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Oh I do, and I do.

Entombed - DCLXVI: To Ride Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth (1997) Entombed - Sons of Satan Praise the Lord (2002) Entombed - Uprising (2000) Embrional - Evil Dead (2019)

I had heard Bloem as my first foray into these guys and quickly dismissed it - as it turns out it was a poor starting point. The latest is digestible enough though for a quick yet thoughtful blast. Have enjoyed the compilation of songs from their first 2 demos (Relaas) the most though and it underlines how whenever I hear hype around a band I should always go for the early stuff first to understand what they were all about at the start before venturing into their more popular or simply most recent release. NP: Inferno - Paradeigma: Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity (2021)

I grabbed their first two albums Dromers and Luwte, and the EP right after that ('14, '15, '16) but then I wasn't really feeling their 2020 album Bloem, so I've kinda lost track of them since. I see you've been firing up a Fluisteraars album each day lately for the past several days and I've gotta say this one here might be the best thing I've ever heard from them. Although yeah, at just 12 and a half minutes it certainly leaves you wanting more. I think Doc would really like these Dutchmen (if he doesn't know about them already). This ain't Darkthrone, it's post-black (I almost wanna call it progresssive post-black) weird in spots but not too weird, and they don't overdo the post part, it still has grit. NP: Fluisteraars - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking, 2021, this one's not bad either.

Fluisteraars - De Kronieken van het Verdwenen Kasteel I: Harslo (2023) Fucking record title is longer than the EP itself.

In the UK we have pretty much the same experience of inner city nightmares when it comes to trying to get anywhere. I live fairly rurally so don't have much issue with driving locally but my job usually has me driving into city centres on a few occasions each year. Birmingham is a nightmare. It is the constipated arsehole of the country that unfortunately has a hectic ring piece meaning it is just as hard to get anywhere near it as it is to move at all once you are in there. I have only ever driven to Greater London and would never even think about driving into central London. They are constantly redesigning Edinburgh's roads every time I go up there but at least I have now found places on the outskirts that are easy enough to get to the city from if an overnight stay is required for an early meeting the day after. Manchester is probably a close second to Birmingham and Mancs are fucking insane drivers, all with a genuine death wish it seems. Liverpool (which is my nearest major city about 30 mins away) isn't too bad to get in and out of if you time it right. I usually go down via the dock road around the back of all the old industrial buildings (at least what's left and not been turned into apartments or hotels). There's a couple of routes I can take from here also to get in the city centre and I have been around the area long enough now to know some shortcuts and backstreet routes also. Never driven in another country and don't intend to. When we were over in New York a few years back we hit the underground or a cab to get anywhere. We are planning our next trip to be the Bergen to Oslo railway and stay at a couple of places on the line that are only accessible by snowmobile to and from the station - fuck traffic!

Mammon XV - Woes and Winter's Breath, San Diego CA, fuzzy atmo-black. Releases on the 31st. BMP has it on his page as black/death but there's not much death metal to be found here. It does however slay. Wish it was longer than 19 minutes. Carcinoid - Metastatic Declination, proper filth, Melbourne Australia 2019 Goatvomit/Kratornas - Sovereigns Gathered Split, 2003 Greece/Philippines. This pretty much hits the limit of how lo-fi I can go (the Kratornas half anyway) but this is fucking awesome. Released on cassette 20 years ago but I got lucky, the label put it on BC digitally two years ago for $6. As Doc would say, youse will hate it. Horda - Obsession, Poland 2020, now this is black/death. Thought their new one "Form" was very good so now I'm checking out their first album.

It was the ostritch boots. They gave him special powers and abilities.

Yes this is really good, from Hungary. I like that it's not all just let's blast-away rapid-fire, he's actually playing the drums like a human being. This is hitting me much better than that Brazilian one Podridão with the purple cover you texted us earlier. This is the best death metal album I've found recently though. Can't get enough of it. Straight fire as Marko would say. Parasitario - Everything Belongs to Death, Osaka Japan

Parkcrest - And That Blue Will Turn To Red

I've had so many people try to pass me on the shoulder over the years and more than a few who've hopped up on the sidewalk to get around me desperate not to get stuck behind a truck. You've gotta have eyes looking 360° and check your mirrors constantly. A big problem we have is with all the heavy traffic people are always stuck in, sitting, not moving, when they finally see some open space where they think their car will probably fit they'll literally just jam it in there without even thinking. Or they'll be stuck in traffic for awhile until they're running late, and then they'll speed like crazy as soon as they don't have someone directly in front of them blocking their path. And many drivers will start rationalizing to themselves "well that guy changed lanes and cut me off and I probably could have made the light if he hadn't, so I should be entitled to go and I'm just gonna go, nevermind that the light is red" Driving can be a bit of a free for all up here.

