That's proper – the title to this publish reads "A Decade in Overview". When December thirtieth swings round, it will likely be ten fucking years since I began writing for Heavy Weblog and rather less than that since I began working the weblog altogether. Forgive me the cliché, but it surely actually does boggle the thoughts. I can't inform you what a dream of mine it was once to work on one thing and as a part of one thing like Heavy Weblog. Is the whole lot good? Under no circumstances. There are a lot of issues we needed to do with the weblog that we had been by no means in a position to do. There are a lot of issues we nonetheless wish to do which we are able to't, due to the realities of life, our priorities, and our workloads. I nonetheless suppose that Heavy Weblog could possibly be a lot greater than what it’s. And it would nonetheless be however not any time quickly, because the horizon holds an increasing number of challenges for the individuals who make the weblog exist.
However even then, the sheer accomplishment that Heavy Weblog nonetheless exists is nothing wanting miraculous. 2024 will likely be, by the way, Heavy Weblog's fifteenth (!!!) yr of existence. By many iterations, this weblog has actually completed all of it (virtually) – we created years and years of longform content material. We coated infinite quantities of metallic associated information. We began, deserted, and maintained dozens of columns specializing in numerous elements of the metallic scene. We based Discord servers, a Patreon (or two), and met numerous buddies. I can't actually emphasize that half sufficient; top-of-the-line elements of working this weblog is getting to fulfill so many superb individuals, in bands and out of doors of them, "in actual life" and on-line. I've been to so many locations around the globe since then and in practically all of them, I knew somebody in a band or that had written for the weblog or simply adopted us. I used to be in a position to meet them, to speak, to share of their perspective of the world and that’s an immense and fantastic present.
However this publish is not only about me and my expertise, although that's an enormous a part of it and, to be trustworthy, I really feel like I've earned that after ten years of labor. Extra so, I wish to take this chance to revisit one among my first longform articles for the weblog: The Golden Age of Metallic. I wrote that article within the peak of one of the vital intoxicating years of my life. My profession was lastly taking off, my relationship was contemporary and powerful (it's nonetheless sturdy, stronger than ever, however there's one thing to that heady feeling of a newly solid relationship that’s uniquely thrilling), and I used to be surrounded by unbelievable quantities of incredible music. This was 2015, however the yr after it could be one of the vital prolifically wonderful years for metallic. In case you want a reminder, a cursory take a look at our Album of the Yr checklist from again then ought to do. That ambiance is what led me each to put in writing that essay but in addition to maintain going with the weblog, realizing that a lot of this expertise of a "Golden Age" (as I allude to within the essay itself) was a results of me being so related to musical networks. I needed extra of it and boy did I get it; some years had been slower than 2015/16 however some, like 2020, exceeded it, and all had been skilled by the highly effective prism of the networks the weblog allowed me to construct.
Is all that glitters nonetheless gold?
So. Now it has been a decade since I began significantly eager about and consuming music. And it's been 9 or eight years since I began feeling consistently surrounded and overwhelmed by wonderful music, translating that feeling right into a grand narrative of a Golden Age. The very first thing I'd love to do with this essay is re-examine that narrative in two methods. First, does the interval once I initially wrote that essay nonetheless really feel like a Golden Age? And, secondly, do I believe/really feel that that Golden Age remains to be ongoing? Is it nonetheless a helpful class by which to view the interval wherein we stay, not less than so far as its musical output is worried?
The reply to that first query is simpler, particularly if I let go of the pretense of "objectivity" and settle for that a lot of what moved me to solid the interval into the Golden Age narrative was private notion and feelings. Alongside the extraordinary development and intoxication I used to be feeling again then, these had been additionally some fairly difficult years. 2015 noticed me undergo an enormous interval of profession instability and 2016 started with a flurry of worldwide journey which deeply traumatized me even because it introduced me along with a number of the individuals I really like most. This makes it a lot more durable for me to look again at the moment and match the Golden Age narrative on to it, particularly as a result of a lot of the musical intoxication has light by now.
Don't get me unsuitable, I nonetheless return and take heed to many albums from these years and a few of my all time favourite releases had been launched throughout it. Nevertheless it's not fairly the identical although, is it? Listening to wonderful music years after it has launched doesn't really feel fairly the identical as attempting to get snug with that very same album while being bombarded with 5 new ones. Which is how I've felt, consistently, in yearly since 2015, to be clear; the weblog does that to you, with its huge social networks of musical suggestion and sorting. This form of feeds into the second query I wish to ask about whether or not the Golden Age remains to be ongoing. In some ways, I really feel like the reply is "sure" but it surely's "sure" to me, as a result of I immerse myself in music a lot. Funnily sufficient, that is additionally how I closed the unique Golden Age essay, with the concept that the Golden Age is actual to the extent that you simply open your self as much as the sheer quantity of music that's being made and embrace it.
