Mortal Realm

Adam Jones, industrial electro musician that's ex-HAEX and the current master of MORTAL REALM chats about his new sonic chapter, Mechanismus, Killer Instinct, live shows, video game soundtracks, and nerd stuff.
Featured Songs:
Mortal Realm - Trash

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Transcript

Prime: [00:00:00] Okay. I think I am a hundred percent ready now. 

Adam: Okay. I think I am too. 

Prime: Okay. Cool. Welcome to Void Signal. My guest is Adam Jones. Formerly of Hex, but now publishing stuff as Mortal Realm. How's it going? It's good to talk to you. 

Adam: That's doing very well, going very well, actually.

How are you? 

Prime: I'm not too bad hanging in there, day to day. But I'm pretty well. First thing I ran into you at Mechanismos and you were not too bad. I'm playing it, but just in attendance. And it was good to see you. Good to, I was like, a person I recognized confidently enough to be like, oh, fuckin hey, hello.

It was good to see you. What it was good that you managed to get out and catch, I don't remember what day that was, maybe Saturday? Is that right? I think 

Adam: that was Saturday, yeah. 

Prime: Yeah. How was your experience at the festival? 

Adam: It was super fun. I ran into a lot of cool people you included.

I liked all the bands actually. I think I left a little bit early for Funk or Vogt, but every other band I caught. And hung out with a lot of good friends there. 

Prime: Yeah, seems like [00:01:00] it. So I've been listening to Mortal Realm. It's not been out very long. What I will just ask. What happened to Hex?

Why is that in seemingly no more? 

Adam: Oh man, we're going there. Okay, it's it's been a lot of different things that kind of led to To our agreement to, to stop it completely basically. . Probably one of the biggest reasons is me moving away from California. I live in Washington now Washington State.

. Which was why it was easy for me to go to Sure. Mechanisms that general logistics trying to figure out tours trying to figure out when to get together to, to do anything. Basically, it slowed down to below a crawl. We were at a standstill basically. Sure. We were still able to do.

Remixes and stuff here and there, but we just wanted to focus on our own things, 

Prime: sure, makes sense. If you're not, I feel like Collaboration takes a lot of, especially not just collaboration, but like a band together feels like a lot of such a significant portion of time to dedicate.

I couldn't imagine trying to, set aside a ton of time to have virtual [00:02:00] meetings and stuff. Sure it's doable, but maybe did you overall, I guess the question I want to ask is do you feel pretty good about this decision, this choice.

Do you, is there some sadness and what it could have been a thing? 

Adam: All the above. It was absolutely sad for both of us. We were having quite the time immediately after we made the decision trying to figure out how to divvy things up and, what we're going to do from now on kind of thing.

But, yeah, our best work was really when we were actually roommates in California at one point. And we put a lot of work into that actual Blood, Sweat, and Tears into the Aether Abyss Void album that came out. And we were trying to work on the new stuff again, it was slightly different.

Very weird sounding stuff. I wish more people could have heard what we were working on. But again, logistics, a little bit of creative differences, and just life in general kind of made it stop. 

Prime: Gotcha. 

Adam: Unfortunately. 

Prime: Understandable. This is the way of things. Everybody has a story and everything understandable.

Mortal Realm, [00:03:00] the Stab in the Dark album is excellent. I have listened to it cover to cover a couple of times. It's a genre bendy Industrial album. And I had such a good time listening to it. Elements of things that reminded me of ministry and things that reminded me of a skinny puppy in parts, or maybe some suicide command.

Do we I felt like it was. Fluid that it could do a lot of things and riff on a lot of ideas that have been staples in this genre for a while, but like blend them together, iterate them a little bit, give them a facelift, how how long did it take you to make this and what what has gone into it?

Adam: Actually ox was probably the first thing, the very first track on the album is just an intro. That's been something that's in the back of my mind since maybe 2015 or something like that, before hex even. But I finally managed to get it the way that I wanted it to sound. Then trash.

I actually just started writing in fall of last [00:04:00] year, 2023. . And then since then, things have just been spilling outta me and it feels great to get some. Subtraction on on the music again. The, not to say that it wasn't easy working with with anyone else, but when I'm doing stuff on myself it's easy to just let it all come out.

Prime: Sure. Yeah, you're not stopping to check with anybody else. You're just following your own kind of creative goal. What is your creative goal with this? What would you like to have Mortal Realm become? 

Adam: It kind of something what you were describing is I just wanted it to keep being fluid.

I don't want to put any kind of box around it aside from that it just is related to industrial. I don't necessarily want to turn into something harder or more epic or something like that. It's going to have a bunch of weird cheeseball kind of industrial stuff. And it's also going to have some super serious, very heartfelt stuff.

A lot of the stuff that I've written is actually from the heart. Personal experiences, thoughts nightmares, everything like that. And I'm probably going to keep it pretty personal [00:05:00] unless it's obviously, jab at, I'm trying to even think do the hustle kind of thing. That's not a real thing, I just made it up, I'll probably do stuff like that eventually, but in the industrial world. That sounds like a lot of fun to, to not do. Put any kind of label on it and just make it just sound uniform for an album. 

