News

2026.05.26
Since I skipped the Maryland Deathfest this year (too few bands of interest, scattered through too many days), I've found myself watching more concerts online than usual, including clips from the MDF (great work to That Goat Metal Show, btw!). Yesterday I found an Obituary show from Dynamo Open Air on Youtube and it was fucking awesome to say the least. Tardy is one of the most unique vocalists and frontman in death metal, the drumming is awesome, the guitarists are superb. I have a special relationship with Obituary since the first death metal album I ever bought was The End Complete from 1992 (still one of my favorites). That night I had dreams that the band visited me and stayed overnight at my parents' house and I had the mission of getting food for the band. Tardy wanted Indian food, so I was desperately going around town (in some weird car with a narrow front window) trying to find a place nearby and as I was searching, it was getting dark and I somehow lost track of what I was even doing. In addition, like in many of my dreams, suddenly my phone did not work and no clocks around me were in sync, all showed different times, so I had no idea if I was late. After sitting in some restaurant for what seemed like hours, I stepped outside at one point into a blurry black mess of dusk my eyes could not adjust to the darkness. When I finally got back I found out that Tardy was eating my mother's soup and I couldn't believe it. I failed in my mission. Then I woke up... some 9+ hours later. What a dream...

2026.05.25
Damn, over a month of no updates! Unusual for me... but there has truly been little to talk about. Just a few albums of any worth coming out these days... for death metal, the latest Fleshcrawl and Funebrarum are recommended, for black metal I was surprisingly impressed with the new A Forest of Stars, very original and evocative... and of doom I am not aware of anything except maybe Lone Wanderer and In Ruins both of which I'm yet to hear in full. As usual, there is more going on in the past, like the recent discovery I made of Sanguine Myst's "Upon Sylvan Thrones", an excellent release for everyone who loves black metal the classic way. I also was able to complete my collection of Whispering Gallery by lucking on a copy of the rare Lost As One on discogs, a fantastic album like all of their rest! Truly one of the best melodic doom/death bands from Europe.

Somewhat related to this thread and my posts, recently I finished reading the mathematician Leonard Mlodinow's "The Drunkards Walk", a book on randomness and probability theory, and the last eponymous chapter really spoke to me, illustrating actually what I've been thinking for the last 30 or so years. In the last chapter he dives into an analysis of how expectation colors perception and how randomness and not any kind of determinism rules common threads of thought among popular systems or products. There is a good analogy in an experiment done with some 15,000 people listening to music with visible data on download popularity (or, since the book was written in the 00s, you can say streaming today). A separate insulated group evaluated the music without these data as "the instrinsic quality" marker, while the other groups were evaluating the music conscious of the stats. If there was any deterministic element to the music evaluation, Mlodinow says, the outcomes would have converged, but what happened is that the popularity of the songs varied widely. There was no set principle of one song achieving universal status as previous conceptions directly influenced present conceptions - in other words, a confirmation of the sheep effect, which in my opinion is now more relevant and worthy of consideration than ever before under social media. There was another point also made interestingly about success and preconception, also as an illustration of randomness over linearity or determinism. Stephen King at one period published a series of books under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman. When publishing under that name, his sales plunged, although obviously the quality of his works was identical. Only when it became clear that Bachman was King, did sales increase. We all know this, but the point is: are we truly honest about this when evaluating what we read or hear or watch, and how much are even the most independent-minded of us unaffected by these factors?

2026.04.25
Everyone interested in technical, sci-fi themed death metal needs to check out Starseed from Germany, great stuff! The Cosmic Conspiracy EP was released back in 1997 and has some parallels to Nocturnus and Timeghoul, a forgotten treasure for sure.

2026.04.16
I've finished adding all my zines for sale at Zurz Zinez. I may add a few of my music-related books to it but for now the shop is officially open! I'll print up some ads next to make more people aware of it. Spread the news, thanks!

2026.04.10
A long-needed update to the sale list was published today, check it out here!

2026.04.07
Iran is an ancient and beautiful civilization whose people deserve peace and prosperity more than most others given the horrors they have been dealing with for some 75 years of Western empires pouncing on their resources and imposing sanctions on them, not to mention their own theocratic conservative government brutalizing people that dissent or disagree with their dogmas. I am with them in spirit as they fight this blatant terrorism from two megalomaniac lunatic regimes attacking them. It's the ordinary people that will, as always, pay the most for the power fantasies of deranged world leaders and their shit-faced sycophants.

2026.04.04
Only 261 days, 8 hours and 54 minutes before start of winter in the northern hemisphere! Track it each day at this site: days.to/until/winter, brothers and sisters.

I've been slowly piling on products for Zurz Zinez and so far I have 15 zines up for sale. Please check out what is presently being offered here. I'll make a more formal announcement about it later.

