iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Same vibe as this bait shack I saw in Maine. "C-come on in! I swear we're legit, just.... set your.... foot....inthedoor!" Narrator: they never found the bodies

010

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

@motherofgraves.bsky.social had a great show last night, and also were amazing after the show and signed some merch for my son and gathered together to take this picture with me for him. I can't wait to see them again, they're great.

191

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Got a tattoo at Magfest for charity! Came out way better than I was expecting.

020

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#1 Spectral Wound - Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal Best black metal you'll hear in 2024, and my favorite album of the year. Intense vocals combined with fantastic riffs makes for a relentless album. You'll find yourself headbanging along with the catchy beats.

Album cover of Spectral Wound's Song of Blood and Mire. Black and white photo of a person holding a knife at a banquet table.

000

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#2 Dark Tranquility - Endtime Signals Melodeath One of my favorite bands of all time, they deliver another great album. Filled with emotional intensity, powerful riffs and great arrangements. It took an incredible album to knock this out of the #1 spot for me.

Album cover for Dark Tranquility's Endtime Signals. Shows people being struck by lightning.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#3 Rotting Christ - Pro Xristou Gothic Meloblack This album has intensity, melodies and a sense of grandeur. Some of the songs might feel a little same-y but that's OK because I liked it so much. "Like Father Like Son" is my favorite song off the album.

Album cover for Rotting Christ's Pro Xristou. Showing the fall of an empire.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#4 Obsidian Tongue - The Stone Heart Atmospheric Black Metal This is an album I have not been able to get out of my head. I've listened to it so many times. There is clean singing to punctuate the black metal moments. It is incredible and I highly recommend it.

Album cover for Obsidian Tongue's The Stone Heart. Shows some kind of monster eating a tree.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#5 Cemetery Skyline - Nordic Gothic Gothic Rock Another "supergroup" that came together to make an album of classic Nordic gothic rock. Mikael Stanne's vocals are incredible on here. This might be the best gothic album of the year, and that is saying something.

Album cover for Cemetery Skyline's Nordic Gothic. Shows a city skyline but one of the buildings is shaped like a cross.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#6 Mother of Graves - The Periapt of Absence Melodeath/Doom Combining death and doom, the heavy riffs, melancholy tones and introspective themes make for a profound album. It explores loss, the weight of suffering and the perseverance of hope.

Album cover of Mother of Graves's The Periapt of Absence. Painting showing a person praying at a grave while another person (Death?) holds a skull and their hand over them.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#7 Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere Prog Death Metal Calling this a death metal album sometimes feels like a misnomer. They have incredible death metal but then it will go into an almost Pink Floyd like interlude. The wide range of these songs and the incredible riffs make this a great album.

Album cover for Blood Incantation's Absolute Elsewhere. Cosmic painting showing a pyramid on a planet's desolate surface with planets above.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#8 Walg - IV Meloblack Walg keeps putting out incredible albums and their misery-laden wailing and feelings of despair are impressive.

Album cover for Walg's IV. I have no idea what this is.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#9 Gormoth/Chaos Luciferi When the Night Takes Us Ambient Atmospheric Black Metal This split album is incredibly intense. The pure despair in the vocals of Gormoth kept me coming back repeatedly. This is a great album.

Album cover for Gormoth/Chaos Luciferi's When the Night Take Us. Shows a woman standing on her bed.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#10 Atavistia - Inane Ducam Symphonic Melodeath This album also has some blackened elements as well, featuring powerful vocals, intricate guitar work and an epic sound that captivates from beginning to end.

Album cover for Atavistia's Inane Ducam. Some kind of face on a dark background.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#11 Volcandra - The Way of Ancients Meloblack The first song "Birth of the Nephilim" is great, has powerful riffs and a cinematic feel. After that the quality of the songs falls off. The strength of the first song has it this high on the list, the weakness of the rest keeps it from going higher.

Album cover for Volcandra's The Way of Ancients. A painting showing monk like statues before a fortress built into a mountain.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#12 Starer - Awakening Symphonic Black Metal Good black metal with intense riffs, has some clean singing that I feel accentuates the music.

Album cover for Starer's Waking. A photo of a pond reflecting the background of a forest and mountains.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#13 Saidan - Visual Kill Melodic Black Metal A fusion of black metal and punk, it derives inspiration from Japanese horror stories and follows a student's descent into madness. The aggressive riffs, fast paced rhythms and heart pounding drums make this a great album.

