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Tonight the Empire State Building will be lit signature white.
#NYC -
Empire State Building is lit up in red, black, and green tonight to commemorate Martin Luther King Day.
Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone!
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‘March to May the 4th’ lights up New York City as Empire State Building feels the Force
#EmpireStateBuilding #ImperialMarch
The Imperial March trooped its way to the Empire State Building to begin the March to May the 4th..
https://www.fanthatracks.com/news/film-music-tv/march-to-may-the-4th-lights-up-new-york-city-as-empire-state-building-feels-the-force/?feed_id=20551 -
New York City Travel, Food, and Highlights – 2025
A couple of weeks ago, Selene and I took a family trip to New York. We did some cool stuff — some of it, rather touristy perhaps, but cool stuff nonetheless. I was going to show you a few highlights in a Monday update post, but then I ended up with about 280 pictures to go through.
Anyway, it was too much to be part of anything else. So here you go: here are pictures of cool things we did or delicious food that we ate.
Day 1
Arrival and Train Rides
We flew into JFK airport reasonably early in the day, then took the Long Island Rail Road into the city.
As we waited for our train to get to the station, I have a brief meeting with some locals.
Personally, I enjoy train rides. I find them relaxing.
We got off at Grand Central, which is always fun to explore. Here’s the ceiling.
From Grand Central, our intention was to walk to our hotel, but we got tired of lugging our suitcases around. So we cabbed it!
The Nintendo Store
After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we started a slow migration toward the Empire State building… but we weren’t due there until after sunset. Time for plenty of stops along the way… the first of which… was the Nintendo Store.
Super touristy. Very crowded. Do not recommend. Not really sure what all the fuss is about, but hey, I got to see Mario, Luigi, and Link.
There was also a Pikachu, but there were far too many people around to take a picture.
Next, more walking! By this point, we all realized that we hadn’t really eaten much all day, so we stopped and got a hot dog.
Selene maintains that this hot dog was delicious. I, however, believe that we were all just very hungry.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
This is like the second or third time we’ve tried to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I don’t remember what happened before to cause the mission to fail, but we always found the doors locked.
We were very happy to find them unlocked and open this time.
There was actually a wedding service going on. I thought it was interesting that you could just walk in while people were getting married. There was some very beautiful music playing and the pipe organ was epic — you could really feel it in the core of your being.
It’s got crazy ceilings.
New York Public Library
It was getting later in the day, but it still wasn’t dark enough for the nighttime view of the city we were hoping to get at Empire, so there was time for one more stop: The New York Public Library.
The ceiling of the upper floor is painted beautifully. Yes, lots of crazy ceilings in NY.
Okay, call me uninformed if you wish, as I hadn’t been to any sort of physical library in a long time, but I really expected to see books somewhere inside.
“Where can we see some books?” I asked one of the attendants. I really just wanted to experience the smell of old books. You know? Libraries have a smell.
He educated that all of the books are kept underground in Bryant Park — and you have to make a request to have them brought up to you. Go figure.
And with that minor disappointment, it was finally dark enough outside.
The Empire State Building
Is it possible to do anything in New York City that is more touristy than the Empire State building? I don’t think so.
And you obviously have to pose inside of King Kong’s hand.
Here’s a couple of pictures of the view from the observation floor that is fully enclosed by windows.
And here’s a couple of pics from the top where everything is out in the open air.
Aren’t we cute?
Tacombi
By the time we descended back to ground level, we realized we were all very hungry again. On the same block, there’s a little taco place called Tacombi, so we popped in. It was delicious.
I actually got a burrito, but it was still delicious. And the churros are from a Christmas market that was going on in Bryant Park.
Day 2
The second day of our trip started with more walking.
This is a building shaped like a trunk.
Liberty Bagels
Is it legal to visit New York without getting a bagel? I don’t think it should be.
We waited in a giant line at Liberty Bagels. That place is ridiculously packed — and rightfully so, their bagels are delicious and they have an insane selection of cream cheeses.
I got their famous Rainbow Bagel, topped with half blueberry and half strawberry cream cheese. It was really good.
Central Park
This is probably one of my favorite places in New York. I’d like to go on a warm, Spring day to have a picnic.
And then all of a sudden, a thick fog rolled in and covered the tops of buildings.
And it started to rain. We took shelter in a nearby tunnel as we listened to a street performer play some classical guitar songs.
Then, off to the museum!
The MET Museum
The MET is one of those places where you could literally walk around all day and not be done.
I mean, I frequently search their archives for pictures of ancient stuff to use for the articles that I write, so seeing it in person is always awesome.
Like artwork on amphorae…
Or statues of dudes and carvings of stuff…
And look, it’s Pan! IO Pan!
And I can always get lost in the Ancient Egyptian wing…
They were currently doing an exhibition called “Divine Egypt.”
Yeah, of the nearly 300 photos I took, most of them are from the MET. I could have probably done an entire post just with those pictures.
And we finally got a chance to walk through the instruments section of the museum.
Alright, back to the hotel. It was raining really hard and we all needed a little rest.
Pasta Eater
We wanted to eat pasta, so we went to a place called Pasta Eater. Out of all the many places to eat pasta, however, this one was chosen specifically because they make one of the dishes in a wheel of parmesan cheese.
I’ve never had a bad experience with pasta made inside of a cheese wheel. Have you?
Macy’s
We stopped in at Macy’s flagship store, mostly because I needed a bathroom, but also in hopes that we could recreate some sort of Elf extravaganza by looking at Christmas tree displays through department store windows. There weren’t any decorated windows with trees, unfortunately.
They did have some sort of Christmas village going on in the lower floor, but we arrived 5 minutes after it was shut down and the security guard was very quick to let me know it was closed and that we should all gtfo.
I don’t really understand how a retail store has so many things that it can occupy such a large space. I’ve been in entire shopping malls that are smaller than this one Macy’s store. Capitalism at its finest.
Serendipity 3
Don’t worry. Even though we ate all that pasta earlier, we saved room for dessert.
We stopped into Serendipity 3 without a reservation and were initially told that it would be 45 minutes for a table. After some brief witchcraft, they sat us immediately.
After all, we just wanted to try their famous hot chocolate.
We got the s’mores flavor and it was unexpectedly delightful.
Pizza
As much as there should be a law against visiting New York without getting a bagel, there should also be one about pizza.
But I don’t care about bagels so much as I do pizza. And it doesn’t matter how much food we’ve already eaten or what time of day it is… if I walk by 20 different places that say “$1.50 Pizza” in neon lights, I’m going to have to go get one sooner or later.
And then it was time for bed.
Day 3
We had to check out of our hotel in the morning, but they held our bags for us so we could continue wandering around the city for a while.
I don’t know what this building is, but I guess I thought it looked cool, so I took a few pictures of it.
Our first stop of the day was a bookstore… uhhh… sorry, but I’m a little light on the details here. It was supposed to be where the filmed the tv show You or something like that. It didn’t catch my interest at all, so I didn’t take any pictures. Also, we sat outside in the rain for about 20 minutes past their scheduled opening time and nobody ever opened the store.
After that, we went to a little underground subway mall to check out some comics.
But the final stop of the day… truly the highlight… perhaps even the coolest part of the entire trip… was sushi.
Shirokuro
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dine in a 2D comic strip? Maybe in a hand-drawn, black and white world?
Well… that’s basically what this place is.
It was pretty trippy.
But aside from the aesthetics, they also had amazing sushi.
I’ve never really been a sushi person. I’ll eat it, but I’ve never been like, “hey, I really want sushi right now.”
They may have converted me.
Seriously, it was that good.
Heading Home
And that was one of our last stops for the trip. We caught an Uber Airport Shuttle at the Port Authority Bus Station and went for a long drive to LaGuardia Airport.
LaGuardia was recently remodeled, apparently. We were there briefly for our last New York visit and it felt like one small, musty room… and the only food option was a tiny little shop that had some donuts, coffee, and snacks. But now… it’s huge! You basically have to walk through an entire shopping mall before you get to the gates. They even have a giant fountain of water that rains down from the ceiling with color-changing lights.
Once we made it past all the shopping, we were greeted by a large fight status display screen that claimed our return flight was cancelled. We continued to the gate to ask questions — there was nobody there, but the gate status said delayed.
And then it got delayed a little bit longer.
And then a little bit longer…
We eventually did make it back to Florida, however. I think in total we lost about 3 hours from the delays. Very happy it wasn’t a cancellation.
#eats #food #metMuseum #newYork #newYorkCity #nyc #pasta #pastaEater #serendipity3 #shirokuro #sushi #travel
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Death from above: the thread about the 1916 Zeppelin air raid that terrorised Edinburgh and Leith
It was fittingly dark and late when I started to write this, but here follows the story of the Zeppelin air raid on Edinburgh and Leith of 2-3 April 1916. It’s a long-ish story which I’ll break down into 3 parts. Hopefully as we go I can clarify a few points and add some extra details to other versions of it
Part 1. Prelude
“The First Zeppelin Seen from Piccadilly Circus, 8 September 1915”, Andrew Carrick Gow, 1915. IWM Art.5216
The frightening and fascinating new technology of Zeppelins burst quite literally into the British public consciousness on 19-20 January 1915 when an attack on Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and Sheringham left four dead and fifteen injured. Follow up raids are a failure, until bigger and more capable Zeppelins arrive and in April and May 1915 towns across the southeast of England from Ipswich to Dover are targeted and hit. Three are killed and there is public outrage. Public and newspaper ire is directed as much at the authorities for failing to protect the populace and smite the aerial menace as much as at the German military. In September a Zeppelin humiliatingly appears with impunity over London.By the end of 1915, 203 people have been killed and a further 711 injured in monthly raids over (mainly) the Eastern and South Eastern counties of England. The authorities have been largely impotent in response, but try to mobilise the public outrage as a recruiting tool.
Recruiting poster, 1915. Library of Congress.British companies also utilise the Zeppelin scare in patriotic advertising. North British Rubber, based in Fountainbridge in Edinburgh and the largest rubber products producer in the British empire, took out adverts in the illustrated papers imploring customers to Buy British as German rubber companies made the fabric for Zeppelins.
“The German Menace”, North British Rubber advert from the Graphic, 30 October 1915The Daily Mail is amongst popular newspapers which offer its loyal readers a compensation scheme should they or their family be killed or injured by a Zeppelin air raid.
Daily Mail advertisement poster for Zeppelin insurance scheme for its readers. IWM Art.IWM PST 13010There are public awareness campaigns, warning people what to look out for when scouring the skies for aerial attackers.
Public Information Poster. IWM PST 13660In early 1916, during a winter lull in the bombing campaign, George Currie MP for the Leith Burghs asked the Scottish Secretary about what was to be done by local authorities to guard against the aerial threat .
George Currie MP in 1914A week later, the Secretary for Scotland, the Rt. Hon Thomas Mackinnon Wood, issues the “Lighting Order”, which obliges local authorities to implement a basic blackout and put in place warning measures of air raids, but leaves the details to local discretion.
Thomas Mackinnon Wood Esq, MP, Lafayette Negative ArchiveA debate rages in Edinburgh Town Council about the best way to enact the order. The Chief Constable wants a complete night-time blackout but is felt to be over-reacting and over-stepping his authority. An audible warning is felt to be unnecessary and might just draw people out onto the street anyway. It is eventually settled that in the event of an air raid, the Corporation Electrical Department will dim the lighting supply as a warning before cutting it entirely as a blackout. However the gas lighting supply (the predominant domestic lighting) will not be dimmed or cut, over fears that it will lead to leaks from unlit lights when the supply is restarted.
This means that there is no warning system in place for people who use gas lighting – the majority – and the blackout will not be effective. However this is accepted. After all, Edinburgh is very far away from it all and probably feels its isolation is protection enough. The burgh of Leith follows suit and issues similar orders, however these do not apply to the shipping sitting in Leith Roads and they continue to burn lights at night.
The raids begin again at the end of January 1916 with the full moon; 57 are killed and 117 injured. There is respite as a result of the weather at the end of February but the Zeppelins return at the end of March. On the night of the 31st, 43 are killed and 66 wounded. But a Zeppelin is shot down during that raid, to public jubilation.
Zeppelin L15 sinking in the Thames Estuary after having been fatally damaged by defensive gunfire.On the next night (1-2 April), it is the North East of England that is hit, 16 people are killed and 100 are injured. The bombs are creeping northwards, but are still more than 100 miles from Edinburgh
Part 2. The Raid
On the bright spring morning of April 2nd 1916, the residents of Edinburgh open their morning newspapers to read headlines and horrifying details of the latest series of raids. Unknown to them, something sinister is stirring 500 miles to the east.
At the Nordholz naval air base north of Bremerhaven, the Imperial German Navy readies four of the latest P-class Zeppelins for a raid on Rosyth on the Firth of Forth, the base of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet – the most powerful fighting force on the high seas.
The Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet in the Firth of Forth, aerial photo taken from a British airship late in the warIn the early afternoon, Zeppelins L13 (pictured), L14, L16 and L22 take off and begin their long voyage west. These 163m long, 4-engined craft have a crew of 19, cruise at 39mph, can reach an altitude of 11,600 feett and carry up to 2,000kg of bombs; high explosive and incendiary.
L13L13 soon develops engine troubles and turns for home. L14, L16 and L22 press on west, but are troubled by a northerly wind that blows them well off course. L16 makes for the secondary objective of Tyneside but drops her bombs 11 miles off target. L22 gets a bit lost and mistakes the river Tweed for the Tyne, bombing fields around Chirnside. She will later claim to have destroyed one of the bridges over the Tyne.
L14 – under the capable command of Lt. Commander Alois Bocker – however is on course and schedule. She passes the Scottish coast near St. Abb’s Head, being spotted here and possibly engaged by Royal Navy destroyers (although they have no practical weapons to really do so). Nevertheless, the alarm is now raised and the Admiralty dispatches the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron from Rosyth on a pre-determined search pattern of the Forth to look for the raider. At East Fortune naval air base, Sub Lt. GA Cox is scrambled in an Avro 504C fighter on an ultimately fruitless interception mission. Cox will be injured later trying to land his rickety aircraft in the dark.
An Avro 504C aircraft, a type with marginal performance specifically rushed into service as an anti-Zeppelin defence.And in Edinburgh and Leith, the warning message is received by the authorities that an air raid may be imminent, and the electric lights are dimmed and the tramway is stopped. The fire brigade, hospitals and Red Cross are put on alert.
Bocker turns L14 turn back out to sea after passing St. Abbs, using the Isle of May in the outer reaches of the Forth to get their bearings, then flying directly down the middle of the Firth. They appear over Inchkeith around 11:15PM. Over Inchkeith they do what Zeppelin attackers often do; they stop to take their bearings, floating high over the island. The night is clear but there is a low haze and they cannot make out their target from the glazed cabin high above the sea.
The command cabin of L22 after the war, where Bocker and his men would have looked out from over the ForthInstead, the welcoming lights of the ships in Leith Roads point Bocker towards the docks and L14 sets off again with a new target in mind. Bocker is familiar with the port having visited it as a sailor in peacetime and he knows if he follows its river it will lead him to the city centre of Edinburgh.
The Leith Police spot L14 around 11:25, approaching from Inchkeith. She is flying high, perhaps as high as 10,000ft. The zeppelin (the black track on the below map) is heading southwest, straight towards the heart of Leith.
L14’s approach to Leith over the Sands, towards the Albert DockThe first three bombs are unleashed here. Bomb 1, a 50kg high explosive (yellow marker), lands in the Edinburgh dock, sinks two rowing boats and destroys the skylight windows of a Danish sailing vessel. The two incendiaries, bombs 2 and 3, land near the Albert Dock but cause no damage beyond a burnt fence which is quickly extinguished.
The first 3 bombs dropped.Bombs 4 and 5 are High Explosive. They hit a grain warehouse in the Timberbush and the Custom House Quay. Damage is done to property from flying masonry and smashed glass, but it’s largely superficial and nobody is hurt.
Bombs 4 and 5 Land near the Shore.Bomb 6 is high explosive, it hits the roof of the tenement at 2 Commercial St. and takes L14‘s first victim; 61 year old engineer Robert Love- husband of Ann Porteous and father of James – is killed as he sleeps in his bed in the top floor flat.
Robin Love, contemporary newspaper photo, provenance unknownBomb 6 causes a fatality. Bomb 7 lands nearby.A few doors down at 14 Commercial Street, bomb 7 – an incendiary – smashes through the roof and then through the floor of the top floor flat before starting a fire in the flat below. The elderly woman who had been sleeping in her bed calmly got up and poured a pan of water in the hole and extinguished it. More bombs rapidly drop. 8, 9 and 10 are incendiaries and land on Sandport Street. A fire is started and rapidly extinguished and no further damage is caused.
Bombs 8, 9 and 10 land in Sandport StreetBomb 11 is another 50kg HE. It comes down in Innes & Grieve’s whisky bond on Ronaldson’s Wharf and sets the spirit store on fire. The inferno lights up the night sky, making the job of navigating the Zeppelin and aiming the bombs easier. The entire stock, worth £44k (an enormous sum in 1916) is destroyed. It is not insured against aerial attack (this seems to be a recurrent situation at the time, special “air raid insurance” schemes were set up to cover where other insurance would not) . Bomb 12, an incendiary, lands at 15 Church St. and falls through the roof into a room where a mother and 3 children are asleep. The flats are set on fire but the residents have a lucky escape before it is quenched.
Bombs 11 & 12Bocker now steers L14 along a course following the Water of Leith. A stick of four incendiary bombs is dropped around Mill lane. The St. Thomas Church manse is largely destroyed, but the minister and his family are miraculously unharmed. Clearly he had been saying his prayers as somehow he, his wife and their servant girl asleep in the attic were spared.
St. Thomas’ ManseThe attic room of the manse, note the bomb-shaped hole in the floorDamage caused to St. Thomas’ Manse. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe St. Thomas’ School next door and the Leith Hospital across the street get lucky escapes as bombs 14 and 15 land directly outside. Bomb 16, landing on Hawthorn & Co’s shipyard, sets fire to a fence but it is quickly put out. L14 continues its course along the Water of Leith.
Bombs 13, 14, 15 and 16.Four HE bombs are dropped over the industrial quarter of Bonnington. Seemingly little damage is done beyond smashed windows, but when the dust settles it is found that little David Robb, just 1 year old and who had been sleeping in his cot has been tragically killed by shrapnel. David’s parents, Robert and Jane, were just getting over the loss of another infant the previous year.
Bombs 17, 18, 19 and 20. Those at 200 Bonnington Road cause a fatality.The “disconsolate” Robert Robb gave an upsetting interview to a journalist which, unusually for the time, passed the censors.
Robert Robb’s newspaper interview.L14 had now completed wreaking its terrible toll on Leith. Bocker took his bearings again from the Water of Leith and turned his ship to head south, directly towards the city centre of Edinburgh. It is 11:50PM. an HE bomb, number 21, is dropped, landing on waste ground at the end of Bellevue Terrace. It blows out windows in houses and flats for streets around and demolishes a tin shed, but no further damage is done. Likewise bomb 22, an incendiary, does no damage when it lands on the road surface of The Mound.
L14‘s course takes it just past the Castle atop its promontory. The next bomb, 23, is another 50kg HE (my map has it coloured wrong). It crashes through the roof of the Georgian townhouse at 39 Lauriston Place. The McLaren family are awake inside and hear it descending on them.
Dr Mclaren and his wife and teenage daughter miraculously are unharmed at 39 Lauriston Place, despite the damage. The family reputedly still have a piece of the bomb’s nose cap. The Skins – the Edinburgh Special School for children with ringworm – next door is also damaged.
The damage caused to 39 Lauriston Place. The house was demolished in the early 1970sThis bomb claims a victim though. David Robertson, a 27 year old soldier invalided out of the Royal Field Artillery, is outside in an adjacent street to see what is going on and is hit in the stomach by flying shrapnel, later succumbing to his injuries.
David Robertson. Contemporary newspaper image, via Newbattle at War.Bomb 24 is high explosive. It lands in the playground of George Watson’s College school and causes extensive damage to classrooms. It is perilously close to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh next door. Bomb 25 is an incendiary and lands near Jawbone Walk on the Meadows without causing damage.
Bombs 24 – 26 near The MeadowsL14 continues south over the Meadows before making a turn to east, dropping bomb 26 – another 50kg HE – as it does so. This comes down in the tenement at 82 Marchmont Crescent. It fails to properly explode but its kinetic energy carries it through floors and ceilings to the ground floor flat at no. 80. It is this bomb that is now on display at the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune.
Bomb 26, now on display at the Museum of Flight. © SelfMeandering east across the Southside, incendiaries are dropped (bombs 27 and 29) at Hatton and Blacket Places, landing in gardens and doing no damage. An HE bomb comes down at 183 Causewayside and “practically wrecked” the tenement. Six are injured, four of whom are hospitalised. One of the injured, 71 year old Wilhelminha Henderson, will succumb to her injuries in the following days and dies in hospital of a heart attack brought on by the shock.
Bombs 27 – 29 dropped across the SouthsideL14 now makes a U-turn back towards the city. This time it passes directly over the Royal Infirmary, dropping an incendiary (bomb 30) as it does so. This comes down on a roof but fails to do any damage.
This is the incendiary on the roof of the RIE. This was a conical-shaped bomb with a central fuse. Inside the cone was a mix of oil and kerosene, on the outside it was wrapped in tar-soaked rope. It was not particularly effective and would be replaced by fearsome Thermite weapons towards the end of the war.
The bomb on the roof of the RIEThere are multiple eye-witness reports of seeing “blue lights” dropping from the Zeppelin. What people were seeing was the long streamers on the incendiary bomb’s tail, which were meant to stabilise it, catching the light as it fell. One of these incendiaries from the night is also on display at East Fortune.
Incendiary bomb at the Museum of Flight. The top portion fitted over the lower one, this weapon has been disassembled to show its construction. © SelfBomb 31.L14 is now on a heading directly for the Castle. Another HE bomb – number 31 – is dropped, coming down in the Grassmarket outside the White Hart Hotel and Gothenburg tavern. Four men gathered in the area are injured and more damage is done to buildings. One of the injured, a 45 year Corporation Porter by the name of William Breakey, will die shortly afterwards from his injuries having been struck on the chest by flying debris
William Breakey. Contemporary newspaper image, via Newbattle at War.Most of the windows in the area were blown out. Buildings took the scars of flying debris. Given how usually busy and how densely overpopulated the neighbourhood was, it was remarkable that the death and injury toll here was not much higher.
Crowds gather in the Grassmarket the next day to inspect the damage. Note that all the windows are blown out.Animated transition showing the damage caused in the Grassmarket against the street todayL14 was perhaps aiming for the Castle, as bomb 31 at the Grassmarket and 32 and 33 – which fall immediately after – are in a straight line across it. Bomb 32 hits the southwest face of the Castle Rock. The Castle gunners impotently fire two blank rounds from the One O’Clock Gun in response. At the County Hotel on Lothian Road number 33 falls, an HE bomb, and there is another miraculous escape. The bomb explodes in the hotel roof causing extensive damage, but casualties are limited to a woman resident in a bedroom below suffering slight injuries .
Bombs 32 and 33 dropped as L14 flies over the CastleHaving missed the castle, L14 continues on its course before picking up its navigational maker of the Water of Leith again. Again a 180° turn is made, again bombs are unleashed as it does so. What Bocker is aiming for is anyone’s guess. Perhaps railways, perhaps the prominently large building of Donaldson’s Hospital. But all 3 bombs land in the river and although countless windows are blown out – including Donaldson’s chapel stained glass – there are no injuries.
Bombs 34-36 are dropped as L14 U-turns over ColtbridgeL14s new course takes it back directly over the Castle agai but this time no bombs are dropped; not until it is well past it at least. Bomb 37, a high explosive, comes down outside the tenement at 16 Marshall Street off Nicolson Square.
L14 is almost retracing its steps, the Castle is crossed 3 times. Bomb 37 falls well beyond it.This will be the most deadly bomb. Residents had gathered in the passageway of the building, probably up and about due to the excitement of it all and taking shelter within as the drone of the Zeppelin’s engines approached again. The 50kg bomb strikes the pavement outside, the blast is driven into the stair of No. 16 and kills six men and boys standing within instantly. It injures a further seven.
The victims are William Smith 15, his father John Smith 41, Henry Rumble 17, David Graham 5, William Ewing 23 and Victor MacFarlane. The injured include the brother and son of the deceased Smiths and the father of Henry Rumble. Private Thomas Donoghue, 24, of the 3/4 Royal Scots who was home on leave was also injured. He had been visiting family. He would succumb to serious injuries to the abdomen and is the 7th fatality from Marshall Street.
Animated transition image showing the damage caused to No. 16 Marshall Street against the building todayThe bomb at Marshall Street fell at about 00:25AM, fully an hour after L14 was first spotted approaching Leith. And still it droned on over the city, at complete liberty to undertake its terrible deeds. As it continues on its course, two more HE bombs are dropped. 38 lands in the tenement at Haddon’s Court and 39 comes down in the tenement at 69 St. Leonard’s Hill. Each of these bombs will claim a victim.
Bombs 38 and 39At Haddon’s Court, James Farquhar, a 73 year old mason, will die 5 days later from his injuries in hospital. At St. Leonard’s Hill, 4 year old Cora Edmond Bell is killed in her bed.
L14‘s course takes it over the south western edge of the King’s Park. Here the City finally fights back, soldiers have been dispatched to the Salisbury Crags (where there was a military rifle range) and engage the Zeppelin with a Lewis and a Vickers machine gun. L14 drops four of its last five bombs, an incendiary and three HEs. It is perhaps aiming for the railway yard at St. Leonard’s, or the flashes of gunfire far below, but no damage is done beyond to some walls and the gunners have no chance of hitting the Zeppelin anyway at its altitude.
Bombs 40-43 fall in the King’s ParkThe last bomb, number 44, falls further south in the grounds of Prestonfield House at around 00:40AM (times in the records vary and conflict slightly). L14 now turns east around the south of Arthur’s Seat and strikes a course for home.
In the approximate hour and 15 minutes when it was over Edinburgh and Leith, it dropped 44 bombs, caused 14 fatalities and 24 injuries. No targets of any military value had been hit, a whisky bond and a manse had been destroyed, and countless thousands of window panes smashed.
Part 3. The Aftermath
It took until April 4th, the day after the morning after the raid, for the events in Edinburgh and Leith to hit the papers. Reporting censorship restrictions kept things vague and just referred to “south east Scottish counties” and “an eastern coastal town” .
The Scotsman praised the public response “the raid… naturally caused some excitement, but failed to produce any panic or do otherwise than steel the hearts of the people against the nation capable of using such barbarous methods of warfare against the civilian population“.
The first 3 Funerals took place on the afternoon of April 5th. A further 4 Funerals took place on the 6th. Municipal representatives were present and there “were numerous manifestations of public sympathy as the cortège passed.” It was announced that the National Relief Fund had made “provisional arrangements” to give grants to local committees for the purchase of furniture for displaced persons. It was anticipated that applications would be made to the fund for indirect losses, e.g. loss of lodgers.
The lack of accurate reporting meant rumours and gossip was rife. The word on the street in Dundee was that the Scott Monument had been destroyed. Visitors from there to family in Edinburgh asked if they could please go and see the ruins? Unable to report the facts, the Scotsman settled for odd editorials, for instance extolling the virtues of traditional Scottish construction over suspect English ways.
Scottish stone proved more resisting than English bricks; instead of the crumbling ruins of houses… the only evidence of the raid on the tough fabric of Scottish buildings was shattered windows and indentations on the walls. This first raid on the costs of Scotland has been a great triumph for the Scottish builder.
Scotsman editorial opinion after the raidAnd there was an even weirder one on how the general lack of public panic was some sort of proof evident of the racial and genetic purity of the people of Edinburgh and Leith.
The Lord Provost, who was in London on council business, met with John French, 1st Earl of Ypres and Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces to “explain to him the position of matters in connection with the raid“. French was reportedly “quite sympathetic.” Sympathies were sent from war-torn France.
French sympathy with Scottish sufferersAnd in the letters columns, recriminations were quick to come. Multiple organisations of the city worthies and self appointed committees of dignitaries wrote their opinions about what must be done. All that could be agreed was that something must be done. Given the woeful state of the anti-aircraft defences in the country, Mr Ralph Richardson wrote to suggest that local authorities must be empowered to raise their own air forces, as they did fire services “to defend the lives and property of the lieges committed to their care“. There was also the question of the warning and blackouts. It was ordered that the gas supply would be cut along with the electricity in the event of a raid. Stricter blackout conditions were made, to be “drastically enforced” due to the “slackness in various parts of the city”
The Army provided a rudimentary anti-aircraft battery on Corstorphine Hill. Manned by artillery volunteers the gun was a QF 13pdr 6cwt Mk.I. This was a “marginally effective” weapon, and indeed was a cast off. Only 20 had been made before replaced by something better. This had likely been sent to Scotland as a token gesture to show that the military authorities were doing something, anything, in response. The battery was provided with a searchlight and an acoustic direction finder, which was meant to help locate the direction from which a Zeppelin was approaching from the noise of its engines (it didn’t really work).
13 pounder AA gun on Corstorphine HillSound locator device and searchlight on Corstorphine Hill.These defences were more morale-boosting “security theatre” than anything effective. However subsequent “War Weapons Week” campaigns encouraged the public in Edinburgh to directly finance better anti aircraft weapons to guard against the Zeppelin threat.
Scottish War Weapons Week poster. IWM PST 10244The proximity of the bombs to Edinburgh castle worried the governor, who wrote to the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland to inform him that the Regalia of Scotland had been moved for safekeeping from the Crown Room to the Castle vaults.
Letter from the Governor of Edinburgh Castle to the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland in Whitehall NRS HH31/21/1 fol.19At least two babies born just before or after the raid were named in its honour;
- Catherine O’May Campbell Raida Smith was born 2nd April to Janet Smith at 49 Montague Street
- Raida Alexandra Douglas was born May 21st to Barbara Mackay Douglas of 88 Nicholson Street
Raida Smith’s father, Peter, made an appeal against conscription on account of his wife “remaining ill… she did not make a good recovery and has been nervous and sleepless since… A strain that at present she is ill able to bear“. I don’t know if he was successful.
The L14 would become the most successful German Zeppelin of the War. It made 17 attacks on Britain and dropped 22 tonnes of bombs. Alois Bocker was shot down commanding L33 in September 1916 over London. He survived, was captured and reportedly treated well as a Prisoner of War.
Alois BockerIn 2016 on the centenary of the attack, Edinburgh University Library published a fascinating first hand account of the aftermath, from the diaries of schoolboy Archibald Campbell who had roamed the city the day after taking notes of his impressions.
Points to Clarify
There are many good accounts of this story, however there are various points and facts which have inevitably become confused or corrupted (with honest intention) over time. I will try to clear up those that I have identified.
Firstly, only one Zeppelin, L14, bombed Edinburgh and Leith. L22 never made it and erroneous reports of it being over the city persist. German and British official records all agree that only L14 was within 100 miles of Edinburgh that night. L14 was much higher – 10,000ft – than you might think. It was dark and unlit, many people heard it, very few saw anything. As it flitted between pockets of cloud and light and went back and forth over the city it would be easy to think that you had seen or heard 2.
Secondly, there are no photos of L14 over the city. There are photos that purport to be it, but this is of the civilian airliner Graf Zeppelin over the city in 1930. There are other mockups too. But they are just that. The illustration below from the “Illustrated London News” shows what people *might* have seen in the night sky had they been able to get a view of L14 – but it qould have required a good set of binoculars or a telescope. It is an older, smaller model of Zeppelin though.
“Illustrated London News,” September 18th 1915The third point concerns the number of bombs and fatalities.
- 20 bombs were dropped in Leith and 24 in Edinburgh, Leith was a separate burgh at this time and some accounts overlook this nuance and thus get the total wrong.
- 14 people lost their lives in total; some reports miss out some of those who died of their injuries up to 5 days later, they are listed in the table below
As far as I’m aware, there are 3 public memorials to the air raid.
- A flagstone on the Grassmarket where William Breakey was fatally wounded.
- a piece of damaged masonry from the old Grassmarket Corn Exchange, now removed to the back of the Apex Hotel car park (see picture below)
- A plaque on the Castle Rock, near where the bomb fell there. There is a picture on this site;
The events of this night were commemorated back in 2016 but still don’t really pervade the local public consciousness, at least not to the extent of the attacks made during WW2.
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Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…
…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!
Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber
Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!
Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries
Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]
It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.
Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.
Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist
Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]
From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.
Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.
Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]
Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.
GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine
Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]
Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.
Saunders’ Stenched Staples
Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]
Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.
Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]
Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.
Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations
Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]
March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.
Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]
Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers
Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]
Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.
Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]
If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.
Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive
Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]
Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!
#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords
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Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…
…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!
Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber
Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!
Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries
Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]
It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.
Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.
Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist
Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]
From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.
Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.
Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]
Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.
GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine
Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]
Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.
Saunders’ Stenched Staples
Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]
Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.
Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]
Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.
Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations
Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]
March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.
Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]
Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers
Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]
Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.
Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]
If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.
Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive
Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]
Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!
#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords
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Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…
…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!
Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber
Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!
Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries
Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]
It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.
Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.
Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist
Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]
From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.
Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.
Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]
Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.
GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine
Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]
Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.
Saunders’ Stenched Staples
Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]
Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.
Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]
Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.
Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations
Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]
March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.
Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]
Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers
Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]
Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.
Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]
If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.
Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive
Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]
Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!
#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords
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Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…
…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!
Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber
Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!
Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries
Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]
It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.
Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.
Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist
Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]
From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.
Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.
Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]
Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.
GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine
Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]
Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.
Saunders’ Stenched Staples
Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]
Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.
Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]
Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.
Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations
Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]
March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.
Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]
Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers
Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]
Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.
Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]
If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.
Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive
Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]
Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!
#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords
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“What I love most about cities at night is how every light seems like a story waiting to be told.”
- Beau TaplinA view from the Empire State Building.
Prints - https://mark-tisdale.pixels.com/featured/new-york-nights-manhattan-skyscrapers-mark-e-tisdale.html
#Photography #NewYorkCity #NewYork #NYC #Skyscrapers #Skylines #Art #NYCArt #ChryslerBuilding #NYCNights #ArtForSale #MastoArt #FediArt #CreativeToots #FediGiftShop #MarkOnArt
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Heavy Moves Heavy 2025 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist By Thus SpokeBefore I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.1 The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt. ~ Ferox
A year has passed, and now the barbell of honour has been placed on my (regrettably smaller) shoulders as Ferox steps back from the AMG side-quest to focus on his main story. Our leader may be absent, but our search for gains continues with an otherwise full house and new recruits to boot. The songs that guided and shaped our workouts are compiled here in a playlist guaranteed to boost yours, whether you listen on shuffle or straight the way through.1 So what are you waiting for? Down your pre-workout, grab your straps and your knee-sleeves, and get ready to get massive. ~ Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke Enters Muscle Mommy Mode:
“Silence like the Grave” // Paradise Lost (Ascension) – Straightforwardly solid, catchy, sharp, with a killer atmosphere. Insta-playlist save when the single dropped. Paradise Lost back on top-form and just time to give you the energy for moving heavy things.
“Magnolia” // Deafheaven (Lonely People with Power) – Oh yeah, I’m dead serious. Sorry not sorry to any haters out there. This is four minutes and change of unqualified emotion and racing thoughts and it gets my blood running hot every damn time.
“Against the Dying of the Light” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – Unironically motivating in a way presumably not intended. Just when you want to quit, that roar of “raaage, RAAAAAAGGGE,” and the impeccable drum and guitar work come in to see you through.
“Condemnesia” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – The devastation of a currently-occurring nuclear disaster—complete with a frantically clicking geiger counter and a witness’ agonised moans—portrayed through slick, punchy tech-death. Do I need to explain?
“Perfida Contracçao do Aço” // Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (Perfida Contracçao do Aço) – I wouldn’t normally go for something like this; the vocals are kind of horrible. But the energetic ridiculousness is so fucking feral it takes you beyond pumped and into crazed maniac territory; which is obviously ideal for the gym.
“DNA (Do Not Amputate)” // To the Grave (Still) – Mean, melodic, and with a message, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t work while lifting. If I’m going to include any deathcore in the playlist at all, then it has to be To the Grave.
“Eunuch Maker” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If your resting-murder-face, hoodie, and headphones aren’t enough to keep people from having the audacity to speak to you, then listening to this could help. It’s massive, and fun as hell, and will make you look extra mean through osmosis, I guarantee.
“Architects of Extinction” // Psycroptic (Architects of Extinction) – Banger alert. The change in vocals makes this a smidge less strong than it otherwise would be, but c’mon; a riff that good has got to be anabolic.
“Amaranth” // Nephylim (Circuition) – My dopamine-fixation song for the best part of a month. It’s uplifting, it’s catchy, it’s infinitely replayable. What more do you want?
“Natural Law” // Primitive Man (Observance) – It’s not too long, it’s a very important, massive chunk of overwhelming heaviness that makes me feel ten times the size and heft I actually am. You can get through all three (or however many) sets with spare time to admire the pump.
“Deathless” // Phobocosm (Gateway) – Monstrous, massive, intense. Fast and furious isn’t always it; more and more, I crave slow, oppressive, and malevolent. It’s just what I crave to dig deeper.
“1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)” // 1914 (Viribus Unitis) – It took less than a single complete playthrough for this to end up on this list. It’s heavy enough for leg day, and it’s atmospheric and moving in that perfect way that helps you dissociate from how much your body hurts. I’ve had it on repeat through many a tough session since.
Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:
“Rot in the Pit” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If there was ever a song that eradicated mental blocks to that next rep, that next PR, that next push, it’s “Rot in the Pit.” Boasting mountain-moving swagger and a center riff that risks greater injury to my body than any ego lift could ever approach, Depravity penned a bona fide gymstormer with “Rot in the Pit.”
“Summoning Sickness” // Pedestal for Leviathan (Enter: Vampyric Manifestation) – Imagine getting legs so powerful and swole they force your gait to change—but you’re doing it in the basement of your Transylvanian vampire castle with Igor loading up weights on the bar for your next PR. That’s what “Summoning Sickness” feels like when I’m pushing
“Nachthexe” // Bianca (Bianca) – You wouldn’t expect something that dabbles so heavily in atmosphere to possess such meaty muscle as this, but Bianca’s “Nachthexe” proves the might of the sleeper build. Once they take of the airy, soft pump cover, a devastating topology of deadly power ripples just under the skin.
“The Insufferable Weight” // Barren Path (Grieving) – Don’t let the lighter weights I’m lugging around fool you. Volume days are fucking brutal, and a challenge for both my mind and my body. Barren Path’s “The Insufferable Weight” adrenalizes me with it’s speed and brutal rhythms just enough to survive those endless reps.
“Granfalloon” // Unbirth (Asomatous Besmirchment) – Unbirth is the pool from which some the nastiest, grooviest, and most deceptively complex riffs spawn. This is great fodder for those compound movements that build strength and density. You could pick anything off of Asomatous Besmirchment for such gains, but my preference is “Granfalloon.”
“Kollaps” // Jordsjuk (Naglet til livet) – Black metal? For the gym? You fucking bet. Guaranteed to pull you back from the brink of absolute failure, Jordsjuk’s “Kollaps” thrashes and shimmers with enough vibrancy and verve to make whatever load I’m pushing feel like light weight.
“Infestis” // Igorrr (Amen) – You wouldn’t expect something as weird and wacky as Igorrr to fit in the land of iron and steel, but here we are. With stomping riffs and vicious roars, “Infestis” is top tier workout gear. Great for keeping pace and supporting breath control, you’ll find much progress with Igorrr by your side.
“Flashback (ft. Strawberry Hospital)” // Blind Equation (A Funeral in Purgatory) – Every year I open up one slot for those high intensity workouts where cardio and strength meet. This year, my spotter cheering me on when I’m doing sprints and weighted jumps is Blind Equation’s intense and lightning-fast “Flashback.” Gotta go fast!!!
“Leave the Flesh Behind” // Ashen (Leave the Flesh Behind) – Probably the underdog in the litter, Ashen’s “Leave the Flesh” behind is all muscle, and a mountain of it at that. These riffs represent both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. One day, I hope to be like them.
“12 Worm Wounds” // Death Whore (Blood Washes Everything Away) – It was difficult to narrow down a selection from Death Whore’s lean and mean debut, but I keep coming back to the swaggering riffs of “12 Worm Wounds” went I need motivation for that next lift. It just makes everything I’m doing seem like the most fun I’ll ever have.
“The Fire in Which We Burn” // …and Oceans (The Regeneration Itinerary) – Boasting what I consider to be the single best black metal riff of 2025, …and Oceans greatly surprised me with a swaggering barnstormer of a track ready made to stoke the fire in my chest for a second wind. Hand me another set of plates, it’s time to go up for one more set!
“Never Difiled” // Serenity in Murder (Timeless Reverie) – Who needs to spell correctly when you have hundreds of pounds to push on the bar? This is the question I ask whenever the adrenaline-soaked “Never Difiled” plays as I rack up the plates for my next set. Nobody’s ever been able to give me an answer.
“The Twisted Helix” // Mutagenic Host (The Diseased Machine) – They say genetics play a huge role in what kind of gains you can expect to achieve naturally in the gym. Well, I’m an ectomorph so it’s tough—and takes a lot more time—to build and maintain muscle. The solution? Twist my helixes and instantly quadruple my gains. Mutagenic Host’s “The Twisted Helix” is just the tool for the job!
“+++Engine Kill+++” // Ruinous Power (EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry) – Sometimes you just need something threatening to rip the rails right off the track to hype you up for a grueling session. That’s what songs like Ruinous Power’s “+++Engine Kill+++” are for. Short, to the point, and vicious, it will get your blood surging and your body raring to go.
“Femto’s Theme” // Flummox (Southern Progress) – Something so theatrical doesn’t sound like a natural fit when working out, but the sheer heft and chunky rhythms of Flummox’s “Femto’s Theme” defies those expectations. I’ve been using it for leg days and the results are crazy town! Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!
Steel Druhm Trains His Ape Arms to Crush the Empire State Building:
“Abandoned Feretrum” // Sepulchral (Beneath the Shroud) – Blending old school black and death noise, Sepulchral mainline pure badger adrenaline and rattlesnake venom into your major muscle groups. Handle those power chugs with care, Brah.
