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Slayer - Hell Awaits, 1985 Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion, 1985

There's no need to introduce the album, is there? Ride the Lightning, I discovered it in 1986, a few months before Master of Puppets was released. I was in high school. A friend of mine came up to me and handed me his headphones, saying: listen to this, you'll be amazed! I hear the introduction of Fight Fire with Fire and all of a sudden this big riff comes in before Lars' drums kick in. Indeed: I was hallucinating! So much so that today, 36 years later, I still love Thrash Metal. I haven't listened to Metallica for years (um... 1991?) but it's a style that gave me a lot of pleasure and without which I probably wouldn't listen to Metal nowadays. The musical style, AND this album. Note: the same day, I ran to my record store to get "Ride". I have the record with the green cover

Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos

Monarchies can have good monarchs. Doesn't make the ongoing concentration of wealth and power into the hands of one family over generations a good thing. Democracies and Republics can also have good leaders as well as bad. Doesn't make the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few a good thing either. Your point our fair @Dead1 about Scandanavian countries is valid, but as @Hungarino points out, those are smaller countries with more homogenous populations. Governments are always going to be more effective on a smaller scale and with those conditions. Doesn't hurt that they are resource rich. Unfortunately, there are few if no examples of government being able to successfully scale to govern large areas with disparate populations. The US has arguably been the most successful at doing so, but as you point out the future success remains to be seen. A truly benevolent government that tried to meet the needs and wants of a population, say the size of the US, would either need more resources than one could imagine or be completely ineffective. We do have an unbelievable amount of resources and the best position to pull it off, but our self-imposed limitations of the 2 party system and convoluted electoral system among others leads us towards the concentration of power subject to the whims/desires of an outspoken minority (say christian evangelicals) instead of a true representation of the best interests of the majority leads to the disfunction we see today. I would agree that the US needs a constitutional overhaul to bring it into the modern era, and I think the process of reviewing and updating the foundational document of any government should be ingrained in said document. Not what we currently have where it takes a vote from a super majority to invoke that process, but instead at a predefined time. Changes being taken independent of each other and put to popular vote for ratification. I'm in no way arguing that the US system is any better. It is an empire with all the problems that brings. My thoughts on the US and the UK are pretty much the same, that it would serve all of the people better to be governed by smaller regional governments with favorable trade and cooperation agreements rather than centralized power with bound vassal states. Neither form of government (monarchy, democracy, republic, etc) is inherently bad, but the implementations that are problematic.

Finally got to see a gig after many years of COVID induced nothingness! Band was Fridge - an old Tassie stoner rock/sludge/grunge band featuring one of the guys from King Parrot. Also tried out some new earplugs which worked really well and I could still hear the guitars and bass! Bloody brilliant and an awesome way to get back to live music.

