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#LearnLockpickingWithAlice lesson 11: Shimming shit ('cause ain't nobody got time for dial locks).
Plenty of old or cheap locks can be shimmed, but the place this technique shines most is with those front-dial combination locks. Sure, you can look up the model number, find some arcane YouTube video, and spend 30 minutes decoding it (both the video *and* the lock)...
...or you can do a little shimming fuckery and have it open in seconds.
To shim a lock, you'll need two things: a shimmable lock, and something to shim it with.
So how do I tell if a lock is able to be shimmed? Well, there are three main types of locking mechanisms on padlocks: ballbearing, spring-loaded, and warded (which you can see an example of in lesson 10). We want the spring-loaded kind.
The easy way to tell the spring-loaded ones from the ballbearing is that the cutouts in the shackle will look like either an upside-down "7" or a "]" for the pawl, instead of a ")" which indicates a ball-bearing lock. This matters because if the only thing keeping the locking pawl (that little metal bit that grabs the shackle's cutout) in place is a stiff spring, then the only thing between us and opening the lock is reaching it.
How do we reach that pawl? With a little piece of metal called a padlock shim. They look like a little mouth with a blep 👅 at the bottom—and like A Christmas Story, we want to get it right up against that pole.
How to shim a padlock:
- Insert the shim with the tongue facing away from the mechanism (toward the outside).
- Pinch the wings so it hugs the shackle.
- Push it down as far as it will go.
- Rotate/work it toward the inside of the lock while keeping pressure on it.
- Wiggle and press down on the shackle a bit to help it slide in.Once it’s in:
- Hold the shim in place.
- Give the shackle a firm yank—and probably send your shim flying."Wtf, Alice, it didn't work?! How could you lie to me?"
Okay, slow down. There are a few reasons for that.
First, the mechanism might be on the other side of the shackle—or even on both sides.
If it's still not working, the shim either isn’t deep enough, isn’t long enough, or the lock isn’t spring-loaded.
Additionally, some locks are *technically* shimmable, but the clearance around the shackle is too narrow to fit a shim in. In this case, a thinner shim, or a narrow pokey piece of metal might still work.
Finally, this lesson wouldn't be complete without mentioning that padlock shims are a disposable resource. They *will* break—sometimes after only a couple uses. If you're lucky, they'll last for dozens of attempts though.
Which leads me to my friend, @deviantollam, who is well-known for making shims out of soda or beer cans. These shims are fragile, but they'll work in a pinch and only take a moment to make. If you're good, you can even tear a can into a close enough shape for the job—just be careful, those fuckers are *sharp*.
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#LearnLockpickingWithAlice lesson 11: Shimming shit ('cause ain't nobody got time for dial locks).
Plenty of old or cheap locks can be shimmed, but the place this technique shines most is with those front-dial combination locks. Sure, you can look up the model number, find some arcane YouTube video, and spend 30 minutes decoding it (both the video *and* the lock)...
...or you can do a little shimming fuckery and have it open in seconds.
To shim a lock, you'll need two things: a shimmable lock, and something to shim it with.
So how do I tell if a lock is able to be shimmed? Well, there are three main types of locking mechanisms on padlocks: ballbearing, spring-loaded, and warded (which you can see an example of in lesson 10). We want the spring-loaded kind.
The easy way to tell the spring-loaded ones from the ballbearing is that the cutouts in the shackle will look like either an upside-down "7" or a "]" for the pawl, instead of a ")" which indicates a ball-bearing lock. This matters because if the only thing keeping the locking pawl (that little metal bit that grabs the shackle's cutout) in place is a stiff spring, then the only thing between us and opening the lock is reaching it.
How do we reach that pawl? With a little piece of metal called a padlock shim. They look like a little mouth with a blep 👅 at the bottom—and like A Christmas Story, we want to get it right up against that pole.
How to shim a padlock:
- Insert the shim with the tongue facing away from the mechanism (toward the outside).
- Pinch the wings so it hugs the shackle.
- Push it down as far as it will go.
- Rotate/work it toward the inside of the lock while keeping pressure on it.
- Wiggle and press down on the shackle a bit to help it slide in.Once it’s in:
- Hold the shim in place.
- Give the shackle a firm yank—and probably send your shim flying."Wtf, Alice, it didn't work?! How could you lie to me?"
Okay, slow down. There are a few reasons for that.
First, the mechanism might be on the other side of the shackle—or even on both sides.
If it's still not working, the shim either isn’t deep enough, isn’t long enough, or the lock isn’t spring-loaded.
Additionally, some locks are *technically* shimmable, but the clearance around the shackle is too narrow to fit a shim in. In this case, a thinner shim, or a narrow pokey piece of metal might still work.
Finally, this lesson wouldn't be complete without mentioning that padlock shims are a disposable resource. They *will* break—sometimes after only a couple uses. If you're lucky, they'll last for dozens of attempts though.
Which leads me to my friend, @deviantollam, who is well-known for making shims out of soda or beer cans. These shims are fragile, but they'll work in a pinch and only take a moment to make. If you're good, you can even tear a can into a close enough shape for the job—just be careful, those fuckers are *sharp*.
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US District Judge Cormac Carney has approved bail for neo-nazi fight club impresario Rob Rundo on the ground that fascists can't get a fair shake in the legal system, whereas antifascists don't get the same harsh treatment.
This is the same Judge Carney who tossed the charges against Rundo back in February for the same reason.
For background, Rundo is a co-founder of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which is the prototype on which today's "Active Clubs" are based. Active clubs are a decentralized network of neo-nazi fight clubs conceived and promoted by Rundo.
The thing is, he mostly got the active club project off the ground while he was a fugitive in (mostly) Eastern Europe. He was indicted in 2018 for conspiracy to riot due to RAM's engagement in altercations with antifascists at a Trump rally in California in 2017. Rundo bolted and was finally arrested in Romania last year with a couple of fake passports in his possession and extradited to the US last summer. Also noteworthy: that was the second time he fled the country to escape an indictment.
Does any of this sound like someone who is "not a flight risk"?
At any rate, Carney is clearly out to right the wrong of excessive prosecution of violent Nazis. In his opinion granting bail, he laid into both prosecutors and antifa. He writes:
“An objective review of the evidence reveals that though Mr. Rundo espouses a hateful ideology, he and his co-defendants were not the true threat to democracy at rallies. Contrary to the government’s accusations, it was Antifa, a far-left extremist group, that posed the insidious threat to democracy.”
Carney explicitly recognizes Rundo's history of fleeing, writing:
“In fairness to Mr. Rundo, during many of these periods he was technically free to travel. Still Mr. Rundo’s use of fake documents and other deceptive tactics while attempting to travel internationally demonstrate that, in practical terms, he was trying to evade prosecution and is willing to leave the country to maintain his freedom.”
He also doesn't see any much likelihood that Rundo poses any danger to the community. He writes:
"Because there are reasonable conditions that can reasonably assure the safety of the community and Mr. Rundo’s appearance as required, Mr. Rundo is entitled to bail."
and
“Because the allegations of Mr. Rundo’s violence are limited to a particular context, release conditions, such as prohibiting Mr. Rundo from attending any political rally or associating with any member of any white nationalist organization, are well suited to addressing any potential danger to the community.”
Anyways, it's a good thing there are brave judges out there willing to make sure that Nazis get treated fairly. Democracy would be totally screwed if they couldn't just run around beating people.
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Illustration: Hypatia of Alexandria and Giordano Bruno.
If I encounter a #Fundie or an Xtian who speaks gently, I try to speak gently in return. Now that #MAGA is in the picture, as MAGA is distilled hatred, the Everclear of Christianity, gentle isn't always possible. However, I'd like to lay out a few points in this thread with civility in mind.
Part 1. We can all agree that Wikipedia is just a starting point for research.
It isn't true that just anybody can sign up and add whatever they like. That used to be true. In 2008, the situation was over the top and there was an internal [but public] trial to settle one case. For old-timers, I'm referring to the Slender Virgin Naked Shorting scandal. Which, technically, may have contributed to the Crash of 2008. Yay, Wikipedia.
The trial worked primarily to sweep abuses under the rug. FWIW Jimmie Wales offered to discuss the matter with me. When I pointed out that he'd destroyed evidence, he seemed to lose interest in the discussion.
However, if just anybody adds just anything these days to a Wikipedia article, and it's an important subject, the additions are reverted. To survive, the website has become a least common denominator project.
Part 2. No, there is no strong evidence that #Jesus of Nazareth ever even physically existed. He may have physically existed, but claims which go beyond that don't rise even to the level of myth that is consistent among His contemporaries.
The New Testament, the primary source even as myth for the existence of this person, is a set of texts composed up to 90 years after the putative death of Christ. Some of the texts were composed much earlier, 30 years after His death, but those claim to be by a single person, Paul, when [scholars agree] a number of different people wrote them.
To be fair, there is a core set of Pauline texts, about half a dozen, that were probably written by one person. The others are fan fiction, not a pejorative point but accurate enough, that were added to canon later.
The author of the Pauline core set, Paul, is the only named New Testament author who probably existed and probably wrote at least part of the New Testament. And Paul didn't even claim to have met Jesus Christ.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John weren't named formally as New Testament writers until the Second Century A.D. Four people with those names probably existed. But there is no significant reason to believe that they wrote the texts that are attributed to them. Attribution didn't take place until Christ, if He existed, had been dead for at least 120 to 150 years.
Today, we can't agree about what happened 3 months ago even if it's on video. And this was, again, 120 to 150 years.
We haven't even started on contradictions that are common to all imagined stories that grow over time into myth. A good question to ask Xtians is, "How did Judas die?" The response that is usually offered is, "You're only repeating what the Devil says. I can't hear you. Maranatha. Maranatha."
Spoiler alert: Judas both hanged himself and fell from a height and burst open. #Xtian apologists say that it was both, but it's an awkward conflation.
Nor have we gotten to the fact that the most commonly cited non-Church reference to a historic Christ, the one in Josephus's writings, was faked by Christian copyists. There is a claim that a reference existed before the Christians edited the text, but I haven't seen the evidence to this effect.
I realize now that this thread requires a book. Which has actually been written a number of times.
I'm not able to see how this thread started. But the part about how Christians shouldn't cite Christianity, the fact that it exists, as a justification for anything strikes a chord.
My mother's father was a religious leader of the Ukrainian Diaspora 100 years ago. He was the gentlest man alive. This doesn't change the fact that the religion he supported has been the most horrific and brutal force, after Genghis Khan aka Temujin, of the past 2,000 years. So, it's a conundrum.
The Catholic Church began with the rape and murder of Hypatia circa 415 A.D. This was the moment when civilization could have headed down either of two paths: Enlightenment, progress, a move away from the fact of ape origins. Or a millenium of darkness, horror, and torture and murder of the innocent.
It was the second path. Yay, Church.
They allowed Galileo to live. They burned Giordano Bruno to death. They burned countless other men, women, and children to death as well.
"Oh, that was the past" ? A secular organization can come back from that. But not a "religion". If a "religion" behaves as the one and only original Church did, it isn't possible to brush it aside and still be the religion.
I welcome discussion with #Christians who are civil despite the fact of the brutality of Christianity. MAGA, a subset, not so much. I recommend civility to others as well. But the context isn't argument from authority by Christians. -
Illustration: Hypatia of Alexandria and Giordano Bruno.
If I encounter a #Fundie or an Xtian who speaks gently, I try to speak gently in return. Now that #MAGA is in the picture, as MAGA is distilled hatred, the Everclear of Christianity, gentle isn't always possible. However, I'd like to lay out a few points in this thread with civility in mind.
Part 1. We can all agree that Wikipedia is just a starting point for research.
It isn't true that just anybody can sign up and add whatever they like. That used to be true. In 2008, the situation was over the top and there was an internal [but public] trial to settle one case. For old-timers, I'm referring to the Slender Virgin Naked Shorting scandal. Which, technically, may have contributed to the Crash of 2008. Yay, Wikipedia.
The trial worked primarily to sweep abuses under the rug. FWIW Jimmie Wales offered to discuss the matter with me. When I pointed out that he'd destroyed evidence, he seemed to lose interest in the discussion.
However, if just anybody adds just anything these days to a Wikipedia article, and it's an important subject, the additions are reverted. To survive, the website has become a least common denominator project.
Part 2. No, there is no strong evidence that #Jesus of Nazareth ever even physically existed. He may have physically existed, but claims which go beyond that don't rise even to the level of myth that is consistent among His contemporaries.
The New Testament, the primary source even as myth for the existence of this person, is a set of texts composed up to 90 years after the putative death of Christ. Some of the texts were composed much earlier, 30 years after His death, but those claim to be by a single person, Paul, when [scholars agree] a number of different people wrote them.
To be fair, there is a core set of Pauline texts, about half a dozen, that were probably written by one person. The others are fan fiction, not a pejorative point but accurate enough, that were added to canon later.
The author of the Pauline core set, Paul, is the only named New Testament author who probably existed and probably wrote at least part of the New Testament. And Paul didn't even claim to have met Jesus Christ.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John weren't named formally as New Testament writers until the Second Century A.D. Four people with those names probably existed. But there is no significant reason to believe that they wrote the texts that are attributed to them. Attribution didn't take place until Christ, if He existed, had been dead for at least 120 to 150 years.
Today, we can't agree about what happened 3 months ago even if it's on video. And this was, again, 120 to 150 years.
We haven't even started on contradictions that are common to all imagined stories that grow over time into myth. A good question to ask Xtians is, "How did Judas die?" The response that is usually offered is, "You're only repeating what the Devil says. I can't hear you. Maranatha. Maranatha."
Spoiler alert: Judas both hanged himself and fell from a height and burst open. #Xtian apologists say that it was both, but it's an awkward conflation.
Nor have we gotten to the fact that the most commonly cited non-Church reference to a historic Christ, the one in Josephus's writings, was faked by Christian copyists. There is a claim that a reference existed before the Christians edited the text, but I haven't seen the evidence to this effect.
I realize now that this thread requires a book. Which has actually been written a number of times.
I'm not able to see how this thread started. But the part about how Christians shouldn't cite Christianity, the fact that it exists, as a justification for anything strikes a chord.
My mother's father was a religious leader of the Ukrainian Diaspora 100 years ago. He was the gentlest man alive. This doesn't change the fact that the religion he supported has been the most horrific and brutal force, after Genghis Khan aka Temujin, of the past 2,000 years. So, it's a conundrum.
The Catholic Church began with the rape and murder of Hypatia circa 415 A.D. This was the moment when civilization could have headed down either of two paths: Enlightenment, progress, a move away from the fact of ape origins. Or a millenium of darkness, horror, and torture and murder of the innocent.
It was the second path. Yay, Church.
They allowed Galileo to live. They burned Giordano Bruno to death. They burned countless other men, women, and children to death as well.
"Oh, that was the past" ? A secular organization can come back from that. But not a "religion". If a "religion" behaves as the one and only original Church did, it isn't possible to brush it aside and still be the religion.
I welcome discussion with #Christians who are civil despite the fact of the brutality of Christianity. MAGA, a subset, not so much. I recommend civility to others as well. But the context isn't argument from authority by Christians. -
Equity Sans Font Family by Font Catalogue
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Geometric sans serifs have dominated the design landscape for decades. Most of them share one problem: they are cold. Their precision keeps readers at arm’s length. The Equity Sans font family by Font Catalogue breaks that pattern entirely. It brings genuine warmth, circular geometry, and real structural depth to a category that usually feels clinical. Designers working across wellness, beauty, lifestyle, and editorial spaces are adopting it with good reason. It solves a problem most typefaces cannot — being modern and emotionally accessible at the same time.
Get the complete family from MyFontsWhat Makes the Equity Sans Font Family Different From Other Geometric Sans-Serif Typefaces?
The answer starts with the circle. Pure circular forms define every letterform in the Equity Sans font family. That foundation alone is not unusual for geometric typefaces. But what Equity Sans does next sets it apart. Most geometric sans serifs sharpen their endpoints. That sharpness creates tension — it reads as precise, but also cold. Equity Sans softens its terminals instead. Rounded endpoints extend the circular logic outward. Every character carries a sense of ease and openness. The result is neither rigid nor loose. It lands somewhere far more interesting than either extreme.
Equity Sans Font Family by Font Catalogue Get the complete family from MyFontsThe Circle as a Design Philosophy
There is a growing school of thought in contemporary typography. Call it Soft Geometry — where designers use mathematical foundations without sacrificing human warmth. The typeface embodies this approach more completely than almost any other recent release. Its open counters and generous curves create what this article defines as Geometric Accessibility: the ability of a typeface to communicate structural confidence while remaining emotionally approachable. This is not softness for its own sake. Moreover, it is a deliberate typographic choice with real functional implications for brand communication. A typeface that balances both qualities becomes a powerful tool — not just a stylistic preference.
Rounded Terminals and the Concept of Open Rhythm
Open rhythm is another defining characteristic of the typeface. The spacing between letters breathes. It does not crowd itself. Brands working in wellness, personal care, and lifestyle benefit most from this quality. Type that crowds itself creates subtle anxiety in readers. Type that breathes creates ease and trust. The Equity Sans font family chooses ease without sacrificing legibility. Furthermore, that balance is genuinely rare in geometric typefaces. It takes careful type design to preserve structural discipline while achieving genuine openness — and Equity Sans achieves it.
Who Should Use the Equity Sans Font Family?
The Equity Sans font family is not trying to serve every use case. That clarity of purpose is one of its greatest strengths. It suits brands operating in the warm, the soft, and the human — but with structure and credibility behind them. Think beauty packaging. Think wellness apps, maternal care products, skincare, organic food brands, and contemporary editorial design. Any brand communicating care, wellbeing, or accessible quality will find the typeface a natural fit.
Beauty and Wellness Branding With Equity Sans
Beauty typography has long relied on two modes. Either the high-fashion coldness of sharp-contrast serifs, or the friendly-but-forgettable warmth of naively rounded sans-serifs. The typeface offers a genuine third path. It reads as premium without feeling exclusive. It feels caring without feeling childish. For brands communicating quality alongside accessibility — an increasingly common brief in beauty and wellness — the Equity Sans font family delivers exactly the right typographic register. It is modern, clean, and warm all at once.
Lifestyle and Editorial Design Applications
Editorial designers working in lifestyle publications face a specific challenge. They need type that functions across headlines, subheadings, body copy, and captions — and stays coherent throughout. The Equity Sans font family handles this range exceptionally well. Its eight weights create real flexibility across all those contexts. Its eight corresponding italic cuts extend that range further. Additionally, the overall character of the typeface stays consistent across the full weight range. That consistency is harder to achieve than it sounds, and it matters enormously in multi-context editorial systems.
The Equity Sans Font Family Weight Structure: A System Built for Complexity
Most typeface families offer four to six weights. The Equity Sans font family offers eight. Furthermore, it pairs each weight with a dedicated italic cut. That means sixteen cuts in total — a serious, professional type system. Brand designers building comprehensive visual identity systems will recognize what that depth provides. A logo, a landing page, an editorial spread, a packaging label — each demands a different weight and optical scale. The typeface accommodates all of them without requiring a secondary typeface.
What Sixteen Cuts Mean for Brand Identity Systems
Consistency is the real luxury in branding. When a brand stays within a single typeface family across all touchpoints, its visual language becomes more cohesive and more recognizable. The Equity Sans font family makes single-typeface brand systems genuinely viable — even for complex, multi-channel brands. Design teams spend less time managing font conflicts and more time building strong visual narratives. That is an underappreciated operational advantage that a rich type system like this one provides.