“Necrobotic Enslavement” // Glorious Depravity (Death Never Sleeps) – Taking discarded Morbid Angel riffs and repurposing them to turn a peaceful man rabid is why we have science. Take 2 doses of “Necrobotic Enslavement” 30 minutes before throwing 45 lb plates at people who sit on exercise machines and chat.
“A Scream in the Snow” // Black Soul Horde (Symphony of Chaos) – Trve metal can embiggen the innate desire for strength and raw power like no other, and “A Scream in the Snow” will have you swinging olympic bars to get that sword arm ready for bloody constraint and weightroom glory.
“Eyes on Six” // Biohazard (Divided We Fall) – Loudmouthed tough guys from Brooklyn scream at you to watch your back as they try to snap it with angry riffs and bad attitudes. This is for the caveman living in your reptile brain.
“Carry On” // Nite (Cult of the Serpent Sun) – Badass riffs and Manowar-esque demands that you carry on despite hardships are the crucial things that separate a routine workout from a Herculean trial that transforms you. Carry on to bigness.
“Crusaders” // Starlight Ritual (Rogue Angels) – A dirty, greasy 80s metal anthem that sounds like proto-Iron Maiden is what you need to evolve from tubby baby to a fucking WRATHCHILD. Join this crusade and tip your templar.
“Iron Sign” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – Unraveling the Riddle of Steel requires a long, hard journey guided only by iron signs. This cut will set you on the right path toward your ferric destiny.
“Bending the Steel” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – If you’re out there bending the steel, why not get moral support from Ambush with this massive aggressive dose of testosterone and primal motivation? When the singer shouts, “Let’s go, boys!” you’ll feel your strength grow 3 times (plus two!). With an iron will, you gotta keep bending the steel!
“Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm write heavy metal for leg day, and Garuda is your feathery guardian iron eagle compelling you to crush that feeble PB. The strong can tell their eagle where to fly and what snakes to eat.
“Beyond Enemy Lines” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm ain’t done with you by a damn sight! If the thundering drums and beefy riffs here don’t get you chalked up and ready for iron warfare, you should take up underwater doily knitting.
Steel-Jacketed Olden Bonus:
“Spark to the Flame” // Winter’s Bane (Redivivus) – One of the greatest gym/workout songs EVER. Lyrics that speak of creating a better version of yourself as you burn in the crucible of effort will help you rise high as those burly riffs hammer your inner coward into moist gum paste.
Grin Reaper Gets Down with the Fitness:
“No Pain, No Gain” // Majestica (Power Train) – Metals of Power and Heft are a must for my workouts, especially stretching and pre-lifting calisthenics. Majestica’s cheesy anthem is perfect montage-fodder, and even though the track is rife with clichéd chestnuts, it features kinetic hooks that gird my gears for what’s to come.
“Storm the Gates” // Soulfly (Chama) – Once I’m limbered up, it’s time to sweat. Max and the boys’ bouncy grooves peddle just the right combination of chest-thumping swagger and ferocity to make sure my next rep sets the tone for a simmering sesh of glorious gainz.
“Skullbattering” // Werewolves (The Ugliest of All) – There’s no better way to keep momentum hurtling forward than with a good ol’ fashioned ode to smashing braincases. Setting the right tone for a workout is paramount, and here Werewolves does not fuck around. There’s nothing pretty or flowery about “Skullbattering,” but if swole is your goal, you need to exorcise the Ugly.
“Anodyne Rust” // Blood Red Throne (Siltskin) – I hurt my shoulder a few years ago, and though stretching and (prescribed) drugs didn’t help much, bulking up did. Exercise slipped out of my routine as work and family commitments grew (as did my waistline), but as I’ve recently knocked the Rust off my dumbbells, I’m reminded of the palliative restoration that comes from pumping iron and death metal.
“Ravenous Leech” // Guts (Nightmare Fuel) – Scuzzy, groovy, and unapologetically fun, Nightmare Fuel is filled to the gills with mid-paced chugs that make a great soundtrack for AMRAP workouts. While most of Guts’ bloody remnants will Fuel your workout, spinning “Ravenous Leech” is sure to leave you hungry for even more punishment.
“By Lead or Steel” // Barbarous (Initium Mors) – Does Cannibal Corpse feature heavily in your gym listening? If so, consider Barbarous, who channels similar vibes and vitriol with less viscera. It’ll make you want to drink motör oil and punch babies, and that’s the kind of shove you need when you’re out on swole patrol.2
“Kaltfront” // Eisbrecher (Kaltfront) – Something about heavy distortion, dance-adjacent electronics, and gravelly vocals makes ‘New German Hardness’ prime listening for calculated and efficient movements. With near imperceptible head bops and a commitment to perfect form, this “Kaltfront” leaves me focused and hard as a block of ice.
“Hope Terminator” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – Plenty of great death metal jams spurn gym-list inclusion with slow-build intros, not getting to proper stankin’ until they’re well into the track. Cytotoxin knows better, immediately flaying you with technicality. “Hope Terminator’ is the perfect mid-playlist piece to curb fatigue and keep your spirit engorged.
“Let There Be Oblivion” // Ade (Supplicium) – Rome’s Ade lays down a banger of a riff on “Let There Be Oblivion,” and it’s long and strong enough to push me through a set or two. If I’m struggling during a workout, whether in motivation or physically, I need every ounce of energy I can muster, and songs like this one can be the tipping point.
“Blinding Oblivion” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – Like Guts’ Nightmare Fuel, Bestial Possession boasts track after track of gym-ready scorchers. I chose “Blinding Oblivion” 1. to maintain consistency with “Let There Be Oblivion” and 2. because something about the subtle melody in the song gives it an air of refreshment that I need as the demands of my workout ramp to a frothing climax.
“Elevator Operator” // Electric Callboy (Elevator Operator) – It’s dumb, it’s trite, and it’s so devastatingly catchy that it sticks in my head for days on end. Most importantly, it makes me want to move things up and down, and I won’t apologize for that.
“Sunlight Covenant” // Spire of Lazarus (Those Who Live in Death) – I don’t dabble in deathcore often, but when I do, it’s usually technical, symphonic, and anthemic. Spire of Lazarus crafts just the right blend of their core components to make “Sunlight Covenant” a certified HMH banger. As a bonus, try to time it so that the track hits on your last set of the day—the melody and backing swells make a triumphant send-off as you clinch the last rep and wipe down the bench. You wiped the bench, right?
“Fossilized” // Ültra Raptör (Fossilized) – This song has stayed close since I first laid ears on it, and not once has it failed to engage the hype machine. Whether warming up, working out, or cooling down, the classic retro riffs and sunglasses-at-night nonchalance define a cool I strive for, and motivation like that is the key to gainz.
Dolph Does Heavy This Time:3
“Mortuary Rites” // Mörtual (Altar of Brutality) – Blood boils fastest with a roto-tom take off followed by a death-thrash pummel. As churning pit energy converts to flared nostrils, focused vision, and engorged fibers at the crack of a incessant stick, find a slow and steady breath as your body prepares for war.
“Tlazolteotl” // Kalaveraztekah (Nikan Axkan) – The beat of a clanging snare threatens whatever weighted structure exists in your path. “Tlazolteotl” marches ever forward through growling twists, hardwood clack, and flute-led guitar abandon. A brief respite of acoustics awaits—but so does the real bulk of this journey.
“Black Scrawl” // Pupil Slicer (Fleshwork) – Feedback, growling bass, pneumatic kicks, and an urgent snarl—Pupil Slicer demands your full thrust. With this affixing hardcore anchor, “Black Scrawl” will carry you to your first peak push with a dragging breakdown coda.
“Swamp Mentality” // The Acacia Strain (You Are Safe from God Here) – Rest does not come to those who push only once, though. The burn of your resolve will light the path in the angst and mire and core-fluid whiplash of “Swamp Mentality.” And Vincent Bennett’s tattered and spit-riddled mic will provide an extra OUGH to your exhale.
“Orphans” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – If you could tether your pulse to the relentless kick assaults that Chason Westmoreland brings to “Orphans”—all of Tooth and Nail really—your spotter wouldn’t be able to find dial emergency fast enough to save you. Instead, search for the heavier weighted tempo that exists between the pitter-patter as your guide. In this space, relentless and emotive riff runs and lead wails coalesce into one of the most threatening thrash-pit breaks of the year. Harness this power.
“The Great Day of His Wrath” // Blindfolded (What Seeps through Threads) – In vicious harmonized splendor, Blindfolded’s neoclassical scale hopping riffage possesses a buoyancy that is vital to remaining invigored. And whipping around bleating and squealing mic energy with resplendent solo work, “The Great Day of His Wrath” both maintains your demanding schedule and restores a lightness to your being before the heaviest pulls come to play.
“Retina” // Pillars of Cacophony (Paralipomena) – Neoclassical drama, however, doesn’t always seek to restore with its airy play. “Retina” arrives, rather, with a mechanical and and programmed structure that functions as a scaffold upon which ascending scale iterations match your own gradual and gravity-creating climb. As the pinch-happy shuffle sneers in precision stank-face deployment, resist the urge to discharge your steel load into the earth.
“Lunar Tear” // Barren Path (Grieving) – In any routine, no matter how structured, a moment of ferocious release can provide a benefit. Before this playlist enters its most grueling minutes, a lightning-speed romp in the grips of endless blasts and riffs exists to shake off the inertia that can result from testing your limits.
“Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” // Pissgrave (Malignant Worthlessness) – We are all filth—corpses brought to life by the signals we create. Synapses creating chains from proximal to distal drive our movements from concept to power. Through squelching refrain and lockstep death metal assault, fibers at the edge of their load-bearing capacity persist and persevere in the midst of Pissgrave’s shifting and grimy rhythms.
“Bursting with Life’s True Fruit” // Umulamahri (Learning the Secrets of Acid) – Guttural expression unlocks the last inches of a tough pull. As we channel Doug Moore’s garbage disposal tier phlegmanations into our own tidal vibrations, we visualize the final set. We are victorious. And in a celebratory expression of might, we slip into Umulamahri’s enlightened synth dissolution. Those who float cannot collapse.
#AndOceans #1914 #2025 #Ade #Ambush #Ashen #Barbarous #BarrenPath #Bianca #Biohazard #BlackSoulHorde #BlindEquation #Blindfolded #BloodRedThrone #Brainstorm #Cytotoxin #Deafheaven #DeathWhore #Depravity #DormantOrdeal #Eisbrecher #ElectricCallboy #FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium #Flummox #GloriousDepravity #Guts #HeavyMovesHeavy #Igorr #Jordsjuk #Kalaveraztekah #Majestica #Mortual #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #Nite #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #Phobocosm #PillarsOfCacophony #Pissgrave #PrimitiveMan #Psycroptic #PupilSlicer #RuinousPower #Sepulchral #SerenityInMurder #Soulfly #SpireOfLazarus #StarlightRitual #TheAcaciaStrain #ToTheGrave #ÜltraRaptör #Umulamahri #Unbirth #Werewolves #WinterSBane -
Heavy Moves Heavy 2025 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist By Thus Spoke
Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.1 The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt. ~ Ferox
A year has passed, and now the barbell of honour has been placed on my (regrettably smaller) shoulders as Ferox steps back from the AMG side-quest to focus on his main story. Our leader may be absent, but our search for gains continues with an otherwise full house and new recruits to boot. The songs that guided and shaped our workouts are compiled here in a playlist guaranteed to boost yours, whether you listen on shuffle or straight the way through.1 So what are you waiting for? Down your pre-workout, grab your straps and your knee-sleeves, and get ready to get massive. ~ Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke Enters Muscle Mommy Mode:
“Silence like the Grave” // Paradise Lost (Ascension) – Straightforwardly solid, catchy, sharp, with a killer atmosphere. Insta-playlist save when the single dropped. Paradise Lost back on top-form and just time to give you the energy for moving heavy things.
“Magnolia” // Deafheaven (Lonely People with Power) – Oh yeah, I’m dead serious. Sorry not sorry to any haters out there. This is four minutes and change of unqualified emotion and racing thoughts and it gets my blood running hot every damn time.
“Against the Dying of the Light” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – Unironically motivating in a way presumably not intended. Just when you want to quit, that roar of “raaage, RAAAAAAGGGE,” and the impeccable drum and guitar work come in to see you through.
“Condemnesia” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – The devastation of a currently-occurring nuclear disaster—complete with a frantically clicking geiger counter and a witness’ agonised moans—portrayed through slick, punchy tech-death. Do I need to explain?
“Perfida Contracçao do Aço” // Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (Perfida Contracçao do Aço) – I wouldn’t normally go for something like this; the vocals are kind of horrible. But the energetic ridiculousness is so fucking feral it takes you beyond pumped and into crazed maniac territory; which is obviously ideal for the gym.
“DNA (Do Not Amputate)” // To the Grave (Still) – Mean, melodic, and with a message, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t work while lifting. If I’m going to include any deathcore in the playlist at all, then it has to be To the Grave.
“Eunuch Maker” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If your resting-murder-face, hoodie, and headphones aren’t enough to keep people from having the audacity to speak to you, then listening to this could help. It’s massive, and fun as hell, and will make you look extra mean through osmosis, I guarantee.
“Architects of Extinction” // Psycroptic (Architects of Extinction) – Banger alert. The change in vocals makes this a smidge less strong than it otherwise would be, but c’mon; a riff that good has got to be anabolic.
“Amaranth” // Nephylim (Circuition) – My dopamine-fixation song for the best part of a month. It’s uplifting, it’s catchy, it’s infinitely replayable. What more do you want?
“Natural Law” // Primitive Man (Observance) – It’s not too long, it’s a very important, massive chunk of overwhelming heaviness that makes me feel ten times the size and heft I actually am. You can get through all three (or however many) sets with spare time to admire the pump.
“Deathless” // Phobocosm (Gateway) – Monstrous, massive, intense. Fast and furious isn’t always it; more and more, I crave slow, oppressive, and malevolent. It’s just what I crave to dig deeper.
“1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)” // 1914 (Viribus Unitis) – It took less than a single complete playthrough for this to end up on this list. It’s heavy enough for leg day, and it’s atmospheric and moving in that perfect way that helps you dissociate from how much your body hurts. I’ve had it on repeat through many a tough session since.
Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:
“Rot in the Pit” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If there was ever a song that eradicated mental blocks to that next rep, that next PR, that next push, it’s “Rot in the Pit.” Boasting mountain-moving swagger and a center riff that risks greater injury to my body than any ego lift could ever approach, Depravity penned a bona fide gymstormer with “Rot in the Pit.”
“Summoning Sickness” // Pedestal for Leviathan (Enter: Vampyric Manifestation) – Imagine getting legs so powerful and swole they force your gait to change—but you’re doing it in the basement of your Transylvanian vampire castle with Igor loading up weights on the bar for your next PR. That’s what “Summoning Sickness” feels like when I’m pushing
“Nachthexe” // Bianca (Bianca) – You wouldn’t expect something that dabbles so heavily in atmosphere to possess such meaty muscle as this, but Bianca’s “Nachthexe” proves the might of the sleeper build. Once they take of the airy, soft pump cover, a devastating topology of deadly power ripples just under the skin.
“The Insufferable Weight” // Barren Path (Grieving) – Don’t let the lighter weights I’m lugging around fool you. Volume days are fucking brutal, and a challenge for both my mind and my body. Barren Path’s “The Insufferable Weight” adrenalizes me with it’s speed and brutal rhythms just enough to survive those endless reps.
“Granfalloon” // Unbirth (Asomatous Besmirchment) – Unbirth is the pool from which some the nastiest, grooviest, and most deceptively complex riffs spawn. This is great fodder for those compound movements that build strength and density. You could pick anything off of Asomatous Besmirchment for such gains, but my preference is “Granfalloon.”
“Kollaps” // Jordsjuk (Naglet til livet) – Black metal? For the gym? You fucking bet. Guaranteed to pull you back from the brink of absolute failure, Jordsjuk’s “Kollaps” thrashes and shimmers with enough vibrancy and verve to make whatever load I’m pushing feel like light weight.
“Infestis” // Igorrr (Amen) – You wouldn’t expect something as weird and wacky as Igorrr to fit in the land of iron and steel, but here we are. With stomping riffs and vicious roars, “Infestis” is top tier workout gear. Great for keeping pace and supporting breath control, you’ll find much progress with Igorrr by your side.
“Flashback (ft. Strawberry Hospital)” // Blind Equation (A Funeral in Purgatory) – Every year I open up one slot for those high intensity workouts where cardio and strength meet. This year, my spotter cheering me on when I’m doing sprints and weighted jumps is Blind Equation’s intense and lightning-fast “Flashback.” Gotta go fast!!!
“Leave the Flesh Behind” // Ashen (Leave the Flesh Behind) – Probably the underdog in the litter, Ashen’s “Leave the Flesh” behind is all muscle, and a mountain of it at that. These riffs represent both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. One day, I hope to be like them.
“12 Worm Wounds” // Death Whore (Blood Washes Everything Away) – It was difficult to narrow down a selection from Death Whore’s lean and mean debut, but I keep coming back to the swaggering riffs of “12 Worm Wounds” went I need motivation for that next lift. It just makes everything I’m doing seem like the most fun I’ll ever have.
“The Fire in Which We Burn” // …and Oceans (The Regeneration Itinerary) – Boasting what I consider to be the single best black metal riff of 2025, …and Oceans greatly surprised me with a swaggering barnstormer of a track ready made to stoke the fire in my chest for a second wind. Hand me another set of plates, it’s time to go up for one more set!
“Never Difiled” // Serenity in Murder (Timeless Reverie) – Who needs to spell correctly when you have hundreds of pounds to push on the bar? This is the question I ask whenever the adrenaline-soaked “Never Difiled” plays as I rack up the plates for my next set. Nobody’s ever been able to give me an answer.
“The Twisted Helix” // Mutagenic Host (The Diseased Machine) – They say genetics play a huge role in what kind of gains you can expect to achieve naturally in the gym. Well, I’m an ectomorph so it’s tough—and takes a lot more time—to build and maintain muscle. The solution? Twist my helixes and instantly quadruple my gains. Mutagenic Host’s “The Twisted Helix” is just the tool for the job!
“+++Engine Kill+++” // Ruinous Power (EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry) – Sometimes you just need something threatening to rip the rails right off the track to hype you up for a grueling session. That’s what songs like Ruinous Power’s “+++Engine Kill+++” are for. Short, to the point, and vicious, it will get your blood surging and your body raring to go.
“Femto’s Theme” // Flummox (Southern Progress) – Something so theatrical doesn’t sound like a natural fit when working out, but the sheer heft and chunky rhythms of Flummox’s “Femto’s Theme” defies those expectations. I’ve been using it for leg days and the results are crazy town! Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!
Steel Druhm Trains His Ape Arms to Crush the Empire State Building:
“Abandoned Feretrum” // Sepulchral (Beneath the Shroud) – Blending old school black and death noise, Sepulchral mainline pure badger adrenaline and rattlesnake venom into your major muscle groups. Handle those power chugs with care, Brah.
“Necrobotic Enslavement” // Glorious Depravity (Death Never Sleeps) – Taking discarded Morbid Angel riffs and repurposing them to turn a peaceful man rabid is why we have science. Take 2 doses of “Necrobotic Enslavement” 30 minutes before throwing 45 lb plates at people who sit on exercise machines and chat.
“A Scream in the Snow” // Black Soul Horde (Symphony of Chaos) – Trve metal can embiggen the innate desire for strength and raw power like no other, and “A Scream in the Snow” will have you swinging olympic bars to get that sword arm ready for bloody constraint and weightroom glory.
“Eyes on Six” // Biohazard (Divided We Fall) – Loudmouthed tough guys from Brooklyn scream at you to watch your back as they try to snap it with angry riffs and bad attitudes. This is for the caveman living in your reptile brain.
“Carry On” // Nite (Cult of the Serpent Sun) – Badass riffs and Manowar-esque demands that you carry on despite hardships are the crucial things that separate a routine workout from a Herculean trial that transforms you. Carry on to bigness.
“Crusaders” // Starlight Ritual (Rogue Angels) – A dirty, greasy 80s metal anthem that sounds like proto-Iron Maiden is what you need to evolve from tubby baby to a fucking WRATHCHILD. Join this crusade and tip your templar.
“Iron Sign” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – Unraveling the Riddle of Steel requires a long, hard journey guided only by iron signs. This cut will set you on the right path toward your ferric destiny.
“Bending the Steel” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – If you’re out there bending the steel, why not get moral support from Ambush with this massive aggressive dose of testosterone and primal motivation? When the singer shouts, “Let’s go, boys!” you’ll feel your strength grow 3 times (plus two!). With an iron will, you gotta keep bending the steel!
“Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm write heavy metal for leg day, and Garuda is your feathery guardian iron eagle compelling you to crush that feeble PB. The strong can tell their eagle where to fly and what snakes to eat.
“Beyond Enemy Lines” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm ain’t done with you by a damn sight! If the thundering drums and beefy riffs here don’t get you chalked up and ready for iron warfare, you should take up underwater doily knitting.
Steel-Jacketed Olden Bonus:
“Spark to the Flame” // Winter’s Bane (Redivivus) – One of the greatest gym/workout songs EVER. Lyrics that speak of creating a better version of yourself as you burn in the crucible of effort will help you rise high as those burly riffs hammer your inner coward into moist gum paste.
Grin Reaper Gets Down with the Fitness:
“No Pain, No Gain” // Majestica (Power Train) – Metals of Power and Heft are a must for my workouts, especially stretching and pre-lifting calisthenics. Majestica’s cheesy anthem is perfect montage-fodder, and even though the track is rife with clichéd chestnuts, it features kinetic hooks that gird my gears for what’s to come.
“Storm the Gates” // Soulfly (Chama) – Once I’m limbered up, it’s time to sweat. Max and the boys’ bouncy grooves peddle just the right combination of chest-thumping swagger and ferocity to make sure my next rep sets the tone for a simmering sesh of glorious gainz.
“Skullbattering” // Werewolves (The Ugliest of All) – There’s no better way to keep momentum hurtling forward than with a good ol’ fashioned ode to smashing braincases. Setting the right tone for a workout is paramount, and here Werewolves does not fuck around. There’s nothing pretty or flowery about “Skullbattering,” but if swole is your goal, you need to exorcise the Ugly.
“Anodyne Rust” // Blood Red Throne (Siltskin) – I hurt my shoulder a few years ago, and though stretching and (prescribed) drugs didn’t help much, bulking up did. Exercise slipped out of my routine as work and family commitments grew (as did my waistline), but as I’ve recently knocked the Rust off my dumbbells, I’m reminded of the palliative restoration that comes from pumping iron and death metal.
“Ravenous Leech” // Guts (Nightmare Fuel) – Scuzzy, groovy, and unapologetically fun, Nightmare Fuel is filled to the gills with mid-paced chugs that make a great soundtrack for AMRAP workouts. While most of Guts’ bloody remnants will Fuel your workout, spinning “Ravenous Leech” is sure to leave you hungry for even more punishment.
“By Lead or Steel” // Barbarous (Initium Mors) – Does Cannibal Corpse feature heavily in your gym listening? If so, consider Barbarous, who channels similar vibes and vitriol with less viscera. It’ll make you want to drink motör oil and punch babies, and that’s the kind of shove you need when you’re out on swole patrol.2
“Kaltfront” // Eisbrecher (Kaltfront) – Something about heavy distortion, dance-adjacent electronics, and gravelly vocals makes ‘New German Hardness’ prime listening for calculated and efficient movements. With near imperceptible head bops and a commitment to perfect form, this “Kaltfront” leaves me focused and hard as a block of ice.
“Hope Terminator” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – Plenty of great death metal jams spurn gym-list inclusion with slow-build intros, not getting to proper stankin’ until they’re well into the track. Cytotoxin knows better, immediately flaying you with technicality. “Hope Terminator’ is the perfect mid-playlist piece to curb fatigue and keep your spirit engorged.
“Let There Be Oblivion” // Ade (Supplicium) – Rome’s Ade lays down a banger of a riff on “Let There Be Oblivion,” and it’s long and strong enough to push me through a set or two. If I’m struggling during a workout, whether in motivation or physically, I need every ounce of energy I can muster, and songs like this one can be the tipping point.
“Blinding Oblivion” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – Like Guts’ Nightmare Fuel, Bestial Possession boasts track after track of gym-ready scorchers. I chose “Blinding Oblivion” 1. to maintain consistency with “Let There Be Oblivion” and 2. because something about the subtle melody in the song gives it an air of refreshment that I need as the demands of my workout ramp to a frothing climax.
“Elevator Operator” // Electric Callboy (Elevator Operator) – It’s dumb, it’s trite, and it’s so devastatingly catchy that it sticks in my head for days on end. Most importantly, it makes me want to move things up and down, and I won’t apologize for that.
“Sunlight Covenant” // Spire of Lazarus (Those Who Live in Death) – I don’t dabble in deathcore often, but when I do, it’s usually technical, symphonic, and anthemic. Spire of Lazarus crafts just the right blend of their core components to make “Sunlight Covenant” a certified HMH banger. As a bonus, try to time it so that the track hits on your last set of the day—the melody and backing swells make a triumphant send-off as you clinch the last rep and wipe down the bench. You wiped the bench, right?
“Fossilized” // Ültra Raptör (Fossilized) – This song has stayed close since I first laid ears on it, and not once has it failed to engage the hype machine. Whether warming up, working out, or cooling down, the classic retro riffs and sunglasses-at-night nonchalance define a cool I strive for, and motivation like that is the key to gainz.
Dolph Does Heavy This Time:3
“Mortuary Rites” // Mörtual (Altar of Brutality) – Blood boils fastest with a roto-tom take off followed by a death-thrash pummel. As churning pit energy converts to flared nostrils, focused vision, and engorged fibers at the crack of a incessant stick, find a slow and steady breath as your body prepares for war.
“Tlazolteotl” // Kalaveraztekah (Nikan Axkan) – The beat of a clanging snare threatens whatever weighted structure exists in your path. “Tlazolteotl” marches ever forward through growling twists, hardwood clack, and flute-led guitar abandon. A brief respite of acoustics awaits—but so does the real bulk of this journey.
“Black Scrawl” // Pupil Slicer (Fleshwork) – Feedback, growling bass, pneumatic kicks, and an urgent snarl—Pupil Slicer demands your full thrust. With this affixing hardcore anchor, “Black Scrawl” will carry you to your first peak push with a dragging breakdown coda.
“Swamp Mentality” // The Acacia Strain (You Are Safe from God Here) – Rest does not come to those who push only once, though. The burn of your resolve will light the path in the angst and mire and core-fluid whiplash of “Swamp Mentality.” And Vincent Bennett’s tattered and spit-riddled mic will provide an extra OUGH to your exhale.
“Orphans” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – If you could tether your pulse to the relentless kick assaults that Chason Westmoreland brings to “Orphans”—all of Tooth and Nail really—your spotter wouldn’t be able to find dial emergency fast enough to save you. Instead, search for the heavier weighted tempo that exists between the pitter-patter as your guide. In this space, relentless and emotive riff runs and lead wails coalesce into one of the most threatening thrash-pit breaks of the year. Harness this power.
“The Great Day of His Wrath” // Blindfolded (What Seeps through Threads) – In vicious harmonized splendor, Blindfolded’s neoclassical scale hopping riffage possesses a buoyancy that is vital to remaining invigored. And whipping around bleating and squealing mic energy with resplendent solo work, “The Great Day of His Wrath” both maintains your demanding schedule and restores a lightness to your being before the heaviest pulls come to play.
“Retina” // Pillars of Cacophony (Paralipomena) – Neoclassical drama, however, doesn’t always seek to restore with its airy play. “Retina” arrives, rather, with a mechanical and and programmed structure that functions as a scaffold upon which ascending scale iterations match your own gradual and gravity-creating climb. As the pinch-happy shuffle sneers in precision stank-face deployment, resist the urge to discharge your steel load into the earth.
“Lunar Tear” // Barren Path (Grieving) – In any routine, no matter how structured, a moment of ferocious release can provide a benefit. Before this playlist enters its most grueling minutes, a lightning-speed romp in the grips of endless blasts and riffs exists to shake off the inertia that can result from testing your limits.
“Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” // Pissgrave (Malignant Worthlessness) – We are all filth—corpses brought to life by the signals we create. Synapses creating chains from proximal to distal drive our movements from concept to power. Through squelching refrain and lockstep death metal assault, fibers at the edge of their load-bearing capacity persist and persevere in the midst of Pissgrave’s shifting and grimy rhythms.
“Bursting with Life’s True Fruit” // Umulamahri (Learning the Secrets of Acid) – Guttural expression unlocks the last inches of a tough pull. As we channel Doug Moore’s garbage disposal tier phlegmanations into our own tidal vibrations, we visualize the final set. We are victorious. And in a celebratory expression of might, we slip into Umulamahri’s enlightened synth dissolution. Those who float cannot collapse.
#AndOceans #1914 #2025 #Ade #Ambush #Ashen #Barbarous #BarrenPath #Bianca #Biohazard #BlackSoulHorde #BlindEquation #Blindfolded #BloodRedThrone #Brainstorm #Cytotoxin #Deafheaven #DeathWhore #Depravity #DormantOrdeal #Eisbrecher #ElectricCallboy #FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium #Flummox #GloriousDepravity #Guts #HeavyMovesHeavy #Igorr #Jordsjuk #Kalaveraztekah #Majestica #Mortual #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #Nite #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #Phobocosm #PillarsOfCacophony #Pissgrave #PrimitiveMan #Psycroptic #PupilSlicer #RuinousPower #Sepulchral #SerenityInMurder #Soulfly #SpireOfLazarus #StarlightRitual #TheAcaciaStrain #ToTheGrave #ÜltraRaptör #Umulamahri #Unbirth #Werewolves #WinterSBane -
Heavy Moves Heavy 2025 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist By Thus Spoke
Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.1 The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt. ~ Ferox
A year has passed, and now the barbell of honour has been placed on my (regrettably smaller) shoulders as Ferox steps back from the AMG side-quest to focus on his main story. Our leader may be absent, but our search for gains continues with an otherwise full house and new recruits to boot. The songs that guided and shaped our workouts are compiled here in a playlist guaranteed to boost yours, whether you listen on shuffle or straight the way through.1 So what are you waiting for? Down your pre-workout, grab your straps and your knee-sleeves, and get ready to get massive. ~ Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke Enters Muscle Mommy Mode:
“Silence like the Grave” // Paradise Lost (Ascension) – Straightforwardly solid, catchy, sharp, with a killer atmosphere. Insta-playlist save when the single dropped. Paradise Lost back on top-form and just time to give you the energy for moving heavy things.
“Magnolia” // Deafheaven (Lonely People with Power) – Oh yeah, I’m dead serious. Sorry not sorry to any haters out there. This is four minutes and change of unqualified emotion and racing thoughts and it gets my blood running hot every damn time.
“Against the Dying of the Light” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – Unironically motivating in a way presumably not intended. Just when you want to quit, that roar of “raaage, RAAAAAAGGGE,” and the impeccable drum and guitar work come in to see you through.
“Condemnesia” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – The devastation of a currently-occurring nuclear disaster—complete with a frantically clicking geiger counter and a witness’ agonised moans—portrayed through slick, punchy tech-death. Do I need to explain?
“Perfida Contracçao do Aço” // Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (Perfida Contracçao do Aço) – I wouldn’t normally go for something like this; the vocals are kind of horrible. But the energetic ridiculousness is so fucking feral it takes you beyond pumped and into crazed maniac territory; which is obviously ideal for the gym.
“DNA (Do Not Amputate)” // To the Grave (Still) – Mean, melodic, and with a message, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t work while lifting. If I’m going to include any deathcore in the playlist at all, then it has to be To the Grave.
“Eunuch Maker” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If your resting-murder-face, hoodie, and headphones aren’t enough to keep people from having the audacity to speak to you, then listening to this could help. It’s massive, and fun as hell, and will make you look extra mean through osmosis, I guarantee.
“Architects of Extinction” // Psycroptic (Architects of Extinction) – Banger alert. The change in vocals makes this a smidge less strong than it otherwise would be, but c’mon; a riff that good has got to be anabolic.
“Amaranth” // Nephylim (Circuition) – My dopamine-fixation song for the best part of a month. It’s uplifting, it’s catchy, it’s infinitely replayable. What more do you want?
“Natural Law” // Primitive Man (Observance) – It’s not too long, it’s a very important, massive chunk of overwhelming heaviness that makes me feel ten times the size and heft I actually am. You can get through all three (or however many) sets with spare time to admire the pump.
“Deathless” // Phobocosm (Gateway) – Monstrous, massive, intense. Fast and furious isn’t always it; more and more, I crave slow, oppressive, and malevolent. It’s just what I crave to dig deeper.
“1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)” // 1914 (Viribus Unitis) – It took less than a single complete playthrough for this to end up on this list. It’s heavy enough for leg day, and it’s atmospheric and moving in that perfect way that helps you dissociate from how much your body hurts. I’ve had it on repeat through many a tough session since.
Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:
“Rot in the Pit” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If there was ever a song that eradicated mental blocks to that next rep, that next PR, that next push, it’s “Rot in the Pit.” Boasting mountain-moving swagger and a center riff that risks greater injury to my body than any ego lift could ever approach, Depravity penned a bona fide gymstormer with “Rot in the Pit.”
“Summoning Sickness” // Pedestal for Leviathan (Enter: Vampyric Manifestation) – Imagine getting legs so powerful and swole they force your gait to change—but you’re doing it in the basement of your Transylvanian vampire castle with Igor loading up weights on the bar for your next PR. That’s what “Summoning Sickness” feels like when I’m pushing
“Nachthexe” // Bianca (Bianca) – You wouldn’t expect something that dabbles so heavily in atmosphere to possess such meaty muscle as this, but Bianca’s “Nachthexe” proves the might of the sleeper build. Once they take of the airy, soft pump cover, a devastating topology of deadly power ripples just under the skin.
“The Insufferable Weight” // Barren Path (Grieving) – Don’t let the lighter weights I’m lugging around fool you. Volume days are fucking brutal, and a challenge for both my mind and my body. Barren Path’s “The Insufferable Weight” adrenalizes me with it’s speed and brutal rhythms just enough to survive those endless reps.
“Granfalloon” // Unbirth (Asomatous Besmirchment) – Unbirth is the pool from which some the nastiest, grooviest, and most deceptively complex riffs spawn. This is great fodder for those compound movements that build strength and density. You could pick anything off of Asomatous Besmirchment for such gains, but my preference is “Granfalloon.”
“Kollaps” // Jordsjuk (Naglet til livet) – Black metal? For the gym? You fucking bet. Guaranteed to pull you back from the brink of absolute failure, Jordsjuk’s “Kollaps” thrashes and shimmers with enough vibrancy and verve to make whatever load I’m pushing feel like light weight.
“Infestis” // Igorrr (Amen) – You wouldn’t expect something as weird and wacky as Igorrr to fit in the land of iron and steel, but here we are. With stomping riffs and vicious roars, “Infestis” is top tier workout gear. Great for keeping pace and supporting breath control, you’ll find much progress with Igorrr by your side.
“Flashback (ft. Strawberry Hospital)” // Blind Equation (A Funeral in Purgatory) – Every year I open up one slot for those high intensity workouts where cardio and strength meet. This year, my spotter cheering me on when I’m doing sprints and weighted jumps is Blind Equation’s intense and lightning-fast “Flashback.” Gotta go fast!!!
“Leave the Flesh Behind” // Ashen (Leave the Flesh Behind) – Probably the underdog in the litter, Ashen’s “Leave the Flesh” behind is all muscle, and a mountain of it at that. These riffs represent both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. One day, I hope to be like them.
“12 Worm Wounds” // Death Whore (Blood Washes Everything Away) – It was difficult to narrow down a selection from Death Whore’s lean and mean debut, but I keep coming back to the swaggering riffs of “12 Worm Wounds” went I need motivation for that next lift. It just makes everything I’m doing seem like the most fun I’ll ever have.
“The Fire in Which We Burn” // …and Oceans (The Regeneration Itinerary) – Boasting what I consider to be the single best black metal riff of 2025, …and Oceans greatly surprised me with a swaggering barnstormer of a track ready made to stoke the fire in my chest for a second wind. Hand me another set of plates, it’s time to go up for one more set!
“Never Difiled” // Serenity in Murder (Timeless Reverie) – Who needs to spell correctly when you have hundreds of pounds to push on the bar? This is the question I ask whenever the adrenaline-soaked “Never Difiled” plays as I rack up the plates for my next set. Nobody’s ever been able to give me an answer.
“The Twisted Helix” // Mutagenic Host (The Diseased Machine) – They say genetics play a huge role in what kind of gains you can expect to achieve naturally in the gym. Well, I’m an ectomorph so it’s tough—and takes a lot more time—to build and maintain muscle. The solution? Twist my helixes and instantly quadruple my gains. Mutagenic Host’s “The Twisted Helix” is just the tool for the job!
“+++Engine Kill+++” // Ruinous Power (EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry) – Sometimes you just need something threatening to rip the rails right off the track to hype you up for a grueling session. That’s what songs like Ruinous Power’s “+++Engine Kill+++” are for. Short, to the point, and vicious, it will get your blood surging and your body raring to go.
“Femto’s Theme” // Flummox (Southern Progress) – Something so theatrical doesn’t sound like a natural fit when working out, but the sheer heft and chunky rhythms of Flummox’s “Femto’s Theme” defies those expectations. I’ve been using it for leg days and the results are crazy town! Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!
Steel Druhm Trains His Ape Arms to Crush the Empire State Building:
“Abandoned Feretrum” // Sepulchral (Beneath the Shroud) – Blending old school black and death noise, Sepulchral mainline pure badger adrenaline and rattlesnake venom into your major muscle groups. Handle those power chugs with care, Brah.
“Necrobotic Enslavement” // Glorious Depravity (Death Never Sleeps) – Taking discarded Morbid Angel riffs and repurposing them to turn a peaceful man rabid is why we have science. Take 2 doses of “Necrobotic Enslavement” 30 minutes before throwing 45 lb plates at people who sit on exercise machines and chat.
“A Scream in the Snow” // Black Soul Horde (Symphony of Chaos) – Trve metal can embiggen the innate desire for strength and raw power like no other, and “A Scream in the Snow” will have you swinging olympic bars to get that sword arm ready for bloody constraint and weightroom glory.
“Eyes on Six” // Biohazard (Divided We Fall) – Loudmouthed tough guys from Brooklyn scream at you to watch your back as they try to snap it with angry riffs and bad attitudes. This is for the caveman living in your reptile brain.
“Carry On” // Nite (Cult of the Serpent Sun) – Badass riffs and Manowar-esque demands that you carry on despite hardships are the crucial things that separate a routine workout from a Herculean trial that transforms you. Carry on to bigness.
“Crusaders” // Starlight Ritual (Rogue Angels) – A dirty, greasy 80s metal anthem that sounds like proto-Iron Maiden is what you need to evolve from tubby baby to a fucking WRATHCHILD. Join this crusade and tip your templar.
“Iron Sign” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – Unraveling the Riddle of Steel requires a long, hard journey guided only by iron signs. This cut will set you on the right path toward your ferric destiny.
“Bending the Steel” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – If you’re out there bending the steel, why not get moral support from Ambush with this massive aggressive dose of testosterone and primal motivation? When the singer shouts, “Let’s go, boys!” you’ll feel your strength grow 3 times (plus two!). With an iron will, you gotta keep bending the steel!
“Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm write heavy metal for leg day, and Garuda is your feathery guardian iron eagle compelling you to crush that feeble PB. The strong can tell their eagle where to fly and what snakes to eat.
“Beyond Enemy Lines” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm ain’t done with you by a damn sight! If the thundering drums and beefy riffs here don’t get you chalked up and ready for iron warfare, you should take up underwater doily knitting.
Steel-Jacketed Olden Bonus:
“Spark to the Flame” // Winter’s Bane (Redivivus) – One of the greatest gym/workout songs EVER. Lyrics that speak of creating a better version of yourself as you burn in the crucible of effort will help you rise high as those burly riffs hammer your inner coward into moist gum paste.
Grin Reaper Gets Down with the Fitness:
“No Pain, No Gain” // Majestica (Power Train) – Metals of Power and Heft are a must for my workouts, especially stretching and pre-lifting calisthenics. Majestica’s cheesy anthem is perfect montage-fodder, and even though the track is rife with clichéd chestnuts, it features kinetic hooks that gird my gears for what’s to come.
“Storm the Gates” // Soulfly (Chama) – Once I’m limbered up, it’s time to sweat. Max and the boys’ bouncy grooves peddle just the right combination of chest-thumping swagger and ferocity to make sure my next rep sets the tone for a simmering sesh of glorious gainz.
“Skullbattering” // Werewolves (The Ugliest of All) – There’s no better way to keep momentum hurtling forward than with a good ol’ fashioned ode to smashing braincases. Setting the right tone for a workout is paramount, and here Werewolves does not fuck around. There’s nothing pretty or flowery about “Skullbattering,” but if swole is your goal, you need to exorcise the Ugly.
“Anodyne Rust” // Blood Red Throne (Siltskin) – I hurt my shoulder a few years ago, and though stretching and (prescribed) drugs didn’t help much, bulking up did. Exercise slipped out of my routine as work and family commitments grew (as did my waistline), but as I’ve recently knocked the Rust off my dumbbells, I’m reminded of the palliative restoration that comes from pumping iron and death metal.
“Ravenous Leech” // Guts (Nightmare Fuel) – Scuzzy, groovy, and unapologetically fun, Nightmare Fuel is filled to the gills with mid-paced chugs that make a great soundtrack for AMRAP workouts. While most of Guts’ bloody remnants will Fuel your workout, spinning “Ravenous Leech” is sure to leave you hungry for even more punishment.
