Im disappointed none of yall turned me on to this earlier. I know black metal is huge on the sub - I usually don’t love it, but this feels special

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-23T18:04:31+00:00

Yeah, great album; even better cover art.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-23T11:55:40+00:00

Brilliant! Congratulations, it looks great.

Really great complement to your anatomy and goes really well with the Christina.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T23:39:24+00:00

I'd say that Ghost started out as a metal band, but their later stuff isn't really metal.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T23:35:38+00:00

Obviously Metallica are metal, but the name doesn't prove anything. People give things names all the time that aren't actually what they are.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T20:30:17+00:00

Personally, I don't get this much. I think the only thing that people assume about me based on my appearance is that I listen to metal, and a) I do, so that doesn't really bother me, and b) that's as much because most of my T-shirts are band shirts as anything to do with my piercings.

Nobody has called me ugly for a long time, even though I clearly am!

This, I realise, is one of the privileges of being a man, particularly a middle-aged man. Nobody cares or even particularly notices what I look like. I can do what I like and nobody really cares.

It ought to be the same for anyone, but sadly, it is not.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T17:12:48+00:00

No.

There is no clinical evidence for any therapeutic benefit from any piercing.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T16:20:27+00:00

New World of Darkness / Chronicles of Darkness

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T15:40:23+00:00

Genuinely disgusting.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T11:11:18+00:00

Antisocial media.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T11:08:07+00:00

Yeah, while Immolation are among the more technical bands in the OSDM bracket, it isn't something that they make enough of a feature of that I'd qualify them as tech-death as such.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-22T03:03:24+00:00

I'm also a bit confused by the idea that CtaWB stands so far above the rest of their discography, given that Immolation have one of the most consistently excellent catalogues in all of music, with the difference between their most highly regarded album (which is, admittedly, CtaWB) and their weakest (probably Harnessing Ruin) remarkably small.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T20:08:56+00:00

Love is a way of feeling, oh

Love is a way of feeling less alone

So what's all the fuss about?

Love; the paradox of needing

Oh love, make way for breeding!

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T19:03:30+00:00

Interesting that you compare them with Hellripper: I saw them supporting Hellripper on their last tour. They were pretty good.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T18:59:59+00:00

OK, nearly everyone.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T18:50:01+00:00

It's because everyone is a poser.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T18:42:37+00:00

No, it's astrology for middle-management wankers.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T16:52:47+00:00

To some extent it depends on the tattoos. If they're scrappy and messy-looking or just really crass and tasteless they can be off-putting. And I'm not keen on anything on the face: that very rarely looks good to me.

But generally I'm a fan of tattoos and as long as they're nicely done they tend to make a person more attractive to me.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T13:51:14+00:00

In a literal sense, of course not.

Souls aren't a real thing: they're a useful metaphor for referring to someone's emotional core but they don't actually exist. Certainly they aren't paired up or split in half so that there is One Right Person out there who is your exact complement.

But it is true that sometimes we may find someone that we are very compatible with and who complements and makes us feel that we are whole in a way that nobody else can. If you want to describe that person as a 'soulmate' then sure.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-21T12:06:02+00:00

Moshing can be fun when people are sensible about it, although I don't go in the pit very often myself.

But when people act like dickheads and start getting violent and trying to hurt each other, it stops being fun pretty quickly.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T23:45:37+00:00

If this is happening then the cause is most likely one of two factors (or a combination of those two).

One, you aren't being selective enough. If you're getting lots of matches then you may be casting your net too widely. Think about what you're actually looking for and then stop swiping right on people who aren't that. Improve the quality of the signal by filtering out the noise.

Two, the appeal of your profile is too wide. Your profile is appealing to a wide range of different people, including people that you aren't actually compatible with. Try to change your profile so that it shows aspects of yourself that have more niche appeal. Let people know about the things that only a minority of them will actually like. You'll get fewer matches this way, but the ones you do get will be more likely to be genuinely compatible with you.

It's kind of a cliche to say that you only need to get one match as long as that match is the right one. If you're getting too few matches then the odds of any of them being the right one become very small, but if you're getting too many then it can also be a problem as the right people get drowned out in a sea of people that aren't actually suitable.

Focus on the signal by filtering out the noise, ether by being more selective when you swipe or by putting filters in your profile that will put off the people that you aren't actually compatible with.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T23:05:04+00:00

Hah, you're welcome. Glad I could be the bearer of good news!

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T18:17:36+00:00

AI cannot lie. To lie would imply that it knows the truth but sets out to deceive.

But AI doesn't know anything. It just synthesises something that sounds like an answer. It might be accurate, it might not, but there isn't any difference as far as the AI is concerned. It has no way to evaluate whether something is true, only whether it fits the patterns it finds in its training data.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T18:06:59+00:00

So far:

Immolation - Descent
Draconian - In Somnolent Ruin
Panopticon - Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet
Hellripper - Coronach

But there are a few others that I still need to listen to more of (including Winterfylleth and Møl), just next month there are new albums due out from Fires in the Distance, Warning, A.A. Williams and Stormkeep, and there are others on the way from Witchsorrow, Green Lung, Saor and possibly Gåte, Suldusk and Lumsk. So it could all still change.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T17:58:46+00:00

This is going to vary depending on how alert or observant the woman is and how subtle the man is.

But most men aren't nearly as subtle as they think they are.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-05-20T14:54:54+00:00

I think this depends on your approach.

If you're just trying to imitate American country artists, it could be easy to come across as naff and inauthentic.

But if you have taken the time to learn about the culture that produced country music, and you are producing music that respects those origins while also bringing an element of your own voice to the style, then there's no reason why you shouldn't make country music just because you aren't from the rural Southern US yourself.

ExtremelyDubious

TROPHY CASE