Theory of a Deadman – Savages Review

Hey, this is Dave Brenner, guitar player for

Theory of a Dead Man. You're listening to Geekcast

Radio Network. You are listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Welcome to Geekcast Radio. This

is rockin' radio. Okay, it's a new sub -genre

of Geekcast Radio. It's not gonna happen all

the time, ladies and gentlemen. My name is TF2

and Mike. We are in the middle of the syndication

nation spali here on GCR. You would have just

heard episode 68, which was the Star Joe's podcast

crew talking about how they get into podcasting.

And now, in between 68 and 69, we're gonna have

rockin' radio. And why am I doing this? Well,

because one of the... One out of the five things

that come out of Canada that I actually love

everything else is just kind of Strange is theory

of a dead man one of the best rock bands of this

generation Released of the last 14 year 12 14

years and last year two years ago My buddy Matrix

Prime over at TFWire joined me to do an overall

on them and talk about their new album at the

time. The truth is we are back to talk about

their fifth studio record, Savages. Hello, sir.

How you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm

doing pretty good. Your second favorite thing

to come out of Canada was Nickelback, right?

Yes. Yes, it was. Notice I put theory first because

everybody's going to hate on me if I put Nickelback

first. Then it's Default, then it's Finger 11,

and then it's probably Ryan, I don't know. Not

that you'll ever listen to this. So yeah, Savages

is Theory's fifth studio album. They released

a YouTube teaser with a little bit of a guitar

riff and a little bit of water sounds from the

first single, Drown. And as soon as I saw it

pop up in my playlist, I'm like, Twitter, Matrix

Prime, here, look, new theory of a dead man,

yes! Yeah, I remember getting this and I'm like,

what the hell is this? I need to check it out

because I was at work. I'm like, this is awesome.

Yes, it is very awesome. You know, this is the

one band that I don't mind. It's been three years

between albums, honestly. I mean, because...

As I said two years ago in our Theory of a Dead

Man's spotlight, which I will put in the post

for anyone who hasn't listened to that, I can

listen to almost every one of their previous

songs up until this album. Not saying this album

is bad, which it isn't at all. There's just a

couple of little minor nitpicks I have about

it, but it doesn't... overall ruined my enjoyment

so then as the release came up I saw them doing

behind the scenes making of savages and I linked

all those to you which those will also be in

the in the show notes I just I love these guys

these guys are just really really great guys

just I don't know what was your initial thought

when you first heard a couple of the when you

what Where are the first singles you heard? Because

there were four. There was Drown, Blow, Angel,

and what was the fourth one? Crap. Drown, Angel,

Blow, and I don't remember what the fourth one

was. I don't remember what the fourth one was

either. Was Drown the first one? Yep. As soon

as I heard that, the only thing that came to

my mind was that this is drastically different

than anything I'd heard from them before. It

was like very heavy and I'm like, huh I wonder

if the whole album is gonna be like that and

then I started hearing some of the other singles

and I'm like Yeah, it looks like it's starting

to look that way. Yeah, the self -titled track

savages featuring Alice Cooper was the fourth

single. Okay. Yeah Yeah, when I when I heard

drown I was like, okay, this is a little different

I can get behind it though, and then they released

angel And I was like, okay, well, this is basically

their classic ballad. I mean, at least one song

per album has to be a ballad for them. Well,

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying.

And then Blow came out and I was like, oh, interesting.

When Savages came out, I really dug it. And then...

There's a spoken word track Not that I'm against

doing that it just The way it's um the way it's

advertised on iTunes is the track says Savages

featuring Alex Alice Cooper And I thought oh

cool. I want to hear Tyler Connelly and Alice

Cooper's singing voices together That's exactly

what I was thinking when I when I saw that you

know That's what I wanted to hear, and come to

find out Mr. Alice Cooper, the rock god that

he is, is doing a spoken word track. I'm like,

oh, man. I don't know. So, you've had a chance

to listen to the album a few listens through.

