Justin and Alex discuss Lucifer I and Pallbearer's "Foundations of Burden" before delving into a grab bag of good-not-great.

Justin and Alex discuss Gorguts' Pleaides Dust and Rishloo's Feathergun, two complete polar opposite albums as the previous week's assigned listening. Justin then attempts to defend Babymetal while still expressing overall frustration with gimmicks and music that can't possibly hold up over a long period of time. The new single from doom metal startups Khemmis is also discussed before deciding that May will be focused on doom metal to prepare for the litany of upcoming releases in the genre. More on that next week.

Justin and Alex discuss Midori and Bathory as last week's assigned listening. The exuberance can barely be contained as multiple (!!!) singles have been released for upcoming albums that have drawn considerable excitement. Ghost's new single, "Rats," along with Yob's "The Screen" are discussed and hyped beyond reason. Finally, progressive metal month ends with a discussion on the merits of other prog bands and if "cheese" is really the genre indicator that many like to throw around.

Justin and Alex discuss the previous week's assigned listening before embarking on the band that brought them together in the first place. The once-mighty, still pretty decent Dream Theater.

Justin and Alex discuss the previous week's assigned listening and discuss early metal and the merits of progression in proto metal. Alex's ongoing crusade to listen to every Buckethead Pikes release brings forth a long-stading conspiracy that only seems more likely by the day. 

Justin and Alex discuss a grindcore gem and a somewhat lackluster follow-up to a wonderful avant-garde album before embarking on a heavily requested "subgenre of the month," the enigmatic, barely-defined world of progressive metal. Also included is Alex's update on the first 20-ish Buckethead Pikes releases.

Justin and Alex discuss the previous week's assigned listening, in addition to Alex's ongoing quest to listen to all 300-ish of the Buckethead Pikes releases. The episode proceeds with a stream of consciousness approach to further defining the positive and negative qualities of avant-garde metal and its influences and influencers.

Much like the genre discussed, this week's discussion bounces around to different avant-garde metal bands and their impact on the loosely-defined genre. The jumping off point is Wikipedia's utterly horrendous list of so-called "avant-garde metal" artists...

Justin and Alex discuss Ningen-Isu's 3rd album as well as Aevangelist's most recent mindfuck. The main discussion begins with a brief overview of avant-garde metal as a whole, with their respective introductions to the wide world of weird music, before turning into a full-on circle jerk of one of the premier Japanese acts, the legendary SIGH.

Justin and Alex discuss The Ocean's monumental "Precambrian" album and the thunderous "Sinister Ceremonies" by Domains before embarking on the all-too-common quirk of bands that appear out of nowhere, release an incredible album or 2, and then disappear for years before attempting a renaissance to...varied degrees of success.