Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 892 - The Weekly Ritual Rock and Metal News Show Dec.31.2025

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 892 - The Weekly Ritual Rock and Metal News Show Dec.31.2025 · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

1:07
Muted. Awesome.
1:09
Already off to a flying start. What's up, everybody?
1:11
It's Kefi, back with another ghostcalledman.com weekly
1:15
ritual. Technical problems abound, now
1:17
solved. I don't know who's going to show
1:20
up on this New Year's Eve. People are probably already out
1:22
partying. Some people are getting ready to
1:24
go out. Please don't drink and drive and
1:26
be safe. You'll probably hear me say that
1:28
again before this is all over. This is our land show of the
1:30
year. This has been, you know, ending
1:33
the year on a high note. I always find New Year's a time
1:37
for reflection and, you know, other things.
1:40
So I'm glad I'm here with you guys every week.
1:44
Tried to be as consistent as possible.
1:48
And, yeah, all set now, Michael. Anyhow, thanks for letting me
1:54
come into your homes and phones and tablets and laptops and
1:57
desktops and gaming modules every week at this time, I got
2:02
some new road podcasting professional headphones.
2:05
You can check that out in the link in the description as well
2:08
as the product link tagged on YouTube, which is apparently a
2:11
thing now that we are allowed to do.
2:15
And yeah, without further ado, let's do the damn thing.
2:22
I I decided a new thing that I'm going to do I've been doing here
2:26
and there. I wouldn't say it's brand new,
2:27
but I've been reading hateful comments every week on the air,
2:32
often one for the last couple of months and I think as long as
2:36
the comments show up here, I'm going to do this.
2:39
There was a really funny 1, but fun times abound.
2:47
This your first time here? Kindly, you know kindly like and
2:50
subscribe. Ghost Cult is you know, where
2:55
your 24/7 source for news, interviews, reviews, all the
3:01
things like Fonteca's here, Visions of terror pass by,
3:05
Records to live by is here, is here.
3:09
I hope I said that correctly. Rubbish Yard.
3:12
What up? What up?
3:12
Yup. I'm back, man, I'm back.
3:14
I got it. I got it worked out finally.
3:16
Jesus Christ. Rubber band man is here.
3:19
Happy New Years to everybody. Freder Mori is here.
3:23
I'm back. What a time to be alive.
3:26
But anyway, let's let's do the damn thing.
3:28
If you're here, drop a comment. This is your show too.
3:33
As I like to say. We always start the show with
3:36
the announcements. I believe.
3:37
Begin this just for sakes of sakes.
3:40
Except for y'all on TikTok who cannot appreciate this.
3:45
Just a reminder, we are still doing our book giveaway probably
3:48
for all of January. You can enter the win on our
3:51
website at the pin post Win books about Ozzy and Slayer and
3:56
books by metal heads and and metal leaders to help you learn
4:01
some stuff for 26 and maybe check out that final Ozzie
4:05
memoir or get those two Slayer books.
4:08
We have some other fun things we're going to throw in for the
4:11
winners. There's two prizes available,
4:13
but I might just be generous and give away more, but at least two
4:16
prizes are available in the book giveaway.
4:19
Perry Bamante. I know he's not in this photo
4:22
because I don't own a photo of Perry that I can use legally of
4:25
the Cure. Passed away before he was ever a
4:28
member of the Cure. He was part of the Cure band
4:32
community for 40 plus years as originally a guitar tech.
4:36
His brother was the TM, the tour manager and he passed away after
4:40
an illness this week, which sucks.
4:41
Eric Garcia is here. What up, What up?
4:43
Good to see you. Good to see you.
4:46
So yeah, Perry and I'll talk a little bit about this right now.
4:50
Last week we told you the story about Sleep Token and the
4:53
business with the photographer in Europe and this guy making
4:56
coins for bands that just kind of takes people's photos and
5:01
does his own artwork work them for that.
5:04
The band then sells. And there was a debate about
5:07
like, you know, do photographers own the images they take of
5:12
someone else that's famous? The answer is yes.
5:15
It's a work of it's a work of art created for a purpose.
5:19
Most of the time in Europe, photos are not done.
5:22
They're done. There's a no contract, There's
5:24
no rules. If you're doing a festival, you
5:26
might shoot like Metallica at a festival in Europe and you could
5:29
never get to shoot them here because the rules are just a
5:32
little different from metal. Jackie is Benson by what a full
5:35
metal Jackie big fan, as you know.
5:38
So somebody was like coming at me about the photo and like if I
5:44
put up a photo of Robert, which I have numerous photos of Robert
5:47
Smith that we shot at a festival with permission that I can reuse
5:50
legally, people would be freaking out.
5:53
Oh my God. They'll see like somebody died
5:55
in Robert's picture and they'll freak out.
5:57
You'll make people upset. So like, I don't have a lot of
5:59
access to other cure photos and you know, he didn't write on a
6:05
lot of records, although he did make some of their best records
6:07
wish and things like that. But like, you know, it's just
6:10
kind of disappointing that people like thank you for
6:13
blowing up the algorithm and helping us on Facebook with your
6:15
mean critical comments. But also, you know, kind of get
6:19
over yourself a little bit. I understand, you know,
6:21
everybody else is just taking a photo Willy nilly.
6:24
They don't own. I would like to not get sued in
6:26
26. What's up Will by design.
6:32
Welcome back, Tony is here. Welcome back to you also.
6:38
So just a just a thing about photographers and photography.
6:42
Isaiah Whitlock, if you watch the wire, you know him as the
6:45
she he died at 71 this week. Very sad, very, very sad.
6:50
Great after great comedian and his his role in the Wire is
6:56
super interesting and he was actually like show dramatic
7:00
range for a guy that was mostly a comedian.
7:03
You know, I'm good. Well, I'm just doing the New
7:04
Year's Eve thing here doing our weekly show on a Wednesday.
7:07
It's normally every Thursday, but you know, just got a little
7:12
bit of a late start here. Thanks to all those watching on
7:14
YouTube and Facebook and everywhere else.
7:17
I appreciate you all. And Yep, just, you know, just
7:22
doing the damn thing for the last time this year people are
7:26
on Twitch. I appreciate you other people
7:28
who passed away. This we could be the five year
7:29
anniversary of Alexi Leho of Children Of Bodom.