Prime: Okay. All right. I think that makes sense. And I can appreciate that sort of a take on it of let it grow into whatever it's going to be.

It's not very old. It's still young yet. Which sort of brings me to my next question of Where did you even come from? Before Hex, before Mortal Realm was a thing. What Who is Adam Jones? Why do you do this? That's 

Adam: a self sample, sorry. Okay I was born and raised in California.

I've only since moved there last year? Or was it Yeah, it must have been early 2023 when I first came here. And I'm enjoying it a lot. But let's see, I've only ever worked with two other bands. One [00:06:00] was my old band, Savior, which I started in like the late 90s, 97 or something like that. And then stopped around, let's see, right when I started Hex, actually.

While I was ending that project, I actually met Sarah, who I worked with in Hex in March. Let's see Modern Weapons. It's Jameson Boaz's old project. He does Epsilon Zero. I'm not sure if that's familiar. Excellent musician fantastic voice, great producer. He does stuff with Resident Evil and Capcom and stuff like that now.

He's a cool guy. But met Sarah, and then we started doing Hex in 2016. And just turned in the cards there for early this year. Around July. Yeah. 

Prime: Gotcha. Okay. And what what drove you to want to make music and be like doing this? 

Adam: Man, if I could narrow it down to one thing, it's probably a mix between Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat.

That's only a partial inspiration for the name. I've gotten a lot of questions about that [00:07:00] Okay, is this related to Mortal Kombat? Sure, a little bit, but it's not based on it. But the first CD that I got was the Killer Cuts album that came with Killer Instinct, the Super Nintendo game.

Yeah. And there was a song in there called Full bore, I think it was a full Gore's theme song. And it just had really fast gios and clangs and big electronic drums and irons. And the first time I heard that, I was just blown away. I'm like, what kind of music is this? And yeah, it was I think 93 or 94 when that first came out.

And I first heard it and I was just like. On a mission to try to see if I could find more music like that. I couldn't find a lot of music like that. So I tried to make music like that. I was using Sonic Foundry's ACID program. Oh, yeah. That's going 

Prime: way back. Sonic Foundry's ACID. 

Adam: Yeah. It's wild stuff.

You still hear glimpses of that and mTV and stuff. They still use those samples around it. I'm like, hey, I'll use that sample. I have that cd somewhere. [00:08:00] Yeah let's see. But yeah along with that. I couldn't find enough music to really fill my ears. So I just started to make it.

Prime: Gotcha. Okay. And you've just been into it ever since then? A thing? 

Adam: Yeah. In fact, a lot of my inspiration for writing stuff, I know Crash came like that. Nostrum Nepenthe came like that. And Death Debt. I was just either about to go to bed or in my car, and I'm like, I wish there was a song that da na da, and I was like, yo, that's actually a good one.

And then I just recorded it on my phone, just me doing a kind of a garbage dump. Math sounds. Sure. Yeah. And and then I'm like, okay, I'm going to work on that one later. And then it eventually became Trash. Nice. And that, that, and all that. 

Prime: Yeah, Trash is a great song. Death Dead is as well. There's an interesting mixture in tone in because everything is delivered very seriously and everything is very dark, but they're, you mentioned being open to not putting labels on it and just maybe [00:09:00] doing something fun with it in the future.

I was going to comment. I don't see many Promo photos that feature someone with a Morningstar. 

Adam: Morningstar kudos to you. A lot of people just go for mace. It's a Morningstar. You're right. Yes. 

Prime: I am a nerd. I am aware. It looks very battle ready in the photo, honestly. 

Adam: Thanks. You're, you might be the first person to really ask me about that thing.

Some people say, Oh, it looks cool. And that's it. I made that from scratch. Holy shit. It's wood, metal, leather, maybe, I want to say probably 20 something hours of different paint layers. Like I use salt, like there's a bunch of different stuff to get that metallic texture to make it look like wrought iron, yeah. I'm super proud of it. 

Prime: Yeah, you should be, it's fucking awesome, like I see why you put it in your photo it's pretty dope. Like when I go to put your photo on the cover for the episode, I am tempted to just crop it and put the morning star on there and 

Adam: it [00:10:00] could, if you want. 

Prime: It is very impressive.

Do you are you skilled at making stuff like that? Or was this like a like you just what, what prompted you to create this thing? 

Adam: Let's see that thing in particular. I don't know. I just had the idea of I actually thought of originally maybe just doing like a big mean sledgehammer, some really weathered, like you'd barely tell that it's wood anymore kind of thing.

Similar to what we did with the scythe and hex, I just made that connection now, but I actually have that, although it's a farming tool, not some bludgeoning device. But I based the main pose that's not like on the album cover, but it's my main promo. Promo profile picture thing. I based that off of, I think it's a German maybe, a propaganda thing from like the 20s.

