Favorite Albums of 2024: Proof You Don't Need the Music Industry to be Successful 2

 2024 was an incredible year, especially for music. Not only did I release my music for the first time, first single in February, first EP in June, and a second EP in October, but so many fellow independent artists released incredible music in a wide variety of sound. I'll list my top 5 albums of the year with short descriptions of each and a link to my favorite song, and then the rest of what I loved!

 Denis Pauna

 Rust in Peace Type O Negative Style

Denis Pauna is a Croatian guitarist, bassist, and vocalist that's been creating some of my favorite metal in various kinds of this decade. While also making his own originals under the name Planleft, he's most known for his covers of classic songs and albums in different styles. Though calling them covers is almost a disservice, as if it wasn't for the lyrics, listening to this you'd never be able to tell that Rust in Peace was originally a Megadeth album. He makes this album completely his own, and even exceeding beyond the Type O Negative style he wrote it in. Not being a fan of Type O Negative personally, I was amazed to hear this as not Type O Negative style, but completely Denis's own unique sound bringing doom metal, grunge, and thrash under a goth atmosphere with some of the most beautiful vocal melodies, harmonies, and even synths that remind me of 80's Rush. His version of the underrated Lucretia on the Megadeth album, is pure beauty with him harmonizing his vocals in a way I haven't heard anywhere else outside of Kevin Moore of Chroma Key/OSI. Such a beautiful album and his music continues to be a huge inspiration to me and learning how to do my own covers in different styles that transcend the idea of a cover.

Favorite song: Lucretia (funnily enough my favorite on the Megadeth album as well)

Listen to the full album here on Youtube

 

 Elyse G. Rogers

 Feel the Love

A new artist this year for me, Elyse G. Rogers is a vocalist whose been active since back in the 90's with Eurodance group MAXX. She started creating solo music in the 2010's and learning about different frequencies and the different healing powers/qualities they have. I've long known of and sometimes listened to binaural beats tuned to different frequencies, but her music is the first time I've been aware of full songs in those frequencies. I can feel and hear the differences of other frequencies, and after learning started experimenting with alternate tunings/frequencies myself (Most of my music so far has been played on a 5 string bass tuned to 444 or 432.) I first expected something more pop, but was happy to hear the wide variety of classic electronic music on this album. Her vocals are beautiful, and the music sometimes reminds me of deadmau5 or Ozric Tentacles melodies and other times out of a classic Ultramarine album. It's such an easy full album to listen to and feel so much lighter. It's so joyous, and some of my favorite electronic music of the decade so far.

Favorite track: Shine Your Light (639 HZ)

 

 Vargskelethor

Blasted Residuals

 

I've already talked about Vargskelethor and a bit of this EP in a post last year, but to continue from there, this EP is total thrash fun and proudly displays everything I love about it and Vargskelethor Joel keeps honing and expanding his sound. Technical Difficulties has my favorite melodies of his so far, reminding me of classic Anvil, Vomit in the Ball Pit is a doom-thrash stomp, but my favorite and favorite thrash song of the decade so far is the masterpiece Wrestling Stone Cold. It's like a Ludichrist/Scatterbrain song but with gargantuan crushing riffs and even goofier. When there's no record label attached, thrash metal still kicks ass.

Favorite track: Wrestling Stone Cold

 

 Ursula's Cartridges

Molten Glass Soup 5000

 

 One of my favorite, if not favorite, electronic artists of the past decade and onward is Finnish musician Ursula's Cartridges. Releasing his first album back in 2014, as the years go by Ursula's Cartridges has shifted his sound from the ambient vaporwave space to an explosion of sounds from just about every style of electronic music throughout it's history. Like Roy Lichtenstein's paintings that display an art history book's worth of styles but done in his own, Ursula's Cartridges does similar with electronic music. No matter if it's vaporwave, breakbeat, trip hop, retro video game music, funk, drum and bass, big beat, techno, ambient, or anything in-between, it's all part of his distinct sound. Molten Glass Soup 5000 goes through so many different sections in the same song, with a catchy hook to begin and then a bridge or ending breakdown of a different kind. The nu jazz bridge in Four Days Old Gas Station Sushi gets so many repeats from me, and the sped up 16-bit era video game dance of Circus Came to Sapporo into an intense display of big beats is another favorite. This whole EP is amazing, maybe my overall most listened to of the year. Despite being released on April Fools Day, it's anything but!

