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Paradise Lost – Ascension Review
By Steel Druhm
As a huge fan of the salad days of the “Peaceville Three,” I felt obliged to follow Paradise Lost’s career throughout the 90s as they shifted from their raw death-doom birth through the refined melancholic doom heard on Icon, the Metallica-adjacent, stadium doom of Draconian Times, and into their Depeche Mode fancier period with Host and Believe in Nothing. That last era was a bridge too far for me, and by the time they made their way back to doom on 2005s eponymous release, I had moved on. I only paid casual attention to their output thereafter until 2020s Obsidian. That one was solid enough to get me tentatively back on board, but I didn’t come into Ascension expecting big things, just a solid late-career outing by a group of seasoned gloom-mongers. Ascension functions as a guided tour through the various eras of the band’s 35 year career, and while that could make for a very disjointed listen given the amount of ground Paradise Lost covered over the decades, it feels like a well-catered reunion of dear olde friends. More importantly, it features some of the most consistently impressive songcraft the band’s mustered in years. Age brings a certain wisdom, but sometimes you just catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not looking to overanalyze which got us here, I’m just enjoying the hearse ride.
It doesn’t hurt that Paradise Lost kick things off with one of the most aggressive and heavy songs they’ve churned out in a long time. “Serpent on the Cross” is a massive, murderous slab of doom that kicks all the crypts and tickles the mortician. It’s got mournful harmonies, weighty doom riffs, and the right amount of despair, yet it still comes hard with burly riffs and knocks you upside the head with a memorable refrain. Nick Holmes sounds born again hard, and Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy bring tons of heft and emotion to the string bending. This is my favorite Paradise Lost song since their heyday and I can’t stop spinning it. In fact, as my beloved and perpetually hapless N.Y. Jets got pounded into assdust Sunday, they did so to the haunting leads of this charnel beast. This victory is followed by another in the form of “Tyrants Serenade” which hits at the perfect middle ground between their Draconian Times and One Second eras. It even conjures a bit of Type O Negative magic courtesy of Olde Nick’s baritone crooning. This one is an earworm infection waiting to happen, and you should catch it. “Salvation” is the big, epic doom set piece, and it doesn’t disappoint, plodding and heaving for 7 minutes of morose glory while raising the ghosts of vintage Paradise Lost along the way. It even reminds me of Fvneral Fvkk here and there.
With a front half this massive, it was almost inevitable that things would tail off as Ascension moved along, but Paradise Lost holds the slippage to a minimum. “Silence Like the Grave” and and “Diluvium” bring that Metallica-friendly Draconian Times sound back in force for inspired doom stomp and clompers, and even when they revisit their Depeche Mode as on “Sirens,” they keep things just heavy enough to bull through painlessly. What’s so impressive is that even though the band revisits all the familiar hollowed ground, things feel fresh and new rather than recycled. Somehow Ascension manages to avoid filler and there isn’t a track here I’d call weak, though “Sirens” is merely good. At 51 minutes, the album never feels too long or bogged down, and most songs sit in the 4-5 minute window and move along briskly.
I’m high on Nick Holmes’ performance here. He sounds great and as versatile as ever, ranging from sadboi Goth croons to brutal death croaks and all stops in-between. He really gets nasty at times, even sounding downright funeral doomish at points. He’s also got a great sense of where to put the melodic clean breaks for maximum impact. Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy outdo themselves with a high-quality collection of riffs that cover a range of moods and styles. They bring the doom hammer down hard on the maximalist cuts like “Serpent on the Cross” and “Salvation,” but also amplify the moody cuts to keep things pulsing with vitality. The subtly morose harmonies win me over, even on the more hard-charging numbers, and the level of writing remains strong with moments of greatness dotting the runtime.
It’s rare a band as long in the tooth as Paradise Lost uncorks a late career album that can stand among the giants in their catalog, but Ascension is one such slippery aberration. It’s the kind of release your brain tells you shouldn’t be as good as it is, but after a week-plus marinating in it, the quality cannot be denied. I’m happy to see a long-running institution like Paradise Lost get another win and show they still have ichor in their cold veins. Ascension indeed!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: paradiselost.co.uk | facebook.com/paradiselostofficial | instagram.com/officialparadiselost
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025Grymm
So, question: say you’ve been a band for almost 40 years, and 80% of your line-up has remained completely unchanged, save for the near-Spinal Tapification that’s reserved for whoever happens to find themselves on the drum throne.1 You’ve gone from the slowest of death/doom, to near-Metallica heights of superstardom in your home country, to a severe Depeche Mode-influenced left turn, just to wrap yourselves back around through Gothic doom territory and back home to death-doom in the wildest “Peaceville Three” ouroboros ever. You’re also about to release your seventeenth album. With the exceptions of legendary acts, we’re usually lucky to see bands craft seven albums, let alone seventeen. So what do you do to keep yourselves fresh and motivated? What do you bring to the party that will not only excite your longtime fanbase, but also hopefully bring in some fresh faces to your music?
If you’re Paradise Lost, you simply condense all of your experiences into a singular vision, and write your best collection of songs to date. Ascension lives up to the promise of its name, given how much of this album soars above its peers in both heft and hook. From the opening riff of “Serpent of the Cross” to the fading of the closing guitar solo in “The Precipice,” 51 minutes of doom metal have never flown by so damn fast before, nor would it had the material been written by less experienced hands. Since a good portion of this album is DOOOOOOM (in all caps-locked letters, complete with at least 6 O’s), that’s no easy feat.
And how DOOOOOOM are we talking? Take third track (and album highlight) “Salvation.” Between the foreboding riffs of Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, Mackintosh’s mournful melodies, and new/former drummer Guido Zima Montanarini guiding the back-end like a funeral march, “Salvation” could have easily fit in on Strigoi’s last album had it not been for Nick Holmes’ vocal performance, whether it’s in his cavernous growls, his anguished mid-range cleans during the chorus, or even the impressive higher-ranged singing towards the end. “Salvation” presents itself as a masterclass in epic doom/death musicianship and songwriting, and one that’s making a mad run for Song o’ the Year honors come December.
It’s not like there aren’t any other challengers for that spot on Ascension, either. Late album scorcher “Diluvium” starts off as a plodding, downtrodden number, before riffing up a storm towards the song’s latter half, with Mackintosh cutting loose with solo after solo. “Lay a Wreath Upon the World,” one of the few Paradise Lost numbers to feature an acoustic guitar, pulls you in with hypnotic female wailing and pensive atmosphere. “Silence Like the Grave” and “Tyrant’s Serenade” bring the speed up just enough, acting as energizing mood-setters for the album’s front half. And that’s the only qualm I really have with the album; the album feels front-loaded with the faster numbers, with the album’s second half being more moody and slower. There’s not a song on here I would consider to be “filler,” but it’s an observation that stuck around even after the album’s wrapped up.
Paradise Lost have every right to dial it in right now, having cemented themselves as legends of death/doom metal. Thank fuck they didn’t, though, as Ascension has comfortably nestled itself amongst my top five favorite Paradise Lost albums, acting as a strong thread between the unfuckwithable Draconian Times, their underrated dark horse Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and their return to the grave in The Plague Within. Who would have thought that, by reaching into their vault of classic albums, they would not only put together something fresh and timeless, but also make a strong case for one of their best ever? Easily a Top Ten contender, and one of the year’s best doom metal albums, bar none.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2025 #35 #40 #Ascension #DoomMetal #DraconianTimes #GothicDoom #Metallica #NuclearBlastRecords #Obsidian #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Strigoi #TypeONegative #UKMetal
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Paradise Lost – Ascension Review
By Steel Druhm
As a huge fan of the salad days of the “Peaceville Three,” I felt obliged to follow Paradise Lost’s career throughout the 90s as they shifted from their raw death-doom birth through the refined melancholic doom heard on Icon, the Metallica-adjacent, stadium doom of Draconian Times, and into their Depeche Mode fancier period with Host and Believe in Nothing. That last era was a bridge too far for me, and by the time they made their way back to doom on 2005s eponymous release, I had moved on. I only paid casual attention to their output thereafter until 2020s Obsidian. That one was solid enough to get me tentatively back on board, but I didn’t come into Ascension expecting big things, just a solid late-career outing by a group of seasoned gloom-mongers. Ascension functions as a guided tour through the various eras of the band’s 35 year career, and while that could make for a very disjointed listen given the amount of ground Paradise Lost covered over the decades, it feels like a well-catered reunion of dear olde friends. More importantly, it features some of the most consistently impressive songcraft the band’s mustered in years. Age brings a certain wisdom, but sometimes you just catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not looking to overanalyze which got us here, I’m just enjoying the hearse ride.
It doesn’t hurt that Paradise Lost kick things off with one of the most aggressive and heavy songs they’ve churned out in a long time. “Serpent on the Cross” is a massive, murderous slab of doom that kicks all the crypts and tickles the mortician. It’s got mournful harmonies, weighty doom riffs, and the right amount of despair, yet it still comes hard with burly riffs and knocks you upside the head with a memorable refrain. Nick Holmes sounds born again hard, and Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy bring tons of heft and emotion to the string bending. This is my favorite Paradise Lost song since their heyday and I can’t stop spinning it. In fact, as my beloved and perpetually hapless N.Y. Jets got pounded into assdust Sunday, they did so to the haunting leads of this charnel beast. This victory is followed by another in the form of “Tyrants Serenade” which hits at the perfect middle ground between their Draconian Times and One Second eras. It even conjures a bit of Type O Negative magic courtesy of Olde Nick’s baritone crooning. This one is an earworm infection waiting to happen, and you should catch it. “Salvation” is the big, epic doom set piece, and it doesn’t disappoint, plodding and heaving for 7 minutes of morose glory while raising the ghosts of vintage Paradise Lost along the way. It even reminds me of Fvneral Fvkk here and there.
With a front half this massive, it was almost inevitable that things would tail off as Ascension moved along, but Paradise Lost holds the slippage to a minimum. “Silence Like the Grave” and and “Diluvium” bring that Metallica-friendly Draconian Times sound back in force for inspired doom stomp and clompers, and even when they revisit their Depeche Mode as on “Sirens,” they keep things just heavy enough to bull through painlessly. What’s so impressive is that even though the band revisits all the familiar hollowed ground, things feel fresh and new rather than recycled. Somehow Ascension manages to avoid filler and there isn’t a track here I’d call weak, though “Sirens” is merely good. At 51 minutes, the album never feels too long or bogged down, and most songs sit in the 4-5 minute window and move along briskly.
I’m high on Nick Holmes’ performance here. He sounds great and as versatile as ever, ranging from sadboi Goth croons to brutal death croaks and all stops in-between. He really gets nasty at times, even sounding downright funeral doomish at points. He’s also got a great sense of where to put the melodic clean breaks for maximum impact. Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy outdo themselves with a high-quality collection of riffs that cover a range of moods and styles. They bring the doom hammer down hard on the maximalist cuts like “Serpent on the Cross” and “Salvation,” but also amplify the moody cuts to keep things pulsing with vitality. The subtly morose harmonies win me over, even on the more hard-charging numbers, and the level of writing remains strong with moments of greatness dotting the runtime.
It’s rare a band as long in the tooth as Paradise Lost uncorks a late career album that can stand among the giants in their catalog, but Ascension is one such slippery aberration. It’s the kind of release your brain tells you shouldn’t be as good as it is, but after a week-plus marinating in it, the quality cannot be denied. I’m happy to see a long-running institution like Paradise Lost get another win and show they still have ichor in their cold veins. Ascension indeed!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: paradiselost.co.uk | facebook.com/paradiselostofficial | instagram.com/officialparadiselost
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025Grymm
So, question: say you’ve been a band for almost 40 years, and 80% of your line-up has remained completely unchanged, save for the near-Spinal Tapification that’s reserved for whoever happens to find themselves on the drum throne.1 You’ve gone from the slowest of death/doom, to near-Metallica heights of superstardom in your home country, to a severe Depeche Mode-influenced left turn, just to wrap yourselves back around through Gothic doom territory and back home to death-doom in the wildest “Peaceville Three” ouroboros ever. You’re also about to release your seventeenth album. With the exceptions of legendary acts, we’re usually lucky to see bands craft seven albums, let alone seventeen. So what do you do to keep yourselves fresh and motivated? What do you bring to the party that will not only excite your longtime fanbase, but also hopefully bring in some fresh faces to your music?
If you’re Paradise Lost, you simply condense all of your experiences into a singular vision, and write your best collection of songs to date. Ascension lives up to the promise of its name, given how much of this album soars above its peers in both heft and hook. From the opening riff of “Serpent of the Cross” to the fading of the closing guitar solo in “The Precipice,” 51 minutes of doom metal have never flown by so damn fast before, nor would it had the material been written by less experienced hands. Since a good portion of this album is DOOOOOOM (in all caps-locked letters, complete with at least 6 O’s), that’s no easy feat.
And how DOOOOOOM are we talking? Take third track (and album highlight) “Salvation.” Between the foreboding riffs of Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, Mackintosh’s mournful melodies, and new/former drummer Guido Zima Montanarini guiding the back-end like a funeral march, “Salvation” could have easily fit in on Strigoi’s last album had it not been for Nick Holmes’ vocal performance, whether it’s in his cavernous growls, his anguished mid-range cleans during the chorus, or even the impressive higher-ranged singing towards the end. “Salvation” presents itself as a masterclass in epic doom/death musicianship and songwriting, and one that’s making a mad run for Song o’ the Year honors come December.
It’s not like there aren’t any other challengers for that spot on Ascension, either. Late album scorcher “Diluvium” starts off as a plodding, downtrodden number, before riffing up a storm towards the song’s latter half, with Mackintosh cutting loose with solo after solo. “Lay a Wreath Upon the World,” one of the few Paradise Lost numbers to feature an acoustic guitar, pulls you in with hypnotic female wailing and pensive atmosphere. “Silence Like the Grave” and “Tyrant’s Serenade” bring the speed up just enough, acting as energizing mood-setters for the album’s front half. And that’s the only qualm I really have with the album; the album feels front-loaded with the faster numbers, with the album’s second half being more moody and slower. There’s not a song on here I would consider to be “filler,” but it’s an observation that stuck around even after the album’s wrapped up.
