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Midnight Gaming: Being a switch for hot robot women - 6th October 2025
Hello hello hello!!!♡ and welcome again to another edition of Midnight Gaming. This week we will be revisting a couple of games that I covered on this series before, with the first of them being a remaster by nightdive studios.
Yep its System Shock 2, the 25th anniversary remaster edition.
So last time I talked about SS2, I was talking about how a good number of games that Ken Levine had a major hand in often have a twist or a sort of betrayal in it. SS2 had with Dr Polito who talks to you at the beginning of the game and its revealed around halfway that shes been dead for a while, you then had Bioshock try to pull a similar twist with Atlas and the words "would you kindly". Bioshock 2 didnt really have a twist I dont think (which makes it the best bioshock out of them all FIGHT! ME!), and then there was infinite which opened up freaking multiverse shit with the villian of the game being you all along…. oh yeah spoilers I guess.
But were not gonna focus on that, were gonna talk about the remaster that nightdive did and what changes are made to this version compared to the original…. well for one they redubbed the tutorial voice that greets you when you step off the train and into the recruitment facility. Yeah thats a bit annoying, also they changed the end credits so instead of seeing the developers lying dead on the floor, its just a slow text crawl. What the hell nightdive?
Ok well there is some notable inclusions, for one, similar to the doom 1 and 2 as well as the heretic + hexen remasters, theres now a vault where you can look through some gamedev notes, concept art, pre-release screenshots, trailers and even magazine review scans and ads. They apparently managed to get coop multiplayer working and with crossplay being an option. I havent played the multiplayer, and thats the last i'll talk about the multiplayer.
Now, being a game made for pc, its use of the mouse and keyboard control setup is gonna be a bit hard to translate to a gamepad what with the number of bindings this game has for leaning, switching ammo or psi powers or even just managing your inventory. But I have managed to get a playthrough under my belt of this game using a ps5 controller and it seems like nightdive did a decent job with the controller. Switching ammo and the fire setting for your guns can be done with the left and right arrows and the up arrow respectively, you can press the left stick to switch from moving to leaning and while you might end up stuck leaning instead of moving a few times, you can get use to it and find it quite intuitive. They also added a way to add hotkeys to 4 weapons and 4 psi powers, each attached to the right and left shoulder buttons. You can't hotkey consumables though so if you need to heal during a dangerous situation it'll be a bit of a hassle… atleast the quantum bio-reconstructer will revive you for some nanites :/.
![media-1]Another thing to note is how this remaster incorporates some updated models as well some community fixes. The weapon models look fairly decent , you can see the pistol slide actually move back as it should rather than in the og where the gun just suddenly snaps back and moves back into position to simulate recoil. The new enemy models look alright, I dont believe they had it in the og game but the the service bots do seem to now break apart as you shoot them before they explode which is a nice touch. Oh and the cyborg midwife keeps her breasts covered here unlike some other graphical mods. So the remaster is perfectly competent I suppose, it works well and plays like the original with some updates and balances.
But should you buy it? Cause lets be clear here, you can still just buy system sock 2 on steam and just mod it. You can look up mandalores review on ss2 and look for the mods he recommends and get more or less the remastered experience at a fraction of the cost of the official remaster.
Infact regarding remasters, they are popping up quite frequently arent they? And while there are valid criticisms about how the industry is just constantly rehashing the old stuff for a quick buck and how folks still buy therefore enabling ths, I'd rather touch on what games are remastered and if its done well by fixing some issues and improving the game overall while also maintaining the original charm of the game being remastered without changing too much, theres already countless youtube videos out there that talk about remastering/remaking and whether its good or bad. Since I started writing this, two remasters were announced recently by two different developers who have a reputation of handling remasters.
Theres Nightdive who did this remaster but have also announced a remaster of… Blood refreshed supply which is a remaster of another remaster…… um…. so fresh supply had issues at its launch which did get somewhat fixed, though it apparently still had issues that nightdive wanted to fix, so I guess now they can do that now that atari and warner bros have reached a deal or something? Oh but this will have a new episode and it'll include the deathwish mod and sure but the fact that having fresh supply already doesnt mean you'll get this as an upgrade is just…. nah.
And I like Nightdive, they do decent work with their remasters, their work helped fix the issues that held some games back and make them more available for people to play. This blood remaster is just…. not ideal and I can imagine its not what they had in mind either, they would have just updated fresh supply instead, but atleast it'll be a perfectly serviceable, if not completely unnecessary and a bit of shill order.
But thats nothing compared to the Deus Ex Remaster which is….. jesus christ what the hell?
Now that ones being done by Aspyr who are also in the remaster business but they seem to have a different work ethic on producing remasters that folks have been critical on. Mainly that they seem to do the bare minimum and upscaling the graphics and making it playable on a system before calling it quits and moving on, even when theres still bugs and issues in the remaster. They have been panned for how they handled remastering stuff like the star wars battlefront games, the lok soul reaver and neverwinter nights 2 but this deus ex one really and I mean really took the cake….(to be fair, I saw reviews on that soul reaver remaster that mentioned serious bugs back when it launced but I checked it again recently and it seems like there was some fixes, so I bought that during a sale)
It looks awful, really awful. Its been pointed out that they apparently used ai to upscale models and textures with misspellings being observed and pointed out in the trailer. Its looking to be on the same level of quality as GTA trilogy "definitive" edition. And thats sad because I seem to recall Aspyr being a bit better in the past or atleast they werent criticised as heavily. They were doing ports on some star wars games and they were set on releasing ports of KOTOR 1 & 2 with the news that they'll include the restored content mod for kotor 2 along with the reveal of a proper remake of kotor. And then disney said no on the mod idea, Aspyr gets taken off the remake and now it feels like they've been a bit more apathetic as of late. I guess considering they went through financial issues during that fiasco they've decided its best to just do the minimum and move on while cashing their revenue cheques.
Kinda sad really.
Anyways… why did I buy this remaster? Well I wasn't planning to let alone cover it here but I had a real shit monday and decided to just buy some games that were on sale to cheer myself up. This game, Sulfur and Cult of the Lamb. I figure I'd cover this remaster to tie in with revisiting stuff I covered, along with a second game that I wanted to take a second look since I received a comment explaining some things that I felt confused before.
And that game…. will be revealed after the break.
NEWS ROUNDUP!!!
Steam Deck LCDs experience price drop - I enjoy my Steam Deck. I had no interest in buying a series x or going with a ps5 and I wasnt sure at the time the next nintendo console was going to be worthwhile (spoilers: I was right) so I decided to purchase a Steam Deck OLED and since then i've been pretty pleased with that, being able to play my steam library in a portable format and even buying a dock and ps5 controller to connect to my tv and play my library on a tv screen.
Now if you yourself have been interested in the Steam Deck but refrained due to price concerns, there is some good news as Valve are now selling the LCD model at a reduced price of $319.20/£279.20 on their online storefront. So if this appeals to you then maybe give it a look or just look at the linked pcgamer article below for further details.
Frictional Games seem to have announced Soma 2 through a "Hotel Samsara" website - Soooo…… you ever hear of Amnesia the dark descent? You did? Good, then you know who Frictional Games are since their the devs behind that as well as their previous Penumbra series and of course, SOMA which I've heard described as Amnesia but sci-fi.
Anyways a recent update to SOMA was noted in the patch to have fixed some "faulty spam filters" and sure enough near the start of the game your protagonists pc has a spam email for a hotel. Following the link leads to a real website acting as a sign up page for a hotel samsara which according to the RPS article, is described as being spooky. While folks are busy speculating what this all entails for SOMAS sequel, you can maybe check out the RPS article or even the hotel samsara site yourself if you're interested.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/amnesia-creators-frictional-are-teasing-what-could-be-soma-2-through-a-sinister-luxury-hotel-websiteAnimated Death Stranding movie announced with working title "Death Stranding Mosquito" - Kojima loves hollywood, this is isnt really a secret or anything if your invested in his games or just happen to pay enough attention to news involving him.
Western hollywood movies are a major inspiration for his work in the metal gear series, he's fanboying over actors, hes ecstatic to work with Guillermo Del Toro, Mads Milkkelsen and Norman Reemus for Death Stranding. Hes a pretty big movie fan is what i'm saying and I'm fairly sure I heard or read somewhere that he wanted his own studio Kojima Productions to not only develop videos games but also branch out into films as well. So with the announcement of an animated movie set in the Death Stranding ip, you would think thats them doing just that, except its being handled by the A24 folks.
The film is being directed by a Hiroshi Miyamoto from ABC Animation and its being written by an Aaron Guzikowski whom this Game Informer article credits as being behind works such as Raised by Wolves, Prisoners and The Red Road.
I've had Death Stranding on my list of games that I wanted to play but havent gotten around to since I heard it described as a walking simulator/ horror game? I hear it was well received along with the sequel, I should really get around to buying and playing it, in the meantime feel free to look through the game informer article and check out the trailer they included too.
https://gameinformer.com/2025/09/23/death-stranding-animated-film-announced
Payday 2 now has a Subscription Service….. why tho?? - So…. I saw this when I opened up steam and read through the announcement before thinking to myself…. goddamn not again. Its lootboxes all over again.
![media-2]This announcement reeks of desperate… like payday 3 bombed pretty badly and Overkill and starbreeze are having some issues but this wasnt gonna help. The last time they had serious financial issues, they had to reopen devlopment on payday 2 and create dlc to sell to folks, thats how we got the dlc collections that take place near the white house finale that took heisters to Mexico, San Francisco and Texas.
Now though it doesnt seem like they're doing that, instead its just pay a sub to access dlcs please. You can still buy the dlcs seperate but some folks pointed out that the infamy collection which had all the dlc up to the white house heist along with the game itself apparently had a sudden price increase which overkill lowered again claiming it was a mistake… yeah…. sure….
And the real kicker? This might've gone a bit better if they did two things. First off, they could've made the base game of payday 2 free, just straight up free to bring in new players who havent already bought the game and most of the dlcs already. The second is they could've announced new dlc for payday 2 will be developed. This might seem embarrassing and they'd get lampooned for basically doing the same thing they did before, but atleast the subscription option would actually have some use instead of just being seen as a greedy crash grab.
Isnt there already a large amount of dlc for payday 2 that would be expensive to acquire fully… yes but the the infamy collection, which includes most of the dlc up to white house, often goes on sale along with the post white house dlc. So why would you pay a subscription to have temporary access to some dlcs for a 12 year old game????
NEWS ROUNDUP OVER!!!
So now our second game we're are revisiting is none other than… Nikke Goddesses of Victory, yeah that gacha game with the android women.
So you might wonder why am I revisiting this? Well as it turns out, when I posted my part 2 on Tumblr, someone actually commented and gave a pretty good explanation over some of the questions I brought up regarding it. Plus I felt that maybe I didnt give it a fair shake so I decided to give it another look to see if my thoughts change this time.
So gonna give a big thanks to kumokimiko and hopefully if you're reading this you don't mind me directly quoting you here:
"in-universe, Nikkes look the way that they do because the procedure generates a body profile based on the human's exceptionally strong sense of self or ideals. at time of creation, they become an idealized version of themselves. however, if they lacked such a personality or conviction, they become a mass-produced model.
the Nikke manufacturing companies capitalize on this phenomenon, by ensuring the strong and independent designs are marketable and aspirational. Mass-produced models are fodder that nobody need think twice about (well, until it's YOUR daughter who got turned into a mass-produced, but you're more likely to just disown them to avoid the heartbreak), but the sexy top-end models, they're the "Goddesses of Victory", fighting Raptures for mankind, who every girl wants to be like someday.
why only women? in-universe, not much explanation beyond "we tried using dudes, it didn't work". out-of-universe, however, it plays into the borderline feminist critique the writers are making of women as second-class citizens in South Korea. Nikkes have no agency and have their free will subjugated by nanomachines in the brain, may be subject to horrible experimentation or memory wipes with minimal justification, and are widely distrusted by the general populace on account of being susceptible to corruption and turning on humans at any time. in Nikke, the protagonist must essentially learn how to become the Ultimate Feminist, using his own status as a 'Human Commander of growing renown' to advocate for Nikke rights and support their mental health and autonomy"
Sooo…. to my understanding:
The nikkes look like attractive women because the process is based on what that person believes is their most ideal form, provided they have the willpower and drive, otherwise they become a basic mass production grunt. The ones who do are essentially used for marketing and pr purposes to attract more candidates for nikke creation. Though in that sense it doesnt quite answer as to why some nikkes look like minors. Maybe they litterly used kids in some cases?
