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Victoria's container deposit scheme offers 10 cent refund on eligible containers
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-01/container-deposit-scheme-launches-in-victoria-bottles-cans/103044050Finally, Victoria is falling into line with most other states in Australia, after years of delays and naysayers.
#AusPol #VicPol #Recycling #Environment #ContainerDepositScheme
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Victoria's container deposit scheme offers 10 cent refund on eligible containers
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-01/container-deposit-scheme-launches-in-victoria-bottles-cans/103044050Finally, Victoria is falling into line with most other states in Australia, after years of delays and naysayers.
#AusPol #VicPol #Recycling #Environment #ContainerDepositScheme
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Victoria's container deposit scheme offers 10 cent refund on eligible containers
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-01/container-deposit-scheme-launches-in-victoria-bottles-cans/103044050Finally, Victoria is falling into line with most other states in Australia, after years of delays and naysayers.
#AusPol #VicPol #Recycling #Environment #ContainerDepositScheme
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The Edinburgh & Leith Atmospheric War: the thread about the fight to build an improbable and impossible railway
An initial version of this thread was written in December 2020.
In 1844, Britain was in the grip of a stock market bubble called the “railway mania”. Rival companies vied to build lines here, there and everywhere, and attracted ever increasing financial speculation. In Edinburgh, three principal schemes were converging at a central locus that would later become known as Waverley Station; the Edinburgh & Glasgow – running between those two cities – the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton – running north to a ferry terminal at Granton through the Scotland Street tunnel, with a branch to Leith – and the North British Railway – entering the city from the east and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Railway mania reaches Edinburgh; the E&G in green, the EL&G in Yellow and the NBR in brown. Overlaid on an OS 6-inch map of the period.These railways favoured orthodox steam locomotives to provide their motive power, with occasional assistance by rope haulage for steep gradients,e.g. the Scotland Street Tunnel. However there was an exciting new technology which promised cleaner, faster and more economical railways that would be cheaper to build; the “Atmospheric Railway”.
This name does not come from them having a particularly romantic ambience, it is because they are propelled – in theory – by atmospheric pressure. In principal the scheme was simple; a slotted tube was laid between the railway tracks and every few miles there was a pumping house which exhausted the air from the pipe, creating a vacuum. A piston in the pipe was pushed along by the atmospheric pressure behind it; if you attached a train to that then you could propel it too. The trick to get it working was how to connect the train and the piston without breaking the vacuum. This required a longitudinal valve (in practice, long leather flaps) to seal the tube; a trick that nobody ever managed to pull off reliably.
The atmospheric railway system was patented in 1839 by Samuel Clegg and the Samuda brothers. They set up a demonstration of the system at Wormwood Scrubs in West London. This impressed the directors of the Dublin & Kingstown Railway in Ireland who felt it would be suitable for an extension of their line from Kingstown to Dalkey. This was a 1 3/4 mile branch and began operation on 19th August 1843. It persisted for a full 9 years until a small locomotive was brought in to do the same work. The Dalkey scheme attracted the attention of the London & Croydon Railway, who in 1844 built a short 1 1/4 mile atmospheric expansion of their mainline from London Bridge station to Bricklayers Arms. This was to try and reduce congestion on a steep section of the line with a number of stops and starts. The whole thing though was a “sad fiasco” which consumed a huge amount of capital and was terminated in 1847.
Contemporary illustration of the Saint-Germain atmospheric railway in France. Note the vacuum tube between the rails and the slot in its top, sealed (in theory) by the leather flap valves“Croydon Atmospheric Road”, from the Illustrated London News, October 11th 1845These were small schemes and most sensible railway engineers steered well clear of the obvious complexities of the system for larger scale application, but the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an exception. He was captivated by the promise of this modern and unconventional technology and proposed it for the 51 mile South Devon Railway, to help overcome the steep curves and gradients. The father of modern British railways, George Stephenson, denounced the idea as “a great humbug” before it even got going. Brunel’s own locomotive engineer, the eminently sensible Daniel Gooch, said he “could not understand how Mr. Brunel could be so misled. He had so much faith in his being able to improve it that he shut his eyes to the consequences of failure.” Brunel however remained convinced and the force of his reputation carried the scheme through; the South Devon opened its first atmospheric section in September 1847, at least a year later than planned. By September 1848 it was abandoned, having “rapidly disintegrated throughout its entire length“.
A surviving section of track and 15 inch vacuum tube of the South Devon atmospheric railway. CC-BY-SA 2.5 ChowellsDespite these hiccups, for a brief period from 1845-1846, the “railway mania” investment bubble was briefly joined by “atmospheric fever.” And once again, Edinburgh and Leith were in on it, with not just one but two atmospheric schemes were proposed. And not just two schemes; two in direct competition, running from the same start and end points, less than 100m apart, each backed by a considerable array of the councillors, merchants and notable figures of both the City and its port. And so commenced the brief but petulant Edinburgh and Leith Atmospheric Railway War of 1845.
The rival Edinburgh & Leith atmospheric schemes were both formed at some point in June 1845; each claimed to be the original and genuine scheme and that the other was a pretender. In one corner was the Edinburgh & Leith Atmospheric Railway (which we shall call the Atmospheric Route) and in the other was the Edinburgh & Leith Atmospheric Direct Railway (which we shall call the Direct Route.) The engineer to the former was John Miller, who designed the Almond Valley Viaduct for the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway and also Granton Harbour. The latter had George Gunn, also a railway engineer, but one who had hitherto acted in support of another, including Miller himself.
The Atmospheric Route proposed to run a railway from a terminus in the Low Calton – with a connection to the “Waverley” stations – through the Greenside Valley, under London Road and then through the market gardens parallel to Leith Walk. It then continued around the west of Leith Links to a principal terminus near the Assembly Rooms at Constitution Street. From here, branches ran to the docks, with one possibly a small passenger terminus for the Forth ferries and the other going over (or under) the river to the wet docks. A service every ten minutes was promised.
The Direct Route originated at a station near West Register Street, with an onward connection to one or more of the “Waverley” stations. It ran underground down Leith Street, possibly with an intermediate station in the vicinity of York Place, and continued underground in a “cut and cover” tunnel a few feet below the surface to Elm Row. Here it re-surfaced to run in a semi-recessed trench down the entirety of Leith Walk, the proposal being to provide regular bridges across this road.
A drawing in the “Lighthouse” Stevenson collection showing the “Direct route” at Union Place. CC-BY NLSA drawing in the “Lighthouse” Stevenson collection showing the “Direct route” at Antigua Place. The tunnel roof was to be just 2.5 feet below the surface. CC-BY NLSWhile this proposal might seem absurd today – Leith Walk is almost end-to-end 4 storey tenements and is Scotland’s most densely populated neighbourhood by quite some margin – bear in mind that the street is all “made up ground”; it’s a former defensive feature, so easy to dig out, and that in the 1850s it was nothing like as built up as it is today. It was very lightly developed with few large or important buildings, and almost pastoral in character. It was intended to use an “inclined plane” (i.e. gravity) to provide downhill locomotion to Leith and the atmospheric principle to get back up the hill to Edinburgh. There would be two tracks but only the uphill would be powered, this would cut costs but greatly reduce operational flexibility; they did however hedge their bets and publicly did not preclude themselves from using normal steam locomotives “should they prove expedient.”
What the Leith Walk atmospheric railway of the “Direct route” might have looked like. London Illustrated News illustration of the Dalkey atmospheric railway in January 1844There two atmospheric schemes not only had each other to contend with, additional pressure placed on both by the conventional railway of the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton, – already building a line from Scotland Street to North Leith via Bonnington (yellow line on the route map below) – but were now also lodging a bill with Parliament to build an extension from Bonnington across the Water of Leith to South Leith (the pale yellow line). In November the North British Railway joined in and announced their intention to tunnel through the eastern end of the Calton Hill to get from their existing mainline at Croft-an-Righ to the top of Easter Road, down which they would run a horse-drawn tramway to a terminus in the vicinity of Queen Street (pale brown line).
Atmospheric Fever in Edinburgh; the “Atmospheric Route” in red and the “Direct Route” in cyan. The pale lines are the proposals to reach Leith by the EL&G and the NBR. Note the darker blue line of the Edinburgh & Dalkeith railway approaching Leith via Niddrie from the east. Overlaid on an OS 6-inch map of the period.The Atmospheric route got their preliminary announcement published first on October 7th 1845, a day before the Direct route. They were seeking a capitalisation of £100,000. The following day the Direct route announced they were seeking £200,000 and accused the Atmospheric route of financial impropriety by issuing considerably more shares to the public than they were actually available. The Direct route stated that they were proposing their scheme lest “the independence, usefulness and commerce of [Edinburgh & Leith] are gone forever”.
Initial invitations to purchase shares were made by both schemes in the Caledonian Mercury and Evening Courant in June 1845, but there was almost instantly a problem arose. One of the merchants listed as backing the Atmospheric Route denied any connection with it and that his name had been put against it without his knowledge. As did the stock exchange said to be dealing in the sale. As was the stock broker claimed to be acting for the railway! All three immediately took out their own personal adverts in the next days Scotsman to this effect. This pattern of disinformation and using the columns of the newspapers to fight a proxy war was one that was to continue.
Scotsman, 18th June 1845By October, both schemes were ready to issue their shares. Adverts to this effect were placed in the Edinburgh papers and also in Glasgow too (each city having its own stock exchange at this time). The Direct route was careful to point out in their advert that all other railway schemes proposed to Leith were “inutile and insufficient“. Despite the improbability of two such rival schemes, with the railway investment boom being what it was the shares of both concerns were oversubscribed. Adverts were placed in newspapers seeking to buy and surplus share and each company seemed to spread gossip that their opponent had not allocated their shares in an equitable manner. As a result, the companies had to place further adverts in the newspapers to reassure investors of the fair nature of their allocation.
A blank share certificate of the Edinburgh & Leith Atmospheric Direct RailwayAnd then the “phoney war”, hitherto conducted through the newspaper columns alone, suddenly got a lot more real. In the early hours of October 19th 1845, Sunday, a representative of the Atmospheric route pinned copies of its parliamentary notices in public on the church doors of Edinburgh & Leith (this was actually a legal requirement as a way to circulate official notices around the public – it was not until the 20th century that churches would have dedicated public notice boards for this purpose). However, when the faithful came to worship on the Sabbath later that morning, it was found that the Direct route had also been out and had replaced all the notices with their own.
Martin Luther also fixed his controversial notice to a church doorThe Atmospheric route was outraged, offering a reward of £50 if the perpetrator could be apprehended. The Direct route denied all complicity and reiterated that they were the original scheme and the opposition were “plagiarists”, out to serve not the public but only their own interests.
Reward notice offered by the Atmospheric routeThe next task for both schemes was to collect the deposit money for their shares, complete their surveys, plans and engineering proposals and prepare their bills to go before parliament for approval. While this took place, after the outrage on the Sabbath, the skirmishing returned to tit-for-tat adverts placed in the newspapers by the solicitors of each scheme. The details of this are tiresome and childish, each consistently blamed the other for forcing its hand and making it respond. On October 29th, both companies took out extensive, self-important adverts in the Scotsman in side-by-side columns in which they each reiterated the authenticity of their own schemes and attacked that of their opponent. Both besmirched each other as not acting in the interests of the travelling public and merely being moneymaking schemes for their backers. Each also claimed to be the original railway proposal and that the other was a mere copycat.
The Direct route consistently positioned itself as the “bona fide” and original scheme, thereby having the right of putting forward their bill to Parliament. It said that its rival “thereby created in the public mind a just and general dissatisfaction” and that that the criticism of their scheme had been “inveterate and persevering“. However, they were repeatedly vague about the specific details of their proposed route – beyond it just being more “direct” than the competition. The reality differed; their route was less than 50m to the west and the distance saving marginal. By choosing the route down the middle of Leith Walk – rather than the sensible parallel one of its rival through undeveloped ground – they gave themselves a far more expensive and complex construction proposition.
Neither company was prepared to back down, and both published notices proclaiming their intent to lodge a bill with Parliament. When the notices of intent were made to Parliament, the Treasurer’s Committee of the Edinburgh Town Council made it known that they would act in dissent, “inasmuch as it was proposed by these companies to take possession of the whole of the public markets beneath the North Bridge.” On November 20th, the Direct route “[had] the pleasure to inform the Shareholders” that their engineer had assured them their plans and surveys were nearing completion in order that they could be lodged with Parliament.
The sparring continued over the festive season as both companies tried to get the other to withdraw their bills. And then on January 29th 1846, in a surprise notice in the Caledonian Mercury, the Direct route threw in the towel and indicated that they agreed to give the Atmospheric route their “cordial cooperation and support”. After seven months, the war was over. Two days later it was announced that the Atmospheric route had lodged their bill with Parliament.
The surrender notice, in the Caledonian MercuryBut when the bill came to be read, the railway took the unusual action of immediately asking for more time. This was reluctantly given despite their opponents trying to use this as an excuse to have it thrown out; the Trustees of Heriot Hospital, who owned much of the land over which the railway was to run, and the competing Edinburgh, Leith & Granton having objected. The road ahead for the Atmospheric route was now clear, and with their focus back on the project and not fighting the competition, they evidently finessed their route, as the plans prepared for the bill are different from those described initially. A station has been inserted at Blenheim Place and at Duke Street, and the terminus is now at the harbour. The freight branches to the wet docks were still there, with an awkward approach over (or under) the lower drawbridge
The final route of the Edinburgh & leith Atmospheric, from Scotland’s Railway Atlas by David Spaven, from a map in the collection of the NLS.The company pressed on, but despite its triumph in the “Atmospheric war”, all was not well. Over Christmas, the Bank of England had increased interest rates. It was becoming obvious to many that the railway bubble was exeactly that, and that the investments might not be a sure fire winner, and began to get cold feet. Indeed this may have been what caused the Direct route to withdraw; was it a strategic withdrawal rather than a tactical surrender? The Atmospheric route‘s investors were evidently getting unsettled, and on April 6th, at a Meeting in the Waterloo Hotel in Edinburgh, a general meeting was called at the demand of key backers.
An 1845 newspaper cartoon warning over the dangers of “Railway Mania” financial speculationAsked to account for its progress, the committee stated that they had spent £670 in Edinburgh and £2,000 in Leith on ground for the termini, and a further £250 towards the Town Council for rights to run through the ground in their ownership. Construction costs were estimated at £160,000 and £1,000 had been set aside to cover the costs to date of the Direct route in a conciliatory gesture for their co-operation. It was noted that a deputation from the committee had been on a fact-finding visit to the Croydon Railway’s atmospheric operation and found its principal to be “most admirably adapted for the projected line.” This is interesting considering the persistent difficulties of that undertaking. The committee estimated that running costs would be 4d per mile, which was challenged by a key shareholder who countered that in Parliament the respected railway engineer Joseph Locke had stated that ordinary locomotives were costing 10d per mile and that the Croydon atmospheric was running up the incredible amount of 2/10d per mile.
The shareholders went on the record to say they were unhappy that the recent changes in the financial markets had made the scheme far less attractive and that huge additional costs (these were not specified, but one assumes they were for engineering) had made themselves known. The complainants made a motion to circulate the full details of the undertaking’s most recent reports amongst the shareholders and return at a further General Meeting on April 16th once there had been a chance to read these. The shareholders were clearly having second thoughts, time was pressing as they were due in Parliament to have their bill read as soon as May 4th, and one wonders if they were just looking for an excuse to call the whole thing off.
The General Meeting meeting was duly held, with the engineer Mr Miller and the patentee of the atmospheric principal, Mr Samuda, in attendance. on the 16th. By a majority of 462 votes to 309, it was decided to proceed with the bill – but to have one more vote to confirm this before going in front of Parliament. The naysayers, led by a Mr Berry – probably George Berry esq., chairman of the Leith Chamber of Commerce – retired to the Cafe Royal to plot their next move, and took out an advert in the Caledonian Mercury asking their sympathisers to join them. Two days later they published a letter in the Scotsman challenging the vote, on the grounds that shareholders accounting for 2/3 of the stock had not been present at the General Meeting and it was not therefore quorate. The solicitor acting for this group invited those seeking to wind the company up to sign a petition to parliament, copies of which were held in various locations around Edinburgh, Leith and Glasgow. Within 24 hours, the holders of 2,000 shares, or 40% of all the stock, had signed. The race was on to end the Atmospheric route.
A final General Meeting was due for the 18th May, just 2 weeks before they were due in Parliament, for the shareholders to finally decide the fate of the scheme.
By order of the Committee of Management. Edinburgh, April 27, 1846The meeting would never take place. On Saturday the 16th May, the “Committee of Management regre to announce to the Shareholders that the Select Committee of the House of Commons to whom the Bill for this Company referred, has found the preamble not proven“. Parliament would not read the bill. The Edinburgh & Leith Atmospheric Railway was dead. The shareholders now set about attempting to recover their investments, the management gave them 8 days to lodge their requests and set about winding up the company and liquidating their assets – the land at the Low Calton and behind the Leith Assembly Rooms that had been purchased for stations. The ground purchased for stations was quickly sold by public roup (the Scottish version of an auction).
On September 1st 1846, at a General Meeting held at the Waterloo Hotel, the company formally voted itself out of existence and agreed to return its remaining balances to the shareholders. Of the £20,000 raised by the Atmospheric route, £11,000 had been spent and little had been achieved apart from the acquisition of a few parcels of land and the creation of much bad blood amongst the merchant and political classes of Edinburgh and Leith. The subscribers at least got back 18s in the pound, or 90% of their investment. For all too many in the railway speculation boom, a failed scheme meant financial ruin. The engineer, John Miller, attempted to take legal action against the company in December 1846 for loss of dividends. I am unclear if he succeeded.
Although they promised so much, atmospheric railways were riddled with insurmountable technical and operational challenges. The problems included, but were not limited to:
- The leather flaps that were required to seal the vacuum wore out and froze as hard as wood in the winter
- The vacuum tube was constantly fouled by dirt and water, needing constant cleaning
- The pumping engines frequently failed; they were just not reliable enough to keep up the constant work required to provide the vacuum. If a steam locomotive failed, it could be uncoupled and replaced, if a large pumping engine suffered the same fate, every train on that section of line would fail
- Construction costs were far higher than promised
- Operating costs were far higher than promised, as a result of the fuel consumption of the stationary engines and the constant maintenance and replacement needs of the vacuum tube
Footnote. Little more was heard of either scheme ever again, although in 1868 when the engineer to the Atmospheric route – John Miller – was standing for parliament, he was charged in a letter to the Edinburgh Evening Courant by one James Aytoun of having acted with impropriety with regards the scheme and fundamentally having lined his own pockets at the expense of the investors. James Aytoun, esq. was an advocate who had at one time been a prominent supporter of the scheme, but who had become a dissenting voice within it and ended up losing money by his account. It was Aytoun who had seconded the formal motion winding up the company in September 1846.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
If I were to rate the year of our Lord 2024, I’d give it a solid 4.5/5.0. No, I joke. FUCK 2024. Good riddance, fuck off, goodfuckingbye. This year, the layoffs continued (even affected some of our writers here), the prices skyrocketed, the World Series was bullshit, and landfills across the States are twice their capacity thanks to useless election fliers. This year has resulted in practically zero time to work on AMG efforts, write reviews, or listen to music as I continue to try to keep my job. Yay. Cheers to you, 2024—you sack of horse shit. Let’s go, 2025, you sassy bitch who suggests great things to come but probably won’t deliver. If only you could promise me more time doing the things I love—listening to metal, writing about it, and pretending to edit the other writers’ reviews while completely hammered. If so, I’d kiss you as the ball drops, take you to the back alley during the after-party, and promise not to poison your coffee the next morning.
But we aren’t there yet. We are still stuck in the past, looking over a mediocre year of metal, regurgitating the same shit we already wrote for each album on our lists. That way, you all can praise, argue, and whine about each choice and its placement. Thankfully, my lists rarely overlap with anyone else’s and no one actually gives a fuck, so my sleep patterns remain the same. Having passed the ten-year mark at this amazing madland, my tastes remain the same, and no one will be surprised that most of the selections here are the items I alone reviewed. That changes occasionally but with no time to think about music this year, you’ll be treated to odd takes and albums that only scored a 3.0. Oh no!1
Thank you to the AMG staff for their lackluster productivity and overrating tendencies. To Dolph, Kenny, and Sharky for introducing new segments and keeping legacy ones alive. And to Cuervo and GardensTale for the additional year-end contributions they deliver. I also have to give a huge shoutout to the top bosses—AMG and Steel Daddy—for all they do2. I guess I should also thank all of you for your continued support. I guess. May this list find you well as we are thrust into 2025 and the potential nightmares that it’ll bring. Cheers.
#ish. I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator – What? You fucking knew this was coming. When Steel told me to review an album about NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt, I couldn’t not do it. I mean, this one-off, self-titled record from a one-off band was a perfect opportunity to unleash my rage. And then… wait, what the fuck? It’s actually kinda good? In a weird year where I reviewed two racing-related albums, I Am the Intimidator sports3 six wild tracks that combine Dio and Iron Maiden with Ministry. What the fuck? And, somehow, the lyrics would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t so passionate. OK, the lyrics of the surprisingly delicious and crushing “Gasoline” are fucking hilarious, and a regular, all-caps attack in the AMG channels. After all the chaos and wild influences that make up this tight, six-track album, the passion for “The Intimidator” is true, even if it’s weird. But, I can’t stop listening to this album any more than I can stop drinking beer.
#10. Dust Bolt // Sound & Fury – Like so many other Grier lists, there’s always an album that becomes the most frequented in my shit-filled ears. Yup, I know, you all fucking hate it, and I couldn’t care less. For the band (and style), Sound & Fury is a brave effort that I find addictive, fun, and hilarious trolling material when Steel talks shit. Is it thrash? No, but that didn’t stop me from proclaiming Load as Metallica’s best album. Shifting away from the overused thrash concept and mediocre record releases, Dust Bolt chose the unconventional route of cleaner vocals, smoother production, and catchier choruses to remove themselves from their past outings (and, some would argue, from thrash and metal in general). For you naysayers, there are plenty of headbangable moments on Sound & Fury, so you don’t have to feel like a poser singing these new songs in your mom’s shower.
#9. Midnight // Hellish Expectations – Perhaps one of the most prolific metal bands out there, what can I say about Midnight that I haven’t said already? Oh yeah, they’re badass and if you don’t like them, you’re shit. Also, fuck you. Like previous releases, Midnight continues to speed through riffs that bring to mind classic outfits like Darkthrone, Motörhead, Venom, and Celtic Frost at a relentless speed. While other Midnight records are better, Hellish Expectations joins its compatriots in a discog that can do no wrong. Unless, of course, you don’t like this band’s style. In that case, read above regarding that “fuck you” thing. What makes Hellish Expectations great in this frustrating year is that it caps at twenty-five wonderful minutes—which is the same amount of time it takes to shit out your morning coffee. So, this is a chance to correct your poserness. If you like this band, you already know Hellish Expectations is a fun ride that’ll keep your spikes sharp and your leather pants shit free.
#8. Bombus // Your Blood – Like another band on my list, this Swedish heavy metal, hard rock band has seen a lot of ups and downs in their career. And, for some reason, their co-founding vocalist and guitarist walked. But that didn’t stop Bombus. Not only did they find someone to fill those two slots, but they also added another guitarist to round it out to three. With these new additions, the skill displayed on Your Blood is superior to anything the band has ever done. There’re solos, harmonizing leads, and riffs up the fucking wazoo. I’m uncertain if it’s due to this new skillset or an increase in motivation with five years between albums, but Bombus held nothing back for Your Blood. While there are plenty of the bangers you would expect from a band of this caliber, like the addictive “Take You Down,” there are also other interesting inclusions that I should hate, yet love. For example, the weird, Spaghetti Western qualities of “Your Blood,” the Nick Cave-meets-The White Stripes musings of “The One,” and the bizarreness that is “Carmina.” With Your Blood, the band has found their groove and passion again, delivering their best album yet.
#7. Vanessa Funke // Void – This year brought a surprising new addition to my favorite bands of all time. In this case, it was the newest release from the multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Funke. With a small but stellar catalog, Ms. Funke continuously dabbles in new influences and song approaches with each album and Void is no different. Coming off last year’s acoustic masterpiece Vanessa Funke rewinds to her debut record, Solitude, alternating between rasps and cleans, acoustic and distorted guitars, and her perfectly molded combination of folk, melodeath, and atmospheric black metal. The textures created by the vocals, guitars, keys, and piano take Void down into some incredible depths, engulfing its listeners in blankets that can be both soft and stabby. Albums like this are rare for me these days, so when they do completely submerse me to the point that I can’t think of anything else, there’s no doubt it’ll make it on my year-end list.
#6. Crystal Viper // The Silver Key – Maybe not everyone’s favorite Polish act,4 Crystal Viper’s founding vocalist and guitarist, Marta Gabriel, has been knocking around her blend of heavy and power metal for nearly two decades. But, it’s been a rocky road of great, mediocre, and rage-inducing records. Where Crimen Expecta shines like a bright star in the sky, Tales of Fire and Ice is a dumpster fire that topped my most disappointing album of 2019. When I approached this year’s The Silver Key, I was expecting another mid album (or worse) but was immediately engrossed—maybe even more than Crimen Expecta. Though many of you dislike the vocals, Gabriel is in top form. But, her vocal performance is only one aspect of the Crystal Viper sound. Her guitar work is some of the best of her career, lending new ideas to the song structures and album flow. While plenty of bands are—and are not better—than Crystal Viper, The Silver Key is undeniably one of the best albums of their career.
#5. Sidewinder // Talons – Most likely one of the only overlaps I’ll have with the cunts that work here,5 Sidewinder’s newest release, Talons, threw me for a loop. Not expecting anything from a band I’ve never heard about, Talons immediately got my noggin’ bobbin’ in the most pleasing way. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I like this style of heavy, bounding stoner metal, but every time I hear it, it clicks. And nothing is better than diving right into a record where one of the band’s best pieces is the opener. “Guardians” is a quintessential Sidewinder piece that personifies the band and everything they stand for. But that’s only the beginning, as the guitars cruise down the road and the bass rumbles through the gravel. Clocking in at a mere thirty-four minutes, this eight-track beauty never reaches beyond its means, ensuring the songs are straight and tight, allowing Jem’s powerful vocals to direct the varying moods. While the band resides in the lush and beautiful landscapes of New Zealand,6 if a sound could represent the harsh desert lands of my home, this would be it.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – As many know, death metal is not my cup o’ tea. Once upon a time, death metal was my life, but that ship sailed when my favorites grew old and repetitive, and what you all call death metal these days bores me to tears. But the one band that continues to make me salivate is Aborted.7 And, boy, did this year’s Vault of Horrors deliver. With tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality. Aborted has always delivered good-to-great albums but after nearly thirty years, how can these lads continue to improve and produce such quality releases? Vault of Horrors is a great record and arguably one of the band’s best. It’s been several months since this beauty was released, so if it passed by you, rectify your posersivity.
#3. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – I don’t know what it is about The Vision Bleak but they fucking hit me and hit me hard. On the surface, their style is quite simple, but it’s the layers, stories, mood, and damning vocal performances that draw me in like I’m viewing a Vincent Price horror marathon. Combining their Type O Negative vocal characteristics with atmospheric moods that can be depressive at one point and ethereal at another, The Vision Bleak took a massive leap by releasing Weird Tales as (technically) a one-song album. Eight years since their incredible The Unknown, Weird Tales doesn’t skip a beat, maintaining the duo’s title as one of the greatest bands in gothic metal. With magnificent builds, eerie transitions, mind-bending fluidity, and heart-wrenching passages, the haunting nature of Weird Tales leaves you contemplating your existence in a world controlled by the fate instilled in it by the late, great H.P. Lovecraft.
#2. Kingcrow // Hopium – For fucking months, our progressive cunt, Dolphin Whisper, tried desperately to steal Kingcrow’s Hopium from me—somehow thinking he’s better than me when it comes to describing the lushness of Kingcrow. The fuck. Even though Kingcrow hasn’t released an album in six years, there’s no way some flipper fucker would take this from me. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of progressive metal, but at least I know what’s good progressive metal instead of lazily making love to everything with the tag of “prog.” Anyway, Hopium continues to deliver gorgeous tapestries painted with soothing vocals, synthy atmospheres, and impressive performances for all involved. Though I consider Eidos their best, Hopium is not far behind. While tapping into common influences like Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard, this Italian outfit is very much on a level all its own. If you like prog, you’ll find Hopium—with such wildly varying tracks like “Vicous Circle,” “Parallel Lines,” and “White Rabit’s Hole”—to be the most diverse prog record of the year.
#1. Borknagar // Fall – Goddammit, I love Borknagar. Few bands have such high album scores for a career that spans thirty years and a dozen albums—especially with a constant rotation of players and vocalists. Though, how can you be pissed off about having any of the great vocalists Borknagar has employed throughout the years? Since the beginning, the band has continuously introduced more melody and keys in their music, but Fall is special compared to the output in the last twenty years. Though this new album hasn’t hung up that hat by any means, Øystein G. Brun, Lars A. Nedland, and crew dug through the ashes of the past to bring some of those old-school black metal moments back into the mix. From the blackened assault of “Summits” and the Dimmu Borgir-esque vibes of “Northward,” the band continues to shock and surprise, avoiding a repetition from a previous album. So, dive into the best album o’ the year in all its glory.8
Honorable Mentions
- Portrait // The Host – While I didn’t like the production of Portrait’s The Host, I’m still a slut for King Diamond and Meryful Fate-adjacent metal. Especially when it comes to Portrait, who continues to be less like a copycat and more like a pioneer of the style.
- Attic // Return of the Witchfinder – More King Diamond-core! Easily one of the best examples of the sound, Attic continues to keep me coming back with each release. As their predecessor, Return of the Witchfinder brings a new story, more twists, and those pleasing falsettos that trigger my “O” face.
- Sarke // Endo Feight – Sarke (the artist) and crew have had one hell of a busy couple of years. This year, in particular, sees not only a new Sarke release but also a new Khold record (see below). Endo Feight is a wonderful addition to the band’s catalog and, by god, it’s wonderful to see the man himself back behind the kit.
- Khold // Du dømmes til død – See? I told you it would be here. While 2022’s Svartsyn was better record than Du dømmes til død (and a fantastic comeback), Du dømmes til død still has those elements that make the band so unique and fun to listen to.
- Blood Red Throne // Nonagon – Three years ago, Blood Red Throne released not only one of their best albums but 2021’s best death metal record. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to follow something like Imperial Congregation without some hiccups. That said, Nonagon is still a brutal piece of work worthy of mentioning.
Disappointments o’ the Year
- Darkthrone // It Beckons Us All……. – Like Sarke, Nocturno Culto has also been busy this year. If that’s part of the reason for the utter bore that’s It Beckons Us All……., I don’t know. But, this new record feels like Darkthrone is going through the motions. While I respect that they don’t care what the fuck any of us think, this is one of their worst albums.