Paradise Lost have every right to dial it in right now, having cemented themselves as legends of death/doom metal. Thank fuck they didn’t, though, as Ascension has comfortably nestled itself amongst my top five favorite Paradise Lost albums, acting as a strong thread between the unfuckwithable Draconian Times, their underrated dark horse Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and their return to the grave in The Plague Within. Who would have thought that, by reaching into their vault of classic albums, they would not only put together something fresh and timeless, but also make a strong case for one of their best ever? Easily a Top Ten contender, and one of the year’s best doom metal albums, bar none.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2025 #35 #40 #Ascension #DoomMetal #DraconianTimes #GothicDoom #Metallica #NuclearBlastRecords #Obsidian #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Strigoi #TypeONegative #UKMetal
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Paradise Lost – Ascension Review
By Steel Druhm
As a huge fan of the salad days of the “Peaceville Three,” I felt obliged to follow Paradise Lost’s career throughout the 90s as they shifted from their raw death-doom birth through the refined melancholic doom heard on Icon, the Metallica-adjacent, stadium doom of Draconian Times, and into their Depeche Mode fancier period with Host and Believe in Nothing. That last era was a bridge too far for me, and by the time they made their way back to doom on 2005s eponymous release, I had moved on. I only paid casual attention to their output thereafter until 2020s Obsidian. That one was solid enough to get me tentatively back on board, but I didn’t come into Ascension expecting big things, just a solid late-career outing by a group of seasoned gloom-mongers. Ascension functions as a guided tour through the various eras of the band’s 35 year career, and while that could make for a very disjointed listen given the amount of ground Paradise Lost covered over the decades, it feels like a well-catered reunion of dear olde friends. More importantly, it features some of the most consistently impressive songcraft the band’s mustered in years. Age brings a certain wisdom, but sometimes you just catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not looking to overanalyze which got us here, I’m just enjoying the hearse ride.
It doesn’t hurt that Paradise Lost kick things off with one of the most aggressive and heavy songs they’ve churned out in a long time. “Serpent on the Cross” is a massive, murderous slab of doom that kicks all the crypts and tickles the mortician. It’s got mournful harmonies, weighty doom riffs, and the right amount of despair, yet it still comes hard with burly riffs and knocks you upside the head with a memorable refrain. Nick Holmes sounds born again hard, and Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy bring tons of heft and emotion to the string bending. This is my favorite Paradise Lost song since their heyday and I can’t stop spinning it. In fact, as my beloved and perpetually hapless N.Y. Jets got pounded into assdust Sunday, they did so to the haunting leads of this charnel beast. This victory is followed by another in the form of “Tyrants Serenade” which hits at the perfect middle ground between their Draconian Times and One Second eras. It even conjures a bit of Type O Negative magic courtesy of Olde Nick’s baritone crooning. This one is an earworm infection waiting to happen, and you should catch it. “Salvation” is the big, epic doom set piece, and it doesn’t disappoint, plodding and heaving for 7 minutes of morose glory while raising the ghosts of vintage Paradise Lost along the way. It even reminds me of Fvneral Fvkk here and there.
With a front half this massive, it was almost inevitable that things would tail off as Ascension moved along, but Paradise Lost holds the slippage to a minimum. “Silence Like the Grave” and and “Diluvium” bring that Metallica-friendly Draconian Times sound back in force for inspired doom stomp and clompers, and even when they revisit their Depeche Mode as on “Sirens,” they keep things just heavy enough to bull through painlessly. What’s so impressive is that even though the band revisits all the familiar hollowed ground, things feel fresh and new rather than recycled. Somehow Ascension manages to avoid filler and there isn’t a track here I’d call weak, though “Sirens” is merely good. At 51 minutes, the album never feels too long or bogged down, and most songs sit in the 4-5 minute window and move along briskly.
I’m high on Nick Holmes’ performance here. He sounds great and as versatile as ever, ranging from sadboi Goth croons to brutal death croaks and all stops in-between. He really gets nasty at times, even sounding downright funeral doomish at points. He’s also got a great sense of where to put the melodic clean breaks for maximum impact. Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy outdo themselves with a high-quality collection of riffs that cover a range of moods and styles. They bring the doom hammer down hard on the maximalist cuts like “Serpent on the Cross” and “Salvation,” but also amplify the moody cuts to keep things pulsing with vitality. The subtly morose harmonies win me over, even on the more hard-charging numbers, and the level of writing remains strong with moments of greatness dotting the runtime.
It’s rare a band as long in the tooth as Paradise Lost uncorks a late career album that can stand among the giants in their catalog, but Ascension is one such slippery aberration. It’s the kind of release your brain tells you shouldn’t be as good as it is, but after a week-plus marinating in it, the quality cannot be denied. I’m happy to see a long-running institution like Paradise Lost get another win and show they still have ichor in their cold veins. Ascension indeed!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: paradiselost.co.uk | facebook.com/paradiselostofficial | instagram.com/officialparadiselost
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025Grymm
So, question: say you’ve been a band for almost 40 years, and 80% of your line-up has remained completely unchanged, save for the near-Spinal Tapification that’s reserved for whoever happens to find themselves on the drum throne.1 You’ve gone from the slowest of death/doom, to near-Metallica heights of superstardom in your home country, to a severe Depeche Mode-influenced left turn, just to wrap yourselves back around through Gothic doom territory and back home to death-doom in the wildest “Peaceville Three” ouroboros ever. You’re also about to release your seventeenth album. With the exceptions of legendary acts, we’re usually lucky to see bands craft seven albums, let alone seventeen. So what do you do to keep yourselves fresh and motivated? What do you bring to the party that will not only excite your longtime fanbase, but also hopefully bring in some fresh faces to your music?
If you’re Paradise Lost, you simply condense all of your experiences into a singular vision, and write your best collection of songs to date. Ascension lives up to the promise of its name, given how much of this album soars above its peers in both heft and hook. From the opening riff of “Serpent of the Cross” to the fading of the closing guitar solo in “The Precipice,” 51 minutes of doom metal have never flown by so damn fast before, nor would it had the material been written by less experienced hands. Since a good portion of this album is DOOOOOOM (in all caps-locked letters, complete with at least 6 O’s), that’s no easy feat.
And how DOOOOOOM are we talking? Take third track (and album highlight) “Salvation.” Between the foreboding riffs of Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, Mackintosh’s mournful melodies, and new/former drummer Guido Zima Montanarini guiding the back-end like a funeral march, “Salvation” could have easily fit in on Strigoi’s last album had it not been for Nick Holmes’ vocal performance, whether it’s in his cavernous growls, his anguished mid-range cleans during the chorus, or even the impressive higher-ranged singing towards the end. “Salvation” presents itself as a masterclass in epic doom/death musicianship and songwriting, and one that’s making a mad run for Song o’ the Year honors come December.
It’s not like there aren’t any other challengers for that spot on Ascension, either. Late album scorcher “Diluvium” starts off as a plodding, downtrodden number, before riffing up a storm towards the song’s latter half, with Mackintosh cutting loose with solo after solo. “Lay a Wreath Upon the World,” one of the few Paradise Lost numbers to feature an acoustic guitar, pulls you in with hypnotic female wailing and pensive atmosphere. “Silence Like the Grave” and “Tyrant’s Serenade” bring the speed up just enough, acting as energizing mood-setters for the album’s front half. And that’s the only qualm I really have with the album; the album feels front-loaded with the faster numbers, with the album’s second half being more moody and slower. There’s not a song on here I would consider to be “filler,” but it’s an observation that stuck around even after the album’s wrapped up.
Paradise Lost have every right to dial it in right now, having cemented themselves as legends of death/doom metal. Thank fuck they didn’t, though, as Ascension has comfortably nestled itself amongst my top five favorite Paradise Lost albums, acting as a strong thread between the unfuckwithable Draconian Times, their underrated dark horse Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and their return to the grave in The Plague Within. Who would have thought that, by reaching into their vault of classic albums, they would not only put together something fresh and timeless, but also make a strong case for one of their best ever? Easily a Top Ten contender, and one of the year’s best doom metal albums, bar none.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2025 #35 #40 #Ascension #DoomMetal #DraconianTimes #GothicDoom #Metallica #NuclearBlastRecords #Obsidian #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Strigoi #TypeONegative #UKMetal
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Paradise Lost – Ascension Review
By Steel Druhm
As a huge fan of the salad days of the “Peaceville Three,” I felt obliged to follow Paradise Lost’s career throughout the 90s as they shifted from their raw death-doom birth through the refined melancholic doom heard on Icon, the Metallica-adjacent, stadium doom of Draconian Times, and into their Depeche Mode fancier period with Host and Believe in Nothing. That last era was a bridge too far for me, and by the time they made their way back to doom on 2005s eponymous release, I had moved on. I only paid casual attention to their output thereafter until 2020s Obsidian. That one was solid enough to get me tentatively back on board, but I didn’t come into Ascension expecting big things, just a solid late-career outing by a group of seasoned gloom-mongers. Ascension functions as a guided tour through the various eras of the band’s 35 year career, and while that could make for a very disjointed listen given the amount of ground Paradise Lost covered over the decades, it feels like a well-catered reunion of dear olde friends. More importantly, it features some of the most consistently impressive songcraft the band’s mustered in years. Age brings a certain wisdom, but sometimes you just catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not looking to overanalyze which got us here, I’m just enjoying the hearse ride.
It doesn’t hurt that Paradise Lost kick things off with one of the most aggressive and heavy songs they’ve churned out in a long time. “Serpent on the Cross” is a massive, murderous slab of doom that kicks all the crypts and tickles the mortician. It’s got mournful harmonies, weighty doom riffs, and the right amount of despair, yet it still comes hard with burly riffs and knocks you upside the head with a memorable refrain. Nick Holmes sounds born again hard, and Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy bring tons of heft and emotion to the string bending. This is my favorite Paradise Lost song since their heyday and I can’t stop spinning it. In fact, as my beloved and perpetually hapless N.Y. Jets got pounded into assdust Sunday, they did so to the haunting leads of this charnel beast. This victory is followed by another in the form of “Tyrants Serenade” which hits at the perfect middle ground between their Draconian Times and One Second eras. It even conjures a bit of Type O Negative magic courtesy of Olde Nick’s baritone crooning. This one is an earworm infection waiting to happen, and you should catch it. “Salvation” is the big, epic doom set piece, and it doesn’t disappoint, plodding and heaving for 7 minutes of morose glory while raising the ghosts of vintage Paradise Lost along the way. It even reminds me of Fvneral Fvkk here and there.
With a front half this massive, it was almost inevitable that things would tail off as Ascension moved along, but Paradise Lost holds the slippage to a minimum. “Silence Like the Grave” and and “Diluvium” bring that Metallica-friendly Draconian Times sound back in force for inspired doom stomp and clompers, and even when they revisit their Depeche Mode as on “Sirens,” they keep things just heavy enough to bull through painlessly. What’s so impressive is that even though the band revisits all the familiar hollowed ground, things feel fresh and new rather than recycled. Somehow Ascension manages to avoid filler and there isn’t a track here I’d call weak, though “Sirens” is merely good. At 51 minutes, the album never feels too long or bogged down, and most songs sit in the 4-5 minute window and move along briskly.
I’m high on Nick Holmes’ performance here. He sounds great and as versatile as ever, ranging from sadboi Goth croons to brutal death croaks and all stops in-between. He really gets nasty at times, even sounding downright funeral doomish at points. He’s also got a great sense of where to put the melodic clean breaks for maximum impact. Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy outdo themselves with a high-quality collection of riffs that cover a range of moods and styles. They bring the doom hammer down hard on the maximalist cuts like “Serpent on the Cross” and “Salvation,” but also amplify the moody cuts to keep things pulsing with vitality. The subtly morose harmonies win me over, even on the more hard-charging numbers, and the level of writing remains strong with moments of greatness dotting the runtime.
It’s rare a band as long in the tooth as Paradise Lost uncorks a late career album that can stand among the giants in their catalog, but Ascension is one such slippery aberration. It’s the kind of release your brain tells you shouldn’t be as good as it is, but after a week-plus marinating in it, the quality cannot be denied. I’m happy to see a long-running institution like Paradise Lost get another win and show they still have ichor in their cold veins. Ascension indeed!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: paradiselost.co.uk | facebook.com/paradiselostofficial | instagram.com/officialparadiselost
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025Grymm
So, question: say you’ve been a band for almost 40 years, and 80% of your line-up has remained completely unchanged, save for the near-Spinal Tapification that’s reserved for whoever happens to find themselves on the drum throne.1 You’ve gone from the slowest of death/doom, to near-Metallica heights of superstardom in your home country, to a severe Depeche Mode-influenced left turn, just to wrap yourselves back around through Gothic doom territory and back home to death-doom in the wildest “Peaceville Three” ouroboros ever. You’re also about to release your seventeenth album. With the exceptions of legendary acts, we’re usually lucky to see bands craft seven albums, let alone seventeen. So what do you do to keep yourselves fresh and motivated? What do you bring to the party that will not only excite your longtime fanbase, but also hopefully bring in some fresh faces to your music?
If you’re Paradise Lost, you simply condense all of your experiences into a singular vision, and write your best collection of songs to date. Ascension lives up to the promise of its name, given how much of this album soars above its peers in both heft and hook. From the opening riff of “Serpent of the Cross” to the fading of the closing guitar solo in “The Precipice,” 51 minutes of doom metal have never flown by so damn fast before, nor would it had the material been written by less experienced hands. Since a good portion of this album is DOOOOOOM (in all caps-locked letters, complete with at least 6 O’s), that’s no easy feat.
And how DOOOOOOM are we talking? Take third track (and album highlight) “Salvation.” Between the foreboding riffs of Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, Mackintosh’s mournful melodies, and new/former drummer Guido Zima Montanarini guiding the back-end like a funeral march, “Salvation” could have easily fit in on Strigoi’s last album had it not been for Nick Holmes’ vocal performance, whether it’s in his cavernous growls, his anguished mid-range cleans during the chorus, or even the impressive higher-ranged singing towards the end. “Salvation” presents itself as a masterclass in epic doom/death musicianship and songwriting, and one that’s making a mad run for Song o’ the Year honors come December.
It’s not like there aren’t any other challengers for that spot on Ascension, either. Late album scorcher “Diluvium” starts off as a plodding, downtrodden number, before riffing up a storm towards the song’s latter half, with Mackintosh cutting loose with solo after solo. “Lay a Wreath Upon the World,” one of the few Paradise Lost numbers to feature an acoustic guitar, pulls you in with hypnotic female wailing and pensive atmosphere. “Silence Like the Grave” and “Tyrant’s Serenade” bring the speed up just enough, acting as energizing mood-setters for the album’s front half. And that’s the only qualm I really have with the album; the album feels front-loaded with the faster numbers, with the album’s second half being more moody and slower. There’s not a song on here I would consider to be “filler,” but it’s an observation that stuck around even after the album’s wrapped up.
