Search
1000 results for “Old_salt”
-
Spotlight on #MudSnakes: Study unveils evolutionary secrets of enigmatic #snake family from Southeastern Asia https://phys.org/news/2023-09-spotlight-mud-snakes-unveils-evolutionary.html
#Phylogenomics of Fresh and Formalin Specimens Resolves the #Systematics of Old World Mud #Snakes (#Serpentes: #Homalopsidae) and Expands Biogeographic Inference https://ssbbulletin.org/index.php/bssb/article/view/9393
"Species of #MudSnake can inhabit fresh, #brackish or saltwater coastal and inland areas, mostly sleeping by day and munching on #fish and #crustaceans by night."
-
Spotlight on #MudSnakes: Study unveils evolutionary secrets of enigmatic #snake family from Southeastern Asia https://phys.org/news/2023-09-spotlight-mud-snakes-unveils-evolutionary.html
#Phylogenomics of Fresh and Formalin Specimens Resolves the #Systematics of Old World Mud #Snakes (#Serpentes: #Homalopsidae) and Expands Biogeographic Inference https://ssbbulletin.org/index.php/bssb/article/view/9393
"Species of #MudSnake can inhabit fresh, #brackish or saltwater coastal and inland areas, mostly sleeping by day and munching on #fish and #crustaceans by night."
-
Spotlight on #MudSnakes: Study unveils evolutionary secrets of enigmatic #snake family from Southeastern Asia https://phys.org/news/2023-09-spotlight-mud-snakes-unveils-evolutionary.html
#Phylogenomics of Fresh and Formalin Specimens Resolves the #Systematics of Old World Mud #Snakes (#Serpentes: #Homalopsidae) and Expands Biogeographic Inference https://ssbbulletin.org/index.php/bssb/article/view/9393
"Species of #MudSnake can inhabit fresh, #brackish or saltwater coastal and inland areas, mostly sleeping by day and munching on #fish and #crustaceans by night."
-
Spotlight on #MudSnakes: Study unveils evolutionary secrets of enigmatic #snake family from Southeastern Asia https://phys.org/news/2023-09-spotlight-mud-snakes-unveils-evolutionary.html
#Phylogenomics of Fresh and Formalin Specimens Resolves the #Systematics of Old World Mud #Snakes (#Serpentes: #Homalopsidae) and Expands Biogeographic Inference https://ssbbulletin.org/index.php/bssb/article/view/9393
"Species of #MudSnake can inhabit fresh, #brackish or saltwater coastal and inland areas, mostly sleeping by day and munching on #fish and #crustaceans by night."
-
Confrontation between adult and juvenile saltwater #crocodile #AlphabetChallenge #WeekZforZoology Biggest risk to young crocs: old crocs. The juvenile is in the adult's territory, makes a submissive posture, baring its throat. ALT for more... #photography #wildlife #nature #Kakadu #EastCoastKin
-
LLANELLI: Forget the Scarlets — Llanelli has just been crowned the home of Wales’ second best Nando’s
Llanelli has long had reason to hold its head high — the Scarlets, the mural, the seaside. But now there’s a new entry on the town’s list of achievements: the second best Nando’s in Wales.
That’s according to a new study by BingoWebsites.org.uk, which crunched Tripadvisor review data for every Nando’s in Wales and ranked them by the percentage of customers who rated their visit as “excellent”.
Llanelli’s branch came in at 42.7% — with 85 of its 199 Tripadvisor reviews awarded the top score. Reviewers were full of praise, with mentions of “amazing service”, “vibrant ambience” and a “spotless restaurant”. Not bad for a peri-peri chicken chain on a retail park.
Only Newport got close — the Friars Walk branch topped the table with a 50% excellent rate from 112 reviews. After that, Llanelli is comfortably clear of the rest of the pack.
Swansea has two branches in the rankings, and neither can quite match their Carmarthenshire neighbours. The Morfa Retail Park branch came sixth with 38.1% — though that figure is based on just 21 reviews, making it one of the smallest samples in the table, so perhaps a pinch of peri-peri salt is needed there.
The City Gates branch tells a different story — with a much more substantial 250 reviews, it came ninth with 30%. A larger sample, but a noticeably lower satisfaction rate.
That makes Llanelli more than 12 percentage points clear of Swansea’s better-reviewed branch. A gap even the most diplomatic rugby fan would struggle to ignore.
Further down the table, Cardiff’s three branches — Mermaid Quay, Old Brewery Quarter and St David’s — all sit in the lower half, clustered around the 27-30% range. Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil brought up the rear, with Merthyr finishing bottom of all 14 Welsh branches with just 23.9% of its reviews rated excellent.
The study was carried out by analysing Tripadvisor reviews for all Nando’s locations listed on the chain’s website. Branches with no Tripadvisor page or zero reviews were excluded — which accounted for Cardiff Capital Retail Park.
Matt White from BingoWebsites.org.uk, who commissioned the research, said the 26-point gap between Newport and Merthyr showed how difficult it can be for national chains to deliver a consistent experience across every branch. “The results suggest that customer experience at Nando’s can vary significantly across Wales,” he said.
For what it’s worth, Waterloo in London topped the UK-wide rankings with a 94.3% excellent rate from 53 reviews. Nobody in Wales is troubling that particular leaderboard yet — but Llanelli, at least, is flying the flag.
And the chain itself clearly hasn’t given up on south Wales. Plans have been lodged to open a new Nando’s at Parc Fforestfach Retail Park in Swansea, taking over the current Card Factory unit and potentially creating 40 jobs — which would give Swansea a third branch and push the city further up any future rankings.
Of course, the ranking comes at a time when eating out is getting harder for everyone — restaurants and customers alike. Llanelli has felt that pressure as much as anywhere.
The Tinhouse taproom on Murray Street closed earlier this year after the owners cited mounting hospitality costs. Ali Raj and the Bryngwyn closed on the same day in a blow that left customers heartbroken. And the Sandpiper faced an outpouring of community anger when Whitbread announced it was among those earmarked for closure.
So while Llanelli’s Nando’s clearly has plenty of fans — the data says so — the wider message is simple enough. Use it or lose it.
Llanelli’s hospitality scene
Two much-loved Llanelli restaurants close on the same day
Ali Raj and the Bryngwyn both shut their doors simultaneously, leaving customers heartbroken.Much-loved Llanelli taproom The Tinhouse to close as hospitality pressures mount
The Murray Street taproom became the latest victim of the cost pressures hitting hospitality.‘A bombshell for all concerned’ — community rallies to save the Sandpiper
The campaign to save one of Llanelli’s best-known pubs after Whitbread earmarked it for closure.Four local restaurants face closure as Whitbread axes up to 3,800 jobs
#foodDrink #Llanelli #NandoS #restaurant
The national picture behind the local closures. -
Devondale butter, lovely but odd-sized
Hello,
I started buying your butter the other week as the usual brand that I buy was out of stock.
The flavour brought me back to sitting at my old nan’s kitchen bench in the afternoon, after school, watching her carve small lumps of butter, which she would then place strategically around the toast and then finally spread when it was soft and melty enough. Needless to say, it made for a delicious and comforting after school snack.
Sadly, I couldn’t remember the brand and was a absolutely delighted to discover that it must have been Devondale that she had put on her toast some 30 years ago, for the flavour matched!
I will continue to buy Devondale moving forward, HOWEVER, would it be possible for Devondale to consider changing the dimensions of the salted butter block back to more traditional dimensions? It just doesn’t fit in a standard butter dish very well and I’ve had to Dr Frankenstein it and it’s not pretty.
Sincerely,
J. Cuthbert
Related posts:
NoteMaker: Consistently GoodBuying shoes online – don’t do it to yourselfPlasticCadbury Roses Sadness -
Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
-
Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
-
Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
-
The Most Exquisite Tiny Books in the World
For all of the bookworms, here are some of the most exquisitely rendered miniature books in the world.
As a warm up, here’s a picture of the bombed-out Holland House library in London during WW2. The message was loud and clear. Readers won’t be perturbed from doing what they love, no matter what else is going on around them. There is something comforting in that.
Shiki no Kusabana (The Flower of Seasons)
This miniscule book has pages measuring a measly 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches), and writing that’s impossible to read with the naked eye.
The charming 22 page book has monochromatic illustrations of Japanese flowers and their descriptions. The printing company responsible for Shiki no Kusabana used similar technology as used by money printers to prevent forgery, with letters spaced an amazing 0.101 mm apart.
This book was created in recent years to compete against the current Guiness World Record holder for the world’s smallest book, but failed to cut the mustard. Still, it’s incredibly beautiful in its own right. Shiki no Kusabana is on display at the Toppan Printing Museum in Tokyo.
Here it is next to the eye of a needle…
The Chameleon by Anton Checkov
The claim for the smallest book in the world goes to the 30 page volume (in English) of the Russian novel The Chameleon by Anton Checkov. This was created by Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko in 1996 and measures a tiny 0.9 mm, or about the same size of a grain of salt. Astonishingly, this book also has three colour illustrations, but nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
The University of Iowa Library
This library has around 4,000 miniature books on the shelves.
For more mini book inspiration visit The Telegraph and Word Histories
My Very Own Tiny Book
This one comes from a country market in Cardigan, Wales. It’s leather-bound with gold leaf writing on the cover and entitled The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott, printed in Glasgow by David Brice and Sons, published in MCMV (1905).
It’s probably the oldest thing I own and one of the most treasured. Other treasured old things include, a 1940’s vintage red dress from Poland, which I wear all the time (it most certainly has a story), a pair of battered old leather boots, and books, lots more books.
Do you have any books that you treasure? do you have any tiny books?
Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi
#art #books #GuinessWorldRecord #History #inspiration #literature #storytelling #TheLadyOfTheLake #TinyBooks #Wales #WalterScott #words #writing -
Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research
The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. See my review of the first episode for more background. The second episode, titled Snow Beast of Ruby Creek, is about the team looking at Sanderson’s files about ABSM or the Abominable Snowmen in British Columbia.
