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Marvelous Market: Best New Comics May 13
After a few low weeks, I’m buying too many comics again
Do the publishers collaborate in picking what week they release comics I’m interested in? Two weeks ago there was only one or two books I wanted even a little. This week there are like a dozen. I’m tyring to buy a house bro, I don’t have this kind of budget.
Hello and welcome to the Marvelous Market, my weekly guide for anyone interested in going to a comic book store today. In addition to a full list of new # 1s and new volume 1s, I’ll be giving you my top 4 recommendations in 4 categories. Like Houston legend Mike Jones rapped, “We’re still tippin’ on four-fours.” I’m going to give you the top four new comics, top four ongoing comics, the top four graphic novels, and the top 4 preorders.
The work going into this curation is made possible by readers like you. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month, you can help make this work possible.
New Issue # 1s
BARBARA GORDON: BREAKOUT # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
LEAPING FROM THE PAGES OF MAY’S BATMAN #9 INTO THE NEXT LEVEL! Framed. Outlawed. Hunted. The extralegal activities of Gotham’s vigilantes have never been more dangerous. After Barbara Gordon is arrested for aiding the Bat-Family, she is shipped off to Supermax, GCPD Commissioner Vandal Savage’s pet-project prison for all who oppose him. She will find herself alone, surrounded by dangerous criminals and equally dangerous guards, in a place where nothing is what it seems. The true danger is just beginning…
Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and fan-favorite artist Amancay Nahuelpan reunite to deliver a twisty, unexpected Bat-book for DC Next Level.
GOZILLA VS AMERICA: GODZILLA VS TEXAS # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
Everything is bigger in Texas.
Godzilla couldn’t settle for one city in the Lone Star State, so it’s going to trample over all of them. Hopefully those cowboys have a saddle big enough for the King of the Monsters… or else things are about to get ugly.
Join Godzilla and a cast of comic book creators from this great state on a whirlwind tour of Texas! Featuring four 10-page stories by comic book legends like Matt Frank (Mothra, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth) and more!
IF DESTRUCTION BE OUR LOT # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
While on a retirement community field trip, a group of aging ex-Hollywood stars encounter a baby kaiju on the run from military agents. Bonding quickly with the creature, the cantankerous cadre of former celebrities have to somehow get the kaiju to safety—before it causes the end of the world!
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
BRAND NEW BRAND NEW DAY! Spider-Man discovers one of the most valuable items the Kingpin, A.K.A. Wilson Fisk, possesses — THE LEXICON. This directory of the Kingpin’s criminal enterprise could destroy the criminal landscape of New York City and that’s Spider-Man’s goal when he takes it. But Fisk isn’t the only person who wants the Lexicon… Mr. Negative would love his competitor’s secret information, but so would Frank Castle himself, the Punisher. Taking the Lexicon sure seemed like a good idea to make the city safer, but it’s painted the biggest target ever on Spider-Man’s back!
ONGOING SERIES
ABSOLUTE BATMAN # 20
SOLICIT COPY:
A TRAGIC LOSS ROCKS GOTHAM CITY! As the dust settles in the city of Gotham after the loss of [redacted], Robins enter the scene ready to hunt and more than one secret will be revealed in this seminal issue.
BLEEDING HEARTS # 4
SOLICIT COPY:
WILL POKE’S BEST FRIEND BETRAY HIM? How do you bond with a human when you have little humanity yourself? Poke is figuring it out firsthand, but his best friend Mush is starting to notice. Poke is disappearing all the time, and when he’s around, he’s barely interested in preparing for the joyous holiday of Out-Break. Doesn’t he want to celebrate the devouring of Live One flesh? Poke has a tough decision to make… but the collision of his two worlds might end up making it for him!
BLOOD & THUNDER # 13
SOLICIT COPY:
NEW STORY ARC BLOOD IS IN THE LAST PLACE SHE EXPECTED! After the surprising conclusion of the previous issue, Blood finds herself in an impossible situation and desperate to get the odds back in her favor. But without Thunder, the galaxy’s most wanted woman will need to find new allies…
ULTIMATE ENDGAME # 4
SOLICIT COPY:
SPIDER-MAN MEETS HIS MAKER! Time is ticking on the Ultimate Universe!!! In this penultimate issue of the most climactic super-hero event EVER(!)… heroes will fall, villains will rise and your favorite characters will be forced to make difficult sacrifices!
Trade Paperbacks, Hardcovers, and OGNs
DETECTIVE KAIJU vol. 1 TP
SOLICIT COPY:
Detective Kaiju, the grizzled investigator of the hit-series Quested, finally takes center stage in his own thrilling murder mystery. Known for his relentless pursuit of the truth, Kaiju’s latest case will force him to confront the buried secrets of his past.
With danger closing in and time running out, Detective Kaiju must navigate a treacherous web of lies, alien conspiracy theory, a film industry underbelly, and long-buried secrets. On an island built on illusion, who can he really trust? And will solving this case finally give him the answers he’s been searching for—or destroy him in the process?
Gritty, atmospheric, and packed with twists, Detective Kaiju volume one is a must-read noir thriller that dives deep into the origins of crime fiction’s most larger-than-life investigators.
IMMORTAL LEGEND BATMAN TP
SOLICIT COPY:
From the void between our universe and its shadow come horrific apparitions craving nothing but destruction. But from this terror… an immortal legend known as Batman is born. Aided by Nightwing and Robin, this Dark Knight battles unceasingly against deadly shadow monsters who want to destroy our universe. But to fully triumph against a rogues gallery of cosmic evil, Batman must face how his incredible abilities are tied to the shadow universe itself!
Collecting Immortal Legend Batman #1-6.
LOBSTER JOHNSON Omnibus vol. 1
SOLICIT COPY:
Unconventional pulp hero Lobster Johnson keeps the streets of New York clean in this comics collection of his earliest supernatural, slick, and surprising misadventures.
After years of captivating fans’ imaginations from the pages of Hellboy and B.P.R.D., the pulp-style adventures of Lobster Johnson took the limelight in their own series of comics adventures. From gangsters to Nazis to an army of monkeys, the Lobster faces classic foes in strange new ways.
His adventures are now collected for the first time in a paperback omnibus edition, collecting trade volumes The Burning Hand, Satan Smells a Rat, and Get the Lobster and the short story “Lobster Johnson: The Empty Chair” featuring writing by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Tonci Zonjic with art by Zonjic, Joe Querido, Sebastián Fiumara, and more!
STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS TP
SOLICIT COPY:
The doomed Starfleet crew members, the red shirts, must track down spies on an isolated planet in this graphic novel.
Stranded on the snow-ridden planet Arkonia 89, the crew of the U.S.S. Warren has a small window in which to pin down spies seeking to steal classified secrets and keep Starfleet data out of their nefarious hands.
They face threats not only from their faceless enemies but from the brutalizing elements and wildlife of a planet far from home. In this complicated story of betrayal, loss, and redemption, the red shirts’ lives and Starfleet’s sanctity are on the line… and no one is safe.
This heartrending story by writer Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek: Defiant) and artist Megan Levens (Star Trek) marks a new beginning for the Star Trek universe, featuring Starfleet’s most intrepid and doomed crew members: red shirts. Now, finally, they get their own story.
Collects the complete miniseries Star Trek: Red Shirts #1–5.