From Light to Black: The Full Equity Sans Weight Range
The lightest weights of the Equity Sans font family carry an almost editorial delicacy. They suit luxury skincare body text, minimalist app interfaces, and refined caption work. The heaviest weights, by contrast, carry real visual presence. Importantly, they do so without sacrificing the typeface’s inherent warmth. This is where the circle-based foundation does its most important structural work. Heavy geometric typefaces often lose their character at large sizes — they become simply loud. The typeface stays characterful under pressure. It gains presence without losing itself.
Equity Sans and the Rise of Warm Geometry in Brand Typography
Typography trends rarely appear from nowhere. The rise of warm, approachable geometric typefaces reflects something broader happening in design culture. After a decade of ultra-minimal, cold-corporate aesthetics — maximum whitespace, hairline serifs, brutal precision — brands are recalibrating. They want to feel human. They want to build emotional trust, not just visual credibility. The Equity Sans font family arrives at exactly the right moment for exactly that conversation.
Defining “Warm Geometry” as an Emerging Typographic Category
Warm Geometry — a term this article introduces — describes typefaces built on mathematical, circular foundations that deliberately incorporate humanist warmth into their detailing. Rounded terminals, open apertures, and generous spacing are its defining attributes. The Equity Sans font family is arguably the clearest current example of this category. Unlike purely humanist typefaces, Warm Geometry retains structural discipline. Unlike cold geometric typefaces, it prioritizes approachability. It occupies a genuinely new middle space — and that space is exactly where contemporary brand typography is moving.
The Cultural Context Behind Soft Design Aesthetics
Consumer culture is shifting toward care, authenticity, and wellness. Brand language is as follows. Typography — often the first language a brand speaks — is adapting accordingly. The growth of wellness categories, maternal care, clean beauty, and mindful consumption has created genuine demand for typefaces that communicate through warmth rather than assertion. Accordingly, designers who recognize this shift early will make better typeface decisions for the brands they build. The typeface is a direct response to that cultural moment.
How to Use the Equity Sans Font Family Effectively in Design
Understanding a typeface is one thing. Using it well is another. The Equity Sans font family rewards careful application. Every weight and cut has a natural home in a well-built design system. The following considerations help designers apply it with intention rather than instinct.
Pairing Equity Sans With Complementary Typefaces
The Equity Sans font family works best when paired with typefaces that respect its warmth. High-contrast serifs with sharp bracketing create visual tension rather than balance. Instead, consider pairing Equity Sans with low-contrast serifs or refined humanist typefaces in contexts requiring a secondary typographic voice — long-form editorial body copy, for instance. The primary Equity Sans weight does the architectural work. Any secondary typeface adds textural variety without competing with the warm geometry that defines Equity Sans.
Applying the Equity Sans Font Family to Brand Identity
For logos and primary wordmarks, the medium or semibold weight of the Equity Sans font family delivers the best combination of presence and openness. Lighter weights carry insufficient visual weight at small application sizes. Heavier weights can feel more assertive than the typeface’s natural character suggests. The sweet spot sits in the middle, where the circular geometry and rounded terminals read most clearly. For subheadings and supporting labels, the book and regular weights extend the system with ease and coherence.
Equity Sans in Digital Environments
Digital typography demands legibility at variable sizes and across device resolutions. The typeface performs well under those conditions. Its open counters and generous apertures maintain readability at small sizes. Its rounded terminals remain clear rather than blurring at lower resolutions. For app interfaces, digital packaging mockups, and landing pages, the Equity Sans font family is technically as well as aesthetically well-suited. It does not just look right — it functions correctly in the demanding digital contexts modern brands require.
The Equity Sans Font Family and the Future of Brand Typography
Typography is a brand decision. The typeface a brand chooses shapes how audiences perceive it before they read a single word. The Equity Sans font family makes a clear argument: geometric precision and human warmth are not opposites. Furthermore, it demonstrates that a typeface can carry serious structural depth — sixteen cuts, circle-based geometry, a full weight range — without sacrificing emotional accessibility. That combination is exactly where forward-thinking brand typography is heading.
A Prediction: Warm Geometry Will Define Brand Typography This Decade
Over the next ten years, Warm Geometry typefaces — those built on mathematical circular foundations but softened through rounded detailing and open rhythm — will become the dominant typographic category across wellness, beauty, lifestyle, and consumer technology sectors. The Equity Sans font family is not the last of its kind. It is an early signal of a larger shift. Designers who understand this shift now will make better, more durable typographic decisions for the brands they develop.
Equity Sans as a Reference Typeface for a New Category
Reference typefaces are those that define what a category can be. The Equity Sans font family is positioning itself as the reference typeface for Warm Geometry. Its eight weights, circular foundation, rounded terminals, and coherent character across the full range make it one of the most complete realizations of this emerging typographic approach available today. When designers discuss soft geometric sans-serif fonts in ten years, the typeface will be part of that conversation — not as a trend, but as a standard.
Get the complete family from MyFontsFrequently Asked Questions About the Equity Sans Font Family
What is the Equity Sans font family?
The Equity Sans font family is a geometric sans-serif typeface by Font Catalogue. It is built on pure circular forms, features rounded terminals, open counters, and generous letter spacing. It includes eight weights and eight italic cuts, making it a comprehensive type system for brand and editorial design.
Who makes the Equity Sans font family?
The typeface is designed and distributed by Font Catalogue.
What is the Equity Sans font family best used for?
It excels in beauty, wellness, lifestyle, and consumer brand design. It also performs strongly in editorial layouts, app interfaces, packaging design, and branding contexts that call for modern warmth and approachability.
How many weights does the family include?
The family includes eight weights and eight corresponding italic cuts, totaling sixteen typeface cuts — a comprehensive type system for complex brand applications.
Is the typeface suitable for digital use?
Yes. The open counters, rounded terminals, and generous apertures of the Equity Sans font family ensure strong legibility across digital environments, including app interfaces, websites, and digital advertising at variable sizes.
What makes the Equity Sans font family different from other geometric sans-serifs?
Most geometric sans-serif typefaces prioritize cold precision through sharp terminals. The Equity Sans font family applies circular geometry while incorporating rounded detailing and open spacing — creating what this article defines as Geometric Accessibility: structural confidence with emotional warmth.
What typefaces pair well with the Equity Sans font family?
Low-contrast serifs and humanist typefaces complement the typeface most effectively. High-contrast serifs with sharp bracketing create visual tension rather than typographic balance.
Is the Equity Sans font family a good choice for logo design?
Yes. The medium and semibold weights of the Equity Sans font family deliver the clearest combination of visual presence and openness for logo and wordmark applications, where legibility and character both matter at varied scales.
What is Warm Geometry in typography?
Warm Geometry is a term introduced in this article to describe typefaces built on mathematical, circular foundations that incorporate humanist warmth through rounded terminals, open apertures, and generous spacing. The Equity Sans font family is the clearest current example of this emerging typographic category.
What is Geometric Accessibility in type design?
Geometric Accessibility is a term introduced in this article to describe a typeface’s ability to communicate structural confidence while remaining emotionally approachable. The Equity Sans font family achieves this through its circular base forms, rounded terminals, and open rhythmic spacing.
Where can designers access the Equity Sans font family?
The complete family is available through MyFonts.
Get the complete family from MyFontsFeel free to find other trending typefaces in the Fonts section here at WE AND THE COLOR.
#EquitySans #font #FontCatalogue #fontFamily #sansSerif -
CW: Thoughts on Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
So, this is a story about two teen girls who hate each other, coming together to solve the mystery locked house puzzle with necromantic powers to become immortals.
Variouos synopses and promotional blurbs try to sell this as a lesbian necromancers in space thing, but it's honestly misleading. This is a somewhat classic and straightforward whodunit in a decrepit castle sitting in the middle of the ocean.
While yes, there are spaceships and queer characters, it's just a background information in the same vein as the nebulous concept of the King Undying ruling the universe.
Now, back to the important part. The plot, and pacing are starting very slow. The whole first act is a drag. But after act two, it's all thrilling downhill ride to the very end. Things happen all the time, and somehow the stakes keep escalating.
There are puzzles, there are murders, there are unexpected plot twists.
The main centerpiece of this novel are main characters from all the houses, working together and against each other. Their mutual growth throughout the pages. The magic system is kinda rudimentary, and general world building is very light and only mentioned as needed with bare minimum of details.
However, this was planned as a duology or trilogy from the beginning, and the ending of this book goes straight to the plot of the second, where the more broad exploration of this universe is expected as part of course, in case you're interested enough to stick with it.
As a bonus, there's a free short story published by Tor that is technically set long before the events of Gideon the Ninth, but as a remembrance from one of the characters after the events. There is a spoiler in that, but I've read it first to get the sense of the setting (which actually prompted me to get the full series), and you will miss the connection unless you go straight from it to the main book.
Anyway, you can get official ePub, mobi, and pdf downloads for offline reading.
I would recommend revisiting it after reading the first book, just because you'll have much more context for all the in-universe mumbo-jumbo terms, and will have deeper knowledge of anatomy and characters.
Unfortunately, the worldwide version of Kobo edition got removed at some point, so here's the US version.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4347153011
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4347159245 -
CW: Review of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine"; pol, genocide, zionism
I just finished "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi. It's an introductory history of zionism and the genocide of the Palestinian people, making it clear beyond any shadow of a doubt that zionism was from the outset a colonial ideology, unconcerned with the fate of the Palestinians, and perpetrating (under all Israeli prime ministers!) a genocide.
Review of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine"; pol, genocide, zionismIt's chronological, so it starts out in the 19th century at the beginnings¹ of zionism, showing that the leaders of early zionism either (at least in their public facing communication) didn't understand and care about the implications of their actions for the Palestinians or were well aware that violence would be necessary. It goes over Britain's support (including the treacherous Balfour Declaration) and how Jewish immigration was strongly encouraged to turn together with the murder of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people in the Nakba and beyond the previously Arab land to an Jewish one, enabling the founding of modern Israel.
Since his family is what appears to be some kind of former Palestinian nobility, Rashid Khalidi has a lot of relatives involved in the history he describes, giving it a nice human touch. Once we come to the time of his own life, he can describe it even more personally and it is quite heart-wrenching to not only see genocide and the struggle against it abstractly talked about, but to see it from someone's first-person perspective.
He goes over the various revolts, wars, and diplomatic actions (including how the Oslo accords actually just modernized the Palestinian apartheid, not solved it anyhow) happening and that Hezbollah and Hamas were helped/built by Israel to undermine the secular Palestinian leadership of the PLO and Fatah.
Very nice for such an uninformed person like me is that he does not hesitate to say his opinion about an organization or person, helping me to understand what is what (for example that – in contrast to their quite similar names – the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) are actually quite different – the PLO is the generally accepted leadership of the Palestinians, secular, and while in recent decades a bit ineffectual mostly quite good, while the PLF is a fringe organization, a front for an other regime (Iraq iirc), and mostly harmful to the Palestinian cause).
If you do not yet know about the history of Palestine/zionism well, I *very strongly* recommend you to read the book! It's a great summary of a very important topic and this post here has only summarized the book very quickly, leaving out most (e.g. I didn't even mention the US, even though the book very much does).
(¹ Technically it of course could be argued that the persecution that Jews faced the centuries before (which motivated zionism) is also part of zionism.)
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I spent part of Saturday working on my latest plotter project.
We spend a lot of our time making art with pen plotters, and I’ve become really interested in all aspects of the machines – from the varied combinations of inks, pens, and papers that can be used to create unique and individual designs, to the software and hardware of the devices themselves.
The primary two plotters that we use in the studio are an AxiDraw, and a Roland DYX-1100. I’ve also built a BrachioGraph, and a hanging Polargraph. My current project is a CoreXY plotter.
This is a series of modifications on top of a basic plotter kit that I picked up on AliExpress. By default, the plotter comes with a clone Arduino UNO board, and a motor shield. It’s a cheap(ish) kit, that came with some largely pictorial assembly instructions, and far too many parts. You can read a write-up of a similar machine over here.
The majority of these kinds of devices run GRBL, an Arduino firmware that works with Gcode – I already did a lot of hacking with that as part of the Pico-based polagraph project, and I was also looking for a way to improve the speed and configurability as well as adding wireless connectivity. So, instead of sticking with the vanilla build, I decided I was going to upgrade the machine to FluidNC, which is a newer firmware based on ESP32.
I’ve replaced the Arduino attached to one side of the X axis, with a FluidNC board with 2 TMC2209 motor controllers. On top of that, I added some copper heatsinks on the motor drivers. I still need to design and print a new box holder for the controller, to replace the one I removed from the plotter – I don’t actually want that to be floating around on a nest of wires off the side of the machine.
In addition, I’ve added limit switches on the negative (min) sides of the X and Y axes; wired them via the existing cable holes; and, replaced the original coiled plastic cable covers with better quality cable sleeves. I’m pleased with these improvements. There’s technically the option to add another pair of limit switches on the max sides of the axes, but I wasn’t intending to add them as well.
So far, so good; well, I’m happy with things on the hardware side, at least. I made the modifications one by one, and I can see the limit switches tripping when the axes run through the homing process.
The largest issue I’m having is the calibration. I haven’t changed the motors or the dimensions of the machine, but, I’m also not confident that the GRBL build on the Arduino was accurate in the first place (the plotter came with a zip of various bits of code, but I’m not sure that it reflects the specifics of the plotter), so I’m not completely sure that the parameters directly transfer to the FluidNC configuration. This is not straightforward for me – although I’m a coder, I’m not always great at the mathematical side of things, and between spindles, rotations, steps, and power ratios, I’m having “fun”. Although I’ve got most of a working FluidNC config, there’s clearly something off in the settings, as I’m still (!) seeing the machine try to shoot past the limits, and then I have to pull the power.
Once I’ve got this working, I’ve also got a couple more DIY-build plotter projects in mind… if only I have the room for them all…
https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/07/20/hacking-with-plotters/
#100DaysToOffload #cnc #drawingMachine #fluidcnc #hardware #penPlotter #plotter #Technology #xy
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I spent part of Saturday working on my latest plotter project.
We spend a lot of our time making art with pen plotters, and I’ve become really interested in all aspects of the machines – from the varied combinations of inks, pens, and papers that can be used to create unique and individual designs, to the software and hardware of the devices themselves.
The primary two plotters that we use in the studio are an AxiDraw, and a Roland DYX-1100. I’ve also built a BrachioGraph, and a hanging Polargraph. My current project is a CoreXY plotter.
This is a series of modifications on top of a basic plotter kit that I picked up on AliExpress. By default, the plotter comes with a clone Arduino UNO board, and a motor shield. It’s a cheap(ish) kit, that came with some largely pictorial assembly instructions, and far too many parts. You can read a write-up of a similar machine over here.
The majority of these kinds of devices run GRBL, an Arduino firmware that works with Gcode – I already did a lot of hacking with that as part of the Pico-based polagraph project, and I was also looking for a way to improve the speed and configurability as well as adding wireless connectivity. So, instead of sticking with the vanilla build, I decided I was going to upgrade the machine to FluidNC, which is a newer firmware based on ESP32.
I’ve replaced the Arduino attached to one side of the X axis, with a FluidNC board with 2 TMC2209 motor controllers. On top of that, I added some copper heatsinks on the motor drivers. I still need to design and print a new box holder for the controller, to replace the one I removed from the plotter – I don’t actually want that to be floating around on a nest of wires off the side of the machine.
In addition, I’ve added limit switches on the negative (min) sides of the X and Y axes; wired them via the existing cable holes; and, replaced the original coiled plastic cable covers with better quality cable sleeves. I’m pleased with these improvements. There’s technically the option to add another pair of limit switches on the max sides of the axes, but I wasn’t intending to add them as well.
So far, so good; well, I’m happy with things on the hardware side, at least. I made the modifications one by one, and I can see the limit switches tripping when the axes run through the homing process.
The largest issue I’m having is the calibration. I haven’t changed the motors or the dimensions of the machine, but, I’m also not confident that the GRBL build on the Arduino was accurate in the first place (the plotter came with a zip of various bits of code, but I’m not sure that it reflects the specifics of the plotter), so I’m not completely sure that the parameters directly transfer to the FluidNC configuration. This is not straightforward for me – although I’m a coder, I’m not always great at the mathematical side of things, and between spindles, rotations, steps, and power ratios, I’m having “fun”. Although I’ve got most of a working FluidNC config, there’s clearly something off in the settings, as I’m still (!) seeing the machine try to shoot past the limits, and then I have to pull the power.
Once I’ve got this working, I’ve also got a couple more DIY-build plotter projects in mind… if only I have the room for them all…
https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/07/20/hacking-with-plotters/
#100DaysToOffload #cnc #drawingMachine #fluidcnc #hardware #penPlotter #plotter #Technology #xy
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I spent part of Saturday working on my latest plotter project.
We spend a lot of our time making art with pen plotters, and I’ve become really interested in all aspects of the machines – from the varied combinations of inks, pens, and papers that can be used to create unique and individual designs, to the software and hardware of the devices themselves.
The primary two plotters that we use in the studio are an AxiDraw, and a Roland DYX-1100. I’ve also built a BrachioGraph, and a hanging Polargraph. My current project is a CoreXY plotter.
This is a series of modifications on top of a basic plotter kit that I picked up on AliExpress. By default, the plotter comes with a clone Arduino UNO board, and a motor shield. It’s a cheap(ish) kit, that came with some largely pictorial assembly instructions, and far too many parts. You can read a write-up of a similar machine over here.
The majority of these kinds of devices run GRBL, an Arduino firmware that works with Gcode – I already did a lot of hacking with that as part of the Pico-based polagraph project, and I was also looking for a way to improve the speed and configurability as well as adding wireless connectivity. So, instead of sticking with the vanilla build, I decided I was going to upgrade the machine to FluidNC, which is a newer firmware based on ESP32.
I’ve replaced the Arduino attached to one side of the X axis, with a FluidNC board with 2 TMC2209 motor controllers. On top of that, I added some copper heatsinks on the motor drivers. I still need to design and print a new box holder for the controller, to replace the one I removed from the plotter – I don’t actually want that to be floating around on a nest of wires off the side of the machine.
In addition, I’ve added limit switches on the negative (min) sides of the X and Y axes; wired them via the existing cable holes; and, replaced the original coiled plastic cable covers with better quality cable sleeves. I’m pleased with these improvements. There’s technically the option to add another pair of limit switches on the max sides of the axes, but I wasn’t intending to add them as well.
So far, so good; well, I’m happy with things on the hardware side, at least. I made the modifications one by one, and I can see the limit switches tripping when the axes run through the homing process.
The largest issue I’m having is the calibration. I haven’t changed the motors or the dimensions of the machine, but, I’m also not confident that the GRBL build on the Arduino was accurate in the first place (the plotter came with a zip of various bits of code, but I’m not sure that it reflects the specifics of the plotter), so I’m not completely sure that the parameters directly transfer to the FluidNC configuration. This is not straightforward for me – although I’m a coder, I’m not always great at the mathematical side of things, and between spindles, rotations, steps, and power ratios, I’m having “fun”. Although I’ve got most of a working FluidNC config, there’s clearly something off in the settings, as I’m still (!) seeing the machine try to shoot past the limits, and then I have to pull the power.
Once I’ve got this working, I’ve also got a couple more DIY-build plotter projects in mind… if only I have the room for them all…
https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/07/20/hacking-with-plotters/
#100DaysToOffload #cnc #drawingMachine #fluidcnc #hardware #penPlotter #plotter #Technology #xy
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I spent part of Saturday working on my latest plotter project.