ABSMery
It may be a jolt to viewers fairly new to the subject of cryptids to encounter the term ABSM, which this episode drops early and fails to explain adequate. Sanderson used the term ABSM as shorthand for abominable snowmen – his generic umbrella term for what we now might call “hairy hominins” referring to Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti (and variants), almas, relict hominids, etc. Sanderson wrote the 1961 book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. It’s a good book, fun to read, and an excellent history of the search for these creatures worldwide. I would recommend this books to anyone who watched this episode, particularly the cast, who show no sign that they even knew it existed. By consulting just this book, you can get a much-expanded version of the historical bits mentioned in this LMF episode.
Portions of the episode that reference Sanderson’s files include the Chapman incident in British Columbia (see more below) and “classified” documents in Russian regarding research into creatures in Asia. They treat the Russian research files as something new and surprising. All reasonably well-read cryptid researchers know that Russia has a long and continued history in seeking out the Yeti and other hominoid varieties. This is neither new nor shocking. But the show says nothing more about it, leaving the viewer more misinformed than when they started.
Source of the files – not “lost”
In the last post, I mentioned that I didn’t know anything about this collection of files by Sanderson stored in Michigan. I have since found out more thanks to input from others who knew about it. The files are held by Michael Swords who received them in 2011 via contacts from Sanderson’s society, SITU. From Swords’ blog:
“There is an internet legend that these archives have been severely depleted by sticky-fingered knowledge-thieves. Again, who knows what all MIGHT have happened in the past, but my eyeballs say that the VAST majority if not all of the famous SITU files [even dating back to Sanderson and the early years; i.e. Sanderson’s own file creation] ARE STILL EXTANT AND RIGHT HERE IN KALAMAZOO.“
They are not hidden or lost. Others have been able to access them on request as Swords welcomed as “keeper” of the collection. The comments to that announcement run for years and include a March 2024 comment by Swords noting, “We are engaged with a documentary team as I write.” This is undoubtedly the LMF team.
Swords is credited in the episodes. Swords picture of Sanderson’s binders. These are the same as what is shown in LMF.Search for the Canadian ABSM
When introducing Sanderson’s ideas, Charlie describes the ABSM characteristics: 9 feet tall, sharp teeth, white-haired. This is misleading in so many ways. This is the old fashioned idea of the Yeti, a term never used in the show. The Yeti is known from the Himalayas, not North America. The show chooses to use the clunky, outdated term ABSM throughout while clearly talking about a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in British Columbia. I expect this might be confusing to viewers by not mentioning the word Bigfoot but clearly describing it in its well-known locale. The idea of white-hair makes little sense either since even Yetis (and variants) usually were brown- black- or red-haired. Certainly, the ABSM of the Pacific Northwest is rarely described like this.
Has the cast learned cryptozoology from 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?The Chapman case from 1941 involves a close up sighting of a not-white-haired wild man creature experienced by a mother and several children at their homestead in Ruby Creek near the Fraser river. A 7.5 ft tall being came out of the forest, entered the house, and removed a barrel of salted fish as the family stayed outside. Sanderson visited the Chapmans and refers to the mystery creature in the 1961 book as a Sasquatch. The LMF crew do an extremely cursory review of the case. They speak to one modern witness, Dave Victor, who describes encountering a rock-throwing creature while fishing in the Fraser River. The viewers are asked to accept the witness story as described, as correct and accurate, and to extrapolate that the creature experienced by both the Chapmans and Victor is the same and is still in the area. Even though no one has collected solid evidence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch after over 100 years of active searching, this cast of a TV show is convinced they will be the ones to do it in a few days of camping. Sure.
Field work
The cast splits up with the two trackers, Troy and Justin, following a trail up Hope mountain from the Fraser River. They find tracks that they never show in detail or try to identify (seemingly because they are mundane), but never see any animals. They assume they are tracking a bear. The show pushes the idea that there may be a “grolar” hybrid bear here. A “grolar” or “pizzly” is a rare hybrid grizzly-polar bear. There is no logical reason to propose such a creature here and it’s done simply to make an unexciting episode more dramatic. These hybrids are very rare and are found farther north, closer to the Arctic polar bear range. It’s one of many ridiculous claims made in the show to jazz it up.
The rushed and non-believable climax of their adventure is during the night at the summit where it appears (it’s not clear) that logs are moved or thrown at them, and they experience “infrasound” blasted in their direction. None of this is verified or even decently described. I burst out laughing at the several “What the hell was that?!” exclamations. It’s just like watching Ghost Hunters! They never reveal that “THAT” is anything at all beyond their fear-stoked imagination.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Charlie have hauled a crap-ton of equipment of all sorts into the woods to try to find the creature they are “convinced” exists here. They use laser beams, infrared cameras, and a drone. Equipment display is the most common ploy to be scientifical. The beams and IR cameras do nothing useful here. The drone appears to spot a cave that they investigate but the dots are not connected. All the events feel contrived, even faked.
Brittany sits alone at night waiting for something to happen. She hears scratching and runs out to find a tree ripped up by a bear. We are made to think this just happened. The lasers and cameras saw nothing. This certainly looks like bear scratches, but that the scene feels manufactured to look surprising. Later, she’s in a hunting blind after stringing salmon up as bait. She hears a noise, rushes out and finds a disturbed patch she calls a footprint. They use the scanner to record it, and later make an effort to match a cast in Sanderson’s archive of a Yeti footprint (from Asia, but none of this is mentioned). This is another ridiculous claim. You see nothing but noisy data over which they have drawn toes.
Stinky fish attracted not one hungry critter.But wait, there is more. Brittany and Charlie investigate a rock cave where they find fish bones. They declare they are fresh (without any justification) and take samples that are sent for DNA testing. They also insist no bear could have done this (but ignore the possibility that a raccoon or other smaller could have). The DNA tests come up inconclusive. That means – you guessed it – it’s a mystery animal because it doesn’t match a known species! (That’s not how it works.)
Conclusion
The premise of this episode is absurd. We are asked to accept that a group of newcomers who helicopter into the woods looking for the abominable snowman will solve the mystery of a sighting from 1941.
Nothing of any interest is found in this episode. They can’t even find normal animals. However, in sifting through the dregs of data, they draw bullseyes and say “SEE! We are awesome.” Outrageously, they conclude that they have ruled out all known species and that this is a new species they were so close to documenting. They suggest they will leave game cameras out and revisit the place in 6 months.
Sanderson’s wheel of classification that the cast uses to exaggerate and misrepresent their poor bits of data and shoddy research.The quality of the show is not improving after the first episode and I can reasonably guess that it won’t. The writing is dumb, and the cast appear as ignorant and like phony performers to anyone who knows even a little bit of cryptid history.
I realize that I am not the audience for this show. I know too much and can’t shut off critical thinking while watching. Furthermore, I have set expectations too high. This is the incorrect way to consume any TV show, even those portrayed as nonfiction. Television is intended to be passive and entertaining, a distraction from real life. The viewer is not supposed to check facts. It doesn’t matter if the presenters are unqualified. It only matters that it is interesting to watch. The problem arises when the programming tacitly asserts that it depicts legitimate research, that the events are real and happened as shown, and that the “talent” are doing science so the results are solid. That’s what Discovery Channel programming does best – play up pretend research as new, credible knowledge. Thanks to a generally poor understanding of how reliable knowledge is formulated, the audience has been lulled into thinking that what one sees on TV (or on the news station, or said by a person with a platform) is true and should be accepted. Instead of being disposable entertainment, viewers will unfortunately retain the idea that investigations can be meaningfully done by actors doing sciencey things and hyping their baseless claims on a small screen. This is how we all get dumber.
#AbominableSnowmen #ABSM #Bigfoot #cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #grolarBear #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #paranormalTelevision #RubyCreek #Sasquatch #sciencey #Scientifical #Yeti
-
Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research
The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. See my review of the first episode for more background. The second episode, titled Snow Beast of Ruby Creek, is about the team looking at Sanderson’s files about ABSM or the Abominable Snowmen in British Columbia.
ABSMery
It may be a jolt to viewers fairly new to the subject of cryptids to encounter the term ABSM, which this episode drops early and fails to explain adequate. Sanderson used the term ABSM as shorthand for abominable snowmen – his generic umbrella term for what we now might call “hairy hominins” referring to Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti (and variants), almas, relict hominids, etc. Sanderson wrote the 1961 book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. It’s a good book, fun to read, and an excellent history of the search for these creatures worldwide. I would recommend this books to anyone who watched this episode, particularly the cast, who show no sign that they even knew it existed. By consulting just this book, you can get a much-expanded version of the historical bits mentioned in this LMF episode.
Portions of the episode that reference Sanderson’s files include the Chapman incident in British Columbia (see more below) and “classified” documents in Russian regarding research into creatures in Asia. They treat the Russian research files as something new and surprising. All reasonably well-read cryptid researchers know that Russia has a long and continued history in seeking out the Yeti and other hominoid varieties. This is neither new nor shocking. But the show says nothing more about it, leaving the viewer more misinformed than when they started.
Source of the files – not “lost”
In the last post, I mentioned that I didn’t know anything about this collection of files by Sanderson stored in Michigan. I have since found out more thanks to input from others who knew about it. The files are held by Michael Swords who received them in 2011 via contacts from Sanderson’s society, SITU. From Swords’ blog:
“There is an internet legend that these archives have been severely depleted by sticky-fingered knowledge-thieves. Again, who knows what all MIGHT have happened in the past, but my eyeballs say that the VAST majority if not all of the famous SITU files [even dating back to Sanderson and the early years; i.e. Sanderson’s own file creation] ARE STILL EXTANT AND RIGHT HERE IN KALAMAZOO.“
They are not hidden or lost. Others have been able to access them on request as Swords welcomed as “keeper” of the collection. The comments to that announcement run for years and include a March 2024 comment by Swords noting, “We are engaged with a documentary team as I write.” This is undoubtedly the LMF team.
