On this episode I am joined by the wonderful & enigmatic Jonesy AKA Shred Rogers, a splendidly diverse and colourful solo artist & guitarist of the Cyber Metal band A Dark Halo.

Jonesy's music spans quite the spectrum - from dark and brooding to stupendously absurd. Now I don't know about you, but I have to admire that a lot!

Perhaps most prominently as a solo artist with Shred Rogers, Jonesy is known for his extreme metal renditions of nursery rhymes. Yes, you heard me right, nursery rhymes!! Including such classics as Baa Baa Black Sheep & Wheels on the Bus 😆

You have to hear these as they are really quite entertaining. However, he has quite a unique approach with it, more weaving the nursery rhymes into otherwise fantastic original metal tracks - fusing elements of death metal, black metal, thrash & prog.

This ties into Jonesy's wonderful cause to bring joy and lightness to the world, in which he approach's music very much as a gift to others. The nursery rhymes themselves reflect his devoted passion for being a foster father, which is testament to the kind and caring person that he is.

As well as these fun renditions, Shred Rogers also releases guitar driven instrumental music, which has a deep emotion to it. Something I really enjoyed hearing him talk about in the episode.

But the primary contrast is with his Cyber Metal band A Dark Halo - who comparatively have a very 'serious' style indeed. A kind of dark and heavy industrial metal style, the band released their first album Catalyst way back in 2006 - which took on a cult like status following the inclusion of 2 singles on the video game 'WWE Day of Reckoning 2'.

This made for a very unique and interesting story in the episode about how Jonesy had been practically oblivious to just how much of an impact this album had. Thus, after a long hiatus, Jonesy and co-founder Dave Lowmiller re-formed the band with a fresh line up.

They have since returned with a huge sound, boasting a line-up which revitalizes the band with a great deal of fresh energy. We've caught them at such an exciting time too, as their new album 'Omnibus One' has just dropped on July 14th '23. I urge you to go and check it out!

We also had a massive nerd-out about our favourite music & discographies! Overall it was a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did :)

WJR ❤️

Check out the Shred Rogers Website here & links for A Dark Halo here

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services - go here

Timestamps:

00:33 - Introduction & Synopsis

01:04 - Overview of Jonesy and his projects (focus on Shred Rogers)

22:53 - The story of A Dark Halo

40:49 - Nerding out about our favourite music & talking discographies.

01:03:30 - How Jonesy first got into music & tying his musical journey together.

01:12:38 - Omnibus One, the new album by A Dark Halo.

01:15:55 - Closing thoughts & final sentiments.