We spend a lot of our time making art with pen plotters, and I’ve become really interested in all aspects of the machines – from the varied combinations of inks, pens, and papers that can be used to create unique and individual designs, to the software and hardware of the devices themselves.
The primary two plotters that we use in the studio are an AxiDraw, and a Roland DYX-1100. I’ve also built a BrachioGraph, and a hanging Polargraph. My current project is a CoreXY plotter.
This is a series of modifications on top of a basic plotter kit that I picked up on AliExpress. By default, the plotter comes with a clone Arduino UNO board, and a motor shield. It’s a cheap(ish) kit, that came with some largely pictorial assembly instructions, and far too many parts. You can read a write-up of a similar machine over here.
The majority of these kinds of devices run GRBL, an Arduino firmware that works with Gcode – I already did a lot of hacking with that as part of the Pico-based polagraph project, and I was also looking for a way to improve the speed and configurability as well as adding wireless connectivity. So, instead of sticking with the vanilla build, I decided I was going to upgrade the machine to FluidNC, which is a newer firmware based on ESP32.
I’ve replaced the Arduino attached to one side of the X axis, with a FluidNC board with 2 TMC2209 motor controllers. On top of that, I added some copper heatsinks on the motor drivers. I still need to design and print a new box holder for the controller, to replace the one I removed from the plotter – I don’t actually want that to be floating around on a nest of wires off the side of the machine.
In addition, I’ve added limit switches on the negative (min) sides of the X and Y axes; wired them via the existing cable holes; and, replaced the original coiled plastic cable covers with better quality cable sleeves. I’m pleased with these improvements. There’s technically the option to add another pair of limit switches on the max sides of the axes, but I wasn’t intending to add them as well.
So far, so good; well, I’m happy with things on the hardware side, at least. I made the modifications one by one, and I can see the limit switches tripping when the axes run through the homing process.
The largest issue I’m having is the calibration. I haven’t changed the motors or the dimensions of the machine, but, I’m also not confident that the GRBL build on the Arduino was accurate in the first place (the plotter came with a zip of various bits of code, but I’m not sure that it reflects the specifics of the plotter), so I’m not completely sure that the parameters directly transfer to the FluidNC configuration. This is not straightforward for me – although I’m a coder, I’m not always great at the mathematical side of things, and between spindles, rotations, steps, and power ratios, I’m having “fun”. Although I’ve got most of a working FluidNC config, there’s clearly something off in the settings, as I’m still (!) seeing the machine try to shoot past the limits, and then I have to pull the power.
Once I’ve got this working, I’ve also got a couple more DIY-build plotter projects in mind… if only I have the room for them all…
https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/07/20/hacking-with-plotters/
#100DaysToOffload #cnc #drawingMachine #fluidcnc #hardware #penPlotter #plotter #Technology #xy
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The First Tree (Multi, XPd on PC)
Play as a mother fox trying to find her kits. As you explore the world, you'll also uncover the relationship of a son and his estranged father. Yep, it's a "feels" game, so be prepared.Game is set in Alaska, and even tho the art style is quite "simplistic", it certainly conveys the feeling of remote snowy wilderness well. As you begin the journey, it becomes apparent very quickly that this game is all about the feels. Doesn't take long to figure out that the couple heard discussing current life events are talking about the death of the man's father. Be warned, this is not the only death you'll be facing in this game.
Overall it's a basic 3D "open" zone exploration game. Each level has several points of interest that vary between story exposition dialogue triggers, collectible tchotchkes, and progression triggers that open things, etc. The pacing is good, fox's "walk" and "run" speeds are fine, the overall game took me 3 hours to roll credits on and earn half the achieves.
Mostly what you're doing in this game is listening to the couple relive the man's past with his father as you explore the places mentioned, of sorts? The art IS very stylized so it's more you're exploring the "suggestions" of the places. It's an interesting juxtaposition, playing as a fox, discovering things from the human's past. As expected, the music/ambiance match this setting very well.
Technically, I had no issues running this game on my Linux (Garuda) OS. I don't recall hitting any major bugs. Not entirely surprising as it is "Playable" on the Steam Deck, so it ought to work fine with Linux, heh.
I enjoyed this experience on the whole, but I do like a good kick in the feels to remind yourself you are alive. If you're the same kinda player, I would certainly recommend checking out The First Tree. 👍 👍
#Gaming #ShareYourGames #VideoGames #PC #Steam #TheFirstTree -
How Gatekeeping in Ham Radio Is Hurting the Hobby
8,734 words, 46 minutes read time.
A Pattern That Can No Longer Be Ignored
A little over a year ago, I published a blog post titled How Gatekeeping in Ham Radio Is Hurting Newcomers: Let’s Build a Supportive Community. That article was not an exception. It was simply one more example in a pattern that has followed nearly everything I have written about amateur radio. Regardless of the subject—operating practices, technology, culture, or the future of the hobby—the reaction from a segment of the amateur radio community has been consistently hostile. The criticism rarely engages with the substance of what is written. Instead, it arrives through social media messages, emails, and private DMs questioning credibility, motives, or whether I have any right to speak at all.
In recent months, the focus of that hostility has expanded. Alongside familiar accusations of not respecting tradition or not “doing things the right way,” criticism has increasingly targeted how the content itself is created. I have been transparent about using modern tools, including artificial intelligence, to assist with research, organization, drafting, and image creation. For some, the use of AI has become a disqualifier on its own, as though leveraging contemporary tools invalidates experience, technical knowledge, or good-faith participation. That reaction is revealing. Amateur radio was built on experimentation and adaptation, yet innovation is increasingly treated with suspicion in spaces that once celebrated it.
What makes this reaction harder to reconcile is the absence of any personal or financial incentive. All content on this site is published freely. There are no subscriptions, no paywalls, and no meaningful revenue. After more than two years of consistent writing, the blog generates nothing of consequence financially. There is no commercial angle, no monetization strategy, and no attempt to manufacture authority. The purpose has been straightforward: to document observations, share experience, and contribute to a conversation about the present and future of amateur radio.
That reality forces an uncomfortable question. If the work is free, transparent, and offered in good faith, why does it provoke such resistance? At some point, anyone who writes critically about an insular culture has to decide whether to step back or continue, knowing the reaction is unlikely to soften. The issue, then, is no longer about one article or one author. It is about a pattern of gatekeeping that increasingly defines how amateur radio presents itself to the outside world.
What Gatekeeping Looks Like in Amateur Radio
Gatekeeping in amateur radio rarely takes the form of explicit exclusion. It is not written into federal regulations, licensing requirements, or published band plans. No rulebook states that certain people do not belong or that certain questions are unwelcome. Instead, gatekeeping operates socially, enforced through tone, assumptions, and informal cultural signals that are widely understood by those already inside the hobby and immediately felt by those trying to enter it. This makes it difficult to confront directly because nothing overt has technically been violated—yet the message is unmistakable.
One of the most common examples appears when basic questions are asked. A newcomer may ask how to properly identify on a repeater, how to program a radio, or why a particular operating practice exists. Rather than receiving a clear explanation, the response is often layered with irritation, sarcasm, or condescension. Phrases like “you should already know that,” “read the manual,” or “that question gets asked all the time” communicate impatience rather than guidance. In some cases, the response is technically correct but delivered in a way that discourages further participation. The result is not education; it is embarrassment.
I have personally observed some of the meanest comments coming from gatekeepers directed at new hams on Facebook. Simple, genuine questions are sometimes met with ridicule rather than instruction. A query about basic repeater etiquette or antenna setup can spark a cascade of dismissive or insulting responses, leaving the person asking the question hesitant to engage further. This behavior sends an unmistakable message: asking questions publicly carries risk, and participation is conditional on tolerance for social friction rather than curiosity or effort.
Gatekeeping can also appear in day-to-day operational interactions, even when rules or listings suggest otherwise. For example, I was once asked not to use a repeater listed on Repeaterbook.com as publicly accessible. The operator insisted I should not transmit, despite the repeater not being marked private and being clearly intended for general use in the area, not only for visitors on vacation. While the principle of private repeaters is valid—owners may wish to restrict access to specific groups—this situation demonstrates how informal social enforcement can conflict with documented guidance. The expectation placed on me was not grounded in regulation or policy but in subjective judgment, effectively policing access through personal interpretation rather than technical or legal standards. Instances like this communicate a subtle but powerful message: access and participation are conditional on the approval of those asserting authority, even when formal rules are clear.
This phenomenon is also visible online in broader communities. I have seen amateur radio groups on Facebook or other forums grow rapidly when active and welcoming discussions attract new members—but then lose members over time as gatekeeping behavior takes hold. Experienced participants or self-appointed “experts” sometimes dominate conversations, criticize newcomers harshly, or insist that only certain practices or knowledge are valid. Over time, the community loses the very curiosity and energy that helped it grow in the first place. Those leaving are often skilled, motivated, and capable, but they are unwilling to endure persistent social friction.
Another common manifestation of gatekeeping is public arguments over trivial or technical details, which can occur in any forum imaginable—online, in-person, or even over the air. I have seen operators engage in prolonged disputes on Facebook groups, online forums, and club discussion boards over minor issues, such as exact phrasing in a net check-in, choice of equipment, or whether a specific repeater etiquette rule applies. These arguments often escalate, drawing in multiple participants and leaving newcomers observing a hostile environment. Even on the air, gatekeeping behavior can appear as sharp corrections or repeated commentary on trivial operating practices, turning routine communications into social policing.
It is important to clarify that while gatekeeping is socially discouraging, it is not the same as violating FCC rules. The FCC enforces regulations when an operator’s behavior interferes with others’ ability to use the airwaves, such as deliberately transmitting over other signals, playing prohibited audio content, or willfully blocking legitimate communications. For example, the FCC has fined operators for repeatedly transmitting music or animal noises that interrupted other communications, with penalties reaching tens of thousands of dollars. These cases are regulatory enforcement actions, distinct from the cultural gatekeeping described here, which primarily discourages participation rather than creating legal violations.
The dynamic is compounded when longevity is equated with authority. Experience matters in amateur radio; decades on the air bring insight and perspective. The problem arises when time served becomes a substitute for explanation. Statements such as “that’s how we’ve always done it,” “trust me, I’ve been licensed for decades,” or “you’ll understand once you’ve put in the time” shut down discussion rather than advance it. Knowledge becomes something to guard rather than something to share. In this environment, asking “why” is interpreted as a challenge rather than an opportunity to learn.
Gatekeeping is also evident in the treatment of operating modes and technology. Interest in newer digital modes, weak-signal experimentation, or software-defined radio is sometimes dismissed as a lack of seriousness. Operators may be told they are “letting the computer do all the work” or that they are avoiding the “real” skills of amateur radio. This framing ignores the reality that many modern modes require significant technical understanding of signal processing, propagation, timing, and software configuration. The objection is not technical but cultural: what is being defended is familiarity, not competence.
Similarly, familiarity with software, networking, automation, or data systems can be undervalued because these skills were not historically central to the hobby’s identity. Skills directly relevant to modern communications are sometimes minimized, while legacy knowledge is elevated regardless of current applicability. Even experienced operators who suggest procedural updates, question commonly repeated assumptions, or challenge norms can find themselves marginalized. In these cases, resistance is not about accuracy or safety but about violating unspoken rules: tradition should not be questioned publicly, and deviation from the familiar is interpreted as a threat rather than a legitimate perspective.
Club environments can amplify gatekeeping. Meetings may privilege inside jokes, historical hierarchies, or informal power structures that newcomers find difficult to navigate. Decisions might be made without explanation because “that’s how it’s always been done.” Those who ask for clarity risk being labeled disruptive. Over time, participation narrows to those willing to accept these dynamics without question.
Online forums intensify the effect. Threads intended for education often devolve into contests of status—who knows more history, who has the longest tenure, or who remembers obscure technical details. Correcting someone publicly, rather than privately, can be treated as a demonstration of authority. For newcomers or returning operators, these interactions create a daunting and unwelcoming first impression.
Gatekeeping is frequently defended as a way to protect standards, and it is important to acknowledge that standards genuinely matter in amateur radio. Shared spectrum requires discipline. Poor operating practices can interfere with others. Technical competence affects safety, legality, and public perception. The concern itself is valid. The problem lies in the method of enforcement. When standards are taught through patient explanation, demonstration, and guidance, they produce capable operators. When they are enforced through ridicule, public shaming, or dismissive language, they discourage participation without improving competence.
The practical cost of this behavior is significant. Gatekeeping filters out participants who are unwilling to tolerate unnecessary friction. It selects not for skill or commitment but for tolerance of hostility. Over time, this leads to a smaller, more insular community, which becomes increasingly defensive precisely because it has lost momentum. Standards are not strengthened by this process; they are maintained by fewer participants and defended more aggressively because the culture feels fragile.
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of gatekeeping is that it often goes unrecognized by those enforcing it. Because the exclusion is informal and socially normalized, it feels justified. The absence of explicit rules allows individuals to deny responsibility while the cumulative effect is clear: newcomers leave quietly, questions stop being asked, and participation declines. Gatekeeping becomes self-reinforcing. The community shrinks, dissenting voices disappear, and remaining members interpret the silence as confirmation that their approach is correct. Meanwhile, the hobby loses the curiosity, adaptability, and experimentation that once defined it.
Gatekeeping does not preserve amateur radio’s legacy. It erodes it slowly, politely, and often unintentionally. Recognizing that distinction is not an attack on experience or tradition. It is an acknowledgment that culture—not regulation—now poses one of the greatest risks to the hobby’s future.
How This Culture Took Hold
Amateur radio developed during a period when access to electronics and communication technology was extremely limited. In the early 20th century, radios were complicated, expensive, and largely inaccessible to the general public. Operators often had to build their own equipment from kits or even from raw components, carefully winding coils, assembling transmitters, and learning the intricacies of vacuum tubes. Every new skill—from soldering circuits to tuning antennas—required patience, ingenuity, and a willingness to experiment. Learning was hands-on and failure was common. Mentorship was essential: more experienced operators guided newcomers through the nuances of both the technical and social dimensions of the hobby, passing down not just knowledge, but also an understanding of the values and etiquette that governed the airwaves.
That environment fostered pride and identity. Completing a complex project or mastering a new operating technique was a visible achievement, and operators often took deep satisfaction in helping others learn. At the same time, the scarcity of knowledge and the difficulty of gaining it created a sense of ownership over the hobby’s identity. Those who had “been there” felt that the skills they had earned entitled them to define what it meant to be a legitimate amateur radio operator. This sense of ownership was not inherently malicious; it reflected a culture where expertise was rare, effort was costly, and mistakes could have real consequences for equipment, safety, or compliance with regulations.
As technology advanced, the context changed dramatically. The rise of personal computing, inexpensive digital electronics, and widely available communication tools expanded access to technical experimentation. Today, a beginner can purchase a ready-to-use digital transceiver, explore weak-signal or software-defined modes, and even experiment with satellite communications without ever having built a transmitter from scratch. Amateur radio no longer occupies a singular role as the primary gateway into electronics, networking, or wireless communication. Participation in the hobby began to decline in some areas, particularly in local clubs where membership aged without sufficient replacement. The visible result was fewer active operators and less generational turnover in knowledge.
In response, parts of the community became increasingly protective. Change, particularly when it involved digital modes, software-assisted operation, or other new approaches, was sometimes framed as a threat to identity rather than an opportunity for growth. Gatekeeping emerged in this context as a defensive response. By narrowing the definition of what constitutes “legitimate” operation—favoring traditional analog modes, hands-on equipment building, or adherence to historical etiquette—some operators attempted to preserve the cultural and technical identity that they felt was at risk.
The irony is stark: amateur radio’s early history was defined by rapid change, creative problem-solving, and experimentation that constantly pushed boundaries. Early pioneers were, in many ways, the ultimate disruptors. They tested the limits of what could be built, transmitted, and received. They challenged regulatory frameworks, adapted to evolving technology, and defined norms as they went. Resistance to new ideas, digital experimentation, or alternate learning pathways is a relatively recent development, emerging only after the hobby became more stable, less exclusive, and more accessible to the broader public.
This historical perspective helps explain why gatekeeping persists. It is not rooted in the hobby’s origins or in the practical requirements of operating legally and safely. Rather, it reflects a cultural anxiety: a desire to preserve identity in the face of generational change, technological evolution, and the democratization of knowledge. Understanding this context is essential. Gatekeeping is less about expertise and more about fear—fear that the hard-earned knowledge, skills, and traditions of one generation will be diluted or disregarded.
Yet the opportunity exists to realign culture with history. If the amateur radio community embraces curiosity, mentorship, and inclusive guidance—values that built the hobby in the first place—gatekeeping can be replaced with constructive participation. Early operators never intended their hard-won knowledge to become a barrier; it was meant to inspire, to educate, and to ensure that the airwaves were used responsibly. Reconnecting with that original spirit can help the hobby thrive in the modern era, where new tools and new perspectives are expanding what is possible.
The Effect on New and Returning Participants
People drawn to amateur radio today often arrive with practical motivations and diverse backgrounds. Some are interested in emergency communication, community resilience, or public service. Others are drawn by antennas, electronics, propagation, or the challenge of mastering digital modes. Many newcomers bring experience from adjacent technical fields—software, networking, robotics, or engineering—and see amateur radio as a hands-on, experimental extension of their skills. Returning operators, meanwhile, may be revisiting a hobby they explored decades ago, curious to see how technology and modes have evolved.
When these individuals encounter gatekeeping, the message they receive is not simply that the hobby is technically challenging, but that it is socially unwelcoming. Difficulty paired with support encourages persistence, growth, and deeper engagement. Difficulty paired with ridicule, sarcasm, or dismissive attitudes, however, drives disengagement. A newcomer may hesitate to ask questions, a returning operator may stop participating, and even capable individuals can quietly drift away from the hobby.
Real-world examples illustrate this clearly. On social media, I have witnessed new hams post simple questions about repeater etiquette, antenna placement, or basic operating procedures, only to be met with hostility or sarcastic responses from self-appointed “experts.” These interactions can escalate, drawing attention from others in the group, amplifying discomfort, and creating a climate where participation feels risky. Similarly, I have seen online amateur radio communities grow rapidly when curiosity and collaboration are encouraged, only to lose members over time as gatekeeping behaviors emerge—harsh corrections, trivial disputes, and repeated dismissals gradually push out those who are most eager to learn.
Even over the air, the effect is tangible. Minor violations of perceived etiquette, or the use of newer digital modes, can trigger repeated public corrections, unsolicited commentary, or criticism framed as instruction. I recall being scolded harshly for using a Roger beep early in my time as a ham. At the time, my intention was simply to signal the end of my transmission clearly and politely, yet my choice of practice provoked unexpected rebuke. Experiences like this communicate to newcomers that even small, well-meaning actions may be scrutinized, turning routine interactions into sources of anxiety rather than learning opportunities.
Another example involves impromptu nets, particularly with operators who key up rapidly and consistently. In these scenarios, anyone wishing to join the conversation may be physically unable to get their transmission through. In digital modes such as DRM, the effect can be even more restrictive: participants who want to disconnect or adjust settings are prevented from doing so because others dominate the channel. These behaviors are rarely intentional in the sense of personal malice, but the outcome is the same—new or returning participants are effectively blocked from active engagement, creating frustration and discouragement.
