[Archive - 26.11.24] Introducing: #MusicMondays and #TechTuesdays!

Written By Brady Irwin

Note: This post was originally published on innerstrengthcheck.com, our previous (and now, sadly and unexpectedly as of NYE 2024, dead) former website.

RIP ISC.com Jan 2021 - Dec 2024. (Thanks, WordPress!).

References to any previous links have been removed due to being 404.

For future blog content, please refer to the current site as our prior version is inaccessible.

Peace, Love and Grindcore - Brady.

For our next podcast episode (audio version TBA once we clear the backlog of other blog articles!), I've decided it's time to formally introduce a few new ideas that have been percolating long-term for this humble podcast/blog.

We've been doing a lot of music-posting around here lately, which has been refreshing after a necessary lull in order for the team to catch up with our respective life-admin mountains. 2024 has been a hectic year for a lot of people, and we're sure we ain't alone in that!

We've provided extensive coverage of the recent Froth and Fury Festival in Adelaide, as well as multiple recent album reviews (RVVKVS, Feral, and multiple incoming, e.g. The Last Will and Testament by Opeth) and many bass covers with an associated Song Requests document.

If you have been on our socials recently, you'll have noticed the #musicmonday hashtag. Well, I felt it best to valorise this into something a little more permanent and permeable. Introducing - the first of hopefully many Music Mondays columns!

CONTENTS:

  1. Heavy News (Music News)

  2. Covers

  3. From The Legion

  4. Tech Tuesdays

 

COVERS:

Being recently unemployed and having just completed a huge round of job applications, I've finally had a bit of spare time between all the life-admin to catch up on our *huge* backlog of covers.

I won't post every single cover, rather link to the entire ISC Music and Covers Playlist below. You'll note it also contains a fair few clips from gigs attended by our writers.

[EDIT 08.01.25: - Link TBA as soon as the new Requests and Covers link is added to the blog. Stay tuned].

If you've got some recent gig footage you'd like to share with everyone, as well as any covers or original music you've been working on, please feel free to let us know via the comments, our admin email (innerstrengthcheckmedia@gmail.com) or just drop us a comment/PM on social media!

 

FROM THE LEGION:

If you're unaware of the reference, I encourage you to first out this post, which serves as the introduction to our 'From The Legion' series.

Having been involved as an admin for the Musolegion project for 5+ years now, it's been fantastic to see the growth and engagement of such a friendly and collaborative space for music fans.

Musolegion is an online-based community on Facebook and Discord, with the addition of an official blog in recent years. The primary purpose of the 'Legion is to foster a welcoming and collaborative community based around sharing and discovering music new and old, as well as having a wide range of discussions around all things music in general. Kind of similar to ISC here, however with over 2,000 members on social!

As a long-term admin and having been involved with a lot of the back-end dynamics of the community, as noted above, we've seen a slight down-tick in the Facebook group especially.

And no, it's not just you; there's stark evidence to show that the algorithmic changes implemented in early 2024 have had a drastic knock-on effect on organic communities within Meta products.

For instance:

  • Social@Ogilvy, via ConvinceAndConvert, notes that statistical data shows a drastic reduction in the organic reach of organic Group-based content to 1%, down from a historical average of 16%.

  • Fortune note in this article that Facebook's recent algorithmic tweaks and AI boosts have significantly influenced what we see in the feed, with a lot more content being promoted from adjacent groups and persons, rather than those a consumer has directly followed, added etc.

  • If you're a fiscal nerd, you can always check out the First Quarter Reports from Meta in 2024, which indicate the start of a steeper drop-off in organic/non-paid content overall, as well as reduced reach for those opting to just share in groups and on their feed.

These are just some of many, many issues plaguing access to online communities in 2024, something I'll be detailing further and at length in the follow-up to my Review of Everything in early 2024. Specifically, I'll be looking not just at the challenges these changes pose, but also how the reduced utility of social media may also have had unintended benefits as a result!

[EDIT 08.01 #2 - Above mentioned episode is TBA until I’ve cleared the backlog of archived posts. Stay tuned.]

What does this mean for Musolegion? Well, upon discussing and pondering it with the admin team the past couple of years, there's been an increased sense of wanting to make something more digitally tangible and permanent. Hence, the creation of our official blog right here!

Similar to ISC, you can check out latest news, some user-created album reviews and also some interviews on the official website. (Hot tip, we've got a big interview coming soon! Mum's the word.)

Now. With regards to the community itself, I put it out there to our Facebook group and Discord server with the following question:

“‘What are some new albums/discoveries this month you’ve found, been shown, etc, and are really enjoying?’”

We've gotten a mix of lists, thoughts and links, so I'll be sure to parse them as best as possible. For privacy's sake, we'll opt out of specific names and utilise initials instead.

Where possible, I'll add Youtube album links embedded, and Bandcamp links caption.

Where members have provided longer lists/multiple albums in one go, these will be included as a list with links.

Let's GOOOOO!

