garganjua

Best of 2020: Chris’s List

Chris6 Comments
Best of 2020

If you’re reading this there are two possibilities at play, either of which warrant a hearty congratulations:

  1. It’s the end of the year, and you found the strength, courage and forbearance to get through the infested muck that was 2020.  Congratulations!  I don’t know what 2021 will bring, but let’s put the future aside for a moment and just revel in survival, and talk about some great music.
  2. It’s an indeterminate time in the future, after the apocalypse, and the collective hive mind has integrated into the data streams and come across this post in a random search string query to ascertain various data points about the distant past.  Congratulations!  I’m not alive to know what the Time Lords have in mind for the future, but let’s put that aside for a moment and just revel in whatever constitutes life in your existence, and talk about some great music.

Either way, it’s list time… Continue reading →

Nine Circles ov…2020: A Mid-Year Report

ChrisLeave a comment

1_European-Best-Pictures-Of-The-Day-June-13-Black-Lives-Matter-Rallies-Continue-Across-The-UK

I don’t think anyone expected the world to be where it was when 2020 kicked off.  To even attempt to put into words the surge of feelings around a global pandemic that refuses to go away, a wretched history of systemic racism, brutality, and ignorance being exposed and reckoned with in the streets all over the world, and everything else the first six months has brought to light is reckless and futile for me right now.  I continue to watch, listen, and learn as much as I can: to actively be part of a solution instead of passively being part of the problem.

In the moments between there is music, and if there’s even a glimmer of light right now, it’s in how good 2020 has been with regards to metal.  So let’s see where my penchant lies as we cross the halfway mark of year that feels like forever. Continue reading →

Nine Circles ov…Consuming Metal in Isolation

Chris1 Comment

quarantine

Being into metal can be isolating enough…I remember as a kid in in high school (this would be circa 1990?) having to do a social studies project where kids would sing songs with social or political relevance.  I can’t tell you how many kids did Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

Me?  I did Testament’s “Greenhouse Effect.”  Being isolated wasn’t a problem after that.

This, of course, is something different. Continue reading →

The Third Circle of Bandcamp: January 2020 Edition

Charles RandallLeave a comment

third circle of Bandcamp header

Welcome back friends, how is 2020 treating you? Canada is sicking their federal dogs on indigenous protesters and a new coronavirus has infected tens of thousands globally. Are you feeling the doom? I’m feeling the doom. And so is January’s Third Circle.

Continue reading →