I know you don't live here in the states Jon, and I don't want to seem like I'm demanding that everyone be Ameri-centric and just focus on us and our problems because we're just so important and awesome and wonderful while you're not. But I'll assume that as an intelligent, caring and obviously concerned citizen of the first world you're likely aware of a good bit of what's been going on over here lately. In 2016 the voters of my country in their infinite ignorance elected a mentally unstable, low IQ, populist, demagogue, fascist, grifter, con-man, criminal, traitorous, sex offender nincompoop who was eminently unqualified to be our nation's leader. I doubt he's even qualified to be a human honestly. To call him an asshole would be an insult to assholes. I know you thought BoJo was pretty fucking bad but he's not even in the same league as compared to our incompetent and traitorous orange shit-stain. He didn't even win the popular vote, he lost by 2,864,974 votes! But that's our crazy electoral system and we have to live with it. For the time being anyway. Since Diaper Don's election and subsequent installation as President, it has brought a lot of other low IQ, intolerant ignoramouses, xenophobes and bigots out of the woodwork, and emboldened them to spout their vitriol, ignorance and bigotry right out in the open. I guess it's not completely unlike like the effect Boris' election had on the bigots in the UK. Besides his poorly devised and executed (but fortunately failed) coup attempt (I'm sure you must have heard a whisper or two about it over there) which I won't go into in depth at this time, one of Benedict Donald's other lasting legacies will be that he appointed 234 conservative federal judges to lifetime appointments on the bench, including 3 ultra conservative Supreme Court justices. The gift that will keep on giving. Earlier this year, even after Benedict Donald had been out of office for some time, some of these religiously conservative SC justices took it upon themselves to overturn Roe vs Wade, which if you're not familiar was a long-standing 1973 SC decision which protected women's legal rights to choose to terminate a pregnancy. A 1973 decision that all three of them were specifically asked about at their confirmation hearings, and all three of them lied and said they saw Roe vs Wade as settled law - and then of course at their earliest opportunity they turned around and unsettled it. Since then 15 states have outright banned or almost banned all abortions, 6 more states have passed laws but had them blocked by the courts. There are 20 states where it still is and will likely remain legal - which is basically the northeast US, the west coast, Alaska and Hawaii and a handful of progressive enclaves like Denver CO, Minneapolis MN and Chicago IL. There are also 9 states where it remains legal for now, most of which have been actively trying to ban it and just haven't had enough votes yet. So they've labeled those as "uncertain" because we don't know what could happen there in the future. Even as conservatives lied and said they just wanted to let the the states decide for themselves (is anyone surprised?) now that even some red states like Kansas have unexpectedly voted to keep access to abortion legal they've suddenly started talking about a national federal abortion ban. Republican conservatives have long claimed to be in favor of individual states rights, as long as the states do what they want them to do. When too many states go against their beliefs, that's when they want to make sweeping federal laws prohibiting shit. Why they think their religion gives them the right to legislate their version of "morality" and then how anyone is actually willing to go along with this shit I will never know. Certain personal freedoms like the expectation of privacy at the doctor's, when we confer with our physicians and decide on medical treatment should just not fall within the purview of the government to decide for us. So no Jon, I wasn't talking about laws forbidding smoking in public places, or speed limits, or silly HOA restrictions. Wasn't even talking about the infuriating seat belt laws or the Homeland Security laws compelling everyone to remove their shoes at the airport security checkpoinnts and restricting liquids to 3oz in your carry-on luggage. We're talking about barbaric, draconian laws that kill and harm women and by extension harm their families. Some states are even talking about putting women who get abortions (or flee to another state to get their abortions) and the medical practitioners who perform these abortions in prison for life. Even in cases of rape, incest, medical neccessity, an ectopic pregnancy or an non-viable fetus. This is what I had in mind when I said I've seen personal freedoms being eroded in my lifetime. We're going backwards not forwards. Because once we the people agree to lie down and accept bans on our options for reproductive care, then what will they try to outlaw or restrict next? I've read stuff that talks about the Christian Taliban wanting to ban things like same sex marriage, birth control, as well as banning text books and censoring what's being taught in our kids' classrooms. Some of them even want to go back to the days of segregated white-only schools. No one knows for sure what their next target could be but it's pretty fucking scary to any of us free thinkers who have even the slightest amount of decency and common sense to think that these sick hypocritical fascist fucks could possibly be allowed to impose their fanatical religious insanity on the rest of us. Especially with the stuff about separation of church and state written right there in our constitution. You know what they say Jon-O, rules are made to be broken. And the fascists are breaking every rule they can. Sad to say I think this situation probably gets a lot worse before it gets better. As far as regulations for industry and corporations and the financial markets and institutions that have been put in place to protect the environment or to protect the rest of us from the myriad of harmful and sometimes fatal consequences of their unbridled greed, yeah obviously I'm all for that kind of regulation. Problem is it might seem to many of us at first glance like it's all just common sense stuff, right? But what inevitably happens is all these kinds of proposed regulations get bogged down in the details and minutiae. And even when they somehow manage to get something passed and we think we're making some progress, what happens is as each new administration comes into power the first thing they do is issue executive orders to undo all the good shit the last guy did. Laws and regulations don't stay consistent over time, it's a never ending see-saw back and forth between overregulation and underregulation or just whatever these idiots have decided they can agree on.

Britain must surely be the joke of the world right now. Except everywhere else is a joke too. What is observationally hilarious is that the current cabinet is the most diverse in history. Just proving to the woke libtard leftists (like me) that women and minorities are just as evil as white men. All humanity and its various offshoot cultures and races are as shit as each other. It is nice to know we have reached equality of shitness.

