in them, I might. I might just
• 56:01
  like I'm just fans. You know when I was young, you know,
• 56:10
  they had no staying power with me. Yeah that's all right, that's all
• 56:16
  right, all right, great pick uh justin right yeahs SA. I would
• 56:24
  say the most progressive, like yeah when yeah, it's like they have a
• 56:29
  female vocalist, they have guitar players and people from like Extol and Dillinger so
• 56:36
  and that we're kind of chaotic like but with her voices very melodic for me,
• 56:39
  Like that's that was on my list, Like Noah picked a Zusa I
• 56:44
  is the band and if you like they're like the song heavy Yoke is just
• 56:50
  brutal. Eventually just sing over top of it, back into this brutality.
• 56:53
  And they should be bigger because like spirit Box, well the Little headrid than
• 56:58
  spirit Box, but it's the same, like you know, we have bands
• 57:01
  like you know you're like uh slow polls like this kind of female front front
• 57:06
  of heavy band. I'm surprised they're not bigger because they have a female front,
• 57:08
  female vocalist, heavy music and just the litany of energy and the kind
• 57:15
  of death metal world. Like they cap like they're just just any other death
• 57:20
  metal band with that kind of soft local way, and are trying to look
• 57:23
  at music that they do. They're criminally underrated. Ye yeah, yeah,
• 57:30
  no, I I I one agree. I do think it's kind of interesting.
• 57:31
  I'm curious, did you all have those bands, all four of those
• 57:36
  bands on your potential list like we're in, Were they in your top five
• 57:40
  rolodecks for what you might put down for your twenty fourteen to present bands like
• 57:50
  Concept, I'm going Concept, undertaking, spirit Breaker, Sorry yeah, spirit
• 57:54
  Breaker and uh oh, like we all had the same Yeah, yeah,
• 58:00
  because I had, I had all four of those bands and my potential I
• 58:04
  mean I was gonna, yeah I have like spirit Breaker and as like yeah
• 58:07
  certainly, yeah, mine's different. I just like I'll pick them beings that
• 58:10
  I really like love and then as you're just wood on the way on my
• 58:14
  list, spirit Breaker to those boys is heavy. Yeah, dude, I
• 58:17
  love that. I love that. I mean there are obviously you get some
• 58:21
  of those legacy bands that are on the solid State roster right now, but
• 58:25
  people are missing out on some of these cooler bands. There's just so many
• 58:29
  of them right now. Yeah, yeah, I think we could literally go
• 58:32
  through the entire roster right now, we can say like every single one of
• 58:35
  these deserves every considered underrated, right Yeah. So I would say it's a
• 58:39
  weird thing that now they would be considered like an underrated label. But like
• 58:44
  fifteen years ago, when I'm in like in junior high school, like in
• 58:45
  myhigh school, that's like the label. If you have any any bands that's
• 58:49
  playing the youth group, you're like, oh my gosh, I gotta get
• 58:51
  signed to Solid Face Like that was that was it. There was there was
• 58:55
  no other things they were trying to do. Yeah, I don't almost get
• 59:00
  almost think it begs the question of why are there so many bands for Solid
• 59:04
  Day right now that are considered underrated. I mean they seem to be signing
• 59:07
  like bands that yeah, they probably don't have quite the the numbers quite yet,
• 59:13
  but they're they they see clearly like creative potential and they're like, we'll
• 59:17
  give them some money and see what happens with it, and if it doesn't
• 59:21
  work out, doesn't work out, and if it does, great, Like
• 59:22
  but it seems like kind of these like low low risk kind of bands,
• 59:27
  partly because these bands are so talented and creative, like it could pop off,
• 59:30
  you know, you don't know, Yeah, and they're probably really like
• 59:34
  reeling off of the fact that they've got bands like Devil orris Prada and Fit
• 59:37
  for a King that are probably making them pretty good money. Sure, And
• 59:42
  I guess it feels like the genre as a whole is a bit more niche
• 59:44
  than it used to be without like under Oath and others at the forefront.
