General Chat

The Pistons fucking lost again yesterday which has really pissed me off. It seems like the other teams have discovered that if they can get Cade Cunningham into foul trouble early then they'll have a much stronger chance of beating us which is certainly the case & I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to figure it out. Kawaii Leonard had 55 points, equaling the Clippers' record points tally. Fucking killed us!! Here's hoping the Sydney Kings can thrash the last-placed Brisbane Bullets in this afternoon's NBL match to brighten my spirits.

Welcome to The North Rexorcist! I believe the transition has been successful (I can see that your ratings are now counting as Clan Ratings for The North), but let me know if anything looks weird.

Thanks a bunch!

Weird like what?

Like a North album or cover you've rated that isn't being included in the Clan Rating section. It should be all good, but I have had to run a recalculation a couple of times in the past when site users change or add a new clan.

Well I still haven't noticed anything weird like that.  But maybe I'm just not paying enough attention.

My books sold five copies today.  I find it hard to believe that actually happened.

Just finished watching the latest trio of "Stranger Things" Season 5 episodes & couldn't be more pumped to see the final movie-length episode which will be released on New Year's Day. "Stranger Things" honestly may be the best show I've ever seen in my life.

I went to the releases tag and put together a chart for the highest-rated Swedish albums with a 5 vote minimum.

https://metal.academy/releases?releasesFilters=1&releaseCountry%5B%5D=211&releaseSort=releases.overall_rating&releaseSortType=DESC&releasesCountRating=5&fromYear=&toYear=

Candlemass is the clear winner.  Everything else is a bit scattered.  I'm surprised Blackwater Park is so low, though.

I just finished 1985's first book in this highly praised sci-fi series & really fucking enjoyed it. In fact, I've actually taken away some learnings that I'll draw upon as a leader at work which was a lovely surprise. Great stuff & I'm really looking forward to tackling the next novel in the series.

And how about the worst albums of this year? For my list, I've limited to the releases that I've given 2.5 or 3 stars, and that's given me enough for at least a top 5:

1. Brainstorm - Plague of Rats

2. Sabaton - Legends

3. A Day to Remember - Big Ole Album Vol. 1

4. Blessthefall - Gallows

5. Tremonti - The End Will Show Us How

My own Spotify playlist based on my list, from 10 to 1: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uZGrg1oM7C6xf3Zkhis40

I like the logic here around the “articulator” billing and also your rationale for your liking of that album cover.

Thanks.

I guess I thought of it since I myself am a writer, which means I have no right not to recognize articulation as a skill.  And since I try to design my own novel covers and avatars, I can't help but understand why the non-AI artists are a bit peeved at these other people being called artists.  I mean, I admit that it's totally possible to make amazing art from it (I made one good picture and it was still unfinished), but I'd rather not deal with the legal stuff attached to it.

Oh these cover art coincidences just never end! The cover arts for that The Devil Wears Prada demo and that The Arbitrary Method EP both have a close-up of a woman's face behind an abstract pattern. Though the latter is definitely more futuristic, just like the EP itself.

Here's the current tracklisting for the new Metal Academy Radio playlist I've been playing with (tentatively titled "Metal Party Mix Tape") that gives the listener a surprising blend of high-quality material that spans all of our clans. If you're looking for a break from your usual clans so that you can discover something a little outside of your usual comfort zone then this might be a good place to start. Let me know how you think it works.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2JhEdPqjMqaMjnqIYKSwlq?si=627045d3308e4a6a 

Tracklisting:

01. Antichrist Siege Machine - "Piled Swine" (from "Vengeance of Eternal Fire", 2024)

02. Deftones - "My Mind Is A Mountain" (from "Private Music", 2025)

03. Leviathan - "The Idiot Sun" (from "The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide", 2003)

04. Sarcofago - "The Black Noise" (from "Warfare Noise" compilation, 1986)

05. Fleshwater - "Baldpate Driver" (from "We're Not Here To Be Loved", 2022)

06. Iniquity - "Tranquil Seizure" (from "Serenadium", 1996)

07. Hermetica - "Otro dia para ser" (from "Victimas del Vaciamiento", 1994)

08. In Flames - "Morphing Into Primal" (from "Whoracle", 1997)

09. Deteriorot - "The Afterlife" (from "Manifested Apparitions of Unholy Spirits" E.P., 1993)

10. Rammstein - "Ohne Dich" (from "Reise, Reise", 2004)

11. Afterbirth - "Black Hole Kaleidoscope" (from "Four Dimensional Flesh", 2020)

12. Sleep - "The Botanist" (from "The Sciences", 2018)

13. Dark Throne - "Grave With A View" (from "Soulside Journey", 1991)

14. Solitude Aeturnus - "Shattered My Spirit" (from "Through the Darkest Hour", 1994)

15. Metallica - "If Darkness Had A Son" (from "72 Seasons", 2023)

16. Rotting - "Soulburn" (from "Crushed", 1998)

17. Sadistic Intent - "Dark Predictions" (from "Resurrection" E.P., 1994)

18. Bring Me The Horizon - "Dear Diary," (from "Post Human: Survival Horror" E.P., 2020)

19. Children of Bodom - "Hatebreeder" (from "Hatebreeder", 1999)

20. Mastodon - "Diamond in the Witch House" (from "Once More 'Round The Sun", 2014)

21. Acrimony - "Firedance" (from "Tumuli Schroomaroom", 1997)

22. Suffocation - "Blood Oath" (from "Blood Oath", 2009)

23. Avenged Sevenfold - "Bat Country" (from "City of Evil", 2005)

Update for January:

THE FALLEN: SONNY, Vinny

THE GATEWAY: ANDI, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: ANDI, Sonny, Karl

THE HORDE: KARL, Vinny, Sonny

THE INFINITE: SAXY, Andi

THE NORTH: SONNY, Karl, Vinny

THE PIT: VINNY, Sonny

THE REVOLUTION: ANDI

THE SPHERE: ANDI

I don't think metalheads have gone anywhere.

Metal has always been music for outsiders and delinquents (not in a bad way obviously). Aren't a lot of the early metal albums heavily influential in the punk scene dominated by The Sex Pistols and Misfits during the mid/late 70s? It isn't that metal isn't popular, it just requires some deep exploration to find, unlike the milquetoast soft rock and pop music that gets tons of airplay. Where I live, we have at least four top 40 radio stations, which seems absurdly high.

And yeah they'll be crossover into the mainstream on occasion; using RIAA certification (which itself is a rather old technique) Back in Black has reported 50 million units sold since 1980. Both Metallica's self titled album and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory are diamond certified in the US. Clearly, people are listening to metal when its marketed well.

Could it be that metal fans don't only listen to metal anymore? With a lot of metal music itself playing around with outside genres, and a few popular genres being more accessible in general, perhaps the average metal fan isn't as "metal or nothing" as they used to be?

Parroting off what Ben said, this idea that metal music has to be just Mayhem, Cannibal Corpse and Slayer is an old and tired. Old time jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis are notorious for having declared everything released beyond 1965 as "not real jazz" because it incorporates fusion. At the end of the day, that fusion stuff is used by many to lure an audience in and then they can transition to more of the genre's roots. I like Bad Omens, but they are an outlier in my typical listening consisting of Opeth, Mastodon, Katatonia, and The Mars Volta. And even then, I feel the old man creeping out when I say that because all of those bands have been around since the 1990s and sound nothing like modern metal. This genre has evolved over time and Rick Beato is old enough to realize this. The fact that he doesn't proves his ignorance on the social aspect of a trend.

I'm sure in a decades time, there will be a new band like Sleep Token or Poppy that old timers will not stand, while young, impressionable teens will ooh and ahh over the hybrid of downtuned guitars, demon shrieks and glitchy electronic percussion. And it'll be up to us to either welcome them into the metal community or gatekeep them out.