I don't I don't know what the actual formal title of the thing is, but it's just got this bruiser looking guy holding a a big hammer, he's got one of those little cabbie hats on, and [00:11:00] he's all weathered and wrinkled looking, and looks tough, and I'm like, yo if that was a lot less militant, and I just had a flight jacket, I bet it would look really cool.

And and I was looking for sledgehammers you know what would be even cooler is to have a, like a final boss mace, or a morningstar, or something like that. I went full black metal, and I just made it. 

Prime: Nice. That's pretty fucking cool. Yeah, it's awesome. It helps you stand out, honestly, of cause, Thank you, that's good to hear.

Yeah, a lot of people, in the scene, do a lot of the same things, and it's fine. There's a certain aesthetic that, is predominant, and that's fine, but This was very the PR photo strikes me as very, like I'm a lumberjack in the northwest. That might have to defend my territory from horseback raiders or what, whatever the case might be.

But it is very like, impressive as a thing and very like striking. I was like there's a morning star here. What's going on? Awesome. Have you made work? Yeah. Have you made a lot of stuff or is that a thing you do just as a [00:12:00] side project thing? Like just a passion project. I'm gonna make a thing.

Adam: It just comes up periodically. Sometimes I get the nerve to build something wild like that. Usually I go really heavy into Halloween stuff. Last year I was a variation of Corporal Hicks from Aliens. I did the full alien transformation. Colonial Marine Armor. I didn't get to finish the helmet in time.

I was going to have the little visor, like the scouter kind of thing from Dragon Ball Z. Whatever that thing going on is. But I did make the pulse rifle. I made it so it lights up. You can see the 99 rounds in the thing. Like an LED screen. I like doing stuff like that. I was Pyramid Head for Halloween once and I did the full Pyramid Head did the huge knife thing that he drags around.

I wore seven inch platforms under a bloody skirt. It was great. I like to dress up and I like to make big mean, intimidating armor and weapons and stuff like that. I've always been fascinated with that. 

Prime: Yeah, I am seeing that now. That's [00:13:00] cool. That's a fucking cool thing. What do you have are you going to do something crazy like this coming Halloween as well?

Adam: I've had a couple different things on my mind. I'm going to try to see if I can incorporate my wife into it. We've been tossing back ideas actually, even earlier today, but we can't decide on something just yet. 

Prime: Gotcha. Okay. That's cool. Costuming stuff is cool. I'm actually, I'm creeping on your Facebook right now as you, as I was like listening to you talk.

Cause I was like I fucking want to see it. But you actually, I don't see pictures of Greene's costume up here. 

Adam: I probably only have one, one thing of the Colonial Marine from that. And obviously it was probably on October 31st or something. I'm not sure how far back. I bet it's in my profile pictures.

There's me as a King Leonidas from 300. I have an actual metal shield spears. I grew a full beard for that. I worked out for six months and I got a spray tan. It was a lot of fun. I was in really good shape. That was before I went vegan. So I had a little bit [00:14:00] more weight on me too. But yeah, I got really serious for some of those Halloweens.

Prime: That that's pretty much it. Pretty intense. Pretty cool. That's pretty fucking rad. All right. Cool. Aside from making good industrial music that is a fresh take on familiar sounds. And making cool shit. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. It's the kind of thing that like, and I'm sure you've encountered this as well.

Cause we're Probably same ish age but running into things or hearing something that you're like, Oh the younger version of me would love this. This is a thing that's, and I it gets me excited thinking about younger versions of myself those same teens that like would stumble over this and be blown away by it and have their mind melted.

Yeah, that's a thing that's I feel like it's worth getting excited about when you find it, of because we have to make those things now, right? Like the things that younger versions of ourselves would have, like weird radio shows or industrial music or, music made by people who with morning stars, like [00:15:00] we have to get out there and do those things in order for the next generation to have, Weird cool shit, basically.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so aside from doing those two things, which are both very cool what other cool shit do you do, and or what lame shit do you do? 

Adam: Aw, man. Okay, so I got two cats, I got a dog, like I said, I have my wife. My wife is top priority, obviously. I've probably just been gaming a lot lately. Every now and then I go to hikes. I go to, the bar and clubs and stuff and, hang out with other rivet heads and stuff. But what have I been playing? I've been playing Metro Exodus, Dying Light Always Skyrim, lots of Quake lots of Doom.

I should just bring up my Steam. Old school shit. Yeah, sure. I think the one I'm playing right now, the Metro Exodus is 2019, but yeah, Skyrim's 2011. But there's so many expansions and so many mods yeah, I think I got 2, 000 hours on Skyrim, so that shows [00:16:00] how interested I am in that one.

Man, 

Prime: I know so many people who are just like, Ah, Skyrim, and I'm I ignored it 

Adam: for years. Those 2, 000 hours are only in the last four years. Okay, 

Prime: yeah, that's me. I bought it on sale and played it for some hours and was like, I never want to play this again. It's just not my thing. For people who can get it and fall in love with it, great.

