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Private: Steel Druhm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Steel Druhm
Well, we made it the end of another year full of surprises, disappointments, gains and losses. 2023 saw us add a few new voices to the AMG staff and sadly, it will see a few longtime members of the family stepping back from the day-to-day operations and activities. The much beloved Madam X has moved on from managing our everflowing stream of promos and that will now be handled by yours Steely. Sadly, our main cat man Grymm is also moving on for the time being, taking some personal time away from the deadlines and pressures of nonstop blogwork.
Throughout all the changes we’ve endured over the years, both good and bad, the AMG mission remains the same: to bring you the most honest, insightful, and entertaining reviews possible without being beholden to labels or outside pressures because we earn absolutely nothing for our efforts, We are truly terrible capitalists, but we love metal as much as you do and we want to talk about it, so the site grinds on year after year. I hope it always does.
Let’s all embrace the new year and what it holds for us. Life is always an adventure and one best shared with people you care about who make you laugh and make you think. If you don’t have those people, WE can be those people. Get on the war wagon with us and into the future we go!
Without further ado, here are the things that brought out my inner primate in 2023.
(ish) Blood Oath // Lost in an Eternal Silence – One of the year’s best and most entertaining throwback death metal releases, Lost in an Eternal Silence targets the exact point where early death metal looked to the skies and dreamed of being something more complex. Blood Oath have the raw talent and crazy creativity to recapture the early days of death metal and to replicate that frantic jump from brutality to proggy insanity that the genre toyed with in the late 80s. The album is the perfect blend of nostalgia and insane creativity, melding the past with the present and what may be the future. One of the most inventive and zany death platters of the year.
#10. Tanith // Voyage – Formed by Satan axe-master Russ Tippins, Tanith exist in a space between classic NWoBHM and 70s hard tock with a sheen of folk covering the entire enterprise. On sophomore outing Voyage, they take this retro formula and mine it for every ounce of precious metal, crafting some killer little gems along the way. Songs like “Snow Tiger” and “Olympus by Dawn” have been replayed more times than I can count and there’s something magical and endearingly DIY and indie about this whole release. It’s not especially heavy, but the hooks stick so deep, you won’t care much. This is the Charmer o’ the Year for sure.
#9. The Night Eternal // Fatale – I loved the sadly defunct act In Solitude dearly. Their mash-up of NWoBHM, occult metal and Mercyful Fate was hard to resist and I wanted more, more MOAR. When I first stumbled on The Night Eternal, it sounded to me as if In Solitude had possessed them, forcing them to pick up where they left off. I’m very okay with this and Fatale plays out like the new In Solitude platter I so desperately wanted. It’s the same sweet, hooky mix of classic Mercyful Fate-isms, chilly occult rock, Goth rock and early 80s metal. This thing gets into your head deep and demands many replays, and if I had found it earlier, it would have moved up the rankings considerably. Get this and feel The Night’s iron grip.
#8. Oak // Disintegrate – Oak is the project of Gaerea lead guitarist/vocalist, Guilherme Henriques, and instead of creating another black metal act, Oak is steered into the funeral doom universe and what better way to accomplish that than to make Disintegrate one 45-minute-long track? Yes, that makes for a daunting, intense listen but the beauty of what Oak do is just how listenable their ultra doom, deathy sound ends up. Heavy as fook riffs intertwine with weepy melancholic trills and beautifully emotive solo work and the listener gets carried along on ephemeral waves. The ebb and flow of the 45 minutes is remarkable and it never feels bogged down or dead in the mud. This is first-rate writing and execution and the slightly blackened edges add a great spice to the wood flavor. Bring in this wood.
#7. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot – In the time of old school death metal mania, Rotpit is the proudly unevolved monkey. Formed by members of Heads of the Dead, Wombbath, Just Before Dawn, and Revel in Flesh, Rotpit has the pedigree, and they leverage it to make Let There Be Rot the most over-the-top fun, mindless, dumb, death platter of the year. Cuts like “Slimebreeder,” “Let There Be Rot,” and “Beastfeeder” are Grade A bloody meat with no expiration date, and you will use them as the soundtrack to everything you do in life. This idiotic collection of caveman deathage has been a constant companion to me since it dropped and I’m stupider for having its company.
#6. Serpent Corpse // Blood Sabbath – Picking the best old school death metal platter of this year was no easy feat in 2023. There was so much good death this year at times it felt impossible to stay ahead of it and give everything a fair listen. At the end of the race though, it was Serpent Corpse that kept dragging me back for another beating more than anyone else, though Rotpit came so close! Their toxic blend of Autopsy-core and the scuzziest of Swedeath HM-2 abuse is seasoned with unexpected doses of melodeath to create a near-perfect cacophony of chaos that feels old but also fresh and evil. This things slithers, slaps, and grinds in all the ways a deathhead wants and needs. Get it inside your skull.
#5. Prong // State of Emergency – My bingo card for 2023 did NOT include falling in love with a new Prong album and beating it into the ground for 4 months straight. As much as I loved those classic Prong platters in the late 80s and 90s, they went through a long period of weak/erratic release and I had only been impressed by 2012s Carved in Stone. That’s why State of Emergency hits so damn hard. It’s the best thing Prong’s done in forever and takes you back to the salad days when they were on the cusp of metal’s adventurous edge. This thing is chocked full of the best riffs and harmonies Tommy Victor’s dreamed up in a long time and every song grabs you and smacks you around with NYC attitude. It;s so good to hear these back in fighting shape!
#4. Saturnus // The Storm Within – Saturnus have always had a relaxed release schedule, with only 5 albums to show for some 30 years in the business. It took them almost 10 years to drop The Storm Within, but the product was well worth the impossible wait, ending up one of the most polished and captivating doom albums of the year. Recapturing their classic sound and ability to wring emotion from the listener, Saturnus does their doom thing with style and panache all across the album, blending crushing riffs, airy trilling and mournful melodies to harsh your mellow completely. I’ve heard loose talk about this album being overrated or overhyped. Ignore that noise and tell the spewer to taste the floor!
#3. Isole // Anesidora – There weren’t a lot of classic doom releases that blew me away, by Isole have my number and once again they used it to knock me flat with their take on the Candlemass style on Anesidora.
#2. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death –
#1. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance –
HM
Overkill // Scorched –
Phobocosm //
Theocracy // Mosiac –
Wytch Hazel //
Vomitory // All Heads Will Roll –
Disquished Malignance //
Dripping Decay //
Wormhole //
Autopsy //
Sacred Outcry //
#2023 #BlogPost #BlooaOath #DisquishedMalignance #Isole #Listurnalia #Oak #Overkill #Phobocosm #Prong #Rotpit #Saturnus #SerpentCorpse #SteelDruhmSTopTenIshOf2023 #Tanith #TheNightEternal #Theocracy #Tribulation #VanishingKids #Vomitory #WytchHazel
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Dolphin Whisperer’s and Ferox’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Dolphin Whisperer
Dolphin Whisperer
I don’t remember anymore exactly when or how I stumbled upon Angry Metal Guy, but I know that I’ve been reading the site for fourteen years now. In that time I’ve gone from barely a student to a working professional who routinely feels the drain of a society sinking around him. But it’s ok because along the way I managed to find a partner who loves me for all my flaws and quirks (or at least that’s what she tells me).1 She wasn’t always there, though, nor was the comfort that we’ve built into our life. When she wasn’t there, and when human company could not provide for whatever reason, both Angry Metal Guy and the music world at large always existed to evolve around me and shine a path to work that saw where I was and reflected my pain. Or my happiness. Or the existential dread of another day. Or just comforted me with a warm bowl of guitar noodles with a side of riff salad.
You may not have seen my words pop around much over that time, but rest assured, I was there like all of you now, reading as AMG the Man validated my feelings or presented admiration for an idol I don’t worship or killed my darlings with questionable opinions. I was there when Steel was the new Ape on the block. I developed a taste for the cast who I agreed with most and scanned with ravenous eyes for the next 0.5 or 1.0 to watch a train wreck meet a car crash. I watched this community who knew nothing of me stand up for important and meaningful things all while staying steadfast to the goal of simply reviewing metal in all its glory.2 Then one day I decided to join the Discord group that had been advertising itself at the bottom of every article for I don’t know how long before I noticed. And in that feverish chatterbox of swirling opinions, I realized that this community meant so much to me that I wanted to give it a go behind the curtains.
I made friends—friends surrounding music whether I agree with them or not. That’s what it means to love music in my mind. Hate and love both ignite passion, and passion is what squirms the happy juice in our brains. I’m sure you, dear reader, will have thoughts about the below choices. And know that you are more than welcome to voice them in any way you see fit. Go ahead, recommend me something while you’re at it. If you do agree with these opinions, also know, then that you can click through to any of the associated reviews, Bandcamp pages, label links—any way that you can reward the artist with your hard-earned currency, if you’re able. Because remember, it’s people like you and me (nerds) who keep this silly business of music alive. Did you know you can click those links? On my reviews, on my buddy Ferox‘s reviews. Even on reviews that you don’t agree with! So read something, click something, support something, tell a friend, tell a partner… or just take whatever knowledge you gain and listen to some good music. If you continue reading, you will encounter my recommendations to fill that void of good music in your life. Above (or below, whatever the Editing Gods decide) Ferox has some recommendations for you too. Know that these two sets are the best recommendations you will receive this year. Live loudly, listen responsibly.3
#ish. Anareta // Fear Not – In a year with less to love, Fear Not could have placed higher, but the riches across different facets of my listening pleasures spilled forth in almost every possible way. Alas, this unique act couldn’t have come further out of left field when promos began to trickle in for 2023, and Anareta’s delicate precision with weeping string melodies against their brutish incisions of blood-curdling shrieks struck the tucked-away Grayceon bone in my body. Alongside up-and-coming act Exulansis out of Oregon, there’s a promising wave of chamber-informed bands growing in the wilds of niche-loving minds. As they say, it only takes two to tango…though “Omnicide” feels a little more like a foxtrot, right?
#10. Tongues // Formløse Stjerner – That I managed to cobble together words that described the mysterious air that surrounds this album baffles me. Countless listens later, I still get lost in the swaying vibrations of the tricky whammy-addled leads and layers of reverb decaying over a vast landscape. And even though all these forward choices usually spell a path down the intangible and incoherent, a lurking melody and grounded rhythmic performance seals the hypnotism that would feel just out of reach with a lesser performance. Your mind knows that each tone source here found its way to the recording behind closed doors, but the energy that emits throughout Formløse Stjerner casts like a sonic beacon through the dreariest of nights on the open, foggy sea.
#9. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – The kids are gone!!! I wasn’t particularly a fan of their previous release so that Miracle of Death hooked me was a small miracle all in itself. I’m no stranger to enjoying shoegaze-y things, psych-rock-laden things, sinfully synthful things—the airy 60s era croons and shimmering Hammond shudders throughout this give me all kinds of shoulder-relaxing, neck-tingling goodies. You think that’d remind me of someone like The Mamas & the Papas, but my mind drifts toward the episodic, warble-clipped daze of the Cunninglynguists classic Oneirology. Funny how the mind works, innit? Regardless, the sheer beauty of sound on display throughout Miracle of Death is impossible for my sugar-starved brain to ignore. Vibe with me.
#8. Slumbering Sun // The Ever-Lasting Fire – I know the Rodeö entries provide a healthy serving of less-than-desirable releases, but if you’re skipping them entirely then maybe you missed Slumbering Sun when they dropped their debut LP, The Ever-Lasting Fire way back in February. You see, one of the reasons I’ve helped fuel the Rodeö is that bands like Slumbering Sun still exist out there, under the radar, largely unpromoted, with gem ideas. Leaning on the modern sadperson melodic doom angle pioneered by an early Pallbearer, this Texas troupe delivered a longing yet hopeful collection of tunes that never fails to stir the slow burn of teary-eyed smiles in my heart. If Patrick Walker (Warning) were younger when he found peace, perhaps 40 Watt Sun would have gone this direction.
#7. Jarhead Fertilizer // Carceral Warfare – I didn’t even think I was getting a Jarhead release this year, but the death metal overlords decided that 2023 hadn’t quite graced me yet with this extremely specific kind of deranged, violent, feral death metal that I crave. Samples and segues function like dim lights in a dive bar, masking the filth strewn about while the seedy world around you builds its slow assault on your senses. Carceral Warfare stinks, its riffs carved in cracked and corroded skin. There’s nothing acute about injuries that Jarhead seeks to afflict—the wounds Carceral Warfare doles out aim to fester and brim black with incurable disease.
#6. Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – I never expected my favorite power metal album of the year to be a grindcore album. Gridlink’s take on the punk specialty has always been a bit different though. Always fast, always pushing the treble ceiling, and always leading with melodies that don’t quit, Coronet Juniper highlights all the strengths that this outfit has always promised. As their last album, it functions as a tribute to themselves—their collective passions executed at ridiculous speeds and unadvisable levels of throat punishment. It may not be as groundbreaking as what came before it, but when you’re ten steps ahead of the pack, you can settle to simply show ’em how it’s done. And I got to use Gundam clips in the review. Win-Win.
#5. Wormhole // Almost Human – The formatting will get all weird if I only scream WOOOOOOOOOOOORMMMMMMMMM-HOOOOOOOLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEE like I want to, so here’s more. Ken and I don’t often end up hole-to-hole on an album, but when we do, you better bet that it’s great. When all that was out for Almost Human was the singles, I repeatedly binged those first two tracks as if they were a whole album to themselves. And that’s the magic of this bright and horrifying slamfest. It’s shiny, it’s punishing, and, most importantly, it’s relentless in worming its way into my gaping sound receptors.
#4. Anachronism // Meanders – I’ve been listening to this all damn year at this point. I was late to the Anachronism party with Orogeny, but not so with Meanders. Its uncanny ease in mood and brevity in run hold an important home in contrast to its finger-testing technicality and unparalleled rhythmic brutality. A natural but still unexpected successor to the post-tinged, brooding brutality that showed itself in flashes, Meanders rains textural and colorful in ways that other death metal simply doesn’t—all while still staying death metal. Oh, and Lisa Voisard has a piercing shriek to go with her scruffy bellow. Who would’ve guessed?
#3. healthyliving // Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief – I knew how much I loved this album before I realized it. When it dropped, I told all the writers, “I think I have my first TYMHM y’all.” But then I went and filtered it, which is no dishonor but doesn’t quite capture the intensity of what healthyliving has to offer on this debut outing. Building tension through an eclectic array of jangling chords and understated rhythms, the supporting cast sets the perfect stage for vocalist Amaya Lopez-Carramerro to absolutely shred with fearless virtuosic wail. Or she’ll sit back and set a slow burn with a restrained and emotive croon. Can I call her my favorite vocalist in metal right now? Is this even metal? Maybe. But I couldn’t care less. It’s damn good.
#2. KEN mode // VOID – NULL ended up on my top ten last year, and with the consistency that these angry Canadians provide, enjoying VOID came naturally, disarmingly so. What I didn’t expect, however, was that this act known for being noisy and rambunctious and pulverizing would be able to dial back the melancholy of previous works with an additional varnish of lived-in depression. A partner to what came before it, VOID captures the last spat of mania before an extended comedown and the dragging sorrow that follows. And yet somehow, though it hurts almost every step of the way, I feel just a little bit lighter after every listen. Get over yourself and listen if you haven’t bothered yet, if only for the buzzing synths and buttery, booming bass tones.
#1. Vvon Dogma I // The Kvlt of Glitch – You, the commentariat, had plenty to say about this album when it dropped. “I tried… No thanks.” — “I’m voting Dolphin Whisperer off the island. This is crap.” — “What the actual fuck?” All choice examples. Some of you also decided to write this off because of the AI-base of the cover art despite the artists involved self-funding this whole exploration and fully crediting the digital assistance. Your asceticism will go unrewarded. This is a humble reminder that you, the commentariat, do not influence my complete and utter enjoyment of this mad pairing of cyberpunk industrial, fanned-fret progressive, angelic electronic piece of edge-skirting metal. The spirit of adventure that graces every phrase throughout the Kvlt of Glitch stimulates the thrill-seeker, the floating spirit, the head-banging hooligan in me all at once, while lathering me with a fresh sense of dread for a technology-warped future. Maybe you never liked Genghis Tron before they disbanded after Board Up the House. Maybe you never liked Unexpect when they graced us with album after album of shrill and unfathomably progressive fantasy. Maybe you’ve got a shallow throat for multi-layered, programmed voices that fizzle the ears with rich harmony. But The Kvlt of Glitch is willing to welcome you whenever you choose to accept its power. I am God now!4
Honorable Mentions:
- World’s End Girlfriend // Resistance & The Blessing – WEG possesses the esoteric ability to manipulate time with beauty. Resistance & The Blessing continues to unravel itself before me as I tackle it as a whole, in chunks, in the narratives it allows you to build with each of its whispered ideas. Sadness, happiness, anger, frustration, longing, acceptance—this monumental offering has it all. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s a lot to take in. But I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t love it.
- Angra // Cycles of Pain – What can I say, I love Angra. The Lione era is developing a thing for long albums, but at least it’s all good.
- Autarkh // Emergent – An album that loops with glitchy industrial and ethereal post-metal as well as this one does is dangerous. You could do a lot worse than hearing this three times in a row though.
- Aphotic // Abyssgazer – Blackened deathdoom? Funeral-tinged ritualistic black metal? Whatever you want to call this, there’s an alternate timeline where it’s on the list proper. It just goes.
- Horrendous // Ontological Mysterium – Progressive death metal ear candy. I could probably listen to this album all damn day if the last song didn’t dampen the mood a little.
- Pupil Slicer // Blossom – Metalcore with nu-metal tropes shouldn’t be as fun as this or the new Mouthbreather album, but those industrial grooves keep on giving. Start the album with the title track for an even better listen.
- Ok Goodnight // The Fox and the Bird – I take some issue with the proggy detours in this album, but its storybook charm holds more endearing than all of that.
- Maud the Moth + trajedesaliva // Bordando el manto terrestre – Chill-out album of the year. Meditate, read, relax… or just listen to the sultry whispers with your eyes closed. They tickle.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
Soen // Imperial Memorial – Let me level with you, Lotus is a fantastic album and the pinnacle of a career for Soen, a band that has grown further away from the flourishes that make their music interesting. Lush production? Humming Hammond overlays? Joel Ekelöf spreading sweet nothings over the course of an urgent and chunky build? Who needs any of that when you can write worse choruses over the same riff and people continue to latch onto it. Soen almost remembers their strengths (“Fortress,”5 “Tragedian,” “Vitals”), and it is admirable that Ekelöf tries to stretch his wings as a grittier vocalist while maintaining his Eurovision aspirations. But with a direction that’s even less dynamic than the uncharacteristically narrow master that Memorial shows, I’ve got little to reason believe that this is a direction that Soen should continue. Not good. Not good at all.
Einar Solberg // 16 – After Aphelion wiped away the hope I had left for Leprous, I looked to this solo outing from Mr. Solberg as a chance for him to find a way back to a good tune. It seems that it did help him reclaim a somber and less ahhAAAahhAAAaahaah character to his voice, and drummer Keli Guðjónsson (Agent Fresco, notable Leprous-like act) really helps a few bright moments shine (“Remember Me,” “Blue Light”). However, Solberg did not have to take his play at Jamiroquai (“Home”) nor include a guest rapper (also “Home”) nor include his sister (for what effect on “Where All the Twigs Broke”) nor include his brother-in-law for a growled guest spot on a trip-hoppy track (that’s Ihsahn on “Splitting the Soul”) nor give us seventy minutes of whatever you want to wrap this up as. Sadboi art pop perhaps? Skippable in any case.
Best Thing I Missed in 2022:
Polterguts // Gods Over Broken People – I haven’t heard an album this seriously fucking pissed off since Admiral Angry’s Buster, but the level of frustration here rings just a touch less sexual and frustrated—it’s defeated. The malaise that Gods captures renders itself in lyrics that spout from a voice fed on apathy and gravel: “I used to pray for my friends/I used to hurt when they hurt/I used to love without expecting any love in return” (“Skullbowl”), “I like it here at the bottom where they know me by name/I used to think I wanted out, but now I’m begging to stay” (“Buckle the Spine”), “I’m not strong enough to hold it together, but It breaks my heart to watch you struggle for air/I’m sorry I couldn’t get both of us out, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t there” (“Injury”). As harrowing as that is to read, it’s even more brutal to hear. And I suspect for those stuck in the same kind of recursive, small-town Midwest drain from which this attitude grows, this would hit even harder. One part Meshuggah, one part Chat Pile, and another part its own punished deathcore, Polterguts holds in one hand my aching heart and in another its own, stained and hollow.
Songs o’ the Year:
Why give you one when I can give you twenty-seven? Why twenty-seven? That’s my secret. Now, I’ve talked enough, go out there and enjoy some music, friends. And enjoy this photo of my dogs.
Kiwi (top) and Coconut (bottom).
Ferox
I got my own big boy list! AMG Industries: where doing an adequate job on the free work you’ve been assigned leads to opportunities for more free work. I wouldn’t have it any other way–I love this place, even if the prospect of making this list fills me with anxiety and imposter syndrome. I am generally not given to best-of lists, or year-end reflection. But we’ve got a fake job to do, so let’s get stuck in!
2023 was a weird one. It began with a case of long-ish Covid that saw me coughing uncontrollably every time I laughed, segued into a writer’s strike that shut down my industry for six months, and ended with a faint and collision between the Ferox noggin and a concrete floor. That last one put me in bed recovering for the better part of a month and seriously fucked with my workout goals. Despite all this, it was an incredible year! My family flourished, I snuck a couple of projects into production at my day job, and I had a blast writing here as much as I could. The only complaint I could possibly muster is that it’s all flying past way too quickly.
As for AMG… this is that rare place that improves the lives of all who touch it (Rodeö bands excepted). It did that for me when I lurked as a reader, and it continues to do so now that I cling to a staff position. How does a place this positive place exist? On the internet?! I’m grateful to Steel for providing real leadership at my fake job, to my fellow members of the AMG Class of ’21 for being good eggs and excellent writers, and to everyone I’ve met through a gig that makes life richer and more fun. Maybe the real 2023 was the bollocks we talked along the way.
#ish. Spirit Possession // Of the Sign… – Do you guys like Nifelheim? I sure as heckfire do, and this album that captures some of their defiant spirit stole my heart in the waning moments of 2023. The reprobates of Nifelheim aren’t the only point of departure here. Portland’s Spirit Possession is a borderline tribcore act that aims to capture the feel of an era more than the work of one particular band. Here you’ll find echoes of Bathory, Hellhammer, and Venom. Sometimes a project like this works so well that the music transcends the lack of originality baked into these sorts of things. Of the Sign… is one such album; it may well have landed in my top ten if I had had more time with it before Listurnalia.
#10. Horrendous // Ontological Mysterium – Horrendous, already on a very short list of the best metal bands so far this century, bolsters their legacy with the concise and intoxicating Ontological Mysterium. The quartet has carved out a take on progressive death metal that is entirely their own, one that is melodic, wonky, and sweeping all at once. They’ve never been more engaging than they are on Ontological Mysterium. The album wends its way through nine tracks in less than forty minutes–Ontological Mysterium defies its run time by taking you on a journey that feels epic, but releases you before fatigue sets in. Only closer “The Death Knell Ringeth,” an inexplicable dud that can scarcely walk and chew gum at the same time, keeps Ontological Mysterium from ascending to loftier heights.
#9. Wormhole // Almost Human – Wormhole’s take on brutal death metal is at once savage but cheerful, and stöopid without being remotely dumb. I am fully on board with any band that uses the low art of the slample to describe their own sound, as Wormhole does with a sunny interjection of “Tech Slam!” on the title track of their latest. The AMG staff would have you believe that it’s necessary to choose between Wormhole and Afterbirth, the band’s peer in innovative and excellent brutal death metal. That is nonsense; appreciate the Slam-aissance in all its glory, as these two remarkable outfits elevate one of metal’s least-loved subgenres to new heights.
#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – Sodomisery makes life hard on themselves with an atrocious name that is way too persnickety about the respectable pursuit of sodomy. Some folks just need to play the game on difficult mode, I guess. If the hideous moniker is what it takes to spur Sodomisery to this kind of work, then the outfit should keep indulging themselves. Mazzaroth is an endlessly replayable slab of genre-bending excellence. Symphonic flourishes and well-placed clean vocals accent the band’s hybrid of black metal, death metal, and melodeath. Mazzaroth is big fun, an album that effortlessly synthesizes a cornucopia of influences into something that feels both classic and new.
#7. Xoth // Exogalactic – A late-in-the-game remaster unleashed the power of a fully operational Exogalactic. The album finds the pan-genre madlads of Xoth playing in the margins, expanding their sound here and there while defending their Party Lovecraft turf. Across eight engaging tracks, the excellent songwriting of Exogalactic is augmented by audacious technical what-the-fuck-ery. The album’s forty minutes fly past, and while Xoth’s sound might not be the revelation it was on Invasion of the Tentacube and Interdimensional Invocations, this Seattle quartet remains very much on top of their game. Play a song, any song, and joy will invade your earholes. That’s the Xoth promise, and Exogalactic delivers.
#6. Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – I could go on about the pleasures of Coronet Juniper, but chances are Dolphin Whisperer already has you cornered and is doing just that. My list buddy extolled the virtues of this grind funhouse to the point where I finally just pretended he was saying “BREEEEEEEEEEEEE” and tuned him out. Then I played the album a month or so later in the gym, and Gridlink rocketed me to a dimension of pure fun. Coronet Juniper is a grind joyride, so confident in its songwriting that the band includes a run of instrumental “karaoke versions” at the end of the album that is every bit as playable as the so-called official tracklist.
#5. Outer Heaven // Infinite Psychic Depths – Outer Heaven understands both the virtues and the confines of old-school death metal. Infinite Psychic Depths gives the subgenre a glow-up by taking us on a tour of everything that still works, while adding a few new wrinkles. The album never plays as mere pastiche; like some kind of Quentin Tarantino of death metal, Outer Heaven refreshes old tropes by building something new from a pile of familiar elements. I haven’t dug much into the high concept that underlies Infinite Psychic Depths, but that’s because I don’t need to. The music stands on its own. Already a highlight of 2023, Infinite Psychic Depths feels like one that could grow in esteem with time. It could well be underrated in my fifth slot.
#4. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – Here’s one that roared out of the gate back in January and absolutely refused to cede any ground. The Weight of Remembrance runs classic doom through both an orchestral and a death metal filter. The various genre flourishes enhance the strong songwriting–“Of Creeping Moss and Crumbling Stone” is so incredible that it became a workout staple despite its plodding pace, and nearly earned a spot on this year’s Heavy Moves Heavy playlist. The highlights don’t stop there. They don’t stop until The Weight of Remembrance has run its course. The Debut o’ The Year also happens to be one of the very best albums of 2023.
#3. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab boasts fighting spirit, sharp claws, and a crustacean shell that’s fitted for turret combat. They’re obviously game for a scrap, but–as Cherd pointed out in his review–the band doesn’t have much competition in their death-sludge niche. A relief, then, that Warcrab is anything but complacent on The Howling Silence. These seven tracks roar past, the stifling atmosphere pierced on occasion by icepick solos that showcase the Guitar Tone o’ The Year. This one was a grower for me. The Howling Silence initially did little to distinguish itself from previous slab Damned in Endless Night. But my lizard brain heard layers that my ears weren’t processing, and the album kept earning spins. Layers of excellence kept revealing themselves, and before I knew it this piece of heavy artillery blasted its way to the upper echelons of my list.
#2. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – This rollicking slab of tech death earned a 4.0 from me back in early February, and I do believe I sold these Swedes short by half a point. Visions of Infinihility was a mainstay of my 2023. The album remained close at hand throughout both a long strike and a stretch of vertigo-induced bedrest. If I’m not tired of it yet, I probably never will be. And what’s not to like here? Every one of the nine tracks on Visions of Infinihility stands up to heavy listening. The site’s top writer summed it up most precisely: “It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing four thousand dollar headphones or a bullet belt–Visions of Infinihility should appeal to wonks, diehards, and metalheads all across the spectrum.”
#1. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – Long Island’s Afterbirth crams an abundance of riches into a brutal death metal album that twists and transmutes as it goes. The first half of In But Not Of stays planted in the brutal death genre that Afterbirth had a hand in creating. The second departs for distant parsecs, fusing elements of post-metal, alt-rock, and even ambient music onto death metal songs. The experiments work seamlessly, and I continue to find surprises almost every time I revisit In But Not Of. “Devils With Dead Eyes,” “Autoerotic Amputation,” “In But Not Of,” and “Angels Feast on Flies” are the standout tracks–any one of the four could credibly lay claim to Song o’ The Year. Colin Marston’s production showcases and elevates the material. My favorite critic said it best: “This is music to concuss you and then heal your battered brain… [In But Of] is an album to savor and return to again and again, a companion piece to Four Dimensional Flesh that manages to equal if not surpass its predecessor.” Also: revel in that gorgeous album art by Alex Eckman-Lawn, a sci-fi Frankenstein’s monster that perfectly encapsulates the record. My top score of 2023 is an easy choice for Ferox‘s Album o’ The Year.
Honorable Mentions
- Autopsy // Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts– Ashes, Organs, Blood, and Crypts plays like Autopsy’s Basement Tapes, a collection of feral death metal songs that also somehow comes off as loose and ramshackle. It stands among the band’s best post-comeback work.
- Gorod // The Orb – The French masters of tech death hold serve with the predictably excellent The Orb.
- Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – I came up with the genre tag “funereal doom” to describe Convocation’s latest to myself. The band accesses the majesty of funeral doom without the tedious repetition. It’s a potent approach that’s been honed to near-perfection on No Dawn for the Caliginous Night.
- Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – The Toronto outfit pulled off a tricky shift, surprising fans of their inventive take on old-school death with this proggy slab. I sure wouldn’t have minded another Planetary Clairvoyance, but I wound up thrilled by this new direction.
- Serpent Corpse // Blood Sabbath – 2023 delivered an abundance of old-school death delights, but Montreal’s Serpent Corpse move to the head of the class with debut Blood Sabbath.
- Fabricant // Drudge to the Thicket – A trio of virtuoso musicians keep their debut album juuust barely on the “death metal” side of the prog-death divide. Drudge to the Thicket is a load of unpredictable fun from an immensely promising outfit.
- Omnicidal // The Omnicidalist – Omnicidal takes a huge leap forward with a sophomore album that injects hints of melodeath and black thrash into an already nasty cocktail. In spite of Gardenstale‘s rave, this excellent effort seemed to get lost in the 2023 shuffle. I kept it spinning all year.
- Gravesend // Gowanus Death Stomp – This second offering of urban nightmare deathgrind from Gravesend improves on Methods of Human Disposal. An album that conjures genuinely unsettling images and one that will leave its boot marks all over your body,
- Dripping Decay // Festering Grotesqueries— Another exceptional death metal debut, Festering Grotesqueries inspired an epic run of putrid imagery in Steel‘s review. These Portland knuckle-draggers are worthy of all the filthy poetry the Apeman can muster.
Song o’ the Year: Afterbirth – “In But Not Of”
Disappointment o’ the Year
- Immortal // War Against All – After the improbably incredible Northern Chaos Gods, I was PUMPED for Immortal’s Second Coming of Demonaz Era. Cue the record scratch, because the follow-up is generic and pretty much just sucks through and through.
#2023 #Afterbirth #Anachronism #Anareta #Angra #Aphotic #Autarkh #Autopsy #BlogPost #Carnosus #Convocation #DolphinWhispererSAndFeroxSTopTenIshOf2023 #DrippingDecay #EinarSolberg #Fabricant #Gorod #Gravesend #Gridlink #healthyliving #Horrendous #Immortal #JarheadFertilizer #KENMode #Lists #Listurnalia #MaudTheMothTrajedesaliva #OkGoodnight #Omnicidal #OuterHeaven #Polterguts #PupilSlicer #SerpentCorpse #SlumberingSun #Sodomisery #Soen #SpiritPossession #TombMold #Tongues #Tribunal #VanishingKids #VvonDogmaI #Warcrab #WorldSEndGirlfriend #Wormhole #Xoth
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Dolphin Whisperer’s and Ferox’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Dolphin Whisperer
Dolphin Whisperer
I don’t remember anymore exactly when or how I stumbled upon Angry Metal Guy, but I know that I’ve been reading the site for fourteen years now. In that time I’ve gone from barely a student to a working professional who routinely feels the drain of a society sinking around him. But it’s ok because along the way I managed to find a partner who loves me for all my flaws and quirks (or at least that’s what she tells me).1 She wasn’t always there, though, nor was the comfort that we’ve built into our life. When she wasn’t there, and when human company could not provide for whatever reason, both Angry Metal Guy and the music world at large always existed to evolve around me and shine a path to work that saw where I was and reflected my pain. Or my happiness. Or the existential dread of another day. Or just comforted me with a warm bowl of guitar noodles with a side of riff salad.
You may not have seen my words pop around much over that time, but rest assured, I was there like all of you now, reading as AMG the Man validated my feelings or presented admiration for an idol I don’t worship or killed my darlings with questionable opinions. I was there when Steel was the new Ape on the block. I developed a taste for the cast who I agreed with most and scanned with ravenous eyes for the next 0.5 or 1.0 to watch a train wreck meet a car crash. I watched this community who knew nothing of me stand up for important and meaningful things all while staying steadfast to the goal of simply reviewing metal in all its glory.2 Then one day I decided to join the Discord group that had been advertising itself at the bottom of every article for I don’t know how long before I noticed. And in that feverish chatterbox of swirling opinions, I realized that this community meant so much to me that I wanted to give it a go behind the curtains.
I made friends—friends surrounding music whether I agree with them or not. That’s what it means to love music in my mind. Hate and love both ignite passion, and passion is what squirms the happy juice in our brains. I’m sure you, dear reader, will have thoughts about the below choices. And know that you are more than welcome to voice them in any way you see fit. Go ahead, recommend me something while you’re at it. If you do agree with these opinions, also know, then that you can click through to any of the associated reviews, Bandcamp pages, label links—any way that you can reward the artist with your hard-earned currency, if you’re able. Because remember, it’s people like you and me (nerds) who keep this silly business of music alive. Did you know you can click those links? On my reviews, on my buddy Ferox‘s reviews. Even on reviews that you don’t agree with! So read something, click something, support something, tell a friend, tell a partner… or just take whatever knowledge you gain and listen to some good music. If you continue reading, you will encounter my recommendations to fill that void of good music in your life. Above (or below, whatever the Editing Gods decide) Ferox has some recommendations for you too. Know that these two sets are the best recommendations you will receive this year. Live loudly, listen responsibly.3
#ish. Anareta // Fear Not – In a year with less to love, Fear Not could have placed higher, but the riches across different facets of my listening pleasures spilled forth in almost every possible way. Alas, this unique act couldn’t have come further out of left field when promos began to trickle in for 2023, and Anareta’s delicate precision with weeping string melodies against their brutish incisions of blood-curdling shrieks struck the tucked-away Grayceon bone in my body. Alongside up-and-coming act Exulansis out of Oregon, there’s a promising wave of chamber-informed bands growing in the wilds of niche-loving minds. As they say, it only takes two to tango…though “Omnicide” feels a little more like a foxtrot, right?
#10. Tongues // Formløse Stjerner – That I managed to cobble together words that described the mysterious air that surrounds this album baffles me. Countless listens later, I still get lost in the swaying vibrations of the tricky whammy-addled leads and layers of reverb decaying over a vast landscape. And even though all these forward choices usually spell a path down the intangible and incoherent, a lurking melody and grounded rhythmic performance seals the hypnotism that would feel just out of reach with a lesser performance. Your mind knows that each tone source here found its way to the recording behind closed doors, but the energy that emits throughout Formløse Stjerner casts like a sonic beacon through the dreariest of nights on the open, foggy sea.
#9. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – The kids are gone!!! I wasn’t particularly a fan of their previous release so that Miracle of Death hooked me was a small miracle all in itself. I’m no stranger to enjoying shoegaze-y things, psych-rock-laden things, sinfully synthful things—the airy 60s era croons and shimmering Hammond shudders throughout this give me all kinds of shoulder-relaxing, neck-tingling goodies. You think that’d remind me of someone like The Mamas & the Papas, but my mind drifts toward the episodic, warble-clipped daze of the Cunninglynguists classic Oneirology. Funny how the mind works, innit? Regardless, the sheer beauty of sound on display throughout Miracle of Death is impossible for my sugar-starved brain to ignore. Vibe with me.