“By Lead or Steel” // Barbarous (Initium Mors) – Does Cannibal Corpse feature heavily in your gym listening? If so, consider Barbarous, who channels similar vibes and vitriol with less viscera. It’ll make you want to drink motör oil and punch babies, and that’s the kind of shove you need when you’re out on swole patrol.2
“Kaltfront” // Eisbrecher (Kaltfront) – Something about heavy distortion, dance-adjacent electronics, and gravelly vocals makes ‘New German Hardness’ prime listening for calculated and efficient movements. With near imperceptible head bops and a commitment to perfect form, this “Kaltfront” leaves me focused and hard as a block of ice.
“Hope Terminator” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – Plenty of great death metal jams spurn gym-list inclusion with slow-build intros, not getting to proper stankin’ until they’re well into the track. Cytotoxin knows better, immediately flaying you with technicality. “Hope Terminator’ is the perfect mid-playlist piece to curb fatigue and keep your spirit engorged.
“Let There Be Oblivion” // Ade (Supplicium) – Rome’s Ade lays down a banger of a riff on “Let There Be Oblivion,” and it’s long and strong enough to push me through a set or two. If I’m struggling during a workout, whether in motivation or physically, I need every ounce of energy I can muster, and songs like this one can be the tipping point.
“Blinding Oblivion” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – Like Guts’ Nightmare Fuel, Bestial Possession boasts track after track of gym-ready scorchers. I chose “Blinding Oblivion” 1. to maintain consistency with “Let There Be Oblivion” and 2. because something about the subtle melody in the song gives it an air of refreshment that I need as the demands of my workout ramp to a frothing climax.
“Elevator Operator” // Electric Callboy (Elevator Operator) – It’s dumb, it’s trite, and it’s so devastatingly catchy that it sticks in my head for days on end. Most importantly, it makes me want to move things up and down, and I won’t apologize for that.
“Sunlight Covenant” // Spire of Lazarus (Those Who Live in Death) – I don’t dabble in deathcore often, but when I do, it’s usually technical, symphonic, and anthemic. Spire of Lazarus crafts just the right blend of their core components to make “Sunlight Covenant” a certified HMH banger. As a bonus, try to time it so that the track hits on your last set of the day—the melody and backing swells make a triumphant send-off as you clinch the last rep and wipe down the bench. You wiped the bench, right?
“Fossilized” // Ültra Raptör (Fossilized) – This song has stayed close since I first laid ears on it, and not once has it failed to engage the hype machine. Whether warming up, working out, or cooling down, the classic retro riffs and sunglasses-at-night nonchalance define a cool I strive for, and motivation like that is the key to gainz.
Dolph Does Heavy This Time:3
“Mortuary Rites” // Mörtual (Altar of Brutality) – Blood boils fastest with a roto-tom take off followed by a death-thrash pummel. As churning pit energy converts to flared nostrils, focused vision, and engorged fibers at the crack of a incessant stick, find a slow and steady breath as your body prepares for war.
“Tlazolteotl” // Kalaveraztekah (Nikan Axkan) – The beat of a clanging snare threatens whatever weighted structure exists in your path. “Tlazolteotl” marches ever forward through growling twists, hardwood clack, and flute-led guitar abandon. A brief respite of acoustics awaits—but so does the real bulk of this journey.
“Black Scrawl” // Pupil Slicer (Fleshwork) – Feedback, growling bass, pneumatic kicks, and an urgent snarl—Pupil Slicer demands your full thrust. With this affixing hardcore anchor, “Black Scrawl” will carry you to your first peak push with a dragging breakdown coda.
“Swamp Mentality” // The Acacia Strain (You Are Safe from God Here) – Rest does not come to those who push only once, though. The burn of your resolve will light the path in the angst and mire and core-fluid whiplash of “Swamp Mentality.” And Vincent Bennett’s tattered and spit-riddled mic will provide an extra OUGH to your exhale.
“Orphans” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – If you could tether your pulse to the relentless kick assaults that Chason Westmoreland brings to “Orphans”—all of Tooth and Nail really—your spotter wouldn’t be able to find dial emergency fast enough to save you. Instead, search for the heavier weighted tempo that exists between the pitter-patter as your guide. In this space, relentless and emotive riff runs and lead wails coalesce into one of the most threatening thrash-pit breaks of the year. Harness this power.
“The Great Day of His Wrath” // Blindfolded (What Seeps through Threads) – In vicious harmonized splendor, Blindfolded’s neoclassical scale hopping riffage possesses a buoyancy that is vital to remaining invigored. And whipping around bleating and squealing mic energy with resplendent solo work, “The Great Day of His Wrath” both maintains your demanding schedule and restores a lightness to your being before the heaviest pulls come to play.
“Retina” // Pillars of Cacophony (Paralipomena) – Neoclassical drama, however, doesn’t always seek to restore with its airy play. “Retina” arrives, rather, with a mechanical and and programmed structure that functions as a scaffold upon which ascending scale iterations match your own gradual and gravity-creating climb. As the pinch-happy shuffle sneers in precision stank-face deployment, resist the urge to discharge your steel load into the earth.
“Lunar Tear” // Barren Path (Grieving) – In any routine, no matter how structured, a moment of ferocious release can provide a benefit. Before this playlist enters its most grueling minutes, a lightning-speed romp in the grips of endless blasts and riffs exists to shake off the inertia that can result from testing your limits.
“Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” // Pissgrave (Malignant Worthlessness) – We are all filth—corpses brought to life by the signals we create. Synapses creating chains from proximal to distal drive our movements from concept to power. Through squelching refrain and lockstep death metal assault, fibers at the edge of their load-bearing capacity persist and persevere in the midst of Pissgrave’s shifting and grimy rhythms.
“Bursting with Life’s True Fruit” // Umulamahri (Learning the Secrets of Acid) – Guttural expression unlocks the last inches of a tough pull. As we channel Doug Moore’s garbage disposal tier phlegmanations into our own tidal vibrations, we visualize the final set. We are victorious. And in a celebratory expression of might, we slip into Umulamahri’s enlightened synth dissolution. Those who float cannot collapse.
#AndOceans #1914 #2025 #Ade #Ambush #Ashen #Barbarous #BarrenPath #Bianca #Biohazard #BlackSoulHorde #BlindEquation #Blindfolded #BloodRedThrone #Brainstorm #Cytotoxin #Deafheaven #DeathWhore #Depravity #DormantOrdeal #Eisbrecher #ElectricCallboy #FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium #Flummox #GloriousDepravity #Guts #HeavyMovesHeavy #Igorr #Jordsjuk #Kalaveraztekah #Majestica #Mortual #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #Nite #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #Phobocosm #PillarsOfCacophony #Pissgrave #PrimitiveMan #Psycroptic #PupilSlicer #RuinousPower #Sepulchral #SerenityInMurder #Soulfly #SpireOfLazarus #StarlightRitual #TheAcaciaStrain #ToTheGrave #ÜltraRaptör #Umulamahri #Unbirth #Werewolves #WinterSBane -
Heavy Moves Heavy 2025 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist By Thus Spoke
Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.1 The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt. ~ Ferox
A year has passed, and now the barbell of honour has been placed on my (regrettably smaller) shoulders as Ferox steps back from the AMG side-quest to focus on his main story. Our leader may be absent, but our search for gains continues with an otherwise full house and new recruits to boot. The songs that guided and shaped our workouts are compiled here in a playlist guaranteed to boost yours, whether you listen on shuffle or straight the way through.1 So what are you waiting for? Down your pre-workout, grab your straps and your knee-sleeves, and get ready to get massive. ~ Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke Enters Muscle Mommy Mode:
“Silence like the Grave” // Paradise Lost (Ascension) – Straightforwardly solid, catchy, sharp, with a killer atmosphere. Insta-playlist save when the single dropped. Paradise Lost back on top-form and just time to give you the energy for moving heavy things.
“Magnolia” // Deafheaven (Lonely People with Power) – Oh yeah, I’m dead serious. Sorry not sorry to any haters out there. This is four minutes and change of unqualified emotion and racing thoughts and it gets my blood running hot every damn time.
“Against the Dying of the Light” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – Unironically motivating in a way presumably not intended. Just when you want to quit, that roar of “raaage, RAAAAAAGGGE,” and the impeccable drum and guitar work come in to see you through.
“Condemnesia” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – The devastation of a currently-occurring nuclear disaster—complete with a frantically clicking geiger counter and a witness’ agonised moans—portrayed through slick, punchy tech-death. Do I need to explain?
“Perfida Contracçao do Aço” // Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (Perfida Contracçao do Aço) – I wouldn’t normally go for something like this; the vocals are kind of horrible. But the energetic ridiculousness is so fucking feral it takes you beyond pumped and into crazed maniac territory; which is obviously ideal for the gym.
“DNA (Do Not Amputate)” // To the Grave (Still) – Mean, melodic, and with a message, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t work while lifting. If I’m going to include any deathcore in the playlist at all, then it has to be To the Grave.
“Eunuch Maker” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If your resting-murder-face, hoodie, and headphones aren’t enough to keep people from having the audacity to speak to you, then listening to this could help. It’s massive, and fun as hell, and will make you look extra mean through osmosis, I guarantee.
“Architects of Extinction” // Psycroptic (Architects of Extinction) – Banger alert. The change in vocals makes this a smidge less strong than it otherwise would be, but c’mon; a riff that good has got to be anabolic.
“Amaranth” // Nephylim (Circuition) – My dopamine-fixation song for the best part of a month. It’s uplifting, it’s catchy, it’s infinitely replayable. What more do you want?
“Natural Law” // Primitive Man (Observance) – It’s not too long, it’s a very important, massive chunk of overwhelming heaviness that makes me feel ten times the size and heft I actually am. You can get through all three (or however many) sets with spare time to admire the pump.
“Deathless” // Phobocosm (Gateway) – Monstrous, massive, intense. Fast and furious isn’t always it; more and more, I crave slow, oppressive, and malevolent. It’s just what I crave to dig deeper.
“1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)” // 1914 (Viribus Unitis) – It took less than a single complete playthrough for this to end up on this list. It’s heavy enough for leg day, and it’s atmospheric and moving in that perfect way that helps you dissociate from how much your body hurts. I’ve had it on repeat through many a tough session since.
Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:
“Rot in the Pit” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If there was ever a song that eradicated mental blocks to that next rep, that next PR, that next push, it’s “Rot in the Pit.” Boasting mountain-moving swagger and a center riff that risks greater injury to my body than any ego lift could ever approach, Depravity penned a bona fide gymstormer with “Rot in the Pit.”
“Summoning Sickness” // Pedestal for Leviathan (Enter: Vampyric Manifestation) – Imagine getting legs so powerful and swole they force your gait to change—but you’re doing it in the basement of your Transylvanian vampire castle with Igor loading up weights on the bar for your next PR. That’s what “Summoning Sickness” feels like when I’m pushing
“Nachthexe” // Bianca (Bianca) – You wouldn’t expect something that dabbles so heavily in atmosphere to possess such meaty muscle as this, but Bianca’s “Nachthexe” proves the might of the sleeper build. Once they take of the airy, soft pump cover, a devastating topology of deadly power ripples just under the skin.
“The Insufferable Weight” // Barren Path (Grieving) – Don’t let the lighter weights I’m lugging around fool you. Volume days are fucking brutal, and a challenge for both my mind and my body. Barren Path’s “The Insufferable Weight” adrenalizes me with it’s speed and brutal rhythms just enough to survive those endless reps.
“Granfalloon” // Unbirth (Asomatous Besmirchment) – Unbirth is the pool from which some the nastiest, grooviest, and most deceptively complex riffs spawn. This is great fodder for those compound movements that build strength and density. You could pick anything off of Asomatous Besmirchment for such gains, but my preference is “Granfalloon.”
“Kollaps” // Jordsjuk (Naglet til livet) – Black metal? For the gym? You fucking bet. Guaranteed to pull you back from the brink of absolute failure, Jordsjuk’s “Kollaps” thrashes and shimmers with enough vibrancy and verve to make whatever load I’m pushing feel like light weight.
“Infestis” // Igorrr (Amen) – You wouldn’t expect something as weird and wacky as Igorrr to fit in the land of iron and steel, but here we are. With stomping riffs and vicious roars, “Infestis” is top tier workout gear. Great for keeping pace and supporting breath control, you’ll find much progress with Igorrr by your side.
“Flashback (ft. Strawberry Hospital)” // Blind Equation (A Funeral in Purgatory) – Every year I open up one slot for those high intensity workouts where cardio and strength meet. This year, my spotter cheering me on when I’m doing sprints and weighted jumps is Blind Equation’s intense and lightning-fast “Flashback.” Gotta go fast!!!
“Leave the Flesh Behind” // Ashen (Leave the Flesh Behind) – Probably the underdog in the litter, Ashen’s “Leave the Flesh” behind is all muscle, and a mountain of it at that. These riffs represent both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. One day, I hope to be like them.
“12 Worm Wounds” // Death Whore (Blood Washes Everything Away) – It was difficult to narrow down a selection from Death Whore’s lean and mean debut, but I keep coming back to the swaggering riffs of “12 Worm Wounds” went I need motivation for that next lift. It just makes everything I’m doing seem like the most fun I’ll ever have.
“The Fire in Which We Burn” // …and Oceans (The Regeneration Itinerary) – Boasting what I consider to be the single best black metal riff of 2025, …and Oceans greatly surprised me with a swaggering barnstormer of a track ready made to stoke the fire in my chest for a second wind. Hand me another set of plates, it’s time to go up for one more set!
“Never Difiled” // Serenity in Murder (Timeless Reverie) – Who needs to spell correctly when you have hundreds of pounds to push on the bar? This is the question I ask whenever the adrenaline-soaked “Never Difiled” plays as I rack up the plates for my next set. Nobody’s ever been able to give me an answer.
“The Twisted Helix” // Mutagenic Host (The Diseased Machine) – They say genetics play a huge role in what kind of gains you can expect to achieve naturally in the gym. Well, I’m an ectomorph so it’s tough—and takes a lot more time—to build and maintain muscle. The solution? Twist my helixes and instantly quadruple my gains. Mutagenic Host’s “The Twisted Helix” is just the tool for the job!
“+++Engine Kill+++” // Ruinous Power (EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry) – Sometimes you just need something threatening to rip the rails right off the track to hype you up for a grueling session. That’s what songs like Ruinous Power’s “+++Engine Kill+++” are for. Short, to the point, and vicious, it will get your blood surging and your body raring to go.
“Femto’s Theme” // Flummox (Southern Progress) – Something so theatrical doesn’t sound like a natural fit when working out, but the sheer heft and chunky rhythms of Flummox’s “Femto’s Theme” defies those expectations. I’ve been using it for leg days and the results are crazy town! Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!
Steel Druhm Trains His Ape Arms to Crush the Empire State Building:
“Abandoned Feretrum” // Sepulchral (Beneath the Shroud) – Blending old school black and death noise, Sepulchral mainline pure badger adrenaline and rattlesnake venom into your major muscle groups. Handle those power chugs with care, Brah.
“Necrobotic Enslavement” // Glorious Depravity (Death Never Sleeps) – Taking discarded Morbid Angel riffs and repurposing them to turn a peaceful man rabid is why we have science. Take 2 doses of “Necrobotic Enslavement” 30 minutes before throwing 45 lb plates at people who sit on exercise machines and chat.
“A Scream in the Snow” // Black Soul Horde (Symphony of Chaos) – Trve metal can embiggen the innate desire for strength and raw power like no other, and “A Scream in the Snow” will have you swinging olympic bars to get that sword arm ready for bloody constraint and weightroom glory.
“Eyes on Six” // Biohazard (Divided We Fall) – Loudmouthed tough guys from Brooklyn scream at you to watch your back as they try to snap it with angry riffs and bad attitudes. This is for the caveman living in your reptile brain.
“Carry On” // Nite (Cult of the Serpent Sun) – Badass riffs and Manowar-esque demands that you carry on despite hardships are the crucial things that separate a routine workout from a Herculean trial that transforms you. Carry on to bigness.
“Crusaders” // Starlight Ritual (Rogue Angels) – A dirty, greasy 80s metal anthem that sounds like proto-Iron Maiden is what you need to evolve from tubby baby to a fucking WRATHCHILD. Join this crusade and tip your templar.
“Iron Sign” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – Unraveling the Riddle of Steel requires a long, hard journey guided only by iron signs. This cut will set you on the right path toward your ferric destiny.
“Bending the Steel” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – If you’re out there bending the steel, why not get moral support from Ambush with this massive aggressive dose of testosterone and primal motivation? When the singer shouts, “Let’s go, boys!” you’ll feel your strength grow 3 times (plus two!). With an iron will, you gotta keep bending the steel!
“Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm write heavy metal for leg day, and Garuda is your feathery guardian iron eagle compelling you to crush that feeble PB. The strong can tell their eagle where to fly and what snakes to eat.
“Beyond Enemy Lines” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm ain’t done with you by a damn sight! If the thundering drums and beefy riffs here don’t get you chalked up and ready for iron warfare, you should take up underwater doily knitting.
Steel-Jacketed Olden Bonus:
“Spark to the Flame” // Winter’s Bane (Redivivus) – One of the greatest gym/workout songs EVER. Lyrics that speak of creating a better version of yourself as you burn in the crucible of effort will help you rise high as those burly riffs hammer your inner coward into moist gum paste.
Grin Reaper Gets Down with the Fitness:
“No Pain, No Gain” // Majestica (Power Train) – Metals of Power and Heft are a must for my workouts, especially stretching and pre-lifting calisthenics. Majestica’s cheesy anthem is perfect montage-fodder, and even though the track is rife with clichéd chestnuts, it features kinetic hooks that gird my gears for what’s to come.
“Storm the Gates” // Soulfly (Chama) – Once I’m limbered up, it’s time to sweat. Max and the boys’ bouncy grooves peddle just the right combination of chest-thumping swagger and ferocity to make sure my next rep sets the tone for a simmering sesh of glorious gainz.
“Skullbattering” // Werewolves (The Ugliest of All) – There’s no better way to keep momentum hurtling forward than with a good ol’ fashioned ode to smashing braincases. Setting the right tone for a workout is paramount, and here Werewolves does not fuck around. There’s nothing pretty or flowery about “Skullbattering,” but if swole is your goal, you need to exorcise the Ugly.
“Anodyne Rust” // Blood Red Throne (Siltskin) – I hurt my shoulder a few years ago, and though stretching and (prescribed) drugs didn’t help much, bulking up did. Exercise slipped out of my routine as work and family commitments grew (as did my waistline), but as I’ve recently knocked the Rust off my dumbbells, I’m reminded of the palliative restoration that comes from pumping iron and death metal.
“Ravenous Leech” // Guts (Nightmare Fuel) – Scuzzy, groovy, and unapologetically fun, Nightmare Fuel is filled to the gills with mid-paced chugs that make a great soundtrack for AMRAP workouts. While most of Guts’ bloody remnants will Fuel your workout, spinning “Ravenous Leech” is sure to leave you hungry for even more punishment.
“By Lead or Steel” // Barbarous (Initium Mors) – Does Cannibal Corpse feature heavily in your gym listening? If so, consider Barbarous, who channels similar vibes and vitriol with less viscera. It’ll make you want to drink motör oil and punch babies, and that’s the kind of shove you need when you’re out on swole patrol.2
“Kaltfront” // Eisbrecher (Kaltfront) – Something about heavy distortion, dance-adjacent electronics, and gravelly vocals makes ‘New German Hardness’ prime listening for calculated and efficient movements. With near imperceptible head bops and a commitment to perfect form, this “Kaltfront” leaves me focused and hard as a block of ice.
“Hope Terminator” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – Plenty of great death metal jams spurn gym-list inclusion with slow-build intros, not getting to proper stankin’ until they’re well into the track. Cytotoxin knows better, immediately flaying you with technicality. “Hope Terminator’ is the perfect mid-playlist piece to curb fatigue and keep your spirit engorged.
“Let There Be Oblivion” // Ade (Supplicium) – Rome’s Ade lays down a banger of a riff on “Let There Be Oblivion,” and it’s long and strong enough to push me through a set or two. If I’m struggling during a workout, whether in motivation or physically, I need every ounce of energy I can muster, and songs like this one can be the tipping point.
“Blinding Oblivion” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – Like Guts’ Nightmare Fuel, Bestial Possession boasts track after track of gym-ready scorchers. I chose “Blinding Oblivion” 1. to maintain consistency with “Let There Be Oblivion” and 2. because something about the subtle melody in the song gives it an air of refreshment that I need as the demands of my workout ramp to a frothing climax.
“Elevator Operator” // Electric Callboy (Elevator Operator) – It’s dumb, it’s trite, and it’s so devastatingly catchy that it sticks in my head for days on end. Most importantly, it makes me want to move things up and down, and I won’t apologize for that.
“Sunlight Covenant” // Spire of Lazarus (Those Who Live in Death) – I don’t dabble in deathcore often, but when I do, it’s usually technical, symphonic, and anthemic. Spire of Lazarus crafts just the right blend of their core components to make “Sunlight Covenant” a certified HMH banger. As a bonus, try to time it so that the track hits on your last set of the day—the melody and backing swells make a triumphant send-off as you clinch the last rep and wipe down the bench. You wiped the bench, right?
“Fossilized” // Ültra Raptör (Fossilized) – This song has stayed close since I first laid ears on it, and not once has it failed to engage the hype machine. Whether warming up, working out, or cooling down, the classic retro riffs and sunglasses-at-night nonchalance define a cool I strive for, and motivation like that is the key to gainz.
Dolph Does Heavy This Time:3
“Mortuary Rites” // Mörtual (Altar of Brutality) – Blood boils fastest with a roto-tom take off followed by a death-thrash pummel. As churning pit energy converts to flared nostrils, focused vision, and engorged fibers at the crack of a incessant stick, find a slow and steady breath as your body prepares for war.
“Tlazolteotl” // Kalaveraztekah (Nikan Axkan) – The beat of a clanging snare threatens whatever weighted structure exists in your path. “Tlazolteotl” marches ever forward through growling twists, hardwood clack, and flute-led guitar abandon. A brief respite of acoustics awaits—but so does the real bulk of this journey.
“Black Scrawl” // Pupil Slicer (Fleshwork) – Feedback, growling bass, pneumatic kicks, and an urgent snarl—Pupil Slicer demands your full thrust. With this affixing hardcore anchor, “Black Scrawl” will carry you to your first peak push with a dragging breakdown coda.
“Swamp Mentality” // The Acacia Strain (You Are Safe from God Here) – Rest does not come to those who push only once, though. The burn of your resolve will light the path in the angst and mire and core-fluid whiplash of “Swamp Mentality.” And Vincent Bennett’s tattered and spit-riddled mic will provide an extra OUGH to your exhale.
“Orphans” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – If you could tether your pulse to the relentless kick assaults that Chason Westmoreland brings to “Orphans”—all of Tooth and Nail really—your spotter wouldn’t be able to find dial emergency fast enough to save you. Instead, search for the heavier weighted tempo that exists between the pitter-patter as your guide. In this space, relentless and emotive riff runs and lead wails coalesce into one of the most threatening thrash-pit breaks of the year. Harness this power.
“The Great Day of His Wrath” // Blindfolded (What Seeps through Threads) – In vicious harmonized splendor, Blindfolded’s neoclassical scale hopping riffage possesses a buoyancy that is vital to remaining invigored. And whipping around bleating and squealing mic energy with resplendent solo work, “The Great Day of His Wrath” both maintains your demanding schedule and restores a lightness to your being before the heaviest pulls come to play.
“Retina” // Pillars of Cacophony (Paralipomena) – Neoclassical drama, however, doesn’t always seek to restore with its airy play. “Retina” arrives, rather, with a mechanical and and programmed structure that functions as a scaffold upon which ascending scale iterations match your own gradual and gravity-creating climb. As the pinch-happy shuffle sneers in precision stank-face deployment, resist the urge to discharge your steel load into the earth.
“Lunar Tear” // Barren Path (Grieving) – In any routine, no matter how structured, a moment of ferocious release can provide a benefit. Before this playlist enters its most grueling minutes, a lightning-speed romp in the grips of endless blasts and riffs exists to shake off the inertia that can result from testing your limits.
“Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” // Pissgrave (Malignant Worthlessness) – We are all filth—corpses brought to life by the signals we create. Synapses creating chains from proximal to distal drive our movements from concept to power. Through squelching refrain and lockstep death metal assault, fibers at the edge of their load-bearing capacity persist and persevere in the midst of Pissgrave’s shifting and grimy rhythms.
“Bursting with Life’s True Fruit” // Umulamahri (Learning the Secrets of Acid) – Guttural expression unlocks the last inches of a tough pull. As we channel Doug Moore’s garbage disposal tier phlegmanations into our own tidal vibrations, we visualize the final set. We are victorious. And in a celebratory expression of might, we slip into Umulamahri’s enlightened synth dissolution. Those who float cannot collapse.
#AndOceans #1914 #2025 #Ade #Ambush #Ashen #Barbarous #BarrenPath #Bianca #Biohazard #BlackSoulHorde #BlindEquation #Blindfolded #BloodRedThrone #Brainstorm #Cytotoxin #Deafheaven #DeathWhore #Depravity #DormantOrdeal #Eisbrecher #ElectricCallboy #FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium #Flummox #GloriousDepravity #Guts #HeavyMovesHeavy #Igorr #Jordsjuk #Kalaveraztekah #Majestica #Mortual #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #Nite #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #Phobocosm #PillarsOfCacophony #Pissgrave #PrimitiveMan #Psycroptic #PupilSlicer #RuinousPower #Sepulchral #SerenityInMurder #Soulfly #SpireOfLazarus #StarlightRitual #TheAcaciaStrain #ToTheGrave #ÜltraRaptör #Umulamahri #Unbirth #Werewolves #WinterSBane -
Heavy Moves Heavy 2025 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist By Thus Spoke
Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.1 The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt. ~ Ferox
A year has passed, and now the barbell of honour has been placed on my (regrettably smaller) shoulders as Ferox steps back from the AMG side-quest to focus on his main story. Our leader may be absent, but our search for gains continues with an otherwise full house and new recruits to boot. The songs that guided and shaped our workouts are compiled here in a playlist guaranteed to boost yours, whether you listen on shuffle or straight the way through.1 So what are you waiting for? Down your pre-workout, grab your straps and your knee-sleeves, and get ready to get massive. ~ Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke Enters Muscle Mommy Mode:
“Silence like the Grave” // Paradise Lost (Ascension) – Straightforwardly solid, catchy, sharp, with a killer atmosphere. Insta-playlist save when the single dropped. Paradise Lost back on top-form and just time to give you the energy for moving heavy things.
“Magnolia” // Deafheaven (Lonely People with Power) – Oh yeah, I’m dead serious. Sorry not sorry to any haters out there. This is four minutes and change of unqualified emotion and racing thoughts and it gets my blood running hot every damn time.
“Against the Dying of the Light” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – Unironically motivating in a way presumably not intended. Just when you want to quit, that roar of “raaage, RAAAAAAGGGE,” and the impeccable drum and guitar work come in to see you through.
“Condemnesia” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – The devastation of a currently-occurring nuclear disaster—complete with a frantically clicking geiger counter and a witness’ agonised moans—portrayed through slick, punchy tech-death. Do I need to explain?
“Perfida Contracçao do Aço” // Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (Perfida Contracçao do Aço) – I wouldn’t normally go for something like this; the vocals are kind of horrible. But the energetic ridiculousness is so fucking feral it takes you beyond pumped and into crazed maniac territory; which is obviously ideal for the gym.
“DNA (Do Not Amputate)” // To the Grave (Still) – Mean, melodic, and with a message, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t work while lifting. If I’m going to include any deathcore in the playlist at all, then it has to be To the Grave.
“Eunuch Maker” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If your resting-murder-face, hoodie, and headphones aren’t enough to keep people from having the audacity to speak to you, then listening to this could help. It’s massive, and fun as hell, and will make you look extra mean through osmosis, I guarantee.
“Architects of Extinction” // Psycroptic (Architects of Extinction) – Banger alert. The change in vocals makes this a smidge less strong than it otherwise would be, but c’mon; a riff that good has got to be anabolic.
“Amaranth” // Nephylim (Circuition) – My dopamine-fixation song for the best part of a month. It’s uplifting, it’s catchy, it’s infinitely replayable. What more do you want?
“Natural Law” // Primitive Man (Observance) – It’s not too long, it’s a very important, massive chunk of overwhelming heaviness that makes me feel ten times the size and heft I actually am. You can get through all three (or however many) sets with spare time to admire the pump.
“Deathless” // Phobocosm (Gateway) – Monstrous, massive, intense. Fast and furious isn’t always it; more and more, I crave slow, oppressive, and malevolent. It’s just what I crave to dig deeper.
“1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)” // 1914 (Viribus Unitis) – It took less than a single complete playthrough for this to end up on this list. It’s heavy enough for leg day, and it’s atmospheric and moving in that perfect way that helps you dissociate from how much your body hurts. I’ve had it on repeat through many a tough session since.
Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:
“Rot in the Pit” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – If there was ever a song that eradicated mental blocks to that next rep, that next PR, that next push, it’s “Rot in the Pit.” Boasting mountain-moving swagger and a center riff that risks greater injury to my body than any ego lift could ever approach, Depravity penned a bona fide gymstormer with “Rot in the Pit.”
“Summoning Sickness” // Pedestal for Leviathan (Enter: Vampyric Manifestation) – Imagine getting legs so powerful and swole they force your gait to change—but you’re doing it in the basement of your Transylvanian vampire castle with Igor loading up weights on the bar for your next PR. That’s what “Summoning Sickness” feels like when I’m pushing
“Nachthexe” // Bianca (Bianca) – You wouldn’t expect something that dabbles so heavily in atmosphere to possess such meaty muscle as this, but Bianca’s “Nachthexe” proves the might of the sleeper build. Once they take of the airy, soft pump cover, a devastating topology of deadly power ripples just under the skin.
“The Insufferable Weight” // Barren Path (Grieving) – Don’t let the lighter weights I’m lugging around fool you. Volume days are fucking brutal, and a challenge for both my mind and my body. Barren Path’s “The Insufferable Weight” adrenalizes me with it’s speed and brutal rhythms just enough to survive those endless reps.
“Granfalloon” // Unbirth (Asomatous Besmirchment) – Unbirth is the pool from which some the nastiest, grooviest, and most deceptively complex riffs spawn. This is great fodder for those compound movements that build strength and density. You could pick anything off of Asomatous Besmirchment for such gains, but my preference is “Granfalloon.”
“Kollaps” // Jordsjuk (Naglet til livet) – Black metal? For the gym? You fucking bet. Guaranteed to pull you back from the brink of absolute failure, Jordsjuk’s “Kollaps” thrashes and shimmers with enough vibrancy and verve to make whatever load I’m pushing feel like light weight.
“Infestis” // Igorrr (Amen) – You wouldn’t expect something as weird and wacky as Igorrr to fit in the land of iron and steel, but here we are. With stomping riffs and vicious roars, “Infestis” is top tier workout gear. Great for keeping pace and supporting breath control, you’ll find much progress with Igorrr by your side.
“Flashback (ft. Strawberry Hospital)” // Blind Equation (A Funeral in Purgatory) – Every year I open up one slot for those high intensity workouts where cardio and strength meet. This year, my spotter cheering me on when I’m doing sprints and weighted jumps is Blind Equation’s intense and lightning-fast “Flashback.” Gotta go fast!!!
“Leave the Flesh Behind” // Ashen (Leave the Flesh Behind) – Probably the underdog in the litter, Ashen’s “Leave the Flesh” behind is all muscle, and a mountain of it at that. These riffs represent both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. One day, I hope to be like them.
“12 Worm Wounds” // Death Whore (Blood Washes Everything Away) – It was difficult to narrow down a selection from Death Whore’s lean and mean debut, but I keep coming back to the swaggering riffs of “12 Worm Wounds” went I need motivation for that next lift. It just makes everything I’m doing seem like the most fun I’ll ever have.
“The Fire in Which We Burn” // …and Oceans (The Regeneration Itinerary) – Boasting what I consider to be the single best black metal riff of 2025, …and Oceans greatly surprised me with a swaggering barnstormer of a track ready made to stoke the fire in my chest for a second wind. Hand me another set of plates, it’s time to go up for one more set!
“Never Difiled” // Serenity in Murder (Timeless Reverie) – Who needs to spell correctly when you have hundreds of pounds to push on the bar? This is the question I ask whenever the adrenaline-soaked “Never Difiled” plays as I rack up the plates for my next set. Nobody’s ever been able to give me an answer.
“The Twisted Helix” // Mutagenic Host (The Diseased Machine) – They say genetics play a huge role in what kind of gains you can expect to achieve naturally in the gym. Well, I’m an ectomorph so it’s tough—and takes a lot more time—to build and maintain muscle. The solution? Twist my helixes and instantly quadruple my gains. Mutagenic Host’s “The Twisted Helix” is just the tool for the job!
“+++Engine Kill+++” // Ruinous Power (EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry) – Sometimes you just need something threatening to rip the rails right off the track to hype you up for a grueling session. That’s what songs like Ruinous Power’s “+++Engine Kill+++” are for. Short, to the point, and vicious, it will get your blood surging and your body raring to go.
“Femto’s Theme” // Flummox (Southern Progress) – Something so theatrical doesn’t sound like a natural fit when working out, but the sheer heft and chunky rhythms of Flummox’s “Femto’s Theme” defies those expectations. I’ve been using it for leg days and the results are crazy town! Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!
Steel Druhm Trains His Ape Arms to Crush the Empire State Building:
“Abandoned Feretrum” // Sepulchral (Beneath the Shroud) – Blending old school black and death noise, Sepulchral mainline pure badger adrenaline and rattlesnake venom into your major muscle groups. Handle those power chugs with care, Brah.
“Necrobotic Enslavement” // Glorious Depravity (Death Never Sleeps) – Taking discarded Morbid Angel riffs and repurposing them to turn a peaceful man rabid is why we have science. Take 2 doses of “Necrobotic Enslavement” 30 minutes before throwing 45 lb plates at people who sit on exercise machines and chat.
“A Scream in the Snow” // Black Soul Horde (Symphony of Chaos) – Trve metal can embiggen the innate desire for strength and raw power like no other, and “A Scream in the Snow” will have you swinging olympic bars to get that sword arm ready for bloody constraint and weightroom glory.
“Eyes on Six” // Biohazard (Divided We Fall) – Loudmouthed tough guys from Brooklyn scream at you to watch your back as they try to snap it with angry riffs and bad attitudes. This is for the caveman living in your reptile brain.
“Carry On” // Nite (Cult of the Serpent Sun) – Badass riffs and Manowar-esque demands that you carry on despite hardships are the crucial things that separate a routine workout from a Herculean trial that transforms you. Carry on to bigness.
“Crusaders” // Starlight Ritual (Rogue Angels) – A dirty, greasy 80s metal anthem that sounds like proto-Iron Maiden is what you need to evolve from tubby baby to a fucking WRATHCHILD. Join this crusade and tip your templar.
“Iron Sign” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – Unraveling the Riddle of Steel requires a long, hard journey guided only by iron signs. This cut will set you on the right path toward your ferric destiny.
“Bending the Steel” // Ambush (Evil in All Dimensions) – If you’re out there bending the steel, why not get moral support from Ambush with this massive aggressive dose of testosterone and primal motivation? When the singer shouts, “Let’s go, boys!” you’ll feel your strength grow 3 times (plus two!). With an iron will, you gotta keep bending the steel!
“Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm write heavy metal for leg day, and Garuda is your feathery guardian iron eagle compelling you to crush that feeble PB. The strong can tell their eagle where to fly and what snakes to eat.
“Beyond Enemy Lines” // Brainstorm (Plague of Rats) – Brainstorm ain’t done with you by a damn sight! If the thundering drums and beefy riffs here don’t get you chalked up and ready for iron warfare, you should take up underwater doily knitting.
Steel-Jacketed Olden Bonus:
“Spark to the Flame” // Winter’s Bane (Redivivus) – One of the greatest gym/workout songs EVER. Lyrics that speak of creating a better version of yourself as you burn in the crucible of effort will help you rise high as those burly riffs hammer your inner coward into moist gum paste.
Grin Reaper Gets Down with the Fitness:
“No Pain, No Gain” // Majestica (Power Train) – Metals of Power and Heft are a must for my workouts, especially stretching and pre-lifting calisthenics. Majestica’s cheesy anthem is perfect montage-fodder, and even though the track is rife with clichéd chestnuts, it features kinetic hooks that gird my gears for what’s to come.
“Storm the Gates” // Soulfly (Chama) – Once I’m limbered up, it’s time to sweat. Max and the boys’ bouncy grooves peddle just the right combination of chest-thumping swagger and ferocity to make sure my next rep sets the tone for a simmering sesh of glorious gainz.
“Skullbattering” // Werewolves (The Ugliest of All) – There’s no better way to keep momentum hurtling forward than with a good ol’ fashioned ode to smashing braincases. Setting the right tone for a workout is paramount, and here Werewolves does not fuck around. There’s nothing pretty or flowery about “Skullbattering,” but if swole is your goal, you need to exorcise the Ugly.
“Anodyne Rust” // Blood Red Throne (Siltskin) – I hurt my shoulder a few years ago, and though stretching and (prescribed) drugs didn’t help much, bulking up did. Exercise slipped out of my routine as work and family commitments grew (as did my waistline), but as I’ve recently knocked the Rust off my dumbbells, I’m reminded of the palliative restoration that comes from pumping iron and death metal.
“Ravenous Leech” // Guts (Nightmare Fuel) – Scuzzy, groovy, and unapologetically fun, Nightmare Fuel is filled to the gills with mid-paced chugs that make a great soundtrack for AMRAP workouts. While most of Guts’ bloody remnants will Fuel your workout, spinning “Ravenous Leech” is sure to leave you hungry for even more punishment.
“By Lead or Steel” // Barbarous (Initium Mors) – Does Cannibal Corpse feature heavily in your gym listening? If so, consider Barbarous, who channels similar vibes and vitriol with less viscera. It’ll make you want to drink motör oil and punch babies, and that’s the kind of shove you need when you’re out on swole patrol.2
“Kaltfront” // Eisbrecher (Kaltfront) – Something about heavy distortion, dance-adjacent electronics, and gravelly vocals makes ‘New German Hardness’ prime listening for calculated and efficient movements. With near imperceptible head bops and a commitment to perfect form, this “Kaltfront” leaves me focused and hard as a block of ice.
“Hope Terminator” // Cytotoxin (Biographyte) – Plenty of great death metal jams spurn gym-list inclusion with slow-build intros, not getting to proper stankin’ until they’re well into the track. Cytotoxin knows better, immediately flaying you with technicality. “Hope Terminator’ is the perfect mid-playlist piece to curb fatigue and keep your spirit engorged.
“Let There Be Oblivion” // Ade (Supplicium) – Rome’s Ade lays down a banger of a riff on “Let There Be Oblivion,” and it’s long and strong enough to push me through a set or two. If I’m struggling during a workout, whether in motivation or physically, I need every ounce of energy I can muster, and songs like this one can be the tipping point.
“Blinding Oblivion” // Depravity (Bestial Possession) – Like Guts’ Nightmare Fuel, Bestial Possession boasts track after track of gym-ready scorchers. I chose “Blinding Oblivion” 1. to maintain consistency with “Let There Be Oblivion” and 2. because something about the subtle melody in the song gives it an air of refreshment that I need as the demands of my workout ramp to a frothing climax.
“Elevator Operator” // Electric Callboy (Elevator Operator) – It’s dumb, it’s trite, and it’s so devastatingly catchy that it sticks in my head for days on end. Most importantly, it makes me want to move things up and down, and I won’t apologize for that.
“Sunlight Covenant” // Spire of Lazarus (Those Who Live in Death) – I don’t dabble in deathcore often, but when I do, it’s usually technical, symphonic, and anthemic. Spire of Lazarus crafts just the right blend of their core components to make “Sunlight Covenant” a certified HMH banger. As a bonus, try to time it so that the track hits on your last set of the day—the melody and backing swells make a triumphant send-off as you clinch the last rep and wipe down the bench. You wiped the bench, right?
“Fossilized” // Ültra Raptör (Fossilized) – This song has stayed close since I first laid ears on it, and not once has it failed to engage the hype machine. Whether warming up, working out, or cooling down, the classic retro riffs and sunglasses-at-night nonchalance define a cool I strive for, and motivation like that is the key to gainz.
Dolph Does Heavy This Time:3
“Mortuary Rites” // Mörtual (Altar of Brutality) – Blood boils fastest with a roto-tom take off followed by a death-thrash pummel. As churning pit energy converts to flared nostrils, focused vision, and engorged fibers at the crack of a incessant stick, find a slow and steady breath as your body prepares for war.
“Tlazolteotl” // Kalaveraztekah (Nikan Axkan) – The beat of a clanging snare threatens whatever weighted structure exists in your path. “Tlazolteotl” marches ever forward through growling twists, hardwood clack, and flute-led guitar abandon. A brief respite of acoustics awaits—but so does the real bulk of this journey.
“Black Scrawl” // Pupil Slicer (Fleshwork) – Feedback, growling bass, pneumatic kicks, and an urgent snarl—Pupil Slicer demands your full thrust. With this affixing hardcore anchor, “Black Scrawl” will carry you to your first peak push with a dragging breakdown coda.
“Swamp Mentality” // The Acacia Strain (You Are Safe from God Here) – Rest does not come to those who push only once, though. The burn of your resolve will light the path in the angst and mire and core-fluid whiplash of “Swamp Mentality.” And Vincent Bennett’s tattered and spit-riddled mic will provide an extra OUGH to your exhale.
“Orphans” // Dormant Ordeal (Tooth and Nail) – If you could tether your pulse to the relentless kick assaults that Chason Westmoreland brings to “Orphans”—all of Tooth and Nail really—your spotter wouldn’t be able to find dial emergency fast enough to save you. Instead, search for the heavier weighted tempo that exists between the pitter-patter as your guide. In this space, relentless and emotive riff runs and lead wails coalesce into one of the most threatening thrash-pit breaks of the year. Harness this power.