While it makes little sense ingame, the fact that all the nikkes are women does serve a narrative point since this game uses the framework of a post-apocalypse with android women soldiers to touch on the subject of rampant misogyny and treatment of women in places such as South Korea. In my past playthrough and this one, the games story did explain that nikkes are treated somewhat expendable and unfairly. One example is how in the story my commander is told they'll get punished severely for breaking some rules yet in the court trial, they get suspended for two days while 2 nikkes in their command are ordered to have their memories erased, essentially being given a soft death penalty despite following orders.
This is definitive proof that someone has actually read some of my work on this series.
No really, this is a problem. See while I would've liked to see some traction and attention on this series, I kind of gotten used to being cursed with obscurity so I just wrote my thoughts and feelings on games and news without worrying about comments because who the hell is gonna read it lmao….
Well someone did, they actually read that part 2 I did and they wrote a comment that helpfully answered my questions regarding the game and…. i'm not sure I feel comfortable with this. I know I get the rare like and even rarer repost but I never really had a comment like this, if ever. Right now it makes me wonder if I should be careful from now on, this comment might have been nice and informative but how do I know the next one won't just straight up be my home address. How do I know I'm not being scrutinised on every word even as I type this. It's just….l i've been observed….
I've been observed.
I've been observed.
I'VE BEEN OBSERRRRRRVVVVVEEEEDDDDD!!!!!!!#!@#@!#£
(Insert technical difficulties)
"Ah you must be the new commander"
"hello…."
"Yes the doctors told me you suffered severe brain trauma from that helicopter crash. Its amazing you managed to survive that as well as all the raptures in that area. Anyways commander I have some bad news, it seems that crash has had some serious side effects as all of your misogyny has been knocked out of you, effectively making you woke"
"women….deserve better.."
"Normally we'd execute you infront of firing squad who would shout slurs at you till you die by a self-inflicted injury but the central government has decided to go with a rather unorthodox strategy. Apparently that crash has also made you a gifted commander as according to the performance reports, it seems the nikkes you commanded actually like you and that made them more effective soldiers."
"women so beautiful… give equal pay"
"Commander this pains me to say this but I need you to….. respect women. You need to respect women as hard as you can in the hopes that maybe they can kill all the alien robots. That means you cannot assault, call them slurs, grope or stare at their breasts and asses. You have to actually listen to them talk and hear their problems as well as give them gifts without any expectations for sexual gratification in return. And you positively can't smell them especially on anywhere they sit. We need you to do this, it may very well be the only way to protect our future dystopic society where BANGCAPITALISMBANGSTILLBANGEXISTS!!!"
"women deserve autonomy….. pretty women"
"Look we've tried hitting them, sexually harrassing them, stalking them, we've tried everything but for some reason nothing worked as well as what you did. Now get the fuck out there you liberal cuck. I need to detox by binging andrew tate videos and then go on fortnite to shout slurs at childrenCOUGH"
"blood…"
"Yes sorry for that, I was aura-farmmaxxing last night. Also I ate some shrimp that may have been contaminated with radiation, I have seconds left to live."
(We now return you to your regulary scheduled blog post)
ok…. ok… i'm calm now… had a small meltdown but i'm cool now….
You know something? The devs for nikke and glitch productions should do a collab involving murder drones. I mean this game has robot women, murder drones has some robot women and men. That could honestly work because nikke does do some collabs, they did one for nier and evangelion, hell atm they're doing one with resident evil. They could definatly do one with murder drones, it'd be pretty neat.
Anways uh….. right last time I talked about nikke I mentioned that playing on a phone didnt feel ideal due to screen space and that'd I'd had to rely on the auto functions for aiming. Since then i've gotten a tablet, so the game should play better on it right? Well yes…. and no. Yes the large screen space is better to aim with, but for some reason its locked in portrait mode rather than landscape. Not to mention aiming via dragging my finger feels too sluggish. I ended up failing a stage while doing manual aiming and when I tried again while letting the nikkes aim themselves, they managed to beat the stage no problem. So I mostly just let them handle the shooting while I sit back and activate burst skills, only occasionally taking manual aim during boss fights to attack vital points to interrupt an attack.
![media-3]I have also mentioned the fact that you could bond with your nikkes to increase their affection before but didnt really touch on it much unlike in this session. So not only do you increase a nikkes stats by leveling their affection, you also unlock episodes for that nikkes unique character story. Between these episodes along with the text message conversations you can have with a random nikke and even events in the outpost you could view for a limited time each week, it does help flesh out a lot of these characters personalities. Now granted i'm a gacha casual. I don't know if nikke is the one that did a system like this in such a way. I know I saw similar bonding mechanics in granblue and reverse 1999 but i'm not sure if they allow the same opportunities for thier characters to show their personality off unlike here.
I did manage to get a better idea on how to build a squad rather than just go with an auto-created one. I have either 1 level 1 and 2 level 2's or 2 level 1's and 1 level 2 and usually have two level 3's. The single ones tend to have skills that have a 20 second cooldown while the pairs tend to have longer cooldowns since I can choose the alternate one for that level, this way I can activate more full bursts to get complete buffs. Usually the squad contains a healer/shield nikke, buff nikke and a couple of damage nikkes.
You know looking back on the points from that comment, theres definitely an avenue for the nikke devs to do a story that touches on transgenderism given the whole "nikkes that arent mass repro are based on the subjects own personal idealised form" angle. You could definitely do a story where either a male subject did manage to be a successful transfer but they end up discovering something about themselves and end up transitioning or just one of the nikkes could have their pre-nikke history reveal that they were originally a man. I dunno I feel as if that is something they could actually do in this game…. though theres a potential chance they do it poorly or the whole nikke community goes in full meltdown over it but it is an idea.
To be honest I do feel my opinions on this has improved a bit given the context provided by that comment. Playing the game again and putting a bit more attention on some of the visual novel scenes does make me a appreciate how the game portrays the characters it has you playing gacha for, atleast on the conversations and personality side and not the pinup model one, though if this game was trying to go for story about feminism, it would kinda hurt the angle they were going if they went all "fan-servicey" over it and from what I played so far, they do manage to atleast avoid going too far, for the most part. I mean the resident evil event story did have a small scene of the commander walking on someone changing clothes and immediately backed out and apologise without showing an image of said character mid-changing, I feel like another game would have actually showed said scene in detail for a quick bit of pandering and I do appreciate they didnt do that.
Still kinda sucks that they dont look like actual robots, that would've been pretty cool and looking through all the nikkes you could get, most of are usually attractive women or just straight up rugrats, but then I found them….. Kilo.
![media-4]A nikke who pilots a mech suit, uses a light machine gun to spread dakka and has some good shielding skills and a damaging burst skill. Unfortunately shes was only available during the 1.5 anniversary event and few other events and doesnt seem like you coud get her via the regular gacha. You just have to wait for her to be available in a special gacha which….. sucks.
So yeah, I gonna keep this on the tablet and maybe look at on the odd occasion but I do feel like its a lot better than I initially thought in my intial playthrough of this game.
Now, was there anything I wanted to cover about this game….
Oh right…
Syeun, the ceo for Missilis Industry, is a cunt. I dont think thats controversial to say and I don't care if she has a tragic backstory, her introduction at the outpost and her attempt to force you to work for her, even threatening to frame you if you try to extract early, makes her a massive asshole in my eyes. If shes your favourite then fine, more power to you, she just ain't mine.
So that'll be it for this edition of Midnight Gaming. Next time will be covering something I havent covered beforehand. Until then i'll see you then, feel free to leave comments and game suggestion
#midnightgaming #gaming #video-games #nikke #nikke-goddess-of-victory #system-shock-2 #nightdive-studios -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review
By Steel Druhm
I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.
After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.
Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.
Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.
Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced
-
Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review
By Steel Druhm
I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.
After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.
Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.
Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.
Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced
-
Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review
By Steel Druhm
I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.
After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.
Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.
Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.
Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced
-
Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review
By Steel Druhm
I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.
After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.
Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.
Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.
Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced
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Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review
By Steel Druhm
I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.
After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.
Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.
Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.
Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced
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Which 2 2024 anime autumn shows disappointed me and Myska
Well now that Autumn season has come to a close and with winter seasonal shows around the corner (as of writing this post), it’s the usual which 2 shows disappointed me this time around. And there is a special surprise too, I’m glad to be collaborating with Myska from Myska reviews!!
Give the lovely Myska a follow on her blog, she does some really great reviews, if you’re into anime or K-drama, she got other posts to give a gander at too!!
Myska is my first commentator as well, and has always supported me, so I’m honoured that she is joining me on this one.
Myska’s Disappointments
These are the two shows that disappointed her for the Autumn showing
Kimi wa Meido-sama (You are Ms servant)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Vu4OG4ULs
Kimi wa Meido-sama tries to juggle many elements—action, romance, comedy, and drama—without giving any of them the depth they deserve. The lack of humor, the unexplored past of Xue, and the abrupt shift in focus to Hitoyoshi’s family issues in the later episodes make the narrative feel disjointed.
The series had the potential to craft a gripping story around Yuki’s transition from assassin to maid and her struggle to reconcile her past and present. Instead, it falls into a predictable romance with underwhelming characters and unresolved plotlines.
Dandadan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XJxfbN36Uw
Dandadan failed to live up to its potential for me. While there was a brief glimmer of hope in episode 7, which felt like a different show entirely, the constant barrage of uncomfortable and childish humor and lack of meaningful character development made it hard to stay invested. Last but not least, the loud, chaotic energy is fun at first, but after a while, it becomes exhausting. Dandadan seems more interested in shock value than in creating a well-rounded, enjoyable experience.
Bloopy’s Disappointments
Okay, so now it’s my turn to give dish out the disappointments for the autumn showing
The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpr9LCQsETM
I did a first impression on notorious talker. After 6 episodes this was dropped. I really couldn’t get into the series. The main character Noel was trying to be this cool, anti-hero edge lord. Anyone who wronged him, ended up on the wrong side of his wrath. Whilst I get it, that anyone who wrongs you, should receive payback of some kind. Noel is basically a support, that can’t do any offence, so was taught by his legendary grandfather, since the class Noel is, is very squishy.
The plot I found it boring; the pacing matched the story being told. The only real thing that kept me remotely interested in the series, is the tanned, yandere, heterochromatic eye beauty Alma. Even that really couldn’t save it from being dropped.
365 days to the wedding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV3DvCODx64
I’ve done both a first impression and a mini review on this series. This disappointed me in a way, that you could see the ending 500 mile off even before it aired. The lie was held up – even if it was played safe. What really didn’t make that interesting is just how often the two main leads were bumbling around, trying to find out how they felt for each other – with little chemistry. The last two episodes were really rushed, with the deus ex machina of who goes to Anchorage. Nor how the “black mailer” knew they were lying in the first place.
And there you have it, my first collab with another guest blogger! hope you enjoyed reading two grumpy bloggers whinging about which shows disappointed us. And do make sure to check out and even follow Myska’s blog!
#365DaysToTheWedding #Anime #AnimeBlog #AnimeTVSeries #Dandadan #FantasyAnime #LightNovel #TVSeries #YouAreMsServant
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CW: Snowflake Challenge #3: changed fannish opinion. Mine? Appreciating the term "yaoi". This 3am ramble will discuss "problematic" themes in art, sexism and racism/xenophobia.
