Thank you Opeth

This band has been a huge gateway into a lot of things metal. More than a decade ago, I listened to some of their tracks from Damnation record and it was by far the most accessible. After multiple repeated attempts to dig into their sound, it clicked one fine morning. I don't even remember when that happened. Probably a couple of years ago. I should have written it down! knowing how significant of an event it would be. My entire view on metal music as a whole opened up due to Opeth. There were other key groups as well. Tool, Agalloch, and Dream Theater come to mind. Opeth's discography is so wide and dynamic that picking a record to listen and appreciate became an almost frustrating task. Things just didn't work for me until I re-oriented myself and uncluttered my mind to sit through a random album in its entirety. I loved the cover art of In Cauda Venenum and with a keen hope to not miss out on how the metal community regards Opeth, and whether my own journey is compatible with the trend so to speak, I powered through. Something about that lazy morning and the fact that there were a few birds perched outside, with a leafless tree in the background called out. Garden of Earthly Delights opened up slow, took its time and then...it happened. I got bricked. I was in it. The sonic tones kept intensifying and I felt the urgency. A lean communication. Soft bristles. Tough standing. No vocals yet. That is reserved for the second track Dignity. The opening track so meticulously blended into the second one with such great vocals by Mikael. Everything else was on pause as I dug through their entire body of work and everything just fell into place. And just like that Dan Swano happened. His collab with Mikael on Crimson was fantastic. Multiple streams opened up and I constantly am floored by all this great music. Picking favorites and ranking their work means declaring war! But music is subjective, like art in general. I get to see them perform live soon and I can't wait for it. 

Had a lot of fun reading this in depth series on Opeth and their sound - An Opeth Retrospective.

A few stand out passages:

Some art changes who you are while other art reveals who you always were, in occult shadow and the lingering yearning of youthful and aged hearts.

While metal and its extreme variants have had notorious links to ..well extremity, I think what is often overlooked is how its all human nature down to its core. I am not merely dismissing the bad stuff by delegating it to the realms of human nature, but instead want to invoke a sense of open thinking towards all things extreme. Maybe there is a middle ground (as there always is) to understand all kinds of art if we think slowly. 

Often, the cruelty and evil of extreme art is like a warding spell, a means to conjure and contain this wickedness so it doesn't transcend past the limits of the fantasizing mind. Ah, if this dynamic could be so easily solved by revolutionary thinkers and philosophers and art critics, our lives would be so much easier! But alas, it is not to be so.

Europa

Clipper, Clipper, Clipper.
Bring me news that the subsurface ocean is gushing with life. As we know it. Primitive or not.
And I'll play "Age of Aquarius".

On repeat for a few months now.

Abyss - Shepherds of Cassini
Withering Strands - Be'lakor
Grandis Spiritus Diavolos - Rotting Christ (goofy name aside, this is stellar music - and so is a lot of their work)
The Law of Asbestos - Ashenspire
Slaves & Bulldozers - Soundgarden (Thayil, Cornell and co pack such a punch)
Equivalence - Insomnium

These Polish groups make great music

Memories of Falling Down - Obscure Sphinx (really good post-metal music overall). The live show of their Thuamaturgy record was epic.
Hybrid Times - Riverside

Saw Ne Obliviscaris live and its the best I've seen so far. They totally owned the stage. Loved it.

While it appears that things are burning down all around us, let us not forget that there are incredible things happening all the time. A cursory look at the Turing award winners over the last decade should keep one busy. 

Young Archie finalists and their work is really good. 

Do not burn the bridges, build them to last.

From nothing to everything

Cygnus
The Wreck of S.S. Needle
  - Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas

What an absolute killer collaboration between the two. The entirety of the Mariner record is great. Cygnus especially had a profound impact. As the song progressed, I felt like I was being pushed into a corner of a green floating room where I witnessed myself being shattered into a million pieces, only to slowly become whole again by the end of the song. The last 5 minutes of the song entered into a whole new level of intensity.

You can't really play post/sludge/doom metal in the background. It's not good commute music either, in my opinion. Spirits have a dulling effect, and I feel like the mind tends to rush through without really experiencing the sonic journey. I have to set aside or make myself available for a good hour or so to give my full sober attention and seek out all the parts. From nothing to everything. Its the layers and layers of sound all mixed up to create a unique sonic atmosphere. You wait for the build ups, sometimes 10 mins into a song, but the payoff is guaranteed. I think stuff like this just happens over time and its quite hard to explain to someone why such kind of music exists. Its the open minded experimentation with different sounds that leads one to keep exploring. Arabic hip hop, Nigerian folk music, Indian carnatic/hindustani, Japanese ska, Qawwali, Scandinavian black metal contrasted with Atmospheric sludge metal, or even mainstream pop - and a million other types. Such diversity in sounds. Our ears can take it all. Whats important is the feel and the places music takes one to. One need not dwell in the past, but look far ahead to interpret a future within reach. 