So, I've decided to start a new monthly playlist that provides people with a surprise mix of metal material that doesn't focus on any particular clan. It's essentially just a selection of the best material from all of the releases I've listened to enough to rate in recent weeks & I've called it "Metal Academy Radio's Metal Party Mix Tape" for the time being. I think my listening habits are broad enough to give it the desired amount of variety & have intentionally left the programming really random so that you never know what's coming next but also because I have no time to spend on programming these days. It'll be continually evolving as I listen to my next release with the longer-term inclusions giving way to the more recent experiences. I've been really enjoying this playlist over the last couple of weeks. See what you think.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2JhEdPqjMqaMjnqIYKSwlq?si=abbc65cf26dc4c67

I originally posted this in the "Release Lists" thread, but ultimately I decided to move it to its own. And that idea is...the best albums of (almost) every metal genre, inspired by this Metal Trenches video:

Here's mine:

Thrash metal: Annihilator - Alice in Hell (1989)

Groove metal: Orbit Culture - Death Above Life (2025)

Death metal: Dark Sermon - The Oracle (2015)

Melodic death metal: The Halo Effect - Days of the Lost (2022)

Blackened death metal: Shade Empire - Omega Arcane (2013)

Black metal: Samael - Blood Ritual (1992)

Nu metal: Cane Hill - Smile (2016)

Doom metal: October Tide - Rain Without End (1997)

Power metal: DragonForce - Inhuman Rampage (2006)

Heavy metal: Enforcer - Zenith (2019)

Symphonic metal: Avantasia - Ghostlights (2016)

Progressive metal: Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)

Metalcore: Trivium - In Waves (2011)

Mathcore: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (1999)

Deathcore: Lorna Shore - I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me (2025)

Post-metal: Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory (2022)

Sludge metal: Will Haven - WHVN (1999)

Industrial metal: Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1989)

Grindcore: N/A

Folk metal: N/A (for now)

So what are some of your best albums of every metal genre? Discuss!

Just put in a pre-order for the "Watching From A Distance" 4x LP boxset 20th Anniversary edition. It's a bit pricey, but some things are worth it!

This one hits hard for me.  RIP John Lodge, pivotal member of Moody Blues.

I recently got back in the BC thang after a hiatus.  Daniel has covered most of what I was going to say, however I like it stillas a platform for all music and have made some good idscoveries over the years by browsing other users collections.  My collection can be located below.

https://bandcamp.com/stiffncold

Quoted Vinny

Yeah, I have had a bit of a hiatus from BC for a while too and have only just got back into using it. It isn't just the "ethical" side of it, I do actually like it as a music platform. The only real bugbear is that browsing your collection if it is of any size, particularly on a tablet, can be awfully time consuming. Of course there is always the search function, but sometimes I like to just spool through and pick something out on a whim.

This weekend I have bought:

Raphael Weinroth-Browne - "Lifeblood" CD

Abduction - "Existentialismus" vinyl LP

Arkhaaik - "Uihtis" CD (postage from Germany made the vinyl LP £45, so I ended up going for the cheaper alternative because I ain't made of money).

In saying that, I don't believe that metal is less conducive to absolute garbage than other genres. In fact, the bottom end of my ratings database if littered with metal filth, most of it being far worse than Justin Bieber. 

Me as well.   I've got quite a few metal albums ranked at 0/100, including Attila's Fallacy and the two Thrash Queen albums.  Metal's some incredible stuff, but sometimes somebody puts out something that only manages to be an embarrassment to it's genre.  Hell, that's the only reason to check out Psycho Synner or Keydragon.

Good photo, Sonny! That can also double as a potential Spotify blackgaze playlist image.

The automated bots don't succeed in actually creating an account here as it would have to select clans during the process. We've only ever had a small amount of successful fake users created and I'm convinced it's done manually (as in a person actually bothered the manually create the account for the purpose). Anyway, I've deleted the user and review. It just takes a bit to disappear off the front page.

Thanks Ben. Once more your dedication is admirable.