What are your overall impressions? Well, like

I said, actually, let me go to this article that

I have here real quick, because I think it is

a good summation of what the article is. This

is over on Karang .com, I guess that's how you

pronounce this. And this says, I'm just reading

the article here. It says, Savage isn't your

tickle, tickle. Typical theory of a dead man

album, according to frontman Tyler Connelly.

It's such a different record for us, he says.

I'm known as the guy who writes all the breakup

songs. It would have been typical to write more,

so I did just the opposite. There's something

very brutal about our culture. I got nightmares

from Terminator as a kid, and now you can watch

real murders on YouTube. We're so desensitized.

I went from writing about crazy women to how

screwed up we are. That's the theme. And I think

that that summation right there exactly sums

it up because this this album is extremely heavy,

like musically. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's

like hard driving guitar riffs and just the drums

and the tracks. It's like very heavy and weighty.

Yeah, absolutely. And the funny thing is, is

as soon as I listen to the full album. I immediately

tore two tracks apart. I, no, I mean like literally

through audacity and all that stuff. Like I was

like, okay, I want this in the show and I want

this in the show. As soon as I heard panic room

and as soon as I heard heavy, I'm like, Oh yeah,

I got to find some ways to get these into this

podcast episode. And, um, I mean, Overall, for

me, the album's great. There are a couple of

things that take me out of it a little bit. It's

more so one song than anything else, I honestly

think. It would've been better if this was 12

tracks instead of 13. All right, so how we're

gonna do this is we're going to go track by track,

and we're gonna briefly give our opinions on

each one. Track one is drowned. We've kind of

really already talked about this. I do think

that the heavy guitar, the heavy drums on it

are great. It's interesting that they're using

water this time around on at least actually two

of the tracks. But using that effect is classic

theory because in one of their other songs from

The Truth Is, I think it was Bitch Came Back.

They used like a ring like a like a diamond ring

dropping to the floor and it makes a sound. Yep

You know, and I I really dug drowned I think

I listened to it a little too much So when I

when the album came out when the full album come

on, I'm like, okay, what else they got? What

were your opinions on drowned? Well, I think

based on what I'm gonna say here you can probably

guess which way I'm gonna Go here on like my

overall thoughts of the album But I'm not a big

fan of the the heavy weighty sound Which it look

like I said at the beginning here I think is

like Seems like a drastic departure from the

stuff that they had done before a lot of the

stuff they had done before Or at the very least

a lot of the stuff that I like from them So that

song in particular I do I do sort of like it

it is a different sound for that for them I believe

but It's a little it's a little too weighty for

me Did you see I think I sent you the link to

the actual not the lyric video, but the actual

video Yeah, they shot for it the video for this

song is I I Didn't get it I Understand the song

and I understand the lyrics in the song. I just

don't get the imagery. They're using in the video

Yeah, I was I was a bit baffled by that as well.