- Exhorder // Defectum Omnium – After Exhorder’s incredible comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, I was more than a little excited for this new one. Unfortunately, like Darkthrone’s newest, Defectum Omnium is a dreadfully boring record that lacks all the passion of Exhorder’s comeback, leaving me confused and pissed the fuck off.
Songs o’ the Year
- Kingcrow – “White Rabbit’s Hole” – With an album full of great songs, there’s just something about the energy of this track that makes me so happy.
- Sidewinder – “Guardians” – This song represents some of the best stoner metal of 2024, and I can’t stop listening to it.
- Bombus – “Take You Down” – This song is just badass. I couldn’t care less what you think. Die.
Show 8 footnotes
- Fuck off, this happens every year. ↩
- Don’t call me Steel Daddy ever again! – Steel Daddy ↩
- See what I did there? ↩
- They can’t all be Vaders, ya fucks! ↩
- Love you, GardensTale. ↩
- Well, that’s what the Lord of the Rings movies tell me. ↩
- Yeah, yeah, bitch all you want about including this band into my collective bubble of “death metal.” ↩
- Also, stop listening to “Nordic Anthem” by itself. Fucking idiots. ↩
#2024 #Aborted #Attic #BlogPosts #BloodRedThrone #Bombus #Borknagar #CelticFrost #CrystalViper #Darkthrone #DimmuBorgir #Dio #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2024 #DreamTheater #DustBolt #Exhorder #IAmTheIntimidator #IronMaiden #Khold #KingDiamond #Kingcrow #Lists #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Midnight #Ministry #Motörhead #NickCave #Portrait #Sarke #Sidewinder #SpockSBeard #TheVisionBleak #TheWhiteStripes #TypeONegative #Vader #VanessaFunke #Venom
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Mostly Monday Reads: Free Press vs. a Thin-skinned Putin Wannabe
“Out with the old, a new franchise is born on State Controlled Media, redefining late-night television. Mass for shut-ins step aside.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Banana Republics look out! We’re on the road to attaining your status. Yam Tits has had it with all programming that doesn’t reflect his false narratives. There’s also that fake image he tries to project and sell. He’s after all forms of information providers, and just to prove he’s yanking a few chains, I’ve had a difficult time finding critiques in the usual places. So here are three unusual sources for my top reads today.
First up is the CBC. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is the Canadian Public broadcaster. It’s still in business. I grabbed this headline from its Entertainment division. John’s cartoon over there really hits the nail on the head today. FARTUS really doesn’t like the truth. “Trump vs. TV: A play-by-play of a wild week taking on the U.S. president’s naysayers. Mocking leaders isn’t new, but critics say political satire is now in the crosshairs.”
First he came for late-night TV, then a daytime talk show and a crude cartoon.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration are fighting battles on all fronts when it comes to mockery and criticism of the 47th commander-in-chief.
As speculation swirls that CBS might have turfed The Late Show with Stephen Colbert because of his recent criticism of parent company Paramount Global agreeing to a $16-million US settlement with the president over a 60 Minutes interview, the White House has also come out swinging this week against the animated series South Park and ABC’s The View.
South Park‘s 27th season premiere episode, which aired on Wednesday, lampooned the president and the CBS-Colbert drama and depicted a naked Trump climbing into bed with Satan. That same day, a co-host of The View accused Trump of being “jealous” of former president Barack Obama’s looks and marriage.
Even though he’s known for mocking a range of people he doesn’t like, Trump’s image, persona and brand are what made him a household name, and he doesn’t take it well when he senses attacks on any of them.
While he would largely take out his anger in a Twitter tirade during his first administration (what X was known as back then), there are concerns that Trump is using his power in his second term to influence corporate decision-making and settle grievances — especially when it comes to the news and entertainment industry.
But freedom of expression groups say the political satire and parody that are now under fire are art forms that are not only constitutionally protected but vital to public discourse.
“We have mocked presidents and leaders in this country since before this was a country,” Will Creeley, legal director of the Philadelphia-based advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told CBC News.
“If you can’t make fun of who’s running the country, then the First Amendment doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
So, I suppose using CBC for a source doesn’t surprise you. I probably will surprise you with this one. It’s from The Hill, which isn’t surprising, but the source of the story will be. “Fox News reporter: Trump FCC targeting ‘The View’ could impact network someday.” The way things are going, some day is not that far away. Dominick Mastrangelo has the headline.
Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna warned over the weekend that President Trump’s criticism of networks and shows such as ABC and “The View” could eventually hit conservative media outlets under a Democratic presidential administration.
“As much as it would be nice to think about, like, ‘Oh, “The View’s” gonna go away. Whew, that sounds nice,’ we also have to consider this isn’t the only administration that’s going to be there forever,” Acuna said during an appearance on “The Big Weekend Show”.
“A tool that can be used by this administration can very well be used by the next. And if they were able to do away with ‘The View,’ they could very well — the next administration that comes in that doesn’t like Fox could do the same.”
The reporter’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.
Trump has repeatedly ridiculed ABC News over its coverage of his administration and threatened to use the power of his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to scrutinize the network’s broadcast license.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr, during a recent interview on Fox, suggested “The View,” the network’s table talk news and debate program, could face “consequences” over panelists’ criticisms of Trump.
The Mediate article is worth reading.”Fox News Correspondent Warns Colleagues Not to Celebrate Trump’s FCC for Targeting The View: Next Administration ‘Could Do the Same’ to Fox.” This story comes from the desk of Joe DePaolo. You will notice that there is no shortage of political cartoonists weighing in on the topic. We are all South Park now.
A Fox News correspondent delivered a warning to colleagues celebrating President Donald Trump’s FCC for targeting The View: What goes around could well come around.
During a panel discussion Saturday night on The Big Weekend Show, Fox News senior correspondent Alicia Acuna cautioned her colleagues to be careful what they wish for when it comes to the fate of the ABC daytime talk show — which FCC chairman Brendan Carr recently said could face “consequences” following Joy Behar’s recent criticism of the president.
“As much as it would be nice to think about, like, ‘Oh, The View’s gonna go away. Whew, that sounds nice!’ We also have to consider this isn’t the only administration that’s going to be there forever,” Acuna said. “A tool that can be used by this administration can very well be used by the next. And if they were able to do away with The View they could very well — the next administration that comes in that doesn’t like Fox — could do the same.”
Fox News host Guy Benson concurred.
“I think that is a wise warning,” Benson said.
Carr — in a Thursday interview on Fox’s America’s Newsroom with anchor Bill Hemmer — said The View could have “issues.”
“Is The View now in the crosshairs of this administration?” Hemmer asked Carr.
“Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there,” Carr said. “I mean, again, stepping back, this broader dynamic, once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there’s a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished. And look, The View‘s got a lot challenges there. It wasn’t that long ago, I think, one episode, one show alone, they had to stop, interrupt the show, and read four separate legal notices to try to avoid legal liability. So I’m not surprised to hear people saying that their ratings are struggling.”
Now for my third source, Inside Radio. “Former FCC Chairs Warn of Troubling Shifts in Media Oversight, DEI Policy.”
Former Federal Communications Commission members are sounding the alarm — the nation’s media watchdog is being weaponized, its independence eroded, and decades-old norms tossed aside. At the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s annual Former FCC Chairs’ Symposium on Friday, they said the stakes for media — and democracy — have rarely been higher.
During a wide-ranging discussion in Washington, media policy took center stage early in the conversation. Former FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn issued a blunt assessment. “The Trump FCC 2.0 has abandoned its traditional role, and it has been unprecedented over, you know, when you look out over the 90-year history,” she said.
The former Chair under President Obama added that the Commission is now stepping into areas historically beyond its scope. “Traditionally, the FCC focused on communications-specific concerns, not general corporate employment practices. That’s the shift that we’re talking about here, and that is what I find problematic,” Clyburn said.
The panel then turned to a longstanding pillar of broadcast regulation — the public interest standard — and whether it still has a place in today’s competitive media environment.
Reed Hundt, who chaired the FCC during the Clinton administration, pointed out the inherent vagueness of the concept.
“The problem with the public interest standard is that you don’t know what it is when you see it, and you can’t define it,” Hundt said. “Every time the FCC has tried to write it down, the appellate court has thrown out their effort.” He suggested the Commission should consider eliminating the standard entirely. “It shouldn’t be a weapon that anybody can use. It should be a guideline for the industry that can be followed. But it isn’t,” Hundt said.
Clyburn reinforced the point by contrasting the Commission’s historical focus with its recent approach. “Traditionally, the FCC focused on communications-specific concerns, not general corporate employment practices,” she said. That is reference to the Trump administration’s push to get broadcasters and other industries regulated by the FCC to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
It’s really a difficult period of American History if the rabbit hole I have to go down into is the country’s ongoing loss of First Amendment Rights. But killing a free press is the first strategy of a nascent dictator-wannabe. Give an old professor a break as she heads straight to the academic studies. IMS keeps track of Journalism around the world. I was particularly drawn to this piece. “How autocrats use the media to keep control. A trend of democratic backsliding throughout 2020 escalated in an extreme way in 2021. From Myanmar to Belarus, powerholders have unravelled years of human rights achievements with dramatic arrests of journalists, destroyed infrastructure and regime changes – and people’s access to information and their right to freedom of expression have been among the casualties.” I picked this one because it was written prior to the Trump Regime, but it looks like the MAGA playbook straight out of Project 2025. The word “Lawfare” has entered the American lexicon.
“Lawfare” uses laws and legislation to limit the press, whether that means bureaucratic licencing requirements for journalists and media houses or using defamation laws to intimidate critical voices. Defamation laws have manifested as anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan; national security laws in Hong Kong; and through “fake news” laws with broad phrasing such as those that gained steam under the pretext of Covid-19 safety but have been used to control populations.
Even Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been the target of multiple cyber libel charges, in addition to the harassment and threats incited towards her. The charges against her under these laws were also used as a threat to prevent her from traveling to Oslo to receive her Nobel peace prize before the courts eventually relented. Similarly, an increasing number of strategic lawsuits against public participation – known as SLAPPS – have been used by powerful figures around the world to intimidate critics who may not be able to withstand the financial or psychological toll of court cases.
Mass communication relies on complex networks: from the initial report until the audience receives the final story, access to information requires different physical and digital infrastructures.
It comes as no surprise, then, that autocrats would seek to control infrastructure as a way of repressing freedom of expression. It is easy to point to the extreme, physical destruction of infrastructure, such as the Israeli airstrikes hitting multiple Palestinian media houses – including IMS partner Filastinyat – or in 2022 the Russian bombing of the Kyiv TV Tower. But control of infrastructure is often more insidious.
There is a power play between governments and tech companies over who owns and controls our means of communication – and who has access to people’s data. It is not uncommon for telecoms companies to be owned by oligarchs who are friendly towards a regime. Even in cases such as the Norwegian mobile network Telenor, which left Myanmar rather than cooperating with the military, the infrastructure was sold to a company that was willing to cooperate with the military.
Big Tech allows much to happen on its watch. While social media platforms have been used to spark revolution, they have also been sources of hate speech and disinformation, leading to polarisation and violence. A lack of knowledge of the local contexts in which they operate allows mis- and disinformation to spread from government and unofficial sources. Without consistent policies on what they are willing to tolerate, Big Tech seems most motivated by protecting profits, leaving countries with oppressive governments only once they are forced to and not because of ethical considerations for populations.
Autocrats have a variety of tools at their disposal to supress and intimidate critical voices. The above four steps create fear or lead journalists to lose or leave their jobs, or – in extreme cases – costs journalists’ lives.
Subsequently, defending press freedom and freedom of expression cannot be managed by fighting on only one front. This has always been clear, and strongly underlined by events in 2021 (and the beginning of 2022). Interventions must come from legislative angles and from lobbying international tech companies that profit while looking away from undemocratic policies. And the international community needs to hold their focus on the struggles of journalists and populations under autocracies, not just when dramatic events grab the headlines, but in the day-to-day battle for people’s rights.
Trump’s dalliance with suing The Wall Street Journal is also back in the headlines. This is from CNBC’s Dan Mangan: “Trump seeks quick deposition of Rupert Murdoch in Jeffrey Epstein letter defamation case.” And of course, there is some dank shit in the brief from Trump’s team. This description really got me laughing.
“Trump’s lawyers cite Murdoch’s advanced age to submit to questioning under oath earlier than would be normal, suggesting that Murdoch will either be too ill or dead to testify at trial.”
I mean, was that really necessary?
Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked a judge on Monday to order Rupert Murdoch to sit for a deposition within 15 days for Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit accusing the media mogul of defaming him in a Wall Street Journal article about a “bawdy” birthday letter to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump’s lawyers cited Murdoch’s advanced age to submit to questioning under oath as a chief argument in their motion to compel him to testify earlier than would be normal in such a lawsuit, suggesting that Murdoch will either be too ill or dead to testify by the time the case goes to trial.
“Murdoch is 94 years old, has suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life, is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares, and is presumed to live in New York, New York,” Trump’s lawyers said in their legal filing in Miami federal court.
“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” the lawyers wrote.
The attorneys also cited the fact that there is, as yet, no order scheduling the exchange of evidence and testimony in the case.
You’ll notice how this got a lot of ‘play’ in Scotland and the UK. This article appeared in The Guardian, and the film was all over Social Media. “Rough deal: Social media roasts Trump’s golf game after clip appears to show alleged cheating in Scotland. Trump has long been accused of cheating at golf and mixing politics and business on the course.” Josh Marcus has the story about the ball that went into the roughest of the rough only to be replaced on the green by his caddie.
Social media users pounced on a clip that appears to show Donald Trump cheating on the golf course during his ongoing trip to Scotland, the latest in a long line of accusations that the president cheats on the fairway.
In the video circulated by liberal commentators, a caddy appears to walk ahead of the golf-loving president in his golf cart and drop a ball behind him as the president approaches.
“Trump working hard to bring down grocery prices,” the caption says, making a satirical reference to the president’s campaign promises to tackle inflation and costs.
“For the morons that think Trump doesn’t cheat at golf and wins all those club championships fair and square….watch his caddie here,” another account wrote.
The phrase “commander in cheat” was soon trending on the social media site.
“The video of Trump’s caddy doing an Oddjob Slazenger drop isn’t a big deal; cheating at golf isn’t nearly the worst thing about Trump,” wrote The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols. “But watching the cult of personality try to explain it away is really some creepy North Korean level stuff.”
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
The president has faced a long list of accusations that he doesn’t play fair from figures ranging from actor Samuel Jackson to LPGA player Suzann Pettersen.
Trump’s alleged cheating, which has always denied, is even the subject of a book: Rick Reilly’s Commander in Cheat.
“At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: Pele,” Reilly writes in the book.
The enticing Nichols quote can be found on X. Just letting you know, since I’m not going there or linking to it. If this little romp across the pond was supposed to highlight the strength of Orange Caligula, it failed. Although it was funny watching all the EU leaders head to Scotland to try to get TACO to just freaking make a decision on the tariffs. If he’s interested in bringing down inflation, tariffs would still not be in the headlines. Yammering about lower interest rates to the Fed Chair wouldn’t be in that policy either. He needs to find the closest community college to take Economics 101 and 102. He absolutely knows nothing about anything economics-related.
If this is really the best he can do to get the public attention off the Murdoch scandals, he’s surely failing. The Rapist-in-chief is now clearly in the box with Epstein’s enabler and partner in sexual assault and battery of children. This is from AXIOS. “Ghislaine Maxwell files Supreme Court brief appealing Epstein conviction.” There are at least two guys sitting on that court who have assaulted women. What does that say about justice and our country?
Ghislaine Maxwell pressed ahead with an appeal to the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to overturn her conviction on the grounds that she was unlawfully prosecuted for sex trafficking minors with Jeffrey Epstein.
Why it matters: The filing by Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2022, comes just three days after she met with a top Justice Department official tapped to re-examine the Epstein case.
- The Trump administration has faced weeks of bipartisan backlash after reneging on promises to release all files related to the now-deceased sex trafficker.
- MAGA activists have suggested that Maxwell, a British former socialite, could be the key to exposing new information about the alleged elite pedophile ring at the heart of Epstein conspiracy theories.
Zoom in: Maxwell’s appeal revolves around a highly controversial 2007 plea agreement Epstein negotiated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida.
- “The United States,” the plea agreement stated, “agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to” four other suspects.
- Maxwell was not listed as one of those suspects — but her lawyers argue she didn’t need to be.
Between the lines: Maxwell’s attorneys, the husband-wife team of Mona and David Oscar Markus contends that a plain reading of the deal protects unnamed co-conspirators as well, since it explicitly says it’s “not limited to” those listed.
- Markus also argues that language in the deal — promising immunity from “the United States” — means Maxwell couldn’t be prosecuted for Epstein-related crimes anywhere in the country.
- “The government’s argument, across the board, is essentially an appeal to what it wishes the agreement had said, rather than what it actually says,” Mona Markus wrote in the petition.
The other side: The Justice Department says former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, who negotiated the deal, didn’t have authority to bind other federal districts — including the Southern District of New York, where Maxwell was ultimately tried and convicted.
The intrigue: Federal appeals courts have split over the key question of whether a plea deal struck by one U.S. Attorney’s Office applies to the entire Justice Department.
- The Justice Department acknowledged that divide in its own brief, but has urged the Supreme Court to reject Maxwell’s appeal.
- “The government was not even aware of [Maxwell’s] role in Epstein’s scheme at that time,” DOJ argued, calling her “at most, an incidental third-party beneficiary of the agreement.”
Welcome to another Monday in Trumplandia.
What’s on your Reading, Blogging, and Action list today?
#BrettCavanuagjSexualBattery #CommanderInCheat #ConservativeRepublicanSexualBatteryAndChildRape #DemocraticDecline #GhislaineMaxwell #GolfCheaterInChief #Lawfare #Trump #TrumpAndTheFirstAmendment #TrumpAttacksOnMedia #TrumpHebephile #UncleClarenceThomas #YamTits
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Thousand Limbs – The Aurochs Review
By Dear Hollow
If any metal style has the right to be instrumental, it’s a three-way tie between djent, drone, and post-metal – and I’m guessing you’re cringing right now. While the former two are dragged across oft-unwilling ears in masturbatory guitar wizardry and booty-thick minimalist sprawls, respectively, post-metal has always felt a bit more exploratory and dynamic. Acts like Tempel and Russian Circles have crafted landscapes out of massive riffs and complex compositions, and New Zealand’s Thousand Limbs takes a similar approach with debut full-length The Aurochs. Big riffs and visceral chord progressions guide, and we are on this journey with them.
The Aurochs takes influence from the enigmatic Chinese Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, illustrations and parables from twelfth-century Zen master Kakuan Shion. Thousand Limbs’ individual ten tracks reflect each of the illustrations and their attached poetic verses respectively, through a sonic exploration of the achievement of awakening. While post-metal is clear in Isis-esque off-kilter rhythms, curious melodicisms, and lurching patterns alongside Russian Circles awe-inducing hugeness, other influences of YOB, Bongripper, and Earth also pervade. Orange haze, vintage distortion, and driving baritone riffs add a certain aggression and twist.
Beginning with “A Blessed Life to Suffer,” you’re graced with post-metal and doom’s most endearing quality: patience. Thousand Limbs is content letting its riffs grow and sprawl across its mammoth nearly hour-long runtime. Tracks like “Form,” “Fall of Body and Mind,” and closer “A Boundless Heart” exchange big sprawls, haunting leads, and fuzzy noodles seamlessly in painting enlightened pictures with broad yet gentle strokes, while the interludes “Only His Shadow,” “Evening Haze,” and “Beneath Soil and Stone” embrace the darker melodies that momentarily cut through the murk. Centerpieces “The Aurochs” and “The Aurochs – Aligned” are the best tracks here, exemplifying a two-part exploration of “Seizing the Ox” and “Taming the Ox.” First half “The Aurochs” is vicious and driving, complete with dissonant dueling arpeggios, while the second’s “Aligned” interpretation is more sunny and optimistic stoner-heavy bass-forward intertwined rhythms feel like some achievement of peace. Thousand Limbs’ careful control of its songwriting and motifs is consistently illustrated throughout, transitions between dissonance, darker minor moods, sunny melody, and brighter major chords remarkably smooth.
The fusion of post-metal and vintage doom is an intriguing premise, but Thousand Limbs suffers from its murk. Stoner doom in particular is aligned in minimalist compositions, and while guitars attempt to intertwine and compensate for The Aurochs’ voiceless trudge, it takes multiple listens to discern between the layers – especially when they exist in the same register. All the layered riffs and leads that guide “A Dim Light to Guide,” “Form,” and “A Boundless Heart” all swirl with no particular conclusion, only letting random bouts of squealing feedback cut through the bog. In this way, the careful and precise nature of post-metal is incompatible with the fuzzy wrecking ball of stoner doom, and Thousand Limbs shoots itself in the foot with its stoner doom swampy mix. Even beyond it, while the album structure favors their placement as album climax, “The Aurochs” and “The Aurochs – Aligned” are the undisputed best tracks here, putting all others in their shadow.
To their credit, Thousand Limbs has created a post-metal album that is evocative, smartly composed, and achieving a clear purpose. The problem is that The Aurochs makes no case convincing stoner doom and post-metal naysayers that it’s the best thing since Isis or Bongripper. Unless you’re prepared to analyze the hell out of it for damn near an hour, fighting uphill against a production value of dominating fuzz and denied vocals, The Aurochs is a chore. Thousand Limbs carries on the tried-and-true tradition of instrumental post-metal in a unique fusion that embraces the hallmarks of classic doom and stoner sensibilities in a tangible and realized theme. But like the walk towards enlightenment, you’ve got to struggle for it.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: thousandlimbs.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/thousandlimbsnz
Releases Worldwide: July 19th, 2024#25 #2024 #Bongripper #DoomMetal #Earth #Jul24 #NewZealandMetal #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #RussianCircles #SelfRelease #StonerDoomMetal #Tempel #TheAurochs #ThousandLimbs #YOB
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Thousand Limbs – The Aurochs Review
By Dear Hollow
If any metal style has the right to be instrumental, it’s a three-way tie between djent, drone, and post-metal – and I’m guessing you’re cringing right now. While the former two are dragged across oft-unwilling ears in masturbatory guitar wizardry and booty-thick minimalist sprawls, respectively, post-metal has always felt a bit more exploratory and dynamic. Acts like Tempel and Russian Circles have crafted landscapes out of massive riffs and complex compositions, and New Zealand’s Thousand Limbs takes a similar approach with debut full-length The Aurochs. Big riffs and visceral chord progressions guide, and we are on this journey with them.
The Aurochs takes influence from the enigmatic Chinese Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, illustrations and parables from twelfth-century Zen master Kakuan Shion. Thousand Limbs’ individual ten tracks reflect each of the illustrations and their attached poetic verses respectively, through a sonic exploration of the achievement of awakening. While post-metal is clear in Isis-esque off-kilter rhythms, curious melodicisms, and lurching patterns alongside Russian Circles awe-inducing hugeness, other influences of YOB, Bongripper, and Earth also pervade. Orange haze, vintage distortion, and driving baritone riffs add a certain aggression and twist.
Beginning with “A Blessed Life to Suffer,” you’re graced with post-metal and doom’s most endearing quality: patience. Thousand Limbs is content letting its riffs grow and sprawl across its mammoth nearly hour-long runtime. Tracks like “Form,” “Fall of Body and Mind,” and closer “A Boundless Heart” exchange big sprawls, haunting leads, and fuzzy noodles seamlessly in painting enlightened pictures with broad yet gentle strokes, while the interludes “Only His Shadow,” “Evening Haze,” and “Beneath Soil and Stone” embrace the darker melodies that momentarily cut through the murk. Centerpieces “The Aurochs” and “The Aurochs – Aligned” are the best tracks here, exemplifying a two-part exploration of “Seizing the Ox” and “Taming the Ox.” First half “The Aurochs” is vicious and driving, complete with dissonant dueling arpeggios, while the second’s “Aligned” interpretation is more sunny and optimistic stoner-heavy bass-forward intertwined rhythms feel like some achievement of peace. Thousand Limbs’ careful control of its songwriting and motifs is consistently illustrated throughout, transitions between dissonance, darker minor moods, sunny melody, and brighter major chords remarkably smooth.
The fusion of post-metal and vintage doom is an intriguing premise, but Thousand Limbs suffers from its murk. Stoner doom in particular is aligned in minimalist compositions, and while guitars attempt to intertwine and compensate for The Aurochs’ voiceless trudge, it takes multiple listens to discern between the layers – especially when they exist in the same register. All the layered riffs and leads that guide “A Dim Light to Guide,” “Form,” and “A Boundless Heart” all swirl with no particular conclusion, only letting random bouts of squealing feedback cut through the bog. In this way, the careful and precise nature of post-metal is incompatible with the fuzzy wrecking ball of stoner doom, and Thousand Limbs shoots itself in the foot with its stoner doom swampy mix. Even beyond it, while the album structure favors their placement as album climax, “The Aurochs” and “The Aurochs – Aligned” are the undisputed best tracks here, putting all others in their shadow.
To their credit, Thousand Limbs has created a post-metal album that is evocative, smartly composed, and achieving a clear purpose. The problem is that The Aurochs makes no case convincing stoner doom and post-metal naysayers that it’s the best thing since Isis or Bongripper. Unless you’re prepared to analyze the hell out of it for damn near an hour, fighting uphill against a production value of dominating fuzz and denied vocals, The Aurochs is a chore. Thousand Limbs carries on the tried-and-true tradition of instrumental post-metal in a unique fusion that embraces the hallmarks of classic doom and stoner sensibilities in a tangible and realized theme. But like the walk towards enlightenment, you’ve got to struggle for it.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: thousandlimbs.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/thousandlimbsnz
Releases Worldwide: July 19th, 2024#25 #2024 #Bongripper #DoomMetal #Earth #Jul24 #NewZealandMetal #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #RussianCircles #SelfRelease #StonerDoomMetal #Tempel #TheAurochs #ThousandLimbs #YOB
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Star Trek’s Returning Star Hits Back at Criticism of Divisive Spinoff Series – Comic Book Resources (CBR)
By Sam Fang, Published 2 days ago
Sam Fang primarily covers news for CBR, with over a decade of experience writing about entertainment and pop culture and degrees in both journalism and art.
One of Star Trek‘s veteran actors who returned for its divisive new spinoff, Starfleet Academy, is speaking out against criticisms of the show. Robert Picardo recently talked with fans on social media about the show’s backlash.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Picardo shared a newspaper image published from the time his previous Star Trek project, Voyager, went to air. “It is interesting to note that @StarTrek #Voyager, so beloved in retrospect, was thought “woke” (“politically correct” was the term way back then) at its premiere,” Picardo wrote. The post generated plenty of dialogue with Star Trek fans regarding Starfleet Academy, which has been incredibly divisive among fans, and Picardo took the time to further share his thoughts with the naysayers.
It is interesting to note that @StarTrek #Voyager, so beloved in retrospect, was thought "woke" ("politically correct" was the term way back then) at its premiere. pic.twitter.com/qxP3fABaI6
— Robert Picardo (@RobertPicardo) January 18, 2026One person replied to the post, claiming to have an “insider at CBS”, claiming that “Alex Kurtzman, behind the scenes, is intentionally turning it into a political lecture”, which Picardo responded to. “I know Alex Kurtzman. I work with him. I know what you were saying is not true about his motives. But my point remains: if you have a better vision, bring it to the table. You are a writer with a lot of experience and science fiction. Turn your back on what you don’t like and create something with your vision.”
Picardo also took the time to share one of his own experiences of being offended by entertainment earlier in life, responding to a fan who also criticized Kurtzman’s era of Star Trek. “I remember refusing to see THE GODFATHER,” Picardo wrote. “Being 100% Italian American, I thought it promoted negative stereotypes. I prejudged it and refused to watch it for years. Now it is my favorite movie.”
He went on to share how disheartening it was to read people tearing the show down rather than just not watching the new Star Trek installment if it wasn’t to their liking. “Here it is, simply. I miss the days when, if you didn’t like a TV show, you simply didn’t watch it. What I find sad about this present moment, is that people who don’t like a television show make it their mission to keep others from watching it, to attack it round the clock, to destroy it,” he shared.
“This isn’t a football game. This isn’t a zero sum battle to the death. This is freedom of choice in entertainment. Aren’t there more positive ways to spend your energy than simply trying to destroy someone else’s creative effort?” Picardo continued, “If you are certain you can do better, write a pitch and take it to CBS-Paramount. You have writing talent and credentials. Invest all of the time spent in trying to tear something down into trying to build something new. I promise you I’ll watch it.”
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Star Trek’s Returning Star Hits Back at Criticism of Divisive Spinoff Series
Tags: Alex Kurtzman, CBR, CBS, Comic Book Resources, DIALOG, Entertainment, Fans, Freedom of Choice, Paramount, Reviews, Robert Picardo, Social Media, Star Trek, Starfleet Academy, Veteran Actor
#AlexKurtzman #CBR #CBS #ComicBookResources #DIALOG #Entertainment #Fans #FreedomOfChoice #Paramount #Reviews #RobertPicardo #SocialMedia #StarTrek #StarfleetAcademy #VeteranActor -
La Torture des Ténèbres – Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor Review
By Dear Hollow
La Torture des Ténèbres, in spite of the sadistic propensity for aural flaying, offers a unique voice in black metal. A one-woman show with an aesthetic evoking dystopian urban shimmer, decopunk, classic science fiction, and the space age, it conjures images of glittering mile-high cities built on the backs of the impoverished, brave women overcoming the adversity of the stars, the sneaking static cutting through a dictator’s commands through the radio, the jazzy bombasts of the elite’s decadent galas – and the loneliness of it all. There is no overselling just how noisy and jarring this act’s sound is on the ears, but lone mastermind JK has concocted a trademark stew that makes it stand out in nearly every way. Episode VII arrives a mere five months after its predecessor, expressing a fusion of its aesthetics.
Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor deals in a sound that retains La Torture des Ténèbres’ signature style, the vicious rawness and lonely melodic tremolo leads while fusing its two aesthetic influences. 2016 began with the formidably raw and ambient spacefaring canon of Choirs of Emptiness and Acadian Nights,1 but was reinterpreted by the more dystopian Civilization is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, which set the tone for the following releases up to last year’s V and The Lost Colony of Altar Vista. In this way, Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor blends these two themes, dystopian civilizations set amongst the stars, its vast colonies and glorious cities plagued by inequality, sexism, and the hive mind’s whims.
La Torture des Ténèbres lives up to Revenge of Unfailing Valor’s description (“VOLITIONAL EXPLOITATION // SMOULDERING HIVES”) by channeling its trademark melodic template and ambient sensibilities into a fuller sound that amps violence while hinting at a tragic heart beneath machinelike mania. Its trademark is intact: the rawness and utter saturation of rawness is ubiquitous, as even its more placid moments of lonely melodies are scathing. However, one distinction is melodic motifs that tie the album into one cohesive whole: an ascending jazzy synth run (“Vast Black Claws Drag Her Back to Space,” “Metropolitan Warfare,” “Out of All the Years We’ve Come…”) and sanguine synth melodies (“The Second Piscean Abyss,” “Angels”). As always, this is communicated through the ebb and flow of three prongs of scathing second-wave blasting/tremolo/shrieking, lonely tremolo, and distorted vintage samples. This arsenal and dynamic are as intriguing as they are jarring, samples and melodies inviting comparisons to classic science fiction (“Vast Black Claws…,” “The Second Piscean Abyss”) and the roarin’ twenties worship of decopunk (“Breathe in the Fucking Sawdust and Die,” “Yes But Can a Camp Girl Do This”). The first act in particular utilizes a bombast of violent second-wave rawness in contrast with an over-the-top sample presence. A grandiosity pervades in a way that recalls predecessor V, but La Torture des Ténèbres‘ fuller sound adds to the assault – tinnitus is guaranteed.