But it's just, some things not, don't just land right, I don't know. 

Adam: For sure, the same thing happened to me with World of Warcraft, like all my friends were addicted, and I played it for, I was actually paid to play it at my job, they're like, you gotta test this guy's video card, play a while, I'm like, aw, and then I get addicted to this, and I didn't get addicted, I was like, alright, cool, I'm a troll, and I'm, I think I'm done, I think it works fine, I wasn't interested in playing it anymore, but it was hot for a while, decades, I think.

Prime: Yes it still is very much it is a game that ate too many hours of my life, probably, and I refuse 

Adam: to give up. I probably dodged a bullet. 

Prime: Yes, you did. Unless I 

Adam: just stumbled into Skyrim, and now I'm just doomed to [00:17:00] play that for forever. 

Prime: Of course, there's that too. You might just be stuck again on some other.

Different bullet. Yeah, different bullet. Okay, so Mortal Realm let me switch gears before we because we'll end up talking about non music shit plenty. So let me get this other follow up question on Mortal Realm. So album out now sounds like you're excited about it and wanna do more of it.

So I'm expecting more in the coming year or two. Live shows? Is that gonna be a thing that you try and do next? 

Adam: Certainly. This time last year, I could barely speak with a normal voice, let alone raise my voice. By fall, it was, like, just easy enough to kinda emulate doing false cord and low scream and stuff, and everything else I just had to fix with processing and stuff.

I can actually sing a lot of that stuff now just barely under the level of doing a full show comfortably, and knowing that I'm not gonna injure myself doing it. But you probably already knew this, but just in case listeners didn't know I had I'm vaxxed and [00:18:00] I'm double boosted for COVID but I had it a third time in 2023 and it hit me hard.

It took away my voice for days. And I was warming up to do a tour with Hex and Morris Black. And we had to cancel the whole tour because my, our part of the tour. And because my voice is just completely shot no chance in faking it. Because I couldn't even talk to the crowd, it was that bad.

But I've put in a lot of work to try to get better. I've seen doctors and have been taking very good care of my voice and I plan on doing live stuff hopefully by fall. I got one thing potentially in the works. I'm just waiting for the solid yes on that. But I'm already programming lights.

I'm about halfway done with the show. Programming lights? I feel like I'm writing the album again. I put a lot of work into this. I got six different LED lights that do their own little colors and strobes and stuff. I got red strobes. It looks awesome. Nice. And I'm super excited to see what it looks like live and play [00:19:00] with those.

But that's been a lot of fun. A lot of tedious fun. But I'm certainly planning on doing live stuff. And I already got some new racks in the works that I'm very also excited about. I wish I could show people, but far from done. 

Prime: Gotcha. That's exciting, especially because I feel like bands that, or artists who have their own light rigs or program, take the time to program their shit it, It makes such a huge difference.

Alice is the band that immediately springs to mind of any time I get a chance to see them, I absolutely will go and do so just cause it great musicianship and great stage lights and put puts in the time and the effort to like, this is a show, this is a performance and therefore, extra spit and polish is being put into it.

Adam: That's the same group that used to do Mankind is Obsolete, right? 

Prime: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, 

Adam: they are the sweetest people, first of all. Second, I actually haven't seen Alice [00:20:00] live. I've seen a lot of pictures and stuff, but I absolutely believe you, because she puts in a lot of work to her music. 

Prime: Yeah, 100%.

Scott and company just yeah, fantastic every time. Fantastic performances. That's exciting. I'm glad you're, looking into doing it. I'm hopefully I will get a chance to see you at something. Okay. Mortal realm album, maybe some shows. What are you, is there any plans for doing collaborations or remixes or what's next on the sort of Mortal Realm horizon?

Adam: I would certainly love to I'll look into that. I've gotten a couple different offers for remix stuff. I love remixing. . I almost always just go for hard dancey remixes. And I love doing that. You could probably tell from Yeah. From the actual tracks of the album how much I miss stomping music, yes. And the, I don't have any solid news on who I would be collaborating with, but I do have a short list of people that I wanna work with on that. Not sure if they're going to be big names, but certainly people that I want to work with and that I trust, and that are ool den der [00:21:00] people.

I'm going to keep that as my main goal. My main goal is to work with people that I love. 

Prime: Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah that's what most people should do, is try and work with people that you want to and, avoid shitty people where possible. 

Adam: Let's go straight to N1 remixes.

I'm going to give some came at the end. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. 

Prime: Oh, wow. They got a 

Adam: legacy, but I'm not going to stir the pot on them. Yeah, not that legacy. 

Prime: I like stirring pots, so I'm always happy to throw it down, but we'll keep it pretty tame this time around. 

Adam: Yeah, that's another short list I got that I don't like to support.

Prime: Yes I've It feels so long anymore. Like it was a short list of people that I was like, these are people that I'm, we'll never have them on void signal and I will avoid them actively and sometimes and this is just my experience in this music scene. And it's probably true of all music scenes.

