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♪♪♪
0:42
♪ Tonight I saw a father's love and worry starts to rise ♪
0:48
We'll see you as a gaunted life, a man's podcast.
0:51
I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
0:53
Now, wait a minute, Kyle, wait a minute.
0:54
I have listened to 128 episodes of your podcast,
0:58
and your intro music has been the same on all those episodes.
1:01
What are you going and doing?
1:03
Changing the intro music.
1:04
Well, guys, if you didn't know,
1:06
it's because August Burns Red has released a new album.
1:10
If you were listening to this on time, that album is not even a week old.
1:14
That album is called Guardians, and that is the ninth studio album
1:18
that has been released by August Burns Red.
1:20
They're the two-time Grammy Award-nominated band from Lancaster PA.
1:23
And here's the thing, guys, is every time they release a new album,
1:27
every time, unless it's the worst music I've ever heard,
1:30
which I don't think is possible for that band,
1:32
we're going to change the intro-altrow track, okay?
1:34
So the intro track on this podcast is now the song called Defender,
1:39
which is the fourth track off of that album.
1:41
And we're going to do a review of that album today, okay?
1:44
But, but, but, but, for some of you guys who are like,
1:46
"Oh, I don't like metal, I'm going to skip this one,"
1:48
or "I've never heard of this band," or whether the situation may be,
1:51
here's the deal.
1:52
I first want to implore you that all of you guys
1:56
should listen to metal music.
1:57
And yes, I'm not saying that if you don't like metal,
2:00
that you're a bad person, or any of those different things,
2:02
but I want to make a pitch to you
2:04
that you should listen to metal and the reasons why.
2:07
But then we're going to get into some suggested listening for you guys.
2:11
So I'm actually going to provide you with 31 metal albums
2:14
to start out your metal library, okay?
2:16
Guys, and then after we go through that,
2:18
I'm going to do a quick review of the new album by August Burns Red.
2:22
But before that, like I told you,
2:24
I'm going to give you the reasons why every man should listen to metal.
2:28
Now, real quick, before I get into my three reasons,
2:30
there are more, but before I get into my three,
2:32
when I say metal, I'm including a lot of different genres under that, okay?
2:37
So I'm including hardcore metal core, which is where August Burns Red
2:41
would kind of sit, death metal, thrash, et cetera.
2:44
But what I'm not really considering is hair metal or new metal,
2:50
basically metal that you've heard on the radio.
2:54
Most of the songs and most of the albums I'm about to describe to you,
2:57
you've not heard any of those tracks on the radio save for a handful of them, right?
3:02
And new metal, if you've never heard a new metal, that's kind of like,
3:04
I don't know, like breaking Benjamin and like corn and lit biscuit and some of those things.
3:09
And they've got some good stuff and I've got their albums,
3:11
but that is not who we're talking about.
3:13
But let's go and talk about why every man should listen to metal.
3:16
The first reason is because it's incredibly complicated.
3:21
It is so complicated.
3:24
When you look at people that actually write down their, their metal,
3:27
when they actually write down the music, when they're writing the music
3:30
in August Burns Red is one of those bands.
3:32
It is such a complicated thing to look at,
3:34
especially if you don't know how to read music, which is yours truly.
3:37
I have no idea how to read music, but it's very complicated.
3:39
The sounds are very complicated.
3:41
So it's interesting to the brain because it's so complicated.
3:44
The second reason that every man should listen to metal is because it takes work.
3:48
Well, it takes work because it's so complicated, right?
3:51
Those first two dovetail into each other for a reason.
3:54
The thing is, is for the most part with the screaming vocals,
3:57
which is most of the metal that I'm going to suggest to you,
3:59
it's really, really hard to understand the lyrics.
4:02
You just can't really understand the words that are being said.
4:04
You might be like, well, that's kind of dumb.
4:06
That's not very easy.
4:07
But guys, there's a reason why we actually have a name of a category of music
4:12
called easy listening because this is not it.