At this point, I get these flashes at various times during the day where I just pause - and conjure up a place and time when an unheard, punishing, soul-rectifying track zips past me, leaving in its wake a scene that is just unexplainable.

Grinning Mouths - ISIS
Rocking Chairs and Shotguns - Mouth Of The Architect
A Solitary Reign - Amenra

The space between me and Earth

When you superimpose the daily soundtrack onto the needlessly noisy world, something cancels out and a muted scene takes over. The weary cloud stops being weary and negotiates a pause. 

We listen to the tales and romanticize
How we'd follow the path of the hero
Boast about the day when the rivers overrun
How we'd rise to the height of our halo
        (10,000 Days (Wings, Pt 2) - Tool)

Tool is really special. While the whole song is one great piece, the part that bricked me was around the 7:30 mark when the solo picks up and I felt the whole song come together in an epic way. Maynard's vocals kicks it off while Danny's drumming and Justin's bass provide the perfect blend for Adam's solo. The entire discography of Tool is breathtaking, but I tend to almost always spend time devouring Fear Inoculum, 10000 days and Lateralus.

Forget Not - Ne Obliviscaris
And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope - Ne Obliviscaris

Ne Obliviscaris was a great find. Blasted my ears, but I still keep finding the nth experience to be as thumping as the first one. 

Exploring metal music is a conscious exercise. What I love the most about it is how you need to explicitly seek it out rather than being shoved and imposed by algorithmic recommendations. There's a wide range of sub genres out there ready to be explored.

Pale Folklore - Agalloch
The Mantle - Agalloch

I always prepare myself before putting on Agalloch so I can listen to all tracks in one go.

This is the end of every song that we sing
(Alone, The Cure)

The Cure's latest record is another great release. The first line of the first track Alone had so much in it. Hope they release few more records before they ride off into the sunset.

Korn's live show was great, although I felt Jonathan's vocals got subdued with the heavy bass system. Maybe its the overall sound setup. Gave me a chuckle when he picked up the bagpipes.

Fear not, for such and such is temporary. The riffs of the south pole carry on.

Tender Mercies

The Lost Cause - Tom Morello + Manchester Orchestra
There's No Mountain - Glen Hansard
the fruits - Paris Paloma
Dance Of The Clairvoyants - Pearl Jam
Blackbird - Martyn Bennett

Tender Mercies - Glen Hansard + Eddie Vedder

We restrict ourselves to this narrow range of thought, conditioned by the lived experience, and complain when the solutions don't work. What tools do we have at our disposal to elongate the (narrowed) extremities of thought ? I think the answer could be in the world of arts. We must make arts as accessible as we can. It could be argued that arts come in only after basic needs are met. If all our material needs are met, what would we be pursuing ? I looked around and don't find a satisfying answer, and I don't want to start blaming the ills of capitalism to paint a grim picture. It is what it is. Am I brushing it off by saying "It is what it is" ? A lazy ontological dismissal so I can momentarily disengage from critical thinking. The antidote for such blunt dislocation is to look within. Underneath the layers of ego, lies buried the most pressing questions we must ask. For those of us lucky to be able to do things, we must take a moral high ground. Crack open the psyche and to not be afraid of finding nothing. There is no nothing.

PJ

Release - Pearl Jam

To see them perform live and also open with a deep cut that I never thought would happen. I'm floored. I remember a time when I was desperately looking for a clean live rendition of `Release` and the rarity of it combined with a mystic aura of the song makes it a killer deep cut. Jeff Ament's bass was a force to reckon with. Vedder and his special voice moves the crowd in special ways. Cosmic Psychos opened the evening and they looked pretty sloshed. Great night and what a great performance. Time to finally get the `Ten` album on vinyl. 

Next up is Glen Hansard. I think I know where this is going. There may come a time when I get to see both Hansard and Vedder on stage. To witness the full force of songwriting that these two came up with and rendered in the utmost brilliance of a voice will truly be something.

UDHR

Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons
Can't Go Back - Blink-182
Destroyer - Of Monsters And Men

To become sensitive to the sensibilities of human sentiments

Structured lives need to be dismantled and happenstance takes priority. To let the mind roam about and lay a new path for itself. The governance of our minds is in shambles. Its time we check out the principles of self governance for its sake, while respecting the boundaries of societal structures which are themselves human constructs. However flawed they are, we must see them as opportunities to tackle and soldier on.

To read the universal declaration of human rights and do everything we can to uphold its values. How it starts off with a heroic tone

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

Article 26 has:

Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms

It didn't come for free. We must remind ourselves of that.