Deep in the bog, beyond reason and breathable air, Black Manifold takes a turn for the truly unhinged.

This episode, we descend into the slime-soaked, blastbeat-ridden world of Phyllomedusa and their grotesque opus Amphibians Performing Surgery. What starts as a breakdown of one of the weirdest, most chaotic projects in underground metal quickly mutates into something far stranger…

Somewhere along the way, we lose the plot—and ourselves—landing on a distant frog planet where the air hums with distortion and the swamps pulse to guttural croaks. There, under a sickly green sky, we witness a live performance by Phyllomedusa alongside the enigmatic and possibly divine Big Frog.

First contact has been made.

In the debut entry of our interview series, we sit down with Brandon Ringo of Mammoth Caravan to dig into the riffs, the road, and the reality of building something heavy from the ground up.

We talk origins, evolution, and the push and pull between vision and chaos—what it takes to keep a band moving forward, how the sound has taken shape, and the stories that don’t make it into the songs. It’s equal parts laid-back hang and deep dive, with plenty of off-the-wall moments and real insight into the mind behind the music.

Lost in the black between dying stars, the crew finds themselves with too much time… and one very bad idea.

Recovered from a forgotten wreck drifting at the edge of nowhere: a weapon—or relic—known only as the Frost Hammer. Cold to the touch. Heavy beyond reason. And humming with something that doesn’t feel like power so much as hunger.

This week, the boys descend into Odyssey of Despair by Netherwalker—a slower, suffocating crawl through crushing riffs and cosmic dread. As the album unfolds, so does their fixation on the hammer… what it does, where it came from, and whether it’s already begun to change them.

This week on Black Manifold Transmissions, Ole Smog and Brake Savage drop the needle on Deserted by Gatecreeper—a death metal monolith carved from dust, dread, and desolation. Riffs crawl like something buried alive, drums hit like tectonic shifts, and every track feels like a warning etched into stone.

But the signal fractures.

At the base of the ziggurat, something ancient stirs… and Smog is chosen.
He must enter alone.

No engine. No co-pilot. No guarantees.

Ole Smog and Brake Savage punch the coordinates into the manifold and fire up another slab of molten riffage — this time diving headfirst into Snakes for the Divine by High on Fire.

But the transmission ain’t just about riffs… it’s about relics.

Word reaches the cab of the cosmic rig that the Frost Hammer has been located — hidden deep within a jungle world at the mysterious Plateau of Lang. The boys tear through alien vines and ancient trees, chainsaws screaming and amplifiers humming, until the jungle canopy splits open to reveal something impossible

Before the first riff can even chainsaw through the cosmos, a transmission hijacks the signal…

A message from Alfred Molina confirms what we feared: IommiCorp is aware of our possession of the Obsidian Cleaver… and worse — they know our location.

The response?

They’re sending the Scumdogs.

From the barbaric tyranny of Oderus Urungus to the sleaze-soaked stomp of “Sick of You,” we break down the riffs, the satire, the slime, and the surprisingly sharp social commentary hidden beneath gallons of fake blood. Is Scumdogs pure juvenile carnage, or is it one of the smartest middle fingers ever pressed to vinyl?

This week on Black Manifold Transmissions, we carve into Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound with the Obsidian Cleaver in hand. We talk cooking as ritual, music as communion, and how dreams, humor, and friendship keep you grounded while reality glitches like the Matrix.

From LA’s creative pressure cooker to band chemistry, fame anxiety, and the power of a perfect album ending, this one’s about growth, introspection, and finding meaning in the noise.

This week on Black Manifold Transmissions, we throw a party at the edge of annihilation and blast Beaten to Death at full volume.

On paper, Dødsfest sounds like pure violence — the name, the speed, the grind.
But hit play and something strange happens: it’s fun. It’s melodic. It bounces. It grooves. It laughs while it punches you in the teeth.

This episode, Black Manifold Transmissions tears into Skeletonwitch’s feral breakout Forever Abomination—a record where blackened thrash, punk velocity, and occult fury collide at full throttle.

In this episode we dive headlong into Born to Expire, the 1989 crossover juggernaut that smashed boundaries and fused thrash, hardcore, and street energy into something ferociously unique. Leeway didn’t just blur genres — they bulldozed them, screaming grit and grit-with-purpose over riffs that bite like broken glass.