So ein Wochenanfang ist echt nicht leicht. Vor allem dann, wenn man die übrige Welt im Kopf hat und sich fragt: Was soll da eigentlich noch dazukommen?
https://scriptorium77.com/2025/06/23/und-am-morgen-einen-im-tee/
#lethargy
The Willowtip Files: Kalibas – Product of Hard Living
By Saunders
Pennsylvania-based independent label Willowtip Records was established by Jason Tipton in the late ’90s. From humble beginnings, the label has stood the test of time, becoming one of the most respected and highly regarded record labels in the extreme metal scene. It takes something special to create a label with a consistently unfuckwithable roster of quality, innovative artists while retaining long-term integrity and durability. Willowtip is the self-proclaimed forward-thinking label, releasing a slew of modern classics and top-shelf albums that may have a lower profile but are more than worth your while.
This feature focuses on a pivotal early period in the label’s history that had a huge impact on my own extreme metal tastes. As such, I am highlighting some outstanding albums released by Willowtip between 2001-2006. Some are lesser-known; however, I will argue are must-listen releases from the label’s early golden era. I will skip over a couple of particularly pivotal albums from the period more suited for Yer Metal Is Olde honors; otherwise, it’s open slather. Welcome to the Willowtip Files.
Off the back of an especially gnarly, high-quality year for death metal of experimental, dissonant, and abrasive varieties, what better time to venture back into the vault of The Willowtip Files? The subject of this latest edition is none other than now-defunct New York tech-deathgrind powerhouse Kalibas and their intelligent and violently unhinged debut LP, Product of Hard Living, released way back in 2002. Reflected in the inspirational timeline of this feature’s focus, these were productive early years in the label’s storied history. However, through the passage of time, certain underground gems can be overlooked and fall into obscurity, despite being inspired albums of the time. Particularly suited to listeners who got on board with the latest albums from the likes of Pyrrhon and Replicant, those who enjoy the grindier, techier, and dissonant styles of death metal may find something to dig here. Kalibas stood out as a unique force to be reckoned with.
Featuring a talented cast of metal musicians and ex-members of bands including Lethargy, As the World Burns, and Agiel, Kalibas had a short but potent career as underground anarchists armed with a belligerent, serrated collection of weaponry, where tech, grind, disso-death and hardcore collide in ugly, challenging yet deceptively infectious ways. The choppy, technical, and challenging music within the Kalibas experience retains cohesion through the controlled chaos. Although far from accessible, the raw, yet well-defined and punchy production, coupled with the band’s penchant for unleashing jagged, deceptively catchy riffs and curb-stomping grooves, graft a surprisingly catchy edge to the album’s sneakily addictive streak. Of course, the album is devoid of more conventional songwriting structures and traditional songcraft. However, regular exhibits of deranged, infectiously riffy madness on grind-driven delights like the wickedly unhinged “All of Japa,” or swaggering grooves and drop-on-a-dime time changes and dynamic shifts of closer “Reroute the Foul” to drag you back for more.
Elsewhere, opener “Smells Like Menopause” hits like a sledgehammer upside the skull, leveraging blasty pummels, grindy screams and propulsive rhythms, with knuckle-dragging grooves and sharp technicality. Product of Hard Living is a clever, intricate beast that adroitly interlocks its brainy, dynamic songwriting and harsher escapades with the right amount of down-and-dirty deathgrind nastiness. Careening through filth-riden and tactful shifts, from thrashy deathgrind salvos and brain-scrambling attacks (“Floating in Concrete,” “Take the Plunge”), to noisy, sludge-riden hardcore rumbles (‘Rundown”) and ample terrain covered between, it’s an album chock-full of unpredictable twists. Product of Hard Living just breaks the thirty-minute barrier, and like similar extreme albums of its ilk, forms a near-perfect runtime to digest the abrasive shards of extremity and unconventional songwriting approach. without completely overwhelming the senses.
