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A pest-control company in Georgia ran the numbers on their AI phone agent and found something their...#ai #customersupport #automation #operations #software #coding #development #engineering #inclusive #community
Your AI said 'one moment please' — and the customer heard nothing for 9 minutes -
Sometimes I forget how quickly life can change, and continues to change.
It’s common for folks to think that disability happens in one moment - in one instance when something bad happens to you.
For me, it’s been happening for years and is still happening. It will persist for my entire life, unless a cure is found.
This post was prompted by me remembering that I take a strong immunosuppressant to keep my immune system from further damaging my body. That I’m vulnerable.
If you’d told me at 29, that at 39, I’d be fighting so hard… I’d have been left speechless and terrified.
Yet, I persist. We all persist.
Day by day, my friends. You are enough. I see you. 🫶
#disability #disabled -
Cursebinder – Psychohazard Review By Grin ReaperIn the Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage,1 Jack Black describes musicians’ wells of creative juices as ‘rocket sauce.’ He notes that some musicians and bands only muster enough for one BIG album, while others seem to run on an endless supply.2 This description stuck with me through the years, and remains my go-to reference when someone gilds whatever they touch. Kraków vocalist Maciej Proficz is one such individual, and both his active projects Dormant Ordeal and Cursebinder run on vast reserves of rocket sauce while offering multifaceted interpretations of their respective genres. Dormant Ordeal’s Tooth and Nail landed at the #3 spot in last year’s Aggregated List; third album The Grand Scheme of Things received a glowing review from Dr. Wvrm and appeared on several 2021 end-of-year lists despite a late December release, and Cursebinder’s debut Drifting found itself atop Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023. Such accolades can’t guarantee future triumphs, but they can send expectations into the stratosphere—does Cursebinder’s sophomore album Psychohazard harness the rocket sauce to send us there?
Though Cursebinder operates under the black metal umbrella, no single genre encapsulates Psychohazard’s breadth. In his write-up of Drifting, Carcharodon cites doom, death, and post-metal as descriptors for Cursebinder’s chameleonic character. Instead of using camouflage in a way that makes Psychohazard difficult to absorb or engage with, though, this Polish quartet employs it to disguise barriers between genres and inculcate an atmosphere both familiar and unique. Compared to Drifting, Psychohazard submits more direct applications of riffs (“Saturnine Rage,” “Prayers for the Living, Flowers for the Dead”) and synths (“Limits”), and where Drifting’s genre-hopping evinced distinct moods with thoughtful transitions, Psychohazard blurs lines together with subtler craft.3 Psychohazard’s first four tracks flow together in a sublime strand that ricochets between textured aggression (“Death Season”) and gentler grooves (“The Astronaut”), culminating in a rabid fusion that seethes with angst and catharsis (“Saturnine Rage”). Honestly, this track would make a resounding closer, and to use it at Psychohazard’s midpoint illustrates the puissance of Cursebinder’s surrounding material.
Merging these sounds into a unified platter requires keen grace, and to then layer in the emotional depth that Cursebinder achieves is stunning. Cursebinder’s promo materials describe Psychohazard’s theme as a study in the collision of life’s ‘rat race’ and humanity’s inherent desire for love and acceptance. As the demands of my own life continue to creep,4 this idea strikes a chord that thrums with self-renewing relevance every day. “Death Season” bustles with vitriol and vigor as Proficz’s caustic vocals impel the track in a blinding tempest, while “The Astronaut” and “Under the Skin” float upon currents that relax and unwind one moment before boiling over into frenzied bursts the next. But even this is an oversimplification, as each track proves vibrant and diverse, refusing to condense into single emotions. Broadly, the back half of Psychohazard feels lighter than the front, putting more emphasis on dimensions that evoke post-metal’s vagrant dreaminess without losing the threads of riffs or motifs.
Considering Cursebinder’s sprawling ambitions, Psychohazard sounds focused and urgent throughout its runtime. The post-addled haze never drifts too far, the scorching fury never burns too hot, and the tender flashes never linger long enough to caramelize into mawkishness. I credit this purposefulness to the efficient instrumentation that Cursebinder unfurls with nary a wasted flourish. Guitarist Hubert Fudała and bassist Łukasz Sojka wend together in climactic swells and releases that expertly pace the album’s fifty-three minutes,5 and Marek Koszycki drums with nuanced timekeeping that flits between punk-powered d-beats (“Saturnine Rage”), insistent blast beats (“Made to Be Sold”), and delicate rhythms (“The Astronaut”). Proficz’s synth presence penetrates Psychohazard’s compositions, and in totality Cursebinder rewards repeat listens as each musician’s contributions impress individually while coalescing into an assembly greater than its sum.