“The Great Day of His Wrath” // Blindfolded (What Seeps through Threads) – In vicious harmonized splendor, Blindfolded’s neoclassical scale hopping riffage possesses a buoyancy that is vital to remaining invigored. And whipping around bleating and squealing mic energy with resplendent solo work, “The Great Day of His Wrath” both maintains your demanding schedule and restores a lightness to your being before the heaviest pulls come to play.
“Retina” // Pillars of Cacophony (Paralipomena) – Neoclassical drama, however, doesn’t always seek to restore with its airy play. “Retina” arrives, rather, with a mechanical and and programmed structure that functions as a scaffold upon which ascending scale iterations match your own gradual and gravity-creating climb. As the pinch-happy shuffle sneers in precision stank-face deployment, resist the urge to discharge your steel load into the earth.
“Lunar Tear” // Barren Path (Grieving) – In any routine, no matter how structured, a moment of ferocious release can provide a benefit. Before this playlist enters its most grueling minutes, a lightning-speed romp in the grips of endless blasts and riffs exists to shake off the inertia that can result from testing your limits.
“Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” // Pissgrave (Malignant Worthlessness) – We are all filth—corpses brought to life by the signals we create. Synapses creating chains from proximal to distal drive our movements from concept to power. Through squelching refrain and lockstep death metal assault, fibers at the edge of their load-bearing capacity persist and persevere in the midst of Pissgrave’s shifting and grimy rhythms.
“Bursting with Life’s True Fruit” // Umulamahri (Learning the Secrets of Acid) – Guttural expression unlocks the last inches of a tough pull. As we channel Doug Moore’s garbage disposal tier phlegmanations into our own tidal vibrations, we visualize the final set. We are victorious. And in a celebratory expression of might, we slip into Umulamahri’s enlightened synth dissolution. Those who float cannot collapse.
#AndOceans #1914 #2025 #Ade #Ambush #Ashen #Barbarous #BarrenPath #Bianca #Biohazard #BlackSoulHorde #BlindEquation #Blindfolded #BloodRedThrone #Brainstorm #Cytotoxin #Deafheaven #DeathWhore #Depravity #DormantOrdeal #Eisbrecher #ElectricCallboy #FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium #Flummox #GloriousDepravity #Guts #HeavyMovesHeavy #Igorr #Jordsjuk #Kalaveraztekah #Majestica #Mortual #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #Nite #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #Phobocosm #PillarsOfCacophony #Pissgrave #PrimitiveMan #Psycroptic #PupilSlicer #RuinousPower #Sepulchral #SerenityInMurder #Soulfly #SpireOfLazarus #StarlightRitual #TheAcaciaStrain #ToTheGrave #ÜltraRaptör #Umulamahri #Unbirth #Werewolves #WinterSBane -
Jimmy’s: the thread about the school on St Leonard’s Crag
Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (those built 1872-1918) hold a particular fascination for me, one most profound where they have been “deconsecrated” and are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but soon snowballed into an alphabetical deep-dive into each.
Part nine of the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” series takes us to St Leonard’s Crag, the rather romantic sounding name for a quarried-out promontory where the western boundary of Holyrood Park meets the old district of St Leonard’s (a name harking back to a so-named 12th century chapel and hospital). Perched atop it is these days is a handsome old building, now converted to flats, whose striking feature is a grand corner tower in the style of a French château. For those with a keen eye, the letters ESB carved on its façade give the game away that this was once a school, the last that would be designed and built by the Edinburgh School Board and one that was strikingly different from what had come before it. This is the former James Clark School– universally known locally as Jimmy’s – the feature of chapter nine of the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” series.
The former James Clark School, southern elevation.The Edinburgh School Board was formed as a result of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 which made education compulsory (but not then free) between the ages of five and thirteen. It was largely constituted from the various parish schools of the main Presbyterian churches; the Kirk and the Free Kirk between them educating around 40% of pupils in the city at this time. In the first three decades of its existence it embarked upon a mass-building programme to furnish the city with enough purpose-built new “public schools” to house and teach the children of its burgeoning population. In the Southside, no fewer than seven were opened; Bristo (1877); Causewayside (1877); St Leonard’s (1880); South Bridge (1886); Davie Street (1887); Sciennes (1892) and Preston Street (1897).
Former South Bridge Public School, a typical early “barracks block” product of the Edinburgh School Board in its favoured Collegiate Gothic style, by its house architect Robert WilsonThese had replaced the hodge-podge of inadequate and antiquated facilities that the Board had inherited but were only just able to meet the demand as the school-age population continued to rise. This was the result of a number of factors including the abolition of fees in 1890, more stringent efforts to ensure attendance, making it harder to employ school-age children in the daytime workplace and the raising of the minimum leaving age to fourteen by the Education (Scotland) Act 1901. By 1911 school capacity in the Southside had been well and truly exceeded; Sciennes had fifteen classes over-capacity, South Bridge eleven, St Leonard’s three and Bristo two. The Board thus felt it had no option but to built yet another new facility in the district, but the area was by now heavily developed and prospective sites were hard to come by. Eventually the relatively small and topographically complex one acre plot of the Gibraltar Villas at St. Leonard’s Bank was acquired, as well as an adjoining house to be converted for the school janitor.
Comparison of 1893 and 1944 OS Town Plans showing the St Leonard’s district. Gibraltar Villas are on the bottom right, where the James Clark School will later be built. St Leonard’s Public School is the cruciform building in the bottom middle, on Forbes Street, later an annexe to “Jimmy’s”. To its left is Free St Paul’s where the old district school was held in the Sabbath School Hall – later a temporary annexe – and at the top left is Davie Street School also later an annexe of technical workshops. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandPlans were approved on March 25th 1913 to the designs of the Board’s long-serving architect, John Alexander Carfrae. But architectural thinking had moved on significantly with respect to school design since the looming “barracks” blocks of previous decades and Carfrae was rapidly adapting his style at this time in response. What he proposed was a two-storey, F-plan building with a capacity for 850 children in seventeen classrooms. It would be one which embodied the latest theories about maximising natural lighting and ventilation and an evolution of his preceding work at Tollcross School. Gone were the tall, mechanically-ventilated rooms lit by high-set windows on only one side in a sinister attempt to stamp out left-handedness. Instead, in came classrooms arranged “one deep” (i.e. with external walls on opposite sides of the room), naturally lit with as many windows as possible on both sides and naturally cross-ventilated by opening these windows. Gone too were the warren of internal corridors, rooms accessed off of rooms and monumental “parade” staircases and in came open verandahs, each classroom being directly accessed from its own door to the outside, protected from the worst of the elements by glazed canopies. The windows on the verandah side could be folded open so that classes could be “taught practically in the open air“.
Former James Clark School, from the upper playgrounds. Note there are windows on the rear (north) side of the closest classrooms, largely to provide natural cross-ventilation across from front to rear. The well considered arrangement of the buildings and use of topography means the two-storey range closest to the viewpoint casts relatively little shadow into the playground behind it. The squat, single-storey block contained toilets. The east range to the left of the photo has a first floor verandah giving access directly to each classroom from the open air. Picture via Ativa Property listingPrevious practice had been to simply plonk the school block directly alongside the street in a central and symmetrical manner that looked pleased on the drawings but which made for dark, oppressive and stale playgrounds and classrooms badly affected by road noise. Instead, the new school was pushed north by some seventy feet from the boundary to give an open, south-facing playground which maximised sunlight and circulation of air. A second, inner playground made use of the plot’s topography to also get the best of the daylight and drouth. Again following the lead of Tollcross, the styling was restrained; a mix of plain, rustic masonry and smooth ashlar at the ground floor giving way to glass and facing brick for the upper storey. One exception to this visual austerity was made though with advantage taken “of its commanding position to give it some bolder features rather than to employ elaborate architectural detail” – that enormous tower in the southeaster corner, which elegantly morphed from a square section to a conical spire and contained the headmaster’s office and a staffroom in its upper levels. The end product would be visually unique in the landscape of Edinburgh schools.
Former James Clark School, southern elevation showing the corner tower and Salisbury Crag’s beyond. Picture via Ativa Property listingThe new school was to be christened King’s Park School in acknowledgement of the formal name of Holyrood Park over which it had a commanding view and tenders were solicited in March 1913, with a total cost of £18,000 approved. However its shared boundary with that park caused “friction” in July that year when the Ministry of Works – the park’s custodians – demanded an annual 2 Guineas ground rent for a boundary wall which was be demolished and encroached upon by some eighteen inches.
The Scotsman, 15th March 1913A tender for furniture was invited on 24th October 1914 but by this time World War Once had commenced and opening would never come. Instead the nearly completed but empty building (the north range of the F-plan was not yet built) was requisitioned by the War Office for the billeting of troops. Here stalled and ended the brief story of King’s Park School: but it was not the end, indeed it was really only the beginning.
A monogrammed desk from the James Clark School that formerly stood outside the headmaster’s office, now located in the Southside Heritage Association’s museum in the Nelson Halls.When the school board took back possession of its building in 1918 it found itself now faced with a declining need for elementary-grade schools and an increasing need for supplementary grade capacity (i.e. for ages twelve to fourteen and potentially beyond). This was to provide the specialist training needed by the city’s industries for children destined to enter their workforces in a few years time. At this time these children were taught in their normal elementary schools in what were called the Supplementary Divisions; in 1905 the School Board had 3,494 such pupils on its books but by 1912 this had tripled to 10,391, but with an estimated deficit of 6,000 spaces. 1909 they had considered building three new Supplementary Schools to centralise this teaching in purpose-built facilities equipped with the necessary technical workshops and classrooms. Ground was aquired to the west at Tynecastle – where a Technical and Commercial School would be opened in 1911 – and at Bellevue to the north for this purpose. The third such school was to serve the Southside but had been delayed owing to the outbreak of the war. Finding a brand new, empty school in its hands and a declining elementary roll in the district, the solution presented itself.
It was decided to rename the new institution in honour of Lt. Col James Clark KC CB, late Chairman of the Edinburgh School Board and who had been killed in action at the Second Battle of Ypres. Fifty-six year old Clark – a long-serving Territorial Army officer – had volunteered to command the 9th (Dumbartonshire) Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and was hit by a shell on the morning of May 1915 when leading his battalion forward near Zouave Wood to relieve the 2nd Cameron Highlanders. During this battle the unit was reduced in strength by three quarters, with just two officers and eighty five men surviving. Clark’s deputy, Major George J. Christie, would receive the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal for his part in the brutal fighting.
“A-Company of the 9th Argylls Advancing Under Heavy Fire to Reinforce the 2nd Camerons During the Second Battle of Ypres“, lithograph of a painting by Allan Stewart published in the picture book “Deeds that Thrill the Empire“. The officer leading the charge in this scene, Major George J. Christie, would receive the DSO for his part in this action which would claim the life of his superior, Lt. Col. James ClarkThe James Clark Technical School accepted its first 730 pupils in September 1918 and was formally opened on 21st March 1919 by the Right Hon. Robert Munro, Secretary of State for Scotland. Norah Kathleen Clark, widow of the late Colonel, was present on the occasion. It was the second such school of this type in Edinburgh and was the last to be built and opened by the Edinburgh School Board. The Education (Scotland) Act 1918 which came into force a few months later replaced it with a new Edinburgh Education Authority. To align with the language used by this act, the school was re-designated James Clark Intermediate, although both names would be used interchangeably throughout 1920s.
Memorial to James Clark within the school. Detail of the inscription can be read in the Alt Text.Clark was widely mourned and commemorated, leading memorials in the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh (of which he was a member); the Edinburgh Naval and Military Institute where he had been founding chairman (since removed to the Scottish Veterans Residences in the Canongate); on the battalion memorial at Dumbarton Castle and at his alma mater of Paisley Grammar School. His widow would later commission a vast, nine-light stained glass window in his memory from the artist Douglas Strachan for the eastern end for Paisley Abbey.
Part of the east window of Paisley Abbey dedicated to James Clark. Photo by Brian Madwsley, via IWM War Memorials RegisterThe press deemed the new school to be a “fitting memorial of Colonel Clark’s educational work“, but not everyone was happy. One local parent wrote to the Edinburgh Evening News to express their displeasure at it not being an elementary school:
It is not sufficient for Board members to sit in a board-room and come to decisions when the welfare of the children is at stake. Let them visit the district and get some practical experience of the conditions under which these children are suffering… Let the Board take up the question of technical education after they have dealt with the present conditions, and not start half way up the ladder.
Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Evening News from “A Parent in the District”, 16th May 1918As an Intermediate School, Jimmy’s offered two-to-three year courses for children which were a combination of general education and either a Technical or Commercial stream aimed at preparing them for the workplace. But having been built as an elementary school it was lacking in certain facilities. In 1918 the nearby Davie Street Public School was closed to become an annexe for it, first providing additional teaching space while rooms for art, home economics and science were added to the main building in a new north wing. After this work was completed in 1924 it was converted into specialist workshops for teaching the trades of brassfinishing, tinsmithing, upholstery, plumbing, tailoring and printing (to boys only, of course!)
Davie Street School, built by the Heriot Trust in 1875 in their house style and later taken over and extended by the Edinburgh School Board as a public schoolAfter 1927 depopulation in the Southside accelerated as a result of the city Corporation’s slum clearance schemes. This displaced much of the population to new housing estates to the south at Prestonfield and further east at Niddrie Mains. Families with children were relocated as a priority and so school rolls sharply declined, reaching a rate of 10% per annum at the dawn of the 1930s and resulting in some 1,200 vacant elementary school places in the district. When a brand new school at Prestonfield opened in 1931 to serve that estate the St Leonard’s Public School, just over the street from James Clark, was closed and the Education Committee approved its conversion into a second annexe for the latter.
James Clark School uniform in 1933, worn by Esther Reid of Parkside Street. Her hat sports a black and gold band – the school colours – and badge, and her gauntlet gloves have a golden band around the cuff. Copy of a photograph in the Southside Heritage Association’s museum in the Nelson Halls.St Leonard’s already had workshops for supplementary classes in tinsmithing, metal working, tailoring, upholstery and masonry (for boys) and cookery, sewing and “cutting out” (for girls). Nine of its classrooms were refurbished and two new art rooms were added alongside new workshops for benchwork, a laundry, sewing and cookery rooms and a new gymnasium with changing rooms and showers. These changes allowed the conversion of such rooms in the main school into science laboratories. Work was completed for the start of the 1932-33 term after the summer holidays. An additional benefit for boys was that they could now undertake their physical education classes in the anew annexe; the smaller gymnasium in the main school had been hitherto reserved for girls and boys had instead been marched to and from a nearby drill hall for their “physical jerks“.
St Leonard’s Public School in 1959. Adam H. Malcolm photograph, Edinburgh and Scottish Collection of Edinburgh City Libraries.The depopulation of the Southside didn’t have much immediate effect on the roll at Jimmy’s as it remained the only such school in the south and east of the city; all those children who had been displaced to the new housing areas had to come right back for their secondary education! Former pupil and Rangers footballing legend John Greig – a pupil in the mid-1950s – recalls in his autobiography “My Story”, how his footballing fitness was established by the daily two mile run from his home in the Prestonfield housing scheme to school, returning each way at lunch time and then the two miles home again at the end of the day. This situation would continue until 1938 when Niddrie Marischal Intermediate School opened to serve the Niddrie and Craigmillar housing areas. A third annexe was added to that year when workshops in the former Brown Square School, by then part of Heriot-Watt College, became available to train boys serving apprenticeships in the bookbinding trade on “day release” from the school. Use of this building had ceased by 1964 when it was converted into the students’ association for Heriot-Watt College.
Former Brown Square school in 1913. This was one of the Heriot Trust day schools that were merged into the School Board after 1872, immediately identifiable by all the Jacobean decorations modelled off of Heriot’s Hospital itself. Edinburgh Photographic Society collection, via National Galleries Scotland.For the boys of James Clark, the facilities of its annexes meant the school developed particularly close links with the printing trade – an especially prestigious blue collar career in the city – and successful completion of the courses could lead to bursaries for the print qualifications at Heriot Watt College. These opportunities of course remained strictly off limits to girls, who were limited to clerical classes or for training in the domestic arts of cookery, dressmaking and laundrywork. A house at 17 St Leonard’s Bank had been purchased for the school and was used to teach “housewifery“, its upstairs flat accommodating one of the school’s janitors.
A girl’s class of ’34 infront of an entrance to James Clark School.In 1940 the school was re-designated James Clark Junior Secondary, a Scotland-wide change to mark the shift to a broader curriculum at this level and in preparation for the school leaving age being raised to 15. At this time its roll was 861. Between 1942-48 and again between 1954-58, overspill accommodation was provided in the old Sunday School of the former St. Paul’s Free Church on St Leonards Street, where the first school in the district had been established way back in 1851. This was partly to provide a dining room, with many fathers absent and mothers out working during the day there was a huge wartime demand for school dinners. These were brought in from a central kitchen established nearby at the former Causewayside Public School and were of dubious quality. After the war the new National Health Service took responsibility for juvenile dental care off of the city and James Clark was one of a number of schools given a dental inspection and treatment room with a full-time staff.
On April 1st 1947, the minimum school leaving age in Scotland was raised from 14 to 15, significantly increasing the number of children in secondary education and helping keep the roll at Jimmy’s healthy. There was also a bump in the city’s urban population at this time due to an acute post-war housing crisis, again benefiting the school. On January 15th 1949 a memorial was dedicated in the school to the 121 former pupils and one member of staff (Sergeant Eric Webster RAFVR, who was killed on July 28th 1942 when his aircraft collided with another near Cambridge).
James Clark School WW2 memorial panel for former pupils who lost their lives in the conflict. Originally installed in the school, it was later relocated to the Southside Community Centre, although currently is not on display and awaiting restoration. Copy of a photograph in the Southside Heritage Association’s museum in the Nelson Halls.A further memorial was unveiled at the nearby Deaconess Hospital in 1956. This was provided by the School’s memorial fund to mark the service that the hospital provided to the community and of the £750 that had been raised the substantial remainder paid for comforts for the patients such as TV and radio sets, which could not be met from its own budget.
Photograph of the plaque, now in the care of the Lothian Health Services Archive, a copy in the Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.When the prevailing dire national economic conditions eased enough for new housing estates to start appearing in the south of the city in the early 1950s, again there was a lag in provision of secondary schooling to the benefit of the roll at James Clark; a temporary school was provided at The Inch in 1953 but permanent schools at Liberton and Gracemount had to wait until 1958. The Education Committee anticipated the roll increasing to over 1,000 by the end of the decade and so authorised a £36,000 extension in 1957 to provide four science classrooms, a new assembly hall, library as well as improvements to the existing facilities. This allowed the ancient overspill accommodation at the old St. Paul’s Free Kirk to be finally vacated. The new block conferred an additional benefit in that it bridged the height difference between the main school and the St Leonard’s annexe, significantly shortening the distance between the two.
The steel frame of the 1957 extension takes shape, seen between the annexe of the old St Leonard’s Public School on the left and the tenements of St Leonard’s Hill on the right. Photograph by Adam H. Malcolm c. 1957, G944A Edinburgh and Scottish Collection of Edinburgh City LibrariesAny optimism for the school’s future in the late 1950s had been severely misplaced however. Despite the forthcoming raising of the leaving age to sixteen (then planned for 1970), the scandalous condition of housing in much of the district – culminating in the infamous collapse of the “Penny Tenement” in 1959 – saw rapid and drastic action taken by the authorities. The Corporation designated whole swathes of the neighbourhood a Comprehensive Development Area, condemning the housing stock and acquiring it through compulsory purchase (CPO) before their wrecking ball moved in. Much of St Leonard’s and almost all of Dumbiedykes would be completely obliterated in short order and by 1964 some 1,500 houses had already been demolished in the area. The population inevitably collapsed, displaced to the outlying housing schemes and new tower blocks, and those left behind were generally the elderly or young people without children. School rolls thus fell disproportionately faster; by 1963 the roll at Jimmy’s was just 500 – half of what had been predicted – and by the end of the decade would be barely 300.
Evening News photo of the Carnegie Street CPO area, cleared after the collapse of the Penny Tenement, published 5th October 1961. The abandoned remains of Dalrymple Place can be seen on the left, running off towards the Deaconess Hospital.It would have been hard enough for the school to survive this seismic demographic force in isolation, but it also faced three further existential threats. Firstly, after 1966 the specialist technical education for printing and allied trades was removed from the school’s curriculum and onto those of the new Telford and Napier further education colleges. The entire Davie Street building was transferred to those institutions and quickly run-down and relocated. Secondly, the raising of the leaving age to sixteen was delayed and coincided with a move from the two tier system of Junior Secondary and selective, fee-charging High Schools to a fully comprehensive and co-educational system. The Education Committee took this juncture as an opportunity to “rid” itself of as many of its old Junior Secondaries as possible; most of which were housed in converted old elementary schools with a variety of extensions and annexes tacked on over time. Jimmy’s generally positive reputation compared to some of its peers could not protect it from this desire.
James Clark School scarf, blazer badge and prefect’s pin. Objects in the Southside Heritage Association’s museum in the Nelson Halls.Thirdly, the city had a long and deeply held aspiration to run an urban motorway – the Bridges Relief Road – directly through the neighbourhood and the school itself. As such it had been land-banking for this scheme in the district and was keen to clear any remaining occupied blocks as quickly as it could. James Clark Secondary School could not, and did not, survive these combined pressures and it closed at the end of the 1971-72 term, its remaining pupils relocated to a reconstituted James Gillespie’s High School.
Diagram of some of the central urban motorways recommended for Edinburgh in the “Buchanan Plan” in 1966 and further finessed in the 1970s. The Bridges Relief Road is marked in red on the right, running straight through the site of James Clark School.Thus ended the fifty-five year history of Jimmy’s. The headmaster at opening was Robert Dickson. He was replaced in 1927 by James Flett, who died just 6 months later. In turn afterwards came Michael Oldham (1927-37), Thomas Scott (1938-53); James M. L. Drummond (1953-56); Ronald. S. Gray (1956-67) and Ronald Paul (1967-closure). The noted rubber stamp artist, calligrapher and instructional author George Lawrie Thomson (1916-2001), was a Jimmy’s pupil from 1929-32. In his 1988 autobiography My Life as a Scribe he recalled scoring 92% in the Qualifying Exam (“Qually“) at age 11 thus winning entry to Boroughmuir High School, but his class friend got 94% thus won the only scholarship on offer. Unable to afford the fees at Boroughmuir, he instead went to James Clark where like most of his peers he left after three years to join the prevailing mass unemployment of the time. By sheer talent (and motherly determination) he fortunately able to win a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art.
Cover of The Art of Caligraphy bv George L. Thomson, one of many beautiful covers he produced for his own books.Another notable former pupil was John Gollan (1911-72), general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who was at the school until leaving in 1924 before his fourteenth birthday. In 1931 he made the local headlines when he received six months imprisonment for handing out socialist pamphlets (“The Soldier’s Voice” and “The Organ of Communist Soldiers“) outside Redford Barracks.
John Gollan addressing an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, July 1966.Although there was the threat of the Bridges Relief Road hanging over it the unoccupied school was Category B listed in 1974, conferring some protection from immediate demolition. Thoughts given to relocating the Museum of Childhood to it, but instead it was brought back into educational use, briefly providing “decant” accommodation for pupils destined for the new comprehensive Castlebrae High School before becoming a junior annexe for St Thomas of Aquin’s R.C. High School. £100,000 was spent on refurbishments in 1977 but by 1983 the latter school was due to move out again at the end of the term. A potential lifeline came in the form of 1982 plans to close the remaining district primary schools at Milton House, Preston Street and South Bridge and to merge them into a new school in James Clark. These plans were vigorously resisted and instead Preston Street stayed as it was, with South Bridge closed in 1983 and merged into Milton House, which in turn was renamed Royal Mile Primary to mark the occasion. After this the sole remaining occupant was the South Side Youth Centre who used parts of the 1957 extension. The former St Leonard’s Public School annexe and (listed) St Paul’s Free Kirk were demolished the following year.
In 1985 Lothian Regional Council sold Jimmy’s to developer Jemscot Ltd for £270,000 (c. £847k in 2025) for conversion into flats. The transaction was anything but smooth however; £40,000 of the initial agreed deal of £310,000 had to be waived on account of the council allowing the building to be heavily vandalised, including all the lead stripped from the roof, while still under its control.
The abandoned James Clark School in 1986, still from a video image which showing the For Sale sign and internal vandalism. © South Side Youth Centre via Southside Heritage Group YoutubeTo make matters worse, early in 1986 the Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate of the Scottish Office stepped in with a demand for £19,995 from the Council, having discovered a clause in the Royal Warrant granted in 1913 that allowed the school to encroach on the Holyrood Park boundary which meant that should the building cease to be used for its educational purpose then the original boundary and wall was to be be reinstated. This would require the demolition of the entire eastern range and so the Directorate’s financial demand had been arrived at in lieu of this. The Council’s outraged Finance Chairman, Councillor James Gilchrist, made a counter-offer of £5 from his own wallet! A direct appeal was also made to the Secretary of State, Malcolm Rifkind MP, but went unanswered. The authority found it had no legal option other than to pay the money that had otherwise been earmarked for its education budget.
View of the entrance to some of the flats from the 1st-floor southern walkway which once gave “fresh air” access to classrooms. Estate Agents photo from Deans PropertiesThe development now went ahead and was designated as a new street called St Leonard’s Crag. An initial attempt to make the marketing name of Salisbury Court stick quickly fell by the wayside. In October 1986 the 1957 extension was vacated when the Southside Youth Centre left for the new Southside Community Centre in the former Nicolson Street Church. The developer then took the building in hand for conversion into flats, resulting in a curious-looking block with third and fourth-floor balconies which try hard to reference the arched window of the old school tower but largely fail to fit in with the older building in any way.
The 1957 extension as converted to flats, being entirely re-faced in blockwork and with a metal-clad upper storey and balconies added.The first flats in the development were advertised for sale in late 1986 for between £23k and 55k (69k to £165k in January 2026 by straight consumer price inflation alone), but now selling for £200k, £300k or even more in the current Edinburgh property market. It is all a far cry from the smashed up, semi-ruinous state the building found itself in forty years ago.
You certainly get a lot of view for your money.
View from one of the flats in the former James Clark School, looking west towards the Salisbury Crags.The previous chapter of this series looked at St Leonard’s Public School. The next chapter examines Lothian Road Public School.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Made a Mural of Me
I have walked streets where the walls remember
#CentralAmerica #Justice #Lament #Martyrs #memory #murals #peace #propheticWitness #ProsePoem #publicArt #solidarity #SpokenWord #WashingtonDC
better than the governments do.
I have stood beneath the painted faces
of the disappeared, the assassinated,
the catechists, the campesinos,
the students, the mothers,
the ones whose names were spoken once with terror
and now are spoken with flowers.
I have seen their eyes in plaster and pigment,
their halos done in cheap color,
their mouths half open as if the wall itself
were still trying to tell the story
of what was done to them.
In Central America,
I learned that a wall can become a gospel
when the newspapers lie.
A wall can become an archive
when the official files are burned,
when the generals call murder peace,
when the empire calls bloodshed stability,
when the poor are told to forget
for the sake of moving on.
But the wall does not move on.
The wall says: here.
The wall says: this happened.
The wall says: this child had a name.
This priest had hands.
This woman had laughter.
This union worker had a mother.
This martyr did not die in abstraction,
did not perish as an example,
did not vanish into a sermon illustration.
They were flesh.
They were breath.
They were somebody’s beloved.
And I have seen it elsewhere too.
Not only there, where memory was brushed onto concrete
beneath the long shadow of rifles and oligarchs,
but here,
in this empire’s marble reach,
in this capital of speeches and signatures,
in neighborhoods of D.C. where color rises up
against erasure,
where the dead look down from brick walls
and ask the living what exactly we are doing
with the testimony they left us.
I have walked those streets too,
where murals bloom like wounds that refuse to close,
where every face says both remember
and why again?
That is the ache of it.
Because a mural is beautiful,
but it is also an indictment.
A mural is what happens
when grief runs out of sanctioned places to go.
When cemeteries are too quiet,
when courtrooms are too compromised,
when history books are too polite,
when churches would rather canonize the dead
than stand beside the threatened living,
someone climbs a ladder with paint
and says:
You will not make us forget.
And yet even that holy act contains a heartbreak.
Because every new mural is also a confession
that we have failed again.
We say we honor the martyrs.
We paint them large.
We ring them with light.
We write their names in careful letters.
We tell their stories to our children.
We call them seeds.
We call them saints.
We call them witnesses.
But if we must keep making more walls,
if there is always another name,
another mother,
another child,
another prophet with blood on their shirt,
another journalist, another dreamer, another body,
then our memorials are not only songs of praise.
They are laments.
They are accusations.
They are unfinished prayers.
I do not want a world
where we become very skilled
at decorating the aftermath.
I do not want justice outsourced to artists
because legislators are cowards,
because police departments close ranks,
because borders harden,
because markets consume,
because nations baptize their violence
and then ask poets to clean up the silence.
I am grateful for the murals.
God, I am grateful for them.
For the ones who paint the saints with brown hands
and tired eyes.
For the ones who make a wall preach.
For the ones who turn an alley into a liturgy.
For the ones who refuse the second death,
the death of being forgotten.
But I am tired of needing them.
Tired of standing before another radiant face
and knowing radiance came at the price of a bullet.
Tired of admiring the colors
while knowing the color had to cover over grief
too large for speech.
Tired of telling the story again
because the engines that made the story
were never dismantled,
only rebranded, relocated, repainted.
That is the terrible genius of empire.
It learns to tolerate memorials
so long as the machinery of martyr-making stays intact.
Put the face on the wall.
Name the school after the slain.
Hold the vigil.
Light the candle.
Share the quote.
Then fund the weapons.
Protect the system.
Discredit the witness.
Fortify the border.
Ignore the neighborhood.
Silence the poor.
And when the next body falls,
commission another mural.
No.
There is something obscene
about praising the courage of the dead
while refusing the cost of solidarity with the living.
There is something blasphemous
about loving Romero on the wall
but not listening to prophets now.
About cherishing painted martyrs in San Salvador
and neglecting crucified people in Washington,
in detention centers,
in poor towns,
in Black and brown neighborhoods,
in places where the state still knows how to kneel
on a neck,
how to disappear a future,
how to call a human being illegal
before making them dead in spirit.
So yes,
I have walked among the murals.
And yes,
they have taught me.
They taught me that memory is resistance.
That color can be a form of defiance.
That beauty can tell the truth
when official language becomes a mask for murder.
They taught me the communion of saints
sometimes looks less like stained glass
and more like chipped paint on cinder block.
Less like cathedral windows
and more like public walls under open sky.
They taught me that the martyrs are still speaking.
Not only from heaven.
From brick.
From alley.
From barrio.
From the side of a building everyone passes
on the way to work,
on the way to school,
on the way to forgetting.
And they taught me to shudder.
Because sometimes, standing there,
I have had the strange and terrible thought:
One day they could make a mural of me.
Not because I seek glory.
Not because I imagine myself noble.
Not because I think suffering makes a person pure.
But because in a world like this,
where truth still threatens power,
where solidarity still has a price,
where loving the crucified too closely
can still get you crucified,
any one of us who dares enough
might end up as paint.
Made a mural of me.
Put me on a wall with the others.
Give me a background of sunburst gold,
or deep blue,
or the red of blood transfigured into witness.
Paint my face calmer than I ever was in life.
Smooth out my fear.
Make me look brave.
But if you do,
let the mural say I did not want this.
Let it say I wanted fewer murals,
not more.
Let it say I wanted children to know these names
without needing to inherit their wounds.
Let it say I wanted nations to repent
before artists had to remember for them.
Let it say I wanted churches
to become sanctuaries of the endangered
instead of galleries of the already slain.
Let it say I wanted the wall
to go blank someday,
not from amnesia,
but from justice.
That is my prayer now.
Not that we stop honoring the martyrs.
Never that.
Paint them.
Sing them.
Tell them.
Teach them.
Write them in the streets and on the doors
and in the marrow of the young.
But also:
stop making so many of them.
Let there come a day
when the painters have to find another subject.
When the ladders lean against walls
for festivals instead of funerals.
When color is used for delight
and not only for defiance.
When remembrance is no longer emergency labor.
When the living are protected enough
that martyrdom becomes rare,
and rare enough
that every new death shocks us again.
Until then,
the walls will keep preaching.
And I will keep listening
with gratitude and grief,
with reverence and anger,
with hope cracked open but not empty.
Because every mural is a promise
the dead make to the living:
We are still here.
We are watching what you do next.
Do not honor us
by becoming connoisseurs of tragedy.
Honor us
by ending the thing that killed us.
And until that day,
the paint will keep drying,
and the faces will keep multiplying,
and the walls will keep learning names
they should never have had to learn.
And I will stand before them,
heart broken open,
thinking:
this wall should be empty by now. -
Made a Mural of Me
I have walked streets where the walls remember
#CentralAmerica #Justice #Lament #Martyrs #memory #murals #peace #propheticWitness #ProsePoem #publicArt #solidarity #SpokenWord #WashingtonDC
better than the governments do.
I have stood beneath the painted faces
of the disappeared, the assassinated,
the catechists, the campesinos,
the students, the mothers,
the ones whose names were spoken once with terror
and now are spoken with flowers.
I have seen their eyes in plaster and pigment,
their halos done in cheap color,
their mouths half open as if the wall itself
were still trying to tell the story
of what was done to them.
In Central America,
I learned that a wall can become a gospel
when the newspapers lie.
A wall can become an archive
when the official files are burned,
when the generals call murder peace,
when the empire calls bloodshed stability,
when the poor are told to forget
for the sake of moving on.
But the wall does not move on.
The wall says: here.
The wall says: this happened.
The wall says: this child had a name.
This priest had hands.
This woman had laughter.
This union worker had a mother.
This martyr did not die in abstraction,
did not perish as an example,
did not vanish into a sermon illustration.
They were flesh.
They were breath.
They were somebody’s beloved.
And I have seen it elsewhere too.
Not only there, where memory was brushed onto concrete
beneath the long shadow of rifles and oligarchs,
but here,
in this empire’s marble reach,
in this capital of speeches and signatures,
in neighborhoods of D.C. where color rises up
against erasure,
where the dead look down from brick walls
and ask the living what exactly we are doing
with the testimony they left us.
I have walked those streets too,
where murals bloom like wounds that refuse to close,
where every face says both remember
and why again?
That is the ache of it.
Because a mural is beautiful,
but it is also an indictment.
A mural is what happens
when grief runs out of sanctioned places to go.
When cemeteries are too quiet,
when courtrooms are too compromised,
when history books are too polite,
when churches would rather canonize the dead
than stand beside the threatened living,
someone climbs a ladder with paint
and says:
You will not make us forget.
And yet even that holy act contains a heartbreak.
Because every new mural is also a confession
that we have failed again.
We say we honor the martyrs.
We paint them large.
We ring them with light.
We write their names in careful letters.
We tell their stories to our children.
We call them seeds.
We call them saints.
We call them witnesses.
But if we must keep making more walls,
if there is always another name,
another mother,
another child,
another prophet with blood on their shirt,
another journalist, another dreamer, another body,
then our memorials are not only songs of praise.
They are laments.
They are accusations.
They are unfinished prayers.
I do not want a world
where we become very skilled
at decorating the aftermath.
I do not want justice outsourced to artists
because legislators are cowards,
because police departments close ranks,
because borders harden,
because markets consume,
because nations baptize their violence
and then ask poets to clean up the silence.
I am grateful for the murals.
God, I am grateful for them.
For the ones who paint the saints with brown hands
and tired eyes.
For the ones who make a wall preach.
For the ones who turn an alley into a liturgy.
For the ones who refuse the second death,
the death of being forgotten.
But I am tired of needing them.
Tired of standing before another radiant face
and knowing radiance came at the price of a bullet.
Tired of admiring the colors
while knowing the color had to cover over grief
too large for speech.
Tired of telling the story again
because the engines that made the story
were never dismantled,
only rebranded, relocated, repainted.
That is the terrible genius of empire.
It learns to tolerate memorials
so long as the machinery of martyr-making stays intact.
Put the face on the wall.
Name the school after the slain.
Hold the vigil.
Light the candle.
Share the quote.
Then fund the weapons.
Protect the system.
Discredit the witness.
Fortify the border.
Ignore the neighborhood.
Silence the poor.
And when the next body falls,
commission another mural.
No.
There is something obscene
about praising the courage of the dead
while refusing the cost of solidarity with the living.
There is something blasphemous
about loving Romero on the wall
but not listening to prophets now.
About cherishing painted martyrs in San Salvador
and neglecting crucified people in Washington,
in detention centers,
in poor towns,
in Black and brown neighborhoods,
in places where the state still knows how to kneel
on a neck,
how to disappear a future,
how to call a human being illegal
before making them dead in spirit.
So yes,
I have walked among the murals.
And yes,
they have taught me.
They taught me that memory is resistance.
That color can be a form of defiance.
That beauty can tell the truth
when official language becomes a mask for murder.
They taught me the communion of saints
sometimes looks less like stained glass
and more like chipped paint on cinder block.
Less like cathedral windows
and more like public walls under open sky.
They taught me that the martyrs are still speaking.
Not only from heaven.
From brick.
From alley.
From barrio.
From the side of a building everyone passes
on the way to work,
on the way to school,
on the way to forgetting.
And they taught me to shudder.
Because sometimes, standing there,
I have had the strange and terrible thought:
One day they could make a mural of me.
Not because I seek glory.
Not because I imagine myself noble.
Not because I think suffering makes a person pure.
But because in a world like this,
where truth still threatens power,
where solidarity still has a price,
where loving the crucified too closely
can still get you crucified,
any one of us who dares enough
might end up as paint.
Made a mural of me.
Put me on a wall with the others.
Give me a background of sunburst gold,
or deep blue,
or the red of blood transfigured into witness.
Paint my face calmer than I ever was in life.
Smooth out my fear.
Make me look brave.
But if you do,
let the mural say I did not want this.
Let it say I wanted fewer murals,
not more.
Let it say I wanted children to know these names
without needing to inherit their wounds.
Let it say I wanted nations to repent
before artists had to remember for them.
Let it say I wanted churches
to become sanctuaries of the endangered
instead of galleries of the already slain.
Let it say I wanted the wall
to go blank someday,
not from amnesia,
but from justice.
That is my prayer now.
Not that we stop honoring the martyrs.
Never that.
Paint them.
Sing them.
Tell them.
Teach them.
Write them in the streets and on the doors
and in the marrow of the young.
But also:
stop making so many of them.
Let there come a day
when the painters have to find another subject.
When the ladders lean against walls
for festivals instead of funerals.
When color is used for delight
and not only for defiance.
When remembrance is no longer emergency labor.
When the living are protected enough
that martyrdom becomes rare,
and rare enough
that every new death shocks us again.
Until then,
the walls will keep preaching.
And I will keep listening
with gratitude and grief,
with reverence and anger,
with hope cracked open but not empty.
Because every mural is a promise
the dead make to the living:
We are still here.
We are watching what you do next.
Do not honor us
by becoming connoisseurs of tragedy.
Honor us
by ending the thing that killed us.
And until that day,
the paint will keep drying,
and the faces will keep multiplying,
and the walls will keep learning names
they should never have had to learn.
And I will stand before them,
heart broken open,
thinking:
this wall should be empty by now. -
Reader’s Choice/Tom Top Tunes…Song #74/250: H.O.O.D. by Kneecap
I wouldn’t be much of a music blogger if I didn’t stop to offer a few words on a band that finds itself at the centre of the world’s musical and political attention the way Kneecap presently does. It is difficult to point to any current band or artist that is viewed in more polarizing terms than this relatively new Irish Hip Hop band out of Dublin. Fans of the band point to their political activism on stage and in print as being a heady tonic against what ails the world in terms of authoritarianism, censorship and cultural genocide. As faithful readers of this blog can attest, I have always maintained that in times of darkness, it is always the artists, the poets, the playwrights, the musicians of our world whose art will light the way forward. For fans of the band, Kneecap are seen to be leading the charge and lighting the way with clarity of purpose and, as such, their supporters are ardent that Kneecap are a band that matters greatly. Opponents and critics of the band not only claim that their song lyrics are vulgar and their musicianship is questionable but, far more importantly, that the band promotes hatred and terrorism and, as such, should be censored and even jailed. As I type these words, the band has been charged under the Terrorism Act in England for waving the flag of the officially sanctioned terrorist Palestinian group named Hezbollah. Kneecap’s long support of Palestinians in Gaza and their loud charges of genocide levelled against the government of Israel and those other nations and organizations around the world who support that country with financial aid and military hardware and munitions have earned the band swift and highly vociferous condemnation from pro-Israeli supporters. The debate swirling around a band that many people have never even heard of until recently has taken on epic proportions. It is essentially coming down to the right of artists to speak out in opposition to power versus state-sanctioned censorship of the Arts. I would like to say that this is a debate that is unique to the times in which we find ourselves but, sadly, this dispute is just the latest in a long line of instances where the ideals of an artist has clashed publicly with the politics of those in charge of local/national and international governments. How it all turns out this time remains to be seen. For now, let’s take a closer look at who Kneecap actually is as a band. This necessitates that we start with the seemingly benign topic of language.
In the research conducted for this post, I confirmed for myself the idea that the English language is the most spoken language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people as their first language but that language is mainly regionalized to China, itself, and the countries immediately surrounding it in Asia. English, on the other hand, is spoken everywhere throughout the world. It is the second-most spoken language by those who speak it as their first language. That would include people like me. This blog is written entirely in English. If you are a faithful reader of my words then, chances are, you understand the world via English as well. The key part of my research for me was that, while Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken first language in the world, very few people speak it as a second language outside of Asia. English, on the other hand, is the second language of over one billion others from all four corners of the planet. The use of English in the world of business, of travel, of entertainment is well documented and very pervasive. But have you ever stopped to think about why this is? Why is English found all over the world and yet a popular language such as Mandarin Chinese is not? Chances are great that you have never really given those questions much thought at all. The use of English around the world seems like it is just the way the world works. It has always been this way and probably always will. But how did the use of English become the de facto language of the world? The answer can be found in the annals of history which is where we find the wellspring of inspiration for a band called Kneecap, too.