7:34
Incredibly talented and troubled guy passed away from
7:38
complications of liver disease and cirrhosis.
7:41
But incredibly talented very young guy that passed away.
7:44
Huge Guitar Hero to many. Last week we talked about
7:48
Lemmy's birthday, and of course his death anniversary is also
7:51
December 28th, a few days after his birthday.
7:55
Still maybe my favorite photo I've ever taken of anybody, and
7:58
I could shoot a lot of photos in the concert world for a long
8:01
time. But I do love this photo and the
8:04
world is a less great place without Lemmy in it.
8:10
Also, Motorheads official pages put up like a post.
8:13
It was the 10 year anniversary of Lemmy's passing, so they put
8:15
up this empty picture of like his hat and his jacket for the
8:19
stage. Like just sitting there on a
8:21
rack, unused and untouched. And how sad that is.
8:26
Also kind of less somehow renowned, the incredible John
8:30
Sykes. You know him best from his time
8:32
in Whitesnake and Blue Murder. But John Sykes was in Thin Lizzy
8:35
through one of their most interesting periods of Thunder
8:38
and lightning period. And also the early 80s.
8:40
An incredible singer and guitar player officially died a year
8:45
ago on December 28th. It didn't get announced until
8:48
late January because his family was kind of holding on to that.
8:52
Vas Pyre is also here. What's up?
8:54
What's up? Lisa Canales is here.
8:56
Indica Jones. What up, Lou?
8:59
And good to see you all. So, yeah, John Sykes, you know,
9:04
gone but not forgotten. I love that little thing.
9:06
And also the Rev from Avenged Sevenfold.
9:10
You know, probably again, I said this frequently, one of the best
9:13
fan bases in music is Avenged Sevenfold.
9:16
Rez is here. What's up, pal?
9:17
Happy New year. We were talking about the
9:20
Killing Joke release Jarboe and Yep, Slayer.
9:26
Hell awaits. I got to be honest though, I on
9:30
my other podcast that's not this show, we talked about vinyl and
9:33
I talked about like, I know that there's probably something a
9:36
reason why the Hello Weights master tapes are probably not
9:39
good or salvageable. So they are not remastering
9:43
Hello Weights for vinyl. You're better off if you really
9:46
love that record, trying to find a hopefully not that breakingly
9:49
price. Probably the price will go down
9:51
now that they're putting a new version out.
9:52
But I don't really require an unmixed, unremastered version of
9:56
Hello Weights. I do love that album.
10:00
Ken Pierce is passing by Ken Pierce Media.
10:02
What's up brother? Good to see you.
10:03
Happy New Year. It's almost New Year's where you
10:05
are a few more hours to go. I'm just doing my show a little
10:08
bit later than I planned, but I'm doing it.
10:10
That's the main thing. Thank you, Reza.
10:12
Great year for Reza Mills writing for Ghost Cult.
10:14
Much appreciated, brother, and we will look forward to more
10:17
reviews from you in the new year and your other things.
10:20
Q is here. Happy New Year's Eve.
10:22
What's up, brother? But yeah, the Rev from Avenged
10:25
Sevenfold died on December 20th, also about like almost 10 years
10:29
ago. It's crazy.
10:31
Yeah, man, Stan Lee would have turned 103 this week.
10:38
Very sad since he passed away. Also, Vaughn Oliver who has made
10:43
many album covers you know and Love also passed away six years
10:49
ago this week. Celebrating birthdays and on to
10:52
some happier stuff. Scott Eat of Anthrax's birthday
10:55
is today. Happy birthday to Scott.
10:57
I'm a huge fan. Also, here's a close Enemies,
10:59
the new band from Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith.
11:03
He is a New Year's Eve baby. Also, Evan Seinfeld of
11:07
Biohazard, huge year for Biohazard.
11:09
This is shot by my partner at Ghost Co, Omar Cordy.
11:13
This dude is like 58 years old and he's in better shape, like
11:17
unbelievable shape. You know, he's a good very end
11:19
of fitness. And I think he went vegetarian.
11:25
I think so. Evan Seinfeld with a birthday
11:28
this week. And also my dude, Mark Lopes,
11:31
you know him best from his time from Ross the Boss.
11:33
He has a new album coming out with his thrash band Let Us
11:36
Pray, sang for metal shirts for a year.
11:39
He's not part of their new comeback record.
11:41
But Lopes is one of the best dudes I know and he's an
11:45
incredible singer and I'm really proud of him and having this is
11:48
shot you can't really see from this photo he is on stage at
11:51
Bloodstock open air with Ross the Boss in front of 50,000
11:55
crazy fans in 2019-2020. So good shit there.
12:00
Lopes is my dude. We got to get a new interview
12:02
with him at some point. Also just randomly on This Week
12:06
in Music History, there was an episode of Friends.
12:08
I've never seen one whole episode of Friends for any
12:11
reason but this ad at a newsstand for a shelter.
12:15
Dog eat dog and orange 9mm is somehow in this thing and the
12:20
anniversary of that actual show where they shot this.
12:23
You know, this poster from is, was I think December 26th in the
12:29
90s. So pretty fun.
12:32
Just a reminder if you are feeling tipsy and generous and
12:35
you want to tip us, that is cool.
12:38
Coast Court has some money from advertising, but we are not a,
12:41
you know, we're not a big corporate entity.
12:44
So if you know the live stream menu for 25 for the last time,
12:48
I'll have to update this for next week.
12:49
We'll go back to our regular Thursday schedule next week, but
12:53
here's all the things we do. If you want to give us some
12:55
general support, you could took us 3 bucks or a super shatter, a
12:57
super thanks on YouTube. You can buy us a coffee on Kofi
13:01
or something for 6 bucks. You could be a real one for 25
13:04
bucks. We will rate your song.
13:06
That's going to go up next year. And I still do social media and
13:09
music business consulting calls, release schedules, marketing
13:13
plans, release plans. I've worked in and around the
13:17
music industry for many, many, many years.
13:19
And I have been a professional marketer for almost 20 now,
13:23
social media strategist and and digital marketing experts.
