2026.08.31
I'm wondering when exactly metal turned into an insufferable fashion show like it is now, and whether it was unavoidable once the internet became popular. Can you imagine classic bands from the past, in their prime, releasing music today? First of all, I don't think it would be even possible with the vast army of morons online trashing everything they see, or the sheep who celebrate names (not music) blindly.. Just look back at metal's best years in the 80s and 90s, and I've said this before - the animating impulse was a drive to weed out trendiness and to stand out from others. There was metal and then there were darker metal genres, maybe nascent death metal which still had a rough outline and no set definition. Rules were rules to be broken. It's in that environment that the best bands developed and evolved, and people used what was at their disposal. It was substance over style since "style" wasn't even of any high interest, no one knew what style really was except that it was something dark and opposing norms. This new underground actually celebrates the norm with insanely conservative plastic template bands! It's a parody of what metal once was... and these idiots online doing their poses to impress other fashionistas like themselves should be annihilated, but it's too late. Fortunately we have so many bands now that it's possible that by accident 1%, which is about the percentage of my promo retention, have something of value to communicate to the world - the real individuals, weirdos, misfits, in the sea of normies and conformists posing as nonconformists. We are in the "normie", conformist and trendy phase of metal and other genres like goth, industrial, ambient, and so on. The most over-saturated and most boring epoch for music.
2026.08.29
When a person dies and tributes are made to them in public, these tributes are made exclusively to impress other people who are alive and to reap benefits for the person making them. Genuine tributes, in so far as they exist, don't have to be broadcast out in public, they can be kept in small circles. When I write my tributes to people who I have interviewed, I write them with the full knowledge that few people care and in fact, I'm doing what I am doing for myself most of all, just as I create my zines with an audience of one. I was creating a magazine that I wanted to read. If someone enjoys what I have done, then it is fantastic, a wonderful side-effect, but that is not what animates me. What this means is that I am banking on my instinct. Where am I going with all of this? Ultimately everything boils down to the drive for survival and reaping personal benefit. Consequently, what I find distasteful is the pretense that a tribute is sourced for anything but personal drives. Deceased people do not watch from the heavens, their light may still be trapped in static block time visible to hypothetical aliens, but they no longer exist as conscious entities. The ones watching, if anyone is watching, are those who are still alive and watching for their own egotistic purposes.
What that said: I just added my tribute to Loren Nerell in my R.I.P. article, who died just last month. A great loss for the ambient/new age community, certainly one of my favorites in those realms.
2026.08.18
New Uralv (Dodheimsgard, The Deathtrap) is crap... I question why I ever liked Dodheimsgard years ago after hearing it. Vicotnik and Fenriz's input was likely the reason why, they are vastly more creative. That old connection makes me confuse Aldrahn with Vicotnik and his (vastly superior) band Ved Buens Ende. It's a relief that Aldrahn is not involved in the latter. Meanwhile, latest Behemoth is garbage- why is this band popular? It's literally unlistenable. Another older band that has released something new is Sigh from Japan and it's high above these two, even if I don't count myself a fan of Sigh. Miraj knows how to write unique and memorable, I will at least give him that! I also just got the latest Arthur Brown and Fen on Prophecy which are worthless, the both of them. If not for Brown's earlier hits he would not be on Prophecy. His jazz/rock music doesn't even remotely fit the roster. Who are they trying to impress? And so it goes... I've been deleting all of my death metal promos, have no interest. Death metal is dead. Black metal I am hearing far less of, which is positive. I've had enough of it and will be happy if I never hear another new Finnish black metal band. So far, maybe 5 albums I liked this year, top! Since so little good music is coming out anymore I'm going into my stash of unlistened promos... I am in 2022 right now and moving forward! Close to 600 records I haven't listened to yet. Probably a few will be good...
2026.08.08
Woke up early in the evening from intense sore throat pain and barely slept all night. Nearly everyone in my family has had a cold this summer, so now it's apparently my turn! To say that it's shitty is an understatement, but I can imagine 1000 worse ways to suffer.
I want to mention in this update the band Defeated Sanity and their latest album, "Chronicles of Lunacy" from 2024. I know I just railed about how bad death metal is now, but this band is really something else. If death metal were an Olympic contest, Defeated Sanity would be a top 5% elite athlete. I don't normally care much about technical death metal, but the way these guys incorporate technicality while at the same time keeping things highly memorable reminds me of better times for this music. In other words, this is top notch shit without question. Highly recommended!