The Indigenous Peoples of the land that we now call Canada did not speak English prior to first contact with European explorers. They communicated in a myriad of languages and dialects that they had established among themselves. These languages and dialects had served them all well for thousands of years. And then came the Europeans. Canada was established after many years of an intense rivalry between England and France over who would get to claim the land that makes up the modern day country of Canada. In the end, England got to claim the land and the resources found within. Canada exists today as a country that is officially bilingual, with French and English both being regarded as official languages. Ironically enough, none of the original languages spoken by the Indigenous Peoples of this land have been granted the same official consideration. In fact, one of the most contentious aspects of Canada’s history is how the Indigenous populations that had established themselves throughout the land were treated by their European colonizers. Whole books have been written about policies such as the establishment of the residential school system by the Canadian government led by Sir John A. MacDonald. The aim of those policies was to eradicate the language, customs and history of the Indigenous Peoples and force them to assimilate into the newly established Canadian lifestyle. The effects of this form of cultural genocide have been devastating. It is only recently that Canadians have begun to wrestle with the consequences of nation building that served to create a nation that is respected around the world by others, while doing so at the expense of the original inhabitants of this land. How many of you reading these words from Canada understand how to speak any form of Indigenous language fluently? I can’t do so. I suspect I would not be alone in that regard. And yet, we Canadians happily speak in English each and every day. Our worldview is understood through the lens of the English language words we know and use. Imagine how difficult it must be to speak the language of the oppressor when it comes to First Nations Peoples. Yet that is what our Indigenous Peoples are forced to do if they want to participate in the regular stream of life in this country. Each utterance in English is a reminder of the culture that has been lost or, at least, greatly diminished. In my mind, it has to be a tough pill to swallow.
There was a time in the not too distant annals of history where the phrase “The sun never sets on the British empire” rang true. England had extended its sphere of influence to countries around the world and had exerted their cultural, military, economic and political influence in such a forceful, pervasive manner that the language of the colonizers became the official languages of those colonized. Before the English came, the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia existed on the land and spoke their own languages and had their own customs and systems of governance. Now, those Aussies with their cute accents speak English. The Maori Peoples of New Zealand existed on their land long before the English arrived on their shores. Now English is the language of the Kiwis. Where the English arrived centuries ago, they left their stamp in the form of a language known as English. This fact is true in country after country after country that they colonized. One of those other countries that felt the impact of the English was Ireland. In a pattern that was successfully implemented all over the world, the English government imposed their will upon the original inhabitants of Ireland. As part of the process of anglicization, traditional customs and practices of the Irish were disallowed and, most importantly, their language was discouraged and, at times, forbidden to be used. Just like the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, the Irish were forced to adopt the language of their colonizers. Needless to say, you don’t have to be a student of history to have, at least, a passing familiarity with the long fight by the Irish against the English. The presence of the English on Irish soil has been an irritant for many generations. This anger has manifested itself in the form of numerous uprisings, armed revolts, military-style bombing campaigns and formal hunger strikes. Political activism and cultural warfare has been a way of life in Ireland for as long as almost anyone can remember. It is hard to engage in any act, including the act of daily living, without it being somehow political. Thus the seeds of Kneecap’s birth were planted long before the band was out of their diapers. It was a lifestyle in which the Irish are constantly reminded that they are not ever fully in control of their own fate. It is a lifestyle that some grow up opposing as a matter of principle. This is where the story of a band called Kneecap begins.
Kneecap is an Irish Hip Hop trio. Before even uttering a single note, the mere choice of their band name was a political act. The term kneecapping is a term that describes shooting an opponent with a gun in their kneecap. This form of assault serves to physically cripple the victim. The band chose this term for their name not because they were advocating violence but, instead, because of how the policy of kneecapping came to exist in Irish culture. The most popular wave of kneecapping was said to have been when the Irish Republican Army was at the height of its powers during a time known as The Troubles. The I.R.A. was opposed to the presence of English soldiers on Irish soil. This group formed paramilitary-style units that engaged in armed resistance against the British. They also served as a local police force of sorts. The practice of kneecapping was aimed at local drug dealers mainly. The message to drug dealers was clear but, more than that, the message the I.R.A. intended to send was that they, the Irish, should be the ones to police Ireland. Irish people taking care of cleaning up Ireland’s problems was their mantra. Thus, when the band Kneecap chose that term for their name, they were advocating for a form of self-government in which it is the Irish, themselves, who determine their own way forward in life. Language matters. Words matter. For Kneecap, their band name has great meaning for themselves and for Ireland.
Part of that self-determination for Kneecap started with reclaiming their native Irish language. As such, all three band members have adopted stage names (Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai) that are translated from old Irish. As well, many of their song lyrics are sung completely and unapologetically in old Irish as well. If language is the foundation of national image then Kneecap has staked a claim to that language and is seeking to reshape the image of the Irish People in the eyes of the world. When I first began hearing about Kneecap a year or so ago, I was unaware that “Irish” was even a language. I first assumed that the band was referring to Gaelic, which I had heard about and which I grew up surrounded by on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The fact that I had never heard of Irish as a language in its own right goes to prove how completely pervasive the colonization process of the English has been. At present, according to the latest figures, upwards of 74,000 people speak Irish as their first language in Ireland. These people tend to be found in isolated pockets, here and there, across the country but, for now, at least the native language of Ireland still exists and, as such, there is room for growth as Kneecap hopes to help Ireland reclaim its own language for all to use.
Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai of Kneecap.LIke I said, the band puts its money where its mouth is because they sing their songs using their native Irish language. The fact that they can do this and still be a headlining act around the world speaks highly of their penchant for showmanship and for songwriting. Kneecap have only been in existence for a few years. But right out of the gate, they announced their intention to be a political band. Their first single was a song called “C.E.A.R.T.A.”, which is old Irish for the word rights. The story is that just prior to the release of the debut single, one of the band members named Moglai Bap and a friend spray painted the word C.E.A.R.T.A. on a wall. The police soon found out. A chase ensued in which Moglai Bap’s friend was arrested, while he escaped into the night. Apparently the captured friend would only speak to the police in old Irish, which the officers could not understand. The friend was released the next day. That act of defiance has since become a foundational plank in the philosophical core of who Kneecap purports to be as people and as musicians. Needless to say, the band’s message to their fellow citizens of reclaiming their past and becoming authentic Irish citizens, free to chart their own course, has caught on within Ireland. It has also caught the attention of the politicians and media in England. Kneecap are not the first pro-Ireland band to exist. They are also not the first Irish band to sing anti-English songs. What has brought them to the centre of an international storm is how they have used their platform as rising music stars to advocate for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Kneecap are a loud Hip Hop trio. The band sings songs about drug use, drinking and other things that they feel are common aspects of life in the working class areas of various Irish towns and cities from which they are from. Not everyone will be drawn to their songs simply because of the profanity contained within. To not follow a band that sings of the darker aspects of life is the right of anyone who listens to music as a personal choice. However, the band’s reputation for brutally honest depictions of life for many Irish citizens is also something that they come by honestly. They are proudly Irish and are willing to satirize the circumstances they and their fellow Irish citizens often find themselves in. This willingness to go where few other bands go in terms of political and societal commentary has earned them labels such as vulgar and tasteless but also, bold and fearless. It has given them a sense of notoriety that not many newer bands are lucky enough to have. Thus, when they were recently booked to perform at the high profile Coachella Music Festival in California, it was a booking made in full acknowledgment of who the band was and what messages contained within their songs were all about. It was at this Coachella performance that Kneecap evolved from being a young up-and-coming Irish band who was known for tweaking the noses of the British establishment to a band at the centre of an international uproar.
During their set, the band flashed a message that was displayed on large screens positioned at the back of the stage. To paraphrase, the message accused the government of Israel of conducting a policy of genocide against the Palestinian civilans trapped in Gaza. It further accused the U.S. government of helping to fund this Israeli campaign and, by association, being complicit in genocide. The message ended with the phrase “Free Palestine!”, which the band encouraged the audience to chant along with them. As you may be aware, in the past year there has been a political movement in youth circles to organize public opinion campaigns on university campuses across America and the world. Many of these university protests have been aimed at supporting Palestinian refugees while, at the same time, targeting those organizations that help to fund the Israeli government. Needless to say, the pro-Israeli response has been swift and forceful by supporters who are well-organized, well-financed and well-connected with powerful people. The various student-led sit-ins have been cleared out at most, if not all university campuses, by soldiers and/or local police. The official response from various levels of government has been to unequivocally support the government of Israel. It was into this environment that Kneecap chose to make its stand at Coachella.
One of three messages that were displayed during Kneecap’s set at Coachella.Not long after they roused the global wrath of pro-Israeli supporters on line and in government circles, Mo Chara, one of the members of Kneecap, upped the ante by waving a flag on stage of a Palestinian organization known as Hezbollah. The problem with this is that the British government had previously declared Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and deemed any public support of terrorist organizations to be illegal. Thus, after Mo Chara waved the Hezbollah flag, he was charged under the Terrorism Act with supporting a terrorist group. He is to appear in court in the weeks to come. In the meantime, Kneecap has issued a counter statement that challenges the definition of what constitutes a terrorist act. They claim that waving a piece of cloth on a stage hardly equates with the government-sanctioned killing of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza. Kneecap further claimed that this lawsuit is merely a distraction from the actual crimes being committed and that the government is trying to censor and restrict the band’s right to speak out on matters that they deem to be important.
And here we stand.
Your views on the Kneecap situation will, no doubt, be coloured by many factors. How do you view your own colonial-inspired history? Do artists have the right to speak out beyond the constraints of the music business about issues affecting the larger world? Do elected governments have the right to determine what are politically acceptable forms of dissent? Is censorship in the face of vulgarity and profanity acceptable? Is the band Kneecap actually any good, musically speaking, or are they actually political operatives who disguise their intentions through music? These are just a few questions of importance I can think of off of the top of my head. Perhaps you have your own set.
The situation with regard to the effects of colonialism on Indigenous cultures is becoming well-documented. Much damage has been done. The negative consequences of expansionism on those under its bootheels is deep and long lasting. But history is a funny thing. I grew up being taught in school that people like Sir John A. MacDonald were great men because they helped my country of Canada to come into being. No mention was ever made to me as a young boy about the impact of expanding train travel from east to west on the Indigenous Peoples of the land. The moment when that last spike was ceremoniously driven into the soil was always viewed as a source of pride. History tends to be authored by the victors and many of the words used in their scripts are written in English. Funny how that happens.
Regardless of your views on the subject of colonialism, Gaza or whatever international conflict occipes your attention, know that I am first and foremost a proponent of peace and love. I am as bothered about what is going on in Gaza as I ever was about the Holocaust in WWII. One of the most impactful books I have ever read in my life was one called Shake Hands With the Devil written by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire about his experience in Rwanda as head of the United Nations mission there when genocide overwhelmed that country. My heart aches as well for those who suffered in the killing fields of Cambodia under the regime of Pol Pot. I am currently watching with trepidation how things are unfolding in the Ukraine. Warfare conducted by soldiers on the field of battle is one thing but campaigns focussed on killing innocent civilians and destroying local infrastructure is another thing entirely in my mind. I am not anti-semetic because I feel for the children in Gaza and how their lives must be. I am proudly anti-genocide. I am proudly pro-peace. If I could wave a magic wand and be granted one wish, it would be for everyone to simply get along with each other and for hatred to morph into love and friendship. I believe everyone has the right to exist in peace and security and safety. Everyone.
One of the single most impactful books I have ever read. Period.As for Kneecap, they have done a lot when it comes to having people rally around their cause. Today’s song is called “H.O.O.D” and it was written as a community building exercise. One of Kneecap’s philosophical planks is that colonizers or oppressors often employ the standard military and political tactic of dividing and conquering opponents. In Ireland, Kneecap believes that England actually enjoys the divisions created within Ireland between Catholics and Protestants, between Unionists and Republicans. Kneecap is seeking for all citizens of Ireland, regardless of which street you live on in which part of town, to come together over a common love of music. Thus, when they sing a song like “H.O.O.D.” they sing about common issues and experiences that all Irish citizens face, regardless of religious affiliation or political stripe. By uniting their fellow Irish citizens against who they perceive to be the real foe (England) instead of against each other, Kneecap is shining a light on what they claim is the real way forward. I will publish a lyrics-version of this song in the links below but be forewarned that most of the lyrics in this song are not in English. You will probably be better served by watching the live concert video. It clearly shows how popular this band is with their fans. It also shows the band (and Ireland’s) affinity for the Palestinian cause in Gaza…an affection borne from the similarity of their shared circumstances from battling seemingly bigger, stronger and powerful adversaries.
Regardless of your views about Kneecap, know that we are standing, once again, at a critical moment in time in our world. Listen to the song “H.O.O.D” and draw your own conclusions as to whether Kneecap is a band to be reckoned with in the future or if this is a lot of hooey that will amount to nothing with Kneecap soon returning to being a band concerned mostly with chart positions and record sales. How the story of it all ends up being written will tell the tale, in and of itself. Who will record the history of this moment? What language will it even be written in? Do most people even care about such things as colonialism and language and the opinions of artists? I guess we are about to find out.
The link to the video for the song “H.O.O.D.” by Kneecap can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
The link to the official website for Kneecap can be found here.
The link to the official website for Amnesty International (an agency that monitors the rights of people in conflict zones) can be found here. The link to the official website for Doctors Without Borders ( a medical relief organization that services victims of war and famine) can be found here. In both cases, they can provide a more impartial assessment of what is happening in conflict zones around the world (including Gaza and the Ukraine). Sometimes it is good to hear from other sources than simply the usual mainstream media sources. Just saying.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2025 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
#CEARTA #Coachella #Hood #Irish #Kneecap #Language #Music #ReadersChoiceTomsTopTunes
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29D) Vsevolod III “Big Nest” Part 4 (1194-1200)
Vsevolod “Big Nest” / Всеволод Большое Гнездо
To see a list of the characters and their inter-relations, please click here 1
Last time, we left Vsevolod firmly in charge in Vladimir but with a new (not that new) Grand Prince down south: Rurik Rostislavich, in for the third and by far the longest of his seven periods ruling Kiev. Despite a degree of distrust between them, Rurik and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich had avoided armed conflict for Svyatoslav’s second reign in Kiev, allowing Rurik and his relatives to control much of the hinterland of Kiev while Svyatoslav kept the title of Grand Prince and the income from trade and customs duties. According to the chronicles, Svyatoslav tried to ensure a smooth hand-over by summoning Rurik to his deathbed and charging him to take care of his widow, children (although they were all adults) and Kiev itself.
Rurik becomes Grand Prince of Kiev, again.
Rurik returned to Kiev in July 1194 to the delight of the nobles and burgesses, particularly those who had traditionally favoured the descendants of Vsevolod Yaroslavich over those of his brother Svyatoslav. Metropolitan Nikifor greeted Rurik at the city gates and led the procession to St Sophia’s cathedral, where Rurik was enthroned. Unfortunately, not everyone was so happy. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in Chernigov had hoped to inherit Kiev from his brother, while Vsevolod Big Nest was also a little unsettled by Rurik’s return to the old capital. While Rurik and Svyatoslav divided the area around Kiev between them, neither of them could afford to take action that would disturb the peace, but with all the territory under Rurik’s domination, he might be able to act more independently and, potentially, in a manner that might inconvenience Vsevolod himself.
At this time Vsevolod took some practical action to defend his positions, both in his homeland and near Kiev. In 1194, after having rebuilt both Vladimir and Suzdal’, he ordered the reconstruction of the fortifications of Pereyaslavl’-Zalessky. He also sent his servant south to Gorodets to organise the rebuilding of the fortress which had been founded by his grandfather Vladimir Monomakh a century before and which had belonged to his father. In parallel to the rising political temperature in the rest of the country, the north-west was hit with a drought which led to a rash of fires in Ladoga, Russa and Gorodische, but Novgorod was worst hit, with so many fires starting that many inhabitants thought it safer to live out in the fields rather than risk burning to death in their houses. The next year saw the Archbishop of Novgorod Martiriy take the lead in reconstruction work after the fires, laying the foundations of two churches, one above the city gate, which one must presume required repair after the fires of 1194.
Building work in Novgorod
In 1195, Rurik invited his brother David from Smolensk, his son Rostislav and his son-in-law Roman Mstislavich of Galich to share out the territories that had recently fallen into his hands. The princes held a series of feasts in Vyshgorod, Belgorod and Kiev itself where they fed and watered each other, the nobles and churchmen of the various cities as well as arranging feasts for the common people. Along with the wining and dining, in order to boost his position against his neighbour and rival Yaroslav of Chernigov, Rurik appointed his son-in-law Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky to take over a string of cities to the south-east of Kiev: Korsun’, Boguslav and Torchesk along the river Ros’ as well as Kanev and Trepol’ along the Dnieper. However, when Vsevolod heard of this, he sent a messenger to Rurik demanding control over that territory for himself. After all, Rurik had recognised Vsevolod as his senior and Vsevolod already had a number of sons who would require places to rule.
The noblemen in Kiev advised Rurik that although it was far from ideal, he could give Vsevolod other territories near Kiev. Unfortunately, Vsevolod was insistent on getting the lands that had gone to Roman Mstislavich. Although these fortresses would give their holder a strong military presence near Kiev, another reason might have been more personal: there had been a long-standing rivalry between Vsevolod and Roman’s families going back to Vsevolod’s father Yury’s struggles against Roman’s father and grandfather. Roman had also recently been a threat to his neighbour (and Vsevolod’s nephew) Vladimir Yaroslavich in Galich. In the end, Rurik accepted that Vsevolod was a more valuable ally than Roman and agreed to deprive Roman and hand the cities to Vsevolod. As with the case of Pereyaslavl’, which Vsevolod inherited in 1187 then immediately gave to his nephew Yaroslav Mstislavich, Vsevolod chose to stay in Vladimir and hand these southern territories to someone he felt he could rely on, but also someone to whom Rurik could not object: Vsevolod’s son-in-law and Rurik’s oldest son Rostislav.
Dear Roman, Do you remember those territories I said you could have? I’m afraid there’s been a change of plan. Hope that’s OK. All the best, Rurik.
Although Rurik could hardly complain at the honour shown to his first-born, Roman Mstislavich was far from happy at seeing himself stripped of some very strategic fortresses close to Kiev. Up until this point, Roman had been married to Rurik’s daughter Predslava. Roman was furious with his father-in-law for bowing to Vsevolod’s pressure and suspected him of acting in concert with Vsevolod to humiliate him. He divorced Predslava and sent her back to Kiev. Roman started openly supporting Yaroslav Vsevolodovich’s claim to Kiev, but also sought allies in Poland, backing the sons of Casimir against their uncle Mieszko who was plotting to take Krakow from them, a goal which had come into closer reach after Casimir died in May.
If Roman had hoped for Polish support in his rivalry with Vsevolod, he was to be disappointed. In 1195, the conflict in Poland erupted into open war between young Leszek the White, now High Duke of Poland and his uncle Mieszko the Old. Leszek had inherited Krakow but both Mieszko and his son Boleslaw were not happy to see a ten year old child occupy a throne they thought should be theirs. Luckily for Leszek and his brother Konrad, the boys had the support of the nobility of Krakow and the church. They called on Roman’s help and he and his army went into Poland on the understanding that the favour would soon be returned. Mieszko tried to arrange a deal with Roman, sending heralds to talk peace, but despite the advice of his own followers, Roman was insistent on fighting. Things came a head at the battle of the river Mozgawa on 13th September 1195. The battle proved costly to both sides: Mieszko lost his son Boleslaw and was injured himself, but Roman too was badly wounded, returning to Vladimir-Volynsky with a severely battered army and in need of rest and recuperation. Given his weakened position, both personally and militarily, Roman sought to mend fences with Rurik and accepted the transfer of the fortress Polonny from Kiev to his own territory, as well as getting some landed estates near Korsun’.
“and his (Roman’s) warband took him from there and carried him to Vladimir(-Volynsky)”
In late 1195, an attempt was made to bring a little unity to the political sphere through a dynastic marriage. The Prince of Pskov, Mstislav Romanovich, Rurik’s uncle and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich’s nephew, sent his ten-year-old daughter Maria to Vladimir marry Vsevolod Big Nest’s son nine-year-old son Konstantin on 15th October. Despite the links to Yaroslav’s kin, this was more to cement the alliance between the houses of Smolensk and Vladimir – (Yaroslav was not invited, although the Princes of Ryazan’ and Murom were) and shortly after, Vsevolod called upon Yaroslav Vladimirovich to get the armies of Novgorod to prepare for a fight against Chernigov.
Vsevolod Big Nest, David of Smolensk, the princes of Ryazan’ and Rurik of Kiev sent a joint message to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and his relatives that they should respect the settlement at Lyubech in 1097 by which their forefather’s descendants were essentially ruled out of the succession for Kiev, as Svyatoslav Yaroslavich had not ruled Kiev legitimately himself. Given that a number of princes from that branch of the family (Vsevolod II, Igor’ II Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich – Yaroslav’s father, uncle and brother) had already ruled Kiev since then, Yaroslav was not willing to accept that. He replied to Vsevolod saying that he and his kinsmen were willing to look after Kiev for Vsevolod or Rurik, but that if the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh wanted to deny Kiev to the descendants of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich forever, it should remembered that his family were not Hungarians or Poles, but descendants of a common forefather. Vsevolod and Rurik could rule as long as they lived, but afterwards, may Kiev go to the most worthy, according to the will of God.
A round of diplomacy as the appetiser for a main course of violence.
Vsevolod and Rurik took steps to back up their words with action; aside from the army of Novgorod which had gathered at Novy Torg and their own men, Rurik had recruited a force of Polovtsy, who were waiting in the steppes to fall on Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky and Kursk. However, although Vsevolod had agreed to meet with Rurik’s army outside Chernigov at the end of 1195, Vsevolod had been negotiating with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who had, in the face of the threat of war, suddenly become far more pliable. Yaroslav’s promises of peace were believed and and Vsevolod sent his own warband and the men of Novgorod home. Rurik withdrew and paid off his Polovtsian allies and agreed a deal with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in early 1196. As part of this, he agreed to lobby his brother David of Smolensk to arrange the transfer of Vitebsk from David’s son-in-law Vasil’ko Bryachislavich to Yaroslav’s control.
Yaroslav was keen to take control of Vitebsk straight away and sent his nephew Oleg Svyatoslavich, descendant of a previous prince of Vitebsk through his mother, with an army through the territory of Smolensk in the early spring of 1196 to stake his claim. Rurik had withdrawn to Ovruch for the winter and was unable to prevent Oleg Svyatoslavich from entering Smolensk’s terrorities and pillaging them. David raised an army and called upon help from Mstislav Romanovich of Pskov, Gleb Vladimirovich of Ryazan’ and Rostislav Vladimirovich, brother of the Prince of Novgorod. Unfortunately, David found himself fighting a war on two fronts as Vladimir, Prince of Polotsk and Boris of Drutsk turned against him and joined forces with Oleg Svyatoslavich.
Oleg’s men had been careful to maintain good order, even after a heavy snowfall. When David’s men discovered their army on 12th March 1196, Mstislav Romanovich led a sudden cavalry charge in an attempt to throw his enemy into disarray. The attack took a heavy toll on Oleg’s forces, with his standards being abandoned and his eldest son David Olegovich losing his life. However, when David Rostislavich’s commander sent his infantry to deal with the men from Polotsk, the men from Smolensk lost their nerve and fled. The Polotskian contingent had better discipline and, instead of chasing after the fleeing infantry, they rode to the aid of Oleg, hitting Mstislav’s regiment in the rear. At the time, Mstislav was out in front, chasing Oleg’s men and did not realise what was happening behind him. By the time Mstislav returned to whom he thought were his infantry, the survivors had already fled the field, and Mstislav was captured by the men of Polotsk. When Rostislav Vladimirovich, Gleb Vladimirovich and David’s commanders returned from the chase, they realised what had happened and rapidly withdrew to Smolensk to avoid the trap that Mstislav Romanovich had fallen into. When Oleg Svyatoslavich realised they had captured Rurik Rostislavich’s nephew Mstislav, he was delighted and wrote back to his uncle with the good news.
Dear Vsevolod, I’m afraid Yaroslav attacked Smolensk and captured my nephew Mstislav. Can you please help. All the best, Rurik.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich thought things were turning his way on multiple fronts. After Vsevolod had sent the men Yaroslav Vladimirovich had gathered home to Novgorod at the end of 1195, political forces opposed to Yaroslav’s rule tried to get him removed. They sent the Posadnik Miroshka and other dignitories to Vladimir to request that Vsevolod send one of his sons (although his eldest, Konstantin, was only ten at the time). Vsevolod insisted his guests stay indefinitely and refused to send a replacement for Yaroslav. However, once Oleg Svyatoslavich had defeated David of Smolensk and his allies, the opposition in Novgorod used the fact that Vsevolod was still holding their Posadnik hostage to drive out Yaroslav Vladimirovich in the autumn of 1196 and to request a new prince from Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in Chernigov. Yaroslav sent his second son Yaropolk, who, because of the conflict with Smolensk, took an indirect route and only arrived in March 1197.
Unfortunately for Yaropolk Yaroslavich, the previous incumbent had not left the territory of Novgorod and had taken up residence in Novy Torg. Yaroslav clearly still had support among the wider political class in Novgorod’s territories and started collecting tribute from most of its lands, from the Urals almost up to the city itself. After six months of this, Yaroslav’s opponents lost the argument in the city, Yaropolk was sent packing and the elites of Novgorod asked Vsevolod to send Yaroslav to them again. Yaroslav had been summoned from Novy Torg to Vladimir for consultations with Vsevolod and the chief men of Novgorod met him there, promising to be loyal if only he would return to rule them. Both Vsevolod and Yaroslav were delighted with how things turned out and Vsevolod sent Yaroslav on his way, accompanied by Posadnik Miroshko and the remaining involuntary guests. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, Yaroslav and the notables arrived just after Epiphany in what we would consider 1198 and “all in Novgorod, from small to great, were glad.”
Yaroslav returns to Novgorod and everyone is happy.
Moving back to 1196, after the defeat of David and his allies in March, Rurik raised an army to attack Chernigov and release his nephew Mstislav. His plan was spoiled by Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky, who was still openly supporting Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and who could have attacked Kiev from the south-west while Rurik was out east invading Chernigov. Instead of moving against Yaroslav, Rurik decided to first deal with Roman Mstislavich and prepared to move on Vladimir-Volynsky. Before he could do so, however, Vsevolod Big Nest and David Rostislavich of Smolensk, along with the princes of Ryazan’ and Murom started their own offensive against Chernigov, Kursk and Novgorod-Seversky.
Yaroslav sent his nephews Oleg and Gleb Svyatoslavich to guard the western approaches against Rurik, while withdrawing into the forest zone to the south east. This area – the frontier zone against the steppes – was defended by long rows of fallen trees, built up into an almost impassable barrier for cavalry to slow up the Polovtsy, but would also serve as a good place to avoid Vsevolod and his allies. Although there had been an agreement not to come to a deal with Yaroslav without Rurik, there was some kind of back-channel between Vsevolod on one side and Yaroslav on the other, even while Vsevolod’s allies ravaged the northern areas of Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky. Yaroslav essentially surrendered by September, agreeing to release Mstislav Romanovich without a ransom being paid and promising not to attempt any more assaults on Kiev or Smolensk while under the current management.
Vsevolod puts his point across to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich through the medium of arson.
In the south-west, Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky, having recovered from his injuries at the hands of Mieszko the Old, was about to call more misfortune upon his head by attacking territories in the principality of Kiev. When Rurik heard of Vsevolod and David’s invasion of Chernigov, his hands were untied and he sent Mstislav Mstislavich to Galich where he joined forces with Vladimir Yaroslavich in an attack on Roman’s fortress at Peremil’ while at the same time, Rostislav Rurikovich and the Black Hats attacked Kamenets. These raids did not seriously affect Roman’s control over his principality, but with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Igor’ Svyatoslavich making peace with Roman’s enemies, there seemed little point in continuing the fight. Roman did however finalise his divorce with Predslava, Rurik’s daughter.
An uneasy peace settled over Russia and Vsevolod returned to Vladimir on October 6th to celebrate. He had done quite well, avoiding damage to his own principality, seeing off a threat from Yaroslav while leaving him in power in Chernigov to balance the power of the descendants of Rostislav Mstislavich in Smolensk and Kiev. Yaroslav’s position had been weakened, not only by Vsevolod’s attack, but also by the death of Vsevolod “Wild Bull” Svyatoslavich, Prince of Kursk, at some point in 1196 – he was either too ill or already too dead to take part in any of the military action that year. Vsevolod was known as a courageous warrior and his death at the age of forty-three may have been somewhat unexpected.
Vsevolod and Yaroslav make peace.
Things went even better for Vsevolod Big Nest in 1197. David Rostislavich was a little disappointed at the outcome of the war of 1196 and had been preparing another campaign against Yaroslav, when he fell ill. At the age of fifty-seven, he realised this was probably the end, moved from Smolensk to the monastery where St. Gleb was killed and took monastic vows, leaving his principality to his nephew Mstislav Romanovich. David passed away on 23rd April, leaving a reputation as a pious ruler but a strict enforcer of the law upon rebels. The new prince Mstislav had family ties to both Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, being his cousin and to Vsevolod “Big Nest” as his daughter Maria had married Vsevolod’s son Konstantin in 1195 and was an ally of the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Aside from Yaropolk Yaroslavich’s short period in charge of Novgorod, followed by Yaroslav Vladimirovich’s triumphant return six months later and the birth of Vsevolod’s youngest son, Ivan, 1197 was otherwise a fairly quiet year.
1198 saw the passing of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, which, like that of his brother Svyatoslav and, more recently, of David of Smolensk, was preceeded by his taking monastic vows. Chernigov was inherited by his cousin Igor’ Svyatoslavich, although who succeeded Igor’ as prince of Novgorod-Seversky is not clear – it could have been his son Vladimir, who died shortly after, or possibly Oleg Svyatoslavich, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich’s son. Records in Novgorod-Seversky did not survive well, so there is considerable debate as to the later succession to Novgorod-Seversky for several decades.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich passes away.
With Yaroslav Vsevolodovich ailing or having passed away, Vsevolod “Big Nest” took the opportunity to introduce his son thirteen year old son Konstantin to the art of military campaigning when they set out in spring to clear out the winter camping areas of the Polovtsy along the Don. However, the Polovtsy had seen the size of Vsevolod’s army and made themselves scarce, fleeing to the seaside. The two princes returned to Vladimir on 6th June having set light to the nomads’ campsites without any actual fighting. They were just in time to witness another fire, as, once again, a major conflagration hit Vladimir on 25th June, destroying a large section of the city.
Tragedy hit Yaroslav Vladimirovich in Novgorod at this time. Although Novgorod was seeing a rash of new churches and monasteries being built, suggesting prosperity for the trading elites, this did not stave off the risk of illness. Yaroslav’s elder, seven-year-old son Izyaslav had been placed in nominal charge of Luki on the southern frontiers once Yaroslav had returned to power in 1197, to help guard Novgorod from the threat of Chernigov-aligned Polotsk. On 20th June 1198, Izyaslav’s younger brother Rostislav died in Novgorod, followed two weeks later by Izyaslav himself. Both boys were buried in the Yuriev Monastery to the south of Novgorod. A few months later, Luki was raided by the army of Polotsk in alliance with the Lithuanians, but the townspeople had been warned and were able to escape, although the city was burned. Yaroslav gathered an army from across Novgorod’s huge territory and launched a counter-attack, but when the two sides met, the men of Polotsk, seemingly without their erstwhile allies, chose to make peace and they separated without bloodshed.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich buries his sons.
Despite having regained power in Novgorod due to the support of Vsevolod Big Nest, Yaroslav was not exactly popular. He had recently disappointed his army a second time by calling off a campaign. His men were no doubt hoping to get rich by relieving their defeated enemies of their war gear and other valuables and, at this point, Yaroslav seems to have exhausted the goodwill of his subjects. Archbishop Martiriy and various notables of Novgorod travelled to Vladimir in the summer of 1199 to ask Vsevolod to send one of his sons to reign over them. Sadly, Archbishop Martiriy passed away on the journey but the others made it to Vladimir to make the request: “Lord Grand Prince! Our province is your ancestral property: we pray that you grant us a grandson of Dolgoruky, a great-grandson of Monomakh!” Vsevolod consulted his warband before making what must have been a tricky decision. Vsevolod’s sons were all fairly young at that point, but the choice of Svyatoslav must have seemed a bit odd, both to the elites of Novgorod and to the three-year-old himself. However, the logic seems solid. His appointment underlined both the prestige of Vladimir and of Vsevolod as its ruler, while also allowing the elites of Novgorod to run their city as they wished without an adult like Yaroslav hanging around who might make decisions that annoyed them.
Like Vladimir, Novgorod continued to see its trading wealth expressed in a number of building projects, both of churches and defences – Rusa to the south of Novgorod had its defences built up, not a moment too soon as early 1200 saw an attack by the Lithuanians up the river Lovot’ towards Rusa and Novgorod. The defenders beat the invaders off, freeing the prisoners and regaining the looted valuables, but most of the Lithuanians were able to escape. Later that year the men of Novgorod struck back with a raid against Latgale, where they killed their opponents and took their wives and children back to Luki as prisoners.
Beating off the Lithuanian attack
Around the same time, late 1199 or early 1200, trouble in the south-west also flared up. Vladimir Yaroslavich died in Galich, without an obvious heir near at hand. His neighbour and rival for the principality, Roman Mstislavich, saw his chance. With the help of the young Polish princes he had aided back in 1195, he besieged a leaderless Galich and forced the inhabitants to accept him as ruler. At least some of the nobles had been trying to get one of Igor’ Svyatoslavich of Chernigov’s sons to come and rule, as they were nephews of Vladimir through their mother. Others had visited the Polish camp, begging Duke Leszek the White to take over Galich himself, rather than allow Roman to rule but these attempts to avoid Roman’s dominance over their region ended badly for the nobles.
To remove any open opposition to his rule, he publicly executed a number of the old elite in a particularly cruel manner. including burying them alive, quartering them and even inventing his own methods of torture, scaring many other noblemen to seek safety elsewhere. This gave Roman the opportunity to confiscate their property and distribute it to his own supporters. Having already split up with his first wife, Roman married again. The chronicles did not mention his wife’s name, but many historians believe she could have been Euphrosyne, daughter of the, at the time imprisoned, Roman Emperor Isaac II Angelos.
Isaac II Angelos, Emperor and Autocrator of the Romans. Unknown Byzantine scribes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Late 1199 also saw the death of Yaroslav Mstislavich, nephew of Vsevolod “Big Nest” and Prince of Pereyaslavl’ after twelve years in charge. Yaroslav had no surviving children and no brothers, so once again Vsevolod got to choose the next ruler. This time, he chose his eldest son, only nine or ten at the time, like his predecessor in the post, also called Yaroslav. The choice, like that of Svyatoslav for Novgorod, seems strange, especially bearing in mind that Vsevolod’s oldest son Konstantin would have been fourteen at the time, so just about ready to rule as an adult, and who did not have his own territory yet. However, Konstantin wanted to concentrate on his studies in Vladimir and the next son, Yury, was not well, so the burden fell on Yaroslav. Yaroslav was accompanied to Pereyaslavl’ by his father, his brothers Konstantin and Yury arriving in August 1200 for Yaroslav to take up his post. After the enthroment, Vsevolod headed back north, leaving Yaroslav behind with a large military force under the command of two of his most experienced commanders.
In Galich, Roman Mstislavich’s cruelty had brought him control of a large rich territory as well as a notoriety among other Russian princes. By divorcing Rurik’s daughter, he had attracted the particular ire of the Grand Prince of Kiev. Rurik had been arranging a campaign to put Roman back in his place with Igor’ Svyatoslavich of Chernigov, who was brother-in-law of the previous prince of Galich – Vladimir Yaroslavich. However, Roman got wind of the plan and struck first. In the autumn of 1200 he mobilised his forces, arriving near Kiev when Igor’ Svyatoslavich was still on the far side of the Dnieper. The Black Hats and Torks serving Rurik saw which way the wind was blowing, swapped sides and Rurik was betrayed again by supporters of Roman who opened the gates of Kiev and many other fortresses in the area. Rurik and his allies were isolated in the inner fortress of Kiev and agreed to abandon the city. Rurik accepted Roman’s peace terms and withdrew to his previous seat at Ovruch.
Ingvar’, would you like to rule Kiev for me, please?
However, Roman Mstislavich, like Andrey Bogolyubsky in his day, was not interested in ruling Kiev himself. The northern chronicles state that his cousin, Ingvar’2 Yaroslavich of Lutsk was set in place by both Roman and Vsevolod Big Nest, while southern sources do not mention Vsevolod at all. It is possible that Vsevolod was not asked, but did not particularly object to Ingvar’s rule, as it would keep the city out of the direct control of Roman and prevent any potential rival to Vsevolod from gaining too much power. Whether or not Vsevolod gave his blessing, that winter, Roman felt secure enough in his extended area of influence to make a move against the Polovtsy on behalf of his new wife’s uncle, the Roman Emperor Alexios III Angelos. The Polovtsy had been helping the Bulgars raid the area around Constantinople and as they frequently did, the Romans engaged a more distant power, in this case – Galich, to strike a closer opponent from the rear. Roman’s campaign was hugely successful, devastating the Polovtsian camps and liberating very many enslaved Russian prisoners, while also breaking the will of the enemies of the Roman Empire.
We shall see how Vsevolod deals with this rival in the next episode.
- Descendants of Yury Dolgoruky, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I:
Vsevolod “Big Nest” Yuryevich, Grand Prince of Kiev (1173), Grand Prince of Vladimir (1176-1212), son of Yury Dolgoruky, husband of Maria Shvarnovna, brother of Andrey Bogolyubsky, cousin of Izyaslav II and Rostislav Mstislavich, brother-in-law of Mstislav Svyatoslavich.
Maria Shvarnovna, wife of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, mother of all of his many children, sister of Marfa Shvarnovna.
Verkhuslava Vsevolodovna, daughter of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, wife of Rostislav Rurikovich.
Konstantin Vsevolodovich, eldest son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Gleb Vsevolodovich, short-lived third son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yury Vsevolodovich, fourth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Pereyaslavl’ (1200-06)…fifth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, father of Alexander Nevsky and ancestor of the subsequent rulers of Russia until 1598.
Vladimir Vsevolodovich, sixth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Novgorod (1200-05)…, seventh son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”
Ivan Vsevolodovich, eighth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yaroslav Mstislavich, Prince of Novgorod (1176), Prince of Pereyaslavl’ Zalessky (1178-87), Prince of Pereyaslavl’ (1187-99), nephew of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, grandson of Yury Dolgoruky.
Descendants of Mstislav I, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I
Mstislav Vladimirovich, Prince of Dorogobuzh (1171-73), Prince of Trepol’ (1173-83), Prince of Kanev (1194-1203), son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Yaroslav and Rostislav Vladimirovich.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Novgorod (1182-84, 1187-96)… son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Mstislav and Rostislav Vladimirovich.
Izyaslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Luki (1197-8), son of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, brother of Rostislav.
Rostislav Yaroslavich, son of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, brother of Izyaslav.
Rostislav Vladimirovich, son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Mstislav and Yaroslav Vladimirovich.
Roman Mstislavich, Prince of Novgorod (1168-70), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1170-88, 1188-1205), Prince of Galich (1188, 1199-1205)…, son of Mstislav Izyaslavich, brother of Vsevolod Mstislavich.
Vsevolod Mstislavich, Prince of Belz (1170-88, 1188-95), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1188).
Ingvar’ Yaroslavich, Prince of Luchesk (1180-1220), Grand Prince of Kiev (1200-02)…, son of Yaroslav Izyaslavich, grandson of Izyaslav Mstislavich.
Descendants of Rostislav Mstislavich, Mstislav I etc.
Rurik Rostislavich, Prince of Vruchy (1168-73, 1173-1208), Prince of Novgorod (1170-71), Grand Prince of Kiev (1173, 1180-81, 1194-1201..) third son of Rostislav Mstislavich, cousin of Andrey Bogolyubsky.
Rostislav Rurikovich, Prince of Torchesk (before 1190-1205)…, son of Rurik Rostislavich, brother of Predslava.
Predslava Rurikovna, daughter of Rurik Rostislavich, sister of Rostislav, wife of Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky and Galich.
David Rostislavich, viceroy of Novy Torg (1157-60), Prince of Vitebsk (1165-6), Prince of Vyshgorod (1167-80), Prince of Smolensk (1180-97), fourth son of Rostislav Mstislavich, cousin of Andrey Bogolyubsky
Vladimir Davidovich, Prince of Vyshgorod (1187-119?), Prince of Vyshgorod, son of David Rostislavich.
Mstislav Romanovich, Prince of Pskov (1179-?), son of Roman Rostislavich, nephew of Rurik and David Rostislavich.
Mstislav Mstislavich “the Successful”, Prince of Trepol’ (1193-1203)…, son of Mstislav Rostislavich, grandson of Rostislav Mstislavich, nephew of David, Roman and Rurik Rostislavich.
Descendants of Vsevolod II and Svyatoslav II,
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Novgorod (1140), Prince of Turov (1142, 1154-55), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1142-46), Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1157-64) Prince of Chernigov (1164-80), Grand Prince of Kiev (1174, 1176-80, 1181-94), son of Vsevolod II, nephew of Igor’ II, father of Vladimir, Oleg, Vsevolod, Gleb and Mstislav, cousin of Izyaslav Mstislavich, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II.
Oleg Svyatoslavich, son of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Vladimir, Gleb, Vsevolod and Mstislav, father of David Olegovich.
David Olegovich, son of Oleg Svyatoslavich.
Gleb Svyatoslavich, Prince of Kolomna (1179), Prince of Kanev (1182-90)… son of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Vladimir, Oleg, Vsevolod and Mstislav, grandson of Vsevolod II
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Starodub (1164-1180), Prince of Chernigov (1180-99), son of Vsevolod II, brother of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich.