The second half of Episode VII finds La Torture des Ténèbres taking risks – the samples are fewer, the melodies are far more tragic and empty, and there is rest to be found. The brutal mid-album climax in “The Second Piscean Abyss” allows for reinterpretation for “Metropolitan Warfare” and beyond, trademark and motifs carrying across in emptier and more tragic melodies and moments (i.e. the release of all sound but tinny tremolo and blastbeats in “Traditions” and total collapses into noise in “Out of All the Years…”). This reinforces the need for bulletproof songwriting rather than reliance on samples and jarring movements to do the heavy lifting, and JK is up to the task. “Angels” is placed perfectly, its minimalist, distorted, and aptly angelic sample providing rest for the weary ears – for the first time in La Torture des Ténèbres’ career.
La Torture des Ténèbres will not sway any naysayers of raw black or blackened noise. In fact, many will point to their ringing ears or pinched nerves2 and say “See??” after Episode VII concludes with the noise fadeout of “Out of All the Years…”. Those who are willing to endure will find treasures aplenty, an opus of hyper-atmospheric, excessively noisy, and endlessly tragic melodies and motifs. Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor sweeps you away to a universe yet to be explored; but even in the dead vacuum of space or within mankind’s hive-mind colonies, you can’t escape your humanity.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Website: latorturedestenebres.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025#2025 #40 #AmbientBlackMetal #AmbientNoise #AtmosphericBlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Chaosophia #EpisodeVIIRevengeOfUnfailingValor #LaTortureDesTénèbres #Mar25 #Noise #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased
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La Torture des Ténèbres – Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor Review
By Dear Hollow
La Torture des Ténèbres, in spite of the sadistic propensity for aural flaying, offers a unique voice in black metal. A one-woman show with an aesthetic evoking dystopian urban shimmer, decopunk, classic science fiction, and the space age, it conjures images of glittering mile-high cities built on the backs of the impoverished, brave women overcoming the adversity of the stars, the sneaking static cutting through a dictator’s commands through the radio, the jazzy bombasts of the elite’s decadent galas – and the loneliness of it all. There is no overselling just how noisy and jarring this act’s sound is on the ears, but lone mastermind JK has concocted a trademark stew that makes it stand out in nearly every way. Episode VII arrives a mere five months after its predecessor, expressing a fusion of its aesthetics.
Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor deals in a sound that retains La Torture des Ténèbres’ signature style, the vicious rawness and lonely melodic tremolo leads while fusing its two aesthetic influences. 2016 began with the formidably raw and ambient spacefaring canon of Choirs of Emptiness and Acadian Nights,1 but was reinterpreted by the more dystopian Civilization is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, which set the tone for the following releases up to last year’s V and The Lost Colony of Altar Vista. In this way, Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor blends these two themes, dystopian civilizations set amongst the stars, its vast colonies and glorious cities plagued by inequality, sexism, and the hive mind’s whims.
La Torture des Ténèbres lives up to Revenge of Unfailing Valor’s description (“VOLITIONAL EXPLOITATION // SMOULDERING HIVES”) by channeling its trademark melodic template and ambient sensibilities into a fuller sound that amps violence while hinting at a tragic heart beneath machinelike mania. Its trademark is intact: the rawness and utter saturation of rawness is ubiquitous, as even its more placid moments of lonely melodies are scathing. However, one distinction is melodic motifs that tie the album into one cohesive whole: an ascending jazzy synth run (“Vast Black Claws Drag Her Back to Space,” “Metropolitan Warfare,” “Out of All the Years We’ve Come…”) and sanguine synth melodies (“The Second Piscean Abyss,” “Angels”). As always, this is communicated through the ebb and flow of three prongs of scathing second-wave blasting/tremolo/shrieking, lonely tremolo, and distorted vintage samples. This arsenal and dynamic are as intriguing as they are jarring, samples and melodies inviting comparisons to classic science fiction (“Vast Black Claws…,” “The Second Piscean Abyss”) and the roarin’ twenties worship of decopunk (“Breathe in the Fucking Sawdust and Die,” “Yes But Can a Camp Girl Do This”). The first act in particular utilizes a bombast of violent second-wave rawness in contrast with an over-the-top sample presence. A grandiosity pervades in a way that recalls predecessor V, but La Torture des Ténèbres‘ fuller sound adds to the assault – tinnitus is guaranteed.
The second half of Episode VII finds La Torture des Ténèbres taking risks – the samples are fewer, the melodies are far more tragic and empty, and there is rest to be found. The brutal mid-album climax in “The Second Piscean Abyss” allows for reinterpretation for “Metropolitan Warfare” and beyond, trademark and motifs carrying across in emptier and more tragic melodies and moments (i.e. the release of all sound but tinny tremolo and blastbeats in “Traditions” and total collapses into noise in “Out of All the Years…”). This reinforces the need for bulletproof songwriting rather than reliance on samples and jarring movements to do the heavy lifting, and JK is up to the task. “Angels” is placed perfectly, its minimalist, distorted, and aptly angelic sample providing rest for the weary ears – for the first time in La Torture des Ténèbres’ career.
La Torture des Ténèbres will not sway any naysayers of raw black or blackened noise. In fact, many will point to their ringing ears or pinched nerves2 and say “See??” after Episode VII concludes with the noise fadeout of “Out of All the Years…”. Those who are willing to endure will find treasures aplenty, an opus of hyper-atmospheric, excessively noisy, and endlessly tragic melodies and motifs. Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor sweeps you away to a universe yet to be explored; but even in the dead vacuum of space or within mankind’s hive-mind colonies, you can’t escape your humanity.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Website: latorturedestenebres.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025#2025 #40 #AmbientBlackMetal #AmbientNoise #AtmosphericBlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Chaosophia #EpisodeVIIRevengeOfUnfailingValor #LaTortureDesTénèbres #Mar25 #Noise #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased
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La Torture des Ténèbres – Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor Review
By Dear Hollow
La Torture des Ténèbres, in spite of the sadistic propensity for aural flaying, offers a unique voice in black metal. A one-woman show with an aesthetic evoking dystopian urban shimmer, decopunk, classic science fiction, and the space age, it conjures images of glittering mile-high cities built on the backs of the impoverished, brave women overcoming the adversity of the stars, the sneaking static cutting through a dictator’s commands through the radio, the jazzy bombasts of the elite’s decadent galas – and the loneliness of it all. There is no overselling just how noisy and jarring this act’s sound is on the ears, but lone mastermind JK has concocted a trademark stew that makes it stand out in nearly every way. Episode VII arrives a mere five months after its predecessor, expressing a fusion of its aesthetics.
Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor deals in a sound that retains La Torture des Ténèbres’ signature style, the vicious rawness and lonely melodic tremolo leads while fusing its two aesthetic influences. 2016 began with the formidably raw and ambient spacefaring canon of Choirs of Emptiness and Acadian Nights,1 but was reinterpreted by the more dystopian Civilization is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, which set the tone for the following releases up to last year’s V and The Lost Colony of Altar Vista. In this way, Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor blends these two themes, dystopian civilizations set amongst the stars, its vast colonies and glorious cities plagued by inequality, sexism, and the hive mind’s whims.
La Torture des Ténèbres lives up to Revenge of Unfailing Valor’s description (“VOLITIONAL EXPLOITATION // SMOULDERING HIVES”) by channeling its trademark melodic template and ambient sensibilities into a fuller sound that amps violence while hinting at a tragic heart beneath machinelike mania. Its trademark is intact: the rawness and utter saturation of rawness is ubiquitous, as even its more placid moments of lonely melodies are scathing. However, one distinction is melodic motifs that tie the album into one cohesive whole: an ascending jazzy synth run (“Vast Black Claws Drag Her Back to Space,” “Metropolitan Warfare,” “Out of All the Years We’ve Come…”) and sanguine synth melodies (“The Second Piscean Abyss,” “Angels”). As always, this is communicated through the ebb and flow of three prongs of scathing second-wave blasting/tremolo/shrieking, lonely tremolo, and distorted vintage samples. This arsenal and dynamic are as intriguing as they are jarring, samples and melodies inviting comparisons to classic science fiction (“Vast Black Claws…,” “The Second Piscean Abyss”) and the roarin’ twenties worship of decopunk (“Breathe in the Fucking Sawdust and Die,” “Yes But Can a Camp Girl Do This”). The first act in particular utilizes a bombast of violent second-wave rawness in contrast with an over-the-top sample presence. A grandiosity pervades in a way that recalls predecessor V, but La Torture des Ténèbres‘ fuller sound adds to the assault – tinnitus is guaranteed.
The second half of Episode VII finds La Torture des Ténèbres taking risks – the samples are fewer, the melodies are far more tragic and empty, and there is rest to be found. The brutal mid-album climax in “The Second Piscean Abyss” allows for reinterpretation for “Metropolitan Warfare” and beyond, trademark and motifs carrying across in emptier and more tragic melodies and moments (i.e. the release of all sound but tinny tremolo and blastbeats in “Traditions” and total collapses into noise in “Out of All the Years…”). This reinforces the need for bulletproof songwriting rather than reliance on samples and jarring movements to do the heavy lifting, and JK is up to the task. “Angels” is placed perfectly, its minimalist, distorted, and aptly angelic sample providing rest for the weary ears – for the first time in La Torture des Ténèbres’ career.
La Torture des Ténèbres will not sway any naysayers of raw black or blackened noise. In fact, many will point to their ringing ears or pinched nerves2 and say “See??” after Episode VII concludes with the noise fadeout of “Out of All the Years…”. Those who are willing to endure will find treasures aplenty, an opus of hyper-atmospheric, excessively noisy, and endlessly tragic melodies and motifs. Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor sweeps you away to a universe yet to be explored; but even in the dead vacuum of space or within mankind’s hive-mind colonies, you can’t escape your humanity.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Website: latorturedestenebres.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025#2025 #40 #AmbientBlackMetal #AmbientNoise #AtmosphericBlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Chaosophia #EpisodeVIIRevengeOfUnfailingValor #LaTortureDesTénèbres #Mar25 #Noise #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased
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La Torture des Ténèbres – Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor Review
By Dear Hollow
La Torture des Ténèbres, in spite of the sadistic propensity for aural flaying, offers a unique voice in black metal. A one-woman show with an aesthetic evoking dystopian urban shimmer, decopunk, classic science fiction, and the space age, it conjures images of glittering mile-high cities built on the backs of the impoverished, brave women overcoming the adversity of the stars, the sneaking static cutting through a dictator’s commands through the radio, the jazzy bombasts of the elite’s decadent galas – and the loneliness of it all. There is no overselling just how noisy and jarring this act’s sound is on the ears, but lone mastermind JK has concocted a trademark stew that makes it stand out in nearly every way. Episode VII arrives a mere five months after its predecessor, expressing a fusion of its aesthetics.
Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor deals in a sound that retains La Torture des Ténèbres’ signature style, the vicious rawness and lonely melodic tremolo leads while fusing its two aesthetic influences. 2016 began with the formidably raw and ambient spacefaring canon of Choirs of Emptiness and Acadian Nights,1 but was reinterpreted by the more dystopian Civilization is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, which set the tone for the following releases up to last year’s V and The Lost Colony of Altar Vista. In this way, Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor blends these two themes, dystopian civilizations set amongst the stars, its vast colonies and glorious cities plagued by inequality, sexism, and the hive mind’s whims.
La Torture des Ténèbres lives up to Revenge of Unfailing Valor’s description (“VOLITIONAL EXPLOITATION // SMOULDERING HIVES”) by channeling its trademark melodic template and ambient sensibilities into a fuller sound that amps violence while hinting at a tragic heart beneath machinelike mania. Its trademark is intact: the rawness and utter saturation of rawness is ubiquitous, as even its more placid moments of lonely melodies are scathing. However, one distinction is melodic motifs that tie the album into one cohesive whole: an ascending jazzy synth run (“Vast Black Claws Drag Her Back to Space,” “Metropolitan Warfare,” “Out of All the Years We’ve Come…”) and sanguine synth melodies (“The Second Piscean Abyss,” “Angels”). As always, this is communicated through the ebb and flow of three prongs of scathing second-wave blasting/tremolo/shrieking, lonely tremolo, and distorted vintage samples. This arsenal and dynamic are as intriguing as they are jarring, samples and melodies inviting comparisons to classic science fiction (“Vast Black Claws…,” “The Second Piscean Abyss”) and the roarin’ twenties worship of decopunk (“Breathe in the Fucking Sawdust and Die,” “Yes But Can a Camp Girl Do This”). The first act in particular utilizes a bombast of violent second-wave rawness in contrast with an over-the-top sample presence. A grandiosity pervades in a way that recalls predecessor V, but La Torture des Ténèbres‘ fuller sound adds to the assault – tinnitus is guaranteed.
The second half of Episode VII finds La Torture des Ténèbres taking risks – the samples are fewer, the melodies are far more tragic and empty, and there is rest to be found. The brutal mid-album climax in “The Second Piscean Abyss” allows for reinterpretation for “Metropolitan Warfare” and beyond, trademark and motifs carrying across in emptier and more tragic melodies and moments (i.e. the release of all sound but tinny tremolo and blastbeats in “Traditions” and total collapses into noise in “Out of All the Years…”). This reinforces the need for bulletproof songwriting rather than reliance on samples and jarring movements to do the heavy lifting, and JK is up to the task. “Angels” is placed perfectly, its minimalist, distorted, and aptly angelic sample providing rest for the weary ears – for the first time in La Torture des Ténèbres’ career.
La Torture des Ténèbres will not sway any naysayers of raw black or blackened noise. In fact, many will point to their ringing ears or pinched nerves2 and say “See??” after Episode VII concludes with the noise fadeout of “Out of All the Years…”. Those who are willing to endure will find treasures aplenty, an opus of hyper-atmospheric, excessively noisy, and endlessly tragic melodies and motifs. Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor sweeps you away to a universe yet to be explored; but even in the dead vacuum of space or within mankind’s hive-mind colonies, you can’t escape your humanity.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Website: latorturedestenebres.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025#2025 #40 #AmbientBlackMetal #AmbientNoise #AtmosphericBlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Chaosophia #EpisodeVIIRevengeOfUnfailingValor #LaTortureDesTénèbres #Mar25 #Noise #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased
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I'm one of the people who is very thankful that you're running Altbot in the current setup.
The LLM takes the time to carefully describe in miniscule detail my photographs, which would take a lot of time and effort if I would have to do that myself.
Photographs are very complex to describe
Because the LLM has to guess in many cases, what is written at a certain angle with a certain amount of light falling on it, with often a warped perspective and everything else in between, the task can be harder than what layman would think
It is quite natural that sometimes something is missed.
The small missed items are nothing, in comparison with everything else that is nailed up to the detail, of the version number of an Integrated Circuit, sitting at an angle where you can barely read the letters and the numbers on it
I have an extremely high technical background and I know what's going on
I'm grateful for the work you've done. You're saving me and Thousand thousands of others, a lot of time
Disregard the naysayers it's the internet
🦋💙❤️💋#Lobi 💙💕🌹💐💙🦋
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Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance Review
By Dear Hollow
If you’re new here, hi, I’m the sellout. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires. I’m the man who saw the standards of metal and leveled them with one swing of my hammer. I’m the fallen one, the one who dragged two other miscreants low on my scorched earth campaign in wretched defiance of the golden pantheons.1 If you’re new here, hi, I’m the guy who ranked Whitechapel. This review right here is an insult to AMG’s injury, a double take of a band whose reputation is soiled like the diaper in a millennial teenagers’ skinny jeans as his hair flaps back and forth in the moshpit before he eats shit. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires who’s back for more murderizing and toppling – because Whitechapel is back, baby.
Whitechapel has always exemplified the sellout of deathcore while also being a better version of it throughout the act’s nearly twenty-year career, flexibility ultimately providing the key to success. Contrary to the perpetual breakdowning of Suicide Silence or the complete abandonment of deathcore from Job for a Cowboy, the Knoxville collective has long relied on the charisma of frontman Phil Bozeman and a three-pronged guitar attack for its natural progressions. From clean vocals to muddy productions and beyond, Hymns in Dissonance comes at the end of a lyrically vulnerable, musically controversial era, promising the return to their bludgeoning roots. In this right, it definitely delivers.
Gone are the clean vocals and introspective lyrics of The Valley or Kin, and a return to the “loud and ouchy” steel-toed beatdowns of yore. Hymns in Dissonance does its best contemporary rendition of breakout album This is Exile, and with the lyrical return of religious criticism and murderizing, it sounds a lot like 2010’s A New Era of Corruption. Bozeman’s manic vocals guide the attack, wavering between rapid-fire lyrical sputtering and mammoth callouts, while instrumentals attack with far more vigor and fury than in its predecessor. The ebb and flow between the manic blastbeats and blazing riffs, ominous leads, and the devastating chugging weight is a well-featured asset (“A Visceral Retch,” “The Abysmal Gospel”), the one-two punches between riff-fests and thick breakdowns recalling This is Exile’s “Possession” (“Hate Cult Ritual,” “Bedlam”), with a tasteful measure of melody (“Mammoth God,” “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us”), everything about Hymns in Dissonance feels trademark Whitechapel.
Whitechapel’s return to roots, while competent and unruly, is limited by what has already been done and has difficulty establishing its next steps. The only new element is that Bozeman sports more of his mid-range fry vocals. More frustratingly, aside from the two formidably dynamic closers, no song touches the previously released singles (“Hymns in Dissonance,” “A Visceral Retch”), although a few fall short as less impactful versions of them (“Prisoner 666,” “Diabolic Slumber”). Hymns in Dissonance for its vast majority, pays homage to Whitechapel’s early career, just amps it in a way that recalls a faster A New Era of Corruption. This is why “Bedlam,” “Mammoth God,” and “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” are the best tracks in Hymns in Dissonance, as their uses of cutthroat brutality contrasts with a natural dynamic songwriting that culminates in supremely tasteful solos and yearning chord progressions that make their ominous titles translate into tragedy rather than violence – although violence is certainly present.
Whitechapel is older and wiser but still pissed off. Hymns in Dissonance encapsulates everything about the band you loved/hated back in the mid-2000s, seeing no need to progress their sound or convince the naysayers. The album just feels like the band having fun creating the heavy deathcore songs without the gravity of its last two albums – with all the simplicity and flippancy that entails. It will not change your mind about Whitechapel, but will appeal to you if you liked it when Phil looked super possessed all the time. Hymns in Dissonance is by no means their best, but it doesn’t mean to be either. Yeah, it has its moments of bloat, unnecessariness, and chuggy cheese, but feel free to unearth those skinny jeans from the closet for the one-person mosh pit because it’s pure deathcore nostalgia.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: whitechapelmetal.bandcamp.com | whitechapelband.com | facebook.com/whitechapelband
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025Alekhines Gun
After a pair of albums which triggered superlatives ranging from “genre-transcending” to “emotive pile of wankery”, deathcore genre stalwarts Whitechapel began teasing their fanbase with four sacred words: “Back to Our Roots.” Beginning an early promo campaign with vocalist Phil Bozeman posting pictures of debut The Somatic Defilement, and leading into interviews with band members saying they wanted “to make deathcore scary again”, expectations have been set and the mouths of their fanbase have begun foaming – if not downright frothing – in anticipation. No acoustic guitars? No clean singing? No feelings? Is this the collection of hymns to carry deathcore to the church of wider genre acceptance? Wait, why are you laughing?
Hymns in Dissonance is a feral, monolithic slab of deathcore with nary a gimmick or guest instrument or crooned note to be found. Instead, what is offered up is an excellently refined, gloriously produced offering of bone-to-jell-o inducing, shoulder dislocating, windmill-triggering goodness. There are noodly leads (“Hymns in Dissonance”), human sounding drum fills, and breakdowns that seek to savage your vertebrae without devolving into lethargy-laced, mastodon-in-tar paced plods. Though no compositional ingredient comes as a surprise – there are still monster breakdowns, unnecessary slowdowns, and occasional gurgly overdoses – it’s hard to deny the sheer mastery of the elements Whitechapel put on display in composing such a violent release.
Songwriting reigns supreme, and it is here that Hymns in Dissonance excels. From the stage-ready permanent-show-opener-made “Prisoner 666” to the flirtations with beautiful melodies in “Mammoth God”; from the full on embrace of slammy excess in “The Abysmal Gospel” to the crowd chant inciting chorus of “Hate Cult Ritual”, much of the albums individual cuts work to distinguish and divide itself from its surroundings. This allows for Whitechapel to overcome deathcore’s greatest genre struggle: making a meaningful album with flow and pacing, rather than a mere collection of throw-down, brohuaha homicidal snapshots.
The songwriting wouldn’t be as impactful if it was castrated by the middle-era of Whitechapel production. Albums like Our Endless War traded in a tone that mixed all the instruments into the same bland, homogenous pitch, robbing them of their layering. Fortunately, Hymns in Dissonance co-opts the production style of Kin/The Valley and sounds fuller and more spacious than they have since the seminal A New Era of Corruption. Closing highlight “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” slides from one of the more cement brick severing chugs into an almost triumphant, uplifting solo, while the darker, more visceral moments and the mix allows requisite breakdowns to summon all the instruments to converge on a single tone which is assuredly down with the thickness. Bozeman continues to be a vocal benchmark for the genre, oscillating between sewage-drenched gutturals and wonderfully enunciated blackened shrieks. True, he still yowls on more than the music calls for, but an increased skill in lyrical phrasing and tonal variance at least makes for a more engaging listen, particularly in an album that might put off some with the complete excision of cleans.
Though I have not courted the core in quite some time, I’m an ardent believer that no subgenre, from stoner doom to trance-djent, is utterly devoid of artistic merit when done well. Whitechapel have heeded this call with an impeccable album whose only major “flaw” is that the playing within the confines of its bloody, tropey sandbox is a feature – not a bug. Some may decry the lack of differential instrumentation as a step backward, but when considering the album among the trajectory of the band’s body of work, they couldn’t be more incorrect. A middle finger to a scene growing increasingly reliant on orchestral coverups and mindless atonal chugs in lieu of song structure, Hymns in Dissonance is indisputable quality for a genre that tends to be rejected wholesale by purists. Now open your redblack back hymnals, and let us sing…
Rating: 3.5/5
#2025 #30 #35 #AmericanMetal #Deathcore #HymnsInDissonance #JobForACowboy #Mar25 #MetalBladeRecords #Review #Reviews #SuicideSilence #Whitechapel
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Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance Review
By Dear Hollow
If you’re new here, hi, I’m the sellout. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires. I’m the man who saw the standards of metal and leveled them with one swing of my hammer. I’m the fallen one, the one who dragged two other miscreants low on my scorched earth campaign in wretched defiance of the golden pantheons.1 If you’re new here, hi, I’m the guy who ranked Whitechapel. This review right here is an insult to AMG’s injury, a double take of a band whose reputation is soiled like the diaper in a millennial teenagers’ skinny jeans as his hair flaps back and forth in the moshpit before he eats shit. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires who’s back for more murderizing and toppling – because Whitechapel is back, baby.
Whitechapel has always exemplified the sellout of deathcore while also being a better version of it throughout the act’s nearly twenty-year career, flexibility ultimately providing the key to success. Contrary to the perpetual breakdowning of Suicide Silence or the complete abandonment of deathcore from Job for a Cowboy, the Knoxville collective has long relied on the charisma of frontman Phil Bozeman and a three-pronged guitar attack for its natural progressions. From clean vocals to muddy productions and beyond, Hymns in Dissonance comes at the end of a lyrically vulnerable, musically controversial era, promising the return to their bludgeoning roots. In this right, it definitely delivers.
Gone are the clean vocals and introspective lyrics of The Valley or Kin, and a return to the “loud and ouchy” steel-toed beatdowns of yore. Hymns in Dissonance does its best contemporary rendition of breakout album This is Exile, and with the lyrical return of religious criticism and murderizing, it sounds a lot like 2010’s A New Era of Corruption. Bozeman’s manic vocals guide the attack, wavering between rapid-fire lyrical sputtering and mammoth callouts, while instrumentals attack with far more vigor and fury than in its predecessor. The ebb and flow between the manic blastbeats and blazing riffs, ominous leads, and the devastating chugging weight is a well-featured asset (“A Visceral Retch,” “The Abysmal Gospel”), the one-two punches between riff-fests and thick breakdowns recalling This is Exile’s “Possession” (“Hate Cult Ritual,” “Bedlam”), with a tasteful measure of melody (“Mammoth God,” “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us”), everything about Hymns in Dissonance feels trademark Whitechapel.
Whitechapel’s return to roots, while competent and unruly, is limited by what has already been done and has difficulty establishing its next steps. The only new element is that Bozeman sports more of his mid-range fry vocals. More frustratingly, aside from the two formidably dynamic closers, no song touches the previously released singles (“Hymns in Dissonance,” “A Visceral Retch”), although a few fall short as less impactful versions of them (“Prisoner 666,” “Diabolic Slumber”). Hymns in Dissonance for its vast majority, pays homage to Whitechapel’s early career, just amps it in a way that recalls a faster A New Era of Corruption. This is why “Bedlam,” “Mammoth God,” and “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” are the best tracks in Hymns in Dissonance, as their uses of cutthroat brutality contrasts with a natural dynamic songwriting that culminates in supremely tasteful solos and yearning chord progressions that make their ominous titles translate into tragedy rather than violence – although violence is certainly present.
Whitechapel is older and wiser but still pissed off. Hymns in Dissonance encapsulates everything about the band you loved/hated back in the mid-2000s, seeing no need to progress their sound or convince the naysayers. The album just feels like the band having fun creating the heavy deathcore songs without the gravity of its last two albums – with all the simplicity and flippancy that entails. It will not change your mind about Whitechapel, but will appeal to you if you liked it when Phil looked super possessed all the time. Hymns in Dissonance is by no means their best, but it doesn’t mean to be either. Yeah, it has its moments of bloat, unnecessariness, and chuggy cheese, but feel free to unearth those skinny jeans from the closet for the one-person mosh pit because it’s pure deathcore nostalgia.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: whitechapelmetal.bandcamp.com | whitechapelband.com | facebook.com/whitechapelband
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025Alekhines Gun
After a pair of albums which triggered superlatives ranging from “genre-transcending” to “emotive pile of wankery”, deathcore genre stalwarts Whitechapel began teasing their fanbase with four sacred words: “Back to Our Roots.” Beginning an early promo campaign with vocalist Phil Bozeman posting pictures of debut The Somatic Defilement, and leading into interviews with band members saying they wanted “to make deathcore scary again”, expectations have been set and the mouths of their fanbase have begun foaming – if not downright frothing – in anticipation. No acoustic guitars? No clean singing? No feelings? Is this the collection of hymns to carry deathcore to the church of wider genre acceptance? Wait, why are you laughing?
Hymns in Dissonance is a feral, monolithic slab of deathcore with nary a gimmick or guest instrument or crooned note to be found. Instead, what is offered up is an excellently refined, gloriously produced offering of bone-to-jell-o inducing, shoulder dislocating, windmill-triggering goodness. There are noodly leads (“Hymns in Dissonance”), human sounding drum fills, and breakdowns that seek to savage your vertebrae without devolving into lethargy-laced, mastodon-in-tar paced plods. Though no compositional ingredient comes as a surprise – there are still monster breakdowns, unnecessary slowdowns, and occasional gurgly overdoses – it’s hard to deny the sheer mastery of the elements Whitechapel put on display in composing such a violent release.
Songwriting reigns supreme, and it is here that Hymns in Dissonance excels. From the stage-ready permanent-show-opener-made “Prisoner 666” to the flirtations with beautiful melodies in “Mammoth God”; from the full on embrace of slammy excess in “The Abysmal Gospel” to the crowd chant inciting chorus of “Hate Cult Ritual”, much of the albums individual cuts work to distinguish and divide itself from its surroundings. This allows for Whitechapel to overcome deathcore’s greatest genre struggle: making a meaningful album with flow and pacing, rather than a mere collection of throw-down, brohuaha homicidal snapshots.
The songwriting wouldn’t be as impactful if it was castrated by the middle-era of Whitechapel production. Albums like Our Endless War traded in a tone that mixed all the instruments into the same bland, homogenous pitch, robbing them of their layering. Fortunately, Hymns in Dissonance co-opts the production style of Kin/The Valley and sounds fuller and more spacious than they have since the seminal A New Era of Corruption. Closing highlight “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” slides from one of the more cement brick severing chugs into an almost triumphant, uplifting solo, while the darker, more visceral moments and the mix allows requisite breakdowns to summon all the instruments to converge on a single tone which is assuredly down with the thickness. Bozeman continues to be a vocal benchmark for the genre, oscillating between sewage-drenched gutturals and wonderfully enunciated blackened shrieks. True, he still yowls on more than the music calls for, but an increased skill in lyrical phrasing and tonal variance at least makes for a more engaging listen, particularly in an album that might put off some with the complete excision of cleans.
Though I have not courted the core in quite some time, I’m an ardent believer that no subgenre, from stoner doom to trance-djent, is utterly devoid of artistic merit when done well. Whitechapel have heeded this call with an impeccable album whose only major “flaw” is that the playing within the confines of its bloody, tropey sandbox is a feature – not a bug. Some may decry the lack of differential instrumentation as a step backward, but when considering the album among the trajectory of the band’s body of work, they couldn’t be more incorrect. A middle finger to a scene growing increasingly reliant on orchestral coverups and mindless atonal chugs in lieu of song structure, Hymns in Dissonance is indisputable quality for a genre that tends to be rejected wholesale by purists. Now open your redblack back hymnals, and let us sing…
Rating: 3.5/5
#2025 #30 #35 #AmericanMetal #Deathcore #HymnsInDissonance #JobForACowboy #Mar25 #MetalBladeRecords #Review #Reviews #SuicideSilence #Whitechapel
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Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance Review
By Dear Hollow
If you’re new here, hi, I’m the sellout. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires. I’m the man who saw the standards of metal and leveled them with one swing of my hammer. I’m the fallen one, the one who dragged two other miscreants low on my scorched earth campaign in wretched defiance of the golden pantheons.1 If you’re new here, hi, I’m the guy who ranked Whitechapel. This review right here is an insult to AMG’s injury, a double take of a band whose reputation is soiled like the diaper in a millennial teenagers’ skinny jeans as his hair flaps back and forth in the moshpit before he eats shit. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires who’s back for more murderizing and toppling – because Whitechapel is back, baby.
