“Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is growing continuously.” —Nietzsche All the black metal edgelords who love this kind of shit need a zen teacher to hit them with the stick or grab their nose hard and shout a question at them.

I don’t know why, but the circus tent ring master yelling/shouting style of vocals (think, Jade’s album) are really grating on me.

Damn, Germany is having a pretty great year in metal stuff: Ancst and Der Weg einer Freiheit will be on my aoty list, probably Thormesis, too, still thinking about Heretoir. That Phosphorus debut is great. I’m sure I’m missing others.

Didn’t enjoy the singles and didn’t really like my first listen, but I’ve since spun this a whole bunch and am absolutely loving the new Thormesis.

It is a bit funny to remember being taught about the Weimar Republic, and the smug lesson of its collapse was always that they—unlike us—had a terrible constitution and a horribly weak opposition party.

Greetings from the table of life and death.

The cover was definitely part of why I kept this on my list until the mood was right—and I’m glad I did! Really enjoying it this morning. Balmog, Laio: from Spain, May 2025.

“But I just tried my best to stay patient; things always fall apart in samsara and we have to do our best and practice the Dharma.” —Tibetan monk, recounting experience as a political prisoner

Starting the morning with Hexvessel. Been enjoying stuff that leans on the occult side.

Here, you should listen to the preview track from the upcoming Lamp of Murmur.

Reading this book called Spacious Minds on how Tibetan refugees refuse the Western medicalized account of trauma and healing—in particular, retelling a narrative—and use other strategies to navigate their experiences of suffering: letting go, connecting to karma, minimizing, thinking of others.

This is from last week, but some antifascist oi! from Costa Rica is exactly what I needed to finish out this week. golpedeestadocr.bandcamp.com/album/aqu-es...

This (proper, haha!) EP from Henret is killer stuff on that metalcore side. Definitely worth a listen.

Two songs around 5 min each does not feel like an EP. At least throw a “bonus” track (live, demo, etc) or something on there, too.

Really enjoyed that More Principium Est—and I didn’t think I would, as my musical tastes are leaning in other directions.

Damn you, fall 2025, and all your interesting new releases. Here’s what I got so far, and haven’t even looked at bandcamp genres. What are y’all most excited about?

Listening to music (Sunniva) and chatting with y’all was a nice night. Lots of terrible people doing terrible things, but also, you all are some lovely humans and that we can talk about all kinds of shit on here and share little bits of life is a gift.

Okay—tarrifs make more sense if you think of them as economic sanctions against the US populace. The US is applying its imperialist playbook to itself: destabilize a regime (sanctions as tool!), support military re-stabilization by friendky side, install puppet dictator, secure economic rights.

I did it. I managed to look through some new release lists for tomorrow. I didn’t think I’d have time or energy. And, damn, more stuff, more stuff.

List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep [I wouldn’t, so imagine I am being coerced and they excluded my areas of academic research] 1) styles and approaches to meditation 2) music that I like and why 3) strategies to be a bit less of an asshole

A song of theirs came on while just listening on radio/discovery mode, and it grabbed my attention so gonna give the whole thing a go. Trivax, The Great Satan, from 2025, in the UK, from Iran.

Today has been Panzerfaust (those four albums…just amazing stuff). Now onto Faidra’s shorter release from January.

Can’t handle samples of babies crying in music. Nope. Sorry.

I absolutely love the trees here.

In this house, we believe: Po-ta-toes! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish.

I'm not halfway there yet. can someone please help? i should be able to pay you back within a month or two

Nothing was hitting so it’s a back to Panzerfaust’s Suns of Perdition day.

Pretty awful that we should expect more politically-confusing assassinations and violence bc that’s become the best way to cause chaos and gain notoriety now that school shootings are just a routinized part of life here.

Pretty sure we’re at the stage of Christian Nationalism where pastors and politicians could start talking about the United States of America as the fourth person in the holy trinity and folks would nod and applaud like it was a pious and lovely thing to say.

People who don’t use their right of way (eg first at the stop sign) but wait for others bc they want to be polite or safe.

I don’t think I’ve ever here shared how my house was surrounded by cops one night. It came from some *great* detective work. We ordered pizza one night. Delivery took a while and still wasn’t there. Called. They said it was out for delivery. Called again a half hour later.

Me and my multiple neurodivergent / autistic kiddos are not an epidemic or plague or or crisis or whatever else, ya stupid fucking weirdos.

This Heretoir album is still bothering me: it’s one of my favorite sounds all year and yet I’m still not sure about the album as a whole. Maybe it’s that it feels a bit meandering overall, within and between songs. Everything flows nicely but ends up blurring a bit. Not sure.

In case some folks seem off today: The rapture actually happened but Satan with all his cunning replaced each raptured person with a fascimile that way nobody left behind can really know.

Loved the new Der Weg einer Freiheit so much gonna go listen to some old stuff of theirs yet again (Stellar). Just a phenomenal band.

Shouty melodic hardcore and screamo, a delicious blend for sure. Hundreds of AU, from August.

Speaking of things that are correlated: did you know UFO sightings in Utah are correlated with patents granted in the US? Not saying aliens have something to do with it but the data shows this connection.

The energy I’m bringing to my day. We got this!

Hey—there are lots of us these weirdos in power don’t like. Like, so many. And that’s good to remember. And to remember that we’re lovely. I’m not saying everything will be fine. But I am insisting we remember and enjoy and celebrate our loveliness. They want everything but can never have that.

Listen, laugh all you want at that press conference but they have a point: you can’t spell ‘acetaminophen’ without ‘antifa’.

See—Tylenol straight up defeated that post. Gone. Obliterated. Just like it does with neurotypicality.

Hey—there are lots of us these weirdos in power don’t like. Like, so many. And that’s good to remember. And to remember that we’re lovely. I’m not saying everything will be fine. But I am insisting we remember and enjoy and celebrate our loveliness. They want everything but can never have that.

Yeah, but I’ve got a pocket full of Tylenol so nothing can stop me.

As someone who’s been raptured before, let me tell you: It’s more strenuous than you’d think. Make sure you wear loose, comfortable clothing.

Enjoying this again (from Feb 2025), but had to switch over from earbuds to nice headphones bc otherwise the production feels almost unlistenable.

Enjoying revisiting albums I liked from earlier this year. Up now, pagan folk metalcore. It’s good. And their debut. Forlorn, Aether—from the UK, released in March.

Genuinely think this is the best way to frame the problem of “sketch” in black metal—a lingering attachment to the self/culture that negates—and that its originating nihilistic impulse can be fuller in a mystical terrain (absolute negation, emptiness).

Woke up craving a listen of The Drowning’s Radiant Dark, one of my faves. I always try to follow those impulses, as it’s so often exactly what I need.

Gonna read some Japanese philosophy and listen to Opia for a bit tonight.

This still doesn't feel real.