Welcome To Stopgap City.

So, we’re pretty realistic about the fact that maybe like four people on earth actually listen to our music. Like seriously, there’s four. I can name them. But man… Those four people are gonna shit when the new tracks hit bandcamp and they realize we’ve turned into a hulking mutated gene splice of early SWANS, White Mice, and Impetuous Ritual. And that’s about all the preamble I’ve got today. Oh yeah, one other thing worth mentioning, I’m gonna start writing about movies now too. I don’t always have time to watch one every day, but when I do I’ll make a quick note of it. - Muzak: Eyes of Fire - So, I saw these guys with Trivium, Danzig and Kataklysm ages ago. 2004 maybe? Or was it 2005? The exact date is now lost to the grey fog that is slowly consuming my mind, but what I do remember is that I wasn’t feeling all that well that day (recovering from a severe bout of food poisoning the night before), and my then-girlfriend dumped me in the car during the drive to the show. Turns out sh...

Wellp. Vacation is over and we're back to the grind. Upside is that we had a real nice break and unexpectedly wound up jamming out a bunch of new tracks... Downside is that we now have slightly fewer hours per day to finish hammering them into shape. So it goes. - Dhwesha - Gnarly DM from India with a real dark/ eerie vibe. Had never heard of Dhwesha before this track popped up on autoplay after something else I was listening to, but I wound up really digging them. So much so that I listened to the whole album twice then picked up a copy of the CD. - Necrot - I know these guys are a big deal, but for whatever reason I never picked up any of their albums until just the other day. Grabbed all three last time we hiked out to Vinyl Altar and they definitely live up to the hype. Mid-tempo to fast, dissonant but not incoherent, riffy as hell, great vox... I'm into it. - Krosis - "New School" DM seems like it has fallen out of favor super fucking hard over the past bunch ...

Well shit. I forgot to deactivate the ability to pay for our albums when our old band called it quits, and upon logging into our bandcamp for the first time in a long time I noticed that a decent little handful of people actually paid for the album we never finished? Which I guess means we're half-ass obligated to finish it. Thanks a lot assholes... Seriously though, this actually did happen completely by mistake, but after 16 years I'm not gonna end our run as one of those bands that take in (even a small amount of) money for an album that doesn't get released. So we're gonna do something. Whether or not anyone likes that something, listens, or gives a fuck? Eh, that's honestly not our problem. Hell, maybe this whole dumb experience will "revitalize" us and we'll decide to keep toiling in obscurity? Who knows. Only thing we know for semi-certain is that all the rest of the songs on the album are gonna have full-on drums/ guitar/ vox and kinda tap into...

I'll have you know that, whenever this winds up getting posted, it was actually finished EARLY. Still on vacation so not gonna bother with much in the way of a preamble, just a real quick mention that when I walk down the street or go into a store and see people wearing COVID masks but pulled down around their chin it makes me want to fucking scream. What the fuck? It's like taking the time to wear pants but hiking them down so your ass and crotch are flapping in the breeze. Like at that point what's the fucking plan? There's zero benefit and and probably significant discomfort. You're literally getting the worst of both worlds. - Federation X - I can't tell you much about this band, just that I was sent three of their albums as freebies with some other stuff I ordered years ago and that they sorta reminded me of a punky version of big dumb American Rawk 'n' Roll ala ZZ Top which is something I tend to dig when I'm working or working out. Feels like...

Took yesterday off because I'm on vacation. Keeping this preamble short because like I said: I'm on vacation. If you need anything else: Please refer to my previous statements about being on vacation. - Acephalix - Saw these guys a bunch of times when we lived in the Bay Area and I dig pretty much everything they've done, but man Aporia is the one I always come back to. Especially that last track. Crusty and fucking Massive. - Pink Mass - Necrosexual New Jerzy skuzzkult. About as pleasant as hatefucking a ruptured abscess. - Autopsy - I slept on the more recent Autopsy albums for a looooong time. Knew they existed. Knew they were probably good. Just never quite got around to actually listening to them. Finally picked up the three most recent full-lengths and I've been listening over the past couple days. They all do pretty much what you'd want/ expect an Autopsy album to do and I'm a dope for not checking them out sooner. - Mayhem - Real talk: I don't gi...

I'm technically on vacation, so no preamble today... Except for a vague warning that I was in a pretty 80's mood yesterday. - E-Force - Ex-Voivod "Negatron/ Phobos" era frontman doing his own thing. "His own thing" being fairly unique sounding thrash that while maybe not as flipped out as Voivod, is still pretty killer in its own right. - Trouble - First four Trouble albums are untouchably unfuckwithable in every way. Perfect fusion of Sabbath-y doom, 80's trad metal, and thrash. Super bummed to hear of Eric Wagner's passing.  - Warrior Soul - The band that kinda of bridged the chasm between hair metal and grunge, and unfortunately wound up getting largely snoozed on by both sides. I've wanted to do a death/ grind/ doom cover of this tune since like 1997. - Souls At Zero - I bought both of these albums out of a bargain bin at this tiny little record store in suburban MA when I was a freshman in high school. Still have them to this day. I get ...

First day of vacation. Took three long walks over the weekend so we're hanging in today. Gonna watch a couple movies and hang out with DD. Actually, now that I've mentioned it: Posting might drop off a bit over this week 'cos we haven't had a week off together in over a year. - Ka - Probably my favorite current era rapper. Has a real unique vibe, real humid and gloomy sounding. Don't consider myself any kind of expert on the style, but I like what I like. - Cambatta - Another recent favorite. Hip Hop/ Rap with a dark "psychedelic" edge. Guess this is the mood I'm in today... - Clipping - I got into Clipping right around the time they released that one song where they sampled Deathpile and a bunch of noise people I talked to via email got kinda mad about it. As far as I'm concerned everything they've done has been fucking brilliant. Totally want them to sample one of our old tracks... - Apophis - Egyptian/ occult tinged DM from Germany... I ...