I used to be one of those annoying "my glorious gay porn, their bad yaoi for GIRLS" people when I was an underage tf2channer. So I know exactly how those people think, and hope they grow out of it by the time they're 17.
It comes from:
1. Trying to impress your peers by rejecting nerdy weebery, like saying that western cartoons are better than anime (spoilers: its all cartoons).
2. Trying to present more masculine (regardless of transness or gender identity) by rejecting femininity as a safety mechanism. (We live in a Joker society)
3. Trying to make fun of other people's interests before they can make fun of your "cringe" interests. Spoilers, it's all gay cartoon porn and anyone who's not a internet addled nerd thinks its weird.
The funniest thing about the modern iteration of 'yaoi is bad gay porn', is that in Ye Olde Days, yaoi was the "bad gay porn" because it wasn't problematic enough to be cool! While now it's 'real m/m is good representation, yaoi is problematic"
The stereotype used to be that yaoi was too girly and full of flowery nonsense and melodramatic emotions and kissing. While the REAL GAY PORN FOR REAL GAY MEN full of snuff and age gap daddy kink and wolf rape. Gengoroh Tagame comics were popular "shock art" amongst the internet crowd back then ya see.
In [current year] it's more obviously xenophobic. Japanese terms like BL and yaoi are the "bad terms" used by "bad people". Meanwhile English language queer shows and books are localized as BL in Japan lololol.
It's never too late to embrace that everything and nothing is dank yaoi! I embrace the word "yaoi" now rather than any other label, because:
1. I like that it makes ignorant people mad.
2. It is nostalgic and reminds me of my youth reading final fantasy doujin scanlations.
3. I like the history of the term being applied to "comics with no point or plot" (from the perspective of professional editors) speaks to me. Lowbrow comics about dudes kissin'. I don't care if you can't find a deep message or world building. I have fun thinkin it up and making it.
4. I like this history of the term being used for "self-indulgent doujinshi" from the 70's-80's. Doesn't necessarily only apply to pornographic comics. And I like those decades in art 😼
5. I like to be oppositionally defiant and challenge people who have preconceived notions that all Asian artists draw in a certain art style, by using an Asian term. I know my art doesn't scream ORIENTAL to most people lmao, I got old teachers that told me that I should draw more "ethnically" to appeal to illustration/animation standards for non white artists. But the truth is I am very inspired by azn comics like Old Master Q and Dragon Ball and all those doujinshi I read as a kid, even if other people can't see it. #snowflakeChallenge2025
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📘 "Earthlings" by Sayaka Murata, translated from Japanese into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Well, I did it. I finished it. I did not come out unscathed.
This is the second book I've read from the author, the other being 'Convenience Store Woman'. I went in kind of expecting that level of alienating from society. I was wrong. This is a good book, but I feel like I must warn anyone who needs CWs to check them out. Do it. Mentioning them here might be a spoiler, though.
Be prepared that this book goes off the rails. Then it tumbles down the mountain, into a ravine. At the bottom it catches fire. It triggers something, so it explodes. It's catapulted into space, without oxygen, and suffocates. Then it falls down and on entry in the atmosphere it burns. Back on earth, dropping into the ocean, it concludes by drowning. Its body gets ripped apart by wildlife. Is that the journey you want to go on? Truly ask yourself that.
Save to say this book is shocking and upsetting, but it's with great critique of societal norms and modern life. It's just fed up with being subtle. I loved how it mixed up extremely relatable thoughts and frustrations with the most repulsive and upsetting things, making you question your own sanity.
The structure of the book is pretty cool. With six chapters, it switches between Y Y A Y A A regarding young/adult life. Uneven chapters are slow shocks, even chapters are extreme shocks. The geographical elevation goes high low high low high, etc. There's more patterns throughout. I have no idea if it's all on purpose, or if I'm simply seeing things, but I enjoyed it.
I've grown fond of Earthlings, but I don't know if I can stomach reading it again. They're completely different titles, but the stress I felt reading this was a bit like the anxiety I felt while reading 'Blood on the Tracks' by Shūzō Oshimi. Maybe in a million years, once I can reread it in the original Japanese, I'll consider it.
I saw Sayaka Murata will release a new novel in English later this year. I'm excited, but as soon as I saw the cover (all these tiny plastic baby dolls), I got worried. But I'm always yearning for more books about how normal is abnormal, so I know I'll cave in anyway.
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Stuck in the Filter – September’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Fall is upon us at last. Here at my station, located far far away from AMG HQ due to my various injustices against the Score Counter, taste, and metal credibility over the past five years of writership, I monitor our minions’ progress scouring the headquarters’ overtaxed filtration system. As the leaves and cool mists infiltrate the guts of the machine to mingle with the stagnant refuse which lines the chutes and coats our poor, unfortunate laborers, I use my remote-controlled cattle-prod-equipped drone to motivate and maintain pace. We have a deadline to reach after all!
Ah, who am I kidding?! Deadlines are for poseurs, and we are well-known specialists of the late post. I just like torturing my subjects until they cough up the goods. And cough up they always do! So now, please, sit, and enjoy the spoils of not my labor, the best of the pretty good from September 2023!
Kenstrosity’s Mildewed Masses
King’s Rot // At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness [September 22nd, 2023 – Hypnotic Dirge Records]
It’s been a fairly mediocre year for standard black metal in the House ov Ken. Most of the time, the good stuff hybridized with other things like death metal (Úlfúð), psychedelia (DHG), or power metal (Moonlight Sorcery). Alberta, Canada’s King’s Rot doesn’t quite change that, but they make a valiant effort of it with their sophomore outing, At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness. Its production marks a good start, perfectly straddling the fence between murky rawness and sparkling clarity. This in turn bolsters the quality of the music, which straddles the fence between melodicism and wretchedness. I’m most engaged whenever King’s Rot kick into high gear, evoking bands like Vimur and Imperialist, except this material prefers to revel in the hellish flames of the underworld rather than the coronas of distant stars (“Blazing Winds of Torment,” “At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness,” “Last Dance for the Eternal Flame”). However, they could use more of that perilous verve and swagger in those areas where the band take their sweet time building up to a blistering fury (as with the Cloak-esque “Twilight Breath Incantation” and “Obscure Awakenings”) in order to keep my interest rabid from start to finish. In sum, you could do much worse than At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness for your fiery, but chilling black metal fix.
Aortha // Monolit [September 8th, 2023 – Self Release]
How many vocalists is too many vocalists? International supergroup Aortha bring a new scope and scale to the question with their groovy heavy/thrash/power metal project by employing six individuals for mic duty (Exhorder‘s Kyle Thomas, Adamantia’s Diego Valdez, Voivod‘s Denis Belanger Snake, ex-Temperance’s Alessia Scolletti, Laurenne/Louhimo’s Netta Laurenne, ex-Scar Symmetry‘s Christian Älvestam). Supported by Jacob Umansky on bass, Hannes Grossman on drums, and Predrag Glogovac on guitars, Aortha’s debut LP Monolit boasts insane levels of groove, hook, and swagger. Bangers like “Those That Should Not Exist,” “Last of Our Kind,” “Forging the Locus” and “Divine Future” are guaranteed to kick your ass and take your lunch money, while every vocalist gets their chance to spit in your face (although it can be difficult to pick out who is who with 100% accuracy). It’s nearly impossible not to bob my head along with these tunes, as transitions constantly reveal a new trick up the group’s sleeve, whether that be another ripping verse hook (“Keep the Dream”), a sharp riff that has no business being as fun or interesting as it is (“Last of Our Kind”), or some fancy percussive work that one would expect from the world’s most sought-after drummer. It might be cheesy in places, ESL is everywhere, and some songs can feel a little long after repeat spins (“When All Around You is Madness”), but Monolit remains one of my most fun, compelling, and deceivingly cohesive surprises this year. You owe it to yourselves to try it!
Dolphin Whisperer’s Trench Treasures
SATSURIKU ROBOT // NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE! [September 8th, 2023 – WormHoleDeath]
No Thrash Metal, No Life!—demanding and straightforward. It’s easy to imagine that the untested Japanese act would have constructed this outing as an homage to the blue-collar hammer-on, hammer-off tunes we all love so dearly.1 And to a certain extent the opening riffs to the Slayer-touched “THRASH NEVER DIE” and the Sodom-grooving “MAD THRASHER” have a normalcy to them. However, that basic appearance dissolves rapidly against a cranked-out, clangy-ass snare and a vocalist who’s channeling both a cat in heat and a pig greased for the chase. Honestly, I have no idea what the fuck he’s doing. On tracks like “殺戮ロボット – SATSURIKU ROBOT ” and “CARRY ON” he drops character for brief moments while channeling a punky bellow akin to fellow countrymen SEX MACHINEGUNS, which gives a little respite to his madness. For the most part though, he squirts and squeals with a rabid conviction while his bandmates do their best to churn out solid sing-along gang shouts amidst mighty solos (“ROBOT IN THE PANDEMIC,” “NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!”). Similar to the out-of-place nature of the hokey, nursery rhyme infusions you hear in a Macabre album, much of what SATSURIKU ROBOT accomplishes throughout this thoughtful mess of a debut should not work, but it does and it’s catchy as hell. Though I don’t think these folks could pull it off twice with as much shock value, but that matters little when you can enjoy this sneakily not-thrash ode to thrash. So what’re you waiting for? NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!!!
Vibora // Zaldi Beltza [September 29th, 2023 – Zegema Beach Records]
Anthemic, throat-ripping, cathartic as a cold bath with the curtains drawn—Zaldi Beltza (The Black Horse) is the skramz you need in your life. With a bass overdriven for noise rock and a scrapped mic that reminds me of regionally-adjacent sadbois Tenue or ragers Crossed,2 Vibora’s brand of screeching metalcore comes with highlights that swing effortlessly between tough guy throw-downs and major swing crescendos (“Eraikin Zurie,” “Le Fleur”). Though Vibora drops tempo for a few melancholy post-hardcore romps (“DANA,” “La Casa, 20”), the burn through Zaldi Beltza’s nine tracks in twenty-three minutes never feels too long drawn on its less aggressive elements. Appropriate levels of hissing amp feedback and nut-shaking bass (“La Casa, 8,” “Ez Ziguten Maitatzen Irakatsi”) ensure that these Basque core-kiddies never stray too far from a forward-moving path. I gotta level with you though, this is true screamo, and if you’re not accustomed to the fuzz-filtered, nasally, digging yelp that typically accompanies this world, Vibora doesn’t do anything to change that. But Zaldi Beltza, in its close-to-roots expression of bright-chord Daïtro-flavored post-hardcore with extra hardcore delivers a modern sad-ggression that’s building a movement of its own.
Thus Spoke’s Tarnished Trinkets
Ash Prison // Future Torn [September 22nd 2023 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]
Ash Prison are basically everything you want blackened industrial music to be—or at least they’re everything I want it to be. This weird, warpy, wacky work sees resonant, electrified bass wrap around jittery tempos, accompanied by echoing, snarling croaks, and a plethora of other strange sounds. You’ve taken the pill the shifty guy by the club toilets gave you, that you probably shouldn’t have, and now the gothic electronica is warping around you, and the walls are starting to melt. The come up was a bit aggressive (“Archangel”), but at the same time, incredibly, weirdly danceable, in a jagged sort of way, as is much of Future Torn. And the way groovy, boppy beats slide in out of the noise (“Death Reborn,” “No Return,” “Collapse”) is almost as unsettling as the heavier, actually scary stuff. This mood swing happens whiplash from song to song, “Voidhead,” “Black Horizon,” and “Weep in my Shadow” each smash onto the scene with fast, clipped tempos and a lot of static and distortion. And then there’s “Scorn,” whose skipping, echoing voice sample and scarily low hum create a spine-chillingly powerful sense of dread before the beat picks up to turn it into a mad, unhinged bop. This album terrifies me, and I love it. Why not give it a try?
