In this episode of the Books of Some Substance Podcast, Nick chats with Brett Campbell of the Arkansas doom metal band Pallbearer about M. John Harrison’s Viriconium. They talk through how the themes of Viriconium made it into the band’s music, how Harrison’s use of shifting time and memory and place subvert expectations of genre fiction, and how it is an endless challenge as a human to try not to continually categorize and simplify complex things. And perhaps most entertainingly, the two embark upon a hero’s journey of attempting to summarize just what exactly happens in these dizzying stories. Listen in and you too can see this quest to the end!

Pallbearer’s latest full-length, Forgotten Days, is available now via Nuclear Blast. Grab a copy of the record, a copy of Viriconium, and get ready to transcend any and all genres.