4:15
There is easy listening out there.
4:17
So if you want to go, I don't even know what an easy listening band would be.
4:20
But if you want to go listen to that, that's fine.
4:22
This is just different.
4:23
It takes a little bit of work.
4:24
But when you actually sit down with the lyrics in front of you
4:27
and then you listen to the song, you get a deeper level of appreciation
4:30
for what you're listening to.
4:31
And the third reason that every man should listen to metal
4:34
is because wussy music just can't pump you up the way that metal can.
4:38
Like, I know guys that go to the gym and God love them literally,
4:41
but they will listen to, you know, Bethel and, you know, Taylor Swift shout out
4:47
to the exact guy who knows what I'm talking about or Hillsong United or whatever.
4:52
And I just like, I can't imagine getting pumped up for, for, you know, a PR deadlift
4:57
or for, you know, marathon or all that and listening to that.
5:00
That's just me personally.
5:02
When you listen to metal music and when you understand it, when it, like,
5:04
it infiltrates your brain, it's a different level.
5:07
It can take you to a different level.
5:09
Guys, there have been times like here we are sitting in quarantine.
5:12
I've set three PRs in the last week on deadlift, bench and pullups.
5:17
And I've been listening to heavy music and it just, I can't even describe them.
5:22
God, there's not like a webcam or something like that in my garage because it's nonsense.
5:25
I, I end up walking around like the Bushwackers or whatever, like it's just, it's crazy.
5:29
But again, it's incredibly complicated.
5:32
It takes work listening to metal and it's just the wussy music that a lot of you guys
5:35
listen to.
5:36
How does that pump you up?
5:37
It can't pump you up the way that metal can't.
5:39
But before we get into the review of the new August Burns Red album Guardians,
5:42
I want to give you 31 metal albums for you to check out.
5:46
And guys, don't worry about pulling over to write these down.
5:48
I will put them in the show notes and I'm not going to give you, you know, a description
5:52
of each one of those.
5:53
I'm just going to go through them fairly quickly.
5:54
Okay.
5:55
But again, these guys are all over.
5:57
All these different bands are all over the different genres of metal.
6:00
They don't really stick into one.
6:02
But if you're looking to get into metal music, I've had guys ask me for playlists before.
6:06
Here's 31 albums.
6:07
I just gave you hours and hours and hours of metal.
6:11
So you can check it out and see what you like.
6:12
Okay.
6:13
The first one is a life once lost and the album name is Hunter.
6:16
And that band, those two guitarists on that band are absolutely insane.
6:19
The second one is architects and the album is Hollow Crown, a very, very interesting
6:24
voice on that guy.
6:25
I like it a lot.
6:26
The next one is, and these are in alphabetical order, by the way, if you haven't picked up
6:28
on that already.
6:29
The next one is Azaleid dying frail words collapse.
6:31
So frail words collapse is one of really the seminal metal core metal core albums and
6:35
that's still probably the best album they've ever released.
6:37
The next one is August Burns red surprise prize and my favorite album of theirs is messengers.
6:42
The next one is beloved failure on.
6:44
This is one where the screaming vocals actually come from the drummer, which is really interesting.
6:48
The next is between the buried in me.
6:50
The album is colors.
6:52
This is more of a Prague metal band.
6:54
They've got more Prague as time has gone on, which I have not really enjoyed.
6:57
But that is an incredible album.
6:58
The next one is Batch.
7:00
We are the Romans.
7:02
And so Batch is a band that a lot of other bands have stolen their sound from.
7:05
But that's that.
7:06
The next one is Evergreen Terrace.
7:07
The album name is Wolf biker.
7:09
The one after that is every time I die gutter phenomenon, I freaking love that band.
7:14
They have like an ogre in their band their lead guitarist is this big Viking looking
7:17
ogre dude.
7:18
It's hilarious.
7:19
The next one is for today and the album is Wake.
