Metal Matters

We're honored to have Walter Hoeijmakers as our guest on today's show. Walter is the key creative force behind what is debatably the most important annual event in extreme music: the legendary Roadburn Festival. Every April since its inception in 1999 until the global pandemic shifted the landscape, Roadburn has hosted everything from the best contemporary heavy artists to once in a lifetime performances from living legends such as Hawkwind, Goblin and GISM. Over the years, the fest has become an integral communal event and pollination site for thousands of metalheads, punks, and heavy music lovers the world over. After the necessary cancellation of Roadburn's 2020 installment, they are back this year with Roadburn Redux; a weekend of special livestream events curated with the love and attention to detail the festival is known for. We caught up with Walter to talk about Roadburn Redux as well as his beginnings, some of the wild and unique Roadburn moments throughout the years, and the ever increasing importance of community.

Sara Taylor and Ryan George of industrial titans Youth Code are the guests for this week's episode. Since their inception in 2012, Youth Code's impeccable blend of pulverizing EBM with hardcore and metal sensibilities have cemented them as true torchbearers for much of today's synth driven extreme music. The band has leveled audiences the world over, touring with acts as varied as Skinny Puppy, Chelsea Wolfe, Code Orange, Deafheaven, and Carpenter Brut. In March they self-released A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression; a collaborativelp with esteemed producerKing Yosef. We caught up with Ryan and Sara to discuss the new record, the perils of touring, trying to stay creative in the midst of a global pandemic, and the blood feud that is synths vs. guitars. Oh, and I might have gotten myself cursed in the process. Stick around and find out how!

This week's guest is Bryan Funck, frontman of THOU, the Louisiana-based sludge-doom favorites who kicked in the door by applying old school DIY and eventually blossoming into one of the bigger names in heavy music today. Formed in 2005, the band's catalog contains literally dozens of releases including several splits, full-lengths and evensome collaborative albums with The Body and Emma Ruth Rundle, the latter of which makes up some of their most recentoutput.Intro/Outro: Thou - By Endurance We Conquer

This week's guest isIanShelton, drummer and vocalist for Regional Justice Center. The West Coast powerviolence band has released a series of EPs recently including a split with Wound Man and a collaborative EP with Justice Tripp of Trapped Under Ice / Angel Du$t. RJC is welcoming their new LP Crime & Punishment via Closed Casket Activities in March and as a result we sat down to discuss the new album, the world of power violence in 2020 and much more.Intro/Outro: Regional Justice Center - Absence

This week's guest is Ethan McCarthy, the towering frontman and guitarist for the monolithic doom destroyers Primitive Man. Formed in 2012, this Colorado-based trio has been bruising audiences since the 2013 release of the massive SCORN, touring the world over in support of the effort. Two additional LPs, two EPs and several splits followed along with multiplesplit releases, making Primitive man one of the most in demand doom bands as of late, and increasing the visibility of McCarthy's stark and brutal design work.Intro/Outro: Primitive Man - Consumption

This week's guest is the legendary vocalist Mike "IX" Williams of Eyehategod. Formed in 1988, Eyehategodpersonified nihilism and destruction by subverting traditional doomwith hardcore punk attitude. A true original on the scene, albums like Dopesick set the standard for brutal, nihilistic metal in the 90s, creating an endless number of copycats in the process. 2021 marks their 33rd year as a band and will see the release of their sixth album A History of Nomadic Behavior.INTRO / OUTRO: Eyehategod - Dixie Whiskey