Radical Research Podcast Jeff Wagner & Hunter Ginn

For our 113th episode, we dispense with the usual exhalations of the past in favor of the thrills of the tense present-future. Thief, the Los Angeles-based brainchild of visionary producer, Dylan Neal, has released one of 2024’s most extraordinary albums, Bleed, Memory, a harrowing journey through the late stages of the human mind and spirit. Without giving away all of the album’s treasures, this episode can be considered an act of seduction, a persuasion. We dare even the heartiest will to resist the siren strains of Bleed, Memory. 







Note I:



Some insight into Dylan Neal’s note to Jeff, mentioned in the early part of the episode (and the question that we borrowed for this episode’s title): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_face




Note II:



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Music cited in order of appearance:



all songs from Thief, Bleed, Memory (2024)



“Apparitions”



“Cinderland”



“Paramnesia”



“Prankquean”



“Dead Coyote Dreams”



“Dulcinea”



“Behemouth”



“Pissing”
“To Whom It May Concern”




Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.

For its 112th episode, Radical Research travels to balmy Greece to investigate the cryptic evildoing of Hail Spirit Noir, whose hellbroth of black metal, prog, psychedelia, and witchery strikes a special chord with your hosts. We take a deep look at the band’s first four albums and find ourselves more spellbound than ever before. There is no warding off the spell, so give in and join us in this most dangerous of meetings. 
Note I:



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We also have a webstore where you can find shirts, CDs, and books, many of them recently restocked:



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Music cited in order of appearance:



“Mountain of Horror” (Pneuma, 2012)



“Into the Gates of Time” (two moments) (Pneuma, 2012)



“Blood Guru” (Oi Magoi, 2014)
“Satan is Time” (Oi Magoi, 2014)



“The Mermaid” (Oi Magoi, 2014)



“Mayhem in Blue” (Mayhem in Blue, 2016)



“Lost in Satan’s Charms” (Mayhem in Blue, 2016)



“The Cannibal Tribe Came from the Sea” (Mayhem in Blue, 2016)



“Alien Lip Reading” (Eden in Reverse, 2020)



“Crossroads” (Eden in Reverse, 2020)



“Automata 1980” (Eden in Reverse, 2020)
“On the Loose Again” (Mannequins, 2021) ep. 113 preview: Thief, “Prankquean” (Bleed, Memory, 2024)







Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.

For episode 111, Radical Research returns to its spiritual homeland of Norway. But on this trip, RR steers clear of the usual avant suspects and instead climbs the Mountains of Might to take a closer look at Immortal’s twisted and divisive fourth album, 1997’s Blizzard Beasts. Though optically outside of RR’s usual territory, the hosts make a compelling case for the album’s inclusion in the annals of the weird. Please tune in but beware of Nebular Ravens and Frostdemons.








Note I: Although we failed to mention it, along with a resemblance or two to various riffs from Hellwitch’s Syzygial Miscreancy, we find parallels between Blizzard Beasts and any given Order From Chaos era, both vocally and musically. Not that Hellwitch or Order From Chaos directly influenced this album, but if Immortal had said so, we could see it. As you were.

Note II:



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We also have a webstore where you can find shirts, CDs, and books, many of them recently restocked:



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Music cited in order of appearance:



[all songs are from Immortal’s Blizzard Beasts, 1997]



“intro”



“Blizzard Beasts”



“Nebular Ravens Winter”



“Suns That Sank Below”
“Battlefields”



“Mountains of Might”



“Noctambulant”



“Winter of the Ages”



“Frostdemonstorm”







Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.

We continue our wander through the 4CD Intrigue compilation. This installment features 15 UK bands, several which we’d never heard of before (Art Nouveau, New Musik, Section 25). We hope this episode helps prove curator Steven Wilson’s note that Intrigue operates on the “idea that conceptual thinking and ambition didn’t suddenly evaporate after ’77…ambitious, weird and thrilling music was all around you in the ‘80s – if you looked in the right places.” Amen.







Note I:



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Music cited in order of appearance:



Intro: Brian Eno, “Third Uncle” (Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), 1974)
[all snippets below are taken directly from the Intrigue compilation; the following indicates where the songs originally appeared]



The Sound, “I Can’t Escape Myself” (Jeopardy, 1980)
Joy Division, “The Eternal” (Closer, 1980)
Swell Maps, “Big Empty Field” (…In “Jane from Occupied Europe”, 1980)



Art Nouveau, “Enemies” (unreleased, 1980)



Gary Numan, “The Joy Circuit” (Telekon, 1980)
23 Skidoo, “The Gospel Comes to New Guinea” (single, 1980)



Echo and the Bunnymen, “All My Colours” (Heaven Up Here, 1981)



The Specials, “Ghost Town” (single, 1981)
New Musik, “They All Run After the Carving Knife” (Anywhere, 1981)
New Order, “The Him” (Movement, 1981)
The Associates, “White Car in Germany” (single, 1981)



Section 25, “Hit” (Always Now, 1981)



Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “Sealand” (Architecture & Morality, 1981)



Japan, “Talking Drum” (Tin Drum, 1981)



The Cure, “Faith” (Faith, 1981)







Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.