7:21
That is probably one of the most overtly aggressive Christian bands on the planet.
7:25
I absolutely love them.
7:26
The next one is not that they are hate breed and the album is perseverance.
7:30
The next one is he is legend.
7:31
I am Hollywood.
7:32
So that was he is legend.
7:33
I think that was their second album.
7:35
But that is a band that changes their sound all the time.
7:37
But they still sound really awesome and you can tell it's them.
7:40
The next one is impending doom.
7:42
The serpent servant is the name of the album impending doom is kind of like a Christian
7:46
death metal band, which doesn't seem to make sense, but they're absolutely brutal.
7:49
The next one is Lamb of God and the album is wrath.
7:52
And for those of you who don't know who Lamb of God is, that is not a Christian band, even
7:55
though their name is Lamb of God.
7:57
But just the musicianship on that album is ridiculous.
8:00
The next one is living sacrifice.
8:02
The album is reborn.
8:03
That is the album that got me into metal, right?
8:06
That was the first real gritty metal album I ever listened to.
8:11
That's the reason why I like the music that I listened to today.
8:13
The next one is the band Lorna Shore and the album is called Immortal.
8:18
The next is Mashuga and the album is Obzin.
8:21
So Mashuga, if you're a drummer, the drummer just doesn't even make sense.
8:24
I think they're called Triple Kits is what he does.
8:27
But the song Bleed is the song on that album you need to start with.
8:30
The next one is Metallica.
8:32
Yes, I'm including Metallica there for you thrash fans, but I'm doing the SNM album.
8:36
And for any of you guys whose brains almost exploded, oh, why did you do master puppets?
8:39
Why didn't you do ride the lightning or whatever?
8:41
Here's the thing.
8:42
Those albums are incredible.
8:43
The thing about SNM is they did an album with a symphony orchestra, a metal album, a double
8:49
album with a symphony orchestra.
8:50
And it sounded amazing.
8:51
And to this day, that's what I want to be the Super Bowl halftime show them and a symphony
8:55
orchestra.
8:56
Absolutely incredible.
8:57
The next one here is misery signals and the album is mirrors.
9:00
The next one after that nodes of Ranvier, it is their sale, their self titled album.
9:04
Great album out or artwork on that one.
9:06
The next one is Norma Jean, bless the martyr, kiss the child.
9:10
That is before Josh Goggins went and did the chariot and then his other bands.
9:14
Great, great album.
9:15
The next one is O sleeper son of the morning.
9:16
So the last song on that album will make you want to punch everyone in the face near
9:20
you.
9:21
But don't worry, it's a good thing.
9:22
The next one is the band Poison the well and it's their album tear from the red.
9:25
Then we have the acacia strain, one of the heaviest bands I've ever heard my entire
9:29
life brutal, brutal, angry band, and the album is continent.
9:33
The next one is the devil wears Prada.
9:35
Yes, that is the name of a metal band, but it's one of their EPs actually.
9:38
I want to suggest to you.
9:39
It's the zombie EP.
9:40
It's like four or five tracks.
9:41
It's incredible.
9:42
The next one is the Dillinger escape plan and the album is Miss machine.
9:46
This band is going to be hard for a lot of you to get into.
9:48
It's very complicated, very chaotic music.
9:50
And the next band is like it.
9:52
It's the red cord and the album is clients.
9:54
The one after that is the band throw down and it's their album vendetta.
9:59
They went through kind of a metamorphosis from that album and the one previous to it,
10:03
but it was a lot better.
10:04
Three left.
10:05
We got under oath to find the great line.
10:07
So that is a band that you may have actually heard of.
10:09
They kind of had some mainstream success, but that's their best album in my opinion.
10:13
The next one is unearth the oncoming storm.
10:16
And the last one, my favorite band of all time, Zayo, very, very special to my heart underground
10:22
Christian band.
10:23
And this is their, I guess they would be their second album, but it's where blood and
10:26
fire bring rest, which if you forced me, that would be my favorite album, any genre of all
10:31
time.