I don't want to, beat pick on it too much. But just [00:22:00] people will disappoint you and people will are in this for the wrong reasons for shitty, narcissistic, abusive, predatory reasons. Yeah. It's disappointing. 

Adam: Yeah. You just refreshed my list. I was like, Oh yeah, that guy. Oh yeah, that guy.

Oh man. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. It sucks. I wish people would, I don't know it's cool to misbehave, but not without consent and all that shit, be a grownup about it, be a little responsible. Yeah. Yeah. Some empathy, 

Prime: maybe. Some ethics are Ethics, yeah. Yeah, that's a thing that we can do.

Like Class. Yeah class. What a concept. Not that 

Adam: I'm at all like a ritzy dude, but 

Prime: Sure. I wouldn't know. I don't know. I don't know you well enough. You can make a Morningstar. Wearing a 

Adam: tuxedo right now. 

Prime: I would believe that, actually. You're handsome enough to pull it off, to be like, oh, I'm wearing a tuxedo at 8 o'clock at night, or whatever.

Yeah, you've got great facial hair, and the mustache [00:23:00] is excellent. I can appreciate a well grown and maintained mustache. Thanks. So yeah, hats off. 

Adam: Can't get rid of that thing. 

Prime: Yeah, no, you can't. It is, I'm pretty sure it's illegal. At least in Washington. If you Oh yeah, I know 

Adam: it.

Yeah. It's, that's how I got one of the prerequisites to moving here. . 

Prime: Yeah. Do you have a good mustache? Oh, okay. Yeah. You can't boot, you can't be John Waters and try and move to Washington. They'll be like, probably not. No. They like, get outta here. No. . Okay. So a sign from the music, what are you hoping to do with your career?

What do you want to do as an Adam Jones to keep making music and what else? 

Adam: Man, mostly that I love my digital art. I like to do a little artsy projects here and there. I feel like I, as a person, I work best with putting my heart and soul into my hobbies and then making money off of stuff that I'm just good at.

And. I don't really care if people are telling [00:24:00] you to do it, for instance, I tried to do graphic design stuff professionally, and I was just losing my mind when people were saying, okay, instead of a 60s theme, we want like a backyard pool party theme. I'm like, okay, cool, but I just finished the 60s theme.

Did you not like it? And they're like, no, we loved it. It's just that we should just completely switch gears, and now it's space theme. I'm like, okay. I was doing a graphic design for a photo booth company, and I was doing iPhone covers, lots of weird one off stuff like that. And I just can't take, I can't take people switching gears on me after I put in hours and hours of work into Duff.

So I like to do that to myself and say, Nah, it should be in B instead of D, and now it sounds better. And I'll gladly put in my own work because it's me running the show, maybe I'm just a control freak with my art. I don't think that had anything to do with the band breakup, by the way.

It's really good. No, that wasn't even in the conversation. But but with my own stuff, I treat my art like my baby, and I just [00:25:00] want to make sure it's the way that I want it, so doing stuff strictly for other people without a lot of my own input, I just don't like it. So I like to just do my own hobbies.

Prime: Gotcha. Fair enough. I can admire that. I appreciate that. Okay. I will put this question to you. It is the last question of the show. It was, but I'm putting it to you early because it sounds like a thing that we can talk about. What is something that you have been enjoying recently? And your answer can be anything.

Book, video game, movie whatever. Just what's something that you're jazzed about. You mentioned Skyrim, which is Snooze City. But you also said Doom. That new Doom, excuse me that new Doom, Dark Ages or whatever, looks pretty sweet. I am 

Adam: very excited about that. I saw the gun at Skyrim.

Crushes up skull and shoots the little fragments and shreds people. That looks super fun. 

Prime: I'm 

Adam: nerding out in my head about that. I'm really sad that probably, I don't think Mick Gordon is gonna be doing the music for that. That's a big letdown. [00:26:00] But I don't think that, I don't think it's gonna work with Bethesda ever again from the way that they treated him.

Yeah. I've talked to that guy, he's ultra sweet. He gave Sarah and I a couple tips on production for the initial Hex album. You can probably hear some of the stuff, especially in the low bass and some of the way we did guitars. He's just an absolute genius about that. However, honestly, the Eternal stuff was still pretty good.

The stuff that he didn't do was good enough to be in a video game, it doesn't have to be a, platinum record every time. But I even liked what I heard in the trailer for the Dark Ages one. 

Prime: Yeah and agree. I liked Doom Eternal a lot gameplay wise. The story was what the fuck ever.

I don't give a shit. I'm not playing Doom for the story. 

Adam: Too neon. Give me some corridors. Give me some dripping bloody Give you some little jump [00:27:00] scares. I really like the old Doom, the 2016 Doom. Yes. Part of my soul. I just love that aesthetic so much. And I feel like they went totally Barbie with it, with Eternal.