• 59:51
  Yeah, I almost kind of feel like this is these are like the cred
• 59:53
  bands almost, you know, right, Like you could you could pull up
• 59:58
  any kind of heavy music listener and be like, hey, check these guys
• 1:00:00
  out. Oh yeah, and they would not be put off even if like
• 1:00:05
  they were like evangelical Christian, right, Like, they would not be put
• 1:00:07
  off by these bands because they're all fantastic. Right if we were if we
• 1:00:13
  were to do this podcast fifteen years ago and did this category, we would
• 1:00:17
  be saying, like the Chariot is this kind of like they would fit this
• 1:00:21
  category of like a band that is super underrated that's a current solid state ban
• 1:00:25
  Like, that's that kind of band. And so when we think of those
• 1:00:29
  bands now, it's yeah, it's it's the Undertaking, it's the Spirit Breakers,
• 1:00:31
  it's the Azuza, like yeah, that's exactly who we're thinking of.
• 1:00:36
  But yeah, the Chariot fifteen years ago would have been that band for this
• 1:00:37
  kind of category. Yeah yeah, I think so. Right, Yeah,
• 1:00:44
  wildcard round, So any band from any era, So this will be our
• 1:00:49
  last round, any band from any era. I think we're starting back with
• 1:00:52
  justin right, Okay, any band from any era. Okay, I'm going
• 1:00:57
  with Becoming the Archetype. Interesting even though they played furnace fist right, you
• 1:01:07
  knowtaking so yeah yeah, okay, so yeah, Undertaking play furnt like for
• 1:01:15
  me, Becoming Archetypes underrated both within like the Christian metal world and the broader
• 1:01:21
  like broader like sales were like you know, Jason wasn't like he's still like
• 1:01:24
  a teacher, like he didn't make enough, he's to leave the day job
• 1:01:30
  behind. So for me that they're underrated because like every album they put out
• 1:01:36
  is just killer. They just they just kill like like even when Jason leaves
• 1:01:42
  the band, that one weird album when there was no originals is that album's
• 1:01:47
  heavy and the next album they put its super heavy. I think that they're
• 1:01:51
  underrated to me, I'm like, I want people. I tell people about
• 1:01:53
  them all the time, but I never heard of this band. Like They've
• 1:01:55
  been around since I was like in junior high, so they've been on such
• 1:02:00
  a long time, and they just never got like the accolades that I thought
• 1:02:06
  that they would get. Y'all might disagree, but I felt like they should
• 1:02:07
  have been like another tier that they should have got, like to be opening
• 1:02:12
  up for like Lamb of God and like that. They never kind of broke
• 1:02:15
  out in that way. Yeah, for a bad that has a sound like
• 1:02:20
  them, I always imagine that they would have broken out a little bit more.
• 1:02:23
  I think in terms of the label, they're probably not underrated. I
• 1:02:28
  think in terms of just like the label Roster, I think they're like they
• 1:02:31
  would be up there with like the top probably ten. Okay, uh in
• 1:02:36
  terms of the entire history of the label. So maybe in terms of the
• 1:02:39
  label they're not they're not underrated, But in terms of like the wider listening
• 1:02:43
  audience, I think that is an underrated pick. Yeah, that would be
• 1:02:49
  my critique too, is Yeah, I think they probably where their listenership is
• 1:02:53
  right now, even in even where it was back then, they probably fit
• 1:02:58
  within that like second or third tier of the bands that were on the roster
• 1:03:01
  at the time, and they were right there, and they probably had the
• 1:03:05
  sales of what that should have been and the you know, they kind of
• 1:03:08
  fit that. Uh and even currently I think it looks like they're just at
• 1:03:13
  like twenty five thousand. Yeah, just on your twenty five thousand monthly listeners
• 1:03:15
  on Spotify. That sort of is where I would expect them to be.
• 1:03:20
  But U but yeah, I think you're right calling like in terms of the
• 1:03:22
  broader metal community, it's kind of unbelievable they never were able to like really
• 1:03:28
  break out as at least bigger, Like I feel like they are a band
• 1:03:30
  that at least deserves like one hundred thousand monthly listeners, I think for sure.
• 1:03:34
  Well, and you said something like they've always like a second tier,
• 1:03:37
  it's alid say band like if you're like you take the broader band, I
• 1:03:40
  under like they were never like the front line, like this is the top
• 1:03:44
  band that we gonna was pushing. Yeah, they were never that band.