Yaropolk Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod (1197), son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.
Igor’ Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1180-98), Prince of Chernigov (1198-1201), son of Svyatoslav Ol’govich, nephew of Vsevolod II and Igor’ II, cousin of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Oleg and Vsevolod “Wild Bull”, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II
Vladimir Igorevich, Prince of Putivl’ (1185-96), maybe Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1198-121?), son of Igor’ Svyatoslavich.
Vsevolod “Wild Bull” Svyatoslavich, Prince of Trubetsk and Kursk (1180-96), son of Svyatoslav Ol’govich, nephew of Vsevolod II and Igor’ II, cousin of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Oleg and Igor’, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II
Gleb Vladimirovich, Prince of a section of Ryazan’ principality (?-1212), great-great-great-grandson of Svyatoslav II.
Descendants of Vseslav the Sorceror
Vladimir Volodarevich?, Prince of Polotsk (118?-1216), possibly son of Volodar’ Glebovich, great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorceror.
Boris Rogvolodovich, Prince of Drutsk (118?-later than 1196), great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorceror.
Vasil’ko Bryachislavich, Prince of Vitebsk (1186-later than 1209), great-great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorcer
Descendants of Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav “Eight-Minds” Vladimirovich, Prince of Galich (1153-87), son of Vladimir Volodarevich, great-great-great-grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, father of Vladimir and Oleg, brother-in-law of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, father-in-law of Igor’ Svyatoslavich.
Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince of Galich (1187-88, 1189-99), son of Yaroslav “Eight Minds”, half-brother of Oleg. ↩︎ - Ingvar’ was the original Norse version of the name Russified as Igor’. It is interesting to see a return to Norse names like Rurik. ↩︎
- Descendants of Yury Dolgoruky, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I:
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29D) Vsevolod III “Big Nest” Part 4 (1194-1200)
Vsevolod “Big Nest” / Всеволод Большое Гнездо
To see a list of the characters and their inter-relations, please click here 1
Last time, we left Vsevolod firmly in charge in Vladimir but with a new (not that new) Grand Prince down south: Rurik Rostislavich, in for the third and by far the longest of his seven periods ruling Kiev. Despite a degree of distrust between them, Rurik and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich had avoided armed conflict for Svyatoslav’s second reign in Kiev, allowing Rurik and his relatives to control much of the hinterland of Kiev while Svyatoslav kept the title of Grand Prince and the income from trade and customs duties. According to the chronicles, Svyatoslav tried to ensure a smooth hand-over by summoning Rurik to his deathbed and charging him to take care of his widow, children (although they were all adults) and Kiev itself.
Rurik becomes Grand Prince of Kiev, again.
Rurik returned to Kiev in July 1194 to the delight of the nobles and burgesses, particularly those who had traditionally favoured the descendants of Vsevolod Yaroslavich over those of his brother Svyatoslav. Metropolitan Nikifor greeted Rurik at the city gates and led the procession to St Sophia’s cathedral, where Rurik was enthroned. Unfortunately, not everyone was so happy. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in Chernigov had hoped to inherit Kiev from his brother, while Vsevolod Big Nest was also a little unsettled by Rurik’s return to the old capital. While Rurik and Svyatoslav divided the area around Kiev between them, neither of them could afford to take action that would disturb the peace, but with all the territory under Rurik’s domination, he might be able to act more independently and, potentially, in a manner that might inconvenience Vsevolod himself.
At this time Vsevolod took some practical action to defend his positions, both in his homeland and near Kiev. In 1194, after having rebuilt both Vladimir and Suzdal’, he ordered the reconstruction of the fortifications of Pereyaslavl’-Zalessky. He also sent his servant south to Gorodets to organise the rebuilding of the fortress which had been founded by his grandfather Vladimir Monomakh a century before and which had belonged to his father. In parallel to the rising political temperature in the rest of the country, the north-west was hit with a drought which led to a rash of fires in Ladoga, Russa and Gorodische, but Novgorod was worst hit, with so many fires starting that many inhabitants thought it safer to live out in the fields rather than risk burning to death in their houses. The next year saw the Archbishop of Novgorod Martiriy take the lead in reconstruction work after the fires, laying the foundations of two churches, one above the city gate, which one must presume required repair after the fires of 1194.
Building work in Novgorod
In 1195, Rurik invited his brother David from Smolensk, his son Rostislav and his son-in-law Roman Mstislavich of Galich to share out the territories that had recently fallen into his hands. The princes held a series of feasts in Vyshgorod, Belgorod and Kiev itself where they fed and watered each other, the nobles and churchmen of the various cities as well as arranging feasts for the common people. Along with the wining and dining, in order to boost his position against his neighbour and rival Yaroslav of Chernigov, Rurik appointed his son-in-law Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky to take over a string of cities to the south-east of Kiev: Korsun’, Boguslav and Torchesk along the river Ros’ as well as Kanev and Trepol’ along the Dnieper. However, when Vsevolod heard of this, he sent a messenger to Rurik demanding control over that territory for himself. After all, Rurik had recognised Vsevolod as his senior and Vsevolod already had a number of sons who would require places to rule.
The noblemen in Kiev advised Rurik that although it was far from ideal, he could give Vsevolod other territories near Kiev. Unfortunately, Vsevolod was insistent on getting the lands that had gone to Roman Mstislavich. Although these fortresses would give their holder a strong military presence near Kiev, another reason might have been more personal: there had been a long-standing rivalry between Vsevolod and Roman’s families going back to Vsevolod’s father Yury’s struggles against Roman’s father and grandfather. Roman had also recently been a threat to his neighbour (and Vsevolod’s nephew) Vladimir Yaroslavich in Galich. In the end, Rurik accepted that Vsevolod was a more valuable ally than Roman and agreed to deprive Roman and hand the cities to Vsevolod. As with the case of Pereyaslavl’, which Vsevolod inherited in 1187 then immediately gave to his nephew Yaroslav Mstislavich, Vsevolod chose to stay in Vladimir and hand these southern territories to someone he felt he could rely on, but also someone to whom Rurik could not object: Vsevolod’s son-in-law and Rurik’s oldest son Rostislav.
Dear Roman, Do you remember those territories I said you could have? I’m afraid there’s been a change of plan. Hope that’s OK. All the best, Rurik.
Although Rurik could hardly complain at the honour shown to his first-born, Roman Mstislavich was far from happy at seeing himself stripped of some very strategic fortresses close to Kiev. Up until this point, Roman had been married to Rurik’s daughter Predslava. Roman was furious with his father-in-law for bowing to Vsevolod’s pressure and suspected him of acting in concert with Vsevolod to humiliate him. He divorced Predslava and sent her back to Kiev. Roman started openly supporting Yaroslav Vsevolodovich’s claim to Kiev, but also sought allies in Poland, backing the sons of Casimir against their uncle Mieszko who was plotting to take Krakow from them, a goal which had come into closer reach after Casimir died in May.
If Roman had hoped for Polish support in his rivalry with Vsevolod, he was to be disappointed. In 1195, the conflict in Poland erupted into open war between young Leszek the White, now High Duke of Poland and his uncle Mieszko the Old. Leszek had inherited Krakow but both Mieszko and his son Boleslaw were not happy to see a ten year old child occupy a throne they thought should be theirs. Luckily for Leszek and his brother Konrad, the boys had the support of the nobility of Krakow and the church. They called on Roman’s help and he and his army went into Poland on the understanding that the favour would soon be returned. Mieszko tried to arrange a deal with Roman, sending heralds to talk peace, but despite the advice of his own followers, Roman was insistent on fighting. Things came a head at the battle of the river Mozgawa on 13th September 1195. The battle proved costly to both sides: Mieszko lost his son Boleslaw and was injured himself, but Roman too was badly wounded, returning to Vladimir-Volynsky with a severely battered army and in need of rest and recuperation. Given his weakened position, both personally and militarily, Roman sought to mend fences with Rurik and accepted the transfer of the fortress Polonny from Kiev to his own territory, as well as getting some landed estates near Korsun’.
“and his (Roman’s) warband took him from there and carried him to Vladimir(-Volynsky)”
In late 1195, an attempt was made to bring a little unity to the political sphere through a dynastic marriage. The Prince of Pskov, Mstislav Romanovich, Rurik’s uncle and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich’s nephew, sent his ten-year-old daughter Maria to Vladimir marry Vsevolod Big Nest’s son nine-year-old son Konstantin on 15th October. Despite the links to Yaroslav’s kin, this was more to cement the alliance between the houses of Smolensk and Vladimir – (Yaroslav was not invited, although the Princes of Ryazan’ and Murom were) and shortly after, Vsevolod called upon Yaroslav Vladimirovich to get the armies of Novgorod to prepare for a fight against Chernigov.
Vsevolod Big Nest, David of Smolensk, the princes of Ryazan’ and Rurik of Kiev sent a joint message to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and his relatives that they should respect the settlement at Lyubech in 1097 by which their forefather’s descendants were essentially ruled out of the succession for Kiev, as Svyatoslav Yaroslavich had not ruled Kiev legitimately himself. Given that a number of princes from that branch of the family (Vsevolod II, Igor’ II Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich – Yaroslav’s father, uncle and brother) had already ruled Kiev since then, Yaroslav was not willing to accept that. He replied to Vsevolod saying that he and his kinsmen were willing to look after Kiev for Vsevolod or Rurik, but that if the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh wanted to deny Kiev to the descendants of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich forever, it should remembered that his family were not Hungarians or Poles, but descendants of a common forefather. Vsevolod and Rurik could rule as long as they lived, but afterwards, may Kiev go to the most worthy, according to the will of God.
A round of diplomacy as the appetiser for a main course of violence.
Vsevolod and Rurik took steps to back up their words with action; aside from the army of Novgorod which had gathered at Novy Torg and their own men, Rurik had recruited a force of Polovtsy, who were waiting in the steppes to fall on Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky and Kursk. However, although Vsevolod had agreed to meet with Rurik’s army outside Chernigov at the end of 1195, Vsevolod had been negotiating with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who had, in the face of the threat of war, suddenly become far more pliable. Yaroslav’s promises of peace were believed and and Vsevolod sent his own warband and the men of Novgorod home. Rurik withdrew and paid off his Polovtsian allies and agreed a deal with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in early 1196. As part of this, he agreed to lobby his brother David of Smolensk to arrange the transfer of Vitebsk from David’s son-in-law Vasil’ko Bryachislavich to Yaroslav’s control.
Yaroslav was keen to take control of Vitebsk straight away and sent his nephew Oleg Svyatoslavich, descendant of a previous prince of Vitebsk through his mother, with an army through the territory of Smolensk in the early spring of 1196 to stake his claim. Rurik had withdrawn to Ovruch for the winter and was unable to prevent Oleg Svyatoslavich from entering Smolensk’s terrorities and pillaging them. David raised an army and called upon help from Mstislav Romanovich of Pskov, Gleb Vladimirovich of Ryazan’ and Rostislav Vladimirovich, brother of the Prince of Novgorod. Unfortunately, David found himself fighting a war on two fronts as Vladimir, Prince of Polotsk and Boris of Drutsk turned against him and joined forces with Oleg Svyatoslavich.
Oleg’s men had been careful to maintain good order, even after a heavy snowfall. When David’s men discovered their army on 12th March 1196, Mstislav Romanovich led a sudden cavalry charge in an attempt to throw his enemy into disarray. The attack took a heavy toll on Oleg’s forces, with his standards being abandoned and his eldest son David Olegovich losing his life. However, when David Rostislavich’s commander sent his infantry to deal with the men from Polotsk, the men from Smolensk lost their nerve and fled. The Polotskian contingent had better discipline and, instead of chasing after the fleeing infantry, they rode to the aid of Oleg, hitting Mstislav’s regiment in the rear. At the time, Mstislav was out in front, chasing Oleg’s men and did not realise what was happening behind him. By the time Mstislav returned to whom he thought were his infantry, the survivors had already fled the field, and Mstislav was captured by the men of Polotsk. When Rostislav Vladimirovich, Gleb Vladimirovich and David’s commanders returned from the chase, they realised what had happened and rapidly withdrew to Smolensk to avoid the trap that Mstislav Romanovich had fallen into. When Oleg Svyatoslavich realised they had captured Rurik Rostislavich’s nephew Mstislav, he was delighted and wrote back to his uncle with the good news.
Dear Vsevolod, I’m afraid Yaroslav attacked Smolensk and captured my nephew Mstislav. Can you please help. All the best, Rurik.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich thought things were turning his way on multiple fronts. After Vsevolod had sent the men Yaroslav Vladimirovich had gathered home to Novgorod at the end of 1195, political forces opposed to Yaroslav’s rule tried to get him removed. They sent the Posadnik Miroshka and other dignitories to Vladimir to request that Vsevolod send one of his sons (although his eldest, Konstantin, was only ten at the time). Vsevolod insisted his guests stay indefinitely and refused to send a replacement for Yaroslav. However, once Oleg Svyatoslavich had defeated David of Smolensk and his allies, the opposition in Novgorod used the fact that Vsevolod was still holding their Posadnik hostage to drive out Yaroslav Vladimirovich in the autumn of 1196 and to request a new prince from Yaroslav Vsevolodovich in Chernigov. Yaroslav sent his second son Yaropolk, who, because of the conflict with Smolensk, took an indirect route and only arrived in March 1197.
Unfortunately for Yaropolk Yaroslavich, the previous incumbent had not left the territory of Novgorod and had taken up residence in Novy Torg. Yaroslav clearly still had support among the wider political class in Novgorod’s territories and started collecting tribute from most of its lands, from the Urals almost up to the city itself. After six months of this, Yaroslav’s opponents lost the argument in the city, Yaropolk was sent packing and the elites of Novgorod asked Vsevolod to send Yaroslav to them again. Yaroslav had been summoned from Novy Torg to Vladimir for consultations with Vsevolod and the chief men of Novgorod met him there, promising to be loyal if only he would return to rule them. Both Vsevolod and Yaroslav were delighted with how things turned out and Vsevolod sent Yaroslav on his way, accompanied by Posadnik Miroshko and the remaining involuntary guests. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, Yaroslav and the notables arrived just after Epiphany in what we would consider 1198 and “all in Novgorod, from small to great, were glad.”
Yaroslav returns to Novgorod and everyone is happy.
Moving back to 1196, after the defeat of David and his allies in March, Rurik raised an army to attack Chernigov and release his nephew Mstislav. His plan was spoiled by Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky, who was still openly supporting Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and who could have attacked Kiev from the south-west while Rurik was out east invading Chernigov. Instead of moving against Yaroslav, Rurik decided to first deal with Roman Mstislavich and prepared to move on Vladimir-Volynsky. Before he could do so, however, Vsevolod Big Nest and David Rostislavich of Smolensk, along with the princes of Ryazan’ and Murom started their own offensive against Chernigov, Kursk and Novgorod-Seversky.
Yaroslav sent his nephews Oleg and Gleb Svyatoslavich to guard the western approaches against Rurik, while withdrawing into the forest zone to the south east. This area – the frontier zone against the steppes – was defended by long rows of fallen trees, built up into an almost impassable barrier for cavalry to slow up the Polovtsy, but would also serve as a good place to avoid Vsevolod and his allies. Although there had been an agreement not to come to a deal with Yaroslav without Rurik, there was some kind of back-channel between Vsevolod on one side and Yaroslav on the other, even while Vsevolod’s allies ravaged the northern areas of Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky. Yaroslav essentially surrendered by September, agreeing to release Mstislav Romanovich without a ransom being paid and promising not to attempt any more assaults on Kiev or Smolensk while under the current management.
Vsevolod puts his point across to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich through the medium of arson.
In the south-west, Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky, having recovered from his injuries at the hands of Mieszko the Old, was about to call more misfortune upon his head by attacking territories in the principality of Kiev. When Rurik heard of Vsevolod and David’s invasion of Chernigov, his hands were untied and he sent Mstislav Mstislavich to Galich where he joined forces with Vladimir Yaroslavich in an attack on Roman’s fortress at Peremil’ while at the same time, Rostislav Rurikovich and the Black Hats attacked Kamenets. These raids did not seriously affect Roman’s control over his principality, but with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Igor’ Svyatoslavich making peace with Roman’s enemies, there seemed little point in continuing the fight. Roman did however finalise his divorce with Predslava, Rurik’s daughter.
An uneasy peace settled over Russia and Vsevolod returned to Vladimir on October 6th to celebrate. He had done quite well, avoiding damage to his own principality, seeing off a threat from Yaroslav while leaving him in power in Chernigov to balance the power of the descendants of Rostislav Mstislavich in Smolensk and Kiev. Yaroslav’s position had been weakened, not only by Vsevolod’s attack, but also by the death of Vsevolod “Wild Bull” Svyatoslavich, Prince of Kursk, at some point in 1196 – he was either too ill or already too dead to take part in any of the military action that year. Vsevolod was known as a courageous warrior and his death at the age of forty-three may have been somewhat unexpected.
Vsevolod and Yaroslav make peace.
Things went even better for Vsevolod Big Nest in 1197. David Rostislavich was a little disappointed at the outcome of the war of 1196 and had been preparing another campaign against Yaroslav, when he fell ill. At the age of fifty-seven, he realised this was probably the end, moved from Smolensk to the monastery where St. Gleb was killed and took monastic vows, leaving his principality to his nephew Mstislav Romanovich. David passed away on 23rd April, leaving a reputation as a pious ruler but a strict enforcer of the law upon rebels. The new prince Mstislav had family ties to both Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, being his cousin and to Vsevolod “Big Nest” as his daughter Maria had married Vsevolod’s son Konstantin in 1195 and was an ally of the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Aside from Yaropolk Yaroslavich’s short period in charge of Novgorod, followed by Yaroslav Vladimirovich’s triumphant return six months later and the birth of Vsevolod’s youngest son, Ivan, 1197 was otherwise a fairly quiet year.
1198 saw the passing of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, which, like that of his brother Svyatoslav and, more recently, of David of Smolensk, was preceeded by his taking monastic vows. Chernigov was inherited by his cousin Igor’ Svyatoslavich, although who succeeded Igor’ as prince of Novgorod-Seversky is not clear – it could have been his son Vladimir, who died shortly after, or possibly Oleg Svyatoslavich, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich’s son. Records in Novgorod-Seversky did not survive well, so there is considerable debate as to the later succession to Novgorod-Seversky for several decades.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich passes away.
With Yaroslav Vsevolodovich ailing or having passed away, Vsevolod “Big Nest” took the opportunity to introduce his son thirteen year old son Konstantin to the art of military campaigning when they set out in spring to clear out the winter camping areas of the Polovtsy along the Don. However, the Polovtsy had seen the size of Vsevolod’s army and made themselves scarce, fleeing to the seaside. The two princes returned to Vladimir on 6th June having set light to the nomads’ campsites without any actual fighting. They were just in time to witness another fire, as, once again, a major conflagration hit Vladimir on 25th June, destroying a large section of the city.
Tragedy hit Yaroslav Vladimirovich in Novgorod at this time. Although Novgorod was seeing a rash of new churches and monasteries being built, suggesting prosperity for the trading elites, this did not stave off the risk of illness. Yaroslav’s elder, seven-year-old son Izyaslav had been placed in nominal charge of Luki on the southern frontiers once Yaroslav had returned to power in 1197, to help guard Novgorod from the threat of Chernigov-aligned Polotsk. On 20th June 1198, Izyaslav’s younger brother Rostislav died in Novgorod, followed two weeks later by Izyaslav himself. Both boys were buried in the Yuriev Monastery to the south of Novgorod. A few months later, Luki was raided by the army of Polotsk in alliance with the Lithuanians, but the townspeople had been warned and were able to escape, although the city was burned. Yaroslav gathered an army from across Novgorod’s huge territory and launched a counter-attack, but when the two sides met, the men of Polotsk, seemingly without their erstwhile allies, chose to make peace and they separated without bloodshed.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich buries his sons.
Despite having regained power in Novgorod due to the support of Vsevolod Big Nest, Yaroslav was not exactly popular. He had recently disappointed his army a second time by calling off a campaign. His men were no doubt hoping to get rich by relieving their defeated enemies of their war gear and other valuables and, at this point, Yaroslav seems to have exhausted the goodwill of his subjects. Archbishop Martiriy and various notables of Novgorod travelled to Vladimir in the summer of 1199 to ask Vsevolod to send one of his sons to reign over them. Sadly, Archbishop Martiriy passed away on the journey but the others made it to Vladimir to make the request: “Lord Grand Prince! Our province is your ancestral property: we pray that you grant us a grandson of Dolgoruky, a great-grandson of Monomakh!” Vsevolod consulted his warband before making what must have been a tricky decision. Vsevolod’s sons were all fairly young at that point, but the choice of Svyatoslav must have seemed a bit odd, both to the elites of Novgorod and to the three-year-old himself. However, the logic seems solid. His appointment underlined both the prestige of Vladimir and of Vsevolod as its ruler, while also allowing the elites of Novgorod to run their city as they wished without an adult like Yaroslav hanging around who might make decisions that annoyed them.
Like Vladimir, Novgorod continued to see its trading wealth expressed in a number of building projects, both of churches and defences – Rusa to the south of Novgorod had its defences built up, not a moment too soon as early 1200 saw an attack by the Lithuanians up the river Lovot’ towards Rusa and Novgorod. The defenders beat the invaders off, freeing the prisoners and regaining the looted valuables, but most of the Lithuanians were able to escape. Later that year the men of Novgorod struck back with a raid against Latgale, where they killed their opponents and took their wives and children back to Luki as prisoners.
Beating off the Lithuanian attack
Around the same time, late 1199 or early 1200, trouble in the south-west also flared up. Vladimir Yaroslavich died in Galich, without an obvious heir near at hand. His neighbour and rival for the principality, Roman Mstislavich, saw his chance. With the help of the young Polish princes he had aided back in 1195, he besieged a leaderless Galich and forced the inhabitants to accept him as ruler. At least some of the nobles had been trying to get one of Igor’ Svyatoslavich of Chernigov’s sons to come and rule, as they were nephews of Vladimir through their mother. Others had visited the Polish camp, begging Duke Leszek the White to take over Galich himself, rather than allow Roman to rule but these attempts to avoid Roman’s dominance over their region ended badly for the nobles.
To remove any open opposition to his rule, he publicly executed a number of the old elite in a particularly cruel manner. including burying them alive, quartering them and even inventing his own methods of torture, scaring many other noblemen to seek safety elsewhere. This gave Roman the opportunity to confiscate their property and distribute it to his own supporters. Having already split up with his first wife, Roman married again. The chronicles did not mention his wife’s name, but many historians believe she could have been Euphrosyne, daughter of the, at the time imprisoned, Roman Emperor Isaac II Angelos.
Isaac II Angelos, Emperor and Autocrator of the Romans. Unknown Byzantine scribes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Late 1199 also saw the death of Yaroslav Mstislavich, nephew of Vsevolod “Big Nest” and Prince of Pereyaslavl’ after twelve years in charge. Yaroslav had no surviving children and no brothers, so once again Vsevolod got to choose the next ruler. This time, he chose his eldest son, only nine or ten at the time, like his predecessor in the post, also called Yaroslav. The choice, like that of Svyatoslav for Novgorod, seems strange, especially bearing in mind that Vsevolod’s oldest son Konstantin would have been fourteen at the time, so just about ready to rule as an adult, and who did not have his own territory yet. However, Konstantin wanted to concentrate on his studies in Vladimir and the next son, Yury, was not well, so the burden fell on Yaroslav. Yaroslav was accompanied to Pereyaslavl’ by his father, his brothers Konstantin and Yury arriving in August 1200 for Yaroslav to take up his post. After the enthroment, Vsevolod headed back north, leaving Yaroslav behind with a large military force under the command of two of his most experienced commanders.
In Galich, Roman Mstislavich’s cruelty had brought him control of a large rich territory as well as a notoriety among other Russian princes. By divorcing Rurik’s daughter, he had attracted the particular ire of the Grand Prince of Kiev. Rurik had been arranging a campaign to put Roman back in his place with Igor’ Svyatoslavich of Chernigov, who was brother-in-law of the previous prince of Galich – Vladimir Yaroslavich. However, Roman got wind of the plan and struck first. In the autumn of 1200 he mobilised his forces, arriving near Kiev when Igor’ Svyatoslavich was still on the far side of the Dnieper. The Black Hats and Torks serving Rurik saw which way the wind was blowing, swapped sides and Rurik was betrayed again by supporters of Roman who opened the gates of Kiev and many other fortresses in the area. Rurik and his allies were isolated in the inner fortress of Kiev and agreed to abandon the city. Rurik accepted Roman’s peace terms and withdrew to his previous seat at Ovruch.
Ingvar’, would you like to rule Kiev for me, please?
However, Roman Mstislavich, like Andrey Bogolyubsky in his day, was not interested in ruling Kiev himself. The northern chronicles state that his cousin, Ingvar’2 Yaroslavich of Lutsk was set in place by both Roman and Vsevolod Big Nest, while southern sources do not mention Vsevolod at all. It is possible that Vsevolod was not asked, but did not particularly object to Ingvar’s rule, as it would keep the city out of the direct control of Roman and prevent any potential rival to Vsevolod from gaining too much power. Whether or not Vsevolod gave his blessing, that winter, Roman felt secure enough in his extended area of influence to make a move against the Polovtsy on behalf of his new wife’s uncle, the Roman Emperor Alexios III Angelos. The Polovtsy had been helping the Bulgars raid the area around Constantinople and as they frequently did, the Romans engaged a more distant power, in this case – Galich, to strike a closer opponent from the rear. Roman’s campaign was hugely successful, devastating the Polovtsian camps and liberating very many enslaved Russian prisoners, while also breaking the will of the enemies of the Roman Empire.
We shall see how Vsevolod deals with this rival in the next episode.
- Descendants of Yury Dolgoruky, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I:
Vsevolod “Big Nest” Yuryevich, Grand Prince of Kiev (1173), Grand Prince of Vladimir (1176-1212), son of Yury Dolgoruky, husband of Maria Shvarnovna, brother of Andrey Bogolyubsky, cousin of Izyaslav II and Rostislav Mstislavich, brother-in-law of Mstislav Svyatoslavich.
Maria Shvarnovna, wife of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, mother of all of his many children, sister of Marfa Shvarnovna.
Verkhuslava Vsevolodovna, daughter of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, wife of Rostislav Rurikovich.
Konstantin Vsevolodovich, eldest son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Gleb Vsevolodovich, short-lived third son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yury Vsevolodovich, fourth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Pereyaslavl’ (1200-06)…fifth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, father of Alexander Nevsky and ancestor of the subsequent rulers of Russia until 1598.
Vladimir Vsevolodovich, sixth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Novgorod (1200-05)…, seventh son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”
Ivan Vsevolodovich, eighth son of Vsevolod “Big Nest”.
Yaroslav Mstislavich, Prince of Novgorod (1176), Prince of Pereyaslavl’ Zalessky (1178-87), Prince of Pereyaslavl’ (1187-99), nephew of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, grandson of Yury Dolgoruky.
Descendants of Mstislav I, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I
Mstislav Vladimirovich, Prince of Dorogobuzh (1171-73), Prince of Trepol’ (1173-83), Prince of Kanev (1194-1203), son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Yaroslav and Rostislav Vladimirovich.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Novgorod (1182-84, 1187-96)… son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Mstislav and Rostislav Vladimirovich.
Izyaslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Luki (1197-8), son of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, brother of Rostislav.
Rostislav Yaroslavich, son of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, brother of Izyaslav.
Rostislav Vladimirovich, son of Vladimir Mstislavich, brother of Mstislav and Yaroslav Vladimirovich.
Roman Mstislavich, Prince of Novgorod (1168-70), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1170-88, 1188-1205), Prince of Galich (1188, 1199-1205)…, son of Mstislav Izyaslavich, brother of Vsevolod Mstislavich.
Vsevolod Mstislavich, Prince of Belz (1170-88, 1188-95), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1188).
Ingvar’ Yaroslavich, Prince of Luchesk (1180-1220), Grand Prince of Kiev (1200-02)…, son of Yaroslav Izyaslavich, grandson of Izyaslav Mstislavich.
Descendants of Rostislav Mstislavich, Mstislav I etc.
Rurik Rostislavich, Prince of Vruchy (1168-73, 1173-1208), Prince of Novgorod (1170-71), Grand Prince of Kiev (1173, 1180-81, 1194-1201..) third son of Rostislav Mstislavich, cousin of Andrey Bogolyubsky.
Rostislav Rurikovich, Prince of Torchesk (before 1190-1205)…, son of Rurik Rostislavich, brother of Predslava.
Predslava Rurikovna, daughter of Rurik Rostislavich, sister of Rostislav, wife of Roman Mstislavich of Vladimir-Volynsky and Galich.
David Rostislavich, viceroy of Novy Torg (1157-60), Prince of Vitebsk (1165-6), Prince of Vyshgorod (1167-80), Prince of Smolensk (1180-97), fourth son of Rostislav Mstislavich, cousin of Andrey Bogolyubsky
Vladimir Davidovich, Prince of Vyshgorod (1187-119?), Prince of Vyshgorod, son of David Rostislavich.
Mstislav Romanovich, Prince of Pskov (1179-?), son of Roman Rostislavich, nephew of Rurik and David Rostislavich.
Mstislav Mstislavich “the Successful”, Prince of Trepol’ (1193-1203)…, son of Mstislav Rostislavich, grandson of Rostislav Mstislavich, nephew of David, Roman and Rurik Rostislavich.
Descendants of Vsevolod II and Svyatoslav II,
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Novgorod (1140), Prince of Turov (1142, 1154-55), Prince of Vladimir-Volynsky (1142-46), Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1157-64) Prince of Chernigov (1164-80), Grand Prince of Kiev (1174, 1176-80, 1181-94), son of Vsevolod II, nephew of Igor’ II, father of Vladimir, Oleg, Vsevolod, Gleb and Mstislav, cousin of Izyaslav Mstislavich, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II.
Oleg Svyatoslavich, son of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Vladimir, Gleb, Vsevolod and Mstislav, father of David Olegovich.
David Olegovich, son of Oleg Svyatoslavich.
Gleb Svyatoslavich, Prince of Kolomna (1179), Prince of Kanev (1182-90)… son of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Vladimir, Oleg, Vsevolod and Mstislav, grandson of Vsevolod II
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Starodub (1164-1180), Prince of Chernigov (1180-99), son of Vsevolod II, brother of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich.
Yaropolk Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod (1197), son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.
Igor’ Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1180-98), Prince of Chernigov (1198-1201), son of Svyatoslav Ol’govich, nephew of Vsevolod II and Igor’ II, cousin of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Oleg and Vsevolod “Wild Bull”, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II
Vladimir Igorevich, Prince of Putivl’ (1185-96), maybe Prince of Novgorod-Seversky (1198-121?), son of Igor’ Svyatoslavich.
Vsevolod “Wild Bull” Svyatoslavich, Prince of Trubetsk and Kursk (1180-96), son of Svyatoslav Ol’govich, nephew of Vsevolod II and Igor’ II, cousin of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Oleg and Igor’, great-grandson of Svyatoslav II
Gleb Vladimirovich, Prince of a section of Ryazan’ principality (?-1212), great-great-great-grandson of Svyatoslav II.
Descendants of Vseslav the Sorceror
Vladimir Volodarevich?, Prince of Polotsk (118?-1216), possibly son of Volodar’ Glebovich, great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorceror.
Boris Rogvolodovich, Prince of Drutsk (118?-later than 1196), great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorceror.
Vasil’ko Bryachislavich, Prince of Vitebsk (1186-later than 1209), great-great-grandson of Vseslav the Sorcer
Descendants of Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav “Eight-Minds” Vladimirovich, Prince of Galich (1153-87), son of Vladimir Volodarevich, great-great-great-grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, father of Vladimir and Oleg, brother-in-law of Vsevolod “Big Nest”, father-in-law of Igor’ Svyatoslavich.
Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince of Galich (1187-88, 1189-99), son of Yaroslav “Eight Minds”, half-brother of Oleg. ↩︎ - Ingvar’ was the original Norse version of the name Russified as Igor’. It is interesting to see a return to Norse names like Rurik. ↩︎
- Descendants of Yury Dolgoruky, Vladimir Monomakh and Vsevolod I:
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Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library
After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.
Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.
Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.
Compilation of four photographs of the Reading Room within the British Library, taken on August 3, 2025 (Photographs by me. Sorry for the blurriness in one of these photos)What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.
The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.
The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.
This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.
My photograph on the left on August 3, 2024, of the Rosetta Stone replica in the Enlightenment Gallery, and image of the replica from K-On! the Movie on the right.The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.
The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.
When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.
Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
- “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
- “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
- “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
- “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
- “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
- Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
- “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
- “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
- “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
- “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
- Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
- Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
- Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
- Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
- “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
- “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
- “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
- Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
- Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
- “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
- “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
- “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
- “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
- Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
- “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
- “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
- “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
- “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
- “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.
#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons
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Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library
After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.
Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.
Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.
Compilation of four photographs of the Reading Room within the British Library, taken on August 3, 2025 (Photographs by me. Sorry for the blurriness in one of these photos)What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.
The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.
The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.
This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.
My photograph on the left on August 3, 2024, of the Rosetta Stone replica in the Enlightenment Gallery, and image of the replica from K-On! the Movie on the right.The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.
The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.
When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.
Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
- “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
- “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
- “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
- “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
- “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
- Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
- “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
- “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
- “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
- “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
- Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
- Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
- Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
- Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
- “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
- “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
- “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
- Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
- Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
- “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
- “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
- “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
- “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
- Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
- “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
- “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
- “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
- “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
- “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.
#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons
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Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library
After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.
Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.
Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.
Compilation of four photographs of the Reading Room within the British Library, taken on August 3, 2025 (Photographs by me. Sorry for the blurriness in one of these photos)What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.
The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.
The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.
This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.
My photograph on the left on August 3, 2024, of the Rosetta Stone replica in the Enlightenment Gallery, and image of the replica from K-On! the Movie on the right.The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.
The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.
When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.
Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
- “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
- “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
- “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
- “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
- “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
- Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
- “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
- “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
- “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
- “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
- Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
- Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
- Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
- Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
- “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
- “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
- “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
- Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
- Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
- “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
- “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
- “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
- “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
- Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
- “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
- “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
- “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
- “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
- “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.
#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons
-
Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library
After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.
Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.
Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.
Compilation of four photographs of the Reading Room within the British Library, taken on August 3, 2025 (Photographs by me. Sorry for the blurriness in one of these photos)What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.
The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.
The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.
This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.
My photograph on the left on August 3, 2024, of the Rosetta Stone replica in the Enlightenment Gallery, and image of the replica from K-On! the Movie on the right.The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.
The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.
When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.
Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
- “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
- “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
- “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
- “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
- “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
- Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
- “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
- “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
- “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
- “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
- Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
- Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
- Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
- Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
- “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
- “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
- “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
- Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
- Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
- “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
- “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
- “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
- “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
- Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
- “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
- “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
- “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
- “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
- “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.
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Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library
After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.
Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.
Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.
Compilation of four photographs of the Reading Room within the British Library, taken on August 3, 2025 (Photographs by me. Sorry for the blurriness in one of these photos)What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.
The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.
The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.
This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.
My photograph on the left on August 3, 2024, of the Rosetta Stone replica in the Enlightenment Gallery, and image of the replica from K-On! the Movie on the right.The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.
The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.
When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.
Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
- “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
- “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
- “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
- “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
- “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
- Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
- “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
- “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
- “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
- “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
- Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
- Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
- Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
- Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
- “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
- “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
- “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
- Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
- Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
- “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
- “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
- “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
- “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
- Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
- “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
- “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
- “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
- “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
- “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.
#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons
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A “saga of procrastination and sharp practice”: the thread about Leith’s Tally Toor
If you were to go down to Leith Docks and venture where security won’t let you go, you would eventually come across a squat, circular and very curious masonry structure. What you have just found is the Tally Toor, the Leith Martello Tower. You would be forgiven for not realising it was there or for never having heard of it. It doesn’t look like much of a tower, but that’s because most of it has been buried within the reclaimed land behind the Easter Breakwater of the Port of Leith. There was a time when this once stood proudly upon the rocks in the Leith Roads.
The Leith Martello Tower. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Richard WebbMartello Towers were a response to the threat of coastal attacks or even invasion during the Napoleonic period of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were built throughout the British Isles and out into the Empire, but Leith is one of only three that were constructed in Scotland. The word Martello (or Tally to Leithers) is an Anglicisation of Torra di Mortella – a medieval Genoese round tower in the north of Corsica. This fortification caused the Royal Navy such disproportionate trouble to overcome it during the Siege of Saint Florent in 1794 that it was taken as a model defensive outpost for home use. The thirty-three men at Mortella had resisted bombardment of British warships and had held off the 700 men sent ashore to take it that it inspired a home grown variant as a model defensive outpost.
Watercolor drawing “View of Mortella Tower” by William Porter, 1794-1796. The Mariners’ Museum #1936.0491.000001/QW83The basic design of the British tower is rather like a squat lighthouse and they were to be located at advantageous coastal positions. Entrance was via a raised door accessed through a retractable ladder to make capture from the land more difficult. Inside, behind the thick stone walls, were two floors of accommodation and storage for an officer and about twenty-five men. Buried within the foundations would be a well and/or water cistern and perhaps a storeroom. But unlike a lighthouse, instead of a navigation beacon on the top instead there was an open fighting platform fitted with two or three heavy guns that could pivot be trained to attack approaching targets. The height of the tower meant it fired down upon ships, affording a raised and protected position for observation and signalling.
British sketch plan of the Torra di Mortella made after capture in 1794. It shows how the three guns mounted atop could be pivoted to command wide arcs of fire against would be attackers. Royal Museums Greenwish, PAD1622The Tally Toor was not the first Georgian-era fortification to defend Leith. In 1779, Leith and Edinburgh had been threatened by the squadron of the American John Paul Jones during the War of Independence and the city had responded to the threat from the sea by building Leith Fort to guard the harbour entrance. The Fort was never entirely satisfactory and for most of its life was used as an ordnance depot, a drill barracks for artillery volunteers and as accommodation for army administrators. In light of its deficiencies in 1807 the Board of Ordnance proposed a thirty-two foot high Martello tower on the rocks at the mouth of the Port of Leith to improve the defences.
Admiralty coastal chart, Fisherrow to Queensferry, 1860. This shows the position of the Mortella (sic) Tower relative to the approach to the Port of Leith and also Leith Fort towards the lower, left-hand corner. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandSomewhat unusually, the tower was not to be built by the military but was left to the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh to construct. Work began in 1809 but due to a “saga of procrastination and sharp practice” and it was not finally handed over to the Board until nearly 30 years later in 1838. The below painting by Robert Norie shows the end of the outer breakwater at Leith as it then was, with the tower being accessible across the interidal rocks at low water. The incomplete base storeys are being used as a handy mooring point for fishing boats.
Martello Tower, Leith, Low Water by Robert Norie, 1830s © Edinburgh City MuseumsIt had cost £17,179 18s 4½d, and it wasn’t even finished! Plus ça change for a construction project by the council in Edinburgh! The final structure was 45 feet high, with 16 feet of foundations built down into the rocks. The base diameter was 80 feet and the gun platform at the top was large enough to accommodate not one but three pivoting cannons. As a result of this, from the top the tower has an elegant cloverleaf (or fidget spinner!) appearance on account of the three overlapping gun positions.
Plan and section of the Leith Martello Tower. The height between the lines of A and B has been truncated in half by the artist. Via Trove.Scot SC495680Within the foundations was a single central chamber and there were two staircases within the walls, leading up to the gun platform. Due to the relative peace with other European powers by the time it was completed the tower was not finally made ready to accept its guns until 1853, thirty-five years after it was first planned, prompted by the crisis of the Crimean War.
The Martello Tower is prominent on the right hand side of “Leith Races” by William Thomas Reed, c. 1811. © Edinburgh City MuseumsAccording to “Martello Towers Worldwide” (where would one be without a copy of that handy?) at that time it was armed with two 32-pdr cannons and was occupied (when required) by a detachment from Leith Fort until 1869 when it was mothballed. The 32-pdr was so-called because it fired a shot weighing thirty-two pounds and was the Royal Navy’s standard heavyweight shipboard weapon. The handy diagram below shows the main parts including the rammer, wad and pricker (no giggling at the back!)
Illustration of a 32 pounder cannonThese were the same such guns as were also mounted at Leith Fort itself, as can be seen in a series of earlier photos made there by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.
Major Crawford, Major Wright, Captain St George and Captain Bortingham of the Leith Fort Artillery. David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, 1843-47. National Galleries ScotlandThe 1849 Ordnance Survey Town Plan clearly shows the tower and also one presumes the obvious route for the garrison to reach it should they ever need to across the barrier of intertidal rocks known as The Weir” the same route as shown in Norie’s painting.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Note the stairs from the sea wall on the left down to the rocks of “The Weir”. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThe rocks on which the Tower was situated, once the Mussell Cape Rocks, became known instead as the Martello Rocks. Further, smaller towers for the Forth were planned at Cramond Island and Inchkeith but were judged not to be a pressing need and so work never started; given how long it took and how much it cost to build the first, that was probably a sensible decision. These would have carried two 24-pdr cannons rather than the three 32-pdrs at Leith. In 1854, the Inspector General of Fortifications prepared a report on the Forth defences in which he stated:
At Leith there are at present twelve heavy guns, mounted for the protection of the harbour and roadstead at Leith Fort and on a tower; it would be, however, very desirable to establish two batteries and a small barrack on the Island of Inch Keith.
Burgoyne’s reportAfter 1869 the disarmed tower was abandoned, just 15 or so years after it had finally been completed and occupied. Thereafter its main function was an interesting navigation marker for the approaches to Leith.