Yeah, that was a little strange. Alright, so

Track two is blow and The opening lines to this

sometimes it makes me want to blow my fucking

head off. Sometimes it makes me Think the world

has gone officially insane. Come on. Tell us

like it is It's so great that these guys can

do what other artists try to do and fail Wait,

no, I mean this song is essentially talking about

how crazy pop culture in the internet. I mean

All the stuff that happens on the internet. I

mean hell he even sings about Kim Kardashian

for all things, you know, it's like And he's

and the song is so right. I mean it this world

has really gone insane Yeah, I think the the

lyrics accurately capture like the current state

of our society And the overall sound in this

song is also heavy, but it's not quite as heavy

as drown Which I liked a little bit better but

I think Think I actually like drone a little

bit more than I liked below here. I think blow

kind of reminds me of Something it kind of reminds

me of One of the more I don't want to say poppy

because they don't do pop songs really they do

ballads more than it's not a song is not a ballad,

but it reminds me more of like What's that title

track on the truth that not that not the title

track? The first single off of the truth is it

kind of blow reminds me of low life when they

were talking about low lives On that track on

the truth is that's what this reminds me of Track

three is the title track of the album savages

featuring Alice Cooper As I already said this

is the one one of the things about this album

that I like I wish they would release a version

of this without the spoken word Because I love

the song overall. It's just. I think Alice is

out of place. Yeah, I think as a title song,

it sort of misses the mark, and I think it is

because of Alice Cooper. But. Well, yeah, maybe

maybe it'd be a little bit better if they did

release a version of that without him. As soon

as I heard track four, Misery of Mankind, I thought

of Mick Foley and this could be his new entrance

music. Misery of Mankind has a hook in it that

is you just can't stop listening to. Yeah, and

again, this is another song that's like really,

really heavy. And I think it's also a good take

on like the current culture and society, which

seems to be a running theme through a number

of the songs here. Yep. Yep. Because with track

five, you have salt in the wound. And this one,

the intro is great. love how they do and I don't

know because I I've seen some of the negative

iTunes reviews not that I pay too much attention

of it but sometimes because depending on what

the what the media is if I like well theory is

probably my number one favorite current band

they have been since they debuted I sometimes

look at the negatives and see what people are

saying and A lot of people on iTunes, and I hate

people that do this, they'll put a title on their

review and they'll just write one word, auto

-tuned, and it's like, really, seriously, come

on. Now, am I saying that this album is not overly

produced? Probably not. I'm not saying that at

all. There is a lot of production behind this,

but the repetitive line at the beginning of Salt

and Lune, I really did dig that. I thought that

was cool. Yeah, definitely. And this I think

this is this song here is more of a throwback

to Something that I would normally listen to

on their previous albums. I mean, this is clearly

clearly a take on issues with women, right? Yeah,

or a woman in particular. Yes Hi Christine Track

six is angel and track six is the mandatory rock

ballad that they have to do every album Every

time I listen to Angel, it reminds me so much

of Not Meant To Be a little bit. Definitely.

And that's probably why it's my favorite song

in the album. Because if you remember back from,

if you guys have listened to the podcast we had

done previously about Theory of a Dead Man, I

specifically called out that that song was my

absolute favorite. So in this album, I'm almost

positive that Angel is going to be my favorite.

But I think it's also, sorry, I think it's also

a huge distinction between its and the other

tracks on the song, because like you said, it

is more of a ballad rather than that heavy weighty

sound that the other tracks seem to have, or

a lot of the other tracks seem to have. Yeah,

really, I mean, if you look at track six through

track nine... What they did was they bookended

two heavy songs with two ballads because track

six is angel and Track nine is called the one

track seven and eight are heavy and panic room

Heavy is awesome. It lives up to his name. Oh

It does and it's basically a song about being

a musician and The way I look at it and what

I wrote in my notes was it's more so a song about

being a concert goer But then anything else,

because it was like, wow. Yeah. I mean, again,

musically, it's just like heavy. It's pounding.

If you want a song to get pumped up to this,

this is probably the one. The intro to Track

8 called Panic Room is probably the only Theory

of a Dead Man song in their history that I've

ever actually head banged to. that that opening

and it just brings you in it's like oh my god

they i wouldn't say this album is all over the

place i would say that so far in the eight tracks

that they've got on here they're crafting a it's

kind of like God I can't believe I'm gonna do

this with three of a deadman of all things. Oh

watch out It's kind of like that. It's kind of

like that old Robert Frost poem poem two roads

in a yellow wood where the truth is is one side

of you know one road you can take and Savages

is a completely different journey because what

they're doing here is They're basically mixing

songs like I said before, between heavy and soft,

they're basically taking scars and souvenirs

and the truth is, and mashing them together with

these new songs. Yeah, I can see that. What did

you think of Panic Room? Whatever that opening

sound is, like before they actually start singing,

I don't know what that sound is, but it like

instantly pulls you into the song. And then yeah,

that chorus, like, welcome to the panic room.

It definitely definitely hooked me But again

if I tend to like more of their softer tracks,

so this one again very heavy Musically, but but

it is one that I can definitely listen to I also

had visions of Jodie Foster when I was listening

to this Track number nine is called the one And

as I said, you know a minute ago, they are mixing

the heavier with a couple of the ballads Totally

thrown off by the start of this one. Really?