 

 Favorite track: Four Days Old Gas Station Sushi (Free download on his Bandcamp, but there's also a link to a cassette copy of both this and his Ice Queen's Prom album on the main EP page, which I highly recommend)

 

Evaleigh

 Lift

 Creating my favorite metal album from last year, and of the whole decade so far in Crush, vocalist/guitarist Evaleigh returns with a compilation of some new songs, as well as done for other independent creative's projects, podcasts, etc. Despite being a compilation of music of all different kinds/styles as well as intent, Lift still sounds like an album and has an amazing flow from song to song. A lot of the songs are short due to them being themes, but the switching of track to track never feels abrupt. Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish some weren't longer, especially the chiptune metal of Angel War Rondo. While still kicking ass at only 38 seconds, I'd love to hear more. His vocals and guitar harmonies are always beautiful, be it In Flames-esque melodic death metal, chiptune metal, power metal, or any of the other styles thrown in the mix. The chill downtempo electronic towards the end were a nice surprise, Well man and Overcast are two of my favorites on the whole compilation.

Favorite track: Either Power or Overcast

 

Other albums from this year I loved:

 Ursula's Cartridges - An Invitation to the Ice Queen's Prom

 Denis Pauna - Ride the Lightning Death Metal Style
Buckethead - Sea of the Subconscious

Havok - New Eyes

Otu - Nub From Hell 

Gene on Earth - The Velvet Edge 

Xploding Plastix - Thus EP

deadmau5 - Some EP
Buckethead - Architect of the Inner Garden
Buckethead - Sea Serpent
Buckethead - Polaris
Buckethead - Angels Awaken a Slumbering Alchemist
Buckethead - Quieting the Thoughts That Don't Serve

Almost all of these albums have been independently released, and proof that a new independent creative renaissance is here. Here's to another creatively prosperous 2025! New music and comics coming soon!

Check out my EP's from 2024, Flags & Arrowways and Tail Thyme, from any of the links Here

Scandi-Merica #5 - Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas and Merry Jöl (ancient Norse holiday where many modern Christmas traditions are believed to originate from, and not to be confused with the Winter Solstice) from Scandi-Merica! A wonderful time of year with (ideally) a snow covered landscape to feel joy in the peaceful winter atmosphere and enjoy holiday feasts and fun with friends and family. Couples Brúnn and Jarpr; Gulr and Ætta are enjoying a toast of Glögg (Non-alcoholic of course) and the ancient Jöl tradition of feeding the ravens.

I've been working on this single page Christmas card-style comic for a while now, and this is maybe my favorite coloring that I've done yet! I did some more experimenting, to the point where I felt like posting two pictures. The first one is what I originally visualized, with Gulr and Ætta both having the same shade of green for their sweaters and the symmetrical flipping of green/red for the two couples. However, the coloring process on paper looks a little different from the final scanned in version, as the forest green kind of blends in with the black inks, I thought it might look a bit confusing on whose arm is whose for Gulr and Ætta. So I colored her sweater in as a lighter green, which I think looks really nice too, and even still works symmetrically considering Brúnn has a lighter red/pink as part of her sweater.

I was still curious to how the forest greens would look together, knowing my past experiences with the green and black inked lines becoming more distinct in the scans. So on a separate print, I colored in just Ætta with the forest green so I could see how it looks after scanning both in. Took a little bit of touching up after pasting in the completed one, but I think the colors look good and the lines clear enough to differentiate each characters arms in the toast. I also added some white touches to Brúnn. However, I love how both look and was having a hard time picking between the two, so I decided to post both. I also experimented with using different colors for the raven outside my usual choice of grey, adding in some more texture and purple accents. However on paper I wasn't sure if I'd rather have just the grey, so I did that on the same other print with Ætta. After scanning in though, I loved how he came out, so I stuck with that.

Which one is your favorite? Do you like both Gulr and Ætta wearing forest green, or do you prefer the lighter green and like how it compliments the lighter red/pink that Brúnn has? Also, what's been your favorite of this year's Scandi-Merica strips?