It was super fun, equally as violent. I like that really fast paced explosion action kind of stuff. But they really twisted the colors up to the pink. Yeah. And I was like, I get this, but it feels like it's Mass Effect or something like that. It's pretty to look at, but it's not Doom. Yes.

Prime: That was my thought exactly. 2016 was such a fantastic reimagination of my childhood. Of sitting down in front of the old Doom. Yeah, they did it. Yeah, totally. That, those, the first, I watched gameplay of the first five minutes, and I was like, I have to have this immediately. Yeah.

Yeah. 

Adam: I saw the imps with the chainsaw in the video and my jaw just dropped. I was like, oh my god. Yeah. You could 

Prime: tell it was going to happen. Yeah. I was so happy. I was like, oh fuck, [00:28:00] this looks great. And it is. But yeah, the Doom Eternal's like color palette and sort of story was whatever. But man, the gameplay was great.

Like the grappling all over the place. At first, I hated it for an hour until I stopped being a fucking baby. And then I was like, I get this. And it became And I, to the point that going back and trying to play Doom 2016 feels slow. 

Adam: You couldn't dash. 

Prime: Yeah. 

Adam: Yeah, and I was like, I, we're, okay. I miss moving really fast, really quick for just a moment.

That was really fun. I wonder if you could mod that or something to incorporate that. I feel like it would be too easy at that point. But, the 

Prime: colors Sorry, go ahead. Oh, 

Adam: I was going to say the color scheme for Dark Ages looks real good. It looks all gritty and gray and stuff. I'm excited about that.

I hope they go back to those roots. Even if it's not corridors, it looks like a lot of wide open spaces. But it does look dark and gritty like the first 2016. 

Prime: Yes. I'm pretty fucking excited about that. It takes, I don't often get [00:29:00] excited about video games much anymore. It has to be something a little bit special.

The other one I will say that is like major on my radar and I never pre order games because I've been disappointed too many fucking times because they're usually bad. But Space Marine 2 looks really fucking great. 

Adam: I've only heard glimpses of that. I actually haven't done an actual, I haven't seen any trailers or anything like that.

I should check that out. 

Prime: Yeah, you should. It's and if you get the chance, the first one goes on sale often for five ish dollars, twenty dollars, something like that. It's easily worth that. It's got great voice acting in it with Mark Strong is the main character and there's a pretty really great voice acting in it and a good story and is pretty fun to play through.

And then this one is, different voice cast and everything, but also just looks fantastic. Looks like a 40K game that 40K nerds have been waiting for and crazy violent. And [00:30:00] that's the theme, of like video games. I like, cause the other game I grew up on a lot was like Diablo.

And, oh yeah, a lot of can get down on some Diablo splitting demons in half and shit, love that shit, but yeah, good times. So aside from what else have you been playing? Anything else that's been like grabbing your attention? 

Adam: You know what? Let me just check. I'm actually going to really quickly pull up Steam because I just Wait a minute.

There it is. Okay. My library. Oh The Borderlands 2 and 3, I was super into for a long time. A lot of replays for those. Cyberpunk, I was into that. Fallout 4, I was Cyberpunk 

Prime: was so boring, man. I don't know. I tried to play it, but I was, I got to the mission where it was like, go wait outside this club, and I've never picked it up since then.

I don't know. 

Adam: It took me a long time to get used to the style of gameplay, but I just treat it as an open world after a while. Once you got like a, some cool guns basically, [00:31:00] they really could have expanded off of that and have it more modular. I like the Doom and I like the Fallout, like the upgrades to different things.

I don't like to get super, super intricate with it, but there was almost no options in Cyberpunk outside of upgrading your body, yeah. And that was only fun for a couple different upgrades. The rest of it just made the game easier and it was already, a, I feel like a little bit of a breeze to go through.

Yeah. 

Prime: Yeah. That's fair. I yeah, I like 

Adam: driving in the rain. That was cool. 

Prime: Yeah. It was very pretty to look at and Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. I have such a hard time with games that don't, if something becomes. Too too open worldy. I feel paralyzed by choice sometimes. And will I need a little bit of some breadcrumbs to like, take me somewhere.

A thing. 

Adam: I get you there, because I guess another gripe I would have had with Cyberpunk 2077 is it's open world enough, where it feels like it's open world, but The game still holds your hand through it and you have [00:32:00] to watch so many cinematic things and I'm Maybe an oddball here that I don't like a lot of cinematic cuts I like to do the thing that the game is asking me to do and not watch my character do it I've had gripes for the end of a game like the Your character offs the big boss in some weird elaborate way and I'm like, oh I wish I was doing that.

Yeah. And Cyberpunk you can't really do too much outside of the story, and there's only a couple different variations of the radial quests, and radial quests are radial quests, and they go boring after a 

Prime: while. Yeah, for sure. What else have I been playing? Warhammer 40k Speed Freaks?

is free to play on Steam. It's a yeah, no surprise there. I, I already mentioned 40k, but I It is a free to play vehicle combat shooter. That's it's like Twisted Metal. Except a bunch of orcs and different cars and tanks and bullshit. And that you You shoot and kill other people.