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass, 1970 The Stooges - Funhouse, 1970 MC5 - Kick Out the Jams, 1969

Craft - White Noise & Black Metal

Wouldn’t it just book bike thing progressive socialism model as seen in Denmark, Finland, Norway etc? Countries with high social mobility and low poverty. I know in America that’s a bad word mostly I feel because there isn’t an understanding of the difference between democratic or progressive socialism as the Scandinavians interpret it, and communism, this back of education obviously benefits the right wink because the less people know about a given subject the easier they are to manipulate towards your way of thinking.

Mgla - Exercises in Futility

Sentenced - North From Here (1993)

Be a good dude. The end.

TYPE O NEGATIVE - October Rust

Destruction - Eternal Devastation, 1986 Sodom - Persecution Mania, 1987

Speaking of filthy terrorism to start a Friday... Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious

Sodom - Code Red

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

Abhorrency - Climax of Disgusting Impurities (2022)

UFOMAMMUT - Oro - Opus Alter

Of Feather And Bone - Sulphuric Disintegration (2020)

Gevurah - Gehinnom (Black Metal, Canada) One of the better Quebecios black metal bands (and there are many of them). Super stoked for this one. These guys haven't released anything other than great material. Releases Oct 14.

Prisons are filled with people who have impulse control issues. To deny or repress our impulses is a losing game for most of us. But learning restraint and control over our impulses from an early age will serve one well. This is one of the things that separates us from other animals. Along with thumbs.

Well, you have a new monarch. New money, new theme song...I mean that's pretty exciting 😆.

WFH day - so big playlist. Go big or go home. Wait, I am home... Haunter - Discarnate Ails The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow Escotrilihum - Mystic Echo From A Funeral Dimension культура курения - Холодные Провода/Цемент (EP) культура курения - Некрофилия Predatory Light - Death and the Twilight Hours Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade Autonesis - Moon of Foul Magics Conan - Evidence of Immortality Goatriders - Traveler

"of which all mine are" Get your 3 girls to come on here and tell me that Orca and just maybe I'll believe them. No KFC for me thanks. Sentenced - Shadows of the Past, Finland 1991 Sentenced - North From Here, 1993

Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos Pestilence - Consuming Impulse, 1989

Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses 1992 Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky 1992 Atra Mors - Morbid Killers and Other Deaths in Music, Italy 2022

Darkthrone - Astral Fortress Looks like we're getting a new Darkthrone album already! How about that album cover!! Lol, I think it's great personally. These guys truly do not give a single fuck. Set for release October 28.

Amebix - Sonic Mass

Motörhead - No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, 1981

Bathory/Hammerheart -Accept no substitutes! Ramones/Rocket to Russia-Accept no substitutes!

Started the day (a very frustrating on by the way - been on the road all week dealing with bullshit issues in my clinics - feel like I've been hit by a truck) on the chill side: Violent Femmes - Country Death Song - if you only know these guys from Blister in the Sun, definitely worth a deeper dive. This rec courtesy of my daughter. Another daughter rec - St Paul & the Broken Bones - Moonage Daydream (Bowie cover) And finally, a little Northern soul for you crusty bastards. Durand Jones & The Indications - Is it any Wonder? Now, as @JonoBlade pointed out, it's bandcamp Friday. So I have submitted to my corporate overlords and made the requisite financial sacrifice. Will be spinning these for the rest of the day. Kingdom by Enslaved Moon Side Magnet Palace by psychedelic source records MANIAC by FUGITIVE Evidence Of Immortality by Conan Black Heaven by Earthless Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky by Earthless Cold As Weiss by Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Autuala by Circle of Ouroborus Dark Metal by Bethlehem

