Editors’ Picks – July 2018

Heavy Blog
Editors' Picks
Every year, it seems like Summer is more impossible. Are we growing old? Is it actually hotter? Is it both? Who knows (it’s probably the former). But the sad fact remains that patterns of routine that have helped us cope in the past, a cold glass of water here, a welcome shady corner there, are becoming more and more diminished, the returns just less effective at getting us home. It’s truly a death by a thousand cuts or, rather, death by a thousand drops (of sweat).

An Ode to Spring – Metal, Thematics and Politics

Heavy Blog
Deep Dive
Since the vast majority of Heavy Blog contributors fall on the left side of the map (shocking, we know), focusing on the latter seems like the way to go. Criticizing the other side of the political map is easy enough; taking a hard look at your own camp is where things get tricky. Thus, let us turn our eyes on one of the most typical leftist refusals to engage: the retreat. There are few places in the cultural world where this retreat is more obvious than in music and, more specifically, in metal. Even more specifically, the current throes which are black metal is undergoing are even more lucrative for our needs. There, leftist retreat is alive and happening right now, both because of the virility of the claims on the other side (read: the amount of black metal that's truly awful) and because the themes of black metal have already been declared by the larger, more abstract "left" as anathema in the past.

Best of 1998

Heavy Blog
Best Of, Lists!
Welcome back to our "Best of" column! This isn't the first time we've celebrated twenty year milestones, but this installment is a bit more meaningful for all of us here at Heavy Blog. This list comes a week af... Read More...