Steel Druhm’s Seasonal Slashing:
Lord of Shadows // Echoes of Yore [September 1st, 2023 – Meuse Music Records]
Lord of Shadows is the work of one Mike Lamb, and on the debut full-length Echoes of Yore, the multi-instrumentalist tackles the Peaceville sound made famous in the 90s by My Dying Bride and Anathema. And to make sure you know he’s deadly serious about his passion project, he recruited none other than My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe to handle vocals for him, alongside Heike Langhans (Remina, Light Field Reverie, ex-Draconian). Over 42 minutes, Lamb and guests paint the night pitch black with effective Gothic doom loaded with drama, pathos, and despondency. The man knows his chosen genre well and appoints it with a captivating array of forlorn riffs, weeping pianos, ethereal female vocals, and booming death croaks. The songsmithing is above average and the lengthy compositions keep you in thrall as they suck all the joy from your downtrodden soul. Cuts like “Faith of Thy Beloved” and “At the End of Our Eclipse” will win you over to the morose cause, and the nine-minute “Through Memories, I Gave Her Life” will carry you off to sadboi glory. Is it derivative of its source material? Naturally, but the adroit blend of My Dying Bride and female-forward Gothic doom like Draconian works well. With Winter banging at the door, this is the optimal time of year for what Lord of Shadows are selling, so stock up now! DOOM!
#2023 #Adamantia #Aortha #AshPrison #AtTheGatesOfAdversarialDarkness #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Cloak #Crossed #Daïtro #DHG #EchoesOfYore #Exhorder #FutureTorn #HeavyMetal #HypnoticDirgeRecords #Imperialist #Industrial #IndustrialMetal #KingSRot #LaurenneLouhimo #LordOfShadows #Macabre #MelodicBlackMetal #Metalcore #Monolit #MoonlightSorcery #NoThrashMetalNoLife #PowerMetal #SatsurikuRobot #ScarSymmetry #Screamo #SelfReleased #SentientRuinLaboratories #Sep23 #Slayer #Sodom #StuckInTheFilter #Temperance #Tenue #ThrashMetal #Úlfúð #VIbora #Vimur #Voivod #WormHoleDeath #ZaldiBeltza #ZegemaBeachRecords
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Stuck in the Filter – September’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Fall is upon us at last. Here at my station, located far far away from AMG HQ due to my various injustices against the Score Counter, taste, and metal credibility over the past five years of writership, I monitor our minions’ progress scouring the headquarters’ overtaxed filtration system. As the leaves and cool mists infiltrate the guts of the machine to mingle with the stagnant refuse which lines the chutes and coats our poor, unfortunate laborers, I use my remote-controlled cattle-prod-equipped drone to motivate and maintain pace. We have a deadline to reach after all!
Ah, who am I kidding?! Deadlines are for poseurs, and we are well-known specialists of the late post. I just like torturing my subjects until they cough up the goods. And cough up they always do! So now, please, sit, and enjoy the spoils of not my labor, the best of the pretty good from September 2023!
Kenstrosity’s Mildewed Masses
King’s Rot // At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness [September 22nd, 2023 – Hypnotic Dirge Records]
It’s been a fairly mediocre year for standard black metal in the House ov Ken. Most of the time, the good stuff hybridized with other things like death metal (Úlfúð), psychedelia (DHG), or power metal (Moonlight Sorcery). Alberta, Canada’s King’s Rot doesn’t quite change that, but they make a valiant effort of it with their sophomore outing, At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness. Its production marks a good start, perfectly straddling the fence between murky rawness and sparkling clarity. This in turn bolsters the quality of the music, which straddles the fence between melodicism and wretchedness. I’m most engaged whenever King’s Rot kick into high gear, evoking bands like Vimur and Imperialist, except this material prefers to revel in the hellish flames of the underworld rather than the coronas of distant stars (“Blazing Winds of Torment,” “At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness,” “Last Dance for the Eternal Flame”). However, they could use more of that perilous verve and swagger in those areas where the band take their sweet time building up to a blistering fury (as with the Cloak-esque “Twilight Breath Incantation” and “Obscure Awakenings”) in order to keep my interest rabid from start to finish. In sum, you could do much worse than At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness for your fiery, but chilling black metal fix.
Aortha // Monolit [September 8th, 2023 – Self Release]
How many vocalists is too many vocalists? International supergroup Aortha bring a new scope and scale to the question with their groovy heavy/thrash/power metal project by employing six individuals for mic duty (Exhorder‘s Kyle Thomas, Adamantia’s Diego Valdez, Voivod‘s Denis Belanger Snake, ex-Temperance’s Alessia Scolletti, Laurenne/Louhimo’s Netta Laurenne, ex-Scar Symmetry‘s Christian Älvestam). Supported by Jacob Umansky on bass, Hannes Grossman on drums, and Predrag Glogovac on guitars, Aortha’s debut LP Monolit boasts insane levels of groove, hook, and swagger. Bangers like “Those That Should Not Exist,” “Last of Our Kind,” “Forging the Locus” and “Divine Future” are guaranteed to kick your ass and take your lunch money, while every vocalist gets their chance to spit in your face (although it can be difficult to pick out who is who with 100% accuracy). It’s nearly impossible not to bob my head along with these tunes, as transitions constantly reveal a new trick up the group’s sleeve, whether that be another ripping verse hook (“Keep the Dream”), a sharp riff that has no business being as fun or interesting as it is (“Last of Our Kind”), or some fancy percussive work that one would expect from the world’s most sought-after drummer. It might be cheesy in places, ESL is everywhere, and some songs can feel a little long after repeat spins (“When All Around You is Madness”), but Monolit remains one of my most fun, compelling, and deceivingly cohesive surprises this year. You owe it to yourselves to try it!
Dolphin Whisperer’s Trench Treasures
SATSURIKU ROBOT // NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE! [September 8th, 2023 – WormHoleDeath]
No Thrash Metal, No Life!—demanding and straightforward. It’s easy to imagine that the untested Japanese act would have constructed this outing as an homage to the blue-collar hammer-on, hammer-off tunes we all love so dearly.1 And to a certain extent the opening riffs to the Slayer-touched “THRASH NEVER DIE” and the Sodom-grooving “MAD THRASHER” have a normalcy to them. However, that basic appearance dissolves rapidly against a cranked-out, clangy-ass snare and a vocalist who’s channeling both a cat in heat and a pig greased for the chase. Honestly, I have no idea what the fuck he’s doing. On tracks like “殺戮ロボット – SATSURIKU ROBOT ” and “CARRY ON” he drops character for brief moments while channeling a punky bellow akin to fellow countrymen SEX MACHINEGUNS, which gives a little respite to his madness. For the most part though, he squirts and squeals with a rabid conviction while his bandmates do their best to churn out solid sing-along gang shouts amidst mighty solos (“ROBOT IN THE PANDEMIC,” “NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!”). Similar to the out-of-place nature of the hokey, nursery rhyme infusions you hear in a Macabre album, much of what SATSURIKU ROBOT accomplishes throughout this thoughtful mess of a debut should not work, but it does and it’s catchy as hell. Though I don’t think these folks could pull it off twice with as much shock value, but that matters little when you can enjoy this sneakily not-thrash ode to thrash. So what’re you waiting for? NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!!!
Vibora // Zaldi Beltza [September 29th, 2023 – Zegema Beach Records]
Anthemic, throat-ripping, cathartic as a cold bath with the curtains drawn—Zaldi Beltza (The Black Horse) is the skramz you need in your life. With a bass overdriven for noise rock and a scrapped mic that reminds me of regionally-adjacent sadbois Tenue or ragers Crossed,2 Vibora’s brand of screeching metalcore comes with highlights that swing effortlessly between tough guy throw-downs and major swing crescendos (“Eraikin Zurie,” “Le Fleur”). Though Vibora drops tempo for a few melancholy post-hardcore romps (“DANA,” “La Casa, 20”), the burn through Zaldi Beltza’s nine tracks in twenty-three minutes never feels too long drawn on its less aggressive elements. Appropriate levels of hissing amp feedback and nut-shaking bass (“La Casa, 8,” “Ez Ziguten Maitatzen Irakatsi”) ensure that these Basque core-kiddies never stray too far from a forward-moving path. I gotta level with you though, this is true screamo, and if you’re not accustomed to the fuzz-filtered, nasally, digging yelp that typically accompanies this world, Vibora doesn’t do anything to change that. But Zaldi Beltza, in its close-to-roots expression of bright-chord Daïtro-flavored post-hardcore with extra hardcore delivers a modern sad-ggression that’s building a movement of its own.
Thus Spoke’s Tarnished Trinkets
Ash Prison // Future Torn [September 22nd 2023 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]
Ash Prison are basically everything you want blackened industrial music to be—or at least they’re everything I want it to be. This weird, warpy, wacky work sees resonant, electrified bass wrap around jittery tempos, accompanied by echoing, snarling croaks, and a plethora of other strange sounds. You’ve taken the pill the shifty guy by the club toilets gave you, that you probably shouldn’t have, and now the gothic electronica is warping around you, and the walls are starting to melt. The come up was a bit aggressive (“Archangel”), but at the same time, incredibly, weirdly danceable, in a jagged sort of way, as is much of Future Torn. And the way groovy, boppy beats slide in out of the noise (“Death Reborn,” “No Return,” “Collapse”) is almost as unsettling as the heavier, actually scary stuff. This mood swing happens whiplash from song to song, “Voidhead,” “Black Horizon,” and “Weep in my Shadow” each smash onto the scene with fast, clipped tempos and a lot of static and distortion. And then there’s “Scorn,” whose skipping, echoing voice sample and scarily low hum create a spine-chillingly powerful sense of dread before the beat picks up to turn it into a mad, unhinged bop. This album terrifies me, and I love it. Why not give it a try?
Steel Druhm’s Seasonal Slashing:
Lord of Shadows // Echoes of Yore [September 1st, 2023 – Meuse Music Records]
Lord of Shadows is the work of one Mike Lamb, and on the debut full-length Echoes of Yore, the multi-instrumentalist tackles the Peaceville sound made famous in the 90s by My Dying Bride and Anathema. And to make sure you know he’s deadly serious about his passion project, he recruited none other than My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe to handle vocals for him, alongside Heike Langhans (Remina, Light Field Reverie, ex-Draconian). Over 42 minutes, Lamb and guests paint the night pitch black with effective Gothic doom loaded with drama, pathos, and despondency. The man knows his chosen genre well and appoints it with a captivating array of forlorn riffs, weeping pianos, ethereal female vocals, and booming death croaks. The songsmithing is above average and the lengthy compositions keep you in thrall as they suck all the joy from your downtrodden soul. Cuts like “Faith of Thy Beloved” and “At the End of Our Eclipse” will win you over to the morose cause, and the nine-minute “Through Memories, I Gave Her Life” will carry you off to sadboi glory. Is it derivative of its source material? Naturally, but the adroit blend of My Dying Bride and female-forward Gothic doom like Draconian works well. With Winter banging at the door, this is the optimal time of year for what Lord of Shadows are selling, so stock up now! DOOM!
