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User
Reviews 32
Approval 98%
Soundoffs 25
Album Ratings 2376
Objectivity 53%
Last Active 09-05-22 6:33 pm
Joined 06-17-12
Review Comments 10,970
| So... I'm back.
It's been a while. | | 1 |  | La Dispute
Rooms of the House
I'll cut right to the chase. The pandemic coincided with one of the worst episodes of OCD I've ever experienced. I won't go into details about that but one of the consequences of this was that my music collection just became too overwhelming to manage. This, combined with the fact that I was always stubborn about not wanting to support streaming services up to this point, and the fact that I was generally experiencing some pretty awful technophobia, basically resulted in me stopping listening to music in my spare time altogether. Some of you know that I'm a classical musician, so I didn't stop music altogether, but I did stop listening to non-classical music for fun in my spare time. Between 2020 and 2022 I basically completely stopped listening to non-classical music aside from the occasional walk down memory lane on YouTube. | | 2 |  | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
In late 2022, when I finally got over my stubbornness about streaming services and decided to just subscribe to one (I chose Tidal), I found myself immediately pretty disillusioned with a lot of the music I had given my attention to in the past. I've always been a leftist, and as an autistic bisexual with a tenuous relationship to gender I've always been very wary of individuals and power structures who don't want people like me or my friends to exist. But for some reason my political views and values never affected my listening habits very strongly. In my past time on this site, most of the stuff that I was engaging with was pretty neutral when it comes to this stuff, but I also wound up listening to, rating, and commenting on a lot of stuff that was incompatible with my identity and moral compass. Particularly in the world of metal, there are a lot of far-right musicians out there, not to mention just plain old crappy human beings. | | 3 |  | Unwound
Repetition
In another fit of OCD I removed a lot of stuff from my library, deleted ratings and lists, and so on. I basically disavowed metal entirely during this time, and given my previous presence on this site as an avid metalhead, what did that mean about my ability to return here? Did I still belong? So I didn't return. I jumped head first into the world of punk and post-rock, feeling a need to find artists who shared my politics and ethics. Let's be clear - I've always liked punk! And this period did lead me to discover some pretty cool stuff. But I still felt like the person I wanted to be was incompatible with the person I was when I was here before. So I listened to my music privately and didn't return. | | 4 |  | Opeth
Morningrise
I'm not sure what possessed me to do it. This September, something pulled me back to metal. I could say it was just the autumn air compelling me to listen to atmospheric black metal and gothic doom, but I don't think it was just that. I wanted to be whole again. I needed to reconcile with myself and find my people in metal again. | | 5 |  | Falls of Rauros
The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood
In particular I've been listening to a lot of leftist black metal lately. Not indiscriminately - you all know I'm fussy when it comes to the quality of the music itself. Why else would I be here? But in any case, I needed to find a way to enjoy my favourite metal subgenre without feeling gross about it. I've been doing a lot of digging, particularly in the RABM subreddit, and I've discovered some pretty cool stuff. It's been my obsession lately - the good kind of obsession. | | 6 |  | Wayfarer
American Gothic
I literally just discovered Wayfarer today, and it sounds like they have an amazing new album out, so I’m looking forward to diving into that once I’ve gotten through the rest of their discography. I’m also looking forward to getting back into writing. I have reviews in the pipeline, and I’ll probably be making some black metal lists too, so stay tuned for that. | | 7 |  | Devin Townsend
Ocean Machine: Biomech
I’m also going to be changing my username here soon, if that’s still something you can do. Given the stuff that came out about Win Butler last year, I’d rather not be named after an Arcade Fire song anymore. I won't change it immediately, though, since I do want people to have the chance to recognize me. I’m thinking maybe Ocean Machine, after one of my favourite metal albums, to preserve the Ocean part of the name? Maybe it could be just Ocean? Maybe Worried Fire, after my favourite Godspeed You! Black Emperor song? Maybe Harmony of Dissonance, after my new favourite Castlevania game? Any ideas? | |
Ocean of Noise
10.30.23 | If you somehow got to the bottom of this wall of text, thank you, seriously. It feels good to be back. | budgie
10.30.23 | hi back im dad | Hawks
10.30.23 | NICE! | Spec
10.30.23 | You can’t change usernames anymore I’m sad to say. | Ocean of Noise
10.30.23 | @Spec really? Why not? | Spec
10.30.23 | Some absolute loser hacked the site and fucked everything up. It’s why the forums are gone. | Ocean of Noise
10.30.23 | Damn that sucks. I never used the forums much but still. When did that happen?