A core principle of amateur radio is that experience is gained through action. I am a full believer that you learn as you “do.” Reading manuals, watching videos, or observing others is valuable, but true understanding comes from operating your equipment, experimenting with setups, and engaging directly on the air. This principle is not academic—it has life-and-death implications in emergency situations. Operators drawn to amateur radio often join with the intent to serve their communities in times of crisis. They may want to assist in disaster communication, coordinate with emergency services, or provide backup communication when conventional networks fail. In these contexts, hesitation or inexperience can have serious consequences. If someone has only observed, studied, or theorized, they may struggle to set up antennas, program radios, or operate digital modes under pressure. Gatekeeping that discourages hands-on experimentation, delays participation, or makes newcomers afraid to transmit actively undermines this essential learning process. Emergencies are not the time to “learn.” Every operator must enter such situations with confidence and competence, which comes only from repeated, hands-on practice.
The discouragement is often subtle, yet persistent. New operators quickly learn which repeaters or nets feel welcoming and which are “policed” by gatekeepers. Some avoid certain bands or frequencies entirely, opting to participate only where they feel safe. This selective participation limits their exposure to different modes, technical challenges, and networking opportunities. Returning operators may experience similar limitations, discovering that questions they feel are essential for reintegration are met with judgment rather than assistance. The social cost becomes a barrier almost as real as technical or legal limitations.
The consequences ripple beyond individual participation. Clubs and nets lose momentum when active, curious members disengage quietly. Volunteer-led activities, mentorship programs, and community events suffer from reduced involvement. A net or forum that could serve as a hub for learning and experimentation instead becomes a gatekeeping showcase, deterring newcomers and silencing those who might otherwise contribute fresh ideas or technical innovations. Over time, the culture shifts subtly but decisively: enthusiasm is tolerated only if it conforms to established norms, and innovation is framed as unnecessary or threatening.
Modern technical hobbies abound, offering steep learning curves without social friction. Robotics, coding, maker communities, and digital communications platforms attract curious, capable individuals who are free to experiment and fail without fear of social ostracism. When amateur radio appears rigid, judgmental, or hostile, it quietly loses potential long-term participants who choose to invest their energy elsewhere. These are not people deterred by technical complexity—they are people deterred by culture. Gatekeeping, even when unintentional, functions as a silent attrition mechanism, limiting the hobby’s ability to attract and retain talent, curiosity, and innovation.
Licensing numbers alone do not reflect the true health of amateur radio. While thousands of new licenses are issued annually, many of these operators never become active participants. Obtaining a license is only the first step; remaining engaged, contributing to nets, clubs, and technical experimentation, and sharing knowledge with others is what sustains the hobby. Retention matters far more than initial recruitment. Cultural barriers—including gatekeeping, social friction, and dismissive attitudes—play a major role in determining who stays and who quietly disappears.
Early interactions are particularly influential. The first few experiences a newcomer has—whether on a repeater, in a local club meeting, or on an online forum—can determine whether they continue or disengage. When newcomers feel dismissed, ridiculed, or publicly corrected without explanation, motivation quickly erodes. In many cases, the potential for embarrassment outweighs curiosity or enthusiasm, and operators simply stop transmitting, attending meetings, or engaging online. Recruitment efforts alone fail when the culture discourages participation after entry. Gatekeeping accelerates decline by filtering out exactly the people needed to sustain the hobby.
The long-term effect on the hobby is cumulative. Declining participation among new and returning operators reduces diversity of thought and experience. Technical experimentation slows, and innovation is stifled. Mentorship networks shrink, leaving fewer experienced operators available to guide the next generation. In extreme cases, persistent gatekeeping can create generational gaps, where new hams never feel fully integrated and returning hams find the environment alien or intimidating. This dynamic threatens not only the vitality of local clubs and online communities but the broader sustainability of the hobby itself.
Ultimately, gatekeeping affects the hobby’s most valuable assets: people and culture. Every discouraged newcomer or disengaged returning operator represents potential talent, perspective, and enthusiasm lost. When the barriers are social rather than technical, the effect is insidious, invisible, and difficult to reverse. For amateur radio to remain relevant, inclusive, and vibrant, it must confront this culture, encourage welcoming participation, and restore mentorship as the standard for integrating new and returning participants.
Retention, Not Recruitment, Is the Real Problem
Licensing numbers alone do not reflect the true health of amateur radio. While thousands of new licenses are issued annually, many of these operators never become active participants. Obtaining a license is only the first step; remaining engaged—contributing to nets, clubs, technical experimentation, and mentoring—is what sustains the hobby. Retention matters far more than initial recruitment, and cultural factors play a major role in determining who stays and who quietly disappears.
Early interactions are particularly influential. The first few experiences a newcomer has—whether on a repeater, in a local club meeting, or on an online forum—can determine whether they continue or disengage. When newcomers feel dismissed, ridiculed, or publicly corrected without explanation, motivation quickly erodes. A sharp rebuke for asking a basic question, criticism for using a Roger beep, or frustration at being unable to join an impromptu net due to rapid keying can seem minor in isolation, but these experiences accumulate to create a pattern: participation is risky, and mistakes are punished rather than used as learning opportunities.
A core principle of amateur radio is that operators learn by doing. Reading manuals or watching videos is valuable, but true competence comes from hands-on practice: setting up antennas, programming radios, experimenting with modes, and making contacts on the air. This principle is not merely academic—it has practical consequences in emergencies. Operators who have not practiced in real-world conditions may struggle to set up communications under pressure or operate efficiently when networks fail. In emergencies, there is no time to “learn” on the job. Gatekeeping that discourages hands-on experimentation or instills fear of mistakes undermines this essential learning process, leaving the hobby’s operators less prepared and less confident.
Another barrier to retention is the perceived club-centric mentality in parts of the amateur radio community. Historically, clubs have provided access to repeaters, mentorship, licensing classes, and organized nets, making them central to the hobby’s social and technical infrastructure. For many veteran operators, club affiliation is equated with legitimacy or commitment, creating the impression that to be a “real” ham, one must participate in a club.
While club membership can be beneficial, this perception can discourage or alienate independent operators or newcomers who prefer to learn on their own or participate mostly online. Operators who choose to operate solo may feel excluded or judged, while others may be subtly pressured to join a club as a prerequisite for acceptance. In effect, the club-centric culture can function as an additional social filter, amplifying the impact of gatekeeping on retention.
The consequences of poor retention are visible across multiple dimensions. Clubs struggle to maintain membership and organize events when volunteers disengage after just a few months or years. Repeaters see declining use and reduced oversight as active operators dwindle. Mentorship programs falter, nets lose participants, and online communities shrink as enthusiasm is filtered out by gatekeeping behaviors. Recruitment efforts alone cannot compensate for these losses. Even when new licenses are issued in large numbers, culture—including expectations around clubs—determines whether those operators remain engaged, active, and confident.
Gatekeeping accelerates decline by filtering out the very people needed to sustain the hobby. Those most likely to ask questions, experiment, or innovate—traits essential for growth and modernization—are often the first to disengage when met with impatience, sarcasm, or social exclusion. Unlike regulatory violations, which are measurable and enforceable, cultural attrition is subtle and cumulative. By the time its effects are evident in membership rolls, net participation, or volunteer availability, significant damage has already occurred.
Retention also depends on mentorship and inclusive guidance. Communities that invest in onboarding, encourage questions, allow mistakes in low-stakes environments, and promote hands-on learning see significantly higher long-term participation. Conversely, communities that rely on rigid norms, public shaming, or social policing often lose highly capable operators. Over time, these losses reinforce the perception of the hobby as insular and defensive, further discouraging new and returning operators from investing their time and energy.
In short, amateur radio’s long-term health cannot be measured by license issuance alone. Recruitment without retention is meaningless. Every disengaged participant represents a loss of talent, enthusiasm, and capability. For the hobby to remain vibrant, relevant, and resilient, it must prioritize retention through a culture of mentorship, hands-on practice, and supportive learning—rather than allowing gatekeeping and club-centric attitudes to silently dictate who belongs.
Technology, AI, and Resistance to Change
The criticism surrounding artificial intelligence in amateur radio is part of a broader discomfort with modernization. For some, AI has become a symbol rather than a subject. It is often framed as a shortcut, a compromise of authenticity, or a threat to the “real” way of doing things. This resistance is not new. Similar debates arose with the adoption of digital modes, computer logging, software-defined radios, and even early satellite communications. In many cases, the pattern is the same: new technology is questioned not on the basis of its utility, but on its perceived departure from tradition.
Amateur radio has always relied on tools. From spark gaps to vacuum tubes, from transistorized transceivers to microprocessors, progress has come through adoption, experimentation, and integration—not avoidance. Using AI to assist with writing blog content, creating instructional images, or planning antennas does not replace human expertise any more than simulation software replaces the need to understand propagation or circuitry. Tools amplify human effort and creativity; they do not negate understanding. They allow operators to focus on learning, experimenting, and solving complex problems, rather than spending disproportionate time on repetitive or administrative tasks.
That said, the concerns about AI are not entirely unfounded. Relying too heavily on AI without cultivating underlying knowledge or hands-on experience can create dependency. In situations where AI is unavailable, produces errors, or misinterprets context, operators who have not developed fundamental skills may struggle. Just as in emergency communications, the operator’s own judgment, knowledge, and problem-solving ability are critical. AI should be treated as a tool, not a substitute for expertise—a way to augment learning and efficiency while preserving core competence.
Treating modern tools as illegitimate is another form of gatekeeping. It defines authenticity by nostalgia rather than capability, establishing arbitrary boundaries around what constitutes a “real” operator. This mentality can discourage participation from individuals who are already comfortable with contemporary technology, creating a subtle, yet pervasive, barrier to engagement.
The resistance is often selective. Many hams embrace new tools only when they align with long-standing practices or personal comfort zones. For example, digital modes such as FT8, D-STAR, and DRM are still criticized by some operators, while traditional CW (Morse code) is universally respected—even when, objectively, both require skill and technical understanding. One of the most amusing—and telling—arguments I’ve encountered is a ham complaining that someone using FT8 could contact all the countries in a region within a few hours and gain recognition for it, while it had taken them years to achieve similar recognition using DX FM phone. Whether or not this scenario is technically accurate, the perception alone reveals a key tension: modern digital modes, with their efficiency and automation, are sometimes seen as “shortcutting” the traditional path, even when the outcome—making successful contacts, learning propagation, or logging countries—is objectively the same.
This kind of criticism highlights a broader gatekeeping pattern: mastery is measured not only by achievement, but by how one achieves it. Digital modes, computer-assisted logging, or AI-assisted content creation can provoke suspicion because they do not follow historical methods, even though they are tools that expand participation and learning. Ironically, amateur radio has always evolved through the adoption of new technologies—from spark-gap transmitters to transistors, from analog repeaters to software-defined radios. Yet, when efficiency threatens tradition, some operators perceive it as a challenge to legitimacy rather than an opportunity to broaden engagement.
Ultimately, the pattern is clear: fear of change, suspicion of tools, and attachment to nostalgia create invisible barriers that prevent newcomers from fully engaging. AI, digital modes, computer logging, or other modern tools are not threats—they are extensions of the hobby’s original spirit: learning, experimenting, and communicating. Responsible adoption of AI and modern tools—combined with hands-on practice and fundamental knowledge—can strengthen the hobby, improve retention, and encourage innovation, rather than weaken it.
Emergency Communications and Cultural Risk
One of amateur radio’s strongest claims to relevance is its role in emergency communication. From natural disasters to local power outages, amateur radio operators have historically provided critical communication when conventional infrastructure fails. This capability depends on trained, confident, and motivated operators who are willing and able to serve under pressure. Gatekeeping undermines this mission by narrowing the pool of participants, discouraging newcomers, and creating an environment where potential operators hesitate to engage until it is too late.
The stakes are high. Emergencies do not allow for delayed learning, experimentation under observation, or “waiting your turn” in social hierarchies. Operators must know their equipment, modes, and procedures in advance. I have seen firsthand how cultural friction—whether harsh correction for small mistakes, exclusion from impromptu nets, or dismissive attitudes toward newer modes—can inhibit this hands-on experience. When operators fear public shaming or ridicule, they transmit less often, experiment less, and avoid situations where they might make errors, all of which diminishes practical readiness.
One of the simplest truths about emergency communication is that having enough people is often as critical as having skilled operators. During my years working with CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), I saw firsthand how even well-trained volunteers struggled to meet operational needs simply because there were not enough participants. Tasks that seem straightforward—staffing check-in points, relaying messages, monitoring nets—require multiple people working together. Inadequate numbers mean overworked operators, delayed communications, and gaps in coverage that can compromise the effectiveness of the response. Amateur radio faces the same challenge. Even highly skilled operators cannot fill gaps if the overall number of participants is low. Gatekeeping compounds this problem by discouraging new or returning operators from engaging fully. Over time, this reduces the pool of available operators, creating a situation where emergencies may be staffed by too few people to operate safely or effectively.
Modern emergency communication increasingly intersects with digital systems, data transmission, and network integration. Effective coordination often relies on automated reporting, packet radio, mesh networks, and digital modes such as D-STAR, FT8, or DRM. Excluding operators who bring expertise in computers, networking, or digital communications—simply because they do not conform to traditional analog practices—weakens overall preparedness. Skills often derided by traditionalists can be exactly what enable rapid, reliable communication in a crisis. Cultural hostility toward these tools or the operators who use them does not improve readiness; it undermines it.
The implications extend beyond individual capability. Public agencies, emergency management organizations, and community preparedness planners evaluate amateur radio based on participation, professionalism, and adaptability. A shrinking, inward-facing community struggles to maintain credibility in these contexts. When clubs and nets are insular, or when digital expertise is discouraged, emergency managers may question whether amateur radio can reliably support critical communications during disasters. This perception affects funding, partnerships, and the broader role of the hobby in public service.
Ultimately, the link between culture and capability is direct. Gatekeeping and resistance to modernization do not simply hurt newcomers—they have real-world consequences for community resilience. Amateur radio’s claim to relevance depends on the ability to integrate all available skills, modes, and operators. A community that fosters inclusion, mentorship, and hands-on learning ensures a broader, more competent, and more adaptable operator base—exactly the qualities required when infrastructure fails, when every transmission counts, and when there simply aren’t enough people to do the job without everyone contributing.
Standards Are Preserved Through Education
Concerns about lowering standards often surface whenever gatekeeping is criticized. Critics argue that without strict social enforcement, operators will ignore procedures, misuse frequencies, or fail to uphold technical rigor. While the intention is understandable, these concerns frequently misunderstand the root of the problem. Clear standards—spectrum discipline, procedural knowledge, technical competence—are most effectively preserved through education and mentorship, not exclusion or intimidation. Standards enforced through gatekeeping, ridicule, or social pressure may appear to maintain authority in the short term, but in reality, they produce resentment, drive away capable participants, and weaken the community over time.
Respect for procedure and technical knowledge does not require hostility. Operators can be taught to follow rules, log contacts correctly, or handle nets efficiently through structured guidance, clear examples, and patient explanation. For instance, rather than scolding a newcomer for incorrectly joining a net, an experienced operator can demonstrate proper procedure, explain why it matters, and encourage repetition until the skill is mastered. A culture built on supportive instruction preserves the same standards that gatekeepers claim to defend—but it does so without alienating new or returning operators.
Authority earned through teaching is more durable than authority enforced through intimidation. A mentor who patiently guides a newcomer fosters trust and confidence. The operator internalizes knowledge and develops the competence to act independently, often exceeding the mentor’s expectations. By contrast, authority based on intimidation or sarcasm creates compliance only while observation is present, and it discourages initiative, experimentation, and critical thinking. In emergencies, when operators must act independently and adapt to unpredictable situations, the latter approach leaves them unprepared.
Gatekeeping also distorts perceptions of expertise. Longevity or technical skill may be conflated with moral or social authority, giving certain operators outsized influence over community norms. When standards are framed as tools for social control rather than shared knowledge, competence is overshadowed by conformity. In such environments, newcomers may hesitate to ask questions, veterans may avoid experimenting with new modes, and innovation slows—despite the ostensible goal of preserving quality.
Education-based standards also naturally accommodate modernization. Whether teaching digital modes, AI-assisted logging, or software-defined radio operation, clear instruction allows operators to master new tools without sacrificing technical rigor. Gatekeeping, in contrast, often resists change, equating unfamiliar technology with lowered standards rather than an opportunity to expand competence. This resistance can make communities insular and unwelcoming, undermining both retention and the long-term viability of the hobby.
In short, preserving standards is not about policing or shaming; it is about empowering operators with knowledge and confidence. A culture rooted in mentorship, explanation, and hands-on learning produces skilled, adaptable, and motivated participants. Those are the qualities that sustain amateur radio, maintain professionalism, and ensure readiness—whether in everyday operation, technical experimentation, or emergency communication.
Signs of Change Within the Community
Despite persistent challenges, there are encouraging signs that parts of the amateur radio community are evolving. Some clubs have recognized that onboarding and mentorship are critical for retention and long-term engagement. They invest in structured licensing classes, hands-on workshops, and open nets specifically designed to welcome newcomers. In these environments, questions are answered patiently, mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, and participation is valued over immediate technical perfection. This approach not only develops skills but fosters confidence, helping operators stay active and contribute meaningfully over the long term.
Online spaces are also showing positive examples. Moderated forums, social media groups, and digital communities increasingly enforce codes of conduct, curbing sarcasm, public shaming, and exclusionary behavior. Constructive discussion is encouraged, and members are rewarded for mentoring and sharing knowledge. In addition, some groups actively highlight beginner questions and create “starter guides” for new hams, showing that inclusion and technical rigor can coexist. These measures help prevent the attrition that often follows negative early experiences and encourage operators to participate in nets, contests, and emergency exercises without fear of ridicule.
Independent voices—bloggers, educators, and community advocates—have begun addressing gatekeeping explicitly, framing it as a cultural risk rather than a protective measure. They share personal experiences, provide resources, and demonstrate ways to balance tradition with modernization. For example, articles on integrating digital modes, AI-assisted tools, or software-defined radios show that embracing new technology does not compromise technical standards. Instead, it expands accessibility and engagement, allowing more operators to participate fully and safely.
Some operators are also experimenting with hybrid approaches that combine tradition and innovation. For instance, mentorship programs may include CW practice alongside FT8 digital modes, or club nets may pair older analog repeater use with digital voice and data exercises. These initiatives show that it is possible to respect history while preparing participants for modern communication challenges, including emergency scenarios where adaptability is critical.
These efforts demonstrate that change is possible without abandoning tradition. Respect for procedure, technical competence, and historical practices can coexist with mentorship, digital tools, and inclusive practices. Gatekeeping is not mandated by licensing rules or regulations; it is a cultural phenomenon. Rules did not create it, and rules alone will not solve it. Instead, the solution lies in shifting norms, fostering supportive communities, and recognizing that the hobby thrives when participation is encouraged rather than restricted.
In many ways, these changes signal hope for the future. Communities that embrace constructive mentoring, welcome digital modes, and integrate modern tools like AI for education or content creation are building a more resilient, adaptable, and engaged operator base. They demonstrate that amateur radio can evolve, attract new participants, and retain experienced operators while maintaining standards. The key lesson is that the hobby’s strength comes not from excluding participants but from empowering them, ensuring amateur radio continues to grow, innovate, and maintain its relevance in everyday operation, technical experimentation, and emergency communication alike.
Why This Conversation Matters
Amateur radio faces significant external pressures. Spectrum demands from commercial interests, regulatory constraints, and technological redundancy all place limits on what the hobby can do. Digital communication, cellular networks, and satellite systems increasingly handle tasks that amateur radio once fulfilled, from message relays to long-distance contacts. In this environment, adaptability, innovation, and broad participation are not optional—they are essential for the hobby’s survival and continued relevance.
