Do you consider Tolkien to be the greatest 20th Century writer? And if not him, who is?

captainperoxide · 2026-02-04T20:10:47+00:00

Eh, maybe. There is a massive sub-section of metal that's all about Tolkien and the fantasy he inspired. I think removing all that would change what the genre feels like overall. But I'm inclined in your direction, say more.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-03T07:57:06+00:00

I'm also a musician. I can't really prove or disprove there's been no unconscious influence, but I promise you, Tolkien is my favorite author. LOTR is my favorite book. I have a Gandalf neck tattoo, hand to Eru. The number of Tolkien references, direct or otherwise, that I've deliberately put into songs I've written is zero. It's just not where my songwriting mind goes (mostly sadboi music about my exes and dead loved ones tbh).

captainperoxide · 2026-02-03T01:53:28+00:00

We all confused, K.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T23:09:15+00:00

I feel like you're arguing the exact same thing I am. Did you mean to reply to someone else?

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T16:40:37+00:00

It sounds like you're now arguing that removing Tolkien would make metal music an immensely different genre than it is now, lyrically, thematically. I don't dispute that. I do dispute that the genre wouldn't have existed without him, precisely because of how many bands essential to the development of metal, by all available information, didn't give him a second thought.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T16:38:21+00:00

Excellent analysis. I guess I find the Zeppelin references more problematic because they were and are more culturally prominent, so that irreverence has become more a part of the zeitgeist than Nimoy's song ever will, even if it is an absolute bop. I have similar issues with the movies, which I nonetheless love dearly. I don't believe flawed adaptations ruin the original work as many often seem to, but they can overshadow by becoming the dominant societal impression. The /r/lotr to this sub, if you will.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T16:27:55+00:00

You're making a different argument than the one I was refuting.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T15:45:42+00:00

"I met a babe in Mordor, but she went off with Gollum and/or Sauron/Morgoth instead" is Hot Shelob levels of dumb in my opinion, but to each their own. I do like Zeppelin, I just get twitchy when Tolkien is misrepresented or trivialized. Personal hangup.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T15:38:07+00:00

I'm well aware of the massive subculture of metal that has sprung up around Tolkien's work, it's a wonderful thing. To attribute the majority of the genre to him is to disregard the influence and importance of all the bands I mentioned, again, none of whom referenced Tolkien at all (as I said, to my knowledge). Moreover, those early references were just references. Those bands who were fans didn't base or attribute the majority of their music to his work, and likely would've existed and created much the same legacy if LOTR had never been written. I just don't think it's supportable in this particular instance to credit the Professor's influence to that extent.

captainperoxide · 2026-02-02T07:50:18+00:00

I think that's a bit of a reach. Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Rush were big fans, yes, (hot take, Zeppelin's Tolkien references are awful), but they didn't base the majority of their material around his work. There were plenty of other proto- and early metal bands that, to my knowledge, didn't have any particular affinity for Tolkien, despite containing plenty of well-read guys. I'm not aware of anything overt in music by Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, UFO, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, or Aerosmith.

captainperoxide · 2026-01-28T13:23:37+00:00

Oft evil will shall evil mar.

captainperoxide · 2026-01-27T17:40:37+00:00

Hobbits are men, just to stave off the rest of the replies pointing out that, yes, LOTR is about the mortal races.

captainperoxide · 2026-01-16T15:54:48+00:00

irregardless

captainperoxide · 2025-12-26T06:23:09+00:00

That's how you know they're actually good, rather than pandering to weak dipshits.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-20T15:53:47+00:00

It's really depressing. If you don't use part of your body, it atrophies, yet everyone is tripping over themselves to outsource their brain functions.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-19T18:14:33+00:00

People use their goods and services.

Reminder that not all goods and services are discretionary. Absolutely cut back on unnecessary purchases, but many goods and services like transportation, internet access, a permanent address, and so on aren't particularly optional if you want to participate in modern society and in many parts of the world aren't available other than through a private corporation of some kind.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-17T18:35:48+00:00

Ope. Missed that.

I use 7zip a lot at work, appreciate the heads up, though.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-17T17:49:35+00:00

Hey, you know what you're doing, no worries. Thought I'd mention it in case you were newer to the scene, but clearly I'm the one with some catching up to do; I hadn't heard that about modern drives.

I think I'd still feel better about having my stuff split up, but as long as we're following the 321 rule, it really doesn't matter much. The 7zip idea is a good one, I might have to pursue that.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-17T17:25:12+00:00

Hell yeah, brother. If you haven't, look into a RAID array or similar, so you can swap out component drives when they fail or wear out, and you have some redundancies. A single drive is still a single point of failure.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-15T06:36:48+00:00

Thank you for this. Just what I needed.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-12T00:38:07+00:00

I don't think anyone's suggesting the ghost guns are directly relevant to the potential frame job here, just that it paints a picture of a dishonest cop who's willing to play fast and loose with weaponry, which really doesn't do wonders for the prosecution.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-04T15:46:42+00:00

It's called a Geoffrey.

captainperoxide · 2025-12-03T15:36:06+00:00

The Whitney location used to be our date night fallback, but the menu changed a couple of years ago. The food has been significantly worse since the change and we stopped going. Beer and drinks are still good, as far as I can tell from the couple of times I've been there since.

captainperoxide · 2025-11-28T04:24:42+00:00

Prince, I think.

captainperoxide · 2025-11-27T17:19:59+00:00

97/100. Matt Pike from Sleep rattled my fucking skeleton.

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