Search

1000 results for “technically_good”

Ermanno @[email protected] · 2020-07-18 · 21:35 UTC

CW: The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were sparks that reignited smoldering fury against authorities across the globe. One of the most watched locations has been Seattle, where protestors barricaded off a cop-free zone, drawing outsize attention and, in the process, forming a new case study in the uses of technology both to […]

♲ @[email protected]:
For Seattle’s cop-free protest zone, tech is both a revolutionary asset and disastrous liability
The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were sparks that reignited smoldering fury against authorities across the globe. One of the most watched locations has been Seattle, where protestors barricaded off a cop-free zone, drawing outsize attention and, in the process, forming a new case study in the uses of technology both to advance a cause and to drown it in disinformation.

From the actual recording of Floyd’s killing and the protests and riots that followed, to documenting the police’s brutal response and sudden withdrawal, to the establishment of and widespread commentary on an improvised community, technology has played a crucial role throughout. But to center things properly, it is how people are using technology, not the technology itself, that has become more important.

More than ever before, information truly is power, and imbalances in who holds that power have been both reinforced and challenged in the course of events here. It’s heartening to see live streaming and instant distribution of video lead to accountability, but it’s also sickening to see deliberate campaigns to manipulate and subvert reality — and I say reality because it’s what I’ve seen with my own eyes. As a brief preamble, I should disclose some things.

First, I support the causes being advanced by protestors in Seattle. It would be useless to deny that I have taken sides here — partly because claims of objectivity are little more than a fig leaf for editorial decisions in matters of grave injustice and obvious abuses of power; but my presence at the protests has unavoidably been documented whether I like it or not, so there’s no sense in denying it.

Because second, I live on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the zone. I’ve been eyewitness to important events, (with a built-in tech angle at that) and it would be irresponsible for me not to use the privilege of this platform to share aspects of them that have been only sporadically covered.

And third, these protests have been organized and led by people of color, and I am a white guy who, comparatively, has only barely taken part. On issues of race, policing, and inclusion I will defer to others better equipped to educate: writers like Ijeoma Oluo (whom we recently interviewed), researchers like Joy Buolamwini, and publications like Blavity.

With that out of the way, this article will focus on three topics: The collection and use of digital media on both sides of police clashes; the use of social media and battle of information versus disinformation in the cop-free zone; and the emergence of live streaming as an indispensable medium for this and future movements.
A matter of perspective

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
Image Credits: JASON REDMOND/AFP / Getty Images

The initial protests in Seattle in late May, which devolved in some locations into riots involving the despoliation and destruction of police cruisers (somehow left unattended and filled with weapons), are difficult to track because they were full of movement and chaos. But they were thoroughly, if haphazardly, documented by attendees with the presence of mind to record what they were seeing.

It’s telling that there has been little or no attempt at a counter-narrative from Seattle authorities when their officers were repeatedly (and continually as of this writing) filmed employing plainly excessive force against unarmed, often unresisting protestors, or indiscriminately firing tear gas, pepper spray, and flashbangs into crowds. One woman’s heart stopped three times after being struck by a blast ball that appeared to be deliberately aimed at her, while thousands watched.

Where, one wonders, is the exonerating footage from the police side showing the protestors being described as aggressive, or non-compliant, or whatever key words officers use to justify brutality during a melee of their own creation? And yet the police are at a loss. Presented with innumerable examples of bad behavior, the force seems to have decided day after day to stand fast and let it blow over.

But it’s hard to do that when you have something like a video going viral of a child who’s been maced:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uKdqmBN744U?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

This image, which came to represent the Seattle PD’s inhumane treatment of protestors (they stand by wielding batons as the crying kid is treated), was taken by a local named Evan Hreha. It’s hard to erase such a powerful image — so they arrested him.

Hreha was arrested a week later by a dozen officers and booked into jail for, supposedly, pointing a laser at police. It hardly needs to be said that this account strains credibility. For one thing, Hreha says he was running a hot dog stand with friends at the time of the alleged offense. But it is absurd that police would or could identify one person in a crowd at a distance, then investigate and arrest them — for anything, let alone a fleeting non-violent laser use. And it just happens to be the man behind a viral video that makes the cops look bad.

This seems to be plainly a case of retaliation, but the police have made themselves unaccountable by controlling the information available. I contacted the records department to ask for anything related to the investigation and arrest of Hreha (among others), but it will be months before the police will release anything, if indeed they ever do.

Hreha was released two days later with no charges filed. But the chilling effect of intimidating someone who caught police in an act of brutality on camera had been accomplished. The officer who maced the kid, incidentally, has yet to be officially identified or disciplined.
Does tech have the guts to deploy its resources against police brutality?
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/09/does-tech-have-the-guts-to-deploy-its-resources-against-police-brutality/embed/#?secret=gdf5qC5tCH

This is exemplary of the power imbalance in conflicts of this type: On one side, voluminous documentation from people on the ground that is disorganized and difficult to bring to bear; on the other, documentation that is carefully organized and tightly controlled, allowing the exertion of authority using that control as leverage. Police have also begun the process of repurposing news and protestor footage for their own purposes.

But this story doesn’t always play out the way the cops would prefer.

In the first week of June, protestors were marching up Pine to confront the police for this and other acts, after which they would have, like many similar protests, moved on to rally in Volunteer Park and then gone home, to do it again another day. But police blocked them at 11th and Pine with a barricade and line of police in riot gear.

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
SEATTLE, WA – JUNE 08: A person holds flowers as demonstrators clash with police near the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct shortly after midnight on June 8, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.

The group did not disperse as ordered, saying they would stay and protest peacefully until the police moved out of the way. Predictably, when curfew came, the police were liberal in their deployment of tear gas and flashbangs, causing serious harm to some protestors and terror across the entire neighborhood. This continued and grew in intensity for several days and nights. (In many cities these clashes are ongoing.)

The justification for using their “less lethal” tools with such gusto was predictable: The crowd was violent, throwing bricks and even improvised explosives at officers. But these claims were repeatedly and firmly dismantled, because these encounters were filmed in high definition from multiple angles, practically from start to finish.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/D5sQt_bQS4A?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

One particularly revealing video was shot by a person on a roof directly over the barriers. It quite clearly shows a peaceful crowd chanting and definitely not throwing rocks and bottles. Anyone can review it and see that there was not only no violence on the part of protestors, but that the flashpoint moment occurred (documented in other videos as well) when a cop tore a now-famous pink umbrella from the grip of a person, who in offering any resistance provided the excuse for the police to retaliate — indiscriminately and utterly disproportionately.

Huge volumes of evidence of police brutality have resulted almost solely from the oft-mocked habit of young people to always have their phone in hand. (We’re not far from the always-recording situation I posited nearly 10 years ago.)

“They picked the wrong generation to pull this shit on,” said TK, a protest organizer I spoke with. “Because governments didn’t create this power — this was created by normal, regular-smegular people just like all of us. The only people that can stop it is the people that created it.”

Rarely have the police released images or footage of their own, and when they do it is often a brutal self-own. They posted images of the aforementioned “improvised explosive” on Twitter shortly after one group assault on protestors, and within seconds people had pointed out it was a prayer candle, probably from a nearby memorial smashed during the melee. The police revised their reference to it as an “incendiary device,” which, while technically true, exposes the type of willful obscuration of the truth that was frequently to be found in the department’s communications.

Following another incident, body cam footage was released to support the narrative that a “violent crowd” had prevented the police from reaching a shooting victim in the protest zone and were therefore culpable in his death. People soon pointed out that timestamps visible in the video show that the cops arrived 20 minutes after the shooting, and after the victim had been taken to the hospital in a private car — because EMTs (for good reason) would not enter the scene before police secured it.
We now know that the public statement put out by Seattle Police following the shooting at CHOP on Friday night, was mostly fictitious, as revealed by their own bodycam footage. They showed up 10 minutes later than they claim, after the victim had been transported to Harborview. pic.twitter.com/wN62gQxX8c

— Spek the Lawless (@spekulation) June 22, 2020

When the police chief made claims of rape and violence in the protest zone, it was pointed out that the SPD’s own crime reports system showed no such thing. Then her claim that armed gangs were extorting local businesses was quickly put down as well, by the businesses themselves — embarrassingly, the source of that claim was a totally invented account on a right-wing blog. (Ironically, once the police retook the zone, businesses quickly complained that their presence had forced them to close.)

And of course there are the innumerable videos, here as elsewhere, of extreme force being used on unresisting protestors, frequently with the apparently now requisite knee on the neck. These will hopefully prove useful later as counterbalance to police claims, and while officers still obscure their badges and refuse to identify themselves, the quality of the video makes identifying them by other means trivial.
Cops attack peaceful protestors at Broadway and Pine. 5:30pm July 2nd. Dive tackled the kid next to me, put a knee on his neck. Can’t stress enough he did nothing.

Please share.#SeattleProtests #SeattleProtestComm #Seattle pic.twitter.com/mI5DTASEI4

— eli (@sre_li) July 3, 2020

The digital record has resulted in officers, the department and the chief being caught in lie after lie after lie. These are not misunderstandings or honest mistakes but misrepresentations deliberately crafted to discredit protestors and shield the department. It’s clear that if others were not carefully documenting every encounter, and critically investigating police statements and evidence, the lies would have shortly become the only, and therefore the true, record of what happened.

What I’ve described took place in Seattle, but others have compiled abuses in L.A., New York, Portland, and Chicago — where cops have just been caught in another type of large-scale manipulation of the record.

Now in many cities these departments are facing cuts or total defunding, as much as the result of their failure to successfully falsify the narrative as their more fundamental failures as institutions.

“This generation is not dumb, as much as they want to believe that. ‘You guys are just a bunch of dumb kids.’ Okay, well, this bunch of dumb kids is about to get the city to take half of your budget,” said TK. “So we ain’t that dumb, apparently.”

A last example of the power of social media in the pursuit of problematic police came late in the writing of this piece. After two protestors were struck and one killed on a closed highway after a driver circumvented police barriers, a detective from the King county Sheriff’s office made several brutally offensive posts on Facebook — public ones.

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…

These were spotted by concerned citizens, who took screenshots not just of the content but also the list of people who had liked or commented positively on the posts, looking them up, as well. This proved to be a shrewd tactic, for when the posts began to make waves online, Brown’s entire Facebook page was deleted.

Turns out Detective Brown is not only Governor Jay Inslee’s cousin, but reportedly also the head of county executive Dow Constantine’s security detail and his sometime driver; a 40-year veteran of the force who has been accused of abusive behavior before. Within 48 hours Detective Brown was on leave and being investigated. One hopes that the officers and public officials who publicly endorsed Brown’s behavior will soon be confronted, as well. But how quickly this avenue of recourse would have disappeared had they been tipped off.

Keeping the cops honest is a welcome application of what might be termed citizen forensics, but social media would soon provide a counter-example of technology being deployed to discredit the protestors and mislead millions.
In the Zone

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
A rally at the cop-free zone on Capitol Hill on June 10.

Believe it or not, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone wasn’t anyone’s idea.

The now infamous cop-free area barricaded off by protestors has been profiled frequently and, almost without exception, incompletely and inaccurately, in mainstream news and on social media. It’s an instructive but deeply frustrating example of how, as the old saying goes, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”

A very brief origin story is as follows: On June 8, following a particularly violent yet ultimately unsuccessful attempt to purge the area of protestors the previous night, the police abruptly announced they would be leaving the East Precinct building, taking all valuables, weapons, and sensitive documents with them.

Protestors were astonished. They had not asked for this and had no reason to — their demands were about defunding the police, investing in the community, and releasing jailed protestors. Incredibly, even now no one has taken responsibility for ordering the abandonment; the mayor and police chief have both denied doing so. But abandon it, they did.

Protestors immediately continued marching, some continuing to Volunteer Park and others remaining behind, citing the need to protect the precinct from anyone who might want to damage it, for days on end if necessary and at all hours. If you’re skeptical, remember: This is all on video. People learned early on that many people only believe what they have seen, and even then only sometimes.

Since a car had nearly plowed through protestors the previous day and the driver actually shot someone (before being gently taken into custody by police), and hearing reports of right-wing agitators in the area, the protestors redeployed the barriers to make a safe zone at the ends of nearby streets. Someone spray painted “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” on one, inadvertently branding the whole movement.
‘Welcome to Free Capitol Hill’ — Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone forms around emptied East Precinct — UPDATE
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/welcome-to-free-capitol-hill-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-forms-around-emptied-east-precinct/embed/#?secret=qUJTj18w53

What followed in the CHAZ (later the CHOP) was several days and nights of compelling events, speakers and tributes to lost lives, attended by thousands, including myself.

But what followed online was a nonstop deluge of wild exaggerations, manipulated media, racist vitriol and, of course, innumerable death threats. It would be impossible to list even a fraction of the information online that I could contradict with what I saw with my own eyes, but here are a few examples.

The most glaring one has to be, of course, Fox News photoshopping a gunman into multiple unrelated scenes of destruction and dishonestly using those as evidence of chaos in the zone. This was done so poorly it would be comical if it were not part of a larger, continuing narrative seeking to discredit the protests and zone as an antifa-run separatist state.

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
One of the images run by Fox News, a combination of one by David Ryder (whose photos for Getty illustrate this piece) with two by Karen Ducey.

The separatist narrative, which persists even today, was invented and amplified by lazy or traffic-hungry outlets and pundits with little evidence besides the tongue-in-cheek name.

There was not always the need to invent controversial imagery (indeed, the gunman Fox used really existed). Video of one person handing out rifles to his crew quickly made the rounds and, combined with the police chief’s irresponsible rumor-mongering, word of a “warlord” emerged.

Without getting into the complex and largely improvisational politics of the zone, this character and his heavily armed presence were generally not approved of. But for the weeks following this event I saw the image, his name and the warlord trope posted thousands of times, coming up every single day.

It’s tempting to say it’s hard to misconstrue a guy distributing assault rifles from the back of his car. But it is testament to the fractured narrative presented online that crucial context was almost always left out or substituted by falsehoods. Not only had a gunman actually shot a protestor after driving his car into the crowd the previous day, but at the very moment of the video, the police were suspected to have been engaged in a disinformation campaign intended to provoke conflict.

Public police scanner frequencies that night (which it was known protestors were monitoring) were full of reports of a group of 20-30 armed “Proud Boys” (a far-right group) moving toward the protest zone. Bike police on scanners said they followed the group for blocks, asked where they were headed (the CHAZ), tried to dissuade them from going there, and eventually reported that they spontaneously dispersed before reaching their destination.

Now, a large group of armed men working their way up from Downtown to Capitol Hill would be a rather conspicuous sight even in those days when record numbers of armed men walked the streets. Yet none of the thousands of protestors and allies spread throughout the city watching for them saw anything matching that description during or after. No communications from known Proud Boys (some of whom would in fact show up later to attack a protestor on video) indicated a presence. More directly, police descriptions of the group crossing certain intersections were contradicted by live traffic cameras showing those intersections, which showed no such thing.

But once again the apparent police intention of provocation via misinformation had been achieved. People at the CHAZ, already justifiably worried about violence, were put on high alert and armed themselves, producing a spectacle that even now persists on social media as a way to paint the entire protest with one brush.

The repeated amplification of individual images had some troubling commonalities, in particular the barely veiled parlance of racism. People in the protest zone and especially Black men, images of whom frequently accompanied these tweets and other posts, were invariably described as “thugs,” “savages,” “animals,” “feral,” and all the rest. Tellingly, those employing this vile lexicon were seldom Seattle or Capitol Hill residents; Twitter is very efficient at importing hate.

Indeed it did not take long for the CHAZ, having achieved the dubious distinction of attracting what is called national interest, to become the target of coordinated interference, harassment and disinformation campaigns by people all over the country. The resulting mess is a concise illustration of the incredible promise and complete inadequacy of online platforms in times like these.

The number of people and groups involved in these protests had made Twitter, with its accessibility and relative permanence, an invaluable tool for the dissemination of important information. While private groups on Signal, WhatsApp and Discord were also used, it was clearly better for things like police positioning, march updates, attacks on protestors and other crucial live communications to make the information as prominent and public as possible.
“There was a lot of momentum being built up, people learning and educating themselves. So this was the chance to finally put everything we’d learned into action.”

TK and her fellow organizer Tatii explained that social media was at the heart of their work, though the end result of taking to the streets was always the ultimate goal.

“Social media is a huge part because without it, we can’t do shit,” Tatii said bluntly. “When it comes to finding the information that we need and finding resources to help Black people, all of that is through technology. That’s how we network with people, that’s how people reach out to us. That’s how we get people telling us about police scanners. There are a lot of group chats, like with our medics, our car brigade, our bike brigade. It’s all through social media.”

“Scouts let us know if like there’s 30 bike cops coming down Broadway. It’s crucial when you are trying to strategically plan around that type of stuff, to keep from being cornered and boxed in,” said TK.

“At least on the Black side of social media, it’s constantly been talked about, Black Lives Matter,” added Tatii. “There was a lot of momentum being built up, people learning and educating themselves. So this was the chance to finally put everything we’d learned into action.”