10:32
So everybody take a deep breath.
10:34
For some of you, you're like, why is he saying all these words?
10:37
But I promise you, if you plug it into your Spotify or your Apple music later, you will
10:41
thank me.
10:42
But guys, let's go ahead and do a quick review of guardians.
10:44
And that is, uh, that is the ninth studio album from August burns red.
10:47
So the theme of this album, a lot of albums are just kind of random songs amalgamated together
10:52
into an album, but this one does have a loose theme.
10:54
And so in an interview, Brett Rambler, who's the rhythm guitarist for that band, he said
10:58
this.
10:59
He said, quote, there's a loose theme of being there for another person who's reaching out
11:02
for help.
11:03
This individual who saves the day acts like a guardian.
11:06
The idea recurred as we put everything together, it was a great summation of what we were talking
11:11
about.
11:12
Unquote.
11:13
So an interesting tidbit about the recording of this album is rather than tracking the
11:17
album kind of in one chunk, the band actually spent more time on the music than any other
11:23
album in kind of the writing process.
11:26
I mean, this band, they churn out albums every two years, they go on tour a lot.
11:30
They're kind of like a machine, but they actually recorded in two separate sessions.
11:34
And they recorded at, I guess what you would call the world famous think loud studios in
11:38
York, Pennsylvania.
11:39
And this was alongside producers, Carson Slavic and Grant McFarland.
11:44
But JB, who's the lead guitarist, this is what he said about recording that way.
11:47
Quote, after the first session, we had months to think about what we might want to change.
11:51
We never had this much time and liberty for production.
11:54
It enabled everyone to be more critical and think about putting an individual stamp on
11:58
the songs.
11:59
Think loud, which is where they recorded was also the nicest facility we've ever tracked
12:03
in.
12:04
We had tons of room to work and be creative.
12:06
We're super proud of the final product.
12:07
Dustin and I collaborated more than we have in the past as well.
12:11
Typically, one person will write a whole song and send it to the band.
12:14
We all got to contribute here.
12:16
Unquote.
12:17
And so that's the thing with a lot of these bands that you don't realize is they're not
12:19
all sitting in the studio at the same time all the time.
12:21
They're not all just jamming.
12:22
And then it's like, oh, well, that's great.
12:24
Let's let's use that.
12:25
And we'll put it over here.
12:26
Try this drum part.
12:27
A lot of these bands, like they'll have one guy write it, write a song, maybe it's a
12:30
guitarist or or the drummer or something like that.
12:33
And then they'll send that music out to everybody else to write their parts to it.
12:36
That's not what happened here.
12:38
And I think to a lot of positives is why that happened.
12:42
It's incredible to see what an amazing band can do when they're given a little bit of
12:46
runway.
12:47
So let me give you kind of my overall impression of this album.
12:50
So I have a few thoughts here.
12:52
The first thing is it's very consistent as usual because this band is consistent.
12:56
I mean, they don't release stinker albums.
12:59
Now you might have albums of theirs that you like better than others and we'll get into
13:02
my ranking of their albums later, but they're just very consistent.
13:05
If they're going to bring you an album, it's going to be quality.
13:08
Another impression I had is it's as I was listening to it for the first time, it's seemingly
13:14
more brutal than their other albums, and this is a really brutal band.
13:20
I mean, they have some ridiculously heavy parts to their music, but this album just felt harder
13:27
than the stuff that they put out before.
13:29
And the last just overall impression is much of the songs on this album, they're just primed
13:34
to be played live because the thing is is there are some when you're playing live and
13:38
you're playing a set, a lot of these bands, you know, you got to play the fan favorites,
13:42
the songs that the people came to see, you got to have your songs for, you know, before
13:47
you leave stage and then, oh, it's just kidding, we didn't leave Encore and then you have those
13:51
songs.