#2023 #Adamantia #Aortha #AshPrison #AtTheGatesOfAdversarialDarkness #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Cloak #Crossed #Daïtro #DHG #EchoesOfYore #Exhorder #FutureTorn #HeavyMetal #HypnoticDirgeRecords #Imperialist #Industrial #IndustrialMetal #KingSRot #LaurenneLouhimo #LordOfShadows #Macabre #MelodicBlackMetal #Metalcore #Monolit #MoonlightSorcery #NoThrashMetalNoLife #PowerMetal #SatsurikuRobot #ScarSymmetry #Screamo #SelfReleased #SentientRuinLaboratories #Sep23 #Slayer #Sodom #StuckInTheFilter #Temperance #Tenue #ThrashMetal #Úlfúð #VIbora #Vimur #Voivod #WormHoleDeath #ZaldiBeltza #ZegemaBeachRecords
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📺 La maldición de la primera temporada: cuando todo va cuesta abajo 🚨
¿Te ha pasado que te enamoras de una serie… y luego te rompe el corazón? 💔
Antes, las series de TV se tomaban su tiempo para brillar. Las primeras temporadas eran más bien introductorias, y con suerte, lo bueno venía después. Pero en la era del streaming, la historia cambió: ahora la primera temporada es 🔥 una bomba, y lo que viene después… pues, no tanto. 😩
El caso de Yellowjackets 🐝: de locura a “meh”
Cuando Yellowjackets salió, fue como una explosión de frescura y misterio. ¿Una mezcla de Perdidos con El Señor de las Moscas? ¡Estamos dentro! Pero ya en la tercera temporada, la magia se diluyó. Los giros ya no sorprenden, los personajes pierden fuerza y la trama parece buscar más shock que sentido. ¿Qué pasó? 🤷♀️
Solo asesinatos en el edificio: más cameos que asesinatos 🏢🔪
Las dos primeras temporadas fueron oro puro. La historia era clara: alguien muere en el Arconia y nuestros tres protagonistas resuelven el caso con humor, misterio y mucho estilo. Pero en la tercera… ¿qué está pasando? 🤨
Ahora parece más un desfile de celebridades que una serie de misterio. Sí, ver a Paul Rudd o Meryl Streep es cool, pero si el guión se debilita, los cameos no salvan nada. Y eso desilusiona.
La Casa de las Flores: sin Verónica, sin alma 🌸💔
La primera temporada fue una joya. Satírica, colorida, con un estilo único y un elenco que brillaba, especialmente Verónica Castro, que le daba toda la clase y fuerza a la historia. Pero tras su salida… todo se vino abajo. Las siguientes temporadas se sintieron forzadas, sin el mismo ritmo ni el mismo corazón. El humor ya no era tan fino, y la historia se volvió un enredo sin encanto.
¿No sería mejor hacer miniseries con final cerrado? 🎬🙌
Con tantas series que se quedan sin renovar, los finales inconclusos se volvieron la norma. Eso frustra. Porque te enganchan con una historia y luego te dejan en el aire solo para ver si los ejecutivos de alguna plataforma deciden seguir.
🎭 Finales abiertos eternos, misterios sin resolver, personajes que desaparecen sin explicación…
Ya basta. A veces menos es más, y una miniserie bien cerrada vale más que tres temporadas estiradas al límite.📉 Perseguir algo que nunca llega… cansa
Las plataformas buscan retenernos con la promesa de una gran historia… pero si no hay final, ¿de qué sirve tanta inversión emocional?
Es como una relación que empieza increíble pero luego se vuelve tóxica. Yo ya me cansé. 😤¿Y tú qué opinas?
¿Prefieres las series largas o las miniseries con cierre? ¿También sufriste la maldición de la primera temporada?
👇 ¡Cuéntamelo en los comentarios! 👇#CulturaPop #Miniseries #SeriesDeTV #SeriesQueDecepcionan #SoloAsesinatosEnElEdificio #Streaming #TVAddict #Yellowjackets
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Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review
By ClarkKent
In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.
The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.
Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.
The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.
While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast
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Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review
By ClarkKent
In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.
The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.
Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.
The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.
While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast
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Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review
By ClarkKent
In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.
The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.
Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.
The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.
While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast
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Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review
By ClarkKent
In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.
The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.
Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.
The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.
While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast
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Media Diary (September 2025)
Here’s some stuff I’ve experienced lately (and not necessarily only new releases). In addition, our free Stream Team community has a lot more daily action happening on the recommendations front too. 💪
Task (TV): Love both of the leads and the overall tone
The Shrouds (Movie): What a creepy concept
Three Women (Book): Really enjoyed this, it read like fiction
The Paper (TV): I thought this was a great first season, and look forward to seeing where it goes
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Movie): A fantastic look behind the film’s many influences
Slow Horses (TV): I hope they keep making this until the end of time
Highest 2 Lowest (Movie): Always a Spike fan
The Lowdown (TV): Digging the vibe so far
Sid and Nancy (Movie): I’d somehow never seen this, and it was fantastic
Sad Vacation (Movie): Obviously I then had to watch the documentary
aka Charlie Sheen (TV): What a life journey (and a reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve watched Men at Work)
Saint Maud (Movie): Rewatched it for Stream Team, check out our takes!
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (TV): I’d already seen something else about them before, and was still shocked
Sunday Best (Movie): I had no idea how hard Ed Sullivan advocated for minority artists
English Teacher (TV): Still one of the funniest comedies right now
Friendship (Movie): Exactly what I needed it to be (given the leads)
Gen V (TV): Already starting the new season strong, but if I’m honest I often confuse it in my mind with Wednesday (given the similar setup)
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Movie): A bit of a letdown, but a good concept
The Pitt (TV): Late to the party, but a big fan
The Woman in the Yard (Movie): Some cool imagery, but overall kind of a mess
My Husband, the Cyborg (Movie): An interesting look at the idea of giving yourself another physical sense
Want recommendations more than once a month? Get new stuff every week.
-
Media Diary (September 2025)
Here’s some stuff I’ve experienced lately (and not necessarily only new releases). In addition, our free Stream Team community has a lot more daily action happening on the recommendations front too. 💪
Task (TV): Love both of the leads and the overall tone
The Shrouds (Movie): What a creepy concept
Three Women (Book): Really enjoyed this, it read like fiction
The Paper (TV): I thought this was a great first season, and look forward to seeing where it goes
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Movie): A fantastic look behind the film’s many influences
Slow Horses (TV): I hope they keep making this until the end of time
Highest 2 Lowest (Movie): Always a Spike fan
The Lowdown (TV): Digging the vibe so far
Sid and Nancy (Movie): I’d somehow never seen this, and it was fantastic
Sad Vacation (Movie): Obviously I then had to watch the documentary
aka Charlie Sheen (TV): What a life journey (and a reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve watched Men at Work)
Saint Maud (Movie): Rewatched it for Stream Team, check out our takes!
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (TV): I’d already seen something else about them before, and was still shocked
Sunday Best (Movie): I had no idea how hard Ed Sullivan advocated for minority artists
English Teacher (TV): Still one of the funniest comedies right now
Friendship (Movie): Exactly what I needed it to be (given the leads)
Gen V (TV): Already starting the new season strong, but if I’m honest I often confuse it in my mind with Wednesday (given the similar setup)
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Movie): A bit of a letdown, but a good concept
The Pitt (TV): Late to the party, but a big fan
The Woman in the Yard (Movie): Some cool imagery, but overall kind of a mess
My Husband, the Cyborg (Movie): An interesting look at the idea of giving yourself another physical sense
Want recommendations more than once a month? Get new stuff every week.
-
Media Diary (September 2025)
Here’s some stuff I’ve experienced lately (and not necessarily only new releases). In addition, our free Stream Team community has a lot more daily action happening on the recommendations front too. 💪
Task (TV): Love both of the leads and the overall tone
The Shrouds (Movie): What a creepy concept
Three Women (Book): Really enjoyed this, it read like fiction
The Paper (TV): I thought this was a great first season, and look forward to seeing where it goes
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Movie): A fantastic look behind the film’s many influences
Slow Horses (TV): I hope they keep making this until the end of time
Highest 2 Lowest (Movie): Always a Spike fan
The Lowdown (TV): Digging the vibe so far
Sid and Nancy (Movie): I’d somehow never seen this, and it was fantastic
Sad Vacation (Movie): Obviously I then had to watch the documentary
aka Charlie Sheen (TV): What a life journey (and a reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve watched Men at Work)
Saint Maud (Movie): Rewatched it for Stream Team, check out our takes!
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (TV): I’d already seen something else about them before, and was still shocked
Sunday Best (Movie): I had no idea how hard Ed Sullivan advocated for minority artists
English Teacher (TV): Still one of the funniest comedies right now
Friendship (Movie): Exactly what I needed it to be (given the leads)
Gen V (TV): Already starting the new season strong, but if I’m honest I often confuse it in my mind with Wednesday (given the similar setup)
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Movie): A bit of a letdown, but a good concept
The Pitt (TV): Late to the party, but a big fan
The Woman in the Yard (Movie): Some cool imagery, but overall kind of a mess
My Husband, the Cyborg (Movie): An interesting look at the idea of giving yourself another physical sense
Want recommendations more than once a month? Get new stuff every week.
-
Media Diary (September 2025)
Here’s some stuff I’ve experienced lately (and not necessarily only new releases). In addition, our free Stream Team community has a lot more daily action happening on the recommendations front too. 💪
Task (TV): Love both of the leads and the overall tone
The Shrouds (Movie): What a creepy concept
Three Women (Book): Really enjoyed this, it read like fiction
The Paper (TV): I thought this was a great first season, and look forward to seeing where it goes
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Movie): A fantastic look behind the film’s many influences
Slow Horses (TV): I hope they keep making this until the end of time
Highest 2 Lowest (Movie): Always a Spike fan
The Lowdown (TV): Digging the vibe so far
Sid and Nancy (Movie): I’d somehow never seen this, and it was fantastic
Sad Vacation (Movie): Obviously I then had to watch the documentary
aka Charlie Sheen (TV): What a life journey (and a reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve watched Men at Work)
Saint Maud (Movie): Rewatched it for Stream Team, check out our takes!
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (TV): I’d already seen something else about them before, and was still shocked
Sunday Best (Movie): I had no idea how hard Ed Sullivan advocated for minority artists
English Teacher (TV): Still one of the funniest comedies right now
Friendship (Movie): Exactly what I needed it to be (given the leads)
Gen V (TV): Already starting the new season strong, but if I’m honest I often confuse it in my mind with Wednesday (given the similar setup)
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Movie): A bit of a letdown, but a good concept
The Pitt (TV): Late to the party, but a big fan
The Woman in the Yard (Movie): Some cool imagery, but overall kind of a mess
My Husband, the Cyborg (Movie): An interesting look at the idea of giving yourself another physical sense
Want recommendations more than once a month? Get new stuff every week.
-
Media Diary (September 2025)
Here’s some stuff I’ve experienced lately (and not necessarily only new releases). In addition, our free Stream Team community has a lot more daily action happening on the recommendations front too. 💪
Task (TV): Love both of the leads and the overall tone
The Shrouds (Movie): What a creepy concept
Three Women (Book): Really enjoyed this, it read like fiction
The Paper (TV): I thought this was a great first season, and look forward to seeing where it goes
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Movie): A fantastic look behind the film’s many influences
Slow Horses (TV): I hope they keep making this until the end of time
Highest 2 Lowest (Movie): Always a Spike fan
The Lowdown (TV): Digging the vibe so far
Sid and Nancy (Movie): I’d somehow never seen this, and it was fantastic
Sad Vacation (Movie): Obviously I then had to watch the documentary
aka Charlie Sheen (TV): What a life journey (and a reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve watched Men at Work)
Saint Maud (Movie): Rewatched it for Stream Team, check out our takes!
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (TV): I’d already seen something else about them before, and was still shocked
Sunday Best (Movie): I had no idea how hard Ed Sullivan advocated for minority artists
English Teacher (TV): Still one of the funniest comedies right now
Friendship (Movie): Exactly what I needed it to be (given the leads)
Gen V (TV): Already starting the new season strong, but if I’m honest I often confuse it in my mind with Wednesday (given the similar setup)
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Movie): A bit of a letdown, but a good concept
The Pitt (TV): Late to the party, but a big fan
The Woman in the Yard (Movie): Some cool imagery, but overall kind of a mess
My Husband, the Cyborg (Movie): An interesting look at the idea of giving yourself another physical sense
Want recommendations more than once a month? Get new stuff every week.