13:26
So hook up a call with your boy and I will give you 2 hours of
13:29
my time to just talk about whatever you want to talk about
13:32
for your band. And then of course, here's all
13:35
the links where you can support us.
13:36
Cash App, Kofi, PayPal, Venmo, basically at Ghost Cult Mag
13:41
everywhere. And then I will stop talking
13:44
myself for a minute. All right, that's our cash app
13:47
if you want to save it again, thanks to everybody who's
13:50
watching the quite a few people watching on the Instagram on
13:55
YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok, everything.
13:58
Thanks for being here. Appreciate you all.
14:01
Just grateful to do what I do every week.
14:04
Lot of gratitude this this time of year for me.
14:07
Lot of gratitude. Moving on, We start the news
14:12
rundown every week and we talk about metal festival.
14:14
So we're going to talk about the newest metal festival update
14:17
that got announced. And I'm just going to run down a
14:18
few things I'm interested in doing or covering with ghost
14:21
code next year, either myself or someone on the team up.
14:25
This is the features, sorry, features and then the festival.
14:27
That's right. So we did our we had a running
14:30
out end of year list from staff, from guests, from publicist,
14:34
from record label people, friends of ours in the business.
14:37
We did our album of the year countdown Ghost was the number
14:40
one album of the year. You can check that out in a
14:41
second. I just did this huge unboxing
14:44
vinyl unboxing of the massive anniversary edition of Smashing
14:50
Pumpkins, Melancholy and Infinite sadness.
14:53
I gratefully accepted this from Universal Records and we did a
14:57
big unboxing and review. I wrote a little deeper dive
14:59
review for our website. Check all that out in the
15:01
description if you want to check it out.
15:04
Probably their best work. I know they're not for everybody
15:08
and I go back and forth even with Billy on his vocals and
15:12
stuff, but like what? He's an incredible songwriter.
15:14
Melancholy is a classic album from that decade.
15:17
Unbelievable stuff. And I like relived it all by by
15:21
listening to it all again and it was pretty great.
15:24
And and what they gave you for the money is incredible value,
15:27
especially for die hard fans. Once again, our countdown is
15:30
live. You can go check that out.
15:32
I'll be sharing little dribs and drams from that over the next
15:36
week still. And I have some live streams.
15:40
I haven't been doing any live streams except this one, but
15:43
starting even Sunday or Monday, I'm going to start rolling back
15:46
out live streams again. I have my own personal top 20 of
15:49
the year to get through. I'm going to do the best books
15:51
of the year for music. I'm going to do vinyl reissues,
15:54
which I've collected quite a few of them.
15:56
Several were sent to me, including that one, but others
16:00
in addition. So yeah, just just running
16:03
through the things and then going through the interviews.
16:07
This week we talked to Owen Pauls, who you probably, if
16:12
you're a Warped Tour kid, you might know who Owen is.
16:14
He was a drummer in the band The Exposed.
16:17
He played in a couple of other bands.
16:18
He did. He's from the UK originally but
16:20
he joined AUS Band and toured the world open for all kinds of
16:24
huge bands as a punker. And then he was doing poster art
16:28
and album artwork for people and then people started asking to
16:31
draw their tattoos. Sermon of Flies is here.
16:34
Good to see you. What's up?
16:35
What's up? Thanks for sharing, we
16:36
appreciate you. Thank you so much.
16:39
Come and hang out, come talk. Tell me about your plans for 26
16:43
Sermon of Flies, if that includes music or other things.
16:46
And then so Owen became a tattoo artist kind of by accident and
16:50
now he's been in the tattoo game.
16:51
He's one of the best black and white tattoo artist in the
16:53
country, based out of Seattle. He works a lot out of LA,
16:56
travels the world, and we caught up with him to talk about that
16:59
transition from punk rock drummer to world renowned tattoo
17:03
artist. Speaking of drummers, I also
17:05
talked to my dude Nick Parkinson Salazianos, which is an
17:09
Australian black and death metal avant-garde band that he's
17:13
pretty much the mastermind of. It's kind of a studio home
17:17
project. They put out some new singles
17:19
this year and I talked to him all about his process.
17:21
You might see him from his drum cover videos.
17:26
Yo again, Sermon of flies, what's up?
17:29
What's up? Good to see you and thank you M
17:31
for liking the live and anybody else that likes live.
17:34
If you follow us on any of these socials, I will follow you back
17:38
when I'm all done. Any who also, just in case you
17:43
were slow for the holidays and not up on your YouTube stuff, we
17:47
interviewed Bro Cardi Justice Peterson who worked for us out
17:50
of Chicago. We she stepped down from ghost
17:53
coal recently. But her final thing with us was
17:55
this bro Cardi interview and really interesting up and coming
18:00
rock artist. Very unique and an interesting
18:03
perspective on making music in this day and age.
18:07
Also I interviewed Kate from Pupil Slicer, probably one of
18:11
the more underrated black and death metal albums of the year.
18:13
Flesh Work also a little industrial flavored, so really
18:19
good stuff there. We we got plenty of stuff coming
18:21
up. We got plenty of interviews to
18:23
roll out next year and some big ones we're working on getting
18:27
to. Also, again, the glacially
18:30
musical Poor Kiss hot off the press with this graphic.
18:32
My other gig when I'm not doing this is the Glacial Musical
18:35
podcast Beer, Metal and Swearing.
18:37
We finish up our series on. We finish up our series on
18:42
Queen's Right this week with not Operation Mine Crime, but
18:45
Promised Land. One of us did not like it at
18:49
all. But generally speaking, I love
18:52
Queen's Right, especially the early stuff.
18:54
We'll see if Promised Land is as good as Mine Crime and Empire.
18:59
You'll have to be the judge, but check us out.
19:01
We have a lot more fun things coming up, including a brand new
19:03
series on Ronnie James Dio. So we're just keeping the metal
19:07
going in 2026 since metal is in our name.
19:10
Now it's time for the metal festivals and the news rundown.
19:13
Here we go, and this is a pretty big one.
19:15
I will begin the screen again. Fire in the Mountains, which had
19:20
their debut festival last year. BlackBerry debuted his new album
19:25
there, which I'll talk about BlackBerry in a second.
19:28
So special guest headliner Subrosa.