Paradise Lost have every right to dial it in right now, having cemented themselves as legends of death/doom metal. Thank fuck they didn’t, though, as Ascension has comfortably nestled itself amongst my top five favorite Paradise Lost albums, acting as a strong thread between the unfuckwithable Draconian Times, their underrated dark horse Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and their return to the grave in The Plague Within. Who would have thought that, by reaching into their vault of classic albums, they would not only put together something fresh and timeless, but also make a strong case for one of their best ever? Easily a Top Ten contender, and one of the year’s best doom metal albums, bar none.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2025 #35 #40 #Ascension #DoomMetal #DraconianTimes #GothicDoom #Metallica #NuclearBlastRecords #Obsidian #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Strigoi #TypeONegative #UKMetal
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Paradise Lost – Ascension Review
By Steel Druhm
As a huge fan of the salad days of the “Peaceville Three,” I felt obliged to follow Paradise Lost’s career throughout the 90s as they shifted from their raw death-doom birth through the refined melancholic doom heard on Icon, the Metallica-adjacent, stadium doom of Draconian Times, and into their Depeche Mode fancier period with Host and Believe in Nothing. That last era was a bridge too far for me, and by the time they made their way back to doom on 2005s eponymous release, I had moved on. I only paid casual attention to their output thereafter until 2020s Obsidian. That one was solid enough to get me tentatively back on board, but I didn’t come into Ascension expecting big things, just a solid late-career outing by a group of seasoned gloom-mongers. Ascension functions as a guided tour through the various eras of the band’s 35 year career, and while that could make for a very disjointed listen given the amount of ground Paradise Lost covered over the decades, it feels like a well-catered reunion of dear olde friends. More importantly, it features some of the most consistently impressive songcraft the band’s mustered in years. Age brings a certain wisdom, but sometimes you just catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not looking to overanalyze which got us here, I’m just enjoying the hearse ride.
It doesn’t hurt that Paradise Lost kick things off with one of the most aggressive and heavy songs they’ve churned out in a long time. “Serpent on the Cross” is a massive, murderous slab of doom that kicks all the crypts and tickles the mortician. It’s got mournful harmonies, weighty doom riffs, and the right amount of despair, yet it still comes hard with burly riffs and knocks you upside the head with a memorable refrain. Nick Holmes sounds born again hard, and Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy bring tons of heft and emotion to the string bending. This is my favorite Paradise Lost song since their heyday and I can’t stop spinning it. In fact, as my beloved and perpetually hapless N.Y. Jets got pounded into assdust Sunday, they did so to the haunting leads of this charnel beast. This victory is followed by another in the form of “Tyrants Serenade” which hits at the perfect middle ground between their Draconian Times and One Second eras. It even conjures a bit of Type O Negative magic courtesy of Olde Nick’s baritone crooning. This one is an earworm infection waiting to happen, and you should catch it. “Salvation” is the big, epic doom set piece, and it doesn’t disappoint, plodding and heaving for 7 minutes of morose glory while raising the ghosts of vintage Paradise Lost along the way. It even reminds me of Fvneral Fvkk here and there.
With a front half this massive, it was almost inevitable that things would tail off as Ascension moved along, but Paradise Lost holds the slippage to a minimum. “Silence Like the Grave” and and “Diluvium” bring that Metallica-friendly Draconian Times sound back in force for inspired doom stomp and clompers, and even when they revisit their Depeche Mode as on “Sirens,” they keep things just heavy enough to bull through painlessly. What’s so impressive is that even though the band revisits all the familiar hollowed ground, things feel fresh and new rather than recycled. Somehow Ascension manages to avoid filler and there isn’t a track here I’d call weak, though “Sirens” is merely good. At 51 minutes, the album never feels too long or bogged down, and most songs sit in the 4-5 minute window and move along briskly.
I’m high on Nick Holmes’ performance here. He sounds great and as versatile as ever, ranging from sadboi Goth croons to brutal death croaks and all stops in-between. He really gets nasty at times, even sounding downright funeral doomish at points. He’s also got a great sense of where to put the melodic clean breaks for maximum impact. Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy outdo themselves with a high-quality collection of riffs that cover a range of moods and styles. They bring the doom hammer down hard on the maximalist cuts like “Serpent on the Cross” and “Salvation,” but also amplify the moody cuts to keep things pulsing with vitality. The subtly morose harmonies win me over, even on the more hard-charging numbers, and the level of writing remains strong with moments of greatness dotting the runtime.
It’s rare a band as long in the tooth as Paradise Lost uncorks a late career album that can stand among the giants in their catalog, but Ascension is one such slippery aberration. It’s the kind of release your brain tells you shouldn’t be as good as it is, but after a week-plus marinating in it, the quality cannot be denied. I’m happy to see a long-running institution like Paradise Lost get another win and show they still have ichor in their cold veins. Ascension indeed!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: paradiselost.co.uk | facebook.com/paradiselostofficial | instagram.com/officialparadiselost
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025Grymm
So, question: say you’ve been a band for almost 40 years, and 80% of your line-up has remained completely unchanged, save for the near-Spinal Tapification that’s reserved for whoever happens to find themselves on the drum throne.1 You’ve gone from the slowest of death/doom, to near-Metallica heights of superstardom in your home country, to a severe Depeche Mode-influenced left turn, just to wrap yourselves back around through Gothic doom territory and back home to death-doom in the wildest “Peaceville Three” ouroboros ever. You’re also about to release your seventeenth album. With the exceptions of legendary acts, we’re usually lucky to see bands craft seven albums, let alone seventeen. So what do you do to keep yourselves fresh and motivated? What do you bring to the party that will not only excite your longtime fanbase, but also hopefully bring in some fresh faces to your music?
If you’re Paradise Lost, you simply condense all of your experiences into a singular vision, and write your best collection of songs to date. Ascension lives up to the promise of its name, given how much of this album soars above its peers in both heft and hook. From the opening riff of “Serpent of the Cross” to the fading of the closing guitar solo in “The Precipice,” 51 minutes of doom metal have never flown by so damn fast before, nor would it had the material been written by less experienced hands. Since a good portion of this album is DOOOOOOM (in all caps-locked letters, complete with at least 6 O’s), that’s no easy feat.
And how DOOOOOOM are we talking? Take third track (and album highlight) “Salvation.” Between the foreboding riffs of Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, Mackintosh’s mournful melodies, and new/former drummer Guido Zima Montanarini guiding the back-end like a funeral march, “Salvation” could have easily fit in on Strigoi’s last album had it not been for Nick Holmes’ vocal performance, whether it’s in his cavernous growls, his anguished mid-range cleans during the chorus, or even the impressive higher-ranged singing towards the end. “Salvation” presents itself as a masterclass in epic doom/death musicianship and songwriting, and one that’s making a mad run for Song o’ the Year honors come December.
It’s not like there aren’t any other challengers for that spot on Ascension, either. Late album scorcher “Diluvium” starts off as a plodding, downtrodden number, before riffing up a storm towards the song’s latter half, with Mackintosh cutting loose with solo after solo. “Lay a Wreath Upon the World,” one of the few Paradise Lost numbers to feature an acoustic guitar, pulls you in with hypnotic female wailing and pensive atmosphere. “Silence Like the Grave” and “Tyrant’s Serenade” bring the speed up just enough, acting as energizing mood-setters for the album’s front half. And that’s the only qualm I really have with the album; the album feels front-loaded with the faster numbers, with the album’s second half being more moody and slower. There’s not a song on here I would consider to be “filler,” but it’s an observation that stuck around even after the album’s wrapped up.
Paradise Lost have every right to dial it in right now, having cemented themselves as legends of death/doom metal. Thank fuck they didn’t, though, as Ascension has comfortably nestled itself amongst my top five favorite Paradise Lost albums, acting as a strong thread between the unfuckwithable Draconian Times, their underrated dark horse Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and their return to the grave in The Plague Within. Who would have thought that, by reaching into their vault of classic albums, they would not only put together something fresh and timeless, but also make a strong case for one of their best ever? Easily a Top Ten contender, and one of the year’s best doom metal albums, bar none.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2025 #35 #40 #Ascension #DoomMetal #DraconianTimes #GothicDoom #Metallica #NuclearBlastRecords #Obsidian #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Strigoi #TypeONegative #UKMetal
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Hi everyone. I crashed hard and now I probably won't be able to sleep tonight so here I am. If people wanna chat with me on discord, I'm at gocu54. I'm willing to talk about most anything except politics. I don't even care of discussions get lude. It's night time and night time talk is more fun than day time talk. Feel free to friend me. No creeps though, anyone who tries to be a creepy bastard gets blocked, no exceptions. Boost for reach. #Discord, #TextChat, #Chatting, #discussions, #SocialMedia
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Einfach nur jämmerlich, ekelhaft aber auch konsequent, wie viele Leute auf Reddit jetzt Posts von Marjorie Taylor Greene und sogar Nick Fuentes pushen, nur weil es gegen Israel und den Angriff auf die Mullahs geht.
#antisemitismus #querfront #marjorietaylorgreene #nickfuentes #fascistscum
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The Incredible Inconvenience of the Neurodivergent to the “Science of Learning”: You’ll Never See Us Through Your Complexity Controls
Neurodivergent people are treated as noise to be filtered out in most studies supporting the “science of learning”.
The thing is, research like this — serious scientific research into Autism — has historically treated the subjective experiences of its subjects as noise to be filtered out. They all think they can accurately read our emotions if they need to and so don’t need to ask us.
We are discounted as outliers.
The varied and dynamic nature of learning environments – too many variables to isolate one out, the way norm-referencing is leveraged to discount outliers, and the lack of applicable research on neurodiverse students – necessitates a more flexible and holistic approach.
Beyond Pavlov’s Perfect Student | Human Restoration Project | Nick Covington Michael Weingarth
Our needs and ways of being are deemed too inconvenient to consider.
Which is why the Disability Industry, the SpEd/SEN leadership, and so many groups of frustrated middle-class parents do not, and may not ever understand people with disabilities. Those groups want us to be like them, or want to sell parents and schools “cures” that will make us be like them. They want me to read the way they do, and to read as fast and as “accurately” (which refers to grabbing plot points, nothing else) as they do. They want me to sit still and focus “on the task at hand” the way they do. They want me to move as they do. Think the way they do. Speak the way they do. Understand the world the way they do. All, of course, in pursuit of capitalist conformity and efficiency. (see Stimpunks for the best deep dives into these issues.)
The Incredible Inconvenience of the Neurodivergent. | by Ira David Socol | May, 2025 | Medium
Kids who are different are told every day, every hour, often every minute, by the most well-meaning people, that they are “born wrong” and require repair. And yes, accommodating our differences is inconvenient, it does create costs and work for those with power, but human diversity and neurodiversity, just like every kind of diversity, strengthens every ecosystem.
And believing that, and acting as if you believe it, is the only humane path.
So, the vast majority of studies just ignore us.
This review, which includes 90 studies conducted in 21 countries, reveals that the majority (92%) did not consider neurodiversity as a potential factor influencing cognitive load in online learning.
Our findings reveal a major research gap, as most studies overlook the distinct neurocognitive profiles of neurodivergent students. Notably, ADHD and ASD learners may exhibit unique cognitive load responses, suggesting that established cognitive load theories and instructional design guidelines might not uniformly be applicable in neurodiverse classrooms. Lastly, inconsistent methodologies in measuring cognitive load in online learning point to the need for more uniform research approaches. Future research should prioritise creating adaptive, inclusive online learning environments that respect and accommodate cognitive differences, which will not only benefit neurodivergent students but also enhance the online learning experience for all students.
It is past time to consider neurodiversity. Neuroscience without neurodiversity is often misguided and harmful.
The multimedia principle is the idea from multimedia theory that providing both words (usually spoken) accompanied by images supports learning by maximizing working memory. I’m not an expert by any means on this area of research, but It is quite interesting to think that widely accepted evidence-based principles on instructional design/learning like multimedia theory have not been confirmed for very common disability experiences such as dyslexia.
Overall, it really does seem that we are just beginning to consider and test basic “science of learning” principles with attention to neurodiversity. Indeed, as these authors note, “Research on multimedia learning typically assumes that learning outcomes are the result of the design of materials; however, an equally important but less studied consideration is the role individual differences play.”
I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with phrases like “how learning works,” when it is probably more accurate to say “how learning works for many people”
The complexity control of behaviorism and the science of learning has utterly failed us.
Our students are not surgically modified dogs nor are they pigeons in operant conditioning chambers attempting to learn nonsense words. No child enters a classroom devoid of emotion, interest, or prior knowledge. Owing to the key distinctions between the controlled laboratory and the living classroom, there simply may be no connection between what is taught and what is learned; or between the educational intervention and the desired outcome. This is why, in pedagogies centered on instruction drawn from the narrow view of “The Science of Learning,” behaviorism is a complexity control meant to reduce the number of possible variables between instruction and assessment; to better reproduce the uncomplicated relationship between variables in the Skinner Box. We know from listening to students themselves that there has been a persistent crisis in schools, even before COVID: students ask fewer questions the longer they remain in school, engagement plummets alongside mental health, and absenteeism surges. Ultimately, any science of learning matters far less than its implementation. Maintaining fidelity to what happened in, say, Pavlov’s lab matters significantly less if the practices derived from his work contribute to stress, anxiety, and alienation in students.
If the perfect education system requires that you dehumanize the people in it — adults and kids alike — that’s not a system that “works” by most metrics worth caring about. The kids in our schools have to be viewed as more than behaviorist subjects to be acted upon. If we at least admit that much, then the business of teaching gets far more complicated. Suddenly there are a number of other factors we must tend to that matter a great deal. I’ll quote again from apparent “pseudoscientist” Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, “As human beings, feeling alive means feeling alive in a body but also feeling alive in a society, in a culture; being loved, being part of a group, being accepted, and feeling purposeful.” These are self-evident truths that we are finally beginning to explore the neurobiological basis for in ways that shatter many previous models of the brain that still hold cultural sway.
Beyond Pavlov’s Perfect Student | Human Restoration Project | Nick Covington Michael Weingarth
Building Frankenstein children from reductionist, complexity-controlled parts is morally wrong and utterly wrong-headed. We must foreground complexity as the baseline for the sciences of learning to have any real meaning when applied to the rich complexity and diversity of human actuality.
Stimpunks do a great job reinforcing this through a Neurodiversity lens and are some of the few ND advocates on here who have wonderful language to capture the needed complexities for understanding each human, rather than categorizing humans into buckets.