• 1:03:47
  Yeah that should have been. But we will all blame seth hawck heck coocks
• 1:03:51
  forever. That's right, Yeah, that's always all right. Jason, what
• 1:04:00
  is your wildcard pick? So uh you? With two hundred and eighty listeners
• 1:04:05
  on Spotify per month, whoa another one album? Band to right one album?
• 1:04:14
  I saw them at a county fair. They had a DJ who had
• 1:04:19
  the crowd moshing to the Dungeon theme from Mario Brothers. Is that yes,
• 1:04:30
  then you're going to disqualify this pick, Ludacris. Ah, well, it
• 1:04:39
  is a different band technique, It is a different band name, a totally
• 1:04:43
  different sound. They sounded kind of like the death straight upthing, and they
• 1:04:49
  did have an album on Solid State. They had an album on solid State.
• 1:04:54
  It's not bad. It's kind of new metally, but it's not bad.
• 1:04:57
  Throwing myself very good. I think it's a very good album. Actually,
• 1:05:00
  yeah, I love to see I mean I loved it at the time.
• 1:05:02
  I go back now and I'm like, yeah, sure, holds up
• 1:05:04
  fine, Yeah, if if if that was disqualified, I'd probably try to
• 1:05:09
  sneak in strong arm, but uh oh yeah, I don't think that would
• 1:05:14
  count. That's a that's a cult classic, you know. Yeah, it's
• 1:05:16
  it. That's a chicky one because like, not many people listen to it,
• 1:05:21
  but everyone who does revers it laid that when Yeah further played a strong
• 1:05:29
  Arm song and it was like fifty percent of the crowd lost their minds.
• 1:05:32
  I'm like, I know every single one of these words, and fifty percent
• 1:05:35
  was like what what is happening? So like, I'll take the point that
• 1:05:42
  it's too everyone who rates it rates it maximally. Yeah, I put all
• 1:05:48
  their weight behind it, like this, Yes, rank choice. Jason Ludacris
• 1:05:56
  was a band that I was like, really, I'm like, do they
• 1:05:58
  do they qualify? Do they not? So? I don't think they're like
• 1:06:01
  as clear cut, partly because of the Norman gen connection, but you do
• 1:06:06
  have a point to be made. It was its own band, with its
• 1:06:09
  own sound, and they had their own album, Like it wasn't the same
• 1:06:15
  exact band as obviously like Blessed the Martyr, So I think you have a
• 1:06:17
  point to be made there. But also it was like one of those like
• 1:06:20
  do they qualify? Do they not? So? But I do think they
• 1:06:24
  were underrated in the sense that like, yeah, the fact that they have
• 1:06:28
  only two hundred and fifty monthly listeners, it's kind of unbelievable, and the
• 1:06:30
  fact that put it in context like new metal, when did Throwing Myself come
• 1:06:36
  out ninety seven, ninety eight, a little later than ninety nine, Like
• 1:06:41
  that was Yeah, I mean that is like the golden years of new metal,
• 1:06:45
  and the fact that I understand it's like heavier new metal than like Hybrid
• 1:06:50
  Theory and some of the other big new metal stuff that was coming out at
• 1:06:53
  the time. But the fact that like that didn't get quite as big,
• 1:06:58
  even as like a heavier new metal sound. It's fee kind of unbelievable that
• 1:07:00
  they only have that many monthly listeners, especially with the Norman Gene connection.
• 1:07:04
  That album honestly makes more sense in hindsight, like seeing where the greater Skoggin
• 1:07:10
  you you know, Cherio Norgine, where all these bands sort of have access
• 1:07:15
  this whole range of sounds from like metal metal to rock rock, and you
• 1:07:18
  have this, you know, this band. You could just Loudy Chris.