Hmm, I didn't notice that, I'll have to see if I think that when the next one comes around. Cornell sounds more like Robert Plant to me, albeit with a grunge tint, whereas Tice didn't really remind me much of anyone.

A couple more of my favorite metal YouTubers I've been watching lately include Steve Terreberry (definitely in the "funny" category) and Jared Dines. For the latter, Jared hosted a contest for vocalists to write their own chorus to perform for a song he wrote for his project with Howard Jones (ex-Killswitch Engage, Light the Torch), Sion. The winner would have their chorus added to the final product. NO, I didn't participate. I may be good at clean/harsh vocals, but I'm so not ready for the spotlight. Still I had a blast listening to around 150 vocalists sing and scream their hearts out. However, that's not all of them. It's only around 5% of the total, because Jared had actually received 3000 ENTRIES!!! Wow! This proves that there are still so many vocalists with confident passion this year besides the professionals out there. And it might just be the biggest metal vocalist contest in YouTube history! Anyway, the contest is over, and while the winner has gotten what he earned, we can still appreciate what other people have submitted, 100 of whom can be found in this video (quite a long one, so you don't have to watch it all if it's too much):

Here's a list of all the singers I enjoy from that video (consider this a list of who I would recommend listening to if you can't sit through the whole thing):

1:23 JOHHNY CIARDULLO (known for his Lorna Shore clean-sung covers, I enjoy his melody towards the end)

3:18 SPENCER (DAMAGEJOY) (quite some killer vocals here)

5:07 SAM POWER

6:22 ZSANI

7:36 MARIJE

8:51 HEAVY HOLDEN

9:31 YULIYA

11:32 DRYSTAN BARNETT (some of the most natural vocals here)

12:45 LAUREN

15:20 BENNY MARSON KHONGWIR (from delicate air to deathly fire)

17:32 SPRING HOLLOW

18:10 KURT WONDRELY

18:47 KOTTI (despite not winning, he had some potential)

19:23 LINUS

23:50 DANNY CHAVIS

27:03 NICOLAS GONZALEZ

30:05 JEREMY GRAHAM (such an impressive vocal range)

33:43 DAN ROHDE (Bring Your Pet Dog to a Vocal Contest Day)

39:27 MATTEO MAGAZZINI

42:26 PATRICK RUSSEL (that metal synthwave guy)

43:03 CHRIS HUFF

50:03 ASTRID CAROLINA (beautiful voice and beautiful hair, my personal favorite in the female category)

50:46 BOGDAN HASAS

51:24 BRANDON RENEGADE (probably the closest sounding to Howard Jones here)

52:00 BRYCE GARLAND

52:37 CAM HESSELBROCK

53:16 CAM WALCH

54:37 BEING HUMAN

56:41 CURTIS BLAND

57:28 DOOMICK THE PANCAKE

58:03 THE STEPMOMS (interesting band name)

58:40 EMIL SKOLD

59:20 EMIR BEKBOLOTOV (my personal favorite in the heavy category)

59:59 FELIPE QUEIROZ

1:04:50 JORDAN HOUGHTON (the most pop-ish one here)

1:06:40 KASEY KARLSEN

1:08:04 LINUS (SAWCON) (the German lyrics really pack a punch)

1:08:41 LOGAN GAMESON

1:16:31 NIGHTFARER (reminds me a bit of Issues)

1:17:49 PETER MITCHELL

1:22:45 LEO KRACK (amazing blackened-ish screaming, but hard to hear the song)

1:26:55 YELLOWSTAR

1:28:58 ZOKZO (my personal favorite in the melodic category)

1:29:39 DARIO SAVINO

1:30:55 SOHEIL AVAKH (my personal favorite in the category that blends heavy and melodic)

1:31:30 ADAM R

1:40:42 JOEL DICKSON (excellent, but why did he only do the first half?)

1:43:48 CHRISTIAN O'NEAL (impressive highs, close to post-hardcore category)

As much as all those vocalists deserve their time to shine, of course, there could only be one winner. I won't spoil who won, but I'll say he's easily one of my top 10 in the list. If you'd like to know the winner, see this video at 15:40, 21:20, and 23:40:

Good list, Rex! I enjoy the opening tracks for those Neurosis and Killing Joke albums as well.