Further Reading
https://stimpunks.org/2025/05/23/professor-guy-claxton-on-the-science-of-learning/
https://stimpunks.org/2023/11/22/on-the-problems-with-science-of-reading/
https://stimpunks.org/philosophy/were-raising-whole-children-not-frankenstein-children/
https://stimpunks.org/2023/12/10/a-neurobiological-basis-for-progressive-education/
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Hostility to the techno-determinism as intellectual alibi for political and social harms
This aggressive interview with an incredibly defensive Nick Clegg was fascinating as an instance of contemporary tech politics. I was particularly struck by how he explicitly invokes ‘techno-determinism’ to dismiss claims about social platforms generating politics and social harms:
https://youtu.be/KAYM1arUzXY?si=RlrfpreRLVNwSFPh&t=1563
He argues it’s “patronising” to claim that platforms have a significant influence because “people have agency”. There’s an obvious straw man here, in which claims about platform power are construed as people being cognitively hijacked by whatever they find in their feeds*, gets used to dismiss any claim about platform power.
*I do think some people basically believe this. It’s a stupid and dangerous position which we need to oppose.
#facebook #NickClegg #platformPower #platformisation #socialPlatforms
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NESN 7th player award voting is open. Who gets your vote? Definitely Uncle Nick for me. 😊
:bruins: #nhlbruins #nesn @bostonbruinsgameday -
I fucking love opening a PDF in Adobe only for it to freeze for 5 seconds while the screen gets absolutely bukkaked with “uSe Ai FoR tHiS dOcUmEnT” pop ups and banners.
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Angry Metal Guy’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Angry Metal Guy
Starting 2025 with a bang was always important, and I elected the “being 26 days late with your Record o’ the Year post” as the best possible way to give everyone that patented Angry Metal Guy feeling of waiting and waiting only to be smacked in the face with 5000 words that you disagree with entirely. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Executive Dysfunction! Let’s make a list!1
Fifteen years of Angry Metal Guy and year 15 will be remembered as a genuinely good year for metal. There were several excellent releases I was genuinely excited about and as the year went on, things got even better. For the first time in a while, I felt like I had a glut of options and felt guilty about what was and wasn’t making the list. In terms of total performance, year 15 at AMG stayed roughly on par with 2023. We wrote 691 posts (mostly reviews), which, in terms of raw numbers, dropped to lower than 2023 and was once again the lowest since 2015. We made up for it in girth, however, with the average post sporting a whopping 955 words! This might be a case of the self-fulfilling prophecy biting me in the ass for consistently yelling at everyone for being overwriters at which point they see themselves as overwriters and begin to overwrite. Or, maybe it’s because we had fewer reviews to balance out the longer posts. Regardless, we finished with a “big-boned” 660,024 total words in 2024. We averaged 38,617 views a day, leading us to our second-highest annual readership numbers ever at 14,129,320 total page views; a tick down from last year, but that’s not surprising when we’re writing fewer posts.
The readership of AMG is as global as ever, but the USA, UK, and Canada retained their spots as 1, 2, and 3 on our Top 10(ish) Biggest Readerships. Germans continued to flock here in droves, maintaining their position at number 4 on our list with Australia coming in at healthy 5. I’m a bit surprised at Australia for not taking umbrage at getting beat by the Germans last year, but when you live in constant fear of your absolutely frightening environs, I guess that’s the least of your worries.2 Spots 6-9 are the same as last year with Netherlands, Sweden, France, and Spain. But coming in at number 10 was Finland! Our strategy of lauding Finnish bands is finally paying off. “How” you ask? Well, if I can get to celebrity status in Finland, I intend to go there so I can be awkwardly ignored in social situations by an entirely new population of Scandinavians. I was happy to see Poland sneak up to the coveted “ish” spot on the list, but that means Brazil dropped out of the Top 10(ish) and that sucks.3 We were once again visited a single time by a mysterious robed reader from the Vatican City and I want to extend a warm Angry Metal Guy welcome to the lone citizen of Micronesia who found their way to our sacred halls.
The biggest, coolest thing that happened in 2024 (following one of the shittiest things to happen in 2024) was, of course, helping Kenstrosity deal with the catastrophe that was his life following Hurricane Helene. It was so cool and gratifying to see just how generous and amazing the fans of AMG were and we’ll never forget your generosity. We also added n00bs—welcoming Alekhines Gun, Tyme, and Killjoy as new blood for the Bloodgod (with more coming, we promise)—and saw the return of the illustrious Mark Z. We lost—at least for the time being—Ferox at the end of the year and that sucks for all of us. But losing him to a burgeoning career as a showrunner and movie director seems like the kind of thing that isn’t such a bitter pill to swallow. Personally, alas, 2024 was pretty much the worst year of my life. The reason I equivocate is because every time I think something like that I can only think of Homer Simpson saying: “So far! The worst year of your life so far!” But 2024 was marred by a breakup I did not want and struggles with both my physical health and the obvious consequences thereof. I re-read my Top 10(ish) of 2023 and was amused in that “oh, sweet summer child” kind of way when I read:
On a personal note, this year [2023] was supposed to be one of the best of my life. It has been an unmitigated pile of shit, with only a few bright spots. As usual, I’ll try to make 2024 a better year, where I am Angry Metal Guy in practice, not just in spirit. A new year always brings unreasonable and unrealistic goals that get broken in shame by April, doesn’t it? Well, that’s mine.
Alas, that ended up being quite a bit more prescient than I could’ve anticipated given that it was the 31st of March when the Behind the Music voiceover guy had to step in: “Then tragedy struck…”
So, 2024 turned out to be significantly worse for me than 2023. That said, I did, in fact, work a lot more on AMG than I have in previous years and it’s helped me to create a map of how that’s possible for the future. Furthermore, I’m finally starting to understand the things at the root of my BS—beyond unfortunate and frustrating life circumstances or the fact that I’m a big worthless loser4—and I hope that results in some real progress. Because, when all is said and done, Angry Metal Guy has stood the test of time for a reason and I’m proud of it and want to be involved in it. I like the music, I like most of the people, I like hazing n00bs, and I like arguing incessantly about opinions. Even if I feel a little out of lockstep with metal trends in recent years, I still think that my voice is important here and I want to have it here. And it’s thanks to everyone here, particularly Steel Druhm, Dr. Grier, and the other helpers, as well as the writers and of course, the readers, who have kept this all afloat while I am trying to solve the mystery that is my brain.
To moderate expectations for 2025! Here’s the Top 10(ish) of 2024.
#ish 2: Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay [August 24th | Liminal Dread Productions | Bandcamp] — I’m relatively certain that if you had polled the writers and readers of AngryMetalGuy.com and asked them to predict this list, Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay would not have come even remotely close to placing on my Top 10(ish). And it makes sense. Dawn Treader traffics in a genre of black metal that I rail on at every chance. At this point, my personality is basically constructed of jokes about how calling something atmospheric just means they use a lot of reverb. And yeah, Bloom & Decay uses inordinate amounts of reverb, I can’t deny it. But better, Ross Connell subverts the ‘one-man black metal project’ tropes by being good, actually. The record is emotionally poignant, musically rich, and laden with pathos—causing that aching bloom in my chest while listening to what feels at times like sad songs playing in major keys. If there’s one reason I haven’t been back to this album as much as other things, it’s because it’s hard to listen to at times. The messages contained here and the way they are delivered can be challenging at times; long discursive samples that are hard to have repeated back at you time and again in a time of a lot of despair. Still, that’s hardly a knock against Dawn Treader’s work, there are a lot of people who would suggest that it’s exactly that which makes Bloom & Decay art. And there’s no question in my mind that Bloom & Decay is a work of art.
#ish 1: Verikalpa // Tuomio [April 19th, 2024 | Scarlet Records | Bandcamp] — But then again, who needs serious emotionally poignant works of art when you can listen to Finnish guys writing amazing blackened melodeath that heavily features faux accordion and lyrics, presumably, about drinking? I feel a bit guilty that these guys have yet to make a number on the list—having previously been relegated to an -ish—but they are getting better and better and Tuomio has been a joy to listen to in a year where almost nothing else brought me joy. In a way, Verikalpa’s sound is a form of nostalgiacore for me—with its 2004 production, its 2004 riffs, and my 2004 urge to drink beer and headbang. But, as Steel Druhm would argue out of pure self-interest, some things are timeless and change is bad, so this isn’t a critique. And while the metal-listening public lost its taste for folk metal after the glut that was released in the late 2000s, I find Verikalpa avoids the pitfalls of the sound, delivering only the highest quality riffs and blasts. Loaded with groove and chunky riffs, Verikalpa knows how to write solid, speedy, fun, and brutal metal that will make you want to drink a beer and lift some weights. And again, what more can we truly ask of any metal band? If you aren’t listening to and loving Verikalpa by now, you’re missing out. Of all the Finnish releases with dated sounds this year, Tuomio is the best.
#10: Grendel’s Sÿster // Katabasis into the Abaton [August 30th, 2024 | Sur Del Cruz Music | Bandcamp] — If there was a major “I did not see that coming” moment in 2024, it was that Grendel’s Sÿster never left my playlist once I heard it for the first time. An addictive record, I summed it up best when I wrote that “this German four-piece drops metal that reeks of patchouli and ‘Atomkraft? Nein, Danke!‘ to surprising effect. The core of Grendel’s Sÿster’s sound is the combination of fuzzy guitars, bubbly p-bass, and boxy drums into something that will undoubtedly call to mind the ’70s hard rock of your choice: Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy or nostalgia merchants like Gygax.” And that sound—not a sound that I spend my free time chasing down—could be directly shot into my veins and I couldn’t be happier. There’s something pure and honest and beautiful about this music. It is both poppy and niche, both pretentious and utterly not; it breaks down binaries and exists in the interstices. And goddammit, it’s what one roadie for Porcupine Tree once said of Blaze’s first three records, “it’s good, honest heavy metal.” And that’s it. The cream rises to the top; good songwriting always wins. And Katabasis into the Abaton is loaded with great songs, fun ideas, and idiosyncratic vocals. It’s surprising in all the right ways.
#9: Oceans of Slumber // Where Gods Fear to Speak [September 13th, 2024 | Season of Mist | Bandcamp] — Some experiences are unforgettable, and getting to see Oceans of Slumber in the summer of 2024 and really hear Cammie Beverly live was one such experience. There are few people in the world who truly have a Voice with a capital V and Cammie is one of them. The band’s performance was entrancing and her presence was commanding. It was literal goosebumps. I had been enjoying Where Gods Fear to Speak for a few weeks at that point, but seeing Oceans of Slumber live transformed my entire understanding of the unique strengths contained herein. Between her voice, genuinely progressive—and at times challenging—songwriting, and the fantastic performances, Where Gods Fear to Speak sounds like the culmination of the band’s career. Having learned from the past and meshed it all, listeners are left with something transcendent, beautiful, and the perfect balance of heavy and delicate. If there’s one knock on this record, it’s that people may struggle with a flowing relationship to song structure and hooks. But for the sophisticated listener, each song on Where Gods Fear to Speak is a beautiful step on an unforgettable journey.
#8: Iotunn // Kinship [October 25th, 2024 | Metal Blade Records | Bandcamp] — Hard truth time: I was never super enamored in Access All Worlds. While the blog and the commentariat were busy heaping praise upon the best band to come out of Denmark since Mercyful Fate, I held my tongue and gave them the spotlight they deserved because I was in a definite minority. But the record never inspired me. So, I approached Kinship with skepticism. I love Jón’s voice—this is no secret—but at 68 minutes long with 10-minute songs and one record in the bag I hadn’t felt… you know how it goes. I was happily surprised when Kinship hooked me hard. Jón’s voice brings everything together, but the blackened undercurrent spicing up the melodeath riffing (pretty sure Amon Amarth called their lawyers about a couple of the riffs in “The Anguished Ethereal”) matched with an epic scope that could be carried only by someone with the brass timbre and Grondesque vocal power of Aldará. I have been back to this again and again since I broke down and dropped it on the proverbial turntable. It is deep enough to keep me coming back, it’s hooky enough to kick that dopamine into high gear, and it’s beautiful and well-crafted with that aching Scandy melancholy that I crave. Bravo, Iotunn, this is a real first step towards me forgiving your spelling of ‘jotun’ and the Stockholm Bloodbath.
#7: Fellowship // The Skies above Eternity [November 22nd, 2024 | Scarlet Records | Bandcamp] — I am hardly the first person to note that it’s difficult to follow a beloved record. I think it’s even harder to follow a beloved debut. And I doubt there’s an album that’s been released in recent years that is as beloved as Fellowship’s debut, The Saberlight Chronicles. Putting the hopes and fate of the Europower scene in the hands of these tiny pastoral persons and sending them off to Mordor was never a good idea. But surprise, surprise, they survived!5 And they’re back with an album that has inspired the kind of dedication that only the rare band ever gets close to, landing super high on people’s lists despite being a late November release. And you can hear why. The Skies above Eternity is yet another 45ish minutes of fantastic, guitar-driven melodic power metal that simultaneously rules and takes itself seriously enough to have good, interesting, relatable, and at times inspiring lyrics while also embracing the fun and natural, inherent silliness of power metal. That’s a hard balance to strike and Fellowship nails it with aplomb. They say you don’t want to be the guy who follows The Guy, you want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows The Guy. I suspect The Skies above Eternity will always be slightly underrated because it isn’t The Saberlight Chronicles. But fuck me if it isn’t excellent.
#6: Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair [October 4th | Transcending Obscurity Records | Bandcamp] — I knew that these kids from Finland were alright when I jokingly called them “Morbid Angelcore” on Instagram and they took it with grace.6 Honestly, of all the stuff that the “No Fun, Only Reverb and Feels!” flank of AMG has dredged up and dumped hyperbolic praise on, Devenial Verdict is one of the bands to which I feel the most grateful to have been exposed. Often sold as either “dissodeath” or “atmospheric death metal,” because they’re both wildly popular subgenres of death metal, both feel like misnomers. Rather, Blessing of Despair is an album loaded with memorable moments and melodies, and while it does, indeed, employ a lot of “atmosphere,”7 I was not prepared for the elite-level Azagthoth-on-LSD riffs that litter Blessing of Despair. I wouldn’t say that Blessing of Despair is OSDM, but the riffing evokes the masters in ways both direct and subtle and it gives the record an impeccable vibe. Devenial Verdict has wrought a brilliant death metal album where riffs abound, the atmosphere is set on the “Cathedral” setting, and every song is better than the last. Maybe the best word to use to describe their x factor is gravitas. But whatever it is, Devenial Verdict’s got it in spades.