19:34
It will reunite for Fire in the Mountains.
19:36
Now, I think that means that they're going to do other
19:38
festivals and maybe go to Europe.
19:40
But like, if they only got back together for this one thing,
19:42
Wow, that's amazing. Full of Hell will do their only
19:47
show in 2026 at Fire in the Mountains.
19:49
Old Man Gloom. Great project.
19:51
Raven Chacon and Igor Cavallera are doing a collab there.
19:56
Savage Death and many, many more bands to be announced.
19:59
So this is really cool. We had some, we were supposed to
20:03
cover it. It didn't quite work out.
20:04
Maybe we'll get out there this year and cover.
20:06
It's in the foothills of Montana on a Native American
20:10
reservation. Pretty damn cool.
20:13
Also, once again, we've been wrapping the Mojave Experience.
20:15
We'll be sponsoring the Mojave Experience soon with an
20:19
announcement, but hope to be out there.
20:21
I should be out there in Joshua Tree in March.
20:25
And it's going to be a banger time.
20:26
Stay tuned soon for an interview with me and Patrick, the Booker
20:30
of this and also the front man of the band Volume.
20:34
A bunch more bands got added to the Milwaukee Metal Fest.
20:37
I, I is now. It's kind of pulling me that I
20:40
probably need to go to this thing.
20:41
It is in early June, but it does look phenomenal and I've only
20:45
been to Wisconsin once and I've never been to Milwaukee, so it
20:48
would be kind of an adventure and I have quite a few friends
20:50
there. Also, prepare the ground is
20:52
extremely tempting. Same week as Maryland Death
20:55
Fest, unfortunately, but a little smaller festival in
20:58
Toronto. Aminra, you will know us by the
21:00
trail of the dead. The Keening.
21:03
Speaking of members of Sabrosa Malovich Minsk as well as Aransi
21:08
Pazuzu Pallbearer, the final performance ever from Small Bard
21:12
Unholty Altars recommends their harmonies and probably a few
21:16
more bands. That looks really amazing.
21:18
I've heard great things about it being called the North American
21:20
Rd. Burn, which you know that goes
21:23
called covers every year. And also this festival,
21:25
Northwest Tariff Fest is in early May at Numos and Barbosa
21:30
in Seattle and Kyle Lisa is the headliner there.
21:33
Also quite a draw. Pig Destroyer also there.
21:36
Our Tangent Festival looks like we might finally get to cover
21:39
this again. Primus, Chelsea Wolf and Cult of
21:41
Luna with Julie Christmas revisiting their Mariner album.
21:45
That's why this poster, if you're watching on YouTube and
21:48
switching things, Spotted Cow. I'm telling you, I need the
21:52
spotted cow and I need the cheese curds and even barbecue
21:55
in Wisconsin's. Not bad.
21:56
I had quite a good roadside pulled pork in in Wisconsin.
22:00
Good times. Spotted Cow beer.
22:04
And maybe it'll be baseball season and I can go see a
22:06
Brewers game. I don't know, I'm ambitious.
22:09
This ARC Tangent poster. I didn't put it together until
22:11
they announced Cult of Luna. It's the color scheme for the
22:13
Mariner album by Cult of Luna. So just a thought.
22:17
Also the Metal Italia festival with guess Who, Paradise Lost
22:21
also featuring coroner Amin Rossinic 1914 and many more.
22:25
That looks pretty cool. Next summer Satan fest got
22:28
announced for next summer in Iceland.
22:30
This looks insane. I would like to get to Iceland
22:33
sometime. It does look amazing, like an
22:36
amazing place to visit but also an amazing place to see a metal
22:39
festival. Happy almost new year piercing
22:43
Ken Van piercing metal. What's up Milwaukee line up his
22:46
stack. Dude, I'm rubber band man.
22:48
You are so right. Plus suicidal who I usually
22:50
don't miss Maryland death fest again looks incredible next
22:53
year, but I think we're all these other things might be some
22:56
things pulling me away from there now and that's all the
22:59
festivals. We will bring you so much more
23:01
festival coverage in 2026. I might even do a whole festival
23:06
previews like spring summer, fall and do it like that.
23:09
We're still get waiting on some Danny.
23:10
We're more fest to get announced like Aftershock and the full
23:14
Louder than Life festival lineup and Riot Fest is going to get
23:17
announced soon. So all these things. 2 New
23:20
Year's Eve shows already, both played last night, High On Fire,
23:24
Secret Chiefs 3, Necrot and Olum at the Great American Music
23:28
Hall. I have many friends in the
23:29
house. Primus is now doing an every
23:31
year end of year concert at the Fox Theater.
23:35
I do believe they're going to write new music with their new
23:38
drummer, John Hoffman next year and maybe put it out.
23:43
Maybe they're already riding it. But if you're out in the city
23:45
partying, if you're in any city partying, take an Uber home or
23:49
walk. Don't drink and drive.
23:50
Please be careful. April Fox is here in real good
23:53
kind of rocks. What up?
23:54
What up? What up, What up, What up, what
23:56
up? Yeah, Milwaukee Metal Fest looks
23:59
incredible. All those festivals look pretty
24:00
great. Northwest Tower Fest, Prepare
24:01
the ground. I need to see Kyleisa.
24:04
I still haven't seen Acid Bath so I don't know.
24:07
Speaking of Pig Destroyer, Pig Destroyer is headlining a show
24:10
in Baltimore tonight to close the year.
24:13
Our homie Chris is their sell arts check that out.
24:18
He probably will post videos from the show.
24:21
Also again Foo Fighters benefit. I think it already sold out at
24:24
the Kia forum. Only Foo Fighters could like
24:27
announce a show in like 3 weeks and sell it out.
24:29
But that's that's the energy they're bringing in the 2026.
24:32
We'll see if the public is as forgiving of Dave as they have
24:35
for other people. Also also Zentro.
24:39
Zentro in, Dukes Zentro out, Dukes in.
24:43
I know Zentro was of formerly of Exodus was supposed to do a
24:47
headline tour South America. I do believe that's still going
24:50
to happen but not yet. He has announced his own
24:53
headline show where he's going to play all the music from
24:55
across the legacy testament. Exodus deep cuts with Phantom
24:59
which opening killer band Phantom which I'm a big fan.