Swords is credited in the episodes. Swords picture of Sanderson’s binders. These are the same as what is shown in LMF.Search for the Canadian ABSM
When introducing Sanderson’s ideas, Charlie describes the ABSM characteristics: 9 feet tall, sharp teeth, white-haired. This is misleading in so many ways. This is the old fashioned idea of the Yeti, a term never used in the show. The Yeti is known from the Himalayas, not North America. The show chooses to use the clunky, outdated term ABSM throughout while clearly talking about a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in British Columbia. I expect this might be confusing to viewers by not mentioning the word Bigfoot but clearly describing it in its well-known locale. The idea of white-hair makes little sense either since even Yetis (and variants) usually were brown- black- or red-haired. Certainly, the ABSM of the Pacific Northwest is rarely described like this.
Has the cast learned cryptozoology from 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?The Chapman case from 1941 involves a close up sighting of a not-white-haired wild man creature experienced by a mother and several children at their homestead in Ruby Creek near the Fraser river. A 7.5 ft tall being came out of the forest, entered the house, and removed a barrel of salted fish as the family stayed outside. Sanderson visited the Chapmans and refers to the mystery creature in the 1961 book as a Sasquatch. The LMF crew do an extremely cursory review of the case. They speak to one modern witness, Dave Victor, who describes encountering a rock-throwing creature while fishing in the Fraser River. The viewers are asked to accept the witness story as described, as correct and accurate, and to extrapolate that the creature experienced by both the Chapmans and Victor is the same and is still in the area. Even though no one has collected solid evidence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch after over 100 years of active searching, this cast of a TV show is convinced they will be the ones to do it in a few days of camping. Sure.
Field work
The cast splits up with the two trackers, Troy and Justin, following a trail up Hope mountain from the Fraser River. They find tracks that they never show in detail or try to identify (seemingly because they are mundane), but never see any animals. They assume they are tracking a bear. The show pushes the idea that there may be a “grolar” hybrid bear here. A “grolar” or “pizzly” is a rare hybrid grizzly-polar bear. There is no logical reason to propose such a creature here and it’s done simply to make an unexciting episode more dramatic. These hybrids are very rare and are found farther north, closer to the Arctic polar bear range. It’s one of many ridiculous claims made in the show to jazz it up.
The rushed and non-believable climax of their adventure is during the night at the summit where it appears (it’s not clear) that logs are moved or thrown at them, and they experience “infrasound” blasted in their direction. None of this is verified or even decently described. I burst out laughing at the several “What the hell was that?!” exclamations. It’s just like watching Ghost Hunters! They never reveal that “THAT” is anything at all beyond their fear-stoked imagination.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Charlie have hauled a crap-ton of equipment of all sorts into the woods to try to find the creature they are “convinced” exists here. They use laser beams, infrared cameras, and a drone. Equipment display is the most common ploy to be scientifical. The beams and IR cameras do nothing useful here. The drone appears to spot a cave that they investigate but the dots are not connected. All the events feel contrived, even faked.
Brittany sits alone at night waiting for something to happen. She hears scratching and runs out to find a tree ripped up by a bear. We are made to think this just happened. The lasers and cameras saw nothing. This certainly looks like bear scratches, but that the scene feels manufactured to look surprising. Later, she’s in a hunting blind after stringing salmon up as bait. She hears a noise, rushes out and finds a disturbed patch she calls a footprint. They use the scanner to record it, and later make an effort to match a cast in Sanderson’s archive of a Yeti footprint (from Asia, but none of this is mentioned). This is another ridiculous claim. You see nothing but noisy data over which they have drawn toes.
Stinky fish attracted not one hungry critter.But wait, there is more. Brittany and Charlie investigate a rock cave where they find fish bones. They declare they are fresh (without any justification) and take samples that are sent for DNA testing. They also insist no bear could have done this (but ignore the possibility that a raccoon or other smaller could have). The DNA tests come up inconclusive. That means – you guessed it – it’s a mystery animal because it doesn’t match a known species! (That’s not how it works.)
Conclusion
The premise of this episode is absurd. We are asked to accept that a group of newcomers who helicopter into the woods looking for the abominable snowman will solve the mystery of a sighting from 1941.
Nothing of any interest is found in this episode. They can’t even find normal animals. However, in sifting through the dregs of data, they draw bullseyes and say “SEE! We are awesome.” Outrageously, they conclude that they have ruled out all known species and that this is a new species they were so close to documenting. They suggest they will leave game cameras out and revisit the place in 6 months.
Sanderson’s wheel of classification that the cast uses to exaggerate and misrepresent their poor bits of data and shoddy research.The quality of the show is not improving after the first episode and I can reasonably guess that it won’t. The writing is dumb, and the cast appear as ignorant and like phony performers to anyone who knows even a little bit of cryptid history.
I realize that I am not the audience for this show. I know too much and can’t shut off critical thinking while watching. Furthermore, I have set expectations too high. This is the incorrect way to consume any TV show, even those portrayed as nonfiction. Television is intended to be passive and entertaining, a distraction from real life. The viewer is not supposed to check facts. It doesn’t matter if the presenters are unqualified. It only matters that it is interesting to watch. The problem arises when the programming tacitly asserts that it depicts legitimate research, that the events are real and happened as shown, and that the “talent” are doing science so the results are solid. That’s what Discovery Channel programming does best – play up pretend research as new, credible knowledge. Thanks to a generally poor understanding of how reliable knowledge is formulated, the audience has been lulled into thinking that what one sees on TV (or on the news station, or said by a person with a platform) is true and should be accepted. Instead of being disposable entertainment, viewers will unfortunately retain the idea that investigations can be meaningfully done by actors doing sciencey things and hyping their baseless claims on a small screen. This is how we all get dumber.
#AbominableSnowmen #ABSM #Bigfoot #cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #grolarBear #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #paranormalTelevision #RubyCreek #Sasquatch #sciencey #Scientifical #Yeti
-
Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research
The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. See my review of the first episode for more background. The second episode, titled Snow Beast of Ruby Creek, is about the team looking at Sanderson’s files about ABSM or the Abominable Snowmen in British Columbia.
ABSMery
It may be a jolt to viewers fairly new to the subject of cryptids to encounter the term ABSM, which this episode drops early and fails to explain adequate. Sanderson used the term ABSM as shorthand for abominable snowmen – his generic umbrella term for what we now might call “hairy hominins” referring to Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti (and variants), almas, relict hominids, etc. Sanderson wrote the 1961 book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. It’s a good book, fun to read, and an excellent history of the search for these creatures worldwide. I would recommend this books to anyone who watched this episode, particularly the cast, who show no sign that they even knew it existed. By consulting just this book, you can get a much-expanded version of the historical bits mentioned in this LMF episode.
Portions of the episode that reference Sanderson’s files include the Chapman incident in British Columbia (see more below) and “classified” documents in Russian regarding research into creatures in Asia. They treat the Russian research files as something new and surprising. All reasonably well-read cryptid researchers know that Russia has a long and continued history in seeking out the Yeti and other hominoid varieties. This is neither new nor shocking. But the show says nothing more about it, leaving the viewer more misinformed than when they started.
Source of the files – not “lost”
In the last post, I mentioned that I didn’t know anything about this collection of files by Sanderson stored in Michigan. I have since found out more thanks to input from others who knew about it. The files are held by Michael Swords who received them in 2011 via contacts from Sanderson’s society, SITU. From Swords’ blog:
“There is an internet legend that these archives have been severely depleted by sticky-fingered knowledge-thieves. Again, who knows what all MIGHT have happened in the past, but my eyeballs say that the VAST majority if not all of the famous SITU files [even dating back to Sanderson and the early years; i.e. Sanderson’s own file creation] ARE STILL EXTANT AND RIGHT HERE IN KALAMAZOO.“
They are not hidden or lost. Others have been able to access them on request as Swords welcomed as “keeper” of the collection. The comments to that announcement run for years and include a March 2024 comment by Swords noting, “We are engaged with a documentary team as I write.” This is undoubtedly the LMF team.
Swords is credited in the episodes. Swords picture of Sanderson’s binders. These are the same as what is shown in LMF.Search for the Canadian ABSM
When introducing Sanderson’s ideas, Charlie describes the ABSM characteristics: 9 feet tall, sharp teeth, white-haired. This is misleading in so many ways. This is the old fashioned idea of the Yeti, a term never used in the show. The Yeti is known from the Himalayas, not North America. The show chooses to use the clunky, outdated term ABSM throughout while clearly talking about a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in British Columbia. I expect this might be confusing to viewers by not mentioning the word Bigfoot but clearly describing it in its well-known locale. The idea of white-hair makes little sense either since even Yetis (and variants) usually were brown- black- or red-haired. Certainly, the ABSM of the Pacific Northwest is rarely described like this.
Has the cast learned cryptozoology from 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?The Chapman case from 1941 involves a close up sighting of a not-white-haired wild man creature experienced by a mother and several children at their homestead in Ruby Creek near the Fraser river. A 7.5 ft tall being came out of the forest, entered the house, and removed a barrel of salted fish as the family stayed outside. Sanderson visited the Chapmans and refers to the mystery creature in the 1961 book as a Sasquatch. The LMF crew do an extremely cursory review of the case. They speak to one modern witness, Dave Victor, who describes encountering a rock-throwing creature while fishing in the Fraser River. The viewers are asked to accept the witness story as described, as correct and accurate, and to extrapolate that the creature experienced by both the Chapmans and Victor is the same and is still in the area. Even though no one has collected solid evidence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch after over 100 years of active searching, this cast of a TV show is convinced they will be the ones to do it in a few days of camping. Sure.
Field work
The cast splits up with the two trackers, Troy and Justin, following a trail up Hope mountain from the Fraser River. They find tracks that they never show in detail or try to identify (seemingly because they are mundane), but never see any animals. They assume they are tracking a bear. The show pushes the idea that there may be a “grolar” hybrid bear here. A “grolar” or “pizzly” is a rare hybrid grizzly-polar bear. There is no logical reason to propose such a creature here and it’s done simply to make an unexciting episode more dramatic. These hybrids are very rare and are found farther north, closer to the Arctic polar bear range. It’s one of many ridiculous claims made in the show to jazz it up.