And [00:33:00] it's, I, it's low stakes fun that it's, and it's free to play. You can install it and play it for some hours and then put it down and that's it. It's very much a video game in the sense of being a toy. I think sometimes, People, myself included in the past have forgotten to remind myself that like a video game is a toy and your toy is a source of getting your frustration out, not a source of frustration.

Adam: Yeah, disassociation in the nicest way. I'm looking at the trailer and it looks awesome for free. It looks like a great toy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually super new to Warhammer. I respect it. I'll tell you that. But I don't know almost anything about it. Should I start with this? 

Prime: You can jump in with this.

This has no story. This is just shooting other people and blowing stuff up. You don't need to know anything to start with. to jump in, but should you, if you like science fiction stories I feel like 40 K is a thing you will run into sooner or later and it's you don't need to [00:34:00] play the tabletop.

You don't have to buy any of the bajillion books. There's a million of them. I would almost encourage people fucking not to because I, because it's like I got into 40 K and it's you should start with this book series that covers this one event. There's 67 books that cover this shit. Fucking get out of here.

Like you could, and some of them are excellent. Like Dan Abnett in particular is a fantastic, you like, a above the crowd author, like really fucking good, next level, you're signing on to read, you can overdose on this shit like as much as you want. But it's a thing you'll run into in sooner or later and it comes in so many flavors that sort of anyone can find something in it they like.

And here's this hyper, hyper realized depiction of a fascist earth, and here's, here's aliens and tyranids and dark elves and all this kind of weird shit. And it just it, there's something in it for everybody. So sooner or later, you'll run into something that's oh, [00:35:00] this is too cool to be denied.

And I just love how how with 40k and with Warhammer in general, everything is just so over the top, just Dialed up to 11, like the skulls have spikes thrown. Just as many, I know that's all. Yes, exactly. It's just have as many skulls as you can have. Like it's, I love that like over the top, like as much as you can do aesthetic and vibe for it.

But yeah, and it comes in so many flavors. Space Marine is a great place to start too, is you will have a good time with it if you like video games and sci fi stories. 

Adam: Cool. 

Prime: Yeah, good shit. Actually, 

Adam: the music sounds good in the trailer too. 

Prime: Yeah, that's another thing is that a lot of Warhammer 40k games have just phenomenal soundtracks.

The soundtrack for Mechanicus which is like a turn based Warhammer 40k game. Great industrial soundtracks and shit. Jesper Kidd or excuse me, Jesper Kidd, who did the Assassin's Creed soundtrack, [00:36:00] did he did the soundtrack for Warhammer Vermintide and Darktide. Both are looter shooter games in the style of Left 4 Dead.

Warhammer flavors and Oh, his soundtrack work on those is amazing, especially as somebody who mentioned Mick Gordon 

Adam: it left for dead that he was the composer, 

Prime: not for left for dead, but for these. Warhammer flavored Left 4 Dead esque games. Yeah. Yeah. Oh god. Okay. Yeah Fantastic stuff, especially the Darktide soundtrack because it's 40k So it's all sci fi and he did some great industrial tracks that like You could just slot him onto a DJ set into a dance floor.

People will dance to it probably like just really good shit 

Adam: Darktide looks good. Oh Darktide's on the last . 

Prime: Yeah. Especially if you like shooters and stuff. 

Adam: Yeah. I'm big into FPS with mean Weapons and Male a stuff. It's so fun. Okay. Yeah. I'll have to check into this . Yeah. I'm gonna become addicted to War Hammer or Oho.

Yeah. 

Prime: Okay. We can a lot [00:37:00] You are so welcome. For, 40 K is great. You can get almost anybody into 40 K because it just is has such broad appeal across so many sectors and things. Okay. Anything else that springs to mind that you've been enjoying recently that you've just been like, about?

Maybe not a video game, but just what's an Adam Jones thing that you've just been like, Ah, fuck, I can't wait to do this. 

Adam: Honestly, almost all my free time that isn't, little random gaming things and hanging out with my wife and watching TV and cooking dinner is just working on these lights for the live show.

It's been a lot of work. Like I said, it does feel like I'm doing the album all over again because things are never the same for two seconds at a time. Epilepsy warning kind of stuff. It's going to be fun. So I'm really excited to play live. 

Prime: Yeah. Awesome, I'm excited to see it. Keep me posted on that.

I'm, just south of you in California. So I can and I've got plenty of friends up your way. Cool, alright. Yeah, and by all means, if you Excuse me, I will cut this, but let me know [00:38:00] when you start thinking about Going on tour and setting up dates and stuff. I know the promoters in the here in Sacramento and maybe one in the Bay Area or two.

But yeah, let me know. I'll put your name in their ear or get you in touch or whatever. 

Adam: I used to live in Sacramento for 10 years. Oh shit, really? Okay. I wonder if I know the promoters. But honestly, you're probably better friends with them now because it's been a long time since I've even visited.

