Blackened 2020
Surprisingly it works!
Category: Rando
My picks for 2019
Last year was my first year in a decade that did not culminate in an Arsies tournament. That was bittersweet for me, but I still feel good about the decision. And clearly, I did not slack on my Firsties duties: 144 new albums evaluated in 2019! We’ll see how I do in the coming year. See the rest here
Re: Re: The Arsies: A Reflection
I think there are actually two amazing things here:
1) “[Y]ou somehow have managed to avoid the calcification of musical tastes that is a basic biological fact of age. How did you do that?” I agree, this is truly exceptional. In case you want to know what the near opposite of what you have been able to achieve is, here is a list of the ten albums I have most recently purchased:
- Candlemass — The Door to Doom
- Dream Theater — Distance over Time
- Overkill — The Wings of War
- Visions of Atlantis — The Deep & The Dark Live @ Symphonic Metal Night
- Avantasia — Moonglow
- Beast in Black — From Hell with Love
- Evergrey — The Atlantic
- Within Temptation — Resist
- Ancient Bards — Origine: The Black Crystal Sword Saga PT.
See the rest here
Re: Re: The Arsies: A Reflection
Thank you, my friend! I think the First Listens have had the key effect of keeping my tastes fluid and evolving. I’ll keep that going, as I said, so that I can keep my self-understanding sharp. That, and being in frequent contact with other (younger?) metalheads in my area; these folks are not shy about talking at me about <insert random band or subgenre> at me until I relent and promise to give it a listen with an open mind. See the rest here
Re: The Arsies: A Reflection
Very nice work, my friend. I’m sorry that I haven’t had the time to fully invest in your project, namely that I don’t know a substantial number of the albums you have reported on. That comes to the most impressive aspect of your project: you listen to a shit ton of albums! See the rest here
The Arsies: A Reflection
Today, I published my final installment The Arsies, wrapping up what I certainly didn’t intend to be a ten-year, 81,000-word odyssey. Now that the bittersweet end is finally here, I have some thoughts. See the rest here
Arsies X
It’s time: the bracket is here for what is sure to be the most bizarro Arsies ever!
(It’s also the last, friends. So let’s make it count!)
Re: Death By Metal
I just watched it the other day—it was pretty sweet, though some of it, especially the end, felt a little rushed.
The parts about the recording of Human and ITP were especially enjoyable. Good stuff! See the rest here
Death By Metal
I just watched the new documentary on the band Death, called “Death By Metal,” which you can find on Amazon Prime. It’s really sweet and touching, and does a great job reminiscing about the early days while still hitting all the biographical beats you’d expect. Also, great interviews with ex-members of Death, Sadus, and just about everybody you’d care about. See the rest here
Rest in peace, Vince.
Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
See the rest here