Autopsy-Morbidity Triumphant-like this also Ken Mode-Null Lord Mantis-Death Mask Siege/Drop Dead-30th Anniversary addition Dystopia/Humans=Garbage Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures-back in college when I was working with a fledgling Shakespeare troupe, my friend fellow Shakespearean cast member, Steve Barney (RIP) who was into alternative rock and punk and such lent me a Joy Division tape he thought I might like knowing I liked metal. I always knew this was an influential album but never really delved into the backstory. The CD I bought a few years ago has a second live CD with the same tracks for the most part and is very good, sonically. It's actually a good live rendering of the studeio tracks. I read the liner notes for the first time and it talks about how raw the band was live and how the producer was difficult to work with and treated the band like children. Some of the members hated the album's production initially even going so far as to say it made them sound like Pink Floyd (which it certainly does not). In retrospect, the the surviving members all seem to agree the production choices were a masterstroke despite him being a control freak. The band felt manipulated but the collaboration resulted in an iconic piece of music. Now, years later, I understand why Steve wanted me to listen to one of his favorite bands. Steve was a very intelligent and interesting character-lanky, quirky, fun loving, compassionate dude with long curly hair-he looked like a rock'n'roll Gollum. He waved his freak flag proud. We maintained our friendship when we both moved to the DC/Baltimore area. He got married, cut his hair and became a civic engineer. He was so creative, often writing scripts and producing theater and continued to perform until the end of his life whereas I moved on with my extra curriculars . He was a kind man who was loved by everyone he knew. Sadly, he passed from cancer a few years ago. Steve was one of of those unique and special individuals who touch your life and pass on through the unknowable looking glass, proving the good often die young. But he must have realized back in the 80's that the dark, slow burn, seething sounds of Unknown Pleasures, teetering on loss of control and madness was metal adjacent. The university of Google informs me it influenced diverse metal artists including Tom Warrior and Neurosis. It must have been an influence on post metal and sludge, metal genres that were years from being born. The companion disc catches the way the band must have sounded live, whereas the producer felt that a studio album shouldn't simply replicate the band in a live setting. One of the great rock albums of all time.

Wardruna - Kvitravn

How do you know if someone is on the carnivore diet? Oh, it's easy. They will fucking tell you.... over and over again.

Terrorizer - World Downfall

MERCYFUL FATE - Live At Wacken ....so awesome..... BEHEMOTH - Opvs Contra Natvram .....surprisingly good....not because I think the band isn't any good...I just had not heard a new record by them in quite some time....might have to catch up with some of their records now....

All cops are bastards is a trending hashtag for a reason.

Possessed - 7 Churches

Morbific - Squirm Beyond the Mortal Realm Cannot fucking wait! https://morbific.bandcamp.com/album/squirm-beyond-the-mortal-realm

Terrorizer - Hordes Of Zombies

Yeah, hard agree. She seemed to be pretty classy from my very disinterested outsider American perspective. The thing that amazes me is the length of her reign. Will probably never see that again. When she was coronated, Churchill was the PM and Stalin was in power in the USSR. The shit she saw and was a part of as a world leader... It will be interesting to see what happens to the "empire" and UK now that she's gone. I think we could see an independent Scotland and Wales in the next 25-30 years and likely see places like Australia and Canada drift further away without a strong English crown. Personally, I say good riddance to a relic of humanity's past. Monarchy & Empires are garbage.

HOT GRAVES - Knights In White Phosphorus

I just found the album boring. It’s becoming a.m. frequent observation of these legacy bands actually, I don’t begrudge them putting out new stuff at the end of the day the band is a business at this point, and businesses don’t thrive if they aren’t releasing new products to the market. Much like the Samsung galaxy though a brief trial is all I need to determine this isn’t for me.

With all due respect, that approach is insane. "Value for money" doesn't work with music. Are you saying you'd recommend this new album to a new listener wanting to discover Megadeth over Peace Sells (running time 36:12)? Who would ever choose Book of Souls over Number of the Beast? My approach of dismissing long albums can likewise be a bit shortsighted, but it has been a good yardstick based on empirical evidence. You might get good value going to see Return of the King at the cinema, but your kids will be clawing their eyes out with boredom praying for it to end already by the closing credits. A more adept filmmaker would have edited it to a better paced final cut. Same with music. A good producer will distil an album down to its strongest and most succinct assault. A weak producer will let the band have their way. Release extended/extra tracks in special editions for avid fans. The reason I harp on about this shit is because I genuinely think many albums would be stronger and enjoyed more by the listener if they were trimmed back. It even makes good business sense, because you can sell the album twice with bonus tracks at a later date.