Whitechapel has always exemplified the sellout of deathcore while also being a better version of it throughout the act’s nearly twenty-year career, flexibility ultimately providing the key to success. Contrary to the perpetual breakdowning of Suicide Silence or the complete abandonment of deathcore from Job for a Cowboy, the Knoxville collective has long relied on the charisma of frontman Phil Bozeman and a three-pronged guitar attack for its natural progressions. From clean vocals to muddy productions and beyond, Hymns in Dissonance comes at the end of a lyrically vulnerable, musically controversial era, promising the return to their bludgeoning roots. In this right, it definitely delivers.
Gone are the clean vocals and introspective lyrics of The Valley or Kin, and a return to the “loud and ouchy” steel-toed beatdowns of yore. Hymns in Dissonance does its best contemporary rendition of breakout album This is Exile, and with the lyrical return of religious criticism and murderizing, it sounds a lot like 2010’s A New Era of Corruption. Bozeman’s manic vocals guide the attack, wavering between rapid-fire lyrical sputtering and mammoth callouts, while instrumentals attack with far more vigor and fury than in its predecessor. The ebb and flow between the manic blastbeats and blazing riffs, ominous leads, and the devastating chugging weight is a well-featured asset (“A Visceral Retch,” “The Abysmal Gospel”), the one-two punches between riff-fests and thick breakdowns recalling This is Exile’s “Possession” (“Hate Cult Ritual,” “Bedlam”), with a tasteful measure of melody (“Mammoth God,” “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us”), everything about Hymns in Dissonance feels trademark Whitechapel.
Whitechapel’s return to roots, while competent and unruly, is limited by what has already been done and has difficulty establishing its next steps. The only new element is that Bozeman sports more of his mid-range fry vocals. More frustratingly, aside from the two formidably dynamic closers, no song touches the previously released singles (“Hymns in Dissonance,” “A Visceral Retch”), although a few fall short as less impactful versions of them (“Prisoner 666,” “Diabolic Slumber”). Hymns in Dissonance for its vast majority, pays homage to Whitechapel’s early career, just amps it in a way that recalls a faster A New Era of Corruption. This is why “Bedlam,” “Mammoth God,” and “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” are the best tracks in Hymns in Dissonance, as their uses of cutthroat brutality contrasts with a natural dynamic songwriting that culminates in supremely tasteful solos and yearning chord progressions that make their ominous titles translate into tragedy rather than violence – although violence is certainly present.
Whitechapel is older and wiser but still pissed off. Hymns in Dissonance encapsulates everything about the band you loved/hated back in the mid-2000s, seeing no need to progress their sound or convince the naysayers. The album just feels like the band having fun creating the heavy deathcore songs without the gravity of its last two albums – with all the simplicity and flippancy that entails. It will not change your mind about Whitechapel, but will appeal to you if you liked it when Phil looked super possessed all the time. Hymns in Dissonance is by no means their best, but it doesn’t mean to be either. Yeah, it has its moments of bloat, unnecessariness, and chuggy cheese, but feel free to unearth those skinny jeans from the closet for the one-person mosh pit because it’s pure deathcore nostalgia.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: whitechapelmetal.bandcamp.com | whitechapelband.com | facebook.com/whitechapelband
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025Alekhines Gun
After a pair of albums which triggered superlatives ranging from “genre-transcending” to “emotive pile of wankery”, deathcore genre stalwarts Whitechapel began teasing their fanbase with four sacred words: “Back to Our Roots.” Beginning an early promo campaign with vocalist Phil Bozeman posting pictures of debut The Somatic Defilement, and leading into interviews with band members saying they wanted “to make deathcore scary again”, expectations have been set and the mouths of their fanbase have begun foaming – if not downright frothing – in anticipation. No acoustic guitars? No clean singing? No feelings? Is this the collection of hymns to carry deathcore to the church of wider genre acceptance? Wait, why are you laughing?
Hymns in Dissonance is a feral, monolithic slab of deathcore with nary a gimmick or guest instrument or crooned note to be found. Instead, what is offered up is an excellently refined, gloriously produced offering of bone-to-jell-o inducing, shoulder dislocating, windmill-triggering goodness. There are noodly leads (“Hymns in Dissonance”), human sounding drum fills, and breakdowns that seek to savage your vertebrae without devolving into lethargy-laced, mastodon-in-tar paced plods. Though no compositional ingredient comes as a surprise – there are still monster breakdowns, unnecessary slowdowns, and occasional gurgly overdoses – it’s hard to deny the sheer mastery of the elements Whitechapel put on display in composing such a violent release.
Songwriting reigns supreme, and it is here that Hymns in Dissonance excels. From the stage-ready permanent-show-opener-made “Prisoner 666” to the flirtations with beautiful melodies in “Mammoth God”; from the full on embrace of slammy excess in “The Abysmal Gospel” to the crowd chant inciting chorus of “Hate Cult Ritual”, much of the albums individual cuts work to distinguish and divide itself from its surroundings. This allows for Whitechapel to overcome deathcore’s greatest genre struggle: making a meaningful album with flow and pacing, rather than a mere collection of throw-down, brohuaha homicidal snapshots.
The songwriting wouldn’t be as impactful if it was castrated by the middle-era of Whitechapel production. Albums like Our Endless War traded in a tone that mixed all the instruments into the same bland, homogenous pitch, robbing them of their layering. Fortunately, Hymns in Dissonance co-opts the production style of Kin/The Valley and sounds fuller and more spacious than they have since the seminal A New Era of Corruption. Closing highlight “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” slides from one of the more cement brick severing chugs into an almost triumphant, uplifting solo, while the darker, more visceral moments and the mix allows requisite breakdowns to summon all the instruments to converge on a single tone which is assuredly down with the thickness. Bozeman continues to be a vocal benchmark for the genre, oscillating between sewage-drenched gutturals and wonderfully enunciated blackened shrieks. True, he still yowls on more than the music calls for, but an increased skill in lyrical phrasing and tonal variance at least makes for a more engaging listen, particularly in an album that might put off some with the complete excision of cleans.
Though I have not courted the core in quite some time, I’m an ardent believer that no subgenre, from stoner doom to trance-djent, is utterly devoid of artistic merit when done well. Whitechapel have heeded this call with an impeccable album whose only major “flaw” is that the playing within the confines of its bloody, tropey sandbox is a feature – not a bug. Some may decry the lack of differential instrumentation as a step backward, but when considering the album among the trajectory of the band’s body of work, they couldn’t be more incorrect. A middle finger to a scene growing increasingly reliant on orchestral coverups and mindless atonal chugs in lieu of song structure, Hymns in Dissonance is indisputable quality for a genre that tends to be rejected wholesale by purists. Now open your redblack back hymnals, and let us sing…
Rating: 3.5/5
#2025 #30 #35 #AmericanMetal #Deathcore #HymnsInDissonance #JobForACowboy #Mar25 #MetalBladeRecords #Review #Reviews #SuicideSilence #Whitechapel
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Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance Review
By Dear Hollow
If you’re new here, hi, I’m the sellout. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires. I’m the man who saw the standards of metal and leveled them with one swing of my hammer. I’m the fallen one, the one who dragged two other miscreants low on my scorched earth campaign in wretched defiance of the golden pantheons.1 If you’re new here, hi, I’m the guy who ranked Whitechapel. This review right here is an insult to AMG’s injury, a double take of a band whose reputation is soiled like the diaper in a millennial teenagers’ skinny jeans as his hair flaps back and forth in the moshpit before he eats shit. I’m the man who murdered mountains and toppled empires who’s back for more murderizing and toppling – because Whitechapel is back, baby.
Whitechapel has always exemplified the sellout of deathcore while also being a better version of it throughout the act’s nearly twenty-year career, flexibility ultimately providing the key to success. Contrary to the perpetual breakdowning of Suicide Silence or the complete abandonment of deathcore from Job for a Cowboy, the Knoxville collective has long relied on the charisma of frontman Phil Bozeman and a three-pronged guitar attack for its natural progressions. From clean vocals to muddy productions and beyond, Hymns in Dissonance comes at the end of a lyrically vulnerable, musically controversial era, promising the return to their bludgeoning roots. In this right, it definitely delivers.
Gone are the clean vocals and introspective lyrics of The Valley or Kin, and a return to the “loud and ouchy” steel-toed beatdowns of yore. Hymns in Dissonance does its best contemporary rendition of breakout album This is Exile, and with the lyrical return of religious criticism and murderizing, it sounds a lot like 2010’s A New Era of Corruption. Bozeman’s manic vocals guide the attack, wavering between rapid-fire lyrical sputtering and mammoth callouts, while instrumentals attack with far more vigor and fury than in its predecessor. The ebb and flow between the manic blastbeats and blazing riffs, ominous leads, and the devastating chugging weight is a well-featured asset (“A Visceral Retch,” “The Abysmal Gospel”), the one-two punches between riff-fests and thick breakdowns recalling This is Exile’s “Possession” (“Hate Cult Ritual,” “Bedlam”), with a tasteful measure of melody (“Mammoth God,” “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us”), everything about Hymns in Dissonance feels trademark Whitechapel.
Whitechapel’s return to roots, while competent and unruly, is limited by what has already been done and has difficulty establishing its next steps. The only new element is that Bozeman sports more of his mid-range fry vocals. More frustratingly, aside from the two formidably dynamic closers, no song touches the previously released singles (“Hymns in Dissonance,” “A Visceral Retch”), although a few fall short as less impactful versions of them (“Prisoner 666,” “Diabolic Slumber”). Hymns in Dissonance for its vast majority, pays homage to Whitechapel’s early career, just amps it in a way that recalls a faster A New Era of Corruption. This is why “Bedlam,” “Mammoth God,” and “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” are the best tracks in Hymns in Dissonance, as their uses of cutthroat brutality contrasts with a natural dynamic songwriting that culminates in supremely tasteful solos and yearning chord progressions that make their ominous titles translate into tragedy rather than violence – although violence is certainly present.
Whitechapel is older and wiser but still pissed off. Hymns in Dissonance encapsulates everything about the band you loved/hated back in the mid-2000s, seeing no need to progress their sound or convince the naysayers. The album just feels like the band having fun creating the heavy deathcore songs without the gravity of its last two albums – with all the simplicity and flippancy that entails. It will not change your mind about Whitechapel, but will appeal to you if you liked it when Phil looked super possessed all the time. Hymns in Dissonance is by no means their best, but it doesn’t mean to be either. Yeah, it has its moments of bloat, unnecessariness, and chuggy cheese, but feel free to unearth those skinny jeans from the closet for the one-person mosh pit because it’s pure deathcore nostalgia.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: whitechapelmetal.bandcamp.com | whitechapelband.com | facebook.com/whitechapelband
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025Alekhines Gun
After a pair of albums which triggered superlatives ranging from “genre-transcending” to “emotive pile of wankery”, deathcore genre stalwarts Whitechapel began teasing their fanbase with four sacred words: “Back to Our Roots.” Beginning an early promo campaign with vocalist Phil Bozeman posting pictures of debut The Somatic Defilement, and leading into interviews with band members saying they wanted “to make deathcore scary again”, expectations have been set and the mouths of their fanbase have begun foaming – if not downright frothing – in anticipation. No acoustic guitars? No clean singing? No feelings? Is this the collection of hymns to carry deathcore to the church of wider genre acceptance? Wait, why are you laughing?
Hymns in Dissonance is a feral, monolithic slab of deathcore with nary a gimmick or guest instrument or crooned note to be found. Instead, what is offered up is an excellently refined, gloriously produced offering of bone-to-jell-o inducing, shoulder dislocating, windmill-triggering goodness. There are noodly leads (“Hymns in Dissonance”), human sounding drum fills, and breakdowns that seek to savage your vertebrae without devolving into lethargy-laced, mastodon-in-tar paced plods. Though no compositional ingredient comes as a surprise – there are still monster breakdowns, unnecessary slowdowns, and occasional gurgly overdoses – it’s hard to deny the sheer mastery of the elements Whitechapel put on display in composing such a violent release.
Songwriting reigns supreme, and it is here that Hymns in Dissonance excels. From the stage-ready permanent-show-opener-made “Prisoner 666” to the flirtations with beautiful melodies in “Mammoth God”; from the full on embrace of slammy excess in “The Abysmal Gospel” to the crowd chant inciting chorus of “Hate Cult Ritual”, much of the albums individual cuts work to distinguish and divide itself from its surroundings. This allows for Whitechapel to overcome deathcore’s greatest genre struggle: making a meaningful album with flow and pacing, rather than a mere collection of throw-down, brohuaha homicidal snapshots.
The songwriting wouldn’t be as impactful if it was castrated by the middle-era of Whitechapel production. Albums like Our Endless War traded in a tone that mixed all the instruments into the same bland, homogenous pitch, robbing them of their layering. Fortunately, Hymns in Dissonance co-opts the production style of Kin/The Valley and sounds fuller and more spacious than they have since the seminal A New Era of Corruption. Closing highlight “Nothing is Coming for Any of Us” slides from one of the more cement brick severing chugs into an almost triumphant, uplifting solo, while the darker, more visceral moments and the mix allows requisite breakdowns to summon all the instruments to converge on a single tone which is assuredly down with the thickness. Bozeman continues to be a vocal benchmark for the genre, oscillating between sewage-drenched gutturals and wonderfully enunciated blackened shrieks. True, he still yowls on more than the music calls for, but an increased skill in lyrical phrasing and tonal variance at least makes for a more engaging listen, particularly in an album that might put off some with the complete excision of cleans.
Though I have not courted the core in quite some time, I’m an ardent believer that no subgenre, from stoner doom to trance-djent, is utterly devoid of artistic merit when done well. Whitechapel have heeded this call with an impeccable album whose only major “flaw” is that the playing within the confines of its bloody, tropey sandbox is a feature – not a bug. Some may decry the lack of differential instrumentation as a step backward, but when considering the album among the trajectory of the band’s body of work, they couldn’t be more incorrect. A middle finger to a scene growing increasingly reliant on orchestral coverups and mindless atonal chugs in lieu of song structure, Hymns in Dissonance is indisputable quality for a genre that tends to be rejected wholesale by purists. Now open your redblack back hymnals, and let us sing…
Rating: 3.5/5
#2025 #30 #35 #AmericanMetal #Deathcore #HymnsInDissonance #JobForACowboy #Mar25 #MetalBladeRecords #Review #Reviews #SuicideSilence #Whitechapel
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Happy Caturday!!
I recently learned that cats were used by both sides during the battle for women’s suffrage. They were used on posters and postcards to supposedly dehumanize women fighting for the right to vote, but were also used in support of women’s suffrage.
From John’s Hopkins exibits: The Suffrage Cat
The women’s suffrage movement was an exceptionally controversial topic in both the United States and England. Postcard manufacturers hired artists to create visually appealing postcards about women’s suffrage. A popular subject was the suffrage cat, which was used for both pro- and anti-suffrage messaging. In Victorian culture, the cat was often associated with the female sphere; the indoor cat represented the passive, ideal homemaker, and the outdoor cat was brazen, feral and fallen. Defining how the cat was intended to be viewed as a symbol in women’s suffrage postcards can be a challenge, as seen in some of the selections below.
At that link, you can see descriptive text about some of the images I’ve posted here.
From The National Park Service: Women’s Suffrage and the Cat
In the 1800s and early 1900s, many women and men supported women’s suffrage (the right to vote). There were, however, people that opposed the idea. One of the prevailing beliefs was that voting power would diminish a woman’s role as caretaker of the family. Some women and men felt so strongly about this that they founded anti-suffragist organizations. Cartoonists also created advertisements and postcards supporting anti-suffragists. These ads often featured animals to make a point.
In popular mainstream culture at the time, women were associated with animals perceived as passive, like cats. Social norms dictated that middle class, white women should stay in the home. Men, however, were expected to occupy public spaces and partake in physical exercise. As a result, men were often associated with physically active animals like dogs. Anti-suffrage artists used these animals symbolically in their cartoons.
Cats were more often used in British anti-suffragist ads. Anti-suffrage organizations in Britain used cats to try to make the point that women were simple and delicate. The cartoons implied that women’s suffrage was just as absurd as cat suffrage because women (and cats) were incapable of voting.
Cats were also used symbolically in some American anti-suffrage ads. A number of American cartoons showed men at home with a cat, taking care of the children. The cat symbolized a loss of the man’s masculinity. Some people believed that if women participated in politics, men would be left at home to raise the children.
Suffragists took back the meaning of the cat in 1916. That April, suffragists Nell Richardson and Alice Burke started a cross-country road trip in a two-seater car they called “The Golden Flier.” Members of the press at the send-off ceremony in New York City reported that the car looked like “a little yellow ant scuttling off through the crowds of limousines and autotrucks which lined the streets” (New York Tribune, April 07, 1916).
Over the next several months, the women stopped in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, California, Washington and other states across the country to talk about the importance of women’s suffrage. During their trip, the women adopted a cat that became their unofficial mascot. They named him Saxon, after the manufacturer of the Golden Flier.
Over the next several months, the women spent long hours standing on street corners and in public parks making speeches about suffrage. Alice Burke commented that they were in the sun so often that they let their “noses blister and burn” and their “hair sizzle.” Burke and Richardson were not the only ones enduring the hot weather. Burke wrote in her diary:
The little black kitten is suffering as much as we are from the heat, but he keeps under a cover, and all we can see around the corner of it is a pink nose and a youthful whisker.” (New York Tribune, May 29, 1916)
Now for some news. The mainstream media and some Democrats are still trying to get President Biden to end his campaign for a second term; but last night he gave a speech to an enthusiastic audience in Detroit that should begin to quiet the naysayers. I hope you were able to watch it, because it was impressive. Biden spoke extemporaneously for 35 minutes–no teleprompter and no notes. And the audience loved it. They chanted “Don’t you quit” and “We’ve got your back.” These people are the base of the Democratic Party, and they still love Joe Biden. Biden is also up 2 points on Trump in the latest polls, despite the massive efforts to bring him down.
Here’s the speech:
It’s difficult to find honest reporting on the speech, because most in the press are still hoping to end Biden’s campaign. I really think some of these “journalists” really want Trump back in the White House because they think it will further their careers. Here’s just one example from Politico: Inside Biden’s sputtering campaign to restore Dems’ confidence.
Three of Joe Biden’s senior aides entered a Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday armed with internal and external polls showing the presidential race still within the margin of error, hoping to keep this last bastion of support from abandoning his embattled campaign.
During a difficult and at times tearful meeting with Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Jen O’Malley Dillon, senators aired concerns about the president’s ability to serve for another four years, his path to defeat former President Donald Trump and the effect Biden’s poor polling might have on Democrats running down the ballot, according to five people familiar with the meeting who were granted anonymity to describe private discussions.
But by the end of the lunch, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had enough.
“You have legacies, too,” Fetterman said, according to the people, asking what those legacies would become “if you fuck over a great president over a bad debate.”
Then, the first-term senator called the question: Who was with him — committed to sticking with Biden as the party’s nominee?
No more than four people signaled that they were, according to four of the people familiar with the meeting. While not every Senate Democrat was in attendance and some had trickled out of the lunch already, Fetterman, Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois thought Biden should continue.
The paltry show of support for Biden behind closed doors revealed that for all the indecision about whether and how to confront Biden, elected Democrats’ confidence in the president had plunged to a ruinous low. While Senate Democrats have largely kept quiet publicly, Biden may have to plow ahead despite an overwhelming lack of confidence from his former Senate colleagues. The majority of the Democratic caucus left Thursday’s meeting just as, if not more, concerned about the path the party is on with Biden atop the ticket.
Of course, the naysayers are always anonymous. Fuck them! Use you name or STFU.
Here’s another take from Sahil Kapur at NBC News: Biden blasts Project 2025 in Michigan and ties it to Trump in effort to regain footing.
DETROIT — President Joe Biden tore into the “right-wing Project 2025” and made it a central theme of his speech at a rally Friday in battleground Michigan as he seeks to put a lid on Democratic calls that he withdraw from the presidential race.
“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and on our personal freedom that’s ever been proposed in the history of this country,” Biden told the crowd, adding that the initiative “is run and paid for by Trump people” and is “a blueprint for a second Trump.”
Biden, rousing the crowd with a more energetic performance than usual, said it would unleash a “nightmare” on the country if his Republican rival is elected and implements it. “Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious. Project 2025 is deadly serious,” Biden said, describing it as a threat to American values
When he took the stage, Biden was greeted to chants of “Don’t you quit!” and “We got your back!” The president told them there’s “a lot of speculation lately” about whether he’ll stay in the race.
“I am running, and we’re going to win!” he said….
Biden is zeroing in on Project 2025 as a mechanism to unify the Democratic Party as it splinters over his future in the race, following a shocking debate performance that some in the party see as politically fatal to his re-election prospects. Numerous voters at the rally stood by him and voiced displeasure with the Democrats calling on him to step aside. And it was clear the right-wing document has caught on across within the Democratic Party as a rallying cry for those eager to keep Trump out of the White House.
A Biden aide said the president’s campaign plans to continue focusing on Project 2025 at next week’s GOP convention.
Kapur asked voters about Project 2025:
Before Biden’s remarks at the Detroit rally, the first seven Michigan voters NBC News spoke to were all aware of Project 2025 — and had strong opinions on it.
“It’s horrific. It would totally dismantle our democracy, fill the whole government with loyalists to Trump,” said Deanna Zapico, of Royal Oak. “It would be like Hitler in 1933. There wouldn’t be an election in a long time. That’s my fear.”
“I’m sharing it with everybody,” Zapico said.
Deborah Fuertes, of Brighton, summed it up in one word: “Scary.”
“This is an existential threat,” she said.Trump’s “name’s all over that thing,” said Angela Heard, a sales manager based in Grosse Pointe Woods. “If we don’t get our s— together we’re gonna be like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’”
Here’s an indication that Project 2025 could be getting the attention people who don’t generally follow politics closely–People magazine published an in-depth article on the Trump plan. Kyler Alvord writes: What Is Project 2025? Inside the Far-Right Plan Threatening Everything from the Word ‘Gender’ to Public Education.
A sweeping proposal for how Donald Trump should handle a second term in office has sparked concern for its implications on the role of federal government and its calls to eliminate a number of basic human rights.
The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, more commonly known as Project 2025, released a 900-page manifesto last year titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.” The policy guidebook — compiled by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in partnership with more than 100 other conservative organizations — lays out a far-right, Christian nationalist vision for America that would corrode the separation of church and state, replace nonpartisan government employees with Trump loyalists and bolster the president’s authority over independent agencies.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, a rumored candidate for Trump’s chief of staff in a second term, promoted his group’s extreme positions during a July interview, saying, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Down with the tomcats
Shortly after Roberts’ controversial interview, Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, saying on Truth Social that he knows “nothing” about it and has “no idea who is behind it,” before adding that he disagrees with some of its propositions.
While Project 2025 is not formally a part of Trump’s campaign platform, it has been led and supported by several influential people in his orbit. The project’s top leaders all worked in Trump’s White House and a number of the manifesto’s contributors also served in the Trump administration, including but not limited to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and imprisoned former trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Equally damaging to Trump’s claim that he is unfamiliar with Project 2025 is that he worked closely with the Heritage Foundation when he was first elected president. He was provided a similar “Mandate for Leadership” back in 2016, and enacted nearly two-thirds of the group’s proposals within his first year in office.
The Heritage Foundation also reportedly played a behind-the-scenes role on Trump’s presidential transition team and had a significant hand in staffing the administration.
Alvord also addressed Project 2025’s goal of eliminating the wall between church and state.
Project 2025 establishes a framework for guiding the federal government through a biblical lens. Across nearly 1,000 pages, the mandate pushes an unpopular interpretation of the Christian agenda that would target reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ people and people of color by effectively erasing mention of all related terms, protections and troublesome historical accounts.
Though the mandate accuses the “woke” left of infringing on people’s religious freedoms, its policies are rooted in a singular, extremist view of how society should function based on its authors’ own Christian nationalist values. It repeatedly calls for the punishment, even imprisonment, of people who do not conform to the think tank’s platform.
The proposed policies in Project 2025’s mandate stem from four stated goals. In its words: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life, dismantling the administrative state, defending the nation’s sovereignty and securing God-given individual rights.
Through a holistic approach to restructuring the government, it would seek to give Trump heightened authority to enact his backers’ platform in every city and state — often encouraging the president to creatively subvert congressional approval.
Read the rest at People Magazine. It’s very detailed.
Speaking of Christian nationalism, ProPublica has an investigative article on a shadowy organization of rich people working to influence the 2024 election. Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey: Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country. The subhead reads: “The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.”
A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.
1908
ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag’s members-only email newsletters, internal videos, strategy documents and fundraising pitches, none of which has been previously made public. They reveal the group’s 2024 plans and its long-term goal to underpin every major sphere of influence in American society with Christianity. In the Bible, the city of Ziklag was where David and his soldiers found refuge during their war with King Saul.
“We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness,” says a strategy document that lays out Ziklag’s 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.”
Ziklag’s 2024 agenda reads like the work of a political organization. It plans to pour money into mobilizing voters in Arizona who are “sympathetic to Republicans” in order to secure “10,640 additional unique votes” — almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020. The group also intends to use controversial AI software to enable mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states.
In a recording of a 2023 internal strategy discussion, a Ziklag official stressed that the objective was the same in other swing states. “The goal is to win,” the official said. “If 75,000 people wins the White House, then how do we get 150,000 people so we make sure we win?”
According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations targeting voters in battleground states: Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups; Steeplechase, concentrated on using churches and pastors to get out the vote; and Watchtower, aimed at galvanizing voters around the issues of “parental rights” and opposition to transgender rights and policies supporting health care for trans people.
In a member briefing video, one of Ziklag’s spiritual advisers outlined a plan to “deliver swing states” by using an anti-transgender message to motivate conservative voters who are exhausted with Trump.
But Ziklag is not a political organization: It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, the same legal designation as the United Way or Boys and Girls Club. Such organizations do not have to publicly disclose their funders, and donations are tax deductible. In exchange, they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS.
Read the whole thing at ProPublica.
In other news, you probably heard that Mark Zuckerberg has bowed down to Trump. Raw Story: ‘So the despotic threats worked?’: Outrage as Facebook lifts limits on Trump’s accounts.
Critics shredded Meta’s decision to ease restrictions placed on former President Donald Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Axios reported Friday the social media titan planned to soon roll back limits it placed on Trump’s accounts as it aimed to allow for more parity leading up to the Nov. 5 election. The tech giant said a minor violation could lead to his accounts being suspended up to two years or restricted.
The move comes more than a year after he was reinstated to the platforms but with limits such as suspensions and advertising restrictions for violating company rules.
Stunned social media critics blasted the decision.
“So the despotic threats worked?” asked @JenBaty, pointing to Trump’s threat on Truth Social that the “ZUCKERBUCKS (sic),” a reference to Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, “will be sent to prison for long periods of time.”
Trump has previously said Zuckerberg “cheated” in the 2020 election.
“Why isn’t he being prosecuted?” he wrote last year. “The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!”
A few stories on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week:
AP: Deeply Democratic Milwaukee wrestles with hosting Trump and the Republican National Convention.
Milwaukee loves its Miller Beer, Brewers baseball and “ Bronze Fonz ” statue.
The deepest blue city in swing state Wisconsin, Milwaukee also loves Democrats.
So it can be hard for some to swallow that Milwaukee is playing host to former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention this coming week while rival Chicago, the larger city just 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.
It didn’t help smooth things over with wary Democrats after Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee just a month before the convention that begins Monday.
Adding to the angst, Milwaukee was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but it didn’t happen due to COVID. Owners of local restaurants, bars and venues say the number of reservations that were promised during the RNC aren’t materializing. And protesters complained the city was trying to keep them too far away from the convention site to have an impact.
“I wish I was out of town for it,” Jake Schneider, 29, said as he passed by the city’s statue of Fonzie, the character played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days” that was set in Milwaukee. “I’m not super happy that it’s the Republican Party coming to town.” [….]
Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who is a state representative and serves on the Milwaukee County Board, puts it more bluntly: “It is shameful that we rolled out the red carpet for the RNC.”
Former President Donald Trump will be officially renominated next week to be the Republican Party’s standard-bearer for the third presidential election in a row as he seeks to return to the Oval Office.
GOP delegates from around the country will gather in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, with much of the country following along through the primetime speeches each night.
These speeches have historically allowed presidential candidates to unify discord from aggressive primary campaigns, and the conventions offer a high-profile platform to sway undecided voters.
While an official list of speakers hasn’t yet been announced, here are some of the people who’ve reportedly been tapped to demonstrate their support for Trump on stage next week.
The list includes Donald Trump, Jr., Ron DeSantis, Sean O’Brien (Teamsters president), David Sacks (Elon Musk’s pal), Kari Lake, Elise Stefanik, and more. She’s not listed, but I heard that Margery Taylor Green will also speak.
Politico: The unusual legal risk Trump will have to navigate at the RNC.
Donald Trump will be rubbing elbows in Milwaukee with a crowd that may include dozens of witnesses and alleged co-conspirators in his criminal cases — people he has sworn not to communicate with about details of the charges against him.
Avoiding them may not be possible for the former president during the four-day convention, creating an unusual dynamic, and a potential legal liability for Trump, against the backdrop of a national nominating convention.
1911
“If I were a Trump attorney, my biggest fear might be that Trump finds himself in close quarters with a defendant and starts running his mouth off,” said Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University.
Several false electors for Trump in 2020 who were charged with crimes in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia are expected to be at the Republican National Convention. In addition, many of Trump’s former White House aides who testified to grand juries in Washington and Florida are likely to be on hand. Though the roster of speakers hasn’t been publicly shared, there’s a high likelihood that others embroiled in Trump’s alleged crimes — a long list of GOP officials and activists — will also be there.
The situation is, like many things associated with Trump, unprecedented, and it’s hard to gauge the likelihood that an interaction in a crowded convention hall could become legally perilous for the former president. But it’s not zero, according to legal experts.
“I imagine the tight scripted nature of the convention will help isolate Trump from that danger,” Kreis said. “But you also never know.”
General attacks on the prosecutions he’s facing in Washington, Florida and Georgia — familiar themes in Trump rallies and speeches — or superficial encounters with people involved in his cases are unlikely to raise prosecutors’ eyebrows. But legal experts say there are lines Trump could cross if he mentions codefendants or witnesses by name or has more substantive interactions with them. And even general remarks, whether scripted or extemporaneous, could present risks if they could be interpreted as pressure on witnesses against cooperation or an attempt to influence their future testimony.
Those are my recommended reads for today. I hope you find something that interests you.
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/13/lazy-caturday-reads-170/
#BidenSpeechInDetroit #ChristianNationalism #HeritageFoundation #mainstreamMedia #MarkZukerberg #Meta #Milwaukee #Project2025 #RepublicanNationalConvention2024 #suffragettesAndCats #womenSSuffrage #Ziklag
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Happy Caturday!!
I recently learned that cats were used by both sides during the battle for women’s suffrage. They were used on posters and postcards to supposedly dehumanize women fighting for the right to vote, but were also used in support of women’s suffrage.