#8. Slumbering Sun // The Ever-Lasting Fire – I know the Rodeö entries provide a healthy serving of less-than-desirable releases, but if you’re skipping them entirely then maybe you missed Slumbering Sun when they dropped their debut LP, The Ever-Lasting Fire way back in February. You see, one of the reasons I’ve helped fuel the Rodeö is that bands like Slumbering Sun still exist out there, under the radar, largely unpromoted, with gem ideas. Leaning on the modern sadperson melodic doom angle pioneered by an early Pallbearer, this Texas troupe delivered a longing yet hopeful collection of tunes that never fails to stir the slow burn of teary-eyed smiles in my heart. If Patrick Walker (Warning) were younger when he found peace, perhaps 40 Watt Sun would have gone this direction.
#7. Jarhead Fertilizer // Carceral Warfare – I didn’t even think I was getting a Jarhead release this year, but the death metal overlords decided that 2023 hadn’t quite graced me yet with this extremely specific kind of deranged, violent, feral death metal that I crave. Samples and segues function like dim lights in a dive bar, masking the filth strewn about while the seedy world around you builds its slow assault on your senses. Carceral Warfare stinks, its riffs carved in cracked and corroded skin. There’s nothing acute about injuries that Jarhead seeks to afflict—the wounds Carceral Warfare doles out aim to fester and brim black with incurable disease.
#6. Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – I never expected my favorite power metal album of the year to be a grindcore album. Gridlink’s take on the punk specialty has always been a bit different though. Always fast, always pushing the treble ceiling, and always leading with melodies that don’t quit, Coronet Juniper highlights all the strengths that this outfit has always promised. As their last album, it functions as a tribute to themselves—their collective passions executed at ridiculous speeds and unadvisable levels of throat punishment. It may not be as groundbreaking as what came before it, but when you’re ten steps ahead of the pack, you can settle to simply show ’em how it’s done. And I got to use Gundam clips in the review. Win-Win.
#5. Wormhole // Almost Human – The formatting will get all weird if I only scream WOOOOOOOOOOOORMMMMMMMMM-HOOOOOOOLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEE like I want to, so here’s more. Ken and I don’t often end up hole-to-hole on an album, but when we do, you better bet that it’s great. When all that was out for Almost Human was the singles, I repeatedly binged those first two tracks as if they were a whole album to themselves. And that’s the magic of this bright and horrifying slamfest. It’s shiny, it’s punishing, and, most importantly, it’s relentless in worming its way into my gaping sound receptors.
#4. Anachronism // Meanders – I’ve been listening to this all damn year at this point. I was late to the Anachronism party with Orogeny, but not so with Meanders. Its uncanny ease in mood and brevity in run hold an important home in contrast to its finger-testing technicality and unparalleled rhythmic brutality. A natural but still unexpected successor to the post-tinged, brooding brutality that showed itself in flashes, Meanders rains textural and colorful in ways that other death metal simply doesn’t—all while still staying death metal. Oh, and Lisa Voisard has a piercing shriek to go with her scruffy bellow. Who would’ve guessed?
#3. healthyliving // Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief – I knew how much I loved this album before I realized it. When it dropped, I told all the writers, “I think I have my first TYMHM y’all.” But then I went and filtered it, which is no dishonor but doesn’t quite capture the intensity of what healthyliving has to offer on this debut outing. Building tension through an eclectic array of jangling chords and understated rhythms, the supporting cast sets the perfect stage for vocalist Amaya Lopez-Carramerro to absolutely shred with fearless virtuosic wail. Or she’ll sit back and set a slow burn with a restrained and emotive croon. Can I call her my favorite vocalist in metal right now? Is this even metal? Maybe. But I couldn’t care less. It’s damn good.
#2. KEN mode // VOID – NULL ended up on my top ten last year, and with the consistency that these angry Canadians provide, enjoying VOID came naturally, disarmingly so. What I didn’t expect, however, was that this act known for being noisy and rambunctious and pulverizing would be able to dial back the melancholy of previous works with an additional varnish of lived-in depression. A partner to what came before it, VOID captures the last spat of mania before an extended comedown and the dragging sorrow that follows. And yet somehow, though it hurts almost every step of the way, I feel just a little bit lighter after every listen. Get over yourself and listen if you haven’t bothered yet, if only for the buzzing synths and buttery, booming bass tones.
#1. Vvon Dogma I // The Kvlt of Glitch – You, the commentariat, had plenty to say about this album when it dropped. “I tried… No thanks.” — “I’m voting Dolphin Whisperer off the island. This is crap.” — “What the actual fuck?” All choice examples. Some of you also decided to write this off because of the AI-base of the cover art despite the artists involved self-funding this whole exploration and fully crediting the digital assistance. Your asceticism will go unrewarded. This is a humble reminder that you, the commentariat, do not influence my complete and utter enjoyment of this mad pairing of cyberpunk industrial, fanned-fret progressive, angelic electronic piece of edge-skirting metal. The spirit of adventure that graces every phrase throughout the Kvlt of Glitch stimulates the thrill-seeker, the floating spirit, the head-banging hooligan in me all at once, while lathering me with a fresh sense of dread for a technology-warped future. Maybe you never liked Genghis Tron before they disbanded after Board Up the House. Maybe you never liked Unexpect when they graced us with album after album of shrill and unfathomably progressive fantasy. Maybe you’ve got a shallow throat for multi-layered, programmed voices that fizzle the ears with rich harmony. But The Kvlt of Glitch is willing to welcome you whenever you choose to accept its power. I am God now!4
Honorable Mentions:
- World’s End Girlfriend // Resistance & The Blessing – WEG possesses the esoteric ability to manipulate time with beauty. Resistance & The Blessing continues to unravel itself before me as I tackle it as a whole, in chunks, in the narratives it allows you to build with each of its whispered ideas. Sadness, happiness, anger, frustration, longing, acceptance—this monumental offering has it all. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s a lot to take in. But I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t love it.
- Angra // Cycles of Pain – What can I say, I love Angra. The Lione era is developing a thing for long albums, but at least it’s all good.
- Autarkh // Emergent – An album that loops with glitchy industrial and ethereal post-metal as well as this one does is dangerous. You could do a lot worse than hearing this three times in a row though.
- Aphotic // Abyssgazer – Blackened deathdoom? Funeral-tinged ritualistic black metal? Whatever you want to call this, there’s an alternate timeline where it’s on the list proper. It just goes.
- Horrendous // Ontological Mysterium – Progressive death metal ear candy. I could probably listen to this album all damn day if the last song didn’t dampen the mood a little.
- Pupil Slicer // Blossom – Metalcore with nu-metal tropes shouldn’t be as fun as this or the new Mouthbreather album, but those industrial grooves keep on giving. Start the album with the title track for an even better listen.
- Ok Goodnight // The Fox and the Bird – I take some issue with the proggy detours in this album, but its storybook charm holds more endearing than all of that.
- Maud the Moth + trajedesaliva // Bordando el manto terrestre – Chill-out album of the year. Meditate, read, relax… or just listen to the sultry whispers with your eyes closed. They tickle.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
Soen // Imperial Memorial – Let me level with you, Lotus is a fantastic album and the pinnacle of a career for Soen, a band that has grown further away from the flourishes that make their music interesting. Lush production? Humming Hammond overlays? Joel Ekelöf spreading sweet nothings over the course of an urgent and chunky build? Who needs any of that when you can write worse choruses over the same riff and people continue to latch onto it. Soen almost remembers their strengths (“Fortress,”5 “Tragedian,” “Vitals”), and it is admirable that Ekelöf tries to stretch his wings as a grittier vocalist while maintaining his Eurovision aspirations. But with a direction that’s even less dynamic than the uncharacteristically narrow master that Memorial shows, I’ve got little to reason believe that this is a direction that Soen should continue. Not good. Not good at all.
Einar Solberg // 16 – After Aphelion wiped away the hope I had left for Leprous, I looked to this solo outing from Mr. Solberg as a chance for him to find a way back to a good tune. It seems that it did help him reclaim a somber and less ahhAAAahhAAAaahaah character to his voice, and drummer Keli Guðjónsson (Agent Fresco, notable Leprous-like act) really helps a few bright moments shine (“Remember Me,” “Blue Light”). However, Solberg did not have to take his play at Jamiroquai (“Home”) nor include a guest rapper (also “Home”) nor include his sister (for what effect on “Where All the Twigs Broke”) nor include his brother-in-law for a growled guest spot on a trip-hoppy track (that’s Ihsahn on “Splitting the Soul”) nor give us seventy minutes of whatever you want to wrap this up as. Sadboi art pop perhaps? Skippable in any case.
Best Thing I Missed in 2022:
Polterguts // Gods Over Broken People – I haven’t heard an album this seriously fucking pissed off since Admiral Angry’s Buster, but the level of frustration here rings just a touch less sexual and frustrated—it’s defeated. The malaise that Gods captures renders itself in lyrics that spout from a voice fed on apathy and gravel: “I used to pray for my friends/I used to hurt when they hurt/I used to love without expecting any love in return” (“Skullbowl”), “I like it here at the bottom where they know me by name/I used to think I wanted out, but now I’m begging to stay” (“Buckle the Spine”), “I’m not strong enough to hold it together, but It breaks my heart to watch you struggle for air/I’m sorry I couldn’t get both of us out, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t there” (“Injury”). As harrowing as that is to read, it’s even more brutal to hear. And I suspect for those stuck in the same kind of recursive, small-town Midwest drain from which this attitude grows, this would hit even harder. One part Meshuggah, one part Chat Pile, and another part its own punished deathcore, Polterguts holds in one hand my aching heart and in another its own, stained and hollow.
Songs o’ the Year:
Why give you one when I can give you twenty-seven? Why twenty-seven? That’s my secret. Now, I’ve talked enough, go out there and enjoy some music, friends. And enjoy this photo of my dogs.
Kiwi (top) and Coconut (bottom).
Ferox
I got my own big boy list! AMG Industries: where doing an adequate job on the free work you’ve been assigned leads to opportunities for more free work. I wouldn’t have it any other way–I love this place, even if the prospect of making this list fills me with anxiety and imposter syndrome. I am generally not given to best-of lists, or year-end reflection. But we’ve got a fake job to do, so let’s get stuck in!
2023 was a weird one. It began with a case of long-ish Covid that saw me coughing uncontrollably every time I laughed, segued into a writer’s strike that shut down my industry for six months, and ended with a faint and collision between the Ferox noggin and a concrete floor. That last one put me in bed recovering for the better part of a month and seriously fucked with my workout goals. Despite all this, it was an incredible year! My family flourished, I snuck a couple of projects into production at my day job, and I had a blast writing here as much as I could. The only complaint I could possibly muster is that it’s all flying past way too quickly.
As for AMG… this is that rare place that improves the lives of all who touch it (Rodeö bands excepted). It did that for me when I lurked as a reader, and it continues to do so now that I cling to a staff position. How does a place this positive place exist? On the internet?! I’m grateful to Steel for providing real leadership at my fake job, to my fellow members of the AMG Class of ’21 for being good eggs and excellent writers, and to everyone I’ve met through a gig that makes life richer and more fun. Maybe the real 2023 was the bollocks we talked along the way.
#ish. Spirit Possession // Of the Sign… – Do you guys like Nifelheim? I sure as heckfire do, and this album that captures some of their defiant spirit stole my heart in the waning moments of 2023. The reprobates of Nifelheim aren’t the only point of departure here. Portland’s Spirit Possession is a borderline tribcore act that aims to capture the feel of an era more than the work of one particular band. Here you’ll find echoes of Bathory, Hellhammer, and Venom. Sometimes a project like this works so well that the music transcends the lack of originality baked into these sorts of things. Of the Sign… is one such album; it may well have landed in my top ten if I had had more time with it before Listurnalia.
#10. Horrendous // Ontological Mysterium – Horrendous, already on a very short list of the best metal bands so far this century, bolsters their legacy with the concise and intoxicating Ontological Mysterium. The quartet has carved out a take on progressive death metal that is entirely their own, one that is melodic, wonky, and sweeping all at once. They’ve never been more engaging than they are on Ontological Mysterium. The album wends its way through nine tracks in less than forty minutes–Ontological Mysterium defies its run time by taking you on a journey that feels epic, but releases you before fatigue sets in. Only closer “The Death Knell Ringeth,” an inexplicable dud that can scarcely walk and chew gum at the same time, keeps Ontological Mysterium from ascending to loftier heights.
#9. Wormhole // Almost Human – Wormhole’s take on brutal death metal is at once savage but cheerful, and stöopid without being remotely dumb. I am fully on board with any band that uses the low art of the slample to describe their own sound, as Wormhole does with a sunny interjection of “Tech Slam!” on the title track of their latest. The AMG staff would have you believe that it’s necessary to choose between Wormhole and Afterbirth, the band’s peer in innovative and excellent brutal death metal. That is nonsense; appreciate the Slam-aissance in all its glory, as these two remarkable outfits elevate one of metal’s least-loved subgenres to new heights.
#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – Sodomisery makes life hard on themselves with an atrocious name that is way too persnickety about the respectable pursuit of sodomy. Some folks just need to play the game on difficult mode, I guess. If the hideous moniker is what it takes to spur Sodomisery to this kind of work, then the outfit should keep indulging themselves. Mazzaroth is an endlessly replayable slab of genre-bending excellence. Symphonic flourishes and well-placed clean vocals accent the band’s hybrid of black metal, death metal, and melodeath. Mazzaroth is big fun, an album that effortlessly synthesizes a cornucopia of influences into something that feels both classic and new.
#7. Xoth // Exogalactic – A late-in-the-game remaster unleashed the power of a fully operational Exogalactic. The album finds the pan-genre madlads of Xoth playing in the margins, expanding their sound here and there while defending their Party Lovecraft turf. Across eight engaging tracks, the excellent songwriting of Exogalactic is augmented by audacious technical what-the-fuck-ery. The album’s forty minutes fly past, and while Xoth’s sound might not be the revelation it was on Invasion of the Tentacube and Interdimensional Invocations, this Seattle quartet remains very much on top of their game. Play a song, any song, and joy will invade your earholes. That’s the Xoth promise, and Exogalactic delivers.
#6. Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – I could go on about the pleasures of Coronet Juniper, but chances are Dolphin Whisperer already has you cornered and is doing just that. My list buddy extolled the virtues of this grind funhouse to the point where I finally just pretended he was saying “BREEEEEEEEEEEEE” and tuned him out. Then I played the album a month or so later in the gym, and Gridlink rocketed me to a dimension of pure fun. Coronet Juniper is a grind joyride, so confident in its songwriting that the band includes a run of instrumental “karaoke versions” at the end of the album that is every bit as playable as the so-called official tracklist.
#5. Outer Heaven // Infinite Psychic Depths – Outer Heaven understands both the virtues and the confines of old-school death metal. Infinite Psychic Depths gives the subgenre a glow-up by taking us on a tour of everything that still works, while adding a few new wrinkles. The album never plays as mere pastiche; like some kind of Quentin Tarantino of death metal, Outer Heaven refreshes old tropes by building something new from a pile of familiar elements. I haven’t dug much into the high concept that underlies Infinite Psychic Depths, but that’s because I don’t need to. The music stands on its own. Already a highlight of 2023, Infinite Psychic Depths feels like one that could grow in esteem with time. It could well be underrated in my fifth slot.
#4. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – Here’s one that roared out of the gate back in January and absolutely refused to cede any ground. The Weight of Remembrance runs classic doom through both an orchestral and a death metal filter. The various genre flourishes enhance the strong songwriting–“Of Creeping Moss and Crumbling Stone” is so incredible that it became a workout staple despite its plodding pace, and nearly earned a spot on this year’s Heavy Moves Heavy playlist. The highlights don’t stop there. They don’t stop until The Weight of Remembrance has run its course. The Debut o’ The Year also happens to be one of the very best albums of 2023.
#3. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab boasts fighting spirit, sharp claws, and a crustacean shell that’s fitted for turret combat. They’re obviously game for a scrap, but–as Cherd pointed out in his review–the band doesn’t have much competition in their death-sludge niche. A relief, then, that Warcrab is anything but complacent on The Howling Silence. These seven tracks roar past, the stifling atmosphere pierced on occasion by icepick solos that showcase the Guitar Tone o’ The Year. This one was a grower for me. The Howling Silence initially did little to distinguish itself from previous slab Damned in Endless Night. But my lizard brain heard layers that my ears weren’t processing, and the album kept earning spins. Layers of excellence kept revealing themselves, and before I knew it this piece of heavy artillery blasted its way to the upper echelons of my list.
#2. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – This rollicking slab of tech death earned a 4.0 from me back in early February, and I do believe I sold these Swedes short by half a point. Visions of Infinihility was a mainstay of my 2023. The album remained close at hand throughout both a long strike and a stretch of vertigo-induced bedrest. If I’m not tired of it yet, I probably never will be. And what’s not to like here? Every one of the nine tracks on Visions of Infinihility stands up to heavy listening. The site’s top writer summed it up most precisely: “It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing four thousand dollar headphones or a bullet belt–Visions of Infinihility should appeal to wonks, diehards, and metalheads all across the spectrum.”
#1. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – Long Island’s Afterbirth crams an abundance of riches into a brutal death metal album that twists and transmutes as it goes. The first half of In But Not Of stays planted in the brutal death genre that Afterbirth had a hand in creating. The second departs for distant parsecs, fusing elements of post-metal, alt-rock, and even ambient music onto death metal songs. The experiments work seamlessly, and I continue to find surprises almost every time I revisit In But Not Of. “Devils With Dead Eyes,” “Autoerotic Amputation,” “In But Not Of,” and “Angels Feast on Flies” are the standout tracks–any one of the four could credibly lay claim to Song o’ The Year. Colin Marston’s production showcases and elevates the material. My favorite critic said it best: “This is music to concuss you and then heal your battered brain… [In But Of] is an album to savor and return to again and again, a companion piece to Four Dimensional Flesh that manages to equal if not surpass its predecessor.” Also: revel in that gorgeous album art by Alex Eckman-Lawn, a sci-fi Frankenstein’s monster that perfectly encapsulates the record. My top score of 2023 is an easy choice for Ferox‘s Album o’ The Year.
Honorable Mentions
- Autopsy // Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts– Ashes, Organs, Blood, and Crypts plays like Autopsy’s Basement Tapes, a collection of feral death metal songs that also somehow comes off as loose and ramshackle. It stands among the band’s best post-comeback work.
- Gorod // The Orb – The French masters of tech death hold serve with the predictably excellent The Orb.
- Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – I came up with the genre tag “funereal doom” to describe Convocation’s latest to myself. The band accesses the majesty of funeral doom without the tedious repetition. It’s a potent approach that’s been honed to near-perfection on No Dawn for the Caliginous Night.
- Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – The Toronto outfit pulled off a tricky shift, surprising fans of their inventive take on old-school death with this proggy slab. I sure wouldn’t have minded another Planetary Clairvoyance, but I wound up thrilled by this new direction.
- Serpent Corpse // Blood Sabbath – 2023 delivered an abundance of old-school death delights, but Montreal’s Serpent Corpse move to the head of the class with debut Blood Sabbath.
- Fabricant // Drudge to the Thicket – A trio of virtuoso musicians keep their debut album juuust barely on the “death metal” side of the prog-death divide. Drudge to the Thicket is a load of unpredictable fun from an immensely promising outfit.
- Omnicidal // The Omnicidalist – Omnicidal takes a huge leap forward with a sophomore album that injects hints of melodeath and black thrash into an already nasty cocktail. In spite of Gardenstale‘s rave, this excellent effort seemed to get lost in the 2023 shuffle. I kept it spinning all year.
- Gravesend // Gowanus Death Stomp – This second offering of urban nightmare deathgrind from Gravesend improves on Methods of Human Disposal. An album that conjures genuinely unsettling images and one that will leave its boot marks all over your body,
- Dripping Decay // Festering Grotesqueries— Another exceptional death metal debut, Festering Grotesqueries inspired an epic run of putrid imagery in Steel‘s review. These Portland knuckle-draggers are worthy of all the filthy poetry the Apeman can muster.
Song o’ the Year: Afterbirth – “In But Not Of”
Disappointment o’ the Year
- Immortal // War Against All – After the improbably incredible Northern Chaos Gods, I was PUMPED for Immortal’s Second Coming of Demonaz Era. Cue the record scratch, because the follow-up is generic and pretty much just sucks through and through.
#2023 #Afterbirth #Anachronism #Anareta #Angra #Aphotic #Autarkh #Autopsy #BlogPost #Carnosus #Convocation #DolphinWhispererSAndFeroxSTopTenIshOf2023 #DrippingDecay #EinarSolberg #Fabricant #Gorod #Gravesend #Gridlink #healthyliving #Horrendous #Immortal #JarheadFertilizer #KENMode #Lists #Listurnalia #MaudTheMothTrajedesaliva #OkGoodnight #Omnicidal #OuterHeaven #Polterguts #PupilSlicer #SerpentCorpse #SlumberingSun #Sodomisery #Soen #SpiritPossession #TombMold #Tongues #Tribunal #VanishingKids #VvonDogmaI #Warcrab #WorldSEndGirlfriend #Wormhole #Xoth
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Woke up realizing that lost in the glorious tear-stained chaos of Sinc’s last home match … was the fact that she helped us finish the regular season with the taste of mint chocolate chip!!!
❤️🖤👑🍨
#baonpdx
#threegoalsbeyond
#christinesinclair
#mintchocolatechip
#rctid -
Stuck in the Filter: July 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
If you thought June was hot, you aren’t ready for what July has in store. The thin metallic walls of these flimsy ducts warp and soften as the sweltering environs continue to challenge the definition of “habitable.” But I must force my minions to continue their work, as this duty is sacred. Our ravenous appetites cannot be slaked without the supplementary sustenance the Filter brings!
Thankfully, we rescued just enough scraps to put together a meager spread. Enjoy in moderation!
Kenstrosity’s Blackened Buds
Echoes of Gloom // The Mind’s Eternal Storm [July 12th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Queensland isn’t my first thought when considering locales for atmospheric black metal. A genre so often built upon frigid tones and icy melodies feels incongruous to the heat and beastliness of the Australian landscape. Yet, one-man atmoblack act Echoes of Gloom persists. Masterminded by one Dan Elkin, Echoes of Gloom evokes a warm, muggy, and morose spirit with debut record The Mind’s Eternal Storm. But unlike many of the atmospheric persuasion, Echoes of Gloom also injects a classic heavy metal attack and a vaguely punky/folky twist into their formula to keep interest high (“Immortality Manifest,” “Throes of Bereavement I”). Furthermore, Echoes of Gloom weaponizes their energetic take on depressing atmoblack such that even as my head bounces to the riffy groove of surprisingly propulsive numbers like “The Wandering Moon” and “Great Malignant Towers of Delirium,” a palpable pall looms ever present, sapping all color from life as I witness this work. This in turn translates well to the long form, as demonstrated by the epic two-part “Throes of Bereavement” suite and ripping ten-minute closer “Wanderer of the Mind’s Eternal Storm,” boasting dynamics uncommon in the atmospheric field. In sum, if you’re the kind of metal fan that struggles with the airier side of the spectrum, The Mind’s Eternal Storm might be a good place to start.
Witchyre // Witchy Forest Dance Contest [July 14th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Germany’s Witchyre answer a question nobody asked but everyone should: what would happen if black metal and dance music joined forces? With debut LP Witchy Forest Dance Contest, we get to experience this mad alchemy firsthand, and it is an absolute joy! The staunchly anti-fascist Witchyre take the raw sound everyone knows and pumps it full of groove, bounce, and uninhibited fun for a raucous 46 minutes. Evoking equal parts Darude and Darkthrone, bangers like “Let There be Light…,” “Witchy Forest Dance Party,” and “Lost in a Dream” burst with infectious energy that feels demonic and exuberant at the same time. The raw production of the metallic elements shouldn’t work with the glossy sheen of electronic doots, but Witchyre’s often pop-punky song structure that develops as these divergent aesthetics collide adeptly bridges the gap (“Spirits Twirling,” “The Vampire Witch,” “Dragon’s Breath”). My main gripe is that even at a reasonable 46 minutes, each song feels a bit bloated, and some dance elements feel recycled in multiple places (“The Spirits Robbed My Mind”). But don’t let that scare you away. Witchyre is a delightful little deviation from convention fit for fans of Curta’n Wall and Old Nick, and everyone should give it a whirl just for fun!
Owlswald’s Hidden Hoots
Sheev // Ate’s Alchemist [July 11th, 2025 – Ripple Music]
While stoner can be hit-or-miss, Ripple Music often delivers the goods. And with Berlin’s Sheev, they can add another notch to their sativa-flavored belt. Since 2017, the four-piece has been brewing their unique, progressive-infused stoner rock sound. On their second full-length, Ate’s Alchemist, Sheev doubles down on their sonic elixir, with a throwback prog-rock vibe that evokes the likes of Yes and Jethro Tull, but with heavy doses of grunge, jam and modern rock. Vocalist Nitzan Sheps’ provides a stripped-down and authentic performance, sounding like a cross between Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley. The rhythm section is particularly great here. Drummer Philipp Vogt’s kit work is exceptionally musical, with intricate cymbal patterns on tracks like “Elephant Trunk,” “Cul De Sac,” and “King Mustard II” that fuel deep-pocket grooves. He also provides Tool-like syncopated rhythms on tracks like “Tüdelüt” and “Henry” that lock with bassist Joshan Chaudhary. Chaudhary’s bass playing is rare in its prominence and clarity in the mix. He maintains a tight pocket while also venturing out regularly with nimbler, adventurous flurries that highlight his technical skill. Yeah, a couple of the longer songs get a little lost, but the album is packed with killer musicianship and vocal hooks that stick with you, so it barely matters. Overall, Sheev has delivered a solid record that I’ll be spinning a lot—and you should too.
Dephosphorus // Planetoktonos [July 18th, 2025 – Selfmadegod Records/7 Degrees Records/Nerve Altar]
Space…the final grind-tier. On their fifth album, Planetoktonos (“Planetkiller”), Greek astro-grind quartet Dephosphorus rejects normal grind classifications and instead annihilates worlds with a brutal, interstellar collision of grind, blackened death, and hardcore. Taking inspiration from the harsh sci-fi of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, Planetoktonos is a relentless twenty-eight-minute assault—a sonic asteroid belt of thick, menacing distortion and time-warped drumming that channels Dephosphorus’ raw, furious energy. “The Triumph of Science and Reason” and “After the Holocaust” attack with the ruthless speed of Nasum while others, such as “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion,” “Hunting for Dyson Spheres,” and “Calculating Infinity,” punctuate sludgy aggression with razor-sharp, shredding passages reminiscent of early Mastodon that offer contrasting technical and rhythmic hostility. Vocalist Panos Agoros’ despairing howls are a particular highlight, full of a gravelly, blackened urgency that sounds the alarm for an interplanetary attack. Gang vocals on tracks like “Living in a Metastable Universe” and “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion” add extra weight to his frantic performance, proving Dephosphorus can incinerate worlds and still have a blast doing it. Raw, intense, and violent, Planetokonos is a must-listen for fans seeking Remission-era energy.
Tyme’s Tattered Treats
Mortual // Altars of Brutality [July 4th, 2025 – Nuclear Winter Records]
From the fetid rainforests of Costa Rica, San Jose’s Mortual dropped their sneaky good death metal debut, Altar of Brutality, on Independence Day this year. Free of frills and fuckery, Justin Corpse and Master Killer—both have guitar, bass, and vocal credits here—go for the jugular, providing swarms of riffs entrenched in filthy, Floridian swamp waters and powdered with Jersey grit. Solo work comes fast, squealy, and furious as if graduated from the Azagthothian school of shred (“Dominion of Eternal Blasphemy,” “Skeletal Vortex”), as hints of early Deicide lurk within the chugging chunks of “Altar of Brutality” and whiffs of early Monstrosity float amongst the speedier nooks and crannies of “Divine Monstrosity.”1 Incantationally cavernous, the vocals fit the OSDM mold to a tee, sitting spaciously fat and happy within Dan Lowndes’ great mix and master, which consequently draws out a bestial bass sound that permeates the entirety of Altar of Brutality with low-end menace. Chalo’s (Chemicide) drum performance warrants particular note, as, from the opening tom roll of “Mortuary Rites,” he proceeds to bash skulls throughout Altar of Brutality’s swift thirty-five-minute runtime with a brutal blitz of double-kicking and blast-beating kit abuse. Embodying a DIY work ethic that imbues these tracks with youthful energy and a wealth of death metal character, Mortual aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel as much as they’d like to crush you under its meaty treads, over and over again.
Stomach // Low Demon [July 18th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Droney, doomy, sweaty, and sludgy as fuck, Stomach’s blast furnace second album, Low Demon, is the antithesis of summer-fun metal. Hailing from Geneva, Illinois, Stomach is drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (Sick/Tired, Sea of Shit), who capably carry out their cacophonous work in such a way as to defy the fact that they’re only a duo.2 At volume, and believe me, you’ll want to crank this fucker to eleven, Low Demon will have you retching up all that light beer you drank by the pool and crying for yer mom, as “Dredged” oozes, rib-rattling from the speakers, a continuous, four-and-a-half-minute chord-layered exercise in exponentially applied tonal pressure. With five tracks spanning just over forty-three minutes, there’s not a lot on Low Demon that’s in a hurry, and aside from sections of up-tempo doom riffs (“Get Through Winter”) and some downright grindery (“Oscillate”) offering respite from the otherwise crushing wall of sound, listening to Stomach is akin to being waterboarded with molasses. Heavy influences from Earth, Sunn O))), Crossed Out, and Grief—whose Come to Grief stands as a sludge staple—form the basis for much of Stomach’s sound, and while Primitive Man and Hell draw apt comparisons as well, I’m guessing you know what you’re getting into by now. Maniacally cinematic and far from light-hearted, Stomach’s Low Demon was everything I didn’t think I needed during this hot and humid-as-an-armpit-in-hell summer.
Killjoy’s Flutes of Fancy
Braia // Vertentes de lá e cá [July 10th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Bruno Maia is one of the most inventive and hardworking musicians that I know of. Best known for the whimsical Celtic folk metal of Tuatha de Danann, he also has his own folk rock side project, Braia. Vertentes de lá e cá explores the rich history and culture of the Minas Gerais state in his native country, Brazil.3 Bursting with more sweetness than a ripe mango, Vertentes de lá e cá sports a huge diversity of musical styles and instruments. A combination of flute, viola, and acoustic guitar forms the backbone of most of the songs, like the Irish jigs in “Vertentes” or the flitting melodies of “Princesa do Sul.” My ears also detect accordion (“O Cururu do Ingaí”), saxophone (“Serra das Letras”), harmonica (“Hipólita”), banjo (“Carrancas”), and spacey synth effects (“Pagode Mouro”). That last one might sound out of place, but it makes more sense after learning of the local tales of extraterrestrial encounters. Maia sings in only two of the twelve tracks (“Emboabas” and “Rei do Campo Grande”), but all 41 minutes should be engaging enough for listeners who are typically unmoved by instrumental music. Though thematically focused on one specific location, Vertentes de lá e cá deserves to be heard by the entire world.
Storchi // By Far Away [July 25th, 2025 – Self-Release]
I would guess that the “experimental” tag causes some degree of trepidation within most listeners. However, occasionally an artist executes a fresh new vision so confidently that I can’t help but wonder if it’s secretly been around for a long time. Storchi, an instrumental prog group from Kabri, Israel, utilizes a flute in creative ways. Its bright, jazzy demeanor almost functions as a substitute for a vocalist in terms of expressiveness and personality. The Middle Eastern flair combined with modest electronic elements reminds me of Hugo Kant’s flute-heavy multicultural trip-hop. The chunky palm-muted guitar and bass borrow the best aspects of djent alongside eccentrically dynamic drum tempos. There is premeditation amidst the chaos, though. The triplet tracks “Far,” “Further,” and “Furthest” scattered throughout By Far Away each offer a unique rendition of the same core flute tune. “Lagoona” and “Smoky” make good use of melodic reprisals at the very end to neatly close the loop on what might have otherwise felt like more disjointed songs. Despite frequent and abrupt stylistic shifts, Storchi manages to make the 31-minute runtime of By Far Away feel more enjoyable than jolting. Flute fanatics should take note.
ClarkKent’s Addictive Addition
Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway // Addicted to the Violence [July 19th, 2025 – Scarred for Life]
Since System of a Down disbanded, guitarist Daron Malakian has gone on to release 3 full-length albums under the moniker Scars on Broadway between 2008 and 2025. This spinoff project has proven Malakian to be the oddball of the group, and this goofiness hasn’t mellowed since SOAD’s debut released 27 years ago. The energetic set of tunes on Addicted to the Violence mixes nu-metal, groove rock, and pop with plenty of synths to create some fun and catchy beats. Sure, you have to delve through some baffling lyrics,4 such as when Malakian sings that there’s “a tiger that’s riding on your back / And it’s singing out ‘Rawr! Rawr!'” (“Killing Spree”). Malakian also turns to the familiar theme of drug addiction that he and Serj have explored from “Sugar” to “Heroine” to “Chemicals.”5 This time around, it’s “Satan Hussein,” where he mixes Quaaludes and Vicodin with Jesus Christ. To offset the repetition within songs, Malakian has the sense to mix things up. There’s the nu-metal cuts of “Satan Hussein” and “Destroy the Power,” featuring energetic vocalizations and grooves, but there’s also a lot of pop (“You Destroy You”). The riffs may not be as wild or creative as times past, but Addicted to the Violence makes use of a variety of instruments that keep things fresh, from an organ (“Done Me Wrong”) to a mandolin (“You Destroy You”) to some sweet synth solos. There’s even a brief saxophone appearance to conclude the album. Yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “This sounds awesome!”
#2025 #7DegreesRecords #AddictedToTheViolence #AliceInChains #AltarsOfBrutality #AmericanMetal #AteSAlchemist #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AustralianMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Braia #BrazilianMetal #ByFarAway #Chemicide #CostaRicanMetal #CrossedOut #CurtaNWall #Dance #Darkthrone #DaronMalakianAndScarsOnBroadway #Darude #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Deicide #Dephosphorus #Doom #DoomMetal #Drone #Earth #EchoesOfGloom #EDM #ExperimentalMetal #FolkMetal #FolkRock #GermanMetal #Gindcore #GreekMetal #Grief #GrooveMetal #Hardcore #Hell #HugoKant #InstrumentalMetal #IsraeliMetal #JethroTull #Jul25 #LowDemon #Mastodon #MelodicBlackMetal #Monstrosity #Mortual #Muse #Nasum #NerveAltar #NuMetal #NuclearWinterRecords #OldNick #Planetoktonos #PopMetal #PrimitiveMan #ProgressiveMetal #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #RippleMusic #ScarredForLife #SeaOfShit #SelfRelease #SelfmadegodRecords #Sheev #SickTired #Sludge #SludgeMetal #Stomach #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #Storchi #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2025 #SunnO_ #SystemOfADown #TheMindSEternalStorm #Tool #TuathaDeDanann #VertentesDeLáECá #WeekendNachos #WitchyForestDanceContest #Witchyre #Yes
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Stuck in the Filter: July 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
If you thought June was hot, you aren’t ready for what July has in store. The thin metallic walls of these flimsy ducts warp and soften as the sweltering environs continue to challenge the definition of “habitable.” But I must force my minions to continue their work, as this duty is sacred. Our ravenous appetites cannot be slaked without the supplementary sustenance the Filter brings!
Thankfully, we rescued just enough scraps to put together a meager spread. Enjoy in moderation!
Kenstrosity’s Blackened Buds
Echoes of Gloom // The Mind’s Eternal Storm [July 12th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Queensland isn’t my first thought when considering locales for atmospheric black metal. A genre so often built upon frigid tones and icy melodies feels incongruous to the heat and beastliness of the Australian landscape. Yet, one-man atmoblack act Echoes of Gloom persists. Masterminded by one Dan Elkin, Echoes of Gloom evokes a warm, muggy, and morose spirit with debut record The Mind’s Eternal Storm. But unlike many of the atmospheric persuasion, Echoes of Gloom also injects a classic heavy metal attack and a vaguely punky/folky twist into their formula to keep interest high (“Immortality Manifest,” “Throes of Bereavement I”). Furthermore, Echoes of Gloom weaponizes their energetic take on depressing atmoblack such that even as my head bounces to the riffy groove of surprisingly propulsive numbers like “The Wandering Moon” and “Great Malignant Towers of Delirium,” a palpable pall looms ever present, sapping all color from life as I witness this work. This in turn translates well to the long form, as demonstrated by the epic two-part “Throes of Bereavement” suite and ripping ten-minute closer “Wanderer of the Mind’s Eternal Storm,” boasting dynamics uncommon in the atmospheric field. In sum, if you’re the kind of metal fan that struggles with the airier side of the spectrum, The Mind’s Eternal Storm might be a good place to start.