Preorders on Final Order Cutoff
ABSOLUTE CATWOMAN # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
WITH ALL THE WEALTH… WITH ALL THE GEAR… WITH ALL THE SKILLS, SHE IS THE ABSOLUTE APEX PREDATOR! Selina Kyle has carved a good life for herself. Through her ingenuity and skills, she’s become the greatest thief the world has ever known. With high-tech gear and weaponry, there’s no place too secure for Catwoman. Selina has built this life for herself and thoroughly escaped Gotham. But when someone from her past comes knocking at her door, Selina’s life comes crashing down around here. She’ll need to get to the bottom of a mystery taking her all around the globe! Written by Che Grayson and Scott Snyder with art by Bengal, Catwoman bursts onto the scene in the Absolute Universe!
ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS # 9
SOLICIT COPY:
Are you poor, desperate, huddled, massive? Do you live in a dark age, a depression, one of the many historical periods of slim pickings and no options? Welcome to the TEMPS, the first cross-temporal employment app! The past and future are filled with low skill, low wage gigs! Gigs such as: Cobbler’s assistant in plague-era Europe! Salvager in the ruins of New York, 2832! Soldier in Krang’s Cross-Time Army! Temp is shattering the temporal ceiling!
BETAS
SOLICIT COPY:
Roommates Xavier, Doug, and Tim are just regular guys trying to make it on the dating scene. Meeting women isn’t easy, they might even call it impossible! Changing social mores, dating apps, and good old-fashioned shyness cause misstep after misstep. Recent mixed signals at the restaurant all three work at cause a cascading series of rules and regulations, putting everyone on edge. Some people adapt, others dig their heels in fleshing out a hilarious comedy about modern communication where bad faith arguments and self-serving directives clash leading to HR reprimands and ever-expanding apologies. As friends and co-workers struggle to connect under these conditions, some become lovers while others become mortal enemies. In Betas, Nick Maandag lampoons popular ideas around free speech, consent, and scold culture all while asking: can ever learn to talk to one another? And can we ever feel safe?
STARSHIP GODZILLA: FIRST WARS TP
SOLICIT COPY:
Join a crew of cosmic misfits as they soar through the stars in Mechagodzilla in this series that ties in with the all-new Kai-Sei Era of Godzilla comics!
You didn’t think kaiju were only on Earth, did you?
In the fight for galactic supremacy, no weapon is more powerful than a kaiju…and no team is better equipped to capture and transport these titanic monsters than the crew of Starship Godzilla!
This ragtag group flies through space in Mechagodzilla and takes high-risk, high-reward missions across the galaxy. A kaiju heading toward your planet? Give them a call. A colossal space pest clogging up your trade route? They’ll get rid of it. A galactic civil war utilizing kaiju on both sides? They’ll…uh…do their best to stay out of it. But where there’s a galactic war, there’s a galactic conspiracy, and our crew members may not all land on the same side of this fight.
A brand-new kaiju space epic starts here in Starship Godzilla from Chris Gooch (In Utero, Under-Earth) and Oliver Ono (Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp)! Part of the new Godzilla connected comic book universe with Godzilla (Kai-Sei Era) and Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone!
What did I miss?
If there are some great comics, collected or in single issues, that you think I should be reading, tell me about them! And if you do try out any of these series, let me know how you liked them, or didn’t. This is a safe space for haters. If you enjoy this service, please share this article on social media or tell someone that you know reads comics about it.
Divining Comics is brought to you by generous support from the “Best Friends of Divining Comics,” Alex Seubert.
Divining Comics is also brought to you by the support of the “Friends of Divining Comics,” Comic Book Herald.
If you would like to add your name to the list of friends, best friends, or best friends forever, support this work for less than the cost of one cup of coffee a month at patreon.com/diviningcomics. You can also leave a one-time tip/buy my zines at ko-fi.com/spikestonehand. Or, if you can’t afford to support me financially at this time, simply follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky and share my posts there.
#art #books #ComicBooks #comics #DC #dcComics #marvel #marvelComics #MarvelousMarket #NewComicDay -
This is Leah. According to her owner, she's a cantankerous queen who doesn't like anyone. For some reason, we got along fabulously, and she practically lived on my lap during my visit.
My knees were raw when I left.
#CatsOfMastodon #Leah #Caturday #EveryDayIsCaturday -
Book Review: George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Friday, and it’s time for another review. Today, I’m sharing my review of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, George’s Marvellous Medicine.
Click the image to find the bookGeorge’s Marvellous Medicine was published in 1981 by Puffin Books and is 96 pages long.
The Plot
George, tired of his grandma’s constant nagging, grumpy mood and mean-spirited comments, decides to make his own medicine to replace the one she takes regularly. His concoction, made from an outrageous blend of household items that range from shampoo to animal pills, sets off a series of fantastical events, transforming Grandma in unexpected and hilarious ways.Characters
George Kranky
George is a resourceful and inventive child who invents a special mixture, or medicine, hoping to teach his mean and grumpy grandma a lesson. Despite his mischievous nature, George has a good heart and only wants to help his family. His determination and quick thinking make him a lovable protagonist that readers will root for throughout the book.Grandma
Grandma is a cantankerous old lady and serves as the book’s antagonist. She has a foul temper and is incredibly demanding, making life difficult for poor George. She is stubborn and ungrateful, constantly belittling him and calling him a liar. However, although her character has no redeeming qualities, she does add humour to the story with her exaggerated behaviour and outrageous reactions to George’s antics.Mr Kranky and Mrs Kranky
Mrs Kranky, at first deeply cares for Grandma, not wanting her to come to harm, but when Grandma finally shrinks away, she feels relieved and that a burden has been lifted from her.Mr Kranky sees a business opportunity in George’s medicine when he witnesses its effects on the farm animals and attempts to recreate it, hoping to sell it to other farmers, while showing no regard for the consequences.
Writing Style
Dahl’s writing style is characteristically playful, vividly descriptive, and effortlessly humorous. His prose is rhythmic, making it especially enjoyable to read aloud. His knack for capturing the imagination of young readers while entertaining adults with subtle satire remains unmatched.His characters, particularly George and Grandma, are painted in bold strokes with clear personalities, allowing readers to easily cheer for the underdog and recoil from the villain.
Illustrations
Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations are an inseparable part of Dahl’s storytelling. Each illustration complements the text, bringing the characters and their exaggerated mannerisms to life. Blake’s unique, sketch-like style captures the whimsy and chaos of the story perfectly.Final Thoughts
Overall, George’s Marvellous Medicine stands out as a wonderfully entertaining read for children and adults alike, brilliantly showcasing Roald Dahl’s mastery in creating stories that are both captivatingly funny and gently provocative.Whether you’re rereading this classic as an adult or reading it for the first time, it’s impossible not to be captivated by George’s Marvellous Medicine. It’s not just a book—it’s a bottle of laughter, a pinch of chaos, and a spoonful of childhood nostalgia.
Thank you, as ever, for reading my review!
Until next time,
George
© 2026 GLT
#Blake #bookReview #GeorgeSMarvellousMedicine #magic #review #RoaldDahl -
Oh my! I can confirm this as well George, have met Shatner before - meh.
Which reminds me, I need to get your signature one day Sir! You coming up to Edmonton #yeg Calgary #yyc any time soon? #ComicExpo
Star Trek Cast Members that I have Met:
Nimoy (AWESOME!).