13:52
And there's some songs that the bands like that maybe the fans don't like as much, but
13:55
there's so many songs on this album that would absolutely make an audience lose their
13:59
minds.
14:00
That's what this album felt like is if they go on two or 10 years from now and just play
14:03
this album straight through, there's going to be a lot of hospital visits for people that
14:06
are in those pits.
14:07
But now I'm going to go through and give some, I guess you could say prizes or stamps on
14:12
different songs for different reasons.
14:13
But I want to go ahead and talk about my favorite song title.
14:17
And that favorite song title is track 11 and it's called three fountains.
14:21
And so this is a song that Matt Griner, whenever we had him on the podcast a couple of months
14:25
ago, he and I talked about this song off air.
14:27
I wish I'd asked him about it on air, but I'd forgotten about it.
14:30
But three fountains is an incredible name and this is why, and this was directly from
14:34
him.
14:35
Three fountains is based on St. Paul's decapitation.
14:38
And when his head hit the ground, the legend has it that it bounced three times.
14:42
And from those spots, three fountains spring up.
14:46
And so the way Matt Griner puts it is that it's a song that tells of life coming from
14:51
apparent death.
14:52
And so if you actually look at look that up the decapitation of St. Paul or the three
14:56
fountains, that's actually something that a lot of people believe in and they they go
15:00
to it's part of the legend.
15:01
And so I thought that was a really cool song title.
15:04
The next, I guess, I don't know what you would call the next prize I would like to give is
15:08
the favorite lyric from the album and my favorite lyric, and so I'm just going with a chunk.
15:13
You know, I can't just do a single line, but just like a chunk is from the song Empty Heaven,
15:17
which is the 10th track on the album.
15:19
And this is the, this just caught me.
15:22
It just caught me different.
15:24
I had to kind of go back and reread it and think about a little bit more, but this is
15:27
the lyric here.
15:29
What's eternity like when you're the first to arrive?
15:33
Take a look around.
15:34
There's no one by your side.
15:36
Will you seek solace in all that you know, or will you wish that your blood still flowed?
15:42
And so I thought that was interesting because there's a lot of different themes there and
15:45
I'm not exactly sure what the writer of these lyrics had in mind, but that is an interesting
15:50
thing because I've heard people talk about before, like, dude, you don't know my friends.
15:53
I can't become a Christian because I got to see these jokers later and none of these
15:57
busters are going to be in heaven.
15:59
And so it's almost like if those guys arrived in heaven that they would wish that their blood
16:02
was still flowing and that they were still on earth or they were someplace else.
16:07
So that's what made me think that's what it made me think of during that.
16:10
I'm not sure what it's there for, but that was my favorite lyric from the album.
16:13
Now I want to do my favorite part of the album.
16:17
Okay.
16:18
And so I already told you the intro router track on this podcast now is going to be the
16:20
song defender, which is the fourth, the fourth track, but around two minutes and 23 seconds
16:26
into the song.
16:28
There's a 22nd stretch that holy Moses, make sure there's nothing sharp around you.
16:34
When you're, when you're listening to this for the first time, make sure there's not
16:37
a bunch of little kids or a miniature horse or something like that because there might
16:41
be some bumps and bruises after the part of the song.
16:44
Okay.
16:45
But part of it is not just because of the music because the music's absolutely brutal,
16:49
but the, the lyrical content during this part is insane.
16:53
So I'll read it to you first and then I'm going to play it for you.
16:56
But here are the lyrics in this part.
16:58
Okay.
16:59
So listen for this whenever we get to the song here, the lyrics, there is no judge.
17:04
I am the jury and the defendant.
17:07
The gavel has no hand who will deliver the sentence bitterness has no end.
17:15
Now guys, I wanted to make this part the outro of the podcast, but I thought it would be
17:20
too rough for people and it'd be like way too, I say and keep seeking the line of Judah.
17:24
And then this cuts in, it would, it just wouldn't have worked for whatever reason.
17:28
But let me go ahead and play that part for you.