• 1:07:23
  You could just slot it somewhere within that range, you know. I like
• 1:07:25
  the way you said it, Loudy Chris. It's a ridiculous name because it's
• 1:07:30
  the same name as Lucris the rapper, so like you feel like you have
• 1:07:33
  to, yeah, pronounce it differently. Well, he wasn't out yet,
• 1:07:38
  technically, right, I thought. I thought it was I think he wasn't
• 1:07:41
  big yet, but he was. He was a local DJ who was starting
• 1:07:46
  to starting a rap career. He was doing by Chris Lover Lover and he
• 1:07:50
  changed his name to Ludacris the Rapper and they were like, oh, great,
• 1:07:54
  great, we're changing our name. Yeah. I was gonna say,
• 1:07:56
  if you're so obscure that you have to change your name because some upcoming wrapper,
• 1:08:00
  you're probably underrated there. That's that's your best argument. Like, they
• 1:08:09
  could have changed his name. Now you know what we are here, first
• 1:08:13
  change your name. That's what they should have done. You know. It's
• 1:08:16
  funny because they're like from the same area. I wonder, I wonder if
• 1:08:21
  there was some cross pollination there. Maybe maybe Ludacris. I wonder if you
• 1:08:26
  went to a Lootie Chris concert and I was like, you know, this
• 1:08:30
  is great. Yeah, what's your what's your wildcard? Pick This one I
• 1:08:41
  was struggling with because there's a lot of want to pick, but there's one
• 1:08:44
  band that all of a sudden rose to the surface. The cream came to
• 1:08:45
  the top. As one might say, Mason, don't take that the wrong
• 1:08:49
  way. I know you're about to once nothing I this is this is one
• 1:08:58
  band to real religiously in art class? Especially uh that they have that one
• 1:09:05
  album with like the oh southern blue collar metal. Yeah, no, what's
• 1:09:11
  what's the one with the First Game the Law? Then came Grace. Yeah,
• 1:09:15
  which one is that? Let me look really quick, I'm trying not
• 1:09:18
  it is First Game of Law? Yeah, First Game of Law two thousand
• 1:09:21
  and eight. It was their only full length album. I didn't know that
• 1:09:26
  that. I thought they had another album. Maybe I'm wrong. Supposedly they
• 1:09:30
  have like five EPs, and how is it possible to have five EPs but
• 1:09:33
  only one full length? Yeah? Well, it's like they put out a
• 1:09:38
  lot of EPs, like Earth Mover, the one that comes out right before
• 1:09:40
  like like like right right before I first comes the Law, and then they
• 1:09:44
  put out to like they just chose everyone with with the Indiana sessions, and
• 1:09:47
  I was I messaged them on Instagram, say, hey, are y'all gonna
• 1:09:50
  play for instant like what the heck are y'all doing? And but once nothing
• 1:09:55
  just yeah, dude, I think I think that they I don't know what
• 1:10:00
  happened to them, Like they got lost in the shuffle. They they had
• 1:10:02
  an unabashed southern metal sound they had because they were from Pittsburgh, which is
• 1:10:09
  wild. It's a rule up there country. Yeah, that's right. Pittsburgh
• 1:10:15
  and Birmingham are the same place. That's well, it makes sense. They
• 1:10:20
  uh, they had so many cool one liners that I just found myself repeating
• 1:10:26
  over and over again, almost like the Chariot right, Like there's a lot
• 1:10:30
  of chariot lines that I would repeat over and over. There was a lot
• 1:10:32
  of once nothing lines I would repeat over and over. And I think even
• 1:10:38
  if it was just for and then came the Law, that last song on
• 1:10:42
  that record, or no, and then came Grace, that's that's the last
• 1:10:45
  song. If if it was just for that song, they would make my
• 1:10:48
  underrated list because that song is a masterpiece and there's hardly anything going on with
• 1:10:54
  it. But they just they did it so tastefully. And I don't know
• 1:10:57
  if you guys remember, I think it was like two thousand, probably twenty
• 1:11:00
  thirteen fourteen. Maybe they they like had like this big kickstarter about how they
• 1:11:05
  were going to get back together, and like it didn't go anywhere, Like
• 1:11:12
  I don't think that they got more than like a couple hundred dollars in the
• 1:11:15
  kickstarter and then they were like, well, I guess we're not going to
• 1:11:17
  release another album. Well I guess, yeah, so underrated. I mean
• 1:11:23
  that is like the definition of it. You can't even get like a kickstarter
• 1:11:26
  going, which it seems like everyone can get a kickstarter figured out for any
• 1:11:30
  band. It's like the opposite of what Caveman's Call had to do. Yeah,
• 1:11:39
  yeah, for real. So it's a It's a band that I would
• 1:11:43
  love to hear more music from, but I don't think we're ever going to
• 1:11:45
  get it. Yeah, that's a band that I had on my list as
• 1:11:48
  I mean, they for sure fit the definition of underrated. I also think
• 1:11:54
  they're really good, so no arguments here. I would have for sure picked
• 1:11:58
  them. Sweet all right, I wonder what here, Let me look really
• 1:12:01
  quick. I wonder what they're monthly listener. I bet they're They've got to
• 1:12:04
  be under a thousand monthly listeners. I'm one of those thousand listeners. Like,
• 1:12:08
  I'm just pushing their numbers. They're at thirteen hundred. That's wait,
• 1:12:12
  that's more than I thought. I thought they'd be closer to like five hundred.