Brent Spiner (I physically bumped into him, and HE apologized to me!)
Levar Burton (THE MAN!)
Johnathan Frakes (#1)
William ShatnerFlickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rangerbob/albums/72157626875709259
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For the first post of April, I have some rambling cantankerousness for you
https://axxuy.com/blog/2026/do-you-have-the-time/
#Blog #Blogging #Blogpost #IndieWeb #PersonalWebsite #PersonalBlog
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“ #Mitchell, a slovenly and cantankerous police detective, is assigned to monitor a successful businessman who is suspected of being involved with a drug-smuggling operation. This case intersects with Mitchell's investigation of another seemingly-upstanding citizen who killed a burglar.”
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Marvelous Market: Best New Comics May 13
After a few low weeks, I’m buying too many comics again
Do the publishers collaborate in picking what week they release comics I’m interested in? Two weeks ago there was only one or two books I wanted even a little. This week there are like a dozen. I’m tyring to buy a house bro, I don’t have this kind of budget.
Hello and welcome to the Marvelous Market, my weekly guide for anyone interested in going to a comic book store today. In addition to a full list of new # 1s and new volume 1s, I’ll be giving you my top 4 recommendations in 4 categories. Like Houston legend Mike Jones rapped, “We’re still tippin’ on four-fours.” I’m going to give you the top four new comics, top four ongoing comics, the top four graphic novels, and the top 4 preorders.
The work going into this curation is made possible by readers like you. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month, you can help make this work possible.
New Issue # 1s
BARBARA GORDON: BREAKOUT # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
LEAPING FROM THE PAGES OF MAY’S BATMAN #9 INTO THE NEXT LEVEL! Framed. Outlawed. Hunted. The extralegal activities of Gotham’s vigilantes have never been more dangerous. After Barbara Gordon is arrested for aiding the Bat-Family, she is shipped off to Supermax, GCPD Commissioner Vandal Savage’s pet-project prison for all who oppose him. She will find herself alone, surrounded by dangerous criminals and equally dangerous guards, in a place where nothing is what it seems. The true danger is just beginning…
Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and fan-favorite artist Amancay Nahuelpan reunite to deliver a twisty, unexpected Bat-book for DC Next Level.
GOZILLA VS AMERICA: GODZILLA VS TEXAS # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
Everything is bigger in Texas.
Godzilla couldn’t settle for one city in the Lone Star State, so it’s going to trample over all of them. Hopefully those cowboys have a saddle big enough for the King of the Monsters… or else things are about to get ugly.
Join Godzilla and a cast of comic book creators from this great state on a whirlwind tour of Texas! Featuring four 10-page stories by comic book legends like Matt Frank (Mothra, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth) and more!
IF DESTRUCTION BE OUR LOT # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
While on a retirement community field trip, a group of aging ex-Hollywood stars encounter a baby kaiju on the run from military agents. Bonding quickly with the creature, the cantankerous cadre of former celebrities have to somehow get the kaiju to safety—before it causes the end of the world!
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
BRAND NEW BRAND NEW DAY! Spider-Man discovers one of the most valuable items the Kingpin, A.K.A. Wilson Fisk, possesses — THE LEXICON. This directory of the Kingpin’s criminal enterprise could destroy the criminal landscape of New York City and that’s Spider-Man’s goal when he takes it. But Fisk isn’t the only person who wants the Lexicon… Mr. Negative would love his competitor’s secret information, but so would Frank Castle himself, the Punisher. Taking the Lexicon sure seemed like a good idea to make the city safer, but it’s painted the biggest target ever on Spider-Man’s back!
ONGOING SERIES
ABSOLUTE BATMAN # 20
SOLICIT COPY:
A TRAGIC LOSS ROCKS GOTHAM CITY! As the dust settles in the city of Gotham after the loss of [redacted], Robins enter the scene ready to hunt and more than one secret will be revealed in this seminal issue.
BLEEDING HEARTS # 4
SOLICIT COPY:
WILL POKE’S BEST FRIEND BETRAY HIM? How do you bond with a human when you have little humanity yourself? Poke is figuring it out firsthand, but his best friend Mush is starting to notice. Poke is disappearing all the time, and when he’s around, he’s barely interested in preparing for the joyous holiday of Out-Break. Doesn’t he want to celebrate the devouring of Live One flesh? Poke has a tough decision to make… but the collision of his two worlds might end up making it for him!
BLOOD & THUNDER # 13
SOLICIT COPY:
NEW STORY ARC BLOOD IS IN THE LAST PLACE SHE EXPECTED! After the surprising conclusion of the previous issue, Blood finds herself in an impossible situation and desperate to get the odds back in her favor. But without Thunder, the galaxy’s most wanted woman will need to find new allies…
ULTIMATE ENDGAME # 4
SOLICIT COPY:
SPIDER-MAN MEETS HIS MAKER! Time is ticking on the Ultimate Universe!!! In this penultimate issue of the most climactic super-hero event EVER(!)… heroes will fall, villains will rise and your favorite characters will be forced to make difficult sacrifices!
Trade Paperbacks, Hardcovers, and OGNs
DETECTIVE KAIJU vol. 1 TP
SOLICIT COPY:
Detective Kaiju, the grizzled investigator of the hit-series Quested, finally takes center stage in his own thrilling murder mystery. Known for his relentless pursuit of the truth, Kaiju’s latest case will force him to confront the buried secrets of his past.
With danger closing in and time running out, Detective Kaiju must navigate a treacherous web of lies, alien conspiracy theory, a film industry underbelly, and long-buried secrets. On an island built on illusion, who can he really trust? And will solving this case finally give him the answers he’s been searching for—or destroy him in the process?
Gritty, atmospheric, and packed with twists, Detective Kaiju volume one is a must-read noir thriller that dives deep into the origins of crime fiction’s most larger-than-life investigators.
IMMORTAL LEGEND BATMAN TP
SOLICIT COPY:
From the void between our universe and its shadow come horrific apparitions craving nothing but destruction. But from this terror… an immortal legend known as Batman is born. Aided by Nightwing and Robin, this Dark Knight battles unceasingly against deadly shadow monsters who want to destroy our universe. But to fully triumph against a rogues gallery of cosmic evil, Batman must face how his incredible abilities are tied to the shadow universe itself!
Collecting Immortal Legend Batman #1-6.
LOBSTER JOHNSON Omnibus vol. 1
SOLICIT COPY:
Unconventional pulp hero Lobster Johnson keeps the streets of New York clean in this comics collection of his earliest supernatural, slick, and surprising misadventures.
After years of captivating fans’ imaginations from the pages of Hellboy and B.P.R.D., the pulp-style adventures of Lobster Johnson took the limelight in their own series of comics adventures. From gangsters to Nazis to an army of monkeys, the Lobster faces classic foes in strange new ways.
His adventures are now collected for the first time in a paperback omnibus edition, collecting trade volumes The Burning Hand, Satan Smells a Rat, and Get the Lobster and the short story “Lobster Johnson: The Empty Chair” featuring writing by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Tonci Zonjic with art by Zonjic, Joe Querido, Sebastián Fiumara, and more!
STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS TP
SOLICIT COPY:
The doomed Starfleet crew members, the red shirts, must track down spies on an isolated planet in this graphic novel.