It’s easy to take Twitter for granted, so we should be sure to give the platform due credit for the fundamental capability it provides. Many I’ve spoken to here emphasized that they trusted what they read from accounts with a verifiable track record more than what they saw in the perennially out-of-date local news. In fact, as Tatii and TK noted, many of their fellow organizers came to Seattle specifically to learn for themselves the truth behind mainstream reports that didn’t pass a gut test.

But the choice to publicly organize via hashtag, for all that it made important information available quickly to as many people as possible, had two major consequences.

First, it fragmented that information almost to the point of usability: One never knew whether it was #seattleprotest or #seattleprotests, #seattleprotestcomms, #seatleprotest (yes), plain old #seattle, #defundSPD, or a handful of others. This was only exacerbated with the creation of the CHAZ, which birthed a dozen new hashtags of varying quality and population. Instagram provided powerful amplification effects but little verification or network building.

Twitter also exposed this stream of important information to eager antagonists across the country, who flooded those hashtags with abuse and misinformation. Posts with images from other or past protests were used to mislead or misrepresent the present ones, and pictures of police around the area from other times were used in an attempt to spook those who had learned to be wary of SPD’s presence. Fake names and events were publicized, fake demands issued and met, and fake accounts claiming to represent protestors or the zone.

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
This post, though seen by many, was heeded by few.

The ownership of one particular account was hotly contested, and confused by such tantalizing hints as it following Huawei leadership (you can imagine the theories this spawned), and for an “official” statement ending with what appeared to be a few stray pixels from a Biden presidential campaign graphic.

Later, when attempting to provoke a “mission accomplished”-style early exit from the zone after the Mayor cut million from the police budget, the account exhorted its readers to vote for Biden. Needless to say this was not among the commonly agreed-upon demands or positions of the protests. Unless whoever was behind this strange yet prominent account exposes themselves, we may never know if it was a government plant, an agent provocateur or a practical joker, or what their intentions really are.

The enduring, chaotogenic myth that the CHAZ was an attempt to secede and form a socialist, anarchist utopia led to rebranding efforts. The misconception had become so widespread that it was decided to “officially” (as far as that concept existed in the space) change the name to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest — then, noting the fact that Seattle itself is an “occupation” of native land, change the O to Organized.

This led to a further fragmentation of information channels: No one on the ground wanted to use #CHAZ and its relatives because it was no longer what organizers wanted to call it. But the name had entered the common parlance. So posts now needed to be #CHAZ, #CHOP, #CHOPCHAZ, and others like #CHAZSeattle and so on. It became very difficult to track an event — be it positive, like a march or speaker, or negative, like a fight or shooting — never knowing where to look or how to parse the information there.

It’s hard to overstate how effective the fractured narrative and opposing efforts were at shaping the national and global understanding of events surrounding these protests.

As they say you can never step into the same river twice, so it was on social media around the protest and the zone. The ever-shifting flow of Twitter sometimes produced absolutely vital data unavailable anywhere else, but always polluted with incomplete or premature judgments, ignorance, racism and false reports.

When I asked what digital tools were needed to better organize and avoid interference, protestors I spoke with generally said some sort of centralization and interoperability. Being able to colocate multiple feeds, authors, videos, images and static links in a dynamic, accessible way would save them huge amounts of time and effort. Certainly it would have helped to alleviate some of the problems noted above.
Stream of conscience

“Live streaming and having our phones out every single day is our best form of self defense.”
Despite the shortcomings of social media at large, one digital medium that has proven itself truly indispensable to this protest and others to come is live streaming.
Although the technology has risen to mainstream popularity as a new form of passive entertainment on Twitch and other live platforms, it quickly became clear that it was the technology of choice for documenting these and other protests and social movements.

As TK put it: “People are visual learners; until they see it for themselves they don’t really believe it. And when it’s live, it’s live. You’re not seeing the cut, clipped and edited version. You can’t dispute what you see in raw live footage. You can’t ignore it.”

In Seattle, two people have become familiar faces, or voices, as they have doggedly documented every step of the protests this way, from before the CHOP to well after: Omari Salisbury and Joey Wieser.

techcrunch.com/wp-content/uplo…
Image Credits: Jake Gravbot

Salisbury runs Converge Media, an independent web-distributed news organization. He comes from a broadcast and networking background, and when the CHOP emerged literally outside his doorstep — the studio door opened onto the police line before officers left — he took the opportunity to share the story, as objectively as possible. To him, the only tool that fit the bill was live streaming.

“The viewer needs to be able to see the context, because if the viewer can’t see the context, then it becomes something else,” he said. “People appreciate us because the stream is long, we keep the camera there and we let people make their own decisions.”

He was there not just for the controversial or terrifying moments, like clashes between provocateurs and protestors, or the shootings that occurred later on, but for the huge number of peaceful hours when people would share their own experiences at Salisbury’s prompting. The result is an incredibly valuable archive of hundreds of hours of live footage, ground truth from inside the zone that has been watched by millions.

Joey Wieser has no media background, but rather just a passing familiarity with the systems and social media methods that can grab people’s attention. Yet his stream came to be relied on by many, and the events he captured also racked up millions of views, simply because he decided to take advantage of the tools at his disposal.
“It's not that we don't have umbrellas. We just never met a storm worthy of one.

Until this week.” -Seattle pic.twitter.com/STGnwIc3sZ

— Joey Wieser (@itsjosephryan) June 8, 2020

“Live streaming and having our phones out every single day is our best form of self defense. Every day that I walk out my doorstep, I hold my phone as if it is my ultimate shield, my ultimate weapon,” he said. “Without it, I feel like I don’t have a role in this movement. It’s not like I’m some prolific live streamer, or that I know what Black communities need best. I’m just some white guy and I happen to work in tech. Having an understanding of what social media best practices look like, understanding analytics and social amplification — that combined with my community activism allowed me to come out here and do this.”

For Wieser, having the right connections or network was less important than being in the right place at the right time, even if it put him in danger. (He and Omari were both tear gassed multiple times and near shootings and other altercations.)

“I think it really puts the viewer at home in the driver’s seat,” he said. “Because they’re able to not only watch an uninterrupted stream, but to engage and have a real live conversation with somebody that’s there on the ground. You know, they can say, hey, turn to the left. What was that? It’s a participatory experience in a way watching the news doesn’t allow.”

One such incident I saw play out almost defies belief. Wieser was streaming the protest when a truck blasted through, nearly hitting several people. Minutes later, a person watching the stream was surprised when that very truck pulled up outside their apartment — it was their DoorDash driver, who announced proudly that they had just run down some protestors. (The driver’s plates and info were quickly sent through the proper channels.)
THE PLOT THICKENS: The man in this truck is a driver for @DoorDash and was making a delivery. The customer was literally watching the livestream as the silver truck pulled up outside their home. pic.twitter.com/di1eI9bQjE

— Joey Wieser (@itsjosephryan) July 1, 2020

Being a two-way medium, it provides new opportunities for interference as well as engagement. Both Salisbury and Wieser experienced repeated attempts to pollute their comment sections or attack them personally.

“It’s not lost on me that this amplification can be used against us, but I think one of the important things about live streaming is that you can inject your own narrative, rather than let it be to the whim of, you know, Fox News or Sinclair,” said Wieser. “Regardless of whether or not the trolls take it over in the comment sections or in the hashtags, if you’re actually listening to the content, and if you’ve got someone out here who has the right heart and the right passion and the right analysis, you can reclaim that narrative.”
“The citizen journalist has always existed. They just never had the tools to be on equal footing with national news.”
Salisbury, for his part, expressed that it is not always sufficient to simply document — one has to report, and that’s what he does.
“People rock with me because just turning on the camera and streaming, it’s not enough. Knowing the history of Seattle, the history of the neighborhood, understanding political positions… and you got to put paint where it ain’t, you know what I’m saying? The citizen journalist has always existed. They just never had the tools to be on equal footing with national news,” he said.

“People underestimate the tech that’s out there, especially the free stuff,” he continued. “I know people have their views about platforms and privacy. And I think that’s a different discussion. But I will say that what’s going on here allows for citizen journalists to touch the world. I used to build OTT and streaming platforms in Europe and across Africa. So understanding the actual technology that goes into this, man, I really don’t take no stream for granted. I’ve got people in Australia who’ve been on since day one. What if I had to cultivate that through my own contacts, do my own server, do my own everything? How would I reach them? It doesn’t work that way.”

He credits live streaming with putting pressure on local and national outlets to up their game, as well — being showed up by one person with a phone doesn’t look good for a major news organization.

“Citizen journalists and streamers came out here and forced the local media to change their whole game,” he said. “I mean, a guy with a cell phone didn’t get no respect back in the day. But I had my interviews with the mayor before anybody, my interviews with Chief Best before anybody. You see what I’m saying? I’m just a guy with a phone. Now the Seattle Times has a streamer out here. This situation has made the media adapt new technology.”

While live broadcasts have been part of local and national news for decades, it was in truth a totally different medium. But it’s now difficult to imagine coverage of events like these without modern live streaming, and legacy media have begun to recognize that. Technology has always been a double-edged sword. The events in Seattle and across the country have illustrated this powerfully, and it seems unarguable that whatever happens in terms of policy and politics, the nature of protesting and the power dynamic that has defined it for decades has begun to change.

Ultimately, though, the power does not belong to the tech, but to the people.

“Technology plays a big part in all this, but I’m gonna be real with you, what you need is more old fashioned beating your feet to the streets,” concluded TK. “It’s not that the technology is insufficient, but that people are choosing not to use technology to understand.

“We’ve proven it time and time again that the only ones that really got our back is us.”

feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc… feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc… feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc… feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc… feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc… feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techc…
techcrunch.com/2020/07/18/for-…

#seattle #chaz #seattleprotest #seattleprotests #seattleprotestcomms #seatleprotest
Azimuth @[email protected] · 2026-01-28 · 02:29 UTC
Tiny Musical Intervals

Music theorists have studied many fractions of the form
2i 3j 5k
that are close to 1. They’re called 5-limit commas. Especially cherished are those that have fairly small exponents—given how close they are to 1. I discussed a bunch here:
• Well temperaments (part 2).
and I explained the tiniest named one, the utterly astounding ‘atom of Kirnberger’, here:
• Well temperaments (part 3).
The atom of Kirnberger equals
2161 · 3-84 · 5-12 ≈ 1.0000088728601397
Two pitches differing by this ratio sound the same to everyone except certain cleverly designed machines. But remarkably, the atom of Kirnberger shows up rather naturally in music—and it was discovered by a student of Bach! Read my article for details.
All this made me want to systematically explore such tiny intervals. Below is a table of them, where I list the best ones: the ones that are closest to 1 for a given complexity. The first eleven have names, and many of them play important roles in music! But beyond that point, all but one remain unnamed—or at least I don’t know their names. That’s because they’re too small to be audible, and—except for one—not even considered to be of great theoretical importance.
I’ll list these numbers in decimal form and also in cents, where we take the logarithm of the number in base 2 and multiply by 1200. (I dislike this blend of base 2, base 10 and base 12, but it’s traditional in music theory.)
Most importantly, I list the monzo of each numbers. This is the vector of exponents: for example, the monzo of
2i 3j 5k
is
[i, j, k]
In case you’re wondering, this term was named after the music theorist Joseph Monzo.
Finally, I list the Tenney height of each number. This is a measure of the number’s complexity: the Tenney height of
2i 3j 5k
is
∣i∣ log2(2) + ∣j∣ log2(3) + ∣k∣ log2(5)
The table below purports to list only 5-limit commas that are close to 1 as possible for a given Tenney height. More precisely, it should list numbers of the form 2i 3j 5k that are > 1 and closer to 1 than any number with smaller Tenney height—except of course for 1 itself.
CentsDecimalNameMonzoTenney height498.041.3333333333just perfect fourth[2, −1, 0]3.6386.311.2500000000just major third[−2, 0, 1]4.3315.641.2000000000just minor third[1, 1, −1]4.9203.911.1250000000major tone[−3, 2, 0]6.2182.401.1111111111minor tone[1, −2, 1]6.5111.731.0666666667diatonic semitone[4, −1, −1]7.970.671.0416666667lesser chromatic semitone[−3, −1, 2]9.221.511.0125000000syntonic comma[−4, 4, −1]12.719.551.0113580247diaschisma[11, −4, −2]22.08.111.0046939300kleisma[−6, −5, 6]27.91.951.0011291504schisma[−15, 8, 1]30.01.381.0007999172unnamed?[38, −2, −15]76.00.861.0004979343unnamed?[1, −27, 18]85.60.571.0003289700unnamed?[−53, 10, 16]106.00.291.0001689086unnamed?[54, −37, 2]117.30.231.0001329015unnamed?[−17, 62, −35]196.50.0471.0000271292unnamed?[−90, −15, 49]227.50.01541.0000088729atom of Kirnberger[161, −84, −12]322.00.01151.0000066317unnamed?[21, 290, −207]961.30.000881.0000005104quark of Baez[−573, 237, 85]1146.0
You’ll see there’s a big increase in Tenney height after the schisma. This is very interesting: it suggests that the schisma is the last ‘useful’ interval. It’s useful only in that it’s the ratio of two musically important commas, the syntonic comma and the Pythagorean comma. Life in music would be simpler if these were equal, and in well-tempered tuning systems it’s common to pretend that they are.
All the intervals in this table up to the schisma were discovered by musicians a long time ago, and they all have standard names! After the schisma, interest drops off dramatically.
The atom of Kirnberger has such amazing properties that it was worth naming. The rest, maybe not. But as you can see, I’ve taken the liberty of naming the smallest interval in the table the ‘quark of Baez’. This is much smaller than all that come before. It’s in bad taste to name things after oneself—indeed this is item 25 on the crackpot index—but I hope it’s allowed as a joke.
I also hope that in the future this is considered my smallest mathematical discovery.
Here is the Python code that should generate the above information. If you’re good at programming, please review it and check it! Someone gave me a gift subscription to Claude, and it (more precisely Opus 4.5) created this code. It seems to make sense, and I’ve checked a bunch of the results, but I don’t know Python.
```
from math import log2

log3 = log2(3)
log5 = log2(5)

commas = []

max_exp_3 = 1200
max_exp_5 = 250

for a3 in range(-max_exp_3, max_exp_3+1):
    for a5 in range(-max_exp_5, max_exp_5+1):
        if a3 == 0 and a5 == 0:
            continue

# Find a2 that minimizes |a2 + a3 * log2(3) + a5 * log2(5)|

        target = -(a3 * log3 + a5 * log5)
        a2 = round(target)
        
        log2_ratio = a2 + a3 * log3 + a5 * log5
        cents = abs(1200 * log2_ratio)
        
        if cents > 0.00001:  # non-trivial
            tenney = abs(a2) + abs(a3) * log3 + abs(a5) * log5
            commas.append((tenney, cents, a2, a3, a5))

# Find Pareto frontier

commas.sort(key=lambda x: x[0])  # sort by Tenney height

frontier = []
best_cents = float('inf')
for c in commas:
    if c[1] < best_cents:
        best_cents = c[1]
        frontier.append(c)

# Print results 

for tenney, cents, a2, a3, a5 in frontier:
    log2_ratio = a2 + a3 * log3 + a5 * log5
    decimal = 2**log2_ratio
    if decimal < 1:
        decimal = 1/decimal
        a2, a3, a5 = -a2, -a3, -a5
    print(f"{cents:.6f} cents | {decimal:.10f} | [{a2}, {a3}, {a5}] | "
          f"Tenney: {tenney:.1f}")
```
Gene Ward Smith
In studying this subject I discovered that tiny 5-limit intervals were studied by Gene Ward Smith, a mathematician I used to see around on sci.math and the like. I never knew he worked on microtonal music! I am sad to hear that he died from COVID-19 in January 2021.
I may just be redoing a tiny part of his work: if anyone can find details, please let me know. In his memory, I’ll conclude with this article from the Xenharmonic Wiki:
Gene Ward Smith (1947–2021) was an American mathematician, music theorist, and composer.
In mathematics, he worked in the areas of Galois theory and Moonshine theory.
In music theory, he introduced wedge products as a way of classifying regular temperaments. In this system, a temperament is specified by means of a wedgie, which may technically be identified as a point on a Grassmannian. He had long drawn attention to the relationship between equal divisions of the octave and the Riemann zeta function.[1][2][3] He early on identified and emphasized free abelian groups of finite rank and their homomorphisms, and it was from that perspective that he contributed to the creation of the regular mapping paradigm.
In the 1970s, Gene experimented with musical compositions using a device with four square-wave voices, whose tuning was very stable and accurate, being controlled by a crystal oscillator. The device in turn was controlled by HP 9800 series desktop computers, initially the HP 9830A, programmed in HP Basic, later the 9845A. Using this, he explored both just intonation with a particular emphasis on groups of transformations, and pajara.
Gene had a basic understanding of the regular mapping paradigm during this period, but it was limited in practice since he was focused on the idea that the next step from meantone should keep some familiar features, and so was interested in tempering out 64/63 in place of 81/80. He knew 7-limit 12 and 22 had tempering out 64/63 and 50/49 in common, and 12 and 27 had tempering out 64/63 and 126/125 in common, and thought these would be logical places to progress to, blending novelty with familiarity. While he never got around to working with augene, he did consider it. For pajara, he found tempering certain JI scales, the 10 and 12 note highschool scales, led to interesting (omnitetrachordal) results, and that there were also closely related symmetric (MOS) scales of size 10 and 12 for pajara; he did some work with these, particularly favoring the pentachordal decatonic scale.
Gene was among the first to consider extending the Tonnetz of Hugo Riemann beyond the 5-limit and hence into higher dimensional lattices. In three dimensions, the hexagonal lattice of 5-limit harmony extends to a lattice of type A3 ~ D3. He is also the first to write music in a number of exotic intonation systems.
Historical interest
• Usenet post from 1990 by Gene Smith on homomorphisms and kernels
• Usenet post from 1995 by Gene Smith on homomorphisms and kernels
See also
• Microtonal music by Gene Ward Smith
• Hypergenesis58 (a scale described by Gene Ward Smith)
References
[1] Rusin, Dave. “Why 12 tones per octave?”
[2] OEIS. Increasingly large peaks of the Riemann zeta function on the critical line: OEIS: A117536.
[3] OEIS. Increasingly large integrals of the Z function between zeros: OEIS: A117538.
#Find
#find
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-02-08 · 14:01 UTC

Stuck in the Filter: November and December 2024’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Seeing as how it’s already almost February, you must be wondering why we’re still talking about shit from 2024. Not that I have to explain myself to you, but I didn’t give my minions grueling tasks just so that I could not take the glory for their labors. That wouldn’t embody this blog’s continual aspiration of being terrible capitalists! And so, we press on, searching and rescuing worthy—but not too worthy—pledges for the barbaric, Hunger Games-esque event that is Stuck in the Filter.
BEHOLD! Gaze upon these late-year candidates with the appropriate levels of awe, ye ov little consequence!

