This week's Pick Five formatted podcast has us discussing some unlikely cover selections. What tracks were we surprised to find taken up by various goth, industrial, and EBM acts, seemingly at odds with their own moods or stylings? Have those selections gone on to shape our understanding of the artists who made them? We're also discussing the recent allegations made against Rammstein and their associates by various fans over the last week.

This month's Patreon-supported bonus podcast has us taking up a slightly different style of release than the usual LP: we're talking about the first salvo in that most 90s of rivethead conflicts, The Remix Wars. Yes, in 1996 :wumpscut: and Haujobb squared off, each remixing three of the other act's tracks for 21st Circuitry, and we'll be talking about where each of these storied industrial acts were in their respective careers, as well as offering History Channel-styled evaluation of each remix's military prowess.

We're very happy to have our interview with Alison Lewis of Zanias on this week's episode of We Have A Technical. Lewis spoke frankly and earnestly with us about the personal and musical changes tied in with her new record Chrysalis.

There's no beating around the bush as the entirety of this episode is dedicated to recapping the three night multi-stage iteration of our local Verboden Festival which went down this past weekend (full disclosure: the Senior Staff served as emcees for the fest). We're talking about unexpected show stealers, divisive stage shows, and a whole mess of Canadian premieres.

Recorded a couple of days early so as to allow each member of the Senior Staff to fulfill our patriotic duty and go see Skinny Puppy live, this episode has us scratching our heads and offering thoughts about the ways in which Canada's identity, history, and geography has and hasn't shaped the darker music made within the true north.

This week we're talking about the gloomy, atmospheric post-punk of Poland's Ziyo, and the odd n' sods Euro electro of Human Decay's swan song. We're also pushing back a bit against the presumption of Euro festivals' primacy in a moderately spicy episode of We Have A Technical.

As voted on from a selection of early/mid-period Killing Joke LPs, we're talking about 1985's Night Time on this month's commentary podcast. We're discussing Jaz Coleman's pet lyrical themes, the role played by Paul Raven's bass playing at this juncture in the band's development, and how their maximalist, excessive tendencies at times clashed with their moves towards a more commercially marketable sound.

Prompted by the prospect of finally getting to see Ashbury Heights, we're each picking five bucket list "yet to see" acts we've always hoped to catch live, be they legacy acts or idosyncratic Euro groups which are unlikely to cross the Atlantic.

Deep scene records which perhaps bracket a certain history of dark electro are on the docket for this week, as we consider records by Controlled Fusion and vProjekt. From the dry double kicks of the German act's mid 90s workman dark electro to the Aussie solo act's attempts to find baroque paths out of the corner intro which aggrotech had painted itself, this is an episode illustrating our recurring comment about genres being cemented by lesser known acts. We're also talking about Skinny Puppy's tour thus far, catching Debby Friday live, and the just announced second iteration of Chicago's Sanctum fest.

The experience of listening to a new record by a longstanding legacy act is the subject of this week's episode of the podcast. We're looking at how we perhaps grade records by bands we love on a curve, our mistaking of subjective experience for objective fact, and our shifting allegiances to bands, genres, and eras amongst other things, plus some discussion of this year's Substance festival in LA.