-
Stellar Blight – Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars Review
By Thus Spoke
Contact form promos are a high-risk, high-reward option when it comes to choosing a review candidate. The unsigned artist(s) behind the enthusiastic prose could be overselling an undercooked bedroom project, or understatedly presenting shockingly good music that makes you want to shake record labels and say “sign these guys, goddammit!” Stellar Blight, happily, are of the latter breed, though this fact is unsurprising. Comprised of the vocalist from Mānbryne (and Blaze of Perdition); the guitarist from Shodan; and the drummer from Owls Woods Graves, the trio have plenty of experience. With their debut, Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars, they blend each of their primary styles: taking mystique, progressiveness, and punky energy from them, respectively, and creating a dynamic, raucous, and characterful blackened heavy metal that’s hard to forget.
Eventide is defined by its spiritedness; something that hits all the harder for the way Stellar Blight set the scene. First track “The Portent,” uses its time to create genuine anticipation for the rest of the album with a gallant melody that gives way to rolling drumbeats and chants. The smoke has barely cleared before the band launch into white-hot ripper and instant Heavy Moves Heavy frontrunner “Doves into Serpents”. This dynamic opening duo provide a taste of the flavours to come, elements and quirks that will recur over the remaining runtime. Riffs that enter with a satisfying slide and croon with assuredness (“Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”); group chants (“World Wide Woe”) and call-response lyric delivery (“Second Death”) black ‘n’ roll swagger meeting coercively snappy d-beats (“Weaponised Compassion”), and sulky black metal sway (“Maggots in Awe,” “Unsung”). Throughout it all, Stellar Blight maintain their identity, whether snarling in defiance or murmuring in brooding black moods—always consistently fierce, and with barely a shred of atmosphere anywhere in sight.
This ferocity peaks at moments on Eventide when the band pull the most electric aspects of their stylistic pool into one thrilling package. Wailing leads, soaked in a heavy metal richness, warbling alongside a tempo you feel in your bones, all three members roaring in unison and you grinning like a maniac (“Doves into Serpents,” “Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”). Or, taking it down a gear, folky—acoustic even—strumming weaving through ballad-like steadiness, chants backing up the blackened narration of a beautiful, but very trve sort of ballad (“Maggots in Awe”). And even outside of these passages, Stellar Blight sprinkles in spiky off-beats, smooth, slidy solos, and infectiously fun gang vocals into an ostensibly black metal template, much like fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips in the generously filled brownie batter of addictive heavy music they have crafted.1 It culminates in a viciousness devoid of malevolence, a brazenness entirely unpretentious, which carries the spirit, if not the letter of traditional black and heavy metal, and all while feeling fresh, thanks to Stellar Blight’s creative interpretation and execution.
If Stellar Blight could sustain their highest quality, they would be unstoppable, but as it is, they stumble a little. The overall pace literally begins to slow over the album’s back half, beyond the sinister and mournful “Maggots in Awe,” which justifies its tone change with an anthemic feel that sounds like Seth and Mānbryne mashed together. The weakest cuts, “Unsung,” and “Sisyphean Prestige,” follow back-to-back, and eat away at the exhilaration created by the prior material. Their melodies are comparatively unsubstantial, and disconcertingly major in key; the bite of the snarls weaker, and the chanting less inspiring; the tempos milder. Closer “Weaponised Compassion” makes up for some of this deficit, but it lacks the commanding presence highlights like “Stellar Blight” or “Doves into Serpents” have in droves, and its movements are less interesting versions of the better songs’ themes. There’s also instrumental “Eventide” sitting between it and “Sisyphean Prestige,” which is in itself good, and probably contains the best solo guitar of the lot, but at this point, it’s hard not to resent what feels like stalling before Stellar Blight get back on their game.
Gripes aside, there’s no denying that Stellar Blight are working with something very cool. It might need some refining, but the way they are already integrating black and heavy metal is distinctive and dynamic. With a consistent voice, the delivery of an all-around fun listening experience (even at the lower points), and two songs in contention for Heavy Moves Heavy, Eventide was a high-reward choice for me. Now we just have to wait and see what Stellar Blight do next.
Rating: Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025#2025 #30 #BlackMetal #BlazeOfPerdition #DeathMetal #EventideSynodOfTheDyingStars #HeavyMetal #Jun25 #Mānbryne #OwlsWoodsGraves #PolishMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #Seth #Shodan #StellarBlight
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Stellar Blight – Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars Review
By Thus Spoke
Contact form promos are a high-risk, high-reward option when it comes to choosing a review candidate. The unsigned artist(s) behind the enthusiastic prose could be overselling an undercooked bedroom project, or understatedly presenting shockingly good music that makes you want to shake record labels and say “sign these guys, goddammit!” Stellar Blight, happily, are of the latter breed, though this fact is unsurprising. Comprised of the vocalist from Mānbryne (and Blaze of Perdition); the guitarist from Shodan; and the drummer from Owls Woods Graves, the trio have plenty of experience. With their debut, Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars, they blend each of their primary styles: taking mystique, progressiveness, and punky energy from them, respectively, and creating a dynamic, raucous, and characterful blackened heavy metal that’s hard to forget.
Eventide is defined by its spiritedness; something that hits all the harder for the way Stellar Blight set the scene. First track “The Portent,” uses its time to create genuine anticipation for the rest of the album with a gallant melody that gives way to rolling drumbeats and chants. The smoke has barely cleared before the band launch into white-hot ripper and instant Heavy Moves Heavy frontrunner “Doves into Serpents”. This dynamic opening duo provide a taste of the flavours to come, elements and quirks that will recur over the remaining runtime. Riffs that enter with a satisfying slide and croon with assuredness (“Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”); group chants (“World Wide Woe”) and call-response lyric delivery (“Second Death”) black ‘n’ roll swagger meeting coercively snappy d-beats (“Weaponised Compassion”), and sulky black metal sway (“Maggots in Awe,” “Unsung”). Throughout it all, Stellar Blight maintain their identity, whether snarling in defiance or murmuring in brooding black moods—always consistently fierce, and with barely a shred of atmosphere anywhere in sight.
This ferocity peaks at moments on Eventide when the band pull the most electric aspects of their stylistic pool into one thrilling package. Wailing leads, soaked in a heavy metal richness, warbling alongside a tempo you feel in your bones, all three members roaring in unison and you grinning like a maniac (“Doves into Serpents,” “Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”). Or, taking it down a gear, folky—acoustic even—strumming weaving through ballad-like steadiness, chants backing up the blackened narration of a beautiful, but very trve sort of ballad (“Maggots in Awe”). And even outside of these passages, Stellar Blight sprinkles in spiky off-beats, smooth, slidy solos, and infectiously fun gang vocals into an ostensibly black metal template, much like fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips in the generously filled brownie batter of addictive heavy music they have crafted.1 It culminates in a viciousness devoid of malevolence, a brazenness entirely unpretentious, which carries the spirit, if not the letter of traditional black and heavy metal, and all while feeling fresh, thanks to Stellar Blight’s creative interpretation and execution.
If Stellar Blight could sustain their highest quality, they would be unstoppable, but as it is, they stumble a little. The overall pace literally begins to slow over the album’s back half, beyond the sinister and mournful “Maggots in Awe,” which justifies its tone change with an anthemic feel that sounds like Seth and Mānbryne mashed together. The weakest cuts, “Unsung,” and “Sisyphean Prestige,” follow back-to-back, and eat away at the exhilaration created by the prior material. Their melodies are comparatively unsubstantial, and disconcertingly major in key; the bite of the snarls weaker, and the chanting less inspiring; the tempos milder. Closer “Weaponised Compassion” makes up for some of this deficit, but it lacks the commanding presence highlights like “Stellar Blight” or “Doves into Serpents” have in droves, and its movements are less interesting versions of the better songs’ themes. There’s also instrumental “Eventide” sitting between it and “Sisyphean Prestige,” which is in itself good, and probably contains the best solo guitar of the lot, but at this point, it’s hard not to resent what feels like stalling before Stellar Blight get back on their game.
Gripes aside, there’s no denying that Stellar Blight are working with something very cool. It might need some refining, but the way they are already integrating black and heavy metal is distinctive and dynamic. With a consistent voice, the delivery of an all-around fun listening experience (even at the lower points), and two songs in contention for Heavy Moves Heavy, Eventide was a high-reward choice for me. Now we just have to wait and see what Stellar Blight do next.
Rating: Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025#2025 #30 #BlackMetal #BlazeOfPerdition #DeathMetal #EventideSynodOfTheDyingStars #HeavyMetal #Jun25 #Mānbryne #OwlsWoodsGraves #PolishMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #Seth #Shodan #StellarBlight
-
Stellar Blight – Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars Review
By Thus Spoke
Contact form promos are a high-risk, high-reward option when it comes to choosing a review candidate. The unsigned artist(s) behind the enthusiastic prose could be overselling an undercooked bedroom project, or understatedly presenting shockingly good music that makes you want to shake record labels and say “sign these guys, goddammit!” Stellar Blight, happily, are of the latter breed, though this fact is unsurprising. Comprised of the vocalist from Mānbryne (and Blaze of Perdition); the guitarist from Shodan; and the drummer from Owls Woods Graves, the trio have plenty of experience. With their debut, Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars, they blend each of their primary styles: taking mystique, progressiveness, and punky energy from them, respectively, and creating a dynamic, raucous, and characterful blackened heavy metal that’s hard to forget.
Eventide is defined by its spiritedness; something that hits all the harder for the way Stellar Blight set the scene. First track “The Portent,” uses its time to create genuine anticipation for the rest of the album with a gallant melody that gives way to rolling drumbeats and chants. The smoke has barely cleared before the band launch into white-hot ripper and instant Heavy Moves Heavy frontrunner “Doves into Serpents”. This dynamic opening duo provide a taste of the flavours to come, elements and quirks that will recur over the remaining runtime. Riffs that enter with a satisfying slide and croon with assuredness (“Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”); group chants (“World Wide Woe”) and call-response lyric delivery (“Second Death”) black ‘n’ roll swagger meeting coercively snappy d-beats (“Weaponised Compassion”), and sulky black metal sway (“Maggots in Awe,” “Unsung”). Throughout it all, Stellar Blight maintain their identity, whether snarling in defiance or murmuring in brooding black moods—always consistently fierce, and with barely a shred of atmosphere anywhere in sight.
This ferocity peaks at moments on Eventide when the band pull the most electric aspects of their stylistic pool into one thrilling package. Wailing leads, soaked in a heavy metal richness, warbling alongside a tempo you feel in your bones, all three members roaring in unison and you grinning like a maniac (“Doves into Serpents,” “Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”). Or, taking it down a gear, folky—acoustic even—strumming weaving through ballad-like steadiness, chants backing up the blackened narration of a beautiful, but very trve sort of ballad (“Maggots in Awe”). And even outside of these passages, Stellar Blight sprinkles in spiky off-beats, smooth, slidy solos, and infectiously fun gang vocals into an ostensibly black metal template, much like fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips in the generously filled brownie batter of addictive heavy music they have crafted.1 It culminates in a viciousness devoid of malevolence, a brazenness entirely unpretentious, which carries the spirit, if not the letter of traditional black and heavy metal, and all while feeling fresh, thanks to Stellar Blight’s creative interpretation and execution.
If Stellar Blight could sustain their highest quality, they would be unstoppable, but as it is, they stumble a little. The overall pace literally begins to slow over the album’s back half, beyond the sinister and mournful “Maggots in Awe,” which justifies its tone change with an anthemic feel that sounds like Seth and Mānbryne mashed together. The weakest cuts, “Unsung,” and “Sisyphean Prestige,” follow back-to-back, and eat away at the exhilaration created by the prior material. Their melodies are comparatively unsubstantial, and disconcertingly major in key; the bite of the snarls weaker, and the chanting less inspiring; the tempos milder. Closer “Weaponised Compassion” makes up for some of this deficit, but it lacks the commanding presence highlights like “Stellar Blight” or “Doves into Serpents” have in droves, and its movements are less interesting versions of the better songs’ themes. There’s also instrumental “Eventide” sitting between it and “Sisyphean Prestige,” which is in itself good, and probably contains the best solo guitar of the lot, but at this point, it’s hard not to resent what feels like stalling before Stellar Blight get back on their game.