Cultural self-sabotage compounds these external pressures. Gatekeeping reduces participation precisely when the community most needs new ideas, skills, and energy. Every discouraged newcomer is a potential operator, mentor, or advocate lost. Every veteran who withdraws due to a hostile culture diminishes institutional knowledge and operational capacity. The irony is stark: while amateur radio’s history was defined by experimentation and technological advancement, resistance to change today undermines both growth and preparedness.
It is important to note that people entering amateur radio are not asking for lowered expectations. They are not seeking shortcuts to competence; they want a fair opportunity to learn, practice, and contribute. When the community welcomes them, these individuals become productive operators, share knowledge with others, and strengthen clubs, repeaters, and emergency networks. When dismissed, ridiculed, or excluded, they quietly move on to other technical hobbies, leaving the hobby with fewer participants and less collective capability.
Ultimately, the combination of external pressures and internal gatekeeping represents a dual threat. Spectrum may be limited, technology may advance, and regulations may evolve—but the real danger comes from a culture that turns away potential participants. To thrive, amateur radio must embrace its own principles of learning, experimentation, and communication—not just in words, but in practice, mentorship, and inclusion.
Looking Forward: Culture Determines the Future
The future of amateur radio will not be determined by nostalgia alone. Its continued relevance, resilience, and vibrancy depend on how the community aligns behavior with its stated values. If amateur radio truly values experimentation, learning, technical mastery, and public service, it must confront the informal barriers that undermine those principles. Gatekeeping—whether through sarcasm, exclusion, rigid adherence to tradition, or subtle social enforcement—directly contradicts the spirit of the hobby and threatens its long-term health.
Gatekeepers thrive when people remain silent and when their actions go unexamined. By discouraging questions, ridiculing mistakes, or enforcing conformity quietly, gatekeepers exert influence without accountability. This makes cultural change slow and often invisible until participation dwindles, emergency preparedness suffers, or innovation stagnates. It is no exaggeration to say that the informal social rules of exclusion are as powerful as any regulatory requirement in shaping the behavior of operators. Speaking out, sharing experiences, and highlighting barriers is essential to breaking this cycle and creating a culture where learning and participation are prioritized over conformity and intimidation.
As we have seen throughout this discussion, gatekeeping affects retention more than recruitment. While new licenses may still be issued, the early social experience of a newcomer often determines whether they continue to operate, explore new modes, or contribute to the community. Newcomers and returning operators face social friction that discourages hands-on learning, limits skill development, and reduces participation in nets, clubs, and emergency exercises. Experienced operators may avoid mentoring or experimenting for fear of public criticism. Even modern tools—digital modes, AI-assisted resources, or software-defined radios—can be discouraged simply because they deviate from familiar practices. The result is a shrinking, less adaptable community, which compromises not only everyday operations but also the critical role amateur radio plays in emergency communication.
Emergency communication, perhaps more than any other aspect of amateur radio, demonstrates the stakes of this culture. Amateur radio operators have historically provided vital communications during natural disasters, power outages, and other emergencies when conventional infrastructure fails. This mission requires trained, confident, and motivated operators who can respond without hesitation. Emergencies do not allow for delayed learning, experimentation under observation, or waiting one’s turn. Operators must know their equipment, modes, and procedures in advance. When gatekeeping discourages participation or punishes mistakes publicly, it erodes confidence, reducing the number of active, capable operators available in a crisis.
One of the simplest truths about emergency communication is that having enough people is as critical as having skill. During my years with CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), I saw how even well-trained volunteers struggled to meet operational needs simply because there were not enough participants. Staffing check-in points, relaying messages, monitoring nets—these tasks require coordination and manpower. Inadequate numbers lead to overworked operators, slower communications, and gaps in coverage. Amateur radio faces the same challenge. Gatekeeping compounds this problem by discouraging capable new operators, resulting in a smaller, less confident pool of volunteers. Even highly skilled veterans cannot fill the gaps alone, and the hobby’s capacity to serve the public is directly diminished.
Modern emergency communication increasingly intersects with digital systems, data transmission, and network integration. Automated reporting, packet radio, mesh networks, and digital modes like D-STAR, FT8, or DRM all enhance efficiency and reliability in crises. Operators with expertise in these areas are invaluable. Yet gatekeepers often dismiss such skills, equating familiarity with computers or digital technology with a lack of seriousness. This reduces overall preparedness and reinforces a false dichotomy between “traditional” and “modern” competence. Skills that can save lives or improve communications in high-stakes situations are marginalized, not nurtured.
Cultural barriers have consequences beyond immediate operations. Public agencies and emergency management organizations evaluate amateur radio based on participation, professionalism, and adaptability. A shrinking, inward-facing community struggles to maintain credibility in these contexts. Agencies may hesitate to include amateur radio in integrated emergency plans if they perceive the operator community as unwelcoming or resistant to modern tools. Gatekeeping is therefore not just a social issue—it is a strategic vulnerability, affecting the hobby’s ability to fulfill one of its most important public service missions.
Beyond emergencies, gatekeeping harms the day-to-day life of the hobby. Newcomers face ridicule for simple mistakes, for asking basic questions, or for experimenting with new modes or tools. I have personally witnessed harsh scolding over minor procedural issues, such as the use of a roger beep, or being discouraged from participating in a repeater clearly marked for public use. Impromptu nets can be intimidating when operators key up so quickly that anyone trying to join cannot participate—or, in the case of digital repeaters, cannot disconnect without disrupting others. Across social media and online forums, I have seen some of the meanest comments directed at newcomers for basic questions. Entire online communities have grown and then lost members because gatekeeping created an unwelcoming atmosphere.
Retention, not recruitment, is the real problem. While licensing numbers indicate initial interest, long-term participation depends on whether individuals feel welcomed, supported, and capable. Early interactions—on repeaters, in clubs, or online—shape attitudes that persist for years. When newcomers feel dismissed or publicly corrected without context, motivation erodes. Repeaters see declining use. Clubs struggle to maintain membership. Events rely on a shrinking pool of volunteers. Gatekeeping accelerates this decline by filtering out exactly the people needed to sustain the hobby.
A culture of mentorship, not intimidation, preserves standards more effectively than gatekeeping ever could. Technical competence, spectrum discipline, and procedural knowledge are best taught through guidance, explanation, and constructive feedback. Authority earned through teaching is far more durable than authority enforced through ridicule. In this model, standards are upheld naturally because operators internalize expectations, rather than performing only under the gaze of judgmental peers. This approach accommodates both tradition and modernization, allowing veterans to pass on knowledge while embracing new modes, digital tools, and even AI-assisted resources to support learning.
The resistance to modernization—digital modes, software-defined radios, AI-assisted tools—is a continuation of this gatekeeping mindset. Some operators view FT8, DRM, or AI-assisted writing and visual content as shortcuts or threats to authenticity. One amusing but telling example is the complaint that an FT8 operator could contact all countries in a region in hours, while others spent years achieving similar recognition using DX FM phone. Whether or not this scenario is technically accurate, it highlights a cultural tendency to measure mastery not by results or competence, but by adherence to traditional methods. Responsible adoption of tools, including AI, does not diminish skill—it enhances it. Those who leverage AI for writing, research, or visualization do so to amplify effort, not to replace knowledge or judgment.
A few people have criticized my blog—claiming the use of AI makes it “sloppy,” objecting to my writing style, or questioning the images I create. Those complaints will not deter me. I use AI as an assistive tool, helping with research, drafting, and creating visuals, but I do not blindly rely on it. Every piece reflects my perspective, judgment, and experience. AI amplifies effort; it does not replace expertise, context, or human oversight. This approach mirrors the broader lesson for amateur radio: modern tools—whether AI, digital modes, or software-defined radios—are valuable when used responsibly. They do not diminish skill; they enable it.
Despite these challenges, signs of progress exist. Some clubs now emphasize structured mentorship and onboarding, providing classes, hands-on workshops, and supportive nets. Online communities are increasingly moderated to prevent sarcasm, shaming, and exclusion, encouraging constructive discussion instead. Independent voices address gatekeeping as a cultural problem rather than a safeguard, highlighting ways to balance tradition with innovation. Hybrid approaches—pairing Morse code practice with FT8, or analog repeater nets with digital exercises—demonstrate that inclusion and modernization can coexist with technical rigor.
It is critical to recognize a broader truth: gatekeepers are the death of any hobby, organization, or company. Their influence, whether subtle or overt, stifles curiosity, discourages participation, and slows innovation. In amateur radio, gatekeepers reduce the number of active operators, erode morale, and limit the transfer of knowledge to new generations. The hobby thrives when people are empowered to explore, experiment, and contribute. It diminishes when rigid hierarchies, fear of judgment, and cultural exclusion dominate. Gatekeeping is not a safeguard; it is self-sabotage.
Those who enter amateur radio are not asking for lowered expectations. They are asking for a fair opportunity to learn, contribute, and grow. When welcomed, they become operators, mentors, and advocates. When dismissed, they quietly move on. The hobby loses twice: it loses participants, and it loses potential future leaders who could have sustained and strengthened the community. In this context, gatekeeping is not merely a nuisance—it is an existential threat to the hobby’s vitality and long-term survival.
Continuing to write about these issues invites criticism. Choosing silence would be easier—but silence allows cultural problems to persist unchallenged. Gatekeeping thrives precisely because it is rarely examined, and because people who could counter it remain silent. Speaking out, sharing experiences, and highlighting barriers breaks that cycle, making it possible to build a more welcoming, skilled, and resilient community.
The question is no longer whether amateur radio can afford to be more welcoming. The question is whether it can afford not to be. Its survival, relevance, and contribution to technical education and public service depend on retaining participants, integrating modern tools responsibly, and fostering a culture of mentorship and learning. Those who enter the hobby with curiosity, energy, and skill are not threats—they are the very lifeblood that ensures amateur radio continues to thrive for generations to come.
Ultimately, amateur radio’s future hinges on culture as much as technology. Technical competence, adherence to standards, and respect for procedure are essential—but they are insufficient without a community willing to teach, support, and encourage. Gatekeeping undermines all of these goals, while mentorship, inclusion, and thoughtful adoption of modern tools strengthen them. The choice is clear: the hobby must empower its participants, celebrate learning, and embrace modernization if it hopes to endure.
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D. Bryan King
Sources
- American Radio Relay League – Amateur Radio Licensing Overview
- ARRL – History of Amateur Radio
- Federal Communications Commission – Amateur Radio Service
- Hackaday – Ham Radio Articles and Culture
- SolderSmoke – Reflections on Homebrew and Amateur Radio Culture
- KB6NU – No-Nonsense Amateur Radio Blog
- QRPer – Low Power Operating and Community Perspectives
- eHam.net – Amateur Radio Articles and Commentary
- Radio World – Broadcasting and Radio Technology News
- IEEE Spectrum – Ham Radio Features
- AmateurRadio.com – Aggregated Voices from the Ham Community
- NFARL Blog – Club-Level Amateur Radio Insights
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Carcharodon’s and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been tetchy in 2023. Little things I’d normally barely even notice—about people, records, life in general, Mrs Carcharodon‘s recent insistence that we buy an air fryer—have really irked me. I’m (just about) self-aware enough that I clocked this, only to get more irked when I couldn’t put my finger on why. Yes, I turned 40, so am officially Olde and probably have to start listening to Saxon soon but that doesn’t fully explain it. It’s been a pretty good year in the main. I’m in a new job I like, Shark Pup No 1 has adjusted well to starting school and Shark Pup No 2 continues to get larger(!). We’ve had some good holidays, both as a family and, as a 40th treat to myself, a great trip to Islay, where very large quantities of smoky scotch1 were consumed with three very good friends. So why was I so tetchy? Maybe I was just tired?
As the year drew to a close, however, I realized I wasn’t just tired, I was weary. There’s a difference and it’s an important one. While I’m very lucky in many ways, there’s also a lot going on in my life, lots of spinning plates, and I don’t really take any time for myself. That was a bit of a realization. I’ve never been much for self-care or introspection; if I’m quiet, it doesn’t mean that I’m having deep thoughts, I’ve simply powered down for a bit. So, my resolution for 2024 is to find a little time to do a bit more for myself. I want to up my exercise game. I want to start reading more again. In short, I need to make time to do things I want to do, not just things I need to do. Needy, hey?
Apparently, I also needed a new list mate, after my emotional support sponge of several years ascended to a new name and (deservedly) to a new list status. Farewell Kenstrosity, I’ll miss you but maybe the real List mates are the ones we made along the way. In general, the USS AMG has charted a steady course through choppy waters in 2023, with Steel Druhm a steady, if stern, presence at the helm, while the editors dealt out the daily lashes and suspiciously cloudy grog. Thanks to them for all their efforts (only sometimes literally) whipping us into shape, and to all my fellow writers. You are all, to quote everyone’s favorite A.N.Gry Doc, idiots and I love less than half of you, half as well as you deserve but you are still better than many alternatives (like the Commentariat, who are awful(ly loveable)).
And with that, I have indulged myself enough. So, without further ado, here is the List of the writers who last year won the First Annual Killjoy Kudos for Best Taste Award (although, strangely, the statuette to which I assume I am entitled, has thus far failed to materialize…).
#ish. Omnivortex // Circulate – Tech death—indeed, death metal in general—isn’t really my thing, and the adulation heaped on Omnivortex’s 2020 effort, Diagrams of Consciousness, caused only bemusement for me. However, Circulate is a different beast. It’s interesting that my (now former *sob*) listmate Kenstrosity awarded Diagrams… his #1 spot in 2020 but, in his review of this year’s effort, said that it took Circulate a while to click for him, with the consistency of songwriting more pronounced here, over its predecessor’s spiky highlights. Perhaps that says something about the difference between what my erstwhile partner and I respectively look for in records. Perhaps it doesn’t. Either way, Omnivortex bullied and beasted their way onto this List because there was no force to stop them.
#10. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab’s Damned in Endless Night made it to #6 on my first-ever List here at AMG, way back in 2019. Looking back now, it probably should have been higher. It’s been a long wait for The Howling Silence but it didn’t disappoint. Operating at that sweet intersection between doom and sludge, the UK veterans sound as filthy and pummelling as ever and, as Cherd pointed out, are now allowing elements of OSDM to bleed into their rumbling assault. The combination makes them as brvtal as they’ve always been but brings a sense of freshness and revitalized energy to Warcrab that I didn’t expect but loved to see.
#9. Leiþa // Reue – I had a sneaking suspicion that I underrated the second record from Leiþa, when I reviewed it back in January. This was confirmed when AMG awarded it ROTM in extremely timely fashion, on February 1st, declaring it to be a “masterful platter of great—potentially even excellent—black metal.” And so it has proved. It’s an album I’ve returned to over and over as the year went on. It’s hard to overstate the sheer raw, dark emotion that Reue’s creator Noise channeled into this record. For all that, the great songwriting brings a surprising amount of melody, although this only serves to heighten the sense of loss, remorse, and bitter self-loathing that drenches this (potentially) excellent album. It’s a devastating album.
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – It’s hard to put into words exactly what makes Vanishing Kids’ brand of progressive doom so damn good. Sure, Jason Hartman is a fucking great guitarist but he’s not completely alone in that. Nikki Drohomyreky’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful but again, other vocalists can achieve that. In his review of Miracle of Death, Steel highlighted the “graceful, ethereal, and dreamy atmosphere” conjured by the band from the opener “Spill the Dark” (also my undisputed song of the year) and that’s probably about as close as we’ll get to the pinning it down. The fact is that Vanishing Kids have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi. Combining trad doom, psychedelia, 70s occult rock, and more, to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.
#7. The Circle // Of Awakening – I only went back to The Circle to be sure I could cross it off my List’s longlist. After all, it only got a 3.5 from Dear Hollow, whose taste overlaps with mine to a fair degree. That was about six weeks ago and I’m here to tell you DH underrated it. Of Awakening has been in heavy rotation ever since. Drawing together the likes of Ahab, Dark Funeral, and My Dying Bride, this is a crushingly dark album, that, despite its beautifully trim runtime, has a real sense of grandeur and majesty about it. Contrary to DH‘s thoughts, for me, Of Awakening is so tightly written that The Circle can get away with being as pummelling as they want but there’s also a lot more nuance and refinement here than one might hear on the first spin. Trust me. I’ve spun this a lot.
#6. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – There’s a sweet spot in the year for dropping records. Too early and they may be forgotten; too late and people may not have enough time with them. November 24th definitely falls into the latter camp. With more time, No Dawn for the Caliginous Night could probably have laid siege to my top three but I just didn’t get to spend the same amount of time with Convocation’s massive slab of outstanding doom as I did with the other outstanding things you will read about below. Be in no doubt though, Cherd was correct2 to drop a 4.5 on this majestic beast of a record.
#5. Antrisch // EXPEDITION II: Die Passage – Atmoblack comes in for a lot of stick. Some of it is even justified. But, when it’s done right, it’s a thing of beauty and Antrisch undoubtedly does it right. Frigid atmosphere pours out of EXPEDITION II in icy waves but never at the expense of the music, which is killer. Every time I press play, Antrisch drags me away to a tale of terror in the frozen arctic wastes, woven in shades of deepest black. The tremolos cut through me and the rasping vocals cause the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. I feel this record, as much as I hear it and that’s exactly the way atmoblack should be.
#4. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean understand claustrophobia. When I listen to Obsession Destruction it feels like the walls are closing in, like the air is getting thick and hard to take in. The record feels like it’s pressing in on you. That is what sludge should do and Chained is drawing on inspiration from doom to heighten that sense. It’s beautiful, anguished, and bludgeoning all at once, and despite passing the hour mark, it’s compelling. I loved this record from the moment I heard it, even as it crushed the life out of me.
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I don’t usually accuse I have never accused Thus Spoke of underrating anything. Until now. The faintly progressive, doom-tinged melodeath of Air Not Meant for Us is not great. It is excellent. And I almost slept on it. For whatever reason, the first time I span this album, I didn’t even make it to the end and discarded it. But I came back, some months later, and was floored by this record. The deep seams of melody, the excellent use of keys, the soaring guitars, the whole package hit me with a force that only two other records did this year. Whatever was wrong with me the first time around has been scorched away, as Fires in the Distance burn with emotional intensity. The album is beautifully written and paced, which for all its weight and heaviness, also feels fragile and honest, revealing new depths on each revisit.
#2. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer’s 2020 effort, A Romance with Violence, was so close. So close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal. But for all that it did well, as with their earlier two efforts, too many of the tracks went on too long, suffocating under their own weight. As Doom_et_Al said in his review, however, this year’s “American Gothic is the album Wayfarer have been threatening to make for years … Wayfarer take the violence and beauty of the land they inhabit and translate that to music that reflects that dichotomy.” I’m not sure there’s a better way to say it. American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place and it’s something truly special.3
#1. Cursebinder // Drifting – Poland’s Cursebinder kinda crept up on me. Since its April release, I have seen little acclaim for it, and my attempts to sell it to my fellow scribes have been met with non-committal murmurs of appreciation. But there is something about Drifting’s progressive black metal, borrowing heavily from both doom and post-metal, that just kept me coming back. Again. And again. There’s a shimmering intensity to the record, driven as much by the bright synth work, as Hubert Fudała’s crushing riffs and Maciej Proficz’ sulphuric vox, which means that I tend to find myself stopping whatever it is that I’m doing and simply staring into the middle distance while Drifting washes over me. It’s not the most technically complex thing on this list, nor is it a record that defies categorization. It’s simply the album that speaks to me in a way nothing else I heard this year did and what more can you look for in an Album of the Year?
Honorable mentions:
- Anti-God Hand // Blight Year – Blight Year took everything I liked about Anti-God Hand’s debut, Wretch, and refined it to a point where it still remained so harsh as to border on raw BM. Yet there is something about this album that I find kind of magical.
