iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

History of Metal 1994(recorded): Sleep, Dopesmoker An unrelenting, hour long song, written over 4 years, recorded live to tape on 3 22 minute reels, rejected, bootlegged, then released about 4 times. Per guitarist Pike, while recording it “was getting slower and slower and then it got weird.” Oh?

Odin riding to war on a 4 headed Sleipnir?

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

History of Metal 1994: KoЯn, KoЯn Nü-metal really pioneers the weird little guy front of 90s edgelording, with melodramatic fury, and a cocaine habit you can hear in the music. Its opening hand is a strong one. This record is led by grime and a detuned bass being played much like a drum.

A little girl on a swing set you can see the shadow of a man who stands in front of her on the sand.

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Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 28/09/2026

Last War in Albion is about comics in much the same way The Wire is about policing. Which is to say it uses comics as a panopticon through which a far larger thing can be seen with clarity: the terrible birth of the 21st century.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

History of Metal 1994: Thergothon, Stream From the Heavens It’s time for funeral doom, and this guitar wouldn’t be out of place in the Cure. The vocalist has the most soothing death growl imaginable, with a clean droning vocal peeking out. It’s not about the lyrics, they say, it’s about the mood 🪦

A red horizon with a black tower in silhouette

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Have a Lad. His tag says “This Lad Kills Fascists,” which happens to be a trait he shares with the bassist on the last metal album I posted. They also both dress in black. Similarities end here.

A black cat curled up sleeping on my lap. In the background you can see a little cow kitty.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

History of Metal 1994: Mayhem, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Ok, so we’re back in Nazi territory (Varg Vikernes) though he’s uncredited this time. No clue about the other guys, but black metal is unique in that it’s everything your mom thinks metal is. I don’t have enough characters for this shit.

A church in bkack blue over black. The font is a dropped sticks style

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

History of Metal 1993: EYEHATEGOD, Take as Needed for Pain This music moves at a swampy, lopsided lurch like deranged blues rock clawing its way free of a vat of battery acid. Even its noise breaks are a thick storm of screeching static that leave no space to breathe.

A collage of 5 images: messed up teeth, a wrist brace, a veiny arm, and a faceless man clockwise in the corners, above a nude woman posing with a flower crown.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I mean, you know what kind of book you’re listening to when they explain albedo in the first couple hours, of the available 33, but I really didn’t expect three more hours of book to come after the main character becomes a nuke.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

History of Metal 1993: Carcass, Heartwork It’s massively influential in forming melodic death metal, which is corpse paint and nostalgia for Glam. Eh, ok, sure, but these drums are off having a panic attack and didn’t bring enough to share with the whole band. It keeps almost winning me, but then…

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Congratulations to the entire furry community on your new fursonas. ✨

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Trump on banning news outlets from the Whitehouse… uh, buddy, I don’t think you thought this one through.

“Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America.”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Getting chicken nuggets and a cheese fries for lunch, cause I went Dentist today, and ice cream is to follow, because I’m seven. But it’s at this really sweet local ice cream shop cum burger joint because I’m forty-one.

Large Chicken nuggets in a basket labeled “purity Ice cream” in front of a decadent white cheese covered basket of fries

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New Neil Young album, Second Song, today. First of all, can I just say how perfect this cover photo is? Young brings his characteristically hopeful melancholy, crooning his diary to me in his sweet tenor vibrato. I find it extremely charming, but I am historically charmed by this man.

An old Neil Young in a hat and flannel looks at the camera from the diver’s seat of an old fashioned guitar.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

History of Metal 1993: Melvins, HOUDINI More grunge! What a treat. As metal, this slots in as the incredibly named sludge. Houdini (as in “lol, watch us disappear from this label”) is all drama and grime. I’m obsessed with the drums on “Lizzy” which alternate minimal and thunderous on a dime.

A bright, sweet cartoon of two children paying with a two-headed dog

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

History of Metal 1993: Sepultura, Chaos A.D. These guys, having spent 2 years touring a thrash record, got home to Brazil and had a hard look at colonialism. They decided to avoid rust by slowing down into groove metal and becoming leftist punks. “You could call the album riot music” Yes, please?

I honestly have no clue. An upside down man in tube bondage?

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

History of Metal 1993: Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses It’s brokenhearted gothic doom metal. Often sparse, with bits you’d call “soundscapes” as well as hard chugga chugga double kick metal shit, and even a couple hardcore punk breakdowns. It feels rude to call it a good time, but I’m having one.

Two femmes mid make-out cast in green sepia

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I mean, on the one hand it was only Al Kooper. On the other, I’d not had my meds yet.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Burzum, Burzum If you were looking at “History of Metal” wondering if the nazis would crash in, hi, here they are! Welcome to Norwegian Black Metal, where an angry bowl of spaghetti shrieks Nazi shit at you over some nice spooky beats. I’m going back to sleep.

Oh yeah, real spooky dr who ass looking ghost coming in from the fog there, Varg.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Happy birthday to my wife and collaborator in all things, @eruditorumpress.com You are an absolute hurricane, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Here’s to many more years of art sated and curiosity made, to tomato canning and feather ruffling and most of all joy. I love you, endlessly.