From John’s Hopkins exibits: The Suffrage Cat
The women’s suffrage movement was an exceptionally controversial topic in both the United States and England. Postcard manufacturers hired artists to create visually appealing postcards about women’s suffrage. A popular subject was the suffrage cat, which was used for both pro- and anti-suffrage messaging. In Victorian culture, the cat was often associated with the female sphere; the indoor cat represented the passive, ideal homemaker, and the outdoor cat was brazen, feral and fallen. Defining how the cat was intended to be viewed as a symbol in women’s suffrage postcards can be a challenge, as seen in some of the selections below.
At that link, you can see descriptive text about some of the images I’ve posted here.
From The National Park Service: Women’s Suffrage and the Cat
In the 1800s and early 1900s, many women and men supported women’s suffrage (the right to vote). There were, however, people that opposed the idea. One of the prevailing beliefs was that voting power would diminish a woman’s role as caretaker of the family. Some women and men felt so strongly about this that they founded anti-suffragist organizations. Cartoonists also created advertisements and postcards supporting anti-suffragists. These ads often featured animals to make a point.
In popular mainstream culture at the time, women were associated with animals perceived as passive, like cats. Social norms dictated that middle class, white women should stay in the home. Men, however, were expected to occupy public spaces and partake in physical exercise. As a result, men were often associated with physically active animals like dogs. Anti-suffrage artists used these animals symbolically in their cartoons.
Cats were more often used in British anti-suffragist ads. Anti-suffrage organizations in Britain used cats to try to make the point that women were simple and delicate. The cartoons implied that women’s suffrage was just as absurd as cat suffrage because women (and cats) were incapable of voting.
Cats were also used symbolically in some American anti-suffrage ads. A number of American cartoons showed men at home with a cat, taking care of the children. The cat symbolized a loss of the man’s masculinity. Some people believed that if women participated in politics, men would be left at home to raise the children.
Suffragists took back the meaning of the cat in 1916. That April, suffragists Nell Richardson and Alice Burke started a cross-country road trip in a two-seater car they called “The Golden Flier.” Members of the press at the send-off ceremony in New York City reported that the car looked like “a little yellow ant scuttling off through the crowds of limousines and autotrucks which lined the streets” (New York Tribune, April 07, 1916).
Over the next several months, the women stopped in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, California, Washington and other states across the country to talk about the importance of women’s suffrage. During their trip, the women adopted a cat that became their unofficial mascot. They named him Saxon, after the manufacturer of the Golden Flier.
Over the next several months, the women spent long hours standing on street corners and in public parks making speeches about suffrage. Alice Burke commented that they were in the sun so often that they let their “noses blister and burn” and their “hair sizzle.” Burke and Richardson were not the only ones enduring the hot weather. Burke wrote in her diary:
The little black kitten is suffering as much as we are from the heat, but he keeps under a cover, and all we can see around the corner of it is a pink nose and a youthful whisker.” (New York Tribune, May 29, 1916)
Now for some news. The mainstream media and some Democrats are still trying to get President Biden to end his campaign for a second term; but last night he gave a speech to an enthusiastic audience in Detroit that should begin to quiet the naysayers. I hope you were able to watch it, because it was impressive. Biden spoke extemporaneously for 35 minutes–no teleprompter and no notes. And the audience loved it. They chanted “Don’t you quit” and “We’ve got your back.” These people are the base of the Democratic Party, and they still love Joe Biden. Biden is also up 2 points on Trump in the latest polls, despite the massive efforts to bring him down.
Here’s the speech:
It’s difficult to find honest reporting on the speech, because most in the press are still hoping to end Biden’s campaign. I really think some of these “journalists” really want Trump back in the White House because they think it will further their careers. Here’s just one example from Politico: Inside Biden’s sputtering campaign to restore Dems’ confidence.
Three of Joe Biden’s senior aides entered a Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday armed with internal and external polls showing the presidential race still within the margin of error, hoping to keep this last bastion of support from abandoning his embattled campaign.
During a difficult and at times tearful meeting with Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Jen O’Malley Dillon, senators aired concerns about the president’s ability to serve for another four years, his path to defeat former President Donald Trump and the effect Biden’s poor polling might have on Democrats running down the ballot, according to five people familiar with the meeting who were granted anonymity to describe private discussions.
But by the end of the lunch, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had enough.
“You have legacies, too,” Fetterman said, according to the people, asking what those legacies would become “if you fuck over a great president over a bad debate.”
Then, the first-term senator called the question: Who was with him — committed to sticking with Biden as the party’s nominee?
No more than four people signaled that they were, according to four of the people familiar with the meeting. While not every Senate Democrat was in attendance and some had trickled out of the lunch already, Fetterman, Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois thought Biden should continue.
The paltry show of support for Biden behind closed doors revealed that for all the indecision about whether and how to confront Biden, elected Democrats’ confidence in the president had plunged to a ruinous low. While Senate Democrats have largely kept quiet publicly, Biden may have to plow ahead despite an overwhelming lack of confidence from his former Senate colleagues. The majority of the Democratic caucus left Thursday’s meeting just as, if not more, concerned about the path the party is on with Biden atop the ticket.
Of course, the naysayers are always anonymous. Fuck them! Use you name or STFU.
Here’s another take from Sahil Kapur at NBC News: Biden blasts Project 2025 in Michigan and ties it to Trump in effort to regain footing.
DETROIT — President Joe Biden tore into the “right-wing Project 2025” and made it a central theme of his speech at a rally Friday in battleground Michigan as he seeks to put a lid on Democratic calls that he withdraw from the presidential race.
“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and on our personal freedom that’s ever been proposed in the history of this country,” Biden told the crowd, adding that the initiative “is run and paid for by Trump people” and is “a blueprint for a second Trump.”
Biden, rousing the crowd with a more energetic performance than usual, said it would unleash a “nightmare” on the country if his Republican rival is elected and implements it. “Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious. Project 2025 is deadly serious,” Biden said, describing it as a threat to American values
When he took the stage, Biden was greeted to chants of “Don’t you quit!” and “We got your back!” The president told them there’s “a lot of speculation lately” about whether he’ll stay in the race.
“I am running, and we’re going to win!” he said….
Biden is zeroing in on Project 2025 as a mechanism to unify the Democratic Party as it splinters over his future in the race, following a shocking debate performance that some in the party see as politically fatal to his re-election prospects. Numerous voters at the rally stood by him and voiced displeasure with the Democrats calling on him to step aside. And it was clear the right-wing document has caught on across within the Democratic Party as a rallying cry for those eager to keep Trump out of the White House.
A Biden aide said the president’s campaign plans to continue focusing on Project 2025 at next week’s GOP convention.
Kapur asked voters about Project 2025:
Before Biden’s remarks at the Detroit rally, the first seven Michigan voters NBC News spoke to were all aware of Project 2025 — and had strong opinions on it.
“It’s horrific. It would totally dismantle our democracy, fill the whole government with loyalists to Trump,” said Deanna Zapico, of Royal Oak. “It would be like Hitler in 1933. There wouldn’t be an election in a long time. That’s my fear.”
“I’m sharing it with everybody,” Zapico said.
Deborah Fuertes, of Brighton, summed it up in one word: “Scary.”
“This is an existential threat,” she said.Trump’s “name’s all over that thing,” said Angela Heard, a sales manager based in Grosse Pointe Woods. “If we don’t get our s— together we’re gonna be like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’”
Here’s an indication that Project 2025 could be getting the attention people who don’t generally follow politics closely–People magazine published an in-depth article on the Trump plan. Kyler Alvord writes: What Is Project 2025? Inside the Far-Right Plan Threatening Everything from the Word ‘Gender’ to Public Education.
A sweeping proposal for how Donald Trump should handle a second term in office has sparked concern for its implications on the role of federal government and its calls to eliminate a number of basic human rights.
The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, more commonly known as Project 2025, released a 900-page manifesto last year titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.” The policy guidebook — compiled by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in partnership with more than 100 other conservative organizations — lays out a far-right, Christian nationalist vision for America that would corrode the separation of church and state, replace nonpartisan government employees with Trump loyalists and bolster the president’s authority over independent agencies.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, a rumored candidate for Trump’s chief of staff in a second term, promoted his group’s extreme positions during a July interview, saying, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Down with the tomcats
Shortly after Roberts’ controversial interview, Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, saying on Truth Social that he knows “nothing” about it and has “no idea who is behind it,” before adding that he disagrees with some of its propositions.
While Project 2025 is not formally a part of Trump’s campaign platform, it has been led and supported by several influential people in his orbit. The project’s top leaders all worked in Trump’s White House and a number of the manifesto’s contributors also served in the Trump administration, including but not limited to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and imprisoned former trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Equally damaging to Trump’s claim that he is unfamiliar with Project 2025 is that he worked closely with the Heritage Foundation when he was first elected president. He was provided a similar “Mandate for Leadership” back in 2016, and enacted nearly two-thirds of the group’s proposals within his first year in office.
The Heritage Foundation also reportedly played a behind-the-scenes role on Trump’s presidential transition team and had a significant hand in staffing the administration.
Alvord also addressed Project 2025’s goal of eliminating the wall between church and state.
Project 2025 establishes a framework for guiding the federal government through a biblical lens. Across nearly 1,000 pages, the mandate pushes an unpopular interpretation of the Christian agenda that would target reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ people and people of color by effectively erasing mention of all related terms, protections and troublesome historical accounts.
Though the mandate accuses the “woke” left of infringing on people’s religious freedoms, its policies are rooted in a singular, extremist view of how society should function based on its authors’ own Christian nationalist values. It repeatedly calls for the punishment, even imprisonment, of people who do not conform to the think tank’s platform.
The proposed policies in Project 2025’s mandate stem from four stated goals. In its words: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life, dismantling the administrative state, defending the nation’s sovereignty and securing God-given individual rights.
Through a holistic approach to restructuring the government, it would seek to give Trump heightened authority to enact his backers’ platform in every city and state — often encouraging the president to creatively subvert congressional approval.
Read the rest at People Magazine. It’s very detailed.
Speaking of Christian nationalism, ProPublica has an investigative article on a shadowy organization of rich people working to influence the 2024 election. Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey: Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country. The subhead reads: “The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.”
A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.
1908
ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag’s members-only email newsletters, internal videos, strategy documents and fundraising pitches, none of which has been previously made public. They reveal the group’s 2024 plans and its long-term goal to underpin every major sphere of influence in American society with Christianity. In the Bible, the city of Ziklag was where David and his soldiers found refuge during their war with King Saul.
“We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness,” says a strategy document that lays out Ziklag’s 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.”
Ziklag’s 2024 agenda reads like the work of a political organization. It plans to pour money into mobilizing voters in Arizona who are “sympathetic to Republicans” in order to secure “10,640 additional unique votes” — almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020. The group also intends to use controversial AI software to enable mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states.
In a recording of a 2023 internal strategy discussion, a Ziklag official stressed that the objective was the same in other swing states. “The goal is to win,” the official said. “If 75,000 people wins the White House, then how do we get 150,000 people so we make sure we win?”
According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations targeting voters in battleground states: Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups; Steeplechase, concentrated on using churches and pastors to get out the vote; and Watchtower, aimed at galvanizing voters around the issues of “parental rights” and opposition to transgender rights and policies supporting health care for trans people.
In a member briefing video, one of Ziklag’s spiritual advisers outlined a plan to “deliver swing states” by using an anti-transgender message to motivate conservative voters who are exhausted with Trump.
But Ziklag is not a political organization: It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, the same legal designation as the United Way or Boys and Girls Club. Such organizations do not have to publicly disclose their funders, and donations are tax deductible. In exchange, they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS.
Read the whole thing at ProPublica.
In other news, you probably heard that Mark Zuckerberg has bowed down to Trump. Raw Story: ‘So the despotic threats worked?’: Outrage as Facebook lifts limits on Trump’s accounts.
Critics shredded Meta’s decision to ease restrictions placed on former President Donald Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Axios reported Friday the social media titan planned to soon roll back limits it placed on Trump’s accounts as it aimed to allow for more parity leading up to the Nov. 5 election. The tech giant said a minor violation could lead to his accounts being suspended up to two years or restricted.
The move comes more than a year after he was reinstated to the platforms but with limits such as suspensions and advertising restrictions for violating company rules.
Stunned social media critics blasted the decision.
“So the despotic threats worked?” asked @JenBaty, pointing to Trump’s threat on Truth Social that the “ZUCKERBUCKS (sic),” a reference to Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, “will be sent to prison for long periods of time.”
Trump has previously said Zuckerberg “cheated” in the 2020 election.
“Why isn’t he being prosecuted?” he wrote last year. “The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!”
A few stories on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week:
AP: Deeply Democratic Milwaukee wrestles with hosting Trump and the Republican National Convention.
Milwaukee loves its Miller Beer, Brewers baseball and “ Bronze Fonz ” statue.
The deepest blue city in swing state Wisconsin, Milwaukee also loves Democrats.
So it can be hard for some to swallow that Milwaukee is playing host to former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention this coming week while rival Chicago, the larger city just 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.
It didn’t help smooth things over with wary Democrats after Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee just a month before the convention that begins Monday.
Adding to the angst, Milwaukee was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but it didn’t happen due to COVID. Owners of local restaurants, bars and venues say the number of reservations that were promised during the RNC aren’t materializing. And protesters complained the city was trying to keep them too far away from the convention site to have an impact.
“I wish I was out of town for it,” Jake Schneider, 29, said as he passed by the city’s statue of Fonzie, the character played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days” that was set in Milwaukee. “I’m not super happy that it’s the Republican Party coming to town.” [….]
Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who is a state representative and serves on the Milwaukee County Board, puts it more bluntly: “It is shameful that we rolled out the red carpet for the RNC.”
Former President Donald Trump will be officially renominated next week to be the Republican Party’s standard-bearer for the third presidential election in a row as he seeks to return to the Oval Office.
GOP delegates from around the country will gather in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, with much of the country following along through the primetime speeches each night.
These speeches have historically allowed presidential candidates to unify discord from aggressive primary campaigns, and the conventions offer a high-profile platform to sway undecided voters.
While an official list of speakers hasn’t yet been announced, here are some of the people who’ve reportedly been tapped to demonstrate their support for Trump on stage next week.
The list includes Donald Trump, Jr., Ron DeSantis, Sean O’Brien (Teamsters president), David Sacks (Elon Musk’s pal), Kari Lake, Elise Stefanik, and more. She’s not listed, but I heard that Margery Taylor Green will also speak.
Politico: The unusual legal risk Trump will have to navigate at the RNC.
Donald Trump will be rubbing elbows in Milwaukee with a crowd that may include dozens of witnesses and alleged co-conspirators in his criminal cases — people he has sworn not to communicate with about details of the charges against him.
Avoiding them may not be possible for the former president during the four-day convention, creating an unusual dynamic, and a potential legal liability for Trump, against the backdrop of a national nominating convention.
1911
“If I were a Trump attorney, my biggest fear might be that Trump finds himself in close quarters with a defendant and starts running his mouth off,” said Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University.
Several false electors for Trump in 2020 who were charged with crimes in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia are expected to be at the Republican National Convention. In addition, many of Trump’s former White House aides who testified to grand juries in Washington and Florida are likely to be on hand. Though the roster of speakers hasn’t been publicly shared, there’s a high likelihood that others embroiled in Trump’s alleged crimes — a long list of GOP officials and activists — will also be there.
The situation is, like many things associated with Trump, unprecedented, and it’s hard to gauge the likelihood that an interaction in a crowded convention hall could become legally perilous for the former president. But it’s not zero, according to legal experts.
“I imagine the tight scripted nature of the convention will help isolate Trump from that danger,” Kreis said. “But you also never know.”
General attacks on the prosecutions he’s facing in Washington, Florida and Georgia — familiar themes in Trump rallies and speeches — or superficial encounters with people involved in his cases are unlikely to raise prosecutors’ eyebrows. But legal experts say there are lines Trump could cross if he mentions codefendants or witnesses by name or has more substantive interactions with them. And even general remarks, whether scripted or extemporaneous, could present risks if they could be interpreted as pressure on witnesses against cooperation or an attempt to influence their future testimony.
Those are my recommended reads for today. I hope you find something that interests you.
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/13/lazy-caturday-reads-170/
#BidenSpeechInDetroit #ChristianNationalism #HeritageFoundation #mainstreamMedia #MarkZukerberg #Meta #Milwaukee #Project2025 #RepublicanNationalConvention2024 #suffragettesAndCats #womenSSuffrage #Ziklag
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原文链接：variety.com/2024/tv/features/doctor-who-disney-plus-cast-ncuti-gatwa-first-black-doctor-diversity-1235979436/
‘Doctor Who’ Regenerates: How Ncuti Gatwa’s Historic Casting, Russell T Davies’ Return and a Disney+ Deal Revolutionized the Franchise
《神秘博士》重生：舒提历史性的选角、RTD的回归以及与迪士尼+的订单如何彻底改变了该剧When Ncuti Gatwa makes his first appearance as the 15th Doctor in the science-fiction series “Doctor Who,” he isn’t wearing any pants.
当Ncuti Gatwa在科幻剧《神秘博士》中首次以第 15 任博士身份亮相时，他没有穿裤子。In a 60th-anniversary special released in December, the previous Doctor — played by series icon David Tennant — subverts the show’s long-standing practice of regeneration: Instead of simply transforming into the next Doctor, he literally splits in half, bringing Gatwa’s Doctor into the world alongside him. In the process, the two divide the clothes of Tennant’s Doctor between them, leaving Gatwa in nothing but a dress shirt and a pair of tighty-whities.
在 12 月发布的 60 周年特辑中，前任博士（由大卫·田纳特饰演）颠覆了该剧长期以来的重生实践：他没有简单地转变为下一位博士，而是分裂成两半，将舒提的博士与自己一起带入世界。在此过程中，两人各自拥有了一半原本第14任博士的衣服，舒提只穿了一件正装衬衫和紧身裤。“Oh, my God, that first costume fitting!” Gatwa says, bursting into an infectious fit of laughter. It’s a frequent occurrence as he speaks with Variety on a chilly March day over lemon ginger tea at the Langham hotel in London. “I was like, ‘Are you joking?!’ They showed me a pair of [underwear] and they were like” — he claps his hands as if to say “Voilà!”
“哦，天啊，试穿第一套服装的时候！”舒提说道，他爆发出富有感染力的笑声，这种情况经常发生。在寒冷的三月天，他在伦敦朗廷酒店喝着柠檬姜茶接受 Variety 采访时。 “我当时想，‘你在开玩笑吗？！’他们给我展示了一条[内裤]，他们就像”——他拍了拍手演示道，好像在说“瞧啊！”In addition to the whole no-pants thing, Gatwa was just a little bit star-struck: Tennant, who played the part from 2005 to 2010, was the Doctor he’d grown up with, inspiring him to become an actor in the first place.
除了整个“不穿裤子”的事情之外，舒提身上还有些明星效应：DT在 2005 年至 2010 年期间扮演了这个角色，舒提是看着DT的博士长大的，这激励了他成为一名演员。“To play this role beside him, who played this role which made me want to do this role, and him also being there — it was so many layers of full circle,” Gatwa says. “And on top of it, you’re wearing no pants! There was so much going on that day.”
“在他身边扮演这个角色，他扮演的这个角色让我想要扮演这个角色，而且他也在场——这是一个完整的循环，”舒提说。 “而且最重要的是，我没穿裤子！那天发生了很多事情。”It was an apt entrance for Gatwa, whose bubbly, fearless personality shone through in his breakout performance as the effervescent Eric on Netflix’s “Sex Education” and as “artist Ken” in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” It also marks a new era for the beloved “Doctor Who,” with series stalwart Russell T Davies returning as showrunner, writer and executive producer.
这对于舒提来说是一个恰当的入口，他在 Netflix的《性教育》中饰演了热情洋溢的Eric以及在格蕾塔·葛韦格的电影《芭比》中饰演了“艺术家肯”，在他的突破性表演中展现了他活泼、无所畏惧的个性。这也标志着深受喜爱的《神秘博士》进入了一个新时代，该剧的坚定支持者RTD将回归担任剧集主管、编剧和执行制片人。Since premiering in 1963, the seminal show has become part of the fabric of British culture, reaching across generations and prompting many a dinner-table argument about which Doctor is the best. The original series went off the air in 1989 after seven actors played the role, with an eighth appearing in a 1996 TV movie that failed to reignite excitement in the franchise. Then Davies ushered “Doctor Who” into the modern age in 2005, extending its episode lengths, giving it a sleek new look and crafting story arcs that extended throughout each season. Taking the reins was a dream for Davies, who says the show is “not only my first memory of television, but my first memory of life.”
自 1963 年首播以来，这部影响深远的剧已成为英国文化的一部分，影响了几代人，并引发了许多餐桌上关于“哪任博士最棒”的争论。旧版剧集由七位演员扮演该角色，后于 1989 年停播，第八位演员出现在 1996 年的一部电视电影中，但未能重新点燃该剧。随后，RTD在 2005 年将《神秘博士》带入现代，延长了剧集长度，赋予其时尚的新外观，并精心设计了贯穿每一季的故事情节。接掌神秘博士是RTD的梦想，他说这部剧“不仅是我对电视的第一个记忆，也是我人生的第一个记忆”。With Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, followed by Tennant as the 10th, Davies took the series out of its cult-y niche as a British curiosity. With his relaunch, “Doctor Who” transformed into an international hit (with multiple spinoffs), as well as a star-making machine. In addition to Eccleston and Tennant, who have become two of the U.K.’s greatest acting exports, “Doctor Who” has helped launch the careers of Billie Piper, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and even Carey Mulligan, who had a small role in the now-classic 2007 episode “Blink.” After Davies’ departure in 2010 — Tennant was also leaving and Davies says he “had muscles to flex” in the adult drama space — the show continued to build on his foundation, with the most recent lead (prior to Tennant’s anniversary-special return) being Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to play the Doctor.
Ncuti Gatwa 饰演博士，图片由迪士尼+提供
Christopher Eccleston饰演第九任博士，Tennant担任第十任博士，RTD将该剧带出了它作为英国奇趣之物的小众领域。随着他的重新推出，《神秘博士》变成了一部国际热门影片（有多个衍生剧），同时也是一台造星机器。除了CE和DT成为英国最伟大的两位演技派外，《神秘博士》还帮助开启了比莉·派佩、马特·史密斯、凯伦·吉兰甚至凯瑞·穆里根的职业生涯，后者曾经在《神秘博士》2007 年的经典剧集《Blink》中扮演了一个小角色。2010 年RTD离开后，DT也跟着离开了，RTD说他在成人剧领域“还有肌肉可以发挥”，该剧继续在他的时期的基础上发展，并带来了最近最新的主角（在DT回归周年特辑之前）Jodie Whittaker是第一位扮演博士的女性。Now, with Davies back at the helm, Gatwa is making history as the first openly queer Black actor to take on the role of the core Doctor.
现在，随着RTD重新掌舵，舒提正在创造历史，成为第一位公开扮演核心博士角色的黑人酷儿演员。“Do you know what? It makes perfect sense to me,” Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda and raised in Scotland, says of his casting. “I feel like anyone that has a problem with someone who’s not a straight white man playing this character, you’re not really, truly a fan of the show. You’ve not been watching! Because the show is about regeneration, and the Doctor is an alien — why would they only choose to be this sort of person?”
“你知道吗？这对我来说非常有意义，”在卢旺达出生、在苏格兰长大的舒提说道，他谈到了自己的选角。“我觉得，如果有人对扮演这个角色的演员不是白人直男有意见，那你真的不算是这个节目的粉丝。你根本就没有好好看剧！因为这部剧讲的是重生，博士是个外星人——博士凭什么只选择重生为那么单一的一种人呢？”Davies echoes that logic: “They weren’t exactly the straightest men in the past.” A trailblazer of LGBTQ television, Davies created the original “Queer as Folk” in 1999 and 2021’s “It’s a Sin.” And about how Gatwa’s Doctor is different, he says: “You’re talking about someone who does have a lightness and a joy about him that, to me, chimes with queer energy. It’s very rarely driving the story vehemently, but you will see moments exploring it. We’re not delivering a neutered Doctor.”
RTD也表达了相同的内容：“博士过去也并不完全是传统意义上的直男。”作为 LGBTQ 电视节目的先锋，RTD于 1999 年创作了原创剧《同志亦凡人》，并于 2021 年创作了《这是罪》。谈到舒提的博士与众不同的地方，他说：“你在谈论一个具有轻盈和快乐特质的人，对我来说，这与酷儿能量很契合。这种能量很少会强烈驱动故事，但你会看到探索这一点的时刻。我们不会呈现一个被削弱特质的博士。”While the Doctor’s sexuality has never been labeled, in Gatwa’s first episode as the lead — “The Church on Ruby Road,” which premiered as the traditional “Doctor Who” Christmas special — viewers see him dancing in a kilt and referencing his “long, hot summer with Harry Houdini.” And though Davies insists he didn’t set out to be revolutionary in casting the next Doctor — “We auditioned men, women, Black, white, nonbinary actors and actors whose sexuality was their own private matter” — he says these are “exactly the type of barriers I like to break.”
尽管博士的性取向从未被标签化，但在舒提作为主角的第一集中——《Ruby路上的教堂》，该集作为传统的《神秘博士》圣诞特辑首映——观众看到他穿着苏格兰短裙跳舞，并提到了他“与胡迪尼一起度过漫长而炎热的夏天。”尽管RTD坚称，他在选角下一位博士时并没有打算采取颠覆性的做法——“我们试镜了男性、女性、黑人、白人、酷儿演员以及没有公开性取向的演员”——他说这些“正是我喜欢突破的障碍”。“It’s very hard for anyone to stop me doing these things,” he continues. “You’d have to be a pretty brave executive to say, ‘Don’t go there’ to me. I’m sure there are people thinking that, but I wouldn’t work with them, would I?”
“任何人都很难阻止我做这些事情，”他继续说道。 “你必须是一位非常勇敢的高管，才能对我说‘不要这样做’。我知道肯定有人会这么想，但我不会和他们一起工作，不是吗？”Davies, a self-professed “Doctor Who” super fan, says he never stopped watching the show after he handed it over to Steven Moffat. He even initiated “tweet-alongs” to fan-favorite episodes during the COVID lockdown, enlisting Tennant and Catherine Tate, who had played one of the Doctor’s “companions” — someone always keeps the Doctor company in the Tardis, the show’s time-traveling machine — during Tennant’s tenure. When the two said they’d be open to returning to the show, which coincided with 13th Doctor Whittaker leaving, Davies pitched a 60th-anniversary special featuring Tennant and Tate to the BBC.
RTD说他是《神秘博士》的超级粉丝，他表示，自从把这部剧交给魔法特后，他就从未停止观看该剧。他甚至在新冠疫情封锁期间参加了对粉丝最喜欢的剧集的“来推特一起追剧”活动，邀请了曾扮演博士和“同伴”之一的DT和CT——有人总是在剧中的时间旅行机器TARDIS中陪伴着博士——在DT任职期间。当两人表示愿意重返节目时，在第 13 任博士JW离开之际，RTD向BBC推介了由DT和CT主演的 60 周年特辑。The broadcaster not only said yes, but asked Davies whether he’d want to reinvent the show once again, this time with a worldwide streaming partner. The BBC had found one in Disney+, where the new season will release worldwide on May 10 at 7 p.m. ET — excluding the U.K., where it will launch May 11 at midnight GMT on BBC iPlayer and air that night on BBC One. (A choice that’s maddened some British Whovians, who — if they don’t want to stay up past their bedtimes — will have to wait until the next morning to stream new episodes as they dodge spoilers.)
BBC负责人不仅答应了，还询问RTD是否愿意再次改造该剧，这次，是与全球流媒体合作伙伴合作。 BBC找到了Disney+，新一季将于 5 月 10 日东部时间晚上 7 点在全球上映。 但不包括英国，该剧在英国将于格林尼治标准时间 5 月 11 日午夜在 BBC iPlayer 上推出，并于当晚在 BBC One 上播出。 （这个选择让一些英国胡粉抓狂，如果他们不想熬夜超过就寝时间，就必须等到第二天早上观看新剧集，以免剧透。）The new iteration was given a two-season order, and Davies says it feels like such a fresh start that he has “the urge to call it Season 1,” despite the series’ 60-plus-year history. “It’s a new show,” he says.
新版签下了两季的订单，RTD表示，这感觉像是一个全新的开始，以至于他“有一种冲动将其称为第一季”，尽管该剧已有 60 多年的历史。 “这是一个全新的展现，”他说。Davies had admired franchises like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” making the leap to streaming, and jumped at the chance to bring “Doctor Who” to a global audience — and with that transition, to give the show a higher production value. Integral to that was Bad Wolf, the production company founded by industry veterans Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, with whom he had worked on his first iteration of “Doctor Who.” In 2017, Bad Wolf opened Wolf Studios Wales in Cardiff, which boasts 140,000 square feet of space across seven soundstages.
《神秘博士》剧集主管拉塞尔·T·戴维斯，由迪士尼摄影师雷伯米斯顿拍摄
RTD很欣赏《星际迷航》和《星球大战》等系列电影向流媒体领域的飞跃，并抓住了将《神秘博士》带给全球观众的机会，并通过这一转变赋予该剧更高的制作价值。其中不可或缺的是恶狼公司，这家制作公司由行业资深人士Julie Gardner和Jane Tranter创立，她们曾和RTD一起制作了《神秘博士》的新版第一季。 2017 年，恶狼公司在卡迪夫开设了威尔士恶狼工作室，占地 140,000 平方英尺，拥有七个摄影棚。“I want every person in the world to watch ‘Doctor Who,’” Gardner says of the power of Disney+. “We can just get bigger and get better reach, and it feels like exactly where ‘Doctor Who’ should be.”
“我希望世界上每个人都能观看《神秘博士》，”Gardner谈到迪士尼+的力量时说道。 “我们可以做得更大，覆盖范围更广，感觉《神秘博士》就应该如此。”And of course, with the Disney+ partnership came an elevated budget. Neither Davies nor the streamer will reveal exactly how much it is, though Davies has denied previous £10-million-per-episode rumors.
当然，与迪士尼+的合作带来了更高的预算。RTD和这家流媒体公司都不会透露确切的预算金额，不过RTD否认了之前每集 1000 万英镑的传言。“It’s not going to be a ‘Star Wars’ budget, and do you know what? Neither should it be,” he says. “Because I do think, with no offense to anyone, if money disappeared tomorrow, we’d [still] make the best episode of ‘Doctor Who’ ever.”
“不会有《星球大战》那样的预算，你知道吗？也不应该有，”他说。 “因为我确实认为，无意冒犯任何人，如果明天这笔钱消失了，我们仍然能够制作出《神秘博士》有史以来最好的一集。”With production locked in, only one task remained: finding the perfect Doctor to usher in the show’s new chapter.
制作锁定后，只剩下一个任务：寻找完美的博士来开启该剧的新篇章。Gatwa was the last person to audition for the role back in January 2022. After the production had seen around 20 actors — and believed it had found its new lead — casting director Andy Pryor called Gatwa’s agent.
舒提是最后一位试镜该角色的人选，时间是2022年1月。剧组在看了大约 20 名演员的试镜后，相信已经找到了新的主角，选角导演Andy Pryor给舒提的经纪人打了电话。“We think we’ve got them, but, like, rogue choice, we just want to see Ncuti,” Gatwa says, reenacting the phone conversation. “Do you think he’d be up for it?”