Witchyre // Witchy Forest Dance Contest [July 14th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Germany’s Witchyre answer a question nobody asked but everyone should: what would happen if black metal and dance music joined forces? With debut LP Witchy Forest Dance Contest, we get to experience this mad alchemy firsthand, and it is an absolute joy! The staunchly anti-fascist Witchyre take the raw sound everyone knows and pumps it full of groove, bounce, and uninhibited fun for a raucous 46 minutes. Evoking equal parts Darude and Darkthrone, bangers like “Let There be Light…,” “Witchy Forest Dance Party,” and “Lost in a Dream” burst with infectious energy that feels demonic and exuberant at the same time. The raw production of the metallic elements shouldn’t work with the glossy sheen of electronic doots, but Witchyre’s often pop-punky song structure that develops as these divergent aesthetics collide adeptly bridges the gap (“Spirits Twirling,” “The Vampire Witch,” “Dragon’s Breath”). My main gripe is that even at a reasonable 46 minutes, each song feels a bit bloated, and some dance elements feel recycled in multiple places (“The Spirits Robbed My Mind”). But don’t let that scare you away. Witchyre is a delightful little deviation from convention fit for fans of Curta’n Wall and Old Nick, and everyone should give it a whirl just for fun!
Owlswald’s Hidden Hoots
Sheev // Ate’s Alchemist [July 11th, 2025 – Ripple Music]
While stoner can be hit-or-miss, Ripple Music often delivers the goods. And with Berlin’s Sheev, they can add another notch to their sativa-flavored belt. Since 2017, the four-piece has been brewing their unique, progressive-infused stoner rock sound. On their second full-length, Ate’s Alchemist, Sheev doubles down on their sonic elixir, with a throwback prog-rock vibe that evokes the likes of Yes and Jethro Tull, but with heavy doses of grunge, jam and modern rock. Vocalist Nitzan Sheps’ provides a stripped-down and authentic performance, sounding like a cross between Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley. The rhythm section is particularly great here. Drummer Philipp Vogt’s kit work is exceptionally musical, with intricate cymbal patterns on tracks like “Elephant Trunk,” “Cul De Sac,” and “King Mustard II” that fuel deep-pocket grooves. He also provides Tool-like syncopated rhythms on tracks like “Tüdelüt” and “Henry” that lock with bassist Joshan Chaudhary. Chaudhary’s bass playing is rare in its prominence and clarity in the mix. He maintains a tight pocket while also venturing out regularly with nimbler, adventurous flurries that highlight his technical skill. Yeah, a couple of the longer songs get a little lost, but the album is packed with killer musicianship and vocal hooks that stick with you, so it barely matters. Overall, Sheev has delivered a solid record that I’ll be spinning a lot—and you should too.
Dephosphorus // Planetoktonos [July 18th, 2025 – Selfmadegod Records/7 Degrees Records/Nerve Altar]
Space…the final grind-tier. On their fifth album, Planetoktonos (“Planetkiller”), Greek astro-grind quartet Dephosphorus rejects normal grind classifications and instead annihilates worlds with a brutal, interstellar collision of grind, blackened death, and hardcore. Taking inspiration from the harsh sci-fi of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, Planetoktonos is a relentless twenty-eight-minute assault—a sonic asteroid belt of thick, menacing distortion and time-warped drumming that channels Dephosphorus’ raw, furious energy. “The Triumph of Science and Reason” and “After the Holocaust” attack with the ruthless speed of Nasum while others, such as “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion,” “Hunting for Dyson Spheres,” and “Calculating Infinity,” punctuate sludgy aggression with razor-sharp, shredding passages reminiscent of early Mastodon that offer contrasting technical and rhythmic hostility. Vocalist Panos Agoros’ despairing howls are a particular highlight, full of a gravelly, blackened urgency that sounds the alarm for an interplanetary attack. Gang vocals on tracks like “Living in a Metastable Universe” and “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion” add extra weight to his frantic performance, proving Dephosphorus can incinerate worlds and still have a blast doing it. Raw, intense, and violent, Planetokonos is a must-listen for fans seeking Remission-era energy.
Tyme’s Tattered Treats
Mortual // Altars of Brutality [July 4th, 2025 – Nuclear Winter Records]
From the fetid rainforests of Costa Rica, San Jose’s Mortual dropped their sneaky good death metal debut, Altar of Brutality, on Independence Day this year. Free of frills and fuckery, Justin Corpse and Master Killer—both have guitar, bass, and vocal credits here—go for the jugular, providing swarms of riffs entrenched in filthy, Floridian swamp waters and powdered with Jersey grit. Solo work comes fast, squealy, and furious as if graduated from the Azagthothian school of shred (“Dominion of Eternal Blasphemy,” “Skeletal Vortex”), as hints of early Deicide lurk within the chugging chunks of “Altar of Brutality” and whiffs of early Monstrosity float amongst the speedier nooks and crannies of “Divine Monstrosity.”1 Incantationally cavernous, the vocals fit the OSDM mold to a tee, sitting spaciously fat and happy within Dan Lowndes’ great mix and master, which consequently draws out a bestial bass sound that permeates the entirety of Altar of Brutality with low-end menace. Chalo’s (Chemicide) drum performance warrants particular note, as, from the opening tom roll of “Mortuary Rites,” he proceeds to bash skulls throughout Altar of Brutality’s swift thirty-five-minute runtime with a brutal blitz of double-kicking and blast-beating kit abuse. Embodying a DIY work ethic that imbues these tracks with youthful energy and a wealth of death metal character, Mortual aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel as much as they’d like to crush you under its meaty treads, over and over again.
Stomach // Low Demon [July 18th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Droney, doomy, sweaty, and sludgy as fuck, Stomach’s blast furnace second album, Low Demon, is the antithesis of summer-fun metal. Hailing from Geneva, Illinois, Stomach is drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (Sick/Tired, Sea of Shit), who capably carry out their cacophonous work in such a way as to defy the fact that they’re only a duo.2 At volume, and believe me, you’ll want to crank this fucker to eleven, Low Demon will have you retching up all that light beer you drank by the pool and crying for yer mom, as “Dredged” oozes, rib-rattling from the speakers, a continuous, four-and-a-half-minute chord-layered exercise in exponentially applied tonal pressure. With five tracks spanning just over forty-three minutes, there’s not a lot on Low Demon that’s in a hurry, and aside from sections of up-tempo doom riffs (“Get Through Winter”) and some downright grindery (“Oscillate”) offering respite from the otherwise crushing wall of sound, listening to Stomach is akin to being waterboarded with molasses. Heavy influences from Earth, Sunn O))), Crossed Out, and Grief—whose Come to Grief stands as a sludge staple—form the basis for much of Stomach’s sound, and while Primitive Man and Hell draw apt comparisons as well, I’m guessing you know what you’re getting into by now. Maniacally cinematic and far from light-hearted, Stomach’s Low Demon was everything I didn’t think I needed during this hot and humid-as-an-armpit-in-hell summer.
Killjoy’s Flutes of Fancy
Braia // Vertentes de lá e cá [July 10th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Bruno Maia is one of the most inventive and hardworking musicians that I know of. Best known for the whimsical Celtic folk metal of Tuatha de Danann, he also has his own folk rock side project, Braia. Vertentes de lá e cá explores the rich history and culture of the Minas Gerais state in his native country, Brazil.3 Bursting with more sweetness than a ripe mango, Vertentes de lá e cá sports a huge diversity of musical styles and instruments. A combination of flute, viola, and acoustic guitar forms the backbone of most of the songs, like the Irish jigs in “Vertentes” or the flitting melodies of “Princesa do Sul.” My ears also detect accordion (“O Cururu do Ingaí”), saxophone (“Serra das Letras”), harmonica (“Hipólita”), banjo (“Carrancas”), and spacey synth effects (“Pagode Mouro”). That last one might sound out of place, but it makes more sense after learning of the local tales of extraterrestrial encounters. Maia sings in only two of the twelve tracks (“Emboabas” and “Rei do Campo Grande”), but all 41 minutes should be engaging enough for listeners who are typically unmoved by instrumental music. Though thematically focused on one specific location, Vertentes de lá e cá deserves to be heard by the entire world.
Storchi // By Far Away [July 25th, 2025 – Self-Release]
I would guess that the “experimental” tag causes some degree of trepidation within most listeners. However, occasionally an artist executes a fresh new vision so confidently that I can’t help but wonder if it’s secretly been around for a long time. Storchi, an instrumental prog group from Kabri, Israel, utilizes a flute in creative ways. Its bright, jazzy demeanor almost functions as a substitute for a vocalist in terms of expressiveness and personality. The Middle Eastern flair combined with modest electronic elements reminds me of Hugo Kant’s flute-heavy multicultural trip-hop. The chunky palm-muted guitar and bass borrow the best aspects of djent alongside eccentrically dynamic drum tempos. There is premeditation amidst the chaos, though. The triplet tracks “Far,” “Further,” and “Furthest” scattered throughout By Far Away each offer a unique rendition of the same core flute tune. “Lagoona” and “Smoky” make good use of melodic reprisals at the very end to neatly close the loop on what might have otherwise felt like more disjointed songs. Despite frequent and abrupt stylistic shifts, Storchi manages to make the 31-minute runtime of By Far Away feel more enjoyable than jolting. Flute fanatics should take note.
ClarkKent’s Addictive Addition
Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway // Addicted to the Violence [July 19th, 2025 – Scarred for Life]
Since System of a Down disbanded, guitarist Daron Malakian has gone on to release 3 full-length albums under the moniker Scars on Broadway between 2008 and 2025. This spinoff project has proven Malakian to be the oddball of the group, and this goofiness hasn’t mellowed since SOAD’s debut released 27 years ago. The energetic set of tunes on Addicted to the Violence mixes nu-metal, groove rock, and pop with plenty of synths to create some fun and catchy beats. Sure, you have to delve through some baffling lyrics,4 such as when Malakian sings that there’s “a tiger that’s riding on your back / And it’s singing out ‘Rawr! Rawr!'” (“Killing Spree”). Malakian also turns to the familiar theme of drug addiction that he and Serj have explored from “Sugar” to “Heroine” to “Chemicals.”5 This time around, it’s “Satan Hussein,” where he mixes Quaaludes and Vicodin with Jesus Christ. To offset the repetition within songs, Malakian has the sense to mix things up. There’s the nu-metal cuts of “Satan Hussein” and “Destroy the Power,” featuring energetic vocalizations and grooves, but there’s also a lot of pop (“You Destroy You”). The riffs may not be as wild or creative as times past, but Addicted to the Violence makes use of a variety of instruments that keep things fresh, from an organ (“Done Me Wrong”) to a mandolin (“You Destroy You”) to some sweet synth solos. There’s even a brief saxophone appearance to conclude the album. Yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “This sounds awesome!”
#2025 #7DegreesRecords #AddictedToTheViolence #AliceInChains #AltarsOfBrutality #AmericanMetal #AteSAlchemist #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AustralianMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Braia #BrazilianMetal #ByFarAway #Chemicide #CostaRicanMetal #CrossedOut #CurtaNWall #Dance #Darkthrone #DaronMalakianAndScarsOnBroadway #Darude #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Deicide #Dephosphorus #Doom #DoomMetal #Drone #Earth #EchoesOfGloom #EDM #ExperimentalMetal #FolkMetal #FolkRock #GermanMetal #Gindcore #GreekMetal #Grief #GrooveMetal #Hardcore #Hell #HugoKant #InstrumentalMetal #IsraeliMetal #JethroTull #Jul25 #LowDemon #Mastodon #MelodicBlackMetal #Monstrosity #Mortual #Muse #Nasum #NerveAltar #NuMetal #NuclearWinterRecords #OldNick #Planetoktonos #PopMetal #PrimitiveMan #ProgressiveMetal #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #RippleMusic #ScarredForLife #SeaOfShit #SelfRelease #SelfmadegodRecords #Sheev #SickTired #Sludge #SludgeMetal #Stomach #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #Storchi #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2025 #SunnO_ #SystemOfADown #TheMindSEternalStorm #Tool #TuathaDeDanann #VertentesDeLáECá #WeekendNachos #WitchyForestDanceContest #Witchyre #Yes
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Stuck in the Filter: July 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
If you thought June was hot, you aren’t ready for what July has in store. The thin metallic walls of these flimsy ducts warp and soften as the sweltering environs continue to challenge the definition of “habitable.” But I must force my minions to continue their work, as this duty is sacred. Our ravenous appetites cannot be slaked without the supplementary sustenance the Filter brings!
Thankfully, we rescued just enough scraps to put together a meager spread. Enjoy in moderation!
Kenstrosity’s Blackened Buds
Echoes of Gloom // The Mind’s Eternal Storm [July 12th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Queensland isn’t my first thought when considering locales for atmospheric black metal. A genre so often built upon frigid tones and icy melodies feels incongruous to the heat and beastliness of the Australian landscape. Yet, one-man atmoblack act Echoes of Gloom persists. Masterminded by one Dan Elkin, Echoes of Gloom evokes a warm, muggy, and morose spirit with debut record The Mind’s Eternal Storm. But unlike many of the atmospheric persuasion, Echoes of Gloom also injects a classic heavy metal attack and a vaguely punky/folky twist into their formula to keep interest high (“Immortality Manifest,” “Throes of Bereavement I”). Furthermore, Echoes of Gloom weaponizes their energetic take on depressing atmoblack such that even as my head bounces to the riffy groove of surprisingly propulsive numbers like “The Wandering Moon” and “Great Malignant Towers of Delirium,” a palpable pall looms ever present, sapping all color from life as I witness this work. This in turn translates well to the long form, as demonstrated by the epic two-part “Throes of Bereavement” suite and ripping ten-minute closer “Wanderer of the Mind’s Eternal Storm,” boasting dynamics uncommon in the atmospheric field. In sum, if you’re the kind of metal fan that struggles with the airier side of the spectrum, The Mind’s Eternal Storm might be a good place to start.
Witchyre // Witchy Forest Dance Contest [July 14th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Germany’s Witchyre answer a question nobody asked but everyone should: what would happen if black metal and dance music joined forces? With debut LP Witchy Forest Dance Contest, we get to experience this mad alchemy firsthand, and it is an absolute joy! The staunchly anti-fascist Witchyre take the raw sound everyone knows and pumps it full of groove, bounce, and uninhibited fun for a raucous 46 minutes. Evoking equal parts Darude and Darkthrone, bangers like “Let There be Light…,” “Witchy Forest Dance Party,” and “Lost in a Dream” burst with infectious energy that feels demonic and exuberant at the same time. The raw production of the metallic elements shouldn’t work with the glossy sheen of electronic doots, but Witchyre’s often pop-punky song structure that develops as these divergent aesthetics collide adeptly bridges the gap (“Spirits Twirling,” “The Vampire Witch,” “Dragon’s Breath”). My main gripe is that even at a reasonable 46 minutes, each song feels a bit bloated, and some dance elements feel recycled in multiple places (“The Spirits Robbed My Mind”). But don’t let that scare you away. Witchyre is a delightful little deviation from convention fit for fans of Curta’n Wall and Old Nick, and everyone should give it a whirl just for fun!
Owlswald’s Hidden Hoots
Sheev // Ate’s Alchemist [July 11th, 2025 – Ripple Music]
While stoner can be hit-or-miss, Ripple Music often delivers the goods. And with Berlin’s Sheev, they can add another notch to their sativa-flavored belt. Since 2017, the four-piece has been brewing their unique, progressive-infused stoner rock sound. On their second full-length, Ate’s Alchemist, Sheev doubles down on their sonic elixir, with a throwback prog-rock vibe that evokes the likes of Yes and Jethro Tull, but with heavy doses of grunge, jam and modern rock. Vocalist Nitzan Sheps’ provides a stripped-down and authentic performance, sounding like a cross between Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley. The rhythm section is particularly great here. Drummer Philipp Vogt’s kit work is exceptionally musical, with intricate cymbal patterns on tracks like “Elephant Trunk,” “Cul De Sac,” and “King Mustard II” that fuel deep-pocket grooves. He also provides Tool-like syncopated rhythms on tracks like “Tüdelüt” and “Henry” that lock with bassist Joshan Chaudhary. Chaudhary’s bass playing is rare in its prominence and clarity in the mix. He maintains a tight pocket while also venturing out regularly with nimbler, adventurous flurries that highlight his technical skill. Yeah, a couple of the longer songs get a little lost, but the album is packed with killer musicianship and vocal hooks that stick with you, so it barely matters. Overall, Sheev has delivered a solid record that I’ll be spinning a lot—and you should too.
Dephosphorus // Planetoktonos [July 18th, 2025 – Selfmadegod Records/7 Degrees Records/Nerve Altar]
Space…the final grind-tier. On their fifth album, Planetoktonos (“Planetkiller”), Greek astro-grind quartet Dephosphorus rejects normal grind classifications and instead annihilates worlds with a brutal, interstellar collision of grind, blackened death, and hardcore. Taking inspiration from the harsh sci-fi of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, Planetoktonos is a relentless twenty-eight-minute assault—a sonic asteroid belt of thick, menacing distortion and time-warped drumming that channels Dephosphorus’ raw, furious energy. “The Triumph of Science and Reason” and “After the Holocaust” attack with the ruthless speed of Nasum while others, such as “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion,” “Hunting for Dyson Spheres,” and “Calculating Infinity,” punctuate sludgy aggression with razor-sharp, shredding passages reminiscent of early Mastodon that offer contrasting technical and rhythmic hostility. Vocalist Panos Agoros’ despairing howls are a particular highlight, full of a gravelly, blackened urgency that sounds the alarm for an interplanetary attack. Gang vocals on tracks like “Living in a Metastable Universe” and “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion” add extra weight to his frantic performance, proving Dephosphorus can incinerate worlds and still have a blast doing it. Raw, intense, and violent, Planetokonos is a must-listen for fans seeking Remission-era energy.
Tyme’s Tattered Treats
Mortual // Altars of Brutality [July 4th, 2025 – Nuclear Winter Records]
From the fetid rainforests of Costa Rica, San Jose’s Mortual dropped their sneaky good death metal debut, Altar of Brutality, on Independence Day this year. Free of frills and fuckery, Justin Corpse and Master Killer—both have guitar, bass, and vocal credits here—go for the jugular, providing swarms of riffs entrenched in filthy, Floridian swamp waters and powdered with Jersey grit. Solo work comes fast, squealy, and furious as if graduated from the Azagthothian school of shred (“Dominion of Eternal Blasphemy,” “Skeletal Vortex”), as hints of early Deicide lurk within the chugging chunks of “Altar of Brutality” and whiffs of early Monstrosity float amongst the speedier nooks and crannies of “Divine Monstrosity.”1 Incantationally cavernous, the vocals fit the OSDM mold to a tee, sitting spaciously fat and happy within Dan Lowndes’ great mix and master, which consequently draws out a bestial bass sound that permeates the entirety of Altar of Brutality with low-end menace. Chalo’s (Chemicide) drum performance warrants particular note, as, from the opening tom roll of “Mortuary Rites,” he proceeds to bash skulls throughout Altar of Brutality’s swift thirty-five-minute runtime with a brutal blitz of double-kicking and blast-beating kit abuse. Embodying a DIY work ethic that imbues these tracks with youthful energy and a wealth of death metal character, Mortual aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel as much as they’d like to crush you under its meaty treads, over and over again.
Stomach // Low Demon [July 18th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Droney, doomy, sweaty, and sludgy as fuck, Stomach’s blast furnace second album, Low Demon, is the antithesis of summer-fun metal. Hailing from Geneva, Illinois, Stomach is drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (Sick/Tired, Sea of Shit), who capably carry out their cacophonous work in such a way as to defy the fact that they’re only a duo.2 At volume, and believe me, you’ll want to crank this fucker to eleven, Low Demon will have you retching up all that light beer you drank by the pool and crying for yer mom, as “Dredged” oozes, rib-rattling from the speakers, a continuous, four-and-a-half-minute chord-layered exercise in exponentially applied tonal pressure. With five tracks spanning just over forty-three minutes, there’s not a lot on Low Demon that’s in a hurry, and aside from sections of up-tempo doom riffs (“Get Through Winter”) and some downright grindery (“Oscillate”) offering respite from the otherwise crushing wall of sound, listening to Stomach is akin to being waterboarded with molasses. Heavy influences from Earth, Sunn O))), Crossed Out, and Grief—whose Come to Grief stands as a sludge staple—form the basis for much of Stomach’s sound, and while Primitive Man and Hell draw apt comparisons as well, I’m guessing you know what you’re getting into by now. Maniacally cinematic and far from light-hearted, Stomach’s Low Demon was everything I didn’t think I needed during this hot and humid-as-an-armpit-in-hell summer.
Killjoy’s Flutes of Fancy
Braia // Vertentes de lá e cá [July 10th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Bruno Maia is one of the most inventive and hardworking musicians that I know of. Best known for the whimsical Celtic folk metal of Tuatha de Danann, he also has his own folk rock side project, Braia. Vertentes de lá e cá explores the rich history and culture of the Minas Gerais state in his native country, Brazil.3 Bursting with more sweetness than a ripe mango, Vertentes de lá e cá sports a huge diversity of musical styles and instruments. A combination of flute, viola, and acoustic guitar forms the backbone of most of the songs, like the Irish jigs in “Vertentes” or the flitting melodies of “Princesa do Sul.” My ears also detect accordion (“O Cururu do Ingaí”), saxophone (“Serra das Letras”), harmonica (“Hipólita”), banjo (“Carrancas”), and spacey synth effects (“Pagode Mouro”). That last one might sound out of place, but it makes more sense after learning of the local tales of extraterrestrial encounters. Maia sings in only two of the twelve tracks (“Emboabas” and “Rei do Campo Grande”), but all 41 minutes should be engaging enough for listeners who are typically unmoved by instrumental music. Though thematically focused on one specific location, Vertentes de lá e cá deserves to be heard by the entire world.
Storchi // By Far Away [July 25th, 2025 – Self-Release]
I would guess that the “experimental” tag causes some degree of trepidation within most listeners. However, occasionally an artist executes a fresh new vision so confidently that I can’t help but wonder if it’s secretly been around for a long time. Storchi, an instrumental prog group from Kabri, Israel, utilizes a flute in creative ways. Its bright, jazzy demeanor almost functions as a substitute for a vocalist in terms of expressiveness and personality. The Middle Eastern flair combined with modest electronic elements reminds me of Hugo Kant’s flute-heavy multicultural trip-hop. The chunky palm-muted guitar and bass borrow the best aspects of djent alongside eccentrically dynamic drum tempos. There is premeditation amidst the chaos, though. The triplet tracks “Far,” “Further,” and “Furthest” scattered throughout By Far Away each offer a unique rendition of the same core flute tune. “Lagoona” and “Smoky” make good use of melodic reprisals at the very end to neatly close the loop on what might have otherwise felt like more disjointed songs. Despite frequent and abrupt stylistic shifts, Storchi manages to make the 31-minute runtime of By Far Away feel more enjoyable than jolting. Flute fanatics should take note.
ClarkKent’s Addictive Addition
Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway // Addicted to the Violence [July 19th, 2025 – Scarred for Life]
Since System of a Down disbanded, guitarist Daron Malakian has gone on to release 3 full-length albums under the moniker Scars on Broadway between 2008 and 2025. This spinoff project has proven Malakian to be the oddball of the group, and this goofiness hasn’t mellowed since SOAD’s debut released 27 years ago. The energetic set of tunes on Addicted to the Violence mixes nu-metal, groove rock, and pop with plenty of synths to create some fun and catchy beats. Sure, you have to delve through some baffling lyrics,4 such as when Malakian sings that there’s “a tiger that’s riding on your back / And it’s singing out ‘Rawr! Rawr!'” (“Killing Spree”). Malakian also turns to the familiar theme of drug addiction that he and Serj have explored from “Sugar” to “Heroine” to “Chemicals.”5 This time around, it’s “Satan Hussein,” where he mixes Quaaludes and Vicodin with Jesus Christ. To offset the repetition within songs, Malakian has the sense to mix things up. There’s the nu-metal cuts of “Satan Hussein” and “Destroy the Power,” featuring energetic vocalizations and grooves, but there’s also a lot of pop (“You Destroy You”). The riffs may not be as wild or creative as times past, but Addicted to the Violence makes use of a variety of instruments that keep things fresh, from an organ (“Done Me Wrong”) to a mandolin (“You Destroy You”) to some sweet synth solos. There’s even a brief saxophone appearance to conclude the album. Yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “This sounds awesome!”
#2025 #7DegreesRecords #AddictedToTheViolence #AliceInChains #AltarsOfBrutality #AmericanMetal #AteSAlchemist #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AustralianMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Braia #BrazilianMetal #ByFarAway #Chemicide #CostaRicanMetal #CrossedOut #CurtaNWall #Dance #Darkthrone #DaronMalakianAndScarsOnBroadway #Darude #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Deicide #Dephosphorus #Doom #DoomMetal #Drone #Earth #EchoesOfGloom #EDM #ExperimentalMetal #FolkMetal #FolkRock #GermanMetal #Gindcore #GreekMetal #Grief #GrooveMetal #Hardcore #Hell #HugoKant #InstrumentalMetal #IsraeliMetal #JethroTull #Jul25 #LowDemon #Mastodon #MelodicBlackMetal #Monstrosity #Mortual #Muse #Nasum #NerveAltar #NuMetal #NuclearWinterRecords #OldNick #Planetoktonos #PopMetal #PrimitiveMan #ProgressiveMetal #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #RippleMusic #ScarredForLife #SeaOfShit #SelfRelease #SelfmadegodRecords #Sheev #SickTired #Sludge #SludgeMetal #Stomach #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #Storchi #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2025 #SunnO_ #SystemOfADown #TheMindSEternalStorm #Tool #TuathaDeDanann #VertentesDeLáECá #WeekendNachos #WitchyForestDanceContest #Witchyre #Yes
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Stuck in the Filter: July 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
If you thought June was hot, you aren’t ready for what July has in store. The thin metallic walls of these flimsy ducts warp and soften as the sweltering environs continue to challenge the definition of “habitable.” But I must force my minions to continue their work, as this duty is sacred. Our ravenous appetites cannot be slaked without the supplementary sustenance the Filter brings!
Thankfully, we rescued just enough scraps to put together a meager spread. Enjoy in moderation!
Kenstrosity’s Blackened Buds
Echoes of Gloom // The Mind’s Eternal Storm [July 12th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Queensland isn’t my first thought when considering locales for atmospheric black metal. A genre so often built upon frigid tones and icy melodies feels incongruous to the heat and beastliness of the Australian landscape. Yet, one-man atmoblack act Echoes of Gloom persists. Masterminded by one Dan Elkin, Echoes of Gloom evokes a warm, muggy, and morose spirit with debut record The Mind’s Eternal Storm. But unlike many of the atmospheric persuasion, Echoes of Gloom also injects a classic heavy metal attack and a vaguely punky/folky twist into their formula to keep interest high (“Immortality Manifest,” “Throes of Bereavement I”). Furthermore, Echoes of Gloom weaponizes their energetic take on depressing atmoblack such that even as my head bounces to the riffy groove of surprisingly propulsive numbers like “The Wandering Moon” and “Great Malignant Towers of Delirium,” a palpable pall looms ever present, sapping all color from life as I witness this work. This in turn translates well to the long form, as demonstrated by the epic two-part “Throes of Bereavement” suite and ripping ten-minute closer “Wanderer of the Mind’s Eternal Storm,” boasting dynamics uncommon in the atmospheric field. In sum, if you’re the kind of metal fan that struggles with the airier side of the spectrum, The Mind’s Eternal Storm might be a good place to start.
Witchyre // Witchy Forest Dance Contest [July 14th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Germany’s Witchyre answer a question nobody asked but everyone should: what would happen if black metal and dance music joined forces? With debut LP Witchy Forest Dance Contest, we get to experience this mad alchemy firsthand, and it is an absolute joy! The staunchly anti-fascist Witchyre take the raw sound everyone knows and pumps it full of groove, bounce, and uninhibited fun for a raucous 46 minutes. Evoking equal parts Darude and Darkthrone, bangers like “Let There be Light…,” “Witchy Forest Dance Party,” and “Lost in a Dream” burst with infectious energy that feels demonic and exuberant at the same time. The raw production of the metallic elements shouldn’t work with the glossy sheen of electronic doots, but Witchyre’s often pop-punky song structure that develops as these divergent aesthetics collide adeptly bridges the gap (“Spirits Twirling,” “The Vampire Witch,” “Dragon’s Breath”). My main gripe is that even at a reasonable 46 minutes, each song feels a bit bloated, and some dance elements feel recycled in multiple places (“The Spirits Robbed My Mind”). But don’t let that scare you away. Witchyre is a delightful little deviation from convention fit for fans of Curta’n Wall and Old Nick, and everyone should give it a whirl just for fun!
Owlswald’s Hidden Hoots
Sheev // Ate’s Alchemist [July 11th, 2025 – Ripple Music]
While stoner can be hit-or-miss, Ripple Music often delivers the goods. And with Berlin’s Sheev, they can add another notch to their sativa-flavored belt. Since 2017, the four-piece has been brewing their unique, progressive-infused stoner rock sound. On their second full-length, Ate’s Alchemist, Sheev doubles down on their sonic elixir, with a throwback prog-rock vibe that evokes the likes of Yes and Jethro Tull, but with heavy doses of grunge, jam and modern rock. Vocalist Nitzan Sheps’ provides a stripped-down and authentic performance, sounding like a cross between Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley. The rhythm section is particularly great here. Drummer Philipp Vogt’s kit work is exceptionally musical, with intricate cymbal patterns on tracks like “Elephant Trunk,” “Cul De Sac,” and “King Mustard II” that fuel deep-pocket grooves. He also provides Tool-like syncopated rhythms on tracks like “Tüdelüt” and “Henry” that lock with bassist Joshan Chaudhary. Chaudhary’s bass playing is rare in its prominence and clarity in the mix. He maintains a tight pocket while also venturing out regularly with nimbler, adventurous flurries that highlight his technical skill. Yeah, a couple of the longer songs get a little lost, but the album is packed with killer musicianship and vocal hooks that stick with you, so it barely matters. Overall, Sheev has delivered a solid record that I’ll be spinning a lot—and you should too.
Dephosphorus // Planetoktonos [July 18th, 2025 – Selfmadegod Records/7 Degrees Records/Nerve Altar]
Space…the final grind-tier. On their fifth album, Planetoktonos (“Planetkiller”), Greek astro-grind quartet Dephosphorus rejects normal grind classifications and instead annihilates worlds with a brutal, interstellar collision of grind, blackened death, and hardcore. Taking inspiration from the harsh sci-fi of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, Planetoktonos is a relentless twenty-eight-minute assault—a sonic asteroid belt of thick, menacing distortion and time-warped drumming that channels Dephosphorus’ raw, furious energy. “The Triumph of Science and Reason” and “After the Holocaust” attack with the ruthless speed of Nasum while others, such as “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion,” “Hunting for Dyson Spheres,” and “Calculating Infinity,” punctuate sludgy aggression with razor-sharp, shredding passages reminiscent of early Mastodon that offer contrasting technical and rhythmic hostility. Vocalist Panos Agoros’ despairing howls are a particular highlight, full of a gravelly, blackened urgency that sounds the alarm for an interplanetary attack. Gang vocals on tracks like “Living in a Metastable Universe” and “The Kinetics of a Superintelligence Explosion” add extra weight to his frantic performance, proving Dephosphorus can incinerate worlds and still have a blast doing it. Raw, intense, and violent, Planetokonos is a must-listen for fans seeking Remission-era energy.
Tyme’s Tattered Treats
Mortual // Altars of Brutality [July 4th, 2025 – Nuclear Winter Records]
From the fetid rainforests of Costa Rica, San Jose’s Mortual dropped their sneaky good death metal debut, Altar of Brutality, on Independence Day this year. Free of frills and fuckery, Justin Corpse and Master Killer—both have guitar, bass, and vocal credits here—go for the jugular, providing swarms of riffs entrenched in filthy, Floridian swamp waters and powdered with Jersey grit. Solo work comes fast, squealy, and furious as if graduated from the Azagthothian school of shred (“Dominion of Eternal Blasphemy,” “Skeletal Vortex”), as hints of early Deicide lurk within the chugging chunks of “Altar of Brutality” and whiffs of early Monstrosity float amongst the speedier nooks and crannies of “Divine Monstrosity.”1 Incantationally cavernous, the vocals fit the OSDM mold to a tee, sitting spaciously fat and happy within Dan Lowndes’ great mix and master, which consequently draws out a bestial bass sound that permeates the entirety of Altar of Brutality with low-end menace. Chalo’s (Chemicide) drum performance warrants particular note, as, from the opening tom roll of “Mortuary Rites,” he proceeds to bash skulls throughout Altar of Brutality’s swift thirty-five-minute runtime with a brutal blitz of double-kicking and blast-beating kit abuse. Embodying a DIY work ethic that imbues these tracks with youthful energy and a wealth of death metal character, Mortual aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel as much as they’d like to crush you under its meaty treads, over and over again.
Stomach // Low Demon [July 18th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Droney, doomy, sweaty, and sludgy as fuck, Stomach’s blast furnace second album, Low Demon, is the antithesis of summer-fun metal. Hailing from Geneva, Illinois, Stomach is drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (Sick/Tired, Sea of Shit), who capably carry out their cacophonous work in such a way as to defy the fact that they’re only a duo.2 At volume, and believe me, you’ll want to crank this fucker to eleven, Low Demon will have you retching up all that light beer you drank by the pool and crying for yer mom, as “Dredged” oozes, rib-rattling from the speakers, a continuous, four-and-a-half-minute chord-layered exercise in exponentially applied tonal pressure. With five tracks spanning just over forty-three minutes, there’s not a lot on Low Demon that’s in a hurry, and aside from sections of up-tempo doom riffs (“Get Through Winter”) and some downright grindery (“Oscillate”) offering respite from the otherwise crushing wall of sound, listening to Stomach is akin to being waterboarded with molasses. Heavy influences from Earth, Sunn O))), Crossed Out, and Grief—whose Come to Grief stands as a sludge staple—form the basis for much of Stomach’s sound, and while Primitive Man and Hell draw apt comparisons as well, I’m guessing you know what you’re getting into by now. Maniacally cinematic and far from light-hearted, Stomach’s Low Demon was everything I didn’t think I needed during this hot and humid-as-an-armpit-in-hell summer.
Killjoy’s Flutes of Fancy
Braia // Vertentes de lá e cá [July 10th, 2025 – Self-Release]
Bruno Maia is one of the most inventive and hardworking musicians that I know of. Best known for the whimsical Celtic folk metal of Tuatha de Danann, he also has his own folk rock side project, Braia. Vertentes de lá e cá explores the rich history and culture of the Minas Gerais state in his native country, Brazil.3 Bursting with more sweetness than a ripe mango, Vertentes de lá e cá sports a huge diversity of musical styles and instruments. A combination of flute, viola, and acoustic guitar forms the backbone of most of the songs, like the Irish jigs in “Vertentes” or the flitting melodies of “Princesa do Sul.” My ears also detect accordion (“O Cururu do Ingaí”), saxophone (“Serra das Letras”), harmonica (“Hipólita”), banjo (“Carrancas”), and spacey synth effects (“Pagode Mouro”). That last one might sound out of place, but it makes more sense after learning of the local tales of extraterrestrial encounters. Maia sings in only two of the twelve tracks (“Emboabas” and “Rei do Campo Grande”), but all 41 minutes should be engaging enough for listeners who are typically unmoved by instrumental music. Though thematically focused on one specific location, Vertentes de lá e cá deserves to be heard by the entire world.
Storchi // By Far Away [July 25th, 2025 – Self-Release]
I would guess that the “experimental” tag causes some degree of trepidation within most listeners. However, occasionally an artist executes a fresh new vision so confidently that I can’t help but wonder if it’s secretly been around for a long time. Storchi, an instrumental prog group from Kabri, Israel, utilizes a flute in creative ways. Its bright, jazzy demeanor almost functions as a substitute for a vocalist in terms of expressiveness and personality. The Middle Eastern flair combined with modest electronic elements reminds me of Hugo Kant’s flute-heavy multicultural trip-hop. The chunky palm-muted guitar and bass borrow the best aspects of djent alongside eccentrically dynamic drum tempos. There is premeditation amidst the chaos, though. The triplet tracks “Far,” “Further,” and “Furthest” scattered throughout By Far Away each offer a unique rendition of the same core flute tune. “Lagoona” and “Smoky” make good use of melodic reprisals at the very end to neatly close the loop on what might have otherwise felt like more disjointed songs. Despite frequent and abrupt stylistic shifts, Storchi manages to make the 31-minute runtime of By Far Away feel more enjoyable than jolting. Flute fanatics should take note.