25:02
Skull bashers here. What up, What up?
25:03
What up? Good to see you both.
25:05
Cheeto is here. So yeah.
25:08
Is that true? I might go to that.
25:09
It's a Monday. I might very well go to that
25:11
again. Nefarious is going to play
25:13
Saturday night with their new singer Nefarious, Nukem Trencher
25:18
and Parabellum. The band.
25:20
I will not be around for it, but I hope to catch their next one.
25:24
Got my tickets for New Year's. Stay home and do nothing.
25:27
I'm going to be staying home and doing something.
25:30
I'm going to be hanging out with my love Melissa.
25:32
We're going to eat an obscene amount of cheese and crackers
25:34
and probably watch some movies, talk to friends.
25:39
Once again, if you feel like tipping and you're feeling
25:41
tipsy, please tip us. That would be cool.
25:43
If not, that's also OK. Once again, if you want to get
25:48
hooked up, look at this beautiful beard I've been
25:50
working on. Put myself back on the screen
25:52
here. This beautiful beard job is due
25:56
to Fable Beard Company and if you sign up with the link in our
26:00
description and our link tree, you can get 10, you can get, I
26:04
think you get $10 off your first order and we get free Fable
26:07
Beard merch. So you know Fable Beard
26:09
products. So I will do a proper Fable
26:12
Beard review video. So it's a short or something
26:15
soon. Once again, when you see ads at
26:18
ghostcallman.com for the third year in a row, we are partners
26:20
with the Lamb Goat Media Network.
26:22
Lamb Goat is the much meaner, maybe arguably evil version of
26:26
Ghost cult. Don't go in the comments, you
26:29
will be horrified. But when you see ads on our
26:31
website, that's the Lambda. Now also, once again, if you're
26:37
watching this anywhere but unfortunately TikTok, we're
26:40
streaming through the magic of Stream Yard.
26:42
But also I want to shout out my dude Craig Russo of Caruso Apps
26:45
for being my breaking case of emergency web developer.
26:48
He is the best. I would not be in business
26:51
without him. And yes, Stream Yard for all
26:53
your streaming needs. If you want to pull most all of
26:56
your socials together in one shot, Stream yard is the bomb.
26:59
They've done a lot of upgrades and progress this year that I'm
27:02
extremely proud of. We're on all the socials.
27:05
We have a newsletter. We're ramping up send outs with
27:08
next year. Again, our book giveaway is you
27:11
sign up for a newsletter to get entered to win.
27:15
We'd like you to stay signed up If you don't have you know, I, I
27:17
hear all the time Mark Badger's here.
27:19
What's up? All the time I hear from people
27:22
like I didn't know that show was coming.
27:24
I just had dinner and chilling for New Year's Eve.
27:26
Same for tomorrow word man amateur hour, Valentine's Day,
27:30
New Year's Eve, Saint Patrick's Day.
27:31
I don't need to prove my partying self.
27:34
Actually, I had a beer. I could be drinking right now,
27:36
but I'm just going to have a beer later.
27:37
I haven't been drinking much because I'm on a whole bunch of
27:39
minutes. Kashmiri is here.
27:42
I did hear about the nine CD rainbow box set, my other
27:45
podcast, the Glacially musical podcast, which is not on TikTok.
27:50
You can check that out wherever you listen to podcast.
27:52
We're doing a series on do. We finished our series on Queens
27:55
right? The last one's going to run on
27:56
Friday, and we're going to start a new series in two weeks on Dio
28:01
Stick, Bro. Yeah, man, I'm really, you know,
28:03
I got to give it to Wendy. I met her once.
28:05
Wendy Dio has done a marvelous job with Ronnie's legacy, the
28:08
charity fundraising for Stand Up for Cancer.
28:11
I even like the Dio hologram show.
28:14
I like the show. I'm not going to lie.
28:16
I wish they kind of got it a little bit better.
28:18
The band was fired. So yeah, we're on All the
28:21
Things. Sign up for a newsletter if you
28:23
want to get just a condensed weekly digest of all our big
28:26
things. This show, News Friday, video
28:29
previews, links to buy new music.
28:32
All the people tell me all the time, I didn't know this album
28:34
was coming out. I didn't know this band came to
28:36
my town. I didn't know this merch came
28:38
out. We are your source for all those
28:39
things. So we're on All the Things.
28:41
Feel free to follow us. Wendy needs to get the hearing
28:45
aid rerelease. I'm telling you, we are stars.
28:48
Anyway, that's a very bad deal imitation.
28:51
Talking about the big news and drama of the week, Dave Mustaine
28:55
of Megadeth detailed that he is actually the reason Megadeth is
29:00
retiring. Is he really only has a couple
29:02
of years left to even be able to play guitar.
29:04
Apparently he is suffering from a condition that route like
29:10
gives he already has arthritis in his wrists and hands, but
29:13
it's actually causing his hands like neurological and physical
29:17
damage and he's just not going to be able to play guitar the
29:20
way he likes to. So I think that's actually
29:24
closer to the reason why they're calling it a day.
29:28
I know a lot of people have been skeptical about farewell tour,
29:31
especially after he said we're doing the farewell tour and then
29:34
we are going to do that for three to five years.
29:36
But I think 3 is maybe even optimistic.
29:40
It sounds like he really is not going to be able to play soon,
29:43
which sucks. So go see Megadeth open for
29:45
Maiden. What are your thoughts on the
29:47
Triumph reunion? So here's what I think.
29:50
The Triumph is a band I never saw and April Wine.
29:53
I can't imagine there's enough boomers that want to go see
29:56
Triumph and April Wine in arenas or what is a sellout for an
30:00
arena's really 10,000 seats that should really be just doing
30:04
theaters in America. Big theaters, I don't have a
30:07
problem with it. There are bands out there with
30:09
no original members. I mean, you could go see
30:11
Foreigner and if Mick isn't on tour with them, they don't have
30:13
any original members. Blue, Blue, Blue, blue Graham,
30:17
you know the Glacial Musical podcast, like an unofficial
30:19
foreigner video channel basically now Foreigner news
30:23
channel. And you know, sometimes they
30:25
don't have any original members. Cheap Trick has 2 original
30:28
members. Some bands have no original
30:29
members. So I don't have a problem with
30:31
it. Yeah, Yeah.