• 1:12:15
  But yeah, they're at thirty Yeah, talk about doing a reunion show.
• 1:12:19
  I was like maybe this will like be a little inspiration. You know
• 1:12:24
  that'd be it says In twenty twenty two, they did a reunion show.
• 1:12:27
  They did? They did? What? Yeah? They In twenty twenty two,
• 1:12:32
  the band announce a Party Time reunion show being held at the Penn Brewery
• 1:12:36
  on January twenty eighth. What the hell? I don't know if they actually
• 1:12:42
  did that or not, but supposedly. I love every one of these Wikipedia
• 1:12:45
  pages. The final section is like and then they reunite and that's it,
• 1:12:50
  right. I want to know who writes all these right, like, like
• 1:12:58
  who's writings Solid State? Right up? Every band that was on a Christian
• 1:13:02
  label, there's a section that's like, we're Christians in a band, but
• 1:13:05
  you know that that that whole whether they're Christians. And then it ends with
• 1:13:12
  and then they played once at Furnace Fest and that was it. The other
• 1:13:15
  thing you always hear is the other thing here is we don't want to put
• 1:13:18
  God in a box. But they're on their Instagram. So I checked.
• 1:13:29
  I checked once Nothing, I want nothing Instagram and they did play their pictures.
• 1:13:32
  They actually did it. Damn we got to get once Nothing on here,
• 1:13:38
  Mason, please do that's true? My favorite my favorite uh Spotify like
• 1:13:44
  Christian metal band or sorry, my my favorite Wikipedia page for Christian metal band
• 1:13:48
  is demon Hunter because it's like, you know, history band members and then
• 1:13:54
  there's a section that says reported use by military. Yeah, they're listening to
• 1:13:59
  demon under while they killed bin Laden. All right, my pick. I
• 1:14:04
  was thinking either going like by what I think truly is the most underrated,
• 1:14:09
  but there's also like a nostalgic band that I'm thinking of that I think also
• 1:14:13
  for sure is underrated. But they're just like they they like they were one
• 1:14:17
  of the first heavy bands I ever listened to, so it's like hard to
• 1:14:19
  not pick them, So I'm gonna go with them. But that's Life in
• 1:14:23
  Your Way. Yeah, they had I think just one album on Solid say.
• 1:14:29
  They had a couple albums that actually like more from I think it was
• 1:14:32
  like Indianola. I don't know how to say the record label, but they
• 1:14:35
  had a couple other albums. I think they were even on Floodgate Records for
• 1:14:41
  for one album. But I really really loved Life in Your Way. I
• 1:14:44
  do think like if Life in Your Way was able to create that sound now,
• 1:14:48
  they very well could be a big band like that. Kind of like
• 1:14:51
  melodic hardcore where you get the like heavy elements, but you got like the
• 1:14:55
  singing stuff. They just you know, you see like bands like day Seeker
• 1:14:59
  and a lot of the big metal core bands right now that like obviously balance
• 1:15:01
  that and even that was big back in the early two thousands, but it's
• 1:15:05
  kind of hard to believe that Life in Your Way didn't really take off in
• 1:15:08
  the same way that a lot of those other bands have. And so,
• 1:15:11
  yeah, I think Life in Your Way, you know, I think of
• 1:15:13
  bands like It Dies Today, where it's kind of that melodic hardcore stuff.