#5: Octoploid // Beyond the Aeons [July 5th, 2024 | Reigning Phoenix Music | Bandcamp] — The amount of love that Beyond the Aeons isn’t receiving is one of the scandals of 2024, in my opinion. This started with our own positive—but tepid, if I’m honest—review of Beyond the Aeons and has continued through Listurnalia. As a passive, but legitimate, autocrat of Angry Metal Guy, I have half a mind to shut this place down over this deep disrespect for Amorphiscore. Honestly, it pains me not to make Beyond the Aeons the #1 album,8 because I have listened to these 33 minutes of extreme metal—occasionally tremmy and black, but mostly just solid melodeath—more than almost anything else this year. Tracks like “Coast of the Drowned Sailors” feed my need for new Amorphis and my secret wish that they were heavier. And that’s one thing I’ll give Octoploid, unlike Barren Earth, Beyond the Aeons doesn’t dwell too long on anything. It kicks off and speeds along, hitting you with catchy leads in the key of Moomin and doubled with synth—as one does. Don’t sleep on Octoploid. Beyond the Aeons is energetic, fun, catchy, and worth at least a couple of spins a week six months after it was released.
#4: Opeth // The Last Will and Testament [November 22nd, 2024 | Moderbolaget] — What Opeth has accomplished on The Last Will and Testament is remarkable. Unlike so many bands, Opeth’s reimaginations of its sound still speak to me. The Last Will and Testament is a smart, coherent, and melodramatic record that does Mikael Åkerfeldt and crew credit. The reason that this record elevates itself above the ceiling that most Newpeth lived under, however, is that they are finally able to turn the music up to 11 again compositionally. After more than a decade without the emotional and compositional peak (and release) of a guttural growl released from the diaphragm over a particularly chunky riff or heavy drums, The Last Will and Testament continues the band’s development but gives them a release valve—”§4″ being the highlight for me, where they transition from Opethro Tull—a jazz flute solo—to Deathro Tull with some operatic, but dour, death metal. And it simply feels good to hear them doing both of these things simultaneously. Having gone through and relistened to the discography at length, it is striking how Opeth circa 2024 sounds very little like the band I fell in love with in the late-’90s/early aughts. To be able to both be markedly different and feel like the same band is a deeply underrated trait. This could have been higher if I’d had longer with it.
#3: Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — I knew almost immediately that Opera was going to be a controversial record. I was not prepared for the hyperbolic pushback that Opera garnered from fans of Italy’s death metal answer to [Luca (Turilli / Lione)’s] Rhapsody [of Fire] for being, as I wrote myself, “undeniably poppy.” Sometimes I think that we fans of the extreme metal scene have lost sight of what pop music really is. The fact that people have been heaping scorn on Fleshgod Apocalypse for writing operatic death metal because Veronica Bordacchini doesn’t only sing using proper operatic technique and the band simplified some of its compositional tendencies is, to put it lightly, patently absurd. Opera is fun! It’s energetic and well-crafted, and it has a better excuse for writing more palatable and less grandiose music that uses more traditional pop and rock compositional structures than Nightwish ever had,9 and it literally has dramatic choirs arpeggiating in Latin behind grinding blast beats and death metal growls as I’m writing this blurb! Fucking get over yourselves. Go enjoy the shit out of Opera. No one sounds like Fleshgod Apocalypse and when they hit, they fucking hit. And Opera hits! It is thematically interesting, deeply personal, and cohesive in the way that the best albums are while featuring a diverse and excellent performance from Bordacchini. Easily one of the best records of 2024.
#2: Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe [September 20th, 2024 | Century Media | Bandcamp] — One of the things that makes the work at Angry Metal Guy interesting after 15 years is editing other writers’ work. It’s a pleasure to get to talk to, work with, and help guide the brilliant writers that we have working here. And because I want to hear what I’m reading about at the same time, I listen to a lot of music I would not necessarily have chosen to listen to myself. Noise’s work—such as 2023’s #5 record Leiþa—has come to my attention because of the work that Carcharodon has done in covering his projects. So, when I went to edit Die Urkatastrophe, well aware of the impending 5.0, I was edified to read a well-argued analysis that highlighted for me exactly what it was that appealed to me so much about Kanonenfieber’s critically acclaimed10 platter. Die Urkatastrophe is a powerful album that walks the line between black and death metal, with surprisingly polished and smooth production and artfully crafted songs. Like so many of the best albums, it is both thematically coherent and full of standout moments. Arresting moments like the gunshot at the end of “Der Maulwurf,” the best-placed samples since Velvet Darkness They Fear, and a superb flow make Die Urkatastrophe a triumph that we’ll return to for years.
#1: Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk [March 22nd, 2024 | Metal Blade Records | Bandcamp] — The best album of 2024 was an undeniably easy choice this year. Released the day after my life started falling to pieces, Hamferð’s third masterpiece is a tale of tragedy (with a smidgen of hope), driven by strong songwriting and stronger performances. There are plenty of things that one can point to that help to differentiate Men Guðs hond er sterk from the field this year: the band’s sound is expertly crafted, and with pristine production, and the band—who apparently records without a click track?!—carries the emotional weight of their music perfectly despite the largely opaque language in which it’s presented.11 Furthermore, enough cannot be said about the powerhouse of a vocalist that Hamferð is fortunate enough to have. Jón Aldará’s vocals carry the day with a brassy baritone that evokes the mourning that all doom peddlers are chasing but so few nail. Men Guðs hond er sterk is tight, it’s heavy—though not as heavy as its predecessor, which I missed—but more importantly it’s complete and brilliant and my Record o’ the Year for 2024.
Honorable Mentions:
In Vain // Solemn [April 19th, 2024 | Indie Recordings | Bandcamp] — Having been released when I was in the moment of absolute denial and despair as my life fell apart, you’ll forgive me for not having heard this album until the last couple months of 2024. And I suspect that if I had been able to spend more time with it, it would have worked its way onto the list proper (though, man, it’s hard to know what would go). Once again, In Vain does such an outstanding job of balancing all the different sounds and influences, and I will never get sick of any clean vocals from the brothers Nedland (RIP Solefald). These guys are great and Solemn keeps them batting 1.000.
Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God [June 14th | Debemur Morti Productions | Bandcamp] — Another album that should’ve been higher on my list (but where would I have put Verikalpa then, guys!?). Ulcerate has been awesome and it’s almost unremarkable that they continue to be awesome in new and different ways. The thing that I keep coming back to Cutting the Throat of God for is the fact that these are probably the band’s most addictive and hypnotic riffs. Their sound has always had a fluidity that made them unique, but there are times when I feel like a snake being charmed as I’m listening to Ulcerate pump out fascinating, liquid riffs that seem to morph in scope and feel without ever breaking stride. Another record that is getting the shaft on this list.
Sonata Arctica // Clear Cold Beyond [March 8th, 2024 | Atomic Fire Records] — I started out skeptical about Clear Cold Beyond, and then I ended up loving it. The problem is that this was another record caught up in the Great Dumping o’ 2024 and got lost in the mix. This album has the benefit of having some really fun “we’re sorry we wrote Talviyö and then released two fucking acoustic cover records in a row” moments, but it’s not just an apology tour.12 The strength of Clear Cold Beyond is watching Kakko do the things he’s best at: write about creepy dudes with seriously bad boundaries (“Dark Empath”); write awkward lyrics about social topics that are kind of funny but also maybe not (“California”); and most importantly is his transformation into Dad Rocker (“The Best Things”). This record didn’t ever threaten to be Top 10, but it also deserves a nod for bringing me a ton of joy, even if I can’t listen to “The Best Things” without getting choked up.
Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun [August 30th, 2024 | Season of Mist | Bandcamp] — I have been a little back and forth with Anciients, but Beyond the Reach of the Sun was an absolute banger that got snubbed for a Record o’ the Month spot, despite receiving an excellently written, laudatory review from Saunders. And perpetual self-editing complaints aside, Anciients is one of those bands whose ability to craft Riffs is unmatched. Every single song on this album has one of those Riffs—not just riffs, gotta capitalize that R so everyone knows that we’re talking about iconic stuff here—and I am, frankly, jealous of the feel and groove that these guys seem to have as second nature. This album clicked for me when I put it in the cans on a flight and just sat and listened to it and man, we are spoiled with an absolute embarrassment of riches in metal. These guys are an honorable mention? It’s unfair.
Caligula’s Horse // Charcoal Grace [January 26th, 2024 | InsideOut Records | Bandcamp] — After it was summarily 3.0’d by the guy who brought you the Angra list everyone thought was absolute crap, I feel like everyone just forgot about Charcoal Grace. But I’m going to be honest with you, this record deserved a lot better than it got at the hands of the traitorous reviewer who poo-poohed it and then, allegedly, went on to kick his dog and demand his wife make him a sandwich. This is a more subtle Caligula’s Horse, I admit. How they seem to be swapping places with Haken becomes more manifest with every release. But this record is a true headphones album that deserves a hi-def version of the release, serious cans, and a dark room. It’s loaded with great riffs and fantastic songs and has a particularly poignant and powerful closing. Also, the level of detail here is unreal. Appreciate what you have while they are still putting out amazing albums.
Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System [June 28th, 2024 | Rotted Life Records | Bandcamp] — One of the surprises of the year is an album named after one of the funniest jabs at the anarchosyndicalists in our lives. Noxis’ brand of frantic, technical death metal—complete with my favorite snare of the year—has swept through the Angry Metal Guy staff for a reason. The reason? It’s fucking great. At 45 minutes, Violence Inherent in the System is a record with the energy and addictiveness of Gorod, even if the songwriting chops aren’t quite on that level yet. But you don’t have to be Gorod-good to be good and Noxis is good. I’m looking forward to their sophomore release Scimitars Lobbed in Farcical Aquatic Ceremonies, due Q4 2025/Q1 2026.
Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart [January 26th, 2024 | Dark Essence Records | Bandcamp] — In my Record o’ the Month blurb for Old Eyes, New Heart, I wrote “What Old Eyes, New Heart does is show Madder Mortem as alive and creative as ever, showcasing a more vulnerable, introspective side of themselves. Tracks like ‘Here and Now’ and ‘Cold Hard Rain’ weep with power and raw emotion, giving fans all the feelz they yearn for, and there’s simmering anger girding the material as well. As GardensTale noted, regarding the very personal, intense feeling of the new music: ‘Old Eyes, New Heart will stand as one of the most intimate and therapeutic albums we’re bound to get this year.’ And who isn’t going to need a little bit of therapy in 2024?” Yeah, I found myself listening to this album a lot this year because it expresses what I couldn’t. Again, prescient.
Blood Incantation // Absolute Elsewhere [October 4th, 2024 | Century Media Records | Bandcamp] — Yeah, it’s fine I guess. A little overhyped in the comment section, though. Remember that time when it got released and everyone who hadn’t heard it yet was like “RECORD OF THE YEAR!!!!!!1!” five minutes later? Pepperidge Farms remembers. In all seriousness, this record is great and I enjoyed it which is why it’s here. But while it threatened to hit the list as an #ish, it never really felt like RotY material to me. Still, give these guys their due. They are unique and cool and you love to see the enthusiasm about weirdo progdeath.
Top 10(ish) Songs o’ the Year:
#ish: Karol G // “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” — Fuck you.
#10: Sonata Arctica // “The Best Things” — Fans of the band and this album are going to laugh, but this song kills me. Dad rock. I love it.
#9: Wintersun // “Storm” — When I saw everyone sporting “Silver Leaves” as the highlight of Time II, I had to do a double-take. As I covered at length in my review, the one song that I felt lived up to Jaari’s potential as a player and composer was “Storm,” and this track is a fucking doozy. This track perfectly executes both the blend of blackened death metal and power metal that makes Wintersun’s inability to produce something truly epic frustrating. If I had only heard “Ominous Clouds” and “Storm,” Time II would’ve gotten a 4.5. This is the only memorable thing he wrote on the entire album.
#8: Oceans of Slumber // “Wish” — It’s weird the tracks that call to you on an album. I love this whole record for a bunch of different reasons, but on “Wish” there are little melodic things that Cammie does here that make my heart ache. The lyrics, too. I feel ’em. Deeply underrated record.
#7: Fellowship // “Victim” — “I swear, I won’t always feel like a victim! I won’t always fight on my own! So, forgive me these transgressions as I live a life of lessons and I grow to overshadow darker thrones! This king is king alone!”
#6: Opeth // “§4” — No more perfect encapsulation of why Opeth is impressive than how hard they nailed this song. Love the porn beat with the Ian Anderson flute solo (Deathro Tull, lol) that gives way to stadium rock that gives way to grindy death metal. Just inject that fucking shit straight into my fucking veins. Unff.
#5: Grendel’s Sÿster // “Cosmogony” — This song is metal as fuck. I love the fun little extra beat they drop in to make it feel like a slightly lopsided wheel rolling along. But there’s nothing about this that doesn’t live up to what I wrote above: good, honest heavy metal. Catchy, riffy, and fun to listen to. Top it off with a bass-heavy section and a gallop carried on the guitar and you’ve got yourself a recipe for an epic, addictive track. More of this, plz.
#4: Fleshgod Apocalypse // “Morphine Waltz” — This song fucking rules. From the opening strains with the horn section in the orchestra to the 3/4 time signature (y’know, ’cause it’s actually a waltz), to the raw, punky performance from Bordacchini. Extra points for the fucking balls to the wall bridge with the huge choirs before the guitar solo. Like, how do you fucking people not think this is one of the best albums of the year? JFC.
#3: Caligula’s Horse // “Mute” — One of Caligula’s Horse’s strongest traits is their ability to write epic conclusions to their albums. “Mute” is up there with “Graves” in terms of the sheer weightiness of the whole thing—though this time it’s more delicate. Beautiful.
#2: Anciients // “Despoiled” — Riff of the year at 3:57. Gives me involuntary metal face. Love the vocal melodies, too. Great stuff.
#1: Madder Mortem // “Things I’ll Never Do” — This song fucking kills me. Has anyone checked on their lyricist recently?
