New Beginnings!

It was time to go. I had had enough of New Jersey. I accomplished many things during my five years on the East Coast. In a sense, I re-connected with my youth. I met up with old friends and family. I visited the house in which I grew up. I followed the Yankees. 

I also did important and/or fun things. These included two trips to the National Archives, during which I scanned photos for my current two-volume project. I found a good group with which to play Dungeons & Dragons. At work, I earned promotions and raises. However, none of this changed the fact that I wasn't truly happy in New Jersey. I yearned for Colorado, so in May this year I made my dream a reality and moved back to Denver. It's almost as if the last five years were a dream, and now I'm awake again.

I'm now awaiting the publication of volume 1 of Sunwheelsand Siegrunen. As I finish and edit this post, I’ve just finished going through the proof to check for errors. I've done a bit of work on volume 2, but that is on hold for a short while, until I have the last of my books and photos shipped to Colorado from New Jersey. I also need my good desktop computer.

I've used the last couple of months to listen to a bunch of new-to-me music. During my last weeks in New Jersey I ripped a lot of my CDs to my phone. I still have the S4, for which I downloaded the Poweramp app. This plays MP3 and WMA files, and shows the album artwork, even if it isn't embedded in the files (my music downloaded from Amazon and Bandcamp shows the artwork, while music ripped from my CDs required me to find a jpg of the cover and add it to the album folder). Having the artwork show while the song is playing somehow greatly enhances my enjoyment of the music.

While looking up various bands on Bandcamp, I discovered that a new Himinbjorg album came out this year. The title is Wyrd, and it is quite good. A couple of years ago I listened to October Falls for the first time in years, after realizing that Moonsorrow's Marko Tarvonen drummed on the recent albums. These quickly became favorites of mine. I finally got around to checking out another of Tarvonen's bands, Barren Earth. Their 2015 album is On Lonely Towers, and it is a great mix of Gothenberg-style melo-death with 70s prog. Barren Earth's new singer is the Faroese Jon Aldara. He's primarily known as the singer for Hemferd, a folky-doom metal band from the Faroe Islands who perform in their native language. 

SevSon1 introduced me another band from a sparsely populated Nordic island country, Iceland's Skalmold. Born Loka is nice symphonic black metal. In a vaguely-similar mode are French Canadians Valknacht. I first heard of them a year and a half ago when Kris Verwimp showed the cover he had painted for them on his Facebook page. The art blew me away, but it took until now for me to listen to Le Sacrifice d'Ymir and its predecessor, Chants de Guerre. Both are full-blooded, hearty albums full of melodic Black Metal with a hint of folk.

I've had Vredens Tid by Manegarm for years, and meant to listen to more by them. I noticed the video for Sons of War on Youtube, and was quite impressed when I listened to it. Some listeners have complained that the album Legions of the North is mostly in English, instead of the Swedish of past albums, but it doesn't bother me. Vintersorg (who is making progress with his healing) has made a successful career using both languages on his albums. 

Speaking of Vintersorg, the new Borknagar album is complete, and being mastered for release soon. Vintersorg completed his parts, ICS Vortex also did some vocals, and, in the biggest surprise, Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg also did some guest singing! He was the first Borknagar vocalist, and this joining of all three singers (with keyboardist Lars “Lazare” Nedlund also contributing, as usual) is a sort of dream come true for many fans. 

Now, speaking of ICS Vortex (aka Simen Hestnaes), his other band Arcturus finally released their new album this year. Arcturian is excellent. It’s full of crazy and chaotic arrangements over a melodic Black Metal base. It’s just the thing when other music seems too routine or predictable.

Sometime soon, I’ll write about my new SciFi discovery, the adventures of Kris Longknife and the related Jump Universe novels. As I wait for some big new smart phones to be released this autumn, I’m delighted to be able to drink Colorado beers again, and I want to post about that too. Hopefully, Sunwheels and Siegrunen is available soon. In the meantime, I’m very excited about everything I have going on. Happy reading and listening to you all!