Album cover for Saidan's Visual Kill. Shows a Japanese schoolgirl with skeleton arms around her head, with another pair of arms reaching out to her. A death's-head moth flies over her and the moon is in the background.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#14 Bongripper - Empty Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal This is a colossal doom album, with heavy distorted riffs and hypnotic slow-burning progressions. It's an intense journey into some incredible sonic landscapes. I think tracks 1 and 3 are the best but it's a great listen overall.

Album cover for Bongripper's Empty, showing the inside of a cavern looking out.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#15 Iterum Nata - From the Infinite Light Folk Prog Black Metal The songs with Rob Coffinshaker feel like if Johnny Cash was in metal. The album overall has a strong folk feel with synth-y moments and a strong feeling of introspection.

Album cover for Iterum Nata's From the Infinite Light. A blurry black and white photo of a forest showing a humanoid creature with moose antlers, just out of focus.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#16 Dark Oath - Ages of Man Epic Symphonic Melodeath Epic orchestration and heavy riffs create an almost cinematic experience. This album came out early in the year and I kept revisiting it.

Album cover for Dark Oath's Ages of Man. Showing a traveller at the peak of a hill looking out on a large mountain in front of them.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#17 Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To... Folk Alternative Rock This album blends gothic, industrial, electronic and ambient styles to create an emotional experience. It explores healing and transformation. Chelsea's work is always incredible and this is no exception.

Album cover of Chelsea Wolfe's She Reaches Out To... Shows the artist in a blue and white photo.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#18 Master Boot Record - Hardwarez Industrial/Electronic/Synthwave/Chiptune Fusing chiptune and metal, it delivers a high octane blend of synths and riffs. It feels like my SNES did some hard drugs and went to a rave.

Album cover of Master Boot Record's Hardwarez, showing a black and white photo of a motherboard.

110

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#19 Paysage d' Hiver - Die Berge Ambient Black Metal A monumental album that immerses you in the cold, vast and empty landscape of a desolate mountaintop. It's raw sound and frosty melodies add to the story of the wanderer dying atop a snowy mountain. This album continues to climb my list.

Album cover for Paysage d' Hiver's Die Berge. A black and white painting showing forbidding snowy mountains.

220

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#20 Tribulation - Sub Rosa in Aeternum Gothic Metal A gothic metal album that mixes in death/black/prog metal to a captivating result. They haven't lost their touch and continue to experiment with their sound.

Album cover of Tribulation's Sub Rosa in Aeternum, showing an ornate cross with a rose in the center.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#21 Wraithfyre - Of Fell Peaks and Haunted Chasms Symphonic Black Metal Blends 90s Black Metal with modern Thrash to create a fun and compelling album. Any time an album has a purple/blue castle on it, you know it's going to be a good time. Reminds me of Moonlight Sorcery or Emperor.

Album cover for Wraithfyre's Of Fell Peaks and Haunted Chasms. A predominantly purple color scheme showing a castle tower on a cliff with winged creatures flying overhead.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#22 Etoile Filante - Mare Tranquillitatis Ambient Black Metal A celestial odyssey, using ambient black metal fused with synths and (I think?) theremin to evoke the haunting beauty of the lunar landscape.

Album cover for Etoile Filante's Mare Tranquillitatis. Gold on black drawing, showing a comet going overhead, with what appears to be Atlantis collapsing into the ocean.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#23 Neon Nightmare - Faded Dream Gothic Metal Fusing haunting synths, brooding vocals and ethereal melodies, this gothic masterpiece feels both refreshingly modern and nostalgic of Type O Negative, of which they clearly drew a lot of inspiration.

Album cover of Neon Nightmare's Faded Dream. In the style of Type O Negative covers with the words wrapping around the corners of the album, it show a ghost writing a lightning bolt symbol on a front door of a house.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#24 Vemod - The Deepening Ambient Atmospheric Black Metal A blend of atmospheric black metal and post-black metal, it delivers both melancholy and cosmic feelings. Felt very ethereal to me.

Album cover for Vemod's The Deepening. Shows a painting of a snowy countryside by a body of water.

120

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

#25 Oscillation of Void - In Nights Embrace, The Woods We Shun Ambient Atmospheric Black Metal A cosmic journey through haunting melodies, blending ethereal feeling sounds with a sense of the infinite. Has some cool synth elements to it.

Album cover for Oscillation of Void - In Nights Embrace The Woods We Shun. Shows a black and white image of a path through the woods.

100

fade2black.bsky.social @fade2black.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Went 5-2 in our set roulette roto league with this beauty. Came in 2nd, first place was a big ramp deck.

000