• 1:15:16
  I'm like, how was Life in Your Way not as big as It Dies
• 1:15:19
  today? Or you know, those are some of the bands I think of,
• 1:15:23
  and I'm like, they just should have been just as big, but
• 1:15:26
  they never quite made it as big for whatever reason. And so anyway,
• 1:15:29
  I think they fit the the the category of underrated. I think they're like
• 1:15:32
  around like seven thousand monthly listeners on Spotify something like that. Yeah, so
• 1:15:36
  I think they certainly fit the category. And I think they're just really freaking
• 1:15:41
  talented. They're really good. I think argumentatively, I agree with you,
• 1:15:44
  Maison, They're they're very talented they're they're they're pretty good. If they do
• 1:15:46
  a limited release vinyl at Furnace Fest, then they're definitely probably not actually underrated.
• 1:15:57
  Yeah, I mean the play and there are lots of people and and
• 1:16:00
  they saw the whole yl there, so yeah they did mean stage, are
• 1:16:06
  right, I mean, but that probably like, here's what I will say.
• 1:16:11
  Those are probably literally their only fans, and they happen to all show
• 1:16:15
  up at the shed that day they're vinyl, but that's it, that's they
• 1:16:18
  There's no other fans other than those people that showed up. Yeah, that's
• 1:16:23
  probably right, So that that would be my counter argument. So, uh,
• 1:16:29
  Life in Your Way all right, let's uh, let's before we well,
• 1:16:33
  Colin, should we do our like name our bands and people can maybe
• 1:16:38
  listeners can like figure out who they think might have the best team assemble.
• 1:16:43
  Let's do that first. You go first, all right? So I picked
• 1:16:45
  I Have to Go Back Now Training for Utopia for my beginning era. Then
• 1:16:50
  I picked Inhale Exhale as the golden era band, and then for the current
• 1:16:55
  era, I picked the ongoing concept. And then for my wild card,
• 1:16:59
  I pay picked Life in Your Way. So that's my roster of bands and
• 1:17:03
  I think I've got a pretty good roster. I don't know if it's the
• 1:17:06
  best, but I think it's pretty good, right because mine is the best,
• 1:17:10
  which is still breathing, the acendicate, the undertaking and once nothing.
• 1:17:15
  Jason, do you remember yours? You need me to read them for you.
• 1:17:18
  I have society's finest. I have Gwynn Stacy, who I would happily
• 1:17:21
  trade for anyone from any other era. And I have ludicrous. You might
• 1:17:30
  have had air, you might have had a third round bust there or second
• 1:17:31
  round bus I should say, yeah, so there not the first time you've
• 1:17:39
  busted in the second round. Wow, at least not a lot of Christian
• 1:17:45
  men can say they made it to that. Maybe it was second base instead
• 1:17:51
  of the second round. All right, justin what what what's your roster?
• 1:18:00
  Oh? So, probably have the heaviest, heaviest roster so far. Just
• 1:18:08
  you know, got n I vy you know than the famine a zuosa n
• 1:18:12
  BT becoming the archetype. Clearly this brutality start to finish. However you want
• 1:18:18
  to mine this up. Lots of mash happening, lots of lots of violence,
• 1:18:24
  yeah, lots of lots of like squat prs happening with you. You
• 1:18:29
  know, you know a lot lots of games, you know, I feel
• 1:18:33
  like the merchs all, you know, lots of black merchan skulls. You
• 1:18:36
  know. I will say, you know you're you're right with that, Mason,
• 1:18:41
  because becoming the archetype was often my my PR personal record, throwing music
• 1:18:48
  for for track and field, so makes sense. I mean, hey,
• 1:18:53
  at least Jason has done something with his life. He's helped you pr.
• 1:18:57
  That's right, all right? Should we mean some honorable mentions? I I
• 1:19:00
  can think of a number of bands that should have been mentioned but weren't.