Prime: Sure, okay. Yeah, Megan LaChapelle is still has this. 

Adam: Yeah, lovely. Yes. 

Prime: We don't talk a 

Adam: lot, but I love keys. 

Prime: Yes. She is. Keys is great and has the does a lot does a lot of nights and goth nights and stuff in the area and stuff, but yeah, for sure. Okay. Easy done. You're welcome.

All right. Yeah. I'm sure we'd 

Adam: love to work together again. Yeah. She's DJed at my other club before. I used to do trauma and circuitry. If you remember that stuff, but I don't. And she was DJing there every now and then with DJ David V. Yeah. Yeah. 

Prime: Gotcha. Oh, yeah. And that is still DJs here as well.

But yeah cool. Awesome. Small world, small community, I [00:39:00] guess I should say is everybody knows everybody in the sense of and it was interesting too, because like I saw you at Mechanismus, I'm like, I knew immediately who you were. And I was like, it was interesting because it was like Whenever I see somebody in real life that I've only seen them on like Facebook or in like promo photos, there's always that moment of do I actually know this person?

Is that really them? And I always like. 

Adam: Friends on Facebook, but are we friends? Yeah. Are we friends in the real world? 

Prime: Yeah. But yeah, it was good to see you though. And to recognize you and say hello and shit. And it was an unexpected benefit of being at Mechanismos. I didn't expect to run into you at all, actually.

Sure. 

Adam: Honestly I'll go on a limb here. If you're ever around here, let's hang out or something like that. Normally a very homebody, but you're super easy to talk to, and Yeah. If you're up in the area or from down there let's kick it or something. 

Prime: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, let me know if you make it down Sacramento way.

For sure. And I've, I know a bunch of people up there now from doing [00:40:00] mechanism stuff and that yeah, I've been intending to, to make a trip up there at some point, but it'll have to wait a little bit. So yeah, just to answer the question myself the thing I've been enjoying recently I I'm getting ready for Wasteland Weekend.

My I managed to get myself a deeply discounted ticket. And I'm gonna be going at the end of September. I've been watching, it's a thing I've been aware of for like years. And I was always like, I'd love to go do that. But just never pulled the trigger on. And now it's like I've had enough near death experiences now.

That it's like you should do the thing while you can do the thing. 

Adam: Honestly, yeah, that's one of the reasons why I'm, like, going so hard into making sure that this live thing is good because I'm 40 now. I don't know if you're 40, but I want to do this while I'm still able to do it.

Yeah. I want to be energetic on stage without being the old man on stage doing it. I want to make this thing happen, yeah. I got some Vim behind me on that. 

Prime: Yeah, good for you, and yeah, absolutely the same. I am 41, and it you [00:41:00] only have to have a couple of gentle medical reminders of, bullshit that can happen to you for you to have that realization of I gotta get it while I can get it.

Adam: Yeah, people are frail. 

Prime: Yeah so yeah go to Festivals in the desert go camping for the first time and go You know spend hours and a bunch of money on lighting rigs and stuff. Yeah Not gonna see the Morningstar live I assume 

Adam: I Don't know. I Have no way to incorporate that cuz I'm gonna be playing keys and stuff so far.

It's only me on stage I'll probably be open to having more people if I trust them but I don't know. I might bring it on for a hello, goodbye prop or something like that, but I might not. It's a lot to carry. Yeah, and then you're It's hard to put anywhere. 

Prime: Yeah, that's true. And then you're like lugging it around on the road and everything.

What if you, for an encore you came out with it and you smashed a watermelon on the stage. 

Adam: Or I could just do photo ops [00:42:00] afterwards. 

Prime: Yeah, there you go. Be like, hey, do you want to get a photo with me and the Morningstar? Yeah, see? Yeah, see? Lots of options there for it. But if you do end up smashing any fruit with it that's just just keep that in your back pocket.

As I like, even if the music doesn't work out, you could probably, Get people to come watch you beats fruit with a Morningstar. 

Adam: It would hold up to, I, I made sure that it won't fall apart. 

Prime: Yeah. Yeah. I, and if it broke, you would be only be able to blame yourself. So that's true.

Yeah. So yeah there are options for you if anyway, thank you so much for coming on and having a chat and hanging out. I appreciate your time very much. It was a pleasure to talk to you. 

Adam: Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it a lot. 

Prime: Yeah, for sure. I wish you the best. The album is awesome and blistering and I had such a good time listening to it.

I, I'm hopeful for what you make in the future as well and look forward to to hearing more from you. So yeah, thank you so much for that. 

Adam: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. More to come. 

Prime: Okay, [00:43:00] cool. Alright I'm gonna dip and go smoke and play video games and turn my brain off for a while, and yeah, thanks so much for your time.

Enjoy the rest of your evening. 

Adam: You deserve it. Thank you so much. You too. Alright, 

Prime: thanks. Cheers. 

Adam: Bye. Take it easy.