When I got home from work I realized that today is the fifth anniversary of this blog, and I have a little bit of time to write right now, so I’m gonna do that. Who knows where this’ll go? I’m seriously working on a proper write-up for Louder Than Life 2024, and there’s a major announcement about next year’s fest coming at noon tomorrow, plus I have a Day Off With Nothing to Do coming up Friday, so I will get something posted up by the end of that day. I promise you, I promise you, I will.

Since LTL2K24, my life has mostly consisted of The 3 W’s: workin, watchin Veronica Mars, and wonderin who the fuck could possibly be an undecided voter in the 2024 US presidential election. In my free time, I’ve dabbled in a bit of existential dread and watched Days of our Lives and Peep Show. It’s been mostly good, other than the workin and the wonderin and the dread.

I bought my first chainsaw last week and cut up some errant tree limbs that had been in my yard since the remnants of Hurricane Helene rolled through and dislodged them from the limbs that they’d been tangled in since getting knocked loose in that terrifying storm that hit us in late June. I made a second brush pile for the birds and other wildlife with which we cohabitate (it’s like a friggin olde-tyme Disney movie in our back yard with all the animals), and I got a couple of decent-sized logs for my shade garden. That was pretty cool.

Last week we saw King Diamond, Overkill, and Night Demon on our fourteenth wedding anniversary, and that was a helluva fun night. I randomly got to chat with all 5 members of Overkill outside the venue, which was pretty surreal. Bobby Blitz is quite a bit smaller up close than he looks from the stage. It’s kind of amazing that that voice comes out of that man.

King Diamond’s set was amazing. I really hope I get a chance to see Mercyful Fate live at some point. Overkill obviously kicked ass, but the sound in the venue wasn’t great for them, at least from our seats. Night Demon was cool as shit, too.

I’ve been listening to Acid Bath a lot (more than usual) lately – pretty much since they announced their special one-time reunion show at Sick New World in Las Vegas next April, and even more so since they announced another show at Sonic Temple next May. It would be just tremendous if Acid Bath could also be at Louder Than Life.

I’ve also been listening to Chat Pile a lot. They’re like if Big Black had a baby with the first Korn album, and that baby grew up to be insane. Here’s their latest video (released yesterday), from their Album of the Year-contender, Cool World.

“Dallas Beltway” is the first Chat Pile song I heard. I woke up at like 3 in the morning five or six months ago and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I started dickin around on reddit. Somebody in the sludge-metal sub was asking for sludge or sludge-adjacent songs with truly disturbing vocals. Someone else recommended this song, and I listened to it. I’d read about the band prior, but hadn’t bothered to check them out until then. I was hooked. Terrified and hooked.

I’m gonna wrap this up for now. I’ve got pants to put on and Thai food to eat. Thanks for reading. And be sure to check back in a few days for more on the epic adventure that was Louder Than Life 2024.