And that's nonetheless true; for those who let it in, there’s some completely phenomenal music being made on the market at the moment and sufficient of it that it’s going to fully flood you for those who so want. However as time goes by, I ask myself concerning the efficacy of privileging such a story. Put extra merely, what does highlighting the thought of a Golden Age even give us? Is the excellence an fascinating one, a framework by which to raised perceive the lived expertise of listening to and writing about music at the moment? In some methods, sure; there’s nonetheless use in that concept of the floodgate, of the intoxication that many people really feel after they dive deep into the stream of music. However in different methods, extra methods I believe, the Golden Age seems like an empty class. There's not a lot to do with it; it sits there as a pleasant concept that makes us really feel good in gentle of the in any other case fairly dreary cultural narratives, these of decline and repetition, that dominate the overall discourse at the moment.
Nevertheless it doesn't do a lot else. In reality, it's a bit worse than that – it additionally has a flattening impact. The narrative of the Golden Age hides extra fascinating questions I believe, like which kind of music is having a Golden Age, why this kind of music is present process such an explosion, how lengthy do these cycles final and why, and an increasing number of. And, to be trustworthy with you, answering these questions and describing them is probably the following problem of my writing profession. It's not a secret that I haven't written a longform piece in a really very long time. Partly that's as a result of, to be very trustworthy, I've run out of summary, grand issues to say; I've completed my analyses and I nonetheless agree with most of them however there comes a time the place you not have authentic ideas that justify 10,000+ phrase articles or sprawling opinions. However partly that can also be as a result of I haven't actually felt glad with the form of thought course of or diagrams that these essays produce. The extra I write, the extra I really feel they’re insufficient in describing the issues I wish to describe – the fragments, items, oddities, and "uniquenesses" of the huge quantities of music that's on the market.
After the After
So, what subsequent? To be trustworthy with you, I actually don't know. Sitting right here, ten years after beginning to write for the weblog, I discover myself wanting extra. The weblog is nice, the columns are nice, premieres are nice. However I really feel like there’s something extra on the market, some newer type of writing or of different media that’s ready for me to make the leap, similar to I made the leap once I first messaged the weblog's Fb, and seize it. I actually don't know what it’s although however I do know that it's not going again to longforms or to lists or to the entire outdated stuff that the weblog is so used to doing. It doesn't imply the tip of the present type of the weblog (or, not less than, I don't suppose it does) but it surely requires some form of radical change.
By now, you most likely suspect that I wasn't completely trustworthy concerning the earlier level; I do have some concepts about what may come subsequent. I'd like to make use of the remainder of this publish to attempt to possibly lay a few of them out, each for the benefit of construction that doing so affords me but in addition to see if any of them resonate with any of you, studying this. This can be a large a part of what comes subsequent – I actually wish to make it extra fragmented, extra networked, extra rhizomatic. I’ve typically mentioned that the true gasoline of the weblog is its neighborhood, its readers, you, and I meant it each single time I did. I really feel like a tiny p.c of that gasoline is being tapped proper now and every one among these coming types, no matter they could find yourself really being, has to incorporate you and rework the connection between Heavy Weblog and its readers. So, earlier than we get to the precise sketches of concepts, possibly be part of us on Discord? And message me? When you’ve got concepts of types, of the way of being, of avenues that Heavy Weblog may take sooner or later? Or for those who merely have a sick album to advocate or simply wish to say "howdy". We're right here.
OK, bizarre half sketches for concepts of a future Heavy Weblog right here we go!
Native views
Bear in mind again in 2014 once we despatched William (our one-time Australian contributor and photographer) to tour with After the Burial? We actually did, you’ll be able to nonetheless learn it proper right here, and it stays top-of-the-line issues we've ever completed on the weblog. Ever since we did it, I needed to do it once more; to ship somebody, to embed them with a band in your, or to dive deeper into an area scene. Native scenes, typically referred to as "micro-scenes" by pretentious assholes like myself, are one of the vital fascinating phenomenon on the market; how do they arrive to be? How do concepts and aesthetics circulates in member bands? The place do they cease? Who stays on the outskirts? And extra actually fascinating questions.
What if the weblog moved away from columns, or stored however moved focus away from them, to decide on one such scene every month, or quarter, or half-year, and dove actually deep into it? What if we discovered an area every time to report from that scene? Like, what if I went out and located somebody within the Denver scene (I have already got two) to spend six months writing a bit every week concerning the scene, its bands? Going to stay reveals, taking photos, sketching the Denver scene? And what if we had been to do it for lesser know native scenes, like Indianapolis and its post-rock scene, Seattle's hardcore circuit, or Chicago's publish and progressive metallic scene?