ClarkKent’s Addictive Addition
Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway // Addicted to the Violence [July 19th, 2025 – Scarred for Life]
Since System of a Down disbanded, guitarist Daron Malakian has gone on to release 3 full-length albums under the moniker Scars on Broadway between 2008 and 2025. This spinoff project has proven Malakian to be the oddball of the group, and this goofiness hasn’t mellowed since SOAD’s debut released 27 years ago. The energetic set of tunes on Addicted to the Violence mixes nu-metal, groove rock, and pop with plenty of synths to create some fun and catchy beats. Sure, you have to delve through some baffling lyrics,4 such as when Malakian sings that there’s “a tiger that’s riding on your back / And it’s singing out ‘Rawr! Rawr!'” (“Killing Spree”). Malakian also turns to the familiar theme of drug addiction that he and Serj have explored from “Sugar” to “Heroine” to “Chemicals.”5 This time around, it’s “Satan Hussein,” where he mixes Quaaludes and Vicodin with Jesus Christ. To offset the repetition within songs, Malakian has the sense to mix things up. There’s the nu-metal cuts of “Satan Hussein” and “Destroy the Power,” featuring energetic vocalizations and grooves, but there’s also a lot of pop (“You Destroy You”). The riffs may not be as wild or creative as times past, but Addicted to the Violence makes use of a variety of instruments that keep things fresh, from an organ (“Done Me Wrong”) to a mandolin (“You Destroy You”) to some sweet synth solos. There’s even a brief saxophone appearance to conclude the album. Yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “This sounds awesome!”
#2025 #7DegreesRecords #AddictedToTheViolence #AliceInChains #AltarsOfBrutality #AmericanMetal #AteSAlchemist #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AustralianMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Braia #BrazilianMetal #ByFarAway #Chemicide #CostaRicanMetal #CrossedOut #CurtaNWall #Dance #Darkthrone #DaronMalakianAndScarsOnBroadway #Darude #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Deicide #Dephosphorus #Doom #DoomMetal #Drone #Earth #EchoesOfGloom #EDM #ExperimentalMetal #FolkMetal #FolkRock #GermanMetal #Gindcore #GreekMetal #Grief #GrooveMetal #Hardcore #Hell #HugoKant #InstrumentalMetal #IsraeliMetal #JethroTull #Jul25 #LowDemon #Mastodon #MelodicBlackMetal #Monstrosity #Mortual #Muse #Nasum #NerveAltar #NuMetal #NuclearWinterRecords #OldNick #Planetoktonos #PopMetal #PrimitiveMan #ProgressiveMetal #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #RippleMusic #ScarredForLife #SeaOfShit #SelfRelease #SelfmadegodRecords #Sheev #SickTired #Sludge #SludgeMetal #Stomach #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #Storchi #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2025 #SunnO_ #SystemOfADown #TheMindSEternalStorm #Tool #TuathaDeDanann #VertentesDeLáECá #WeekendNachos #WitchyForestDanceContest #Witchyre #Yes
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Well if Trump, the Republicans in Congress, ICE, and the US Border authorities haven't already given foreign visitors many reasons for avoiding travel to the US, yesterday's events at La Guardia tell us that governing in chaos has now made flying into the US life threatening. How sad for the pilots who lost their lives.
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Wanna Stop Writing After This
“For a long time now, the role of the Brahmin has been outsourced to other countries, particularly Europe and the US. Why? Because we Indians have stopped thinking many centuries back.”
Neruda, I Feel Sadder Than You Tonight
No reason Neruda that I feel sad
You at least had your girl to blame
I have nothing and no one to blame
For how I feel now, just life itself
Galls me to no end, where I feel mocked
By life itself which demands it be understood
Am I supposed to love life and not the woman
But I do not know what life is nor how to live
Shall I just drink a Coke and open happiness
But Coke’s fizz lasts less time than morning dew
The sun is hot but it’s supposedly life-giver
But when I step out in the aft’noon it’s killing
So, I cannot trust the very so-called life-giver
Nothing in nature seems benign, not even society
And when night comes, cocooned here in my flat
I can’t see the stars, and moon interests me not
All I can look forward to now is slow deterioration
One by one the powers will desert me, from the teeth
To the knees to the memory to the interest
Time cares not to show anyone any compassion
The philosophy I know is even more problematic
In a way it gives me relief from these thoughts
And in a way it doubles the pain by showing
This whole life was a waste of time, no study
Nor emotion nor smile nor understanding
Takes you where you want to be, and these days
I am not even sure where I want to be, not even to be
I cannot even go back to where I came from
Nor can I know where I have to go, nor whether
Any journey is worth it at all, as now I understand
This flight from myself is the cause of all problems
And, when I look into myself, I find only wisdom
And that wisdom tells me I do not understand at all
Neither Truth nor Love, for wisdom tells me
If you think you understand Truth and Love
Why are you still undertaking many a journey.
“Everything in this world has a cause. And every effect becomes in turn a cause. Where there are causes and effects, there is change underway. Where there is change how can Truth be. And where there is no Truth how can love be.”
“Definition of a perfect love story: Going from aroused to erased.”
“Most human love arises out of fear, is sustained by fear, and ends a quiet death due to fear.”
“Life is a Russian roulette.”
“Perfect recipe for dissatisfaction in life: Wanting to be happy always all the time no matter what.”
“Some say God is Truth. Some say God is Love. Both are wrong. God is. Period.”
“Love is not an add-on to the other things in your life. Love is the life.”
“Love is the ultimate soporific which dullens the pain of existence.”
“We think there is life. That is the death of us.”
“We are all lost in our desires. Desires take us to the future. Inhabiting the future, we fail to live because life is happening in the present.”
Jagat (Sanskrit: जगत्) primarily means the world, universe, or earth. It is derived from the root gacchati (“that which moves”), signifying that the universe is in constant motion, ever-changing, and ephemeral.
Core Meanings & Contexts:
• The Moving World: It refers to all that is moving, animate, living, and changing, encompassing the entire material universe.
• Vedanta Philosophy: It is often described as mithya (dependent reality/illusion) in comparison to the absolute reality of Brahman, often referring to the subjective experience of the material world.
• Spiritual/Non-dualism: In some contexts, it is interpreted as the manifestation or “body” of the divine, completely dependent on the Supreme for existence.
• Common Usage: In Hindi and other Indian languages, it is used for “world” or “universe,” and sometimes implies a specific field or community (e.g., Nari Jagat – world of women).
Common Compound Words:
• Jagadish/Jagannath: Lord of the Universe (Vishnu or Shiva).
• Jagatmata: Mother of the World (Durga).
Jagat is also a common Indian name for boys, signifying the universe.
“Don’t wait for retirement or for that smile; be happy today, nay, right now.”
“Dare to be who you are.”
Give me some deeply philosophical quotes of Arthur Rimbaud.
Claude responded: Here are some deeply philosophical quotes from Arthur Rimbaud:
________________________________________
On the Self & Identity
“I is another.” — Letter to Georges Izambard, 1871
One of his most famous lines, suggesting the self is not a fixed entity but something foreign, observed from the outside — a radical idea that anticipated modern theories of subjectivity.
________________________________________
On Disorder & Vision
“The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses.” — Letter to Paul Demeny (Lettre du Voyant), 1871
Rimbaud’s manifesto for poetry: to reach true vision, the poet must shatter ordinary perception and embrace suffering as a path to illumination.
________________________________________
On Life & the Absolute
“Real life is absent. We are not in the world.” — A Season in Hell
A haunting declaration of alienation — the sense that authentic existence lies forever beyond reach, and the world we inhabit is a kind of unreality.
________________________________________
On Suffering & Knowledge
“One must be absolutely modern.” — A Season in Hell
Deceptively simple, this is Rimbaud’s demand to break entirely with tradition — to find truth not in the past but in the raw, uncharted present.
________________________________________
On Love & Hell
“I have swallowed a famous mouthful of poison. Thrice blessed be the counsel that came to me! My bowels are on fire. The violence of the venom twists my limbs, deforms me, lays me low.” — A Season in Hell
A visceral metaphor for the self-destruction that comes with absolute passion — love, ambition, and vision as simultaneously poison and revelation.
________________________________________
On Eternity
“It has been found again. What? Eternity. It is the sea mixed with the sun.” — Eternity
A mystical fragment — eternity not as abstraction but as a sensory, almost pantheist fusion of natural forces.
________________________________________
On Freedom
“Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge.” — A Season in Hell
Rimbaud suggests that rational intellect alone cannot unlock the deepest truths — only a surrender to something greater can.
________________________________________
Rimbaud’s philosophy is essentially one of radical becoming — the self must be destroyed, perception unhinged, and comfort abandoned in order to glimpse something true. He abandoned poetry entirely at 19, which many see as the ultimate philosophical act: refusing to be captured even by his own genius.
“Vivekananda, when he was young, really young, went around asking everyone, ‘Have you seen God’. And when he posed the same question to Ramakrishna Paramahansa, RP replied, ‘Yes, only more clearly than I see you now.’ Now, the question that can be asked is was RP, like J. Krishnamurti always said he does, ‘Answering the questioner rather than the question.’ Otherwise, the correct answer is, ‘What a stupid question, Naren, all you have been seeing all your life is ONLY God but you have been thinking you are seeing the world’.”
Buddha’s Mistake
Sam’s First Noble Truth
I agree with Buddha’s First Noble Truth that “Life is suffering”.
Sam’s Second Noble Truth
I do not agree with Buddha’s Second Noble Truth that “Desire is the cause of suffering.”
My point is that once you have understood that “Life is suffering”, you should also understand the simple logic that “No life, no suffering.”
So, do not bother about desires and all such nonsense.
Do not get caught in such traps, traps which arise only if you are living.
Just end life and you are done.
Or, rather realise you were never born.
No Sex, No Salvation, No Sam
I do not want to get caught
In the vortex of these Fie-loss-oafers
And whatever theories they spin
About this world, existing only in imagination;
When I talk about myself Sam
Or about Sex and Salvation, I do so
Under Erasure, as that Algerian Jew would have it
Who set afire many an academic department in the US
And, I note with pleasure his association in 1966
With my alma mater Johns Hopkins, kickstarting
That peculiar school of philosophy, poststructuralism,
But, why dabble and grapple even dilettantishly
With these games that minds of philosophers play
I who have understood Kena Upanishad’s admonition
That if you think Truth is there for the taking by the mind
You poor thing how little you understand
And where is the mind but in this world
Or is the world in the mind
Now, now don’t confuse me
I refuse to play this game with these words
For I know too well that if I renounce words
Which is the only true Vairagya that is there
And not so-called Vairagya of Kamini-Kanchana
Then in that silence all doubts are quelled
All truths stand revealed, and I know
Whatever I knew till now was wrong
And I learn to let go of not only Socrates and Sartre
But also of Maharshi and Maharaj
For where do they all exist
Except in my fertile imagination
As do Sex, Salvation and Sam.
“The tree has to bend to every wind, but it cannot know why the wind is blowing.”
“In the autumn, it is foolish for the tree to try to hold on to the leaves.”
“There is no spot in the pot where there is no clay.”
“In every love story, there is something more than biology at play.”
“My Call”
Yes, Michael, it always was your call
To go solo or to go with the family
And also your call to spread love and light
To this world through your moves.
Music, moods, musings, and murmurings
And did you change the world?
Who knows? Maybe a few and here and there
When you were alive, and a few more might change
Long after you are gone as long as your music lives on
Surely, though, you yourself must have escaped
The suffering that the blind strivings of the Will
Imposes on one, if Schopenhauer is to be believed,
With your Dionysian spirit that Nietzsche championed.
Yet how I despair Michael, my call
Is that this world is condemned to its duality
Of light and darkness, good and bad, virtue and vice
Socrates, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus could not fix the world
So, Michael, you are forgiven, too, for failing
Though your critics would point out your own failings.
—
Maya (the cosmic creative/illusory power) is constituted by the three gunas — Sattva (clarity, harmony), Rajas (activity, passion, restlessness), and Tamas (inertia, darkness, ignorance). As long as manifestation exists — as long as anything is appearing — all three gunas are present in varying proportions. You can’t have Maya with only Sattva, because pure undifferentiated Sattva would dissolve back into Brahman. The tension and dynamism of Rajas and Tamas are what keep the world-appearance going.
So yes, suffering and evil are structurally baked into manifestation itself. Tamas produces ignorance, delusion, and stagnation; Rajas produces craving, conflict, and agitation — both are inexhaustible engines of suffering at the cosmic level.
This creates an important asymmetry:
At the individual level, liberation is possible — you can step out of identification with the gunas entirely, which is what Nisargadatta and Ramana point to. The Self is not a product of the gunas.
At the collective or historical level, you might get periods of greater Sattva, but Rajas and Tamas always reassert themselves — civilizations rise and fall in cycles (the yuga framework reflects exactly this).
At the cosmic/natural level, as long as Maya is operating, the interplay of gunas never ceases. Suffering doesn’t “end” — it’s part of the texture of manifestation.
This is also why Advaita doesn’t promise the world will get better or that evil will be eliminated — it says the world as such is the wrong level to seek resolution. The resolution is recognition of that which was never in the gunas to begin with. Nisargadatta’s typical move is precisely this — he doesn’t ask you to fix the dream, he asks you to wake up from it.
Universal liberation of the cosmos is a category error within this framework. The most Maya can do is oscillate; it cannot transcend its own constituents.
Two Ways to Retire Early
1. Earn as much as is 100% sufficient for your wants.
2. Pare down your wants (but NOT to the bare minimum) so that you can retire earlier than you can under Scenario 1.
I chose the latter option by becoming sort of a minimalist because I realized that happiness does not come from accumulating more and more, be it wealth or any other damn thing.
When did more and more wealth ever make anyone more and more happy.
And, if you need more and more money to become more and more happy, know that you are not going about it the right way.
Money cannot buy almost anything worthwhile.
Anyway, the best things in life are either damn cheap or totally free.
Don’t think so?
Well, my friend, good luck with that happiness you are chasing.
No, I forget, you are chasing money not happiness.
Let me know when you shift your rat race from pursuing money to pursuing happiness, then as Paul Simon sang, “I can be your long-lost pal.”
What about the work that needs to be done in this world that might suffer if you retire early?
Ha, ha, ha, as if you are working FOR the world. Get real.
Besides, there are enough unemployed people out there to fill the space that you vacate.
And, besides, if people thought like I am suggesting, then believe you me, far less work will be needed to be done in this world so that the world can get along by just fine.
Ha, ha, ha…how bad people are at thinking!!!
Well, well, I guess God knows what he is up to.
Homo Duplex
Homo duplex (“the double human”) is a theory by sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) proposing that humans possess a dual nature: part biological organism driven by selfish individual desires (“profane”), and part social being guided by morality, collective consciousness, and social constraints (“sacred”).
Key Components of Homo Duplex:
• The Profane (Individual): This side consists of personal appetites, instincts, selfishness, and bodily sensations.
• The Sacred (Social): This side comprises moral forces, social solidarity, shared values, and altruism, which are cultivated through societal interaction and collective rituals.
• The Tension: Durkheim argued that society requires a balance between these two sides to prevent individualism from leading to unhappiness, greed, or excessive anomie (social instability).
• Societal Role: Socialization, education, and religion play crucial roles in regulating the individual’s “animalistic” nature and nurturing their “moral” or “social” side.
This concept underscores the idea that humans find their highest potential not in isolation, but by participating in a larger social whole.
What Durkheim Was Really Saying
At its core, Homo Duplex is Durkheim’s answer to one of philosophy’s oldest
questions: what kind of creature is a human being? His answer was deliberately
paradoxical — we are simultaneously two things at once, and that tension is not a
flaw to be resolved, but the very engine of social and moral life.
This was a bold move in the late 19th century. Darwinian biology was pushing toward
the view that humans were essentially animals with sophisticated brains.
Enlightenment liberalism, on the other hand, celebrated the sovereign individual.
Durkheim rejected both as incomplete. He insisted you cannot understand a human
being by looking only at their biology or their individual rational mind — you must
look at what society does to and inside them.
Unpacking the Two Sides
The Profane (the animal self)
The word “profane” here doesn’t mean vulgar in the everyday sense — it means
outside the sacred, ordinary, earthly, bodily. This is the self that:
Hungers, lusts, fears, and competes
Acts in its own interest without reference to others
Exists in time and space as a finite, mortal organism
Durkheim didn’t moralize this side as evil — he saw it as simply pre-social. It is what
we are before society gets hold of us. Left entirely to this nature, humans would be,
in Hobbes’ famous phrase, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
The Sacred (the social self)
The “sacred” is what society implants into the individual. This is a profound and
somewhat unsettling idea: your moral conscience, your sense of duty, your empathy,
your values — these are not naturally yours. They were installed by the collective.
This side includes:
The capacity for self-sacrifice
Loyalty to groups, nations, ideals
Moral disgust and reverence
The ability to feel that something is bigger than yourself
Crucially, Durkheim believed this sacred dimension is genuinely real and genuinely
powerful — but its source is social, not divine or innate. When you feel moral awe,
you are, in his view, feeling the weight of society pressing on your consciousness.
The Tension: Why the Conflict is Necessary
Durkheim didn’t want the tension resolved — he wanted it managed. Here’s why:
Too much profane (pure individualism) leads to anomie — a condition where
social norms collapse, individuals feel unmoored, and rates of depression,
crime, and even suicide rise. His famous study Suicide (1897) showed that
societies with weak social bonds had higher suicide rates — a radical,
counterintuitive argument.
Too much sacred (total collective absorption) leads to fatalistic overregulation
— where individuals are crushed under the weight of social duty,
also producing misery and, paradoxically, suicide of a different kind (what he
called altruistic suicide, dying for the group).
The sweet spot is a productive friction — society strong enough to give life meaning
and structure, but not so totalizing that it erases the individual.
Socialization as the Civilizing Mechanism
When Durkheim says education, religion, and socialization regulate the individual’s
animalistic nature, he means something very specific: they transfer the sacred into
the individual so thoroughly that it feels like their own conscience. This is the
machinery of moral internalization.
Think of how a child is taught not to steal. At first, it’s external — “don’t do that or
you’ll be punished.” Eventually, the prohibition becomes internal — “I don’t want to
steal, it feels wrong.” For Durkheim, that feeling of wrongness is society speaking
through you. You have been successfully socialized. The collective has colonized
your inner life — and this is not manipulation, in his view; it is what makes you fully
human.
Religion, in particular, fascinated him because its rituals (collective gatherings, shared
symbols, emotional ceremonies) were the most powerful mechanisms for recharging
the social self — reminding individuals viscerally that they belong to something
beyond themselves.
Where Homo Duplex Connects to Bigger Ideas
Concept Connection to Homo Duplex
Freud’s Id/Superego
Strikingly parallel — the id (drives) vs. the superego
(internalized social rules). Both emerged around the same
era, independently.
Rousseau’s Noble
Savage
Durkheim inverts Rousseau — society doesn’t corrupt
natural goodness; it creates moral goodness in the first
place.
Nietzsche’s critique of
herd morality
Nietzsche saw society suppressing the individual as a
tragedy. Durkheim saw it as a necessity — even a gift.
Modern psychology
Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist model echoes Homo
Duplex — moral feelings are social products, not individual
reason.
A Critical Perspective
Homo Duplex is elegant, but not without its critics:
It’s overly binary. Human nature resists clean splits into “animal vs. social.”
Much of what Durkheim calls “profane” (love, curiosity, creativity) is not
straightforwardly selfish.
It romanticizes the collective. Durkheim’s framework can justify social
conformity too easily. History shows that the “sacred social” can endorse
racism, nationalism, and genocide just as easily as altruism.
It underestimates individual agency. Humans don’t just receive society
passively — they also reshape it. The individual isn’t merely a battleground
between animal drives and social imprinting.
The Bottom Line
Homo Duplex is a powerful lens for understanding why humans are so
contradictory — capable of extraordinary selfishness and extraordinary sacrifice,
often in the same person, sometimes within the same hour. Durkheim’s lasting
insight is that this is not hypocrisy or moral failure. It is the structure of what we are:
biological creatures who can only realize their deepest potential by surrendering part
of themselves to something collective and larger. We are, as he saw it, always living
on the border between the animal and the social — and civilization is the ongoing,
never-finished negotiation between those two halves.
Kids? Just say no
You don’t have to dislike children to see the harms done by having them. There is a moral case against procreation
https://aeon.co/essays/having-children-is-not-life-affirming-its-immoral
No Words To Say What I Want To Say
Strange how sometimes you are at a loss for words
When you realize the words you used have not been understood
And using more words would only complicate the picture
Because the words have to go through the sieve
Of other minds and hearts, though mine they have navigated,
And this is not just my problem, just the human condition
And until we understand silence we cannot understand each other
But unfortunately, until then we have to keep using words
And thereby keep encountering battlefields of various sorts.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them how we will” is a famous quote from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 2). Spoken by Hamlet, it means that a divine power or fate determines the ultimate outcome of our lives, regardless of how clumsily we plan them.
Key Details and Context:
Context in Play: Hamlet says this to Horatio while explaining how he survived
a plot to kill him, suggesting he has accepted fate.
Meaning: “Rough-hew” refers to shaping a rough block of wood. It suggests
humans make rough plans (“rough-hew”), but God or destiny refines the final
outcome (“shapes our ends”).
Theme: This reflects a shift in Hamlet from indecision to a fatalistic acceptance
of whatever happens, including the “special providence in the fall of a
sparrow”.
It shows a shift from a belief that mortals control their destiny to a belief that higher
forces are in control.
“There’s a Divinity That Shapes Our Ends” — Through the Lens of Advaita
Vedānta
And the Self Reveals Itself to Whom She Chooses
I. The Two Voices Speaking the Same Truth
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, standing at the threshold of death with a curious calm, utters
something that no purely Western philosophical framework can fully contain. He is
not simply expressing fatalism. He is not surrendering to an external God the way a
theist might. Something deeper is trembling in those words — something that
Advaita Vedānta, the non-dual philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya, can illuminate with
remarkable precision.
Advaita means not-two. Its central revelation is that Brahman — the infinite,
undivided, self-luminous Consciousness — is the only reality. What we call the
“individual self,” the jīva, is not a separate entity that Brahman controls from outside.
The jīva is Brahman, appearing individuated through the veil of avidyā (ignorance).
The drama of human life — the planning, the struggling, the winning and losing — is
līlā, the cosmic play of Consciousness with itself.
With this as our foundation, Hamlet’s line ceases to be merely about fate and
becomes a window into the nature of Reality itself.
II. “Rough-Hewing” — The Activity of the Ego-Self
“Rough-hew them how we will…”
In Advaita, the one who “rough-hews” is the ahaṃkāra — the ego, the sense of
being a separate, autonomous “I” that plans, decides, and acts. This ego-self believes
itself to be the kartā (the doer). It picks up the chisel, surveys the raw wood of
circumstance, and begins to hack away according to its desires, fears, and
calculations.
Hamlet spent four acts doing precisely this. He rough-hewed furiously:
- He devised the play-within-a-play to trap Claudius
- He calculated when to strike and when to hesitate
- He philosophized endlessly about whether to act at all
And what did all this rough-hewing produce? Chaos. Mistaken killing. Broken
relationships. Near-annihilation.
The Advaitic teaching here is precise: the ego is real as appearance but not as
substance. It is like a wave that believes it is generating the ocean’s movement. It
hews and carves, but its cuts are always rough — approximate, distorted, limited by
its own ignorance of the whole. The jīva cannot see the totality because it is the act
of pretending to be separate from the totality. You cannot see the whole painting
while believing yourself to be only one brushstroke.
This is not a moral failure. It is the nature of individuation itself. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad
says: “The Self is not attained by the weak.” The weakness referred to is not physical
— it is the weakness of clinging to the ego’s rough-hewing as if it were the final
word on reality.
III. “The Divinity That Shapes” — Brahman as the Immanent Sculptor
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends…”
Now we arrive at the heart of the Advaitic mystery. What is this “divinity” that
shapes?
It is not an external God standing above creation, adjusting outcomes like a cosmic
bureaucrat. That would be dvaita — duality, two-ness. In Advaita, the Divinity that
shapes is Brahman itself, operating as the innermost reality of everything that
appears to happen. It is not separate from the rough-hewing. It is the very ground
within which the rough-hewing occurs — and it is simultaneously the one who knows
that rough-hewing is never the final act.
Śaṅkara would say: Brahman is both the material cause and the efficient cause of the
universe. Like gold that becomes ornaments without ceasing to be gold — the
ornaments appear different, but gold alone is real. Every “end” that is shaped —
every outcome, every death, every transformation — is Brahman alone, crystallizing
into form from its own infinite freedom.
This is why the shaping is so effortless and inevitable. It does not struggle against the
rough-hewing. It uses it. Every awkward cut the ego makes, every miscalculation,
every tragedy — Brahman absorbs it and shapes it into exactly what was needed for
the whole. The sculptor does not fight the chisel marks. She works with the grain of
the wood, which she herself laid down before the carpenter arrived.
IV. The Self Reveals Herself to Whom She Chooses — Ātman Prasāda
Here we arrive at the most luminous, and most humbling, dimension of this teaching.
The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad declares:
“Nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena। Yam evaiṣa
vṛṇute tena labhyas tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṃ svām॥”
“This Self is not attained by instruction, nor by intellect, nor by much hearing. It is
attained only by the one whom the Self chooses — to that one, the Self reveals its own
nature.”
This is perhaps the most radical statement in all of Vedāntic philosophy. And it
reframes Hamlet’s entire journey.
Hamlet spent the whole play trying to know — trying to verify the Ghost’s truth,
trying to understand his duty, trying to calculate the right moment. He brought great
intellect, great sensitivity, great moral seriousness. And none of it worked in the way
he intended. The knowledge he needed did not come through his efforts. It came
through a sea voyage, a near-death encounter, a pirate attack — through
circumstances entirely outside his planning.
And then, at the beginning of Act 5, he simply knows. A calm descends. He speaks of
providence with the ease of one who has stopped arguing with reality. He is ready.
The Self has chosen him.
From the Advaitic lens, what happened? The jīva Hamlet had exhausted its roughhewing.
The ego’s strategies had all collapsed. And in that exhaustion, in that
surrender — not as a strategy, but as a genuine letting-go — avidyā thinned. The veil
grew transparent. Brahman, which had always been Hamlet’s own deepest nature,
turned toward itself through the instrument of Hamlet’s readied consciousness.
The Self does not reveal itself as a reward for correct behavior. It reveals itself when
the ego becomes sufficiently transparent. Grace — prasāda — is not earned. It is
received. And the receiving is only possible when the clenched fist of the ego-self
relaxes its grip on rough-hewing.
V. Why “She Chooses” — The Feminine Ground of Being
To speak of the Self as She is to invoke Śakti — the dynamic, creative power of
Consciousness. In the non-dual Śākta interpretation of Advaita, Brahman’s power of
self-revelation is understood as intrinsically feminine — not in the gendered human
sense, but in the sense of that which receives, gestates, and births reality from within
itself.
Māyā — the power that veils Brahman — is feminine. And Anugraha Śakti — the
power that removes the veil — is also feminine. The same divine Mother who wraps
the world in the dream of separateness is the one who, in her grace, tears the veil
away.
This means the Self’s self-concealment and self-revelation are not opposites. They
are two movements of the same creative freedom. Brahman chooses to hide in order
that the joy of rediscovery can be complete. The rough-hewing is part of the plan.
The chaos is choreographed. The tragedy is embraced.
The “divinity that shapes our ends” is not a cold determinism. She is a Mother who
allows her children to wander, to build, to destroy, to suffer — because she knows
what they are, even when they have forgotten. She shapes the ends not by
preventing the rough-hewing but by ensuring that every rough mark ultimately
reveals the beauty of the finished form.
VI. Hamlet’s Enlightenment — The Shift into Sākṣī
Hamlet’s final equanimity — “the readiness is all” — is, in Advaitic terms, a
spontaneous shift from identifying as the kartā (doer) to resting as the sākṣī
(witness). He no longer needs the outcome to be controlled. He no longer needs
certainty. He acts when action is called, rests when rest is called, and accepts death
when death arrives — without any of it disturbing the stillness beneath.
This is not stoic resignation. The Stoic still believes the ego is real and chooses nobly
to endure. Hamlet’s shift is subtler and deeper: the ego has become transparent to
itself. He sees through the rough-hewing to the shaping beneath. He does not
become passive — he kills Claudius, he orchestrates the final scene — but he does so
without the contracted, desperate quality of his earlier scheming. He acts as an
instrument of the Whole.
In Advaita, this is called Jīvanmukti — liberation while still living. The body-mind
continues to function. The drama of life continues. But the one who believed they
were only the rough-hewer has recognized themselves as also the Divinity that
shapes. Subject and sculptor are one.
VII. The Final Integration
Shakespeare could not have known Advaita Vedānta. And yet he wrote this line, and
it carries the full weight of the tradition as though it were distilled from it. This is not
coincidence. It is evidence that certain recognitions are not cultural — they are
structural. They arise whenever human consciousness is pressed to its limit and
breaks open into something larger than itself.
The Divinity that shapes our ends is not other than us. It is the deepest stratum of
what we are — the Ātman, Brahman, the Self — appearing as destiny from outside,
because we forgot that we are inside it.
And She reveals Herself not when we have perfected our rough-hewing, but when we
love Her more than our own plans.
When the chisel drops — She speaks.
The Drama of Desire
A friend wrote, “Desire…
I realised drama we are all living in”,
Really, my friend, really you “realised?”,
But to realise is to realise that
There is no “We”.
Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to?
Do you know?
Do you get what you’re hoping for?
When you look behind you, there’s no open doors
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?
Now, looking back at all we’ve passed
We let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long before we see
How sad the answers to those questions can be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuMBl1peAlo
This Dream, This Life
Aw, shucks, this dream
This life, oh so unnecessary
Yet we keep dreaming
We keep living
As if we have no choice
Do we have a choice,
And is the choice only death
Some say the choice is immortality
But if it indeed is immortality
Immortality can have no beginning
So, right now it surely must be the case
That I am indeed already immortal
And being immortal
‘Tis strange that a mere dream
A mere life
Bugs me to no end.
“This unreality, oh this unreality…where neither love is true, nor the truth is true…oh this unreality.”
“Ah, to disappear, be submerged…”
The Passion and the Intezaar
When passion for you
Is no longer a passion
When passion for you
Is no longer in fashion
Know that
The wait is almost over.
Lekin intezaar bhi kahi baar
Bahut meetha hota hai
Intezaar may dard bhi kyu na ho
Aur tumhaari zindagi may
Ye ittefaq bhi ho sakti hai
Ye taqdeer bhi ho sakti hai
Jis pal pe tumhari zindagi hai
Aakar rukhi hai, tehri hai
Ab tum aur kuch lumhe
Sirf intezaar may bitana hai
Aur iss ittefaq ko, iss taqdeer ko
Galay lagaanay ke siva
Aur koi raasta nahi hai
Aur agar koi waisa raasta hai
Tumhari taqdeer may nahi hai
Ki tum uss raastay pe chal sakogay.
“When I read some poets, I feel like it is high time I stopped writing poetry, and left that job to the poets.”
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’
“Mending Wall” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall) is
one of Frost’s most celebrated poems, and these lines are among the most analyzed
in American poetry. Here’s a deep commentary from multiple angles.
The Lines in Context
These lines come near the end of the poem, spoken by the narrator as a
counterpoint to his neighbor’s repeated mantra: “Good fences make good neighbors.”
The narrator is the questioner, the skeptic, the one who wonders why the wall exists
at all.
Line by Line
“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out”
This is the poem’s central philosophical provocation. Frost draws on a binary that
cuts in two directions simultaneously:
Walling in — keeping something of yours contained, protected, defined.
Territory, identity, privacy, culture.
Walling out — excluding something foreign, threatening, or simply other.
The genius of phrasing it as a question is that the narrator admits he doesn’t always
know which is which. A wall built for protection can become a cage. A wall built for
exclusion can become a statement of fear. The act of building precedes the
understanding of the act — and Frost is warning against that.
There’s also a quiet confession here: the narrator says “I’d ask to know,” not “I’d
know.” He’s humble. He’s not claiming wisdom, only the willingness to pause and
question before acting.
“And to whom I was like to give offense”
This line introduces an ethical and social dimension. Walls don’t just affect the person
who builds them — they mean something to others. A wall is a message. It says: I
don’t trust you. You are not welcome here. This far, and no further.
The word “offense” is carefully chosen. It suggests that walls can wound — not
physically, but relationally and psychically. They can communicate contempt,
suspicion, or rejection without a word being spoken. Frost is nudging the reader to
think about walls not just as practical structures but as acts of communication, and
sometimes, acts of aggression.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That wants it down.”
This is the poem’s most famous line, and it opens and echoes throughout the poem
like a refrain. Notice Frost refuses to name what that “something” is — and that
refusal is deliberate and profound.
Nature? Earlier in the poem, frozen groundswell heaves the boulders apart every
winter. Nature literally dismantles the wall year after year, as if the earth itself resists
the partition.
Human nature? There’s a deep instinct toward connection, curiosity, and openness
in people — children especially. We are social animals. Something in us chafes at
barriers.
The cosmic or spiritual? Some readers hear in “something” a quasi-divine force — a
universe that tends toward unity, entropy, dissolution of artificial categories.
The unconscious? The vagueness of “something” is psychologically astute. We often
can’t name the part of ourselves that resists conformity, convention, or inherited
thinking — but it’s there, eroding our certainties.
By ending with “That wants it down,” Frost gives the force a kind of desire — almost
personifying it. The wall isn’t just falling apart; something wants it gone. This is
subversive and tender at once.
Thematic Angles
The Paradox of Community
The poem never actually argues that walls are bad. The narrator helps rebuild the
wall every spring! He participates in the very ritual he questions. This is Frost’s
honesty: we simultaneously crave connection and separation. The wall-mending is
itself a form of connection — the two men meet, work together, talk. The wall
enables the relationship in a strange way. So the lines aren’t a simple anti-wall
polemic; they’re an admission of complexity.
Individual vs. Inherited Tradition
The neighbor repeats his father’s saying: “Good fences make good neighbors.” He
thinks in proverbs; he doesn’t question. The narrator questions everything. These five
lines are essentially the voice of the Enlightenment — don’t build anything you can’t
justify rationally and ethically. The neighbor, by contrast, represents tradition,
continuity, inherited wisdom. Frost doesn’t entirely mock either. Both impulses are
human. Both have costs.
Political and Social Reading
Frost wrote this in 1914, but its political resonance never ages. Every era has its wall
debates — literal (border walls, ghetto walls, apartheid walls, the Berlin Wall) and
figurative (class walls, racial walls, cultural walls). The question “What I was walling in
or walling out?” is a haunting one for any nation or community grappling with
immigration, identity, or belonging. Who do we include? Who do we shut out? And
do we even know what we’re doing when we do it?
The Epistemological Angle
These lines are deeply concerned with knowledge before action — a Socratic impulse.
Don’t act on habit, tradition, or fear. Know what you’re doing and why. The narrator
doesn’t say walls are always wrong; he says building them without asking these
questions is reckless. This is a poem about the ethics of unreflective behaviour.
Frost’s Tone: Wry, Not Preachy
Crucially, Frost never lets the narrator become a moralist. He’s mischievous, a little
playful — he considers telling the neighbor that elves knocked the wall down, then
thinks better of it. The narrator’s wisdom is offered quietly, almost to himself. This
makes these lines feel like thinking aloud rather than lecturing, which is far more
persuasive and far more true to how genuine insight actually arrives.
In short, these five lines compress a whole philosophy: think before you divide,
consider who you hurt, and know that something in the world — in nature, in us — will
always push back against walls that exist without justification. That “something” is
never fully named because Frost understood that the best questions outlast their
answers.
“To attain Nirvana, now I need to do some juGod.”
“The very restlessness and attempting to become perfect is the imperfection.”
The Discovery
I have discovered the recipe for happiness
No, it is not owning the oil fields in Kuwait
Nor is it winning the John Bates Clark Medal
Nor the Merc parked in your driveway
Nor your byline in Sunday NYT
Simpler, far, far simpler than that
Just an evening at Roastery Coffee House in Banjara Hills
Sipping Cranberry Coffee and eating lasagna
What would double the happiness though
Is if a certain someone is in the opposite chair
Or we both in some other place
Else, it is just perfect, perfect.
