Metal Minutiae

Ray chats with Dan Nahum, the organiser of Essence Festival in Canberra, set to be held October 3-5 at The Baso. We discuss what went well last year, what will be different this year, and what some of the highlights might be for the 2025 iteration. There is also a brief guest appearance from Dan from Irreparable who wandered by while we recorded in The Tote beer garden. Essence:In the traditions of Canberra's Metal for the Brain and SoundOut, as well as Dark Mofo, Essence is a diverse underground music festival, taking in various metal subgenres (death, black, doom, sludge, and more) as well as other genres: noise, post-punk and post-rock, experimental, industrial, ambient, improvised, and even dark and contemporary takes on traditional music. The bill is from across the Australia and features a mix of impressive live stalwarts, cult artists that perform only rarely, and new and exciting acts. Many have never performed in Canberra before. This year Essence is co-presented by NSW/Qld label Gutter Prince Cabal, and has also added an explicitly visual element in the form of NSW visual artist Greallach.Links:Ticketshttps://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/8e1e8ce6-2061-4037-8f12-285520dc45f4 Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/essence_festivalPlaylisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/6AiuxATeB2UGdNkk16cL6g?si=2ed3ac3ba03847b1Full band listLife Cult Pod People Diploid Contaminated Convulsing Tir Growth Teeth Dreams Golgothan Remains Mammon’s Throne raven ZCluster Nontinuum Bacchus Harsh Burden Man Živa Shay Doe and Jack Napier Josh Shipton Oar Lithik Bruxist Knife Marlēné Claudine Radice Fukno Canary Bones Atavus Infectum External Organ Futility Essentia Vermis Friday night pre-fest: Destruktor Aglo Hebephrenique Grotesque Bliss Leaker

Phil and Ray sit down with Ed from Aardvark to talk about what Aardvark have been up to and also discuss three classic albums important to EdAardvark's coming Sydney show with Bengal Tigershttps://www.factorytheatre.com.au/event/bengal-tigers/and Flitcraft with Bengal Tigers in Melbournehttps://theleadbeaterhotel.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/c2ae7bdb-3062-410f-bd46-99bef5801c70?Event=219393No playlist for this episode but be sure to listen toAccept - Metal HeartThin Lizzy - ChinatownJudas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

Phil and Ray tackle one of their favourite song types - the heavy metal Epic. Whether it be 7 minutes, or 8 minutes as the cut off, there is nothing small and or lacking in these songsEpisode Playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/1DBN0O41gq1MbpAnjZvhvM?si=d72c992502f94ed3

Phil and Ray are back after a bit of a break with even more Secrets of Steel. Finally actually creating a part 2 episode to go along with all those part 1s from last year. Strap yourself in for some classic heavy metal ingredients and be sure to let us know about any excellent examples we missed, because we always want more!The gigs Ray mentioned are:Spectral Wounds, with Pestilential Shadows and Golgothan Remains June 13 at Metro Social in Sydney tickets hereThe Veil, Lithik, Irreparable, Futility at The Tote July 26 in Melbourne tickets hereEpisode playlist here

Phil and Ray are back in 2025 chatting with Stu from Silent Knight, while they are in town as the national support on Hammerfall's Australian tour. Stu was crashing on Ray's floor while he was in town, so we thought we might as well record an episode. This episode did require significant editing as Ray and Stu are brothers, and apparently like to bicker at each other, which is no fun to listen to - just ask Phil.We cover Iron Saviour, Atlantean Kodex, Dragonland and more. Playlist for the episode is here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/02yzXsb4c2M6DMSnG04WbD?si=b8e2b0d14fe24c81 Check out Silent Knight https://silentknightband.bandcamp.com/

We cover a lot of things in this one. And it is quite a long episode. It has been a while between episodes and a fair bit has happened in between with Nicko's retirement, Paul Dianno's passing, Solstafir, Opeth and Tribulation all with new albums that have elicited a range of opinions. Ray mentions that Tarot are playing more shows as part of the album launch tour, but it appears that he may well have made that up. Follow Tarot on socials to stay in the loop though https://www.instagram.com/tarottasmania/ Episode playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1WgRLFi1JQDGefBRW5fKWA?si=cbe4d31705434916

Its Halloween next week so we thought we'd celebrate with some Helloween and Keep of the Seven Keys Part 1 and Part 2, as the first installment in what is becoming a series of first installments. This one we are calling Jewels of the Crown. Excellent heavy metal albums, that are probably appropriately rated, but we'll talk about them anyway because we love them.Also discussed:Austere - Beneath the Threshold and their upcoming Aus tour with Harakiri For the Sky courtesy of Your Mate Bookings https://www.yourmatebookings.com/uncategorized/3318/Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N4rLtjPzH0Grand Magus - SunravenHalford - ResurrectionRay's experience at Essence FestivalPhil talks Glenn Hughes and Black Jesus (separate gigs)The playlist of things we've been listening to continues to grow and become more and more eclectic, so enjoy that here

Steel Assassins is almost upon us again. The yearly heavy metal festival held in Sydney by Dave Balfour at Metal Evilution. Get your tickets and be there in Nov 8 and 9 at The Bridge in SydneyticketsEpisode playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2HK4ImHg24QMEXbE1bbnTI?si=N3dYpGBcR7uROs-9ZBCs7g&pi=a-KvScuGkCT6OnAlso discussedThe quite heartwarming story of Phil's introduction to Deep Purple's Burn and the upcoming Glenn Hughes tourAnthrax's Fistful of Metal being a pretty good amount of metalThe 'big 4' having not great album covers for their first albumsBlacksound Records has a physical location coming siteSilent Knight and Valhalore (apologies for Ray mispronouncing that one, if you had to read his handwriting you'd know why) have been added as the supports for Hammerfall's upcoming Australian tourGrand Magus - pure heavy metal with a new album Sun Raven coming out Oct 18