Kenstrosity’s Wintry Wonders
Caelestra // Bastion [December 13th, 2024 – Self Release]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For this sponge, I know something is beautiful when it ensnares me into otherworldly environments unlike those which mirrors terrestrial mundanity. UK post-metal one-man act Caelestra specializes in such ethereal worlds, with debut record Black Widow Nebula catching my attention under its blazing miasma of Countless Skies lushness, Astronoidal optimism, and Dreadnought-esque compositional vibrancy. Follow-up Bastion treads much the same path, but with an added emphasis on cathartic spells of intensity reminiscent of current Irreversible Mechanism (“Finisterre”), Kardashev (“Soteria”), or Devin Townsend (“The Hollow Altar”). Balancing these potentially disparate references, mastermind Frank Harper’s compositions flow with an uncanny smoothness without falling into a pit of homogeny. Bastion thereby represents a varied and textured affair built upon compelling guitar leads, unexpected riffs, multifaceted vocal techniques, and athletic percussive movements (“Finisterre,” “Lightbringer,” “The Hollow Altar”). Choosing the long form as Caelestra’s primary vehicle for this musical journey only deepens the experience, as each act offers a wide spectrum of moods, a rich tapestry of characters, and a lush layering of story to enrich any listener’s journey through Bastion (“Lightbringer,” “Eos”). Yet, the whole coheres tightly into a memorable and accessible forty-eight-minute span, easily replayable and effortlessly enjoyable. That, more than anything, makes Bastion a neat little triumph worth checking out.
Earthbound // Chronos [November 26th, 2024 – Self Release]
I have the honor of claiming this find all to my own—something that hasn’t occurred as often this past year as it has in those preceding. Bristol’s Earthbound offer a particular brand of melodic death metal that I want to love more often than I actually do, but they checked all my boxes here. Occupying a space somewhere between Amorphis, Countless Skies, and Dark Tranquillity, Earthbound’s style is simultaneously effervescent, introspective, and crushing on debut record Chronos. Boasting chunky riffs, soaring leads, classic melodeath rhythms, and buttery-smooth baritone vocals, Chronos throws blow after blow for forty-nine minutes of high-engagement material. Looking at standout tracks “A Conversation with God,” “The Architect,” “Cloudburst,” “Aperture,” and “Transmission,” Earthbound’s compelling songwriting tactics and knack for a killer hook recall underappreciated gems by modern contemporaries Rifftera and Svavelvinter. Some of their most accessible moments almost, but not quite, veer into pop-levels of accessibility, further accentuating Earthbound’s infectious energy (“Change,” “Flight,” “Transmission,” “Chasing the Wind”). This works marvelously in Earthbound’s favor, not only making Chronos a joy to listen to in its own right but also impressing me with how polished and professional the band is with only one full-length under the belt. Don’t let this one fall through the cracks!
Flaahgra // Plant Based Anatomy [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
WWWWOOOOOORRRRRRMMMHHHHHHOOO… wait, what? Oh, no, this is Flaahgra. But, the riffs sound like my beloved Wormhole! What’s going on? Oh, well this explains it. Sanil Kumar of Wormhole fame is responsible for Plant Based Anatomy’s guitar work. Rounded out by Tim “Toothhead” Lodge (bass), Chris Kulak (drums), and Anthony Michelli (vocals), this Baltimore quartet concoct a fast-paced, riff-burdened blunderbuss of gurgling vegan slam meatier than the fattest flank this side of Texas. It may be based around plants (and Metroid), but there are enough muscular grooves, neat lead work, and boisterous percussive rhythms here to keep even the most ravenous death fiend stuffed to the stamen (“Blood Flower,” “Toxic Green Fluid,” “Solar Recharge,” “Plant Based Anatomy”). Oversaturated with killer hooks, Plant Based Anatomy feels every bit as headbangable as this group’s pedigree indicates, but their application is delightfully straightforward, allowing Sanil’s standard-setting slams to shine brightest (“Plant Based Anatomy,” “Garden Cascade,” “Venom Weed Atrocity”). At a lean twenty-five minutes, Plant Based Anatomy rips through my system as efficiently as any grease-laden, overstuffed fast-food chimichanga, leaving just as vivid an impression in its wake. If there was ever a quick and easily digestible example of what differentiates really good slam from two-buck upchuck, Plant Based Anatomy is it. FFFLLAAAAHHHHGGGRRRAAAA!

Tyme’s Time Turners
Solar Wimp // Trails of Light [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
The richly dense knowledge and tastes of the commentariat here at AMG are a marvel. And despite the long hours of hard work the staff put in writing and keeping Redis at bay, not to mention the gut-wrenching task of pumping the n00b sump pit every Friday1 we continue to scour tons of promo to bring you the best and the rest of all things metal(ish). Invariably, some things trickle up from our most precious readers that deserve more attention than a few rando comments and respects. Such is the case with L.A.’s Solar Wimp. It was during my most recent stint in2 continued n00bdom that I scoped one of our commenters pimping the Wimp‘s who released, sadly to me now, their last album, Trails of Light, in November. As my ears absorbed the immediately quirky dissonance of the opener, “Entwined with Glass,” I was reminded of how blown away I was upon hearing Jute Gyte for the first time, this more due to my un-expectations than anything else. What followed was a journey I happily embarked on through fields of saxophonic freedom (“Strand and Tether”) and forests of long-form avant-garde brilliance (“Shimmer”). The black(ish) metal vocals and tech-jazz guitar histrionics of Jeremy Kerner, combined with Justin Brown’s bassinations and Mark Kimbrell’s drums, imbue so much passion into the music on Trails of Light, it has me guessing Solar Wimp may have very well saved their best for last. While I’m sure you’re ready to move on from 2024, I’d encourage you to dip back into last year’s well for a bit and give Solar Wimp’s Trails of Light a listen or five.

Thus Spoke’s Fallen Fragments
Yoth Iria // Blazing Inferno [November 8th, 2024 – Edged Circle Productions]
Yoth Iria’s sophomore Blazing Inferno arrived with little fanfare, which is a shame because they’re very good at what they do. Their brand of Hellenic black metal even charmed a 3.5 out of GardensTale with their 2021 debut As the Flame Withers. The new album very much picks up where its predecessor left off, in musical content as well as the fact that Yoth Iria clearly have a thing for giant demonic figures dwarfing human civilization. In a refreshingly to-the-point format, the group3 serve up some solid, groovy Satanic triumphalism that belies the relatively diminutive breadth of the songs that contain it. With thundering drums (“In the Tongue of Birds,” “We Call Upon the Elements”), spirited guitar leads (“But Fear Not,” “Mornings of the One Thousand Golds”), and a collection of classic growls, ominous whispers, and cleans, Yoth Iria craft engaging and very enjoyable compositions. Tracks manage to hold atmosphere and presence without detracting from the dopamine-producing tremolo twists and wails of drawn-out melody (title track, “Rites of Blood and Ice,” “Mornings…”) that draw it all together. This is black metal that makes you feel good about allying with the light-bringer. Not in any highbrow way, of course, just with great riffs, the right amount of tension and nuance, and convincingly massive compositions that steer away from the overwrought and cringe-inducing. It’s just plain good.
Botanist // VII: Beast of Arpocalyx [December 6th, 2024 – Self-Release]
Though recorded all the way back in 2016, the music of Beast of Arpocalyx has not seen the light until now. The seventh installment in the esoteric, botanical saga, VII: Beast of Arpocalyx focuses on plants with mythological animal associations. In comparison to last May’s Paleobotany, this is the solo work of founder Otrebor yet the heart of Botanist’s music has never been compromised. The distinctive tones of hammered dulcimer, make the black metal ring—literally and metaphorically—with playful mysticism when they engage in chirruping and cheerful refrains (“Wolfsbane,” “The Barnacle Tree”) and a weird eeriness when they stray into the dissonant (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “Floral Onyx Chiroptera”). Nothing is substantially different here, but Botanist’s style is an enjoyably quirky one that I, at least, am always happy to indulge in. In many ways, this is not far removed from raw black metal, with the prominent chimes of (not always tuneful) melodicism wrapping snarls and rasps in an iridescent veil that makes the psychedelic turns from whimsical peace to urgent and barbed blastbeat aggression (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “The Paw of Anigozanthos”) very compelling, pleasant even. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to hear chorals or synths under blackened rasps and clanging drums, while a dulcimer warbles along. But when the weirdness nonetheless succeeds in developing an atmosphere and inducing a desire to garner a similarly obsessive knowledge of flora, I can’t really complain.

Killjoy’s Atmospheric Attractions
Nishaiar // Enat Meret [December 5, 2024 – Self-Release]
2024 may technically be over, but there were a few releases in December that keep dragging my attention back to last year. First up is Nishaiar from Gondar, Ethiopia, whose sound resides at the unlikely intersection of traditional Ethiopian music, post-black metal, and Enya-style New Age. Coming off an arduous release schedule that yielded an EP and 5 full-lengths in only 4 years, Nishaiar took some extra time to recharge since Nahaxar in 2021. The results are readily apparent–Enat Meret features some of the punchiest material the band has written to date. “Yemelek” combines folk instruments, vibrant male chanting, and rending screams. An important element that elevates Enat Meret is the addition of a full-time female vocalist, whose moniker also happens to be Enat Meret. Her voice ranges from ethereal (“Idil”) to wistful (“Enat Midir”) to commanding (“Beheke”). There is some bloat—intro track “Semayawi” repeats itself for too long and “Awedal” through “Alem” leans too hard into atmosphere to be suitable for active listening. Even so, this is an album unlike any other you’re likely to hear anytime soon.
Atra Vetosus // Undying Splendour [December 20, 2024 – Immortal Frost Productions]
Next up is Atra Vetosus, who came to me by way of rec-master TomazP. Undying Splendour is a captivating work of atmospheric black metal that tempers the wanderlust of Skyforest with the melodic trem-picked fury of Mare Cognitum. It’s stuffed with triumphant, uplifting guitar melodies that contrast compellingly with mournful, anguished shouts and screams. Like a flowing stream, the graceful orchestrations smooth out any rough edges in their path, pairing exceptionally well with the rhythm section in the intro of “Forsaking Dreaded Paths.” The brawny bass lines throughout the album add satisfying oomph and the drumming is constantly engaging with lots of fleeting tempo shifts (“This Fallow Heart”) and expansive tom rolls (“Elysian Echoes”). Atra Vetosus have perfected the difficult art of long-form atmoblack—all the proper songs on Undying Splendour are between 7 and 11 minutes long and, crucially, feel purposeful without meandering. Though atmoblack is often maligned, I’ll happily get behind Atra Vetosus as one of the new standard bearers of the genre at its very best.
Skagos // Chariot Sun Blazing [December 21, 2024 – Self-Release]
They say that good things come to those who wait. Skagos makes an excellent case for this expression with Chariot Sun Blazing, an appropriate title given the tremendous glow-up that the atmospheric black metal group underwent since releasing Anarchic in 2013. While their woodsy black metal has always maintained similarities with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room (who are also based in Olympia, Washington), this time around the music is infused with a real live string quartet and a two-horn section4. The effects of this additional instrumentation run way more than skin deep; Chariot Sun Blazing feels and flows like an actual symphony. For instance, the combination of the Wagner tuba with guitar plucking in the beginning of “Which in Turn Meet the Sea” evoke a misty morning which gradually warms up with guitar and string crescendos to thaw the leftover frost. The compositions are introspective and intimate, which is refreshing when compared with the usual grandiosity and bombast of symphonic music (metal or otherwise). While there’s nothing wrong with the raspy vocals, this is a rare instance when I would be completely okay if this were an instrumental album. This is an experience absolutely not to be missed.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Late-Blooming Bustles
Alarum // Recontinue [November 8th, 2024 – Self Release]
So many bands in the progressive and technical lanes forget to have fun. Not long, unheralded Australian prog/thrash/jazz fusion-heads Alarum, though. Truth be told, I had forgotten this band existed sometime before their 2011 release Natural Causes all up until about September of 2024 when I caught wind of this new release, Recontinue. Their oddball, heavily Cynic-inspired 2004 opus Eventuality… had stood the test of time in my archives plenty for its wild fusion antics woven into a riff-tricky, bass-poppin’ technical platform. And here, twenty years later, little has changed at Alarum’s foundation. A few things have shifted for the better, though, namely Alarum finding a more balanced resonance in production brightness and clarity, which helps highlight the flirtatious bass play of tracks like “The Visitor” and “Footprints” come to life. Additionally, this crisp and cutting mix allows the joyous neoclassical shredding escapades to carve a blazing path toward textures and alien warbles with a Holdsworth-ian charm (“Zero Nine Thirty,” “Awaken by Fire”). But, most importantly, Alarum continues to bring an ever-shuffling thrash energy similar to early Martyr works (“Imperative,” “Unheard Words,” “Into Existing”) while continuing to remember to toss in off-the-wall detours, like the funk-wah intro of “A Lifelong Question” or the bossa nova outro of “The Visitor.” Recontinue, as a late-career release from a continual dark horse from the land down under remains a consistent joy for the ears. If you’ve never heard Alarum to this point, and you’ve always wished that a jazzy, Cynic-inspired band would come around with a more metal attitude than the current trajectory of their inspirations, get Recontinue in your ears as soon as possible. And if, like me, you’ve fallen of the righteous path, know that time can correct all sorts of silly mistakes.
Gorging Shade // Inversions [November 11th, 2024 – Self Release]
With a sound that is as otherwordly and looming as it is terrestrial and bass-loaded, Gorging Shade has taken a vigorous and shaking progressive death metal form. The proficiency with which every performer weaves disparate melodic lines through echoing, ghastly samples and chaotic, witchy background chatter does not come entirely as a surprise, as the entire roster consists of the members of instrumental progressive act Canvas Solaris. Mood, atmosphere and a bellowing howl, though, separate this incarnation of Georgia’s finest. But the eerie space that Inversions inhabits too has manifested as a collective of talents on display with another offshoot from this act, the dark industrial Plague Pslams (composed of bassist Gael Pirlot and drummer Hunter Ginn, who also currently plays with Agalloch). As an experience layered between the history of sounds these tech wizards have created, Inversions lands dense and challenging. At its core, a rhythmic stomp propels each of its tracks alongside percussive riffs that echo the constant motion of Cynic, the blackened scrawl of Emperor, and the melancholy triumph of Ulcerate swells. But in a package uniquely Gorging Shade, a world emerges from each carefully constructed narrative. Sometimes energy rushes forth (“Disease of Feeling, Germed”). At others, noises creaking and crawling lay teasing grounds for careful exploration (“Ordeal of the Bitter Water,” “A Concession of Our City to Modernity”). Whatever the mode of attack, Gorging Shade delivers in a classic and meticulous wall of sound—perhaps a touch too volume-loaded on occasion—that hits first in waves of melodic intrigue, second in aftershocks of plotted and studied efforts. Its later in the year released may have kept Inversions’ treasures more hidden than I would have liked. The beauty of music, of course, is that we may sit with it as little or as long as we wish to parse its tireless arrangement.
#2024 #Agalloch #Alarum #AmericanMetal #Amorphis #Astronoid #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AtraVetosus #AustralianMetal #AvantGardeMetal #BlackMetal #BlazingInferno #Botanist #Caelestra #CanvasSolaris #ChariotSunBlazing #Chronos #CountlessSkies #Cynic #DarkTranquility #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DevinTownsend #Dreadnought #Earthbound #EdgedCircleProductions #Emperor #EnatMeret #Enya #EthiopianMetal #Flaahgra #GorgingShade #GreekMetal #Holdsworth #ImmortalFrostProductions #Inversions #IrreversibleMechanism #JuteGyte #Kardashev #MareCognitum #martyr #MelodicDeathMetal #Nishaiar #Nov24 #PlaguePsalms #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Recontinue #Review #Reviews #Rifftera #RottingChrist #SelfRelease #Skagos #Skyforest #Slam #SolarWimp #StuckInTheFilter #Svavelvinter #TechDeath #TechnicalDeathMetal #TrailsOfLight #UKMetal #Ulcerate #UndyingSplendour #VIIBeastOfArpocalyx #WolvesInTheThroneRoom #Wormhole #YothIria

#agalloch #alarum #americanmetal #amorphis #astronoid #atmosphericblackmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-02-08 · 14:01 UTC

Stuck in the Filter: November and December 2024’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Seeing as how it’s already almost February, you must be wondering why we’re still talking about shit from 2024. Not that I have to explain myself to you, but I didn’t give my minions grueling tasks just so that I could not take the glory for their labors. That wouldn’t embody this blog’s continual aspiration of being terrible capitalists! And so, we press on, searching and rescuing worthy—but not too worthy—pledges for the barbaric, Hunger Games-esque event that is Stuck in the Filter.
BEHOLD! Gaze upon these late-year candidates with the appropriate levels of awe, ye ov little consequence!

