Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

Metal Monthly – A New Chapter for Heavy Music at Now Spinning Magazine

·38 min·2 clips

Tailgunner are described as the band that could pick up where Judas Priest and Iron Maiden left off.

1. Now Spinning Magazine opens Metal Monthly as a new monthly series focused on heavy metal releases and scene changes. 2. Phil and Wayne McAloon lead the episode, with Wayne described as a patron, musicologist, mix worker, and professional sound engineer. 3. The episode exists to map where heavy metal is now, not just where it was in the 1970s and 1980s. 4. Phil cites a 1979 heavy-metal chart from the Bandwagon in London and a 1974 Music Scene issue titled Heavy Metal Thunder. 5. Wayne says heavy metal has changed so much that “heavy metal is the least heavy form of metal now.” 6. The pair argue that the genre has exploded into many offshoots rather than declined. 7. Sodom’s 1994 album and the new remix are used to show how thrash records were altered in the 1990s. 8. Wayne says the original mix was “a wall of sound,” while the remix has more definition and feels “tidied up.” 9. They connect that Sodom discussion to the way 90s thrash, and metal more broadly, lost ground to other styles. 10. Creator’s Crushers of the World is described as a modern album that sounds closer to Swedish melodic death metal than early German thrash. 11. Wayne says the record has “light and shade,” and Phil prefers it to the band’s previous album. 12. Tailgunner’s Guns For Hire and new material are treated as the clearest example of contemporary traditional heavy metal. 13. Wayne calls Tailgunner the band that could “pick up where Judas Priest and Iron Maiden put it down.” 14. Their K.K. Downing-produced sound, Napalm signing, and Accept support slot are named as concrete markers of momentum. 15. Worm’s Necropolis is presented as a new band with a two-minute epic opener and a sound Wayne places near Dimmu Borgir and early Cradle of Filth. 16. Phil notes that Worm are getting online buzz and could appear on end-of-year top-10 or top-20 lists. 17. The conversation stays conversational and review-driven, with Phil prompting and Wayne answering in a relaxed back-and-forth format. 18. The tone moves quickly between history, discography, and first impressions, with frequent references to physical media and album artwork. 19. Listeners who like new metal releases, traditional heavy metal, and genre mapping. 20. Listeners who want only one band, one scene, or no album-by-album commentary.

As heard by us

A grounded metal conversation that moves from personal history to Tail Gunner with clear enthusiasm.

The first Metal Monthly installment sets up a wide-ranging heavy metal conversation between Phil and Wayne McAloon. Wayne's path into the genre starts in 89 with Number of the Beast, and that personal marker gives the discussion a clear center.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For metal talk with memory and muscle, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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