Can people still make new accounts, or are we kind of in a closed system here now lol? | JohnnyoftheWell
10.30.23 | welcome back and damn, appreciate you for this candid rundown. new accounts can still be made lol, must suck to catch up on three years of bs drama | Ocean of Noise
10.30.23 | Thanks for reading Johnny. Good to hear the site's still kicking anyway lol | Dewinged
10.30.23 | Welcome back! | pizzamachine
10.30.23 | Booyeah it’s Ocean of Noise | Sowing
10.30.23 | Welcome back to hell ;-)
The site is indeed limited in its current state, but if you have any questions or needs this is the place for them until mx fixes things:
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/list.php?memberid=276983&listid=204296 | neekafat
10.30.23 | yay! | evilford
10.30.23 | Yes! Welcome back! I've (and im sure other people) have sorely missed your presence.
I am also a leftist and I understand being at odds with some artists' person and/or political beliefs. I generally try to not let it bother me but sometimes it does. And some musicians are just abhorrent people. (Cough cough, Arghoslent) I do find solace in the fact that there are a good number of metal/dm musicians who are progressive/cognizant of social issues and not in a shitty way.
In any case it rules to see you back. | Egarran
10.30.23 | Hi Ocean, thanks for the memories. Site keeps fluctuating in general socio-psychological narratives but at the core we are still lovable, stoned anarchists. | RunOfTheMill
10.31.23 | welcome back, sput never leaves you | Trifolium
10.31.23 | Hi Ocean, good to have you back! | artiswar
10.31.23 | 2019-2021 was fucking horrible for most people. Welcome back, I love you | MeatSalad
10.31.23 | Welcome back. Its wild seeing the drastic mental health bomb the pandemic was for some people. I'm still trying to snap myself out of covid-isolation-mode and it's not going so well | artiswar
10.31.23 | It mind-fucked me and a lot of people I know lost their businesses from lockdowns. It was very disillusioning | deathschool
10.31.23 | Is this the collective trauma thread? Hi yes, I got my life together for a couple of years and now I’m terrified that it’s about to fall apart again. Also, I think I’m entering a manic episode. Here we fucking go, boys | artiswar
10.31.23 | I can't tell if that's sarcasm or a cry for help at this point | Get Low
10.31.23 | jam Sunwheel | Egarran
10.31.23 | Only a revolution will bring back meaning to our lives. | Demon of the Fall
10.31.23 | Welcome back! Hope you can enjoy music (properly) again and sorry that you went through this over lockdown...
We have some real life similarities it seems (and a few differences). For whatever reason my taste in music seems unaffected - as in, I do not care (much) about who the creator of the art is and whether this conflicts with my views / alignments / who I am etc. This is fortunate, especially in the world of metal (as you mentioned). I did used to be pretty obsessed with the physical format and was a bit slow on the uptake where technology is concerned (still am tbh) but I have embraced it now (mostly laziness - so hooray for laziness!)
Anyway, this isn't about me, just sharing some thoughts.
and yeah the whole can't change usernames thing is rather unfortunate | someone
10.31.23 | "always been a leftist, and as an autistic bisexual"
we are a many | Demon of the Fall
10.31.23 | I imagine being leftist is perhaps different to my interpretation, as I lack the knowledge of American political alignments and how they differ from the U.K. etc.
I mean, guessing the term cannot be applied universally and will mean different things depending on where you are
ugh, I mean no let's not discuss this here unless it's a quick one, lol - don't want to derail and important thread (let me use Google instead!) |
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