Kenstrosity’s Wintry Wonders
Caelestra // Bastion [December 13th, 2024 – Self Release]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For this sponge, I know something is beautiful when it ensnares me into otherworldly environments unlike those which mirrors terrestrial mundanity. UK post-metal one-man act Caelestra specializes in such ethereal worlds, with debut record Black Widow Nebula catching my attention under its blazing miasma of Countless Skies lushness, Astronoidal optimism, and Dreadnought-esque compositional vibrancy. Follow-up Bastion treads much the same path, but with an added emphasis on cathartic spells of intensity reminiscent of current Irreversible Mechanism (“Finisterre”), Kardashev (“Soteria”), or Devin Townsend (“The Hollow Altar”). Balancing these potentially disparate references, mastermind Frank Harper’s compositions flow with an uncanny smoothness without falling into a pit of homogeny. Bastion thereby represents a varied and textured affair built upon compelling guitar leads, unexpected riffs, multifaceted vocal techniques, and athletic percussive movements (“Finisterre,” “Lightbringer,” “The Hollow Altar”). Choosing the long form as Caelestra’s primary vehicle for this musical journey only deepens the experience, as each act offers a wide spectrum of moods, a rich tapestry of characters, and a lush layering of story to enrich any listener’s journey through Bastion (“Lightbringer,” “Eos”). Yet, the whole coheres tightly into a memorable and accessible forty-eight-minute span, easily replayable and effortlessly enjoyable. That, more than anything, makes Bastion a neat little triumph worth checking out.
Earthbound // Chronos [November 26th, 2024 – Self Release]
I have the honor of claiming this find all to my own—something that hasn’t occurred as often this past year as it has in those preceding. Bristol’s Earthbound offer a particular brand of melodic death metal that I want to love more often than I actually do, but they checked all my boxes here. Occupying a space somewhere between Amorphis, Countless Skies, and Dark Tranquillity, Earthbound’s style is simultaneously effervescent, introspective, and crushing on debut record Chronos. Boasting chunky riffs, soaring leads, classic melodeath rhythms, and buttery-smooth baritone vocals, Chronos throws blow after blow for forty-nine minutes of high-engagement material. Looking at standout tracks “A Conversation with God,” “The Architect,” “Cloudburst,” “Aperture,” and “Transmission,” Earthbound’s compelling songwriting tactics and knack for a killer hook recall underappreciated gems by modern contemporaries Rifftera and Svavelvinter. Some of their most accessible moments almost, but not quite, veer into pop-levels of accessibility, further accentuating Earthbound’s infectious energy (“Change,” “Flight,” “Transmission,” “Chasing the Wind”). This works marvelously in Earthbound’s favor, not only making Chronos a joy to listen to in its own right but also impressing me with how polished and professional the band is with only one full-length under the belt. Don’t let this one fall through the cracks!
Flaahgra // Plant Based Anatomy [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
WWWWOOOOOORRRRRRMMMHHHHHHOOO… wait, what? Oh, no, this is Flaahgra. But, the riffs sound like my beloved Wormhole! What’s going on? Oh, well this explains it. Sanil Kumar of Wormhole fame is responsible for Plant Based Anatomy’s guitar work. Rounded out by Tim “Toothhead” Lodge (bass), Chris Kulak (drums), and Anthony Michelli (vocals), this Baltimore quartet concoct a fast-paced, riff-burdened blunderbuss of gurgling vegan slam meatier than the fattest flank this side of Texas. It may be based around plants (and Metroid), but there are enough muscular grooves, neat lead work, and boisterous percussive rhythms here to keep even the most ravenous death fiend stuffed to the stamen (“Blood Flower,” “Toxic Green Fluid,” “Solar Recharge,” “Plant Based Anatomy”). Oversaturated with killer hooks, Plant Based Anatomy feels every bit as headbangable as this group’s pedigree indicates, but their application is delightfully straightforward, allowing Sanil’s standard-setting slams to shine brightest (“Plant Based Anatomy,” “Garden Cascade,” “Venom Weed Atrocity”). At a lean twenty-five minutes, Plant Based Anatomy rips through my system as efficiently as any grease-laden, overstuffed fast-food chimichanga, leaving just as vivid an impression in its wake. If there was ever a quick and easily digestible example of what differentiates really good slam from two-buck upchuck, Plant Based Anatomy is it. FFFLLAAAAHHHHGGGRRRAAAA!

Tyme’s Time Turners
Solar Wimp // Trails of Light [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
The richly dense knowledge and tastes of the commentariat here at AMG are a marvel. And despite the long hours of hard work the staff put in writing and keeping Redis at bay, not to mention the gut-wrenching task of pumping the n00b sump pit every Friday1 we continue to scour tons of promo to bring you the best and the rest of all things metal(ish). Invariably, some things trickle up from our most precious readers that deserve more attention than a few rando comments and respects. Such is the case with L.A.’s Solar Wimp. It was during my most recent stint in2 continued n00bdom that I scoped one of our commenters pimping the Wimp‘s who released, sadly to me now, their last album, Trails of Light, in November. As my ears absorbed the immediately quirky dissonance of the opener, “Entwined with Glass,” I was reminded of how blown away I was upon hearing Jute Gyte for the first time, this more due to my un-expectations than anything else. What followed was a journey I happily embarked on through fields of saxophonic freedom (“Strand and Tether”) and forests of long-form avant-garde brilliance (“Shimmer”). The black(ish) metal vocals and tech-jazz guitar histrionics of Jeremy Kerner, combined with Justin Brown’s bassinations and Mark Kimbrell’s drums, imbue so much passion into the music on Trails of Light, it has me guessing Solar Wimp may have very well saved their best for last. While I’m sure you’re ready to move on from 2024, I’d encourage you to dip back into last year’s well for a bit and give Solar Wimp’s Trails of Light a listen or five.

Thus Spoke’s Fallen Fragments
Yoth Iria // Blazing Inferno [November 8th, 2024 – Edged Circle Productions]
Yoth Iria’s sophomore Blazing Inferno arrived with little fanfare, which is a shame because they’re very good at what they do. Their brand of Hellenic black metal even charmed a 3.5 out of GardensTale with their 2021 debut As the Flame Withers. The new album very much picks up where its predecessor left off, in musical content as well as the fact that Yoth Iria clearly have a thing for giant demonic figures dwarfing human civilization. In a refreshingly to-the-point format, the group3 serve up some solid, groovy Satanic triumphalism that belies the relatively diminutive breadth of the songs that contain it. With thundering drums (“In the Tongue of Birds,” “We Call Upon the Elements”), spirited guitar leads (“But Fear Not,” “Mornings of the One Thousand Golds”), and a collection of classic growls, ominous whispers, and cleans, Yoth Iria craft engaging and very enjoyable compositions. Tracks manage to hold atmosphere and presence without detracting from the dopamine-producing tremolo twists and wails of drawn-out melody (title track, “Rites of Blood and Ice,” “Mornings…”) that draw it all together. This is black metal that makes you feel good about allying with the light-bringer. Not in any highbrow way, of course, just with great riffs, the right amount of tension and nuance, and convincingly massive compositions that steer away from the overwrought and cringe-inducing. It’s just plain good.
Botanist // VII: Beast of Arpocalyx [December 6th, 2024 – Self-Release]
Though recorded all the way back in 2016, the music of Beast of Arpocalyx has not seen the light until now. The seventh installment in the esoteric, botanical saga, VII: Beast of Arpocalyx focuses on plants with mythological animal associations. In comparison to last May’s Paleobotany, this is the solo work of founder Otrebor yet the heart of Botanist’s music has never been compromised. The distinctive tones of hammered dulcimer, make the black metal ring—literally and metaphorically—with playful mysticism when they engage in chirruping and cheerful refrains (“Wolfsbane,” “The Barnacle Tree”) and a weird eeriness when they stray into the dissonant (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “Floral Onyx Chiroptera”). Nothing is substantially different here, but Botanist’s style is an enjoyably quirky one that I, at least, am always happy to indulge in. In many ways, this is not far removed from raw black metal, with the prominent chimes of (not always tuneful) melodicism wrapping snarls and rasps in an iridescent veil that makes the psychedelic turns from whimsical peace to urgent and barbed blastbeat aggression (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “The Paw of Anigozanthos”) very compelling, pleasant even. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to hear chorals or synths under blackened rasps and clanging drums, while a dulcimer warbles along. But when the weirdness nonetheless succeeds in developing an atmosphere and inducing a desire to garner a similarly obsessive knowledge of flora, I can’t really complain.

Killjoy’s Atmospheric Attractions
Nishaiar // Enat Meret [December 5, 2024 – Self-Release]
2024 may technically be over, but there were a few releases in December that keep dragging my attention back to last year. First up is Nishaiar from Gondar, Ethiopia, whose sound resides at the unlikely intersection of traditional Ethiopian music, post-black metal, and Enya-style New Age. Coming off an arduous release schedule that yielded an EP and 5 full-lengths in only 4 years, Nishaiar took some extra time to recharge since Nahaxar in 2021. The results are readily apparent–Enat Meret features some of the punchiest material the band has written to date. “Yemelek” combines folk instruments, vibrant male chanting, and rending screams. An important element that elevates Enat Meret is the addition of a full-time female vocalist, whose moniker also happens to be Enat Meret. Her voice ranges from ethereal (“Idil”) to wistful (“Enat Midir”) to commanding (“Beheke”). There is some bloat—intro track “Semayawi” repeats itself for too long and “Awedal” through “Alem” leans too hard into atmosphere to be suitable for active listening. Even so, this is an album unlike any other you’re likely to hear anytime soon.
Atra Vetosus // Undying Splendour [December 20, 2024 – Immortal Frost Productions]
Next up is Atra Vetosus, who came to me by way of rec-master TomazP. Undying Splendour is a captivating work of atmospheric black metal that tempers the wanderlust of Skyforest with the melodic trem-picked fury of Mare Cognitum. It’s stuffed with triumphant, uplifting guitar melodies that contrast compellingly with mournful, anguished shouts and screams. Like a flowing stream, the graceful orchestrations smooth out any rough edges in their path, pairing exceptionally well with the rhythm section in the intro of “Forsaking Dreaded Paths.” The brawny bass lines throughout the album add satisfying oomph and the drumming is constantly engaging with lots of fleeting tempo shifts (“This Fallow Heart”) and expansive tom rolls (“Elysian Echoes”). Atra Vetosus have perfected the difficult art of long-form atmoblack—all the proper songs on Undying Splendour are between 7 and 11 minutes long and, crucially, feel purposeful without meandering. Though atmoblack is often maligned, I’ll happily get behind Atra Vetosus as one of the new standard bearers of the genre at its very best.
Skagos // Chariot Sun Blazing [December 21, 2024 – Self-Release]
They say that good things come to those who wait. Skagos makes an excellent case for this expression with Chariot Sun Blazing, an appropriate title given the tremendous glow-up that the atmospheric black metal group underwent since releasing Anarchic in 2013. While their woodsy black metal has always maintained similarities with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room (who are also based in Olympia, Washington), this time around the music is infused with a real live string quartet and a two-horn section4. The effects of this additional instrumentation run way more than skin deep; Chariot Sun Blazing feels and flows like an actual symphony. For instance, the combination of the Wagner tuba with guitar plucking in the beginning of “Which in Turn Meet the Sea” evoke a misty morning which gradually warms up with guitar and string crescendos to thaw the leftover frost. The compositions are introspective and intimate, which is refreshing when compared with the usual grandiosity and bombast of symphonic music (metal or otherwise). While there’s nothing wrong with the raspy vocals, this is a rare instance when I would be completely okay if this were an instrumental album. This is an experience absolutely not to be missed.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Late-Blooming Bustles
Alarum // Recontinue [November 8th, 2024 – Self Release]
So many bands in the progressive and technical lanes forget to have fun. Not long, unheralded Australian prog/thrash/jazz fusion-heads Alarum, though. Truth be told, I had forgotten this band existed sometime before their 2011 release Natural Causes all up until about September of 2024 when I caught wind of this new release, Recontinue. Their oddball, heavily Cynic-inspired 2004 opus Eventuality… had stood the test of time in my archives plenty for its wild fusion antics woven into a riff-tricky, bass-poppin’ technical platform. And here, twenty years later, little has changed at Alarum’s foundation. A few things have shifted for the better, though, namely Alarum finding a more balanced resonance in production brightness and clarity, which helps highlight the flirtatious bass play of tracks like “The Visitor” and “Footprints” come to life. Additionally, this crisp and cutting mix allows the joyous neoclassical shredding escapades to carve a blazing path toward textures and alien warbles with a Holdsworth-ian charm (“Zero Nine Thirty,” “Awaken by Fire”). But, most importantly, Alarum continues to bring an ever-shuffling thrash energy similar to early Martyr works (“Imperative,” “Unheard Words,” “Into Existing”) while continuing to remember to toss in off-the-wall detours, like the funk-wah intro of “A Lifelong Question” or the bossa nova outro of “The Visitor.” Recontinue, as a late-career release from a continual dark horse from the land down under remains a consistent joy for the ears. If you’ve never heard Alarum to this point, and you’ve always wished that a jazzy, Cynic-inspired band would come around with a more metal attitude than the current trajectory of their inspirations, get Recontinue in your ears as soon as possible. And if, like me, you’ve fallen of the righteous path, know that time can correct all sorts of silly mistakes.
Gorging Shade // Inversions [November 11th, 2024 – Self Release]
With a sound that is as otherwordly and looming as it is terrestrial and bass-loaded, Gorging Shade has taken a vigorous and shaking progressive death metal form. The proficiency with which every performer weaves disparate melodic lines through echoing, ghastly samples and chaotic, witchy background chatter does not come entirely as a surprise, as the entire roster consists of the members of instrumental progressive act Canvas Solaris. Mood, atmosphere and a bellowing howl, though, separate this incarnation of Georgia’s finest. But the eerie space that Inversions inhabits too has manifested as a collective of talents on display with another offshoot from this act, the dark industrial Plague Pslams (composed of bassist Gael Pirlot and drummer Hunter Ginn, who also currently plays with Agalloch). As an experience layered between the history of sounds these tech wizards have created, Inversions lands dense and challenging. At its core, a rhythmic stomp propels each of its tracks alongside percussive riffs that echo the constant motion of Cynic, the blackened scrawl of Emperor, and the melancholy triumph of Ulcerate swells. But in a package uniquely Gorging Shade, a world emerges from each carefully constructed narrative. Sometimes energy rushes forth (“Disease of Feeling, Germed”). At others, noises creaking and crawling lay teasing grounds for careful exploration (“Ordeal of the Bitter Water,” “A Concession of Our City to Modernity”). Whatever the mode of attack, Gorging Shade delivers in a classic and meticulous wall of sound—perhaps a touch too volume-loaded on occasion—that hits first in waves of melodic intrigue, second in aftershocks of plotted and studied efforts. Its later in the year released may have kept Inversions’ treasures more hidden than I would have liked. The beauty of music, of course, is that we may sit with it as little or as long as we wish to parse its tireless arrangement.
#2024 #Agalloch #Alarum #AmericanMetal #Amorphis #Astronoid #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AtraVetosus #AustralianMetal #AvantGardeMetal #BlackMetal #BlazingInferno #Botanist #Caelestra #CanvasSolaris #ChariotSunBlazing #Chronos #CountlessSkies #Cynic #DarkTranquility #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DevinTownsend #Dreadnought #Earthbound #EdgedCircleProductions #Emperor #EnatMeret #Enya #EthiopianMetal #Flaahgra #GorgingShade #GreekMetal #Holdsworth #ImmortalFrostProductions #Inversions #IrreversibleMechanism #JuteGyte #Kardashev #MareCognitum #martyr #MelodicDeathMetal #Nishaiar #Nov24 #PlaguePsalms #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Recontinue #Review #Reviews #Rifftera #RottingChrist #SelfRelease #Skagos #Skyforest #Slam #SolarWimp #StuckInTheFilter #Svavelvinter #TechDeath #TechnicalDeathMetal #TrailsOfLight #UKMetal #Ulcerate #UndyingSplendour #VIIBeastOfArpocalyx #WolvesInTheThroneRoom #Wormhole #YothIria

#agalloch #alarum #americanmetal #amorphis #astronoid #atmosphericblackmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-02-08 · 14:01 UTC

Stuck in the Filter: November and December 2024’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Seeing as how it’s already almost February, you must be wondering why we’re still talking about shit from 2024. Not that I have to explain myself to you, but I didn’t give my minions grueling tasks just so that I could not take the glory for their labors. That wouldn’t embody this blog’s continual aspiration of being terrible capitalists! And so, we press on, searching and rescuing worthy—but not too worthy—pledges for the barbaric, Hunger Games-esque event that is Stuck in the Filter.
BEHOLD! Gaze upon these late-year candidates with the appropriate levels of awe, ye ov little consequence!