“I have reached an age where if a girl smiles at me, I cannot read too many meanings in it.”
“Spending time with and understanding our children will make us understand philosophy faster than by reading any religious texts.”
“Love at first sight is a killing concept. But then dislike at first sight is a different kind of killing.”
“Just because you suspect you are wise; it does not mean your wisdom will be of a helluva lot useful when it comes to interpreting all the meanings in a smile. And, God’s photos and statues depict a smile on the face of the deity. Damn. It is hard enough interpreting the smile of a girl, now God is also smiling at us. Shit, we are screwed. No way we can know what life is all about.”
Think About These Things
One of the very few virtues that Ramana Maharshi extols is humility.
He says in his short book “Who Am I?”:
“To the extent we behave with humility, to that extent there will result good.”
Meanwhile, Nisargadatta Maharaj in his book “I Am That”, keeps saying repeatedly that the most important virtue is “earnestness”.
“When the mind is silent, any amount of speech and action do not vitiate that silence. Mind cannot be silent when there are desires in our being. Find out how to deal with desires.”
Betwixt Wise and Otherwise
Today’s morning comes
Like any other morning
It does not seem that different
Until I start thinking, feeling
Then, too, it does not seem that different
Unless I resist, protest, regret, wish for,
And why do I resists, protest, regret, wish for?
That seems to be the way things are
That seems to be our lot here on earth
Some may come and say things can be otherwise
Between this wise and otherwise I live my life.
“Sometimes, to be wise is to accept defeat. Why flow against the current of life?”
Suicidal Impulse
Today morning
I told a friend
“Come, let us go and commit suicide.”
“No,” the friend protested,
“I want to live and enjoy life.”
Now, I have to gather
The courage and wisdom
To travel alone
The journey cannot be given up
Just because
One’s companions want to rest.
“Duniya paison ke peeche baag rahi hai. Mai fursat ke peeche baag raha hoon. Paise bahut mushkil hai milna, mahnat karni padti hai. Fursat toh yoohee mil jaati hai, bina kuch kiye…kuch muth karo aur fursat pao…samjha karo kyunki ismay ek raaz chupi hai…lekin mai galat bhi ho sakta hoo…zindagi toh jua hai…aur judai bhi….”
“Truth divorced from love is no truth. Love divorced from truth is no love.”
“Don’t be an archaeologist. Don’t dig up the ruins of your past, otherwise you will be ruined.”
The Itch
The itch is
inside my heart.
But I am scratching the paper
with my pen.
“It was daffodils that flashed upon the inward eye of Wordsworth. On my inward eye, it is she who flashes.”
“To love someone truly is to give them the freedom to walk away from you without any guilt or regret should they want to.”
“Someone sang, the whole night your memory troubled me. My problem is far worse. Even the whole day her memory is troubling me.”
“Sitting here alone in this coffee shop, I am lost in thought, wondering what Donne meant.”
“Something shifted in me that day when she gave me that look and said, ‘Sam, I don’t see you nowadays’. Life is full of loose ends and some knots live on inside us.”
“I told her ye death ke baraay may zyada buk buk muth karo. Hum sab har raat aath ghante ke liye mar jaatay hai.”
“There seem to be different kinds of love. Oh, oh…just when thought you can stop going to the library.”
Cutting Out the Social Self
Sartre wrote, “Hell is other people.”
But, also at the level at which Sartre is speaking, it is also true that “Heaven is other people.”
But, at this social-self level, one gets stuck in a certain level of living where the dialogue “chal daaroo peeyingay” plays out in its various shades and nuances.
And that daaroo is not the wine that Sufis would have us drink.
And, it is this social self that makes you earn more money than we need, etc.
From this social self, you need to reach inside to find your true self.
The moment you leave your social self behind, then your thinking and emotions also are less in play because most of them are in service of our social self.
“No, Kirshna, I will wage war with my love and not with bows and arrows. Jesus knew something you did not. Besides, it is not my job to wage war against injustice with bows and arrows. Isn’t that your job as the creator of this universe, which you anyway you say you are. Remember what you said about being the creator of the four castes. Then, why you are passing the buck to me. Besides, you yourself say, ‘sambhavami yuge yuge’. Deal with it, Krishna, deal with it. After all, this world is your baby. Don’t instruct me. Leave me alone to me and my love.”
“Zindagi koi jung nahi. Sirf junglee loga waisay sonchthe hai. Mai pyaar ko itna samajh chuka hoon ki pata lag gaya hai ki jung sirf woh mushkilay kada karthi hai jo pahlay nahi the, aur jo mushkilay pahlay the unka hul teek say nahi kar paatha.”
“Ye kya jung jung kahthay phir rahay ho. Mai zindagi ko tukhratha hoo, kyunki mujhe woh zindagi nahi chahiyay jahaan mujhe jung may haasil hona padtha. Jung nahi ladnay say zyada se zyada sirf meri zindagi mujhse cheen jaayegi. Cheen lo jitna chahiya utna ye meri zindagi. Mai todi poocha pehale naa ab pooch raha hoo mujhe paida karo aur zinda rakho.”
“The mind says, ‘Look, look, there are so many problems, stay focused and awake.’ Heart says, ‘Chill, I have the solution to every problem’.”
The Darkness in My Soul
For too long I have seen
The sun in me eclipsed
By something or the other that comes,
Some emotion, some yearning, some dreaming,
Between me and the truth that be
That light, that love, that beauty
Slowly I begin to see far too clearly
This flight outward that gnaws at my soul
That waits for the right consonance, right season
Waits and waits but waits in vain
Thwarted by some destiny that I cannot control
I learn to let go, knowing I can control
Neither my destiny nor that of others.
I thought I had left them all behind
That some emotion, some yearning, some dreaming
Back in the stormy days of my confused youth
Why are they coming back again to me
As if I am still accountable for I know not what.
Who was Arjuna?
Arjuna is anyone in this world who is NOT content to just keep the body alive but also seeks to keep the mind and heart alive.
Such a one finds himself having to fight many a battle on many a Kurukshetra.
Hence also such a one will keep needing the counsel of a Kirshna.
But the Arjuna who is content to keep just the body alive and lets go of the mind and heart, has no battles to fight nor has any need for any Krishna.
Understand this and not any other Gita, be that Gita of Kirshna or Ashtavakra.
👍🏼 just the B and when the pot breaks you are one with the rest of the only consciousness.
Yes.
Even before the pot (B) breaks, what keeps the illusion that you are NOT right now one with the rest of the only consciousness is ONLY the mind and heart.
When the mind and heart are NOT in play, then the illusion of separation also does NOT exist.
Like in deep sleep
Yes.
Perfectly said.
That is why, Ramana Maharshi said, “What happened in sleep is your real nature.” (Talk 304)
In many places in his Talks book, the Maharshi says something to the effect of deep sleep is NOT ignorance but reality itself.
That is why he says, one has to be in the state of wakeful sleep or jagrat sushupti.
#Arjuna #Disillusionment #Enlightenment #faith #Gita #God #Happiness #Life #Love #Philosophy #PhilosophyOfLife #Poem #Poetry #QuotableQuotes #Quotes #Retirmeent #Sadness #Spirituality #Truth #WorkLife -
If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be
If no one died because of War — how different would worlds appear to be.
You may wonder why there is so much trouble in this world. Some would say religion is the cause of all that trouble, but they should know that there are more killings by non-religious terror acts or secular related violence.
Man also should know he can do a lot to avoid friction and war. We have more in our hands than we think. In case more people would keep to the teachings of the Word of God we would already have a much better world and more peaceful to live in.
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The year 2017 opened with people doing their utmost best to bring division between religious people. Men like Donald Trump who bring ridiculous measures which do not make sense, like not allowing people from different Muslim countries but those from the state who pays a lot of money to jihad fighters are allowed to enter the U.S.A. like they never provided terrorists for September 9 2001. It seems suddenly the president of the United States of America and lost of its citizens do not remember that attack any more or do not see any more the connection with Saudi Arabia. The cradle of the extreme Muslim faith stays untouched whilst people coming form other and often moderate groups or even Muslims who flee the conservative Muslim teachings are refused to enter the Courtney.
English: Tomb of Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The land which was once the land of the free where many sought to find better pastures, has now lots of egoist citizens who have forgotten their ancestors roots. Many, not to say most of them, forget they once came from refugees and from people leaving their country because it was not offering what they wanted or hoped for. Now when their over-grand-kids have it so good they hate it to share some of their goodness and richness with others.
I may be that we are facing coming difficult times. For sure we can see that lots of people who have it grand, and not have to worry about daily food and water and not having to face the horror of war, can not find themselves willing to come to help those in need. And everyone seems to be preoccupied and worried. Strange in the land where we can find a huge Bible-belt and hear from so many ‘active Christians’ we can see the least Christian attitude.
When more politicians in Europe also want to frighten people for the Muslim community and the Jewish community and want to bring on more protectionist regulations for their own country instead of working together making good commercial treaties, the world is going to become in a bigger mess. Many also have forgotten how some of the immigrants made their country big (look at those international corporations like Apple, Google). Many Americans seem to forget how the labour-force from outside is also important and how those immigrants and manufactures are as necessary to their independence as to their comfort.
Followers of Jesus Christ, who regularly read the Bible can see many signs which should worry but also could us make us more pleased that a certain time is coming closer.
Withstanding we should do our utmost best to preach peach. We should do everything to show others the Way to God and the way for being able to live in peace. They do know that the world is now in the hands of man but in the end it shall always be God which has everything under control.
— to see — to hear — to here — to know —
It is no dream,we have to get out of our own cocoon and egoistic dreams, stepping into the world and showing that there are better ways than the political escapades.
We are clearly coming into days that the prophecies of ancient times are again of such importance like at the time when Jesus was born.
In a way we should not worry for tomorrow, because we do know God has a Plan and His Plan shall come to into existence whatever man may do to break it down or to kill the followers of His sent one.
Bible readers do know there will be signs and are able to come to see sings, enabling them to prepare for a big time of unrest and turmoil. We should all know that we are going to head to that World War III. How we shall be able to cope with it and perhaps to survive or even shall not have to be afraid to die in it, followers of Jesus do know he is the way and that his heavenly Father is the Most High we can trust. In Him we do trust and have placed our hope for a better future.“9 Jehovah also will be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble; 10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; For thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psalms 9:9-10 ASV)
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Additional reading
- If there is bitterness in the heart
- Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
- God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
- Do the appropriate for a friend
- A small trouble is like a pebble
- She who sows thistles will reap prickles
- A Breath for tomorrow
- Trouble is coming
- High time to show the way to peace
- Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
- The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
- Stronger than anything that wants to destroy
- ISIL will find no safe haven
- Caliphs and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government
- Funding of ISIS
- Is ISIS a product of American in-action or a product of direct action
- From the Ramadan into the eid
- Honest-hearted people are losing faith in humanity and humanity losing faith in God
- Darkest just before dawn
- When will it stop
- How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
- You Matter
- Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
- God’s wrath and sanctification
- People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
- Helping websites to prepare for the last days
- How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God
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Further reading
- The People, The Press, The President: Breaking Down Walls
- Trump storm lands Theresa May in trouble over state visit inviteToday’s Thought: Drifting Towards the ColdIn Times of Trouble 28 january 2017
- When it all becomes too much to bear…
- Drowning in chaos
- The Internet Is Having a Field Day With This Photo of President Trump
- A Few Thoughts on Trump’s Executive Order on ImmigrationResearch Libraries, University Presses Oppose Trump’s Immigration Order American Film Institute Backs Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi, Denounces Trump’s Travel Ban
- Trump Will Nominate Self To Supreme Court
- Democrats’ Legal Wars with Trump Administration Have Begun
- Anti-Trump protesters aim to be ‘the left-wing tea party’
- ISIS try to capitalise off Trump
- Stand Up Against Trump Demonstration
- Dutch government opposes Trump’s xenophobic border controls
- Bringing up a child in the time of Trump
- Not Me Worry
- Monday Mayhem: Beat the Blues by Doing Good
- Don’t Worry
- Words of Life–Psalm 9:9,10
- Psalm 81: Remember, then praise
- Ungrateful Me
- The Little Things
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- What Does it Really Mean to Be a Radical Follower of Jesus?
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#2017 #BibleBeltUnitedStates_ #BibleReaderS_ #ChristianAttitude #Division #DonaldTrump #Europe #FollowersOfChrist #GodsPlan #HelpingOthers #HorrorOfWar #Immigrants #LandOfTheFree #Peace #Politicians #Preaching #Protectionism #Refugees #ReligiousPeople #SaudiArabia #theOnesInNeed #theWayToGod #theWayToPeace #toPreach #toPrepare #TrustGod #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Violence #War #WorldWarIII
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If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be
If no one died because of War — how different would worlds appear to be.
You may wonder why there is so much trouble in this world. Some would say religion is the cause of all that trouble, but they should know that there are more killings by non-religious terror acts or secular related violence.
Man also should know he can do a lot to avoid friction and war. We have more in our hands than we think. In case more people would keep to the teachings of the Word of God we would already have a much better world and more peaceful to live in.
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The year 2017 opened with people doing their utmost best to bring division between religious people. Men like Donald Trump who bring ridiculous measures which do not make sense, like not allowing people from different Muslim countries but those from the state who pays a lot of money to jihad fighters are allowed to enter the U.S.A. like they never provided terrorists for September 9 2001. It seems suddenly the president of the United States of America and lost of its citizens do not remember that attack any more or do not see any more the connection with Saudi Arabia. The cradle of the extreme Muslim faith stays untouched whilst people coming form other and often moderate groups or even Muslims who flee the conservative Muslim teachings are refused to enter the Courtney.
English: Tomb of Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The land which was once the land of the free where many sought to find better pastures, has now lots of egoist citizens who have forgotten their ancestors roots. Many, not to say most of them, forget they once came from refugees and from people leaving their country because it was not offering what they wanted or hoped for. Now when their over-grand-kids have it so good they hate it to share some of their goodness and richness with others.
I may be that we are facing coming difficult times. For sure we can see that lots of people who have it grand, and not have to worry about daily food and water and not having to face the horror of war, can not find themselves willing to come to help those in need. And everyone seems to be preoccupied and worried. Strange in the land where we can find a huge Bible-belt and hear from so many ‘active Christians’ we can see the least Christian attitude.
When more politicians in Europe also want to frighten people for the Muslim community and the Jewish community and want to bring on more protectionist regulations for their own country instead of working together making good commercial treaties, the world is going to become in a bigger mess. Many also have forgotten how some of the immigrants made their country big (look at those international corporations like Apple, Google). Many Americans seem to forget how the labour-force from outside is also important and how those immigrants and manufactures are as necessary to their independence as to their comfort.
Followers of Jesus Christ, who regularly read the Bible can see many signs which should worry but also could us make us more pleased that a certain time is coming closer.
Withstanding we should do our utmost best to preach peach. We should do everything to show others the Way to God and the way for being able to live in peace. They do know that the world is now in the hands of man but in the end it shall always be God which has everything under control.
— to see — to hear — to here — to know —
It is no dream,we have to get out of our own cocoon and egoistic dreams, stepping into the world and showing that there are better ways than the political escapades.
We are clearly coming into days that the prophecies of ancient times are again of such importance like at the time when Jesus was born.
In a way we should not worry for tomorrow, because we do know God has a Plan and His Plan shall come to into existence whatever man may do to break it down or to kill the followers of His sent one.
Bible readers do know there will be signs and are able to come to see sings, enabling them to prepare for a big time of unrest and turmoil. We should all know that we are going to head to that World War III. How we shall be able to cope with it and perhaps to survive or even shall not have to be afraid to die in it, followers of Jesus do know he is the way and that his heavenly Father is the Most High we can trust. In Him we do trust and have placed our hope for a better future.“9 Jehovah also will be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble; 10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; For thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psalms 9:9-10 ASV)
++
Additional reading
- If there is bitterness in the heart
- Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
- God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
- Do the appropriate for a friend
- A small trouble is like a pebble
- She who sows thistles will reap prickles
- A Breath for tomorrow
- Trouble is coming
- High time to show the way to peace
- Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
- The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
- Stronger than anything that wants to destroy
- ISIL will find no safe haven
- Caliphs and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government
- Funding of ISIS
- Is ISIS a product of American in-action or a product of direct action
- From the Ramadan into the eid
- Honest-hearted people are losing faith in humanity and humanity losing faith in God
- Darkest just before dawn
- When will it stop
- How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
- You Matter
- Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
- God’s wrath and sanctification
- People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
- Helping websites to prepare for the last days
- How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God
+++
Further reading
- The People, The Press, The President: Breaking Down Walls
- Trump storm lands Theresa May in trouble over state visit inviteToday’s Thought: Drifting Towards the ColdIn Times of Trouble 28 january 2017
- When it all becomes too much to bear…
- Drowning in chaos
- The Internet Is Having a Field Day With This Photo of President Trump
- A Few Thoughts on Trump’s Executive Order on ImmigrationResearch Libraries, University Presses Oppose Trump’s Immigration Order American Film Institute Backs Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi, Denounces Trump’s Travel Ban
- Trump Will Nominate Self To Supreme Court
- Democrats’ Legal Wars with Trump Administration Have Begun
- Anti-Trump protesters aim to be ‘the left-wing tea party’
- ISIS try to capitalise off Trump
- Stand Up Against Trump Demonstration
- Dutch government opposes Trump’s xenophobic border controls
- Bringing up a child in the time of Trump
- Not Me Worry
- Monday Mayhem: Beat the Blues by Doing Good
- Don’t Worry
- Words of Life–Psalm 9:9,10
- Psalm 81: Remember, then praise
- Ungrateful Me
- The Little Things
+++
Related articles
- Track of the Day: ‘Democracy’ by Leonard Cohen
- Trump’s nominee for Commerce secretary calls himself ‘pro-trade’ so long as it’s ‘sensible-trade’
- Actors’ acceptance speeches at SAG awards turn into protest against Trump Muslim ban
- What’s Your Message To President-Elect Donald Trump?
- Celebrities React to Donald Trump’s Inauguration
- President Trump has officially taken over @POTUS
- Top 10 Reasons President Trump Will Be A Great Success
- Different perspectives on Donald Trump from our international team
- There is still no date when May or Johnson will meet Trump
- What Does it Really Mean to Be a Radical Follower of Jesus?
Rate this:
#2017 #BibleBeltUnitedStates_ #BibleReaderS_ #ChristianAttitude #Division #DonaldTrump #Europe #FollowersOfChrist #GodsPlan #HelpingOthers #HorrorOfWar #Immigrants #LandOfTheFree #Peace #Politicians #Preaching #Protectionism #Refugees #ReligiousPeople #SaudiArabia #theOnesInNeed #theWayToGod #theWayToPeace #toPreach #toPrepare #TrustGod #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Violence #War #WorldWarIII
-
If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be
If no one died because of War — how different would worlds appear to be.
You may wonder why there is so much trouble in this world. Some would say religion is the cause of all that trouble, but they should know that there are more killings by non-religious terror acts or secular related violence.
Man also should know he can do a lot to avoid friction and war. We have more in our hands than we think. In case more people would keep to the teachings of the Word of God we would already have a much better world and more peaceful to live in.
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The year 2017 opened with people doing their utmost best to bring division between religious people. Men like Donald Trump who bring ridiculous measures which do not make sense, like not allowing people from different Muslim countries but those from the state who pays a lot of money to jihad fighters are allowed to enter the U.S.A. like they never provided terrorists for September 9 2001. It seems suddenly the president of the United States of America and lost of its citizens do not remember that attack any more or do not see any more the connection with Saudi Arabia. The cradle of the extreme Muslim faith stays untouched whilst people coming form other and often moderate groups or even Muslims who flee the conservative Muslim teachings are refused to enter the Courtney.
English: Tomb of Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The land which was once the land of the free where many sought to find better pastures, has now lots of egoist citizens who have forgotten their ancestors roots. Many, not to say most of them, forget they once came from refugees and from people leaving their country because it was not offering what they wanted or hoped for. Now when their over-grand-kids have it so good they hate it to share some of their goodness and richness with others.
I may be that we are facing coming difficult times. For sure we can see that lots of people who have it grand, and not have to worry about daily food and water and not having to face the horror of war, can not find themselves willing to come to help those in need. And everyone seems to be preoccupied and worried. Strange in the land where we can find a huge Bible-belt and hear from so many ‘active Christians’ we can see the least Christian attitude.
When more politicians in Europe also want to frighten people for the Muslim community and the Jewish community and want to bring on more protectionist regulations for their own country instead of working together making good commercial treaties, the world is going to become in a bigger mess. Many also have forgotten how some of the immigrants made their country big (look at those international corporations like Apple, Google). Many Americans seem to forget how the labour-force from outside is also important and how those immigrants and manufactures are as necessary to their independence as to their comfort.
Followers of Jesus Christ, who regularly read the Bible can see many signs which should worry but also could us make us more pleased that a certain time is coming closer.
Withstanding we should do our utmost best to preach peach. We should do everything to show others the Way to God and the way for being able to live in peace. They do know that the world is now in the hands of man but in the end it shall always be God which has everything under control.
— to see — to hear — to here — to know —
It is no dream,we have to get out of our own cocoon and egoistic dreams, stepping into the world and showing that there are better ways than the political escapades.
We are clearly coming into days that the prophecies of ancient times are again of such importance like at the time when Jesus was born.
In a way we should not worry for tomorrow, because we do know God has a Plan and His Plan shall come to into existence whatever man may do to break it down or to kill the followers of His sent one.
Bible readers do know there will be signs and are able to come to see sings, enabling them to prepare for a big time of unrest and turmoil. We should all know that we are going to head to that World War III. How we shall be able to cope with it and perhaps to survive or even shall not have to be afraid to die in it, followers of Jesus do know he is the way and that his heavenly Father is the Most High we can trust. In Him we do trust and have placed our hope for a better future.“9 Jehovah also will be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble; 10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; For thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psalms 9:9-10 ASV)
++
Additional reading
- If there is bitterness in the heart
- Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
- God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
- Do the appropriate for a friend
- A small trouble is like a pebble
- She who sows thistles will reap prickles
- A Breath for tomorrow
- Trouble is coming
- High time to show the way to peace
- Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
- The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
- Stronger than anything that wants to destroy
- ISIL will find no safe haven
- Caliphs and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government
- Funding of ISIS
- Is ISIS a product of American in-action or a product of direct action
- From the Ramadan into the eid
- Honest-hearted people are losing faith in humanity and humanity losing faith in God
- Darkest just before dawn
- When will it stop
- How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
- You Matter
- Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
- God’s wrath and sanctification
- People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
- Helping websites to prepare for the last days
- How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God
+++
Further reading
- The People, The Press, The President: Breaking Down Walls
- Trump storm lands Theresa May in trouble over state visit inviteToday’s Thought: Drifting Towards the ColdIn Times of Trouble 28 january 2017
- When it all becomes too much to bear…
- Drowning in chaos
- The Internet Is Having a Field Day With This Photo of President Trump
- A Few Thoughts on Trump’s Executive Order on ImmigrationResearch Libraries, University Presses Oppose Trump’s Immigration Order American Film Institute Backs Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi, Denounces Trump’s Travel Ban
- Trump Will Nominate Self To Supreme Court
- Democrats’ Legal Wars with Trump Administration Have Begun
- Anti-Trump protesters aim to be ‘the left-wing tea party’
- ISIS try to capitalise off Trump
- Stand Up Against Trump Demonstration
- Dutch government opposes Trump’s xenophobic border controls
- Bringing up a child in the time of Trump
- Not Me Worry
- Monday Mayhem: Beat the Blues by Doing Good
- Don’t Worry
- Words of Life–Psalm 9:9,10
- Psalm 81: Remember, then praise
- Ungrateful Me
- The Little Things
+++
Related articles
- Track of the Day: ‘Democracy’ by Leonard Cohen
- Trump’s nominee for Commerce secretary calls himself ‘pro-trade’ so long as it’s ‘sensible-trade’
- Actors’ acceptance speeches at SAG awards turn into protest against Trump Muslim ban
- What’s Your Message To President-Elect Donald Trump?
- Celebrities React to Donald Trump’s Inauguration
- President Trump has officially taken over @POTUS
- Top 10 Reasons President Trump Will Be A Great Success
- Different perspectives on Donald Trump from our international team
- There is still no date when May or Johnson will meet Trump
- What Does it Really Mean to Be a Radical Follower of Jesus?
Rate this:
#2017 #BibleBeltUnitedStates_ #BibleReaderS_ #ChristianAttitude #Division #DonaldTrump #Europe #FollowersOfChrist #GodsPlan #HelpingOthers #HorrorOfWar #Immigrants #LandOfTheFree #Peace #Politicians #Preaching #Protectionism #Refugees #ReligiousPeople #SaudiArabia #theOnesInNeed #theWayToGod #theWayToPeace #toPreach #toPrepare #TrustGod #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Violence #War #WorldWarIII
-
If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be
If no one died because of War — how different would worlds appear to be.
You may wonder why there is so much trouble in this world. Some would say religion is the cause of all that trouble, but they should know that there are more killings by non-religious terror acts or secular related violence.
Man also should know he can do a lot to avoid friction and war. We have more in our hands than we think. In case more people would keep to the teachings of the Word of God we would already have a much better world and more peaceful to live in.
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The year 2017 opened with people doing their utmost best to bring division between religious people. Men like Donald Trump who bring ridiculous measures which do not make sense, like not allowing people from different Muslim countries but those from the state who pays a lot of money to jihad fighters are allowed to enter the U.S.A. like they never provided terrorists for September 9 2001. It seems suddenly the president of the United States of America and lost of its citizens do not remember that attack any more or do not see any more the connection with Saudi Arabia. The cradle of the extreme Muslim faith stays untouched whilst people coming form other and often moderate groups or even Muslims who flee the conservative Muslim teachings are refused to enter the Courtney.
English: Tomb of Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The land which was once the land of the free where many sought to find better pastures, has now lots of egoist citizens who have forgotten their ancestors roots. Many, not to say most of them, forget they once came from refugees and from people leaving their country because it was not offering what they wanted or hoped for. Now when their over-grand-kids have it so good they hate it to share some of their goodness and richness with others.
I may be that we are facing coming difficult times. For sure we can see that lots of people who have it grand, and not have to worry about daily food and water and not having to face the horror of war, can not find themselves willing to come to help those in need. And everyone seems to be preoccupied and worried. Strange in the land where we can find a huge Bible-belt and hear from so many ‘active Christians’ we can see the least Christian attitude.
When more politicians in Europe also want to frighten people for the Muslim community and the Jewish community and want to bring on more protectionist regulations for their own country instead of working together making good commercial treaties, the world is going to become in a bigger mess. Many also have forgotten how some of the immigrants made their country big (look at those international corporations like Apple, Google). Many Americans seem to forget how the labour-force from outside is also important and how those immigrants and manufactures are as necessary to their independence as to their comfort.
Followers of Jesus Christ, who regularly read the Bible can see many signs which should worry but also could us make us more pleased that a certain time is coming closer.
Withstanding we should do our utmost best to preach peach. We should do everything to show others the Way to God and the way for being able to live in peace. They do know that the world is now in the hands of man but in the end it shall always be God which has everything under control.
— to see — to hear — to here — to know —
It is no dream,we have to get out of our own cocoon and egoistic dreams, stepping into the world and showing that there are better ways than the political escapades.
We are clearly coming into days that the prophecies of ancient times are again of such importance like at the time when Jesus was born.
In a way we should not worry for tomorrow, because we do know God has a Plan and His Plan shall come to into existence whatever man may do to break it down or to kill the followers of His sent one.
Bible readers do know there will be signs and are able to come to see sings, enabling them to prepare for a big time of unrest and turmoil. We should all know that we are going to head to that World War III. How we shall be able to cope with it and perhaps to survive or even shall not have to be afraid to die in it, followers of Jesus do know he is the way and that his heavenly Father is the Most High we can trust. In Him we do trust and have placed our hope for a better future.“9 Jehovah also will be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble; 10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; For thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psalms 9:9-10 ASV)
++
Additional reading
- If there is bitterness in the heart
- Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
- God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
- Do the appropriate for a friend
- A small trouble is like a pebble
- She who sows thistles will reap prickles
- A Breath for tomorrow
- Trouble is coming
- High time to show the way to peace
- Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
- The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
- Stronger than anything that wants to destroy
- ISIL will find no safe haven
- Caliphs and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government
- Funding of ISIS
- Is ISIS a product of American in-action or a product of direct action
- From the Ramadan into the eid
- Honest-hearted people are losing faith in humanity and humanity losing faith in God
- Darkest just before dawn
- When will it stop
- How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
- You Matter
- Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
- God’s wrath and sanctification
- People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
- Helping websites to prepare for the last days
- How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God
+++
Further reading
- The People, The Press, The President: Breaking Down Walls
- Trump storm lands Theresa May in trouble over state visit inviteToday’s Thought: Drifting Towards the ColdIn Times of Trouble 28 january 2017
- When it all becomes too much to bear…
- Drowning in chaos
- The Internet Is Having a Field Day With This Photo of President Trump
- A Few Thoughts on Trump’s Executive Order on ImmigrationResearch Libraries, University Presses Oppose Trump’s Immigration Order American Film Institute Backs Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi, Denounces Trump’s Travel Ban
- Trump Will Nominate Self To Supreme Court
- Democrats’ Legal Wars with Trump Administration Have Begun
- Anti-Trump protesters aim to be ‘the left-wing tea party’
- ISIS try to capitalise off Trump
- Stand Up Against Trump Demonstration
- Dutch government opposes Trump’s xenophobic border controls
- Bringing up a child in the time of Trump
- Not Me Worry
- Monday Mayhem: Beat the Blues by Doing Good
- Don’t Worry
- Words of Life–Psalm 9:9,10
- Psalm 81: Remember, then praise
- Ungrateful Me
- The Little Things
+++
Related articles
- Track of the Day: ‘Democracy’ by Leonard Cohen
- Trump’s nominee for Commerce secretary calls himself ‘pro-trade’ so long as it’s ‘sensible-trade’
- Actors’ acceptance speeches at SAG awards turn into protest against Trump Muslim ban
- What’s Your Message To President-Elect Donald Trump?
- Celebrities React to Donald Trump’s Inauguration
- President Trump has officially taken over @POTUS
- Top 10 Reasons President Trump Will Be A Great Success
- Different perspectives on Donald Trump from our international team
- There is still no date when May or Johnson will meet Trump
- What Does it Really Mean to Be a Radical Follower of Jesus?
Rate this:
#2017 #BibleBeltUnitedStates_ #BibleReaderS_ #ChristianAttitude #Division #DonaldTrump #Europe #FollowersOfChrist #GodsPlan #HelpingOthers #HorrorOfWar #Immigrants #LandOfTheFree #Peace #Politicians #Preaching #Protectionism #Refugees #ReligiousPeople #SaudiArabia #theOnesInNeed #theWayToGod #theWayToPeace #toPreach #toPrepare #TrustGod #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Violence #War #WorldWarIII
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Ravager – From Us with Hate Review
By Lavender Larcenist
What can one reasonably say that hasn’t already been proclaimed in the halls of AMG over and over again about throwback thrash bands? In a genre that continues to pump out music for over forty years, breaking the mold is like chiseling out of your prison cell with a spoon. Doable? Maybe. But true escape is improbable. Germany’s Ravager peddles in the same stylistic trappings that you have seen a million times before from bands like Havok, Lich King, Warbringer, Gamma Bomb, and so, so many others before them. While many of these throwback acts ended up evolving their sounds and peeling themselves free of the mozzarella mosh of pizza thrash, will Ravager do the same on their fourth LP, From Us with Hate? Or, is it doomed to rest alongside the proverbial pineapple topping, as loathed as it is loved?
How does one even begin to talk about a band like Ravager without reaching for the same old cliches? You have heard all this music before; nothing here will surprise you, especially if you enjoy fast-paced, no-frills thrash with mostly generic lyrics about fighting the system, living hard, and loving metal. During my review, I decided to spin From Us with Hate while playing some rounds of Helldivers 2 (the title of a popular co-op video game for you olde folks). Ravager’s style of no-holds-barred violence, combined with its oddly uplifting lyrical themes, made it a perfect match for the on-screen chaos. But really, this would work for almost any high-octane experience; driving fast, working out, sitting on your ass shooting aliens in a video game, you name it. I couldn’t help but crack a smile as the cheesy yet earnest lyrics of “Alone We Won’t Survive” matched up perfectly with the actions in the game, as I rescued a hapless rookie player from the jaws of death. The best thing I can say is From Us with Hate makes for a decent soundtrack when mowing down alien bugs in a sci-fi fascist hellscape.
Ravager plays to all the thrash tropes. The opening track, “Freaks Out of Control,” starts like many genre staples before it: a slow kick drum lead with a little high hat that rolls into a rollicking riff. In fairness, each band member fills their respective role well, and Marcel Lehr and Dario Rosenberg’s dual guitar assault is a highlight. From Us With Hate is full of tight riffs and ripping speed. “Aggressive Music for Aggressive People,” the title track, and “Legends of the Lightning” are all fun, easy-to-digest thrash staples that get the blood going even if they don’t break the mold. Vocalist Phillip Herbst sounds dangerously close to Lich King’s Tom Martin, and it seems like he might crack at any given time. The vocals sound strained throughout, and rarely change things up outside of a few inspired moments and catchy choruses, such as on “Curse the Living, Hail the Dead” and “Defender.” While Ravager plays with that “barely keeping this thing on the tracks” energy that epitomizes great thrash, it misses elsewhere. It is clear they have more than enough heart, but the songwriting doesn’t quite match it.
Thankfully, the band’s latest is competently played and features tight production (although the bass is occasionally lost in frustrating ways). Album closer “Defender” is stuffed with tight riffing from Lehr and Rosenberg as well as some standout lead work and multiple blistering tag-team solos from the guitar duo. Herbst never breaks the mold, but competently trucks alongside the bouncing groove of the tracks. Vocals remain the weakest element overall, and the album’s closing cover of Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood” highlights this with Herbst’s voice sounding as if it is going to crack at any point in the song, especially in the chorus.
I appreciate a band that knows their whole schtick is a little silly without making themselves the butt of the joke. Every Ravager album cover is adorned with its goofy snake man, as buff as post-crisis Batman, and clad in ripped jeans and sneakers, but the music itself never becomes too silly. From Us With Hate is the record you’ve heard many times before, and tolerance may vary as a result. If you love throwback thrash bands and eat up anything in the genre, Ravager will keep you sated like a familiar piece of pepperoni pizza at your local shop. If, like me, you are over this style of played-out retro worship, From Us with Hate is just empty calories.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Iron Shield Records
Websites: ravager.bandcamp.com | ravager-thrash.de | facebook.com/ravagerthrash
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025#25 #2025 #GammaBomb #GermanMetal #Havok #IronShieldRecords #LichKing #Ravager #Review #Reviews #romUsWithHateReview #Sep25 #ThrashMetal #Warbringer
-
Ravager – From Us with Hate Review
By Lavender Larcenist
What can one reasonably say that hasn’t already been proclaimed in the halls of AMG over and over again about throwback thrash bands? In a genre that continues to pump out music for over forty years, breaking the mold is like chiseling out of your prison cell with a spoon. Doable? Maybe. But true escape is improbable. Germany’s Ravager peddles in the same stylistic trappings that you have seen a million times before from bands like Havok, Lich King, Warbringer, Gamma Bomb, and so, so many others before them. While many of these throwback acts ended up evolving their sounds and peeling themselves free of the mozzarella mosh of pizza thrash, will Ravager do the same on their fourth LP, From Us with Hate? Or, is it doomed to rest alongside the proverbial pineapple topping, as loathed as it is loved?
How does one even begin to talk about a band like Ravager without reaching for the same old cliches? You have heard all this music before; nothing here will surprise you, especially if you enjoy fast-paced, no-frills thrash with mostly generic lyrics about fighting the system, living hard, and loving metal. During my review, I decided to spin From Us with Hate while playing some rounds of Helldivers 2 (the title of a popular co-op video game for you olde folks). Ravager’s style of no-holds-barred violence, combined with its oddly uplifting lyrical themes, made it a perfect match for the on-screen chaos. But really, this would work for almost any high-octane experience; driving fast, working out, sitting on your ass shooting aliens in a video game, you name it. I couldn’t help but crack a smile as the cheesy yet earnest lyrics of “Alone We Won’t Survive” matched up perfectly with the actions in the game, as I rescued a hapless rookie player from the jaws of death. The best thing I can say is From Us with Hate makes for a decent soundtrack when mowing down alien bugs in a sci-fi fascist hellscape.