It's just a bit disappointing when there literally doesn't appear to be anything beyond a blurry 150 x 150 image that's cropped badly anywhere on the internet, which happens from time to time.

Sounds awesome. I can't wait to get this release into my Walkman so I can reach a level of superiority that sits above literally everyone while fantasizing about moving out of mum & dad's place & finally losing my virginity.

My death metal band Neuropath was originally called Coprophagia which is the condition you have if you eat feces.

It would appear that I’ve rated every one of the releases with over twenty ratings which is perhaps more of an indication that I really should get a life more than anything else.

Do any of us really have lives?

Not being Lynchian here, we're music nerds.

Looks like I'll be active in the Sports Countdown on MoFo as well.  Right now I'm on Pride of the Yankees.  So far, the only flaws I can see are that the direction isn't "amazing" but works well enough, and that Cooper's a bit too old for the younger Lou Gherig.  I'm really liking the character drama.  Everyone bounces off each other beautifully.

This is based on the number of their albums in my top 100.

1. Guardians (29) - This was the metal spirit that introduced me to the genre as well as the world.  Songs like Dazed and Confused would influence many later songs that lured me in, oftentimes by bands such as Scorpions or Metallica or Dio.  And then you add the symphonic stuff, much akin to the artist that my father introduced to me at 15: Meat Loaf, changing my world, and suddenly you've got the perfect clan for me.

2. The Fallen (23) - I feel like the Fallen has a bit of an unfair advantage with so many subgenres under its belt, but taking influence from the Sabbath side of things can in fact go a long way.  There's metal that sends lightning through your veins, and then there's the stuff that crushes your soul.  I can't deny that Neurosis had a big say on expanding my metallic horizons.

3. Infinite (19) - While most post-metal hasn't had much of a say in my metal affairs, the progressive and avant-garde stuff is the kind of thing that really gets my brain pumping.  Starting with Dream Theater, I eventually moved to Tool, Symphony X and similar bands, and I especially love how it can move into practically any genre with ease, from power to death.

4. Horde (15) - As with many, my first venture into death metal came through Symbolic, and it wasn't long after until the heaviest shit imaginable was not but pussy to me.  Although there aren't very many death songs or albums I could call favorites, they keep managing to find my way to my top 100 albums

5. North (14) - Sometimes you need to just sit down and embrace the darkness, or the sadness, whichever you prefer.  Folk metal and viking metal are quite fun on their own, but the black metal easily outshines it on my charts.  Nevertheless, Moonsorrow, which encompasses all three, is one of the finest examples of each of the three as well.  It just sends you back in time the way LOTR does.

6. Pit (9) - Thrash was a pretty slow venture.  Believe it or not, when I first heard Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning, I didn't really get into them beyond a couple songs.  But further ventures into heavy, power and death helped me to overcome that.  Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning have both spent time as my number 1 metal album of all time, although speed metal struggles to keep up with thrash's output IMO.

7. Gateway (5) - There is very little alternative metal that I'm in love with.  The only example I can think of right now is Dirt by Alice in Chains because I went on many grunge binges in my early days online.  Otherwise, quality alt-metal is something I appreciate critically rather than being engrossed in personally.

8. Revolution (5) - I love almost all kinds of punk.  I went through various binges in a variety of punk genres, but metalcore isn't one of those that I've been able really grip beyond a few key bands.  Especially when the subgenres like deathcore kick in, metalcore's more of a guilty pleasure rather than a serious venture.  Still, I found that alt-metal can be much more imaginative in the whole, hence albums like Lateralus and White Pony.

9. Sphere (1) - Although I consider Killing Joke's Extremities an industrial metal album as well, there is extremely little industrial metal in my chart because much of it gets more monotonous than it needs to be, even the much better ones.