I mean it starts with the piano And you don't

hear any other instrument till like I see I've

got it right here until a minute 35 seconds into

the track Oh, wow. Yeah. Hey You know, that's

again. I think what they're doing Theory of Dead

Man with Savages, they're not, they are experimenting,

but they're not experimenting in a bad way. They're

giving us certain things that we've never heard

from them before. But at the same time, they're,

I wouldn't say placating, but they're making

their older fans, the fans that love the self

-titled album, the fans that love the heavier

stuff, they're making those fans happy again.

Cause I know a lot of people that said, oh, the

truth is, is basically just a pop rock phone

it in album. I disagree with that. Um, but I

love that album. Yeah. Um, uh, the one again,

it seems like they're, I think more so this one

than angel. This one really, uh, this is the

one I wrote the note about similar to not meant

to be. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm wondering, with

Savage's Blow Drowned and Angel being the first

four singles, I'm wondering what's gonna come

next and if they do the one as a single, what

the video's gonna look like because the Not Meant

To Be video was amazing. I love that music video.

Yeah. Here's a track 10 is a complete departure

from anything they've ever done. Although I can

easily see this one being one that gets played

on like pop stations. I mean, hell, you know,

it's going to have to be played on country stations

for who the for who the guest star is. So track

10 is called. live in my life like a country

song and it features joe don rooney of rascal

flats i guarantee you if i call my local uh country

station 97 .5 wamc here in local kentucky tomorrow

morning or um monday morning and say hey do you

guys have live in my life like a country song

they they're either gonna say uh no or yeah we'll

play it next Because I'm telling you, this is

something that they've never done before. And

this is something that I could hear on country

radio, even though they're a rock band. Yeah,

definitely country radio. I would say pop stations.

This is definitely something that's more of like

the mainstream songs you would hear on those

type of stations. And the funny thing is my note

says, this reminds me of hate my life, except

it's country -fied. I can see that a little bit,

yeah. What'd you think of this one? Like I said,

this is definitely one I can see playing on the

radio and if it does get that radio play, probably

it would become my favorite from the album. Like

I said, currently I think my favorite is, what

did I say it was? Angel. Yeah, Angel and then

probably the one. But like I said, if this gets

more radio play or if this actually gets radio

play, if I listen to that over and over and over

again, just like I did for Not Meant To Be, this

would probably end up being my favorite from

the album. And I'm not even a huge country fan.

It's funny. I wasn't eat like I grew up in Massachusetts.

Everybody knows this. Well, you may not, but

all the listeners that are listening to this

will know this. I moved to Louisville, Kentucky

in 1993, and I've lived here off and on for the

last 20 some odd years. I was a very gullible

13 -year -old in 1993 because I figured, oh my

god, my world is shattering around me. I'm moving

to a new state, a new city, no one I know, and

what's gonna soothe me? Okay, music. Do they

have, you know, the mix station? Do they have

the top 40? Do they have all this stuff? And

all is my dad would ever play is the country

music station. I'm like, really? I was actually...

Until one Sunday I got brave enough, and I don't

know why, I was a stupid teenager, people. One

Sunday I got brave enough to change the damn

radio station because I figured, oh, it's Kentucky,

all they have is country music. All right, track

number 11 is World War Me. My notes here. It's

another one of my favorite tracks from Savages.

I love the story behind it. It also reminds me

of that short -lived NBC series, My Own Worst

Enemy starring Christian Slater. It's a song

about realizing your own faults, and I found

it very interesting that they would write this.

I don't think I've ever heard them do something

like this before as far as the story within the

song. What about you on this one? I agree with

you about the story of the song It definitely

seemed like something different but to me just

musically it's the tracks seem to get lost amongst

the others just because It was also another heavy

track and there were songs that came before it

that I actually liked a lot better than this

And to me it's towards the end of the album.

It just seemed to get lost a Little bit And the

next one, track 12, which in my personal opinion

should have been the final track on this album,

I might actually remove the 13th song from my

playlist and just play the 12 tracks. I don't

know yet. I haven't decided on that. Bye bye,

13. This feels like a remnant from Scars and

Souvenirs. Yeah. Yeah. It really, really does.