30:32
But like they were saying, like the last time Triumph tried to
30:36
tour, they weren't very good. So they need supportive people
30:39
in it. They just can't probably perform
30:42
everything themselves, the three of them.
30:44
So I don't have a problem with it.
30:45
Mark. I think it's, you know, like,
30:47
make that money. If the demand is there, go see
30:50
it. Them saying like Ticketmaster
30:52
was over the moon with how many people want to go to this.
30:54
I just, yeah, I love Phil X, but I've hung out with Phil X, I've
30:58
interviewed him for his solo record.
31:00
Huge Phil X fan. He's great, huge fan, great
31:04
dude. So yeah, I don't know.
31:06
I don't know. I think we talked about this a
31:08
couple weeks ago and maybe you showed up after I talked about
31:10
it on the show. But anywho.
31:13
So Megadeth, we'll see what happens.
31:16
New Megadeth album in about 3 1/2 weeks.
31:19
Jane's Addiction, we bringing you this story.
31:21
Recently, Jane's Addiction has cleared their lawsuits against
31:24
each other. Now that we know they pass
31:26
things up and made a public some kind of, you know, forced at
31:30
gunpoint and lawyers apology statement to each other where
31:34
the band had to apologize to Perry.
31:36
Perry apologized back to them in the fans and now they settled
31:39
the lawsuits. So I expect to see James
31:41
addiction sell their catalog and someone else will manage that
31:46
and the band doesn't have to talk to each other anymore.
31:48
Similar to Roger Waters, Gilmore, Pink Floyd, Amigo, the
31:52
Devil dropped the new single this week.
31:56
New kind of lonely, you know, I know there's a video coming
31:59
where it has like footage of the the fire that burned his house
32:02
down. The song is just heartbreaking.
32:05
He's going to release a series of singles.
32:07
He's got his own record label now, Liars Club, which has put
32:09
out his last couple of records. So I think he said for the
32:12
foreseeable future, he's just going to do a series of singles.
32:15
I think until he has the capital to probably put it all together
32:18
as a release later. And his fan community has kept
32:21
him going, which, you know, I have to give much respect to.
32:27
Nico La Frico is here. Joss Mengla is here.
32:32
Thanks for being here. Appreciate you, Andrew Stevens.
32:37
So amigo, new music. I'm a big fan.
32:39
Speaking of drama, Veil of Maya, just randomly, Veil of Maya put
32:46
out a statement that they were not working with Louis Mayorga
32:50
anymore. They're a long time.
32:53
Sorry, Lucas Megar, Meg Yar, he's not in the band anymore.
32:57
They put out a statement. He put out a statement.
33:00
They had been on a hiatus. Very turbulent stretch for them.
33:06
They were going on indefinite hiatus and cancel their tour
33:09
dates. Their guitarist isn't Falling In
33:12
Reverse. Fuck that band.
33:13
I hate them. I hate Ronnie.
33:15
But yeah, So, you know, no statement about the departure
33:20
and no plans for new vocalist at the moment, but he put it out.
33:25
If you do it, it won't be with me.
33:26
I decided to part ways and focus on his new been siphon.
33:30
So good luck. I don't see myself ever being
33:34
with Valemaya, and he wasn't their original singer anyway, so
33:37
yeah. But I think people were, you
33:39
know, they liked him. He had a good vote.
33:41
The Inhale Locals, if you like deathcore, progressive deathcore
33:44
with the Inhale vocals. He was good at it.
33:46
What else? What else?
33:48
What else Can I help? A psychedelic rock from New
33:51
Orleans, Norway. Excuse me, which I almost said
33:55
New Orleans, they are putting out a new album.
33:57
They put out a new song in the video.
33:59
You can pre-order that now on Majestic Mountain Records or
34:04
Blues Funeral Recordings named for the Mark Lanigan record that
34:07
I love. Tara, this is a great story.
34:11
So bootleggers like some people like bootlegged Tara's logo over
34:18
this shirt of Nas in front of the Queens borough houses and
34:23
then turn her bootleg the bootleggers and put out their
34:26
own shirt with this picture on it.
34:28
So I got to say, if you're going to get, if you're going to steal
34:30
and you steal a diamond, it might get stolen back from you.
34:33
Probably one of the more fun, the fun, more fun things I've
34:37
ever seen. I would even get this shirt.
34:39
Strangely, a rubber case from Led Zeppelin turned up on
34:43
Facebook marketplace that used to belong to John Paul Jones.
34:46
I don't know what's in it. I don't know who bought it, but
34:49
it showed up on a Facebook marketplace that I I didn't know
34:52
if this thing was fake. Like that fridge outside of
34:54
Danzig's old house recently. I was like, this seems like a
34:59
coffee pasta. This seems fake, but this is
35:01
real. Apparently this is pretty
35:04
interesting. So DMC was asked one of the
35:08
killers, convicted killers of jam Master Jay was freed, his
35:15
case was overturned and freed from jail.
35:17
And they got DMC like 2 minutes after the news came out and he
35:20
flipped the fuck out and said he was going to call their family.
35:22
But you know, yeah, Master Jay, man, a terrible tragedy
35:26
occurred. They really never found the
35:27
killers. They, they had some evidence,
35:30
but I guess it wasn't a strong enough case.
35:31
And so one of them is now free. Kind of Cray.
35:35
Also also this is actually a super fun story close to home
35:40
for me. I live in the neighborhood in
35:42
San in San Francisco in West Soma.
35:44
That is home not only to where I do karaoke at the Willows where
35:47
I host karaoke and I do karaoke also at the Eagle Oasis,
35:51
probably the most famous drag club in America was slated to
35:54
close. I've got a lot of financial
35:56
hardships. Attendance is down.
35:59
They were robbed not too long ago of like $70,000, and they
36:03
got an anonymous donation of millions of dollars to stay
36:06
open. So this is wonderful for my
36:08
local community and I'm really happy about it.