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New song and new artwork! - Space Valkyrie (Himinvalkyr)

 

Excited to release my first straight up distortion heavy metal song! I've been listening to metal my whole life, and I've always wanted to compose and record metal music of my own. I realized the bass is such a beautiful instrument on it's own and that I didn't have to wait on others to record my own music, and I've developed my own unique harmonic bass sound but I still was craving some heavy stuff. I've been experimenting with recording distortion right for a while now, and I've started to get an idea of how to record and mix it. I've now got an amazing solo bass grunge song played on a 4-string bass with an MXR Fullbore Metal distortion pedal and a slight alternate drop-D tuning. It's slow and sludgy, and Viking Grunge feels like an appropriate description, enjoy! 

 Listen to the song now on Youtube and Newgrounds.

 One of my favorite bands and main inspirations has always been Soundgarden, whose influence can definitely be heard. Some of my other main inspirations when it comes to my grunge sound are Fu Manchu, early Queens of the Stone Age, The Sword, Ningen Isu, Om, and Load-era Metallica.

Himinvalkyr, used for a single cover for my solo bass grunge song Space Valkyrie. While I drew this with the song and title in mind, I love this as its own separate artwork as well. I started it after recording the song, but most of it came to me after looking at the beautiful artwork that adorns eighteenth century Icelandic manuscripts of the Prose Edda. I feel it's a combination of my own style with a touch of that old Icelandic artwork, and I've always loved drawing the constellations.

It depicts a Valkyrie (warrior women associated with the gods Oðinn and Freya and the place of Vallhalla) throwing the North circumpolar constellations Cassiopeia, Draco, and Cepheus into the heavens. This relates to how many different cultures have stories of different gods/goddesses/figures putting different things into the sky to form stars/constellations. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of information on Norse star lore, but I've always had a love of the stars and constellations.

Scandi-Merica #4 - Sports

 

Jarpr and Gulr see a sign and think there might be an interest in their Scandinavian culture in town outside their village, but unfortunately it looks like there's a bizarre American cultic ritual that uses images of stereotypes and animals all in the name of guys in tight pants chasing a strangely shaped ball whose most ardent watchers don't play the sport themselves.

This was actually the 3rd Scandi-Merica comic I drew and inked, but the timing of things and printer issues had the Leif Erikson Day strip take priority and that ended up being #3 and after finishing that strip I did the coloring for this strip. I feel like that helped how this strip turned out, as with the Leif strip I really felt an expansion in my color usage and I was more satisfied with this comic after coloring it in. I especially like how the orange and lavender looks and contrasts with the darker hues. Also, somehow it feels appropriate for Thanksgiving time, to quote AVGN's Atari Sports episode "...football on Thanksgiving?!?!?!?!?!..."

All art, writing, penciling, inking, and coloring created by me.

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Bionicle Matoran Adventures - Video Game Review

 Bionicle: Matoran Adventures (2002)

Argonaut Games

Game Boy Advance

 

It's been quite a while since I've written a review, especially for a game (only wrote a couple back in 2015) but with both Bionicle and video games being a hobby of mine, I want to bring light to what I feel is not only an underrated Bionicle game, but one of the most underrated 2D platformers out there, especially for a handheld game.

Argonaut Games are a pretty legendary developer team that unfortunately don't often get their due credit. They were responsible for the FX chip for Super Nintendo cartridges to bring more complex designed games at the time. They created the one and only original Star Fox (as well as its sequel that was cancelled by Nintendo, but has since seen an official release as well as many homebrew cartridges), a groundbreaking 3D space shooter, and all those Smash Bros players who main Fox or Falco wouldn't have said characters if it wasn't for Argonaut's game back in 1993.

Fast forward almost a decade later, and they got the rights to develop a couple games for Bionicle; buildable figures and a sci-fi series about Bio-mechanical beings full of rich lore that almost single-handedly saved the Lego company from bankruptcy. Matoran Adventures is the first of Argonaut's Bionicle games, and honestly probably my favorite Bionicle game in general.