Kenstrosity’s Wintry Wonders
Caelestra // Bastion [December 13th, 2024 – Self Release]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For this sponge, I know something is beautiful when it ensnares me into otherworldly environments unlike those which mirrors terrestrial mundanity. UK post-metal one-man act Caelestra specializes in such ethereal worlds, with debut record Black Widow Nebula catching my attention under its blazing miasma of Countless Skies lushness, Astronoidal optimism, and Dreadnought-esque compositional vibrancy. Follow-up Bastion treads much the same path, but with an added emphasis on cathartic spells of intensity reminiscent of current Irreversible Mechanism (“Finisterre”), Kardashev (“Soteria”), or Devin Townsend (“The Hollow Altar”). Balancing these potentially disparate references, mastermind Frank Harper’s compositions flow with an uncanny smoothness without falling into a pit of homogeny. Bastion thereby represents a varied and textured affair built upon compelling guitar leads, unexpected riffs, multifaceted vocal techniques, and athletic percussive movements (“Finisterre,” “Lightbringer,” “The Hollow Altar”). Choosing the long form as Caelestra’s primary vehicle for this musical journey only deepens the experience, as each act offers a wide spectrum of moods, a rich tapestry of characters, and a lush layering of story to enrich any listener’s journey through Bastion (“Lightbringer,” “Eos”). Yet, the whole coheres tightly into a memorable and accessible forty-eight-minute span, easily replayable and effortlessly enjoyable. That, more than anything, makes Bastion a neat little triumph worth checking out.
Earthbound // Chronos [November 26th, 2024 – Self Release]
I have the honor of claiming this find all to my own—something that hasn’t occurred as often this past year as it has in those preceding. Bristol’s Earthbound offer a particular brand of melodic death metal that I want to love more often than I actually do, but they checked all my boxes here. Occupying a space somewhere between Amorphis, Countless Skies, and Dark Tranquillity, Earthbound’s style is simultaneously effervescent, introspective, and crushing on debut record Chronos. Boasting chunky riffs, soaring leads, classic melodeath rhythms, and buttery-smooth baritone vocals, Chronos throws blow after blow for forty-nine minutes of high-engagement material. Looking at standout tracks “A Conversation with God,” “The Architect,” “Cloudburst,” “Aperture,” and “Transmission,” Earthbound’s compelling songwriting tactics and knack for a killer hook recall underappreciated gems by modern contemporaries Rifftera and Svavelvinter. Some of their most accessible moments almost, but not quite, veer into pop-levels of accessibility, further accentuating Earthbound’s infectious energy (“Change,” “Flight,” “Transmission,” “Chasing the Wind”). This works marvelously in Earthbound’s favor, not only making Chronos a joy to listen to in its own right but also impressing me with how polished and professional the band is with only one full-length under the belt. Don’t let this one fall through the cracks!
Flaahgra // Plant Based Anatomy [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
WWWWOOOOOORRRRRRMMMHHHHHHOOO… wait, what? Oh, no, this is Flaahgra. But, the riffs sound like my beloved Wormhole! What’s going on? Oh, well this explains it. Sanil Kumar of Wormhole fame is responsible for Plant Based Anatomy’s guitar work. Rounded out by Tim “Toothhead” Lodge (bass), Chris Kulak (drums), and Anthony Michelli (vocals), this Baltimore quartet concoct a fast-paced, riff-burdened blunderbuss of gurgling vegan slam meatier than the fattest flank this side of Texas. It may be based around plants (and Metroid), but there are enough muscular grooves, neat lead work, and boisterous percussive rhythms here to keep even the most ravenous death fiend stuffed to the stamen (“Blood Flower,” “Toxic Green Fluid,” “Solar Recharge,” “Plant Based Anatomy”). Oversaturated with killer hooks, Plant Based Anatomy feels every bit as headbangable as this group’s pedigree indicates, but their application is delightfully straightforward, allowing Sanil’s standard-setting slams to shine brightest (“Plant Based Anatomy,” “Garden Cascade,” “Venom Weed Atrocity”). At a lean twenty-five minutes, Plant Based Anatomy rips through my system as efficiently as any grease-laden, overstuffed fast-food chimichanga, leaving just as vivid an impression in its wake. If there was ever a quick and easily digestible example of what differentiates really good slam from two-buck upchuck, Plant Based Anatomy is it. FFFLLAAAAHHHHGGGRRRAAAA!

Tyme’s Time Turners
Solar Wimp // Trails of Light [November 15th, 2024 – Self Release]
The richly dense knowledge and tastes of the commentariat here at AMG are a marvel. And despite the long hours of hard work the staff put in writing and keeping Redis at bay, not to mention the gut-wrenching task of pumping the n00b sump pit every Friday1 we continue to scour tons of promo to bring you the best and the rest of all things metal(ish). Invariably, some things trickle up from our most precious readers that deserve more attention than a few rando comments and respects. Such is the case with L.A.’s Solar Wimp. It was during my most recent stint in2 continued n00bdom that I scoped one of our commenters pimping the Wimp‘s who released, sadly to me now, their last album, Trails of Light, in November. As my ears absorbed the immediately quirky dissonance of the opener, “Entwined with Glass,” I was reminded of how blown away I was upon hearing Jute Gyte for the first time, this more due to my un-expectations than anything else. What followed was a journey I happily embarked on through fields of saxophonic freedom (“Strand and Tether”) and forests of long-form avant-garde brilliance (“Shimmer”). The black(ish) metal vocals and tech-jazz guitar histrionics of Jeremy Kerner, combined with Justin Brown’s bassinations and Mark Kimbrell’s drums, imbue so much passion into the music on Trails of Light, it has me guessing Solar Wimp may have very well saved their best for last. While I’m sure you’re ready to move on from 2024, I’d encourage you to dip back into last year’s well for a bit and give Solar Wimp’s Trails of Light a listen or five.

Thus Spoke’s Fallen Fragments
Yoth Iria // Blazing Inferno [November 8th, 2024 – Edged Circle Productions]
Yoth Iria’s sophomore Blazing Inferno arrived with little fanfare, which is a shame because they’re very good at what they do. Their brand of Hellenic black metal even charmed a 3.5 out of GardensTale with their 2021 debut As the Flame Withers. The new album very much picks up where its predecessor left off, in musical content as well as the fact that Yoth Iria clearly have a thing for giant demonic figures dwarfing human civilization. In a refreshingly to-the-point format, the group3 serve up some solid, groovy Satanic triumphalism that belies the relatively diminutive breadth of the songs that contain it. With thundering drums (“In the Tongue of Birds,” “We Call Upon the Elements”), spirited guitar leads (“But Fear Not,” “Mornings of the One Thousand Golds”), and a collection of classic growls, ominous whispers, and cleans, Yoth Iria craft engaging and very enjoyable compositions. Tracks manage to hold atmosphere and presence without detracting from the dopamine-producing tremolo twists and wails of drawn-out melody (title track, “Rites of Blood and Ice,” “Mornings…”) that draw it all together. This is black metal that makes you feel good about allying with the light-bringer. Not in any highbrow way, of course, just with great riffs, the right amount of tension and nuance, and convincingly massive compositions that steer away from the overwrought and cringe-inducing. It’s just plain good.
Botanist // VII: Beast of Arpocalyx [December 6th, 2024 – Self-Release]
Though recorded all the way back in 2016, the music of Beast of Arpocalyx has not seen the light until now. The seventh installment in the esoteric, botanical saga, VII: Beast of Arpocalyx focuses on plants with mythological animal associations. In comparison to last May’s Paleobotany, this is the solo work of founder Otrebor yet the heart of Botanist’s music has never been compromised. The distinctive tones of hammered dulcimer, make the black metal ring—literally and metaphorically—with playful mysticism when they engage in chirruping and cheerful refrains (“Wolfsbane,” “The Barnacle Tree”) and a weird eeriness when they stray into the dissonant (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “Floral Onyx Chiroptera”). Nothing is substantially different here, but Botanist’s style is an enjoyably quirky one that I, at least, am always happy to indulge in. In many ways, this is not far removed from raw black metal, with the prominent chimes of (not always tuneful) melodicism wrapping snarls and rasps in an iridescent veil that makes the psychedelic turns from whimsical peace to urgent and barbed blastbeat aggression (“The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary,” “The Paw of Anigozanthos”) very compelling, pleasant even. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to hear chorals or synths under blackened rasps and clanging drums, while a dulcimer warbles along. But when the weirdness nonetheless succeeds in developing an atmosphere and inducing a desire to garner a similarly obsessive knowledge of flora, I can’t really complain.

Killjoy’s Atmospheric Attractions
Nishaiar // Enat Meret [December 5, 2024 – Self-Release]
2024 may technically be over, but there were a few releases in December that keep dragging my attention back to last year. First up is Nishaiar from Gondar, Ethiopia, whose sound resides at the unlikely intersection of traditional Ethiopian music, post-black metal, and Enya-style New Age. Coming off an arduous release schedule that yielded an EP and 5 full-lengths in only 4 years, Nishaiar took some extra time to recharge since Nahaxar in 2021. The results are readily apparent–Enat Meret features some of the punchiest material the band has written to date. “Yemelek” combines folk instruments, vibrant male chanting, and rending screams. An important element that elevates Enat Meret is the addition of a full-time female vocalist, whose moniker also happens to be Enat Meret. Her voice ranges from ethereal (“Idil”) to wistful (“Enat Midir”) to commanding (“Beheke”). There is some bloat—intro track “Semayawi” repeats itself for too long and “Awedal” through “Alem” leans too hard into atmosphere to be suitable for active listening. Even so, this is an album unlike any other you’re likely to hear anytime soon.
Atra Vetosus // Undying Splendour [December 20, 2024 – Immortal Frost Productions]
Next up is Atra Vetosus, who came to me by way of rec-master TomazP. Undying Splendour is a captivating work of atmospheric black metal that tempers the wanderlust of Skyforest with the melodic trem-picked fury of Mare Cognitum. It’s stuffed with triumphant, uplifting guitar melodies that contrast compellingly with mournful, anguished shouts and screams. Like a flowing stream, the graceful orchestrations smooth out any rough edges in their path, pairing exceptionally well with the rhythm section in the intro of “Forsaking Dreaded Paths.” The brawny bass lines throughout the album add satisfying oomph and the drumming is constantly engaging with lots of fleeting tempo shifts (“This Fallow Heart”) and expansive tom rolls (“Elysian Echoes”). Atra Vetosus have perfected the difficult art of long-form atmoblack—all the proper songs on Undying Splendour are between 7 and 11 minutes long and, crucially, feel purposeful without meandering. Though atmoblack is often maligned, I’ll happily get behind Atra Vetosus as one of the new standard bearers of the genre at its very best.
Skagos // Chariot Sun Blazing [December 21, 2024 – Self-Release]
They say that good things come to those who wait. Skagos makes an excellent case for this expression with Chariot Sun Blazing, an appropriate title given the tremendous glow-up that the atmospheric black metal group underwent since releasing Anarchic in 2013. While their woodsy black metal has always maintained similarities with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room (who are also based in Olympia, Washington), this time around the music is infused with a real live string quartet and a two-horn section4. The effects of this additional instrumentation run way more than skin deep; Chariot Sun Blazing feels and flows like an actual symphony. For instance, the combination of the Wagner tuba with guitar plucking in the beginning of “Which in Turn Meet the Sea” evoke a misty morning which gradually warms up with guitar and string crescendos to thaw the leftover frost. The compositions are introspective and intimate, which is refreshing when compared with the usual grandiosity and bombast of symphonic music (metal or otherwise). While there’s nothing wrong with the raspy vocals, this is a rare instance when I would be completely okay if this were an instrumental album. This is an experience absolutely not to be missed.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Late-Blooming Bustles
Alarum // Recontinue [November 8th, 2024 – Self Release]
So many bands in the progressive and technical lanes forget to have fun. Not long, unheralded Australian prog/thrash/jazz fusion-heads Alarum, though. Truth be told, I had forgotten this band existed sometime before their 2011 release Natural Causes all up until about September of 2024 when I caught wind of this new release, Recontinue. Their oddball, heavily Cynic-inspired 2004 opus Eventuality… had stood the test of time in my archives plenty for its wild fusion antics woven into a riff-tricky, bass-poppin’ technical platform. And here, twenty years later, little has changed at Alarum’s foundation. A few things have shifted for the better, though, namely Alarum finding a more balanced resonance in production brightness and clarity, which helps highlight the flirtatious bass play of tracks like “The Visitor” and “Footprints” come to life. Additionally, this crisp and cutting mix allows the joyous neoclassical shredding escapades to carve a blazing path toward textures and alien warbles with a Holdsworth-ian charm (“Zero Nine Thirty,” “Awaken by Fire”). But, most importantly, Alarum continues to bring an ever-shuffling thrash energy similar to early Martyr works (“Imperative,” “Unheard Words,” “Into Existing”) while continuing to remember to toss in off-the-wall detours, like the funk-wah intro of “A Lifelong Question” or the bossa nova outro of “The Visitor.” Recontinue, as a late-career release from a continual dark horse from the land down under remains a consistent joy for the ears. If you’ve never heard Alarum to this point, and you’ve always wished that a jazzy, Cynic-inspired band would come around with a more metal attitude than the current trajectory of their inspirations, get Recontinue in your ears as soon as possible. And if, like me, you’ve fallen of the righteous path, know that time can correct all sorts of silly mistakes.
Gorging Shade // Inversions [November 11th, 2024 – Self Release]
With a sound that is as otherwordly and looming as it is terrestrial and bass-loaded, Gorging Shade has taken a vigorous and shaking progressive death metal form. The proficiency with which every performer weaves disparate melodic lines through echoing, ghastly samples and chaotic, witchy background chatter does not come entirely as a surprise, as the entire roster consists of the members of instrumental progressive act Canvas Solaris. Mood, atmosphere and a bellowing howl, though, separate this incarnation of Georgia’s finest. But the eerie space that Inversions inhabits too has manifested as a collective of talents on display with another offshoot from this act, the dark industrial Plague Pslams (composed of bassist Gael Pirlot and drummer Hunter Ginn, who also currently plays with Agalloch). As an experience layered between the history of sounds these tech wizards have created, Inversions lands dense and challenging. At its core, a rhythmic stomp propels each of its tracks alongside percussive riffs that echo the constant motion of Cynic, the blackened scrawl of Emperor, and the melancholy triumph of Ulcerate swells. But in a package uniquely Gorging Shade, a world emerges from each carefully constructed narrative. Sometimes energy rushes forth (“Disease of Feeling, Germed”). At others, noises creaking and crawling lay teasing grounds for careful exploration (“Ordeal of the Bitter Water,” “A Concession of Our City to Modernity”). Whatever the mode of attack, Gorging Shade delivers in a classic and meticulous wall of sound—perhaps a touch too volume-loaded on occasion—that hits first in waves of melodic intrigue, second in aftershocks of plotted and studied efforts. Its later in the year released may have kept Inversions’ treasures more hidden than I would have liked. The beauty of music, of course, is that we may sit with it as little or as long as we wish to parse its tireless arrangement.
#2024 #Agalloch #Alarum #AmericanMetal #Amorphis #Astronoid #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AtraVetosus #AustralianMetal #AvantGardeMetal #BlackMetal #BlazingInferno #Botanist #Caelestra #CanvasSolaris #ChariotSunBlazing #Chronos #CountlessSkies #Cynic #DarkTranquility #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DevinTownsend #Dreadnought #Earthbound #EdgedCircleProductions #Emperor #EnatMeret #Enya #EthiopianMetal #Flaahgra #GorgingShade #GreekMetal #Holdsworth #ImmortalFrostProductions #Inversions #IrreversibleMechanism #JuteGyte #Kardashev #MareCognitum #martyr #MelodicDeathMetal #Nishaiar #Nov24 #PlaguePsalms #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Recontinue #Review #Reviews #Rifftera #RottingChrist #SelfRelease #Skagos #Skyforest #Slam #SolarWimp #StuckInTheFilter #Svavelvinter #TechDeath #TechnicalDeathMetal #TrailsOfLight #UKMetal #Ulcerate #UndyingSplendour #VIIBeastOfArpocalyx #WolvesInTheThroneRoom #Wormhole #YothIria

#yothiria #wormhole #wolvesinthethroneroom #viibeastofarpocalyx #undyingsplendour #ulcerate
Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-11-16 · 01:30 UTC

The thread about the baffling naming of Leith railway stations; know your North Leith from your Leith North; which South Leith is which and whether Leith Walk West or Leith Walk East is westmost!