Alright so I even tried this:

1. Delete the whole review.
2. Past as Plain Text to Notepad
3. Put nonsense text in the review
4. Submit the nonsense.
5. Reopen the review, and resubmmit the original review as plain text.

Still in tiny ville. Not sure what's up. Gonna see if I can figure it out after work this afternoon. 

Check out for consultation my (AMM) All Metal Music! On Quora: A playlist designed to serve as a database of accessible audio of all metal genres. Very authentic and uncompromising! 

https://allmetalmusic.quora.com/

That's good to hear, Daniel. Hope things will continue working out well and you can stay healthy.

Here they are:

Two Guardians albums from when I was in the power/symphonic metal zone as a young teen nearly a decade ago. The Stratovarius album is a twilight zone kind of release in which it marks the entrance of their longest-standing current member Timo Kotipelto while also being the last album with drummer Tuomo Lassila, their remaining member from when the band formed in 1984 under the name Black Water. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra album is a classical-music-goes-metal concept album, and I'm sure the title gives away what the story is about.

“Information is not knowledge.

Knowledge is not wisdom.

Wisdom is not truth.

Truth is not beauty.

Beauty is not love.

Love is not music.

Music is THE BEST.”

― Frank Zappa

This is one of those cases where an idealist has to have every little thing be perfect without realizing that "evil" itself is based in justifying a low opinion of a whole group by pointing out something they often do that may be perceived as "wrong."  There is no such thing as "perfectly evil" or "perfectly good," thus there's no merit to attacking a persona's musical abilities along with their beliefs in many cases.  He's doing the same thing that Burzum's doing, stereotyping.  Evil keeps placing blame and then justifying cruelty.  And zealousness is a form of cruelty, as it's built on drastically low opinions of people.  The way he's thinking, it's like saying "You can't say Hitler was good at strategy!  He's evil!"  But if he wasn't good at strategy, then he wouldn't have been a major dictator.  Basically, the lie that a person needs to either be good at everything or bad at everything is a disappointment, and I honestly believe people who think like that shouldn't even be allowed to vote...

I would say all of this to this person and then reply with, "and how do I know you don't support something evil?  Did it ever occur to you that someone you support could be doing something evil and hiding it?  Don't tell me you can confirm that none of your favorite artists do that."  Then I would block him.  People like that tend to focus on the last thing said, which will either make this person more mad or plant a seed in the head that might grow larger or both.

We definitely don't need to worry about that now. Seems like RYM is aware of the scene/genre situation and will fix the issue in a later update. Here's what they had to say:

"For the moment Scene and Movement voting is still mixed in with genre voting on this page, even though they are now displayed separately. The voting UI for this will be improved at some point in the future.

"For Scenes and Movements the primary/secondary vote distinction is irrelevant, it is recommended to just vote them up in the Primary section but in the future the voting data for these will likely be combined. Again this is something that will be improved in future site updates."

Fuck Yes! Cheers!

This is extraordinarily difficult for me to find.  The only band of this example with more four albums that I can think of is Boston, and they aren't even metal.  Yes, each one did get gradually worse, and they only have six.

It's not a perfect process, but then there really isn't one. It's the one that I enjoy using and feel happiest with the results.

That's the only thing that matters.

I think the Ulcerate, Oranssi Pazuzu & Knocked Loose records were kinda no-brainers. I'm skeptical about the Critical Defiance one's claims but at the end of the day it comes down to how much the entire site has enjoyed a release which is always going to favour the more well-known artists.

I know I said I didn't know if any of the novels I read capture the metal spirit, but they do now! I was reading this graphic novel adaptation of Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith:

While listening to all the industrial/cyber metal tracks I've shared in this page of the Sphere Track of the Day thread: https://metal.academy/forum/15/thread/193?page=9

Star Wars can really capture my cyber metal spirit. I guess the most suitable metal genre for Star Wars would be Mechina-style epic symphonic progressive cyber metal.

Idea I've had for a minute. Spotify has a jam feature that lets you start playing music then other people can come in and add theirs. I see potentional in it for this site. It might be sloppy at first, but only way to refine it is to do it. 