• 1:19:04
  But does anybody else have any honorable mentions that they can think of that you
• 1:19:09
  know, at least they at least deserve a shout out? Can we shout
• 1:19:14
  them out? Yeah? The oh it's a showdown, the showdown, Yeah
• 1:19:18
  for sure. Yeah, they're well, yeah, they're so even. I
• 1:19:23
  feel like they got super underrated because they changed their sounds like that first Oh
• 1:19:28
  Wait album, you know, like that one's just crazy heavy, you know,
• 1:19:33
  death metal influence, and then they become like bikers, yes, biker
• 1:19:39
  metal, you know, like like Blood and the Gears and everything like that.
• 1:19:42
  But I continue to contend that A Man named Hell is the greatest uh
• 1:19:46
  intro song to any album ever, oh for sure. Like but you know,
• 1:19:51
  I think from me they're underrated because as as that sound kind of shifts
• 1:19:56
  and they kind of go away, I think they went away at the wrong
• 1:19:59
  time. I think if they put one more album out then they break through,
• 1:20:02
  it's like, oh my gosh, it's like you've changed the sound,
• 1:20:04
  you have developed it. They've kind of got that dirty southern like kind of
• 1:20:09
  pretty a little singing, but still like heavy enough to kind of drive things
• 1:20:13
  along. And then then they just stopped. What have y'all done? And
• 1:20:16
  then they came back at play friends. That shouldn't count because everybody played place
• 1:20:21
  best that you don't been anything at any time. The Wiggles haven't. I'm
• 1:20:27
  waiting for the Wiggles, dude. Kids will get beat up, knocked out
• 1:20:30
  little that would be though. Do you imagine that kids mosh area There should
• 1:20:38
  be a band, like like a kid's metal band called the Squiggles or something
• 1:20:42
  like that, and they and it's literally just kids washing. I would watch
• 1:20:45
  that so happily. I want to see kids, uh kids trying to catch
• 1:20:53
  other kids stage diving. Oh that that's that's great. Let's just put like
• 1:20:58
  a big, a big puffy that they can they can jump onto and bounce
• 1:21:00
  off. Yeah. Yeah in the Bounty House go on everything. Yeah yeah,
• 1:21:10
  little kids with like backpacks and they've got like like the little weak water
• 1:21:12
  dispensers in their mouth while they're doing it. I mean, it would be
• 1:21:15
  perfect, it'd be perfect. Oh yeah, An the others you want to
• 1:21:17
  shout out there justin dude, So so for me, well, the other
• 1:21:24
  bands don't really technically count, but like so some of the new bands I
• 1:21:27
  was kind of throwing there will be sort of like listening to because of the
• 1:21:30
  podcast once called Opponent. They're kind of that newer on that super heavy death
• 1:21:35
  metal kind of vibe. I think they're also disciples of Demon Hunter, as
• 1:21:40
  you. Yeah, very much. So I'm you know, shout out to
• 1:21:43
  the you know, to the h go get your hot dogerator everyone. By
• 1:21:47
  the way, So they're for me, they're underrated and and that kind of
• 1:21:54
  I hadn't heard of them until I got the assignments. Oh put these guys
• 1:21:57
  on. I turned into them, and they're just killing, just brutal,
• 1:22:02
  you know, just heavy like so in the heavy world. I think they're
• 1:22:05
  underrated for me. Yeah, Jason, what are some of your honorable mentions?
• 1:22:11
  So here's a couple of very old bands, a few left standing.
• 1:22:15
  Most people remember them as a Takehold band, but Solid Stated Be released their
• 1:22:19
  albums, so I considered it a very ancient metal core band that like absolute
• 1:22:25
  blast from the past. For me, listening to this, like, oh
• 1:22:29
  my god, I remember all of this and the other that I thought was
• 1:22:32
  interesting, I didn't really consider because like, it's not really my genre.
• 1:22:36
  So like late nineties, one record label has two Swedish Christian post hardcore bands,
• 1:22:42
  which sounds like, why are there two of those in the world?
• 1:22:45
  Why does one label have both of them? Blindside found to be huge.