Stranded on the snow-ridden planet Arkonia 89, the crew of the U.S.S. Warren has a small window in which to pin down spies seeking to steal classified secrets and keep Starfleet data out of their nefarious hands.
They face threats not only from their faceless enemies but from the brutalizing elements and wildlife of a planet far from home. In this complicated story of betrayal, loss, and redemption, the red shirts’ lives and Starfleet’s sanctity are on the line… and no one is safe.
This heartrending story by writer Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek: Defiant) and artist Megan Levens (Star Trek) marks a new beginning for the Star Trek universe, featuring Starfleet’s most intrepid and doomed crew members: red shirts. Now, finally, they get their own story.
Collects the complete miniseries Star Trek: Red Shirts #1–5.
Preorders on Final Order Cutoff
ABSOLUTE CATWOMAN # 1
SOLICIT COPY:
WITH ALL THE WEALTH… WITH ALL THE GEAR… WITH ALL THE SKILLS, SHE IS THE ABSOLUTE APEX PREDATOR! Selina Kyle has carved a good life for herself. Through her ingenuity and skills, she’s become the greatest thief the world has ever known. With high-tech gear and weaponry, there’s no place too secure for Catwoman. Selina has built this life for herself and thoroughly escaped Gotham. But when someone from her past comes knocking at her door, Selina’s life comes crashing down around here. She’ll need to get to the bottom of a mystery taking her all around the globe! Written by Che Grayson and Scott Snyder with art by Bengal, Catwoman bursts onto the scene in the Absolute Universe!
ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS # 9
SOLICIT COPY:
Are you poor, desperate, huddled, massive? Do you live in a dark age, a depression, one of the many historical periods of slim pickings and no options? Welcome to the TEMPS, the first cross-temporal employment app! The past and future are filled with low skill, low wage gigs! Gigs such as: Cobbler’s assistant in plague-era Europe! Salvager in the ruins of New York, 2832! Soldier in Krang’s Cross-Time Army! Temp is shattering the temporal ceiling!
BETAS
SOLICIT COPY:
Roommates Xavier, Doug, and Tim are just regular guys trying to make it on the dating scene. Meeting women isn’t easy, they might even call it impossible! Changing social mores, dating apps, and good old-fashioned shyness cause misstep after misstep. Recent mixed signals at the restaurant all three work at cause a cascading series of rules and regulations, putting everyone on edge. Some people adapt, others dig their heels in fleshing out a hilarious comedy about modern communication where bad faith arguments and self-serving directives clash leading to HR reprimands and ever-expanding apologies. As friends and co-workers struggle to connect under these conditions, some become lovers while others become mortal enemies. In Betas, Nick Maandag lampoons popular ideas around free speech, consent, and scold culture all while asking: can ever learn to talk to one another? And can we ever feel safe?
STARSHIP GODZILLA: FIRST WARS TP
SOLICIT COPY:
Join a crew of cosmic misfits as they soar through the stars in Mechagodzilla in this series that ties in with the all-new Kai-Sei Era of Godzilla comics!
You didn’t think kaiju were only on Earth, did you?
In the fight for galactic supremacy, no weapon is more powerful than a kaiju…and no team is better equipped to capture and transport these titanic monsters than the crew of Starship Godzilla!
This ragtag group flies through space in Mechagodzilla and takes high-risk, high-reward missions across the galaxy. A kaiju heading toward your planet? Give them a call. A colossal space pest clogging up your trade route? They’ll get rid of it. A galactic civil war utilizing kaiju on both sides? They’ll…uh…do their best to stay out of it. But where there’s a galactic war, there’s a galactic conspiracy, and our crew members may not all land on the same side of this fight.
A brand-new kaiju space epic starts here in Starship Godzilla from Chris Gooch (In Utero, Under-Earth) and Oliver Ono (Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp)! Part of the new Godzilla connected comic book universe with Godzilla (Kai-Sei Era) and Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone!
What did I miss?
If there are some great comics, collected or in single issues, that you think I should be reading, tell me about them! And if you do try out any of these series, let me know how you liked them, or didn’t. This is a safe space for haters. If you enjoy this service, please share this article on social media or tell someone that you know reads comics about it.
Divining Comics is brought to you by generous support from the “Best Friends of Divining Comics,” Alex Seubert.
Divining Comics is also brought to you by the support of the “Friends of Divining Comics,” Comic Book Herald.
If you would like to add your name to the list of friends, best friends, or best friends forever, support this work for less than the cost of one cup of coffee a month at patreon.com/diviningcomics. You can also leave a one-time tip/buy my zines at ko-fi.com/spikestonehand. Or, if you can’t afford to support me financially at this time, simply follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky and share my posts there.
#art #books #ComicBooks #comics #DC #dcComics #marvel #marvelComics #MarvelousMarket #NewComicDay -
Back at the yard trials again, we have an Australian Kelpie called Boof.
It was a hot, dry day and the sheep were being particularly cantankerous, but Boof took it all in his stride. With confidence, and a relaxed style, he was able to read the sheep and preempt every move. Slowly and calmly he guided the sheep with far more considered and methodical movements than some of the younger dogs were able to muster.
I feel this photo captures some of that easy-going and confident nature; no fear, no aggression, just getting the job done.
#DogsOfFedi #DogsOfMastodon #Dogs #WorkingDogs #Photography #Sheep #SheepdogTrials #AustralianKelpie #Sheepdog
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Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.
And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!
Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds
Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]
The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.
Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]
Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!
Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]
Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.
Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers
Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]
It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Slovakia’s post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage’s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.
Tyme’s Ticking Bomb
Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]
Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.
Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones
Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]
My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.
Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]
Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.
GardensTale’s Tab of Acid
I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]
When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!
Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval
Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]
Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.
Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]
Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.
Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles
Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]
Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.
Show 1 footnote
- Additional guitars from Kurt Ballou of Converge. ↩
#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions
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You creatures! You're so cantankerous!
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You creatures! You're so cantankerous!
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You creatures! You're so cantankerous!
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You creatures! You're so cantankerous!
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You creatures! You're so cantankerous!
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The General Who Defied a President
Perhaps no period characterized chaos about the future of the Republic than the years 1866-1868. And perhaps no one individual did so much to save it in those years as the man who had labored so hard to preserve it from 1861-1865: Ulysses S. Grant.
Pres. Andrew Johnson (LoC)One would think that having put down a rebellion, the United States would be on a path to recovery and strength. Enter President Andrew Johnson. President by virtue of Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson was the worst man at the worst place at the worst time (oh, for an alternate universe where Lincoln kept amiable Mainer Hannibal Hamlin as VP in 1864). As a pro-Union Southerner, Johnson was not only conciliatory to the former self-declared Confederacy but downright magnanimous. And less than enthused about the prospect of abolition, to put it lightly. A dedicated enthusiast of the White race’s dominance in the U.S., Johnson would stand in the way of any civil rights legislation.
Scarcely had the guns stopped firing on the battlefield than Johnson began to show warning signs that the victory won on the field was about to be lost politically. Johnson welcomed former Southern congressmen back to the House – many of whom had just taken off their Confederate Army officer uniforms. As northern and Unionist congressmen watched their recent antagonists resume the seats in the government they had just tried to restore, their tempers exploded. In a simple act of bureaucratic procedure, the clerk of the House refused to read in the names of the Southern congressmen during roll call opening the 39th session of Congress in December 1865. The House remained solidly Unionist and abolitionist.
