Weekly Recap (Sept 22nd-28th, 2025)

On Monday I had a day off.

I run errands and listened to NIGHTCRAWLER by Savage Ga$p. I love it. Right up my alley.

Then I listened to the Release Radar Backlog.

- Quadeca x Danny Brown - THE GREAT BAKUNAWA

- JID ft. Eminem - Animals Pt. I (Yeah, I get why people like JID... That flow and rhyme writing is crazy. Personally, his lyrics don't really hit me, but I do enjoy listening to the talent of his rapping.)

- Zheani - NAKED

- CHINCHILLA - Have & Hold (Nice! Got shivers!)

On Tuesday on my way to work I listened to The Atomic Mr Basie (1957) by Count Basie. It's jazz, I'm not a fan. Every single song has that god awfully boring drum and bass line that (almost) every single jazz album on earth has, and then horns and such play the melody over that. It all sounds the same. I'm sure they have technical talent or whatever but my god they can't make music "for the people" if their life depended on it. The only people who think this music is actually entertaining are the people who know how to play horn instruments. And I'm not one of them.

But I guess, in that sense, jazz is like extreme metal. To everyone else, extreme metal sounds like noise, but us metalheads, we hear the talent it takes to make those vocals and make your guitar make the weirdest sounds, and the leg muscles and sense of rhythm it takes to play blast beats, etc. We get it. We've exposed ourselves, usually unknowingly, to more and more extreme metal music, to a point that even the most extreme stuff sounds normal and good to us. Getting into extreme metal comes down to first getting what metal is about - a intentionally low-brow music, from outsiders to outsiders, giving voice to people who are sad or angry about something and need a healthy outlet to release those feelings, to embrace the melancholy and occasionally even hopelessness that life inevitably brings and learning to live with it, instead of glossing over it with slick production, palpatable soundscapes and escapist lyrics like pop does for example. The second step of getting into extreme metal is exposure. Listen to what sounds good to you, but don't be afraid to revisit bands that you previously thought sounded too heavy for you. In a couple of years or decades, bands like Slayer and Children of Bodom start to sound "soft". Not too soft, but very straight-forward, mainstream, soft in that sense. 

The Atomic Mr Basie was ok. None of the songs sounded annoying. So, from me, who doesn't get jazz nor play any instrument, it's 50/100. Average. Not bad but not good either. Doesn't provoke any feelings.

Release Radar Backlog

- Ashnikko - Smoochie Girl (Heard it last week, I like it.)

- Unprocessed x Paleface Swiss - Solara (Nice! Need to Listen to This! again. Lol. Aka, I put it on that playlist. Interesting stuff!)

On my way back home I listened to Afterglow by Sleep Theory. And in hindsight, I don't know why. I haven't heard metal this lame in a while. As a teen, I would have loved this, but now it's just so blaaaah. Waste of time.

On Wednesday I drove a car to work for the first time ^^ A package was supposed to be delivered today to a store near us and the store opens at 10, which is usually when I have lunch at home if I have an evening shift, my bus leaves at 10:57. So me and my fiancé worked our schedule around the store opening - be at the store at 10, eat lunch when we get home and then I drive to work on his car and he drives it back (he has work today as well, he needs the car). The package didn't arrive today anyway, but we decided to stick to the rest of the plan.

And so, I didn't listen to music then, I focused on driving.

When I went home in the evening, I listened to Ascension by Paradise Lost. Tyrants Serenade was beautiful <3 Their clean choruses are the ones that make the songs stick to me, what I fell in love with their music for as a teen. 

Great album, they still got it 🤘🖤

On Thursday on my way to work I listened to Ei meidän kotimme by Absolute Key. Is it art? Sure. Is it good art? Not in my opinion. 

Noise music is always a bit of a hit or miss, even for the people who do listen to it from time to time, like myself. First of all, it's controversial - what makes music music? Because if it's a consistent rhythm or a melody, some actual notes with some actual instruments? Then noise music is not music. If it's an artform expressed through soundwaves, no matter what those sounds are, the it is music.

I wouldn't call it music, but I would call it art.

And as a modern artform, the interpretation of the music/art often falls to the listener. In this case, me. And whether that person finds any meaning, any feeling, any thing, in the art. If they have an artististic experience when listening to the art. 

For this album, I didn't. All I heard were annoying sounds that I could hear and record any day myself, by just being at work, living in a high-rise building or walking to a construction site. To me, those noises have no artistic value. I guess they do provoke a feeling, since they make me annoyed...

Which is quite interesting. Because something like Mirar's newest album, for example, to some people, that's noise, just as is Absolute Key. To me, Mirar is music, granted, with a lot of distorted sounds; and Absolute Key is noise. Mirar has notes, and actual instruments. They do make some weird ass noises with those intruments, but that's what makes them even cooler.

But yeah, this is.. art but not good art, IMO. I do not enjoy it, I can't wait until it's over and I can get a fix of some actual music to start my day (I need music to stay sane and this noise does not count), I could make better art.

1/100 points for the last piece being rain sounds. They were not satisfying and calming like actual rain sounds, but he gets one point for the effort.

After that I re-listened to some songs by Whitechapel and Mirar, for some actually satisfying noises 🖤🤘

On my way back home I listened to Breach by Twenty One Pilots. 

The outro sounds of City Walls are the ones that Heavydirtysoul begins with.

It was ok. Not their best album. Blurryface is still their best.

Then, on Friday I listened to King's Disease by Nas. 

"Unapologetically black, unlike Doja Cat?"

Dude, what'd she do? 😂 Let the woman exist!

Sure, I keep forgetting she's black because her skin is so light and she doesn't really talk about it, but that doesn't mean she's apologetic about it. She's just young and liberal, things like race and gender & sexuality aren't such big deals to (the liberal) Gen Z. They treat everyone the same regardless, and only bring up aspects of their identity/self if it makes sense for the context. Sure, they might casually bring up having a girlfriend when they're a girl themselves, etc, but to them being queer is so normal that it doesn't feel like "rubbing it in someone's face". Like older gen & conservatives say they are. It feels like just being themselves. Unapologetically queer, or unapologetically black. Just in a different way compared to older gen.

On my way back home I listened to Kill All Idols by Desaster. I've never heard of them before, someone just gave them a very good review. I like the music, but the vocals, not so much. Trash metal ain't really my thing. Or whatever this is. It's fast most of the time, but not that heavy, so I'd say thrash? -- Yup, The Metal Archives says Black/Thrash metal. That explains the guitar melodies, which I do like. The combo sounds like Paradise Lost. Old school, down-tuned, riff-heavy. (Well, I don't know if it's actually down-tuned, I just mean that they don't shred, they only play low notes on the guitar.) But Paradise Lost has better vocals, or, at least vocals that I enjoy more.

I hear no difference compared to the thrash I've heard before. Something like Slayer for example. They bring nothing new or exiting to the table, they're average.