Photograph of William Blake’s “The Tyger”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Alice In Chains, Dirt I was a grunge kid back in The Day, so I was kinda surprised to get this one. But that guitar don’t lie. And I mean, there’s a song about “government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf” and that’s pretty metal.

A body superimposed onto a field of dry clay

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Ministry, ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ Or Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs if you prefer your layered Crowley sex puns to be pronounceable. Basically all of Ministry’s album titles are puns. Never let anyone tell you industrial metal is cool, kids. (I mean… it is, but)

An angel surrounded by clocks and other miscellanea on sepia film

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Grace Reed @deergrace.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I’m not sure who said it first, but I’ve been thinking about this line all week

A block print of a silhouetted cliff with the text WHAT IF THE BOULDER LOVED SISYPHUS?

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Dream Theater, Images and Words I mean… you know I love this, right? I found them in college after a bad break up with rock and roll, and it’s kinda just Penn-nip with the structure, precision and overwrought nature of progressive rock all done just a little too hard.

Album cover: a little girl in a white nightgown in a light gothic bedroom. A heart wrapped in thorns is on fire in the foreground.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Love finding out I have a new column in my notifications!

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

World Con day 4 part 4 and day 5 Fin.

Panel 1: “stared into the void again” with a tired eye
Panel 2: “But with funny hats this time” with a chicken hat wearing a birthday hat
Panel 3: “and drums” with a drum set
Panel 4: a podium and giant screen reading “passionate graphic design”
Panel 5; a Hugo award labeled “oh hell”

More Reasons to Panic
Panel 1: “What did I forget (part II) With an arrow off panel reading “still nothing”
Panel 2: an automatic parking lot barrier labeled “incompetence”
Panel 3: LAX in giant Hollywood letters
Panel 4: Cyberpunk Death Tunnel with a sketch of a glass hallway with multiple interior doors that is repeatedly screaming “Don’t Stop Walking”
Below: “(more cyber than punk)”

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Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 05/09/2026

Patrons just received the 3600 word section on the painfully fucked legacy of Lord Fanny. It'll go live on the blog for free on Halloween along with the rest of the chapter, but given that this particular tranny witch needs to eat, I hope you'll consider tossing $5 at the Patreon to read it now.

patreon.com

LWiA 4.8: Lord Fanny | Elizabeth Sandifer and Penn

LWiA 4.8: Lord Fanny by Elizabeth Sandifer and Penn on Patreon. Join Elizabeth Sandifer and Penn's community for exclusive content and updates.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Body Count, Body Count Ice-T says he feels sorry for people who only listen to one kind of music. He made Body Count taking inspiration from the dark, Satanic vibe of Black Sabbath but grounding the horror in reality. You’ll have to dig to get the whole record, but do it.

Album cover: a shirtless black man with all black eyes and extreme muscles, a chain wrapped around one fist and a gun in his pants. He has a tattoo that says “cop killer”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

World Con day 4 parts 2 and 3

Panel 1: Food Truck Fry Nachos (with illustration)
Panel 2: a blazing sun with “even I feel hot”
Panel 3: Become Arm Candy with a self portrait. I’ve labeled “embrace the hairline,” “a lil chest tattoo for El,” and “shiny bomber jacket from Camden Market”

Panel 1: a doodle of a crowded room where photographs will be taken, labeled “Reception: pleasant but strange”
Panel 2: a woman in a gown and mask with “El told that face I am a fan…”
Panel 3: a plate of canapés labeled “pretty, but mid”
Panel 4: a doc marten boot with a wave pattern on it.
Panel 5, hanging off the left of the page: a row of chairs labeled “waiting”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

History of Metal 1992: Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky The lyrics have a poetic air of gothic doom, overwrought just-so, and are ill at ease with the roar of the vocalist, and wall of shrieking feedback and machine-gun snare that accompany them. I honestly don’t know if that’s a complaint.

A guitarist in corpse paint in black and white and very little light.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

LA, from above, looks like an avant guard quilt being slowly consumed by a malevolent alien nervous system. Just wild.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Airports since the TSA apocalypse are exactly designed to jack my OCD to eleven. Like… I can feel my heart beating in my forehead. I can see through time. I don’t know why we agreed that these sadistic budget cops get to decide if I can go home.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

World Con day 3 part 1/day 4 part 1

Panel 1: Kink after dark. A dialog balloon with “get yer porn!” A drawing of a hand holding a wrist, a whip, and scratch marks
LA CON V day four
Panel 2: a very tired eye, with the text Stared into the void
Panel 3: tropes. A drawing of a knight on a horse thinking of love rides up a path to a collapsing tower with a dialog balloon reading “lol bye”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

History of Metal 1991: Cathedral, Forest of Equilibrium Because metal doesn’t stop for the Hugos. Not what you expect out of a band steeped in grindcore and death, but they wanted to be darker, slower and more extreme. So they downtuned their guitars and made this shockingly beautiful record.

