Heavy music, backstage and locally wired.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pass catches metal and hardcore artists in quick, detail-heavy conversations about new records, tour stops, and the scenes around them. It feels local even when the guests are national, with Seattle shows, fests, flyers, and band lore always close by.
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Metal Shop's Backstage Pass treats heavy music as a working ecosystem, not a genre museum. It is fast, crowded, and full of names. The show lives in the space between interview, local scene check-in, and pre-show hang. Seattle is always part of the frame, even when the conversation reaches New York death metal, touring hardcore, or Century Media releases. Episodes spend real time on venues, festival lineups, opening bands, album release shows, physical tickets, flyers, and the labor behind DIY booking. That makes the show especially good at catching the machinery around the music. Brainstem Productions gets room to talk about Just Another Gig, Rainfest history, Tacoma and Seattle shows, and the way a fest becomes worth repeating. Bob from Immolation brings a longer view, moving from tape trading and zines to online discovery, modern recording tools, and a nearly 40-year band history. Kirk Winstein brings the road into focus. His conversation circles Crowbar's younger audience, TikTok live chats, sold-out shows, and the strain of a tour schedule with matinees and no days off. Witch Ripper's episode has the loose feel of friends in the studio, with Curtis and Joe talking through new material, writing shifts, drummer jokes, and upcoming shows. Will Putney's appearance leans toward craft, influence, and the production brain behind heavy records. Great Falls adds Northwest continuity, tracing long-running musical partnerships and a new album on Neurot Recordings. Xavier talks from Columbia while touring with Zabalba and reacting to the reception for Upon Stone's Dead Mother Moon. The show's best moments come when the conversation gets highly specific. A band name sparks another band name. A show poster turns into scene memory. A tour date becomes a reason to talk about why live metal still matters. It is not tidy, and that is part of the point. Metal Shop's Backstage Pass sounds like heavy music people comparing notes before the next set starts.
Made for: For metal and hardcore fans who care about bands, venues, fests, records, and the people who keep scenes moving. It especially suits listeners who like insider detail more than broad introductions.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating Seattle-area scene infrastructure and touring-band interviews with the same urgency. Booking collectives, physical tickets, album craft, and road stories all sit next to the headline band names.
Dredged from the swamps of unincorporated King County, Metal Shop is the heaviest show on the airwaves! Get a dose of free mental therapy, and bang your head with the Metal Tribe!
Backstage access here means your Seattle metal curiosity gets fed before the guitars return.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Brainstem Productions shows how DIY booking, local hardcore, and physical tickets keep Just Another Gig alive.
Brainstem Productions frames Just Another Gig as the product of steady, local work: a Seattle-area DIY hardcore fest kept moving by organizers who also book shows from Tacoma to Seattle and farther north.
A loose Witch Ripper studio conversation connects "The Portal" to the band's evolving sound.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pest frames Witch Ripper's studio visit as a quick, relaxed look at a band taking stock of its sound. Curtis, on guitar and Screamy Guy vocals, and Joe, on drums, bring "The Portal" into focus through loose banter, small digs, and an easy rhythm with each…
Greyhawk ties guitar virtuosity to melody, personal power, and the pressure to rise.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pass centers Greyhawk's guitar philosophy around a practical tension: when does shredding stop helping the song? He talks about reaching a point where speed and note density are not enough on their own, then argues for melody as part of the full mix.
Greyhawk's studio visit ties a new-ish singer, guitar excess, and Helm's Deep lore to a lively Seattle metal update.
Greyhawk's studio visit works best as a snapshot of a band settling into its next chapter. Anthony Corso is still treated as the new-ish singer, even as Warriors of Greyhawk stands as his first album with the group.
Born Without Blood links trauma, heavy-metal roots, and local scene momentum in a loose Metal Shop conversation.
KISW Metal Shop frames Born Without Blood through a mix of dark band history and grounded scene talk. Justin ties the group's beginning to trauma, while Owen describes finding his way in through Facebook and local musician circles.
Apple details, software habits, and everyday technical friction.
Records worth hearing, reasons worth arguing over.
Celebrity, clothes and chaos, talked through at full speed.
Metal Shop host interviews Eternal Champion vocalist Jason Tarpey about their upcoming performance at Northwest Terror Fest 2024.
Interview with Pete Lloyd of the band Replicant about their upcoming album 'Infinite Mortality' and their return to the show.
Interview with Xavier Wahlberg of Upon Stone discussing his tour with Zabalba in Columbia and the success of their new album Dead Mother Moon.
Cryptoxic Mortality discusses their first in-studio radio interview and introduces band members.
Greyhawk visits Metal Shop to discuss their upcoming album 'Warriors of Greyhawk', set for release on February 13th.
Metal Shop interviews the death metal band Born Without Blood.
Molly Nguyen connects Cherub Chains' EP to Vietnamese American identity, grief, hope, and lyrics written on airplanes.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pass interviews Brainstem Productions organizers Zach, Caleb, Matt, and Hannah about Just Another Gig 2026, a two-day festival at Airport Tavern with a Real Art pre-show.
Bob Vigna of Immolation discusses the band's upcoming 12th album 'Descent' and their tour with Behemoth, Deicide, and Rotting Christ.
Trevor interviews Kirk Windstein of Crowbar about the band's resurgence with younger fans and their sold-out show.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pass interviews Witch Ripper guitarist and vocalist Curtis and drummer Joe about the upcoming record Through the Hourglass.
Will Putney discusses his early influences and his role as a producer and writer for Fit For An Autopsy ahead of their Seattle tour.
Metal Shop's Backstage Pass episode 400 centers on Greyhawk's album Warriors of Greyhawk, due February 13, and the February 21 release show at Substation in Seattle.
Interview with the band Great Falls about their new album 'Objects Without Pain' on Neuro Recordings.