The rushed and non-believable climax of their adventure is during the night at the summit where it appears (it’s not clear) that logs are moved or thrown at them, and they experience “infrasound” blasted in their direction. None of this is verified or even decently described. I burst out laughing at the several “What the hell was that?!” exclamations. It’s just like watching Ghost Hunters! They never reveal that “THAT” is anything at all beyond their fear-stoked imagination.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Charlie have hauled a crap-ton of equipment of all sorts into the woods to try to find the creature they are “convinced” exists here. They use laser beams, infrared cameras, and a drone. Equipment display is the most common ploy to be scientifical. The beams and IR cameras do nothing useful here. The drone appears to spot a cave that they investigate but the dots are not connected. All the events feel contrived, even faked.
Brittany sits alone at night waiting for something to happen. She hears scratching and runs out to find a tree ripped up by a bear. We are made to think this just happened. The lasers and cameras saw nothing. This certainly looks like bear scratches, but that the scene feels manufactured to look surprising. Later, she’s in a hunting blind after stringing salmon up as bait. She hears a noise, rushes out and finds a disturbed patch she calls a footprint. They use the scanner to record it, and later make an effort to match a cast in Sanderson’s archive of a Yeti footprint (from Asia, but none of this is mentioned). This is another ridiculous claim. You see nothing but noisy data over which they have drawn toes.
Stinky fish attracted not one hungry critter.But wait, there is more. Brittany and Charlie investigate a rock cave where they find fish bones. They declare they are fresh (without any justification) and take samples that are sent for DNA testing. They also insist no bear could have done this (but ignore the possibility that a raccoon or other smaller could have). The DNA tests come up inconclusive. That means – you guessed it – it’s a mystery animal because it doesn’t match a known species! (That’s not how it works.)
Conclusion
The premise of this episode is absurd. We are asked to accept that a group of newcomers who helicopter into the woods looking for the abominable snowman will solve the mystery of a sighting from 1941.
Nothing of any interest is found in this episode. They can’t even find normal animals. However, in sifting through the dregs of data, they draw bullseyes and say “SEE! We are awesome.” Outrageously, they conclude that they have ruled out all known species and that this is a new species they were so close to documenting. They suggest they will leave game cameras out and revisit the place in 6 months.
Sanderson’s wheel of classification that the cast uses to exaggerate and misrepresent their poor bits of data and shoddy research.The quality of the show is not improving after the first episode and I can reasonably guess that it won’t. The writing is dumb, and the cast appear as ignorant and like phony performers to anyone who knows even a little bit of cryptid history.
I realize that I am not the audience for this show. I know too much and can’t shut off critical thinking while watching. Furthermore, I have set expectations too high. This is the incorrect way to consume any TV show, even those portrayed as nonfiction. Television is intended to be passive and entertaining, a distraction from real life. The viewer is not supposed to check facts. It doesn’t matter if the presenters are unqualified. It only matters that it is interesting to watch. The problem arises when the programming tacitly asserts that it depicts legitimate research, that the events are real and happened as shown, and that the “talent” are doing science so the results are solid. That’s what Discovery Channel programming does best – play up pretend research as new, credible knowledge. Thanks to a generally poor understanding of how reliable knowledge is formulated, the audience has been lulled into thinking that what one sees on TV (or on the news station, or said by a person with a platform) is true and should be accepted. Instead of being disposable entertainment, viewers will unfortunately retain the idea that investigations can be meaningfully done by actors doing sciencey things and hyping their baseless claims on a small screen. This is how we all get dumber.
#AbominableSnowmen #ABSM #Bigfoot #cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #grolarBear #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #paranormalTelevision #RubyCreek #Sasquatch #sciencey #Scientifical #Yeti
-
Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research
The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. See my review of the first episode for more background. The second episode, titled Snow Beast of Ruby Creek, is about the team looking at Sanderson’s files about ABSM or the Abominable Snowmen in British Columbia.
ABSMery
It may be a jolt to viewers fairly new to the subject of cryptids to encounter the term ABSM, which this episode drops early and fails to explain adequate. Sanderson used the term ABSM as shorthand for abominable snowmen – his generic umbrella term for what we now might call “hairy hominins” referring to Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti (and variants), almas, relict hominids, etc. Sanderson wrote the 1961 book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. It’s a good book, fun to read, and an excellent history of the search for these creatures worldwide. I would recommend this books to anyone who watched this episode, particularly the cast, who show no sign that they even knew it existed. By consulting just this book, you can get a much-expanded version of the historical bits mentioned in this LMF episode.
Portions of the episode that reference Sanderson’s files include the Chapman incident in British Columbia (see more below) and “classified” documents in Russian regarding research into creatures in Asia. They treat the Russian research files as something new and surprising. All reasonably well-read cryptid researchers know that Russia has a long and continued history in seeking out the Yeti and other hominoid varieties. This is neither new nor shocking. But the show says nothing more about it, leaving the viewer more misinformed than when they started.
Source of the files – not “lost”
In the last post, I mentioned that I didn’t know anything about this collection of files by Sanderson stored in Michigan. I have since found out more thanks to input from others who knew about it. The files are held by Michael Swords who received them in 2011 via contacts from Sanderson’s society, SITU. From Swords’ blog:
“There is an internet legend that these archives have been severely depleted by sticky-fingered knowledge-thieves. Again, who knows what all MIGHT have happened in the past, but my eyeballs say that the VAST majority if not all of the famous SITU files [even dating back to Sanderson and the early years; i.e. Sanderson’s own file creation] ARE STILL EXTANT AND RIGHT HERE IN KALAMAZOO.“
They are not hidden or lost. Others have been able to access them on request as Swords welcomed as “keeper” of the collection. The comments to that announcement run for years and include a March 2024 comment by Swords noting, “We are engaged with a documentary team as I write.” This is undoubtedly the LMF team.
Swords is credited in the episodes. Swords picture of Sanderson’s binders. These are the same as what is shown in LMF.Search for the Canadian ABSM
When introducing Sanderson’s ideas, Charlie describes the ABSM characteristics: 9 feet tall, sharp teeth, white-haired. This is misleading in so many ways. This is the old fashioned idea of the Yeti, a term never used in the show. The Yeti is known from the Himalayas, not North America. The show chooses to use the clunky, outdated term ABSM throughout while clearly talking about a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in British Columbia. I expect this might be confusing to viewers by not mentioning the word Bigfoot but clearly describing it in its well-known locale. The idea of white-hair makes little sense either since even Yetis (and variants) usually were brown- black- or red-haired. Certainly, the ABSM of the Pacific Northwest is rarely described like this.
Has the cast learned cryptozoology from 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?The Chapman case from 1941 involves a close up sighting of a not-white-haired wild man creature experienced by a mother and several children at their homestead in Ruby Creek near the Fraser river. A 7.5 ft tall being came out of the forest, entered the house, and removed a barrel of salted fish as the family stayed outside. Sanderson visited the Chapmans and refers to the mystery creature in the 1961 book as a Sasquatch. The LMF crew do an extremely cursory review of the case. They speak to one modern witness, Dave Victor, who describes encountering a rock-throwing creature while fishing in the Fraser River. The viewers are asked to accept the witness story as described, as correct and accurate, and to extrapolate that the creature experienced by both the Chapmans and Victor is the same and is still in the area. Even though no one has collected solid evidence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch after over 100 years of active searching, this cast of a TV show is convinced they will be the ones to do it in a few days of camping. Sure.
Field work
The cast splits up with the two trackers, Troy and Justin, following a trail up Hope mountain from the Fraser River. They find tracks that they never show in detail or try to identify (seemingly because they are mundane), but never see any animals. They assume they are tracking a bear. The show pushes the idea that there may be a “grolar” hybrid bear here. A “grolar” or “pizzly” is a rare hybrid grizzly-polar bear. There is no logical reason to propose such a creature here and it’s done simply to make an unexciting episode more dramatic. These hybrids are very rare and are found farther north, closer to the Arctic polar bear range. It’s one of many ridiculous claims made in the show to jazz it up.
The rushed and non-believable climax of their adventure is during the night at the summit where it appears (it’s not clear) that logs are moved or thrown at them, and they experience “infrasound” blasted in their direction. None of this is verified or even decently described. I burst out laughing at the several “What the hell was that?!” exclamations. It’s just like watching Ghost Hunters! They never reveal that “THAT” is anything at all beyond their fear-stoked imagination.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Charlie have hauled a crap-ton of equipment of all sorts into the woods to try to find the creature they are “convinced” exists here. They use laser beams, infrared cameras, and a drone. Equipment display is the most common ploy to be scientifical. The beams and IR cameras do nothing useful here. The drone appears to spot a cave that they investigate but the dots are not connected. All the events feel contrived, even faked.
Brittany sits alone at night waiting for something to happen. She hears scratching and runs out to find a tree ripped up by a bear. We are made to think this just happened. The lasers and cameras saw nothing. This certainly looks like bear scratches, but that the scene feels manufactured to look surprising. Later, she’s in a hunting blind after stringing salmon up as bait. She hears a noise, rushes out and finds a disturbed patch she calls a footprint. They use the scanner to record it, and later make an effort to match a cast in Sanderson’s archive of a Yeti footprint (from Asia, but none of this is mentioned). This is another ridiculous claim. You see nothing but noisy data over which they have drawn toes.
Stinky fish attracted not one hungry critter.But wait, there is more. Brittany and Charlie investigate a rock cave where they find fish bones. They declare they are fresh (without any justification) and take samples that are sent for DNA testing. They also insist no bear could have done this (but ignore the possibility that a raccoon or other smaller could have). The DNA tests come up inconclusive. That means – you guessed it – it’s a mystery animal because it doesn’t match a known species! (That’s not how it works.)
Conclusion
The premise of this episode is absurd. We are asked to accept that a group of newcomers who helicopter into the woods looking for the abominable snowman will solve the mystery of a sighting from 1941.
Nothing of any interest is found in this episode. They can’t even find normal animals. However, in sifting through the dregs of data, they draw bullseyes and say “SEE! We are awesome.” Outrageously, they conclude that they have ruled out all known species and that this is a new species they were so close to documenting. They suggest they will leave game cameras out and revisit the place in 6 months.
Sanderson’s wheel of classification that the cast uses to exaggerate and misrepresent their poor bits of data and shoddy research.The quality of the show is not improving after the first episode and I can reasonably guess that it won’t. The writing is dumb, and the cast appear as ignorant and like phony performers to anyone who knows even a little bit of cryptid history.