Ravager plays to all the thrash tropes. The opening track, “Freaks Out of Control,” starts like many genre staples before it: a slow kick drum lead with a little high hat that rolls into a rollicking riff. In fairness, each band member fills their respective role well, and Marcel Lehr and Dario Rosenberg’s dual guitar assault is a highlight. From Us With Hate is full of tight riffs and ripping speed. “Aggressive Music for Aggressive People,” the title track, and “Legends of the Lightning” are all fun, easy-to-digest thrash staples that get the blood going even if they don’t break the mold. Vocalist Phillip Herbst sounds dangerously close to Lich King’s Tom Martin, and it seems like he might crack at any given time. The vocals sound strained throughout, and rarely change things up outside of a few inspired moments and catchy choruses, such as on “Curse the Living, Hail the Dead” and “Defender.” While Ravager plays with that “barely keeping this thing on the tracks” energy that epitomizes great thrash, it misses elsewhere. It is clear they have more than enough heart, but the songwriting doesn’t quite match it.
Thankfully, the band’s latest is competently played and features tight production (although the bass is occasionally lost in frustrating ways). Album closer “Defender” is stuffed with tight riffing from Lehr and Rosenberg as well as some standout lead work and multiple blistering tag-team solos from the guitar duo. Herbst never breaks the mold, but competently trucks alongside the bouncing groove of the tracks. Vocals remain the weakest element overall, and the album’s closing cover of Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood” highlights this with Herbst’s voice sounding as if it is going to crack at any point in the song, especially in the chorus.
I appreciate a band that knows their whole schtick is a little silly without making themselves the butt of the joke. Every Ravager album cover is adorned with its goofy snake man, as buff as post-crisis Batman, and clad in ripped jeans and sneakers, but the music itself never becomes too silly. From Us With Hate is the record you’ve heard many times before, and tolerance may vary as a result. If you love throwback thrash bands and eat up anything in the genre, Ravager will keep you sated like a familiar piece of pepperoni pizza at your local shop. If, like me, you are over this style of played-out retro worship, From Us with Hate is just empty calories.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Iron Shield Records
Websites: ravager.bandcamp.com | ravager-thrash.de | facebook.com/ravagerthrash
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025#25 #2025 #GammaBomb #GermanMetal #Havok #IronShieldRecords #LichKing #Ravager #Review #Reviews #romUsWithHateReview #Sep25 #ThrashMetal #Warbringer
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Ravager – From Us with Hate Review
By Lavender Larcenist
What can one reasonably say that hasn’t already been proclaimed in the halls of AMG over and over again about throwback thrash bands? In a genre that continues to pump out music for over forty years, breaking the mold is like chiseling out of your prison cell with a spoon. Doable? Maybe. But true escape is improbable. Germany’s Ravager peddles in the same stylistic trappings that you have seen a million times before from bands like Havok, Lich King, Warbringer, Gamma Bomb, and so, so many others before them. While many of these throwback acts ended up evolving their sounds and peeling themselves free of the mozzarella mosh of pizza thrash, will Ravager do the same on their fourth LP, From Us with Hate? Or, is it doomed to rest alongside the proverbial pineapple topping, as loathed as it is loved?
How does one even begin to talk about a band like Ravager without reaching for the same old cliches? You have heard all this music before; nothing here will surprise you, especially if you enjoy fast-paced, no-frills thrash with mostly generic lyrics about fighting the system, living hard, and loving metal. During my review, I decided to spin From Us with Hate while playing some rounds of Helldivers 2 (the title of a popular co-op video game for you olde folks). Ravager’s style of no-holds-barred violence, combined with its oddly uplifting lyrical themes, made it a perfect match for the on-screen chaos. But really, this would work for almost any high-octane experience; driving fast, working out, sitting on your ass shooting aliens in a video game, you name it. I couldn’t help but crack a smile as the cheesy yet earnest lyrics of “Alone We Won’t Survive” matched up perfectly with the actions in the game, as I rescued a hapless rookie player from the jaws of death. The best thing I can say is From Us with Hate makes for a decent soundtrack when mowing down alien bugs in a sci-fi fascist hellscape.
Ravager plays to all the thrash tropes. The opening track, “Freaks Out of Control,” starts like many genre staples before it: a slow kick drum lead with a little high hat that rolls into a rollicking riff. In fairness, each band member fills their respective role well, and Marcel Lehr and Dario Rosenberg’s dual guitar assault is a highlight. From Us With Hate is full of tight riffs and ripping speed. “Aggressive Music for Aggressive People,” the title track, and “Legends of the Lightning” are all fun, easy-to-digest thrash staples that get the blood going even if they don’t break the mold. Vocalist Phillip Herbst sounds dangerously close to Lich King’s Tom Martin, and it seems like he might crack at any given time. The vocals sound strained throughout, and rarely change things up outside of a few inspired moments and catchy choruses, such as on “Curse the Living, Hail the Dead” and “Defender.” While Ravager plays with that “barely keeping this thing on the tracks” energy that epitomizes great thrash, it misses elsewhere. It is clear they have more than enough heart, but the songwriting doesn’t quite match it.
Thankfully, the band’s latest is competently played and features tight production (although the bass is occasionally lost in frustrating ways). Album closer “Defender” is stuffed with tight riffing from Lehr and Rosenberg as well as some standout lead work and multiple blistering tag-team solos from the guitar duo. Herbst never breaks the mold, but competently trucks alongside the bouncing groove of the tracks. Vocals remain the weakest element overall, and the album’s closing cover of Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood” highlights this with Herbst’s voice sounding as if it is going to crack at any point in the song, especially in the chorus.
I appreciate a band that knows their whole schtick is a little silly without making themselves the butt of the joke. Every Ravager album cover is adorned with its goofy snake man, as buff as post-crisis Batman, and clad in ripped jeans and sneakers, but the music itself never becomes too silly. From Us With Hate is the record you’ve heard many times before, and tolerance may vary as a result. If you love throwback thrash bands and eat up anything in the genre, Ravager will keep you sated like a familiar piece of pepperoni pizza at your local shop. If, like me, you are over this style of played-out retro worship, From Us with Hate is just empty calories.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Iron Shield Records
Websites: ravager.bandcamp.com | ravager-thrash.de | facebook.com/ravagerthrash
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025#25 #2025 #GammaBomb #GermanMetal #Havok #IronShieldRecords #LichKing #Ravager #Review #Reviews #romUsWithHateReview #Sep25 #ThrashMetal #Warbringer
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Ravager – From Us with Hate Review
By Lavender Larcenist
What can one reasonably say that hasn’t already been proclaimed in the halls of AMG over and over again about throwback thrash bands? In a genre that continues to pump out music for over forty years, breaking the mold is like chiseling out of your prison cell with a spoon. Doable? Maybe. But true escape is improbable. Germany’s Ravager peddles in the same stylistic trappings that you have seen a million times before from bands like Havok, Lich King, Warbringer, Gamma Bomb, and so, so many others before them. While many of these throwback acts ended up evolving their sounds and peeling themselves free of the mozzarella mosh of pizza thrash, will Ravager do the same on their fourth LP, From Us with Hate? Or, is it doomed to rest alongside the proverbial pineapple topping, as loathed as it is loved?
How does one even begin to talk about a band like Ravager without reaching for the same old cliches? You have heard all this music before; nothing here will surprise you, especially if you enjoy fast-paced, no-frills thrash with mostly generic lyrics about fighting the system, living hard, and loving metal. During my review, I decided to spin From Us with Hate while playing some rounds of Helldivers 2 (the title of a popular co-op video game for you olde folks). Ravager’s style of no-holds-barred violence, combined with its oddly uplifting lyrical themes, made it a perfect match for the on-screen chaos. But really, this would work for almost any high-octane experience; driving fast, working out, sitting on your ass shooting aliens in a video game, you name it. I couldn’t help but crack a smile as the cheesy yet earnest lyrics of “Alone We Won’t Survive” matched up perfectly with the actions in the game, as I rescued a hapless rookie player from the jaws of death. The best thing I can say is From Us with Hate makes for a decent soundtrack when mowing down alien bugs in a sci-fi fascist hellscape.
Ravager plays to all the thrash tropes. The opening track, “Freaks Out of Control,” starts like many genre staples before it: a slow kick drum lead with a little high hat that rolls into a rollicking riff. In fairness, each band member fills their respective role well, and Marcel Lehr and Dario Rosenberg’s dual guitar assault is a highlight. From Us With Hate is full of tight riffs and ripping speed. “Aggressive Music for Aggressive People,” the title track, and “Legends of the Lightning” are all fun, easy-to-digest thrash staples that get the blood going even if they don’t break the mold. Vocalist Phillip Herbst sounds dangerously close to Lich King’s Tom Martin, and it seems like he might crack at any given time. The vocals sound strained throughout, and rarely change things up outside of a few inspired moments and catchy choruses, such as on “Curse the Living, Hail the Dead” and “Defender.” While Ravager plays with that “barely keeping this thing on the tracks” energy that epitomizes great thrash, it misses elsewhere. It is clear they have more than enough heart, but the songwriting doesn’t quite match it.
Thankfully, the band’s latest is competently played and features tight production (although the bass is occasionally lost in frustrating ways). Album closer “Defender” is stuffed with tight riffing from Lehr and Rosenberg as well as some standout lead work and multiple blistering tag-team solos from the guitar duo. Herbst never breaks the mold, but competently trucks alongside the bouncing groove of the tracks. Vocals remain the weakest element overall, and the album’s closing cover of Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood” highlights this with Herbst’s voice sounding as if it is going to crack at any point in the song, especially in the chorus.
I appreciate a band that knows their whole schtick is a little silly without making themselves the butt of the joke. Every Ravager album cover is adorned with its goofy snake man, as buff as post-crisis Batman, and clad in ripped jeans and sneakers, but the music itself never becomes too silly. From Us With Hate is the record you’ve heard many times before, and tolerance may vary as a result. If you love throwback thrash bands and eat up anything in the genre, Ravager will keep you sated like a familiar piece of pepperoni pizza at your local shop. If, like me, you are over this style of played-out retro worship, From Us with Hate is just empty calories.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Iron Shield Records
Websites: ravager.bandcamp.com | ravager-thrash.de | facebook.com/ravagerthrash
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025#25 #2025 #GammaBomb #GermanMetal #Havok #IronShieldRecords #LichKing #Ravager #Review #Reviews #romUsWithHateReview #Sep25 #ThrashMetal #Warbringer
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Wanna Stop Writing After This
“For a long time now, the role of the Brahmin has been outsourced to other countries, particularly Europe and the US. Why? Because we Indians have stopped thinking many centuries back.”
Neruda, I Feel Sadder Than You Tonight
No reason Neruda that I feel sad
You at least had your girl to blame
I have nothing and no one to blame
For how I feel now, just life itself
Galls me to no end, where I feel mocked
By life itself which demands it be understood
Am I supposed to love life and not the woman
But I do not know what life is nor how to live
Shall I just drink a Coke and open happiness
But Coke’s fizz lasts less time than morning dew
The sun is hot but it’s supposedly life-giver
But when I step out in the aft’noon it’s killing
So, I cannot trust the very so-called life-giver
Nothing in nature seems benign, not even society
And when night comes, cocooned here in my flat
I can’t see the stars, and moon interests me not
All I can look forward to now is slow deterioration
One by one the powers will desert me, from the teeth
To the knees to the memory to the interest
Time cares not to show anyone any compassion
The philosophy I know is even more problematic
In a way it gives me relief from these thoughts
And in a way it doubles the pain by showing
This whole life was a waste of time, no study
Nor emotion nor smile nor understanding
Takes you where you want to be, and these days
I am not even sure where I want to be, not even to be
I cannot even go back to where I came from
Nor can I know where I have to go, nor whether
Any journey is worth it at all, as now I understand
This flight from myself is the cause of all problems
And, when I look into myself, I find only wisdom
And that wisdom tells me I do not understand at all
Neither Truth nor Love, for wisdom tells me
If you think you understand Truth and Love
Why are you still undertaking many a journey.
“Everything in this world has a cause. And every effect becomes in turn a cause. Where there are causes and effects, there is change underway. Where there is change how can Truth be. And where there is no Truth how can love be.”
“Definition of a perfect love story: Going from aroused to erased.”
“Most human love arises out of fear, is sustained by fear, and ends a quiet death due to fear.”
“Life is a Russian roulette.”
“Perfect recipe for dissatisfaction in life: Wanting to be happy always all the time no matter what.”
“Some say God is Truth. Some say God is Love. Both are wrong. God is. Period.”
“Love is not an add-on to the other things in your life. Love is the life.”
“Love is the ultimate soporific which dullens the pain of existence.”
“We think there is life. That is the death of us.”
“We are all lost in our desires. Desires take us to the future. Inhabiting the future, we fail to live because life is happening in the present.”
Jagat (Sanskrit: जगत्) primarily means the world, universe, or earth. It is derived from the root gacchati (“that which moves”), signifying that the universe is in constant motion, ever-changing, and ephemeral.
Core Meanings & Contexts:
• The Moving World: It refers to all that is moving, animate, living, and changing, encompassing the entire material universe.
• Vedanta Philosophy: It is often described as mithya (dependent reality/illusion) in comparison to the absolute reality of Brahman, often referring to the subjective experience of the material world.
• Spiritual/Non-dualism: In some contexts, it is interpreted as the manifestation or “body” of the divine, completely dependent on the Supreme for existence.
• Common Usage: In Hindi and other Indian languages, it is used for “world” or “universe,” and sometimes implies a specific field or community (e.g., Nari Jagat – world of women).
Common Compound Words:
• Jagadish/Jagannath: Lord of the Universe (Vishnu or Shiva).
• Jagatmata: Mother of the World (Durga).
Jagat is also a common Indian name for boys, signifying the universe.
“Don’t wait for retirement or for that smile; be happy today, nay, right now.”
“Dare to be who you are.”
Give me some deeply philosophical quotes of Arthur Rimbaud.
Claude responded: Here are some deeply philosophical quotes from Arthur Rimbaud:
________________________________________
On the Self & Identity
“I is another.” — Letter to Georges Izambard, 1871
One of his most famous lines, suggesting the self is not a fixed entity but something foreign, observed from the outside — a radical idea that anticipated modern theories of subjectivity.
________________________________________
On Disorder & Vision
“The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses.” — Letter to Paul Demeny (Lettre du Voyant), 1871
Rimbaud’s manifesto for poetry: to reach true vision, the poet must shatter ordinary perception and embrace suffering as a path to illumination.
________________________________________
On Life & the Absolute
“Real life is absent. We are not in the world.” — A Season in Hell
A haunting declaration of alienation — the sense that authentic existence lies forever beyond reach, and the world we inhabit is a kind of unreality.
________________________________________
On Suffering & Knowledge
“One must be absolutely modern.” — A Season in Hell
Deceptively simple, this is Rimbaud’s demand to break entirely with tradition — to find truth not in the past but in the raw, uncharted present.
________________________________________
On Love & Hell
“I have swallowed a famous mouthful of poison. Thrice blessed be the counsel that came to me! My bowels are on fire. The violence of the venom twists my limbs, deforms me, lays me low.” — A Season in Hell
A visceral metaphor for the self-destruction that comes with absolute passion — love, ambition, and vision as simultaneously poison and revelation.
________________________________________
On Eternity
“It has been found again. What? Eternity. It is the sea mixed with the sun.” — Eternity
A mystical fragment — eternity not as abstraction but as a sensory, almost pantheist fusion of natural forces.
________________________________________
On Freedom
“Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge.” — A Season in Hell
Rimbaud suggests that rational intellect alone cannot unlock the deepest truths — only a surrender to something greater can.
________________________________________
Rimbaud’s philosophy is essentially one of radical becoming — the self must be destroyed, perception unhinged, and comfort abandoned in order to glimpse something true. He abandoned poetry entirely at 19, which many see as the ultimate philosophical act: refusing to be captured even by his own genius.
“Vivekananda, when he was young, really young, went around asking everyone, ‘Have you seen God’. And when he posed the same question to Ramakrishna Paramahansa, RP replied, ‘Yes, only more clearly than I see you now.’ Now, the question that can be asked is was RP, like J. Krishnamurti always said he does, ‘Answering the questioner rather than the question.’ Otherwise, the correct answer is, ‘What a stupid question, Naren, all you have been seeing all your life is ONLY God but you have been thinking you are seeing the world’.”
Buddha’s Mistake
Sam’s First Noble Truth
I agree with Buddha’s First Noble Truth that “Life is suffering”.
Sam’s Second Noble Truth
I do not agree with Buddha’s Second Noble Truth that “Desire is the cause of suffering.”
My point is that once you have understood that “Life is suffering”, you should also understand the simple logic that “No life, no suffering.”
So, do not bother about desires and all such nonsense.
Do not get caught in such traps, traps which arise only if you are living.
Just end life and you are done.
Or, rather realise you were never born.
No Sex, No Salvation, No Sam
I do not want to get caught
In the vortex of these Fie-loss-oafers
And whatever theories they spin
About this world, existing only in imagination;
When I talk about myself Sam
Or about Sex and Salvation, I do so
Under Erasure, as that Algerian Jew would have it
Who set afire many an academic department in the US
And, I note with pleasure his association in 1966
With my alma mater Johns Hopkins, kickstarting
That peculiar school of philosophy, poststructuralism,
But, why dabble and grapple even dilettantishly
With these games that minds of philosophers play
I who have understood Kena Upanishad’s admonition
That if you think Truth is there for the taking by the mind
You poor thing how little you understand
And where is the mind but in this world
Or is the world in the mind
Now, now don’t confuse me
I refuse to play this game with these words
For I know too well that if I renounce words
Which is the only true Vairagya that is there
And not so-called Vairagya of Kamini-Kanchana
Then in that silence all doubts are quelled
All truths stand revealed, and I know
Whatever I knew till now was wrong
And I learn to let go of not only Socrates and Sartre
But also of Maharshi and Maharaj
For where do they all exist
Except in my fertile imagination
As do Sex, Salvation and Sam.
“The tree has to bend to every wind, but it cannot know why the wind is blowing.”
“In the autumn, it is foolish for the tree to try to hold on to the leaves.”
“There is no spot in the pot where there is no clay.”
“In every love story, there is something more than biology at play.”
“My Call”
Yes, Michael, it always was your call
To go solo or to go with the family
And also your call to spread love and light
To this world through your moves.
Music, moods, musings, and murmurings
And did you change the world?
Who knows? Maybe a few and here and there
When you were alive, and a few more might change
Long after you are gone as long as your music lives on
Surely, though, you yourself must have escaped
The suffering that the blind strivings of the Will
Imposes on one, if Schopenhauer is to be believed,
With your Dionysian spirit that Nietzsche championed.
Yet how I despair Michael, my call
Is that this world is condemned to its duality
Of light and darkness, good and bad, virtue and vice
Socrates, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus could not fix the world
So, Michael, you are forgiven, too, for failing
Though your critics would point out your own failings.
—
Maya (the cosmic creative/illusory power) is constituted by the three gunas — Sattva (clarity, harmony), Rajas (activity, passion, restlessness), and Tamas (inertia, darkness, ignorance). As long as manifestation exists — as long as anything is appearing — all three gunas are present in varying proportions. You can’t have Maya with only Sattva, because pure undifferentiated Sattva would dissolve back into Brahman. The tension and dynamism of Rajas and Tamas are what keep the world-appearance going.
So yes, suffering and evil are structurally baked into manifestation itself. Tamas produces ignorance, delusion, and stagnation; Rajas produces craving, conflict, and agitation — both are inexhaustible engines of suffering at the cosmic level.
This creates an important asymmetry:
At the individual level, liberation is possible — you can step out of identification with the gunas entirely, which is what Nisargadatta and Ramana point to. The Self is not a product of the gunas.
At the collective or historical level, you might get periods of greater Sattva, but Rajas and Tamas always reassert themselves — civilizations rise and fall in cycles (the yuga framework reflects exactly this).
At the cosmic/natural level, as long as Maya is operating, the interplay of gunas never ceases. Suffering doesn’t “end” — it’s part of the texture of manifestation.
This is also why Advaita doesn’t promise the world will get better or that evil will be eliminated — it says the world as such is the wrong level to seek resolution. The resolution is recognition of that which was never in the gunas to begin with. Nisargadatta’s typical move is precisely this — he doesn’t ask you to fix the dream, he asks you to wake up from it.
Universal liberation of the cosmos is a category error within this framework. The most Maya can do is oscillate; it cannot transcend its own constituents.
Two Ways to Retire Early
1. Earn as much as is 100% sufficient for your wants.
2. Pare down your wants (but NOT to the bare minimum) so that you can retire earlier than you can under Scenario 1.
I chose the latter option by becoming sort of a minimalist because I realized that happiness does not come from accumulating more and more, be it wealth or any other damn thing.
When did more and more wealth ever make anyone more and more happy.
And, if you need more and more money to become more and more happy, know that you are not going about it the right way.
Money cannot buy almost anything worthwhile.
Anyway, the best things in life are either damn cheap or totally free.
Don’t think so?
Well, my friend, good luck with that happiness you are chasing.
No, I forget, you are chasing money not happiness.
Let me know when you shift your rat race from pursuing money to pursuing happiness, then as Paul Simon sang, “I can be your long-lost pal.”
What about the work that needs to be done in this world that might suffer if you retire early?
Ha, ha, ha, as if you are working FOR the world. Get real.
Besides, there are enough unemployed people out there to fill the space that you vacate.
And, besides, if people thought like I am suggesting, then believe you me, far less work will be needed to be done in this world so that the world can get along by just fine.
Ha, ha, ha…how bad people are at thinking!!!
Well, well, I guess God knows what he is up to.
Homo Duplex
Homo duplex (“the double human”) is a theory by sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) proposing that humans possess a dual nature: part biological organism driven by selfish individual desires (“profane”), and part social being guided by morality, collective consciousness, and social constraints (“sacred”).
Key Components of Homo Duplex:
• The Profane (Individual): This side consists of personal appetites, instincts, selfishness, and bodily sensations.
• The Sacred (Social): This side comprises moral forces, social solidarity, shared values, and altruism, which are cultivated through societal interaction and collective rituals.
• The Tension: Durkheim argued that society requires a balance between these two sides to prevent individualism from leading to unhappiness, greed, or excessive anomie (social instability).
• Societal Role: Socialization, education, and religion play crucial roles in regulating the individual’s “animalistic” nature and nurturing their “moral” or “social” side.
This concept underscores the idea that humans find their highest potential not in isolation, but by participating in a larger social whole.
What Durkheim Was Really Saying
At its core, Homo Duplex is Durkheim’s answer to one of philosophy’s oldest
questions: what kind of creature is a human being? His answer was deliberately
paradoxical — we are simultaneously two things at once, and that tension is not a
flaw to be resolved, but the very engine of social and moral life.
This was a bold move in the late 19th century. Darwinian biology was pushing toward
the view that humans were essentially animals with sophisticated brains.
Enlightenment liberalism, on the other hand, celebrated the sovereign individual.
Durkheim rejected both as incomplete. He insisted you cannot understand a human
being by looking only at their biology or their individual rational mind — you must
look at what society does to and inside them.
Unpacking the Two Sides
The Profane (the animal self)
The word “profane” here doesn’t mean vulgar in the everyday sense — it means
outside the sacred, ordinary, earthly, bodily. This is the self that:
Hungers, lusts, fears, and competes
Acts in its own interest without reference to others
Exists in time and space as a finite, mortal organism
Durkheim didn’t moralize this side as evil — he saw it as simply pre-social. It is what
we are before society gets hold of us. Left entirely to this nature, humans would be,
in Hobbes’ famous phrase, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
The Sacred (the social self)
The “sacred” is what society implants into the individual. This is a profound and
somewhat unsettling idea: your moral conscience, your sense of duty, your empathy,
your values — these are not naturally yours. They were installed by the collective.
This side includes:
The capacity for self-sacrifice
Loyalty to groups, nations, ideals
Moral disgust and reverence
The ability to feel that something is bigger than yourself
Crucially, Durkheim believed this sacred dimension is genuinely real and genuinely
powerful — but its source is social, not divine or innate. When you feel moral awe,
you are, in his view, feeling the weight of society pressing on your consciousness.
The Tension: Why the Conflict is Necessary
Durkheim didn’t want the tension resolved — he wanted it managed. Here’s why:
Too much profane (pure individualism) leads to anomie — a condition where
social norms collapse, individuals feel unmoored, and rates of depression,
crime, and even suicide rise. His famous study Suicide (1897) showed that
societies with weak social bonds had higher suicide rates — a radical,
counterintuitive argument.
Too much sacred (total collective absorption) leads to fatalistic overregulation
— where individuals are crushed under the weight of social duty,
also producing misery and, paradoxically, suicide of a different kind (what he
called altruistic suicide, dying for the group).
The sweet spot is a productive friction — society strong enough to give life meaning
and structure, but not so totalizing that it erases the individual.
Socialization as the Civilizing Mechanism
When Durkheim says education, religion, and socialization regulate the individual’s
animalistic nature, he means something very specific: they transfer the sacred into
the individual so thoroughly that it feels like their own conscience. This is the
machinery of moral internalization.
Think of how a child is taught not to steal. At first, it’s external — “don’t do that or
you’ll be punished.” Eventually, the prohibition becomes internal — “I don’t want to
steal, it feels wrong.” For Durkheim, that feeling of wrongness is society speaking
through you. You have been successfully socialized. The collective has colonized
your inner life — and this is not manipulation, in his view; it is what makes you fully
human.
Religion, in particular, fascinated him because its rituals (collective gatherings, shared
symbols, emotional ceremonies) were the most powerful mechanisms for recharging
the social self — reminding individuals viscerally that they belong to something
beyond themselves.
Where Homo Duplex Connects to Bigger Ideas
Concept Connection to Homo Duplex
Freud’s Id/Superego
Strikingly parallel — the id (drives) vs. the superego
(internalized social rules). Both emerged around the same
era, independently.
Rousseau’s Noble
Savage
Durkheim inverts Rousseau — society doesn’t corrupt
natural goodness; it creates moral goodness in the first
place.
Nietzsche’s critique of
herd morality
Nietzsche saw society suppressing the individual as a
tragedy. Durkheim saw it as a necessity — even a gift.
Modern psychology
Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist model echoes Homo
Duplex — moral feelings are social products, not individual
reason.
A Critical Perspective
Homo Duplex is elegant, but not without its critics:
It’s overly binary. Human nature resists clean splits into “animal vs. social.”
Much of what Durkheim calls “profane” (love, curiosity, creativity) is not
straightforwardly selfish.
It romanticizes the collective. Durkheim’s framework can justify social
conformity too easily. History shows that the “sacred social” can endorse
racism, nationalism, and genocide just as easily as altruism.
It underestimates individual agency. Humans don’t just receive society
passively — they also reshape it. The individual isn’t merely a battleground
between animal drives and social imprinting.
The Bottom Line
Homo Duplex is a powerful lens for understanding why humans are so
contradictory — capable of extraordinary selfishness and extraordinary sacrifice,
often in the same person, sometimes within the same hour. Durkheim’s lasting
insight is that this is not hypocrisy or moral failure. It is the structure of what we are:
biological creatures who can only realize their deepest potential by surrendering part
of themselves to something collective and larger. We are, as he saw it, always living
on the border between the animal and the social — and civilization is the ongoing,
never-finished negotiation between those two halves.
Kids? Just say no
You don’t have to dislike children to see the harms done by having them. There is a moral case against procreation
https://aeon.co/essays/having-children-is-not-life-affirming-its-immoral
No Words To Say What I Want To Say
Strange how sometimes you are at a loss for words
When you realize the words you used have not been understood
And using more words would only complicate the picture
Because the words have to go through the sieve
Of other minds and hearts, though mine they have navigated,
And this is not just my problem, just the human condition
And until we understand silence we cannot understand each other
But unfortunately, until then we have to keep using words
And thereby keep encountering battlefields of various sorts.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them how we will” is a famous quote from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 2). Spoken by Hamlet, it means that a divine power or fate determines the ultimate outcome of our lives, regardless of how clumsily we plan them.
Key Details and Context:
Context in Play: Hamlet says this to Horatio while explaining how he survived
a plot to kill him, suggesting he has accepted fate.
Meaning: “Rough-hew” refers to shaping a rough block of wood. It suggests
humans make rough plans (“rough-hew”), but God or destiny refines the final
outcome (“shapes our ends”).
Theme: This reflects a shift in Hamlet from indecision to a fatalistic acceptance
of whatever happens, including the “special providence in the fall of a
sparrow”.
It shows a shift from a belief that mortals control their destiny to a belief that higher
forces are in control.
“There’s a Divinity That Shapes Our Ends” — Through the Lens of Advaita
Vedānta
And the Self Reveals Itself to Whom She Chooses
I. The Two Voices Speaking the Same Truth
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, standing at the threshold of death with a curious calm, utters
something that no purely Western philosophical framework can fully contain. He is
not simply expressing fatalism. He is not surrendering to an external God the way a
theist might. Something deeper is trembling in those words — something that
Advaita Vedānta, the non-dual philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya, can illuminate with
remarkable precision.
Advaita means not-two. Its central revelation is that Brahman — the infinite,
undivided, self-luminous Consciousness — is the only reality. What we call the
“individual self,” the jīva, is not a separate entity that Brahman controls from outside.
The jīva is Brahman, appearing individuated through the veil of avidyā (ignorance).
The drama of human life — the planning, the struggling, the winning and losing — is
līlā, the cosmic play of Consciousness with itself.
With this as our foundation, Hamlet’s line ceases to be merely about fate and
becomes a window into the nature of Reality itself.
II. “Rough-Hewing” — The Activity of the Ego-Self
“Rough-hew them how we will…”
In Advaita, the one who “rough-hews” is the ahaṃkāra — the ego, the sense of
being a separate, autonomous “I” that plans, decides, and acts. This ego-self believes
itself to be the kartā (the doer). It picks up the chisel, surveys the raw wood of
circumstance, and begins to hack away according to its desires, fears, and
calculations.
Hamlet spent four acts doing precisely this. He rough-hewed furiously:
- He devised the play-within-a-play to trap Claudius
- He calculated when to strike and when to hesitate
- He philosophized endlessly about whether to act at all
And what did all this rough-hewing produce? Chaos. Mistaken killing. Broken
relationships. Near-annihilation.
The Advaitic teaching here is precise: the ego is real as appearance but not as
substance. It is like a wave that believes it is generating the ocean’s movement. It
hews and carves, but its cuts are always rough — approximate, distorted, limited by
its own ignorance of the whole. The jīva cannot see the totality because it is the act
of pretending to be separate from the totality. You cannot see the whole painting
while believing yourself to be only one brushstroke.
This is not a moral failure. It is the nature of individuation itself. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad
says: “The Self is not attained by the weak.” The weakness referred to is not physical
— it is the weakness of clinging to the ego’s rough-hewing as if it were the final
word on reality.
III. “The Divinity That Shapes” — Brahman as the Immanent Sculptor
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends…”
Now we arrive at the heart of the Advaitic mystery. What is this “divinity” that
shapes?
It is not an external God standing above creation, adjusting outcomes like a cosmic
bureaucrat. That would be dvaita — duality, two-ness. In Advaita, the Divinity that
shapes is Brahman itself, operating as the innermost reality of everything that
appears to happen. It is not separate from the rough-hewing. It is the very ground
within which the rough-hewing occurs — and it is simultaneously the one who knows
that rough-hewing is never the final act.
Śaṅkara would say: Brahman is both the material cause and the efficient cause of the
universe. Like gold that becomes ornaments without ceasing to be gold — the
ornaments appear different, but gold alone is real. Every “end” that is shaped —
every outcome, every death, every transformation — is Brahman alone, crystallizing
into form from its own infinite freedom.
This is why the shaping is so effortless and inevitable. It does not struggle against the
rough-hewing. It uses it. Every awkward cut the ego makes, every miscalculation,
every tragedy — Brahman absorbs it and shapes it into exactly what was needed for
the whole. The sculptor does not fight the chisel marks. She works with the grain of
the wood, which she herself laid down before the carpenter arrived.
IV. The Self Reveals Herself to Whom She Chooses — Ātman Prasāda
Here we arrive at the most luminous, and most humbling, dimension of this teaching.
The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad declares:
“Nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena। Yam evaiṣa
vṛṇute tena labhyas tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṃ svām॥”
“This Self is not attained by instruction, nor by intellect, nor by much hearing. It is
attained only by the one whom the Self chooses — to that one, the Self reveals its own
nature.”
This is perhaps the most radical statement in all of Vedāntic philosophy. And it
reframes Hamlet’s entire journey.
Hamlet spent the whole play trying to know — trying to verify the Ghost’s truth,
trying to understand his duty, trying to calculate the right moment. He brought great
intellect, great sensitivity, great moral seriousness. And none of it worked in the way
he intended. The knowledge he needed did not come through his efforts. It came
through a sea voyage, a near-death encounter, a pirate attack — through
circumstances entirely outside his planning.
And then, at the beginning of Act 5, he simply knows. A calm descends. He speaks of
providence with the ease of one who has stopped arguing with reality. He is ready.
The Self has chosen him.
From the Advaitic lens, what happened? The jīva Hamlet had exhausted its roughhewing.
The ego’s strategies had all collapsed. And in that exhaustion, in that
surrender — not as a strategy, but as a genuine letting-go — avidyā thinned. The veil
grew transparent. Brahman, which had always been Hamlet’s own deepest nature,
turned toward itself through the instrument of Hamlet’s readied consciousness.
The Self does not reveal itself as a reward for correct behavior. It reveals itself when
the ego becomes sufficiently transparent. Grace — prasāda — is not earned. It is
received. And the receiving is only possible when the clenched fist of the ego-self
relaxes its grip on rough-hewing.
V. Why “She Chooses” — The Feminine Ground of Being
To speak of the Self as She is to invoke Śakti — the dynamic, creative power of
Consciousness. In the non-dual Śākta interpretation of Advaita, Brahman’s power of
self-revelation is understood as intrinsically feminine — not in the gendered human
sense, but in the sense of that which receives, gestates, and births reality from within
itself.
Māyā — the power that veils Brahman — is feminine. And Anugraha Śakti — the
power that removes the veil — is also feminine. The same divine Mother who wraps
the world in the dream of separateness is the one who, in her grace, tears the veil
away.
This means the Self’s self-concealment and self-revelation are not opposites. They
are two movements of the same creative freedom. Brahman chooses to hide in order
that the joy of rediscovery can be complete. The rough-hewing is part of the plan.
The chaos is choreographed. The tragedy is embraced.
The “divinity that shapes our ends” is not a cold determinism. She is a Mother who
allows her children to wander, to build, to destroy, to suffer — because she knows
what they are, even when they have forgotten. She shapes the ends not by
preventing the rough-hewing but by ensuring that every rough mark ultimately
reveals the beauty of the finished form.
VI. Hamlet’s Enlightenment — The Shift into Sākṣī
Hamlet’s final equanimity — “the readiness is all” — is, in Advaitic terms, a
spontaneous shift from identifying as the kartā (doer) to resting as the sākṣī
(witness). He no longer needs the outcome to be controlled. He no longer needs
certainty. He acts when action is called, rests when rest is called, and accepts death
when death arrives — without any of it disturbing the stillness beneath.
This is not stoic resignation. The Stoic still believes the ego is real and chooses nobly
to endure. Hamlet’s shift is subtler and deeper: the ego has become transparent to
itself. He sees through the rough-hewing to the shaping beneath. He does not
become passive — he kills Claudius, he orchestrates the final scene — but he does so
without the contracted, desperate quality of his earlier scheming. He acts as an
instrument of the Whole.
In Advaita, this is called Jīvanmukti — liberation while still living. The body-mind
continues to function. The drama of life continues. But the one who believed they
were only the rough-hewer has recognized themselves as also the Divinity that
shapes. Subject and sculptor are one.
VII. The Final Integration
Shakespeare could not have known Advaita Vedānta. And yet he wrote this line, and
it carries the full weight of the tradition as though it were distilled from it. This is not
coincidence. It is evidence that certain recognitions are not cultural — they are
structural. They arise whenever human consciousness is pressed to its limit and
breaks open into something larger than itself.
The Divinity that shapes our ends is not other than us. It is the deepest stratum of
what we are — the Ātman, Brahman, the Self — appearing as destiny from outside,
because we forgot that we are inside it.
And She reveals Herself not when we have perfected our rough-hewing, but when we
love Her more than our own plans.
When the chisel drops — She speaks.
The Drama of Desire
A friend wrote, “Desire…
I realised drama we are all living in”,
Really, my friend, really you “realised?”,
But to realise is to realise that
There is no “We”.
Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to?
Do you know?
Do you get what you’re hoping for?
When you look behind you, there’s no open doors
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?
