Metal Nerdery Podcast

“We can’t ever talk about this so let’s talk about not talking about it when we’re talking about it…”

Released on July 14th, 1992, COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION, the 5th MEGADETH album (and the 2nd to feature “the classic lineup” of Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman, and Nick Menza) would become the follow up to “one of the most perfect thrash albums of all time”, featuring a more streamlined, simplified, straight forward app...

“I like feet, bro…”

Whether it’s the “spooky kabuki KISS” face paint of the 70’s, the “ultra gloves of shame glam KISS” from the 80’s, or the black metal corpse paint of the modern day, MAKE-UP has been a part of rock and metal across a multitude of decades and genres that not only made for a superior stage show but also helped homely looking metal heads look and feel more attractive and confident. 

It’s time to take care of the ...

“When you thought it was over…it did kind of a slide down…and then he slid back up and back down again…and then he does it again…”

August 8, 2006, marks the first SLAYER album in 16 years featuring Dave Lombardo behind the drum kit with CHRIST ILLUSION, their 10th studio album and their first since the release of God Hates Us All on 09/11/2001. 

With the original classic lineup in place and artist Larry Carroll’s trademark macabre ...

“It’s strange to think about a world without The Prince of Darkness…” 

It all started on February 13, 1970, with the ominous sounds of chapel bells, thunder, and pouring rain, and it all ended with an emotionally charged, worldwide downpour of tears from fans across the planet on July 22, 2025, the day that OZZY OSBOURNE, The Prince Of Darkness, bade this world farewell and passed into eternity.

Ozzy, for many metal heads, represen...

“Careful back there…”

Generally speaking, an artist’s DEBUT ALBUM will often be quite good, while their SOPHOMORE ALBUM, in contrast, will often be far more advanced, sophisticated, and light years better than the first, in terms of song writing and overall production. While this is more often than not the rule, there are some notable exceptions.

As with asking a parent with 2 kids “which one do you love more?”, sometimes the a...

“There were some heroes and there were some zeroes…”

BACK TO THE BEGINNING, the final concert performance by the O.G. lineup of BLACK SABBATH featuring Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and Ozzy Osbourne (along with an all-star roster of top shelf rock & metal artists) was held at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, England on 05/07/2025 (that’s July 5th, 2025 for people in the United States) and raised nearly $200 Million f...

“If you’ve got a whole room full of 10’s, that’s the 5…”

We’ve all been there. Every one of us have experienced an album where it was “almost perfect” front to back, yet there was that one song that blemished its perfection and brought it down a notch. 

Granted, some songs may not fit relative to the context of an album and should have never been included to begin with, while others may have been played into the ground a quadrill...

“I thought it was gonna be tight…”

1982 –Michael Jackson releases what would become the biggest selling album in music history with Thriller, Survivor and Olivia Newton John are locked in their own HEAD-TO-HEAD DEATH MATCH on the Billboard Charts with Eye of the Tiger & Let’s Get Physical, and IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST, two of the greatest twin guitar attacks in all of  metal, both release two of the most iconic albums in al...

“I’ll take your ‘Lord of This World’ and raise you ‘After Forever’…”

From “The Moses story” to “the shortest verse in The Good Book” to one of the creepiest spoken word intros in all of metal which references end time prophecy, the impact of GOD IN METAL can be found everywhere, no matter how subtle or obvious, positive or negative.

Whether it’s an album cover, a band’s name, a song, or even direct Biblical scripture, there are...

“If they’re not fat, they’re soft…”

Think back to The Sunset Strip and the emerging metal scene of the early 80’s, full of sleaze, shred, and riffs, long before the emergence of the “serious glam” and “serious thrash” of the mid to late 80’s. METAL HEALTH and OUT OF THE CELLAR, released in 1983 and 1984, by QUIET RIOT and RATT (respectively) both preceded the hair metal movement of the late 80’s and ironically (to a great extent) h...

“It was almost too big…”

Get ready for a rebuttal from “Captain Backpedal” after being challenged to a fight on a “goat farm”, discover the “magic number” required to transform your twanglification levels “from sea level to skyrocket”, remember that “four fingers is all it takes”, understand that “convenience can be creepy”, and prepare to “plug it into the house backline” and park it in “The Red Deck” when you JOIN US as we break...

“It’s like the Sam Kinison meets Bobcat Goldthwait of dogs…”

Bridging the gap between the thrash metal of the late 80’s and early 90’s and the tidal wave of groove metal that made landfall in the metal community during the early 90’s (courtesy of Pantera), MACHINE HEAD came screaming out of the gate on August 9th, 1994, with their blisteringly crushing debut, BURN MY EYES. 

Filled with brutally heavy riffs that occasionally blu...

“Wait, the reason you cut your hair was for 2 dudes?”

It’s officially our 6th anniversary! That’s right, 6 years of metal discussions, ludicrous nonsense, and beers of the episode, and what better way to wrap up our 6th year in podcasting excellence than with STEEL PANTHER, the parody band that helped make 80’s hair metal FUN again, with every hyperbolic metal cliché you can think of that makes them the epitome of everything that...

“You’ll be divorced, alone, and flaccid…”

Let’s go back a few years, back to a time when we were young and impressionable and just starting out on our respective metal odysseys as fans and purveyors of all things metal, including (but not limited to) the hard rock of our childhood years in the late 70’s to the plethora of NWOBHM, thrash, and other classic metal bands we discovered during our teen years in the late 80’s and early 90...

“If anything, it’s three 7’s…and one of them has a line in the middle…”

This episode is effectively “nonverbal” in that it contains zero lyrics and is truly beyond words (so to speak). That’s right, it’s all about INSTRUMENTALS and it just so happens that they come in a wide variety of styles and options. 

On a studio album, INSTRUMENTALS are 7enerally either lon7er, extended, standalone musical arran7ements, or brief interludes ...

“You’re not supposed to swallow it…but it’s fine to have it in your mouth.”

Whether it’s the debut from Metal Church or Dream Theater, or the swansong from Slayer or Pantera, TERRY DATE is undoubtedly one of the most prominent and prolific producers, engineers, and mixers of metal music to have blessed the ears of metal fans for more than 40 years.

Get ready for “a little origami”, remember that cross walks exist “for health re...

“I know who you’re talking about!”

So, we did a thing…

After almost 6 years into this podcast, this is the first time we’ve ever done a BREAKDOWN of a single track, and what better way to kick things off than SLAYER’s ANGEL OF DEATH, which is without question “one of the most perfect thrash metal songs EVER written” and also just happens to be the killer opener on one of the most perfect thrash metal albums ever recorded, the Ric...

“Let me see your mouth…” 

Prepare to learn the proper “order of operations” with regard to relaxers and hear some hilarious post 4/20 tales that will force you to make some “executive decisions” about the rest of your day. Understand the reason a “jigger” needs to be rinsed out after every use, why you should never utter that word near the hearing impaired, and why “Black Power Metal” isn’t what you think it is. 

Discover the c...

“One’s a dude, right? I want the one that’s NOT the dude…”

DOWN III: OVER THE UNDER, the 3rd studio offering from southern fried doom lords DOWN, has a very 70’s centric feel from start to finish. From the songs and the production to the album cover, OVER THE UNDER might just be the most 70’s influenced and 70’s sounding DOWN album ever recorded. 

Time to fire up the “bowrider” and begin preparations for “The Dockside Sessions”...