What if we reached out to readers from these areas and empowered us to assist carry their voices to the neighborhood at giant? What for those who may get snippets of views from disparate voices, all filtered by the Heavy Weblog lens, shepherded by our writers into publication? We'd additionally do our personal views as outsiders, masking releases and bands and reveals and beer and merch and occasional and venues from these areas?
How fucking cool would that be? Absolute nightmare to run, most likely, and troublesome to keep up, to maintain going, however so fucking cool.
Artist collaborations
Right here's one thing we've been kicking across the weblog's Slack for some time now – we all know loads of artists and we additionally know labels, producers, cowl artists, and extra. Why don't we simply put our palms collectively, sprinkle in some cash, and create artist collaborations? We wouldn't wish to be a label, as a result of there are all kinds of authorized and copyright pains round that and, moreover, we don't wish to flip a revenue from this; we simply wish to create extra artwork. What's extra, we wish to create extra artwork from artists that wouldn't in any other case collaborate or whose initiatives wouldn't in any other case see the sunshine of day.
Being totally clear, there's already one undertaking on the best way that we helped occur; hopefully it releases someday quickly as a result of it guidelines. I can't say way more but however suffice it to say, it's a killer collaboration launch from a number of the greatest names in underground doom from the UK scene. However I actually, actually wish to create extra initiatives prefer it! The place to start out? How typically to do it? How a lot does it value? All these questions are dwarfed by the query: who decides? There are such a lot of artists on the market making nice music who want cash to make it a actuality, so who decides who will get what? In spite of everything, the weblog's cash involves us from our Patreon supporters. Is it proper that I'm the one who decides? Some say sure but it surely doesn't sit fairly proper with me.
Then again, forming some form of physique which votes is a ton of labor as a result of, once more being trustworthy, it finally ends up as another factor that I’ve to run and handle and, imagine me, I’ve sufficient of that. So how will we do it? Perhaps a ballot that will get despatched out to readers or Patreon supporters with candidates? Functions prefer to a grant? Who is aware of! However what I do know is that the weblog's cash going in the direction of new music being created and launched might be one of the best use of it attainable and I wish to make it occur at scale.
Networked curation
From creating music to writing about music or, moderately, "curating" it, which is only a fancy phrase for "gathering". The primary smartest thing concerning the weblog are the entire networks of music discovery and assortment that it has opened me as much as. I can actually simply go to the weblog's Discord, my Twitter or FB accounts, and sort "hey, does anybody have any nice melodic hardcore from Australia?" (or another equally particular request) and I'll be met with a deluge of suggestions. However then these suggestions get filtered by the lens of what catches my ear which is what I find yourself writing about on the weblog and recommending to different individuals.
However what if we may make these networks accessible to everybody, in order that the suggestions I get are mainly despatched to everybody who…I don't know, subscribes to a publication or listens to a podcast or reads a column. I don’t know what precise kind one thing like this may take, it's most likely the least fleshed out of the concepts on this publish. However I do know that, once I look again on threads from years in the past, I discover dozens of albums I used to be advisable which I didn't write about and that makes me very unhappy. I wish to determine some method to preserve the format (i.e. me, or another "authentic actor") who requests a sort of music after which a large community of people that reply to that suggestion. Did I simply describe a discussion board? Perhaps! Perhaps it is a Heavy Weblog Advice Discussion board. I don’t know! For those who do, let's chat!
Communal building
Lastly, it's clear that on the coronary heart of the entire above proposed…constructions or futures, there beats a powerful neighborhood centered across the weblog. Fortunately, we already have that neighborhood however I wish to make it possible for we proceed to keep up it and grew it. What does that seem like? Will we simply hold doing what we're doing now and look in the direction of natural development of the Discord server? Or does that server have to go one step additional, with actions, meet-ups, streams, and extra? And the way will we do this? Ought to we do it, as a workers, or ought to this even be one thing we open up for the neighborhood to help with? Once more, extra questions than solutions however it is a nice level to, as soon as once more, remind you that none of this occurs with out you, the reader!
So, keep in mind: We're right here. I'm additionally right here, at eden[at]heavyblogisheavy[dot]com. Attain out! Come be part of us! As you’ll be able to see above, I don't know a lot however I do know that, even after a decade, I nonetheless have ardour for the weblog and I nonetheless wish to see this factor work and develop. I don't know into what however I do know that I would like it to develop into one thing; I wish to sit right here in ten years and write my "Two A long time in Overview". I would like the weblog to prosper much more than it has, and that's quite a bit since this factor shouldn't even exist not to mention do in addition to it has. And the extra I give it some thought, the extra I notice that it's time to take issues, to not the following degree, however sideways, into one thing new, one thing extra open, one thing that includes what I really like essentially the most about this weblog – you.
See you there.