It's #MusicMonday. Our last before Christmas and second-last of 2025. What a year it's been!

Much like the slew of international and local tours pouring out of every nook and cranny, latest interviewee Ben Green has shown no signs of slowing up just 'cause we're in December. Hot off a recent successful first-ever show with the newly formed and very blackened metalcore act Grimlock (on lead guitar duties), Ben's also been involved with a Melbourne emo/post-hardcore act known as Gypsy Road as a bassist. Topping that off, Ben also puts out some shredtastic riffery across Youtube and socials under the muso-moniker @iplayguitars0metimes.

We have a chat that's casual and friendly in nature but very broad in scope and content! Given Ben's position across two disparate styles, getting into more live musicianship and employing long-held songwriting, as well as finishing a Cert IV in Audio Production, these topics and much more are on the table.

We also discuss the respective state of the above genres in context of the local and broader scene, engaging in both production and songwriting and more.

Links to all of Ben's musical projects will be available on the accompanying show notes for Episode 63 over at www.innerstrengthcheckpodcast.com/blog.

For the video version of this interview, head on over to our channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@innerstrengthcheck.

This may or may not be our last episode for 2025.

Irregardless, from myself and the ISC Team we wish all our listeners/readers a happy holidays.

And, as always:

Peace, Love and Grindcore - Brady.

Last Friday, whilst headed to a gig in Melbourne, I received word of a once-in-a-lifetime interview opportunity which required some last-minute intervention! In a first for the Inner-Strength Check Podcast, we used the power of the smartphone to have a roadside chat from somewhere in regional Victoria to converse with a living thrash-metal god: Miland 'Mille' Petrozza of German thrash titans Kreator. A man I have looked up to for decades.

We push through my starry-eyed fanboying to discuss upcoming album Krushers of The World (out Jan 16th via Nuclear Blast Records), the songwriting process and key elements of the upcoming album in that respect, Mille's upcoming film and biography work, and more.

The full video interview version will be available shortly on our Youtube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/@innerstrengthcheck.

Full show notes, including press release with artist statement, artist/album bio, link to latest single 'Satanic Anarchy' as well as album preorder, artist links and more. For these, head on over to:

https://innerstrengthcheckpodcast.com/blog.

Peace, Love and World-Crushing Teutonic Thrash - Brady.

Deathcore pioneers Despised Icon occupy an interesting space. Equally as influential in pioneering the deathcore movement as they are distinctly their own sound, few bands just straight-up nail the melding of death-metal brutality with streetwise hardcore as these Canadian crushers.

Whilst the wheels of the touring machine warm up, the band are preparing to drop 7th full-length LP Shadow Work on us in a week's time. Here to talk about all of the above and more is guitarist Eric Jarrin, who had a hand in album production alongside vocalist Alex Erian. Eric has a lot of great thoughts to share about songwriting, production, touring and more!

Accompanying our chat today, you can also pre-order/pre-save the album (due for release October 31st, via Nuclear Blast Records), listen to latest singles and check out more relevant artist info via show notes at:

www.innerstrengthcheckpodcast.com/blog

A big thank-you to Nuclear Blast, Despised Icon and of course my guest Eric.

Can confirm this album's a scorcher - bring your mosh shorts and sunscreen on the 31st!

Peace, Love and Deathcore - Brady.