17:29
And for those of you following along, it should be the same where you're at.
17:32
This is around the two minute and 22 or 23 second mark.
17:35
So here it is.
17:54
Yeah, yeah, I tried to tell you now, just imagine if that was the outro for the podcast.
18:10
Okay.
18:11
I think people might get hurt, but that's okay.
18:13
But just an absolutely incredible part to that song and album that has so many, you could
18:18
take 20 second chunks of so many parts in this album, but that is the part that is my
18:22
favorite.
18:23
I didn't get into my favorite song lyrically on the album and that is the song Lighthouse,
18:27
which is the fifth track.
18:28
So this is an album that if you remember back to our episode with Matt Greiner a couple
18:32
of months ago, he talked about this as kind of the first song that you should listen to
18:36
if you get the album, listen to track number five.
18:38
This is a song about the Good Samaritan.
18:41
This is apparently a song that took Matt Greiner a long time to write.
18:44
It's just basically about reaching out and helping someone in need and how the church
18:48
sometimes does a really, really crappy job of doing that.
18:51
The people that are in need sometimes don't really fit into the, the matrix of what the
18:55
church likes or what they want to associate with, but he's talking about the road and
19:01
that the Good Samaritan actually happened on.
19:03
And when we read that part of the Bible, I know when I do, when I read that part of the
19:06
Bible, I just assume it's a wide road.
19:08
I think about a modern road, but if you do the research back in that day, that road was
19:12
really, really narrow.
19:14
It was so narrow that you couldn't have missed the guy that was in need, right?
19:18
Yeah, I mean, cause it's possible in a modern day road that the road's just so big and so
19:22
many things going on that perhaps you just miss that person, but that's not what happened
19:25
here.
19:26
It's impossible that the religious man didn't see the man in need.
19:29
And you know, this, the second part of the song or the second half of the song is really
19:33
critical of the church.
19:35
And Greiner, he said he wants this song to encourage change in other people and to just
19:40
not look at other people as outsiders.
19:42
So what I want to do is I just want to read the lyrics here to the album and then you
19:45
can obviously have them for yourself.
19:47
You can look them up so when you listen to the album, you can follow along.
19:49
So here are the lyrics to the song, Lighthouse.
19:51
Take another look around.
19:53
There's so much loss to be found.
19:55
People everywhere are hurting, even though they're counting out, even though they're
19:58
counted out, there's so much loss to be found.
20:01
Passion in action is compassion.
20:03
Love is greater than what it's made of.
20:05
It will cost you.
20:06
Someone has to pay.
20:07
Give nothing and you'll waste your wealth away.
20:10
Someone has to pay.
20:11
Bloodied and battered, dying in ditch.
20:13
Help nowhere to be found.
20:15
Take another look around.
20:16
There's so much loss to be found.
20:18
People everywhere are hurting.
20:19
Even though they're counted out, there's so much loss to be found.
20:22
Their prayers to a god are spoken in vain.
20:25
His home is with the broken.
20:27
He is the answer to their pain.
20:28
A faith so fragile, they're told to never leave.
20:31
Scared they'll be seen for what they are, not what they've achieved.
20:35
A monster's legacy ends the day he dies.
20:37
A man never forgotten is the one who's crucified.
20:41
The treasure is in the tatters, not just another cog in the wheel.
20:45
Help those in need and you'll have said more than your words will ever say.
20:49
Divine design will light the way.
20:51
Rise up.
20:52
Reach out.
20:53
Have pity.
20:54
Let the outcast in.
20:56
Rise up.
20:57
Reach out.
20:58
A stranger's face in a foreign place.
21:00
Rise up.
21:01
Reach out.
21:02
Shutting out the poor won't lead to a cure.
21:04
Who will rise up and reach out.
21:07
Take another look around.
21:08
There's so much loss to be found.
21:10
People everywhere are hurting.
21:12
Even though they're counted out, there's so much loss to be found.
21:15
I love that song lyrically.