If you've played a 2D platformer before, you'll know what to expect for the most part. It has the usual basic side-scrolling format as you jump, run, and fight through six different worlds/locations (known as Wahis/Koros in the Bionicle world) with occasional bosses in between levels until finally facing the Bahrag twins (dragon-esque characters that control the Bohrok) as the final boss. You play as one of six Matoran, villagers of each Wahi, though only the Le-Matoran Kongu is playable at the start and you have to unlock the rest, which I'll get to later. Your means of attack to defend yourself from Rahi and Bohrok is a throwing disc, which can be upgraded to have better range each time you pick up a disc powerup. Each Wahi has their own respective Turaga (who are basically like village elders) that you need to find in the level to help stomp on switches or break walls/rocks with their staff. The enemies have some slight variations, the Rahi are the basic enemies with some being on ground and some in the air. They have simple fixed paths of movement, but some will also shoot at you or charge. The Bohrok will go back and forth in their rolling position before standing still, which is the one time they're open for attack. How many times they roll and how many hits they take is dependent on the type of Bohrok.

For the most part the enemies and their placement in each world is fair, but sometimes the Bohrok do get really annoying if there's a lot of enemies on screen, which is especially true for later in the game where many of the Bohrok are the kinds that take multiple hits. The game is at it's worst in the Ko-Wahi stage, which not only has you constantly sliding on ice (There's very few games that I would say have fun ice mechanics, Gex 2's are alright and the ice racing in Dice's Rallisport Challenge games can actually be pretty fun.), but also has a ton of backtracking, cliffs or spikes right by ice, and it honestly feels like the most enemies on any level. Even when you have your disc upgraded to full range it's frustrating, but not too bad the first time; however, it just becomes more of an annoyance in future playthroughs. A level skip being unlocked after beating the game the first time would've been nice, as I love the rest of the game.

Now that I've expressed my frustrations with that level, the rest of the game is just extremely fun. The gameplay isn't a huge deviation from a traditional 2D platformer, but what it does with that classic game style, it has its own unique vibe. I get the feeling Argonaut had a lot of love for Bionicle, ironically more than Lego, the company it saved. Each Wahi looks great and reflects each element and atmosphere really well. From the lush greens of Le-Wahi to the dark yet well lit caves of Onu-Wahi, this same skill for setting and creating Bionicle locations in a video game setting would carry over into Argonaut's future Bionicle console game (Bionicle: The Game) and even their unfortunately cancelled Bionicle: City of Legends game. The Rahi are all great 2D sprite depictions of their 3D counterparts, with some even being from the 2002 Master Builder set, as well as several Argonaut original creations. The only negative with the visuals would be that each Matoran and Turaga are just color swaps and have the same mask (All Matoran have the Kanohi Hau, and the Turaga all have the Kanohi Rau). I'll assume this was just to save time with not having to draw and program extra sprites (considering Lego's track record with other games, especially Argonaut's own Bionicle: The Game, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some time pressure on this game as well).

 

The physics and movement is snappy yet smooth, and there's a surprising amount of direction you can throw your disk. You aim it with the d-pad, and it can be tossed diagonally, and not only that but you can also move it while it's in the air. It's all really satisfying, and they really went all out in making the disc mechanics equally fun and versatile. Adding on the ability to look up and down for hazards and enemies, this makes it easy to catch enemies on an upper or lower platform without having to risk taking a hit. On the subject of that, there's a sort of shield/energy bar where you can take about 3 hits before losing a life, but there's extras around each level, and extra lives especially are abundant. So even during Ko-Wahi you'll rarely get a game over. It is worth mentioning though that they did the bizarre and, in the words of JonTron when talking about the Bubsy games, "put falling damage in their fucking 2D platform game?"; however, unlike a game like Bubsy, it's really not a problem as I never even really noticed it until playing some today before finishing this review. There's rarely going to be moments where you fall from a tall height with there not being a hazard there anyway, but it is something to be aware of.

