Durf's Weekly Workout # 26: July 30th, 2021

A sixty hour work week, late (for me) nights, 2am workout wake ups, 100 degree temperatures, smokey skies, both Durflings out of nowhere deciding that sleep is for suckers, yard work, consults with professionals about additional yard work, and quite honestly a little bit of poor time management all conspired together to make this blog post an exercise in persistence to just finish.  Which is probably a good lesson about perseverance, but I'm probably grasping there.  Either way, this is probably the shortest Durf's Weekly Workout yet, and I deeply, deeply apologize to the amazing bands below who deserve so much more than I was able to give them this week.

Durf's Weekly Workout # 23: July 2nd, 2021

Well holy cow, it's July already!  This year is going by much, much quicker than last year, which is a huge relief.  If you've been with us for a bit, you know that for my first post in April I did a baseball-themed sort of quarterly recap, and I said then that you should expect similar posts in July and October.  Well, as we've established, it's July, so I think you know what lies ahead.  So without further ado, play ball! 

Durf's Weekly Workout # 22: June 25th, 2021

It is getting hot here in Idaho.  Like real hot.  Like hot enough that my work is considering having us come in super early next week in order to avoid the 108 degree highs in the afternoon.  Which on the one hand, is real nice, because super fuck that noise.  On the other, going in to work early means either waking up even earlier to work out OR working out after work in that insane heat.  Which is just as appealing as working in it.  So I'm not sure how next week is going to go, so I'm using this week's intro blurb to prepare you for the fact that there might not be a post next week.  Got it?

Durf's Weekly Workout # 21: June 18th, 2021

Obviously, when a lot of people think about working out, they think about it in physical terms.  Wanting to lose weight or build muscle.  Trying to be healthy.  Things like that.  And it makes sense to think about it this way, since it's a physical act.  But there is a mental/emotional component to working out too.  Pride in your accomplishments in the gym, confidence from looking and feeling your best are two big mental aspects; I know that I personally feel off all day if I skip a workout during the week.  I've been able to get around that feeling on weekends, which is great, but if I don't lift before work, it takes a whole lot of mental energy to stay on top of the workday with a good attitude.  I've had coworkers say to me "No workout today?" because it's that pronounced; I'd like to say I'm getting better at it and maturing to the point where I don't let it affect me like that... but I'm not, and it's a whole lot easier for me to just not skip a workout than it is to skip one and then deal with the fallout.  But there's another emotion that I routinely find driving my workouts, and it can definitely seem strange: Fear.

Durf's Weekly Workout # 20: June 11th, 2021

Things are finally, slowly starting to open back up after fifteen months of pandemic (I know, it feels like fifteen years).  The Durfette and I went golfing with her dad and his girlfriend when they were in town, and then we went to a local restaurant, sat on the patio, and had a glass of wine.  I went into the coffee shop that I stop in after grocery shopping, and didn't wear a mask as I picked up my americano to go.  We had friends over - in person - for a barbecue.  Major league sports are operating with full crowds, which may not be the best example, because they would have done that all last year if local governments hadn't forced them to put safety above profit.  We still have a ways to go (and it would certainly help if everyone got on board), but for now things are certainly trending back toward normalcy.  And the icing on that long-delayed cake has been trickling out of the baker's bag for the past couple of weeks: real, in-person, honest to Dio concert announcements.

Durf's Weekly Workout # 19: June 4th, 2021

Last week was one of those weeks where every second seemed to be packed to the gills with stuff to do.  My job was working ten hour days in the hopes of getting Friday off to make it a four day Memorial Day weekend (we succeeded).  The Durfette saw her job kick into overdrive in her second week back from maternity leave, and one or both of the Durflings decided it would be fun to bring a little head cold home from daycare.  Additionally, the Durfette's dad and his girlfriend came in for the weekend, so there was a lot of work to be done to get the house ready to host people who aren't used to living in the squalor that is two children under three.  So yeah, that's why you didn't get a Durf's Weekly Workout last week; honestly I'm amazed I had the energy to wake up and lift.  But after a terrific Memorial Day Weekend, I'm feeling well-rested (which will last about an hour, I imagine) and ready to go, so now we're back and hopefully better than ever.  Of course, I'm still writing this at the last minute, and then I spent too much time writing about a very surprising album, so some of these entries may be a little short.  Don't let that deter you.  Onward!