However, Johnson would not be de-fanged so easily. Even with a solid block of loyal Republicans in Congress, Johnson wielded his veto to try to strike down any civil rights legislation and any bills that would protect Southern Blacks from the “rebellious spirit” of Southern Whites, as George Armstrong Custer (of all people) called it. 1 He also attempted to withdraw U.S. troops from the South, the line of defense for freed people against terrorism, kidnapping, and brutality. Congress halted the withdrawal of U.S. Army troops in January of 1866. The Army was now very definitely in politics. And so was its general-in-chief.
Defender of the Republic (Again)
Ulysses S. Grant would not have described himself as a politician, but as General of the Army, he played a significantly political role. And for the first time, Grant found himself taking an opposite position from the president he was supposed to support and advise. Releasing General Orders No. 3, Grant directed the Army to protect loyal citizens and Blacks in the Southern states not just from physical violence, but from political violence – quietly letting commanders know that they were to obey orders coming from him, not the executive branch. The order directed commanders to protect African Americans from unfair prosecution by state and local courts. Unwilling to publicly challenge the popular general, Johnson let this slide. For now. But he marked that Grant had sided with Congress.
The summer of 1866 was marked by violence: physical, from Whites against Blacks in the South; and political, between the president and congress. As White mobs committed murders, rapes, and atrocities in towns and cities across the South, Congress pushed through the 14th Amendment and extended Federal judicial protection for freed people – all over Johnson’s attempts to veto. As Grant watched the president fight so hard against everything the war had been fought over, he became, as an aide said, “more & more radical.” Most of all, he would not allow the Army to become a “party machine.”2
For his part, Johnson realized that he would not get anywhere until Grant was out of the way. To test the General-in-Chief’s loyalty, Johnson had Grant accompany him on an August political tour of Northern states. Grant grew so disgusted at Johnson’s ranting against the 14th Amendment that he claimed illness and went home early, writing to his wife Julia that he looked upon the president as “a national disgrace.” Johnson openly wondered about using the military to purge his enemies from Congress, asking Grant which side the Army would take in such a trial. Grant sidestepped this by replying whichever side the law was on, while quietly ordering weapons moved out of arsenals in the South. Writing to his old friend and fellow Ohioan Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan, Grant confided his worst fears: “we are fast approaching the point where he [Johnson] will want to declare the body [Congress] illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary.”3
The Banishment to Mexico
William Tecumseh Sherman (LoC)Johnson resolved to get Grant out of the way before the autumnal elections. Governor Thomas Swann of Maryland requested federal troops to oust Republican voting registrars from Baltimore, where the city had just defeated a bill that would have granted voting rights to ex-Confederates. Grant had resisted this request, so Johnson resorted to the age-old method of removing a troublesome subordinate: appoint them to a diplomatic mission and get them out of the country. In this case, Mexico. Johnson directed William Tecumseh Sherman to come east to replace Grant, believing that Sherman would fall into line. Sherman came east, but refused to have anything to do with Johnson. Johnson even promised him the position of secretary of war. Nothing doing. As Sherman is said to have stated about Grant, “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.” Once again, he stuck with Grant. Finally, Johnson ordered Grant to Mexico. But there was a problem. Grant refused.
Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman once said of Grant, ““[Grant] habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall, and was about to do it.” To say he was stubborn is an understatement. Claiming that he lacked the diplomatic skills for such a mission and that the president would be better served with someone from the State Department, Grant dodged the assignment. Johnson ordered him to do so in a cabinet meeting, which caused Grant to answer, “I am an American citizen, and eligible to any office to which any American is eligible. I am an officer of the Army, and bound to obey your military orders. But this is a civil office, a purely diplomatic duty that you offer me, and I cannot be compelled to undertake it. … No power on Earth can compel me to do it.” Annoyed, Johnson sent Sherman to Mexico and asked Grant for troops in Maryland to “intervene on the governor’s side to prevent violence.” “This,” Grant observed, “would produce the very result intended to be averted.” He refused to send troops but did issue G.O. No. 44., ordering U.S. Army officers to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Johnson and Grant were now in their own conflict.4
Reduction by Promotion
The fall 1866 elections brought another veto-proof Republican majority back to Congress which began to execute Congressional Reconstruction, returning the South to military districts until each state met conditions of equality and adherence to the 13th and 14th Amendments. Congress also passed a rider in the military appropriations bill which removed presidential authority to give direct orders to the Army: all orders would have to go through, or come from, Grant. When in 1867 Johnson’s attorney general tried to reduce the authority of U.S. Army officers; Grant told district commanders that since the opinion did not come through military channels, they were free to use their own judgement.5
Gen. U.S. Grant (LoC)When Congress recessed for the summer, Johnson decided one more time to get rid of this troublesome general who kept interfering in his plans. This time, he would get Grant out of the way by suspending Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (another Ohioan who gave Johnson constant headaches via stubborn resistance) and replacing him with Grant ad interim. A reluctant Grant acceded, possibly to keep another more compliant person from occupying the position.
But the fall 1867 elections brought more Democrats into office and a surge of terrorist groups in the South, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Johnson moved swiftly to consolidate power, firing generals heading military departments. Notably, he fired Sheridan, further alienating Grant and inflaming the situation in the South where violence levels grew. As Maj. Gen. John Pope left command of the district encompassing Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, he noted to his replacement, Maj. Gen. George Meade, “the Rebellion is as active & so far as the people of this Dist. are concerned, nearly as powerful as during the War.”6
Congress entered the fray in January of 1868, setting the stage for Grant’s last battle with the president he served. Congress ordered Stanton’s immediate reinstatement. Johnson refused. Grant, then, was left with the thorny choice of disobeying the Senate and violating the Tenure of Office Act, or directly opposing his president. It probably comes as no surprise that Granted handed over the keys to the War Department to Stanton. This utterly enraged Johnson, who went off on Grant in a cabinet meeting. Johnson then tried Sherman again, offering him command of a special division to be headquartered in D.C. – a thinly veiled threat to Congress. A disgusted Sherman headed west. Johnson then gave the same offer to Virginian Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. He should have known better than to try to coopt a man who broke from his family and state to stay loyal to the Union in 1861. Thomas turned him down. An infuriated Johnson then fired Stanton, but that cantankerous cabinet member locked himself in his office and refused to come out. This was the last straw, and after three days of Stanton confinement, the House impeached Johnson.7
Conclusion
Civilian control of the military is a bedrock of American democracy, repeatedly enforced by Washington during the Revolution and embodied in law thereafter. Could any general other than Grant have gotten away with this resistance, and could Grant have done it if it had been any president other than Johnson? We will probably never know. Grant was a national hero and Johnson was vilified by half the country. The era was one of repeated constitutional crises, so gray areas were more common. What we do know is that Grant’s steadfast devotion to civil rights and stubborn commitment brought him to national political attention, and he was on the ballot as the Republican candidate for president in 1868. His nemesis, Johnson, did not even get the nod from his own party and did not appear on the ballot.
Yet another opponent who lost to Grant.
