A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • The Saga Continues: Hans & Valter’s Second Album

    Now Playing: The Mountain Rumbles by Hans & Valter So around this time last year, I talked about the debut album from Swedish symphonic power metal band Hans & Valter, and in a year, they’ve managed to come out with a second album. Hints at a third album have also been made on their Instagram,…

  • The Paradox of the Queer Man: Masculinity and Performative Queerness

    Now Playing: Through Wolf’s Eyes by Elvenking So I’m pretty openly queer. I make no secret of the fact that gender is weird, a fact that can make navigating the world really complicated. But the thing is, it also makes navigating queer spaces really complicated. Hear me out for a minute. Also, as a note…

  • A Pagan Debut: Heathenreel, a Retrospective

    Now Playing: To Oak Woods Bestowed by Elvenking I’ve talked about Elvenking multiple times before, and rightfully so. They’re a pagan metal band with a sizable audience, I’m both a pagan and a metalhead, it 🤌🏻just makes sense 🤌🏻. So, I figured that taking a look at where it all started would be a fun…

  • Polyamory: Internal Struggles, Communication, and Long Distance

    Now Playing: The Voynich Manuscript by Elvenking A couple weeks ago, I talked about some of the internal struggles of polyamory and how it can be a struggle to navigate some of the legal and social pressures surrounding that. The part I didn’t talk about was how internal pressures can also make it weird. Now,…

  • Musical Retrospective: Falconer and their Debut Album

    Now Playing: Upon the Grave of Guilt by Falconer I feel like it comes as no surprise at this point that I like Falconer. I’m a folk metal and power metal guy, I sing baritone, what better combination than Falconer for my particular musical tastes. For those unfamiliar, Falconer was a Swedish folk/power metal band…

  • Polyamory: Stigma and Other Social Judgements

    Now Playing: Herdchant by Elvenking Within the realm of what is considered socially standard, we are assigned a gender based on an observation of (and, in the case of some intersex children, surgery on) our external gonads, and from that, we are expected to fall in love and want to have sex with exactly one…

  • New Sabaton Album: Thoughts and Feelings

    Now Playing: Templars by Sabaton So it’s been a minute since we talked about Sabaton around here. Not because I dislike them or anything, I just had my attention on other topics. (And I’ve been a bit busy, but school will do that to a bitch.) Now, they dropped a new album in 2025, and…

  • 2025 in Music: The Year of Folk Metal

    Now Playing: Nu Delhi by Bloodywood So as folk metal fans, we got a little bit spoiled this year. A new Bloodywood album, a new Elvenking album and cover (not really a folk metal cover, since it’s a cover of Children of Bodom, but still), a new Tungsten single (they count as folk metal enough…

  • Hard Rock and Jokers: New Hell in the Club Album

    Now Playing: The Devil Won’t Forgive Me by Hell in the Club And just like that, we have another new album that dropped from an Italian metal band. Don’t you worry, we’ll talk about it. But first, “who the hell (heh) are these people?” you may be asking yourself. Fear not, for I am here…

  • Pagan Metal Drag? What?

    Now Playing: The Horned Ghost and the Sorcerer by Elvenking So in the realm of pagan art, we see music and visual arts (painting and crafting) all the time, but what about things like drag? Because drag is art, right? Yeah, it actually makes more sense than one would initially expect. If you can put…