This thread was originally written and published in September 2019.

We went to visit Trinity House expecting to find some treasures of Leith maritime history, but we were surprised to find some local railway history hidden round the back too, a bench from South Leith Railway Station which closed way, way back in 1903.
South Leith station bench
So let’s go on a little #NowAndThen visual trip down memory lane to South Leith station. The view is taken from Constitution Street looking east along the trackbed, what is now Tower Street. The tall remnant of buildings behind were part of the first Leith gas works, before they moved to Granton with the Edinburgh gas works. The station building is on the right, with the single platform behind it.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr
This was the first railway station in Leith, and was originally named as such when it opened in 1832 as an extension of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. This line ran from St. Leonards in Edinburgh to Midlothian, Leith being accessed by a reverse junction near Niddrie. This was the so-called “Innocent Railway“, in Scotch Gauge of 4ft 6in and horse drawn throughout. Looking the other way towards the Shore (and a prime example of that dreadful noughties architectural fad for oversized and inappropriate corner rotundas) we see Leith’s old Tower in the distance down Tower Street. Notice that the railway was not quite aligned with the modern Tower Street, but parallel. This continuation of the line beyond Constitution Street gave access to the east side of the port and its industries.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr.
The station was on the sea front when it was built, with Leith Sands beyond and the high tide line beyond that. The railway providing a new boundary between land and shore as Leith crept northwards into the Forth. This station was handy for the Shore, where the steamers left from at the time, but was quickly swallowed up by seaward extensions of the docks and became increasingly inconveniently positioned. In 1845 the North British Railway bought over the Edinburgh & Dalkeith and set about converting their new possession into standard gauge and steam power. However, they were not interested in passenger traffic here – it was routes South from Edinburgh that had caused them to buy the E&DR – and closed South Leith to passengers in 1846. The line remained open for dock traffic, always it’s primary purpose as it had been built as a direct connection to the Midlothian Coalfield.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Tower Street (blue), Constitution Street (yellow) and South Leith Station (orange)
The naming of Leith’s railway stations was always a bit confusing. For a relatively small place, it had a lot of various stations and they were often duplicated due to the competing nature of the North British (NBR) and Caledonian Railways (CR), who fought petulantly with each other for access to the lucrative docks and industrial traffic. To add confusion, when most of these stations were first named, Leith was two distinct municipal parishes; South Leith and North Leith. These are ancient names, referring to the banks of the river of Water of Leith on which they lie, geographically they are more east and westerly of one and other than south and northerly. At various times there were stations called Leith, Leith Central, South Leith, North Leith, Leith North, Leith Citadel, Leith East, Leith Walk, Leith Walk West and Leith Walk East! (And that’s not counting those stations in the Leith boundaries which don’t have “Leith” in their name.)
An animated timeline of railways and railway stations in Leith, from 1830 – 1990. Dock, mineral and private sidings omitted for clarity. © Self
The next station to open in Leith was North Leith in 1846. It was opened as a branch of the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton Railway, which ran from Canal Street Station (at right angles to the present day Waverley), through the Scotland Street Tunnel to Trinity and on to a rail ferry at Granton Docks. The NBR bought this railway too in 1862 and experimented with calling the station variously Leith Citadel or Leith North, before settling back on North Leith. They re-opened the old Edinburgh & Dalkeith Leith station in 1859 as a single platform called South Leith.
The next arrival was that of the Caledonian Railway, who opened a station called Leith in 1869 on a rather circuitous line around the North and West of the city from Princes Street Station via Roseburn and Newhaven. It would be renamed North Leith in 1903. To get around the confusion of two rival North Leith stations being a few hundred metres from each other on the same street, most maps stuck with Leith for the Caley station and North Leith for the NBR. To locals it would just have been the Caley and North British stations.
Railway Stations of Leith on the NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The North Leith muddles would be solved in 1947 when the ex-NBR station, by now 24 years in the LNER grouping, was closed to passenger traffic. Rather pointlessly, 5 years later the ex-Caley North Leith was renamed Leith North, and the ex-NBR North Leith goods station once again became Leith Citadel!
The renaming of the Caley station was not the only change on the Leith railway map in 1903; this was the year the North British opened their (far too) vast station at Leith Central – which of course was well to the south of South Leith… It’s arrival resulted in the closure of the latter station for the second and final time. Leith Central was on a fairly short branch from Waverley via Abbeyhill, but could never match the electric tramway on speed, frequency, convenience and on proximity to destinations, so it always struggled for patronage. Leith Central was the last major railway terminus built in Scotland, and had a short life, closing in 1952 after a fairly unintense life. It had been built more as a symbol of the NBR‘s dominance and a blocker to the Caley opening a passenger station in the centre of Leith than anything else.
Leith Central Station at the bottom. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
Those grand Caley plans were the Leith New Lines, a very expensive and winding route around Leith to connect the eastern and western sides of the Docks. Large goods stations were opened at Bonnington, Leith Walk, Restalrig and South Leith; where it caused confusion with the NBR South Leith goods station. The Caley had wanted to provide passenger stations too; the platforms and some other structures for these were actually built, at Victoria Park in Trinity and above street level on Leith Walk on the Gordon Street railway arches. After Leith Walk, the intention was a costly branch to Princes Street station from a junction near Lochend via tunnels under Calton Hill and cut-and-cover tunnelling of Princes Street itself. None of these plans came to fruition though, the NBR‘s massive Leith Central meant it would have been a costly folly (which Leith Central admittedly also was).
The Leith New Lines. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The two parallel, neighbouring South Leith Goods stations of the NBR and Caley happily co-existed side-by-side into the 1950s, when British Railway in their wisdom renamed the ex-NBR station Leith South and ex-CR station Leith East. The latter closed in the 1970s, the former lasted into the 1990s, its yard (South Leith Yard) is still technically in use, but has not seen any traffic in the best part of 10 years.
The last set of Leith-named stations were those of Leith Walk – none of which are actually in Leith by any definition later than the 18th century! Leith Walk passenger station was opened by the NBR in 1869 when they built a diversionary line from Waverley station to Trinity via Abbeyhill to avoid the awkward Scotland Street tunnel. Passenger stations were added along the line, including where it passed under Leith Walk at Shrubhill. An enormous goods yard was provided on the east side of the Walk. When the Caley opened their Leith New Lines in 1903, they also provided a goods yard for Leith Walk, further to the north. Both were called Leith Walk (goods) so inevitably were referred to as the North British or Caley to differentiate them.
The Leith Walk. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The passenger station closed in 1930, another victim of competition from the electric tramway. After nationalisation, the ever wise British Railways decided to rationalise matters and renamed the ex-NBR station Leith Walk East and the ex-Caley station Leith Walk West. This makes perfect sense in principle to a naming committee in a far off office, except it results in Leith Walk East being more westerly than Leith Walk West on account of Leith Walk not running on a true north-south axis! Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to the names of Leith’s railway stations!

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget) by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur
#NowAndThen #CaledonianRailway #Caley #EdinburghDalkeithRailway #NorthBritishRailway #RailwayStations #Railways #transport #Transportation #Written2019

#nowandthen #caledonianrailway #caley #edinburghdalkeithrailway #northbritishrailway #railwaystations
Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-11-16 · 01:30 UTC

The thread about the baffling naming of Leith railway stations; know your North Leith from your Leith North; which South Leith is which and whether Leith Walk West or Leith Walk East is westmost!

This thread was originally written and published in September 2019.

We went to visit Trinity House expecting to find some treasures of Leith maritime history, but we were surprised to find some local railway history hidden round the back too, a bench from South Leith Railway Station which closed way, way back in 1903.
South Leith station bench
So let’s go on a little #NowAndThen visual trip down memory lane to South Leith station. The view is taken from Constitution Street looking east along the trackbed, what is now Tower Street. The tall remnant of buildings behind were part of the first Leith gas works, before they moved to Granton with the Edinburgh gas works. The station building is on the right, with the single platform behind it.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr
This was the first railway station in Leith, and was originally named as such when it opened in 1832 as an extension of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. This line ran from St. Leonards in Edinburgh to Midlothian, Leith being accessed by a reverse junction near Niddrie. This was the so-called “Innocent Railway“, in Scotch Gauge of 4ft 6in and horse drawn throughout. Looking the other way towards the Shore (and a prime example of that dreadful noughties architectural fad for oversized and inappropriate corner rotundas) we see Leith’s old Tower in the distance down Tower Street. Notice that the railway was not quite aligned with the modern Tower Street, but parallel. This continuation of the line beyond Constitution Street gave access to the east side of the port and its industries.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr.
The station was on the sea front when it was built, with Leith Sands beyond and the high tide line beyond that. The railway providing a new boundary between land and shore as Leith crept northwards into the Forth. This station was handy for the Shore, where the steamers left from at the time, but was quickly swallowed up by seaward extensions of the docks and became increasingly inconveniently positioned. In 1845 the North British Railway bought over the Edinburgh & Dalkeith and set about converting their new possession into standard gauge and steam power. However, they were not interested in passenger traffic here – it was routes South from Edinburgh that had caused them to buy the E&DR – and closed South Leith to passengers in 1846. The line remained open for dock traffic, always it’s primary purpose as it had been built as a direct connection to the Midlothian Coalfield.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Tower Street (blue), Constitution Street (yellow) and South Leith Station (orange)
The naming of Leith’s railway stations was always a bit confusing. For a relatively small place, it had a lot of various stations and they were often duplicated due to the competing nature of the North British (NBR) and Caledonian Railways (CR), who fought petulantly with each other for access to the lucrative docks and industrial traffic. To add confusion, when most of these stations were first named, Leith was two distinct municipal parishes; South Leith and North Leith. These are ancient names, referring to the banks of the river of Water of Leith on which they lie, geographically they are more east and westerly of one and other than south and northerly. At various times there were stations called Leith, Leith Central, South Leith, North Leith, Leith North, Leith Citadel, Leith East, Leith Walk, Leith Walk West and Leith Walk East! (And that’s not counting those stations in the Leith boundaries which don’t have “Leith” in their name.)
An animated timeline of railways and railway stations in Leith, from 1830 – 1990. Dock, mineral and private sidings omitted for clarity. © Self
The next station to open in Leith was North Leith in 1846. It was opened as a branch of the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton Railway, which ran from Canal Street Station (at right angles to the present day Waverley), through the Scotland Street Tunnel to Trinity and on to a rail ferry at Granton Docks. The NBR bought this railway too in 1862 and experimented with calling the station variously Leith Citadel or Leith North, before settling back on North Leith. They re-opened the old Edinburgh & Dalkeith Leith station in 1859 as a single platform called South Leith.
The next arrival was that of the Caledonian Railway, who opened a station called Leith in 1869 on a rather circuitous line around the North and West of the city from Princes Street Station via Roseburn and Newhaven. It would be renamed North Leith in 1903. To get around the confusion of two rival North Leith stations being a few hundred metres from each other on the same street, most maps stuck with Leith for the Caley station and North Leith for the NBR. To locals it would just have been the Caley and North British stations.
Railway Stations of Leith on the NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The North Leith muddles would be solved in 1947 when the ex-NBR station, by now 24 years in the LNER grouping, was closed to passenger traffic. Rather pointlessly, 5 years later the ex-Caley North Leith was renamed Leith North, and the ex-NBR North Leith goods station once again became Leith Citadel!
The renaming of the Caley station was not the only change on the Leith railway map in 1903; this was the year the North British opened their (far too) vast station at Leith Central – which of course was well to the south of South Leith… It’s arrival resulted in the closure of the latter station for the second and final time. Leith Central was on a fairly short branch from Waverley via Abbeyhill, but could never match the electric tramway on speed, frequency, convenience and on proximity to destinations, so it always struggled for patronage. Leith Central was the last major railway terminus built in Scotland, and had a short life, closing in 1952 after a fairly unintense life. It had been built more as a symbol of the NBR‘s dominance and a blocker to the Caley opening a passenger station in the centre of Leith than anything else.
Leith Central Station at the bottom. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
Those grand Caley plans were the Leith New Lines, a very expensive and winding route around Leith to connect the eastern and western sides of the Docks. Large goods stations were opened at Bonnington, Leith Walk, Restalrig and South Leith; where it caused confusion with the NBR South Leith goods station. The Caley had wanted to provide passenger stations too; the platforms and some other structures for these were actually built, at Victoria Park in Trinity and above street level on Leith Walk on the Gordon Street railway arches. After Leith Walk, the intention was a costly branch to Princes Street station from a junction near Lochend via tunnels under Calton Hill and cut-and-cover tunnelling of Princes Street itself. None of these plans came to fruition though, the NBR‘s massive Leith Central meant it would have been a costly folly (which Leith Central admittedly also was).
The Leith New Lines. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The two parallel, neighbouring South Leith Goods stations of the NBR and Caley happily co-existed side-by-side into the 1950s, when British Railway in their wisdom renamed the ex-NBR station Leith South and ex-CR station Leith East. The latter closed in the 1970s, the former lasted into the 1990s, its yard (South Leith Yard) is still technically in use, but has not seen any traffic in the best part of 10 years.
The last set of Leith-named stations were those of Leith Walk – none of which are actually in Leith by any definition later than the 18th century! Leith Walk passenger station was opened by the NBR in 1869 when they built a diversionary line from Waverley station to Trinity via Abbeyhill to avoid the awkward Scotland Street tunnel. Passenger stations were added along the line, including where it passed under Leith Walk at Shrubhill. An enormous goods yard was provided on the east side of the Walk. When the Caley opened their Leith New Lines in 1903, they also provided a goods yard for Leith Walk, further to the north. Both were called Leith Walk (goods) so inevitably were referred to as the North British or Caley to differentiate them.
The Leith Walk. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The passenger station closed in 1930, another victim of competition from the electric tramway. After nationalisation, the ever wise British Railways decided to rationalise matters and renamed the ex-NBR station Leith Walk East and the ex-Caley station Leith Walk West. This makes perfect sense in principle to a naming committee in a far off office, except it results in Leith Walk East being more westerly than Leith Walk West on account of Leith Walk not running on a true north-south axis! Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to the names of Leith’s railway stations!

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget) by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur
#NowAndThen #CaledonianRailway #Caley #EdinburghDalkeithRailway #NorthBritishRailway #RailwayStations #Railways #transport #Transportation #Written2019

#nowandthen #caledonianrailway #caley #edinburghdalkeithrailway #northbritishrailway #railwaystations
Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-11-16 · 01:30 UTC

The thread about the baffling naming of Leith railway stations; know your North Leith from your Leith North; which South Leith is which and whether Leith Walk West or Leith Walk East is westmost!

This thread was originally written and published in September 2019.