I realize that I am not the audience for this show. I know too much and can’t shut off critical thinking while watching. Furthermore, I have set expectations too high. This is the incorrect way to consume any TV show, even those portrayed as nonfiction. Television is intended to be passive and entertaining, a distraction from real life. The viewer is not supposed to check facts. It doesn’t matter if the presenters are unqualified. It only matters that it is interesting to watch. The problem arises when the programming tacitly asserts that it depicts legitimate research, that the events are real and happened as shown, and that the “talent” are doing science so the results are solid. That’s what Discovery Channel programming does best – play up pretend research as new, credible knowledge. Thanks to a generally poor understanding of how reliable knowledge is formulated, the audience has been lulled into thinking that what one sees on TV (or on the news station, or said by a person with a platform) is true and should be accepted. Instead of being disposable entertainment, viewers will unfortunately retain the idea that investigations can be meaningfully done by actors doing sciencey things and hyping their baseless claims on a small screen. This is how we all get dumber.
#AbominableSnowmen #ABSM #Bigfoot #cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #grolarBear #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #paranormalTelevision #RubyCreek #Sasquatch #sciencey #Scientifical #Yeti
-
The Most Exquisite Tiny Books in the World
For all of the bookworms, here are some of the most exquisitely rendered miniature books in the world.
As a warm up, here’s a picture of the bombed-out Holland House library in London during WW2. The message was loud and clear. Readers won’t be perturbed from doing what they love, no matter what else is going on around them. There is something comforting in that.
Shiki no Kusabana (The Flower of Seasons)
This miniscule book has pages measuring a measly 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches), and writing that’s impossible to read with the naked eye.
The charming 22 page book has monochromatic illustrations of Japanese flowers and their descriptions. The printing company responsible for Shiki no Kusabana used similar technology as used by money printers to prevent forgery, with letters spaced an amazing 0.101 mm apart.
This book was created in recent years to compete against the current Guiness World Record holder for the world’s smallest book, but failed to cut the mustard. Still, it’s incredibly beautiful in its own right. Shiki no Kusabana is on display at the Toppan Printing Museum in Tokyo.
Here it is next to the eye of a needle…
The Chameleon by Anton Checkov
The claim for the smallest book in the world goes to the 30 page volume (in English) of the Russian novel The Chameleon by Anton Checkov. This was created by Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko in 1996 and measures a tiny 0.9 mm, or about the same size of a grain of salt. Astonishingly, this book also has three colour illustrations, but nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
The University of Iowa Library
This library has around 4,000 miniature books on the shelves.
For more mini book inspiration visit The Telegraph and Word Histories
My Very Own Tiny Book
This one comes from a country market in Cardigan, Wales. It’s leather-bound with gold leaf writing on the cover and entitled The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott, printed in Glasgow by David Brice and Sons, published in MCMV (1905).
It’s probably the oldest thing I own and one of the most treasured. Other treasured old things include, a 1940’s vintage red dress from Poland, which I wear all the time (it most certainly has a story), a pair of battered old leather boots, and books, lots more books.
Do you have any books that you treasure? do you have any tiny books?
Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi
#art #books #GuinessWorldRecord #History #inspiration #literature #storytelling #TheLadyOfTheLake #TinyBooks #Wales #WalterScott #words #writing -
The Most Exquisite Tiny Books in the World
For all of the bookworms, here are some of the most exquisitely rendered miniature books in the world.
As a warm up, here’s a picture of the bombed-out Holland House library in London during WW2. The message was loud and clear. Readers won’t be perturbed from doing what they love, no matter what else is going on around them. There is something comforting in that.
Shiki no Kusabana (The Flower of Seasons)
This miniscule book has pages measuring a measly 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches), and writing that’s impossible to read with the naked eye.
The charming 22 page book has monochromatic illustrations of Japanese flowers and their descriptions. The printing company responsible for Shiki no Kusabana used similar technology as used by money printers to prevent forgery, with letters spaced an amazing 0.101 mm apart.
This book was created in recent years to compete against the current Guiness World Record holder for the world’s smallest book, but failed to cut the mustard. Still, it’s incredibly beautiful in its own right. Shiki no Kusabana is on display at the Toppan Printing Museum in Tokyo.
Here it is next to the eye of a needle…
The Chameleon by Anton Checkov
The claim for the smallest book in the world goes to the 30 page volume (in English) of the Russian novel The Chameleon by Anton Checkov. This was created by Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko in 1996 and measures a tiny 0.9 mm, or about the same size of a grain of salt. Astonishingly, this book also has three colour illustrations, but nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
The University of Iowa Library
This library has around 4,000 miniature books on the shelves.
For more mini book inspiration visit The Telegraph and Word Histories
My Very Own Tiny Book
This one comes from a country market in Cardigan, Wales. It’s leather-bound with gold leaf writing on the cover and entitled The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott, printed in Glasgow by David Brice and Sons, published in MCMV (1905).
It’s probably the oldest thing I own and one of the most treasured. Other treasured old things include, a 1940’s vintage red dress from Poland, which I wear all the time (it most certainly has a story), a pair of battered old leather boots, and books, lots more books.
Do you have any books that you treasure? do you have any tiny books?
Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi
#art #books #GuinessWorldRecord #History #inspiration #literature #storytelling #TheLadyOfTheLake #TinyBooks #Wales #WalterScott #words #writing -
The Most Exquisite Tiny Books in the World
For all of the bookworms, here are some of the most exquisitely rendered miniature books in the world.
As a warm up, here’s a picture of the bombed-out Holland House library in London during WW2. The message was loud and clear. Readers won’t be perturbed from doing what they love, no matter what else is going on around them. There is something comforting in that.
Shiki no Kusabana (The Flower of Seasons)
This miniscule book has pages measuring a measly 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches), and writing that’s impossible to read with the naked eye.
The charming 22 page book has monochromatic illustrations of Japanese flowers and their descriptions. The printing company responsible for Shiki no Kusabana used similar technology as used by money printers to prevent forgery, with letters spaced an amazing 0.101 mm apart.
This book was created in recent years to compete against the current Guiness World Record holder for the world’s smallest book, but failed to cut the mustard. Still, it’s incredibly beautiful in its own right. Shiki no Kusabana is on display at the Toppan Printing Museum in Tokyo.
Here it is next to the eye of a needle…
The Chameleon by Anton Checkov
The claim for the smallest book in the world goes to the 30 page volume (in English) of the Russian novel The Chameleon by Anton Checkov. This was created by Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko in 1996 and measures a tiny 0.9 mm, or about the same size of a grain of salt. Astonishingly, this book also has three colour illustrations, but nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
The University of Iowa Library
This library has around 4,000 miniature books on the shelves.
For more mini book inspiration visit The Telegraph and Word Histories
My Very Own Tiny Book
This one comes from a country market in Cardigan, Wales. It’s leather-bound with gold leaf writing on the cover and entitled The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott, printed in Glasgow by David Brice and Sons, published in MCMV (1905).
It’s probably the oldest thing I own and one of the most treasured. Other treasured old things include, a 1940’s vintage red dress from Poland, which I wear all the time (it most certainly has a story), a pair of battered old leather boots, and books, lots more books.
Do you have any books that you treasure? do you have any tiny books?
Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi
#art #books #GuinessWorldRecord #History #inspiration #literature #storytelling #TheLadyOfTheLake #TinyBooks #Wales #WalterScott #words #writing -
The Most Exquisite Tiny Books in the World
For all of the bookworms, here are some of the most exquisitely rendered miniature books in the world.
As a warm up, here’s a picture of the bombed-out Holland House library in London during WW2. The message was loud and clear. Readers won’t be perturbed from doing what they love, no matter what else is going on around them. There is something comforting in that.
Shiki no Kusabana (The Flower of Seasons)
This miniscule book has pages measuring a measly 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches), and writing that’s impossible to read with the naked eye.
The charming 22 page book has monochromatic illustrations of Japanese flowers and their descriptions. The printing company responsible for Shiki no Kusabana used similar technology as used by money printers to prevent forgery, with letters spaced an amazing 0.101 mm apart.
This book was created in recent years to compete against the current Guiness World Record holder for the world’s smallest book, but failed to cut the mustard. Still, it’s incredibly beautiful in its own right. Shiki no Kusabana is on display at the Toppan Printing Museum in Tokyo.
Here it is next to the eye of a needle…
The Chameleon by Anton Checkov
The claim for the smallest book in the world goes to the 30 page volume (in English) of the Russian novel The Chameleon by Anton Checkov. This was created by Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko in 1996 and measures a tiny 0.9 mm, or about the same size of a grain of salt. Astonishingly, this book also has three colour illustrations, but nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
The University of Iowa Library
This library has around 4,000 miniature books on the shelves.
For more mini book inspiration visit The Telegraph and Word Histories
My Very Own Tiny Book
This one comes from a country market in Cardigan, Wales. It’s leather-bound with gold leaf writing on the cover and entitled The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott, printed in Glasgow by David Brice and Sons, published in MCMV (1905).
It’s probably the oldest thing I own and one of the most treasured. Other treasured old things include, a 1940’s vintage red dress from Poland, which I wear all the time (it most certainly has a story), a pair of battered old leather boots, and books, lots more books.
Do you have any books that you treasure? do you have any tiny books?
Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi
#art #books #GuinessWorldRecord #History #inspiration #literature #storytelling #TheLadyOfTheLake #TinyBooks #Wales #WalterScott #words #writing -
#GuinessWorldRecord #GWR
#WorldsLargestPlayingCardStructure
#Cardchitecture
#ArnavDaga #Kolkata
15 years old
Spent 41 days
Used 1,43,000 playing cards and no tape or glue
Created 4 iconic buildings from his home city
#WritersBuilding #ShaheedMinar #SaltLakeStadium #StPaulsCathedral
His finished project measured 40 feet in length, 11 feet 4 inches in height and 16 feet 8 inches in width. -
#GuinessWorldRecord #GWR
#WorldsLargestPlayingCardStructure
#Cardchitecture
#ArnavDaga #Kolkata
15 years old
Spent 41 days
Used 1,43,000 playing cards and no tape or glue
Created 4 iconic buildings from his home city
#WritersBuilding #ShaheedMinar #SaltLakeStadium #StPaulsCathedral
His finished project measured 40 feet in length, 11 feet 4 inches in height and 16 feet 8 inches in width. -
i was kinda salty about not being able to post pics at first but now i'm kinda digging the idiom. i feel like i'm back on IRC. flexing old muscles. is that why my back hurts?