- BRIQUEVILLE // IIII – Finding a mid-way point between the melodicism and experimentation of ISIS’ Wavering Radiant and the slightly disconcerting edge of Celestial, BRIQUEVILLE’s excellent use of synths and samples, together with some sawing, jagged riffs is a winner.
- Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – This is the record where Downfall of Gaia manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of their sound. Progressive and melodic, bleak and furious, this is a record to get lost exploring.
- God Disease // Apocalyptic Doom – With Apoclyptic Doom, God Disease delivered exactly that. This was the end of the world, cataclysmic stuff. What more can I say? If you lift and “Leper by the Grave of God” doesn’t help you hit a PB, I advise you to take up chess.
- Lo! // The Gleaners – I carelessly threw The Gleaners into April’s Filter after only a couple of spins, recognizing the quality on show but not having spent much time with it. Lo!’s abrasive sludgy post-metal / hardcore has stayed with me, however, as the sheer anger and intensity, and (surprising amounts of) melody kept me coming back.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – In an incredibly strong year for doom, Saturnus turned in a great offering that I thought would be top 5 for sure. It didn’t have quite the staying power I thought it would—not least thanks to those sickly sweet spoken word parts—but it remains a great record, with one of the best SOTY in “The Calling.”
- Sworn // A Journey Told through Fire – Great Norwegian melodic black metal, channeling the likes of Vorga and Uada but also Insomnium, this record was just well written, beautifully paced, and fun as fuck.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Vanishing Kids – “Spill the Dark”
- Saturnus – “The Calling”
- Fires in the Distance – “Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind”
- Downfall of Gaia – “Bodies as Driftwood”
- Lo! – “The Gleaners”
- Inherus – “One More Fire”
- Cursebinder – “Drifting”
- Blackbraid – “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood”
- Aetherian – “Starlit Shores”
- God Disease – “Leper by the Grace of God”
- Moonlight Sorcery – “Yönsilmä”
Cherd
I’ve heard it said that the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass. That’s why your memories of childhood seem to take place over an interminable timespan, while your children seem to blast through developmental phases and clothing sizes faster than a grindcore song. Take the little goober directly to the left. He was six weeks old when AMG announced their open call for writers that would eventually lead to my tenure here. Now he’s five and a half and draws pictures of angry carrots and ninja-bread men (a subset of gingerbread men). Since gaining the summit of the Middle Ages, I now face the downward slope of life’s back half, with its ever-increasing velocity and promise of an abrupt end. All this to say, I don’t have any wry observations about 2023 because the fucking thing blew by way too fast.
Perhaps the only way to dampen the breakneck pace of life and reclaim one’s sanity is to partake in some nice, slow doom metal. In this respect, the universe was merciful as it gifted us with the finest year for down-tuned, down-tempo misery we’ve had in ages. There are no fewer than seven doom or doom adjacent entries on my list this year and another handful that only just missed the cut. Yearly disclaimer: if you read my list or any of the others, and wonder why you don’t see your pet record, remember that I am but one man with but one kindergartner who robs me of time and life force. I probably didn’t get to it. Or maybe I did and your taste is just terrible. I’d like to thank Steel Druhm for keeping the good ship AMG afloat through a combination of duct tape, bungee cords, and brutal yet dispassionately professional beatings, AMG himself for forgetting that I work here, thus ensuring I won’t be fired, and of course you for reading. With that, here’s my objectively correct list.
(ish) Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – This wouldn’t be a Cherd list without some sludge doom, and Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean put out one of the finest examples of the genre in 2023. Always a prolific EP band, Obsession Destruction is only their second full length of the last six years, but it sees the band finally shrug off their reputation as a Thou knockoff and come fully into their own. “The Altar” and “The Gates Have Closed and They Will Never Open” have forever entered my rotation of killer sludge doom tracks. The only band to beat them at their game in 2023 was Warcrab, but we’ll get to them in a bit.
#10. Xoth // Exogalactic – No one has more fun with cosmic horrors than Xoth, except maybe those of us who get to smash the play button over and over again on their albums. I got on the “Party Lovecraft” bus four years ago when I first heard Interdimensional Invocations, and while it may have taken a complete remixing of the album at the 11th hour to get there, Exogalactic does not disappoint as a follow-up. Songs like “Reptilian Bloodsport,” “Saga of the Blade,” and “Map to the Stars, Monument to the Ancients” take their rightful place alongside the band’s best work as they continue to hone their winning combination of blackened melo-death and tech-thrash.
#9. Oromet // Oromet – I’m always thrilled when a new band impresses me with their debut record enough to land a hard-fought spot on my yearly top ten. This year it happened twice. The first entry is Oromet’s self-titled LP of expansive, airy funeral doom. The album art of a dramatically jutting rocky peak piercing the firmament while bathed in golds and blues could hardly be a better visual representation of the music. This two-man project of Patrick Hills and Dan Aguilar is an exercise in judiciously balanced light and shadow, weight and buoyancy. There’s as much empty space on this record as there is tectonic heft, with overt beauty and ragged desperation embraced in equal measure.
#8. Big|Brave // Nature Morte – In the grand tradition of quoting myself out of laziness: “The most impressive thing about Nature Morte is its meticulous construction. No matter how sparse it gets, no matter how repetitive the drum strikes or how loose the guitar squalls, there’s no wasted space. None of the three out of six tracks that stretch past nine minutes feel remotely that long thanks to well-placed transitions, hypnotic rhythms, and the commanding presence of (Robin) Wattie’s vocals… Big|Brave delivers a stunning, unique statement on Nature Morte. Without changing the core of the band’s sound, it signals a remarkable refinement of vision a decade into their existence.”
#7. Curta’n Wall // Siege Ubsessed – Abysmal Specter’s MO has always been to knock down the castle gates with his goofy parade of wizards, knights, and witches riding ostriches and walruses while sneaking infectious melodies and riffs in through the kitchen servants’ entrance. This is true of Curta’n Wall, one of his dozen or so projects other than his flagship band Old Nick, but on Siege Ubsessed, the black metal mad scientist stands at his infernal machine, turns the knob marked “raw black metal” down to its lowest setting, and the knobs marked “accordion,” “bagpipes,” “harpsichord,” and “pan flute” to 11. This is jaunty, stupid medieval folk music and an absolutely essential release in Abysmal Specter’s ever-growing oeuvre.
#6. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab is the premier death/sludge outfit operating today, and this is their most refined release to date. As I said in my review, “With The Howling Silence, Warcrab both re-instates their sludge doom bonafides and leans into proper OSDM in ways they haven’t before.” It’s quite the trick making not only one of the best death metal songs of the year in “Sword of Mars,” but also the best sludge doom song in “Sourlands Under a Rancid Sky,” but Warcrab pulls it off with aplomb. Even as more bands join this burgeoning style, none approach these Brits in terms of talent or execution.
#5. Agriculture // Agriculture – The second of my two favorite new bands of 2023, Agriculture’s “ecstatic black metal” is unlike anything else I heard this year, and I listen to A LOT of black metal. By turns stark and lush, these Californian’s debut record was forged in the fires of blazing black riff craft and the contemporary post-rock zeitgeist. While that usually means some form of black gaze, this is not remotely the case with Agriculture. There’s nothing laconic or detached here. The almost shocking earnestness may leave some a bit taken aback, but it’s not as if they’re any different in that regard than the countless self-serious black metal musician basement dwellers the world over.
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – I’m sure many of my colleagues will fall all over themselves in their respective lists about how much good death metal came out in 2023. I enjoyed my share of it as well, with Dying Fetus, Fossilization, and the mighty Incantation all turning my head, but the only purely death metal record I couldn’t stop spinning was Carnosus’ tech-death barn burner Visions of Infinihility. Tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features the second-best harsh vocal performance of the year behind only the one found on my number-one record. A lot of vocalists can oscillate between death growls and blackened shrieks, but precious few can give you four different tones in one song while putting affected spins on individual words the way Jonatan Karasiak can.
#3. Somnuri // Desiderium – I’ve been pushing this NYC progressive sludge band like a used car dealer with a quota to meet since they dropped their debut in 2017. They’ve rewarded my faith in them by improving on each subsequent release. From my review: “Somnuri has done exactly what you want to see a promising band do with their third record. Namely, take anything that worked with the first two, amp that up a bit, and commit fully to a new wrinkle to elevate the material. The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth.”
#2. Hellish Form // Deathless – This record is special. In any other year, it probably would have been my number one. As I said in April, “Considering it embodies three of the most miserable subgenres in all of metal (funeral doom, sludge, and drone), the remarkable thing about Deathless is how powerfully hopeful it is. The themes of the album are pointedly heavy and political. It’s an admonition of an oppressive world delivered with withering vitriol by the aggrieved, but both musically and lyrically, (Willow) Ryan and (Jacob) Lee steadily fix their gaze upward.” I doubt there are any more affecting lines in metal this year than Ryan’s delivery in the title track of “You can take my life, but I am deathless. I am deathless.”
#1. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – What else can I say about the first 4.5 I’ve ever awarded on this site? “By the time you reach the halfway point in opening track “Graveless yet Dead,” you’ve heard swirling organs, ominous violins, harmonized choirs, riffs that measure their gravity on the scale of celestial bodies, and (Marko) Neuman’s enormous death roar. The whole thing keeps escalating like a light growing in intensity until, nearly blinding, a biblically accurate angel emerges with its six wings and concentric wheels full of eyes and multiple heads and burnished bronze appendages and it bellows in an inhuman voice, “B̴̧̈E̴͝ͅ ̸̫̈Ń̷̦Ò̸̭T̸̜̈́ ̸̟̄A̷͈͌F̵̯̊R̴̳̽Ā̷͇I̸̜͊D̶͈͛.”…With No Dawn for the Caliginous Night, LL and Neuman have completed their transformation from practitioners of impressive if well-trod death doom to a unique voice in the ranks of funerophiles. This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels.”
Honorable Mentions
- Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – Acidic but deceptively smooth grindcore from one of the best bands in the genre over the last decade plus.
- Stortregn // Finitude – Just because I was slightly disappointed in the direction these Swiss boys are going after releasing my favorite record of 2021 doesn’t mean this isn’t one of my fifteen favorite records of 2023. They may be moving more and more tech, but they’re still Stortregn and they still slay.
- AGLO // Build Fear – STAR TREK THEMED DEATH DOOM SLUDGE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE CHERD!?
- Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – I liked Heavy Dreamer a fair amount, but by leaning harder into classic doom, Miracle of Death rose to list-worthy. “Spill The Dark” is one of the very best songs of any genre this year.
- Bell Witch // Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate – I’m reserving some judgment for when all three parts are revealed, but this single 83-minute track is plenty compelling on its own.
Songs o’ the Year
In alphabetical order by band:
#2023 #Aetherian #AGLO #Agriculture #AntiGodHand #Antrisch #BigBrave #Blackbraid #BlogPost #Briqueville #Carcharodon #CarcharodonSTopTenIshOf2023 #CarcharodonSAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2023 #Carnosus #ChainedToTheBottomOfTheOcean #Convocation #Cursebinder #CurtaNWall #DownfallOfGaia #FiresInTheDistance #GodDisease #Gridlink #HellishForm #Inherus #Leitha #Listurnalia #Lo_ #MoonlightSorcery #Omnivortex #Oromet #Saturnus #Somnuri #Stortregn #Sworn #TheCircle #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Xoth
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Carcharodon’s and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been tetchy in 2023. Little things I’d normally barely even notice—about people, records, life in general, Mrs Carcharodon‘s recent insistence that we buy an air fryer—have really irked me. I’m (just about) self-aware enough that I clocked this, only to get more irked when I couldn’t put my finger on why. Yes, I turned 40, so am officially Olde and probably have to start listening to Saxon soon but that doesn’t fully explain it. It’s been a pretty good year in the main. I’m in a new job I like, Shark Pup No 1 has adjusted well to starting school and Shark Pup No 2 continues to get larger(!). We’ve had some good holidays, both as a family and, as a 40th treat to myself, a great trip to Islay, where very large quantities of smoky scotch1 were consumed with three very good friends. So why was I so tetchy? Maybe I was just tired?
As the year drew to a close, however, I realized I wasn’t just tired, I was weary. There’s a difference and it’s an important one. While I’m very lucky in many ways, there’s also a lot going on in my life, lots of spinning plates, and I don’t really take any time for myself. That was a bit of a realization. I’ve never been much for self-care or introspection; if I’m quiet, it doesn’t mean that I’m having deep thoughts, I’ve simply powered down for a bit. So, my resolution for 2024 is to find a little time to do a bit more for myself. I want to up my exercise game. I want to start reading more again. In short, I need to make time to do things I want to do, not just things I need to do. Needy, hey?
Apparently, I also needed a new list mate, after my emotional support sponge of several years ascended to a new name and (deservedly) to a new list status. Farewell Kenstrosity, I’ll miss you but maybe the real List mates are the ones we made along the way. In general, the USS AMG has charted a steady course through choppy waters in 2023, with Steel Druhm a steady, if stern, presence at the helm, while the editors dealt out the daily lashes and suspiciously cloudy grog. Thanks to them for all their efforts (only sometimes literally) whipping us into shape, and to all my fellow writers. You are all, to quote everyone’s favorite A.N.Gry Doc, idiots and I love less than half of you, half as well as you deserve but you are still better than many alternatives (like the Commentariat, who are awful(ly loveable)).
And with that, I have indulged myself enough. So, without further ado, here is the List of the writers who last year won the First Annual Killjoy Kudos for Best Taste Award (although, strangely, the statuette to which I assume I am entitled, has thus far failed to materialize…).
#ish. Omnivortex // Circulate – Tech death—indeed, death metal in general—isn’t really my thing, and the adulation heaped on Omnivortex’s 2020 effort, Diagrams of Consciousness, caused only bemusement for me. However, Circulate is a different beast. It’s interesting that my (now former *sob*) listmate Kenstrosity awarded Diagrams… his #1 spot in 2020 but, in his review of this year’s effort, said that it took Circulate a while to click for him, with the consistency of songwriting more pronounced here, over its predecessor’s spiky highlights. Perhaps that says something about the difference between what my erstwhile partner and I respectively look for in records. Perhaps it doesn’t. Either way, Omnivortex bullied and beasted their way onto this List because there was no force to stop them.
#10. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab’s Damned in Endless Night made it to #6 on my first-ever List here at AMG, way back in 2019. Looking back now, it probably should have been higher. It’s been a long wait for The Howling Silence but it didn’t disappoint. Operating at that sweet intersection between doom and sludge, the UK veterans sound as filthy and pummelling as ever and, as Cherd pointed out, are now allowing elements of OSDM to bleed into their rumbling assault. The combination makes them as brvtal as they’ve always been but brings a sense of freshness and revitalized energy to Warcrab that I didn’t expect but loved to see.
#9. Leiþa // Reue – I had a sneaking suspicion that I underrated the second record from Leiþa, when I reviewed it back in January. This was confirmed when AMG awarded it ROTM in extremely timely fashion, on February 1st, declaring it to be a “masterful platter of great—potentially even excellent—black metal.” And so it has proved. It’s an album I’ve returned to over and over as the year went on. It’s hard to overstate the sheer raw, dark emotion that Reue’s creator Noise channeled into this record. For all that, the great songwriting brings a surprising amount of melody, although this only serves to heighten the sense of loss, remorse, and bitter self-loathing that drenches this (potentially) excellent album. It’s a devastating album.
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – It’s hard to put into words exactly what makes Vanishing Kids’ brand of progressive doom so damn good. Sure, Jason Hartman is a fucking great guitarist but he’s not completely alone in that. Nikki Drohomyreky’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful but again, other vocalists can achieve that. In his review of Miracle of Death, Steel highlighted the “graceful, ethereal, and dreamy atmosphere” conjured by the band from the opener “Spill the Dark” (also my undisputed song of the year) and that’s probably about as close as we’ll get to the pinning it down. The fact is that Vanishing Kids have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi. Combining trad doom, psychedelia, 70s occult rock, and more, to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.
#7. The Circle // Of Awakening – I only went back to The Circle to be sure I could cross it off my List’s longlist. After all, it only got a 3.5 from Dear Hollow, whose taste overlaps with mine to a fair degree. That was about six weeks ago and I’m here to tell you DH underrated it. Of Awakening has been in heavy rotation ever since. Drawing together the likes of Ahab, Dark Funeral, and My Dying Bride, this is a crushingly dark album, that, despite its beautifully trim runtime, has a real sense of grandeur and majesty about it. Contrary to DH‘s thoughts, for me, Of Awakening is so tightly written that The Circle can get away with being as pummelling as they want but there’s also a lot more nuance and refinement here than one might hear on the first spin. Trust me. I’ve spun this a lot.
#6. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – There’s a sweet spot in the year for dropping records. Too early and they may be forgotten; too late and people may not have enough time with them. November 24th definitely falls into the latter camp. With more time, No Dawn for the Caliginous Night could probably have laid siege to my top three but I just didn’t get to spend the same amount of time with Convocation’s massive slab of outstanding doom as I did with the other outstanding things you will read about below. Be in no doubt though, Cherd was correct2 to drop a 4.5 on this majestic beast of a record.
#5. Antrisch // EXPEDITION II: Die Passage – Atmoblack comes in for a lot of stick. Some of it is even justified. But, when it’s done right, it’s a thing of beauty and Antrisch undoubtedly does it right. Frigid atmosphere pours out of EXPEDITION II in icy waves but never at the expense of the music, which is killer. Every time I press play, Antrisch drags me away to a tale of terror in the frozen arctic wastes, woven in shades of deepest black. The tremolos cut through me and the rasping vocals cause the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. I feel this record, as much as I hear it and that’s exactly the way atmoblack should be.
#4. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean understand claustrophobia. When I listen to Obsession Destruction it feels like the walls are closing in, like the air is getting thick and hard to take in. The record feels like it’s pressing in on you. That is what sludge should do and Chained is drawing on inspiration from doom to heighten that sense. It’s beautiful, anguished, and bludgeoning all at once, and despite passing the hour mark, it’s compelling. I loved this record from the moment I heard it, even as it crushed the life out of me.
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I don’t usually accuse I have never accused Thus Spoke of underrating anything. Until now. The faintly progressive, doom-tinged melodeath of Air Not Meant for Us is not great. It is excellent. And I almost slept on it. For whatever reason, the first time I span this album, I didn’t even make it to the end and discarded it. But I came back, some months later, and was floored by this record. The deep seams of melody, the excellent use of keys, the soaring guitars, the whole package hit me with a force that only two other records did this year. Whatever was wrong with me the first time around has been scorched away, as Fires in the Distance burn with emotional intensity. The album is beautifully written and paced, which for all its weight and heaviness, also feels fragile and honest, revealing new depths on each revisit.
#2. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer’s 2020 effort, A Romance with Violence, was so close. So close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal. But for all that it did well, as with their earlier two efforts, too many of the tracks went on too long, suffocating under their own weight. As Doom_et_Al said in his review, however, this year’s “American Gothic is the album Wayfarer have been threatening to make for years … Wayfarer take the violence and beauty of the land they inhabit and translate that to music that reflects that dichotomy.” I’m not sure there’s a better way to say it. American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place and it’s something truly special.3
#1. Cursebinder // Drifting – Poland’s Cursebinder kinda crept up on me. Since its April release, I have seen little acclaim for it, and my attempts to sell it to my fellow scribes have been met with non-committal murmurs of appreciation. But there is something about Drifting’s progressive black metal, borrowing heavily from both doom and post-metal, that just kept me coming back. Again. And again. There’s a shimmering intensity to the record, driven as much by the bright synth work, as Hubert Fudała’s crushing riffs and Maciej Proficz’ sulphuric vox, which means that I tend to find myself stopping whatever it is that I’m doing and simply staring into the middle distance while Drifting washes over me. It’s not the most technically complex thing on this list, nor is it a record that defies categorization. It’s simply the album that speaks to me in a way nothing else I heard this year did and what more can you look for in an Album of the Year?