Durf's Weekly Workout # 18: May 21st, 2021

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I've been dealing with another Crohn's flare up recently.  I wrote about my Crohn's disease in more detail a few years ago, and since that post nothing and everything has changed regarding my disease and my approach to treating it.  However, after getting out of the hospital eight weeks ago, I felt like I wasn't quite healing as fast as I had in the past, despite a pretty high dose of prednisone (and also tramadol, which I felt was highly unnecessary, and didn't really take).  So I thought about it, and did some research, and kept thinking, and kept reading, and then took some pretty drastic steps, all in the name of health. 

Durf's Weekly Workout # 16: May 7, 2021

When I first decided to do this post every week, the idea was simple: I wanted to listen to more music than I had in years past, and I wanted to write more.  Durf's Weekly Workout is literally just the easiest way for me to do both, incorporating music and writing into my already daily routine of working out.  So now that it's been almost four months, I figured it was time for a check-in from me/update for you on how that's all working out.

As of April 30th, I had listened to 164 albums, EPs, splits, and singles; by the time you read this, there's a very solid chance that I've surpassed my 2020 total of 176 albums listened to.  So it's hard to complain about anything there.  I was curious when I began this quest as to whether or not increasing my musical intake would just lead to my listening to more trash, but quite the opposite has happened.  Sure, there's been a few duds, but the amount of solid or great music that I've listened to this year is almost overwhelming.  My fears of not finding anything new by listening to more music appear to be as dumb as they sound; there is SO MUCH great music being produced right now, and so it makes perfect sense that listening to more music in general would reveal more of that great stuff to me.  I've also become a lot more open to a few genres (hello, grindcore!) that I've normally shied away from, which is definitely a cool feeling.

Durf's Weekly Workout # 15: April 30th, 2021

This was one of those weeks where I have absolutely no idea how I got to five workouts, let alone how I found time to write about the five albums I listened to while getting those workouts in.  Small miracles, man, small miracles.  Anyway, because of that, I'm skimping on this intro a little, by which I mean it's now over already, and we're on to the lifts and music!

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- Mick

Exclusive Interview - Jamie Saint Merat (Ulcerate)

Crafting their unique, dissonant brand for nearly 20 years, Ulcerate should be considered a crucial member of extreme death metal's vanguard. Weaving melody throughout a chaotic blend of cavernous growls, spastic guitars, and dizzying drum-work is a monumental task, but one that the band's latest release, Stare Into Death and Be Still, accomplishes flawlessly. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to drummer Jamie Saint Merat about the new album, his personal influences, and reflections on the band's history. I understand that this type of death metal doesn't resonate with everyone, but I cannot emphasize enough how, at the very least, this is a drummer who's among the best in his craft and one that you'll want to follow.

Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and Be Still

They've been around long enough that it's easy to take them for granted, but New Zealand's Ulcerate is truly in a league of their own. Ever since their debut in the early 2000s, the band has been an ever-evolving force in crafting a brand of death metal that is, to be succinct, extreme. The beauty of the band's extremity, however, is that it can be appreciated and digested in different ways. Whether you're searching for unrelentingly varied barrages of drums and guitars or a dissonance carrying a palpable bleakness equally serene as it is somber, there's something here for a wide variety of death metal fans. The band's sixth album, Stare Into Death and Be Still, not only carries on with this formula but presents it in the most impressive way since 2011's seminal The Destroyers of All.

Eternal Storm - Come the Tide

"Nuance" wouldn't be the first term to come to mind if you were asked to describe death metal. "Attitude" or "grit" would probably be more common knee-jerk reactions. But in the case of the full length debut from Spain's Eternal Storm, one starts to evaluate death metal more as a craft rather than just an adrenaline-fueled juggernaut. The amalgam that is Come the Tide breathes new life into the genre by absorbing several other styles into the death metal framework, coalescing into a simultaneously heavy and moving listening experience.

Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance

The year was 2017 and a bunch of unassuming Canadians were about to release their first full length LP. Little did the extreme metal underground know that they were inviting in an infestation like nothing they had seen before. The aforementioned release, Primordial Maliginity garnered some press and was the start of something special. 2018 had the band change labels to the insanely powerful 20 Buck Spin and released an album that really changed how people thought of Tomb Mold in general, Manor of Infinite Forms. It was my very own #2 album of the year in 2018 with its cavernous crawls and addictive riffs and seeing 2 great shows performed by the band; one with Of Feather & Bone at Montclair, NJ's Meatlocker and one on a bill with Daeva and Horrendous at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus. Each and every time I saw the band they were in good spirits and especially complementary of NJ's premiere filthy basement venue. So when 2019 was told to be bringing more vile fruits of their labor, I was intrigued, happy and also worried that such a quick turn around could send the band careening into a ditch on the side of the road like Memoriam. Planetary Clairvoyance is the name of the game for album # 3, let's see how it compares.

Exclusive Interview - Horrendous

 We have always been big fans of Horrendous, dating back to the release of The Chills. The band is now on album #4 with the 2018 release of Idol. They have become increasingly well known for their appearance on the 2017 Decibel Magazine Tour as well as having been critical darlings for quite some time. After all of this I had yet to see them live so when they announced a string of east coast album release shows I had to make my way down to Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn to see what they had in store. We talked this short tour, Horrendous in general, Idol and what the future would bring.

Interview after the jump.

Shroud Ritual - Five Suns

An interesting thing about instrumental music is the way it's judged as its own genre, as though a lack of vocals is the most notable characteristic of the music.  And while certainly instrumental music does provide a different listening and live viewing experience, I feel like labeling bands as simply "instrumental" lumps them all in together, as though they all sound the same, which is erroneous on multiple levels.  From the black metal of Tempel, to the post-metal riffs of Pelican, to the driving soundscapes of If These Trees Could Talk, instrumental bands are just as varied and cross-genred as their vocal counterparts.  Of course then there are bands like Shroud Ritual, a one man project out of Washington D.C.  Five Suns, the band's debut album, manages to blend and transcend genres, leaving instrumental as the easiest, laziest way to categorize their thoroughly unique sound.

Memoriam - For The Fallen

Few bands have the clout in the death metal community that Bolt Thrower did; their name was synonymous with crushing riffs and war themed death metal. But when the band decided to call it quits after the death of drummer Martin "Kiddie" Kearns, many a tear was shed on the battlefield. Enter Memoriam and their debut For The Fallen, the first new material of a Bolt Thrower collective since 2005's Those Once Loyal. Will For The Fallen be the great tribute to a friend with a classic sound?

Tanakh - Unwilling

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I am a bit of a morning person.  I like to get up early, have a cup of coffee or six, and make breakfast before heading off to work, and sometimes that leaves me time to look for new music.  I know I've mentioned before that "look for new music" usually starts with checking out No Clean Singing, which is what I did the other morning.  There were quite a few great things that jumped out at me, but as you've no doubt surmised, the one that really caught my attention was an embed of the debut EP Unwilling by Sioux Falls, South Dakota band Tanakh.  Tanakh features Nick Murphy on vocals and Michael Iverson on all the instruments, which would be impressive even if the music on Unwilling were half as good as it actually is.  Being that it's actually pretty great, it's pretty mind-bendingly impressive.

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- Mick

Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards

Do you want over the top? Carcass worship? Horror movies? If you said yes to all of the above then you will absolutely love Dungeon Bastards; Ghoul's fifth album and first in five years. The band who also moonlights as Necroticism loving band Impaled, have been using Ghoul as their main vehicle for some time now and will be shedding blood with Carcass, Crowbar, and Night Demon in the near future. The band's previous album Transmission Zero was a bit of a disappointment for those who were expecting them to continue along the path established with their classic Splatterthrash.