-
Uzbekistan plants a #forest where a sea once lay https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/
"The #Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust... both countries are working with locals to plant a new forest of drought-resistant #plants (#saxaul, #saltwort, #ephedra, #tamarisk) in the dried-out lakebed... a single saxaul shrub that’s 7 to 10 years old can stop 2-4 metric tons of moving sand"
-
Uzbekistan plants a #forest where a sea once lay https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/
"The #Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust... both countries are working with locals to plant a new forest of drought-resistant #plants (#saxaul, #saltwort, #ephedra, #tamarisk) in the dried-out lakebed... a single saxaul shrub that’s 7 to 10 years old can stop 2-4 metric tons of moving sand"
-
Uzbekistan plants a #forest where a sea once lay https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/
"The #Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust... both countries are working with locals to plant a new forest of drought-resistant #plants (#saxaul, #saltwort, #ephedra, #tamarisk) in the dried-out lakebed... a single saxaul shrub that’s 7 to 10 years old can stop 2-4 metric tons of moving sand"
-
Uzbekistan plants a #forest where a sea once lay https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/
"The #Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust... both countries are working with locals to plant a new forest of drought-resistant #plants (#saxaul, #saltwort, #ephedra, #tamarisk) in the dried-out lakebed... a single saxaul shrub that’s 7 to 10 years old can stop 2-4 metric tons of moving sand"
-
Forgot to upload the #bilingual post op care info sheet from Wednesday's final #dental extractions.
I was given slightly different verbal instructions from my dentist before leaving the office. Had to do 1 gentle saltwater swishy rinse, immediately after coming home - just to stop the excessive bleeding. It didn't affect my gums forming good bloodclots, which is an essential part of healing up.
My #dentist is #Chinese. The office is a team of 3 brothers. They're all getting old now. My dentist & his older brother will be retiring in 2-3 years. The youngest dentist brother will also retire shortly after & office will be closed after several decades, at same location.
All info sheets they give to their patients have #ChineseTranslations, with the English instructions. This is because many of their older & also some newer to Canada #ChinesePatients are illiterate in English.
#AsianMastodon #ChineseDiaspora #AsianDiaspora #PostOperativeCare #MyFirstDenturesJourney #YYJDentists #ChineseCanadianDentists #MultilingualDentists
-
Lodging to Affordable Living 🏡: Motel Conversions in the Four Corners Region
The following working list identifies those motels and hotels that have been converted into dwellings for the unhoused, those with special needs, and/or to provide affordable housing options in cities across the Four Corners Region of the southwestern United States (the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). These housing options may include, but not be limited to:
- Income-based housing;
- Section 8 housing;
- Housing for those with special needs
- Housing for needy seniors;
- Housing for young adults and/or women;
- Housing for those returning to society from recovery programs or incarceration;
- Inexpensive housing/studios for artists;
- Veterans housing; as well as
- Transitional/interim housing for unhoused individuals or families.
Motel conversions provide another tool for municipalities for combating homelessness, gentrification, and rising housing costs. It also helps revitalize and reinvigorate older highway commercial districts such as Historic U.S. 66 in New Mexico and Arizona or Old U.S. 40 in Colorado. In some cases, such a conversion from lodging to affordable living quarters may require amendments to local zoning codes to allow such housing options in commercial zoning districts.
Peace!
——-
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Adobe Manor Motel to Adobe Manor (2023) = 16 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: SureStay by Best Western (1999) to Los Altos Lofts (2024) = 90 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Luna Lodge (1949) to Luna Lodge Apartments (2013) = 14 units + 16 new units
Luna Lodge Apartments in Albuquerque, NM – Source:route66news.comAlbuquerque, New Mexico: Sundowner Motel (1960) to Sundowner Apartments (2014) = 71 units
Colorado Springs, Colorado: 4U Court/Motel (1955) to The Studios (2024) = 12 units
The Studios in Colorado Springs, CO – Source: springsrescuemission.orgDenver, Colorado: Quality Inn & Suites to Fusion Studios (2020) = 139 units
Denver Colorado: Best Western Hotel to New Directions = ?
Denver, Colorado: 7 Star Motel to Night Windows (2020) = 25 units
Denver, Colorado: Best Western to Stone Creek (2023) = 194 units
Denver, Colorado: DoubleTree Hotel to The Aspen (2023) = 289 units
Denver, Colorado: La Quinta Inn to Park Avenue Inn = 103 units
Denver, Colorado: Clarion Hotel (mid-late 1980s) to Renewal Village (2024) = 215 units
Denver, Colorado: Embassy Suites (1985) to Tamarac Family Shelter (2023) = 205 units
Durango, Colorado: Best Western to The Residences (2025) = 72 units + 48 new units
Flagstaff, Arizona: Crown Motel (1966)/Howard Johnson’s (1991) to The Crown (2022) = 58 units
Source: flagshelter.orgFlagstaff, Arizona: Motel 6 (1962) to The Lantern (2025) = 103 units
Kingman, Arizona: Pony Soldier (1963)/Route 66 Motel to Joshua Tree Apartments (2025) = 20 units
Joshua Tree in Kingman, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPage, Arizona: Antelope Canyon Motel (1960s) to Pinyon Pointe Apartments (2024) = 20 units
Pinyon Pointe in Page, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPhoenix, Arizona: Days Inn (?) to 2900 E. Van Buren (2025) = 50 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Super 8 Motel (?) to not yet named (2026) = 126 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix Inn (1983) to The Haven (2025) = 130 units
Phoenix (Mesa): Arizona: Grand Hotel (1973) to Sunaire (2026) = 70 units
Phoenix (Mesa), Arizona: Windermere Motel (1950s) partially converted for the Off the Streets Program (2023) = 85 units, but will be moving to the Sunaire site.
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Howard Johnsons (1970)/Motel 6 (1994) to not yet named (under development) = 60 units
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Rodeway Inn to Sue’s Espacio = 40 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: Airport Inn (?) to The Point = 100 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: ? to The Point Fairpark = 94 units
Salt Lake City (Sandy), Utah: EconoLodge to Medically Vulnerable People (MVP) Shelter (2024) ~ 97 units
Salt Lake City (South Salt Lake), Utah: Motel 6 to FINCH – Families In Need Congregate Housing (2025) = 85 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Lamplighter Inn (1962) to Lamplighter Apartments (in progress) = 58 units
Lamplighter Apartments in Santa Fe, NM – Source: s3santafe.orgSanta Fe, New Mexico: Santa Fe Suites (1999) to Santa Fe Suites Apartments (2022) = 120 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Stage Coach Motor Inn (1940s) to Stage Coach Apartments (2013) = 66 units + 44 new units
Tucson, Arizona: Amazon Motel (1950s) to Amazon Flats (2025) = 30 units + 59 new units under development
Tucson, Arizona: De Anza Motel (1940) to Milagro on Oracle (2025) = 63 units
SOURCES:
- https://www.hcn.org/articles/in-albuquerque-developers-are-turning-old-motels-into-affordable-housing/
- http://www.google.com
- gemini.google.ai
- https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/city-now-renting-all-apartments-in-first-motel-conversion-project/
- https://citydesk.org/2024/02/14/city-owned-los-altos-lofts-marks-a-housing-first/
- https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2022-12-12/abq-proposes-turning-more-old-hotels-into-affordable-housing
- https://savingplaces.org/stories/a-motel-gets-a-noble-second-life-on-route-66
- https://www.taxcreditcoalition.org/gallery/luna-lodge/
- https://s3santafe.org/lamplighter/
- https://www.integrateddesignarch.com/stage-couch-apartments
- https://archives.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/fall-23/highlight3-sidebar1.html
- https://glendalecherrycreek.com/2024/07/apartment-hotel-conversions-give-new-life-to-citys-old-buildings/
- https://denver.citycast.fm/explainers/denver-colfax-adaptive-reuse-motels
- https://www.hoteldive.com/news/denver-hotel-conversion-affordable-housing/653896/
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/fusion-studios
- https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/housing-information/news/2020/FusionStudios.html
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/parkaveinn
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/renewalvillage
- https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Mayors-Office/Programs-and-Initiatives/Homelessness-Initiative/All-In-Mile-High-Communities/The-Tamarac
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/City-of-Tucson-Celebrates-Transformation-of-Amazon-Motel
- https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/affordable-housing-in-tucson-motel-transforms-for-community/article_6938c598-911e-4b3c-8445-5b0bdab4e8e2.html
- https://constructionreporter.com/tucsons-purchase-of-60-year-old-motel-is-latest-effort-to-combat-homelessness/
- https://www.kold.com/2023/08/24/groundbreaking-ceremony-no-tel-motel-be-transformed-into-affordable-housing/
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/Leasing-Opportunity-at-Milagro-on-Oracle
- https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/09/131915-colorado-springs-motel-converted-supportive-housing
- https://www.springsrescuemission.org/articles/4u-motel
- https://www.roadarch.com/signs/co2.html
- https://www.durangoco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=4248#:~:text=Residences%20at%20Durango%20is%20the,purchase%20the%20Best%20Western%20property.
- https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/a-flagstaff-motel-will-soon-become-housing-for-the-homeless
- https://www.abc15.com/news/region-northern-az/flagstaff/flagstaff-hotel-to-be-turned-into-emergency-housing#:~:text=Flagstaff%20Shelter%20Services%20purchased%20the%20Howard%20Johnson,just%20over%20$6%20million%20earlier%20this%20month.