Sigh is unquestionably one of the weirdest bands in the metal realm. And since Radical Research skews weird, and since we are both fans of Sigh since the mid ‘90s, it seemed obvious that we would eventually do an episode featuring some of the very weirdest of Sigh’s weird moments. So…if you are down with our motto of Keep Metal Weird, you know what to do.








Note I:



Please consider donating if you listen to Radical Research often: https://www.paypal.me/rrpodcast
We also have a webstore where you can find shirts, CDs, and books, many of them recently restocked:



http://radicalresearch.org/shop/







Music cited in order of appearance:



"Hail Horror Hail" (Hail Horror Hail, 1997)



"A Sunset Song" (Imaginary Sonicscape, 2001)



"Scarlet Dream" (Imaginary Sonicscape, 2001)



"Heresy II: Acosmism" (Heir to Despair, 2018)



"Satsui - Geshi No Ato" (Shiki, 2022)



"12 Souls" (Hail Horror Hail, 1997)
"Amongst the Phantoms of Abandoned Tumbrils" (In Somniphobia, 2012)



“Invitation to Die” (Hail Horror Hail, 1997)
“Diabolic Suicide” (Scenario IV: Dread Dreams, 1999)



“The Molesters of My Soul” (Graveward, 2015)



"Seed of Eternity” (Hail Horror Hail, 1997)











Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.

The body of critical study - and fan adoration - around the music of Napalm Death has concerned itself principally with the band's pioneering grindcore and its transition into the death metal of Harmony Corruption. But what of the band's wilderness years, the mid- to late-1990s? The 108th episode of Radical Research digs into what its hosts consider to be Napalm Death's most radical music, the four-album futurist blitzkrieg spanning the years 1994-1998. Get ready for some serious side-eye, Legions, as we cross over into the torn apart.



 



Note I:



In the episode, Hunter mentions Ian Christe's writing on the band's 1994 album, Fear, Emptiness, Despair. In Christe's Sound of the Beast, he writes that the album, "...started a fresh chapter in the history of a band whose membership half-life had once lasted no longer than an album side. Previous urban hardcore noise blasts were mowed by sophisticated guitar layering and innovative drum patterns. Their dissonance became a conscious component of the composition, not merely a side benefit of chaos, and the marriage of intense anger and calculation yielded a masterpiece of passionate, politically minded, negative realism."







Note II:



In an act of gall, the scalar dimensions of which could only be compared to the Pacific Ocean, Mont Blanc, and John Holmes' ballistic member, Christe includes Fear, Emptiness, Despair in his list of the 25 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time. The list includes other controversial entries, such as Morbid Angel's Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, and Dream Death's rarely-trumpeted but mighty Journey Into Mystery. 











Note III:



In our excitement, we failed to mention the men who produced these albums. All were produced by the estimable Colin Richardson, except Fear, Emptiness, Despair, which was handled by Pete Coleman. Only one of these gentlemen have played flute on a Skyclad album.




Note IV:



Please consider donating if you listen to Radical Research often: https://www.paypal.me/rrpodcast
We also have a webstore where you can find shirts, CDs, and books, many of them recently restocked:



http://radicalresearch.org/shop/








Music cited in order of appearance:



“The Infiltraitor” (Words from the Exit Wound, 1998)
“Plague Rages” (Fear, Emptiness, Despair, 1994)



“Primed Time” (Fear, Emptiness, Despair, 1994)
“Fasting on Deception” (Fear, Emptiness, Despair, 1994) 



“Ripe for the Breaking” (Diatribes, 1996)



“Take the Strain” (Diatribes, 1996)



“Diatribes” (Diatribes, 1996)



“Birth in Regress” (Inside the Torn Apart, 1997)



“Prelude” (Inside the Torn Apart, 1997)



“Lowpoint” (Inside the Torn Apart, 1997)



“None the Wiser?” (Words from the Exit Wound, 1998)



“Trio-Degradable / Affixed by Disconcern” (Words from the Exit Wound, 1998)



“The Infiltraitor” (Words from the Exit Wound, 1998)

Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.