Show 12 footnotes
- This joke is fucking hilarious but only a few of you are going to get it. ↩
- I kid because I’m scared shitless of your country and will never visit it. – AMG ↩
- Wondering where you are? 11. Poland; 12. Brazil; 13. Norway; 14. Belgium; 15. Italy; 16. Greece; 17. Denmark; 18. Czechia; 19. Austria; 20. Russia; 21: Mexico; 22. Portugal; 23. Switzerland; 24. Romania; 25. Hungary. ↩
- Not that I’m *not* a big worthless loser, just that there’s more to it. ↩
- They suffered unduly and cast a lot of longing stares at each other, but they survived! ↩
- Because fucking Morbid Angel is the best, obviously. ↩
- Read: reverb. ↩
- Tell you what, guys, how ’bout Jón Aldará joins Octoploid and y’all start writing 15-minute songs? Then you can both be #1! ↩
- And don’t get me started Steven Wilson. “Ooh, I should be famous, why haven’t I had a number one record when Nick Beggs has had one?!” 🙄 ↩
- This is true because I am busy acclaiming it. ↩
- Obviously, largely opaque for most of us. People from the Faroe Islands do, indeed, speak the language in which this album is sung. My AI translator does not. ↩
- And if it is, it is obviously their best-executed one to date. ↩
#2024 #Anciients #AngryMetalGuy #AngryMetalGuySRecordSOTheYear #AngryMetalGuySTop10Ish_ #BeyondTheAeons #BlessingOfDespair #BloodIncantation #BloomDecay #CaligulaSHorse #DawnTreader #DevenialVerdict #DieUrkatastrophe #Fellowship #FleshgodApocalypse #GrendelSSÿster #Hamferð #InVain #Iotunn #Kanonenfieber #KarolG #KatabasisIntoTheAbaton #Kinship #Listurnalia2024 #MadderMortem #MenGuðsHondErSterk #Noxis #OceansOfSlumber #Octoploid #Opera #Opeth #SonataArctica #TheLastWillAndTestament #TheSkiesAboveEternity #TimeII #Tuomio #Ulcerate #Verikalpa #WhereGodsFearToSpeak #Wintersun
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Got the strings, nothing much more exciting to report.
My bassist coworker has a bass with PJ-bass wiring, near as I can tell, with 2 volumes and one tone, no switches.
Looking for how to wire it that way with the humbuckers on my guitar. Not sure if the PJ wiring gets the 'humbucker' from what looks to me like 2 single pickups, or is the humbucker built in to the bass pickups that have two cores per string?
I'll need to buy pots and if necessary a switch not so concerned there just would like to order once.
Have found a limited selection of guitar wiring diagrams that are specific like a typical electronic diagram. Most seem to be pictogram style and those are less helpful in understanding how this stuff works. So if you're hanging onto a stash of full-geek wiring diagrams quit bogarting.
I think I'm going to have to do it like a balance/volume/tone perhaps that's the ticket.
Maybe this is time to pull some hashtags
#ElectricGuitar #electric #Squier #Stagemaster #Fender -
#culture #empire #affect #education #ClimateChange #history #psychology #indigenous #WesternCulture #industrialization #Discipline #Punish
what do y'all think?:
"from the beginning of the industrial age, we have taken the whole of humanity on a big journey away from 'the natural world'... in pursuit of progress. ...in pursuit of our rational superiority to the world, and animals, and things like that.
we're beginning to review that now, and we're beginning to see the costs of that.
[...]
the whole of humanity has been busy putting up a sort of false self [of rationality] over what i call "the inner indigenous" - that "natural" self that's got a lot of spontanaeity, emotions. it's raw and sexual and things like that... we've been coating that with rationality and with progress.
the british system of boarding school is a perfect element at developing that kind of estranged self, which functions terribly well in other institutions - like in politics, in the army, in church, in business, in building empire. and of course that was the original motivation [behind developing the schools] - to develop administrators of the british empire.
but take it out of that environment and into the one where the natural self is more apparent - in the family - and it functions very badly, in general. so the breakdown of that self is liable to be in the family.
and [recovering] is not just an internal sort of psycho-spiritual adventure, it also means you have to come home to relationship, to being a social being, to being a family being, to being a body... and in that journey, that's where the true wisdom is to be had. you can take your refined mental appartus and use that to help you on that journey...and that's great." - nick duffell
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPHxGYAqbuU
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i think this is a very interesting line of reasoning!
i disagree with his contention that "the whole of humanity" is doing this, but that's another thing you'll find in mainstream western culture - a universalizing drive that takes characteristics of western culture & society, and treats them as if they apply to all people everywhere. he's a brit, i forgive him this error.
i don't know about "inner indigenous"...but i get what he's saying about a more "animal" self that gets turned into a "civilization-brain" self through an institutional education process.
the civilization-brain self does well in institutions (and so you see it rise to the top of things like international negotiations on climate change), but it has little connection to the "living" or "animal" self - which is what the fight over climate change is all about! like, valuing the actual living world! not some abstract version of it, but the actual land and people and animals!
i like his analysis because it ties together separation from self, separation from nature, separation from other people (emotionally), and empire, boarding schools, institutions of all kinds, industrialization (historically), and the global ecological catastrophe we're all a part of.
and i like that he recommends that people (especially gentlemen, who are more likely to have been disciplined out of their "animal" selves, imo) reconnect with other people and go on their own "psycho-spiritual" journey to discover whether that "civilization-brain self" is really all there is to life.
and i agree that if one hasn't reconnected to their own animal self, and hasn't reconnected with actual people and the actual land, it's going to be very hard to get in "good relation" to the planet (and solve the exploitation of nature that is like, at the root of climate change. if people lived in balance with the land (ie, in 'right relation'), we wouldn't have biodiversity loss, we wouldn't have climate change...because you'd be valuing the land and bringing it back to life, instead of exploiting it.
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Moin Julian.
Ich hatte mich letztes Jahr schon einmal mit Deinem "WebFinger Split-Domain Canary"-Aufbau beschäftigt, um meine Implementation darauf abzuklopfen.
https://correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software/
Leider habe ich Dich seinerzeit nicht kontaktiert, daher versuche ich gerade, mein Gedächtnis wieder aufzufrischen.
Geht es Dir im Wesentlichen darum, daß man bei einem Webfinger-Lookup das "subject"-Feld vergleicht und ggf. einem Redirect folgt und ein zweites Webfinger-Lookup durchführt? Oder noch etwas anderes?
Irgendwie scheine ich Dein Setup nicht vollständig zu durchschauen...
Ich nutze zur manuellen Überprüfung jetzt schlicht einmal https://webfinger.net/
Ein #Webfinger auf canary[at]correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software liefert ein passendes Subject, hier wären also die Informationen zu entnehmen, d.h. für #ActivityPub der Eintrag unter dem Typ "application/activity+json".
Ein Webfinger auf canary[at]wrong.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software liefert eine abweichende Subject-Angabe, so daß man canary[at]correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software abfragt, wenn man dem Redirect folgt.
Auch canary[at]webfinger-canary.fietkau.software zeigt im Subject auf die correct-Subdomain.
Allerdings zeigen alle drei Webfinger-Einträge im Self auf https://wrong.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software/canary - wie soll die Abfrage auf https://correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software als Ergebnis landen?
Und nebenbei, wie hast Du den Implementationsstatus geprüft? Mit einem Testaccount auf entsprechenden Instanzen?
Freue mich über Feedback... :-)
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TD4 4-bit DIY CPU
I was looking for DIY CPU projects, as I like kits that help me think at the lowest level of processing. It helps keep me grounded in how far technology has come over the years.
- Part 1 – Introduction, Discussion and Analysis
- Part 2 – Building and Hardware
- Part 3 – Programming and Simple Programs
- Part 4 – Some hardware enhancements
- Part 5 – My own PCB version
- Part 6 – Replacing the ROM with a microcontroller
- Part 7 – Creating an Arduino “assembler” for the TD4
- Part 8 – Extending the address space to 5-bits and an Arduino ROM PCB
Some of the options that I know about, that actually come as kits you can buy and are interesting for me for DIY computers are:
- RC2014 and compatible for Z80 based computers: https://rc2014.co.uk/
- Small Computer Central for a range of Z80, Z180, computers: https://smallcomputercentral.com/
- Ben Eater’s 6502 computer: https://eater.net/6502
- Nick Bild’s 6502 Vectron 64 computer: https://github.com/nickbild/vectron_64
But I wanted to go further down and actually find something that lets me build a simple CPU from gates. Here there are several options too:
- NAND to Tetris: https://www.nand2tetris.org/ (only available via emulation)
- Ben Eater’s 8-bit computer: https://eater.net/8bit
- Gigatron 8-bit computer: https://www.tindie.com/products/johnson/gigatron-ttl-microcomputer-diy-kit/
- TD4 4-bit computer: https://github.com/wuxx/TD4-4BIT-CPU
- TD4 4-bit computer deluxe kit: https://www.budgetronics.eu/en/building-kits/td4-deluxe-kit-build-your-own-mini-cpu-with-ttl-logic/a-26091-20
- MiniMax 4-bit CPU: https://www.tindie.com/products/denjhang/minimax-4bit-cpu-td4-architecture-cpusbc/
Whilst I’d love to build Ben Eater’s 8-bit CPU, the kit as provided is too much of an outlay for me. It is ~$300 – I mean, good for what you get and all the knowledge, but it is a solderless breadboard kit and that isn’t really what I’m after. The Gigatron is a distinct possibility that I’ll come back to at some point I think.
NAND to Tetris is excellent, and I have their book, but it is all emulated or virtualised, which does allow for all the scaling required for an (arguably) actually useful device, but isn’t designed to be built in actual hardware.
But the TD4 is really interesting. It is available as a PCB and components for approx £25 on Aliexpress and based on an open source design that shows the basic operation of a 4-bit CPU.
The “deluxe” kit mentioned above is a lot more expensive ~£120 but has all signals broken out to LEDs which, whilst is an awful lot of soldering, does looks incredibly impressive! The MiniMax is an evolution of the TD4 and kits for that are around £120. In fact, searching on Tindie and Hackaday.io for “TD4” will surface a few other DIY projects and even kits to purchase.
The TD4 does seem to fit the bill for me as an inexpensive kit to try. The downside is that documentation for it (in English) is pretty sparse.
The TD4 project itself is by “wuxx” an embedded engineer from HangZhou and much of the documentation is in Chinese. It is based on a Japenese book by Kaoru Tonami called “how to build a CPU” which can be found for ~£50 online, but as I don’t know Japanese either is unlikely to help me very much.
There are some sources of information that others have put together though, so I’m going to be using those as a starting point along with whatever I can figure out myself:
- The original GitHub project (plus online translation): https://github.com/wuxx/TD4-4BIT-CPU
- Philip Zucker’s “Guide to the TD4 4-bit DIY CPU”: https://www.philipzucker.com/td4-4bit-cpu/
- Kevin Gibb’s “teardownit” “DIY 4-bit CPU”: https://teardownit.quora.com/DIY-4-bit-CPU-Have-you-ever-made-a-processor-I-did-Took-me-just-12-microchips-and-a-clock-generator-The-processor-c
- Minoru Yamamoto’s “How to create a CPU TD4”: https://xyama.sakura.ne.jp/hp/4bitCPU_TD4.html
This post is my own “thinking out loud” as I work through the various parts to see how they work.
Basic Architecture
This is a 4-bit computer, with a 4-bit data bus, 4-bit commands, and a 4-bit address bus.
There is a block diagram on GitHub:
The fundamental process is as follows. For each “tick” of the computer:
- An OpCode is read from the ROM using the current 4-bit address (0 to 15) from the program counter.
- Each ROM entry is an 8-bit word with 4-bits as a command and 4-bits as data for the command.
- The data selector determines a 4-bit INPUT value. This can come from one of the two registers (A or B); or a set of four switches for the IN register; or be set to zero.
- This goes to the adder which adds it with the immediate data from the ROM (which could of course be zero).
- The OUTPUT of the adder can go to either of the two registers (A or B), an OUT register which is hooked up to four LEDS, or the program counter register to create a “jump”.
I’ll pull apart the different parts of the CPU in the following sections.
ROM Format
Each 8-bit word in the 16-byte ROM has the following format:
- 4 command bits
- 4 immediate data bits
Instruction Decoding
The 4 command bits from each ROM instruction have to be turned into the various selection signals to activate different parts of the CPU.
There is a table from GitHub again:
The explanation in Japanese translates (apparently) to:
“Explanation: The SEL_B and SEL_A signals select the ALU data source, while #LOAD0-#LOAD3 select the ALU data destination. More formally, they control the source and destination operands of instructions, respectively.”
From this we can note the following:
- There is no instruction for 1000,1010,1100 or 1101.
- Instruction 1110 appears twice, and the selectors set are dependent on the state of the C (carry) flag.
- Some instructions act on immediate data, others assume it will be 0.
The LOAD# have the following meanings in the system:
- LOAD#0 – Register A (A)
- LOAD#1 – Register B (B)
- LOAD#2 – OUTPUT (OUT)
- LOAD#3 – Program counter (PC)
The actual decoding happens in two parts: input selection; and output selection.
Registers
The system has four registers, each formed from a 74HC161 “presettable, synchronous, 4-bit binary counter”. There are two general purpose registers: A and B. There is one output register, whose contents drive the state of four LEDs. And there is a program counter. Here is the schematic for register A:
P0-P3 come from the output of the adder directly. RST and CLK are hopefully self-explanatory. For the A and B registers, Q0-Q3 go into the INPUT selection section (see later). For the OUTPUT register, these go directly to LEDs. For the program counter, these go into the ROM address logic (again more on that later).
The relevant operation of the 161 is described in the datasheet:
“The outputs (Q0 to Q3) of the counters may be preset HIGH or LOW. A LOW at the parallel enable input (PE) disables the counting action and causes the data at the data inputs (D0 to D3) to be loaded into the counter on the positive-going edge of the clock… A LOW at the master reset input (MR) sets Q0 to Q3 LOW…”
So on reset the outputs are all 0. When PE goes LOW, on the next clock pulse, the value on the inputs (P0-P3) is loaded into the counter and reflected on Q0-Q3. However, because CET and CEP are LOW the counter won’t actually count any further.
The program counter is a bit special, in that it is actually allowed the count by having CET and CEP set HIGH. This allows it to step through the instructions on a clock pulse.
In this case Q0-Q3 go off to the ROM address decoding, which I’ll come to in a moment.
INPUT Selection
There are two SELECT lines select the INPUT data as follows:
SEL_BSEL_ASOURCE00Register A (A)01Register B (B)10INPUT (IN)11Zero value (0)Input selection is handled by two 74HC153 dual 4-input multiplexers. Two are required as there are four data lines to be switched, and they all have one of four options to switch between based on the SELECT lines above.
Here is the relevant part of the schematic.
On the left are the three sets of four data signals that come from the A, B and IN inputs. D0 from each of the inputs goes to U7/1Cn; D1 goes to U7/2Cn; D2 to U8/1Cn; and D3 to U8/2Cn. Notice that the fourth set of data signals (U7/1C3, 2C3 and U8 1C3, 2C3) are connected directly to GND for the “zero” INPUT state (SEL_A=1, SEL_B=1).
On the right, the two pairs of outputs make up the four data lines to feed into the adder section.