“我们认为我们已经找到了演员，但是，就像狂野选择一样，我们只是想看看舒提，”舒提说道，他重演了一下当时的电话交谈。 “你认为舒提能接受吗？”Indeed, he would: Just the week before, Gatwa had texted his agent that he’d love to play “a character like Doctor Who or Willy Wonka.”
事实上，舒提愿意：就在那之前的一周，舒提就给他的经纪人发了短信说他很想扮演神秘博士或威利·旺卡这样的角色”。“I was like, this is manifestation, man,” Gatwa says, still looking astonished. To prepare, he rewatched all of Davies’ episodes. “In that week, I became a die-hard fan.”
“我当时想，这就是美梦成真，伙计，”舒提说道，看上去仍然很惊讶。为了做好准备，他重新观看了RTD时期的所有剧集。 “那周我是超级铁杆粉丝。”During the audition, Davies, who read with each potential Doctor, was blown away. “I actually wanted to put down the script and say, ‘You’ve got the part,’” he says. “I literally knew then.”
在试镜过程中，与每位潜在博士演员一起通读剧本的RTD都被震撼了。 “我实际上想放下剧本并说，‘你得到了这个角色，’”他说。 “我当时就知道了。”Davies wasn’t alone in that opinion. “I have never seen an audition tape, and I suspect I probably never will, which had more conviction, more star quality, more talent in it than Ncuti’s,” producer Tranter says. “For me, it was the audition of a lifetime.”
RTD并不是唯一一个持这种观点的人。 “我从来没有看过别的试镜带能够比舒提的更有说服力，更有明星品质，更有才华，而且我怀疑这件事也后无来者，”制片人Tranter说。 “对我来说，这是一生难忘的试镜。”And every Doctor needs a companion. No. 15’s is Ruby Sunday, played by former “Coronation Street” star Millie Gibson. In the series, the spunky Mancunian teen’s search for her birth parents helps to bolster her friendship with the orphan Doctor. Today at the Langham, Gibson is dressed, fittingly, in a ruby red Comme des Garçons cardigan and matching Mary Janes as she recalls her audition with Gatwa.
每个博士都需要一个同伴。第15任博士的同伴是Ruby Sunday，由前《加冕街》明星演员米莉·吉布森饰演。在该剧中，这位勇敢的曼彻斯特青少年寻找她的亲生父母的过程有助于加强她与孤儿博士的友谊。今天在朗廷酒店，吉布森回忆起自己在舒提的试镜时，身着红宝石色 Comme des Garçons 开衫，搭配玛丽珍鞋。“It was surreal, because I remember watching you get announced at the BAFTAs in my bedroom, being like, ‘Oh, that’s a lovely choice,’” Gibson tells Gatwa as he lets out a belt of laughter — which then conjures another memory in Gibson. “I’ll always remember being in the waiting room for my audition and just hearing your laugh and being like, ‘Mm, there it is! There we go.’”
“这太超现实了，因为我记得自己曾经在卧室里看过你在BAFTA奖上被宣布获奖，我就想，‘哦，这是一个可爱的选择，’”吉布森一边笑一边告诉舒提——这让我想起了另一个记忆吉布森。 “我永远记得在等待室试镜时听到你的笑声，然后说，‘嗯，就在那里！我们就这样吧。’”Gibson calls their chemistry read “magic,” though she recalls thinking, “Is he just like that with everyone because he’s really charismatic?”
吉布森称他们的化学反应是“神奇的”，尽管她回忆道，“他对每个人都这样，是因为他真的很有魅力吗？”No, the feeling was mutual.
不，这种感觉是相互的。“I knew where I wanted to take the character of the Doctor as soon as you walked in the room,” Gatwa says. “I was like, ‘Now the characterization is complete. This was the missing piece.’”
“当你走进房间时，我就知道我想把博士这个角色带到哪里，”舒提说。 “我当时想，‘现在人物描述已经完成了。这就是缺失的部分。’”Gatwa’s guiding word for his Doctor became “compassion” — a choice that aligned with Davies’ vision of the character being more emotionally free than in the past. “A Doctor of old is someone who traditionally would be more closed, a little bit more aloof,” Davies says. “Then completely by chance I cast the man who couldn’t hide an emotion if he tried.”
舒提对他的博士的指导词变成了“同情心”——这一选择符合RTD的愿景，即该角色比过去在情感上更加自由。 “过去，传统的博士情感会更加封闭，更加淡漠，”戴维斯说。 “然后完全出于偶然，我选选择了这个即使努力也无法隐藏情感的人。”Indeed, viewers saw Gatwa’s Doctor shed tears in the Christmas special — something Davies hopes will connect with the show’s younger audience.
事实上，观众在圣诞特辑中看到了小15流下了眼泪——RTD希望这能与该剧的年轻观众产生共鸣。“The one thing I keep seeing now is the fragility of the mental health of young people. It’s like there’s a nervousness about in the air now,” he says. “So that’s the hero I wanted for them. If that younger audience is feeling so much, I wanted the Doctor to feel it on-screen as well.”
“我现在不断看到的一件事是年轻人脆弱的心理健康。现在空气中总是弥漫着紧张的气氛，”他说。 “这就是我想要的英雄。如果年轻观众有如此丰富的感受，我希望屏幕上的博士也能体会到这些情感。”Along with patented “Doctor Who” adventures that Whovians will love and monsters new and old, the new season will feature an homage to the Beatles and an episode Davies describes as “Welsh folk-horror.” But this latest revival hasn’t been without bumps in the road. In January, Gatwa was spotted filming an episode for the upcoming second season with new cast member Varada Sethu, seemingly playing the companion, which led to reports that Gibson would be leaving the show. Turns out — as it was officially announced earlier this month — that Gibson is sticking around, and Sethu is joining the cast as another companion in Season 2. (“This is the unfortunate thing about filming in public,” Davies laments.)
除了《神秘博士》的专利冒险和新旧怪物之外，新一季还将向披头士乐队致敬，并推出RTD之为“威尔士民间恐怖”的一集。但最近的复兴之路并非一帆风顺。一月份，有人发现舒提正在与新演员Varada Sethu一起拍摄即将到来的第二季的一集，似乎扮演同伴，这导致有报道称吉布森将离开该剧。结果——正如本月早些时候官方宣布的那样——吉布森将留下来，而新演员Sethu将作为第二季的另一位搭档加入剧组。（“这是在公共场合拍摄的不幸之处，”RTD感叹道。）“It was a little bit of a misunderstanding,” Gibson says. “But I’m very much in Season 2.”
“那件事有点误解，”吉布森说。 “但我绝对有积极参与第二季的拍摄。”“Doctor’s not letting this one go,” Gatwa says, chiming in. “That’s what the show is, isn’t it? There’s always new actors coming in and doing different things.”
“博士不会放手的，”舒提插话道，“这就是这部剧的意义，不是吗？总是有新演员加入、并带来一些新的事情。”And although Gatwa’s groundbreaking casting was met with much praise, there were, of course, some haters. Gatwa’s message to the naysayers is simple: “Don’t watch. Turn off the TV. Go and touch grass, please, for God’s sake.”
尽管舒提开创性的选角赢得了很多赞誉，但显然还是有一些人跳出来反对。舒提向反对者传达的信息很简单：“别看了。关掉电视。看在老天的份上，出去走走，接触接触大自然吧。”Then there’s the criticism that “Doctor Who” is a show that appeals to children — and that a queer actor playing the Doctor will reach more kids than ever with its new home on Disney+, which is a disturbing idea to homophobes. Davies sees the show’s wider reach as an opportunity to open people’s minds.
还有人批评说《神秘博士》是一部吸引儿童的节目，而扮演博士的酷儿演员将通过迪士尼+这个新平台去吸引比以往更多的孩子，这令恐同者们不安。RTD认为该剧的更广泛影响力是让人们开放思想的机会。“I think if you’re 6 years old, you don’t care — not at all,” he says. “But nonetheless, as the world darkens — and I do think the world is darkening around queer rights — there is a joy and a celebration, and there’s a community. Whether you’re 12 years old and just beginning to work out who you are, 62 years old and you’ve never been who you are, or 61 years old like I am and beginning to worry about where we are in society — there is a hero out there cutting his way through the universe, looking damn good in his suits and doing it with a laugh and a smile.”
“我认为，如果你只有 6 岁，你根本都不会在意这些，”他说。 “但尽管如此，随着世界现状变得愈发黑暗——我确实认为围绕为酷儿争取基本权利的世界正在变得黑暗——然而在酷儿权利问题上，还有着这样积极的团结的氛围存在，人们共同庆祝和支持彼此。无论你是 12 岁，刚刚开始认识自身，还是62 岁，从来都还没能做过自己，还是像我一样 61 岁，开始担心我们自己在社会中的处境 – 都有一位英雄在宇宙中开辟出一条道路，穿着西装、好看极了，并且带着欢笑和微笑地做着自己。”For Gatwa, Tennant has been a “guiding therapist father figure,” advising him about “the things to read, and the things not to read.”
对于舒提来说，DT一直是“父亲般的指导治疗师形象”，为他提供了“哪些内容该读和哪些内容不该读”的建议。As for how long this new era of “Doctor Who” will last? Gatwa says he’s “not going anywhere soon,” and Davies adds that he’s “already making plans” beyond the initial two-season order. No matter where this foray into the Whoniverse goes, Davies is sure of one thing: In Gatwa, a star has been born.
至于《神秘博士》的这个新时代能持续多久？舒提表示，自己“不会很快离开”，RTD补充说，除了最初的两季订单外，他“已经制定了计划”。无论进入神秘博士宇宙的哪个方向，RTD都确信一件事：对于舒提来说，一颗明星已经诞生。“I can sit here utterly certain that in five years’ time he’ll be leading a movie franchise and security will be holding me back as I go, ‘He promised me a ticket!’” Davies says with a chuckle.
“我坐在这里完全可以肯定，五年后他将主演一部电影，而保安会拦住我，我会大喊，‘他答应过给我一张票的！’”RTD笑着说。 -
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原文链接：variety.com/2024/tv/features/doctor-who-disney-plus-cast-ncuti-gatwa-first-black-doctor-diversity-1235979436/
‘Doctor Who’ Regenerates: How Ncuti Gatwa’s Historic Casting, Russell T Davies’ Return and a Disney+ Deal Revolutionized the Franchise
《神秘博士》重生：舒提历史性的选角、RTD的回归以及与迪士尼+的订单如何彻底改变了该剧When Ncuti Gatwa makes his first appearance as the 15th Doctor in the science-fiction series “Doctor Who,” he isn’t wearing any pants.
当Ncuti Gatwa在科幻剧《神秘博士》中首次以第 15 任博士身份亮相时，他没有穿裤子。In a 60th-anniversary special released in December, the previous Doctor — played by series icon David Tennant — subverts the show’s long-standing practice of regeneration: Instead of simply transforming into the next Doctor, he literally splits in half, bringing Gatwa’s Doctor into the world alongside him. In the process, the two divide the clothes of Tennant’s Doctor between them, leaving Gatwa in nothing but a dress shirt and a pair of tighty-whities.
在 12 月发布的 60 周年特辑中，前任博士（由大卫·田纳特饰演）颠覆了该剧长期以来的重生实践：他没有简单地转变为下一位博士，而是分裂成两半，将舒提的博士与自己一起带入世界。在此过程中，两人各自拥有了一半原本第14任博士的衣服，舒提只穿了一件正装衬衫和紧身裤。“Oh, my God, that first costume fitting!” Gatwa says, bursting into an infectious fit of laughter. It’s a frequent occurrence as he speaks with Variety on a chilly March day over lemon ginger tea at the Langham hotel in London. “I was like, ‘Are you joking?!’ They showed me a pair of [underwear] and they were like” — he claps his hands as if to say “Voilà!”
“哦，天啊，试穿第一套服装的时候！”舒提说道，他爆发出富有感染力的笑声，这种情况经常发生。在寒冷的三月天，他在伦敦朗廷酒店喝着柠檬姜茶接受 Variety 采访时。 “我当时想，‘你在开玩笑吗？！’他们给我展示了一条[内裤]，他们就像”——他拍了拍手演示道，好像在说“瞧啊！”In addition to the whole no-pants thing, Gatwa was just a little bit star-struck: Tennant, who played the part from 2005 to 2010, was the Doctor he’d grown up with, inspiring him to become an actor in the first place.
除了整个“不穿裤子”的事情之外，舒提身上还有些明星效应：DT在 2005 年至 2010 年期间扮演了这个角色，舒提是看着DT的博士长大的，这激励了他成为一名演员。“To play this role beside him, who played this role which made me want to do this role, and him also being there — it was so many layers of full circle,” Gatwa says. “And on top of it, you’re wearing no pants! There was so much going on that day.”
“在他身边扮演这个角色，他扮演的这个角色让我想要扮演这个角色，而且他也在场——这是一个完整的循环，”舒提说。 “而且最重要的是，我没穿裤子！那天发生了很多事情。”It was an apt entrance for Gatwa, whose bubbly, fearless personality shone through in his breakout performance as the effervescent Eric on Netflix’s “Sex Education” and as “artist Ken” in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” It also marks a new era for the beloved “Doctor Who,” with series stalwart Russell T Davies returning as showrunner, writer and executive producer.
这对于舒提来说是一个恰当的入口，他在 Netflix的《性教育》中饰演了热情洋溢的Eric以及在格蕾塔·葛韦格的电影《芭比》中饰演了“艺术家肯”，在他的突破性表演中展现了他活泼、无所畏惧的个性。这也标志着深受喜爱的《神秘博士》进入了一个新时代，该剧的坚定支持者RTD将回归担任剧集主管、编剧和执行制片人。Since premiering in 1963, the seminal show has become part of the fabric of British culture, reaching across generations and prompting many a dinner-table argument about which Doctor is the best. The original series went off the air in 1989 after seven actors played the role, with an eighth appearing in a 1996 TV movie that failed to reignite excitement in the franchise. Then Davies ushered “Doctor Who” into the modern age in 2005, extending its episode lengths, giving it a sleek new look and crafting story arcs that extended throughout each season. Taking the reins was a dream for Davies, who says the show is “not only my first memory of television, but my first memory of life.”
自 1963 年首播以来，这部影响深远的剧已成为英国文化的一部分，影响了几代人，并引发了许多餐桌上关于“哪任博士最棒”的争论。旧版剧集由七位演员扮演该角色，后于 1989 年停播，第八位演员出现在 1996 年的一部电视电影中，但未能重新点燃该剧。随后，RTD在 2005 年将《神秘博士》带入现代，延长了剧集长度，赋予其时尚的新外观，并精心设计了贯穿每一季的故事情节。接掌神秘博士是RTD的梦想，他说这部剧“不仅是我对电视的第一个记忆，也是我人生的第一个记忆”。With Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, followed by Tennant as the 10th, Davies took the series out of its cult-y niche as a British curiosity. With his relaunch, “Doctor Who” transformed into an international hit (with multiple spinoffs), as well as a star-making machine. In addition to Eccleston and Tennant, who have become two of the U.K.’s greatest acting exports, “Doctor Who” has helped launch the careers of Billie Piper, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and even Carey Mulligan, who had a small role in the now-classic 2007 episode “Blink.” After Davies’ departure in 2010 — Tennant was also leaving and Davies says he “had muscles to flex” in the adult drama space — the show continued to build on his foundation, with the most recent lead (prior to Tennant’s anniversary-special return) being Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to play the Doctor.
Ncuti Gatwa 饰演博士，图片由迪士尼+提供
Christopher Eccleston饰演第九任博士，Tennant担任第十任博士，RTD将该剧带出了它作为英国奇趣之物的小众领域。随着他的重新推出，《神秘博士》变成了一部国际热门影片（有多个衍生剧），同时也是一台造星机器。除了CE和DT成为英国最伟大的两位演技派外，《神秘博士》还帮助开启了比莉·派佩、马特·史密斯、凯伦·吉兰甚至凯瑞·穆里根的职业生涯，后者曾经在《神秘博士》2007 年的经典剧集《Blink》中扮演了一个小角色。2010 年RTD离开后，DT也跟着离开了，RTD说他在成人剧领域“还有肌肉可以发挥”，该剧继续在他的时期的基础上发展，并带来了最近最新的主角（在DT回归周年特辑之前）Jodie Whittaker是第一位扮演博士的女性。Now, with Davies back at the helm, Gatwa is making history as the first openly queer Black actor to take on the role of the core Doctor.
现在，随着RTD重新掌舵，舒提正在创造历史，成为第一位公开扮演核心博士角色的黑人酷儿演员。“Do you know what? It makes perfect sense to me,” Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda and raised in Scotland, says of his casting. “I feel like anyone that has a problem with someone who’s not a straight white man playing this character, you’re not really, truly a fan of the show. You’ve not been watching! Because the show is about regeneration, and the Doctor is an alien — why would they only choose to be this sort of person?”
“你知道吗？这对我来说非常有意义，”在卢旺达出生、在苏格兰长大的舒提说道，他谈到了自己的选角。“我觉得，如果有人对扮演这个角色的演员不是白人直男有意见，那你真的不算是这个节目的粉丝。你根本就没有好好看剧！因为这部剧讲的是重生，博士是个外星人——博士凭什么只选择重生为那么单一的一种人呢？”Davies echoes that logic: “They weren’t exactly the straightest men in the past.” A trailblazer of LGBTQ television, Davies created the original “Queer as Folk” in 1999 and 2021’s “It’s a Sin.” And about how Gatwa’s Doctor is different, he says: “You’re talking about someone who does have a lightness and a joy about him that, to me, chimes with queer energy. It’s very rarely driving the story vehemently, but you will see moments exploring it. We’re not delivering a neutered Doctor.”
RTD也表达了相同的内容：“博士过去也并不完全是传统意义上的直男。”作为 LGBTQ 电视节目的先锋，RTD于 1999 年创作了原创剧《同志亦凡人》，并于 2021 年创作了《这是罪》。谈到舒提的博士与众不同的地方，他说：“你在谈论一个具有轻盈和快乐特质的人，对我来说，这与酷儿能量很契合。这种能量很少会强烈驱动故事，但你会看到探索这一点的时刻。我们不会呈现一个被削弱特质的博士。”While the Doctor’s sexuality has never been labeled, in Gatwa’s first episode as the lead — “The Church on Ruby Road,” which premiered as the traditional “Doctor Who” Christmas special — viewers see him dancing in a kilt and referencing his “long, hot summer with Harry Houdini.” And though Davies insists he didn’t set out to be revolutionary in casting the next Doctor — “We auditioned men, women, Black, white, nonbinary actors and actors whose sexuality was their own private matter” — he says these are “exactly the type of barriers I like to break.”
尽管博士的性取向从未被标签化，但在舒提作为主角的第一集中——《Ruby路上的教堂》，该集作为传统的《神秘博士》圣诞特辑首映——观众看到他穿着苏格兰短裙跳舞，并提到了他“与胡迪尼一起度过漫长而炎热的夏天。”尽管RTD坚称，他在选角下一位博士时并没有打算采取颠覆性的做法——“我们试镜了男性、女性、黑人、白人、酷儿演员以及没有公开性取向的演员”——他说这些“正是我喜欢突破的障碍”。“It’s very hard for anyone to stop me doing these things,” he continues. “You’d have to be a pretty brave executive to say, ‘Don’t go there’ to me. I’m sure there are people thinking that, but I wouldn’t work with them, would I?”
“任何人都很难阻止我做这些事情，”他继续说道。 “你必须是一位非常勇敢的高管，才能对我说‘不要这样做’。我知道肯定有人会这么想，但我不会和他们一起工作，不是吗？”Davies, a self-professed “Doctor Who” super fan, says he never stopped watching the show after he handed it over to Steven Moffat. He even initiated “tweet-alongs” to fan-favorite episodes during the COVID lockdown, enlisting Tennant and Catherine Tate, who had played one of the Doctor’s “companions” — someone always keeps the Doctor company in the Tardis, the show’s time-traveling machine — during Tennant’s tenure. When the two said they’d be open to returning to the show, which coincided with 13th Doctor Whittaker leaving, Davies pitched a 60th-anniversary special featuring Tennant and Tate to the BBC.
RTD说他是《神秘博士》的超级粉丝，他表示，自从把这部剧交给魔法特后，他就从未停止观看该剧。他甚至在新冠疫情封锁期间参加了对粉丝最喜欢的剧集的“来推特一起追剧”活动，邀请了曾扮演博士和“同伴”之一的DT和CT——有人总是在剧中的时间旅行机器TARDIS中陪伴着博士——在DT任职期间。当两人表示愿意重返节目时，在第 13 任博士JW离开之际，RTD向BBC推介了由DT和CT主演的 60 周年特辑。The broadcaster not only said yes, but asked Davies whether he’d want to reinvent the show once again, this time with a worldwide streaming partner. The BBC had found one in Disney+, where the new season will release worldwide on May 10 at 7 p.m. ET — excluding the U.K., where it will launch May 11 at midnight GMT on BBC iPlayer and air that night on BBC One. (A choice that’s maddened some British Whovians, who — if they don’t want to stay up past their bedtimes — will have to wait until the next morning to stream new episodes as they dodge spoilers.)
BBC负责人不仅答应了，还询问RTD是否愿意再次改造该剧，这次，是与全球流媒体合作伙伴合作。 BBC找到了Disney+，新一季将于 5 月 10 日东部时间晚上 7 点在全球上映。 但不包括英国，该剧在英国将于格林尼治标准时间 5 月 11 日午夜在 BBC iPlayer 上推出，并于当晚在 BBC One 上播出。 （这个选择让一些英国胡粉抓狂，如果他们不想熬夜超过就寝时间，就必须等到第二天早上观看新剧集，以免剧透。）The new iteration was given a two-season order, and Davies says it feels like such a fresh start that he has “the urge to call it Season 1,” despite the series’ 60-plus-year history. “It’s a new show,” he says.
新版签下了两季的订单，RTD表示，这感觉像是一个全新的开始，以至于他“有一种冲动将其称为第一季”，尽管该剧已有 60 多年的历史。 “这是一个全新的展现，”他说。Davies had admired franchises like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” making the leap to streaming, and jumped at the chance to bring “Doctor Who” to a global audience — and with that transition, to give the show a higher production value. Integral to that was Bad Wolf, the production company founded by industry veterans Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, with whom he had worked on his first iteration of “Doctor Who.” In 2017, Bad Wolf opened Wolf Studios Wales in Cardiff, which boasts 140,000 square feet of space across seven soundstages.
《神秘博士》剧集主管拉塞尔·T·戴维斯，由迪士尼摄影师雷伯米斯顿拍摄
RTD很欣赏《星际迷航》和《星球大战》等系列电影向流媒体领域的飞跃，并抓住了将《神秘博士》带给全球观众的机会，并通过这一转变赋予该剧更高的制作价值。其中不可或缺的是恶狼公司，这家制作公司由行业资深人士Julie Gardner和Jane Tranter创立，她们曾和RTD一起制作了《神秘博士》的新版第一季。 2017 年，恶狼公司在卡迪夫开设了威尔士恶狼工作室，占地 140,000 平方英尺，拥有七个摄影棚。“I want every person in the world to watch ‘Doctor Who,’” Gardner says of the power of Disney+. “We can just get bigger and get better reach, and it feels like exactly where ‘Doctor Who’ should be.”
“我希望世界上每个人都能观看《神秘博士》，”Gardner谈到迪士尼+的力量时说道。 “我们可以做得更大，覆盖范围更广，感觉《神秘博士》就应该如此。”And of course, with the Disney+ partnership came an elevated budget. Neither Davies nor the streamer will reveal exactly how much it is, though Davies has denied previous £10-million-per-episode rumors.
当然，与迪士尼+的合作带来了更高的预算。RTD和这家流媒体公司都不会透露确切的预算金额，不过RTD否认了之前每集 1000 万英镑的传言。“It’s not going to be a ‘Star Wars’ budget, and do you know what? Neither should it be,” he says. “Because I do think, with no offense to anyone, if money disappeared tomorrow, we’d [still] make the best episode of ‘Doctor Who’ ever.”
“不会有《星球大战》那样的预算，你知道吗？也不应该有，”他说。 “因为我确实认为，无意冒犯任何人，如果明天这笔钱消失了，我们仍然能够制作出《神秘博士》有史以来最好的一集。”With production locked in, only one task remained: finding the perfect Doctor to usher in the show’s new chapter.
制作锁定后，只剩下一个任务：寻找完美的博士来开启该剧的新篇章。Gatwa was the last person to audition for the role back in January 2022. After the production had seen around 20 actors — and believed it had found its new lead — casting director Andy Pryor called Gatwa’s agent.
舒提是最后一位试镜该角色的人选，时间是2022年1月。剧组在看了大约 20 名演员的试镜后，相信已经找到了新的主角，选角导演Andy Pryor给舒提的经纪人打了电话。“We think we’ve got them, but, like, rogue choice, we just want to see Ncuti,” Gatwa says, reenacting the phone conversation. “Do you think he’d be up for it?”
“我们认为我们已经找到了演员，但是，就像狂野选择一样，我们只是想看看舒提，”舒提说道，他重演了一下当时的电话交谈。 “你认为舒提能接受吗？”Indeed, he would: Just the week before, Gatwa had texted his agent that he’d love to play “a character like Doctor Who or Willy Wonka.”
事实上，舒提愿意：就在那之前的一周，舒提就给他的经纪人发了短信说他很想扮演神秘博士或威利·旺卡这样的角色”。“I was like, this is manifestation, man,” Gatwa says, still looking astonished. To prepare, he rewatched all of Davies’ episodes. “In that week, I became a die-hard fan.”
“我当时想，这就是美梦成真，伙计，”舒提说道，看上去仍然很惊讶。为了做好准备，他重新观看了RTD时期的所有剧集。 “那周我是超级铁杆粉丝。”During the audition, Davies, who read with each potential Doctor, was blown away. “I actually wanted to put down the script and say, ‘You’ve got the part,’” he says. “I literally knew then.”
在试镜过程中，与每位潜在博士演员一起通读剧本的RTD都被震撼了。 “我实际上想放下剧本并说，‘你得到了这个角色，’”他说。 “我当时就知道了。”Davies wasn’t alone in that opinion. “I have never seen an audition tape, and I suspect I probably never will, which had more conviction, more star quality, more talent in it than Ncuti’s,” producer Tranter says. “For me, it was the audition of a lifetime.”
RTD并不是唯一一个持这种观点的人。 “我从来没有看过别的试镜带能够比舒提的更有说服力，更有明星品质，更有才华，而且我怀疑这件事也后无来者，”制片人Tranter说。 “对我来说，这是一生难忘的试镜。”And every Doctor needs a companion. No. 15’s is Ruby Sunday, played by former “Coronation Street” star Millie Gibson. In the series, the spunky Mancunian teen’s search for her birth parents helps to bolster her friendship with the orphan Doctor. Today at the Langham, Gibson is dressed, fittingly, in a ruby red Comme des Garçons cardigan and matching Mary Janes as she recalls her audition with Gatwa.
每个博士都需要一个同伴。第15任博士的同伴是Ruby Sunday，由前《加冕街》明星演员米莉·吉布森饰演。在该剧中，这位勇敢的曼彻斯特青少年寻找她的亲生父母的过程有助于加强她与孤儿博士的友谊。今天在朗廷酒店，吉布森回忆起自己在舒提的试镜时，身着红宝石色 Comme des Garçons 开衫，搭配玛丽珍鞋。“It was surreal, because I remember watching you get announced at the BAFTAs in my bedroom, being like, ‘Oh, that’s a lovely choice,’” Gibson tells Gatwa as he lets out a belt of laughter — which then conjures another memory in Gibson. “I’ll always remember being in the waiting room for my audition and just hearing your laugh and being like, ‘Mm, there it is! There we go.’”
“这太超现实了，因为我记得自己曾经在卧室里看过你在BAFTA奖上被宣布获奖，我就想，‘哦，这是一个可爱的选择，’”吉布森一边笑一边告诉舒提——这让我想起了另一个记忆吉布森。 “我永远记得在等待室试镜时听到你的笑声，然后说，‘嗯，就在那里！我们就这样吧。’”Gibson calls their chemistry read “magic,” though she recalls thinking, “Is he just like that with everyone because he’s really charismatic?”
吉布森称他们的化学反应是“神奇的”，尽管她回忆道，“他对每个人都这样，是因为他真的很有魅力吗？”No, the feeling was mutual.
不，这种感觉是相互的。“I knew where I wanted to take the character of the Doctor as soon as you walked in the room,” Gatwa says. “I was like, ‘Now the characterization is complete. This was the missing piece.’”
“当你走进房间时，我就知道我想把博士这个角色带到哪里，”舒提说。 “我当时想，‘现在人物描述已经完成了。这就是缺失的部分。’”Gatwa’s guiding word for his Doctor became “compassion” — a choice that aligned with Davies’ vision of the character being more emotionally free than in the past. “A Doctor of old is someone who traditionally would be more closed, a little bit more aloof,” Davies says. “Then completely by chance I cast the man who couldn’t hide an emotion if he tried.”
舒提对他的博士的指导词变成了“同情心”——这一选择符合RTD的愿景，即该角色比过去在情感上更加自由。 “过去，传统的博士情感会更加封闭，更加淡漠，”戴维斯说。 “然后完全出于偶然，我选选择了这个即使努力也无法隐藏情感的人。”Indeed, viewers saw Gatwa’s Doctor shed tears in the Christmas special — something Davies hopes will connect with the show’s younger audience.
事实上，观众在圣诞特辑中看到了小15流下了眼泪——RTD希望这能与该剧的年轻观众产生共鸣。“The one thing I keep seeing now is the fragility of the mental health of young people. It’s like there’s a nervousness about in the air now,” he says. “So that’s the hero I wanted for them. If that younger audience is feeling so much, I wanted the Doctor to feel it on-screen as well.”
“我现在不断看到的一件事是年轻人脆弱的心理健康。现在空气中总是弥漫着紧张的气氛，”他说。 “这就是我想要的英雄。如果年轻观众有如此丰富的感受，我希望屏幕上的博士也能体会到这些情感。”Along with patented “Doctor Who” adventures that Whovians will love and monsters new and old, the new season will feature an homage to the Beatles and an episode Davies describes as “Welsh folk-horror.” But this latest revival hasn’t been without bumps in the road. In January, Gatwa was spotted filming an episode for the upcoming second season with new cast member Varada Sethu, seemingly playing the companion, which led to reports that Gibson would be leaving the show. Turns out — as it was officially announced earlier this month — that Gibson is sticking around, and Sethu is joining the cast as another companion in Season 2. (“This is the unfortunate thing about filming in public,” Davies laments.)
除了《神秘博士》的专利冒险和新旧怪物之外，新一季还将向披头士乐队致敬，并推出RTD之为“威尔士民间恐怖”的一集。但最近的复兴之路并非一帆风顺。一月份，有人发现舒提正在与新演员Varada Sethu一起拍摄即将到来的第二季的一集，似乎扮演同伴，这导致有报道称吉布森将离开该剧。结果——正如本月早些时候官方宣布的那样——吉布森将留下来，而新演员Sethu将作为第二季的另一位搭档加入剧组。（“这是在公共场合拍摄的不幸之处，”RTD感叹道。）“It was a little bit of a misunderstanding,” Gibson says. “But I’m very much in Season 2.”