We went to visit Trinity House expecting to find some treasures of Leith maritime history, but we were surprised to find some local railway history hidden round the back too, a bench from South Leith Railway Station which closed way, way back in 1903.
South Leith station bench
So let’s go on a little #NowAndThen visual trip down memory lane to South Leith station. The view is taken from Constitution Street looking east along the trackbed, what is now Tower Street. The tall remnant of buildings behind were part of the first Leith gas works, before they moved to Granton with the Edinburgh gas works. The station building is on the right, with the single platform behind it.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr
This was the first railway station in Leith, and was originally named as such when it opened in 1832 as an extension of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. This line ran from St. Leonards in Edinburgh to Midlothian, Leith being accessed by a reverse junction near Niddrie. This was the so-called “Innocent Railway“, in Scotch Gauge of 4ft 6in and horse drawn throughout. Looking the other way towards the Shore (and a prime example of that dreadful noughties architectural fad for oversized and inappropriate corner rotundas) we see Leith’s old Tower in the distance down Tower Street. Notice that the railway was not quite aligned with the modern Tower Street, but parallel. This continuation of the line beyond Constitution Street gave access to the east side of the port and its industries.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr.
The station was on the sea front when it was built, with Leith Sands beyond and the high tide line beyond that. The railway providing a new boundary between land and shore as Leith crept northwards into the Forth. This station was handy for the Shore, where the steamers left from at the time, but was quickly swallowed up by seaward extensions of the docks and became increasingly inconveniently positioned. In 1845 the North British Railway bought over the Edinburgh & Dalkeith and set about converting their new possession into standard gauge and steam power. However, they were not interested in passenger traffic here – it was routes South from Edinburgh that had caused them to buy the E&DR – and closed South Leith to passengers in 1846. The line remained open for dock traffic, always it’s primary purpose as it had been built as a direct connection to the Midlothian Coalfield.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Tower Street (blue), Constitution Street (yellow) and South Leith Station (orange)
The naming of Leith’s railway stations was always a bit confusing. For a relatively small place, it had a lot of various stations and they were often duplicated due to the competing nature of the North British (NBR) and Caledonian Railways (CR), who fought petulantly with each other for access to the lucrative docks and industrial traffic. To add confusion, when most of these stations were first named, Leith was two distinct municipal parishes; South Leith and North Leith. These are ancient names, referring to the banks of the river of Water of Leith on which they lie, geographically they are more east and westerly of one and other than south and northerly. At various times there were stations called Leith, Leith Central, South Leith, North Leith, Leith North, Leith Citadel, Leith East, Leith Walk, Leith Walk West and Leith Walk East! (And that’s not counting those stations in the Leith boundaries which don’t have “Leith” in their name.)
An animated timeline of railways and railway stations in Leith, from 1830 – 1990. Dock, mineral and private sidings omitted for clarity. © Self
The next station to open in Leith was North Leith in 1846. It was opened as a branch of the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton Railway, which ran from Canal Street Station (at right angles to the present day Waverley), through the Scotland Street Tunnel to Trinity and on to a rail ferry at Granton Docks. The NBR bought this railway too in 1862 and experimented with calling the station variously Leith Citadel or Leith North, before settling back on North Leith. They re-opened the old Edinburgh & Dalkeith Leith station in 1859 as a single platform called South Leith.
The next arrival was that of the Caledonian Railway, who opened a station called Leith in 1869 on a rather circuitous line around the North and West of the city from Princes Street Station via Roseburn and Newhaven. It would be renamed North Leith in 1903. To get around the confusion of two rival North Leith stations being a few hundred metres from each other on the same street, most maps stuck with Leith for the Caley station and North Leith for the NBR. To locals it would just have been the Caley and North British stations.
Railway Stations of Leith on the NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The North Leith muddles would be solved in 1947 when the ex-NBR station, by now 24 years in the LNER grouping, was closed to passenger traffic. Rather pointlessly, 5 years later the ex-Caley North Leith was renamed Leith North, and the ex-NBR North Leith goods station once again became Leith Citadel!
The renaming of the Caley station was not the only change on the Leith railway map in 1903; this was the year the North British opened their (far too) vast station at Leith Central – which of course was well to the south of South Leith… It’s arrival resulted in the closure of the latter station for the second and final time. Leith Central was on a fairly short branch from Waverley via Abbeyhill, but could never match the electric tramway on speed, frequency, convenience and on proximity to destinations, so it always struggled for patronage. Leith Central was the last major railway terminus built in Scotland, and had a short life, closing in 1952 after a fairly unintense life. It had been built more as a symbol of the NBR‘s dominance and a blocker to the Caley opening a passenger station in the centre of Leith than anything else.
Leith Central Station at the bottom. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
Those grand Caley plans were the Leith New Lines, a very expensive and winding route around Leith to connect the eastern and western sides of the Docks. Large goods stations were opened at Bonnington, Leith Walk, Restalrig and South Leith; where it caused confusion with the NBR South Leith goods station. The Caley had wanted to provide passenger stations too; the platforms and some other structures for these were actually built, at Victoria Park in Trinity and above street level on Leith Walk on the Gordon Street railway arches. After Leith Walk, the intention was a costly branch to Princes Street station from a junction near Lochend via tunnels under Calton Hill and cut-and-cover tunnelling of Princes Street itself. None of these plans came to fruition though, the NBR‘s massive Leith Central meant it would have been a costly folly (which Leith Central admittedly also was).
The Leith New Lines. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The two parallel, neighbouring South Leith Goods stations of the NBR and Caley happily co-existed side-by-side into the 1950s, when British Railway in their wisdom renamed the ex-NBR station Leith South and ex-CR station Leith East. The latter closed in the 1970s, the former lasted into the 1990s, its yard (South Leith Yard) is still technically in use, but has not seen any traffic in the best part of 10 years.
The last set of Leith-named stations were those of Leith Walk – none of which are actually in Leith by any definition later than the 18th century! Leith Walk passenger station was opened by the NBR in 1869 when they built a diversionary line from Waverley station to Trinity via Abbeyhill to avoid the awkward Scotland Street tunnel. Passenger stations were added along the line, including where it passed under Leith Walk at Shrubhill. An enormous goods yard was provided on the east side of the Walk. When the Caley opened their Leith New Lines in 1903, they also provided a goods yard for Leith Walk, further to the north. Both were called Leith Walk (goods) so inevitably were referred to as the North British or Caley to differentiate them.
The Leith Walk. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The passenger station closed in 1930, another victim of competition from the electric tramway. After nationalisation, the ever wise British Railways decided to rationalise matters and renamed the ex-NBR station Leith Walk East and the ex-Caley station Leith Walk West. This makes perfect sense in principle to a naming committee in a far off office, except it results in Leith Walk East being more westerly than Leith Walk West on account of Leith Walk not running on a true north-south axis! Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to the names of Leith’s railway stations!

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget) by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur
#NowAndThen #CaledonianRailway #Caley #EdinburghDalkeithRailway #NorthBritishRailway #RailwayStations #Railways #transport #Transportation #Written2019

#written2019 #transportation #transport #railways #railwaystations #northbritishrailway
Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-11-16 · 01:30 UTC

The thread about the baffling naming of Leith railway stations; know your North Leith from your Leith North; which South Leith is which and whether Leith Walk West or Leith Walk East is westmost!

This thread was originally written and published in September 2019.

We went to visit Trinity House expecting to find some treasures of Leith maritime history, but we were surprised to find some local railway history hidden round the back too, a bench from South Leith Railway Station which closed way, way back in 1903.
South Leith station bench
So let’s go on a little #NowAndThen visual trip down memory lane to South Leith station. The view is taken from Constitution Street looking east along the trackbed, what is now Tower Street. The tall remnant of buildings behind were part of the first Leith gas works, before they moved to Granton with the Edinburgh gas works. The station building is on the right, with the single platform behind it.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr
This was the first railway station in Leith, and was originally named as such when it opened in 1832 as an extension of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. This line ran from St. Leonards in Edinburgh to Midlothian, Leith being accessed by a reverse junction near Niddrie. This was the so-called “Innocent Railway“, in Scotch Gauge of 4ft 6in and horse drawn throughout. Looking the other way towards the Shore (and a prime example of that dreadful noughties architectural fad for oversized and inappropriate corner rotundas) we see Leith’s old Tower in the distance down Tower Street. Notice that the railway was not quite aligned with the modern Tower Street, but parallel. This continuation of the line beyond Constitution Street gave access to the east side of the port and its industries.
Original source: Kenneth G. Williamson on Flickr.
The station was on the sea front when it was built, with Leith Sands beyond and the high tide line beyond that. The railway providing a new boundary between land and shore as Leith crept northwards into the Forth. This station was handy for the Shore, where the steamers left from at the time, but was quickly swallowed up by seaward extensions of the docks and became increasingly inconveniently positioned. In 1845 the North British Railway bought over the Edinburgh & Dalkeith and set about converting their new possession into standard gauge and steam power. However, they were not interested in passenger traffic here – it was routes South from Edinburgh that had caused them to buy the E&DR – and closed South Leith to passengers in 1846. The line remained open for dock traffic, always it’s primary purpose as it had been built as a direct connection to the Midlothian Coalfield.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Tower Street (blue), Constitution Street (yellow) and South Leith Station (orange)
The naming of Leith’s railway stations was always a bit confusing. For a relatively small place, it had a lot of various stations and they were often duplicated due to the competing nature of the North British (NBR) and Caledonian Railways (CR), who fought petulantly with each other for access to the lucrative docks and industrial traffic. To add confusion, when most of these stations were first named, Leith was two distinct municipal parishes; South Leith and North Leith. These are ancient names, referring to the banks of the river of Water of Leith on which they lie, geographically they are more east and westerly of one and other than south and northerly. At various times there were stations called Leith, Leith Central, South Leith, North Leith, Leith North, Leith Citadel, Leith East, Leith Walk, Leith Walk West and Leith Walk East! (And that’s not counting those stations in the Leith boundaries which don’t have “Leith” in their name.)
An animated timeline of railways and railway stations in Leith, from 1830 – 1990. Dock, mineral and private sidings omitted for clarity. © Self
The next station to open in Leith was North Leith in 1846. It was opened as a branch of the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton Railway, which ran from Canal Street Station (at right angles to the present day Waverley), through the Scotland Street Tunnel to Trinity and on to a rail ferry at Granton Docks. The NBR bought this railway too in 1862 and experimented with calling the station variously Leith Citadel or Leith North, before settling back on North Leith. They re-opened the old Edinburgh & Dalkeith Leith station in 1859 as a single platform called South Leith.
The next arrival was that of the Caledonian Railway, who opened a station called Leith in 1869 on a rather circuitous line around the North and West of the city from Princes Street Station via Roseburn and Newhaven. It would be renamed North Leith in 1903. To get around the confusion of two rival North Leith stations being a few hundred metres from each other on the same street, most maps stuck with Leith for the Caley station and North Leith for the NBR. To locals it would just have been the Caley and North British stations.
Railway Stations of Leith on the NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The North Leith muddles would be solved in 1947 when the ex-NBR station, by now 24 years in the LNER grouping, was closed to passenger traffic. Rather pointlessly, 5 years later the ex-Caley North Leith was renamed Leith North, and the ex-NBR North Leith goods station once again became Leith Citadel!
The renaming of the Caley station was not the only change on the Leith railway map in 1903; this was the year the North British opened their (far too) vast station at Leith Central – which of course was well to the south of South Leith… It’s arrival resulted in the closure of the latter station for the second and final time. Leith Central was on a fairly short branch from Waverley via Abbeyhill, but could never match the electric tramway on speed, frequency, convenience and on proximity to destinations, so it always struggled for patronage. Leith Central was the last major railway terminus built in Scotland, and had a short life, closing in 1952 after a fairly unintense life. It had been built more as a symbol of the NBR‘s dominance and a blocker to the Caley opening a passenger station in the centre of Leith than anything else.
Leith Central Station at the bottom. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
Those grand Caley plans were the Leith New Lines, a very expensive and winding route around Leith to connect the eastern and western sides of the Docks. Large goods stations were opened at Bonnington, Leith Walk, Restalrig and South Leith; where it caused confusion with the NBR South Leith goods station. The Caley had wanted to provide passenger stations too; the platforms and some other structures for these were actually built, at Victoria Park in Trinity and above street level on Leith Walk on the Gordon Street railway arches. After Leith Walk, the intention was a costly branch to Princes Street station from a junction near Lochend via tunnels under Calton Hill and cut-and-cover tunnelling of Princes Street itself. None of these plans came to fruition though, the NBR‘s massive Leith Central meant it would have been a costly folly (which Leith Central admittedly also was).
The Leith New Lines. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The two parallel, neighbouring South Leith Goods stations of the NBR and Caley happily co-existed side-by-side into the 1950s, when British Railway in their wisdom renamed the ex-NBR station Leith South and ex-CR station Leith East. The latter closed in the 1970s, the former lasted into the 1990s, its yard (South Leith Yard) is still technically in use, but has not seen any traffic in the best part of 10 years.
The last set of Leith-named stations were those of Leith Walk – none of which are actually in Leith by any definition later than the 18th century! Leith Walk passenger station was opened by the NBR in 1869 when they built a diversionary line from Waverley station to Trinity via Abbeyhill to avoid the awkward Scotland Street tunnel. Passenger stations were added along the line, including where it passed under Leith Walk at Shrubhill. An enormous goods yard was provided on the east side of the Walk. When the Caley opened their Leith New Lines in 1903, they also provided a goods yard for Leith Walk, further to the north. Both were called Leith Walk (goods) so inevitably were referred to as the North British or Caley to differentiate them.
The Leith Walk. NBR (olive) and CR (blue) railways, later the LNER and LMS © Self
The passenger station closed in 1930, another victim of competition from the electric tramway. After nationalisation, the ever wise British Railways decided to rationalise matters and renamed the ex-NBR station Leith Walk East and the ex-Caley station Leith Walk West. This makes perfect sense in principle to a naming committee in a far off office, except it results in Leith Walk East being more westerly than Leith Walk West on account of Leith Walk not running on a true north-south axis! Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to the names of Leith’s railway stations!

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget) by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur
#NowAndThen #CaledonianRailway #Caley #EdinburghDalkeithRailway #NorthBritishRailway #RailwayStations #Railways #transport #Transportation #Written2019

#nowandthen #caledonianrailway #caley #edinburghdalkeithrailway #northbritishrailway #railwaystations
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2024-12-27 · 18:00 UTC
Dolphin Whisperer’s and Ferox’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dolphin Whisperer

Dolphin Whisperer
Every year, its end becomes more shocking and swift. Once, some guy told me, simply, “it only gets worse.” Not life though—attributing a better or worse or any sort of constant determination of our passage leaves a lot of room for falling into a void of enjoyment—life is, after all, a constant until its not. But time, or our sense of being in its too ever-present stream, flows at a rate that changes in ways to which we never quite catch up.
As such, there’s a comfort in knowing how much time an album, particularly one you enjoy will take. For the ten-to-twenty minutes it takes for grindcore proper to slap me silly or the forty-to-eighty minutes that it takes for my deepest progressive loves to wring out a moaning confession, I know where my attention lies, even if it’s only half there and half on a task at hand. Time and tasks, day to night, play to stop, music makes my world a better place. And entering my now third year at Angry Metal Guy, an institution that has been a fixture of my musical journey for even longer, I continue to hold a profound gratitude and excitement for another year of discovery.
2024 has had its challenges professionally and personally. 2025 will be no doubt the same, even if some trials we can see forming in the distance. But you want to know about the music, right? On that end, 2024 has yielded a heaping trove of great albums. Heck, even a Rodeö pick scratched at the rungs of an honorable mention. The below list barely scratches the surface of the breadth that the year has offered. Further down you will see Ferox‘s list, which captures a different collection equally rooted in joy. He might be more right than I am. But that matters little. Celebrate with us, your favorite collective of writers on the world wide web! Come hang with some of us on Discord too if you’d like. Most of the people there are certified flea-free. And don’t be too upset if 2025 doesn’t hit you the same at first. It’s just another year, and it’ll be over before you know it.