Now, looking back at all we’ve passed
We let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long before we see
How sad the answers to those questions can be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuMBl1peAlo
This Dream, This Life
Aw, shucks, this dream
This life, oh so unnecessary
Yet we keep dreaming
We keep living
As if we have no choice
Do we have a choice,
And is the choice only death
Some say the choice is immortality
But if it indeed is immortality
Immortality can have no beginning
So, right now it surely must be the case
That I am indeed already immortal
And being immortal
‘Tis strange that a mere dream
A mere life
Bugs me to no end.
“This unreality, oh this unreality…where neither love is true, nor the truth is true…oh this unreality.”
“Ah, to disappear, be submerged…”
The Passion and the Intezaar
When passion for you
Is no longer a passion
When passion for you
Is no longer in fashion
Know that
The wait is almost over.
Lekin intezaar bhi kahi baar
Bahut meetha hota hai
Intezaar may dard bhi kyu na ho
Aur tumhaari zindagi may
Ye ittefaq bhi ho sakti hai
Ye taqdeer bhi ho sakti hai
Jis pal pe tumhari zindagi hai
Aakar rukhi hai, tehri hai
Ab tum aur kuch lumhe
Sirf intezaar may bitana hai
Aur iss ittefaq ko, iss taqdeer ko
Galay lagaanay ke siva
Aur koi raasta nahi hai
Aur agar koi waisa raasta hai
Tumhari taqdeer may nahi hai
Ki tum uss raastay pe chal sakogay.
“When I read some poets, I feel like it is high time I stopped writing poetry, and left that job to the poets.”
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’
“Mending Wall” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall) is
one of Frost’s most celebrated poems, and these lines are among the most analyzed
in American poetry. Here’s a deep commentary from multiple angles.
The Lines in Context
These lines come near the end of the poem, spoken by the narrator as a
counterpoint to his neighbor’s repeated mantra: “Good fences make good neighbors.”
The narrator is the questioner, the skeptic, the one who wonders why the wall exists
at all.
Line by Line
“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out”
This is the poem’s central philosophical provocation. Frost draws on a binary that
cuts in two directions simultaneously:
Walling in — keeping something of yours contained, protected, defined.
Territory, identity, privacy, culture.
Walling out — excluding something foreign, threatening, or simply other.
The genius of phrasing it as a question is that the narrator admits he doesn’t always
know which is which. A wall built for protection can become a cage. A wall built for
exclusion can become a statement of fear. The act of building precedes the
understanding of the act — and Frost is warning against that.
There’s also a quiet confession here: the narrator says “I’d ask to know,” not “I’d
know.” He’s humble. He’s not claiming wisdom, only the willingness to pause and
question before acting.
“And to whom I was like to give offense”
This line introduces an ethical and social dimension. Walls don’t just affect the person
who builds them — they mean something to others. A wall is a message. It says: I
don’t trust you. You are not welcome here. This far, and no further.
The word “offense” is carefully chosen. It suggests that walls can wound — not
physically, but relationally and psychically. They can communicate contempt,
suspicion, or rejection without a word being spoken. Frost is nudging the reader to
think about walls not just as practical structures but as acts of communication, and
sometimes, acts of aggression.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That wants it down.”
This is the poem’s most famous line, and it opens and echoes throughout the poem
like a refrain. Notice Frost refuses to name what that “something” is — and that
refusal is deliberate and profound.
Nature? Earlier in the poem, frozen groundswell heaves the boulders apart every
winter. Nature literally dismantles the wall year after year, as if the earth itself resists
the partition.
Human nature? There’s a deep instinct toward connection, curiosity, and openness
in people — children especially. We are social animals. Something in us chafes at
barriers.
The cosmic or spiritual? Some readers hear in “something” a quasi-divine force — a
universe that tends toward unity, entropy, dissolution of artificial categories.
The unconscious? The vagueness of “something” is psychologically astute. We often
can’t name the part of ourselves that resists conformity, convention, or inherited
thinking — but it’s there, eroding our certainties.
By ending with “That wants it down,” Frost gives the force a kind of desire — almost
personifying it. The wall isn’t just falling apart; something wants it gone. This is
subversive and tender at once.
Thematic Angles
The Paradox of Community
The poem never actually argues that walls are bad. The narrator helps rebuild the
wall every spring! He participates in the very ritual he questions. This is Frost’s
honesty: we simultaneously crave connection and separation. The wall-mending is
itself a form of connection — the two men meet, work together, talk. The wall
enables the relationship in a strange way. So the lines aren’t a simple anti-wall
polemic; they’re an admission of complexity.
Individual vs. Inherited Tradition
The neighbor repeats his father’s saying: “Good fences make good neighbors.” He
thinks in proverbs; he doesn’t question. The narrator questions everything. These five
lines are essentially the voice of the Enlightenment — don’t build anything you can’t
justify rationally and ethically. The neighbor, by contrast, represents tradition,
continuity, inherited wisdom. Frost doesn’t entirely mock either. Both impulses are
human. Both have costs.
Political and Social Reading
Frost wrote this in 1914, but its political resonance never ages. Every era has its wall
debates — literal (border walls, ghetto walls, apartheid walls, the Berlin Wall) and
figurative (class walls, racial walls, cultural walls). The question “What I was walling in
or walling out?” is a haunting one for any nation or community grappling with
immigration, identity, or belonging. Who do we include? Who do we shut out? And
do we even know what we’re doing when we do it?
The Epistemological Angle
These lines are deeply concerned with knowledge before action — a Socratic impulse.
Don’t act on habit, tradition, or fear. Know what you’re doing and why. The narrator
doesn’t say walls are always wrong; he says building them without asking these
questions is reckless. This is a poem about the ethics of unreflective behaviour.
Frost’s Tone: Wry, Not Preachy
Crucially, Frost never lets the narrator become a moralist. He’s mischievous, a little
playful — he considers telling the neighbor that elves knocked the wall down, then
thinks better of it. The narrator’s wisdom is offered quietly, almost to himself. This
makes these lines feel like thinking aloud rather than lecturing, which is far more
persuasive and far more true to how genuine insight actually arrives.
In short, these five lines compress a whole philosophy: think before you divide,
consider who you hurt, and know that something in the world — in nature, in us — will
always push back against walls that exist without justification. That “something” is
never fully named because Frost understood that the best questions outlast their
answers.
“To attain Nirvana, now I need to do some juGod.”
“The very restlessness and attempting to become perfect is the imperfection.”
The Discovery
I have discovered the recipe for happiness
No, it is not owning the oil fields in Kuwait
Nor is it winning the John Bates Clark Medal
Nor the Merc parked in your driveway
Nor your byline in Sunday NYT
Simpler, far, far simpler than that
Just an evening at Roastery Coffee House in Banjara Hills
Sipping Cranberry Coffee and eating lasagna
What would double the happiness though
Is if a certain someone is in the opposite chair
Or we both in some other place
Else, it is just perfect, perfect.
“I have reached an age where if a girl smiles at me, I cannot read too many meanings in it.”
“Spending time with and understanding our children will make us understand philosophy faster than by reading any religious texts.”
“Love at first sight is a killing concept. But then dislike at first sight is a different kind of killing.”
“Just because you suspect you are wise; it does not mean your wisdom will be of a helluva lot useful when it comes to interpreting all the meanings in a smile. And, God’s photos and statues depict a smile on the face of the deity. Damn. It is hard enough interpreting the smile of a girl, now God is also smiling at us. Shit, we are screwed. No way we can know what life is all about.”
Think About These Things
One of the very few virtues that Ramana Maharshi extols is humility.
He says in his short book “Who Am I?”:
“To the extent we behave with humility, to that extent there will result good.”
Meanwhile, Nisargadatta Maharaj in his book “I Am That”, keeps saying repeatedly that the most important virtue is “earnestness”.
“When the mind is silent, any amount of speech and action do not vitiate that silence. Mind cannot be silent when there are desires in our being. Find out how to deal with desires.”
Betwixt Wise and Otherwise
Today’s morning comes
Like any other morning
It does not seem that different
Until I start thinking, feeling
Then, too, it does not seem that different
Unless I resist, protest, regret, wish for,
And why do I resists, protest, regret, wish for?
That seems to be the way things are
That seems to be our lot here on earth
Some may come and say things can be otherwise
Between this wise and otherwise I live my life.
“Sometimes, to be wise is to accept defeat. Why flow against the current of life?”
Suicidal Impulse
Today morning
I told a friend
“Come, let us go and commit suicide.”
“No,” the friend protested,
“I want to live and enjoy life.”
Now, I have to gather
The courage and wisdom
To travel alone
The journey cannot be given up
Just because
One’s companions want to rest.
“Duniya paison ke peeche baag rahi hai. Mai fursat ke peeche baag raha hoon. Paise bahut mushkil hai milna, mahnat karni padti hai. Fursat toh yoohee mil jaati hai, bina kuch kiye…kuch muth karo aur fursat pao…samjha karo kyunki ismay ek raaz chupi hai…lekin mai galat bhi ho sakta hoo…zindagi toh jua hai…aur judai bhi….”
“Truth divorced from love is no truth. Love divorced from truth is no love.”
“Don’t be an archaeologist. Don’t dig up the ruins of your past, otherwise you will be ruined.”
The Itch
The itch is
inside my heart.
But I am scratching the paper
with my pen.
“It was daffodils that flashed upon the inward eye of Wordsworth. On my inward eye, it is she who flashes.”
“To love someone truly is to give them the freedom to walk away from you without any guilt or regret should they want to.”
“Someone sang, the whole night your memory troubled me. My problem is far worse. Even the whole day her memory is troubling me.”
“Sitting here alone in this coffee shop, I am lost in thought, wondering what Donne meant.”
“Something shifted in me that day when she gave me that look and said, ‘Sam, I don’t see you nowadays’. Life is full of loose ends and some knots live on inside us.”
“I told her ye death ke baraay may zyada buk buk muth karo. Hum sab har raat aath ghante ke liye mar jaatay hai.”
“There seem to be different kinds of love. Oh, oh…just when thought you can stop going to the library.”
Cutting Out the Social Self
Sartre wrote, “Hell is other people.”
But, also at the level at which Sartre is speaking, it is also true that “Heaven is other people.”
But, at this social-self level, one gets stuck in a certain level of living where the dialogue “chal daaroo peeyingay” plays out in its various shades and nuances.
And that daaroo is not the wine that Sufis would have us drink.
And, it is this social self that makes you earn more money than we need, etc.
From this social self, you need to reach inside to find your true self.
The moment you leave your social self behind, then your thinking and emotions also are less in play because most of them are in service of our social self.
“No, Kirshna, I will wage war with my love and not with bows and arrows. Jesus knew something you did not. Besides, it is not my job to wage war against injustice with bows and arrows. Isn’t that your job as the creator of this universe, which you anyway you say you are. Remember what you said about being the creator of the four castes. Then, why you are passing the buck to me. Besides, you yourself say, ‘sambhavami yuge yuge’. Deal with it, Krishna, deal with it. After all, this world is your baby. Don’t instruct me. Leave me alone to me and my love.”
“Zindagi koi jung nahi. Sirf junglee loga waisay sonchthe hai. Mai pyaar ko itna samajh chuka hoon ki pata lag gaya hai ki jung sirf woh mushkilay kada karthi hai jo pahlay nahi the, aur jo mushkilay pahlay the unka hul teek say nahi kar paatha.”
“Ye kya jung jung kahthay phir rahay ho. Mai zindagi ko tukhratha hoo, kyunki mujhe woh zindagi nahi chahiyay jahaan mujhe jung may haasil hona padtha. Jung nahi ladnay say zyada se zyada sirf meri zindagi mujhse cheen jaayegi. Cheen lo jitna chahiya utna ye meri zindagi. Mai todi poocha pehale naa ab pooch raha hoo mujhe paida karo aur zinda rakho.”
“The mind says, ‘Look, look, there are so many problems, stay focused and awake.’ Heart says, ‘Chill, I have the solution to every problem’.”
The Darkness in My Soul
For too long I have seen
The sun in me eclipsed
By something or the other that comes,
Some emotion, some yearning, some dreaming,
Between me and the truth that be
That light, that love, that beauty
Slowly I begin to see far too clearly
This flight outward that gnaws at my soul
That waits for the right consonance, right season
Waits and waits but waits in vain
Thwarted by some destiny that I cannot control
I learn to let go, knowing I can control
Neither my destiny nor that of others.
I thought I had left them all behind
That some emotion, some yearning, some dreaming
Back in the stormy days of my confused youth
Why are they coming back again to me
As if I am still accountable for I know not what.
Who was Arjuna?
Arjuna is anyone in this world who is NOT content to just keep the body alive but also seeks to keep the mind and heart alive.
Such a one finds himself having to fight many a battle on many a Kurukshetra.
Hence also such a one will keep needing the counsel of a Kirshna.
But the Arjuna who is content to keep just the body alive and lets go of the mind and heart, has no battles to fight nor has any need for any Krishna.
Understand this and not any other Gita, be that Gita of Kirshna or Ashtavakra.
👍🏼 just the B and when the pot breaks you are one with the rest of the only consciousness.
Yes.
Even before the pot (B) breaks, what keeps the illusion that you are NOT right now one with the rest of the only consciousness is ONLY the mind and heart.
When the mind and heart are NOT in play, then the illusion of separation also does NOT exist.
Like in deep sleep
Yes.
Perfectly said.
That is why, Ramana Maharshi said, “What happened in sleep is your real nature.” (Talk 304)
In many places in his Talks book, the Maharshi says something to the effect of deep sleep is NOT ignorance but reality itself.
That is why he says, one has to be in the state of wakeful sleep or jagrat sushupti.
#Arjuna #Disillusionment #Enlightenment #faith #Gita #God #Happiness #Life #Love #Philosophy #PhilosophyOfLife #Poem #Poetry #QuotableQuotes #Quotes #Retirmeent #Sadness #Spirituality #Truth #WorkLife -
So, auf dem Weg nach #Stiuttgart
Mit der #Bahn … … … Und die hat mal wieder #Chaostage 🤪
Ich fahre schon einen Tag früher, um zu meinem #Vortrag "Lost in #Communication" morgen auch vor Ort zu sein.
Der #Zug hatte natürlich #Verspätung. Und es gab nur schüttere Meldungen.
Aber: Falls ich in Stuttgart ankomme, sind #Vortrag & #Diskussion zu ethischen Leerstellen & Möglichkeiten der #Manipulation in der derzeitigen #Digitalisierung #morgen um 17:30h am @izkt_stuttgart
-
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
On the 107th Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour DeclarationThe Balfour Declaration is a major crime that will not expire and reaffirms Britain’s responsibility for our people’s tragedy and catastrophe and its involvement in the ongoing genocide.
On this day, November 2nd, our people and humanity as a whole remember with sorrow, pain, and anger the 107th anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, announced by British Foreign Minister and war criminal Arthur Balfour in 1917, granting the right to the land of Palestine to those who do not deserve it.
This declaration constituted a major historical crime that legitimized the usurpation of the land of Palestine and its rights and the displacement of our Palestinian people, emphasizing Britain’s direct responsibility for the ongoing Nakba our people face to this day. Our people’s tragedy continues under the zionist occupation, which continues to commit the most heinous massacres, organized terrorism, and genocide, as is happening in Gaza.
The continuous British support for this criminal entity is one of the prominent reasons that have reinforced the reality of the occupation and the continuation of its crimes. Colonial Britain, which sought to impose its hegemony in the region, bears moral and historical responsibility for everything that has happened and continues to happen to our people. This support is not mere collusion but full partnership in the genocide.
On the 107th anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, we in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine reaffirm the following:
1. We will not forget or forgive Britain for committing this major crime and causing the Nakba of our people, holding it directly responsible for our people’s continuous suffering.2. We demand that the British government recognize the rights of the Palestinian people and compensate for the damages caused by this ill-fated declaration as a necessary step towards achieving justice and atoning for its major crime.
3. We stress the importance of raising global awareness about the catastrophic impacts of the Balfour Declaration, and we call on the free people of Britain who filled the squares by the hundreds of thousands denouncing the zionist aggression on Gaza to continue pressing the British government to assume its historical responsibilities and contribute immediately to stopping the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
4. We emphasize the role of institutions and groups supportive of and in solidarity with our people in activating the international arena through international institutions and the International Criminal Court to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes, support the rights of the Palestinian people, and hold Britain accountable for its historical role in the catastrophe of our people and the tragedy they continue to live through, as well as for its involvement in the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
5. We reaffirm our commitment to continue the struggle and resistance in all forms, foremost among them armed resistance, until the aggression is repelled and the repercussions of this ill-fated declaration are undone, regardless of the sacrifices and the extent of Western, especially British, collusion.
In conclusion, we in the Popular Front affirm that the Balfour Declaration will remain an open wound in the memory of our people, an unforgivable crime that will not expire, and we will remain loyal to the blood of our heroic martyrs, continuing our relentless struggle until liberation and return.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Central Media Department
November 2, 2024
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most MercifulOn this day in 1917, the infamous promise known as the Balfour Declaration was issued, falsely granting a right to those who had no claim over a land that was not theirs. This unjust declaration marked the initial step in a prolonged journey of oppression and aggression, paving the way for colonialism based on seizing land and eradicating the Palestinian people. Through this promise, Britain opened the gates to an enduring historical injustice and became one of the primary contributors to the suffering of the Palestinian people by supporting the establishment of the zionist entity and providing political cover for it to commit decades of oppression and ethnic cleansing. To this day, Britain bears moral, political, and legal responsibility for the oppression and displacement experienced by the Palestinian people. The impact of the Balfour Declaration remains deeply embedded in our memory, only growing stronger with every crime committed by the occupation.
Today, over a century after this crime, our people face an even harsher reality. The occupation is waging a war of genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip, aiming to crush the will of the Palestinian people, seize their land, deny them their freedom, and uproot them from their homeland.
The continuous massacres committed by the occupation against children, women, and the elderly in Gaza, the demolition of homes over their inhabitants, and the siege of over two million Palestinians are evident to the entire world. Yet, despite the clarity of these crimes, the disgraceful international silence persists, effectively giving the occupation a green light to further its aggressive plans. What is happening in Gaza and Lebanon is not just a military operation but a systematic war of genocide and the sowing of chaos aimed at depopulating the land and perpetuating a plan of displacement and uprooting that has been ongoing since the Nakba.
This tragedy is compounded by the continuous support provided by some Western powers, foremost among them the United States, which supplies the zionist entity with weapons and ensures its political protection in international forums, even guaranteeing its perpetual impunity. This limitless support enables the occupation to continue its aggression and atrocities against Palestinians and sends a clear message that the lives and rights of the Palestinian people, and the people of the entire region, hold no value in the political calculations of these states. This disgraceful alliance between the occupation and its supporters is the primary source of the suffering of our people and exacts a price paid in the blood of our sons and the future of our nation.
This comes amid the occupation’s blatant challenge to international institutions, as it wages an open war against all international bodies, especially UNRWA, which it has decided to ban from our land in an attempt to erase the right of Palestinian refugees. The occupation’s attacks on international institutions, including the UN Secretary-General and firing at UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, confirm that any talk of confronting this entity without the language of resistance is detached from reality.
We affirm, on this occasion, that the Palestinian people are deeply rooted in their land, holding firmly to every grain of their homeland, Palestine, from its river to its sea, regardless of the intensity of the oppression and brutality. Every attempt at displacement and land seizure only increases our determination to resist and defeat this occupation.
In this context, we emphasize that the Palestinian resistance remains firm in its conditions to cease the aggression on Gaza, foremost of which is a comprehensive ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza, particularly from the “Netzarim,” Salah al-Din axis, and the Rafah crossing, the return of northern Gaza residents to their homes and farms, and the entry of humanitarian aid and essential supplies to meet the needs of our people in Gaza, culminating in a prisoner exchange deal and the reconstruction of what the criminal entity has destroyed.On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, we call upon the world to recognize the extent of the historical injustice inflicted on our people and to assume its responsibilities in stopping this brutal occupation. The Palestinian people, with their inalienable right to their land and history, will remain steadfast and resistant until liberation and the rightful return of their land. We call on all the free people of the world to take a decisive stand against this ongoing injustice and stand in solidarity with our defenseless Palestinian people. The Palestinian resistance has proven throughout every phase of the struggle that it will not concede or retreat in the face of any attempt to erase its rights, and that the Palestinian people will remain resilient and steadfast in their land until justice prevails and the land returns to its rightful owners.
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
— Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
Saturday, 30 Rabi’ al-Thani 1446 AH, November 2, 2024.
—
On the Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour Declaration
The Democratic Front: “Had Britain Not Planted the zionist Project in Our Land, It Would Have Remained Lost, Searching for a Refuge Elsewhere”On the anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement holding British colonialism historically responsible for planting the zionist project in our land. The statement noted, “Had colonial Britain not worked to plant the zionist project in our land, to build the foundations of a settler state and to seize land, the zionist project would have remained lost in the world, searching for refuge far from us.”
The Democratic Front added, “British colonialism provided the zionist settler-colonial project with all the elements necessary for its realization: political pledges, land, water, weapons, and open doors for the migration of hundreds of thousands of Jewish migrants, while the United States and Western Europe closed their doors to Jewish refugees, pushing them forcibly toward Palestine to contribute to building a Jewish state on our land.”
The Democratic Front stated, “British colonialism did not stop at providing every element for establishing the colonial Jewish state on our land; it also actively suppressed the Palestinian national movement, pursuing its leaders, especially those of the armed resistance, starting with the esteemed Sheikh Izz El-Din Al-Qassam and passing through all the heroes of the resistance. It persisted in tilting the scales in favor of the zionist project, paralyzing the foundation of the Palestinian national project.”
The Democratic Front continued, “British colonialism still exhibits hostility towards our Palestinian people, openly participating in the genocidal war waged by the aggressor state against our people in Gaza, covering Gaza’s skies 24/7 with an aerial surveillance network feeding reports to the occupation army for its mass-killing operations. It also shows hostility towards the people of Yemen, who have taken on the responsibility of supporting our people in Palestine, by joining naval and air fleets alongside the United States.”
The Democratic Front stressed, “It is not enough for Britain to offer an apology for its historical and ongoing crimes against our people. At the very least, alongside an apology, Britain is obligated to cease supplying the occupation state with arms, boycott the economy of its settlements, stop providing cover for the aggressor state in the Security Council or the General Assembly, recognize the State of Palestine, cease obstructing its full membership in the United Nations, continue supporting UNRWA, and clearly and unequivocally affirm Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes and properties from which they were displaced in 1948, in addition to refraining from participating in wars against our Arab peoples.”
The Democratic Front concluded, “Despite everything Western colonialism has offered to the zionist project, our people’s resistance has not ceased over the past 100 years and will continue, presenting legendary stories of heroism by our people and their resistance throughout all occupied Palestinian territories.”
Central Media
— Popular Resistance Committees:
02/11/2024
—
On the 107th Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour Declaration:The massacres, genocide, and ethnic cleansing we witness today are a natural consequence of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration and the alliance of criminal Western states against our people and our nation.
The steadfastness of our people, their attachment to their land, their legendary steadfastness, and their courageous resistance are the response to all the conspiracies and plans of the West and the zionist-American enemy, aimed at uprooting our people from their land and ending their cause.
The criminal Western states, led by Britain, Germany, and the United States, are the ones waging war on us, demolishing our homes, killing our families, severing our women and children with their missiles and weapons, and continuing their unlimited support for the zionist enemy to annihilate our people.
No amount of hatred, destruction, or brutal zionist-American massacres will dim the light of our freedom. Our people, our resistance, and the men of the resistance axis will triumph, and their Balfour Declaration will vanish in the face of the epics of heroism being written by the resistance fighters in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran.
It is time for the nations, free people, parties, elites, scholars, and sheikhs of the [Arab and Islamic] Ummah to rise, revolt, and raise their voices in support of Palestine and Lebanon, rejecting zionist-American domination and genocide. Supporting the resistance and the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples is a duty that cannot be abandoned.
Media Office of the Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command:
Saturday, November 2, 2024
—
On the 107th anniversary of the infamous Balfour DeclarationThe anniversary of the Balfour Declaration passes us today, which was announced by Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, granting the land of Palestine to the Jews without any right or entitlement. We are at the peak of confrontation with the Nazi zionist entity and its allies, America and Britain, and those who have colluded with them to carry out conspiracies aimed at undermining the steadfastness of our people and their rich history, and their attachment to their land and constants that they have grown up with from childhood through their youth to their old age, until another generation took up the banner, to thwart the dreams of the sons of Zion with the death of our elders and the forgetting of our youth, who have today become soldiers in the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood, writing the most magnificent epics of heroism and sacrifice to protect their homeland, uphold the dignity of their people, and liberate their captives.
On this painful anniversary for our people, we hold Britain historically responsible for the consequences of this unjust promise against our people and the ongoing calamities and massacres that have resulted from it, supported by America and its agents. We demand that the free people of the world and international human rights organizations support our Palestinian people in their demand for rights in international forums, until the occupier pays the price for its crimes and violations of international humanitarian law, along with all the conspirators supporting its terrorism and Nazi occupation. We renew our pledge and oath to continue the path of jihad and resistance until we thwart all projects targeting our land, our free people, and our valiant captives, and that attempt to desecrate and Judaize the land and holy sites.
Indeed, it is a revolution until the liberation of the land and the human being.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
Media Office – Palestine
3-11-2024 -
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
On the 107th Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour DeclarationThe Balfour Declaration is a major crime that will not expire and reaffirms Britain’s responsibility for our people’s tragedy and catastrophe and its involvement in the ongoing genocide.
On this day, November 2nd, our people and humanity as a whole remember with sorrow, pain, and anger the 107th anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, announced by British Foreign Minister and war criminal Arthur Balfour in 1917, granting the right to the land of Palestine to those who do not deserve it.
This declaration constituted a major historical crime that legitimized the usurpation of the land of Palestine and its rights and the displacement of our Palestinian people, emphasizing Britain’s direct responsibility for the ongoing Nakba our people face to this day. Our people’s tragedy continues under the zionist occupation, which continues to commit the most heinous massacres, organized terrorism, and genocide, as is happening in Gaza.
The continuous British support for this criminal entity is one of the prominent reasons that have reinforced the reality of the occupation and the continuation of its crimes. Colonial Britain, which sought to impose its hegemony in the region, bears moral and historical responsibility for everything that has happened and continues to happen to our people. This support is not mere collusion but full partnership in the genocide.
On the 107th anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, we in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine reaffirm the following:
1. We will not forget or forgive Britain for committing this major crime and causing the Nakba of our people, holding it directly responsible for our people’s continuous suffering.2. We demand that the British government recognize the rights of the Palestinian people and compensate for the damages caused by this ill-fated declaration as a necessary step towards achieving justice and atoning for its major crime.
3. We stress the importance of raising global awareness about the catastrophic impacts of the Balfour Declaration, and we call on the free people of Britain who filled the squares by the hundreds of thousands denouncing the zionist aggression on Gaza to continue pressing the British government to assume its historical responsibilities and contribute immediately to stopping the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
4. We emphasize the role of institutions and groups supportive of and in solidarity with our people in activating the international arena through international institutions and the International Criminal Court to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes, support the rights of the Palestinian people, and hold Britain accountable for its historical role in the catastrophe of our people and the tragedy they continue to live through, as well as for its involvement in the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
5. We reaffirm our commitment to continue the struggle and resistance in all forms, foremost among them armed resistance, until the aggression is repelled and the repercussions of this ill-fated declaration are undone, regardless of the sacrifices and the extent of Western, especially British, collusion.
In conclusion, we in the Popular Front affirm that the Balfour Declaration will remain an open wound in the memory of our people, an unforgivable crime that will not expire, and we will remain loyal to the blood of our heroic martyrs, continuing our relentless struggle until liberation and return.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Central Media Department
November 2, 2024
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most MercifulOn this day in 1917, the infamous promise known as the Balfour Declaration was issued, falsely granting a right to those who had no claim over a land that was not theirs. This unjust declaration marked the initial step in a prolonged journey of oppression and aggression, paving the way for colonialism based on seizing land and eradicating the Palestinian people. Through this promise, Britain opened the gates to an enduring historical injustice and became one of the primary contributors to the suffering of the Palestinian people by supporting the establishment of the zionist entity and providing political cover for it to commit decades of oppression and ethnic cleansing. To this day, Britain bears moral, political, and legal responsibility for the oppression and displacement experienced by the Palestinian people. The impact of the Balfour Declaration remains deeply embedded in our memory, only growing stronger with every crime committed by the occupation.
Today, over a century after this crime, our people face an even harsher reality. The occupation is waging a war of genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip, aiming to crush the will of the Palestinian people, seize their land, deny them their freedom, and uproot them from their homeland.
The continuous massacres committed by the occupation against children, women, and the elderly in Gaza, the demolition of homes over their inhabitants, and the siege of over two million Palestinians are evident to the entire world. Yet, despite the clarity of these crimes, the disgraceful international silence persists, effectively giving the occupation a green light to further its aggressive plans. What is happening in Gaza and Lebanon is not just a military operation but a systematic war of genocide and the sowing of chaos aimed at depopulating the land and perpetuating a plan of displacement and uprooting that has been ongoing since the Nakba.
This tragedy is compounded by the continuous support provided by some Western powers, foremost among them the United States, which supplies the zionist entity with weapons and ensures its political protection in international forums, even guaranteeing its perpetual impunity. This limitless support enables the occupation to continue its aggression and atrocities against Palestinians and sends a clear message that the lives and rights of the Palestinian people, and the people of the entire region, hold no value in the political calculations of these states. This disgraceful alliance between the occupation and its supporters is the primary source of the suffering of our people and exacts a price paid in the blood of our sons and the future of our nation.
This comes amid the occupation’s blatant challenge to international institutions, as it wages an open war against all international bodies, especially UNRWA, which it has decided to ban from our land in an attempt to erase the right of Palestinian refugees. The occupation’s attacks on international institutions, including the UN Secretary-General and firing at UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, confirm that any talk of confronting this entity without the language of resistance is detached from reality.
We affirm, on this occasion, that the Palestinian people are deeply rooted in their land, holding firmly to every grain of their homeland, Palestine, from its river to its sea, regardless of the intensity of the oppression and brutality. Every attempt at displacement and land seizure only increases our determination to resist and defeat this occupation.
In this context, we emphasize that the Palestinian resistance remains firm in its conditions to cease the aggression on Gaza, foremost of which is a comprehensive ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza, particularly from the “Netzarim,” Salah al-Din axis, and the Rafah crossing, the return of northern Gaza residents to their homes and farms, and the entry of humanitarian aid and essential supplies to meet the needs of our people in Gaza, culminating in a prisoner exchange deal and the reconstruction of what the criminal entity has destroyed.On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, we call upon the world to recognize the extent of the historical injustice inflicted on our people and to assume its responsibilities in stopping this brutal occupation. The Palestinian people, with their inalienable right to their land and history, will remain steadfast and resistant until liberation and the rightful return of their land. We call on all the free people of the world to take a decisive stand against this ongoing injustice and stand in solidarity with our defenseless Palestinian people. The Palestinian resistance has proven throughout every phase of the struggle that it will not concede or retreat in the face of any attempt to erase its rights, and that the Palestinian people will remain resilient and steadfast in their land until justice prevails and the land returns to its rightful owners.
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
— Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
Saturday, 30 Rabi’ al-Thani 1446 AH, November 2, 2024.
—
On the Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour Declaration
The Democratic Front: “Had Britain Not Planted the zionist Project in Our Land, It Would Have Remained Lost, Searching for a Refuge Elsewhere”On the anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement holding British colonialism historically responsible for planting the zionist project in our land. The statement noted, “Had colonial Britain not worked to plant the zionist project in our land, to build the foundations of a settler state and to seize land, the zionist project would have remained lost in the world, searching for refuge far from us.”
The Democratic Front added, “British colonialism provided the zionist settler-colonial project with all the elements necessary for its realization: political pledges, land, water, weapons, and open doors for the migration of hundreds of thousands of Jewish migrants, while the United States and Western Europe closed their doors to Jewish refugees, pushing them forcibly toward Palestine to contribute to building a Jewish state on our land.”
The Democratic Front stated, “British colonialism did not stop at providing every element for establishing the colonial Jewish state on our land; it also actively suppressed the Palestinian national movement, pursuing its leaders, especially those of the armed resistance, starting with the esteemed Sheikh Izz El-Din Al-Qassam and passing through all the heroes of the resistance. It persisted in tilting the scales in favor of the zionist project, paralyzing the foundation of the Palestinian national project.”
The Democratic Front continued, “British colonialism still exhibits hostility towards our Palestinian people, openly participating in the genocidal war waged by the aggressor state against our people in Gaza, covering Gaza’s skies 24/7 with an aerial surveillance network feeding reports to the occupation army for its mass-killing operations. It also shows hostility towards the people of Yemen, who have taken on the responsibility of supporting our people in Palestine, by joining naval and air fleets alongside the United States.”
The Democratic Front stressed, “It is not enough for Britain to offer an apology for its historical and ongoing crimes against our people. At the very least, alongside an apology, Britain is obligated to cease supplying the occupation state with arms, boycott the economy of its settlements, stop providing cover for the aggressor state in the Security Council or the General Assembly, recognize the State of Palestine, cease obstructing its full membership in the United Nations, continue supporting UNRWA, and clearly and unequivocally affirm Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes and properties from which they were displaced in 1948, in addition to refraining from participating in wars against our Arab peoples.”
The Democratic Front concluded, “Despite everything Western colonialism has offered to the zionist project, our people’s resistance has not ceased over the past 100 years and will continue, presenting legendary stories of heroism by our people and their resistance throughout all occupied Palestinian territories.”
Central Media
— Popular Resistance Committees:
02/11/2024
—
On the 107th Anniversary of the Ill-Fated Balfour Declaration:The massacres, genocide, and ethnic cleansing we witness today are a natural consequence of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration and the alliance of criminal Western states against our people and our nation.
The steadfastness of our people, their attachment to their land, their legendary steadfastness, and their courageous resistance are the response to all the conspiracies and plans of the West and the zionist-American enemy, aimed at uprooting our people from their land and ending their cause.
The criminal Western states, led by Britain, Germany, and the United States, are the ones waging war on us, demolishing our homes, killing our families, severing our women and children with their missiles and weapons, and continuing their unlimited support for the zionist enemy to annihilate our people.
No amount of hatred, destruction, or brutal zionist-American massacres will dim the light of our freedom. Our people, our resistance, and the men of the resistance axis will triumph, and their Balfour Declaration will vanish in the face of the epics of heroism being written by the resistance fighters in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran.
It is time for the nations, free people, parties, elites, scholars, and sheikhs of the [Arab and Islamic] Ummah to rise, revolt, and raise their voices in support of Palestine and Lebanon, rejecting zionist-American domination and genocide. Supporting the resistance and the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples is a duty that cannot be abandoned.
Media Office of the Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command:
Saturday, November 2, 2024
—
On the 107th anniversary of the infamous Balfour DeclarationThe anniversary of the Balfour Declaration passes us today, which was announced by Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, granting the land of Palestine to the Jews without any right or entitlement. We are at the peak of confrontation with the Nazi zionist entity and its allies, America and Britain, and those who have colluded with them to carry out conspiracies aimed at undermining the steadfastness of our people and their rich history, and their attachment to their land and constants that they have grown up with from childhood through their youth to their old age, until another generation took up the banner, to thwart the dreams of the sons of Zion with the death of our elders and the forgetting of our youth, who have today become soldiers in the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood, writing the most magnificent epics of heroism and sacrifice to protect their homeland, uphold the dignity of their people, and liberate their captives.
On this painful anniversary for our people, we hold Britain historically responsible for the consequences of this unjust promise against our people and the ongoing calamities and massacres that have resulted from it, supported by America and its agents. We demand that the free people of the world and international human rights organizations support our Palestinian people in their demand for rights in international forums, until the occupier pays the price for its crimes and violations of international humanitarian law, along with all the conspirators supporting its terrorism and Nazi occupation. We renew our pledge and oath to continue the path of jihad and resistance until we thwart all projects targeting our land, our free people, and our valiant captives, and that attempt to desecrate and Judaize the land and holy sites.
Indeed, it is a revolution until the liberation of the land and the human being.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
Media Office – Palestine
3-11-2024 -
Finally Friday Reads: Shutdown or Meltdown?