However, where the game shines like no other handheld game I've played, is the beautiful soundtrack. The music is credited to Juston Scharvona, but as I can't find that name anywhere else online, I'm going to assume it's a typo and means Justin Scharvona. He was the former lead of the audio department at Argonaut, also creating the soundtracks for more well known Argonaut developed games like the Croc series. Immediately when you start up the game, the first thing you hear besides the GBA logo's ding, is the ethereal opening music. A oscillating drone of ambient dub beauty, which is so good the same opening hook is revisited as part of the Ga-Wahi theme. While most of the Wahi's have more of a bit techno beat, Ga-Wahi is fittingly more on the atmospheric side for it's lush aquatic landscape, but still hits with a strong beat especially the clanging bridge that sounds right out of an album by Japanese breakbeat duo Hifana. Ta-Wahi's theme is another favorite of mine, especially helpful in powering through the falling bridge gauntlet mid-level, and has a great backing bassline that I've been playing around with figuring out the notes on bass. The boss tracks go hard, with pounding bassy synths, and help give some real oomph to each fight.

 

The game doesn't take very long to beat, while I spread out my time in my playthroughs, I'd probably estimate as between 3-5 hours? I think that's a good length for a handheld game and as far as replayability goes, if you didn't find them all the first time, to unlock the other Matoran you have to collect the 4 pieces of the respective character's mask in each Wahi (The masks you collect are the correct one for each character). While the other characters are just recolors, the game is so fun that anything extra is satisfying to unlock.

This game unfortunately often goes forgotten or ignored by many, even Bionicle fans. I'd recommend it to any fans of 2D platformers, considering it's all about the gameplay (as well as the great music) and you definitely don't need to be a Bionicle fan to appreciate it. There is some unintentional humor though that can be taken from it if you are a Bionicle fan, considering the absurdity of the game within context of the story. In the story it was the Toa Mata (the main characters, and most basically described as guardians/warriors) that had to take down the Bohrok and the Bahrag twins, and not only that but they needed the Exo-Toa mech suits to do so. So with how the game plays out, the idea of them all being taken out by the regular villagers is pretty hilarious. 

The game is pretty easy to find both to emulate and on an actual cartridge, so if what I've described sounds fun, check it out!

 

Have you played this game? If so, what are your thoughts? Are you a Bionicle fan? Do you have a favorite Bionicle game?

If you enjoy the soundtrack for this game, there's a couple EP's/albums I'd recommend from friends/fellow independent artists:

My best friend Windsock sampled that very opening theme in his power ambient dub song Dream Koro, an opening to his own EP Frantic Atlantic: https://sockwind.bandcamp.com/album/frantic-atlantic

and listening to the soundtrack in higher quality, I was reminded of some of Ursula's Cartridges' tribute to 90's space shooters in his Shump Chronicles: The Original Soundtrack conceptually to a lost CD-Rom game: https://ursulascartridges.bandcamp.com/album/shmup-chronicles-the-original-soundtrack

Tail Thyme - New EP out now!

 

I'm proud to announce that my new EP of solo bass harmonic rock, Tail Thyme, is out now on Youtube!

Tail Thyme is probably my favorite song of mine I've released so far, so much so that I recorded several different versions before deciding on one for the single. However, as I loved a few others, I decided to release a few choice versions, all with some differences in sound, composition, and the Fáfnir & Pine Edit being closer to a whole new song. Complete with an additional B-side track, Half-Baked Alaska, I wanted to go for a tracklisting/structure similar to a 90's techno/breakbeat single/EP like The Chemical Brothers' Life is Sweet maxi-single for example. I feel I got what I was going for, and I'm really proud and happy with how it turned out!

 Listen to the full EP on Youtube, and here's the original mix of Tail Thyme on Newgrounds (I'll release the rest of the songs in the coming days)

Other streaming services to come later.

Enjoy!

Scandi-Merica #3 - Leif

 

Happy belated Leif Erikson Day! (October 9th) Jarpr gives a Scandimerican history lesson on the importance of Leif Erikson Day.

Had this comic all drawn well before Leif Erikson Day, but due to printer issues I had to wait a while to ink and color it. Got that all worked out now, and happy with how it came out. I love how the colors really pop out in this strip, and it really reminds me of the vibrant colors used by the Fauves, particularly painter Henri Matisse. He's always been one of my favorite artists, and when I started coloring my work I noticed the inspiration come through. I also love the contrast between the black and white ink of the backgrounds and the coloring of the foreground, I feel it makes both stand out more.

Note: Njóttu Dagsins means "Have a good day" in Old Norse.

All art, writing, penciling, inking, and coloring created by me.

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