21:16
It's a great song.
21:17
Check that one out.
21:18
Now, I'm going to get into my favorite song musically on the album and that is actually
21:22
the third track Paramount and this is maybe the hardest one to pick is which song I like
21:27
the best musically.
21:28
But the reason why I went with Paramount is because top to bottom, this song has the
21:31
most variety of sounds in it.
21:33
There's even some gang vocals in there at one point, so if it's so hardcore fans, you'll
21:36
appreciate that.
21:37
But that song had the most musical variety in my opinion.
21:40
I'm not a terribly astute music critic, but I thought that that song was incredible musically.
21:45
Now I want to get into kind of my favorites.
21:47
And so I'll actually do my friend's favorite song overall on this album.
21:51
I had a lot of friends listen to this album over the weekend and the same song kept coming
21:55
up in their response to me and it was the seventh track, which is Ties That Bind.
21:59
And so this is an actual quote from one of my good buddies.
22:02
He said this, I about opened up a pit in the freezer section at crest to break to the breakdown
22:07
on Ties That Bind.
22:08
So crest is a grocery store here in the town that we both live in.
22:12
And so the thought of being there, like trying to, you know, get some milk and maybe some
22:16
eggs or whatever, and then at the same time thinking to yourself, I need to open up a
22:20
pit right now.
22:21
I need to throw some elbows.
22:22
So that's perfect.
22:23
But a lot of my friends like that song.
22:24
So that seems to be a favorite of theirs.
22:26
But my favorite song overall, this is my favorite song off the new album by August Prince
22:30
Red.
22:31
It is the eighth track and it's called Blood Letter Holy Cow, this song.
22:37
So I just got to be honest with you guys because I try to be as real as possible.
22:40
I may or may not have said a cuss word without realizing it the first time I heard this
22:46
song.
22:47
Okay.
22:48
Um, at some point, I just recall saying a bad word and thinking to myself, holy whatever
22:57
this song is so heavy.
22:59
So here's the thing is, you know, sometimes in metal music, you hear people talk about,
23:02
oh man, that's a real beefy part.
23:04
This song is not beef.
23:05
This song is a herd of cattle.
23:07
Like this song is so heavy and the lyrics are super aggressive, super aggressive.
23:13
So I just want to read a small section of the lyrics here.
23:15
So here it is.
23:16
You have picked the wrong mark.
23:18
You tried to pull an inside job.
23:20
You're a thief of a different kind.
23:22
One who prays on those fighting to stay alive.
23:25
Pull your hand back or lose your sense of touch.
23:28
Remove it at the stump.
23:30
Pay homage to medieval times, um, guys, in this song, and I'm not going to play it for
23:36
you here because I want you to go listen to it for yourself.
23:39
So wherever you get your music, whether you want to buy the albums, they got it available
23:42
in vinyl on their, on their website, you've got Spotify, you've got iTunes, you've, you've
23:46
got all Apple music, all the stuff, listen to blood letter on this album because it has
23:52
one of the most incredible breakdowns ever.
23:56
And if you're like, Kyle, how far into the song until the breakdown happens, don't worry.
24:01
You'll see it.
24:02
You'll hear it.
24:03
You'll feel it.
24:04
There is going to be no question in your mind as to which breakdown I'm talking about, but
24:07
that is my favorite overall song on that album.
24:10
But when you're talking about albums for a band that's released, you know, nine studio
24:14
albums at this point, you kind of have to think about where does it rank against the
24:17
other eight, right?
24:19
And so I've done a lot of thinking about that kind of where does this rank?
24:22
I went back and kind of listened to different parts of other albums just so I can kind of
24:24
get an idea and I'm not going to rank them one through nine.
24:27
But for me, the two seminal albums for August Burns Red in order are messengers, which was
24:33
released in 2007 and constellations released in 2009.
24:38
For something to usurp one of those and to elevate above one of those two, I mean, those
24:43
guys really, really set the bar with messengers and constellations.