- https://flagshelter.org/crown-lantern/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9zMaOVSPTw
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/pinyon-pointe-apartments
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/joshua-tree-apartments
- https://www.a-1rents.com/copy-of-joshua-tree-studios
- http://route66times.com/l/az/kingman-pony-soldier-motel.htm
- https://www.ksl.com/article/51300246/south-salt-lake-welcomes-first-of-its-kind-homeless-shelter-for-families
- https://buildingsaltlake.com/another-airport-motel-is-converting-to-housing-for-elderly-homeless-the-zoning-change-it-seeks-might-open-up-airport-adjacent-residential-development/
- https://pointbyswitchpoint.org/airport-slc-location/
- https://www.ksl.com/article/50646460/deeply-affordable-housing-for-seniors-and-veterans-experiencing-homelessness-unveiled
- https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/09/10/we-now-know-what-utahs-55m/
- https://www.yourvalley.net/phoenix-independent/stories/super-8-motel-to-be-made-into-housing-for-phoenix-seniors-exiting-homelessness,576539
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/former-hotel-in-phoenix-to-house-offer-services-for-homeless-veterans/4765165/
- https://newgenadv.com/2021/09/newgens-latest-closing-will-assist-the-city-of-tempe-in-expanding-housing-options-for-those-in-need/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBEabwb4OI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jba2N48Jep0
- https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/a-proud-moment-new-facility-for-medically-vulnerable-homeless-officially-opens-doors/
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/the-haven-senior-housing/5648068/
- https://www.mesaaz.gov/Resident-Resources/Housing/Human-Services/Off-the-Streets
- https://www.tempe.gov/government/community-health-and-human-services/housing-services/ending-homelessness/housing-and-shelter
- https://www.azhousinginc.org/2900-e-van-buren.html
#affordableHousing #cities #conversions #gentrification #geography #highwayDistricts #history #homelessness #hotels #housing #landUse #lodging #motels #planning #studios #travel
-
Lodging to Affordable Living 🏡: Motel Conversions in the Four Corners Region
The following working list identifies those motels and hotels that have been converted into dwellings for the unhoused, those with special needs, and/or to provide affordable housing options in cities across the Four Corners Region of the southwestern United States (the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). These housing options may include, but not be limited to:
- Income-based housing;
- Section 8 housing;
- Housing for those with special needs
- Housing for needy seniors;
- Housing for young adults and/or women;
- Housing for those returning to society from recovery programs or incarceration;
- Inexpensive housing/studios for artists;
- Veterans housing; as well as
- Transitional/interim housing for unhoused individuals or families.
Motel conversions provide another tool for municipalities for combating homelessness, gentrification, and rising housing costs. It also helps revitalize and reinvigorate older highway commercial districts such as Historic U.S. 66 in New Mexico and Arizona or Old U.S. 40 in Colorado. In some cases, such a conversion from lodging to affordable living quarters may require amendments to local zoning codes to allow such housing options in commercial zoning districts.
Peace!
——-
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Adobe Manor Motel to Adobe Manor (2023) = 16 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: SureStay by Best Western (1999) to Los Altos Lofts (2024) = 90 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Luna Lodge (1949) to Luna Lodge Apartments (2013) = 14 units + 16 new units
Luna Lodge Apartments in Albuquerque, NM – Source:route66news.comAlbuquerque, New Mexico: Sundowner Motel (1960) to Sundowner Apartments (2014) = 71 units
Colorado Springs, Colorado: 4U Court/Motel (1955) to The Studios (2024) = 12 units
The Studios in Colorado Springs, CO – Source: springsrescuemission.orgDenver, Colorado: Quality Inn & Suites to Fusion Studios (2020) = 139 units
Denver Colorado: Best Western Hotel to New Directions = ?
Denver, Colorado: 7 Star Motel to Night Windows (2020) = 25 units
Denver, Colorado: Best Western to Stone Creek (2023) = 194 units
Denver, Colorado: DoubleTree Hotel to The Aspen (2023) = 289 units
Denver, Colorado: La Quinta Inn to Park Avenue Inn = 103 units
Denver, Colorado: Clarion Hotel (mid-late 1980s) to Renewal Village (2024) = 215 units
Denver, Colorado: Embassy Suites (1985) to Tamarac Family Shelter (2023) = 205 units
Durango, Colorado: Best Western to The Residences (2025) = 72 units + 48 new units
Flagstaff, Arizona: Crown Motel (1966)/Howard Johnson’s (1991) to The Crown (2022) = 58 units
Source: flagshelter.orgFlagstaff, Arizona: Motel 6 (1962) to The Lantern (2025) = 103 units
Kingman, Arizona: Pony Soldier (1963)/Route 66 Motel to Joshua Tree Apartments (2025) = 20 units
Joshua Tree in Kingman, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPage, Arizona: Antelope Canyon Motel (1960s) to Pinyon Pointe Apartments (2024) = 20 units
Pinyon Pointe in Page, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPhoenix, Arizona: Days Inn (?) to 2900 E. Van Buren (2025) = 50 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Super 8 Motel (?) to not yet named (2026) = 126 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix Inn (1983) to The Haven (2025) = 130 units
Phoenix (Mesa): Arizona: Grand Hotel (1973) to Sunaire (2026) = 70 units
Phoenix (Mesa), Arizona: Windermere Motel (1950s) partially converted for the Off the Streets Program (2023) = 85 units, but will be moving to the Sunaire site.
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Howard Johnsons (1970)/Motel 6 (1994) to not yet named (under development) = 60 units
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Rodeway Inn to Sue’s Espacio = 40 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: Airport Inn (?) to The Point = 100 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: ? to The Point Fairpark = 94 units
Salt Lake City (Sandy), Utah: EconoLodge to Medically Vulnerable People (MVP) Shelter (2024) ~ 97 units
Salt Lake City (South Salt Lake), Utah: Motel 6 to FINCH – Families In Need Congregate Housing (2025) = 85 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Lamplighter Inn (1962) to Lamplighter Apartments (in progress) = 58 units
Lamplighter Apartments in Santa Fe, NM – Source: s3santafe.orgSanta Fe, New Mexico: Santa Fe Suites (1999) to Santa Fe Suites Apartments (2022) = 120 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Stage Coach Motor Inn (1940s) to Stage Coach Apartments (2013) = 66 units + 44 new units
Tucson, Arizona: Amazon Motel (1950s) to Amazon Flats (2025) = 30 units + 59 new units under development
Tucson, Arizona: De Anza Motel (1940) to Milagro on Oracle (2025) = 63 units
SOURCES:
- https://www.hcn.org/articles/in-albuquerque-developers-are-turning-old-motels-into-affordable-housing/
- http://www.google.com
- gemini.google.ai
- https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/city-now-renting-all-apartments-in-first-motel-conversion-project/
- https://citydesk.org/2024/02/14/city-owned-los-altos-lofts-marks-a-housing-first/
- https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2022-12-12/abq-proposes-turning-more-old-hotels-into-affordable-housing
- https://savingplaces.org/stories/a-motel-gets-a-noble-second-life-on-route-66
- https://www.taxcreditcoalition.org/gallery/luna-lodge/
- https://s3santafe.org/lamplighter/
- https://www.integrateddesignarch.com/stage-couch-apartments
- https://archives.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/fall-23/highlight3-sidebar1.html
- https://glendalecherrycreek.com/2024/07/apartment-hotel-conversions-give-new-life-to-citys-old-buildings/
- https://denver.citycast.fm/explainers/denver-colfax-adaptive-reuse-motels
- https://www.hoteldive.com/news/denver-hotel-conversion-affordable-housing/653896/
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/fusion-studios
- https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/housing-information/news/2020/FusionStudios.html
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/parkaveinn
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/renewalvillage
- https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Mayors-Office/Programs-and-Initiatives/Homelessness-Initiative/All-In-Mile-High-Communities/The-Tamarac
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/City-of-Tucson-Celebrates-Transformation-of-Amazon-Motel
- https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/affordable-housing-in-tucson-motel-transforms-for-community/article_6938c598-911e-4b3c-8445-5b0bdab4e8e2.html
- https://constructionreporter.com/tucsons-purchase-of-60-year-old-motel-is-latest-effort-to-combat-homelessness/
- https://www.kold.com/2023/08/24/groundbreaking-ceremony-no-tel-motel-be-transformed-into-affordable-housing/
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/Leasing-Opportunity-at-Milagro-on-Oracle
- https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/09/131915-colorado-springs-motel-converted-supportive-housing
- https://www.springsrescuemission.org/articles/4u-motel
- https://www.roadarch.com/signs/co2.html
- https://www.durangoco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=4248#:~:text=Residences%20at%20Durango%20is%20the,purchase%20the%20Best%20Western%20property.
- https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/a-flagstaff-motel-will-soon-become-housing-for-the-homeless
- https://www.abc15.com/news/region-northern-az/flagstaff/flagstaff-hotel-to-be-turned-into-emergency-housing#:~:text=Flagstaff%20Shelter%20Services%20purchased%20the%20Howard%20Johnson,just%20over%20$6%20million%20earlier%20this%20month.
- https://flagshelter.org/crown-lantern/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9zMaOVSPTw
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/pinyon-pointe-apartments
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/joshua-tree-apartments
- https://www.a-1rents.com/copy-of-joshua-tree-studios
- http://route66times.com/l/az/kingman-pony-soldier-motel.htm
- https://www.ksl.com/article/51300246/south-salt-lake-welcomes-first-of-its-kind-homeless-shelter-for-families
- https://buildingsaltlake.com/another-airport-motel-is-converting-to-housing-for-elderly-homeless-the-zoning-change-it-seeks-might-open-up-airport-adjacent-residential-development/
- https://pointbyswitchpoint.org/airport-slc-location/
- https://www.ksl.com/article/50646460/deeply-affordable-housing-for-seniors-and-veterans-experiencing-homelessness-unveiled
- https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/09/10/we-now-know-what-utahs-55m/
- https://www.yourvalley.net/phoenix-independent/stories/super-8-motel-to-be-made-into-housing-for-phoenix-seniors-exiting-homelessness,576539
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/former-hotel-in-phoenix-to-house-offer-services-for-homeless-veterans/4765165/
- https://newgenadv.com/2021/09/newgens-latest-closing-will-assist-the-city-of-tempe-in-expanding-housing-options-for-those-in-need/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBEabwb4OI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jba2N48Jep0
- https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/a-proud-moment-new-facility-for-medically-vulnerable-homeless-officially-opens-doors/
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/the-haven-senior-housing/5648068/
- https://www.mesaaz.gov/Resident-Resources/Housing/Human-Services/Off-the-Streets
- https://www.tempe.gov/government/community-health-and-human-services/housing-services/ending-homelessness/housing-and-shelter
- https://www.azhousinginc.org/2900-e-van-buren.html
#affordableHousing #cities #conversions #gentrification #geography #highwayDistricts #history #homelessness #hotels #housing #landUse #lodging #motels #planning #studios #travel
-
Lodging to Affordable Living 🏡: Motel Conversions in the Four Corners Region
The following working list identifies those motels and hotels that have been converted into dwellings for the unhoused, those with special needs, and/or to provide affordable housing options in cities across the Four Corners Region of the southwestern United States (the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). These housing options may include, but not be limited to:
- Income-based housing;
- Section 8 housing;
- Housing for those with special needs
- Housing for needy seniors;
- Housing for young adults and/or women;
- Housing for those returning to society from recovery programs or incarceration;
- Inexpensive housing/studios for artists;
- Veterans housing; as well as
- Transitional/interim housing for unhoused individuals or families.