It's like, wow, cool. What about you on in ruins

this one is definitely a slower Version or a

slower song than a lot of the other ones that

come before it. I was definitely still very much

rock It is yeah, and so it's definitely up there

on my favorites from the album Okay, so outside

of Outside of living my living my life as a country

song which is it does rock, but it is a little

slow that we have Angel, The One, and In Ruins

as the three ballads out of 13 tracks. That's

pretty damn good for them that they managed to

get 10, okay, nine tracks, not counting, nine

tracks, I can't do math, ladies and gentlemen,

nine tracks, not counting Living My Life is a

Country Song, nine tracks of heavy music. The

fans of this band better be really happy that

they brought all the heavy stuff back. And then

comes the evil redheaded stepchild of the album.

The sun has set on me. First of all, I love the

title, but... Yeah, definitely a good title.

This is going to be the biggest departure. When

Tyler said they went the complete opposite way,

of course they did, because this is... First

of all, 90 % of the song is a children's choir.

And then there's that weird crow sound effect.

And it ends with water cascading over something.

So this album, as I said earlier, the album effectually

begins and ends with water. Maybe that's just

to bring it full circle. I guess. Thankfully,

Creed hasn't made another album in the last three

years. Or five years, actually. But anyway, Sun

has said on me it's by far my least favorite

track on the album. I Think it's completely out

of place Even as even as a final track it just

it's too weird of a song for me I don't know

maybe you maybe your opinion can sway me, but

it's yeah Well like you I like the title of the

song again. It's another They started the the

album with a very heavy song. This is another

heavy song, but unlike the others is a little

bit slower And like you said the unique aspect

here was like the the children's choir in the

background during the chorus Which yeah, it seems

like it's kind of odd But I actually didn't mind

it as much as you seem to But it does it doesn't

seem like it sort of fits with the rest of the

songs No, that's why I don't yeah, that's kind

of why I don't like it Because it does, like

I said, it's the redheaded stepchild of the album.

It doesn't really fit. Maybe they were just trying

to pull their best Pink Floyd. I can now see

them doing a cover of the wall part two. Oh,

God. Yes, you're right. Oh, my God. The wall

part two and. The sun has set on me. Oh my god,

they both have children's choirs in them. Oh

my god. They do, right? Yep. Crap. When I was

listening through the album, because I've listened

to it, I've listened to all 13 tracks from track

1 to track 13 over and over again before we did

this episode. I've listened to the album probably

six different times before we recorded this.

It's still... The sun has set on me still. It

takes me out of the experience of a 384deadman

album. It really does. And I'm not sitting here

trying to say the song. The song is not bad.

Right. It's just, it's... You don't think it

fits in with the theme of the rest of the tracks?

No. And I think it's like, I'm all... Well, I'm

not really all for change because change is bad

and we all know this, but it's like, it's one

of those things where... I'm trying to think

of a good analogy here. It's just one of those

things for me where it's... too much of a departure.

I don't know. So we are going to... Did you have

anything else for Son and Son on me? Nope. I

think that's about it. We're going to take a

quick break and we're going to come back with

our final thoughts and ratings after this. where

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on the Geekcast Radio Network. Alright folks,

we are back. Final thoughts on Savages, sir?

Overall, well, before I give you that, let me

tell you my three favorite albums really quick

for them. Okay. Just so my rating makes sense

here. So my top three is probably Scars and Souvenirs,

Theory of a Dead Man, and then The Truth Is.

And a lot of the songs on those three albums

I found to be more of like the type of rock that

I listen to. Not very heavy, not very light,

but you know just more of like the rock. There

is like a number of like ballad songs on there

which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would say that

Not Meant To Be is one of them from Scars and

Souvenirs. And that's typically what I lean towards,

the sound that I typically lean towards from

them. So when I was listening to this album,

I found it to be very heavy and weighty and the

majority of the tracks I would say on the album

are that For me, it's just not really something

that I thoroughly enjoy but the the lighter songs

the the more ballad esque songs So like angel

or the one or live in my life like a country

song for example Those I really actually enjoyed

and I'm looking forward to listening to them

over and over again And I'm hoping some of those

actually get some radio play. I don't know. I

know rock is quote -unquote dead so There no,

it's well the rock stations here anyways They

typically play just like classic rock. And if

you want to hear more quote unquote newish rock,

it's really more up on the the pop stations.