Gripes aside, there’s no denying that Stellar Blight are working with something very cool. It might need some refining, but the way they are already integrating black and heavy metal is distinctive and dynamic. With a consistent voice, the delivery of an all-around fun listening experience (even at the lower points), and two songs in contention for Heavy Moves Heavy, Eventide was a high-reward choice for me. Now we just have to wait and see what Stellar Blight do next.
Rating: Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025#2025 #30 #BlackMetal #BlazeOfPerdition #DeathMetal #EventideSynodOfTheDyingStars #HeavyMetal #Jun25 #Mānbryne #OwlsWoodsGraves #PolishMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #Seth #Shodan #StellarBlight
-
Stellar Blight – Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars Review
By Thus Spoke
Contact form promos are a high-risk, high-reward option when it comes to choosing a review candidate. The unsigned artist(s) behind the enthusiastic prose could be overselling an undercooked bedroom project, or understatedly presenting shockingly good music that makes you want to shake record labels and say “sign these guys, goddammit!” Stellar Blight, happily, are of the latter breed, though this fact is unsurprising. Comprised of the vocalist from Mānbryne (and Blaze of Perdition); the guitarist from Shodan; and the drummer from Owls Woods Graves, the trio have plenty of experience. With their debut, Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars, they blend each of their primary styles: taking mystique, progressiveness, and punky energy from them, respectively, and creating a dynamic, raucous, and characterful blackened heavy metal that’s hard to forget.
Eventide is defined by its spiritedness; something that hits all the harder for the way Stellar Blight set the scene. First track “The Portent,” uses its time to create genuine anticipation for the rest of the album with a gallant melody that gives way to rolling drumbeats and chants. The smoke has barely cleared before the band launch into white-hot ripper and instant Heavy Moves Heavy frontrunner “Doves into Serpents”. This dynamic opening duo provide a taste of the flavours to come, elements and quirks that will recur over the remaining runtime. Riffs that enter with a satisfying slide and croon with assuredness (“Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”); group chants (“World Wide Woe”) and call-response lyric delivery (“Second Death”) black ‘n’ roll swagger meeting coercively snappy d-beats (“Weaponised Compassion”), and sulky black metal sway (“Maggots in Awe,” “Unsung”). Throughout it all, Stellar Blight maintain their identity, whether snarling in defiance or murmuring in brooding black moods—always consistently fierce, and with barely a shred of atmosphere anywhere in sight.
This ferocity peaks at moments on Eventide when the band pull the most electric aspects of their stylistic pool into one thrilling package. Wailing leads, soaked in a heavy metal richness, warbling alongside a tempo you feel in your bones, all three members roaring in unison and you grinning like a maniac (“Doves into Serpents,” “Second Death,” “Stellar Blight”). Or, taking it down a gear, folky—acoustic even—strumming weaving through ballad-like steadiness, chants backing up the blackened narration of a beautiful, but very trve sort of ballad (“Maggots in Awe”). And even outside of these passages, Stellar Blight sprinkles in spiky off-beats, smooth, slidy solos, and infectiously fun gang vocals into an ostensibly black metal template, much like fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips in the generously filled brownie batter of addictive heavy music they have crafted.1 It culminates in a viciousness devoid of malevolence, a brazenness entirely unpretentious, which carries the spirit, if not the letter of traditional black and heavy metal, and all while feeling fresh, thanks to Stellar Blight’s creative interpretation and execution.
If Stellar Blight could sustain their highest quality, they would be unstoppable, but as it is, they stumble a little. The overall pace literally begins to slow over the album’s back half, beyond the sinister and mournful “Maggots in Awe,” which justifies its tone change with an anthemic feel that sounds like Seth and Mānbryne mashed together. The weakest cuts, “Unsung,” and “Sisyphean Prestige,” follow back-to-back, and eat away at the exhilaration created by the prior material. Their melodies are comparatively unsubstantial, and disconcertingly major in key; the bite of the snarls weaker, and the chanting less inspiring; the tempos milder. Closer “Weaponised Compassion” makes up for some of this deficit, but it lacks the commanding presence highlights like “Stellar Blight” or “Doves into Serpents” have in droves, and its movements are less interesting versions of the better songs’ themes. There’s also instrumental “Eventide” sitting between it and “Sisyphean Prestige,” which is in itself good, and probably contains the best solo guitar of the lot, but at this point, it’s hard not to resent what feels like stalling before Stellar Blight get back on their game.
Gripes aside, there’s no denying that Stellar Blight are working with something very cool. It might need some refining, but the way they are already integrating black and heavy metal is distinctive and dynamic. With a consistent voice, the delivery of an all-around fun listening experience (even at the lower points), and two songs in contention for Heavy Moves Heavy, Eventide was a high-reward choice for me. Now we just have to wait and see what Stellar Blight do next.
Rating: Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025#2025 #30 #BlackMetal #BlazeOfPerdition #DeathMetal #EventideSynodOfTheDyingStars #HeavyMetal #Jun25 #Mānbryne #OwlsWoodsGraves #PolishMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #Seth #Shodan #StellarBlight
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The Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions
We love this fun tweet on the five neurodivergent love locutions from the always insightful Myth.
The five neurodivergent love languages: infodumping, parallel play, support swapping, Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body [deep pressure], and “I found this cool rock/button/leaf/etc and thought you would like it” [penguin pebbling]
Myth @neurowonderfulEmotional bids are the pixels of relationship communications and are important to relationship accommodations. This list is much about recognizing and meeting some common neurodivergent emotional bids in relationships, thus the phrase “love locutions”.
Note: This piece originally used the phrase “love languages”. Despite the popularity of the term, we have opted for “love locutions” to distance from the emotionally abusive and heteronormative history of the book “The Five Love Languages”.
Locution = a word or expression characteristic of a region, group, or cultural level
We’ll expand on each “love locution” with selected quotes, images, and videos.
An emotional bid is when we do something to signal that we want attention and connection.
The Most Important Relationship Skill – Emotional Bids
Emotional bids are central to every kind of relationship – romantic, social and professional.Gottman refers to bids as “the fundamental unit of emotional communication.” Bids can be small or big, verbal or nonverbal. They’re requests to connect.
Bids are often purposely subtle because people are afraid to be vulnerable and put themselves out there. It’s scary to say, “Hey! I want to connect! Pay attention to me!” so instead, we ask a question or tell a story or offer our hand for connection. We hope we’ll receive connection in return, but if not, it’s less scary than pleading, “Connect with me, please!”
Want to Improve Your Relationship? Start Paying More Attention to BidsTable of Contents
- In Brief
- Prelude: Strange Astrology
- Infodumping
- Parallel Play, Body Doubling
- Support Swapping, Sharing Spoons
- Deep Pressure: Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body
- Penguin Pebbling: “I found this cool rock, button, leaf, etc. and thought you would like it”
- Neurodivergent Love Locutions and Teamwork
- Spiky Profiles
- Support Myth
In Brief
The Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions
“The Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0- Infodumping – Talking about an interest or passion of yours and thus sharing information, usually in detail and at length
- Parallel Play, Body Doubling – Parallel play is when people do separate activities with each other, not trying to influence each others behavior.
- Support Swapping, Sharing Spoons – Accommodating and supporting each other within a community. Asking, offering, and receiving help among people who “get it”.
- Deep Pressure: Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body – Regulating with deep pressure input such as through swaddles, weighted blankets, and hugs.
- Penguin Pebbling: “I found this cool rock, button, leaf, etc. and thought you would like it” – Penguins pass pebbles to other penguins to show they care. Penguin Pebbling is a little exchange between people to show that they care and want to build a meaningful connection. Pebbles are a way of sharing SpIns, both inviting people into yours and encouraging other’s. SpIns are a trove for unconventional gift giving.
Aside: Stimpunks in 30 seconds
Stimpunks is a disabled- and neurodivergent-led mutual aid and public education project. We build free tools, language, and access guides that help people survive bad systems, find dignity, and live more authentically. If this page resonates, you’re in the right place.
Start Here Get Help Explore the PathwaysPrelude: Strange Astrology
I like them spooky and you're just my style Said the Leo to the Taurus And if you’d like to stay with me awhile I'll cover us with forest We can stroll across a magic land It's green and it is glowing Lay our bodies in the moss and sand We know and we are knowing
“Strange Astrology” is one of the only proper love songs I’ve ever written. It’s an honest exploration of what it means to love someone who is intrinsically different than you. It’s about hoping that those juxtaposing qualities and instincts encourage meaningful growth instead of chaos, but knowing that inevitably it will always be a bit of both.
FLOOD – Slothrust Break Down Their Spiritual New LP “Parallel Timeline” Track by TrackAnd I don’t mind Our strange astrology I hope we find You bring the best out in me
Strange Astrology by Slothrust
Infodumping
“Infodumping” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0Cause some have been asking: Infodumping: talking about an interest or passion of yours and thus sharing information, usually in detail and at length
@neurowonderfulSpIns and Infodumps
I don’t know who invented the phrase “special interest.” Probably some researcher. Autistic people don’t really love the term because the term “special” has become tied so closely with terms like “special needs,” which we resent.
Nevertheless, somewhere down the line “special interest,” commonly shortened to SpIn (“spin”), became the term for the characteristically-autistic tendency to develop an obsession with something specific and often obscure.
Some special interests are short lived, and some last the lifetime of the person; but, however long they last, they are intense, delightful, and a vital part of autistic culture.
So integral are special interests to autistic culture that autistic people will post about feeling depressed and unmotivated because they don’t have an active SpIn at the moment.
Learn About Monotropism and SpInsHaving a special interest is like having a crush or being newly in love. It is consuming and delightful. We love to share our special interests and a common example of autistic empathy is encouraging others to talk in great detail- “infodump“- about their SpIns.
It is considered a sign of caring and friendship to encourage someone to talk to you about their SpIn– whether or not you actually share their interest- because nothing makes an autistic person happier than discussing, learning about, or sharing about, their SpIn.
It is also quite acceptable in autistic culture to “infodump” on a topic whenever it happens to come up. To autists (an insider short-hand for autistic people), the sharing of knowledge and information is always welcome.
7 Cool Aspects of Autistic Culture » NeuroClastic🐇 …when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by…
Parallel Play, Body Doubling
“Parallel Play” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0Parallel play: some people call this being alone together, as in when you’re both reading your own books in the same room, or one person is doing a puzzle while another plays a video game, etc. Just existing together counts too.
@neurowonderfulWe enjoy parallel play and shared activities that don’t require continual conversation. When we talk, it gets deep quickly. We discuss what’s real, our struggles, fears, desires, obsessions. We appreciate a good infodump, and there’s no such thing as oversharing. We swap SAME stories — sharing a time when we felt similarly in our own life, not as a competition, but to reflect how well we are listening to each other.
Lost in Translation: The Social Language Theory of Neurodivergence | by Trauma Geek | MediumI want to spend time in parallel existence with you; let’s be alone together.
neurowonderful — neurowonderful: They’re here! Because you…There’s something so nice about just existing in the same space with someone. Just getting to spend time with them and maybe you do something together or maybe you do homework while they play a game and you both have headphones on. There’s no expectations for anyone to do anything. It’s just nice to be there, no matter what happens.
Colonel Meme – There’s something so nice about just existing in…Parallel play is when people do separate activities with each other, not trying to influence each others behavior. I like socializing and I get lonely; I like company even though I don’t like group activities, group conversations, group games, small talking, or large groups in general… I prefer being in someone’s company while doing my own activity. It is much less mentally taxing. With parallel play, I can be myself and communicate when I want to.
Parallel Play and Autism | GENDERVOID MEGAVERSEhttps://kyahcomic.tumblr.com/post/666779926767288320/transcription-parallel-play-and-autism-my
Related to parallel play is the ADHDer practice of body doubling.
But in the world of ADHD, a body double is someone who sits with a person with ADHD as he tackles tasks that might be difficult to complete alone.