In the last few weeks I've made some excellent new music discoveries thanks in large part to trades with Paragon Records (as usual). The treasures of the past seem to be almost as numerous as the disappointments of the present! Okay, that is clearly exaggerating, but I'll post more about these bands in the future... the past is alive.

2026.03.23
If the American-Israeli terror war on Iran should teach people anything, it's that it's long time to abandon "traditional" gas and oil technology. It's 2026 and we are still using 19th century inventions to run most of our heavy equipment. Not only is it causing proven, objective irreversible environmental damage, disruptions in its output instigated through these imbecilic wars are causing global destruction and instability. Few things should as important now as eliminating oil and gas completely from global supply chains as fast as possible.

2026.03.11
Only an utter moron would compare the health of stock markets to the health of economies. No surprise that Trump supporters, then, would do this. Back when Covid was at its peak and 20% of people in America suddenly became unemployed (near 40% in the service sector) the stock market was at a historic high - it was never doing better! Right now Iran is appropriately targeting oil as a response to the Israeli-American terrorism, trying to make it hurt where it is most seen, outside of the stock market (though stocks are also sinking, probably not for long). Unfortunately, as time has shown, the only thing that will budge and catalyze Americans into any action and force them to vote differently is if they feel damage to their wallets. Nothing else. Also notice, by the way, that the people that claim they are the most religious servants of "God" have initiated this violence and aggression, as they always do.

How is it if we are the most intelligent species on earth, we always vote for the least qualified leaders? What's going on here?

2026.03.10
Jarboe is so overrated and overhyped it's not funny. If she had no connection to Swans, would her Sightings album, the promo of which I received today, really get any reception at all? It's endlessly fascinating how name recognition takes one so far. You can record complete garbage and yet sell albums and receive accolades only because of your name or association to earlier recordings, or even other musicians/names. I never let any band I listen to off the hook in this way. An album is an album is an album... of course it's disappointing but past works don't disappear. With her, though, and Swans broadly, I don't get any of the hype to begin with. Certainly 80s and early 90s Swans albums were heavy and intense for their time, but not nearly as heavy or brutal as their fans think they are.

I will give Michael Gira credit, though: his book, The Consumer, was awesome...I still think there's nothing like it. I don't know how I'd feel about reading it now in my 40s, but back when I was teenager, it hit the spot with my societal disgust and alienation like little else. I still have vivid images from it in my mind to this day.

2026.03.01
For those interested in my worthless views on the US-Israel-Iran war, read here.

Last month when I mentioned Septic Flesh in one of my posts I was inspired to check out the one album from their early years that I decided to quickly disown: Revolution DNA. I was pretty disgusted with it back when it came out in 1999. Now, 26 years later, I had a compulsion to check it again after listening to a track online and, I must say, it is not as bad as I thought! There are a few stinkers on it to be sure, like Dictatorship of the Mediocre and Android, but there are tracks that really hark back to classic Septic Flesh, like Revolution and Last Stop to Nowhere - really great tracks! I think if anyone was quick to give up on this album they should check it out again. The Thief of Innocence is also a fantastic song that was mysteriously omitted from the album in the end. Septic Flesh are just a great band even if Titan and their recordings from 2017 upwards lost me. Maybe I will return to them some day and think otherwise. Also in context of how bad most metal is now even the worst stuff from Septic Flesh feels good, that could be a contributing factor in my revised opinion.

2026.02.28
New interview with Spencer Hazard by Ray Clardy is now up here. This closes the circle on the last Full of Hell interview posted around the same time last year. Check it out.

2026.02.17
I just received another promo from a band whose promotion links them to 90s death metal like Septic Flesh and Disembowelment. Let me say here that this shit has to stop. We all know the vast majority of new metal bands are mediocre and cannot write a unique riff or come up with an original idea to save their lives and that's why older bands are constantly used for promotion. I'm not going to even mention names. Also, if I see any band photo with an 18 year old guy with a mustache and clean chin, I'm immediately deleting the promo.

2026.02.15
I've successfully registered today on bandcamp to create my planned new Zine distro, which will be called Zurz Zinez. I'll next work on the graphics and all of the uploads (I have about 20+ zines to enter), and then I will start an ad campaign to get it better known. I may set up a wordpress page ultimately in the style of Schattennmanns Publishings, or add a section to this page. The idea is to create a medium sized zine distribution to recuperate costs spent on zines to ultimately buy and create new ones, and keep the format alive, more or less, in these idiotic times. Keep posted here for more news!

2026.02.12

Tyranny from China has just set up a bandcamp page, navigate to it here! This is brand new material from the band, raw and quite fresh I would say, the new album set for release on ColdWoods Productions this month, the first record released in 2026 I have any interest in so far. This is also a reminder that Convivial Hermit Issue 9 with an exclusive interview with Tyranny is still available, order it on BigCartel now!