“那件事有点误解，”吉布森说。 “但我绝对有积极参与第二季的拍摄。”“Doctor’s not letting this one go,” Gatwa says, chiming in. “That’s what the show is, isn’t it? There’s always new actors coming in and doing different things.”
“博士不会放手的，”舒提插话道，“这就是这部剧的意义，不是吗？总是有新演员加入、并带来一些新的事情。”And although Gatwa’s groundbreaking casting was met with much praise, there were, of course, some haters. Gatwa’s message to the naysayers is simple: “Don’t watch. Turn off the TV. Go and touch grass, please, for God’s sake.”
尽管舒提开创性的选角赢得了很多赞誉，但显然还是有一些人跳出来反对。舒提向反对者传达的信息很简单：“别看了。关掉电视。看在老天的份上，出去走走，接触接触大自然吧。”Then there’s the criticism that “Doctor Who” is a show that appeals to children — and that a queer actor playing the Doctor will reach more kids than ever with its new home on Disney+, which is a disturbing idea to homophobes. Davies sees the show’s wider reach as an opportunity to open people’s minds.
还有人批评说《神秘博士》是一部吸引儿童的节目，而扮演博士的酷儿演员将通过迪士尼+这个新平台去吸引比以往更多的孩子，这令恐同者们不安。RTD认为该剧的更广泛影响力是让人们开放思想的机会。“I think if you’re 6 years old, you don’t care — not at all,” he says. “But nonetheless, as the world darkens — and I do think the world is darkening around queer rights — there is a joy and a celebration, and there’s a community. Whether you’re 12 years old and just beginning to work out who you are, 62 years old and you’ve never been who you are, or 61 years old like I am and beginning to worry about where we are in society — there is a hero out there cutting his way through the universe, looking damn good in his suits and doing it with a laugh and a smile.”
“我认为，如果你只有 6 岁，你根本都不会在意这些，”他说。 “但尽管如此，随着世界现状变得愈发黑暗——我确实认为围绕为酷儿争取基本权利的世界正在变得黑暗——然而在酷儿权利问题上，还有着这样积极的团结的氛围存在，人们共同庆祝和支持彼此。无论你是 12 岁，刚刚开始认识自身，还是62 岁，从来都还没能做过自己，还是像我一样 61 岁，开始担心我们自己在社会中的处境 – 都有一位英雄在宇宙中开辟出一条道路，穿着西装、好看极了，并且带着欢笑和微笑地做着自己。”For Gatwa, Tennant has been a “guiding therapist father figure,” advising him about “the things to read, and the things not to read.”
对于舒提来说，DT一直是“父亲般的指导治疗师形象”，为他提供了“哪些内容该读和哪些内容不该读”的建议。As for how long this new era of “Doctor Who” will last? Gatwa says he’s “not going anywhere soon,” and Davies adds that he’s “already making plans” beyond the initial two-season order. No matter where this foray into the Whoniverse goes, Davies is sure of one thing: In Gatwa, a star has been born.
至于《神秘博士》的这个新时代能持续多久？舒提表示，自己“不会很快离开”，RTD补充说，除了最初的两季订单外，他“已经制定了计划”。无论进入神秘博士宇宙的哪个方向，RTD都确信一件事：对于舒提来说，一颗明星已经诞生。“I can sit here utterly certain that in five years’ time he’ll be leading a movie franchise and security will be holding me back as I go, ‘He promised me a ticket!’” Davies says with a chuckle.
“我坐在这里完全可以肯定，五年后他将主演一部电影，而保安会拦住我，我会大喊，‘他答应过给我一张票的！’”RTD笑着说。 -
Everyone seems to be celebrating the upcoming NeoGeo AES+ to the max. And I like the idea of not only bringing a console back, but doing it in silcion instead of FPGA or emulation. However, I can't take any more fanboyism about it. One big Youtuber said, one of the big negatives for him might be if there would be too many games he had to buy for that. Seriously? You are influencing people in their buying decision for hundreds of bucks, and this is the best "be mindful" you could come up with?
What about the fact that they collect money with only renderings to show for their product half a year in advance? What about the fact that noone had the chance to test the thing so far? What about considering the questions that this really good time extension article asked regarding the ownership of the brand?
Plaion did great work in the past. But I'll always be a bit critical when it comes to stuff like this, no matter the company. Been burnt once or twice. Just to be clear: What they want to do is a pretty unique approach to retro gaming so far. It's not been done like that. It could go wrong, there could be hickups. Now I don't want to sound like a naysayer, so I say this: I like the idea very much. It's just a big gap between liking a fun idea and the willingness to jump into this without critical thought and throw money around. And still, even I was very tempted. And I am most of all surprised at the little amount of healthy scepticism amongst the voices heard by retro gaming enthusiasts.
I don't need anyone to repeat and echo marketing claims and watch them taking a bath in nostalgia with the hardware they own. They could use their reach to ask difficult questions and try to get the compamy to answer those. But where is the fun in that, right? After all, Plaion surely will send out some review units ...
Well, just my thoughts. Sorry for party-pooping a bit. Just my 2 Cents 😅
-
What form of government would best serve the interests of the Haitian people remains a conundrum, though one seldom acknowledged. Aristide’s original populist program, driven by liberation theology on the one hand and bedrock Haitian communal values on the other, was never given a fair chance to succeed. The 18th-century model of democracy we use in the United States has begun to falter even at home; imposing a simulacrum of that on Haitian society remains intractably difficult. In the 200 years since their revolution, most Haitians have experienced little from any government but oppression. No great surprise, then, if what we call democratization inspires only muted enthusiasm.
Haiti’s default sociopolitical solution is a feudalism that, though many of its origins are African, would be perfectly recognizable to the lords and ladies of King Arthur’s court. My grasp of this system improved when, in the late 1990s, I realized I was enacting it myself on a very small scale. I was operating a miniature feudal state, quartered first in my rented vehicle, later on that acre of ground near Bwa Kayiman. My intentions didn’t matter; the thing naturally, inevitably, assumed this form.
Someone in charge of a feudal state must feed his retainers. They deserve it, they expect it, and without it they grow disloyal. The process can be disarmingly simple: it’s traditional, for example, for drug lords in the Cap-Haïtien area to hand out the equivalent of $20 to each of a hundred or so people in their neighborhoods every Saturday night. The necessity of such procedures does something to explain the chronic corruption of Haitian government.
...
Poisoned at the instigation of U.S. evangelicals bent on extirpating Vodou, the mapou tree of Bwa Kayiman was burned for charcoal after it died. In the face of such desperation, my own resources were utterly inadequate and I couldn’t muster other resources quickly enough. In the end, my house was burned, which as an absentee blan proprietor at Bwa Kayiman, I had always had every right to expect.
...
During the five-year interim between his two presidencies, René Préval had completely regenerated the area surrounding his hometown of Marmelade, a village so desolate in the late 1990s that when my mud-spattered vehicle lurched onto the square, most of the population turned out to look at it. Using $5 million from Taiwan—which came without the cat’s cradle of strings normally attached to international aid to Haiti—Préval had paved the roads, refurbished the town center, restored a colonial plantation to resume production (with cooperative labor) of top-quality coffee for the export market, started a bamboo plantation and furniture factory, installed an Internet café, staffed a clinic with Cuban doctors, and started a music school attracting students from all over the country. Naysayers dismissed this success as the exploitation of a personal fief (it was true that exuberant townspeople liked to salute Préval as “Excellence!” whenever he appeared among them), but I saw it as a shining example of what Haitians could do for themselves, given sufficient resources and a free hand to deploy them. With such a high level of achievement, an element of patronage seemed forgivable; one could imagine the restoration of the whole country in this manner, a bit at a time.For a little more than a decade, beginning in 1995, I had made the trip frequently, and once there I traveled far and wide, often with another blan (non-Haitian) from Europe or the United States and a Haitian companion-guide. I would rent a four-by-four truck and drive all over the northern part of the country, with the object of seeing firsthand...
- https://theamericanscholar.org/letter-from-haiti-after-the-earthquake/
#MadisonSmarttBell #RenéPréval #HaitiFeudalism ?? -
Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
If I were to rate the year of our Lord 2024, I’d give it a solid 4.5/5.0. No, I joke. FUCK 2024. Good riddance, fuck off, goodfuckingbye. This year, the layoffs continued (even affected some of our writers here), the prices skyrocketed, the World Series was bullshit, and landfills across the States are twice their capacity thanks to useless election fliers. This year has resulted in practically zero time to work on AMG efforts, write reviews, or listen to music as I continue to try to keep my job. Yay. Cheers to you, 2024—you sack of horse shit. Let’s go, 2025, you sassy bitch who suggests great things to come but probably won’t deliver. If only you could promise me more time doing the things I love—listening to metal, writing about it, and pretending to edit the other writers’ reviews while completely hammered. If so, I’d kiss you as the ball drops, take you to the back alley during the after-party, and promise not to poison your coffee the next morning.
But we aren’t there yet. We are still stuck in the past, looking over a mediocre year of metal, regurgitating the same shit we already wrote for each album on our lists. That way, you all can praise, argue, and whine about each choice and its placement. Thankfully, my lists rarely overlap with anyone else’s and no one actually gives a fuck, so my sleep patterns remain the same. Having passed the ten-year mark at this amazing madland, my tastes remain the same, and no one will be surprised that most of the selections here are the items I alone reviewed. That changes occasionally but with no time to think about music this year, you’ll be treated to odd takes and albums that only scored a 3.0. Oh no!1
Thank you to the AMG staff for their lackluster productivity and overrating tendencies. To Dolph, Kenny, and Sharky for introducing new segments and keeping legacy ones alive. And to Cuervo and GardensTale for the additional year-end contributions they deliver. I also have to give a huge shoutout to the top bosses—AMG and Steel Daddy—for all they do2. I guess I should also thank all of you for your continued support. I guess. May this list find you well as we are thrust into 2025 and the potential nightmares that it’ll bring. Cheers.
#ish. I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator – What? You fucking knew this was coming. When Steel told me to review an album about NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt, I couldn’t not do it. I mean, this one-off, self-titled record from a one-off band was a perfect opportunity to unleash my rage. And then… wait, what the fuck? It’s actually kinda good? In a weird year where I reviewed two racing-related albums, I Am the Intimidator sports3 six wild tracks that combine Dio and Iron Maiden with Ministry. What the fuck? And, somehow, the lyrics would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t so passionate. OK, the lyrics of the surprisingly delicious and crushing “Gasoline” are fucking hilarious, and a regular, all-caps attack in the AMG channels. After all the chaos and wild influences that make up this tight, six-track album, the passion for “The Intimidator” is true, even if it’s weird. But, I can’t stop listening to this album any more than I can stop drinking beer.
#10. Dust Bolt // Sound & Fury – Like so many other Grier lists, there’s always an album that becomes the most frequented in my shit-filled ears. Yup, I know, you all fucking hate it, and I couldn’t care less. For the band (and style), Sound & Fury is a brave effort that I find addictive, fun, and hilarious trolling material when Steel talks shit. Is it thrash? No, but that didn’t stop me from proclaiming Load as Metallica’s best album. Shifting away from the overused thrash concept and mediocre record releases, Dust Bolt chose the unconventional route of cleaner vocals, smoother production, and catchier choruses to remove themselves from their past outings (and, some would argue, from thrash and metal in general). For you naysayers, there are plenty of headbangable moments on Sound & Fury, so you don’t have to feel like a poser singing these new songs in your mom’s shower.
#9. Midnight // Hellish Expectations – Perhaps one of the most prolific metal bands out there, what can I say about Midnight that I haven’t said already? Oh yeah, they’re badass and if you don’t like them, you’re shit. Also, fuck you. Like previous releases, Midnight continues to speed through riffs that bring to mind classic outfits like Darkthrone, Motörhead, Venom, and Celtic Frost at a relentless speed. While other Midnight records are better, Hellish Expectations joins its compatriots in a discog that can do no wrong. Unless, of course, you don’t like this band’s style. In that case, read above regarding that “fuck you” thing. What makes Hellish Expectations great in this frustrating year is that it caps at twenty-five wonderful minutes—which is the same amount of time it takes to shit out your morning coffee. So, this is a chance to correct your poserness. If you like this band, you already know Hellish Expectations is a fun ride that’ll keep your spikes sharp and your leather pants shit free.
#8. Bombus // Your Blood – Like another band on my list, this Swedish heavy metal, hard rock band has seen a lot of ups and downs in their career. And, for some reason, their co-founding vocalist and guitarist walked. But that didn’t stop Bombus. Not only did they find someone to fill those two slots, but they also added another guitarist to round it out to three. With these new additions, the skill displayed on Your Blood is superior to anything the band has ever done. There’re solos, harmonizing leads, and riffs up the fucking wazoo. I’m uncertain if it’s due to this new skillset or an increase in motivation with five years between albums, but Bombus held nothing back for Your Blood. While there are plenty of the bangers you would expect from a band of this caliber, like the addictive “Take You Down,” there are also other interesting inclusions that I should hate, yet love. For example, the weird, Spaghetti Western qualities of “Your Blood,” the Nick Cave-meets-The White Stripes musings of “The One,” and the bizarreness that is “Carmina.” With Your Blood, the band has found their groove and passion again, delivering their best album yet.
#7. Vanessa Funke // Void – This year brought a surprising new addition to my favorite bands of all time. In this case, it was the newest release from the multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Funke. With a small but stellar catalog, Ms. Funke continuously dabbles in new influences and song approaches with each album and Void is no different. Coming off last year’s acoustic masterpiece Vanessa Funke rewinds to her debut record, Solitude, alternating between rasps and cleans, acoustic and distorted guitars, and her perfectly molded combination of folk, melodeath, and atmospheric black metal. The textures created by the vocals, guitars, keys, and piano take Void down into some incredible depths, engulfing its listeners in blankets that can be both soft and stabby. Albums like this are rare for me these days, so when they do completely submerse me to the point that I can’t think of anything else, there’s no doubt it’ll make it on my year-end list.
#6. Crystal Viper // The Silver Key – Maybe not everyone’s favorite Polish act,4 Crystal Viper’s founding vocalist and guitarist, Marta Gabriel, has been knocking around her blend of heavy and power metal for nearly two decades. But, it’s been a rocky road of great, mediocre, and rage-inducing records. Where Crimen Expecta shines like a bright star in the sky, Tales of Fire and Ice is a dumpster fire that topped my most disappointing album of 2019. When I approached this year’s The Silver Key, I was expecting another mid album (or worse) but was immediately engrossed—maybe even more than Crimen Expecta. Though many of you dislike the vocals, Gabriel is in top form. But, her vocal performance is only one aspect of the Crystal Viper sound. Her guitar work is some of the best of her career, lending new ideas to the song structures and album flow. While plenty of bands are—and are not better—than Crystal Viper, The Silver Key is undeniably one of the best albums of their career.
#5. Sidewinder // Talons – Most likely one of the only overlaps I’ll have with the cunts that work here,5 Sidewinder’s newest release, Talons, threw me for a loop. Not expecting anything from a band I’ve never heard about, Talons immediately got my noggin’ bobbin’ in the most pleasing way. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I like this style of heavy, bounding stoner metal, but every time I hear it, it clicks. And nothing is better than diving right into a record where one of the band’s best pieces is the opener. “Guardians” is a quintessential Sidewinder piece that personifies the band and everything they stand for. But that’s only the beginning, as the guitars cruise down the road and the bass rumbles through the gravel. Clocking in at a mere thirty-four minutes, this eight-track beauty never reaches beyond its means, ensuring the songs are straight and tight, allowing Jem’s powerful vocals to direct the varying moods. While the band resides in the lush and beautiful landscapes of New Zealand,6 if a sound could represent the harsh desert lands of my home, this would be it.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – As many know, death metal is not my cup o’ tea. Once upon a time, death metal was my life, but that ship sailed when my favorites grew old and repetitive, and what you all call death metal these days bores me to tears. But the one band that continues to make me salivate is Aborted.7 And, boy, did this year’s Vault of Horrors deliver. With tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality. Aborted has always delivered good-to-great albums but after nearly thirty years, how can these lads continue to improve and produce such quality releases? Vault of Horrors is a great record and arguably one of the band’s best. It’s been several months since this beauty was released, so if it passed by you, rectify your posersivity.
#3. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – I don’t know what it is about The Vision Bleak but they fucking hit me and hit me hard. On the surface, their style is quite simple, but it’s the layers, stories, mood, and damning vocal performances that draw me in like I’m viewing a Vincent Price horror marathon. Combining their Type O Negative vocal characteristics with atmospheric moods that can be depressive at one point and ethereal at another, The Vision Bleak took a massive leap by releasing Weird Tales as (technically) a one-song album. Eight years since their incredible The Unknown, Weird Tales doesn’t skip a beat, maintaining the duo’s title as one of the greatest bands in gothic metal. With magnificent builds, eerie transitions, mind-bending fluidity, and heart-wrenching passages, the haunting nature of Weird Tales leaves you contemplating your existence in a world controlled by the fate instilled in it by the late, great H.P. Lovecraft.
#2. Kingcrow // Hopium – For fucking months, our progressive cunt, Dolphin Whisper, tried desperately to steal Kingcrow’s Hopium from me—somehow thinking he’s better than me when it comes to describing the lushness of Kingcrow. The fuck. Even though Kingcrow hasn’t released an album in six years, there’s no way some flipper fucker would take this from me. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of progressive metal, but at least I know what’s good progressive metal instead of lazily making love to everything with the tag of “prog.” Anyway, Hopium continues to deliver gorgeous tapestries painted with soothing vocals, synthy atmospheres, and impressive performances for all involved. Though I consider Eidos their best, Hopium is not far behind. While tapping into common influences like Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard, this Italian outfit is very much on a level all its own. If you like prog, you’ll find Hopium—with such wildly varying tracks like “Vicous Circle,” “Parallel Lines,” and “White Rabit’s Hole”—to be the most diverse prog record of the year.
#1. Borknagar // Fall – Goddammit, I love Borknagar. Few bands have such high album scores for a career that spans thirty years and a dozen albums—especially with a constant rotation of players and vocalists. Though, how can you be pissed off about having any of the great vocalists Borknagar has employed throughout the years? Since the beginning, the band has continuously introduced more melody and keys in their music, but Fall is special compared to the output in the last twenty years. Though this new album hasn’t hung up that hat by any means, Øystein G. Brun, Lars A. Nedland, and crew dug through the ashes of the past to bring some of those old-school black metal moments back into the mix. From the blackened assault of “Summits” and the Dimmu Borgir-esque vibes of “Northward,” the band continues to shock and surprise, avoiding a repetition from a previous album. So, dive into the best album o’ the year in all its glory.8
Honorable Mentions
- Portrait // The Host – While I didn’t like the production of Portrait’s The Host, I’m still a slut for King Diamond and Meryful Fate-adjacent metal. Especially when it comes to Portrait, who continues to be less like a copycat and more like a pioneer of the style.
- Attic // Return of the Witchfinder – More King Diamond-core! Easily one of the best examples of the sound, Attic continues to keep me coming back with each release. As their predecessor, Return of the Witchfinder brings a new story, more twists, and those pleasing falsettos that trigger my “O” face.
- Sarke // Endo Feight – Sarke (the artist) and crew have had one hell of a busy couple of years. This year, in particular, sees not only a new Sarke release but also a new Khold record (see below). Endo Feight is a wonderful addition to the band’s catalog and, by god, it’s wonderful to see the man himself back behind the kit.
- Khold // Du dømmes til død – See? I told you it would be here. While 2022’s Svartsyn was better record than Du dømmes til død (and a fantastic comeback), Du dømmes til død still has those elements that make the band so unique and fun to listen to.
- Blood Red Throne // Nonagon – Three years ago, Blood Red Throne released not only one of their best albums but 2021’s best death metal record. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to follow something like Imperial Congregation without some hiccups. That said, Nonagon is still a brutal piece of work worthy of mentioning.
Disappointments o’ the Year
- Darkthrone // It Beckons Us All……. – Like Sarke, Nocturno Culto has also been busy this year. If that’s part of the reason for the utter bore that’s It Beckons Us All……., I don’t know. But, this new record feels like Darkthrone is going through the motions. While I respect that they don’t care what the fuck any of us think, this is one of their worst albums.
- Exhorder // Defectum Omnium – After Exhorder’s incredible comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, I was more than a little excited for this new one. Unfortunately, like Darkthrone’s newest, Defectum Omnium is a dreadfully boring record that lacks all the passion of Exhorder’s comeback, leaving me confused and pissed the fuck off.
Songs o’ the Year
- Kingcrow – “White Rabbit’s Hole” – With an album full of great songs, there’s just something about the energy of this track that makes me so happy.
- Sidewinder – “Guardians” – This song represents some of the best stoner metal of 2024, and I can’t stop listening to it.
- Bombus – “Take You Down” – This song is just badass. I couldn’t care less what you think. Die.
#2024 #Aborted #Attic #BlogPosts #BloodRedThrone #Bombus #Borknagar #CelticFrost #CrystalViper #Darkthrone #DimmuBorgir #Dio #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2024 #DreamTheater #DustBolt #Exhorder #IAmTheIntimidator #IronMaiden #Khold #KingDiamond #Kingcrow #Lists #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Midnight #Ministry #Motörhead #NickCave #Portrait #Sarke #Sidewinder #SpockSBeard #TheVisionBleak #TheWhiteStripes #TypeONegative #Vader #VanessaFunke #Venom
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Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
If I were to rate the year of our Lord 2024, I’d give it a solid 4.5/5.0. No, I joke. FUCK 2024. Good riddance, fuck off, goodfuckingbye. This year, the layoffs continued (even affected some of our writers here), the prices skyrocketed, the World Series was bullshit, and landfills across the States are twice their capacity thanks to useless election fliers. This year has resulted in practically zero time to work on AMG efforts, write reviews, or listen to music as I continue to try to keep my job. Yay. Cheers to you, 2024—you sack of horse shit. Let’s go, 2025, you sassy bitch who suggests great things to come but probably won’t deliver. If only you could promise me more time doing the things I love—listening to metal, writing about it, and pretending to edit the other writers’ reviews while completely hammered. If so, I’d kiss you as the ball drops, take you to the back alley during the after-party, and promise not to poison your coffee the next morning.
But we aren’t there yet. We are still stuck in the past, looking over a mediocre year of metal, regurgitating the same shit we already wrote for each album on our lists. That way, you all can praise, argue, and whine about each choice and its placement. Thankfully, my lists rarely overlap with anyone else’s and no one actually gives a fuck, so my sleep patterns remain the same. Having passed the ten-year mark at this amazing madland, my tastes remain the same, and no one will be surprised that most of the selections here are the items I alone reviewed. That changes occasionally but with no time to think about music this year, you’ll be treated to odd takes and albums that only scored a 3.0. Oh no!1
Thank you to the AMG staff for their lackluster productivity and overrating tendencies. To Dolph, Kenny, and Sharky for introducing new segments and keeping legacy ones alive. And to Cuervo and GardensTale for the additional year-end contributions they deliver. I also have to give a huge shoutout to the top bosses—AMG and Steel Daddy—for all they do2. I guess I should also thank all of you for your continued support. I guess. May this list find you well as we are thrust into 2025 and the potential nightmares that it’ll bring. Cheers.
#ish. I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator – What? You fucking knew this was coming. When Steel told me to review an album about NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt, I couldn’t not do it. I mean, this one-off, self-titled record from a one-off band was a perfect opportunity to unleash my rage. And then… wait, what the fuck? It’s actually kinda good? In a weird year where I reviewed two racing-related albums, I Am the Intimidator sports3 six wild tracks that combine Dio and Iron Maiden with Ministry. What the fuck? And, somehow, the lyrics would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t so passionate. OK, the lyrics of the surprisingly delicious and crushing “Gasoline” are fucking hilarious, and a regular, all-caps attack in the AMG channels. After all the chaos and wild influences that make up this tight, six-track album, the passion for “The Intimidator” is true, even if it’s weird. But, I can’t stop listening to this album any more than I can stop drinking beer.
#10. Dust Bolt // Sound & Fury – Like so many other Grier lists, there’s always an album that becomes the most frequented in my shit-filled ears. Yup, I know, you all fucking hate it, and I couldn’t care less. For the band (and style), Sound & Fury is a brave effort that I find addictive, fun, and hilarious trolling material when Steel talks shit. Is it thrash? No, but that didn’t stop me from proclaiming Load as Metallica’s best album. Shifting away from the overused thrash concept and mediocre record releases, Dust Bolt chose the unconventional route of cleaner vocals, smoother production, and catchier choruses to remove themselves from their past outings (and, some would argue, from thrash and metal in general). For you naysayers, there are plenty of headbangable moments on Sound & Fury, so you don’t have to feel like a poser singing these new songs in your mom’s shower.
#9. Midnight // Hellish Expectations – Perhaps one of the most prolific metal bands out there, what can I say about Midnight that I haven’t said already? Oh yeah, they’re badass and if you don’t like them, you’re shit. Also, fuck you. Like previous releases, Midnight continues to speed through riffs that bring to mind classic outfits like Darkthrone, Motörhead, Venom, and Celtic Frost at a relentless speed. While other Midnight records are better, Hellish Expectations joins its compatriots in a discog that can do no wrong. Unless, of course, you don’t like this band’s style. In that case, read above regarding that “fuck you” thing. What makes Hellish Expectations great in this frustrating year is that it caps at twenty-five wonderful minutes—which is the same amount of time it takes to shit out your morning coffee. So, this is a chance to correct your poserness. If you like this band, you already know Hellish Expectations is a fun ride that’ll keep your spikes sharp and your leather pants shit free.
#8. Bombus // Your Blood – Like another band on my list, this Swedish heavy metal, hard rock band has seen a lot of ups and downs in their career. And, for some reason, their co-founding vocalist and guitarist walked. But that didn’t stop Bombus. Not only did they find someone to fill those two slots, but they also added another guitarist to round it out to three. With these new additions, the skill displayed on Your Blood is superior to anything the band has ever done. There’re solos, harmonizing leads, and riffs up the fucking wazoo. I’m uncertain if it’s due to this new skillset or an increase in motivation with five years between albums, but Bombus held nothing back for Your Blood. While there are plenty of the bangers you would expect from a band of this caliber, like the addictive “Take You Down,” there are also other interesting inclusions that I should hate, yet love. For example, the weird, Spaghetti Western qualities of “Your Blood,” the Nick Cave-meets-The White Stripes musings of “The One,” and the bizarreness that is “Carmina.” With Your Blood, the band has found their groove and passion again, delivering their best album yet.
#7. Vanessa Funke // Void – This year brought a surprising new addition to my favorite bands of all time. In this case, it was the newest release from the multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Funke. With a small but stellar catalog, Ms. Funke continuously dabbles in new influences and song approaches with each album and Void is no different. Coming off last year’s acoustic masterpiece Vanessa Funke rewinds to her debut record, Solitude, alternating between rasps and cleans, acoustic and distorted guitars, and her perfectly molded combination of folk, melodeath, and atmospheric black metal. The textures created by the vocals, guitars, keys, and piano take Void down into some incredible depths, engulfing its listeners in blankets that can be both soft and stabby. Albums like this are rare for me these days, so when they do completely submerse me to the point that I can’t think of anything else, there’s no doubt it’ll make it on my year-end list.
#6. Crystal Viper // The Silver Key – Maybe not everyone’s favorite Polish act,4 Crystal Viper’s founding vocalist and guitarist, Marta Gabriel, has been knocking around her blend of heavy and power metal for nearly two decades. But, it’s been a rocky road of great, mediocre, and rage-inducing records. Where Crimen Expecta shines like a bright star in the sky, Tales of Fire and Ice is a dumpster fire that topped my most disappointing album of 2019. When I approached this year’s The Silver Key, I was expecting another mid album (or worse) but was immediately engrossed—maybe even more than Crimen Expecta. Though many of you dislike the vocals, Gabriel is in top form. But, her vocal performance is only one aspect of the Crystal Viper sound. Her guitar work is some of the best of her career, lending new ideas to the song structures and album flow. While plenty of bands are—and are not better—than Crystal Viper, The Silver Key is undeniably one of the best albums of their career.
#5. Sidewinder // Talons – Most likely one of the only overlaps I’ll have with the cunts that work here,5 Sidewinder’s newest release, Talons, threw me for a loop. Not expecting anything from a band I’ve never heard about, Talons immediately got my noggin’ bobbin’ in the most pleasing way. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I like this style of heavy, bounding stoner metal, but every time I hear it, it clicks. And nothing is better than diving right into a record where one of the band’s best pieces is the opener. “Guardians” is a quintessential Sidewinder piece that personifies the band and everything they stand for. But that’s only the beginning, as the guitars cruise down the road and the bass rumbles through the gravel. Clocking in at a mere thirty-four minutes, this eight-track beauty never reaches beyond its means, ensuring the songs are straight and tight, allowing Jem’s powerful vocals to direct the varying moods. While the band resides in the lush and beautiful landscapes of New Zealand,6 if a sound could represent the harsh desert lands of my home, this would be it.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – As many know, death metal is not my cup o’ tea. Once upon a time, death metal was my life, but that ship sailed when my favorites grew old and repetitive, and what you all call death metal these days bores me to tears. But the one band that continues to make me salivate is Aborted.7 And, boy, did this year’s Vault of Horrors deliver. With tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality. Aborted has always delivered good-to-great albums but after nearly thirty years, how can these lads continue to improve and produce such quality releases? Vault of Horrors is a great record and arguably one of the band’s best. It’s been several months since this beauty was released, so if it passed by you, rectify your posersivity.
#3. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – I don’t know what it is about The Vision Bleak but they fucking hit me and hit me hard. On the surface, their style is quite simple, but it’s the layers, stories, mood, and damning vocal performances that draw me in like I’m viewing a Vincent Price horror marathon. Combining their Type O Negative vocal characteristics with atmospheric moods that can be depressive at one point and ethereal at another, The Vision Bleak took a massive leap by releasing Weird Tales as (technically) a one-song album. Eight years since their incredible The Unknown, Weird Tales doesn’t skip a beat, maintaining the duo’s title as one of the greatest bands in gothic metal. With magnificent builds, eerie transitions, mind-bending fluidity, and heart-wrenching passages, the haunting nature of Weird Tales leaves you contemplating your existence in a world controlled by the fate instilled in it by the late, great H.P. Lovecraft.
#2. Kingcrow // Hopium – For fucking months, our progressive cunt, Dolphin Whisper, tried desperately to steal Kingcrow’s Hopium from me—somehow thinking he’s better than me when it comes to describing the lushness of Kingcrow. The fuck. Even though Kingcrow hasn’t released an album in six years, there’s no way some flipper fucker would take this from me. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of progressive metal, but at least I know what’s good progressive metal instead of lazily making love to everything with the tag of “prog.” Anyway, Hopium continues to deliver gorgeous tapestries painted with soothing vocals, synthy atmospheres, and impressive performances for all involved. Though I consider Eidos their best, Hopium is not far behind. While tapping into common influences like Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard, this Italian outfit is very much on a level all its own. If you like prog, you’ll find Hopium—with such wildly varying tracks like “Vicous Circle,” “Parallel Lines,” and “White Rabit’s Hole”—to be the most diverse prog record of the year.