“Leith Martello Tower” by Francis William Staines (1800-76), with Inchkeith in the background. via Artwarefineart.com.As war clouds gathered and dispersed again on the horizon, there were occasional plans to re-establish the Tower as a defensive position. It was proposed in the 1880s to mount a 6-inch Rifled Breech Loader (RBL) gun on top, which appears never to have been completed. In 1891 an even bigger 9.2-inch Breech Loader (BL) gun was proposed but by 1894 it was instead suggested to place two 6-inch BL guns on the dock walls. In 1899, approval was given for two 4.7-inch Quick Firing (QF) guns for the Tower but once again these do not ever seem to have been installed. The following year it was back to two 6-inch pieces but again these remained paper plans. All these proposals are detailed in The Fortification of the Firth of Forth 1880-1977 by Gordon J. Barclay and Ron Morris, published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2019.
“View of golfers on Leith Links with Martello Tower in background”. Watercolour sketch by Walter F. K. Lyon, 1889. Neil Hynd bequest via Trove.Scot, DP312460In fact it does not seem that the Tower was ever actually re-armed to defend the Port against intrusion from the sea ever again. The citizens of Leith were however left with a curious object to explore, one which was easily accessible at low tide, and it became a source of fascination for generations of children. The picture below shows the scale of the abandoned fortification. Check out the boy in his swimmers looking over the parapet!
The Martello Tower at low tide, from “Martello Towers Worldwide” by W. H. ClementsBut that was not quite the end of the story for the Tower as a defensive position and it finally went to war in 1939 when it was reconfigured to act as an anti-aircraft gun platform. The insides were modified with hastily-built brick partition walls to reduce the risk of blast damage and on the top were mounted three concrete and cast iron positions for the guns.
Concrete gun bases and cast iron pedestals on the roof of the Tower in 1971. Trove.Scot SC495681After the war the Tower’s splendid isolation out at sea was about to be terminated. From the late 1930s onwards the Leith Docks Commissioners had been building vast new breakwaters around the harbour in an attempt to make it non-tideal and they were slowly edging towards the tower. By 1951 it was still outside the sea wall, but only just.
1951 aerial photo of the Martello Tower, from NCAP, showing ongoing land reclamation work behind itThe sea wall finally enclosed the tower in 1972 and with the land behind being built up by reclamation it appeared to be sinking lower and lower into the ground, when in reality the ground was rising higher and higher around it. The diagram below indicates just how deeply the tower was buried within the new docklands.
1972 cross section of the TowerThe slow march of Leith Docks out towards the Firth of Forth can be visualised in the below animation based on maps. It also shows how useful a defensive position the tower initially was when it was built, any ship wanting to enter the docks had to come around the Eastern and Middle Craigs and the Black Rocks, therefore had to pass close by the Tower’s guns.
We can no longer get anywhere near the Tower thanks to the stringent security at the docks, which has been stepped up significantly in recent years. Forth Ports, the current landowner, used to open it once a year to visitors but it’s been around a decade since anyone was afforded that privilege as far as I know. But we can still see the tower in art, look at enough paintings of Leith Docks and it pops up again and again.
“Dutchman off Leith”, an 1820s painting. The Martello Tower can be seen on the left of the short, just to the right of the steam paddle ship. © Edinburgh City LibrariesAnd if you are ever fortunate enough to get the chance to get up close and personal with it, look out for the mason’s marks left behind by the Irish Navvies who were engaged in its construction:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davydubbit/37503950394/in/album-72157688932723074/
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The Maryland Deathfest Chronicles
By Mark Z.
Sup fukkers! I’m back, having spent the last few years getting a law degree, trying to land a job, and settling into married life. But through it all, I haven’t lost sight of what’s truly important. I still buy records. I still go to shows. I still have a burning desire to blast Impiety so fukkin loud that my skull implodes and my internal organs turn into a thick pink paste that probably looks like the stuff chicken nuggets are made from. And what better way to prove that the metalized blood still flows through my veins than by providing you with a live report of the most brutal festival this side of the Atlantic—Maryland Deathfest?
Held over Memorial Day weekend in downtown Baltimore, Maryland Deathfest is arguably the premiere underground metal festival in the United States. The four‑day event welcomes dozens of bands from all over the extreme metal spectrum and beyond, including styles like grindcore and hardcore punk. While the fest has taken place almost every year since 2003, this year’s edition was particularly special, as there was a very real possibility it was never going to happen. After the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to the pandemic, the 2022 edition proved to be a logistical nightmare for festival organizers Ryan Taylor and Evan Harting, with visa issues and other challenges causing the two to announce that they needed some time off. As a result, they stated that there would be no 2023 edition and that there might never be another edition at all.
Fortunately, Ryan and Evan decided to continue the fest, leading to a 2024 edition that was absolutely stacked with great bands. Dismember, Sodom, Primordial, Aura Noir, and Archgoat were just a few of the groups I was excited to see, and even with the unfortunate cancellations of groups like My Dying Bride and Coffins, having Agalloch and Morta Skuld as replacements definitely softened the blow. With my time off from work confirmed and my metal shirts freshly laundered, I mentally prepared myself for four days of blast beats, moshing, and other heavy metal mayhem!
If only I knew what awaited me.
Thursday
As the morning light pours into my bedroom, I make a mental note to drink a Red Bull at some point today. I’ve slept like crap, probably due to a combination of being excited for the festival, having a stuffy bedroom, and being constantly awakened by a 55-pound pit bull that insisted on plopping her entire body onto my side of the bed. Fortunately, I now live only a 30-minute drive from downtown Baltimore, so I don’t have to worry about catching a flight or paying an exorbitant price for a hotel. Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to suffer through the I-95 traffic that has only gotten worse with the recent Key Bridge collapse.
After taking a strange detour to avoid an accident (and almost getting into one myself), I arrive in Baltimore. The sun is bright, small groups of people in black shirts are walking around, and the air feels electric with anticipation. While I’m a bit bummed that I’m attending by myself this year, it’s still hard not to be excited.
I get my wristband and head to Baltimore Soundstage for the festival’s first band: Depulsed. Even though the sole release of this Las Vegas brutal death metal group is a 2019 demo that contains just one song, the venue is surprisingly crowded—probably full of people who, like me, couldn’t get a ticket to last night’s Pre‑Fest and are eager to finally hear some live metal. Fortunately, this quartet don’t disappoint, as their destructive grooves and occasionally atypical riffing make for a rousing start to the festivities. It’s clear the band is having a great time, too, and there’s plenty of headbanging all around.
When Depulsed finishes, I go across the street to Rams Head Live!, the festival’s main other indoor venue. While Soundstage is a pretty traditional midsized venue, Rams Head is an open‑concept, multi‑level nightclub with a large raised stage as its focal point. Once inside, I snag a prime upper‑level spot for the evening’s next band: Fossilization. This Brazilian doom-death metal group sent some shockwaves through the underground last year with their Leprous Daylight debut, and their live performance is equally captivating. The group use lots of tight and hammering blast beats, and it seems the “doom” in their sound comes primarily from the monolithic heaviness of their guitars rather than their scattered moments of slower tempos. With an imposing stage presence and growls so deep that they shake the floor of the balcony I’m standing on, their performance is one to remember.
I’m not particularly interested in the brutal death metal at Soundstage tonight, so I decide to stick around Rams Head. I realize this is a good call as soon as Pittsburgh doom-death metal quartet Derkéta begin playing. Formed in 1988 and considered to be the first all-female death metal band (though today they have a male drummer), the group keep heads bobbing with assertive chugs and massive riffs that sound like Black Sabbath with a mound of graveyard dirt dropped on top. The live mix in the venue seems especially clear and powerful tonight, and apparently, I’m not the only one who notices. Between songs, frontwoman Sharon Bascovsky takes time to compliment the venue’s sound engineer before kicking back in with more hefty riffs and reverberating growls.
Deviating from the doom theme, Canadian weirdos Chthe’ilist are up next. While I wasn’t particularly excited for their Demilich‑influenced death metal, the group play like this is the only performance that has ever mattered. They sound warped, alien, and impossibly tight as if they’ve perfected a style of death metal that independently evolved in another dimension. Meanwhile, their vocalist has a wild‑eyed expression that makes him look like he’s just returned from that dimension and is attempting to describe it to the audience through a series of shrieks, croaks, and everything in between. With lots of onstage energy and an endless onslaught of strange yet catchy riffs, the band quickly inspire a wild mosh pit. If anyone knew how to pronounce the band’s name, I’m sure they’d be chanting it between songs.
Sadly, the first sign of trouble emerges during their set. About three‑fourths of the way through, I find myself within the blast radius of a miasmatic eruption of flatulence that smells like a mix of raw sewage and rotting meat. When the band finishes and the smell clears, I learn from the Maryland Deathfest Facebook group that such occurrences seem to be particularly prevalent at this year’s festival. Some theorize the new taco place is to blame. Others claim that body odor, rather than gas, may be the true cause of the smells. I realize then that I may have let one or two of my own expulsions squeak out in the heat of the moment, and I wonder how much I contributed to what others are experiencing.
But there’s no time to dwell on such matters, as Morta Skuld soon come onstage. With the unfortunate last‑minute cancellation of Coffins, this Wisconsin death metal institution stepped up to the plate as replacements. Like Chthe’ilist, Morta Skuld wasn’t a band I was particularly excited for, but my attitude quickly changes. With meaty riffs, catchy chugs, and the forceful yet intelligible vocals of frontman Dave Gregor, the band sound gigantic and utterly commanding. The crowd pulsates to the rhythms as the band tear through cuts from their 1993 debut Dying Remains and this year’s Creation Undone. Their set ends up being an utter blast and one of my overall favorites from the festival.
After Morta Skuld, I head outside to the Power Plant stage, the only outdoor venue open today. The stage is located just outside of Rams Head in the Power Plant Live! complex, which is a multi-level outdoor entertainment area consisting mostly of bars and restaurants. The Power Plant stage itself is located in the back of the complex at the end of a somewhat narrow corridor. The feature band out here tonight is German thrash legends Sodom, who are playing the entirety of their 1989 classic Agent Orange album. No one could say it’s a bad performance, but I have a tough time staying engaged being so far from the stage and constantly having to deal with people squeezing past me. After “Baptism of Fire,” I decide not to stick around for their encore and head back into Rams Head.
I snag another balcony spot for U.K. funeral doom band Esoteric, who provide a great break from the faster bands I’ve watched. While I’m not much of a doom guy, I discovered Esoteric very early in my metal journey and have always had a soft spot for them. In a live setting, the group is utterly entrancing. A trippy video backdrop plays as the band open with the cleanly picked intro of “Circle,” the first song from the group’s 2008 opus The Maniacal Vale. Once the distortion hits, the guitars envelop the room with a sense of heaviness that sounds like tectonic plates shifting. The group’s atmosphere is so dense you can taste it, and the wailing guitar leads conjure huge climaxes between the doomy trudges and anguished roars. It’s a terrific and mesmerizing performance.
Once Esoteric finishes, I trudge back over to Soundstage to catch the final band of the night: Chicago death metal legends Broken Hope. The group are already about halfway through their set by the time I arrive, and the packed venue is absolutely loving it. Crunchy riffs, punchy grooves, and violent blasts have created a human maelstrom in the center of the venue that seems to be growing stronger with each passing song. Guitarist and sole original member Jeremy Wagner thanks the crowd for their support before the band conclude their set with some especially brutal cuts from their 1991 debut Swamped in Gore. The set is so fun, that I almost want to stick around just to chat with people after it’s over. But it’s late, I’m tired, and my balls feel like they need a good wash. I drive home and go to bed.
Friday
I wake up and finally wash my balls. After once again fighting through traffic to get to Baltimore, I head to Soundstage to catch Kontusion. Though this group’s only release is a short demo, their members bring experience playing in bands from all over the Mid-Atlantic. Perhaps because of that experience, the group’s live performance is powerful and tight, with the band offering up belligerent and bludgeoning death metal that manages to be cavernous yet aggressive. For a band I had no expectations for, they definitely leave an impression.
As an added plus, they even have the courtesy of finishing a few minutes early so I don’t have to miss any of Defeated Sanity’s set. The German brutal death metal group are playing right outside of Soundstage on the Market Place stage, which has just opened today and is a new feature at the fest this year. Borrowing the idea from last year’s Hell in the Harbor festival, the Deathfest organizers opted to fence off an entire city block just outside of Soundstage and use the space to set up an outdoor stage, a merch tent, and a bunch of bars and food vendors. What’s most amusing about the setup, however, is that a narrow pedestrian walkway allows unsuspecting members of the public to still pass down the block and be subjected to whatever vile noise happens to be emanating from the Market Place stage at the time. I glance over to see families with kids walking by in bewilderment, their peaceful Friday stroll ruined by Defeated Sanity’s ear-rupturing slams and sewer monster gurgles. I chuckle to myself and proceed to bob my head to the band’s fun set of intricate riffs, stringy bass guitar, and devastating grooves.
I stick around Market Place for Aura Noir, who unfortunately start a bit later than expected. Once they get going, however, the Norwegian group’s trebly black-thrash metal quickly inspires a wild circle pit and several crowd surfers. I would have preferred it if they played a few less deep cuts (and a few more songs from Black Thrash Attack), but the group still offer plenty of good fist-raisers like “The Stalker” and “Condor.” “We’re the ugliest band in the world!” proclaims bassist and vocalist Apollyon as he looks over the crowd with his permanent sneer.
At this point, the late afternoon sun is beating down on me, and I’m sweating so much that my groin is about to become a government-designated wetland. Once Aura Noir finishes, I dip inside Soundstage to cool off and catch New Jersey death metal troupe Siege Column. Due to Aura Noir’s late start, Siege Column is already partially through their set, and I’m utterly confused by the scene I walk into. On record, Siege Column almost sound like a war metal band. Yet here, the group appear to forgo any spiked gauntlets or bullet belts and instead opt for a bright and colorful backdrop, with two of the four members wearing Ray Ban-style sunglasses. It’s odd at first, but somehow the aesthetic works. It’s like stepping into an alternate reality where war metal evolved in the early 80s and somehow became the music of choice for boardwalk arcades on the Jersey Shore. Looks aside, the group’s performance is an utter assault. The band sound like a grenade launcher being fired at the audience, with whiffs of Bolt Thrower apparent in their blaring and stompy riffing. “That was fucking awesome,” says a random guy next to me when their set is over. I’m inclined to agree.
Having cooled off enough for my groin to narrowly avoid the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, I take some time to get some food and browse the Maryland Deathfest Facebook group. The farting, it seems, has not subsided today, and some contend that it has actually grown worse. One person has unofficially dubbed the festival “Maryland Fartfest.” As I’m reading this, I realize that I’m halfway through eating a piece of pizza topped with mozzarella sticks and did not bring my Lactaid pills with me. Maryland Fartfest, it seems, is just getting started.
But the flatulence is not here yet. I finish my food and head across the street to the Power Plant complex, where a village of merch vendors are set up and peddling shirts, banners, vinyl, leather, and everything else a metalhead could desire. I take some time to peruse the selections before heading to Angels Rock Bar, a cozy upstairs establishment in the Power Plant complex. Angels Rock Bar is very much the “bonus venue” of the festival, with the small establishment featuring mostly local metal bands. As I enter the dimly lit bar, I see it’s lined with people who are hunched over and looking like they’ve never given a fuck about anything in their entire life.
It’s a perfect setting for some brutal death metal. Entrail Asphyxiation are a young Maryland band, and I’m not just referring to their formation date. As the group are doing their sound check, I notice that none of the members appear to be older than twenty. “Alright, let’s hear the drum triggers,” says the sound engineer. “He doesn’t use triggers,” says the band’s bassist. It turns out, the drummer doesn’t use triggers because he doesn’t need them. Despite their age, Entrail Asphyxiation sound like seasoned veterans, delivering a tight as fuck performance that people go absolutely apeshit over. As the fat guitars and bass break in, the set takes on the vibe of a sweaty basement show, with the front of the crowd whipping around like they’re trapped in a blender. The vocalist offers some unusual tortured shrieks and gets a few chuckles as she introduces a Mortician cover by saying, “If you know the words sing along—because I don’t.” Their set ends up being one of the most fun performances of the night.
Coming off that high, I head back over to Market Place for Agalloch. As a band whose first three records are easily on my list of Top 25 favorite albums of all time, this Oregon atmospheric metal group are one of the bands I’m looking forward to the most. I haven’t seen them since 2012, and I’m especially excited to see them tonight given that this is their first East Coast show since reforming last year. Fortunately, they don’t disappoint. As the wailing ambiance of “Limbs” begins their set, I’m instantly transported back to being a college freshman and having lyrics from Ashes Against the Grain stuck in my head while jogging in the dense woods around campus. By the time that track’s accelerating drumbeat hits just a few minutes later, I’m broken and totally given over to whatever the band have to offer. The set ends up pulling from all eras of their discography, with many selections from Ashes Against the Grain. While John Haughm’s vocals are a little loud in the mix, I love the fact that they actually seem to play all their clean guitar parts rather than relying on samples.
As the performance continues, their elegant and ethereal sound becomes transcendent. In front of me, I see a group of people I’ve seen at festivals before, laughing and chatting with each other while the beautiful leads of “Falling Snow” play in the background. I suddenly feel stupid standing here by myself, wearing a poorly made battle vest and a Bewitcher shirt that’s too small for me. As the final guitar lines of “Bloodbirds” echo throughout downtown Baltimore, I feel like I’m trying to swallow an apple whole.
When the set ends, I blink rapidly a few times before walking back across the street to see Ahab on the Power Plant stage. The German funeral doom band’s nautical theme is present in full force with their stage backdrop, which looks like a scene from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As they begin playing, their guitars sound crisp and immense, though the group don’t feel quite as atmospheric as I would have expected. Nonetheless, frontman Daniel Droste does an outstanding job on vocals, excelling at both his mighty growls and crooning clean singing. The band are proficient players and feel like they carry the full crushing force of the abyssal zone with them. By the time they hit that chunky break midway through “Old Thunder,” I’m thoroughly impressed.
Still, it’s getting late, I’m growing weary, and I can feel an ominous pressure building in my intestines. But the night isn’t over yet. I head back to Soundstage, where Tennessee brutal death metal troupe Brodequin are in the middle of bashing in skulls with their barrage of blast beats, slammy grooves, and militant riffing. After the group finish, there’s a short break before the recently reunited Weekend Nachos take the stage. Coming out to the Mortal Kombat theme song, people seem pumped for them, and their vocalist has huge amounts of energy as he jumps around and invites people to talk with him about the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie in between songs. I’m admittedly not super familiar with Weekend Nachos, and while I feel as though I should love any band that mixes powerviolence and sludge, I don’t find their music very interesting at all. It probably doesn’t help that I’m tired and my feet hurt. When their set ends, I go home and fall asleep immediately.
Saturday
BRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT. The first fart of the day echoes through my bedroom, almost certainly the result of my failure to take a Lactaid during yesterday’s lunch. Fortunately, the foul smell only makes it easier to pull myself out of bed and start my drive, which isn’t nearly as bad as the past two days. Upon arrival, I head to Market Place to see the old school Spanish death metal band Avulsed. While I’m not familiar with them, their catchy tremolo runs and combative riffing make for a great start to the day, even inspiring the first wall of death I’ve seen at the fest so far.
I leave a bit early to see Impure over at Rams Head. With a backdrop featuring Jesus hanging from a noose (pulled from the artwork of their Satan’s Eclipse album), this young American project offer scalding hot and ritualistic black metal that gives off big Beherit vibes. The group prove that simple ideas and tight performances can go a long way, with the warm surging riffs and big chunky rhythms practically forcing heads to be banged. The only disappointing thing about them is that they end up being sold out of my shirt size when I try to buy one later.
After Impure, I head outside to the Power Plant stage, arriving early to get a good spot for Perdition Temple. The band is the brainchild of guitarist Gene Palubicki, who has had several cool projects over the years but is probably best known for his work in Angelcorpse. As a big fan of his, I’m looking forward to Perdition Temple’s blackened death metal assault. When they take the stage and launch into “Nemesis Obsecration,” I can’t help but bang my fist to Gene’s dexterous fretwork, scalding tremolo lines, and lightning-quick tempo shifts. Unlike previous times I’ve seen Perdition Temple, Gene and main vocalist Alex Blume (of Ares Kingdom fame) trade off on vocals this time, subjecting the audience to a dual vocal attack that only makes the pummeling blast beats and relentless riffing that much more chaotic and enjoyable. By the set’s end, I only wish the band had been given more time to play.
Once they finish, I head into Rams Head to cool off and take a breather before Norwegian thrash metal maniacs Deathhammer take the stage. Once they do, it’s only seconds into their first song before the group whip the crowd into a total fucking frenzy. The band sound frantic and unhinged, with random wild screeches and quick power chords generating one of the fastest pits I’ve seen yet. My head is banging faster and faster, and before I know it, I’m in the pit myself, running in circles and pumping my fists in the air like a madman. “This one’s for the man downstairs,” says vocalist and guitarist Sergeant Salsten, introducing the song “Satan Is Back.” That sentence turns out to be one of the only bits of banter I’m able to understand from Mr. Salsten for their entire set. I’m not sure if it’s a language barrier thing or an alcohol intoxication thing, but the man sounds like he’s slurring his words into an unintelligible mess in between songs. Fortunately, their playing is on point, and I gladly join in screaming along to “Fullmoon Sorcery” as I continue bumping into fellow moshers. Being in my mid-30s, I didn’t think anything would be able to bring me out of mosh pit retirement, but Deathhammer managed to do it.
Following their set, I join the mass migration of thrash fiends heading to Market Place to catch Canadian thrash metal institution Sacrifice. While they seem solid, I’m still catching my breath from Deathhammer. Maybe for that reason, one of my favorite songs they play is the title track from Soldiers of Misfortune, which offers a welcome respite with its cleanly picked intro and relatively slower tempos. Once they’re done, I head into Soundstage to check out the powerviolence band Lack of Interest, whose name more or less captures how I end up feeling about them. I like their energy level and the constipated lumberjack vocals, but not much else about them stands out to me.
Afterwards, I head back out to Market Place for the festival’s premiere band: Dismember. After it was announced last-minute that they were unable to play the 2022 Deathfest as planned, excitement for these Swedish death metal gods seems to be at fever pitch this year. The Market Place area is packed even though it’s begun raining and increasingly ominous clouds are looming overhead. Fortunately, the weather isn’t bad enough to cause a cancelation or delay, and the band come out with a ferocious amount of energy. Unfortunately, their live mix ends up sounding quite muddy, which could admittedly be due to where I’m standing. Nonetheless, the sound isn’t unlistenable, and the group’s songs are strong enough to shine through regardless. They do a great job picking stylistically diverse tracks from all over their catalog, from the essential “Override of the Overture” to the groovy “Skinfather” to the melodic “Tragedy of the Faithful” to the bludgeoning “Europa Burns.” The closing one-two punch of “Dreaming in Red” and “Life – Another Shape of Sorrow” hits particularly hard.
Spectral Voice and Soilent Green are both great bands, and both happen to be playing on other stages after Dismember finishes. But it’s late, I’m getting tired, and all I want is to sit down somewhere and eat a cheeseburger. I decide to do just that. Unfortunately, my cheeseburger isn’t ready until seconds before Beheaded take the stage, and I find myself rushing into Soundstage and shoveling ground beef into my mouth right as the Maltese death metal band start their first song. While their most recent record didn’t generate high marks around here, there’s something to be said for well-executed, prefix-less death metal. That’s exactly what Beheaded provide. They play tight, blasting music with plenty of potent riffs that get the crowd going nuts. I love the occasional epic edge of their riffing and how the band are both technical and brutal while still delivering pretty digestible songwriting. Maybe I’m just easy to please when it comes to death metal, but I enjoy their set a lot.
After they finish, Soundstage gets even more crowded for the night’s final band: Spanish goregrind wackos Haemorrhage. Several members dressed in medical scrubs play an instrumental opening before vocalist Lugubrious emerges, crazy-eyed and soaked in (hopefully) fake blood. From there, the venue goes berserk. Between the grimy riffs, pounding blast beats, and staccato rhythms, the band generate one of the craziest crowd responses I’ve seen so far. Glow sticks and beach balls are tossed overhead, while the mosh pit looks like a battle scene from The Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, crowd surfers and stage divers are everywhere. Amidst it all, the songs themselves feature a surprising amount of variety, and I gleefully bang my head for almost the entirety of their 50-minute set.
As the smiling crowd shuffles out afterward, I check the Deathfest Facebook group to see the latest on the flatulence situation. Things have become dire, it seems. Reports indicate that the farts have not subsided, with some even stating that they had to leave certain venues due to the smells. Were these mere exaggerations? Or were these tales true? And what would the next day hold?
Sunday
My bedroom smells like somebody shoved a rotten egg up their ass and then shat it out in a salt marsh at low tide. I briefly thank whatever higher power may exist that my wife is on a business trip this week, as I couldn’t bear to deal with her chastising me over my gas right now. Feeling exhausted after standing for three days straight, I manage to pull myself out of bed and make the final trip into Baltimore.
It turns out to be a funny sight in the parking garage, as several groups are sitting or standing around sipping beers like a 2024 version of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. I chuckle as I head to Market Place to catch the day’s first band, Chilean thrash metal group Ripper. While the rest of the audience seems to love their extreme take on thrash metal, there’s a bit too much noodling bass guitar for me. I head to Rams Head partway through their set to catch a thrashy band that’s a little more up my alley: Daeva.
While I’ve seen Daeva at an earlier Deathfest, this is the first time I’ve seen them since they released their Through Sheer Will and Black Magic debut in 2022. Since last time, their songs and performances have only gotten better. The Philadelphia group deliver manic blackened thrash that pulls heavily from fast-as-fuck approach of Absu. Today, they have loads of energy, with vocalist Edward Gonet gesticulating wildly over the crowd while the guitars veer madly between frantic thrash riffs, swift chugs, and epic blackened moments. It’s an awesome set that inspires me to pick up a CD from their merch booth later.
After Daeva, I head back to Market Place and catch a few minutes of Artificial Brain, whose strange and warped riffing provides a nice counterpoint to the more traditional approach of most of the bands I’ve been watching. Following their set, I grab a crab cake sandwich meal and notice that the fries seem to taste like the porta potties smell. Or maybe, I’m just tasting my own dirty fingers. In any case, I’m glad I still have a few sick days left at work.
With my meal finished, I remain at Market Place for Primordial. While I haven’t listened to this Irish metal band in years, it’s only moments into their performance that I remember how captivating they can be. That’s just as true live as on record, as frontman A.A. Nemtheanga has the most commanding stage presence of any musician I’ve seen at the festival so far. Coming onstage with white face paint, a noose draped around his neck, and a resolute look on his face, he immediately draws in the audience with his forlorn singing and lyrics of historic struggles. Songs like “The Coffin Ships” hit all the harder knowing that the track is about the tragic past of his own country. The pounding drums and grandiose riffs only add to the drama, and by the time the group closes with “Empire Falls,” most of the crowd joins together in screaming the chorus. Even if their recent albums haven’t quite been met with acclaim, their live show makes clear that Primordial is a band that offers something truly special.
After Primordial, I dip back into Soundstage to check out the French goregrind band Blue Holocaust. I know nothing about this group, but catching a band that’s new to me seems more appealing than watching the other artists playing right now. As the group starts, I quickly become happy with my decision. The bespectacled vocalist betrays his slightly nerdy appearance with a monstrous gurgle that perfectly complements the band’s pummeling approach. While the music is suitably nasty and brutal, there are still plenty of tempo shifts and discernible riffs to keep the crowd hooked. Judging by the screams from the audience, the rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy their set just as much as me.
I leave Soundstage afterward and walk into what feels like an outdoor party. The Market Place area has become an ocean of people, with beach balls flying overhead and Abbath’s epic riffs blaring throughout the block. It’s a cool sight, but I choose to leave for Rams Head after a few minutes to get a good spot for Grave Miasma.
With most festival attendees apparently watching Abbath, Rams Head feels like a cool empty cavern. I snag a prime balcony spot and hang out a bit before Grave Miasma starts. Once they do, I’m thoroughly engaged. This English death metal group sound like a black force of nature that moves relentlessly forward and chokes out all sense of hope and life. The guitars are thick, and the overall sound is cavernous yet riffy. The drums are also just as tight live as they are on record, shifting deftly between blast beats and driving rhythms. After watching their set, I’m all the happier that I managed to pick up one of their shirts earlier in the day.
With no bands scheduled at Rams Head or Power Plant for over an hour after Grave Miasma finish, I once again go back across the street to the Market Place area. Once there, I head into Soundstage to watch the powerviolence duo Iron Lung. Even though they’re scheduled at the same time as Mayhem, the group seem to take it all in stride. “Thanks for coming to the fest, guys,” their drummer and vocalist says, “and sorry you had to pay such an exorbitant ticket price just to see us.”
Once they start, the performance is an utter assault. Somehow having the drummer perform vocals makes the whole thing feel more intense, and something about his battering drumming feels downright violent. The crowd eats it up. The mosh pit is vicious, and several participants began whipping each other with what look like inflatable pool toys. While I’m not a big powerviolence guy, the duo’s raw energy is infectious. Just watching them makes me feel reinvigorated.
Rather than stay to see the last few minutes of Mayhem after Iron Lung finish, I instead scurry back across the road to catch Bloodbath at the Power Plant stage. The group sound good, but I choose to only stick around for a few songs before heading into Rams Head to see Archgoat. Once inside, I take a spot on the main level, just on the outskirts of where I think the mosh pit will form. I gaze at the massive logo projected over the stage and feel like something big is about to happen.
That feeling turns out to be correct. The Finnish bestial black metal trio take their places on the stage and look utterly imposing, like they’re about to subject the audience to some sort of grand ritual. Suddenly, their ragged riffing kicks in, and I’m immediately drenched by some sort of sugary drink that’s thrown on my head from the balcony above. The crowd loses their goddamn minds. A merciless mosh pit forms right in front of me as Archgoat’s hammering blast beats and deep demonic croaks engulf the venue. I see a muscular dude level someone half his size, while other people in the pit appear to have no regard whatsoever for whether they’re running into people who aren’t trying to mosh. Meanwhile, the person behind me is jamming their arm uncomfortably into my back even though I’m standing on the edge of the pit and just trying to survive.
Suddenly, something changes within me. After four days of carelessly eating shitty food, my intestinal gas has ripened to the point where I can no longer contain it within me while in public. I feel my insides gurgle as I struggle in vain to prevent the release. Finally, I can bear it no longer. The mosh pit is twirling rapidly, and with each strike of a person against me, a gas bubble bursts from my backside and into the crowd behind me. No matter how many bubbles are expelled, it seems that more are always waiting to be dislodged the next time I’m bumped by someone. I may have let some slip in previous days, but a mass release like this is entirely unprecedented. The moment, it seems, has finally come. Maryland Fartfest is being consummated.
Unfortunately, the smell is not enough to stop the person behind me from jamming their arm into my back. I quickly come up with a plan. I notice two heavy guys collide with each other and start barreling together in my direction. Thinking fast, I take a quick step forward and immediately turn around to see them crash into the side of the pit, forming a crater in the crowd right where I stood a moment before. The arm-jabber is no more. I briefly wonder if what I did was a dick move before karma strikes in the form of a 200-pound man ramming into my left shoulder. I know at once I deserve it.
I shake it off and perk up as I hear the squealing intro of “Messiah of Pigs” start playing. For the rest of the set, my fist is in the air, pounding to the battering rhythms of tracks like “Darkness Has Returned” and “Hammer of Satan.” As the final cries of “Hail Satan!” echo throughout Rams Head, I realize just how much I’ve enjoyed the wild ride.
Then, reality sets in. It’s after midnight, and I’m tired, smelly, and sticky. When the band leave the stage, I retreat to the balcony and catch my breath for the final band of the festival: Mortuary Drape. Like Archgoat, this classic Italian black metal group have a strong ritualistic vibe, but the performance feels more occult and less violent. The entire band is clad in cloaks, and vocalist “Wilderness Perversion” performs over a makeshift altar that makes him appear like he’s delivering a bizarre sermon. The group’s chunky black metal riffs and surprisingly melodic lead guitars make for an enthralling and mystical end to four days of craziness.
When the band finishes, everyone somehow still seems to have plenty of energy as we filter out onto the Baltimore sidewalk. I walk by the Power Plant complex and see mostly empty, rain-soaked streets where the merch village once stood. It’s almost as if the entire festival was a bizarre dream. Exhausted yet thoroughly satisfied, I make my way to my car and start my final drive home.
Conclusion
I’ve attended many festivals over the years, and I can safely say that Maryland Deathfest 2024 was one of the best of them all. Almost every band I saw gave an awesome performance, the sound quality was almost always great (and in some cases, exceptional), and the sheer quality of the lineup left no shortage of great bands to see. Likewise, having all the venues within a short walk of each other was a godsend, especially for those who remember how annoying it was to walk 15 minutes to the outdoor Edison Lot stages in previous years. Most importantly, it seemed like a general air of positive energy permeated the whole experience as if everyone knew that we were all just coming here to listen to the music we love and have a great time.
The whole experience makes me so grateful that festivals like this exist, and attending this year served as a stark reminder to take advantage of seeing older bands while we can. After all, how much longer are some of these classic artists still going to be playing live? Ten more years? Fifteen? These years, I think, will be remembered as the golden age of metal—the years when many of the pioneers and classic groups are still around, playing right alongside a plethora of young hungry acts. Take advantage of this time while you can.
At least, this is what I tell myself as I click the “Check Out” button and purchase my 4-Day Pass to Maryland Deathfest 2025. It’s happening, folks—farts and all. See you fukkers there!
Author’s Note: I would like to thank Steel Druhm for allowing me to rejoin the AMG ranks after several years away, as well as the entire AMG crew for welcoming me back with open arms. This piece is dedicated to all the contributors, editors, and everyone else that makes this amazing site possible.
#Abbath #Agalloch #Ahab #Archgoat #ArtificialBrain #AuraNoir #Avulsed #Beheaded #Bloodbath #BlueHolocaust #Brodequin #BrokenHope #ChtheIlist #Daeva #Deathhammer #DefeatedSanity #Depulsed #Derkéta #Dismember #EntrailAsphyxiation #Esoteric #Fossilization #GraveMiasma #Haemorrhage #Impure #IronLung #Kontusion #LackOfInterest #MortaSkuld #MortuaryDrape #PerditionTemple #Primordial #Ripper #Sacrifice #SiegeColumn #Sodom #WeekendNachos
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The Maryland Deathfest Chronicles
By Mark Z.
Sup fukkers! I’m back, having spent the last few years getting a law degree, trying to land a job, and settling into married life. But through it all, I haven’t lost sight of what’s truly important. I still buy records. I still go to shows. I still have a burning desire to blast Impiety so fukkin loud that my skull implodes and my internal organs turn into a thick pink paste that probably looks like the stuff chicken nuggets are made from. And what better way to prove that the metalized blood still flows through my veins than by providing you with a live report of the most brutal festival this side of the Atlantic—Maryland Deathfest?
Held over Memorial Day weekend in downtown Baltimore, Maryland Deathfest is arguably the premiere underground metal festival in the United States. The four‑day event welcomes dozens of bands from all over the extreme metal spectrum and beyond, including styles like grindcore and hardcore punk. While the fest has taken place almost every year since 2003, this year’s edition was particularly special, as there was a very real possibility it was never going to happen. After the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to the pandemic, the 2022 edition proved to be a logistical nightmare for festival organizers Ryan Taylor and Evan Harting, with visa issues and other challenges causing the two to announce that they needed some time off. As a result, they stated that there would be no 2023 edition and that there might never be another edition at all.
Fortunately, Ryan and Evan decided to continue the fest, leading to a 2024 edition that was absolutely stacked with great bands. Dismember, Sodom, Primordial, Aura Noir, and Archgoat were just a few of the groups I was excited to see, and even with the unfortunate cancellations of groups like My Dying Bride and Coffins, having Agalloch and Morta Skuld as replacements definitely softened the blow. With my time off from work confirmed and my metal shirts freshly laundered, I mentally prepared myself for four days of blast beats, moshing, and other heavy metal mayhem!
If only I knew what awaited me.
Thursday
As the morning light pours into my bedroom, I make a mental note to drink a Red Bull at some point today. I’ve slept like crap, probably due to a combination of being excited for the festival, having a stuffy bedroom, and being constantly awakened by a 55-pound pit bull that insisted on plopping her entire body onto my side of the bed. Fortunately, I now live only a 30-minute drive from downtown Baltimore, so I don’t have to worry about catching a flight or paying an exorbitant price for a hotel. Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to suffer through the I-95 traffic that has only gotten worse with the recent Key Bridge collapse.
After taking a strange detour to avoid an accident (and almost getting into one myself), I arrive in Baltimore. The sun is bright, small groups of people in black shirts are walking around, and the air feels electric with anticipation. While I’m a bit bummed that I’m attending by myself this year, it’s still hard not to be excited.
I get my wristband and head to Baltimore Soundstage for the festival’s first band: Depulsed. Even though the sole release of this Las Vegas brutal death metal group is a 2019 demo that contains just one song, the venue is surprisingly crowded—probably full of people who, like me, couldn’t get a ticket to last night’s Pre‑Fest and are eager to finally hear some live metal. Fortunately, this quartet don’t disappoint, as their destructive grooves and occasionally atypical riffing make for a rousing start to the festivities. It’s clear the band is having a great time, too, and there’s plenty of headbanging all around.
When Depulsed finishes, I go across the street to Rams Head Live!, the festival’s main other indoor venue. While Soundstage is a pretty traditional midsized venue, Rams Head is an open‑concept, multi‑level nightclub with a large raised stage as its focal point. Once inside, I snag a prime upper‑level spot for the evening’s next band: Fossilization. This Brazilian doom-death metal group sent some shockwaves through the underground last year with their Leprous Daylight debut, and their live performance is equally captivating. The group use lots of tight and hammering blast beats, and it seems the “doom” in their sound comes primarily from the monolithic heaviness of their guitars rather than their scattered moments of slower tempos. With an imposing stage presence and growls so deep that they shake the floor of the balcony I’m standing on, their performance is one to remember.
I’m not particularly interested in the brutal death metal at Soundstage tonight, so I decide to stick around Rams Head. I realize this is a good call as soon as Pittsburgh doom-death metal quartet Derkéta begin playing. Formed in 1988 and considered to be the first all-female death metal band (though today they have a male drummer), the group keep heads bobbing with assertive chugs and massive riffs that sound like Black Sabbath with a mound of graveyard dirt dropped on top. The live mix in the venue seems especially clear and powerful tonight, and apparently, I’m not the only one who notices. Between songs, frontwoman Sharon Bascovsky takes time to compliment the venue’s sound engineer before kicking back in with more hefty riffs and reverberating growls.
Deviating from the doom theme, Canadian weirdos Chthe’ilist are up next. While I wasn’t particularly excited for their Demilich‑influenced death metal, the group play like this is the only performance that has ever mattered. They sound warped, alien, and impossibly tight as if they’ve perfected a style of death metal that independently evolved in another dimension. Meanwhile, their vocalist has a wild‑eyed expression that makes him look like he’s just returned from that dimension and is attempting to describe it to the audience through a series of shrieks, croaks, and everything in between. With lots of onstage energy and an endless onslaught of strange yet catchy riffs, the band quickly inspire a wild mosh pit. If anyone knew how to pronounce the band’s name, I’m sure they’d be chanting it between songs.
Sadly, the first sign of trouble emerges during their set. About three‑fourths of the way through, I find myself within the blast radius of a miasmatic eruption of flatulence that smells like a mix of raw sewage and rotting meat. When the band finishes and the smell clears, I learn from the Maryland Deathfest Facebook group that such occurrences seem to be particularly prevalent at this year’s festival. Some theorize the new taco place is to blame. Others claim that body odor, rather than gas, may be the true cause of the smells. I realize then that I may have let one or two of my own expulsions squeak out in the heat of the moment, and I wonder how much I contributed to what others are experiencing.
But there’s no time to dwell on such matters, as Morta Skuld soon come onstage. With the unfortunate last‑minute cancellation of Coffins, this Wisconsin death metal institution stepped up to the plate as replacements. Like Chthe’ilist, Morta Skuld wasn’t a band I was particularly excited for, but my attitude quickly changes. With meaty riffs, catchy chugs, and the forceful yet intelligible vocals of frontman Dave Gregor, the band sound gigantic and utterly commanding. The crowd pulsates to the rhythms as the band tear through cuts from their 1993 debut Dying Remains and this year’s Creation Undone. Their set ends up being an utter blast and one of my overall favorites from the festival.
After Morta Skuld, I head outside to the Power Plant stage, the only outdoor venue open today. The stage is located just outside of Rams Head in the Power Plant Live! complex, which is a multi-level outdoor entertainment area consisting mostly of bars and restaurants. The Power Plant stage itself is located in the back of the complex at the end of a somewhat narrow corridor. The feature band out here tonight is German thrash legends Sodom, who are playing the entirety of their 1989 classic Agent Orange album. No one could say it’s a bad performance, but I have a tough time staying engaged being so far from the stage and constantly having to deal with people squeezing past me. After “Baptism of Fire,” I decide not to stick around for their encore and head back into Rams Head.
I snag another balcony spot for U.K. funeral doom band Esoteric, who provide a great break from the faster bands I’ve watched. While I’m not much of a doom guy, I discovered Esoteric very early in my metal journey and have always had a soft spot for them. In a live setting, the group is utterly entrancing. A trippy video backdrop plays as the band open with the cleanly picked intro of “Circle,” the first song from the group’s 2008 opus The Maniacal Vale. Once the distortion hits, the guitars envelop the room with a sense of heaviness that sounds like tectonic plates shifting. The group’s atmosphere is so dense you can taste it, and the wailing guitar leads conjure huge climaxes between the doomy trudges and anguished roars. It’s a terrific and mesmerizing performance.
Once Esoteric finishes, I trudge back over to Soundstage to catch the final band of the night: Chicago death metal legends Broken Hope. The group are already about halfway through their set by the time I arrive, and the packed venue is absolutely loving it. Crunchy riffs, punchy grooves, and violent blasts have created a human maelstrom in the center of the venue that seems to be growing stronger with each passing song. Guitarist and sole original member Jeremy Wagner thanks the crowd for their support before the band conclude their set with some especially brutal cuts from their 1991 debut Swamped in Gore. The set is so fun, that I almost want to stick around just to chat with people after it’s over. But it’s late, I’m tired, and my balls feel like they need a good wash. I drive home and go to bed.