36:11
Also, the former Slims Club, also formerly Yolo, right across
36:15
the street from my house and down the block, is going to
36:18
reopen as a new music venue. I think there's an Oakland
36:21
rapper who's opening it, but they're not necessarily adverse
36:24
to booking rock shows. The DNA Lounge is on the same
36:27
block. And maybe, you know, Slims will
36:29
live again. Not as Slims, but as something
36:31
else that's kind of fun. There's that picture again of
36:35
this guy. Melissa Elf.
36:37
Tomorrow probably has one of the most anticipated memoirs, having
36:41
been a member of Whole and Smashing Pumpkins and briefly A
36:47
Perfect Circle and having a solo career.
36:49
So she's putting out her memoir. I will have a video soon of my
36:53
top ten books of the year with some honorable mentions.
36:55
We're giving away rock and metal themed books in our giveaway.
36:59
Check it out in the description. Let me link that in the
37:04
description now so everyone has it.
37:06
I'll also drop it into the and drop it into the drop it into
37:13
the comments because I'm awesome like that.
37:15
Boom, boom, boom. That's why I like stream yard.
37:18
Hello, hello, babe. So if you want to sign up for
37:25
those, you can. I'll finish up in a second.
37:28
I'm just going to drop it into the
37:40
there we go, Bing and. So let's see, moving along, Tank
37:54
the Tech, who I've been a big fan of and I mentioned earlier
37:57
in the show, had done a really great video on the sleep token
38:01
thing. He is taking a break
38:03
indefinitely. He's going on indefinite hiatus
38:06
from his podcast because he's moved to Germany and he's
38:10
officially becoming a German, an expat of America working in
38:14
Germany for Electric Call Boy, which he's the tour manager for.
38:17
And I'm sure he has a huge year with them where he's going to be
38:19
mostly in Europe anyway. So it's an opportunity to move
38:22
to Europe and raise his kids there.
38:24
But because of the kind of visa he got, he cannot and should not
38:28
be able to work and and like make another stream of income
38:35
that is not that, you know, a working for Electric Call Boy.
38:39
So he is putting a stop to his own, you know, his podcast and
38:44
stuff, which I think is hell of interesting.
38:47
See comments here we go. Here's the giveaway all of y'all
38:52
on TikTok if you want to from ghost cult is the end of the
38:56
saying very too long a link that's kind of interesting, but
38:59
it's also in our link tree. It's also in our description
39:02
there. I pinned it.
39:04
So yeah, an intent to tech. I will miss his videos.
39:06
He's had great content. I'm sure he's going to make some
39:08
passive income from that. I can't imagine he's going to
39:10
leave the partner program and turn it all off.
39:12
But super interesting. Some good news for a friend of
39:16
ours. Duncan Evans is a writer for
39:18
Ghost Cult. He's also a great
39:19
singer-songwriter. He used to be in the black metal
39:21
band for us for stars. His new album, long-awaited long
39:25
in the works album Duncan Evans and the Weeping Starlight is now
39:29
up for pre-order. So you can help support our guy.
39:32
Oh, lost the light there. You can help support our guy as
39:35
he continues his musical journey, which I'm very excited
39:38
about. Duncan, friend of the show,
39:40
member of Ghost Cult, a ghost cultist.
39:42
He's also got a podcast with Nick Cameron of the Glacial
39:45
Musical podcast, The Department of Metal Antiquities.
39:48
They listen to these records so you don't have to.
39:51
Great tagline. Here's another one of these that
39:54
I thought was like, what in the hell is going on, man?
39:58
Week after week. I really love to talk about
40:01
these stories. But Bill Murray guitarist Reese
40:04
Maslin has left the band amid allegations from his former
40:07
partner. You know, Bill Murray is like a
40:12
really great hardcore deathcore band and is led by Johnny Frank,
40:17
formerly of Attack Attack and said I'm these are like old.
40:22
Kind of stories about my relationship in the past, but I
40:25
want to take time away to take care of myself.
40:27
So, you know, I respect that and understand that.
40:30
But it's just like one thing after another, one battle after
40:33
another with all these people. And then I can't tell you how
40:37
many people DM me this week to talk about Greg, formerly of
40:40
Dillinger Escape Plan. Greg Pusiato, also of Jerry
40:43
Cantrell solo band, also of Better Lovers who have a new
40:47
album coming out. There have been long time
40:50
allegations made against Greg. We haven't done the story yet
40:54
because I'm waiting to get more information.
40:56
His former he's married now and has been for many years.
40:59
But his former partner was Jenna Hayes, the adult actress.
41:03
That's not a here or there that she's an adult actress.
41:06
I'm just, it's just a statement of fact.
41:08
And she posted kind of a video tagging her current and former
41:13
partner romantically and then mentioned Greg by name as being
41:16
abusive and ruining her life, even though they haven't been
41:19
together for many years and started going out over 10 years
41:22
ago. But you know, there's no central
41:24
limitations on being a terrible person or an abuser, even if
41:28
legally there is. So we're waiting to get more
41:30
information about this. Yes, I'm aware of it.
41:32
No, I'm not going to run a story until I know something more.
41:34
But I wanted to talk about it because a lot of people DM me.
41:38
If more allegations come out about break from other people,
41:40
we'll have to address it then. But yes, I know.
41:44
Yes, I know. And then last and not least, I
41:49
thought this was pretty damn interesting.
41:54
You know, again, like Full of Hell recently lost one of their
41:59
members and they are only playing Fire in the Mountains.
42:02
I mentioned that earlier. And they're taking the rest of
42:04
the year off to write new music and just kind of do family time,
42:07
which I respect. I've interviewed Dylan about a
42:10
year and a half ago. I love Full of Hell, one of my
42:12
favorite bands. They continue to do like collabs
42:15
and new music all the time, but I think they're going to really
42:18
hone in on their next record and chill, which I respect.
42:24
All righty. My heart says pit, my knees say
42:29
balcony. You know, that's where I'm
42:30
living in. In 2026, I went to less shows
42:34
this year than ever before in my life.
42:35
And honestly, I got to say I'm happy about it.
42:37
I am happy about it. I have some FOMO, but most of
42:40
the time it's like I have other things going on in my life and I
42:43
can't be at a show six days a week.
42:45
It's just not possible. Now it's time for the mailbag.