So...

If you got nothing better to do hop in here, and put your tracks in: 
Spotify Jam 01.21.25 12:50 EST

I'm gonna try to have this up for the day, so jump in even if it's been a long time since it started.

In no particular order:

Motorhead - Overkill

Slayer - Raining Blood

Darkthrone - In the Shadow of the Horns

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Diamond Head - Am I Evil?

Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera

Autopsy - In the Grip of Winter

Jurassic metal.  Sounds like a doom sludge hybrid with apocalyptic classical undertones and deep reptilian growls.  I like the idea.

This year I'm going to try not to sleep on new releases and aim to do 52 new releases this year. It's a drop in the bucket of course, but at least it's a drop compared to the very little I've had the past few years.

I really don't need to worry about the things most people do resolutions for since, well, I already do most of them. One could always do better on them, but something like getting fitter or learning a new language don't really have concrete endgoals. I guess get better at guitar, but that's something I've been slowly working on for a few months. I guess sticking to these things requires you not just do them because it's a new year...

I think the only major change is how much power metal played into writing my debut.  My second book had nothing to do with power metal, but as I was proofreading the final stages, I played Type O Negative's Paranoid a lot.

I think in little ways, the clan system got me interested in exploring other areas for conversational purposes, which is likely why I like TON so much now, as well as Septicflesh.

Just watched these videos and, sadly, I'm not really that surprised. So many people on social media wish to project an image of themselves that is duplicitous, why wouldn't it infect the extreme metal world too? Like the guys on the videos say, it's not that the drummers in question are poor musicians in the first place - I wish I was one tenth as talented - but society demands perfection whether in looks or ability, so dishonesty has become the norm. 95% is no longer good enough, 101% is the minimum requirement now that everyone is under the microscope. 

What is really sad is that knowing they are being duplicitous must have a detrimental effect on their esteem and mental well-being.

So I'm on the power metal Reddit, browsing through my various subreddits for something to do.  There's a discussion on Gloryhammer called, "Am I the only one who thinks Gloryhammer doesn’t actually embrace the 'cheese?'"  Part of the conversation pertains to Gloryhammer's later album.  My response to one guy criticizing the overall post, saying that it looks like the OP's trying to say that the older albums are better.  I reply to him saying:

"I do agree that the new album doesn't hold a candle to the first three (of course I've heard asstons of power metal so by this point it should come across as fairly unoriginal), but they know what they want to be. Bowes has always been a joker. Ever hear his original experimental stuff? Yikes. On top of that, they originally stole the logo font for the Dark Crystal for their own logo, and jagged it up (probably to avoid a lawsuit IMO). They know what they are, and they know who they want to be."

Apparently, the guy I replied to was Christopher Bowes.  And instead of letting this embarrass me, I'm gonna own this bit like a good bar story, because that's actually a hilarious and very cool thing that happened in my boring-ass life.

Got to see Blood Incantation recently, fantastic show with incredible sound compared to what I'm used to out of this venue. Either the band is very picky with their live setup, or they have a stellar sound guy who goes to bat against the venue sound guys. They legit walked onto the stage, played "The Stargate" in its entirety, got up on the mic and said "Alright here's the rest of the album", played "The Message" in its entirety, and said "Well guys that was our new album I hope you enjoyed it". Absolute legends. 

I never realized how much the crowd needs those 30 second or a minute breaks in between songs though, this was the most tired pit I've ever been around. People were STRUGGLING, given they played three 20 minute songs in total I think? 

This was easily one of the best, if not the best, technical Metal performances I've seen, the entire album was stellar and the Metal parts hit so much harder live than on the album that it made the conflicting 70's prog vs the tech death metal that much more enjoyable. It's definitely reinforced Absolute Elsewhere as a massive album for me personally, these guys know what they're doing.

I have every single issue of Heavy Metal magazine and 2000 A.D. (digitally). I've dipped in and out (particularly Judge Dredd), but maybe when I retire I will actually get around to reading through them.