Monosugoi Hikari opens this episode of Kaala Radio with a track from their fifth demo that starts off as a wacky circus tune before transitioning abruptly into a wonderful grind track. It's a two-man operation this time around as Jharrod and Aaron go over the weekend shows and the bands performing therein, Joel's big ol' muscles, and finish by diving dick-first into the state of Japanese politics.

Season three of Kaala Radio begins NOW! Former-guest-turned-new-host Adam helms the new series with his strong, callused, Brazilian hands and Costanza-level neuroticism, and brings the Kaala gang together to look back over 2017 and give you the inside scoop for 2018. Towards the end Aaron completely ruins the bathroom and Audrey is speaking through a scarf to protect her delicate nose.

We've got a real treat for you guys on our extra-long 20th episode: Kaala's Glorious Leader, Matt Ketchum, returns to Kaala Radio to interview Joseph Schafer, editor-in-chief of Invisible Oranges, as well as Emily McCafferty, one of his staff writers. Together they discuss the Seattle scene, Northwest Terror Fest, the creeping return of nu-metal, Matt's accidental appearance at a Christian metal show, and you'll get to here some Seattle/northwest-based bands as well as new tracks from our friends in Tokyo metal band Evil!

Playlist

"Mandala" - Evil

"Paralyzer" - He Whose Ox Is Gored

"Bone Chapel" - The Drip

"Slaves Beyond Death" - Black Breath

"Of Winged Fire and Crawling Shadow" - Isenordal

"Sword of Stupa" - Evil

"Rites of Evil" - Evil

Kubine of Self Decontstruction stops by the studio to answer our insipid questions, Aaron wakes up in a bathtub after the Tokyo tattoo festival, Audrey (aka Suzy Gomatik www.instagram.com/suzygomatik/?hl=en ) tells us all about her experience with the art of Japanese rope bondage, and we discuss the filthiest band name in all Japan (JK肉壺切断 twitter.com/nikutubosetudan ). Plus, Jharrod reveals that once upon a time he was a Strong Man with Muscles. Sweet holy hell it's Kaala radio!

We cram a lot in a little amount of time with good friend Leif as we discuss the following: discovering comrades in unlikely places, Hanjob: The Bike, Galleria de Muerte's Brutal Doodles, Jordan biting faces, indulging in a decade-old grudge, making fun of Jordan, and Leif bicycling all the across the entire damn United States. Every has had at least seven beers at the time of this recording.

Adam from Chicago-based Disrotted stops by only a few months after his tour of Japan and reveals his intentions of moving to this fair island. Suzy Kreuger is back in the studio as well, and the gang discusses the coming meme wars of 2017, the best music from the 90s, and how one actually goes about moving to Japan.

Possibly the nerdiest episode to date, Jharrod and Aaron invite Panoptic Press (www.thepanopticpress.com/) publisher Justin Knipper to the studio to talk comics, metal, and Japan. Is Marvel suffering from too close an association with Hollywood? Is comic-based TV any good? How does one make an independent comic these days? These questions and more answered on Kaala Radio 17! (NOTE: there was an audio issue with the later half of the interview; due to this problem our producer had to patch the missing half together from various sources. Forgive us our imcompetence)

It's a full house at the studio when frequent Kaala Radio guest Jordan returns, ostensibly to assist Aaron and Jharrod but more likely because he has nowhere else to go, but forget him because on this episode we also have special guest Suzy Krueger (www.instagram.com/suzygomatik/) to discuss the strangely colorful aftermath of the Kaala Presents: Eros Revenant! But that's not all - we all have a secret guest, someone we've wanted on the show and have mentioned a half-dozen times, someone active in the Tokyo underground extreme music scene. His hair is long and he loves cats, and that's all we're going to say about him.

IT'S A KAALA RADIO INTERNET EXCLUSIVE! For those of you who don't know, Kaala Radio is also broadcast on WRCT in Pittsburgh, PA and our producer works hard to clean up the horrible language we use on a regular basis in order to make the podcast fit the cruel FCC standards. Sometimes, however, we have audio equipment issues, or files get lost, or the dirtbags on this show display such utter distaste for decency that our over-worked producer has to abort the whole process. This is one of those times, which is why we named this episode after the aborted Sepirot haunting the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Featuring bands such as Life, Abigail, and Jk肉壺切断 (JK nikutubosetudan)!

We decided to do a punk theme this time around, and sweet holy hell do we have a show for you! We snagged the punkest dude we know and got him to spill his guts, so get ready to hear Nori, bass player for Life and former bassist of more than two dozen bands over the past thirty years, tell you all about growing up punk in a land where the nail that sticks up gets hammered. Getting arrested, being under surveillance, squat culture, it's a non-stop story of excitement and danger and discrimination. It ain't the same ol' song and dance, it's Kaala Radio 14!