This feels like a fitting track for a rainy Friday morning.

(Plus it fits with yesterday's "hacker movie soundtrack" theme. )

I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to send out this post, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you.

Gotta rock it, don't stop it

"They took the ark and sold it all for parts"

Listening to this track on repeat just for "how could they DO that TO us".

I stumbled across Allt yesterday and I'm pretty hooked on their particular flavor of progressive metalcore. I've had this album on repeat.

What’s your favorite collaboration between artists?

The entire Jay-Z x Linkin Park Collision Course EP sets a really high bar for collabs, the Hawthorne Heights / Emery EP scratches a nostalgic emo itch, and BABYMETAL's newish METAL FORTH album is loaded with killer collabs with Poppy, Electric Callboy, Bloodywood, and others.

But the collab that I come back to again and again is the heavy-hitting V.A.N. by Bad Omens & Poppy.

Describe a concert that changed your perspective on music or life. Pick a song from that artist or band.

We saw Motionless In White for the first time ~6 years ago, but we didn't go to the show for them; we were only there because We Came As Romans was opening.

I knew of Motionless before that show, but had never really given them a fair shake. Their whole horror shtick seemed kind of cringey to me, and that impression prevented me from appreciating their music.

That perspective was completely changed within moments of them taking the jack-o'-lantern-covered stage. It quickly became clear that behind the makeup, costumes, props, stageplay, and dark-and-grisly lyrics lurked a group of talented, passionate musicians who invited us to join in on their fun. Every gory gimmick was delivered with a knowing wink, and the pageantry just sucked us in. Despite the macabre stage dressing, it was one of the most uplifting and engaging shows we had seen by that point.

Motionless In White taught me to not dismiss an artist based on a first shallow impression. We've since been to a few more of their concerts, and they've become one of my favorite bands. They also opened me up to other great performers like Ice Nine Kills and Dark Divine, bands I never would have considered before.

What's a song you associate with your hometown?

I grew up in a city overseen by a giant cast-iron statue of the Roman god Vulcan, and the local rock radio station loved to riff on that whenever they played Iron Man.

Seems like a good day to reflect on that.

What's a pop-punk song by a new band that magically transports you back to 2005?

Oddly-specific totally-random prompt, but I'd have to say it's Do Me Like That by brand-new band The Paradox. This is the most legit pop-punk sound I've heard in over a decade, and I am obsessed with it.

🎵 You hit me with your Subaru, what the fuck is wrong with you?