24:48
So messengers is one for me.
24:50
Constellations is two.
24:51
But then I started reviewing the other albums, you know, found in faraway places and Phantom
24:55
Anthem and, you know, thrill seeker, just all the other albums.
24:59
Guardians is the third best August Burns right, August Burns Red album.
25:03
It just is.
25:05
And the thing is, is there's a primacy bias, right?
25:08
You know, I just heard this recently, but there's also the recency bias, which is, it's
25:12
the last stuff that I've heard from August Burns Red and it's always one of those things
25:15
like after a fight when you watch a fight, like, Oh, that's the greatest fight of all
25:18
time.
25:19
And they're like, Oh, you know, that fight was probably top five on that card.
25:23
You know, your mind just, you know, starts to bring it down.
25:26
You start to chill out a little bit when the adrenaline wears off.
25:28
But guys, I've listened to this a few times all the way through and I just can't put another
25:34
one of their albums above this one.
25:36
They're all so close that that's the thing I feel like messengers and constellations
25:39
set the bar.
25:40
There's a little bit of a gap.
25:41
And then there's some of the other stuff that they've put out, but guardians is the next
25:44
best album for them.
25:46
And so here's the thing with this podcast guys is this is a little bit shorter show than
25:50
what we normally do.
25:51
And the reason is because I want you to go buy the album.
25:53
I want you to stream it on Spotify.
25:55
I want you to listen on Apple music.
25:56
I just want you to listen to this album.
25:57
I want you to listen to the other albums that I suggested.
26:00
Just do it.
26:01
I'm giving you a little bit of time at the very least, listen to blood letter.
26:05
Now again, Matt Granner thinks you should start with Lighthouse.
26:09
I think you should start with the other end of the spectrum, the hardest song on the album,
26:13
but I really want you guys to enjoy that.
26:15
They're a great friend of the podcast.
26:17
We're so thankful to them that they've allowed us to use, you know, all of their music for
26:21
anything that we choose to use it for within reason.
26:24
And so it's just been a great, great thing to experience them as friends of the show
26:27
and friends of what we're doing here.
26:29
So guys, do us a favor and check out their stuff.
26:31
But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost.
26:33
As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry in our mission.
26:36
It's cultivating manly resilience specifically.
26:38
We do that by providing content that for just spiritual, mental and physical toughness.
26:42
And today, I've got the link for you to go buy it from their store on the August burns
26:46
red.com.
26:47
I've also got the YouTube music videos of their two, the two singles that they've released
26:52
so far.
26:53
And that's August burns red defender and August burns red bones and there will be more singles
26:57
from this album.
26:58
But you can just check those out as they come out.
27:00
Guys, thanks so much for listening to the podcast.
27:02
I really do appreciate it.
27:03
If you would, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts or Stitcher
27:07
and refer your friends to listen and share this on social media.
27:10
If we deserve a five star review, guys, keep leaving us those five star reviews.
27:13
That's how we are going to continue to elevate this content and please leave us a few sentences
27:17
letting us know why you like the content.
27:19
I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the remainder of 2020 in the beginning
27:22
of 2021.
27:24
So if you want me to come speak at your team on your men's event, at your podcast, on your
27:27
podcast show, whatever, hit me up info at undaunted.life.
27:30
Again, that's I N F O at undaunted.life.
27:33
The website is www dot undaunted.life.
27:35
You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at undaunted life or Facebook dot com backslash
27:40
undaunted life.
27:41
Check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible app to search undaunted life under plans.
27:44
And as always, we want to thank the band August friends read for allowing us to use their
27:48
entire music library for our content.
27:50
And excitingly, the intro outro track on this podcast is their new song defender, which
27:55
is off their latest record entitled guardians.
27:57
Go pick it up.
27:58
The links to everything is in the description.
28:00
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
28:02
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical
28:07
toughness.
28:08
Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
28:32
[MUSIC]