A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • Pagan Metal: Music Getting Unexpectedly Spiritual

    Now Playing: Moonchariot by Elvenking Spirituality is nothing new in the realm of music, not by a long shot. (See the Church controlling the composing and production of music for centuries across history for examples of this.) Where it becomes interesting is within the realm of modern pagan music and especially within the realm of…

  • Lore in Metal and the Role of the Lorekeeper

    Now Playing: To The North by Elvenking So many metal bands have stories behind their songs, right? But at what point do those stories stop being stories and become actual lore? (A question pondered by many great philosophers.) Some bands (such as Twilight Force or Hans & Valter) will have an overarching story behind the…

  • Arts and Paganism: How to Connect with the Divine through Creation

    Now Playing: The Wolves Will Be Howling Your Name by Elvenking So I’m a Germanic polytheist and, in more recent times, a Lokean. This means that I follow a (loosely) reconstructed version of the religion from northern Europe, and that I specifically work with the deity Loki. On the surface, this has little to do…

  • Instrumental Desires: The Bass Flute

    Now Playing: Nascence by Austin Wintory Many musicians have various desires concerning specific instruments, usually more high end versions of one they already play. However, things can get fun when a specific song causes someone to want to buy a new instrument. Video game soundtracks can be a really useful way to show off various…

  • New Year: New Hopes

    Now Playing: Conquest by Orden Ogan So it’s a new year and with it come new possibilities. In the realm of metal, we have two singles in the upcoming week and a half (Elvenking on the 10th, Hans & Valter on the 15th), two albums set for the spring (Elvenking album for April 11th, Moonlight…

  • Track of the Year: What New Songs Caught My Ear?

    Now Playing: Throes of Atonement by Elvenking It’s no secret that we as metal fans were showered in gifts this year. Two Elvenking singles (one supporting an album announcement), a Tungsten album, an Orden Ogan album, a Powerwolf album, are just a few of the new releases we got in 2024. But which ones caught…

  • Yule: The Winter Solstice

    Now Playing: The One We Shall Follow by Elvenking The winter solstice: that time of year when everything is snowy and bitterly cold and generally just kinda cosy. (I am aware that it is summer for the Southern hemisphere, but I’m writing from a Canadian perspective, so work with me here lol.) A lot of…

  • Range Practice: Singing Baritone in a Genre of Tenors

    Now Playing: Stormseeker by Heroik In the realm of singing, there are six main categories of voice range: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass. Each of these ranges, split into two broader categories of treble/higher (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto) and lower (tenor, baritone, and bass). Each range has a distinct sound and range, though…

  • Counter-Counter-Culture and the Rage of the Conformist

    This post was written as a collaborative post between Nu Academia (author of the first half) and Ashton (author of the second half). As such, it provides two separate, though similar, perspectives on the same topic. As others have already pointed out, to say you’re anti-antifa is (with a little mathematical simplification) to say you’re…

  • How I Make Album Reviews

    Now Playing: Tower Of The Queen by Falconer So I’ve done a few album reviews now. But what is my process for them, you may ask? It’s actually pretty simple. First, as a general rule, I don’t assign any numbers to it. That’s a big thing about my album reviews. I don’t like giving numerical…