So where does the SEL_A and SEL_B signals come from? From the schematic, we can see:
- SEL_A = D4 OR D7 (via U10B – one of the 74HC32 2-input OR gates)
- SEL_B = D5
We can start to explain why some of the instruction combinations don’t exist (or at least, aren’t distinct) as we can see that SEL_A depends on either D4 or D7.
OUTPUT Selection
The OUTPUT selection is a little more complicated. As previously mentioned, there are four destinations: the two registers, the OUTPUT register, and the program counter.
Each register has a /PE (“parallel enable input”) signal which is active low. These are individually fed by the output of the LOAD# logic.
The three signals at the bottom are D6, D7 and D4. The lone signal top left is the carry (/C) flag, and the four outputs top right are the four LOAD# signals which feed directly into the /PE pins of the four registers.
So from this we deduce the following relationships:
- Reg A LOAD0 HIGH = D6 OR D7 – so LOAD0 is only active (LOW) when both D6 and D7 are LOW.
- Reg B LOAD1 HIGH = NOT D6 OR D7 – so LOAD1 is only active (LOW) when D6 is HIGH and D7 is LOW.
- OUT LOAD2 LOW = NOT D6 AND D7 – so LOAD2 is only active (LOW) when D6 is LOW and D7 is HIGH.
- PC LOAD3 LOW = D6 AND D7 AND (D4 OR /C) – so LOAD3 is only active (LOW) when both D6 and D7 are HIGH and either D4 is HIGH or the carry signal (/C) is LOW.
This effectively means that D6 is used to select between registers A and B when D7 is LOW; and between OUT and PC when D7 is HIGH (subject to either D4 or the /C signal too in the case of PC).
Once again, we can see that there is some redundancy in the system for certain combinations of D4 to D7.
ROM Address Decoding
The 4-bit output from the program counter is effectively a 4-bit address bus. This gets turned into a set of selection signals to select which “byte” of the ROM should be active.
This simply uses a 74HC154, 4 to 16 line decoder, meaning that a 4-bit number goes in and one of 16 corresponding outputs goes LOW whilst the rest remain HIGH. There is no memory address or matrix handling – there is literally one control line per “memory” location.
The ROM itself is a set of 16 8-way DIP switches and diodes, so once its control signal is active (LOW) then those DIP switches become relevant on the data bus. Here is the last location and data bus logic. Note that all data signals are pulled HIGH by default, so will only be read as LOW if the DIP switch connects it to LOW via the diode, and that is only possible if that DIP block is selected from the 4 to 16 line decoder.
The 74HC540 is an inverting line buffer, turning any active LOW DIP switch settings into HIGH signals on the command/data bus. Recall that D0-D3 represent immediate data and D4-D7 represent command logic.
The Adder (ALU)
The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) for this CPU is a simple adder. A 74HC283 is a 4-bit binary full adder. “full” in that it supports 4-bit add-with-carry functionality, although in this design, carry is only used on the output stage – it doesn’t form part of the input addition.
A0-A3 comes from the INPUT selection circuitry, so can represent either register A or B, the state of the IN switches, or a fixed zero (0) value. B0-B3 comes directly from D0-D3 from the ROM contents as selected by the ROM addressing logic.
The COUT (carry) flag goes into a flip-flop and the active LOW version of the output is used as the carry flag in the LOAD# decoding logic to support the “JUMP IF NOT CARRY” instruction. So returning to the logic of #LOAD3, we have:
COUT /C D4 D6 D7 LOAD3
0 1 X 1 1 0 -> Dst = PC
X X 1 1 1 0 -> Dst = PCHence a jump will only happen (i.e. the PC get loaded) either if D4, D6, D7 are all 1 (unconditional) or if D4 =0, D6, D7 are 1 (conditional) if the CARRY flag is NOT set by the adder, resulting in /C = 1.
Some of the ROM instructions require D0-D3 to be zero in which case the adder is effectively taking the input (A, B, IN, 0) and loading it into the destination register (A, B, OUT, PC).
Notice that the adder does not use the carry in (CIN). This is tied to zero. Apparently this was left floating on an earlier revision of the board, which caused spurious results!
Putting it all Together
The complete truth table for the SEL, D4-7 and LOAD signals is as follows.
SEL_BSEL_AD4D5D6D7LD0/ALD1/BLD2/OPLD3/PCADD A,i0000LL00000111MOV AB0001LH10000111IN A0010HL01000111MOV A,i0011HH11000111MOV BA0100LL00101011ADD B,i0101LH10101011IN B0110HL01101011MOV B,i0111HH111010111000LH00011101OUT B1001LH100111011010HH01011101OUT i1011HH110111011100LH0011111=C1101LH10111110JNC1110HH0111111=CJMP1111HH11111110Returning to our instruction table, we can see how the decoding of the D4-D7 lines leads to enacting the various commands. In particular, we can now expand the table to show how the SEL and LOAD logic results in selecting the source and destination registers as follows:
D7-D4D3-D0INPUTOUTPUTADD A, data0000dataAAMOV A, B00010000BAIN A00100000INAMOV A, data0011data0AMOV B, A01000000ABADD B, data0101dataBBIN B01100000INBMOV B, data0111data0BOUT B *10000000BOUTOUT B10010000BOUTOUT data *1010data0OUTOUT data1011data0OUTJNC B *1100dataB/CPC/noneJMP B *1101dataBPCJNC1110data0/CPC/noneJMP1111data0PCAs per the table, we can also now infer the missing, or duplicate, instructions (marked * above).
In this table, the output will always be the addition of the INPUT and D3-D0, so everywhere 0 is specified for D3-D0 then in reality a value could be placed here instead. But then the instruction would take on a different meaning.
For example, MOV A, B is really MOV A, B+data, which really only makes sense when data is set to 0 otherwise overflows are very likely to occur.
It is also worth noting that SEL_A depends on either D4 or D7, and when SEL_A is set to 1 the input can only be either register B or zero. However, to output to OUT or PC, D7 has to be set. This means that instructions that act on OUT or PC can only take an input from register B or zero.
The two JMP B instructions are going to be of limited use too. They are essentially JMP to B+data instructions. There are probably some creative uses of such instructions, but for simplicity, keeping to the “0” versions that just depend on the immediate data is probably best.
Utility Blocks
There is one section of the circuit that hasn’t been considered yet. There is a block that provides the clock and reset circuitry.
The clock is based on a Schmidt trigger oscillator and can run on automatic or on manual trigger. There are two selectable speeds: 1Hz or 10Hz.
Both the clock and reset signals feed into the four registers and the carry flip-flop.
The remaining block is the power. It has a micro-USB socket and has to be powered from 5V directly either via the USB socket or directly into a 2-pin jumper header.
Conclusion
I have one on order. I’m looking forward to building it and giving it a go!
I really like the LEDs on the deluxe version, but that is a bit too much for me just for some messing around, but I am wondering how difficult it would be to attempt my own version with a few extra LEDs.
Assuming I manage to get one built and working, I’ll have a poke about at some signals and see what the art of the possible might be.
Kevin
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superbowl jesus ad, part 3: some notes, and more images
Welcome to the third post of this series analysing the imagery from the billion-dollar “He Gets Us” propaganda campaign to recruit people into fundamentalist evangelism, focusing specifically on the ad run during the 2024 Superbowl.
I strongly urge you to read the first section of Part 1 before continuing, if you have not already done so. That first section explains the overall theological structure of the ad. Without understanding that structure, the terms “Sinner” and “Saviour” as used in this series will not make sense, but I don’t want to have to paste that explanation back in to each of these posts.
Back already? Good job.
Before we return to the images, I want to address a couple of issues which have been brought to me, and highlight a comment made elsewhere.
First, I want to be very clear: this is an analysis of propaganda more than of theology. In the case of a deeply religious political movement, the two certainly do blur together! But I am not engaging in a theological critique. I am reporting upon how these propaganda images are intended to be read by their own, by their co-religionists, and – naturally – what that says about the thoughts and goals of their movement. While some of those meanings are in part theological, they are also political and must be read as such.
Secondly, pointing out a relevant meaning – particularly a politically relevant meaning – does not imply that other meanings do not or cannot exist. The washing of the feet, for example, has other meanings in addition to the one I mentioned, even for them. But where those are either strictly theological or do not contradict the top-line message they do not believe in but are trying to sell, I don’t bother discussing them.
To give one example, however – and this ties directly into the washing of the feet – I had a commenter elsewhere ask what it meant that both the washer (Saviour) and the wash-ee (Sinner) had bare feet. This ties back to the more mainline Christian theological interpretation of the footwashing event, a statement of a kind of equality, where Jesus, the leader, is serving his apostles, and in doing so, saying that in some ways we are all equal in this.
That’s also what everyone having their shoes off means here – though in their case they would frame it less as “we are all equals in this” and more “we are all sinners in the eyes of (an angry) god.” That “angry” part’s important, though I don’t want to get into it here – but when they say “god-fearing Christian,” they absolutely mean that part about the fear.
Regardless, even in that more antagonistic framing it is an equalising message and they do mean it to some degree. But since it’s not in contradiction to the topline political framing of reconciliation, I hadn’t discussed it.
There are other examples, which you may choose to discover on your own.
Finally, Part I of this series got shared around a little on Facebook, which was nice. The first comment I saw was from a former evangelical, who was kind enough to say that as an ex-fundamentalist, everything I said in Part I was extremely obvious to her.
I like to hear things like that, because every so often, I get pushback on this sort of analysis when I post it, always from people not of that particular community. And every time that’s happened so far, an exvangelical or other former fundamentalist has come in and said “No, she’s right,” in one form or another.
I’m not saying that will happen every time or that I can’t be wrong, because of course I can. But it is nice to get that validation, and Part 1 received that explicitly.
Now, where were we? Ah yes, slide six. Here’s a partial:
I also like the floating bananas and the empty two-part salad-dressing bottleAnd they say this commercial wasn’t made with AI. Hilarious.
I don’t see a lot here that isn’t obvious, frankly – including all the obvious AI usage. You have Shower Valves of Mystery, you have floating bananas and a CRT television that can’t’ve received a picture in decades and isn’t actually a television but is a computer monitor, you have a row of cabinets built to be above either a sink or maybe an oven which is above neither a sink nor an oven but does have a doormat labelled… is it NICE or is it NICK? I read it as NICK. Is Nick her husband? Is he a doormat? Is that part of the message, that she lacked a sufficiently strong man at home and thus fell into…
Oh surely not. It must be NICE. But if not… if it really is NICK… is that the core message? Is that the second level under “She’s a prescription drug addict and an alcoholic and also a smoker so needs Jesus to get out of it?” I mean, that’s Alcoholics Anonymous version 1.0 since forever, and they absolutely do assert that this is basically what happens with basically every single mom and that every marriage not dominated by a strong man is doomed to collapse and ruin. So is that the subtext here?
That’s a lot to hang on a doormat hung on a wall over where either a sink or a stove should be, so I’m not going to leap to that with assurance. But… it would fit.
Honestly, all cards on the table… I’ve spent so much time on this one because I just can’t get over the AI-ness here. It’s even on the central figures. If there’s a photographer involved, as they say there is, there is something very, very wrong with their camera.
I didn’t describe the scene, so: the image is of a small kitchen, old, intensely cluttered except for a clear spot on the floor in centre where our Sinner and our Saviour are placed. Our Sinner is a “mom” figurine, broken down, her feet being washed by our “Saviour” who is kind of signalled to be her daughter. There are a fleet of prescription medication bottles higher up on the counters, alcohol bottles everywhere, and an assortment of ashtrays scattered about the room; all the cigarettes appear to be tobacco.
And there’s an absolute avalanche of AI-like whatthefuckery, even in the main figures, even in the figures who are supposed to be the entire point of this image. I mean, look at this:
What is that shoulder seam? Also, choco milky is the best cleaner, I guessHonestly, it’s just insulting.(one billion dollars. a one billion dollar ad campaign. billion. with a b.)
That’s six slides down of twelve, just like the apostles. Despite how shoddy this mess is in some ways, that’s probably not a coincidence. It’s not unlikely that this has theological ties I’m not catching. But that’s okay; I’m just here for the politics.
Next slide, please.
[link] #politics #USPol #writing #fascism #HeGetsUs #superbowl #uspolitics
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Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review
By Steel Druhm
With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.
This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.
Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.
I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.
I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025Kenstrosity
Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.
Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.
Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.
However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.
As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.
Rating: Mixed
#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold
-
Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review
By Steel Druhm
With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.
This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.
Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.
I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.
I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025Kenstrosity
Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.
Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.
Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.
However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.
As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.
Rating: Mixed
#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold
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Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review
By Steel Druhm
With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.
This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.
Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.
I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.
I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025Kenstrosity
Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.
Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.
Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.
However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.
As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.
Rating: Mixed
#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold
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Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review
By Steel Druhm
With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.
This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.
Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.
I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.
I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025Kenstrosity
Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.
Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.
Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.
However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.
As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.
Rating: Mixed
#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold
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Der Haken ist die "Render Engine", der Teil, der #HTML/#CSS zur Anzeige bringt. Dazu kommt noch #JavaScript.
#Presto war eine europäische Engine (im originalen #Opera).
#Gecko steckt in #Firefox und geht historisch auf #Netscape zurück.
Und dann gab es #KHTML (aus dem #KDE-Projekt, wenn ich das richtig erinnere). Davon wurde #WebKit abgeleitet (was heute von #Apple genutzt wird). Davon wiederum wurde #Blink abgeleitet (von #Google).
Und das war's auch schon mit den aktuell verbreiteten "Render Engines". Je nach Zählung also nur zwei bis drei. Extremst übersichtlich. Und trotz "Open Source" eben in der Hand von wenigen... noch dazu US-Entitäten.
Damit stehen und fallen alle Browser mit der Entwicklung der "Render Engine", auf der sie basieren...
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Poor Nick Bosa. The pedophile supporting, rapist supporting, fascist sympathizer gets injured and appears to be, temporarily at least, out of the game…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Thoughts and prayers. -
Poor Nick Bosa. The pedophile supporting, rapist supporting, fascist sympathizer gets injured and appears to be, temporarily at least, out of the game…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Thoughts and prayers. -
Poor Nick Bosa. The pedophile supporting, rapist supporting, fascist sympathizer gets injured and appears to be, temporarily at least, out of the game…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Thoughts and prayers. -
Poor Nick Bosa. The pedophile supporting, rapist supporting, fascist sympathizer gets injured and appears to be, temporarily at least, out of the game…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Thoughts and prayers. -
Should You Use Fault Paths in Salesforce Flows?