Product of Hard Living twists, contorts, and hurtles forth in a myriad of strange and artistic directions within the harsh paradigms of the extreme metal lens. Undeniably brutal, Kalibas’ debut album remains an underrated jewel in the early Willowtip canon, skillfully integrating harsh dissonance, abrasive textures, aggro intensity, and bone rattling grooves into intelligently constructed arrangements, featuring a fiercely inventive, oddly infectious songwriting streak. A challenging, though deeply rewarding listen.
#Agiel #AmericanMetal #AsTheWorldBurns #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Kalibas #Lethargy #ProductOfHardLiving #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Review #Reviews #TechMetal #TheWillowtipFiles #WillowtipRecords
The best communications infrastructure in the world will not help if all it can report to the public is "Dems caved again"... "for the third time this week elected Democrats rolled over and played dead"... "Democrats show no balls and refuse to fight leading many to wonder if they have any principles at all."
#Murphy #USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #Jeffries #Schumer
Numerous websites have integrated access to #usercentrics and #googletagmanager, i.e. greedy data collectors.
But nobody cares about it because most people don't give a damn about surveillance. Personal satisfaction is the only thing that counts and everything else is overwhelming anyway.
#Lethargy is an almost unbeatable opponent.
The big names, like Pelosi, @schumer.senate.gov , and @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social hate the activists in the base.
So even when a big progressive conference (like Netroots Nation, for example) happens the powerful are not there making waves and surprising people.
Our leadership is lethargic AF.
#USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #Jeffries #Schumer
Both Trump and Musk have been telling huge lies about everything for decades.
It's amazing that anyone believes a word they say.
but somehow huge swaths of the public are oblivious to the fact that they've been profoundly gaslit.
#Gaslighting #Lies #Liars #USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #Jeffries #Schumer
If your Rep or Senators are Dems call them and gently point out that they are FAR LESS popular than the orange imbecile currently destroying our nation.
Whatever #DeadwoodDems have been doing it's been catastrophic for their approval ratings.
Demand Change.
#RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism
the correct metaphor is boxing.
we have to throw more punches than the Cons do. and none of their punches can go unanswered. the truth is on our side. we will land more punches.
the only way to lose is if dimwits like Jeffries and Schumer continue inert lethargic Pelosi-ism.
#USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #Jeffries #Schumer
Ask your friends and neighbors:
What does that orange freak mean when he says he "closed the border"?
People and things cross that border in both directions every day, just like they always have.
#Gaslighting #propaganda #lies #liars #border #immigration #immigrants #USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #Jeffries #Schumer
Tax cuts only for those who don't need them.
#USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll
Baseball is the WRONG metaphor.
Boxing is the right metaphor.
They are not pitches that we choose to swing at.
They are punches. Not every punch lands. Some do lots of damage.
but we MUST throw more punches than they do.
Not responding to a barrage of blows to the head is the same as throwing in the towel.
#USPolitics #uspol #FloodTheZone #Media #Strategy #Messaging #DeadwoodDems #FascistTakeover #FascistEnablers #Inert #Lethargy #Pelosiism #DemandMore #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll
Boudica, finally did a poo.
And it was a very good poo.
Still not out of the woods yet, but it has released one of the strangling vines, wrapped around my heart.
#Cats #Anorexia #AKI #Depression #Lethargy #AnimalScience #EverythingComesDownToPoo
#US #government in hot seat for #response to growing {#H5N1} #cow #influenza #outbreak, Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-government-hot-seat-response-growing-cow-flu-outbreak
...But Russo and many other vets have heard anecdotes about #workers who have pink eye and other #symptoms—including #fever, #cough, and #lethargy—and do not want to be tested or seen by doctors.
I’ve struggled a lot with serious #lethargy over the years - needing lots of daytime naps and generally struggling to be awake. It occurs to me now that the lethargy dissipates when I’m living authentically - not putting on a performance. I’m also energised by having a purpose and spending time doing the things I love.
#sleep #depression #mentalhealth
@ukuku We never hear of the thousands of people who are chemically-sensitive. They cannot pump that hellish fuel or they get ill or must pump it to survive then get ill and that illness is ignored.
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