Sources:
- Robert Wooster, The U.S. Army and the Making of America: From Confederation to Empire, 1775-1903 (University of Kansas, 2021), 204. ↩︎
- Wooster, 210. ↩︎
- Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, General Grant Refuses President Johnson’s Diplomatic Request, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/general-grant-refuses-president-johnson-s-diplomatic-request.htm; David O. Stewart, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy (Simon & Schuster, 2010). Ivan Perkins, Vanishing Coup: The Pattern of World History since 1310 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013). ↩︎
- Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, General Grant Refuses President Johnson’s Diplomatic Request; Wooster, 212. David Priess, “How a Difficult, Racist, Stubborn President Was Removed From Power—If Not From Office,” Politico (Nov. 13, 2018), https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/13/andrew-johnson-undermined-congress-cabinet-david-priess-book-222413/ ↩︎
- Wooster, 215. Priess. ↩︎
- Wooster, 215-217. ↩︎
- Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site, Ulysses S. Grant is Appointed Secretary of War Ad Interim, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ulysses-s-grant-as-appointed-secretary-of-war-ad-interim.htm; Wooster, 217-219. ↩︎
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The opinions represented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense.
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#AndrewJohnson #History #Military #Politics #Reconstruction #theGeneralWhoDefiedAPresident #USArmy #USGrant #UlyssesSGrant
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Is #NeoVim the #Tmux to #vim's #GNUScreen? Am I just being a cantankerous greybeard for not making the jump?
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Man, fuck this #advertising and #AI bullshit in the #OS
Maybe I'm just a cantankerous old man but I really don't think so
#Enshittification after enshittification is going to result in blowback eventually, old man yelling at clouds or not
"#Microsoft risks annoying #Windows #Windows10 users by testing yet more adverts in the #Startmenu"
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#TimeTravelingGhost Part 53: EP 5: Jurassic Era — Rabbits
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 11/29
#ScribesAndMakers 11.29 — Cantankerous?It was interesting how my view of Emily had changed. At first, I had found her humorless and grouchy, almost #cantankerous. She was definitely serious, but she had a humorous side and was perfectly capable of engaging in verbal sparring.
She was a bit sadistic too. I could tell by the way her lips turned up in a smile as I pushed my way through the thick forest growth, and by her uproarious laughter when a #pillbox-shaped bug as big as my fist caused me to shriek in surprise.
We eventually reached the “trail,” a muddy, trampled swath of land that ambled through the forest. Fallen trees littered the path, and huge footprints lurked in the dense ferns, threatening to break the legs of the unwary. The expedition clothes I had manifested soon turned into leather chaps and a jacket. Despite the heat, it was better than being #rent by the long dagger-like thorns that hid amid the foliage.
My attempts to transform my clothes into futuristic lightweight armor were a flop. There were clearly limits to my power. As an experiment, I tried to manifest money and then a gun. Again, the experiments failed. I had better luck with manifesting a machete.
My woes weren't limited to the heat and flora. Clouds of gnats followed me. A safari hat with mosquito netting helped, but hindered my movement through the brush. The machete and short stints of immateriality were helpful, but tiring. Indiana Jones, I wasn’t.
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An alleyway of hope towards community healing
Sadly in the United States, racism and bigotry are hardly a new thing. No matter how much we want to deny it, this country was largely born of racism and far too many of our fellow citizens continue to practice it on a daily basis.
Alley before – Source: patronicity.com Ohki Alley now Source: patronicity.comThat’s why it was so refreshing and rewarding to recently stumble upon a revitalized alleyway in small Indiana town that is attempting to right a terrible past wrong, while also adding walkable placemaking feature for the community.
Source: indianahistory.orgThe Ohki Alley in downtown Columbia City, Indiana is located directly across from the Whitley County Courthouse. This narrow alley honors Shinzo Ohki, a Japanese immigrant to the area who built a thriving soy sauce business (Show-You Sauce), but who also felt the sting of bigotry during World War II (see below).
“A Kind and Gentle Man”
“I first met Shinzo Ohki in the early summer of 1942. My family had moved to 203 Brownwood Avenue in Columbia City and the Ohki’s were neighbors. I was about 9 years old at the time.
My brother, Harrison, and I developed a neighborhood business of mowing lawns, doing yard work and general odd jobs as needed. We had a good summer business of about eight or nine customers for walk and driveway snow shoveling, plus stacking wood. In those days, many home owners burned wood in the dwelling heating system. The truck from Morsches Lumber Company would dump a load of wood at the curb and it was the property owners responsibility to handle it. Our job was to toss the wood, one piece at a time, in the basement window and then stack it neatly near the furnace. It was hard work but also steady work and good exercise.
As I became better acquainted with Mr. Ohki, I also got to know his wife and daughter. They were all soft spoken and gentle people. They also were very interested in you and your welfare.
Mr. Ohki’s daughter, Grace, was in college at the time and a talented musician and world-class clarinet player. I remember her as Paid Advertisement
a beautiful young lady who was always asking me about school and any plans I had.Here we must remember the time frame. It was the early 1940s and World War II was just getting going.
My brother and I were very much enjoying our relationship with the Ohki family. Shinzo always talked with us and always overpaid us.
One summer day, after we had finished our work, Mr. Ohki came and paid us $10.00 each the usual amount for the weekly job was about $1.00 a piece. He was very soft-spoken, as usual, but not so cheerful that day. He said “You boys won’t be able to work for me anymore. It will be bad for you and your family if you do. I want you to tell your mother and dad everything I say and they will explain it.” He turned and quietly and quickly left. I think he was crying.
We started to cry as we walked home, thinking we had been fired from our job. We did as Shinzo had asked and told our folks everything he had said. They explained that others in our small town might bring grief to us for associating with a Japanese family a mystery to me at the time but well understood in later years.
True to his nature, Mr. Ohki was more concerned for our welfare than for his own.
My memory of him has not changed or dimmed over these past almost eighty years. He was indeed a kind and gentle man.”
The alley is adorned with tables and chairs, flowers, lighting, murals, and several historic markers about Mr. Ohki’s life. There is even a tiny ice cream shop (Alley Scoops) tucked into a doorway pocket along the corridor. The alley revitalization project was completed in 2020.
In today’s cantankerous environment, this little alleyway of hope is a charming breath of fresh air, both as a symbol of how to heal past sins, but also as a method for knitting the community back together physically with a wonderful placemaking featuring in the heart of downtown. And whenever you can successfully achieve two goals with a single project, that’s certainly a win-win situation. Kudos to a job well done, Columbia City.
Peace!
p.s. On this 80 anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan (today), this post about healing seems particularly appropriate. May humanity find lasting peace so that such brutal consequences of war never happen again.
#alley #cities #ColumbiaCity #food #fun #history #iceCream #Indiana #Japan #landUse #OhkiAlley #planning #preservation #revitalization #ThirdPlaces #tourism #travel
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Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.
And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!
Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds
Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]
The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.
Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]
Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!
Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]
Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.
Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers
Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]
It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.
Tyme’s Ticking Bomb
Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]
Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.
Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones
Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]
My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.
Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]
Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.
GardensTale’s Tab of Acid
I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]
When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!
Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval
Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]
Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.
Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]
Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.
Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles
Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]
Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.
#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions
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Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.
And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!
Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds
Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]
The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.
Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]
Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!
Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]
Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.
Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers
Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]
It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.
Tyme’s Ticking Bomb
Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]
Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.
Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones
Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]
My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.
Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]
Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.
GardensTale’s Tab of Acid
I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]
When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!
Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval
Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]
Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.
Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]
Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.
Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles
Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]
Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.
#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions
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Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.
And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!
Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds
Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]
The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.
Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]
Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!
Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]
Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.
Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers
Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]
It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.
Tyme’s Ticking Bomb
Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]
Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.
Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones
Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]
My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.
Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]
Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.
GardensTale’s Tab of Acid
I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]
When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!
Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval
Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]
Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.
Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]
Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.
Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles
Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]
Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.
#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions
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Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.
And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!
Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds
Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]
The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.
Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]
Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!
Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]
Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.
Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers
Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]
It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.
Tyme’s Ticking Bomb
Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]
Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.
Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones
Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]
My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.
Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]
Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.
GardensTale’s Tab of Acid
I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]
When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!
Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval
Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]
Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.
Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]
Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.
Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles
Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]
Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.
#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions
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Someone is upset that I forgot to post for #FensterFreitag yesterday....
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Elizabeth Blackadder, Cat and Irises, 2001, watercolor
Good Afternoon!!
It’s a long weekend here in Massachusetts (Indigenous Peoples Day), and I’m planning to try to relax and read something other than politics news. Lately I can’t tolerate watching cable news, but I’ve been obsessed with keeping up with everything that is happening in the presidential campaigns. I spend too much time on social media, but it’s the only way to find out what Trump is really up to, because of the legacy media’s compulsive sanewashing of Trump’s demented behavior and speech patterns.
If you use social media, you may have seen Trump’s bizarre behavior during his speech at the Detroit Economic Club. The speech was supposed to be about economics but, since Trump has no comprehension of economics, he did his usual nonsensical rambling act. The New Republic: Watch: Trump Completely Loses Train of Thought in Awkward Speech.
Donald Trump drifted in and out of coherency during an awkward, weaving speech Thursday at the Detroit Economics Club, where he ranted about tariffs and railed against government mandates on electric vehicles….
But while explaining his fears that Kamala Harris’s policies would cause domestic manufacturing to leave the United States, Trump seemingly got carried away by the tide of his own weave and swept out into a sea of complete nonsense.
“And, it’s so simple, I mean, you know. This isn’t like Elon with his rocket ships that land within 12 inches on the moon where they wanted to land,” Trump said. “Or, he gets the … engines back—that was the first I realized, I said, ‘Who the hell did that?’ I saw engines about three, four years ago. These things were coming—cylinders, no wings, no nothing—and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace, with a circle, boom!”
“Reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have, right?” Trump said, seemingly referring to President Joe Biden’s campaign events that took precautions for Covid-19, in an awkward non sequitur.
“He’d have eight circles, and he couldn’t fill ’em up. But then I heard he beat us with the popular vote. He couldn’t fill up the eight circles, I always loved those circles, they were so beautiful, so beautiful to look at,” Trump continued.
Trump claimed that Biden “used to have the press stand in those circles, cause they couldn’t get the people. And then I heard we lost, no we’re never gonna let that happen again.”
“But—” he continued. “We’ve been abused by other countries, we’ve been abused by our own politicians, really, more than other countries.”
There are more examples of Trump’s insane rambling at the TNR link. But it’s not just rambling–it’s dementia; and it seems to be getting worse all the time. He flits from tangent to tangent, because his executive functioning is failing, likely from damage to his frontal lobes. You can watch the video clip at the TNR link.
This is disgusting, but I’m going to post it anyway. Trump appeared to either break wind (or foul his diaper) at least twice during his speech in Detroit. This is something that was happening even when he was in the White House. Reporters also noticed it happening during his fraud trial. WTF?!
Trump also slammed the city of Detroit during the same speech. The Guardian: Trump insults Detroit during speech … in Detroit.
Donald Trump attacked the city of Detroit in a speech he was giving while stumping for votes in Detroit.
The former US president and Republican nominee was speaking on Thursday at the Detroit Economic Club in the city, which is the biggest city in Michigan – one of the most crucial swing states in the 2024 US election.
But Trump, whose speeches are frequently rambling and lengthy discourses rather than set piece deliveries, could not stop himself from lambasting the city in which he was speaking by pointing to Detroit’s recent history of economic decline from its heyday as the home of American car production.
As he was speaking about China being a developing nation, Trump said: “Well, we’re a developing nation too, just take a look at Detroit. Detroit’s a developing area more than most places in China.”
He later returned to the theme, warning of an economic disaster if his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, wins in November’s election.
“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said….
Democrats in the state reacted angrily to the insults and saw a chance to score political points.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer posted on Twitter/X: “Detroit is the epitome of ‘grit,’ defined by winners willing to get their hands dirty to build up their city and create their communities – something Donald Trump could never understand. So keep Detroit out of your mouth. And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”
More frightening Trump news:
Alternet reports that Trump is planning to continue and perhaps escalate his violent, racist attacks on immigration and immigrants: ‘That’s how you lose’: Trump refusing aides’ requests to tone down anti-immigrant attacks.
Former President Donald Trump is aware his rhetoric about migrants has become increasingly toxic, yet he has decided to double down on that strategy in the final weeks of the campaign cycle.
According to Rolling Stone’s Naomi Lachance and Asawin Suebsaeng, the ex-president is even rebuffing advice from his campaign team to “play it safe” as voters prepare to head to the polls on November 5. Lachance and Suebsaeng cited two unnamed sources close to Trump in their report, writing that Trump intended to “slam his foot on the gas” rather than pull back on his anti-immigrant message.
Agnes Miller Parker, Siamese Cat and Butterfly, 1950, wood engraving
“That’s how you lose,” Trump reportedly said in response to one of his aides.
The publication’s other unnamed source said the ex-president paid close attention to which lines at his rallies garnered the biggest reactions from his audiences. This includes not only his false claim that there are 13,000 undocumented immigrants freely roaming the United States who have been convicted of murder elsewhere (most of those 13,000 are currently incarcerated), but also his call to be a “dictator” on “day one” of a second term….
The former president recently demonstrated his willingness to take his condemnation of migrants to a new low on Friday night, posting a lengthy screed to X (formerly Twitter) in which he promised to use an 18th century law to round up, detain and deport immigrants. That law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — would allow for the detainment of migrants without trial based solely on their country of birth. The last time that law was used was to force Japanese-Americans into detention camps during World War II.
“November 5th, 2024 will be LIBERATION DAY in America,” Trump tweeted. [W]e will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.”
And you’re not safe if you’re a legal immigrant, as Trump and Vance have both made clear in their attacks on Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.
The Guardian has another excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book: Mark Milley fears being court-martialed if Trump wins, Woodward book says.
Mark Milley, a retired US army general who was chair of the joint chiefs of staff under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, fears being recalled to uniform and court-martialed should Trump defeat Kamala Harris next month and return to power.
“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley recently “warned former colleagues”, the veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward writes in an upcoming book. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”
By Elizabeth Blackadder
Woodward cites Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chair and White House strategist now jailed for contempt of Congress, as saying of Milley: “We’re gonna hold him accountable.”
Trump’s wish to recall and court-martial retired senior officers who criticized him in print has been reported before, including by Mark Esper, Trump’s second secretary of defense. In Woodward’s telling, in a 2020 Oval Office meeting with Milley and Esper, Trump “yelled” and “shouted” about William McRaven, a former admiral who led the 2011 raid in Pakistan in which US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, and Stanley McChrystal, the retired special forces general whose men killed another al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in Iraq in 2006.
Milley was able to persuade Trump to back down, Woodward writes, but fears no such guardrails will be in place if Trump is re-elected.