Honorable mentions:
- Anti-God Hand // Blight Year – Blight Year took everything I liked about Anti-God Hand’s debut, Wretch, and refined it to a point where it still remained so harsh as to border on raw BM. Yet there is something about this album that I find kind of magical.
- BRIQUEVILLE // IIII – Finding a mid-way point between the melodicism and experimentation of ISIS’ Wavering Radiant and the slightly disconcerting edge of Celestial, BRIQUEVILLE’s excellent use of synths and samples, together with some sawing, jagged riffs is a winner.
- Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – This is the record where Downfall of Gaia manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of their sound. Progressive and melodic, bleak and furious, this is a record to get lost exploring.
- God Disease // Apocalyptic Doom – With Apoclyptic Doom, God Disease delivered exactly that. This was the end of the world, cataclysmic stuff. What more can I say? If you lift and “Leper by the Grave of God” doesn’t help you hit a PB, I advise you to take up chess.
- Lo! // The Gleaners – I carelessly threw The Gleaners into April’s Filter after only a couple of spins, recognizing the quality on show but not having spent much time with it. Lo!’s abrasive sludgy post-metal / hardcore has stayed with me, however, as the sheer anger and intensity, and (surprising amounts of) melody kept me coming back.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – In an incredibly strong year for doom, Saturnus turned in a great offering that I thought would be top 5 for sure. It didn’t have quite the staying power I thought it would—not least thanks to those sickly sweet spoken word parts—but it remains a great record, with one of the best SOTY in “The Calling.”
- Sworn // A Journey Told through Fire – Great Norwegian melodic black metal, channeling the likes of Vorga and Uada but also Insomnium, this record was just well written, beautifully paced, and fun as fuck.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Vanishing Kids – “Spill the Dark”
- Saturnus – “The Calling”
- Fires in the Distance – “Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind”
- Downfall of Gaia – “Bodies as Driftwood”
- Lo! – “The Gleaners”
- Inherus – “One More Fire”
- Cursebinder – “Drifting”
- Blackbraid – “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood”
- Aetherian – “Starlit Shores”
- God Disease – “Leper by the Grace of God”
- Moonlight Sorcery – “Yönsilmä”
Cherd
I’ve heard it said that the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass. That’s why your memories of childhood seem to take place over an interminable timespan, while your children seem to blast through developmental phases and clothing sizes faster than a grindcore song. Take the little goober directly to the left. He was six weeks old when AMG announced their open call for writers that would eventually lead to my tenure here. Now he’s five and a half and draws pictures of angry carrots and ninja-bread men (a subset of gingerbread men). Since gaining the summit of the Middle Ages, I now face the downward slope of life’s back half, with its ever-increasing velocity and promise of an abrupt end. All this to say, I don’t have any wry observations about 2023 because the fucking thing blew by way too fast.
Perhaps the only way to dampen the breakneck pace of life and reclaim one’s sanity is to partake in some nice, slow doom metal. In this respect, the universe was merciful as it gifted us with the finest year for down-tuned, down-tempo misery we’ve had in ages. There are no fewer than seven doom or doom adjacent entries on my list this year and another handful that only just missed the cut. Yearly disclaimer: if you read my list or any of the others, and wonder why you don’t see your pet record, remember that I am but one man with but one kindergartner who robs me of time and life force. I probably didn’t get to it. Or maybe I did and your taste is just terrible. I’d like to thank Steel Druhm for keeping the good ship AMG afloat through a combination of duct tape, bungee cords, and brutal yet dispassionately professional beatings, AMG himself for forgetting that I work here, thus ensuring I won’t be fired, and of course you for reading. With that, here’s my objectively correct list.
(ish) Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – This wouldn’t be a Cherd list without some sludge doom, and Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean put out one of the finest examples of the genre in 2023. Always a prolific EP band, Obsession Destruction is only their second full length of the last six years, but it sees the band finally shrug off their reputation as a Thou knockoff and come fully into their own. “The Altar” and “The Gates Have Closed and They Will Never Open” have forever entered my rotation of killer sludge doom tracks. The only band to beat them at their game in 2023 was Warcrab, but we’ll get to them in a bit.
#10. Xoth // Exogalactic – No one has more fun with cosmic horrors than Xoth, except maybe those of us who get to smash the play button over and over again on their albums. I got on the “Party Lovecraft” bus four years ago when I first heard Interdimensional Invocations, and while it may have taken a complete remixing of the album at the 11th hour to get there, Exogalactic does not disappoint as a follow-up. Songs like “Reptilian Bloodsport,” “Saga of the Blade,” and “Map to the Stars, Monument to the Ancients” take their rightful place alongside the band’s best work as they continue to hone their winning combination of blackened melo-death and tech-thrash.
#9. Oromet // Oromet – I’m always thrilled when a new band impresses me with their debut record enough to land a hard-fought spot on my yearly top ten. This year it happened twice. The first entry is Oromet’s self-titled LP of expansive, airy funeral doom. The album art of a dramatically jutting rocky peak piercing the firmament while bathed in golds and blues could hardly be a better visual representation of the music. This two-man project of Patrick Hills and Dan Aguilar is an exercise in judiciously balanced light and shadow, weight and buoyancy. There’s as much empty space on this record as there is tectonic heft, with overt beauty and ragged desperation embraced in equal measure.
#8. Big|Brave // Nature Morte – In the grand tradition of quoting myself out of laziness: “The most impressive thing about Nature Morte is its meticulous construction. No matter how sparse it gets, no matter how repetitive the drum strikes or how loose the guitar squalls, there’s no wasted space. None of the three out of six tracks that stretch past nine minutes feel remotely that long thanks to well-placed transitions, hypnotic rhythms, and the commanding presence of (Robin) Wattie’s vocals… Big|Brave delivers a stunning, unique statement on Nature Morte. Without changing the core of the band’s sound, it signals a remarkable refinement of vision a decade into their existence.”
#7. Curta’n Wall // Siege Ubsessed – Abysmal Specter’s MO has always been to knock down the castle gates with his goofy parade of wizards, knights, and witches riding ostriches and walruses while sneaking infectious melodies and riffs in through the kitchen servants’ entrance. This is true of Curta’n Wall, one of his dozen or so projects other than his flagship band Old Nick, but on Siege Ubsessed, the black metal mad scientist stands at his infernal machine, turns the knob marked “raw black metal” down to its lowest setting, and the knobs marked “accordion,” “bagpipes,” “harpsichord,” and “pan flute” to 11. This is jaunty, stupid medieval folk music and an absolutely essential release in Abysmal Specter’s ever-growing oeuvre.
#6. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab is the premier death/sludge outfit operating today, and this is their most refined release to date. As I said in my review, “With The Howling Silence, Warcrab both re-instates their sludge doom bonafides and leans into proper OSDM in ways they haven’t before.” It’s quite the trick making not only one of the best death metal songs of the year in “Sword of Mars,” but also the best sludge doom song in “Sourlands Under a Rancid Sky,” but Warcrab pulls it off with aplomb. Even as more bands join this burgeoning style, none approach these Brits in terms of talent or execution.
#5. Agriculture // Agriculture – The second of my two favorite new bands of 2023, Agriculture’s “ecstatic black metal” is unlike anything else I heard this year, and I listen to A LOT of black metal. By turns stark and lush, these Californian’s debut record was forged in the fires of blazing black riff craft and the contemporary post-rock zeitgeist. While that usually means some form of black gaze, this is not remotely the case with Agriculture. There’s nothing laconic or detached here. The almost shocking earnestness may leave some a bit taken aback, but it’s not as if they’re any different in that regard than the countless self-serious black metal musician basement dwellers the world over.
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – I’m sure many of my colleagues will fall all over themselves in their respective lists about how much good death metal came out in 2023. I enjoyed my share of it as well, with Dying Fetus, Fossilization, and the mighty Incantation all turning my head, but the only purely death metal record I couldn’t stop spinning was Carnosus’ tech-death barn burner Visions of Infinihility. Tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features the second-best harsh vocal performance of the year behind only the one found on my number-one record. A lot of vocalists can oscillate between death growls and blackened shrieks, but precious few can give you four different tones in one song while putting affected spins on individual words the way Jonatan Karasiak can.
#3. Somnuri // Desiderium – I’ve been pushing this NYC progressive sludge band like a used car dealer with a quota to meet since they dropped their debut in 2017. They’ve rewarded my faith in them by improving on each subsequent release. From my review: “Somnuri has done exactly what you want to see a promising band do with their third record. Namely, take anything that worked with the first two, amp that up a bit, and commit fully to a new wrinkle to elevate the material. The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth.”
#2. Hellish Form // Deathless – This record is special. In any other year, it probably would have been my number one. As I said in April, “Considering it embodies three of the most miserable subgenres in all of metal (funeral doom, sludge, and drone), the remarkable thing about Deathless is how powerfully hopeful it is. The themes of the album are pointedly heavy and political. It’s an admonition of an oppressive world delivered with withering vitriol by the aggrieved, but both musically and lyrically, (Willow) Ryan and (Jacob) Lee steadily fix their gaze upward.” I doubt there are any more affecting lines in metal this year than Ryan’s delivery in the title track of “You can take my life, but I am deathless. I am deathless.”
#1. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – What else can I say about the first 4.5 I’ve ever awarded on this site? “By the time you reach the halfway point in opening track “Graveless yet Dead,” you’ve heard swirling organs, ominous violins, harmonized choirs, riffs that measure their gravity on the scale of celestial bodies, and (Marko) Neuman’s enormous death roar. The whole thing keeps escalating like a light growing in intensity until, nearly blinding, a biblically accurate angel emerges with its six wings and concentric wheels full of eyes and multiple heads and burnished bronze appendages and it bellows in an inhuman voice, “B̴̧̈E̴͝ͅ ̸̫̈Ń̷̦Ò̸̭T̸̜̈́ ̸̟̄A̷͈͌F̵̯̊R̴̳̽Ā̷͇I̸̜͊D̶͈͛.”…With No Dawn for the Caliginous Night, LL and Neuman have completed their transformation from practitioners of impressive if well-trod death doom to a unique voice in the ranks of funerophiles. This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels.”
Honorable Mentions
- Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – Acidic but deceptively smooth grindcore from one of the best bands in the genre over the last decade plus.
- Stortregn // Finitude – Just because I was slightly disappointed in the direction these Swiss boys are going after releasing my favorite record of 2021 doesn’t mean this isn’t one of my fifteen favorite records of 2023. They may be moving more and more tech, but they’re still Stortregn and they still slay.
- AGLO // Build Fear – STAR TREK THEMED DEATH DOOM SLUDGE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE CHERD!?
- Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – I liked Heavy Dreamer a fair amount, but by leaning harder into classic doom, Miracle of Death rose to list-worthy. “Spill The Dark” is one of the very best songs of any genre this year.
- Bell Witch // Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate – I’m reserving some judgment for when all three parts are revealed, but this single 83-minute track is plenty compelling on its own.
Songs o’ the Year
In alphabetical order by band:
#2023 #Aetherian #AGLO #Agriculture #AntiGodHand #Antrisch #BigBrave #Blackbraid #BlogPost #Briqueville #Carcharodon #CarcharodonSTopTenIshOf2023 #CarcharodonSAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2023 #Carnosus #ChainedToTheBottomOfTheOcean #Convocation #Cursebinder #CurtaNWall #DownfallOfGaia #FiresInTheDistance #GodDisease #Gridlink #HellishForm #Inherus #Leitha #Listurnalia #Lo_ #MoonlightSorcery #Omnivortex #Oromet #Saturnus #Somnuri #Stortregn #Sworn #TheCircle #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Xoth
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Daily writing prompt Do you have any collections? View all responsesCollections? You mean like, do I collect bad decisions? Failures? Things like that?
I was a baseball card collector when I was a kid. I was pretty obsessed. I still have them all. They are in a box somewhere in the cellar. I haven’t added to the collection in ages though. I can’t really say I still collect them. I collected music on vinyl/cassette tapes/CDs. Most of them are gone. I had ripped them all so now all of that music lives simultaneously in a hard drive and in my iTunes Match account. Is that even still a thing? Streaming services are pretty evil (from the musical artist’s point of view) but they are so effin’ convenient from the listener’s perspective that I can’t really stay away. I want to, but I can’t. Thanks, Apple Music. I used to have a pretty significant collection of books. Mostly paperbacks in the horror genre. Thank you, Stephen King and Clive Barker. Almost all of them are gone now. I used to have a significant VHS/DVD/Blue Ray collection too. Almost all of those are gone too.
If I had to fess up to having a collection of anything these days it would probably be electric guitars. I have four. They are all Gibsons. A 1978 Les Paul Custom, a 1979 ES-335 Pro, a 2017 SG Standard, and a 2020 Les Paul Standard ’50’s. I would very much like for this collection to grow, but it’s so expensive. I could extend this to guitar gear in general as I have a few amplifiers and a slew of effects pedals. It feels cooler to say that I collect guitars though.
I could also say that I collect office desks. I have four, technically. One for personal computer stuff in the cellar. Right next to it is a work from home desk that I don’t use very much anymore. Another is upstairs in my step son’s currently unoccupied bed room. That’s where I work from home for the most part. Then there’s one in the actual office. I’m sitting at that one right now.
We have two cats… does that count as a collection? Probably not.
Yeah, let’s go with guitars. That’s my answer for today’s question. Thank you and good night.
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I got my hands on a Duet 3 Chromebook tablet. I did consider grabbing the larger Duet 5 but I already have a 13" class device and as tempting as that big beautiful oled display is, I like small laptops. Really the perfect size for a computer, they shouldn't make computers any bigger than this.
Running Postmarket, incredible how little pain there was in getting this up and running, mainline on ARM has really come a way. I have wanted a little ARM portable computer for basically as long as I have known that ARM existed. The Snapdragon 7c gen 2 isn't fast but it's plenty, I think the biggest thing holding this back is video codec support.
Briefly fidgeted with current-generation chromeOS before doing this, I haven't touched ChromeOS in a while. I can see why you'd use it, it's perfectly pleasant as a system. High quality top-to-bottom integration, hilariously the chrome install even grandfathered in my ublock origin from my Google account so I had Adblock in Chrome on a Chromebook with zero effort. You can even install containerised Linux workloads with Google's blessing, if it's a personal system. If I wasn't a gremlin this would be pretty nice actually.
Linux obviously lacks some of the polish of more commercial operating systems when it comes to mobile support. Plasma's onscreen keyboard is functional but lacking, Gnome is better but only a little. Accelerometer and pen input work perfectly on Plasma, Gnome needs some transforms and udev rules that are mutually incompatible so I need to try and rewrite those. Honestly this is going way better than I expected. Better accelerometer support than my amd64 laptop, which has an awkward middle child of AMD's Sensor Fusion Hub that just never really got good driver support.
Had some mysterious crashes that seem to have settled now. I'll try and fill in some notes on the wiki and try to write some patches for the mobile tools. I'm not sure if I'm going to use Gnome or Plasma. I only briefly poked at Plasma Mobile, which is pretty good but too mobile for something this large. They're both pretty good in their own ways. Plasma's keyboard is actually more technically capable but it's a lot less convenient to deploy. I'll probably have to hack on either of them and I am much more familiar with KDE than Gnome. I also like KDE more but undeniably Gnome has benefited from Ubuntu's weird phone obsession. -
I got my hands on a Duet 3 Chromebook tablet. I did consider grabbing the larger Duet 5 but I already have a 13" class device and as tempting as that big beautiful oled display is, I like small laptops. Really the perfect size for a computer, they shouldn't make computers any bigger than this.
Running Postmarket, incredible how little pain there was in getting this up and running, mainline on ARM has really come a way. I have wanted a little ARM portable computer for basically as long as I have known that ARM existed. The Snapdragon 7c gen 2 isn't fast but it's plenty, I think the biggest thing holding this back is video codec support.
Briefly fidgeted with current-generation chromeOS before doing this, I haven't touched ChromeOS in a while. I can see why you'd use it, it's perfectly pleasant as a system. High quality top-to-bottom integration, hilariously the chrome install even grandfathered in my ublock origin from my Google account so I had Adblock in Chrome on a Chromebook with zero effort. You can even install containerised Linux workloads with Google's blessing, if it's a personal system. If I wasn't a gremlin this would be pretty nice actually.
Linux obviously lacks some of the polish of more commercial operating systems when it comes to mobile support. Plasma's onscreen keyboard is functional but lacking, Gnome is better but only a little. Accelerometer and pen input work perfectly on Plasma, Gnome needs some transforms and udev rules that are mutually incompatible so I need to try and rewrite those. Honestly this is going way better than I expected. Better accelerometer support than my amd64 laptop, which has an awkward middle child of AMD's Sensor Fusion Hub that just never really got good driver support.
Had some mysterious crashes that seem to have settled now. I'll try and fill in some notes on the wiki and try to write some patches for the mobile tools. I'm not sure if I'm going to use Gnome or Plasma. I only briefly poked at Plasma Mobile, which is pretty good but too mobile for something this large. They're both pretty good in their own ways. Plasma's keyboard is actually more technically capable but it's a lot less convenient to deploy. I'll probably have to hack on either of them and I am much more familiar with KDE than Gnome. I also like KDE more but undeniably Gnome has benefited from Ubuntu's weird phone obsession. -
Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review By Mark Z.Seeing an album described as “blackened death metal” almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who’s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves’ Eyes) since the band’s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn’t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn’t entirely off the mark, as the group’s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth’s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.
With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what’s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre’s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, “Ashes,” which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron’s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that’s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, “Mindvirus” and the closer, “Resist,” are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, “riding to war” riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record’s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like “Death Machine” using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.
On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris’s drumming: While I enjoy the man’s beats, I wouldn’t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred’s style but exacerbates the album’s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.
Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. “Heretics” is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in “Winds of Oblivion” and the climax of “Ashes” are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album’s only true “slow” songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, “Resist”).
Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won’t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that’s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What’s more, a perusal of Bloodred’s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you’re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
#2026 #30 #AmonAmarth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemy #Bloodred #ColoursOfPain #DeathMetal #Feb26 #GermanMetal #HarakiriForTheSky #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #Satyricon #WoodsOfDesolation
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com | bloodredband.com | facebook.com/bloodredofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026 -
Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review By Mark Z.
Seeing an album described as “blackened death metal” almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who’s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves’ Eyes) since the band’s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn’t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn’t entirely off the mark, as the group’s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth’s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.
With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what’s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre’s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, “Ashes,” which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron’s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that’s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, “Mindvirus” and the closer, “Resist,” are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, “riding to war” riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record’s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like “Death Machine” using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.
On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris’s drumming: While I enjoy the man’s beats, I wouldn’t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred’s style but exacerbates the album’s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.
Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. “Heretics” is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in “Winds of Oblivion” and the climax of “Ashes” are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album’s only true “slow” songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, “Resist”).
Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won’t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that’s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What’s more, a perusal of Bloodred’s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you’re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
#2026 #30 #AmonAmarth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemy #Bloodred #ColoursOfPain #DeathMetal #Feb26 #GermanMetal #HarakiriForTheSky #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #Satyricon #WoodsOfDesolation
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com | bloodredband.com | facebook.com/bloodredofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026 -
Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review By Mark Z.