• 1:22:49
  They're on tour pod and everything. Self Minded currently has two hundred twenty five
• 1:22:54
  listeners on Spotify. And I went and let back and listen is self Minded
• 1:22:58
  And I'm like, I think I like this more than blind Side. Wow,
• 1:23:00
  woa religious Wow. I've never been a huge blind Side fan. That's
• 1:23:06
  one of my bands, dude. Like I was like, I'm in the
• 1:23:12
  bag behind this weeping. I was in the third row, balling my eyes
• 1:23:15
  out. I also got to sit with Christian Lanskog during that during that set.
• 1:23:18
  True, Uh it looks like only actually played guitar in two thousand and
• 1:23:24
  two. For I was just gonna like one or two shows. Yeah,
• 1:23:29
  I was gonna say that, Wow, yeah, dude, that's great.
• 1:23:32
  That's a that's a good pick for me. It would be light Worker.
• 1:23:35
  That's one that I think deserve, deserves a little bit more respect, a
• 1:23:39
  little more time. Oh man, All of a sudden, I just blinked
• 1:23:42
  I had. I had a whole bunch the Drowned God. I was gonna
• 1:23:45
  be wearing it right now. I think they're just like dirty and crazy and
• 1:23:48
  nasty and like, man, they just get my my my rocks off onto
• 1:23:53
  him, you know what I mean with that? And then, uh,
• 1:23:58
  I forgot what else I was going to say. There's a whole bunch of
• 1:23:59
  the bands. But anyways, Mason, go ahead. I was gonna mention
• 1:24:02
  drown God. But in terms of golden years, the other one I was
• 1:24:05
  thinking of, Oh yeah, in terms of golden era, I was going
• 1:24:11
  to mention several year Ties. They have six hundred monthly listeners on Spotify,
• 1:24:15
  but I think they were so criminally underrated. I don't know how they weren't
• 1:24:17
  bigger, and then in terms of early stuff, this sort of doesn't count,
• 1:24:23
  but maybe I could see why there would be arguments against but Beloved I
• 1:24:26
  think should have been one of the biggest heavy metal band or like metal bands
• 1:24:30
  and post hardcore bands. They were coming around at the time that that sound
• 1:24:32
  was becoming big, and they released the one album and broke up, And
• 1:24:35
  I still to this day think if they would have just put out a couple
• 1:24:40
  more albums, they would have been just as big as Under Oath. I
• 1:24:43
  really do think that. I think they were just as talented, They were
• 1:24:45
  just as good in terms of songwriting. They were so good, so I
• 1:24:48
  sort of think of them underrated in that sense, but they also were like
• 1:24:51
  they were appropriately rated at the time with Solid State, but looking back now
• 1:24:58
  retroactively, I think they're really underrated. Yeah, I agree. Anyway,
• 1:25:01
  great picks, guys. It's so much fun to reminisce not just about Solid
• 1:25:04
  sat in general, but specifically bands that a lot of people maybe who even
• 1:25:09
  grew up with Solid State bands or in the Solid State world, may not
• 1:25:12
  even really remember or they never listened to it all. There's certainly a few
• 1:25:15
  bands that you guys mentioned that I had never even thought of or heard of
• 1:25:18
  before, So I'm excited to check some of those bands out. So if
• 1:25:23
  you're a solid Safe fan and there's some bands where you're like, I haven't
• 1:25:25
  heard that band in forever, or I haven't listened to them ever, check
• 1:25:29
  them out. There's still really good stuff in the entire Solid State catalog,
• 1:25:31
  so so much fun to reminisce. Thank you guys so much. Check out
• 1:25:35
  Justin's work. We'll make sure there's links for that. Check out Jason's book,
• 1:25:40
  and help out the Trevor Project as soon as you can to get that
• 1:25:43
  out. And we're just super super grateful, and we'll have to get you
• 1:25:45
  guys some you know, some other time on the podcast and we'll chat about
• 1:25:49
  some other music that you guys room too. Thanks for having us on,
• 1:25:54
  man, I really appreciate that. Thanks, guys are great. So tall
• 1:26:00
  by night, I'm hos ti the word I'm telling to sight. Got some
• 1:26:08
  cafower red Bit, you got some glowers, you got some cafolus, got
• 1:26:15
  some Cafower rend