Motel conversions provide another tool for municipalities for combating homelessness, gentrification, and rising housing costs. It also helps revitalize and reinvigorate older highway commercial districts such as Historic U.S. 66 in New Mexico and Arizona or Old U.S. 40 in Colorado. In some cases, such a conversion from lodging to affordable living quarters may require amendments to local zoning codes to allow such housing options in commercial zoning districts.
Peace!
——-
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Adobe Manor Motel to Adobe Manor (2023) = 16 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: SureStay by Best Western (1999) to Los Altos Lofts (2024) = 90 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Luna Lodge (1949) to Luna Lodge Apartments (2013) = 14 units + 16 new units
Luna Lodge Apartments in Albuquerque, NM – Source:route66news.comAlbuquerque, New Mexico: Sundowner Motel (1960) to Sundowner Apartments (2014) = 71 units
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Comfort Inn to not yet named (2026) = 82 units- added 11/17/25
Colorado Springs, Colorado: 4U Court/Motel (1955) to The Studios (2024) = 12 units
The Studios in Colorado Springs, CO – Source: springsrescuemission.orgDenver, Colorado: Quality Inn & Suites to Fusion Studios (2020) = 139 units
Denver Colorado: Best Western Hotel to New Directions = ?
Denver, Colorado: 7 Star Motel to Night Windows (2020) = 25 units
Denver, Colorado: Best Western to Stone Creek (2023) = 194 units
Denver, Colorado: DoubleTree Hotel to The Aspen (2023) = 289 units
Denver, Colorado: La Quinta Inn to Park Avenue Inn = 103 units
Denver, Colorado: Clarion Hotel (mid-late 1980s) to Renewal Village (2024) = 215 units
Denver, Colorado: Embassy Suites (1985) to Tamarac Family Shelter (2023) = 205 units
Durango, Colorado: Best Western to The Residences (2025) = 72 units + 48 new units
Flagstaff, Arizona: Crown Motel (1966)/Howard Johnson’s (1991) to The Crown (2022) = 58 units
Source: flagshelter.orgFlagstaff, Arizona: Motel 6 (1962) to The Lantern (2025) = 103 units
Kingman, Arizona: Pony Soldier (1963)/Route 66 Motel to Joshua Tree Apartments (2025) = 20 units
Joshua Tree in Kingman, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPage, Arizona: Antelope Canyon Motel (1960s) to Pinyon Pointe Apartments (2024) = 20 units
Pinyon Pointe in Page, AZ – Source: housingforhopeaz.orgPhoenix, Arizona: Days Inn (?) to 2900 E. Van Buren (2025) = 50 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Super 8 Motel (?) to not yet named (2026) = 126 units
Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix Inn (1983) to The Haven (2025) = 130 units
Phoenix (Mesa): Arizona: Grand Hotel (1973) to Sunaire (2026) = 70 units
Phoenix (Mesa), Arizona: Windermere Motel (1950s) partially converted for the Off the Streets Program (2023) = 85 units, but will be moving to the Sunaire site.
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Howard Johnsons (1970)/Motel 6 (1994) to not yet named (under development) = 60 units
Phoenix (Tempe), Arizona: Rodeway Inn to Sue’s Espacio = 40 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: Airport Inn (?) to The Point = 100 units
Salt Lake City, Utah: ? to The Point Fairpark = 94 units
Salt Lake City (Sandy), Utah: EconoLodge to Medically Vulnerable People (MVP) Shelter (2024) ~ 97 units
Salt Lake City (South Salt Lake), Utah: Motel 6 to FINCH – Families In Need Congregate Housing (2025) = 85 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Lamplighter Inn (1962) to Lamplighter Apartments (in progress) = 58 units
Lamplighter Apartments in Santa Fe, NM – Source: s3santafe.orgSanta Fe, New Mexico: Santa Fe Suites (1999) to Santa Fe Suites Apartments (2022) = 120 units
Santa Fe, New Mexico: Stage Coach Motor Inn (1940s) to Stage Coach Apartments (2013) = 66 units + 44 new units
Tucson, Arizona: Amazon Motel (1950s) to Amazon Flats (2025) = 30 units + 59 new units under development
Tucson, Arizona: De Anza Motel (1940) to Milagro on Oracle (2025) = 63 units
SOURCES:
- https://www.hcn.org/articles/in-albuquerque-developers-are-turning-old-motels-into-affordable-housing/
- http://www.google.com
- gemini.google.ai
- https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/city-now-renting-all-apartments-in-first-motel-conversion-project/
- https://citydesk.org/2024/02/14/city-owned-los-altos-lofts-marks-a-housing-first/
- https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2022-12-12/abq-proposes-turning-more-old-hotels-into-affordable-housing
- https://savingplaces.org/stories/a-motel-gets-a-noble-second-life-on-route-66
- https://www.taxcreditcoalition.org/gallery/luna-lodge/
- https://s3santafe.org/lamplighter/
- https://www.integrateddesignarch.com/stage-couch-apartments
- https://archives.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/fall-23/highlight3-sidebar1.html
- https://glendalecherrycreek.com/2024/07/apartment-hotel-conversions-give-new-life-to-citys-old-buildings/
- https://denver.citycast.fm/explainers/denver-colfax-adaptive-reuse-motels
- https://www.hoteldive.com/news/denver-hotel-conversion-affordable-housing/653896/
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/fusion-studios
- https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/housing-information/news/2020/FusionStudios.html
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/parkaveinn
- https://www.coloradocoalition.org/property/renewalvillage
- https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Mayors-Office/Programs-and-Initiatives/Homelessness-Initiative/All-In-Mile-High-Communities/The-Tamarac
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/City-of-Tucson-Celebrates-Transformation-of-Amazon-Motel
- https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/affordable-housing-in-tucson-motel-transforms-for-community/article_6938c598-911e-4b3c-8445-5b0bdab4e8e2.html
- https://constructionreporter.com/tucsons-purchase-of-60-year-old-motel-is-latest-effort-to-combat-homelessness/
- https://www.kold.com/2023/08/24/groundbreaking-ceremony-no-tel-motel-be-transformed-into-affordable-housing/
- https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Housing-and-Community-Development/HCD-News/Leasing-Opportunity-at-Milagro-on-Oracle
- https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/09/131915-colorado-springs-motel-converted-supportive-housing
- https://www.springsrescuemission.org/articles/4u-motel
- https://www.roadarch.com/signs/co2.html
- https://www.durangoco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=4248#:~:text=Residences%20at%20Durango%20is%20the,purchase%20the%20Best%20Western%20property.
- https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/a-flagstaff-motel-will-soon-become-housing-for-the-homeless
- https://www.abc15.com/news/region-northern-az/flagstaff/flagstaff-hotel-to-be-turned-into-emergency-housing#:~:text=Flagstaff%20Shelter%20Services%20purchased%20the%20Howard%20Johnson,just%20over%20$6%20million%20earlier%20this%20month.
- https://flagshelter.org/crown-lantern/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9zMaOVSPTw
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/pinyon-pointe-apartments
- https://housingforhopeaz.org/joshua-tree-apartments
- https://www.a-1rents.com/copy-of-joshua-tree-studios
- http://route66times.com/l/az/kingman-pony-soldier-motel.htm
- https://www.ksl.com/article/51300246/south-salt-lake-welcomes-first-of-its-kind-homeless-shelter-for-families
- https://buildingsaltlake.com/another-airport-motel-is-converting-to-housing-for-elderly-homeless-the-zoning-change-it-seeks-might-open-up-airport-adjacent-residential-development/
- https://pointbyswitchpoint.org/airport-slc-location/
- https://www.ksl.com/article/50646460/deeply-affordable-housing-for-seniors-and-veterans-experiencing-homelessness-unveiled
- https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/09/10/we-now-know-what-utahs-55m/
- https://www.yourvalley.net/phoenix-independent/stories/super-8-motel-to-be-made-into-housing-for-phoenix-seniors-exiting-homelessness,576539
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/former-hotel-in-phoenix-to-house-offer-services-for-homeless-veterans/4765165/
- https://newgenadv.com/2021/09/newgens-latest-closing-will-assist-the-city-of-tempe-in-expanding-housing-options-for-those-in-need/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBEabwb4OI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jba2N48Jep0
- https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/a-proud-moment-new-facility-for-medically-vulnerable-homeless-officially-opens-doors/
- https://ktar.com/arizona-news/the-haven-senior-housing/5648068/
- https://www.mesaaz.gov/Resident-Resources/Housing/Human-Services/Off-the-Streets
- https://www.tempe.gov/government/community-health-and-human-services/housing-services/ending-homelessness/housing-and-shelter
- https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/former-albuquerque-hotel-turned-into-transitional-housing-for-homeless-families/
- https://www.azhousinginc.org/2900-e-van-buren.html
#affordableHousing #cities #conversions #gentrification #geography #highwayDistricts #history #homelessness #hotels #housing #landUse #lodging #motels #planning #studios #travel