Seeing an album described as “blackened death metal” almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who’s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves’ Eyes) since the band’s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn’t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn’t entirely off the mark, as the group’s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth’s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.
With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what’s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre’s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, “Ashes,” which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron’s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that’s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, “Mindvirus” and the closer, “Resist,” are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, “riding to war” riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record’s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like “Death Machine” using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.
On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris’s drumming: While I enjoy the man’s beats, I wouldn’t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred’s style but exacerbates the album’s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.
Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. “Heretics” is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in “Winds of Oblivion” and the climax of “Ashes” are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album’s only true “slow” songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, “Resist”).
Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won’t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that’s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What’s more, a perusal of Bloodred’s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you’re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
#2026 #30 #AmonAmarth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemy #Bloodred #ColoursOfPain #DeathMetal #Feb26 #GermanMetal #HarakiriForTheSky #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #Satyricon #WoodsOfDesolation
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com | bloodredband.com | facebook.com/bloodredofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026 -
Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review By Mark Z.Seeing an album described as “blackened death metal” almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who’s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves’ Eyes) since the band’s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn’t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn’t entirely off the mark, as the group’s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth’s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.
With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what’s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre’s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, “Ashes,” which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron’s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that’s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, “Mindvirus” and the closer, “Resist,” are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, “riding to war” riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record’s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like “Death Machine” using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.
On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris’s drumming: While I enjoy the man’s beats, I wouldn’t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred’s style but exacerbates the album’s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.
Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. “Heretics” is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in “Winds of Oblivion” and the climax of “Ashes” are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album’s only true “slow” songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, “Resist”).
Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won’t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that’s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What’s more, a perusal of Bloodred’s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you’re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
#2026 #30 #AmonAmarth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemy #Bloodred #ColoursOfPain #DeathMetal #Feb26 #GermanMetal #HarakiriForTheSky #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #Satyricon #WoodsOfDesolation
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com | bloodredband.com | facebook.com/bloodredofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026 -
Oh boy, here's my attempt at my top 10 books for the 21st century.
This was HARD to do. I ended up dividing it into genres and then choosing my favourites of each. So it may not be my very top 10, but close enough.
Even though I have 15 years of book reviews to work from, that only helped so much. It was interesting to see which books I rated highly at the time, but no longer stood out for me, and even vice versa. Also, books I read longer ago have lost their emotional immediacy, or perhaps feel less relevant, which may put them at a disadvantage to more recent reads.
Books listed after a * were shortlisted.
1. Fantasy #1: The Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders) by Robin Hobb - this is really just a stand-in for all the Fitz & Fool books (also it's published in 2000, which technically isn't the 21st century ...)
2. Fantasy #2_ The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle) by Patrick Rothfuss
* A Storm of Swords (Game of Thrones) by George RR Martin
* A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness) by Joe Abercrombie
3. Scifi: The Deluge by Stephen Markley
* Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
* Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
* Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
* Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
* The City We Became by NK Jemisin
* The City & The City by China Mieville
4. Cozy: A Psalm For The Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
5. Historic: The Good People by Hannah Kent
* The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
* A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles
6. Fiction (mostly Youth Trauma): Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
* Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
* The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
* Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
* Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
* Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
7. Nonfiction #1: An Immense World by Ed Yong
8. Nonfiction #2: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
9. Nonfiction #3: Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
* Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
* The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
* Return of a King by William Dalrymple
10. Biography: Educated by Tara Westover
* Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Alihttps://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books
-
Absolutely! Those are a dime a dozen, these days (note to self: look up the origin of "a dime a dozen" soon).
Of course there are the classics: Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World". Then there's Neville Shute's "On the Beach", which is very depressing.
Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" is another. I haven't read "The Handmaid's Tale"; I tried it once, but couldn't get into it. Still, it's gotten a lot of praise. Orwell's "Animal Farm" is arguably not near-future, but it's dark and brilliant. Golding's "Lord of the Flies" depressed the hell out of me, and certainly has a dark view of humanity.
Oh! Here's one you probably haven't heard of, and it comes with a bonus.
"House of Stairs" by William Sleator is about five orphaned teenagers who find themselves trapped in a place made up of nothing but stairs...and a very ominous machine. It's a VERY intense book. It's technically YA, but it's a great read and won't insult your intelligence at all.
After you finish it, you might like to read a piece of fanfiction I found that continues the story. I don't have a very high opinion of most fanfiction, but this was an exception. It's really outstanding, and captures the feeling of the book without in any way undermining its impact.
"Island of Misfits" https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11711664/1/Island-of-Misfits?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=eO1O7CMr39m3bgqU7x_xaR3yjY8Z2S8fK2lcg_tWFo8-1636433234-0-gaNycGzNCFE
There are a lot more, of course, but I hope this is a good start!
#Books #Bookstodon #Bookrecs #BookRecommendations #QuasitBookRecs
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Is #Trump planning to declare #MartialLaw on April 20? The frightening claim, explored
Story by Charlotte Simmons, March 14, 2025
"First, the essentials. Martial law is the term for when civilian government and legal processes (such as mayoral jurisdiction and police officers, respectively) are overtaken by state military, so as to make demands on behalf of the nation’s leader, and then enforce those demands with their wealth of resources. Typically, martial law is invoked in dangerous situations, such as natural disasters or major #CivilUnrest.
"This is different from the United States’ #InsurrectionAct, wherein those civilian enterprises are not replaced by military personnel and resources, but supplemented by them. More importantly, the official nature of the Insurrection Act allows the #POTUS to deploy the military domestically during emergencies, as the #PosseComitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the military against American civilians. In short, the Insurrection Act can waive the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act to create a sort of #MiniMartialLaw. Remember this.
"Recently, fears have been rising over whether or not the United States could enter martial law on April 20 under Donald Trump. But why then? What is it about April 20 that holds significance? When Trump first took office back on January 20, he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the United States’ southern border, requiring the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a report about what the 'situation' is at said border, together with recommended actions for 'resolving' said 'situation.' This report needed to be submitted within 90 days.
"When this order was signed, Trump also declared that 'A #NationalEmergency exists at the southern border of the United States…I hereby declare that this national emergency requires use of the Armed Forces…' This, directly references the potential execution of the Insurrection Act.
"The Secretary of Defense? #PeteHegseth. The Secretary of #HomelandSecurity? #KristiNoem. Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent yes-men. And guess how many days January 20 and April 20 are apart? Ninety.
"So, essentially, on April 20, there’s a not-insignificant chance that those two aforementioned Trump yes-men are going to tell Trump whether or not he should deploy the military in the southern United States so as to crack down on immigration. Except, as we saw with the case of #MahmoudKhalil — a recent #ColumbiaUniversity graduate who played a major role in that student body’s recent #ProPalestinain campus occupations — it doesn’t matter if you have a green card or if you haven’t committed any crimes; under this presidency, #ICE will illegally detain you if they think you’re troublesome to the vision of #TrumpsAmerica. They’re trying to deport Khalil for speaking out against #genocide as we speak. This is a direct, wholly #unconstitutional attack on #FreeSpeech.
"And here’s why that distinction between the Insurrection Act and martial law was so important earlier. On April 20, Trump will constitutionally — through the Insurrection Act — be allowed to deploy the military against #AmericanCivilians, and his government has already demonstrated that legal American civilians who have not committed any crimes are at risk for detention and deportation. It’s not technically martial law, but this #Trumpian cocktail is just as bad, if not worse.
"#Khalil’s detention — again, occurring in response to his speaking out against the #genocide of #Palestinian people — was made on the grounds of Trump’s executive order prohibiting #AntiSemitism. How long before more executive orders (none of them made in good faith, let’s be clear on that) just so happen to limit more ways of speaking, acting, and thinking? A scary thought, and a horrifyingly pertinent one."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-trump-planning-to-declare-martial-law-on-april-20-the-frightening-claim-explored/ar-AA1AUIqy
#USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Crackdown #CriminalizingDissent #NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #NationalEmergency #Terrorists #Activists #USPol #BorderEmergency #Gitmo #IllegalDetention #IndefiniteDetentionClause #IndefiniteDetention -
Is #Trump planning to declare #MartialLaw on April 20? The frightening claim, explored
Story by Charlotte Simmons, March 14, 2025
"First, the essentials. Martial law is the term for when civilian government and legal processes (such as mayoral jurisdiction and police officers, respectively) are overtaken by state military, so as to make demands on behalf of the nation’s leader, and then enforce those demands with their wealth of resources. Typically, martial law is invoked in dangerous situations, such as natural disasters or major #CivilUnrest.
"This is different from the United States’ #InsurrectionAct, wherein those civilian enterprises are not replaced by military personnel and resources, but supplemented by them. More importantly, the official nature of the Insurrection Act allows the #POTUS to deploy the military domestically during emergencies, as the #PosseComitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the military against American civilians. In short, the Insurrection Act can waive the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act to create a sort of #MiniMartialLaw. Remember this.
"Recently, fears have been rising over whether or not the United States could enter martial law on April 20 under Donald Trump. But why then? What is it about April 20 that holds significance? When Trump first took office back on January 20, he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the United States’ southern border, requiring the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a report about what the 'situation' is at said border, together with recommended actions for 'resolving' said 'situation.' This report needed to be submitted within 90 days.
"When this order was signed, Trump also declared that 'A #NationalEmergency exists at the southern border of the United States…I hereby declare that this national emergency requires use of the Armed Forces…' This, directly references the potential execution of the Insurrection Act.
"The Secretary of Defense? #PeteHegseth. The Secretary of #HomelandSecurity? #KristiNoem. Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent yes-men. And guess how many days January 20 and April 20 are apart? Ninety.
"So, essentially, on April 20, there’s a not-insignificant chance that those two aforementioned Trump yes-men are going to tell Trump whether or not he should deploy the military in the southern United States so as to crack down on immigration. Except, as we saw with the case of #MahmoudKhalil — a recent #ColumbiaUniversity graduate who played a major role in that student body’s recent #ProPalestinain campus occupations — it doesn’t matter if you have a green card or if you haven’t committed any crimes; under this presidency, #ICE will illegally detain you if they think you’re troublesome to the vision of #TrumpsAmerica. They’re trying to deport Khalil for speaking out against #genocide as we speak. This is a direct, wholly #unconstitutional attack on #FreeSpeech.
"And here’s why that distinction between the Insurrection Act and martial law was so important earlier. On April 20, Trump will constitutionally — through the Insurrection Act — be allowed to deploy the military against #AmericanCivilians, and his government has already demonstrated that legal American civilians who have not committed any crimes are at risk for detention and deportation. It’s not technically martial law, but this #Trumpian cocktail is just as bad, if not worse.
"#Khalil’s detention — again, occurring in response to his speaking out against the #genocide of #Palestinian people — was made on the grounds of Trump’s executive order prohibiting #AntiSemitism. How long before more executive orders (none of them made in good faith, let’s be clear on that) just so happen to limit more ways of speaking, acting, and thinking? A scary thought, and a horrifyingly pertinent one."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-trump-planning-to-declare-martial-law-on-april-20-the-frightening-claim-explored/ar-AA1AUIqy
#USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Crackdown #CriminalizingDissent #NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #NationalEmergency #Terrorists #Activists #USPol #BorderEmergency #Gitmo #IllegalDetention #IndefiniteDetentionClause #IndefiniteDetention -
Is #Trump planning to declare #MartialLaw on April 20? The frightening claim, explored
Story by Charlotte Simmons, March 14, 2025
"First, the essentials. Martial law is the term for when civilian government and legal processes (such as mayoral jurisdiction and police officers, respectively) are overtaken by state military, so as to make demands on behalf of the nation’s leader, and then enforce those demands with their wealth of resources. Typically, martial law is invoked in dangerous situations, such as natural disasters or major #CivilUnrest.
"This is different from the United States’ #InsurrectionAct, wherein those civilian enterprises are not replaced by military personnel and resources, but supplemented by them. More importantly, the official nature of the Insurrection Act allows the #POTUS to deploy the military domestically during emergencies, as the #PosseComitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the military against American civilians. In short, the Insurrection Act can waive the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act to create a sort of #MiniMartialLaw. Remember this.
"Recently, fears have been rising over whether or not the United States could enter martial law on April 20 under Donald Trump. But why then? What is it about April 20 that holds significance? When Trump first took office back on January 20, he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the United States’ southern border, requiring the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a report about what the 'situation' is at said border, together with recommended actions for 'resolving' said 'situation.' This report needed to be submitted within 90 days.
"When this order was signed, Trump also declared that 'A #NationalEmergency exists at the southern border of the United States…I hereby declare that this national emergency requires use of the Armed Forces…' This, directly references the potential execution of the Insurrection Act.
"The Secretary of Defense? #PeteHegseth. The Secretary of #HomelandSecurity? #KristiNoem. Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent yes-men. And guess how many days January 20 and April 20 are apart? Ninety.
"So, essentially, on April 20, there’s a not-insignificant chance that those two aforementioned Trump yes-men are going to tell Trump whether or not he should deploy the military in the southern United States so as to crack down on immigration. Except, as we saw with the case of #MahmoudKhalil — a recent #ColumbiaUniversity graduate who played a major role in that student body’s recent #ProPalestinain campus occupations — it doesn’t matter if you have a green card or if you haven’t committed any crimes; under this presidency, #ICE will illegally detain you if they think you’re troublesome to the vision of #TrumpsAmerica. They’re trying to deport Khalil for speaking out against #genocide as we speak. This is a direct, wholly #unconstitutional attack on #FreeSpeech.
"And here’s why that distinction between the Insurrection Act and martial law was so important earlier. On April 20, Trump will constitutionally — through the Insurrection Act — be allowed to deploy the military against #AmericanCivilians, and his government has already demonstrated that legal American civilians who have not committed any crimes are at risk for detention and deportation. It’s not technically martial law, but this #Trumpian cocktail is just as bad, if not worse.
"#Khalil’s detention — again, occurring in response to his speaking out against the #genocide of #Palestinian people — was made on the grounds of Trump’s executive order prohibiting #AntiSemitism. How long before more executive orders (none of them made in good faith, let’s be clear on that) just so happen to limit more ways of speaking, acting, and thinking? A scary thought, and a horrifyingly pertinent one."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-trump-planning-to-declare-martial-law-on-april-20-the-frightening-claim-explored/ar-AA1AUIqy
#USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Crackdown #CriminalizingDissent #NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #NationalEmergency #Terrorists #Activists #USPol #BorderEmergency #Gitmo #IllegalDetention #IndefiniteDetentionClause #IndefiniteDetention -
Is #Trump planning to declare #MartialLaw on April 20? The frightening claim, explored
Story by Charlotte Simmons, March 14, 2025
"First, the essentials. Martial law is the term for when civilian government and legal processes (such as mayoral jurisdiction and police officers, respectively) are overtaken by state military, so as to make demands on behalf of the nation’s leader, and then enforce those demands with their wealth of resources. Typically, martial law is invoked in dangerous situations, such as natural disasters or major #CivilUnrest.
"This is different from the United States’ #InsurrectionAct, wherein those civilian enterprises are not replaced by military personnel and resources, but supplemented by them. More importantly, the official nature of the Insurrection Act allows the #POTUS to deploy the military domestically during emergencies, as the #PosseComitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the military against American civilians. In short, the Insurrection Act can waive the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act to create a sort of #MiniMartialLaw. Remember this.
"Recently, fears have been rising over whether or not the United States could enter martial law on April 20 under Donald Trump. But why then? What is it about April 20 that holds significance? When Trump first took office back on January 20, he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the United States’ southern border, requiring the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a report about what the 'situation' is at said border, together with recommended actions for 'resolving' said 'situation.' This report needed to be submitted within 90 days.
"When this order was signed, Trump also declared that 'A #NationalEmergency exists at the southern border of the United States…I hereby declare that this national emergency requires use of the Armed Forces…' This, directly references the potential execution of the Insurrection Act.
"The Secretary of Defense? #PeteHegseth. The Secretary of #HomelandSecurity? #KristiNoem. Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent yes-men. And guess how many days January 20 and April 20 are apart? Ninety.
"So, essentially, on April 20, there’s a not-insignificant chance that those two aforementioned Trump yes-men are going to tell Trump whether or not he should deploy the military in the southern United States so as to crack down on immigration. Except, as we saw with the case of #MahmoudKhalil — a recent #ColumbiaUniversity graduate who played a major role in that student body’s recent #ProPalestinain campus occupations — it doesn’t matter if you have a green card or if you haven’t committed any crimes; under this presidency, #ICE will illegally detain you if they think you’re troublesome to the vision of #TrumpsAmerica. They’re trying to deport Khalil for speaking out against #genocide as we speak. This is a direct, wholly #unconstitutional attack on #FreeSpeech.
"And here’s why that distinction between the Insurrection Act and martial law was so important earlier. On April 20, Trump will constitutionally — through the Insurrection Act — be allowed to deploy the military against #AmericanCivilians, and his government has already demonstrated that legal American civilians who have not committed any crimes are at risk for detention and deportation. It’s not technically martial law, but this #Trumpian cocktail is just as bad, if not worse.
"#Khalil’s detention — again, occurring in response to his speaking out against the #genocide of #Palestinian people — was made on the grounds of Trump’s executive order prohibiting #AntiSemitism. How long before more executive orders (none of them made in good faith, let’s be clear on that) just so happen to limit more ways of speaking, acting, and thinking? A scary thought, and a horrifyingly pertinent one."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-trump-planning-to-declare-martial-law-on-april-20-the-frightening-claim-explored/ar-AA1AUIqy
#USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Crackdown #CriminalizingDissent #NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #NationalEmergency #Terrorists #Activists #USPol #BorderEmergency #Gitmo #IllegalDetention #IndefiniteDetentionClause #IndefiniteDetention -
A neet #FactChecking on the talking points of some politicians, #FossilFuelLobbyist and those who would seek to mislead us (#JoelFitzgibbon for one) about the #GasExport Industry. Just in case some of us forget…
“The gas industry is one of the biggest taxpayers already”
The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (or PRRT) has thus far not collected anything from the LNG industry, and all the LNG exported from Gladstone is exempt from PRRT. In fact, the PRRT is so ineffective at collecting tax from Australia’s natural resources that the Australian Government collected more from people repaying their HECS debts than from PRRT in the past few years.
Australia has a habit of giving gas away for free, over half of the gas exported in 2024 was tax-free.
“The gas industry is one of the biggest employers”
The oil and gas industry combined employs around 0.3% of the total workforce, less than 39,000 people in Australia. That’s fewer people than work at Bunnings. To put it in perspective, there are over 400,000 nurses and midwives and over 320,000 teachers.
“The gas industry is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners”
“One of the biggest foreign exchange earners” basically just means that gas is one of Australia’s biggest exports (companies buy Australian dollars to buy Australian gas). While this is technically true, whether it’s a good thing is debatable.
Australia Institute research has shown that Australia’s huge gas exports have led to higher gas and electricity prices for Australians. In terms of exchange rates, these exports strengthen the Australian dollar, which has mixed impacts; it does make imports cheaper, but at the cost of making other Australian exporters less competitive – and this is dire for our manufacturing industry (which employs 873,000 people).
“If you keep taxing gas, they will pivot out of Australia and go somewhere else”
The gas is in Australia and in Australian territorial waters. It is not possible to “pivot” somewhere else since this is where the gas is. Norway has high taxes on gas but that has not led to a complete exodus of the fossil fuel industry; instead it has facilitated the creation of a massive sovereign wealth fund.
This is a reminder to watch out for these old lines. People are only going to shout them more loudly as a 25% export tax on gas becomes more likely.” (Source: The Point—Live)