For those who love the classic Swedish Gothenburg sound from the 90s, I highly recommend these 3 obscure Swedish death metal bands: Iniuria, Hypocrite and Guidance of Sin. Iniuria only released demos and as far as I know, "All the Leaves Has Fallen" is their only CD output. I'm looking actively for their other releases. A really great MCD with a fresh sound and good ideas. Hypocrite is absolutely top class melodic Swedeath and Into The Halls of the Blind is their best album. I would argue it's "up there" with classic Eucharist, At The Gates, A Canorous Quintet and so on. Guidance of Sin features Linus from A Canorous Quintet and Soulseducer is the best of their two albums (6106 is really bad from what I recall). I still haven't heard their demo but I'm sure it's good. Reminds of Moaning Wind which is one of my favorites. Check these out, great music for the autumn!
2025.10.06
Hells Headbangers is finally stocking Ethere #1! Over a year late but glad it has finally arrived in one of the largest distros in USA. Order it here, thanks!
2025.09.24
Fact: 77,302,580 is the number of uneducated, science-unaware, knuckle-dragging, messiah-clamoring voting age adults in the United States, or about 32% of the electorate (with my experience living here I'd thought it would be more than half!). But somehow that still doesn't make me feel any better that I'm in a majority that opposes fascism.
Here is some good and more relevant news: Ethere #1 should finally (!) be in stock in Hells Headbangers in the weeks ahead. Waiting for the payments to go through.
2025.09.17
I recently stepped into a chain store and saw a single little candy bar for $2. I remember when it still cost 50 cents! This doesn't break the bank but what's going on here? It's not made in China, right? And why is China an "adversary"? Who is China threatening? Just not long ago I remember China not getting a single mention in the news. And what's with comedians getting censored via government agencies? Is this right-wing cancel culture? I remember a time when the American First Amendment was taken seriously and it was okay to speak your mind even if it was something disagreeable, as long as you weren't threatening anyone.
Let's hear what Charlie Kirk, the far-right's martyred saint, has to say about this:
"Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.
Keep America free."
2025.09.15
Ancient microbial life has apparently been found on Mars (link), some of the most important news of our lifetimes that should be at the top of what is being covered by every media outlet. Instead, the focus is on a bloviating, ignorant, perpetually lying orange-skinned moron and some recently departed ultra hardcore Christian guy on record writing that Satanists should have their first amendment rights taken away and that if his daughter was raped at age 10 he would force her to give birth to the child.
Think about this for a second.
This is the world we are living in.
2025.09.12
With all of the hysteria in the news I feel like I have to add my own perspective here and say that, Convivial Hermit and associated productions are opposed to political violence and believe in talking calmly over differences rather than harming or killing people we disagree with. Isn't that really the ultimate failure among intellectual species, when words no longer count? On the one hand it is, while on the other, it also makes sense because it is actually impossible to debate over opinions. It is possible to debate over facts, and that's where I become very frustrated, since people seem to gleefully ignore or treat facts that cause them cognitive dissonance as non-facts. "You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts" . Actually you are not entitled to even your own opinions - you either have an opinion or you don't have an opinion, there is no legal right to an opinion, and most people's opinions are actually not their own opinions - they're the opinions of others that they borrow out of sloth of thought and a general indifference to the subject in question (cf. all of religion). It is also usually very easy to spot when a person really never expended much cognitive energy into a topic by the predictability and shallowness of their answers and positions. Push a little with information out of linear focus and their whole house of cards should in principle fall down, though it never does, of course, since they will deny the introduction of dissonant ideas by all of the usual tactics: caricature, strawman. non sequitur, etc, full list of logical fallacies here.
Anyway, don't kill your foes: find ways to reduce their power instead, even and perhaps most effectively by ignoring them if possible. Certainly a lot of the narcissistic humanure lurking in the world today would melt away into the gutters if enough people collectively dismissed them into irrelevance. Just my two cents, again., leave it or take it.
2025.09.07
Convivial Hermit #9 and #10 are back in stock at Hells Headbangers, go check them out now! Also autumn seems to have finally arrived here, thank the dark gods!
2025.08.23
I'm wondering if Hendrik Möbus/Darker Than Black will still be in love with Donald Trump's tiny penis once his tariffs will destroy probably half or more of his business under the removal of the de minimis rule: https://flavorcloud.com/the-end-of-the-de-minimis-rule-and-what-it-means-for-international-ecommerce/?goal=0_5f72752a96-37a185db46-451203653&mc_cid=37a185db46&mc_eid=fd15d8de73
Note that this will apparently affect all USPS mail shortly, thus isolating Americans even more as the country descends into full blown nativist fascism. I live here, but I also cannot deny that this is exactly what Americans deserve.
2025.08.18
If I wasn't so acclimated to it, I wouldn't be able to believe how bad new music is today. It's a sea of mediocrity, of style over substance, sealed together by digital programs like Pro Tools, Logic Pro and Cubase making worthless bands' complete lack of ideas stand out in compressed, crystal clear, digitally flat relief... without any "mistakes" (who cares). Every band sounds identical to me and it seems to be a mark of honor in 2025 to have no vision or daring to do anything new. There are a few unusual new bands that try to combine different sounds and genres, hell, they have enough to choose from today, but even their output sounds shallow and ultimately has no replay value. Modern metal fucking sucks, just like this lazy, mercantile modern culture of modern art, films, shows and books almost ALL deserves to be flushed down a large toilet. I listen to 10-15 promos a day sometimes, I give everything sent to me a chance unless the genre is something out of my taste completely, so no one can tell me I don't try or don't know what's going on. Increasingly the only way to find anything authentic these days, full of actual reflection and depth, is to look outside of Western countries in Eastern Europe or fucked up Asian countries or to people aged 40 and up, as most (not all) of this generation is dead to imagination, emotion and creativity. Go fuck yourselves.
2025.08.03
Sales list updated.
2025.08.02
Just a month or so left of the worst season of the year for those that despise being around and seeing other people like me.
Here is a random thought: do those that "collect" digital files also think having digital friends or girl/boyfriends is the same as having the "real", physical thing? I still find it laughable that people pay even one cent for digital music.
Speaking of digital files, I am checking some old Czech demos and recommend Bigotry, a doom/death classic with a sound bands don't know how to make anymore. Inspired me to also check out the demo of Love History who derived their name from a song from this recording.
