I've spoken often on the blog about "lightning moments", when music reaches out and strikes me down with wonder, awe, and love. One of the strongest such moments I can remember was the first time I heard HAAST's Made of Light. The album is, to this day, one of my favorite albums and still routinely "shocks" me with how much I feel when liste...

To claim to be "non-political" is a privilege reserved for the powerful. This is because the political norm, our current existence, is built to be invisible to those with power. Reducing friction, increasing transparency, removing obstacles; these are all things which any successful political system is built to do. The only question is for who it does so. In our case, it is f...

Riffs good. AI bad.

Ain Sof Aur –

This might be the only true thing you read on the Internet today (or any day, really). But the truth, even here, is subjective. The first full-length from six-piece Scottish post-metal group Void of Light, Asymmetries, delivers such an onslaught of emotional punches that it’s hard to gauge where the current of truth lies. You’ll find yourself smiling...

When signing up to review this album, two powers warred in my head. On one side was my trepidation at approaching an album as complex and chaotic as a Bekor Qilish release and trying to make any sort of sense from it. But on the other side there was my deep love for this project, especially for Throes of Death From the Dream Nihilism. That love ended...