  1. Member DU nominates UK black metallers Black Pyre and their latest LP, Blessed Bran, Son of The Sea.

2. Member MJ notes the following:

“‘Enjoying the new Gigan. Also some obscure records from the 90’s. “Living Impaired” is a band I don’t see many people talking about.’”

Link to new album by progressive death metallers, Gigan:

 

And here is a deep cut from little-known act, Living Impaired. Thanks for the find!

 

3. Member AB extrapolates a little further with their recent discoveries with the following quote:

“‘My fave album I found this year is Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota from 2020. Absolute monster slab of black metal right from the opening title track, which is easily one of my favourite opening tracks as they function album openers of all time. That album got me through a few mentally choppy days this year. You won’t know what they’re singing, but ho boy, you’ll feel it. It’s almost all good, but my fav tracks are the aforementioned title track, and ‘Pohjolan Tytär’.’”
“‘I also enjoyed Keep of Kalessin - Reptilian (2010). Had been meaning to spin it because I love the opening track ‘Dragon Iconography’ (unneccessarily long bomb blasts + blackened thrash riffs = yes please). When the album works, it works really well. The high points are very high. ‘The Dragontower’ is catchy as a mf, and I fell in love with ‘The Divine Land’, too.’”

Link to Reptilian full album:

 

4. From our admin team - Sammy has been frothing on some thrash metal in GAMA BOMB's 2023 release Bats, as well as chowing down on Carnosus' new LP, Wormtales:

 
 

6. ISC admin Michael notes he's been giving the most recent release by Turisas, Battle Ballads some regular rotation:

Official Website: https://www.turisas.com/

 

Some Field Reports from our Legionnaires on the official Discord Server (which you're more than welcome to join - reach out to ML via the links below and or the ISC Team via our links!):

To quote Member BA via Discord (bro even provided Bandcamp links! :') )

“‘I’ve been loving Aethyrvorous’ debut album! They released a demo in 2009 then disappeared until this year. I love how murky it sounds on the surface, but how clear and intricate the elements are when you listen more closely.

FFO: Portal, Grave Upheaval, etc.; esoteric black/death metal in general.’”
“‘In a similar vein, Mitochondrion released their third full-length (their last one was 2011, although they released a split and an EP in the interim years). Top-notch stuff, technical, chaotic and noisy with impeccable production and atmosphere.’”

Bandcamp: https://mitochondrion.ca/album/vitriseptome

Resident IT wizard and admin Chris notes his ongoing love of the fantastic new LP by Winterfylleth in The Imperious Horizon, stating it's 'an adventure!' Indeed it is, awesome band.

 

TECH TUESDAYS

Given the overwhelming response from the Musolegion community and this being a sort-of intro to Technical Tuesdays (you can check out a prior introductory post here), I'll keep this one short and sweet.

In future, I plan on utilising #techtuesdays not just for music promotion, but also to have a space to examine useful digital resources and tools that can enhance our wellbeing, connectedness or even just be handy for creative pursuits such as music, tabletop, gaming and the like.

And in terms of music promotion, as you may have seen on our socials posts - technical is not limited to just technical metal, but encompasses any new finds you/we have discovered where there's an exceptional level of musical prowess.

I'm going to leave it here with a mini-review of sorts of one of the most fantastic examples of progressive technical death metal in the past few years in Cryptic Shift's phenomenal Visitations From Enceladus. Having seen them live twice, both times I feel honoured beyond measure that they managed to play the gargantuan prog-death-metal-epic 25-min 'Moonbelt Immolator' in full. What a freaking treat.

“‘Cryptic Shift’s Visitations From Enceladus is a mind-bending journey through the outermost cosmic realms of modern death metal. This stellar (pun intended!) debut album blends technicality and atmosphere with ferocious precision, resulting in a feeling of both barely-controlled chaos and dime-precise technicality. The 25-minute opener, ‘Moonbelt Immolator,’ is a particularly audacious odyssey, seamlessly shifting between chaotic riffs, jazz-inflected interludes and a healthy sparing of extreme-metal fury to boot. Channelling the spirit of early Voivod and later-era Death, the musicianship is otherworldly. The icing on the cake is the crip but organic production, which I find very nicely balances clinical marksmanship with warm, organic tones.

Visitations From Enceladus is, in short, outstanding. Oh, and if they tour at a venue near you? They’re a must-see on the live front. Trust me on this.’”
— Some 'Brady' Guy (2024).

Tune in next Monday and Tuesday for the ongoing weekly columns for Music Mondays and Technical Tuesdays!

For those interested in joining our friendly Musolegion community, and/or to keep track of the blog, please be sure to check the following links:

MUSOLEGION - LINKS:

Official Website

Facebook Community

Reddit Community

Youtube Channel

Spotify Playlist (Australian, Collaborative Mode)

Spotify Playlist (International, Collaborative Mode)

And be sure to ask us if you'd like access to our very welcoming and laid-back Discord Server!

Peace, Love and Grindcore. xo

Brady.

Brady Irwin
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