42:49
New Music Friday will come back, I think next week or the week
42:51
after for 2026 and it's time to talk about the mailbag.
42:55
I had a fantastic Christmas. I know this is a tough time of
42:58
the year and I don't necessarily want to be a shill for
43:00
commercial things, but we do sell and promote and review
43:04
things. Like if you like my review of
43:06
The Smashing Pumpkins box set and then you go buy one from the
43:10
link on our site, that doesn't necessarily help us other than
43:13
looking good to the label. Like we helped them and they
43:15
did, they did good by giving it to us.
43:17
But you know, I know this is a tough time of the year and I'm
43:20
not the most, you know, commercially driven person.
43:23
I do collect records and I do collect obviously having a ton
43:26
of black shirts and and trucker hats, but that's kind of like my
43:30
uniform is a metal head more than anything else and what I'm
43:32
comfortable in. But I did have a very good
43:34
holiday. My girlfriend spoiled me
43:36
wonderfully and her family spoiled me, including my future
43:40
brother-in-law who gave me a Journey shirt.
43:43
Everybody knows I hate Journey, so this is really hilarious and
43:47
it is a very high quality shirt in my size.
43:50
Also, I wanted to talk about just really quick and I linked
43:53
this in a YouTube video. These are my new podcast
43:56
headphones. These are the Rode NTH 100.
43:59
They're not soup. They're much more advanced than
44:01
your regular headphones. They're certainly not cheap.
44:03
I think the cheapest they are is Amazon and Sweetwater have them
44:06
for about $139. That's when I got this one and
44:11
Rode, as you know, makes all the podcast software and things and
44:14
we have like a, a podcast device and I've had other Rode gear,
44:19
Rd. microphones and things that we bought and worn and used at
44:22
festivals and, and video interviews and things.
44:25
But so far I love these things. Maybe I'll do a whole product
44:28
review. Again, it's not sponsored.
44:29
I bought these, so maybe I'll do a review on them since we do
44:33
hundreds of these videos a year. And then I had a few other
44:36
things I wanted to share that I got recently in the mail,
44:39
including this Gods of Metal Crosswords for Metalheads book.
44:43
I do love crosswords. I used to do the New York Times
44:45
crosswords. Are you ready to test your true
44:47
metal head knowledge? This book is packed with 60
44:49
crosswords inspired by the metal legends from Black Sabbath to
44:52
Judas Priest, Slayer to Pantera, Motörhead and Metallica and
44:57
countless others. So that's kind of fun.
45:00
Thank you again, honey, for this.
45:02
Also, also, I haven't even opened this yet, but got a set
45:07
of teas from Madam Zuzu's tea shop in outside of Chicago or in
45:15
the Chicago neighborhood of Highland Park, also owned by
45:17
Billy Corgan. Everything comes back to Billy
45:19
Corgan this week, huh? But yeah, let's let's just
45:24
really quick open up the package and see what's inside.
45:30
I should have opened this before, shouldn't I?
45:33
Again, hopefully people are if you're in for the night.
45:36
Cool. Thanks for watching with us.
45:37
If you're going out, please be safe and smart.
45:40
Be aware of your surroundings. Buckle up if you get If you have
45:43
to get in a car, please don't drive.
45:45
I appreciate you for not drinking and driving.
45:48
Here's 2 teas from Madame Zeus's teas.
45:51
Lemon Berry Maritage Fancy. We have some coffee videos
45:58
coming up. Maybe we'll also do tea and
46:00
soothing sunshine Ginger turmeric, which I love turmeric
46:03
tea. I drink a lot of the Trader
46:05
Joe's Fair Trade turmeric tea to American ginger.
46:09
It's good for my condition, my conditions.
46:13
And then just last and not least, I'm going to hear some
46:17
vinyls I picked up at the next record store in Santa Rosa.
46:21
Thanks for the gift card, Derek. I've got these cool records.
46:30
Probably have a few more things to check next week here at the
46:32
house that I haven't yet checked, but I got a Death,
46:37
Madness, Heart and Decay by the Lurking Fear.
46:39
This was the side project of Tompa Lindstrom of of Thomas
46:43
Lindbergh of At the Gates. Very sad that he died this year.
46:47
Got the New Castle Rat, one of the few new albums I did not get
46:50
yet this year until now. So this was on The Ghost called
46:53
top 20 in fact albums of the year.
46:57
I'm pretty great. I'm very looking forward to
46:58
that. Also picked up spirit boxes the
47:01
fear of fear EP which came out before tsunami seen this is
47:05
pretty bad ass. I'm a fan.
47:07
And then last but not least of course 9 inch Nails.
47:11
Huge fan, saw them this year they were incredible.
47:14
Love the Tron errors soundtrack, one of my favorites.
47:17
The Downward Spiral, the definitive vinyl edition curated
47:21
and remastered by Trent Reznor himself.
47:24
So really cool. Feel like I had an older copy of
47:27
that back east that I haven't seen in a long time, and I
47:31
wanted to make sure that I got a hold of it.
47:33
I had the opportunity to get it. Thanks for the loot, Derek and
47:38
family. So that's our show in a very
47:41
manageable 47 minutes and 36 seconds.
47:45
Once again, this is our last show of the year.
47:47
I'll be back with new shows as soon as you will have new videos
47:50
every week. Monday and Wednesday easily for
47:52
our interviews. Live streams Sunday, sometimes
47:55
Monday night, sometimes Tuesday. Stay tuned.
47:57
Here at Ghost Call we got a lot of big things to bring you in
47:59
2026. Festivals, interviews with huge
48:02
fans, album reviews on our website, everything news, all
48:06
the things you need. And as we say every week at this
48:08
juncture of the show, it's a tough time in the world.
48:10
So please take care of yourselves, take care of
48:12
everyone else. Please don't drink and drive.
48:15
Be safe on this New Year's live to fight another day in 26.
48:19
If you're struggling, our DMS are open.
48:20
Hit me up. I'll be there for you.
48:22
I promise. People have been there for me
48:24
heading into this next year with some optimism, open mind, open
48:29
heart and sometimes a closed fist.
48:31
I'm Kefi from Ghost Cold and I'm out going to dance a jig on the
48:34
way out for the last time in 2026.
48:36
Peace y'all.