#1. Borknagar // Fall – Goddammit, I love Borknagar. Few bands have such high album scores for a career that spans thirty years and a dozen albums—especially with a constant rotation of players and vocalists. Though, how can you be pissed off about having any of the great vocalists Borknagar has employed throughout the years? Since the beginning, the band has continuously introduced more melody and keys in their music, but Fall is special compared to the output in the last twenty years. Though this new album hasn’t hung up that hat by any means, Øystein G. Brun, Lars A. Nedland, and crew dug through the ashes of the past to bring some of those old-school black metal moments back into the mix. From the blackened assault of “Summits” and the Dimmu Borgir-esque vibes of “Northward,” the band continues to shock and surprise, avoiding a repetition from a previous album. So, dive into the best album o’ the year in all its glory.8
Honorable Mentions
- Portrait // The Host – While I didn’t like the production of Portrait’s The Host, I’m still a slut for King Diamond and Meryful Fate-adjacent metal. Especially when it comes to Portrait, who continues to be less like a copycat and more like a pioneer of the style.
- Attic // Return of the Witchfinder – More King Diamond-core! Easily one of the best examples of the sound, Attic continues to keep me coming back with each release. As their predecessor, Return of the Witchfinder brings a new story, more twists, and those pleasing falsettos that trigger my “O” face.
- Sarke // Endo Feight – Sarke (the artist) and crew have had one hell of a busy couple of years. This year, in particular, sees not only a new Sarke release but also a new Khold record (see below). Endo Feight is a wonderful addition to the band’s catalog and, by god, it’s wonderful to see the man himself back behind the kit.
- Khold // Du dømmes til død – See? I told you it would be here. While 2022’s Svartsyn was better record than Du dømmes til død (and a fantastic comeback), Du dømmes til død still has those elements that make the band so unique and fun to listen to.
- Blood Red Throne // Nonagon – Three years ago, Blood Red Throne released not only one of their best albums but 2021’s best death metal record. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to follow something like Imperial Congregation without some hiccups. That said, Nonagon is still a brutal piece of work worthy of mentioning.
Disappointments o’ the Year
- Darkthrone // It Beckons Us All……. – Like Sarke, Nocturno Culto has also been busy this year. If that’s part of the reason for the utter bore that’s It Beckons Us All……., I don’t know. But, this new record feels like Darkthrone is going through the motions. While I respect that they don’t care what the fuck any of us think, this is one of their worst albums.
- Exhorder // Defectum Omnium – After Exhorder’s incredible comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, I was more than a little excited for this new one. Unfortunately, like Darkthrone’s newest, Defectum Omnium is a dreadfully boring record that lacks all the passion of Exhorder’s comeback, leaving me confused and pissed the fuck off.
Songs o’ the Year
- Kingcrow – “White Rabbit’s Hole” – With an album full of great songs, there’s just something about the energy of this track that makes me so happy.
- Sidewinder – “Guardians” – This song represents some of the best stoner metal of 2024, and I can’t stop listening to it.
- Bombus – “Take You Down” – This song is just badass. I couldn’t care less what you think. Die.
#2024 #Aborted #Attic #BlogPosts #BloodRedThrone #Bombus #Borknagar #CelticFrost #CrystalViper #Darkthrone #DimmuBorgir #Dio #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2024 #DreamTheater #DustBolt #Exhorder #IAmTheIntimidator #IronMaiden #Khold #KingDiamond #Kingcrow #Lists #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Midnight #Ministry #Motörhead #NickCave #Portrait #Sarke #Sidewinder #SpockSBeard #TheVisionBleak #TheWhiteStripes #TypeONegative #Vader #VanessaFunke #Venom
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Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
If I were to rate the year of our Lord 2024, I’d give it a solid 4.5/5.0. No, I joke. FUCK 2024. Good riddance, fuck off, goodfuckingbye. This year, the layoffs continued (even affected some of our writers here), the prices skyrocketed, the World Series was bullshit, and landfills across the States are twice their capacity thanks to useless election fliers. This year has resulted in practically zero time to work on AMG efforts, write reviews, or listen to music as I continue to try to keep my job. Yay. Cheers to you, 2024—you sack of horse shit. Let’s go, 2025, you sassy bitch who suggests great things to come but probably won’t deliver. If only you could promise me more time doing the things I love—listening to metal, writing about it, and pretending to edit the other writers’ reviews while completely hammered. If so, I’d kiss you as the ball drops, take you to the back alley during the after-party, and promise not to poison your coffee the next morning.
But we aren’t there yet. We are still stuck in the past, looking over a mediocre year of metal, regurgitating the same shit we already wrote for each album on our lists. That way, you all can praise, argue, and whine about each choice and its placement. Thankfully, my lists rarely overlap with anyone else’s and no one actually gives a fuck, so my sleep patterns remain the same. Having passed the ten-year mark at this amazing madland, my tastes remain the same, and no one will be surprised that most of the selections here are the items I alone reviewed. That changes occasionally but with no time to think about music this year, you’ll be treated to odd takes and albums that only scored a 3.0. Oh no!1
Thank you to the AMG staff for their lackluster productivity and overrating tendencies. To Dolph, Kenny, and Sharky for introducing new segments and keeping legacy ones alive. And to Cuervo and GardensTale for the additional year-end contributions they deliver. I also have to give a huge shoutout to the top bosses—AMG and Steel Daddy—for all they do2. I guess I should also thank all of you for your continued support. I guess. May this list find you well as we are thrust into 2025 and the potential nightmares that it’ll bring. Cheers.
#ish. I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator – What? You fucking knew this was coming. When Steel told me to review an album about NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt, I couldn’t not do it. I mean, this one-off, self-titled record from a one-off band was a perfect opportunity to unleash my rage. And then… wait, what the fuck? It’s actually kinda good? In a weird year where I reviewed two racing-related albums, I Am the Intimidator sports3 six wild tracks that combine Dio and Iron Maiden with Ministry. What the fuck? And, somehow, the lyrics would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t so passionate. OK, the lyrics of the surprisingly delicious and crushing “Gasoline” are fucking hilarious, and a regular, all-caps attack in the AMG channels. After all the chaos and wild influences that make up this tight, six-track album, the passion for “The Intimidator” is true, even if it’s weird. But, I can’t stop listening to this album any more than I can stop drinking beer.
#10. Dust Bolt // Sound & Fury – Like so many other Grier lists, there’s always an album that becomes the most frequented in my shit-filled ears. Yup, I know, you all fucking hate it, and I couldn’t care less. For the band (and style), Sound & Fury is a brave effort that I find addictive, fun, and hilarious trolling material when Steel talks shit. Is it thrash? No, but that didn’t stop me from proclaiming Load as Metallica’s best album. Shifting away from the overused thrash concept and mediocre record releases, Dust Bolt chose the unconventional route of cleaner vocals, smoother production, and catchier choruses to remove themselves from their past outings (and, some would argue, from thrash and metal in general). For you naysayers, there are plenty of headbangable moments on Sound & Fury, so you don’t have to feel like a poser singing these new songs in your mom’s shower.
#9. Midnight // Hellish Expectations – Perhaps one of the most prolific metal bands out there, what can I say about Midnight that I haven’t said already? Oh yeah, they’re badass and if you don’t like them, you’re shit. Also, fuck you. Like previous releases, Midnight continues to speed through riffs that bring to mind classic outfits like Darkthrone, Motörhead, Venom, and Celtic Frost at a relentless speed. While other Midnight records are better, Hellish Expectations joins its compatriots in a discog that can do no wrong. Unless, of course, you don’t like this band’s style. In that case, read above regarding that “fuck you” thing. What makes Hellish Expectations great in this frustrating year is that it caps at twenty-five wonderful minutes—which is the same amount of time it takes to shit out your morning coffee. So, this is a chance to correct your poserness. If you like this band, you already know Hellish Expectations is a fun ride that’ll keep your spikes sharp and your leather pants shit free.
#8. Bombus // Your Blood – Like another band on my list, this Swedish heavy metal, hard rock band has seen a lot of ups and downs in their career. And, for some reason, their co-founding vocalist and guitarist walked. But that didn’t stop Bombus. Not only did they find someone to fill those two slots, but they also added another guitarist to round it out to three. With these new additions, the skill displayed on Your Blood is superior to anything the band has ever done. There’re solos, harmonizing leads, and riffs up the fucking wazoo. I’m uncertain if it’s due to this new skillset or an increase in motivation with five years between albums, but Bombus held nothing back for Your Blood. While there are plenty of the bangers you would expect from a band of this caliber, like the addictive “Take You Down,” there are also other interesting inclusions that I should hate, yet love. For example, the weird, Spaghetti Western qualities of “Your Blood,” the Nick Cave-meets-The White Stripes musings of “The One,” and the bizarreness that is “Carmina.” With Your Blood, the band has found their groove and passion again, delivering their best album yet.
#7. Vanessa Funke // Void – This year brought a surprising new addition to my favorite bands of all time. In this case, it was the newest release from the multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Funke. With a small but stellar catalog, Ms. Funke continuously dabbles in new influences and song approaches with each album and Void is no different. Coming off last year’s acoustic masterpiece Vanessa Funke rewinds to her debut record, Solitude, alternating between rasps and cleans, acoustic and distorted guitars, and her perfectly molded combination of folk, melodeath, and atmospheric black metal. The textures created by the vocals, guitars, keys, and piano take Void down into some incredible depths, engulfing its listeners in blankets that can be both soft and stabby. Albums like this are rare for me these days, so when they do completely submerse me to the point that I can’t think of anything else, there’s no doubt it’ll make it on my year-end list.
#6. Crystal Viper // The Silver Key – Maybe not everyone’s favorite Polish act,4 Crystal Viper’s founding vocalist and guitarist, Marta Gabriel, has been knocking around her blend of heavy and power metal for nearly two decades. But, it’s been a rocky road of great, mediocre, and rage-inducing records. Where Crimen Expecta shines like a bright star in the sky, Tales of Fire and Ice is a dumpster fire that topped my most disappointing album of 2019. When I approached this year’s The Silver Key, I was expecting another mid album (or worse) but was immediately engrossed—maybe even more than Crimen Expecta. Though many of you dislike the vocals, Gabriel is in top form. But, her vocal performance is only one aspect of the Crystal Viper sound. Her guitar work is some of the best of her career, lending new ideas to the song structures and album flow. While plenty of bands are—and are not better—than Crystal Viper, The Silver Key is undeniably one of the best albums of their career.
#5. Sidewinder // Talons – Most likely one of the only overlaps I’ll have with the cunts that work here,5 Sidewinder’s newest release, Talons, threw me for a loop. Not expecting anything from a band I’ve never heard about, Talons immediately got my noggin’ bobbin’ in the most pleasing way. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I like this style of heavy, bounding stoner metal, but every time I hear it, it clicks. And nothing is better than diving right into a record where one of the band’s best pieces is the opener. “Guardians” is a quintessential Sidewinder piece that personifies the band and everything they stand for. But that’s only the beginning, as the guitars cruise down the road and the bass rumbles through the gravel. Clocking in at a mere thirty-four minutes, this eight-track beauty never reaches beyond its means, ensuring the songs are straight and tight, allowing Jem’s powerful vocals to direct the varying moods. While the band resides in the lush and beautiful landscapes of New Zealand,6 if a sound could represent the harsh desert lands of my home, this would be it.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – As many know, death metal is not my cup o’ tea. Once upon a time, death metal was my life, but that ship sailed when my favorites grew old and repetitive, and what you all call death metal these days bores me to tears. But the one band that continues to make me salivate is Aborted.7 And, boy, did this year’s Vault of Horrors deliver. With tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality. Aborted has always delivered good-to-great albums but after nearly thirty years, how can these lads continue to improve and produce such quality releases? Vault of Horrors is a great record and arguably one of the band’s best. It’s been several months since this beauty was released, so if it passed by you, rectify your posersivity.
#3. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – I don’t know what it is about The Vision Bleak but they fucking hit me and hit me hard. On the surface, their style is quite simple, but it’s the layers, stories, mood, and damning vocal performances that draw me in like I’m viewing a Vincent Price horror marathon. Combining their Type O Negative vocal characteristics with atmospheric moods that can be depressive at one point and ethereal at another, The Vision Bleak took a massive leap by releasing Weird Tales as (technically) a one-song album. Eight years since their incredible The Unknown, Weird Tales doesn’t skip a beat, maintaining the duo’s title as one of the greatest bands in gothic metal. With magnificent builds, eerie transitions, mind-bending fluidity, and heart-wrenching passages, the haunting nature of Weird Tales leaves you contemplating your existence in a world controlled by the fate instilled in it by the late, great H.P. Lovecraft.
#2. Kingcrow // Hopium – For fucking months, our progressive cunt, Dolphin Whisper, tried desperately to steal Kingcrow’s Hopium from me—somehow thinking he’s better than me when it comes to describing the lushness of Kingcrow. The fuck. Even though Kingcrow hasn’t released an album in six years, there’s no way some flipper fucker would take this from me. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of progressive metal, but at least I know what’s good progressive metal instead of lazily making love to everything with the tag of “prog.” Anyway, Hopium continues to deliver gorgeous tapestries painted with soothing vocals, synthy atmospheres, and impressive performances for all involved. Though I consider Eidos their best, Hopium is not far behind. While tapping into common influences like Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard, this Italian outfit is very much on a level all its own. If you like prog, you’ll find Hopium—with such wildly varying tracks like “Vicous Circle,” “Parallel Lines,” and “White Rabit’s Hole”—to be the most diverse prog record of the year.
#1. Borknagar // Fall – Goddammit, I love Borknagar. Few bands have such high album scores for a career that spans thirty years and a dozen albums—especially with a constant rotation of players and vocalists. Though, how can you be pissed off about having any of the great vocalists Borknagar has employed throughout the years? Since the beginning, the band has continuously introduced more melody and keys in their music, but Fall is special compared to the output in the last twenty years. Though this new album hasn’t hung up that hat by any means, Øystein G. Brun, Lars A. Nedland, and crew dug through the ashes of the past to bring some of those old-school black metal moments back into the mix. From the blackened assault of “Summits” and the Dimmu Borgir-esque vibes of “Northward,” the band continues to shock and surprise, avoiding a repetition from a previous album. So, dive into the best album o’ the year in all its glory.8
Honorable Mentions
- Portrait // The Host – While I didn’t like the production of Portrait’s The Host, I’m still a slut for King Diamond and Meryful Fate-adjacent metal. Especially when it comes to Portrait, who continues to be less like a copycat and more like a pioneer of the style.
- Attic // Return of the Witchfinder – More King Diamond-core! Easily one of the best examples of the sound, Attic continues to keep me coming back with each release. As their predecessor, Return of the Witchfinder brings a new story, more twists, and those pleasing falsettos that trigger my “O” face.
- Sarke // Endo Feight – Sarke (the artist) and crew have had one hell of a busy couple of years. This year, in particular, sees not only a new Sarke release but also a new Khold record (see below). Endo Feight is a wonderful addition to the band’s catalog and, by god, it’s wonderful to see the man himself back behind the kit.
- Khold // Du dømmes til død – See? I told you it would be here. While 2022’s Svartsyn was better record than Du dømmes til død (and a fantastic comeback), Du dømmes til død still has those elements that make the band so unique and fun to listen to.
- Blood Red Throne // Nonagon – Three years ago, Blood Red Throne released not only one of their best albums but 2021’s best death metal record. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to follow something like Imperial Congregation without some hiccups. That said, Nonagon is still a brutal piece of work worthy of mentioning.
Disappointments o’ the Year
- Darkthrone // It Beckons Us All……. – Like Sarke, Nocturno Culto has also been busy this year. If that’s part of the reason for the utter bore that’s It Beckons Us All……., I don’t know. But, this new record feels like Darkthrone is going through the motions. While I respect that they don’t care what the fuck any of us think, this is one of their worst albums.
- Exhorder // Defectum Omnium – After Exhorder’s incredible comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, I was more than a little excited for this new one. Unfortunately, like Darkthrone’s newest, Defectum Omnium is a dreadfully boring record that lacks all the passion of Exhorder’s comeback, leaving me confused and pissed the fuck off.
Songs o’ the Year
- Kingcrow – “White Rabbit’s Hole” – With an album full of great songs, there’s just something about the energy of this track that makes me so happy.
- Sidewinder – “Guardians” – This song represents some of the best stoner metal of 2024, and I can’t stop listening to it.
- Bombus – “Take You Down” – This song is just badass. I couldn’t care less what you think. Die.
#2024 #Aborted #Attic #BlogPosts #BloodRedThrone #Bombus #Borknagar #CelticFrost #CrystalViper #Darkthrone #DimmuBorgir #Dio #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2024 #DreamTheater #DustBolt #Exhorder #IAmTheIntimidator #IronMaiden #Khold #KingDiamond #Kingcrow #Lists #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Midnight #Ministry #Motörhead #NickCave #Portrait #Sarke #Sidewinder #SpockSBeard #TheVisionBleak #TheWhiteStripes #TypeONegative #Vader #VanessaFunke #Venom
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Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
If I were to rate the year of our Lord 2024, I’d give it a solid 4.5/5.0. No, I joke. FUCK 2024. Good riddance, fuck off, goodfuckingbye. This year, the layoffs continued (even affected some of our writers here), the prices skyrocketed, the World Series was bullshit, and landfills across the States are twice their capacity thanks to useless election fliers. This year has resulted in practically zero time to work on AMG efforts, write reviews, or listen to music as I continue to try to keep my job. Yay. Cheers to you, 2024—you sack of horse shit. Let’s go, 2025, you sassy bitch who suggests great things to come but probably won’t deliver. If only you could promise me more time doing the things I love—listening to metal, writing about it, and pretending to edit the other writers’ reviews while completely hammered. If so, I’d kiss you as the ball drops, take you to the back alley during the after-party, and promise not to poison your coffee the next morning.
But we aren’t there yet. We are still stuck in the past, looking over a mediocre year of metal, regurgitating the same shit we already wrote for each album on our lists. That way, you all can praise, argue, and whine about each choice and its placement. Thankfully, my lists rarely overlap with anyone else’s and no one actually gives a fuck, so my sleep patterns remain the same. Having passed the ten-year mark at this amazing madland, my tastes remain the same, and no one will be surprised that most of the selections here are the items I alone reviewed. That changes occasionally but with no time to think about music this year, you’ll be treated to odd takes and albums that only scored a 3.0. Oh no!1
Thank you to the AMG staff for their lackluster productivity and overrating tendencies. To Dolph, Kenny, and Sharky for introducing new segments and keeping legacy ones alive. And to Cuervo and GardensTale for the additional year-end contributions they deliver. I also have to give a huge shoutout to the top bosses—AMG and Steel Daddy—for all they do2. I guess I should also thank all of you for your continued support. I guess. May this list find you well as we are thrust into 2025 and the potential nightmares that it’ll bring. Cheers.
#ish. I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator – What? You fucking knew this was coming. When Steel told me to review an album about NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt, I couldn’t not do it. I mean, this one-off, self-titled record from a one-off band was a perfect opportunity to unleash my rage. And then… wait, what the fuck? It’s actually kinda good? In a weird year where I reviewed two racing-related albums, I Am the Intimidator sports3 six wild tracks that combine Dio and Iron Maiden with Ministry. What the fuck? And, somehow, the lyrics would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t so passionate. OK, the lyrics of the surprisingly delicious and crushing “Gasoline” are fucking hilarious, and a regular, all-caps attack in the AMG channels. After all the chaos and wild influences that make up this tight, six-track album, the passion for “The Intimidator” is true, even if it’s weird. But, I can’t stop listening to this album any more than I can stop drinking beer.
#10. Dust Bolt // Sound & Fury – Like so many other Grier lists, there’s always an album that becomes the most frequented in my shit-filled ears. Yup, I know, you all fucking hate it, and I couldn’t care less. For the band (and style), Sound & Fury is a brave effort that I find addictive, fun, and hilarious trolling material when Steel talks shit. Is it thrash? No, but that didn’t stop me from proclaiming Load as Metallica’s best album. Shifting away from the overused thrash concept and mediocre record releases, Dust Bolt chose the unconventional route of cleaner vocals, smoother production, and catchier choruses to remove themselves from their past outings (and, some would argue, from thrash and metal in general). For you naysayers, there are plenty of headbangable moments on Sound & Fury, so you don’t have to feel like a poser singing these new songs in your mom’s shower.
#9. Midnight // Hellish Expectations – Perhaps one of the most prolific metal bands out there, what can I say about Midnight that I haven’t said already? Oh yeah, they’re badass and if you don’t like them, you’re shit. Also, fuck you. Like previous releases, Midnight continues to speed through riffs that bring to mind classic outfits like Darkthrone, Motörhead, Venom, and Celtic Frost at a relentless speed. While other Midnight records are better, Hellish Expectations joins its compatriots in a discog that can do no wrong. Unless, of course, you don’t like this band’s style. In that case, read above regarding that “fuck you” thing. What makes Hellish Expectations great in this frustrating year is that it caps at twenty-five wonderful minutes—which is the same amount of time it takes to shit out your morning coffee. So, this is a chance to correct your poserness. If you like this band, you already know Hellish Expectations is a fun ride that’ll keep your spikes sharp and your leather pants shit free.
#8. Bombus // Your Blood – Like another band on my list, this Swedish heavy metal, hard rock band has seen a lot of ups and downs in their career. And, for some reason, their co-founding vocalist and guitarist walked. But that didn’t stop Bombus. Not only did they find someone to fill those two slots, but they also added another guitarist to round it out to three. With these new additions, the skill displayed on Your Blood is superior to anything the band has ever done. There’re solos, harmonizing leads, and riffs up the fucking wazoo. I’m uncertain if it’s due to this new skillset or an increase in motivation with five years between albums, but Bombus held nothing back for Your Blood. While there are plenty of the bangers you would expect from a band of this caliber, like the addictive “Take You Down,” there are also other interesting inclusions that I should hate, yet love. For example, the weird, Spaghetti Western qualities of “Your Blood,” the Nick Cave-meets-The White Stripes musings of “The One,” and the bizarreness that is “Carmina.” With Your Blood, the band has found their groove and passion again, delivering their best album yet.
#7. Vanessa Funke // Void – This year brought a surprising new addition to my favorite bands of all time. In this case, it was the newest release from the multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Funke. With a small but stellar catalog, Ms. Funke continuously dabbles in new influences and song approaches with each album and Void is no different. Coming off last year’s acoustic masterpiece Vanessa Funke rewinds to her debut record, Solitude, alternating between rasps and cleans, acoustic and distorted guitars, and her perfectly molded combination of folk, melodeath, and atmospheric black metal. The textures created by the vocals, guitars, keys, and piano take Void down into some incredible depths, engulfing its listeners in blankets that can be both soft and stabby. Albums like this are rare for me these days, so when they do completely submerse me to the point that I can’t think of anything else, there’s no doubt it’ll make it on my year-end list.
#6. Crystal Viper // The Silver Key – Maybe not everyone’s favorite Polish act,4 Crystal Viper’s founding vocalist and guitarist, Marta Gabriel, has been knocking around her blend of heavy and power metal for nearly two decades. But, it’s been a rocky road of great, mediocre, and rage-inducing records. Where Crimen Expecta shines like a bright star in the sky, Tales of Fire and Ice is a dumpster fire that topped my most disappointing album of 2019. When I approached this year’s The Silver Key, I was expecting another mid album (or worse) but was immediately engrossed—maybe even more than Crimen Expecta. Though many of you dislike the vocals, Gabriel is in top form. But, her vocal performance is only one aspect of the Crystal Viper sound. Her guitar work is some of the best of her career, lending new ideas to the song structures and album flow. While plenty of bands are—and are not better—than Crystal Viper, The Silver Key is undeniably one of the best albums of their career.
#5. Sidewinder // Talons – Most likely one of the only overlaps I’ll have with the cunts that work here,5 Sidewinder’s newest release, Talons, threw me for a loop. Not expecting anything from a band I’ve never heard about, Talons immediately got my noggin’ bobbin’ in the most pleasing way. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I like this style of heavy, bounding stoner metal, but every time I hear it, it clicks. And nothing is better than diving right into a record where one of the band’s best pieces is the opener. “Guardians” is a quintessential Sidewinder piece that personifies the band and everything they stand for. But that’s only the beginning, as the guitars cruise down the road and the bass rumbles through the gravel. Clocking in at a mere thirty-four minutes, this eight-track beauty never reaches beyond its means, ensuring the songs are straight and tight, allowing Jem’s powerful vocals to direct the varying moods. While the band resides in the lush and beautiful landscapes of New Zealand,6 if a sound could represent the harsh desert lands of my home, this would be it.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – As many know, death metal is not my cup o’ tea. Once upon a time, death metal was my life, but that ship sailed when my favorites grew old and repetitive, and what you all call death metal these days bores me to tears. But the one band that continues to make me salivate is Aborted.7 And, boy, did this year’s Vault of Horrors deliver. With tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality. Aborted has always delivered good-to-great albums but after nearly thirty years, how can these lads continue to improve and produce such quality releases? Vault of Horrors is a great record and arguably one of the band’s best. It’s been several months since this beauty was released, so if it passed by you, rectify your posersivity.
#3. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – I don’t know what it is about The Vision Bleak but they fucking hit me and hit me hard. On the surface, their style is quite simple, but it’s the layers, stories, mood, and damning vocal performances that draw me in like I’m viewing a Vincent Price horror marathon. Combining their Type O Negative vocal characteristics with atmospheric moods that can be depressive at one point and ethereal at another, The Vision Bleak took a massive leap by releasing Weird Tales as (technically) a one-song album. Eight years since their incredible The Unknown, Weird Tales doesn’t skip a beat, maintaining the duo’s title as one of the greatest bands in gothic metal. With magnificent builds, eerie transitions, mind-bending fluidity, and heart-wrenching passages, the haunting nature of Weird Tales leaves you contemplating your existence in a world controlled by the fate instilled in it by the late, great H.P. Lovecraft.
#2. Kingcrow // Hopium – For fucking months, our progressive cunt, Dolphin Whisper, tried desperately to steal Kingcrow’s Hopium from me—somehow thinking he’s better than me when it comes to describing the lushness of Kingcrow. The fuck. Even though Kingcrow hasn’t released an album in six years, there’s no way some flipper fucker would take this from me. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of progressive metal, but at least I know what’s good progressive metal instead of lazily making love to everything with the tag of “prog.” Anyway, Hopium continues to deliver gorgeous tapestries painted with soothing vocals, synthy atmospheres, and impressive performances for all involved. Though I consider Eidos their best, Hopium is not far behind. While tapping into common influences like Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard, this Italian outfit is very much on a level all its own. If you like prog, you’ll find Hopium—with such wildly varying tracks like “Vicous Circle,” “Parallel Lines,” and “White Rabit’s Hole”—to be the most diverse prog record of the year.
#1. Borknagar // Fall – Goddammit, I love Borknagar. Few bands have such high album scores for a career that spans thirty years and a dozen albums—especially with a constant rotation of players and vocalists. Though, how can you be pissed off about having any of the great vocalists Borknagar has employed throughout the years? Since the beginning, the band has continuously introduced more melody and keys in their music, but Fall is special compared to the output in the last twenty years. Though this new album hasn’t hung up that hat by any means, Øystein G. Brun, Lars A. Nedland, and crew dug through the ashes of the past to bring some of those old-school black metal moments back into the mix. From the blackened assault of “Summits” and the Dimmu Borgir-esque vibes of “Northward,” the band continues to shock and surprise, avoiding a repetition from a previous album. So, dive into the best album o’ the year in all its glory.8
Honorable Mentions
- Portrait // The Host – While I didn’t like the production of Portrait’s The Host, I’m still a slut for King Diamond and Meryful Fate-adjacent metal. Especially when it comes to Portrait, who continues to be less like a copycat and more like a pioneer of the style.
- Attic // Return of the Witchfinder – More King Diamond-core! Easily one of the best examples of the sound, Attic continues to keep me coming back with each release. As their predecessor, Return of the Witchfinder brings a new story, more twists, and those pleasing falsettos that trigger my “O” face.
- Sarke // Endo Feight – Sarke (the artist) and crew have had one hell of a busy couple of years. This year, in particular, sees not only a new Sarke release but also a new Khold record (see below). Endo Feight is a wonderful addition to the band’s catalog and, by god, it’s wonderful to see the man himself back behind the kit.
- Khold // Du dømmes til død – See? I told you it would be here. While 2022’s Svartsyn was better record than Du dømmes til død (and a fantastic comeback), Du dømmes til død still has those elements that make the band so unique and fun to listen to.
- Blood Red Throne // Nonagon – Three years ago, Blood Red Throne released not only one of their best albums but 2021’s best death metal record. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to follow something like Imperial Congregation without some hiccups. That said, Nonagon is still a brutal piece of work worthy of mentioning.
Disappointments o’ the Year
- Darkthrone // It Beckons Us All……. – Like Sarke, Nocturno Culto has also been busy this year. If that’s part of the reason for the utter bore that’s It Beckons Us All……., I don’t know. But, this new record feels like Darkthrone is going through the motions. While I respect that they don’t care what the fuck any of us think, this is one of their worst albums.
- Exhorder // Defectum Omnium – After Exhorder’s incredible comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, I was more than a little excited for this new one. Unfortunately, like Darkthrone’s newest, Defectum Omnium is a dreadfully boring record that lacks all the passion of Exhorder’s comeback, leaving me confused and pissed the fuck off.
Songs o’ the Year
- Kingcrow – “White Rabbit’s Hole” – With an album full of great songs, there’s just something about the energy of this track that makes me so happy.
- Sidewinder – “Guardians” – This song represents some of the best stoner metal of 2024, and I can’t stop listening to it.
- Bombus – “Take You Down” – This song is just badass. I couldn’t care less what you think. Die.
Show 8 footnotes
- Fuck off, this happens every year. ↩
- Don’t call me Steel Daddy ever again! – Steel Daddy ↩
- See what I did there? ↩
- They can’t all be Vaders, ya fucks! ↩
- Love you, GardensTale. ↩
- Well, that’s what the Lord of the Rings movies tell me. ↩
- Yeah, yeah, bitch all you want about including this band into my collective bubble of “death metal.” ↩
- Also, stop listening to “Nordic Anthem” by itself. Fucking idiots. ↩
#2024 #Aborted #Attic #BlogPosts #BloodRedThrone #Bombus #Borknagar #CelticFrost #CrystalViper #Darkthrone #DimmuBorgir #Dio #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2024 #DreamTheater #DustBolt #Exhorder #IAmTheIntimidator #IronMaiden #Khold #KingDiamond #Kingcrow #Lists #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Midnight #Ministry #Motörhead #NickCave #Portrait #Sarke #Sidewinder #SpockSBeard #TheVisionBleak #TheWhiteStripes #TypeONegative #Vader #VanessaFunke #Venom
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Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By Kenstrosity
There was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026