“So, not even two months. Here we are.” John Buss, @repeat1968, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I’ve always been an opponent of letting the US Government shut down. As an economist, I know what kind of misery that creates for many people as well, as the possibility of a government default, which could haunt us for many years. My worry is real, but this situation is unique, and typically, the party that tries to shut the government down takes the political heat. I understand what he’s worried about. If we default on debt we become a risky debtor. If we shut the Government down, the weakest among us will suffer needlessly. Default has incredible consequences for the Social Security trust fund, the strength of our dollar, and if anyone will ever buy a US t-bill or t-bond now or ever. That includes war bonds if we ever need them again. I don’t like it, but a default would be unbelievably destructive to the country’s future. I hate that we’re in this position.
How it played out this last night and this morning pitted Schumer against many of his most strong-willed colleagues. Schumer’s support even earned him a pat on the head from #FARTUS. Trump’s always one to take advantage of a bad situation. He interpreted the move as support of the Doge Bulldozer moving through government agencies and policy. That was something one of my Canadian friends from way back in my Fired Dog Lake days predicted. I’d like to read your thoughts on that because I’m unsure how it will be received by folks outside Beltway machinations.
Let’s review what’s out there in the Press and Social media about the move that separated many Democratic senators from the leader. This is from AXIOS as proffered by Andrew Sollender. “House Dems go into “complete meltdown” as Schumer folds”.
House Democrats erupted into apoplexy Thursday night after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would support Republicans’ stopgap government funding measure.
Why it matters: House Democrats feel like they “walked the plank,” in the words of one member. They voted almost unanimously against the measure, only to watch Senate Democrats seemingly give it the green light.
- “Complete meltdown. Complete and utter meltdown on all text chains,” said the member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer sensitive details of members’ internal conversations.
- A senior House Democrat said “people are furious” and that some rank-and-file members have floated the idea of angrily marching onto the Senate floor in protest.
- Others are talking openly about supporting primary challenges to senators who vote for the GOP spending bill.
Driving the news: Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday that while the GOP measure is “very bad,” the possibility of a government shutdown “has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”
- “A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country,” Schumer said.
- The comments likely clear a path for at least eight Senate Democrats to vote for the bill — enough for Republicans to overcome the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Zoom in: All but one House Democrat voted against the bill earlier this week, in large part because it lacks language to keep the Trump administration from cutting congressionally approved spending.
- “There were many battleground Dems in the House … that were uncomfortable, semi-uncomfortable, with the vote,” said one House Democrat. “The Senate left the House at the altar.”
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), in remarks to his House colleagues at their annual retreat Thursday, lauded them for standing up to President Trump by voting against the bill, according to multiple sources.
- When he praised House Democrats’ votes, he received a standing ovation. When he mentioned Senate Democrats, members booed.
What we’re hearing: House Democrats’ text chains lit up Thursday night with expressions of blinding anger, according to numerous lawmakers who described the conversations on the condition of anonymity.
- “People are PISSED,” one House Democrat told Axios in a text message.
- Several members — including moderates — have begun voicing support for a primary challenge to Schumer, floating Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) as possible candidates, three House Democrats said.
- One lawmaker even vowed at the House Democratic retreat to “write a check tonight” supporting Ocasio-Cortez, said the senior House Democrat.
- Another Democrat told Axios the ideation has gone a step further: “There is definitely a primary recruitment effort happening right now … not just Schumer, but for everyone who votes no.”
More gossip and speculation at the link.
Schumer himself appeared on Chris Hayes last night as well as wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times. “Chuck Schumer: Trump and Musk Would Love a Shutdown. We Must Not Give Them One.”
Over the past two months, the United States has confronted a bitter truth: The federal government has been taken over by a nihilist.
President Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. Most Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim. The Grand Old Party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals who seem to want to burn everything to the ground.
Now, Republicans’ nihilism has brought us to a new brink of disaster: Unless Congress acts, the federal government will shut down Friday at midnight.
As I have said many times, there are no winners in a government shutdown. But there are certainly victims: the most vulnerable Americans, those who rely on federal programs to feed their families, get medical care and stay financially afloat. Communities that depend on government services to function will suffer.
This week Democrats offered a way out: Fund the government for another month to give appropriators more time to do their jobs. Republicans rejected this proposal.
Why? Because Mr. Trump doesn’t want the appropriators to do their job. He wants full control over government spending.
He isn’t the first president to want this, but he may be the first president since Andrew Jackson to successfully cow his party into submission. That leads Democrats to a difficult decision: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Mr. Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.
This, in my view, is no choice at all.
Emptywheel (a friend from my Fire Dog Lake Doays) wrote a scathing piece on the situation. It indicates how desperately we need the Democrats in Congress to get their acts together. It isn’t easy dealing with chaos, but it’s even worse if you contribute to it. “Democrats Have to Stop Making Political Decisions with an Eye Towards 2026.” I’m unsure if that’s all they’re thinking about or if they’re just running around like chickens with their heads caught up.
I’ve been out of pocket as events moved towards today’s cloture vote on the dogshit continuing resolution Republicans have written. It’s not yet clear whether seven Democrats (in addition to John Fetterman) will join Chuck Schumer — who has said he’ll vote for cloture — in helping Republicans pass it, or whether a Democrat will buy some time.
It’s clear that Schumer’s excuse only emphasizes that there are no good options. He says if there’s a shutdown, Republicans will only reopen those parts of government they want. In the face of the shuttering of USAID and dismantlement of Department of Education, that seems like a futile worry.
Among the best arguments I’ve seen against a shutdown, laid out but dropped here by Josh Marshall, is that a shutdown would provide Trump a way to halt legal proceedings by deeming those lawyers non-essential.
I was told yesterday that a major driver for Dems was the fear that a shutdown would slow down or stop the various court cases against DOGE. Honestly, that sounded so stupid to me that I was skeptical. But this afternoon I heard it from other key directions. I don’t know if it’s the biggest driver but just on the basis of what I heard I get a sense that it’s a major one. That seems so wrongheaded, so lawyer-brained, that when I got the final piece of the puzzle in front of me and realized this was a real thing, it was hard for me to even process.
Schumer described it this way in his speech yesterday:
Justice, and the courts, extremely troubling, I believe. A shutdown could stall Federal court cases, one of the best redoubts against Trump’s lawlessness, and could require a furlough of critical staff at the courts, denying victims and defendants alike their day in court, dragging out appeals and clogging the justice system for months and even years.
I don’t think this is lawyer-brained at all. Trump could simply call the lawyers engaged in these suits non-essential, stalling legal challenges in their current status, and then finding new test cases to establish a precedent while judges were stymied.
In both Phoenix, where a reduction in force affected all the people running the courthouse, and in the Perkins Coie lawsuit, where a hearing the other day reviewed all the Executive Branch personnel, from Marshals to GSA, who keep the courthouse running, the Executive’s ability to limit the Judiciary via manipulation of facilities and staff has already become a live issue. Here’s how Beryl Howell described the way in which Trump’s attempt to exclude Perkins Coie from federal buildings could be enforced via Executive branch personnel.
THE COURT: I just want to make sure because we, in the judiciary — we’re the third branch. We are not the executive branch. We are not subject to this guidance. But our landlord, and all of the federal courthouses around the country is GSA —
MR. BUTSWINKAS: GSA.
THE COURT: — General Services Administration. And the people who do the security at our front doors, all across the country in federal courthouses, are DOJ-component employees from the U.S. Marshals Service or court security officers. So they are all executive branch employees.
Meanwhile the court cases are making progress. Just this week, we’ve had two judges order reinstatement of all the people fired, grant FOIA status to DOGE, and grant discovery to Democratic Attorneys General (plus in one of the two reinstatement cases, Judge Alsup ordered a deposition from an OPM person involved in the firing). As of this week, DOGE now has to answer for its actions in the courts.
Imagine, for example, if a shutdown made it easier for DHS to keep Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana for the duration of a shutdown, even if they simply said moving him back to SDNY (or New Jersey) is not a priority. There are other cases where the government is being ordered to pay back payments; a shutdown would make such recourse unavailable to anyone who has not yet sued. In the financial clawback cases (where EPA and FEMA seized funds already awarded), a shutdown would give the FBI time to try to frame the case against plaintiffs they’re pursuing, while the plaintiffs get no protection in the meantime. A key flaw was revealed in the lawsuit against Perkins Coie in the hearing the other day (which I’ll return to); if given the time, I would expect Trump to try the same trick against another law firm, fixing that flaw, in an attempt to eliminate any anti-Trump legal teams in the country.
So the concern that a shutdown would eliminate one of two sources of power is real.
I’m agnostic about whether a shutdown brings more advantage than risks.
The rest of her essay argues that everyone is far too interested in the midterm elections.
(snip)
One thing I am absolutely certain of, however, is that Democrats on both sides of this debate are framing it in terms of 2026. Those justifiably furious at Chuck Schumer are thinking in terms of primaries against any Senator who supports cloture. They’re demanding a filibuster so that elected Democrats, as Democrats, be seen wielding some power, so the party doesn’t look feckless to potential voters. Those afraid of a shutdown are discussing electoral consequences in 2026. Polls are measuring who would be blamed in the polls.
This mindset has plagued both sides of Democratic debates for two months, with disastrous consequences.
Democracy will be preserved or lost in the next three months. And democracy will be won or lost via a nonpartisan political fight over whether enough Americans want to preserve their way of life to fight back, in a coalition that includes far more than Democrats. You win this fight by treating Trump and Elon as the villain, not by making any one Democrat a hero (or worse still, squandering week after week targeting Democratic leaders while letting Elon go ignored).
Either way, this is an untenable situation.
Today is another day of the country finding out none of this is normal. NBC News has a running thread on every crazy thing on deck for the Beltway today. “Government shutdown live updates: Senate to vote on funding bill today; Dr. Mehmet Oz faces confirmation hearing. President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at the Justice Department, a frequent target of his and his allies’ government weaponization claims.” Have I mentioned I have a TV, but it’s been sitting in a box for nearly three years? I just don’t have the stamina to set it up and watch all this craziness on a big screen.
Reality TV stars and swindlers are about all Trump has to offer up these days.
Hassan grills Dr Oz about promoting a bunch of scam "medical" products on TV, including "raspberry ketones." She notes that "it seems to me you are still unwilling to take accountability for your promotion of unproven snake oil remedies to millions of your viewers."
The only good news I found today was this.
Judges order Trump to rehire thousands of fired federal workers.
Two federal courts are ruling that the firings of probationary federal workers were improper and that tens of thousands of those employees must be immediately reinstated. The Trump administration is calling the ruling absurd and unconstitutional and is vowing to fight back. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY.”
It seems we are fully reliant on the Judiciary Branch to stop the destruction of our Government and democracy. It’s not like we didn’t warn people, either. This is in Fortune, as reported by the AP. ” The Trump administration must bring back thousands of federal workers fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, judge rules.” The Judge really read the riot act to the Federal attorney also.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to reinstate thousands—if not tens of thousands—of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies last month, saying that the terminations were directed by a personnel office that had no authority to do so.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ordered the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14 using guidance from the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell.
Alsup directed the agencies to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the departments complied with his order as to each person.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to dramatically downsize the federal workforce.
The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections. He was appalled that employees were fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.
“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”
Opinion: 3 ways DOGE challengers could win court cases from CNN
It’s the day before my favorite holiday, The Ides of March. For those who don’t know, if I could go back in time and eliminate before they came into power, it would be the baby that became Julius Ceasar. They offed him too late to help history. So, there’s likely a few folks walking around the White House right now that should Beware the Ides of March. Nipping the Roman Empire in the bud would have definitely put us farther away from the Dark Time Line.
Here’s tomorrow’s version of the Ides of March.
Donald Trump has suggested that the US should buy Gaza, will get Greenland “one way or another” as well as the Panama Canal, ignited a new trade war, floated the annexation of Canada, and hired the world’s richest weirdo (who also happens to be the world’s richest man) to fire tens of thousands of federal employees. And that’s just one country.
Romania’s leading presidential candidate was arrested after winning the first round of elections with the assistance of Russian bots, showing that Putin is determined to mess with all his neighbors. Look for the Moldovan election in a few months; Russia is sowing chaos with energy sabotage.
Germany’s most successful far-right party since World War II just had a record-breaking result after the the US basically endorsed them. And don’t be fooled by Friedrich Merz’s lack of flair: The Europeans are about to try to build an independent defense, give the American abdication.
China’s DeepSeek has upended the AI market, throwing Silicon Valley into full-blown panic mode. And it will soon dominate the renewable energy market and have just been given a monumental soft-power gift the US abdication of 80 years of global leadership of the free world.
Tara Palmeri writes this on her blog, Red Letter. “Fear and Loathing in the West Wing. Inside the revolt against Elon Musk…”
The tolerance for Elon Musk inside of the White House is wearing thin, as they deal with the fallout of his calamitous interview with Larry Kudlow when he touched the third rail – entitlements. Even though Trump’s staffers are terrified of Musk, they know that if you try to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you die, politically speaking.
“It’s no longer simmering resistance, people are fucking furious,” said a source with knowledge of the situation.
“Medicaid is not just for Black people in the ghetto, these are our voters,” said a Republican operative close to the White House.
Even before the interview, I’m told that the White House communications team was adamantly against letting Musk do the interview with Kudlow, even though he’s a former administration official and ally. They know that FOX News is a network that their older, white working-class voters watch closely and this was a rare televised interview for Musk, not the same as getting high with Joe Rogan.
Now they’re playing cleanup. Sure, they sent out a “Fact Check” memo from the White House highlighting that his words were garbled when he said he’s looking at the “waste and fraud in entitlement spending,” not entitlements all together. But then Musk went further, falsely claiming in the interview that Democrats use entitlement programs to attract illegal immigrants into the country so that they can add them to their voter rolls. It doesn’t help that earlier this month, Musk referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
You can even see Kudlow shifting around uncomfortably during the interview.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung denied that there was an issue. “We love [Musk] doing media,” he said, pointing to his joint interview with Trump on Sean Hannity.
As promised, I want to share the ins and outs of my reporting process with you, so I first reached out to Trump’s personal pollster John McLaughlin after I learned about the meltdown over Musk’s interview to ask if he’s been polling Musk’s response in the interview. And I was shocked to learn that McLaughlin has not polled Musk at all, even though he’s clearly a political liability to the President. McLaughlin has been polling Trump for decades and was one of the main pollsters alongside Tony Fabrizio on the campaign. He said the last poll that he conducted that even remotely touched on Musk was about DOGE in November 2024 and it did not mention Musk by name.
“No one has asked us to do that poll,” McLaughlin told me.
Well, the public polling shows that the numbers for Musk – what some would call Trump’s heat shield – have been in free fall since Trump took office, with more than 53 percent of people having an unfavorable opinion of Musk, according to a new CNN poll. But surely Trump’s political operation, which to be fair is an impressive one, would want to know if Musk was starting to become a liability. No political consultant in Washington trusts public polling. They’d probably trust the opposition party’s polling over public polling. So that leaves me to believe that they are afraid of Trump’s appendage or it’s because Musk just donated $100 million to Trump’s political arm, which just so happens to be run by Trump’s other pollster Fabrizio. When I asked Fabrizio if he’s conducting polls on Musk favorables, he didn’t get back to me.
Regardless, I’ve heard that the White House is aware that Musk’s numbers are “dog shit,” according to a source. “
More at the link.
Just one more thing to ruin your weekend and I’m sorry but it’s story that needs telling. This is from The New Republic. “Trump Gives New Orders to U.S. Military on Panama Canal Takeover, Donald Trump is moving forward on his plans to seize the Panama Canal.”
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. military to draw up options for retaking the Panama Canal.
President Trump has been pushing for retaking the canal since December, and repeated his desire in a joint address to Congress last week, without any elaboration. The rest of the Trump administration hasn’t attempted to explain what he means, either.
The military is drawing up options, according to NBC News, that range from a closer partnership with the Panamanian military to soldiers seizing the Panama Canal by force, according to unnamed officials. The use of force depends on how much Panama’s military is willing to work with the United States, the officials told NBC News.
The commander of U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, presented the different strategies to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier this week. The plan to use military force against Panama will only be considered if posting additional U.S. military personnel does not accomplish Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the canal, the officials said.
Right now, the U.S. has more than 200 troops in the country, including Special Forces units working with Panamanian units to combat internal unrest. Trump claims China has troops in the canal, which Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denies, as does China. In February, Panama decided not to renew an infrastructure agreement with China, drawing criticism from the country toward the U.S.
One tin soldier rides again.
So, I just want to watch a few more Star Wars movies and eat the tabouli I made last night. We’re seriously in trouble, and I don’t see Captain America out there anywhere, or Wonder Woman, or any of the other Super Heros we could use right now. At least it’s almost crawfish season.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#Repeat1968JohnBuss #ChuckSchumer #Doge #FARTUS #governmentShutdown #JudgeOrdersRehireOfFederalWorkers
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Finally Friday Reads: Shutdown or Meltdown?
“So, not even two months. Here we are.” John Buss, @repeat1968, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I’ve always been an opponent of letting the US Government shut down. As an economist, I know what kind of misery that creates for many people as well, as the possibility of a government default, which could haunt us for many years. My worry is real, but this situation is unique, and typically, the party that tries to shut the government down takes the political heat. I understand what he’s worried about. If we default on debt we become a risky debtor. If we shut the Government down, the weakest among us will suffer needlessly. Default has incredible consequences for the Social Security trust fund, the strength of our dollar, and if anyone will ever buy a US t-bill or t-bond now or ever. That includes war bonds if we ever need them again. I don’t like it, but a default would be unbelievably destructive to the country’s future. I hate that we’re in this position.
How it played out this last night and this morning pitted Schumer against many of his most strong-willed colleagues. Schumer’s support even earned him a pat on the head from #FARTUS. Trump’s always one to take advantage of a bad situation. He interpreted the move as support of the Doge Bulldozer moving through government agencies and policy. That was something one of my Canadian friends from way back in my Fired Dog Lake days predicted. I’d like to read your thoughts on that because I’m unsure how it will be received by folks outside Beltway machinations.
Let’s review what’s out there in the Press and Social media about the move that separated many Democratic senators from the leader. This is from AXIOS as proffered by Andrew Sollender. “House Dems go into “complete meltdown” as Schumer folds”.
House Democrats erupted into apoplexy Thursday night after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would support Republicans’ stopgap government funding measure.
Why it matters: House Democrats feel like they “walked the plank,” in the words of one member. They voted almost unanimously against the measure, only to watch Senate Democrats seemingly give it the green light.
- “Complete meltdown. Complete and utter meltdown on all text chains,” said the member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer sensitive details of members’ internal conversations.
- A senior House Democrat said “people are furious” and that some rank-and-file members have floated the idea of angrily marching onto the Senate floor in protest.
- Others are talking openly about supporting primary challenges to senators who vote for the GOP spending bill.
Driving the news: Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday that while the GOP measure is “very bad,” the possibility of a government shutdown “has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”
- “A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country,” Schumer said.
- The comments likely clear a path for at least eight Senate Democrats to vote for the bill — enough for Republicans to overcome the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Zoom in: All but one House Democrat voted against the bill earlier this week, in large part because it lacks language to keep the Trump administration from cutting congressionally approved spending.
- “There were many battleground Dems in the House … that were uncomfortable, semi-uncomfortable, with the vote,” said one House Democrat. “The Senate left the House at the altar.”
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), in remarks to his House colleagues at their annual retreat Thursday, lauded them for standing up to President Trump by voting against the bill, according to multiple sources.
- When he praised House Democrats’ votes, he received a standing ovation. When he mentioned Senate Democrats, members booed.
What we’re hearing: House Democrats’ text chains lit up Thursday night with expressions of blinding anger, according to numerous lawmakers who described the conversations on the condition of anonymity.
- “People are PISSED,” one House Democrat told Axios in a text message.
- Several members — including moderates — have begun voicing support for a primary challenge to Schumer, floating Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) as possible candidates, three House Democrats said.
- One lawmaker even vowed at the House Democratic retreat to “write a check tonight” supporting Ocasio-Cortez, said the senior House Democrat.
- Another Democrat told Axios the ideation has gone a step further: “There is definitely a primary recruitment effort happening right now … not just Schumer, but for everyone who votes no.”
More gossip and speculation at the link.
Schumer himself appeared on Chris Hayes last night as well as wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times. “Chuck Schumer: Trump and Musk Would Love a Shutdown. We Must Not Give Them One.”
Over the past two months, the United States has confronted a bitter truth: The federal government has been taken over by a nihilist.
President Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. Most Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim. The Grand Old Party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals who seem to want to burn everything to the ground.
Now, Republicans’ nihilism has brought us to a new brink of disaster: Unless Congress acts, the federal government will shut down Friday at midnight.
As I have said many times, there are no winners in a government shutdown. But there are certainly victims: the most vulnerable Americans, those who rely on federal programs to feed their families, get medical care and stay financially afloat. Communities that depend on government services to function will suffer.
This week Democrats offered a way out: Fund the government for another month to give appropriators more time to do their jobs. Republicans rejected this proposal.
Why? Because Mr. Trump doesn’t want the appropriators to do their job. He wants full control over government spending.
He isn’t the first president to want this, but he may be the first president since Andrew Jackson to successfully cow his party into submission. That leads Democrats to a difficult decision: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Mr. Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.
This, in my view, is no choice at all.
Emptywheel (a friend from my Fire Dog Lake Doays) wrote a scathing piece on the situation. It indicates how desperately we need the Democrats in Congress to get their acts together. It isn’t easy dealing with chaos, but it’s even worse if you contribute to it. “Democrats Have to Stop Making Political Decisions with an Eye Towards 2026.” I’m unsure if that’s all they’re thinking about or if they’re just running around like chickens with their heads caught up.
I’ve been out of pocket as events moved towards today’s cloture vote on the dogshit continuing resolution Republicans have written. It’s not yet clear whether seven Democrats (in addition to John Fetterman) will join Chuck Schumer — who has said he’ll vote for cloture — in helping Republicans pass it, or whether a Democrat will buy some time.
It’s clear that Schumer’s excuse only emphasizes that there are no good options. He says if there’s a shutdown, Republicans will only reopen those parts of government they want. In the face of the shuttering of USAID and dismantlement of Department of Education, that seems like a futile worry.
Among the best arguments I’ve seen against a shutdown, laid out but dropped here by Josh Marshall, is that a shutdown would provide Trump a way to halt legal proceedings by deeming those lawyers non-essential.
I was told yesterday that a major driver for Dems was the fear that a shutdown would slow down or stop the various court cases against DOGE. Honestly, that sounded so stupid to me that I was skeptical. But this afternoon I heard it from other key directions. I don’t know if it’s the biggest driver but just on the basis of what I heard I get a sense that it’s a major one. That seems so wrongheaded, so lawyer-brained, that when I got the final piece of the puzzle in front of me and realized this was a real thing, it was hard for me to even process.
Schumer described it this way in his speech yesterday:
Justice, and the courts, extremely troubling, I believe. A shutdown could stall Federal court cases, one of the best redoubts against Trump’s lawlessness, and could require a furlough of critical staff at the courts, denying victims and defendants alike their day in court, dragging out appeals and clogging the justice system for months and even years.
I don’t think this is lawyer-brained at all. Trump could simply call the lawyers engaged in these suits non-essential, stalling legal challenges in their current status, and then finding new test cases to establish a precedent while judges were stymied.
In both Phoenix, where a reduction in force affected all the people running the courthouse, and in the Perkins Coie lawsuit, where a hearing the other day reviewed all the Executive Branch personnel, from Marshals to GSA, who keep the courthouse running, the Executive’s ability to limit the Judiciary via manipulation of facilities and staff has already become a live issue. Here’s how Beryl Howell described the way in which Trump’s attempt to exclude Perkins Coie from federal buildings could be enforced via Executive branch personnel.
THE COURT: I just want to make sure because we, in the judiciary — we’re the third branch. We are not the executive branch. We are not subject to this guidance. But our landlord, and all of the federal courthouses around the country is GSA —
MR. BUTSWINKAS: GSA.
THE COURT: — General Services Administration. And the people who do the security at our front doors, all across the country in federal courthouses, are DOJ-component employees from the U.S. Marshals Service or court security officers. So they are all executive branch employees.
Meanwhile the court cases are making progress. Just this week, we’ve had two judges order reinstatement of all the people fired, grant FOIA status to DOGE, and grant discovery to Democratic Attorneys General (plus in one of the two reinstatement cases, Judge Alsup ordered a deposition from an OPM person involved in the firing). As of this week, DOGE now has to answer for its actions in the courts.
Imagine, for example, if a shutdown made it easier for DHS to keep Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana for the duration of a shutdown, even if they simply said moving him back to SDNY (or New Jersey) is not a priority. There are other cases where the government is being ordered to pay back payments; a shutdown would make such recourse unavailable to anyone who has not yet sued. In the financial clawback cases (where EPA and FEMA seized funds already awarded), a shutdown would give the FBI time to try to frame the case against plaintiffs they’re pursuing, while the plaintiffs get no protection in the meantime. A key flaw was revealed in the lawsuit against Perkins Coie in the hearing the other day (which I’ll return to); if given the time, I would expect Trump to try the same trick against another law firm, fixing that flaw, in an attempt to eliminate any anti-Trump legal teams in the country.
So the concern that a shutdown would eliminate one of two sources of power is real.
I’m agnostic about whether a shutdown brings more advantage than risks.
The rest of her essay argues that everyone is far too interested in the midterm elections.
(snip)
One thing I am absolutely certain of, however, is that Democrats on both sides of this debate are framing it in terms of 2026. Those justifiably furious at Chuck Schumer are thinking in terms of primaries against any Senator who supports cloture. They’re demanding a filibuster so that elected Democrats, as Democrats, be seen wielding some power, so the party doesn’t look feckless to potential voters. Those afraid of a shutdown are discussing electoral consequences in 2026. Polls are measuring who would be blamed in the polls.
This mindset has plagued both sides of Democratic debates for two months, with disastrous consequences.
Democracy will be preserved or lost in the next three months. And democracy will be won or lost via a nonpartisan political fight over whether enough Americans want to preserve their way of life to fight back, in a coalition that includes far more than Democrats. You win this fight by treating Trump and Elon as the villain, not by making any one Democrat a hero (or worse still, squandering week after week targeting Democratic leaders while letting Elon go ignored).
Either way, this is an untenable situation.
Today is another day of the country finding out none of this is normal. NBC News has a running thread on every crazy thing on deck for the Beltway today. “Government shutdown live updates: Senate to vote on funding bill today; Dr. Mehmet Oz faces confirmation hearing. President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at the Justice Department, a frequent target of his and his allies’ government weaponization claims.” Have I mentioned I have a TV, but it’s been sitting in a box for nearly three years? I just don’t have the stamina to set it up and watch all this craziness on a big screen.
Reality TV stars and swindlers are about all Trump has to offer up these days.
Hassan grills Dr Oz about promoting a bunch of scam "medical" products on TV, including "raspberry ketones." She notes that "it seems to me you are still unwilling to take accountability for your promotion of unproven snake oil remedies to millions of your viewers."
The only good news I found today was this.
Judges order Trump to rehire thousands of fired federal workers.
Two federal courts are ruling that the firings of probationary federal workers were improper and that tens of thousands of those employees must be immediately reinstated. The Trump administration is calling the ruling absurd and unconstitutional and is vowing to fight back. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY.”
It seems we are fully reliant on the Judiciary Branch to stop the destruction of our Government and democracy. It’s not like we didn’t warn people, either. This is in Fortune, as reported by the AP. ” The Trump administration must bring back thousands of federal workers fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, judge rules.” The Judge really read the riot act to the Federal attorney also.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to reinstate thousands—if not tens of thousands—of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies last month, saying that the terminations were directed by a personnel office that had no authority to do so.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ordered the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14 using guidance from the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell.
Alsup directed the agencies to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the departments complied with his order as to each person.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to dramatically downsize the federal workforce.
The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections. He was appalled that employees were fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.
“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”
Opinion: 3 ways DOGE challengers could win court cases from CNN
It’s the day before my favorite holiday, The Ides of March. For those who don’t know, if I could go back in time and eliminate before they came into power, it would be the baby that became Julius Ceasar. They offed him too late to help history. So, there’s likely a few folks walking around the White House right now that should Beware the Ides of March. Nipping the Roman Empire in the bud would have definitely put us farther away from the Dark Time Line.
Here’s tomorrow’s version of the Ides of March.
Donald Trump has suggested that the US should buy Gaza, will get Greenland “one way or another” as well as the Panama Canal, ignited a new trade war, floated the annexation of Canada, and hired the world’s richest weirdo (who also happens to be the world’s richest man) to fire tens of thousands of federal employees. And that’s just one country.
Romania’s leading presidential candidate was arrested after winning the first round of elections with the assistance of Russian bots, showing that Putin is determined to mess with all his neighbors. Look for the Moldovan election in a few months; Russia is sowing chaos with energy sabotage.
Germany’s most successful far-right party since World War II just had a record-breaking result after the the US basically endorsed them. And don’t be fooled by Friedrich Merz’s lack of flair: The Europeans are about to try to build an independent defense, give the American abdication.
China’s DeepSeek has upended the AI market, throwing Silicon Valley into full-blown panic mode. And it will soon dominate the renewable energy market and have just been given a monumental soft-power gift the US abdication of 80 years of global leadership of the free world.
Tara Palmeri writes this on her blog, Red Letter. “Fear and Loathing in the West Wing. Inside the revolt against Elon Musk…”
The tolerance for Elon Musk inside of the White House is wearing thin, as they deal with the fallout of his calamitous interview with Larry Kudlow when he touched the third rail – entitlements. Even though Trump’s staffers are terrified of Musk, they know that if you try to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you die, politically speaking.
“It’s no longer simmering resistance, people are fucking furious,” said a source with knowledge of the situation.
“Medicaid is not just for Black people in the ghetto, these are our voters,” said a Republican operative close to the White House.
Even before the interview, I’m told that the White House communications team was adamantly against letting Musk do the interview with Kudlow, even though he’s a former administration official and ally. They know that FOX News is a network that their older, white working-class voters watch closely and this was a rare televised interview for Musk, not the same as getting high with Joe Rogan.
Now they’re playing cleanup. Sure, they sent out a “Fact Check” memo from the White House highlighting that his words were garbled when he said he’s looking at the “waste and fraud in entitlement spending,” not entitlements all together. But then Musk went further, falsely claiming in the interview that Democrats use entitlement programs to attract illegal immigrants into the country so that they can add them to their voter rolls. It doesn’t help that earlier this month, Musk referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
You can even see Kudlow shifting around uncomfortably during the interview.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung denied that there was an issue. “We love [Musk] doing media,” he said, pointing to his joint interview with Trump on Sean Hannity.
As promised, I want to share the ins and outs of my reporting process with you, so I first reached out to Trump’s personal pollster John McLaughlin after I learned about the meltdown over Musk’s interview to ask if he’s been polling Musk’s response in the interview. And I was shocked to learn that McLaughlin has not polled Musk at all, even though he’s clearly a political liability to the President. McLaughlin has been polling Trump for decades and was one of the main pollsters alongside Tony Fabrizio on the campaign. He said the last poll that he conducted that even remotely touched on Musk was about DOGE in November 2024 and it did not mention Musk by name.
“No one has asked us to do that poll,” McLaughlin told me.
Well, the public polling shows that the numbers for Musk – what some would call Trump’s heat shield – have been in free fall since Trump took office, with more than 53 percent of people having an unfavorable opinion of Musk, according to a new CNN poll. But surely Trump’s political operation, which to be fair is an impressive one, would want to know if Musk was starting to become a liability. No political consultant in Washington trusts public polling. They’d probably trust the opposition party’s polling over public polling. So that leaves me to believe that they are afraid of Trump’s appendage or it’s because Musk just donated $100 million to Trump’s political arm, which just so happens to be run by Trump’s other pollster Fabrizio. When I asked Fabrizio if he’s conducting polls on Musk favorables, he didn’t get back to me.
Regardless, I’ve heard that the White House is aware that Musk’s numbers are “dog shit,” according to a source. “
More at the link.
Just one more thing to ruin your weekend and I’m sorry but it’s story that needs telling. This is from The New Republic. “Trump Gives New Orders to U.S. Military on Panama Canal Takeover, Donald Trump is moving forward on his plans to seize the Panama Canal.”
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. military to draw up options for retaking the Panama Canal.
President Trump has been pushing for retaking the canal since December, and repeated his desire in a joint address to Congress last week, without any elaboration. The rest of the Trump administration hasn’t attempted to explain what he means, either.
The military is drawing up options, according to NBC News, that range from a closer partnership with the Panamanian military to soldiers seizing the Panama Canal by force, according to unnamed officials. The use of force depends on how much Panama’s military is willing to work with the United States, the officials told NBC News.
The commander of U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, presented the different strategies to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier this week. The plan to use military force against Panama will only be considered if posting additional U.S. military personnel does not accomplish Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the canal, the officials said.
Right now, the U.S. has more than 200 troops in the country, including Special Forces units working with Panamanian units to combat internal unrest. Trump claims China has troops in the canal, which Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denies, as does China. In February, Panama decided not to renew an infrastructure agreement with China, drawing criticism from the country toward the U.S.
One tin soldier rides again.
So, I just want to watch a few more Star Wars movies and eat the tabouli I made last night. We’re seriously in trouble, and I don’t see Captain America out there anywhere, or Wonder Woman, or any of the other Super Heros we could use right now. At least it’s almost crawfish season.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#Repeat1968JohnBuss #ChuckSchumer #Doge #FARTUS #governmentShutdown #JudgeOrdersRehireOfFederalWorkers
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🚀 Brace yourselves for an epic journey through 10 dimensions of mind-numbing jargon, where chaos meets quantum, and Einstein shares coffee with Planck. 🎩✨ This blog post promises to illuminate the universe—or, more likely, just leave you lost in the cosmos of pretentious academia. 📚🔍
https://galileo-unbound.blog/2021/06/28/a-random-walk-in-10-dimensions/ #epicjourney #quantumchaos #academicjargon #mindbending #dimensionsofknowledge #pretentiousness #HackerNews #ngated -
🚀 Brace yourselves for an epic journey through 10 dimensions of mind-numbing jargon, where chaos meets quantum, and Einstein shares coffee with Planck. 🎩✨ This blog post promises to illuminate the universe—or, more likely, just leave you lost in the cosmos of pretentious academia. 📚🔍
https://galileo-unbound.blog/2021/06/28/a-random-walk-in-10-dimensions/ #epicjourney #quantumchaos #academicjargon #mindbending #dimensionsofknowledge #pretentiousness #HackerNews #ngated -
🚀 Brace yourselves for an epic journey through 10 dimensions of mind-numbing jargon, where chaos meets quantum, and Einstein shares coffee with Planck. 🎩✨ This blog post promises to illuminate the universe—or, more likely, just leave you lost in the cosmos of pretentious academia. 📚🔍
https://galileo-unbound.blog/2021/06/28/a-random-walk-in-10-dimensions/ #epicjourney #quantumchaos #academicjargon #mindbending #dimensionsofknowledge #pretentiousness #HackerNews #ngated -
So, auf dem Weg nach #Stiuttgart
Mit der #Bahn … … … Und die hat mal wieder #Chaostage 🤪
Ich fahre schon einen Tag früher, um zu meinem #Vortrag "Lost in #Communication" morgen auch vor Ort zu sein.
Der #Zug hatte natürlich #Verspätung. Und es gab nur schüttere Meldungen.
Aber: Falls ich in Stuttgart ankomme, sind #Vortrag & #Diskussion zu ethischen Leerstellen & Möglichkeiten der #Manipulation in der derzeitigen #Digitalisierung #morgen um 17:30h am @izkt_stuttgart
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So, auf dem Weg nach #Stiuttgart
Mit der #Bahn … … … Und die hat mal wieder #Chaostage 🤪
Ich fahre schon einen Tag früher, um zu meinem #Vortrag "Lost in #Communication" morgen auch vor Ort zu sein.
Der #Zug hatte natürlich #Verspätung. Und es gab nur schüttere Meldungen.
Aber: Falls ich in Stuttgart ankomme, sind #Vortrag & #Diskussion zu ethischen Leerstellen & Möglichkeiten der #Manipulation in der derzeitigen #Digitalisierung #morgen um 17:30h am @izkt_stuttgart
-
So, auf dem Weg nach #Stiuttgart
Mit der #Bahn … … … Und die hat mal wieder #Chaostage 🤪
Ich fahre schon einen Tag früher, um zu meinem #Vortrag "Lost in #Communication" morgen auch vor Ort zu sein.
Der #Zug hatte natürlich #Verspätung. Und es gab nur schüttere Meldungen.
Aber: Falls ich in Stuttgart ankomme, sind #Vortrag & #Diskussion zu ethischen Leerstellen & Möglichkeiten der #Manipulation in der derzeitigen #Digitalisierung #morgen um 17:30h am @izkt_stuttgart