If you build enough Flows, you’ll eventually see the dreaded flow fault email. Maybe a record you tried to update was locked, a required field value was not set in a create operation, or a validation rule tripped your commit. Regardless of the root cause, the impact on your users is the same: confusion, broken trust, and a support ticket. The good news is you can catch your faults using the fault path functionality. In this post, we’ll walk through practical patterns for fault handling, show how and when to use custom error element, and explain why a dedicated error screen in screen flows is worth the extra minute to build. We’ll also touch on the roll back records element for screen flows where this functionality can make a difference.
Why Fault Paths Matter
Faults are opportunities for your Salesforce Org automation to improve. While unhandled faults are almost always trouble, handled faults do not have to be a huge pain in our necks.
The Core Building Blocks of Flow Fault Handling
1) Fault paths
Gets (SOQLs), DMLs (create, update, and deletes) and actions support fault paths. Fault paths provide a way for the developer to determine what to do in the event of an error.
2) Fault actions
You can add elements to your fault path to determine the next steps. You can also add a custom error element in record-triggered flows or error screens in screen flows for user interactivity. Multiple fault paths in the flow can be connected to the same element executing the same logic. A subflow can be used to standardize and maintain the fault actions such as temporarily logging the fault events.Logging Errors
Here is a list of data that may be important to include in your fault communications and logging:
- Flow label
- User Name
- Date/Time
- Technical details (e.g. $Flow.FaultMessage)
- Record Id(s) and business context (e.g., Opportunity Id, Stage)
- User-friendly message (plain English)
Subflow Solution
The advantage of a subflow when dealing with fault paths is that you can modify the logic once on a central location. If you want to start logging temporarily, you can do that without modifying tons of flows. If you want to stop logging, this change can be completed fairly easily, as well.
Inside the subflow, decide whether to:
- Log to a custom object (e.g., Flow_Error__c)
- Notify admins via Email/Slack
Meet the Custom Error Element
The Custom Error element in Salesforce Flow is a powerful yet often underutilized tool that allows administrators and developers to implement robust error handling and create more user-friendly experiences. Unlike system-generated errors that can be cryptic or technical, the Custom Error element gives you complete control over when to halt flow execution and what message to display to your users.
The Custom Error element lets you intentionally raise a validation-style error from inside your flow, without causing a system fault, so you can keep users on the same screen, highlight what needs fixing, and block navigation until it’s resolved. Think of it as flow-native inline validation.
What The Custom Error Element Does
It displays a message at a specific location (the entire screen or a specific field) and stops the user from moving forward. This functionality does present a less than ideal self-disappearing red banner message if you make a change to a picklist using the path component, though. Refrain from using the custom error messages in these situations.
The unique thing about the custom error message is that it can be used to throw an intentional exception to stop the user from proceeding. In these use cases, it works very similarly to a validation rule on the object.
This becomes particularly valuable in complex business processes where you need to validate data against specific business rules that can’t be easily captured in standard validation rules. For instance, you might use a Custom Error to prevent a case from being closed if certain required child records haven’t been created, or to stop an approval process if budget thresholds are exceeded.
Please note that custom error messages block the transaction from executing, while a fault path connected to any other element will allow the original DML (the triggering DML) to complete when the record-triggered automation is failing.
Custom Error Screen in Screen Flows
Incorporating a dedicated custom error screen in your screen flows dramatically improves the user experience by transforming potentially frustrating dead-ends into helpful, actionable moments. When users encounter an error in a screen flow without a custom error screen, they’re often left with generic system messages that don’t explain what went wrong in business terms or what they should do next, leading to confusion, repeated help desk tickets, and abandoned processes.
A well-designed custom error screen, however, allows you to explain the specific issue in plain language that resonates with your users’ understanding of the business process. Beyond clear messaging, custom error screens give you the opportunity to provide contextual guidance, such as directing users to the right person or department for exceptions, offering alternative paths forward, or explaining the underlying business rule that triggered the error. You can also leverage display text components with dynamic merge fields to show users what caused the problem turning the error into a learning moment rather than a roadblock. Additionally, custom error screens maintain your organization’s branding and tone of voice, include helpful links to documentation or knowledge articles, and pair with logging actions to give you valuable insights into potential process improvements or additional training needs.
Here is an example custom error screen element format (customize to your liking):
Error Your transaction has not been completed successfully. Everything has been rolled back. Please try again or contact your admin with the detailed information below. Account Id: {!recordId} Time and Date: {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime} User: {!$User.Username} System fault message: {!$Flow.FaultMessage} Flow Label: Account - XPR - Opportunity Task Error Screen FlowThe “Roll Back Records” Element
There are use cases in screen flows where you create a record and then update this record based on follow-up screen actions. You could be creating related records for a newly created record, which would require you to create the parent record to get the record Id first. If you experience a fault in your screen flow, record(s) can remain in your system that are not usable. In these situations the Roll Back Records element lets you undo database changes made earlier in the same transaction. Roll Back Records does not roll back all changes to its original state, it only rolls back the last transaction in a series of transactions.
Tips for fewer faults in the first place
Here are some practical tips:
- Validate early on screens with input rules (Required, min/max, regex).
- Use Decisions to catch known conflicts before DML.
- Place DMLs strategically in screen flows: Near the end so success is all-or-nothing (plus Roll Back Records if needed) or after each screen to record the progress without loss.
The fewer faults you surface, the more your users will trust your flows.
Putting it all together
Here’s a checklist you can apply to your next Screen Flow:
- Every DML/Callout element has a Fault connector.
- A reusable Fault Handler subflow logs & standardizes messages.
- Custom Error is used for predictable, user-fixable issues on screens.
- A custom error screen presents clear actions and preserves inputs.
- Technical details are available, not imposed (display only if helpful).
- Roll Back Records is used when it matters.
- Prevention first: validate and decide before you write.
Other Considerations
When you use a fault path on a record-triggered flow create element, and your create fails, please keep in mind that you will get a partial commit. This means the records that fail won’t be created while others may be created.
Example: You are creating three tasks in a case record-triggered flow. If one of your record field assignments writes a string longer than the text field’s max length (for example, Subject) and you use a fault path on that create element, one task fails while the other two create successfully.
Conclusion
My philosophy regarding fault paths is to add them to your flows, but never go down them if possible. When you see you are going down fault paths, then that means you have opportunity for improvement in your automation design.
Every fault you handle offers insight into how your flow behaves in the real world. Each one reveals something about the assumptions built into your automation, the data quality in your org, or the user experience you’ve designed. Treating faults as signals rather than setbacks helps you evolve your automations into resilient, reliable tools your users can trust. Over time, these lessons refine both your technical build patterns and your understanding of how people interact with automation inside Salesforce.
Explore related content:
How to Use a Salesforce Action Button to Validate Lookup Fields in Screen Flows
Should You Leave Unused Input and Output Flow Variables?
How To Build Inline Editing for Screen Flow Data Tables in Salesforce
Salesforce Flow Best Practices
Add Salesforce Files and Attachments to Multiple Related Lists On Content Document Trigger
#CustomErrors #FaultHandling #FaultPath #SalesforceAdmins #SalesforceDevelopers #SalesforceHowTo #SalesforceTutorials #ScreenFlows -
Should You Use Fault Paths in Salesforce Flows?
If you build enough Flows, you’ll eventually see the dreaded flow fault email. Maybe a record you tried to update was locked, a required field value was not set in a create operation, or a validation rule tripped your commit. Regardless of the root cause, the impact on your users is the same: confusion, broken trust, and a support ticket. The good news is you can catch your faults using the fault path functionality. In this post, we’ll walk through practical patterns for fault handling, show how and when to use custom error element, and explain why a dedicated error screen in screen flows is worth the extra minute to build. We’ll also touch on the roll back records element for screen flows where this functionality can make a difference.
Why Fault Paths Matter
Faults are opportunities for your Salesforce Org automation to improve. While unhandled faults are almost always trouble, handled faults do not have to be a huge pain in our necks.
The Core Building Blocks of Flow Fault Handling
1) Fault paths
Gets (SOQLs), DMLs (create, update, and deletes) and actions support fault paths. Fault paths provide a way for the developer to determine what to do in the event of an error.
2) Fault actions
You can add elements to your fault path to determine the next steps. You can also add a custom error element in record-triggered flows or error screens in screen flows for user interactivity. Multiple fault paths in the flow can be connected to the same element executing the same logic. A subflow can be used to standardize and maintain the fault actions such as temporarily logging the fault events.Logging Errors
Here is a list of data that may be important to include in your fault communications and logging:
- Flow label
- User Name
- Date/Time
- Technical details (e.g. $Flow.FaultMessage)
- Record Id(s) and business context (e.g., Opportunity Id, Stage)
- User-friendly message (plain English)
Subflow Solution
The advantage of a subflow when dealing with fault paths is that you can modify the logic once on a central location. If you want to start logging temporarily, you can do that without modifying tons of flows. If you want to stop logging, this change can be completed fairly easily, as well.
Inside the subflow, decide whether to:
- Log to a custom object (e.g., Flow_Error__c)
- Notify admins via Email/Slack
Meet the Custom Error Element
The Custom Error element in Salesforce Flow is a powerful yet often underutilized tool that allows administrators and developers to implement robust error handling and create more user-friendly experiences. Unlike system-generated errors that can be cryptic or technical, the Custom Error element gives you complete control over when to halt flow execution and what message to display to your users.
The Custom Error element lets you intentionally raise a validation-style error from inside your flow, without causing a system fault, so you can keep users on the same screen, highlight what needs fixing, and block navigation until it’s resolved. Think of it as flow-native inline validation.
What The Custom Error Element Does
It displays a message at a specific location (the entire screen or a specific field) and stops the user from moving forward. This functionality does present a less than ideal self-disappearing red banner message if you make a change to a picklist using the path component, though. Refrain from using the custom error messages in these situations.
The unique thing about the custom error message is that it can be used to throw an intentional exception to stop the user from proceeding. In these use cases, it works very similarly to a validation rule on the object.
This becomes particularly valuable in complex business processes where you need to validate data against specific business rules that can’t be easily captured in standard validation rules. For instance, you might use a Custom Error to prevent a case from being closed if certain required child records haven’t been created, or to stop an approval process if budget thresholds are exceeded.
Please note that custom error messages block the transaction from executing, while a fault path connected to any other element will allow the original DML (the triggering DML) to complete when the record-triggered automation is failing.
Custom Error Screen in Screen Flows
Incorporating a dedicated custom error screen in your screen flows dramatically improves the user experience by transforming potentially frustrating dead-ends into helpful, actionable moments. When users encounter an error in a screen flow without a custom error screen, they’re often left with generic system messages that don’t explain what went wrong in business terms or what they should do next, leading to confusion, repeated help desk tickets, and abandoned processes.
A well-designed custom error screen, however, allows you to explain the specific issue in plain language that resonates with your users’ understanding of the business process. Beyond clear messaging, custom error screens give you the opportunity to provide contextual guidance, such as directing users to the right person or department for exceptions, offering alternative paths forward, or explaining the underlying business rule that triggered the error. You can also leverage display text components with dynamic merge fields to show users what caused the problem turning the error into a learning moment rather than a roadblock. Additionally, custom error screens maintain your organization’s branding and tone of voice, include helpful links to documentation or knowledge articles, and pair with logging actions to give you valuable insights into potential process improvements or additional training needs.
Here is an example custom error screen element format (customize to your liking):
Error Your transaction has not been completed successfully. Everything has been rolled back. Please try again or contact your admin with the detailed information below. Account Id: {!recordId} Time and Date: {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime} User: {!$User.Username} System fault message: {!$Flow.FaultMessage} Flow Label: Account - XPR - Opportunity Task Error Screen FlowThe “Roll Back Records” Element
There are use cases in screen flows where you create a record and then update this record based on follow-up screen actions. You could be creating related records for a newly created record, which would require you to create the parent record to get the record Id first. If you experience a fault in your screen flow, record(s) can remain in your system that are not usable. In these situations the Roll Back Records element lets you undo database changes made earlier in the same transaction. Roll Back Records does not roll back all changes to its original state, it only rolls back the last transaction in a series of transactions.
Tips for fewer faults in the first place
Here are some practical tips:
- Validate early on screens with input rules (Required, min/max, regex).
- Use Decisions to catch known conflicts before DML.
- Place DMLs strategically in screen flows: Near the end so success is all-or-nothing (plus Roll Back Records if needed) or after each screen to record the progress without loss.
The fewer faults you surface, the more your users will trust your flows.
Putting it all together
Here’s a checklist you can apply to your next Screen Flow:
- Every DML/Callout element has a Fault connector.
- A reusable Fault Handler subflow logs & standardizes messages.
- Custom Error is used for predictable, user-fixable issues on screens.
- A custom error screen presents clear actions and preserves inputs.
- Technical details are available, not imposed (display only if helpful).
- Roll Back Records is used when it matters.
- Prevention first: validate and decide before you write.
Other Considerations
When you use a fault path on a record-triggered flow create element, and your create fails, please keep in mind that you will get a partial commit. This means the records that fail won’t be created while others may be created.
Example: You are creating three tasks in a case record-triggered flow. If one of your record field assignments writes a string longer than the text field’s max length (for example, Subject) and you use a fault path on that create element, one task fails while the other two create successfully.
Conclusion
My philosophy regarding fault paths is to add them to your flows, but never go down them if possible. When you see you are going down fault paths, then that means you have opportunity for improvement in your automation design.
Every fault you handle offers insight into how your flow behaves in the real world. Each one reveals something about the assumptions built into your automation, the data quality in your org, or the user experience you’ve designed. Treating faults as signals rather than setbacks helps you evolve your automations into resilient, reliable tools your users can trust. Over time, these lessons refine both your technical build patterns and your understanding of how people interact with automation inside Salesforce.
Explore related content:
How to Use a Salesforce Action Button to Validate Lookup Fields in Screen Flows
Should You Leave Unused Input and Output Flow Variables?
How To Build Inline Editing for Screen Flow Data Tables in Salesforce
Salesforce Flow Best Practices
Add Salesforce Files and Attachments to Multiple Related Lists On Content Document Trigger
#CustomErrors #FaultHandling #FaultPath #SalesforceAdmins #SalesforceDevelopers #SalesforceHowTo #SalesforceTutorials #ScreenFlows -
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For people who watched #DisneyJunior, isn't it weird that in the show Handy Manny, everyone is so helpful? I mean, its just sort of weird right? because no town has people so willing to give people things. My example is Kelly, first, she has everything, can't even imagine how much that costs for her to buy relistically, and second, we don't actually see Manny paying for the supplies he uses so either A, its hidden or B, he gets it all for free. Thoughts? #Cartoons, #Kidshows #Disney