2026.02.07
Just added BigCartel buttons to the Latest Issues page!

A few days back I was in a bookstore and picked up a copy of Philosophy Now which I used to regularly read and found a mention of John Searle recently passing away at the age of 93. The Mystery of Consciousness and The Construction of Social Reality were extraordinary books I read in my 20s and every interview I've seen with him has been inspiring. This year I actually also understood, finally, I think for the first time, his "Chinese Room Argument" when it was introduced in the context of AI, which is more relevant today than ever. I think he was absolutely right in his conclusions, too. All the more disappointing to find out that he apparently was a lecherous man in his old age, doing things that I never imagined and completely incongruous with the writer I knew. It makes me wonder how frequently this happens. But I also have a sense, and I know this does not excuse him, that if this is true, which I see no reason why it would not be, that his behavior was some kind of mental deterioration. Very disappointing either way.

2026.02.02
New bigcartel page is up starting today here: convivialhermit.bigcartel.com! If anyone has any problems with it contact me here via the contact menu option - or the contact on bigcartel! This is still in an experimental phase but it appears to be all set up now and ready. Hopefully this will resolve all ordering headaches. I'll add it to the ordering pages later.

2026.02.01
I only now completed my Top 2025 list here. It took a while to straighten things out. It was also necessary to include Von Waeldten which I only learned about in the last few weeks, but what an excellent album and musician. I highly recommended listening to Pascal Becker's work on his bandcamp page, you will not regret it.

2026.01.23
The most recent thing this reminds me of is Jim Inhofe bringing a snowball to Congress and claiming that it disproves global warming. Trump is literally, without exaggeration, the dumbest human being on the planet today. A bag of dogshit is more qualified to be a leader than he is. I am tempted to tear up my US Passport and throw it into the garbage but that would prevent me from leaving this country which is now at Ground Zero Idiocracy.

George Galloway, a socialist, recently thought out loud that perhaps Trump is one of us? An amusing thought even if it imputes more than is possible. He is bringing the entire world together around China like no other American politician before him, perhaps the biggest gift to Xi Jinping that ever happened.

2026.01.21
Trade list has been updated today. I may finally put up a bigcartel for the existing zines, while I still figure out my zine distro (separate idea). I know people have had difficulties with the Paypal buttons.

By the way, I've been growing more interested in perzines thanks to the Asymmetrical Anti-Media newsletter and in connection found this very interesting distro: Antiquated Future. I feel like Convivial Hermit in particular has always been somewhere between a perzine and a more traditional metal zine. I've never been truly comfortable in the general zine mold and always wanted to push it someplace new. It feels both good and a bit befuddling to know that others are still doing print zines in 2026 and feel the same way.

2026.01.13

I don't like going into sweeping generalizations about an entire age group, but in general, listening to several of these very young bands each day, I have come to the conclusion that Gen Z are completely incapable of writing good music. I don't know whether it's this shit culture they grew up in with social media and Youtube/TikTok/Instagram videos and now AI eroding their brains and short circuiting their attention spans... but it's just sad, what is happening. There are always exceptions, sure, bro... but almost all their bands are mid, bro. Do you sus what I'm saying, bro? Gen Z slays at sucking, and have the rizz of fecal matter. This is no tea. Do you know what I mean, bruh bruh?

2026.01.03
So now that Maduro is gone (good riddance) can we get rid of Trump the same way? Seems it's perfectly okay to invade other countries and kidnap or kill their leaders, after all, you don't even need congressional approval to do it, and both Trump and Maduro are terrorizing their own citizens, so why not? The USA, of course, does not have the greatest proven oil reserves like Venezuela, but it does produce the most oil today, so you have the bonus prize of expediting the death of the vast majority of mammals on the planet if you so choose.

2026.01.01
Happy New Year to all! 2025 was a rough year in many ways, from internal problems in the Hermit Kingdom like people I know or close to me dying and my own health issues, to problems in general worldwide like the rising popularity of fascism and AI's continued rampage making society dumber and lazier than ever. On the plus side, it was the best work year I probably have ever had, some great music is still coming out (check out my Top 2025) and in the words of Claudio Dondo from Runes Order: "We are still here".

For 2026 I am gathering thoughts of putting a bandcamp page together for a small distro, featuring mostly magazines. Keep posted in this section for updates.

Back issues of Convivial Hermit #10 and #9 are still available, as well as my final personal copies of Ethere #1 (just a few left!). Write to my email address if any questions or click the button below to order. You can also order all available zines via external distributions like Hells Headbangers in the United States and Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions for international orders. Thanks!