Many people with ADHD find it easier to stay focused on housework, homework, bill paying, and other tasks when someone else is around to keep them company. The body double may just sit quietly. He may read, listen to music on headphones, or work on the task that the person with ADHD is working on. Hard work is simply more fun when someone else is nearby.
Getting Stuff Done Is Easier with a FriendBut why does a body double work? There are a few possible explanations. The simplest is that the body double serves as a physical anchor for the distracted individual who feels more focused by the presence of another person in their space. The distracted person feels responsible to and for the body double. This perception translates as-I can’t waste this gift of time.
The Body Double: A Unique Tool for Getting Things Done | ADDA – Attention Deficit Disorder AssociationBut she wasn’t there to procrastinate. For an hour, Ms. Bee, a teacher in her 30s, live-streamed herself sorting the clothes on her account dedicated to ADHD: brainsandspoons. As the live stream went on, viewers jumped in to do their own laundry “with” her.
“Everybody was so encouraging,” said Ms. Bee, who learned she has ADHD as an adult. “It made it really feel like a group project, not just me by myself on camera. It definitely made the time go by faster.”
The ADHD community calls the practice “body doubling.”
‘Body doubling,’ an ADHD productivity tool, is flourishing online | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Learn About Body Doubling Learn About Parallel Play Learn About Flow StatesIf you imagine that an autistic kid at school is likely to be wrenched out of their attention tunnel multiple times every day, each time leading to disorientation and deep discomfort, you are on your way to understanding why school environments can be so stressful for many autistic students. If you can avoid contributing to that, you may find that you have an easier time with your autistic students: try entering into their attention tunnel when you can, rather than tugging them out of it. Parallel play is one powerful tool for this; start where the child is, show interest in what they’re focused on. If you do need to pull them out of whatever they’re focusing on, it’s best to give them a bit of time.
Craft, Flow and Cognitive StylesSupport Swapping, Sharing Spoons
“Support Swapping” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0Support swapping: I don’t know if this is a widely used term. I used it to mean when ND people accomodate or support each other, like if I remind a friend hydrate and they ask me if I’ve taken my meds, or a friend helps me write an email and later I help them with homework, etc
@neurowonderfulNeurodivergent people, working together, can fill the gaps in each other’s spiky profiles. Go team. Members of the Neurodiversity ERG at Automattic help each other out during synchronous, meatspace meetups, which can be very stressful.
Support swapping can happen during parallel play, making for a nice moment of converging love languages.
The people tell us what they need, and we find the person in the community who can meet that need.
A concept we have taken to calling “sharing spoons.”
What are we working on now? 🥄 #onefreeapp #sharingspoons #communitysolutions #mutualaid (feat. @lindsaymakesvideos)https://www.tiktok.com/@onefreeapp/video/7085002262749138219
What is mutual aid?
“Solidarity, not charity.”
Why is a spoon share helpful?
- Interdependence, understanding and support
- Gives opportunity to help & care for other in on our own terms and within our own capacities
- Direct support in a community within a community
- It’s much easier to practice asking, offering, receiving, and declining among people who “get it”!
Learn About Mutual Aid Learn About InterdependenceIncreasingly, autistic communities have been exposed to ideas of disability justice, interdependence, access intimacy, collective/community care, and mutual aid. Care collectives, spoon shares, and other community care groups by and for disabled people, racialized people, LGBTQ2IA+ people (and people at this intersection) are growing in number. Is there a future for autistic spaces to also act as spaces of intentional mutual aid?
Moving from a rights-based perspective to a justice-based one necessitates a look at our care systems and re-envisioning how our communities function to ensure no one is left behind.
Collective Community Care: Dreaming of Futures in Autistic Mutual Aid, Autscape: 2020 PresentationsDeep Pressure: Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body
sometimes, I feel like I’m breaking apart
deep pressure pulls me back together
“Deep Pressure” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body: deep pressure input good!! Provides proprioceptive input and can soothe body stress responses (always get consent)
@neurowonderfulA famous example of the common autistic preference for deep pressure input is Temple Grandin’s Squeeze Machine.
At age 18, I constructed the squeeze machine to help calm down the anxiety and panic attacks. Using the machine for 15 minutes would reduce my anxiety for up to 45-60 minutes (Grandin and Scariano 1986). The relaxing effect was maximized if the machine was used twice a day.
Gradually, my tolerance of being held by the squeeze machine grew. Knowing that I could initiate the pressure, and stop it if the stimulation became too intense, helped me to reduce the oversensitivity of my “nervous system.” A once overwhelming stimulus was now a pleasurable experience.
Using the machine enabled me to learn to tolerate being touched by another person. By age 25, I was able to relax in the machine without pulling away from it. It also made me feel less aggressive and less tense. Soon I noted a change in our cat’s reaction to me. The cat, who used to run away from me now would stay with me, because I had learned to caress him with a gentler touch. I had to be comforted myself before I could give comfort to the cat.
As my “nervous system” calmed down, I required less squeeze pressure to produce a comforting feeling. Gradually, I could reduce the pressure regulator setting from 80 to 60 psi.
Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animalshttps://www.instagram.com/p/CNAWwl7nr2m
But I’m tortured because whilst I don’t want to make a scene or have strangers adding to the overload and overwhelm, I’m simultaneously desperate for someone to give me a massive, firm, bear-hug. To hide me, cocoon me, and shield me from the shock waves that travel from their universe into mine.
On meltdowns | The Misadventures of Mama PineappleI can think of no logical reasons why swaddles should just be for babies because they are super helpful.
They’re like a hug without physical contact. That’s amazing!
soundoftheforesthttps://www.tiktok.com/@soundoftheforest/video/7120254634840722734?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Penguin Pebbling: “I found this cool rock, button, leaf, etc. and thought you would like it”
“Penguin Pebbling” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
An Adelie Penguin carries a rock to add to its nest on an island in Antarctica inspiring the neurodivergent love language penguin pebblingPenguin Pebbling
@brainsandspoons
It’s our way of saying, “I thought about you today. I remembered this thing about you. Here’s something I want to share with you specifically.
Send a little “thinking of you” pebble. It helps.Penguins pass pebbles to other penguins to show they care. Penguin Pebbling is a little exchange between two people to show that they care and want to build a meaningful connection. For autistic people, giving little gifts spontaneously can be a meaningful way of communicating that you are thinking about someone and that you care. We are not talking about spending money, rather it is about building connections through the friendship you have developed between you both.
This could look like finding a pretty pebble, twig, or flower, perhaps taking a photo on a walk you enjoyed together and sharing it with someone to say, ‘This reminded me of you today, I hope you like it.’ Navigating the complex world of communication and socialisation may feel too much at times and Penguin Pebbling is a small act to show you care, just because it is a nice thing to do!
Penguin Pebbling – An Autistic Love LanguagePenguins give pebbles to other penguins to show that they care.
@brainsandspoonsI found this cool rock/button/leaf etc and thought you would like it: unconventional gift giving, sharing things that are valuable or interesting to you as a sign of affection, OR giving someone a thing you know they are interested in (sure, memes count)
@neurowonderfulPenguin Pebbling gets back to SpIns, both inviting people into yours and encouraging other’s. SpIns are a trove for unconventional gift giving.
Love Pebbles
Pebbles resembling the letters L, O, V, and E arranged in the word LOVE on a sandy beach, evoking the neurodivergent love language of penguin pebbling.
Image Credit: AJ Wool Learn More About Penguin PebblingNeurodivergent Love Locutions and Teamwork
Team work makes the dream workThe “love locutions” — infodumping, parallel play (including body doubling), support swapping, penguin pebbling, and deep pressure — aren’t just ways neurodivergent people show care in personal relationships. They also show up in how we work together, collaborate, and build community.
These are not quirks. They are forms of connection, regulation, and mutual support — and they can make teams healthier, more humane, and more effective.
Infodumping as Shared Context
In a team setting, infodumping can look like sharing what you know deeply and generously — helping others understand a problem, a history, or a passion. When we infodump to each other, we’re offering context and inviting people into our thinking.
Parallel Play and Body Doubling as Presence Without Pressure
Parallel play and body doubling show up when people work alongside each other without forcing constant conversation. This can be powerful in asynchronous or distributed work: it means you’re present and engaged without social pressure, creating psychological safety and trust.
Support Swapping as Mutual Aid in Miniature
Support swapping is teamwork in action. It’s asking for what you need, offering help in turn, and adapting to each other’s capacities. In teams that “get it,” people watch out for one another — checking in, sharing load, and matching tasks to strengths.
Penguin Pebbling as Small Acts of Care
Penguin pebbling shows up when team members share small things that matter — a useful resource, a link, a tool, a meme that perfectly captures the moment. These symbolic acts of care build connection over time.
Deep Pressure as a Metaphor for Regulation and Safety
Deep pressure isn’t something you literally translate into professional life, but it points to something real: what helps regulate and ground a nervous system — predictability, consent, comfort, respect — also helps teams work better together.
Collaboration Without Neuronormativity
Recognizing these locutions helps us build neurodiverse competency networks — teams where people don’t just tolerate difference, they leverage it. Collaboration becomes less about forcing everyone to communicate the same way, and more about finding mutual ways to connect, care, and get things done together.
Teamwork is not sameness. Teamwork is mutuality.
Teamwork isn’t about who does the most; it’s about who can show up for each other in ways that fit their nervous systems.
Spiky Profiles
Appreciate the strange astrology of our spiky profiles coming together.
So, one of the things to also bear in mind with this is that the impairments that exist in terms of relationships or even in broader sense with folks both on the spectrum and with ADHD is that our impairments can often be invisible.
ADHD and Autism Relationship Accommodations — How to Get Your Needs Met
We’ve been socialized to try and speak neurotypical, but we’re not good at it.
A lot of relationship-difficulties for folks who are neurodiverse come from misunderstandings of intent. Misunderstandings of action. Or feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. Often because we come from an entire lifetime of literally not being accepted for who we are.Spiky Profiles and Love Locutions
Spiky profiles also help explain why neurodivergent “love locutions” matter so much.
When someone’s abilities are uneven — strong in some areas, vulnerable in others — connection and care can’t be reduced to one narrow, neuronormative script. We need more ways to communicate safety, belonging, and support.
Love locutions are often the relational accommodations that make spiky lives livable.
- Infodumping lets someone share competence and passion, even if small talk is impossible.
- Parallel play / body doubling supports presence and teamwork when conversation is draining or hard to time.
- Support swapping acknowledges that capacity fluctuates — today I can carry this, tomorrow you carry me.
- Penguin pebbling creates low-pressure connection through small, meaningful gestures when direct emotional language is difficult.
- Deep pressure reminds us that regulation is relational — nervous systems often need grounding, not performance.
In other words: spiky profiles mean people may not always be able to show care in conventional ways. Love locutions expand the vocabulary of connection.
Neurodivergent love is often an accessibility practice.
Join the Randimals in learning about spiky profiles.
Sea Dog“What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world.”
EllarillaAnd I don’t mind Our strange astrology I hope we find You bring the best out in me
Strange Astrology by Slothrust
https://stimpunks.org/different
Learn About Spiky Profiles Learn About Accommodations in Neurodivergent RelationshipsSupport Myth
We learned the five neurodivergent love languages from Myth. Myth’s “Ask an Autistic” YouTube series is an important part of our journey here at Stimpunks. We’re glad to support their work.
Support MythMost Read / Start Here
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How to Read Stimpunks Without Getting Lost🆘 Crisis Mode: Small Steps, Right Now
If your brain is loud, your body is shaking, or everything is too much: you’re not failing. Systems are heavy. Sensory life is real. Start with the smallest next step.
I need help today
- Get Help — fastest paths and next steps
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Permission slip: you are allowed to stop. you are allowed to need help. you are allowed to be a real human with real needs.
#ADHD #anxiety #autism #bodyDoubling #communitysolutions #distributedWork #emotionalBids #infodump #mutualaid #neurodiversity #onefreeapp #panic #parallelExistence #parallelPlay #penguinPebbling #sharingspoons #specialInterests #stress #supportSwapping