Friday
I wake up and finally wash my balls. After once again fighting through traffic to get to Baltimore, I head to Soundstage to catch Kontusion. Though this group’s only release is a short demo, their members bring experience playing in bands from all over the Mid-Atlantic. Perhaps because of that experience, the group’s live performance is powerful and tight, with the band offering up belligerent and bludgeoning death metal that manages to be cavernous yet aggressive. For a band I had no expectations for, they definitely leave an impression.
As an added plus, they even have the courtesy of finishing a few minutes early so I don’t have to miss any of Defeated Sanity’s set. The German brutal death metal group are playing right outside of Soundstage on the Market Place stage, which has just opened today and is a new feature at the fest this year. Borrowing the idea from last year’s Hell in the Harbor festival, the Deathfest organizers opted to fence off an entire city block just outside of Soundstage and use the space to set up an outdoor stage, a merch tent, and a bunch of bars and food vendors. What’s most amusing about the setup, however, is that a narrow pedestrian walkway allows unsuspecting members of the public to still pass down the block and be subjected to whatever vile noise happens to be emanating from the Market Place stage at the time. I glance over to see families with kids walking by in bewilderment, their peaceful Friday stroll ruined by Defeated Sanity’s ear-rupturing slams and sewer monster gurgles. I chuckle to myself and proceed to bob my head to the band’s fun set of intricate riffs, stringy bass guitar, and devastating grooves.
I stick around Market Place for Aura Noir, who unfortunately start a bit later than expected. Once they get going, however, the Norwegian group’s trebly black-thrash metal quickly inspires a wild circle pit and several crowd surfers. I would have preferred it if they played a few less deep cuts (and a few more songs from Black Thrash Attack), but the group still offer plenty of good fist-raisers like “The Stalker” and “Condor.” “We’re the ugliest band in the world!” proclaims bassist and vocalist Apollyon as he looks over the crowd with his permanent sneer.
At this point, the late afternoon sun is beating down on me, and I’m sweating so much that my groin is about to become a government-designated wetland. Once Aura Noir finishes, I dip inside Soundstage to cool off and catch New Jersey death metal troupe Siege Column. Due to Aura Noir’s late start, Siege Column is already partially through their set, and I’m utterly confused by the scene I walk into. On record, Siege Column almost sound like a war metal band. Yet here, the group appear to forgo any spiked gauntlets or bullet belts and instead opt for a bright and colorful backdrop, with two of the four members wearing Ray Ban-style sunglasses. It’s odd at first, but somehow the aesthetic works. It’s like stepping into an alternate reality where war metal evolved in the early 80s and somehow became the music of choice for boardwalk arcades on the Jersey Shore. Looks aside, the group’s performance is an utter assault. The band sound like a grenade launcher being fired at the audience, with whiffs of Bolt Thrower apparent in their blaring and stompy riffing. “That was fucking awesome,” says a random guy next to me when their set is over. I’m inclined to agree.
Having cooled off enough for my groin to narrowly avoid the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, I take some time to get some food and browse the Maryland Deathfest Facebook group. The farting, it seems, has not subsided today, and some contend that it has actually grown worse. One person has unofficially dubbed the festival “Maryland Fartfest.” As I’m reading this, I realize that I’m halfway through eating a piece of pizza topped with mozzarella sticks and did not bring my Lactaid pills with me. Maryland Fartfest, it seems, is just getting started.
But the flatulence is not here yet. I finish my food and head across the street to the Power Plant complex, where a village of merch vendors are set up and peddling shirts, banners, vinyl, leather, and everything else a metalhead could desire. I take some time to peruse the selections before heading to Angels Rock Bar, a cozy upstairs establishment in the Power Plant complex. Angels Rock Bar is very much the “bonus venue” of the festival, with the small establishment featuring mostly local metal bands. As I enter the dimly lit bar, I see it’s lined with people who are hunched over and looking like they’ve never given a fuck about anything in their entire life.
It’s a perfect setting for some brutal death metal. Entrail Asphyxiation are a young Maryland band, and I’m not just referring to their formation date. As the group are doing their sound check, I notice that none of the members appear to be older than twenty. “Alright, let’s hear the drum triggers,” says the sound engineer. “He doesn’t use triggers,” says the band’s bassist. It turns out, the drummer doesn’t use triggers because he doesn’t need them. Despite their age, Entrail Asphyxiation sound like seasoned veterans, delivering a tight as fuck performance that people go absolutely apeshit over. As the fat guitars and bass break in, the set takes on the vibe of a sweaty basement show, with the front of the crowd whipping around like they’re trapped in a blender. The vocalist offers some unusual tortured shrieks and gets a few chuckles as she introduces a Mortician cover by saying, “If you know the words sing along—because I don’t.” Their set ends up being one of the most fun performances of the night.
Coming off that high, I head back over to Market Place for Agalloch. As a band whose first three records are easily on my list of Top 25 favorite albums of all time, this Oregon atmospheric metal group are one of the bands I’m looking forward to the most. I haven’t seen them since 2012, and I’m especially excited to see them tonight given that this is their first East Coast show since reforming last year. Fortunately, they don’t disappoint. As the wailing ambiance of “Limbs” begins their set, I’m instantly transported back to being a college freshman and having lyrics from Ashes Against the Grain stuck in my head while jogging in the dense woods around campus. By the time that track’s accelerating drumbeat hits just a few minutes later, I’m broken and totally given over to whatever the band have to offer. The set ends up pulling from all eras of their discography, with many selections from Ashes Against the Grain. While John Haughm’s vocals are a little loud in the mix, I love the fact that they actually seem to play all their clean guitar parts rather than relying on samples.
As the performance continues, their elegant and ethereal sound becomes transcendent. In front of me, I see a group of people I’ve seen at festivals before, laughing and chatting with each other while the beautiful leads of “Falling Snow” play in the background. I suddenly feel stupid standing here by myself, wearing a poorly made battle vest and a Bewitcher shirt that’s too small for me. As the final guitar lines of “Bloodbirds” echo throughout downtown Baltimore, I feel like I’m trying to swallow an apple whole.
When the set ends, I blink rapidly a few times before walking back across the street to see Ahab on the Power Plant stage. The German funeral doom band’s nautical theme is present in full force with their stage backdrop, which looks like a scene from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As they begin playing, their guitars sound crisp and immense, though the group don’t feel quite as atmospheric as I would have expected. Nonetheless, frontman Daniel Droste does an outstanding job on vocals, excelling at both his mighty growls and crooning clean singing. The band are proficient players and feel like they carry the full crushing force of the abyssal zone with them. By the time they hit that chunky break midway through “Old Thunder,” I’m thoroughly impressed.
Still, it’s getting late, I’m growing weary, and I can feel an ominous pressure building in my intestines. But the night isn’t over yet. I head back to Soundstage, where Tennessee brutal death metal troupe Brodequin are in the middle of bashing in skulls with their barrage of blast beats, slammy grooves, and militant riffing. After the group finish, there’s a short break before the recently reunited Weekend Nachos take the stage. Coming out to the Mortal Kombat theme song, people seem pumped for them, and their vocalist has huge amounts of energy as he jumps around and invites people to talk with him about the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie in between songs. I’m admittedly not super familiar with Weekend Nachos, and while I feel as though I should love any band that mixes powerviolence and sludge, I don’t find their music very interesting at all. It probably doesn’t help that I’m tired and my feet hurt. When their set ends, I go home and fall asleep immediately.
Saturday
BRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT. The first fart of the day echoes through my bedroom, almost certainly the result of my failure to take a Lactaid during yesterday’s lunch. Fortunately, the foul smell only makes it easier to pull myself out of bed and start my drive, which isn’t nearly as bad as the past two days. Upon arrival, I head to Market Place to see the old school Spanish death metal band Avulsed. While I’m not familiar with them, their catchy tremolo runs and combative riffing make for a great start to the day, even inspiring the first wall of death I’ve seen at the fest so far.
I leave a bit early to see Impure over at Rams Head. With a backdrop featuring Jesus hanging from a noose (pulled from the artwork of their Satan’s Eclipse album), this young American project offer scalding hot and ritualistic black metal that gives off big Beherit vibes. The group prove that simple ideas and tight performances can go a long way, with the warm surging riffs and big chunky rhythms practically forcing heads to be banged. The only disappointing thing about them is that they end up being sold out of my shirt size when I try to buy one later.
After Impure, I head outside to the Power Plant stage, arriving early to get a good spot for Perdition Temple. The band is the brainchild of guitarist Gene Palubicki, who has had several cool projects over the years but is probably best known for his work in Angelcorpse. As a big fan of his, I’m looking forward to Perdition Temple’s blackened death metal assault. When they take the stage and launch into “Nemesis Obsecration,” I can’t help but bang my fist to Gene’s dexterous fretwork, scalding tremolo lines, and lightning-quick tempo shifts. Unlike previous times I’ve seen Perdition Temple, Gene and main vocalist Alex Blume (of Ares Kingdom fame) trade off on vocals this time, subjecting the audience to a dual vocal attack that only makes the pummeling blast beats and relentless riffing that much more chaotic and enjoyable. By the set’s end, I only wish the band had been given more time to play.
Once they finish, I head into Rams Head to cool off and take a breather before Norwegian thrash metal maniacs Deathhammer take the stage. Once they do, it’s only seconds into their first song before the group whip the crowd into a total fucking frenzy. The band sound frantic and unhinged, with random wild screeches and quick power chords generating one of the fastest pits I’ve seen yet. My head is banging faster and faster, and before I know it, I’m in the pit myself, running in circles and pumping my fists in the air like a madman. “This one’s for the man downstairs,” says vocalist and guitarist Sergeant Salsten, introducing the song “Satan Is Back.” That sentence turns out to be one of the only bits of banter I’m able to understand from Mr. Salsten for their entire set. I’m not sure if it’s a language barrier thing or an alcohol intoxication thing, but the man sounds like he’s slurring his words into an unintelligible mess in between songs. Fortunately, their playing is on point, and I gladly join in screaming along to “Fullmoon Sorcery” as I continue bumping into fellow moshers. Being in my mid-30s, I didn’t think anything would be able to bring me out of mosh pit retirement, but Deathhammer managed to do it.
Following their set, I join the mass migration of thrash fiends heading to Market Place to catch Canadian thrash metal institution Sacrifice. While they seem solid, I’m still catching my breath from Deathhammer. Maybe for that reason, one of my favorite songs they play is the title track from Soldiers of Misfortune, which offers a welcome respite with its cleanly picked intro and relatively slower tempos. Once they’re done, I head into Soundstage to check out the powerviolence band Lack of Interest, whose name more or less captures how I end up feeling about them. I like their energy level and the constipated lumberjack vocals, but not much else about them stands out to me.
Afterwards, I head back out to Market Place for the festival’s premiere band: Dismember. After it was announced last-minute that they were unable to play the 2022 Deathfest as planned, excitement for these Swedish death metal gods seems to be at fever pitch this year. The Market Place area is packed even though it’s begun raining and increasingly ominous clouds are looming overhead. Fortunately, the weather isn’t bad enough to cause a cancelation or delay, and the band come out with a ferocious amount of energy. Unfortunately, their live mix ends up sounding quite muddy, which could admittedly be due to where I’m standing. Nonetheless, the sound isn’t unlistenable, and the group’s songs are strong enough to shine through regardless. They do a great job picking stylistically diverse tracks from all over their catalog, from the essential “Override of the Overture” to the groovy “Skinfather” to the melodic “Tragedy of the Faithful” to the bludgeoning “Europa Burns.” The closing one-two punch of “Dreaming in Red” and “Life – Another Shape of Sorrow” hits particularly hard.
Spectral Voice and Soilent Green are both great bands, and both happen to be playing on other stages after Dismember finishes. But it’s late, I’m getting tired, and all I want is to sit down somewhere and eat a cheeseburger. I decide to do just that. Unfortunately, my cheeseburger isn’t ready until seconds before Beheaded take the stage, and I find myself rushing into Soundstage and shoveling ground beef into my mouth right as the Maltese death metal band start their first song. While their most recent record didn’t generate high marks around here, there’s something to be said for well-executed, prefix-less death metal. That’s exactly what Beheaded provide. They play tight, blasting music with plenty of potent riffs that get the crowd going nuts. I love the occasional epic edge of their riffing and how the band are both technical and brutal while still delivering pretty digestible songwriting. Maybe I’m just easy to please when it comes to death metal, but I enjoy their set a lot.
After they finish, Soundstage gets even more crowded for the night’s final band: Spanish goregrind wackos Haemorrhage. Several members dressed in medical scrubs play an instrumental opening before vocalist Lugubrious emerges, crazy-eyed and soaked in (hopefully) fake blood. From there, the venue goes berserk. Between the grimy riffs, pounding blast beats, and staccato rhythms, the band generate one of the craziest crowd responses I’ve seen so far. Glow sticks and beach balls are tossed overhead, while the mosh pit looks like a battle scene from The Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, crowd surfers and stage divers are everywhere. Amidst it all, the songs themselves feature a surprising amount of variety, and I gleefully bang my head for almost the entirety of their 50-minute set.
As the smiling crowd shuffles out afterward, I check the Deathfest Facebook group to see the latest on the flatulence situation. Things have become dire, it seems. Reports indicate that the farts have not subsided, with some even stating that they had to leave certain venues due to the smells. Were these mere exaggerations? Or were these tales true? And what would the next day hold?
Sunday
My bedroom smells like somebody shoved a rotten egg up their ass and then shat it out in a salt marsh at low tide. I briefly thank whatever higher power may exist that my wife is on a business trip this week, as I couldn’t bear to deal with her chastising me over my gas right now. Feeling exhausted after standing for three days straight, I manage to pull myself out of bed and make the final trip into Baltimore.
It turns out to be a funny sight in the parking garage, as several groups are sitting or standing around sipping beers like a 2024 version of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. I chuckle as I head to Market Place to catch the day’s first band, Chilean thrash metal group Ripper. While the rest of the audience seems to love their extreme take on thrash metal, there’s a bit too much noodling bass guitar for me. I head to Rams Head partway through their set to catch a thrashy band that’s a little more up my alley: Daeva.
While I’ve seen Daeva at an earlier Deathfest, this is the first time I’ve seen them since they released their Through Sheer Will and Black Magic debut in 2022. Since last time, their songs and performances have only gotten better. The Philadelphia group deliver manic blackened thrash that pulls heavily from fast-as-fuck approach of Absu. Today, they have loads of energy, with vocalist Edward Gonet gesticulating wildly over the crowd while the guitars veer madly between frantic thrash riffs, swift chugs, and epic blackened moments. It’s an awesome set that inspires me to pick up a CD from their merch booth later.
After Daeva, I head back to Market Place and catch a few minutes of Artificial Brain, whose strange and warped riffing provides a nice counterpoint to the more traditional approach of most of the bands I’ve been watching. Following their set, I grab a crab cake sandwich meal and notice that the fries seem to taste like the porta potties smell. Or maybe, I’m just tasting my own dirty fingers. In any case, I’m glad I still have a few sick days left at work.
With my meal finished, I remain at Market Place for Primordial. While I haven’t listened to this Irish metal band in years, it’s only moments into their performance that I remember how captivating they can be. That’s just as true live as on record, as frontman A.A. Nemtheanga has the most commanding stage presence of any musician I’ve seen at the festival so far. Coming onstage with white face paint, a noose draped around his neck, and a resolute look on his face, he immediately draws in the audience with his forlorn singing and lyrics of historic struggles. Songs like “The Coffin Ships” hit all the harder knowing that the track is about the tragic past of his own country. The pounding drums and grandiose riffs only add to the drama, and by the time the group closes with “Empire Falls,” most of the crowd joins together in screaming the chorus. Even if their recent albums haven’t quite been met with acclaim, their live show makes clear that Primordial is a band that offers something truly special.
After Primordial, I dip back into Soundstage to check out the French goregrind band Blue Holocaust. I know nothing about this group, but catching a band that’s new to me seems more appealing than watching the other artists playing right now. As the group starts, I quickly become happy with my decision. The bespectacled vocalist betrays his slightly nerdy appearance with a monstrous gurgle that perfectly complements the band’s pummeling approach. While the music is suitably nasty and brutal, there are still plenty of tempo shifts and discernible riffs to keep the crowd hooked. Judging by the screams from the audience, the rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy their set just as much as me.
I leave Soundstage afterward and walk into what feels like an outdoor party. The Market Place area has become an ocean of people, with beach balls flying overhead and Abbath’s epic riffs blaring throughout the block. It’s a cool sight, but I choose to leave for Rams Head after a few minutes to get a good spot for Grave Miasma.
With most festival attendees apparently watching Abbath, Rams Head feels like a cool empty cavern. I snag a prime balcony spot and hang out a bit before Grave Miasma starts. Once they do, I’m thoroughly engaged. This English death metal group sound like a black force of nature that moves relentlessly forward and chokes out all sense of hope and life. The guitars are thick, and the overall sound is cavernous yet riffy. The drums are also just as tight live as they are on record, shifting deftly between blast beats and driving rhythms. After watching their set, I’m all the happier that I managed to pick up one of their shirts earlier in the day.
With no bands scheduled at Rams Head or Power Plant for over an hour after Grave Miasma finish, I once again go back across the street to the Market Place area. Once there, I head into Soundstage to watch the powerviolence duo Iron Lung. Even though they’re scheduled at the same time as Mayhem, the group seem to take it all in stride. “Thanks for coming to the fest, guys,” their drummer and vocalist says, “and sorry you had to pay such an exorbitant ticket price just to see us.”
Once they start, the performance is an utter assault. Somehow having the drummer perform vocals makes the whole thing feel more intense, and something about his battering drumming feels downright violent. The crowd eats it up. The mosh pit is vicious, and several participants began whipping each other with what look like inflatable pool toys. While I’m not a big powerviolence guy, the duo’s raw energy is infectious. Just watching them makes me feel reinvigorated.
Rather than stay to see the last few minutes of Mayhem after Iron Lung finish, I instead scurry back across the road to catch Bloodbath at the Power Plant stage. The group sound good, but I choose to only stick around for a few songs before heading into Rams Head to see Archgoat. Once inside, I take a spot on the main level, just on the outskirts of where I think the mosh pit will form. I gaze at the massive logo projected over the stage and feel like something big is about to happen.
That feeling turns out to be correct. The Finnish bestial black metal trio take their places on the stage and look utterly imposing, like they’re about to subject the audience to some sort of grand ritual. Suddenly, their ragged riffing kicks in, and I’m immediately drenched by some sort of sugary drink that’s thrown on my head from the balcony above. The crowd loses their goddamn minds. A merciless mosh pit forms right in front of me as Archgoat’s hammering blast beats and deep demonic croaks engulf the venue. I see a muscular dude level someone half his size, while other people in the pit appear to have no regard whatsoever for whether they’re running into people who aren’t trying to mosh. Meanwhile, the person behind me is jamming their arm uncomfortably into my back even though I’m standing on the edge of the pit and just trying to survive.
Suddenly, something changes within me. After four days of carelessly eating shitty food, my intestinal gas has ripened to the point where I can no longer contain it within me while in public. I feel my insides gurgle as I struggle in vain to prevent the release. Finally, I can bear it no longer. The mosh pit is twirling rapidly, and with each strike of a person against me, a gas bubble bursts from my backside and into the crowd behind me. No matter how many bubbles are expelled, it seems that more are always waiting to be dislodged the next time I’m bumped by someone. I may have let some slip in previous days, but a mass release like this is entirely unprecedented. The moment, it seems, has finally come. Maryland Fartfest is being consummated.
Unfortunately, the smell is not enough to stop the person behind me from jamming their arm into my back. I quickly come up with a plan. I notice two heavy guys collide with each other and start barreling together in my direction. Thinking fast, I take a quick step forward and immediately turn around to see them crash into the side of the pit, forming a crater in the crowd right where I stood a moment before. The arm-jabber is no more. I briefly wonder if what I did was a dick move before karma strikes in the form of a 200-pound man ramming into my left shoulder. I know at once I deserve it.
I shake it off and perk up as I hear the squealing intro of “Messiah of Pigs” start playing. For the rest of the set, my fist is in the air, pounding to the battering rhythms of tracks like “Darkness Has Returned” and “Hammer of Satan.” As the final cries of “Hail Satan!” echo throughout Rams Head, I realize just how much I’ve enjoyed the wild ride.
Then, reality sets in. It’s after midnight, and I’m tired, smelly, and sticky. When the band leave the stage, I retreat to the balcony and catch my breath for the final band of the festival: Mortuary Drape. Like Archgoat, this classic Italian black metal group have a strong ritualistic vibe, but the performance feels more occult and less violent. The entire band is clad in cloaks, and vocalist “Wilderness Perversion” performs over a makeshift altar that makes him appear like he’s delivering a bizarre sermon. The group’s chunky black metal riffs and surprisingly melodic lead guitars make for an enthralling and mystical end to four days of craziness.
When the band finishes, everyone somehow still seems to have plenty of energy as we filter out onto the Baltimore sidewalk. I walk by the Power Plant complex and see mostly empty, rain-soaked streets where the merch village once stood. It’s almost as if the entire festival was a bizarre dream. Exhausted yet thoroughly satisfied, I make my way to my car and start my final drive home.
Conclusion
I’ve attended many festivals over the years, and I can safely say that Maryland Deathfest 2024 was one of the best of them all. Almost every band I saw gave an awesome performance, the sound quality was almost always great (and in some cases, exceptional), and the sheer quality of the lineup left no shortage of great bands to see. Likewise, having all the venues within a short walk of each other was a godsend, especially for those who remember how annoying it was to walk 15 minutes to the outdoor Edison Lot stages in previous years. Most importantly, it seemed like a general air of positive energy permeated the whole experience as if everyone knew that we were all just coming here to listen to the music we love and have a great time.
The whole experience makes me so grateful that festivals like this exist, and attending this year served as a stark reminder to take advantage of seeing older bands while we can. After all, how much longer are some of these classic artists still going to be playing live? Ten more years? Fifteen? These years, I think, will be remembered as the golden age of metal—the years when many of the pioneers and classic groups are still around, playing right alongside a plethora of young hungry acts. Take advantage of this time while you can.
At least, this is what I tell myself as I click the “Check Out” button and purchase my 4-Day Pass to Maryland Deathfest 2025. It’s happening, folks—farts and all. See you fukkers there!
Author’s Note: I would like to thank Steel Druhm for allowing me to rejoin the AMG ranks after several years away, as well as the entire AMG crew for welcoming me back with open arms. This piece is dedicated to all the contributors, editors, and everyone else that makes this amazing site possible.
#Abbath #Agalloch #Ahab #Archgoat #ArtificialBrain #AuraNoir #Avulsed #Beheaded #Bloodbath #BlueHolocaust #Brodequin #BrokenHope #ChtheIlist #Daeva #Deathhammer #DefeatedSanity #Depulsed #Derkéta #Dismember #EntrailAsphyxiation #Esoteric #Fossilization #GraveMiasma #Haemorrhage #Impure #IronLung #Kontusion #LackOfInterest #MortaSkuld #MortuaryDrape #PerditionTemple #Primordial #Ripper #Sacrifice #SiegeColumn #Sodom #WeekendNachos
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Carcharodon and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been writing here since 2018. This has been the hardest year to date. I feel like I say this every year right around this time but, for whatever reason, I’ve really struggled this year to find the motivation and inspiration to write. Indeed, I’ve often felt that I lacked the passion for the music. Rather than exploring the murkier depths of Bandcamp, I was often to be found in the company of old, non-metal friends like Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower and Tom Waits.
Despite my disappointment with the world, most of which is on literal or metaphorical fire, and my disillusionment with people, whose choices have caused most of that, there were bright glimmers. The phenomenal response to our Gondor-esque call for aid, when Kenstrosity‘s life was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene, reassured me there are still a few good people out there, a good number of whom read this blog.
Still, I managed to turn out a few reviews this year, including my first ever 5.0—more of which below—which was worth it for the Steel Ire it evoked alone. And there was the Fifteenalia, a celebration the like of which we will not see again (for obvious reasons), which I had the honour of steering from questionable inception to creaky delivery.
Ironically, despite my struggles on the writing front, This Place has played a significant part in keeping me sane. It’s been tolerable to welcome a few new staffers—some even raised up from the awful Place Below—to our serried ranks, while the older hands feel almost like family at this point, with everything that that entails. As ever, particular thanks go to Steel Druhm for his tireless intimidation, which just about keeps us honest, while Dolph, Dear Hollow, El Cuervo, Grier, Maddog, Sentynel and Thus Spoke, among others, have proved adequate companions for banter and gigs.
And with that, I wish you all the happiest of Listurnalias.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – A very late entry to this list, Pillar of Light should be a cautionary tale to bands and labels: release your shit earlier! With more time, the stunning Amenra-meets-Cult of Luna post-misery of Caldera could easily have placed in the top half of this list. While I know this is an album I will come to love and fully expect to regret not placing it higher here, the reality is that other entries have had longer to sink their hooks into me. I will just say that, for me, the apparently divisive vocals are a perfect fit for Pillar of Light’s style.
#10. Seth // La France des Maudits – Way back when,1 French black metallers Seth snuck onto my list of Honorable Mentions with La Morsure du Christ, a fantastic return to form after a lengthy absence. After a short gap, they’re back and this year’s La France des Maudits has cracked the list proper. Melodic, bordering on symphonic with the keys and choral arrangements, but also visceral and feral, Seth dropped an absolute banger. It doesn’t hurt that, as Thus Spoke pointed out in her review, it’s “downright impressive how rich and dynamic this sounds.”
#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – The Vision Bleak is not, to paraphrase Dr Grier, a band that has ever ‘got’ me. Or perhaps, I’ve never got them. But Weird Tales resonated with me enormously. And perhaps that’s because it’s not really like anything The Vision Bleak has done before. Structuring their gothic black metal (or should that be blackened goth metal?) into a single, flowing song (albeit one broken into parts) got my attention. But they held my attention because they actually managed to pull off this very-hard-to-execute vision. Weird Tales’ Type O Negative / Moonspell-inspired blackened sound clicked into place almost instantly for me and now I need to go back to TVB’s discography with newly-opened eyes.
#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – The first 4.0 I delivered in an alarmingly high-scoring year, Necrowretch’s black-death fusion is something that I have returned to again. Hiding beneath the vicious, downright nasty surface of Swords of Dajjal, is a surprisingly subtle and well-crafted concept album. As I said in my review, there is zero bloat or filler on this record, which blazes with intensity, driven as much by the scything, razor-sharp riffs as the rasping, sepulchral vocals. The range of influences cited, both by me and by impressed commenters, shows how many different aspects there are to this killer record.
#7. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion – After Chapter III: The Astral Drain, I was worried that Panzerfaust were running out of steam and inspiration to close out The Suns of Perdition saga. Thankfully, my concerns were misplaced. To Shadow Zion reeks of doom and destiny. Huge, brooding and intense, it is a captivating listen, with the stunning “The Damascene Conversions” sitting at its heart. From the sulfuric vocals to the masterful drumming, this was a worthy final chapter for The Suns of Perdition, which must go down as one of the best executed, most consistent multi-album concept pieces in metal.
#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Spectral Wound just can’t miss. For a band that, superficially at least, plays fairly old school black metal, songwriting chops paired with brilliant execution mean these guys are anything but derivative. My favourite album of theirs to date, Songs of Blood and Mire is just tons of wicked, nasty fun. It’s hard to say exactly why, but I feel like everything Spectral Wound does has a slight knowing wink to it, which suggests that the band doesn’t take itself too seriously. For me, this is a huge positive, as a lot of black metal is so tediously earnest, where this is unflinchingly harsh, surprisingly melodic and drowning in swaggering groove. Great stuff.
#5. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – I’m a sucker for death doom. And The Periapt of Absence is some fucking great death doom. Mother of Graves were unknown to me before I stumbled across this album but their blending of old school Opeth (think somewhere between Morningrise and Orchid) with early Katatonia and Paradise Lost, plus a sprinkling of Clouds is stunning. All wrapped up in a pleasingly tight package, Mother of Graves smother the listener in unflinching, heartwrenching misery. And I love every minute of it. It’s that Peaceville Three sound we love, but feeling fresh, vibrant and vital.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – Me and death metal don’t always see eye to eye, and the last Devenial Verdict left only a passing impression. But Thus Spoke‘s tireless tongue-bathing promotion of Blessing of Despair convinced me to give it a chance. While I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdict’s dissonant death well enough, it’s the sudden mood swings into what TS described as “lethally graceful restraint” that really hooked me. Although worlds apart stylistically, on Blessing of Despair DV achieved what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean did on Obsession Destruction: knowing precisely how far to push the suffocating, claustrophobic heaviness, before taking their foot off your throat for a minute. Then stamping on it again.
#3. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – Maddog predicted that I would lambast him as an underrating bastard for the 3.5 he deigned to award Ms Christmas. And he was quite correct. He’s a charlatan of the highest order. However, even I’m surprised by how high Ridiculous and Full of Blood has landed here. But, as someone not given to overly emotional reactions to music, I’m continually stunned by the reactions Julie—Can I call you Julie? No? Ok—extracts from me. I’m often on the edge of tears by the end of “The Lighthouse,” just like that cad Maddog, while the likes of “Not Enough” and “End of the World” (the latter with CoL’s Johannes Persson) have a scary edge to them, with Christmas at her maniacal, crooning, possessed, unpredictable best.
#2. A Swarm of the Sun // An Empire – Speaking of emotional responses, A Swarm of the Sun’s stripped back melancholy is right up there. If I say that An Empire is brighter and more uplifting than previous efforts The Rifts and The Woods, understand that this is a very relative statement. An Empire is drowning in sorrow and misery, and yet there is just a hint of brightness that shimmers and hovers around the edges, like a lunar halo. Slow and deliberate, haunting and cathartic, A Swarm of the Sun’s latest outing is just beautiful. End of. No discussion.2
#1. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Y’all know I dropped a 5.0 on Die Urkatastophe, so it’s no surprise to find it here, sitting pretty, atop my list. There’s not much more praise that I can heap on Kanonenfieber’s sophomore record than I already did in my review. For me, it has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow up to my beloved Menschenmühle (my album of the year for 2021). It is brutal and vicious (“Panzerhenker” and “Ausblutingsschlacht”), anthemic (“Der Maulwurf” and “Menschenmühle”) and more. Crafted—and yes, that is the correct word—with huge skill and attention to detail, it is the storytelling, based on original source materials, that elevates this record to the next level for me. And if you don’t speak German, or are simply not into narrative in your metal, just go bang your fucking head to “Gott mit der Kavallerie”!
Honorable mentions In alphabetical order by band:
- 40 Watt Sun // Little Weight – Little Weight actually carries a lot of emotional weight. Melancholic, beautiful post-doom and shoegaze, rife with a rough honesty.
- Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun – Long-form (arguably too-long-form in some respects) progressive death, which is wonderfully ambitious and overblown in its scale and delivery.
- Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Fantastic trad doom, channeling heavy doses of Candlemass. Early in the year, I thought this was top-5 material but it’s uneven, with the back half much stronger than the front, and I’ve cooled on it a touch.
- Nyktophobia // To the Stars – Just great, stomping melodeath. As I said in my review, it’s not massively original but it’s tight and well written, and easy to just kick back to. Sometimes, I don’t need more.
- Silhouette // Les Dires de l’Âme – This fantastic post-black album had a place on the list proper until Pillar of Light bulldozed its way in there very late in the day. Haunting, harrowing and beautiful, Silhouette’s debut is Great!
- Sumac // The Healer – Nothing about The Healer makes it an easy listen but Sumac’s fifth record is curiously beautiful for all its wandering, free-form abrasiveness.
- Vorga // Beyond the Palest Star – While it’s hard to disagree with Kenstrosity‘s criticism of the production on Beyond the Palest Star, what can I say? I still love it. It’s chunky, well written, well paced and powerful.
Surprises o’ the Year Ordered by most astounding first:
- Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – It’s been a long time since I was last genuinely interested in an Opeth album (2005’s Ghost Reveries, in case you were wondering). But, wouldn’t you just know it, Mikael Åkerfeldt and co are back (roars and all). I’m not ready to commit to a score for The Last Will (though I think El Cuervo‘s was possibly a smidge high) as I’ve not been able to spend enough time with it. But the fact I want to spend more time with it is, after 19 years of having no interest in Opeth’s output, a surprise. And a welcome one.
- Grand Magus // Sunraven – Another Swedish favourite of old, which I’d all but given up on, Grand Magus roared back this year with Sunraven. As an equally surprised Steel Druhm said in his review, this was the album he “feverishly hoped to get from Grand Magus … a grand return to prime form with the fire firmly back in the Balrog … the best Magus outing since 2012’s The Hunt”.
Disappointment o’ the Year Limited to a single musical disappointment, to avoid submitting a lengthy thesis:
- Zeal & Ardor // GREIF – I’m not angry, or even very surprised, just disappointed.3 While I accept that this is the album of a band in transition, there’s no getting away from the fact that it was a hugely disappointing album from a band that has abandoned the sound that made it what it was. And for what? They have not transitioned to something new and exciting, but with kinks to be worked out. Rather, on this record, Zeal & Ardor became something so pedestrian that any number of post-rock bands could’ve written it and, probably, done a better job. I may have overrated it.
Songs o’ the Year
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Kanonenfieber – “Der Maulwurf”
- Selbst – “The Stench of a Dead Spirit”
- Panzerfaust – “The Damascene Conversions”
- Kanonenfieber – “Gott mit der Kavallerie”
- Devenial Verdict – “Garden of Eyes”
- Spectral Wound – “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal”
- Silhouette – “Les Dires de l’Âme”
- Blue Heron – “Everything Fades”
- Zeal & Ardor – “Hide in Shade”
- Glare of the Sun – “Rain”
Cherd
Twenty-twenty-four was certainly a year that followed previous years and will precede still others. When I look back, I’ll likely remember it as the year I discovered the wonders of ADHD medication after decades of non-treatment, the difficult transition my poor Cherdlet experienced from kindergarten to first grade, and the incredible bucket list trip my wife and I took to Toronto to watch our favorite TV franchise filming new content courtesy of my very important Hollywood connections. No, not Robert Downey Jr. Much more important and better-looking. Hmm? Margot Robbie? She wishes. I also had the pleasure of meeting several of my fellow writers in person, and they are all much homelier than they let on with the exception of Madam X, who is a goddamned ray of sunshine.
On the musical front, I was able to check two bands off my “need to see live” list in Judas Priest and Archspire, whereby I discovered that Halford does exactly zero audience banter, and Archspire do nothing but. Fun shows, both. I didn’t listen to as much new music by volume this year than I have in previous years when I’d log between 200 and 400 releases, and that was largely due to my kid’s age and the level of interaction he needs. I have a feeling, however, that 2025 will see an uptick thanks to the new Heavys headphones I got for Christmas this year. As always, I want to thank the editors, particularly Steel Druhm and Doc Grier, for not sending me a mailbomb after all the late reviews I turned in (I’ll work on that in 2025), and the man himself, AMG, for building this community and for agreeing that Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show.4
(ish) Chat Pile // Cool World – This is what it sounds like when Chat Pile make a “mature” record. As I noted in my October review, some of the most glaring weirdness and black humor the band is known for is missing in Cool World, which is why it’s here on my list instead of matching the lofty heights of my 2022 AOTY God’s Country. That said, this is consistently bleak in a way I like, and it boasts what are in my opinion the two best–if not most memorable–songs the band have written to date in “New World” and “Masc.” I’m a sucker for these Oklahomans and look forward to how their sound evolves from here.
#10. Glacial Tomb // Lightless Expanse – I’ve had an up and down journey with Glacial Tomb’s sophomore record, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still view this as one of the best things I’ve listened to this year. To consider a record this closely means you have to listen to it a lot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I logged more hours with Lightless Expanse than with any other album. I’ve made a big deal about the one-three punch of “Voidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Host”, but it bears repeating since it’s my favorite consecutive stretch of death metal in 2024.
#9. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – If you peel back the veneer of disso-death and blackened blasts on Infinite Mortality, you’ll find a pounding hardcore heart comprised of equal parts beatdown and Converge. As technical as this music gets, and there is a lot going on here, Replicant never forget their primary duty as a metal band: snapping necks. On their third album, they’ve exquisitely composed a missive to unbridled aggression. I completely missed their previous albums, so I’m glad our Kenfren wouldn’t shut his excitable yap about this one.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – “Alright skaters! This is the end of our free skate period. We’d like to once again thank you for spending your Saturday with us here at Family Fun Roller Rink and Arcade. It’s time to slow things down, down, way down, and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s couples’ skate. So, find that special someone you want to be interred on a cold stone slab with, gaze into each other’s empty eye sockets, and make your way around the rink as wave after wave of Spectral Voice’s death/funeral doom forcefully separates you from any light, hope, or happiness this wretched world might have accidentally given you. Remember, those who survive the next 45 minutes of tectonic plates colliding will get the chance to compete in roller limbo!”
#7. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Despite being one of the biggest doom apologists on this site, Crypt Sermon failed to grab me with their highly acclaimed debut nearly ten years ago. I chalk this up to my unfamiliarity with the traditional doom style at the time. In recent years, I’ve binged large amounts of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus et al., so I finally have the frame of reference to see just how well Crypt Sermon’s third LP captures the swagger, majesty, and grit of a style few contemporary bands seem interested in playing. After the growing pains displayed on The Ruins of Fading Light, these Philly natives have worked out the kinks and delivered an air-tight slab of doomy goodness.
#6. Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss – I regret waiving my seniority claim to Full of Hell releases, thus allowing Dolph to snap up review duties for Coagulated Bliss. It’s not that he did a bad job of reviewing the prolific experimental grind outfit’s latest. He did great, and he awarded it a deserved 4.0. But then he had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to incorrectly lower his score. To make matters worse, it appeared nowhere on his year-end list. Not even a goll dern honorable mention. I’ve told him to his cetacean face that he’s wrong and I’m likely to do so again because this is Full of Hell’s best work since Trumpeting Ecstasy. In fact, it might be better.
#5. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – For most of their existence, Ulcerate was a highly acclaimed band that I just couldn’t get into. That changed four years ago with the release of Stare into Death and Be Still. Little changed in their intricate approach to dissonant death metal, but there was something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style. That trend continues with Cutting the Throat of God. I find this record best when taken as a whole, letting the experience unfold over the full runtime, like dream-walking through a hedge maze or being trapped in a velvet sack and discovering it’s much larger on the inside.5
#4. Thou // Umbilical – I waited a long time for a chance to review a new record by Thou, and when it finally came, they did not disappoint. As I said in my June review, “Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under Thou’s banner. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other.” If that doesn’t sell Umbilical for you, then here is where our paths diverge.
#3. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I didn’t listen to Blessing of Despair for several weeks after it came out in October despite the fact Devenial Verdict’s previous record, Ash Blind, made my year-end list in 2022. When I finally got around to it earlier in December, it threatened to blow the doors right off my still nebulous list, climbing fast and high until ultimately landing here at number three. There is more immediacy than on Ash Blind, which took me a while to warm up to. That doesn’t mean the band skimps on the kind of thoughtful transitions and atmospherics they’ve come to be known for. It’s just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year in “Solus.”
#2. Void Witch // Horripilating Presence – When I revisited Horripilating Presence with the purpose of sorting out this list’s pecking order, I expected death-doomers Void Witch to fall mid-to-late top 10. Obviously, the opposite happened. For the life of me I don’t understand how this album didn’t gain more traction amongst the other writers and you, the unwashed commentariat. As I said back in July, “…the material on Horripilating Presence is Mohamed Ali levels of confident. The editing of ideas in each song and across the album’s taut 39 minutes is masterful, especially for a debut. No song hews too closely to any of the others, but all are of a piece, locking comfortably into place like an intricate puzzle box, and Void Witch have such sights to show you.”
#1. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Inter Arma never miss. Aside from being one of the best live acts in metal, every album they’ve released going back to 2013’s Sky Burial has been one successful evolution after another. As a very wise reviewer once said, “They’re the same shaggy beast as ever, but beneath that matted, coarse coat is a rippling form mid-shape shift, stretching, pulling, and crossing back on itself constantly over the course of New Heaven’s shockingly concise 42 minutes…If being all over the musical map sounds like a negative, you’ve probably never heard an Inter Arma record before. It seems whatever they throw at the wall sticks, and the listening experience across their (usually much longer) records never feels uneven. This is because they play everything with the same smoldering intensity and volatile mean streak.” What a record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Convulsing // Perdurance – I like this quote from Dear Hollow‘s review, so I’ll let him do the talking: “…Convulsing explores every nook and twist of a rhythm and melody until its inevitable conclusion is happened upon in tragic and fatal fashion.”
- Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Pound for pound, Spectral Wound are probably the most consistent no-frills black metal band currently in operation. Songs of Blood and Mire is another rager that’s as melodic as it is acidic.
- Lord Buffalo // Holus Bolus – This record was one redundant instrumental away from landing higher on this list. Looking forward to where these gothic country rockers go next.
Songs o’ the Year:
In alphabetical order by band:
Show 5 footnotes
- Apparently it was only 2021 but my goodness that feels a lifetime ago. ↩
- Regrettably, I suspect this may be the perfect way to start a discussion. Sigh. ↩
- Can you tell I’m a parent? ↩
- How could anyone disagree? – AMG ↩
- Like a TARDIS. ↩
#2024 #40WattSun #ASwarmOfTheSun #Anciients #BlogPosts #BlueHeron #CarcharodonAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2024 #ChatPile #Convulsing #CryptSermon #DevenialVerdict #FullOfHell #GlareOfTheSun #GrandMagus #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kanonenfieber #Listurnalia #LordBuffalo #MotherOfGraves #Necrowretch #Nyktophobia #Opeth #Panzerfaust #PillarOfLight #Replicant #Selbst #Seth #Silhouette #SpectralVoice #SpectralWound #Sumac #TheVisionBleak #Thou #Ulcerate #VoidWitch #Vorga #ZealArdor