So I'm hoping that some of these songs to get

some play on there, because I'd really love to

one, see the see the band get some recognition

and to really get into these songs here. So so

I guess overall for me, the heavier weightier

song is kind of a throwback. Not really a big

fan of I like some of the the lighter more poppy

and like ballad esque songs So what's your overall

star rating? So I'm looking at your rating system

here, and I would say probably I Probably give

it somewhere between barely passing and liked

it Okay, so three and three and a half stars

for me Am gonna give it four stars out of five

four stars is really liked it. There's really

it's just one thing It's that it's damn I Know

well 13 there you go. It's you know, you know

13 is an evil number 13 Exactly. Um, it's just

that one and it's so weird because I'll and it

I Will be sitting here with my headphones on

like iTunes not at probably more like 44 percent

than my usual 20 percent when I don't have my

headphones on so I'm like I'm sitting here really

rocking out to it and I'm sitting here playing

Grand Theft Auto 4 which came out like seven

eight nine years ago however long it came out

and you know and I'm sitting here sitting here

I'm going around shooting people in this game

and whatever else and all of a sudden I hear

a crow and I'm like oh you know four out of five

is not bad three three and a half out of five

is not bad I mean, it's not a perfect album.

As far as my overall, since we did the Theory

episode a couple years ago, my favorites probably,

I'm gonna do a little bit of a reversal on yours.

My favorites are probably gonna be Scars and

Souvenirs, The Truth Is, and the self -titled,

the first album. This one is like right after

that I Do love a lot of the songs on gasoline.

I love that special edition song with it Lynchburg

lemonade. Oh, yeah I thought that was a really

cool friggin song I think what? Stops me from

putting savages in like a number two or a number

three spot out of the albums is It's track 13

all revolves around track 13 For me, you already

mentioned your favorite songs. For me, on my

favorite songs, I love World War Me, Live In

My Life Like A Country Song, Panic Room, Heavy,

and Misery of Mankind. I do really enjoy Angel

and the other ballads, but I'm really digging

the heavy sound on this one. Alright, you have

got a whole new thing you're doing. Would you

like to pimp out your... God, I just told you

it was a great title and I forgot the damn title.

Fuck. Digital Static. Okay, Digital Static. I

was going to say Digital Sin, but that's a whole

other podcast and a whole other area. Is that

one already taken? Digital Sin, it's a... porn

production company. Oh, so it's probably already

taken. Yeah. Yes. Why don't you tell the folks

about Digital Static, your new podcast? Unlike

Digital Sin, there's no nudity here. Sorry, folks.

So I decided to start up a new podcast and I'm

calling it Digital Static. You can head on over

to DigitalStaticPodcast .com if you want. There's

not really anything there right now, but I will

be uploading or providing the links to the new

podcast there. If you follow me on Twitter, I'm

at at matrix prime or at matrix underscore prime

I guess I've released the links for the podcast

there so you can give them a listen But it's

essentially just me podcasting and talking about

essentially whatever topics I want to I usually

or have been having a theme for each show So

my very first show I talked about camping second

show that I just released I'm talking about board

games and next week I'm gonna be talking about

the Ninja Turtles because the new Ninja Turtle

movies coming out so Awesome. Very cool, very

cool. Alright, coming up next here on Geekcast

Radio, you're going to get episode 69 where we

go in back of a Dollar General store to find

some whores with the Punisher Buddy Count crew.

Unleash the geek in you and we will catch you

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Go to Facebook .com slash GeekCastRadio. Call

the voicemail line 502 -526 -5821. Please remember

to tell us the show you are leaving the message

for, and your name. So until next time, unleash

the geek in you.