If it's like Australia the shoulder is the fast lane!! There is people not far from me who commute 2 and a half hours to the city every day to work. Fuck that!! I used to spend 10-14 hours a day driving but that was my job, no fucking way I'd drive 2 hours just to get to work.

Yeah the New York City metroploitan area is estimated at 23.6 million and covers parts of 4 states. That's practically all of Australia clustered around one city. It's gotten out of hand and become unmanageable. Google Maps tells me I'm 55 miles out (88km) in the farthest NW corner of NJ now, not far from Pennsylvania, but I'm pretty sure I'm still included within that NY metro statistical area. There are definitely people out here who commute back and forth into the city every day. Glad I'm not one of them.

Take it up with the DMV. They're letting everyone & anybody get their licenses. Also doesn't help that the country's mostly car-centric so there's gonna be way more idiots on the road than needed. I'm glad that I won't miss the city life once I leave NYC in a couple of years.

Coffinborn - Cadaveric Retribution https://coffinborn.bandcamp.com/album/cadaveric-retribution?from=hp

It doesn't help that literally none of you seem to actually know how to drive. Having been up there twice now in the last three months, I'm convinced something in your water prevents y'all from learning even basic vehicle operating procedures. ...and for the record, the shoulder is not, I repeat...NOT a third lane!

Setherial - Endtime Divine, Sweden 2003 Horna - Askel Lähempänä Saatanaa, Finland 2013 Mork - Dypet, Norway

I'm so glad that our largest city in only 6M people and not all of them want to drive at the same time. However I'm even more glad I live in the country and don't drive a truck through capital cities any more.

Staten Island's not too bad. Manhattan's by far the worst obviously, but most of Brookyn's an absolute fucking traffic nightmare too. I still have nightmares about trying to get around Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights. Queens isn't really that bad where you are down by the airport on the south shore, Saint Albans and all around there, but still if I never saw Sunrise Highway ever again I'd be totally fine with that. The other end of Queens in towards the city like Astoria, LIC, Jackson Heights, Maspeth, Rego Park, Ridgewood up that way, basically anywhere north of the Jackie Robinson Pkwy can be a fucking nightmare to get around too. And it's not just the city, even the main thoroughfares through Nassau County are all congested and backed up anymore. The small local streets are ok though. I'm just glad I got the hell out when I did. I would never ever go back.

This is the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) I've spent hundreds of hours on the BQE. That's downtown Brooklyn in the background, Manhattan (NYC) would be off to your right out of the frame over the bridge. Those cars and trucks are just sitting there, barely moving. It's like this every fucking day. As someone who drove a truck around all parts of NYC and Long Island for a couple of decades, I can tell you it's a horrible place to drive. Manhattan is by far the worst borough to drive in, just way too many vehicles in a small confined area. Movies don't give you a realistic impression because they close the streets to the public when they film and control exactly how many vehicles and pedestrians are in their shot. The reality is much much worse, it's just wall to wall cars and trucks all day long, nobody's moving. Nighttime after about 7pm isn't so bad though. You do become numb to the gridlock after awhile, and just resign yourself to the fact that you're not going anywhere anytime soon. Can't find a parking spot big enough for your truck on the block you need to make a delivery on, it can take 10 or 15 minutes just to go around the block and make another pass. At my job we'd start loading the trucks at 4:30am hoping to pull out and get on the road before 5:30 for the 50 to 60 minute ride into the city. If you missed that window and didn't pull out til closer to 6am it could take you 2 or 3 hours to drive that same 40 miles. (60 km) You could move around the city fairly easily til about 7:30 or 8am when the auto traffic started to get really thick with people coming to work. By 8:30 it was packed in tight all day long. In the afternoon it was even worse than the morning. You needed to finish your route and get into that tunnel or on that bridge by 1:30pm if you wanted to be able to drive back to the shop in 60 - 90 minutes. If you were still in the city after 2pm or 2:30 fuggedaboudit, you would be inching your way back in bumper to bumper traffic for at least 2 and a half hours. Worst part of a traffic jam like that is it's so fucking boring not moving anywhere that you start nodding off at the wheel because you'd been up since 4am, or earlier for the guys that lived farther from the shop. How NYC Manages The Most Congested Streets In America - NYC Revealed, this was actually fascinating. But it'd be more interesting to me I guess as a New Yorker. Apparently we have now overtaken LA, Boston and Houston as the city with the worst traffic in the country.

Same lol.

Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad/Devin Townsend, Dethklok, Fear Factory, Testament among others.)

Thankfully the odds of me driving in Manhattan are about the same as me going to space

Just don't drive in Manhattan. It's a nightmare. Most other boroughs are okay I believe. Just expect to deal with a lot of double parking.

I feel relieved that I don't drive in NYC if what they show in the movies is accurate.