Although post-related tags usually thwart my interest, something about Cursebinder’s spell called to me from beyond the ether. Psychohazard proves textures and layers can inculcate depth rather than acting as a standalone attraction, and going forward I hope to point to Cursebinder as my entry point into appreciating a wider expanse of metal. Cursebinder’s faults are few, and even if the record is slightly front-loaded or a few songs linger a tad overlong, these nitpicks pale in light of Psychohazard’s utter glory. If you seek an album that synthesizes the aura of post-metal with more conventional metal structures, I doubt you’ll find a better album this year. Barring that, you should listen to Cursebinder anyway, because missing it could be a Psychohazard to your health.
Rating: Great!
#2026 #40 #AvantgardeMusic #BlackMetal #Cursebinder #DormantOrdeal #Oct26 #PolishMetal #PostBlackMetal #Psychohazard #Review #Reviews #Rush
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Avantgarde Music
Websites: Bandcamp6 | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: October 23rd, 2026 -
Beaten to Death – Vntrve Review By Dolphin Whisperer
Though it may only take you five or so minutes to read—well, one to skim, ten seconds to stare at the scores, another few to check whether the score safety counter still works, 30 seconds to draft a snarky “what is this site coming to” comment that you delete, a couple minutes to see what other bewildered folks have to say about something completely unrelated, and a final scan to skim the conclusions again—this article, and another 26 minutes to listen to Vntrve if you please, the beauty of Beaten to Death lies in that none of that will be enough time. In a genre of microblasts and unintelligible grunts and barks and bleats, this Norwegian exercise in twanged-out chaos delivers methodical and memorable vignettes of pure punk outpour. If there ever were a cure for stagnation, grindcore—particularly the buoyant and eclectic variety that Beaten to Death produces—would be it.
To this point, Vntrve true to legacy, Beaten to Death has never put out the same album twice. At first blush, between the booming Norwegian rap intro1 and groovier pacing to match (“Slosspit”), it feels as though Beaten to Death doesn’t even want to grind. The traditions of grind would, of course, feel like shackles to the wiles of these time-tested tricksters. Yet, blast-addled breakaways crash into reggaeton dembows (“Electrocuted by the Sky”), reverb-soaked sax wailing (“The Tolerator”), and twisted synth dial screeches (“Vntrve”). Near every song challenges the expectations of grind, right down to the continued inclusion of their trademarked “distort the bass only” aggression tactic, which Beaten to Death also manages to subvert with a doomy opening guitar boom on “Memento Sugo.” It’s Christian Svendsen’s (Doedsvangr, ex-Tsjuder) reckless kick and snare play, really, that keeps transitioning moments tied to the necessary whiplash of the base genre. If you know what’s coming next, it’s a result of repeated digestion of Vntrve’s nooks and crannies.
Even on first listen, Vntrve reveals its tendency for barbed hook and diverse expression. As if B2D didn’t already have an ear for unmistakable melodies, the kind of post-hardcore-imbued flutters that would feel at place scattered about a The Fall of Troy or Botch jam (“Electrocuted by the Sky,” “(Du er verken Jesus eller Buddha) Du er Ugmod”), their ability to frame these moments of beauty against crash cymbal overloaded gallops and tattered layers of barks allows each song’s thread to weave that much tighter. Now seven albums down this idiosyncratic path, Beaten to Death runs the risk of sounding too much like themselves. And it’s true that the main riffs to “The Tolerator,” “Scroll On, Homeboy,” and “Satan Spawn, the K-Pop Demon” wear that identity proudly. But when there are ten others songs that each bring their own ideas to the table, these brief retreads—and I do mean brief; this is still grind after all—do little to get in the way of frequent enjoyment, especially when that enjoyment means shouting “SCROLL OOOON! HOME-BOY!”
And a high frequency of playthroughs will reveal hidden treasures around every corner of Vntrve. On more than one occasion, as I played through the tapped-harmony transition of “Fångad i en Battle Vest,” I paused to find which Death song most fit as the proper object of homage and smiled as I could unite two legendary bands so closely in my head canon.2 The classic high and low vocal assault of “Fear of Being Included” rings very Napalm Death, which adds an irony to the track being the most straightforward grindcore piece of the whole set (and its stop-start uncertainty). And in stark contrast, the Abbath-ian croak that mic man Anders Bakke summons on “Sunburn Satanist”3 causes equal parts giddy black metal glee and pit-running abandon when it breaks back to grind on the back half. Though it’s easy to attribute parody to the cause, the play that B2D brings to their joking statements on aging in a metal world4 help bring each of these referential statements to a place of reverence.