#ish. Kalandra // A Frame of Mind – At my core, I consider myself a Norwegian sad girl. Usually, this manifests in some sort of weepy, melancholy prog, the likes of Age of Silence or Madder Mortem.1 But Kalandra’s enfolkened an impassioned take on an artsy, progressive collection of empowering tunes hit me square in my aching heart from the moment I heard it. Most importantly, though, Kalandra knows that suffering is just a step on the path of growth and happiness, which is a message that inspires me every day.
#10. Dawnwalker // The Unknowing – The power to dream and envision a world driven by mysticism has an allure that’s hard to ignore. And while we know that more determinable laws guide the happenings of our daily lives, a glimpse of the unknown will always find its way into sequence. Dawnwalker putting this esoteric but ever-present concept into an atmospheric, genre-warped, playfully progressive package hardly surprises me, though. The British troupe has had my number since their unsung classic In Rooms,2 so I’m doing my last in continuing to love them despite Twelve‘s best efforts to underrate them.3
#9. Lizzard // Mesh – Lizzard’s 2021 opus Eroded is my favorite album of this decade so far. The French trio’s ability to warp deep, rhythm-tricky layers into driving and emotional rock songs his me at the core of my musical desire for cathartic hope expressed in an unassuming and lush framework. Mesh doesn’t present any differently in that regard. But its wrinkles on Lizzard’s timeless yet ’90s alternative-rooted oeuvre fuel Mesh’s inherent melancholy with a hope that’s jubilant, like a cracked smile on an overcast day.
#8. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – [INCOMING TRANSMISSION.] “My name is Clyde, and I arrive from beyond with wonderful news. My good friend Ferox has survived this timeline after all, having learned to navigate the Lower Form Resistance assault of fast-twitch rhythms and slow-twitch death metal punctuation. His head, fully intact, sways wildly in its hairless glory—big dives for big skanking breaks, snappy rolls for whiplash accelerations. He may not be as rhythmically gifted in pit-galloping cadence as the virtuoso drum and bass duo that provides life to Dissimulator’s effortless strides, but Ferox is my everything nonetheless.” [END TRANSMISSION.]
#7. Mamaleek // Vida Blue – I couldn’t begin to tell you what has never landed about Mamaleek’s works before with a weird precision. As an act dedicated to sounding only like Mamaleek, their singular expression of tortured black(ish) metal warped by jazzy and slogging attitudes has manifested quite the take-it-or-leave-it musical experience. And while you, dear reader, may assume this is firmly up my alley, it has not been. At least not until Vida Blue served a bottom of the ninth heart-shaker as an ode to a departed friend.4 With a soulful swing, a tortured connection, and an exit velocity powered by equal parts loss and love, Mamaleek has clinched a campaign for my attention.
#6. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – As an apex predator in the brutal death metal world, Defeated Sanity’s appearance arouses not questions of competency but rather calculations of the carnage wrought. Chronicles of Lunacy does not mark a turning point or novel twist in the Defeated Sanity timeline—its finely tuned lashings hit as inescapable all the same. When neither a beast’s reach, nor mass, nor attack speed goes contested, an exhibition of its might will flash with morbid glee. As such, Defeated Sanity need not surprise to strike mortal wound. Chronicles’ fangs glisten with an aged-imbrued tarnish, tearing at my flesh in every way I would expect. And I want more.
#5. Orgone // Pleroma – Meticulous and constructed as a master-work, Pleroma’s opening notes signal a trance. Acoustic twang and chamber instrument-fueled swoon build an atmosphere of wonder against a fervent and languished march of post-genre swells and death-fueled crescendos. Cycling through its many shades feels less like a fever dream and more of a trial-filled journey. Wielding a demure grandeur, Pleroma’s effortless realization of Orgone’s peerless vision never feels like the epic journey its runtime suggests. Were my time truly infinite, Pleroma would be even harder to rip away from the queue.
#4. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – A lady screaming bloody murder shouldn’t go down this smooth, but that’s always been the promise and success of Julie Christmas. Few vocalists leave me slack-jawed and ear-shaken in the wake of piercing cries, raw-throated shrieks, and impassioned lyrical slather. Yet, Ridiculous and Full of Blood cuts track after track out of sonic patterns that do exactly that, all while empowering a full band expression of alternative-laced grooves, post-informed climbs, and punk-tied sneer. The Christmas season sums a flurry of inspired performances under the banner of a madwoman. And I stand at the ready to fray my vocal cords in attempt to crack with the same battle-tested precision that Ms. Christmas has earned from a life hard-worn.
#3. Ingurgitating Oblivion // Ontology of Nought – Though born of minds unrelated, Ontology of Nought exists as an esoteric companion to the Pleroma embodiment. Orgone is the twin that went to conservatory, graduated with honors, and holds an honorable performing chair, all while remembering its young love for death metal. Ingurgitating Oblivion, on the other hand, dropped out, spiraled into entheogenic dissociation, earns a living gigging at jazz clubs—also maintains its youthful lust for the clamoring riff and hammering blast. Maximalism oozes a frothing wonder in the hiss of distorted chatter and rhythmic mastery. An imperfect and breathing construction rises and falls in ethereal inhales and vision-spinning mantras. Ontology of Nought deserves each of its over-budget minutes. Invest time in the freedom that it promises… “and cease to be.”
#2. OU // 蘇醒 II: Frailty – The casualness of OU’s inception belies its profound leap into my necessary rotation. No incumbent love ever has a defined position in the halls of end-of-year accolades,5 and even more so when the act’s very presence rang suspicious in its finely-tuned invasion to my critical wiles. But, as I noted when I first blew my love for 蘇醒 II: Frailty over the pages of Angry Metal Guy, it’s OU’s “idiosyncratic atmosphere” that pulls from a “polyrhythmic hypnosis” and masterful “energetic flow” that continues to chart them deservedly high in the annals of ’20s progressive music. And while this collision of classically-minded, synth-addicted madness slowly expands its universe one OU release at a time, I’m content to sit here and yell their praises at anyone who will listen.
#1. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – You know you’re getting old when an album about modern burnout and the pains of traffic resonates with you all the way from frozen shoulder to radiating lower back to cold-groaning knee. But when Pyrrhon stealth-bombed my aging metalhead mind with a tech-dial riff barrage of noisy and shouting proportions, I had no choice but to surrender. Exhaust demands attention from its initial irony-laced lift-off to its closing brutalist clock-out, swinging skronk-enabled splatters and ache-addled vituperation around every faded line and pothole in its death metal architecture. Though Pyrrhon uses simpler blocks, their construction here defies convention at every step. One fine commenter summed up Exhaust in the most succinct manner in that regard: “Death Metal, Hardcore, Noise Rock, Technical Death Metal. It’s just mathcore.” Except they took away the wrong message from that distillation. The verdict, in fact, is fuck you.
Honorable Mentions:
- Inner Strength // Daydreaming in Moonlight – Another way you know you’re getting old is that you love an album that sounds like it should have released in 1995. Alas, here we are.
  Dysrhythmia // Coffin of Conviction – Instrumental progressive music should be as exciting as Dysrhythmia. Comes for the Martyr riffs. Stay for the Metheny floating.
  Beaten to Death // Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis – Beaten to Death is still the best grindcore band on the planet. They probably won’t ever release a better album than Dødsfest!, but that’s OK. Their discography is now about two hours total. Go listen to it if you haven’t.
  Stygian Crown // Funeral for a King – Doom should always have a guitar tone that feels equally powered by swords and beer alongside vocals that feel soft like bar-stained leather stools.
  Kollapse // AR – I didn’t know KEN mode had a Danish doppelgänger with a frightening, large pink face. But they do, and boy does Kollapse know how to yell and riff.
  Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // of the Last Human Being – Had I infinitely more listening time, I may have been able to parse better this deeply cinematic and wacky slab of no wave emboldened prog. Most don’t actually earn the avant-garde tag the way SGT does.
  Defying // Wadera – Hour-long albums based on old Polish werewolf stories and horror movies shouldn’t be this easy to repeat, but I find myself often falling into Wadera’s unbreakable spell.
  Arthouse Fatso // Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature – I didn’t have radically-minded industrial deathgrind about the frustrated escapades of a fictional Orson Welles life on my 2024 bingo, but here I am telling you to listen to it anyway.
  Concrete Winds // Concrete Winds – Just this. And shitloads of riffs.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
- Myrath // Karma – I love Shehili so much. My love for power metal isn’t what it used to be, but Myrath’s exuberance while staying rooted in both the trickier waters of prog and the anthemic cries of power metal gave me hope both that I’d continue to latch on to the kind of playful love it can offer. But the arrangements on Karma, despite Myrath’s still life-affirming messages, do absolutely nothing to bolster that same joy for me. Karma sinks my listening brain. And that hurts.
- Pallbearer // Mind Burns Alive – The continued non-success of Pallbearer and their sleepy-toned take on creaky prog rock hurts the Dolph who fell in love with their weepy doom classic (and still controversial to true doomsters) Heartless. And yet the general blogging population seems to praise them for trying to reinvent sadboi roots rock with worse lyrics. And, for my money, Pallbearer is sounding increasingly thin live. If a return to glory is in store for Pallbearer, it will begin with them finally playing a riff again.
- Polterguts // Nobody Likes You – Okay, this EP actually rips because Polterguts rips. Hard. But, Polterguts, if you’re reading this, please put it on Bandcamp so I can link the shit out of it and give you money. I am disappointed that I have no way to contribute currency to your cause. “Ricky Has a Knife2” is worth the price of admission alone.
Songs o’ the Year:

Why give you one when I can give you twenty-seven? Why twenty-seven? That’s my secret. Now, I’ve talked enough, go out there and enjoy some music, friends. And enjoy this photo of my dogs.

Coconut (left), Kiwi (right) in a stylish Adidog sweater.

Ferox
I worked way too much in 2024. I can’t complain; it was meaningful work that I chose to take on, and it got me that much closer to not having to work at all if I don’t want to. Still, that’s what I’ll think of when I think of 2024: lots and lots of work. That had a knock-on effect, especially when it comes to hobbies like lifting, getting out to national parks, and writing here. I did very little of any of that. I kept up with metal as best I could, and embarked on a big end-of-year listening push to have an accurate picture of what came out in 2024. I’m grateful that I got to do a list at all this year, so I took the responsibility seriously… but I’d be lying if I said I was buried in the scene all year.
One of the highlights of my 2024 was meeting a whole slew of staffers in person. I traveled a bunch this year, both for work and for my daughter’s ballet pursuits, and with that came the chance to hang with some of the people who make this place go. My body count of staffers met this year: Steel Druhm, Madam X, Cherd, Twelve, Dr. Wyrm, Thus Spoke, El Cuervo, Doom et al, and Holdeneye. It was a veritable orgy of almost entirely chaste fellowship, and only one (1) bad hang among the lot!6
I’m grateful to Steel Druhm and Angry Metal Guy for indulging my schedule, and for the real leadership they provide at my fake job. I found this unique community because it had the best music writing on the internet, and that remains true today thanks to the talented people who contribute their time and enthusiasm to keeping the machinery humming. I’m lucky to be a small part of it, and hopeful that 2025 will give me more time to spend in the Hall.

#ish. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – My “-ish” spot typically goes to an album that might have listed if I just had more time with it. That holds true of the sophomore effort from Indianapolis’s Mother of Graves, which landed on my radar by way of Carcharadon‘s excellent TYHMHM piece. This slab of classic sadboi death doom transcends any tribcore concerns through sheer quality of execution. From opener “Gallows” through final track “Like Darkness to a Dying Flame,” The Periapt of Absence guides the listener through the stages of grief with varied compositions that maintain a consistent mood throughout. Classic death doom is alive and well.
#10. Wormed // Omegon – Maddog‘s compelling rave for Omegon is my personal Review o’ the Year; fortunately, the prose was well spent on this efficient and brutal riff delivery system. Wormed has been creating slam-adjacent otherworldly death metal for a good while now, and Omegon is a distillation of everything the band has learned over the past two decades. 2024 is the year I realized I’ve been a brutal death metal guy all along. With songs like “Pareidolia Robotica” and “Virtual Teratogenesis,” Wormed took me by the hand and guided me through this journey of self-discovery… all while the people in the offices around me called in noise complaints.
#9. Ripped to Shreds // Sanshi – The already impressive Ripped to Shreds leveled up with Sanshi, a blast of aggressive but technically adept death metal that never left my rotation after its release. The guitar hero shredding plays like a release valve to the vicious and punky energy that Andrew Lee injects into his compositions. This cycle of tension and release makes for an addictive listen that feels like it ends mere moments after you hit play. The thrash elements of the R2S sounds are more prevalent on Sanshi, meaning the band now scratches the same itch for me that Horrendous did with their last killer slab.
#8. Scumbag // Homicide Cult – Scumbag! SCUUUMMMMBAGGGG. This nasty bit of business, with its deathgrind touches and morbid sense of humor (“Pure Adrenaline Hard-On,” “The Meating”), was tailor-made for the Ferox sensibility. Herein lie twenty-eight minutes of death metal that never slams but still walks the same line that Wormhole managed to last year: brutal but somehow cheerful, and stoopid without being remotely dumb. Dylan Cruz, of this band and Noxis, came out of nowhere to occupy a huge chunk of my limited listening time this year.
#7. Black Curse // Burning in Celestial Poison – With Burning in Celestial Poison, Black Curse stages a forty-five-minute takeover of your central nervous system. Eldritch Elitist captured the elemental power of these five compositions better than I ever could, but this album gave me exactly what I needed in a 2024 that was characterized by an extreme lack of work-life balance. Metal can provide a safe outlet for less-than-savory feelings, and Black Curse expressed a lot of things for me that I couldn’t express myself and stay employed. Lose yourself in these five tracks and emerge scoured but smarter.
#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – The hot streak continues; Songs of Blood and Mire, Spectral Wound’s fourth album, is their best effort yet. Carcharadon capably cataloged crisp new cross-currents in the band’s sound, but the song quality remains the same. Tracks like “At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls” and Song o’ the Year “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” showcase the band’s gift for coupling aggression with sweeping melody. In this way, Spectral Wound recalls Watain without so much distracting ooga-booga. Songs of Blood and Mire finds them continuing to refine their sound and grow in confidence.
#5. Endonomos // Endonomos II – Enlightenment – Endonomos carried the torch for doom in 2024. Enlightenment is a stately procession, its six long tracks blending influences from all across the doom spectrum. This is music that soars as it plods. Steel Druhm noted similarities to both Khemmis and Fvneral Fvkk. Those comps are perfect; not since Carnal Confessions has a doom album so effectively cut through the clutter of genre tropes to evoke genuine emotion.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I hate it when the promotional push for an album ties a record too strongly to the narrative of its creation. It’s like the record company is trying to force a reaction that the album itself might or might not evoke. So when Exhaust arrived with heavy-handed descriptions of process and what Pyrrhon went through trying to make the album happen, I bristled and stopped reading. Fortunately, the music on Exhaust speaks for itself. This is a bitter and blistering record that finds the band raging against their rage’s inability to change even a single thing. I’ve always appreciated Pyrrhon, but I’ve never connected with their music as immediately as I did on Exhaust.
#3. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Defeated Sanity has had quite the AMG journey. They’ve gone from being brushed aside by a n00b named Potato Jim to being on the receiving end of a double-4.0 fellating from the tenured likes of Dolphin Whisperer and Maddog. Chronicles of Lunacy finds Defeated Sanity extending the Colin Marston-enabled peak that they hit on 2020’s The Sanguinary Impetus. It takes extreme skill to weaponize the base and the stoopid this effectively. Defeated Sanity is more than up for the job.
#2. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Here’s another band that could be wrestling with The Law of Diminishing Recordings by now, but instead persists with quality release after quality release. Inter Arma never repeats themselves, but each of their albums could only come from them. Hot take: Sky Funeral has remained my favorite Inter Arma album even as they’ve racked up an epic run of excellence. New Heaven makes a run at unseating it. This is a slab that rewards the many repeated listens I gave it in 2024; it sat in my top slot for much of the year until a late-breaking favorite pushed it aside.
#1. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – This is my third time publishing a list at AMG; each previous year, I had clear Album o’the Year winners in Immolation’s Acts of God and Afterbirth’s In But Not Of. 2024 marked the first Listurnalia that began with an opening for my top slot. But as I weeded through my favorite music of the year, I realized: Noxis drew me in with the bass flourish at the beginning of album opener “Skullcrushing Defilement,” and they still haven’t let go. The Pittsburgher in me hates to credit anything from Cleveland, but Noxis weeded out that deeply rooted prejudice with their inventive and fresh take on death metal. Every track on Violence Inherent in the System is a wild ride that alternately crushes, challenges, and tickles. The only break from the madcap pace comes on mid-album interlude “Excursion,” but that just prepares you for the utter barking lunacy of “Horns Echo Over Chorazim.” That song incorporates strange arrangements that include various woodwind instruments, and somehow they do it with zero pretension and abundant commitment to brutality. Listurnalia may have begun with a blank space atop my list, but it ended with Noxis firmly entrenched as the winner of 2024.
Honorable Mentions:
- Stenched // Purulence Gushing from the Coffin – This one-man outfit captured that elusive filthy magic and spewed out the annum’s premiere filthy wallow.
  Aborted // Vault of Horrors – These Belgian veterans, long under-appreciated in the Hall, finally found their champion in Grier. They hooked themselves up to the juvenation machine by leaning into the melodeath that has been creeping into their sound, and cranked out their best set in years.
  Vitriol // Suffer and Become – Here’s a mean and heavy slab that seemed to fade from the general consciousness as the year wore on, but remains worthy of note.
Disappointment o’the Year:
Ferox! I just didn’t have time to make a meaningful contribution here this year. It has been a pleasure to watch other members of my n00b class like Dolph and Maddog and Thus become AMG institutions, even as I mostly watch from the sidelines and come out to play when I can.
Song o’the Year:
Imagine being asked to name your favorite song of the year, and responding with a twenty-seven song playlist!7

Show 7 footnotes
1. Whose very good outing is another in a long line of successes. Old Eyes, New Heart missing the cut should ring testament to how wonderful 2024 has been. ↩
2. In case you don’t know, Ampwall is a music e-commerce hub built by members of Woe as an alternative experience to Bandcamp. Vowing to maintain an artist-first and community-influenced direction, Ampwall holds a lot of promise to the musical underground. And the whole Dawnwalker discography digitally! ↩
3. Seems like a 4.0 innit. ilu Twelve. <3 ↩
4. Former Mamaleek keys maestro Eric Livingston. RIP. ↩
5. Pain of Salvation, feel free to read this and prove me a liar. ↩
6. It was Grier, right? – Steel ↩
7. Who would do such a thing? Surely, if one were to commit such a heinous act, they’d at least provide a cute dog picture to atone. – Dolph ↩
#2024 #AFrameOfMind #Aborted #AR #ArthouseFatso #BeatenToDeath #BlackCurse #BurningInCelestialPoison #ChroniclesOfLunacy #CoffinOfConviction #ConcreteWinds #Dawnwalker #DaydreamingInMoonlight #DefeatedSanity #Defying #Dissimulator #Dysrhythmia #Endonomos #EndonomosIIEnlightenment #Exhaust #FuneralForAKing #GodsOverBrokenPeople #HomicideCult #Horrendous #IngurgitatingOblivion #InnerStrength #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kalandra #Khemmis #Kollapse #Lists #Listurnalia #Listurnalia2024 #Lizzard #LowerFormResistance #Mamaleek #Mesh #MotherOfGraves #Myrath #NewHeaven #NobodyLikesYou #Noxis #OfTheLastHumanBeing #Omegon #OntologyOfNought #Orgone #OU #Pallbearer #Pleroma #Polterguts #PurulenceGushingFromTheCoffin #Pyrrhon #RidiculousAndFullOfBlood #RippedToShreds #Sanshi #SaveThisUtility #Scumbag #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #SongsOfBloodAndMire #SpectralWound #Stenched #StygianCrown #SufferAndBecome #SunriseOverRigorMortis #SycophanticSeizuresADoubleFeature #ThePeriaptOfAbsence #TheUnknowing #VaultOfHorrors #VidaBlue #ViolenceInherentInTheSystem #Vitriol #Wadera #Watain #Wormed #蘇醒IIFrailty
#aframeofmind #aborted #ar #arthousefatso #beatentodeath #blackcurse