Woodward also describes Milley receiving “a non-stop barrage of death threats” since his retirement last year, and quotes the former general as telling him, of Trump: “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country.”
More threats of violence are coming from Trump pal Roger Stone. The Guardian: Roger Stone calls for ‘armed guards’ at polling spots in leaked video.
The longtime Donald Trump ally and friend Roger Stone said Republicans should send “armed guards” to the polls
in November to ensure a Trump victory, according to video footage by an undercover journalist.
The video, first published by Rolling Stone, shows an embittered Stone, still angry about the 2020 election and ready to fight in 2024. Stone described the former US president’s legal strategy of constant litigation to purge voter rolls in swing states.
“We gotta fight it out on a state-by-state basis,” said Stone. “We’re already in court in Wisconsin, we’re already in court in Florida.”
When the journalist, posing as a member of a rightwing voter turnout organization, pressed Stone for details on efforts to make sure Trump wins in 2024, Stone told him that the campaign has to “be ready”.
Mary Feddon, Tabby
“When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you dispute it,” said Stone. In Detroit in 2020, there was a chaotic scene at a ballot counting center when GOP vote challengers pounded on the walls of the center and demanded to be let in.
Filmed at an August event in Jacksonville, Florida, called A Night with Roger Stone, the footage also reveals Stone’s lasting anger toward former attorney general Bill Barr, who he calls “a traitorous piece of human garbage”.
While in office, Barr acted as a staunch Trump ally, even pushing for a lighter sentence for Stone, when the operative was found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice in connection with a congressional inquiry into Russian interference during the 2016 election. Barr lost favor with the former president when he declined to publicly back Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, drawing outrage from Trump’s closest allies.
“Once we get back in, he has to go to prison,” Stone exclaimed. “He has to go to prison, he’s a criminal.”
This is from the usual suspects at The New York Times (Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Shane Goldmacher): A Frustrated Trump Lashes Out Behind Closed Doors Over Money.
Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party.
There was Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge fund manager who finances Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes, and Warren Stephens, the billionaire investment banker. Joining them were Betsy DeVos, the billionaire former education secretary under Mr. Trump, and her husband, Dick, as well as the billionaire Joe Ricketts and his son Todd.
Some politicians might have taken the moment to be charming and ingratiating with the donors.
Not Mr. Trump. Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances.
He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more.
By Miroco Machiko
He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as “retarded.” He complained about the number of Jews still backing Ms. Harris, saying they needed their heads examined for not supporting him despite everything he had done for the state of Israel.
At one point, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that these donors had plenty to be grateful to him for. He boasted about how great he had been for their taxes, something that some privately noted wasn’t true for everyone in the room.
The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, underscored a reality three weeks before Election Day: Mr. Trump’s often cantankerous mood in the final stretch. And one of the reasons for his frustration is money. He’s trailing his Democratic rival in the race for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it.
Not only does Ms. Harris have far more money to buy ads and pay for staff after raising $1 billion in less than three months as a candidate — a sum greater than the total Mr. Trump raised all year — but she has also been freed from having to plead directly to donors anymore. She raised more than twice as much as Mr. Trump in July, August and September.
Good! Let him keep wallowing in self-pity, driving away people who could donate to his campaign.
I’ll end with something truly unbelievable: On October 16, Fox News and Trump are planning a town hall on women’s issues! From the press release:
FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Harris Faulkner will present a town hall with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump focusing on issues impacting women ahead of the election and news of the day at Reid Barn in Cumming, Georgia. The event, which will be held with an audience entirely composed of women, will pre-tape on October 15th and air on October 16th on The Faulkner Focus (11 AM-12 PM/ET). FOX News has a standing invitation to Vice President Harris for a townhall event of equal stature which has been extended to her campaign multiple times since she became a candidate for president in August.
In commenting on the town hall, Faulkner said, “Women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is paramount that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter to them most. I am looking forward to providing our viewers with an opportunity to learn more about where former President Trump stands on these topics.”
Orovida Pissarro, Cat and Mouse, 1966
Faulkner joined FNC in 2005 and currently serves as the anchor of The Faulkner Focus and a founding co-host of Outnumbered. At 11 AM/ET, The Faulkner Focus features interviews with top newsmakers and analysts and is cable news’ most-watched program in the timeslot, averaging nearly 2 million viewers. Outnumbered features an ensemble of four female panelists and one male breaking down the day’s headlines from all perspectives and dominates the competition at 12 PM/ET with 1.8 million viewers. Both programs outpace broadcast program’s NBC’s TODAY Third Hour, TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, The Kelly Clarkson Show, NBC News Daily, ABC’s GMA3, CBS’ The Talk and The Drew Barrymore Show.
As the first Black woman to helm back-to-back weekday cable news programs, Faulkner has also played integral roles in FNC’s election coverage over the last several cycles. She is the lead of the network’s “Voter’s Voices” segments and recently presented a series titled, ”Families in Focus,” where she interviewed the family members of the then-presidential candidates during the 2024 primaries. Additionally, Faulkner has hosted a variety of primetime specials and townhalls focused on current events, including forums focused on policing in America, the ongoing conversation of justice in the country and education during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other topics.
That should be good for a laugh.
Have a nice weekend everyone!!
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/10/12/lazy-caturday-reads-trump-horrors/
#dementia #executiveFunctioning #frontalLobeDamage #immigration #incontinence #MarkMilley #Racism #RogerStone
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Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
I had expected a light, humorous read but Mad Mabel was not. It is a darker story about friendships, family, and how rumors can change a life forever. The story is set in Australia. It has a dual timeline. One tells us about Mabel’s past while the rest is as a senior citizen.
Mabel’s father never loved her. He blamed her for the first death when she was only three years old. Mabel’s mother drank too much and waited too long to reach out to Mabel.
The story is told by an 81-year-old Mabel who now goes by the name of Elsie Fitzpatrick. We learn that the only bright spot in her life was her best friend, Daphne. Life would have been unbearable without Daphne.
When Mabel’s neighbor is missing for a couple days, a young girl brings it to Mabel’s attention. Mabel climbs over a fence to check on her neighbor. She is too late and the police blame “Mad Mabel” for his death.
Her life is revealed through flashbacks that explain why she is seen as a killer. She knows that she is innocent and believes that the truth will be revealed but finds it difficult to allow anyone to help her.
Life was difficult for Mabel and her struggle was real. Mabel may not have been guilty, but she still carried plenty of guilt. Daphne was the only one who stood beside her.
I enjoyed this story more than I thought I would. The mystery was what happened to the people around Mabel and was she responsible?
Mabel was a difficult person to love. She was cantankerous. She pushed people away. Life for her was better alone.
I grew to love Mabel and her little community of friends who had to force Mabel to let them help her.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries that involve senior citizens with characters who are a little odd.
I read The Good Sister before and enjoyed that one. Hepworth has a knack for creating characters that are a little different. She is great with family dynamics.
Published October 1, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending this book for review. All opinions are my own.
I include links to purchase. As an associate, I earn from qualified purchases.
Books by Sally Hepworth:
What I am currently reading:
Two Bodies are Better than One by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Dark is When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce
Here is a link to my review of The Good Sister
https://virginia-gruver.com/2024/04/08/the-good-sister-book-review/
Happy reading!
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#Australia #BookReview #Books #Fiction #reading #SallyHepworth