In this stretch of the real experimental side of their career, their most progressive leanings spawning with 2020’s Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos, Vntrve strikes the best balance of simple structures with oddball asides. While the closing title track runs as almost the longest in the B2D discography, it showcases too how quickly Beaten to Death can flip a stuttering mosh rhythm into a panning, dissociating fizzle of sax and synth bound together by an urgent kick and scaffolding folk melody. Guided by speed, fueled by chaos, and honed by an undying urge to make it all work—you can call that a manifestation of an unyielding DIY attitude—Vntrve marks another triumph in the undercelebrated story of Norway’s best-kept secret.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 45 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Mas-Kina Recordings
Websites: beatentodeath.net | beatentodeath.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/beatentodeath
Releases Worldwide: October 23rd, 2026Alekhines Grind
Genre-defying, progressive, inscrutable, idiosyncratic, bizarre, and avant-garde are but a few of the superlatives laid at the feet of the Beaten to Death body of work. And why not? Since their first full-length in 2011, these Norwegians have dedicated their entire careers to upending and rewriting the building blocks of grindcore with manic glee. Waving middle fingers at genre conventions with tongue planted firmly in cheek, the band have unleashed one platter after another of fast-paced, ADHD-riddled music which offers up a cascade of color and sound that incites as much joy as violence upon the listener. Seventh album Vntrve reveals its mission statement in its title; itself a sendup of the ludicrous saturation of letter-abuse in modern-day metal nomenclature while being utterly self-aware in doing so. But this long into such a forward-thinking career, are the jokes running thin? Or do the boys still know how to make you smile through the pain?
If you’re new to the B2D sound, you may be surprised to learn that despite the outfits’ run-of-the-mill violent name, the music on offer is positively teeming with color and life, or at least pleasant surprise. Vntrve continues that trend, with the band gleefully snatching the listener from melodic leads and colorful tones to sudden, bone-savaging grooves without breaking a sweat. While personal favorite Laat Maar, ik verhuis naar het bos furrowed brows and turned frowns upside down thanks to weird sample use as much as song ideas (that dial-up tone, anyone?), for this outing B2D have stayed relatively stereotypical in their toolkit and pressed the gas on the competency of the compositions themselves. Highlight “Electrocuted by the Sky” alternates between melodic twanging and blackened leads only to punt in an eastern-sounding breakdown for no clear reason besides to show that they can, and it works. “And it works” is easily the best summary of their sound, as any selected track will have a sudden tonal shift, highlight, or riff switch-up which would be grounds for accusations of disjointed lack of focus in the hands of any other outfit.
One of the distinguishing factors of B2D is their unapologetic sense of humor. From the curious sporadic English lyrics peppering “Fanged i en Battle Vest” to straight-up subgenre parodies and goofy song titles, there’s small, blink and you’ll miss them references to various bands and sounds throughout the sphere of all things metal, all delivered with a knowing smirk. “Sunburnt Satanist” switches up its vocal stylings into much more Immortal-ized flair, coming replete with decipherable declarations of “rimfrosted kingdoms”. “Satan Spawn, the K-Pop Demon” doesn’t merely reference Deicide by way of Cannabis Corpse wordplay but goes so far as to double-track the vocal presentation to sound ripped right off of Legion (or Deicide, obviously). Even without direct and simplistic parody, there is a sparkling sense of delight in their compositions, as the vast majority of tracks come with clean tones, major keys, and melodic sheen both in contrast and companionship to all the bludgeonings which await.
And the bludgeoning exists in abundance, as each and every cut comes packed with at least one moment of raw violence, tweaked and sculpted to fit into the record’s dizzying and Vntrve nature. “The Tolerator” offers the most straightforward curbstomping breakdown, before sliding into a delirious saxophone crashout courtesy of Bendik Brænne. This is no Rivers of Nihil knockoff, as the sax resurfaces during the closing title track “Vntrve” in a climactic build of glorious, jazzy delirium. Beyond the expectedly-unexpected progressivisms, you also get swipes at djent (“Scroll On, Homeboy”) and straightforward hardcore (“Du er Umgod”) to say nothing of sporadic blackened leads and whammy abuse. This “chuck it in the blender” approach should be ghastly and unfocused, but B2D proved their identities as aural alchemists long ago, and Vntrve is a celebration of the band’s masterclass in whimsical wielding of the unpredictable and exuberant.
The last touch complimenting Vntrve is an appropriate one: a closing chime of bells, like a venue saying “thanks for coming out.” Beaten to Death keep their remarkable streak of creativity alive, offering up yet another release that makes for an enthralling, charming listen. Not every track smacks of the same cover-to-cover gloriousness, but with most landing in the traditional grind run of one to two and a half minutes, they at least each come with a highlight worthy of repeated listens and make for a package that could easily be called grin-inducing as much as mosh-worthy or violent. And how many other grind albums are you gonna find with psychedelic-looking flamingos on the cover? Beaten to Death remain as committed to the bit as ever, using a stereotypically ruthless subgenre to convey imagination and adventure with pulverization in equal measure; a remarkable declaration that though they can brawl with the best of them, they will always remain utterly Vntrve.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
#2026 #40 #Abbath #BeatenToDeath #Botch #Death #Deicide #Grind #Grindcore #Immortal #MasKinaRecordings #NapalmDeath #NorwegianMetal #Oct26 #Review #Reviews #TheFallOfTroy