Album cover: a kind of Technicolor Garden of Earthly Delights.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

World Con day 2 part 3/day 3 part 1

Panel 1: negative space eyes with the text “The last of these boys found a home.
Panel 2: a round cactus
LA CON V day three
Panel 3: a Great Review with a cut gem, and a writing pen
Panel 4: the Trace with a woman with soft curls reading into a mic
Panel 5: a bookshelf. The books are labeled Heresy, need, safety, x, archive, joy, rebellion, access, Community. The panel is labeled Fantastic Libraries

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I am having way too much for dinner, but in my defense, there are churros, and I don’t think churros count.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

World Con, day 2 parts 1&2

LA CON V DAY TWO.
Panel 1: religion in SF/F (null symbol, nails cross, crucifix, Star of David) thought balloon > check box, a steaming coffee cup, and a triangle connecting a wizard hat, helium, and a cross
Panel 2: Social Class in SF/F. TIL: All writers are educated! With a drawing of a RWS ace of coins with a null where the pentagram goes
Panel 3: negative reviews w/ El who charmed everyone and gave me gift after gift. Text accompanied by a salt shaker, and a magnifying glass is magnifying the title.

Panel 1: LINGUISTICS. “They under-estimated interest (by a lot)” with a drawing of a crowd in the hallway behind an open door
Panel 2: “As usual, the con floor is a mess” with a top down doodle of a bunch of tables and a wandering arrow path. In the corner is a box labeled “tardis?”

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

World Con, day 1 parts 2&3

Panel 1: 7 Gaming Scandals: $, devil, $, The Forge icon with an arrow to Facebook icon and a ?, $(+©️), the text: (I can’t doodle racism, tho.), $
Beside is an illustration of a d20, rolled 1
Panel 2: the text “I could listen to her read all day” with a detailed drawing of El. Nothing else has been rendered so thoroughly, and she gets more than half the page.

Panel 1: text “Earlier: Did my fave novelist just pass by singing to herself?” With a doodle of a woman in a sundress with a dialog balloon music note
Panel 2: a comically long palm tree
Panel 3: hot girl shit, with a drawing of a woman speaking into a microphone
Panel 4: I heart mezcal with a doodle of a small stem glass.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Look, I’m the OG country mouse. I get that. But like, I’ve mostly come to speak city as a second language. I know how to feel at home in London and NYC. I’ve never in my life felt more like a tourist than pulling out of the rental car lot in LA to whatever hell this is.

Too much car on a bridge overlooking too much sprawl.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

History of Metal 1990: Megadeth, Rust in Peace I kinda thought thrash was progressive thrash, but here we are. Anyway, track #1 is about that time Mustsine sparked a riot in Northern Ireland by opening “Anarchy in the UK” with “Give Ireland back to the Irish!” He’d just learned about the Cause.

Album cover: a skeleton scientist holds an ominous orb over a canister of dead alien for 5 of his bros.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

History of Metal 1990: Pantera, Cowboys From Hell Consensus is that this is where Pantera left glam behind. I’m not sure they told the singer that plan, but groove metal, a kind of slow rock-and-roll-thrash, is just doing for the 90s what glam (heavy metal with pop hooks) did for the 80s anyway.

Album cover: a western saloon in sepia with the band members posing, jumping, or rocking out

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Wizard: while the cup can signify the feminine, as per the vulva, it’s an oversimplification to assign it the realm of emotions and love. Consider instead the fullness of internal experience: intuition, the capacity for change, or w…

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

History of Metal 1989: Godflesh, Streetcleaner The melody is carried by the bass, with guitar wailing and screeching rather than doing scale runs and riffs. Drum is machine based, as Broadrick didn’t feel he was a good drummer, but it became integral to their sound and to industrial metal at large.

Album cover: The silhouette of bodies on crosses in front of a wall of fire

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

History of Metal 1989: Morbid Angel, Altars of Madness It’s said to have defined Death, which is impressive since Seven Churches was ‘85. Metal, like punk beside it, took its time differentiating its varied unpleasantnesses. This unpleasantness is technical, clean, and catchy. Quite pleasant, tbh.

Album cover: a flat disc depicting fossilized souls

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My mother, who disowned me in 2016 while I begged her not to, used to tell me that a mother always loves her child more than the child can love their mother. And yet they’re “so happy without [me],” and I’m still having the occasional days long panic attack about it. But sure, we’re the problem.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

What do you remember enjoying about children’s music as a kid? I’m less interested in what songs you liked as much as what you liked about them. I’ll also specify that I’m not looking for a parent’s perspective.

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Penn @penn-fp.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

History of Metal 1988: Manowar, Kings of Metal Ballad heavy and theatric. The record offers the same pleasure as a grimdark Lord of the Rings starring Roman Reigns. Which… you know… depending on what’s in the theater that day…

Album Cover: a shirtless warrior man with an alarming number of muscles and an ornate sword stands on a pile of debris and flags. He holds a metal ring in the air in victory.

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